20+ Years of Stadium Debate; Development Curve Ball; Housing Shell Game; Last At-Bat For The City?; Eating With Ghosts.

RVA 5x5 - April 15, 2023

No algorithms. No content filters. Honest and insightful analysis from Richmond, VA.

In today’s edition of news you need about RVA, we have stories on:

• We recap the long and tortured debate over a baseball stadium in Richmond, most of which you never knew, readily forgot, or blocked from your memory (and for good reason). But we bring it all back as a cautionary tale…

• A good look at a great article about rising interest rates and the effect it is having on development in the region and the differences between this turbulence and that of 2008/09 (which coincidentally was also a year debating about a baseball stadium…).

• We then delve into the facts about when it comes to developing the Diamond District, the city has a lot on its shoulders and we are not even close to being done yet — there is much more to be done. Will we get a hit or go down swinging?

• A strange story about the Mayor and Administration switching strategies for funding affordable housing just after declaring an affordable housing crisis — we are now going to borrow money to fund building affordable housing instead of using a dedicated, identified revenue stream (requiring no borrowing or interest payments) previously approved and recommended by the Mayor.

• And a deep dive into the scary and spooky world of ghost kitchens that deliver through apps and apparitions. Delivery and food options are more readily available than ever before but not terribly transparent; do you know what food you are getting, where it is coming from, or what happens if it all goes awry?

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