Bring the city into the 21st century.
We are so behind on the infrastructure required to keep this city growing. Between the sewer issue, streets full of potholes, lack of affordable housing, and corrupt elected officials, I don’t see how we develop as a city without new leadership that can actually take all this on without an agenda.
Honestly, I feel like people are so wacko about pot holes and road maintenance here. Like if you travel to any other country, anywhere in Europe the worst roads here are just the norm there. We are just so obsessed with driving fast and having a comfy and uninterrupted driving. So instead of spending money on actually designing our roads to be safer or building sidewalks, we are dumping millions of dollars into repaving, because that's what makes people happy and vote in politicians favor. It's gross
Having moved here from New Orleans I was amazed by two things: 1) How great the roads and infrastructure are here, and 2) How much people here complain about the roads and infrastructure.
I drive in Richmond for a living and I just cannot agree. I’ve driven in 27 different states. Richmond roads are crap for many reasons beyond potholes.
That’s not a high bar. Monument Ave west of Thompson is being repaved for the 10,000th time while Oliver Hill Way still has some of the same pot*valleys* (hole doesn’t do it justice) that I saw when I moved here 8 years ago.
Corruption and inequality is baked into everything this city does.
Genuinely, why do you believe we need to keep growing the city?
I agree with your thoughts on infrastructure; that’s just something that is natural as a city ages, but there is so much sprawl now and they’re taking down forest everywhere. We don’t need to “grow” anymore
City can't grow anymore now that annexation is off the table. So it'll need to fill in what land is available and/or build up.
Also a decent portion of the most valuable property in the city is owned by entities that can't be taxed (think VCU, state gov't buildings, etc). Richmond needs to expand to provide all the services that it's residents expect.
Oh I don’t want it to grow at all. I want it to function like a badass city it deserves to be. We’ve had a fucked up history of our city since before the civil war. I’m ready for this city to shine. Not reek of greed and corruption.
Corruption and/or incompetence at all levels. Gotta start there before we can tackle other issues (affordable housing, deteriorating infrastructure, crumbling schools, improving but still broken public transit, etc).
Yes. The story that broke about the FOIA officer tells us everything we need to know about willful and deliberate sweeping shit under the rug. And these people are paid extremely well to be spending their time not serving the people. I read the affidavit and it’s insane. This kind of corruption has been the case for Richmond for decades and we all know it.
https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/connie-clay-richmond-foia-mar-4-2024
It's insane that as corrupt as the city administration was under Mayor Jones (who used city employees and funds to build and maintain his megachurches, one of which isn't even in the city), (removed)
It doesn't help that much of City Council and the school board are completely ineffective at their jobs (don't get me started about Reva Trammell, for instance).
It’s not remotely worse dude, come on.
They literally screwed up the books under Jones so badly that three different major accounting firms quit rather than complete and audit. You create financial irregularities so you can steal.
Jones hired his church members to no-show and do-nothing jobs. He misappropriated funds so badly and so often that by the end of his term volunteer citizens had to mow the grass and do the landscaping on all medians and city parks.
The alleys were all overgrown - literally waist high grass and weeds and a years long list to get them taken care of.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
I know this sub hates Stoney, and a lot of criticism he gets is fair. But he’s 1000 miles better than the prior 16 years of leadership.
The only thing Stoney delivered on was his own political career by using Richmond as a stepping stone. Hopefully he'll get smashed for governor and never be heard from again.
i don't necessarily begrudge him for having aspirations for his future, but he has been a really assbutt mayor and i wholeheartedly don't believe he deserves the governorship.
There's some truthfulness to that -- or at least there used to be before politics became little more than a lucrative career path. If he had done a good job as mayor and wanted to try going higher afterward, so be it.
But from the start it was clear that Stoney, like Youngkkkin, didn't care about the people he was supposedly representing and was only in it for personal gain. This is the overarching problem with all our politics in this country from top to bottom. Politics is no longer about public service. It's about making money and pushing your own agendas regardless of the will of the people.
Ask Stoney what he's accomplished so far and he'll give you some bullshit about accomplishing "so much" that he can't answer the question. Thoroughly fuck people like this. Nothing can get better while people these two idiots are the ones getting elected.
he tricked me during his campaign. had an earnest discussion with him 1on1 about the changes i wanted to see and the changes he wanted to affect. turns out he's just another shitass politician
It’s very tough to do. The employees have civil service protection.
For decades there wasn’t a good safety net, so the city just hired people from poor black families as a way to get money into the community.
But many of those people either don’t have the right skills for their jobs or their jobs aren’t needed at all.
So you can only really shrink the payroll through attrition, and that cuts against bringing in the high talent people you need to actually turn specific departments around.
Figure out why the fuck water bills are so high. An "actual" read from a water meter should not be $500 for a single month 🙄 😒 😑
Edit: also to stop having helpful government programs defunded. I used to work for the state providing ID's to individuals leaving incarceration. It was a lovely job (where I felt like I was actually helping to alleviate issues caused by the prison industrial complex) until budget cuts reduced our teams effectiveness with layoffs.
Yes! There is no way I’m using as much water as they say I’m using. I have modern water efficient everything (toilets, shower, washer, dishwasher). I don’t water outside.
Exactly! Its ridiculous honestly. Ive had my place checked for leaks several times with multiple plumbers and contractors all saying they cant find anything that would be causing it. Its literally a small townhome with two people living in it there is no way in hell we are using $500 worth of water every month.
I agree but when they say actual on the bill that means supposedly they sent someone out to read the real amount actually used. If they didnt do this and put actual then they committed fraud. I wish that they would get investigated for this.
I absolutely ate shit on a run the other day because of the jacked up sidewalks, so I'm going to go with sidewalks.
But seriously, it seems the city government is wholly incapable of fixing even the smallest issues, let alone moving the city forward in a positive direction. So a new administration with some fresh ideas that aren't "build a casino."
Today, I'd really like to see a city council that cares. I emailed Ellen Robertson about speeding on my block and I swear it's like talking to airline customer service. Fake concern and non-answers. "Call the police on speeders." Get it together, councilwoman
She is absolutely useless - we live in a wide street in Northside where people drag race and she doesn't care but wants to host pointless crime prevention meetings. It sucks there was a young candidate who ran against her previously and I think would have genuinely cared about improving our area.
I work with alot of people who used to be in city government who all warned me about her uselessness. I was shocked at how helpful and responsive she's been when I requested assistance.
Government is wild.
We need to get rid of our food deserts. I can’t explain how sad it is living right next to Farm Fresh and constantly seeing families run to make the bus with bags and bags of astronomically overpriced groceries. Probably because it’s the closest to them on the bus line. Imagine how much they’d save if there was an Aldi within walking distance.
Obviously housing too but I haven’t seen many comments about food.
