Good morning, RVA! It’s 29 °F, and today’s the last day of these cooler temperatures for a while. Tomorrow, things start to warm up—with forecasted temperatures on Monday in the 70s??

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A jillion years later and finally the Whole Foods in the Fan opens today at 9:00 AM. Listen, y’all know how Richmonders are about grocery stores. We love them so much! Honestly, how do we not have a minor league team of some sort called The Richmond Shopping Carts? Or maybe the RVA Produce Aisles (Mascot: A palm tree, but with, like, all kinds of fruit and vegetables hanging off of it). I guarantee that as I write this, at 6:30 AM, there is at least one person in line waiting for the doors to open. I want to high five that person! Anyway, good luck, god speed, and Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken is still open on the other side of the parking lot.

By the way, here’s the full text of RES. 2020-R009 (PDF), which asks the mayor to: “withdraw the existing Navy Hill Development Project ordinances,” complete a “Navy Hill area plan prior to the issuance of any future requests for proposals,” and “initiate a completely new request for proposal process for redevelopment of the land within the Navy Hill Development Project area.” That latter request is combined with a 12-point list of what the new RFP needs to require and does so in a far less restrictive way than the original RFP—even mentioning maybe not replacing the Coliseum at all. Of course, the Mayor hasn’t budged even a little and, at this point, has no intention of pulling his ordinances. That means as early as February 10th we’ll see a vote on all of this and, with any luck, get to move on with our lives!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 31 °F, which, brrr. Today, you can expect highs in the mid 40s, but, no joke, on the long-range forecast we’ve got a few days with temperatures back in the 60s. I think I’ve given up hope for a big snow this year.

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Last night, Mayor Stoney delivered his State of the City address, and you can read through the remarks as prepared here (PDF). It’s a lot of review of what he’s accomplished over the last couple of years plus the new policy and programs he wants to focus on during the final year of this term. He started with housing, and says the city will unveil its own Affordable Housing and Equitable Housing Strategy. This comes hot on the heels of the release of the Partnership for Housing Affordability’s housing framework (which I just got around to reading in full yesterday and have some thoughts for another time), and I hope this city-focused strategy is both informed by the framework and about twice as bold. As per my question yesterday, Stoney did mention public housing, but just to promise to work with RRHA and Council (who appoints the RRHA board) to “change the landscape of public housing in our city.” Also related to neighborhoods, the Mayor announced a goal of creating 10 new parks and mentioned the urban heat island work done by Dr. Climate Scientist Jeremy Hoffman. Over on the youth tip, Stoney announced the creation of an Office of Children and Families, which I would like to learn more about. Finally, he mentioned a “Third-Party Plan Review and Inspections Program that will give developers and property owners the ability to contract directly with qualified, third-party inspection agencies to perform building plan reviews and building inspections in a timely manner.” As we all know, permitting is a thing that developers constantly complain about—it’s kind of like how I constantly complain about sidewalks being closed by…developers. I wonder if I can get a Third Party Closed Sidewalk Inspection Program in next year’s budget 🤔. Stoney closed the speech with a pitch for NoBro, and I desperately want to see a track-changes version of this section before and after Monday night’s shenanigans. I think the framing of his possibly final public NoBro plea is smart: All of the recent changes and new bells-and-whistles aren’t Hail Marys to drag a flagging project across the finish line, they’re the natural outcome of extensive community engagement. Now, whether you believe that frame or not is up to you, and I think smart folks can land on either side. Me personally, someone who is not necessarily a smart folk, think it’s probably somewhere in the middle. Anyway, can you believe we’ll have a mayoral election between now and the next State of the City address? Wild!

Speaking of NoBro, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Mark Robinson talked to Councilmember Trammell after the State of the City address, who said about her plan to vote NO on the downtown arena project, “I’m not changing my vote…No. Never.” So that makes three who’ve publicly said they are NOs and will not change their vote under any circumstance: Hilbert, Larson, and Trammell. Remember: the land sale ordinances required for the project need seven of nine votes to pass Council. 9 - 3 = 6??

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, and highs today are back up around 50 °F. Temperatures should creep downwards until this weekend when they return to the 50s with some rain.

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I don’t even know where to begin with yesterday’s NoBro news, and I’m not sure how to tie it all together into a cohesive narrative.

First, and this was news to me, the Mayor committed to “hold RPS funding harmless” should the City move forward with this project and various bits of funding get tied up in decades-long debt repayments. This even extends to buildings in the proposed TIF—Dominion towers included. That’s pretty good for schools, but, of course, we don’t need to just hold RPS funding harmless, we need to dump tens of millions of dollars into their budget every year for the next several years. But that’s a different discussion for another time!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and temperatures will stay in the 50s today. With plenty of sunshine on tap, I hope you find an excuse or two to get outside for a bit.

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This week’s Superintendent’s newsletter is a hefty one, so block out an appropriately hefty amount of time. First and foremost, a reminder that RPS schools are closed today as a huge percentage of teachers (and regular, education-supporting humans), will be down at the Capitol today to rally for more state-level education funding. That rally takes place at 12:00 PM, and you should totally go if you think the state should do their (constitutionally-mandated) part to provide a just level of education funding to our public schools. You should also wear red and consider printing one of these fun signs to bring along. And, should you think school funding is just a Richmond City issue, read this Henrico-focused column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch by Jim Livingston, president of the Virginia Education Association—a smart focus considering the audience. Back in the newsletter, Superintendent Kamras goes through some of this year’s budget requests (an additional $39 million dollars—see the below paragraph about how we need more money for more things), talks about the District’s new electric buses, and shares a bunch of other stuff that you should just go read for yourself. HEFTY.

Whoa, did you know that the three public schools of Middlesex County are 100% powered by solar? Sarah Vogelsong at the Virginia Mercury explains how they did it and how the program that made it possible (a “power purchase agreement”) has ended. As you can imagine, Dominion Energy is not too stoked about reopening the PPA program and allowing more folks to reduce their dependency on the electricity monopoly. However, Volgelsong says there are at least a half-dozen bills floating around the General Assembly at the moment that would allow PPAs to continue, and that totally sounds like something the New Dem Majority could get passed. Completely unrelated but intensely fascinating, this sentence: “Dominion Energy has said it has a policy of not speaking with the Virginia Mercury…” 🤔

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, and temperatures should make their way up into the mid 50s today. Late this evening you can expect rain which should continue into tomorrow morning. The rest of the weekend looks pretty great, through!

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Well, it’s not entirely unexpected, but Del. Samirah’s middle housing bill died in subcommittee yesterday. Here’s a bit more from Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury. This doesn’t mean that we’re stuck with all the single-family zoning we’ve got in Virginia forever and ever amen. But it does mean that a lot of work needs to be done across the state to start building support for a bill like this. It is, of course, the right thing to do, but it’s a ton of work. Meanwhile, localities, like Richmond, can and should still peruse similar zoning changes locally. The Richmond 300 process is wrapping up, and, if you look at the Future Land Use Map (PDF), you’ll see it recommends allowing duplexes and triplexes in a ton of neighborhoods—mostly the entire city before the final annexation of Chesterfield. It’ll be our job—folks who believe in and advocate for affordable housing, public transportation, and reaching our climate goals—to do the work locally to pass the actual zoning changes that will allow for middle housing. It’s going to be a whole thing, but I’m excited to get started.

A while back I talked about housing choice vouchers and HB 6 which would prevent landlords from denying an applicant because they’ll pay their rent with a voucher. If that’s something you’d like to support, the Virginia Housing Alliance has put together an easy way for you to let your elected representatives down at the General Assembly know. I know Good Morning, RVA is typically very Richmond City focused, but affordable housing is definitely an issue the entire region needs to tackle. Take a look at this (depressing) map of affordable housing vs. life expectancy in the Regional Housing Framework. While the city proper hosts the majority of housing choice vouchers, there are still tons of folks using vouchers in Chesterfield and Henrico. We need more of that across the entire region! So, please, if you’re a county resident and in support of HB 6, let your electeds know!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 22 °F, and today you can expect highs in the mid 40s and clouds in the sky. Temperatures could hit 50 °F tomorrow.

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Down at the General Assembly, the Land Use Subcommittee of the Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee (which meets at 8:00 AM in “300-A Subcommittee Room” should anyone find themselves in a testifying mood) will hear Del. Samirah’s middle housing bill, HB 152. This bill would require localities to allow duplexes anywhere currently zoned for single family homes. If we’re serious about affordable housing, if we’re serious about public transportation, if we’re serious about combating climate change, we have got to come up with ways for more people to live closer together. Del. Samirah’s bill does exactly this, and it lines up nicely with Richmond 300’s vision for our neighborhoods. I’m very supportive!

