Shared Air

Spottswood and Oliver. Probably not the kind of names to set you trembling. Especially if they belonged to your opponents in the legal battle of the American Century. And that was just the way they liked it–underestimated all the way to the Supreme Court where the power of their arguments, and their facts, did all [...]

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Guy walks into a church and says “You all may think a life of chains and bondage is worth living, but not me. I’d rather be dead!”  Fellow churchman asks, “Is someone trying to enslave you?” First guy replies, “Well, no, it’s a metaphor. I was making an analogy about taxes and representation.” The churchman [...]

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The horsepower of positive thinking? Today, we push up to Caroline County, home of Secretariat, and into Southside to meet Junie Donlavey, Stock Car legend. Two examples of risk and reward that defy convention and (re)define, yet again, what matters and what’s possible. Over the next week, we’re gonna begin to draw these images into [...]

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When we’ve asked people how they regard Richmond, it’s history and it’s assets, two things keep repeating: Make it relevant and make it honest. The River is almost unanimously viewed as an under-utilized asset and story. And our social history is called “just as important, if not more so” than what one respondent called “the [...]

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“Worth A Thousand Words” the picture notes.
Kudos to those “who care about our city” and their efforts to build better communities.  Inspired by a similar effort in Baltimore, Richmond Slumlord Watch aims to “transform notoriety into accountability” by highlighting
blighted properties, delinquent property owners, and issues relevant to blight, slumlords, and neighborhood revitalization in the City [...]

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Each fall since 9-11, the insanity of humanity witnessed by our regional community, and country, has forced a change, or shift, from our previous understanding of what’s “normal” and decent and right.
With the 2001 terrorist attacks and anthrax scares, the I-95 serial snipers in ‘02, Isabel ‘03, Gaston ‘04, Katrina ‘05 and repeat Rita ‘06 [...]

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“Paying the meter of a parking space enables one to lease precious urban real estate on a short-term basis. What is the range of possible activities for this short-term lease?”

PARK(ing) Day is Friday September 18, 2009.
Born out of Rebar’s creative exploration for how urban public space is allocated and used, PARK(ing) Day has become an [...]

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Of all the Conversations on City Centers and Economics, Transit Stops and Transfer Hubs, Flood Zones and Flex-space, Vacant “Big Box” and Heat Island Conversions, Need to Feed the Street, Labor Lags and Layoffs, or Connecting Communities to Schools and Education to Learning…this “beets” them all, green thumbs down!

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Almost out of breath but not out of hope?  Turn off the cable news chaos and pick up a good book
about relishing the journey and making good choices along the way – – because how we live and how we love is how we learn to make the world a better place, one small step [...]

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Above is little hand-card I whipped up for today’s event at the Capitol with the First Lady, our Mayor and several politicos and social services orgs. The topic? Hopefully you get that from the pic, but the pdf version with details is here.  Shelli also posted earlier on the details of Zach Bonner’s Little Red [...]

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