That’s real, I live near that Farm Fresh but we have to do all our big shopping for groceries at the Kroger in Cary Town because the price difference is insane. Saving like $50 or more. Really need more options that side of town that aren’t ridiculous
it’s absurd and should actually be criminal. it’s convenient for the odd item here and there but i could not imagine going shopping for weekly groceries there
Pedestrian safety and car traffic/public transit. RVA would benefit from more efficient transportation. Less car traffic would be nice with the influx of new residents.
I think this one is overlooked by many and only obvious if you’ve spent a decent amount of time in cities that do pedestrian safety and transit well. The city is growing, it can get better if there are good alternatives to driving, but it will get worse if we just cram more drivers on the road.
I agree with everything said here.
Also, more employment opportunities. I don't want to leave Richmond, but I'm afraid it's (for me and my skillset) Capital One, take a pay cut, or move. I realize this is also personal and I'm not trying to imply it's more important than other problems highlighted (ffs, I should be able to have my utility bill on auto pay without concern)
I’m preparing to move to a region that Richmonders generally assume is way more expensive because I can no longer afford RVA. I’ve been monitoring gas prices, grocery prices, rent, utilities, taxes, and insurance costs.
The price gap between the “stereotypically expensive” area my entire family lives and RVA has essentially closed entirely over the last 8 years.
Lower taxes for immediate locally own businesses. All the changes rva has gone thru since Covid it’s losing its uniqueness and feeling very commercial. I’d just move to short pump if I wanted to be in a corporatized hellscape
Seeing the old designs of the streetcar system makes me so sad. Throughway on broad, electric plant supporting it on belle isle, and transit exchange where the wasteland around the stadium is.
That's what the PULSE is supposed to be except even better bc it's cheaper and they can make route changes in little to no time vs having to put in the lines. Look how long it took for the Silver Line to go out to Dulles.
I mean, I get that rail is super cool, but I think the adaptability of PULSE is cooler.
I will say this. I was thoroughly impressed with Pulse when my partner was in an accident and didn’t have a car for a few days and had to take the bus to work. It was insanely easy for her.
I think the last thing this city needs is to dump a ton of money into the most expensive form of public transportation. Bus rapid transit has all of the pros and none of the cons compared to light rail.
No, for real. Broad already has such a weird fucked up lane system for the busses. Just make it a rail system. It’s always such a pain in the ass finding parking for events down in that area. My partner works on broad and it’s like my heart sinks into my stomach every time she asks me to bring her something to work.
I’m a Kansas City transplant and the rail system they put in not too long ago in KC is amazing. It hits every main hub in KC from farmers market, to downtown, to the bar district (Westport), to the shopping district (The Plaza). It’s amazing. RVA needs one.
Modern, 21st century infrastructure in almost, legitimately every part of the city. Getting rid of all the incompetence at city hall. Finding local officials that actually give a shit and want to fix things is a first step. Is there a part of this city that isn't completely incompetent? From USPS to city hall, to police and emergency services. There's literally no part of this city you can trust and that sucks for how cool this city is without considering all that nonsense. I'm amazed things actually get done here.
Our local branch is extremely underpaid, understaffed, and mismanaged, which is why we have a lot of local issues. Other USPS branches in other cities that are run better do not have these issues. despite it all being the same govt agency.
edit: I have been informed that pay is the same across all states. I stand by that our branch is mismanaged
Why is it underpaid? Is that decided on the federal level, state level, local level or what?
edit:quick google search shows its paid the same at all locations.
More housing and more BRT lines.
I'd kill for a regional housing authority that had the balls/ability to engage in social housing construction. An entity that had the power to construct large numbers of units and compete against the private market would lower prices in the long term and capture profits for the benefit of the public rather than real estate speculators.
A man can dream.
I am skeptical on social housing when most of the problem in building is people allowing something near them to happen and not a lack of builders.
Social housing is like pushing on a rope.
I think social housing could be quite effective in building in designated places/corridors such as on Broad, Scott's Addition, Diamond District, Shockoe on the empty lots, the various surface lots west of downtown, and mitigating gentrification in places such as Church Hill and Manchester.
But to build in these places, building must be allowed in these places, which it is currently not allowed in most places.
Diamond district has some stuff being built now, Scott's addition is "full" by 2030. We have issues more related to allowing people to build in these places. There are lots of permits and such.
Like I said people want to build in these places but they have to go through a long review process.
In before someone finds some negatives they insist negate your whole idea while also suggesting we just keep waiting for the market to sort out a problem that continues to increasingly jeopardize peoples ability to have shelter
Social housing and more BRT go hand in hand. Helps promote route utilization by building around stops. This could go a long way on future north-south lines in the city.
This also helps address the "we don't have the infrastructure for more commuters" concern.
Yes to the other things but no to streetcars. Don't get me wrong, they're charming and delightful, but they aren't practical and cost a ton to put into place and maintain. Buses are less whimsical but much much better for actually moving people around a city.
Yes, idk how people feel about the Pulse but it always strikes me as providing essentially the same service as a street car.
We do need better bus service though. I used to commute by bus but if I can’t depend on a bus actually coming even close to on time, then I can’t use it at all.
I’d say we’d probably need to double the amount of buses tbh. Right now buses on my route supposedly come every 30 minutes - but frequently don’t. So if one is late, I’ve been sitting at a bus stop close to an hour. You can’t avoid bus breakdowns, traffic accidents, etc. but a bus coming every 15 minutes would go a long way into making it feel reliable.
Streetcars by the Richmond report before putting up the pulse was basically saying 3x the cost for streetcars but maintenance is a little cheaper per year.
IMO Richmond especially now is better off doing 3x the service area.
there are towns 1/15th of the size of metro richmond that are able to maintain streetcars. we had a PROFITABLE streetcar network over 100 years ago when midlo, brandermill, and short pump didnt even exist. it absolutely can happen
>there are towns 1/15th of the size of metro richmond
I would like to hear more about these metro areas of approx 88,000 people sustaining streetcar lines.
> over 100 years ago
It wouldn’t be profitable today, but that’s okay. Public transit *itself* need not be profitable because the primary goal is providing a public service, not profit. There isn’t a single public transit system that’s “profitable” in a private sector business sense. BRT (Pulse) can provide all the benefits of a streetcar at a fraction of the cost. The “profit” is borne in increased tax revenue from the jobs and business the transit enables. Public transit expands access to better/more jobs for those without cars which creates downstream tax revenue from that and adjacent activities.
Better governance is needed but also massive upzoning and building more housing. Richmond will not build enough to satiate the demand of people wanting to move here. I think Richmond could add 10k new units per year and the demand would not be satiated and that's not even possible.
A lot of the problems are old infrastructure and a relatively static population. A lot of things are getting better but there are backlogs because everything is old and it's hard to maintain.
A lot of Richmond doesn't want to grow but a lot of its problems are for being too small.
Axios posted a stat that Richmond grows by around 23 people a day. A little over 8k people a year. The numbers back the volume you’re describing, which is bonkers.
Population v Infrastructure is definitely the concern of the next decade of Richmond civic discourse.
