Good morning, RVA! It’s 34 °F, and highs today will hit the mid 40s. With any luck. We should see the sun a bit, while avoiding anymore rain. In fact, the weekly forecast looks pretty rain-free.

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Heather Mullins Crislip, president and CEO of Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, has a column from this past weekend’s paper about how housing policy can help address the years of systemic racism, intentional discrimination, and decades long disinvestment in our City. Actually, I should just quote her directly: “Our segregated communities are not accidents of history or preference, they are the legacy of systemic pressures, institutionalized discrimination, and regulations that advantaged one group and disinvested and stripped another of wealth.“

City Council’s Organizational Development Committee will meet today. The best part about that committee is that folks give them presentations, and then we get to download those presentations as PDFs. First, have look through this presentation from the folks running Richmond 300, the City’s master planning process (PDF). The back half of the slide deck goes through the results of the first “community consultation process,” which involved over 1,000 surveys and a bunch of public meetings. Of note, check what categories people’s responses fall into when asked about “big ideas” for Richmond. Spoiler: The first four categories, in order, are Transportation, housing, parks & rec, and urban design & land use—this PDF digs a bit further into those big ideas. Those are, like, my top four favorite things to have big ideas about, so great job, Richmonders. The second presentation OrgDev will hear focuses on housing and the “Regional Housing Framework” (PDF). I think, and I’ll have to listen to the audio to be sure, that this is the regional housing plan we’ve all been looking forward to. It’s a short presentation, but the list of folks involved includes Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, and Richmond. Sounds pretty regional to me!

Photo by: sandy’s dad

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and the rain has returned. Expect showers on and off today, a beautiful Saturday, and maybe some more rain on Sunday. It was nice/dry while it lasted!

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Did y’all make it out to Mayorathon: Policy Jam last night? I had a great time, but, admittedly, was back stage doing night-of tasks for a lot of it. Please let me know what you thought! Over the course of an hour and a half, the Mayor talked through three of the commits he made over the last two years in each of four areas: Urban Environment, Transportation, Neighborhoods, and Youth & Families. He also reacted to three policy suggestions (from local nonprofits and organizations) in each of those topic areas. Scroll through Twitter user @dbass1978’s timeline to read all 12 commitments and all 12 policy suggestions. The specifics are interesting, but this is the part of the event that I’m most excited about: creating a culture of accountability for our elected officials in Richmond. Yeah we had a good time and made some jokes, but the reason Mayorathon exists is to help citizens focus on policy and remind our representatives that these things are important to us and that we are paying attention.

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

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

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

Photo by: Nicholas Smith

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and today you should expect lower temperatures with highs in the upper 40s and more clouds in the sky.

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Yesterday, a driver hit and killed a pedestrian attempting to cross Broad Street at Summit Street near a massive and complete sidewalk closure that I’d just complained about just three days ago. Did this person die crossing Broad Street because the sidewalk was closed and no safe alternative was provided? I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. No one should die in our city because they crossed the street. We can do better. In fact, we tried to do better, but have, obviously, come up short. Back in March, City Council passed RES. 2018-R025 which requested that the City’s CAO “cause to be developed and implemented regulations requiring that temporary sidewalks be provided within the city of Richmond whenever a sidewalk is closed due to construction or demolition.” As a non-binding resolution, this was Council asking the Mayor’s administration to create internal policies that require safe pedestrian passage through or around construction. Obviously, this has yet to be done in a meaningful, citywide way as sidewalks are still closed all over the place—including in some of the most pedestrian-heavy parts of town (the southern side of Broad Street between 3rd and 4th comes to mind). I don’t know if this person would still be alive had the City moved faster in creating a sidewalk-closure policy, but, regardless, we need to be proactive keeping people of all ages and abilities safe as they use our streets. If the Mayor’s administration is unable or unwilling to act on RES. 2018-R025, maybe City Council should pass their own ordinance instead.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, but I’m looking forward to today’s clear skies and highs in mid 50s. Soak it up/in, because rain probably returns later this week.

