Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and today you should expect some wind from Dorian and maybe a bit of rain this morning. Highs won’t even break 80 °F, so that’s nice.

Speaking of Dorian, here’s the Thursday evening briefing from The Weather Folks at Wakefield (PDF), here’s the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s early morning update from John Boyer, and here’s what Andrew Freiden has to say over on NBC12.

Water cooler

Kathy Mendes and Chris Duncombe at The Commonwealth Institute have a new post up about the incredible lack of state-level funding for Virginia’s public schools. Here’s an excellent/depressing quote, “More broadly speaking, inadequate state funding creates a system where educational opportunity varies by zip code. Right now, schools in Virginia rely more on local governments to fund their budgets than all but nine other states in the country, resulting in one of the most regressive funding structures in the nation – meaning we spend less per student in our highest poverty communities than in our wealthiest ones.” Tap the link for a look at what other states are doing to increase funding for schools and fulfill their obligation to educate children.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and you may see some rain here or there today. Expect highs in the 80s and lots of clouds that are totally the outside edges of Hurricane Dorian. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden linked to this wonderful Dorian Briefing from the Fine Weather Folks at Wakefield (PDF), which will give you some idea of the impacts the hurricane will have on Richmond and other parts of Virginia.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting that Harry D. Seigler, 67, was shot to death on the 1600 block of N. 23rd Street around 12:00 PM this past Sunday. Police have arrested and charged a suspect.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and today’s weather looks fine as temperatures will top out in the low 90s. No rain on the schedule, and it looks like we’ll see the first bits of Dorian show up in town—mostly in the form of strong wins—tomorrow evening. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden has a more detailed forecast for you.

Water cooler

Yesterday, in front of Mary Munford Elementary School, folks handed out these flyers from State Senator Glen Sturtevant in opposition to RPS rezoning options that would pair Munford with other, less-White elementary schools. Justin Mattingly and Graham Moomaw nail the overt grossness of it in the first sentence of this piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “State Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, said Tuesday that he’ll push to ‘save’ two high-performing, majority-white Richmond elementary schools that might be merged with majority-black schools.” Sturtevant says he wants to introduce new state law that would “require an intervening school board election or referendum to take place before a new re-zoning plan can go into effect.” I mean, we elect school board representatives to do a job, and part of that job includes rezoning school districts. In fact, Sturtevant, once a school board member in Richmond himself, voted for a rezoning back in 2013, less than a single year after winning the 1st District seat in 2012. Double in fact, that 2013 RPS rezoning led to further racial segregation in our elementary schools. Here’s a 2016 paper from Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kimberly Bridges, and Thomas J. Shields (PDF) that describes “a rapid, politically charged and resegregative school closure and elementary school rezoning process” that “was associated with a dramatic increase in racial segregation between elementary attendance zones over a short period of time.” So who initiated this fast and inequitable rezoning? Then School Board members Glenn Sturtevant and Kim Gray. Current and actual 1st District School Board member and one of the nine people with the actual authority to rezone schools, Liz Doerr, released a statement (Facebook) saying, in part, “I just wanted to remind the Senator and his campaign team that he actually represents many more schools in Richmond who will be impacted by this [rezoning] plan other than just Fox and Munford.” Using the first day of school to pass out segregationist political flyers—at a dang elementary school!—is one of the most garbage moves I’ve seen from a local politician in a while, and I will now link you to Ghazala Hashmi, the Democrat running against Sturtevant in Virginia’s 10th Senate District.

Speaking of Democrats running against Republicans, Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has a helpful cheat sheet of the state-level races that could possibly flip seats in the General Assembly.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and today’s weather looks fine as temperatures will top out in the low 90s. No rain on the schedule, and it looks like we’ll see the first bits of Dorian show up in town—mostly in the form of strong wins—tomorrow evening. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden has a more detailed forecast for you.

Water cooler

Yesterday, in front of Mary Munford Elementary School, folks handed out these flyers from State Senator Glen Sturtevant in opposition to RPS rezoning options that would pair Munford with other, less-White elementary schools. Justin Mattingly and Graham Moomaw nail the overt grossness of it in the first sentence of this piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “State Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, said Tuesday that he’ll push to ‘save’ two high-performing, majority-white Richmond elementary schools that might be merged with majority-black schools.” Sturtevant says he wants to introduce new state law that would “require an intervening school board election or referendum to take place before a new re-zoning plan can go into effect.” I mean, we elect school board representatives to do a job, and part of that job includes rezoning school districts. In fact, Sturtevant, once a school board member in Richmond himself, voted for a rezoning back in 2013, less than a single year after winning the 1st District seat in 2012. Double in fact, that 2013 RPS rezoning led to further racial segregation in our elementary schools. Here’s a 2016 paper from Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kimberly Bridges, and Thomas J. Shields (PDF) that describes “a rapid, politically charged and resegregative school closure and elementary school rezoning process” that “was associated with a dramatic increase in racial segregation between elementary attendance zones over a short period of time.” So who initiated this fast and inequitable rezoning? Then School Board members Glenn Sturtevant and Kim Gray. Current and actual 1st District School Board member and one of the nine people with the actual authority to rezone schools, Liz Doerr, released a statement (Facebook) saying, in part, “I just wanted to remind the Senator and his campaign team that he actually represents many more schools in Richmond who will be impacted by this [rezoning] plan other than just Fox and Munford.” Using the first day of school to pass out segregationist political flyers—at a dang elementary school!—is one of the most garbage moves I’ve seen from a local politician in a while, and I will now link you to Ghazala Hashmi, the Democrat running against Sturtevant in Virginia’s 10th Senate District.

Speaking of Democrats running against Republicans, Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has a helpful cheat sheet of the state-level races that could possibly flip seats in the General Assembly.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and regular summery days are back for awhile. We’ve got highs in the upper 80s and sunshine for the next couple of days while we wait for Hurricane Dorian to figure out its final destination.

Water cooler

It’s the first day of school for Richmond Public Schools! Welcome back students and good luck parents, teachers, and staff! A good place to start the new school year is, of course, with the newest edition of the Superintendent’s email, and it’s full of interesting bits of info this week. First, RPS has a new website for you to poke around on. Second, the number of students taking and passing AP tests is up. Third, there are just 14 teacher vacancies in the District—this is down from 54 vacancies two years ago. Fourth, and maybe most interesting, there’s a fascinating table featuring all of the capital facilities projects that took place over the summer and their costs. For example, Henderson Middle got new heating pumps, HVAC, and a chiller—totaling almost $2 million. Anyway, rather than me just retyping his entire email, you should just go read the whole thing. I couldn’t find the link to the online version, so you’ll have to deal with this PDF of the email for now. You can, of course, just subscribe to the Superintendent’s email yourself. Oh, P.S., there are thousands of children walking on sidewalks, riding their bikes, waiting for the bus, and crossing streets to get to school today. If you choose to drive a vehicle, please do so carefully.

A tiny scooter update from Roberto Roldan over at VPM! He says Lime still has a presence in town, but that they’re using their mysterious warehouse space to repair and ship scooters to places that are not Richmond. Sigh.

Water cooler

Whoa, here’s some big news: Michael Hild, founder of Live Well Financial and owner of a bunch of the Dogtown businesses in Manchester (among other things), was arrested yesterday and charged—with both criminal and civil charges—in a $140 million bond fraud scheme. Here’s the Department of Justice release and here’s a document from the SEC with a bunch of fascinating details (PDF). Like this one: From 2018 to the present, Hild himself received cash compensation totaling almost $11 million! A lot of folks, I’m sure, are feeling a heavy dose of schadenfreude right now as Hild was not the most popular guy in the neighborhood. What really interests me, though, is what happens to the businesses and properties he owns on the Southside?

Today is the 15-year anniversary of Tropical Storm Gaston flooding the heck out of Richmond. During the downpour, I drove through a flooded street on the Southside and broke my car’s engine. It’s what eventually led to us becoming a one-car family, so thanks, Gaston! JK, not thanks at all—Wikipedia says nine people were killed, at least 1,000 people were forced from their homes, and the flood damage totaled over $20 million. Meteorologist John Boyer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a detailed look through some of Gaston’s record-breaking, damage-making numbers 💸.

Yesterday, I shared a link to this David Streever piece about Bolt Scooters and talked about how I’ve taken a screenshot of the in-app map for a couple months. Here’s a gif I made of those screenshots for the last several weeks, each taken around 8:00 AM.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 63 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday. Expect highs in the mid 80s and not really much of a chance of rain—plenty of sun today and, most likely, through the rest of the week.