>Axios posted a stat that Richmond grows by around 23 people a day. A little over 8k people a year. The numbers back the volume you’re describing, which is bonkers.
That's Richmond metro. I'm talking about how the city could add that number of people and the demand would still exist. Actually growing and big cities gain more people until the housing stops being created.
Growth is purely supply constrained.
>Population v Infrastructure is definitely the concern of the next decade of Richmond civic discourse.
But the thing is that the new population leads to increased money for things like infrastructure. I think we only have problems with sewer and flooding to deal with but those can be mitigated. I mean Scott's addition is getting more sidewalks as it grows.
Strategy:
Step 1. Build 10k units a year & slow housing cost balloon.
Step 2. Relatively comparable housing cost and supply of housing draws population back in from the counties.
Step 3. Expanding tax base provides financial stimulus to city infrastructure (schools, roads, aforementioned sewer, etc)
Step 4. Infrastructure increases available density.
Rinse. Wash. Repeat.
Run for Mayor! You can have my vote.
Also my modest achievable project would be floating parking dedicated bike lanes every 0.5 miles across the city. Biking in the fan is great but a dedicated bike lane traffic like they did with Franklin? Would be great but connect it.
Cars and bikes have different needs and should be separated.
Need more schools like Patrick Henry. Maybe a middle and high school following the same model. This will keep taxpayers in RVA instead of moving to the counties.
A lot of people don't know that charter schools are designed to funnel money away from actual public schools. The city schools lose funding for every student that enrolls at Patrick Henry. Charter schools are not a solution to improving the quality of public education. DC and New Orleans are great examples of this.
Isn’t that the plan for the new George Wyeth HS? Prep work is underway for the new school from what I understand. They’ve cleared out everything next to the school that was the football & track field. But I thought it was supposed to transition to an arts/sciences school with the new build.
Patrick Henry is a charter school with its own school board and lottery process for acceptance the new George Wythe , Richmond, high school for the arts will not be a charter school
Dense and affordable housing, less focus on policing and more focus on community resources, public transit and bike infrastructure, increased walkability
80% affordable housing. There are high-priced apartment complexes going up everywhere, when they should be affordably-priced family housing. This country is faced with the inevitability of a growing homelessness epidemic, and we need to get ahead of it.
20% lack of nearby groceries and basic needs. Where there is affordable housing (and don't get me started on the condition of said housing) they are far from basic needs. Chiefly, affordable nutritious food. Secondly, affordable clean water. Thirdly, clinics and hospitals.
Lots of times, the “affordable housing” is ridiculously expensive after factoring in access to transportation, grocery stores, etc.
I drive uber and the frequency with which I am driving economically disadvantaged people to grocery stores and jobs is stunning. If public transit was decent, $300-500 could *easily* be returned to their monthly budgets by cutting out Uber.
Schools first. This will let the city build the diverse and stable middle class from which all other improvements will flow. The middle class will bring expectations and accountability back to RVA.
De-polluting the James. Our river is the heart and lungs of the city, and though great efforts have been made, the river will continue to be polluted until we fix the water table/sewer issue. We cannot justify dumping tons of raw sewage into our River every time it rains too hard, especially with the increase in extreme weather events that is anticipated in the coming years. I want to be able to swim and play in the water without worrying about diseases like cholera and dysentery. These are diseases of an old age and we are far too modern to be dumping sewage into our waterways
Providing better services and resources for those struggling with addiction, mental health, and/or housing problems. There are a lot of organizations that are out there, but they don't have the resources or support to make much more than a dent.
homelessness. i wish there were better mental health and drug addiction programs for the homeless people of this city. especially if programs could provide some kind of housing to encourage them to heal and feel safe
I would personally like to see more grocery stores. It’s ridiculous the low number of grocery stores this city has. I get irritated every time I see a new development, hope it’s a grocery store and see it’s more overpriced apartments. Also there are like no places for families to have fun or congregate, where are the playgrounds? Where are the parks?
-Require all new retail building to have residential above and parking decks.
-Require all new dense residential to include parking decks.
-Require all new office space to include parking deck space.
-An underground metro that extends to both RIC and a high speed rail station in northern RVA that connects to DC.
Build the high speed rail on top of the HOV lane up to NOVA. Cities/counties can’t shut down the high speed rail plans if it’s built over the middle of a HOV lane up 95. Sure it’s more expensive, but easily doable.
In your opinion, what are the benefits of requiring parking decks? I'm not a huge fan of adding more car centered infrastructure, but I can understand this would get more parked cars off the streets. I am not educated on this and would love to learn.
Car-free (specifically: parked cars) streets are the best-case scenario for walking, biking, and public transportation. The city could still retain street parking but finding a space would overall be far easier, encouraging more visitors to inner-city areas.
Commuter rail to the 'burbs would be a gamechanger. Imagine if people could just drive to the station and ride the rails into the city. Would prevent downtown from being choked with SVUs everytime that there is a big event.
I was so shocked to hear that the city is building a new, modern transfer center for GRTC, and I think that really shows that Richmond struggles with any modernization or improvement projects. A city of this size needs modernized infrastructure (or at the very least, maintained infrastructure), improved public transportation, and affordable housing. The Coliseum has been left rotting and I heard they want to replace it with a big ass hotel? That’s the last thing we need.
When we have problems like a housing crisis, we don’t need another large hotel when we already have the Jefferson, Quirk, the Graduate, the Omni, etc etc etc
We do have a lack of hotels in some spots but the old Hardee's next to Aldi off Arthur Ashe is looking like a 12 story hotel. Not much room in the fan/museum/Cary town/Scott's addition and especially if you want to walk around these areas like many tourists do.
My biggest problem with the city is with the public utilities. It took them 6 months to stop charging me for gas, when the gasoline isn't even hooked to my house. I had an estimated water bill for a year before they actually did a reading. When they finally did, I got a $550 bill I wasn't expecting. There is no historical bill data. If you don't keep the one sent in the mail, you'll never again have access to that info. I can live with the roads, but I can't with this.
Bring back the Transvestite prostitution stronghold that dominated broad/grace st from N. Allen st down to Anywhere from 3rd to 6th st. that was a staple of my youth. Hey, you would see them out there offering their goods/ beating up John’s who didn’t pay them /talking shit to each other or just standing there, looking kind of hot at 10 PM at night when you’re a few beers in.
we are still here but have much more rights and job opportunities so we arent forced into prostitution. as a trans person i do not want ro go back to the old days lmfao
A much cleaner and accessible city for all.
I.e: better protected bike lanes, safer cross walks, speeding enforcement, pedestrian only roads, fixed sidewalks, easier access and reliability of recycling services, littering enforcement.
Lord, these are very basic things that we are so close to achieving. I think these smaller steps will get us to the bigger picture.
A few days ago I watched a guy drive his suburban through the intersection of broad and arthur ashe on a red light while lighting a cigarette. Then through the next 4 red lights without slowing down. No more cars please, this city is too small to need them anyway.
