My argument does not fail: It is unacceptable to have school buildings in the state that they are in while millions are spent on questionable downtown development. This is not just my opinion- this is federal law we are are talking about.

I will give you an example- one of my coworkers was volunteering as a mentor at a Richmond public school but was shocked when he and the kids were told they could not use the bathroom for #2 because the plumbing still had not been fixed for six months. The kids were told and had been told for months to hold it.

This is what Oliver Hill worked so hard for?

What good is a ‘world-class’ downtown opera house when many of our open school buildings are badly maintained and are illegal under federal ADA law?

Its criminal and disgusting and must make parents think twice about sending their kids to ANY part of the school system.

This is why as citizens we have to keep the pressure on. Schools before stadiums(or Coliseums)!

And yes, Paul H., Jeff E., and others, we have heard the excuses before- ‘downtown is the crucial center’, ‘the RPS administration is wasteful’, ‘the money from downtown development will SOMEDAY bring more money for schools’, ‘money does not solve everything’, etc., etc.

Got news for you- NO MORE EXCUSES. City Council holds purse strings, and Jewell and others have been covering for Center Stage and other pet projects for far too long.

I say fix the school buildings or bring in the National Guard.

I’m getting a sense from some of the comments here combined with what my young friends with school age children tell me that Richmond is headed toward (if we don’t already have) a dual school system.

It’s certainly a topic that raises many provocative “chicken and egg” questions.

If anyone knows of any objective studies or articles on this subject that explores the issues raised here, I’d really appreciate a link. It’s certainly an issue that’s worth an article or two for one of my blogs.

The more parents that stay in the city with young children, the more likely there will be change at the high school level. And hopefully once Patrick Henry is up and running, there will be people who then help the charter middle school in the works by another group.

And I won’t denigrate parents who stay in the city and opt for private schools either. They have to make the best decisions for their child they can, not be beholden to RPS. AND they still contribute to the city through their property and sales tax and their good citizenship, instead of heading out to the counties and taking their money with them.

This is a story that needs to get out since so many in the community are totally unaware of this development.

I certainly was not aware of this influx of new blood into this school and would be very interested in hearing the impressions of new arrivals to this facility.
Maybe one or more of these neighborhood blogs can do a special feature.

However, I don’t think you can count private schools as a community asset for reasons made painfully clear during this current economic downturn when many parents who can no longer afford the high cost of private education are panicked at the prospect of sending their youngsters to any city school that is not Mary Munford, Fox (and now Patrick Henry).

As far as a City of Thugs goes, there has never been any truth to that.

Fact is, unless you bring it on yourself by your lifestyle or other actions and use common sense as you go about your daily routine, most residents are as safe here as anywhere else.

I am a firefighter in the County. They have the same if not more crime and school problems then here in the city. I see it first hand. It is a media perception problem. Trust me the near east end and the northside are rough and the schools are not any better then what we have in the city. They are worse!!! The issue is that the county gets the majority of the tax base from huge businesses. That is why the tax rate is lower for home owners. The better downtown becomes the better that the city will be attracting businesses, meaning lower housing taxes for all of us.

So don’t you give up on the new generation down here. The key is that we stay and bring the next set of young home owners down to the city. It is all about dispelling the myth that the city is full of thugs and drugs and more importantly working with the RPD and the community to push the crap out of here so things keep on getting better.

Downtown Richmond is plenty clean.

The folks who live here already know this. And I suspect that suburbanites are slowly realizing it, too.

:o)

3,500 seats x $75.00 x 24 shows * 80% ticket sales = $5,040,000 Gross

That is not Richmond’s take, but shows people will spend suburban money downtown. To do this, they have to brave traffic and parking headaches, getting lost, driving in circles. Imagine what a downtown that was safe, clean and accessible could generate.

@Scott
I hope PH and RPS make progress too. These are not incompatible goals.

The point is made: Richmond needs better schools, not more questionable downtown ‘development’ that lacks ROI.

Over here in Woodland Heights, a street car suburb to be sure, we actually have more an more families staying, instead of fleeing when their reach school age.

Within a block of my home there are 9 families with now-teenage kids who have stayed put. More and more younger parents are desirous of doing the same: where do you think the force behind Patrick Henry comes from?

The fact remains that assessments are tied to real property values, and everyone in Richmond loveslovesloves to know that their house is worth more but then they are SHOCKED when their assessment increase.

If you wanted to buy a house and seen its assessed value remain static you should have moved to California. LOL

I personally don’t mind paying more taxes as long as the money is spent to maintain what the City has or make it better. Makes me grumpy when I read our city government has spent money for another study on building another structure to attract people in the counties who have made it clear they aren’t interested in traveling downtown to be entertained.

I don’t want to live in the county either- “Death Before Cul-de-Sac” has been my adult mantra- but one more unfounded assessment hike and I may have to.

However, it does NOT speak well of the City that the younger, more productive and desirable folks are bailing first chance they get (as the late Joe Brooks told me, as soon as their children reach school age).

While I hate to admit it, us old timers are not the future of this City so it doesn’t really matter where we want to live.

The real hope for this City are the youngsters, and being more mercenary and self absorbed than us old timers with a couple of decades of city life experience, they are going to go where they can get the best bang for their buck.

The bottom line, I’d very careful about encouraging our most productive citizens to move out… Far to many of them are already doing that. We don’t need more to follow them.

This makes me smile. Thank you. We’ve lived in the City for 20 years and wouldn’t want to be in the ‘burbs.

:o)

Just for comparison.
$200,000 assessment
Taxes in Henrico: $1800 ($150/ mo)
Taxes in C’field: $1900 ($158.34/mo)
Taxes in City: $2400 ($200/mo)

I have other points about crime, schools, the 10.5% city restaurant tax to pay for the Arts Center for which we can’t afford the ticket prices… Y’all are smart though, you already know these things.

Or will it mean that we continue to subsidize Center Stage? Or will it mean we pay to clean up the disastrous Broad Street CDA? Or we will it mean that there is a new marketing push for a new Coliseum?

That said,

I would be willing to pay a few bucks extra if it meant that RPS actually gets ADA done for operational school buildings.

Will it though? Or will it mean that Yvonne Brandon can undo the less-than-$2000 salary cut she’s taking for next year? Or undo the 1% overall cut for the core admin team?

Make no mistake: while the current clowns are running the circus, an increase in real estate taxes will NOT keep teachers in schools.

I predicted a move in some quarters to increase in the tax rate when the property assessment declined for many (not ALL) property owners this year.

What gets up my nose about this is how so many people in a position to influence public opinion took Mayor Dwight Jones’ statement that “We’ll not be able to cut our way out of the recession or tax our way out, so we’ve got to grow our way out,” as an iron clad promise not to raise taxes and never bothered to open the debate about the possibility.