Locally, but still housing-related, Richmond Magazine’s Rodrigo Arriaza has an interview with Housing Opportunities Made Equal’s Heather Mullins Crislip. HOME and Crislip have been deeply involved in fair housing work in our region for a while now, and that includes our ongoing eviction crisis and the recently released regional affordable housing framework.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 16 °F, but highs today will head up out of the frozone and into the mid 40s. Expect plenty of sunshine as temperatures continue to warm throughout the week.

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I know it’s only January, but last night marked the official kickoff for the 2020 Budget Season! Over at the School Board meeting, Superintendent Kamras introduced his FY2021 budget (PDF), and, I swear y’all, it is the most readable and approachable budget document I think I’ve ever seen. They’ve got proposed expenditures broken down by categories from the strategic plan (Dreams4RPS (PDF)), which is so smart. For example, RPS wants to spend $489,000 more on adding six social workers, which falls under Priority 3, Safe and Loving School Cultures. Honestly, right away I feel a weird sense of protective ownership in this budget (??) since we all collectively spent so much time working on the strategic plan a couple summers ago. However, it all comes down to money and the extremely tiny amounts of it we have available, so what’s the total cost? $39 million more dollars. That’s a lot, but it should surprise exactly zero humans as RPS has been exceedingly clear and upfront with their budget needs moving forward over the next couple of years. The School District plans to pick up $18 million more from the State, should the Governor’s budget pass as is, so that leaves $21 million on the City’s tab. It’s been awhile, but do you remember how I kept talking about restoring the real estate tax to pre-Recession era levels because schools—not to mention transit or public housing—needed tens of millions of dollars of immediate investment? Well, City Council decided not to do that, so here we are with a big, not-unexpected request from Richmond Public Schools. I’m very interested to see how the Mayor and City Council deals with it. BUCKLE UP IT IS BUDGET SEASON.

Schools don’t have a monopoly on budgets, and GRTC’s CEO introduced a FY20–22 Capital Blueprint (PDF). This budget document is…not as heartwarming as RPS’s—but that’s a high, high bar. C. Suarez Rojas at the Richmond Times-Dispatch breaks down some of the details, which include articulated buses and a Park and Ride for the Pulse.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 16 °F, but highs today will head up out of the frozone and into the mid 40s. Expect plenty of sunshine as temperatures continue to warm throughout the week.

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I know it’s only January, but last night marked the official kickoff for the 2020 Budget Season! Over at the School Board meeting, Superintendent Kamras introduced his FY2021 budget (PDF), and, I swear y’all, it is the most readable and approachable budget document I think I’ve ever seen. They’ve got proposed expenditures broken down by categories from the strategic plan (Dreams4RPS (PDF)), which is so smart. For example, RPS wants to spend $489,000 more on adding six social workers, which falls under Priority 3, Safe and Loving School Cultures. Honestly, right away I feel a weird sense of protective ownership in this budget (??) since we all collectively spent so much time working on the strategic plan a couple summers ago. However, it all comes down to money and the extremely tiny amounts of it we have available, so what’s the total cost? $39 million more dollars. That’s a lot, but it should surprise exactly zero humans as RPS has been exceedingly clear and upfront with their budget needs moving forward over the next couple of years. The School District plans to pick up $18 million more from the State, should the Governor’s budget pass as is, so that leaves $21 million on the City’s tab. It’s been awhile, but do you remember how I kept talking about restoring the real estate tax to pre-Recession era levels because schools—not to mention transit or public housing—needed tens of millions of dollars of immediate investment? Well, City Council decided not to do that, so here we are with a big, not-unexpected request from Richmond Public Schools. I’m very interested to see how the Mayor and City Council deals with it. BUCKLE UP IT IS BUDGET SEASON.

Schools don’t have a monopoly on budgets, and GRTC’s CEO introduced a FY20–22 Capital Blueprint (PDF). This budget document is…not as heartwarming as RPS’s—but that’s a high, high bar. C. Suarez Rojas at the Richmond Times-Dispatch breaks down some of the details, which include articulated buses and a Park and Ride for the Pulse.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 13 °F, and that is a no-joke winter temperature! For most of today, you can expect highs at or just above freezing. Things will warm up a bit throughout the week.

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Friday night, a driver hit and killed Grayland A. Brooks, 62, on the sidewalk of the 2300 block of Chamberlayne Avenue. This fatal crash occurred just a couple blocks north of where a person was hit and killed on the 900 block of Chamberlayne Parkway this past November. Chamberlayne, particularly the section south of Brookland Park Boulevard, is incredibly fast, incredibly dangerous, and needs immediate redesigning. What will the City do now that two people have died along this stretch of road? Improve the lighting? Slow traffic? Will they study the area? Anything at all?

Police are still looking for the driver, who fled the scene in a silver four-door 2001–2005 Lexus LS 430.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 24 °F, and that’s a wintry temperature! Today you can expect highs right around 40, which is much more wintry than this past week. Colder temperatures continue through the weekend with a chance of rain on Saturday.

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Richmond Police are reporting a murder on the 1700 block of Bellevue Avenue. Wednesday night, officers arrived at the scene and found Robert M. Willoughby, 86, “suffering from obvious signs of trauma.” He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F with a bit of clouds and that is exactly what you should expect for the rest of the day. Enjoy!

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This is pretty incredible: Yesterday, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA. Ned Oliver and Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury have all of the fantastic details. Tap the link for some cheers, tears, good quotes, and grumbly Republicans.

Here’s a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch by HOME’s Heather Mullins Crislip and Better Housing Coalition’s Greta Harris about the importance of affordable housing, specifically through housing choice vouchers. Now, I’m going to talk about some housing policy, and that is not my field of expertise. Please, if you are an expert and I get something wrong, yell at me! So, HCVs allow folks to live in market-rate apartments by using vouchers to supplement what they can afford to pay on their own. Unfortunately, the amount of folks who rely on HCVs vastly outnumbers the amount of landlords willing to accept HCVs. It’s pretty bad: The recently released Regional Housing Framework (PDF) says fewer than one in five apartment communities in the region accept vouchers. To address this need, Del. Jeff Bourne has introduced HB 6 which would add “source of income” as a protected class under Virginia’s Fair Housing Act. Should it pass, this bill would “prevent a landlord from denying an applicant simply because they will pay with a rental voucher…it also would not require a landlord to accept less than market rate for their apartment.” Which, is why the Housing Framework’s Solution 6-B is so important: Implement Small Area Fair Market Rents (p. 20). Currently, HCVs cover the difference between rent and 30% of the tenant’s income, and a SAFMR policy would allow those rents to be calculated by ZIP code rather than by the entire region. Which means more folks able to afford living in more places across the region. Now I gotta read some more about who’s responsible for getting a policy like that created. Housing, y’all! It’s a whole thing—rather, it’s a whole, huge set of things!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F with a bit of clouds and that is exactly what you should expect for the rest of the day. Enjoy!

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This is pretty incredible: Yesterday, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA. Ned Oliver and Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury have all of the fantastic details. Tap the link for some cheers, tears, good quotes, and grumbly Republicans.

Here’s a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch by HOME’s Heather Mullins Crislip and Better Housing Coalition’s Greta Harris about the importance of affordable housing, specifically through housing choice vouchers. Now, I’m going to talk about some housing policy, and that is not my field of expertise. Please, if you are an expert and I get something wrong, yell at me! So, HCVs allow folks to live in market-rate apartments by using vouchers to supplement what they can afford to pay on their own. Unfortunately, the amount of folks who rely on HCVs vastly outnumbers the amount of landlords willing to accept HCVs. It’s pretty bad: The recently released Regional Housing Framework (PDF) says fewer than one in five apartment communities in the region accept vouchers. To address this need, Del. Jeff Bourne has introduced HB 6 which would add “source of income” as a protected class under Virginia’s Fair Housing Act. Should it pass, this bill would “prevent a landlord from denying an applicant simply because they will pay with a rental voucher…it also would not require a landlord to accept less than market rate for their apartment.” Which, is why the Housing Framework’s Solution 6-B is so important: Implement Small Area Fair Market Rents (p. 20). Currently, HCVs cover the difference between rent and 30% of the tenant’s income, and a SAFMR policy would allow those rents to be calculated by ZIP code rather than by the entire region. Which means more folks able to afford living in more places across the region. Now I gotta read some more about who’s responsible for getting a policy like that created. Housing, y’all! It’s a whole thing—rather, it’s a whole, huge set of things!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 46 °F, and you should expect highs in the mid 50s today along with maybe just the slightest chance of rain. I keep looking at the long range forecast for the approach of actual winter, and I can’t find it. Maybe next week!

