Good morning, RVA! It's 46 °F, and, dang, was yesterday nice. For me, the overwhelmingly pleasant evening turned into drinks on the front stoop with—as foretold!–the setting sun shinning on my face. So good! Today you can expect even more of the same: Highs right around 80 °F and plenty of sunshine. I think I will not wear socks. Temperatures do look like they’ll drop a bit come Monday, but not before the incredible weekend just around the corner. Enjoy.

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On Tuesday, I wrote about how the General Assembly wants VCU to terminate the agreement that requires them to pay PILOTs as part of the deal to redevelop the Public Safety Building. That such an agreement even exists is such a huge shift from how things typically happened in Richmond 15 or 20 years ago, when we handed out our precious and finite city resources for free to anyone willing to look our way. Times have changed, and, thankfully, Richmond can set the terms in some of these development negotiations and demand that they work out to the advantage of Richmonders.

Along those lines, yesterday the Mayor released this statement that I wish I could just quote in full because it does a great job of explaining why the PILOTs are important and how the City worked to get a deal that would benefit its citizens. I loved this part:

Good morning, RVA! It's 45 °F, and today looks beautiful. Prepare yourself for sunshine; dry, clear skies; a slight breeze; and temperatures in the mid 70s. If ever there were two spring days made for sitting on the grass outside with your eyes closed, face pointed up at the sun, it’s today and tomorrow.

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Last week, Governor Youngkin signed HB 174, a marriage equality bill, into law. The new law “provides that no person authorized to issue a marriage license shall deny the issuance of such license to two parties contemplating a lawful marriage on the basis of the sex, gender, or race of the parties. The bill also requires that such lawful marriages be recognized in the Commonwealth regardless of the sex, gender, or race of the parties. The bill provides that religious organizations or members of the clergy acting in their religious capacity shall have the right to refuse to perform any marriage.” Seems pretty good? Please let me know if there’s some sort of hidden catch, but, as David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, the Family Foundation is upset which is always a great sign. Not that it matters to the lives of regular Virginians just minding their own business, but I am sort of constantly confused by the Governor’s political strategy and wonder what he’s angling to do after his job wraps up in the next couple of years.

Good morning, RVA! It's 40 °F, and thus begins our stretch of dramatically good weather! Today and tomorrow you can expect dry, sunny highs in the 70s, and, then, Thursday and Friday, get ready for temperatures that could hit 80 °F. We might see a bit of rain on Friday, but, most likely, we’ll stay dry and warm until at least early next week. Get out your tank tops and slip-ons, because it’s happening!

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Did you get trapped in brutal car traffic yesterday morning? VPM reports that “several protesters blocked Interstates 95 and 64 near the Bryan Park interchange for over an hour on Monday morning.” According to an email sent to VPM, the protestors called for the U.S. to “cease all funding for the genocidal, Israeli occupation of Palestine at once.” Fair warning: I’m going to set aside the focus of this protest, which, I know is exactly the opposite of the point, and, because my brain can’t help itself, write about infrastructure. I don’t intend to minimize horrible situation facing the people living in Gaza, but I’m aware it could read that way even though that’s not what I intend.

With that said, I think yesterday’s protest was fascinating from an urbanism and infrastructure perspective. First, it’s super dangerous to go out and stand on I-95! That in itself says something about our highway system, but every time I think about these people just...standing...in the middle the interstate, my heart rate literally increases. Second, how fragile is the car-based infrastructure we’ve built across this country? It’s optimized to speed people in and out of the suburbs as quickly as possible, but if anything—anything at all!—goes wrong, the whole system immediately fails. A total of 10 people disabled an entire region just by choosing the right place and time to simply stand still. Plus, not only did they shut down the interstate, but they also disrupted neighborhoods across the region as drivers tried to find alternate routes around the gridlock. The highways suck, yes, but, ultimately we need to make it easy and efficient for folks to take fewer trips by car. I assume bike commuters were not impacted by the sudden influx of traffic.

Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, and this week’s promised excellent weather starts...tomorrow! Today’s no slouch, with lots of sunshine and highs right around 60 °F, but set a reminder for tomorrow morning to get stoked on six consecutive dry days with temperatures in the 70s.

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Another COVID-19 update! That’s two in as many weeks! Last week, CDC updated their guidance on COVID-19 vaccines for folks aged 65 and older. Here’s the direct quote from their website:

People aged 65 years and older who received 1 dose of any updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Novavax) should receive 1 additional dose of an updated COVID-19 vaccine at least 4 months after the previous updated dose.

