😧 Good morning, RVA: Terrifying gun quotes, a blast from the civic past, and beer catacombs

Good morning, RVA! It’s 34 °F, but you can expect highs back up in the mid 50s today. Looks like a pretty chill day out there!

Water cooler

Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has a truly terrifying piece about some of the rural counties who’ve declared themselves “Second Amendment Sanctuaries.” I try not to link to things that quote and legitimize the guy from the Virginia Citizens Defense League—who is bad for the Commonwealth and full of bad-faith arguments—but I think it’s important to read the rhetoric from actual people in Virginia. Like this, “The time is coming…I’m mighty afraid that we’re going to have to defend ourselves because of what we believe in. Not only on the Second Amendment, but on any other issue that the government declares to be right, but God declares to be wrong.” Or this from the Lee County sheriff’s office, “I want to assure the citizens of Lee County that me and my officers will stand up to any federal or state agency that attempts to infringe upon our gun rights.” Hilariously (in a deeply dark way), the same sheriff goes on to worry that gun violence legislation like red flag laws will be used as a “weapon against people.” 😐. Honestly, great work by Moomaw on this piece. It’s tough to fairly cover something so bananas, while still pointing out that how surreal, wrong, and scary it all is.

VPM’s Roberto Roldan has a little more information on the anti-NoBro resolution that School Board passed this week. You can read the draft of the resolution the Board passed here (PDF) (which still kind of confuses me), and you can read an alternate resolution proposed by School Board Rep Dawn Page (PDF) that, as far as I can tell, didn’t get voted on. This alternate resolution makes a bunch more sense to me. Here, compare and contrast the active bits of each. First, School Board Rep Gibson’s resolution that ended up passing 7–2: “THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT; Richmond Public Schools seeks the authority to opt out of contributing its share of revenue to TIF district funds or other tax deals that fund city development projects.” Next, the resolution from School Board Rep Page: “THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the School Board demands that school funding be held harmless in the circumstance of any economic development project that does not yield projected revenues.”

City Council’s Economic and Finance committee meets today and will consider a few things, including RES. 2019-R057. That resolution would require the Richmond Performing Arts Alliance (née Richmond CenterStage) to sell their property at 623 E. Broad Street—that’s the parking lot behind the Carpenter Theatre between 5th and 6th. The letter of opposition from the RPAA to Council (PDF) is worth reading and gives some of the history behind why the City can attempt to force the sale in the first place. The deals that brought about the downtown performing arts center are more than a decade old at this point and are just on the other side of my Civic Awareness Horizon. Check out this piece by F.T. Rea in the Richmond Times-Dispatch from 2009 which features tons of players from today’s NoBro conversations: The City, the Coliseum, SMG, and even RRHA. Time is a flat circle!! Anyway, I’d love to learn more about RES. 2019-R057, but, obviously, I think a surface parking lot literally on Broad Street is a really, really poor use of land.

Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense says the State installed a new historic marker out near Rocketts Landing commemorating Richmond’s beer history. I knew that there had been talks, long ago, about converting the old James River Steam Brewery cellars into a restaurant, but I didn’t realize that the cellars are actively available for lease and redevelopment! I’m sure that it’s a huge, expensive pain to turn an 1866 catacomb that burned down in the 1880s and has sat abandoned ever since into safe space for people, but…some one should do this!

Also at Richmond BizSense, Jonathan Spiers has the details on a new solar panel program for commercial properties (C-PACE) that the City now offers thanks to legislation championed by Councilmembers Larson and Agelasto.

The Commonwealth Institute has weighed in on a couple gambling-related bills the General Assembly will consider this coming session. Allow me to quote a couple sentences: “The presence of casinos also raises the issue of tax equity. Research has shown that people with low incomes tend to spend a larger share of their income on gambling compared to people with higher incomes, and gambling activities - especially lotteries, which are legal in Virginia - tend to be a regressive source of revenue. States may end up leaning on these taxes in lieu of taxing wealthier individuals. And in Virginia, this would add to our already upside-down tax system.” Totally agree.

The New York Times has the full text of Ambassador Sondland’s testimony at yesterday’s impeachment hearings. It’s a long document, but seems like maybe an important one? On page 14 he writes: “I know that members of this Committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a ‘quid pro quo?’ As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.” I continue to rely on impeachment.fyi to watch 11 hours of hearings so I don’t have to, and yesterday’s recap was particularly helpful.

This morning’s patron longread

The ‘Superblock’ Revolution Is Making Cities Safer and Cleaner

Submitted by Patron Rachel. Superblocks are so interesting, and I can’t stop thinking about where in Richmond would be an interesting spot to plop one down. Ultimately though, they’re just one tool to make a city thrive—I absolutely love this paella metaphor.

Even so, Rueda insists today that he “doesn’t hate cars.” He says, “There are many ways to reduce C02 emissions in cities. Superblocks are just one little building block helping us think about what the future of cities might look like.” In a recent paper he offered an appropriately Spanish metaphor for his ideas, comparing the composition of cities to that of the national rice dish: “Paella is a system of proportions,” Rueda wrote. “Even if you use the best ingredients, if you don’t add salt, the paella will be bland, and if you add too much, it will be inedible.” By allowing cars to totally dominate our cities, he argued, we’ve oversalted and ruined our dinner.

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

This morning’s Instagram