Podcast appearances and mentions of graham moomaw

In our 6:30 half hour, we talk to RICHMONDER reporter Graham Moomaw, who joins the show to discuss the resignation of Richmond Interim Chief Administrative Officer Sabrina Joy-Hogg, as well as the city's further water troubles.

We open the show with discussion about last night's shooting in D.C. at a Jewish event. Additionally, we talk to reporter Graham Moomaw about recent developments in Richmond city government.

On today's show, we recount last night's fatal shooting of two people at Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Additionally, we continue to cover Richmond city government scandals, and we interview one of the candidates for Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney. Our guests are Howard Gutman, Graham Moomaw, Tom Barbour, and Jeff Katz.

SPONSORS:ALX Live StudiosThe Richmond ForumLINKS:Pod Virginia | PatreonLearn more about Jackleg MediaWith a whole bunch of competitive races in Virginia this way, we narrow things down to the very exciting race for Richmond's mayor. The winning candidate will need to win 5 of the city's 9 districts to avoid a runoff. So who's on the ticket? Michael sits down with The Richmonder's Graham Moomaw to break it all down.

SPONSOR:ALX Live StudiosThe Richmond ForumLINKS:Pod Virginia | PatreonLearn more about Jackleg MediaCheck out Black Virginia NewsIN THE NEWS: A bunch of new polls in Virginia are showing Virginia is no longer a battleground state, if it ever was one. When Biden was the candidate, the polls indicated that Republicans would be targeting Virginia as a swing state. Now all that is slipping out of reach for Trump voters. The funding formula for how public schools currently receive state money uses Census data to figure out the staffing levels needed for the school-age population in an area. Now a bipartisan group of lawmakers is considering a plan to move to a new formula that calculates money based on students. Reporting for Richmonder.org, Graham Moomaw has a bombshell story revealing that skill games are back--three new machines at a sports bar in Henrico that are practically daring authorities to test their legal case.TRIVIA: Who is the non-president bust in the rotunda at the Capitol building?At the Watercooler: Lauren and Michael react to the racist lies peddled on the national debate stage targeting Hatian immigrants--and how it's part of a standard playbook.Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMedia

SPONSOR:The Richmond ForumLINKS:Pod Virginia | PatreonLearn more about Jackleg MediaThe Richmonder: https://richmonder.orgThis week we are joined by the founder of the Richmonder and one of his new star reporters, Michael Phillips and Graham Moomaw. They explain what they hope to accomplish with the launch of the new site on Sept. 9, and they'll also share some thoughts about hot sauce.

Tina and Hillary cover Virginia State senator Joe Morrissey. Joe Morrissey was known for his courtroom antics before moving into politics. BUT despite his controversial past and inappropriate relationship, he was reelected to office in an unexpected political comeback. Sources Tina's Story ABC News 8 Infidelity, manipulation and child abuse: Sen. Morrissey and wife's rift goes public with new allegations (https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/infidelity-manipulation-and-child-abuse-sen-morrissey-and-wifes-rift-goes-public-with-new-allegations/)--by Tannock Blair ABC News 13 Virginia lawmaker jailed for teen sex scandal wins state Senate seat (https://wset.com/news/at-the-capitol/virginia-lawmaker-jailed-for-teen-sex-scandal-wins-senate-seat)--by Elizabeth Tyree Associated Press Northam pardons scandal-scarred state Sen. Joe Morrissey (https://apnews.com/article/richmond-virginia-ralph-northam-sex-scandals-be9575c59303bf43dce4c3e88a77c1c9)--by Ben Finley Ballotpedia Joseph Morrissey (https://ballotpedia.org/Joseph_Morrissey) CNN Politics Joe Morrissey is Virginia Democrats' newest headache (https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/12/politics/joe-morrissey-virginia-state-senate/index.html)--by Chris Cillizza The Commonwealth Times Morrissey confronts sex scandal days before mayoral election (https://commonwealthtimes.org/2016/10/31/morrissey/)--by Sarah King NBC 12 Del. Joe Morrissey agrees to plea deal in teen sex case (https://www.nbc12.com/story/27615650/del-joe-morrissey-agrees-to-plea-deal-in-teen-sex-case/)--by Ashley Monfort Reuters Convicted Virginia state legislator wins election while in jail (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-virginia-election/convicted-virginia-state-legislator-wins-election-while-in-jail-idUSKBN0KN0A220150114)--by Gary Robertson The Sydney Morning Herald Punch the Defense (https://www.smh.com.au/national/punch-the-defence-20050825-gdlxxn.html) Virginia Mercury Judge dismisses restraining orders against Sen. Joe Morrissey over radio show outburst (https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/06/15/judge-dismisses-restraining-orders-against-sen-joe-morrissey-over-radio-show-outburst/)--by Graham Moomaw and Rahul Chowdhry Sharma Vote Smart Joe Morrissey (https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/biography/69982/joe-morrissey) The Washington Post In divorce filing, wife alleges abuse by Va. state Sen. Joseph Morrissey (https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/05/24/virginia-morrissey-wife-divorce-accusation/)--by Gregory S. Schneider WTVR CBS News 6 Gun-toting lawmaker once lost two assault-style firearms (https://www.wtvr.com/2013/01/24/delegate-who-brandished-ak-47-at-ga-also-lost-2-assault-style-firearms)--by Mark Holmberg Sheriff bans Joe Morrissey from Henrico jail over an incident with children (https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/sheriff-bans-joe-morrissey-from-henrico-jail-january-31-2023)--by Cameron Thompson Photos Delegate Joseph Morrissey (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Joseph_D._Morrissey_2010.jpg/800px-Joseph_D._Morrissey_2010.jpg)--by Cliff from Arlington via Wikipedia CC BY 2.0 Morrissey with AK-47 on Virgina House Floor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OhXLcQ2EV0)--screenshot via Happening Now (MamaBarracuda YouTube) Morrissey and Myrna at Press Conference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLICx-g8BRA)--screenshot via WTVR CBS 6 (YouTube)

Monday moves majestically, meandering more mysteriously, making many mighty memories. Maybe. Or it's another day like any other as we all spend time inhabiting a world that alternates constantly between light and dark. However, Charlottesville Community Engagement is not a tribute to the poetic but is more concerned with the anecdotal and the wonky. I'm Sean Tubbs until I am not. On today's program:* Albemarle Supervisors will hold a special meeting Wednesday perhaps to purchase property* We learn from the county executive's office that there's a new disc golf course in Albemarle* The Commonwealth Transportation Board will meet in Charlottesville tomorrow* The Greenbrier Neighborhood Association has held the second of several candidate forums for three Democratic nominations for City Council New to this? Sign up to get this in your inbox when its produced. Payment encouraged but not mandatory, but paying the bills is mandatory for continued publication!First shout-out: Camp AlbemarleToday's first subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman's River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study of ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting campalbemarleva.org/donate.Albemarle purchasing land on Wednesday?The next regular meeting of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors is not until June, but the six members will meet in closed session this Wednesday. Virginia's open meetings laws allow for elected bodies to discuss certain matters without the public present. The notice for the May 24 meeting at 1 p.m. cites two provisions of the state code. (view the agenda) The first is “to discuss or consider the acquisition of real property in the Rivanna Magisterial District.” The second is “to consult with and be briefed by legal counsel regarding specific legal matters requiring legal advice relating to such acquisition.” Immediately after the closed session, Supervisors will vote on a resolution to authorize purchase of property and assets. There are no further details but Supervisors will convene in Room 241 after this vote to hold a media briefing. Albemarle Executive report: New disc golf course at Chris Greene Lake, HARTS team in placeIn Virginia, a locality's top manager actually performs the business of government and is responsible for executive actions. In Charlottesville that's interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers. In Albemarle that is County Executive Jeff Richardson. Often reports on what's happening are made to the elected body. On May 17, Albemarle Supervisors got a report from Trevor Henry, the Deputy County Administrator. They learned there is now a new 18-hole disc golf course at Chris Greene Lake.“The development of this new amenity in the northern part of the county was a successful partnership between Parks and Recreation by providing the space and in-kind services and the Blue Ridge Disc Golf Club whose members devoted 1,100 volunteer hours to construct the course,” Henry said. Henry also said graduate students at the University of Virginia School of Architecture are working with the county have helped with the creation of a Regional Digital Equity Plan that is being developed by the Broadband and Accessibility Office.“This is in partnership with community organizations, the city of Charlottesville, and [the University of Virginia],” Henry said. “Their analysis resulted in several key recommendations that the coalition will incorporate into their final plan.”To learn more about that project, here's the March meeting of the Coalition:Henry also had news about the Human Services Alternative Response Team that Albemarle is putting together. The HARTS Team is intended to answer calls where a person is believed to be having a mental health crisis. “The team has been formed and will be adjusting to responses based on each situation to ensure the safety and best outcomes for individuals involved,” Henry said. “As they are forming, they are beginning training and developing protocols to implement the co-responder model. That work will continue with procedures and training as they become operational and start responding to mental health calls for service.” Henry also reported on the results of an archaeological study from materials uncovered at the location of the former Swan Tavern in Court Square in Charlottesville. That's the site of the future General District Court that will be jointly used by both the city and Albemarle County. “These artifacts include a Moravian press pipe, bowls, antique glass bottles and more,” Henry said. “This project is a good reminder for the important of preserving our county's history. The artifacts that were uncovered during this dig period are being cleaned and catalogued and we expect a final report by the end of this calendar year.” CTB to meet in Charlottesville this weekThe body that approves funding across the Commonwealth of Virginia will meet this week at the Residence Inn on West Main Street in Charlottesville, steps away from a now-canceled project. The Commonwealth Transportation Board will begin with a workshop at 8:30 a.m. that will feature a large amount of state-wide business. One item to watch is a discussion on the fifth round of Smart Scale, which is a mechanism that helps decide what transportation projects are funded.  (workshop agenda) The CTB will make a final decision in June, but here are three area projects currently in the running:* Avon Street Multimodal Improvements  (only for the Druid Avenue to Avon Court section) – $15.8 million (Charlottesville-Albemarle MPO)* US 250/Peter Jefferson Parkway Intersection Improvements, Park and Ride, and Access Management – $20.55 million (Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission) * Belvedere Boulevard/Rio Road Intersection Improvements – $4.89 million (Albemarle County)On Wednesday is the action meeting unless the workshop on Tuesday finishes early. Opportunity for public comments is taken at this meeting. (action meeting agenda)The CTB meeting is just steps away from what had been Phase 1 of the West Main Streetscape. Charlottesville had slowly assembled money for a nearly $50 million project to be built in four phases, but canceled them last year in order to put the local match toward the renovation and expansion of Buford Middle School. (read my story)Sponsored message: Buy Local Charlottesville Community Engagement's continued existence means that many of you support local information. Want to support some local businesses as well? The Buy Local campaign is in full swing, and both the Albemarle and Charlottesville Offices of Economic Development want people to consider spending locally as they shop throughout the year.The Buy Local campaign highlights small businesses within Charlottesville and Albemarle County through a multi-channel, multimedia promotional and educational campaign designed to reinforce how important supporting area small businesses is to the local economy. Locally-owned, independent businesses with a brick-and-mortar presence in the City or County interested in being featured in the campaign should visit www.showlocallove.org or contact info@showlocallove.org. For more information on the Buy Local campaign, visit www.ShowLocalLove.org or follow us on Facebook and Instagram @BuyLocalCvilleAlbemarle or on Twitter @BuyLocalCville.Council candidates introduce themselves to Greenbrier neighborhoodLast week, the Greenbrier Neighborhood Association held the second of many planned candidate forums for the three nominations for Charlottesville City Council. The event began with opening statements beginning with Dashad Cooper who was unable to attend the May 10 event I co-hosted with Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum. (view that event)“As a Council member, I believe it is crucial that we have an open and honest discussion about the vision of Charlottesville, and I'm here to share my vision,” Cooper said. “Together I believe we can work towards a solution that would benefit all members of society.”       Cooper is a social services assistant who said he sees many people struggling with mental health issues who are affected by increases in rent. “I think mental health has been overlooked for far, far too long and the pandemic has put the mental health at the forefront and the people need help now,” Cooper said. Former City Councilor Bob Fenwick used much of the same opening statement he made at the May 10 forum but leaned in with his skepticism of the city's ability to provide solutions for one intractable problem. “The notion that affordable housing can be addressed with yet another program without better management, including adequate funding for all of the peripherals that go with it is very much in the air,” Fenwick said. Fenwick said the big issues he is hearing about are the zoning code rewrite, increased property assessments and public safety. “And the biggest issue tonight is probably going to be the zoning rewrite as well it should be as it hasn't been fully crafted and is virtually incomprehensible,” Fenwick said.  Challenger Natalie Oschrin also used much of the same opening statement as the May 10 event but I'll quote different parts from a previous story.  She said her primary job has skills that would apply to time on Council. “I've worked in the hospitality industry for over ten years, mostly planning and organizing weddings,” Oschrin said. “As you might imagine there's a lot of coordinating and managing in addition to cajoling and negotiating that needs to happen to pull the event off successfully and within budget.” Oschrin said she supports efforts to build more places to live within the city.“I've worked with a lot of people who have to commute from outlying communities for their job in the city [and] that means close to an hour in the car each way,” Oschrin said. “Our teachers, nurses, firefighters deserve to live in Charlottesville and not be pushed out by high housing costs.” Councilor Michael Payne is seeking his second term and also had many of the same introductory comments. “For those of you who don't know me, I grew up in the area and after college moved back here and worked for Habitat for Humanity of Virginia in affordable housing as well as gotten involved in politics through community organizing with Indivisible Charlottesville and the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition and have been on Council since January 2020,” Payne said. Payne said the past few years have been difficult for city government but Council has begun to make progress with the adoption of a climate action plan and an affordable housing plan that comes with $10 million a year in funding.“We've started to stabilize city staff and build a strong staff team within the city as well as made historic investments in schools and are moving toward being able to create a regional transit authority to strengthen our bus system,” Payne said. Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook also addressed many of the same themes as the May 10 opening statement beginning with a general slogan for his campaign in 2019.“My overall slogan was ‘Let's Work Together' and ‘Let's Try to Make Charlottesville Work again,” Snook said.Snook said he and Payne both voted to adopt that affordable housing plan in March 2021 and they worked together to identify the funds to invest in the renovation and expansion of Buford Middle School. He said he wants four more years to ensure that work is completed. “Not only make sure that Buford gets finished but also start thinking about the next step in the school reconfiguration process,” Snook said. “That's to look at Walker and the elementary schools. In his opening statement, Snook pointed out that many of Fenwick's critiques of the zoning code were inaccurate given that a final draft has not been presented to Council yet. For more on that topic, take a look at my next column in C-Ville Weekly, out on newsstands Wednesday. Now I have to write it. (view the 20 articles I've written to date)Reading material:* What happens next? Buckingham commission weighs mining question, Brian Carlton, Farmville Herald, May 19, 2023* Buckingham GOP nominates recently fired registrar for seat on elections board, Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury, May 19, 2023* Embattled Charlottesville SPCA to replace director, Charlottesville Daily Progress, May 20, 2023* Rep. Bob Good asking if federal dollars were used to fund Montpelier exhibits on slavery, WINA, May 22, 2023Concluding thoughts for #535This is the first Monday edition of this program in a while! The perfect situation is when there is one of these a day to keep an eye on the happenings and not-happenings of local government. I'm grateful for the hundreds of paid subscribers who are helping me at least attempt to be a one-person time-keeping canine, or something like that. You can join them with a contribution through Substack either at the $5 a month, $50 a year, or $200 a year level. And if you do, Ting will match that first payment. If you join through Patreon, a portion of those proceeds will now go to hire other people to do work to make this newsletter better. I reviewed the foundational documents for my work this weekend and then and now I believe you should know how your money is spent!And if you sign up for Ting at this link and enter the promo code COMMUNITY, you'll get:* Free installation* A second month for free* A $75 gift card to the Downtown MallThanks to Wraki for incidental music in the podcast, which you can't hear unless you listen to it. Check out the work on BandCamp! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Episode Notes From the school board meetings in Loudoun County to pushes to ban "racially divisive" books in schools, conservatives have been relying on one concept in particular: “parents' rights.” Glenn Youngkin latched onto parents' rights during his campaign and rode it to victory over Terry McAuliffe. Other Republican candidates across the country have taken note. During the midterms, many GOP candidates have declared themselves strong supporters of moms and dads. But this catch-all phrase "parents rights" is being used much more broadly than its legal precedent. Youngkin typically cites a 2013 Virginia law that stemmed from a court ruling regarding sperm donors and custody issues. So how did we get from a case about in vitro fertilization to parents rights being the basis for all sorts of stuff? And what does Youngkin's rhetoric portend for the political future?   To help us figure this out, we speak with Bekah Saxon, a UniServe director at the Virginia Education Association, and Graham Moomaw, a state-house reporter for Virginia Mercury.  Find Graham Moomaw's article covering the history of parents' rights here.