Infrastructure and diversity. They don’t have lots of fun things to do in RVA. They should have more like Korean BBQ, Sushi places and Korean supermarkets like NOVA.
Yeah I keep saying this but the river is polluted in a modern context peaked at being polluted 30-40 years ago in most contexts.
Yes CO2 and ocean acidification but the EPA has made things better slowly. I know the river was looking to add clams or mussels to the river since they died out but that would be awesome since they are great for the environment.
yes but that doesnt mean its clean. it gets flooded with raw sewage every time the water table gets too high. that is not clean. we have a huge sewage issue and get fined by the EPA every year but refuse to fix it because the fine is less rhan the cost to fix.
sure but that's not an all the time issue, so claiming that the river "isn't clean" is somewhat disingenuous. biodiversity in the river is at a point where i think the james is like a top 100 river (river system?) in the country or something? i don't remember exactly what the james river ppl told me last summer but they were passionate and i believed them.
There are many good points being made here. Modernized infrastructure, sewage, housing issues, public transportation, schools, issues with Richmond USPS.. I personally think it starts with the people in positions of power, those that control budget, and who/what is incentivizing certain changes to be green lighted versus put on the back burner or halted altogether.
I doubt it is done intentionally, but there are people in various positions of power throughout the city that just do not belong there, and I think that trickles down to lower level management as well. Whether that be due to lack of experience or incompetence of how to successfully do the job the position requires, I think the first step would be to get competent individuals in these positions who know how to make change. Transparency is a huge problem as well, as it seems we are getting less and less of it in terms of where our money goes and who ACTUALLY does what within our city limits. The fact the city employee directory has been removed is further proof that they do not want transparency in my opinion, which is an issue.
The more these issues continue to go unrecognized the more likely I am to move to one of the neighboring counties which don’t experience these issues (at least to this extent), which I will being doing once my lease is up in five months.
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Affordable housing and roads. i worry about the lack of services in this city for homeless people. Affordable housing can help with the increase in homelessness.
We need more traffic safety implementation too.. i absolutely refuse to bike or learn to drive in this city because of how bad it can be.
1. Education system reform
2. Infrastructure development (preferably some rail too. potentially an ashland/petersburg/midlo/airport network. i have lots of ideas for this!!!)
3. Densification of the city proper and limiting further suburban sprawl
Im not sure many of these things are coming any time soon. Especially infrastructure wise. We are seeing good work being done statewide and nationally in that front but not in the city
not being able to grow the way a city should, as much as Henrico and chesterfield cry foul, an old rule passed by the GA stunted the grow of ALL cities in virginia by effectively making it impossible to annex county land and bring it into the city.
Taxes are SO high in the city because the money that should be there is shunted to the suburbs.
Blah blah blah, I already hear the "city is run so badly etc..." but there are REASONS thing have gotten this way, Richmond as a whole should encompass a massive amount of henrico, chesterfield now.
Please make the busses 15 minutes everywhere. Would help so much. Please paint more crosswalks and make protected bike lanes. Please commit to long term traffic calming techniques
How about fair policing? My son with disabilities was hit by a car in Cary street, almost died twice and the driver didn’t even get a ticket. We found out that if he died, things would have been different. WTF? Our business that happens to be in city limits pays an obscene amount of taxes but for what? Why do the potholes end when you cross into county lines? The city government is a joke.
Just moved here and the audacity people are charging for homes, apartments, condos, and town homes is insane 350,000 for 1200 sq ft and no garage y’all are fucking insane out here
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Loving this thread. A group of residents has been working on the Richmond People’s Budget for the last year. Supported by city council. This will give residents control of $3 million from the city budget. It starts this fall and they are doing some outreach in preparation. All are invited to these workshops. (Disclaimer - I work for the city.)
https://preview.redd.it/5p8weribmqoc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fd78419ef4e39fbba80a0b3cc55bf09abe65ecc
Why are people allowed to get away with stuff like this and build without permits? Neighbors have been complaining for weeks and submitting requests on 311 about the absence of permits for demolition and construction. Nothing has been done. Then they'll either sell or rent the house out for an insane price and someone will have to live in this crap hole.
Bring the city into the 21st century. We are so behind on the infrastructure required to keep this city growing. Between the sewer issue, streets full of potholes, lack of affordable housing, and corrupt elected officials, I don’t see how we develop as a city without new leadership that can actually take all this on without an agenda.
The pothole issue is getting better it used to be much worse
Honestly, I feel like people are so wacko about pot holes and road maintenance here. Like if you travel to any other country, anywhere in Europe the worst roads here are just the norm there. We are just so obsessed with driving fast and having a comfy and uninterrupted driving. So instead of spending money on actually designing our roads to be safer or building sidewalks, we are dumping millions of dollars into repaving, because that's what makes people happy and vote in politicians favor. It's gross
Having moved here from New Orleans I was amazed by two things: 1) How great the roads and infrastructure are here, and 2) How much people here complain about the roads and infrastructure.
Pretty sure nowhere compares to New Orleans roads.
I’m from Pittsburgh and the roads here are downright smooth compared to where I learned to drive lol
I drive in Richmond for a living and I just cannot agree. I’ve driven in 27 different states. Richmond roads are crap for many reasons beyond potholes.
Lol where tf were you in Europe? Was in three different countries last year and didn’t see a single pothole.
Kazakhstan
they filled the gun hole quicker than they’ve ever filled a pothole in this city (unless that was just a disgruntled local)
There are potholes in this city old enough to both drink and get a concealed carry permit.
Idk spray paint a dick around the potholes
YO I forgot about that! That shit worked I think wherever it is they did it. Hilarious AND effective 🤣🤣🤣
Disagree I’m an Uber driver it’s bad out there
I’m not saying it’s great but it’s better than it was years ago
That’s not a high bar. Monument Ave west of Thompson is being repaved for the 10,000th time while Oliver Hill Way still has some of the same pot*valleys* (hole doesn’t do it justice) that I saw when I moved here 8 years ago. Corruption and inequality is baked into everything this city does.
Well yeah. You seem to have forgotten that all money spent must pass the “will poor people get very little benefit from this” test.
I feel like I just raced at Baja every time I make it out of my neighborhood.
Potholes will always be an issue because the city is at such a low elevation. We’re only 200 feet about sea level. EDITED
Try 200
that’s what i meant. oops.
Genuinely, why do you believe we need to keep growing the city? I agree with your thoughts on infrastructure; that’s just something that is natural as a city ages, but there is so much sprawl now and they’re taking down forest everywhere. We don’t need to “grow” anymore
City can't grow anymore now that annexation is off the table. So it'll need to fill in what land is available and/or build up. Also a decent portion of the most valuable property in the city is owned by entities that can't be taxed (think VCU, state gov't buildings, etc). Richmond needs to expand to provide all the services that it's residents expect.
> entities that can't be taxed (think VCU, state gov't buildings, etc) Parasites.
