#Richmond also one of the worst places in the country for ppl with asthma. much higher asthma related deaths.

[richmondflyingsquirrels]

The state admits these two school buildings are too dangerously moldy to serve as voter precincts… but Richmond still sends children & faculty there full time!!

The schools deemed unsafe are Clark Springs Elementary and Boushall Middle. Clark Springs Elementary is 316 students (95% Black), and Boushall Middle is 455 students (62% Black and 33% Hispanic). Fox Elementary has also for the past year and change added 358 students (47% white, 37% Black) to the Clark Springs building.

Some quick math (adding faculty) says that’s about 1200 people, mostly Black children, who have been and continue to be constantly exposed to conditions which the state admits is too dangerous for a day?

(Fox Elementary serves as another example of this city’s issues with mold, schools, funding, and general competence, as it rebuilds from a damaging fire. The City let the water from fighting the fire just sit in the building for months, so it also became overrun with mold, adding to the damage. Between the fire and mold, Fox needed demolition and the city kept having issues funding the rebuild until it got a state grant in May 2023.)

& what is additionally infuriating is how Mayor Stoney is proposing the city fund repairs to schools, which are—beyond just these two — in desperate need of repair and honestly likely also have major mold issues, is by voting “yes” in a second referendum to build a casino. The voters rejected it in the first referendum, by a small majority. The company who wants to build, which is about to be delisted by NASDAQ for its noncompliance with regulation despite three warnings, is running a massive campaign — $8mil might not sound like much for politics, but it is more than any legislative race & ballot initiative in state history. & it’s likely to pass as a result. It also has agreed to pay the city $25mil upfront and plans to generate a lot of tax revenue, some of which will be earmarked for education.

Except, like most casinos, most of its customers will be local, likely within an hour or two drive. literally no one is coming from out of state to gamble in central Virginia. Over one-fifth of Richmond lives below the poverty line, and the ten-miles around the proposed casino is largely below the poverty line. Being within 10 miles of a casino is associated with a 90% increased in problem/pathologic gambling; this is going to fuck over a lot of people.

It’s going to rob people in Richmond blind & tell them that at least a percent of the money they lost might go to repairing the schools that even the state admits are poisoning their children. The whole thing is infuriating.