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$3.4B:City Council approves 2018-2020 spending plan
Richmond high school students will be able to take unlimited free rides on GRTC buses beginning July 1. Organized activities for city youths also will be beefed up starting in July, with city recreation centers operating longer hours and after-school programs at elementary and middle schools being upgraded.
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No more money for school maintenance
Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras is alarmed. He just found out that, as of March 31, RPS has only $881,143 left through June 30 to spend on school maintenance needs.
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Mother, daughter reunited 50 years after adoption
Bonnie L. Davis grew up in an adoptive family, but always longed to find her biological mother. But the Richmond middle school English teacher, church musician and creative writer, found it nearly impossible, despite spending years seeking records in Louisville, Ky., where she was born.
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Henry L. Marsh III to introduce his memoir
He had his sights set on making his living as a truck driver. Then Henry L. Marsh III went with a group of high school buddies to hear a school desegregation case in Richmond, and that experience changed his life.
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School Board approves Kamras’ smaller, better-paid cabinet
A divided Richmond School Board voted 5-4 on Monday night to approve the hiring of four members of Superintendent Jason Kamras’ new cabinet, overruling members who objected to the enlarged salaries they are to be paid.
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RRHA begins major move to turn over public housing to private interests
Residents of public housing can expect to see their apartment complexes come under the control and management of private landlords.
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Coliseum’s success raises new questions about need to replace it
The 13,500-seat Richmond Coliseum has been the busiest arena in Virginia during the past six years, according to a Chicago-based consulting company that was paid $500,000 by the city to review a proposal to replace the facility.
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City Council to take up affordable housing and homeless issues at Dec. 17 meeting
Richmond’s governing body is planning to provide a $1 million increase to a City Hall loan pool that assists developers in generating affordable housing and to boost the city’s role in tackling the issue of homelessness.
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Richmond Coliseum redux
The more we learn about the proposed Coliseum development in Downtown, the more we don’t like it. We are skeptical about the figures and arguments trotted out to convince City Council and Richmond residents to support the $1.4 billion plan.
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‘Pathetic’
School advocate Paul Goldman fumes over mayor’s school funding resolution that he claims does not meet City Charter requirement
Mayor Levar M. Stoney appears to be backpedaling on his pledge to meet a new City Charter requirement to provide “a fully funded plan to modernize” Richmond’s decaying school buildings.
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Showdown expected at Feb. 11 City Council meeting over renaming Boulevard for Arthur Ashe Jr.
Will the Boulevard be renamed for Richmond-born tennis great and humanitarian Arthur Ashe Jr.?
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Warehouse owner left with waste collected by CVWMA
Warehouse 25 at Clopton SiteWorks on South Side is the best evidence that the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority has failed to keep its promise to properly dispose of old and broken TVs and computer monitors that are filled with toxic metals.
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COVID-related furloughs push unemployment claims to new highs
Phillip Patterson has worked in various positions at the Mar- riott Hotel in Downtown for the past eight years – housekeeping, bellman, shuttle driver and maintenance engineer. Elton G. Christian Jr., a veteran cook, has been serving up savory barbecue, ribs and brisket at Pig and Brew, a restaurant in South Side, for the past two years. Both never expected to be laid off.
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City Charter language may stymie efforts to remove Confederate statues
As demonstrations in Richmond for racial justice and against police brutality continued for the 12th day on Wednesday, all nine members of City Council already are on board for one monumental change — removal of the statues of Confederate traitors that litter Monument Avenue and other parts of the city.
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City may be facing deficit in current 2019-20 budget
Three months ago, with the city’s economy booming, Richmond’s government projected an $8.5 million surplus when the current fiscal year ends June 30. But today, the city appears to be facing a $6.2 million deficit, according to the latest data for the 2019-20 fiscal year, after the coronavirus sent the local economy — and that of the state, the
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Popular Richmond musician Herbert Allen ‘Debo’ Dabney III dies at 68
Herbert Allen “Debo” Dabney III, a popular and beloved Richmond musician, died Thursday, April 9, 2020. He was 68.
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Business owners sweep up after vandalism
One of Richmond’s oldest family jewelry stores is recovering from late-night looting and vandalism last weekend by rogue elements attached to local protests of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
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DJ Lonnie B Center?
Richmond City Councilman Michael J. Jones is getting pushback on his plan to rename Southside Community Center for local music celeb
A brewing battle over an unusual proposal to rename a city recreation center in South Side for a popular area DJ has exposed a largely unnoticed snafu involving the city property.
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‘Smell of marijuana’ new police tactic?
A new police tactic is opening the door to warrantless searches of individuals, vehicles and homes. To generate the “reasonable suspicion” that courts require for police to conduct such a search, officers are claiming to smell marijuana, possession of which is still illegal in Virginia, according to defense attorneys and area residents.
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New city shelter for the homeless?
For the past four winters, men and women who lack shelter have streamed into the shabby and increasingly vacant Public Safety Building near City Hall to spend the night when temperatures fall below 40 degrees.
