Come May 4, the residents of Newport News will elect a new mayor. Joe Frank, who was the city’s first elected mayor in 1996, has decided to step down. Some say the reason is that Frank could no longer count to four: the seven member council has a relatively new coalition of four and Frank is not one of them. Emerging from that coalition is one of the two candidates for mayor. The other is McKinley Price. I had a chance to chat with him last Sunday.
McKinley L. Price is a native of the city he seeks to serve, having graduated from Huntington High School. He did his undergraduate work at nearby Hampton Institute, now Hampton University. After a stint in the military, he earned his DDS from Howard University and shortly thereafter, returned home to practice.
Although he is a first-time candidate for office, Dr. Price is no stranger to public service. He served eight years on the appointed school board, two of those years as chairman. He also served on city council, having been appointed to fulfill the unexpired term of now Delegate Mamye BaCote. He was named Citizen of the Year in 2005 by the Daily Press, a recognition that garnered him this commending joint resolution in 2006.
Newport News has a ward system, in which the city is broken down into three areas: North, Central and South. Each of the wards has different issues. Price spoke candidly about the challenges of making Newport News “what it can be.”
“We have 24 elementary schools and only four gyms,” Price told me. He would like to see more gyms, that could be used by the schools during the day and by the communities after school. He said that the city has built large recreational centers, but some of the people who would like to use them often cannot: they lack transportation to the centers and the resources to pay to use them. Looking at Richmond, Price would like to see Newport News have smaller, community-based rec centers.
“The gang problem,” Price said, “is not a police problem; it’s a community problem.” Having rec centers in the community is only a part of what Price sees as addressing the issue of gangs in Newport News. He said there are some 64 gangs in the city, with about 2,000 documented members. It was quite clear to me that helping to solve the gang problem is a passion of Price’s. He spoke at length about who the gang members are: not at all who you might expect. Price said that some of the gang members are students with 3.0 averages, who join the gangs for survival. And he made the point that the gang problem is everyone’s problem, as the gang activity is not confined to one area of the city.
And that led us to a discussion about jobs, something at the forefront of nearly everyone’s minds these days. Price spoke of the need for job creation within the city. He talked about the workforce development partnership that exists between Thomas Nelson Community College and Canon. Price serves on the board at TNCC and previously served on the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, a position to which he was appointed by then-Governor Mark Warner. Newport News has an unemployment rate of 7.7% (December 2009), which, while lower than the national rate, exceeds that of the statewide rate. If elected, Price plans to pursue other such arrangements for Newport News.
Overall, my impression of Price is that he has the background to serve the diverse interests of the city well. His quick wit, combined with a good grasp of the issues and a commitment to listening to – and acting upon – citizen input make him a solid choice for mayor.
Dr. Price will be having a campaign kickoff this coming Saturday, March 13, at 1pm at the American Legion Post 368. The event is free and open to the public. More details can be found on this flier.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I’m gonna go out on a limb here, but I’ll bet the root of the gang problem is not lack of rec centers but lack of dads.
Brian,
Yes and No.
On the one hand, breakdown of the family unit as had disasterous consequences for society.
On the other hand, I’m a client of s dental clinic in southeast Newport News. My first time going there, the big thing that struck me about the neighborhood was the plethora of young people hanging out with nothing to do on a weekday during the day. If you can’t get them involved in constructive behavior, they’ll inevitably go the destructive route.
While your answer is primarily correct, Price’s plank makes plenty of sense.
Typos:
1. has had, not “as had”.
2. a dental clinic, not “s dental clinic”.
I fail to believe that criminal behavior is the result of a lack of rec centers. All we needed was a ball and a broom handle to have a Saturday of baseball in a driveway or a parking lot.
boy are you dating yourself!!
Had to grin when I got the e-mail notification on this one. Yesterday I went to Williamsburg to check out their mass transit system, Williamsburg Area Transport (WAT). Crossing Newport News on the way up (express bused home), I was bombarded with 4 x 8 signs for both Mayoral candidates.
Before yesterday, I had never heard of McKinley Price. However, I have dealt with the other candidate, Pat Woodbury. She’s served as one of Newport News’ two TDCHR Commissioners since the Summer of 2008, while I’ve held a post that’s allowed me to observe her during that period. Woodbury is a nice, well-meaning lady…but has a propensity for making ignorant comments on mass transit policy that give me “WTF?!?” moments.
Therefore, my concern were I a Newport News voter would be how well does she grasp all areas of city policy, given the trouble she’s had with mass transit policy?