Water cooler

Y’all, how cool is this? An employee at the Science Museum who doesn’t drive was named Employee of the Month, and so the Employee of the Month parking space became this rad parklet. I love this! What a great example of how easy and cheap it is to reclaim space from cars for actual humans. If you stop by and spend some time in the parklet, make sure you let the Museum know—maybe we can get them to upgrade the space permanently!

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Graham Moomaw and Daniel Sangjib went on a tour of the Blues Armory, which sits on Marshall near 5th Street and is a big part of the proposed North of Broad project. The pictures are neat, and the inside of that spot isn’t a place folks normally get to see. As currently proposed, NoBro would have private money refurbish the city-owned Armory into a urban grocery store, a jazz club, and a ballroom. I also remember reading, although I cannot find where within the thousands of pages of NoBro documents, that the Convention Center folks would get first dibs on the ballroom. As for the other uses of the space, the grocery store is interesting—with the nearest alternatives being the new East End grocery store, the Farm Fresh down in Shockoe Bottom, or the Lombardy Street Kroger. Each of these is about a 15-minute transit trip from the area but a pretty inconvenient walk. I don’t know if “jazz club” is a need in the neighborhood, but I’d ask folks at The National and the Hippodrome to see what they thought. Anyway, regardless of this project, no one can argue that the Blues Armory isn’t in desperate needs some TLC. It sits vacant, ruining a big portion of the pedestrian connection (that’s not already ruined by the Convention Center itself) between 3rd Street and City Hall. Again, my constant refrain continues to be: Do we need a downtown arena to re-envision and reopen the Blues Armory?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and highs will creep up a bit to the mid 80s today. There’s a chance of rain throughout the day, but we might could skate by without needing to dodge a downpour.

Water cooler

So a bunch of months ago at this point, City Council passed an ordinance (ORD. 2019–119) creating the Richmond City Council Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission. Ostensibly, this commission will ask a bunch of questions, do a bunch of research, hold some public hearings, and then present Council with “advice” about the proposed North of Broad development. As specified by the ordinance their duties are “to validate the assumptions, projections, costs, and benefits of the development contemplated by the [North of Broad] Ordinances and the likely impact of that development on the City.” The committee’s chair and vice chair, Pierce Homer and John Gerner, already chosen by Council, are required to hold a meeting to nominate seven remaining members to the commission. I think that’s what’s going down on this Friday, August 30th, from 11:00–1:00 PM in the Second Floor Conference Room of City Hall. First, never should we ever have a commission chaired by two White dudes—especially one tasked with advising on a proposal to build a bunch of stuff on top of where Urban Renewal destroyed a thriving Black neighborhood. Second, a meeting on Friday afternoon, announced with just a couple days of notice, is not great. One of the complaints about the North of Broad process thus far, from councilmembers and Richmonders alike, has been the lack of transparency and public engagement. Now that it’s their turn in the spotlight, City Council has an opportunity to do better and has not. Huge bummer!

Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a long profile of Richmonder Dallas Dance 💸 that is definitely worth your time. Dance is a fascinating person who grew up in the East End, went to Virginia Union University, and wound up as Superintendent of Baltimore County Schools. Lying about and not reporting outside consulting work would ultimately send him to jail for a couple months last year. He now lives in the Richmond region, and, personal opinion here, would be a viable candidate in almost any local or state election. Incumbents beware!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and highs will creep up a bit to the mid 80s today. There’s a chance of rain throughout the day, but we might could skate by without needing to dodge a downpour.

Water cooler

So a bunch of months ago at this point, City Council passed an ordinance (ORD. 2019–119) creating the Richmond City Council Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission. Ostensibly, this commission will ask a bunch of questions, do a bunch of research, hold some public hearings, and then present Council with “advice” about the proposed North of Broad development. As specified by the ordinance their duties are “to validate the assumptions, projections, costs, and benefits of the development contemplated by the [North of Broad] Ordinances and the likely impact of that development on the City.” The committee’s chair and vice chair, Pierce Homer and John Gerner, already chosen by Council, are required to hold a meeting to nominate seven remaining members to the commission. I think that’s what’s going down on this Friday, August 30th, from 11:00–1:00 PM in the Second Floor Conference Room of City Hall. First, never should we ever have a commission chaired by two White dudes—especially one tasked with advising on a proposal to build a bunch of stuff on top of where Urban Renewal destroyed a thriving Black neighborhood. Second, a meeting on Friday afternoon, announced with just a couple days of notice, is not great. One of the complaints about the North of Broad process thus far, from councilmembers and Richmonders alike, has been the lack of transparency and public engagement. Now that it’s their turn in the spotlight, City Council has an opportunity to do better and has not. Huge bummer!

Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a long profile of Richmonder Dallas Dance 💸 that is definitely worth your time. Dance is a fascinating person who grew up in the East End, went to Virginia Union University, and wound up as Superintendent of Baltimore County Schools. Lying about and not reporting outside consulting work would ultimately send him to jail for a couple months last year. He now lives in the Richmond region, and, personal opinion here, would be a viable candidate in almost any local or state election. Incumbents beware!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 64 °F, and we’ve got another day in front of us with temperatures in the 70s. The later part of the week looks a lot warmer, so if you want to enjoy this quick taste of fall, do it while you can!

Water cooler

Richmond Magazine’s Katja Timm was at yesterday’s VAratifyERA event down at the Capitol. Both First Lady Pam Northam and First Lady Anne Holton (one of my fave First Ladies) gave remarks. If getting the Commonwealth to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment is important to you—or, honestly, if any of a raft of progressive issues are important to you—remember that 100% of the General Assembly seats are up for reelection this November. That means: Check your voter registration status, and if you are not registered to vote, you can do so here until the middle of October!

C.T. Hill and Pamela Royal, both Navy Hill board members and the former a resident of Manakin-Sabot, have an editorial in today’s paper (obviously) in support of the North of Broad project. Here’s the thing, I think their argument—that the project “is rooted in private investment from investors who see the promise in revitalizing Richmond’s downtown”—is disingenuous. Private investment in Downtown is certainly a massive part of the project, but the whole thing is “rooted” in the public financing of a downtown arena. That’s the reason for the BigTIF and for capping revenue from downtown at 2018 levels. I’d have a whole different take on this project if it were just a bunch of private developers buying a bunch of land and building a bunch of towers as the market dictated. It’s not that, and I know I am repeating myself, but: I don’t think a downtown arena is the highest and best use for that land, and it would have been nice to have that discussion before making an arena the centerpiece of an RFP. Additionally, I don’t buy the false dichotomy that should we not replace the Coliseum that “tourism will slip away” and “we won’t create new money for schools.” In fact, we had an amazing opportunity last budget season—which still exists, by the way—to create more money for schools, housing, transit, and everything else by rolling back the Recession-era real estate tax cuts. Council couldn’t get behind that plan, but it certainly didn’t involve a downtown arena. So while I don’t think that this project, or any downtown arena, is the best or only way to make Richmond a place where everyone can thrive, you are welcome to disagree with me! Just don’t pitch me that it’s strictly a choice between the North of Broad project as presented or some horrible austerity Mad Max future dystopia.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 62 °F, and today’s highs are in the 70s! Welcome back, wonderfully temperate weather. I hope you stick around for at least a couple of days. This list of Virginia’s 12 seasons, via /r/reddit, is super applicable.

Water cooler

Police are reporting that Antoine Deleston, 28, was shot to death Thursday afternoon on the 2000 block of Conrad Street. Anyone with information about this murder can call Detective A. Coates (804.646.0729) or Crime Stoppers (804.780.1000, 7801000.com).

Good morning, RVA! It’s 73 °F, and today temperatures will hang out in the mid 80s. While cooler, there’s a pretty good chance of rain throughout today. The weekend weather looks temperate and amazing, though.

Water cooler

Local housing expert and CEO of Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia Heather Crislip has a column in today’s paper about the federal government’s attempts to revise the disparate impact rules as they relate to housing. Preventing policies that seem fair from having a “disparate impact” on certain groups of folks is critically important, and, as Crislip says, disparate impact standards are “one of the few tools we have to root out systemic racism and discrimination.” We deal with this in transportation, too, where changes to a transit system cannot have a disparate impact on people of color or folks with lower incomes. It’s the reason for the equity analysis that went into the recent redesign of Richmond’s bus network (PDF, p. 33) and also the impetus behind this past spring’s Title VI complaint against GRTC. City Lab has a bit more background on the issue as it relates to housing.

Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times Dispatch has a small update on the Richmond Public Schools rezoning process 💸. He says that the new George Mason Elementary currently under construction in the East End, which is built for 750 students, will only host 422 students under each of the three rezoning options we have at the moment. I don’t know if this is because Cropper—the folks putting together these maps—doesn’t want to count on the new facility opening in time for the 2020 school year or what. I do think, just based on how quickly and substantially the elementary school options on the City’s Northside changed, that the East End’s zoning options are open to changes based on feedback from the public as well. You can give the school district that feedback by letting them know your thoughts, feelings, and concerns via this online form.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 73 °F, and today’s highs are back up in the mid 90s—it’s still August out there. Just like the last couple of days we could see some rain later this evening.

Water cooler

Whoa! Big news out of nowhere: GRTC has hired Julie Timm as their new CEO. Timm served as the Director of Development for Nashville’s transit agency and had also previously worked for Hampton Roads Transit. I know almost nothing about this person, but am excited to learn more. Honestly, I’m just glad GRTC finally got the top job filled. We’re in a critical moment of Richmond’s transit history—with tons of momentum from our recent investments in transit infrastructure paired with a group of elected leaders that value public transportation. We’ve continued to make transit progress in the region for the last year or so despite the lack of permanent leadership at GRTC and that’s stressful! With new leadership, though, I’m excited to see what we can do. Also, (and maybe also stressful) Timm has an immediate hire to make: GRTC’s Director of Planning, Garland Williams, recently left to take a job as the director of Charlottesville Area Transit. P.S. GRTC’s Director of Communications points out that Richmond’s bus company now has a female CEO, a female COO, and four female directors.

Speaking of transit, here’s an ultra true comic by @shannonprints on Instagram about a brutal fact of bus life: Shade is so, so important.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 73 °F, and today’s highs are back up in the mid 90s—it’s still August out there. Just like the last couple of days we could see some rain later this evening.

Water cooler

Whoa! Big news out of nowhere: GRTC has hired Julie Timm as their new CEO. Timm served as the Director of Development for Nashville’s transit agency and had also previously worked for Hampton Roads Transit. I know almost nothing about this person, but am excited to learn more. Honestly, I’m just glad GRTC finally got the top job filled. We’re in a critical moment of Richmond’s transit history—with tons of momentum from our recent investments in transit infrastructure paired with a group of elected leaders that value public transportation. We’ve continued to make transit progress in the region for the last year or so despite the lack of permanent leadership at GRTC and that’s stressful! With new leadership, though, I’m excited to see what we can do. Also, (and maybe also stressful) Timm has an immediate hire to make: GRTC’s Director of Planning, Garland Williams, recently left to take a job as the director of Charlottesville Area Transit. P.S. GRTC’s Director of Communications points out that Richmond’s bus company now has a female CEO, a female COO, and four female directors.

Speaking of transit, here’s an ultra true comic by @shannonprints on Instagram about a brutal fact of bus life: Shade is so, so important.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and dang that was a lot of rain. I guess it cooled things down a bit, as today’s highs are in the low 90s instead of the mid 90s. There’s a small chance of rain throughout the day—it’s oh so small, but still a chance, and you saw what yesterday’s small chance of rain led to, right?

Water cooler

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Justin Mattingly has the report from this week’s RPS School Board Meeting. The highlight (lowlight?): Just 10% of Richmond Public Schools students are “ready for college and a career” 💸 (which, I think, is based on SAT and PSAT scores). You should definitely download the surprisingly readable presentation (PDF) given to the Board. It checks in on the academic and enrollment goals set by Dreams4RPS, the District’s five-year strategic plan, and is packed with charts and tables that set the stage for the next half decade at RPS. It’s important to keep in mind that this is a 2018–2023 strategic plan, and the numbers in the aforelinked presentation—like the 10% college readiness number—are baselines. They’re just getting started. Anyway, I think this presentation is part of a set that work through each of the 10 goals in Dreams4RPS, and now I feel compelled to go catch ‘em all. Once I’ve got them collected, I’ll make sure to link them for y’all here in an easy to process way.

Mark Robinson, also at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, says that the City ended last fiscal year with a $15.4 million surplus. The Mayor wants to use the surplus to cover cost overruns in a few departments, give City retirees a cost-of-living adjustment, and pay back the money Council took from the Capital Improvement Program so they could avoid restoring the real estate tax to pre-Recession levels. Robinson says this data comes from a recent report, which I’m not sure where to find, but, while poking around on the City’s website I did find these really interesting monthly financial reports.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 74 °F, and it’s hot again today with highs in the mid 90s. There’s an OK chance for rain late this evening—nothing that’ll wash out your afternoon plans but something that could bring some relief to the heat.

Water cooler

Roberto Roldan at Virginia Public Media, which is now the name of our local public media…group? collection of stations? squad?…looks into the affordable housing component of the proposed North of Broad development. Here’s the deal: The developer will build 80 affordable units by 2022 and then “the developer expects to build another 200 in the next five to seven years. The developer will also need to help raise $10 million in private donations. That money would go to the nonprofit affordable housing developer Better Housing Coalition, which will build 200 affordable apartments elsewhere in downtown.” That’s how we get to the Mayor’s promised 480 affordable units.

Of course, as with all conversations about affordable housing, the word “affordable” does a lot of the lifting. Roldan says that, of those 480 units, 40% will go to folks who make 60% of the area median income, and 60% will go to folks making 80% of the area median income. That’s a majority of the affordable, income-restricted units reserved for people who make $46,000 per year. It’s not that I’m against building housing for people making moderate incomes like that—we, of course, need to build more housing for everyone. But I am unconvinced that a downtown arena and the required BigTIF is the only way to get more housing for those folks. @_SmithNicholas_ on Twitter even points out that the private market in Richmond is already building similarly affordable units on its own.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and highs today will hit somewhere in the mid 90s. Today looks like a sunny, humid, and great way to start the week.

Water cooler

So many arena-related things happened while I was out of town that it was hard to keep track of everything. The tl;dr, as I understand it, is that Richmond will have zero Arena Referenda on the ballot this November (at one point we could have had as many as two). That’s a really simple resolution to what felt like two weeks of continual arena onslaught. Both the Paul Goldman-led referendum, which ended up with too few signatures to make it on the ballot, and the non-binding, advisory referendum sponsored by Councilmembers Gray and Trammell, which failed in Council by a slim margin, were anti-arena referendums. However, I don’t know that we can extrapolate Council’s general position on the proposed Coliseum replacement from their votes on this referendum—I’d have voted against it, too, regardless of how I feel about the project. The important takeaway from all of this is that Council is divided on the matter, and whoever gets elected in the 5th District special election will most likely be the swing vote—a stressful (or powerful) position for a new, baby legislator. Anyway, as far as news coverage goes, I really enjoyed this column from one of the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s sports reporters, Paul Woody, about the proposed coliseum replacement 💸. He highlights what I think are two compelling arguments against the project: 1) It’s a regional amenity and the region should help pay for it (this is how things work with the convention center), and 2) The BigTIF, which may generate swimming pools of cash at the end of 30 years, kneecaps the City’s general fund possibly for decades. More on this, I’m sure, in the coming weeks as everyone continues to dig through the documents and City Council’s advisory board starts to get to work.

This week’s email from Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras has some good reflections on the recently released RPS SOL scores. I liked this bit in particular: “In terms of growth, we actually outperformed the counties. Yup, you heard that right. We were the only school division in the area to see gains in three subject areas. Of course, we still lag far behind the counties in overall achievement. But I do think it’s worth noting when RPS distinguishes itself academically.” If you want to dig in for yourself, you can download massive spreadsheets from the Virginia Department of Education that contain all of the scores for all of the schools in RPS or any division in the state. In other schools-related news, we’re still in the midst of the public conversations about rezoning. Make sure you check the summer rezoning meeting schedule for this week’s meeting dates, times, and locations.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, rainy, and, while highs have dropped a bit in to the mid 80s, the chance of rain continues for much off the day and into the weekend.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting that two people were shot and killed early Thursday morning on the 3000 block of Chamberlayne Avenue: Olajuwon Akeem Elleby, 34, and Jammie Lee Walker, 39. According to the Richmond Police Department, 35 people have been murdered in 2019—up from 29 at this time last year.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, rainy, and, while highs have dropped a bit in to the mid 80s, the chance of rain continues for much off the day and into the weekend.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting that two people were shot and killed early Thursday morning on the 3000 block of Chamberlayne Avenue: Olajuwon Akeem Elleby, 34, and Jammie Lee Walker, 39. According to the Richmond Police Department, 35 people have been murdered in 2019—up from 29 at this time last year.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 67 °F, and the weather sameness continues. Expect highs in the 90s, humidity, and lots of sunshine until evening. After today, though, the 10-day forecast looks like a lot of opportunities for rain.

