Thread by @RVAdirt

Tonight we have dueling threads! I’ll be live tweeting the first 3rd district meeting hosted by councilperson Kenya Gibson! In her email she said 3rd district #RPSBoard member Ali Faruk would be speaking but no agenda announced in advance other than that. 🧜‍♀️

Also of note, when they switched this to virtual they made people pre-register to get a zoom link. So far there’s a pretty good turnout! 🧜‍♀️

About 45 people are logged in tonight. That includes any speakers and Gibson and her staff. 🧜‍♀️

Sarandon Elliott is Gibson’s council liaison and is heading off the meeting. They are starting with zoom norms: stay muted when not speaking, use raise hand feature, do not interrupt people when speaking. 🧜‍♀️

Agenda is RPD updates, pine camp/parks and rec update, and RPS budget. 🧜‍♀️

Gibson chimes in to welcome everyone. Keeps comments brief and just about goal of forming community through these meetings. 🧜‍♀️

A captain is going to speak from RPD. He is off mute but is not speaking. We’re chalking it up to technical difficulties and are moving on for now. 🧜‍♀️

Pine camp outreach coordinator is here. Talking now. Spring classes are underway. Guitar, pottery, aikido, cultural arts, etc. Registration is closed for those but can look forward to is fall. Most popular class is pottery class. Check back in June for pottery schedule. 🧜‍♀️

Next up is summer camp programs. Nature film camp, art dance camp, pine camp spotlight camp that’s a mix of dance theater and art. These are June to August camps. Registration is open now. 🧜‍♀️

One person is now asking what’s up with pickleball lessons. Catalog looks like they have no pickleball lessons. Says none at pine camp. Hotchkiss used to offer pickleball but it’s undergoing construction. Parks and rec person offers email up to communicate further about this. 🧜‍♀️

Captain James Laino is back with us. He’s the captain of 4th precinct. Ended last year with 4% reduction in violent crime and a 6% reduction in property crime in 3rd district. This year starting off with increase in violent crime— aggravated assaults specifically. Down 32% in

property crime. For 26% decrease of all major crimes. Theft from motor vehicles is a huge issue. Don’t leave things in your car in view. Lots of package thefts. Ring camera footage helps but people wear hats and masks so hard to identify. 🧜‍♀️

As weather warms up theft of lawn mowers and garden equipment picks up. From garages or detached sheds. Make sure those are locked and check on it periodically. 🧜‍♀️

One question: what’s the update on the Ennis motel. They met with owner on 2 occasions. A lot of demands made by community are starting to take place: upgraded lighting and video cameras. Working on wall taken down. Lots of positive changes. 🧜‍♀️

Sorry typo, the Enys motel. 🧜‍♀️

Next question is what’s going to happen with all these vape shops. How did these all of a sudden pop up. Captain says they wish zoning was on to talk about that. They had an issue with one located at 6 points and did a lot of work with that location including a search warrant.

Recovered a lot of marijuana and hand guns out of that location. Says not all are like that but it is a concern for them. Looks to community to bring issues to them like hanging out at all hours. Officers are aware and periodically check on them. 🧜‍♀️

Next question so there’s no kind of ordinance you can only have so many vape shops in an area. Says they are plentiful around here. Gibson chimes in and says there have been proposed bills at state level to regular vapes. There was a GA bill that restricted near schools. 🧜‍♀️

Says because of Dillon rule cities are limited in laws they can enact. But there has been legislation at state level. Captain says they have raised the question too including limiting hours but nothing they are aware of. Captain says counties have additional restrictions

on those kinds of businesses but nothing in Richmond.

