Good Morning, RVA!: Recent Episodes
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Good morning, RVA! It's 55 °F, and I’ve got some personal news.
Water coolerBittersweet news: This is the last edition of Good Morning, RVA for the foreseeable future! I’ve taken a job with the City’s Office of Strategic Communications and Civic Engagement—which I’m incredibly stoked about—and I think this professional transition marks the perfect time to press pause on this, Richmond’s premiere zoning and rezoning newsletter.
The last time I had to write a post like this it was for dramatic and sad reasons: Closing down RVANews because I couldn’t find a way to financially support a newsroom of multiple people doing good work in an industry that was (and still is!) struggling to figure out how to make ends meet. This time, though, I get to write a see-you-around post (very different from a so-long post) with a much better perspective: Making a proactive choice to do something new. I’m excited to move on, interested in exploring new projects, and, without a doubt, looking forward to getting a little more sleep each morning—because, to answer a Frequently Asked Question, I do (did!) write everything fresh each morning, waking up at 5:15 AM (another FAQ) to make tea and read the news.
I’ve read and written about a lot of news—and a lot of PDFs—over the last eight years, and when I look back, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. Eight years is a lot of years, and, while I haven’t really kept track, I’ve written somewhere north of 1,800 daily emails, with maybe just one single unplanned absence (when I got my first COVID-19 vaccine). That’s incredible!
As the years piled up, I got less and less interested in “what people want to read” and more and more interested in “what I want to write about.” I think, maybe counterintuitively, that’s what makes (made!) Good Morning, RVA successful. I’ve tried real hard, especially in recent years, to only write about what I find fun and interesting and to write about it in fun and interesting ways. Now, many years down the road in 2024, I write (wrote!) a daily, ad-free email about budgets, zoning, bicycles, and fascinating stories I happen upon (have I told you about the lifecycle of bamboo??). It’s not something that I’d ever have predicted thousands and thousands of people would want to read every morning, and I’m proud of that.
I’m most proud of the work I’ve done to normalize actual news coverage on topics like the combined sewer overflow system, transportation infrastructure, and, of course, budget season. I think Richmonders now expect our local media to cover those sorts of things, and I’ll take a small portion of the credit for creating that culture. I’m also particularly proud of the work I did during COVID-19 and the summer of 2020. I’ve been reading over those entries from four years ago, and it’s both a humbling and affirming experience—Four Years Ago Me really knew how to put together a sentence!
I am also just incredibly proud of you, the audience, who has read about whatever thing I decided to write about each and every morning for eight straight years. What an amazing and supportive group of people! I think I can count on two hands the number of negative emails I got in response to nearly a decade of having (sometimes strong) opinions on (sometimes emotional) local issues. If I’m honest, the part I’ll most miss is that I’ll no longer have people emailing me thoughtful feedback and kind words.
At this point, though, it definitely feels like it’s time for me to move on to something different. Don’t get me wrong: zoning is still, of course, fun, interesting, and incredibly important, especially with the big zoning rewrite coming up. But I’m having a harder and harder time writing about it in fun and interesting ways. One of my hopes is that by stepping away from GMRVA, I will leave space for the next great zoning and rezoning email newsletter writer to step in and start explaining how the City works in new ways. It’s clearly something Richmonders crave, and I’m sure folks would love to hear from someone with a different perspective than my own.
So, that’s it! Thank you so much for reading. If you’re a Patron, you’ve allowed me to keep time and space in my life for this email, and I’m incredibly thankful for that. Finally, an infinite thank you to all of Richmond’s actual reporters who make it their job to sit in endless meetings, interview our community leaders, and lift up issues important to residents. Without y’all Good Morning, RVA would not have existed.
Eight years ago, when writing my previous sign off post, I ended with this, which still feels just as true now as it did in 2016:
Other than that, though, who knows! I don’t want to commit to anything, but you know how sometimes I just can’t not write about buses, or bikes, or education, or City Council…
I don’t know where you’ll find my next thing and what that’ll look like...but you know how I sometimes just can’t not!
Lastly, some logistical bits
- I’m gonna keep the GMRVA email list around, and I can’t promise I won’t send out some infrequent emails about whatever random stuff I’m into at the moment. Please don’t offer to buy GMRVA, step in and run it, or fold it into some other thing you’re working on.
- Later this morning I will “pause” Patreon and with the eventual goal of “unpublishing” my Patreon page. I need to figure out how all the tax stuff works before I go ahead and unpublish, but, moving forward, Patrons will not have their cards charged again. It won’t be necessary, but if you want to make double sure, you’re also welcome to cancel your patronage.
- I intend on keeping the GMRVA-adjacent projects running: the Boring Show, the RVA.FYI mastodon server, and the legislation and candidate trackers.
- You can always email me at my personal email, <rcatrow@gmail.com data-preserve-html-node="true">! It’s not like I’m dead, I’ll still be around having opinions!
Picture of the Day
Good morning, RVA! It's 60 °F already, and that’s about the temperatures you can expect today, with highs creeping up a tiny bit to 70 °F by lunchtime. At that point it’ll probably start to rain. Deal with it, though, because come tomorrow morning, the sun will come out, and we’ll be headed into a long stretch of really beautiful weather.
Water coolerPart of the official GMRVA process each morning includes checking the City Auditor’s website for fresh, hot-off-the-presses audits. Today, I found two new documents—the first for this year and the first from the City’s new auditor Riad Ali:
- Non-Audit Services: Meals Tax Delinquent Notifications
- Citywide - Continuous Auditing
The former—which really, really wants you to know that it is not an actual official audit—lays out what the City has done to clean up their meals tax collection efforts. Flip to page five to see exactly what changes got implemented when, and, importantly, check out final page of recommendations which reads: “The City Auditor’s Office will not issue any additional recommendations as the City is already committed to the process of informing delinquent account holders of their outstanding balance. As requested by City Council, City Administration, and the Director of Finance, the City Auditor’s Office will audit the meals tax program after RVAPay is implemented.”
The latter audit...I have a hard time understanding. I think it’s like a combo meal of mini audits all bundled up into one 39-page PDF so folks don’t have to continually request reports and audits on common topics. Don’t get me wrong, there’s interesting information contained within: Like, scroll to page three for a list of overtime hours by department for the last couple of years. Police, Fire, and the Sheriff account for about 70% of the $29.4 million dollars the City spent on overtime in 2023. See? Interesting stuff.
Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch continues reporting on the shifts and changes to the planned Diamond District development. This morning he’s got news of 700 more homes added to the plan. The development now totals “1,700 homes in Phase 1, the vast majority will be rental units. Twenty-four homes will be for sale, described as 2-over-2 condominiums...One in five residences will be designated affordable for households making $65,000 or less per year. The city also will offer vouchers to assist families making $33,000 or less.” Sounds great. On the not-so-great side: “The latest version of the project also includes more commercial space and nearly double the number of parking spaces to more than 2,000. The size of the grassy park that weaves through the neighborhood will shrink from 11 acres to eight.” I know planners didn’t directly replace acres of green space with acres of parking, and portions of the park most likely got swapped for those 700 new homes and the structured parking that goes with them. I’m ambivalent! I love green space, but I also love increasing the supply of housing. Either way, it’s hard to fit all the puzzle pieces of this plan together, especially as the (financial) picture on the box keeps changing. P.S. Tap through for, what I think is, the latest rendering of the neighborhood.
Dillon Rule at work: Governor Youngkin vetoed the legislation that would have allowed localities to impose a 1% sales tax for school construction and modernization, reports Nathaniel Cline at the Virginia Mercury. Because the State says no, Richmond will, yet again, lose out on needed money for its public schools—which, I suppose, is the point. Frustrating! If you want to get even more mad, read the Governor’s veto statement which ends with “The Commonwealth should pursue a tax policy that unleashes economic development and prioritizes job and wage growth through innovative reforms. These reforms must allow hardworking Virginians to keep more of their money, not less; any proposal that increases the cost of living and the cost of business is not a policy we should pursue.” I’d love for him to come read this aloud inside any one of the RPS facilities in desperate need of replacing.
DPW will close the bridge on Commerce Road near Bellemeade a month earlier than planned, because “a bridge inspection this morning revealed severe deterioration.” Listen, no one’s trying to screw around with failing infrastructure, especially an 84-year-old bridge that was already scheduled for replacement in May. If you’re a frequent user of this bridge, you’ll need to detour via Bellemeade over to Richmond Highway and cut back on either Ruffin Road or Bells Road. Get used to your new route, because the replacement bridge won’t open until late 2025.
Via /r/rva, check out the massively beefy tow truck required to tow a GRTC bus!
This morning's longreadThe Climate Charts Are Not OkayI definitely worry about what “an era of constantly broken records,” especially terrifying records like ocean temperatures, will do to how we process information. Literal off-the-charts climate data certainly fill me with existential dread, but, after awhile, I’m nervous that I’ll acclimatize and just sort of stop caring. “This is just how it is now,” I can hear myself saying—just like what I now say about the lack of snow and the brutally hot summers.
For the moment, 2024’s line on the chart is staying well clear of its predecessors, and staring at this continuing crime against nature has me asking myself over and over: if every day is a new record, is any day a new record? This is, quite clearly, an absurd question. The answer is yes. Obviously. A record is a record. But that is what an era of constantly broken records does: it renders everything a bit askew, makes thought processes turn on their axes, makes us all a little bit crazy. And that’s the world now, records falling essentially every day. “The new normal” gets thrown around quite a bit, but it is true that “normal” has a new meaning now, and it is for records to fall. It is normal for the theoretically abnormal to occur. It would be weird and unexpected now if the records stopped falling. That’s the way it will continue to be. It’s not just the oceans, of course. Last year was the warmest year in recorded history, and probably in at least 125,000 years.
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Picture of the DaySorry, can’t stop staring at this flower.
Good morning, RVA! It's 59 °F, and if you can squeak past this morning’s chance of light rain, I think you’ll have a warm and dry day. Expect highs in the upper 70s and lots of clouds. For me, I’m definitely riding my bike in slip ons with one pant leg rolled up—my final form.
Water coolerThe City posted the video from this past Monday’s third budget session, and I’ve gone ahead and put it up on the Boring Show. This is when I make the joke about listening at 2x speed—which, for me, is not a joke and definitely what I actually do, and to hear Councilmembers speak at 1x speed when I see them in real life makes me feel like I’m dodging bullets in The Matrix. Anyway, this week’s episode clocks in at just over three hours, so you’re gonna want to set aside some serious time if you plan on listening. I’ll most likely permit it to pass over and through me during a couple bike rides and laundry foldings—you should do the same! If you’d rather just scroll through some slides, make sure you grab all three decks: the operating budget, the City’s revenue, and its compensation and benefits plan.
Also, later on in the same day, Council held their regularly scheduled meeting and introduced two papers that we mostly already knew about, but I mention them just in case you want to add them to your own legislation tracker. First, ORD. 2024-111 would authorize the City to issue $170 million of general obligation bonds to cover the new ballpark and associated infrastructure. There are a couple related papers, too, that when grouped together enable the City’s new Diamond District financing mechanism. Second, ORD. 2024-110 will accept $100 million from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to help fund fixes to our aging sewer system. I’m pretty sure that this is not new money but state money from a previous budget or two we’d already heard about, but, still! It’s exciting to see ordinances accepting a hundred million bucks—especially for sewer repairs.
While we’re talking about Council and their budget process, I found the presentation from the first budget work session about the “Richmond Children and Youth Fiscal Map.” Not only that, but here’s a public link to the fiscal map itself if you want to dig around and see if anything interesting pops out at you. I haven’t spent a ton of time with the tool yet, but I just lost 10 minutes of my morning exploring various services and their funding streams. There is a lot in here!
Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the City’s new Diamond District financing mechanism will “free up money, allowing the city to buy Sports Backers Stadium earlier...VCU, in turn, will use that money to build a new track and field stadium across Hermitage Road.” This is the original plan from a couple yeas back, but VCU had hit pause on their new athletic facilities because the City had delayed buying Sports Backers Stadium. The whole thing sort of stumbled to a halt as economic conditions across the country shifted and the City reevaluated their options. Now, with the newly announced financing plan, both the Diamond District and VCU’s Athletics Village get back on track...but with the City taking on a lot of the financial risk. Is this good or bad? I bet we will hear a lot about it from a lot of folks in the coming weeks. P.S. For context, seven of nine councilmembers have already signed on to the above mentioned ordinance authorizing the new financing.
Via Axios Richmond, this incredibly charming (and viral!) reel of students at Armstrong High School playing Finish the Lyrics. So good!
This morning's longreadAn Ode to Women Who Walk, From Virginia Woolf to Greta GerwigI loved this piece about “women in films who walk through cities.” It sort of reminds me of my obsession with the way less interesting “sad men who ride buses in the rain and stare out the window.”
To be a Woman and a pedestrian in the city can be combative and exhausting but sometimes it reminds me that I am in charge and that I will propel myself forward, always forward. I love shots of women walking through cities in films. I like that they are alone and alive and, usually, wearing a nice coat. I like that even though they are a part of a bigger story, something grand or trivial, for those seconds they are removed of their storyline, the knots and tangles, and they are simply people, immersing themselves in the city, disappearing for a moment and allowing the noise of the world to eclipse the noise of their lives.
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Picture of the DayI sort of can’t believe these fiery tulips are real.
Good morning, RVA! It's 58 °F, and today looks cloudy but with amazing highs right around 80 °F. You can expect cooler temperatures over the next couple of days—with each a little cooler than the last—but nothing that’ll make you break out your big shirts and wool socks. I think we did it! We finally turned the corner, and spring is here to stay!
Water coolerIn accordance with the timeline set out by state law, the Governor has “completed action” on all 1,046 pieces of legislation the General Assembly sent his way. Head over to the State’s legislative website to find the full list of bills he signed, amended, and vetoed.
The budget sits in that middle bucket of amended bills, and Graham Moomaw, Charlie Paullin, and Nathaniel Cline at the Virginia Mercury report that Governor Youngkin has sent the budget back with 233 suggested amendments. That’s a lot of amendments, and I have no idea how successful the General Assembly will be in sorting them all out. Are they designed like dominoes, where if the GA rejects one amendment the rest of them cascade into dust? Is the budget still even balanced? I guess we’ll find out in the coming weeks; legislators return to Richmond on April 17th.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense has the follow up reporting on yesterday’s news about the City rejiggering its financing plans for the new baseball stadium development. Spiers says, “Council members expressed support for the plan to have the city issue its own lower-interest revenue bonds to fund the project’s anchor ballpark for the Richmond Flying Squirrels and initial infrastructure improvements. Doing so is expected to save $215 million in debt costs over the previous plan to issue the bonds through a community development authority (CDA).” I really like this straightforward quote from the City’s DCAO Sharon Ebert (who oversees things like Economic and Community Development, Housing, and Community Wealth Building): “This is much more cost-effective...There is risk; I don’t want to say that there isn’t any risk. Taking this approach does require the city to put its full faith and credit behind the bond if the tax revenues don’t materialize as expected.” Yes! Just say the thing and let the argument for the new financial arrangement stand on its own.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Anna Bryson reports that the RPS School Board voted to approve an extended school year for Woodville Elementary. Woodville will join Fairfield Court Elementary and Cardinal Elementary as the third school in the District with a 200-day school calendar. Superintendent Kamras mentioned this in his excellent budget presentation the other day, and Bryson says the longer calendars have already led to better outcomes: “The two schools that implemented an extended school year in 2023 have already seen improved outcomes, including lowering the rate of chronic absenteeism, which means missing more than 10% of the school year.” I think we’ll have more data on this in a couple of years, but I could definitely see all RPS elementary schools head to the longer calendar—assuming, of course, that the school district can find the funds to cover the additional costs.
The Richmond Flying Squirrels face the Akron RubberDucks in their home opener tonight at 6:35 PM, and you really couldn’t ask for better weather. Unfortunately, I think tonight’s game is sold out (either that or I couldn’t figure out their website). But! Consider this a reminder to Future You to both put an upcoming home game on your calendar and to not freak out when you hear fireworks coming from the Diamond this evening.
A look backFour years ago this week, City Council passed the legislation required for them to move to fully virtual public meetings and public comment. Since then, Council has returned to their chambers but much of the virtual infrastructure set up during the pandemic remains, and that’s great! A lot more than respiratory disease keeps folks from participating in Council meetings—mostly stuff like families, dinner, work, school, and just being freaking tired.
However, I think we still have a lot of work ahead of us to ensure residents stay informed and aware of what their government’s getting up to. Here’s what I wrote back in 2020:
The real, hard work for Council remains, though, and that’s making sure their constituents know what legislation is coming up when. They’ll need to dig deep into their community contacts and look beyond their district email list! It’s no joke a lot of work, but I believe it’s possible to keep people involved—maybe even more so than in pre-virustime!
Council’s email newsletter game certainly has gotten a lot better over the last four years, but there’s still work to be done to keep/get people involved!
Also, remember when sports got cancelled, and, for like a week, we all discovered marble league? It still exists!
This morning's longreadLife Aboard a Nuclear Submarine as the US Responds to Threats Around the GlobeMostly I want to avoid posting military propaganda, which this totally is, but I grew up with The Hunt for Red October and, in the teenage-boy parts of my brain, submarines are the coolest. Just know going in that the Navy doesn’t grant Vanity Fair access to their nuclear submarines for no reason, and you should keep your propaganda detector at defcon four or on red alert or one ping only or whatever.
But I am hard-pressed to think of another mission as daunting as testing a teenager's mettle underwater with a nuclear reactor in back and thermonuclear warheads in front. Beyond their duties, the Gen Z'ers--and the millennials who supervise them--must contend with a life that is practically monastic. They are completely removed from meaningful connectivity, including social media. Their only contact with the outside world involves infrequent (and heavily monitored) emails with family when the sub is at a depth and a posture that permit it. There is also little privacy beyond the confines of a draped bunk that can feel like a coffin. Deprived of many other creature comforts, sailors can avail themselves of exercise gear, which is spread around the boat, including treadmills and free weights--but not when the sub is running silent so as to evade detection.
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Picture of the DayThe stream restoration in Pine Camp is going so well. I’m super impressed at how they’ve turned a very dangerous pit of erosion into something that still looks like a fun place to explore hidden away in the forest.
Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, and today looks absolutely lovely. Expect clear skies for most of the day and, after lunch, highs in the 70s. Other than some rain Thursday evening, this week’s weather look great. I hope I’ll see you out there!
Water coolerReminder! We’ve got a partial eclipse (of the heart) today! The astronomical party starts at 2:02 PM and runs through 4:31 PM, but peaks right at 3:19 PM. Schools have changed schedules, business will have rescheduled meetings, and people will probably stare up into the sun while driving their cars. Enjoy, because the next eclipse visible from the Commonwealth will take place on May 11th, 2078.
City Council will hold Budget Session #3 today at 12:30 PM, and you can stream the meeting from the City’s website. From the recently updated budget meeting schedule, it looks like Council will hear an overview of the Mayor’s proposed budget (both operating and capital) and then discuss “revenues from estimated interest income.” Just like how last week’s budget session was an excellent way to grok the RPS budget, I imagine today’s budget session will be your best best at understanding—at least at a high level—this year’s proposed budget.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports on a potential change to the financing of the Diamond District redevelopment plan: “In a proposal that will be presented to City Council today, administrators are recommending that the city issue its own revenue bonds to fund the stadium and infrastructure for the development’s first phase, rather than having bonds issued through a community development authority (CDA)...The city would assume more risk with the approach. It would be responsible for repaying the general obligation bond debt should the developer default or the project not succeed in paying for itself over time through incremental financing of tax revenues generated by the development.” Stressful! But, on the positive side, interest rates for the City are about half of what they would be for the CDA, and the City’s CAO says Richmond’s current debt capacity would not be impacted (that’s the amount of money the City can borrow). Also, I keep thinking about this sentence I read in the Richmond Times-Dispatch over the weekend: “Currently, the Squirrels pay the city $200,000 a year and VCU pays $134,000. Both are expected to pay significantly more at the new stadium — possibly more than $3 million for the Squirrels and $500,000 for VCU.” Who knows if that’s true, but maybe that extra $3.2 million—plus any incremental tax revenue—covers the bond payments? Municipal finance: Who can say!
Anyway, I’m interested to see how Council reacts, because the lower level of financial risk was one of the big differences between this project and Navy Hill.
Remember a couple weeks ago when Governor Youngkin stumped around the state standing behind a podium that said “THE BACKWARD BUDGET”? Well, today, at 1:00 PM, he’ll reveal what he thinks is a compromise, and this one also has a proper-noun name: the Common Ground Budget (TBD if it’s stylized in all-caps or not). Stay tuned for more details tomorrow—including whether or not the Governor found a way to wriggle out of rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
OK, this post on Mastodon from Taber, a person I’ve know on the internet for forever, absolutely blew my mind: “do appreciate about Virginia how it’s the only state that stamps car license tags in a serif typeface.” Not only that, but this incredibly comprehensive but very early-90s-looking website purports that Virginia’s license plate is the only fully-seriffed license plate seen in any western country. That’s pretty neat, but there’s probably a reason for this, right? Like readability? The aforelinked website continues, with a disapproving tone, “The serif style of the alphas is different, with characters inconsistent in form and weight from one character to the next.“ I dunno, I think I’d miss our inconsistent form and weight if it were gone.
Northsiders! The James River Association will host a cool, tree-related volunteer opportunity this coming Friday, April 12th, at the North Avenue Library. They need about 35 people, for both a morning and an afternoon shift, to come out and help plant trees around the library and expand the neighborhood’s tree canopy. You know what they say: The best time to plant a tree next to the local library was 30 years ago, but the second best time is this coming Friday, April 12th!
This morning's longreadFriendship Ended With GOOGLE Now KAGI Is My Best FriendI switched to a paid Kagi account a couple months ago and haven’t once looked back. Even if none of Kagi’s advanced features speak to you (like prioritizing certain websites, building custom search “lenses,” and AI whatevers), I guarantee that using an ad-free, user-focused search engine will make your day better. It’s definitely worth the $10 per month!
For some additional reading, here’s a Cory Doctorow post about Google Search’s decay in which he writes about switching to Kagi, and here’s the Daring Fireball post that got me to first give it a try.
After more than three months of using it, I am pleased to report that it is worth every penny and that I will probably not ever switch back to Google unless Kagi becomes significantly worse or Google reverses years of annoying interface and search decisions that have prioritized ads, sponsored results, spammy affiliate content, and AI-generated results. Besides not having ads itself, Kagi also “will actively down-rank sites with lots of ads and trackers in the results and promote sites with little or no advertising.” The nicest thing I can say about Kagi is that it has fully faded into the background of my life, and that I do not really realize or think about the fact that I am using Kagi. I mean this in a good way.
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Picture of the DayWeird shadows from our last eclipse back in 2017.
Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, and temperatures bottom out today and tomorrow (as much as they can “bottom out” in the middle of spring, I guess). You should expect highs in the 50s, some sunshine to warm things up a bit, and a forced return to your sock drawer. Sunday, things start to warm up again, and then, by this coming Tuesday, we’re back to the springtime 70s. We’ve got plenty to enjoy before then though, so throw on an additional layer and spend a bit of time outside with these sunny skies!
Water coolerYesterday, GRTC announced they’ve won a big $750,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration to help kick off some very important land use planning. Specifically, the money will “plan for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) on Chamberlayne Avenue in advance of GRTC’s future North/South Pulse Bus Rapid Transit Line.” I imagine the final product will look something like 2017’s Pulse Corridor Plan, which helped the City figure our the proper land use and zoning around Broad Street ahead of actually building the Pulse. Spend six seconds driving down Chamberlayne Avenue and you’ll see a corridor with industrial sections that need drastic upzoning and sleepy sections of old single-family-home street-car suburbs. It’s a complex corridor and will need a thoughtful planning process to figure out the best way to build great transit that’s supported by great neighborhoods.
Also, did you catch that GRTC called this north-south BRT the “Pulse” too? I think that’s the first time I’ve seen “Pulse” used when referring to this new potential line. That makes the most sense to me; we don’t need to have cute names for each and every bus rapid transit line we build. We will, however, need some sort of way to differentiate these lines eventually—by color or number or something. Cardinal direction won’t work when we have a bunch of these things running diagonally across the region.
Also also, it’ll be interesting to see how this planning process takes advantage of (or runs up against) the upcoming zoning ordinance rewrite.
Virginia Tech is out here throwing cold water on my plans to spend the back half of April taking hundreds of photos of cicadas from Brood XIX as they crawl out from wherever it is they’ve been for the last 13 years. Apparently we may be a little too far north which “makes it difficult to predict where Brood XIX cicadas will emerge.” Tap through to see a comparison photo between regular, annual cicadas (still cool) and the periodic variety (way more mysterious). The former are black and green, while the latter are more reddish in color.
John Murden at South Richmond News has a picture of Richmond’s oldest frame house. Built in the late 1750s it sits at what is now 5613 Kildare Drive. First, that’s way further west than I would have expected for this sort of Richmond history! Second, it’s kind of wild that houses from 300 years ago just look like houses from today. I guess we’ve kind of settled on what a “house” looks like?
Friends of the Richmond Public Library will host their annual spring book sale today through Sunday down at the Main Library (101 E. Franklin Street). Stop by this weekend and find something new to throw on top of that ever-growing stack of books on your nightstand. Proceeds benefit Richmond Public Library programming, which is broad and vast and important to our communities!
If you’re looking for recommendations, two books I just finished:
- Interior Chinatown which I absolutely loved. It’s weird, interesting, funny, and thoughtful.
- This Is How You Lose the Time War is set in the far future (or deep past?), and while it’s definitely a science fiction novella, it’s one of the most romantic things I’ve read in the past (or future!) forever.
A look backReading through my COVID-19 update from April 5th, 2022, I was reminded that today, in 2024, you can still monitor the COVID-19 levels in wastewater across the country via this nice page on the CDC’s website. In fact, nationally, the wastewater viral activity level for COVID-19 is low for the first time since last summer. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s no COVID-19 swirling around in your specific community, but it does mean that it’s probably safer—at least as far as coronaviruses go—to travel across the country for an eclipse than it has been in a while. Honestly, the biggest risk to your safety if you’re eclipsebound is probably the long drive across America’s highway system.
This morning's longread'Whatever the hell is west of Roanoke.' Them's fighting words!Earlier this week, Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond wrote a throw-away line about Virginia’s different regions, listing them out as: “Richmond, NoVa, Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, Roanoke and whatever the hell is west of Roanoke.” In response, Cardinal News, an independent news site the that covers Southwest and Southside Virginia, wrote this really nice piece explaining exactly whatever the hell is west of Roanoke and why it’s a lovely and important part of the Commonwealth.
I understand why it’s easy to dismiss the western part of the state. We’re a long way away from Richmond — and lots of other places. Roanoke is closer to two other state capitals than it is to our own, and the numbers go up from there. By the time you get out to Ewing in western Lee County, you’re closer to nine other state capitals than our own. Distance creates different perspectives: A study a few years ago by two geographers found that, based on commuting patterns, the western part of the state was economically disconnected from the rest of Virginia — we tend to look south to North Carolina or west to Tennessee. It’s not just our rivers that run west and south; so do our people. The whole controversy over whether the Wizards and Capitals would move to Virginia meant very little out here. Those aren’t the teams we root for.
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Picture of the DayWhat an excellent logo and paint job on this bike!
Good morning, RVA! It's 40 °F, and whoa it rained hard up here on the Northside last night. Today, you can expect highs in the mid 50s, so I hope you didn’t pack away all your flannels and big shirts (what my house inexplicably calls sweatshirts). I think we should see the sun at some points both today and tomorrow, so maybe by this weekend things’ll have dried out enough that all the mountain bike trails will be open and ready to shred!
Water coolerAs foretold, I spent my bus trips yesterday with an absolute must-listen episode of The Boring Show. No joke, City Council’s second budget work session, which features a presentation about the Children’s Funding Project and then Superintendent Kamras walking through his proposed budget for Richmond Public Schools, is really something anyone interested in supporting RPS and our city’s kids should give a listen.
First, the Children’s Funding Project! Earlier this week, I’d forgotten I’d written about the Children’s Funding Project back in October. Back then, at one of Council’s Education and Human Services committee meetings, they’d teased a “fiscal map” that would lay out the funding streams for any and all things supporting children. They’ve now completed that map, and it seems like a really cool tool for doing deeper analysis which you then hope leads to better and more-informed decision making. Unfortunately, I can’t find a link to the tool at the moment, but you can watch a demo of it here (staring around the seven minute mark).
Second, I really, really hope y’all will go listen to Kamras’s budget presentation. It’s excellent. He lays out the District’s needs, highlights the ~$10 million gap between his budget and the mayor’s, and then clearly explains why that’s the State’s fault. I specifically appreciate his explanation of the “LCI,” or Local Composite Index, which is a formula Virginia uses to judge what percentage of school funding a locality can afford. Because we live in a hellscape where the General Assembly and the Governor punish Virginia’s small, independent cities, the newly-updated LCI formula says Richmond can afford a larger percentage of school funding than Henrico, Chesterfield, or Hanover. This obviously does not match anything close to reality, and those recent changes to the LCI have cost Richmond Public Schools somewhere between $10–20 million dollars. That’s why the responsibility for RPS’s budget gap belongs with the state. Anyway, give the whole thing a listen; Kamras’s portion starts around the 45 minute mark.
Council’s next budget session, their third, will take place on eclipse day (this coming Monday). Make sure you bring your shades!
Today, the Urban Design Committee will consider UDC 2024-10, the location, character, and extent review for the James River Branch Trail. This project is SO cool. It’s a unique rail-to-trail conversion that, yes, will create two miles of new paved multi-use trail in the city, but, more importantly, it will serve as a solid piece of transportation infrastructure. First, check out the trail map. The James River Branch Trail will cut across the Southside (almost like a radial bus route) and connect Hull Street Road and Midlothian Turnpike in a totally safe, car-free way. Second, scroll through these engineer diagrams (if you dare), and see how the trail has a bunch of spurs connecting it to nearby neighborhoods and streets. Don’t think about this trail like the Capital Trail which runs alongside a major thoroughfare. Instead think of it as a bike and pedestrian major thoroughfare with its own (car-free!) off and on ramps. Third, crossing Hull and Midlo on foot or by bike is objectively terrifying, so read through this “Evaluation on Uncontrolled Pedestrian Crossings” memo. It’s still a little car-brained for me, but it does show that they’ve thought through how to make these major street crossings safer. I mean, check out these recommendations for the Midlothian crossing:
- warning signs at and in advance of the crossing
- lighting
- a pedestrian hybrid beacon with passive pedestrian detection
- to reduce the width of the trail crossing, the right through lane on westbound Midlothian Turnpike is proposed to be merged into the left through lane in advance of the trail crossing
- a curb extension to reduce the crossing distance
That’s all good stuff, and I’m so excited for whenever this project starts to get off the ground.
Here’s a depressing couple of sentences from Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense: “The planned redevelopment of an entire block of Scott’s Addition could be on ice for the next 16 years after a recent court ruling. Last week a Richmond Circuit judge ruled that North Carolina-based developer Hem + Spire has the right to renew its lease on a 51-space parking lot at 3210 W. Marshall St., potentially keeping the lease active through 2040.” Vomit. But! Platania reports that it’s unclear what Hem + Spire will actually do with their lease, and I have to think the various pressures to build more housing on such a big lot will ultimately force some other solution than sixteen more years of surface parking.
Bleh, via /r/rva: “Who wants to splash around in the pollen puddle?” Unfortunately, the pollening is upon us, and everything outside is coated in a fine yellow horrible dust.
This morning's longreadA Few Rules For Predicting The Future by Octavia E. ButlerI think everyone should read Octavia Butler’s Parable books, which were written in the 90s. So when she talks about looking at the neglected problems around her and giving them “30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters,” she’s envisioning our world right now. And, I tell you what, she’s spooky / terrifyingly accurate in a lot of ways.
“SO DO YOU REALLY believe that in the future we’re going to have the kind of trouble you write about in your books?” a student asked me as I was signing books after a talk. The young man was referring to the troubles I’d described in Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, novels that take place in a near future of increasing drug addiction and illiteracy, marked by the popularity of prisons and the unpopularity of public schools, the vast and growing gap between the rich and everyone else, and the whole nasty family of problems brought on by global warming. “I didn’t make up the problems,” I pointed out. ‘All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.’
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Picture of the DayAzaleas at their peak look like alien plants.
Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and rain is headed our way. You should expect wet weather for most of the morning and maybe even into the afternoon. Temperatures look great, though, with highs in the mid 70s. Soak it up, because, starting tomorrow, we’ve got about a week of highs in the 50s before we again see temperatures that start with a seven.
Water coolerVPM’s Patrick Larsen has an update on DPU’s Combined Sewer Overflow work at Gillies Creek. Look at this amazing stat: “In 2019, the sewer outfall there overflowed 43 times. The city’s installing a new sewer pipe and relocating the outfall point to increase capacity — and take advantage of unused sewer system space. When construction is completed this fall, officials expect that under the same rainfall conditions, overflows will be cut from 43 to five.” This particular project is part of the important work to limit the amount of actual poopy sewage that ends up in the river during extreme rain events—which are only getting more and more frequent. And while this work is good and important and should be a priority for the City, the General Assembly has legislated Richmond into doing it and doing it along a pretty unrealistic timeline. Not only that, but the GA and Governor have subsequently failed to properly fund the City, so meeting that timeline doesn’t feel entirely possible. Larsen reports that the Commonwealth’s current proposed budget allocates $50 million towards Richmond’s sewers, but that lawmakers rejected an amendment to add another $100 million (which would have made up for the money “forgotten” in last year’s budget).
Liana Hardy at the Henrico Citizen reports on Henrico County’s proposed budget for schools and who among HCPS’s staff qualifies for an additional one-step pay increases. In: Licensed instructional staff and bus drivers. Out: Instructional assistants, custodians, administrators, front office staff, nurses, and teachers without licenses. I think all the folks on the Out List will still qualify for a 4.8% county-wide pay raise but will miss out on this additional 2.4% bump, and that probably feels bad. I don’t have enough context to know if the licensed teachers and bus drivers have fallen far enough out of line with the rest of the District’s staff to warrant their own additional raise, but, regardless, it’s cool to see folks in Henrico out there advocating for more.
Yesterday, City Council hosted their second budget work session, and you can listen to the audio here. I haven’t had a chance to yet, but, given today’s expected weather, I’ll probably spend a bit of time on a bus listening along while starting out the window with a melancholic expression on my face like I’m in romance film from the 90s.
The City’s Office of Sustainability has a neat volunteer opportunity for someone who wants to get more deeply involved in Richmond’s important sustainability work: Joining the Sustainability & Resilience Commission (formerly the Green City Commission). They’ve got one vacancy to fill, and they’re looking for someone who can “join bi-monthly meetings and provide support between these meetings such as volunteering at events, advocating for policy change, distributing outreach material, among others (typically less than 3 hours total per month).” You can apply through the City’s standard Boards and Commissions process.
RIC Today is running a neat contest, asking folks to write poetry using only the words found in their email from this morning. Your poem can take whatever form you desire, must be 75 words or less, and you can submit it via this form.
Here’s my quick go at a haiku:
91%chance of precipitationSunrise and Sunset
A look backCheck out this charming paragraph I wrote on April 3rd, 2020:
For whatever reason, American society has decided to try to carry on life as best it can by moving every possible in-person encounter to a video conference call hosted by Zoom. I don’t know how everyone simultaneously decided on using Zoom as a platform, but it happened. Now, Zoom is both a noun and a verb I say regularly in my professional life when just two weeks ago it only applied to dogs running around in cute circles.”
This is still true, of course, and, despite having mostly emerged from the pandemic, the amount of time I spend in virtual meetings while also sitting inside a work-related building would boggle 2020 Ross’s mind.
This morning's patron longreadStudy shows bicycle-friendly cities are safer for all road users even driversSubmitted by Patron Lisa. I think people—normal people, not just the bike and bus bois—are starting to accept that cars make neighborhoods dangerous. It’s almost (but not quite!) a noncontroversial thing to say out loud at a party at this point, and that feels like a big change from even just five years ago. Still extremely (although ever less so!) controversial to bring up at your next dinner party: That we can successfully deprioritize cars in our neighborhoods—even in America.
“Cities with high bicycling rates tend to be safer for both bicyclists and all road users,” Ferenchak explained. They find that denser urban environments, where streets are bustling and compact, are safer. “More compact cities were significantly associated with better road safety outcomes.” The study noted that pedestrian fatalities in paired comparison cities (the non-cycling cities) were 193.8% higher than in high-bicycling cities, Yet, beneath the surface lies a troubling truth — available bicycle infrastructure and hence more safety is not always distributed equitably and there are consequences. “Areas with lower incomes and larger non-White populations see more road fatalities,” the study revealed
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Picture of the DayApple blossoms! These things smell SO good!
Good morning, RVA! It's 51 °F, and today looks cloudy but amazing. Expect highs in the mid 70s, no reason at all to wear socks, and a near perfect opportunity late in the afternoon to sit on the stoop and watch the day end. Tomorrow, rain returns and cooler weather follows immediately.
Water coolerRichmond Police are reporting that an officer shot and killed an individual on the 1900 block of Cedar Street earlier this week. Here’s some information describing the incident, quoted directly from the RPD press release: “Yesterday at approximately 4:58 a.m., officers were called to the 1900 block of Cedar Street for the report of a disturbance with an armed person. Officers arrived on the scene within minutes and located the male suspect, [Kenneth] Sharp. After a brief encounter during which Sharp produced a firearm, Sharp was shot. He was transported to a local hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries.“ Police Chief Rick Edwards has said in the past that, following fatal shootings by police officers, his department would produce and release a “Critical Incident Briefing video” featuring audio and video from the investigation—from sources like body cameras and 911 calls. RPD hopes to release the briefing video for this incident within the next two weeks.
A week late, I finally got around to listening to Mayor Stoney’s budget presentation while in the shower yesterday. The Mayor does a good job with his remarks, and I think it might be the easiest way to get yourself oriented towards the budget’s big-picture items. Related: The City hasn’t posted the video from yesterday’s second City Council Budget Work Session, but, when they do, I’ll make sure to get it up on The Boring Show as quick as I can.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Luca Powell reports that the USPS’s Office of Inspector General has released the promised audit of Richmond’s mail processing facility out in Sandston, and...it’s not great news. You can download and read the surprisingly concise PDF (weighing in at only 35 pages!) for yourself here. The audit makes 10 recommendations (look for the red headers), and they range from fairly mail-specific like “record omitted trips in the data system” to general good biz advice like “train all management personnel in the Richmond region to understand and perform their roles and responsibilities.” I guess USPS will now attempt to implement these recommendations, and, with Sen. Kaine still on the case, I hope they take them seriously!
Megan Marconyak, also at the RTD, embarks upon an ambitious project: Each week she’ll share the best thing she ate in a column appropriately titled “Best thing I ate this week in Richmond.” I feel like she’ll have to eat a stunning number of new things each week to sustain this column, and I wish her the best! For me, this project would just be a lot of posts about this Cheesy Baked Pasta With Sausage and Ricotta from the NYT that I make constantly. Or maybe, like, lemon Oreos and Kroger-brand Pink Grapefruit Seltzer?
Over on Mastodon, all-purpose internet wizard Waldo Jaquith has put together a really fun bot that posts actual personalized license plates that the Department of Motor Vehicles has rejected for being too inappropriate. Beware that some of the plates are actually inappropriate or offensive, but most are just silly: BOOTY, MESSYB, and TRSTS8N (Val rightly wondered if TRSTGD would have made it through the filters?). I love this sort of project, which takes publicly available data and makes it easier for the public to access—especially if it does so with a little personality.
Also, this reminds me to remind you that if you’re still wandering through the post-Twitter social media wilderness, looking for a home for your microblog-type content, you can sign up for a Mastodon account over on rva.fyi. There are a million and one different places to create a Mastodon account—mastodon.social being the biggest—so no pressure!
Via Richard Hayes at RVA Hub, this incredible picture of someone flying(?) into the raging James River to rescue folks trapped slightly off frame. You can see a few more pics over @sandys_dad’s instagram. Whoa, what a dramatic day down by the River!
This morning's longreadA Family Tree: Hippolyte Hodeau’s Trench Art (ca. 1917)You’re definitely going to want to tap through and check out the exquisitely precise art “carved” onto leaves by WWI soldiers stuck in a trench for endless days. Beautiful and incredible!
Like many soldiers, Hodeau spent hours huddled in these muddy channels. In order to kill time, perhaps, or lift his spirits, he gathered leaves from an oak tree — elongated, striated, forest green — and used a form of relief carving to inscribe the names of his daughters, Andrée and Eléonore, as well as the word “souvenir” and what looks like “Argonne”...As unique as his objects may seem, Hodeau was not alone in carving leaves. The art form flourished during World War I as a way to enhance letters home with a unique lightweight enclosure. Soldiers used a needle or knife to whittle between the oak and chestnut veins, leaving only words or, sometimes, an image.
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Picture of the DayUrban views.
Good morning, RVA! It's 49 °F, and, while we’ve got a decent chance for rain this afternoon, the temperatures look downright amazing. Expect highs in the 70s for today and the next two days until more seasonable weather moves back in. You know, despite the rain, I’m really feeling Richmond’s current weather patterns, mostly because my yard is absolutely exploding with springtime action: hostas, apple blossoms, red buds, coreopsis, and clematis—every dang thing!
Water coolerHappy, April 1st! Just a quick reminder that some of the things you see on the internet today may be fake—although brands spending their time making up entirely fake product lines seems like a less successful marketing strategy these days. You can, of course, be assured that the thrilling content below about budgets, legislation, and potholes is as real as real gets!
City Council will hold their second budget session today at 1:00 PM and will focus on the Richmond Public Schools portion of the budget and the “Children’s Funding Project” (which I’m not exactly sure to what that refers). RPS accounts for an enormous chunk of the budget, $529 million out of $1 billion, so this seems like a great place for City Council to start.
Also, this is the first time the City of Richmond has ever dropped a billion-with-a-B budget—up about $180 million from just three years ago. If you want to scroll through it yourself, and you should!, you can download the entire proposed budget, both operating and capital, here.
I’ve got two thrilling roads updates for you this morning.
First, starting today, the City will embark upon a “3-week Pothole Blitz” and will attempt to work through a backlog of 439 service requests for pothole repairs. Those request get pulled directly from the City’s 3-1-1 system, so if you have a favorite/hated pothole make sure you actually submit a 3-1-1 ticket. You can do that via RVA311.com or through the RVA311 app. The latter is probably a little easier, and now I just need to work on trying to replace my initial reaction of “complain about this infrastructure online” with “submit a 3-1-1 ticket first (and then maybe complain about it online).”
Second, starting tomorrow, VDOT will close the ramp from southbound Chamberlayne Avenue onto eastbound I-95 as they work to rejigger that entire interchange. Part of me is like, finally, because the current merge right there is absolutely bonkers unsafe. The (much safer) detour will route folks over to Brook Road and up through Gilpin Court, and I do wonder if morning bus service on the #1 will get caught up in rush hour traffic. We’ll see tomorrow, but keep it in mind if you’ve got somewhere to be and need to move through that part of town.
A bunch of folks at VPM report that Governor Youngkin has officially vetoed the legislation that would have set up a legal retail market for marijuana in Virginia. They headline the story with “Gov. Glenn Youngkin smokes cannabis, minimum wage bills,” which, great work headline writers. Did the governor whip out his red veto pen (or is it a stamp, maybe?) on this legislation as retaliation for the scrapping of GlennDome? Probably not, but I do think he kept the possibility of signing this bill around as a potential bargaining chip for his pro stadium deal. Now, with both the deal and the bill dead, we’ll most likely have to wait until the next time Democrats control both the General Assembly and the Executive Mansion before we can pass some legislation to sort out the commonwealth’s existing messy weed gray areas.
This past Friday, Chesterfield County kicked off its own Restaurant Week and includes enough locally-owned restaurants that you’re bound to find something new-to-you and worth trying out. You could, of course, just default to La Milpa for a guaranteed excellent meal, but maybe do that and pick something new to try off the aforelinked list of spots. As with most restaurant weeks, you eat for a good cause as your meal will support the Chesterfield Food Bank Outreach Center.
This morning's longreadTwo retracted studies at the Supreme Court this weekKatelyn Jetelina, who you may remember as Your Local Epidemiologist, writes about the mifepristone case recently heard by the Supreme Court. She details why the publisher of the studies used to bring this case forward had them retracted just a couple months ago. Tap through to see some truly heinous—and dangerous!—manipulation of a y-axis.
After these concerns were raised, SAGE asked for a review of the articles post-publication. They had two subject matter experts and one independent statistical reviewer take a look. Then SAGE retracted the paper based on three major factors: Methodological and statistical concerns. Specifically, “unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions,” “material errors,” and “misleading presentations” of data that “demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor and invalidate the authors’ conclusions in whole or in part.” Ethical considerations. The authors were members of three pro-life advocacy organizations, despite declaring no conflicts of interest in the study. More ethical considerations. The peer reviewer (who is supposed to be an unbiased third party) didn’t disclose their conflict of interest— that they know the authors personally. SAGE did not publish the experts’ peer review, which is normal practice. However, given the stakes of this case, it could be coming.
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Picture of the DayCity Hall in the morning light.
Good morning, RVA! It's 46 °F and still rainy—at least from where I’m sitting. The chance of rain dwindles as the day progresses, but the weather most likely won’t dry out entirely until this afternoon. The slog through today is worth it, though, because the weekend looks stunning: Sunny and clear with highs in the mid 60s and 70s.
Water coolerYesterday, the Mayor introduced his FY25 budget, and you can watch the video of his remarks via the City’s legislative website, listen to them at 2x over on The Boring Show, or read them as prepared in this PDF. The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Em Holter has an overview and, of course, you can dive straight into the official proposed budget document here.
I haven’t had much time to dig through the PDF yet, but highlights include: pay raises for City employees, $21 million for street maintenance (that covers paving but can also include additional infrastructure like sidewalks and bike lanes), $10 million to make improvements to Brown’s Island, $6.1 million for the Fall Line Trail, and a $15.8 million increase for Richmond Public Schools. There’s a bunch to discuss, of course, but that last item for schools will be top of mind for a lot of folks. Remember: The budget passed by the RPS School Board requested an additional $25 million from the City, and they’ll now need to come up with $9 million worth of cuts.
Stay tuned, and give the Mayor’s presentation a listen, it’s only 47 minutes long (just 24 minutes at 2x)!.
Richmond BizSense’s Mike Platania reports that “Legend Brewing Co. has put its Manchester real estate up for sale, leaving the future of Richmond’s oldest brewery up in the air. .” To everything there is a season, and, for the Ukrop’s of Richmond beer, that season may be over. I’m bummed, but, if interrogate that feeling, I think it’s mostly about being old enough to remember various Time Was-es. Anyway! Get over it, old man, and let’s build some more housing down that way!
A bunch of journalists at VPM report that the City of Alexandria “ended negotiations” on the Governor’s stadium deal, effectively killing what Sen. Louise Lucas has affectionately called The GlennDome. Governor Youngkin put out this passive aggressive statement which includes an actual “but nooooooo.”
Definitely not local but still really interesting: The New York Times reports that, after years of back and forth, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted to approve congestion pricing in Manhattan. Should the new policy clear the remaining hurdles (literally six lawsuits and a bunch of angry rich people), most passenger cars would be charged $15 a day to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. New York has tried to implement congestion pricing for years and years, and, again, if it somehow squeaks the new regulations past a bunch of litigious New Yorkers, it will become the first American city to do so. Exciting stuff if only for creating an example of how it’s possible to build a less car-centric city—even in America!
Today at 12:00 PM, RVA Rapid Transit will host a virtual Transit Talk focused on the Richmond Connects Final Action Plan. They’ll have folks on hand from the City’s Office of Equitable Transit & Mobility to answer all of your questions about the actual infrastructure Richmond Connects recommends building. Tune in if you’re curious about how our now-adopted transportation plan (!) will impact your neighborhood. I think, between now and this coming January, everyone needs to make a list of projects they’re stoked on and start thinking about how to hold our elected officials accountable for getting them implemented. For me, my list includes (but is not limited to!): Chamberlayne Avenue pedestrian safety improvements, Southside Plaza pedestrian connections across railroad tracks, the James River Branch Trail, and extending the Franklin Street cycle track to Lombardy.
Logistical note: Tomorrow is Good Friday, and the local school districts are closed. While this is technically not a state holiday, the gap between George Washington Day on February 19th and Memorial Day on May 27th is far too long to endure without some sort of break. So! I’m taking tomorrow off from this email newsletter and will return to your inboxes on Monday. If you can, maybe join me in some time away from responsibilities—I think the weather might just be too good to ignore.
This morning's longreadThe Science Fiction of the 1900sI really appreciated this reframing of classic science fiction (rocket ships and robots) as “from the 1900s.” Sure it makes Elon Musk’s hobbies look ancient and out-of-touch, but it also makes me wonder what sort of old-timey visions of the future I’m still holding on to. For what it’s worth, Kim Stanley Robinson—who has written plenty of classic sci-fi stories, including an entire series about colonizing Mars—does a wonderful job writing contemporary science fiction in his book The Ministry for the Future. It’s a book I’m always thinking about, and one of my strongest recommendations!
Hieroglyph was a project where a specific design constraint was imposed on a set of authors and scientists, forcing them to reframe how they looked at science fiction, and the future. I’m not looking to repeat that exact experiment; but I am going to ask this of you: Are your ideas and plans for confronting the crises and opportunities we face in the 2020s based on ideas ‘from the 1900s?’ If so, it is possible that there are new ideas and plans that are a better match to our current situation? I’ve set this as my own design constraint for the next few years. I’m going to write short stories, novels, and collaborate with as many people as I can on real-world projects to reframe and reinvent our future.
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Picture of the DayNever a great sign.
Good morning, RVA! It's 44 °F, and rain should move into the region before lunch. As you’re trapped inside or hiding under eaves and awnings, you can expect highs in the mid 50s. The wet weather will most likely continue straight on through to tomorrow afternoon, dumping upwards of two inches of rain onto our already sodden region. Hang in there, because clear skies and a beautifully warm weekend sits just around the corner.
Water coolerToday at 3:00 PM, Mayor Levar Stoney will introduce his FY25 budget at City Council Chambers. He’ll give some prepared remarks, which usually serve as a sort of budget executive summary, and, should you find yourself with some time to spare this afternoon, you can stream the whole thing live over on the City’s legislative website. PDFs of both the Annual Fiscal Plan (operating budget) and Capital Improvement Plan (capital budget) should be available online shortly thereafter. I’ll make sure to get the Mayor’s speech up on The Boring Show as soon as I can, because I’m sure it’ll be worth a listen.
By the way, I put this past Monday’s City Council kickoff session up last night, so, if you hurry, you can listen to that before the Mayor gets to speechifying later this afternoon. It’s only 38 minutes long—just 19 minutes at 2x—and something you could crush out on your morning commute or maybe even while eating breakfast. Oh, also, you should just subscribe to The Boring Show in the podcast player of your choice, too.
Participatory budgeting—where you, a Richmond resident, get an actual say in how the City spends $3 million of its money—has been a long time coming. Now the wheels have started to turn, the opportunities to get involved have started to pop up, and I’m starting to get pretty excited. If you’d like to learn more about the process, you can head on over to the Powhatan Hill Community Center tonight at 6:00 PM for the second participatory budgeting workshop. If you tapped through the previous link, also got excited, and don’t want to wait all the way until this evening, then I recommend downloading the really well-put-together People’s Budget Richmond Rulebook. It’ll give you some of the PB specifics and slake your PB appetite until tonight’s meeting.
Hayleigh Colombo and Luca Powell at the Richmond Times-Dispatch have an interesting report on the situation with Richmond’s mail delivery. I think, anecdotally, we all know that Something Is Amiss with the Postal Service, and I had sort of chalked it up to underfunding and the wrongheaded idea that USPS needs to fully fund its own operations—a more general set of issues facing post offices all across the country. However, what I didn’t realize is that the Trump-appointed Postmaster General decided to implement his grand vision for “fixing” the mail in Richmond’s own Sandston facility: “Richmond’s Sandston facility was the first facility in the country to undergo DeJoy’s efficiency makeover, which began in 2023.” So maybe the issues facing our region’s mail delivery really are specific to Richmond? We’ll learn more soon, because USPS’s Office of Inspector General plans to release a “thorough examination of systemic failures” in the next couple of weeks. Yikes, that’s some intense framing on that future PDF!
Richmond BizSense’s Mike Platania has good news for soccer fans: The Kickers will install a new, 65 foot x 35 foot video scoreboard in City Stadium this coming summer. City Stadium is old, like 95 years old, and I love that we’ve found a fun way to keep it in use while also slowly modernizing it here and there.
Congratulations to VPM’s Ben Paviour who “was recently selected by The New York Times to become a part of their 2024-25 Local Investigations Fellowship cohort.” Paviour will continue to work in Richmond but will focus on “Virginia’s judicial appointment system.” Fascinating, and I’m looking forward to reading what comes out of Paviour’s fellowship...with the actual New York Times(!!).
This morning's longreadThe Magic of Bird BrainsThis article’s subhed is great: “Crows are smart enough to pick up trash. Why won’t they?” And it’s like, I dunno, humans are smart enough to pick up trash, too, and you don’t see us doing that either.
Klein, the inventor of the “crow vending machine,” has called himself a “passionate hacker of all things,” but, the more I watched crows in the Jardin des Plantes, the more I wondered who was hacking whom. I saw crows fish McDonald’s bags out of trash cans and follow strollers and toddlers, knowing that children were more likely to drop crumbs. They visited the garden’s menagerie, one of the world’s oldest zoos, to raid food from the llama and rhea enclosures. Evolution had empowered crows to expose the weak spots in our designs, and I found myself admiring their mischief as a rebellion against our hubris. “Crows and ravens have co-evolved with us since the time of Neanderthals, and yet we’ve never domesticated them,” Marzluff, the Seattle ecologist, told me. The real mark of crow genius may be its ability to maintain independence in spaces that humans think of as their own.
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Picture of the DayBringing Up Baby spoilers.
Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, and today you should expect cloudier skies with highs in the 60s. A bunch more rain shows up tomorrow morning and will probably hang around until Thursday evening, so get ready for another couple days of squishy, soggy weather.
It sure seems like it’s been a wet March, doesn’t it? I wanted to know if my gut feeling matched reality, or if I’m just annoyed about how all the wet weather keeps me from riding my bicycle as often as I’d like. So, I turned to my favorite, overly complex weather website, which says that days with “at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation” are considered wet days, and in March we typically see 8.5 wet days. Turns out, so far this month, we’ve had seven wet days—just the regular amount! As is often the case, my gut is just frustrated and wishes it were riding a bicycle.
Water coolerWhile I await the video from yesterday’s Budget Season kickoff meeting with City Council, Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the details to tide me over. To get ready for the Mayor’s budget presentation on Wednesday, Council has put together five big buckets to hold all of their own priorities: Strong futures for children and families; safe and clean neighborhoods; strategic infrastructure projects; planned growth, economic progress, and affordable housing; and responsible, accountable, and innovative government. If you really want to dig in, you can scroll through this 48-page PDF—hop down to page 30 for the list of specific priorities City Council wants funded and how much each of those priorities will cost. Next up: On Wednesday we’ll get to see how closely Council’s vision aligns with the Mayor’s vision.
Charlotte Rene Woods, also at the RTD reports that, surrounded by cake pops, the Governor signed the “cake pop bill” (HB 759). This new law allows folks to market “low-risk foods, like baked goods and pickles” via social media without drawing the ire of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. If you decide to read the aforelinked article, prepare yourself for a lot of Republicans tramping around shouting about reducing regulation and the limiting the size and scope of government. Mostly, I think it’s neat that this lady, Kelly Phillips of KP’s Kake Pops, will now have a cool story to tell about how she changed state law. I wish I had a story like that!
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers got ahold of the first renderings of the City’s new baseball stadium. Make sure you orient yourself property to the article’s header image! Notice how the new stadium will nicely front Arthur Ashe Boulevard, unlike The Diamond which puts two huge triangles of parking along the street and totally kills the vibe.
A couple weeks ago I linked to the Newlin Music Prize—an award given to Richmond’s best new album—as a great source of new, local music. Yesterday, they announced that Butcher Brown’s Solar Music has won the $2,500 cash prize plus a bunch of honor and bragging rights. Tap through to see the full short list of nominees and make sure you add them all to your queue.
Early this morning a huge container ship ran into one of the piers supporting the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and the entire thing immediately collapsed. The video is terrifying, like a horror film, and I can’t stop watching it. I think because we don’t often see infrastructure collapse in such an acute way in America—typically our infrastructure decays over decades. As of about 6:30 AM, emergency responders were conducting a rescue effort for people who were driving across the bridge when it collapsed.
This morning's longreadThe Publicly-Traded Presidential CandidateI’d sort of missed / ignored the news about Trump’s social network, Truth Social, going public. Snooze fest, right? Well, maybe not, since major corporations or foreign governments can just dump a ton of money into this publicly traded company, and, as the stock prices go up, directly enrich a presidential candidate. This longread calls it the first “publicly-traded presidential candidacy,” and that feels scary and new.
Will there be any restrictions on who can own stock in DJT? Such limitations would be difficult to enforce, particularly if there are intermediaries or big funds involved. This means the Russians, Chinese and Saudis could each take huge institutional stakes in DJT as a publicly-traded company very much tied to the possible future president. This would make the notion of foreign governments renting rooms at Trump hotels look quaint by comparison. Imagine come 2025 that big, wealthy buyers hold commanding stakes in Trump’s net worth, and he is now the president. What wouldn’t he do to stay in their good graces? Our jurisprudence around the Emoluments Clause isn’t set up to handle such a situation. I’ve read many pieces about how Trump is set to be worth $3.4 billion more next week, but I’ve seen nothing so far warning of the dangers of a publicly-traded presidential candidacy. We are in wholly uncharted waters.
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Picture of the DayFloral carpet.
Good morning, RVA! It's 32 °F, and we’ve got an up-and-down weather week ahead of us. Today, expect clear skies and highs in the 60s; then get ready for cooler, wetter weather to move through on Wednesday; but, later, celebrate truly excellent weather this weekend with highs right around 70 °F. I know it’s early to start looking forward to the weekend, but too bad! I’m gonna do it anyway!
Water coolerCity Council has a busy and fun schedule today. First, they’ll meet at 3:00 PM for their budget season kickoff—a thrilling meeting that mostly consists of them getting on the same page with their own priorities for the operating and capital budgets. This meeting can sometimes serve as a barometer for how spicy Council plans on getting with the Mayor’s proposed budget (which, remember, drops on Wednesday). You can tune in live over on the City’s website, and I’ll make sure to get the audio up on The Boring Show as soon as I can.
Second, Council will get together for their regularly scheduled meeting with a ton of items to consider, but they all sit entirely on the Consent Agenda. That’s sort of been the way of things lately, but it’s double smart considering the potentially long budget meeting beforehand. I mean, who wants to spend eight hours in meetings? Not this guy.
Two and a half items to note, though:
- Council will vote on Richmond Connects, the City’s proposed longterm transportation plan (RES. 2024-R011)! Exciting! It’s on the Consent Agenda, which means we’ve done enough work over the last couple of years that passing a very progressive plan recommending all sorts of pedestrian, bike, and transit infrastructure for all sorts of neighborhoods is officially deemed not controversial enough to put on the Regular Agenda. Amazing!
- Both of those tax collection papers (ORD. 2024-081 and ORD. 2024-082) made it onto full Council’s agenda, too. For a minute there, I thought they’d only consider one of them.
Nathaniel Cline at the Virginia Mercury reports on the potential to expand the state’s Virginia Breeze intercity bus service by adding an east-west line, connecting Harrisonburg to Virginia Beach. This seems like a great idea, and I think a lot of Richmond folks would be interested in taking intercity bus service to Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, or Virginia Beach. This part confuses me though: “The Alternative 1 route plan calls for stops at Richmond International Airport and in Newport News, Williamsburg and New Kent, while Alternative 2 includes stops in Suffolk, Petersburg and Richmond’s Staples Mills area, a transportation hub which is also home to Amtrak’s most-used train station in the Southeast.” Putting Richmond’s bus stops in two locations that are incredibly hard to reach by bus—the airport and the Staples Mill train station—seems counter productive at best and, at worst, a great way to create a service that no one uses. Why not have both routes run through Main Street Station where Virginia Breeze’s Capital Connector route already stops?
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Dave Ress reminds me that “Virginia is the only state that says restoration of voting rights to anyone with felony convictions is subject to the discretion of the governor.” Embarrassing. 39 states (78%!) allow people to vote once they complete their sentences. And with a Republican governor at the helm of the commonwealth, we’ve seen those rights restoration drop each year.
From my inbox: “Meet the new kids at Maymont!”—and by kids, they definitely mean adorable baby goats. Here’s a whole folder of cute baby goats pictures, and you can stop by the Nature Center during Spring Break (April 1st — 5th) to say hi in person.
A look backFour years ago we still had a lot to learn about COVID-19 and hadn’t really figured out a lot of the mitigation measures we’ve got today. Here’s a very-Richmond quote from the Mayor, way back in 2020, discouraging group hangouts at the river: “If folks are at Texas Beach with a bunch of PBRs, then obviously we’re going to provide some guidance that they should disperse.” You definitely wouldn’t hear this sort of thing today—first because small outdoor hangouts at the river are a great way to help prevent the spread of respiratory disease, and, second, because access to Texas Beach is still closed while we wait for a replacement bridge.
Less local, but still a milestone to mark: Three years ago, Governor Northam signed the legislation banning capital punishment in Virginia. Also tap through that link if you want to read some very early casino coverage.
This morning's longreadDo literally anythingThis is great advice for getting unstuck, and I think it’s a lot of the reason that the entire Getting Things Done system relies on breaking tasks down into their very smallest next actions. “Do taxes” is a lot more daunting than “Put all of the year-end tax papers into a pile on the kitchen table.” If I do the latter, I bet I’ll keep going and get some more done.
Sometimes, it all gets to be too much. There are too many things to do! I need to figure out where to start! I get paralyzed by the sheer enormity of it all. This has happened enough times that I know the solution: do literally anything. It doesn't matter what! Write half of an article. Categorize two expenses. Write down all your ideas for videos. Clean your office. Respond to a single email. By doing anything, I find momentum. I find motivation! I ease the heavy feeling and find my stride. The mere act of doing pushes back the tidal wave of thoughts. The problem is primarily emotional. I feel paralyzed. The solution is primarily emotional too! Just do one thing.
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Picture of the DayNailed it.
Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, cold again, and that big rain I wrote about earlier in the week shows up tonight. After a day of cloudy skies and highs around 60 °F, you should expect the wet weather to start late this evening and continue straight on through until tomorrow afternoon. Sunday looks nice and crisp, though.
Water coolerIt’s here! Yesterday, City Council released their schedule for the 2024 (aka FY2025) budget season! I’m excited and want to point out a couple important dates for you to put on your calendar:
- This coming Monday, March 25th, Council will host their first budget work session—a sort of a pre-season game—to get everyone on the same page about shared priorities.
- Then, on Wednesday, March 27th at 3:00 PM, the Mayor will introduce his budget, and this show will finally get on the road for real.
- After that, we’ve got a handful of work sessions and public hearings before Council (theoretically) votes on a final, amended budget on May 13th.
Council is legally required to adopt a budget for Richmond Public Schools by May 15th and a budget for the City by May 31st, but, other than that all of these dates are tentative and can slip and change at any moment. But, honestly, the chaotic, late-night, hours-long budget meetings of the 2010s are mostly a thing of the past. In fact, the last couple of budget seasons have been pretty smooth sailing—a definite improvement, especially considering the level of uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
I’ll plan on relaunching The Boring Show next week—a podcast of the audio from all of these public budget meetings. That way folks who want to follow along can do so at 2x speed.
Budget season is one of my favorite times of the year, and it all starts next week!
Nathaniel Cline at the Virginia Mercury reports that if the Governor does not rename his “Office of Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion” back to the “Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”, the budget recently passed by the General Assembly will take the money allocated for that office and move it instead to...the Virginia Cannabis Equity Business Loan Fund. Is this petty? With a Governor who is “not interested” in the retail marijuana market? I think so, yes! But, before you feel too much of a way about it, remember that the current head of that office, Martin Brown, gave a speech at VMI saying “Let’s take a moment right now to kill that cow. DEI is dead...It was mandated by the General Assembly, but this governor has a different philosophy of civil discourse, civility...living the golden rule, right?” To be clear, this is the head of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion saying that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is dead and that, instead of working to undo hundreds of years of systemic inequity we should just be civil to one another? Honestly, I’d forgotten all about Brown, but now I’m worked up and excited to follow along with these shenanigans baked into the budget by the General Assembly Democrats.
I don’t know what it means, but Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that “longtime Richmond-area business leader Bob Sledd has left his role as senior adviser to Gov. Glenn Youngkin a month after taking the job.” I mention it, because Sledd is somehow tied into the recent ABC budget mess—he even served on that agency’s board of directors before taking this most recent role as the governor’s adviser on “transformation and good governance issues.” Like I said, who knows what, if anything, this actually means, but it makes me go hmmmmmm.
Take five minutes this morning and fill out this Virginia Capital Trail Foundation survey and help them kick off their strategic planning process. The Capital Trail is one of our best things and we definitely owe all the excitement behind the Fall Line Trail to the Capital Trail’s unambiguous success and awesomeness. The least you can do is fill out a quick survey! You’ve got until April 30th to do so, but just knock it out right now.
This morning's longreadA Small Win Is Still a WinThis piece in Strong Towns about a rough budget season in Winnipeg made me feel a lot of feelings. I’ve got first-hand experience with excitement over money for urban trees, stressful budget cuts, pitting worthy priorities against each other, and heartbroken public commenters. It’s comforting, in a way, to know that these experiences are universal.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think Richmond’s 2024 budget season—which is about to kick off any minute now—will open with this same sense of stressful austerity.
On a recent Monday morning, I hopped on a bus and headed downtown. My destination: city hall. It’s budget season in Winnipeg, and I was going to present our response to the preliminary city budget on behalf of our city-wide tree coalition. To our great joy, after five intense years of lobbying local government, our coalition had succeeded in getting some good policy in place and, critically, a budget to actually bring those policies to fruition. People rarely go to these meetings to support a budget or say thank you, but as a coalition we’d felt it was important. City councilors are people, too, and everyone likes to be acknowledged when they’ve done something right…especially when most of the other people would be there to oppose the budget.
