asies

Richmond appeared in a top 10 list of where Millennials are moving to. We even edged out Raliegh by a percentage point, lol. Millennials Are Moving to These 10 US Cities (msn.com)

The tallest building in downtown Salt Lake City is a mixed-use residential tower (it is still under construction but is nearly topped out). Additionally, the only other skyscraper under construction in that city is also a residential tower. Most new towers across the country are either mixed-use, hospitality, or residential. Richmond needs to do more to bring people back downtown. Redvelopment of the collesium and adjacent blocks will help but we need a more active and engaged downtown alliance to really help downtown Richmond take off.

I'd also add that while 3,000 in two years is nothing to get excited about, most cities between 2020 and 2022 (including many midsize cities) experienced population loss or zero growth. The 2023 population estimates that will come out Spring 2024 will give a clearer picuture of how Richmond is growing.

Nashville, Raliegh, Charlotte, and Austin are huge in area and include many traditional suburban neighborhoods within city limits that Richmond doesn't have. Richmond is still growing, I wouldn't call almost 3,000 people in two years that were in a pandemic stagnate growth, it just isn't explosive growth. Family size definitefly impacts things. In the cities previously listed a growing family can move into a larger home and better school catachment area while still staying in the city, that is much more difficult to do in Richmond.

Ironclad also has a free coffee station in Concourse B, which I greatly appreciated since the main kiosk was closed when I was waiting to board my flight.

This is common right now, as concrete is more abundant than lumber right now so the parking podium comes up quickly followed by a lull before construction resumes. The project on Monument Ave near I-195 sat idle for at least a month after the parking podium was built, but construction resumed, and it looks like they are framing the third floor right (I teach at TJ and pass it every day driving to work).

Philadelphia is a city-county, which is basically an independent city, lol.

The failed Navy Hill project looks more and more like a blessing in disguise. We will probably get a new arena out of the Green City project, but I don't have a lot of trust in CCP in building what they promised outside of the arena.

While Salt Lake and Richmond have a similar metro size, Salt Lake is very unique as its CSA is 2.7 million and consists of three metro areas that are so close to together and intertwined that they share the same public transit network. Ogden and Provo, the two major cities of the two adjacent metro areas that make up the CSA (called the Wasatch Front), are both about 30-40 miles from Salt Lake City proper. That is why Salt Lake can support NBA and MLS teams and has an extensive rail network with commuter and light rail. In other words, you have probably close to 2.5 million people that live within 30 miles of downtown Salt Lake.

Norfolk isn't building a lot of new housing so as families move away and their housing units are replaced by singles or childless couples, the population shrinks. That could explain Henrico's stagnate growth, larger families moving to Chesterfield while smaller families/single adults move into Henrico. Estimates lean heavily into the birth/death rate and new building permits. While they aren't entirely reliable, especially when a city's official population was undercounted (as I think was the case with Richmond in 2020), estimates usually mirror how a city is growing, or not growing.

US Census 2022 Population estimates are out today for independent cities and counties. The Census Bureau estimates that Richmond's population grew 2,777 people from April 2020 to July 2022 going from 226,618 to 229,395 residents. In comparison, during that same timeframe the CB estimates that Norfolk lost around 5,000 people and VA Beach lost around 4,000 residents. Only Chesapeake (net 3,000 people) and Suffolk (net 4,000 people) had comparable population growth among independent cities. For the counties the CB estimates that Chesterfield added around 12,000 residents, Hanover around 3,000, Goochland about 1,400 and surprisingly the CB estimates that Henrico's population shrunk by about 400 people between 2020 and 2022. Overall it looks like Richmond is still enjoying steady growth especially in comparison to most of the state. The Nova independent cities saw literally no growth. co-est2022-pop-51.xlsx

I think that is what Manchester will end up getting, and as a Manchester resident, I wouldn't mind an Aldi in walking distance.

I would love to see a Greyhound station incorporated into a downtown bus terminal that would make the Greyhound station more accessible via public transit.

I think we will see a mixed-use tower there. The only way a large office tower would go there would be if it was a headquarters or already had secured a significant tenant during the financing phase. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a tower that was a mix of apartments and maybe a hotel.

I taught at George Wythe High School last school year and I am convinced that there was a significant undercount of Latinos in this city. Just during the last school year over 200 new EL (English Language learners) students registered well after the start of the school year. Look at how overcrowded River City Middle is. Reports already show severe undercounts of communities of color, but as someone who worked a lot with Richmond's Latino community I wouldn't be surprised if they were undercounted by a few thousand. Most of the new arrivals are coming from Central America and many of the parents, including many of their kids, struggle to read and write even in their native language and would have needed help to fill out a census form.