Good morning, RVA! It’s 46 °F, and it’s gonna rain. Today—all day long, from 10:00 AM onward—you can expect rain, maybe even that good, soaking rain we’ve missed for the last forever. Things should dry out overnight, leading us into a crisp and dry holiday weekend. Towards the end of the week, you wouldn’t be out of place wearing long underwear, your favorite band T-shirt, and your warmest flannel. I think actual winter weather may be just around the corner!
 

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Thanksgiving! One of the many times over the next couple of months where folks gather, cram their bodies inside a room with other bodies from who knows where, and start sharing aerosols and particulates with one another while passing the potatoes. It’s the perfect time to spread respiratory disease, and the perfect time for the USPS to offer another round of four free at-home COVID-19 tests. It takes 12 seconds to fill out the form and get your (free!) tests, so just go ahead and do that right now.
 

City Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meets today at 3:00 PM. You can find the full agenda here, but I want to point out two specific items. First, the committee will hear a presentation on Richmond Connects, Richmond’s first update to its transportation plan in a long, long time. It’s an exciting update, because later today they’ll post the full Draft Action Plan over on rvaconnects.com and we’ll get to weigh in on what actual factual things the City should do to make its transportation infrastructure better, safer, and more equitable. More on this after I get a second to flip through the plan. Second, RES. 2023-R056 designates the alley in the block bounded by Stuart, N. Nansemond, Kensington, and Roseneath as “Rose Pedal Alley.” Listen, I definitely celebrate this charming bike-related pun, but I do hope it’s not a typo that made it into a resolution that will soon become a permanent part of our street grid?
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, and today’s weather looks cool and cloudy. You can expect highs in the mid 50s as we (finally) prepare for some rain to move in to the region tomorrow and Wednesday. After we get through that, though, we’ve got some really beautiful fall weather lined up for the holiday weekend.
 

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You’ll find Pine Camp, one of the Northside’s hidden gems, tucked away in the top right corner of the City. It’s a City park that’s home to a cultural art center, huge playground, hiking paths, and some excellent single-track mountain biking that I can almost see from my back deck. It also features a channelized stream that runs through the property making for some very beautiful but severely eroded stream banks. Over the last couple of years I’ve watched that erosion get worse, stream banks get steeper, and massive trees get sucked into an ever-expanding pit. Now it’s less beautiful and more just plain dangerous. Thankfully, last week the City started a project to “address unsafe streambank erosion and stability problems, while providing a healthy habitat for native plants, wildlife, and Richmond citizens.” This is a much needed project! If you spend time in Pine Camp, in the near future you should expect big, heavy machinery moving earth around and for sections of trail to be closed off. Please don’t walk or ride through portions of the trail that have been taped off—there are new, bypass trails that you can use instead. While I’m bummed that some of the views and trees I’ve come to love over the past decade will change, I’m thankful the City is moving forward on this project before someone gets hurt. Read more in this excerpt from Councilmember Lambert’s 3rd District newsletter.
 

When GRTC announced new pay and hiring bonuses for bus operators earlier this year, I started keeping an eye on the bus system’s monthly stats. I wanted to see if hiring enough operators would address some of GRTC’s reliability issues. It’s now about six months after those pay increases, and I think we can say it’s worked! Kind of! Check out this month’s GRTC board packet and scroll to page 49 for some operating performance graphs. For the last three months, GRTC reports an increase in the percentage of scheduled trips operated, which hit a low a low point this past June. As someone who’s been ghosted by a handful of buses over the past couple of months, I can tell you that almost nothing’s worse than when your bus just does not show up at all. However, it’s not all improvements: the on-time performance of the system has actually dropped since June, with fewer than 70% of trips qualifying as “on time.” Finally, flip to page 50, and you’ll see that, right now, GRTC has more operators than they have at any point in the last five years, and that’s impressive. More operators means more folks driving more buses which means more frequent bus routes, longer hours, and better weekend service. Just scroll back to the top of the PDF packet (p. 6) to get a sense for what kind of improvements are possible when the bus system isn’t working with a skeleton crew!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, and today’s weather looks cool and cloudy. You can expect highs in the mid 50s as we (finally) prepare for some rain to move in to the region tomorrow and Wednesday. After we get through that, though, we’ve got some really beautiful fall weather lined up for the holiday weekend.
 