IN THE NEWS:With the federal passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Mountain Valley Pipeline may be back on the table--potentially bringing fracked natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia. Thomas and Michael discuss the environmental impact, as well as the merits of arguments related to energy storage and the state's soon-to-be-built wind farm.Also in the news: As Kansas overwhelmingly voted down an anti-abortion constitutional amendment--but friend of the show Chaz Nuttycombe says not to expect a blue wave. In fact, it's more likely to be a "Blue Mirage" in the polling, snapping back to reality in the fall. Around the watercooler: Graham Moomaw's recent story in the Virginia Mercury, "Federal judge throws out second redistricting suit seeking new Va. House elections" (https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/08/01/federal-judge-throws-out-second-redistricting-suit-seeking-new-va-house-elections/) and Virginia State Delegate Dave LaRock is accused of destroying neighbors' property(https://www.washingtonblade.com/2022/08/03/va-lawmaker-accused-of-destroying-neighbors-property/)GUEST: Holly Seibold, founder of BRAWS (Bringing Resources to Aid Women's Shelters) discusses her work helping women's shelters and the six-year process of convincing the General Assembly to eliminate the state sales tax from pads, tampons, and other hygeine products.Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMediaSponsored by the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia

Five Fridays in one month? What will they think of next? In any case, did you get enough showers this April? And, could someone remind me what May is for? I’ve lost my handbook of trivial facts that pepper up most installments of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and podcast that strives to bring something of relevant importance each and every time. I’m the host, Sean Tubbs.What will happen if you sign up? You’ll get each and every newsletter sent to your inbox for free! Consider paying to guarantee more will be produced!On today’s program:The Virginia Senate Finance and Appropriations deals a mortal blow to Governor Youngkin’s gas tax holidayA quick look at the commercial and retail market in the Charlottesville areaThe spring running of Foxfield Races is tomorrow And a lawsuit is filed against the City of Charlottesville alleging violations of the Freedom of Information Act First shout-out: The Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign It’s springtime, and one Patreon supporter wants you to know the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign is a grassroots initiative of motivated citizens, volunteers, partner organizations, and local governments who want to promote the use of native plants. This spring the group is working with retailers across the region to encourage purchase of plants that belong here and are part of an ecosystem that depends on pollination. There are plenty of resources on the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page, so sign up to be notified of lectures, plant sales, and more!FOIA suit filed against CharlottesvilleA pair of activists and a journalist have filed suit against the City of Charlottesville seeking the release of documents they claim should be made available through the Freedom of Information Act. Attorney Jeff Fogel filed a petition Thursday in Charlottesville Circuit Court on behalf of Tanesha Hudson, Cherry Hanley of the People’s Coalition, and Dave McNair of The DTM who submitted two separate requests for information. One was on March 24, 2022. (read the petition)“For the years 2020 and 2021, all records concerning the settlement of claims of police misconduct, or other violation of constitutional rights, by the city or any of its employees, whether or not the claim was filed in an administrative or judicial agency.” A second request was submitted on April 4 which among other items sought the release of “all records concerning the settlement of claims of police misconduct.” The petition includes two exhibits of the results, which contain many redactions. Fogel argues that not all of the information was privileged under state law and that five settlement documents should have been made available as part of the FOIA request. “The above violations of the FOIA Act by Defendant, City of Charlottesville, deprives not only petitioners, but every citizen of the community and other interested persons, the rights granted to them under the provisions of the FOIA Act,” reads paragraph 27 of the petition. Paragraph 28 argues that the city’s policy of requiring non-disparagement clauses or non-disclosure agreements as part of settlement agreements is a violation of a person’s First Amendment rights. The petition seeks an opinion on that interpretation. According to the petition, Hudson settled a First Amendment claim with the city in August 2020 that required her to enter into a nondisclosure agreement. Exhibit A includes redacted correspondence between lawyers hired by both the city and former City Manager Tarron Richardson. Richardson filed suit last year in federal court alleging that the city violated the terms of a nondisparagement clause related to his departure from the city in September 2020. He withdrew from the case in a filing of voluntary dismissal on March 8. (read Exhibit A) (read Exhibit B)“The [Virginia Risk Sharing Association], as the City’s insurer, has the authority to settle a case,” wrote city attorney Lisa Robertson in a March 9 email to former Mayor Nikuyah Walker. “The VSRA attorney appointed to represent City Council dealt with Dr. Richardson’s attorney. No city funds are being paid out.”Walker had wanted more information on how the suit came to be dismissed. The former mayor had been named as a party in Richardson’s case, as had a former city attorney.“Virginia Risk Sharing Association did not assign an attorney to you, John Blair, or [former City Councilor] Heather Hill because Dr. Richardson never served any of you with process,” Robertson wrote. This story was originally out with the incorrected person attributed in the quotation above. A less drunken Foxfield? It’s time again for the annual spring running of the Foxfield Races. That means that Garth Road will be closed between Barracks Farm Road and Free Union Road between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. “Anyone not attending the event should avoid the area,” reads an email from the Albemarle County Police Department. “Keep in mind, heavy traffic delays should be expected until 5:30 pm, even after the roadway reopens.”This will be the first spring races since Foxfield has updated its policies on alcohol. Vehicles that park in tailgating spaces are only permitted two fifths of hard liquor, three bottles of wine, and three six-packs of beer, seltzer, or cider. Those who drive in are permitted to leave their vehicles within 48 hours of the conclusion of the races. Those with tickets for what’s known as the New Orange area are not allowed to bring in any alcohol at all, but can purchase from approved vendors. Several years ago, there was an attempt to sell the property that resulted in a lawsuit. Parts of the property are now under a conservation easement. Rent continues to increase for office and retail space in Charlottesville areaA major Virginia real estate company that specializes in commercial space has published its latest report on the Charlottesville market. Cushman Wakefield | Thalhimer begins with an overall assessment of the economy. “After experiencing its highest unemployment rate on record of 10.2 percent in April 2020, Charlottesville employment has rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels of more than 116,000,” reads the top of the retail report.The vacancy rate for office space is at 9 percent, but some of that is related to the placement of 359,000 square feet of space in the former State Farm Headquarters. Recently constructed space is beginning to fill in. “Apex Plaza delivered in the first quarter with a total of 187,000 square feet,” reads the office report. “Home to Apex Clean Energy and The Southern Environmental Law Center among other tenants.”The report also notes the CODE building is coming online with coworking space and traditional offices. The price to rent these spaces is also increasing. “Overall market rents reached north of $26 per square foot (psf), a historic high, and downtown Class A office rents are averaging north of $35 psf,” the report continues. The retail report notes that more than 155,000 square of retail space have been built since 2020, and more is on the way. “Projects like Albemarle Business Campus and Brookhill Town Center will bring continued growth to the market, delivering office and residential opportunities as well as restaurant and retail spaces, which are now pre-leasing,” reads the retail report.The average asking rent for retail is $19.04 per square foot. As for residential properties, I’ll be posting an anecdotal review of transactions early next week. Paid subscribers will get the first look before that content will go over to Information Charlottesville. Shout-outs for Raised/Razed screening, ebike demonstrationsIn today’s second and this subscriber-supported shout-outs, Preservation Piedmont wants you to know about this Saturday’s premiere of Raised/Razed, a film by filmmaker Lorenzo Dickerson and Jordy Yager about the life and destruction of Vinegar Hill, one of the oldest African American neighborhoods in Charlottesville. The Maupintown Media production charts the lives of residents over nearly a century as they built prosperity in the face of racially discriminatory policies at every level. The film will be willl be shown outdoors at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center at 8 p.m. Tickets are available on the center’s website with donations to be divided between seven Black-led organizations. On Sunday, May 1, from 2:00-4:00. A pair of interested ebike owners in town will be bringing their bikes to Meade Park, and anybody who's interested can stop by, ask questions, and take test rides. They will have some ebikes with seats for children. If you’re going, drop them a line in this form. Virginia Senate panel kills Youngkin bill for three-month waiver of fuel tax When Virginia legislators went to Richmond Wednesday to respond to Governor Youngkin’s 26 vetos and dozens of proposed amendments related to the official 2022 session, a Virginia Senate committee met to consider one of the only policy bills in the special session that’s currently underway.The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee voted 12 to 3 on a motion to waive a bill to halt the motor fuel tax for a three month period. Chair Janet Howell said what Youngkin calls surplus funds are intended to pay for new infrastructure.“In 2020, the General Assembly made significant efforts to provide long-term, bipartisan transportation funding solutions and this included a two-year phased increase in gas taxes,” Howell said. Howell said the bill (HB 6001) would reduce available funding for new transportation projects and maintenance by around $437 million. “I also wanted to emphasize that other approaches supported by the Senate such as a tax rebate check or a refundable earned-income tax credit would likely be more effective options in providing relief to our citizens,” Howell said. Ser Stephen Newman (R-23) said the bill is intended as an emergency measure given the growth in inflation. “Over the last 12 months, the [Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers] has increased by 8.5 percent, the largest 12 month increase since 1981,” Newman said. “In 2020 when the omnibus bill that [Howell] spoke about was passed, the CPI-U was 1 percent.” Newman said the average price of gas was $2.42 a gallon when the bill was passed, an amount that has increase to over $4 a gallon. He disputed the claim that maintenance programs will be affected by the three month waiver. ‘In comparison to past [Six Year Improvement Programs], VDOT’s construction program remains overfunded by over $600 million,” Newman said. Senator Richard Saslaw (D-35) said he didn’t think any money available for transportation should be taken away. “The condition of the roads in Northern Virginia, and I can’t say for the rest of the state, are the worst [I]have seen in the 42 years I’ve been in office,” Saslaw said. Saslaw described Braddock Road as a secondary road that carries 80,000 vehicles a day. “It looks like they have driven tanks up that road,” Saslaw said, “I have never seen roads torn up to the degree that they were and when we left the session in March, on my way home I hit a pothole.” Saslaw said it cost him $300 to get that fixed. The 12 votes to defeat the bill included Republican Senator Emmett W. Hanger (R-24). Moomaw article on 2022 House race is a must-readFor the past few months, I’ve been trying to keep track of a federal lawsuit seeking a House of Delegates election in 2022, a year off of the regular schedule. If that happens, things would have to move very quickly. If you’ve not followed this case, I highly recommend reading Graham Moomaw’s article posted today on Virginia Mercury that goes in-depth into what could be a historic election. Local vehicular fatalities in Albemarle To close up the show today, following up with something from a previous story this month. Earlier this month, the Department of Motor Vehicles reported that Virginia hit a 14-year high in traffic fatalities in 2021, and that the state is on track to surpass that amount this year. Looking locally, there were 16 total fatalities on roads in Albemarle County in 2021, including on Interstate 64. Those were among 968 people killed on roadways in Virginia last year. There have been two deaths in Albemarle so far this year. Help support Town Crier Productions with a paid subscription to this newsletter!For one year now, Town Crier Productions has a promo with Ting!Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

After today, the year 2022 will be 22.7 percent complete, a statistic that appears both appropriate and confounding. This is the 353rd edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a program that only contains a fraction of the stories that I would like to be telling, but efforts to increase efficiency are on an upward trajectory. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. Sign up to make sure every installment makes it to your inbox! CCE is free but your support helps keep it going! On today’s program:Charlottesville City Council appears poised to approve a 28 unit apartment complex on a cul-de-sac in FifevilleGovernor Glenn Youngkin summons the General Assembly to return to Richmond on April 4 to complete a budget The Charlottesville Human Rights Commission holds a town hall meeting tonightAnd the Great Eastern Management Company offers the public a chance to weigh in on a plan to redevelop Seminole Square Shopping Center to add 352 apartmentsFirst shout-out goes to a March 29 event happening at MorvenIn today’s first subscriber supported shout-out, the Morven Summer Institute at Morven Farm wants you to know about a seminar coming up on March 29. How are UVA students, faculty, and community partners collaborating to tell the stories of Morven? Researcher Scot French has spent over ten years studying Morven’s history and will provide glimpses into a course he’ll be teaching this summer on Recovering the Stories of Morven’s Enslaved and Descendant Communities.  The March 29 event is a chance for the public to get a preview of the four week course. If you’re interested, visit morven.virginia.edu to fill out an interest form. Governor Youngkin calls special session to resolve Virginia’s budgetThe Virginia General Assembly adjourned earlier this month without completing work on a budget. They also left several bills pending. Now the head of the executive branch has called them back to Richmond to complete the work early next month.“I, Glenn Youngkin, Governor of Virginia, do hereby summon the members of the Senate and the House of Delegates, constituting the General Assembly of Virginia, to meet in Special Session commencing the 4th day of April, two thousand and twenty-two for the purpose of the completion of the 2023-2024 biennial budget.In a statement, Youngkin said he wants the budget to include a tax cut, but also an increase in spending on education, law enforcement, and the behavioral health system. Youngkin also wants the General Assembly to pass legislation that would suspend Virginia’s 26-cent gas tax for three months. Graham Moomaw reported in the Virginia Mercury last week that that could cost $437 million in transportation funding. The Legislative Information System lists 48 bills still pending, including the budget bill. A total of 166 bills were carried over to the 2023. Youngkin has signed 31 bills into law including one that makes switchblade knives legal again. Other blackjacks such as throwing stars remain illegal. Another approved bill will change the process by which “accommodations intermediaries” pay their transient occupancy taxes, though guidelines won’t be published by the Department of Taxation until August 1, 2022. Human Rights Commission Town Hall tonightThe nine-member body appointed by City Council to “provide citywide leadership and guidance in the area of civil and human rights” wants you to consider attending a meeting tonight. City Councilor Michael Payne made this announcement at Monday’s Council meeting.“The Human Rights Commission would like to hear from the public on Emergency Housing Access and the quality of affordable, public, and subsidized housing,” Payne said. That will take the form of a virtual town hall meeting to be held tonight at 7 p.m. They’ll be working off of a community survey that got 128 responses. The top two responses are the subject of the meeting, where people will have up to three minutes to discuss. Learn more in a press release. City Council adopted an affordable housing plan on March 1, 2021 as the first step in the Cville Plans Together initiative. The three major themes in the plan are a commitment to spend $10 million each year on affordable housing programs, reforming the governance for how that funding is allocated, and to adopt reforms to encourage more housing all across the city. (read the plan)Council supportive of rezoning for 28 units on Valley Road ExtendedCharlottesville City Council appears willing to support three land use applications to allow 28 units to be built on about two thirds of an acre on a cul-de-sac in Fifeville. Lorven Investments needs a rezoning, a special use permit, and a critical slopes waiver. “The development being proposed are for four low-rise apartment buildings with eight one-bedroom units and 20 two-bedroom units for a total of 28 on site,” said city planner Matt Alfele. By right, the developer could have gotten three duplexes, but only with a boundary line adjustment. “Six houses down there versus 28 when we desperately need housing?” Councilor Sena Magill wondered. “It’s very hard to say no to.”However, both Magill and City Councilor Michael Payne had questions about the terms of affordability provisions, and the item will come back to Council for a second reading at their next meeting on April 4. The out-ot-town developer has agreed to contribute $48,000 to build pedestrian improvement somewhere off-site, as well as to commit eight of the units to be income-restricted for a period of at least ten years. The Planning Commission voted 4-3 earlier this month to recommend approval.“Traffic, affordability of units, [and] scale of the buildings were the main points of focus from the Commission,” Alfele said. “In addition, members of the community who spoke brought up character of the development as it relates to the surrounding neighborhood, anticipated problems with parking, and the poor condition of Valley Road Extended.” Civil engineer Justin Shimp represented the applicant and he said the affordability proffer echoes the city’s housing policy and it is legally binding. “There are terms spelled out within on how much the rent will be, and also the rent limitations in both income and on what the rental price is,” Shimp said. Shimp said there was no subsidy involved and that the developer will assume the costs of providing the units below market. “It depends on what you calculate market rent in the area but I think it’s something like a $250,000 to $300,000 commitment on this project to affordability,” Shimp said. One question is how the city will enforce the affordability. The city has been without a housing coordinator since the summer of 2020. “Whether or not someone is compliant will need to be determined by the zoning administrator down the road,” said City Attorney Lisa Robertson. “This proffer statement does not obligate the city to pay any money.”Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade had a question about the length of the affordability period. “I mean, ten years, is that typically what we use as the time period?” Wade asked. “It seemed kind of short.” Robertson said there is no standard length for Charlottesville, and that in this case the developer was offering the affordability on a voluntary basis above and beyond the minimum requirements of the zoning code. That will change as the zoning code is rewritten to include provisions where this kind of density would be allowed only if units were provided below market. “We don’t really have a standardized program yet,” Robertson said. Wade also wanted to make sure that University of Virginia students do not end up taking units that he thought should go to low-wealth families.“Will [federal housing] voucher holders be able to take advantage of this location?” Wade asked.“Yes,” Shimp responded. “And that’s part of what we were encouraged to look into by the Planning Commission. Part of the units being split is that all eight of them become voucher eligible.” Before the discussion, one member of the public argued that the subsidized low rents that would be provided at Grove Street would outweigh any concerns over traffic. "With more apartments on that street, the cars will drive slower but I think that's okay," said Joshua Carp said.Councilor Michael Payne noted that this use appeared to be in excess of what’s allowed under the new Future Land Use Map that designates this as General Residential. “What justification and where in the project in terms of affordability are we at in terms of justifying going beyond our adopted land use map that did have density increase throughout the city, but had land use designations that we decided on?” Payne asked. Shimp said that was up to the City Council to decide. In this case, he said the undeveloped nature of the three lots are a perfect opportunity to add density. “This site in particular, there’s not a tree on it,” Shimp said. “There’s a degraded stream we’re going to fix. This is one site that clearing it all and building housing on it is 100 percent improvement for all parties involved.” Shimp said the proposal fulfills the spirit of the new Comprehensive Plan. Strategy 1.3 of the Land Use Chapter is to “implement zoning changes needed to support the creation of more housing, including affordable housing opportunities throughout the city.” Mayor Lloyd Snook said the city does not have enough money to make major improvements to Valley Road Extended.“What’s concerning generally is the narrowness of the street or the fact that there’s no street definition on one side,” Snook said. “There is street definition on the other side because there’s a guard rail to keep you from going into the creek.” Snook said if Council approves this project, they should expect that neighbors will report issues in the future. He said on balance, he would support the project because of the provision of new houses. The item will come back to Council on April 4 for a second reading. There were at least three votes to approve. Second Shout-out goes to Mulch Madness! In today’s second subscriber-supported shout-out, are you ready for Mulch Madness? The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority has a free mulch giveaway through April 16. In between all the big games, the RSWA wants you to get your yard ready for spring. If you have a way to transport mulch, head on over to the Ivy Material Utilization Center between 7:30am and 4:00pm, Monday through Saturday, where you can pick up up to two tons free. Rivanna staff are available to help load, but ask that you bring a covering. Mulch is double ground and derived from vegetative materials brought to Ivy for disposal. That’s Mulch Madness at the Ivy Material Utilization Center. Visit rivanna.org to learn more. Great Eastern Management Company presents plans for mixed-use redevelopment of Seminole Square Members of the public had the opportunity Wednesday to ask questions of the developers of Seminole Square Shopping Center. The Great Eastern Management Company has submitted plans to convert the former Giant store and other commercial sites. “What we have here actually are four individual structures,” said David Mitchell is with GEMC. “We’re staying in the existing development area and we’re not going down into any of the slopes or any of the critical areas. We’re staying up on the platform that we built 30 years ago.”Mitchell said this is a by-right plan and will not require a rezoning or special use permit. One structure will be a mixed-use building and the rest will be all residential. Parking would be underneath and Mitchell said the minimum requirements would be met. Another commercial building will be built along Hillsdale Drive but Mitchell said there are no identified tenants. Planning Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg asked how the project was different from the previous plan. GEMC filed for a rezoning in early 2019 for eleven five story buildings with around 500 residential units. “Obviously the building configuration looks a little bit different,” Stolzenberg said. “In particular, what caused the number of units to drop?” Mitchell said the reduced number comes down to parking requirements and construction costs.“When we started to look harder at this after that initial plan you saw three years ago it became obvious to us that these buildings are already going to be five to seven stories with underground parking,” Mitchell said. “To get any more than that… this is not downtown New York. There are limitations on the economics.” The units would either be one-bedroom or two bedroom units. Five percent will be affordable under the city’s existing affordable housing policies. “It’s not required because this is by-right but we’ve just decided we’ve done it on another project that was a special use permit so it was required,” Mitchell said. “We think we can provide that within the economic structure of the project.” Two public streets would be created as part of the project. In addition to Stolzenberg, only one other person actually spoke. Peter Krebs of the Piedmont Environmental Council asked questions about connectivity. Mitchell said GEMC would like to move forward with the project as soon as possible. The company is also offering an easement for a trail connection to the Meadow Creek stream corridor. Talking real estate tomorrow on Real Talk with Keith SmithIt’s been some time since I have appeared on the Real Talk with Keith Smith program, but I will be on tomorrow with Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum. There are multiple ways to watch what will hopefully be an informative conversation. I believe you can watch beginning at 10:15 a.m. tomorrow on Facebook Live and YouTube. Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

