Archive (Page 25) • Good Morning, RVA • Buttondown

🎍Good morning, RVA: Green to yellow, red Pulse lanes, yelling until he’s blue in the face

Good morning, RVA! It’s 60 °F, and the damp weather continues. Expect highs in the 70s, a chance of rain kind of all over the place, and maybe even some thunderstorms. Similar vibes continue through the weekend, but I do hope you’ll find a sunbeam to curl up in at some point.

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It’s Friday! That’s not my normal COVID-19 update day, but, for the first time since it’s debut, Henrico and Chesterfield’s COVID-19 Community Level has switched from low to medium (aka green to yellow). Richmond’s level is, technically, still low, but so very on the cusp as to be functionally medium. The 7-day case rates per 100,000 people in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield as of yesterday are: 193, 295, and 226 (with 200 being the threshold between low and medium). So what does this mean? Mostly that more disease is working its way through our communities. The CDC’s guidance between the low and medium levels doesn’t change a ton, but if you are or spend a lot of time with a high-risk individual, you might consider shifting your behavior a bit, wearing masks more, and being generally more thoughtful about your specific context and risk level. Are we headed for another coronapeak or just a taller coronaplateau? It’s hard to tell, but you should prepare yourself for either (or both)!

Best tweet of the week, via @GRTCPulse: “Red median lanes.” The City will close sections of Broad Street between 3rd and 195 for about a week (during off-peak hours!) to start putting down some pavement markings—“this includes preparations for Pulse lane paint.” Yes! Exciting!

#201

May 13, 2022

❤️‍🔥 Good morning, RVA: Fighting Joe radio show, someone should subsidize e-bikes, and seared hearts

Good morning, RVA! It’s 56 °F, and the chance for rain begins tonight and heads on through weekend. You can expect highs in the upper 60s today as we wait for warmer weather next week.

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Whittney Evans at VPM reports on a weird and troubling exchange on The Fighting Joe Morrissey Show, a radio show hosted by State Senator Joe Morrissey of which I was completely unaware. Here’s a lengthy quote from the piece: “The producer asked Morrissey during the live radio show whether he is for or against the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. ‘Any state bill that’s passed, you have to have exceptions. I’m also very much of a libertarian, and I do not like government telling us what to do,’ Morrissey said. ‘I’m much more in favor of a strong state government, as I think are most people.’ ‘So in a roundabout way of saying, you’re for overturning Roe v. Wade?’ the producer asks. The question, suggesting Morrissey didn’t clearly state his position on the issue, caused Morrissey to get agitated. ‘Don’t ever tell me what a roundabout way I’m doing. Do you understand that?’ Morrissey shouts before going to commercial break. Once off the air, a now-deleted Facebook live video shows the heated verbal altercation continue inside the studio. At one point, a woman in the studio tries to restrain Morrissey.” I have no idea what to make of these remarks and what they portend, but a lot of Virginia’s hopes for maintain access to abortion rest on Sen. Joe Morrissey. Should Morrissey defect and side with Republicans on banning abortion, the two-seat Democratic Brick Wall in the State Senate quickly becomes a 20–20 tie, which would be broken by the Republican Lt. Governor. It’s incredibly stressful to have the rights of millions of Virginians depend on such a chaotic individual.

Meanwhile, in totally unsurprising news, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a federal abortion rights bill on a 49–51 vote. Jennifer Shutt at the Virginia Mercury has the details. 100% of Republicans, plus, of course, Joe Manchin, voted against the bill, but given the insurmountable filibuster hurdle, it was never even close.

#1013

May 12, 2022

🌱 Good morning, RVA: LVT, Diamond District finalists, and infinite gardening

Good morning, RVA! It’s 53 °F, and I had a really pleasant bike ride yesterday despite all of the wind. Today you can expect highs in the 70s, more wind, but continued dry skies. Wet weather could move in tomorrow, so, if you can, get out there on your porches and patios tonight!

