Good morning, RVA! It's 46 °F and still rainyâat least from where Iâm sitting. The chance of rain dwindles as the day progresses, but the weather most likely wonât dry out entirely until this afternoon. The slog through today is worth it, though, because the weekend looks stunning: Sunny and clear with highs in the mid 60s and 70s.
Yesterday, the Mayor introduced his FY25 budget, and you can watch the video of his remarks via the Cityâs legislative website, listen to them at 2x over on The Boring Show, or read them as prepared in this PDF. The Richmond Times-Dispatchâs Em Holter has an overview and, of course, you can dive straight into the official proposed budget document here.
I havenât had much time to dig through the PDF yet, but highlights include: pay raises for City employees, $21 million for street maintenance (that covers paving but can also include additional infrastructure like sidewalks and bike lanes), $10 million to make improvements to Brownâs Island, $6.1 million for the Fall Line Trail, and a $15.8 million increase for Richmond Public Schools. Thereâs a bunch to discuss, of course, but that last item for schools will be top of mind for a lot of folks. Remember: The budget passed by the RPS School Board requested an additional $25 million from the City, and theyâll now need to come up with $9 million worth of cuts.
Stay tuned, and give the Mayorâs presentation a listen, itâs only 47 minutes long (just 24 minutes at 2x)!.
Richmond BizSenseâs Mike Platania reports that âLegend Brewing Co. has put its Manchester real estate up for sale, leaving the future of Richmondâs oldest brewery up in the air. .â To everything there is a season, and, for the Ukropâs of Richmond beer, that season may be over. Iâm bummed, but, if interrogate that feeling, I think itâs mostly about being old enough to remember various Time Was-es. Anyway! Get over it, old man, and letâs build some more housing down that way!
A bunch of journalists at VPM report that the City of Alexandria âended negotiationsâ on the Governorâs stadium deal, effectively killing what Sen. Louise Lucas has affectionately called The GlennDome. Governor Youngkin put out this passive aggressive statement which includes an actual âbut nooooooo.â
Definitely not local but still really interesting: The New York Times reports that, after years of back and forth, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted to approve congestion pricing in Manhattan. Should the new policy clear the remaining hurdles (literally six lawsuits and a bunch of angry rich people), most passenger cars would be charged $15 a day to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. New York has tried to implement congestion pricing for years and years, and, again, if it somehow squeaks the new regulations past a bunch of litigious New Yorkers, it will become the first American city to do so. Exciting stuff if only for creating an example of how itâs possible to build a less car-centric cityâeven in America!
Today at 12:00 PM, RVA Rapid Transit will host a virtual Transit Talk focused on the Richmond Connects Final Action Plan. Theyâll have folks on hand from the Cityâs Office of Equitable Transit & Mobility to answer all of your questions about the actual infrastructure Richmond Connects recommends building. Tune in if youâre curious about how our now-adopted transportation plan (!) will impact your neighborhood. I think, between now and this coming January, everyone needs to make a list of projects theyâre stoked on and start thinking about how to hold our elected officials accountable for getting them implemented. For me, my list includes (but is not limited to!): Chamberlayne Avenue pedestrian safety improvements, Southside Plaza pedestrian connections across railroad tracks, the James River Branch Trail, and extending the Franklin Street cycle track to Lombardy.
Logistical note: Tomorrow is Good Friday, and the local school districts are closed. While this is technically not a state holiday, the gap between George Washington Day on February 19th and Memorial Day on May 27th is far too long to endure without some sort of break. So! Iâm taking tomorrow off from this email newsletter and will return to your inboxes on Monday. If you can, maybe join me in some time away from responsibilitiesâI think the weather might just be too good to ignore.
I really appreciated this reframing of classic science fiction (rocket ships and robots) as âfrom the 1900s.â Sure it makes Elon Muskâs hobbies look ancient and out-of-touch, but it also makes me wonder what sort of old-timey visions of the future Iâm still holding on to. For what itâs worth, Kim Stanley Robinsonâwho has written plenty of classic sci-fi stories, including an entire series about colonizing Marsâdoes a wonderful job writing contemporary science fiction in his book The Ministry for the Future. Itâs a book Iâm always thinking about, and one of my strongest recommendations!
Hieroglyph was a project where a specific design constraint was imposed on a set of authors and scientists, forcing them to reframe how they looked at science fiction, and the future. Iâm not looking to repeat that exact experiment; but I am going to ask this of you: Are your ideas and plans for confronting the crises and opportunities we face in the 2020s based on ideas âfrom the 1900s?â If so, it is possible that there are new ideas and plans that are a better match to our current situation? Iâve set this as my own design constraint for the next few years. Iâm going to write short stories, novels, and collaborate with as many people as I can on real-world projects to reframe and reinvent our future.
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Never a great sign.