January 23
Emo, not Paygo
Hey, how 'bout them Spiders? Sorry we've been out of touch lately, but work has been n-u-t-s for everybody here at Save Richmond Towers in the last couple of weeks. One thing we have managed to do is set up the first in what he hope will be many readings by some of our favorite authors.

So, next Thursday, January 29, come on down to Chop Suey Books, 1317 W. Cary St., at 7:30 p.m. to hear our friend Andy Greenwald read from and sign his book Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo (St. Martin's Press). Andrew works with Andy at Spin, but that's where the log-rolling ends: This book is great. Whatever your take on the new breed of emo bands so beloved by younger music fans--Dashboard Confessional, Hey Mercedes, the Get Up Kids--nobody's done a thorough study of what caused their cultural moment to come about. That is, until Andy spent the better part of a year with Dashboard's Chris Carrabba, touring with Jimmy Eat World, and getting to know the kids who love these bands and the people who are making money off them.

Some of Andy's conclusions may surprise you, which is why Nothing Feels Good is such an interesting read for anyone who cares about music. Blender called the book "Catcher in the Rye with guitars," and while we think that's perhaps a little grand, it's nonetheless an engaging study of a transitional period in music, whether you like to read books about music or not.

So come on down and bring your friends. Andy will be signing and selling books, and we'll have a wee table with whatever we can cobble together at the last minute (hopefully some Save Richmond literature, but most likely photos of Andrew and Don in unitards and Ewa's Finnan Haddie recipe). If this works out, we'll bring down a lot more fun authors in the year to come. Here's a 136k pdf for the event if you want to put a flyer up at your place of business (hint hint).

Savers in the news: Don wrote this week's cover story for Style Weekly, in the same issue that Ewa has her first "On the Record" piece. Also, Andrew was quoted in the Asheville, North Carolina, newspaper today.

January 22
Go Spiders!


January 9
What about us?
Following their successful ballot initative asking the citizens of Richmond if we wouldn't maybe like to directly elect our mayor, strange civic bedfellows Tom Bliley and L. Douglas Wilder have announced that they will form a special commission to help point Richmond's next leader in the right direction. Five of the 15 citizens privately selected to sit on Bliley-Wilder's special citizen's commission have been announced—they are former Richmond circuit judge James Wilkinson, former city manager Robert Bobb, former State School Superintendent William C. Bosher, state NAACP director King Salim Khalfani and VCU political science professor Robert Holsworth. The rest? Well, it seems we are gonna have to wait patiently while unelected powers-that-be make the determination about who else will help to steer and guide the "new" Richmond. (In other words, deals are currently being made. Please stand by!)

What's wrong with this picture or, rather, what's totally typical of Richmond within this picture? For the moment, let's disregard the fact that this is (so far) a handpicked commission comprised largely of the sort of aging retirees and connected politicos who sit on dozens of other Richmond-area boards and committees, forget for a moment that there are no female members on this inital list or even that one of the board members (Bobb) isn't even a Richmond resident. PLEASE note that there are no young people under the age of 30 on this initial list, no members of the highly desired "creative class," and no one involved in, or even publicly supportive of, the kind of organic arts or culture that has been proven to work for cities like Asheville (here's a 252k PDF of a germane USA Today story from last year). This is a body slated to be made up of judges, politicans, special interest lobbyists and/or friends; no matter how the mayor actually gets elected and whatever political party, clique or public-private partnership will be calling the shots in the future, the Bliley-Wilder commission is (so far at least) business as usual.

Last year, Dr. Richard Florida of Carnegie Mellon University was invited to speak at the city's economic conference and make his famous arguments for why young people and creatives need to be an active part of city revitalization. His research stood strongly against the kind of cliquish, closed-door, country club governance that Richmond's status quo has championed for decades (and perpetuates still). Aside from some media name-checking and some big-talk—where is that nightlife task force, Bill Pantele?— nothing changed following Florida's appearance. It's vitally important that the Bliley-Wilder commission be a barometer of just how much Richmond has learned and how serious it truly is about soliciting and cultivating a wider range of voices and opinions when it comes to the city's future.

On Jan. 30, the chamber of commerce and the Greater Richmond Partnership will increase the absurdity by inviting a "Generation X" expert to speak at the city's 2004 Economic Conference. The speech by Rebecca Ryan on "Hot Jobs, Cool Communities" will speak of the importance of— again—attracting and involving young people and the roles that younger people play in helping today's cities. As with Florida's speech last year, heads will nod and platitudes will be vocalized—perhaps distinguished businessmen will stand after the speech (as they did following Florida's appearance last year) and tell everyone what a wonderful idea it is to start involving the ideas of a wider array of citizens, namely young people and those in the "creative class." That won't do anymore: It's time to put up or shut up.