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Land Value Tax is rad and, if implemented properly in Richmond, could help sustain much needed revenue while making the distribution of who pays how much tax more equitable. The idea is you split our current, single real estate tax rate—$1.20 per $100 of assessed value of the land and the building which sits on the land—and split it into two rates—a big one for the land and a small one for the building. You can see how this has a couple of impacts, like encouraging denser development: The amount of tax a developer would pay on a vacant lot downtown would be about the same that they would pay for a lot with an apartment building. Councilmember Addison has been hard at work on getting an LVT implemented in the City and has a nice explainer this week in his newsletter. Check it out, and tap through to some of the resources he includes, especially this helpful video from Strong Towns.

The Diamond District Hunger Games continues! Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that the City has announced the three finalists in the competition to redevelop the huge area over by the Diamond. The remaining three will need to submit another, more detailed proposal by June 28th, and the City hopes to pick a preferred developer in July. Once we get those more formal proposals, I’m definitely going to need someone to walk me through all three PDFs—assuming the proposals end up in front of the public at some point.

#738

May 11, 2022

🐣 Good morning, RVA: Keep an eye on the COVID level, a budget is born, and proposed bike share stations

Good morning, RVA! It’s 50 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday which turned out to be a real stunner. Expect highs in the upper 60s, some sunshine, and, for at least three minutes, not a care in the world. Enjoy it, because this weekend’s starting to look real wet.

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It’s Tuesday, and the COVID-19 Community Level in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield is low…kind of. The 7-day case rate per 100,00 people for each locality sits at 142, 245, and 193 respectively. Assuming hospitalization rates and capacities stay the same, the magic case rate threshold for Community Level to flip from low to medium (green to yellow) is 200. Henrico’s already there and Chesterfield’s knocking at the door. The CDC updates their Community Level indicator once per week on Thursdays, so, technically, the region is remains in low today, but if we were to run the numbers this morning, we’d have a split decision with Henrico medium, while Richmond and Chesterfield remained low. There’s more disease out there than previously, so maybe start to think through your own actions and risk levels.

Here’s a quick piece from Henry Graff at NBC12 about bike lanes and bike share. Two interesting tidbits worth noting: 1) The City has 15 miles of bike lanes ready to roll out with the current street paving schedule (which I think you can find listed here), and 2) the new Southside bike share station(s) opens the week of May 23rd (🤞). Actually, looking at the bike share map for the first time in a while, and I see five new stations planned for the Southside and four new stations on the Northside, and, gasp, even one in Carytown. I’ve been burned before, RVA Bike Share, so I’m not holding my breath, but several of those proposed stations would create useful trips for me and my family!

#1066

May 10, 2022

🎭 Good morning, RVA: A fatal crash, end of budget season, and a creepy poem

Good morning, RVA! It’s 42 °F, and it’s chilly again! Today you can expect things to warm up, though, to just about 70 °F by late afternoon. We’ve got a similar deal on deck for tomorrow, and then warmer weather starts to return (with some rain) towards the end of the week. Enjoy the next couple of dry days!

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Early Friday morning, a crash involving multiple drivers spilled onto the sidewalk of the 700 block of E. Broad Street killing a pedestrian. This is right outside the National, a busy section of sidewalk most times of day, and, had it been an hour or two later, would have taken place right as hundreds of folks are walking to work. I’m tired of writing it, but the City’s public works staff should investigate every crash that causes serious injuries or deaths and deploy cheap, effective, and temporary measures to keep it from happening again.

City Council meets tonight, and, I think, will hold the final public hearing on the FY23 budget. Unfortunately, I’ve lost the thread a bit as the season comes to a close—especially about how Council plans on funding Richmond Public Schools given the School Board’s delays and disorganization in submitting their own budget. Tonight, however, Council will consider an amendment to the school-related budget papers that will allocate $15 million to a reserve fund that can only be unlocked with a future budget amendment. This is City Council oversight in action! Council staff recommended this course of action given the lack of timely budget information from RPS, and it’s a technique that the City has used to deal with school budget shenanigans in the past. I like the oversight, but dislike that it’s necessary, and am nervous about the School Board successfully navigating the process to unlock those funds.