Water cooler

Big news in the Washington Post for Republicans: State officials have decided that Del. Nicholas Freitas will NOT appear on the ballot in November. I’m sure dudeman will appeal the decision and head to the Courts as soon as possible, but, assuming those efforts fail, he’ll have to run a write-in campaign. That’s not an impossible thing to win, but it’s sure way more challenging than, like, just filing your paperwork on time. Voters in the 30th District will still find Democrat Ann Ridgeway on the ballot in a couple of months.

Yesterday, I told y’all about how my son and I got yelled at for riding our bicycles in the street by a dude in a pick up truck. I also said this sort of thing is extremely common and you just need to ask literally anyone who rides a bike and they’ll have similar stories. Look! Here’s a screenshot of the Bike Walk RVA facebook page as proof. Remember, the Mayor and the Department of Public Works could fix this particular dangerous intersection—Broad & Lombardy—by removing a few parking spaces. They don’t/won’t, and, because of that, people will get hurt.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F, and today you should expect more of the same weatherwise: hot and sunny. There is a small chance of rain this evening, though

Water cooler

The RPS Rezoning Squad met last night and discussed two new rezoning options, now know as Option 3 and Option 4 (PDF). They’re not yet up on the interactive map, so I have a hard time spotting some of the smaller differences, but the aforelinked PDF has a helpful pros/cons table after each option. One of the new, bigger changes would be closing Elkhardt-Thompson Middle School and serving the entire area south of the river with three middle schools. Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a human-readable summary if maps and tables aren’t your thing.

While the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus skipped yesterday’s Trump event at Jamestown, Del. Samirah from Loudoun attended and disrupted the event, yelling “Mr. President, you can’t send us back, Virginia is our home!” Scroll through some of the delegate’s twitter feed for pics, thoughts, and responses. Del. Bourne has some picture from the VLBC event and a couple of good thoughts, including this one from Del. Bagby: “Blind respect of an institution prevents the very process required to bring the change we are fighting for, and the change for which our ancestors died fighting for.” Mechelle Hankerson at the Virginia Mercury has a write up of all the things you were probably looking to read more about.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday: hot and sunny. Expect highs in the 90s—maybe even before lunchtime.

Water cooler

In more Trump Boycott news, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus has decided to skip out on today’s events and instead “have arranged alternative commemorative events for this week.” Here’s a quote from Del. McQuinn, “It is unfortunate that the leadership of the American Evolution Board decided unilaterally to invite the President without consulting all of the members of the Board…If I had been asked my opinion, I certainly would have expressed that the President’s offensive and inappropriate tweets have not added value or been aligned with Democracy.” 😬 The VBLC will host a handful of events in town today, beginning at 9:00 AM, at the Capitol, Devil’s Half Acre, and the Virginia Museum for History and Culture.

Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch took attendance at yesterday’s Education Compact Meeting 💸. Here are the (disappointing) results! School Board: Liz Doerr (1st District), Scott Barlow (2nd), Cheryl Burke (7th), Dawn Page (8th), Linda Owens (9th). City Council: Kristen Larson (4th), Cynthia Newbille (7th), Michael Jones (9th). Plus: the Mayor and the Superintendent. That’s not great, and more of our elected leaders should takes these meetings seriously. These are ultra-infrequent, quarterly meetings that are one of the only chances for the folks in charge of various parts of our city to hang out together. Just put the meetings on your dang calendar! You can download a PDF of the presentation from the meeting here. Mattingly also says that construction costs for the three schools going up at the moment have increased by about 4%. I’ve no idea if that’s something you should expect when building three massive buildings over the span of several years. I also don’t know if the contingency funds they built in to pay for some cost overruns will cover this increase or not. Obviously, there’s a lot I do not know. Story of my life!

Photo by: sandy’s dad

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F, and temperatures are back up in the 90s today. Dry skies until at least through Wednesday, though.

Water cooler

The Richmond Police Department is reporting a murder that took place on the Southside early Saturday morning. Officers found Trimayne H. Moore, 46, shot to death in a vehicle on the 2000 block of Boston Avenue.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday but maybe with some clouds here and there. You can expect more of the same through the weekend, while temperatures creep back up into the 90s.

Water cooler

WCVE’s Jordy Yager has a story about one possible local impact the high-speed rail project connecting Richmond and D.C will have. Apparently, the planned alignment cuts through the previous site of an African American graveyard. I say previous site, because, over the last 130 years, the construction of 5th Street, the existing rail line, a viaduct, another street, and I-64 all ran right through what was once an active burial ground. Yager also gives us a few details on how the state’s Department of Rail and Public Transportation will help mitigate this impact. I can’t find it now, but there’s a whole PDF of all the ways they promise to get involved where the proposed rail line will impact historic sites, animal habitats, human hangouts—it’s a fascinating read and I’m sure it exists somewhere on the DC2RVA website. While I think this article’s headline is a bit misleading, I do think the situation is complex and that, as one of the descendants of someone once buried at this site said, reclaiming the sacredness of the space is key.

I’m trying not to talk about the Fox-Cary pairing aspect of the planned Richmond Public Schools rezoning forever, because it’s only one small part of a much larger plan. BUT. The Superintendent apparently caught some flack for saying some of the loudest feedback on the proposed pairing “sounds eerily like Massive Resistance 2.0.” I don’t know what folks are upset about, because I think that’s precisely what some of the oppositional feedback sounds like. Especially sentences like this, which I think is exactly the spirit of Massive Resistance, if not the letter: “I know that I, along with many other neighbors, would carefully weigh the decision of whether to send my children to private school or to move out of the district for a better elementary school option for our family.” Luckily, it sounds like things have cooled down a bit, and today, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Mark Robinson has a report from the most recent rezoning public meeting where he said criticism was voiced in “decidedly less divisive terms.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and we’ve got another great day queued up. You can expect highs in the mid 80s and sunshine. Honestly, the weather looks lovely until at least the middle of next week.

Water cooler

Whoa, huge news! Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times Dispatch says City Attorney Allen Jackson will retire November 1st 💸. While you may not hear about the City Attorney a ton, it’s a very powerful position. The lawyer filling the role technically represents both City Council and the Mayor, which, as you can imagine, leads to all kinds of suboptimal weirdness. Robinson closes his report with this tantalizing bit: “The city attorney’s dual role could be up for debate if the council pursues plans to review the charter, as its members have signaled they would, in the coming months.” This kind of charter change is so totally up my alley, I can hardly wait!

You probably heard that Governor Northam joined high-level state republicans in inviting Trump to Virginia’s upcoming event to celebrate the 400th anniversary of democracy in America. That’s wildly disappointing, of course, but not entirely unexpected. However, I didn’t expect this: Graham Moomaw at the RTD says, that as a result of the presidential invite, Mayor Stoney has resigned from the event’s steering committee 💸. I know, I know, resigning from a planning committee right before the event takes place doesn’t do a whole lot to combat the day-to-day problems facing Richmonders—many of which are caused or exacerbated by racism. But, in my opinion, this is the right thing for a progressive elected official to do and an easy decision to make.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and we’ve got another great day queued up. You can expect highs in the mid 80s and sunshine. Honestly, the weather looks lovely until at least the middle of next week.

Water cooler

Whoa, huge news! Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times Dispatch says City Attorney Allen Jackson will retire November 1st 💸. While you may not hear about the City Attorney a ton, it’s a very powerful position. The lawyer filling the role technically represents both City Council and the Mayor, which, as you can imagine, leads to all kinds of suboptimal weirdness. Robinson closes his report with this tantalizing bit: “The city attorney’s dual role could be up for debate if the council pursues plans to review the charter, as its members have signaled they would, in the coming months.” This kind of charter change is so totally up my alley, I can hardly wait!