Good morning, RVA! It's 43 °F, and today looks pretty good, with highs in the mid 60s and no real chance for rain—it won’t compare to the beautiful parts of yesterday, though. Tomorrow you can expect, yet again, more wet weather, but!, after that begins a long stretch of what appears to be True Spring. Next week, prepare yourself for highs in the mid 70s and excellent chances of riding bikes through the forest. So sit tight, endure another wet weekend, and then get ready to slide on into spring.

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Ian M. Stewart at VPM put together a good piece about Richmond’s Vision Zero plan (our City’s attempts to eliminate fatalities and severe injuries caused by traffic). To underscore how far we have left to go, Stewart talked to John Murden (currently of South Richmond News!) about how arduous and unsafe it is to get his kid from Forest Hill to Bon Air for school via cargo bike.

I feel all sorts of ways about this. Richmond really has made a ton of progress over the last six years. Time was, every dang bike lane needed to move through the entire City Council process, and so many people spent so much time trying to drag the smallest infrastructure projects across the finish line. Now, DPW will slap a new bike lane down while repaving a street, and most folks won’t even bat an eye. That said, we need to stop being reactive and start being proactive: Last year, it took the deaths of two students on VCU’s campus to get real, speed-reducing infrastructure installed on streets that everyone already knew were fast and terrifying. We could be doing so much more.

Good morning, RVA! It's 50 °F, and, idk, is the rain done? I think it might be—at least until this weekend. Today, though, you can expect highs in the mid 60s, absolutely no rain, and to even see the sunshine at certain points throughout the day. That sounds pretty OK!

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Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that, following last week’s Freedom of Information Act situation and whistleblower complaint, the City has updated how they will respond to future FOIA requests. Holter got ahold of a memo the City’s Chief Administrative Office sent City Council in which he proposes five changes to the current process:

1. reinstating a decentralized FOIA response process

2. appointing a new interim FOIA officer

3. establishing a new FOIA email

4. creating a new inner-department strategy to address requests

5. hiring a legal firm to assist with FOIAs moving forward.

Good morning, RVA! It's 53 °F, and today’s a wet one. You should expect a better-than-average chance of rain starting at 10:00 AM, that then continues on through my bed time (which, admittedly, is earlier for me than it is for a lot of folks). Temperatures continue to hang around 60 °F, and I continue to have a hard time choosing between sneakers and boots.

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COVID-19 news! It’s been a minute! This past Friday, CDC announced new respiratory virus guidance that applies to COVID-19, flu, and RSV. The first big shift here is moving to a combined and simplified guidance—regardless of which nasty respiratory virus has taken over your body. I think this makes a lot of sense, mostly because regular people cannot and will not keep multiple similar-but-different sets of public health guidance in their brains. Additionally, access to testing is not as good as it has been in the past, and, for a lot of different reasons, folks are just not testing when they get sick and have no idea what they’re sick with.

The second big shift is a change in what you do when you do get sick. Previously, CDC recommended isolating for five days after a positive COVID-19 test, which for a lot of folks—because of Capitalism and America and a lot of men wearing suits sitting in board rooms—is simply impossible to do. It’s an incredible challenge to strike a balance between guidance that’s science-based and keeps the most people safe and guidance that actual humans will actually follow. I appreciate the need to find a new—but still imperfect—way to do both of those things. Here’s what CDC has come up with:

Good morning, RVA! It's 48 °F and drizzly. Today, after the rain moves out and on its way, you can expect cloudy skies and highs in the mid 60s. Tomorrow looks real wet, so plan accordingly. And I know it’s only Tuesday, but next week is shaping up to be an absolutely stunner—something to look forward to!

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This coming Monday, City Council will consider RES. 2024-R007, which will tweak some of Council’s existing rules and procedures. The PDF describing all of those potential modifications is a 33-page document with track-changes turned on, and last week I just could not. So I am very thankful for Jesse Perry at RVA Dirt for summarizing most of what Council will consider on Monday. And, like Perry, I think it’s worth noodling on how the proposed changes to public comments at City Council will work.

For those new to Council meetings: Each week there are a set number of slots for folks to give public comments that do not have anything to do with any particular agenda item. To get on that list, you email the City Clerk, let them know you’re interested, and give them a really brief description of what you’d like to comment on. For example, here’s the list of speakers for this coming Monday’s meeting. It’s a fun part of the City Council Ritual and an opportunity to address the full body on topics they haven’t yet, but maybe should!, consider. The quality of the comments varies greatly from week to week, but they’re usually interesting, thoughtful, and give councilmembers something to think about.

