Zooming In, Zooming Out, Zooming Too Fast
Cheers RVA!
Today will be hot, from 68 to 90. Stay hydrated. Should be the hottest day of the week as we head into a hopefully cooler weekend.
the juice:
City Council will vote today on a new Diamond District financing plan, from Jonathan Spiers at Bizsense.
The initial public meeting was planned for April 22 but was moved to today. Councilmember Katherine Jordan was hesitant to the changes in the proposal but is now on board. Regarding the risk of a lack of development around Scott’s addition:
“We’ve maybe assumed a little bit of risk, but is the risk that nothing will happen in this area? Things are being built right and left. This area is going to be successful.”
The article goes into great detail, but the gist is a change in proposed financing from external bonds at a higher interest rate, to the city issuing it's own bonds and taking on more risk but less debt.
the pulp:
The woman killed last Sunday night at the red light at Chamberlayne and Laburnum worked at the Chi Alpha Campus Ministry at VCU, per channel 6. Apparently the driver, who has been arrested, tried to drive between the stopped vehicles at a high rate of speed.
Weinermobile on Mayo Bridge, per reddit:
the cycle:
The first phase of repaving roads, adding sidewalks and pedestrian crossings in Scott’s addition is 90% complete per channel 12.
The neighborhood is certainly confusing to navigate driving, and at the same time not well-suited for pedestrians and cyclists. The first phase, originally planned to be finished by the end of spring, is now expected to be done by the end of the summer. The next phase, including bike lanes with floating parking, providing a physical barrier for cyclists from vehicular traffic, is not expected until fiscal years 2026-2028, so be patient.
the dive:
The RPS School Board meeting met Monday evening. You can find channel 8’s brief summary here, but I wanted to provide some of my thoughts as an observer:
The whole not clapping just seems odd. I understand wanting to maintain order, but when you’re recognizing the nutritional staff and the nursing staff and having student representatives speak there is a place for applause, and even Kamras himself wanted to applaud at one point.
The Zoom camera with multi-panels and panning makes the meeting somewhat more difficult to follow than the old zoomed out single shot.
Reading from a screen to someone looking at a screen. There were eleven registered public commenters, as opposed to last meetings’ four. Most were from the Richmond Education Association, a teacher’s union. The union members were prepared with eight different speakers, all teachers and staff from a variety of RPS schools expressing their frustrations with the board. The board seemed to be mostly stonewalling them, but there were some nods of approval from the 3rd District’s Kenya Gibson. Mold was brought up, as always, and union members expressed frustrations with teachers being reprimanded and punished for speaking out at school board meetings.
One teacher at Woodville Elementary pointed out that 25% of the staff at her school were long-term subs doing the job regular teachers do. Long-term subs earn slightly more than low-wage jobs in the area, around 18/hr with no benefits.
Interviews for the empty council seat from the 4th District were moved to a special meeting on May 14, per the South Richmond news (new source found, yay).
the vibe:
From Gus Haynes, character in ‘The Wire’, season 5, episode 2:
Sure, we can beat up on city schools.
Lord knows they deserve to be beat on
every once in a while,but then we're just as irrelevant
to these kids as the schools are.
I mean, it's like you're up
on a corner of a roof
and you're showing some people
how a couple of shingles came loose,
and meanwhile, a hurricane wrecked
the rest of the damn house.
Have a great day RVA!
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