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1 week ago | 
richmonder.org | Sarah Vogelsong
Richmond’s Department of Public Works is hoping to get $3.7 million in federal funding to expand its protected bike lanes along Franklin Street near the VCU campus, as well as add sidewalks and other pedestrian safety features throughout Southside. If the city is successful, nearly 65% of the cost of four projects will be covered.
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1 week ago | 
richmonder.org | Laura Finaldi
Many have heard of the Savannah Bananas, the singing-and-dancing, back-flipping, yellow-jersey-wearing baseball team filling stadiums and flooding TikTok feeds everywhere. But the Bananas are just the anchor of a growing sport called Banana Ball, and two of its teams will face off against each other in Richmond this weekend. On Friday and Saturday, the Firefighters and the Texas Tailgaters will compete at the Diamond in the Firefighters' first-ever headlining series.
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1 week ago | 
richmonder.org | Sarah Vogelsong
The federal government has notified Richmond that it will cut only 101 Head Start seats in the city next year, roughly half of what the School Board had requested as part of its plan to deal with chronic underenrollment in the pre-K program. The seat cut would be accompanied by a roughly $1 million reduction in funding.
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1 week ago | 
richmonder.org | Sarah Vogelsong
The first draft maps of Richmond’s new zoning districts are out, and two of the biggest issues concerning reviewers are where density is — and isn’t — being encouraged and how high mixed-use buildings along key transportation corridors should be allowed to rise.
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2 weeks ago | 
richmonder.org | Sarah Vogelsong
The Lombardy Street bridge that crosses a busy stretch of CSX track and serves as a key connector between Richmond’s Northside and the Broad Street corridor could be closed for two years starting in 2027 as the city replaces it. The 122-year-old bridge that sits between Virginia Union University’s campus and that of the Maggie L.
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2 weeks ago | 
richmonder.org | Sarah Vogelsong
For months, members of Richmond’s City Council have been weighing whether they want to take advantage of a new state law that lets local governments place speed cameras at high-risk intersections or whether doing so would strain already tight city resources. In December, City Councilor Stephanie Lynch (5th District) put forward a resolution calling for a study of the possibility and expressing support for the cameras’ installation.
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2 weeks ago | 
richmonder.org | Sarah Vogelsong
The Virginia Court of Appeals has rejected a Richmond man’s challenge to the constitutionality of a state law regulating machine guns. “The Second Amendment,” wrote the court in its June 10 opinion, “does not protect the right to possess dangerous and unusual weapons like machine guns.” The case, which came out of Richmond Circuit Court, stemmed from the July 2023 arrest of Rasheed Fleming on a charge of unlawfully possessing a machine gun for an offensive or aggressive purpose.
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3 weeks ago | 
richmonder.org | Graham Moomaw
Odie Donald II — the current chief of staff to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens — has been hired to serve as the city of Richmond’s next chief administrative officer, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula announced Friday. Before his current role in Atlanta, Donald served for about 16 months as the city/county administrator for the combined government of the city of Augusta and Richmond County in Georgia.
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3 weeks ago | 
richmonder.org | Sarah Vogelsong
As summer begins, Richmond police and the public housing authority are launching two big efforts to tamp down violent crime, particularly in areas officials have identified as hotspots where murders and non-fatal shootings are repeatedly occurring. “As the weather gets warmer, we know that statistically, crime increases,” said Steven Nesmith, CEO of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which oversees the city’s public housing courts.
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3 weeks ago | 
richmonder.org | Sarah Vogelsong
Want to know how your neighborhood could be rezoned under Richmond’s ongoing overhaul of its zoning code? Now you can, after the draft map of proposed new zoning districts went live last month. Click here to view it in interactive form or see the embedded map below. A PDF version is also available here (warning: you’ll need to zoom in vigorously).