#278

May 9, 2022

🥰 Good morning, RVA: Worker muscle, Broad Street repaving, and a romantic Richmond.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and this week we’ve had a consistent chance for afternoon rain which never once materialized—today’s the day though! Keep your rain jacket handy this evening and, unfortunately, most of the weekend. Your freshly planted garden will appreciate it, though!

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Meg Schiffres at VPM talks to some City employees about the two different collective bargaining papers floating around City Council agendas. Both, ORD. 2021–345 and ORD. 2021–346, are teed up for consideration at this coming Monday’s full Council meeting. I’m really interested in how this plays out and feel like we’ll probably end up with the more expansive, Everyone Gets a Union paper passing—maybe even on Monday night. After that, though, I want to see how a public employees' union works in Richmond, how they flex their muscle, and what kind of improvements they can secure for the work force. Related, perhaps, Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury reports that last night the Governor revoked each and every state employee’s telework agreement, requiring the entire workforce back into the office by July 5th.

Also at the Virginia Mercury, Sarah Vogelsong reports on Dominion Energy’s sleight of hand with the costs they’ve passed down to the consumer as part of Virginia’s membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. I can’t even get into the dumb shenanigans the electricity monopoly pulled because I’m too busy being newly anxious about the Governor’s continued plan to pull the Commonwealth out of the RGGI. I can count on less than one hand the number of elected officials that represent me or my region that take climate change seriously, and it’s terrifying.

#758

May 6, 2022

😢 Good morning, RVA: So long, budget season; staircases; and saving zero-fares

Good morning, RVA! It’s 60 °F, and today you can expect clouds and highs in the 70s for pretty much the entire day. We might escape rain-free though! Enjoy, because it looks like the chances of that happening over the next couple of days are slim.

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OK, it’s been a minute, but I finally got around to listening to all of City Council’s budget sessions—you can, and should!, listen to them all at 2x speed by subscribing to The Boring Show podcast. Last week, Council wrapped up their amendment sessions, came to consensus on a final budget and Capital Improvement Plan, and sent Council staff off to finalize all of the budget-related papers for introduction this past Monday. That means this coming Monday, May 9th, at the public hearing, will most likely be your final opportunity to have any sort of say on the FY23 budget (although it’s pretty much a done deal by now). This year felt like an incredibly amicable budget session, with Council and the Mayor’s administration mostly agreeing on mostly everything. While a couple of meetings did get shifted and added to the schedule, we didn’t see contentious arguments stretching into the night, Councilmembers yelling at the administration, or angry speeches from City staff. All things considered, it went pretty smoothly!

This year, like nearly every year, really underscores the budget powers of the Mayor. The budget he submits is almost never altered in a substantial way by Council, because, turns out, restructuring an $836 million budget is a ton of work and City Council is a part-time job with hardly any staff. If Council’s priorities diverged from the Mayor’s (which they haven’t really at this point), it’d require a bunch of councilmembers to get on the same page and do a ton of work together leading up to and during the budget session. It’s a lot to ask and doesn’t seem incredibly likely. So, the lesson here for advocates is: If you want something in the budget, you need to start bothering folks about it before the Mayor’s staff starts putting the budget together—basically immediately following the passage of the previous budget.

#917

May 5, 2022

🪐 Good morning, RVA: May is Bike Month, dark charts, and Monument Avenue

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and you can expect more of the same: Cloudy skies, a chance for rain this afternoon, and highs somewhere in the 80s. Temperatures start to fall tomorrow!

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May is Bike Month, and that means Bike Walk RVA has put together exactly 6,000 bike and bike-adjacent events throughout the month for your biking pleasure—with more events being added as we speak (probably)! Today we’ve got Bike to School Day, which I mention in this space mostly to alert folks who may be driving around this morning. Please keep a patient eye out for roving packs of kids adorably riding their bikes to school! Later this month, you can sign up for bike ped counts, take part in the mythical pizza crawl, chill with some fellow cargo bike aficionados in Byrd Park, and join folks in Bike to Work Day on May 20th. I love Bike Month, and if I didn’t have any life responsibilities I would attend every single one of these events! Go check out the full list, add some stuff to your calendar, and I’ll see you out there!

