Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, and that’s literally freezing! Not to worry though, temperatures will top out in the 60s this afternoon. The rest of this week looks delightfully fall-like with cooler temperatures rolling in as we get closer to the weekend.

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City Council will host its next North of Broad work session today from 3:00–5:00 PM. On the agenda: Community benefits like affordable housing, employment training, MBE participation, and the GRTC Transit Center. Following that work session, Council will move into their Organizational Development committee where they do have the NoBro ordinances on their agenda (PDF). I have no idea if Council will actually discuss those papers or if they’ll continue them until the Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission has finished their work later this year. Speaking of that commission, here’s the Risk Matrix PDF I mentioned last week. I’m not sure if I’m smart enough to understand it all (or even most of it), but maybe you are! There are a lot of dang moving pieces to this thing, and, at this point, they’re all moving in parallel—it’s a lot to keep track of. One thing this PDF does make clear to me is how focused almost everyone in entire city—the Mayor, Council, commissions like this one, Richmond humans in general—is on funding schools. Don’t get me wrong, schools need more money, and I’ve said as much for the last forever. But transit needs more money, public housing needs more money, streets, sustainability efforts, vacancies at City Hall—they all need more money! It’s a little weird to me that the frame for a lot of the conversations we’re having, this Risk Matrix included, is how will it impact schools funding without evening mentions our laundry list of other very expensive needs.

I definitely missed the neighborhood drama around the milling and paving of W. Cary Street, but it’s clear to me from this Department of Public Works email, if you read between the lines, that it was juicy: “There has been a great deal of concern regarding milling and paving on West Cary Street. To help resolve the concerns, the City of Richmond talked to the contractor and Mr. Kamran Shaikh, the President of the Merchants Association on how to resolve the paving concerns. We all agreed on the following solution – the contractor will pave West Cary Street between North Nansemond and South Belmont at night, weather permitting. There will be no on street parking allowed during the times listed above” (11/6 7:00 PM–7:00 AM; 11/7 7:00 PM–7:00 AM). This was definitely a missed opportunity to close Carytown to cars and pilot a pedestrian, bike, and bus-only space. The Merchants Association will never be convinced to remove parking and cars until they see firsthand that everyone will just make at ton more money. This was the perfect, low-risk chance to do so.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 41 °F, and that’s at least 40 degrees colder than yesterday afternoon. Dang, cold front! Today, you can expect clear skies and temperatures in the mid 50s, and more of that throughout the weekend.

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First, a correction. Yesterday, I said that the Nats had brought home the first baseball championship to D.C. since the 20s. This is not correct! The Washington Grays, a Negro League team that split time between Pittsburgh and D.C., won a championship in 1943, 1944, and 1948.

RVA Rapid Transit, my place of full-time employ, released its position on NoBro’s proposed GRTC Transit Center. Basically, as currently described, the thing is too big, too far away from the Pulse, and solving a problem that mostly no longer exists. But don’t get it twisted: Bus riders do need shelter, bathrooms, and humane places to wait for their bus. The proposed solution, though, just isn’t the right one. Also, I want to point out that it’s pretty incredible how much public transportation has featured in the discussion around NoBro—I think we’d be having an entirely different conversation five years ago. But if we are going to invest all of this time and money into redesigning downtown, we’ve got to build something that’s going to complement and grow our bus system for all riders.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and looks like we could end up with some rain later this afternoon. Pack a jacket!

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Roberto Roldan at VPM has an interview with former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu—you might remember he stopped by Richmond as part of his E Pluribus Unum tour last year. You can check out the full report his group put together after that country-wide tour (PDF). It’s full of takeaways that are true for Richmond as well as much of the South (and, really, much of America). For example: “Residential segregation matters because where you live affects your access to education, employment, transportation, healthcare, and so many other aspects of daily life that are often taken for granted.”

I feel like it’s been a while since I linked to one, but you should definitely read through this week’s email from Superintendent Kamras. It’s packed with info about state-level education funding, rezoning, and the school renaming process. About the latter, RPS would like to rename eight schools, and, as you can imagine, there are community meetings about each beginning next month and stretching through February. Maybe public meetings aren’t your thing—or maybe you’re all burnt out on public meetings, what with Richmond 300, school rezoning, and NoBro crowding out the regular-person stuff on your calendar. Remember when October in Richmond just meant a lot of festivals with beer trucks? Simpler times! You can, of course, still submit suggestions for school names via this online form.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 53 °F, and while a bit cloudier than yesterday, today looks pretty nice. Expect highs near 70 °F as we gear up for even warmer temperatures later this week.

