Good morning, RVA! It's 22 °F, and today we’ve got cloudy skies and a bit warmer temperatures in the 40s. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still cold out there—in fact, you can expect sub-freezing lows and chilly highs stuck in the 30s and 40s throughout the weekend. I’m not sure what’s going on with the 10-day forecast, because I definitely see a day or two with highs in the mid 60s next week? Seems weird!
Water cooler
As promised, or, actually, as required by court order, Richmond Public Schools have released the investigation report they commissioned after this past summer’s fatal Graduation Day Shooting. You can download the 32-page report itself here, but think hard about whether you want to actually read a document describing the lead up to a school shooting. I found it hard to even skim. Do tap through the first link, though, and read what I think is a really well-written statement from the School Board. Here’s the gist: “The Board initially voted not to release the report because, among other things, a majority believed the report included legal guidance that was exempt from release; wanted to uphold the promise of confidentiality made to RPS employees who participated in the investigation, and hoped to avoid taking any action that might jeopardize the ongoing criminal case against the alleged assailant. We respect the Court’s decision and welcome the opportunity to share the report’s findings. We also acknowledge and respect the minority of the Board that advocated for the release of the report earlier.” Over at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Luca Powell has an “8 things we learned” from the report article and Anna Bryson has a summary of the report along with a few quotes from folks involved (content warnings continue to apply). I don’t have any takeaways yet—other than it made me sad to read through all of these things. I imagine at this coming Monday’s School Board meeting, board members and the Superintendent will address the report, actions already taken by the District, and any further next steps.
OK, stay with me here, but I really enjoyed this presentation about the City’s debt capacity, which Council’s Finance and Economic Development committee will hear today at 1:00 PM. Classically, I do not understand municipal finance, but this PDF is easy to read and filled with really interesting information. Like: Did you know that a one-cent increase in the City’s real estate tax means $3.7 million in new revenue? That can then be used to fund $50 million of capital improvement projects (things you can touch with your hands like sidewalks, bridges, and buildings). This means every time we flirt with cutting the City’s real estate tax by five cents, we’re really talking about reducing revenue by $18.5 million annually—or, even worse, robbing future us of $250 million of capital projects (or, even double worse, putting us in a place where we’re unable to pay for capital projects we’ve already built, started, or have planned). Also, please check out slide 11 which shows a comparison of the “fiscal stress” of all of Virginia’s localities. Here’s a helpful explainer from slide 10: “The ability for a locality to provide services depends on its capability to generate revenue from its own sources. A lack of revenue-generating capacity will lead to either a shrinking budget or a gap between revenues and expenditures. Either of these scenarios are considered ‘fiscal stress.’” Can you guess which localities in Virginia lack the ability to generate enough revenue on their own to afford necessary services? If you guessed the Commonwealth’s independent cities, you win a prize! And the prize is sadness. 14 out of the 15 localities with the highest fiscal stress are independent cities. All 15 localities with the lowest fiscal stress are counties. Idk, maybe the system is broken?
Aw man, Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond reports that the Federal Highway Administration now recommends that those digital highway signs should no longer use wording “intended to be humorous.” I’m pretty sure this new unfun recommendation comes from the FHA’s recent update to their Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, or MUTCD (a boring acronym if ever there was one). Lack of a sense of humor aside, the 11th edition of the manual includes a bunch of progressive and good (and official!) recommendations for communities across the country to use when building safer streets—stuff like: separated and protected bike lanes, green and red colored pavement for bike and bus lanes, bike turn boxes, and all kinds of other good stuff. Check out this post from Toole Design to learn more on how this PDF will impact your actual life.
Reminder: Tonight, from 5:00–700 PM at Linwood Holton Elementary (1600 W. Laburnum Avenue), DPW will host a public meeting about redesigning the intersection of Laburnum and Hermitage. While the meeting is technically about this one intersection, the folks at Bike Walk RVA are asking supporters of the Fall Line Trail to come out and advocate for an intersection design that properly accommodates the Trail—in its full, 10-foot, shared-use path glory.
This morning's longread
Why I’m Running for Commissioner of Agriculture in North Carolina
Now here’s how you write about your recently launched election campaign! We don’t live in North Carolina and Virginia doesn’t even have an elected commissioner of agriculture, but I think everyone planning on running for something should read this and then emulate it in their own campaigns. I especially love how she explained the commissioner’s roles and responsibilities and then set out how she would use the office to make changes—changes that she’d actually have the power and authority to make! I’m so tired of folks running at the local or state level campaigning on high-minded, amorphous platforms that have zero achievable goals (or goals that require changes to federal law, constitutional amendments, or replacing the entirety of the Supreme Court).
In North Carolina, the commissioner of agriculture has two jobs. First, we’re supposed to help our state’s farm economy grow. Second, we handle the health and safety needs related to agriculture. Local meat packing plants? We inspect those. Pesticide use, manure, and other farm materials that can cause trouble when not used properly? We enforce those standards. Bird flu outbreak in our state? We work with farmers to keep it contained. You can think of a state’s commissioner of agriculture as the shepherd of its food system. But it’s more than that. The health of a state’s democracy depends so much on its agriculture and rural economics.
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Picture of the Day
Weird Atlantic City pictures continue!
