Email sent June 11 to VCU President Rao and City Councilperson Agelasto:

President Rao,

Thank you and the VCU Department of Community Development so much for hosting the VCU-Neighborhood Forum this afternoon. I do enjoy the chance to meet and discuss issues with the VCU administration.

As I brought up at the meeting, the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association would appreciate it very much if the inappropriate billboard-style signs at Belvidere and W.Main and at Belvidere and Cumberland could be removed. We are hoping that more appropriate signage can be installed with the City’s cooperation and input. And I was very sincere when I complimented VCU for the fine work of its police force. It really has helped change VCU’s relationship with surrounding neighborhoods for the better.

But I am writing to you and Councilperson Agelasto to follow up on two of the more contentious issues at the meeting, namely, the Bus Rapid Transit proposal and increased parking pressures. You heard Jon Marcus of the W. Grace Neighborhood Association give his issues with the current BRT proposal. You also heard Councilperson Agelasto’s challenge to VCU in regard to supporting BRT (something that I brought up at last year’s VCU Monroe Park Neighborhood meeting).
After you left the meeting, many neighborhood representatives expressed concern about the impact of additional student units from a larger Gladding Residence Center on W. Main. Jennifer Hancock, OHNA’s President, noted to me after the meeting that even the Fan neighborhood, with all of its decals and controlled parking, is still very worried about VCU student parking.

I would like to offer a possible 2-in-one solution to both of these matters:

We all want BRT to succeed in offering better mass transit to Richmond residents and VCU students, even if many strongly disagree with the current proposal. Indeed, some of us are worried that if it fails, it will set back mass transit in Richmond for years. That said, the current proposal needs more attention. Citizens and businesses have legitimate criticisms that should be listened to and taken seriously.

Personally, I believe that without considerably more commitment and support from the county governments, the BRT proposal should be reoriented towards serving the City (and VCU) more by becoming part of a new, inner-city circulator proposal. GRTC says that it has not been able to gain any traction with a circulator in the past, but previous attempts have been unreliable and anemic, only serving small parts of downtown and barely impacting midtown. If VCU (and U of R, and VUU) worked with GRTC, I believe a much more robust and satisfying inner-city circulator could be developed that could serve citizens, tourists, and students. Imagine a strong loop that included a slightly reformed Broad Street BRT as well as Boulevard, Main Street Station and Shockoe Bottom, and the entire Cary Street corridor. This circulator idea would not preclude extending BRT into the counties, converting to light rail, or adding more connecting, regular GRTC bus routes now or in the future.

Such an inner city circulator could totally change perspective and thinking about the new Gladding Residence Center. We know that VCU students want access to downtown, other transportation options (Main Street Station), and Carytown shopping. This would give them access to those things and make it easier for students (and especially first-year GRC students) to live without cars on the Monroe campus. This would enable VCU to truly transform and brand the Broad Street corridor while also helping other portions of its campus, including and connecting south of Main and Monroe Ward. By supporting the circulator, VCU could live up to claims about investing in the City of Richmond and overall sustainability.

(At the risk of overreaching, I will add that, in regard to Main Street Station, the City should really give up on its wasteful Shockoe baseball stadium scheme and dust off former GRTC CEO John Lewis’ plan to turn the train depot shed into the downtown GRTC bus transfer station. That, along with a shuttle to the airport, would make Main Street Station truly multimodal transportation and help establish Shockoe Bottom as THE transportation center of the region if not the entire state. Any help you can give to nudging the City back on the right path towards this would be greatly appreciated.)

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this and other matters.

Sincerely,
Scott Burger

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In response, Councilperson Agelasto noted that City and GRTC is in the final “review of potentially reinstating bus service along the Main/Cary corridor between the James Center downtown and Carytown. If approved by the Federal Transportation Authority, this could be implemented this October.”