Flood Zone

Yup, he was born in 1917. Very much a product of his times. Served in the Army up until WWII (albeit never in combat) and later was the president of the Kate Smith Fan Club. Unfortunately, I never met him. He was, shall we say, getting rather up there in years when my wife was born. And he passed away in the early 1990s, well before she and I met. Incidentally, my wife's parents met at the most Richmond place imaginable - Miller & Rhoads. Her mom was not born in 1917, of course, but unfortunately she also passed away before my wife and I met.

That building just looks cool. Incidentally, my wife's dad grew up very near there albeit a loooong time ago (he was born in 1917). I just asked her if he referred to the area as Swansboro. She couldn't recall him saying that; instead, it was "old Bainbridge." For what that's worth!

Banner week for that neck of the woods because RBS now tell us that work is beginning on the long-anticipated Waffle House. Good for them, I guess? (It seems to me that Waffle House has kind of taken the PBR path; what once was considered kind of "yucky" now is considered ironically cool?)

This is probably of limited importance, but Chesterfield County seems to have updated its Powhite Parkway Extension webpage fairly recently. Although the page breaks down the extension in the familiar Phase I and Phase II terms, the page used to emphasize (in italics) that Phase II was conceptual only. It still refers to Phase II as conceptual (no italics), adding there is no funding for it at this time, but now there is more information about the concept. Plus, the page notes that design work on Phase I is underway, a review pursuant to NEPA will be conducted, etc.

That area is such a Frankenstein's Monster of roadways. I'm glad something is filling the gap there. But, notwithstanding the tidbit about people on the VIP updates list, the emphasis in the article from the developer about "covered decks" suggests to me that they're marketing this in any way they can.

Always be a bit wary of the shiny new thing. (Co-Star would also fall under this, to some degree.)

Downtown needs new and better lighting. I don't mean the Grand Illumination stuff, which is great. I mean street level lighting. Everything is dreary and drab and not conducive to being out and about at night. Also, if there ever is a big residential tower downtown, a better grocery store option than Church Hill or a boat load of bodegas.

And even then it's a cycle-in, cycle-out scenario focused on elementary school (and to some extent middle school).

The Carvana tower is undoubtedly cooler where it is now. This looks like Generic Hotel Design 101, but what are you gonna do? Nothing much fun* is ever going to go behind Tom Leonard's anyway. *This, like the Drury (which is taller than this will be) will probably look more impressive than it actually is on the approach given that area's relative topography.

I think there were a lot of rumors regarding height -- and then, of course, there was confusion regarding "CoStar Feet" -- but I'm not sure how much the pandemic played into it. CoStar was notable for being one of the first and most aggressive employers in terms of getting back to the office.

RBS story on a planned 4-story development to replace the current Westhampton Pastry Shop building (which also houses two other businesses; those spots have been a revolving door for years). We'll see if it becomes a reality as 4 floors. The plan includes 25 covered parking spots, which is a good idea, albeit will probably also be a kind of tight one. That said, (1) although this area is very walkable for us, I'll kind of miss the soldier-of-fortune parking lot on the Libbie side of the building; and (2) I wonder if some sort of parking arrangement will be worked out with The Grill next door, because it's a certainty some of its patrons will use those spots on Sundays or at night.

I think it's tidying up the headline more than anything. I don't think the article's substance changed from this morning.

I know the subject is rent, but I'm not sure where else to put this: There is a house for sale down the block that is 70% the size of ours, but priced nearly 100% more than what we paid for ours 9 years ago, and for 10% more than our "Zestimate." Things are still insane.

Well, I agree with that. It's undeniable. If that's all the point is, I agree 100%. If there's a concomitant point that relates to quality of life, which I understand you're not making, I'd submit the grass isn't always greener.

Looking at 2028 for that one. Still has to get approved by the General Assembly. I realize that this doesn't resolve your point! It's all a balance. I know so many people who live up in NoVa and hate it there. Too trafficky, everything costs too much, etc. etc.