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You’ll find Pine Camp, one of the Northside’s hidden gems, tucked away in the top right corner of the City. It’s a City park that’s home to a cultural art center, huge playground, hiking paths, and some excellent single-track mountain biking that I can almost see from my back deck. It also features a channelized stream that runs through the property making for some very beautiful but severely eroded stream banks. Over the last couple of years I’ve watched that erosion get worse, stream banks get steeper, and massive trees get sucked into an ever-expanding pit. Now it’s less beautiful and more just plain dangerous. Thankfully, last week the City started a project to “address unsafe streambank erosion and stability problems, while providing a healthy habitat for native plants, wildlife, and Richmond citizens.” This is a much needed project! If you spend time in Pine Camp, in the near future you should expect big, heavy machinery moving earth around and for sections of trail to be closed off. Please don’t walk or ride through portions of the trail that have been taped off—there are new, bypass trails that you can use instead. While I’m bummed that some of the views and trees I’ve come to love over the past decade will change, I’m thankful the City is moving forward on this project before someone gets hurt. Read more in this excerpt from Councilmember Lambert’s 3rd District newsletter.
 

When GRTC announced new pay and hiring bonuses for bus operators earlier this year, I started keeping an eye on the bus system’s monthly stats. I wanted to see if hiring enough operators would address some of GRTC’s reliability issues. It’s now about six months after those pay increases, and I think we can say it’s worked! Kind of! Check out this month’s GRTC board packet and scroll to page 49 for some operating performance graphs. For the last three months, GRTC reports an increase in the percentage of scheduled trips operated, which hit a low a low point this past June. As someone who’s been ghosted by a handful of buses over the past couple of months, I can tell you that almost nothing’s worse than when your bus just does not show up at all. However, it’s not all improvements: the on-time performance of the system has actually dropped since June, with fewer than 70% of trips qualifying as “on time.” Finally, flip to page 50, and you’ll see that, right now, GRTC has more operators than they have at any point in the last five years, and that’s impressive. More operators means more folks driving more buses which means more frequent bus routes, longer hours, and better weekend service. Just scroll back to the top of the PDF packet (p. 6) to get a sense for what kind of improvements are possible when the bus system isn’t working with a skeleton crew!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 45 °F, and today us we’ve got some really delightful highs in the 70s ahead of us. You should probably expect a little less sunshine, but there’s still every reason in the world to go outside during lunch and spend a bit of time breathing in the fresh air. Tomorrow, temperatures drop a full 10 degrees, and, next week, we’ve got some lows that start with a two. Real, actual fall weather returns just in time for Thanksgiving!
 

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VPM’s Lyndon German reports from Henrico’s State of the County address, which took place yesterday. They are, of course, biased, but, with sports tourism and big economic development projects kicking off, the County definitely thinks its current state is pretty darn good. The full presentation slides haven’t yet been posted to the County’s website, but I’m gonna guess they’ll exist right here at some point later today.
 

Via /r/rva, the USDA has updated their Plant Hardiness Zone Map, and Richmond now sits squarely in 7b. Check out how our local climate has warmed over the last 30 years: 1990’s map had Central Virginia entirely in the 7a zone, while 2012’s map had us split between 7a and 7b. I’m not enough of a plant wizard to know how the shift to 7b impacts what I should plunk down in my yard, but the changes in this map are another direct, local, and measurable impact of climate change on our lives.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, and today’s weather looks beautiful! You can expect sunshine and temperatures in the 70s that will straight up make you forget next week is Thanksgiving and that only 44 days remain in 2023. My advice: If you can find a chunk of time before the sun sets at 4:58 PM (!?), spend it outside!
 

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I’ve got an exciting City Council update this morning: Today, Council’s Finance and Economic Development committee will meet to have some of the first public discussions about the 2024 Budget Season. Get excited, y’all! Budget Season is almost here! First, the committee will consider ORD. 2023–332, which would extend the Mayor’s deadline for submitting his budget from March 6th to March 27th. This would give the Mayor’s team an entire extra month to collect additional finance data and, theoretically, make tighter projections around the City’s income and expenses. Also, as the staff background section puts it, “introducing the budget on March 6th is early.” With that in mind, Council will then have a discussion about this coming budget season’s calendar. With any luck we should have the official budget timeline PDF in our hot, little PDF libraries pretty soon. I love budget season! P.S You can find today’s full meeting agenda here.
 