You probably heard that Governor Northam joined high-level state republicans in inviting Trump to Virginia’s upcoming event to celebrate the 400th anniversary of democracy in America. That’s wildly disappointing, of course, but not entirely unexpected. However, I didn’t expect this: Graham Moomaw at the RTD says, that as a result of the presidential invite, Mayor Stoney has resigned from the event’s steering committee 💸. I know, I know, resigning from a planning committee right before the event takes place doesn’t do a whole lot to combat the day-to-day problems facing Richmonders—many of which are caused or exacerbated by racism. But, in my opinion, this is the right thing for a progressive elected official to do and an easy decision to make.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 67 °F, and today looks lovely. We’ve got highs in the mid 80s, no real chance of rain, and a couple more days before temperatures return to their summery spot in the 90s. Enjoy!

Water cooler

Graham Moomaw at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has an update on the whole Del. Nick Freitas situation 💸. Predictably, Republicans have re-nominated Freitas after he withdrew a couple days ago. With a ton of really specific legal questions floating around—like was he ever actually a nominee? did he ever actually get disqualified?—I’m gonna guess that this ends up in court eventually. I think I’ve landed fully in the “idk, just file your paper work properly” camp. If you don’t have the attention to detail to get your candidacy paper work turned in correctly, you’ll probably bring that same distracted demeanor to the important job of writing laws for the Commonwealth.

Do y’all know about the great new trail behind Pine Camp on the Northside? I discovered it this past weekend, hadn’t heard about it before, and so I sent our the City’s trails guy an email to learn more. Turns out, it’s brand new—built just this past spring as a short loop for folks on foot or on bike and for programs hosted out of Pine Camp. You should definitely check it out for the views of Horse Swamp Creek. Pretty amazing natural stuff, just tucked away within the City limits. Richmond is great.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 74 °F, and, hold on to your butts, because that is today’s high. Expect rain throughout the day and temperatures to drop a couple of degrees to the mid 60s. Relief!

Water cooler

The Commonwealth Institute has a great piece up about the lack of racial diversity in Virginia’s teachers: 75% of the Commonwealth’s teachers report as White. Why is racial diversity among teachers important? To quote a bit, “For Black boys in grades 3–5, the presence of just one Black teacher decreased their likelihood of dropping out of high school by 29%” and “Black students in grades K-3 with just one Black instructor were 13% more likely to enroll in college than those who do not.” TCI has some suggestions on how to get more Black teachers into our schools, including how the State can support its HBCUs. But make sure you read the last couple paragraphs about Virginia’s low teach salaries, because until teacher pay in Virginia is competitive with the national average, it’s always going to be harder to hang on to talented folks.

Zoning update! C. Suarez Rojas at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says that City Council passed the Monroe Ward rezoning last night. I assume that the VUU/Chamberlayne rezoning passed, too, as it was also on the Consent Agenda. This is a big deal for Richmond, and, with these two rezonings in the books, I’m actually not sure what’s next on the list. Maybe a general update/overhaul to bring our current zoning in line with whatever land use Richmond 300 recommends? Anyway, I am especially excited for all of those empty, burning hot parking lots in Monroe Ward to fill up with buildings. Let’s get some shade in that neighborhood ASAP!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and we’re still under a dang heat advisory until 8:00 PM. Today you should expect highs in the mid 90s this afternoon but temperatures will feel about 10 or 15 degrees warmer. Be careful if you’ve gotta spend time outside.

Water cooler

Police are reporting a murder that occurred early Sunday morning on the 1900 block of Raven Street. Officers arrived at 3:47 AM and found Javonte Mangum, 21, fatally shot.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 77 °F, and, as you probably guessed, today’s gonna be hot. You can expect highs in the mid to upper 90s, and you should know we’re back under a heat advisory. Temperatures are only headed upwards over the weekend (there’s actually an excessive heat watch through Sunday evening), so stay hydrated, stay cool, and stay safe.

Water cooler

Megan Pauly at WCVE has some of the history and background on Richmond Public Schools’ 2013 rezoning which, at the time, put even more White kids into Fox Elementary. It’s good context for the current conversations folks are having about a pairing of Fox and Cary elementary—one of the options recommended by this year’s planned RPS rezoning. At some point, though, I’m hoping we expand our conversation about rezoning beyond Fox and the Fan, because there’s a whole city out there with changes and tweaks to their school zones.

Graham Moomaw at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the unexpected news that Republican Delegate Nick Freitas, one of the three state legislators who just plain failed to file their reelection paperwork properly, will withdraw as a candidate 💸. Moomaw has a bit more on Twitter, including the section of code that applies when a nominee withdraws—although was Freitas ever the actual nominee? I guess we’ll learn more over the next couple of days about what Republicans plan to do, but, in the mean time, Ann Ridgeway is the for-now unopposed Democratic candidate.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 78 °F, and, while we survived the heat advisory, today will still be freaking hot. Expect highs in the mid 90s again and a good excuse to stay inside most of the day.

Water cooler

There are 44 days until August 29th, not counting today. Out of those 44, you can attend a meeting about Richmond Public Schools rezoning on 21 of them. Here’s the entire, overwhelming schedule. These meetings are in different locations, on different days, at different times—and Spanish interpretation services are available at each and every one. There are so many opportunities to get involved and learn about what’s happening that “no one told me” will not be an acceptable excuse when this process wraps up and new school zones are announced. Also, while you’re poking around on the Superintendent’s Twitter timeline, take a minute, scroll a bit, and see some of the support for the pairing of the Fox Elementary and Cary Elementaryzones I talked about earlier this week. Support for increasing the diversity of schools exists, whether you read about it in the paper or not.

Virginia’s alcohol laws are dumb, and Karri Peifer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the details on a loosening of our open-container laws done in a classically dumb Virginia way: “A bill allowing drinkers to leave a restaurant carrying an alcoholic beverage and walk around with that beverage and into another establishment (that’s not a restaurant) is now legal in Virginia during licensed events and in designated areas.” Additionally, only localities (the City), business improvement districts (Venture Richmond), and nonprofits (basically everyone has a nonprofit, though, right?) can apply for the license, and they can only do so 12 times per year. You can read all of SB 1171 over on the General Assembly’s LIS website. Folks who should apply for this license immediately: First Fridays, Carytown Merchant’s Association, Venture Richmond, some nonprofit on either the Lombardy or 6th Street end of Grace Street, and basically every neighborhood association that has filed their nonprofit paperwork.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 77 °F, and we are under an active heat advisory until 8:00 PM this evening. Expect highs in the mid to upper 90s and a heat index above 100 °F. I know I always tell you to stay cool and stay hydrated, but today’s heat is dangerous, and you should seriously do both of those things!

Water cooler

C. Suarez Rojas at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some details on the first new proposed bus route into Chesterfield County 💸 in, I don’t know, forever. First, the good news: The planned bus line down Route 1 will run every 30 minutes on weekdays and maybe Saturdays. The bad news is that the County is still thinking about creating their own special route, with their own special “brand.” Instead of just extending existing GRTC service on Route 1 further down the road (the #3B bus), they want to make their own separate thing and presumably force folks to transfer into the “regular” system once they reach the City line? Whyyyyyyy?? Chesterfield is not a special snowflake and should just have the same bus service as the rest of the region. Honestly, I’m exhausted by how difficult the County keeps making this extremely simple thing.

Justin Mattingly, also at the RTD, has an interesting story about Richmond Public Schools failing to count some students who speak English as a second language 💸. This is a big deal because there’s a pot of money from the State available for helping teach students who are still learning English, and, due to the miscount, RPS missed out on its fair share of cash. With correct numbers in hand, the school system now has access to more money for more teachers (Mattingly says 12 more), and that’s great news.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, already! Highs today will climb back up into the mid 90s, and we’ll all be real hot. Stay cool, and stay hydrated, y’all.

Water cooler

Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a disappointing but unsurprising article about Richmond Public Schools’ proposed redistricting titled “Fox Elementary School parents criticize potential ‘pairing’ with John B. Cary Elementary.” 💸 Apparently a vocal handful of current and future Fox Elementary parents are pissed about one of the proposed school redistricting options that would “pair” Fox and Cary Elementaries. It’s Elementary Option 2 on this map and would send kids living both north and south of the Downtown Expressway to Fox for K–2 and then Cary for 3–5. As you can probably guess, this pairing would go a long, long way to racially integrating these two schools. As you can also probably guess, some (and not very many, honestly) parents of Fox Elementary—a school situated an affluent and mostly White neighborhood—had Some Thoughts that you can read for yourself (PDF). The wild thing is that school pairing has been tried before in Richmond. In fact, it was a part of the 1970s attempt to integrate the region’s schools that ultimately ended up in front of the United States Supreme Court in Bradley v. Richmond School Board. I can’t get the Library of Virginia’s newspaper search to load this morning, but you can bet if we pulled up RTD articles from 1971, we’d read the exact same concerns from (White) parents about consistency in schools, adding stress to the school year, property values and taxes, and threats of moving out of the district. There is nothing new under the sun. As a result of the “great deal of feedback” from the Fox and Cary communities, RPS will schedule some community meetings to…hear even more angry feedback from a vocal minority of parents?

City Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meets today with a bunch of really fascinating things on their agenda (PDF). First the committee will consider a bunch of Standard Project Agreements for cool bike and pedestrian projects—meaning theoretically uncontroversial ordinances that authorize the City take money from VDOT to build things. I guess you never know, but should be smooth sailing for: A paved path, bike lane, and an ADA ramp at Dock & 17th to provide better connections between the Capital Trail and the T. Pott Bridge; a shared-use bridge (!) and path over the Canal; a shared-use path out by Williamsburg Avenue and Government Road; a shared-use path paralleling Stony Run Road; and pedestrian safety improvements at Semmes near Patrick Henry School. Whew! That’s a lot of good stuff, and hats off to the City staff that absolutely crush getting money out of the State for projects like this. But it’s not all sunshine and bike lanes on the LUHT agenda. The committee will also consider Councilmember Gray’s resolution to prevent certain types of dense residential developments—specifically projects like the conversion of the Lee Medical Building to 60 apartments (RES. 2019-R025). You can read my full thoughts on the resolution here, but, as I said before, reducing residential density is the absolute opposite direction of where our City’s housing policy should be headed. Dense conversions are exactly what we need in more and more neighborhoods across Richmond.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, already! Highs today will climb back up into the mid 90s, and we’ll all be real hot. Stay cool, and stay hydrated, y’all.

Water cooler

Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a disappointing but unsurprising article about Richmond Public Schools’ proposed redistricting titled “Fox Elementary School parents criticize potential ‘pairing’ with John B. Cary Elementary.” 💸 Apparently a vocal handful of current and future Fox Elementary parents are pissed about one of the proposed school redistricting options that would “pair” Fox and Cary Elementaries. It’s Elementary Option 2 on this map and would send kids living both north and south of the Downtown Expressway to Fox for K–2 and then Cary for 3–5. As you can probably guess, this pairing would go a long, long way to racially integrating these two schools. As you can also probably guess, some (and not very many, honestly) parents of Fox Elementary—a school situated an affluent and mostly White neighborhood—had Some Thoughts that you can read for yourself (PDF). The wild thing is that school pairing has been tried before in Richmond. In fact, it was a part of the 1970s attempt to integrate the region’s schools that ultimately ended up in front of the United States Supreme Court in Bradley v. Richmond School Board. I can’t get the Library of Virginia’s newspaper search to load this morning, but you can bet if we pulled up RTD articles from 1971, we’d read the exact same concerns from (White) parents about consistency in schools, adding stress to the school year, property values and taxes, and threats of moving out of the district. There is nothing new under the sun. As a result of the “great deal of feedback” from the Fox and Cary communities, RPS will schedule some community meetings to…hear even more angry feedback from a vocal minority of parents?

City Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meets today with a bunch of really fascinating things on their agenda (PDF). First the committee will consider a bunch of Standard Project Agreements for cool bike and pedestrian projects—meaning theoretically uncontroversial ordinances that authorize the City take money from VDOT to build things. I guess you never know, but should be smooth sailing for: A paved path, bike lane, and an ADA ramp at Dock & 17th to provide better connections between the Capital Trail and the T. Pott Bridge; a shared-use bridge (!) and path over the Canal; a shared-use path out by Williamsburg Avenue and Government Road; a shared-use path paralleling Stony Run Road; and pedestrian safety improvements at Semmes near Patrick Henry School. Whew! That’s a lot of good stuff, and hats off to the City staff that absolutely crush getting money out of the State for projects like this. But it’s not all sunshine and bike lanes on the LUHT agenda. The committee will also consider Councilmember Gray’s resolution to prevent certain types of dense residential developments—specifically projects like the conversion of the Lee Medical Building to 60 apartments (RES. 2019-R025). You can read my full thoughts on the resolution here, but, as I said before, reducing residential density is the absolute opposite direction of where our City’s housing policy should be headed. Dense conversions are exactly what we need in more and more neighborhoods across Richmond.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and today’s gonna be a hot one. Expect highs in the mid 90s and plenty of sunshine that will sparkle off of your sweaty skin.

Water cooler

What do we even call the 17th Street Farmers’ Market now that the space is not exclusively the domain of farmers? Colleen Curran at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the answer: The 17th Street Market 💸. This is good news, because what do you even do with the apostrophe in farmers/farmer’s/farmers’/farmers’s’ market? Curran also says the Market has two new managers that both come with some serious market bonafides and are looking to build the Market into a “sustainable and viable community space.” Sounds like less bacon festivals and more inviting places to just hang out with your pals—definitely the right direction. While Curran has a whole section of “outstanding issues” that need to be addressed with the market, she misses the biggest issue in my mind: Access to the space via Franklin Street under the train station. I have no idea when the (really nice) cut-through will open, but, until it does, actually getting to the Market from points west is an annoying challenge.

A small update, also from Colleen Curran: She confirms that the 2020 edition of the RVA Street Art Festival will paint on the actual Flood Wall itself! That’s awesome, and the stretch of the Flood Wall they’re considering is extremely visible, running along Dock Street facing the Capital Trail.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and today’s gonna be a hot one. Expect highs in the mid 90s and plenty of sunshine that will sparkle off of your sweaty skin.

Water cooler

What do we even call the 17th Street Farmers’ Market now that the space is not exclusively the domain of farmers? Colleen Curran at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the answer: The 17th Street Market 💸. This is good news, because what do you even do with the apostrophe in farmers/farmer’s/farmers’/farmers’s’ market? Curran also says the Market has two new managers that both come with some serious market bonafides and are looking to build the Market into a “sustainable and viable community space.” Sounds like less bacon festivals and more inviting places to just hang out with your pals—definitely the right direction. While Curran has a whole section of “outstanding issues” that need to be addressed with the market, she misses the biggest issue in my mind: Access to the space via Franklin Street under the train station. I have no idea when the (really nice) cut-through will open, but, until it does, actually getting to the Market from points west is an annoying challenge.

A small update, also from Colleen Curran: She confirms that the 2020 edition of the RVA Street Art Festival will paint on the actual Flood Wall itself! That’s awesome, and the stretch of the Flood Wall they’re considering is extremely visible, running along Dock Street facing the Capital Trail.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 74 °F, and we’ve got another hot day ahead of us—highs near 90 °F. Looks like we’ll avoid any downpours like yesterday, though.

Water cooler

C. Suarez Rojas at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says Henrico’s Planning Commission recommended approval of new plans to redevelop Regency Mall 💸. I can’t find the PDF of the plans this morning, but, from Rojas’s description, it sounds like developers want to replace the aging mall with a dense, urban-village-type thing—something Henrico’s been pushing more and more of lately. Infilling old malls (and their associated parking lots) with housing and a bunch of mixed uses sounds great. It’s also sounds like a great excuse for the County to increase the frequency of the #79 bus to at least every 30-minutes. Actually, while we’re dreaming, what if Henrico and VCU extended the Pulse out to Parham where the University plans to move a bunch of VCU Health employees, and then created a new Parham Road route (as suggested by our regional transit vision plan)? That way folks living in this new development (up to 1,250 says the RTD article) and people shopping and working there have easy access to and from the Pulse? This is the kind of thing I think about every time I read about new, dense development in the Counties (or anywhere, really).

I keep forgetting to link to this story by Michael Schwartz in Richmond BizSense about mini-golf coming to Topgolf. This is this second mini-golf link of the week (here’s the first), and that’s totally fine by me. As previously discussed, I am definitely not a Golf Person, but people who are assure me that I will love Topgolf regardless. I have a hard time believing them, but the addition of mini-golf certainly makes me less skeptical. Who doesn’t love mini-golf??

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and today you can expect highs right around 90 °F. There’s also a chance for rain this afternoon and through the evening.

Water cooler

Jenna Portnoy in the Washington Post writes about the results of an investigation into the sexual harassment allegations against former governor Doug Wilder in his role as a VCU professor. The investigation “found Wilder was responsible for ‘non-consensual sexual contact’ but cleared him of three other allegations made by [Sydney Black]: sexual exploitation, sex- or gender-based discrimination, and retaliation.” VCU has an internal process that they’ll now follow which could result in a variety of outcomes. To me, though, abuse of power that leads to sexual harassment is gross and awful and means you’ve got to go. We’lI see if that happens, and I imagine we’ll hear more about this throughout the rest of the summer.

