Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #navyhill
Most recents (10)
Twitter made me mad today. Must be time for an #RVAMayor Campaign thread!
Incumbent Mayor Stoney says "I choose Richmond." WTF does this mean? Lots of things. But it also suggests a campaign strategy
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Incumbent Mayor Stoney says "I choose Richmond." WTF does this mean? Lots of things. But it also suggests a campaign strategy
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Stoney's tenure has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. Before #GeorgeFloyd, it seemed the failed #NavyHill development would be the albatross that possibly ended his career. But the #BLM protests have made his re-election prospects even trickier
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A lot of folks, largely conservatives and property owners, oppose protests by default. They don't understand them, & rely on media and authorities who continue to refer to "violence" and "looters" to de-legitimize any political claims that animate them
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Holy crap! *FIVE* #RVACouncil members have asked @LevarStoney to withdraw the #NavyHill proposal and basically start over. A few quick thoughts:
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First, the particular 5 opponents are not a surprise - @KristenRVA, @KimGray4RVA, @Stephanie4RVA, Reva & Chilbert all co-patroned a resolution asking the Mayor to pull the plug on the current version of #NavyHill 2/ gallery.mailchimp.com/e8a895b36da6b8…
The resolution itself is pretty 🔥🔥🔥for a document filled with WHEREAS's. It takes Stoney to task for, among other things, only allowing 92 days for responses to the RFP and, oh year, issuing an RFP that perfectly matched one development group's plans rather than city needs 3/ 
Xmas came early for #NavyHill! Commission report released this evening, and will be presented to #RVACouncil in January. Some initial impressions:
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The commission took an interesting tack, offering a color-coded "scoresheet" of issue areas to try to sum up commissioners' feeling on each issue
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Not a lot of positives: TIF assumptions, mixed use, street grid, VCU involvement, minority goals all get "green" coding for generally supported by the commission (though TIF by a 5-4 vote) 3/
Since I was busy trick-or-treating, I must have missed this #NoBro / #Navyhill op-ed in @RTDOpinions on Halloween from developer Michael Hallmark. Just wanted to point out a few things...
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Hallmark points to other cities as model for arenas driving downtown development. His key examples: Columbus, OH; Kansas City; and Allentown, PA.
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The Columbus arena was built mostly by private funds, but had to be bailed out by taxpayers after it lost money for years
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fieldofschemes.com/2017/07/14/126…
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fieldofschemes.com/2017/07/14/126…
#NavyHill, #6thStreet, #StoneBrewing, #Redskins - why does it seem like the city is always involved in a “big shiny project”? Why the same developers, law firms, wealthy elites? Why always #RVA Voldemort Tom Farrell? Social science has answers - 4 of them.
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1st: LOCAL POLITICS ALWAYS ABOUT LAND USE. Paul Peterson notes cities try to "enhance economic position" - basically need to expand tax base to do more stuff for citizens. Main tool? LAND USE - zoning, development incentives, etc.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…
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press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…
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2nd: This means PROPERTY INTERESTS DOMINATE. Landowners want economic development to ensure that their property values go up; city leaders need these owners/developers to grow tax base
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This week's board meeting for @VibrantRRHA was crazy, but clear part of larger program of secrecy and privatization. Simply put: #RRHA & #RVA are abandoning the very idea of public housing.
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First, this week's meeting was a thinly disguised attempt to ram through RRHA's budget priorities w/o public scrutiny, as activists had to scramble to be there and then were kept out by thuggish "crime czar"
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This is part of a larger pattern of secrecy that seems to be the deliberate efforts of newly hired #RRHA Head Damon Duncan to implement plans w/o having to deal w/ pesky community muckrock.com/news/archives/…
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Here's more on the #TIF financing that will pay for #NavyHill arena. How do TIFs go wrong, and can we avoid it here in #RVA? #Thread 1/12
#RVAMayor #RVACouncil
#RVAMayor #RVACouncil
First, a reminder: TIF uses future revenue from a thing to pay for that thing. (More in this thread from last week: ) 2/12
Lots of skepticism about TIF, especially from Chicago, where TIF districts eat up 1/3 of city revenue:
illinoispolicy.org/report-tifs-fa… 3/12
illinoispolicy.org/report-tifs-fa… 3/12
I’m seeing some serious misunderstanding of the financing for the #RVA #NavyHill project - TIF, “TIF district”, which taxes go to pay for what, etc. So let's ask: how will city pay back a $350M loan ($560M w/ interest)? #Thread 1/9 #RVAMayor #RVACouncil
First: city is taking out this huge loan ONLY TO BUILD A NEW ARENA; private $$ pays for hotel, apartments, retail, VCU dorms/labs, and even renovated Blues Armory (GRTC pays for bus transfer station through state funds; no one knows what VCU's role is yet) 2/9
The #NavyHill #RVA downtown development plan includes hundreds of pages in two binders. Why so much paper? I took a look. #Thread 1/
The proposal from @LevarStoney 's office includes NINE proposed ordinances (city laws) and one resolution. The resolution is about any future surplus $$. It's non-binding - basically a political statement, not a law, so I will ignore for now. What's in the 9 ordinances? 2/
The first four ordinances (in my count - they're in no particular order) set up the mechanics of the deal - funding, land ownership, and specific actions for the city and developer. 3/
It’s budget season y’all! #RVAMayor presented his budget to #RVACouncil today. Here is all 826 pages of glory. Imma sift through it and post random thoughts (good, bad, ugly, indifferent) in this thread. 🧜🏻♀️
richmondgov.com/PressSecretary…
richmondgov.com/PressSecretary…
Here’s the readers digest version of the budget highlights. 🧜🏻♀️
richmondvaannouncements.blogspot.com/2019/03/mayors…
richmondvaannouncements.blogspot.com/2019/03/mayors…
