Good morning, RVA! It’s 56 °F, and today’s a hot one. Expect highs near 90 °F and lots of sunshine. That’s definitely hot enough for me to start my typically summertime reminders of staying cool and staying hydrated—you can’t do your best work if you’re dehydrated! Cooler temperatures will return on Saturday.
 

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Richmond Magazine’s Ananya Chetia has a short interview with RRHA’s newish CEO Steven Nesmith in which he gets into the goals for the recently-launched Richmond Development Corp. I’m interested to see how the RDC works out, but, regardless, I’m certainly excited to see RRHA exploring different tools to build and redevelop our City’s public housing stock. The challenges faces by RRHA are enormous, like, we’re talking billions with a B enormous. Business As Usually won’t even touch the scale of the investments we need to make.
 

Erick Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a 4/20 update on the state of a legal marijuana market in Virginia. I’ll spoil it for you: Until Democrats regain control of both houses in the General Assembly (and maybe the Governor’s mansion, too), the Commonwealth is most likely doomed to live in this weird gray zone of marijuana quasi-legality. However, with each an every seat in the GA up for reelection this coming November, maybe there’s hope for some progress in 2024?
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 45 °F, and today you can expect highs in the mid 70s. The National Weather Service has issued a “Red Flag Warning” from 12:00–8:00 PM today, which means that a “combination of dry conditions, low humidity, and strong gusty winds will result in favorable conditions for the rapid spread of fires.” Other than the fire stuff (maybe take a pass on the campfire this afternoon), those other things sound like the makings of a really nice day.
 

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Yesterday, Richmond’s Planning Commission voted unanimously to eliminate parking minimums across the city (Twitter)! This is excellent news, and while I did expect Planning Commission to recommend this ordinance for approval at full Council, I didn’t think it’d be a unanimous decision. Now, with Planning Commission’s go-ahead, the ordinance (ORD. 2023–101) will head over to City Council in the coming months for an actual vote. With that in mind, I think now is the time to spin up your email machines and let your councilmember know that you fully support eliminating parking minimums. Remember my tips for writing a good public comment, and just tell them something like: “Dear Councilmember, I’m a 15-year resident of the 3rd District and proud RPS parent. I own a home in the Ginter Park neighborhood. Today, I’m writing in support of ORD. 2023–101 which would eliminate parking minimums. I ask that you support this ordinance, which was recently approved by the Planning Commission with a unanimous vote.” Yes all that stuff about RPS and being a homeowner is gross and tacky, but it helps underscore that residents who would be impacted by the ordinance support this sort of parking reform. I’m sure over the next couple of weeks we’ll hear more from the people who are opposed and read quotes in the paper from councilmembers with “heartburn,” but, for now, I think getting on the record as supportive of ORD.2023–101 is the best thing you can do. You can find all the contact information for all of City Council (and their liaisons!) here. If you’d like to read more, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Em Holter continues their almost entirely positive coverage of eliminating parking minimums.
 

Related, Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that the 250-unit apartments on Grove Avenue near the highway also got Planning Commission’s approval. The developers made some changes to the building’s height and cut 13 units out of the proposal (mostly to appease resident concerns about “traffic impacts”). Real estate attorney Jennifer Mullen said, “We appreciate the Museum District’s time and their comments through the process, it’s improved the product all over.” Honestly, I don’t know how real estate attorneys make it through the day, having to deal with the same “resident concerns” over and over and over again. I’m not sure I’d be able to give such a level-headed comment!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and today looks beautiful. Expect highs in the 70s, lots of sunshine, and the start of what’s sure to be a really excellent week (at least weatherwise). This lovely spring weather continues straight on through until the end of the week when we could see some honest-to-goodness hot temperatures and possibly some rain. If you put plants in the ground over the weekend, remember to keep them watered!
 

