123fakestreet

Not much quicker without upgrading the track. IIRC between Richmond and DC there are a few upgrades completed with more on the way but they still only allow for a max speed of 90 mph, and even that is probably just very brief sections. All in all I doubt even after everything is completed it will shave more than 20 min off the trip.

Everyone here wants taller buildings downtown, I was curious for myself so may as well share it here: a look at Richmond's tallest buildings. For reference I'm using this wiki page (which may be a bit dated) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Richmond,_Virginia and including only occupiable structures 200 feet or more. There are 3 categories, government, business, and residential, with some sub categories, buildings are listed in order of height. Business Hotel Omni 18 floors Marriot 18 floors 700 E Main St 17 floors Crown Plaza 16 floors Bank Suntrust 26 floors BOA Center 26 floors Law Firm Williams Mullen Center 15 floors Gateway Plaza 18 floors Major HQ Costar 26 floors (uncompleted) Dominion 20 floors Other River Front East 20 floors Riverfront West 20 floors Main St Centre 23 floors Two James Center 21 floors One James Center 21 floors Seventh & Franklin 18 floors 700 E Main St 17 floors Residential Apartments 8th & Main Building 20 floors Central National Bank 22 floors First National Bank 19 floors Wytestone Plaza 18 floors (uncompleted conversion) Monroe Park Towers 18 floors Towers on Franklin 17 floors Hotel John Marshall 15 floors 2000 Riverside Apartments 15 floors Condos Vistas on the James 18 floors Riverside on the James 15 floors Government Federal Federal Reserve Building 26 floors State: James Monroe Building 29 floors One Capital Square 23 floors John Tyler Building 11 floors James Madison Building 15 floors Thomas Jefferson Building 15 floors City New City Hall 19 floors VCU Rhoades Hall 18 floors Brandt Hall 17 floors West Hospital 17 floors Some of the apartments/condos may not be accurate, and I wasn't sure who the primary tenant on some of the "other" businesses are anymore, so looking for corrections from the community. Feel free to draw your own conclusions on what any of this means, just was curious how it broke down.

Yep, we went to DC by train last year and it was very nice. Went again a few months later by car - never again! The traffic is just worse and worse all the time, not only did it take longer than train it was very aggravating. We'll be going to NYC at some point in the next few years too, and that will also be by train.

Here's a map of the riverfront, the amphitheater in Purple and Costar in orange. Would love to see a big apartment go in the aqua blue area, mixed use office/retail, maybe condos in yellow, then finish it out in the dark blue area, realistically probably a larger parking lot, with a new access road in green. Rejuvenate the old canal that runs just north across the blue-purple-yellow areas and make a park/walk along it with some signage noting historical context.

As predicted, once the Folk Festival was over. Also, I had always thought this was going on the other side of the Rd, exactly where the stage always is for the Folk Festival, that area has a much more natural "bowl" to it, looks like the area they are building it they will be taking out some historic ruins.

debuts in 2026, we're still 2.5 years from seeing them in service. I wonder how fast they will roll out and/or entirely replace the existing trains

construction to start in 2029 Chamberlayne was already a sure thing and they still haven't picked the downtown route yet. They did select of the 4 routes south of Broad they chose the 9th st/Manchester Bridge one, from the Commerce or Cowardin southern connector they chose Commerce, then for the main southern extension they chose Mildo over Jeff Davis and Hull. This route is a bit convoluted, hopefully they eventually end up adding a 3rd line straight down Jeff Davis and can just repurpose the Chamberlayne stations onto the new route. They will only be able to do that if they use the Belvidere->broad->9th route through the city for this route though. If they end up using Leigh or Lombardy those stations could not be repurposed.

That's why we need 2 routes. City seems insistent on only 1 route that goes down Chamberlayne as well as thru 9th, so instead of 2 new, well done effective routes I'm sure we'll end up with one hodgepodge inefficient route. Never underestimate the city's ability to mess something up.