One website I frequently pursue claims that March 23 is National Puppy Day, Melba Toast Day, Near Miss Day, World Maths Day, and World Meteorological Day. Whether or not these are bona fide or bananas, there certainly are a lot of interesting things to pay attention on this ever-changing planet of ours. Charlottesville Community Engagement seeks to document as much as possible in this corner of the world, and I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. This newsletter and podcast are free, but your financial support ensures regular updates! On today’s program:Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers recommends a two-cent increase in Charlottesville’s property tax rate to begin saving up money for school reconfigurationMembers of the public weigh in on the FY23 budget and that tax rateA new schedule has been set for a federal lawsuit seeking to force a House of Delegates race in 2022 Charlottesville seeks input on a traffic safety study on Fifth Street ExtendedFirst shout-out goes to the Piedmont Master GardenersThe first subscriber-supported shout-out today goes to the Piedmont Master Gardeners to announce their 2022 Spring Lecture Series featuring leading experts on sustainable landscaping, indigenous gardening wisdom and small fruit production at home. For two more Thursdays in March, you can buy a virtual ticket for these informative events. On March 24 at 7 p.m., Jayesh Samtani will discuss “Home Garden Berries—Selection, Cultivation, and Growing Alongside Ornamental Plants.” On March 31 at 7 p.m., Barbara Ryan will discuss “The New Sustainable Garden - Designing with Native Plants.”To purchase a ticket or to learn more, visit piedmontmastergardeners.org/events.2022 House suit proceedsNow that a federal lawsuit seeking to force a House of Delegates race in 2022 has been sent back to the Eastern District of Virginia, Judge David Novak has provided a path forward for how the suit will proceed. Plaintiff Paul Goldman has until Friday to file arguments for why he feels he has the legal standing to bring forward a case against the Board of Elections that challenges the constitutionality of allowing Delegates elected in 2021 to continue to serve until the end of 2023. The Virginia Attorney General’s office has until April 1 to file a motion as to why Goldman lacks jurisdiction and to express an opinion on whether Novak or a three-judge panel on the Fourth Circuit should rule on the question of standing. Goldman would then have until April 15 to respond. “Because the Fourth Circuit remanded this case to the District Court to address only the issue of standing, the parties shall not file any motions or other pleadings beside those listed above,” Novak wrote in his ruling. (read the March 21 order)For more information, read Graham Moomaw’s report on Monday’s hearing in the Virginia Mercury. City seeking input on Fifth Street safetyCharlottesville is pursuing Smart Scale funding for improvements to Fifth Street Extended as part of an overall effort to prevent future fatalities on the roadway. The city is looking at the area between Old Ridge Street and Harris Road. “This study focuses on improvement concepts that target known needs, reduce community impacts, and address all modes in a cost-effective manner,” reads the introduction. “Projects and solutions may be considered for future funding through local, regional, state and/or federal transportation programs — but not without first getting YOUR INPUT!”According to an information sheet on the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission’s Smart Scale page, there is no scope or cost estimate for the project. “Charlottesville identified the need for a project between Cherry/Elliott and Harris Roads in the 5th Ridge McIntire Multimodal Corridor Study, in Streets That Work, and in the Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan,” reads that page. “Considerations for the application include redesigning the intersection, enhancing multimodal facilities along the corridor, improving access, and enhancing transit access, lighting, and landscape of the area.The city has already been awarded Smart Scale funds to address the intersection of Elliott Avenue, Ridge Street, Cherry Avenue, and Fifth Street Extended. (read the application)The Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Policy Board will discuss the Smart Scale projects at their virtual meeting on 2 p.m. Thursday. (meeting info)Rogers recommends two cent property tax increase for CY22Charlottesville City Council held a public hearing Monday on the real estate tax rate and personal property tax rate for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. Before then and before the general public comment period, Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers presented Council with several ways forward on raising funds in the next five years for paying up to $75 million for the renovation of Buford Middle School. (review the presentation)“Several of you asked that we dig a little deeper and come back with several scenarios as we try to get to some resolution on how to deal with this issue,” Rogers said. The presentation featured another lesson from Senior Budget Management Analyst Krisy Hammill about the city’s looming debt crisis. “We have approximately $85 million that’s currently outstanding,” Hammill said. Hamill said the city currently pays about $11 million each year for debt service and that amount would drop if no further debt was issued. “Of this outstanding debt, about 28 percent of that is for school-related projects that have already been completed,” Hammill said. Hammill presented multiple scenarios, all which assume an annual growth rate of 1.5 percent over the next from the real estate property tax as well as two percent in revenues from meals tax rate. Hammill said it is the size of the project that is presenting an accounting problem. Without it, the city would expect to have a total five-year CIP of $82.4 million, requiring the sale of $46.9 million in bonds. “With the other projects that are on the Capital Improvement Plan list, they are of such amounts that we can manage our CIP within our affordability,” Hammill said. But adding a $75 million project will increase the total CIP to $157.4 million, requiring the sale of $121.9 million. VMDO, the architectural firm hired by the school system for reconfiguration, has suggested splitting those bonds sales over the period with $2.5 million this year, $20 million in FY24, $32.5 million in FY25, and $20 million in FY26. “Our annual debt service payment is moving from the $11.4 million that we’ve been talking about up to about $22 million in 2032,” Hammill said. “This is roughly equivalent to about a two cent tax increase over the next four years if we were going to that incrementally.” Other scenarios include a seven cent tax increase in FY23 in order to build up a larger reserve to pay off debt service. Another would be to reduce the city’s cost for reconfiguration to $50 million. Kevin Rotty, a financial consultant who advises the city on long-term debt, said other options would be to reduce city spending as well as to continue exploring state funding in advance of a special session to resolve the state budget that has not yet been called. “There’s a couple bills in the General Assembly right now which are talking about school construction,” Rotty said. “Certainly the city is not unique in having some school needs here.”The exact funding scenario depends on multiple variables, but the main lever Council gets to control is the tax rate. Rogers weighs in with his recommendationRogers reminded Council that the city will have to pick up the tab for paying 15 firefighters after a federal SAFER grant runs out. Collective bargaining will also have a cost as well. “There are some big opportunities in transit and opportunities to make progress on our climate plan but we’ve got to add money to match the funds that are available from the [federal government and the state,” Rogers said. Rogers had this recommendation for Council.“The proposed school reconfiguration has not been integrated into the city’s capital improvements program in a manner that will allow City Council to make a coordinated funding plan,” Rogers said. Nevertheless, he said there was a need to ensure that the city could cover its obligations for past needs as well as future ones. “For the FY23 budget I recommend that Council should enact a two cent real estate tax and set the money aside within the capital projects fund earmarked as the beginning of an annual funding program to generate funds for school reconfiguration,” Rogers said. Rogers recommended delaying a bond issue for reconfiguration for the school in FY23 until after a long-term plan could be developed. He also suggested a rehaul of the entire capital improvement program to be ready for next year’s budget. “Let’s move forward but not too fast,” Rogers said. “Let’s take a pause and start putting away some money for this project.”Rogers said that would give more time to see how the statewide conversation on school construction funding plays out. Similar stories:Council’s emphasis on housing issues reflected in proposed capital budget, December 16, 2018Council wants more info before giving direction on capital spending, November 18, 2020Charlottesville's Draft Capital Budget includes $50 million for Middle School reconfiguration, January 28, 2021Charlottesville Budget staff continues to warn Council of approaching debt limit, April 1, 2021Council discusses tax increases to help cover $60 million Buford upgrades, August 2, 2021Charlottesville Planning Commission gets first look at FY23-FY27 Capital Budget, November 29, 2021Prepping for Charlottesville's FY23 Capital Improvement Program, January 29, 2022Second shout-out goes to Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society Today’s first subscriber-fueled shout-out is for an upcoming panel discussion on local history. The Centennial anniversary of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library is coming to an end, and staff at the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society will talk Thursday at 7 p.m. about an upcoming article on “JMRL at 100” in the Magazine of Albemarle Charlottesville History. ACHS Program Coordinator Sterling Howell will speak with JMRL’s Historical Collection Librarian Miranda Burnett and UVA Law Library Coordinator Addison Patrick. It’s another Unregulated Historical Meandering on the Last Word on the Library Centennial. Register on Zoom or join the program on Facebook Live.  Public weighs in on real estate tax rate, personal property tax rate, and the FY23 budgetEarlier this year, Council met its legal obligations to advertise in a newspaper of record a potential tax rate for the current calendar year.“You authorized us to go up to ten cents which would present $9.2 million in revenue,” Rogers said. Rogers’ recommended budget did not anticipate spending any of that funding, but left it unallocated pending Council’s discussion about whether they want to entertain a property tax rate. Rogers is recommending a two cent increase this year for the school project. Council also advertised keeping the personal property tax rate at $4.20 per $100 of assessed value, though Commissioner of Revenue Todd Divers said a sharp increase in the value of used vehicles will increase bills. He told Council what the equalized rate would be. “You’re looking at a rate of probably around $3.22,” Divers said. “If don’t do anything, you’re probably going to see an additional $2 million.” Elizabeth Stark, the co-chair of the Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America, called for the full increase of ten cents to support collective bargaining, $10 million a year for affordable housing, and other priorities. “I ask that the city use all levers in their power to generate income,” Stark said. “Though all tax options are regressive, an increase to the property tax coupled with tax relief for low-wealth neighbors and an increase to the lodging tax seems to be the solution to me.”However, Jamie Fitzgerald said a full increase of ten cents will hurt his ability to remain as a renter in Charlottesville.“I rent from an owner that does not live in Charlottesville,” Fitzgerald said. “The owner performs zero maintenance on this house and the house is rapidly deteriorating.”Fitzgerald predicted his rent would be increased to cover the cost, which would force him to vacate. “I’m sure I’m not the only renter in Charlottesville facing this issue,” Fitzgerald said. Chris Meyer encouraged Council to raise the property tax rate because he said Charlottesville is undertaxed. “We need to get moving,” Meyer said. “I appreciate the city manager’s suggestion on at least a two cent raise,” Meyer said. “I would look at potentially more.” After the tax rate public hearing, the public comment period was opened on the budget. No one spoke directly about what to do with the personal property tax rate. Brad Slocum no longer lives in Charlottesville and now commutes in from Staunton. He urged Council to increase funding for Charlottesville Area Transit in order to help the city meet its climate goals.“One of the best ways to do this is to ensure director of transit, Garland Williams, has the budget he and his staff need to expand the city’s bus fleet to achieve 15-minute fixed route service,” Williams said. Brian Campbell of the Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America called on Council to make further cuts to the police budget and to require transparency.“Charlottesville spends $19 million annually on police,” Campbell said. “Lynchburg, a city nearly twice as big and with more officers also spends $19 million on police. On a per capita basis, Charlottesville spends more on police than Albemarle, Waynesboro, Staunton, Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Blacksburg, and Lynchburg as previously noted. Why do Charlottesville police spend so much more than their peers? No one knows.” Katie Yared, a fourth year student at the University of Virginia, called on Council to enact a plastic bag tax for FY23. “As I’m sure you know, the Albemarle County budget proposes that they will implement a tax on plastic bags by January 1, 2023, with a projected revenue of $20,000,” Yared  said. “Following the lead of Albemarle County, the city of Charlottesville has an opportunity to significantly reduce plastic waste and to incentivize the use of reusable bags.” Members of the Tree Commission sought additional funding in two areas.“First, we proposed planting 200 trees per year so that we can plant more trees than are being removed,” said Mark Rylander. That would take an allocation of $100,000 but the City Manager’s budget only includes $75,000. Rylander said the Tree Commission would like another $105,000 a year to address the destruction of ash trees by the Emerald Ash Borer. Several speakers asked for additional funding for the Public Housing Association of Residents including its executive director, Shelby Edwards. The current level of funding for FY22 is $41,000 but the Vibrant Community process for determining funding for outside agencies only recommended $21,035 for FY23. “Please fund PHAR especially our PHAR internship problem, and also our development-led redevelopment efforts,” Edwards said. The capital budget anticipates spending $3 million in bond-raised funds on public  housing redevelopment for each of the next four years. There’s a Community Budget Forum scheduled for tonight night at 6 p.m. The meals tax rate will be on the agenda for Council’s next regularly scheduled meeting on April 4. Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Good morning, RVA! It's 67 °F, and you should expect highs in the mid 70s and a chance of rain throughout today. We may even see some severe weather this afternoon or evening. Keep an ear out!Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths as: 243, 41, and 15.3, respectively. VDH reports a seven-day average of 32.9 new cases in and around Richmond (Richmond: 4.9; Henrico: 12.3, and Chesterfield: 15.7). Since this pandemic began, 1,329 people have died in the Richmond region. 42.8%, 53.3%, and 49.8% of the population in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.Because I can't not look at the number every day, 67.3% of adults in Virginia have received at least one dose of the vaccine. The New York Times can't not look at these numbers either and has put together this fascinating table of “How long it would take each state to reach 70 percent of adults with one dose at the current vaccination pace.” Virginia: 13 days (which puts us four days past my estimate of June 12th). Alabama and Mississippi: More than a year. 40 states (plus D.C. and Puerto Rico) have not yet hit Biden's 70% goal, and out of the ten that are projected to take the longest to get there, six are in the South and eight have Republican governors. The 12 states that have already hit the goal: California, Maryland, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Vermont (just four Republican governors).Also in vaccine world, Ian M. Stewart at VPM has some details on the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts' pivot away from large, stationary vaccination events toward smaller, mobile events. As a person involved in this pivot, I, of course, think it's a smart move! Go to where the people are! To keep a nice balance, though, the Health District will maintain a few stable walk-up vaccination events, like the one at George Wythe High School, throughout the summer.VPM's Lyndon German has a really nice story about what Studio Two Three did over the last 18 months to support our community during both the pandemic and the George Floyd protests. I love that we've finally got just enough distance from last year that we can start to reflect on these small, wonderful stories of Richmonders doing Richmond things. I hope to read a million more of these in the coming weeks and months.Related to my ongoing thread about if and how things change as we emerge from the pandemic, the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Gregory J. Gilligan reports on Kings Dominion's challenge in finding enough workers to open for a full season. As a result, KD has upped wages from $9.25 per hour to $13 per hour, which is a pretty dramatic 40% increase. I kind of hate the term “labor shortage,” because it makes it seem like folks who need jobs were snapped out of existence by Thanos, when what's really happening is people are no longer willing to work hard jobs—across many sectors—while making an unlivable wage. What I want to i know now is if $13 per hour is enough and if these wage increases will stick around past this transitional year.Michael Schwartz at Richmond BizSense has the list of local companies on the Fortune 500 list. You'll, of course, recognize all of the companies on this list—either as massive employers or as sponsors of literally every event in town.I'll link to this Graham Moomaw piece in the Virginia Mercury about the state of right-to-work repeal in Virginia mostly because it's an important thing to know about…but also because the pic of McAuliffe at the top is great and just asking to be memed.It's Thursday and that means the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts are hosting a free COVID-19 community testing event at the East Henrico Health Department (1400 N Laburnum Ave) from 2:00–4:00 PM. Just walk on up and get tested—no insurance required.This morning's longreadThe internet is flat.I'm really interested in this idea of Twitter having a main character each day (and the goal is to never be it). I've got a couple more articles in this space queued up, and they make me feel like we should just shut it all down.All of these questions reflect the nuances of a situation. And all of these questions are also irrelevant, because the ecosystem in which the broader conversation is conducted flattens them all into nothingness. She is either a KKK queen or an unfairly maligned cancel culture victim or some complicated muddled mix of the two, which isn't interesting enough to hold a headline and so is usually discarded in favor of one of the binary options. And so Kemper becomes the momentary main character of Twitter. Within minutes, it ends up not being about Kemper at all. She's just the latest place filler in peoples' larger cultural war.If you'd like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol' Patreon.Picture of the DayComing soon.

Graham Moomaw, Virginia politics & policy reporter for the Virginia Mercury joins the Transition Team, along with Trevor Southerland, the former Exec. Director of the VA House Dems to discuss the last Democratic gubernatorial debate and the closing arguments that each of the candidates are making.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F already, and temperatures today should heat up just a little more. At some point, a cold(er) front will move through and maybe even bring some rain with it!Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 236 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 9 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 29 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 7, Henrico: 16, and Richmond: 6). Since this pandemic began, 1,320 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 406. The NYT reports that, countrywide, new COVID-19 cases have dropped to levels not seen since last summer.Over in vaccine world, first, check out the graph of new people in Virginia with at least one dose and see how a change in VDH’s reporting has made this graph…less satisfying to look at. A couple days back, VDH started including doses administered by the federal government into this dataset (specifically the Bureau of Prisons, Department of Defense, Indian Health Service, and Veterans Administration). This resulted in a massive, one-time spike and an unknown daily increase in folks with at least one dose. I’m bummed because now I can’t tell if the increase in folks getting their first dose is a result of this new reporting change or because a bunch of kids 12–15 decided to get vaccinated. Maybe that latter thing is better represented in this graph of total doses administered locally, in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield. We’ve seen a pretty sizable increase in total jabs, and, while I have no way of knowing, doesn’t seem like it’s 100% explainable by adding in federal doses. Finally, I updated this graph to reflect progress towards 70% of local folks vaccinated instead of 75% (I also made it a bit easier on the eyes).Mayor Stoney has a reflective column in the New York Times as part of their series on George Floyd and America. I think a lot of local folks are going to take issue with the Mayor’s retelling of events in this piece. There are a handful of pro-police hedges and qualification that will rub some people—myself included—the wrong way. The Virginia Mercury’s Graham Moomaw points out the worst of these on Twitter: framing the RPD’s use of tear gas as unintentional in the New York Times when, over the summer, we were all told something entirely different.Kind of related, Ali Rockett at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the task force setting up the Civilian Review Board, touted by Stoney in that NYT piece, is frustrated with the Richmond Police Department’s lack of input and involvement: “Only after applying public pressure in the form of a tweet has the task force heard any response from [Police Chief] Smith.” Apparently the taskforce has asked the chief to get involved for at least a month with no luck. This quote from a task force member is particularly damning: "At some point, the unwillingness to engage with this body does start to feel like arrogance. I don’t think we can overlook it…If you’re watching a task force creating a civilian review board that could potentially just co-opt your authority, and there’s nothing. It makes me feel like they don’t believe it or they’re just not going to deal with it. They think they can get out of it.” The task force meets again on Wednesday, so we’ll see if Chief Smith shows up.City Council will tackle a handful of interesting items today at both their informal and formal meetings. First, the Mayor’s team will give a presentation on the revised Equity Agenda. The presentation includes five general examples of the changes they’ll make, but I haven’t found an actual updated document yet. When it exists I’ll let you know. Then, at their formal meeting and as part of the more intense Regular Agenda, Council will consider RES. 2021-R026 (the embarrassing Richmond 300 “amendments”), RES. 2021-R027(getting rid of parking minimums), and RES. 2021-R028 (saying out loud that they’d like to put $7.1 million from the American Rescue Plan money into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund). I bet we will not see all three of these pass tonight—in fact, it looks like the Richmond 300 amendments have already been continued to the June 28th meeting.If you’re into beer, Paste Magazine has a review of (all?) 37 breweries in the greater Richmond area. I like how this piece opens, remembering that before the General Assembly relaxed the laws regulating breweries we had a grand total of one single brewery for the longest time. For what seems like forever, we all just drank a ton of Legend Brown—as if having a brown ale as your city’s flagship local beer is a normal thing.Via /r/rva this lovely golden-hour drone photo of the river, the skyline, some bridges, and something going on at Brown’s Island. It’s about to be summer, y’all!This morning’s longreadWhy Confederate Lies Live OnClint Smith writes about the persistent Lost Cause narrative and begins his story at Blandford Cemetery down in Petersburg.We left the church, and a breeze slid across my face. Many people go to places like Blandford to see a piece of history, but history is not what is reflected in that glass. A few years ago, I decided to travel around America visiting sites that are grappling—or refusing to grapple—with America’s history of slavery. I went to plantations, prisons, cemeteries, museums, memorials, houses, and historical landmarks. As I traveled, I was moved by the people who have committed their lives to telling the story of slavery in all its fullness and humanity. And I was struck by the many people I met who believe a version of history that rests on well-documented falsehoods.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the Day