January 7
So much for the afterglow
So where's the Times-Dispatch now that Pittsburgh has been declared financially distressed? This isn't a dis on Pittsburgh; it's a great town, and with any luck it'll soon have a commuter tax in place that will help it out of these difficulties. Though its population is close to Richmond's [editor's note: not 10 times it as we erroneously reported earlier; that figure was for the entire Pittsburgh region, which comprises about 2 million people; the Richmond-Petersburg area comprises about a million. We apologize for the error.] it's nonetheless nothing like our town culturally, racially. or economically. Hey, but tell that to Calvin Jamison, who after his visit to the "Renaissance City" was all hot to build a downtown baseball stadium AND a performing arts center. "Big begets big!" he said back in 2002.

Certainly, several city employees, including one in Jamison's office, thought big. Big enough to bilk the city out of at least enough money to cover Joe Beimel's salary, maybe even enough to pay for the Pirates' dicey acquisition of Salomon Torres and red hots for every fan who comes to Kip Wells Bobblehead Doll Night.

But let's just say that Pittsburgh's renaissance hadn't turned out to have all the staying power of Pets.com. Here, from the same article, are some of the "Lessons from Pittsburgh." Well, certainly this past year has not lacked comedy, even if it's more of the weep-into-your-beer variety. Still and all, comedy hasn't even been mentioned as a component of the proposed performing arts center, whose backers' idea of the "whole community" apparently is limited to the community of people who like classical music (to be fair, a small nightclub featuring jazz is planned; click here to read Andrew's interview with JazzTimes editor Christopher Porter on the economics of that genre of music). And a reliable source of funding has been found: You! Well, not if you live in say, Henrico and work in Richmond, but otherwise get yourself ready for some Beethoven!

But the salient lesson here is one that eludes our elected and unelected leaders time and time again: Richmond isn't comparable to the cities it cites as role models for its hair-brained schemes. It's not like Newark, which happens to be situated across the river from a city called New York. It's nothing like San Antonio, Columbus, or Louisville. It's a lot more like Kansas City, which invested millions trying to become a convention destination, only to see the blooming of neighborhoods that were friendly to small businesses instead.

Hey Calvin, isn't it possible that "small begets big"? If you disagree, wanna bet on the Pirates this year?

January 6
Couldn't they have gotten a Bowflex instead?
Man, City Council hasn't wasted ANY time embarrassing us in 2004. For those of you keeping score: Dang! And I'm still writing 2003 on my checks!

January 5
Joe to the world
Ah, those halcyon days of yore, when the brains behind Canal Walk sold us on a park by the water, where we'd see "people strolling out of their apartments in the upper floors of the old hydroelectric plant on Brown's Island and getting a newspaper and cup of coffee in the cafe downstairs." [ibid.]

Five years and $53.5 million after the Canal Walk was finished, you'd be lucky to see a duck in the Turning Basin. Of course, we all know now that getting coffee downtown is a less realistic dream than constructing San Antonio-on-the-James. And that it is, Calvin! As is your office, with its grass-cutting employees, and, of course, our new Main Street Station.

Excuse us if we're a bit bitter, but architecture aside, we visited our city's newest hope for downtown, and we gotta admit we're let down. Not by the building, which is gorgeous, but by the near-uselessness of the damn thing. Say you want to go to Washington, D.C. Your first train up there doesn't depart Main Street until 10:46 a.m. Then you'll wait at Staples Mill Road, the "real" station, till 11:16, and you'll get in to Union Station at 1:41. Too late for a breakfast or a lunch meeting. But you can always take them out for a cup of coffee.

That's good, because you can't get a cup of coffee at Main Street Station. Or a newspaper. Because for some unfathomable reason, there's no newsstand or coffee bar at the station. Who'd want something like that? Maybe the same type of freak who'd like to go to a cafe downtown, next to, say, the Canal Walk (take that, you San Antonio rhymes-with-ditches!), or the proposed Performing Arts Center.

It's just so depressingly indicative of how the big visions cooked up downtown fail to take human scale into account. We now have a convention center with no conventions, a Canal Walk without any walkers, and a train station that, even if for some reason you could find its two services to D.C. useful (the other leaves at 3:55 and gets in at 6:45--well, you could stay the night and have that breakfast meeting the next day), doesn't offer any amenities to travelers other than some admittedly comfortable chairs. (And save your emails: We know Cafe Gutenberg opened up nearby. That's not the point. You need something in the station, just like you need train service that makes business travel feasible.)