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I forgot to link to Superintendent Kamras’s email yesterday, which is a real shame since the School Board also voted to approve their FY20 budget yesterday (PDF). Read the email in retrospect, though, to get an idea of where the new funds RPS has asked for will be spent. Helpfully, outside of the local match for the State’s teacher raise money and capital expenses for facility maintenance, it’s all linked to strategic plan priorities. The Mayor will now take this budget request and factor it into his budget which he’ll present to City Council this coming Monday. Stoney had this to say about the schools’ budget: “The school board faced a number of tough decisions in crafting this budget, and I appreciate it choosing to pass a plan that prioritizes students and teachers. I am committed to identifying the resources needed to provide our students with the learning opportunities they deserve. Fully funding Richmond Public Schools would be easier if the Commonwealth of Virginia would step up and fulfill its constitutional obligation to adequately support K-12 education. Virginia’s current approach to funding public education is not only inadequate and inequitable, it is unjust and immoral. The Commonwealth needs to do more for Virginia’s children, especially those growing up in poverty. The RPS adopted budget demands a lot from the City of Richmond. We have our own tough decisions ahead, but our kids deserve nothing less than our bold leadership.” Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the vote count 💸, with a few members of the Board dissenting and citing concerns about cuts to the central office.

Mike Platania, writing for Richmond BizSense, says that City Council approved the SUP for a new, mixed-use, adjacent-to-transit development on Semmes. I’ve talked about this development before, and, while still single-family homes, they are pretty densely packed onto the 12-acre property. Despite the proximity to a bunch of good public transit, opposition from both citizens and council members came in the form of “concerns regarding traffic.” At some point soon—before the planet burns down around us—we’re going to have to shift our mindset away from this idea that everyone in Richmond has the god-given right to drive themselves in and out of town, never once encountering the slightest slowdown.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 42 °F, and, today, we’ll see the sun! With any luck, plentiful sunshine and highs in the 50s will dry out the soggier parts of Richmond.

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Virginia’s hands-free driving bill officially died yesterday. Here’s an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that doesn’t really get at why the billed died and instead quotes only Republicans who shrug and lament that a compromise couldn’t be reached. Well, it was Republicans who intentionally killed the bill using a procedural strategy that I still do not fully understand. At one point, legislators introduced a inconsequential 3-word amendment to trigger a thing, which then led to more language that allowed holding a phone in your hand (?!) while talking into it, which then led to concerns about equitable enforcement. So frustrating, and I don’t see how citizens and advocates get involved in a process specifically designed for maximum subversion (if you don’t believe that, read this by Megan Rhyne, the executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government). Distracted drivers kill people with their cars, and I don’t understand why Virginia’s Republicans were unwilling to pass something that would help save lives and has broad support from pretty much everyone.

In more pleasant state government news, the General Assembly voted to create its first redistricting commission. OneVirginia2021, the experts in this matter, say the compromise is good progress: “And although this bipartisan plan does not reflect every provision we urged in our original proposal, make no mistake: This reform will end partisan gerrymandering in Virginia.” Next up, since this would would amend Virginia’s Constitution, it’s gotta get through next year’s General Assembly session, and then pass a statewide referendum in November 2020. Exciting news, and Mechelle Hankerson at the Virginia Mercury has some quotes and reactions from lawmakers.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 42 °F, and, today, we’ll see the sun! With any luck, plentiful sunshine and highs in the 50s will dry out the soggier parts of Richmond.

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Virginia’s hands-free driving bill officially died yesterday. Here’s an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that doesn’t really get at why the billed died and instead quotes only Republicans who shrug and lament that a compromise couldn’t be reached. Well, it was Republicans who intentionally killed the bill using a procedural strategy that I still do not fully understand. At one point, legislators introduced a inconsequential 3-word amendment to trigger a thing, which then led to more language that allowed holding a phone in your hand (?!) while talking into it, which then led to concerns about equitable enforcement. So frustrating, and I don’t see how citizens and advocates get involved in a process specifically designed for maximum subversion (if you don’t believe that, read this by Megan Rhyne, the executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government). Distracted drivers kill people with their cars, and I don’t understand why Virginia’s Republicans were unwilling to pass something that would help save lives and has broad support from pretty much everyone.

In more pleasant state government news, the General Assembly voted to create its first redistricting commission. OneVirginia2021, the experts in this matter, say the compromise is good progress: “And although this bipartisan plan does not reflect every provision we urged in our original proposal, make no mistake: This reform will end partisan gerrymandering in Virginia.” Next up, since this would would amend Virginia’s Constitution, it’s gotta get through next year’s General Assembly session, and then pass a statewide referendum in November 2020. Exciting news, and Mechelle Hankerson at the Virginia Mercury has some quotes and reactions from lawmakers.

