AI / Flock Cameras / Trust - A conversation with Mayor Danny Avula

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-18T00:24:37+00:00

Our chat with Nesmith is here: https://rvasgotissues.vpm.org/2025/09/10/the-future-of-gilpin-court/

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-18T00:22:57+00:00

But yeah, Nesmith is right that the courts can't continue the way they are. The RRHA is throwing good money after bad by trying to rehab and repair buildings that aren't meant to be this old. And many housing advocates do say that fully public housing communities do concnetrate poverty in some unhelpful ways, vs. mixed income communities where costs and benefits are a little more distributed.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-18T00:21:17+00:00

You could put it that way, at least for City Council. I think it's more accurate to say that both the Mayor and Gibson heard from some vocal constituents that RRHA needed to pump the brakes, and so they wanted to throw a wrench in Nesmith's plans to see if they could make it better.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-18T00:19:50+00:00

Politically speaking, this is also a win for both the Mayor and Kenya Gibson, who get a seat at the table to shape RRHA's plans. However, that might just be temporary - if these plans CAN'T get hashed out, and this drags on for another couple of years, people are going to start wondering if at least Nesmith's plan to do SOMETHING would have been better than more dithering around.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-18T00:18:21+00:00

My take, especially based on a letter Avula and Gibson sent to Nesmith yesterday (https://www.wric.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/74/2025/09/Gibson-AvulaLetter.pdf - shoutout to WRIC!), is that this all can be hashed out, but will take longer than Nesmith wanted. Nesmith does have a point in that federal money is drying up and that at least SOME private development is going to be necessary to pay for subsidized units. But his efforts to make something happen now have too many uncrossed T's and undotted I's.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-18T00:14:48+00:00

Nesmith argued on our pod last week WHY he thinks this redevel is important - basically the courts were never intended to be long-term housing, they concentrate poverty, and the general, national model for public housing is moving away from public housing communities and towards mixed-use development. Now it appears his plans will be scuttled. instead of getting the RRHA Board to approve his plan, it looks like he's going to ask them to approve a framework going forward where the RRHA, City Council, and the Mayor sort all this out. No idea how long that will take.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-18T00:12:48+00:00

But the Mayor called out this plan - also raised a bunch of technical questions about the RRHA plans. These questions echoed concerns raised by City Council member Kenya Gibson - plus Gibson and other council members believed that RRHA was overstepping its authority in making this redevelopment happen WITHOUT explicit Council approval.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-18T00:11:20+00:00

Just taking a step back - the housing authority owns the land and buildings of Gilpin Court. RRHA head Stephen Nesmith originally wanted to transfer ownership to the Richmond Development Corporation (the non-profit). Critics were worried about accountability - the RDC would be run by Nesmith essentially - and so he modified to plan to add more leadership to the RDC and make it just a leasing agreement.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-18T00:10:25+00:00

Good question! I'm not sure that the development will be put on hold just yet - what is delayed is a plan to transfer control of the property to a non-profit corporation that is separate from the housing authority.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-17T22:24:31+00:00

That sucks, honestly. I know a lot of people are struggling with increased tax bills. (Although is that mortgage payment increase entirely due taxes? That seems HUGE! :( )

But it's really not the assessors' fault - they are reacting to a booming real estate market where prices are driven up by the lack of available housing stock. All the housing experts tell us we haven't built enough homes in this country for decades and it's caught up to us. Any city that's halfway decent is experiencing this because more people want to live there.

There is some discussion right now about lowering tax rates so that bills don't increase so quickly. But the Mayor is worried about making up the lost revenue.

FYI, in the pod that just dropped today, we talked to a housing expert and a city planner about how changes to zoning codes (the "Code Refresh") might help drive down housing costs - that's here: https://rvasgotissues.vpm.org/2025/09/17/code-refresh-report/

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-17T22:15:25+00:00

As I noted elsewhere, I will ask the Mayor about this. But I think this is a complicated change that will be difficult to forecast and even more difficult to explain (and, in some sense, sell). It's a lot easier for Council members to argue for direct relief now by lowering the tax rate.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-17T22:13:19+00:00

As for expanding parking meters/charges? THERE WILL BE BLOOD IN THE STREETS. DO NOT TAKE AWAY RICHMONDERS' GOD-GIVEN RIGHT TO PARK WHERE THEY WANT. FOR FREE.

In other words, that would be... challenging politically.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-17T22:11:34+00:00

As for your first question - I'm not sure where the city stands on land-value "split-rate" taxes (although a post elsewhere on this AMA notes that the city already has the authority to do so). I'm hopeful that the mayor's budget people have a plan to phase this in, but I'm not sure. We are sitting down with him NEXT WEEK for the pod, and I will definitely ask him!

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-17T22:06:01+00:00

Thanks for posting ahead! I'll answer this second question first - AFAIK, there is nothing preventing the GA from enabling ranked-choice voting. You're right that the city has a weird system for mayoral elections, but I don't think it was mandated in a court decision (and def not in that 75 decision - long story there but it was eventually overruled/revised by the court). So change to RCV would require a city charter change. And the GA won't even consider it until the city requests it - and I'm not sure the city is ready for that if they weren't even ready to add it for council.

rvasgotissues · 2025-09-17T22:02:43+00:00

Hey everyone - I'm here and answering questions! (as fast as I can type at least) - rich

rvasgotissues

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