Good morning, RVA! It’s 51 °F, and rain is here this morning. Expect temperatures to top out in the mid 60s and for the rain to dry up sometime this afternoon.

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Richmond Police are reporting that two people were murdered last week in the city. On Wednesday night, officers responded to a hospital for reports that a toddler had been fatally assaulted on the 6400 block of Midlothian Turnpike. On Thursday, Suzanne A. Fairman, 53, was found dead in her residence on the 7400 block of Tanglewood Road.

Photo by: Ricky Romero

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and today expect more of the same: temperatures near 80 °F, clouds, and a small chance for rain. Precipitation probably does show up tomorrow afternoon and will continue for at least a couple of days.

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Throughout this year’s budget season, you probably heard again and again that Richmond Public Schools need to rezone and that they’d definitely be deep into that process before the end of the year. Turns out, things are already well on their way and will, fingers crossed, be finished by the end of the year. Here’s the timeline for the rezoning study process, which will wrap up in November (PDF)—we’ve even got a public information session headed our way in June! To get you hyped for that June meeting(s), read through this dry-sounding but fascinating Richmond Public Schools Demographics, Capacity, and Utilization report (PDF). Cropper, the folks who put the report together, have done a bunch of data collection and analysis and have come up with how the City’s school-aged population will change over the next several years, how that will impact school enrollment, and how that impacts our school facility needs. The first big take away for me: A lot more elementary schools are at or near capacity than I thought. In fact, across all elementary schools today, we’re at 94% capacity. Second big takeaway: Richmond’s affordable housing crisis manifests itself everywhere: “Even if the district continues to have some level of annual new home construction, the rate, magnitude and price of existing home sales will become the increasingly dominant factor affecting the amount of population and enrollment change.” Stay tuned for more information about the public meetings, and prepare yourself for a very tense set of conversations/bloodbaths this fall when the School Board attempts to approve a redistricting plan.

Photo by: Jlhopgood

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and today we’ve got clouds and temperatures in the 80s. I think we’ll squeak by without any rain, though.

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Richmond Police are reporting a murder that occurred this past Tuesday on the 2000 block of Stuart Avenue. Officers arrived for a welfare check, and found Charles P. Smith IV, 48, dead. Police have not yet released the cause of death.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 63 °F, and temperatures are, once again, right in the upper 70s. Things look absolutely beautiful this morning, but do keep an eye on the sky after lunch for an increasing chance of rain.

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It’s Bike to School Day! Just one of the million and one RVA Bike Month events, Bike to School Day is an opportunity for kids to feel the wind in their hair, hear the click of the freewheel, and avoid the quiet aggression of the car drop-off line. Some schools have even coordinated a group bike-to-school ride—like a tiny-sized, adorable Critical Mass. If you choose to drive a car around the City this morning or this afternoon, please, please, please pay attention as there will be a bunch more kids on bikes using our streets. Some of them may be a little wobbly, so give them the space and courtesy they deserve.

Speaking of bikes, check out this great profile of Bike Walk RVA’s Brantley Tyndall by David Streever in Style Weekly. Tyndall’s planning to ride his bicycle across all of America, which, I dunno y’all, seems pretty far to me. Despite his totally bonkers-yet-epic bike plan, he’s a great guy that I’m happy to know. Reading through this piece will give you an idea of how much he cares about the safety of our streets and how hard he’s working to make getting around Richmond safer for everyone.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 56 °F, and today you can expect highs near 80 °F with plenty of sunshine. Enjoy!

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I’ve got more to share about National Teacher of the Year Rodney Robinson! In his email yesterday, Superintendent Kamras linked to a video of Robinson’s remarks after accepting the major award that you need to watch and will probably make you cry. What an absolutely incredible guy. I’m so stoked that the message coming out of Richmond right now, one that’s being heard on the national level, is laser-focused on equity and love. Other leaders in the region: Take this opportunity to ride in Rodney’s wake and publicly double down on equity!

National Teacher of the Year Rodney Robinson also authored a guest post for Google’s blog about his story and about Teacher Appreciation Week, which started yesterday and I totally did not mention it—my fault! Richmond Public Schools has some resources to help you show our local teachers some love. Make an RPS Teachers Rock sign, print it out, and let a teacher near you know how much they rock. If you’ve got a tale about a specific time of rocking, definitely go ahead and share it with communications@rvaschools.net.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and highs today will creep up into the 70s. We’ve got a slightly cooler, more springlike week ahead of us.