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ERA update! Today, the House of Delegates will hold their vote on the Equal Rights Amendment. Everyone’s moving so fast with this, and that’s incredible! Now I’m really looking forward to reading the raft of articles by constitutional scholars about what happens next. Like, maybe this? Who knows!

The Partnership for Housing Affordability has released their Richmond Regional Housing Framework, and you can download a PDF summary here. First, the region decides to work together on transportation, and now they’ve decide they’ll work together on housing? What next? Education?? Anyway, this framework has been a long time coming and you should take the time to read through it. The very first recommended solution in the document, a document setting the affordable housing strategy for the entire region, is to change zoning to allow for “more multifamily development on parcels currently zoned for low-density uses.” Like I wrote yesterday, I am honestly excited to have the conversations locally, and, I guess, regionally, about how to gently increase density through duplexes, triplexes, and accessory dwelling units. Maybe with the folks behind the Partnership for Housing Affordability supporting them, elected leaders will be a bit bolder with their policies and their votes. Anyway, read through this whole thing, because it’s not just about density. It’s got strategies and recommendations for public housing, manufactured home communities, Housing Choice Vouchers, all kinds of things. I’ll dig in more soon, but I now await the Housing People to let me know what they think!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 47 °F, and boy did it rain overnight—and might could keep raining for a while. However, things should dry up later this afternoon with temperatures sticking right around 50 °F.

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I did a new thing yesterday and sent out some bonus GMRVA content in the form of a superlong explainer on HB 1541. That’s Del. Delores McQuinn’s bill which would (finally!) provide the Richmond region a couple buckets of dedicated transportation funding—even a bucket specifically for public transit (kind of). I love doing this sort of longer-format, more in-depth writing, but, turns out, it takes a lot of time. If you’d like to see more of it, you can join my Patreon to give me actual money. Please do! Related, Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch talked to the elected leaders involved and got a bunch of victory-lap quotes from all across the region 💸. It’s wild seeing such regional agreement on anything, let alone transportation. Martz also drops this bomb like it’s totally no big deal: “if legislation becomes law on July 1, Henrico said it would become a full member of the GRTC board of directors.” Whoa, huge if true. It really does continue to be a very exciting time for transit in the Richmond region. But! That doesn’t mean we can’t make HB 1541 better! In fact, if we don’t make a couple of changes to the bill as written, the region risks maintaining our unacceptable transit status quo for the foreseeable future. Tap that first link to see what should change and how you can get involved. This is a massive opportunity and we need to get it right. At this point, however, it’s not right. I do believe we can get it there, though.

I…don’t know what to make of this headline from Ned Oliver and Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury: “As Virginia Democrats advance new gun restrictions, militias organize, promising to resist.” The lede is even more bananas: “Opponents of new gun laws in Virginia are organizing militias in the state, but promise they’re not planning to use the new paramilitary organizations to launch a violent insurrection against the government.” And then, you gotta love this follow up sentence a couple of paragraphs down: “However organizers in King William either would not or could not say when pressed to describe a scenario in which they believed a militia might be useful in the context of the current gun debate.” Amazing. Later on in the piece, House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert gives these back-to-back quotes that try and minimize what all of these Bullet Bills are up to across the state while also using ominously threatening language towards Democrats: “They’re not arming up for an insurrection…They’re just trying to establish a legal definition that could perhaps offer them some protection,” and then he says, “I hope that the governor and Virginia Democrats are paying attention to what they’re provoking.” Anyway, writing about the honest fear I feel towards these pro-gun-violence folks is exactly what they want and probably advances their gross agenda—I will try to keep that in mind. Instead, scroll halfway down that Virginia Mercury piece and see all of the gun safety legislations that made it out of committee: a “one-handgun-a-month law, expand background checks on gun sales, establish a red flag law giving authorities power to temporarily take guns from people deemed dangerous and give local governments the ability to ban guns in public buildings, parks and at political rallies and other public events.” This is real progress.

Alert! This is an unannounced and unscheduled appearance in your inbox!

What’s the deal? Here’s the deal: One of my 2020 goals is to expand the scope of Good Morning, RVA by including more thoughtful, deeper coverage of topics I find interesting. This could take the form of an interview with a fascinating person over on the GMRVA podcast feed, a long explainer on a complex topic, or something else entirely. The idea is for my work to grow a bit beyond the morning update and become a more useful resource to readers. With that in mind, here’s the first of what I hope to be multiple…bonus contents? Still working on the name.

This is literally some of my favorite stuff to do, but does take a long time to put together. If you’d like to see more of this sort of thing, please become a GMRVA Patron.

Strap in, because this is 2,500 about legislation, taxes, and transportation. If you’d like to read in the comfort of your web browser, you may do so here.
 

BONUS: Explaining HB 1541, the dedicated regional transit funding bill

Good morning, RVA! It’s 51 °F, and you can expect highs in the 60s and a persistent chance of rain throughout the day. More of the same tomorrow.

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City Council will meet today at 6:00 PM for their regularly scheduled meeting, and you can download the lengthy agenda here (PDF). Tonight, they’ll consider ORD. 2019–328, a special use permit that would allow the Salvation Army to repurpose a building at 1900 Chamberlayne Parkway for a 100-bed homeless shelter (and also provide a bunch of wrap-around services). I think that’s great, and Kelly King Horne, the executive director of Homeward, who would know better than probably anyone in the entire region, says that the new facility completely aligns (PDF) with the City’s homeless services strategies. 3rd District Councilmember Hilbert, however, has been vocally opposed to the project, yet will “recuse himself” from tonight’s vote, says Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. In my opinion, this is a great location, adjacent to frequent transit, and I hope Council passes ORD. 2019–328 tonight (as of this moment it sits on the Consent Agenda). Also on tonight’s agenda is ORD. 2019–352 (PDF), Councilmember Gray’s anti-density ordinance which not only prevents new some housing in the City (most of it near transit and bike infrastructure!) but runs counter to the vibe of the City’s ongoing master planning process. I’ve been writing about this particular issue since back in June when it was RES. 2019-R025, and, seven months later, it’s still a bad idea. Richmond needs more, denser housing and we should not prevent that across the City because one Councilmember wants to prevent one specific development on Monument Avenue. Take a minute to read Doug Allen’s thread on Twitter for a few great talking points on why this ordinance takes Richmond in the wrong direction, and then take another minute to email your City Council rep saying as much.

Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury writes about the Equal Rights Amendment’s journey though the General Assembly and its New Democratic Majority. Oliver says we could see a vote on the ERA in the Senate as soon as this Wednesday, and, assuming it passes, it’ll head over to the House of Delegates. After that it goes to the Archivist of the United States, and then…who knows! Honestly, “who knows!” probably means “interminable court battle,” but still, Virginia will make history on this one—and soon!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 22 °F, and highs today will barely make their way into the 40s. That’s cold! But, no joke, the forecasted high on Saturday is 68 °F. On one hand, I’m sad that climate change is slowly dissolving winter, but, on the other hand, I’m going to ride the heck out of my bike this weekend.

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Well here is some fascinating combined NoBro and General Assembly news: Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says that Del. Jeff Bourne has introduced legislation to dedicate a portion of the typically inaccessible state sales tax to paying down potential NoBro bonds 💸. You can read the full text of HB 1345 here. Robinson says that the area the City could receive the additional revenue from is a box bounded by Leigh, Franklin, 3rd, and 10th, which, theoretically, would allow the NoBro team to reduce the size of the BigTIF back into a plain ol’ regular TIF. I’m super ambivalent about this! No amount of new revenue changes the fact that the process leading up to this project was super bad, and, additionally, I remain unconvinced that a new arena is a smart use of extremely valuable downtown land. That said, the vast majority of the property in this new box is exempt from real estate tax, and this bill would open up a new source of revenue to help offset some of that tax exemptness. Part of me wonders if this is as close to a PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) from the State as we’re ever going to get? To intelligently evaluate this new proposal, here’s what I’d like to know: 1) Just how much revenue is the State willing to part with, 2) By how much will it allow us to shrink the BigTIF, and 3) how does this slice of sales tax compare to the amount of real estate tax the City misses out on due to the presence of state government downtown. While I definitely can imagine a world where these numbers work out really well in Richmond’s favor, I don’t have a lot of hope for that given how the State typically treats its host city. Also, and this is important, assuming HB 1345 dramatically changes the financing of NoBro, more community engagement must happen. Reminding y’all about a billion more public meetings is certainly the last thing I want to do, but I just don’t see how we can totally change the most basic financial underpinnings of this massive project and not go back to Richmonders, the advisory councils, and elected officials, and ask them to reevaluate the deal. Without a good-faith commitment to a public reevaluation process, I’ll be extremely (and probably loudly) disappointed. P.S. This certainly has the vibe of a last-minute Hail Mary.