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Picture of the DayWhy do they all just throw their book bags in front of the stairs? Did they have a meeting about this and circulate a memo?
Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, and today we’ve got more of the same ahead of us: Highs in the upper 50s and clear skies. I’ve got my eye on Saturday, which, according Weather.app, will dump over two inches of rain on our just-dried-out city. I guess if you’ve got outside plans, make sure they get done either today or tomorrow, because it’s gonna rain!
Water coolerJohn Murden at South Richmond News has put the City’s list of vacant properties onto a Google Map that you can scroll around on. I love this sort of citizen data project, and, almost 17 years ago (gasp!), I put together something similar with the help of a dear friend who died back in 2018. Daniel was so smart and kind and curious, and I’m constantly wondering what creative projects he’d have thrown himself into to support his community through the pandemic. What a loss for Richmond!
Anyway, here’s my one story about running a website dedicated to highlighting the details of Richmond’s vacant properties: A thousand years ago in 2007, a couple of weeks after launching VacantRichmond.com, some random man showed up in my office and threatened me with...I guess violence? He wasn’t specific about his intentions, but he was pretty upset about how I’d highlighted the fact that he owned a bunch of vacant properties, had for years, and was, at least partially, responsible for a bunch of safety issues in several neighborhoods across the city. It was scary and we called the cops!
Today, City Council’s Finance and Economic Development committee will meet to talk about a lot of stuff that’s way over my head and you can find that full agenda here. Still over my head, but low enough that I can just reach up and grasp it, two papers that try and clean up some of the meals tax collection issues from the past couple of months (ORD. 2024-081 and ORD. 2024-082). The first requires the Department of Finance to notify tax payers of any _over_payments to their accounts, while the second requires the Department of Finance to send a bill for unpaid taxes and fines 45 days before their due date each year. The first has broad support on Council and from the Mayor, while the second (at least so far) just lists Councilmember Lynch as its sole patron. I’d love to learn more about why and am interested to see if this paper makes it out of committee or falls down into the infinite blackhole of continuance. We’ll see!
Dave Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on the next round of bills the governor vetoed or signed into law. On the chopping block: A bunch of papers related to immigration, police, and drugs. Making its way fully through the bill-becomes-a-law process: HB 688, which permanently allows the sale of to-go cocktails.
Stop by Basic City Beer Co (212 W. Sixth Street) tonight from 6:00–8:00 PM to hear James River Park System Superintendent Giles Garrison and Friends of the James River Park Executive Director Josh Stutz talk about what’s in store for one of Richmond’s best, wettest, and most important parks. These are two smart and excellent people that will probably have a smart and excellent conversation, so don’t miss out on the chance to learn a thing or two and the opportunity to ask either of them your most burningest JRPS questions.
This morning's longreadMake better documents.Here’s some great advice about putting together your Very Important Business Documents. Honestly, whether you’re a bizperson or not, it’s something anyone who needs to share information with another human should read. Two important takeaways:
- Please, please, please internalize the animated gif about formatting data tables. If you’d like to go further, and I hope you will, find a copy of Edward Tufte’s Visual Display of Quantitative Information and prepare to have the way you look at chartsandgraphs forever changed.
- The below excerpt is mostly about slide decks but is also great writing advice. Really try to limit what my good friend Susan calls “throat clearing.” Just get straight to your point already!
It's not a murder mystery. Similar to the importance of sequencing and order, you almost always want to start by clearly and simply stating your conclusion, or declaring your request or question. Very often, people feel a lot of anxiety about the need to preface their big dramatic point with lots of build-up. But you almost never want to be building dramatic tension in a professional context; this isn't a thriller where you're trying to surprise them with twists and turns. It's perfectly fine to open with a key question or conclusion, step back to walk through the logic and context that leads to that point, and then restate at the end to drive towards your goal. But more often than not, if you don't set the stakes and make your point clear up top, you'll exhaust your audience, or leave them distracted trying to guess where you're headed all along the way.
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Picture of the DayJust finishing up some work in the hammock.
Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, and temperatures rebound today, heading back up into the upper 60s / maybe 70s. Expect some wind this afternoon, but, other than that, we’ve got some really excellent weather in front of us. In fact, this may be the warmest, most spring-like day in our 10-day-forecast future—make sure you get out there and enjoy it!
Water coolerMichael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on the Virginia ABC’s $100 million revenue shortfall. Pressured by the Governor’s “chief transformation officer,” the ABC forecasted a 5% growth in sales revenue last summer but, adjusting for reality, has only seen an increase of 1.4%. Now folks are scrambling to figure out what went wrong and how to fill the sizable gap left in the state’s budget. Just to be super clear here, we’re talking about the Governor pushing the state’s liquor monopoly to find ways to sell more alcohol to more Virginians because it’s a core money generator for his budget. Seems like a legal retail marijuana market would also generate a ton of cash for the commonwealth, but, for some reason, the Governor’s “not interested” in that, and it’s hard for me to understand the difference between the two things!
Yesterday, I saw a bunch of stories similar to this one by Elizabeth Holmes at WTVR: “Why Henrico Police will no longer respond to certain marijuana, shoplifting, and noise calls.” As you can probably imagine, the good people of Henrico County Had Some Questions, and, by yesterday evening, the Henrico Police Department ended up walking back / clarifying how they will actually be reprioritizing their resources; Holmes reports that the Department is currently short-staffed by about 64 positions. I promise, it’s not for schadenfreude reasons that I like watching stories like this evolve and unfold, I just love how important the words we use can be.
John Murden at South Richmond News reports important news: Richmond has its own local pretzel makers, and, not only do they exist, but they’re called Butter Boys. From their Insta, these look like pretty delicious pretzels, especially those cheddar parmesan jammers.
Related: I’ve had a ton of success with Alton Brown’s soft pretzel recipe over the years. It’s easy (but does take forever from start to finish) and will definitely impress your friends. They make for an excellent Saturday project.
A look backLast night I was talking with some folks about the City’s participatory budgeting process and wondering how best to not only get the word out about, you know, participating when the time comes but also how to let people know that the City even has a participatory budgeting process at all. It’s so hard to reach folks, and it’s even harder to get folks involved.
That’s true now and was certainly true back in 2020 as the reality of the early pandemic started to solidify. Here’s what I wrote four years ago as Council cancelled some of the opportunities for Richmonders to weigh in on the budget: “I keep thinking about how folks can stay civically involved while stuck at home and incredibly distracted. My current take—and I'd love to hear your opinions—is that City Councilmembers need to reach out to people and organizations already in their networks directly to collect thoughts, feelings, and emotions on pending legislation. It's a lot of work, but just Facebooking or emailblasting about a thing isn't going to get useful results.”
I still think this is true! While Council’s email game has stepped way, way up in the past four years, just sending (sometimes overwhelmingly comprehensive) emails isn’t enough. And, as a tool to reach and engage residents, social media seems far less effective than it did four years ago. Honestly, I don’t have a great solution, but I do think there’s some space for a creative legislator to experiment and do something more interesting than weekly email updates and quarterly in-person district meetings—or do something more interesting with those pretty standard tools.
Also, while we’re talking about it, here are all the City Council newsletters that I know about. If you know of one I’m missing, please let me know, and I’ll update the list.
This morning's longreadHot take: It’s okay if we don’t consume all of the world’s information before we dieThis piece, ostensibly about the Trim Silence feature in your podcast player, mixes poetry and prose in a really well-balanced way—which is a bizarre sentence to type. Expect some strong language, but I think it works in the context of what the author set out to achieve.
It’s insidious, the inordinate amount of power “efficiency” holds over our daily lives, without even drawing much attention to itself, creeping up in unanticipated ways: the life hacks bombarding us on TikTok; the large language models we use to reduce the amount of effort we need to put into writing an email to our colleague; the Trim Silence feature on our podcast player of choice. This post is about how much I hate the Trim Silence feature. I will admit that this is perhaps a weird hill to die on, but I truly believe that Trim Silence is an abomination that should be fully eradicated from existence, as it not only spits in the face of the people who take the time and effort to produce their shows, but also, more broadly, encourages a way of interfacing with art that can only be described as gluttonous.
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Picture of the DayA backyard standoff.
Good morning, RVA! It's 31 °F, and, what the heck, I thought we’d fully moved on to spring. While I sit over here hoping my about-to-bloom azaleas make it through this mini cold snap, you can expect clear skies and highs in the mid 50s today. Looks like we might have one or two more potential overnight freezes ahead of us this week, so fingers crossed for the little plants out there!
Water coolerToday both the Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee and the Planning Commission meet for some good ol’ fashioned regularly scheduled meetings.
Land Use, Housing and Transportation will consider RES. 2024-R011, which would adopt Richmond Connects as the “official comprehensive transportation plan for the City of Richmond.” This is super exciting! The City hasn’t updated their official transportation plan in a ton of years, and we’re way past due for an update. The Richmond Connects team has put together a good plan—one that centers equity, community, and action—and, if you’d like, you can reach out to your City Council reps in support of it (or just to thank everyone for their hard work). After LUHT recommends this paper, which I think they totally will, it’ll head over to full Council to make it official official in the coming weeks.
Later in the evening, Planning Commission will discuss, of course, a million SUPs because we really need to clean up our zoning, but they’ll also weigh in on the plans to transform Blackwell Park “by adding and renovating site features that promote community-preferred recreation activities and site elements. The primary improvements include sports fields and courts, a permeable parking lot, and a fitness trail.” Check out some of the diagrams and renderings in the final plan PDF. I have a special place in my heart for parks with full football fields—including uprights!
Speaking of transportation plans (whenever am I not!), our regional transportation planning group, PlanRVA, hosted a forum last week to kick off their multi-year effort to put together a multi-decade regional transportation plan. VPM’s Ian M. Stewart has the details, including the note that PlanRVA should have a prioritized list of long-term infrastructure projects—like, over the next 25 years—by this coming April. What even will the world look like in 25 years? Who can say, but here’s what I can say with certainty: We’ll still need more bus service and fewer highways.
Maybe Henrico’s County manager was miffed about the recently released Census population numbers because of articles like this one by Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “This Richmond-area county among fastest-growing in U.S.”? Spoiler: It’s not Henrico! But, I dunno, do people really move to a place because it shows up on “fastest-growing county” listicles? Probably not. My money’s still on the money—that the Census (supposedly) shortchanging Henrico on population numbers means fewer dollars coming in at some point or in some way.
The best thing I learned last year was bamboo’s fascinating lifecycle and, for awhile, I couldn’t stop talking about it (OK, I am still always talking about it). That said, I do not want bamboo anywhere near my yard, because once it gets established, good luck getting rid of it. See this post on /r/rva: “We have bamboo in our backyard. We hate it. We spend so much time every year chopping it down, digging up the roots, and searching the internet for ways to prevent it growing back. All methods have failed. With spring time coming, new shoots have popped up, and it instantly enraged us.” A helpful commenter responds: “I have conquered a 30x80 patch of bamboo. It's just takes daily dedication for years...You can win, but you have to be stronger and more disciplined than the bamboo.” Amazing.
A look backThree years ago yesterday, Mayor Stoney got his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine as Virginia opened up vaccination eligibility to the “Phase 1b” group. Remember all the phases?? And remember waiting and waiting for your turn to come around? Remember people chasing down vaccine appointments across the state through “vax hunter” Facebook groups? What a time!
This morning's longreadAI news that's fit to printZach Seward is the NYT’s “Editorial Director of A.I. Initiatives,” and in this piece he lays out some bad, decent, and interesting uses of AI in news. None of these really flipped my switches—especially the generative AI examples—but they did get close. The below excerpt describes a fully automated (and very low stakes) data dashboard that uses generative AI to title and describe some of the charts. That feels adjacent to a good use of the technology to me.
The data and charts are fully automated. The site tries to highlight charts that are showing interesting data, like an outlier, or particularly strong growth or decline. So far, cool but basic math. Where LLMs play a role is in providing context: the headlines and other brief copy that appear around the charts to help readers understand what they're looking at—The air quality in New York today is good, subway ridership is still below pre-pandemic levels, but on the bright side, our fight against rats is showing progress. These are really focused use cases for an LLM, and the fact that a bot wrote these reports is fully disclosed. It's not a deep investigation into the war on rats, which I'd love to read, too, but it's a certainly a helpful way to keep tabs on one's city.
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Picture of the DayPerfect!
Good morning, RVA! It's 45 °F, and today you can expect cloudy skies and highs around 60 °F. That’s still basically springlike but is quite a drop from yesterday’s weather perfection. I think we’ll see these cooler temperatures stick around throughout the week, with a couple warmer days sprinkled in here and there.
Water coolerThe Richmond Times-Dispatch’s editorial board did the research around VCU’s PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) that I couldn’t find the time to do last week, and I’m very thankful for it. Tap through to read the whole thing, but, as foretold, VCU pays the City of Richmond just a fraction of what they’d owe if they were required to pay real estate taxes. Some of the low points:
- Richmond misses out on $45 million dollars per year of real estate tax revenue due to all of the state-owned buildings downtown (and that includes VCU and the health system).
- The City receives just $3.8 million annually in PILOT payments from the State.
- And the State doesn’t even want to pay that much: “The state not only takes land and pays almost nothing in return, but it has a history of making only partial PILOT payments. And since 2014, the number of state-owned parcels subjected to PILOT decreased by more than half, from 71 to 32.”
So you can see how the General Assembly telling VCU to cancel a contract they signed to pay an annual PILOT of just $2.5 million feels so petty. Maybe we can get DPW to stop collecting the trash from the brand new, real-estate-tax-free General Assembly building for a couple of weeks so that representatives from all around the commonwealth remember the services the City provides them—basically free of charge!
Starting in May, the RTD will launch a new initiative called “The Mobile Newsroom” and will “send journalists to work one week a month out of different locations across the region...[to] listen to community members and report on topics important to them.” I think this is an interesting idea! I look forward to seeing what sort of stories will come out of posting up a reporter at, say, a library for a week. I think there’s a lot of power in asking community members about what impacts their lives, but I also sort of hate person-on-the-street interviews when regular folks are framed as experts on any given topic. It’d be hard for me to resist the urge to churn out a bunch of profiles of the folks who happened to stop by the library that day, and, instead, focus on finding the bigger stories. Anyway, I’m excited to see the RTD try something new and really interested in where this ends up. Now go and fill out this survey to give the them a couple suggestions about where they should set up shop.
Tom Lappas at the Henrico Citizen reports that “Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas pushed back strongly Friday on a U.S. Census Bureau population estimate published Thursday that projected the county had grown by only 207 residents in 2023..” The County Manager estimates that Henrico saw 5,168 new residents, and sort of disparages the entire federal government in his response, saying: “It doesn’t surprise me that you get a result like this from a federal agency, because I mean in the past month, I can’t tell you how many complaints we’ve gotten in here about the Postal Service.” Those two things are definitely not related. But Census numbers do matter more than just ranking which counties in Virginia grew the most and are important to get right; federal and state funding can often fluctuate with a locality’s population numbers.
A look backOn March 18th, 2020, Charlottesville Area Transit took their bus system fare-free as part of their COVID-19 mitigation plan. At the time I wondered if GRTC would go the same direction but had some questions about where they’d find the funding to do so. Four years later, we’ve got an entire bus system that’s been fare-free for years...and I’m still wondering where they’ll find the longterm funding to keep it that way.
Also, not to turn this new section of the email into a place where I paste smart sentences Past Ross wrote, but, look at this one about pandemic-era students: “It’s wild thinking about how this cohort of students, across all grade levels, will just have an asterisk next to them whenever they show up in future datasets.”
This morning's longreadWhy Are (Most) Sofas So Bad?I went through the sofa-buying process during the pandemic and did, in fact, end up with a midcentury-modern sectional advertised on Instagram and shipped deconstructed to my doorstep. It’s fine. I feel better, after reading this piece in Dwell, that maybe there’s just no other way (because of capitalism).
The politics of the midcentury-modern movement are well documented, especially its ties to postwar welfare states in Europe, affordable design for the masses, and warm and homey use of fabrics and woods. A sofa that looks just like those references but is designed by a company that exists only on Instagram, made cheaply and badly, and shipped around the world in order to satisfy the bottomless maws of investors in "the Netflix of couches" or whatever, that’s a change. Midcentury design was still a product to be made and sold in a capitalist system, but it wasn’t the grimmest possible expression of that system, the way contemporary sofas can be. "This is kind of the way it goes with all products," says Reiss. "They become more efficient, but it’s just about cutting costs. The incentives to have a great $2,000 couch—I mean, who’s going to fight for that?"
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Picture of the DayE. E. Cummings takes over the subtitles.
Good morning, RVA! Whoa it is already 60 °F, and today you can expect highs right around 80 °F. For most of the day clouds will probably fill the sky as we wait for some potential rain to move in later this evening. Don’t get too down about it, though, because the rest of the weekend looks pretty dry with temperatures in the upper 60s. You should definitely plan to move forward with whatever full slate of excellent, outdoor weekend activities you already had planned.
Water coolerYesterday, the Governor “took final action on 50 pieces of legislation, signing 30 bills into law and vetoing 20 bills.” In what’s either good news or bad news for Richmond’s new women’s soccer team, the Governor vetoed HB 1167 which would have prevented the sale of English ivy in Virginia. Looks like the Governor is totally fine with sustaining a legal retail market for this particular weed.
By the way, Richmond Ivy dad hats do exist, and you can order one right here.
It’s budget season all around the region, and Sean Jones at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a look at Henrico’s proposed $1.2 billion budget. Top priorities for the County include: a pay increase for County employees, schools, and infrastructure. Also, Henrico will spend $30 million from the Central Virginia Transportation Authority on “sidewalk, pedestrian and road projects.” It’s hard to tell, without digging deep into the actual budget document itself, just how that $30 million will be spread across those three areas, but I like that Jones at least started off with sidewalks.
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that “Baker’s Crust Artisan Kitchen ceased operations at 3553 W. Cary St. on March 3, marking the end of a 26-year-run.” I’m shocked! Not that I’m a super fan or anything, it’s just that Baker’s Crust has been a part of my Carytown experience ever since I first started loitering and causing trouble there way back in the 90s. What’s next? Agee’s Bicycles is going to stop bringing out the best in me??
Fruits and Veggie Week takes place from March 25–29 at 13 RPS schools across the School District. To make the week a success, Greater Richmond Fit4Kids needs a bunch of volunteers to 1) help cafeteria staff portion out fresh fruit and vegetables, and then 2) breezily convince kids that fruits and vegetables are worth trying. All The Cool Kids Are Doing It, Man. Check out the Fit4Kids Sign Up Genius to find the schools that still need volunteers, and sign up this morning!
A look backMarch 15th, 2021 marked one year since I’d created my own COVID-19 spreadsheet. I don’t know why I had the inclination or foresight to start tracking COVID-19 data all the way back in March of 2020, but I did and I continued to do so all the way until July of 2021. By that point, CDC and VDH had both put together enough of their own interesting data products that what I was doing felt duplicative—plus I got tired of spending 15 minutes every single afternoon, regardless of what was going on in my life, copying numbers into a spreadsheet.
This morning's patron longreadI read all the studies on the economic impact of bike lanes. Here's what I learned.Submitted by Patron Casey. Installing bike lanes almost never negatively impacts a business—in fact, generally, bike lanes are good (to great!) for businesses. I know this, you know this, but a lot of folks who own businesses either do not know this or do not have the time and energy to read 32 academic studies about whether or not this is true. Thankfully this article does most of the work for you and even links off to all of the primary source material, too!
“As someone whose family had a small business when I was growing up, I know how invested you get in it,” says Joseph Poirier, a senior researcher at the urban-planning consultancy Nelson Nygaard. “It’s your whole life. Anything you think could threaten that, even if the government and their consultants tell you it’s not going to be a problem, is very scary. It makes sense.” It’s also wrong. Four decades’ worth of research proves it. I know this because I’ve read every study and report I could find that looked specifically at the economics of bike lanes since 1984 — 32 research articles, to be exact. The results show that making streets friendlier for bikes — and sidewalks friendlier for pedestrians — is actually good for business. The rise of “complete streets” and “road diets,” as urban planners call them, has been a huge boon to businesses in cities.
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Picture of the Day...feed me Seymour?
Any time I see elected officials advocating for more frequent and far-reaching regional transit, I count it as progress.
Good morning, RVA! It's 71 °F, and dang that was quite a storm last night. I hope you’re doing OK this morning and that your home successfully kept out all of the elements. Today you can expect hot (but less hot) highs as we head into The Weekend of Relief. On Saturday we’ll see highs dip below 90 °F for the first time in a while, and then, on Sunday, some pleasant temperatures in the mid 80s. Middle of next week? Don’t even get me started about those numbers starting with sevens!
Water coolerThe City’s Department of Public Works dropped a new bike lane survey, and I’m assigning it as over-the-weekend homework. Specifically, DPW wants to know how you feel about extending the Franklin Street Bike Lane west from Belvidere to Lombardy. I feel very excited about this, DPW! Interestingly, they also want to know if you would support a “quick-build” design (which would get implemented in 2025), a more intense piece of infrastructure that would require a line item in a budget passed by Council, or both. Both, obviously! While 2025 is not the quickest of timelines, getting something in the City’s Capital Improvement Plan, which has a five-year horizon and involves the mayor and nine city councilmembers, will take even longer. So, when I filled out this survey, I ranked Option 2 (the quick-build) very high, and Option 5 (the option with the most actual concrete separating bikes from cars) also very high. Importantly, I made sure to check that I would support all the things—building something as soon as possible, getting funding out of the budget, and then building the more concretey option when that funding is eventually approved.
Homeward has released their July 2023 Point-in-Time Count of people experiencing homelessness in our region. Over the course of one night and one morning in July, they counted 486 people experiencing homelessness, up 8.7% from the previous year with about half of those folks listing Richmond as their last permanent address. 43% of people say the cost of housing, job loss, or eviction led to their homelessness. Tap through for some more data and an FAQ about how and why Homeward does this work. Also, keep this quote from Homeward’s Executive Director in mind: “It’s important to remember that these numbers represent real people, our neighbors facing the trauma of homelessness...The findings from the Summer 2023 PIT count should be a call to action to continue our region’s compassionate response to homelessness and invest in proven solutions.”
Sunday is a big day for GRTC, as they’ll retire the Temporary Transfer Plaza on 9th Street and officially move into the new, much less temporary, Downtown Transfer Station. If your favorite bus route ran through Downtown, it almost certainly now stops at the Transfer Station. I have complicated thoughts about the need for a centralized place to make transfers like this, but I will set those aside and get stoked on a way more humane space for both riders and operators. GRTC will also implement some of the other service improvements I mentioned a while back like improved frequency for the Pulse and the #5 on weekends. This set of changes feels like a definite step forward for our bus network after a couple small, mostly pandemic-driven steps backward over the last couple years. Great work, everyone!
Today and tomorrow you can stop by 834 Pepper Avenue for The Armenian Food Festival, one of my favorite Richmond food festivals. This year they celebrate their 63rd anniversary with all the regular Armenian food festival stuff: music, dancing, kebabs, this one burger that people love, and flaky pastry as far as the eye can see. If you like the Greek Festival but find it a bit overwhelming, give the Armenian Food Festival a try.
While you’re out that way, maybe head over to the University of Richmond for the 16th African Film Weekend and catch a couple of films from young African film makers. How fascinating does this sound: “this year’s session of the African Film Weekend will focus on the issues raised by this newest generation of filmmakers as its members—three are women—reflect on the ways African and African Diasporan communities depict themselves in facing the challenges generated by various internal and external social, political and economic dynamics specific to the global society.” Tickets are free(!?) and you can register over on Eventbrite.
This morning's longreadThe Sterile World of Infinite ChoiceBeware, some of this piece by Anne Helen Petersen will come off as very “Back In My Day!” However, I do really agree with her points about infinite choice leading to anxiety, and resonate pretty hard with this particular flavor: “Our defense against this feeling of overwhelm has been curation and optimization.” Sometimes you don’t need to optimize your downtime, Ross! It’s OK to sit quietly and, as a friend says, poke at the ground with a stick!
My friends lightly razz me for listening to the radio when I drive into town, usually jumping between Top 40 and a pretty decent Vancouver-area country station. “The commercials are so bad,” they’ll say, or “how can you deal with this much Ed Sheeran.” But so much of my life is trying to make sure I’m always up to date on podcasts and good television and the right books and articles on the internet and influencers to follow, a constant curation of entertainment for myself and then a secondary curation of myself for others’ entertainment, that having no control over the amount of Ed Sheeran feels amazing. It’s all very paradoxical: that the ability to constantly communicate has made us bad communicators, that instant access to all forms of entertainment would leave us with so few touchstones, that surveilling kids doesn’t necessarily make them safer, that the absence of limitations also often means the absence of creativity — and that the particular form of abundance we’ve fetishized can feel so sad, so unspeakably sterile.
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Picture of the DaySame hydrangea plant, totally different mood!
Good morning, RVA! It's 73 °F, and today is the last day of this week’s scorching hot temperatures. Expect highs near 100 °F with maybe some clouds floating around in the afternoon. Don’t get me wrong: Tomorrow still looks real hot, but it marks our transition to a string of days with highs in the 80s. Heck, in a week’s time, you may even need to wear socks!
Water coolerLocal bike and pedestrian advocate John Bolecek has a really well-written and absolutely brutal column in the Virginia Mercury about how long COVID has upended his life. Here’s John on his current condition, almost two years after getting a mild case of COVID back in January 2022: “I’ve never recovered to where I was before that energy crash and have been at a lower baseline ever since. I have to lie down 23 hours a day now and severely limit my activity so I don’t provoke more crashes. Even with careful pacing, I still provoke minor ones. My most limiting symptom is PEM, a medical term that means after expending too much energy all my symptoms get worse, I sleep worse and get weaker. I simply can’t recover like a healthy person, even after minor exertions.” It’s a scary read, but I wanted to share it for a few reasons. First, if you’re dealing with long COVID, you’re not alone, and John links to a lot of resources if you feel lost and underinformed. Second, you can follow John’s lead and reach out to Senator Kaine about his Long COVID Support Act bill. Third, while extremely intense, this is a reminder that we still don’t know a lot about this disease, and, while levels remain low in our region, they are increasing. As we head into the fall, it’s worth remembering the tools in our respiratory disease toolbox: Keep up with your vaccines (including whatever new hotness drops later this month), wash your hands, cover your cough, and, please, stay home if you’re sick!
Quick zoning update: On its second attempt, Planning Commission voted to recommend for approval—with amendments!—the new short-term rental ordinance (ORD. 2023-235, aka the Airbnb ordinance). I didn’t listen along so I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing the amendments are the two listed in red in this PDF. One would limit the amount of Airbnbs allowed in a multifamily building and one gets real specific about the primary residency requirement when the owner of a building is a company. Now this paper will head to full Council for their vote—maybe as soon as next week. Random aside: Before that vote takes place, I’d sure love to know which, if any, City Councilmembers presently own and operate Airbnbs.
Yesterday, the General Assembly did end up sending their better-late-than-never budget to the governor for his signature. He released a short statement thanking them for their hard work and noting that the process “took longer than needed.” I think he has yet to sign it, though? Theoretically, he can, if he wants, submit his own amendments at some point in the next week and send it back to the GA for another round of approvals. Maybe just a small amendment restoring the $100 million for upgrades to Richmond’s sewer system? The mayor put out his own statement kindly asking for just that.
John O’Connor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Todd “Parney” Parnell, the guy with the wacky pants at the Flying Squirrels games, will “step away from his position as day-to-day operations chief at the end of this season.” There’s no doubt in my mind that Parney is one of the core reasons why Richmond so quickly fell in love with the Squirrels, and I hope the team has someone with equally as wacky pants lined up to replace him. Parney will remain on with the team in a part-time advisory capacity.
Chesterfieldians! Tonight, from 7:00–8:30 PM at Manchester Middle (7401 Hull Street Road), the Sierra Club Falls of the James Group, the Chesterfield NAACP, and the Partnership for Smarter Growth will host a forum for Board of Supervisor candidates. Unlike Richmond, both Chesterfield and Henrico hold their local legislative elections off-cycle from the presidential elections. That means this coming November’s elections are extra exciting, with important and fun things to vote for at both the local and state level. Get excited and get out there to learn a bit more about who will represent you for the next four years. The event is free, but you can RSVP here.
This morning's longreadWhat Happened to Wirecutter?I’ve been asking “what happened to Wirecutter” for a while now. I remember the most wonderful review of rice cookers from many years ago—I even used it as a longread because the dedication and thoroughness made reading it such a treat, whether you needed a rice cooker or not. Related: Everyone should read Cory Doctorow on the “enshittification” of TikTok and other online platforms.
The mere existence of a novella-length air-purifier review helps illustrate what may be the truth about Wirecutter, which is that it is a victim of its own, very real success. Wirecutter’s trajectory is the story of what the internet does to most great ideas: It forces them to scale, and then others replicate the concepts at varying levels of quality until, eventually, an economic, algorithmic wildfire is burning. The original is consumed and left in a scarred landscape. Has Wirecutter become less reliable? Or did the world and everyone around it change? Is there a place on an ever more commercialized web for long, obsessive letters from an anti-consumerist, gadget-loving friend? Or is the craft and care of the meticulous product review now a digital antique? The answer, like any good Wirecutter review, is full of contradictions: Yes.
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Picture of the DayThe moodiest hydrangea picture ever taken.
Good morning, RVA! It's 73 °F, and today looks like another hot day in Central Virginia—maybe not surface-of-the-sun hot but probably wrong-side-of-Mercury hot. Highs will hover just below 100 °F, while the Feels Likes will almost certainly hit triple digits. Stay inside if you can, hydrate and wear a hat if you can’t, and wait for the relief that’ll show up this weekend. Just a couple more days to go!
Water coolerYesterday, City Council held a special meeting to introduce a new resolution to “express support for the dedication of revenue from the proposed destination resort and casino to fund a Child Care and Education Trust Fund and the construction of certain early childhood care centers.” I was bleh about it then, and I’m bleh about it now, but, in the intervening time, the City sent out both a press release and an FAQ about how they’ll invest the Casino 2.0 revenue should they get voter approval this November. First an important correction/update: Yesterday, I complained that I thought revenue from a Southside casino should be used on Southside projects, and it sounds like, at least to an extent, it will. The Casino 2.0 developers will give the City an upfront payment of $26.5 million, and the Mayor’s proposing to allocate $14 million of it toward constructing new child care centers at T.B. Smith and Southside Community Centers, both on the city’s Southside. $8 million would go to Parks and Rec projects across the city and the remaining $4.5 million would seed the Child Care and Education Trust Fund. We are definitely in the midst of a childcare crisis, and I’m certainly not against pouring money into local solutions that help families find and afford childcare. However, this is still not an either-or situation! I do not need to vote yes on a predatory casino to be supportive of establishing a childcare trust fund! If this is a good idea, and it sounds like it probably is, we can and should find other ways to fund it. Is the Mayor’s proposal to cut the real estate tax by two cents still on the table? Maybe keep the tax where it is and dedicate that revenue to the trust fund? Listen, I’m not a budgetologist, but I do know that a proposed casino that’s already been voted down by voters once is not the only source of cash under the sun. Allan-Charles Chipman puts it better in today’s Michael Paul Williams column, saying “...for developers to get what they need, they can come to the bargaining table and get millions of our money in incentives, but for Southside to get child care they have to go to the blackjack table.”
The City’s Department of Public Works announced they’ll start work this week on new bike lanes along Carnation Street from Hioaks Road to Midlothian Turnpike. The Southside, after a couple of years of hard work and focus, now has the foundation of a pretty nice bike lane network! It’s not perfect or complete, but, unlike just a couple of years ago, you can now get to actual places by bike using actual bike infrastructure. Shout out to Councilmember Mike Jones for really making this a priority and to the Mayor and DPW for making it happen.
Wow, read this story by VPM’s Whitney Evans about a developer in Church Hill who ignored the City’s Commission on Architectural Review and razed two 100-year-old storefronts. The penalty? $200. I don’t think the City has any recourse here, but clearly there should be some steeper, non-fine penalties for just blatantly ignoring requirements, processes, and commissions!
Here’s a bad sentence from the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s David Ress: “In the rush to end this year’s state budget impasse, General Assembly negotiators dropped a $100 million promise to help fund Richmond’s 34-year effort to make sure heavy rains don’t overwhelm its sewers and start carrying sewage into the James River.” That’s the money the Governor promised the City for updates to our sewer system that will help prevent Combined Sewer Overflow events (one of this newsletter’s favorite topics). Honestly, I think this is a big Hanlon’s razor situation, as Ress reports that the $100 million “seems to have been lost in the shuffle” to get to this year’s super-late budget compromise. I expect this money to eventually find its way back in the budget, but this snafu shows there can be real consequences to farting around with the budget outside of the normal and established process!
Richmond Magazine’s Bird Cox opens her piece about pawpaw season with “Gasp! Someone posted on Instagram or Reddit that they found a ripe pawpaw. This must mean that we’ve got … maybe a week or two to find some for ourselves.“ This exact thought went through my head just minutes ago when I saw someone post a picture of a pawpaw over on /r/rva. Pawpaws are the largest native fruit in North American but have the shortest, most elusive season—just a couple weeks in September. So if you’re interested, get down to the James River Park System and see if you can find a few to take home today.
This morning's patron longreadVultures Prevent Tens of Millions of Metric Tons of Carbon Emissions Each YearSubmitted by Patron Roslyn. Did you know that vultures’ volunteer road-cleaning services keep millions of tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere? That’s pretty neat! Did you also know that this past weekend was International Vulture Awareness Day? Tap through to read a bit more about the big birds with a bad rap and learn why they’re worth learning more about.
Decaying animal bodies release greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane. But most of these emissions can be prevented if vultures get to the remains first, a new study in Ecosystem Services shows. It calculates that an individual vulture eats between 0.2 and one kilogram (kg) of carcass per day, depending on the vulture species. Left uneaten, each kg of naturally decomposing carcass emits about 0.86 kg of CO2 equivalent. This estimate assumes that carcasses not eaten by vultures are left to decay. But many carcasses are composted or buried by humans, which result in more emissions than natural decay, so vulture consumption can avert even more emissions when replacing those methods. The avoided emissions may not sound like much, but multiply those estimates by the estimated 134 million to 140 million vultures around the world, and the number becomes more impressive: tens of millions of metric tons of emissions avoided per year.
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Picture of the DayI stopped by the new roller rink at the Hotchkiss Community Center the other day, and it is beautiful!
Good morning, RVA! It's 73 °F—which is today’s low—and this afternoon you can expect hot, hot highs around 100 °F. You should steel yourself against these end-of-summer temperatures, because the next two days will bring more of the same. But! By Friday, things will start to cool off, and next weekend we may even get a taste of fall!
Water coolerWelcome back, City Council and Friends! The start of September means the return of Council and Committee meetings after their regularly scheduled August vacation. On today’s agenda we’ve got three meetings of note. First, Planning Commission will gather to once again consider the Airbnb ordinance (ORD. 2023-235) and hear options from staff around the proposed primary residency requirement. Staff (and probably every civic association under the sun) supports requiring people who operate Airbnbs in residential neighborhoods to live in those Airbnbs—with a couple exceptions for outbuildings or ADUs. This, from staff’s perspective, will help preserve as much housing as possible and keep it from turning into vacation rentals. You can read through staff’s reasoning in this presentation. I thought Planning Commission would move forward on this ordinance last month, but they asked for a few more options to consider instead. We’ll see what they get up to today! Second, City Council will hold a special meeting to consider “a resolution to express support for the dedication of revenue from the proposed destination resort and casino to fund a Child Care and Education Trust Fund and the construction of certain early childhood care centers.” I have two immediate thoughts: “bleh” and “I thought we were designating the theoretical revenue of a Southside casino to projects on the Southside?” Finally, Council’s Organizational Development committee will meet and consider ORD. 2023-188, the ordinance that would set up a Public Utilities and Services Commission. Who knows how effective this commission will/could be, but it has the potential to tackle things like consumer rates and, eventually, phasing out the gas utility entirely.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that some of the proposals rolling in for the planned City Center development will include some serious height: “Richmond Community Development Partners...has revised its proposal to include an even taller hotel, totaling 40 stories and 450 feet in height. That height would make the hotel 1 foot taller than the current tallest building in Richmond, the James Monroe Building.“ I love this (slightly petty) energy! If you want to build the tallest building in Richmond, the dead center of the city is the exact right place to do it. Tap through to read more details on each of the four proposals.
There’s something incredibly soothing in this piece by Style Weekly’s Mary Scott Hardaway about McLean’s new dinner service. It’s the same breakfast menu that’s been around forever, but it’s their first time serving it for dinner in 30 years. I love this sort of vibe: “They’ll introduce some weekly specials, too, nothing crazy—think a fried chicken dinner with sides like sweet potatoes and corn pudding. ‘We’re giving the daytime chef the choice to do what he wants,’ says Kelleher.”
The Virginia Mercury’s Sarah Vogelsong has a bunch of the details from the General Assembly’s super late budget compromise. Lawmakers will head back to the Capitol for a special session tomorrow and will then send their budget across the street for the Governor’s signature. He, theoretically, could propose a bunch of amendments, but that would only delay the already embarrassingly slow process further, which seems like a bad look.
This morning's longreadWhat the contradiction of slavery tells us about abortion rightsI should just always pencil in Jamelle Bouie for the longread on the first day back after a weekend. In his most recent email, he compares antebellum efforts to limit the movement of Black people between states to today’s efforts by Republicans to stop people from traveling across state lines for abortions.
The reason to compare these proposed limits on travel within and between states to antebellum efforts to limit the movement of free or enslaved Black people is that both demonstrate the limits of federalism when it comes to fundamental questions of bodily autonomy. It is not tenable to vary the extent of bodily rights from state to state, border to border. It raises legal and political questions that have to be settled in one direction or another. Are women who are residents of anti-abortion states free to travel to states where abortion is legal to obtain the procedure? Do anti-abortion states have the right to hold residents criminally liable for abortions that occur elsewhere? Should women leaving anti-abortion states be considered presumptively pregnant and subject to criminal investigation, lest they obtain the procedure?
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Picture of the DayFound this little guy out on one of Northside’s guerrilla mountain bike trails.
Good morning, RVA! It's 58 °F, and this is the first time the early morning temperature has started with a five in a good, long while. Today you can expect highs in the low 80s and a wonderfully sunny sky. The beautiful weather should continue through the weekend, but things will start to heat up on Sunday, and by Monday we’ll see temperatures near 100 °F. Soak up this amazing weather over the next couple of days! Get out there and enjoy it!
Water coolerThe Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Em Holter went to a Casino 2.0 meeting the City held last night and reports on some of the things the Casino People said. The folks involved claim the rebooted project is “vastly different” from the thing we already voted down once, but, I dunno, it’s still an event venue and hotel supported by a predatory casino. I hate every bit of the framing and language being used to market this project to Richmonders; the sign on last night’s speaker’s podium said “VOTE YES FOR JOBS, REVENUE, & A STRONGER CITY”—as if those things were impossible without a casino! I’ll tell you what I’d vote yes for a thousand times over: Building strong, thriving neighborhoods like those the gambling-free Diamond District and City Center plans describe. Regardless of what the folks selling this project tell you, this is not an either-or! We can absolutely create jobs, increase revenue, and build a stronger city in better ways—more sustainable ways!—without building an enormous casino.
In his daily email, RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras lays out new athletic and event security protocols, “as part of our ongoing commitment to do everything humanly possible to safeguard our students, staff, and families.” Effective immediately, tickets must be purchased in advance, no re-entry will be permitted, no bags of any kind will be allowed, and everyone will need to go through a security screening. I assume this is in response to last week’s cancellation of Huguenot High School’s football game over security concerns. Half of me is disappointed in the world we live in that it’s come to this, but the other half of me has walked through security screening at the Siegel Center for years and years. I think this is just how sports are now, and I’d be surprised if other local school districts don’t already have similar policies in place or aren’t actively in the process of considering them.
Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond has a delicious deep dive into the locally made Nightingale ice cream sandwiches. If you’ve never had them before, they are excellent—if a bit overwhelming. Cut in half, a stack of them make an excellent birthday cake replacement, and they are on my very short list of Richmond things I would share with Tom Hanks.
Via RIC Today, this wild fact: Short Pump Town Center turns 20 tomorrow. In my very-Richmond, very old-person mind, Short Pump Town Center is still “the new mall.”
Football season returns in earnest this weekend. For me, that means setting aside the ethical questions about if football should even exist and watching the Virginia Tech Hokies take on the Old Dominion Monarchs at 8:00 PM on Saturday. Also of note: On Sunday, the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic will feature the Virginia Union Panthers and the Morehouse Maroon Tigers at 4:00 PM. This means, if you’re an NFL Network subscriber at least, you’ve got a rare opportunity to watch VUU football on TV! Pretty cool.
Logistical note! Monday is Labor Day, a federal holiday celebrating the labor movement, which is a weird thing given America’s contemporary anti-labor context. It also means I’ll be taking the day off from this email and will return to your inboxes on Tuesday. I hope you can find the time to set your own labors aside and use the long weekend in some sort of restorative way—whether that be riding a bike through the forest or laying quietly in bed with the blinds drawn or something else entirely!
This morning's longreadWhy note-taking apps don't make us smarter An article that discusses both productivity apps and AI? Sign me up! I’ve had similar thoughts as the author about the true usefulness of AI—uses other than generating lists of dad jokes “in the style of Abraham Lincoln as if he were a 1930s reporter.” It seems like natural language interfaces to our own data would be really helpful. Imagine a Siri that actually worked, or, basically, the movie Her but without the horror film aspects.
The reason, sadly, is that thinking takes place in your brain. And thinking is an active pursuit — one that often happens when you are spending long stretches of time staring into space, then writing a bit, and then staring into space a bit more. It’s here that the connections are made and the insights are formed. And it is a process that stubbornly resists automation. Which is not to say that software can’t help. Andy Matuschak, a researcher whose spectacular website offers a feast of thinking about notes and note-taking, observes that note-taking apps emphasize displaying and manipulating notes, but never making sense between them. Before I totally resign myself to the idea that a note-taking app can’t solve my problems, I will admit that on some fundamental level no one has really tried.
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Picture of the DayI don’t encourage this, but it did make me smile.
Good morning, RVA! It's 67 °F, and the high today is 80 °F. Not in the 80s, just regular 80. This is the first of three really temperate days before big heat comes back in to town on Sunday and sets up shop for at least an entire week. My recommendations is to get out there and spend some time enjoying the cooler temperatures! Maybe visit your closest park, take a couple pictures, and send me your favorites.
Water coolerDrivers, be aware that tolls on some local highways will change tonight at midnight, with the Downtown Expressway toll increasing from 70 cents to 90 cents (a full dollar if you pay with cash). This bit on the RMTA website, the group that owns and manages the DTE, stood out to me: “Driving the RMTA Expressway System is a choice. Therefore, we strive to be a safer and faster form of travel around the Richmond metropolitan community than the alternatives.” While it feels like a road wrote that sentence, I do agree. We should do everything we can to make commuting on the Downtown Expressway the preferred choice for drivers and make commuting on Main/Cary to avoid the tolls a bad time. It should be worth a dollar to hop on the Expressway and leave Main and Cary Streets to local traffic, buses, people on bikes, and the everyday pedestrian activity you find in a great urban neighborhood. The easiest way to do this, of course, is to narrow the two streets—heck, maybe even throw a bus-only lane and bike lane in there, too.
Yesterday, the Virginia Department of Health announced “a statewide outbreak of meningococcal disease,” which sounds scary, but VDH notes that the “risk to Virginia’s population is low.” Most folks have already been vaccinated against meningococcal disease, since it’s a school-required vaccine, but if for some reason you haven’t, or if you fall into one of the high-risk groups, you’ll want to talk to your medical provider about getting topped up. Tap through for some recommendations to help you stay safe that, luckily, are a lot of the same ways to keep yourself from catching COVID-19, too.
I don’t put much stock in “U.S. News & World Report,” which, to me, feels like it exists solely off of its own invented industry of ranking educational institutions. That said, I do put a lot of stock into highlighting great things coming out of Richmond. So, with that in mind, you should know that, according to U.S. News & World Report, RPS’s Open High School and Richmond Community High School are, respectively, the #2 and #3 high schools in Virginia. Sean Jones at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Deep Run High School is the top-ranked school in Henrico (#11) and Midlothian High School the top-ranked school in Chesterfield (#34). Like I said, I think this is a mostly invented list, but, still, great work everyone.
VPM’s Whittney Evans, in her (I think) first “Curious Commonwealth” column, answers a question that I asked a friend literally this past Monday: “Can I take figs off of trees in the public right of way?” To spoil it, mostly yes but also no? Probably maybe? Questions like this typically don’t have a real answer and usually boil down to “don’t be weird about it and maybe ask for permission first.” Also, fig trees are rad, but grow quickly and attract a lot of animal-kingdom attention. Keep it in mind if you plan on plopping some in the ground!
16 miles, seven pools, five hours, one celebration of bikes and swimming...it’s Ride and Dive weekend! This coming Saturday at 12:00 PM meet up at the Fairmount Pool (2000 U Street) and attempt to ride bikes to every single one of Richmond’s public pools before they close for the year. After hitting the last stop, Powhatan Pool, head over to Triple Crossing Fulton for pizza and beers. I think this sounds like just the funnest, most wholesome event, and I’m glad it exists.
This morning's patron longreadThe Mystery of the Bloomfield BridgeSubmitted by Patron Sam. Do you ever come across something in your neighborhood and wonder why it exists? Probably all of the time! But then do you spend two months digging through libraries, archives, and calling people on the phone to find the answer? Probably not! I absolutely loved this piece that asks and answers why a pedestrian bridge over a highway in Minneapolis exists where it does, connecting mostly nothing to nothing. No spoilers, but I would love if someone did a similar look (but was maybe way less intense about it) into why this pedestrian bridge over the Downtown Expressway in Richmond exists.
This pedestrian bridge crosses I-494 just west of the Minneapolis Airport. It connects Bloomington to Richfield. I drive under it often and I wondered: why is it there? It's not in an area that is particularly walkable, and it doesn't connect any establishments that obviously need to be connected. So why was it built? I often have curious thoughts like this, but I dismiss most of them because if I answered all of them I would get nothing else done. But one day I was walking out of a Taco Bell and found myself at the base of the bridge. That only raised MORE questions! Why did the bridge just lead to some grass? Why isn't there a sidewalk? What is the point? It makes no sense!
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Picture of the DayCute tooth graffiti on Belvidere.
It’d be a big mistake to treat all 6,000 of the newly-installed plants (as much as I love plants) as circle’s permanent future.
I’m an old person who doesn’t really enjoy live music and spends most of his listening time with strange metal from Europe or old Ethiopian jazz.
I don’t get the City’s intense resistance to pilot projects; it makes absolutely zero sense.
Everyone should start a blog! Write or create things, and share them from somewhere not behind the gate of a billionaire’s website!
Everyone should read “Ministry for the Future,” I think about it at least twice a week.
I know summer is great for all sorts of reasons, but I absolutely love the city’s awakening that’s marked by the return of fall.
“Americans still having fun this summer!” articles are the textual embodiment of the This Is Fine meme.
The Fall Line should function as a thick, meaty spine with dozens of thin, pliable ribs branching of it.
I learned about a viral thing from the actual local newspaper, officially cementing my status as Entirely Out of the Loop.
Someone finally wrote about the bamboo die-off that’s happening all over town (and that I can’t stop talking about)!
The Watermelon Festival basically exists as an annual reminder that we can, in fact, close Carytown to vehicle traffic.
We need to pair tactical, direct-response interventions with bigger, bolder, holistic citywide efforts to slow drivers down.
There is a TON of work to be done if City Council wants to move on any of these (fascinating) recommendations to change the Charter.
I’m waiting to learn more, but it’s good to see some progress toward reopening Richmond’s bike share system.
Maybe the Director of Public Works believes that we can’t infrastructure our way out of speeding, but this new, cheap infrastructure has dramatically slowed drivers on my cross street.
Here’s a ton of plant news plus a boring thing about the General Assembly. Happy Tuesday!
Snatching away part of the land that makes up a community center seems counter to a handful of Richmond’s long-term strategic PDFs.
After the flurry of lawyer letters, press conferences, and social media posts, Richmond’s Electoral Board may have had a change of heart.
So, here we go again, and, just like last time, I will be voting No on this newest casino attempt.
I think this shift in language—from reporting just earlier this week—is really wonderful.
I don’t think I’ve ever been part of a better online community than this one, so thanks for that!
Do you have the Air Quality Guide for Particle Pollution PDF bookmarked? Because now I do.
What you browse is your own personal business, not the General Assembly’s and certainly not some random internet company.
Virginia, especially the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley, are just incredibly beautiful.
I always get nervous when a national reporter does a deep dive on something nuanced and local!
Go vote! Local and state elections are important—do you need any more evidence than the last couple of years?
It’s telling that City leaders in favor of the casino would rather not mention the casino part of the deal.
Good morning, RVA! It's 59 °F, and today looks sunny and wonderful. Expect highs around 80 °F but with a lot less of yesterday’s sticky humidity. Looking ahead at this week’s exceedingly dry (but lovely!) forecast, and I don’t know if yesterday’s intermittent sprinkles cut the mustard for all of my outside plants. If I’m late for a meeting or a hangout, it’s probably because I’m carrying buckets of water this way and that and lost track of time!
Water cooler Cars ruin Carytown. That’s just a fact! Cars make Carytown—one of Richmond’s densest, most popular urban shopping districts—unsafe and way less fun. This is super apparent when events like the annual Watermelon Festival open Cary Street up to people and everyone loses their minds about how great it is (despite the inevitably sweltering heat). We could make Carytown a place for people, not cars, whenever we wanted—maybe we could even take a baby step (which is way safer on a street without cars) and start with just one Sunday a month. We choose not to do this for some frustrating reason. So if you want to publicly proclaim your frustration while supporting a good cause, you can pick up the 2023 version of the Cars Ruin Carytown T-shirt with proceeds benefiting Richmond City Safe Routes to Schools. As for who holds the levers of power to make this car-free vision an actual reality? I’d say the 1st, 2nd, and 5th District councilmembers, but only if the Carytown Merchants Association gets onboard first. If I had unlimited free time and energy to work on removing cars from Cary Street in any sort of regularly recurring way, I’d start by talking with members of the Merchants Association.
While I wait for the City to update their legislative website with last night’s Council votes, Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that they easily passed the Casino 2.0 papers, with only 2nd District’s Councilmember Jordan voting against. The General Assembly still needs to sort out their feelings on the matter, but, even with that bit still undecided, I think there’s an above average chance Richmonders will see another casino referendum on the ballot this November. Spiers also reports that Council approved the operating agreement for the riverfront amphitheatre, too.
From my inbox: the Richmond City Democratic Committee released the (semi-surprising) result of their House District 79 and Senate District 14 straw polls ahead of next week’s Primary Election. In the 79th, members picked Rae Cousins over current Councilmember Lambert, and in the 14th they chose Katie Gooch over current State Senator Bagby. Fascinating! RCDC is quick to remind you that “the results of this Straw Poll are not a formal endorsement by the Richmond City Democratic Committee, however, it should be regarded as a sign of enthusiasm from RCDC members, democratic voters and activists throughout Richmond for their respective candidates.” You can show your own signs of enthusiasm by early voting at the registrars office until Saturday at 5:00 PM, and then you can vote at your assigned polling place a week from today.
Several months ago, City Council posted the Civilian Review Board staff job, and, somehow, I totally missed it. This position is “responsible for coordinating and analyzing the administrative and operational performance of programs and projects related to the Richmond Civilian Review Board.” Honestly, this is probably a pretty critical role in making sure RIchmond’s CRB is as effective as possible and would, I think, require a certain type of person to successfully coordinate between the public, the CRB, the police, and the City. If that’s you and you want to take the jump into public service, submit an application this week!
Tonight at 6:00 PM, you can join RVA Rapid Transit at Common House (303 W. Broad Street) for their State of Transit 2023 Reception. Stop by, learn about the vision for public transportation in our region, and figure out how you can get involved in pushing us towards that vision. If you really want a gold star, you can read through RVA Rapid Transit’s 2023 State of Transit report before you show up. Check out page 18 for a quick commentary on building bus stops that should sound familiar if you read last week’s longread on the La Sombrita. You might be shocked by how long it takes to install a bus stop shelter! Tonight’s event is free, but you should register over on the Eventbrite.
This morning's longread When life threatens to become smaller, this is what I do I love Tressie McMillan Cottom’s New York Times email, and in this edition she writes some advice for herself. I feel like when a brilliant, incredible person is like “here’s some good advice that I try to follow” it’s probably worthwhile for the rest of us regular people to listen.
Having an end goal for everything I do has had an unintended effect on my choices: It has started to narrow my vision of what’s possible to things that I think I can win at doing. This is why I experiment with living life outside of optimization. My job description has a version of not being the best at a few things but finding joy in doing things I am not very good at doing at all. That’s why I sing. I suck at it. I love it. Here is a secret. There is no singing authority. Those cops really are in your imagination and you can evict them at any time.
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Picture of the Day Still delicious after all these years.
Today, June 9th, is the very last day to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot to be mailed to you for the June 20th primary!
The Air Pollution Control Board voted to pull Virginia from RGGI on a day the air was literally unhealthy to breath due to air pollution.
I’m not sure I have any helpful, or even angry, words this morning. It’s just so, so sad.
Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and today looks beautiful with sunshiney highs right around 80 °F. In fact, the rest of this week’s weather looks amazing. Remember to, of course, spend some time outside if you can but also to water your garden / whatever plants you’ve got sitting outside. I don’t think we’ll see a good, soaking rain for a while, and it’s important for plants to stay hydrated, too.
Water coolerCity Council’s Organizational Development committee meets today at 4:00 PM and will consider a couple big important papers of note. First, they’ll tackle the two ordinances and one resolution needed to advance the if-at-first-you-don’t-succeed referendum on the casino: ORD. 2023-170, ORD. 2023-171, and RES. 2023-R027. Remember, all nine councilmembers sit on the OrgDev committee, so today’s vote (assuming they do actually vote) will act as a preview for the vote at full Council later this summer. I anticipate a pretty strong, nearly unanimous vote to approve. Second, the committee will consider ORD. 2023-172, which would greenlight the new amphitheatre down by the riverfront. Setting aside how I feel about the casino re-vote (a nauseated exhaustion), the City has really hit a stride in working together to move large projects forward. I can’t really tell if this is a shift from previous mayors and councils, or if it just feels like a lot of action after three years of COVID-19 standstill.
PlanRVA has wrapped up their West Broad Street BRT Corridor Analysis study, which you can download and flip through. This is just one of many necessary studies that our region needs to crank out before we can take the next obvious step with the Pulse and extend it westward. To spoil it for you: PlanRVA recommends a phased approach, with an initial extension all the way out to Parham Road. I really recommend scrolling through this PDF as it highlights all of the basic infrastructure improvements—think sidewalks and crosswalks—that need to be made up and down the length of this corridor. I’m not really sure what happens next, but, in the immediate future, PlanRVA will present the study to the GRTC Board of Directors and the Richmond Regional Transportation Planning Organization for formal adoption.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch has an important update to the news that a fire hit one of the buildings at the Richmond Zoo last night: “All animals thought to have been lost in the veterinary building have been located and are alive.”
Via /r/rva, someone on Reddit lost a kayak and another person on Reddit found it for them! For me, that’s exactly how a local online community should work.
Cool opportunity alert! The YWCA is recruiting young people aged 14–18 to join their Empower RVA Teens 2023–2024 cohort. Seems important and cool: “Empower RVA Teens is a youth-led peer educator and social justice-focused leadership program that aims to prevent teen dating violence & sexual assault by empowering teens to teach their peers about healthy relationships, teen dating violence, sexual violence, and consent.“ Interested folks have until July 1st to apply using this form.
This morning's longreadHow I evaluate sourcesThe Weekly Sift, a twice-weekly email mostly about national politics, is one of those things I save to read over the weekend as a special treat for myself. The writing is good, and the takes are hot but also thoughtful and well-reasoned. A couple weeks back he shared his method for quickly determining the trustworthiness of an online news source, and I thought it worth sharing—especially as we get closer and closer to another presidential campaign season.
This week, one of my social-media friends posted a link from a blog I’d never heard of. This particular article claimed Russia is winning its war against Ukraine, and criticized a Western leader for claiming that Russia would lose a war against all of NATO. These observations seemed unlikely to me, but I try not to write blogs off just because I disagree with them. (That’s a good way to trap yourself in an ideological silo.) So I asked myself: What is this blog? Is it a reliable source? These questions come up all the time, and by now I have a fairly standard technique for answering them.
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Picture of the DayIt’s coneflower season!
Good morning, RVA! It's 58 °F, and today you can expect highs in the upper 80s—maybe even 90s depending on what kind of urban heat island you spend your time on. I think this is the first real sunny, hot day of the season, and, to be honest, I’m looking forward to it! As for the next few days, temperatures will cool off just a bit, the sun will continue to shine, and I hope you will remember to wear sunscreen.
Water coolerThad Green at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the work to landscape the circle at Monument and Allen (aka Marcus-David Peters Circle) has started in earnest! Tap through for a profile on YME Landscaping, a local, Black-owned company, that’s handling most of the work. Remember, the horrible fencing won’t come down until the landscaping wraps up, and it sounds like that could be as soon as next month.
Richmond BizSense’s Michael Schwartz reports that Dominion has scrapped their plans to build the laughably named “clean energy park” parking lot down on 8th and Cary. Good! The last thing we need in literally the most dense, most valuable part of the entire region is a surface-level parking lot—that land alone is worth $10 million! A Dominion spokesperson says that the company will soon begin a process to sell the property, and, with any luck, the next owner will want to build an actual building on the site.
Good news: The Senate signed legislation raising the debt ceiling last night, averting the panic and disaster for which Republicans had hoped and dreamed. The New York Times has the recap, which is mostly boring, but the late-night legislation does impact Virginia in a couple of ways (aside from preventing potential economic devastation). First, despite efforts from Senator Tim Kaine, the Mountain Valley Pipeline is back on the table. Kaine says he’s “deeply troubled by the unprecedented provision to cherry-pick one project and exempt it from the normal judicial and administrative review process”, and I totally agree. Second, with the debt ceiling now lifted, I think we should start to see Virginia’s legislature start to pick up the pieces of its own budget process again.
I quickly crunched the numbers this morning, and, after just one day of the Good Morning, RVA pledge drive (which definitely needs a better, catchier name), the generous readers of this email newsletter have taken me 15% of the way towards my goal of $381 in new monthly Patreon support. That’s pretty impressive for a single day! Thanks, y’all. If you’d like to chip in a couple of bucks (or a couple more bucks), you can do so over on patreon.com/gmrva.
Reminder: The Greek Festival continues! Head over to Malvern & Grove, stuff your face with Mediterranean delights, and then buy a bunch more to take with you to the pool this weekend for sharing with your best pool buds. It’s the start of the season, and it’s important to make a good impression. Totally unrelated side note: I am never not amazed that our Greek Festival somehow got the URL greekfestival.com.
This morning's longreadThe Problem With Counterfeit PeopleOK, OK, this longread is clearly way too much and part of what I’ve seen folks call “AI doomerism.” So know that going in. However, I did like this part about the emotional and mental costs (and, maybe, unintended consequences) of constantly having to question if every online interaction is with a real human or an AI.
“This text has been generated by a human. Or has it?” It will soon be next to impossible to tell. And even if (for the time being) we are able to teach one another reliable methods of exposing counterfeit people, the cost of such deepfakes to human trust will be enormous. How will you respond to having your friends and family probe you with gotcha questions every time you try to converse with them online? Creating counterfeit digital people risks destroying our civilization. Democracy depends on the informed (not misinformed) consent of the governed. By allowing the most economically and politically powerful people, corporations, and governments to control our attention, these systems will control us.
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Picture of the DayWhy is this corner of the courts building so unnecessarily sharp??
Good morning, RVA! It's 59 °F, and we’ve got a great Thursday ahead of us with highs in the 80s plus a bit of sunshine. Tomorrow’s forecast looks actually hot, but, other than that, we’re staring straight into a significant stretch of really nice weather.
Water coolerIt’s officially June, and that means it’s the one time of year I remind you, reader of Richmond’s premiere zoning and rezoning email, that you can support this work directly (like, with money) by joining the Good Morning, RVA Patreon. Over 400 readers pitch in a small amount of cash each month, a number that, honestly, feels shockingly larger. However! Due to capitalism and things, I would, of course, like that number to be just a bit shockingly larger. To that end, this year I’ve set a goal of increasing GMRVA’s monthly patron support by $381. I think that seems like a challenging but still achievable goal. So, existing patrons, consider upping your donation by a dollar or two; new patrons, go ahead and starting chipping in a couple bucks each month. While I will continue to wake up at small-prime-number o’ clock to write this email regardless, I do think the work—while sometimes silly and simultaneously dry—is important and would deeply value your support.
I only just barely had on my radar the Supreme Court’s recent Sackett v. EPA decision and its impacts on the definition (and protection) of wetlands. Definitely tap through the previous link for a great summary by SCOTUS Blog, and then read this piece by Patrick Larsen at VPM, who reports on what could happen in Virginia as a result. Luckily, and fingers crossed it stays this way, it sounds like Virginia already has strict regulations and definitions that will continue to protect our wetlands.
Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond reports that our region’s first Shake Shack will open next Friday, June 9th, at 11:00 AM. While I’m off burgers (and think we definitely should not be opening new burger joints), I am still incredibly on French fries, milk shakes, and ShackSauce. If you end up testing your luck with the masses of humanity on Friday, lemme know how it goes!
The Virginia Mercury’s Graham Moomaw reports that Governor Youngkin will send 100 Virginia National Guard troops to...”help with border security in Texas”? Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent 800 soldiers to Texas a few weeks ago, so, I guess this is what you do as a governor running for president? Seems dumb.
Via /r/rva, the trailer for Next Goal Wins in which Michael Fassbender wears a VCU cap at the 1:46 mark!
From the New York Times: “The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed legislation negotiated by President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy to suspend the debt ceiling and set federal spending limits, as a broad bipartisan coalition lined up to cast a critical vote to pull the nation back from the brink of economic catastrophe.” Unsaid by that NYT quote is that Republicans entirely and unnecessarily manufactured the national catastrophe and then drove all the way up to the brink by themselves, just so they’d have the opportunity to defund and cut and generally make things worse for folks. Rep. McClellan “reluctantly voted to pass the budget proposal to prevent a catastrophic default,” and you can watch the rest of her statement over on Twitter. Now we wait to see how and when the Senate will act on the House’s compromise.
As of today, after a three-year coronabreak, the Greek Festival is back! Starting at lunch today and running through Sunday evening, you can head out to Malvern & Grove and pick up a healthy supply of souvlaki, spanakopita, and, of course, baklava. I mean, yes, I want to eat all the cheesy, meaty things, but really I want to walk out of there with the biggest possible box of desserts that will fit on my bicycle. Cover me in phyllo dough and honey, like some sort of delicious mummy!
This morning's longreadTesting New York Apartments: How Dirty Is That Gas Stove, Really?Gas stoves are back! And by “back,” I mean “stories about the negative impact gas stoves have on indoor air quality are back.” The New York Times sent a bunch of air-testing equipment into a handful of apartments and found that, turns out, using a gas stove quickly pours lots of polluting, and potentially dangerous, chemicals into your home’s air. Not great! Everything I read about natural gas makes me more and more anxious about how Richmond really needs to divest from its natural gas utility.
The researchers got to work powering up their analyzers and setting up tubes, at roughly nose height, to pull in samples of air. After they took background readings, it was time to turn on the gas, a single small burner on high. The machinery quickly detected the change: a rise in concentrations of nitrogen dioxide — which, among other negative health effects, can irritate the respiratory system, aggravate symptoms of respiratory diseases and contribute to asthma. Concentrations climbed to 500 parts per billion, five times the safety benchmark for one-hour exposures set by the Environmental Protection Agency. (Concentrations of benzene, a human carcinogen that is present in cigarette smoke and car emissions, also tripled.)
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Picture of the DayThe saddest of RIPs.
Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and we finally say farewell to the doom-and-gloom weather from the last several days. Today you can expect highs near 80 °F, dry skies, and a triumphant return of sunshine. I hope you can find the time to get out there and enjoy it!
Water coolerEnd of an era! Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that, “After nearly 60 years in business, Varina's only waterpark is up for grabs. Hadad’s Lake and its surrounding acreage at 7900 Osborne Turnpike have been listed for sale for $975,000.” I have a hard time believing that the new owner, whoever they end up being, will want to run a weird-but-charming rural water park that, for some reason, has a pretty big place in the history of Richmond’s grungier music scenes. It’d be pretty easy to instead throw up a bunch of condos and call it a day—like what’s happening at a couple different spots out that way. But who knows, maybe someone who grew up spending the hot summer days of their youth at Hadad’s has a new vision for the place!
Jonathan Spiers, also at Richmond BizSense, has a really fun update on the developers vying for the City Center redevelopment project. The four finalists have all released public 1-pagers describing their plans for the area bounded by 5th, Leigh, 7th, and Marshall Streets. I’m just so stoked that we’re actually moving forward with a plan for some our city’s most valuable land, and none of the options include a huge, wasteful arena. I kind of can’t believe it!
Beginning this coming Saturday and continuing through next Friday, Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities will perform its annual floodwall testing. Like some epic scene from a fantasy movie, DPU will rumble the huge floodwall doors closed, making sure they’d actually work in a real flood (or zombie horde) situation. I think this is so neat and have, in previous years, taken a minute just to head downtown and check out how the floodwall looks when closed—something we haven’t seen outside of these testings since November 2020. If you’re curious, you can find the full list of when each part of the floodwall will close for testing here.
Nick Russo at NBC12 reports that the National Weather Service at Wakefield will take their radar offline for two weeks to make some repairs. Tap through for some interesting facts on how our national weather radar system works. What I want to know, though, is will this impact the radar map on my weather app??