Dr. Price is right on the money when he says Newport News needs more Rec Centers. Positive mentors for children can usually be found in these facilities. Norfolk needs more Rec Centers. The Park Place Community in Norfolk is a prime example of a large urban neighborhood without one. The Boys and Girls Club has sat empty since December of 2001. The Southeastern Virginia Boys and Girls Club would love to reopen this facility. All they would need is some City help with the purchase of this building, and I believe the Boys and Girls Club would be able to raise the necessary operating funds. How many more children must die before Norfolk pays attention to its children? Cildren cannot vote. They have no voice. The politicians will say that a new YMCA is planned for Park Place, but the YMCA’s mission is different than the mission of the Boys and Girls Club’s. Brian Kirwin may be right that these kids need a father in their lives, but this probably won’t happen for these kids. The cycle can be broken if these kids in these urban communities receive positive mentorship.
If I may answer the question posed in the title, the next Mayor of Newport News. This is the most partisan of a “non-partisan” election in my memory in NN. His opponent is a member of the teababber, RETRO, divisive and regressive republican party and would be a total disaster as Mayor of Newport News. ‘Aint gonna happen.
I almost fell off my chair when I visited the VPAP page and it said thatPat Woodbury is and INDEPENDENT!!! She is a member of the Republican Party in Newport News!!
Everyone on her “steering committee” are right wingers. Many who supported Hamilton to the end.
Come on Pat, get the “I” removed, you are not independent.
The race is non-partisan by city charter, so everyone is an independent.
Correction- vivian
nobody is an independent they are just supposedly non-partisan. Under the law they cannot put a D, an R, or even an I, for Independent on their signs. Pat Woodbury in running for the school board was forced to remove the “R” she had on her signs. That would either have made her ignorant of the law, or intentionally wanting everyone to know she was a Republican, either way it brings questions as to whether she could possibly be non-partisan.
We’re saying the same thing, really. Because the race is non-partisan, no party affiliation appears. If you look on the SBE website, they show everyone as an I.
The VPAP site show Pat as an independent.
Dr. Patricia Woodbury is a far superior candidate than McKinley Price. She has spent a brilliant career helping people from all walks of life. Honesty and Transparency are her hallmarks. Only Karl Rove could make more unjustified attacks against Woodbury than those above.
McKinley Price is a “Yes Man” for the Peninsula Corporate Oligarchs. Look at the first big money bomb they dropped on him months before the campaign began. http://www.vpap.org/committees/profile/money_in_donors/2929
These are the same people, along with Price who supported the illegal and unneeded King William Reservoir disaster.
Woodbury was with the Environmentalists, Scientists, Courts, Commissions, Govt. Agencies and thousands of people who tried to stop them. Finally the federal courts struck Price’s illegal and unneeded project down after 22 years of trying to strong arm it through. The abuses they perpetrated are legendary.
With Price’s outspoken help and support, many of his contributors were responsible for costing Newport News about $60,000,000 and rising. Close to $600.00 for the average water bill payer and rising rapidly. All to support their dramatic exaggerations.
Dr. Woodbury was against this unneeded project over ten years ago and is on the record with plenty of testimony that was proven correct. She did her homework, Price did not do his homework. He supported the project despite the facts and now wants to be Mayor? This project Price supported would have been the largest permitted loss of wetlands since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972.
Dr. Woodbury is independent of this group of big money uber-developers. I guess McKinley Price is now the spokesman for the “Big Business Overdevelopment Pollution Club”.
I think Pat Woodbury’s grass roots campaign will beat the big Price money campaign. I think her coalition of Republican’s, Democrats and Independents like me will finally kick the big money shadow government out of power. These people have rapidly driven Newport News into way over a billion dollars of debt and growing.
Pat Woodbury is close to the people and the small businesses they work for. She has shown up at every public forum. McKinley Price didn’t even show up at the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights debate on Friday.
I think Price thinks that just because he has the big financial interests behind him, he doesn’t have to get of his butt.
Do you work for the Woodbury campaign? If so, please disclose that information.
He also works the republican precincts EVERY ELECTION. then he tells you he is an independent.
he is on the steering committee and even worked the trisha stall campaign. Pu leeze.
I am trying to find out if he as a poll worker and the only one at some precincts ,was allowed to go in and get the numbers of the vote. A violation of Virginia law.
If you come from another city and work so hard for NNews repubs, why don’t you move here? Oh he says it is too expensive in NNews to live.
Get a life.
