A Parks and Rec Survey, a Miyares Memo, and the Story of the Folk Festival
Cheers RVA!
The clouds continue today with wind and potential scattered showers, with a high of 77. The rain is expected to taper off in the evening, with intervals of clouds and sunshine on Saturday, and potentially more precipitation Sunday.
the juice:
Richmond Inspire, a citywide system plan for the Parks and Recreation Facilities department, is looking for feedback from the community.
The “long-term community directed roadmap” is meant to inform the department on where to allocate their limited resources.
The outreach effort is the product of the City’s Comprehensive Plan Richmond 300.
This plan will help us identify solutions for decades of deferred maintenance, curate programming to meet the needs and wants of our residents, make targeted and equitable capital investments, connect our residents to and between parks, prepare for a climate resilient future, and provide better parks and recreation experiences for Richmonders.
The community needs assessment lasts until November 8.
Take the survey here. Maybe win $50 to Target.
the pulp:
A 47-year was fatally struck by a car while riding his bicycle on Route 1 in Chesterfield yesterday morning. The driver remained at the scene and the incident is still under investigation.
A man was found shot to death yesterday morning on the 200 block of Richmond Highway near Blackwell, according to South Richmond News. Homicides are down across Richmond as compared to this time a year ago.
Graham Moomah from the Richmonder reports that most mayoral candidates see little chance of quickly lowering real estate taxes. Dive further into the mayoral race with Moomah on the Pod Virginia Podcast
Style weekly takes a look at twenty years of the Folk Festival in Richmond and the people who make it happen. According to Stephen Lecky, the director of events for Venture Richmond, the Festival typically does not turn a profit.
It’s a $1.5 million budget every year and we lose money most of the time. It’s not a money-making event for anybody, but it succeeds in Venture Richmond’s goal of getting people to come to downtown Richmond. We get to show off the riverfront and the downtown area in a way that you can’t do just by [promoting] restaurants. We get people from the counties or from out of state who may never have had the need to come to downtown Richmond.
the dive:
The Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has said the new version of skill games in operation are still illegal, according to the RTD.
The Richmonder reported back on September 12 that a location in Henrico had begun operating the machines, which do not have a slot for the insertion of money.
The operator of the machines, Pace-O-Matic, is arguing the change in method of payment does not legally define the machines as “skill games”.
In a memorandum to Commonwealth’s Attorneys and Police, Miyares states:
The player gives cash to the cashier, the cashier inserts the cash in a bag, and the cashier inserts a line of code into the QVS2 game corresponding to the amount of cash the payer just paid. The QVS2 machine does not activate unless and until a ‘token or similar object’ representing the player’s money is inserted into the device,” he added, quoting language from the Code of Virginia.
Pace-O-Matic countered suggesting the Attorney General had adopted the position of casino special interests.
A bill to legalize and regulate the “skill machines” made it through the General Assembly with both bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition, but was vetoed by Governor Youngkin.
Read the full article here.
the vibe:
Rancho Aparte plays tonight at 8:30 pm at the Carmax stage.
Here’s a recent set by Colombia's foremost Chirimia brass band from the Pacific Coast of Colombia's Choco province.
Have a folksy day and a great weekend RVA!
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