Here’s a big regional affordable housing update: The Partnership for Housing Affordability will officially launch the Richmond Regional Housing Framework next Wednesday, January 15th, at the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center (1440 N. Laburnum Avenue) from 8:30–10:30 AM. This event is free, open to the public, and at a tough time for normal people to attend, but, if you are interested and available make sure you register ahead of time. I’ve got high hopes for this framework! With any luck, it’ll lay down a shared foundation so lawmakers in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield can start building complementary policies that address our affordable housing issues and work together, pulling the same direction, instead of either pretending like we’ve got no housing issues at all or charging off in one of a thousand unhelpful directions. Surely a many-paged PDF will exist at some point next week, and I’m excited to share it with you.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 29 °F, and it looks like yesterday’s rain has moved on out leaving us with highs near 50 °F and lots of sunshine. Careful outside early this morning as there may be a thin sheet of slippery frost on everything (he says with first-hand experience nearly tumbling down his back stairs).

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The General Assembly’s 2020 session kicks off today! What should you expect? Well, yesterday, the Governor and a bunch of the various legislative leaders announced the pretty solid, yet flaccidly-named Virginia 2020 Plan, highlighting 11 priorities they want to tackle over the next 60 days. I’ll just list all 11 points for you here: Pass the Equal Rights Amendment, restore women’s reproductive rights, expand affordable housing, ban discrimination in housing and employment, raise the minimum wage, make voting easier, reform criminal justice, advance common-sense gun safety measures, fight climate change and protect natural resources, increase education funding, and expand transit and broadband. Hey! That’s a pretty good list and even mentions transit! The gov will deliver his State of the Commonwealth address tonight at 7:00 PM, and I am sure he will dig into each of these a bit further. For folks who want to know how to get involved but are, justifiably, intimidated by the whole process, Del. Cia Price from Newport News has an excellent GA primer thread on Twitter.

The city announced that their new eviction diversion program “has diverted 76 evictions and is on track to meet its goal to divert 300–500 evictions in its first year.” For some context, according to the NYT piece about Richmond’s nation-leading eviction rate, the City saw 5,803 eviction judgments in 2016. So we’re making big progress, for sure, but there’s still a lot of big work left to do.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 29 °F, and it looks like yesterday’s rain has moved on out leaving us with highs near 50 °F and lots of sunshine. Careful outside early this morning as there may be a thin sheet of slippery frost on everything (he says with first-hand experience nearly tumbling down his back stairs).

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The General Assembly’s 2020 session kicks off today! What should you expect? Well, yesterday, the Governor and a bunch of the various legislative leaders announced the pretty solid, yet flaccidly-named Virginia 2020 Plan, highlighting 11 priorities they want to tackle over the next 60 days. I’ll just list all 11 points for you here: Pass the Equal Rights Amendment, restore women’s reproductive rights, expand affordable housing, ban discrimination in housing and employment, raise the minimum wage, make voting easier, reform criminal justice, advance common-sense gun safety measures, fight climate change and protect natural resources, increase education funding, and expand transit and broadband. Hey! That’s a pretty good list and even mentions transit! The gov will deliver his State of the Commonwealth address tonight at 7:00 PM, and I am sure he will dig into each of these a bit further. For folks who want to know how to get involved but are, justifiably, intimidated by the whole process, Del. Cia Price from Newport News has an excellent GA primer thread on Twitter.

The city announced that their new eviction diversion program “has diverted 76 evictions and is on track to meet its goal to divert 300–500 evictions in its first year.” For some context, according to the NYT piece about Richmond’s nation-leading eviction rate, the City saw 5,803 eviction judgments in 2016. So we’re making big progress, for sure, but there’s still a lot of big work left to do.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 32 °F, and today, January 6th, looks like another delightful fall day. Expect highs in the mid 50s and lots of sunshine. The long range forecast suggests we may see temperatures in the 70s this weekend? OK, sure.

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Richmond Police are reporting, what I think is, the first murder of 2020. On the morning of January 3rd, officers arrived to the a hotel on the 2600 block of Chamberlayne Avenue and found William O. Hurt shot to death.

Ali Rockett from the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a recap of last year’s deadly violence in Richmond 💸. In 2019, 66 people were killed. This is pretty close to the average number of killings over the previous three years (2016: 61; 2017: 78; 2018: 58). The three years previous to that saw an average of 40 people killed. I’d love to read something on what changed—either culturally, structurally, or even something with how the police report murders.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 25 °F, but temperatures should work their way back into the mid 40s by this afternoon. The weekend ahead of us looks cloudy but not super cold—in fact we might not see super cold until next year.

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Before any sports season starts, every team is undefeated and aspirational national champions. That’s kind of where we are right now with the General Assembly. Legislators have started to introduce their bills, and, right now, each one has an opportunity to pass through the how-a-bill-becomes-a-law process. A couple years back, this period of time was terrifying and often embarrassing as national media would focus on whatever terrible bill Republican Bob Marshall submitted. Now though, we’ve got incredibly exciting and progressive bills to celebrate like Delegate Samirah’s Housing Agenda, headlined by HB152 which would require localities to legalize duplexes on all single-unit zoned lots across the entire state. If we want to create more affordable housing, reduce reliance on cars, and work towards our climate goals we need denser housing—that’s just a physical fact of geometry. This bill does not mandate we tear down all of the incredibly expensive mansions in Windsor Farms, but it would allow someone to build two incredibly expensive mansions on a single Windsor Farms lot should they wish to do so. A bill like HB152 would bypass all the yelling and screaming at local City Councils and Boards of Supervisors and save local advocates—across issues like bike, ped, transit, housing, climate, and smart growth—a lot of work. Will it pass? Will it even make it out of committee? I don’t know, but I’m stoked to see it exist.

Whoa, trains! Yesterday, the Governor announced that Virginia will buy 225 miles of track from CSX and invest in a bunch of new passenger rail improvements. Max Smith with WTPO has the super fascinating details on the $3.7 billion deal. This is enormous news for the entire region, but, for Richmond, this means new trains north to DC and points beyond starting as soon as next year. By 2030, we should have hourly service to DC from Main Street Station all day long. Dang, y’all! That’s a huge improvement from today’s two trains. Just two! There’s more, too: Virginia will replace the Long Bridge, which chokes up every train heading through D.C. But maybe the best part of this whole train deal is that the State realized that, to reduce traffic on I-95, adding more lanes to the highway wouldn’t do anything to help the problem and would cost way, way more. I know ten years out seems like forever away, but for a train project this is incredibly quick and exciting!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 17 °F, and y’all, that is COLD. We’ll see highs above freezing today—but only just barely. Temperatures will return to their proper spot among the mid 40s tomorrow, so bundle up until then!

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Yesterday, for only the third time in all of history, the President of the United States was impeached. For me, even though we all knew it was coming, it’s still kind of shocking and surreal. Now the process moves to the Senate where they will decide whether or not (most likely not) to remove Trump from office. Regardless of what happens in the coming weeks, Trump will forever and always be known as one of the very small number of impeached presidents. If you’re looking to follow along, impeachment.fyi continues to be the best source of news throughout this process, and I definitely recommend subscribing to their email as we move into the holiday break.

Whoa this is cool: ProPublica selected the RTD’s Patrick Wilson to participate in their Local Reporting Network which “supports accountability journalism at local news organizations.” I’m excited to see what he ends up working on—given his beat, I’d guess a state government issue.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 26 °F, and today should be sunny and cold with highs in the 40s. Now that’s more December-like weather.

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Michael Paul Williams has thoughts about the School Board’s failure to rezone the Northside 💸. We’re all on the same page here, but I do take issue with some of his framing. I want to be super clear: The blame for implicitly endorsing the status quo of segregated Northside schools lies solely with the School Board. Rezoning is their responsibility—not the Superintendent, City Council, or the Mayor. The RPS administration designed and implemented a year-long rezoning plan, and, at least for the Northside, the School Board failed to act on it in any way. If, as Williams suggests, “the district lacked the nuts-and-bolts information about how pairing would work and the persuasive force to convert the skeptics it should have known were out there on this contentious issue,“ then there is an elected official for that district whose job it is to educate and listen to their constituents. 1st District’s Liz Doerr provided a pretty good model for elected folks to start with. So what’s next? For rezoning, who knows. But to combat segregation, Superintendent Kamras has a bunch of non-rezoning policy tools at his disposal—Passion4Learning being the most immediate but flip through the Dreams4RPS strategic plan (PDF) to see all sorts of equity-focused actions. Folks should be just as supportive of those policy initiatives as they were about rezoning.