The Washington Post has an informative set of maps and charts about what happens across the country when the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Virginia is just one of a handful of states in the “no explicit laws protecting or banning abortion” category, which, again, means Democrats' slim 2-seat majority in the State Senate is all that protects the rights of millions of women in the Commonwealth. Patrick Wilson and Andrew Cain at the Richmond Times-Dispatch put it plainly: “Youngkin wants Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.” In Virginia, it’s always an election year, so, like I said yesterday, when you’re next presented with an opportunity to vote for a Democrat you should do so. That 2-seat brick wall in the Senate is far too fragile to even contemplate staying home on Election Day.

#463

May 4, 2022

😶 Good morning, RVA: Abortion, River City Middle rezoning, and a cool map

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and today looks pretty nice—at least until this evening when some storms could roll through. Expect highs in the mid 80s today and tomorrow and then a bit cooler temperatures for the rest of the week.

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Last night, Politico reported a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion in which the Court voted to strike down Roe v. Wade. First, and importantly, this opinion is, for now, still a draft and abortion remains legal in Virginia. Second, should this opinion become a final, full opinion of the Court, decisions on abortion rights would be left up to the states. At the moment, there are 21 democratic senators—an impossibly slim two-vote majority—protecting the rights of the over four million women in Virginia. It’s incredibly, foundationaly, ground-shakingly important that the next time you have the opportunity to vote for state-level and local representatives you do so. Don’t stay home because whatever candidate is uninspiring, don’t vote for a third-party as a sophomoric protest, just get out there and vote for whatever Democrat you’re presented with. Maybe that sounds bleak, but there’s literally no margin left to screw around with! Third, if you’re looking for an outlet for your anger this morning—something to do while the world spins—you can donate to the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project which “provides practical and financial support for abortion services in Virginia and surrounding communities.”

Your COVID-19 Community Level in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield is low, with respective 7-day case rates per 100,000 people of 105, 120, and 167. Chesterfield, we’re keeping an eye on you. As for the global and national coronapicture, Katelyn Jetelina (aka Your Local Epidemiologist) has a good State of Affairs post up from May 2nd. I think I’d summarize the entire worldwide situation as “in flux,” but here’s how Jetelina puts it: “We are getting mixed signals across the world and across the U.S. as different Omicron mutations take hold. We are confident, though, that vaccines continue to protect against severe disease and death. But keeping transmission low is still important so vulnerable populations don’t get swept up in the waves.”

#582

May 3, 2022

😶 Good morning, RVA: Abortion, River City Middle rezoning, and a cool map

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and today looks pretty nice—at least until this evening when some storms could roll through. Expect highs in the mid 80s today and tomorrow and then a bit cooler temperatures for the rest of the week.

Water cooler

Last night, Politico reported a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion in which the Court voted to strike down Roe v. Wade. First, and importantly, this opinion is, for now, still a draft and abortion remains legal in Virginia. Second, should this opinion become a final, full opinion of the Court, decisions on abortion rights would be left up to the states. At the moment, there are 21 democratic senators—an impossibly slim two-vote majority—protecting the rights of the over four million women in Virginia. It’s incredibly, foundationaly, ground-shakingly important that the next time you have the opportunity to vote for state-level and local representatives you do so. Don’t stay home because whatever candidate is uninspiring, don’t vote for a third-party as a sophomoric protest, just get out there and vote for whatever Democrat you’re presented with. Maybe that sounds bleak, but there’s literally no margin left to screw around with! Third, if you’re looking for an outlet for your anger this morning—something to do while the world spins—you can donate to the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project which “provides practical and financial support for abortion services in Virginia and surrounding communities.”

Your COVID-19 Community Level in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield is low, with respective 7-day case rates per 100,000 people of 105, 120, and 167. Chesterfield, we’re keeping an eye on you. As for the global and national coronapicture, Katelyn Jetelina (aka Your Local Epidemiologist) has a good State of Affairs post up from May 2nd. I think I’d summarize the entire worldwide situation as “in flux,” but here’s how Jetelina puts it: “We are getting mixed signals across the world and across the U.S. as different Omicron mutations take hold. We are confident, though, that vaccines continue to protect against severe disease and death. But keeping transmission low is still important so vulnerable populations don’t get swept up in the waves.”