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Today, Richmond’s Planning Commission will consider the ordinance to eliminate parking minimums across the city (ORD. 2023–101). Unfortunately, the ordinance now sits on CPC’s regular agenda, which probably hints that some meaningful opposition has started to bubble up. You can, if you really really want, tap through the previous link and read some of that opposition’s letters, which mostly conflate eliminating parking minimums with elimating parking entirely. Assuming this ordinance does eventaually make it out of Planning Commission, it will head to City Council where, until recently, I though it had the votes it needed to pass. Now, I’m not so sure. Councilmember Jordan said this in her recent 2nd District Newsletter, which, if I read between the lines, sounds like someone who will not be voting for the paper as written: “As I shared previously, I will continue to work through questions and concerns to understand how parking minimums fit into a larger city-wide parking strategy that is responsive to the different parking realities throughout the Second, and ensures we’re meeting the goals of lessening cost burdens for housing development and our small businesses, and facilitating sustainable and multimodal future growth in our City.“ We’ll have to see what, if any, changes get proposed, but to water down this bill would be a huge bummer—especially coming from one of Richmond’s most outspoken Councilmembers on the environment. Tune in today at 1:30 PM to get a better sense for how hot the discussion over this proposal will get in the coming weeks and if anyone has thoughtful ideas to help squeak the ordinance through Council.
 

Also today, City Council will meet for what sounds like their last real budget work session of the 2023 season. This afternoon they’ll finalize amendments for introduction at their April 24th meeting and then, on May 8th, will host a public hearing for the final final real and true budget. Fingers crossed, they’ll vote that same night—a week ahead of the deadline to adopt a schools budget and three weeks ahead of the deadline to adopt the City’s budget. This year’s budget season lacked almost any dramatic fireworks (at least so far), and, to my surprise, I kind of liked it that way!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and today we’ll most likely see some rain or even storms this afternoon. We’ll also see cooler temperatures for at least the next couple of days, with highs right around 80 °F. Honestly, get excited because it looks like an absolutely stunning weekend ahead of us (once we get past today’s rain). Enjoy!
 

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I posted Council’s sixth budget session over on the Boring Show, which you can and should go ahead and listen to at 2x speed. This budget season, the first led by Councilmember Jones as president, has been extraordinarily smooth, well-run, and fun to follow. I mean, I’ve listened to these things for years now, and I don’t think I can remember another time when City Council and the Mayor’s Administration worked together so well—especially during the amendment process, which mostly wrapped up this past Wednesday. This year, Council came to the Admin with a couple million dollars worth of amendments and, unlike years previous, they managed to work out a path forward. Most impressive to me: Never once did they spend hours arguing about a trivial $50,000 amendment. Such an upgrade from some of the pre-pandemic years! Looks like Council will have one more meeting to finalize a few items, but, at the end of Wednesday’s session, it sounded like they already had the consensus needed to pass a balanced budget. Great work, everyone!
 

Mifepristone, the safe abortion-inducing medication, will remain on the market in Virginia as Republicans continue their nationwide assault on reproductive rights through an activist judge in Texas. VPM’s Whitney Evans reports that a federal appeals court judge “ruled late Wednesday that mifepristone can remain on the market‚ but it reimposed some restrictions that the FDA had eased in recent years.“ If you’d like a lengthy and thorough read on the merits of the mifepristone case, here’s one from this past March. It feels like this is destined for the Supreme Court, and we all know how they feel about preserving people’s rights lately.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and you can expect this afternoon to be truly, actually hot. Highs will creep into the upper 80s, the sun will shine, you will drink plenty of water because you can’t do your best work if you’re not hydrated. Don’t put too much worry into the heat, because a chance for rain moves in tomorrow and will bring cooler temperatures with it. Regardless, it is way, way too early to start complaining about the heat! We just got out of winter!
 

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At Council’s Budget Work Session yesterday, Mayor Stoney’s administration introduced ORD. 2023–123, the ordinance to buy Mayo Island from its current private owners and return it to the public. According to the ordinance, the City will pony up $7.4 million from “stormwater utility bond funding” and match it with that $7.5 million grant from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. The $14.9 million price is in between the original $11.4 million offer and the $19 million asking price. This is a huge, exciting move for the City, and I’m still kind of shocked that it’s happening at all. I think I’m going to hold my breath until the paperwork is signed, though.
 

Also City Council related, today the Education and Human Services committee meets with a few interesting items on its agenda. Tune in for updates on the City’s inclement weather shelter plan, public school construction, and RPS’s Head Start situation. All three of these have generated headlines in the past year, and, most likely, will again in the coming year.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 52 °F, and today we’ll see highs in the mid 80s alongside some really beautiful weather. I hope you love it, because we’ve got a few more days of this lined up ahead of us in the weekly forecast, and I’m pretty excited about it.
 

