Paved Roads, Safe Roads, and an Interview with a PB Delegate
Cheers RVA!
Today will be mostly cloudy and windy, with gusts up to 40+ mph, with a high of 68 and a low of 45.
the juice:
VCU Police will continue to boost traffic enforcement along a five-block stretch of Belvidere Street in an effort to reduce speeding and running red lights, and improving pedestrian safety.
The initiative began March 7 and will continue until May 2.
There have been 20 crashes involving pedestrians in the VCU campus area since the beginning of the school year, with two occurring along the stretch of Belvidere that runs through campus.
Last year there were 10 crashes involving pedestrians and two involving cyclists in that same area.
the pulp:
RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras acknowledged tough decisions would need to be made with a $20 million shortfall in the School Board’s proposed budget and projected funding from the city and state, but remains committed to a 3% raise for teachers enshrined under the collective bargaining agreement, via RPS Direct,
75% of city roads are now considered good or satisfactory according to the Pavement Condition Index, up from 35% in 2018, via the Richmonder. A large increase in funding, and repaving entire neighborhoods rather than just a few blocks at a time have helped spur the improvement.
the dive:
Voting for the People’s Budget ends today. You can still vote here.
Today we dive into the process with a Q & A with Constance Hull, one of three delegates who represented the city’s 7th district located in the East End.
Constance is a Program Coordinator of Children's Services at AFOI, an organization that helps families navigating carceral systems, and has lived in Richmond for just shy of two years.
What motivated you to get involved in the participatory budget as a leader and representative?
I used to work as a policy analyst in DC and I learned about participatory budgeting there, specifically in the context of “justice reinvestment” (essentially generating savings through shrinking justice systems and then allowing the public to participate in how those savings are spent). I had always been intrigued by the concept and a big believer in participatory processes more generally (like participatory action research). When I learned that Richmond was piloting it, I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring for the opportunity to have a front row seat to the process.
Initially there were nearly 2k suggestions across the city. Approximately how many were in your district, and how did you go about sorting and analyzing so many ideas?
The 7th district had about 150 ideas after the initial pass by People’s Budget (PB) staff. In the initial pass, PB staff removed things that were not capital improvement projects and/or were immediately identified as infeasible. We weren’t given explicit instructions on how to winnow the suggestions. My group of delegates decided to each go through each submission independently and rate it from 1 to 5 (1 being lowest support and 5 being highest support). A score of 5 would be one that we felt yielded high equity and/or high impact. Then we went through and talked about our ratings for each one, adjusted as necessary, and averaged the three scores for one final score. We then sorted the ideas and went through the top 30 or so one by one. We started clustering them around themes and crosschecking if they were referenced elsewhere in the mix. Then we started trying to price out the top projects based on estimates we could gather from public documents or conversations with city employees who attended our meetings. We also went to a 7th district community meeting and a civic association meeting to get more feedback about the top projects.
What were your expectations going into the project? Have you any experience or training in local government or NGO’s?
I’ve worked for nonprofits but this type of work and the collaboration necessary was unlike anything I’ve done before. I wasn’t sure what to expect, honestly. I thought the process would be a little more fleshed out but we were truly building the plane as we flew it.
As you mentioned this is the first year the city has held a participatory budget process. What were some of the challenges the teams faced when doing something for the first time?
The first challenge was getting the information we needed on the tight timeline we were on. I wish we had been able to talk to more neighbors and connect with more civic associations to get some live feedback about the top projects. I also wish we had had some of the cost estimate documents and conversations with RVAConnects and city government folks sooner in the process. We discovered along the way that certain projects were not a wise use of money either because they were already in the works or they may be undone by the city later (i.e., because sidewalks may be dug up in the future to replace lead pipes = sidewalks project proposals may not be a great use of resources). Another challenge was navigating the fact that the PB was not technically in the budget for the next year. We found ourselves also having to advocate for city council and the mayor to actually include the PB in the overall budget.
After your teams narrowed down the projects to a list of 10-20 ideas, the PB steering commission met with officials from various city departments to determine feasibility. Were there any particular ideas left out from your district that you would have liked to see on the final ballot?
I was incredibly bummed to see that our pocket park project did not make the final list. Also, we had been coordinating with RVA Community Fridges to expand the pantry at Fat Rabbit. I was told the idea was not included due to the fact the city would be liable for the food in the pantry if city dollars were spent to build it.
Many of the proposals on the final ballot include projects such as bus shelters that may already be in the GRTC pipeline for construction. Do you know if there is much overlap between final ballot proposals and what is already planned?
I’m honestly not sure. Some of the items like the improved crossing at Pear and Dock was on the RVAConnects strategic plan but just because it’s been identified as a need, doesn’t mean it will be built. The delegates were told a few different things over the course of our work about whether or not to include things that are allegedly in the pipeline already. Ultimately, many of us ended up keeping them because future funding is not guaranteed and we wanted things to be prioritized on a faster timeline.
The PB has advertised the opportunity for $3 million of the budget to be allocated for projects with the most votes; however, Mayor Avula has not included those funds in his initial budget proposal, and has stated that "some of the projects will be funded". Is there a possibility that projects that win approval from the people do not go forward?
That’s a huge concern of mine. I’m hoping that the city council uses their power of the purse to make sure all the projects are funded.
What did you learn from the process?
I learned so much about the way the city functions and about the cost of capital improvement projects. I was astounded to see the price tag on sidewalks can be millions of dollars. I also learned so much from fellow delegates who are engaged in different ways across the community.
Assuming it happens again next year, would you be interested in being a delegate again, and would you suggest others give it a try?
I’m not sure they will let delegates return, but I would absolutely recommend the process to others in the future. It was empowering to learn more about my representatives and the budget process at the city level. It was a real privilege to read my neighbor’s ideas for improving our neighborhood and to get to talk about it with many different audiences.
Vote here.
the vibe:
Have a galvanizing day RVA!
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