Good morning, RVA! It’s 52 °F, and you can expect another wonderful day ahead of us with temperatures in the mid 80s—another wonderful day to get out there and enjoy!Water coolerThe Richmond Police Department and VCU are both reporting that the person shot to death on the 400 block of Gilmer Street was 20-year-old student Cody Woodson. Woodson was murdered around 8:00 PM on Monday night. Ali Rockett and Reed Williams in the Richmond Times-Dispatch report that this is the second deadly shooting on the same block of Gilmer in as many days.As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,434 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 41 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 155 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 81, Henrico: 43, and Richmond: 31). Since this pandemic began, 1,238 people have died in the Richmond region. Locally, we’ve seen reported case counts fluctuate over the past month or so, but, looking at Richmond City’s numbers specifically, I think you can spot a trend. One month ago, on March 7th, the seven-day average of new cases in Richmond sat at 27.4. Today, that number has increased to 42.1. Across the region we’ve seen about a 19% increase in new reported cases over the last month, almost entirely driven by the numbers in Richmond. I don’t know what the deal is, but it’s just another reminder to continue treating this disease seriously. It’s also another reminder to go pre-register for the vaccine at vaccinate.virginia.gov if you haven’t already. Everyone can pre-register, and it takes five minutes! Just go do it!Sabrina Moreno at the RTD reports that the Centers for Disease Control will award Virginia a $77.1 million grant “to help remove accessibility barriers limiting vaccine uptake and equitable distribution among the state’s most-affected populations.” Sounds like most of this money will flow back out to local health districts to support their work in Black and Brown communities and their vaccine hesitancy work (which can, but do not necessarily, overlap). That’s a lot of cash to dump into outreach programs! I’m really interested in what happens once the entire state is eligible for vaccination. Do we see a huge crush of folks queueing up at the Raceway? Has everyone who’s stoked to get vaccinated already done so? I just don’t think we know yet. With only a little over 30% of Virginians with at least one dose, we’ve got a lonnnnng way to go before we reach our herd immunity target of 75%. I imagine connecting with the huge and remaining chunk of folks not yet or not interested in getting vaccinated will be a lot of ongoing, hard work.Two boring updates! First, I’ve got the audio from Council’s third budget work session up on The Boring Show, which you are free to listen to while you enjoy today’s wonderful weather. I only recently got around to listening to last week’s second work session, and I really recommend that you try to find the time to do so. There’s a good back-and-forth between Councilmember Larson and CAO Lincoln Saunders about funding CIP projects in councilmembers' districts, and Councilmember Trammell delivers one of her classic monologues. I am sympathetic to some of the councilmembers' concerns, but, also, they have the full authority to amend the Mayor’s budget! I like to listen to these work sessions, hear the complaints from Council, and then compare/contrast to the budget amendments they ultimately submit. Second, that Planning Commission resolution to declare a citywide rezoning to allow ADUs passed. Onward and upward!VPM’s Whittney Evans recaps yesterday’s Commonwealth’s Attorney forum, if you missed it. And, over on the Virginia Mercury, Graham Moomaw reports from last night’s Democratic gubernatorial debate. I watched the latter, and for me the headlining moment came when Lt. Gov. Fairfax compared himself to George Floyd. Here’s Kenneth Gilliam, Jr., policy director for New Virginia Majority, on the comments: “There is so much to unpack about Fairfax’s comments this evening. but, without question, they were traumatizing for many and an insult to the lives lost due to white supremacist violence.” Here’s Jamil Smith, writer at Rolling Stone, “Justin Fairfax, who is credibly accused of sexual violence by two black women, joined the likes of Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, and Clarence Thomas by likening such allegations to a lynching. And he actually did it in Virginia, while talking about real lynchings.”The City installed these “stop for pedestrians” signs in the middle of Brookland Park Boulevard at its intersection with the Cannon Creek Greenway, and, seven days in, this one has seen better days. I guess it’s either “hilarious” to hit a sign protecting pedestrians with your car or that intersection is dangerous enough that it needs real improvements to slow traffic and make crossing there safer on foot or on bike.I don’t know if this is useful, but Venture Richmond posted some downtown-related numbers as part of their Annual Community Update. For example, did you know that downtown accounts for 53% of the city’s jobs? Or that downtown holds a quarter of the retail businesses and a third of the restaurants and bars? Here’s the full study from where these numbers come if you’d like to stash it away in your PDF library.Will Virginia legalize possession of marijuana on July 1st? Find out (maybe) today at 12:00 PM as both chambers of the General Assembly return for a reconvened session. You can stream both meetings using the previous link!This morning’s longreadMaking Sense of Greater Richmond’s Transit GovernanceOK, you’re going to tap on this link, see the flow chart, freak out, and then close the tab. However, before you do! I found this visual description of the region’s transit governance system(s) and the accompanying narrative really helpful. Maybe even enjoyable!First and foremost — what is transit governance? Think of it as Government+, like how Disney+ is Disney plus a few other networks. So for governance, in addition to elected officials, laws and ordinances, and other formal institutions of the state, governance also can include “elected and non-elected government officers, nongovernmental organizations, political, parties, interest groups, …and other relevant actors in the decision-making processes that produce government action”. For example, bus riders, political parties, RVA Rapid Transit, and city officials all fall into the umbrella of transit governance. In regards to Richmond’s transit governance, there are 4 main bodies that comprise most of the decision-making, funding, and operation of transit here in Richmond. They all have different roles. Different localities, agencies, and groups all have varying levels of influence for each body listed below.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the DayRedbuds!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and maybe a little rainy. Today you can expect clouds and slightly cooler temperatures—but still pretty warm for March. Highs in the 60s for most of the weekend. Enjoy!Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,250 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 53 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 107 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 58, Henrico: 33, and Richmond: 16). Since this pandemic began, 1,146 people have died in the Richmond region. Here’s this week’s stacked chart of new reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The deaths chart may be useable again in the next week or two, and the hospitalizations chart still shows a worryingly large number of people sent to the hospital every day. Locally, the number of new cases continues to decrease, but maybe has started to plateau a bit. I’m hoping warmer weather, more time outside, and more humans vaccinated means those numbers will continue to tick downwards.I think President Biden’s speech last night is worth watching if you didn’t catch it live—not only for the coronavirus updates but just to remember what it’s like to have a real president again. Over the course of about 20 minutes, Biden set out a few goals applicable to this section of the newsletter. First, all states will open eligibility for vaccination to all adults by May 1st. That doesn’t mean everyone will have the opportunity to be vaccinated by May 1st, just they they’ll be eligible for vaccination. Depending on supply of the vaccine, this could be really great or it could further infuriate folks already stressed out about a confusing process. The last thing we want to do is declare everyone eligible but not have enough vaccine for all of those everyones. Remember when the governor did exactly that a bunch of weeks back? Yeah, not great. Second, Biden thinks we’ll have made enough progress on vaccinating the general population that small, safe backyard hangs will be possible by July 4th. Huge if true, and I shall make Alton Brown’s soft pretzels in celebration. Third, he mentioned a new website to help folks find vaccination appointments near them. I don’t know what that last thing means, but I do know the technology behind letting folks know they’re eligible for vaccination and getting them registered for an appointment currently sucks.Also, given the reactions in a couple of my group texts, Slacks, and on my Twitter time line, it looks like the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts open up a bunch of appointments to frontline essential workers and folks aged 16–64 with underlying conditions and disabilities. If you’re in either of those categories and waiting on a vaccination appointment: Check your email!The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Chris Suarez has a wide-ranging piece about development, community engagement, and casinos on Richmond’s Southside. The piece is not really about the ongoing casino discussion, but this quote from organizer Sean Crippen is great “It doesn’t help us. If someone came to you and said, ‘Hey, what does your community need?’ A casino would be at the very bottom. You wouldn’t even think about it…It makes no sense. But if you’re going to do it, at least provide jobs, let us help.”Wyatt Gordon at the Virginia Mercury reports on a new bill the General Assembly passed this year allowing localities to lower their speed limits to 15 miles per hour. Speed kills, plain and simple. Check out these graphs from Pro Publica showing the dramatic rise in risk when you’re involved in a 20mph crash vs. a 40mph crash. And while the best way to slow drivers down is to change the physical design of our streets, Gordon quotes author Angie Schmitt on the impact of speed limits: “Folks often think that just changing the signs won’t make any difference, but that’s not true…Research shows lower speed limits reduce average speeds. Lowering the speed people are struck by even just 5 mph can make a huge difference, especially if the victim is older”Also for the Virginia Mercury, Graham Moomaw explains Virginia’s version of the Voting Rights Act—a first for a Southern state. While still needing the Governor’s signature, the bill would “require local election officials to go through a review process before making election-related decisions like consolidating or closing polling places, changing district boundaries, creating at-large seats on local governing bodies or school boards or affecting the ability of non-English speakers to vote.” Moomaw even mentions how a law like this maybe could have prevented the City’s decision to move the registrar’s office to a location only accessible by car—or at least required some more public conversation around that decision.Via /r/rva, take a look at these pictures of a Seward trunk that one of the redditors found at a Colonial Heights Goodwill. Then read the top comment for a fun history of the Seward Trunk Co. which was based out of Petersburg.This morning’s longreadI Used to Insist I Didn’t Get Angry. Not Anymore.I loved this piece about women’s anger, and it helped me process some of the anger I’ve been feeling lately. I mean, a lot of us have been angry about a lot of different things over the last year, and that’s OK.Confronting my own aversion to anger asked me to shift from seeing it simply as an emotion to be felt, and toward understanding it as a tool to be used: part of a well-stocked arsenal. When I walked in the Women’s March in Washington a year ago — one body among thousands — the act of marching didn’t just mean claiming the right to a voice; it meant publicly declaring my resolve to use it. I’ve come to think of anger in similar terms: not as a claiming of victimhood but as an owning of accountability. As I write this essay eight months pregnant, I don’t hope that my daughter never gets angry. I hope that she lives in a world that can recognize the ways anger and sadness live together, and the ways rage and responsibility, so often seen as natural enemies, can live together as well.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the DayBig tree, big church.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 26 °F, and it snowed! Kind of! There’s a winter weather advisory in effect until 8:00 AM, so take your time and watch for slippery roads and sidewalks. However, it’s looking more and more like we might get another chance for real snow on Sunday. Fingers crossed!Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 5,227 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 54 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 522 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 216, Henrico: 198, and Richmond: 108). Since this pandemic began, 662 people have died in the Richmond region. Yesterday, at the Governor’s COVID-19 briefing, we learned three interesting things. First, he’ll extend the restrictions on gatherings and the 12:00–5:00 AM curfew (that I had honestly forgotten all about) through the end of February. Second, Virginia should expect a 16% increase in its supply of vaccine from the feds, not 5% like I said yesterday. That’s about 17,000 additional doses and is, in fact, more than enough to vaccinate one Siegel Center of people—but still clearly not a overabundance of additional vaccine. Sounds like we should continue to expect austerity levels of vaccine for at least the next several weeks. Third, the Governor directed local health districts to allocate the limited supply of vaccine that they do have in the following way: 50% going to people aged 65 and older; and 50% going to the entire rest of Phase 1b (frontline essential workers, folks with underlying conditions or disabilities that increase the severity of COVID-19, and people living in certain congregate settings). Personal opinion here, taken together, the second and third thing will result in a lot of very anxious people. The governor has told a vast swath of Virginians, something like 50% of the entire state!, that they are eligible for vaccination as part of Phase 1b. Simultaneously, he’s halved the number of doses available for those folks, doses which were already in extremely short supply. We’re left in a situation where a huge number of people are eligible but will almost certainly be unable to access the vaccine. Hence a lot of very anxious people. Mel Leonor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a few more details from the press conference.Yesterday, the City announced that the Mayor himself has tested positive for the coronavirus. It’s gotta be weird to give a quote about your own personal health situation in a press release, but here’s what Mayor Stoney had to say: “Since the coronavirus first started to spread in our region roughly a year ago, over 12,000 residents in our city have been infected with COVID-19. Today, I count myself as one of them…While I do not feel 100 percent, I am thankful that my symptoms are currently manageable and will continue to work from my home to ensure the continuity of city government.” Understandably, the Mayor will postpone his State of the City address until Thursday, February 11th.Tyler Thrasher at WRIC reports that RRHA held a community meeting on the next steps of redeveloping Creighton Court. I want to learn more about this! It sounds like folks in this initial phase will need to relocate (to somewhere?) so that the existing structures can be torn down and replaced and will then move back in “by 2023.” I’m all for replacing our aging public housing, but we need to get the details right—which has been a constant struggle over the past…forever.Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury reports that the Virginia Senate voted to censure Chesterfield’s Senator Amanda Chase yesterday. While it’s embarrassing, I don’t think I really understand what practical impact “censure” has on a sitting senator—especially in this present political moment where it could even be viewed as a badge of honor by certain folks. The move to strip away her committee assignments, which already happened, seems like it has more impact on her day-to-day. Anyway, embarrassing for Chase, embarrassing for Chesterfield, and embarrassing for the Commonwealth.At any other time I’d be stoked on this news from the RTD’s John O’Connor who reports that the A-10 men’s basketball tournament “looks as though it’s headed to VCU’s Siegel Center and the University of Richmond’s Robins Center.” College basketball tournaments are a ton of fun, and I think, under normal circumstances, Richmond would make a fantastic host. Now though, I won’t be able to attend one in my own dang city featuring my own dang teams, and folks that do attend will bring with them increased risk of spreading COVID-19 to our neighbors and communities.This morning’s longreadOp-Ed: Let’s Show Confidence In Mr. Kamras!Amy Wentz has a pro-Kamras op-ed in RVA Mag. Read this piece to understand what folks are using to argue against extending the Superintendent’s contract for four years and how a lot of those arguments are misleading at best.We say that we want systemic and structural change, but to do so, we must understand and commit to doing this work for the long haul. Mr. Kamras came on board in February of 2018. That’s only one complete instructional year to assess before the pandemic hit and we were forced into a virtual environment. This is how we sound: “FIX OUR SCHOOLS! But you can’t adjust the curriculum, you can’t adjust teacher schedules, you can’t hire your own staff, you can’t adjust the calendar.” The way we fix schools is to be honest in our assessments. If you can’t even give credit where it’s due and have to inflate the facts to make your points, it’s a disservice to students. Let’s identify what we are getting wrong, and work with our school board to put the right measures in place to hold our Superintendent accountable. We can’t just continue to throw the whole thing away every few years.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today you can expect more of the same: Highs in the 50s and lots of sunshine. Temperatures will drop a bit over the weekend, possibly giving you the opportunity wrap up in a cozy scarf.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 4,013 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 79 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 359 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 157, Henrico: 120, and Richmond: 82). Since this pandemic began, 638 people have died in the Richmond region. This is the fewest number of new cases reported in a single day since January 4th. However, here’s the stacked chart of new reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, which convincingly shows how bad things are at the moment. Remember how scared you were about ending up in the hospital this past spring? Yeah, that, but with, like, 25% more people ending up in the hospital every day. Today, in January 2021, 50% more people die each day now than back in May 2020. Locally, too, we’re seeing the same skyrocketing trend with case. It’s boring to write and to read, but: Wear a mask, keep your distance, and if you can work from home, do so.Turning to vaccines, I think we should prepare ourselves for a nontrivial period of very limited supply. VPM’s Alan Rodriguez attended a press conference at yesterday’s mass vaccination clinic for our region’s teachers and cops, and reports the Commonwealth expects 105,000 doses from the federal government next week. Dr. Danny Avula says those doses will be allotted by a “geographical distribution based on population.” If I understand that right: Our region is about 11% of the state’s population, 11% of 105,000 doses is 11,550. That’s…not a lot. It’s not even enough to hit my Stupid-Math Goal of about 20,000 vaccinations per week. Not great, and please keep this in mind if you find yourself eligible but unable to get a vaccination appointment.On a lighter note, Dr. Fauci returned to the White House briefing room and had this to say: “‘The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know—what the evidence, what the science is—and know that’s it, let the science speak,’ Dr. Fauci said, pausing for a second. ‘It is somewhat of a liberating feeling.’” Honestly, though, it’s pretty dark how good this simple and obvious statement makes me feel.Wyatt Gordon at the Virginia Mercury says the Bicycles Safety Act (HB 2262 / SB 1263) moved through the Senate’s Transportation committee on an 11–4 vote. Gordon explains, “The Bicycle Safety Act…would require drivers to fully change lanes to pass people biking, allow cyclists to ride two abreast in a lane, and permit people on bicycles to treat stop signs as yield signs.” I love bicycle laws, but, after years of watching these sorts of things unexpectedly die for General Assembly reasons I don’t ever understand, I will temper my expectations.Duron Chavis is back with his Resiliency Garden Initiative, which puts free, raised-bed gardens in the backyards (or communities) of folks experiencing food insecurity. If you never have to think about where your next meal comes from and you can afford it, consider donating $100 to cover the cost of a garden for someone else. Last year they distributed 300 garden boxes!I hadn’t thought about how a switchover in presidential administrations would impact the State’s Redistricting Commission, but changes in Census deadlines could slow our work locally. Graham Moomaw, also writing for the Virginia Mercury, has the details and a few updates on that commission’s progress.The RTD Editorial Board weighs in on Sen. Amanda Chase and tells her to either “shape up” or resign so she can focus on “promoting her brand and…running for governor.” I wonder what happens to these local Republican legislators who supported and celebrated the insurrection should the Senate move on convicting Donald Trump. Will that give local legislators “permission” to toss those traitors out of the General Assembly?I know I’m always down here, at the bottom of the email, writing about how the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts are hosting a free community COVID-19 testing event. In fact, there’s one today at the Eastern Henrico Health Department (1400 N. Laburnum Avenue) from 1:00–3:00 PM. But, I realize same-day notice doesn’t work for a lot of folks (including the people running the events), so please consider registering online for an appointment at a future clinic.This morning’s patron longreadQAnon Is Destroying the GOP From WithinSubmitted by Patron Alix. This piece by Sen. Ben Sasse is an interesting look from within the Republican Party at what lies ahead. Of course, Sasse can’t help himself and dispenses false equivalencies like tickets out of a skee-ball machine. We will see in the coming weeks which path the GOP decides to take, I guess.The violence that Americans witnessed—and that might recur in the coming days—is not a protest gone awry or the work of “a few bad apples.” It is the blossoming of a rotten seed that took root in the Republican Party some time ago and has been nourished by treachery, poor political judgment, and cowardice. When Trump leaves office, my party faces a choice: We can dedicate ourselves to defending the Constitution and perpetuating our best American institutions and traditions, or we can be a party of conspiracy theories, cable-news fantasies, and the ruin that comes with them. We can be the party of Eisenhower, or the party of the conspiracist Alex Jones. We can applaud Officer Goodman or side with the mob he outwitted. We cannot do both.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, and today—this whole week, really—looks pleasant. Expect highs in the 50s, sunshine for at least part of the day, and to find the time to let someone know they’re doing a good job.Water coolerThe Richmond Police department is reporting that Sara Andrews, a woman in her 20s, was found shot to death on the 3300 block of Stockton Street.As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 7,245 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 10 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 785 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 314, Henrico: 286, and Richmond: 185). Since this pandemic began, 627 people have died in the Richmond region. This is a shocking number of new cases—both statewide and locally. On Sunday, VDH reported 9,914new cases, clearly an all-time high, and almost twice the previous high. In fact, the daily average of new cases over the last three days is 7,972 with no mention of a classic VDH data reporting issue in sight. In fact, the Richmond Times Dispatch’s Sabrina Moreno reports the opposite, that “Health department officials have said that it’s not a data error and is likely due to exposure during the holidays.” The number of new cases, number of people ending up in the hospital, and number of people dying each day is quantitatively worse than this spring, and yet, collectively, we act like we’re living back in June or July. I don’t get it, and I feel gaslit by the folks with the authority to impose restrictions—just like they did last spring—to help save lives.While local progress with vaccine distribution does give me hope, Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine distribution coordinator, said that last week the state requested 300,000 doses and only received 106,000. Not great. Supply of the vaccine constrains everything, including the Governor’s decision to move the state into an expanded Phase 1b by the end of the month. Folks aged 65 and essential workers (like bus operators) who heard that they could start making vaccination appointments as soon as this week are inevitably going to be angry and disappointed. If we want to accelerate and broaden the folks who can get the vaccine—and this is obvious—we need more vaccine. Less vaccine means really hard choices about who gets what when. If you want someone to blame for this huge screw up, look toward the federal government who just straight up lied about having a massive stockpile of vaccine. Now this mess falls into Gov. Northam’s lap. I’m interested to see if he changes some of his public vaccination goals and adjusts his rhetoric of “use it or lose it” since there’s just far, far less to use.Richmond’s School Board meets tonight and while they won’t vote on Superintendent Kamras’s contract until next month, it’s a good time to email them all and let them know that failing to extend Kamras’s contract for four years would be absolutely catastrophic for the district (see today’s longread). I think we’re pretty close to the sound-the-alarm stage on this, so if you know folks who haven’t yet emailed their school board rep, please spread the word. Also, your email does not need to be a beautifully crafted argument: Simply state your name, which district you live in, and that you’d like to see the board extend Kamras’s contract for four years—bonus points for having kids in RPS, owning a home, or owning a business (stupid but unfortunately true). You can find all of the Board’s contact information here.Also at the School Board meeting tonight, Kamras will present his FY22 budget. He’s put together a great PDF (which includes a really helpful budget primer section) that you should flip through. The whole thing is worth reading, but here’s probably the most important part: “The Administration’s FY22 budget assumes $9 million in additional recurring funding ($4 million from the state and $5 million from the city) and $25 million in one-time funding from the federal stimulus—for a total of $34 million.” Kamras proposes spending that recurring funding mostly on raises and rising healthcare costs. As foretold, almost $10 million of this year’s one-time federal stimulus money will go to boring but necessary HVAC upgrades. Finally, page 27 details what a proposed year-round school schedule would look like and how much it would cost (at least $8 million). Double finally, this is just a really, really nice budget document and an excellent way to officially kick off the 2021 budget season.To be honest, I checked out of the internet yesterday and missed whatever happened with the gunpeople down at the Capitol. It seems like not much? I like this headline from Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury: “‘I’m just trying to get on TV:’ Gun rally draws fringe groups, lots of media to Richmond” I’m still pretty confused why these gun fanatics were allowed to walk around Richmond with assault rifles after the City specifically passed a law preventing just such a thing because of these exact fanatics. I mean, the systemic support of white supremacy obviously, but still.The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts will host a free community COVID-19 testing event today at Diversity Richmond (1407 Sherwood Avenue) from 10:00 AM–12:00 PM. Given this weekend’s numbers, if you’ve been out and about you…probably should go get tested.This morning’s longreadIf You’re Worried about Richmond’s Public Schools, Now Might be a Good Time to PanicHere’s a piece by Marland Buckner that gets it right about how catastrophic it’d be for the Richmond Public School Board to fail to renew Superintendent Kamras’s contract for another four years.For reasons that pass all human understanding and despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some Members seem to believe that Kamras has been ineffective and that at best only a two-year contract extension is warranted. That is patent absurdity posing as a “middle ground” solution. No person of Kamras’ abilities would take a two-year deal. Members know it and Kamras has said as much. Clearly, the goal of Members pushing a two-year deal is to send Kamras packing for one of the many truly reform minded school districts ready to snatch him up. If they succeed, they will be inviting precisely the type chaos now on full display at the Richmond Region Housing Authority (RRHA) whose CEO turnover issues have rendered that agency virtually incapable of serving RRHA families; the very same families nearly all of whose kids attend RPS.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and today looks pretty nice. Expect highs around 50, lots of sunshine, and maybe an opportunity to take an afternoon walk around your neighborhood should you get a minute.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 4,530 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 10 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 366 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 92, Henrico: 188, and Richmond: 86). Since this pandemic began, 591 people have died in the Richmond region. I missed this yesterday, but the seven-day average of statewide new reported cases broke 5,000; this morning’s seven-day average is 5,121. Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association has officially asked the Governor to impose more restrictions to fight the dramatic spread of the virus, specifically to “consider temporarily implementing additional public health measures regarding limits on indoor dining, stricter occupancy limits, expanded use of telework, and requirements for non-essential businesses.” It does make me feel better—in a dark, morbid way—to hear folks with some influence asking the Governor to take further actions to slow down the disease while we wait on the vaccine. Speaking of, on the vaccine side of things, here’s my first attempt at a graph of our regions vaccination efforts. I don’t love it yet and reserve the right to change it in the future! Remember, Ross’s Stupid-Math Goal (which is not anyone else’s goal and should not be treated as such), is around 2,720 vaccinations per day in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield. Over the last seven days, the region averaged 1,683 vaccinations. I think that’s pretty good considering we’ve only been at this for a couple weeks now; the health systems, health districts, and pharmacies are still in the process of ramping up their vaccine machines; and, of course, the ever-present data-reporting issues. Once we do get some more data, though, I think I’ll move to looking at a weekly regional goal of around 20,000 vaccinations.I didn’t watch City Council last night because I had my first ever viewing of the Christian Bale classic Newsies. Which was more drama-filled? Which had more dance fighting? I’ll never know. For those of you that did watch City Council, you saw that ORD. 2020–214, the ordinance that helps fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, passed. Interestingly, the amended Monument & Allen medians ordinance, ORD.2020–217, was stricken. You don’t see that a ton, but the patron, Kim Gray, no longer sits on Council and can no longer withdraw bills (which is usually the more common option). I am bummed to have missed seeing all of the first-meeting jitters of the new councilmembers, but I’m glad to have finally been introduced to “Spot Conlon.”Yesterday, the House, for the second time, introduced Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump. As a result, one of my favorite newsleetter from the twenty-teens, impeachment.fyi, is back. I encourage you to subscribe and let Dan Sinker walk you through the next couple of weeks with a single evening email covering all of the day’s impeachment news. Sinker says the vote on impeachment is set for Wednesday, and the Articles already have enough cosponsors to make it a done deal that Trump will be a twice-impeached president—an American first. What happens in the Senate, though, is anyone’s guess (although I will guess right now: Nothing, nothing will happen in the Senate).Related, the next week or so at the state Capitol promises to be…something. The General Assembly kicks off their 2021 session tomorrow, which means Lobby Day (also MLK Day) is right around the corner. Last year’s Lobby Day was pre-pandemic, which seems hard to believe, and featured thousands of gun-toting men trying to intimidate legislators from voting for some pretty basic gun legislation. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury says one pro-gun-violence group still intends on going through with whatever kind of rally they plan on hosting this coming Monday. Additionally, Michael Martz at the RTD says the governors (and mayor) of Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. have asked that folks not come to Biden’s inauguration. Very cool and normal stuff here in America lately.This morning’s longreadSix hours of paralysis: Inside Trump’s failure to act after a mob stormed the CapitolWith impeachment back on the table, it’s worth reading this good tick-tock of last Wednesday’s horrible events.But as senators and House members trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday begged for immediate help during the siege, they struggled to get through to the president, who — safely ensconced in the West Wing — was too busy watching fiery TV images of the crisis unfolding around them to act or even bother to hear their pleas. “He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV,” said one close Trump adviser. “If it’s TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.” Even as he did so, Trump did not move to act.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, and, today, the sun will rise. At points yesterday, it felt like that was not a given. Expect highs near 50 °F and lots of sunshine.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 5,387 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 35 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 496 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 131, Henrico: 221, and Richmond: 144). Since this pandemic began, 574 people have died in the Richmond region. Both statewide and locally, this is the most new cases ever reported in a single day, and Richmond tallied its 100th death due to COVID-19. Yet, at his press conference yesterday, the Governor did not introduce new restrictions, policies, or guidance to help contain the virus as it surges out of control—he simply reminded people to wear a mask, keep their distance, and wash their hands. The majority of the briefing was about vaccination, and he announced a couple major updates.First, according to the VDH vaccine dashboard, 2,204 Virginians are now fullyvaccinated with both of the required shots. So cool, and, more than anything else, seeing that number move up from zero makes me feel like we’re moving into a different (and closing) phase of the pandemic.Second, the Governor set a goal of “vaccinating 25,000 Virginias each day when supply allows.” I have absolutely no idea how that goal trickles down to each locality and local health district, but here’s some stupid math. 25,000 is about 0.3% of the Commonwealth’s population. Combined, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield have a population of 906,600, and 0.3% of that is 2,720. So, if our region wants to meet “our share” of the 25,000 per day goal, we need to see 2,720 people vaccinated each day—or 19,040 people each week. Over the last seven days, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield have administered 7,266 doses according to data I’ve been pulling from the VDH dashboard (which I think lags a bit). So we’re already at least a third of the way there, which, honestly, feels pretty good to me. I know every second feels like forever, every week goes by in a flash, and our sense of timing is all screwed up, BUT it really only has been about three weeks since folks started getting vaccinated in Virginia.Third, VDH has settled on who makes up Phase 1b of their vaccination distribution plan. I don’t know that I’ve talked about the phased approach to vaccination that most states have adopted—probably worth writing about further! But, in brief, Phase 1a—the phase we’re in right now—consists of hospital workers, long-term care residents and staff, and non-hospital frontline healthcare workers (PDF). Phase 1b, announced yesterday (PDF), is frontline essential workers, people 75-years and older, and folks living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters, and migrant labor camps. What’s a frontline essential worker? Great question! Here’s the list, sorted by priority, which is made up of some fairly specific groups and some hugely broad groups: police, fire, and hazmat; corrections and homeless shelter workers; childcare, K–12 teachers, and staff; food and agriculture (??); manufacturing; grocery store workers; public transit workers; and mail carriers. Of course, I think public transit workers should be near the top of that list as they’re the ones who get a lot of these other essential workers to their essential work, but that decision is above my pay grade. The governor expects this group to start getting vaccinated “near the end of January.” We’ll probably hear a lot more about how folks find out what phase they’re in, how you get notified when it’s your turn, and all sorts of other details in the coming days and weeks.Yesterday was a lot. I didn’t expect that Democrats winning both Senate special elections in Georgia—giving Democrats control of the House, Senate, and Presidency—to be second-page news by the time dinner rolled around. But a coup happened, or, as the Washington Post puts it “President incites crowd to acts of insurrection, violence.” Yesterday, I spent about eight hours in front of the TV, scared, watching…whatever that was, and I still don’t have the right words to describe what I saw or what I’m feeling or what I think should happen next. As I struggled to put words to it, a good friend described the events as “Deeply shocking—and it’s important not to be numb to that.” I think that’s where I am—deeply shocked—and I’m going to acknowledge that and just sit with it for a while. The WaPo has this (deeply shocking) photo essay from yesterday’s mob violence if you’d like to join me in sitting with it.Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury says that panel of judges picked the eight citizen members of the redistricting commission. You should definitely recognize at least one name on this list: Better Housing Coalition CEO Greta Harris!OK. I know there’s a lot going on right now, and maybe equitable transit isn’t at the top of your mind. If it is, or if you wish it were, you can join RVA Rapid Transit and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network today at 12:00 PM for a lunch-and-learn situation about “Transit Oriented Development for an Equitable Future.” Del. Ibraheem Samirah and Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth will speak on affordable housing, public transit, and land use—all things I love! Register before the (free) event here.Despite increased vaccine availability, COVID-19 testing continues—as it should! Today, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts will host a community testing eventfrom 10:00 AM–12:00 PM at Diversity Richmond (1407 Sherwood Ave).This morning’s longreadThe Poke ParadoxHere’s a unrelated longread about fish to cleanse your palate.Not long ago such gritty details were kept secret, and depending on the distributor and where they source their fish, often still are, but thanks to robust certification programs launched by nonprofits like Monterey Bay Aquarium and WWF, which require regular third-party audits, the seafood supply chain is becoming demystified. That’s led to greater consumer awareness and increased customer demand for even more transparency. Bushman doesn’t just embrace that, she also promotes it. After all, almost all raw tuna served in the U.S. arrives frozen, not fresh, so what’s the point in pretending otherwise? The container ship allows for a smaller carbon footprint than air freight, another aspect of the business tracked by Bushman, who is helping to strip the secrecy and shame from the seafood business.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, and today you can expect a brisk day with highs in the low 50s. Yesterday evening, I rode my bike around wearing an actual winter coat!## Water coolerAs of this morning, [the Virginia Department of Health reports 2,228↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth](http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/) and 31↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 220↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 120, Henrico: 58, and Richmond: 42). Since this pandemic began, 464 people have died in the Richmond region. Check out this new (to me?) section of VDH's data dashboard called [Weekly Health District Case Data](https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/covid-19-data-insights/weekly-health-district-case-data/). At first glance, a table of weekly new reported cases by health districts seems pretty standard, boring stuff right? This is why we've all made our own spreadsheets! But, the cool part of this page, I think, is that you can disaggregate those weekly case counts by age or race/ethnicity, _and_ you can choose to graph them as an area chart. So, for example, see how in Richmond [Latino folks made up a much large chunk of reported cases earlier in the pandemic](https://rosscatrow.s3.amazonaws.com/CA576C4D-9353-451B-973F-A6D92E15FAE4.jpeg) than they do now. As always, remember that these are reported cases, and VDH just can't magically know about folks who catch the coronavirus but don't get tested (which folks may not do for employment, cultural, or other complicated reasons). I imagine there is at least some overlap between those unreported cases and some of our region's Black and Brown populations. Anyway, that's your regularish reminder that none of these chartsandgraphs paint an exactly perfect picture of what's happening on the ground.Remember Navy Hill? Remember how we spent months and months talking about building a place where thousands of people would (intentionally!) gather in person? Seems wild! After failing to convince much of the public and, more importantly, five members of City Council, the development team behind Navy Hill has now turned and pitched their arena-anchored development idea to Henrico County. Tom Lappas at the Henrico Citizen has [all the details on the proposed GreenCity project](https://www.henricocitizen.com/articles/greencity/), which sounds a lot like Navy Hill: arena, hotels, retail, residential. It's just located in the 'burbs out by Parham Road and I-95. I haven't learned more about municipal financing during the course of the pandemic, so I can't speak super intelligently to all the details of how the County will pay for this project, but Lappas says, "Though Henrico would not directly contribute any money to the project, the [community development authority] it creates likely would sell bonds to pay for infrastructure improvements to the site, then recoup that money during a period of no more than 30 years through certain taxes on the property." Honestly, this sounds a lot like a TIF (the mechanism the Mayor proposed using to paying for Navy Hill) and was how Short Pump Town Center got funded (which was held up as a regional example of TIF-like funding during the whole Navy Hill process). The key difference between then and now to me, is that the Navy Hill TIF would have encompassed almost the entirety of downtown and included areas that have and will continue to thrive regardless of what happens around the site of the current Coliseum. According to Lappas, "Henrico officials intend to restrict the assessment or tax to the GreenCity project itself." The aforelinked article frames this development as "a major coup for Henrico," but I dunno. A bigger coup—and a coup I could get behind—would be for the City to raze the Coliseum and build a dense, urban, wonderful neighborhood on its most valuable land instead of an enormous room that sits empty most of the time. We can do both: a suburban arena and a downtown neighborhood! As every single pro-arena person said during the Navy Hill Saga, an arena is a regional amenity. It'd be great to stop thinking about our region in zero-sum terms. Moving on from one major economic development project to another, the City has set up [this page with information about bringing a potential resort casino to Richmond](https://www.rva.gov/economic-development/resort-casino). During this past spring's session, the General Assembly passed legislation that allows casinos in Richmond pending a ballot referendum. The City anticipates that referendum hitting ballots next November, and, "prior to requesting the court to order a casino referendum, the city [needs to] select a preferred resort casino operator and location." My personal preference is to just not select an operator and location and avoid bringing a resort casino to Richmond entirely. However, I don't think that my opinion is reflected widely or generally, but we'll see. In the meantime, the City has [a survey for folks to fill out](https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZT297J6) to "make sure the Request for Qualifications/Proposals reflects your goals for a new economic development initiative." Casino haters like myself will be annoyed that the survey assumes you definitely want a resort casino in the city limits and doesn't really give you a way to say otherwise. Remember how one of my continual issues with Navy Hill was the City charging forward on the project—a project with a lot of benefits!—without bringing folks in and asking if they even wanted the project in the first place? Yeah, that. While this is a bit different since the casino must ultimately be approved by voters, it still feels like yet another economic development project presented as a done deal with the community brought in at the tail end. Here's [Sheri Shannon saying it better than me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/SheriShannon27/status/1333776661381341186?s=20): "A suggestion: Educate the public on this process and the referendum vote for 2021. There’s a lot of info on the survey landing page that folks will gloss over. The first step cannot just be a survey, but helping folks understand everything that’s on the table."A lot was riding on this past November's election, so I totally understand if you haven't once thought about the redistricting amendment that passed. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has [details on the state legislators that will make up the new bi-partisan redistricting commission](https://www.virginiamercury.com/2020/12/01/va-political-leaders-name-8-legislators-wholl-serve-on-new-redistricting-commission/), and, super importantly, a link to [this application for regular citizens who want to serve on the committee](http://redistricting.dls.virginia.gov/2021/RedistrictingApplication.pdf)! That could be you! The application is due by December 28th, so all of you potential committee members have some time.The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Gregory Gillian has the Important Grocery Store News You Crave: [The Carytown Publix will open on December 9th](https://richmond.com/business/publix-sets-opening-date-for-carytown-store/article_07ece989-d5aa-5084-a9c9-96fc082fb24d.html). I haven't been by the Carytown Exchange location in a minute, but I guess a lot of progress has been made over the last pandemic or so.There's something deeply wrong about [Virginia Tech—a college for, like, mostly young people—partnering with Hardywood to make Fightin' Hokies Lager](https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/12/research-virginia-tech-hardwood-partnership.html), right? That said, I will fully admit that they can just take my money and that this will be my gameday beer of choice for the foreseeable future.## This morning's longread### [The Flynn Pardon Is a Despicable Use of an Awesome Power](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/corruption-of-mercy/617210/)I liked this thoughtful take on the president's pardon power and how, like everything else that he touches, Trump has corrupted it.> As a Christian, I would love to say that the embrace of the pardon flowed from Christian belief, but that probably is true only for some of the Framers. Just as influential might have been the Bard. Educated Americans at the end of the 18th century lived in a cult of Shakespeare; busts of him were common in upper-class homes, and Thomas Jefferson and John Adams even made a joint pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1786. Shakespeare, in his plays, came back again and again to the idea of mercy. Measure for Measure is expressly about governmental pardoning, and the power of mercy is a central theme in many of Shakespeare’s other works, including The Tempest—a performance of which George Washington attended during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. _If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on [the ol’ Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/gmrva)._