The RTD’s C. Suarez Rojas was at GRTC’s board meeting yesterday and mostly covers the board’s conversation on fare evasion. Two things that I am able to believe simultaneously: 1) We shouldn’t waste too much time, effort, and money enforcing fare payment on the Pulse, and 2) The current company providing the fare enforcement is doing a bad job. I love this quote from GRTC CEO Julie Timm, “We need to change the conversation from fare evasion into helping people learn how to use the system and pay.” Also, and I think this is so super important given how easily it is for information to get twisted and then spread far and wide, GRTC has no plans to arm fare enforcement officers and was never going to anyway. Here’s Timm again, “Fare enforcement officers are required to have armed officer training in order to issue a summons; however, GRTC fare enforcers are not armed. Putting armed officers on our buses to issue court summons to our riders will not prevent fare evasion, and I do not believe anyone is suggesting we do that. It is the wrong answer for our system and our community.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 42 °F, and highs today are suddenly back up in the mid 60s—on the 17th of December! Keep an eye out for a possible chance of rain now and later this afternoon.

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Yesterday, making a prediction about which of the 10 school rezoning options the RPS School Board would ultimately choose, I said, “I’d bet on whichever of the options is the most status-quoy.” I figured that would be Option W (PDF), which RPS describes as “No changes to northside zones.” Literally the status quo, right? Well, in one of those shocking-yet-not-surprising-at-all moments that keep happening in Richmond politics, the School Board went even harder toward the status quo by just…not voting for anything? At all? Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the incredibly disappointing details. A quick recap: 3rd District Rep Gibson motioned to adopt Option 5 (PDF), one of the new options that did not go through the established, months-long process; that died on a 3–6 vote; and then, when no one else suggested an alternative, the Board moved on with the agenda. That was that. As a Northsider, I feel disappointed, angry, and disrespected by the School Board. It’s unfathomable to me that the Board could watch folks spend so much time and energy participating in a public engagement process that lasted the better part of a year (PDF) and then just not vote. Why did they even schedule this special meeting, a mishandled process that lacked transparency? Couldn’t they have spared us all a couple weeks of Facebook vitriol and voted for Option W at their previous Board meeting? Last night’s non-vote was peak Culture of Continuation—doing nothing to avoid doing anything—and I’m incredibly sick of it. We elect representatives to make tough decisions for us, and if those representatives are unable or unwilling to do so, maybe they should find different jobs. It’s so bad at this point, that I think we need to look hard at how our local government works, how it’s set up, and if we need to reopen the City’s charter and make some structural changes. Because right now, it’s real broken.

Ooo heck yes! Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense says VUU has bought the motel on the southeast corner of Brook and Lombardy. I’m excited for this area to grow into something more interesting than surface parking and auto shops—especially with the recent rezoning and neighborhood plan (PDF).

Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, and highs today will settle in the mid 40s. Expect rain, though! The chance for rain increase steadily from now until tomorrow. Cold and wet, but not cold enough for snow—the worst.

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Yasmine Jumaa at VPM says that HUD has rejected RRHA’s five-year plan. RRHA says the plan was rejected on some technicalities, HUD, however, disagrees. I continue to not know enough about public housing, especially the efficacy of voucher programs vs. building one-for-one replacement units. Regardless of policy direction, stories like this don’t help build trust in an important agency who just hired a new CEO a few months ago.

Tactical urbanism is neat and cool, and—if done properly—should show how cheap, quick improvements can make the lives of folks living in our city easier and safer. A couple weeks back, Streets Cred rolled out our first tactical urbanism project: Untitled Urbanism Project #1, aka The Festive Cones project. To quote a bit: “Tactical urbanism is about demonstrating what could be if you—actually, your city leaders—had the necessary funding, political will, and/or creative design that they lack. Sometimes, it can just help open folks’ eyes to easy ways to make our city safer, more humane, and more fun. Sometimes, it helps build momentum toward [a] long-term solution. And, sometimes, it’s just a fun release of creative energy.” This project was super fun and super cheap but not super free. With that in mind, Untitled Urbanism Project #2 will cost us $300 and you can contribute over on our GoFundMe.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 23 °F, and today you can expect highs in the low 40s. Rain might could come around tomorrow, but today looks sunny and dry.

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First, it’s good to be back! New Orleans is a fascinating place with a surprisingly complex set of public transportation problems. For example, did you know the public transit agency lost the vast majority of their bus fleet during Hurricane Katrina and still have not yet replaced them all? Also, the semi-recent collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel has severed important pieces of their public transit system—and will continue to do so for months. I couldn’t help but wonder how Richmond’s important public systems would hold up to disasters. Anyway, on with the show!

OK, so, RPS rezoning took a turn over the last several days. After punting on any rezoning proposal for the Northside at all, Richmond’s School Board asked Cropper—the mapfolks—for new options to consider. Cropper responded with six entirely new options, none of which pair schools together. That’s…a lot of options, especially since the School Board plans to get together on December 16th (Monday) and vote on a final rezoning for the Northside. 3rd District School Board Rep Gibson, whose district includes much of the Northside and who voted against the original rezoning proposal for process reasons, said this in a medium post a couple days before the six new options were release, “History has proven that process is as important as policy when it comes to successfully creating racial equity. As such, the lack of democratic process and sufficient community engagement have made it premature to adopt a plan to pair schools.” Whether you agree with the first part of that quote or not, blasting out six new rezoning maps just a week before the final vote is pretty much the definition of a lack of democratic process and sufficient community engagement. We did all that stuff over the course of this past year! The moment for a courageous vote was a couple weeks back when the Board decided to punt, and now, with the date for open enrollment looming, I’m not sure what the right move for the Board is. I do know that voting on one of these new options on Monday is wrong, but, with communications so fudged up, I’m not convinced voting on one of the four original proposal is right, either. If you’ve got strong feelings, consider sending your school board member an email and letting them know.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 23 °F, and today you can expect highs in the low 40s. Rain might could come around tomorrow, but today looks sunny and dry.

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First, it’s good to be back! New Orleans is a fascinating place with a surprisingly complex set of public transportation problems. For example, did you know the public transit agency lost the vast majority of their bus fleet during Hurricane Katrina and still have not yet replaced them all? Also, the semi-recent collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel has severed important pieces of their public transit system—and will continue to do so for months. I couldn’t help but wonder how Richmond’s important public systems would hold up to disasters. Anyway, on with the show!

OK, so, RPS rezoning took a turn over the last several days. After punting on any rezoning proposal for the Northside at all, Richmond’s School Board asked Cropper—the mapfolks—for new options to consider. Cropper responded with six entirely new options, none of which pair schools together. That’s…a lot of options, especially since the School Board plans to get together on December 16th (Monday) and vote on a final rezoning for the Northside. 3rd District School Board Rep Gibson, whose district includes much of the Northside and who voted against the original rezoning proposal for process reasons, said this in a medium post a couple days before the six new options were release, “History has proven that process is as important as policy when it comes to successfully creating racial equity. As such, the lack of democratic process and sufficient community engagement have made it premature to adopt a plan to pair schools.” Whether you agree with the first part of that quote or not, blasting out six new rezoning maps just a week before the final vote is pretty much the definition of a lack of democratic process and sufficient community engagement. We did all that stuff over the course of this past year! The moment for a courageous vote was a couple weeks back when the Board decided to punt, and now, with the date for open enrollment looming, I’m not sure what the right move for the Board is. I do know that voting on one of these new options on Monday is wrong, but, with communications so fudged up, I’m not convinced voting on one of the four original proposal is right, either. If you’ve got strong feelings, consider sending your school board member an email and letting them know.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 29 °F, and today we’ve got more temperatures in the mid 50s on deck. Maybe some cloudy skies out there, too?

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Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has the details on the Governor’s plan to delete a bunch of old, racist sections out of the Code of Virginia. The commission tasked with the work stopped short of making recommendations on “legislation addressing Confederate pensions and memorials” and “seeks to be appropriately mindful of the history of this era while also acknowledging the states role in funding Confederate memorials, monuments, and public benefits.” That’s quite a bit of doublethink for commission established to “identify laws in Virginia that have the effect or could have the effect of enabling or promoting racial inequity or inequality” (PDF). Seems like a good time to once again link to Brian Palmer’s excellent The Costs of the Confederacy piece, and quote the blurb: “In the last decade alone, American taxpayers have spent at least $40 million on Confederate monuments and groups that perpetuate racist ideology.” Regardless, I’m pretty confident that Virginia’s New Dem Majority will introduce and at least vote on legislation giving authority to localities to take down their Confederate monuments. Whether that legislation will pass and get signed by the governor, who knows.

