Eric Hunter, President of the three-year-old Highland Park Merchants Association, has lived in Highland Park for close to 40 years. He remembers when it was home to a thriving business corridor with grocery stores, banks and entertainment venues.

‘Highland Park was really the first true suburb within the City of Richmond,’ says Hunter. ‘But with white flight (the voluntary relocation of white residents to avoid integration) further out to the counties, a good part of the revenue left.’ With less capital being earned and spent in the neighborhood, it became known more for crime and boarded-up homes than as a commercial destination. 

Boaz and Ruth facilitated the incorporation of the Highland Park Merchants Association, and continues to spearhead its efforts to achieve revitalization of the Highland Park area.