RVAPolitics' May Media Roundup

Michael Markos

ICYMI, Here’s a few things I’ve been talking about in local media this month.

CITY OF RICHMOND

In city politics, the big topic of discussion earlier this month was the city’s budget. City Council approved it, but only after some tense confrontations with the Mayor and his staff. I had a lot of conversations about this budget over the past few weeks.

I wrote a 3-part series on the blog here about the budget. In Part 1, I argued that negative (and racialized) attitudes about bureaucracy can make it even harder to raise revenue in the city. Part 2 looked at Mayor Stoney’s strategic choices, and Part 3 was all about how Richmond government is structured to make budgeting difficult.

Not long after, WRIR radio’s Don Harrison invited me onto Open Source RVA to discuss some of the things I wrote about, as well as the effect of the budget on the Mayor’s upcoming coliseum/development plans. (You can find the May 3 show in the archives here.)

A few days later, I was (inexplicably?) invited to have a terrific conversation about race and the city budget, with brilliant minds Allan Charles Chipman and Chelsea Higgs Wise on RVADirt’s Municipal Mania, also on WRIR. (An extended version of their May 8 episode is available on their Soundcloud.)

Finally, I wrote about how we can expect more of the same drama next year in an op-ed for Style Weekly (online here).

STATE ELECTIONS

Earlier this month, I talked to Richmond Magazine’s Sarah King for a preview of the upcoming state legislative races in the area; the online version of the article is here.

NORTHAM YEARBOOK PHOTO

When Eastern Virginia Medical School released the report about their investigation into the Northam blackface scandal, I wrote about it at RVAMag here. The night before I talked to WRIC’s Amy Simpson about Northam and his continued survival; the interview with WRIC’s Amy Simpson is here and full story by Sara McCloskey is here.