July 28
Dewey Defeats Truman (for real)
Well, we knew the fix was in from the start (and by the way, Don, you owe Andrew $1), but tonight's city council vote to increase the meals tax was still disappointing in a number of ways—the way the doors were locked and few opponents could get in, the way minutes limiting public comment for opponents of the tax were composed of a smaller number of seconds than minutes for its millionaire supporters, the way Richmond's schoolchildren showed a remarkable amount of support for the meals tax. We're disappointed, but we're not surprised.
The proceedings, as predicted, were farcical. The only councilmember to show any backbone was Jackie Jackson, who wondered why the city was figuring out how to funnel money to better the lot of symphony, opera, and ballet patrons (to be forever referred to in these pages as S.O.B.'s) while the city's schools are dying an agonizing public death. Special congrats to Gwen (shouldn't that be spelled with two G's?) Hedgepeth for saying she would oppose the measure and then supporting it. That's one vote the people who pushed this through council can be especially proud of.
Anyway, the thing is to move on to the next step. We need to hold the VAPAF's feet to the fire about its plans for the center. Brad Armstrong still hasn't responded to our further questions, which you can see here. We're going to make sure he does, because what we need to do now is make sure that the VAPAF isn't determined to just throw something up on Broad. As its ads say, we deserve better. And we're going to fight to make sure we get better than what they're currently offering (a plan that's, unbelievably, STILL not available for public perusal). You can sign up here to receive updates. And now, if you'll excuse us, we're going on vacation.
July 25
Richmond.com, Monday's meeting, this weekend
There's an article in Richmond.com today that talks about the arts center and quotes Don and Andrew. We'd just like to say once again that we're not opponents of the arts center or the meals tax. "Critics" will do nicely. Be sure to check us out tonight on Chris Bopst's radio show, sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m., on WVNZ, AM 1320. We're going to talk about our crazy week, and Don thinks he's gonna play a bunch of Julian Cope records, but I am here to tell you he's wrong.
No word yet on whether the City Council's going to proceed with the meals-tax vote on Monday after the recent, um, events. It does seem pretty odd to put a measure of this importance to what's rapidly becoming a Frankenstein's monster of a city council, but "odd" doesn't seem like it's much of a problem for this group.
Finally, we're gonna stop by the Bizarre Market at Chop Suey on Saturday with some flyers to encourage people to look at our website and sign our open letter. See you there!
July 24 (barely)
Brad Armstrong
Brad Armstrong is the president and CEO of the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation. It's his job to draw up and implement the plan for the proposed Performing Arts Center. We've had two meetings with Mr. Armstrong, both very positive. While we don't see eye-to-eye on everything, both he and we share the same goal: an excellent performing arts center, and an excellent performing arts scene. Recently Mr. Armstrong replied to some questions we submitted to him. Have a look at his response, and tell us what you think. We still have some questions, and Mr. Armstrong has promised to address those as well. He has sent us some floor plans for the complex, which I'll put up after I get some damn sleep.
July 24
The Bopst Show
Local radio dude and richmond.com columnist Chris Bopst had some nice things to say about saverichmond.com (no relation) in his column today. We're going to appear on his show Friday evening, probably sometime between 5:30 and 6, to talk about our crazy week. Tune in to WVNZ, AM 1320, to hear the stuff that's TOO HOT FOR THE INTERNET!!! That was a joke. Nothing hot happens to us.
July 22
City council and the meals tax
We've had a very eventful week, and by gum it's only Tuesday. We've had meetings galore with some of the good folks who are working to bring back downtown, and while we haven't always seen eye-to-eye, we've been very impressed by their willingness to listen to us. The moment any information about how our efforts have affected (or haven't affected) their plans becomes available to us, we'll pass it on to you.
Now, the most important thing is to look toward the city council vote on the meals tax increase on Monday, July 28, at 6 p.m. We strongly encourage anyone who's signed our open letter to try to make it to this hearing—it's not only going to be an excellent opportunity to hear about and comment on the plans for the proposed performing arts complex (the construction of which the proposed tax increase will help fund), but it's going to be a chance to show the council that Richmond's art scene is serious about this issue, and that we're paying attention. Please try to come out if you at all can.
July 21
Meetings news, other news
First things first: While we appreciate support from anyone, a press release that went out today seemed to indicate that our website is affiliated with the Richmond Libertarian Party. This is absolutely not the case—we are affiliated with no party or group; it's just Don, Ewa, and Andrew.
Meetings news: The July 24th meeting with Stephanie Micas from the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation has been postponed. We still want to hear from people involved with the local music scene—musicians (duh), producers, studio owners, club owners, journalists—who'd be interested in sharing with Stephanie some of the challenges facing people who are trying to keep Richmond nightlife alive. Please email us if you're interested, and check back to the news page often, as we'll have time and place info up here as soon as we work out the scheduling details with Stephanie.
We'll also have details about our planned public forum soon. Don's been working on a comedy act, mostly one-liners, with which he's hoping to warm up the crowd. We're not sure how we feel about that.
July 21
Numbers
saverichmond.com is averaging 242 unique views a day. We know, we know, if website-usage stats such as that were significant, a lot more of us would still have jobs, but you gotta admit, that's a lot of eyeballs. Especially if you multiply by two (one for each eyeball).
July 17
Full steam ahead
Due to unexpectedly high response, we've decided to schedule a public forum where we can discuss some of these issues in addition to the still-planned music-scene meeting with Stephanie Micas (see below). This meeting will be open to the public and will take place sometime next week. Please check the site for updates; we'll have the info up as soon as possible. And if you don't mind, we really need people to tell their friends about saverichmond.com—the more folks who sign up, the more leverage we're going to have when we talk to City Council and the other various powers in Richmond.
July 13
Times-Dispatch article
The Times Dispatch ran a short article on saverichmond.com; we've got a copy of it up here just in case. We're glad for any press, though this doesn't mention Ewa, and Andrew would like to point out that his title is in fact "senior contributing writer," which he's always making a big deal about as if it were, you know, interesting.
July 11
This is amazing
So our original plan was to send out an email to people in the Richmond music and arts community, asking them to sign our open letter. There would be a link to this site. But just after we put up the site to test it out for itself, people started emailing in like crazy, wanting to get involved! We apologize for any typos or other strenturgence, but honestly, we had no idea so many people would see this site so soon. Please keep referring your friends to it—we need as many members of the arts community to sign on if we're going to make a cogent case that City Council needs to affirm its relationship with Richmond's arts community. Thanks again!
Don, Andrew, and Ewa
July 10
VERY IMPORTANT!
Stephanie Micas from the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation has offered to meet with representatives of Richmond's "street-level" arts community on Thursday, July 24, at 6 p.m. at the Landmark Theatre. Stephanie has shown impressive interest in learning about the concerns of Richmond's working arts community, so this will be an excellent opportunity for anyone who wants to bend the ear of someone who's got the ear of City Council and the board of the Performing Arts Center. We are currently taking names of anyone involved in the music scene
who would like to attend the meeting.
For more information, email us at action@saverichmond.com
And check back on this page often—we'll be updating it as frequently as possible.