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Alright, I’ve got a handful of City Council updates for you today, which, honestly, isn’t that different from any other day. First, I posted Monday’s budget work session up on the Boring Show for your listening pleasure. I’m about halfway through, and, so far, I’d recommend it—3.5 stars out of five! Council walks through their budget amendments and the Mayor’s Administration explains how those amendments are either already funded in the proposed budget or why the Administration recommends not funding them at all. The tone remains civil (at least so far in my listening), which has been true for most of this year’s budget meetings. I can definitely say that I’m enjoying the Councilmember Jones era of City Council and the way he’s run things the last couple of weeks. If you’d like a less exciting and less human summary of Monday’s meeting, you can also flip through the presentation slides.
 

Second, City Council will host their sixth budget work session today at 1:00 PM and will focus on “Discussion and Preparation of Final Council Proposed FY 2024 Budget Amendments.” I can’t believe it, but we’re coming around to the close of the 2023 budget season already!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 52 °F, and today we’ll see highs in the mid 80s alongside some really beautiful weather. I hope you love it, because we’ve got a few more days of this lined up ahead of us in the weekly forecast, and I’m pretty excited about it.
 

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Alright, I’ve got a handful of City Council updates for you today, which, honestly, isn’t that different from any other day. First, I posted Monday’s budget work session up on the Boring Show for your listening pleasure. I’m about halfway through, and, so far, I’d recommend it—3.5 stars out of five! Council walks through their budget amendments and the Mayor’s Administration explains how those amendments are either already funded in the proposed budget or why the Administration recommends not funding them at all. The tone remains civil (at least so far in my listening), which has been true for most of this year’s budget meetings. I can definitely say that I’m enjoying the Councilmember Jones era of City Council and the way he’s run things the last couple of weeks. If you’d like a less exciting and less human summary of Monday’s meeting, you can also flip through the presentation slides.
 

Second, City Council will host their sixth budget work session today at 1:00 PM and will focus on “Discussion and Preparation of Final Council Proposed FY 2024 Budget Amendments.” I can’t believe it, but we’re coming around to the close of the 2023 budget season already!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 39 °F, but, after this morning begins a stretch of beautiful weather. Today you can expect sunny highs in the mid 70s and even warmer temperatures over the next five days. With overnight lows in the mid 50s for the next bunch of days, I think it might be a good time to get some plants in the ground!
 

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Richmond’s Interim Police Chief Rick Edwards has launched a new policy to provide “Critical Incident Briefings” to the public after every fatal officer-involved shooting. These briefings will include video and photographic evidence—body-worn cameras, surveillance footage, and crime scene photography—and will be “released to the public within two weeks of the incident(s), unless the Chief determines that a delay is needed to address investigative, prosecutorial, or privacy concerns.” This seems good, and I continue to be impressed with the tone coming out of Interim Chief Edward’s RPD. Of course, it hasn’t been that long since Edwards took over, and he’s yet to come up against an extremely public test of his leadership—but maybe that’s of his own doing. I mean, so far at least, he hasn’t set up an entire press conference to lie about a mass shooting plot. NBC12 reports that Edwards has officially applied to be the actual police chief, so there’s a chance that we’ll see more of him in the future.
 

Yesterday, City Council announced that they’ve appointed Laura K. Drewry as the new Richmond City Attorney. Drewry is an internal hire, and has worked with the Attorney’s office since 2006. I know absolutely nothing about her but am really interested to catch her vibe once she’s forced to make that first public decision on a complex and stressful topic. Lucky for her, we’re in a much better place than we were a while back when it comes to the relationships between the Mayor and City Council. I don’t see them getting into a disagreement that requires the Attorney to resolve (at least not in the immediate future). If I did have to guess where Drewery will need to weigh in, I’d probably pick some future School Board drama—something to do with the Arthur Ashe Center or building new schools, places where the division of authority between the Board and Council gets a bit fuzzy. Not a place I’d want to find myself, but congrats and good luck!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, but, despite the current chilly temperatures, today looks pretty springlike and wonderful. You can expect highs in the mid 60s, lots of sunshine, and a perfect afternoon to spend some time outside. After we get through tomorrow morning’s similarly chilly lows, get excited for the truly warm and wonderful days stretched out ahead of us!
 

