Mayor Levar M. Stoney today formally announced that the city has posted a Request for Proposals (RFP) to spur redevelopment of a significant portion of real estate located in the neighborhood north of Broad Street in downtown Richmond. The RFP addresses a project area that is generally bounded on the west by North 5 th   Street, on the north by East Leigh Street, on the east by North 10 th   Street and on the south by East Marshall Street. The project area consists of properties that have been identified as an economic opportunity area in the Pulse Corridor Plan, which was recently adopted by City Council as part of the City’s Master Plan.   The North of Broad/Downtown Neighborhood Redevelopment Project will include a number of economic development components aimed at revitalizing underutilized city assets and improving the quality of life for Richmond residents in the areas of employment, housing and transportation. Components to be addressed by potential respon...

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and are proud to announce an initiative to provide thousands of Richmond public school students with free vision care, through a collaboration between nonprofits Vision To Learn and Conexus. The effort, which began October 26 th   at Elizabeth D. Redd Elementary School, will provide free vision screenings to over 20,000 students, and eye exams and glasses to over 7,000 students in Richmond. “If you can’t see, you can’t read. And if you can’t read, you can’t succeed,” said Mayor Stoney. “Richmond is grateful for this partnership and proud to be the first Virginia community in which every child, K-12, will be provided the glasses they need to achieve inside and outside of the classroom.” Over 7,000 kids in Richmond go to school every day without the glasses they need to see the board, read a book or participate in the classroom. Conexus will provide vision screenings to every child in Richmond Public School...

Today, the City of Richmond announced it is partnering with OpenGov, a leading data management vendor specializing in government budgeting, reporting and operational performance technologies. The partnership was established to further increase budgetary effectiveness, transparency and accountability.   OpenGov will be integrated with the city’s existing financial system and provide a cloud-based platform featuring uses for budgeting and both budget and Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) reporting.   “This partnership provides our city government with a means to improve services and build public trust,” said Jay Brown, the Director of Budget and Strategic Planning. “This improved technology will allow us to streamline our budget development process, make numerous enhancements in terms of innovation and improve collaboration across city departments.” On average, the more than 1,600 city, county and state governments using OpenGov have cut the time spent building thei...

Mayor Levar M. Stoney today declared Richmond’s 2017 tax amnesty initiative an overwhelming success, resulting in signed commitments or payments for delinquent taxes in an amount totaling nearly $2.8 million (over $2.79 million). “We chose to offer an incentive before initiating more aggressive collection measures for delinquent taxes,” said Mayor Stoney. “Taxes pay for our schools, public safety and other critical needs; we took this initiative to increase our revenues now , and it worked.” Those owing real estate, business personal property (excluding vehicles), business license, admissions, meals and/or lodging taxes, as of February 1, 2017, had an opportunity to pay the original tax amount owed, with all penalties and interest waived. The amnesty program lasted two months, from August 15 through October 16. Vehicle personal property taxes and vehicle license taxes and fees were not eligible for the program. The full balance due (less penalties and interest) had to either...

Today at George Wythe High School, Mayor Levar M. Stoney joined Sprint Regional President Brian Hedlund, Richmond Public Schools (RPS) Interim Superintendent Thomas Kranz and RPS School Board Chair Dawn Page to announce RPS participation in the first year of the Sprint and the Sprint Foundation’s 1Million Project. The program will provide participating RPS high school students will receive free devices with free wireless service. “Through the 1Million Project, we will begin to bridge the technology divide that puts our kids at a disadvantage when they go home to do their school work and don’t have access to the online resources they need,” said Mayor Stoney. “If we want our children to succeed, if we want them to compete and build a brighter future, we need to give them the tools to do so, and we must connect them to opportunity.” 
Nationwide, about 70 percent of high school teachers assign homework to be completed online, yet more than 5 million families with kids do not have inter...

Mayor Levar M. Stoney is pleased to announce the City of Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) Director Robert Steidel will now serve as the city’s Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Operations. Steidel has served as the city’s DPU director since March of 2011, after serving as interim director starting in July of 2010. He oversaw five utilities:  gas, water, wastewater, stormwater, electric street lighting and both the utility and non-utility call centers serving more than 500,000 residential and commercial customers in the surrounding metropolitan area. In his new role, Steidel will maintain control over DPU and add the Department of Public Works (DPW) and Richmond Animal Care and Control (RACC) to his management portfolio. “Bob’s experience and commitment to the city make him the right person for the job,” said Mayor Stoney. “I know he will continue to serve Richmond’s residents well.” Mayor Stoney is also pleased to announce Christopher Frelke will...

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...