That's a good way to describe it. And yes, the thing is massive. Interesting that in the rendering the Greyhound sign is still there. Yes I know that's for the frame of reference but it would be kind of funny if they called this development "The Depot" or something hokey like that. Also, every rendering tells a story, and if you zoom in and focus on the bottom-left of the rendering, I'm afraid to say that the guy looking back at the women seems kind of creepy.

Were there any plans publicly released for the prior, scuttled project? It's not a huge site, so I'm wondering how tall it would be to get to 340 apartments. (One thing I don't necessarily like about that site is it's rather balkanized. Connectivity other than via Broad is limited or non-existent.)

I'll take your word for it on floor plates or whatnot, but the 5100 Building is 12 floors.

Unless I'm forgetting something, this would be the tallest building in Chesterfield, right?

I guess one conceivable impact (potentially conceivable, I suppose) is it might make it relatively more likely the Wizards' G-League team (the Capital City Go-Go) moves into the Green City arena when it's done. Currently, they play in a small arena in DC, the Entertainment & Sports Area, which just so happens also to be where the Mystics play and the Wizards practice. Assuming Leonsis is more or less burning DC with this (Mystics would move to Cap One since he's bound to a facility lease there until 2037 or something like that), he could simply just vacate the ESA. Also, Leonsis said this morning that the Wizards/Caps market stretches from Richmond past Baltimore. He said this to say the right thing, given the Governor was in attendance, but it's undeniable that Richmond as a sports market has become more DC-centric, as opposed to formerly being just Redskins-centric. Sports radio here delves way more into Wizards, Caps, and Nats (at least when they were good), and DC morning and afternoon sports talk is simulcast here. At any rate, if the G-League team comes here, my family would definitely go (go-go?).

I don't think it wound have much or any effect on the Green City arena. The purpose of the Potomac Yards deal is to give Leonsis land development rights he doesn't currently have. The move would have a massive effect on Capital One Arena and the surrounding neighborhood. (According to today's press conference, apparently the Mystics will move into Cap One and it will still be used for concerts. All of this is still dependent on the General Assembly funding the project.) Edit: The DC mayor presented a very 11th hour counter-offer to Leonsis last night, and he's kind of ignored it. I think the end-game is that all this will make it more likely the Commanders (or whatever they're eventually called) will come back to the RFK site at a new stadium.

Michael Plotkin, quoted in the article, is a really good guy and I hope the project he's teaming on works out in the end.

Maybe it's because I'm presently slogging through Caro's biography of Robert Moses, but it seems it's just a different world we live in and only becoming more so. I don't think it's an RVA thing. We build for current need and not future capacity.

I think geography and market size aren't two boxes to check, but rather a sliding scale - more of one can outweigh rough equivalence for the other. So, for Hampton Roads geography is a major challenge, one that doesn't really exist here, and as such any tracking of market sizes over time isn't apples to apples. Geography encompasses HR's position in a potential hurricane area, so that's another reason to create traffic-alleviation (or bypass) measures. Plus, it's a military area and I'm guessing the original intent of the interstate highway system as a way to move military personnel and material plays a role in the creation of the extra lanes there. Those factors aren't really at play here. Yeah, the area where they run concurrently -- I'm not sure we'll ever see that. On 95 north or south of the city, or 64 from Staples Mill to 288, I guess it's theoretically feasible to make reversible HOV lanes set off by sticks (like that HOT-lanes stretch on the Beltway west of the mixing bowl), but even that seems unnecessary. Plus, Virginia has moved away from HOV lanes to HOT lanes, and I'm guessing it would take a generation or two for things to reach the point where people here would have to consciously make the choice to spend more (sometimes much more) to avoid traffic.

Probably all the stuff. I've never seen anything that suggests a study whether RVA would need such lanes, much less anything that even hints a need. We have a fairly developed highway system for a metro our size, and traffic is rather negligible. The choke points are on surface roads such as Broad in Short Pump or Hull near Woodlake. Outside of a mass wreck blocking multiple lanes, our interstate highways and interstate-standard highways don't get choked up like what happens in Hampton Roads. That's likely a product of geography and market size. I could see HSR or auxiliary lanes coming to 64/95 someday.