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Over the weekend, Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams wrote about the decision of Tennessee Republicans to expel two Black General Assembly members for leading a protest over gun violence. Williams ties in a couple other national headlines that also point to the ways America continues to slide away from democracy. Even though it’s a bummer, you should read it—I mean, he won the dang Pulitzer prize!
 

In her newsletter this past Friday, Councilmember Jordan had a quick update on the fencing surrounding the circle at Allen and Monument (which I think is a great way for an elected official to identify that particular circle): “As you may have seen, work has begun this past week on preparing the circle at Allen and Monument for the implementation of the City’s temporary landscaping plan…Once that work is completed later this Spring, the jersey barriers and fencing that currently enclose the circle will be removed, and returned to the state. The barriers and fencing will remain up while the work is done, to ensure the safety of staff.” Can’t wait / about time!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 54 °F, and last night’s rain brought with it some cooler vibes. Today, you can expect highs in the mid 60s, and then, tomorrow, even chillier temperatures when overnight lows could dip towards freezing. Worry not, though: Warmer weather returns early next week—possibly for good!
 

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Last night, the Republican-dominated Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel two of its members, Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. The two legislators, both young Black men, led protests against gun violence following the recent Covenant School shooting. A third legislator who also joined the protests, Gloria Johnson, a white woman, kept her seat with a single-vote margin. This morning there will be lots of news and videos and tweets and takes to read about this blatant and anti-democratic step taken by Republicans, but I think you should start with these three videos (all from Twitter, unfortunately):
 

1. If you only want to watch one single thing about last night, make it this speech by Rep. Pearson following his expulsion. It feels historic.
2. I think Rep. Jones gets it completely right in his speech immediately preceding his own expulsion: By removing these legislators, Republicans have galvanized folks into sustained action against them and their idolatrous worship of guns.
3. When asked why she alone was able to keep her seat, Rep. Johnson says “it might have to do with the color of our skin.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and today we’ve got a mixed bag: hot temperatures in the upper 80s, a pretty good chance for rain this evening, and a cold front moving through after the sun goes down. Cooler weather will stick around for a while, too, so keep an eye on your plants if you already started moving them outside!
 

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Apologies for the delay, but I finally got around to posting City Council’s fourth Budget Work Session over on the Boring Show. I haven’t listened yet, but the agenda covered real estate revenue projections, responses to some of the questions councilmembers have so far, and a discussion of Council’s own amendments to the Mayor’s proposed budget. All interesting and worth your time—at least if you’re listening along at 2x speed. Also, and I missed this when looking at the agenda earlier this week, but City Council held a closed session afterward for “discussion, consideration, and interviewing of a prospective candidate for employment as a City Attorney.” Sounds like we could maybe hear news on that hire soon.
 

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Michael Martz reports on Medicaid unwinding, the process of Medicaid reevaluating the eligibility of alllllll its current members—something it hasn’t done since the start of the pandemic. Martz says about 14% of the program’s current participants in Virginia are no longer eligible (about 308,000 people) and will now have to find health insurance elsewhere. Stressful stuff! Even more stressful, the State estimates 80,000 additional people will lose coverage just because they don’t have updated contact information on file and won’t get their renewal notices. What a horrible way to lose health insurance! You can learn more over on the CommonHelp website, and please remind anyone you know that is a Medicaid member to get their information updated ASAP!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F, and today looks legitimately hot. You should expect sunshine and temperatures in the upper 80s—maybe even in the 90s if, for some reason, you’re standing on a sea of baking asphalt. Regardless, sounds like a wonderful day to lay in a hammock or get some work done on a porch. Enjoy, and stay hydrated!
 

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I’ve written about how much I love the City’s plan to eliminate parking minimums for months now (ORD. 2023–101, which will hit Planning Commission’s agenda on April 17th). It’ll make life easier for small businesses, decrease the amount of valuable space used to store cars, and, hopefully, make a little more room for desperately needed housing. So far I haven’t seen a massive wave of opposition from the typical set of folks, which I’m still kind of holding my breath over. However, this entirely positive article about the proposal by Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch makes me wonder if maybe we just won’t see major organized opposition materialize after all. Honestly, that’d be a pretty big vibe shift for Richmond!
 

Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams writes about the Governor’s clandestine decision to make it harder for folks to have their voting rights restored. The Governor’s current policy, in which he individually considers each and every person with a felony conviction, “has roots in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901–02, which occurred during an era in which Southern Democrats reasserted white dominance that had weakened during the Reconstruction era.“ You’re going to want to tap through and read a shocking quote from a delegate at that Convention speaking on behalf of this very same, horrible policy now supported by our current governor 120 years later.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 ºF, and today looks amazing. Upgrade all of yesterday’s forecasted temperatures by a handful of degrees, because, starting today, you can expect highs in the 80s for the next little while. In fact, tomorrow may be just plain hot. Remember, it’s never too early to hydrate!
 

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VPM reports that “the state medical examiner on Monday ruled Irvo Otieno’s death a homicide.“ I’m not sure what the next steps are in this process, but 10 total people have been indicted on second-degree murder charges, including seven Henrico County sheriff’s deputies. I’m still processing this whole situation, but I’m surprised about the lack of public protests and the lack of reporting on and about the Sheriff’s Office.
 

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Michael Martz reports that the Governor will not call a special election to fill Lamont Bagby’s now-vacant House of Delegates seat. Tap through to read a bunch of thoughts from various people on whether or not this is a good decision. While I kind of wanted to see how many electoral dominoes we could knock over in a single year, I think I mostly agree with the elections folks who feel overwhelmed and ready to focus on June’s primaries. It’ll be the first time the Commonwealth votes in these newly drawn districts, which, while exciting for me, is probably incredibly stressful for people running the elections. Early voting in these elections starts in just 31 days!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 43 °F, and warmer weather is here! Today you can expect highs in the 70s, tomorrow will feature highs near 80 °F, and, depending on how things shake out, we might see some upper 80s on Thursday. That sounds lovely, and I hope you have some plans already in the works to take advantage of the stellar weather.
 

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Today, City Council will meet for their fourth budget work session at 1:00 PM, an Organizational Development committee meeting at 4:00 PM, and their own Special Meeting at 5:30 PM. I’ll get the budget work session up on The Boring Show later this week, of course, but if you have time the Org Dev meeting might be worth tuning into live as they’ll hear report outs from all other Council committees in addition to the ominously-named Audit Committee. Closing out their day at the Special Meeting, Council will consider a single paper, ORD. 2023–080, which will allocate $1.75 million to community college scholarships for RPS students. That’s a long day, and I hope Council brought snacks and remember to hydrate.
 

Related, Patrick Larsen at VPM reports on a $200,000 budget amendment submitted by 2nd District Councilmember Jordan to fund a study on decarbonizing the City’s Department of Public Utilities. I don’t know how it works in other cities, but in Richmond, we buy our natural gas from the City itself and all that revenue goes to support the day-to-day operations of the Department of Public Utilities. When gas prices go up (or gas usage goes down), DPU has to increase its consumer rates to keep paying its bills. You can see how this situation doesn’t give DPU (or the City’s leadership) a whole lot of incentive to move away from natural gas entirely and on to renewable energy sources. Honestly, though: Too bad! The planet’s on fire and of all entities, our local governments should not be involved in the sale—and expansion!—of non-renewable energy sources. Doomsaying aside, how to make this transition is a huge and complicated question, and I’m not sure anyone really wants to think too hard about it , so I appreciate this budget amendment and hope that the study gets funded. Working through how our city functions in a future/present where natural gas is not a tenable energy solution is well worth $200,000.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 41 °F right now, but later today we’ll see highs in the 70s! Do keep an eye out for a bit of rain later this evening, though—something I’m going to pretend won’t happen because these bikes won’t ride themselves. This weekend a brief cold(ish) front moves through, bringing with it rain and gusty winds, so prepare to batten if need be. Next week looks really beautiful, and I think we’ll get a small taste of it this weekend. Enjoy!
 

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As of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 0, 71, and 30, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 3.3. Most of the country and nearly the entirety of the Commonwealth sits at a low COVID-19 Community Level (just three Virginia counties are in the yellow), and it’s been that way for a bunch of a weeks in a row now. Three years into this thing, and it’s time to get rid of these recurring COVID-19 updates—or at least move them to monthly. I think that’s a big deal and a good sign of where we are in the lifespan of this pandemic. Of course, should case rates spike and hospitals start to fill up as a result of some newly unleashed variant, I may change my mind, but, for now, this sort of data-centric update is no longer needed! That makes me feel some sort of hard-to-identify emotion!
 