Good morning, RVA! It's 43 °F, and today we’ve got highs near 70 °F with a chance of rain late this evening. Honestly, this whole week says to me that we’ve solidly moved on into spring—even though Richmond typically has at least one last winter hurrah at some point in the month of March. Maybe not anymore, though! Anyway, if you can dodge the rain, the week ahead looks really nice.

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Last Tuesday, WTVR’s Tyler Lane reported that the City has repeatedly failed to meet the legally required timelines for fulfilling Freedom of Information Act requests. Frustrated, I’m sure, by lack of timely responses to his own requests, Lane, in a sort of “Well now this is happening!” way, FOIA’d the City’s internal communications about FOIA. I think that’s pretty smart, and what he found is pretty concerning. Tap through and you’ll see a lot of back-and-forth between City leadership and the FOIA officer (the person in charge of responding to these sorts of requests) about what should or should not be released—all of which, of course, is FOIA-able. The tone’s not great, but the City did eventually release the records Lane requested...almost. Lane ends with this: “CBS 6 is also aware of an email that should have been responsive to our request for emails in which [the FOIA officer] warned Burks that the city could face a lawsuit for not complying with FOIA. Burks has acknowledged the existence of the email and has said she would provide the email to CBS 6. But as of February 27, Burks has still not provided the email.” Then, this past Friday, Lane somehow got a hold of the missing email, and posted the whole, spicy thing on Twitter.

Later that same day, Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that the City’s FOIA officer was fired back on January 19th and has since filed a whistleblower complaint against the City alleging wrongful termination. If you want to really dig in, the RTD has posted a PDF of the full complaint that you can read for yourself. It’s full of bad, but here’s one of the more concerning bits, summarized by Holter but found on page 11 of the complaint: “After [the FOIA officer] was instructed to deny personnel records related to the mayor’s office for two requests that came from Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s gubernatorial campaign, [the officer] was told by two separate city officials to no longer answer mayor’s office FOIA requests” and that those requests would be handled directly by the Mayor’s office. I suspect we’ll hear more about this particularl aspect in the coming days.

Good morning, RVA! It's 31 °F, and today you can expect highs in the mid 50s with, again, some rain showing up late this evening and on through to tomorrow morning. I’m choosing to ignore what I think is a freezing rain? sleet? icon in my weather app. Once Saturday morning’s rain tapers off, though, it looks like we’re in for a really pleasant weekend. You can probably guess what my family and I are doing for the next couple of days (volleyball), but if you happen to have some sort of life that’s not related to youth sports, I recommend you spend some of it outside!

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In his email from last night, RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras has some really thoughtful words at the conclusion of the Graduation Day shooting trial: “Many of you may not realize that Shawn and Amari were childhood friends. They even played at each other's homes as young boys. Now one is dead at the hand of the other, and both families are forever destroyed. I long ago lost count of the number of RPS students lost to gun violence. I can tell you with certainty that it is more than 50 since I've become superintendent. Like many of you, I have become weary – depleted really – by the anguish, the heartache, and the trauma.” Tap through to read a joint statement from Kamras and RPS School Board Chair Stephanie Rizzi.

If you’d like more details on the trial itself, Luca Powell at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has more coverage. But I’d skip it—content warnings for violence, of course, plus the all-caps, bold, alliterative headline makes me feel gross.

Good morning, RVA! It's 33 °F, and cooler weather has returned (at least for a minute). Today, and for the next two days, you can expect highs in the 50s before temperatures return to their springlike, mid-60s ways. We should get a bunch of sunshine today, too, so fingers crossed that it’s enough dry everything out a bit after yesterday’s soaking rain.

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Barry Greene Jr. at VPM has some more of the details, story, and life behind this week’s Shockoe Project announcement. It’s such a massive project and I’m nervous about it stalling out before it ever really gets off the ground, but, the more I read about it and the more I flip through the 130-page master plan, the more excited I get.

Good morning, RVA! It's 58 °F, and our streak of warm-but-wet weather continues. Today you can expect highs near 70 °F with a good chance of wind and rain throughout the day. Honestly, sort of seems like a great day to stay inside, if you can. Cooler weather returns tomorrow!

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Remember last week when the Richmond Crusade for Voters put out a press release that called for the RPS School Board to fire Superintendent Kamras? At the time, I said ignoring the impact COVID-19 has had on our school district was unfair, School Board Chair Stephanie Rizzi cautioned against putting all the blame for every challenge facing RPS on to one person, and City Council’s Education and Human Services committee agreed with her (in a public statement). Now, it sounds like RCV’s membership may also have some concerns with the group’s original sentiments. Here’s the full text of a new press release I found in my inbox yesterday:

On February 19, 2024, the Richmond Crusade for Voters Board of Directors voted to publish its opinion that RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras be removed from office. However, the membership of the Crusade for Voters is continuing to review and discuss this matter. ­

Good morning, RVA! It's 50 °F, and welcome to day two of our three-day streak of warm weather. Today you can expect highs in the mid 60s and a decent chance for rain later this afternoon. I think, if you time it right, you can still find plenty of chances to get outdoors without getting soaked.

