Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

“Where Is the Closest Tiki Bar?”

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Peter Galuszka
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tiki_barBy Peter Galuszka

Often times, blog commenters really hit the nail on the head. This is the case with “Virginiagal2” who responded to my blog post earlier this week that Richmond’s schools are decrepit and crumbling, as Style Weekly detailed in a recent cover story.

They note that Richmond’s elite has done little for its public schools while chasing higher-profile and extraneous projects such as a summer training camp for the Washington Redskins and a new baseball stadium for the Minor League AA Flying Squirrels.

Schools? What schools?

Blog posts also note that NFL football star Russell Wilson, a Richmonder, stayed at private Collegiate school after his father saw academics as more important than sports and blunted maneuvers by Richmond public schools to recruit Wilson during his school years.

Part of the problem, as Virginiagal2 notes, is that Richmond’s select and self-appointed “leadership” ignores the city’s serious problems while they embark another pointless road trip to another city, typically in the sunny South, to gather ideas on how they should proceed with their (how to describe?) “leadership.”

Just a week or so ago, about 160 of Richmond’s “leaders” were bopping around Tampa, sampling its eateries and noting the watery views. The biggest cheerleader for these junkets is The Richmond Times-Dispatch, which is very much a propaganda organ of the area’s chamber of commerce. Its publisher Thomas A. Silvestri was chamber chair a few years back yet few commented on the potential conflict of interest. On the Tampa trip, the editor of the editorial pages wrote a supposedly cute series of reports in a “postcard” (ha-ha) style about the Tampa trip. Here’s one tidbit:

“About 160 Richmonders will spend three days sipping from Tampa’s version of youth’s fabled fountain. Where oh where is the closest tiki bar?”

I couldn’t have said that better myself. Next, I’d like to copy what Virginiagal2 had to say in response to my blog. She absolutely nails it:

“The cost of sending a kid to Collegiate is beyond a lot of young families. What do you think those Richmond families value the most – a sports team that has around 5,000 people attend games, or a good safe public school for their kids? The RTD has been shilling for the stadium for months – when’s the last time the RTD advocated for money for better city schools? Do you ever remember them encouraging businesses to partner with city schools? Advocate for vouchers, yes – advocate for baseball, yes – improve the overall public schools, no.

‘nuf said.

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10 responses to ““Where Is the Closest Tiki Bar?””

  1. chris bonney Avatar
    chris bonney

    At @$19,000 – $22,000, I would say that the cost of Collegiate is well beyond the means of MOST families, especially young families and especially if they have more than one child. At a time when most parents are struggling to pay that much for higher education at a public college or university in Virginia, a primary or secondary education at Collegiate School is unquestionably a luxury.

    Did those 160 people travel to Tampa on the City’s dime? If so, I can share your beef with this. But if not, then I would see this as little more than a trade mission. It’s not unusual at all, nor necessarily inappropriate, for smaller delegations of public managers or elected officials to visit other places to see how others do things. And while no one expects taxpayers to pay for “entertainment” beyond the per diem, the idea that people might go out and have some fun on their own dime doesn’t really bother many people (as long as it is indeed on their own dime).

    One hundred and sixty people, though, is not a small delegation. But it’s also too large a number in a metropolitan region the size of Richmond to be considered just “elites.” Ten or twenty would be elite. If there is a group of “Richmond’s select and self-appointed ‘leadership,’” it’s probably fewer than that. A hundred and sixty is more like a gathering of a region’s civic leaders, and would include a much wider range of perspectives.

  2. TMT Avatar
    TMT

    School administrators could do more for proper maintenance of schools if it were a priority. But public education is a huge jobs programs for non-teachers and their six-figure paychecks take priority over maintenance of classrooms, gyms, auditoriums and restrooms. Could they fix everything? No, but if education was their real priority, they could do better.

  3. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    you cannot change the schools overnight. But you can let attrition take the ones that are too expensive and underperform. That’s a whale of a lot more effective than blaming unions or other things or basically making excuses for inaction.

    ditto for the schools and yes.. someone asked if there are too many.

    in both cases – schools and employees – “too many” forces you into trying to do employees and schools “on the cheap” with not enough funds to do a good job on schools or pay higher salaries for better qualified, higher performing teachers.

    at some point – we have to confront the reality that class size ratios are one thing but too many lower performing employees may be worse.

    If the mayor had schools as one of his important things to go along with the other initiatives – that might be understandable but to not be dealing with the schools when they have issues and instead be pursuing other things.. inexplicable to me unless everyone has just given up on them.. including the Mayor.

    1. TMT Avatar
      TMT

      One of the Fairfax County supervisors asked the Schools about the budget impacts of abandoning the current 8-cluster system for the former 4-cluster system. Guess what? The Schools refused to provide the financial information. In the eyes of the Fairfax County School Board, the six-figure jobs of administrators are more important than those of teachers despite the rhetoric to the contrary.

  4. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Richmond struggles because cities are not within counties in Virginia. Outside of Virginia there are only three cases where an American city is not within a county – Baltimore, St Louis and Carson City. Inside Virginia there are 43 such cases.

    Do you believe that Baltimore and St Louis represent examples of the American urban ideal? I don’t.

    If the City of Richmond were within the political boundaries of Henrico County it would be more effectively operated. The county couldn’t simply shrug its collective shoulders and ignore the problems in the city.

    In the case of cities within counties Virginia is once again unique and once again wrong. And before someone starts blathering about Thomas Jefferson and rural rights – the independent status of Virginia’s cities wasn’t codified in state law until 1871 and in the state constitution until the 1971 state constitution.

    The decrepit state of most of Virginia’s cities proves that this odd duck approach of ours isn’t working. It’s time to change.

    1. JohnS Avatar
      JohnS

      So basically the City of Richmond can’t govern itself. Isn’t that what you’re saying?

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        and the problem of urban schools that suck doesn’t seem to be limited to independent cities either… just saying…..

      2. DJRippert Avatar
        DJRippert

        Yeah, pretty much. Although I’d also add that Henrico and Chesterfield are part of “Greater Richmond”. In other words, they wouldn’t be what they are without the City of Richmond. Since all these localities are tied together via an urban core it seems like they all should all work together. One way to do that is to have the city within a county. That forces some level of cooperation and expands the options available.

        The City of Richmond has 210,000 people and a median household income of $31,000. Henrico has a population of 317,000 with a median household income of $49,185.

        As a suburb of the City of Richmond and an economic beneficiary of the City of Richmond doesn’t Henrico County have some (at least moral) obligation to be directly involved in making the City of Richmond successful. In every other state in America Richmond would be part of Henrico County (or, perhaps, Chesterfield County).

        Meanwhile, city / county mergers have been done in Louisville, Jacksonville and Nashville with what seems to be early success. Maybe Henrico should become part of the City of Richmond.

        1. larryg Avatar
          larryg

          Virginia does allow, encourages – regional creation/sharing of facilties, infrastructure and services… and there are a few places in Virginia where this actually happens:

          Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamsburg James_City_County_Public_Schools

          at least half a dozen others.

          why not combine Henrico-Richmond-Chesterfield with ONE set of administrators and ONE unified employment system where a new or experience teacher gets assigned per the need rather have Richmond end up with whatever the other two decide not to hire?

          We have in our area – about a half dozen regional facilities from jails, to libraries to solid waste to services for the elderly and handicapped… but not schools, nor courts, nor police. Those 3 are tougher to do – politically.

  5. virginiagal2 Avatar
    virginiagal2

    Wow. Thank you Peter. I appreciate the kind words.

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