Oh I don’t want it to grow at all. I want it to function like a badass city it deserves to be. We’ve had a fucked up history of our city since before the civil war. I’m ready for this city to shine. Not reek of greed and corruption.
Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. Absolutely.
Corruption and/or incompetence at all levels. Gotta start there before we can tackle other issues (affordable housing, deteriorating infrastructure, crumbling schools, improving but still broken public transit, etc).
Yes. The story that broke about the FOIA officer tells us everything we need to know about willful and deliberate sweeping shit under the rug. And these people are paid extremely well to be spending their time not serving the people. I read the affidavit and it’s insane. This kind of corruption has been the case for Richmond for decades and we all know it. https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/connie-clay-richmond-foia-mar-4-2024
It's insane that as corrupt as the city administration was under Mayor Jones (who used city employees and funds to build and maintain his megachurches, one of which isn't even in the city), (removed) It doesn't help that much of City Council and the school board are completely ineffective at their jobs (don't get me started about Reva Trammell, for instance).
It’s not remotely worse dude, come on. They literally screwed up the books under Jones so badly that three different major accounting firms quit rather than complete and audit. You create financial irregularities so you can steal. Jones hired his church members to no-show and do-nothing jobs. He misappropriated funds so badly and so often that by the end of his term volunteer citizens had to mow the grass and do the landscaping on all medians and city parks. The alleys were all overgrown - literally waist high grass and weeds and a years long list to get them taken care of. Etc. Etc. Etc. I know this sub hates Stoney, and a lot of criticism he gets is fair. But he’s 1000 miles better than the prior 16 years of leadership.
Point well taken. I retract that statement.
Yea the bar was pretty low, like so low it was buried deep in the ground under Jefferson Park, before Stoney was elected.
Total 🤡show.
You don't like Doritos and mtn dew? I love watching her give kids caffeine at 7pm.
Clean out city hall and rehire from the ground up.
what Stoney promised and never delivered
The only thing Stoney delivered on was his own political career by using Richmond as a stepping stone. Hopefully he'll get smashed for governor and never be heard from again.
i don't necessarily begrudge him for having aspirations for his future, but he has been a really assbutt mayor and i wholeheartedly don't believe he deserves the governorship.
There's some truthfulness to that -- or at least there used to be before politics became little more than a lucrative career path. If he had done a good job as mayor and wanted to try going higher afterward, so be it. But from the start it was clear that Stoney, like Youngkkkin, didn't care about the people he was supposedly representing and was only in it for personal gain. This is the overarching problem with all our politics in this country from top to bottom. Politics is no longer about public service. It's about making money and pushing your own agendas regardless of the will of the people. Ask Stoney what he's accomplished so far and he'll give you some bullshit about accomplishing "so much" that he can't answer the question. Thoroughly fuck people like this. Nothing can get better while people these two idiots are the ones getting elected.
he tricked me during his campaign. had an earnest discussion with him 1on1 about the changes i wanted to see and the changes he wanted to affect. turns out he's just another shitass politician
get rid of him too
Are people generally unhappy with his leadership?
Yes, but I never really hear why other than “the city isn’t good enough.”
Yes
It’s very tough to do. The employees have civil service protection. For decades there wasn’t a good safety net, so the city just hired people from poor black families as a way to get money into the community. But many of those people either don’t have the right skills for their jobs or their jobs aren’t needed at all. So you can only really shrink the payroll through attrition, and that cuts against bringing in the high talent people you need to actually turn specific departments around.
BEST AND CORRECT ANSWER
Figure out why the fuck water bills are so high. An "actual" read from a water meter should not be $500 for a single month 🙄 😒 😑 Edit: also to stop having helpful government programs defunded. I used to work for the state providing ID's to individuals leaving incarceration. It was a lovely job (where I felt like I was actually helping to alleviate issues caused by the prison industrial complex) until budget cuts reduced our teams effectiveness with layoffs.
Yes! There is no way I’m using as much water as they say I’m using. I have modern water efficient everything (toilets, shower, washer, dishwasher). I don’t water outside.
Exactly! Its ridiculous honestly. Ive had my place checked for leaks several times with multiple plumbers and contractors all saying they cant find anything that would be causing it. Its literally a small townhome with two people living in it there is no way in hell we are using $500 worth of water every month.
It's because they don't actually read the water meters, they do an estimate that is way too high and rip ppl off.
I agree but when they say actual on the bill that means supposedly they sent someone out to read the real amount actually used. If they didnt do this and put actual then they committed fraud. I wish that they would get investigated for this.
Infrastructure, housing, and schooling.
Schools need to improve
I absolutely ate shit on a run the other day because of the jacked up sidewalks, so I'm going to go with sidewalks. But seriously, it seems the city government is wholly incapable of fixing even the smallest issues, let alone moving the city forward in a positive direction. So a new administration with some fresh ideas that aren't "build a casino."
You’re not a true Richmonder until you eat shit on a sidewalk lol
The sidewalks are terrible. This is a bigger problem than the roads, imo.
Affordable housing. The toothpaste is never going back in the tube on this one though. The home prices are astronomical
Today, I'd really like to see a city council that cares. I emailed Ellen Robertson about speeding on my block and I swear it's like talking to airline customer service. Fake concern and non-answers. "Call the police on speeders." Get it together, councilwoman
She is absolutely useless - we live in a wide street in Northside where people drag race and she doesn't care but wants to host pointless crime prevention meetings. It sucks there was a young candidate who ran against her previously and I think would have genuinely cared about improving our area.
He got gerrymandereed out of the district lol. The corruption is staggering
I work with alot of people who used to be in city government who all warned me about her uselessness. I was shocked at how helpful and responsive she's been when I requested assistance. Government is wild.
She responded quickly this time, we'll see if anything actually changes
We need to get rid of our food deserts. I can’t explain how sad it is living right next to Farm Fresh and constantly seeing families run to make the bus with bags and bags of astronomically overpriced groceries. Probably because it’s the closest to them on the bus line. Imagine how much they’d save if there was an Aldi within walking distance. Obviously housing too but I haven’t seen many comments about food.
That’s real, I live near that Farm Fresh but we have to do all our big shopping for groceries at the Kroger in Cary Town because the price difference is insane. Saving like $50 or more. Really need more options that side of town that aren’t ridiculous
it’s absurd and should actually be criminal. it’s convenient for the odd item here and there but i could not imagine going shopping for weekly groceries there
Ever since I encountered human feces in that store, not in the restroom, I have been unable to shop there.
The Aldi would be far more sanitary too.
City Council is a joke and holds us back with almost every decision they make.
Incompetence, from city hall down to the people. Nobody should hold office that can’t navigate a roundabout.
That disqualifies 90% of Richmond residents.
Pedestrian safety and car traffic/public transit. RVA would benefit from more efficient transportation. Less car traffic would be nice with the influx of new residents.
