Richmond Association of REALTORS endorses Berry for mayor
The Richmond Association of Realtors, which bills itself as the largest trade organization in the region, announced today it has endorsed former Venture Richmond Director Jack Berry in the city’s mayoral race. Leaders of the organization said they are backing Berry over his seven opponents because he brings experience working in local government and, in the organization’s view, is best equipped to address City Hall’s problems. “As we looked at the candidates, we focused on who has the background and experience to make an immediate impact on the internal challenges within City Hall,” said Laura Lafayette, the organization’s chief executive officer.

 

CITY OF RICHMOND

Richmond’s poverty rate is second-highest in Virginia
One in four Richmond residents lived in poverty in 2015 — the second-highest concentration of indigence among Virginia’s 30 largest cities and counties, according to statistics released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The poverty rate last year in the capital was 24.6 percent, or slightly lower than the 24.8 percent rate in Lynchburg, according to the data. Roanoke, Montgomery County and Norfolk had the next-highest rates. The high rate of people living in poverty here has been a century in the making, and it will take years to overcome, said Thad Williamson, who formerly led Richmond’s Office of Community Wealth Building, an agency focused on battling poverty.

CHESTERFIELD

Home values remain stuck in low gear
Earlier this year, many Chesterfield homeowners grimaced when they saw that the assessed value of their homes had dropped, often by several thousand dollars. Just a decade ago, this would have been almost unthinkable. The housing market was booming, and home values soared. Getting the assessment letter in the mail was cause for celebration, particularly for those looking to sell their homes. Then the housing market collapsed, sparking the recession of 2007 to 2008. While home values have risen since, the recovery continues to be slow-moving. According to county real estate officials, existing home values – the best measure of Chesterfield’s overall residential real estate market – have seen the pace of recovery hover between 2.5 and 3 percent in the last two years.

HANOVER

Ashland enlists law firm to help push back against high-speed rail option
Officials in Ashland are throwing money behind an effort to fend off a potential aspect of a high-speed rail project linking Washington and Richmond that they contend would effectively destroy the town. Ashland hired lobbyists from Richmond-based law firm Williams Mullen as it pushes back against the idea of adding a third track through town for the DC2RVA high-speed rail project. On Tuesday, the Ashland Town Council authorized its town manager to negotiate a contract not to exceed $50,000 with the firm. “We think this option is so disastrous,” Mayor James Foley said in an interview Friday. “We need to make sure that the right people at least know the facts.”

Student achievement data reviewed, new School Board member welcomed
The Hanover County School Board had much to be proud of during their Sept. 13 meeting. Director of Accreditation and Accountability Nancy Disharoon presented the 2016 achievement summary for Hanover County Public Schools. According to the data provided in the presentation, students in Hanover County schools met and often exceeded the state pass rates. “We are well aware that every number will represent a student, or a classroom, or a teacher…so it’s numbers, but it’s really children,” Disharoon said. “This data tells us that we are performing at a high level, but we still have room to grow.”

REGIONAL

As more schools are fully accredited statewide, Richmond schools are heading backward
As the number of fully accredited schools continues to grow statewide and across the region, Richmond is heading backward, with the number of schools meeting the highest standards falling. Statewide, 81 percent of Virginia schools met full state accreditation standards, according to a Virginia Department of Education annual report released Wednesday. That’s an increase of 3 percentage points over last year. Locally, Chesterfield and Henrico counties also saw the number of schools fully accredited grow, while all of Hanover County’s schools maintained their fully accredited status.

STATE

Housing industry is sixth-largest private sector industry in Virginia
Virginia’s housing industry generated $47.8 billion in economic activity in 2015, with $21.8 billion in direct output, making it the sixth-largest private sector industry in Virginia in terms of direct output, according to a study released Sept. 2 by the Virginia Housing Policy Advisory Council. The council develops policy initiatives aimed at addressing critical housing needs. “In addition to the employment and spending impact cited in this report, we are proud that homeownership uplifts individual families with the opportunity to build wealth through equity, creating even greater long-term economic benefits to individuals and to our entire state,” said Bill White, 2016 president of the Virginia Association of Realtors and president of Joyner Fine Properties in Richmond.

Virginia’s August revenue collections up 12 percent over August 2015
Gov. Terry McAuliffe is waiting another month before getting his hopes up about state revenues. Less than a month after outlining a two-year revenue shortfall approaching $1.5 billion, McAuliffe said Monday that revenues in August rose by 12 percent over those of August 2015, thanks in part to two extra payroll deposit days for income taxes. “I am pleased that we have started the new year off on a positive note with two months of above-average collections,” the governor said. “However, we still have work to do to grow and diversify our economy to ensure that our revenue pictures continues to improve, regardless of external forces like (federal budget) sequestration.”