Reporter for the Virginia Mercury Graham Moomaw discusses the Virginia’s Redistricting Amendment and what it means for the Commonwealth.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 37 °F, and that’s a lot colder than last week! Today you should expect highs right around 50 °F and plenty of general stress about the future of the world.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,202↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 1↘️ new death as a result of the virus. VDH reports 123↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 28, Henrico: 54, and Richmond: 41). Since this pandemic began, 437 people have died in the Richmond region. The Commonwealth’s seven-day average of new reported cases sits at 1,289 and has topped 1,000 for 20 of the last 21 days. Percent positivity, too, is on the rise across the state—climbing from around 4.6% in the beginning of October to 5.7% as of yesterday. As you’d expect, the seven-day average of new hospitalizations has now climbed—and stayed—above 50 for the last couple of weeks, too. While I’m writing about numbers, I also wanted to link to VDH’s K–12 Schools Reporting Outbreaks of COVID-19 dashboard, since they update it on Fridays. I see 10 schools reporting outbreaks, with just one locally: Bon Air Elementary School in Chesterfield. They’ve got an asterisk in the “Cases” column for this particular outbreak, which means fewer than five total cases associated with it. I don’t know how to do it, but I’d like to see some sort of comparison between the rise in COVID-19 cases generally, those that impact schools, and those that are caused by schools. Honestly, I’d like to see this sort of thing for all kinds of business/organizations. That way we could look and say “Ah yes, bars and Trump rallies are spreading an outsized portion of the virus!” By the way, if you’d like an overview of the school reopening situation across the region, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Jessica Nocera and Kenya Hunter have you covered with this piece from over the weekend.Yesterday, a “Trump Train”—a caravan of truck-driving Trump supporters flying various Trump-related flags, which is the opposite of an actual train—drove from Henrico to Marcus-David Peters Circle, and, honestly, I don’t know exactly what happened but all of it was bad. Here’s some video of a person angrily driving over and across the Monument Avenue median, here is a time-stamp breakdown of a Facebook live video that I’m unwilling to watchbecause at 1:03 “A person named Gary is hit by a white Lexus.”, and here’s the RTD’s Reed Williams with some more details. Also, here’s the statement from the RPD: “A mobile political rally, which dubbed itself as a “Trump Train” originated in Henrico County, entered the city of Richmond this afternoon. The mobile rally drove to the Lee Monument circle at Monument and Allen avenues and confrontations with individuals at the circle ensued. Some of the vehicles left the roadway and crossed grassy medians near the area. At approximately 4:18 p.m. an adult female who was at the circle reported she was pepper sprayed by an unknown individual from a vehicle. A few minutes earlier, officers responded to the 1800 block of Monument Avenue (near the Lee circle) to investigate a report of an unoccupied vehicle struck once by gunfire. No other injuries were reported to the Richmond Police Department. Officers responded to clear the area and investigate the assault.” This kind of thing, two days before the election, terrifies me. If you feel called to counter protest this sort of pro-Trump display of force, please, please be careful. Anger, guns, and huge trucks make for a very dangerous combination.Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has put together a nice, Virginia-centric look at tomorrow’s election. It’s tough for me to remember that there’s a lot more going on than the presidential, mayoral, and City Council elections—I’ve got a state-level blindspot! We’ve got congresspeople and constitutional amendments on the ballot to stress over, too.Also in the Virginia Mercury, Sarah Vogelsong explains how building codes are both thrilling and crucial to energy efficiency. In Virginia—because we believe ourselves special snowflakes—we have not updated our building codes to match newer national standards and have opted instead for a piecemeal update approach that I’m sure was described at some point as “what’s right for Virginians.” Cynicism aside, though, it does seem like we’re making some progress on this.You know I love food halls, and, somehow, I’d totally forgotten about the Ukrop’s plan to build one out by UR at Horsepen and Patterson. The RTD’s Gregory Gilligan says that project is still on track and that they will service fried chicken and potato wedges. But also, “the two executives at Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods also say they are nervous about opening the food hall in the middle of a pandemic, which has created additional challenges.” Uhhh yes, yes I would be nervous about that, too.Via /r/rva, the best bike-related Halloween costume of the year.Finally, get some rest. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.This morning’s longreadHow email became workI know we’ve all hated email for a long time now, and we’ve all come up with our own systems and strategies to deal with the never-ending inbox onslaught…but remember when email was a delight? Maybe not! It’s been awhile.The pandemic has created new problems but mostly it’s just amplified existing ones. Email is truly intolerable now because it was just barely tolerable before. The fact that we view our failure to manage it as a personal one, our Inbox of Shame, is also instructive. If personal inbox management strategies got us where we are, what’s the solution? It has to be holistic and cultural. It can come in the form of the then-widely-mocked French legislation that those who work for companies with more than 50 employees cannot send or reply to email after official working hours — and similar “Right to Disconnect” Legislation in Italy. In Germany, several major companies have implemented programs that forbid management from contacting workers in any capacity after work hours — or even completely deleting all emails that a worker’s email account receives when they off.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 67 °F, and today looks like a stunner. Expect highs in the mid 80s, lots of sunshine, and maybe even no downpours. Enjoy!Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 734↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 4↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 134↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 2, Henrico: 82, and Richmond: 50). Since this pandemic began, 309 people have died in the Richmond region. First, an apology: Yesterday, I linked to UNC’s pretty extensive coronavirus dashboard and made the bad assumption that just because VCU doesn’t have one that the University of Richmond doesn’t have one either. That is clearly not the case, and it was lazy to not even look! Speaking of UNC, though, yesterday the University decided to switch all undergraduate classes to remote learningdespite already calling students back to campus. In just the past week, UNC reported 135 positive cases which shot their percent positivity up from 2.8% to 13.6% and sent 177 students in to isolation and 349 in to quarantine (here’s a good explainer on the difference between isolation and quarantine, btw). It’s terrifying how we’re just waiting to learn how this plays out on our region’s campuses. Will better public health policies and increased vigilance keep the coronavirus from burning through college students and spilling out into the surrounding communities? We’ll start to find out next week.The night before the General Assembly special session, Portsmouth police charged State Senator Louise Lucas with “felony injury to a monument.” From Sara Gregory and Margaret Matray in the Virginian-Pilot: “Portsmouth police announced criminal charges Monday against a bevy of public officials and activists — including state Sen. Louise Lucas, leaders of the NAACP, the city’s top public defender and a School Board member — stemming from a June protest and vandalism at the city’s Confederate monument that left a man seriously injured and much of the statue toppled.” Lucas is a Black woman, the first Black woman to serve as the President pro tempore, and will preside over the special session as the Senate considers bills to reform police across the state. Graham Moomaw from the Virginia Mercury pointed out some additional context on Twitter: Back in June, Senator Lucas called for the firing of the Portsmouth police chief. And here’s the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus’s statement. I have no idea what is going on here, but it’s almost impossible not to read this charge as retaliatory and an intimidation tactic from the Portsmouth Police Department. Like, what do police departments think we’re trying to reform, here?Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has a nice piece listing out all of the police reform bills that democrats in the General Assembly want to pass during this special session and which ones they have agreement on between the House and the Senate. It’s easy to read through this list of reforms (especially stuff like getting rid of qualified immunity) and see why police departments across the state might not be too stoked on their legislators this week.It’s not just police reform bills in front of the GA, though, and Housing Opportunities Made Equal’s email this week points out the housing-related issues up for discussion.Alright, Richmond’s School Board met last night, and I am very thankful to @BossRVAfor live tweeting the hourslong meeting. The vague agenda item that I hinted at yesterday turned out to be a request from the City to use school buildings as locations for emergency child care. I think that this is a good idea. It may seem counter to the whole “we just closed school buildings because it’s not safe” thing, but isolated pods of kids tucked away in various corners of an enormous building is not the same thing as a school full of teachers and staff and students. With public school fully virtual for the foreseeable future, some folks will need childcare. I wish that weren’t true and that the federal government had decided to use its vast resources to keep folks safe and at home. That’s not the world we live in, and a lot of families are headed back to work and can’t just leave their kids at home all day in front of the Chromebook. This is an opportunity to provide childcare for those that need it in a professional, safe way using huge, modern, and otherwise empty facilities. Seems smart to me, and I’m into it. School Board will hold a meeting on August 31st, with public comment, to discuss further. If you’ve got thoughts and feelings on the matter, you can let your School Board rep know.There is a lot of dense, multi-family housing on Chamberlayne Avenue and developers have been buying and selling property along the corridor for years. Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense says a New Jersey developer just bought 500 units for $27.5 million. If I had a magic housing wand, or, like, enough political will, I would do everything in my power to make/keep a huge portion of these units affordable—and build more!Richmond City’s new website has launched with a new look and a much-improved, ultra short domain: rva.gov. I haven’t had the time to poke around too much yet, so I don’t have any strong thoughts. While it’s not as clean, straightforward, or helpful as, say, Oakland’s website, it does seem like an improvement over the 90s-era website we were limping along with for the last forever.Here is a strong contender for the best subject line of any email I’ve ever received: “Richmond City Council invites all parties interested in acquiring a Civil War Monument to submit letters of intent by Sept. 8, 2020.” Are you an interested party? Are you willing to provide your own monument transportation? Email monuments@richmondgov.com in the next month or so!Hanna Eason writing for NBC12 says there’s a seal in the James River? …???This morning’s patron longreadCan Killing Cookies Save Journalism?Submitted by Patron Casey. Internet advertising is so broken! It’s nice to see some folks reconsidering how the current model works.In 2019, Ster ran an experiment with 10 different advertisers, including American Express, to compare the performance of ads shown to users who opted in or out of being tracked. On the most important metric, conversions—the share of people who ended up taking the action the advertiser cared about, whether it was adding an item to their cart or signing up for a subscription or credit card—contextual ads did as well or better than microtargeted ones. “When do people want to buy a Snickers?” said van Bentheim, recalling a conversation he had with someone who worked at an ad agency. “It’s not because someone is in a specific age or in a specific region or has a high income; it’s because they are hungry and they are looking at food at that moment.”If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 73 °F, and we’ve got another day ahead of us with highs in the 80s and a decent opportunity for rain. The weekend ahead of us looks pretty hot and pretty dry. Get after it, and remember to hydrate.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 818↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 25↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 148↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 46, Henrico: 69, and Richmond: 33). Since this pandemic began, 300 people have died in the Richmond region. Yesterday’s trend of sub-1,000 new reported cases in Virginia continues as does a similar national trend of declining new reported cases. However, given some of the recent inconsistencies in states posting accurate data in a timely way, the COVID Tracking Project has some nice graphs looking at weekly numbers instead of daily numbers. Whatever the national, state, and local trends, we’ve now passed 300 deaths in Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond. That’s a lot of people.Have you put the COVIDWISE app on your phone yet? You should. It takes three total minutes! The Virginia Department of Health has a pretty exhaustive FAQ if you have any questions about the details of how this exposure notification app works.If you got a pre-filled absentee ballot application from The Center for Voter Information, it might have the wrong return address on it. Folks over in the GMRVA slack reported getting applications with a Richmond County address, which, as Virginians, we all know is not the same as Richmond City. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury confirms that the ol' city-county switcheroo accounted for 587,638 incorrectly addressed applications. Richmond, Roanoke, Fairfax, and Franklin are all names for both a city and a county. I feel intense anxiety transfer for the person who made this mostly honest mistake. However! If you’ve already sent off a wrongly-addressed application, don’t worry too much about it, they “will be forwarded immediately to the correct office for processing.” You can check your voter registration status and apply for a true and good absentee ballot through the Virginia Department of Elections website right now, today.I keep seeing candidate events pop up, and I want to let folks know about them, but, like, who wants a giant list of events taking up space in an already-too-long email every single day? Not this guy. So I went ahead and made this Google Doc to track all of the candidate events that I’m aware of from now until November. This is a stupid task I’ve given myself, but, especially in these coronatimes, I think it’s critical that people know as much about the candidates for School Board, City Council, and Mayor as possible. The next set of elected officials are tasked with building a new and better Richmond after we emerge from the pandemic, and we should have the best folks in those jobs as possible. So! If you know of a candidate event, please holler at me (ross@gmrva.com). I’m looking for public, informational events, not fundraisers or canvassing events—those are cool, too, but that’s not what I’m after.Venture Richmond (who you may remember from the cool LEGO-style parklet designsthat passed the Urban Design Committee earlier this week) together with the City’s Public Art Commission won a $25,000 grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies' Asphalt Art Initiative. They’ll use the funds to remake the intersection right in front of Gallery5 at W. Marshall Street and Brook Road with a pedestrian plaza, an intersection mural, and a parklet. Lots of folks from that part of town are involved, and community members can weigh in by taking this survey. That’s probably you, because community members is defined broadly: The first question the survey asks is “How often do you pass through this intersection?” I’m definitely a community member, because, back in the beforetimes, I’d roll through there a couple times a week on my way to Saison Market (sigh).RVAH20, an initiative out of the City’s Department of Public Utilities, put together a 39-tweet thread about Richmond’s combined sewer system. I think this is amazing, and they should be celebrated—it’s like a PDF but in Twitter form! Plus, who isn’t fascinated by our sewers??For some reason I don’t entirely understand, the weekly unemployment insurance claims reported by the Virginia Employment Commission dropped by over 32,000—that’s a massive 9.1% change. These numbers do reflect the week ending on August 1st, and I don’t know if “August” is a magical month for unemployment insurance. Unless there’s something weird or seasonal going on here, this seems like good news. Total claims still top 350,000, so it’s a ton of folks, but still! And, because I just update spreadsheet as my job now, here’s my updated (and still pretty lazy) unemployment insurance claims graph.Via /r/rva, an overlay of the explosion in Beirut on downtown Richmond. Basically all of Downtown—from Chamberlayne, to I-95, to 17th Street, to the River—is in the severe damage zone. Since the City is only 8mi x 8mi blob, the larger six mile “max damage range” circle encompasses almost the entire city. Whoa.Today, the Henrico and Richmond City Health Districts will host a free COVID-19 testing event at Hotchkiss Field Community Center (701 E. Brookland Park Boulevard) from 9:00–11:00 AM. As always, if you have questions—any questions at all!—call the COVID-19 hotline: 804.205.3501.This morning’s longreadMy Midlife Crisis as a Russian SailorIntrospective travel writing just really hits the spot for me since I’m trapped in my house.I’ve come to Russia at age 51 to re-create parts of William Barents’s third voyage to the Arctic from 400 years ago. Crossing and recrossing the sea northeast of Scandinavia, Barents, a Dutch navigator, went looking for a passage to China, but he and 16 men were trapped by sea ice during the summer of 1596. For nearly a year, they were stranded hundreds of miles above the mainland on Novaya Zemlya, a pair of large islands extending all the way to 77 degrees north. Five sailors died, including Barents himself, who perished at sea after they abandoned their ship and he and the remaining crew tried to get home on small boats. His quest to find the lucrative route to China was a brave but dismal failure.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 51 °F, and, apart from a chance of rain early this morning, today looks sunny and warm. Expect highs in the 70s.Water coolerRichmond Police are reporting that Angela M. Rector, 30, was shot to death this past Saturday evening on the 3200 block of P Street.As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 2,637 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 51 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 401 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 108, Henrico: 194, and Richmond: 99). Of note, the total number of deaths in Virginia dropped from 52 to 51 over the weekend, and I haven’t yet read anything that indicates why. Related: Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has a piece about VDH creating a definition for “suspect” COVID-19 cases. I don’t know how this will impact the daily reported numbers, but it’s something to keep an eye on as the Commonwealth still lacks an adequate number of tests.The City has launched RVAStrong.org, a website that looks to connect folks to 1) organizations that are doing good work, and 2) efforts that you can support during This Most Unusual Time. It’s early goings for this website, so I think helping build their dataset would probably be a useful way to spend your time. If you know about folks doing good work addressing local needs, fill out this form so the City can get them added to the website.This would have been helpful to tell you on Friday, but the City has decided to “close the main parking lots that provide access to the James on weekends for the duration of the stay at home order.” This is a most excellent idea, but I’m not sure which lots are impacted. /r/rva says cars got towed from Pony Pasture, and on my solo bike ride yesterday, the Great Shiplock Park lot was open (and packed), while the lot next to the Sugar Pad was closed. I saw more than 30 boats in the river which blew my mind—reminded me of that scene in Jaws when all the locals head out into the ocean and start ramming into each other and throwing dynamite everywhere.Ali Rockett at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a bleak look at jails around the region as they wait for the coronavirus. I agree with Kim Rolla from the Legal Aid Justice Center, “…choosing to maintain a high jail population in the midst of a pandemic like this is endangering everyone.” However, Rockett says Richmond’s Commonwealth Attorney Colette McEachin disagrees and says folks are safer in jails where there are no known cases of the virus and continual access to medical care. I guess that’s true…until a virus outbreak. Maybe the local jails, Richmond’s specifically which houses over 700 inmates, can implement policies to keep the virus out? I don’t know, but the whole situation makes me nervous.Robins Foundation has partnered with the City to launch a $1 million family crisis fund. From the press release: “Robins Foundation, in partnership with the City of Richmond has launched a Family Crisis Fund. Seeded with matching $500,000 contributions by Robins Foundation and the City of Richmond, funds from this initiative can be disbursed to families as soon as April 7–8th, allowing for immediate financial relief for families and immediate impact on the local economy. This will meet critical needs while families and local communities prepare for the federal stimulus to be activated within the next 60 days.” This new fund is just one way the local philanthropy community has started to respond to the coronavirus crisis. A while back—who knows how long ago in virustime—the Community Foundation announced the Central Virginia COVID-19 Response Fund to help “support community organizations and public agencies that are meeting the needs of individuals and families most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.” You can donate directly to that fund, volunteer your time, or if you’re out there in the coronatrenches, apply for funding.Hey, quick reminder: The EDA will start accepting applications for those no-interest loans today and will consider them in the order in which they were received. Keep your eye on the EDA website this morning if you’re planning to apply.The Virginia Mercury’s Graham Moomaw says that the General Assembly might reconvene later this month, which is great. He also says they may do so outside to protect legislators and staff, which is fascinating. Richmond in the springtime, aside from the choking pollen, is pretty amazing, so I get it, but, with only a couple hundred folks, I’m not sure why they wouldn’t use Main Street Station or the Siegel Center. My best guesses for where this out-of-doors session could take place: Brown’s Island, UR’s football stadium, or Maymont.Here’s a picture of a Bolt scooter on a rock in the middle of the river. Yes, this does, theoretically, make our transportation system less useful, but look at it. Doesn’t it look so peaceful out there? Also, here is someone using a Bolt scooter to hold up a skateboard ramp? Again, transportation blah blah blah, but maybe kind of high five?Sam and I recorded episode 75 of the Sam and Ross Like Things podcast, but really y’all did most of the work. This time around, we asked for folks to send us voice memos of things that they like, and, I have to say, it was really nice to hear people’s voices. Thanks to everyone who sent something in!This morning’s patron longreadThe Coronavirus’s Unique Threat to the SouthSubmitted by Patron Casey. Decades of bad, racist policies have put us in a place where younger Southerners are more likely to have pre-existing health conditions that make the coronavirus even more dangerous.The numbers emerging seem to indicate that more young people in the South are dying from COVID-19. Although the majority of coronavirus-related deaths in Louisiana are still among victims over 70 years old, 43 percent of all reported deaths have been people under 70. In Georgia, people under 70 make up 49 percent of reported deaths. By comparison, people under 70 account for only 20 percent of deaths in Colorado. “Under 70” is a broad category, not really useful for understanding what’s going on. But digging deeper reveals more concerning numbers. In Louisiana, people ages 40 to 59 account for 22 percent of all deaths. The same age range in Georgia accounts for 17 percent of all deaths. By comparison, the same age group accounts for only about 10 percent of all deaths in Colorado, and 6 percent of all deaths in Washington State. These statistics suggest that middle-aged and working-age adults in the two southern states are at much greater risk than their counterparts elsewhere; for some reason, they are more likely to die from COVID-19.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

