December 23, 2024

An Exit Interview with Mayor Stoney, All-star Restaurants, and Festivus Grievances from Readers

Cheers RVA!

Today will be sunny but cold, with a high of 40 and a low of 22 in the evening. The week ahead looks slightly warmer, with highs in the upper 40’s, and we could get back up to 60 by the end of the weekend.

the juice:

Levar Stoney recently reflected on his eight years as mayor in an interview with the Richmonder.

The mayor touted reducing the poverty rate by 33%, the Diamond District, CoStar groups’ new office tower, and the Amphitheater as successes he achieved while in office for two terms.

In terms of regrets the mayor mentioned the failure of the Navy Hill project as a something he would like to be able to do again.

Regarding the removal of Monuments, Stoney remarked:

Another thing that I get recognized for a lot — and I know the historians will obviously tag me with for a very long time, and it's something I did not seek — was removal of those Confederate monuments. Symbols matter, and the removal of those monuments meant that we finally closed the chapter on being the capital of Confederacy. Obviously removing monuments didn’t change race relations. No one ever said it would. But symbols matter.

People said, ‘Oh, you take down the monuments, people are going to flee the city, the city would fall into the earth, the sun won’t come back up again, the best days have passed.’ And guess what? More people have moved to Richmond. Because we are not your granddaddy's Richmond anymore.

Read the full interview here.

the pulp:

• The RTD has compiled it’s list of 2024 “all-star” restaurants in the area.

• Richmond Educators united on Saturday to give food to 400 families in the district’s first Holiday Harvest Food Distribution at MLK Jr. Middle School, via WTVR.

• Chelsea Higgs Wise has written an opinion article for RVAMag suggesting the lack of a legal marijuana market and a failure to complete the process of marijuana decriminalization is leading to a “War on Drugs 2.0”.

the dive:

The Festivus 2024 grievances have been aired! Thank you to all who contributed their complaints.

Responses covered a variety of topics, with walkability and food being mentioned the most.

Here are some of the best grievances of the year:

Rik N. from Brookland Park writes:

There is no healthy, reasonably priced, place to eat off Brookland Park Avenue. We can walk to 5 fried chicken places, BBQ, and a number of po'boys, but nothing like a Thai, Japanese, Mediterranean, or even a place that does fajitas.

Maggie C. from Church Hill shared:

Terrible driving! Speeding, rolling through red lights (a Richmond driver favorite), ignoring stop signs, feigning ignorance about traffic circles...I hate it. Let's all slow down, obey the rules and respect cyclists and pedestrians. It makes driving more efficient, and oh yeah, saves lives.

Haze S. from the Fan says:

More trains should stop at and depart from Main Street Station. It'd also be nice if Amtrak didn't have to give away to the freight lines, but c'est la vie.

Alex F. from Church Hill notes:

There is no safe way to cross Main Street at the bottom of Libby Hill. Let's get a cross walk, people!

Calvin K. from Henrico asks:

Why isn’t there a crosswalk at Godwin high school?

Jordan M. from Church Hill had a number of grievances to share:

Every good corner storefront with potential to be a 3rd place gets turned into a vape store.

The Richmond to Charlottesville train line was originally used by Norfolk Southern for commuter purposes, but Norfolk Southern now uses it exclusively for freight rail. Talk about forgetting your roots!

Fast food is no longer fast, and it's too expensive to be convenient.

It feels harder to watch TV today than 10 years ago. Multiple subscriptions are required to watch sports, classic shows/movies are added and dropped at a whim, and ads are placed at inconvenient times.

An Angry Resident in the Fan who preferred to be unnamed says:

There's no way eggs are still that expensive. I can excuse an initial price hike for a shortage but why did costs never return back to baseline? It's gonna be another "we're sorry we have to increase prices for the high demand" but then we never seem to return to the old prices...

Yan from Northside was concise in his remarks:

The economy.

And Ryan L. of Richmond shared an extensive list of grievances for the 2024 year:

1) Teachers and healthcare workers are under appreciated and underpaid.
2) The Orioles changed ownership and still won’t pay up to truly contend.
3) My cat was an a-hole.
4) Many people voted like a-holes.
5) The Nickel Bridge toll rose to 50¢.
6) Childcare was (and still is) outrageously expensive.
7) Still no viable alternatives to Interstate 95 for traveling to cities within 150 miles of one another.
8) Too many people killed walking on state-owned streets in our community
9) Pickleball didn’t die.
10) Cybertrucks didn’t die.

Truly a Festivus for the rest of us. Thanks again to all who participated, and best of luck in 2025.

the vibe:

I’ll be taking a break for the holidays so this newsletter will be back in your inboxes in January.

Have a splendid holiday season RVA!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment. Help this newsletter grow by convincing a friend to subscribe.