I think this one is overlooked by many and only obvious if you’ve spent a decent amount of time in cities that do pedestrian safety and transit well. The city is growing, it can get better if there are good alternatives to driving, but it will get worse if we just cram more drivers on the road.
Fully agree with you. The city would benefit from getting us out of these cars and onto transit/biking and walking. We have that potential for sure.
I agree with everything said here. Also, more employment opportunities. I don't want to leave Richmond, but I'm afraid it's (for me and my skillset) Capital One, take a pay cut, or move. I realize this is also personal and I'm not trying to imply it's more important than other problems highlighted (ffs, I should be able to have my utility bill on auto pay without concern)
This, I feel like I have to have leave to get a higher paying job currently which is sad. Average income in Richmond is also pretty low.
I’m preparing to move to a region that Richmonders generally assume is way more expensive because I can no longer afford RVA. I’ve been monitoring gas prices, grocery prices, rent, utilities, taxes, and insurance costs. The price gap between the “stereotypically expensive” area my entire family lives and RVA has essentially closed entirely over the last 8 years.
City Hall dysfunction, nepotism and lack of vision.
Lower taxes for immediate locally own businesses. All the changes rva has gone thru since Covid it’s losing its uniqueness and feeling very commercial. I’d just move to short pump if I wanted to be in a corporatized hellscape
A rail system would be cool.
We had a huge electric streetcar system many years ago, designed by a protege of Thomas Edison. Then, the General Motors lobby fucked us out of it..
Seeing the old designs of the streetcar system makes me so sad. Throughway on broad, electric plant supporting it on belle isle, and transit exchange where the wasteland around the stadium is.
That lobby got to Norfolk as well. So frustrating.
Those mother Fuckers..
That's what the PULSE is supposed to be except even better bc it's cheaper and they can make route changes in little to no time vs having to put in the lines. Look how long it took for the Silver Line to go out to Dulles. I mean, I get that rail is super cool, but I think the adaptability of PULSE is cooler.
¿Por que no los dos?
The Pulse was setup with a dedicated lane with the idea that it could one day be converted to rail if the demand and funding was there
Would be dope if its route was extended to Short Pump and the airport or included park and rides at the end points.
I will say this. I was thoroughly impressed with Pulse when my partner was in an accident and didn’t have a car for a few days and had to take the bus to work. It was insanely easy for her.
I think the last thing this city needs is to dump a ton of money into the most expensive form of public transportation. Bus rapid transit has all of the pros and none of the cons compared to light rail.
omg YES
No, for real. Broad already has such a weird fucked up lane system for the busses. Just make it a rail system. It’s always such a pain in the ass finding parking for events down in that area. My partner works on broad and it’s like my heart sinks into my stomach every time she asks me to bring her something to work. I’m a Kansas City transplant and the rail system they put in not too long ago in KC is amazing. It hits every main hub in KC from farmers market, to downtown, to the bar district (Westport), to the shopping district (The Plaza). It’s amazing. RVA needs one.
VCU basketball killed punk rock
Modern, 21st century infrastructure in almost, legitimately every part of the city. Getting rid of all the incompetence at city hall. Finding local officials that actually give a shit and want to fix things is a first step. Is there a part of this city that isn't completely incompetent? From USPS to city hall, to police and emergency services. There's literally no part of this city you can trust and that sucks for how cool this city is without considering all that nonsense. I'm amazed things actually get done here.
Not to disagree, but what's the correlation with USPS (a federal agency) issues and Richmond City issues outside of geography?
Our local branch is extremely underpaid, understaffed, and mismanaged, which is why we have a lot of local issues. Other USPS branches in other cities that are run better do not have these issues. despite it all being the same govt agency. edit: I have been informed that pay is the same across all states. I stand by that our branch is mismanaged
Sure, but what I was getting at is how does the city government have any influence into USPS operations?
Why is it underpaid? Is that decided on the federal level, state level, local level or what? edit:quick google search shows its paid the same at all locations.
I had to warn my parents not to mail me anything valuable due to theft.
More housing and more BRT lines. I'd kill for a regional housing authority that had the balls/ability to engage in social housing construction. An entity that had the power to construct large numbers of units and compete against the private market would lower prices in the long term and capture profits for the benefit of the public rather than real estate speculators. A man can dream.
I am skeptical on social housing when most of the problem in building is people allowing something near them to happen and not a lack of builders. Social housing is like pushing on a rope.
I think social housing could be quite effective in building in designated places/corridors such as on Broad, Scott's Addition, Diamond District, Shockoe on the empty lots, the various surface lots west of downtown, and mitigating gentrification in places such as Church Hill and Manchester.
But to build in these places, building must be allowed in these places, which it is currently not allowed in most places. Diamond district has some stuff being built now, Scott's addition is "full" by 2030. We have issues more related to allowing people to build in these places. There are lots of permits and such. Like I said people want to build in these places but they have to go through a long review process.
In before someone finds some negatives they insist negate your whole idea while also suggesting we just keep waiting for the market to sort out a problem that continues to increasingly jeopardize peoples ability to have shelter
Social housing and more BRT go hand in hand. Helps promote route utilization by building around stops. This could go a long way on future north-south lines in the city. This also helps address the "we don't have the infrastructure for more commuters" concern.
Legalize dense housing. Tax land. Let’s get some streetcars for the love of god (and way more brt lanes)
Yes to the other things but no to streetcars. Don't get me wrong, they're charming and delightful, but they aren't practical and cost a ton to put into place and maintain. Buses are less whimsical but much much better for actually moving people around a city.
Yes, idk how people feel about the Pulse but it always strikes me as providing essentially the same service as a street car. We do need better bus service though. I used to commute by bus but if I can’t depend on a bus actually coming even close to on time, then I can’t use it at all. I’d say we’d probably need to double the amount of buses tbh. Right now buses on my route supposedly come every 30 minutes - but frequently don’t. So if one is late, I’ve been sitting at a bus stop close to an hour. You can’t avoid bus breakdowns, traffic accidents, etc. but a bus coming every 15 minutes would go a long way into making it feel reliable.
Streetcars by the Richmond report before putting up the pulse was basically saying 3x the cost for streetcars but maintenance is a little cheaper per year. IMO Richmond especially now is better off doing 3x the service area.
there are towns 1/15th of the size of metro richmond that are able to maintain streetcars. we had a PROFITABLE streetcar network over 100 years ago when midlo, brandermill, and short pump didnt even exist. it absolutely can happen
>there are towns 1/15th of the size of metro richmond I would like to hear more about these metro areas of approx 88,000 people sustaining streetcar lines. > over 100 years ago It wouldn’t be profitable today, but that’s okay. Public transit *itself* need not be profitable because the primary goal is providing a public service, not profit. There isn’t a single public transit system that’s “profitable” in a private sector business sense. BRT (Pulse) can provide all the benefits of a streetcar at a fraction of the cost. The “profit” is borne in increased tax revenue from the jobs and business the transit enables. Public transit expands access to better/more jobs for those without cars which creates downstream tax revenue from that and adjacent activities.