In this episode of Bold Dominion: the Virginia General Assembly has just wrapped up its 2020 session. And plenty of observers have said that this was a historic session. With new Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate – plus a democratic governor – a raft of new legislation made its way through passage this year. In this episode: Virginia Mercury reporter Graham Moomaw gives us a recap of the Assembly session. And lawmaker Sally Hudson explains how these decisions really get made – including some of what you don’t see in the news stories or TV coverage.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 44 °F, and highs today will hit 70 °F! I’ve got a feeling we’ve missed out on any chance for serious snow this winter—I mean, it’s almost spring.Water coolerRichmond Police are reporting that Keandre N. Robinson, 29, was shot to death on the 2200 block of Creighton Road late Saturday night. Robinson was the ninth person murdered in Richmond in 2020, according to the RPD.The General Assembly has nearly wrapped this year’s legislative session, and so much happened over the weekend that I’ll surely miss something. Here’s a short, incomplete list of rad stuff that got passed: a bunch of common-sense gun laws, the Virginia Clean Economy Act, redistricting reform (although you need to read this thread from Del. Cia Price about her work to make reform more equitable), a decent hike in the minimum wage, and decriminalization of marijuana. Actually, Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has a list of 8 big things that passed in the final hours of a historic General Assembly session in Virginia. If you’ve ever wondered if elections really matter, just look at that list of stuff accomplished in TWO MONTHS after electing a bunch of Democrats. Amazing.Also at the GA this weekend, Alexis Rodgers from Care in Action was on hand to support Dr. Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson—the two women who have accused Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax of sexual assault. You can watch the video of the press conference here. Rodgers called the press conference in response to a recent interview with Sen. Joe Morrissey (yes, that Joe Morrissey) where he promised to deliver a floor speech at the Senate defending Fairfax, stating “I don’t believe the women.” I don’t know if the speech ever happened, but it’s a disgusting idea and a waste of everyone’s time. It’s almost running-for-governor season, and, as Fairfax gears up for his run, there’s…just a lot going on. He recently called Mayor Stoney a racist and now has Joe Morrissey backing him up by literally negating #metoo.On Friday, the Mayor released his FY2021 budget and you can flip through the entire Annual Fiscal Plan here and the Capital Improvement Plan here. For a short summary, you can check out this press release on the City’s website. Stoney found $16 million of new money for schools in this year’s budget. That’s close but short of the $24 million schools asked for—some of that difference may be picked up by the State, I’m not sure. There’s a bit more funding for the Eviction Diversion Program and the Affordable Housing Trust. It doesn’t look like there’s any funding for the Riverfront Plan, so that’s a bummer. As for transportation, we already knew about the $30 million in road paving. In addition to that, the Mayor’s budget cuts the City’s contribution to GRTC by half, from about $16 million down to about $8 million. The budget depends on the regional transportation authority created by HB 1541 to cover that $8 million gap so GRTC can avoid cutting bus service—you can read more of my concerns about this specific thing over on Twitter. Here’s what I would love to know: Does GRTC believe that $8 million from the City is enough to keep the bus service we have today running while the new regional authority gets set up and the new regional money starts flowing in?City Council will meet tonight for their regularly scheduled meeting at 6:00 PM. They’ve got a short agenda tonight, but of note is ORD. 2019–343, the Airbnb ordinance. At the moment, the ordinance still contains an owner-occupancy clause, stating that “the operator shall occupy a dwelling unit on the lot on which the short-term rental operator’s short-term rental is located for an aggregate of at least 185 days each calendar year.” This means folks have to live in their Airbnb and can only operate one short-term rental at a time (and, probably for a bunch of other reasons too, it means you can’t Airbnb treehouses, tents, or islands). Last time around, Councilmember Gray had this paper continued to get more feedback from folks in her district, but I’m not sure whether or not that happened. Assuming the agenda doesn’t change over the course of today, we could have legal Airbnbs soon.Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense sat down with Councilmembers Lynch and Larson to do an oral history of sorts about the vote against the Mayor’s proposed downtown arena project. This is a good idea for a piece! I’d love to see more of this sort of thing—both before and after—interesting Council votes.C. Suarez Rojas at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a deep look at the plan for redevelopment of Virginia Center Commons

