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Jan. 12 Newsletter: A Squirrely situation

Weather: Highs in the upper 40s today; we're monitoring a chance for snow on Friday morning.

On this date in 1983, Ana Maria Sanchez, an adult film star performing at the Lee Art Theatre on Grace Street, goes to court on charges of indecent exposure and possession of drugs. She ended up serving jail time.

The Squirrels stopped playing ball with VCU. But if things get messy, it’s taxpayers who would strike out

Richmond's new baseball stadium, along with an adjacent mixed-use development, is being built mostly on land owned by the city.

However, the portion that currently houses Sports Backers Stadium is owned by VCU. The project was set in motion with verbal agreements, but nothing concrete.

  • The two groups, along with city officials, signed an MOU spelling out terms in October, but haven't been able to finalize the agreement.
  • Friday, the Squirrels said they have ended their negotiations with VCU.

Because of a last-minute financing switch, if the project falls short of revenue projections, taxpayers will be on the hook. VCU's land is a key part of developing the housing and retail those projections were based on. Read more here.

City quietly suspends program to help lower-income Richmonders with housing costs

The Gap Grant program offered financial aid for housing costs, and was part of Mayor Levar Stoney's 2024 alternative to lowering tax rates.

  • The city struggled to get the program off the ground, ultimately distributing less than 10% of the available funds despite hundreds of applications.

City officials told The Richmonder there’s no intention to drop the program entirely. They couldn’t say how long the suspension might last, but said the pause is meant to give officials time to rework and improve the program.

Read more, including one recipient's experience, here.

Another pedestrian death Saturday keeps spotlight on traffic fatalities

After six pedestrians died on Richmond's streets in a three-week span, Mayor Danny Avula followed up a letter demanding immediate action with a press conference on the topic last Thursday afternoon.

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But another pedestrian died over the weekend, this time at Maury and 19th Streets on Richmond's Southside. (CBS 6 news story)

Last week, city officials acknowledged ongoing staffing shortages are affecting the Richmond Police Department, but said officers are still doing what they can to enforce traffic laws. Read more here.

Dukes, delegates and duels: How a charcoal ‘warming machine’ witnessed centuries of Virginia history

As Virginia's General Assembly convenes on Wednesday, take a look back with Daniel Payne as he learns about the triple-decker stove that heated the Capitol building for years.

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Legislators used to gather around it to smoke cigars, so much so that it allegedly began to delay assembly business; the stove was subsequently moved as a result.

The stove also took center stage in a duel of two Richmond newspaper editors and hated rivals in 1866. Learn more about the duel, and the stove's famous creator, here.

In other news

The editor's desk

My first real-world journalism experience was at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, so it was sad to read the paper will be shutting down its operations in May.

It's also tough to see the owners of newspapers fail to demonstrate much in the way of humanity — employees were told in a prerecorded Zoom call. If we are going to demand transparency and openness from civic officials, we must be prepared to meet the same standard.

Michael Phillips, founding editor
mphillips@richmonder.org

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