Alas, nothing gold can stay, and today is the final day of the 10th Annual RVA Bike Month—and what a month it’s been! We’ve had the opportunity to learn how to pop wheelies, ride through historic neighborhoods, grind out some gravel, and remember the folks who died while riding on our region’s unsafe streets. I’m very appreciative for BikeWalk RVA for putting the whole thing together; it’s very impressive and I’m sure requires a ton of work to pull off. Today, you can close out the month with one final event: a Bike and Pizza Capital Trail ride (meet at 5:30 PM at Triple Crossing in Fulton). Also, yesterday’s Advocate’s Bike Lane Tour was rescheduled to this coming Tuesday due to the gloomy, wet weather. And, of course, nothing says that, just because we turn the page on May tomorrow, you have to stop riding your bike! Around these parts, every month is bike month!
This morning's longread10 Thoughts From the Fourth TrimesterI’m many years removed from the fourth trimester of my son’s life, so this might be a more enjoyable piece for me than for someone closer to that (utterly exhausting) phase. I definitely empathize with a lot of the sentiment in here—especially the deep and constant feeling of “what am I even dooooooing here.” Honestly, more than 55 trimesters in and I still frequently feel that way about being a parent.
It’s pretty amazing how bad babies are at everything. They’re terrible at thinking, at knowing anything, at moving all parts of their body. The cool thing is that spending time with a super unimpressive baby has made me super impressed by myself. Like I’ll watch the baby sitting in a baby bouncer trying to reach for a little wooden flower one foot in front of her and she just flings her arm in the general direction and misses by a lot. Then I’ll reach for a glass of water and all of my joints work together to send my hand on a perfectly straight path through three-dimensional space, gracefully clasp my fingers around it using the perfect amount of pressure, raise it to my mouth, tilt it in perfect sync with the movement of my lips, and then return the glass to the table and gently place it down like an absolute genius.
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Picture of the DayCool S extends beyond generations.
Good morning, RVA! It's 59 °F, and today looks a lot like the past couple of days: cloudy, highs in the low 70s, and a chance for rain at some point. Tomorrow though! Warmer temperatures and drier skies will return tomorrow, so hurry up and finish your book or movie or whatever else has you curled up on the couch!
Water coolerI finally got a chance to read through the Charter Reivew Commission’s “short summary of governance subcommittee proposals” document from last week, and, whoa, fascinating. First, and importantly, this document is not an official recommendation from the Charter Review Commission about how we should restructure our city’s government—think of it more as a brainstorming list of possibilities from one of the Commission’s subcommittees. Second, like I said, whoa, fascinating. To summarize: The subcommittee suggests that we reduce City Council to six seats, add the popularly-elected Mayor as a voting member (for a total of seven), and bring back the City Manager to do the actual business of running the City. Tap through to read more about the subcommittee’s reasoning for each change, plus a few other tweaks they’d like to see. It’s a short read, and I think you’ll find it interesting and worth the time. How likely are any of these changes to get implemented, though? No clue. While these major structural shifts would address a lot of the, as the document puts it, “structural conflict between City Council and the Mayor that many stakeholders have expressed as a key impediment to good governance,” I have no idea how Council, the Mayor, the people of Richmond, or the General Assembly would feel about any of them. The full Commission still has some upcoming meetings, so, if you feel any sort of way about some of these options, you’ll have an opportunity to let the Commission know (plus you can/should fill out their survey in the meantime).
Patagonia put together a 20-minute documentary featuring Monte Cosby, a kid who grew up in Fairfield Court and ended up riding bikes with the Richmond Cycling Corps. He’s now at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, tearing it up, shredding forests, and generally being a college student. You’ll definitely want to set aside the time to watch this because it’s got all the things: bikes, Richmond, and kids being awesome.
Reminder! Today is the last day to register to vote or update your existing voter registration in advance of the June 20th primaries. You can of course, thanks to Democrats, register to vote up to and through Election Day and then cast a provisional ballot. However, that sounds stressful, and, if I were you, I’d take care of any voter registration chores today!
Speaking of, Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a preview of the 79th House of Delegates primary, which features Rae Cousins, Ann-Frances Lambert (current councilmember for the City’s 3rd District), and Richard Walker. While you’d think a sitting councilmember would have the advantage in this race, Cousins has raised more money than her challengers and leads in “party organization,” whatever that means. Honestly, fundraising aside, Councilmember Lambert’s erratic and unserious behavior on social media over the past two years is not something I’d like to see elevated to the state level.
Style Weekly has published their 2023 Top 40 Under 40 list, which is alway an excellent list of awesome young people doing awesome young-people things. Take note! These folks and their organizations/projects are making an impact on our city (and are probably fun people to hang out with should you ever be lucky enough to get the chance).
Today’s the penultimate day of RVA Bike Month, and I hope you’ve got at least a couple more rides left in you for what remains of the month of May. Close out the month strong, and meet up at the Ginter Park Library today at 6:30 PM for an Advocate’s Bike Lane Tour. You can expect a chill, easy-pace ride through existing bike lanes, plus a chance to see a few of the places where we lack important connections and infrastructure improvements. Sounds fun and a great way to get a first-hand feel for the next items on our Bike Things to Advocate For List.
This morning's longreadHow (and why) Biden should overcome the Supreme Court to end the debt showdownI liked this fed-up take on what President Biden should do about Republicans’ insistence on holding the country hostage over the debt ceiling. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like the president will do any of these things, and has, according to the New York Times, agreed to a series of small compromises and spending cuts. Frustrating. Because if it’s not this thing, it’ll be another thing, and at some point Democrats will need to stand up to Republican brinkmanship and actually deliver on some of the promises that got them elected in the first place.
So what should Biden do? Call their bluff. First, mint the coin. If the court strikes that down, issue coupon-free bonds. If the court strikes that down, declare debt ceilings to violate the 14th Amendment. If the court strikes that down, declare it to violate the Contracts Clause. Keep doing it. Throw in every solution including the kitchen sink – but never give into the GOP's demand for Biden to violate his promise to the American people and unilaterally tear up laws establishing programs that make our lives better. This is what Lincoln did when the Supreme Court blocked his attempts to end slavery. It's what FDR did when they blocked the New Deal. The court doesn't have an army, it can't force its decisions on the American people. It doesn't have a bureaucratic workforce and it can't take over the administrative branch – hell, they don't even have the keys to the office buildings. The Supreme Court's power comes from its legitimacy, not force of arms, and while they may not act like it, the Supremes know in their bones that without legitimacy, they are nothing.
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Picture of the DayCould fall right into one of these.
Good morning, RVA! It's 47 °F, and it’s a bit chilly in my house! Highs for today (and for tomorrow) should settle into the mid 70s and make for some great outdoor hangs—as long as you’ve got an extra layer around for when the sun goes down. Sunday and Monday, though, look a bit cooler, and each day holds a pretty significant chance of rain. If you have them, adjust your grilling plans accordingly.
Water coolerI haven’t written about it in this space yet, but there’s a big important primary coming up on June 20th—delegates, state senators, and Henrico County supervisors will all battle to the death for your vote and the chance to appear on November’s ballot. In fact, that battle has already begun and early voting for those primaries started back on May 5th. This coming Tuesday, May 30th, marks the last day to register if you wish to vote in said primary. If, for some unimaginable reason, you are not registered to vote (or you’re just new here), please make a plan to get that taken care of over the next couple of days!
The Greater Richmond Continuum of Care is the region’s “collaborative network of homeless service providers.” They’ve just dropped their 2022–2023 annual report, which is a short, easy-to-read PDF that’ll give you a broad perspective on homelessness in our larger, eight-locality region. I hate to give you homework over a long weekend, but I think this one’s worth it.
David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on Chesterfield’s zoning ordinance rewrite, and, honestly, it’s pretty neat to hear a deeply suburban county want to focus on adding dense, multi-use neighborhoods to their housing toolkit. Of course, getting these new, denser zoning rules into the code is a necessary—but preliminary—step zero. The hard work comes in rezoning existing areas to allow for these sort of “walkable communities with homes and commerce.”
The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency has ended, disease levels are pretty dang low, and yet I still appreciate Katelyn Jetelina for keeping us updated on what’s happening in coronaworld. Tap through for some small, bite-sized updates—which, honestly, is about all I can handle from COVID-19 at this particular moment. It’s sort of thrilling and refreshing, but sometimes I don’t even think about respiratory disease pandemics for a while. I’m loving that for myself!
Axios Richmond’s Ned Oliver headed out to the Diamond last week and ranked a few of the Squirrel’s top best concession items. You’ve got the Dilldog, a hotdog served in a pickle instead of a bun; the Squirrely Fries; and the souvenir helmet nachos, about which he says “the end result is very close to regular food you might encounter in a restaurant” (and that is the best sentence written by a reporter I’ve read this week). Not ranked: Beers as big as your head, which, as Oliver points out, are “ounce-for-ounce...cheaper than you can get at the actual brewery.”
It’s the last weekend of RVA Bike Month, and I hope you’ve had the opportunity to participate fully and deeply. But we’re not done yet! At various points over the next handful of days you can form a Critical Mass, ride around the New Kent Winery, take a Tour de Taco, do a Bike Party (which, I’m intrigued by its lack of details), join the Great Queer Bike Parade, and sample a whole lot of vegan ice cream. With just a few events scheduled for next week, now’s the time to get out there and ride if you haven’t already.
Logistical note! I’ll be taking Monday, Memorial Day, off from this email newsletter. If the weather holds, you’ll probably find me in the yard or on a bike. If a downpour traps us all inside, I’ll most likely queue up a couple things from my watchlist, like Yeon Sang-Ho’s _JUNG_E_ and the new Dungeons & Dragons movie. If you have the time off, enjoy, and look for me back in your inbox on Tuesday!
This morning's longreadThe Job Decision MatrixI am definitely not looking for a new job, but using a tool like Trello to stack and sort what’s important to you seems like a useful exercise regardless.
Once you view your career trajectory as a non-linear progression akin to a series of interplanetary space missions you will realize that your perspective changes over time. At each stage of your career, the things you care about will be different. When I was graduating from the University of Arizona (Go Cats!) I couldn’t even spell “family”. The concept of caring about feeding a family was simply irrelevant to me. All I really cared about was the technical domain (GUI applications) I’d be working in and the stage of the company (established, but not big). Later in my career, I was married with children. Suddenly feeding a family was something I cared deeply about. As you work through your Job Decision Matrix focus on what is important to you NOW, not what you imagine might be important to you in the future, or what you used to care about.
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Picture of the DayMeet Patio Patty.
Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and today—plus for the next handful of days—you can expect slightly cooler temperatures right around 70 °F. Sounds great to both me and my bicycle, to be quite honest. I’ve still got my eye on the five-day forecast which, unfortunately, has increased its prediction of rain to: Here and there for the whole time. So maybe expect a damp (but restful) long weekend.
Water coolerThe final version of the Staples Mill Small Area Plan dropped this week from VDOT, and, for a suburban highway that literally just this week I could not figure out how to safely cross on bike, it looks...pretty good! The recommendations include intersection improvements, continuous sidewalks and bike lanes, and conducting a study for possibly installing dedicated transit lanes, too. I’m impressed that so much progressive, urbanist stuff made it into a plan for what’s basically a long, linear strip mall (one that buzzes with potential, though!). Of course a small area plan is just that, a plan, and it will now be up to Richmond, Henrico, and probably the train people, to spend the money to get any or all of this implemented. Fingers crossed, because how nice would it be to safely and conveniently take the bus or ride a bike to a modern, high-speed train station on Staples Mill Road? Maybe in my lifetime even!
Speaking of suburban highways, Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports on the interchange expansions and modifications coming to Short Pump. It’s wild that folks think adding more interchange will solve the area’s traffic issues when we know, for a fact, demonstrated time and time again, that building more roads just leads to more traffic. The cost of these “improvements”, which will, in just a couple of years, result in the same backed-up, horrible traffic that we’ve got now? $250 million! One quarter of a billion dollars for, at best, a short term fix! Bananas! Also, side note, these enormous diverging diamond interchanges seem like the highway engineering version of supertall buildings—like, sure, they can exist but do they need to?
The Richmond Public School emails have made me feel a lot of unexpected emotions lately, so I’m going to keep sharing them with you. In this past Monday’s email, Superintendent Kamras celebrated some of the amazing and impressive RPS students, and now, in yesterday’s email, he’s got the highlights from the 2nd Annual RPS Shines event which celebrates teachers, support staff, and administrators. So many people put so much into our public school system, and it’s awesome to see so many of them recognized. Honestly, it must feel good to put this kind of celebratory email together and kind of makes me want to start some sort of Official GMRVA Awards for Public Service and Contributions To Zoning.
This is the last Thursday in May and the final Thursday in RVA Bike Month! Tonight, you’ve got two official options to participate in bike month: 1) The 6th Annual Bike Treasure Hunt Ride, which, according to the event description, you will need to “assemble your treasure hunting crew, be the fastest team to solve the clues, and win a cake!” If that sounds charming to you, meet at Fountain Lake at 6:30 PM; and 2) Ride your bike over to The Valentine at 6:00 PM for a free tour of the museum, plus a reception for the opening of their new exhibit Sign Spotting. My unofficial third option is for you to get on whatever bike you have and ride slowly around your neighborhood looking for interesting twists, turns, alleys, and paths, with the goal of finding something new-to-you. Every neighborhood, even the most suburban keychain of cul-de-sacs, has at least one unexplored surprise (“a keychain” is the collective noun for cul-de-sac, btw).
This morning's longreadObjection to sexual, LGBTQ content propels spike in book challengesThe Washington Post looked over one thousand recent book bans and found that the majority started with complaints from just 11 humans. Fewer than a dozen people are responsible for the majority of our society’s current book-banning moral panic! Ridiculous!
The majority of the 1,000-plus book challenges analyzed by The Post were filed by just 11 people. Each of these people brought 10 or more challenges against books in their school district; one man filed 92 challenges. Together, these serial filers constituted 6 percent of all book challengers -- but were responsible for 60 percent of all filings. One of them, Michelle Teague in North Carolina's Catawba County schools, submitted 24 challenges against books in her district's library last year, targeting titles from Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" to Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" to Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye."
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Picture of the DayPedal further!
Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and our streak of epic days continues. Today you can expect highs around 80 °F, sunshine, and a strong chance for good vibes across the region. While it’s still early, the forecast for the long weekend ahead of us does contain a bit of rain, but I say that’s fine. I’ve got like 10 Korean films stacked up in my queue that I need to knock out anyway.
Water coolerCity Council updates! This past Monday saw two interesting papers introduced at Council. First, ORD. 2023-170, 2 Casino 2 Furious, would kick off the City’s second go at bringing a casino to Richmond’s Southside. I’m pretty sure we need to wait until the State finalizes this year’s budget (and who knows when that will happen) before we can truly know if Richmond may attempt a casino sequel. However, if I were a betting man—which I am most certainly not and is part of the reason I am very against casinos as municipal revenue generators—I’d say you’ll, once again, have a chance to vote against the casino resort project on your ballot at this coming November’s election. Second, ORD. 2023-172 begins the approval process for the proposed riverfront amphitheater. That hits Council’s Organizational Development committee’s agenda on June 5th—mark your calendars if you’re a public comment watcher. Also, while we’re talking about ordinances and resolutions, at their meeting today, the Governmental Operations committee will consider RES. 2023-R011, which starts the process of acquiring Evergreen and East End Cemeteries from the now-defunct Enrichmond Foundation.
Speaking of public comment, Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that a citizen was removed from Monday’s City Council meeting after making transphobic and homophobic remarks. To quote Council President Mike Jones, “We will not tolerate anything that would demean any person that lives in the city...Everyone has a right to live in the city.” I’m really glad and thankful to hear that City Council took action on this in the moment.
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers reports that Henrico County has landed the 2024 and 2025 A-10 women’s basketball tournament at their not-yet-completed sports and event center out by Virginia Center Commons. This is not the County’s Green City arena development, it’s an entirely separate (but pretty nearby) sports tourism facility. I think that’s fascinating and really demonstrates Henrico’s focus on sports tourism as a key way to bring folks into the County. I think my big question is: Can they build a cohesive neighborhood up there that connects all of these things together and gives the sports tourists something to experience—other than sitting inside a basketball gym for eight hours and then eating dinner at a Chili’s. To be determined!
Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond has a partial answer to my question about how many working pay phones could possible exist in the region. He talked to the State Corporation Commission, who, for some reason, are the folks who keep track of this sort of thing, and they said 40 working pay phones remain in Virginia. Oliver only gets partial credit, because “Unfortunately, the SCC doesn't keep track of where those 40 pay phones are located, so finding them will remain a scavenger hunt.” Maybe a worthy scavenger hunt, though??
RVA Bike Month has some great options for you this, the penultimate Wednesday of May. First, you can join Truetimber Arborists for a Tree Tour of Richmond at 5:30 PM (meet up at Barker Field by Dogwood Dell). Second, you’ve got an intriguing Capital Trail Scavenger Hunt that kicks off at Stone Brewing at 5:30 PM. And, finally, you can join the Urban Cycling Group for a premier of the film _Changing Gears_ at 6:00 PM over at Starr Hill Brewing. Life’s all about the choices you make, and you’ll have to make some hard bike-related choices tonight, that’s for sure. Good luck!
Hey, did you read that article in The Atlantic and think to yourself, “Yes, Twitter is in fact a far-right social network and that does not align with my values at all.”? If so, I encourage you to leave the bird site be and experiment with other, gentler, forms of social media. You can, of course, join the Mastodon instance I set up over at rva.fyi, but there are plenty of other options, too. Honestly, maybe just go hang out in a public park for a couple hours, because that sounds pretty nice.
This morning's longreadFour Lenses for Better Understanding Your CityI really liked this piece from Strong Towns about “noticing” the city around you. Take a walk, take some pictures, take some notes, and think through why certain parts of your neighborhood feel like wonderful treasures and other parts feel like desolate wastelands. I love doing this kind of hands-on urbanism study—everyone can do it, too! Cities aren’t rocket science!
Exploring the built aspect of the city also gives us a chance to more deeply engage with the story of the city. Every building, every road contains part of the city’s history, identity, and values. A road is not just a road; a building is not just a building, they are all the results of relationships, conversations, and maybe even contested visions of what the city ought to be and who it should serve. So, start here. Start with the walk around various neighborhoods, noticing buildings, researching building styles, looking into the stories behind why certain roads and parks were placed where they are. Wrestle with the connection between the physical and the metaphysical: Why do some places feel more like places than others? Which places inspire you with a sense of belonging and connection? Which ones don’t? What kinds of patterns do you notice? How do these patterns of design affect the pattern of your life?
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Picture of the DayAlley yarrow!
Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and we’ve got another great day ahead of us. Expect highs in the mid 70s, some clouds here or there, and a bit of wind. There is a 100% chance you’ll find me riding a bike to one of my morning meetings and then nervously checking in on the newly-planted vegetable garden in the afternoon. I’m loving spring this year and trying to spend as much of it outside as possible!
Water coolerOK, yes, it’s official, the entire RVA Bike Share system has shut down after the vendor, Bewegen, unexpectedly pulled the plug. Yesterday, DPW sent out a release saying, “Due to a last-minute, two day notice and shut down by Bewegen Technologies, the city was forced to suspend the current bicycle rental system until a new software system is in place. Bicycles will not be available to rent while the City secures a new contractor. In the meantime, the City encourages bike share users to utilize the three e-scooter vendors - Bird, Lime, and Spin. Once the new bike share system is operational, the City will welcome users back with free rides for everyone for 30 days.” I have so many questions! Does the City now own any of the code or the app that ran RVA Bike Share. If not, are they planning to hire a contractor to rewrite the whole system from scratch? At what cost and timeline? Or does a company exist that can just come in and run Bewegen’s now-defunct system? Will they be able to make upgrades and fixes moving forward? At what point does it make more sense to scrap the Bewegen hardware and just start over? Maybe I’m overly cynical, but I’ll be (pleasantly!) surprised if RVA Bike Share is back up and running before the end of the year. Honestly, I’ll be even more pleasantly surprised if the City just goes ahead and quickly announces an entirely new bike share vendor.
I absolutely love the Virginia Department of Health’s new Wastewater Surveillance data dashboard which shows the amount of SARS-CoV-2 detected in wastewater. It’s a fascinating combination of sewer stuff and COVID-19 data stuff—two of my favorite stuffs for sure. Tap through and take a look at the map, which is interesting, sure, but the real winner is the “COVID-19 Wastewater Surveillance Percentiles” chart. It’s a super clever way to see the changing COVID-19 picture over time across the whole commonwealth. I love it! As you can see, pretty much everywhere, the amount of COVID-19 people are pooping out in Virginia is very, very low. That’s great news. Data on this dashboard are updated weekly on Tuesdays, so set a reminder if you’re dying for a first look at the week’s newest coronadata.
Quick City Council update from last night: They adopted ORD. 2023-151, the ordinance that will allow Richmond to start taxing Airbnbs. Remember, the way this new revenue eventually makes its way back to the City is, as described by staff, circuitous. Richmond pays alllll of its hotel tax to the Convention Center and then, after they pay off their bills, they return any excess funds back to the City. Maybe at this coming year’s budget session we’ll hear a presentation on how the amount returned to Richmond by the Convention Center has increased over this past year—fingers crossed.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that the proposed amphitheater down by the river took another step towards reality last night: “The group behind the proposed Richmond Amphitheater announced Monday it has worked out a performance grant agreement with the City of Richmond to make the downtown riverfront venue a reality in time for the 2025 outdoor concert season.” City Council, of course, needs to get involved and pass a thing or two, so stay tuned for, what’s sure to be, lively public comments about parking and noise.
Reminder! Richmond’s Charter Review Commission meets tonight at 6:00 PM in the Police Academy building (1202 W. Graham Road), and today they’re focused on hearing your comments about how the City should tweak, update, or burn to the ground its current Charter. The latter thing will not happen, but I bet we still could see the Commission make recommendations for pretty significant changes to how Richmond’s government works. And, regardless of whether you can make the meeting or not, you should fill out their online survey before June 21st!
Scroll through Superintendent Kamras’s email this morning so you can see the names of the young Richmonders honored at RPS’s 2023 Student Recognition and Awards Ceremony. First, look at all these smart and impressive kids! Second, it’s great—for me at least—to remember that, while we talk about schools all the time, they’re filled with actual, small, human people doing amazing things.
Zach Joachim at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a cool profile of Kelsey Knoche, VCU’s new director of operations for men’s basketball. Knoche says she thinks there’s less than 15 women who hold her position in Division I men’s basketball, and it’s pretty cool that VCU now joins that number
If you missed Riverrock this past weekend, Richard Hayes at RVAHub has a ton of really great pictures of the people, the dogs, the weird feats of strength—really great stuff.
This morning's longreadSaving the Monarch Butterfly MigrationNo doubt the monarch butterfly migration is magical and majestic, but I can’t help wondering how we’d feel about a cockroach migration or a horsefly migration. I’m just saying—that’s a lot of insects all in one place!
Each fall, millions of monarchs descend from all over the U.S. and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains, creating a tightening funnel through Texas and continuing to their overwintering ground in Central Mexico where they hibernate and roost for about four months. At a cruising altitude of about 4,000 feet and averaging 12 mph, the monarchs fly across our imaginary borders in both spring and fall. From approximately April through October, they move across the Central U.S. up through southern Canada until making their way back down, nectaring and reproducing along the way. The entire population goes from spanning much of the U.S. and Lower Canada to consolidating into less than 20 sites, where they gather in staggering numbers: 10-30 million per roost.
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Picture of the DayI know we’ll probably have to at some point, but I hope we never get rid of the weird intermediate terminal building.
Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and today looks amazing. You can expect highs right around 80 °F, plus a bit of sunshine. The rest of this week looks temperate, dry, and inviting. Your homework: Eat at least one meal outside over the next couple of days!
Water coolerUhhhh is RVA Bike Share permanently closed? At the moment, the website displays this message: “RVA Bike Share is closed. As of now, it is no longer possible to unlock bikes. We will provide further notice if the system reopens. We are sorry for any inconveniences.” I don’t love the “if” in that message, that’s for sure. Wyatt Gordon on Twitter adds another layer of doubt and reports that the bikeshare vendor, Bewegen Technologies, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Ominous. So if our bikeshare system is actually now defunct and a bunch of useless garbage, what do we do next? I hope the City looks at the situation as an opportunity, ignores the sunk-cost fallacy, and turns to existing, successful bikeshare stations as a model to follow—I’m thinking Capital Bikeshare or Citi Bike. We’ve wasted about ten years on an expensive, complicated, and frustrating model that hasn’t ever really worked for us as well as it could have. If Bewegen is no more, then let’s take the opportunity to start fresh with proven technology that we know will work!
I’ve got three City-related notes/reminders for you this morning. First, City Council will meet for their regularly-schedule meeting and will consider the Airbnb tax ordinance (ORD. 2023-151). Also, this is the first time that I’ve seen a Council agenda in English and Spanish! Second, you can and should fill out this survey from the City Charter Review Commission. You’ve got until June 21st to do so, and I will remind you again, but maybe just knock it out this morning. Third, you can attend a public meeting about the Gateway Pedestrian Improvements Project at 5:00 PM in Main Street Station. This project will “provide safer pedestrian access” to Kanawha Plaza from the surrounding area—which is much needed because crossing Canal, Byrd, or 9th on foot is often a deadly nightmare. I haven’t seen drawings or designs or anything for this project, so if you stop by tonight’s meeting let me know what they’re thinking!
Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch continues to report on VCU’s now-broken deal to buy the Public Safety building. This weekend’s revelation: Shady (or at least not very proactive) communications between the developer and the City around issues with the existing building’s foundation.
Alert! High school graduations ceremonies will take place at the Siegel Center and Altria Theatre from May 22nd through the 26th and June 5th through the 9th. That means several thousand additional humans wandering around the Fan, taking pictures, and not paying attention to much around them as they celebrate important life milestones. Keep it in mind if you’re moving through the area over the next couple of weeks, and, if you’re driving, keep it slow.
RVA Bike Month continues, with just one full week remaining. Don’t worry, there’s still lots left on the calendar to slake any bike-related wanderlust you’ve got kicking around. For example, today you’ve got a neat opportunity to ride your bike and do citizen science, which sounds incredible. Join the Science Museum of Virginia at 6:00 PM for an Air Quality Science Sampling ride and help collect the data we need to create more climate-resilient neighborhoods—all while riding your bike. Neat!
This morning's longreadThe Four Freedoms, According to RepublicansAnother great column by Jamell Bouie, riffing off of a famous FDR speech and framing Republicans’ core values as four “freedoms”: to control, exploit, censor, and menace.
There are, I think, four freedoms we can glean from the Republican program. There is the freedom to control — to restrict the bodily autonomy of women and repress the existence of anyone who does not conform to traditional gender roles. There is the freedom to exploit — to allow the owners of business and capital to weaken labor and take advantage of workers as they see fit. There is the freedom to censor — to suppress ideas that challenge and threaten the ideologies of the ruling class. And there is the freedom to menace — to carry weapons wherever you please, to brandish them in public, to turn the right of self-defense into a right to threaten other people.
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Picture of the DayIs it summer yet?
Good morning, RVA! It's 55 °F, and this morning looks cloudy with the sky maybe clearing up and getting its act together late this afternoon. Other than that, you can expect highs in the 70s and a generally good vibe. Temperatures increase a bit tomorrow, but I think we’ve got a really great weekend ahead of us—plus, the early forecast for next week looks wonderful, too!
Water coolerEarlier this week, the City’s Department of Public Works sent out a press release announcing pedestrian safety improvements to almost three dozen intersections across Richmond. Over the next year, crews will install high-visibility crosswalks, accessible ramps, and pedestrian countdown signals at locations currently without them. While this is good and important work, it does feel like, as a community, we’ve moved beyond celebrating the installation of these kind of basic, table-stakes improvements to our streets. I’m not even sure I should call them “improvements,” they’re just the standard, necessary things you include in an intersection and without them these intersections are unsafe and incomplete. Additionally and fascinatingly, @rvadotra on Twitter points out that some (most?) of the 35 intersections already have crosswalks, ramps, and pedestrian countdown signals. What does that mean? I dunno! Honestly, I’m not trying to be overly cynical about critical infrastructure like ADA curb ramps, but I am trying to be more realistic about how much actual action the City is taking to make our streets safer. Just look at the pictures in this article by Jake Burn at CBS6 and see the large corner radiuses (once you see, you can’t unsee!), long crossing distances, and overly-wide streets. We could install real, physical infrastructure—above and beyond curb ramps and countdown signals—to make these places actually safer for people...if we wanted to.
Ian M. Stewart at VPM has a nice recap of the Ride of Silence at which folks installed a Ghost Bike for Jonah Holland. Make sure you flip through the pictures at the bottom of the article, too.
Quick City Council note: The Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee will hold a rare Friday special meeting to talk through “Multi-family Development Incentives Through State and Local Programs, Single Family Housing Goals, and Affordable Housing Goals and Outcomes.” Maybe tune in today at 1:30 PM to see what they’re up to.
Correction! There are, in fact, more Charter Review Commission meetings after next week—possibly more public hearings, too. I got that wrong yesterday. NBC12’s Henry Graff has a quick recap of yesterday’s meeting, if you’re looking, and remember that the Commission is especially excited to hear your feedback at their May 23rd meeting.
Heads up! This coming Sunday, GRTC will update many, many routes so that they make a stop at the new Downtown Transfer Station—well, technically they’ll still serve the Temporary Transfer Plaza for the next couple of weeks while construction finishes up on the new station. If you’re used to routes that run straight through downtown, from one side of the city to the other, you better update your mental bus map to include a stop over at the Downtown Transfer Station!
RVA Bike Month rolls into this weekend with a full slate of events to keep you busy. Riverrock is probably the headliner—it’s hard to top three days of bikes, climbing, kayaking, music, and all sorts of other weird/extreme stuff down by the river. But if, for some reason, that’s not your jam, you can Choose Your Own Adventure for Bike to Work Day this morning, join Outpost on a Coffee Grinder gravel ride tomorrow, and make sure to stop by the Bike Swap at Stone Brewing afterwards.
This morning's longreadKing Charles’s Very Hobbity CoronationTo date, this is the only single thing I’ve read about the royals and their recent coronation ceremony. Did everyone already know that they have an official quiche of the British monarchy?
Nonetheless, King Charles is trying, in his hobbity way, to move with the times. At the coronation, the oil used to anoint him will be vegan-friendly—something that caused consternation among certain tabloids—because it will not be made with ambergris or civet musk (extracted, respectively, from whale intestines and a tree mammal’s anal glands). But family tradition comes into play too: The oil will come from olives harvested from beside the grave of Charles’s grandmother Alice, in Jerusalem. It has been blessed by an Orthodox patriarch with a huge beard.
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Picture of the DaySometime you gotta look up!
Good morning, RVA! It's 51 °F, and today looks absolutely beautiful. You should expect some sunshine served up alongside highs in the 70s, plus a strong desire to take a stroll or a ride around the block later this evening. We’ve got a great one ahead of us, and I hope you can find the time to take advantage of it!
Water coolerToday, City Council’s Finance and Economic Development committee will meet and consider ORD. 2023-151, which would require Airbnbs to pay the City’s hotel tax. If I read the staff report correctly, new State legislation went into effect last year that allows the City to expand the scope of its hotel tax to short-term rentals, aka Airbnbs. We should 100% tax these things! But we’ll have to see what sort of impact it has on Richmond’s bottom line, because, turns out, the City (and other participating localities in the region) gives the entirety of its hotel tax to the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority. Through a formula I don’t really understand, if the Authority collects too much revenue it will rebate some of that back to the City. However, “these rebates have recently been reduced given the impacts of COVID-19 on travel.” The process of the City making actual money from this new expansion of taxes is, in the staff report’s own words, “slightly circuitous.”
OK nerds, the City’s Charter Review Commission meets tonight for, what I think is, their penultimate meeting (6:00 PM on the 5th floor of City Hall). I encourage you to attend and whet your nerd whistle, because next week the Commission will host their final meeting at which they really, really want to hear your thoughts and feelings on how best to update the City’s Charter. I know this seems like extremely dry subject matter, but the Charter controls all sorts of things that make up the very foundations of how Richmond’s government works. What if we had two at-large City Council seats? What if School Board was appointed? What if we just didn’t with the strong mayor form of government? Some of those are maybe bad ideas, but all of them are laid out in our Charter. Anyway, I’m really interested to see what this group comes up with in their final recommendations (and if the General Assembly, which must approve any changes the City wants to make to its own Charter, is willing to go a long with those recommendations).
Via /r/rva, a disturbing video of a man with an assault rifle lurking outside the house of Henrico’s County Manager yelling about one thing or another. This has always seemed like where the escalation of our country’s idolatrous worship of guns would take us. Now any unhinged individual can terrorize an entire neighborhood and no one can do anything about it. We currently value this man’s “rights” to threaten a cul-de-sac with a rifle more than we do the rights of the families living on that street to feel safe—or even to leave their homes!
I’m linking to this story in Axios Richmond by Karri Peifer about Henrico upgrading their recycling bins solely because of the header image. Using a recycling bin as a podium at a press conference about recycling bins is A+ genius work.
Tonight, we’ve got a great one for RVA Bike Month: Breakaway RVA’s first ride of the 2023 season! These large group ride are always chill, fun, friendly, and you’ll usually learn a thing or three along the way, too. This evening’s ride starts at 5:45 PM at Triple Crossing Fulton (5203 Hatcher Street), and will take a nice loop around the riverfront—a James River Cruise—ending up back at Triple Crossing for a chance to hang with your fellow riders. Important safety note: If you plan on joining tonight, please make sure you bring a light!
This morning's longreadHow the Design of Corners Affects SpeedThis slightly nerdy article about the corner radiuses of intersections opens with “once you see it, you can't unsee it,” and I think that’s so very true! Next time you’re out, take a look at the scary intersections you move through every day. Were they built with big, gently sweeping corners that allow drivers to take the turns at high speeds without slowing down? Probably! Once you notice this dark design pattern, you truly will start to see it everywhere—especially at the places where you feel most unsafe!
While sharp corners reduce the crossing distance, wide corners create longer crosswalks. The length of the crosswalk can make it difficult for pedestrians to cross quickly and increase their exposure to traffic, including vehicles that are turning. Sharp corners allow for pedestrians, especially older adults, children, or people with disabilities, to cross safely and to ensure they are visible to drivers. A particularly egregious version of the big radius is the “slip lane” which allows a driver to maintain speeds while avoiding a traffic signal. It is particularly dangerous for pedestrians to cross the unsignalized slip lane given that drivers are maintaining a relatively high speed, and probably looking to the street ahead to time their merge with traffic. The safe and appropriate solution where pedestrians are present is to “square off” the intersection as shown below.
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Picture of the DayI’m not sure blackberries are the smartest thing to plant in a tree well downtown, but, sure, why not!
Good morning, RVA! It's 62 °F, and that was a lot of rain last night! Today, though, you can expect dry skies and highs in the mid 70s. It may be the best day of the week weather wise, but it’s hard to tell since the five-day forecast looks so amazing. Definitely time to queue up your best late-spring outside plans, which, for me, means (finally) getting the vegetable garden planted.
Water coolerHey, I think this is a medium-big deal: The Department of Public Works is, once again, asking for your feedback on the proposed bike lane on Westover Hills Boulevard south of the Nickel Bridge. Back in February, I wrote about DPW’s original survey, suggesting that folks request physically protected bike lanes as part of the project. In this new survey, DPW notes that they “received significant feedback to add physical protection to the proposed bike lane. DPW proposes placing a physical barrier between the bike lane and traffic.” First, thank you to everyone who wrote in asking for a better project design. Look, it made a difference! And, honestly, we really shouldn’t even be building bike lanes without some sort of physical protection at this point. Second, thank you to DPW for listening to the folks who wrote in—it’s really gratifying to see the public engagement process working properly. However, because I can’t leave well enough alone, I do still think this project can be even better: As currently designed, the bike lane leaves Westover Hills Boulevard at Clarence Street and continues down 49th Street—with just sharrows!—and dead ends at Hill Top Drive. Currently, there’s no way to get from that dead end over to the apartments by Reedy Creek or, more importantly, George Wythe High School. I’m not sure I know the best and safest way to make this connection other than to just extend the bike lane all the way down to Midlothian Turnpike instead of branching off to 49th. So...that’s what I’m going to ask for, emphasizing a safe connection to George Wythe, when I fill out this new survey!
Speaking of George Wythe, this evening, Richmond Public Schools will hold another one of their school-renaming public hearings, this one for George Wythe High School. The renaming committee has come up with an interesting set of names for folks to consider, which includes zero options that feature people(!): Capitol City High School of the Arts, Culture High School of the Arts, Gateway High School of the Arts, Heritage High School of the Arts, and South Richmond High School of the Arts. All told, RPS will rename four schools this round—Binford Middle, John B. Cary Elementary, Ginter Park Elementary, and George Wythe High—and I think I’ve now written about them all! We’re not done, though, because I imagine there are still schools within the District named after dead Confederates or slaveowners (looking at you John Marshall), so I bet we’ll see at least one more round of renaming at some point in the future.
Also schools related—and some good news—Superintendent Kamras reports that the state awarded RPS over $27 million in school construction grants. To quote from his newsletter, that’s:
- $20 million to begin the process of turning the Maury Street property that we own (the old Altria building) into a new, high-tech CTE high school.
- $5.6 million for the rebuilding of Fox Elementary School. This is in addition to the insurance payout and the $15 million from Mayor Stoney and City Council. In short, we're now all set for the Fox rebuild.
- $1 million for Henderson Middle School and $1 million for J.L. Francis Elementary School to begin switching from open-space floor plans to more traditional plans (i.e., building walls :). While this isn't enough money to complete the transformation, it's enough for a solid start.
Jahd Khalil at VPM reports on the Richmond Police Department voting to move forward with figuring out their union. I have all sorts of feelings (that I’m still trying to parse) about increasing the already enormous amount of power the police have in City Hall. Regardless of how you feel about that particular part of the process to unionize Richmond’s employees, Khalil also has a few interesting updates on the City’s other bargaining units that are now able to unionize.
Tonight, as part of RVA Bike Month, you can join the Ride of Silence, a slow-pace ride honoring victims of traffic violence. Meet up at 5:30 PM in the cobblestone parking lot at 3115 Wharf Street for a 10 mile ride out east to install a Ghost Bike for Jonah Holland, who was hit and killed by a driver last year. There are a couple different ride/parking options, so check out the Eventbrite if you’re interested but a little intimidated by a 10-mile ride.
This morning's longreadWhat It Felt Like to Almost DieListen, I never know what to make of near-death-experience writing, but it’s a genre I can’t not read. If, like me, you gotta tap through, make sure you also read her follow up, “How It Felt To Come Back To Life.”
Since that day, whenever someone has expressed grief and sorrow about a loved one they’ve lost, I haven’t known how to respond. I so badly want to tell them that I am sure the transition was an incredible one. I want to tell them what I saw and felt, let them know I think their loved one experienced something unimaginably beautiful, and reassure them not worry about that part of it. I want to tell them that I am certain no loss is ever in vain. But I know all of it sounds ridiculous. So I simply reply, “I’m sorry for your loss.” I’m sharing this story now not just in hopes that it helps others move past death, but so it might help us live too.
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Picture of the DayProbably against the law to build a place like this now.
Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and today we’ve got a pretty good chance for not only rain but maybe even some pretty intense storms. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says we could see “downpours with localized flooding” (Twitter) this evening—so keep an eye on the sky, especially if you’re commuting home later this afternoon.
Water coolerThe City has released a new draft of the Shockoe Small Area Plan, which you can view and comment on through Knoveio. I feel like I’ve read through this plan previously, and the Richmond 300 email newsletter tells me that, “The development of the plan began in 2019 but was put on hold in 2022 while a critical Hydrology and Hydraulics Study (H&H Study) was completed. The H&H Study determined what can and cannot be constructed in Shockoe because of the floodway and floodplain.” That study seems pretty important, because a quick scan of the draft plan’s executive summary reveals this bit about the proposed “Heritage Campus” site (which includes Devil’s Half Acre and the African Burial Ground): “The recently completed Hydrology and Hydraulics study shows that the floodplain, floodway, and major stormwater management infrastructure will have a substantial impact on development within the Heritage Campus footprint. Buildings with large footorints cannot be achieved in this area. These impediments will require innovative and creative solutions.” Sounds ominous, and I wonder what impact those “impediments” will have on some of the pretty renderings we’ve previously seen of the future of that space.
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports on an opportunity to rezone three entire blocks of Manchester on Semmes Avenue to TOD-1. Given all of the new development and traffic patterns in that area, I think it’s time to figure out what to do with the section of Semmes between the Belvidere Bridge and the 9th Street Bridge. It’s unnecessarily highwayish and, with some creativity, could maybe better connect a couple neighborhoods in some thoughtful ways. Honestly, taming Commerce Road is probably the bigger need but seems like a much more intimidating project...
Via /r/rva, someone found a tiny coffin for a tiny hamster—the fastest hamster alive—off the North Bank trail.
Today for RVA Bike Month you can attend a public meeting hosted by the Henrico County Department of Public Works to discuss ways to improve safety and mobility on Hilliard Road and the construction of the County’s southern portion of the Fall Line Trail. I hadn’t heard about plans to reduce the number of lanes on Hilliard, and I want to give the County a big high five for considering it. I rode my bike on Hilliard exactly one time and will never again without some sort of dedicated bike infrastructure. I also hadn’t see this level of detail for the planning and construction of Henrico’s portion of the Fall Line Trail, which is really exciting and deserves another high five. A double high five! With construction anticipated on some Fall Line sections as soon as this summer, we could see (small) new segments of the trail opening as early as next October. Incredible! In case you were wondering, these two projects do go hand-in-hand as the northern most end of this segment of the Fall Line Trail ends at Hilliard Road, which, by time of completion, should have fewer lanes and a physically protect bike lane. Cool stuff, and it’s great to see such rapid progress on a project that didn’t even have a name a couple years back.
This morning's patron longreadWhy the U.S. builds more three-car garages than one-bedroom apartmentsSubmitted (first) by Patron Lisa. A handful of people sent me this NPR interview about parking (you can find a similar of version of over on the Fresh Air podcast), and I really like what that says about me and readers of this newsletter. Tap through and give it a read or a listen so you can feel extra good about how Richmond recently did the work to eliminate parking minimums!
I don't think it's that surprising when you start to think about it. I mean, there are more - we build more three-car garages in this country than we build one-bedroom apartments. Almost every jurisdiction in this country requires parking as a part of every single building type. Whether you're building a school, an apartment building or an office or a restaurant, the law requires a certain number of parking spaces. So we have parking minimums in every jurisdiction in this country, whereas for housing, we often have maximums. We say, on this plot, you can only put one unit of housing. You can only put two units of housing. So the fact that we've ended up with a surplus of parking and a shortage of housing is no surprise. In fact, it's by design.
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Picture of the DaySnapped this picture of the new sculpture at the Science Museum while riding through their new park! Lots of new at the ol’ Musuem!
Good morning, RVA! It's 55 °F, and all of this week looks wonderfully springlike. Today, you can expect highs in the mid 70s and probably some clouds, and we may see some rain tomorrow, but, other than that, the week looks dry, temperate, and welcoming!
Water coolerLuca Powell at the RTD talks with Kevin Cianfarini, “a volunteer with the local environmental advocacy group Beyond Methane” who travels around the City looking for natural gas leaks using his own high-end gas detector. He’s found hundreds of leaks and, according to records the RTD dug up, the Department of Public Utilities knows about almost 900 leaky pipes. Seems bad, right? It gets worse: “Last year, the city lost nearly $4 million worth of gas, according to purchasing receipts reviewed by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.” And then this bit absolutely blew my mind: “In Richmond, the leaks are also worsening. In January 2022, the system leaked 14% of all its gas into the atmosphere — the highest leak rate ever recorded by the utility in a month.” Honestly, it’s getting harder and harder for me not to see a death spiral in DPU’s natural gas future. As their gas infrastructure ages, the utility raises rates to pay for fixes, then more people transition away from gas to cheaper and cleaner alternatives, and the utility is forced to raise rates to fund the gap. As those electric alternatives get more affordable and available—sometimes even subsidized by the federal government—the cycle will only speed up. I know it’d be a monumental lift, but the City really needs to fight off the sunk-cost fallacy and start exploring how to break up with natural gas and get out of that business entirely. P.S. I first heard about Kevin Cianfarini’s citizen data journalism work over on rva.fyi, a friendly Mastodon server that you should join if you’re looking for a way to escape the ever more horrific Twitter hellscape.
Luca Powell RTD double header! They also report this extremely dumb thing: “Richmond is spending $300,000 in ARPA money on 120 ballistic shields for the police department.” The money comes from the Office of the Attorney General and is earmarked by the General Assembly for “community-based gun violence prevention programming.” You’d have to do a set of real complex and convoluted mental gymnastics to convince yourself that riot shields for cops have anything at all to do with community-based gun violence prevention programming. So while I’m sure the OAG is stoked to have this money spent on equipment for police officers, I think that Richmond’s actual community-based gun violence prevention programs could use the $300,000 instead (and, let’s be honest, the RPD probably needs fewer riot shields not more).
In maybe the only Open Streets project in the entirety of Richmond, the Department of Parks and Recreation will close most of Byrd Park to vehicular traffic on weekends through September. During the pandemic, many cities—including the tiny Town of Ashland to our north!—learned how closing streets to cars and opening them up to people can create wonderful, safe, and vibrant spaces. Let’s do more of this, and maybe not just inside of parks!
Sort of related, Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond reports that the City will make those pandemic-era outdoor dining patios a permanent part of Richmond’s restaurant scene. That’s welcome news as the “temporary” permits from a couple years back expired last week, and a bunch of restaurants got an email telling them to pack up their patios—which ended up just being a miscommunication on the City’s part.
Ronnie’s! Richmond Magazine’s Eileen Mellon has a quick spotlight on Ronnie Logan, owner and proprietor of The Original Ronnie’s BBQ out in Varina. Ronnie’s is delicious, and you should definitely make the trip out there to try the ribs. It’s right off the Capital Trail and makes for an excellent pit stop mid bike ride!
Via /r/rva, a rare thing indeed: A working payphone out by Mekong. How many of these can possibly still exist in the region? Surely fewer than a dozen, right?
This morning's longreadHoogspanning!: More Dutch Safety PostersWatch out or you’ll lose a bunch of time this morning scrolling through these (sometimes gruesome) Dutch work safety posters. I love the contrast between the bright simplicity of the Art Deco / Modern style and the messaging of “don’t slice your fingers off in the machine.”
Adrian emailed to relate this message from his Dutch friend: "The poster about spitting is quite interesting. In the first half of the 20th century lots of men chewed tobacco. And spitting was part of the chewing. It was unhygienic, I remember as a little boy the amounts of spit flying through the air! The nun is not a nun but a nurse in a twenties uniform. She is in the poster to indicate how unhygienic spitting is. Not a target!" But really, please don't spit on the nuns.
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Picture of the DayWinterberries have the tiniest flowers.
Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and today looks legitimately hot! Expect highs in the upper 80s, followed by a chance for rain tomorrow, and then—to round out the weekend—a pretty excellent spring Sunday. Enjoy, stay hydrated, and find some time for yourself if you can!
Water coolerThe Richmond Police Department reports that a person was hit and killed by a driver early in the morning this past Wednesday on the 5200 block of Orcutt Lane in the City’s 9th District. First, the driver did not stop, so if you have any information you can call the RPD’s Crash Team Investigator at 804.646.1369. Second, while Orcutt Lane is not part of the City’s High Injury Street Network, at least two other people have been seriously injured or killed on that same stretch of road (it’s hard to tell for sure given the quality of this map, see below). Third, this is a chance for the Mayor and City Council to show that they can and will respond to traffic violence throughout the City—not just north of the river, not just when one of the partners involved is a tremendously powerful university, and not just when the victim was well-known and well-connected.
Ben Paviour at VPM reports on the Governor pulling Virginia from the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, which states created to improve accuracy of voter rolls. I mean, whatever, classic Republican dumb stuff. What I think is more interesting than what’s actually happening with ERIC is the brutally honest tone Paviour takes while covering this Republican dumb stuff. It’s definitely a step towards what we need from news organizations as we head into the 2024 presidential elections and leaves me with a little hope—especially given what I’ve seen from CNN over the past few days (Twitter).
Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that an employee of Richmond’s Department of Public Works set up fake companies and awarded herself and her friends with government contracts, costing the City between $150,000 and $250,000. She pleaded guilty this week and faces up to 20 years in prison. You can aslo read Council President Jones’s statement of thanks to the Office of Inspector General for surfacing this whole situation. Now what I’d like to hear is who else at DPW knew about this and for how long.
In the next couple of weeks, the City will turn on the newly installed Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons at Huguenot High School, Fonticello Park, and Holton Elementary School. PHBs are actual mid-block red lights that drivers must stop at to allow pedestrians to cross safely—they’re kind of like the lights you see out front of a fire station that only activate when a fire truck needs to zoom off somewhere. Tap through to the City’s page explaining how these rare-ish traffic signals work so you know how to safely navigate them if you drive in these areas.
Important reminder! VCU and VUU will both host their commencements tomorrow morning! This means lots of people on both campuses, lots of parents and students wandering around with big smiles on their faces probably not paying attention to their surroundings, and lots of people packed into restaurants for celebratory dinners. Keep it in mind if you’ve got plans tomorrow—especially in the Fan.
We’ve got a big RVA Bike Month weekend looming ahead of us, and I hope you’ll find at least one opportunity to, as a famous man once said, get on your bike and ride! Tonight, at Stone Brewing, you can learn how to get rad with a beginner lesson in mountain biking around the James River; on Sunday you’ve got the Railroad and Canal History Ride (that’s trains, boats, and bikes!), the Crossings of the James History Ride, and the Väsen Women’s Ride; and, of course, throughout the weekend, various iterations of the Cap2Cap.
This morning's longreadAmerican Road Deaths Show an Alarming Racial GapHave we disaggregated Richmond’s traffic violence data by race? Do we even collect that information? Does the City make the High Injury Street Network available as a GIS layer so folks can do this type of research? Good data can be so important to good advocacy!
A study published last year by Harvard and Boston University deepened our understanding of this phenomenon by controlling for the distance traveled by different racial groups when driving, walking or riding a bicycle. It found that Black people were more than twice as likely, for each mile walked, to be struck and killed by a vehicle as white pedestrians. For Black cyclists, the fatality risk per mile was 4.5 times as high as that for white cyclists. For Hispanic walkers and bikers, the death rates were 1.5 and 1.7 times as high as those for white Americans using the same modes of transportation.
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Picture of the DayRichmond-famous mural man doing some work on the Northside!
Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and another beautiful day stretches out ahead of us. Today you can expect highs right around 80 °F and some potentially overcast skies. It’s probably our best day of the week, weather-wise, at least until Sunday. I hope you get out there and get after it (whatever “it” may be for you today)!
Water coolerToday, the federal Department of Health and Human Services will end the Public Health Emergency for COVID-19, which, unsurprisingly, means a lot of things. Katelyn Jetelina at Your Local Epidemiologist had a good write up back in February about how bringing the PHE to an end will impact various government policies and services, and you can watch the Virginia Department of Health’s Dr. Forlano explain some of those impacts here in the Commonwealth. As for how we continue to track COVID-19 and make smart decisions about our own personal behavior, it sounds like the CDC’s Transmission Level metric will go away, but I’m still unclear on what will happen to their green/yellow/orange “Community Level” maps. A new update to those maps is due this evening, so we’ll have to see! You can read more in a new post by Jetelina in which she focuses on how the COVID-19 data we’ve all grown accustom to looking at over the past three years (some of us more than others) will also change.
VCU Parking sent out a map confirming the locations of 10 speed tables the City plans to install on and around VCU’s Monroe Park campus over the next week. This is an exciting map, and these are some pretty well-placed traffic calming measures—with most of them situated on long, pedestrian-dense blocks where drivers have the chance to floor it and reach unsafe speeds. I’m especially pleased (and surprised!) that there’s even a speed table planned for Main Street east of Belvidere, near the intersection where a driver hit and killed VCU student Shawn Soares last week. Crews will close roads one by one, and, by this coming Tuesday, we might have 10 new pieces of quick, rapid-response infrastructure designed to make our streets safer for everyone. While I’m mad and frustrated that it took two students dying to move the City to action, I’m really hopeful that this—analyze an area after a serious crash, work with partners and neighbors, and then quickly install infrastructure—becomes a regular practice for Richmond’s Department of Public Works.
Sean Jones at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the Hanover County School Board has decided to rename John M. Gandy Elementary School to Ashland Elementary School. As I’ve said before, I favor schools named after plants and places, but in no way do I think we should be stripping the names of celebrated Black educators off our school buildings. The Board’s action last night sure seems a lot like retaliation for the renaming of Lee-Davis High School a couple years back. I eagerly await Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams’s column on the matter.
Hey this is neat: You can now use RVA311 to report trail maintenance requests in Richmond parks. Previously, requests required a valid street address, but now the RVA311 app will use your GPS coordinates to mark those off-the-grid, into-the-wild trail issues you may stumble across. Important note! Only submit trail maintenance requests in parks: “Non-trails Parks issues should not be submitted using the Trails request. By turning on the Parks GIS layer, other request types can be submitted within Parks. This cannot be prevented due to technical limitations.” So don’t be a jerk—only submit trails requests! With great power comes great responsibility, OK?
Via /r/rva, some absolutely gruesome pictures of an illegal dumping site near Texas Beach. I’m not even going to link to them, because I failed my constitution saving throw and am trying my best not to barf all over the keyboard. Why are people carrying around 55-gallon drums of fat and...I don’t know, guts, maybe? Viscera? I didn’t even know people still illegally dumped stuff in the woods! What is even happening!?
It’s only the 11th—are you exhausted by RVA Bike Month yet? TOO BAD. The month of May is like that scene in A Clockwork Orange where I prop your eyelids open and force you to take in days and days of beautiful bike content while blaring Ludwig Van. Get your eye drops ready, because tonight at 5:30 PM you can take a new-rider bike maintenance class with Park Tool over at the North Library (2916 North Avenue). And, if you’re rad enough, you can join the Broad Street Bullies for what’s sure to be a wheel-poppin’ good time at Carytown Kroger. Wheels up (literally) at 7:00 PM.
This morning's longreadHow Weed Strains Get Their (Amusing, Provocative, Downright Wacky) NamesI laughed at a lot of this look into how weed strains get their names, sure, but there definitely are some really smart thoughts in here about how far into the mainstream marijuana has slipped over the last couple of years. Even with a fractured national legalization/de-criminalization landscape, so much has changed!
Weed names have always added to the fun and intrigue (as a teen, even the relatively straightforward Thai Stick sounded entrancingly exotic), but today, as the power dynamic shifts from seller to buyer, and as growers and retailers find themselves strategizing to make their products stand out on increasingly crowded shelves, the names are taking on even more importance. The names. Dear lord, the names. Strawberry Cough. Kosher Kush. Blueberry Mojito. Glueberry Slurm. Pineapple Trainwreck. Donkey Butter. Animal Face. Pink Panties. Purple Haze. Sour Joker. Sweet Jesus. Moby Dick. Fugu. Fatso.Tongue Kiss. Cat Piss. Cat Piss? Who comes up with this stuff … and how? Stoners trying to out-clever each other with inside stoner jokes about oblique stoner references? Advertising creatives at boutique firms working long hours in Stance socks? Gen Z focus groups run by blue-chip marketing firms with execs staring through one-way mirrors, scribbling notes?
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Picture of the DayMore lines under the highway.
Good morning, RVA! It's 48 °F, and today looks like a stunner. Expect sunshine, extremely A+ temperatures in the upper 70s, and every reason in the world to take an evening beverage out on the stoop, porch, or deck. If bikes are your thing, it’s a great day to get out there and get rad—otherwise, I hope you at can find at least a little bit of time to spend outside.
Water coolerProving that they can in fact rapidly respond to serious incidents of traffic violence, Richmond’s Department of Public Works will “install speed tables in the VCU Monroe Campus vicinity from Belvidere Street to Harrison Street” beginning tomorrow, May 11th. While this new infrastructure won’t address the portion of Main Street where a driver killed Shawn Soares last week, it will help slow traffic in and around VCU’s campus—one of the city’s most pedestrian-dense neighborhoods. I hope this will be good practice for DPW, and that the Mayor’s administration will see that rapid-response infrastructure is possible and should be a regular part of Richmond’s Vision Zero toolkit.
About two months ago, the Governor announced he’d allocated $30 million for Learning Recovery Grants to pay for “qualifying education services intended to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' educational progress and well-being.” Those grants have since been renamed “Learning Acceleration Grants,” and, if you’re a parent of a school-aged kid in Virginia, you can now apply online. Should you choose to take advantage of this opportunity, you’ll need to spend the grant funds on an approved tutoring service, specialized educational therapy services, or assistive technology (you can read through more comprehensive definitions here). Definitely seems like something to take advantage of if your young learners have some tutoring needs over the summer. Note: Anyone can apply for the $1,500 grant, but only folks making below 300% of the Federal Poverty Limit can apply for the $3,000 grant.
Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch recaps the City’s shiny new budget, which Council passed on Monday without issue. You can watch the Mayor’s statement on this year’s budget over on his Instagram, and he seems pretty stoked about it. Honestly, I’m impressed by how smoothly the Mayor, City Council, and Richmond Public Schools all worked together this year to get a budget proposed, amended, and passed—all ahead of schedule! Certainly a huge improvement over years previous. While this mostly marks the end of the 2023 budget season, the State’s budget still looms on the horizon, and its level of commitment to public school will have a huge impact on the funding (and stress levels) at RPS. That decision is another few weeks out, so stay tuned.
Reminder, as the owner of Twitter continues to show you who he is, you can leave that space and take your thoughts, feelings, and content elsewhere! Mastodon is one of those elsewheres, and I’ve set up a chill, GMRVA-centric (but not exclusive) community over on rva.fyi. Feel free to set up an account and experiment! At the moment, I’m using Ivory as my app of choice, but I’ve also dabbled with Toot! and it has a cuter icon.
Today, for RVA Bike Month, you’ve got a couple different options (which did include the Roll Call Sunrise Gravel Ride, but—looking out the window—you’ve definitely already missed that one). However! At 5:30 PM you can Pedal to Patios with I am RVA and at 6:00 PM you can take an East End Revitalization Bike Tour with the Better Housing Coalition. Also, the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation will host their annual Cap2Cap ride this coming weekend out on the Capital Trail, and I thought I’d mention it now because you may need a few days to prep for riding 25, 50, or 100 miles. Also, and especially for readers of this email newsletter who have oddly narrow and overlapping interests, you can join UpVote Virginia and ride the Cap2Cap this weekend while also supporting Ranked Choice Voting!
This morning's longreadHow The Legend of Zelda Changed the GameIt’s not every day that the New York Times runs a full-length, interactive article about Nintendo’s Zelda franchise. As a mostly Zelda completionist myself and with the forthcoming release of Tears of the Kingdom on May 12th, I’m basically required to share this with you.
But Lobanov said that the wildly successful 2017 release of Breath of the Wild, one of the flagship games for the Nintendo Switch, led many developers to scrap their rival projects. The game sold more than 29 million copies, far more than any other entry in the series. Nintendo had succeeded in recapturing the original Legend of Zelda’s joy of exploration, giving Link the new abilities to freely jump and climb walls. Although he remained silent, other characters had fully voiced dialogue for the first time. Traditional dungeons were replaced by puzzles hidden inside four divine beasts and 120 shrines, and 900 scattered Korok seeds gave Link incentive to search the landscape. “Breath of the Wild was so ambitious,” Lobanov said. “It had a clear sense of progression even though it was so open-ended.”
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Picture of the DayLines and angles under the highway.
Good morning, RVA! It's 63 °F, and today brings a chance for wet weather and cooler temperatures. Keep an eye out for the rain around lunchtime and, with it, highs somewhere in the mid 70s. If you can manage to dodge the precipitation, the day looks pretty lovely!
Water coolerEric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on City Council’s informal discussion on making Main Street near VCU slower and safer. You can listen to a recording of that meeting here. Sounds like a handful of traffic-calming measures are up for discussion, things like curb bump-outs, speed tables, and lowering the speed limit—all good stuff. I really appreciate Councilmember Addison’s push to not just focus on VCU but on the entire City and his request that Council make “bold, unpopular decisions.” Once again, I’ll shout into the void about my bold, unpopular decision: Some of these traffic calming measures, especially bump-outs, could be implemented this afternoon with simple cones and barrels. We don’t need to wait for concrete to make our streets safer and protect people’s lives.
Today is National Fentanyl Awareness Day, and it’s probably a good time to sign up for free narcan training through your friendly neighborhood local health district. Fentanyl is a powerful, dangerous opioid that’s often—unknowingly!—combined with other drugs and is part of what’s driving today’s opioid epidemic. It’s scary stuff. If you’d like to learn more, I’d suggest spending some time today over on the National Harm Reduction Coalition’s website, they’ve got a ton of great resources to get you started.
Quick City Council update from their meeting yesterday: Council adopted the Diamond District agreement (ORD. 2023-134) and continued the paper banning exotic animals (ORD. 2023-130 to a later meeting. They also adopted RES. 2023-R023), overruling the Planning Commission’s decision to deny approval of a Fire and Emergency Services training facility located at the Hickory Hill Community Center on the Southside. To unwind all of the negatives in that previous sentence: City Council wants to build a fire training facility at the Hickory Hill Community Center despite Planning Commission’s objection. You can read the City’s side of the argument on page five of this PDF along with some letters of community support, but...I dunno. Transferring property from Parks to Fire seems counter to some of the longterm goals Richmond has set out in various plans (like Richmond 300), and I’m pretty skeptical of the claim that the facility will cause “no adverse environmental impacts from noise or pollutants.” Sheri Shannon has some good arguments in opposition over on Twitter that you should read to get a broader picture of the situation. I’m not sure what the next steps are for this project, but, since it’s a City department doing City things on City-owned land, it might be a done deal.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that VCH Health has paid $73 million to break their lease on the land on 9th Street where the decrepit public safety building sits. I definitely don’t understand what’s going on here, but former governor Doug Wilder has called a press conference today about it?
I missed this yesterday, but Richmond Public Schools held a school-renaming community meeting last night, this one for Binford Middle School. As with the other renamings, Binford’s Renaming Committee has narrowed their recommendations down to five finalists: Dominion Middle School, Dogwood Middle School, Fan District Middle School, Richmond Middle School for Arts Integration, and Unity Middle School. I’ve said it before, but plants and places!—Dogwood and Fan District are my top picks.
Reminder! Tonight, at 5:30 PM at River City Middle School (6300 Hull Street Road), GRTC will host the second of two open houses to collect folks' feedback on a potential north-south bus rapid transit line. If you can’t make the meeting, check out the one-page fact sheet and fill out the online survey (which basically just asks you which corridor you’d prefer the southern end of the BRT to head down).
Today, for RVA Bike Month, Pedal Power RVA and RVA Racing will host a “chill mixed-surface cruise on road and gravel” that ends at Amigos for tacos and margs—that’s a handful of things I enjoy on a regular basis. Also, I like when the cuesheet contains notes like “go over curb and into grass field.” Meet at 6:00 PM at Pedal Power on Staples Mill Road; wheels up at 6:20 PM!
This morning's longreadWill A.I. Become the New McKinsey?It’s the second day in a row with a longread about labor! Combining two things I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, Ted Chiang writes about AI and its potential impact on labor if left unchecked—or, at least, if the people working on AI don’t stop for five seconds and think through some of the impacts of their work.
We all live in a capitalist system, so we are all participants in capitalism whether we like it or not. And it’s reasonable to wonder if there’s anything you as an individual can do. If you work as a food scientist at Frito-Lay and your job is to invent new flavors of potato chip, I’m not going to say that you have an ethical obligation to quit because you’re assisting the engine of consumerism. You’re using your training as a food scientist to provide customers with a pleasant experience; that’s a perfectly reasonable way to make a living. But many of the people who work in A.I. regard it as more important than inventing new flavors of potato chip. They say it’s a world-changing technology. If that’s the case, then they have a duty to find ways for A.I. to make the world better without first making it worse. Can A.I. ameliorate the inequities of our world other than by pushing us to the brink of societal collapse? If A.I. is as powerful a tool as its proponents claim, they should be able to find other uses for it besides intensifying the ruthlessness of capital.
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Picture of the DayStill mesmerized by the red lanes.
Good morning, RVA! It's 60 °F, and today will feature highs in the mid 80s at some point this afternoon. We might could see some rain later today, too, so keep an eye out and your fingers crossed. Temperatures this week look great—get ready to enjoy them!
Water coolerA couple hours after I sent this past Friday’s email, local media started to report that the person killed by a driver on Main Street was Shawn Soares, another VCU student. He is the second student killed this year on Main Street—a fast, dangerous, one-way street designed to prioritize moving drivers through the city as quickly as possible over safe speeds. The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Sean McGoey has more, including the nightmarish detail that Soares was just walking on the sidewalk when two cars crashed, going fast enough to spill off the street, killing Soares, and smashing into a nearby building. Wyatt Gordon has a quick video of traffic moving through this intersection (Twitter) to give you a sense for how the physical design of the street encourages racetrack-like speeding down the hill and onto VCU’s campus.
VCU’s president, Michael Rao, sent out an all-staff email about this tragedy which you can read here. The language is much better than what got sent out after Mahrokh Kahn died, and I think this part is worth quoting: “It is clear that major change is needed to the city streets and sidewalks on and adjacent to our campuses. The university is 100 percent committed to making improvements and is counting on the city to partner with us...We expect recommendations to include changes to infrastructure for streets and pedestrian areas as well as to traffic patterns. These could include lowering speed limits, extending pedestrian crossing times, adding traffic-slowing street alterations and more. VCU _will _ enact meaningful change to the city streets on and adjacent to campus through our partnership with the city.”
I hate to be cynical, but, we’ll see. It’s not shocking or revelatory that Main Street is too fast and too dangerous for people walking, rolling, biking, or waiting for the bus. It’s on the City’s High Injury Street Network and has been for years. The City has even kicked around the idea of converting both Cary and Main to two-way (Twitter), thereby slowing speed and making the streets safer for years, but has never made any meaningful progress to do so. In fact, here’s a long quote from the 2007 Richmond Downtown Master Plan underscoring that the City has known the Cary/Main one-way pair is a bad for at least the last 15 years : “The one-way street system was implemented in the 1960's, during an era when many cities established this type of system. There is no evidence that the system was created for any other purpose than the rapid movement of automobiles and relief of traffic congestion. The prevailing thought at the time was that allowing easier traffic access in and out of the downtown area would stem the decline of these districts and slow suburban sprawl. Today, many cities have found the one-way systems have the opposite effect. The higher travel speeds and convoluted travel patterns required by these systems serve to reduce walkability and the overall attractiveness of the downtown areas.”