VPM’s Jahd Khalil reports on the record number of Black people holding leadership positions in the General Assembly after this month’s elections. He’s got some wild statistics, too. When the 2024 session begins, there will be at least 24 Black delegates and seven black senators, this breaks the previous record set immediately following the Civil War, all the way back in 1869 (24 delegates, six senators). However, from 1890 through 1969—79 years!—zero Black people were elected to the GA. That ended when Doug Wilder and William Ferguson Reid, two guys who are still definitely alive, won elections in the same year.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday: temperatures approaching 60 °F, cloudy, and clear with the promise of something just a little nicer over the horizon. Don’t get me wrong! I’ll take today’s decidedly fall-like weather over a cold November rain any day of the week, but tomorrow and Friday look really special.
 

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City Council’s Governmental Operations committee meets this afternoon and you can find the full agenda here with three things worth learning more about. First, check out this neat, quick presentation on sustainable design standards recently(ish) required by state law. The coolest part about these standards, at least for this particular newsletter, is that they’ll align with and support the upcoming rewrite of Richmond’s zoning code. Expect some sort of community engagement process and a chance to give your feedback in the coming months. Second, I think I like these small tweaks to the City’s Urban Forestry Commission (ORD. 2023–331). Interestingly, the Director of Public Works and the Director of Community Development are removed as non-voting members and, instead, replaced with the City’s urban forester, a representative from the Office of Sustainability, and a rep from the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities. Honestly, this probably makes a ton of sense and, I’d guess, adds a bit more of the Why Trees Are Important to the group. Also, within six months, the Commission must submit a report laying out how they intend to function moving forward and how they’ll ensure “continued future success.” Richmond’s tree people are a motivated bunch, so expect to hear more from this commission and keep an eye out for their initial report. Third, and just something to note, the GovOps committee will close their meeting today with another conversation on what (if any!) steps to take on updating the City’s Charter.
 

VPM’s Patrick Larsen reports on the Public Utilities and Services Commission that I’ve written about a ton of times and that City Council officially created this past Monday. Tap through from some good background on what this group could do, including my absolute favorite task of “providing advice on how the city can transition away from the use of its gas utility.” As with the above commission, this commission is also required to put together a report—due next fall, so mark your calendars.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday: temperatures approaching 60 °F, cloudy, and clear with the promise of something just a little nicer over the horizon. Don’t get me wrong! I’ll take today’s decidedly fall-like weather over a cold November rain any day of the week, but tomorrow and Friday look really special.
 

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City Council’s Governmental Operations committee meets this afternoon and you can find the full agenda here with three things worth learning more about. First, check out this neat, quick presentation on sustainable design standards recently(ish) required by state law. The coolest part about these standards, at least for this particular newsletter, is that they’ll align with and support the upcoming rewrite of Richmond’s zoning code. Expect some sort of community engagement process and a chance to give your feedback in the coming months. Second, I think I like these small tweaks to the City’s Urban Forestry Commission (ORD. 2023–331). Interestingly, the Director of Public Works and the Director of Community Development are removed as non-voting members and, instead, replaced with the City’s urban forester, a representative from the Office of Sustainability, and a rep from the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities. Honestly, this probably makes a ton of sense and, I’d guess, adds a bit more of the Why Trees Are Important to the group. Also, within six months, the Commission must submit a report laying out how they intend to function moving forward and how they’ll ensure “continued future success.” Richmond’s tree people are a motivated bunch, so expect to hear more from this commission and keep an eye out for their initial report. Third, and just something to note, the GovOps committee will close their meeting today with another conversation on what (if any!) steps to take on updating the City’s Charter.
 

VPM’s Patrick Larsen reports on the Public Utilities and Services Commission that I’ve written about a ton of times and that City Council officially created this past Monday. Tap through from some good background on what this group could do, including my absolute favorite task of “providing advice on how the city can transition away from the use of its gas utility.” As with the above commission, this commission is also required to put together a report—due next fall, so mark your calendars.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and today we’ve got highs right around 60 °F—but it’ll take most of the day for them to get there. With a mostly cloudy sky for a large portion of the day, it’s the perfect time replace your profile pic with a moody outdoor selfie.
 

