Ask Chuck D'Aprix about his role in reviving Richmond's Fulton neighborhood, and he'll instead brag about its people.

• The husband-and-wife team rebuilding Bono's Caribbean on Williamsburg Road.
• The owners of a fire-damaged Krispies' Fried Chicken inching toward reopening.
• The doctor transforming a long-vacant funeral home into a community center.

Why it matters: Ask anyone else in Fulton, and they'll likely point to him.

Zoom in: His fingerprints are on each of those projects.

• He connected Bono's owner with city grants that funded the restaurant's renovation.
• After Krispies caught fire, he brought city officials to the site, helping turn what he calls the owners' initial "despair" into a reopening plan.
• For the funeral home, he tracked down its Maryland-based owner and introduced him to a local real estate agent.

Zoom out: Since moving to Fulton in 2015, D'Aprix has become one of its most relentless advocates.

• Over a 40-year career, he's helped revitalize downtowns nationwide.
• In Fulton, he's served as its civic association president and founded Innovate Fulton, a nonprofit he runs without pay that connects residents with resources and pushes for investment.
• The progress has shown up in rain gardens replacing cracked pavement, a mural- and tree-lined stretch of Government Road, a grant pipeline for small businesses.

Yes, but: For D'Aprix, preserving Fulton's future starts with remembering its past.

• Urban renewal bulldozed much of Fulton in the 1970s, displacing generations of Black families.
• "When we talk about that strain running through the neighborhood of feeling ignored, some of that emanates from that," he tells Axios.

What's ahead: Some of the people who experienced that displacement now sit on Innovate Fulton's board.

• Next month, they'll help launch a documentary and podcast on the neighborhood's history and the people who shaped it.
• Innovate Fulton is also kicking off an 18-month, volunteer-led planning effort to identify residents' priorities, from sidewalks and bus service to more trees.
• The process starts Sept. 12.

The bottom line: D'Aprix's list of people making Fulton better keeps getting longer. He sees them as proof of the neighborhood answering one question: "Why not here?"

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Editor's note: This story has been corrected to fix the name of Krispies' Fried Chicken (not Christie's).

Gov. Spanberger plans to intervene in the proposed $67 billion merger of Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy.

Why it matters: Virginia's governor is positioning herself to influence a proposal to create the world's largest electricity company before state regulators rule on it.

State of play: Spanberger argues the deal to effectively sell Virginia's largest state-regulated utility to an out-of-state company warrants intervention from the governor's office, per her Washington Post op-ed.

• The size of the deal — and the potential impact on Dominion's more than 2.7 million Virginia electric customers — was too big to ignore, she wrote.
• Speaking with reporters, Spanberger said the companies' promised savings and securities "are not sufficient" without stronger guarantees that future rate increases won't erase those benefits.

Zoom in: Spanberger's involvement will focus on:

• Whether the deal brings sustained savings to Virginians' power bills.
• Whether it ensures long-term job security for Dominion's Virginia workers.
• Whether the merged company has a clear plan for producing reliable, clean energy.

The other side: "We welcome the governor's participation in the regulatory process and agree with her priorities of affordability, protecting Virginia jobs and supporting the Commonwealth's energy future," Dominion CEO Robert M. Blue said in a statement.

What's next: If approved, the deal is expected to close in the second half of 2027, per Dominion.

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💨 The Virginia DMV is launching its first cannabis-impaired driving prevention campaign on Monday across TV, radio, billboards and concert venue flyovers. (News release)

• The tagline: "Relaxxxxx, Don't Drive High."

📈 Interim Richmond School Board member Anne Holton has raised nearly $79,000 for her 6th District campaign, far outpacing opponent Jackie McDonnough's $17,500. (The Richmonder)

• It puts Holton on track to running the most expensive School Board campaign in city history.

🏍️ Powhatan's Planning Commission unanimously recommended denying a proposed 711-acre ATV and dirt bike park over concerns about traffic and environmental impacts. (WWBT)

• The proposal heads to the Board of Supervisors later this month.

🚌 Former Gov. Youngkin launched a national education policy group that will promote President Trump's federal school choice tax credit with a multimillion-dollar ad campaign. (NBC News)

VCU is preparing for two major construction projects on the MCV campus.

Why it matters: Consider this your first warning for future traffic headaches around VCU Medical Center — and a changing Richmond skyline.

State of play: First up is the spring demolition of VCU's Larrick Student Center on Turpin Street to make way for a new School of Dentistry building, per VCU.

• That will be immediately followed by construction of VCU's new five-story, 312,000-square-foot dentistry building, running through 2029.

Next up: VCU's proposed 16-story inpatient tower at Leigh and 12th streets, which is still in the planning stages but will replace the now-closed hospital parking deck and relocate the Health Sciences Library.

The bottom line: Big changes are coming.

What else is changing on campus

Richmond just got its first dirty soda drive-thru.

Why it matters: Think 7-Brew, but swap the coffee for customized sodas.

Driving the news: Sippa opened last weekend in a former bank building near Regency Mall, bringing Richmond the Utah-born trend of mixing flavored syrups, fruit purees and creamers to your Coke or Dr. Pepper.

• That's the "dirty" part.

How it works: Choose your soda base, such as Mountain Dew, Sprite or root beer.

• Build your own drink with 20-plus syrups, purees and creamers or get a signature drink. Prices start at $3.
• The signature drinks are organized by soda type and largely have Richmond-inspired names like "Carytown Crush," and "Shockoe Pop."
• Then pick up the drink at the window.

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