I do hope VCU will throw their weight around and make meaningful changes to the physical design of the streets in that part of town, it’s something that’s been needed for years and years. But, I also hope that a comprehensive and systemic effort to slow drivers down and make our streets safer will not be limited to one small neighborhood in one part of town. These issues impact nearly every neighborhood and need to be addressed with a citywide approach.
Like I said, we’ll see.
City Council meets tonight for their regularly schedule meeting and has an absolutely packed agenda. Not only will they hold the official and formal public meeting on this year’s budget papers, but they’ll also potentially pass some of the ordinances needed to move the Diamond District deal forward (ORD. 2023-134), ban exotic animals (ORD. 2023-130), and end various zombie states of emergency. You can follow along with all of these papers over on my legislation tracking Trello board, if you’re into that sort of thing. Also of note—and related to the previous section—on Council’s informal meeting agenda: “Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Traffic Safety Concerns”. You can tune in at 4:00 PM to hear that conversation and to listen for any action items or next steps that would make our city’s streets safer for people.
Speaking of the Diamond District deal, Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense has a nice and comprehensive look at it and what Council will consider during tonight’s meeting. This piece is worth reading to get yourself up-to-speed since the deal has shifted a bit in the last couple of weeks to account for greater-than-expected costs.
Jahd Khalil at VPM has an explainer on Richmond Combined Sewer Overflow system, which regulars readers of this email should already know all about. Khalil, though, talks to unlikely river expert...Tim Barry from Avail?? I love it.
GRTC will host two open houses to collect folks’ feedback on a potential north-south bus rapid transit line. While the alignment has not yet been finalized, the study area includes “U.S. 1 between Virginia Center Commons and Chester, U.S. 60 from Downtown Richmond to Westchester Commons, and U.S. 360 from Downtown Richmond to Commonwealth Center Parkway.” There’s lots of good options for great and needed transit along all of those corridors, and I’m really interested in the eventual results of this study. If you’d like to weigh in, you can do so tonight at John Marshall High School (4225 Old Brook Road) and tomorrow at River City MIddle School (6300 Hull Street Road) both at 5:30 PM.
This morning's longreadHollywood is the single best example of mature labor power in AmericaI’ve written about this before, but it still shocks me how spending the entirety of my adult life in Virginia has really poisoned my brain against labor. I am still forcing myself to interrogate the initial anti-union thoughts that pop up when I read pieces like this!
The stakes in this strike are the same as the stakes in every strike: will workers get a fair share of the value their labor creates, or will that value be piled up in the vaults of $250,000,000/year CEOs? It's not like the studios especially hate writers – like all corporations, they hate all their workers. The same tactics that they're using to make it so writers can't pay the rent today will be turned on every other kind of Hollywood worker tomorrow – and when the writers win this one, they'll support those workers, too. There's a lot of concern about AI displacing creative labor, but the only entity that can take away a writer's wage is a human being, an executive at a studio. As has been the case since the time of the Luddites, the issue isn't what the machine does, it's who it does it for and who it does it to.
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Picture of the DayIt’s blanket flower season!
Good morning, RVA! It's 44 °F right now, but the rest of today looks amazing! Expect sunshine, highs right around 70 °F, and tons of excited college kids sitting outside celebrating the end of the semester. The excellent weather (and vibes) continues through the next few days with highs on Sunday most likely topping out in the low 80s. Enjoy, and I hope you have an excellent, outdoor weekend.
Water coolerWTVR reports that a person died after a fatal crash on W. Main Street and Madison Street. Police haven’t released any details yet, but WTVR says a vehicle “smashed into the side of a law firm building, which sits just across the street from the VCU School of Business” and that “a scooter was involved in the wreck.” I’m sure we’ll learn more details in the coming days but, 1) this part of Main Street is on Richmond’s High-Injury Street Network, we already know it’s too fast and too dangerous, and 2) this intersection is just a couple blocks from where a driver hit and killed a VCU student earlier this year.
Vice President Kamala Harris stopped by Scott’s Addition yesterday, and Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the report. Sounds like Republicans’ drunken dance on the edge of the debt-ceiling cliff was a major topic of conversation.
Friday Cheers opens its outdoor summer concert series on Brown’s Island tonight (the 38th season!). Tonight’s show features Snail Mail, Water From Your Eyes, and Dazy. After listening to a few tracks, I think you’re in for a smooth, chill, indie rock-filled evening. Doors open at 6:00 PM, and tickets are $10.
On this, the first official weekend of RVA Bike Month, you’ve got an embarrassment of bike-related riches from which to fill your calendar—there’s almost certainly something for everyone! Tonight, you can join Carytown Bicycles for a vintage mountain bike ride; tomorrow you’ve got a cargo bike meet up and group ride, an intro to bikepacking, a challenging route out in La Crosse, and a ride with the Richmond Area Bicycling Association; and then on Sunday a 100-mile mountain bike ride (!?), a “BBQ ride” (which sounds lovely), and, finally, a group ride for e-bike lovers. Sounds great, right?
It’s not just bike events this weekend, either. Tomorrow at 2:00 PM, RVA Rapid Transit will host a Beer and Buses tour of the Pulse and adjacent breweries with special guest Scudder Wagg. Wagg works for Jarrett Walker + Associates, helping cities across the world make their bus systems more efficient. He was elbows deep in Richmond’s bus network redesign and will definitely be able to answer any and all questions you may have about why our buses work the way they do. The event is free, the beer is not! Go ahead and register over on the Eventbrite, though.
If you need even more suggestions on how to spend your weekend, Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond has put together a nice Richmonder’s Guide to Richmond. I like looking over this sort of thing, because, after a few years of weathering the pandemic, I’ve developed a pretty nice routine of curling up on my couch and watching many season of Survivor while eating ice cream out of a coffee mug. It’s nice to remember that Richmond is filled with great things to do, and, as Peifer points out, many of them free!
This morning's longreadInside the Chaotic World of Kids Trying to Play Video Games on School LaptopsLife / “kids trying to play video games in class” finds a way! I loved this story, and I love the creative and smart solutions kids come up with to stay one step ahead of their teachers and school district IT staff. While things have come a long way from Drug Wars) on a TI-82, I’m glad to see that some things haven’t changed at all.
“I don't feel too bad,” said Kapalka. “It feels like continuing the long tradition of kids goofing off when they can on school devices.” To be fair, the developers of Shell Shockers are doing a little more than just catering. They regularly register new proxy websites where kids can play, until they’re inevitably banned. The proxies are listed on the Shell Shockers website, and currently include real bangers like mathdrills.life and yolk.rocks. The game has a rollicking Discord with more than 150,000 members, which is where the new proxies are often distributed first and then spread. “We get a few [teachers] that are charming in their naivete, I guess,” he said. “‘My kids are playing the game when they're supposed to be studying, can you please give me a list of all your proxies so I can block them?’ Well, that was a very straightforward request. But no.”
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Picture of the DayI got really in to Kevin’s Quality Clothespins, and, no joke, I think they will change your life. They’ll at least make you recoil in disgust every time you use a “normal” clothespin.
Good morning, RVA! It's 45 °F, and temperatures have started to creep back up. Today you can expect highs in the mid 60s, tomorrow the 70s, and then, by this weekend, highs in the mid 70s. Every day for the next handful of days should be more beautiful than the last! Get excited!
Water coolerWhoa, big news in my inbox from the City’s Department of Public Works: A portion of the lanes in the roundabout at Monument and Allen, aka Marcus-David Peters Circle aka the old Lee Circle, will close on May 10th at 8:00 AM for installation of landscaping. If all goes as planned, on July 7th, the roundabout will reopen—without the horrible fencing! That’s just two months away! Now that we’ve got a short-term plan for the circle that removes the horrible fencing, I’d love to hear more about the long-term plans for reimagining this particular circle, yes, but also for reimagining the entirety of Monument Avenue. I don’t think folks are going to forget that both the City and the State have committed in various ways at various times to run some sort of process to think through how best to use that space. I certainly haven’t forgotten!
Anna Bryson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch sat down for a Q&A with Lisa Coons, Virginia’s newish Superintendent of Public Instruction. Coons comes to the Commonwealth from Tennessee, which, we all know how their state-level government is going at this point. But, setting that aside, you should read this interview if only to have something to reflect back on as the Governor’s administration works with the General Assembly to finalize this year’s budget—which, depending on whether or not they decide to cut taxes for the wealthiest Virginians, could mean millions more for public schools. Related, here’s an interesting excerpt to keep in mind: “When the accreditation system is changed, do you think those schools that lose their full accreditation should receive more resources from the state? 100%. The goal of accreditation is to support our schools so that every child can have the same equitable opportunity. So if a school is deficient in their accreditation, it is our responsibility as a state agency to give them the support they need to provide that opportunity for that child.”
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers reports on the City’s progress toward finalizing a location for the planned slavery museum in Shockoe. It seems like there are a ton of moving pieces to this project, but a few of them are maybe starting to fall into place?
You should definitely read the entirety of this look back at the 1974 Cherry Blossom Music Festival by Em Holter in the RTD. What started with a promotional poster promising “no hassles” from cops, ended when “officers, with more than 50 handcuffed concertgoers in tow, fled to the stadium's field house only to return wearing University of Richmond football helmets.” The pictures are great, too.
Lane Casadonte at WTVR reports that the Virginia High School League will now allow Name, Image, and Likeness deals for high school athletes. The NCAA approved these deals—which are like sponsorships that pay athletes directly—for college students last year, and that’s why you’d see VCU’s star point guard Ace Baldwin in Amtrak ads (RIP). Now high school students can sign the same sorts of deals, which kind of blows my mind. Tap through to read some of the guidelines and restrictions, including this one that makes me think the whole thing’s not yet fully baked: “School staff are also prohibited from counseling or offering any advice to student-athletes about any prospective NIL opportunities unless they are the student-athlete's parent.“ I’m interested to see how this plays out both at schools like John Marshall, which routinely attract Division 1 talent, and at well-resourced schools whose talent level may not be as high but whose parents/alumni roster might include a ton of local businesses with extra cash to spend.
This morning's longreadWhy I Keep My Eyes — and My Mind — on the SouthTressie McMillan Cottom looks at the expulsion of the two Justins from Tennessee’s legislature and explores why the South acts as predictor for where the country as a whole is headed. I can’t stop thinking about the first four sentences of the below paragraph!
I keep my eyes on the South for a lot of reasons. This is my home. It is the region of this nation’s original sin. Nothing about the future of this country can be resolved unless it is first resolved here: not the climate crisis or the border or life expectancy or anything else of national importance, unless you solve it in the South and with the people of the South. I also keep my eyes on the South because the Republican strategy of disenfranchisement is a state-by-state strategy. It looks like judicial rule where they cannot win. Where they cannot win by judicial rule, they will rule by procedural theft. Where they cannot persuade voters to vote for them, they will persuade the candidate they voted for to become one of them. This Republican strategy of winning by losing can work in any state, but it is most brutally efficient in states where we consider nonwhite voters — especially Black voters — inherently illegitimate.
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Picture of the DayWhere they keep VCU’s internet.
Good morning, RVA! It's 45 °F, and today looks like the chilliest day of the week. You can expect cloudy highs right around 60 °F, but I’m hoping to squeeze a couple more degrees out of the day because I’ve got big back-deck plans this evening. Either way, warmer temperatures start to return tomorrow, and next week looks pretty excellent.
Water coolerVPM’s Jahd Khalil reports that this past Monday, the City’s Planing Commission signed off on the land transfer needed to finalize the Diamond District deal. Khalil also reports on a few changes to the deal that will help cover the now larger-than-anticipated costs as the project’s timeline has slipped and as interest rates have climbed. Specifically, the size of the TIF district has grown a bit, but not even close to the size of the all encompassing Big TIF from the Navy Hill days, and the City will “now be responsible for the public infrastructure in the first phase of the project's four phases, at a cost of $54 million.” I’d love if someone put together a table of these recent changes so I could get a feel for their scope. I totally get the need to cover increasing costs, but I would like a better way of understanding what those new costs are and how the project expects to pay for them. Maybe this exists somewhere?
Zach Joachim at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the pedestrian bridge to Texas Beach will remain closed for at least another year. It’s kind of charming, in a dirty Richmond way, that folks keep prying off the barricades that prevent people from using the bridge, but, seriously, you should not do this! You will never ever catch me crossing a canal and a set of train tracks on a decades-old, “structurally unsafe” span! The multi-year delay in reopening Texas Beach to the public is a huge bummer, of course, but it’s far less of a bummer than if people got seriously injured by an old bridge giving up the ghost and dumping people into the canal.
The Richmond Office of Elections is hosting a fun contest to design the city’s next “I VOTED” sticker. Any Richmond Public High School student can submit a design, and the rules are pretty limited, leaving artists with a lot of room to work—just a two inch circle, no more than four colors, and some phrase about voting. Surely someone out there has a way better idea than a generic “I VOTED” pasted on top of an American flag illustration! Spread the word to the most artistic young people in your life, and let them know entries are due by May 12th.
Who do you contact if you’ve got a vaguely municipal-related problem? If it’s not an emergency, do you call DPU? Dominion? The non-emergency police number? Ghostbusters? Someone else? The City’s Department of Citizen Service and Response has put together this nice graphic about who to call for what, and it’s something that you should stick on your digital fridge (or maybe print out and stick on your actual fridge). I think my takeaway from this graphic is don’t call the police unless it’s an emergency, and, when in doubt, call 3-1-1 (or submit a ticket online at rva311.com).
Quick Bike Month reminder: Today is Bike to School Day, so if you’re out in a car this morning or this afternoon, please keep an eye out for an extra helping of kids on bikes! Also, tonight you can stop by Basic City Beer (212 W. 6th Street) from 5:00–7:00 PM for an Urbanism Happy Hour focused on the proposed/impending Fall Line Trail. Bike Month continues!
Hey, in case you missed it yesterday, I set up a Mastodon server over on rva.fyi. If you’re looking to say goodbye to Twitter, but aren’t yet sure how to do a Mastodon, maybe tap through and give it a whirl!
This morning's longreadHoboken leader shares secret sauce for vision zero successHoboken, which surprisingly leads the nation in Vision Zero work, has had incredible success using cheap, temporary materials to pilot transportation infrastructure projects. If only we had the same “So let’s try it. Let’s see if it works.” attitude in Richmond!
The lack of city funds for transportation projects at the outset meant Sharp and his team had to be very efficient and stick to the basics: A few cones in the middle of the street acted as a mini-roundabout; Two plastic delineator wands at a corner to prevent parking and “daylight” the intersection; bike racks in the street to encourage cycling. They also had to be cognizant of the public pushback against change. “A lot of the things that are in [our bike and pedestrian plan] are things that hadn’t happened in Hoboken before, like creating a citywide bicycle network. So Sharp leaned heavily on pilot projects. “They’ve been devastatingly effective,” he said, in large part because they disarm people who might have concerns: “You may not believe bike lanes are needed. You may not believe you need to build out curb extensions, to shorten a pedestrian crossing distance or make it easier for people of all ages and abilities to cross the street safely. You may not believe we have the ability to even implement a project like that because of the distrust, and so forth that had been permeating the community for some time. So let’s try it. Let’s see if it works.”
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Picture of the DayI bought this sticker, but, like, do I put it on our car?
Good morning, RVA! It's 51 °F, and the chillier weather continues. Today you can expect highs in the mid 60s with even cooler temperatures moving through tomorrow. Don't be afraid to put on an extra layer—yesterday, on my ride in to work, I big-time regretted not wearing gloves! On Thursday, overnight lows bottom out in the low 40s, and then things start to heat up from there. I think next weekend might even be the weekend to move some plants outside.
Water coolertl;dr: I set up a Mastodon server for folks trying to figure out how to get off of Twitter but confused or intimidated by how Mastodon works. Twitter is bad, and the person running Twitter is also bad. Unfortunately, a lot of news takes place exclusively on Twitter and nowhere else—stuff like transportation survey announcements, live coverage of public meetings, and sometimes our elected officials even make official statements and only put them on Twitter, which, again, is a bad place run by an incredibly offensive and unserious person. Honestly, if Twitter were a brand of cereal or a fast-food chain we'd all have boycotted it years ago, but, since Twitter provides a valuable service, we begrudgingly give all of our content to a childish memelord. This frustrates me! So I thought about it, and I felt like I could maybe be helpful in getting people in Richmond to move off of Twitter and onto something else. To that end, I set up a new Mastodon server at rva.fyi. This server is, for now, open to anyone, but I'd particularly like it to be a place for people interested in the types of things that would show up in a Good Morning, RVA. Like I said, there are a million Mastodon servers floating around out there, and, in fact, Mastodon just announced a default server for new users that you're more than welcome to join instead! There's nothing special about rva.fyi, other than I wanted a new project and wanted to make it as easy as possible for local people to take two steps back from Twitter. Truthfully, I don't know that Mastodon is the best alternative to Twitter, but it's here, it exists, and I've been enjoying my time on it over the last few months! Come check it out and see how you feel, it might be awesome!
On Sunday, Twitter user Wyatt Gordon posted a picture of the Cannon Creek Greenway closed at Dove Street as crews begin to prepare the nearby Highland Grove site for development. Gordon notes that the proposed development includes building at least two new streets, creating new crossings (aka conflict points) on what's currently a really lovely and safe stretch of bike-and-pedestrian path. Better Housing Coalition, the developers in question, weighed in later in the thread with a few more details and that they're "working closely with DPW & PDR on a temporary & safe detour." First, I don't know how we are still, still!, not requiring developers to provide an alternate safe path through construction when they close existing access. If you close a bike lane or sidewalk, you should be required to provide a temporary bike lane or sidewalk replacement. One-for-one! It's nice that BHC is working with the City on a solution, but that solution needs to be figured out ahead of time—not only after someone complains on Twitter! Second, Richmond still lacks a body with the necessary authority to review projects like this and advocate for better multimodal transportation options. This could be a true-blue Department of Transportation or perhaps a powered-up version of City Council's Safe and Healthy Streets Committee. Whoever it is, someone needs the authority to step in with a new development like this and advocate for better and safer transportation solutions. We can build more and more affordable housing in Richmond and make it safer to move around in our City—it's not a zero-sum game. We just need to make doing so a priority, and this situation shows me that it clearly is not. P.S. Note this whole conversation played out exclusively on Twitter!
Charlotte Rene Woods at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has an interesting follow up to the Governor's chief diversity official, Martin Brown, declaring that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work is dead. Woods reports that two Democratic lawmakers have asked the Attorney General if Brown can just disregard the portion of the Code of Virginia that defines his role (which is to literally promote equity).
Have you ever seen folks riding around town poppin' wheelies with cool, carefree ease and thought to yourself, "Dang, that's so rad. I'm obviously way too old to do that, but, nonetheless, I must learn how!" If so, today, the second official day of RVA Bike Month, offers you a chance fulfill your dreams with the How-to: Wheelie Clinic at 5:30 PM at Forest Hill Park. According to the Eventbrite, flat-bar mountain bikes with gears may be the best choice to bring out to the clinic tonight—along with a young-person's sense of wonder and confidence.
This morning's longread“Your gal ain’t doodly-squat”What's more interesting than the origin of mild, infrequently used curse words? Doodly-squat, I say!
Doodly-squat (meaning ‘nothing/anything at all’ or ‘an insignificant amount’) might seem like a mild topic for Strong Language, but there’s a lot going on under the surface of that frivolous-sounding word. The Oxford English Dictionary surmises that the doodly part comes from doodle as a slang term for ‘excrement,’ and the squat part comes from the use of that word as a verb meaning ‘to void excrement.’ Over time, doodly-squat would get eclipsed by the variant diddly-squat, which the OED calls a “probably euphemistic” alteration. Both doodly-squat and diddly-squat, as well as plain old squat, are prime examples of what linguists have called “vulgar minimizers” or “squatitives” (more on that later).
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Picture of the DayCreepy or charming tree face—I can't decide.
Good morning, RVA! It's 47 °F, and today—this whole week really—looks a bit cooler with highs floating around in the 60s. I say get out there and enjoy it, because we only have but so many boots and flannel days left before True Summer shows up and we’re all sweating through our shirts.
Water coolerToday you can take a couple of minutes to fill out the City’s survey about their plan to implement a one-way conversion on a short stretch of Brook Road south of Clay Street and north of Broad Street. I think the impetus for this change is solely to create 15 new parking spaces in the neighborhood, but the survey also mentions reducing conflict points and increasing road safety. I’m no engineer, but...I don’t know about all that. Typically converting a two-way road to one-way road means drivers have more room, will drive faster, and will pay less attention to bikes/pedestrians coming from unanticipated directions. Also, while I’m not smart enough to say if this conversion will make the neighborhood less safe, I am smart enough to say that it’s annoying to give up a pretty handy way to bike from the Maggie Walker Plaza to Abner Clay Park in exchange for just 15 parking spaces.
While I’ve filled out the previous survey (because it took a grand total of 30 seconds), I’m still working my way through the West Broad Street BRT Corridor Analysis PDF before leaving any feedback. I think I mentioned it last week, but this is an early and necessary analysis that needs doing before the region can move forward on any of the real work to make a westward BRT extension a reality. Honestly, don’t be intimidated, because as far as transportation analysis PDFs go, this one looks pretty enjoyable. So dig into it—you’ve got until May 15th to submit any feedback.
Now that the City has eliminated parking minimums, it’s on to the next of the Three Zoning Changes: Authorizing ADUs everywhere! In her newsletter this past Friday, Councilmember Jordan says “We have been advised that the ADU paper will likely come before Council sometime in May or June.“ That’s exciting, and I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for it.
Last week, Governor Youngkin’s Chief Diversity Officer, Martin Brown, a former Heritage Foundation fellow, gave a speech at VMI proclaiming that diversity, equity, and inclusion work is dead. I guess not dead enough for him to stop collecting his $160,000 paycheck though? I mean, at this point, it does sort of feel like an editor from The Onion runs the Governor’s appointments. David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the Virginia NAACP, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, the Virginia Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus, and the Virginia Latino Caucus are all calling for Brown’s resignation.
I’m a couple weeks late in linking to Greetings From Richmond, an excellent video about our “gritty DIY skate scene.” It’s worth watching the entire 13 minutes—even if you’re not into skateboarding—for a look at a very-Richmond subculture that, at least in my mind, represents some of the best attributes of our weird, small, dirty, big-hearted city.
Via /r/r, “a lime tree ready to be harvested.”
It’s officially RVA Bike Month! That means a million bike and bike-adjacent events enticing you each day to hop on your bike and ride off into the sunset. Today’s enticers: Hardtail Happy Hour and trail ride (meet at Dogwood Dell) and Bike Monday Bros Casual Ride (meet at the Robinson Street Starbucks). Get out there and ride, y’all!
This morning's longreadElectric Buses Are the Future. Agencies Are Still Right to be Cautious.Richmond’s natural-gas-powered bus fleet buys all of its fuel from the City’s own natural gas utility. This creates a pretty big disincentive to electrify our public transit system, but, after reading this thoughtful longread about the challenges facing transportation agencies trying to go fully electric, I wonder if we should let a few peer cities take a whack at it first and figure out how to solve some of the problems.
In an ideal world, battery electric buses would be a one-for-one drop in replacement for diesels. They’re not. Electrification requires major infrastructure, electric buses are sometimes less reliable than the buses they replace, and running electrics can require schedule adjustments or a larger fleet. We should see improvement on all these fronts: time and money solves infrastructure, reliability gets better over time, and better technology with longer range could fix scheduling issues...Today, though, electrifying bus fleets requires considerable budget, and it takes concerted attention from agency staff and management. And, at the end of the day, even if it goes well, the agency is simply operating the same service it was before – not necessarily more frequent or reliable service, which is what riders care most about. Electrification is good, but there are also many other things agencies need to be focusing on.
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Picture of the DayIdk, our front yard is weird.
Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and it’s rainy. You should expect the rain to continue for most of the morning and into the afternoon, with it maybe tapering off a bit as the day wears on. Saturday things dry out, and then, on Sunday, more rain. It’s a weekend full of wet weather, and I hope you find some time to curl up somewhere with a book or a horror film and something nice to drink, which, honestly, sounds lovely to me.
Water coolerYesterday, two RPS students were shot in the parking lot outside of George Wythe High School. One student suffered life-threatening injuries and remains in critical condition. Superintendent Kamras’s email from last night has more details on the incident and how adequate state funding for education can help deter violence in our schools and in our communities: “Like a doctor, I wish we could simply write a prescription to fix everything. While it's not that simple, there is some medicine on the counter: roughly $1 billion in education funding. That's what the Senate version of the state's budget would add to Virginia's schools, while the House's would siphon that money off for tax cuts, which would largely benefit the state's richest residents and richest corporations. That $1 billion would yield about $20 million for RPS. That's enough money to hire 235 more counselors. Just think what that would do for the students at Wythe and the rest of our schools.” Kamras asks that folks email the legislators who sit on the General Assembly’s budget committees and demand the education funding found in the Senate’s version of the budget (in his words, he humbly requests that you plead with them to invest in our children). It’s absolutely unfathomable that we have the money to invest in education—it’s just sitting right there!—yet Virginia’s Republicans would rather continue their work to defund public schools and further enrich the wealthy at the expense of our children.
It’s the last week of the month, so I think it’s time to check back in on our region’s COVID-19 Community levels. As of last night (and over the last bunch of weeks at this point), Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield all continue to have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. In fact, the entirety of the Commonwealth and most of the United States sit at a low/green level, with only 74 localities nationwide (out of 3,221) at a medium or high level. I imagine that, at some point, CDC will start to transition away from Community Level as their go-to metric, but, until then, I’ll check in with it about once a month—just to keep an eye on things. Summer has, historically, been a chill(ish) time for COVID, but I’m pretty interested to see if this fall brings with it another mini-peak. However! That’s a million years from now, and we’ve got the wide-open road of summer stretching out ahead of us first!
This makes me laugh: Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond reports that the City is still under a State of Emergency...from Hurricane Irene in 2011. In fact, Richmond has a handful of open States of Emergency (including the one about COVID), all of which will soon end with an ordinance submitted by the Mayor. Kind of makes you wonder what other legislation is sitting around on the books that we’ve just totally forgotten about.
RVA Mag has a nice preview of Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s newest sculpture exhibit, “Incanto: An Oasis of Lyrical Sculpture.” This stuff is big—like, big enough to walk through and around—and looks pretty neat. Plus the artists, Kate Raudenbush and Sha Michele, have some ties to Burning Man. If I’m honest with myself, an exhibit at Lewis Ginter is probably about as close to actual Burning Man as I will get in my lifetime.
Last night, Jerry Springer died after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago. As I was reading those headlines this morning, I scrolled past this video of GWAR on The Jerry Springer Show, which is, in it’s own way, kind of charming? A discussion of violence, parenting, and media on a trash TV talkshow by people wearing ass-less chaps is, I think, a decent way to start your morning.
This morning's longreadThe Wages of OverworkAnne Helen Petersen has a great piece on the Culture of Overworking and how pervasive it is at all levels of the workplace. Tap through for some pretty depressing graphs from Pew, one of which shows, out of people who don’t use all of their paid time off, 49% of them don’t do so out of a fear of falling behind on their work.
I still believe that companies are capable create unbreakable guardrails that protect us from our own worst habits. Companies can enforce PTO minimums, and not just discourage but enforce breaks from communication; they can backfill appropriately and refuse scenarios in which giving 120% is the only way to complete the amount of work that’s expected. You can even give workers flexibility for that three-peak day, if that’s what they want — so long they also underline that the times between the peaks shouldn’t be for work. I also still think these policies serve organizations well in the long term: they reduce burnout, and turnover, and sloppy work. But most companies don’t think in the long term, at least not when it comes to employees.
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Picture of the DayIt’s officially showy rhododendron season.
Good morning, RVA! It's 49 °F, and, while cloudy, today looks lovely with moderate highs in the 70s. Rain definitely returns tomorrow, and Sunday is a real will-they-or-won’t-they situation. Yesterday the forecast for the end of the weekend looked pretty dry, but today it looks like we’ll have a sopping wet Sunday evening. Anyway, take advantage of today however you can!
Water coolerRPD report that around 8:00 PM this past Sunday, a driver hit and killed a person who was attempting to cross the 3300 block of Richmond Highway. I’m irritated by how the press release notes that the “RPD Crash Team responded to the scene and determined that Taylor was attempting to run across the street when he was struck by the vehicle,” as if running implies wrongdoing when it’s the only reasonable way to cross the terrifyingly fast six lanes of traffic. The entirety of Richmond Highway sits on the High-Injury Street Network, so we already knew that this exact spot is too fast and too dangerous for people—in fact, someone was hit and injured on the same block last August. Now that someone has died, will we do anything to slow traffic down and keep people safe?
Melissa Hipolit at WTVR has the update on Enrichmond Foundation’s sudden dissolution that I’ve been waiting for: “The Enrichmond Foundation was violating its contracts with nonprofit partners by using nearly $500,000 in partner funds to pay off Enrichmond debts.” You’ll want to read the whole thing, as Hipolit paints a pretty grim picture of the organization’s last few months before shutting down. Two things I’ll note: 1) According to a board member, budget shortfalls “were in large part because Enrichmond was not getting enough funding to maintain two historically black cemeteries it acquired in 2017“; and 2) It’s never a good sign when a picture of bankers boxes full of your documents end up on the news. I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this story yet, so stay tuned.
May means Bike Month, and next week Bike Walk RVA kicks off their 10th iteration of RVA Bike Month, bringing a whole monthsworth of bike and bike-adjacent events to the Richmond region. Honestly, it’s an overwhelming embarrassment of riches with something for everyone. Just a few highlights: Wheelie Clinic on the 2nd, Bike to School Day on the 3rd, Cargo Bike Meetup on the 6th, Ride of Silence on the 17th, Breakaway RVA on the 18th, Bike to Work Day on the 19th, and Tour De Taco on the 27th. There are tons more events that may be more or less your speed, so tap through and start putting things on your calendar!
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Em Holter reports on the proposed exotic animal bill I wrote about yesterday (ORD. 2023-130). I wanted to link to this piece solely for this quote from the director of Richmond’s Animal Control and Care: “We have a house right now where we know raccoons are living in it...We want something in city code that we have, that we can move forward with when we know there is someone living with 20 raccoons in their house." And maybe this quote about a potential Special Use Permit for venomous snakes, too: “The worry is that if that snake kills you in your house and we have to go and get you, we want to know that we're walking into a house that has venomous snakes...I'm open to that alteration for poisonous snakes or venomous snakes if that should be your choice.” You should probably go read the whole thing because there are just a lot of great quotes in there that make me wonder how people have time for these sorts of hobbies.
Today, from 12:00–1:00 PM, RVA Rapid Transit will host a Transit Talk focused on how public transportation influences the social determinants of health. They’ve put together a fun panel with folks from the City’s Office of Community Wealth Building, Bon Secours, and HDAdvisors. The event is free, but you’ll want to register over on the aforelinked Eventbrite.
Also for your calendar, tonight from 5:30–7:30 PM, the League of Women Voters and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture will host a forum title “Dismantling Virginia’s Housing Segregation Legacy Brick by Brick.” Spend your afternoon talking transit and your evening discussing housing—I guarantee you portions of these conversations will overlap and amplify each other. This event is also free, but you should also register over on the aforelinked Eventbrite.
This morning's longreadUpzoning Might Not Lower Housing Costs. Do It Anyway.As Richmond creeps toward rewriting its zoning ordnance and, with any lucky, broadly upzoning large portions of the city, it’s important for advocates—and elected officials!—not to treat that work as an affordable housing silver bullet. Upzoning is one tool, one step that we need to take to build a better city. We should treat it like that and be thoughtful in how we talk about it as we move through the zoning rewrite process.
The best reason to broadly upzone cities applies even if it doesn't, in itself, do a thing for housing affordability: It's simply that walkable urban neighborhoods should be legal. A few years back, planners in Somerville, Massachusetts, did a survey of how many residential lots in the city of about 80,000 were fully compliant with the city’s own modern-day zoning. The answer: 22. Almost the entire city of Somerville would be functionally illegal to recreate if it burned down tomorrow. Somerville is a fairly prosperous place, home to residents with a wide range of incomes and life situations. It has many expensive, highly desirable homes. It is walkable, transit-rich, fifth in the nation for its share of bicycle commuters, and meets a growing demand for places where you can live either without a car, or without needing to use one for every daily need. There is a deep, systemic shortage in America of places like this. And most Americans seem to agree that places like this are, on balance, pretty nice!
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Picture of the DayEverybody loves pizza.
Good morning, RVA! It's 43 °F, and, honestly, today looks great. Expect highs right around 70 °F with some sunshine—I think we’ve got at least one more day of this beautiful spring weather before rain moves in Friday. Since last we spoke, the forecast for Saturday and Sunday has dried up a bit, so, at least at this point, keep whatever outside plans you have for the weekend on your calendar!
Water coolerWhile I’m still riding high from this week’s vote to eliminate parking minimums, I wanted to share this note from yesterday’s Axios Richmond email: “Gramophone Winery, an urban winery that's been in the works for nearly two years in a former dry cleaner at 4827 Forest Hill Ave., is nearly ready to open, owners tell Axios. They'd been held up by the city's parking requirements, which mandated at least 23 spaces. The owners tell Axios they only have 17. With the city council's vote to strike down parking requirements last night, that's presumably no longer an issue. So stay tuned.” See! Parking minimums have (had!) a real and negative impact on folks trying to get a small business off the ground.
As promised, here’s the presentation Fire Chief Melvin Carter gave City Council’s Public Safety committee yesterday. It’s light on details, but I do want to point out that “As of November 1, 2022, all Richmond Public Schools have been inspected, noted violations corrected and currently have a status of No Current Violations.” I haven’t yet, but you can listen to the entire meeting over on the City’s legislative website and VPM’s Connor Scribner has a short recap.
Speaking of legislation, Council’s Governmental Operations committee will consider ORD. 2023-130 which would ban owning, breeding, purchasing, selling, keeping, maintaining, or otherwise possessing any exotic or wild animal in the city. What qualifies as an exotic animal? Well, “For purposes of this section, the term ‘exotic or wild animal’ means any live monkey (non-human primate), raccoon, opossum, skunk, wolf, coyote, squirrel, fox, leopard, panther, tiger, lion, lynx, caracal, bobcat, bear or any other warm-blooded animal which can normally be found in the wild, as well as any venomous or poisonous reptile or amphibian or any member of the crocodilian family, including but not limited to, alligators, crocodiles, caimans and gavials. Ferrets, rabbits, chinchillas, sugar gliders, hedgehogs, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, mice, and rats that have been in captivity and that have never known the wild and domestically bred or legally imported birds, non-venomous reptiles, amphibians, and fish shall not constitute ‘exotic or wild animals.’” The more you know!
Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that City Council recently voted down a proposal to build a modular home manufacturing facility in a residential area of the 9th District. I think this is a really fascinating situation, and I’m not really sure what was the best possible outcome. On the one hand, project:HOMES is a well-known organization that does tons of work in the affordable housing space and wanted to literally assembly more affordable homes for Richmonders. On the other hand, we’ve only got but so much land in the city, and we need to be really thoughtful about how we use it. On the third hand, the property, which backs up to a forested area behind Rosie’s Gaming Emporium, isn’t in what you’d call a super dense neighborhood where this space could have instead been used for multi-family housing. I think if I were on Council, and I am incredibly happy not to be, I would have voted for building this facility. I do wish that alongside their No votes, though, that Council would have promised to work with project:HOMES on some next steps toward finding an acceptable alternative location.
Tonight at 6:30 PM, PlanRVA (one of our regional planning bodies) will host a Zoom to review the draft report for the “West Broad Street BRT Corridor Analysis.” This analysis is part of the early work needed to extend the Pulse westward—all the way out to Route 288. While I think at least a portion of this expansion will happen within whatever’s left of my lifetime, it will definitely take ages and ages to fully realize, especially the far-west portions running through Short Pump. That said, this is the necessary prepatory work, I’m glad it’s happening, and I wish it would have happened immediately after the Pulse opened five years ago.
This morning's longreadWe Can Have It All: Shorter Commutes, Less Traffic. Why Aren’t We Doing It?This past Monday, in a majorly progressive, urbanist move, Richmond eliminated parking minimums throughout the entire city. In the last couple of days, I’ve seen a bunch of comments from advocates across the country wishing their city would do the same. Honestly, I haven’t see that sort of chatter about Richmond on the national level since we launched the Pulse back in 2018. Next up (at least after authorizing by-right accessory dwelling units everywhere): Entirely rewriting the city’s zoning ordinance to allow for the sort of development that shortens commutes, creates less traffic, reduces air pollution, and lets folks live an all around more pleasant lifestyle. Read this longread about the 15-minute city and think about how our current development patterns (and policies around cars and driving) force us to keep building a 30-, 60-, or even 90-minute Richmond.
Conceived in 2016 by Carlos Moreno, a professor at the Sorbonne, the 15-minute city is a conceptual blueprint for urban planning where most people’s daily needs—including schools, shopping, work, and more—are located within a short walk or bicycle ride from just about anywhere. Cars are not banned but tamed, with street designs that discourage their use for all but essential trips. Without the need to burn fossil fuels to buy groceries or take children to school, air pollution and carbon emissions are greatly reduced. Residents experience better health outcomes and improved quality of life. Moreno’s catchall term for this idea is novel, but the ideas behind it are not; they draw on principles that have organized human civilizations for millennia, at least until the twentieth century when the automobile disrupted everything.
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Picture of the DayTaken while standing next to people skateboarding.
Good morning, RVA! It's 42 °F, and today stays cool with highs in the mid 60s. You can expect clear skies for the next couple of days, and you should definitely plan a couple of ways to take advantage of them because sure looks like rain will move into the region on Friday (and possibly Sunday, too).
Water coolerLast night, City Council voted unanimously to eliminate parking minimums across all of Richmond (ORD. 2023-101)! This is amazing news and is entirely the result of advocates like you, reader of this email newsletter, working to push councilmembers to build a more progressive and climate-friendly future for our city. I think Twitter user @DFRSH757 gets it right, saying, “Make no mistake this is a big step. No half-measures or special carve outs. Proud of council for being bold. Creating an affordable, accessible, & climate-conscious city takes 1000 cuts but this a big important cut.” I couldn’t agree more! The biggest impact of last night’s vote may not be the policy itself, but Council publicly showing they are willing to take bold steps without futzing around the edges, requesting endless expensive studies, or watering down legislation at the last minute. With the rewrite of the City’s zoning ordinance on the horizon, these are promising steps in the right direction. Also, while they were busy making big parking moves, Council passed two other ordinances I had my eyes on: ORD. 2023-057 to unprohibit a roundabout at Laburnum and Hermitage and ORD. 2023-123 to purchase Mayo Island. All in all it was a great night for the GMRVA Legislation Tracker!
Also Council-related, today the City’s Chief of Fire and Emergency Services will give a presentation to Council’s Public Safety committee about “fire safety and school inspections.” For background: VPM’s Connor Scribner and Megan Pauly have done most of the reporting on Richmond Public Schools’ long list of fire code violations over the last seven years. One chart that stuck out to me from their comprehensive work was RFD documented inspections rate of Richmond schools from 2015 to 2022, which shows a steady decline until very recently (after the Fox Elementary School fire, the inspection rate has thankfully jumped back up to 100%). It’ll be interesting to hear what the Chief has to say this afternoon, because, while most of the public focus has been on RPS and their litany of violations, VPM also reports that “city fire officials said they'd been unaware of issues with inconsistent school inspections and follow-ups until the 2021 city audit” and “Richmond Fire Chief Melvin Carter attributed previous failures in the department's follow-ups to violations to ‘critical’ staffing shortages.” Sounds like a failure in process and staffing. Again, thankfully, the RFD has staffed up since then, and now hopefully Chief Carter has the tools he needs to work with RPS to make sure our City’s school buildings are safer.
Also also Council-related, Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that the City has officially finalized a deal with the Diamond District developer last night. The much-needed replacement for the Diamond will now, fingers crossed, open in 2026—still a year after Major League Baseball’s new-stadium deadline. That makes me nervous, but I continue to believe it’d be stupid and unnecessary for MLB to up and move the Squirrels while actual construction of a brand new stadium was ongoing. I imagine we’ll get some sort of statement from the Squirrels or MLB in the next couple of days, so stay tuned and stay hopeful.
Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond reports that the DMV has unveiled a new design for driver’s licenses. Cool, sure, but more interesting to me is this final sentence: “DMV spokeswoman Jessica Cowardin says the agency plans to roll out digital IDs later this year.“ Yes! Some states, including Maryland, let you put a safe and secure digital version of your ID in your Apple Wallet. I’ve been wanting this for a while, and, I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to live in the longforetold physical-wallet-free future!
Via /r/rva, here’s an amazing news report about Short Pump from 1991. Be careful what you ask for, I guess!
This morning's patron longreadThe Surprising Thing A.I. Engineers Will Tell You if You Let ThemSubmitted by Patron Blake. I’m still reading almost every AI-related thing that comes across my inbox, because I’m still entirely fascinated by the topic. This piece in the New York Times looks at three different ways countries across the world are attempting to regulate AI, with none of them really getting at some of the core issues.
Among the many unique experiences of reporting on A.I. is this: In a young industry flooded with hype and money, person after person tells me that they are desperate to be regulated, even if it slows them down. In fact, especially if it slows them down. What they tell me is obvious to anyone watching. Competition is forcing them to go too fast and cut too many corners. This technology is too important to be left to a race between Microsoft, Google, Meta and a few other firms. But no one company can slow down to a safe pace without risking irrelevancy. That’s where the government comes in — or so they hope.
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Picture of the DayLazy river.
Good morning, RVA! It's 47 °F, and this week looks a lot chillier than last half dozen days. Today, though, you can expect highs in the mid 60s with temperatures warming up bit through Thursday. After that, who knows! Maybe some rain, maybe the return of cooler weather—we’ll just have to wait and see!
Water coolerOK! I think today’s the big day for eliminating parking minimums across the entire city. As of this moment, the ordinance to do so (ORD. 2023-101) sits on the consent portion of today’s City Council agenda—the place where uncontroversial ordinances typically live. That could change before tonight’s meeting, of course, but it’s a good sign! Also in the “good sign” column, 2nd District Councilmember Katherine Jordan, who I’d pegged as a no-vote (at least on the ordinance as written), announced in her newsletter that she’ll vote yes. Tap through and read the thoughtful explanation of her vote, including a really nice description of what the proposed ordinance would and would not do. And, in a final good sign, earlier this week the Fan District Association launched a poorly-written online survey about parking minimums, I guess hoping to show massive opposition to the proposed changes. Well, the results are in, and...drum roll...64.6% of respondent supported the elimination of parking minimums. We’ll have to see if all these positive signs ultimately point toward at least five votes at Council’s meeting tonight, but I feel better about it than I did last week. If you’d like, you can still email your councilmember (and their liaison!) in support of ORD. 2023-101 this morning.
City Council will also tackle three other things of note today. First, ORD. 2023-057 would unprohibit a roundabout at the intersection of Hermitage Road and Laburnum Avenue. While I don’t think a roundabout is necessarily the best solution for this now monument-free intersection, it’s super important to wipe the slate clean of any previous shenanigans and give planners the room they need to work. Second, Planning Commission will meet for a special meeting earlier in the day so that City Council can deal with the papers authorizing the purchase of Mayo Island. Fingers crossed that all the details are nailed down and that the City can finally take ownership of the island, because I’m stoked to get rid of that billboard blocking the skyline views! Third, and this is mostly administrative, but Council should officially introduce their amendments to the Mayor’s budget tonight, which, after listening to last week’s budget session, sound like they’ll be fairly breezy.
This past weekend, the Richmond Police Department reported an officer-involved shooting. Police officers responded to a two-vehicle collision on the 3100 block of Third Avenue, and, during that response, shot and wounded an adult man. The man sustained life-threatening injuries and was taken to the hospital where he remains in stable condition. I mention it because earlier this month, Interim Chief Rick Edward’s committed to providing “Critical Incident Briefings” after every fatal officer-involved shooting. As part of those briefings, the RPD will release video footage from officers’ body cameras to the public. Given how a traumatic gun injury will likely forever change a person’s life, I think this new “Critical Incident Briefing” policy should probably apply to every time a police officer shoots a person—even if that person survives.
Via /r/rva, someone has recreated much of downtown Richmond in Cities: Skylines and it is amazing. People are incredible sometimes. You can find a few more pictures in this imgur album.
Got kids and still looking for summer camp options? How about “Spacebomb Music Camp” from a local record label / music all-everything group that’s worked with a lot of musicians you’ve probably heard of—Angelica Garcia, Fruit Bats, Matthew E. White, Natalie Prass, and a bunch more. Campers will focus on “learning music, practicing music, rehearsing as a group, recording the music we rehearse, overdubbing and layering onto that music, experimenting in the studio after we record, and synching that music to film. All this will be interspersed with conversation about music's historical context as well as its place in our current culture. And everyone will make a sick T-shirt too.” What better way to encourage your musically-inclined young person than to put them in an actual recording studio for a week? I’m jealous—where’s the class for adults?
This morning's longreadWhy Are (White) Men So Unambitious?Despite the title, this piece from Anne Helen Petersen is really more about the skills and persistence needed by everyone who’s not a white man to achieve the same level of success. And even when those folks do learn how to organize and plan their way to the top, they’re often labeled as too ambitious!
So let’s follow the argument that achieving these markers of ambition and success (college application, college completion, study abroad, home ownership, graduate school) requires more planning and organizational skills, and women have more planning and organizational skills, so now that Title IX has lifted the more explicit barriers to entry, they are zooming past their male peers. That makes some sort of sense. But why do women have these skills? Why have they honed and refined them the way a culinary student hones and refines their skills with a knife? Because they have to. And they have to hone them even sharper if they’re a woman of color, if they’re undocumented immigrants, or if they start school without English fluency. Organization and planning become the box you step on in order to start at the same position of societal privilege as the white men in your class. When it becomes visible, or “too much,” it’d coded as “ambitious”; in truth, it’s just doing all you possibly can to create the conditions and infrastructure conducive to success.
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Picture of the DayI love some good Richmond weird stuff.
Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and we’ve got another round of hot temperatures today. You can expect highs near 90 °F with plenty of sun, which, honestly, felt pretty nice yesterday. Tomorrow after lunch you can expect some rain, and maybe even some thunder and lighting, bringing with it cooler temperatures for the rest of the weekend. Stay cool today, maybe watch a horror film tomorrow, and spend some time outside on Sunday! Get excited, because it’s the weekend!
Water coolerEarlier this week the FDA updated their COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, with the CDC quickly following suit. Newly eligible folks still need to wait on the Virginia Department of Health to do their thing, which historically has happened pretty quickly after the FDA and CDC get their ducks in a row. So maybe pump the brakes (or at least call ahead) before running out to your local pharmacy for a new vaccination—although, reader of this newsletter, you are most likely already up-to-date on your vaccinations and don’t need to do anything. Despite the FDA headline about simplifying things, the new guidance is...a little complicated. As per always, I think Katelyn Jetelina does a great job about explaining the new guidelines, which I’m just going to copy paste below.
You are now considered up-to-date on your COVID-19 vaccines if:
- People aged 6 years or older: 1 bivalent (i.e. fall Omicron vaccine) dose. Regardless of vaccine history. Period.
- Kids under 6:
- Moderna: at least 2 doses, including 1 bivalent.
- Pfizer:
- 5 years: 1 bivalent.
- Under 5 years: at least 3 doses, including 1 bivalent.
That’s three levels of bullets for little kids, and three level of bullets is never simple. I’m certainly not smart enough to understand the science behind the Moderna / Pfizer differences, but I bet it’s complex.
Additionally, adults over the age of 65 and/or immunocompromised individuals who already got a fall bivalent booster can (if they want) now get a spring bivalent booster.
Jetelina also has some unanswered questions that you’ll want to read through and says the FDA will meet in June to discuss a fall vaccine plan, which would (I think) start brining annual COVID-19 vaccinations in line with the annual flu vaccinations.
Reminder! As of right now, the ordinance that would eliminate parking minimums (ORD. 2023-101) sits on Monday’s City Council agenda. If you haven’t already, you should email your councilmember (and their liaison!) in support of the ordinance as written. You can find a full list of contact information here and an example email here that you’re free to copy, paste, and tweak to your heart’s desire. While we should all plan for Council to discuss this paper on Monday, I think there’s a pretty decent chance that it gets continued to give some of the more hesitant councilmembers time to tinker. Regardless, send your email today so they can consider your important thoughts and feelings while tinkering.
On Tuesday afternoon, a driver collided with a disabled vehicle on the Lee Bridge, killing one of the occupants. The Lee Bridge is part of the high-injury street network. That means we know that this specific street is dangerous and people have been injured or killed on it in the past. Anyone who’s driven or ridden across the bridge knows that it’s massively overbuilt with far too many lanes and it just encourages dangerous and deadly speeds. We could, if we wanted, reduce the number of lanes with temporary materials, slow drivers down, and make this street safer for people.
Anna Bryson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Virginia’s Board of Education finally approved a compromise version of the State’s K–12 history standards. Tap through to remind yourself of this monthslong saga, which, just reading it left me exhausted with how these folks choose to govern.
The Monument Avenue 10k takes over the Fan tomorrow morning! Even if, like me, you have no interest in running, you will definitely have a great time wandering around, watching all the people, and cheering folks on as they run—intentionally and for fun—down a now-monumentless Monument Avenue. As you might expect streets are closed and buses are detoured so plan ahead if you’ve got to travel through the area.
This Saturday you can probably find all sorts of ways to celebrate Earth Day, but I’ve pulled two that seem fun. First, from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM at Bryan Park, join Studio Two Three, the RVA Big Market, and a ton of vendors, food, music, and earthy demonstrations for the RVA Earth Day Festival. Second, Southside ReLeaf, Seeds of Change Organization, and the Swansboro West Civic Association are hosting “The Great Big Cleanup and Community Cookout.” Volunteers are encouraged to sign up for one of the 20 cleanup sites throughout South Richmond—plus, after you roll up your sleeves and do some work, you can hang out at a free community cookout.
This morning's longreadZipper Pull Swap OutsI dunno, sometimes you just need to read a thing about replacing the zipper pulls on your bags. Think of it like a palate cleanser for your brain.
One of the most common modifications I do to bags is messing with the zipper pulls. I don’t like metal zipper pulls with something attached to the very end of them, as they jingle when you move about and annoy the crap out of me. The fix for this is pretty easy, and can be non-destructive if you prefer, so I thought I would share some different options I use/have used over the years. Especially, since I’ve been seeing some brands start to sell zipper pull kits, for stupid prices. Most of this stuff can be done very low-budget.
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Picture of the DayWe don’t even have one!
Good morning, RVA! It's 56 °F, and today’s a hot one. Expect highs near 90 °F and lots of sunshine. That’s definitely hot enough for me to start my typically summertime reminders of staying cool and staying hydrated—you can’t do your best work if you’re dehydrated! Cooler temperatures will return on Saturday.
Water coolerRichmond Magazine’s Ananya Chetia has a short interview with RRHA’s newish CEO Steven Nesmith in which he gets into the goals for the recently-launched Richmond Development Corp. I’m interested to see how the RDC works out, but, regardless, I’m certainly excited to see RRHA exploring different tools to build and redevelop our City’s public housing stock. The challenges faced by RRHA are enormous, like, we’re talking billions with a B enormous. Business As Usually won’t even touch the scale of the investments we need to make.
Erick Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a 4/20 update on the state of a legal marijuana market in Virginia. I’ll spoil it for you: Until Democrats regain control of both houses in the General Assembly (and maybe the Governor’s mansion, too), the Commonwealth is most likely doomed to live in this weird gray zone of marijuana quasi-legality. However, with each an every seat in the GA up for reelection this coming November, maybe there’s hope for some progress in 2024?
Want to help the James River Association monitor bacterial levels in the James River? I mean, who doesn’t! JRA needs a handful of folks who love science, being outside, and hanging out down by the river to collect and measure water samples between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This important work helps inform JRA’s State of The James report and, ultimately, supports their advocacy work for a cleaner, healthier river for all of us. If you’re interested in volunteering, they’ve two opportunities to get trained next week that you can go ahead and register for right now.
Speaking of, RVAHub’s Richard Hayes has put together a really incredible set of wildlife photos from down by the river. This kind of thing—ospreys swooping around, blue heron’s awkwardly preaching on rocks, snakes slithering over stuff—is why keeping our river healthy is so important! We’ve basically got a wildlife preserve right in the middle of our city that anyone can wander off into during their lunch break. It’s kind of amazing.
Via /r/rva, Stanley’s, the sandwich place that moved in to the old Robin Inn spot, is now open. I’m always interested in folks who attempt to bring regional cuisine to Richmond—and what people actually from those regions think about it. So! If you’re a Philly person, I would love to know your thoughts on Stanley’s cheesesteak and tomato pie!
This morning's longreadDuring a pandemic, walkHere’s a nice meditation on walking through the wilderness. It takes place during peak pandemic, which maybe needs a content warning? I definitely know so much more about Richmond’s secret spots having spent tons of time aimlessly exploring on my bike when there wasn’t much else we could safely do. I could revisit those places today (or find new ones!), but how come I don’t?
But I was weary and had another 8 miles to go. Instead, I removed my shoes and socks and took a nap beneath a juniper tree, which had grown next to a huge, arrow-shaped boulder. The sand made a perfect daybed, the wind a soft companion. I awoke to a green-skinned lizard with a yellow head poised nearby. It allowed me to get close enough for several photographs, then it ran beneath the arrow-shaped boulder. It was fast. I followed, barefoot, to see where it went, and found a blue water bottle partially hidden in a crack. It was a geocache. I’d stumbled on three or four of them in my desert wanderings. I’ve never looked for one, they just appear. They are filled with notes and names and dates, and with the odd flotsam and jetsam left by those with map and compass and coordinates, some sort of international hide-and-seek, whose players don’t know, and will probably never know, one another. An interesting way to learn the planet and commune with like-minded souls.
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Picture of the DayWhile I may have a problem, I know at least one other person whose shed holds at least this many bikes.
Good morning, RVA! It's 46 °F, and today looks like a stunner. Expect highs right around 80 °F and less wind than yesterday. Honestly, I think we may have some perfect hammock weather on our hands. Temperatures heat up tomorrow and Friday with some rain moving in late Saturday—so use that information wisely and plan your weekend accordingly!
Water coolerHuge news from GRTC’s most recent Board of Directors meeting: “GRTC’s Board of Directors just approved a 40% increase in the hourly rate for bus operators, making the transit company one of the highest-paying agencies in the region for CDL (commercial driver’s license) drivers. The new starting pay for a GRTC bus operator is $24.91, up significantly from the previous starting pay of $17.43.” This change, more than any other recent thing, will have the biggest impact on the quality of public transit in the region. You can’t have high-quality, frequent bus service if you don’t have enough operators to drive the dang buses! And its not like lack of operators, in part due to uncompetitive pay, is a far-off future problem. Bus riders feel the impact of the ongoing operator shortage every day: Currently just 68% of GRTC buses arrive on time. I haven’t dug around in the bus company’s budget to see exactly how much this critical pay increase will cost, but I imagine it’s significant enough that the State, Richmond, and Henrico (and, to a lesser extent, Chesterfield) will all have to up their contributions to GRTC. It’s either that or cut service, and that’s obviously a move in the wrong direction. Anyway, stay tuned to see how the governments that pay GRTC’s bills react, and lets check back in six months to see if/how that “on-time performance” statistic is impacted by this pay increase.
Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the teensiest update on the Flying Squirrels’ ongoing will-they-won’t-they about leaving Richmond. Mayor Stoney sat down with the RTD and said, “We don't foresee the Squirrels leaving...We plan on delivering a state-of-the-art baseball facility for the residents in the city, for the residents of the metro area, and for the franchise.” It sounds like a lot of the right pieces are in motion and that “the city is in its final stages of negotiations to obtain a development agreement.” Personally, I think if Richmond puts a good-faith effort towards building a new baseball diamond, the Squirrels will stick around even if the City misses the deadline by a bit. I could be wrong, which would be such a brutal swing-and-a-miss.
Also in the RTD, also by Em Holter, and also from Mayor Stoney: “I think I am young enough to still serve the public and I am seriously considering my next step, and that would be taking a look at the governor's race in 2025.” This isn’t a huge surprise to anyone whose hobby is local politics, but its the first I’ve seen of Stoney going on record about his plans for the Governor’s mansion.
Tonight, RPS will hold the first public hearing in the process to rename John B. Cary Elementary School (6:00 PM in the auditorium, if you’re part of the Cary community). Folks can share feedback on the final five names selected by the school’s renaming committee: Lois Harrison-Jones Elementary, Maplewood Elementary, Mildred Loving Elementary, Grace Harris Elementary, and Carillon Elementary. As with the Ginter Park renaming from a couple weeks back (which I don’t think we’ve heard the results from yet), I prefer the place and plant names!
Also tonight, at 7:00 PM (doors at 6:30 PM), VPM and the ICA will host a panel discussion “exploring themes from Admissible: Shreds of Evidence, a podcast that shines a light on how evidence itself can be flawed, mishandled, or even manipulated.” I haven’t yet listened to Admissible (it’s certainly on my queue, though!), but, for those of you that have, tonight’s event will feature host and reporter Tessa Kramer, local advocate Chelsea Higgs Wise, and a few other interesting-sounding experts. The event is free, but you’ll need to RSVP over on the Eventbrite.
This morning's longreadHow a Louisiana Café Became Home Base for Environmental JusticeFood and activism often go together—really, food and any cooperative human activity. This story about a cafe in Louisiana, with a former plantation on one side and a proposed grain processing facility on the other, made me think about the cafes, restaurants, bars, and parks in Richmond that support the people working to make our own city a better place.
We’ve had people who go to the plantations, which is a heavy experience, and they just need to decompress. They come out in the yard, enjoy the tree, and see a different side of life, outside the plantation. They see that we’re still here. They understand that some people were able to get off the plantations and create the communities that we have now. I had a customer and he was very quiet, and he just wanted beignets and coffee. He said, “I’m sorry. I just came from Whitney, and I’m all in my feelings. I just need to eat.” And I said, “Look, go ahead. I totally understand.” We’ve had many people who needed that time to ground themselves. And we’re actively working to build out and make space for dealing with trauma.
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Picture of the DayLove a good Art Deco blacksmith.
Good morning, RVA! It's 45 °F, and today you can expect highs in the mid 70s. The National Weather Service has issued a “Red Flag Warning” from 12:00–8:00 PM today, which means that a “combination of dry conditions, low humidity, and strong gusty winds will result in favorable conditions for the rapid spread of fires.” Other than the fire stuff (maybe take a pass on the campfire this afternoon), those other things sound like the makings of a really nice day.
Water coolerYesterday, Richmond’s Planning Commission voted unanimously to eliminate parking minimums across the city (Twitter)! This is excellent news, and while I did expect Planning Commission to recommend this ordinance for approval at full Council, I didn’t think it’d be a unanimous decision. Now, with Planning Commission’s go-ahead, the ordinance (ORD. 2023-101) will head over to City Council in the coming months for an actual vote. With that in mind, I think now is the time to spin up your email machines and let your councilmember know that you fully support eliminating parking minimums. Remember my tips for writing a good public comment, and just tell them something like: “Dear Councilmember, I’m a 15-year resident of the 3rd District and proud RPS parent. I own a home in the Ginter Park neighborhood. Today, I’m writing in support of ORD. 2023-101 which would eliminate parking minimums. I ask that you support this ordinance, which was recently approved by the Planning Commission with a unanimous vote.” Yes all that stuff about RPS and being a homeowner is gross and tacky, but it helps underscore that residents who would be impacted by the ordinance support this sort of parking reform. I’m sure over the next couple of weeks we’ll hear more from the people who are opposed and read quotes in the paper from councilmembers with “heartburn,” but, for now, I think getting on the record as supportive of ORD.2023-101 is the best thing you can do. You can find all the contact information for all of City Council (and their liaisons!) here. If you’d like to read more, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Em Holter continues their almost entirely positive coverage of eliminating parking minimums.
Related, Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that the 250-unit apartments on Grove Avenue near the highway also got Planning Commission’s approval. The developers made some changes to the building’s height and cut 13 units out of the proposal (mostly to appease resident concerns about “traffic impacts”). Real estate attorney Jennifer Mullen said, “We appreciate the Museum District's time and their comments through the process, it's improved the product all over.” Honestly, I don’t know how real estate attorneys make it through the day, having to deal with the same “resident concerns” over and over and over again. I’m not sure I’d be able to give such a level-headed comment!
Connor Scribner and Megan Pauly at VPM have done a ton of work reporting on the last half-dozen years of fire code violations at Richmond Public Schools facilities, work they started after the fire at Fox Elementary. Make sure you read their companion piece that goes through the details of the violations to get a better sense for the type of issues across each school—things like expired fire extinguishers to busted exit lights to fire alarm systems in “trouble” mode.
Reminder! The City will host their Speed Management Symposium tonight on the second floor of Main Street Station from 5:30–8:00 PM. You’ll hear a few presentations on what the City is doing to combat speeding in Richmond and then have an opportunity to give them feedback on their work or ask questions during a Q&A session. Remember, as Bike Walk RVA put it: “It is important to be open-minded while also staying laser-focused on the fact that the most impactful way to slow speeds is through INFRASTRUCTURE and STREET DESIGN.“ Laser-focused! Whatever money the City spends on paving, new stop lights, or other routine maintenance is good, but it should not replace a dedicated effort to change the physical design of our fastest and most dangerous streets. The event is free and open to the public, and you can RSVP here—which you should do to help them plan for the right amount of refreshments (free food!).
Also tonight, Mayor Stoney will host a competing event(!) at the Library of Virginia. At 6:30 PM, you can join the Mayor and Michael Tubbs (current Special Advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom for Economic Mobility, former mayor of Stockton, California) for a conversation about Guaranteed Income. Tubbs is also the founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income and instituted a successful guaranteed income program during his tenure as mayor. Richmond’s got its own guaranteed income program that runs through the City’s Office of Community Wealth Building called the Richmond Resilience Initiative, and I’m pretty interested in learning more about how we build off of what Tubbs accomplished in Stockton. Guaranteed income programs are great, this event seems cool, and I wish it didn’t conflict with the street safety event above!
This morning's longreadSubstack CEO Chris Best Doesn’t Realize He’s Just Become The Nazi BarAfter a certain point in an online community’s growth, if you ignore the need to keep your community safe through moderation—or you choose not to because of some hand-wavey definition of “free speech”—you become a tantalizing place for bad people to hang out...aka you become the Nazi bar. Is Substack the Nazi Bar of email newsletters? I’m not sure, but the CEO’s recent interview on Decoder doesn’t reassure me otherwise.
When you’re a private centralized company and you don’t deal with hateful content on your site, you’re the Nazi bar. Most companies that want to get large enough recognize that playing to the grifters and the nonsense peddlers works for a limited amount of time, before you get the Nazi bar reputation, and your growth is limited. And, in the US, you’re legally allowed to become the Nazi bar, but you should at least embrace that, and not pretend you have some grand principled strategy. This is what Nilay was getting at. When you’re not the government, you can set whatever rules you want, and the rules you set are the rules that will define what you are as a service. Chris Best wants to pretend that Substack isn’t the Nazi bar, while he’s eagerly making it clear that it is. It’s stupidly short-sighted, and no, it won’t support free speech. Because people who don’t want to hang out at the Nazi bar will just go elsewhere.
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Picture of the DaySomeone had an incredibly sad morning.
Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and today looks beautiful. Expect highs in the 70s, lots of sunshine, and the start of what’s sure to be a really excellent week (at least weatherwise). This lovely spring weather continues straight on through until the end of the week when we could see some honest-to-goodness hot temperatures and possibly some rain. If you put plants in the ground over the weekend, remember to keep them watered!
Water coolerToday, Richmond’s Planning Commission will consider the ordinance to eliminate parking minimums across the city (ORD. 2023-101). Unfortunately, the ordinance now sits on CPC’s regular agenda, which probably hints that some meaningful opposition has started to bubble up. You can, if you really really want, tap through the previous link and read some of that opposition’s letters, which mostly conflate eliminating parking minimums with elimating parking entirely. Assuming this ordinance does eventaually make it out of Planning Commission, it will head to City Council where, until recently, I though it had the votes it needed to pass. Now, I’m not so sure. Councilmember Jordan said this in her recent 2nd District Newsletter, which, if I read between the lines, sounds like someone who will not be voting for the paper as written: “As I shared previously, I will continue to work through questions and concerns to understand how parking minimums fit into a larger city-wide parking strategy that is responsive to the different parking realities throughout the Second, and ensures we're meeting the goals of lessening cost burdens for housing development and our small businesses, and facilitating sustainable and multimodal future growth in our City.“ We’ll have to see what, if any, changes get proposed, but to water down this bill would be a huge bummer—especially coming from one of Richmond’s most outspoken Councilmembers on the environment. Tune in today at 1:30 PM to get a better sense for how hot the discussion over this proposal will get in the coming weeks and if anyone has thoughtful ideas to help squeak the ordinance through Council.
Also today, City Council will meet for what sounds like their last real budget work session of the 2023 season. This afternoon they’ll finalize amendments for introduction at their April 24th meeting and then, on May 8th, will host a public hearing for the final final real and true budget. Fingers crossed, they’ll vote that same night—a week ahead of the deadline to adopt a schools budget and three weeks ahead of the deadline to adopt the City’s budget. This year’s budget season lacked almost any dramatic fireworks (at least so far), and, to my surprise, I kind of liked it that way!
Patrick Larsen at VPM reports on a controversial proposal to build a training facility on the city’s Southside for the Richmond Fire Department. I’m sure there are great reasons to build this facility within the city limits, but, given the extremely limited space we have (62.5 square miles forever and ever, never to be expanded!), I can’t help but think finding somewhere in a neighboring county would be a better choice.