Time and again, the people who've planned these projects have somehow missed the obvious. Average people don't want spectacle, they want some freaking amenities. Why isn't Virginia Railway Express being courted by the same folks now lobbying the General Assembly to raise the hotel tax so more money can go to the Performing Arts Center? VRE could give us a commuter route to Washington, which in turn could make Richmond a more attractive place to live, send property values upward and spur all manner of development.

Hey, does anyone know of a substance that'll perk you up? We're feeling awfully tired all of a sudden.

December 22
The way we were
Richmond isn't San Antonio. It isn't Memphis. It isn't Charlotte (thank your personal higher power). It's a unique spot in America, one whose downtown core has mostly outlasted urban renewal by attrition. Sure, there were missteps (one of which has been chewed out of the scenery in the past two months), but by and large, so few ideas, good or bad, have borne fruit in Richmond's downtown that--if you overlook the fact that it's largely devoid of anything resembling urban living--the city has accidentally retained the type of physical character that other cities would kill for.

Recently we met with a couple of good folks whose concern about the performing arts center wasn't so much what goes on within its walls than how those walls are going to fit in with the character of downtown. We must confess we haven't given this matter much thought up to this point. And by gum, we have been remiss.

What makes a city? Architects and sociologists differ on particulars, but the consensus based on our limited understanding (let this serve as a blanket disclaimer on the ruminations that follow: We are not urban planners, architects, or philosophers; anything but, in fact!) is that successful cities have an almost ineffable sense of place. This can be based in a city's economic activity, in its cultural heritage, and/or its overall architectural character. One of the reasons Ewa wanted to move here was because Richmond reminded her of her hometown, Edinburgh, Scotland, a city that, if it doesn't touch your soul, you really ought to hold a mirror up to your mouth and check that you're still breathing. Edinburgh is astounding, a rare medieval city in Europe that wasn't demolished by World War II (it was just out of range for German bombers). Here are some pictures.

One of the extraordinary things about Edinburgh is that all new construction in the town's historic areas is vetted for its character by a number of bodies, local and international, including UNESCO's World Heritage Trust, which considers Edinburgh as a city that belongs to the world as well as to Scotland and monitors new construction. The Edinburgh WHT bases its criticism on a number of criteria, including a the materials that make up project's "architectural palette." From the EWHT's 2002-2003 "Monitoring Report": "Before the 19th century all building materials [in Edinburgh] were obtained as locally as possible. This has created a distinctive palette of materials, the almost exclusive use of which has continued well into the 20th century. Modern development should pay heed to the use of this palette."

Now, as we mentioned above, we aren't architects. And we'd really like to hear from people who are (the brother of one of us is a professor at the relentlessly modern llinois Institute of Technology's architecture school, and we'd particularly like to hear from him if he could be roused from his anticipatory tryptophan haze). But one of the interesting points that the people we met (stay with us, folks) was this: This is interesting. New City Hall sucks (though that observation deck is AWESOME). So bad that it's already getting a facelift. After which point we assume it will find new ways to suck.

Not to get too aesthetic on your butts, but has anyone paid much attention to how the whole of our downtown is going to look once it's been done up? We don't know, and we'd welcome any information as regards this, but is there an office in the city that ensures that new projects downtown contribute to the city's character?

To be sure, discovering character, or even a recognizable architectural palette on Broad Street would require a keener eye than we own. Few of the buildings in the most blighted part of Broad are significant. But many of the buildings a block over on either way, on Grace and Marshall, are. And this is a challenge that we think is worth discussing: To paraphrase the banner, how do we make our city one city?

Thanks for a great year, everybody, and enjoy the holidays. Save Richmond has big plans for the New Year, so get ready because we're going to need a lot of help. Free help, please! Thanks for all your support, and let's keep the ideas and the beer flowing. Our New Year's resolution is to leave this town better than we found it. We hope you'll make it yours as well.

December 18
Shocked, shocked! to discover corruption here
Pride.
Loyalty.
Justice.
This is the FBI.

Cronyism.
Incompetence.
Corruption.
This is Richmond City Council.

Stay tuned for next week's episode of Lies and Firings.