The new Whole Foods on Broad Street is now hiring. Sounds like they’re gearing up for an early 2020 opening? Also, pay starts at $15 an hour, they’re hiring the full list of full-time and part-time positions, and it’s right next to a Pulse station.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 32 °F, and we’ve got another sunny, crisp day ahead of us. Expect highs in the 50s, which should be the norm until at least this weekend.

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Michael Paul Williams at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has his take on this past Monday’s school rezoning meeting and vote 💸. I’d like to liberate from behind the paywall two quotes about the rhetoric used at these meetings. First, from Taikein Cooper: “I’m from Prince Edward County…And I don’t know if you all know the story, but they closed the schools there using the same rhetoric that we’re using here tonight.” Second, what Genevieve Siegel-Hawley said she heard: “…language used to resist desegregation in the past, like the uncompromising mantra of neighborhood schools, the perils of busing and the importance of the freedom to choose.” Keep those quotes in mind as the School Board prepares for their December 16th meeting, when they will take up the Northside rezoning that they were unwilling to vote on earlier this week.

This sounds like a possible bummer: Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that the folks rehabbing the apartments along Chamberlayne have put the properties up for sale. The rehab work hasn’t stopped, though, which is good. These apartments specifically—and this part of Chamberlayne generally—are some of the densest, transit-adjacent, naturally-occurring affordable housing in the region. Look at the numbers: “The firm has rehabbed nearly 300 of the 692 units, with 160 rehabs currently underway and 250 remaining…Rosa said the units were 50 percent occupied when Equishares took possession, then dropped to about 8 or 10 percent and now stand at about 40 percent occupancy. Totaling more than 458,000 of rentable space, the units average 664 square feet in size, with average monthly rents of $693.” It’s hard not to keep linking to this Twitter thread about market-rate housing compared to NoBro’s promised affordable housing.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today you should expect highs in the upper 40s with plenty of sunshine. That, plus or minus a few degrees, pretty much looks like the forecast for the rest of the week.

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Richmond Police are reporting two murders. First, on November 30th, Police responded to the 3100 block of Midlothian and found Ashraf H. Mahasees, 23, shot to death. This was the murder victim I mentioned yesterday. Second, on Monday evening, officers arrived to the 2000 block of Accommodation Street and found J-Mari R. Saunders, 17, suffering from a fatal gun shot wound.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, and it’s rainy. Expect the rain to continue through the morning, with a chance of continuing through the day, too. Temperatures will creep up toward 50 °F later this afternoon, but stall out there. Welcome to your rainy and chilly start to December!

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Richmond Police are reporting that this past Thursday morning, they responded to the 2000 block of Creighton Road and found Tyreese J. Barlow, 19, shot to death. Bridget Balch at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says another person was shot and killed on Saturday during a 24-hour period that saw five people shot across the city.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, and it’s rainy. Expect the rain to continue through the morning, with a chance of continuing through the day, too. Temperatures will creep up toward 50 °F later this afternoon, but stall out there. Welcome to your rainy and chilly start to December!

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Richmond Police are reporting that this past Thursday morning, they responded to the 2000 block of Creighton Road and found Tyreese J. Barlow, 19, shot to death. Bridget Balch at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says another person was shot and killed on Saturday during a 24-hour period that saw five people shot across the city.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and today’s highs are back up in the 60s. Expect a similarly warm tomorrow, and then temperatures to drop through the holiday week.

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Today, City Council’s Public Safety committee will meet at 12:00 PM and hear a presentation on homicides from the Richmond Police Department (PDF). The aforelinked PDF is filled with interesting (and morbid) chartsandgraphs on the last ten years of murder in Richmond. While I knew that the number of homicides had gone up in recent years, I hadn’t realized that 2017 saw more than double the homicide (66) compared to the historic lows of 2008 (32). Unchanged in the last decade is the fact that—overwhelmingly—young, Black people are the victims. The back half of the PDF contains a short write up of RPD’s findings, strategy, and responses. It includes this sentence about public housing, which I don’t think I’ve heard phrased quite this way before: “The placement, size, and nature of Public Housing has created, essentially, a super development of Gilpin, Mosby, Fairfield, Whitcomb and Creighton with a total of 2,639 units contained in .65 square miles.” Looking at the map of homicides in Richmond, though, it looks a lot like a map of density rather than just a map of public housing. The shooting map, less so. Regardless, I do not believe that the existence of public housing “causes” violence. Our current implementation of public housing, though, is unjust. We need to do better, we need a bunch of different solutions and tools, and we need to get started two decades ago. Anyway, those last few sentence are pretty far out of my lane in a couple of different ways, so take them with a grain of salt. Deconcentrating poverty remains one of the City’s goals, and, in fact, is one of the RPD’s stated needs to reduce homicides: “Reduction of the concentration of poverty that exists through redevelopment into mixed use, mixed income developments. Elimination of ‘barracks style’ housing.”

Richmond Public Schools had a public hearing on rezoning last night, and you’ve got to take a minute to listen to this public comment from a student at Franklin Military Academy. I swear, every time I interact with a young person I’m amazed by how clever and thoughtful they are. Makes us olds and our generations look like trash!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and today’s highs are back up in the 60s. Expect a similarly warm tomorrow, and then temperatures to drop through the holiday week.

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Today, City Council’s Public Safety committee will meet at 12:00 PM and hear a presentation on homicides from the Richmond Police Department (PDF). The aforelinked PDF is filled with interesting (and morbid) chartsandgraphs on the last ten years of murder in Richmond. While I knew that the number of homicides had gone up in recent years, I hadn’t realized that 2017 saw more than double the homicide (66) compared to the historic lows of 2008 (32). Unchanged in the last decade is the fact that—overwhelmingly—young, Black people are the victims. The back half of the PDF contains a short write up of RPD’s findings, strategy, and responses. It includes this sentence about public housing, which I don’t think I’ve heard phrased quite this way before: “The placement, size, and nature of Public Housing has created, essentially, a super development of Gilpin, Mosby, Fairfield, Whitcomb and Creighton with a total of 2,639 units contained in .65 square miles.” Looking at the map of homicides in Richmond, though, it looks a lot like a map of density rather than just a map of public housing. The shooting map, less so. Regardless, I do not believe that the existence of public housing “causes” violence. Our current implementation of public housing, though, is unjust. We need to do better, we need a bunch of different solutions and tools, and we need to get started two decades ago. Anyway, those last few sentence are pretty far out of my lane in a couple of different ways, so take them with a grain of salt. Deconcentrating poverty remains one of the City’s goals, and, in fact, is one of the RPD’s stated needs to reduce homicides: “Reduction of the concentration of poverty that exists through redevelopment into mixed use, mixed income developments. Elimination of ‘barracks style’ housing.”

Richmond Public Schools had a public hearing on rezoning last night, and you’ve got to take a minute to listen to this public comment from a student at Franklin Military Academy. I swear, every time I interact with a young person I’m amazed by how clever and thoughtful they are. Makes us olds and our generations look like trash!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and this entire week looks pretty nice—at least according to the weekly forecast at the moment. Today, expect highs in the mid-to-upper 50s and lots of sunshine. Temperatures should increase into the 60s by Wednesday. Nice!

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A driver hit and killed a person on the 900 block of Chamberlayne Parkway on Saturday evening, WTVR reports. Chamberlayne Parkway is one of two main connections for folks living in Gilpin Court to get from the neighborhood into Downtown. It’s an incredibly dangerous intersection that includes both local traffic and a highway off ramp—it’s awful to walk through. My question for the Mayor, City Council, and City staff continues to be: After a driver kills a person walking on our streets, what will the City do in response? How long is “absolutely nothing” an acceptable answer?

Tonight, at Bellevue Elementary School (2301 E. Grace Street) from 6:30–7:30 PM, the RPS School Board will host their penultimate public hearing on rezoning schools. If you’ve got opinions on the proposed rezoning now is the time to let your School Board rep know. You can find rezoning maps W–Z at the bottom of this PDF along with how each option will impact the demographics of each school, and here are emails and phone numbers for all of the school board members. Please do this! While the School District definitely needs to make sure the three new schools they’re building are full at the start of next school year, it’s also an important opportunity for us to take a couple of steps towards desegregating our schools. Are any of the rezoning options perfect? No! Was the community outreach done by RPS perfect? No!—but it was one of the most extensive outreach efforts I’ve seen for a City-related effort. We shouldn’t let the specter of perfection and better process stand as support for the unacceptable status quo. We can do better, and that’s why contacting your School Board rep is so important! This will be a stressful vote—probably one with electoral consequences. School Board reps need to have the space and cover (aka your support) to cast change-making, progressive votes. On the flip side, of course, they also need to know that there a ton of folks who are fed up with the status quo of segregated schools, who are watching, and who will remember those folks who vote to support that, too.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 48 °F, and today we’ve got highs in the 60s. That’s hardly fall-like! There’s a small but decent chance for rain throughout the day, and, honestly, throughout the weekend. Keep your eye on the wealth map.

