On a hot July day, Charles, Charvon, and Arrianna cool off in an inflatable pool on Nine Mile Road. (Photo Credit: Jay Paul)
CITY OF RICHMOND
To live and die in Crieghton Court
This is a story about a neighborhood in which you’ve probably never set foot, and, if given the choice, likely never would. It’s a place marked by its poverty, crime and family dysfunction, but also by its resilience, ingenuity and desire to be seen as more than the sum of its deficits. Beyond the frame of yellow caution tape exists a community of elderly women and single mothers, all bound to one another in their front-porch how-ya-doins, their searches for a decent job within walking distance of a bus line, in the stretching of a dollar to get through the month, and the worry for their children — and there are a lot of children. Half of the 1,300 residents are kids.
The city has six large public housing communities. Four — Creighton, Mosby, Whitcomb and Fairfield courts — are within 1 square mile of one another in the East End. A mile and half west, near Belvidere and Interstate 95, lies Gilpin Court. The sixth, Hillside Court, a South Side outlier intended for whites, but now an African-American community just as the others, sits off Commerce Road. These communities are home to about 9,100 residents, a little more than half of whom are 17 and younger. This is the highest concentration of public housing south of Baltimore, says T.K. Somanath, chief executive officer of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Here, as elsewhere in the country, public housing is home to very poor women and children. This was not what the creators of public housing had in mind.
Richmond officials: Police investigation of Mayor Jones’ administration nearing completion
The Virginia State Police investigation that Mayor Dwight C. Jones invited of his administration in January following an audit critical of his public works director is nearing resolution, officials said Friday. A state police spokeswoman declined to comment this week as the investigation entered its seventh month, but Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring said that authorities hope “to issue findings before the fall.” It was not immediately clear when the work — a joint effort of the state police, city auditor’s office and Herring’s office — will be complete. The results of the review will be made public, but authorities have not determined whether they will seek any indictments in the case, Herring said.
Richmond mayor’s chief of staff stepping down to take position at Dominion
Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ chief of staff, Grant Neely, is resigning, making him the first high-level staffer to exit City Hall as the Jones’ administration enters its final months. Neely said in an email Monday that he’s stepping down to take a position at Dominion, leading a new communications team. “I’m excited to join a public service company with a deep commitment to the community here in Richmond and across the 14 states where Dominion serves customers,” Neely said. Jones’ term concludes at the end of the year. As the mayor’s chief of staff, Neely guided policy decisions at City Hall and focused on implementing major projects and initiatives.
Richmond officials propose 2 approaches for riverfront near Rocketts Landing
Richmond officials on Wednesday presented three potential approaches to redeveloping the riverfront near the old Intermediate Terminal. One focused on tailoring the space to active uses, providing a playground, a play area, a lawn and terraced seating that steps down to the river. The approach preserves part of the large concrete pad, sometimes referred to as the Sugar Pad, for deck games such as shuffleboard. Another focused on nature, maximizing green space and removing as much concrete as possible, but still sloping toward the river to provide access to boaters and fishermen.
Construction to begin on Pulse, Richmond’s bus rapid-transit system
Construction on the Pulse, GRTC Transit System’s roughly $63 million, Broad Street-centered bus rapid transit project, will begin Aug. 16. Utility relocation will begin at Thompson and Broad streets, moving east on the south side of Broad, and creating temporary work zones that will close curbside lanes on Broad and the adjacent sidewalk for 500 feet around the job site, GRTC said in a news release. Work hours will be 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and will run into October. Lane Construction, the design-build contractor for the state-managed project, “will proactively minimize disruption to businesses and residents during construction,” GRTC said, adding that “any activity that would impact parking, loading zones, access, utilities and other business-related functions” must be approved in advance by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
The city of Richmond has agreed to a second settlement over its treatment of the predominantly Hispanic residents of two trailer parks, which advocates say were selectively targeted for code enforcement actions. Mobile Towne Mobile Home Park and Rudd’s Trailer Park, both along Jefferson Davis Highway, were the subject of intense code enforcement efforts in 2014, which advocates said were “illegal and racially discriminatory.” The actions resulted in a federal lawsuit, which the city settled in May, and 14 complaints of housing discrimination filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
CHESTERFIELD
Chesterfield: Final bid for school renovation comes in $2 million above projected cost
Chesterfield County Public Schools have settled on a contractor for the renovation of Providence Middle School at a bid that came in $2 million above the anticipated project cost. Three companies had submitted bids by last week’s deadline, and Branch Construction won the contract for $22.6 million. It was the second round of construction bids for the project that Chesterfield voters approved in 2013 as part of a bond referendum. In the first round, the bid came in $5.6 million above the estimate, forcing school officials to identify potential cost reductions.