#1158

May 3, 2022

🐴 Good morning, RVA: School Board meeting, RPS COO, and horsing around

Good morning, RVA! It’s 59 °F, and today looks great. Expect highs in the mid 80s with more of the same tomorrow. Starting Wednesday, though, we could see some rain move in and bring cooler temperatures with it. I definitely (and finally) got the pollen washed out of my screen porch over the weekend, so you’ll find me out there most afternoons—rain or shine!

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RPS’s School Board meets tonight at 6:00 PM and you can stream the meeting live on their YouTube. They’ll discuss the rezoning plan for River City Middle School, and you can find the full agenda here (which also includes some neat renderings of a new, 1,800-seat George Wythe replacement!). If you’ve been following along, you’ll want to check out this PDF which outlines a few tweaks to last week’s rezoning plan and adds a bucketful of supporting information—like budgets needed to support shifting students around, transportation impacts, and a look forward at potential staffing needs. To address the five-member voting bloc’s bad-faith complaints about not being presented with more than one option, check out pages 11 through 15 which highlight the other options considered by the rezoning committee—each of which the committee felt too disruptive to students. If you’ve got thoughts and feeling about this whole rezoning process, you can show up tonight at Huguenot High School at 6:00 PM to give your public comment in-person or you can email your School Board rep.

WTVR’s Tyler Layne reports that RPS’s Chief Operating Officer has resigned, with Superintendent Kamras saying “Despite my best efforts to retain her, she felt she could not effectively perform her duties given the current political climate, in which she has felt harassed, undermined, and demeaned.” As you’d expect, Kamras says everyone should expect delays in operational projects given the reduced staff capacity. The Board’s behavior does have consequences, turns out, and, unfortunately, I don’t think the COO will be the last staff member to quit out of frustration—and who the heck would want to come in and take any of these jobs given everything that’s going on? Like I wrote last week, causing confusion and chaos while reducing the effectiveness of the School District seems to be the end goal of the five-member voting bloc, and I’m not really sure what anyone can do about it.

#243

May 2, 2022

🪣 Good morning, RVA: More School Board fallout, zero-fare in limbo, and native plants

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, but this afternoon looks stunning. Expect highs in the 70s, sunshine, drinks on the patio, and charming smiles glowing in the golden hour. The beautiful weather continues straight on through the the weekend, and I hope you get a chance to enjoy it.

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The fallout continues from the RPS School Board’s decision to prioritize 40 open enrollment seats at Binford Middle, a well-resourced school in an affluent white neighborhood, over the needs of more than 400 Black and Brown students on the City’s Southside. Jessica Nocera at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, on her newly-assigned education beat, has some good coverage of the situation and of yesterday’s press conferences and rallies. An important detail I missed earlier this week: “Binford Principal Melissa Rickey expressed support during Monday’s School Board public comment period for welcoming River City students into her school next fall.” In fact, “the principals of all four middle schools affected by the plan were in favor of the rezoning.” Yet, despite support from principals, the administration, and the community, the School Board’s five-member bloc voted against the plan, citing some hand-wavey, gas-lighty reasons about not being presented with more options. Don’t let them convince you that they’ve had this rezoning plan sprung upon them in a shocking and sudden way! This plan was drafted over the last five months through a community-driven process with plenty of opportunities for those five members to get involved and ask questions. Heck, I’ve known about the meetings for the last forever just because I read the superintendent’s email—and I’m not even on the School Board!

Additionally, and like I hoped for yesterday, City Council has started to get involved. NBC12’s Desiree Montilla and A.J. Nwoko covered a press conference outside of River City Middle School hosted by Councilmember Mike Jones, with Councilmember Ellen Robertson and School Boardmember Nicole Jones in attendance. Tap through, watch the video, and then compare and contrast the flat, hollow statements from School Boardmember Jonathan Young about preserving a few open enrollment seats at Binford with the emotional statements from the two Joneses about simply providing a humane and safe learning enviornment for kids on the Southside. I can’t help but see a lot of alignment between Young and the other members of the bloc’s position and the governor’s incessant push for “school choice” at the expense of neighborhood public schools.