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Do you or one of your best pals want to represent the 9th District on City Council? If so, just fill out this form before 12:00 PM on November 27th. Yesterday, Council staff put out this press release—surprising me with the quick turnaround and answering all of the questions I had about how they plan on filling Councilmember Jones’s soon-to-be-vacant seat. The gist: City Council will appoint a replacement to serve from January 1st through December 31st, the November election will continue on as planned, applicants (of course) must be a 9th District resident, and everyone interested will be required to attend a December 4th Organizational Development committee meeting to “express their candidacy.” What a fun and fascinating process. I assume we’ll see the list of potential candidates on that OrgDev agenda in a couple of weeks, and I can’t wait to get a look at the pool. Will it be a bunch of folks just looking to maintain for a year? Or a preview of the people hoping to run for the 9th District seat this coming November?
 

Also in hot City Council form news: Applications to receive non-departmental funding from Richmond’s upcoming budget close on Friday December 1st. Non-departmental funding covers all sorts of things from quasi-governmental entities like GRTC, to community organizations like the Peter Paul Development Center, to the Richmond’s own Sister City’s Comission. It’s a big bucket of money, too: $88.7 million in last year’s budget, up from $84 million in FY21. If you’re interested, the City has put together a really useful webpage with lots of resources, guidelines, and forms to fill out. Just two weeks remain before the deadline, so you better get cracking!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 32 °F right now, and that’s officially cold. Later today, though, you can expect highs right around 60 °F. Dry skies stick around until at least Thursday, so layer up and spend sometime outside enjoying the cool fall air—that is, if you can get out before sunset, which is at literal 5:00 PM today.
 

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch ran two pieces this past weekend about the impact last week’s elections had on Politics In the Region™. Start with this piece by Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams on what flipping both the Henrico and Chesterfield boards of supervisors could mean for our little piece of central Virginia. Then read this predictable (and depressing) report by Em Holter on the lack of plans to support affordable childcare in Richmond following the failure of Casino 2.0. Heck, if you want to make it an RTD hat trick, check out this way-too-early piece by Michael Martz on Mayor Stoney’s chances in the 2025 gubernatorial election (a full 722 days from now!).
 

City Council meets today with an absolutely packed agenda as they try to move on a bunch of ordinances and resolutions before the end of the year. You can find the full agenda here. It contains 49 different items, but I’ve got my eye on two specifically. First, ORD. 2023–289 will officially keep the real estate tax rate at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value for all of 2024. Should Council fail to pass this paper, due to a paternalistic statewide law, the rate would revert back to $1.125 and the City’s budget would crumble into dust. This paper sits on the regular agenda, and that has me a little hmmmmm, but, due to the aforementioned dust crumbling, it should pass without too much discussion. Second, ORD. 2023–315 will establish that Public Utilities and Services Commission that I’ve yammered on about for the last several months. It’s got four patrons now (Addison, Jordan, Lambert, and Lynch) and it’s part of the Consent Agenda, so I think this too shall pass. Stay tuned for more on the process for appointing the Commission’s 13 members (eight from Council and five from the Mayor).
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 32 °F right now, and that’s officially cold. Later today, though, you can expect highs right around 60 °F. Dry skies stick around until at least Thursday, so layer up and spend sometime outside enjoying the cool fall air—that is, if you can get out before sunset, which is at literal 5:00 PM today.
 

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch ran two pieces this past weekend about the impact last week’s elections had on Politics In the Region™. Start with this piece by Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams on what flipping both the Henrico and Chesterfield boards of supervisors could mean for our little piece of central Virginia. Then read this predictable (and depressing) report by Em Holter on the lack of plans to support affordable childcare in Richmond following the failure of Casino 2.0. Heck, if you want to make it an RTD hat trick, check out this way-too-early piece by Michael Martz on Mayor Stoney’s chances in the 2025 gubernatorial election (a full 722 days from now!).
 