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Wyatt Gordon at Greater Greater Washington weighs in on Richmond’s 5th District special election and the focus almost every candidate has given to safe, multimodal transportation. I like how @Morr_Ruth puts it: “Let’s just breath in the fact that we have created some real consensus on the priority of safe, multimodal transportation in this #rvacouncil race. This is a marked change from 2016 & makes me super excited for 2020 races & truly building a safer city.”

A while back, I said to be watchful of state-level Democrats making a fuss about covering the nearly $1 billion in extra schools funding that the state itself says it needs to pony up. Today, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Michael Martz, says Secretary of Finance Aubrey Lane warns there may be a “math issue” with next year’s budget 💸. While the “math issue”—aka there may not be enough money to make the math in the current budget work out—is not presented as a cut-and-slash situation, it does make me go hmmmmm.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 56 °F, and today looks absolutely beautiful. Expect some sunshine, highs near 70 °F, and lots of good small talk about how it’s so warm yet nearly November.

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Mark Robinson asked two questions to the remaining seven candidates for City Council’s 5th District seat: “What do you view as the biggest issue facing residents of the 5th District, and what do you plan on doing about it?” and “If elected, do you plan to vote for or against the Navy Hill plan? Explain.” The answers to the second question are fascinating, with every candidate a No except for Thad Williamson who’s a Conditional No (he says “There are too many unanswered questions to be a yes. And there is too much potential opportunity to be a no.“). If you’d like to learn more about the 5th District candidates you can, of course, find thorough answers to a bunch of different questions from a bunch of different topics—beyond NoBro and into environment, neighborhoods, public safety, transportation, and youth & families—over on the Richmond Mayorathon website.

Speaking of NoBro, City Council will hold their….fourth? I think?…Navy Hill Development Proposal Work Session today from 3:00–5:00 PM. I couldn’t find the agenda, but, as always, I’ll get the audio up on The Boring Show whenever it drops.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 56 °F, and today looks absolutely beautiful. Expect some sunshine, highs near 70 °F, and lots of good small talk about how it’s so warm yet nearly November.

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Mark Robinson asked two questions to the remaining seven candidates for City Council’s 5th District seat: “What do you view as the biggest issue facing residents of the 5th District, and what do you plan on doing about it?” and “If elected, do you plan to vote for or against the Navy Hill plan? Explain.” The answers to the second question are fascinating, with every candidate a No except for Thad Williamson who’s a Conditional No (he says “There are too many unanswered questions to be a yes. And there is too much potential opportunity to be a no.“). If you’d like to learn more about the 5th District candidates you can, of course, find thorough answers to a bunch of different questions from a bunch of different topics—beyond NoBro and into environment, neighborhoods, public safety, transportation, and youth & families—over on the Richmond Mayorathon website.

Speaking of NoBro, City Council will hold their….fourth? I think?…Navy Hill Development Proposal Work Session today from 3:00–5:00 PM. I couldn’t find the agenda, but, as always, I’ll get the audio up on The Boring Show whenever it drops.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 41 °F now, but we could see highs in the 70s today. Sounds great, and, I know its only Thursday, but I’m ready for the weekend.

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Whitney Evans at VPM says earlier this week, courts heard 52 eviction cases filed by the RRHA against residents of Creighton Court, which Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch notes is 13% of the number of active leaseholders in the public housing neighborhood. The judge ruled that 35 of those evictions could move forward. This is an incredibly complex situation that I totally don’t have a handle on, but, here are some of the pieces: 1) Richmond has the highest eviction rate in the country and we’ve set up an eviction diversion program that the guy who literally wrote the book on eviction called “a model for the nation,” 2) Robinson writes that “Attorneys working with the city’s new eviction diversion program sat in on the hearing but did not assist the Creighton residents; RRHA had not previously agreed to participate in the pilot program.”, 3) RRHA and the City are in the middle of multi-year process to demolish and redevelop Creighton Court, and 4) RRHA’s new CEO made the decision to stop leasing vacant apartments in Creighton earlier this year. And that’s just four things! There are probably a hundred more of which I am just totally unaware. I don’t know enough to say if RRHA is acting in good faith here, but I can see how easy it would be for folks to connect the desire to demolish and redevelop Creighton with the decision to stop leasing and begin evictions. And that feels awful. Here’s a short statement from RRHA’s CEO Damon Duncan, in which he says “there is no correlation between unlawful detainers and the redevelopment of Creighton Court” and that (if I’m reading it right) the 35 families who could be evicted will be allowed to participate in the eviction diversion program. As with almost everything, better communications from RRHA would certainly help.

