The City of Richmond is encouraging all residents, visitors and businesses to sign up for a new mass notification system known as CodeRED. This system will allow city officials to quickly deliver alert messages regarding emergency situations. “Keeping our residents, visitors and businesses safe and informed at all times is important,” said Mayor Levar Stoney. “CodeRED is another tool the city is providing to help citizens stay safe and informed.” Users can sign up for emergency alerts and weather warnings, and the notifications can be sent to a cell phones, landlines or email addresses. The CodeRED system also has the ability to use Geographical Information System (GIS) technology to target specific areas based on emergency situations. "The CodeRED system will give residents, visitors and businesses the ability to add their own phone numbers directly into a database to receive emergency alerts” continued the mayor. “If your contact information is not in the database, you ma...

Today Mayor Levar M. Stoney went to Highland Park to announce a milestone in the administration’s efforts to deliver improved services to the residents of Richmond, joining a crew from the Department of Public Works (DPW) to repair the 20,000 th pothole in the city since he took office January 1. During the entirety of 2016, work crews repaired 18,000 potholes. Reaching 20,000 potholes repaired in only eight months is an indication of the significant progress the administration and DPW have made toward addressing the city’s infrastructure needs. Early in the year, three DPW crews (including both temporary workers and full-time city employees), began completing 50 potholes per crew daily on average. Currently, there are fewer than 50 open tickets in the system thanks to the department’s diligence.  DPW has also made progress on repairing long-neglected city alleyways. In the first eight months of the new administration, work crews under DPW Director Bobby Vincent Jr. ha...

Mayor Levar M. Stoney today announced Richmond has partnered with BondLink, a Boston-based financial technology company, and launched a new investor relations website to attract more investors and diversify the city’s investor base. Now live, richmondvabonds.com will better communicate with current and potential bond investors who invest in the city’s public infrastructure projects. The website contains over 2,500 pages of data and documents and utilizes a corporate-style investor platform providing insight into the credit fundamentals behind Richmond’s AA+/Aa2/AA+ ratings. “This is a tool to attract new investment in Richmond,” said Mayor Stoney. “At the same time, it furthers our commitment to being as transparent as possible.” The website and new investor platform is available to citizens as well as bond investors. It now consolidates the city’s data and documents valuable to bond investors and rating agencies, providing quick and easy access to extensive financial information.

Mayor Levar M. Stoney will launch the RVA Bike Share program on Tuesday, August 29 at 9 a.m. at Kanawha Plaza and lead cyclists on a 2-mile ride from across the Manchester Bridge to the T. Tyler Potterfield Bridge, ending at Browns Island. “Bike sharing programs are a community transportation service and desired amenity provided by forward thinking and environmentally conscious cities,” said Mayor Stoney. “I am proud Richmond is now among those leading in this regard.” Richmond has teamed up with Canada-based Bewegen Technologies Inc., an industry bike share leader, to supply the bicycles and docking stations. The equipment will be maintained by Corps Logistics, a Baltimore-based firm owned and operated by military veterans. The initial phase includes 220 8-speed bikes and 20 docking stations located throughout the city. A second phase is expected to be implemented in the coming months, doubling the fleet and including electric assist PedElec bikes, making it easier to ride uphill. The...

Mayor Levar M. Stoney is pleased to announce the unanimous passage of resolutions by both the Richmond Public School Board and City Council establishing the RVA Education Compact. Passage of the Compact marks the first time the RPS Board, City Council and administration have entered into a formal agreement to work together to develop collaborative solutions addressing the needs of our school children both inside and outside of the classroom. “We took a significant step today toward improving public education in the City of Richmond,” said Mayor Stoney. “I’d like to thank all the members of City Council and School Board for their commitment to this collaborative process, as well as the public who participated and offered their feedback and comment on previous drafts over the last several months. “I look forward to working with the council and board on shared strategies to drive down child poverty while lifting up academic performance in our schools.” Mayor Stoney has directed his senior...

When I spoke about the monuments earlier this summer, it was from an optimism that we can take the power away from these statues by telling their true story, for the first time. As I said in June, it is my belief that, as they currently stand without explanation, the confederate statues on Monument Avenue are a default endorsement of a shameful period in our national and city history that do not reflect the values of inclusiveness, equality and diversity we celebrate in today’s Richmond.  I wish they had never been built.  Still, I believed that as a first step, there was a need to set the historical record straight. That is why I asked the Monument Avenue Commission to solicit public input and to suggest a complete and truthful narrative of these statues, who built them and why they were erected.  When it comes to these complicated questions that involve history, slavery, Jim Crow and war, we all must have the humility to admit that our ...

Mayor Levar M. Stoney today announced, for a limited time, Richmond will offer tax amnesty benefits to citizens owing certain back taxes. The program will begin next Tuesday, August 15 and run through October 16, 2017. “This is the chance for citizens who owe to get right with the city,” said Mayor Stoney. “Our schools, police and other vital city services are paid for with tax revenues, and they’ve been shortchanged by millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.” Taxpayers can benefit from this one-time opportunity to pay taxes without incurring or paying penalties and interest. Eligibility includes all individuals and businesses owing real estate taxes, business personal property taxes (excluding vehicles), business license taxes, admissions taxes, lodging taxes and meals taxes as of February 1, 2017. Vehicle personal property taxes and vehicle license taxes and fees are not eligible for this amnesty program. “The city is owed tens of millions of dollars in back taxes,” said the city’s fin...