Good morning, RVA: Murders, memorialization, and a logistical note

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and today’s highs are back up in the 60s. Expect a similarly warm tomorrow, and then temperatures to drop through the holiday week.

Water cooler

Today, City Council’s Public Safety committee will meet at 12:00 PM and hear a presentation on homicides from the Richmond Police Department (PDF). The aforelinked PDF is filled with interesting (and morbid) chartsandgraphs on the last ten years of murder in Richmond. While I knew that the number of homicides had gone up in recent years, I hadn’t realized that 2017 saw more than double the homicides (66) compared to the historic lows of 2008 (32). Unchanged in the last decade is the fact that—overwhelmingly—young, Black people are the victims. The back half of the PDF contains a short write up of RPD’s findings, strategy, and responses. It includes this sentence about public housing, which I don’t think I’ve heard phrased quite this way before: “The placement, size, and nature of Public Housing has created, essentially, a super development of Gilpin, Mosby, Fairfield, Whitcomb and Creighton with a total of 2,639 units contained in .65 square miles.” Looking at the map of homicides in Richmond, though, it looks a lot like a map of density rather than just a map of public housing. The shooting map, less so. Regardless, I do not believe that the existence of public housing “causes” violence. Our current implementation of public housing, though, is unjust. We need to do better, we need a bunch of different solutions and tools, and we need to get started two decades ago. Anyway, those last few sentence are pretty far out of my lane in a couple of different ways, so take them with a grain of salt. Deconcentrating poverty remains one of the City’s goals, and, in fact, is one of the RPD’s stated needs to reduce homicides: “Reduction of the concentration of poverty that exists through redevelopment into mixed use, mixed income developments. Elimination of ‘barracks style’ housing.”

Richmond Public Schools had a public hearing on rezoning last night, and you’ve got to take a minute to listen to this public comment from a student at Franklin Military Academy. I swear, every time I interact with a young person I’m amazed by how clever and thoughtful they are. Makes us olds and our generations look like trash!

Mel Leonor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch covers the return to Richmond of the remains of 53 people of African descent found in a 19th-century well on VCU’s medical campus in 1994. These people’s bodies were “likely stolen from fresh graves or taken from hospital deathbeds to be used for the training of medical students.” You can learn more about the background and process behind VCU’s East Marshall Street Well Project and listen to a bit of the Mayor’s remarks.

Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water / look at a calendar: Mayor Stoney’s Squad will host a NoBro townhall tonight at Albert Hill Middle School (3400 Patterson Road) from 6:00–7:30 PM. Related: Roberto Roldan at VPM has a two-minute video explaining TIFs. It’s a perfect video for those of you who’ve gotten this far into the NoBro conversation but never really learned about TIFs and now its too embarrassing to ask so you just play along and say things like “Ahhhh yes, the ol’ TIF mechanism.” or “I’ll tell you what, this TIF certainly won’t shrink in the wash!” or “TIF? More like Tom I. Farrell, am I right??”

Some unsurprising, but still sign-inducing sentences in this RTD piece by Michael Martz about the Governor’s resistance to repealing Virginia’s right-to-work law 💸. For example, “Northam was flanked on one side by a row of business leaders that included Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell and on the other by legislative leaders of a politically transformed assembly. They included House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, whose party will become the minority in January, and House Appropriations Chairman Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, defeated for re-election after 22 years in the House.” And, “Business groups praised Northam’s remarks.” Cool, cool, cool. Stuff like this should be further evidence that the New Dem Majority in the General Assembly does not suddenly mean Virginia transforms into a liberal wonderland.

Sarah Vogelson at the Virginia Mercury says that the Commonwealth might get a plastic bag tax this year. Take THAT liberal wonderland!

Logistical note: With Thanksgiving headed our way in just a couple of days, I’m going to take the rest of the week off. May your week be filled with rest, reading, movies, carbs, and some sort of gravy. Catch you on Monday!

This morning’s longread

Why is architecture and building so different in Europe?

Look at this nerd thing! Have you ever wanted to learn about architecture and building materials in Europe and how government can play a role in improving both—while creating sustainable housing?? Surely you have wondered about this exact thing!

The project procurement process, especially for social housing projects, institutional, and governmental projects, is largely driven by juried design competitions resulting in actual buildings. There are numerous forms, open or restricted, one-stage, multi-stage. Some, like EUROPAN, are restricted to architects under 40. Competitions allow the public or its representatives to select solutions that exceed the bare minimum of the brief. They are far from perfect, but tend to result in high-quality, well-designed projects, elevating the quality of life for users and residents. The predominant procurement process in the U.S., Request for Proposals (RFP), stifle creativity and innovation. There are no guarantees that projects will be of a high quality, nor is there generally incentive to exceed program requirements (e.g. meet Passivhaus), ensure projects work contextually, or push innovation. RFPs largely result in the same firms that excel at one or two project types winning that work and churning out banal projects that meet the minimum requirements of the brief. They are also are a means to prevent younger firms from breaking into markets, even though they may have the adequate experience for that particular project type.

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