Ian M. Stewart at VPM reports on last week’s Crash Analysis Studio hosted by Strong Towns and has some of the recommendations that resulted. The number one recommendation, which will surprise literally zero readers of this email, is to narrow the road immediately using temporary materials (like those big orange barrels). This will both slow drivers and shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians, making it safer for everyone. See! It’s not just a random guy with a newsletter that thinks these things but also experts from national advocacy organizations who work on these problems daily. Richmond could implement quick and temporary changes like this immediately after someone is hurt or killed on our streets—to help prevent future crashes—but, for some reason, we’re stubbornly unwilling to do so.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, and today you can expect weather a lot like yesterday—highs around 60 °F, sunshine, and plenty of signs of spring popping up all around. I don’t know about you, but my hostas are excited to be alive. Temperatures start to warm up tomorrow and will continue to do so through the end of next week.
 

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Jahd Khalil at VPM reports on the City’s 2022 Office of Community Wealth Building Impact Report, which you can download as PDF and read directly if you’d like. OCWB exists to elevate Richmonders out of poverty and they do so through a handful of interesting initiatives (including a small and nascent basic income program!). Each year they’re required by City Council to draft a report of what they’ve been up to, and the main takeaway from this year is that poverty fell 1.5%. That probably doesn’t seem like a lot, but, as OCWB’s director puts it “it’s been moving in the right direction.” Take a minute and scroll through the actual PDF report though, because there are a lot of interesting stats and tables that are worth your time. Like: Since 2012, poverty among Black and Latino Richmonders has fallen 12% and 48% (?!) respectively.
 

Tyler Lane at WTVR continues his reporting on deaths in the City’s jail. Since March 2022, five people have died in the jail, with three of them confirmed to be the result of a fentanyl overdose.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 41 °F, and today you can expect mostly clear skies and highs right around 60 °F. While not epically warm, beautiful summer weather, it is pretty excellent flannel weather—and we’ve only got a finite number of those kind of days left this spring!
 

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The (unofficial) results are in, and, as expected, Lamont Bagby won yesterday’s special election for Virginia’s 9th Senate District seat. He crushed Republican challenger Stephen Imholt with almost 90% of the vote. You can read a short statement from the Senator-elect and Rep. McClellen, whose seat he filled, here. I’m not sure when he’ll get sworn in, but if it’s anytime soon, I guess we’d have Yet Another Special Election to fill his vacant House of Delegates seat? And if a local elected official, like, say, a member of Henrico’s Board of Supervisors, runs in that election, maybe some of us would have the opportunity for even more voting later this summer? It’s sort of chaotic and I love it, but remember: All of these jokers are back up for reelection this November. That’s when we all get really serious about casting a ballot for whatever Democrats we can to continue protecting the health and safety of Virginians for the next couple of years.
 

Exciting City Council news: At this past Monday’s meeting, Council introduced the ordinance to get rid of parking minimums throughout the city (ORD. 2023–101)! This is the first of The Three Zoning Changes to make it into actual ordnance form, and Planning Commission will get the first crack at it in just a couple of weeks at their April 17th meeting. I’m hopeful that the extensive public engagement the City has already done up to this point will make this an easy vote for Planning Commissioners and, eventually, City Councilmembers.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 47 °F, and temperatures should warm up to around 60 °F by this afternoon. We may see some rain this evening, too. If today’s damp and chillyish weather is not your cup of tea, worry not! The next couple of days look dry and sunny, and I definitely see some highs in the 80s later on in the 10-day forecast.
 