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This past Thursday afternoon, Lonnie W. Carter, 43, was shot to death. Richmond Police officers arrived to the 00 block of W. 27th Street and found Carter unresponsive and suffering from a fatal gunshot wound.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and highs today will creep up into the 70s. We’ve got a slightly cooler, more springlike week ahead of us.

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This past Thursday afternoon, Lonnie W. Carter, 43, was shot to death. Richmond Police officers arrived to the 00 block of W. 27th Street and found Carter unresponsive and suffering from a fatal gunshot wound.

Photo by: TowPathPhoto

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and, like yesterday, today looks wonderful. Expect highs in the mid-80s and sunshine for most of the day. This weekend, rain could move in late Saturday evening and continue into Sunday.

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Police are reporting two murders in the City over the last few days. On Tuesday night, Reginald K. Addo, 40, was shot to death on the 2200 block of Chateau Drive. Then, on Wednesday night, Trequan R. Hardy, 35, was shot to death on the 2100 block of Fairfield Avenue.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 69 °F, and another beautiful day awaits us with highs in the mid 80s. If you’re already making weekend plans, keep an eye on Saturday evening / Sunday morning’s possible chance of rain.

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Yeah we’re pretty much done with budget season, but there’s still a few loose ends to tie up and a couple interesting bits of information floating around. First, and most importantly, if you, at any point during this year’s budget process, dashed off an angry/hopeful/kind/critical/less-than-constructive email to City Council about some of the investments in the Mayor’s proposed budget please similarly dash off a thank you email to them for funding those investments. If it were me, I’d also include a bit about how we’re not done raising new revenue to fund critical city services and to get excited for next year. Speaking of next year, what will the Mayor include in that budget? Will we face a Groundhog Day of real estate tax chats until we unstick the rate from pre-Recession levels? Personally, I hope so. But, 2020 is an election year, so that probably means some things. Roberto Roldan at WCVE did a quick interview with Mayor Stoney in which the Mayor says “the funding that will be in this upcoming budget should be the floor, not the ceiling.” I think he was speaking specifically to schools funding, but it gives me hope for schools, streets, transit, and housing, too—whether that new funding comes from a real estate tax increase, the State, rising assessments, abatement reform, or some other smart policy change.

Remember the Richard Meagher piece I linked to a couple of days ago about the racist narrative of Black incompetence at City Hill that the region has built over the last several decades? The flip side of that—deflecting and minimizing stories of suburban incompetence—is part of the same game. Take this story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (which is behind the paywall 🤔): “GOP committee votes to scrap convention in Peace-Wyatt House race, but issue isn’t resolved.“ This story is actually about how the process for Republicans to nominate a 97th District candidate has devolved into an absolute, embarrassing, chaotic mess. You wouldn’t know that from the headline, though! For example: A member of the 97th Legislative District Committee, which decides the nomination process, “told people in the room to quiet down. ‘There’s a sheriff’s deputy outside that’ll have your ass thrown out.’” Then, at one point that same member told the committee chair “You are obstructing this meeting,” to which the chair “loudly banged his gavel twice and exclaimed, ‘Adjourned!’” Not a great or democratic process, yet the headline would have you believe it’s biz as usual over in the 97th (which is made up of suburban counties Hanover, King William, and New Kent). Preserving both of these narratives—Black incompetence in the City and White competence in the Counties—is deeply baked into how we operate as a region. Even when you’re aware of the game, it’s incredibly hard to shift your perspective and see what’s really going on.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 63 °F, and highs should be back up in the mid 80s. Expect this kind of weather to continue for the rest of the week.

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It’s May 1st, and that means it is the very first (official) day of Bike Month! Bike Month is an ENTIRE month of bike-related events of all intensity levels, ranging from “Oh, hey, I can do this ride in my business clothes!” to “Whoa, do you even spandex, bro?” I want to point out out just a few events that I think deserve your attention: Bike to School Day (May 8th), Better Housing Coalition Tour (May 15th), Bike to Work Day (May 17th), Max and Ross Bike Things: Infrastructure Tour (May 20th), Breakaway RVA (May 23rd), Pizza Crawl X (May 24th), and the 3rd Annual Treasure Hunt (May 25th). And that’s just, like, 1/5th of the entire set of bike events! Obviously, I’m stoked on the infrastructure-tour-by-bike that I’m hosting with my pal Max. Put it on your calendar, and look for more info in this space at a later date.