The NoBro folks have posted a 2-page PDF that’s “a correction of the record of the Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission meeting” from this past Saturday. If reading through it seems like a chore, the RTD’s Mark Robinson breaks down some of the interesting bits on Twitter. The tone of this document is kind of intense, flirts with defensive, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. It does, however, highlight a few of the things the Commission got wrong and you should at least give it a skim. What it doesn’t do is address what I think is the Big Risk: The first half dozen years of the project—when we’ve diverted growing revenues from Downtown into the TIF and the development has yet to generate any of its own revenues. The Commission’s chair had the same concern on Saturday. Unrelated to the Big Risk, I like what @Ruth_Morr said over on Twitter about the NoBro folks’ claim that their particular master plan is needed to build anything at all in that part of Downtown: “I disagree that DOWNTOWN is not/will not grow revenues w/o a master plan but I’m all for a community-centered plan! Trouble here is we skipped the step where we ask people what they want.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 54 °F, and what a wonderful fall day we’ve got a head of us. Expect highs in the mid 60s and a couple of clouds here or there.

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The Richmond Police Department is reporting that Tahad K. Bailey, 26, was fatally shot on the 1500 block of N. 21st Street on Monday. After police arrived, Bailey was taken to the hospital where he died of his injuries.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 54 °F, and what a wonderful fall day we’ve got a head of us. Expect highs in the mid 60s and a couple of clouds here or there.

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The Richmond Police Department is reporting that Tahad K. Bailey, 26, was fatally shot on the 1500 block of N. 21st Street on Monday. After police arrived, Bailey was taken to the hospital where he died of his injuries.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and it’s probably going to rain later this afternoon. Bring your rain jacket or your umbrella, and keep the weather map handy if you’re out there walking, biking, or busing around!

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Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch spent at least part of his Saturday morning at the Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission meeting and has the recap, for which we are all very thankful. Robinson highlights what I think is the Big Risk with the NoBro project: “In the first five years, the city would commit an estimated $17 million worth of downtown tax growth to repay investors in the arena portion of the project, said John Gerner, vice chairman of the Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission. That money would otherwise go to the general fund…” And here’s the City’s response: “The city’s financial advisors, as well as our third-party consultant, have shown that the project could perform at less than half of our current projections and the city would still come out ahead.” I think both of these statements can be true. Even if NoBro hits all of its projections and is a net benefit for the City after 30 years, there will still be a period of time where there is no surplus revenue coming from the project AND the TIF is capturing all of the real estate tax growth coming from Downtown. Can Richmond maintain the momentum we have and the progress we’re making now for the next half dozen years without the projected, organic growth from a huge swath of Downtown? Is it worth that medium term risk for the potential long term pay off? Do we have a plan to raise more money to keep things humming along while we build a bunch of stuff Downtown? I’m really, really uninterested in revisiting Richmond’s old, broken strategy of not increasing taxes while deferring critical investment in basic services—it sucked, and we’re still trying to get back to a baseline after a couple decades of that garbage. Anyway, that’s the Big Risk, in my opinion. Rodrigo Arriaza at Richmond Magazine has a few more quotes from the meeting if you’re interested.

Richmond City Council’s Public Safety Committee and Land Use, Housing and Transportation Committee will meet today. The former will consider both the distracted driving ordinance (ORD. 2019–288) and the stolen firearm ordinance (ORD. 2019–289) that the Mayor introduced a while back. The latter will take a look at a bunch of things (here’s the full agenda (PDF)), but will also ask the state for more funding to replace the bridge over the train tracks on Lombardy just north of the highway (ORD. 2019–280). Because I’m boring, I find the history of this project super interesting. Did you know the current bridge was built in 1901 and widened in 1932? Also that it is a “fracture critical and structurally deficient structure?” Surely this is one of the older bridges in the Richmond, and, while it’s neat, it’s not particularly fun to cross—regardless of your mode of transportation. Anyway, the City’s been scraping together money for the last couple of years to reach the estimated $13.6 million cost to replace the whole thing, add protected bike lanes, better sidewalks, and street scaping. I think we’ll have to continue to scrape for a couple more years to get the entire amount. This is literally the kind of thing I talk to people about at bars and parties.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F, and we’ve got highs in the low 60s today along with a tiny chance of rain. Tomorrow brings a bigger chance of rain, so do your outside stuff today.

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Police are reporting that William L. Lee Jr., 22, was shot to death on the 5900 block of Glenway Court.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and that’s serious jacket weather. Highs today will settle into the mid 60s, though—which is less serious jacket weather, so you have some choices to make this morning. Temperatures look similarly brisk throughout the weekend, and there’s a possibility of rain on Sunday.

