An RPD Apology and a Bike Lane on Monument Discussion
Cheers RVA!
Today will be partly sunny and humid with a high of 91 and a low of 73, with continued scattered showers and heavy thunderstorms likely.
the juice:
Richmond Chief of Police Rick Edwards has stated the city’s license plate reader system was accessed by the bureau of Alochol, Firearms, and Tobacco (ATF) for immigration enforcement in violation of RPD’s operational standards.
Edwards issued an apology and said ATF’s analyst access was immediately terminated and moving forward no Federal agencies will have access to the database.
In a press release Edwards further elaborated:
ATF is a valued partner in our efforts to combat violent crime in Richmond. But their analyst should not have been granted access to our system — and absolutely should not have used it for immigration enforcement purposes. I’ve been clear with the public, with city leadership, and within this department: the Richmond Police Department does not enforce federal immigration law, and we do not investigate a person’s immigration status. If ATF had formally requested access for that purpose, I would have denied it.”
A new law which went into effect on July 1 prevents other states from having connections to Virginia license plate information.
(for some reason yesterday’s newsletter didn’t land in many inboxes, read more about Flock’s license plate readers and immigration enforcement here)
the pulp:
The director of Richmond’s Public Utilities has said 71% of the city’s water meters are outdated, and may be undercharging customers, via WTVR. Upgrades have been made to about 10k meters, but about 41k still need to be switched out, with an expected timeline of about 18 months.
The Intermediate Terminal Building in Rockett’s landing may finally be redeveloped after the Richmond Economic Authority formerly issued a request for proposals on Monday, via Bizsense. The building, constructed in the 1920’s, is owned by the city and efforts to renovate and repurpose the structure have failed over the last decade.
the dive:
A reddit user on :rva prompted an interesting discussion regarding adding a protected bike lane on Monument Avenue from Arthur Ashe Boulevard extending west to Malvern Avenue.
The main concept would be to maintain but narrow the two traffic lanes and extend parking out from the curb, providing a physical buffer for a one-mile stretch on Monument.
The current lanes are 12’ and 15’ in width, and would be narrowed to 10’ in an effort to reduce speeding.
When done properly repainting streets and added divided lanes can be a cost effective solution to growing an interconnected network of bike paths that all levels of cyclists would feel safe using.
The idea is not without its flaws, and as expected the “reddit crowd” reaction was mixed, but a fruitful debate ensued nonetheless.
Check out the post here.
the vibe:
Have a gemütlich day RVA!
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