There’s a lot going on in this piece by Micheal Martz in the Richmond Times-Dispatch 💸 that is way over my very-locally-focused head. This week, the Governor has the option to veto a budget provision that prevents Virginia from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative—well, really, the provision “blocks any state spending for Virginia’s participation” in the initiative. Because of how Virginia’s government is set up, should the Governor decide to use his veto, the (Republican) House Speaker and House Clerk will get together and decide if the veto “meets constitutional standards or whether to simply refuse to recognize it as valid.” House Clerk, sounds like you have a lot of power in this situation! Anyway, here’s a 43-page annual report from the RGGI (PDF) if you really want to get into the details of carbon caps and CO2 emissions allowance auctions. Incidentally, I am embarrassed that this regional initiative has exited for ten years, yet Virginia’s Republicans are still waiting for Hampton Roads to fall into the ocean before doing anything about climate change.

Photo by: mikerastiello

Good morning, RVA! It’s 54 °F now, but, later this afternoon, you can expect highs in the mid 80s. Summery, warm weather returns!

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Well, y’all, we did it! Barring any unforeseen shenanigans (like that could ever happen), City Council has come to a consensus on a balanced budget. Not only that, but they’ve basically fully funded all of the Mayor’s priorities: Schools, streets, eviction diversion, and 80% of the new funding for GRTC. They did this without across-the-board cuts to every department and without rolling back the Recession-era real estate tax cuts. Quite a feat. Unfortunately, to get things to balance, they did have to cut about $2 million of vacant positions (which will have a negative impact on City services) and they did raid about $7.5 million from the Capital Improvement Program. The CFO said the latter was not a financial best practice, but, compared to across-the-board cuts, it was the lesser of two evils. So: Big win for the Mayor’s budget, which is almost entirely intact; big win for Council, which gets to take a victory lap on not raising the real estate tax rate; and big win for the City—schools especially. What started out as a particularly smooth-sailing budget season, plunged into some of the worst chaos I’ve seen since I’ve been paying attention, and then finished up with a progressive-ish, balanced budget and no one had to sue anyone to get there. I’ll take it! Since I’m already looking ahead to next year: It should be abundantly clear that cutting vacant positions and raiding the CIP is not a sustainable way to increase the kind of revenue we need for critical City services. I fully expect rolling back the Recession-era real estate tax cuts to be back on the table next budget season—and every budget season—until it passes. That’ll take some vision and some political boldness and bravery, especially with elections in 2020. But, y’all, I’m not try to elect (or reelect) a meek and rudderless set of city leaders! P.S. You can listen to the first half of yesterday’s budget work session over on The Boring Show. Another thing I’m excited about for next year, is that Overcast, my podcast app of choice, just updated with a new feature that allows for easy sharing of audio clips. For example, here’s Councilmember Trammell talking about how she didn’t appreciate the media coverage of Council’s flirtation with cutting the $965,000 of new GRTC funding. Get excited for more accountability for what your elected officials say in these boring meetings!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 50 °F, and today you should expect light-jacket weather with highs in the mid 60s. The summery temperatures from the last couple of days will take a break and return tomorrow.

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It’s here! Today, after…decades?…The Market @ 25th, a full-service grocery store, will open in the East End. There’s a shorty ceremony at 10:00 AM featuring a ribbon cutting and remarks, with shopping for fresh and healthy food (or chips, I guess) following. You know Councilmember Newbille will be on hand to say a few words about all her hard work over the last forever in making this grocery store a reality.

City Council will have another all-day meeting today to work towards balancing the budget. I honestly have no idea what that vibe in the room will be like, as last we left them, six members of Council had requested outside legal representation to investigate forcing the mayor to unlock about $6 million in new revenue. Most of the budget-related chatter I heard over the weekend centered around the decision of five members of Council to strip $965,000 of new funding from GRTC (Gray, Hilbert, Larson, Agelasto, Trammell—incidentally, that’s the same five plus Addison that wanted the outside legal representation). Since last week, there’s been talk by some councilmembers to “mandate” that GRTC provide the improvements that the $965,000 would have funded—but without actually funding them. What a terrible and punitive idea! This will result in $965,000 of bus service being cut from some other neighborhood in need. Is Council ready and willing to mandate which City residents will lose their bus service?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 50 °F, and today you should expect light-jacket weather with highs in the mid 60s. The summery temperatures from the last couple of days will take a break and return tomorrow.

