Good morning, RVA! Itâs already 69 °F out there! Today you can expect more of those warm temperatures, and then a pretty decent chance for storms this afternoon. Cooler temperatures move in overnight, but the rest of the week still looks pretty lovely to me.
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Meg Schiffres at VPM reports on the complex situation for folks experiencing homelessness. The Cityâs inclement weather shelter will close tomorrow (it only operates in the fall and winter), and the CARES Act-funded non-congregate shelter will close later this month as that funding expires. This leaves the regionâs existing, and already taxed, emergency shelters to try and make space for a couple hundred extra people. Thankfully, Commonwealth Catholic Charities, who run the non-congregate shelter, has âhelped a little under half of those staying at the non-congregate shelter find alternative emergency housing options.â Also, I appreciate Schiffres specifically comparing the cost of keeping the shelter running through October ($265,980) to the size of the Richmond Police Departmentâs budget ($110 million dollars). I havenât read through the entire thing, but the fourth bullet point in the Cityâs Strategic Plan to End Homelessness is âIncrease financial support to the Cityâs registered homeless providers to ensure supportive services are available to every homeless person.â This is why budgets are awesome and important: They make your cityâs values extremely clear.
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Richmond BizSenseâs Jonathan Spiers has some new information on one of the groups competing to redevelop the Diamond District. I thought this quote from the developer was pretty good: âOne of the things thatâs interesting about the Diamond District is that at its scale, it presents some interesting opportunities for district-wide infrastructure solutions. Things like geothermal or (photovoltaic) array or district cooling.â Whoa! You know that, personally, Iâm most excited to see what these teams come up with to help rebuild that neighborhoodâs infrastructure. And we shouldnât have to wait too much longer to know more about what each of the six development teams have proposed, either, as theyâve got an April 25th deadline to get the City more information.
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Want to weigh in on how the state could improve Semmes Avenue? Richard Hayes at RVA Hub has the details, including a link to this survey that you can take until April 22nd. Looks like the current proposal has a shared bike/bus lane, a travel lane, and then a turning lane in the center. Iâm not sure how I feel about a shared bus-bike lane and think Iâd like to see a version with protected bike lanes on the outside. With the addition of bus boarding platforms, like this one in L.A., you could keep bikes protected while making bus stops efficient. Anyway, leave your feedback if youâve got thoughts and opinions! Note: This is different than the other survey I linked to awhile back about reworking the intersection of Semmes and Forest Hill.
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If youâd like to read an entire article about how governors and legislators can be exceedingly petty to one another, check out this piece by VPMâs Ben Paviour: âWith slew of vetoes, Youngkin plays âhardballâ with Democrats.â You say hardball, I say wasting time playing silly games.
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Itâs possible to reduce traffic deaths in America, but itâll take hard work from bold politicians. Weâve taken some small steps in Richmond, but we need to do more! Elected officials have to demand more from our DPW-type folks and empower them to make our streets safer for everyone. Two specific things I loved from this piece: 1) Creating a thorough, infrastructure-focused report every time someone is seriously injured or killed on our streets, and 2) passing legislation to require that bike lanes laid out in the Cityâs transportation plan get put down during repaving.
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Vision Zeroâs track record in the U.S. contrasts sharply with Europe, where road deaths have been drifting downward for years. In 2019, Helsinki had exactly three traffic fatalities â and none was a pedestrian or cyclist. For comparison, the capital of Finland has roughly as many residents as Las Vegas, a Vision Zero city where 304 people died on the road that same year. Despite Vision Zero being one of the hottest ideas in traffic safety, its European success has not translated across the Atlantic. Current trends suggest that is unlikely to change, absent a fundamental rethink around policy implementation.
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Riding into work the other dayâshred or die!
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