Editor’s note: Below find a special report. Here’s how to submit tips, documents, correspondence, etc. with The Lookout for editorial consideration.—Dave.

Volunteers with Church Hill’s first-ever BooFest on Broad event are planning to staff intersections on East Marshall Street to help trick-or-treating crowds from points north cross the stretch safely. But until one Church Hill resident finally got the attention of the right person at the Department of Public Works in late October, it looked like those crossing guards weren’t going to have actual crosswalks to guard.

See, after belatedly repaving the stretch of E. Marshall St. in front of Chimborazo Elementary School back in June 2026, the department simply never striped north/south crosswalks at the intersections of N. 29th, N. 30th, or N. 31st Sts. School started; students and their parents scampered perilously across the street to get to class. For months, DPW made no visible effort to add the crosswalks despite multiple 311 requests. And during Richmond Department of Transportation director Andy Boenau’s so-called “Year of The Pedestrian,” no less!

For whatever reason, an email last week from a Church Hill resident broke through the bureaucratic bog at City Hall, and on October 28th, a crew hastily hustled through the (extremely basic) work of striping those missing crosswalks. The Lookout reviewed a copy of that message, which was sent to multiple City Hall officials as well as City Council President and longtime 7th District member Cynthia Newbille.

It’s a relief that these standard street-safety features have finally been installed before America’s deadliest night of the year for pedestrians. But it’s baffling what took DPW so long. That’s a bit of a theme.

“This work experienced delays over the summer due to periods of heavy rainfall, particularly in June and July, as well as additional demands on the contractor's pavement marking crews,” said Jensen Gavulic, a city spokesperson, in response to emailed questions from The Lookout seeking the cause of the lengthy lag. “We understand residents' frustration with the time between resurfacing and the restoration of pavement markings and appreciate their patience as crews complete these improvements.”

The precipitation explanation doesn’t hold water (ahem) when cross-referenced with records from the National Weather Service. Those data show that neither June nor July 2026 was even one of the top 20 wettest in Richmond’s history; rainfall totals reached just 5.37” and 7.33” respectively. Those readings are moderately higher than “normal” benchmarks (4.64” and 4.37”), but well off recent records (13.32″ in June 2018; 10.66” in July 2025.) And even if those summer months had been monsoons, it’s now midway through fall. August, September and October 2026 have not been especially rainy, at 5.37”, 5.50”, and 2.08” so far. These are nowhere record rainfalls for these months.

Responding to The Lookout’s inquiry about the citizen’s last-ditch email about the street’s sorry striping situation to DPW, Samuel Patterson, Newbille’s full-time liaison, promised to forward it along to the appropriate asphalt administrators at 900 E. Broad St.

Neither he, nor the politician herself, responded to a follow-up request to say whether she had previously demanded answers from DPW about the dangerous delay, or to share her perspective about it. That’s also a bit of a theme.