This Wednesday, October 22nd, Barack Obama will hold a campaign rally at the Richmond Coliseum. Doors open at 10AM. This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required; however, an RSVP is strongly encouraged. For security reasons, do not bring bags and please limit personal items. No signs or banners permitted.

This week’s RVA News question for the candidates:

“What do you consider to be Richmond’s greatest asset? What do you consider to be its greatest liability?”

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Two of the three candidates for the 2nd District City Council seat have been racking up the endorsements. Charles Samuels has been endorsed by outgoing 2nd District representative and mayoral candidate Bill Pantele, the Richmond Crusade For Voters, the Henrico-based Richmond Association of Realtors, and the Coalition for Greater Richmond; Tyron Bey has been endorsed by the Richmond Education Association.

Much has been made of the shooting of VCU student in Carver last week. How nice of VCU students to wander into Richmond’s violence and get people to pay attention, as otherwise folks not right up on it tend not notice. Perhaps now the VCU police can find more police-like things to do than speed trap on Leigh Street or to give tickets for expired inspection stickers.

More than 100,000 people rallied at Green Jobs Now events across the country “to urge leaders to jump start the clean energy economy [and] create real energy solutions that build a new green economy strong enough to create millions of green jobs and lift people out of poverty”. Twenty or so of the 100,000 were at Smith-Peters Park (900 Catherine Street) today, marking Richmond’s commitment to the creation of clean jobs as a boon to both the environment and the local economy.

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One of the three City Council candidates for the 2nd district have submitted their responses to the 2nd in a series of weekly questions put to them by RVA News (last week). The question: What are two qualities that people who know you well might say make you suited for the office you seek?”

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Michael Paul Williams looks at the planned redevelopment of Gilpin through the lens of Blackwell:

Before any transformation takes place in Gilpin Court, the ghosts of Blackwell must be purged. Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority is planning to remake Gilpin Court and several other neighborhoods into a mixed-use, mixed-income community. But since only a third of those units will be public housing, residents are wary.

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City Council candidate Tyron Bey recalled his family moving from public housing in Bainbridge to a home in Carver, only to see their new neighborhood gentrified by VCU growth.

“I’m a realist,” he said. “In order for a student to live in this house, a family has to be uprooted.”

Two of the three City Council candidates for the 2nd district have submitted their responses to the first in a series of weekly questions put to them by RVANews. The question: List five initiatives that you believe are more important than finding a new baseball team for the City of Richmond.

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F.T.Rea at SLANTblog visits the Richmond base of the Obama campaign @ Norton and Marshall Streets:

Approaching the Virginia headquarters for Sen. Barack Obama it became obvious right away — this is not your Dad’s campaign office. It’s on the ground floor of an ancient brick building at the corner of W. Marshall St. and Norton St. That’s directly behind VCU’s spiffy basketball arena, the Stuart C. Siegel Center.

Perhaps more importantly, it’s not downtown, where tradition would have it. Geographically, it’s centrally-located, but it’s not on a high traffic thoroughfare like Main St.

The Richmond Crusade for Voters held a public forum for the candidates for city council this evening at the Military Retirees Club on Chamberlayne Avenue. 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. The three candidates for the 2nd Distric seat being vacated by mayoral candidate Bill Pantele began to really differentiate themselves when asked how to handle the impending redevelopment of Gilpin Court.

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One hundred or more people turned out for a standing-room-only public mayoral forum sponsored by the NAACP at Club 533 on 3rd Street. The candidates pulled few punches in a civilized but sometimes blunt back and forth on the issues.

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All of the 5 mayoral candidates are scheduled to participate in a public forum organized by the Richmond branch of the NAACP tomorrow night at Club 533 @ 7:30PM.