Since you have so much time to be here, tell me what she has done? She was against the reservoir. Well big whoop de do.
Do you have letters that say that? Anything.
And you said the reservoir was Prices? Prove it.
You are becoming the karl rove here.
Grassroots? I don’t thinks so, more like a tea party.
Vivian,
He indeed does work for the Pat woodbury campaign and he also is not a resident of Newport News, being a resident of York County. He refuses to show where Mckinley ever had any vote in the past on any aspect of the reservoir.
Hi Vivian, yes I am a volunteer for the Woodbury campaign. I am a political Independent living in York County who was born in Newport News and has lived &/or worked in every locality on the Peninsula and in Richmond and Roanoke as well. I have posted before on this blog, coincidentally, all in favor of certain Democrats. I chose to work hard for Deeds in the past election. Unlike previous posts, I used my real name in this one.
Gene is being untruthful. I have posted all over on Newport News Politics regarding McKinley Price’s votes, connections and active involvement in support of the illegal and unneeded King William Reservoir scheme. Gene is upset that I have said I think the Democrats have made a mistake in endorsing someone who has a record of favoring big business interests over the well-being of the working person and the environment. Not once has he asked for documentation as he suggests above, not once. Now I have no choice but to make it public.
While on Newport News City Council from Jan 2004 to July 2004 he always voted in favor of all things regarding the King William Reservoir, including water rate increases that hurt his poor constituents more than anyone else. His Big money contributors are in many respects the Whose Who of the failed project’s supporters. See here: http://www.vpap.org/committees/profile/money_in_donors/2929
When appointed to City Council he also was a member of a supposed new “non-profit” or “charity” that was just approved by city council with the sole purpose of Supporting the King William Reservoir. Though set up with citizens tax &/or water money, regular citizens could not join unless they supported the KingWilliam Reservoir. In my opinion, many of the members thought they would profit from the project. They were called the “movers and shakers of the region”. Their initial appropriation of $85,000 was part of a sum of $130,000 which was designated to create good PR for the flawed & illegal project.
Vivian, I can email you the Daily Press article announcing the group, I can send you their final membership list(including McKinley Price) and criteria to be a member. I can get you City Council transcripts or minutes if you would like that show Mr Price’s votes. I can find and send you other documents describing activities in support of the reservoir project. I can even get you video if you want, so you can see it with your own eyes.
Dr. Pat Woodbury is an independent thinker with a record of protecting people and the environment from harm. Since Gene insists on Karl Rove-like smear labeling, I would label her a very moderate Republican with a strong record as a consensus builder in education, the environment and government.
Thank you for maintaining a quality blog that is open and free of censorship for appropriate comments, especially those which can be documented.
you are no “independent”, you always take the the repub mantra. the reservoir is over.
let me have a memo that said pat was against it until it was over. you live in york county> you have no say in our city.
Vivian, Laura, Gene, all that right wing smear stuff about Pat Woodbury is untrue. Perhaps you could explain her Sierra Club endorsements from the past. Oh yeah, so now the Sierra Club are big bad right-wingers too because they have endorsed her in her last election campaign??
My friend Laura asks what did Pat do to stop the illegal reservoir project? I can detail years of activity, but lets just look at the period circa 2004 when McKinley Price was voting for it on council and supporting it socially and politically through the new taxpayer funded group “Citizens for Fair Play on Water”. Dr. Pat Woodbury read, studied and analyzed all the five key reports that were out, including the approx 400 page Recommended Record of Decision from the Norfolk District of the Corps of Engineers issued in 2001. This epic document, along with all the scientific and government reports led her to consistently oppose the project in public and private. I can send you at least one set of testimony she gave in front of VMRC because I have the transcripts archived on my computer. Do you want them?
It should be noted that it took bravery for Woodbury and her best friend, Councilwoman Madeline McMillan to stand up against the big money developers behind McKinley Price and the powerful people in the government who were determined to have the project. She stuck her neck out, and spoke truth to power on behalf of the environment, Native Americans and regular people who would have to pay for the debacle. not McKinley Price, he served as one of many “Yes Men” to the powerful financial and political interests that were apparently willing to push the flawed project to the end.
That was just circa 2004. Most years I can tell you something she did or a public comment she made against it. Including of course, numerous recent votes against it as a member of newport News City Council. She stuck up for the scientists, environmentalists, taxpayers, water bill payers and regular good people like Linda and Gene who were also against the project. McKinley Price did not.
prove where Pat is an independent. you don’t live in nnews. so why are you doing this? getting paid?