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At 9:49 PM this past Tuesday, Police were called to the 2900 block of Route 1 on the City’s Southside and found Carlos D. Delgado, 65, shot to death in the doorway of his home. According to the RPD’s website, this is at least the 51st murder in 2019.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 34 °F, but you can expect highs back up in the mid 50s today. Looks like a pretty chill day out there!

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Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has a truly terrifying piece about some of the rural counties who’ve declared themselves “Second Amendment Sanctuaries.” I try not to link to things that quote and legitimize the guy from the Virginia Citizens Defense League—who is bad for the Commonwealth and full of bad-faith arguments—but I think it’s important to read the rhetoric from actual people in Virginia. Like this, “The time is coming…I’m mighty afraid that we’re going to have to defend ourselves because of what we believe in. Not only on the Second Amendment, but on any other issue that the government declares to be right, but God declares to be wrong.” Or this from the Lee County sheriff’s office, “I want to assure the citizens of Lee County that me and my officers will stand up to any federal or state agency that attempts to infringe upon our gun rights.” Hilariously (in a deeply dark way), the same sheriff goes on to worry that gun violence legislation like red flag laws will be used as a “weapon against people.” 😐. Honestly, great work by Moomaw on this piece. It’s tough to fairly cover something so bananas, while still pointing out that how surreal, wrong, and scary it all is.

VPM’s Roberto Roldan has a little more information on the anti-NoBro resolution that School Board passed this week. You can read the draft of the resolution the Board passed here (PDF) (which still kind of confuses me), and you can read an alternate resolution proposed by School Board Rep Dawn Page (PDF) that, as far as I can tell, didn’t get voted on. This alternate resolution makes a bunch more sense to me. Here, compare and contrast the active bits of each. First, School Board Rep Gibson’s resolution that ended up passing 7–2: “THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT; Richmond Public Schools seeks the authority to opt out of contributing its share of revenue to TIF district funds or other tax deals that fund city development projects.” Next, the resolution from School Board Rep Page: “THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the School Board demands that school funding be held harmless in the circumstance of any economic development project that does not yield projected revenues.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 39 °F, and today looks pretty dang fall-like. Expect highs in the mid 50s and sunshine. I will probably wear my jeans jacket.

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Richmond Police report that Calvin Peay, 36, was shot to death on the 2300 block of Gordon Avenue on the city’s Southside yesterday. RPD are looking for a “white, four-door pickup truck with dual rear wheels, covered cargo area and company lettering on the side.” If you have any information you can call Crime Stoppers at 804.780.1000.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 39 °F, and today looks pretty dang fall-like. Expect highs in the mid 50s and sunshine. I will probably wear my jeans jacket.

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Richmond Police report that Calvin Peay, 36, was shot to death on the 2300 block of Gordon Avenue on the city’s Southside yesterday. RPD are looking for a “white, four-door pickup truck with dual rear wheels, covered cargo area and company lettering on the side.” If you have any information you can call Crime Stoppers at 804.780.1000.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 43 °F, and you can expect highs in the 50s today. Maybe some rain here or there, but mostly cloudy and meh until tomorrow when things start to warm/brighten up.

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Superintendent Kamras’s newsletter is worth your time this week—honestly, it’s worth your time every week. You’ve got updates about the R.E.B. Awards for Teaching Excellence which let teachers travel the world; Thomas Jefferson High School’s historic playoff run, possibly aided by the installation of a new field for the first time since 1930 (?!); a no-holds-barred picture of an actual factual school lunch that totally will not make you want to barf (and includes Texas Pete); and, of course, updates on the school rezoning process.

Speaking of, I screwed up and didn’t have last night’s School Board meeting + rezoning hearing on my calendar. Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a recap 💸, and it sounds dramatically different in tone from earlier public meetings: “Nearly all of the speakers supported using the process known as ‘school pairing’ to achieve more integration in a city where about 3 in 4 schools are what researchers define as ‘intensely segregated,’ meaning less than 10% of the student body is white.” If you can’t make one of the District’s public hearings on rezoning, you can fill out this online form. Before you do so, you will definitely need to get a hold of and familiarize yourself with this PDF of the four rezoning options (named W, X, Y, and Z). Maps start on page 30!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and,today, we’ve got highs in the mid 40s and a pretty good chance of rain this evening. Warmer temperatures continue this week despite whatever I said last week!

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Over in the Virginian-Pilot, Mayor Stoney has a column about what he’d like to see the Democrats in the General Assembly do with their new-found majority. Here’s his five-item short list: Fund the true cost of education, provide localities the authority to regulate firearms, fund city infrastructure needs, promote affordable housing, and pass legislation to promote inclusive communities. It’s a good list, and I want all of these things, too. I’m especially interested in guns, of course, but also schools funding—particularly that State-level Democrats don’t pull some budgetary sleight of hand to avoid coming up with the full $1 billion of new funding that they themselves say is required. Also, I’ll forgive the omission of a dedicated funding stream for public transportation for the Richmond region since this column ran in the Pilot.

Yesterday was World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Today, at the Library of Virginia from 6:00–8:00 PM, you can join Richmond Families for Safe Streets in remembering friends and family members lost to traffic fatalities (Facebook). From the Facebook event: “Come prepared to light a candle, write a message in memorial of someone you have lost, and to share your story with others if you like.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and,today, we’ve got highs in the mid 40s and a pretty good chance of rain this evening. Warmer temperatures continue this week despite whatever I said last week!

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Over in the Virginian-Pilot, Mayor Stoney has a column about what he’d like to see the Democrats in the General Assembly do with their new-found majority. Here’s his five-item short list: Fund the true cost of education, provide localities the authority to regulate firearms, fund city infrastructure needs, promote affordable housing, and pass legislation to promote inclusive communities. It’s a good list, and I want all of these things, too. I’m especially interested in guns, of course, but also schools funding—particularly that State-level Democrats don’t pull some budgetary sleight of hand to avoid coming up with the full $1 billion of new funding that they themselves say is required. Also, I’ll forgive the omission of a dedicated funding stream for public transportation for the Richmond region since this column ran in the Pilot.

Yesterday was World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Today, at the Library of Virginia from 6:00–8:00 PM, you can join Richmond Families for Safe Streets in remembering friends and family members lost to traffic fatalities (Facebook). From the Facebook event: “Come prepared to light a candle, write a message in memorial of someone you have lost, and to share your story with others if you like.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and today you should expect highs in the mid 40s with a slight chance of rain for most of the day. This weekend: Pretty much the same. Fingers crossed for folks running the marathon that they don’t have to do it in freezing cold rain. John Boyer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says it’ll just be cold and windy, which sounds funnnnn.

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Richmond Public Schools, Safe Routes to Schools, and the City have launched a new school crossing guard program at 11 schools spread throughout the District. The crossing guards already work at the schools in some capacity, and the new program provides a stipend for their additional work—work, you know, that helps keep drivers from killing kids while they cross the street. NBC12 has the full list of schools, which were chosen by the number of students who commute by foot.

The Richmond Marathon (no relation to Richmond Mayorathon, of course) takes place tomorrow from 7:45 AM to mid afternoon. Its route (PDF) takes it through the Fan, along the river on the Southside, back into Downtown, and around the Northside. Depending on where you live, you could actually be encircled and trapped by the marathon! Not only that, but, as you can imagine, bus service—including the Pulse—will see mega detours. Check out this slightly overwhelming map to figure out your bus’s temporary new route and this long list of street closures.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 21 °F, and today you can expect highs in the low 40s. I think it’s cold weather from here on out, y’all!

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Here’s some big legislative news: 1st District Councilmember Andreas Addison has introduced his Streets for All legislative package, which includes five resolutions and five ordinances all designed to make our streets safer for people. I think its important, and I want you to see exactly what a “legislative package” looks like, so I’m going to list out each and every bill—hold onto your butts.

Here’s what we’re looking at:

Good morning, RVA! It’s 21 °F, and today you can expect highs in the low 40s. I think it’s cold weather from here on out, y’all!

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Here’s some big legislative news: 1st District Councilmember Andreas Addison has introduced his Streets for All legislative package, which includes five resolutions and five ordinances all designed to make our streets safer for people. I think its important, and I want you to see exactly what a “legislative package” looks like, so I’m going to list out each and every bill—hold onto your butts.