Photo by: sandy%27s%20dad

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, and it’s gonna be way warmer today. Highs in the mid 50s, and, what!, we may even see the sun later this afternoon.

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Police are reporting another murder that occurred last Thursday. Officers received a call around 11:00 PM about a shooting on the 3100 block of Broad Rock Boulevard after Edwin D. Gonzales-Urbina, 27, arrived at the hospital with a fatal gunshot wound.

Photo by: sandy%27s%20dad

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, and it’s gonna be way warmer today. Highs in the mid 50s, and, what!, we may even see the sun later this afternoon.

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Police are reporting another murder that occurred last Thursday. Officers received a call around 11:00 PM about a shooting on the 3100 block of Broad Rock Boulevard after Edwin D. Gonzales-Urbina, 27, arrived at the hospital with a fatal gunshot wound.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, highs today will break into the 40s, and there’s a chance for some sort of wintery precipitation late tonight. Sounds like tomorrow morning’s commute may be gross and/or outright delayed.

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I realize this space has become a very inefficient RSS reader for City Council meetings and the Superintendent’s weekly email. Well, buckle up, because today is no different! Superintendent Kamras’s email from this past weekend has a great explainer on the schools’ budget and how budgets work in general—required reading. Last year, the Mayor gave RPS a one-time $12.5 million pot of money. This year, the Superintendent will cut $13 million from the Central Office (PDF) while asking for $12 million more to fund the next phase of the Dreams4RPS strategic plan (PDF). Then on top of that, he’ll ask for the required $6 million match to get at some state money for teacher raises. Bottom line, as I interpret it: Not including the teacher raise money, which the City has to cough up if they want more cash from the State, RPS will ask for the same amount of funds as last year but with a promise to spend it all on students—as defined by a strategic plan which went through a pretty extensive community engagement process. It seems like some trust-building is going on here. Superintendent Kamras will submit his budget to the School Board for approval tonight, which, spoiler alert, you can read right now (PDF).

Oh, also! You can and should read this op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch by the Superintendent about the funding changes we need at the state government level. He mentions it in the aforelinked email, but I’ll longquote it down here. Look how he appropriately ties state education funding to systemic racism and asks our elected leaders for real, concrete commitments to dismantling the racism that they’ve all had plenty of hot takes on Twitter about over the past couple of weeks: “If the Commonwealth’s leaders are truly committed to dismantling racial injustice, they must begin by ensuring that the students who need the most actually get the most. Right now, the exact opposite is true. According to the National Center on Education Statistics, Virginia’s highest poverty school divisions—which serve large percentages of children of color—receive 8.3% less in per-pupil funding than the state’s wealthiest districts. Is this about race? Of course it is. If all the children in our poorest school divisions were white, I am certain the Commonwealth would have found a way to fix its convoluted and unjust education funding policies so that our lowest-income communities received more.“

Good morning, RVA! It’s 51 °F, and today’s highs of 65ish are <chefs kiss>. Cold, wet weather returns tomorrow, though, with temperatures in the upper 30s. So, enjoy today!

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The Commonwealth’s journey to a budget continues to unfold, and I’ve got a handful of links to inform you about a process that, to me, still seems dark and mysterious. First, the Commonwealth Institutes has a long, detailed post about where we stand on options for increased state education funding. This next bit makes me furious: When compared to the Governor’s proposal: “The impact of [the House’s] proposal is that the 27 school divisions with the highest child poverty rates (combined enrollment approx. 150,000) will receive $10 million less in state funding, while the 27 school divisions with lowest child poverty (enrollment approx. 625,000) will receive an additional $6 million—furthering the inequity in the state’s funding distribution.” Next, C. Suarez Rojas at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says Henrico’s school district could actually lose money in the deal. And, finally, also in the RTD, Michael Martz says that Virginia Legislative Black Caucus member Del. Luke Torian refused to meet with the Governor about the budget 💸, saying “I am still not at a comfortable place with the governor in the circumstances.”

Read this (charming?) piece by the Virginia Mercury’s Ned Oliver about how Democrats in the House of Delegates are still working to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed. I love this exchange between the Democratic woman pushing the ERA forward and the Republic man trying to stop her: “Ayala countered that if Gilbert takes exception to her proposed rule change, she takes ‘exception to him not giving me my equality’”.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, but the expected highs this afternoon near 60 seem pretty great. We’ve got a reasonably dry forecast today and tomorrow, but, then, rain—or some sort of precipitation—as far as the eye can see (or as far as the extended forecast goes).

