Y'all!

Once upon a time I ran a news site, now I just have opinions on the news. 

Good morning, RVA: Assessments, bagels, and beer

Good morning, RVA! It's 64 °F, and this past weekend’s hot weather will stick around today bringing highs around 90 °F. Stay vigilant this afternoon, as there’s a chance for thunderstorms.

Water cooler

Police are reporting two homicides that took place this past Friday. Early Friday morning, officers were called to the 3100 block of Avlis Avenue and found Russell J. Long, 22, shot to death. Then, later that evening, Richmond Police were called to the 2500 block of Peter Paul Boulevard where they found Desiree S. Fletcher, 21, also shot to death.


Ned Oliver at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has crunched the numbers on property values and out popped this article and its neat accompanying maps. This story pokes at one of Richmond’s untapped sources of revenue: Getting all of our properties properly assessed in a timely way. Go listen to the City’s Assessor of Real Estate at the April 9th budget work session, and you’ll get an idea of just how much money we’re leaving on the table by continuing to underfund this dude’s department—it’s not enough to pay for all the things we need, but reassessing property citywide is definitely part of the picture.

How would reassessing impact what property taxes folks pay? Here’s an example: If we took the median assessed value in the Union Hill neighborhood ($145,000) and cranked it up to the median sale price for that neighborhood ($240,750), as a homeowner your property tax bill would increase by $1,149 or $95.75 per month. That’s a nontrivial amount, and it’s even more nontrivial once we start talking about raising the property tax back to where it was in the early aughts. I’m glad folks are out there looking for ways, like the City’s land bank and affordable housing trust fund, to keep neighborhoods affordable as prices, assessments (and possibly taxes) increase.


City Council meets tonight for their regularly schedule meeting at 6:00 PM. You can find the ever malleable, T-1000-like agenda here (PDF). If all goes well, fingers crossed, Council could pass their version of the budget, which is mostly the same as the Mayor’s version, formally ending this year’s budget season. That makes me sad, in a way, and now I need to figure out what boring meetings I’ll listen to in the offseason.

Nate’s Bagels opens this Wednesday, April 16th, and Eileen Mellon at Richmond Magazine has his origin story. Here’s a data point for you: I had a pumpernickel Rueben bagel situation from Nate’s the other day, and I’m still thinking about it.

There’s a lot going on in this Richmond BizSense story by J. Elias O’Neal about new development going in on Broad Street PLUS an Indian restaurant PLUS a British pop star. You probably remember 2009’s “Down” by Jay Sean? Featuring Lil Wayne!

Robey Martin says Sierra Nevada has teamed up with SportsBackers and Venture Richmond to make a Richmond-themed session IPA for this year’s Riverrock (which take place down on and around Brown’s Island this Friday through Sunday—check out the schedule). An out-of-town brewer making a beer for Richmond is rad, if you ask me.

Sports!

  • Squirrels lost two of three against Trenton and will hit the road for a series against Altoona which begins tonight at 6:00 PM.
  • Kickers beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies in a 1-0 win this past Saturday.
  • Nats swept Arizona over the weekend, winning four out of four. They’ll start a series against the Yankees tonight at 7:05 PM.
  • Caps won both games against the Lightning over the weekend, moving them to 2-0 in the series.

This morning's longread

This car runs.

Here’s a local Craigslist ad for a 1997 Honda Accord that I really enjoyed reading.

This car runs. I'm the second owner and have had this car since I was 16. I'm 33 now. We have truly had some TIMES together. I have laughed, cried, kissed, hugged, hollered, sang, sweated, shivered, and felt all possible feelings in this car. This car has carried all my friends, half my family, all my shit, and any number of other things. This car has moved my worldly possessions at least eleven times. This car has driven through rain, snow, sun, heat, cold, wind and high water. It's visited most states east of the Mississippi. It knows the highways of the South well.

If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA: The budget is done, eviction graphs, and a grocery store reprieve

Good morning, RVA: Floating parking, the 100th Day, and Wu-Tang sandwiches