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Category Archives: government
Va. War Memorial Hosts ‘Virginia’s Patriot Day Ceremony’
From the Virginia War Memorial listing:
Virginia’s Patriot Day Ceremony 9/11/2015 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Join us during your lunch hour as we pause to remember those who were injured or died during the terrorist attacks across the United States on September 11, 2001. An Old Glory ritual and bell chiming will be included. Speaker: TBD. Co-hosted with Navy Recruiting District Richmond.
Also, the City has this announcement:
Richmond, VA – Mayor Dwight C. Jones invites the public to join in a Day of Service and Remembrance on Friday, September 11, 2015 in recognition of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The event will be held outside of Marshall Plaza at 900 East Marshall Street.
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Water: A Tale Of Two Cities
This past month, the Richmond Times Dispatch featured some interesting editorial back and forth about Norfolk’s tax policies.
Why not also compare the water/sewer rate structure of Richmond and Norfolk?
Richmond water/sewer customers must pay $29 monthly just to be connected to the water supply, but there is no comparable service charge in Norfolk. Though their volume charge is slightly higher, the customer’s bill in Norfolk is directly correlated to the amount of water used. By contrast, Richmond water/sewer customers who conserve water are actually subsidizing those who waste water because of the high base service charge. A Richmond customer who uses 1 unit of water/sewer service monthly (748 gallons) will pay $39.05 monthly, which is over three times what a Norfolk customer pays for 1 unit of service.
Additionally, Richmond water/sewer customers are unjustly slapped with a charge in lieu of federal income tax on every unit of water, but customers in Norfolk do not pay a federal income tax surcharge on their water bills. While the Richmond utilities are authorized to charge the customers a payment in lieu of taxes that a private business would pay to the city, there is no business that pays federal income tax to the city. Altogether the city water/sewer customers are gouged around $5 million annually on their water bills in lieu of federal income tax, and this is the most regressive means of raising general funds revenue for the city. This is especially egregious, given that the City of Richmond sells water to the surrounding counties, who in turn, charge their citizens less.
Let’s learn from Norfolk’s fair water/sewer rate structure that rewards conservation and does not unjustly add a federal income tax surcharge onto the water bill. This should also be a campaign issue for our City and General Assembly political candidates.
Table Falls On Belle Island Pedestrian Bridge
Excerpts:
Terry Davis never expected a stroll across the pedestrian bridge to Belle Isle to shake her up so much. But it did on Sunday. As she and her friend crossed the walkway, she said she heard a thunderous sound.
“‘What is that noise?’ I asked. I looked up and there was this huge table laying in the center of the walk area of the pedestrian bridge,” Davis said.
She said she believed somehow a banquet table fell nearly 60 feet from a gaping space above the pedestrian walkway from the Lee Bridge.
…
Davis and others who use the pedestrian walkway often, said they’d like to see the city install some type of safety barrier.
Richmond Public Works spokesperson Sharon North said the city would send out a crew to inspect for damage. Workers were seen removing the table from a nearby area under the walkway Monday afternoon.
…
North said the city has no plan to install a safety barrier above the pedestrian walkway. The department sent out an inspector to check for damage and concluded that someone may have rolled the table out onto this pedestrian walkway and left it.
Witnesses who heard the crash said they don’t buy that theory.
New Belvidere Mural Going Up
Looks like this Belvidere mural is just getting underway in time for the big race.
Venture Richmond And Local Media Ignoring Concerns On Amphitheater Rezoning
Last week, there was a Richmond Symphony stage put up on Tredegar Green to “test the site”. There was no notification to the neighborhood and several neighbors did ask about it. The stage was taken down and it appears that the actual event will occur on Brown’s Island. (Did it violate the “four day rule”?) However, to put it politely, this seems a bit premature and it would have helped to have a courtesy heads-up from Venture Richmond staff while they are supposedly working with the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association to rezone the Tredegar Green property.
In fact, it appears that Venture Richmond is once again arrogantly and deliberately planning to ignore community concerns. A quick look at latest submissions to the City Planning office confirms that Venture Richmond’s plan appears to fall far short of the neighborhood association’s proposal. (It’s also important to recall that there is no “Tredegar Green” amphitheater in the City’s Riverfront Plan.)
For example, the section on “Building Restriction”: instead of a limitation stating that no permanent structures would be built, Venture Richmond is proposing that only structures on the City-owned portion of the property would be reviewed by the Urban Design Committee and Planning Commission (while buildings up to 95 feet in height could be built on the Venture Richmond-owned land by right!)
Below is a photo today of the grand view from the terrace of the Virginia War Memorial. This is certainly one of the most important viewsheds in Richmond.
Also below is quick photoshop illustrating how this view would be impacted if a building 95 feet in height were built on Tredegar Green, as permitted by the DCC zoning proposed by Venture Richmond. This is a view that should be protected by a restriction on any permanent structures in Tredegar Green, as the neighborhood association has proposed.
