Flood Zone

Jokes aside, it's a worthy project and I like that RVA version of a High Line walkway.

One of my good friends from college was from Phoenix. I was his best man. Back in our college days, Phoenix area municipal golf courses sold an all-you-can-play pass that was ridiculously cheap - like $30 - for the summer months. I guess they sold this on the reasoning that they could capture some "paid-but-unused" gain from people who saw a deal that was too good to be true but ultimately were like "forget this, it's too hot."

This is generally true, but the localities tend to build strategically. Henrico County, for example, expanded Holladay Elementary with significant overflow capacity. This expansion, I believe, was intended to harmonize with a redistricting process that would have alleviated several schools at or near capacity plus keep some rope for the future. Although I believe some changes were made to this extent, the larger redistricting process HCPS launched was shelved following COVID. (The following is strictly an editorialization, but the general topic is relevant whenever you're thinking of building new schools or shuffling around who goes where: What the redistricting process showed, at least to me, is that it's not just numbers -- it's how loud your voice is. The draft plans had alterations to the middle school and high school zones, particularly in the "near west end" portion of the county, that made little sense other than satisfying the loudest, invariably wealthiest neighborhood coalitions. In turn, some kids would be bussed on or across Broad -- a no-no per the safety rubric -- or get sent to a more distant school even though another one was just down the street.)

It's not just demand. There are "supply" issues. Housing supply, yes, but also school supply, hospital supply, etc.

Pain in the … backside

My understanding from some conversations with people in the transportation industry is that south of downtown will be a PITA. So might as well get started on something?

Time for another update on the Michael Hild saga to spike the readership.

Notwithstanding the comment at RBS that this is a blah design, Virginia Supportive Housing serves an important purpose and this is a good thing.

Home-cooked string beans are excellent! Maybe there's a market inefficiency here in that regard. (I do miss Morrison's Cafeteria. Stay memories of loving their green beans.)

I do, too. Although I've never thought of Bandito's as trendy or expensive! It has what you might call "strolling density." Very walkable, and you're bound to hit something fairly interesting within two or three blocks. This particular area, at least to me, has the feel of a slightly packed town. It's ... well, not quaint, but interesting.

Something tells me that this portion would not be a selling point to the citizens who opposed it.

Although true, the fact of the matter is the ACC can sell out 20,000 seat arenas and the A10 can’t come close. So the A10 presumably is paying a lot of money with not much return just for the right to say that their tournament is in the big city. Which is great, but if they ever tire of that model, a new arena in a footprint market represented by two teams might get a crack. That would be our pitch, I’d guess.

Perhaps, although the A10 punches well above its weight in terms of its arena selection. Semifinal and final rounds usually get about 8,000 people; there was a slight uptick for last year's semifinal round because Fordham was involved. It's possible Green City Arena might get a shot if the cost break is good, given there are 2 area teams that could fill the place a bit.

RTD article today says the Green City Arena is "tentatively scheduled to open late 2026 or early in 2027." The article is framed in the context of trying to lure UVA or Virginia Tech to play special games there (perhaps against UR or VCU, who would like that because getting shots at ACC teams would help the A10's strength of schedule). The executive director of the HS&EA says that kind of thing is necessary to get the attention of the NCAA for hosting opening weekend March Madness games.

Well, $35M might pay for the paint job for the new Dulles terminal building.

"No, I don't have seasonal affective disorder. I just live in a Walter Parks building."

"Oh, yes, that's a fresh design from the Urban Contemporary Boredom collection."

The Ryan Homes comment made me chuckle. My wife is a (many, many generations removed) descendant of George Poindexter, a 17th Century bloke originally from the island of Jersey, and old George built his home, Criss Cross, quite close to where I-64 is today in Goochland County. The thing is not too much to look at, but it's been on the NRHP for 50 years. And now I'm imagining Ryan Homes building a 350-home development, Criss Cross Crossing, abutting all corners of the historic property..... Nah, not gonna happen. To be fair to Chesterfield, which I'm not accustomed to being (even though, or perhaps because, I grew up there), Henrico has a distinct "density advantage" by being located so close to historically dense or quasi-dense population centers. Heck, I live quite close to Willow Lawn, and pretty much everyone I know forgets that our house is in the county. It might as well be the city of Richmond. We've got the sidewalks, street lights, tight lots, etc. All it takes for Westwood, Libbie Mill, and Willow Lawn is to retool those areas for a new generation of what it means to be "dense." The closest analog for Chesterfield may well be Bon Air, but that, of course, was an historic getaway area, so not all that comparable.

Yes, that was noted a couple weeks back or so when the RTD quoted Lincoln Saunders as saying he could see groundbreaking in the April through June range (IIRC).

This post has some drawings.

Rather thorough update from Richmond Bizsense. Per the article, Machete Group (the 2nd-place finisher) stepped up as design consultant for the ballpark after the Squirrels got their expanded say in the design. I see this as a good sign because, based purely on the sketches, Machete’s looked the best by far. Lots of other stuff in the article RBS desperately needs a new photo for the Thalheimer guy. I’m really tired of looking at that picture.

OK, but fair warning. That building ain't for the faint of heart. Even coming within 50 yards of it is hazardous to your health.

My wife and I had our first date at Maymont, now many years ago.

Per a May 2017 article in the Washington Post: Since it was announced with great fanfare in June 2014, the project has faced repeated delays, some of them related to land acquisition. The company has yet to begin construction or apply for necessary permits. Two top executives left in recent months. Now parent company Shandong Tranlin Paper Co. says it will "adjust business plans" for the prospective Chesterfield plant. The reason for the latest delay sounds like good news for Tranlin: A new technology that the company has been testing in China is working so well that it wants to rethink how it approaches manufacturing elsewhere. An RTD article from around the same time attributed much of the delay to changes in the parent company's executive leadership, as alluded to in the WaPo article. And per an October 2017 report from WTVR, the company then missed its deadline to repay a $5 million grant it received from the Commonwealth. The company instead granted the VEDP a first-position lien on the property, to be released only after the company full reimbursed the Commonwealth, with interest. Beyond that .... Edited to add: Looks like the VEDP took title to the property sometime in 2018 (per the RTD), to be assessed toward the value of the outstanding obligation. In other words, it wasn't a home run ball that RVA gave up, but instead the other side never stepped foot inside the ballpark.

Odell Associates. Yeah, we're on the same page - of course the Squirrels aren't actually designing it (Parney is talented, but ....). However, based on the reporting, it's undeniable that MLB modified the design process and "amplified" the Squirrels' input late last summer/early fall, which led to Odell replacing DLR Group. That has to account for some level of delay, at least as far as seeing a rendering would go.