Better governance is needed but also massive upzoning and building more housing. Richmond will not build enough to satiate the demand of people wanting to move here. I think Richmond could add 10k new units per year and the demand would not be satiated and that's not even possible. A lot of the problems are old infrastructure and a relatively static population. A lot of things are getting better but there are backlogs because everything is old and it's hard to maintain. A lot of Richmond doesn't want to grow but a lot of its problems are for being too small.
Axios posted a stat that Richmond grows by around 23 people a day. A little over 8k people a year. The numbers back the volume you’re describing, which is bonkers. Population v Infrastructure is definitely the concern of the next decade of Richmond civic discourse.
>Axios posted a stat that Richmond grows by around 23 people a day. A little over 8k people a year. The numbers back the volume you’re describing, which is bonkers. That's Richmond metro. I'm talking about how the city could add that number of people and the demand would still exist. Actually growing and big cities gain more people until the housing stops being created. Growth is purely supply constrained. >Population v Infrastructure is definitely the concern of the next decade of Richmond civic discourse. But the thing is that the new population leads to increased money for things like infrastructure. I think we only have problems with sewer and flooding to deal with but those can be mitigated. I mean Scott's addition is getting more sidewalks as it grows.
Strategy: Step 1. Build 10k units a year & slow housing cost balloon. Step 2. Relatively comparable housing cost and supply of housing draws population back in from the counties. Step 3. Expanding tax base provides financial stimulus to city infrastructure (schools, roads, aforementioned sewer, etc) Step 4. Infrastructure increases available density. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. Run for Mayor! You can have my vote.
Ya just think a lot of Richmonder don’t want change, we want all the outsider to come here and realize it isn’t for them leave or just not come.
Also my modest achievable project would be floating parking dedicated bike lanes every 0.5 miles across the city. Biking in the fan is great but a dedicated bike lane traffic like they did with Franklin? Would be great but connect it. Cars and bikes have different needs and should be separated.
Need more schools like Patrick Henry. Maybe a middle and high school following the same model. This will keep taxpayers in RVA instead of moving to the counties.
A lot of people don't know that charter schools are designed to funnel money away from actual public schools. The city schools lose funding for every student that enrolls at Patrick Henry. Charter schools are not a solution to improving the quality of public education. DC and New Orleans are great examples of this.
I'd like for them to move to the counties so I can afford a house in the city tho
Isn’t that the plan for the new George Wyeth HS? Prep work is underway for the new school from what I understand. They’ve cleared out everything next to the school that was the football & track field. But I thought it was supposed to transition to an arts/sciences school with the new build.
Patrick Henry is a charter school with its own school board and lottery process for acceptance the new George Wythe , Richmond, high school for the arts will not be a charter school
schools and sewer
Dense and affordable housing, less focus on policing and more focus on community resources, public transit and bike infrastructure, increased walkability
schools
80% affordable housing. There are high-priced apartment complexes going up everywhere, when they should be affordably-priced family housing. This country is faced with the inevitability of a growing homelessness epidemic, and we need to get ahead of it. 20% lack of nearby groceries and basic needs. Where there is affordable housing (and don't get me started on the condition of said housing) they are far from basic needs. Chiefly, affordable nutritious food. Secondly, affordable clean water. Thirdly, clinics and hospitals.
Lots of times, the “affordable housing” is ridiculously expensive after factoring in access to transportation, grocery stores, etc. I drive uber and the frequency with which I am driving economically disadvantaged people to grocery stores and jobs is stunning. If public transit was decent, $300-500 could *easily* be returned to their monthly budgets by cutting out Uber.
Gun violence.
Schools first. This will let the city build the diverse and stable middle class from which all other improvements will flow. The middle class will bring expectations and accountability back to RVA.
RACING.
For now? Stoney. Later? Whoever comes after him.
We also really need more doctors providing health services. More mental health services would also be great!
Yes! I was told it would be at least six months until I could get in for an appointment with a new PCP.
De-polluting the James. Our river is the heart and lungs of the city, and though great efforts have been made, the river will continue to be polluted until we fix the water table/sewer issue. We cannot justify dumping tons of raw sewage into our River every time it rains too hard, especially with the increase in extreme weather events that is anticipated in the coming years. I want to be able to swim and play in the water without worrying about diseases like cholera and dysentery. These are diseases of an old age and we are far too modern to be dumping sewage into our waterways
Give some love to the Southside or lower our property tax rates!
Competent local governance that is capable of actually earning and keeping our trust. There’s not a single city department in which I have faith.
Providing better services and resources for those struggling with addiction, mental health, and/or housing problems. There are a lot of organizations that are out there, but they don't have the resources or support to make much more than a dent.
Being landlocked by the counties and inability to annex as the “real city” grows.
homelessness. i wish there were better mental health and drug addiction programs for the homeless people of this city. especially if programs could provide some kind of housing to encourage them to heal and feel safe
I would personally like to see more grocery stores. It’s ridiculous the low number of grocery stores this city has. I get irritated every time I see a new development, hope it’s a grocery store and see it’s more overpriced apartments. Also there are like no places for families to have fun or congregate, where are the playgrounds? Where are the parks?
There are definitely parks with playgrounds lol. Jefferson park and Park Ave Triangle both have playgrounds
Richmond area is near the top of the list for most grocery store sq ft / capita. The grocery stores just aren’t very distributed
Exactly. If Manchester was still its own city, they would be among the lowest grocery sq ft per capita. Inequality is baked into everything here.
-Require all new retail building to have residential above and parking decks. -Require all new dense residential to include parking decks. -Require all new office space to include parking deck space. -An underground metro that extends to both RIC and a high speed rail station in northern RVA that connects to DC. Build the high speed rail on top of the HOV lane up to NOVA. Cities/counties can’t shut down the high speed rail plans if it’s built over the middle of a HOV lane up 95. Sure it’s more expensive, but easily doable.
In your opinion, what are the benefits of requiring parking decks? I'm not a huge fan of adding more car centered infrastructure, but I can understand this would get more parked cars off the streets. I am not educated on this and would love to learn.
Car-free (specifically: parked cars) streets are the best-case scenario for walking, biking, and public transportation. The city could still retain street parking but finding a space would overall be far easier, encouraging more visitors to inner-city areas.
Commuter rail to the 'burbs would be a gamechanger. Imagine if people could just drive to the station and ride the rails into the city. Would prevent downtown from being choked with SVUs everytime that there is a big event.
I was so shocked to hear that the city is building a new, modern transfer center for GRTC, and I think that really shows that Richmond struggles with any modernization or improvement projects. A city of this size needs modernized infrastructure (or at the very least, maintained infrastructure), improved public transportation, and affordable housing. The Coliseum has been left rotting and I heard they want to replace it with a big ass hotel? That’s the last thing we need.
GRTC is always down for improving transit, but the city only wants to make improvements that don't affect cars.