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It’s here! Today, after…decades?…The Market @ 25th, a full-service grocery store, will open in the East End. There’s a shorty ceremony at 10:00 AM featuring a ribbon cutting and remarks, with shopping for fresh and healthy food (or chips, I guess) following. You know Councilmember Newbille will be on hand to say a few words about all her hard work over the last forever in making this grocery store a reality.

City Council will have another all-day meeting today to work towards balancing the budget. I honestly have no idea what that vibe in the room will be like, as last we left them, six members of Council had requested outside legal representation to investigate forcing the mayor to unlock about $6 million in new revenue. Most of the budget-related chatter I heard over the weekend centered around the decision of five members of Council to strip $965,000 of new funding from GRTC (Gray, Hilbert, Larson, Agelasto, Trammell—incidentally, that’s the same five plus Addison that wanted the outside legal representation). Since last week, there’s been talk by some councilmembers to “mandate” that GRTC provide the improvements that the $965,000 would have funded—but without actually funding them. What a terrible and punitive idea! This will result in $965,000 of bus service being cut from some other neighborhood in need. Is Council ready and willing to mandate which City residents will lose their bus service?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 61 °F, and, it’s been a while, but rain will most likely return this afternoon. The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s John Boyer says to keep an eye on the skies from 12:00–7:00 PM.

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Police are reporting another murder. Last week, on the evening of April 15th, officers arrived at the 4000 block of Meridian Avenue and found Samuel Flaugher, 19, suffering from a gunshot wound. On April 18th, in a local hospital, he died from his injuries.

Photo by: sandy’s dad

Good morning, RVA! It’s 59 °F, and today’s weather looks like more of the same: highs in the 80s, plenty of reasons to go outside. There is a chance of rain later this evening that increases going into Friday.

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On Monday evening, police found Alexander N. Wynn, 60, shot to death on the 600 block of Bancroft Avenue. This is the 14th murder in the City this year, and you can find a list of the victims on the Richmond Police Department website.

Photo by: cpjRVA

Good morning, RVA! It’s 64 °F, and beautiful weather continues. Expect another chill day (not that kind of chill) with highs in the 80s.

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Today, City Council will have another, very important budget work session. Armed with whatever they learned from the hours of public comment at Monday’s public hearing, they will now try and come to consensus on rolling back the Recession-era real estate tax cuts. Dun dun dunnnn! What even will happen?? I don’t know for sure, but I’m on the record with a prediction of raising the real estate tax rate to $1.25ish and fully funding the near entirety of the Mayor’s proposed budget. Councilmember Jones says “I think we have five for fully funding schools.” Keep in mind that “fully funding schools” can happen in a variety of ways. For example, Councilmember Addison has a plan to fully fund schools without rolling back the Recession-era tax cuts. He does so by cutting 1.5% from every City department, cutting about $5 million from new funded-but-vacant City positions, cutting $3 million from a program to encourage folks working for the City to retire, and squeezing $3 million out of the tax-delinquent property / development agreement thing that I still don’t quite follow. He also suggests creating a special fund for the Dreams4RPS strategic plan, which means money earmarked for the plan can only be spent on the plan. I disagree strongly with the first two cuts on that list, as they are pretty much the definition of equal but inequitable. The other items, though, sound like the ingredients for some sort of compromise. Two things that I want to say out loud: 1) While I disagree with the core of Councilmember Addison’s plan, he’s done the work and submitted the budget amendments to fully fund all of the investments in the Mayor’s proposed budget. 2) I deeply appreciate these long posts of his that let us know what he’s thinking and how he got there. I wish more councilfolk would do the same. If you want to listen along live to City Council’s budget discussion, head over to this page around 9:00 AM and click the “In progress” link in the row for today’s meeting.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 48 °F, and we’ve got another stunning day ahead of us. You should expect clear skies, temperatures in the 80s, and a significant amount of time that’d be better spent outside.

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Richmond Police are reporting that Yvonne D. Charity, 43, was hit and killed by a person driving recklessly this past weekend on the 2200 block of Fairmount Avenue in the East End. Fairmount is an enormous, fast street and has already been identified as part of Richmond’s High Injury Street Network (PDF). We know that this residential street is dangerous for humans, did nothing substantial to make it safer, and now someone living nearby is dead. This makes me furious and sad.