#380

April 29, 2022

😞 Good morning, RVA: An unconscionable decision, inside the Coliseum, and paving continues

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, and you can expect a windy day with cooler temperatures. It’ll take a couple of days, but, by next week, we should be back up in the 80s. Enjoy the chillier temperatures by spending too much time thinking about when and what to plant in your garden.

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Yesterday, the four members of RPS’s school board who voted to move forward with rezoning River City Middle School issued a joint statement that you must read (via School Boardmember Nicole Jones’s Facebook). To quote a bit: “The school board prioritized school choice that advantages white and affluent families over the safety and security of Black and Brown students on the southside. We must fight the ugly stain of racism and inequality that interferes with the decision-making of this board…The choice made by five school board colleagues on Monday, effectively abandons 400+ children to overcrowding in River City in order to preserve ~40 open enrollment spaces in one of the better-resourced schools in the district is a clear dereliction of that duty we have to make hard choices. It is overt resource hoarding, and people who purport to be about equity but refuse to make decisions based on the reality of our physical spaces and budgetary constraints are engaging in political theater and nothing more. The entire River City community will pay the price of this unconscionable decision.” I agree with all of this, including the defeated, fatalistic tone. I’m not really sure what, if any, next steps folks in the public have to deal with a School Board majority who seems dead set on destroying the institution they’ve been elected to lead.

OK, enough doom and gloom, let’s move on to some possible next steps by different folks:

#38

April 28, 2022

😞 Good morning, RVA: An unconscionable decision, inside the Coliseum, and paving continues

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, and you can expect a windy day with cooler temperatures. It’ll take a couple of days, but, by next week, we should be back up in the 80s. Enjoy the chillier temperatures by spending too much time thinking about when and what to plant in your garden.

Water cooler

Yesterday, the four members of RPS’s school board who voted to move forward with rezoning River City Middle School issued a joint statement that you must read (via School Boardmember Nicole Jones’s Facebook). To quote a bit: “The school board prioritized school choice that advantages white and affluent families over the safety and security of Black and Brown students on the southside. We must fight the ugly stain of racism and inequality that interferes with the decision-making of this board…The choice made by five school board colleagues on Monday, effectively abandons 400+ children to overcrowding in River City in order to preserve ~40 open enrollment spaces in one of the better-resourced schools in the district is a clear dereliction of that duty we have to make hard choices. It is overt resource hoarding, and people who purport to be about equity but refuse to make decisions based on the reality of our physical spaces and budgetary constraints are engaging in political theater and nothing more. The entire River City community will pay the price of this unconscionable decision.” I agree with all of this, including the defeated, fatalistic tone. I’m not really sure what, if any, next steps folks in the public have to deal with a School Board majority who seems dead set on destroying the institution they’ve been elected to lead.

OK, enough doom and gloom, let’s move on to some possible next steps by different folks:

#38

April 28, 2022

😢 Good morning, RVA: More on School Board, a new school reporter, and the Pulse's last stop

Good morning, RVA! It’s 47 °F, and the cold front has arrived! Grab your flannel and Doc Martens, because today’s highs in the 60s won’t even show up until late afternoon. Honestly, looks like some good bike-riding weather out there—see if you can make some time for it!