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Ooo, new schools-related PDFs from Tuesday’s School Board Budget Work Session! First you can read the overview slides (PDF), which give us more detail into where Superintendent Kamras plans to cut $13 million from the Central Office. This is kind of incredible: They plan on trimming $75,382 of printer toner and paper expenses. Next, you can look at the FY 20 Capital Project Summary (PDF), and that’ll tell you that the District needs about $21 million dollars for repair and maintenance of their facilities next year. Almost half of that is for HVAC. If you really want to dig in, this final PDF gives you a project-by-project breakdown of that $21 million—for example, Linwood Holton Elementary needs to “replace classroom heat pumps” and that will cost about $450,000.

This is welcome news: Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the RRHA will announce its new CEO on Wednesday. Robinson talked to a couple anonymous sources who say that Damon Duncan, the CEO of the Housing Authority of Elgin, Illinois, is our new guy. Duncan, if he takes the job, has a ton of work to do, both in the short and long term, and not a whole lot of community support to build upon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 41 °F, and it looks like the rain has finished up, leaving us with a cool, breezy, and partly cloudy day. Do you think we have one good snow left in us, or are we done for the year?

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I know you’re probably tired of reading about and thinking about Virginia’s Executive Branch Crisis, well, too bad. Read this excellent piece in the Virginia Mercury by Samantha Willis about history, blackface, sexual violence, repentance, and consequence—especially if, like me, you’re privileged enough to have taken a break from reading and thinking about racism and sexual violence over the last couple of days. Lots of folks cannot. If you read one thing this morning make it this one.

Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch describes the current environment at the General Assembly as everyone works to get a dang budget passed 💸. The continual question I have lately, which this piece hints at but doesn’t fully answer, is how has Virginia’s Executive Branch Crisis changed the balance of power down at the Capitol? I just don’t know enough about state politics and strategy to know if the current concessions and compromises made by each side—which we’ll learn more about later today apparently—have shifted since all this garbage began almost two weeks ago. Has someone written about this and I just missed it?

Photo by: Jonathan Piques

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and it is rainy. The rain and cooler temperatures should continue for most of the morning, and then, after a short respite, probably more rain overnight.

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Last night City Council met and voted 8–0–1 to approve renaming the Boulevard to Arthur Ashe Boulevard (ORD. 2018–228) with only Councilmember Trammell abstaining. RVA Dirt, as usual, covered the meeting and public comment live over on their Twitter if you’d like a blow-by-blow, and RVA Coffee Stain and Mayor Stoney were both brief and to the point in their immediate reactions to the vote. So! Step one of one million toward undoing the many ways systemic racism has impacted our City all the way down to the bones of its infrastructure complete! Related: I really like some of these additional, administrative next-steps that the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality proposed last night. Turning off the Confederate monuments’ spotlights seems particularly clever (as long as that doesn’t make the areas less safe for humans). Let’s get to work on step two of one million immediately. Michael Paul Williams puts it way better in his column today 💸: “Arthur Ashe Boulevard will not bind all wounds. But reconciliation should not be pain-free. We haven’t earned the right to complacency, or the audaciousness to cite inconvenience as a reason not to redress grievous wrongs, past and present. And as Councilman Michael Jones said Monday, we haven’t earned the right to be satisfied and stop this work because we’ve renamed a street.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, and looks like we have some overnight rain that’ll taper off through the morning and pick back up later this evening. Temperatures out there are much colder than last week, and you should expect highs today to hit 40 °F—if that

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City Council meets tonight for their regularly scheduled meeting at 6:00 PM. You can stream video from the meeting on this page—you’ll see an “In Progress” link in the video column. Compared to last month’s meeting which was packed full with exciting agenda items like bike lanes and scooters and expanding VCU Police’s jurisdiction, this month’s agenda seems kind of tame (PDF). We do have, on the Regular Agenda, Councilmember Gray’s ORD. 2018–228 to rename the Boulevard to Arthur Ashe Boulevard. Some of the public comments on this ordinance at the last Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meeting were wild, some were offensive, and some were wildly offensive. I imagine folks will show up—on both sides—to speak on this ordinance tonight. Councilmember Robinson also has a couple affordable housing papers on the agenda, including (RES. 2018-R083) that would establish an administrative policy to not consider ordinances dealing with City subsidy of development unless that development reserved 15 percent of its total units for affordable housing.