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Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says the Virginia Board of Education approved changes to the state’s Standards of Quality 💸, one of the formulas that determines how much money each school gets from the State. What does that really mean? “The revised standards call for roughly $950 million in recurring funding to be spent on more reading specialists, smaller class sizes and money specifically for schools serving students from low-income families, among other things.” But what does it really, really mean? The Governor needs to put the extra $950 million in his budget, and then the General Assembly needs to approve said budget. It’s hard not to draw a bright and direct line between this and the elections on November 5th when every single member of the General Assembly is up for reelection. Will a Republican-majority GA fund almost a billion more dollars for schools serving low-income families? I dunno, but folks should ask them.

Public housing is so super complex, and I definitely do not know enough about the inner workings of the federal funding process to say smart things about it—so keep that in mind. But! This Mark Robinson update in the RTD on RRHA’s Choice Neighborhods Planning Grant application seems bad. While this specific grant was smallish—“just” $350,000 for planning—the feedback on the application from HUD confirms what housing and tenant advocates have said for the last forever: Residents were not sufficiently involved in the process. Robinson says that, “RRHA’s grant application received three of nine possible points for resident and community engagement. It also received two of 10 possible points for ‘likelihood of implementation,’ including zero of four possible points for local government support.” See? Seems bad.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and that’s serious jacket weather. Highs today will settle into the mid 60s, though—which is less serious jacket weather, so you have some choices to make this morning. Temperatures look similarly brisk throughout the weekend, and there’s a possibility of rain on Sunday.

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Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says the Virginia Board of Education approved changes to the state’s Standards of Quality 💸, one of the formulas that determines how much money each school gets from the State. What does that really mean? “The revised standards call for roughly $950 million in recurring funding to be spent on more reading specialists, smaller class sizes and money specifically for schools serving students from low-income families, among other things.” But what does it really, really mean? The Governor needs to put the extra $950 million in his budget, and then the General Assembly needs to approve said budget. It’s hard not to draw a bright and direct line between this and the elections on November 5th when every single member of the General Assembly is up for reelection. Will a Republican-majority GA fund almost a billion more dollars for schools serving low-income families? I dunno, but folks should ask them.

Public housing is so super complex, and I definitely do not know enough about the inner workings of the federal funding process to say smart things about it—so keep that in mind. But! This Mark Robinson update in the RTD on RRHA’s Choice Neighborhods Planning Grant application seems bad. While this specific grant was smallish—“just” $350,000 for planning—the feedback on the application from HUD confirms what housing and tenant advocates have said for the last forever: Residents were not sufficiently involved in the process. Robinson says that, “RRHA’s grant application received three of nine possible points for resident and community engagement. It also received two of 10 possible points for ‘likelihood of implementation,’ including zero of four possible points for local government support.” See? Seems bad.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 45 °F, and temperatures today are positively fall-like. Expect—and enjoy—highs right around 60 °F. It’s totally hoodie weather.

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Richmond Police are reporting that Roddell L. Mayfield, 27, was fatally shot on the 700 block of Mosby Street yesterday morning. According to the Police, Mayfield was the 45th person murdered in Richmond in 2019.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and today: Rain! This is not a drill or a joke. You can expect a real and legit amount of rain throughout most of the day.

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Today at 3:00 PM, the Planning Commission will hold a special meeting to consider the six North of Broad ordinances that fall within their purview. You can see the full list on the Commission’s agenda (PDF), but they’re all related to transferring City-owned property, closing right-of-way, and updating zoning. This is a public meeting, so you are, of course, welcome to come on down to Council Chambers and tell the planning commissioners all of your thoughts and feelings—I’m sure they’d love to have you. I don’t know if the Commission plans on making their final call on these papers today, but, and this is just speculation, I do think they will ultimately pass them all. If it were me and I had strong feelings either way about NoBro, I’d focus on City Council. That’s just me, though!

Michael Paul Williams at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a column up about the Virginia Women’s Monument and the future plans to honor slave-holders (and an officer in the Confederacy!) 💸 with life-sized bronze statues. He puts it well here, and I totally agree, “This new slate of monuments — from the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial to Mantle, the Virginia Indian Memorial, to the women’s monument — are overdue responses to race and gender exclusion. But we are honoring slave owners and slavery defenders at a women’s monument where 230 potential alternatives are etched in glass.” Related, Susan Shibut, with the Capital News Service, has some photos of Monday’s unveiling ceremony and the new statuary.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 47 °F, and today looks absolutely beautiful. You can expect highs in the low 70s, a bunch of sunshine, and every excuse in the world to spend some time outside.

