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City starts down road to regulate short-term rentals
Want to use Airbnb, FlipKey, VRBO or other online websites to rent your Richmond home or apartment to travelers?
Lynx Ventures agrees to pay $500,000 for former school
The 5-acre site where the decaying and long vacant Oak Grove Elementary School now stands in South Side is on its way to becoming a complex of apartments and townhouses.
City center vision
NH Foundation looks to new coliseum to spur major redevelopment in Downtown
How do you build a $220 million coliseum for Richmond without putting up any money?
Woodland, Evergreen cemeteries for sale
A Richmond foundation is pursuing the purchase of two historic, but privately held African-American cemeteries, the Free Press has learned.
Health care cutback?
Bon Secours to close Richmond Community Hospital’s ICU, sources say
Is Bon Secours planning to close the small intensive care unit later this month at its 104-bed Richmond Community Hospital facility in the East End?
RPS would need $44M to cover Gov. Northam’s proposed teach pay hike
If Gov. Ralph S. Northam’s proposal to increase teacher and school staff pay by 10 percent over the next two years wins support from the General Assembly, Richmond taxpayers could feel the impact.
City expands plans for enslaved African memorial site in Shockoe Bottom
City Hall is moving to expand the space designated for a long talked about memorial to slavery in Shockoe Bottom well before development begins on what the city has dubbed the Enslaved African Heritage Campus.
Election Day less than smooth for local voter
Eugene M. Price finally has been told his vote will count, six days after the Nov. 8 election. The 73-year-old Richmond auto mechanic said Monday he got a call from the city Voter Registrar’s Office telling him that the provisional ballot he cast was accepted and would be included in the city’s total vote after it was determined that he was properly registered to vote and that his name should have been on the voter rolls.
GRTC continues free bus rides through June 2024
GRTC will retain zero fares for at least 18 more months – saving regular riders $1,000 or more in yearly transportation costs.
Locked out
Report: Fewer mortgages approved in predominately African-American, Latino areas
The greater the number of African-Americans and Latinos living in a Richmond neighborhood, the tougher it is for home buyers in the neighborhood to get a mortgage approved or for existing owners to get their home loans refinanced. That’s the rule of thumb that prevails among banks and online mortgage lenders, according to a new report from the Richmond-based fair housing watchdog group, Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia.
Gray still questions cost of taking statues down
City Councilwoman Kim B. Gray, who is challenging Mayor Levar M. Stoney for the city’s top elected job, said this week that the Associated Press interview with contractor Devon Henry has not changed her view that an investigation is needed into the $1.8 million contract he received to remove the city’s Confederate statues from Monument Avenue and other public property in early July.
Eureka!
FDA approves milestone treatments for sickle cell disease
Two breakthrough gene therapies can now be used to treat and possibly cure sickle cell anemia, the genetic blood disorder that afflicts 100,000 mostly Black Americans and 20 million people worldwide. But the announcement from the Food and Drug Administration of approval of the treatments — the first use of medicines to address an inherited disease — drew cheers and caution flags from those in the field.
Richmonders want funding for schools, housing, less gas
Fund the full request for Richmond Public Schools. Improve our parks. Fully fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and fund repairs for decaying mobile homes. Protect the environment by planning for elimination of the city’s gas utility. Those were among the ways that least 20 speakers urged City Council to amend the 2023-24 budget plan at a public hearing Monday night.
Overcharged? 4 Richmond School Board members question surging costs to build new schools in city
The projected cost of the three new schools that Richmond is preparing to build has jumped an average of $107 per square foot in just five months, adding tens of millions of dollars to the cost, according to four members of the Richmond School Board.
Council changes housing zoning policies
Richmond is taking a swing at boosting the supply of housing in hopes of stabilizing the soaring costs that are making it hugely expensive to rent or own.
In limbo: City Councilman Parker C. Agelasto casts decisive vote in latest poll on Coliseum project despite looming questions over his qualifications to hold 5th District seat
Richmond City Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, 5th District, is continuing to play a prominent role on the nine-member governing board despite ongoing concerns about the legality of his seat on council since his move last summer to another council district.
$200M loss spurs City Council to revise real estate tax abatement program
For at least two decades, Richmond has primed the redevelopment pump by allowing individuals and companies that improve aging houses, apartment buildings and commercial properties to pay reduced property taxes over 10 years without any restrictions.
School Board mounts effort to contain school construction costs
The Richmond School Board is taking a series of steps in seeking to get a handle on the soaring cost of school construction. The ballooning cost is undermining any hope of modernizing city schools for $800 million over 20 years — the amount the city has promised to provide.
Room to grow
Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School seeks to expand with help from city
A private Episcopal school in the East End that currently offers a tuition-free education to l08 children mostly from low-income families living in public housing is working with the city to buy an acre of land for its first big expansion.
Bank branch to close in Highland Park
The last Bank of America branch located in a majority African-American neighborhood of Richmond is scheduled to close in two months, according to the bank’s website.