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We’ll look at this! City Council has hired a manager for the Civilian Review Board! I can’t remember when this was originally supposed to happen, but it feels like we’ve been waiting a long time for the CRB to get off the ground and to get started reviewing. The new manager, Joseph Lowery, has a deep background in law enforcement, with time spent at the Department of Justice, FBI, and Chesterfield County Police Department. On the one hand, in order to have any sort of success in this role, the person filling it must be able to build at least some sort of trust with the Richmond Police Department. You’d think someone with this much law enforcement experience would definitely have a head start in doing just that. On the other hand, is an ex-police officer really the best person to help keep police officers accountable? I honestly don’t know but am willing to give Lowery the benefit of the doubt, and I am thankful we’ve now got someone in this role. According to Council’s release, “Mr. Lowery’s first order of business in office will be to draft Board Policies and Procedures,” which I’m sure we’ll get our hands on in just a bit.

Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, and today, tomorrow, and the next day you can expect temperatures at least in the mid 60s—and maybe even some moments that hit 70 °F, depending on where you find yourself. This is clearly not normal and about 20 degrees above this week’s average temperatures, but I say put aside your existential dread and spend some time outside. Spring has nearly sprung! Take some time to get out there and appreciate it!

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Gross billboard update: Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that “Richmond officials on Friday rejected a proposal by Lamar Advertising to remove a billboard on the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground in exchange for help finding locations for additional advertising in the city.” Good for the City! Holter also has this new-to-me tidbit: “The company in November sent the city Planning Department a proposal that said it would surrender the Shockoe Hill billboard if the city found six other locations to house 12 front-facing billboards.” Just wow.

Good morning, RVA! It's 50 °F and cloudy, and that’s about the weather today. You should also expect some rain to roll in late morning and stick around through the afternoon—which will probably soak any plans you may have had for riding a bike in the forest after work. This weekend, the highs stay stuck right around 50 °F, but, get excited, because the start of next week kicks off the warmest four-day streak we’ve had in a long time.

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An update! Thanks to reader Olivia for pointing out that, earlier this week, someone pulled the advertising from the billboards on the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground. Also, thank you to reader Sean, who rode by yesterday and grabbed this pic of the newly blacked-out billboards. I’d love to have been a part of the conversations leading up to this change. Did the advertisers themselves read Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams’s column and have a change of heart? Did the City finalize their swapsies deal with billboard-owner Lamar (which, to be clear, is suboptimal and gross on Lamar’s part)? Or, maybe, Lamar decided to do the right thing and remove the billboards from their inventory? I dunno, but this seems like progress!

Good morning, RVA! It's 30 °F, but highs today will top out in the 60s—bring on the warm weather, I say! I’m trying to get back to digging in my yard on the weekends, riding bikes without my toes going numb, and putting away my wool socks in favor of just not wearing socks ever. Get ready, because next week looks lovely—unseasonable, sure, but lovely.

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A correction and an update! First, yesterday I mangled the members of City Council’s Education and Human Services committee. The correct list of members is as follows: Lynch (chair), Newbile (vice chair), and Jones.

Second, John Murden at South Richmond News found School Board member Stephanie Rizzi’s comments on the Richmond Crusade for Voters call to remove the superintendent of Richmond Public Schools. Rizzi gets at some of the important context that RCV has chosen to ignore: “Though there is undoubtedly more work to be done and a need for growth and change, there are conditions beyond RPS’ control that disproportionately impact our students...Perhaps the original strategic plan did not take all of this into account and did not do enough to acknowledge that addressing the inequities our students face necessitates an all hands on deck effort and that assigning blame without recognizing the complexities of our challenges is not a constructive approach.” Love that last little bit so much that I put it in bold!

Good morning, RVA! It's 27 °F, and, by now, you know the routine: Chilly mornings, clear skies, and afternoons with highs in the mid 50s at some point. Warmer temperatures do move in tomorrow, though, and will start to disrupt our current run of extremely stable weather.