Good morning, RVA! It’s 49 °F, and highs today are once again back up in the mid 60s. That’s too wonderfully tempting to keep me off my bike, but, given the small chance of rain throughout the day, I may show up damp to a couple of my meetings. That’s not the end of the world!Water coolerIt’s Super Tuesday, which means in Virginia, we vote! Polls are open from 6:00 AM–7:00 PM, and you can find your polling place using this tool on the Department of Elections website. I will be voting for Elizabeth Warren!In what may become a more regular section of this email, I’ve got some updates on the coronavirus. Dr. Avula, director of the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts, updated City Council on the virus, and you can flip through the slides from his presentation (PDF). While the situation is rapidly evolving, so far zero people in Virginia have had a confirmed case of coronavirus. Of course, that could change, and, if this is the sort of thing you want to get fixated on, I recommend bookmarking the Virginia Department of Health’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 page. That’ll get you the most up-to-date information—the same stuff you’ll read in media reports. Also, the City released a statement, and Mayor Stoney has the best advice for Richmonders: “As always, wash your hands frequently, cover your mouth and go to the doctor if you are experiencing flu-like symptoms.” That’s pretty much all you can do at this point. I guess if you’re in charge of hanging up things on your workplace bulletin board, you could print out this pretty well-designed flyer from the Virginia Department of Health, too. It sounds to me like we’re definitely still in the “use your common sense and don’t panic” phase of things.Related, Superintendent Kamras’s email from yesterday was a real banger, and included a super-detailed account of what steps Richmond Public Schools will take to prevent and slow the spread of coronavirus should it ever find its way to the Commonwealth. What I continue to love about our not-so-new Superintendent is his level of personal involvement. For example: “I encourage students, families, or staff to email me directly at jkamras@rvaschools.net if you identify any issues with the availability of [soap/hand sanitizer and paper towels] in your school.” Richmond is still working to rebuild trust in our public school leadership, and I think this level of attention to detail (while it must be exhausting) helps. Take as second to tap through and also read about some pretty great athletic achievements in the District, the budgeting process, school renaming, and the abundance of solar-powered schools in Richmond. That picture of Huguenot High School is wild—I had no idea!The Department of Planning & Development Review has yet another survey for you to fill out! This one is all about Accessory Dwelling Units, which I feel like I never stop talking about. What’s an ADU? Well, it’s a small house that you build in the backyard of your regular house. This doubles the density on your property from one home to two homes! Amazing! “ADUs Everywhere” is good housing policy, in my opinion—and, conveniently, also the opinion of the Richmond 300 draft land use map. They aren’t a magic solution to solving the entirety of our housing crisis, but they are one easy tool that we should legalize immediately.I ran out of time to get to this last week, but, whoa!, Tricycle Urban Ag (aka Tricycle Gardens) will shut down and transfer “its facilities and assets to fellow nonprofit Enrichmond Foundation.” Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense has the details. Tricycle has been a staple of urban green space and gardening for as long as I’ve been aware of that sort of thing—honestly, it’s probably because of them that I first learned you could grow food inside of a City. I don’t know anything specific about the organization, but I’m always bummed when nonprofits close up shop due to “funding delays that were unsustainable.” You can read the announcement from Tricycle here.Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has updates on the General Assembly’s attempts at redistricting reform

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today we’ve got highs in the upper 50s with a bunch of clouds in the sky. Tomorrow you can expect warmer temperatures and some early-morning rain.Water coolerCorrection! Last week, in an attempt to find bipartisan agreement in the, of all things, immunization discussion, I attributed a pro-science quote to “Republican Del. Adams.” This was incorrect! There are two Del. Adamses, and the Democrat, Del. Dawn Adams (a nurse practitioner), is the one with the good, pro-herd-immunity quote. For what it’s worth, the Senate version of the immunization bill in question did see actual Republican Sen. Dunnavant vote for it in committee, so, at least in that chamber it’s not strictly party lines.Today, City Council meets for its regularly scheduled meeting at 6:00 PM, and you can find the agenda in its current state here(PDF). Two things to note! First, Council will consider ORD. 2020–030, the Special Use Permit allowing a 12-story apartment building on the northwest corner of Broad & Lombardy. This is high-density, transit-adjacent, urban living that helps us meet our housing and climate goals. If you’re a City resident—especially of the 2nd or 3rd Districts—take a minute and email your City Council rep telling them to support ORD. 2020–030. If you’ve got more than a minute, consider heading down to City Hall tonight and giving public comment in support—which is always both fun and nerve-wracking. Maybe once we get a bunch of new folks living at that intersection we can start pushing for an in-fill Pulse Station? Second, at their informal meeting, Council will get an update on what they’ll need to do should the casino bills floating around the General Assembly move forward. Since both the House version (HB 4) and the Senate version (SB 36) require holding a referendum, City Council has a bunch of work to do should they want to hold that referendum this coming November. This handy two-pager explains all of the state-mandated deadlines the City must comply with (PDF). Basically, if we want folks voting on casinos this coming election, Council needs to get moving. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has a piece about how the State needs to take problem gambling more seriously if its going to legalize casinos.Adam Lockett, Vice Chair of GRTC’s Transit Advisory Group, has a column in today’s paper about the Transit Development Planand how it can guide the City’s future investment in public transit—especially on the Southside. The TDP is a great, long PDF that lists out and prioritizes exactly what our region should spend transit money on should it suddenly find itself flush with additional cash. Here’s the most recent update (I think), which was published back in 2018 (PDF). Check out page 207 for a straightforward plan of where and how we should upgrade transit next—we’ve already done a bunch of the recommendations, so good job us! Also, 10 points to you if your mind immediately went to HB 1541 and its bucket of new regional public transportation money as a way to pay for some of these recommended upgrades.Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, says Superintendent Kamras has included money in his budget to expand the pilot crossing guard program

Good morning, RVA! It’s 34 °F, and today’s highs are in the 60s. Enjoy it while you can, because it looks like we’ve got some rain and colder temperatures later this week.Water coolerWTVR reports that a driver hit and killed Shelly Johnson, 41, as Johnson walked along Bethlehem Road towards the Wawa on Staples Mill Road. Bethlehem Road is one of the few ways to connect to Libbie Mill while avoiding both Broad Street and Staples Mill, but, unfortunately, the street lacks side walks and the intersection is massive, unsafe, and designed to maximize vehicle speeds. It’s unsurprising that “the preliminary investigation indicates that [neither] speed nor alcohol were factors in this crash” because the area is not designed as a place for people to safely exist. What will Henrico do to make this part of the County—where they plan on adding thousands of people and jobs—safer for folks moving around? Will they respond to Johnson’s death and change how this intersection works?You should read this column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch by Ebony Walden, about building a more equitable Richmond. She doesn’t explicitly state it, but this column asks the question that sits on all of our plates after Council rejected the mayor’s proposal to redevelop downtown: How will we move forward and implement—citywide—the community benefits that the mayor’s proposal sought to address? Things like affordable housing, public transit, safe pedestrian and bike infrastructure, jobs, disinvestment in Black communities, school funding, and environmental sustainability. In her words: “We did not get here overnight. Federal, state and local policies and private industry practices like urban renewal, redlining, deed restrictions, exclusionary zoning, highway construction and subprime lending have created a segregated city. In the face of these trends, urgent action is needed to develop a racial equity strategy rooted in equitable development, ensuring that all can thrive.” Remember, City Council could begin passing legislation to address some of these issues immediately, while the Mayor’s upcoming budget could bring much needed funded to equitable solutions. Keep an eye on our elected leaders over the next couple of months to see if they move to, as Walden says, make “a solid and actionable commitment to racial equity rooted in equitable development in 2020.”Related, you should also read this column in the RTD by Corey D.B Walker and Thad Williamson about how Richmond—its citizens and its leaders—should build a new, better, and more democratic economic development process. This is important stuff to think through as a community! Those empty blocks of downtown will not (and should not!) stay empty forever, and as VCU moves forward with building a ballpark the City will suddenly find itself with lots and lots of prime real estate along Arthur Ashe Boulevard. Before we kick off either of those projects, it makes sense to do some introspection, learn from these past two years, and deploy a much-improved economic development process. Right?Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has a really great explainer on the General Assembly’s plan for the Commonwealth to create its own health insurance marketplace. Is this a good idea? I would love to know! Health insurance is totally not my jam, but it kinda seems like this would creat a lot of new overhead for not that much benefit—now folks looking for insurance would need to check both the federal and state marketplaces while doing some compare/contrast work. Who’s got the definitive longread about whether or not state-run exchanges work?Also at the Virginia Mercury, Graham Moomaw has the disappointing but not altogether unexpected news that the Virginia Senate pushed the assault weapons ban bill to the 2021 GA session. Great quote from Sen. Louise Lucas: “I didn’t have enough people who had enough backbone to do what two million voters asked us to do…They sent us here to vote for good, common sense gun measures. And they wimped out and were just too afraid to do it.”I enjoyed this Q&A in Richmond Magazine where Kelli Lemon asks a bunch of restaurant people how the scene has changed over the last forever. This picture of Richmond in the 90s makes me feel warm feelings: “In the ’90s, I was at 3rd Street Diner, and out front it was cigarette-smoking waitresses in Suicide Girl outfits and [a member of] Lamb of God working the line in the back…So many were just VCU students. It was the Wild West.”The City’s Planning Commission meets today and will consider a handful of papers to rezone the unnamed area around Hardywood (best suggestion I got on Twitter: Rhoadmiller). Also, on their regular agenda sits ORD. 2020–030, the Special Use Permit for the 12-story residential tower proposed for the northwest corner of Broad & Lombardy. I’m pretty stoked about it and can’t remember the last time I saw a big residential project like this with fewer than .5 parking spaces per unit (79 spaces for 168 units—some of them below ground and none of them visible from the street!).Richmond’s planning folks will present the results from the recent Scott’s Addition survey tonight at Diversity Richmond (1407 Sherwood Ave) from 6:00–7:30 PM. If you show up, I think you’ll get first crack at the Greater Scott’s Addition Conceptual Plan, which is a PDF I look forward to reading—don’t we all!This morning’s patron longreadBuild Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build BuildSubmitted by Patron Lisa. It’s shocking to see such strong support for more and more housing from a local official—of course, it cost him his job, but still.What this suggests is that the real solution will have to be sociological. People have to realize that homelessness is connected to housing prices. They have to accept it’s hypocritical to say that you don’t like density but are worried about climate change. They have to internalize the lesson that if they want their children to have a stable financial future, they have to make space. They are going to have to change. Steve Falk changed. When he first heard about Dennis O’Brien’s project, he thought it was stupid: a case study, in ugly stucco, of runaway development. He believed the Bay Area needed more housing, but he was also a dyed-in-the-wool localist who thought cities should decide where and how it was built. Then that belief started to unravel. Today, after eight years of struggle, his career with the city is over, the Deer Hill Road site is still just a mass of dirt and shrubs, and Mr. Falk has become an outspoken proponent of taking local control away from cities like the one he used to lead.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 59 °F, and we may see the sun later today! But, beware the wind! We’re under a wind advisory until 4:00 PM, and you should expect 15–25 mph winds with gusts up to 40 mph. After all that rain, some stuff may fall down, and your power could even go out! Saturday and Sunday look pretty rad though.Water coolerPolice are reporting that Leon T. Robinson, 27, was shot to death on the 1600 block of Mechanicsville Turnpike, near the 804 Market, on Wednesday night. This is the fifth murder of 2020.Elections matter, and every single dang day the New Democratic Majority has pushed for consequential laws that make the lives of Virginians better. It’s really been something to watch. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury says that the House and the Senate have both passed versions of HB 1663, the Virginia Values Act, which “not only adds sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in housing, employment and public accommodations, it establishes a new framework for people who feel they’ve been discriminated against to take legal action against the offending party.” Those bills still need to do the crossover dance and get signed by the Governor and what not, but seem like they’re in a good place. Of course, there’s more work to be done! Side by Side, an excellent organization focused on creating supportive communities for Virginia’s LGBTQ+ youth, has a couple of ways for you to support HB 145 and SB 161, which direct the Virginia Department of Education to create policies regarding transgender students. You can read an open letter from Side by Side and a bunch of other local, youth-focused organizations about this legislation over on RVA Mag, which you should, because you’ll learn that “according to Side by Side’s November 2019 youth survey, 21% of transgender youth were ‘always’ afraid of getting hurt by someone at school and 72% had some level of fear attending schools in Virginia.” Finally, if you want to get involved in the work to push these bills across the finish line, you can attend an event at Diversity Richmond (Facebook) (1407 Sherwood Ave) this coming Monday, February 10th, from 6:00–7:00 PM.Labor law in Virginia is something I’m still learning about. Growing up in the Commonwealth, I’ve accumulated an insidious internal background noise that whispers bad things about unions. I’m working to get rid of that, and it’s nice to see progress on several pro-labor bills at this year’s General Assembly push my personal conversation, but also the public conversation, on labor forward. In fact, Mayor Stoney has a column in the Washington Post about HB 582 and SB 1022, bills lifting the ban on public-sector collective bargaining. And, like I off-handedly mentioned the other day, Del. Carter’s bill to repeal Right to Work made it out of committee. See previous point about how elections matter.Sarah Vogelsong at the Virginia Mercury has the details on the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which has emerged, fresh and mewling, from the Labor and Commerce Committee and on to the House floor. Again, elections matter! This is, of course, exciting, but I’d still like to see more aggressive transportaiton legislation and funding as it relates to climate change. Transportation is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and, while electrification is most certainly an important and critical piece of the puzzle, we’ve also got to work hard on policies that incentivize and make it easier (or even possible!) for folks to use their cars less. That’s just the facts, Jack!This Saturday, the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden will host a seed swap from 1:00–3:00 PM! Did you know that Lewis Ginter has a seed library? They totally do and, not to minimize the importance of this work, I think it’s such an awesome Busytown-type thing! The seed swap and seed library (which is in an actual card catalog library box thing) are free for members or included with admission.The Oscars are this coming Sunday, which, if you start right now you should still have enough time to finish The Irishman before showtime. Wikipedia has my preferred list of nominations and eventual winners.This morning’s patron longreadCalifornia, Mired in a Housing Crisis, Rejects an Effort to Ease ItSubmitted by Patron Lisa. California’s legislature once again failed to pass a bill that would allow for dense housing near good transit. The fascinating thing here is the alliance between classic NIMBY folks and the people (legitimately) worried about increased housing costs and getting pushed out beyond the reach of the transit system. In Richmond, of course we need to allow for more, denser housing near our best transit—but we also need to figure out ways to keep some of that housing affordable for a wide range of folks.For years, a determined state senator has pushed a singular vision: a bill challenging California’s devotion to both single-family housing and motor vehicles by stripping away limits on housing density near public transit. Now the state will have to look for other ways to relieve its relentless housing crisis. On Thursday, one day before the deadline for action on the hotly debated bill, it failed to muster majority support in a Senate vote. In the end, in a Legislature where consensus can be elusive despite a lopsided Democratic majority, the effort drew opposition from two key constituencies: suburbanites keen on preserving their lifestyle and less affluent city dwellers seeing a Trojan horse of gentrification. The failure marks the third time since 2018 that State Senator Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat and one of the country’s most outspoken advocates for reforming local zoning laws, has tried and failed to push through a major bill meant to stimulate housing production.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and highs will hit the mid 40s before dropping a bit this evening. Keep an eye out for rain tonight and tomorrow morning with a pretty neutral weekend following. Temperatures next week, though! Break out your slip-ons.Water coolerDel. Jeff Bourne told Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury he’s dropping his bill that would allow some state sales tax revenue to pay for a portion of the proposed downtown arena project, aka NoBro. As far as I understood it, that bill would have given the project developers enough cash to allow them to shrink the 80-block BigTIF back down to a more reasonable size, basically the project footprint. The NH District folks (the developers) told VPM’s Robert Roldan that they are still “committed to reducing the size of the increment financing area and are exploring other avenues to help us achieve that goal.” I would love to know what those avenues are! Honestly, I felt like Bourne’s Bill was pretty OK, all things considered. I’ve no qualms with taking state money to pay for local things given how the state regularly stiffs the City on all sorts of stuff—most directly by taking up a huge portion of our downtown land with their tax-exempt buildings. But, with five councilmembers asking the Mayor to withdraw his NoBro ordinances this past Monday, the writing is on the wall, the blood is in the water, or some other noun is preposition the other noun phrase. Moving forward from this specific downtown project, I love this quote from the Mayor’s press secretary, “Regardless of whether it’s used for Navy Hill, there’s no reason this tool for economic development shouldn’t be available to Richmond, as it is for other cities.”Also at the Virginia Mercury, Ned Oliver and Graham Moomaw look at all the progress The New Democratic Majority have made on guns this General Assembly session: “Both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly have passed major gun-control bills creating universal background checks, a red-flag law and reinstating the former one-handgun-a-month rule.” Heck yes! Now our elected leaders just need to decide if they’re willing to tackle an assault weapons ban. What a bizarre sentence that you can only write in America.Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a long, complex update on the state of gambling bills down at the General Assembly