Via /r/rva pictures of headstones from Richmond’s oldest...pet cemetery?? I didn’t even know we had one of these, let alone one that’s nearly 100 years old! Pet Memorial Parks is located at 1697 Terrell Drive, in an interesting part of the West End, and you can learn (the tiniest bit) more over on their Facebook page.
For your calendar: Tomorrow from 5:30–8:00 PM, the City’s Department of Public Works will host a “Speed Management Symposium” on the second floor of Main Street Station. From the press release: “The City implements a comprehensive safety program to achieve significant reductions in traffic crashes, fatalities and injuries on public roadways – Join us to learn more on the actions the City is taking to help manage speed!” The agenda includes three presentations from the City, a Q&A session, and “safer streets information tables” representing a bunch of City departments, planning organizations, and Bike Walk RVA. I’m not super clear on the goals of this meeting, but it’s a valuable opportunity for folks to give their feedback to lots of the people who hold the power to make our streets safer—all at the same time and in the same place! If you’re planning on going and giving those people some of your thoughts and feelings, make sure you read how Bike Walk RVA put it in their email about the event: “It is important to be open-minded while also staying laser-focused on the fact that the most impactful way to slow speeds is through INFRASTRUCTURE and STREET DESIGN. PSAs and asking drivers politely will do little to change driver behavior. Do not lose focus on demanding safer streets that are difficult to speed on.“ Also, I really appreciate them for saying this part explicitly and out loud: “Things that don't help reduce speeding: Simple repaving (if anything, this ENCOURAGES speeding), asking drivers to slow down (using tools like Twitter, PSA commercials, encouraging pedestrians to carry flags).” I’ll make sure to give everyone another reminder about this event tomorrow!
This morning's longreadClarence Thomas Is as Free as Ever to Treat His Seat Like a Winning Lottery TicketWhen big-deal federal government stuff goes down, I eagerly await Jamelle Bouie’s insight and history-based analysis. Here he dives in to Justice Clarence Thomas’s incredibly unethical financial relationship with Republican billionaire Harlan Crow.
This has always been true of the Supreme Court — a reliable friend of property, capital and class rule throughout its 234-year history, occasional bouts of decency notwithstanding — but it has become an acute problem in this era of unchecked judicial supremacy. As the court arrogates more and greater power to itself, and grows both distant from and contemptuous of public opinion, it naturally attracts flatterers and intriguers. With his close ties to a powerful, property-owning billionaire, Thomas embodies the historic role of the Supreme Court in American politics, not as a liberator or defender of the rights of political and social minorities, but as a partner to and ally of moneyed interests.
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Picture of the DayJust really amazing clouds over Virginia Tech’s Drillfield.
Good morning, RVA! It's 58 °F, and today we’ll most likely see some rain or even storms this afternoon. We’ll also see cooler temperatures for at least the next couple of days, with highs right around 80 °F. Honestly, get excited because it looks like an absolutely stunning weekend ahead of us (once we get past today’s rain). Enjoy!
Water coolerI posted Council’s sixth budget session over on the Boring Show, which you can and should go ahead and listen to at 2x speed. This budget season, the first led by Councilmember Jones as president, has been extraordinarily smooth, well-run, and fun to follow. I mean, I’ve listened to these things for years now, and I don’t think I can remember another time when City Council and the Mayor’s Administration worked together so well—especially during the amendment process, which mostly wrapped up this past Wednesday. This year, Council came to the Admin with a couple million dollars worth of amendments and, unlike years previous, they managed to work out a path forward. Most impressive to me: Never once did they spend hours arguing about a trivial $50,000 amendment. Such an upgrade from some of the pre-pandemic years! Looks like Council will have one more meeting to finalize a few items, but, at the end of Wednesday’s session, it sounded like they already had the consensus needed to pass a balanced budget. Great work, everyone!
Mifepristone, the safe abortion-inducing medication, will remain on the market in Virginia as Republicans continue their nationwide assault on reproductive rights through an activist judge in Texas. VPM’s Whitney Evans reports that a federal appeals court judge “ruled late Wednesday that mifepristone can remain on the market‚ but it reimposed some restrictions that the FDA had eased in recent years.“ If you’d like a lengthy and thorough read on the merits of the mifepristone case, here’s one from this past March. It feels like this is destined for the Supreme Court, and we all know how they feel about preserving people’s rights lately.
Michael Phillips at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the Regency mall site in western Henrico will soon host “the largest indoor pickleball facility in Virginia” (12 courts). Jon Laaser, formerly voice of the Flying Squirrels and now head pickle at Performance Pickleball RVA, will run the show. Once they get the place up and running (by the end of this year), they’ll even have a pro shop—for pickleball!
Richmond BizSense’s Jack Jacobs reports on the new Lego factory’s ceremonial ground breaking out in Chesterfield. The facility will cost around $1 billion dollars and will receive $56 million in state grants “if the company meets factory investment and hiring goals.” I still want to know if I can get a tour of the Lego factory and if we’ll get any factory-exclusive Lego sets.
Via /r/rva, a picture of something we’ll surely see more and more in the coming years: Electric vehicle charging cables stretched across the sidewalk. This is definitely a dangerous, janky tripping hazard, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered doing the same thing (with an ADA cable ramp, though) whenever we end up getting an electric vehicle. I think the City needs to get ahead of this and start installing tons of publicly-owned charging stations while also offering some sort of incentives for businesses to do the same. So many of Richmond’s residential units don’t have access to off-street parking, and we need to find a way for those folks to transition to electric vehicles. Just enforcing the code and preventing people from stringing extension cables across the city is not enough!
This morning's longreadA deadly fungal disease on the rise in the West has experts worriedClimate change causing the spread of a rare and exotic disease is scary, but this sort of thing is going to keep happening—and with a lot more boring diseases, too. Just think about any of the things you need to get vaccinated against before traveling to warmer parts of the world.
The disease is only endemic to certain geographic areas and it’s technically considered an “emerging illness,” even though doctors have been finding it in their patients for more than a century, because cases have been sharply rising in recent years. In some places, astronomically so. Valley fever cases in the U.S. increased by 32 percent between 2016 and 2018, according to the CDC. One study determined that cases in California rose 800 percent between 2000 and 2018. In most states where the disease is endemic, public health departments have been slow to grasp and advertise the breadth and potential impact of the illness, experts say, and the federal government could be doing more to fund research into a cure or vaccine for the infection. To date, there’s only been one multi-center, prospective comparative trial for the treatment of Valley fever. And, more troubling, researchers haven’t pinned down exactly what’s behind the rise in cases or how to stop it. One thing is nearly certain, though: Climate change plays a role.
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Picture of the DayWhy?
Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and you can expect this afternoon to be truly, actually hot. Highs will creep into the upper 80s, the sun will shine, you will drink plenty of water because you can't do your best work if you're not hydrated. Don't put too much worry into the heat, because a chance for rain moves in tomorrow and will bring cooler temperatures with it. Regardless, it is way, way too early to start complaining about the heat! We just got out of winter!
Water coolerAt Council's Budget Work Session yesterday, Mayor Stoney's administration introduced ORD. 2023-123, the ordinance to buy Mayo Island from its current private owners and return it to the public. According to the ordinance, the City will pony up $7.4 million from "stormwater utility bond funding" and match it with that $7.5 million grant from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. The $14.9 million price is in between the original $11.4 million offer and the $19 million asking price. This is a huge, exciting move for the City, and I'm still kind of shocked that it's happening at all. I think I'm going to hold my breath until the paperwork is signed, though.
Also City Council related, today the Education and Human Services committee meets with a few interesting items on its agenda. Tune in for updates on the City's inclement weather shelter plan, public school construction, and RPS’s Head Start situation. All three of these have generated headlines in the past year, and, most likely, will again in the coming year.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Charlotte Rene Woods, Michael Martz, and David Ress report on yesterday’s reconvened session of the General Assembly. The Senate provided the most interesting part of the day, rejecting "amendments [the governor] proposed to at least 10 bills as an inappropriate exercise of executive power on issues the legislature already had decided." Youngkin's attempt to require parental consent for minors to join social media networks, which I mentioned yesterday, proved to be one of those inappropriate exercises of power. As for figuring out an udpated budget? No dice!
Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond reports that you can rent a tiki boat for a (nearly) two hour tour of the James River? "Tiki boat booze cruise" is a weird thing that I think maybe fits perfectly with Richmond's James River vibes.
Tonight, from 7:00–8:30 PM at the Libbie Mill library, Henricoans have a chance to get together and learn about the benefits of having a local climate action plan. Richmond's own climate action plan, RVAgreen 2050, has been in process for ages at this point and has benefited from some of the better community-engagement work I've seen in a while. I think it's something we can be proud of and something that the County could definitely learn from. Tonight's event is put on by the Henrico Conservation Action Network and is free to the public.
Yesterday, the Shelby County Commissioners reappointed the second Justin, Representative Justin Pearson, to the Tennessee House of Representatives. I don't know about you, but I'm going to keep watching whatever is happening in Tennessee. It's fascinating and feels like they're on the edge of something big (or at least interesting).
This morning's longreadThe Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for BitcoinI knew Bitcoin mining was bad for the environment, but I didn't know just how bad or how wasteful. Maybe we just shouldn't have entire complexes full of computers that spend the day solving math problems, sucking up as much electricity as entire towns?
This proved true in upstate New York, where a gas-powered plant reopened and now powers a Bitcoin mine. Three other large operations are run by companies that also own the fossil fuel plants where they operate, including two burning waste coal in Pennsylvania. Some of the Bitcoin companies that WattTime found to be causing the most pollution have held themselves out as supporting renewables. For example, Riot Platforms’ chief executive described Bitcoin mining as “uniquely beneficial and supportive of renewable energy.” Ninety-six percent of the power demand added by the company’s mine was met by fossil fuels, the WattTime analysis showed.
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Picture of the DayTools of the trade.
Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and today we’ll see highs in the mid 80s alongside some really beautiful weather. I hope you love it, because we’ve got a few more days of this lined up ahead of us in the weekly forecast, and I’m pretty excited about it.
Water coolerAlright, I’ve got a handful of City Council updates for you today, which, honestly, isn’t that different from any other day. First, I posted Monday’s budget work session up on the Boring Show for your listening pleasure. I’m about halfway through, and, so far, I’d recommend it—3.5 stars out of five! Council walks through their budget amendments and the Mayor’s Administration explains how those amendments are either already funded in the proposed budget or why the Administration recommends not funding them at all. The tone remains civil (at least so far in my listening), which has been true for most of this year’s budget meetings. I can definitely say that I’m enjoying the Councilmember Jones era of City Council and the way he’s run things the last couple of weeks. If you’d like a less exciting and less human summary of Monday’s meeting, you can also flip through the presentation slides.
Second, City Council will host their sixth budget work session today at 1:00 PM and will focus on “Discussion and Preparation of Final Council Proposed FY 2024 Budget Amendments.” I can’t believe it, but we’re coming around to the close of the 2023 budget season already!
Finally, at the end of their work session today, Council will introduce “ordinances related to the acquisition of real property, commonly known as Mayo Island.” Back in early January, the City and the Capital Region Land Conservancy had put together $9 million of an $11.4 million bid to buy Mayo Island, which, at the time, had listed for $19 million. I’d not heard much about any progress on closing that funding gap until today, and had almost entirely forgotten about it. After these ordinances get introduced, we’ll know a lot more about what kind of deal the City ended up finalizing.
John O’ Connor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a worrisome update on the Flying Squirrels and their proposed new stadium. The head squirrel (team president and managing partner) released a statement to the RTD yesterday saying, in part, “we cannot be confident that the future of the Squirrels in Richmond is secure,” as construction timelines for the team’s new home start to slip. Major League Baseball has set a 2025 deadline for completion of a new stadium, and, if the City misses it, I guess they’ll take away the Squirrels? That’d be a huge bummer—especially if a new Diamond came online just a couple months after the deadline. I wonder if we can get an extension if we show good progress over the next year? Maybe?
VPM’s Ben Paviour reports that Governor Youngkin has introduced a pretty sizable amendment to a bill originally written to require porn sites to verify users’ age. From the piece: “Youngkin amended the bill to require verification when users under 18 years old visit most websites that collect or use their personal data. It would also apply if they sign up for social media like TikTok or Instagram. Sites would require a government ID, credit card or signed consent form in order to verify a users' age.“ I have a lot of issues with this amendment, but let’s start here: When I read this reporting, it reminded me of a recent longread I posted about the federal government’s various proposals to ban TikTok outright instead of doing the hard work to actually protect our online privacy. If the governor or Virginia’s lawmakers really want to protect children online, they could start by restricting tech companies from harvesting our data without our permission.
Richmond Public Schools will hold a public hearing on renaming Ginter Park Elementary School tonight from 6:00–7:00 PM in the school’s auditorium. The renaming committee has proposed five options for community members to consider: Northside, Dogwood, Albert V. Norrell, Frances McClenney, and Azalea Elementary School. I’m partial to the plant or place names myself!
This morning's longreadHighway StarI enjoyed this brief vignette of life as a female truck driver in America. It’s definitely not a job at which I would succeed, but I can see how it appeals to some folks.
Two months after we met, Jess invited me to Las Vegas, where she and her friends from REAL Women in Trucking were gathering for the organization’s annual “Queen of the Road” ceremony. On a hot August night, we met up at a patio bar in the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, where actual Chilean flamingos lived in a marshy enclosure with catfish and koi. She was sitting, with Halima, at a long wooden table surrounded by women truckers. “This is Idella,” Jess said, introducing me to a silver-haired woman wearing a white button-down patterned with palm fronds. I recognized her name from admiring stories Jess had shared on the road. Idella told me she was based in Arkansas, where she moved high-value goods. “When I sit in the seat, there’s something in the diesel that turns into I’ve got to go,” she told me. “I’m good at what I do. The harder it is, the more challenging it is, the more I like it. Without a challenge, I have no purpose.”
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Picture of the DayGet after it.
Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, but, after this morning begins a stretch of beautiful weather. Today you can expect sunny highs in the mid 70s and even warmer temperatures over the next five days. With overnight lows in the mid 50s for the next bunch of days, I think it might be a good time to get some plants in the ground!
Water coolerRichmond’s Interim Police Chief Rick Edwards has launched a new policy to provide “Critical Incident Briefings” to the public after every fatal officer-involved shooting. These briefings will include video and photographic evidence—body-worn cameras, surveillance footage, and crime scene photography—and will be “released to the public within two weeks of the incident(s), unless the Chief determines that a delay is needed to address investigative, prosecutorial, or privacy concerns.” This seems good, and I continue to be impressed with the tone coming out of Interim Chief Edward’s RPD. Of course, it hasn’t been that long since Edwards took over, and he’s yet to come up against an extremely public test of his leadership—but maybe that’s of his own doing. I mean, so far at least, he hasn’t set up an entire press conference to lie about a mass shooting plot. NBC12 reports that Edwards has officially applied to be the actual police chief, so there’s a chance that we’ll see more of him in the future.
Yesterday, City Council announced that they’ve appointed Laura K. Drewry as the new Richmond City Attorney. Drewry is an internal hire, and has worked with the Attorney’s office since 2006. I know absolutely nothing about her but am really interested to catch her vibe once she’s forced to make that first public decision on a complex and stressful topic. Lucky for her, we’re in a much better place than we were a while back when it comes to the relationships between the Mayor and City Council. I don’t see them getting into a disagreement that requires the Attorney to resolve (at least not in the immediate future). If I did have to guess where Drewery will need to weigh in, I’d probably pick some future School Board drama—something to do with the Arthur Ashe Center or building new schools, places where the division of authority between the Board and Council gets a bit fuzzy. Not a place I’d want to find myself, but congrats and good luck!
As expected, yesterday City Council declared a housing crisis by passing RES. 2023-R019. Not a ton of new things happen now that the resolution has passed, but it is something advocates can point to when working for other more concrete policies. Also, I can’t stop thinking about this.
Karen Newton at Style Weekly has a nice profile of Leland Melvin, UR graduate, NFL alum, and a real, live astronaut. Definitely a person that should inspire you about what’s possible, but maybe don’t compare yourself to him directly, because, dang.
Axios Richmond pointed me to this story about Buckingham County’s Republican-controlled Electoral Board harassing the county’s registrar to the point where that entire office up and quit. From the article: “The four departures left residents without a functioning registrar's office; there was no way to register to vote or certify candidate paperwork, at least temporarily.“ This terrifies me because, technically, the Board didn’t break any laws and there’s no real recourse available to the citizens of Buckingham County. The Republican members of the board just acted like a bunch of inane jerks and, as a result, critical public servants resigned leaving the government in a nonfunctional state. This sort of thing is happening in local and state government agencies across the commonwealth—party-nominated Republicans are intentionally and successfully breaking the bones of our governmental structures. It’s bad, bad stuff.
Last night, the Nashville Council unanimously voted to reappoint Rep. Justin Jones after the Tennessee General Assembly expelled him for leading a protest against gun violence. The other member expelled by Republicans, Rep. Justin Pearson, could be reappointed by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners tomorrow.
This morning's longreadThe Gambler Who Beat RouletteI love stories about people who solve gambling—especially when it’s through a mix of weird brain skills and brute-force practice.
Then there was the win rate. Tosa’s crew didn’t hit the right number on every spin, but they did as often as not, in streaks that defied logic: eight in a row, or 10, or 13. Even with a dozen chips on the table at a total cost of £1,200 (about $2,200 at the time), the 35:1 payout meant they could more than double their money. Security staff watched nervously as their chip stack grew ever higher. Tosa and the Serbian, who did most of the gambling while their female companion ordered drinks, had started out with £30,000 and £60,000 worth of chips, respectively, and in no time both had broken six figures. Then they started to increase their bets, risking as much as £15,000 on a single spin. It was almost as if they could see the future.
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Picture of the DayA classic bar bathroom.
Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, but, despite the current chilly temperatures, today looks pretty springlike and wonderful. You can expect highs in the mid 60s, lots of sunshine, and a perfect afternoon to spend some time outside. After we get through tomorrow morning’s similarly chilly lows, get excited for the truly warm and wonderful days stretched out ahead of us!
Water coolerOver the weekend, Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams wrote about the decision of Tennessee Republicans to expel two Black General Assembly members for leading a protest over gun violence. Williams ties in a couple other national headlines that also point to the ways America continues to slide away from democracy. Even though it’s a bummer, you should read it—I mean, he won the dang Pulitzer prize!
In her newsletter this past Friday, Councilmember Jordan had a quick update on the fencing surrounding the circle at Allen and Monument (which I think is a great way for an elected official to identify that particular circle): “As you may have seen, work has begun this past week on preparing the circle at Allen and Monument for the implementation of the City's temporary landscaping plan...Once that work is completed later this Spring, the jersey barriers and fencing that currently enclose the circle will be removed, and returned to the state. The barriers and fencing will remain up while the work is done, to ensure the safety of staff.” Can’t wait / about time!
City Council will meet today for their fifth budget work session, for which the entire agenda is described simply as “Presentation, Discussion and Preparation of Final Council Proposed FY 2024 Budget Amendment.” As is my sacred duty, I’ll get the audio up on the Boring Show as quick as I can. As is their sacred duty, Council will continue their work after they’ve dealt with the budget, and you can find the brief agenda for their regularly-schedule meeting here. They’ve smartly continued most things to a later meeting and reduced the regular agenda down to exactly zero items—I mean, who wants to debate contentious legislation after an entire day of contentiously debating the budget? One thing of note on their easy-breezy agenda, though, RES. 2023-R019, which will declare a housing crisis in Richmond.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports on a new update to the yearslong saga of the National Bank Building on Brookland Park Boulevard. After almost a decade of private ownership and failed redevelopment plans, RRHA now owns the building—again. While it doesn’t sounds like RRHA has solid (or public) plans for the future of the space, having it pulled out of legal limbo seems like a productive first step.
Next week, Virginia Humanities and UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy will host two interesting, news-adjacent talks in Richmond. The first, on Thursday April 20th at 4:30 PM, will feature Margaret Talev, director of Syracuse University’s Democracy, Journalism, and Citizenship Institute. The second, on Friday April 21st at 3:45 PM (and the one I’m most excited about), is a discussion with Evan Smith, co-founder of the Texas Tribune. If I were to ever run a real local news organization with, like, actual reporters doing actual reporting, it would be modeled off of the Texas Tribune. They’re a 501(c)3, just like the Virginia Mercury, and have a really lovely mission statement: “The Texas Tribune is the only member-supported, digital-first, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.” They’re really impressive and do incredible work, and I’d love if something similar (but not statewide in focus) existed in Richmond. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced that their member-supported business model would be sustainable at a local level without significant philanthropic support. Anyway, sign up for one or both of these events, they sound great and are free and open to the public!
This morning's longreadWe Can Have Both More Housing and Good Urban FormAs Richmond starts to wade into rewriting its entire zoning ordinance, I thought this advice from Strong Towns was incredibly applicable: “We need to simplify our land use regulations down to the essentials necessary to get good urban form...get the form right, and everything else will work itself out over time.”
Cities need to allow neighborhoods to thicken up, to evolve and mature over time. To do this, they need to get the zoners out of the way. They need to get rid of their modified version of a suburban development code, the one they bulked up with parking, screening, and other suburban Band-Aids—inconvenient rules they largely ignore, anyway. They need to stop their fetish for allocating density through complicated and arbitrary zoning regulations. These are not the ingredients for building great neighborhoods. Instead, we need to simplify our land use regulations down to the essentials necessary to get good urban form in the next increment of development intensity. Get the form right, and everything else will work itself out over time. Mess up the form, and we’ll prove the obvious again and again: there is no amount of regulation, process, and review that can overcome a bad zoning code.
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Picture of the DayThis yarrow is officially the best flower in my yard now that azaleas have moved on.
Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and last night’s rain brought with it some cooler vibes. Today, you can expect highs in the mid 60s, and then, tomorrow, even chillier temperatures when overnight lows could dip towards freezing. Worry not, though: Warmer weather returns early next week—possibly for good!
Water coolerLast night, the Republican-dominated Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel two of its members, Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. The two legislators, both young Black men, led protests against gun violence following the recent Covenant School shooting. A third legislator who also joined the protests, Gloria Johnson, a white woman, kept her seat with a single-vote margin. This morning there will be lots of news and videos and tweets and takes to read about this blatant and anti-democratic step taken by Republicans, but I think you should start with these three videos (all from Twitter, unfortunately):
- If you only want to watch one single thing about last night, make it this speech by Rep. Pearson following his expulsion. It feels historic.
- I think Rep. Jones gets it completely right in his speech immediately preceding his own expulsion: By removing these legislators, Republicans have galvanized folks into sustained action against them and their idolatrous worship of guns.
- When asked why she alone was able to keep her seat, Rep. Johnson says “it might have to do with the color of our skin.”
As for what happens next, regional legislative bodies will appoint interim legislators and special elections will follow. Both representatives could possibly be reappointed as those interim legislators and could also run in those special elections.
Removing democratically elected legislators to punish them for peaceful protest—protests advocating for the safety of children!—feels like a bridge too far and a stupid one for Republicans to cross. Unfortunately, I’ve thought that dozens of times before over the last couple of decades, and, in that time, we’ve only continued to rush headlong into building a society full of guns, fear, and death.
VPM’s Dave Cantor reports that, back in our own General Assembly here in Virginia, Sen. Emmett Hanger has announced that he will not seek reelection. That brings the total number of folks stepping down/aside/finding something a lot less stressful to do with their time to 28—a full 20% of the body! Some of that turnover is retirement, but some of it is due to the redistricting which drew legislators out of their comfy, familiar districts and into another district which maybe already had a strong candidate. Either way, all of that turnover means come January we’ll have a ton of new vibes in the GA and advocates will need to quickly build a ton of relationships with the new legislators. It’s exciting but definitely chaotic and stressful.
Axios Richmond’s Karri Peifer sat down with Dr. Scientist Jeremy Hoffman to talk about something very important to my own life: How climate change will impact Richmond’s spring gardening season. Earlier and warmer springs mean we’ll all need to rethink our early-season gardening strategies and learn what will thrive in Richmond’s new, hotter climate. To that end, Peifer links to these cool (hot?) maps from the USDA, including one with a slider that lets you toggle Plant Hardiness Zones before and after 50 years of climate change. “By 2070, Richmond will likely be in zone 8, per USDA's prediction, which is the zone that today includes South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.” Yikes. Fewer radishes and more tomatoes, I guess.
Via /r/rva, a picture of a groundhog waaaay up in a tree. How’d you get up there, guy??
The Richmond Night Market kicks off their fifth season tomorrow, April 8th, down at the 17th Street Market from 5:00 – 9:00 PM. Stop by, bring a flannel, and check out vendors, DJs, art, food, and all sorts of interesting stuff. The Night Market takes place every second Saturday from now until December, so you’ve got plenty of opportunities to stop by if you can’t make this weekend work.
This morning's longreadHow Cookie Jars Capture American KitschThe longreads have been a little intense lately, so here’s one about cookie jars. They’re cute, they remind people of their childhoods, and you can put all kinds of stuff in them—not just cookies! Read this piece and let the soothing decorative ceramic vibes wash over you and carry you into the weekend.
The joy of cookie jars, for many, is finding a jar that feels perfectly suited to one’s own personal taste or identity. In this hunt, the world of vintage cookie jars offers near infinite options. In Chicago, pastry chef Mindy Segal remains smitten with a vintage 1940s ceramic cookie jar that she’s had for decades. “I call him Chef,” says Segal, coauthor of the cookbook Cookie Love. “I’ve had him since I was in my 20s and it was my first major purchase into the vintage world. I love him and will never get rid of him. He’s like my guy.” Chef dons a stiff white chef’s hat and he has been dubbed guardian of dog treats. Recently, Segal bought a second cookie jar, which lives in her popular Mindy’s Bakery. “I put pretzels in it and sometimes I put candy in it. I don’t put cookies in it,” she says.
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Picture of the DayBeachside construction.
Good morning, RVA! It's 68 °F, and today we’ve got a mixed bag: hot temperatures in the upper 80s, a pretty good chance for rain this evening, and a cold front moving through after the sun goes down. Cooler weather will stick around for a while, too, so keep an eye on your plants if you already started moving them outside!
Water coolerApologies for the delay, but I finally got around to posting City Council’s fourth Budget Work Session over on the Boring Show. I haven’t listened yet, but the agenda covered real estate revenue projections, responses to some of the questions councilmembers have so far, and a discussion of Council’s own amendments to the Mayor’s proposed budget. All interesting and worth your time—at least if you’re listening along at 2x speed. Also, and I missed this when looking at the agenda earlier this week, but City Council held a closed session afterward for “discussion, consideration, and interviewing of a prospective candidate for employment as a City Attorney.” Sounds like we could maybe hear news on that hire soon.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Michael Martz reports on Medicaid unwinding, the process of Medicaid reevaluating the eligibility of alllllll its current members—something it hasn’t done since the start of the pandemic. Martz says about 14% of the program’s current participants in Virginia are no longer eligible (about 308,000 people) and will now have to find health insurance elsewhere. Stressful stuff! Even more stressful, the State estimates 80,000 additional people will lose coverage just because they don’t have updated contact information on file and won’t get their renewal notices. What a horrible way to lose health insurance! You can learn more over on the CommonHelp website, and please remind anyone you know that is a Medicaid member to get their information updated ASAP!
Ooooo interesting: Jakob Cordes at WRIC reports that “Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has opened an investigation into the stunning collapse of the Enrichmond Foundation last year.“ This is good, and I’m glad we’ve not just given up on learning more about whatever happened with Enrichmond. Also of note, Cordes points out that the Mayor has included $250,000 in his proposed budget for a “Richmond Outdoor and Prosperity Fund” which would go toward “assisting the 86 organizations impacted by Enrichmond’s abrupt closure.”
This week, the City of Chicago elected a new mayor, Brandon Johnson. Johnson campaigned on police reform, and you can read his Plan For a Safer Chicago which talks about investing in youth, supporting victims, and strengthening police accountability. They’re progressive plans to deal with both gun violence and police reform—certainly not a “tough on crime” platform. Compare and contrast the language Johnson uses to that of his opponent, Paul Vallas. So how did Chicagoans vote? Well, check out these fascinating maps of Chicago’s violent crime overlaid on election results (Twitter). The neighborhoods most impacted by violent crime were most likely to vote for Johnson, the police reform candidate. This was surprising to me (in a good way!) and counter to the narrative I often read in national media. Definitely something for Richmond’s mayoral hopefuls to keep in mind as they start spinning up their campaigns in the next year.
Question: Has anyone seen M.F. Broom out sweeping the bike lanes of Richmond lately??
This morning's longreadNot Your Grandfather’s Moon MissionI am compelled to link to almost every article about NASA’s Artemis missions, which will eventually send humans to the moon for the first time in my life. This piece in The Atlantic covers Artemis II, which, in November of 2024, will take astronauts around the moon and back, much like Apollo 8 did in 1968.
Apollo 8 laid the foundation for countless historic moments in American space exploration. The harrowing yet triumphant moon landing, during Apollo 11 in 1969, couldn’t have happened without it. Neither could the first steps on the lunar surface, or the time that astronauts drove a moon buggy across the gray landscape, or the delightful incident in which a geologist threw his hammer as hard as he could off into the distance, just to see how far it would go. Artemis 2 will likely pave the way for similarly grand photo ops and goofy stunts. And it has already set a precedent that never materialized during the previous era of exploration. All 24 people who have flown to the moon so far were white and male. Koch will be the first woman, and Glover the first person of color, to make the trip.
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Picture of the DayAlley robot.
Good morning, RVA! It's 55 °F, and today looks legitimately hot. You should expect sunshine and temperatures in the upper 80s—maybe even in the 90s if, for some reason, you’re standing on a sea of baking asphalt. Regardless, sounds like a wonderful day to lay in a hammock or get some work done on a porch. Enjoy, and stay hydrated!
Water coolerI’ve written about how much I love the City’s plan to eliminate parking minimums for months now (ORD. 2023-101, which will hit Planning Commission’s agenda on April 17th). It’ll make life easier for small businesses, decrease the amount of valuable space used to store cars, and, hopefully, make a little more room for desperately needed housing. So far I haven’t seen a massive wave of opposition from the typical set of folks, which I’m still kind of holding my breath over. However, this entirely positive article about the proposal by Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch makes me wonder if maybe we just won’t see major organized opposition materialize after all. Honestly, that’d be a pretty big vibe shift for Richmond!
Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams writes about the Governor’s clandestine decision to make it harder for folks to have their voting rights restored. The Governor’s current policy, in which he individually considers each and every person with a felony conviction, “has roots in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901-02, which occurred during an era in which Southern Democrats reasserted white dominance that had weakened during the Reconstruction era.“ You’re going to want to tap through and read a shocking quote from a delegate at that Convention speaking on behalf of this very same, horrible policy now supported by our current governor 120 years later.
Jahd Khalil at VPM reports on some interesting numbers related to the number of people attempting to stay at inclement weather shelters this past winter in Richmond. The City and its partners had a hard time getting their shelter plan together last year—launching after their target deadline and with fewer shelters than originally planned (two instead of four). That limited capacity early on may have impacted the number of folks seeking shelter: “Michael Rogers, programs director at Homeward, said it was a ‘reasonable assumption’ that people perhaps didn't bother going to shelters after hearing they were already full.” I certainly don’t know enough to have thoughts on how to smooth out this process for the coming year (or how to make sure folks have a place to go during ever-increasing extreme heat events!). But maybe there’s hope to be found in adding capacity on the city side of things: Khalil reports that the Mayor has included funds for another homelessness services liaison in his proposed budget.
Wayne Covil at WTVR reports on some A+ tactical urbanism by a man in Hopewell who got tired of calling the City to fill a pothole on his street so he...planted a tree in it! Frustratingly, the City somehow found time to come out and remove the tree but not fill the pothole. Only after a replacement tree found its way to TikTok did a crew come out and actually fill the dang pothole. Lightheartedly shaming on social media is not a scalable replacement for infrastructure maintenance, but, unfortunately, this is how it works sometimes!
Via /r/rva, your moment of whimsy: A misspelled street sign at Main and St(r)afford.
Indictment.fyi has the surprisingly short update on yesterday’s Trumpian media circus. I think the big takeaways for me are 1) Donald Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a scheme to “promote a candidacy by unlawful means,” and 2) The trial is gonna be a slowburner: “The next procedural hearing is scheduled for December 4th...and, if the case is not dismissed at that hearing (which Trump's attorneys are certain to request) a trial won't happen until sometime next year.” Can’t wait to live through a presidential election season taking place alongside a trial to convict an ex-president of felonies!
This morning's longreadAmericans’ Climate Migration Has BegunFive years ago I thought Richmond needed to start planning for how to welcome thousands of climate refugees from the beach due to sea level rise. I still think that, but now I also think we need to prepare for even more folks migrating north for (relatively) cooler temperatures from points south and west.
After natural disasters that render areas or regions uninhabitable, Bittle argues, many people will seek out deeply resourced cities that can recover faster than rural areas. The long-term effects of climate change also prompt him to provide some regional speculations. Cincinnati and Buffalo could become more attractive for climate migrants outrunning disaster. Buffalo (this season’s brutal snowstorms notwithstanding) boosters have been selling the city as a climate refuge. While retirees make decisions on a shorter timeline more inclined to warmth, younger people may well steel themselves for the climate crises ahead, and northern tiers of the U.S. are more likely to house them. Here, Bittle rightly raises the ugly specter of climate gentrification. Despite what census data reveals about population flows to Texas, Florida, and Arizona, for instance, the South and Southwest will actually disgorge people and industries in the coming decades due to increasing temperatures and water scarcity.
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Picture of the DayAs a friend said, it’s the great unfurling!
Good morning, RVA! It's 55 ºF, and today looks amazing. Upgrade all of yesterday’s forecasted temperatures by a handful of degrees, because, starting today, you can expect highs in the 80s for the next little while. In fact, tomorrow may be just plain hot. Remember, it’s never too early to hydrate!
Water coolerVPM reports that “the state medical examiner on Monday ruled Irvo Otieno’s death a homicide.“ I’m not sure what the next steps are in this process, but 10 total people have been indicted on second-degree murder charges, including seven Henrico County sheriff’s deputies. I’m still processing this whole situation, but I’m surprised about the lack of public protests and the lack of reporting on and about the Sheriff’s Office.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Michael Martz reports that the Governor will not call a special election to fill Lamont Bagby’s now-vacant House of Delegates seat. Tap through to read a bunch of thoughts from various people on whether or not this is a good decision. While I kind of wanted to see how many electoral dominoes we could knock over in a single year, I think I mostly agree with the elections folks who feel overwhelmed and ready to focus on June’s primaries. It’ll be the first time the Commonwealth votes in these newly drawn districts, which, while exciting for me, is probably incredibly stressful for people running the elections. Early voting in these elections starts in just 31 days!
Sean Jones, also at the RTD, reports on the affordable(ish) housing coming to the site of the old Virginia Center Commons mall. Out of 275 units, developers hope to reserve 55 for families making 80% of the area median income (that’s about $80,000). Not what I would call super affordable, and this is why we’ve started to see 60% AMI used as a target for affordable housing in more recent conversations. Definitely related, the header image on this article about affordable housing made me chuckle: A rendering of the apartments with two exotic sports cars and two fancy SUVs parked in the parking lot.
The YWCA of Richmond announced their 2023 class of Outstanding Women Awards honorees, the “local women leading our region and inspiring future leaders.” Honestly, there’s a very, very good chance you’ll get inspired just by reading through the aforelinked list honorees and their accompanying bios. You can help celebrate these women on April 11th, for the OWA Leadership Forum Breakfast, or on May 4th for the 43rd Annual OWA Celebration. Learn more about each and get tickets over on the YWCA’s website.
Peter McElhinney at Style Weekly has a nice piece about Prabir Mehta’s fond farewell to Gallery5. The work Prabir has done over the last couple of decades to establish Gallery5 as one of our city’s cultural centers has just been so impressive to watch. Lots of folks contribute to Richmond’s stone soup, but I think Prabir’s contribution has probably been larger and more generous than most.
Virginia Mercury’s Wyatt Gordon reports on the frustrating process localities have to wade through to provide simple amenities at bus stops. Getting bus service going in the first place is nearly impossible, approving bus stops at all often a challenge, but to also have to battle the state over details like the thickness of a concrete pad? Absolutely brutal. It sounds like, though, that the Department of Rail and Public Transportation is working on improving the process as well as lending a hand to smaller localities who may not have the resources to get into it with VDOT.
Unless things go way off the rails, today Donald Trump will turn himself in at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. After that, he’ll be arraigned and we’ll all learn a lot more about whatever charges he’s facing. There will be a lot of content created today! However, I still think indictment.fyi, an as-needed but no-more-than-daily newsletter, is the best way to follow this sort of thing. Spend the day outside in the beautiful weather, not pull-to-refreshing a chaotic doomfeed.
This morning's longreadThe porn star, the checks and the president: Trump’s tawdry path to perilGiven today’s...festivities...I figured this piece in the WaPo recapping the whole Stormy Daniels situation would provide good context for those of us who got lost during the “more than four years of newer Trump material.”
Those payments are now at the heart of the investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, who could bring charges against Trump as early as this week for allegedly falsifying business records related to the payments. Cohen described meeting with Trump repeatedly to discuss the payments and provided Congress two of the 11 reimbursement checks he received, each for $35,000 — one signed by Trump and the other by his son, Donald Trump Jr. Cohen’s testimony came a few months before he reported to federal prison after pleading guilty to various charges, including violating campaign finance laws with his pre-election payment to Daniels. His narrative of the saga was delivered to a rapt nation, but the details of that scandal have now been overwritten by more than four years of newer Trump material — two impeachments, an insurrection, an unrelated FBI raid of Trump’s Florida home.
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Picture of the DayBuzzzzzz.
Good morning, RVA! It's 43 °F, and warmer weather is here! Today you can expect highs in the 70s, tomorrow will feature highs near 80 °F, and, depending on how things shake out, we might see some upper 80s on Thursday. That sounds lovely, and I hope you have some plans already in the works to take advantage of the stellar weather.
Water coolerToday, City Council will meet for their fourth budget work session at 1:00 PM, an Organizational Development committee meeting at 4:00 PM, and their own Special Meeting at 5:30 PM. I’ll get the budget work session up on The Boring Show later this week, of course, but if you have time the Org Dev meeting might be worth tuning into live as they’ll hear report outs from all other Council committees in addition to the ominously-named Audit Committee. Closing out their day at the Special Meeting, Council will consider a single paper, ORD. 2023-080, which will allocate $1.75 million to community college scholarships for RPS students. That’s a long day, and I hope Council brought snacks and remember to hydrate.
Related, Patrick Larsen at VPM reports on a $200,000 budget amendment submitted by 2nd District Councilmember Jordan to fund a study on decarbonizing the City’s Department of Public Utilities. I don’t know how it works in other cities, but in Richmond, we buy our natural gas from the City itself and all that revenue goes to support the day-to-day operations of the Department of Public Utilities. When gas prices go up (or gas usage goes down), DPU has to increase its consumer rates to keep paying its bills. You can see how this situation doesn’t give DPU (or the City’s leadership) a whole lot of incentive to move away from natural gas entirely and on to renewable energy sources. Honestly, though: Too bad! The planet’s on fire and of all entities, our local governments should not be involved in the sale—and expansion!—of non-renewable energy sources. Doomsaying aside, how to make this transition is a huge and complicated question, and I’m not sure anyone really wants to think too hard about it , so I appreciate this budget amendment and hope that the study gets funded. Working through how our city functions in a future/present where natural gas is not a tenable energy solution is well worth $200,000.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Erick Kolenich reports on VCU’s efforts to enforce speed limits on its campus after a student was hit and killed by a driver earlier this year. Enforcement is certainly a part of making our streets safer, but it’s not the only tool in the tool box. I’ve yet to see either VCU or the City do anything to narrow these streets to make them safer, as recommended by the recent Strong Towns Crash Analysis Studio. They could do this—temporarily even—with cheap and available materials.
Meghan McIntyre at the Virginia Mercury has a nice recap of where Virginia stands with telehealth and what impact the ending of the federal public health emergency will have. Along with a whole lot of other things, it turns out physically going to the doctor in some routine situations is a waste of everyone’s time. While it seems like we have actually learned a few of these lessons as we mover further and further out of the pandemic, some industries, though, are having a harder time with the transition. The RTD’s Sean Jones reports that Capital One will require workers back into the office three days a week, walking back their earlier promises of remote work. The reasoning for the shift seems to be to make in-person work better for those who choose to do it, not because remote work wasn’t efficient or functional. Honestly, I wonder how many big business and government return-to-work mandates are driven by their investments in enormous pieces of now-empty real estate?
This morning's longreadThe Ebb and Flow of FitnessI am not a programmer and certainly am not an iOS app developer, but I find myself really enjoying this blog from app developer David Smith. I thought this post about tracking your personal fitness was particularly well written, and it resonated with me.
In much the same way as sitting on the beach, you can clearly tell the difference between high and low tide, but at any one moment, you can’t really tell if the tide is ebbing or flowing. So it is with fitness; I can tell when my fitness is meaningfully greater or lower than it has been before, but in the moment, it is really challenging to tell which way the tide is moving. On the negative side, this can then form a trap. You are so removed in time from the ultimately negative impacts of your current choices that you only realize that you are at “low tide” after a sustained period of negative choices. And then, sadly, on the positive side, you can feel like you are putting in all the right efforts and working hard in the moment, but it may seem like you haven’t changed the tide at all.
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Picture of the DayFrosty the bike rider.
Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F right now, but later today we’ll see highs in the 70s! Do keep an eye out for a bit of rain later this evening, though—something I’m going to pretend won’t happen because these bikes won’t ride themselves. This weekend a brief cold(ish) front moves through, bringing with it rain and gusty winds, so prepare to batten if need be. Next week looks really beautiful, and I think we’ll get a small taste of it this weekend. Enjoy!
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 0, 71, and 30, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 3.3. Most of the country and nearly the entirety of the Commonwealth sits at a low COVID-19 Community Level (just three Virginia counties are in the yellow), and it’s been that way for a bunch of a weeks in a row now. Three years into this thing, and it’s time to get rid of these recurring COVID-19 updates—or at least move them to monthly. I think that’s a big deal and a good sign of where we are in the lifespan of this pandemic. Of course, should case rates spike and hospitals start to fill up as a result of some newly unleashed variant, I may change my mind, but, for now, this sort of data-centric update is no longer needed! That makes me feel some sort of hard-to-identify emotion!
Ian M. Stewart at VPM reports on last week’s Crash Analysis Studio hosted by Strong Towns and has some of the recommendations that resulted. The number one recommendation, which will surprise literally zero readers of this email, is to narrow the road immediately using temporary materials (like those big orange barrels). This will both slow drivers and shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians, making it safer for everyone. See! It’s not just a random guy with a newsletter that thinks these things but also experts from national advocacy organizations who work on these problems daily. Richmond could implement quick and temporary changes like this immediately after someone is hurt or killed on our streets—to help prevent future crashes—but, for some reason, we’re stubbornly unwilling to do so.
Also from VPM, Megan Pauly sat down with Angela Jones, RPS’s Director of Culture, Climate, and Student Services, to talk about the District’s policies and procedures for when gun violence impacts students. It’s a depressing interview, but I think it does a good job at showing just some of the thoughtfulness RPS puts in to responding to some truly horrible situations.
Richmond BizSense’s Jack Jacob reports that the Willow Lawn Dollar Tree closed, and the new tenant remains a mystery. /r/rva gets my hopes up by suggesting it might be a Trader Joe’s, which, while exciting, is probably unlikely. But maybe!
Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the tiniest update on the process to fill Lamont Bagby’s old House of Delegates seat. So far we’ve got one candidate declared, but the Governor has to first decide if he’ll even call a special election. I guess he can decide not to and just wait until November? I’m sure there are smart rules around this—I can totally see how if a seat opened in, say, October, you wouldn’t want to go through the hassle of a special election with another election just weeks away.
Yesterday, President Donald Trump was indicted. Regardless of how shocked you are, it’s big news: No president in history has ever been charged with a crime. If you’d like to stay up-to-date on the proceedings, I recommend subscribing to indictment.fyi, an as-needed newsletter written by the same guy who did impeachment.fyi back when those were a thing. It’s hard to have thoughts this early on, but I’ve already seen some bad takes from Republicans and national media focused on how this indictment will “test democracy” or is a “sad day for America.” My mental trick to prevent my brain from sympathizing with this rhetoric, which, for some reason it desperately wants to do, is to flip the framing back on to the crimes committed. A president committing crimes is a test for democracy. A president committing crimes is a sad day for America. Indictments and the legal processes that follows are how this whole thing is supposed to work.
The #1 Virginia Tech Hokies face the #3 LSU Tigers in the 2023 Women’s Final Four tonight at 6:00 PM. The winner will take on either #1 South Carolina or #2 Iowa in the National Championship Game at 2:30 PM on Sunday. Exciting stuff, and good luck Hokies!
This morning's longreadWe should ban TikTok(‘s surveillance)I think Cory Doctorow has it right in this take on Congress’s recent flirtations with banning TikTok. How about, instead of banning TikTok, we ban technology companies in general from spying on us, collecting our personal data, and doing gross things with it?
The same goes for commercial surveillance: once you collect massive, nonconsensual dossiers on every technology user alive, you don't get to act surprised when cops and spies show up and order your company to serve as deputies for a massive, off-the-books warrantless surveillance project. Hell, a cynic might even say that commercial surveillance companies are betting on this. The surveillance public-private partnership is a vicious cycle: corporations let cops and spies plunder our data; then the cops and spies lobby against privacy laws that would prevent these corporations from spying on us. Which makes the RESTRICT Act an especially foolish project. If the Chinese state wants to procure data on Americans, it need not convince us to install Tiktok. It can simply plunk down a credit card with any of the many unregulated data-brokers who feed the American tech giants the dossiers that the NSA and local cops rely on.
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Picture of the DayYesssss azalea season, full speed ahead!
Good morning, RVA! It's 40 °F, and today you can expect weather a lot like yesterday—highs around 60 °F, sunshine, and plenty of signs of spring popping up all around. I don’t know about you, but my hostas are excited to be alive. Temperatures start to warm up tomorrow and will continue to do so through the end of next week.
Water coolerJahd Khalil at VPM reports on the City’s 2022 Office of Community Wealth Building Impact Report, which you can download as PDF and read directly if you’d like. OCWB exists to elevate Richmonders out of poverty and they do so through a handful of interesting initiatives (including a small and nascent basic income program!). Each year they’re required by City Council to draft a report of what they’ve been up to, and the main takeaway from this year is that poverty fell 1.5%. That probably doesn’t seem like a lot, but, as OCWB’s director puts it “it’s been moving in the right direction.” Take a minute and scroll through the actual PDF report though, because there are a lot of interesting stats and tables that are worth your time. Like: Since 2012, poverty among Black and Latino Richmonders has fallen 12% and 48% (?!) respectively.
Tyler Lane at WTVR continues his reporting on deaths in the City’s jail. Since March 2022, five people have died in the jail, with three of them confirmed to be the result of a fentanyl overdose.
Related, and I expect to be writing a lot more about this in the coming months, yesterday the FDA approved Narcan, a drug that prevents opioid overdoses, for over-the-counter use. If you’re unfamiliar with how Narcan works, I recommend this really excellent video from the National Harm Reduction Coalition. You can also get free narcan (and training on how to use it!) through your friendly local health department.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Charlotte Rene Woods digs into the Governor’s decision to make it harder for people who have been convicted of a felony to have their voting rights restored. Making it harder to vote is part of the official Republican platform these days, so I’m sure no one is super surprised by the Governor’s quite adjustment to this policy (even though Republican Bob McDonnell took the first steps down Virginia’s path to a more automatic restoration of rights). The numbers are kind of shocking: “In his first year, Youngkin restored 4,300 people's rights. Meanwhile Democratic governors, Northam restored more than 126,000 and Terry McAuliffe restored more than 173,000.“ At this rate, by the end of his term, Youngkin will have restored rights to just 14% of the people his predecessor did. A handful of legislators in the General Assembly want to remove this authority from the Governor, and rightfully so! Unfortunately, it’d take a constitutional amendment, so don’t hold your breath.
Sarah Vogelsong at the Virginia Mercury has a nice look at where we are in the Commonwealth’s budget process and what happens if the General Assembly can’t get their acts together and pass a budget. Luckily, because of the ancient and mysterious way in which Virginia works, last year’s budget was technically a two-year budget, so there’s no fear of a government shutdown or anything like that. There are, however, a bunch of new projects and initiatives that would have to wait until the next year for potential funding—including $100 million investment into Richmond’s combined sewer overflow system.
Yesterday, Penn State announced that they’d hired away VCU basketball coach Mike Rhoades after he spent the last five seasons with the Rams. Wasting almost no time at all, later that same evening, VCU named Ryan Odom as their new head coach. You might remember Odom from that time he became the first person to ever lead a 16-seed team (UMBC) to a win over a 1-seed (UVA) in the NCAA tournament.
This morning's longreadSmoke screenMore AI thoughts! I liked this piece because I think it’s so easy to forget how AI isn’t magically immune to inheriting all of humanity’s racism, sexism, and every other ism we’ve got—I mean, it’s trained on the content of the internet!
But there are other ways this story works too: fears about so-called AIs eventually exceeding their creators’ abilities and taking over the world function to obfuscate the very real harm these machines are doing right now, to people that are alive today. We already have ample evidence of the ways that the application of AI and adjacent methods are being used to issue automatic and capricious denials of medical care; to target people for surveillance or arrest; to create content that is racist, sexist, ableist, and so on—not to mention that its penchant for bullshit makes it a highly scalable tool for generating and disseminating disinformation. All of which is to say, so-called AI is yet another tool for accelerating the already-happening efforts of precaritization, austerity, and inequality. But it’s difficult to locate those concerns—or address them—within the tale of a new intelligence coming into being.
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Picture of the DayWelcome home.
Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, and today you can expect mostly clear skies and highs right around 60 °F. While not epically warm, beautiful summer weather, it is pretty excellent flannel weather—and we’ve only got a finite number of those kind of days left this spring!
Water coolerThe (unofficial) results are in, and, as expected, Lamont Bagby won yesterday’s special election for Virginia’s 9th Senate District seat. He crushed Republican challenger Stephen Imholt with almost 90% of the vote. You can read a short statement from the Senator-elect and Rep. McClellen, whose seat he filled, here. I’m not sure when he’ll get sworn in, but if it’s anytime soon, I guess we’d have Yet Another Special Election to fill his vacant House of Delegates seat? And if a local elected official, like, say, a member of Henrico’s Board of Supervisors, runs in that election, maybe some of us would have the opportunity for even more voting later this summer? It’s sort of chaotic and I love it, but remember: All of these jokers are back up for reelection this November. That’s when we all get really serious about casting a ballot for whatever Democrats we can to continue protecting the health and safety of Virginians for the next couple of years.
Exciting City Council news: At this past Monday’s meeting, Council introduced the ordinance to get rid of parking minimums throughout the city (ORD. 2023-101)! This is the first of The Three Zoning Changes to make it into actual ordinance form, and Planning Commission will get the first crack at it in just a couple of weeks at their April 17th meeting. I’m hopeful that the extensive public engagement the City has already done up to this point will make this an easy vote for Planning Commissioners and, eventually, City Councilmembers.
Yesterday, Mayor Stoney held a press conference to announce that he’d introduced an ordinance to declare a housing crisis in Richmond (RES. 2023-R019). Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a recap of the event. Mostly the resolution supports existing City efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing—including the $50 million set aside in the Mayor’s recently proposed budget—but there is one section about creating an Affordable Housing Commission that would “bring together public, private, and philanthropic thought leadership, innovation, and tactical implementation guidance for affordable housing projects, as well as provide coordination across the various sectors and funding streams related to affordable housing.” That sounds sort of like the Partnership for Housing Affordability, but maybe on the very local level? Anyway, my take on these sorts of resolutions is that they’re useful as an advocacy tool—to constantly bring up while advocating for other policies and legislation—and shouldn’t really be expected to change a ton of things on their own.
Patrick Larsen at VPM reports that after the death of Irvo Otieno the NAACP of Henrico has started asking great questions about criminal justice reform in the County—specifically about Henrico’s lack of a fully implemented Marcus Alert program. State law requires every locality to have a Marcus Alert program in place by next summer, and while its not a perfect system, it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Otieno’s funeral will take place this morning with the eulogy given by Rev. Al Sharpton.
Have you ever seen a massive group of people riding bikes down Broad Street, most of them doing wheelies the entire time? They’re the Broad Street Bullies, and you’re going to want to read this charming interview with a few of them over in RVA Mag. Maybe they’ll teach me how to wheelie, because I desperately want to learn.
Tonight, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM, the Library of Virginia will host “A Woman’s Place is in the House...of Delegates,” a panel discussion featuring Delegates Coyner, Herring, and Watts focused on the challenges and opportunities women experience down at the Capitol. Stop by, learn a bunch, and get inspired. The event is free, but you should register on the aforelinked website.
This morning's patron longreadBicycleSubmitted by Patron Casey. They’re back! The person who models the surprisingly complex everyday items in our lives—down to the smallest detail—with fun and simple interactive animations has put together a really lovely explanation of how bicycles work. Set aside a whole bunch of time to work through this page and fiddle with each piece. It’s honestly like walking through an exhibit in a museum.
Compared to internal combustion engines or mechanical watches, bicycles are fairly simple machines – most of their parts operate in plain sight. What’s not directly visible are all the forces that make it possible to ride and control a bicycle without compromising the structural integrity of its components. In this article, I’ll focus on the delicate interplay between many of the forces that act on a bicycle and its parts when riding. We’ll witness how forces applied through tires make a bicycle accelerate, brake, and turn, and we’ll also investigate how the wheels and the frame handle those different forces without breaking. Before we understand these more complicated interactions, we’ll play with much simpler objects. The basic scenarios we’re about to explore will help us develop an intuition about the behavior of a real bicycle.
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Picture of the DaySpring on an alien world.
Good morning, RVA! It's 47 °F, and temperatures should warm up to around 60 °F by this afternoon. We may see some rain this evening, too. If today’s damp and chillyish weather is not your cup of tea, worry not! The next couple of days look dry and sunny, and I definitely see some highs in the 80s later on in the 10-day forecast.
Water coolerYesterday, three elementary school students and three teachers were shot and killed in a mass shooting in Nashville. When faced with this specific repeated tragedy, I have a hard time putting words to what’s happening despite it recurring with a horrible frequency. Instead of reading a half dozen news sites and pull-to-refreshing timelines all day, I’ve started to wait for certain people in our community to lay out their thoughts—people with a better capacity for empathy and thoughtfulness than myself. RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras is one of those people, and you can read his response to this most recent school shooting in last night’s email. To quote a bit: “Above all else, I believe that strong, healthy, loving relationships at school and at home are the greatest safeguard we can offer our students and staff. That's why we've made significant investments in counselors, social workers, and psychologists over the past several years, and implemented community circles and a social-emotional learning curriculum. But our students need even more support, particularly post-pandemic. Towards that end, here's one very concrete thing you can do to help them: Demand that the General Assembly lift the cap on funding for support staff in our schools.” Given the lack of compassion from our federal and state Republican lawmakers and their complete unwillingness to move a single inch on commonsense gun safety legislation, one of the only avenues available to addressing violence in school is to provide schools with adequate funding. To that end, take three minutes this morning, email the legislators on the General Assembly’s budget committees (listed out for you in Kamras’s email), and ask them to lift the cap on school support staff and fund the Senate’s version of the budget.
Today, believe it or not, is an Election Day. Residents of the current 9th Senate District can vote for Rep. McClellan’s replacement until 7:00 PM. Del. Lamont Bagby is the Democratic candidate, and you can find out if you live in the 9th District here and find your polling place here. While the demographics of the district likely guarantee a Bagby victory, the previous paragraph should be enough to motivate you to get out and vote at some point today.
Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on a big federal grant that Richmond’s public housing authority just landed. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development dropped $14 million into the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s bank account to help fund the Authority’s new “Richmond Development Corporation.” I am definitely not an expert on how housing authority’s work—I did read a good article once!—but I think the idea here is to mash together whatever available public and private funding streams you can find to create as much affordable housing as possible. I do wonder what kind of affordable housing we’re talking about here and what sort of steps are being taken towards increasing our supply of actual public housing.
A quick and important scooter update: Now both Lime and Spin scooters begin the day with small fleets deployed on the Southside. Both companies do cluster their vehicles in Manchester, so residents of deeper Southside are still out of luck. This is definitely progress from a couple months back when each morning began with exactly zero scooters south of the river.
Richmond Magazine’s Stephanie Ganz did the hard and delicious work of coming up with a list of local snacks that cost less than $5. Empanadas, homemade pop-tarts, spring rolls—where to even start? Actually, you should spend some time clicking around this month’s issue of Richmond Magazine, there are bunch of food-related stories worth checking out.
With last night’s win, the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team has reached the Final Four for the first time in program history! The #1 Hokies will face #3 LSU on Friday at 7:00 PM.
This morning's longreadHow Meat and Fossil Fuel Producers Watered Down the Latest IPCC ReportNothing really surprised me in this article about the way politics influences how we use climate scientists’ research, and I don’t think you’ll be surprised by it either. However, the description of the IPCC process is pretty interesting and worth your time.
Rodrigo Rodriguez Tornquist, Argentina’s secretary for climate change, requested that the paragraph recommending plant-based diets be removed entirely. In a comment, he wrote that there is “no scientific basis for such affirmation on plant based protein diets,” according to documents obtained by Unearthed. He also requested that any reference to plant-based diets be removed from the final text. Brazil’s delegates made similar requests and supported Argentina’s comments. The final synthesis report released this week instead recommends “balanced, sustainable healthy diets acknowledging nutritional needs.” Meat and dairy, which are responsible for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions aren’t mentioned at all.
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Picture of the DayAn overwhelmingly pink redbud.
Good morning, RVA! It's 49 °F, and today we’ve got highs right around 70 °F. There’s a decent chance of rain this morning, but the afternoon looks lovely. I definitely plan on spending some time out on the porch listening to the world go by.
Water coolerThe Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy at Irvo Otieno’s funeral this coming Wednesday. According to the RTD, civil rights attorney Ben Crump will issue a “national call for justice for the 28-year-old, whose death echoes that of George Floyd nearly three years ago."
Richmond Connects—the City’s first update to its transportation plan in a good, long while—is inching closer to announcing its Near-term Action Plan, a list of projects that the City will look to fund over the next five or 10 years. That sentence is exciting and depressing, because while five to 10 years definitely counts as “near-term” in Transportation World it certainly feels like forever in Regular Life World. I’ll now set aside for another day my rant about how Richmond refuses to implement pilot/temporary infrastructure projects which would take much fewer than five years to fund and implement. Anyway, while we wait on the Near-term Action Plan’s prioritized list of projects, check out these neat maps of Richmond‘s “Super Needs”. From the Richmond Connect’s website: Super Needs are “the needs that communities of concern consistently raised as needing to be addressed first. These Super Needs will be given priority during the development of recommendations.” If you’re personally familiar with any of these areas, you’ll definitely find yourself nodding along and muttering “yes! yes!” to lots of the needs. Turns out, residents are experts about where they feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods, and this list of Super Needs is an example of what you get when you ask (and listen) to them.
Ben Paviour at VPM reports that legislators put the Commonwealth’s budget negotiations on hold after the Secretary of Finance “told budget negotiators Tuesday that while the state's revenues remained solid, he anticipated a stronger possibility of a recession in the next few months.” That seems ominous. This news, the recent bank shenanigans, and the inevitable and impending debt-ceiling crisis all make me want to find a good financial/economy blog to read.
Tonight, City Council will meet for their regularly-scheduled meeting and will have exactly zero items on their Regular Agenda. That’s rare! The Consent Agenda—which they vote on as a block, typically without a ton of discussion—features a bunch of Special Use Permits and a few interesting items here and there. Notably, Council has continued to a later meeting both the ordinance to unprohibit roundabouts at the intersection of Hermitage and Laburnum (ORD. 2023-057) and the SUP for the 260 apartments on Grove near the highway (ORD. 2023-068). I’m interested in what’s causing the delay behind the former, as it seems like a fairly uncontroversial ordinance.
Via /r/rva, “Who has the best Greek salad in Richmond?” I would have said Joe’s, but now I’m really interested in the commenter who recommends making your own (in two-gallon batches!) when the summer tomatoes hit.
This morning's longreadAtlanta Retrofitting Prominent Office Tower to ResidentialThis piece in Strong Towns about an office-to-residential renovation reminded me of the longread I linked to last week about windowless apartments. Like Atlanta, Richmond has vacant land (aka surface-level parking lots) on which we should build housing first—before spending tons of public money to subsidize complicated projects like this.
Even after a successful renovation, the economics of converting office to residential is still problematic. “As crazy as our rents are [in Atlanta], they're still not high enough to support this kind of development,” says Kronberg. For the 2 Peachtree Street project, the city hasn’t yet provided “any breakdown of price points for the rents,” according to Atlanta Civic Circle. Kronberg says many developers would struggle to make a profit with this type of project even if they were given the office building for free, citing another building Atlanta bought eight years ago that’s still vacant for want of a development partner. Kronberg would like to see the city work with developers to turn “a huge surplus of vacant land” into a greater mix of housing types, which would be more economical than the hefty expenditures for the Peachtree Street project. He also expresses frustration at how slow the permitting process is in a city with a “wretched housing crisis.”
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Picture of the DaySignage.
Good morning, RVA! It's 63 °F this morning, and, by this afternoon, we’ll see even warmer temperatures—potentially right around 80 °F! Don’t get too attached, though, because a cool front will move through and quickly drop temperatures back into the 50s around the time the sun sets. Warm temperatures return on Saturday and Sunday, the latter looking particularly lovely for a long bike ride. I hope you find some time to get out there and enjoy it—I know I will!
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 0, 85, and 25, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 4.3. It’s another week in the green for our region, and, in fact, I think this is the first time in a long time (maybe ever?) that every locality across the entire commonwealth has a low COVID-19 Community Level. If you zoom way out to the national level you’ll see a similar trend, too, with probably less than a dozen counties with a high level and just a bowlful of them with a medium level. Who knows what the future holds, and if this trend will stick, but if the last three years has taught me anything, it’s that you just kind of need to roll with the current situation—and our current situation features a whole lot less disease than it did a year ago!
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers reports on new plans for the old Public Safety Building. The City reclaimed ownership of the property earlier this year after a developer failed to come through on their proposal, and now it sounds like VCU will swoop in and build a $415 million complex for a VCU Dentistry Center instead. Spiers asks the first question I had, but has no answer: “The memo does not provide more details about the project, such as whether VCU would buy the Public Safety Building property from the city. University ownership would take the 3-acre property off the city's tax rolls, as VCU is exempt from paying city real estate taxes.“ The decrepit remains of the Public Safety Building are bad, but I’m not sure hurriedly removing yet another entire block of property from Richmond’s tax rolls forever is the best option moving forward.
Jahd Khalil at VPM has today’s weird headline: “Education secretary requested university mascots appear in Youngkin PAC video.” You can watch the ad here (Twitter), and you may, at most, chuckle softly a time or two. However, political ethics experts are not chuckling and are instead wondering if public university mascots have any business at all showing up in an ad funded by the sitting governor’s political action committee. Ultimately though, is this a big deal? Probably not. Is it weird and maybe not the best? Yeah, I think so.
Tyler Thrasher at WRIC reports that “It has finally happened — Goshen Street has been repaved.” Previously a patchwork of cobblestone and detritus, Goshen is now topped with fresh, smooth asphalt. Thrasher, who sounds like they have first hand experience, puts it like this, “Stories of tripping while completely sober leaving Dunkin' Donuts on the corner of Goshen Street and Broad Street on the way home from class were just small grains of sand on the beach of memories the road had to offer Carver neighbors and VCU students living off-campus.“
Reminder: Strong Towns will host their Crash Analysis Studio today at 12:15 PM to analyze what caused the fatal crash on VCU’s campus earlier this year and to propose solutions to reduce the frequency and trauma of future crashes. This sort of rapid, specific response to a serious crash is what I’ve asked for from our own City for years now, and, while it took an outside group to put it together, I’m still very glad it’s happening. Hop on the Zoom at 12:15 PM and learn how we can make our streets safer!
This morning's longreadWe Cannot Countenance Windowless BedroomsI thought this was an astute take on the recent “lets just build tiny apartments with no windows to solve the housing crisis” discourse floated around by some of the Very Online Men. We definitely should not make access to sunlight an amenity, and there are lots of other ways to build more housing—housing with windows even!
What is at stake here is not pesky apartment “inefficiency”: It is, and I am not being hyperbolic, the commodification of sunlight as an amenity, something you pay extra for like marble countertops or a walk-in closet. If windowless bedrooms are allowed, they will become yet another dividing line between the haves and the have-nots, and everyone who pretends otherwise certainly won’t end up on the side of the have-nots. The argument that people are willing to take a windowless bedroom in exchange for lower rent ignores the fact that many don’t want to for obvious reasons (misery and temporal disorientation) and that they shouldn’t have to deprive themselves in the first place. The windowless bedroom is not a clever building solution; it’s just rent-seeking on the backs of the urban desperate.
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Picture of the DayYou’re doing great, plant.
Good morning, RVA! It's 49 °F, and today's temperatures will almost reach 80 °F! You can expect similarly warm temperatures for the next four days, and I hope you'll find at least a couple of chances to get out there and enjoy it. Maybe plan a trip to one of Richmond's parks that you've never visited and spend an afternoon exploring?
Water coolerI've got two City Council items to kick off your morning! First, I posted this past Monday’s budget work session over on the Boring Show for your listening pleasure. It's a long one and I'm only about an hour into it, but the discussion focuses, at least in part, on how the City can become an "employer of choice." It's really interesting stuff, and I recommend you queue it up at 2x speed next time you've got three baskets of laundry to fold. Second, Council's Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee will meet today (full agenda here) and will consider ORD. 2023-057, which would unprohibit a roundabout at the intersection of Hermitage Road and Laburnum Avenue, repealing one of the most dripping-with-NIMBYism ordinances passed in recent(ish) memory. To be clear, I don't know that a roundabout is the best and safest solution for this massive intersection now that the monument no longer sits in the middle obscuring views from every which way. I'd probably prefer a protected intersection. However, I think it's incredibly smart to get the bad 2009 ordinance off the books so that this generation of grumpy neighbors—or maybe even the same grumpy neighbors from 2009 that still live in the area—can't use it to oppose whatever the City eventually propose to make this intersection safer for everyone. P.S. The Committee will also have a discussion on "future Housing Plan to include Richmond 300 growth nodes with transit corridors and a system similar to Arlington’s Revitalization Zones." I'm interested and would like to learn more!
