In the most recent edition of richmond.com’s Ask the Mayor, Mayor Wilder essentially explains that, short of the $50 Adopt-a-Tree program, the city does not have a plan for replacing the trees that it removes from our urban forest.

On the heels of last week’s mayoral candidates debate, we ran a (certainly very unscientific) poll to see what kind of support each candidate might have…

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The Richmond Crusade for Voters held a public forum for the candidates for city council Tuesday night at the Military Retiree’s Club at 2220 Sledd Street. Recurring issues among the 18 candidates running for the 9 seats were economic development and affordable housing, with public safety and education coming up as well. From their comments at the forum, the two candidates for the 7th District seat might be living in 2 different neighborhoods…

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I sat down on July 23rd with Don Coleman, candidate for the 7th District School Board seat, and Brandon Jaycox, Coleman’s campaign manager, for an interview at Buzzy’s.

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7th District School Board member Keith West will join mayoral candidate Paul Goldman at an 11AM press conference at Bellevue Elementary School to discuss “the need for a citywide school uniform policy”. The announcement quotes West as saying that “Goldman is the only candidate willing to challenge the failed status quo and call for a badly needed citywide School Uniform policy. He will be the Education Mayor.”

A Save Richmond piece on mayoral candidate Pantele linked out to the Virginia Public Access Project. VPAP is a non-profit group the makes it easy to access the public records of who has donated how much to a candidate for office.

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The RTD has a list of people who have already submitted papers with the city’s office of the general registrar indicating that they will run for office this November. Candidates have until June 10th to file. So far, no challenger to McQuinn for her City Council seat, but 2 more names have popped up for the school board seat: Ronald L. Bond (who received just under 7% of the vote in the 2006 race), and Harry H. Bradley.

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A neighborhood parent and I sat down with Carletta Wilson, candidate to be 7th District School Board representative, for about an hour at Buzzy’s on Tuesday evening. Wilson, well-informed and ready to discuss anything that we brought up, was patient as the parent & I jabbered back and forth and scattered questions at her.

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One of the presidential campaigns is hosting a voter registration drive tonight. Wanna help register voters? Meet at the Family Dollar at 1830 Creighton Road tonight @PM, and they will supply you with everything you will need. There will also registration drive volunteer opportunities this Saturday at 10AM and at 2PM in Chimborazo Park.

I sat down Saturday morning with Torey Edmonds, candidate to be 7th District School Board representative, at Buzzy’s, and in lieu of a proper interview, had a 2 1/2 hour conversation about the Richmond School system with Edmonds and a neighbor that had come out with her own questions. I was so engaged in the conversation that I didn’t really take any notes; any vagueness is probably my fault.

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Today at the 7th District Meeting, Seventh District Representative and Council VP Delores McQuinn announced officially that she will be running for reelection. Petitions of support are circulating the community.

RPS Superintendent Jewell-Sherman has tendered her resignation. Chief Monroe is leaving. Mayor Wilder will not run for reelection. … Anybody asked Director Creecy if he’s sticking around?

There will be 3 community meetings of note on Monday evening: the Richmond Department of Parks & Recreation will hold a focus group meeting to discuss and exchange ideas on the redesign of the Chimborazo Playground and Recreation area, the RTD will be hosting a “Public Square” on the James River and development, and the School Board will likely be voting on the Patrick Henry Charter School Initiative.

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In line with recent discussion, this autumn’s school board races look to be feisty. Style Weekly’s Sabers Rattle, Missiles Launch In Schools Fight has more on Keith West’s tattered relationships with many of the other members and his move to rebuild the Board:

“Quality candidates will be running in every district,” West writes, warning that “of course, as always, money will be an important factor, and the issue has been addressed. I would imagine that, unless some wealthy benefactor intends to buy your seat, significant spending will be necessary for a competitive race.”

7th District School Board representative Keith West has launched Save Richmond Public Schools as part of a “grassroots organization conceived to elect a better School Board”. The group is “seeking candidates for every district”; the representatives elected this year will serve 4-year terms. [via]

“There has been such a number of colossal failures over the years, the only reasonable thing to do is put a new group in place,” says West, who has said he’s not likely to run again for his own post. He calls his Web [sic] site “a long overdue effort to recruit qualified people to be on the Richmond School Board.”

Councilwoman McQuinn will hold a Community Meeting on Monday, March 31st at 1:00PM at the East District Center to discuss a threat by Mayor Wilder to cut trash pickup if city council reduces the real estate tax rate.

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The RTD is reporting 7th District Richmond School Board representative Keith West call for a consolidation of some school system and city departments: “It makes no sense for us to be duplicating services the city already provides [...] Why do we need two accounts-payable departments when the city is doing the banking anyway?” In related news, School Board Chairman George Braxton has removed West as the board’s finance, budget and audit committee chairman calling him “a disappointment to just about everyone else on the board”.

7th District School Board rep Keith West was spurned in his bid last night to lead the Richmond School Board. Afterward the voting, West said that the board has lost the confidence of the city and that a whole new board should be elected. He further stated that he will not run for the position again and will instead work towards recruiting, training and financing new candidates. [via]

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Seventh District School Board representative Keith West is actively seeking to grab the reigns from current School Board Chairman George Braxton, this week’s Style reports.

“It’s just appalling the failures we’ve had this year,” West says, acknowledging his attempt to unseat Braxton. He says the chairman has a long series of failures of leadership, among them the School Board’s bungled responses - and lawsuits - related to Mayor L. Douglas Wilder’s call for an audit of schools and to his withholding of money budgeted to schools by City Council.

About 25 people turned out for a “community conversation on building new schools” last night at EDI. The meeting began with a presentation (PDF) by Torey Edmunds on the recently released Master Facility Plan Update (PDF) as it impacts the East End, followed by a lively back and forth on the issues raised.

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