Purchasing Cards, May Day, and Abundant Incrementalism
Cheers RVA!
Today will be warm and partly cloudy, with a high of 88 and a low of 63, with another slight chance of an evening thunderstorm.
the juice:
A former city employee spent nearly $40k on his city credit card for a company that is registered to his home in Henrico, via Samuel Parker at the RTD.
The employee was a management analyst for the Richmond Fire Department and is no longer employed by the City.
Mayor Avula has announced a reset of the purchasing card program with a substantial reduction in the the number of cards issued, from 320 to about 60, as well a number of other limitations including food and travel-related expenses.
the pulp:
Richmond City Council have decided to support raises for all city employees included in the mayor’s budget, according to Graham Moomaw at the Richmonder. Also included in the budget amendments discussion is $1.7 million allocated for the People’s Budget, the participatory budget process that originally advertised as spending $3 million in city funds.
A “May Day Strong” rally and march organized by 50501 VA is planned for today beginning at 5:00 pm at Monroe Park, via RVAMag.
the dive:
Today’s dive explores how cities with a shortage of housing can transform supply through ‘Abundant Incrementalism”, in a Strong Towns article by Andrew Burleson.
Burleson uses Denver as an example and notes the constraints of expanding horizontally through suburban expansion or vertically by filling in downtown.
The city is about 50k units short of current demand, and would need to add more than 500k units by 2050 to keep up with expected growth.
He offers incremental development as a solution:
Denver itself (not the metro area) has around 20k blocks, and a typical block has 20-25 lots on it. If policy change made it easy to add one unit to any existing lot (via a backyard cottage, accessory apartment, duplex conversion, etc.), and we then added one unit per block, then we’d add 20k units per year.
Burleson further emphasizes that the cost of land is often the main cost of urban development, which makes incremental development powerful in terms of creating housing supply.
Read the full article here.
the vibe:
Have a smooth day RVA!
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