Will there be any un-biased media coverage going forward? Oregon Hill neighbors fear that Folk Festival coverage will once again be used to drown out community voices and promises will once again be dishonorably broken. The Times Dispatch, Richmond Free Press, along with other local media outlets are corporate ‘partners’ of Venture Richmond. Who represents the regular citizens on Venture Richmond’s board? This week Style magazine published its 2015 Power List issue with Venture Richmond’s Jack Berry and no mention of his Shockoe stadium campaign or the destruction of the Tredegar wall or Kanawha Canal. No mention of why so many citizens have knicknamed Venture Richmond as “Vulture Richmond”. No mention of the lobbying, tax exemptions, and no-bid lease arrangements. With Venture Richmond increasing ties to WRIR, it looks like they will have all the local media locked up. I remember when former Oregon Hill resident Chris Maxwell and I were excited about creating a community radio station that eschewed corporate donations and influence. Sadly, for many Oregon Hill residents who have supported that WRIR vision over the years, it has been compromised and corrupted.
Despite Style’s Power rhetoric, are “RVA”‘s political winds REALLY on the verge of shifting?
UCI Bicycle Race Leaves Monroe Park In The Dust
Some choice excerpts from the Times Dispatch article:
Monroe Park will not host a designated fan zone during the UCI 2015 Road World Championships despite plans to the contrary and tens of thousands of dollars in city expense to improve the space.
A sponsor that loosely agreed to underwrite the celebration space in the Fan District switched gears in recent weeks, according to officials with Richmond 2015, the organization putting on the event.The group declined to name the sponsor but said it had shifted to another space along the course. Officials would not detail costs associated with sponsoring a zone at the park. The move did not affect fundraising, they said.
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Todd Woodson, who lives in neighboring Oregon Hill, said the city had squandered taxpayers’ money.
“We’re in a crisis of leadership in this city and we’re hemorrhaging money,” Woodson said.
About 300 feet of a water line along Franklin Street was damaged during work done this spring, officials said at the time. How much the damage cost was unclear Monday. City officials were not able to provide an estimate.
Belvidere Street Mural At Planning Commission Friday
The City Planning Commission will hold a special meeting on August 21 at 10:00 am in the 5th Floor Conference Room at City Hall. The agenda includes the review of plans for a mural on the Belvidere Street wall separating the Parsons Linear Park in Oregon Hill from the sidewalk. This mural project related to the UCI bike race has been approved by the RVA Public Art Commission. The artists of the project include Ed Trask, Greig Leach, Matt Lively, and Hamilton Glass.
Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Meeting Thursday
Open to the public:
The Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority (VNECA) Board is meeting Thursday, August 20 at 10am at the VCU East Engineering Hall, Room E3218. 401 West Main Street, Richmond, VA.
Additionally, as a reminder the last meeting of the year will be held on Thursday, November 5th at 10am in Richmond. Please mark your calendars if you have not already.
As you may have seen, the Governor announced five appointments to the VNECA board last week. In addition to reappointing David Christian, Mary Alice Hayward and Matthew Mulherin, Dr. William Briscoe of GWU and Mr. Woody Lawman of Flowserve were appointed to the Board.
All five appointments are for four years running until June 30, 2019. Their titles and contact information is listed below.
William J. Briscoe of Charles Town, West Virginia, Chair, Department of Physics, George Washington University and Director, GW Institute of Nuclear Studies, GWINS;
David A. Christian of Toano, CEO, Dominion Generation;
Mary Alice Hayward of McLean, Vice President, Government Affairs & Advocacy, AREVA INC.;
Woody Lawman of Midlothian, Director of Sales for Navy and Nuclear Products, Flowserve-Limitorque;
Matthew J. Mulherin of Yorktown, President, Newport News Shipbuilding;
See proposed minutes from previous meeting by clicking here.
Some additional nuclear news:
“$19 Billion for Dominion’s New Nuclear Reactor? Huge cost involved to expand North Anna plant.”
“Low-dose radiation exposure slightly increases leukemia risk: study”
Congressional 3rd District Redistricting
Excerpt from Times Dispatch newspaper article:
The Reapportionment Joint Committee will meet at 8:30 a.m. Monday in House Room D. The panel will receive an overview of the 3rd District case and adopt public criteria for redistricting.
The House Privileges and Elections Committee will hold a public hearing to solicit input on potential redistricting plans at 3 p.m., also in House Room D.
“These meetings are important and necessary prerequisites to filing redistricting legislation,” Howell added. “Once these meetings are complete, the House will work efficiently and diligently in an effort to meet the court-ordered September 1 deadline. Redistricting is a complicated and arduous legal process made more difficult by the compressed time frame under which we are operating.”