Earlier this week, a well-know bicycle advocate in D.C. was hit and killed by a driver, which has kicked off a letter writing campaign to get elected officials to do something about these preventable deaths. I’ve talked about Vision Zero and street safety in this space a ton over the last several years, and its time our elected officials do something, too. When a person—one of our neighbors—dies because our elected leaders haven’t moved fast enough (or at all) to implement infrastructure that would have saved lives, we, as their constituents, need to let them know that their inaction is unacceptable.

Photo by: Jonathan Piques

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F, and today’s weather looks incredible. Highs will hit 70 °F, the sun will come out, and we’ll have nary a tornado watch as far as the eye or radar can see.

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Well, it has arrived: Tonight at City Hall (2nd Floor) from 6:00 PM until question mark, City Council will host their one-and-only scheduled public hearing on the Mayor’s proposed budget. It’s an excellent opportunity to actually do civics yourself and hear firsthand—from the dais—how some councilfolk would rather inflict a bunch of austerity cuts on the City than roll back the Recession-era tax cuts to fund schools, streets, housing, and transit. Should you still need convincing that this is the right thing to do, first, read this excellent piece by the Rev. Ben Campbell. To quote a bit: “This budget is suitable for a City Council, a School Board, and a Mayor who can hold their heads up and do things right — not extravagantly, but not pitifully either. The taxes are necessary…It’s time to succeed. We can, and we should. No need to apologize.” Next, RPS School Board Chair Dawn Page finally has the piece I’ve been looking for about how Councilmembers Gray and Larson both asked for full funding of RPS while school board members, built full funding into their council campaigns, and yet, now, both are proposing cuts to RPS’s budget request. Finally—to arm you with some context, details, and background—Thad Williamson and Ravi Perry have their “Top-Ten Takeaways from the RVA Budget Process (So Far…). Double finally, I assigned as homework reading through all of the proposed budget amendments over the weekend. Turns out, I have yet to see a publicly available list of every amendment that’s proposed and who’s signed on to what. I can’t overstate how bummed I am that tonight’s public hearing will take place with citizens pretty much in the dark about what’s even on the table for City Council to consider. If you’ve got a public copy of the amendments, please send it my way!

Photo by: Afroswede

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, highs today will be in the upper 70s, and we’ve got some potentially severe wind and rain on the way. WTVR has a more detailed forecast—which does include the possible risk of some tornadoes. Be prepared and stay safe!

Cooler temperatures are on deck for the weekend after the storms move through.

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Photo by: JOzPhotography

Good morning, RVA! It’s 51 °F, and, I don’t know about you, but I rode the snot out of my bike yesterday. With highs in the low 80s, I plan to do the same today. Join me!

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Via Councilmember Jones, we finally have at least a partial list of budget cuts City Council will consider so they can avoid rolling back the Recession-era real estate tax cuts. First: These are only proposed amendments, and, even for the sponsors of these amendments, we don’t yet know their reasoning behind the cuts or how they will eventually vote. Keep that in mind. Second: These are cuts to the Mayor’s proposed budget, not from today’s level of funding. Third: There are some pretty intense cuts in here. From Councilmembers Hilbert, Addison, and Larson we have cuts to school funding in the amount of $6.1 million, $5.3 million, and $2.4 million, respectively. Hilbert is the only one of those three to also cut money for paving ($2.2 million). Nicholas Smith puts it really well on Twitter: “The parts of the city with the highest car ownership, highest vehicle miles travelled and most miles of roadway per capita in #rva are also the ones with the least kids in #RPS and least poverty. Cutting education for pothole repair is completely inequitable, #RVACouncil!” Hilbert and Addison are also proposing across-the-board cuts to all City departments of 1.5% and 1% ($7.5 million and $3.6 million respectively)—Hilbert excludes from that RPS and debt, while Addison excludes RPS, debt, the Sheriff, and non-departmental. Addison and Larson each cut about $3.5 million from vacancy funding, which is the pool of money set aside to hire folks into City positions that already exist. Larson also cuts the new $965,000 from GRTC and $900,000 from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. I’m pretty sure Councilmembers have until close of business today to submit budget amendments, so we could see some a few more. Keep an eye out for amendments from Councilmembers Gray and Trammell who are on the record as opposing the Mayor’s proposed $1.29 real estate tax rate but don’t have any amendments on the above list. If you feel strongly about any of these cuts to critical city services you can and should contact your councilmember today!