Chesterfield provides nearly 10 miles of access to James, Appomattox rivers
If you’ve enjoyed visiting the river at any point in the past few decades, chances are you have Michael Golden to thank. As the longtime director of Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation, Golden oversaw the acquisition of many of the county’s properties along the James and Appomattox rivers. The county now holds 9.78 miles of river frontage and numerous additional parks since Golden started as supervisor of Parks and Recreation back in 1979. “As the county’s population grew, we were looking for more miles of trail, more access to the river,” explains Golden, who became director of Parks and Recreation in the mid- 1990s and retired in April. “As time went by, we tried to find attractive sites, the sites that are in the right location, the sites that make sense where we could get the resources to put them all together.”
County seeks state funding relieve traffic on Route 288, Hull Street Road
While they lobby for state funding to make improvements to the Route 288-360 interchange, county government leaders also are moving forward with a plan to divert vehicles from the heavily traveled intersection. The Board of Supervisors last week authorized staff to begin preliminary engineering on a multi-million-dollar roadway project that would connect Route 288 and Brad McNeer Parkway with Bailey Bridge Road. The Richmond Region Transportation Planning Organization provided $500,000 in funding for the interchange modification report, which is one of the bureaucratic hoops through which Virginia localities must jump to obtain state transportation dollars.
HANOVER
State action toughens construction proffers
A change in state law regarding localities and their method of collecting proffers passed by the Virginia General Assembly in its last session is forcing governing bodies across the state to review and amend local regulations governing the application of levies for costs associated with new construction. The Hanover County Board of Supervisors addressed that very problem at its latest meeting and approved a motion that revises the county’s current transportation proffer policy and aligns county code with the latest state-mandated requirements. In the past, localities have exercised the option to charge proffers, or lump sum payments, for developments that require transportation improvements or require additional services like new fire stations or parks.
REGIONAL
Modeling Transit: Public input guides plan for GRTC bus system changes
About 40 people came to the DMV on West Broad Street last night for a glimpse into the decision-making and trade-offs associated with running a public transit system. It was the second of eight meetings being held through Aug. 24 by the team behind the Regional Transit Network Plan; citizens are being asked to balance three concepts: a “familiar” model, a “high ridership” model and a “high coverage” model. “We haven’t really invested in the transit service to any great degree in 40 years,” says Amy Inman, project leader for the city. “There have been modest changes but not system-wide changes like we’re talking about here.” The study and plan, funded by a grant from the state, bring together the city, GRTC Transit System and consultants from Richmond and Portland. The plan is separate from, but meant to complement the Pulse bus rapid transit project expected to begin operations in October 2017.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Capital Region Caucus revived but will it continue?
One of several promising actions in the 2016 General Assembly session was the revival of the Capital Region Caucus. Local governments, VCU and business leaders commended the reconvening of the 21 legislators from the capital region – Richmond, Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield – into a collaborative group. Delegate Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond) sees the caucus as an opportunity for regional legislators to “collaborate on policy decisions that will promote health, development and welfare of the greater Richmond region.”
NATIONAL
Why Corporate America Is Leaving the Suburbs for the City
For decades, many of the nation’s biggest companies staked their futures far from the fraying downtowns of aging East Coast and Midwestern cities. One after another, they decamped for sprawling campuses in the suburbs and exurbs. Now, corporate America is moving in the other direction. In June, McDonald’s joined a long list of companies that are returning to downtown Chicago from suburbs like Oak Brook, Northfield and Schaumburg. Later this month, the top executive team at General Electric — whose 70-acre wooded campus in Fairfield, Conn., has embodied the quintessential suburban corporate office park since it opened in 1974 — will move to downtown Boston. When the move is completed in 2018, the renovated red brick warehouses that will form part of G.E.’s new headquarters won’t even have a parking lot, let alone a spot reserved for the chief executive.
INTERNATIONAL
Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars
Modern cities are ruled by cars. Streets are designed for them; bikers, pedestrians, vendors, hangers-out, and all other forms of human life are pushed to the perimeter in narrow lanes or sidewalks. Truly shared spaces are confined to parks and the occasional plaza. This is such a fundamental reality of cities that we barely notice it anymore. Some folks, however, still cling to the old idea that cities are for people, that more common space should be devoted to living in the city rather than getting through it or around it. But once you’ve got a city that’s mostly composed of street girds, devoted to moving cars around, how do you take it back? How can cities be reclaimed for people? The city of Barcelona has come up with one incredibly clever solution to that problem.