Good morning, RVA! It's 59 °F, and if you can squeak past this morningâs chance of light rain, I think youâll have a warm and dry day. Expect highs in the upper 70s and lots of clouds. For me, Iâm definitely riding my bike in slip ons with one pant leg rolled upâmy final form.
The City posted the video from this past Mondayâs third budget session, and Iâve gone ahead and put it up on the Boring Show. This is when I make the joke about listening at 2x speedâwhich, for me, is not a joke and definitely what I actually do, and to hear Councilmembers speak at 1x speed when I see them in real life makes me feel like Iâm dodging bullets in The Matrix. Anyway, this weekâs episode clocks in at just over three hours, so youâre gonna want to set aside some serious time if you plan on listening. Iâll most likely permit it to pass over and through me during a couple bike rides and laundry foldingsâyou should do the same! If youâd rather just scroll through some slides, make sure you grab all three decks: the operating budget, the Cityâs revenue, and its compensation and benefits plan.
Also, later on in the same day, Council held their regularly scheduled meeting and introduced two papers that we mostly already knew about, but I mention them just in case you want to add them to your own legislation tracker. First, ORD. 2024-111 would authorize the City to issue $170 million of general obligation bonds to cover the new ballpark and associated infrastructure. There are a couple related papers, too, that when grouped together enable the Cityâs new Diamond District financing mechanism. Second, ORD. 2024-110 will accept $100 million from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to help fund fixes to our aging sewer system. Iâm pretty sure that this is not new money but state money from a previous budget or two weâd already heard about, but, still! Itâs exciting to see ordinances accepting a hundred million bucksâespecially for sewer repairs.
While weâre talking about Council and their budget process, I found the presentation from the first budget work session about the âRichmond Children and Youth Fiscal Map.â Not only that, but hereâs a public link to the fiscal map itself if you want to dig around and see if anything interesting pops out at you. I havenât spent a ton of time with the tool yet, but I just lost 10 minutes of my morning exploring various services and their funding streams. There is a lot in here!
Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the Cityâs new Diamond District financing mechanism will âfree up money, allowing the city to buy Sports Backers Stadium earlier...VCU, in turn, will use that money to build a new track and field stadium across Hermitage Road.â This is the original plan from a couple yeas back, but VCU had hit pause on their new athletic facilities because the City had delayed buying Sports Backers Stadium. The whole thing sort of stumbled to a halt as economic conditions across the country shifted and the City reevaluated their options. Now, with the newly announced financing plan, both the Diamond District and VCUâs Athletics Village get back on track...but with the City taking on a lot of the financial risk. Is this good or bad? I bet we will hear a lot about it from a lot of folks in the coming weeks. P.S. For context, seven of nine councilmembers have already signed on to the above mentioned ordinance authorizing the new financing.
Via Axios Richmond, this incredibly charming (and viral!) reel of students at Armstrong High School playing Finish the Lyrics. So good!
I loved this piece about âwomen in films who walk through cities.â It sort of reminds me of my obsession with the way less interesting âsad men who ride buses in the rain and stare out the window.â
To be a Woman and a pedestrian in the city can be combative and exhausting but sometimes it reminds me that I am in charge and that I will propel myself forward, always forward. I love shots of women walking through cities in films. I like that they are alone and alive and, usually, wearing a nice coat. I like that even though they are a part of a bigger story, something grand or trivial, for those seconds they are removed of their storyline, the knots and tangles, and they are simply people, immersing themselves in the city, disappearing for a moment and allowing the noise of the world to eclipse the noise of their lives.
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I sort of canât believe these fiery tulips are real.