Good morning, RVA! It's 30 °F, but later we should see sunny skies with highs in the mid 50s. Squeeze as much as you can out of today because big rain moves in tomorrow, and I hope you don’t have to get anywhere by foot or by bike.
Water cooler
Today, City Council’s Public Safety committee will meet to discuss a few things, including the results of last year’s gun buyback program. Even though we all kind of made a face and pointed to some academic studies that show gun buybacks don’t “solve” gun violence, the program did still remove 474 total guns from circulation. Specifically: 5 assault weapons, 227 handguns, 117 rifles, 115 guns of an unknown classification, 7 BB guns, and 10 inoperable guns. The Richmond Police Department gave out $67,500 in gift cards to folks turning over firearms, or about $140 per gun. I say, given how much the state and federal government restrict a locality’s ability to do literally anything at all to keep people safe from gun violence, any step forward is a step worth taking. I hope part of tonight’s presentation is an announcement to continue this program into future years.
Tonight, on the other side of the region, the Henrico County Board of Supervisors will vote on a request to upzone a portion of Varina to allow a 1,000-home subdivision. This is the Arcadia, which you’ve probably heard about before, and...I think it is complex! Lots of folks are upset about this proposed project for lots of different reasons: Is it too much housing? too little housing? should any housing exist that far out from the city center at all? Personally, I don’t find the “don’t build anything out here” argument compelling. 1,000 homes is a lot of homes, and I’m sure the developers could build far fewer units by-right in the current “Agricultural” zoning today—doing even less for our region’s housing crisis. That said, I did like a couple of these points laid out by the Partnership for Smarter Growth, especially the one about first completing a Small Area Plan for Varina as called for in the County’s last Comprehensive Plan (sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to link to PSG’s email 😬). We’ll see what the Board of Supervisors does tonight, but, if it’s any indication, the County’s Planning Commission recommended the project for approval 5-0.
Axios Richmond’s Ned Oliver reports on the State’s next plans for construction on and around Capitol Square, now that the new General Assembly building is nearly completed. This piece is worth reading just to get the flavor of how little the State cares about Richmond when they make these plans—“big new parking deck on Broad Street” is all you need to know to guess how much they care about making our Downtown a thriving place for people.
Mike Platania reports that SNP Properties purchased the Saint Gertrude’s campus on Stuart Avenue in the Museum District and plans to convert it into apartments—as is the fate of all ancient urban school buildings, I guess. Apparently, this is old news, since City Council already approved a Special Use Permit for the project back in October.
Shout out to the Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Vital Records, who keep track of things like the “Top Fifteen Baby Names of 2022 [and] Other Interesting Virginia Birth Data.” Last year Charlotte topped the list for girls and Noah for boys. “Ross” on the other hand has literally never even made one of these lists, and you’ll also never find anything with “Ross” written on it for sale at a gas station or in a gift shop. This is my burden. As for the “other interesting birth data,” the most birthdays—8,917—occurred in August, and most babies are born on Fridays.
This morning's longread
You Can Let Republicans Destroy the Economy, or You Can Call Their Bluff
I love a Jamelle Bouie column! I don’t think his solutions are always realistic or practical, but I do think this one—having the president challenge the debt ceiling as unconstitutional—is worth a go. I mean, heck, if Biden tries this and fails, there’s always trillion-dollar coin.
When Congress takes action that requires the Treasury to borrow additional funds beyond statutory limits, it puts the president in a vise. If forced to act unilaterally, he can only resolve the conflict between the two sets of instructions — the spending bill and the debt limit — by taking one of two unconstitutional actions: raising taxes or cutting spending, neither of which he can do without congressional authorization...One proposed solution to all this is to use accounting tricks and other games to get around the debt limit and render it immaterial. But I think the better option is to take the offensive and confront the issue head-on. Biden should make the case that the debt limit, because of the threat it poses to the validity of the nation’s debt, is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.
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Picture of the Day
A desk scene.