Okay, seriously, so another city employee, Edward Andrews, got fired yesterday in the latest scandal to affect City Hall. According to federal investigators (and why are the feds the only people who seem to be able to root out this kind of tomfoolery? I guess that's another blog entry), Andrews had a money-laundering scheme going on with his friend Robert Evans, who got fired the day before from his job as assistant to City Manager Calvin Jamison. They also allege that City Architect J.P. Vaughan approved payments to companies owned by Andrews and Evans, even though there was no evidence they'd done the work they'd paid themselves $493,761 to do.

Still with us? It's a little confusing. Read it again. We'll wait.

We can safely attribute Bill Johnson's dismay about his peer group to the fact that his day job is working for Hanover County (totally not weird, by the way), which to the best of our knowledge hasn't had SIX employees come under investigation this year. But perhaps Bill's being a bit disingenuous here. After all, he serves next to Gwen Hedgepeth, who's accused of taking bribes from Louis Salomonsky to make fellow councilman Bill Pantele mayor. Salomonsky has already pleaded guilty, which makes Hedgepeth's protestations even less credible than before (innocent till proven guilty and all that, but let's not forget the feds say they have the entire transaction on tape). The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority fired Andrews yesterday "[i]n response to the seriousness of this investigation," according to RRHA's executive director, Tyrone P. Curtis, but the council hasn't done diddly about Hedgepeth's festering presence in their midst.

In fact, the only thing city council has offered us so far this year, outside of tabloid-worthy embarrassments, is even more embarrassing displays of poor government. They've enthusiastically funded half-baked development schemes for downtown, they've presided over a dramatic worsening in crime, and--perhaps most egregious--they've obdurately resisted the growing public desire for cleaner government.

We've been saying this for so long, our voices are hoarse, but the fact is you can point to every single problem in this city and find the same problem: The wrong people are in charge. And we're not just talking about city council.

Now if we can just figure out who the right people might be, we can start working toward getting the government and the city we deserve. Because it's far too depressing to contemplate that we might already have just that.

December 17
Go team!
Of course, it's less severe if you consider that McCollum's presiding over a council that in the past year has seen one member go to jail and another be accused of accepting bribes to vote yet another council member into McCollum's job, and the whole council meet twice in secret with a shadowy group that wants to plunk a baseball stadium downtown. Not to mention that he opposed the election of a directly elected mayor, the public's desire for which seems to baffle him.

There's an expression that's better suited to this sorry state of affairs, and it's that a fish stinks from its head down. There is a culture of corruption, lax ethics, and disregard for voters in City Hall, and it's no surprise that the lieutenants are following the generals' leads. Well, it's no surprise unless you're Rudy McCollum, whose sense of moral outrage is as outdated and ineffectual as the government he leads.

December 4
Immaginary intellegence
The "Who we are" section doesn't say who they are. And the site is filled with misspellings and dead links ("an intellegent [sic] decision?" the site asks about repairing the Diamond; "Now immagine [sic] going to the ballpark for an EXPERIENCE and not just a game"). Welcome, friends, to the next big idea for downtown Richmond.

The alarming thing is, of course, that an idea so clearly not ready for prime time has already met with some success—city council has met twice in secret to discuss the possibility of building a new ball stadium downtown. It's completely surreal that not six months after Richard Florida was lauded by town leaders for his message that big-ticket projects don't work that Richmond has started to demolish downtown to make way for a huge arts complex and seems to be seriously considering adding a freaking ballpark to its list of achievements. Those include: In the end, it doesn't matter what makes sense. It doesn't matter what those of us who pay taxes think—even when we vote overwhelmingly that we're dissatisfied with our current form of government, our elected leaders oppose that, too.

The sorry fact is that if this baseball stadium happens, it won't even be the worst decision the council's made in the past year.

Can you immagine?

December 1
Wanna-be's, starting something
Around the time of the Ten Commandments flap, former Georgia congressman Bob Barr told Bill Maher that Georgians had a saying: "Thank God for Alabama." For politicians, having a backwater a few miles away is a godsend--"You think things are bad here?" they can ask.

Richmond doesn't have that luxury. Let's face it--we're the Alabama of Virginia. Our schools are the worst in the state, we have a stratospheric murder rate, our city council is awash in buffoonery, and we've managed to miss out on every major economic opportunity since Reconstruction. So it's perversely satisfying to read that there's someplace in a worse situation: Ladies and Gentleman, meet Gary, Indiana, which has pinned its hopes on reviving its downtown on building a (wait for it) performing arts center. The only problem? The center is to be partially funded by the town's most famous ex-resident.

His name is Michael Jackson.

Iis it too late to change the banners downtown? How about "EZer 2 ♥ Than Gary"?
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