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Unfortunately, trying to fire the RPS superintendent has become one of Richmond’s top hobbies—like starting a brewery, having opinions on grocery stores, or complaining about the long-dead 6th Street Market Place. I honestly thought we’d reached a more stable situation with RPS leadership—and, in some ways, we have—but, yesterday, I got a press release from the Richmond Crusade for Voters calling for “the release of Jason Kamras from Richmond Public Schools.” You can probably find the full text if you look hard enough, but I’m not going to link to it. Ignoring the reality of the last four years and never once mentioning COVID-19 or its impact, the release mostly points out ways in which the District didn’t hit some of the goals set forth in its 5-year strategic plan. I don’t think that’s fair. I wouldn’t even have mentioned RCV’s release except, later in the day, City Council’s Education and Human Services committee (made up of Councilmembers Lynch, Newbille, Robertson, and Addison) sent out this statement:

“We echo the sentiments of our colleague, School Board Chair Rizzi and agree that the issues that ail Richmond Public Schools do not lay on any one person’s feet. We recognize the tremendous challenges that public education systems face everyday, particularly in a post-pandemic era. In a city that has seen an increase in families experiencing homelessness, continued gaps in our mental health system and an ever-widening wealth disparity. These challenges are intertwined with classroom management issues, teacher retention rates, academic, and absenteeism outcomes.

Good morning, RVA! It's 26 °F, but, don’t worry, temperatures should head back up in to the mid 50s by this afternoon. Looking ahead, deep into the extended forecast, and I can see some highs that will almost crack 70 °F! Does that mean winter is officially over? I dunno, but March is fast approaching and bringing with it warmer weather.

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NPR national—like true-blue, regular NPR—caught up with local safe-streets advocate, cargo bike rider, and all around rad person Tara FitzPatrick to talk about the new speed enforcement cameras the City installed near Linwood Holton Elementary. Are speed cameras a magical fix for a street designed specifically so that drivers can hurtle along at unsafe racecar speeds? No, of course not. As FitzPatrick says, “A lot of us feel desperate...If I could make a quick fix tomorrow, it would not be any type of speed enforcement. It would not be school zone speed enforcement cameras. But that's the option that we're left with at this point." P.S. Setting aside my standard rant about journalism’s continued dedication to The View From Nowhere, I like how the oppositional point of view in this article is provided by a guy from “the National Motorists Association, a diver advocacy group.” I’m not sure I could think of an advocacy group I’d less like to join!

Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, and today, you guessed it, more of the same with highs in the mid 50s and some cloudy skies. Temperatures will drop over the weekend, but not enough to be like “Oh wow it’s so much colder, I better pull out the long johns!” However, NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says that tonight we could get a “rain/snow mix with some light accumulation on elevated surfaces but it’s going to be a close call between snow and rain.” AS PER ANNOYINGLY ALWAYS. Come Monday, we’re right back at it again with highs in the mid 50s for as far as the extended forecast can see.

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Yesterday, City Council sent out this really interesting news release that’s most directly about the recent meals tax situation and a victory lap for how Council passed ORD. 2024-024 this past Monday. But the release also challenges the Mayor’s administration to, more generally, overhaul the City’s finance system: “Richmond City Council believes that Richmond deserves an effective, efficient, and responsive finance system...Richmond needs a culture change that establishes, engenders, and supports ongoing real and direct lines of communication to resolve real issues.” In fact, Council requests (well, “invites”) the Administration to provide updates and timelines on that culture change in just two weeks, at their March 4th Organizational Development committee meeting.

Specifically, they’d like the Mayor and his team to:

Good morning, RVA! It's 28 °F, which is pretty cold. But, don’t worry, by the time this afternoon rolls around we’ll return to our recent “highs in the mid 50s” standard. Later in the day, we should see a bunch of sun, which should help finish drying everything out. Behold! A decent Thursday!

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City Council’s Finance and Economic Development committee meets today, and you can find their full agenda here. This is normally the most boring committee for someone (like me) who has a hard time understanding municipal finance. Today, though, Finance will consider ORD. 2024-039 which would raise the floor of City Council liaison salaries from $47,161 to $70,000, and midpoint from $65,915 to $90,000. This is a big deal! When a smart councilmember gets paired up with a liaison that functions more as a policy advisor than as an admin we start to see Council consider more interesting and progressive legislation (although, to be clear, each role is incredibly important and every counclilmember should have both a policy advisor and an admin). This new salary range would, with any luck, allow for more policy-experienced folks to consider liaisoning—which would be great! I bet there are even people reading this email right now making the hmmm emoji face.

Unrelated, important, and, turns out, still pretty interesting, Sabrina Joy-Hogg, the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Finance and Administration, will give the committee a presentation on the City’s progress with spending down all of that ARPA money. Maybe a good one to stash in the PDF library?