Local twitter user @MzFtz has a short thread to pair with today’s longread that highlights three car crashes on the Northside that all happened yesterday. I don’t know the full details on any of them, but the intersection of Laburnum and Hermitage (at the AP Hill statue) is incredibly dangerous and could have been improved 10 years ago with a roundabout, but Councilman Hilbert prevented that and still hasn’t offered any alternatives. Also, I’m going to guess that speed was a factor for the driver who ended up in a house on W. Laburnum injuring two children in the house and two children in the car. These kinds of incidents are exactly what we mean when we talk about Vision Zero and how injuries caused by vehicles are preventable—but you must put in the work to change the streets and enforce the laws.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and we’ve got another summery day with sunshine and highs in the upper 80s. Stay sweaty, y’all.

Water cooler

Welp. Yesterday’s General Assembly special session focused on gun violence happened—kind of. Ned Oliver and Mechelle Hankerson at the Virginia Mercury have the details on how Republicans adjourned the session just 90 minutes after it began and after considering exactly zero bills. Theoretically, the GA will take up all of the legislation filed over the last couple of weeks at a November 18th meeting—which is, of course, after the 2019 elections. This tremendously transparent waste of time on the part of Virginia’s gun-worshipping Republicans is totally unsurprising. They’re unwilling to do anything at all to address gun violence, and the only recourse is to vote them out of office this November. Worst of the bunch may be Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment who continues to be an unserious legislator who’d rather spend his time playing games instead of passing laws. After submitting legislation banning guns in government buildings, a bill he never had any intention of actually supporting, Norment said “As currently drafted, the legislation represents neither my views nor my intention. I do not support — nor will I support — any measure that restricts the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.” OK, guy. This dude is not clever, extremely predictable, and out of step with Virginians—even his own party was confused by his amateur-hour strategy, if you can call it that. You can read both Mayor Stoney’s thoughts on the abortive session (“Republicans in the General Assembly proved today that they are not just spineless but flat-out cowardly.”) and the Governor’s statement (“It is shameful and disappointing that Republicans in the General Assembly refuse to do their jobs, and take immediate action to save lives.”).

Yesterday I linked to this excellent piece about racism in Hanover from Samantha Willis at the Virginia Mercury. I think it does the best job at putting together the pieces from all of the County’s recent struggles with race. Today, I read a piece from Micheal Paul Williams in the Richmond Times-Dispatch with this extremely disturbing and outright racist quote about from Hanover Board of Supervisors Chairman W. Canova Peterson: About the actual KKK he said, “If you hate them, you’re a hate group too.” No, that is not how this works, and Peterson should face professional—or at least electoral—consequences for this statement. Our local elected officials shouldn’t get to go about their jobs, business as usual, after making public statements of tacit support for racist hate groups.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and we’ve got another summery day with sunshine and highs in the upper 80s. Stay sweaty, y’all.

Water cooler

Welp. Yesterday’s General Assembly special session focused on gun violence happened—kind of. Ned Oliver and Mechelle Hankerson at the Virginia Mercury have the details on how Republicans adjourned the session just 90 minutes after it began and after considering exactly zero bills. Theoretically, the GA will take up all of the legislation filed over the last couple of weeks at a November 18th meeting—which is, of course, after the 2019 elections. This tremendously transparent waste of time on the part of Virginia’s gun-worshipping Republicans is totally unsurprising. They’re unwilling to do anything at all to address gun violence, and the only recourse is to vote them out of office this November. Worst of the bunch may be Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment who continues to be an unserious legislator who’d rather spend his time playing games instead of passing laws. After submitting legislation banning guns in government buildings, a bill he never had any intention of actually supporting, Norment said “As currently drafted, the legislation represents neither my views nor my intention. I do not support — nor will I support — any measure that restricts the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.” OK, guy. This dude is not clever, extremely predictable, and out of step with Virginians—even his own party was confused by his amateur-hour strategy, if you can call it that. You can read both Mayor Stoney’s thoughts on the abortive session (“Republicans in the General Assembly proved today that they are not just spineless but flat-out cowardly.”) and the Governor’s statement (“It is shameful and disappointing that Republicans in the General Assembly refuse to do their jobs, and take immediate action to save lives.”).

Yesterday I linked to this excellent piece about racism in Hanover from Samantha Willis at the Virginia Mercury. I think it does the best job at putting together the pieces from all of the County’s recent struggles with race. Today, I read a piece from Micheal Paul Williams in the Richmond Times-Dispatch with this extremely disturbing and outright racist quote about from Hanover Board of Supervisors Chairman W. Canova Peterson: About the actual KKK he said, “If you hate them, you’re a hate group too.” No, that is not how this works, and Peterson should face professional—or at least electoral—consequences for this statement. Our local elected officials shouldn’t get to go about their jobs, business as usual, after making public statements of tacit support for racist hate groups.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 67 °F, and today looks like a stunner. Expect highs in the mid 80s and tons of sunshine. Enjoy!

Water cooler

This morning, state legislators will head back to work for a special session on gun violence. What will they do? Will they do anything? Will they pass a single thing? I have no idea, but today might be a day to set up the General Assembly livestream in the background and follow along. To kick things off, Virginia’s Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security and Secretary of Health and Human Resources have co-authored a column in the Roanoke Times to head off Republicans’ constant refrain that we need fewer gun laws and more mental illness laws. The Secretaries note that improvements in mental health legislation are important but “While mental illness is a serious issue in our communities, it is not causally linked to gun violence. In fact, people with mental illness are much more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators.” They also point out that the report produced following the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech (PDF) made legislative recommendations—including background checks—which have not yet been passed by the General Assembly. Locally, here’s a short video of Mayor Levar Stoney telling folks what he thinks of the NRA and the Virginia Citizens Defense League. And over in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Graham Moomaw and Patrick Wilson say that Republican Senator Tommy Norment has submitted legislation banning guns in “any building owned or used by a locality for governmental purposes in the Commonwealth.” You can read the full legislation here. You should also know that Norment most likely has no intention of supporting his own bill. He’s got a history of playing childish games with legislation, wasting his constituents’ and Virginians’ time for his own political gain. It’s irritating, transparent, and cowardly—especially when it comes to important issues like minimum wage, climate change, and gun violence. Anyway, since this is a special session, the number and scope of bills legislators have submitted is relatively small, and one could look through them all in a single morning!

Superintendent Kamras’s weekly email continues to exist—even in the depths of summer vacation! This week he reminds us of all the different ways to get involved with RPS Shines 2019. Also, and this late notice is totally my fault, Kamras highlights the Richmond Peace Education Center’s rally before the opening of today’s gun violence special session. If you can, join other folks who support passing laws to help prevent gun violence at 9:00 AM at the Capitol Bell Tower.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and while its not raining now, it could rain today—especially later in the afternoon. This is the price you pay for cooler temperatures in the middle of the summer!

Water cooler

Over the weekend, Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch had this story about the new head of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s vision for the future of our public housing neighborhoods 💸. CEO Damon Duncan wants to tear down our current old / crumbling public housing and replace it with new construction (of some sort, more on that in a minute). Remember how I keep saying we have over $1 billion of capital needs related to public housing neighborhoods? Well Robinson says that a 2009 plan found that demolishing Gilpin Court and building a new, mixed-income community in its place would cost $503 million. And that’s just one of six large public housing neighborhoods in the City! So what does Duncan want to put in Gilpin’s place after its gone? Similar to the old plan, “Duncan said he envisions a denser, mixed-income neighborhood replacing the Gilpin community, but he cautioned that all current residents wouldn’t necessarily end up there.” This is the part that concerns me. I am not a housing expert by any stretch of the imagination, but not building enough housing for current residents and promising vouchers to some folks instead seems like a fraught path. Where are the apartments that accept housing vouchers in the region? Are they near transit like the existing public housing neighborhoods? Or are we making it (perhaps unintentionally) more difficult to access to jobs, education, healthy food, and all of the other things folks need to thrive. I honestly don’t know the answer to this question, but I think such a map may exist and will put it on my list of things to look for. If you want to dig in yourself, RRHA’s draft five year plan is up on their website. Apparently, today is the last day of the public comment period on the plan (which opened on May 20th) and to do so you must submit written comments to the RRHA offices (901 Chamberlayne Parkway). Uhhh OK.