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Today is the LAST DAY to register to vote or to update your existing voter registration information. You can (and should) verify your existing info here, and if you aren’t registered, get registered over here. Remember: Every single seat in Virginia’s General Assembly is up for grabs this November 5th.

Speaking of, here’s an election-related update: Graham Sturm has withdrawn from Richmond’s 5th District City Council special election race and endorsed Candidate Stephanie Lynch. You can read Sturm’s full statement here (PDF). Then there were…seven! That’s still a big bushel of candidates to split votes between (and I think we’re past the point of getting names removed from the ballot). I still believe that the new 5th District Councilmember will win their seat by a very small number of votes.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 53 °F, and we’ve got yet another beautiful day queued up. Expect exceedingly temperate highs around 73 °F and just a ton of sun. The weekend looks pretty great, too.

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Richmond Police are reporting that Isaiah R. Baker, 27, was shot to death on the 100 block fo W. Hill Street Wednesday afternoon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 56 °F, and that’s chilly! Highs today will stay in the low 70s, which sounds absolutely perfect. Make a plan to enjoy the out-of-doors at some point.

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Yesterday, the Mayor announced that he’ll introduce two public safety ordinances at Monday’s City Council meeting: First, an ordinance to require the reporting of lost or stolen firearms, and second, an ordinance prohibiting driving while distracted using a handheld communication device. The first is a no-brainer—I’m always shocked when the police talk about the existing number of folks who report having their guns stolen out of unlocked cars. The second is a great first step given the current status of state-level handsfree driving law. What we eventually want is a statewide ban on touching a device while driving a car. We almost got there at last year’s General Assembly session, and should City Council pass this ordinance locally, it’ll be an important data point for legislators during the upcoming General Assembly session. Enforcement of this new law from the police—and better enforcement of existing traffic safety laws—will be important moving forward, but, like I said, it’s a good step. I’ll keep an eye out for the ordinances and link to their full text once they hit the City’s website.

Speaking of the GA, Mechelle Hankerson at the Virginia Mercury says Virginia’s lawmakers are contemplating a vape tax, which sounds great. It’s hard for me to take arguments against taxing vapes seriously when they’re being made by vape industry dudes—I’m sure they’ll be just fine.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 56 °F, and that’s chilly! Highs today will stay in the low 70s, which sounds absolutely perfect. Make a plan to enjoy the out-of-doors at some point.

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Yesterday, the Mayor announced that he’ll introduce two public safety ordinances at Monday’s City Council meeting: First, an ordinance to require the reporting of lost or stolen firearms, and second, an ordinance prohibiting driving while distracted using a handheld communication device. The first is a no-brainer—I’m always shocked when the police talk about the existing number of folks who report having their guns stolen out of unlocked cars. The second is a great first step given the current status of state-level handsfree driving law. What we eventually want is a statewide ban on touching a device while driving a car. We almost got there at last year’s General Assembly session, and should City Council pass this ordinance locally, it’ll be an important data point for legislators during the upcoming General Assembly session. Enforcement of this new law from the police—and better enforcement of existing traffic safety laws—will be important moving forward, but, like I said, it’s a good step. I’ll keep an eye out for the ordinances and link to their full text once they hit the City’s website.

Speaking of the GA, Mechelle Hankerson at the Virginia Mercury says Virginia’s lawmakers are contemplating a vape tax, which sounds great. It’s hard for me to take arguments against taxing vapes seriously when they’re being made by vape industry dudes—I’m sure they’ll be just fine.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 60 °F, and the cooler, fall vibes continue. Expect highs in the mid to upper 60s—maybe in the 70s. While yesterday was great jeans jacket weather, today may be a bit too warm for your favorite denim.

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WTVR reports that a pedestrian was hit and killed by a GRTC Pulse driver yesterday evening. The Richmond Times-Dispatch talked to the police who said that the pedestrian “was crossing Broad just west of Bowe Street, from south to north, when she was struck by an eastbound Pulse bus.” Other than that, I haven’t seen any more details; the buses have cameras on them, and I’m sure that GRTC, the police, and City officials will all review it.

The whole situation is so awful and sad and infuriating. I’m having a hard time processing it in a coherent way, but here are a couple of jumbled-but-related questions: Will the City look at this fatal crash and implement actual changes to the street to keep it from happening again? Are there GRTC policies or procedures that need to change? Why did this person decide to cross mid-block? Does the alternative of crossing at Broad and Lombardy feel safe (no)? Should we paint the bus lanes red to alert drivers and pedestrians to the existence of the Pulse (yes)? If the City does decide to implement infrastructure or policy changes after this fatal crash, will they do something at the many, other places across the city where drivers have killed people with their cars? Will anything change at all?