Good morning, RVA: Sidewalk updates, secret budget revealed, and Mayorathon: Policy Jam 🍓

Good morning, RVA! It’s 42 °F, and today’s highs will creep up just a couple of degrees. Expect a cloudy sky, but it’s, like, the fourth dry day in a row, so nothing to complain about from me!

Water cooler

I have a couple updates and thoughts on yesterday’s fatal crash that killed a pedestrian trying to cross Broad Street. First, Richmond Police have identified the victim as Luther A. Waller, Jr. 67. Second, GRTC has closed the bus stop on the northeast corner of that intersection, which is utterly inaccessible since the sidewalk is entirely blocked off. You can see from this picture by @_SmithNicholas_ that transit riders were a complete afterthought when closing this huge section of sidewalk. Third, I keep thinking about how this terrible incident illustrates the need for a Richmond Department of Transportation—I know, that’s a wonky and boring thought, but it’s true. Richmond doesn’t have a dedicated Department of Transportation, and so we don’t have anyone who has the authority over and responsibility for all of the things that impact transportation in the City. We have lots of hard-working, smart folks scattered over many departments all across the org chart, but without a team focused on transportation we end up with situations like this: a decision to allow a sidewalk closure on a block that contains a bus stop, is adjacent to the Pulse, is in a pedestrian-heavy part of town, and no requirement to provide a safe alternative. Who can champion the sidewalk-closure policy inside City government? Who can make sure that sidewalks, bike lanes, and bus stops are considered and prioritized during construction and demolition? Who can ensure that investments in our transportation network—be it for pedestrians, people on bikes, or public transportation—are done in an equitable way?

Justin Mattingly has an update on the weirdly secret RPS budget, including an explanatory quote from Superintendent Kamras: “The only reason that I held on releasing [the budget] was because we wanted to provide our employees with the dignity of a face-to-face conversation and now that’s not possible.” He’s talking about the employees in the 49 positions he plans to cut from the Central Office. You can download the full budget here (PDF) and learn more about those positions, but, be warned, it is a 228-page document. According to Mattingly, you can find the Superintendent at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School tonight at 6:00 PM hosting a public meeting to answer questions about his proposed budget. Next up in budgetland: The Mayor’s budget presentation to City Council on March 6th at 3:00 PM.

Via /r/reddit, it looks like the Rocketts Landing Urban Farmhouse will close. I’m interested in what’s next for that space—especially with the planned future development across the street and easier access to that part of town via the Pulse.

Here’s a technical piece in the Virginia Mercury on some of the solar power legislation that floated through the General Assembly this past session. I’m not smart enough to understand what it all means, but I think my takeaway is that whatever we’re doing is not progressive enough and we need to make it way, way easier (and cheaper) to reduce emissions from people’s homes.

Mayorathon: Policy Jam is TONIGHT! Join us at the ICA from 6:30 PM–8:00 PM for a conversation about policy with Mayor Levar Stoney. Who knows, we may even ask him about creating a Richmond Department of Transportation! Please RSVP over on the Eventbrite; The event is free, but it’d be nice to know how many of those little golf pencils to bring for y’all to write down your suggested questions for the Mayor.

This morning’s patron longread

Watching the Black Body

Patron Sam submitted this longread about surveillance, racism, and technology. When we—and I definitely include me in that we—say things like “who cares if they’re watching, I’m not doing anything wrong,” it’s usually said from a place of privilege.

These examples show that our twenty-first-century digital environment offers Black communities a constant pendulum swing between promise and peril. On one hand, twenty-first-century technology is opening pathways to circumvent the traditional gatekeepers of power via a free and open internet—allowing marginalized communities of color to unite and build widespread movements for change. The growth of the movement for Black lives is just one example. On the other hand, high-tech profiling, policing, and punishment are supersizing racial discrimination and placing Black lives and dissent at even graver risk. Too often, the latter is disguised as the former.

If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

This morning’s Instagram