~ City cites fiscal responsibility as reasoning behind shuttle suspension ~ After nearly two years of offering free and greatly reduced cost shuttle services to local grocers, the City has decided to suspend the RVA Shoppers’ Shuttle after this Saturday’s service due to operational costs. As a result, December will be the final month of the shuttle’s operations. The shuttle has experienced a steady decline in ridership, which has increased the cost per user beyond a fiscally responsible scenario for the City to continue the service.  The RVA Shoppers’ Shuttle was started as a pilot project in February 2012 as a transportation support system that is focused on areas within the City of Richmond that are deemed as food deserts – areas without easy access to healthy, nutritional, fresh food. The targeted areas also have a high concentration of poverty and large populations without personal transportation. The City is dedicated to helping City residents’ access healthy foo...

The City’s Department of Information Technology Public Safety Team continues to be recognized for the success of the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) program. The program is an American National Standard and has expanded to several 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and alarm monitoring central stations across the United States. The ASAP project was chosen as one of 15 Government Computer News (GCN) award winners for "Outstanding Information Technology Achievement in Government" in 2013. According to the announcement from GCN, this year's winning projects were selected from more than 200 nominations submitted to GCN, based on the degree to which a given IT project improved an agency's ability to operate more efficiently or serve the public more effectively. The City’s project team was formally honored at the 26th Annual GCN Awards Gala on November 19 in McLean, Va. The City’s technology project won another award recently when Donna Roy, Execu...

The City of Richmond and partner CultureWorks are pleased to announce the first awards made through the Arts and Cultural District Micro Grant Program.  The Micro Grant Program is one of several recent City initiatives targeted to the Broad Street Arts and Cultural District. The purpose of the Program is to increase the activity and vibrancy of the Arts and Cultural District through the combined effect of several, small grant funded projects and improvements. Two categories of grants are available: project support and capital improvements. Project support grants of up to $1,000 are designed to help fund special events, installations or activities presented within the boundaries of the District. Projects can be of any medium or cultural discipline and must have a component that is free and open to the general public. Capital improvements grants of up to $2,500 are available to fund items that can substantially increase an entity’s ability to host arts and cultural related acti...

~ Commended for Strategic Plan and Electronic Ethics Training Standard~ The City’s Department of Public Works has received official notification of its national reaccreditation by the American Public Works Association (APWA). The City department became fully accredited in 2005 and was reaccredited in 2009. The current status is for a four year period, November 2013 through October 2017. The DPW Team did a spectacular job working to review the standards and to update information within each to reflect enhancements to operating procedures and safety procedures in preparation for recertification,” said James A. Jackson, Director of the City’s Department of Public Works.  During the reaccreditation process, three APWA evaluators visited DPW facilities and reviewed 157 of 364 standard practices applicable to DPW operations. The evaluators determined 156 or 99.3 percent of the practices were fully compliant.  Only one of the practices reviewed, or .6 percent, was substanti...

The City of Richmond’s Minority Business Development Department (MBD) in partnership with the City Department of Economic and Community Development’s Marketing Conference held on Tuesday, November 19, 2013, was filled to capacity as businesses were empowered to promote their services and products more effectively. The conference trained businesses on how to achieve their marketing expectations by clearly identifying what they wanted to accomplish (promotions objective), establishing who their potential customer is (target), how to reach the customer and some perspective on cost. Several businesses won giveaways such as a free consultation, graphic design for marketing collateral, advertising space and much more.  The conference offered free on-site marketing consultation, discounted marketing packages, networking opportunities and was free to attendees and exhibitors. Featured marketing experts included Johnson, Inc., Four Deep Multi-Media, X-Ray Market Research Services, The...

On Sunday, November 17, 2013, a Twitter account under the username @MayorJonesRVA sent out its first tweet. The account holder is not Mayor Dwight C. Jones and is impersonating the Mayor in a public arena. This impersonation of an elected, government official is not appropriate and poses a dishonest voice to the public. The Office of the Mayor is currently completing all necessary paper work to have this account removed from Twitter. For official news from the City of Richmond, please follow @CityRichmondVA.

Mayor Dwight C. Jones today unveiled Revitalize RVA, a plan for economic development in Shockoe Bottom, slavery and freedom heritage, and baseball. Describing his plan as a strategy to develop downtown and to attract the people and businesses that will fuel the future growth of the city, Jones said, “Our city has a rich history that we must acknowledge and honor. And if we embrace who we are and move forward together, our city also has a bright, bright future.” Citing the city’s 26% poverty rate, Mayor Jones indicated that all decisions are being made through the lens of economic development, creating jobs and expanding the city’s tax base. Revitalize RVA includes a new baseball stadium, a slavery and freedom heritage site, and brings retail, residential, hotel space, office space and parking to the area. The overwhelming majority of the improvements will be privately financed. “The plan will generate almost $200 million in net new revenue over the next 20 years,” said Mayor Jones. “T...