The Richmond Times-Dispatch has the news that Governor Youngkin appointed two high-level officials. David Ress reports that Gerald Lackey, former "vice president of business optimization at GAF, the world’s largest roofing manufacturer," will serve as the DMV commissioner. And Anna Bryson reports that Lisa Coons, former chief academic officer of the Tennessee Department of Education, will take over as the new State Superintendent of Public Instruction. I think the latter probably has more opportunity to make headlines than the former, but you never know!
State Senator Scott Surovell started looking into the Governor's process for restoring the voting rights of people convicted of a felony. Unfortunately, after hearing back from the Gov, Surovell found that the process is pretty much a black box (Twitter). To quote the Senator: "Modern bipartisan evidence-based restorative policy that reduced recidivism is dead & ex-felons can now only have voting rights restored using a secret process with secret criteria in the complete absolute discretion of the Governor of VA - we are back to 1902-era policy in VA." This is, unfortunately, the Governor's constitutional prerogative, but, with recent administrations, we've seen a move towards the "automatic restoration of rights" end of the spectrum. This, having the Governor personally consider each applicant individually, seems like a big step backward.
Via /r/rva, on this day in 1775, Patrick Henry gave his "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech.
Mark your calendars! Local pro-housing group RVA YIMBY—Yes In My Back Yard, the opposite of NIMBY, Not In My Back Yard—will host their inaugural meeting this coming Saturday, March 25th from 2:00–4:00 PM at The Barrel Room in Ardent Brewery (3117 W. Moore Street). If you've spent the last couple of years watching the blank stares of your friends as you yell about Richmond's housing crisis, maybe stop by on Saturday. You might find your people! You can RSVP, and, if you’d like, sign up for the RVA YIMBY Slack here.
This morning's longreadHow Far-Right Movements DieI'm not nearly as optimistic as the author of this longread that Trump's MAGA people will suffer the same fate as the members of the now-mostly-defunct John Birch Society. Things are just so different today: 60 years ago, the Birchers didn't have complete control over one of the major news networks and facts still existed. I do think you should still give the piece a read though, because, like the author says, this is certainly one possible future for America's current crop of far-right extremists.
The decline of the John Birch Society is partly a story about political leaders, grassroots activists, and liberal institutions intervening to defend American democracy. But it is also a story of an implosion from within. As the group attracted ever more conspiratorial members, some prone to bigotry and even violence, the society was consumed by internal strife. Some members resigned. Others protested that Birchers weren’t anti-Semitic enough. The leadership sometimes tried to police and expel more troublesome individuals, but that process proved fractious and chaotic. By the mid-’60s, “John Birch”—the name came from an evangelist turned warrior who had been killed by Chinese Communist forces—became a common epithet. The factors that prevented the society from metastasizing are relevant to a country now struggling to contain election denialism, white supremacy, and political violence.
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Picture of the DayI'm trying to learn the names of all the tools.
Good morning, RVA! It's 44 °F, and we did it! Today’s highs will settle in somewhere around the mid 60s, and then, for the next four days, we’ll have highs in the 70s. While we’re still a couple of weeks away from a safe last-frost date, I think I’m mentally declaring victory on winter and officially moving on to spring.
Water coolerI’ve written a lot about the chaotic laundry list of Council-proposed amendments to Richmond 300 (which, fingers crossed, seems to have died a fiery death at this week’s Planning Commission meeting). One change that escaped that list and made it into its own, separate amendment is a recommendation to set aside some time and space in the master plan for our public housing neighborhoods. They’re called “priority neighborhoods” in a new proposed chapter of Richmond 300 and include Gilpin, Creighton, Fairfield, Mosby, Whitcomb, Hillside, Blackwell, and Highland Grove. The first six on that list are existing public housing neighborhoods and the last two stand on the sites of former public housing, now redeveloped to varying degrees of failure and success. This new chapter proposes a “priority neighborhood program” to, basically, create small area plans for each of these eight neighborhoods. It sounds like a lot of important and needed work that’ll require some very thoughtful and thorough community engagement (especially given all the other plans currently in the works). Definitely give the aforelinked PDF a read—it’s only 16 pages, and I think you’ll learn a lot about the past and present of Richmond’s public housing neighborhoods. If you’ve got thoughts and feelings, you can leave them on the document via this Konveio before April 15th.
A small update on Irvo Otieno’s death at the hands of Henrico County sheriff deputies: Whittney Evans at VPM reports that “a Dinwiddie grand jury indicted 10 people Tuesday afternoon in the death of a man last week at Central State Hospital while in police custody.“
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s David Ress reports that the Governor has started the process of signing bills into law, beginning with 51 out of the stack of 819 that sit on his desk. According to Ress, “all were uncontroversial and have broad — often unanimous — bipartisan support.” So, not that exciting, but definitely the start of the process! The General Assembly will reconvene on April 12th to tackle Youngkin’s amendments and potential vetos, and, at some point, theoretically figure out this year’s budget.
Also from the RTD, Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams got ahold of some of the emails between Hanover County School Board members about the renaming of John M. Gandy Elementary. It’s a real bad look for the Board and details a group of folks looking to get even for the renaming of Lee-Davis High School. Gross and petty.
Axios Richmond’s Karri Peifer has a nice piece on the big president heads out by Williamsburg. I don’t know how I feel about the olde tyme spelling of “ruines,” but I do kind of love the idea of grabbing a beer surrounded by the decaying busts of dead presidents.
Cool job alert! Virginia Interfaith Power and Light is looking to hire a transportation outreach coordinator that will “assist with doing the good work of educating and recruiting faith leaders and congregations at the intersection of transportation, environmental justice, and climate change.” Once upon a time I did similar work, and I can say first hand that faith communities have a lot of power if they decide to advocate to elected representatives. You can read the full job description here and fill out the application here.
This morning's longreadPedestrian Death Rate More Than 2x Higher in Historically Red-Lined NeighborhoodsI don’t think it’ll surprise anyone that the rate of pedestrian deaths is higher in historically red-lined neighborhoods, but here’s a whole academic study making that case. And it’s not just traffic violence that shortens the lives of folks living in these neighborhoods today—life expectancy, asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, all kinds of things are worse in historically redlined neighborhoods. To learn more about the longstanding impacts of redlining on the health and safety of our communities, I really recommend digging in to this site from the University of Richmond which connects redlined neighborhoods to a set of specific measures of social vulnerability. It’ll blow your mind.
Communities that were red-lined in the 1930s are still experiencing more than twice the rate of pedestrian deaths today than more privileged neighborhoods — and we can’t achieve Vision Zero until we reckon with racist and classist policies that contribute to the disparity, a groundbreaking new study argues. In the first study ever to definitively “connect redlining to a transportation-related health outcome,” researchers found that census tracts once marked as “hazardous” or “grade D” by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation experienced a pedestrian death rate of 2.6 per 100,000 people between 2010 and 2019, compared to a rate of just 1.1 during the same period for tracts marked grade “A” or “best.”
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Picture of the DayVertical lines.
Good morning, RVA! It's 30 °F, and my grumpiness about the cold continues. But! Looking at the 10-day forecast and I think, after this morning, we’re done with the cold, cold weather. Today, you can expect highs in the mid 60s and some sunshine. By the time this weekend rolls around, we might even see temperatures in the 80s. Spring! It has sprung!
Water coolerIt’s been 53 days since a driver hit and killed a VCU student on Main Street, right in the middle of the Monroe Park campus. Since then, the Richmond Police Department has stepped up enforcement of speeding all over town, but, at least to my knowledge, nothing has been done to actually slow drivers down on this specific stretch of Main Street. What would a quick, temporary intervention—one that actually slows drivers and keeps people safe—even look like though? Is something like that even possible? You can find out for yourself this coming Friday at 12:15 PM as Strong Towns, a national advocacy organization focused on land use patterns, hosts a Crash Analysis Studio to look at the specifics of this crash and this street and suggest how the City could make things safer. The virtual discussion between technical and non-technical experts will “analyze the the multiple factors that caused the crash and, subsequently, identify what can be done to reduce the frequency of and trauma of future crashes.” I’m very excited about this and hope you can attend! The event is free, but you’ll want to register online beforehand.
Last week, VAPLAN released their 2023 VAPLAN Scorecard which ranks our state legislators on a scale of Most Progressive to Least Progressive. Because the General Assembly is a confusing, chaotic mess, the ranking system is also a little bit confusing and chaotic, and I recommend you read the accompanying newsletter to get a feel for how the spreadsheet works. To spoil it a bit, the most progressive legislators of this past session were: Delegates Marcus Simon, Cia Price, Elizabeth Guzman, Jeffrey Bourne, Sam Rasoul, and Don Scott, along with Senators Scott Surovell, Jennifer McClellan, Adam Ebbin, Mamie Locke, Creigh Deeds, and Jennifer Boysko. Take a minute and poke around in the spreadsheet and see what you can uncover. For example, maybe even more interesting than the top and bottom are the folks in the middle—the least progressive Democrats or the most progressive Republicans. P.S. This is also an excellent tool for just looking back to see how all of the legislators voted on important progressive issues—data that simply leaves my mind the instant the GA session ends. I’m thankful that someone has written it all down!
First, are you a member of the Binford Middle, John B. Cary Elementary, Ginter Park Elementary, or George Wythe High communities? Second, do you have any brilliant ideas for how to rename those schools? RPS will rename each of these, and you can submit your suggestions for new names by March 31st. There are some guidelines, but they are very broad, leaving you with maximum brainstorming flexibility: School names must be relevant to Richmond or national history, culture, or geography; and School names must not discriminate and/or cause offense on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, or LGBTQ+ identity. Here are just a few to get your juices flowing: Rainbow Cookie Elementary, Those Puddles of Yellow Pollen Middle, Poppin’ Wheelies High.
Axios Richmond’s Ned Oliver reports on the Mayor’s plans to reinstitute the City’s History and Culture Commission with the aim of scraping the remaining Confederate names off all of our publicly owned buildings, parks, and roadways. The Commission’s first task is a hard one: Building an inventory of everything with a name “associated with the Confederacy or enslavers.” That’s going to be a big, long list filled with lots of entires that make you go “Whoa, I never knew!”
FYI, Mike Plantania at Richmond BizSense reports that, yesterday, the Planning Commission decided to delay their vote on the 260-unit apartment building located on the 3600 block of Grove Avenue. “Lengths of the discussion were centered on the building’s setbacks from Thompson Street and Grove Avenue,” says Platania.
This morning's longreadMaking the Most of Your Transportation Options—And Getting Your Neighbors OnboardThis short article about convincing folks to shift their thinking when it comes to neighborhood redevelopment feels like it tenuously applies to the Diamond District and, to a lesser extent, the plans to develop the area around the Coliseum. Mostly, though, I wanted to link to it because the maps remind me a ton of “Scott’s Addition 2.0”, the part of town that sits just west of Scott’s Addition in Henrico County. If we do a good job of reconnecting that street grid and making those new streets productive, we could really have a neighborhood over there.
Advance forward 17 years, and take a look at White Flint today. The conversation shifted from halting development or doubling down on highway solutions toward a focus on making the streets of White Flint more productive. Over time, marker lines ona page developed into streets. Vast parking lots have been redeveloped into mixed-use buildings. Old streets were enhanced and new streets were added with wide sidewalks and on-street parking. The transportation system supported more productive development and a community where people want to not only be, but call home.
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Picture of the DayI found a place to sit in the forest.
Good morning, RVA! It's 27 °F, and I’m grumpy about it. Highs today, though, should hit somewhere in the 50s and that’s not so bad. Looking ahead, after one more slightly sub-freezing night tonight, it looks like we’ve got a week of warmer weather ahead of us—maybe even temperatures in the 80s as we approach the weekend!
Water coolerThe Richmond Police Department’s Crash Team reports that a driver hit and killed a person crossing N. Belvidere Street at W. Leigh Street. From the release: On Friday “at approximately 2:54 a.m., officers were called to the intersection of North Belvidere Street and West Leigh Street for the report of a collision. Officers arrived and found an adult male down and injured in the left travel lane of the northbound lanes of North Belvidere after being struck by a vehicle in the intersection.” RPD hasn’t shared any other information about this crash, but I have no doubt that speed was a factor. I cross this section of Belvidere every day on my ride home from work (a block south of here because the Leigh Street intersection is too wide and intense). I regularly see people driving well over the posted speed limit—especially in the left lane as they try to both beat the lights and avoid turning traffic in the right lane. The width of the street—across the bridge and onto the southernmost part of Chamberlayne Avenue—really makes it feel like you’re driving on a highway, not through a dense residential neighborhood. This is the second person killed by a driver on or near VCU’s campus this year. Both of these fatal crashes took place on the City’s High Injury Street Network, where we know for a fact—with data—the most serious and deadly crashes occur.
City Council will meet today for their third budget session and will focus on the City becoming an “employer of choice.” You can, of course, watch the meeting live online or wait a couple days and I’ll have it up on the Boring Show. Also of note, they’ll head into a closed session to talk through the City Attorney recruitment/hiring process.
Speaking of city meetings, the Planning Commission also meets today, and you can find their full agenda here. They’ve got a lot to work through, and most interesting to me are probably the 260 proposed apartments at the end of Grove Avenue right before the highway (ORD. 2023-068), a presentation on the changes to the TOD-1 zoning district, and a resolution to amend Richmond 300 with that chaotic laundry list of amendments tossed together by various members of City Council (CPCR.2023.009). About the latter, I’m hoping Planning Commission will reject Council’s clunky, haphazard shoving of stuff onto the end of our award-winning master plan with absolutely zero public engagement.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams weighs in on the death of Irvo Otieno, who died in the custody of the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office. Here’s MPW: “The video evidence shared with Otieno’s attorneys and family members had not yet been made available to the public by Dinwiddie Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill, who found it disturbing enough to charge seven Henrico deputies with second-degree murder in Otieno’s death...After the deputies were charged Tuesday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin urged calm, asking Virginians to ‘respect the process.’ I wish elected officials would spend less time worrying about civic unrest and more time addressing the broken systems that lead to that unrest.”
Samantha Willis, writing for the Virginia Mercury, digs in on the Hanover County School Board’s decision to rename John M. Gandy Elementary, which is “the one school in the district with a name representative of Black history and Black excellence.” I wrote about this messed up situation last week, but you definitely should tap through and read Willis’s piece this morning. She details the recent steps backward the county has made towards its legacy of systemic racism and has some A+ choice words for County leadership. If you happen to live in Hanover, use this article as a starting point for the public comment you’re planning on sending to the County’s Elementary School Naming Committee—you are planning on sending in a public comment, right? You’ve got until Friday to do so.
Greater Richmond Fit4Kids’ Safe Routes to Schools program has a cool giving opportunity that closely aligns with my heart and all the time I spend on a bicycle. They want to raise $7,500 (as part of a matching grant) for “a truck that will transport a fleet of bikes between schools to teach students how to ride.” What’s better than teaching kids how to ride bikes?? Safe Routes to Schools does great work in our communities encouraging students to walk and bike to school—which is, as we say in the bike biz, how you get them. Once a kid experiences the freedom of flying around Richmond on a bike—like Luke on a speeder zipping through the Forest Moon of Endor—you’ve got a life long bike person. If you’ve got a couple of bucks to spare, chip in today.
This morning's longreadSegregated schools, not ‘divisive concepts,’ are what divide usDr. Genevieve Siegel-Hawley had a great column in Richmond Times-Dispatch this past weekend about modern-day school segregation—plus some history about Bettie Weaver that I never knew.
Today, white resistance to educational equity initiatives in Virginia and elsewhere centers on an ahistorical and perverted view of Title VI’s prohibition against discrimination. White resistance flourishes when we refuse to grasp how central anti-Black racism is to our history and contemporary society. It hardens when we keep our educational and social worlds racially separate. And it rears its head when white supremacy is threatened. Backlash to the racial reckoning engendered by George Floyd’s murder helps explain efforts to stoke white racial grievance, protect white students from guilt by circumscribing learning about our past and subvert serious education reform targeting segregation. We could create a different story in Virginia.
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Picture of the DayBasically my mental image of a beer.
Good morning, RVA! It's 50 °F, and today we’ve got another afternoon ahead of us with welcomed highs in the mid 60s. Keep an eye out for gusty wind and possibly a bit of rain late this evening. As for the rest of the weekend, temperatures slowly drop back into the regular, springtime range with highs in the 40s on Sunday. I think you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy the world over the next couple of days, so I say you make some plans and do it!
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 0, 74, and 34, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 1.7. Richmond’s data is still clearly broken, but if we take Henrico as a proxy for the region, we’re still seeing some of the lowest COVID-19 case rates since last fall. While it’s not time to hang the ol’ Mission Accomplished banner—we saw a huge spike in cases last year starting at the end of April—maybe we can cautiously unfurl the banner over in a corner and, like, start getting it ready.
Richmond’s City Council announced yesterday that the City Attorney has resigned, effective immediately, after police charged him with drunk driving last week. Council will “meet in the coming days to outline a process as it moves forward with appointing a new City Attorney.” I’m super interested to see who they end up hiring because the Attorney is such a weird and powerful position in Richmond’s oddly designed governmental structure. They’re the attorney for the whole city—for both the Mayor and City Council—which can sometimes put them in the incredibly interesting place of deciding a conflict between our legislative and executive branches. You can see how this could get awkward if the Mayor wants to do a thing but Council claims he doesn’t have the authority. It’s often the Attorney that wades in at that point and makes the final call. I can’t remember the last time this came up, as the Mayor and Council seem to be mostly on the same page lately, but when it happens I think it’s fascinating.
Whittney Evans at VPM has more details on the seven Henrico deputies who are charged with the second-degree murder of a man they were transporting to a mental hospital. Of note: “High-profile civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who’s represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, has joined the family’s legal team — along with local attorney Mark Krudys.”
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that demolition has started at Fire Station 12 on Cary Street. Built in 1908, this was the oldest operating fire station in the city! Tap through for a rendering of what the replacement station will look like—the new building definitely has less Ghostbusters vibes, but sure looks like it’d be way nicer place to work.
Here’s the best thing of the week, via /r/rva: “Richmond man sings elvish songs in the Texas Beach tunnel.”
Also via /r/rva (from the RVAH20 account, which I assume is officially tied to the City’s Department of Public Utilities): “things that don’t belong in storm water infrastructure.” Where does all the trash flying around on the street end up? In our storm drains!—taking up space, clogging things up, and causing street flooding when huge, climate-change-exacerbated rains move through. Anyway, don’t litter, it’s gross and bad.
Today at 2:00 PM, #12 VCU takes on #5 Saint Mary in the first round of the NCAA tournament. If this sounds like a blast from the past, that’s because VCU matched up with the Gaels in the 2017 tournament, too, losing that one 77–85. This is the Rams’ first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2019 (unless you count 2021, they year they got downed by COVID-19 and never stepped foot on the court).
Y’all know I love space, NASA, the moon, and everything to do with exploring our universe. That’s why I’m pretty excited for Apollo: When We Went To the Moon, a new exhibit at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture that opens tomorrow and runs through the end of the year. They’ve got a bunch of models and artifacts from the Space Race era, and I could certainly lose a bunch of hours looking at each and every item! The exhibit is included in a regular admission ticket which is just $10.
This morning's longreadThis Changes EverythingI really, really liked this framing of AI from Ezra Klein at the New York Times. I’m not sure I see as much instadoom in our future as he does, but I do think “the texture of a world populated by ChatGPT-like programs”, as he puts it, is incredibly different from what we’re used to today.
Artificial intelligence is a loose term, and I mean it loosely. I am describing not the soul of intelligence, but the texture of a world populated by ChatGPT-like programs that feel to us as though they were intelligent, and that shape or govern much of our lives. Such systems are, to a large extent, already here. But what’s coming will make them look like toys. What is hardest to appreciate in A.I. is the improvement curve. “The broader intellectual world seems to wildly overestimate how long it will take A.I. systems to go from ‘large impact on the world’ to ‘unrecognizably transformed world,’” Paul Christiano, a key member of OpenAI who left to found the Alignment Research Center, wrote last year. “This is more likely to be years than decades, and there’s a real chance that it’s months.”
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Picture of the DayBig hooks.
Good morning, RVA! It's 29 °F right now, but, by this afternoon, we’ll see temperatures in the mid 60s. Today, tomorrow, and Saturday all look incredible, and I’m already starting to pencil in Forest Time on my calendar. I hope you can find the time to enjoy it, too.
Water coolerSeven Henrico County Sheriff’s deputies have been charged with second-degree murder. Earlier this month, the deputies were transferring a person suffering a mental health crisis to a hospital and, in the process, held him down “on the floor for 12 minutes while he was shackled and handcuffed, eventually ‘smothering him to death.’” Mark Bowes at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has more details (content warning: graphic descriptions of violence committed by law enforcement officers). This situation reads like a horrific combination of the murders of George Floyd and Marcus-David Peters. Clearly the policies and reforms we’ve put in place since those two deaths are not nearly enough to keep people safe—especially people in need of help.
Big, big news for users of the Capital Trail: “The Four Mile Creek Trailhead will soon have restroom facilities and water. Construction will start on the water and sewer approximately on March 20th, 2023, and last an estimated 90 days.” Chugs a full Nalgene of water in celebration. If you’re unfamiliar, Four Mile Creek is a typical turnaround spot for folks looking to put in a 35ish-mile round trip bike ride from Richmond. It’s also an excellent place to drive out, park your car, and experience some of the Capital Trail segments east of the City (which are really beautiful). I’m glad Henrico County has decided to run water out there—dehydrated bikers, walkers, and rollers thank you from the bottom of our empty water bottles!
Turns out, people have a lot of feelings about John Marshall basketball and how they routinely crush opposing teams by 40, 50, or even 60 points. John Marshall, because of the small size of its student body, sits in VHSL’s “Class 2” and can only compete against other similarly small schools. Marshall could petition to move up to a larger class and face teams with more resources and (theoretically) better players, but it would have to move up in every other sport at the school, too. It’s complicated, and Zach Joachim at the RTD reports on just a few of the issues. I’m not sure how you solve these problems—or even if they’re problems at all—but I am interested in this idea about implementing a promotion/relegation system like what’s found in the Premier League: “if a school like John Marshall is so successful in a given classification, could a system be set up where points are awarded for success at state tournaments, leading to that school moving up classifications?”
Tonight at 6:00 PM, STAY RVA will host one of their STAY Chats (this one in-person at Elwood Thompson’s) and will feature two Richmond mainstays: Art Burton and Rev. Ben Campbell. They’ll discuss “the history of Richmond and the policies that have shaped the current education climate.” This is a great opportunity—featuring two big brains!—to learn about why we are the way we are and what we can do to work on some of the systemic issues preventing progress. The event is free, but you should register over on the Eventbrite.
Via /r/rva, here’s an excellent picture of the river, the train bridge, and the setting sun.
This morning's longreadMs. Petersen Went Up the Mountain HerselfAnne Helen Petersen writes about being alone—not in a lonely way, but in a fun, refreshing, restorative way. The lusciousness, to use Petersen’s word, of being alone really hit for me over the pandemic with bikes. There’s just something really wonderful about getting out by yourself, at your own pace, headed toward a destination of your own choosing—or headed no where specific at all!
And so, last week, I drove myself up the mountain. The roads were clear and, at this point, familiar. It was a bluebird day, windless and sun-warmed; the snow was good but not spectacular. I started out uneasy and wondered, on that second ride up the lift, if all of it had been a mistake. But I got my legs and started playing over in the trees, exploring corners of the mountain where I’d never been. I skied fast and playful. I made up little songs on the lift but mostly just noticed the world around me. When I got hungry, I went into the lodge and realized, for the first time, just how many others were there on their own as well. It’s wonderful to ski with others — to wait, to compare runs, to follow — but there’s a lusciousness, too, to navigating the mountain and the entire experience on your own.
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Picture of the DayParties in 2023: COVID-19 tests and seltzers.
Good morning, RVA! It's 30 °F, and today looks warmer and, thankfully, less windy than yesterday. You can expect highs in the mid 50s and the start of a nice little warm streak—temperatures tomorrow and Friday will end up in the mid 60s!
Water coolerOK! I got Council’s budget work session from this past Monday up on the Boring Show and you can listen here. I think if you’re only planning on listening to one single budget session (gasp! scoff!), this is the one I would pick for you. CAO Lincoln Saunders put together a really nice presentation overviewing both the operating and capital budgets and did a great job of explaining the Mayor’s priority investments. One graphic which caught the praise of several councilmembers was this one breaking the operating budget down into percentages and representing it as “cents out of every dollar.” So, for example, out of every dollar in the City’s budget, $0.23 goes towards education, $0.20 goes towards public safety, $.04 towards recreation and culture, and so on. I also heard tell of a “Budget in Brief” document that I want to get my hands on and add to my PDF library. As for notable topics, I think the discussions on assessments, gun violence, and housing are worth a listen. Especially the latter, as the CAO explains why the Mayor decided to fund affordable housing outside of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (mostly due to restrictions on how ARPA dollars can be spent). I’d love some smart housing person to dig into this new funding plan from the City and let us all know their thoughts and feelings. Jahd Khalil at VPM details a few of the open questions. Anyway, the budget is important stuff and listening to this work session while you do the dishes or fold the laundry will make you a better citizen—plus, at 2x speed it’ll only take you about an hour to get through!
Richmond BizSense’s Mike Platania reports that City Council has given final final for real approval to a new restaurant in Byrd Park on the corner of Idlewood and Stafford. This is great news, because the folks behind the new spot (who also run New York Deli) have worked to bring a restaurant to that location for literal years! Because a restaurant is not an allowed use under the building’s current zoning, City Council had to pass an entire ordinance just for this one single property via its Special Use Permit process. That process gives incredible power to, as Platania puts it, a “handful of local residents opposed to the project”, who, with a little organizing, can completely derail or delay something that probably should be allowed by right. The amount of SUPs on Council’s agenda each and every week is why zoning is so important and why the City’s rewrite of its zoning ordinance is such a huge deal. With the rewrite, we’ve got the opportunity to start mixing our neighborhood uses together—residential right next to retail! It’s how the rest of the world does it, and I bet if folks take a second to think of their favorite places, they are almost certainly neighborhoods where you can walk across the street to something cool—something like a chill corner cafe!
Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams writes about a school-name switcheroo pulled by the Hanover County School Board. That County will soon consolidate Henry Clay and John M. Gandy elementary schools, and, back in 2018, the plan was to consolidate the name, too, to just “John M. Gandy.” It was an important decision, because, as MPW writes, the original Gandy “opened in 1950 to accommodate Black Hanover County students during a school segregation era that was long on ‘separate’ but short on ‘equal’...The school — named for a longtime Virginia State University president — was the first in Hanover to provide Black students with central heating and indoor plumbing.” Now Hanover’s School Board will backtrack on their decision and establish a committee to make naming recommendations for the new consolidated school. To quote MPW again: “Hanover has become the place where consensus goes to die.”
Tonight, at 6:00 PM, the Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond and the University of Richmond are hosting a virtual panel exploring “important insights and possible action steps around regional planning for our port and highways, as well as local projects to improve bus routes and bike lanes.” Of course, my actions steps for highways would be “spend less money on highways,” but the other stuff sounds interesting. Panelists include folks from the City, Henrico County, GRTC, Bike Walk RVA, and a reporter—I think you’ll recognize a lot of the names! The event is free, but you should register online to get the Zoom link.
This morning's longreadMiscellany № 99: minting the dollarI found a blog about punctuation, and it is lovely.
Like most towns that host a centuries-old university, St Andrews boasts and/or suffers eye-watering housing costs, sticky-floored bars beloved by students and loathed by locals, and at least one quirky, ageless bookshop that looks like it has escaped from a Terry Pratchett novel. Cambridge has The Haunted Bookshop; Oxford has St Philip’s Books; Edinburgh has Armchair Books. We came across a fantastic example in St Andrews in the form of J&G Innes on South Street, one of the town’s main shopping streets...But at least as interesting as the shop’s commercial and architectural history is this sign above the door: “Here stood the house of BAILIE BELL, who, before 1744, was an eager co-worker with Alexander Wilson, the father of Scottish type-founding, and JOHN BAINE in whose type-foundry in Philadelphia the first $ sign was cast in 1797.”
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Picture of the DayI’m mad about how the State ruined an entire block of Broad Street and doesn’t even really care.
Good morning, RVA! It's 32 °F, and today’s highs will land somewhere in the upper 40s. If you’re out and about today, bundle up and watch out for the wind—especially this afternoon. We’ll get blown around by 15mph breezes most of the day but could see some gusts twice that! Also, if you’ve got tender spring plants outside, keep an eye on them because overnight temperatures could dip below freezing.
Water coolerHow many traffic signals would you guess that the City’s Department of Public Works maintains and operates? I’m horrible at estimating these sorts of things, and I guessed somewhere between 10 and 5,000. Turns out, I was right on the money, because its 480—with 285 north of the river and 115 south of the river. This month, DPW has started to retime each and every one of those traffic signals as part of a $1.8 million project funded through the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program. Signal retiming is cool, and, while not solidly built infrastructure protecting our soft human bodies from deadly speeding vehicles, it can still slow traffic way down. Drivers will travel at Whatever-It-Takes mph if the signals on, say, Broad Street, are timed so you can ride a wave of green lights all the way Downtown. Smart signal retiming lowers that mph to a speed where people don’t die if someone makes a mistake and crashes their car.
Extremely related, Lyndon German at the Richmond Times-Dispatch checks in on the City’s Vision Zero work—the work to bring to zero the number of people who die or are seriously injured on our streets. German reports that the Richmond Police Department has upped enforcement on “aggressive, impaired, and inattentive driving” throughout the City, increasing the number of traffic-related violations by 17% over last year. Enforcing the existing laws (if you can do so equitably) is definitely one tool to get to Vision Zero, and technology solutions like the one in the previous paragraph are an important piece of the puzzle, too. I still think, in addition to these other initiatives, Richmond needs to start experimenting with quick-and-cheap pilot infrastructure projects that actually change the way our streets work and make them slower and safer for people.
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers has a quick update on the City’s plan to demolish the Coliseum and redevelop the surrounding area: Four developers have been invited to submit proposals, including two that are/were involved in the Diamond District process. Fingers crossed, but, so far, having two massive development processes moving along at the same time seems like it’s going pretty OK?
Via /r/rva, an extremely important and polarizing question: Best deviled eggs in Richmond? Embarrassing confession: Still, after literal years of riding past the sign proclaiming the best in town, I’ve never eaten deviled eggs from Lombardy Market.
If you’re looking for extremely exciting plans to spice up your evening, you can attend one of two thrilling public meetings! First, the City’s Planning Department will host a virtual community meeting at 6:00 PM to discuss planned changes to the TOD-1 zoning district. These changes mostly relate to the Diamond District, but, if passed, they would impact other areas of town with this zoning (mostly the Broad Street corridor). Check out the Planning Commission presentation from a while back for more information. Second, and even spicier, from 6:00–8:00 PM you can drop by City Hall’s 5th Floor Conference Room and hang out with the Richmond City Charter Review Commission. This nine-member body is trying to figure out what needs to change about the City’s Charter—maybe that’s tiny tweaks to shift a policy here or there, or maybe it’s big shifts like changing the entire makeup of City Council. Who can say! Probably you if you decide to attend!
This morning's longreadI disconnected from the electric grid for 8 months—in ManhattanOK, if you can get past the semi-insufferable tone of this piece, its an interesting recap of an urban off-the-grid experiment. Now I’m wondering if there’s a small subset of things I could shift over to running on solar power.
I had no hands-on experience with solar equipment, but I have a PhD in astrophysics and own a few patents, so I understand power, energy, and technology. I wasn't going to wait for my building’s board to approve a permanent installation of solar panels, and my apartment receives little direct sunlight. I’m single, so I could act unilaterally, but I had no access to economies of scale. I searched Craigslist for used solar equipment, which meant the pickings were slim. I settled on using portable panels and a portable power station—a fancy name for a battery with many options to power and to be powered. I settled on a 576-watt-hour power station by Ecoflow and a 200-watt foldable panel by Bluetti, both used, discounted about 30 percent from retail. That’s it. I had no idea if that capacity was high or low—one point of the experiment was to find out.
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Picture of the DayA burnt stump found in the forest.
Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, and you can expect some rain this morning and highs right around 50 °F as the day progresses. Looking ahead at the 10-day forecast, though, and I do see some warmer temperatures and sunny days later this week. Not trying to jinx it, but, at this point, the coming weekend looks really lovely.
Water coolerCity Council will hold their second budget work session today at 12:30 PM, the first since the mayor introduced his proposed budget last week. You can watch them get into it live via the City’s website or wait until I get the audio up on the Boring show later this week. Immediately following the budget session, Council will move into their Informal Meeting to discuss a personnel matter and then head right on into their regularly-scheduled meeting. Sounds like a lot, but!, because Council recognizes their own limitations and, more importantly, the finiteness of time, they’ve continued almost everything on their agenda to a later date—giving themselves a budget buffer should they run over during this afternoon’s meeting. Smart thinking (or maybe it’s just that no one should sit in six or more hours of continuous meetings with the same eight people).
Last week the 2nd and 5th District Councilmembers hosted a combined public meeting to discuss Those Three Zoning Changes (eliminating parking minimums, allowing ADUs, and tweaking the rules for AirBnbs). Over the weekend, Councilmember Jordan sent out a PDF of the City’s presentation in her Second District Newsletter, and, honestly, I think it’s one of the better slide decks I’ve seen on complicated zoning issues. I love how City staff broke up each zoning change into “what is the context,” what changes are we proposing,” and “what are the benefits.” So smart and easy to understand! Presentation formatting aside, I’ve said for however long we’ve been kicking around These Three Zoning Changes that I support getting rid of parking minimums and permitting ADUs everywhere, but the lack of a residency requirement in the Airbnb tweaks made me nervous—nervous that someone could buy up ten homes in a neighborhood, just for Airbnbs, and remove a ton of housing off the market. However! It looks like the Department of Planning and Development Review has come up with a compromise to retain the residency requirement in residential zones and remove it in mixed-used zones. So: you’d only be able to Airbnb the home that you live in a neighborhood like Ginter Park, but you could buy a bunch of condos in Scott’s Addition and run a small Airbnb empire. I’m not smart enough to think through all of the impacts this change will have, but I’m glad to see a compromise in the direction of “we need more places for people to actually live”.
In 2022, local artist Faith Rowland was hit by a driver at the intersection of Cowardin and Bainbridge. The driver fled the scene, leaving Rowland in the middle of the street with life threatening injuries. Rowland survived, and, yesterday, RVA Mag published a letter she wrote to the person who hit her with their car. You should read it, but, fair warning, it’s very intense.
Nathaniel Cline at the Virginia Mercury continues to follow the Virginia Department of Education’s attempts to roll out a history and social science standard. Criticisms of the third-times-the-charm draft still seem serious but have maybe started to scale down in scope from the earlier draft’s large-scale mistakes and omissions.
The Oscars—aka the 95th Academy Awards—were last night, and, to be conversant with the movie people in your life, you can find the full list of winners over on Wikipedia. Truly one of the best movies I saw last year, Everything Everywhere All At Once won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and best Film Editing. Michelle Yeoh became the first woman of color to win the Best Actress award since Haley Berry in 2002 for Monsters Ball. RRR, easily the most fun film I’ve watched in a long time, won best Original Song for “Naatu Naatu,” which you stop whatever you’re doing right now and go watch on YouTube immediately.
The 2023 NCAA tournament bracket was finalized yesterday, and, to be conversant with the sports people in your life, you can find the full bracket over on the NCAA’s website. Probably most important for local folks: #12 VCU will face #5 St. Mary’s on Friday and #4 Virginia will take on #13 Furman on Thursday.
This morning's longreadListen Up! These Are The Silent Letters Of The English LanguageSpoiler: Every letter in the alphabet can be silent except for V and sometimes R. I’d never thought about this before! English truly is the Wild West or Outback Steakhouse of languages.
You probably already know that English features many, many words with silent letters—letters that appear in the word but aren’t pronounced and often make us wonder what they are even doing there. For example, the letter B in the words debt and thumb. Or whatever the heck is going on in the words colonel, queue, and bourgeoisie. Even though you’re probably already familiar with silent letters, you might not realize just how many words in English actually use them. To demonstrate just how common these silent letters actually are, we quietly gathered up a list of as many examples of silent letters as we could find.
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Picture of the DayA forsythia that, I swear, I am going to chop back this year and encourage to look more like a bush and less like a dangly yellow spider.
Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, and chillier days are upon us! Today you can expect highs right around 50 °F and a decent chance of rain at some point this evening. It's pretty much the same for Saturday and Sunday—although maybe expect a bit more wet weather toward the end of the weekend. Enjoy the next couple of days, and if you feel like staying inside curled around a warm beverage of your choosing, I wouldn't blame you!
Water coolerThe Richmond Police Department are reporting three murders that took place over the last five days. On Sunday, Tyshawn Wyatt, 25, was shot and killed on the 1400 block of Harwood Street; on Monday, Tyrek Brandon, 21, was shot and killed on the zero block of E. 16th Street; and on Thursday, Asha Hite, 39, was shot and killed on the 1100 block of Hollister Avenue. All three of these fatal shootings happened on the City's Southside but not in the same neighborhood. RPD reports 14 homicides thus far in 2023, up four from this time last year.
As of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 0, 51, and 96, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 5.7. At this point, I think you can consider Richmond's numbers fully broken and just use Henrico and Chesterfield's as a proxy. Thankfully, across our region, all of the COVID-19 numbers—proxy or otherwise—continue to trend downward. Another couple weeks spent in The Green, and I might reduce this newsletter's weekly COVID-19 update to monthly!
Thinking about further reducing COVID-19 coverage in this email had me taking a trip through (horrible) memory lane and poking around in the archives. Turns out, yesterday was the three year anniversary of the first mention of COVID-19 in Good Morning, RVA. On March 9th, 2020, I wrote, "The Virginia Department of Health is reporting two cases of coronavirus in the Commonwealth, both in Northern Virginia. You're washing your hands, right? You should definitely wash your hands." Then, On March 11th, I kicked off what would be three years (and counting) of regular updates on COVID-19, saying "I guess, for the foreseeable future, these emails will lead off with a coronavirus update—something I'd trade away in a second to go back to continually talking about the Mayor's proposed downtown arena." Simpler times!
Yesterday, City Council announced that the Richmond City Attorney has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Council's statement reads, in part, "Driving under the influence is a serious matter and Richmond City Council respects law enforcement. We trust the legal process as it moves forward. We are awaiting additional information to determine next steps." First, it doesn't sound like anyone was hurt, thankfully. Second, just put the Transit app and the Uber/Lyft apps on your phone. It's 100% OK to come back and get your car tomorrow—in fact, if you do, people will give you high fives for making the correct and safe choice.
Via /r/rva, visual evidence that The Pollening has begun. Just looking at this picture of a pollen-coated Swift Creek Reservoir makes my face itch.
The RVA Environmental Film Festival kicks off tonight with Wildcat at 7:30 PM in The Dome at the Science Museum of Virginia. All events are free to attend, so take a look at the aforelinked list of films and make a plan to fill your weekend with movies—I mean, you saw the weather forecast, right?
Reminder / warning: Clocks spring forward this Sunday.
This morning's longreadAmerica’s after-school afterthoughtThis longread from Vox looks at the almost universal underinvestment in after-school care despite the reams of evidence supporting the importance of having a safe, productive place for younger kids after the school day ends. In Richmond, we're not starting from zero on this, and I definitely wouldn't say after-school care is an afterthought. In fact, after-school care has been a focus for Mayor Stoney and RPS since the Mayor's first term. What this piece will show you, though, is that massive investment is needed not just from the local government, but state and federal governments, too, where, at the moment, it's just not a priority.
About 8 million kids are enrolled in after-school programs today, but that’s less than a quarter of total demand, according to the nonprofit Afterschool Alliance. Research it led in early 2020, just before the pandemic, found that nearly 25 million more children would be enrolled in an after-school program if one were available to them, up from 19 million in 2014. The top-cited barrier to enrollment was money: 57 percent of parents reported that programs were too expensive. While about a quarter of parents pay nothing for after-school programs, of the 77 percent who do pay, the average cost per child stands at $100 per week. Despite the unmet demand, there has been little public investment in after-school care, and most programs are financed through parent fees.
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Picture of the DayThe Virginia Women’s Monument at the Capitol is pretty rad.
Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, and highs today might hit 60 °F. Tomorrow (Friday!) looks colder, wetter, and less pleasant all around, so you might want to take advantage of what we’ve got today. Looking at the extended forecast, by the way, and four of the next nine days have lows sitting just below freezing. March: Winter is...kind of coming back?
Water coolerYesterday afternoon, Governor Youngkin announced “the upcoming release of $30 million in Learning Recovery Grants to parents to be used for qualifying education services intended to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ educational progress and well-being.” I’ve read the press release, like, six times and still don’t really understand what all is actually happening. Here’s the vaguest of gists: Families making less than 300% of the Federal Poverty Level could (will?) receive $3,000 to spend on “vetted and approved education services they need to address the negative effects the pandemic has had on their educational progress and well-being.” All other qualifying students, which I assume means families making more than three times the FPL, will receive $1,500. Obviously folks will have a million questions about this initiative—especially what’s a “vetted service,” who are “qualifying students,” and where is this money coming from. Unfortunately, all we’re told in the release is that we’ll get a website (aka a “parent-friendly, accessible, and secure online service”) at some point. If I try to set aside my bias, look past some of the weird language in the press release, and squint a little, these Learning Recovery Grants sort of seems like a child tax credit—something I’m very supportive of! Of course, it could be something entirely different and nefarious, and, for now, we’ll just have to wait for the Administration to release more details or for reporters to dig in to really understand what the Governor has planned.
Homeward has released its 2023 Winter Point-In-Time Count of people experiencing homelessness in our region, and, overall, they recorded “690 people experiencing homelessness, which is 1% lower than the PIT count in January 2022.” However, while the total number of folks stayed mostly the same, Homeward found a “121% increase in the number of people who were staying in unsheltered conditions...the largest number of people staying outdoors, in cars, and other places not meant for human habitation in the past 15 years.” Jahd Khalil at VPM has some more details and talked with some of the folks at Homeward about what’s driving this year’s numbers. Unsurprising to anyone reading this newsletter, the region’s lack of deeply affordable housing is one of the big reasons for the higher rates of unsheltered homelessness.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports on an interesting new development planned for the site of the once-decrepit, now-demolished Days Inn right off of Chamberlayne Avenue and I-95. The interesting bit: the 186 lower-income apartments (for folks making 60% of Area Median Income) will be powered by an adjacent solar field. Fascinating! The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act makes this proposal possible, and, if this project works out, I wonder if will see more of the same elsewhere in the region. Part of me wonders, though, if we should just build 50 more homes on this land and put the solar panels somewhere further out. Regardless, it’s great to hear developers talk about affordable housing like this: “There’s still a lot more needed to solve the affordable housing crisis. We’re able to pull it off because of things like the IRA, but still, more is needed to truly provide quality, safe, affordable housing for the folks who need it most.”
Do we really need to keep TikTokifying every app? Spotify says yes! I mean, I am verifiably an old man, but I do not need more reasons to stare at my phone while mindlessly swiping.
This morning's longreadHow the ring got goodSome more writing advice, this time taken from the process of the J. R. R. Tolkien himself! I saw this piece about the history of Lord of the Rings—like how it was written, not the fictional history of Middle Earth—pop up in a couple of internet places and am so glad I tapped through. Like the author says, it’s reassuring, inspiring, and hope-giving that Tolkien’s first (and fifth!) drafts were a mess, too. Just like the rest of us!
It’s fine, as far as it goes; he could have made it work, probably? Possibly? But it is not COOL in the way that the final formulation is COOL. It has none of the symmetry, the inevitability. It does only the work it has to do, and nothing else. It is not yet aesthetically irresistible. There are several revised approaches to “what’s the deal with the ring?” presented in The History of The Lord of the Rings, and, as you read through the drafts, the material just … slowly gets better! Bit by bit, the familiar angles emerge. There seems not to have been any magic moment: no electric thought in the bathtub, circa 1931, that sent Tolkien rushing to find a pen. It was just revision. I find this totally inspiring.
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Picture of the DayNervous for my little buds.
Good morning, RVA! It's 34 °F, and that's colder than its been in a while! Get used to it, because NBC12's Andrew Freiden says we can expect that "cold weather returns for two weeks or longer." 1) Dang, I was just getting used to not having to maximum bundle myself with coats and gloves and scarves just to ride my bike around town, and 2) Dang, I hope all of my outdoor plants make it through until April.
Water coolerReminder! You can listen to all of the budget-related public meetings up to this point—including the Mayor's budget presentation this past Monday—over on the Boring Show. While the meeting format will change for this year's budget season, I still think listening to our elected officials is one of the best ways to get to know how they think and what they care about. For example, here is 8th District Councilmember Trammell responding to the Mayor’s request that each councilmember limit their budget priorities to five for the operating budget and three for the capital budget. City Council will hold their next budget work session on Monday, March 13th.
Related, Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond has a fun, high-level, emoji-based look at the Mayor’s proposed FY24 budget. If, like me, you're saving the massive budget PDFs for the weekend, this short list can tide you over until then.
Yesterday, the Governor announced the first round of Lab School planning grants, which included VCU and VUU as recipients. Remember, lab schools, which you can learn tons more about over on the Virginia Department of Education's website, are one of Governor Youngkin's attempts at defunding public schools by allowing public dollars to instead fund private schools—in this case 100 million of those public dollars. Thankfully, the Democratically-controlled Senate watered down the Governor's plan, and we're left with those public dollars funding only "lab schools" run by institutes of higher learn (including private ones, though). It's a bad road to head down, but I'm open-minded about what sorts of things our local universities can and will do with this money. As for this year's planning grants, VCU proposes to use their share to "combine their Teacher Residency program with CodeRVA High School to develop a workforce of teachers that are able to provide computer science-focused education," and VUU proposes an "integrated STEAM lab school for at-risk 6th through 8th graders."
Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has a cool story about the impact of Virginia’s same-day voter registration laws. In the 2022 midterm elections, a "total of 25,353 ballots were cast via same-day registration in its first year of implementation...of that amount, 24,297, or 96%, were counted as legitimate votes." And which localities saw the most same-day voting action? College towns! "Locality-specific data shows Williamsburg, Charlottesville/Albemarle County, Harrisonburg and Lynchburg saw the highest usage when measured as a percentage of total votes cast." I mean, makes sense right? College students are nothing if not passionate yet busy enough to miss the (many) voter registration opportunities.
I love a good small-town news story like this one, from Tannock Blair and Rolynn Wilson at WRIC, about a hot air balloon making an "unexpected landing at a middle school in Hopewell over the weekend."
Today's feel good scroll: Rep. McClellan (officially official!) has a bunch of great photos and videos from her swearing-in last night (Twitter).
This morning's longreadEvery Coastal Home Is Now a Stick of DynamiteI liked how this piece, which features Norfolk, uses passing around a stick of dynamite as a metaphor for coastal real estate. It's gonna blow up eventually but when? All things considered, pretty soon: When we talk about nontrivial sea level rise by the year 2050, it seems like forever away, but, in reality, it's within the lifespan of every 30-year mortgage signed today.
This displacement is at once profound and not very visible in the coastal housing market, where buyers and lenders are just beginning to digest the immense consequences of future sea-level rise. The value of all of the coastal real estate in the United States exceeds a trillion dollars, and a large portion of that value may vanish as buyers starts to shy away from homes most vulnerable to erosion and frequent flooding. As home values fall to reflect climate risk, wealthy homeowners and investors will dump their distressed assets and flee, while middle-class homeowners like the Langfords will be left to deal with climate catastrophes and costly mortgages. The resulting turmoil could reshape the Eastern Seaboard, threatening the growth of coastal cities such as Norfolk and potentially triggering a slow migration inland.
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Picture of the DayNatural gradients on a shutter.
Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and cooler(ish) weather starts to move in today. You can expect highs “only” around 60 °F, and temperatures may dip below freezing for just a bit this evening—let’s hope its not cold enough to kill all of the springtime plants who are very confused about it still being the first week of March. Other than that, today still looks sunny and wonderful, so I hope you can find time to enjoy the out-of-doors at some point.
Water coolerThe Mayor introduced his FY24 budget to City Council yesterday afternoon, and you can watch his presentation over on the City’s legislative website (or you can soon listen over on the Boring Show). Dive straight in, first hand, if you want, and download the FY24 Annual Fiscal Plan (aka the operating budget) and the FY24 Capital Improvement Plan to your PDF library. However, if scrolling through a 485-page document is not your thing, the Mayor’s “transmittal letter” to Council (p. 6) provides a good overview of the highlights. Top of mind for me this morning, although I haven’t had a chance to dig in fully yet, is RPS funding. The School Board passed a budget asking for about $29 million in additional funding, and the Mayor has proposed a $21 million increase. How that $8 million gap gets filled, I don’t know, but this stat from the Mayor blows my mind: The City’s “contribution to RPS...is $69,921,277 more than the FY 2017 funding level and represents a 46.1 percent increase in RPS funding during my tenure as Mayor.” That’s a huge increase over just a handful of years! Regardless of that massive financial support, it’s not enough, and I don’t think we’re done discussing school funding. I’m pretty sure that State’s budget will shortchange the district a whole bunch of cash, further increasing that funding gap and requiring either more support from City Council or more cuts from RPS. Which means: Prepare yourself for some stressful public meetings in the near future. While funding Richmond Public Schools is the City’s largest expense, there are a million and one other details to dig into (like the decision to basically flat-fund GRTC and how the City will support the Affordable Housing Trust Fund) that I’m sure we’ll hear about in the coming weeks. For now, though, just download those PDFs and get to scrolling!
Remember how City Council updated the scooter ordinance to incentivize companies to start deploying scooters on the Southside (ORD. 2023-029)? At the time, neither of our two existing vendors, Bird and Lime, had a single scooter south of the river. Since then, Spin has started dropping their bright orange scooters around town, and Reader Andrew sent me this picture of a tiny flock parked over at Semmes and 34th. Most of Spin’s Southside fleet hugs the area around the James, but, still, it’s at least something to provide better connectivity to that part of town. Of note: As of this morning, neither Bird nor Lime have expanded their coverage to the Southside (at least according to a quick look at their apps).
Tonight, at Binford Middle School from 6:00–7:30 PM, you have an opportunity to join the 2nd and 5th District Councilmembers—plus special guest Director of Planning and Development Review Kevin Vonck—for a meeting about those Three Zoning Changes (ADUs everywhere, abolish parking minimums, and tweak the City’s Airbnb regulations). I’m extremely for the first two and pretty hesitant about the third, especially the proposal to get rid of the City’s current residency requirement for Airbnb owners which, practically, limits the number of Airbnbs a person can own and, hopefully, preserves some housing as actual homes for people. If you’ve got thoughts and feelings, head out to this in-person meeting and ask some questions of the actual people making the actual decisions on this kind of thing.
Also tonight, Jennifer McClellan officially becomes Representative McClellan, the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress. It’s exciting stuff, and if you want to get together and celebrate her swearing-in you can RSVP to the Democratic Party of Virginia’s watch party here.
I don’t know how much you follow high school basketball, but RPS’s John Marshall Justices are one of the country’s best teams. You can usually find them dropping triple digits on opposing teams and they are currently fresh off a 112-49 victory in the Virginia State Class 2 Tournament semifinals-class-2.htm) (they’ll play in the finals on March 11th). Last week, they added another honor to this year’s undefeated season: The Justice’s head coach, Ty White, was named the Naismith Boys High School Coach of the Year.
This morning's longreadHow to write fast — or at least fasterWhile this writing advice is geared towards journalist, I think it can benefit anyone—especially if you’re writing about ongoing, immediate events (even if it’s just for your own blog or Mastodon).
To be a good writer, you have to learn to write slow. Some sentences or passages just take a long time. But slow writing need not be the norm. In journalism and all public writing, the goal should be fast writing — or at least faster writing. I’m a pretty fast writer, but not the fastest. I would give that title to Bill Blundell, formerly of The Wall Street Journal and author of “The Art and Craft of Feature Writing.” I once attended a workshop with Blundell in which the class was assigned a news feature story. We all had access to the same information. In the allotted time, I managed to squeeze out a couple of clumsy paragraphs. Blundell, who nervously chewed paper (literally), knocked off three pages in no time, good enough to be published the next morning.
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Picture of the DayI did my best not to shred over these wild daffodils.
Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday—which was amazing! Expect sunshine, highs in the mid 60s, and every reason in the world to take a stroll around the neighborhood. Temperatures start to drop and look a little more March-like as the week goes on, and, by the end of the week, we'll probably see highs just in the 40s.
Water coolerOK! Today is one of City Council's biggest days of the year! At 1:30 PM, the Mayor's administration will present the new Capital Improvement Plan to the Planning Commission, and at 3:00 PM the Mayor himself will present his fresh and shiny proposed budget to City Council. You can, of course, tune in live over on the City's legislative website. This budget season, Councilmember Jones, in his first budget season as City Council president, has decided to switch up the process a bit. Instead of having each City department come and present on the year that was (which, honestly, was one of my favorite parts of budget season), he'll have the CAO give presentations on the portions of the budget that apply to each department. The idea is that more concise presentations will leave more time for Council to have their own debates and discussions. I'm a little bummed because I loved the presentations, but this New Way is probably a good idea. You can listen to Councilmember Jones describe the new process himself over on the Boring Show, which I got up and running over the weekend. If you're not familiar, get excited because the Boring Show is a podcast of the audio from budget-related public meetings. It's a useful tool for time-shifting budget season and keeping up with the hours of meetings while cooking dinner, folding laundry, or commuting to work (especially if you listen at 2x speed). So far I've uploaded February 27th's initial Council budget work session (where Jones describes the above new process) and March 2nd's Education and Human Services committee featuring Superintendent Kamras and the RPS budget. Subscribe here and learn more than you ever wanted to know about how the City works!
Related, the Planning Commission meets today to not only receive the proposed Capital Improvement Plan (which, remember, is the City's multi-year plan on how to spend money on stuff...like buildings, vehicles, parks, that sort of thing) but also to discuss a handful of zoning amendments related to the Diamond District. Instead of creating an entirely new "baseball stadium zoning district," the Department of Planning and Development Review wants to make a few tweaks to the existing TOD-1 zoning district. You can flip through their presentation here and should probably pencil in the March 14th community meeting on your calendar to learn more details.
The Virginia Public Access Project has a neat infofeature that shows each of our state legislators' “batting average” for this past legislative session—aka what percentage of the bills they introduced actually passed. As a whole, the General Assembly passed 43% of the introduced bills. The legislators ending the session with the best records were Sen. Janet Howell (D) with a perfect 3 for 3 and Sen. Todd Pillion (R) clearing an impressive 12 of 14. Sen. Amanda Chase (R) whiffed on a all 19 of her bills, and Del. Dave LaRock (R) struck out each of his 17. Interestingly, Del. Todd Gilbert (R) was the only legislator to submit nothing (excluding "commending and memorializing resolutions, bills carried over from 2022 and the budget bill"). So what can you learn from this data set? I actually have no idea, but it's fun to poke around in.
D. Hunter Reardon at Richmond Magazine reports that Friends of Pump House have landed $500,000 in federal money to help renovate the spooky, gothic structure. Built in 1883, the Pump House is one of those things that I forget is there and then stumble across it every once in a while and am reminded that Richmond's nooks and crannies are full of weird old things.
The Richmond Black Restaurant Experience started yesterday and continues on through this coming Sunday, March 12th. This year, you can eat at one of almost 50 different Black-owned restaurants, with some of the proceeds benefiting the Urban League of Greater Richmond Young Professionals. Talk about an easy way to rationalize increasing your eating-out budget this week!
It's Richmond Invasive Species Awareness Week, which you probably had already heard about—unless you live under a rock that's been consumed by a slow-moving living tidal wave of English Ivy. Tap through the previous link for a bunch of ways you can help rid our parks of some of the most destructive invasive species. If you're interested, make sure you sign up over on HandsOn Greater Richmond’s website.
This morning's longreadAccessibility: Try, then ListenI found this widely applicable and thoughtful advice in, of all places, a blog by a developer working on an Apple Watch app. My mind immediately goes to street infrastructure (of course), where localities could install temporary infrastructure like barrels or cones, let folks experience the change, and then, as the author puts it, "seek to understand the 'why' of what they are experiencing not just the 'what'."
It is essential to not let the feeling of being unsure about the best approach to mean that you don’t take any approach at all. Rather I just get started and try. Get something built that users can react to and use. Then, the second step is to not be complacent and feel like you have “checked the box”. Instead, you open up avenues for feedback and when folks take the time to reach out, then listen. Seek to understand the ‘why’ of what they are experiencing not just the ‘what’. Is there a fundamental disconnect between your own mental model of how something is being used? Can you find a way to accommodate for a wider audience? Did you just plain miss something that you can straightforwardly fix? Excellent…then start the cycle again and try to fix it.
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Picture of the DayA beautiful natural gradient and the unnecessarily dangerous grill of a passing truck.
Good morning, RVA! It's 45 °F, and today’s temperature graph is weird. For most of the day, you can expect temperatures in the 50s, then, after the sun sets, things heat up. By the wee hours of tomorrow morning we’ll see temperatures in the mid 60s! Bizarre! You should definitely prepare for storms to roll through alongside the weirdly warm weather today, but, after that, the rest of the weekend looks real lovely.
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield now have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 0, 127, and 52, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 7. Regardless of the continued weirdness with Richmond’s case rate, the entire region is back in the gentle green of a low COVID-19 Community Level. This is great news! While it doesn’t mean that the world around you is disease-free and you should start licking doorknobs, it does mean that the amount of COVID-19 floating around in our neighborhoods continues to trend downward. To keep it that way, make sure you get your booster if you haven’t already, keep an ear out for an annual COVID-19 vaccine recommendation this fall, and keep your tongue off of doorknobs.
VPM’s Jahd Khalil reports on some interesting public comments at this past Monday’s City Council meeting. The advocacy group RISC (Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities) showed up and pointed out that the City is using ARPA money to fund affordable housing instead of allocating revenue from expiring real estate tax exemptions to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the dedicated funding stream set aside for this very thing. The City confirmed this through a spokesperson who said, “The Mayor and the City Council decided for FY22 and FY23 to use $20 M in ARPA funding to increase the amount of funds available to fund affordable housing development and rehabilitation in lieu of using the dedicated source of funding.” I’m no lawyer and I’m not trying to seem ungrateful for the $20 million the City dedicated toward affordable housing, but Council did pass ORD. 2020-214 two years ago and it does require all of that expiring real estate tax exemption revenue to go straight into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. I think I’m with RISC and would like to see the existing $20 million already pledged by the Mayor and Council, plus the legally required contribution to the trust fund. I’d also love to hear the City Attorney weigh in—if only so we can know what to expect for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and its dedicated funding stream in the future.
Charlie Paullin at the Virginia Mercury reports on the resolution of a lawsuit over Henrico County dumping sewage into the James River. This might smell vaguely familiar because I wrote about it in this very newsletter one million years ago, back in December 2021. Now, a year later, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the James River Association have “reached a settlement requiring the county to notify the public of overflows, ramp up system improvements and invest $1 million in environmental work.” You can read the full press release here. Back in 2021, I wondered if legal action could force Henrico to make some changes, and, turns out, it could and did!
A Charlie Paullin double header! He also reports on the General Assembly’s confusing inability to fill two seats on the State Corporation Commission. I’m not going to pretend I know even the slightest bit about what all this means, but it certainly has the feeling of something we’ll read bombastic quotes about from legislators and the Governor in the coming weeks or months.
Tomorrow, March 4th from 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM, head over to Afterglow Coffee Cooperative to check out the UN Record Fair (Facebook) and flip through “records (new and used), books, zines, and other music related items sold by dealers traditionally underrepresented at typical record fairs.” This sounds neat—I love when folks proactively work to remove the gatekeepery aspects of their hobbies.
This morning's longreadNobody knows what the point of homework isI still have actual nightmares about forgetting homework, messing up homework, or not being able to find the homework to turn in, so you can put me squarely in the “homework is bad” camp. I have no idea whether that’s good for student outcomes, but, turns out, neither do a lot of experts!
The rise of the no-homework movement during the Covid-19 pandemic tapped into long-running disagreements over homework’s impact on students. The purpose and effectiveness of homework have been disputed for well over a century. In 1901, for instance, California banned homework for students up to age 15, and limited it for older students, over concerns that it endangered children’s mental and physical health. The newest iteration of the anti-homework argument contends that the current practice punishes students who lack support and rewards those with more resources, reinforcing the “myth of meritocracy.” But there is still no research consensus on homework’s effectiveness; no one can seem to agree on what the right metrics are. Much of the debate relies on anecdotes, intuition, or speculation.
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Picture of the DayCamellia! So brief!
Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and it’s rainy. But! Looks like things should dry out and warm up as the day goes on, with temperatures topping out around 70 °F. Take advantage of it, because tomorrow looks cooler and wetter and a lot more like a cozy-on-the-couch movie night.
Water coolerOoo political intrigue! Nathaniel Cline at the Virginia Mercury reports that Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction, Jillian Balow, has resigned. WRIC’s Dean Mirshahi has Balow’s resignation letter. Fascinating stuff. Was Balow pushed out because of the $200 million education budget snafu? Was she not intense enough in supporting the Administration’s attempts to defund public schools? Was she too intense? Is she just tired of it all? Balow doesn’t give a reason for her resignation, so we probably won’t know much until we can contrast her tenure with that of whoever the Governor picks as her replacement.
RVAgreen 2050’s March newsletter is out, and you should take a minute or two to give it a read. Of note, the Department of Environmental Quality wants public comments on the potential repeal of the Carbon Budget Trading Program—aka shortsightedly removing Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. You can and should leave a public comment in support of the Commonwealth staying in this important program! Not sure what to say? Just crib from Mayor Stoney’s comment: “As Mayor of the City of Richmond, we cannot escape the environmental impacts of climate change that are taking shape in cities across the country like mine, that’s why I’m proud of the work that has gone into developing the RVAgreen 2050 plan… However, local governments alone cannot solve the climate crisis. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a common sense, market-based, cost-effective, and critically important program that cuts harmful carbon pollution while delivering a multitude of benefits to communities across Virginia… I urge the Members of the Air Pollution Control Board to continue Virginia’s participation in RGGI.” Make sure you delete the stuff about being mayor of Richmond though...
City Council’s Education and Human Services committee meets this afternoon and has a fun list of discussion topics: “fiscal mapping for shared priorities” from the Office of Children and Families, a review of the construction timeline for both Fox Elementary and the replacement for George Wythe High School, an update on the RPS budget from Superintendent Kamras, and a “Richmond School Board Update” from RPS Board vice chair Cheryl Burke. I would listen to each one of these—and probably will! Tune in today at 2:00 PM, or, fingers crossed, I’ll get this posted up on the Boring Show once I get my act together.
Richmond BizSense’s Jack Jacobs talks to three local groups, each impacted in different ways by the mysterious dissolution of Enrichmond. I’d love to know how other cities solve the problem of small, volunteer groups and “Friends Of” organizations needing administrative infrastructure like bank accounts, donations, and insurance. Is that something the City could provide? Maybe the Community Foundation? As Jacobs reports, having another local nonprofit step into that role after the collapse of Enrichmond doesn’t seem like a very reassuring solution. Also, I kind of can’t believe we still don’t know what happened! Like, tens of thousands of dollars vanished! Seems like someone should figure that out?
From Mike Platania, also at Richmond BizSense, here’s a headline that I couldn’t resist tapping on: “Vegan cheese experiment leads to Fan restaurant’s frozen pizza spinoff.” More vegan food is probably better for all of us overall, so I appreciate the experimentation.
Tonight, at the National, Welcome to Night Vale will finish up its current tour with a live episode of the weird / funny / spooky / lovecraftian podcast. While live music is not my thing (I know, I know), I enjoy a good live podcast—everyone’s sitting down, no one’s bumping into me, and I never have to wonder what to do with my hands. I’m an irregular Welcome to Night Vale listener, but I think if I were to write fiction seriously, it would be the same brand of unserious horror that Night Vale does really well. Sounds fun, and you can get tickets for tonight’s show through the National’s website.
This morning's longreadThe Puzzling Gap Between How Old You Are and How Old You Think You AreAt least it’s not just me, you know?
Yet we seem to have an awfully rough go of locating ourselves in time. A friend, nearing 60, recently told me that whenever he looks in the mirror, he’s not so much unhappy with his appearance as startled by it—“as if there’s been some sort of error” were his exact words. (High-school reunions can have this same confusing effect. You look around at your lined and thickened classmates, wondering how they could have so violently capitulated to age; then you see photographs of yourself from that same event and realize: Oh.) The gulf between how old we are and how old we believe ourselves to be can often be measured in light-years—or at least a goodly number of old-fashioned Earth ones.
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Picture of the DayA good alley.
Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, but today you can expect another warm day with highs in the mid 60s. I think, if it were me, I’d get outside this afternoon, because tomorrow and Friday look damp. I know it’s early, but the weekend ahead of us looks pretty nice!
Water coolerIt’s here! Richmond’s official 2023 budget schedule is out and available for you to carefully transcribe over into your own personal calendar. Big, important dates to keep in mind: The Mayor needs to submit his proposed budget no later than March 6th, Council will hold a public hearing on the Mayor’s budget on March 27th, amendments drop on April 12th, and on May 8th Council hopes to wrap up the entire process. Of course, other than a few state-required deadlines, this entire schedule can shift, shrink, or expand as Council tries to make sense of the Mayor’s proposals and put their own stamp on the City’s fiscal priorities. Get excited, because it truly is the most wonderful time of the year (for a very small subset of very nerdy people)!