Another question is if gunshot detection systems are being used in the 3rd district. Says they are implementing that around city but it’s only in 1st precinct right now. Doesn’t know if it will continue or is just a pilot project. 🧜‍♀️

Another person chimes in to thank them for occasional speed enforcement on Brookland parkway. Thanks for keeping that under control. Captain says only 2 motor officers are assigned to whole city. 🧜‍♀️

Another question is if there is anything that can be done to increase compliance with pedestrian crosswalks especially on chamberlayne. Says that’s difficult to enforce on large blocks. Question asker clarifies that he was talking about cars complying not pedestrians. 🧜‍♀️

Captain says do you have a specific timeframe and location officers can patrol? Question asker says north of BPB and south of laburnum on chamberlayne people don’t pay attention. Even had a police officer roll through once. 🧜‍♀️

Captain suggests an education campaign. Says people may not understand if they’re going 35MPH down chamberlayne that they have to stop at a crosswalk where someone is standing at curb. Q asker says talk to Portland organ where they did a huge campaign involving ticketing drivers.

Next speaker lives on chamberlayne and says it’s terrifying to cross that street and highlights the number of schools and students crossing. John Marshall track team runs across there. It’s scary. 🧜‍♀️

Ali Faruk, 3rd district #RPSBoard rep is here talking. He is also inviting Matthew Stanley in from RPS. Faruk says right now RPS staff has drafted the budget and the board is now reviewing it. 🧜‍♀️

Faruk says what’s important is aligning budget with what the public wants. Says they did strategic plan feedback and that’s shown in this budget. Says there are 3rd district specific items too. 🧜‍♀️

Here is a link to a blog post Faruk put together that details the budget:

alifarukrva.com/updates/intro-…

Budget this year is a 43M increase (~10% increase) which is largest request from Kamras. Here’s a breakdown of what areas the increases go toward. 🧜‍♀️

Matthew Stanley goes on to elaborate on some details of the budget items. He is using Kamras’s email newsletter as a supporting document. 🧜‍♀️

Next school board budget work session is Tuesday February 25th at 6PM. 🧜‍♀️

Faruk says there was also $7M of budget reductions in the budget including $4M of that is reducing how much RPS pays for teacher healthcare. Faruk worries this will hurt teacher retention. It’s what he is hearing most about. 🧜‍♀️

Next budget steps are SB will officially pass a budget to go to city council. Then that goes though the city budget process then come back to school board to make more changes. 🧜‍♀️

First question asker is a teacher! About CIP budget. Says the money hasn’t been spent from last year. Her school has a bunch of repairs needed. They did some bandair repairs but roof is still leaking leading to mold issues including fungus growing. 🧜‍♀️

Faruk says normally city gives separate funds for buildings ($17M last year) so why aren’t these funds being spent? Says some operational challenges around these like time it takes for RFPs to be put out and sometimes repairs have to have empty buildings to be done. 🧜‍♀️

Question asker is comparing her schools
Mushroom situation to another school having nice fences and stone work being done. Faruk shares that his kids go to Obama elementary and had to request an inspection of the school because their kids were so sick all the time. 🧜‍♀️

Next person is asking a question about how to volunteer with schooled the best answer is Communities in Schools (CIS). 🧜‍♀️

Now Gibson is talking about the intersection at laburnum and hermitage. Says the temporary set up (except art work) will be in place by March 12th which is shown in this image below. This includes flex posts, plastic bump outs, and asphalt art. 🧜‍♀️

This doesn’t include great clarity around fall Line trail and how that plays in. Gibson is pushing for more info on that.

Someone asked a question about if there will be an uninstall date of the temporary improvements and the answer is there is none. 🧜‍♀️

Code refresh meetings!

2/26 4-7PM at Huguenot high school
2/27 9AM-12PM at city hall lobby
2/27 4-7PM main branch library

Panel discussion on housing and Richmond’s zoning refresh is 3/11 from 7-830PM at a TBD location 🧜‍♀️

Sarandon is giving a plug for RVA 311 because that’s the first stop to getting our potholes, sidewalks, stormwater, tax billing, street lights and more addressed. You can call 311 or use the rva311 app or go to 🧜‍♀️rva311.com

Next district meeting is March 19th at 6PM at John Marshall High School. Itll always be the 3rd Wednesday of the month. 🧜‍♀️

You can sign up for Gibson’s newsletter here: mailchi.mp/a64346df6f45/r…

And that is the end of tonight’s meeting! 🧜‍♀️

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