Today, I’ve got two ways for you to get involved in your City! First, you can apply to City Council’s Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission (PDF). Scroll down to the bottom of the enabling legislation (PDF) for a full description of what this commission will do. They’re looking for seven “experts in fields relevant to review of the North of Broad Development proposal.” As with all things like this, if you think you’re even the slightest bit interested and the teeniest bit qualified, I think you should apply. You should also go real broad with what “fields relevant” means, too. Second, the next meeting to gather community input on the new police chief will take place tonight from 5:30–6:30 PM at the Richmond Police Training Academy (1202 W. Graham Road). You can also fill out this online survey if you can’t make the meeting.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 63 °F, and it looks like our string of lovely, warm days is headed to a close. This afternoon, temperatures start to drop, drop, drop, and highs on Saturday will stay at or below 40 °F.

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One week later, here are today’s updates on Virginia’s executive branch: The Virginia House Democrats have released a new statement that does not even mention the word resign. Meanwhile, Senators Warner and Kaine and Representatives Scott, Connolly, Beyer, McEachin, Luria, Spanberger, and Wexton released a different statement restating their call for Northam to resign, expressing shock at Herring, and noting their serious concern about Fairfax. The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus also issued another statement calling for Northam’s resignation but stopped short of calling for Herring to step down, saying “While we appreciate the candor of Attorney General Herring’s disclosure, we await further action on his part to reassure the citizens of the Commonwealth his fitness for leadership.” Al Sharpton was in town last night at VUU calling for both Northam and Herring to resign. Over on the other side of the aisle and down in the legislative branch, we found out that Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment‘s 1968 yearbook, which he was the managing editor for, is filled with awful racist garbage. He condemned the photos but did not apologize. OK! That’s a lot of differing opinions from a lot of different folks that all have different sorts of power. At the moment, the status quo feels held in place just from all the tension—that’s not tenable, though. At least not forever…right?

I love this headline from Ned Oliver in the Virginia Mercury: “Chaos envelopes the Capitol, but lawmakers from both parties insist (insist!) they can still do their jobs.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and the warm weather continues wonderfully. You can expect highs in the upper 60s from now, until, like, tomorrow night—the temperature graph is bizarrely flat. Things cool off on Saturday, so you’ve still got a few more days to drink coffee outside at a sidewalk cafe.

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The crisis in the executive branch of Virginia’s government continues. I cannot believe this all happened yesterday, but: Attorney General Mark Herring self-reported that he wore blackface in college, Dr. Vanessa Tyson released a statement on her allegations that Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax sexually assaulted her in 2004 (warning: this is graphic, crushing, and very hard to read), and the Lt. Governor released another (much more tempered) statement while hiring Brett Kavanaugh’s lawyers. This leaves us…where exactly? Honestly, I have no idea. Herring’s apology is miles better than anything out of Northam’s camp. He explains how blackface is hurtful to people of color, and, I’ll just quote this part, says “Forgiveness in instances like these is a complicated process, one that necessarily cannot and should not be decided by anyone but those directly affected by the transgressor, should forgiveness be possible or appropriate at all.” That is a good sentence. But, still, way back on Saturday, which seems ages ago, Herring said “It is no longer possible for Governor Northam to lead our Commonwealth and it is time for him to step down.” That’s tough to hear knowing what we know now about the Attorney General. For the Lawful Good among us, Virginia’s Constitution says that if all three members of the executive branch step down then the Speaker of the House, (Republican) Kirk Cox who was basically anointed at random by The Bowl, becomes the Governor. I’ve got lots of thoughts on that, of course. For the Neutral/Chaotic leaning among us, you can imagine various scenarios where some dude or collection of dudes resign, other dudes quickly appoint women, and then those dudes resign, too, leaving the women in charge. For the Nihilists, maybe it’s all just too complicated and everyone keeps their jobs? It’s a lot to weigh and consider, so, for now, I will just keep refreshing the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus’s Twitter for guidance.

Michael Paul Williams (ft. Tiffany Jana!) has a good article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch today 💸 (unfortunately paywalled) about why it’s important for White people to call out other White people’s racism. “Blackface persists because people make themselves bystanders. ‘You just have to speak up and say something, note some disapproval,’ she said. ‘You become an ally when you use your voice. And in this case, it’s the voice of privilege.’”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 45 °F, and another beautiful day with highs back near 70 °F awaits. Certainly a day not to wear socks.