Lyndon German at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has an update on the City’s Marcus Alert System, which aims to support people during a mental health crisis with mental health professionals—instead of with police. Some stats from the piece: “Richmond’s Crisis Response Team responded to 227 calls for service from August to December 2022. Those calls of service resulted in a 91% crisis diversion rate, 21 temporary detention orders and two arrests in relation to a domestic matter.” I don’t know enough to say whether that’s good or bad, but I’m glad to see that the program is not stuck in a pile of organizational mud somewhere. You can learn more about Richmond’s implementation of the Marcus Alert over on the City’s website, and, if you know someone experiencing a mental health crisis you can call 988 or, if the situation is immediately dangerous, 911. Both numbers will take steps to try and ensure the proper response.
Also in the RTD, Michael Martz prognosticates a bit on what the General Assembly will do about a budget for the Commonwealth. It sounds like a mess, honestly, and I wonder if the most likely scenario right now is that they’ll do nothing and just ride the current, two-year budget passed back in 2022.
Related, Graham Moomaw and Sarah Vogelsong at the Virginia Mercury are tracking all of the state legislators who have announced that they will retire this year—currently 16 legiscritters. With all 140 seats up for election this November and plenty of those seats in newly-drawn districts, it makes sense that some folks would choose now as the moment to step aside / get some rest. All of these changes should make for a pretty exciting election season across the Commonwealth. Virginia: Never Not Voting and We Kind of Love It.
Via /r/rva, someone mocked up what they think the intersection of Arthur Ashe Boulevard and Broad Street should look like. I love this sort of thing, because why not! Honestly, I don’t know if a big huge roundabout is the right answer for this specific intersection, but, regardless, it’s fun to doodle on a map. I am, however, a fan of the mini-tunnel under Arthur Ashe so that the Pulse can completely avoid the intersection—great idea!
This morning's longreadThe Colorful History of Haribo Goldbears, the World's First Gummy BearsAhhhhh, take a break from caring about things that matter and read this mostly inoffensive piece about the history of Haribo gummy bears.
Just over a century ago, in 1920, German confectioner Hans Riegel Sr. struck out on his own, establishing a new candy company called Haribo—an abbreviation derived from his name and hometown of Bonn (Hans Riegel Bonn). Working out of his kitchen with little more than a copper pot, a rolling pin and a stove, Riegel hired his first employee, his wife, Gertrud, the following year. While she delivered products to customers via bicycle, he experimented with hard candies before creating an entirely new sweet treat: the gummy bear.
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Picture of the DayMy very own orchid!
Good morning, RVA! It's 47 °F, and today looks sunny and wonderful with highs in the 70s. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says it’s his Verified Best Weather Day of the Week™ and that it caps off the “third warmest Meteorological Winter in Richmond’s history.” If I weren’t headed to VCU’s final home game of the season, I’d spend the evening out getting lost in the woods. I hope you find the time today to get out there and enjoy it!
Water coolerThis past Sunday, Henrico County Supervisor Tyrone Nelson hit a person riding their bike with his car. From NBC12’s report: “The Henrico Police Department says Tyrone Nelson failed to give a three-foot distance when trying to pass the cyclist in the 6500 block of Osborne Turnpike around 11:45 a.m.” This block of Osborne Turnpike is just 1.5 miles from where a driver hit and killed Jonah Holland while she was riding her bike this past August. There’s no doubt that this stretch of road is dangerous, but how many people need to get hurt or killed before the County does anything about it? If an elected official, someone who has the actual power to make this street safer, can hit someone with their car and just move on with life...I don’t know. Depressing.
Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some electoral next steps now that we’ve got this past weekend’s firehouse primaries behind us. First up, the special election on March 28th, and then the Democratic primary on June 20th (which gears up for the big November election). Also this is the first reporting I’ve read that confirms soon-to-be Senator Bagby (from the now-old 9th Senate District) will run in the new 14th Senate District in that June 20th primary.
Speaking of the General Assembly, Bob Lewis at the Virginia Mercury pulls the numbers on the part-timedness of our commonwealth’s legislative body. Given the ridiculously short amount of time our legislators spend actually legislating (just 46 days this year), to get through all of the bills submitted they’d need to “average final action on 45 bills per day.” Impossible! What’s also impossible is changing the system to something that makes a little more sense. I think a lot folks like how the General Assembly works because it’s weird, brutal, and inaccessible—sort of like an unnecessarily painful badge of civic honor.
Today is the very last day that you can weigh in on the City’s plan to bring bike lanes to Westover Hills Boulevard from the Nickel Bridge to points south. I encourage you to fill out the quick survey if you haven’t already, asking for physical protection along the lanes and (kindly) reminding the City’s Department of Public Works that sharrows are not real infrastructure. Additionally, the folks at Bike Walk RVA point out that extending the bike lane down 49th Street to a residential dead end doesn’t connect anything to anywhere at the moment, and the proposal should, instead, continue the lanes down Westover Hills Boulevard south to Crutchfield. If, like me, you have to see it on a map, I crayoned Bike Walk RVA’s preferred alignment here. So, to recap: 1) Add protection the the bike lanes, 2) Don’t use sharrows, and 3) Extend the bike lanes on Westover Hills Boulevard to Crutchfield. Take four minutes and fill out the survey this morning (it’s your last day to do so!).
This morning's longreadLet Lily Kwong—and a Mountainful of Orchids—Resensitize Your Cold, Dead HeartFirst, orchids! Second, I thought this was an incredibly thoughtful answer to the nihilistic question (which I see pop up in internet discourse constantly) of “why do anything at all, isn’t everything terrible?”
Before I go, I’m curious how Kwong, whose work in horticulture and urban design has also sought to address issues of native gardening and food insecurity, sees how these flashy, large-scale stunners, often brought to life at the behest of corporate brand partnerships, exist in conversation with her overall mission to connect people with the natural world. In response, Kwong eagerly asks me if I’ve ever been to Muir Woods. “They’re the tallest trees in the world—literally these ancient giants that are hundreds of years old,” she says, thinking back to her childhood again. “It’s a spiritual experience walking through them,” Kwong explains. “It feels almost like a cathedral…that is my framework of how I first connected with nature. So, when I do a piece like this, or Grand Central, I’m trying to channel that frequency of awe. Because in my experience, from awe came the curiosity. Then came education, knowledge, understanding, and stewardship.”
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Picture of the DayGetting lost in the forest.
Good morning, RVA! It's 38 °F, and today looks like a cool, cloudy day. Expect highs in the mid 50s with a chance for rain late this evening, and, while the 10-day forecast doesn’t hold any temperatures in the 80s, I do see some upper 60s / low 70s in our future.
Water coolerThe results of yesterday’s firehouse primary for the (old) 9th Senate District seat are in, and Del. Lamont Bagby won with a commanding 72% of the vote. Alexsis Rodgers and Del. Dawn Adams rounded out the rest of the ballot with 21% and 7%, respectively. According to WRIC, Bagby will face Republican Stephen Imholt in the March 28th special election. Imholt has an incredibly up-hill battle ahead of him. The new Senate District representing Richmond is pretty compact, extremely Democratic, and unlikely to elect a Republican. It sounds exhausting to run a campaign for a seat that will only exist for a couple of months, especially when the new district that seat represents voted 76-20 for McAuliffe in the last gubernatorial election.
City Council will host their first budget work session of the 2023 season today at 2:00 PM! They’ll focus exclusively on setting priorities—both for the operating and the capital budgets. That means this afternoon is a great time to tune in, take a few notes, and hear about the City’s needs through Council’s lens. Remember, the Mayor creates the first draft of the budget, and while City Council can adjust it in whatever way they like, they’ve got to find the votes to make that happen. I can’t even remember a time when Council proposed and passed even moderately-sized changes to the Mayor’s budget—someone correct me if I’m wrong though. Then, after budget chats, we’ve got the the informal and formal City Council meetings, with light agendas of their own. The Regular Agenda is completely empty, and the two papers I’m watching have both been continued (RES. 2023-R011 and ORD. 2022-375).
In sort of state budget anti-news, the General Assembly adjourned over the weekend without passing one. Michael Martz and David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch report that while the GA couldn’t agree on the billion dollars worth of tax cuts in the Governor’s proposed budget, they did pass a "'skinny bill' with urgent necessary updates to the budget." Part of the skinny does include more money for public schools, fixing the Governor’s $200 million shortage that School Districts only found out about a couple months back. Legislators and the governor will reconvene later this spring to hash out their remaining disagreements and get a regular, full-width budget passed (fingers crossed).
Via Richard Hayes at RVA Hub, the Friends of Forest Hill Park are looking for a Few Good Volunteer Gardeners to help maintain some newly-planted natives species. If you live over that way, it sounds like a great opportunity to get involved and get your hands dirty.
Someone sent me this absolutely bananas 1985 news report about the opening of the 6th Street Marketplace. Knowing the eventual outcome of the Marketplace, it’s hard hearing how city and state leaders had put so much hope into this one project to “save downtown.” Also, malls are so weird.
This morning's longreadWhy governors put this over here, with the rest of the fire.In this piece, Waldo Jaquith writes about large, government software projects—which, I know sounds thrilling. But! His view on how The Job of Being Governor works is really smart, and I think this piece is worth reading even if you couldn’t care less about software.
Serving as governor is to be presented with a never-ending stream of decisions to be made, all of which have been vetted through several layers of people. Those decisions are generally teed up to include options, in the form of a right option and a wrong option, with the governor’s advisors fervently hoping that their principal will simply make the “right” choice. There is rarely time for the governor to go deep in any area. A state is a stage full of spinning plates; the governor’s job is to go where directed and give a plate a quick push, and to repeat this many times each day, for 4–8 years. Decision-making at this level is all about triaging. The easiest option is the preferred option. It’s better to dispose of a problem permanently than temporarily, better for a longer time than a shorter time. The top priority is to get things off the governor’s desk.
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Picture of the DayOK, I think spring has sprung.
Good morning, RVA! It's 60 °F, and you can expect the day to warm up just a bit by this afternoon. Tomorrow, though, temperatures sink like a stone with lows near freezing and highs 20 degrees cooler than today—plus some rain, too. Wild! Megan Wise at NBC12 reports that yesterday’s high hit 83 °F, obliterating the all-time daily high and tying the all-time overall high for February set back in the 30s.
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have medium CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 65, 92, and 38, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 10.4. First, these numbers don’t scream “data issues” to me like they have for the past two weeks. Second, I think next week we might officially dip back into the cool, green waters of a low COVID-19 Community Level. While we wait for that, wash your hands for 30 seconds and read Katelyn Jetelina’s piece on this year’s norovirus season.
OK! We now have voting locations for this coming Sunday’s special election to fill Jennifer McClellan’s now vacant State Senate seat. Important note: You can vote in this weekend’s election if you live in the old 9th Senate District, aka Jennifer McClellan previously represented you in the Senate. If you’ve been redistricted into the new 9th Senate District from elsewhere you’ll have to sit this one out. It’s confusing, but, luckily, you can use this Who’s My Legislator tool to find both your old and new districts. If you’re a big fan of voting in elections, get excited because primaries for alllll of the General Assembly seats kick off this summer ahead of a very big and very important November election.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Em Holter reports that Richmond has won a $1.35 million federal transportation grant to continue working on the plans to cap I-95/64 over by Jackson Ward. This funding comes from the Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot program and is specifically designed to help undo some of the destruction caused by running highways through majority Black neighborhoods in the 50s and 60s. This is great news! While it’s not money for pouring concrete and building things (yet), I think winning the grant speaks to the project’s potential—especially since Secretary Mayor Pete himself was down here walking through the neighborhood a while back. Fingers crossed that the City’s team will put together a compelling plan and eventually win some actual infrastructure dollars! You can read more about reconnecting Jackson Ward and this original grant application here.
Ben Paviour at VPM reports on some embarrassing and mean-spirited text messages sent by Governor Youngkin’s recent appointee to UVA’s Board of Visitors. It’s yet another story about how the Governor appointed someone unfit for the job—a recurring theme over the past year. These appointments seem clumsy, since they inevitably stir up a negative media cycle or two, but I dunno. Appointing someone who says ridiculously things like it’s ”our only opportunity to change/reverse the path to Wokeness that has overtaken our entire University” lets the Governor spread damaging, Trumpian rhetoric throughout government while keeping himself and his moderate-looking fleece vest out of the fray.
Axios Richmond’s Ned Oliver reports on Virginia’s budget or, I guess, the lack thereof. From the piece: “The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn Saturday morning, but first lawmakers have to resolve a standoff over $1 billion in tax cuts proposed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin...It doesn't look like they're going to make their deadline.” This where my understand of the General Assembly and its budget process breaks down, and I get confused about next steps (if there even are any).
Via /r/rva an interesting post tracking prices of take-out menu items since 2019. Unsurprisingly, the prices have gone up!
The Flying Squirrels have released their very long list of promotions, fireworks, and giveaways for the upcoming 2023 season (which begins on April 7th). This list is intense! It makes me thankful Richmond has a minor league team that leans fully into the weird and wonderful.
This morning's longreadHow a Drug Company Made $114 Billion by Gaming the U.S. Patent SystemDo stories of massive companies extracting billions of dollars from vulnerable members of our society continue to shock me? Yeah, I guess they do.
One analysis found that Medicare, which in 2020 covered the cost of Humira for 42,000 patients, spent $2.2 billion more on the drug from 2016 to 2019 than it would have if competitors had been allowed to start selling their drugs promptly. In interviews, patients said they either had to forgo treatment or were planning to delay their retirement in the face of enormous out-of-pocket costs for Humira. AbbVie did not invent these patent-prolonging strategies; companies like Bristol Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca have deployed similar tactics to maximize profits on drugs for the treatment of cancer, anxiety and heartburn. But AbbVie’s success with Humira stands out even in an industry adept at manipulating the U.S. intellectual-property regime.
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Picture of the DayA billion bins.
Good morning, RVA! It's 65 °F right now (before the sun comes up) and today’s high will top out somewhere in the mid 80s. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says (Twitter), “We're going to SMASH Today's record of 75°. It won't even be close. And probably will get to the all-time February record of 83°, which happened twice in the early 1930s.” Things do cool off in a big way tomorrow, but today looks like an absolute stunner. Enjoy!
Water coolerAnna Bryson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that RPS Chief of Staff, Michelle Hudascko has resigned. To quote a bit from Hudascko’s resignation letter: “...the hostile and toxic work environment that some members of the RPS School Board have created and actively perpetuate on a daily basis is a deep disservice to RPS students and families...The frequent actions that some Board Members take to dismantle progress and intentionally set the Administration up to fail, along with the mean-spirited personal attacks, threats, and unfounded accusations have made doing this work nearly impossible. Our students are the ones paying the price.” I couldn’t agree more, and it’s not like Hudascko is an outlier, either. Tyler Lane at WTVR put together the list of recent high-level resignations which include: Chief Operating Officer, Chief Academic Officer, and the Director of Safety and Security. In a pretty clear sign of their brokenness and dysfunction, the RPS Board couldn’t come to consensus on a statement for media.
Alright, it’s election dominos time! Now that Representative-elect McClellan is off to Washington, we need to go through another whole round of primaries and special elections to fill her State Senate seat. Sen. Louise Lucas has set March 28th as the special election date, and the Democratic Party of Virginia has set February 26—this Sunday!—as the primary election date. Candidates have until 7:00 PM tomorrow to declare—stressful! At this point, I know we’ll see Alexsis Rodgers, Lamont Bagby, and Dawn Adams on the ballot, but, even with the incredibly short timelines, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few more names pop up over the next 36 hours. Voting locations to come, stay tuned, and make a plan to vote!
Yesterday, Patrick Wilson at the RTD got ahold of some internal affairs documents from the Richmond Police Department about their responses during the protests of the summer of 2020. I think nothing in here will surprise you, and you’ll see a lot of the former Police Chief’s defensive tone come through in statements from on-the-ground officers. My biggest takeaway is that the acting/interim/new Chief has a ton of work to do on the basics—stuff like equipment training.
WRIC’s Jakob Cordes reports on a bit of progress in bringing Chesterfield’s bikeways plan to life. I know it’ll take one zillion years, and might just never happen, but a safe, protected way to ride bikes from the City to the trails at Pocahontas State Park would be really, really rad.
Jahd Khalil at VPM has an update on the City’s plan to acquire those two historically Black cemeteries in East End. That resolution (RES. 2023-R011) has been continued until April.
Another good thread via /r/rva: “Best calorie bombs in the city.” Sometimes you just want a pile of fried things topped with cheese and sauce and more fried things, you know?
Tonight, from 6:00–7:00 PM, VUU will host a neat discussion about the old Ashland Trolley Line, its historical impact, and how the in-planning Fall Line Trail will follow a similarish route. I love transportation history (obviously), and, if we hadn’t set fire to our electric street cars in the 40s and 50s, a couple lines would run just blocks from my house! PlanRVA has put together a really nice StoryMap if you’d like to learn more about the trolley’s history (and if it ran past your house) or you can just come out to the event tonight, which is free to attend.
This morning's longreadThe Work is Not Enough I read this surrounded by laundry thinking through next week’s meal plan, and it hit me hard! Anne Helen Petersen!
Losing a day, an hour, an afternoon — if that was time used to put things in place to keep them rolling through the week, and that time is lost, then you find yourself in a 17-task pile-up. The laundry didn’t get done or put away, which means everyone’s down in the laundry room sorting through piles on the floor, which means there’s more laundry and/or no place to put the next loads of laundry — and pretty soon you’re in laundry apocalypse, and the only thing that’s going to save you is…the next weekend. When your life is this precariously balanced, weekends aren’t for rest or reflection, not really. They’re for cramming in the things you had no time for during the week (whatever semblance of leisure + 17 kids’ birthday parties or sporting events if you’re a parent) then catching up or setting up or meal planning or doing enough laundry in preparation for the week to come.
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Picture of the DayVisual tree static.
Good morning, RVA! It's 43 °F, and today you can expect highs in the mid 60s—chilly, really, when compared to tomorrow’s potentially record-breaking temperatures. But that’s tomorrow! For today, enjoy warmer-than-average temperatures that don’t induce existential dread.
Water coolerShe did it! With a landslide 74% of the vote, Jennifer McClellan will be the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress! NBCNews’s Ryan Nobles says (Twitter) she joins the Jennifers Wexton and Kiggans as part of the Commonwealth’s Jennifer Delegation—the only Jennifers in the country to represent a state in the House. Exciting stuff—both for McClellan and for us, who now continue to have excellent elected representation at the federal level. You can read McClellan’s victory speech here.
City Council’s Governmental Operations committee meets today (full agenda here) and will consider one paper of note: RES. 2023-R011. This resolution asks the City and its attorney to start figuring out how to acquire Evergreen and East End Cemetery from the now defunct EnRichmond Foundation. Years ago, the City gifted these two historically Black cemeteries to the Foundation. Ostensibly they did so for maintenance and upkeep reasons, but the relationship between EnRichmond and the long-operating Friends of East End group (who’d been maintenancing and upkeeping on their own for quite a while) has, from the beginning, been fraught to say the least. Returning the properties to City ownership seems like the right first step, and formalizing some agreement with and support for the Friends of East End to continue their work seems like a solid next step.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams has an interesting column today about train stations. I got defensive after reading the headline, “At any speed, we don’t need a train station in Shockoe Bottom,” because Richmond certainly does need a high-quality train station that people can get to without a car—and the Staples Mill Station isn’t it. MPW advocates for moving the station away from the historic resources of Shockoe and up to the Diamond District, one of the original options presented to the community when the whole DC2RVA project kicked off six years ago. I’m not strictly against it, but I’d guess the land up that way is far too valuable at this point to build a giant surface-level parking lot for holding the cars of suburban commuters on their way to D.C. Also, trains still need to make their way to points east and south, and that may mean moving through Shockoe regardless of whether they stop at Main Street Station or not. It’s complicated stuff, and I don’t know what the right answer is. What I do know is that train projects take decades to figure out, and, like a train, once they get moving they’re hard to stop.
Corey Byers at VCU News reports that VCU Police have stepped up speeding enforcement on campus following the death of a student who was hit and killed by a driver on Main Street. While this response is about 1,000 times better than the cutesy referee skit from earlier this month, nothing slows drivers like more and better infrastructure (even temporary infrastructure!). Just look a single block north from Main Street to Floyd Avenue which is: two-way, narrowed with bump outs, and has an interesting sort of naked-street intersection where it crosses Linden. Any or all of these proven ways of slowing traffic could be implemented on Main Street...if we wanted to prioritize people’s safety over the convenience of drivers.
For some reason, I’m emotionally invested in the story about the right whale which washed up in Virginia Beach earlier this month. WHRO reports that the NOAA performed an autopsy and found that the whale was hit by a boat. From the piece: “They said the whale died shortly after a collision. The impact caused what NOAA called ‘catastrophic’ blunt force trauma.”
This morning's longreadJohn H. White’s Photographs of Black Chicago for DOCUMERICA (1973–74)This set of street photography from 1970s Black Chicago is 100% worth your time this morning. It’s inspired me to pick up my camera/phone more and document Richmond in its current state.
It is notable that even White’s snapshots of joy and play are often paired with captions (composed by the photographer himself) that frame the scene within larger economic realities: elevated unemployment rates, wage discrimination, and the difficulties Black business owners faced opening and keeping afloat their stores amid racial prejudice from white clientele. In several of his photographs, children in the foreground are dwarfed by the looming husks of abandoned housing blocks behind them — largely salvageable buildings that White notes “have been systematically vacated as a result of fires, vandalism or failure by the owners to provide basic tenant services” before being “razed and replaced with highrise apartments which appeal to few members of the Black community”. By placing these subjects within the framing of an EPA-funded project, White and the directors of DOCUMERICA drew an implicit connection between suburbanization and divestment from cities, on the one hand, and environmental racism on the other — analysis that rings with enduring resonance today.
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Picture of the DayOne day this will be rad.
Good morning, RVA! It's 47 °F, and today looks great. You can expect sunshine and highs right around 70 °F. Temperatures later this week might even climb into the 80s, which sounds wonderful (unless you’re a fruit tree who’s sure to be ruined by an inevitable March deep freeze (Twitter)).
Water coolerIt’s Election Day in Virginia’s 4th Congressional District! If you haven’t yet voted through one of the Commonwealth’s many early voting mechanisms (thank you, Democrats!), you can still head to your standard polling place and cast a ballot in person. Heck, you can even register to vote today and cast a provisional ballot. Amazing! You’ve got no excuses, so get out there and vote!
Related: Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Del. Jeff Bourne will “not seek re-election in the new 78th House District or join an already crowded Democratic field of contenders to represent the new 14th Senate District.” Bourne has been a staple in Richmond politics since he got elected to school board a bunch of years ago, and it’ll be weird not having him around. Tap through for the tiniest bit of speculation on Bourne’s next political moves, but I think we’ll probably just have to wait and see to know anything meaningful.
Today the City’s Planing Commission meets (full agenda here), and they will finally hear a presentation on this year’s Richmond 300 Annual Report. This is one of my favorite regularly-occurring PDFs, and you should definitely scroll through it. Not only does it give you a good refresher on the broad strokes of the master plan (p. 4–9), but it tracks citywide metrics (p. 13–15) and provides specific, concrete updates on Richmond 300’s Big Moves (p. 17–22). I find all of this stuff fascinating. Make sure you take a look at page 23 for a list of master-plan-related actions slated for 2023, which include: kicking off the zoning ordinance rewrite, passing The Three Zoning Changes, and adopting both a Shockoe and Jackson Ward small area plan. Sounds like the Department of Planning and Development Review has a big year ahead of them.
At the beginning of this year’s General Assembly session, 38 entire days ago, VAPLAN sent out an email highlighting the “competing priorities” of Democrats and Republicans. Out of the 58 bills mentioned across both parties, just a few—like you could count them on one hand—survived crossover and still have a chance to become actual laws. This doesn’t mean our elected legislators have sat around twiddling their thumbs over the past couple of weeks, though. Just check out the massive list of legislation signed by the governor in 2022 for a sense of how many bills flow through the GA in a given year. Even with a divided General Assembly and very few big-ticket items to get excited about, it’s pretty interesting (albeit frustrating at times) to watch the legislators do their work.
Have you ever seen the concrete columns marking the city limits on several major thoroughfares in different parts of town? Harry Kollatz Jr. at Richmond Magazine has a nice piece about the artist behind those columns (and a few other sculptures you’re most likely familiar with).
This morning's longreadIt Is Journalism’s Sacred Duty To Endanger The Lives Of As Many Trans People As PossibleThe Onion really crushes this piece about the New York Times’s insistence on running anti-trans garbage in its editorial pages.
Naturally, courageous reporting like ours has its detractors. Our critics accuse us of transphobia and are trying to murder us online, with their online mobs. They want to destroy our right to free speech and have us arrested by all the police. What gives? Why would you arrest us, when it’s those deviant trans people you ought to be arresting instead? Do you know what the science says about trans people getting arrested, huh? What if we could find data saying trans people should be more likely to get arrested? What will our detractors say then? They’ll be silent, as well they should be, and free speech will survive one more day. For more evidence of our time-honored journalistic commitment to endangering lives, please see our previous coverage of gay people, immigrants, Black people, and women.
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Picture of the DayGreat booth work.
Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and that’s about today’s high. You can expect rain throughout most of the day and then falling temperatures this evening. The long weekend ahead of us looks dry and cool (but still a little too warm for February), and I hope you find the time either to sit quietly and enjoy the ambient sounds of your neighborhood or to catch up on your favorite plot-driven zombie show.
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have medium CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 15, 133, and 98, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 12.9. Again this week we have a case rate in Richmond that’s an order of magnitude smaller than rates in the surrounding counties, and again I’m not really sure what to make of it. 15 is certainly more believable than “zero”, which was Richmond’s number last week, so that’s something. If you zoom out a bit on the CDC’s COVID-19 map, you’ll see almost the entire country washed in the pleasant green of a low Community Level—maybe that’ll be our future in Central Virginia soon! In the meantime, as we wait for that green, read this piece from Your Local Epidemiologist’s Katelyn Jetelina about the real science behind the fungal zombies in The Last of Us.
Jahd Khalil at VPM has an exciting report that the City has hired a Labor Relations Administrator and that three buckets of city employees have filed for union elections. The collective bargaining enabling legislation passed last year allows five separate groups of employees to join a union, and, yesterday, workers in the Administrative and Technical unit, Professionals unit, and Labor and Trades unit all voted to do so. This is great news, and, while it took a little longer than expected, I’m glad to see the City make progress on this promise.
WTVR reports that police have arrested someone at a pop-up weed market following a raid earlier this week at the Happy Trees grow shop on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. In response, the Richmond Police Department sent out a press release with the subject line “Search Warrant Leads to Arrest, Serving as Strong Reminder of the Law,” pointing out that possessing more than four ounces of marijuana in public is a misdemeanor and more than a pound is a felony. I think this whole situation instead serves as a strong reminder that the current marijuana laws don’t make a ton of sense. The General Assembly could fix this, of course, but, unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until next year’s session to see if anyone wants to actually figure out a tenable, legal retail marijuana market.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Michael Martz reports on the status of Petersburg’s casino, which, at the moment, is not good. From the piece: “The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee voted 10-6 on Thursday to kill legislation...to let Petersburg voters decide in November whether to approve a $1.4 billion casino resort proposed next to Interstate 95.” That leaves the weird and wild world of budget language as Petersburg’s last hope for a casino bid—which means, for us here in Richmond, we’re a lot more likely to see a second casino referendum coming to a ballot near you.
If you want to vote early in this coming Tuesday’s Congressional Election (in which you can vote for Jennifer McClellan), your last day to do so is tomorrow by 5:00 PM at your local voter registration office. If your Tuesday looks like crap and you don’t think you’ll be able to make it out to the polls, thank your state-level Democrats, and take advantage of early in-person voting over the weekend.
The Great Backyard Bird Count starts today and runs through Sunday and is an excellent chance to spend 15 minutes in one of your favorite places counting birds and submitting data to “help scientists better understand and protect birds around the world.” There are a couple of easy ways to participate, and you definitely don’t need any prior bird or birding experience. Birds! They’re weird but everywhere!
Logistical note! This coming Monday is George Washington Day in Virginia—known elsewhere as Presidents’ Day, President’s Day, Presidents Day, and various combinations of Washington and Lincoln Day. I’ll be taking the day off, and, if the world has dried out enough after today’s rain, you can probably find me on a bicycle in the forest somewhere. We’ll pick things back up on Tuesday (which, remember, is also Election Day!).
This morning's longreadFrom Bing to SydneyBen Thompson at Stratechery is, what I would consider, a Very Smart Man, and reading about his shifting thoughts on AI started to shift my own thoughts. I have no idea where this AI road we’re on leads, but it certainly feels like we’re headed for a period of strange and rapid change.
Sydney absolutely blew my mind because of her personality; search was an irritant. I wasn’t looking for facts about the world; I was interested in understanding how Sydney worked and yes, how she felt...Again, I am totally aware that this sounds insane. But for the first time I feel a bit of empathy for Lemoine. No, I don’t think that Sydney is sentient, but for reasons that are hard to explain, I feel like I have crossed the Rubicon. My interaction today with Sydney was completely unlike any other interaction I have had with a computer, and this is with a primitive version of what might be possible going forward.
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Picture of the DayNightwingin’ it.
Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and today, the 16th of February, you can expect highs in the mid 70s. Seems warm, a little...too warm. In fact, NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says we could even get close to catching the all-time high of 78 °F (Twitter). Get out there and enjoy it today, because rain moves in tomorrow and brings with it cooler temperatures (but still not what I’d consider “winter weather”).
Water coolerAs the General Assembly session winds down, Kim Bobo, executive director of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, has a look at three bills that “were killed (or appear dead)” and a nice reflection on public policy advocacy in Virginia. I liked this bit, which tells you why contacting your legislators is so important, even when your priorities don’t seem like they have any legislative hope at all: “Even though we may not see all the fruits of our labor this season, our work is not in vain. We are building the support and understanding on these and other issues, which is needed to advance them down the line. Next year is not an election year. The session will be longer. And we are long-distance runners, not sprinters.”
A while back, the Capital Region Land Conservancy bought a piece of property down by Great Shiplock Park from private owners, finally connecting some of the downriver parts of our riverfront. One of the benefits of this transaction, other than fulfilling some of the goals set out in Richmond’s Riverfront Plan, is that it allows for rerouting the Capital Trail off of horrible Dock Street and over somewhere closer to the river (and away from traffic). Cat Anthony, the executive director of the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation, has some new-to-me timing-news in their most recent email newsletter: “It has been exciting to learn more about the James River Association’s Education Center and the realignment of the Capital Trail off the street and onto the parcel of property along Dock Street. This development is between mile marker 50 and 51. Expect construction to begin in the Spring and we hope to see the new alignment of the Capital Trail and completion of the center by the end of Summer 2024.“ Summer of 2024 is right around the corner, and I can’t wait to check out this new section of trail!
Ian M. Stewart at VPM reports on what Henrico County has in mind for getting people in and out of their GreenCity development. Seems like good stuff: Expanding bus service, building new trails, and connecting over to the pending Fall Line Trail. There’s also a few quotes near the end of the piece about “upgrading” roads, which sounds a whole lot like widening to me. Whatever the County does end up doing, I hope they put as much thought—and money—into the non-car ways to get over to GreenCity as they do those upgraded roads.
Via /r/rva: “What are the best things to do in the city on your own?” I really loved this answer: “I pick a point on the map and walk to it. Sometimes a combo of public transport and walking, but usually around 2 miles of walking. I end up discovering all kinds of neat stuff (art, shops, food) on the way.”
Today, from 12:00–1:00 PM, RVA Rapid Transit will host a Transit Talk with GRTC’s new CEO, Sheryl Adams, and her new chief of staff, Adrienne Torres. The event is virtual, free, and a great way to celebrate our region’s women of color during Black History Month.
This morning's longreadSecretary Pete’s safe streets plan won’t succeed if engineers continue business as usualYou’re going to want to read Jeff Speck’s new column in The Hill. He’s fed up and argues for starting to hold engineering (writ large via a class-action lawsuit) responsible for the incredibly unsafe ways our streets are designed.
How did they do it? Here in the U.S., engineers enforce “minimum design speeds”; Dutch engineers do the opposite. When designing a street, they first ask what speed cars should travel in the neighborhood. They then shape that street to limit elbow room, so that drivers do not feel comfortable going faster. Contrast that Dutch approach with my experience a number of years ago designing a suburban neighborhood near Birmingham, Alabama. I was required by the county engineer to loosen the curves in a street until it achieved a “design speed” 10 mph above the posted limit — in a residential community. This approach seems preposterous to everyone, except apparently American engineers. The entrenched pro-speed practices of our engineers helps to explain why Vision Zero – the global campaign to eliminate urban traffic deaths – is failing so miserably in North America.
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Picture of the DayRichmond Community during golden hour.
Good morning, RVA! It's 46 °F, and today you can expect highs in the 70s! Sure! You can look forward to even warmer temperatures tomorrow and then for rain to move in on Friday. I’ll wait until the end of the month to pull the data, but surely this has been a record-breakingly warm February, right?
Water coolerI appreciate the directness in last night’s email from RPS Superintendent Kamras: “It's crunch time for the state budget and we need your advocacy. Here's the very short story: the Senate version of the budget is MUCH better for RPS and school divisions across the Commonwealth. Below are the Senators and Delegates who are meeting to hash out the final budget. Please deluge them with calls and emails advocating for the Senate's budget.” Tap through the previous link to see the entire list of folks you should contact or copy/paste this list of comma-separated email addresses directly into your email client for easy deluging. Remember, keep it short, professional, and just tell them you support the Senate’s version of the budget. Related, the RPS School Board will host their own budget work session tonight at 6:00 PM at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School. There’s no public comment period on the agenda, so you can show up to observe, if you really want, or you can just stream the meeting over on RPS’s YouTube.
Thad Green at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Henrico County will consider issuing real estate tax rebates to homeowners again. I continue to think it’s smart to issue rebates while assessments continue to rise alongside the (maybe fake?) specter of recession. The alternative of lowering the real estate tax—assuming you don’t want to just pay for more things—could put a jurisdiction in a real bind should the economy start to crumble. Richmond is, of course, in a way different place: With assessments still rising but with massively greater infrastructure, maintenance, and service needs. Given all that, it’ll be interesting to see if the Mayor includes something similar in his proposed budget this year.
Richmond BizSense’s Jack Jacob reports that the General Assembly has killed legislation to set up the legal retail marijuana market, leaving the Commonwealth in its current weird middlespace for another year. Not only is the existing situation confusing (and sometimes dangerous) for Virginians, but the State is leaving tons of tax revenue on the table! Dumb!
This past Monday, City Council passed both the ordinance to increase the number of scooters on our streets (ORD. 2023-029) and the resolution to officially adopt the Climate Equity Action Plan (RES. 2023-R005). The new street light policy (ORD. 2022-375), the other paper I have my eye on, was sent back to the Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee for their March meeting. A quick note about the scooter ordinance: Remember that if a scooter company now wants to exceed the fleet limit, they can do so but must deploy a bunch of vehicles to the Southside. I’ll take a note to check back later this spring, but, as of this morning, neither Bird nor Lime has a single scooter on the south side of the river.
The City of Richmond will host a Black History Month event, titled “The Road to Richmond — Transforming Richmond through Music, Art, Culture, and Education,” tonight at 6:00 PM at Main Street Station. According to the really cool poster, folks should expect “interactive cultural immersions, reading circles, and dynamic panel discussions.” I hope whoever illustrated the bateau man on the poster is selling prints somewhere.
This morning's longreadMastodon: A New Hope for Social NetworkingElon Musk threatened to fire Twitter engineers unless they made his own tweets show up more on people’s timelines. So if you’re finally looking for a good Mastodon explainer / tutorial, here’s the best one I’ve found so far.
You can think of Mastodon as a flotilla of boats of vastly different sizes, whereas Twitter is like being on a cruise ship the size of a continent. Some Mastodon boats might be cruise liners with as many as 50,000 passengers; others are just dinghies with a single occupant! The admin of each instance—the captain of your particular boat—might make arbitrary decisions you disagree with as heartily as with any commercial operator’s tacks and turns. But you’re not stuck on the boat with drowning as your only alternative. Instead, you can hop from one boat to another without losing your place in the flotilla community. Parts of a flotilla can also pup off and form their own disconnected groups, but no boat, however large, is more important than any other in the community.
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Picture of the DayIt’s like our own alien obelisk.
Good morning, RVA! It's 36 °F, but we’re on track for another warm day with highs in the 60s. Stick around, because temperatures tomorrow and Thursday could creep up into the 70s—totally normal middle-of-February stuff! While today looks dry, rain will move in before the weekend, if that impacts your plans over the next couple of days.
Water coolerToday is last day you can register to vote or update your existing voter information before the February 21st special congressional election. You can check your registration status on the Department of Elections website. Technically, that first sentence was a lie, because, thanks to Democrats, you can still “register after this date, through Election Day, and vote using a provisional ballot.” But, as someone with a lot of anxiety about The Rules in unfamiliar situations, I’d recommend avoiding the provisional ballot entirely if you can and just taking care of your registration business today.
Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense reports that Hustler Hollywood, the sex toy shop across from the Science Museum on Broad Street, is now open. Listen, I’m not against sex toy shops across from science museums, but surely we could do better than a small, single-story building surrounded by a parking lot fronting our biggest street! Maybe we could tear this building down (which had a previous life as a Pizza Hut), put ten stories of apartments in its place, and then open a Hustler Hollywood in the ground floor retail space?
Via Axios Richmond: Remember how the Governor tanked plans to bring a Ford battery plant to Southside Virginia? That facility (and its accompanying jobs) will now move to Michigan instead. CNBC has the details.
The Virginian-Pilot reports that an endangered North Atlantic right whale washed ashore in Virginia Beach this past weekend. I learned a lot about these whales from Wikipedia this morning, including that “a common explanation for the name right whales is that they were regarded as the right ones to hunt, as they float when killed.” Also there are only about 400 of this particular species of whale left in the entire world.
In less depressing animal news, via /r/rva these photos of red-tailed hawks flying around looking dangerous and impressive. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a “courtship flight” but interlocking talons and beaks and birds screaming through the air sounds pretty awesome.
This coming Thursday, February 16th at 8:00 PM, you can join the folks at STAY RVA for one of their STAY Chats—this one featuring community leaders Amy Wentz and Ashley Williams. They’ll facilitate a conversation titled “Doing the Work: What does that mean?” in which, I assume, you’ll learn what it means to do the work but also a bit about the work both Wentz and Williams are doing. Another opportunity to learn smart things from smart people! This is a virtual, free event, and you can register over on Eventbrite.
This morning's longreadChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the WebTed Chiang has a really lovely article in The New Yorker describing this current round of text-generating AIs. Tap through for thoughtful commentary on AI, but read the entire thing for some great insight on writing—like, human writing. I can’t stop highlighting this bit: “Your first draft isn’t an unoriginal idea expressed clearly; it’s an original idea expressed poorly, and it is accompanied by your amorphous dissatisfaction, your awareness of the distance between what it says and what you want it to say. ”
Think of ChatGPT as a blurry JPEG of all the text on the Web. It retains much of the information on the Web, in the same way that a JPEG retains much of the information of a higher-resolution image, but, if you’re looking for an exact sequence of bits, you won’t find it; all you will ever get is an approximation. But, because the approximation is presented in the form of grammatical text, which ChatGPT excels at creating, it’s usually acceptable. You’re still looking at a blurry JPEG, but the blurriness occurs in a way that doesn’t make the picture as a whole look less sharp.
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Picture of the DayRooftop details.
Good morning, RVA! It's 36 °F now, but, later today, you’ll find highs right around 60 °F. You can expect a continuation of these unseasonably warm temperatures straight on through to at least Friday—and probably even beyond. I think our chances for a decent snow this year have started to quickly approach zero.
Water coolerCity Council will meet today for their regularly-scheduled meeting, and you can find the full agenda here. Two of the papers I have my eyes on—expanding scooter fleets (ORD. 2023-029) and the Climate Equity Action Plan (RES. 2023-R005)—sit on the consent agenda, which usually means smooth sailing without even a chance for councilmembers to discuss or speechify. That’s good news, especially for the climate plan, because we need to just go ahead and get started on that thing. Also of note for budgetwatchers like myself, at their informal meeting, Council will have a discussion on “Council Budget Priorities Survey.” I’d love to see the results of this survey and/or hear this discussion!
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that the folks behind Shyndigz, the cake place, have plans to build a hotel just down the street from their current spot. They’ll eventually move their existing location over that way and end up with a combination cake shop, courtyard, and hotel situation. Sounds great, but even more delicious is this quote about the amount of parking required for the development: “The only thing that we’re hearing so far, and we knew we would, is parking. But it was really interesting. We did a census with our staff and we found out that 65 percent of our employees either walk, ride their bike or bus to work. That surprised me and is really cool...There’s not as much need as there used to be in the past for parking.“ Turns out! Just another data point to support the City’s plan to get rid of required parking minimums for new developments!
Related, via /r/rva, a good thread of folks chiming in with advice on how to transition from using a car to get around to strictly biking or bussing. I think maybe some of the best advice in here—at least for folks on bikes—is to forego backpacks and get yourself some sort of rack-and-basket to throw stuff in. Any old rack and this bag will cover about 75% of your needs—it’s served me well for many, many years!
Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond looked into Virginia’s new population data from UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center. The takeaway: People are moving to our region, but not necessarily to Richmond itself. I’d guess that probably has something to do with the cost of housing. If you want to make some graphs or do a bit of analysis of your own, you can find a spreadsheet of the county-by-county population estimates here.
Alert, teachers! This coming Wednesday, from 4:00–6:30 PM, Maymont will once again host their Educator Open House. Maymont is rad, and this is an opportunity for educators from across the region to stop by and learn about how to incorporate the park into the classroom—or, more accurately, incorporate the classroom into the park. The event is free, but you’ll want to register using the previous link.
This morning's longreadHow did we get $32 trillion in debt?We’re still a few months out from when Republicans inevitably hold our country ransom over the debt ceiling. That gives you plenty of time to read this history of the debt ceiling—it’s good context to have as we sail into whatever tempest of stupidity that awaits us this summer.
Today, dollars are little more than the way the international monetary system keeps score, and the Fed can create dollars simply by changing the numbers in its spreadsheet. This is why it is nonsense to talk about the US “going bankrupt” in any other way but Congress refusing to allow the Treasury to pay its bills (i.e., what McCarthy is now threatening). The US owes dollars, and dollars are whatever the Fed says they are. Worrying about the Fed running out of dollars to buy bonds from the Treasury is like worrying about the scoreboard at the Super Bowl running out of points. The ultimate threat of fiscal irresponsibility (which we’ll get into in the next post in this series) is not national bankruptcy, but inflation combined with the much vaguer threat of people and countries and corporations choosing to drop out of the dollar-denominated economic system.
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Picture of the DayMarcel the Shell.
Good morning, RVA! It's 59 °F, and you can, once again, expect unseasonably warm weather as we spend a lot of the afternoon in the upper 60s. Temperatures sink like a stone over the next two days, though, and the highs on Sunday will hover right around 40 °F. Winter is coming (back)!
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have medium CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 0 (?!), 164, and 122, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 11.3. OK, clearly some data reporting issues going on here. Despite whatever the CDC website says, there is no way that Richmond has averaged zero COVID-19 cases over the last seven days. Fortunately, which seems like the wrong word here, the hospital admissions rate itself is enough to push all three localities into the medium level. I plan on continuing to treat things like we’re at a medium level, mostly by wearing a mask in large public gatherings and staying home when I’m sick. One additional piece of coronanews from this week, Katelyn Jetelina at Your Local Epidemiologist has a nice piece about the practical impacts of President Biden ending the Public Health Emergency in May. I think, for most folks, especially those with health insurance, this change won’t be too huge of an upheaval. Unfortunately, the un- or underinsured—as always—face a lot of stressful unknowns and question marks.
The City of Richmond has plans for new bike lanes on either side of the Nickel Bridge, and they would like your feedback on the proposed designs. Check out the far right column of this PDF for what they’ve got drawn up for south of the bridge extending all the way to Hill Top Drive, which gets you almost down to Midlothian Turnpike. None of these designs include physical protection—like flexible posts or barriers—and the southern most section is just sharrows which doesn’t even count as infrastructure. And in this PDF (again, far right column), you can see the plans for north of the bridge all the way up and around to the end of Blanton Avenue. Again, no physical barriers proposed for any of the sections. I think y’all know what to do: Take four minutes this morning and fill out the City’s survey, and, when you do, make sure you request physically protected bike lanes as part of this project!
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers reports the fascinating news that the City once again owns the decrepit Public Safety Building after developers failed to make adequate progress on its removal and future redevelopment. Sounds like VCU still wants to build something on (or around?) that piece of property, but the next steps are incredibly hazy. I wonder, since we have a lovely new City Center small area plan and things have kind of fallen apart, if it’s time to take a step back and rethink how we’d like to use that space.
Connor Scribner at VPM reports on whatever is happening at the Grace Place Apartments in Monroe Ward—the whole thing sounds like a mess and extremely disruptive for residents. Interestingly, RRHA purchased these income-restricted apartments a while back and have plans to renovate the building while keeping the units affordable. I can’t get a sense for exactly how affordable, but I’m really into the idea of providing at least some deeply affordable homes right smack dab in the middle of downtown close to good transit and jobs.
If you would like to vote by mail in the February 21st special election for the 4th Congressional District (aka for Jennifer McClellan), today is the very last day for you to apply for a mail-in ballot. Honestly that deadline sounds a little too stressful to me, and with the voter registration office opening for early Saturday voting tomorrow, maybe just do that instead? Check out the full list of deadlines over on the Department of Elections website.
This morning's longreadWe May Not Actually Need All That LithiumElectrifying everything, while certainly a necessary and important goal to keeping our planet habitable, must be paired with smart land use policy that puts more people in places where they can abandon cars altogether, dramatically shrinking their carbon footprint. Check out the map of Average Household Carbon Footprint and see for yourself how living in a city (aka a dense place where people can abandon cars altogether) shrinks carbon footprints.
When she tried to find projections of pathways with different priorities in the U.S.—where there are fewer and smaller cars, denser and more easily navigable residential areas, and more public transit—she discovered they hadn’t yet been modeled in the context of demand for these minerals. To do the modeling, Riofrancos and her research partners put together four scenarios for the U.S. to achieve net-zero emissions through 2050: a business-as-usual scenario, where electric vehicles simply replace the current supply of fossil fuel-dependent cars, and increasingly dramatic scenarios in which more people live in dense, walkable and bikeable areas; take improved public transit; and own fewer and smaller cars, while the government also implements aggressive recycling policies for electric car components. They then calculated the amount of lithium and other metals all these scenarios demand.
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Picture of the DayA secret bamboo bridge hidden in a bamboo forest.
Good morning, RVA! It's 48 °F, but you can expect highs in the 70s?? I don’t know what’s going on out there, but yesterday evening was exceedingly pleasant and it looks like we’ll have an even warmer, cloudier version of that today.
Water coolerThe Richmond Times-Dispatch has put together a nice, high-level, topic-based overview of where a bunch of legislation stands after this week’s crossover in the General Assembly. Crossover is the fun name given to when bills that made it out of the Senate head over to the House of Delegates, and bills that made it out of the House of Delegates make their way over to the Senate. If your bill didn’t cross over, it’s dead. It’s certainly not smooth sailing from here on out, of course—your bill could still die in a thousand different ways—but crossover marks a good moment to look at what legislation is actually left standing. It’s a pretty thin list, honestly, and even thinner when you filter down to stuff that has a real chance at becoming legislation, given the split in control of the House and Senate.
Related, Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond reports on one bill that looks destined to become a law: “a rare gun safety compromise with a bill that would give gun owners a $300 tax credit to by gun safes.” The Republican-controlled House, which, as Oliver puts it, “looked less kindly on proposals that didn’t involve cash transfers to gun owners,” passed their version of the bill 99-1.
I’d like to learn more about this post on /r/rva: “VCU PD is really out here with referees for crosswalks, throwing flags for jaywalkers.” If this is an official response to the student who was hit and killed by a driver last week, I think the light-hearted tone is offensive. Optics aside, if VCU and the City wanted to keep people safe on Main Street they would implement cheap, temporary fixes to slow down drivers. We know what works and how to fix our streets! It’s not hard! Cute and clever education campaigns are fine, but it breaks my heart this is the extent of our efforts when the tools to keep people—college kids!—alive are so readily available.
You’ve got two interesting public meetings to keep an eye on today. First, the City’s Urban Design Committee meets this morning and will look at a handful of bridge updates, which sounds exciting. You can find the full agenda here, but today they’ll consider the vibes on replacements for the Mayo Bridge, a bridge over Hull Street at the Manchester Canal, and the bridge/tunnel on Broad Street at 15th (down by the site of Devil’s Half Acre). I’m interested in all of these, because bridges are cool, but certainly very interested in what’s in the works for replacing the Mayo Bridge. Second, Council’s Education and Human Services committee will meet to discuss next-steps from their recent combined Council and School Board get together. Looks like the Superintendent and some (all?) members of School Board will be in attendance, so I’m hoping for a productive time.
I missed this when it came out almost an entire month ago, but the RTD’s Editorial Board wrote an editorial opposing the Governor’s now-dead plan to defund public schools through Education Savings Accounts. While the Board still hews a little too close to the paper’s libertarian worldview for me, they do a good job of pulling the numbers on private school tuitions and the number of potentially open seats in those schools, making the whole ESA proposal look like an unserious attempt to reduce the cost of private schools for wealthy folks. Which is what it is! Good on the RTD for putting this together.
This morning's longreadThe Color of FreedomScalawag magazine put together a short reflection on the federal government’s 1930s “slave narratives” project and also colorized some of the related photographs. You can explore almost the entire project for yourself over on the Library of Congress website, but make sure you read this piece first to put yourself in the appropriate headspace.
There are over 2,000 of these freedom narratives in all. Most consist only of short written retellings of stories elicited from formerly enslaved African-American Southerners by mostly-white interviewers. These narratives are complex and compelling, but their production and interpretation was not, and is not without fatal fault. Some of the speakers are restrained in their retelling of events. Some are clear-eyed and willing to tell the tales. Others speak explicitly of freedom, while some hold back. Some express nostalgia—longing for a more stable, unencumbered life—while others embrace the unsteadiness of the continued project of emancipation. But the ways that these narratives have been weaponized against Black communities can often limit our understanding of how folks navigated and survived the perils of slavery, Reconstruction, the Great Depression, and the rise of Jim Crow.
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Picture of the DayEarly girls in the forest.
Good morning, RVA! It's 47 °F, and today we’ve got some delightfully unexpectedly highs near 70 °F alongside some bright and sunny skies. I know I’ve said this a lot recently, but if ever there was a day to get outside and have a blast, today is that day. I hope you can find the time to make it happen!
Water coolerRVAGreen 2050’s February newsletter is worth your time and very action oriented. Specifically: Next week, City Council will hear RES. 2023-R005, which would have them adopt RVAGreen’s Climate Equity Action Plan.pdf) as the official sustainability plan for the City of Richmond. That’s something definitely worth supporting, and you should take two minutes this morning to drop your councilmember an email about it. If you’d like a sort of ground-floor summary of all the above links, check out this really clever eight-page “Council summary” document, which I think is just the best idea. If City Council can understand a document, so can you!
Ian M. Stewart at VPM reports on Henrico’s $320,000 takeaway from a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program (Richmond took home about $760,000 from the same grant). Tap through, scroll down, and see with your own eyes a picture of how a locality can quickly create temporary, cheap infrastructure to slow drivers down and make our streets safer. I’m not saying Henrico has it all figured out—just try taking the bus to Short Pump and then walking to your destination —but I appreciate their willingness to at least experiment with infrastructure pilot programs like the one pictured here.
Storefront for Community Design has put together a really cool project alongside a neat volunteer opportunity. They’re developing Design Richmond, an interactive guide and activity book that will “empower residents, specifically youth ages 13-18, to become active participants in the design of their communities.” This is so totally right up my alley, and I wish something like it would have existed for my teenage self. I mean, check out these objectives for participants: “Explore the city from their own perspective, foster pride for living in Richmond, learn how Richmond was planned and designed, discover challenges in their community and imagine solutions, build vocabulary & understanding of city planning and design,and identify career fields that shape our neighborhoods.” If helping to put together something like this sounds like a whole lot of fun (how could it not!), you can fill out Storefront’s volunteer form.
Let’s do a quick check in with the Virginia Mercury’s Nathaniel Cline to see how the Governor’s policies to defund public schools are faring in the General Assembly: “All four bills put forward by Republicans this year to let parents use state education funding to cover the costs of educational opportunities outside the public school system failed to make it through this year’s General Assembly.” Not so great for the Governor’s agenda, but good news for our important public institutions.
If you’re up for a public meeting tonight, the City’s Charter Review Commission will gather at City Hall from 6:00–8:00 PM. This group of smart folks is in the process of reviewing Richmond’s current charter and will, eventually, suggest changes big and small to our guiding legislative document—changes that will all have to be approved by the General Assembly. That sounds daunting given the current makeup of the GA, but that’s part of the reason we put this group of smart folks together: to figure out how to successfully convince a disparate bunch of statewide lawmakers that Richmond does actually know best for Richmond (at least some of the time). You can view the full agenda for tonight’s meeting here (which is the actual first time I’ve ever found a link to a board and/or commission’s agenda on the City Clerk’s website! Makes me wonder what other treasures this dark portal holds...).
Here’s today’s ridiculous news: Eric Kolenich at the RTD reports that...let me just quote it: “In the 1890s, the estate of T.C. Williams Sr. gave the University of Richmond’s law school $25,000. Eventually, UR named the school for Williams. But last year, UR removed the name, citing Williams’ ownership of enslaved workers. And now his descendants are asking for their money back — with interest. The family has asked for $51 million.” What a waste of everyone’s time and energy.
Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond points me to this News You Can Use (Twitter): “Super Bowl Sunday is the peak annual consumption day for avocados...If you want avocados that are perfectly ripe on Sunday, you need to get them mid-week.”
This morning's longreadThe Police Cannot Be a Law Unto ThemselvesIt’s been almost three years since the summer of 2020; far too little has changed and we still live in a world where we hear about police violence all too regularly. This Jamelle Bouie column, while depressing, feels like a primer in the language we should now use when we talking about police reform—in place of “defunding” or “reimagining.”
The absence of legal and, especially, democratic accountability is, or should be, an existential problem for any police reform agenda. Without a strategy to curb or break the cartel power of police departments — meaning their ability to undermine, neuter and subvert all attempts to regulate and control their actions and personnel — there is no practical way to achieve meaningful and lasting reform, if that is your goal. Indeed, anything resembling a root-and-branch transformation of American policing will only ever occur after the public is able to exercise real control over the institution itself. Put a little differently, the only reforms that can take hold in the absence of direct democratic accountability — where the public itself can shape the rules that govern policing and police officers — are those that don’t actually alter the status quo of police culture and police institutions.
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Picture of the DayWhen people lose their minds over building heights and “neighborhood character” this is what I think about.
Good morning, RVA! It's 30 °F, but today’s highs will almost hit 60 °F. At the moment, it looks like we’ve got a bunch of rain moving in over the weekend, so if you’ve got neighborhoods to walk, trails to ride, or other outside-stuff to get done, do it now!
Water coolerEvery once in a while I get suckered in to reading a PolitiFact piece that reports on the validity of some claim one of our elected officials made in public. It’s nice and good journalism work—the research behind the fact-checking is always interesting—but I don’t think it does anything. First, at this moment in time, there are almost zero consequences for politicians who lie to their constituents. Second, fact-checking misspoken statistics from random committee meetings feels laughably like emptying a swimming pool with an eye dropper when you’ve got an entire political party devoted to legislating away free and fair elections. Anyway, this morning I’m glad I did read Warren Fiske from VPM’s piece about State Senator Obenshain’s claim that more Virginia children die from fentanyl than from guns. This sounds false and, turns out, is false. Fiske reports that “from the start of 2017 through September 2022...355 minors died from guns and 51 from fentanyl.” What the Senator was likely referring to is that overall, across all age groups, more people in Virginia do actually die from fentanyl than guns: “State records show 7,718 fentanyl deaths from the start of 2017 through September 2022, compared to 6,874 gun-related deaths.” I constantly underestimate (or even forget about) the magnitude of Virginia’s opioid epidemic, and that’s the real takeaway from this meandering paragraph!
Why did the owner of Ruby Scoops move her “New Orleans-style snowball” shop to Carytown? Here’s her quote from a piece by Jack Jacobs in Richmond BizSense: “We’re excited to be in a neighborhood with a lot of walkability.” I’m always linking to this, that, and the other thing about why Richmond should build more spaces that are safe and pleasant for people (instead of cars). But, really, people don’t need a million articles to know what kinds of spaces they want to spend time in! Folks can just tell, like in Carytown, when you get the right mix of infrastructure, land use, and zoning.
Via /r/rva, this story in El País, a daily newspaper out of Madrid, about Richmond’s Confederate monuments. You’ll likely know everything covered in this piece but it’s worth tapping through for the pictures of the monuments and their associated stonework laying in open-air storage—or, as the article puts it, “The storage wasteland is a carefully organized graveyard of America’s racist past.”
President Biden will address a Joint Session of Congress tonight at 9:00 PM to deliver his 2023 State of the Union address. Just like with the Mayor’s State of the City, this speech gives the president a chance to a tout his accomplishments and hint at future efforts—only during this speech half the people will never applaud. You can stream the address over on WhiteHouse.gov or flip over to any news or news-adjacent media of your choosing.
This morning's longreadThe Case for Truly Public HousingI learned a ton reading this long piece about how Cambridge’s public housing authority is having actual success actually expanding the amount of public housing in the region. They do this through clever partnerships with the nearby university, a complex web of associated businesses and subsidiaries, and a whole lot of hard work. Pull out yesterday’s piece from Richmond BizSense and you’ll see some similarities in the recent news of RRHA spinning off its own subsidiary—but also some stark contrasts in the two cities’ end goals. Specifically, Cambridge’s authority has worked to build and operate new public housing, while RRHA now looks to “transition away from traditional public housing and help residents find a path toward homeownership.“
To start, the board underscored the agency’s public mission, and insisted on setting clear lines of responsibility and eliminating patronage. In practice, this meant that municipal leaders no longer intervened in agency operations, and that board members no longer rewarded political allies with staff positions or solicited preferential placement for family members in CHA apartments. The board limited its role to setting policy goals, approving budgets, and appointing the executive director. As Stockard emphasizes, these practices are the very basics of good public administration, but had been too often ignored by the struggling agency and the city. In the early years of the new millennium, the CHA reflected on this relationship in an annual report: “One of the reasons the CHA has been able to provide quality housing for over a quarter of a century is that the administrative and political leadership of Cambridge has asked nothing of the Authority other than to do a professional job, and the City has supported that kind of work at every turn.”
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Picture of the DayA box of hopes and dreams.
Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, and today you can welcome back the warmer weather. We’ve got dry skies, highs in the mid 50s, and, deep in the extended forecast, I can even see some highs in the mid 60s! I don’t know about you, but I’m already looking forward to spending some (warmer) time outside on the bike later this week.
Water coolerRemember last week when the Governor’s administration had to announce that due to some careless technical difficulties, they’d shorted public schools $201 million? Turns out the issue stemmed from a broken and cryptic spreadsheet, which I think is just fascinating. Waldo Jaquith put together a short blog post describing the issue, and put up a Google Sheet version of the spreadsheet in question for those of us who can’t help but make salty comments about poorly built spreadsheets. From Jaquith, “No doubt this started as some small, simple file, many years ago, put together by somebody at the Department of Education for internal purposes, shared informally with some municipalities, but gradually shared more broadly and standardized on. And then it grew and grew, without the necessary resources provided to support it that were commensurate with its newfound importance. Surely most other state agencies are vulnerable to similar failures with similar impacts due to the same problem.”
Today, if it’s your thing, you’ve got lots of good public meetings vying for your attention:
- The City’s Planning Commission will meet and talk through an agenda filled with their normal set of things. Of interest to me are the two presentations planned for the Regular Agenda: the Richmond 300 Annual Report and a “Zoning Ordinance Re-write Advisory Council Discussion.” Neither have slides or supporting documents attached to them on the City’s website, but they both sound fascinating. I’ll check back in on these later.
- City Council’s Organizational Development Committee will meet this evening, and you can find the full agenda here. Probably most notable: They’ll hear an update on regional transportation spending by the Central Virginia Transportation Authority. Tap through and get excited to read about the region coming together to fund a large piece of infrastructure like the Fall Line Trail—which already has portions out for bid. Dramatically less exciting: the $100 million about to be set on fire widening I-64. Finally, I’m not sure what to make of CVTA’s funding of GRTC. The bus company receives 15% of all CVTA money, about 34% of GRTC’s total budget. According to this presentation the “majority of funds [are] allocated to support routes in [the] current system” and “some funding [is] reserved for pilot projects identified by the Micro-Transit Study.” The CVTA had the potential to provide frequent and far-reaching regional public transportation. That it funds existing routes and micro-transit pilots feels like a huge missed opportunity. Unfortunately, I think if we want to see new and better public transit, we’re going to have to rely on local investments from Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield.
- The RPS School Board will meet tonight to continue discussions on, among other things, their budget. Tonight’s meeting will include a public comment period on the proposed budget, so if you’ve got thoughts, feelings, or emotions you’d like to share (about the budget, of course), head over to Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School at 6:00 PM.
Whoa, Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports on some big Northside news: The mysterious Sami’s Grotto on MacArthur Avenue has finally sold to developers! As part of the redevelopment, they plan on bringing 10 apartments and some ground-floor commercial space to the building, which, as someone who gets a lot of takeout from spots on MacArthur, has me pretty excited. Sounds like the renovations will take a minute, though, as the building is “just full of wet debris.” Gross. But exciting!
Also in Richmond BizSense, Jonathan Spiers reports that RRHA has launched “a wholly owned subsidiary” called the Richmond Development Corp. New CEO Steven Nesmith hopes that the new organization will land RRHA more private investment money and help speed along public housing redevelopment. I’ve got an extremely related longread queued up later this week, so read this piece, noodle on it a bit, and take some notes.
This morning's longreadA Treatise Concerning the Properties and Effects of Coffee (1792)People have loved coffee for a long, long time, and these very, very old thoughts on one of the best ways to kick off your day felt like a good way to start this Monday morning.
As a practicing physician, Moseley's interest in coffee was mostly medical and, although these debates still continue, he had little time for the uncaffeinated. In a terribly-aged analogy, he compares coffee alarmists to those who raise “declamations against mercury” and “nonsense against tobacco” — equally bunk. Some of the proclaimed benefits of coffee are familiar. It combats “lethargy, catarrh, and all disorders of the head”. It “accelerates the process of digestion”, affects “the gastric powers”, and “diffuses a genial warmth that cherishes the animal spirits, and takes away the listlessness and languor”. It also helps hangovers: that “disorderly condition brought on by drinking bad fermented liquors, and new rum, to excess”. Other benefits are perhaps less well-known today. If bedridden with “bloody flux” or dysentery, drink four cups of hot coffee and cover yourself with heavy bed clothes — you will soon be cured through perspiration; for messengers commuting long distances, “the alternate effects of opium and coffee” can sooth “their tedious journies”
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Picture of the DayTwo required condiments.
Good morning, RVA! It's 37 °F and cloudy and that’s probably the weather for the first half of today. Later this afternoon, though, the sun will come out and lead us into a generally bright and chilly weekend. Alert! Temperatures tonight and early Saturday morning look downright cold, so make sure you drip your faucets (or whatever other sub-freezing rituals you may have)!
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have medium CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 70, 165, and 127, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 13.2. Other than a quick spike to high a couple weeks back, our region has lived on a fairly consistent plateau of medium for nearly nine months at this point. While the situation on the ground hasn’t changed much, there are a couple upcoming COVID-19 policy changes that’ll impact how we (like, our country) responds to the waning pandemic. First, President Biden announced that he’d let the COVID-19 emergency declaration expire on May 11th. This will have some administrative, funding-type impacts, and, notably, will have the costs of COVID-19 vaccinations transfer over to folks’ health insurance plans. I’m not smart enough to know all the nitty-gritty about what else will happen when the emergency declaration ends, but I’m sure we’ll see more reporting on it in the coming months. Second, the FDA voted to “harmonize” the COVID-19 vaccines so they’re all using the newer bivalent recipe. This way, even if you’re just now ready to get your first shot (or maybe you’re new to the world), you’d get a bivalent dose, protecting you against the more recent strains of the virus. I’m into this and how it simplifies both the number of available vaccines and the decisions families have to make when deciding to get vaccinated. I can’t wait for the days when we all just get our updated COVID-19 shot in the fall alongside our flu shots, and I don’t have to write an entire paragraph about it every Friday!
Richmond Public Schools is putting together some really great interviews with students during Black History Month that you should check out over on their Instagram. Imani Adewale, a senior from Armstrong High School who’s now a published author, and Jackson and Cassidy, members of RPS’s first Battle of the Brains team (also from Armstrong!), talk about why it’s important for them to celebrate each other during Black History Month. Young people! So inspiring! I love this type of thing and will be checking back in for the rest of the month.
Nathaniel Cline at the Virginia Mercury reports that “the Virginia Board of Education voted to accept for first review the newest draft of Virginia’s hotly debated history and social science standards Thursday on a 5-3 vote.” I officially forget which version of the standards we’re on at this point, so I understand why it sounds like folks on the Board are tired and ready to move on. Cline says public hearings will being on March 13th with final approval coming on April 20th.
I only link to it because of yesterday’s natural-gas-related longread, but Patrick Larsen at VPM reports on a Republican mostly-troll bill floating around the General Assembly that would prevent localities from banning future natural gas hook ups. First, banning natural gas in new construction is exactly the type of thing we should be doing (along with electrifying everything we can get our hands on). Second, this is yet another great example of how, in a Dillon Rule state where localities are at the mercy of the state-level lawmakers, all the Republican frothing over limited and local government sort of evaporates into thin air.
I don’t know why, but I love pictures of the demolition of big structures. Via /r/rva two shots of the ongoing destruction of Virginia Center Commons.
This morning's longreadJelly Is Ready for Its Redemption ArcIs it though?