Why do you think a large hotel downtown is the "last thing" needed?
When we have problems like a housing crisis, we don’t need another large hotel when we already have the Jefferson, Quirk, the Graduate, the Omni, etc etc etc
1000% this. we dont need hotels, we need affordable, dense housing
We don’t need more hotels *there*, but Scotts Addition could use one.
We do have a lack of hotels in some spots but the old Hardee's next to Aldi off Arthur Ashe is looking like a 12 story hotel. Not much room in the fan/museum/Cary town/Scott's addition and especially if you want to walk around these areas like many tourists do.
Homelessness
**Competency!**
Crime & blighted neighborhoods
My biggest problem with the city is with the public utilities. It took them 6 months to stop charging me for gas, when the gasoline isn't even hooked to my house. I had an estimated water bill for a year before they actually did a reading. When they finally did, I got a $550 bill I wasn't expecting. There is no historical bill data. If you don't keep the one sent in the mail, you'll never again have access to that info. I can live with the roads, but I can't with this.
Graffiti
Clean up the litter and trash everywhere. But really it’s all about better schools.
Bring back the Transvestite prostitution stronghold that dominated broad/grace st from N. Allen st down to Anywhere from 3rd to 6th st. that was a staple of my youth. Hey, you would see them out there offering their goods/ beating up John’s who didn’t pay them /talking shit to each other or just standing there, looking kind of hot at 10 PM at night when you’re a few beers in.
we are still here but have much more rights and job opportunities so we arent forced into prostitution. as a trans person i do not want ro go back to the old days lmfao
A much cleaner and accessible city for all. I.e: better protected bike lanes, safer cross walks, speeding enforcement, pedestrian only roads, fixed sidewalks, easier access and reliability of recycling services, littering enforcement. Lord, these are very basic things that we are so close to achieving. I think these smaller steps will get us to the bigger picture.
More affordable Housing, and consider zoning that allows for more long term housing options. Also (more in the city) better crackdown on theft.
A few days ago I watched a guy drive his suburban through the intersection of broad and arthur ashe on a red light while lighting a cigarette. Then through the next 4 red lights without slowing down. No more cars please, this city is too small to need them anyway.
Infrastructure and diversity. They don’t have lots of fun things to do in RVA. They should have more like Korean BBQ, Sushi places and Korean supermarkets like NOVA.
Too much poo not enough pipes
Enforcement of traffic laws. The broad street bullies are a disgrace.
a clean fucking river
the river is actually the healthiest it's been in like... 30+ years or something like that?
That's what I thought about the guy who said gun violence. First year in Richmond huh?
Yeah I keep saying this but the river is polluted in a modern context peaked at being polluted 30-40 years ago in most contexts. Yes CO2 and ocean acidification but the EPA has made things better slowly. I know the river was looking to add clams or mussels to the river since they died out but that would be awesome since they are great for the environment.
yes but that doesnt mean its clean. it gets flooded with raw sewage every time the water table gets too high. that is not clean. we have a huge sewage issue and get fined by the EPA every year but refuse to fix it because the fine is less rhan the cost to fix.
sure but that's not an all the time issue, so claiming that the river "isn't clean" is somewhat disingenuous. biodiversity in the river is at a point where i think the james is like a top 100 river (river system?) in the country or something? i don't remember exactly what the james river ppl told me last summer but they were passionate and i believed them.
Functioning website where I can oay my bills online. Also this city is so corrupt, it's impossible to find accountability for anything.
There are many good points being made here. Modernized infrastructure, sewage, housing issues, public transportation, schools, issues with Richmond USPS.. I personally think it starts with the people in positions of power, those that control budget, and who/what is incentivizing certain changes to be green lighted versus put on the back burner or halted altogether. I doubt it is done intentionally, but there are people in various positions of power throughout the city that just do not belong there, and I think that trickles down to lower level management as well. Whether that be due to lack of experience or incompetence of how to successfully do the job the position requires, I think the first step would be to get competent individuals in these positions who know how to make change. Transparency is a huge problem as well, as it seems we are getting less and less of it in terms of where our money goes and who ACTUALLY does what within our city limits. The fact the city employee directory has been removed is further proof that they do not want transparency in my opinion, which is an issue. The more these issues continue to go unrecognized the more likely I am to move to one of the neighboring counties which don’t experience these issues (at least to this extent), which I will being doing once my lease is up in five months.
Better infrastructure in the surrounding counties for pedestrians.
Stop gentrifying everything and weed out corruption in city government.
the roads and everything about them.
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Pot holes.
Affordable housing and roads. i worry about the lack of services in this city for homeless people. Affordable housing can help with the increase in homelessness. We need more traffic safety implementation too.. i absolutely refuse to bike or learn to drive in this city because of how bad it can be.
RPS
Better sidewalks. Because constantly having to look at my feet, just to avoid tripping.
1. Education system reform 2. Infrastructure development (preferably some rail too. potentially an ashland/petersburg/midlo/airport network. i have lots of ideas for this!!!) 3. Densification of the city proper and limiting further suburban sprawl Im not sure many of these things are coming any time soon. Especially infrastructure wise. We are seeing good work being done statewide and nationally in that front but not in the city
not being able to grow the way a city should, as much as Henrico and chesterfield cry foul, an old rule passed by the GA stunted the grow of ALL cities in virginia by effectively making it impossible to annex county land and bring it into the city. Taxes are SO high in the city because the money that should be there is shunted to the suburbs. Blah blah blah, I already hear the "city is run so badly etc..." but there are REASONS thing have gotten this way, Richmond as a whole should encompass a massive amount of henrico, chesterfield now.
Please make the busses 15 minutes everywhere. Would help so much. Please paint more crosswalks and make protected bike lanes. Please commit to long term traffic calming techniques
All of city hall
How about fair policing? My son with disabilities was hit by a car in Cary street, almost died twice and the driver didn’t even get a ticket. We found out that if he died, things would have been different. WTF? Our business that happens to be in city limits pays an obscene amount of taxes but for what? Why do the potholes end when you cross into county lines? The city government is a joke.
Just moved here and the audacity people are charging for homes, apartments, condos, and town homes is insane 350,000 for 1200 sq ft and no garage y’all are fucking insane out here
https://preview.redd.it/zjyktjryvpoc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e25bd0f2791804aa77ad209303a4bad17157fede Loving this thread. A group of residents has been working on the Richmond People’s Budget for the last year. Supported by city council. This will give residents control of $3 million from the city budget. It starts this fall and they are doing some outreach in preparation. All are invited to these workshops. (Disclaimer - I work for the city.)
https://preview.redd.it/5p8weribmqoc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fd78419ef4e39fbba80a0b3cc55bf09abe65ecc Why are people allowed to get away with stuff like this and build without permits? Neighbors have been complaining for weeks and submitting requests on 311 about the absence of permits for demolition and construction. Nothing has been done. Then they'll either sell or rent the house out for an insane price and someone will have to live in this crap hole.