CITY OF RICHMOND

A look at Richmond’s New $1.34 million bike-sharing system
The first phase of Richmond’s new bike-share system is on its way to the streets of the central city. With the help of a substantial grant from the Federal Highway Administration’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program, an initial set of stations and bicycles, known as the B, is fully funded and the city hopes for a fall launch. Bike-share systems are popular in cities across the country and around the world, but it’s a new transportation idea for Richmond. The idea is that you can pick up a bike at one station, ride it to another, and leave it there. But don’t mistake bike sharing for traditional bicycle rental. These bikes are meant for station-to-station, short-term trips — and fees will start racking up if you keep one for more than 45 minutes.

CHESTERFIELD

Niagara Bottling investing $95M in Chesterfield operation that will bring 76 jobs
Niagara Bottling LLC, a family-owned and -operated bottled beverage supplier, will invest $95 million to establish a manufacturing and bottling operation at Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield County, adjacent to Amazon.com’s distribution center. The company will use state-of-the-art filtration to produce its Niagara brand and private-label bottled water, creating 76 new jobs in Chesterfield, according to a statement released by Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday. The announcement comes less than three weeks after the State Water Control Board cleared the path for the destruction of a nearly 10-acre swath of wetlands at the technology park.

GOOCHLAND

BOS votes to rezone property in Courthouse area land
The Goochland County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved the rezoning of several parcels of county-owned property in the Courthouse area, paving the way for the possibility that the land could be developed for business use. The land, which had previously been zoned as A-1 (Agricultural limited), and R-3 (Residential general) is now zoned B-1, meaning that commercial development is allowed. Addressing the board during the Aug. 4 supervisors meeting, county planner Tom Coleman explained that the county was seeking to rezone the land because it would both facilitate the future sale of the property and help capitalize on the area’s value to developers.

HANOVER

Inaugural Governor’s School get high marks
By all indications, the first installment of Hanover County’s Regional Governor’s School for Career and Technical Advancement hit all the right notes as the three-week session at the University of Richmond wrapped up last month. The first of its kind program was designed “to strengthen workplace Readiness Skills and entrepreneurial skills of gifted CTE students.” Thirty-eight students from 22 school divisions attended the residential program that offered advanced students unique real world experiences, training seminars and classroom training.

HENRICO

Middle school redistricting process to be delayed
The start of a redistricting process that could alleviate crowded conditions at Hungary Creek Middle School is on hold for another seven months or so while Henrico County Public Schools officials first consider the possible implementation of new instructional programs at the middle school level. The Henrico School Board had hoped to begin the redistricting process this fall, but Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Beth Teigen told the board last week that it wouldn’t make sense to start yet. That’s because officials are weighing the possibility of establishing special “academies” at some middle schools to provide focused instruction in several topics – potentially including leadership, coding and/or STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The academies could be similar in some ways to the specialty centers at Henrico’s high schools. Any possible shift in middle school boundaries to accommodate those new programs should occur before any changes to the Hungary Creek boundaries, Teigen told the board during its Aug. 11 work session.

REGIONAL

CNBC ranks Richmond Metro Region as one of best places to do business in America
Imagine having a business plan, the secured funding to start your own business and the option to choose anywhere in the country to set up shop. Where would you go? That’s the question we set out to answer in the first-ever CNBC Metro 20: America’s Best Places to Start a Business. Using private and government data, we looked at the 20 key criteria business owners should evaluate before choosing a business location, including tax and regulatory climate, workforce strength, access to capital and the cost of living. Here’s how we did it: First, we used the established list of 389 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), published by the Census Bureau, to define metro areas. Then we pinpointed 107 areas that had a population of 500,000 or more. New York is the largest of these, with a population of more than 20 million; Lexington, Kentucky, is the smallest city to make the cut, with an estimated population of 500,535.

Standards of Learning pass rates hold steady across Richmond region, state
Student performance on state Standards of Learning tests remained relatively flat in the Richmond area last year, with small increases on some subjects regionally and slight declines in four core areas for Richmond Public Schools. Richmond School Board members said they are disappointed in the district’s dip in student pass rates on history, science, writing and math assessments reported in new statewide results released Tuesday. But they expressed confidence in the administration of Superintendent Dana T. Bedden heading into the second full year of an academic improvement plan designed to lift the beleaguered district. “These scores by and large are unacceptable,” said Richmond School Board Chairman Jeff Bourne, 3rd District. “Are we where we want to be? Absolutely not.”

STATE

Governor Terry McAuliffe says outlook for revenue is not optimistic
Even Gov. Terry McAuliffe couldn’t be too cheery after meeting with Virginia business and legislative leaders on Monday about the state’s economic and revenue outlook. McAuliffe emerged from the two-hour meeting with the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates with renewed warnings about potential cuts in federal spending under budget sequestration next year and the dire need to prepare for a major turnover of working Virginians in the next decade. “I don’t think anybody would say optimistic,” he said of the outlook.

NATIONAL

Seattle City Council Oks ‘grand bargain’ measure on affordable housing
The Seattle City Council has passed framework legislation for the residential part of Mayor Ed Murray’s so-called “grand bargain” on affordable housing. Overshadowed at the council’s meeting Monday by drama related to the city’s plan for a new police precinct, the legislation sets the stage to make developers include affordable units in new apartment complexes or pay to help build them elsewhere. The council in November passed framework legislation setting up similar mandatory requirements for commercial developers. For residential and commercial construction alike, the requirements won’t take effect until the council makes zoning changes to allow taller buildings.

Giving housing to the homeless is three times cheaper than leaving them on the streets (January 2015)
The final week of January saw an annual ritual in government statistical gather that few people know about – the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Point-in-Time survey of the homeless population, in which HUD recruits volunteers around the country to go out and try to count up all the homeless people living in America. This year, White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough even joined up, volunteering as part of the San Francisco PIT crew. Counting the homeless is, of course, a critical element to making appropriate homelessness policy. But good policy also requires greater awareness of a discovery that research continuously confirms – it’s cheaper to fix homelessness by giving homeless people home to live in than to let the homeless live on the streets and try to deal with the subsequent problems.

ELECTIONS

Home builders group endorses Stoney in Richmond mayoral race
The Home Building Association of Richmond endorsed mayoral candidate Levar Stoney on Wednesday. The group, which represents 470 businesses involved in real estate, development and building, said it supports Stoney because it believes he will be able to bring the private, public and nonprofit sectors together to move the city forward. “There’s no quick solution to the issues facing our city today — but we are confident that Levar Stoney will be a mayor that understands that our city’s successes are only as big as the coalitions we form to achieve them,” said Andrew Clark, director of government affairs for the association.