NATIONAL

U.S. household income grew 5.2 percent in 2015, breaking pattern of stagnation
Americans last year reaped the largest economic gains in nearly a generation as poverty fell, health insurance coverage spread and incomes rose sharply for households on every rung of the economic ladder, ending years of stagnation. The median household’s income in 2015 was $56,500, up 5.2 percent from the previous year — the largest single-year increase since record-keeping began in 1967, the Census Bureau said on Tuesday. The share of Americans living in poverty also posted the sharpest decline in decades. The gains were an important milestone for the economic expansion that began in 2009. For the first time in recent years, the benefits of renewed prosperity are spreading broadly.

10 years later, did the Big Dig deliver?
It was our obsession spanning three decades, the kitchen renovation that would never end, fodder for late-night television jokes. The Big Dig was no mere act of public works, never talked about in the way New Yorkers refer to the Lincoln Tunnel or the George Washington Bridge — infrastructure that cleanly does its job. Ours was the mega project of faulty epoxy, light fixtures dropping like pine needles, Ginsu guardrails, and sea water leaks. The boondoggle, good money after bad, the white elephant. As the most expensive highway in US history, the Central Artery and Tunnel project had a special, contradictory destiny: an engineering marvel deemed to be ill-conceived from the start. We stood on the sidelines darkly, shaking our heads, exercising Yankee pessimism honed by generations of not winning a World Series. This thing would never work out. There was too much opportunity for incompetence and corruption. They’d blow the save in the ninth inning and we’d all go home unhappy.

ELECTIONS

Stewart, Gillespie trade barbs over Trump support and 2017 gubernatorial race
Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart called Tuesday for his GOP rivals to put their 2017 ambitions on hold and unite behind Donald Trump, an appeal that competitor Ed Gillespie’s campaign dismissed as insincere because of Stewart’s own attacks against Gillespie. In a news release, Stewart, Trump’s Virginia campaign chairman, called on Gillespie and other Republican gubernatorial hopefuls — Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, and state Sen. Frank W. Wagner of Virginia Beach — to put their “full focus” on electing Trump. “With 56 days left, I am urging all Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates to join me in a common mission of electing Donald J. Trump — while putting our own campaigns on the back-burner,” Stewart said in a written statement. “This is an invitation to support Trump’s candidacy by speaking at candidate rallies, attending local Trump events, and showing support publicly.”

Richmond mayoral candidates focus on business issues at forum
Richmond’s slate of mayoral candidates promised to deliver faster building permits and lower business taxes at a forum Tuesday night organized by RVA Business Works, a consortium of nine neighborhood business groups in the city. Council members Jon Baliles and Michelle Mosby both said they would create a one-stop shop for business and building permits and assign each business a case manager, or, in Baliles’ words, a “concierge,” to serve as a single point of contact. Mosby also said she would expand the city’s office of minority business development to serve small businesses in general.

Richmond teachers union endorses Stoney in mayoral race
The Richmond Education Association, which represents city teachers, announced Wednesday that it will endorse Levar Stoney for mayor. “Seven of the eight mayoral candidates submitted questionnaires and sat for interviews, and while all were even-tempered and knowledgeable, Mr. Stoney stood head and shoulders above the others when it came to understanding the challenges and experiences facing our members on a daily basis,” said Charlotte Hayer, the group’s president. “I truly believe Levar Stoney is the education candidate and will be the education mayor,” she said.

Richmond mayoral candidates face pointed questions are RTD debate
Jonathan T. Baliles suggested Levar Stoney wouldn’t treat the mayor’s office as a full-time job. Lawrence Williams accused Joseph D. Morrissey of exploiting the city’s black community. Stoney asked Jack Berry how Berry could assure voters he wouldn’t continue to pursue unpopular projects such as the stadium in Shockoe Bottom. At the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s mayoral debate, the newspaper’s 66th Public Square, the candidates were offered the opportunity to pose a single question to an opponent of their choice.

Stoney breaks Richmond campaign fundraising record two months before election
Former Secretary of the Commonwealth Levar Stoney’s mayoral campaign reported raising $610,000 as of the end of last month, more than any previous mayoral campaign has raised or spent in the city. The previous fundraising record was held by Robert Grey Jr., who reported raising $514,000 over the course of his 2008 campaign against Dwight C. Jones and Bill Pantele, according to campaign finance records compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project. Stoney reported raising $193,000 from 443 contributors in July and August, the last campaign finance reporting period.