City Council meets today with an absolutely packed agenda as they try to move on a bunch of ordinances and resolutions before the end of the year. You can find the full agenda here. It contains 49 different items, but I’ve got my eye on two specifically. First, ORD. 2023–289 will officially keep the real estate tax rate at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value for all of 2024. Should Council fail to pass this paper, due to a paternalistic statewide law, the rate would revert back to $1.125 and the City’s budget would crumble into dust. This paper sits on the regular agenda, and that has me a little hmmmmm, but, due to the aforementioned dust crumbling, it should pass without too much discussion. Second, ORD. 2023–315 will establish that Public Utilities and Services Commission that I’ve yammered on about for the last several months. It’s got four patrons now (Addison, Jordan, Lambert, and Lynch) and it’s part of the Consent Agenda, so I think this too shall pass. Stay tuned for more on the process for appointing the Commission’s 13 members (eight from Council and five from the Mayor).
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 51 °F now, but temperatures will head back up in the 80s later today. Enjoy—like, really get out there and take part—because, over the next 24 hours, highs drop a full 20 degrees. We might could see a little bit of rain tomorrow, to go with those cooler temperatures, and then we’ll ride straight on through to a fairly brisk weekend. Should be decidedly fall-like for the next couple of days!
 

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Earlier this week, RPS’s School Board met for a regularly scheduled meeting, and, while they discussed real and important items worth writing about, I mostly want to focus on how this School Board breaks our local media coverage. First, watch for yourself a portion of this past Monday’s meeting—things heat up around 1:37:00 and then really go off the rails around 1:47:00. Second, read a typical example of the coverage of that same meeting from WRIC. As you read, think about the language used to describe what you just watched. Does “fiery debate” describe the School Board’s behavior? Do the actions taken by the Board feel accurately represented by the incredibly passive-voiced “that motion was rejected”? Not at all! Whether its a desire to remain unbiased, a lack of experience and time on the public-school beat, or simply a need to cut an incredibly complicated moment down into a two-minute story, much of our local school reporting doesn’t focus on the simple and critical fact that Richmond’s School Board is broken. As a result, Richmonders aren’t able to effectively advocate for progress, and they definitely lack the information needed moving into the 2024 election season. Media critic Jay Rosen talks a lot about how national election coverage should tell voters “not the odds, but the stakes.” I think we need a version of that for local education reporting. Tell voters what the stakes are for public education in this coming School Board election—because I’m not sure the District can handle another four years at this level of dysfunction.
 

Update! GRTC’s LINK Microtransit pilot is now up and running in the Northside. To give it a whirl, download the GRTC On The Go app and book yourself a ride. Just like the rest of GRTC service, LINK is fare-free.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 48 °F, and today, with its highs in the upper 60s, is a cool interlude before tomorrow brings summer temperatures back—maybe for the last time! Celebrate last night’s election results by spending a bit of time outside in the beautiful fall weather!
 

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Election results! What a big night for things I care about at both the state and local levels! Last night, as positive results from various interesting elections started to roll in, I realized (or maybe even re-realized again) that not every election will be as shocking or traumatizing as the one in 2016. Recently, some of them have even been surprising and positive and don’t end in fear and quiet weeping in the bathroom at work. Anyway, great work everyone, and here’s a breakdown of interesting results (all pulled from the Virginia Public Access Project, which is where you should point your browser this morning to dig into the numbers).
 

Casino 2.0 crashed and burned, with 62% of folks voting against. That’s 24,765 votes for, which means Urban One and friends spent somewhere around $400 per vote—which seems like a huge number to not even end up with a casino. A risky gamble, you might say. Looking at it another way, with almost 14,000 fewer YES votes than last time around, they spent about $715 per person convincing folks to flip and vote against their own casino proposal or to not vote at all. Just incredible. After the results were clear, Mayor Stoney released the following statement: “I will continue to be a voice for communities that have been historically overlooked and underserved. I will work for more accessible and affordable child care, for good paying jobs, and for an abundance of opportunities for ALL Richmonders – no matter their zip code or socioeconomic status.” Now, we’ll all take a quick breather before moving directly into budget season, when we’ll get to see if the Mayor and City Council’s commitment to affordable child care is something that extends beyond Casino 2.0. But, until then, and to quote Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams, my parting thoughts on the casino are: “Bye!”
 

Photo by: adamwilliams4405

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F and a bit rainy. Later this morning, the rain should clear up and temperatures will top out around 50 °F.