Tomorrow the General Assembly’s special session on gun violence begins! What will come of it? Who knows! Mechelle Hankerson at the Virginia Mercury has the best explainer about what’s going to happen and what each side wants—Spoiler: Democrats want laws that will stop gun violence, Republicans…do not. It’s illustrative that the section listing bills Democrats want passed is at least nine items long, while the Republic section just has no items at all.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and highs today are way up into the mid 90s. There may be some relief headed our way this evening with a bit of rain, but maybe not! After that, you can expect a persistent but low chance of rain until next week—which may impact your fireworks situation.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting that Tyrell J. Thomas was shot and killed on the 2300 block of Bethel Street on Monday night. According to the RPD, Thomas is the 29th person murdered in Richmond so far in 2019.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, and it’s hot again. Today, highs will creep into the 90s, and we should avoid any rain until tomorrow. After that, though, there’s a chance of precipitation as far as the weekly forecast can see.

Water cooler

Assessments! A couple days ago I asked folks to send me their assessments and their thoughts/feelings on any changes over last year’s numbers. I got a couple dozen emails and tweets from various homeowners living in various parts of the City, and every single one of them saw their assessments increase—some by less than 5%, some by more than 20%. The thing that I thought was neat was that nearly every single person either thought it was a fair increase to bring their assessment in line with their actual home value and/or that the increase in tax revenue would be vital for the future of the City.

I know that homeownership is a complicated thing and that rising assessments can mean less affordability for folks (something a bunch of readers expressed concerns about, too). I also know that we don’t have as many programs to keep (or make) homes affordable for all Richmonders—and we can blame the State for a lot of that. But I think it’s important to point out that the angry voices on Facebook or Next Door yelling about a $200 tax bill on their West End rental property are not the only voices in Richmond. There are lots of folks who are ready and willing to pay more for better schools, humane public housing, useful public transit, and just a radder City in general. They’re not always the loudest voices, and they’re certainly not representative of the entire City, but they do exist! Here are just a few thoughts, quotes, and paraphrases from some of them:

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and today you can expect highs in the mid 80s—so not as hot as this past weekend. The skies look dry until at least Wednesday.

Water cooler

City Council will meet tonight at 5:00 PM to vote on the Mayor’s ordinance to preemptively ban guns from city-owned buildings and parks (ORD. 2019–165). The General Assembly will meet for their special session next week on July 9th.

Even though we’re defintitely fully in to summer break, there’s a new edition of RPS Superintendent Kamras’s email out for you to read. Of note, RPS Shines 2019 has launched, and it’s a great way for you to get involved at your neighborhood school—doing things like mowing, painting, fixing up bathrooms, and painting murals. If you’re looking to go beyond sending thoughtful emails to elected representatives about school facilities and funding, check out what RPS Shines has available, and do some stuff with your actual hands! Or, heck, just donate some cash from the comfort of your own couch. Kamras also links to four different summer reading programs for students, and that makes me wish we had summer reading programs for adults.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F, and we’ve got another heckin’ hot day on deck. You should expect highs in the mid 90s throughout most of the day, and steamy temperatures continue through the weekend. If we make it through Sunday, there’s a chance things will cool down the tiniest bit on Monday.

Water cooler

I feel real bad about this, but yesterday I forgot to mention that the Richmond Public Schools rezoning committee met to look at some first drafts of the school rezoning maps. Here are is the PDF you’re looking for: maps of all the new zoning options for elementary, middle, and high school plus a bunch of tables of potential enrollment numbers. You can also zoom around on this digital version of those same maps. Additionally, this page on the RPS website has a bunch of additional maps and resource that are probably worth scrolling through as well (make sure you tap on the “Committee Meeting #2” header in the menu). There is a lot a lot going on with all of this information, and I have taken absolutely zero time to try and process it all. But! We should all get to processing and then get to letting the committee know all of our thoughts and feelings! This sounds like a great plan for the weekend, right?

At this past Monday’s City Council meeting, Councilmember Kim Gray introduced RES. 2019-R025 (PDF) which would “initiate an amendment to the City’s zoning ordinance to require a minimum lot area of 750 square feet per dwelling unit when a nonconforming use is changed to a multifamily dwelling within certain residential zoning districts.” To translate out of zoning and into human English, this resolution would require 750 square feet of land for every dwelling unit when converting something to a multi-family development if it sits in certain single family zones (R-1 through R-8). To further translate, if you’re taking a big old building in a residential neighborhood and converting it to apartments, this sets a pretty significant cap on the number of units you can put in that big old building. For example, the Lee Medical Building on the southwest corner of Lee Circle sits on about 17,000 square feet of land. Today, developers are planning to covert those offices into about 60 apartments. This zoning change would limit that building to about 22 units, unnecessarily increasing the size (and probably cost) of those apartments. If you scroll down to the human-readable summary in the resolution PDF you’ll see that “The patron’s goal is to prevent the inappropriate development of units that are too small in [sic] and that would result in inappropriate dense conversion in neighborhoods that are designed for such conversions.” Reducing residential density is the absolute opposite direction of where our City’s housing policy should be headed, and I’d argue that dense conversion are exactly what we need in more and more neighborhoods across Richmond.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and highs today will hit 90 °F. Stay cool and stay hydrated.

Water cooler

WTVR is reporting that a driver hit four people near the 17th Street Market on the 1700 block of E. Main Street, killing one and sending at least one other to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. There are almost no more details on this incident at this moment.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and summery weather continues. Today you can expect highs in the upper 80s, some clouds, but probably no real chance of rain. Spend some time today on a proch, deck, or patio.

Water cooler

Yesterday, Mayor Stoney announced that he would introduce legislation banning firearms in city parks and city buildings. This is, of course, not something that’s currently allowed by state law, but the Mayor’s ordinance is intended to take effect should the General Assembly deign to grant localities the tiniest modicum of authority to address gun violence in municipal spaces. I’m into this! I’m double into this quote from the Mayor, too: “Every Richmonder and every Virginian deserves to feel safe. Commonwealth residents have had enough of the spineless leadership on this issue from some of our state lawmakers. If they are unwilling to act, they should move out of the way.” As I’ve said previously in this space, I’m looking for clever, creative, and bold local solutions to (most) state Republicans’ forever-support of gun violence. The Mayor’s ordinance does not “solve” gun violence, but it is definitely not nothing. The text of the ordinance has not hit the City’s website yet, but when it does I’ll make sure to link to the PDF. The General Assembly will reconvene for a special session on gun violence on July 9th.

Emily Thomason has an excellent piece up on Streets Cred about the southern terminus of the Lombardy Street bike lane and how it vomits folks out directly into a stack of parked cars. This makes for a stressful and dangerous merge that I do on the regular while casting withering glares over my shoulder at drivers attempting to squeeze between me and oncoming traffic. I will do this very thing today, in fact. Wish me luck, I guess!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and summery weather continues. Today you can expect highs in the upper 80s, some clouds, but probably no real chance of rain. Spend some time today on a proch, deck, or patio.

Water cooler

Yesterday, Mayor Stoney announced that he would introduce legislation banning firearms in city parks and city buildings. This is, of course, not something that’s currently allowed by state law, but the Mayor’s ordinance is intended to take effect should the General Assembly deign to grant localities the tiniest modicum of authority to address gun violence in municipal spaces. I’m into this! I’m double into this quote from the Mayor, too: “Every Richmonder and every Virginian deserves to feel safe. Commonwealth residents have had enough of the spineless leadership on this issue from some of our state lawmakers. If they are unwilling to act, they should move out of the way.” As I’ve said previously in this space, I’m looking for clever, creative, and bold local solutions to (most) state Republicans’ forever-support of gun violence. The Mayor’s ordinance does not “solve” gun violence, but it is definitely not nothing. The text of the ordinance has not hit the City’s website yet, but when it does I’ll make sure to link to the PDF. The General Assembly will reconvene for a special session on gun violence on July 9th.

Emily Thomason has an excellent piece up on Streets Cred about the southern terminus of the Lombardy Street bike lane and how it vomits folks out directly into a stack of parked cars. This makes for a stressful and dangerous merge that I do on the regular while casting withering glares over my shoulder at drivers attempting to squeeze between me and oncoming traffic. I will do this very thing today, in fact. Wish me luck, I guess!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and today you can expect highs in the 90s. At this point, the long-term forecast looks like we’ll avoid any rain for the entire week.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting that Arthur Robinson III, 33, was shot to death on the 5000 block of Old Warwick Road on Friday night.