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OK, a few more updates on RPS’s School Board meeting on Monday night. First, you can find the full video here. Second, NBC12’s A.J. Nwoko has a good write up of what actually went down and some of the impacts: “But despite the efforts of a rezoning committee established by the district, after five months of planning and community engagement, which recommended rezoning 400 River City students to Boushall, Lucile Brown, and Binford Middle Schools, the board voted 5–4 against the rezoning proposal. Among the criticism of the proposal, many board members brought up concerns regarding the 40 open-enrollment seats Binford Middle School would lose if the rezoning passed.” To summarize where we are now: School Board’s five-member bloc voted against the recommendations of a monthslong community-driven rezoning process to preserve 40 open-enrollment seats at a school in an affluent, mostly-white neighborhood at the expense of hundreds of mostly-not-white kids on the City’s Southside. If this shocks you, you’re not alone. Scrub to about 2 hours and 56 minutes in the aforelinked video and watch both Superintendent Kamras and Chief of Staff Hudacsko’s emotional reactions to the Board’s decision (if you can stomach it). What a toxic work enviornment; your job is not supposed to make you cry! I’m not really sure what the next steps are for the Board or for the public, but the District is pushing up against a deadline to run the open enrollment lottery and notify parents of the results. Obviously, the School Board’s current inequitable decision to do nothing about River City Middle School shouldn’t be their final ones, but, as always seems to be the case with this group, they’re running out of time. 4th District’s Jonathan Young, who voted against the rezoning, mentions maybe holding an emergency vote at the next meeting to vote on some sort of plan? In the meantime, watch as much of the video as you can, email the School Board with your thoughts and feelings, and make sure to copy your Councilperson and their liaison. If you wanted to take it a step further, post a screenshot of your email to the social media platform of your choice.

Super related, Jessica Nocera at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says she’s now covering Richmond Public Schools for the paper. Reporters are always looking for folks to talk to about their beat, so if you’re part of an RPS family—especially one with kids at either River City or Binford—maybe hop in Nocera’s mentions and offer to chat about the ongoing rezoning meltdown.

#951

April 27, 2022

🫀 Good morning, RVA: School Board questions, solar power, and claiming Poe

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and this morning looks lovely. Later this afternoon, though, expect a few storms to roll through alongside a cold front, washing away these 80 °F afternoons. Highs tomorrow will be about 20 degrees cooler than today!

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It’s Tuesday and your COVID-19 Community Level in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield is low. 7-day case rates per 100,000 people for each locality as of Sunday are 120, 101, and 112 respectively. Those case rates continue to bounce around, so I’d consider them fluctuating at this point—Richmond’s hit 180 just a couple weeks ago but has dropped, flattened out, and bumped up a bit again. Keep an eye on things, stay vigilant, and be willing to adjust your behavior to match the current coronacontext!

RPS’s School Board met last night, and, as usual, I can’t tell what happened and it doesn’t sound great. You can find their agenda here, which includes the River City Middle School Rezoning proposal. River City, which is a brand new building, has already hit its capacity, and the district has worked with parents and stakeholders on a plan for a small rezoning to bring the number of students there down to a safe level. That process has been going on for a while now—at least months according to a quick search of my inbox. However, last night School Board decided not to vote for the rezoning, and I’m not really clear what impact that decision will have on the 1,600 students who attend River City Middle School. I didn’t watch live, but the @KidsFirstRPS feed (which is a large portion of our education reporting at the moment in Richmond) is full of ominous signs: The Superintendent got emotional over the Board’s lack of action, and then offered to work around the clock to get them whatever they might need to move the ball forward. Not great. Note that the Board’s discussion on this didn’t even start until 9:30 PM, which is officially after my bed time and well after any reasonable time a public body should be making important decisions. I’ll try to learn more, and hopefully read some more reporting, in the coming days.

#440

April 26, 2022

🍝 Good morning, RVA: City stuff, other diseases, and old restaurants

Good morning, RVA! It’s 56 °F, and you should expect another round of hot temperatures—with highs maybe even back up around 90 °F. If you’re spending time outside, remember to wear sunscreen and stay hydrated. Enjoy it while you can, because a cold front rolls through tomorrow and will drop temperatures about 25 degrees.

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I’ve got a whole bunch of City government stuff to get through this morning, so hold on to your butts!

First, City Council will host their second budget amendment session today. I’ll make sure to get that up on the Boring Show in the next couple of days.

#672

April 25, 2022

🗑 Good morning, RVA: Litter, RVA Street Art Fest, and road closures

Good morning, RVA! It’s 52 °F, and today looks simply stunning. Get excited for highs in the upper 70s—maybe even 80s!—and more of the same both Saturday and Sunday. In fact, depending on how intensely you decide to move your body around, you might even consider Sunday “hot.” Exciting!