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Alright, what is UP with last week’s state-level election results? Michael Martz and Patrick Wilson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the update, and the path forward most likely involves courts and judges. It sounds like we won’t really know which party controls the House of Delegates for a good, long while.

Photo by: chesbayprogram

Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and highs today, while still hot, are “only” in the upper 80s. There’s a fairly good chance for thunderstorms for most of the afternoon, so keep an eye out and a raincoat at the ready.

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Primary Day is past, and while Corey Stewart has yet to concede, the ballot for November is set. At the top of the ticket, Ralph Northam and Ed Gillespie won their nominations—VPAP has the rest of results for you to poke around in on a lovely map. Locally, Antoinette Irving and Nichole Ona Armstead will be the Democratic nominees for Sheriff and Treasurer respectively. It’s scary that a blatantly bigoted candidate like Stewart, who raised just $990k compared to Ed Gillespie’s almost $5 million, was able to pull within 4,500 votes of the Republican nomination. Most likely this will pull Candidate Gillespie down toward the Confederate-Flag-waving, pseudo-but-sometimes-blatantly White supremacy wing of the Republican party—that’s the scary part. The reassuring part is that the turnout gap between Democrats and Republicans was massive. Almost more folks voted for Ralph Northam than voted for both Republican front runners combined.

Photo by: Massmo Relsig

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, and today’s the first day in awhile with a nontrivial chance of rain. If storms do roll in, it’ll be later this afternoon as the temperatures approach 90 °F.

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The (unofficial) results from yesterday’s 4th Congressional District primaries are in! Donald McEachin won on the Democratic ballot with 74.83% of the vote, and Republican Mike Wade won with 64.17%. You can download the entire data set (even in JSON!), which I think is really awesome of the State Board of Elections.

Photo by: Massmo Relsig

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, and today’s the first day in awhile with a nontrivial chance of rain. If storms do roll in, it’ll be later this afternoon as the temperatures approach 90 °F.

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The (unofficial) results from yesterday’s 4th Congressional District primaries are in! Donald McEachin won on the Democratic ballot with 74.83% of the vote, and Republican Mike Wade won with 64.17%. You can download the entire data set (even in JSON!), which I think is really awesome of the State Board of Elections.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 44 °F, and the next couple of days—today included—look beautiful. This afternoon you can expect highs around 70 °F and maybe a couple of clouds, but tomorrow and Thursday (not Wednesday for some reason) we could see temperatures near 80 °F. Fall-like weather returns this weekend, though, so get out there and take advantage of summer’s (potential) last hurrah.
 

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This past Friday, the folks opposing Casino 2.0 posted these jaw-dropping audio clips from a radio program featuring Urban One Board Chair Cathy Hughes. Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams has the best recap of what the heck is going on here, but you should probably tap through and listen for yourself. Warning: The clips contain racist, sexist, antisemitic, and offensive language. First, as a white man, I definitely do not have the context or lived-experience to fully process or comment on some of the language used by Hughes and her fellow radio hosts to describe the local, Black anti-casino advocates. I do know, however, that I would be incredibly offended if someone—someone with a serious amount of wealth, influence, and power—spoke about me in that way on a public forum. The folks involved have since (briefly) apologized for the blatantly antisemitic comments directed at Paul Goldman, who has organized most of the opposition to this second casino attempt, but, as far as I know, none of the local advocates have received an apology from anyone involved. Second, Allan-Charles Chipman (one of the aforementioned local advocates) has a really nice piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch explaining all of the hard, quantitative reasons why you should vote against Casino 2.0. Because he’s a better person than I am, he doesn’t mention anything about the major concerns I have with the City working alongside a developer whose Board Chair regularly took part in racist, sexist, antisemitic, and offensive discussions on a public radio show. Will any of this impact the outcome of tomorrow’s referendum? I have no idea, but it certainly makes me feel good about my vote against.
 

Back by popular demand: GRTC’s Rider Advisory Council! GRTC wants you!…if you are a bus rider looking to “be a part of a team that meets quarterly to advocate on behalf of riders, work with GRTC on new initiatives, and generally improve the system.” As a deeply bus-oriented person, this sounds like a ton of fun to me. If you’d like to apply to join the Council, you can fill out the form online until December 1st.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and that’s cold! But, later today, you can expect highs in the 60s followed by the most beautiful weekend weather: Saturday and Sunday will bring temperatures near 70 °F, sunshine, and memories of summer. I hope you’ve got outside plans, because we’re in for a great next couple of days.
 

