🦖 Good morning, RVA: Fund our Future rally, solar power, and a Jurassic Jeep

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

Water cooler

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

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

City Council meets tonight at 6:00 PM for a regularly schedule meeting, and you can find the agenda here (PDF). Of note from the informal meeting immediately beforehand, is this state-mandated presentation on the five-year revenue forecast for the City (PDF). Assuming no new taxes, which is not an assumption I would make, in 2025, the City should see about $30 million more coming to the general fund (that’s a 4% increase from today). Seems like a lot, but, as this presentation points out, the City currently has a $22 million gap in vacancy funding and a $5 million need for retirement benefits funds beginning next fiscal year. There’s just not enough money to keep the lights on, let alone make the investments we need to make in schools, affordable housing, and public transportation. Anyway, back to Council’s regular agenda. They’ll consider the newly-amended Special Use Permit allowing the shelter on the 1900 block of Chamberlayne Avenue (ORD. 2019–328), look at adopting the James River Park System Master Plan into the City’s Master Plan (ORD. 2019–337), and, of course, those animal control papers I talked about a couple weeks ago. Honestly, there’s a bunch of interesting stuff on here that I don’t really understand, too, like RES. 2020-R003, which expresses support for a $2.7 million amendment to this year’s Capital Budget for schools-related ADA projects and RES. 2020-R004 which approves a decision by RRHA to issues up to $10 million in bonds for new housing on the 4200 block of Chamberlayne Avenue. One day I’m going to figure out a reasonable way to track all of the ordinances I’m interested in. Until then, though…try to keep all of this contained within your mind?

Via /r/rva, have you seen the Jurassic Jeep around town?? I have not and feel irrationally upset by this!

If today’s rally for education funding is just not enough schools-related civic involvement for you, head on over the the second renaming session for George Mason Elementary. That meeting kicks off at 6:00 PM at George Mason (813 N. 28th Street) and is the final input session for renaming that particular school.

This morning’s longread

Why My Best Friend And I Decided To Move In Together And Co-Mother Our Children

This piece about co-mothering is really interesting. While not strictly a story about the housing crisis in New York City, it’s not not a story about the housing crisis in New York City.

I’ve known my best friend Tia for 10 years. We’ve seen each other through marriages, career changes and the journey into motherhood. This year was a year of relationship changes for both of us. Her marriage was coming to an end, and my live-in boyfriend and I decided to take a significant step backward so we could work on some of our conflicts. Despite our respective emotional rollercoasters, we were both forced to shift our attention to logistics. Finding an apartment in New York City is hard enough, but finding one that accommodates kids is like searching for a very expensive needle in a very expensive haystack. As we shared our experiences with each other, the idea of merging our households kind of hit us like a brick. The aim was to help make both of our lives a little easier.

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This morning’s Instagram