Here’s what we’re looking at:

Good morning, RVA! It’s 20 °F, and today looks sunny and cold. Expect highs just under 40 °F and an ocean of puffer coats stretching as far as the eye can see.

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As foretold by the agenda, Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch confirms that City Council continued the NoBro Ordinances until their January meeting. That gives the Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission time to finish up, incoming Councilmember Stephanie Lynch time to get up to speed, and an independent consultant hired by Council time to study the proposal. Robinson says the consultant “once hired, will have 90 days to complete its work.” So, if that consultant were hired today and took the full 90 days to do their study, the soonest Council could vote on NoBro would be at their February 24th meeting. Also folks from Richmond For All took to the steps of City Hall before the meeting for a demonstration against evictions and the North of Broad project. Doing some zoom-and-enhance on the photos, I see Councilmember Gray, School Board Rep Gibson, and even former Councilmember Marty Jewell hanging out in the background. As for regular biz, Council passed Mayor Stoney’s ORD. 2018–289, which requires folks to report lost or stolen firearms.

Marc Cheatham over at the Cheats Movement had journalist David Streever and Councilmember-elect Stephanie Lynch on his podcast, and it’s definitely worth a listen. It’s absolutely fascinating to hear from Streever about what he heard at the polls as 5th District folks talked about their local priorities: Schools and streets! Love it. It’s also absolutely fascinating to hear from Lynch on her views about NoBro, the 5th District, movies, music, and more. We’ve spent years getting used to City Council’s collective voice, and it’s always fun (for me at least) when that voice changes. I’m excited to see how adding Lynch and removing Agelasto impacts the general vibe of Council. It all starts next month!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, but temperatures are about to drop. Later this morning and into the afternoon you can expect lows in the 30s and the persistent rain to turn into snow. Bundle up before you leave the house, or you’ll regret it!

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City Council meets today for their regularly scheduled meeting, and you can find the full agenda here (PDF). Of note in the aforelinked PDF: The meeting minutes from the last couple Navy Hill Development Proposal Work Sessions. Also, I have a long thing I want to write about our Council’s culture of continuing every dang paper for ever and ever, but that’ll have to wait for another time. On this particular agenda you’ll officially find all of the NoBro ordinances, but they’ve all been continued to the January 13th meeting (see!). This, finally, gives us some idea of Council’s timeline for deciding whether to move forward with the project or not. Keep in mind that the Mayor will introduce his budget in the beginning of March, and I imagine that the NoBro Success Budget looks a bit different than the NoBro Failure Budget. Shoutout to all of the City staff who are about to have a bunch more work to do. During the public comment period tonight, keep an eye out for folks speaking about Richmond’s eviction crisis. I’m interested to hear the message and next steps from advocates now that RRHA has decided to freeze eviction until 2020. Anyway, should be a good meeting!

Tonight, Equality Virginia will host a “Ask a Trans Person” panel from 6:30–8:00 PM at the Central Library in Chesterfield County (7051 Lucy Corr Boulevard). This seems like an awesome idea, and thank you to Equality Virginia for providing a safe space for folks to ask questions about what it means to be transgender and how we can all fight for policy that protects our transgender neighbors—looking at you, new Dem majority in the General Assembly. This event is free and open to the public, but you’ve got to register beforehand. Related: Rabbi Michael Knopf has a column in the paper about his work to win nondiscrimination protections for LGBT Virginians through the Virginia Values coalition.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 42 °F, and the rest of today looks pretty nice. Expect highs in the upper 60s and some sunshine. Tomorrow though, hold onto your butts, because a cold front comes through and we might could even see some snow! NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says not to expect any real accumulation—but still!

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It’s Veterans Day, née Armistice Day, aka Corduroy Day. This year marks the 101st anniversary since the end of World War I, and you can attend a ceremony at the Virginia War Memorial from 10:45 AM to 12:00 PM. I appreciate this reminder/FYI from the War Memorial website: “Veterans Day is the federally recognized holiday that honors, remembers and thanks all who have served and who are currently serving whereas Memorial Day remembers those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.”

Big news out of RRHA, the City’s public housing authority: “Effective immediately, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) has implemented an agency-wide freeze on lease enforcement for nonpayment of rent. This freeze impacts each of the public housing developments under RRHA’s purview, including Creighton Court, Fairfield Court, Gilpin Court, Hillside Court, Mosby Court and Whitcomb Court. This freeze means that for the remainder of calendar year 2019, no public housing family will be removed from their home for debt owed to RRHA. During this time, residents who are in arrears will not receive late notices and no unlawful detainers will be filed. Pending court cases will be dismissed or postponed, and scheduled evictions will be canceled.” Wow! Folks who do owe the agency money will have until the end of the year to get current, and the agency will spend this time reevaluating its lease enforcement and rent collection processes. This is a big, big win for housing advocates who have worked hard to keep families in their homes and raise public awareness about the eviction crisis in Richmond. It’s also a big chance for the nascent eviction diversion program to do its work over the next couple of months. Here’s a question: How much total money is owed to RRHA across all of its public housing neighborhoods, and what would it take to just cover all of that debt?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 42 °F, and the rest of today looks pretty nice. Expect highs in the upper 60s and some sunshine. Tomorrow though, hold onto your butts, because a cold front comes through and we might could even see some snow! NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says not to expect any real accumulation—but still!

Water cooler

It’s Veterans Day, née Armistice Day, aka Corduroy Day. This year marks the 101st anniversary since the end of World War I, and you can attend a ceremony at the Virginia War Memorial from 10:45 AM to 12:00 PM. I appreciate this reminder/FYI from the War Memorial website: “Veterans Day is the federally recognized holiday that honors, remembers and thanks all who have served and who are currently serving whereas Memorial Day remembers those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.”

Big news out of RRHA, the City’s public housing authority: “Effective immediately, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) has implemented an agency-wide freeze on lease enforcement for nonpayment of rent. This freeze impacts each of the public housing developments under RRHA’s purview, including Creighton Court, Fairfield Court, Gilpin Court, Hillside Court, Mosby Court and Whitcomb Court. This freeze means that for the remainder of calendar year 2019, no public housing family will be removed from their home for debt owed to RRHA. During this time, residents who are in arrears will not receive late notices and no unlawful detainers will be filed. Pending court cases will be dismissed or postponed, and scheduled evictions will be canceled.” Wow! Folks who do owe the agency money will have until the end of the year to get current, and the agency will spend this time reevaluating its lease enforcement and rent collection processes. This is a big, big win for housing advocates who have worked hard to keep families in their homes and raise public awareness about the eviction crisis in Richmond. It’s also a big chance for the nascent eviction diversion program to do its work over the next couple of months. Here’s a question: How much total money is owed to RRHA across all of its public housing neighborhoods, and what would it take to just cover all of that debt?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today highs look…not very high at all. Expect temperatures in the mid 40s for most of the day. Things will warm up pretty dramatically over the weekend, though.

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Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a tough story about the Market @ 25th 💸, the new East End grocery store: “After six months, the independent grocer has suffered millions in operational losses that Markel has personally covered.” Dang. According to Robinson’s piece, folks feel like the Market’s prices are too high and that the store is yet another sign of gentrification. First, I don’t know how an independent grocer is supposed to compete on prices with a supply-chain monster like Walmart—which is just down the road on Nine Mile. Second, a lot of folks have been working to bring a grocery store to that neighborhood for at least a decade, if not longer. Now that it exists—at the same time more and more affluent White people exist—is it part of a wave of gentrification? I don’t know. But it’s certainly complicated, and it’s going to take longer than a couple of months to figure out. At least Steve Markel, who’s bankrolling the whole thing, takes the long view: “To measure success in this project, we’re not talking a year or two, we’re talking about five or 10.” Robinson also says that the J. Sargeant Reynolds will push back the opening of the nearby culinary school to summer 2020 💸.

As part of my day job, I talked with Roberto Roldan at VPM about the proposed GRTC Transit Center that’s part of the Mayor’s NoBro project. More importantly, and definitely more interesting than what I have to say, Roldan got this statement from new GRTC CEO Julie Timm on the Transit Center: “Without further conversations on these topics, there is a real risk that the location could lock the system into less than optimal connections to the Pulse now and in the future…I am excited and encouraged that these conversations are happening.” Heck yes! I’d love it if the NoBro folks reopened the conversations about the location (or locations) of the proposed transit center. Let’s make it happen and ask riders how they think connections should work! You can read RVA Rapid Transit’s full list of concerns with the proposed Transit Center over on their website.