Children 🙂 – it’s OK to disagree but keep it civil.
In the interest of absolute disclosure of both activities and intent, I will address my friend Laura’s misperception of my activities at the polls.
I did indeed work the polls for Tricia Stall in both the Republican Primary when she defeated the incumbent Senator Marty Williams, a Republican, and in the general election when she lost to my friend Sen. John Miller. I supported her for her stand on the King William Reservoir, environmental and several other specific issues. I have nothing at all against Sen John Miller who I think is a nice person and has turned out to be a pretty good centrist leader. I appreciate his nonpartisan caucus efforts in the GA, and other things he has done. The point is that both people are good people despite what their respective supporters like to say. In that general election, despite disagreements I had with some of her social positions, her honesty and steadfast opposition to the reservoir project kept me loyal to her. Though I obviously like John Miller too, he had the baggage of supporting the King William Reservoir, though in some ways he inherited that position. I talked to Miller then and since and I think & hope he has redeemed himself from his earlier position.
These were the first and only times I have ever worked the polls for a person running as a Republican, but I don’t have years of experience running polls for anyone. I have supported, along with many other Democrats, Independents and GOP, both Madeline McMillan and Pat Woodbury for NN City Council in non-partisan elections. I guess you would call them moderate Republicans. During those same elections in 2004, 2006 and 2008 I also supported and worked for the campaigns of my friends, Shaun Brown, Sheryl Holmes Abbott and Priscilla Burnette, who I believe are all Democrats, and I’m pretty sure are African American females last I checked. If there is any pattern in who I have supported for elections, it would be that most of them are female.
If you want to check VPAP, you can see I gave Trish Stall several hundred dollars when she was running against Mr Reservoir, Senator Marty Williams. The Democrats did not have the guts to put up someone against a well-funded 12 year incumbent like Marty Williams. Only when Tricia bravely and successfully challenged the integrity and legitimacy of her own party’s nominee, did the Democrats put up a last minute candidate against Tricia Stall in the General Election. Had it not been for my moderate Democratic friend Steve Corneliussen who managed to get his name on the ballot for the Dems, the Dems would not have even had a candidate elible for the election and Tricia Stall would be your state senator today. Steve gave his ballot place to John Miller.
The past election cycle the only candidate I supported was my friend Creigh Deeds. I gave five or six hundred dollars during the primary and the general, even though I knew he would likely not win. I don’t have much money and that is the most I have ever given to anyone for any race. For some reason only two hundred shows up on VPAP, I guess the rest went to some kind of PAC supporting DEEDS. Do I hate McDonnell? No, just some of his positions like the HRTA, King William Reservoir, old wetlands legislation and some of his decisions as Atty General. The thesis didn’t thrill me either.
Lastly, during the election you are referring to, essentially all I did was watch my table and hand out literature. The vote count was frequently announced by the poll workers as I recall. The only times I went inside was to go to the bathroom since I consider it bad form to interrupt people working inside the precinct. I am not registered to vote in Newport News, but you don’t have to be in order to man a table and hand out literature. I left at poll closing time and did not go in to observe vote counting or anything like that.
I thought everyone in both campaigns got along quite well at Epes precinct, though I could tell the Dems seemed to be expecting some sort of conflict or aggression. I like to think that my friendly and helpful nature on election day, assuaged any such negative expectations. There will likely be times in the future when I support a person from the Democratic Party and vice-versa. I am not a party ideologue. This is a non-partisan election as Vivian says, despite Gene and others efforts to cause divisive partisanship unrelated to the issues in the City election.
I think the way some of my Dem friends have tried to frame Pat Woodbury as an extremist is counterproductive to a civil discourse. Anyone that gets to know her knows otherwise. Everyone who has or does associate with the Republican party is not a right wing extremist. Example, Harvey Morgan. He and Democrat Albert Pollard are my favorite Virginia legislators. Men of uncommon honesty and integrity. Ask them or the Sierra Club if Pat Woodbury is an extremist.
I am a volunteer and have never been paid by any candidate or any party in any election.
My friends, both the Democratic and Republican parties have deep divides within their own houses, and for good reason. Not necessarily bad, just a fact and how you look at it.
Kelly you have posted on every blog we have and guess what, Pat is still a republican!!!
Where did I see you work for Creigh? Where have you worked for a member of the Democratic party? Never.
Those you mention are not members of our committee.
You are the one putting negatives out there and getting a response.
The citizens of NNews can take care of their city, thank you.