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I know, I know, we’re all tired of reading about Casino 2.0—and I’m tired of writing about it! Just four more days, y’all, and then…well, and then we’ll probably have to talk about the dang thing a ton more (regardless of how Tuesday’s referendum turns out). Anyway, I wanted to link to this piece from Jahd Khalil in VPM, because he links to this independent assessment of Richmond’s gaming market that the City commissioned back in 2021. It lays out the revenue potential for a casino in Richmond—both where and who that revenue could come from. I’ve filed this PDF away and set a reminder to look at it in a couple years so we can compare/contrast the Casino 2.0’s projected revenue to its actual revenue (assuming the referendum passes this coming Tuesday, of course).
 

Remember earlier this week when I wrote about how Libbie Mill was a fascinatingly dense-yet-disconnected neighborhood? Well, Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the developer who owns the whole area has plans for 15 more residential buildings that would bring 300 additional apartments online. With 1,500 folks already living in the neighborhood now, and a ton more apartments coming soon, I still think connecting Libbie Mill into the rest of the surrounding area should be a top priority for the County.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 32 °F, and the rest of today looks clear and cool with highs in the mid 50s. Yesterday, I was big-time underdressed on my bike ride into work, and I won’t make that mistake again today. Throw on an extra layer or two this morning, and wait patiently for this weekend’s perfect weather to arrive!
 

Water cooler

Yesterday, Governor Youngkin signed Executive Order 28, which directs the Department of Education to issue guidance “ensuring school districts notify all parents of school-connected overdoses within 24 hours, work closely with law enforcement to prevent overdoses, and enhance student education about the dangers of abusing drugs.” You can read the press release here and the full text of the Executive Order here. The Governor, of course, frames this as another plank in his “parental rights” campaign platform, which, I guess. I’m still thinking through—both as a parent and as a person who communicates a lot professionally—how this new guidance would work and what sort of practical actions you could pair with these notifications. It’s an interesting idea, but it makes me think back to the school-wide notifications about COVID-19 exposures during the pandemic—which I’m not convinced were entirely useful. Also, it’s strange/predictable that the Executive Order only looks for “close collaboration” between schools and law enforcement, not, say public or behavioral health folks (or even emergency responders). Anyway, more to come, I’m sure, on how the Department of Education puts together its guidance and how the local school districts decide to implement it.
 

Axios Richmond’s Ned Oliver and Karri Peifer report that speed enforcement cameras are coming to two school zones (as allowed by the General Assembly), Linwood Holton on the Northside and Patrick Henry School for Science and Arts on the Southside. Speed cameras are certainly a tool to make our streets safer, but they are not the only tool (but we definitely should be using as many tools as we can get our hands on). Related and worth reading, here’s thoughtful discussion about speed cameras over on Strong Towns.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 43 °F, and that cold front definitely showed up. Today you can expect highs in the 50s, a lot of sunshine, and temperatures at—or even below—freezing overnight. If you’ve got freeze-sensitive plants outside, they may need a little extra care to get through the next couple of nights. Temperatures will start to creep back up on Friday, so hang tight!
 

Water cooler

Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that Local Initiatives Support Corp (LISC) announced they will match the City’s five-year, $50 million investment in affordable housing. That brings in $100 million over just five years to help address Richmond’s affordable housing crisis, and LISC’s president says that the investment even “leverages significantly more.” It’s a lot of money to spend in a pretty short amount of time, and it feels like the scale of investment you’ll really see on the ground. One thing I’d love to learn more about, though, is how the City will prioritize and make decisions around spending this money—because we could do a lot of creative things with all this cash!
 

Back in 2020, the General Assembly allowed public school teachers to unionize, and, pretty quickly thereafter, the RPS School Board voted to approve collective bargaining. Now the Henrico Education Association is working to secure those same rights for teachers in the County. You can learn more about those efforts to unionize here, as well as sign an authorization card that will help press the issue with the HCPS board should they not want to introduce collective bargaining in the District on their own. I would guess that this will be a much more complicated and challenge piece of advocacy than it was in Richmond—but it’s definitely not impossible! If you’re a Henrico educator, tap through to learn more.