Good morning, RVA! It’s 16 °F, but highs today will head up out of the frozone and into the mid 40s. Expect plenty of sunshine as temperatures continue to warm throughout the week.Water coolerI know it’s only January, but last night marked the official kickoff for the 2020 Budget Season! Over at the School Board meeting, Superintendent Kamras introduced his FY2021 budget (PDF), and, I swear y’all, it is the most readable and approachable budget document I think I’ve ever seen. They’ve got proposed expenditures broken down by categories from the strategic plan (Dreams4RPS(PDF)), which is so smart. For example, RPS wants to spend $489,000 more on adding six social workers, which falls under Priority 3, Safe and Loving School Cultures. Honestly, right away I feel a weird sense of protective ownership in this budget (??) since we all collectively spent so much time working on the strategic plan a couple summers ago. However, it all comes down to money and the extremely tiny amounts of it we have available, so what’s the total cost? $39 million more dollars. That’s a lot, but it should surprise exactly zero humans as RPS has been exceedingly clear and upfront with their budget needs moving forward over the next couple of years. The School District plans to pick up $18 million more from the State, should the Governor’s budget pass as is, so that leaves $21 million on the City’s tab. It’s been awhile, but do you remember how I kept talking about restoring the real estate tax to pre-Recession era levels because schools—not to mention transit or public housing—needed tens of millions of dollars of immediate investment? Well, City Council decided not to do that, so here we are with a big, not-unexpected request from Richmond Public Schools. I’m very interested to see how the Mayor and City Council deals with it. BUCKLE UP IT IS BUDGET SEASON.Schools don’t have a monopoly on budgets, and GRTC’s CEO introduced a FY20–22 Capital Blueprint (PDF). This budget document is…not as heartwarming as RPS’s—but that’s a high, high bar. C. Suarez Rojas at the Richmond Times-Dispatch breaks down some of the details, which include articulated buses and a Park and Ride for the Pulse.Over the long weekend, Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras decided to close schools this coming Monday, January 27th because “it appears that nearly 700 (about a third) of our teachers will be taking personal leave to participate in the VEA rally” for increasing state-level education funding. First, that’s kind of rad—good for those teachers. Second, my family is in the very privileged position of easily being able to absorb a day off from school with only a week’s notice. Many folks are not and will have to scramble to figure out childcare, meals, and a bunch of other logistics. I’m sure that was a tough call to make, but it feels like the right one. Also, where are you going to find 700 substitute teachers?Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has the update on the fate of Republican gun bills down at the General Assembly. Did you know Republicans had gun bills? They do, or, well, more accurately, they did. Unable to read the room, Republicans submitted some pro-gun violence bills, including one that would have allowed concealed carry without a permit. These bills did not make it out of subcommittee.Speaking of the General Assembly, I really recommend you check out my pal Nicholas Smith’s VAGAries email. Yesterday, he had a great bit about the proposed shopping cart bill (a real bill that definitely exists) and a couple days ago he had some nuanced thoughts on whether or not we should make Election Day a holiday. Sure, it’s nice to know about big-picture items like the ridiculous Republicans gun bills dying in subcommittee, but what I’m really after is slower, more thoughtful writing about what the heck stuff down at the GA means. This newsletter fills a hole in my politics-nerd life for sure!The impeachment trial of Donald Trump got underway in earnest yesterday. Lots of stuff happened! Or, at least, it took Republicans in the Senate a long, long time to vote NO on many, many things and to establish the rules for the next steps of the process. Now the arguments portion of the trial begins, which means it is definitely the time to subscribe to impeachment.fyi if you haven’t already. I mean, who wants to spend their own time watching hours and hours of public meetings drag on into the middle of the night? Just kidding! That sounds awesome, and, if I had the time, it is exactly how I’d spend my evenings over the next week or two. But, since I definitely do not have that kind of time, I will read the impeachment.fyi each morning and feel plenty informed.This morning’s longread“Flood the zone with shit”: How misinformation overwhelmed our democracyI loved this Vox article—even though it deeply bums me out—about our media and our very brain’s inability to deal with this present moment.We’re in an age of manufactured nihilism. The issue for many people isn’t exactly a denial of truth as such. It’s more a growing weariness over the process of finding the truth at all. And that weariness leads more and more people to abandon the idea that the truth is knowable. I call this “manufactured” because it’s the consequence of a deliberate strategy. It was distilled almost perfectly by Steve Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News and chief strategist for Donald Trump. “The Democrats don’t matter,” Bannon reportedly said in 2018. “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 24 °F, and that’s a wintry temperature! Today you can expect highs right around 40 °F, which is much more wintry than this past week. Colder temperatures continue through the weekend with a chance of rain on Saturday.Water coolerRichmond Police are reporting a murder on the 1700 block of Bellevue Avenue. Wednesday night, officers arrived at the scene and found Robert M. Willoughby, 86, “suffering from obvious signs of trauma.” He was pronounced dead at the scene.Team NoBro has crunched the numbers on Del. Jeff Bourne’s bill to allow the use of a portion of the state sales tax to pay for some of the project’s costs. If passed, the Delegate’s bill will allow them to shrink the size of the BigTIF from 80 blocks down to 11 blocks—basically just the project area plus the new Dominion tower and the old Dominion tower (which is the possible site of yet another Dominion tower). A way smaller TIF ameliorates one of my biggest concerns with this project: That capping revenue from our currently thriving downtown until NoBro starts to generate its own revenue—when there’s so much citywide momentum yet so many citywide needs—is shortsighted and defers many of our current priorities for at least 6–7 years. So now, as downtown continues to grow on its own, the City would get to keep some of that new revenue to spend on things like schools, housing, streets, and transportation. For me, this doesn’t change the fact that an arena is probably not the best use of our limited downtown space or the fact that the process to get us to where we are has been pretty bad, but it does make the public paying for this portion of NoBro more palatable. I’m really interested to see how Team NoBro re-engages the public and decision-makers now that the entire financial underpinnings of the project have changed. Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense will walk you through the details of those changes.Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has followed the early progress of the new gun safety bills working their way through the General Assembly. Thus far, the Senate passed bills allowing local governments to ban guns in public buildings and parks(something Councilmember Jones has been after since at least last year), and a bill restoring the one-handgun-a-month rule. I love this quote from Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw on how the one-handgun-a-month law had previously been in effect for 19 years, “I maintain that if 228 handguns isn’t enough for you, there’s something gone terribly wrong in your life.”Whoa misleading headline in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “572 food service and cleaning workers at VCU Health System get layoff notices as new contractor is named”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F with a bit of clouds and that is exactly what you should expect for the rest of the day. Enjoy!Water coolerThis is pretty incredible: Yesterday, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA. Ned Oliver and Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury have all of the fantastic details. Tap the link for some cheers, tears, good quotes, and grumbly Republicans.Here’s a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch by HOME’s Heather Mullins Crislip and Better Housing Coalition’s Greta Harrisabout the importance of affordable housing, specifically through housing choice vouchers. Now, I’m going to talk about some housing policy, and that is not my field of expertise. Please, if you are an expert and I get something wrong, yell at me! So, HCVs allow folks to live in market-rate apartments by using vouchers to supplement what they can afford to pay on their own. Unfortunately, the amount of folks who rely on HCVs vastly outnumbers the amount of landlords willing to accept HCVs. It’s pretty bad: The recently released Regional Housing Framework (PDF) says fewer than one in five apartment communities in the region accept vouchers. To address this need, Del. Jeff Bourne has introduced HB 6 which would add “source of income” as a protected class under Virginia’s Fair Housing Act. Should it pass, this bill would “prevent a landlord from denying an applicant simply because they will pay with a rental voucher…it also would not require a landlord to accept less than market rate for their apartment.” Which, is why the Housing Framework’s Solution 6-B is so important: Implement Small Area Fair Market Rents (p. 20). Currently, HCVs cover the difference between rent and 30% of the tenant’s income, and a SAFMR policy would allow those rents to be calculated by ZIP code rather than by the entire region. Which means more folks able to afford living in more places across the region. Now I gotta read some more about who’s responsible for getting a policy like that created. Housing, y’all! It’s a whole thing—rather, it’s a whole, huge set of things!While we’re talking about housing and vouchers and moving folks out of public housing neighborhoods, read this piece about RRHA’s recent vote to demolish Creighton Court by Mark Robinson at the RTD. First, the way the Housing Authority handles opportunities and process for public engagement needs improvement. I think that’s pretty clear. Second, I don’t feel like I have a good understanding of the history, vision, and timeline for Creighton specifically—and, generally, public housing in Richmond. I thought rebuilding Creighton Court has been the plan for a long time now? For example, here’s a 2013 article in the RTD about tearing down and rebuilding the public housing neighborhood using a Choice Neighborhoods grant (that the City did not get). But process is so important, and if this is all new news to folks living in the neighborhood, that’s unacceptable and something’s got to change. Here’s a good video of a public comment from that RRHA meeting dealing specifically with process. I’d love to read and learn more on this.Yesterday, I wrote about trees and had a couple of folks respond in a tree-positive way, wanting to know what to do and how to get involved. Three things! 1) You can contact Beautiful RVA for some great volunteer opportunities. 2) You can email your City Council rep and ask them to reconstitute (resuscitate?) the Urban Forestry Commission so the City can have more folks working the details and strategies behind restoring our urban tree canopy. 3) You can chip in $50 and participate in the City’s Adopt A Tree program which results in an actual tree getting planted. We need to do better, and I’m still struggling to find a way to talk about how trees and shade are a big deal—not just a neighborhood nice-to-have. I mean, heck, the latest episode of the 99% Invisible podcast is all about the seriousness of shade.Well, we did it! Tonight at 6:00 PM in Council Chambers, City Council will host their final NoBro public hearing. Of course it’s not truly the final hearing—as time progresses we only asymptotically approach that final hearing. Council will need to hold at least on more when the ordinances setting up the property transfers and right-of-way changes hit the agenda of their regularly scheduled meeting. Until then, we’re just waiting on the 3rd-party study that Council commissioned, and, then, it’s off to the races. And by races, I mean an hourslong Council meeting stretching into the night followed by a contentious vote.This morning’s longreadState Tax Proposals Would Make Virginia’s Tax System More FairRather than write a bunch of boring words about how some of the new tax plans down at the General Assembly will work, I figured I’d just link to these way smarter words from Chris Wodicka at the Commonwealth Institute.Public investments help to support communities across our state. State resources provide funding for public schools, health care, transportation, and more. However, Virginia’s current state and local tax system has two major challenges. First, the current revenue system is inadequate, which means it’s not generating the revenues necessary for public investments. For example, the state’s K-12 public schools, colleges, and universities continue to face funding challenges despite ongoing growth in the economy. Second, Virginia’s state and local tax system is upside-down. On average, the highest-income people in the state pay the lowest in state and local taxes as a share of their income. To address both issues, lawmakers should design tax policies that reduce taxes on families with low and moderate incomes, while asking the wealthiest households and large corporations to pay their fair share – including by closing some loopholes in the current tax system.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Each week on Bold Dominion, we explain one big topic. This week, that topic is the General Assembly itself. We're about a week into the 2020 session, so it's a good time to figure out: how does the General Assembly actually work? Guests include Graham Moomaw, politics reporter at The Virginia Mercury; Peter Galuszka, Virginia journalist; and Sally Hudson, delegate representing Virginia House District 57. Hosted by Nathan Moore. Info & subscribe at BoldDominion.org. Bold Dominion is a member of the Virginia Audio Collective.

Virginia rolls the dice on gambling as industry readies for a legislative fight. Politics reporters Graham Moomaw and Michael Martz discuss the stakes with Jeff Schapiro, politics columnist. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

State of the race, 2019: At the traditional Labor Day start of the political season, reporters Graham Moomaw, Mel Leonor and Patrick Wilson discuss with columnist Jeff Schapiro Virginia's high-stakes legislative elections. They'll decide control of the General Assembly and shape Gov. Ralph Northam's agenda, post-blackface scandal. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Graham Moomaw, Times-Dispatch politics reporter, and columnist Jeff Schapiro discuss the controversial invitation to President Donald Trump – from Republicans and Democrats – to speak at Jamestown on the 400th anniversary of the birth there of American representative government. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We chat with  Katelyn O’Brien, a pipefitter working for a shipbuilding company in Virginia. Katelyn is a trans woman with a degree in History and an adorable cat named Merlyn—she’s also, by her own admission, a comic book nerd.  We talk all about how she came to work as a pipefitter out of college and what exactly goes into a day’s work doing this difficult and quite dangerous job. We also have a frank and really important conversation about the struggles LGBT workers face in the workplace—from everyday harassment on the job site to systemic and legislative discrimination. And we talk about the work Katelyn and others have been doing to fight against these barriers to equality and acceptance.     Additional links/info below... Katelyn's Facebook group, Positive Transgender Media Representation  Laura Vozzella, Washington Post, "Va. House Panel Kills Bills to Ban Anti-LGBT Discrimination in Housing and Jobs"  Graham Moomaw, Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Va. House Republicans Let LGBT Non-Discrimination Bills Die without a Hearing"  Kai Isaiah-Jamal, Broadly, "100 Easy Ways to Make the World Better for Trans People"  National Center for Transgender Equality, "Employment" & "Non-Discrimination Laws"  JUSTIA, "Transgender Discrimination in the Workplace"    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" Derek Clegg, "I Have You" 

Jeff Schapiro is joined by Mel Leonor, Michael Martz and Graham Moomaw to discuss the 2019 General Assembly session. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In our Democrats-imploding edition, T-D political reporters Graham Moomaw and Patrick Wilson plumb the party's fast-moving leadership crisis with politics columnist Jeff Schapiro. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Times-Dispatch political reporters Graham Moomaw and Michael Martz join Jeff Schapiro in a look at the 2019 agenda for the General Assembly on Capitol Chat Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Times-Dispatch politics reporter Graham Moomaw and Jeff Schapiro, politics columnist, discuss the latest twist in the long-running legal fight over House of Delegates boundaries as well as House Democrats' new, historic leader: Eileen Filler-Corn, the first woman in either party to lead a Virginia legislative caucus. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Politics columnist Jeff Schapiro and Times-Dispatch reporter Graham Moomaw discuss efforts designed to slowly move toward legal cannabis in the state. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.