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Ralph Northam continues to dominate the local news. By my count there are nine stories on the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s front page about or related to Northam—including this one about a classic plaid pants mixup situation. I don’t think there’s any new news, but the longer both Northam stays silent, the more likely, IMHO, that things stay exactly as they are (which, I guess, is what he’s hoping for). As for Fairfax, I think this statement from the Virginia Democrats, acknowledging the seriousness of a sexual assault allegation, is a step in the right direction. I tired, and failed, to communicate that yesterday, so here’s a short Twitter thread about how I could have done a better job.

Justing Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a short recap of Superintendent Kamras’s first State of the Schools address. I can’t find the full text of the speech on the internet yet, so, if you stumble across it in your wanderings, please send it my way. From, the RTD, it sounds like Kamras spent most of the evening on the Dreams4RPS strategic plan and funding this year’s chunk of it (PDF). I love when folks spend solid time and effort on a strategic plan then actually use the dang thing to plan strategically!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, but, this afternoon, highs will hit 70 °F! Sure! The unseasonably warm weather will continue through the end of the week, even.

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One entire day later, and we are, if anything, further away from having a new governor. Yesterday, Ralph Northam said not a single new word to the people of Virginia, while the sexual assault scandal circling Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax intensified, leaving us all incredibly confused about what happens next. First, Northam’s still got to go—that needs to happen before anything else. Second, the Washington Post says Fairfax’s characterization of his accuser’s story as having multiple red flags is incorrect. Third, this is a garbage exchange between Fairfax and a reporter about whether or not Mayor Stoney could possibly be involved, in any way, with the Lt. Governor’s sexual assault accusation. It’s not helpful—or a good look—for Fairfax to insinuate and shift blame like that. This is his own mess, and he’s got to deal with it, which, at the moment, he’s doing poorly. Also, and I know absolutely nothing about state-level politics, but I don’t see how trying to blow up the Lt. Governor’s career would be good strategy for the Mayor. This is not and episode of Survivor. It’s Virginia politics, there aren’t that many folks involved and they all have long memories. Personal opinion: It’d be a career-ending strategy by Stoney to move on Fairfax like that. Fourth, I am exhausted by this whole thing. Maybe we should just elect women for a while?

Mel Leonor and Patrick Wilson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch have some more on Fairfax, including some quotes from Adria Scharf, the local woman from whom the right-winger website sourced their story (the same right-winger website that posted the Northam yearbook photos). I believe these Scharf quotes. Also, at the end of that article there’s a big wall of text featuring Democrats—including a bunch of women—declining to comment on the Fairfax sexual assault accusations 🤔.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 34 °F, but highs will hit 60 °F. Today’s just the first part of a springlike week that should help to gently erase the memories of last week’s polar vortext. Temperatures near 80 in a couple of days, y’all!

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Where to even begin on this Ralph Northam stuff? Unless you’ve been living under a rock, inside of a hole, deep within a cave, you know the broad strokes. Friday evening, a right-winger news site released a photo of Northam’s medical college yearbook page that showed a person in blackface and a person dressed in a KKK costume. That same evening, Northam admitted to being one of the people in the photo, saying “I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now.” By Saturday afternoon most Democrats in America, including the Mayor, had already called for his resignation. Northam chose to deny everything in a horrible press conference (“I truly do not believe I am in that picture.”), after which all of the Democrats in American (and most of the Republicans) called for his resignation—except one: Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax, who would become governor should Northam resign.

So where are we now? Well, first, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus has a press conference scheduled at 8:00 AM. They called for Northam’s resignation on Friday and amplified that call after the crash-and-burn press conference on Saturday, so I’m not sure what today’s (possibly previously-scheduled) press conference entails. Second, overnight, the same right-winger website that published the Northam photo, published a story accusing Lt. Gov Fairfax of sexual assault. Fairfax issued a complete denial at 2:55 AM today which says that the WaPo knew about the allegations a couple of years ago, investigated them, and decided not to publish. I want to start thinking through cynical and conspiratorial storylines that brought us to this point, but, instead, I’m just going to sit back and watch what happens today—because I don’t think anyone knows for sure. Of note: There will be a protest at the Governor’s Mansion at 10:00 AM (PDF), assuming Northam doesn’t resign before then.