yes I'm saying that's clearly the one the should use

First thing I found interesting was Chamberlayne is a definite. Of the 5 options through the city, how can they not use 9th street? 1. Lombardy - this is kind of a side street that puts the route too far west and duplicates too much of the Broad St route. 2. 14th street just seems dumb, who uses 14th st? That's not near anything anyone goes to. 3. 2nd street is just kind of in the middle, either pick Belvidere or pick closer downtown. 4. Belivdere works, but IMO there should be 2 different routes, Belvidere and 9th. 5. 9th St. INSANE to not use 9th, with the transfer plaza, MCV, City Hall & State Gov't buildings, convention center not far away. 9th is dead middle of downtown near everything. The southern 3 routes, again I think there should be 2 routes, 1 due south on Jeff Davis and one down Hull to Midlo. Staying on Hull all the way down I don't think works, it's not nearly dense enough. repost of my model for the BRT I made like a year ago, I still think this is a very realistic model and what we need. It could be constructed based on the options GRTC just presented other than GRTC using Belt blvd to get from Hull to Midlo. https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=15FE9aRK0aSbZC8B6VZTA-Fwh2LYyAmvI&ehbc=2E312F

https://www.henricocitizen.com/articles/grtc-seeking-input-about-proposed-north-south-pulse-routes/ Interactive map so you can see routes up close https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/3411912a876c4607b7a797ff88a09b42/page/Map/?views=View-2

BOOM. If VUU can get its act together on their gateway building this corridor thats long been a major opportunity area could be completely flipped from blight to nearly 100% redeveloped in just a year or 2.

They should cap this off by eliminating that tail end of Seminary. No reason for the road to continue there. That's more land that can be put to use and taxed, and less maintenance for the city.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2023/10/03/six-story-mixed-use-building-gets-initial-nod-for-northside-intersection/ Development at Chamberlayne and Lombardy moving ahead. Glad to see this as I was beginning to worry it might be one of those that gets announced then you never hear anything again (like the one up the street at Chamberlayne and Tazwell). The stretch of Lombardy between Brook and Chamberlayne *really* needs a kickstart, and this development is like a full 20% of that entire corridor.

There are a LOT of vacant lots in MW. If you want every one of them to have a skyscraper they're going to be vacant for another 50 years. I'm fine with *something* almost anything going there that isn't a vacant lot.

totally agree, those look pretty cheap. just 3 steps is fine, gives it a more elegant look and as you noted is functional as well. you don't want to be right down on the street level in a city.

That address is the CarMax building that was just redone... I imagine this isn't that, so where is it?

this is great density but really wish it was going up a few blocks at Cutshaw & Sheppard instead.

What I found a bit funny was her new job is going around educating local governments who don't know about grants and services HUD is able to provide. The implication being she had a lot of experience educating people in that regard with her time in Richmond....

https://richmondbizsense.com/2023/09/18/city-deputy-planning-director-pechin-leaving-city-hall-for-federal-job/

Exactly. "how can you be against green space!?!?!" Because when it's not properly implemented it goes completely unused and it's just a silly waste. We get these big developments and to sell it they say it has green space. The casino is even selling that. Whether you are for the casino or not, literally no one is EVER going to use green space off of Bells Rd next to a casino. If it's city owned then it costs money to maintain, or it goes to crap and there's just weeds and trash everywhere. The only real nice, utilized urban park in the city is Monroe Park. SA and Manchester probably need parks because it's dense and people actually live there, but the city won't do it because there's higher land value there. So instead they throw a park over off of Leigh where there's already a football field and then say "here, see we are pro green space, we gave you a park." And then no one ever uses it because no one lives there and it's not convenient. People aren't going to get in their car and drive to the park, it should be 1-2 blocks away from where they live.

Yes, it's a nicely developed area and doesn't need upgrading while plenty of other places do. Agreed. The issue is that it's not *really* a park right now, but if they designate it as a city park, it will FOREVER be a park, the city is never going to take a park and sell it to a developer.

Ugh, as if there won't be that huge park in the DD a block away, AND the newly completed park a couple hundred feet away in front of the Children's Museum. Just stupid, but people will support it because no one wants to be against green space.

This thing is moving along, seems like they announced it less than 6 months ago, fencing went up, site work started. I wish every project went like this. We've got quite a few that were announced 2+ years ago and not a thing has been done at the site.

Agree, I'll take greencity, the plan looks nice. Just ridiculous how bad the nimbys in this city are that they killed Navy Hill - an excellent plan- because they couldn't understand what a TIF is. I had someone tell me TIFs are a "mess" and have led to lawsuits in Chicago. Yes, there were lawsuits in Chicago because TIFs were so successful and popular some groups sued that their neighborhoods were being left out. . Also the total ignorance of NON RECOURSE bonds. It's literally in the name. The city is not on the hook if the projected taxes don't meet the debt service. Can you tell I'm still iritated? The anti development people and their lies are infuriating how they hold this city back.