Water cooler

VPM’s Ian M. Stewart has an interesting report on the state of litter in Virginia that even has some chartsandgraphs for you to dig into. Litter is bad, and I’m always aghast when I see folks just throw trash right on the ground. However, I am pretty convinced that a large portion of urban litter doesn’t end up on the ground because of The Kids These Days and their scofflaw lifestyle, but because we lack sufficient trash cans—and, importantly, we lack the capacity to empty those trash cans when they get full.

Meg Schiffres and Sara McCloskey, also at VPM, report that the Commonwealth will shut down its rent relief program on May 15th. I didn’t know this part: “As of March 2022, it has distributed more than $713 million to nearly 105,000 households in Virginia.” That is a ton of money and a ton of impact. That the program will, unfortunately, shut down due to a “surge in applications” really highlights that folks can’t afford their housing—regardless of the pandemic.

#847

April 22, 2022

🗑 Good morning, RVA: Litter, RVA Street Art Fest, and road closures

Good morning, RVA! It’s 52 °F, and today looks simply stunning. Get excited for highs in the upper 70s—maybe even 80s!—and more of the same both Saturday and Sunday. In fact, depending on how intensely you decide to move your body around, you might even consider Sunday “hot.” Exciting!

Water cooler

VPM’s Ian M. Stewart has an interesting report on the state of litter in Virginia that even has some chartsandgraphs for you to dig into. Litter is bad, and I’m always aghast when I see folks just throw trash right on the ground. However, I am pretty convinced that a large portion of urban litter doesn’t end up on the ground because of The Kids These Days and their scofflaw lifestyle, but because we lack sufficient trash cans—and, importantly, we lack the capacity to empty those trash cans when they get full.

Meg Schiffres and Sara McCloskey, also at VPM, report that the Commonwealth will shut down its rent relief program on May 15th. I didn’t know this part: “As of March 2022, it has distributed more than $713 million to nearly 105,000 households in Virginia.” That is a ton of money and a ton of impact. That the program will, unfortunately, shut down due to a “surge in applications” really highlights that folks can’t afford their housing—regardless of the pandemic.

#1146

April 22, 2022

➕ Good morning, RVA: Masks + buses, NYT + RVA, and marijuana + amendments

Good morning, RVA! It’s 44 °F, and today looks awesome. Expect dry skies and highs in the 70s. This kind of weather continues for the next several days, so get out there and enjoy it as much as you can!

Water cooler

I forgot to check yesterday, so here’s your quick update about masks on GRTC buses after a federal judge struck down the CDC’s mandate: From the website, “Masks are no longer required on GRTC buses or in GRTC facilities. GRTC encourages you to wear your mask.” …For now, because, not so fast, the New York Times reports that “The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it intends to appeal a Florida judge’s ruling that struck down a federal mask requirement on airplanes, trains, buses and other public transportation — but only if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decides that extending the measure is necessary.” After reading the aforelinked article, it really feels like any decisions by the CDC or the Department of Justice would be motivated more by setting legal precedents than public health. That’s interesting stuff, but doesn’t at all help me think though what I should do to keep myself safe and healthy. Anyway, I agree with GRTC and will keep wearing my mask on the bus, probably forever and always. I mean, why not? It’s literally the easiest thing and keeps me from swapping germs with folks—especially during cold and flu season.

While I scrolled through the New York Times looking for news about DOJ appealing the mask ruling, I came across this front-page piece on Richmond’s American Rescue Plan investments. The article frames all the incredible, generational spending as a Biden failure because “the program has become a case study in how easily voters can overlook even a lavishly funded government initiative delivering benefits close to home.” Meh, idk, NYT. I’m sure that readers of this particular newsletter did not need to read this article to know that Mayor Stoney has invested a huge amount of ARPA money into build new community centers across the City. We’re all pretty stoked on that, I think. Also, P.S., this is a good example of horse-race journalism, which I’ve written about before, where reporters write about why a candidate will or won’t win an election, and not about the issues voters care about.

#701

April 21, 2022