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Yesterday, three elementary school students and three teachers were shot and killed in a mass shooting in Nashville. When faced with this specific repeated tragedy, I have a hard time putting words to what’s happening despite it recurring with a horrible frequency. Instead of reading a half dozen news sites and pull-to-refreshing timelines all day, I’ve started to wait for certain people in our community to lay out their thoughts—people with a better capacity for empathy and thoughtfulness than myself. RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras is one of those people, and you can read his response to this most recent school shooting in last night’s email. To quote a bit: “Above all else, I believe that strong, healthy, loving relationships at school and at home are the greatest safeguard we can offer our students and staff. That’s why we’ve made significant investments in counselors, social workers, and psychologists over the past several years, and implemented community circles and a social-emotional learning curriculum. But our students need even more support, particularly post-pandemic. Towards that end, here’s one very concrete thing you can do to help them: Demand that the General Assembly lift the cap on funding for support staff in our schools.” Given the lack of compassion from our federal and state Republican lawmakers and their complete unwillingness to move a single inch on commonsense gun safety legislation, one of the only avenues available to addressing violence in school is to provide schools with adequate funding. To that end, take three minutes this morning, email the legislators on the General Assembly’s budget committees (listed out for you in Kamras’s email), and ask them to lift the cap on school support staff and fund the Senate’s version of the budget.
 

Today, believe it or not, is an Election Day. Residents of the current 9th Senate District can vote for Rep. McClellan’s replacement until 7:00 PM. Del. Lamont Bagby is the Democratic candidate, and you can find out if you live in the 9th District here and find your polling place here. While the demographics of the district likely guarantee a Bagby victory, the previous paragraph should be enough to motivate you to get out and vote at some point today.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 49 °F, and today we’ve got highs right around 70 °F. There’s a decent chance of rain this morning, but the afternoon looks lovely. I definitely plan on spending some time out on the porch listening to the world go by.
 

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy at Irvo Otieno’s funeral this coming Wednesday. According to the RTD, civil rights attorney Ben Crump will issue a “national call for justice for the 28-year-old, whose death echoes that of George Floyd nearly three years ago."
 

Richmond Connects—the City’s first update to its transportation plan in a good, long while—is inching closer to announcing its Near-term Action Plan, a list of projects that the City will look to fund over the next five or 10 years. That sentence is exciting and depressing, because while five to 10 years definitely counts as “near-term” in Transportation World it certainly feels like forever in Regular Life World. I’ll now set aside for another day my rant about how Richmond refuses to implement pilot/temporary infrastructure projects which would take much fewer than five years to fund and implement. Anyway, while we wait on the Near-term Action Plan’s prioritized list of projects, check out these neat maps of Richmond‘s “Super Needs”. From the Richmond Connect’s website: Super Needs are “the needs that communities of concern consistently raised as needing to be addressed first. ​These Super Needs will be given priority during the development of recommendations.” If you’re personally familiar with any of these areas, you’ll definitely find yourself nodding along and muttering “yes! yes!” to lots of the needs. Turns out, residents are experts about where they feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods, and this list of Super Needs is an example of what you get when you ask (and listen) to them.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 63 °F this morning, and, by this afternoon, we’ll see even warmer temperatures—potentially right around 80 °F! Don’t get too attached, though, because a cool front will move through and quickly drop temperatures back into the 50s around the time the sun sets. Warm temperatures return on Saturday and Sunday, the latter looking particularly lovely for a long bike ride. I hope you find some time to get out there and enjoy it—I know I will!
 

Water cooler

As of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 0, 85, and 25, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 4.3. It’s another week in the green for our region, and, in fact, I think this is the first time in a long time (maybe ever?) that every locality across the entire commonwealth has a low COVID-19 Community Level. If you zoom way out to the national level you’ll see a similar trend, too, with probably less than a dozen counties with a high level and just a bowlful of them with a medium level. Who knows what the future holds, and if this trend will stick, but if the last three years has taught me anything, it’s that you just kind of need to roll with the current situation—and our current situation features a whole lot less disease than it did a year ago!
 

Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers reports on new plans for the old Public Safety Building. The City reclaimed ownership of the property earlier this year after a developer failed to come through on their proposal, and now it sounds like VCU will swoop in and build a $415 million complex for a VCU Dentistry Center instead. Spiers asks the first question I had, but has no answer: “The memo does not provide more details about the project, such as whether VCU would buy the Public Safety Building property from the city. University ownership would take the 3-acre property off the city’s tax rolls, as VCU is exempt from paying city real estate taxes.“ The decrepit remains of the Public Safety Building are bad, but I’m not sure hurriedly removing yet another entire block of property from Richmond’s tax rolls forever is the best option moving forward.