This gelatin revival is long in the works, at least in the West. Since 2007, the British duo Sam Bompas and Harry Parr have spearheaded the niche of elaborate and immersive jelly art, despite receiving early feedback that artisanal jelly was “ludicrous.” Also influential is the Facebook group Show Me Your Aspics, started in 2016; today, that group has 46,000 members. (The offshoot Facebook group Aspics with threatening auras offers photos of grotesque gelatins, like hot dogs suspended in jellied hot dog water). Around 2019, with Show Me Your Aspics as inspiration, Albala started making and posting creations like a jelly lobster, jellied pho tartare, jelly with lutefisk and clams in an abalone shell, and a relatively tame spiced wine jelly, eventually becoming an “aspic influencer,” as Salon once put it.
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Picture of the DayTotally regular bathroom stuff.
Good morning, RVA! It's 32 °F, and, from where you sit, can you see any snow? I can!! However, NBC12’s Andrew Freiden, a much more trustworthy source of weather information than whatever’s outside my window, says we should expect a “barely there batch of winter weather this morning” (Twitter). Sigh. Expect clouds and cold weather, with lows around 40 °F for most of the day.
Water cooler4th District School Board member Jonathan Young’s proposal to close five schools—none in the 4th District and with absolutely zero community engagement—fell entirely flat at last night’s RPS budget meeting. In fact, Maggi Marshall at WTVR reports that “a majority of Richmond School Board members...denounced” the proposal. I tuned in to a bit of the meeting (skip to around 20 minutes in for this particular discussion) and was thankful to hear board member Gibson say she was “disappointed” in Young’s process and the stress it caused families and to hear Board Chair Rizzi apologize for the chaos and confusion Young’s half-baked proposal brought to the RPS community. Honestly, as frustrating as it was to hear about Young’s plan, it was really nice to see the School Board smoothly and empathetically handle it, pass it by, and move on with Board business. Give how this group has operated over the last couple years, last night seemed like progress!
We all know how foolish it is to get your hopes up this early in the General Assembly process—especially in years with control of the Senate and House divided. So I’m hesitant to even point out that SB 1293, a bill permitting safety stops (more commonly know as Idaho stops) has made it out of the full Senate on a bipartisan (!) 24-16 vote. Ian M. Stewart at VPM reported on the bill a couple of days ago, back when it was still in committee, and if you tap through you’ll definitely catch the, let’s say, realistic expectations Senate Democrats have about this bill making it through the House after crossover.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense has a thorough report on a planned redevelopment out by the CookOut, Staples Mill Pulse Station, and the Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods bakery. A lot of that area is owned by the Ukrop family, and infilling the current wasteland of parking lots with residential, retail, office, and all sorts of other things lines up with Henrico’s plans to turn that part of town into a sort of “Scott’s Addition 2.0.” Exciting, but I’ll be even more excited when they start reworking the street grid—it’s currently a mess to find your way through back there.
This morning, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Bill Lohman reports on the new amphitheater coming to the riverfront. Not a ton of new news in here, but you can read some early oppositional-ish comments from the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association and find a link to the venue’s new website (if signing up for developer newsletters is your thing).
For Groundhog Day, Axios has a few silly maps of Punxsutawney Phil’s accuracy at predicting an early spring and an end to winter. Honestly, I don’t know what to make of these maps, but I think they might be showing the impact of climate change? I dunno...Phil! Phil Connors!
This morning's longreadGas stoves: Is there a public health component worth discussing?Everyone’s talking about gas stoves! A regulatory person said a thing, a media source exaggerated the quote a bit, and now we’ve got Republican elected officials invoking Charlton Heston’s cold, dead hands about their kitchen appliances. Dumb! Anyway, Katelyn Jetelina, who I’m always linking to on Fridays in the COVID-19 section of this email, wrote up a nice public-health take on the impacts of gas stoves. Just like COVID-19 (and everything else in life), how you choose to mitigate those impacts is kind of up to you and your family’s risk budget.
This is not a new issue. Decades of research have found the same thing: gas stoves can contribute to respiratory issues, especially for children with asthma. When we burn fuel at high temperatures (i.e., cooking) many different chemicals are released into the air. This includes nitrogen dioxide, which is a reddish-brown gas (see “NO2” in the figure below). When this happens in an indoor space, concentrations can get high, especially if you live in a smaller home with limited physical space and ventilation. Studies for many decades have measured nitrogen dioxide levels in homes and found that levels were higher for homes with gas stoves. For example, a study across 15 countries in the 90s found gas stoves were a major contributor to nitrogen dioxide exposure. This is both because gas stoves contribute significantly to indoor nitrogen dioxide and because people spend a lot of time indoors at home.
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Picture of the DayProof!
Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, wet, and we will probably not see any snow this morning. We will, however, see lots of drizzle-drazzle, doom-n-gloom, and plenty of excuses to stay inside—preferably under a blanket. The sun may come out right before it decides to set. If ever there was a day to call in sick and watch classic Star Wars movies, it'd be today!
Water coolerHenry Graff at NBC12 reports that 4th District RPS School Board Member Jonathan Young "plans to introduce a school consolidation plan" at tonight's budget work session that would close five schools across the city: Woodville Elementary, Swansboro Elementary, Fairfield Court Elementary, Henderson Middle, and John Marshall High. None of these schools are even in the boardmember's 4th District, and the proposal, as it stands, would leave the entire Northside without a middle school or comprehensive high school. Worst of all, Young hasn't done a single second of community engagement or even the basic work of bringing alongside his fellow board members from the 5th, 7th, and 3rd Districts who would all lose schools. This is an unserious proposal from a person who, when talking to Graff, put the specter of utility costs ahead of the upheaval and chaos his proposal would cause. I think this is a troll, and, unfortunately, I fell for it. We'll see how far it goes with his colleagues at the budget meeting. You can stream tonight's meeting at 6:00 PM over on the RPS YouTube or stop by Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Michael Martz reports an unexpected-but-predictable story about Sen. Joe Morrissey: the Senator is "banned from visiting the Henrico County Jail for three months after an incident in which Sheriff Alisa A. Gregory said the lawmaker threatened staff over the weekend." Here's a great sentence from Martz: "In response to the sheriff’s ban, Morrissey said, 'She’s not going to ban me.'" If you really want to feel deep dismay, Cameron Thompson at WTVR has a transcript of the events from the sheriff’s office. I'm excited for whenever this man eventually recedes from the headlines for good.
You can stream the Mayor's full, 45-minute-long State of the City Address over on the City’s YouTube. I haven't watched it yet because I got sucked in to a total nail-biter of a VCU basketball game, but Em Holter at the RTD has nice a recap.
I loved this quick, four-minute video interview of Andrew Alli by the James River Association, taken while hiking the Buttermilk Trail. Alli is the James River Parks System's trail manager, so if you've had a blast out there walking, hiking, or shredding, you have him to thank. I really enjoyed his thoughts on how important, unique, restful, and surprisingly awesome Richmond's trails can be.
The General Assembly, really all law-making bodies, can be strange. One minute they're debating whether or not to strip basic human rights from an entire class of people and the next they're deciding to name the Chincoteague Pony the official pony of the Commonwealth (HB 1951). Don't worry, this bill reported out of committee with a 12-3 vote yesterday. P.S. Tapping around to find the text of this bill, and I stumbled upon the full list of Virginia's "official emblems and designations." I knew some of these, like our official insect is the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, but did you know that our official television series is "Song of the Mountains" out of Marion, Virginia which I had never even heard of?
This morning's longreadMercedes-Benz is the first to bring Level 3 automated driving to the USTo be sure, self-driving cars—at least ones safe enough to not worry about them randomly killing people—will never exist in my lifetime. It's absolutely wild to me that we're allowing these things on the road without even exploring other technology like the simple speed governors found in every scooter you see on the sidewalk.
To be sure, Level 3 systems are not without their risks. Most autonomous vehicle operators, including Waymo and Cruise, have said they think Level 3 is too dangerous, preferring to work exclusively on Level 4 technology. The reason is the need for drivers to stay attentive despite the vehicle performing most of the driving tasks. There have been studies that show that hand-off between automated system and human driver can be especially fraught. When people have been disconnected from driving for a longer period of time, they may overreact when suddenly taking control in an emergency situation. They may overcorrect steering, brake too hard, or be unable to respond correctly because they hadn’t been paying attention. And those actions can create a domino effect that has the potential to be dangerous — perhaps even fatal.
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Picture of the DayAn enormous bug attacking the skyline!
Good morning, RVA! It's 50 °F, and this is as warm as it gets! Today you can expect dropping temperatures and a decent chance of rain pretty much all day until the sun goes down. I hope you had a chance to spend some time outside yesterday, because it was just the most wonderful flannel weather.
Water coolerMichael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that due to “human error” Virginia’s public schools will be shorted $201 million in the budget signed by the Governor last year. Regionally, this means millions of dollars that school districts—and localities—are now left wondering how to replace: $3.2 million in Richmond, $8.1 million in Henrico, and $10.8 million in Chesterfield. Martz says, “the mistake was made when the [Virginia Department of Education] inadvertently failed to recognize the effect of a ‘hold harmless’ payment made to local school divisions to offset money they receive directly from the state’s portion of the sales tax on groceries.” Remember this from last year? When the General Assembly agreed to reduce the grocery tax but wanted to make sure that public schools still received the same amount of funding? Well, VDOE just...didn’t do that? It’s some real amateur-hour stuff, and, depending on how conspiratorial you want to get about it, this “human error” falls right in line with the Governor’s consistent efforts to defund public schools. Now, presumably, the General Assembly will scramble around trying to fix and fill this new and totally avoidable funding gap. Let’s hope they get it figured out soon.
I’ve yet to see the City or VCU officially address—like, with a plan of action—the student who was hit and killed by a driver at the intersection of Main and Laurel last week, but WTVR’s Tyler Layne has some early quotes from stakeholders. Let me just highlight a quote from Bike Walk RVA’s Brantley Tyndall: “People who are killed walking in dense urban environments are saved because traffic calming has been built around them...We really want to avoid these traps of blaming one person against the other and really, if we want to save lives, we have to do it by changing how our streets are engineered.” Read that last bit again! Enforcement, education, culture-shift, those are all things that exist and, theoretically, have some degree of impact, but if we actually want to save people’s lives we need to change the way our streets are built. And we should feel an incredible sense of urgency about this on the streets that we know are dangerous, too. Case in point: Literally while Lane was out filming this very story, police showed up in response to another pedestrian hit by a driver (Twitter)!
Somehow I missed this last week: Richmond Connects, the City’s work to equitably update their citywide transportation plan, released some “weighted needs maps” and would like your feedback on them by February 6th. I like the implementation of these maps! They’ve cleverly plotted out transportation and infrastructure needs and then let you literally slide an equity lens over those needs to determine how to prioritize investments. For example: There’s huge need for bike infrastructure in both Scott’s Addition and Southside Plaza, but when you slide over the equity lens, the needs in Southside Plaza outweigh those in Scott’s Addition. Basically, we should focus our transportation work mainly on the Southside—especially in the part of town annexed from Chesterfield and built with suburban land use in mind. We already knew that, but it’s nice to see it on a bunch of cold, hard maps.
VPM’s Ben Paviour reports that, once again, Virginia’s Board of Education will take up the proposed updates to the State’s history and social science standards at their meetings this coming Wednesday and Thursday. I’m deeply cynical about this process already, so I’m not incredibly excited about the Department of Education’s third attempt to get the Board to approve the Governor’s newest version of these standards. What weird, myopic Republican talking points will creep their way into the document this time? Which enormously significant historical event will they just forget to include? How will they casually offend large swaths of Virginians? We’ll find out later this week, I guess!
Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense reports Chesterfield will get a new indoor pickleball facility. It’s called “Bangers and Dinks,” which is all I really wanted to share.
Tonight at 7:00 PM, Mayor Levar Stoney will deliver his 2023 State of the City Address. It’s a chance for him to highlight his wins from the last year, focus on his goals for the coming year, and maybe even drop a hint or two about his upcoming budget. I predict you’ll hear about the Diamond District, monuments, parks, the City’s use of ARPA funding, and, of course, the casino. The event will take place at Main Street Station and is open to the public if you want to stop by, but they also typically stream the address somewhere and post the text afterwards.
This morning's longreadAmerica, the BlandI almost always tap through and hateread these arguments about if today’s 5-over-1 apartment buildings—with their ubiquitous big blocky colorful siding—are “good design.” Like the quote below, I’m sure better design exists, but I’m not going to complain too much about the way new housing looks.
As with brownstones and dingbats, distaste can dissolve with time. “A lot of people’s lives will have been lived in them, 20, 30, 40 years from now. In their role as housing and much-needed housing, people might look back on them more positively,” Ms. Falletta said of today’s buildings. “They may not be valorized as good design, but people’s attitudes will change.” At the end of 2020, the nation was short 3.8 million units of housing, according to Freddie Mac. Multifamily buildings, despite their aesthetic shortcomings, can close that gap far quicker and cheaper than, say, brownstones or bungalows. Critics agree that more housing is positive, but they also feel that the current construction misses an opportunity. “Getting housing built is more important than nit-picking over aesthetics,” said Kate Wagner, an architecture critic and the creator of the “McMansion Hell” blog, “but there is definitely room within the housing to improve aesthetics.”
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Picture of the DayI found this muffin in the middle of the street.
Good morning, RVA! It's 44 °F and drizzly. Later this morning, though, the drizzle should dry up and, even later, the sun might come out. Enjoy it however you can, because the next couple of days look wet and increasingly cold.
Water coolerThis past Friday morning, just before 9:00 AM, a driver hit and killed a 22-year-old VCU student at the intersection of N. Laurel and W. Main Street. I don’t know any of the specifics of this tragic incident, but I do know that drivers treat Main Street like a highway, speeding their way east from downtown, because the physical design of the street allows it. In fact, around the same time this student was killed for simply crossing a street on their college campus, I was writing “We’ve got to do something to discourage folks from using Main/Cary as a toll-free version of the Downtown Expressway.” Everyone, students especially, know Cary and Main Streets are dangerous, the question now is what will we do to make those streets safer for the thousands of students who criss-cross it daily? Anything? Will our City’s leadership take what we know—that these are dangerous, fast streets, as noted in the City’s own High Injury Street Network Map—and implement quick fixes to keep people from dying? Or will we look around, shrug our shoulders, and talk about how nothing could have been done to prevent this student’s death? If you’re fed up, you can find contact information for the Department of Public Works leadership and your City Council representative on this spreadsheet.
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers reports that the proposed amphitheater down by the river has had its launch date pushed back to spring 2025. That’s two full years from now, but you should still tap through today to see a bunch of cool renderings of what the space will potentially look like. Also, check out this incredible sentence: “Existing parking in the area is expected to accommodate the venue.” No new parking! For a 7,500-seat venue! I feel like this is a major accomplishment in shifting the mindset of Richmonders Who Build Big Things!
Take some time this morning to read Samantha Willis’s update on the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground in the Virginia Mercury. Lenora McQueen‘s one-woman effort to bend the proposed DC2RVA high-speed rail project around this historic site reminds me a lot of Sixth Mount Zion’s successful work in the 1950s to reroute I-95 and save their building.
Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch answers a question I had about ORD. 2023-029, the ordinance that tweaks the City’s scooter policies. Holter says that the equitable distribution piece of the ordinance—requiring vendors to deploy 20% of their scooters on the Southside—only applies if scooter vendors want to exceed the 500-scooter maximum. So, not really that much of a requirement at all. Once this passes, and I feel like it should pass pretty easy as it currently sits on the Consent Agenda, we’ll have to see if any existing scooter vendor even wants to exceed that 500-scooter cap.
As part of the work finalize their 2045 Comprehensive Plan, Henrico County has put together two opportunities for folks to get involved. First, a “drop a pin on a map”-style survey. I don’t love these sorts of things because who even knows where stuff is on a map (other than map nerds who build surveys like this), but please get in there if you’d like to point out issues that need fixing related to land use, transportation, public facilities and safety, public utilities, and the environment. Second, and I think this is neat, a “meeting in a box.” Download the aforelinked PDF and you get some background information, facts and figures, and a half-dozens discussion questions—everything you need to have your best pals over for a fun evening of Comprehensive Plan chat. After what’s sure to be a thrilling time, you can pack up everyone’s thoughts and feelings and send them off to the County. Simple, cute, fun—I’m into it!
This morning's longreadPickup Trucks: From Workhorse To JoyrideI think readers of this email newsletter know most of everything in this piece from Axios about the dangers of huge trucks. Still, tap through for a really lovely illustration of how uselessly small truckbeds have become over the last couple of decades.
Yet pedestrian and road safety advocates say today's massive trucks are a hazard, given their size, weight and driver blind spots. In the 1980s, about half of pickup trucks were categorized as small or midsize, but by the 2010s small pickups had nearly vanished and fullsize trucks dominated. Today, midsize trucks are making a comeback, but fullsize still make up a majority of sales.With jumbo trucks, you’d think people were hauling and towing more than ever — not so. Survey data from vehicle research firm Strategic Vision shows a third of today’s pickup owners rarely or never use their truck for hauling, while two thirds rarely or never use it for towing. So what are people using their trucks for? Shopping, errands, commuting and Sunday drives.
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Picture of the DaySuburban wasteland.
Good morning, RVA! It's 30 °F, which is colder than it’s been in a minute. Today you can expect highs in the mid 40s, which, again, will definitely feel chiller than the last couple of days. However! The sun will come out, stay out, and that’s something I’m looking forward to. You can expect more of the same over the next couple of days, slightly warmer temperatures, and a pretty decent weekend weatherwise!
Water coolerAs of last night, all three of Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have medium CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 107, 168, and 147, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 14.3. Another week in 2023, and another week with our region at a medium COVID-19 Community Level—although I’d consider all of these numbers pretty meaty for medium. You should keep that in mind as you assess your own person risk budget! As for me, I’m continuing to: Wear a mask on the bus and in crowded public places (like VCU basketball games), test before heading off to big gatherings, and wash my hands frequently because I feel really accomplished when my Apple Watch is like “You did! You washed your hands, guy! Great work!” While we’re on the subject, Katelyn Jetelina took notes from yesterday’s VRBPAC meeting—the FDA’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee—at which experts sorted through data in hopes of coming up with a longterm COVID-19 vaccination strategy. It’s still early, but it sounds like we’re headed towards annual vaccinations, just like flu, sometime in the fall.
Earlier this week, the Partnership for Housing Affordability released an update to the Richmond Regional Housing Framework Data that you’re definitely going to want to spend some time with. It’s not all bad, but I’ve cherry-picked some quotes that’ll either bum you out or maybe move you to action:
- Black and Hispanic households consistently have the lowest median incomes, along with multiracial households in Henrico and Richmond.
- White households in the Richmond area are the only group with a homeownership rate above 70 percent.
- The average market asking rent in the region reached a two-decade high of $1,395 in the first quarter of 2022.
- The median incomes for renters in Chesterfield and Hanover—at least from 2016 to 2020—could afford average rents. That was not the case for Henrico and Richmond, where the monthly rental price affordability gaps were $20 and $218, respectively.
- [In Richmond] the greatest need still remains for households making below 30 percent Area Median Income; there was a shortage of nearly 11,000 rental homes for extremely low-income households.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, checkout theses two-page summaries for Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield.
Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on the battle in the General Assembly between Richmond and Petersburg to host an urban casino. Martz says round one goes to Petersburg after a Senate subcommittee voted 7–2 to allow that city to hold a public referendum on their proposed casino project. However! Nothing is ever done in the GA until the session wraps up and the legislators scuttle back to wherever they came from, so this certainly could end up going either way—or both ways! The House should take up their version of this bill soon, so stay tuned.
NBC12’s Henry Graff has a quick article about some potential traffic calming projects coming to Richmond’s streets (see below for how folks will likely react). Most interesting to me is a plan to add curb extensions to Main and Cary in an attempt to narrow the road at intersections and slow down drivers. I’m into it! We’ve got to do something to discourage folks from using Main/Cary as a toll-free version of the Downtown Expressway, and maybe this it. Maybe reverting the pair back to two-way streets would do it, too? We’ve got a lot of options and we should start experimenting—heck, if we wanted to, we could even pilot the curb extensions with big orange barrels today.
I haven’t had a chance to watch yet, but RPS posted the video from last night’s combined School Board and City Council budget meeting. It’s a short meeting—as far as these two bodies are concerned—at just under an hour and a half. Play it back at 2x speed and that’s totally doable during your commute today!
Warning: This video of the new baby hippo at the Richmond Zoo is very cute.
This morning's longreadThe Battle Over Bike Lanes Needs a Mindset ShiftI think we all know that some folks will battle to the death over changing our streets to make them safer for everyone. But after the bike lanes go in, the world keeps turning, and businesses even see an increase in sales, those same people will refuse to admit it! Amazing and, unfortunately, kind of predictable.
How had the businesses on that street fared? Quite well, it turns out. In the year after the bike lanes arrived, businesses on Skillman saw sales rise by 12 percent, compared to 3 percent for Queens in general. What’s more, that section of road saw new businesses open, while Queens overall had a net loss. The thing is, the actual merchants along Skillman? They didn’t believe it. When Coburn spoke to them and described what he’d found, only a few store owners admitted the lanes had helped. Many still insisted the lanes were killing their part of the city. And emotions ran hot: Someone scattered tacks on the bike lane. This little parable turns out to be a fascinating glimpse at the challenges cities face as they try to update their urban infrastructure—to clean up the air, reduce greenhouse emissions, and speed up travel by making towns more bike-friendly.
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Picture of the DayThe neighborhood alleys have decided Christmas is over. FINE. I GUESS.
Good morning, RVA! It's 38 °F, and today looks cool and dry with highs right around 50 °F. Looking into the extended forecast and I think we’ve got around four, solid rainless days for the world to dry out a bit. Friday and Saturday look like excellent opportunities to head off into the forest and explore some of Richmond’s trails!
Water coolerCity Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meets today for the first time in 2023, and, aside from a ton of ordinances allowing the City to spend a bunch of State money on cool bike and pedestrian projects, I’ve got my eye on three different papers. First, RES. 2023-R005 would adopt RVAgreen 2050’s Climate Equity Action Plan as the City’s official sustainability plan. This is a chonker of a PDF—566 pages!—so, if you want to skip past all the great stuff about why climate work in Richmond is so important and get right down to the meaty action bits, you can scroll to around page 88. Second, ORD. 2022-375 repeals ORD. 97-105-173, which, yes was adopted back in 1997, and, maybe unintentionally, created a street light policy for the entire city. From the staff report: “The intent behind the [original] Ordinance was to outline a plan for creating special service districts for ornamental street lights and not necessarily to establish a perpetual street light policy for the City. Nevertheless, the Ordinance's broad language setting the 1997 Policy as the City's official street light policy has frozen the City's street light policy for over 20 years.” Amazing! Repealing the old policy would give the Department of Public Utilities the ability to figure out their own street light policies, which seems fine—but if anyone has street light conspiracy theories, I’d love to hear them. Third, ORD. 2023-029 updates the City’s scooter policies. Exciting! This ordinance would increase scooter operating hours from 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM, increase the fees for scooter companies by 25%, and “mandate shared mobility permittees in the City of Richmond deploy at least 20% above their permitted fleet maximum, South of the James River.” I can’t tell if that last one requires scooter providers to drop a bunch of scooters on the Southside or just stipulates that they can exceed their maximum number of scooters for free if they do so on the Southside. That’s a pretty nice list of ordinances for January, and I’m excited to see how the committee’s new members work through their business.
Related, City Council will host a joint meeting with the RPS School Board tonight at 6:00 PM (which you can stream on RPS’s YouTube). Looks like they’ll hear a presentation of the proposed RPS budget by the Superintendent and then have a discussion about it together. This is great, fascinating, and I can’t remember them doing it in previous years. Sure we’ve had the Education Compact—Mayor Stoney’s valiant, but mostly ineffective, attempt to get Council and School Board discussing critical crossover issues—but a special meeting to discuss the budget feels new. It makes a ton of sense, too, since, ultimately, City Council decides how much of the School budget to fund, and it’s probably really helpful to catch Council’s vibe early in the process. Having this conversation in January, should, with any luck, prevent shenanigans like last year, when the School Board left millions of dollars offered by City Council on the table.
Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond reports on Richmond’s homicide numbers, which absolutely plummeted in 2022—from 90 to 57. That’s an incredible drop for a single year. Both Henrico and Chesterfield saw their homicides increase a small amount in absolute terms but a large amount by percentage: six in Henrico (a 50% increase) and five in Chesterfield (a 25% increase). In Richmond, Acting Chief Edwards attributes the astounding drop to “a mid year shift in strategy to focus patrols on gun violence hotspots identified by the department’s analysis team.” Oliver also has an interview with the Acting Chief that you should read. I continue to be really interested in his intentional shift in tone from the previous chief.
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers has a financing update on Henrico’s GreenCity project (the County’s arena and surrounding development). Read it if you’re into that kind of thing, but note how Henrico passed a huge financing mechanism for a huge economic development project, and it barely even made the news!
No new news here, but Jahd Khalil at VPM covers the laundry list of changes that City Council wanted to make to Richmond 300 but ended up passing as sort of a “suggestions appendix” instead. It’s nice to see other people thinking and talking about this, but I’m glad, after two years, we can move on to other things. P.S. In case you’re wondering, the now longest-running ordinance on City Council’s agenda is ORD. 2021-097 which has to do with the back-and-forth over VUU’s signage. That paper was introduced 654 days ago!
This morning's longreadThe enduring, invisible power of blondSometimes I’m like ugh New York Times, why do I subscribe to you?? But then I get Tressie McMillian Cottom’s email newsletter and carefully tuck it away to read as a special weekend treat. Last week’s email about blond hair, power, status, and class ended up as a column available to everyone and is definitely worth your time.
People who were born blond and now have dark hair were among the angriest. They insisted that being a “natural blonde” should matter more than their actual hair color. When pushed on what makes that matter, they got even angrier. People often get angry when I write about aesthetics and power. Most of us hate the idea that whom we are attracted to, for instance, has any political context. We hate thinking that the things we enjoy — like a soapy western with conservative tropes — mean anything. That is the thing about status. We all want it, but, should we acquire it, we don’t want it to mean anything. We don’t want to feel bad about having status. The real blondes let me have it because, they maintained, being blond should mean something for them but not mean anything for the rest of us. That is not how status works. I was banned two days after my video had almost one million views.
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Picture of the DayNo joke, a family heirloom.
Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, and, according to my weather app, today has a 100% chance of rain. You can expect the wet weather to move in right before lunch and, unfortunately, stick around until basically tomorrow. I think I’ll try and stay inside under a blanket as much as possible today—I recommend you try and do the same!
Water coolerJessee, aka @BossRVA, livetweeted last night’s 3rd District meeting which featured Bobby Vincent, the City’s Director of Public Works. Full disclosure I didn’t attend or tune in to the meeting, so I can’t provide any context that Jessee may have missed, so maybe take some of this with a grain of salt. Regardless of context though, hearing the man in charge of safety on our city’s streets say he’s against speed tables and that we have to wait until someone’s hurt at an intersection to put down a crosswalk just...makes me real sad. I don’t know how we’ve come this far into Mayor Stoney’s tenure and are still failing to take big, serious, progressive steps toward making our streets safer for everyone. Look: I’ve said it six million times before, Vincent did incredible things at DPW when Stoney took office (and still does!), but Richmond needs someone who will champion proven ways to make our streets safer. Whether that’s finding a Director of Public Works who understands and has a passion for it, or, better yet, creating a true Department of Transportation that sits at the same level on the City’s org chart as DPW. It’s time to get thoughtful, strategic, holistic, and creative about how to make it safe for folks—everyone!—to move around the City.
Tonight at 6:00 PM, the RPS School Board will hold their first of four budget work sessions, this one at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School (or you can, of course, stream it via the District’s YouTube). This year, the Superintendent has asked for a $35.3 million increase over last year’s budget, with most of that funding teacher and staff pay increases. It’s a big number, and I’m not sure the Mayor or City Council will just want to hand it over—especially considering the last 12 months of School Board shenanigans and their inability to competently run last year’s budget process. Tonight, though, we’ll start to see if things have changed, and if the Board has it in them to make the tough choices required to deviate significantly from the Superintendent’s proposal. Fireworks or boring public meeting? We’ll see! If you do plan to show up or tune in, beware: There’s no public comment period at this particular session, although they do have a combined work session / public hearing scheduled for February 6th. That said, you can always listening in via the livestream tonight and then send the entire board an email with the best of your budgetary thoughts after things wrap up.
Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on yesterday’s gun buyback presentation and has the key detail I was looking for yesterday: “With the remaining funds in place, [Acting Chief] Edwards said the department plans to host another event in the upcoming months.”
Dang, the Chesterfield Observer announced that they’ll publish their final edition on February 1st. I don’t link to the Observer a ton, but it’s been around forever (since 1995!) and I really appreciated their coverage of GRTC’s Route 1 extension a couple years back. It’s always a bummer when we lose a local news source, especially when we don’t have a ton left to lose.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense covered last night’s Henrico Board of Supervisor’s discussion around The Arcadia, the 1,000-home development planned in Varina. First, there’s almost never two hours of public comment at a Henrico Board of Supervisors meeting! Second, the Board voted to approve the development—but only with some last minute changes to the plan. Spiers calls the compromise a “scaled-down” project, which seems right. Tap through to read about some of the changes made, including an agreement to work with the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust on 20 of the homes.
Also in Richmond BizSense, Mike Platania reports on an inside-baseball brewery bill that would allow breweries to distribute their own beers without a distributor. Distribution is part of Virginia’s three-tier system (the other two tiers being retailers and the producers themselves)—it’s a whole complicated thing. This bill, though, sounds like it’d make it easier for local beers to end up in local stores. Sounds great, but I wonder how the wine and liquor people feel about it?
RIC Today has a fun list of Richmond’s most famous signs. Can we consider the Model Tobacco building a sign? I love that thing.
This morning's longreadBattles of the Sexes: Duels between Women and Men in 1400s FechtbücherYou’re definitely gonna want to tap through and look at these amazing illustrations of women dueling men who are stuck in a pit. The accompanying text is pretty fascinating, too.
A form of legal trial, the duels often begin with the man in a pit or a tub, equipped with a wooden mace, while the woman circles above, slinging a stone wrapped in a veil or “loaded” into the sleeve of her chemise. The difference in height is meant to level any physical advantage of biological sex. Various painful scenarios play out. In one sequence from fencing master Hans Talhoffer’s 1467 Fechtbüch, the man somehow flips his opponent over, piledriving her into the ditch while flourishing his weapon as if emoting victory or assault. In another, the pinned woman executes a reversal on the pit man, putting her opponent into a headlock before proceeding to pull him backward out of the earth by his ears or groin. Submission, not death, seems to be the goal. Legal codes differed on what came next: the Stadtbuch von Augsburg (ca. 1272) called for the defeated to be buried alive, while the Freisinger Rechtsbuch (ca. 1328) suggested cutting off the woman’s hand and beheading the man.
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Picture of the DayWhen in doubt, shallow depth-of-field.
Good morning, RVA! It's 30 °F, but later we should see sunny skies with highs in the mid 50s. Squeeze as much as you can out of today because big rain moves in tomorrow, and I hope you don’t have to get anywhere by foot or by bike.
Water coolerToday, City Council’s Public Safety committee will meet to discuss a few things, including the results of last year’s gun buyback program. Even though we all kind of made a face and pointed to some academic studies that show gun buybacks don’t “solve” gun violence, the program did still remove 474 total guns from circulation. Specifically: 5 assault weapons, 227 handguns, 117 rifles, 115 guns of an unknown classification, 7 BB guns, and 10 inoperable guns. The Richmond Police Department gave out $67,500 in gift cards to folks turning over firearms, or about $140 per gun. I say, given how much the state and federal government restrict a locality’s ability to do literally anything at all to keep people safe from gun violence, any step forward is a step worth taking. I hope part of tonight’s presentation is an announcement to continue this program into future years.
Tonight, on the other side of the region, the Henrico County Board of Supervisors will vote on a request to upzone a portion of Varina to allow a 1,000-home subdivision. This is the Arcadia, which you’ve probably heard about before, and...I think it is complex! Lots of folks are upset about this proposed project for lots of different reasons: Is it too much housing? too little housing? should any housing exist that far out from the city center at all? Personally, I don’t find the “don’t build anything out here” argument compelling. 1,000 homes is a lot of homes, and I’m sure the developers could build far fewer units by-right in the current “Agricultural” zoning today—doing even less for our region’s housing crisis. That said, I did like a couple of these points laid out by the Partnership for Smarter Growth, especially the one about first completing a Small Area Plan for Varina as called for in the County’s last Comprehensive Plan (sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to link to PSG’s email 😬). We’ll see what the Board of Supervisors does tonight, but, if it’s any indication, the County’s Planning Commission recommended the project for approval 5-0.
Axios Richmond’s Ned Oliver reports on the State’s next plans for construction on and around Capitol Square, now that the new General Assembly building is nearly completed. This piece is worth reading just to get the flavor of how little the State cares about Richmond when they make these plans—“big new parking deck on Broad Street” is all you need to know to guess how much they care about making our Downtown a thriving place for people.
Mike Platania reports that SNP Properties purchased the Saint Gertrude’s campus on Stuart Avenue in the Museum District and plans to convert it into apartments—as is the fate of all ancient urban school buildings, I guess. Apparently, this is old news, since City Council already approved a Special Use Permit for the project back in October.
Shout out to the Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Vital Records, who keep track of things like the “Top Fifteen Baby Names of 2022 [and] Other Interesting Virginia Birth Data.” Last year Charlotte topped the list for girls and Noah for boys. “Ross” on the other hand has literally never even made one of these lists, and you’ll also never find anything with “Ross” written on it for sale at a gas station or in a gift shop. This is my burden. As for the “other interesting birth data,” the most birthdays—8,917—occurred in August, and most babies are born on Fridays.
This morning's longreadYou Can Let Republicans Destroy the Economy, or You Can Call Their BluffI love a Jamelle Bouie column! I don’t think his solutions are always realistic or practical, but I do think this one—having the president challenge the debt ceiling as unconstitutional—is worth a go. I mean, heck, if Biden tries this and fails, there’s always trillion-dollar coin.
When Congress takes action that requires the Treasury to borrow additional funds beyond statutory limits, it puts the president in a vise. If forced to act unilaterally, he can only resolve the conflict between the two sets of instructions — the spending bill and the debt limit — by taking one of two unconstitutional actions: raising taxes or cutting spending, neither of which he can do without congressional authorization...One proposed solution to all this is to use accounting tricks and other games to get around the debt limit and render it immaterial. But I think the better option is to take the offensive and confront the issue head-on. Biden should make the case that the debt limit, because of the threat it poses to the validity of the nation’s debt, is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.
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Picture of the DayA desk scene.
Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, and today we’ve got more of the same: Drizzles and clouds with highs right around 50 °F. I think, though, we should see the sun after the rain moves through this morning.
Water coolerTonight—637 days since its introduction on April 26th, 2021—City Council will finally vote on RES. 2021-R026, the confusing, conflicting laundry list of proposed amendments to Richmond 300. The compromise that Council reached (thankfully) was to add these amendments as a non-binding, mostly ignorable appendix to the back of our City’s master plan. So they technically exist, and the councilmembers that proposed changes that don’t really have anything at all to do with land use can skip the part where the Planning Commission would have had to tell them that directly in a public meeting. It’s a decent compromise, but I’m mostly glad we get to skip a bunch of unproductive back-and-forth. Also of note tonight, a General Assembly update presentation at the informal meeting—check out the bills of interest at the bottom, including one to extend the moratorium on annexation for 15 years and one about restricting local Airbnb regulations.
For whatever really disappointing reasons, Richmond never really took advantage of how the pandemic shifted folks toward more outdoor dining—even in the winter. We didn’t change regulations or policies, we didn’t convert parking spaces, and we didn’t do much at all to incentivize restaurants to move a few tables outside to benefit from Nature’s Ventilation. But lack of support from the local government hasn’t stopped business owners, and, to prove it, RIC Today has put together a nice map of restaurants who have heated patios. Perfect if you’re trying to remember what it’s like to leave your house but are still not in love with packing into a hot, germy bar with three dozen of your closest Richmonders.
I’ve mentioned that Richmond is looking for a new poet laureate to serve for the next couple of years, and that interested folks should apply before February 1st. If you’re on the fence about applying or confused about why Richmond even needs a poet laureate, Tony Harris at RVA Mag sat down with the first and current poet laureate, Roscoe Burnems, for a really lovely interview. Tap through to read all about Burnems, including how he explains to people (even his parents!) that, yes, poetry can be a profession.
Want to work for the City as an urban forester? Check out this job posting, which has some really cool duties like “conducts municipal tree survey and inventory” and “reviews and evaluates permits, plans, and plans of development.” The posting closes at the end of the month, so you’ve got about a week left to apply.
You know I can’t resist a thread like this over on /r/rva: “Best cinnamon bun in Richmond?”
This morning's longreadThe Original Nachos Were Crunchy, Cheesy and Truly MexicanThe origin story—and original recipe—for nachos! I mean, nachos are kind of whatever you want them to be, a true follow-your-heart food, but it’s still neat to learn who first had the brilliant idea to melt cheese on chips.
Nachos were born in 1940 when, as the story goes, a group of women walked into the Victory Club in Piedras outside business hours. But Ignacio Anaya, the maître d’hôtel, had no cooks in the kitchen. Mr. Anaya was known as Nacho, the traditional nickname for anyone named Ignacio in Spanish-speaking countries. The wives of Americans stationed at a military base in Eagle Pass, Texas, the women had crossed the Rio Grande to shop and were looking for a drink and a bite. Aiming to please, Mr. Anaya ran to the kitchen and made a quick appetizer with ingredients he found. He topped totopos, fried corn tortilla chips, with Colby cheese and slices of pickled jalapeños, and threw them in the oven. The women loved it so much they asked for seconds, and jokingly ended up calling them Nacho’s special. The dish became an essential part of the Victory Club menu, and a fixture on others in the region. Eventually, Mr. Anaya moved to Eagle Pass and opened a restaurant called Nacho’s.
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Picture of the DayWhoa, amaryllis, whoa.
Good morning, RVA! It's 49 °F, and today you can expect temperatures right around 60 °F served up with plenty of sunshine. You can expect more of the same over the weekend as temperatures slowly creep down—not to, like, wintery temperatures, of course, just slightly less unseasonably warm temperatures. I hope you find some time to get out there and enjoy it.
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield all now have a medium CDC COVID-19 Community Level. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 102, 173, and 135, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 14. We’re back in medium across the board, and, even with case count numbers not the most reliable, the hospital admissions number has started to trend downward. All good news (but if you wanted to keep your mask on in crowded space, I totally wouldn’t fault you)! Related, Katelyn Jetelina put together a great post dispelling the most recent crop of covidmyths, if mythbusting is your thing. While I’m not sure that reading a post like this would change the mind of a longtime COVID-denier, I do think it’s useful for reasonable folks who hear a weird thing on the internet and then go “hmmmm, that seems troubling.”
Patrick Wilson and Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch continue to report on the Governor’s decision to scuttle a Ford Motor Co. battery plant—and its thousands of jobs—in the southern part of the state. Yesterday, they reported that Ford had finalized the Pittsylvania location before Governor Youngkin pulled out of the deal, twisting the knife a little deeper for Southside residents and contradicting the Governor’s previous statements that, no, he’d pulled Virginia from consideration first. Then, just a couple hours later, a Ford spokesperson contradicted that contradiction, saying “the company had not made a site selection decision on its plans for an electric vehicle battery plant in partnership with a Chinese company.” What a mess. Sometimes, when you get too cute with playing politics it has real consequences for actual people. We’ll now have to wait and see if the Governor can clean this up and bring another company (and its jobs) to the folks living out that way—although, after this debacle, I’m note sure other companies will beat down the door to work with the Commonwealth.
Meghan McIntyre at the Virginia Mercury returns with her Three Interesting Bills of the Week column. This week features tax credits for local journalism, penalties for folks who start fires, and safety stops for bicyclists. The latter, the one I’m clearly most interested in, would let localities permit the “Idaho stop”, allowing people on bikes to treat a red light as a stop sign. Maybe counterintuitively, this increases bicycle safety and also reduce police involvement and traffic stops.
I guess I figured eventually someone would buy the Greyhound station on Arthur Ashe Boulevard and do something non-bus with it, but I don’t think I’d read any solid details one way or the other. However, Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that the property sold last month and the buyers, a hedge fund, have already put it back on the market. Not the most exciting of news, but it’s something. While technically not part of the Diamond District redevelopment plan, the Greyhound property is huge, and it’d be wild to continue to use it as a bus depot as the rest of the neighborhood grows up around it.
You’ll want to check out Rolling Stone’s new cover article about boygenius, a supergroup featuring two artists with Richmond ties: Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. You can listen to three tracks off their new album, the record, on the music streaming service of your choice—it’s some really good, guitar-heavy rock that you’ll probably enjoy. The full album drops on March 31st. Also, while we’re talking about it, Baker’s 2015 Sprained Ankle is an album that still makes me feel feelings.
Via /r/rva, stickers from old, and now dead, Richmond radio stations. I love this sort of thing.
This morning's longreadTracing the MoneyGet excited, because here’s a housing policy longread from the Urban Institute that wonders what state and federal governments could do to encourage more affordable housing—especially since some of the towns most hostile to building new housing rely on state and federal money the most. I haven’t read the full study yet, but I’m certainly into the concept, and I think it applies to other sectors too, like transportation. I mean, where do you think counties get the tens of millions of dollars required to build a single highway interchange? Certainly not from their own property tax collections!
Local governments have considerable influence on access to adequate and affordable housing through their control over land-use regulations such as zoning...We show that a cohort of the nation’s most exclusionary cities and towns—those that have added the least new housing over the past two decades—have overly restrictive land-use rules that make building anything other than single-family homes difficult. We review their budgets to show that many of these municipalities also heavily rely on revenues sourced from higher-level governments. These findings suggest many opportunities to leverage those revenues to influence local policies. The federal government or states could condition intergovernmental grant funds as “carrots” or “sticks” against exclusionary municipalities to promote better land-use policy.
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Picture of the DayI have no idea. Sometimes you look in a window Downtown and this is what you see.
Good morning, RVA! It's 44 °F, and today you can expect more of these warmer temperatures with highs in the mid 60s. We may see a few showers sprinkled about here or there, so keep an eye out. Other than that, enjoy!
Water coolerHere’s a fascinating email I got from Councilmember Robertson’s office about a “community agreement” reached with Carolina Express Convenience Store. Tap through to read the terms of the agreement, which are pretty intense, and I’m kind of surprised the City or the State or the Whoever has the authority to enforce some of these. Specifics aside, I’m pretty sure that this announcement is related to RES. 2022-R073, patroned by the Councilmember, which passed back in December and asked the City to start a rezoning process which would sort of ban convenience stores in large swaths of Richmond. At the time I thought it was bad legislation and a misuse of the process; we shouldn’t rewrite our citywide zoning ordinance to solve specific issues at a specific store. Turns out, I still think this! Now, though, I wonder that since the specific problems have been addressed, will the City just kind of forget about this far-reaching resolution?
Tonight at 6:00 PM, the City’s Charter Review Commission will meet for the first time to begin conducting a comprehensive review of Richmond’s Charter. Our Charter, a long and tediously wonderful document, lays out the nuts and bolts of how our city functions—stuff like its roles and responsibilities, the structure of our government, and how we elect our representatives. Do you hate the popularly-elected mayoral system and how it pits City Council against the Mayor in an unhelpful way? Do you wish we had fewer City Council districts and maybe even a couple at-large Councilmembers? The Charter is what you’d need to update to make any of those changes. Unfortunately, because we live in Virginia and the State doesn’t trust cities to do much of anything on their own, all changes to the Charter have to be approved by the General Assembly. That really puts a damper—and a limit—on the types of changes we can make. That said, this is still a useful and helpful process, and one that you can totally participate in: All of the Commission meetings, including tonight’s, are open to the public, and they’ll soon lay out their public engagement timeline which should include a survey, a website, and public input sessions. It’s been a good, long while since we’ve taken a look at the current Charter and made a list of what we’d like to fix, and I’m pretty excited about kicking off this process.
A quick update on the scramble to fill Jennifer McClellan’s seat (assuming McClellan wins the upcoming general election on February 21st): Former mayoral candidate Alexsis Rodgers has officially announced her campaign for the State Senate (Twitter).
This morning in Axios Richmond, Karri Peifer does a good job of pointing out racial disparities in electric vehicle charger locations. As you might have guessed, Richmond’s white neighborhoods are way more likely to have access to a charger—2.69 times as likely as majority-nonwhite neighborhoods. If we’re going to quickly transition our entire transportation sector off of gasoline, which we definitely should, we’ll need a ton more chargers and they’ll need to be equitably located. I think this is something the City could get creative about in the coming years.
Next Thursday, January 26th, you can join the Partnership for Housing Affordability for their annual State of Housing in the Richmond Region event. Attendees will hear from keynote speaker Jenny Schuetz, author of _Fixer Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing Systems_, who will “provide national perspectives on how the Richmond region can meet the challenges of today by offering practical solutions to make housing more accessible.” You might also see a few elected officials and policy makers on the schedule as the Partnership unveils new data on the region’s housing needs—which will almost certainly either bum you out or inspire you to action (depending on your mindset at the moment). The event is free, but registration ends today!
This morning's longreadMore brief thoughts on the end of Twitter appsMore of a shortread from Manton Reece, creator of Micro.blog, on the in-progress demise of Twitter. Make sure you tap through on the links in this piece, too—they’re all worth your time. P.S. If you haven’t put any thought into moving the internet-based content you create to a place you yourself own, there’s no better time than now!
Everyone had a different last straw with Twitter. It helped to have a villain in Elon Musk who could be blamed for every bad decision in the growing narrative of Twitter acquisition chaos. But one problem with pinning everything on Elon is that it leaves open the possibility that maybe Twitter would be fine if the company was led by a different CEO who continued the Twitter API status quo. I don’t think so. Twitter wasn’t going to last forever because massive ad-based silos will always be at odds with the open web. Twitter’s recent implosion greatly accelerated what would need to happen regardless.
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Picture of the DayTree graffiti.
Good morning, RVA! It's 44 °F, and today you can expect dry skies and highs in the 60s. I think we might could even see the sun later this afternoon! If you can, take the mid-week opportunity to walk, roll, or ride around your neighborhood in the unseasonably warm weather (not thinking too, too hard about what it all means).
Water coolerCaroline Coleburn at WTVR reports on a new study conducted by the Science Museum of Virginia which shows that “going for a walk in a quiet, green space has better mental health and physiological outcomes than going for a walk in a busy, gray or loud environment.” For anyone who’s walked along Broad Street versus, say, Floyd Avenue, those results shouldn’t be too shocking. Sort of related: This story reminded me that the Science Museum’s cool new park, which used to be a horrible, hot parking lot, is now open for folks to explore. I rolled through there the other night, and it’s beautiful. The new park (plus the Museum’s ProtoPath) already make up my preferred way to get from points north to Robinson, and its going to really shine once spring hits and the plant life starts to do its thing.
Charlie Paullin at the Virginia Mercury reports that, as foretold, Democrats in a Virginia Senate committee killed a bunch of bills that would have decoupled the Commonwealth from California’s Clean Car standards. States can choose one of two options to follow for vehicle emissions: California’s or the EPA’s. California’s requirements are more climate-friendly and would require, among other things, that “all new vehicles sold be zero-emission starting in 2035.” That’s right around the corner! I’m thankful for the slim majority Democrats hold in the Senate, and this is just one example of the backstop they provide against Republican’s anti-climate agenda. Remember: There are probably similar bills floating around that will pass through and out of the Republican-controlled House, but they’ll most likely die a similar death when they crossover to the Senate. Of course, nothing’s truly dead until the session adjourns!
VPM’s Megan Pauly has an update on RPS’s progress in rebuilding Fox Elementary School, which burned down a year ago next month. You can find early renderings, layout diagrams, and a few of the plans to reconfigure and modernize some of the spaces in this presentation given to School Board last night. Sounds like there’s still no timeline for when the construction will begin, but, when it does, it’ll take about 15 months to complete.
Yesterday, GRTC announced that Sheryl Adams, longtime member of the bus company’s executive team, will now serve as their new CEO. Adams replaces Julie Timm, who last year left Richmond for the top job at Seattle’s Sound Transit.
Really critical stuff from /r/rva this morning: “What restaurant has the best milkshakes in town?” I’d probably have said The Village, but I’m interested in learning more about Minglewood Bake Shop which will “make you a milkshake with any baked good in their case.” Sounds incredible.
This morning's longreadUS Cities Are Falling Out of Love With the Parking LotRichmond itself is noodling on removing parking minimums, and we should see an ordinance to do so submitted to City Council in the coming months. It’s exciting stuff and slowly starts to shift how we prioritize our extremely limited physical space for people and places, not storing cars.
Several cities across the country are now rushing doing the same, with Anchorage, Alaska; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Nashville, Tennessee, all recently loosening or scrapping requirements for developers to build new parking lots. “These parking minimums have helped kill cities,” said Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Business School who accused political leaders of making downtowns “look like bombs hit them” by filling them with parking lots. “Getting rid of parking minimums is an amazing step. It’s a piece in the puzzle of climate policy,” said Wagner, who pointed out that transportation is the largest source of planet-heating emissions in the US. “There’s a major rethink going on now, which is good for cities and for families.”
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Picture of the DayThe collective noun for chairs is “a chungle.”
Good morning, RVA! It's 42 °F, and you’ll probably see some rain this morning. Temperatures will eek up into the 50s this afternoon but things should get significant warmer over the next couple of days. Richmond in the winter: Weirdly warm, wet, and cloudy!
Water coolerTonight, at the RPS School Board meeting, the 2023 budget season officially kicks off with the Superintendent’s presentation of his proposed budget. This is definitely a PDF you’ll want to flip through—especially the first section which includes a really nice primer on how budgets work in Richmond. This year, Superintendent Kamras has proposed a $35.3 million increase over last year’s budget with the vast majority of that (about 66%) going towards teacher and staff pay increases. Slides eight and nine of the presentation detail the specifics and point out that if this year’s raises get funded, teachers will have seen their pay increase 30% since 2018—jumping the average salary from $52,000 to $68,000. Seems like a worthy expense, especially in the middle of a nationwide teacher shortage. As for how to find the money to pay for those raises, slide 16 gets down to business and breaks out where the School District hopes to find the $35.3 million in new spending: Mostly from an anticipated $6 million increase from the state and a new $28.3 million ask from the City. That’s a nontrivial number, so we’ll have to see what ultimately ends up in the City’s budget. Next steps are for the School Board to hold some public meetings, make some tweaks, vote on this budget, and send it to the Mayor (something they failed to do last year). Then the mayor will introduce his budget at some point in March, which gets tweaked by Council for final approval in June. Welcome to budget season! The most wonderful time of the year!
School Board sure has a busy night ahead of them, because alongside all of that fun budget stuff, there’s also interesting presentations on proposed tweaks to the District’s cell phone policy and their 2023 list of legislative advocacy priorities. About the latter, I don’t know that any of these, especially the funding-related ones, will find favor with the current Governor—he wants to defund public schools, not give them more money. But, maybe some of the investments in mental health will sneak through. If you’d like to advocate for fully funding public schools and the other RPS priorities, keep an eye on their Advocacy Hub to find resources for getting involved.
The electoral dominos set off by the death of Rep. McEachin continue to fall, and Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the first list I’ve seen of folks lining up to fill McClellan’s Virginia Senate seat should she win her February 21st Congressional election. It’s a fascinating list which, depending on who wins, may set off even more special elections. I guess I kind of just assumed that Del. Bagby would be next in line, especially after he stepped aside during last month’s primary with McClellan—but I dunno! Some of the big names on this list really would make it an interesting, and potentially competitive, race.
Also in the RTD, this bizarre story, reported by Charlotte Rene Woods and Patrick Wilson, about the Governor’s decision to block a Ford battery plant outside of Danville. From the piece: “Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s decision to halt plans for a $3.5 billion Ford Motor Co. battery plant over his concerns about Chinese influence cost one of the poorest areas of Virginia a reported 2,500 jobs with potential for more.” In response, the governor’s spokesperson gave this bizarre statement, “While Ford is an iconic American company, it became clear that this proposal would serve as a front for the Chinese Communist party, which could compromise our economic security and Virginians’ personal privacy.” Republicans who represent the area in the General Assembly, however, “did not respond to a chance to comment on Monday.” I don’t blame them, and I agree with Sen. Surovell: That this decision—which cost actual Virginians actual access to opportunity—is mostly a game Youngkin’s playing with the other republican presidential primary candidates.
I loved this piece by Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond, originally titled “What Richmond lawmakers are jazzed on.” Tap through for a one-sentence description of what bill is most important to 14 different area legislators. What a great idea for an article!
Richmond Connects is what the City calls its ongoing process to create an equity-centered, multimodal transportation plan, and this winter folks have a cool opportunity to join a Richmond Connects focus group to help the City plan for improvements to walking, biking, and riding the bus. Specifically, the City’s looking for seniors and residents with lower-incomes from the Northside, East End, Manchester, Midlothian, and Walmsley neighborhoods. Participants will receive a $50 gift card for their participation. I know that readers of this particular email are probably not the target audience, BUT I do feel like readers of this particular email definitely have the right connections to make sure this opportunity ends up in the right hands. So please think about who you can share the aforelinked survey with this morning!
Love this photo of the day of a James River Park surprise from Richard Hayes at RVAHub.
This morning's longreadWhy Not MarsNo one loves space more than me, and I went into this essay about why we shouldn’t send people to mars with big-time skeptical-face. But! I think he probably has a point, and I would 100% trade human exploration of mars for dozens of high-quality robotic missions like Galileo) and Cassini.
The goal of this essay is to persuade you that we shouldn’t send human beings to Mars, at least not anytime soon. Landing on Mars with existing technology would be a destructive, wasteful stunt whose only legacy would be to ruin the greatest natural history experiment in the Solar System. It would no more open a new era of spaceflight than a Phoenician sailor crossing the Atlantic in 500 B.C. would have opened up the New World. And it wouldn’t even be that much fun. The buildup to Mars would not look like Apollo, but a long series of ISS-like flights to nowhere. If your main complaint about the International Space Station is that it’s too exciting and has a distracting view of Earth out the window, then you’ll love watching ISS Jr. drift around doing bone studies in deep space. But if you think rockets, adventure, exploration, and discovery are more fun than counting tumors in mice, then the slow and timorous Mars program will only break your heart.
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Picture of the DayI love well-chosen bathroom accessories.
Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and, depending when you read this email, last night’s rain my just now be starting to tail off. You can expect highs in the 50s along with some welcomed sunshine today, with more of the same over the long weekend. I hope you find some time to rest, relax, get involved, and get outside!
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond is at a medium COVID-19 Community Level, while Henrico and Chesterfield continue to have high CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 122, 353, and 262, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 17.4. Looking at the map of Virginia on the CDC’s Community Level Site, I don’t think you should necessarily read Richmond’s drop from high to medium as a sign that less disease is floating around in our communities. Nearly the entire state is painted orange and hospital numbers for our region are generally trending upward. If you’ve got (crowded) places to be, think about the risks you’re willing to take and how you can mitigate those a bit by wearing a mask, staying outside if you can, and getting your bivalent booster if you haven’t already.
WTVR’s Tyler Lane reports that another person has died at the Richmond City Jail, the third person in as many months and the fourth person in the past year. We’ve seen the jail and the sheriff (who runs the jail) in the headlines a handful of times recently—and none of those stories have been positive. In fact, I think last time I wrote about the jail it was when the sheriff had used a lie detector on her employees to find out who talked to the press. Ridiculous! I don’t think we’re done with this story, and I appreciate Lane’s continued reporting. I’d guess we’ll continue to hear from him on this over the next year.
The City of Richmond now has an online, searchable list of every car that they’ve had towed. From the press release: “It’s the stuff of stress dreams: You walk outside to find that your car is no longer where you left it. Was it towed or stolen? If it was in the city of Richmond, you can now go online to determine whether it was towed and where it is located.” I don’t car a ton, so having one towed isn’t really something I think about often, but...is this how folks were living until this week?? That’s a stress dream I didn’t even know I should have been having!
I’ve been following the redevelopment of this 68-unit apartment building on Brookland Park Boulevard for years now, and, just today, Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that construction will begin next month! On the site of an old church, these new units will be “restricted to households earning between 40 and 60 percent of the area median income,” bringing a sizable chunk of affordable housing to the corridor. My prediction of “Brookland Park Bouelvard will look totally different in five years” took a three-year pandemic hiatus, but I think it might be starting to pick up steam again.
I like this “occasional series” from Meghan McIntyre at the Virginia Mercury highlighting three interesting bills for this week. Remember as you read through this list, especially when you get to the anti-science bill at the end, that we’re very early in the legislative process and a lot of these bills only get submitted for headlines, ratings, and chuckles.
A quick update: Earlier this week, one of our regional planning groups, Plan RVA, met to discuss the possibility of extending the Pulse further west into Henrico. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but they’ve posted the video over on their YouTube, which means you can set the playback speed to 2x and get through the entire thing in just under 20 minutes. I just added this to my long-weekend to-do list!
As per the Old Ways handed down by George Wythe himself (probably), Monday is Lobby Day in Richmond, and that means you should expect tons of folks Downtown near the Capitol trying to convince legislators to do one thing or another. It’s a neat tradition, and, when the streets aren’t filled with gun-toting men high on testosterone, it’s a pretty visible example of folks getting involved in the legislative process. Keep it in mind if you’ve got to move through the City, though, as there are some street closures.
Logistical note! Since Monday is Lobby Day aka Martin Luther King Jr. Day aka an official state holiday, I’ll be taking the day off from your inboxes. I hope you’ll find some way—even if it’s small—to get involved in your community over the long weekend. In fact, Katie Potter at RIC Today has 35+ different ways to get more involved across the region.
This morning's longreadHell on Two Wheels, Until the E-Bike’s Battery Runs OutHere’s a very fun, very New Yorkër review of many e-bikes that are too expensive for me to consider owning. Good writers are such a treat!
Among the throttle models on display, I picked the Orbiter T1 ($3,000), because it did not look as if it belonged in “The Terminator.” To engage the accelerator, you push down on a spring-loaded thumb throttle on the right grip. Trying to summon the courage to press the throttle, I pedalled along the empty sidewalk of Broome Street. I turned onto Elizabeth Street, where there were some people on the sidewalk whom I preferred not to mow down. I switched to the street. Trembling, I pressed the throttle. Whoa! There was no jerk when the motor kicked in, as there can be with a pedal-assist. The throttle allows a more gradual acceleration than a pedal-assist does. It’s also useful in starting from a standstill on an upslope. By the time I reached the end of the block, I was ready to join the Hells Angels.
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Picture of the DayGlass is cool.
Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, and today is probably the warmest day of the week with highs right around 60 °F. We may see some sprinkles here and there, and possibly some real rain this evening, but I say get out there and enjoy the warmer weather this afternoon if you can!
Water coolerIf you wish, you may read the text of Governor Youngkin’s State of the Commonwealth address or watch a video of it over on WTVR’s YouTube. I haven’t tapped through myself because I think it’d just make me angry, and I’ve got a lot more important things to do this morning. For a good selection of some of the in-the-moment Democratic responses, you can scroll back through VAPLAN’s Twitter timeline. You can also read David Ress’s summary in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which contains this salty quote from Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw about the likelihood of the Governor’s wishlist making it through the Senate: “The speech should have started ‘once upon a time.’” P.S. Just a quick reminder that many of the bills you’ll read about in the coming days have absolutely zero chance of becoming actual law. In the moment, it’s sometimes hard to know which proposed legislation is a political stunt to improve a legislator’s election-year resume and which is something to get emotionally invested in. So when you read a headline that fills you with a furious rage—and you will read many!—take a minute to think about where we are in the bill-becomes-a-law process and, importantly, what Senate Democrats have to say about it.
Keeping in mind the previous sentence, Roger Chelsey at the Virginia Mercury has a nice column about the Governor’s no-good plan to defund public schools. I liked this bit in particular: “Even if some public schools are failing to educate students, the state should first provide more than the bare minimum of resources before consigning them to the trash heap. The unofficial GOP mantra of ‘low taxes above all else’ has consequences – especially for education.”
Axios Richmond’s Karri Peifer reports on the proposed regional Tourism Improvement District, which you can read more about on this new website put together by our regional tourism folks. The TID would levy a 2% fee on hotel stays on certain hotels across our region, and then use the money collected—an estimated $8 million—to promote the region around the country. Honestly, the graph on the aforelinked website of Richmond’s tourism marketing budget compared to its peer cities makes a pretty compelling case for the new tax. This quote in Peifer’s reporting, though, raises a red flag for me: “To be competitive, Richmond needs to offer subsidies, such as free parking, to lure big events. And it needs money to do it...” Using the TID money for marketing is one thing, using it to subsidize parking is something else entirely.
I missed this, but GRTC resumed service at the Pulse Government Center Eastbound Station yesterday! Construction of the General Assembly’s new digs, parking deck, and secret tunnel under 9th Street have kept bus service from its regular routing for a while now, and it’s nice to see that finally wrapping up. A few stops still remained closed and a few detours remain in effect, but putting the Pulse back together again is a big piece of the Downtown puzzle.
This morning's longreadHundreds of Ways to Get S#!+ Done—and We Still Don’tI think about to-do lists, getting things done, and productivity a ton, so I really enjoyed this thoughtful piece on why it’s so hard to actually _do_ stuff despite the proliferation of helpful tools around us. For me, I don’t use to-do apps to increase my capacity, I use them because I want to help my future-self remember what my current-self thinks is important.
To-do lists are, in the American imagination, a curiously moral type of software. Nobody opens Google Docs or PowerPoint thinking “This will make me a better person.” But with to-do apps, that ambition is front and center. “Everyone thinks that, with this system, I’m going to be like the best parent, the best child, the best worker, the most organized, punctual friend,” says Monique Mongeon, a product manager at the book-sales-tracking firm BookNet and a self-admitted serial organizational-app devotee. “When you start using something to organize your life, it’s because you’re hoping to improve it in some way. You’re trying to solve something.” With to-do apps, we are attempting nothing less than to craft a superior version of ourselves. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that when we fail, the moods run so black.
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Picture of the Day“Hurding turds so you don’t have to.” OK, you got me, Advanced Plumbing.
Good morning, RVA! It's 29 °F, and today you can expect highs just on the cooler side of 50 °F. The skies stay cloudy but dry today as we’re waiting on a bit of rain tomorrow evening and still gearing up for a sunny weekend. It feels like winter in Richmond!
Water coolerIt’s the second Wednesday in January, and that means today the General Assembly will kick off its 2023 session! The General Assembly, it’ll have you know, is the oldest continuously operating law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and, as such, is weird and doesn’t really care what you think about it. For example, since it’s an odd-numbered year, the GA will meet for just “30 days,” because our legislative process predates America and we still think our legislators need to hurry back home and take care of the farm. The delightful weirdness begins in earnest at 12:00 PM, and you can probably find all sorts of interesting resources—including some streaming video—over on VirginiaGeneralAssembly.gov. At 4:00 PM, Governor Youngkin will deliver a State of the Commonwealth address to both houses of the GA and will “outline his Day Two Agenda for Virginia.” You can probably expect tax cuts, defunding public schools, undoing climate policy, and further restricting abortion to all make the talking points.
That previous, dystopian sentence bums me out, but I am feeling decidedly un-bummed by the news that it seems Democrat Aaron Rouse won the 7th Senate District special election last night. Should the results hold, this gives Democrats a decidedly Morrissey-proof majority in the Senate and strengthens their brick wall against policies Senator Morrissey may be willing to cross the aisle to support—like restricting abortion and defunding public schools. I guess Rouse is due to get to work in Richmond this morning? The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Andrew Cain says results will be finalized on Friday, so I’m not sure how seating him in the Senate works. Regardless, busy week for that guy!
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports on the new Philly/Jersey-inspired restaurant going into the old Robin Inn spot. Lots of big names associated with this project: The beverage manager from Saison (RIP), the co-owner of Brennan Pass, and the co-owner of Cobra Burger (not Cobra Cabana). Sounds like the new owners recognize the value of an old, dark, wood-paneled space in the Fan and (thankfully!) aren’t planning any sort of major renovations.
Axios Richmond’s Ned Oliver pointed me to this video on Eater about how Sub Rosa makes their pear, ricotta, and caramel croissants. A lot of freaking work goes into this very delicious snack!
Cool job news: VPM is looking to hire a general manager for Style Weekly. VPM bought Style Weekly a couple years back and has been—at least from my outside perspective—pretty hands-off when it comes to their arts- and culture-focused mission. This sounds like a fun opportunity for the right person.
This morning's longreadWidening Highways Doesn’t Fix Traffic. So Why Do We Keep Doing It?This is the third or fourth major, national article I’ve seen about induced demand in the last couple of years, and it gives me hope that maybe we can all stop spending millions and millions of dollars to needlessly expand highways. If you’re widening highways just to reduce congestion—see I-64 east of Richmond or 195 in Chesterfield—you’re going to end up disappointed in only a handful of years.
For critics of widening projects, the prime example of induced demand is the Katy Freeway in Houston, one of the widest highways in the world with 26 lanes. Immediately after Katy’s last expansion, in 2008, the project was hailed as a success. But within five years, peak hour travel times on the freeway were longer than before the expansion. Matt Turner, an economics professor at Brown University and co-author of the 2009 study on congestion, said adding lanes is a fine solution if the goal is to get more cars on the road. But most highway expansion projects, including those in progress in Texas, cite reducing traffic as a primary goal. “If you keep adding lanes because you want to reduce traffic congestion, you have to be really determined not to learn from history,” Dr. Turner said.
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Picture of the DayI love this tangle of trunks.
Good morning, RVA! It's 28 °F, and today looks chilly and cloudy with highs in the upper 40s. Expect more of this until Thursday when things warm up a bit. I know its early to already be thinking about the weekend, but I think we might get a good dose of sunshine on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Water coolerCongratulations to LaTesha S. Holmes, City Council’s new Chief of Staff! Council officially appointed Holmes yesterday, and she starts in her new role one week from today. I think this is great news. The Chief of Staff position has sat unfilled for two years now, and I’m excited to finally have a full-time person in that role—and doubly excited to have it filled by someone who comes from outside City of Richmond government. City Councilmembers are woefully part-time public employees and having strong and efficient Council staff can really impact how the body works as a whole. Stay tuned, because with budget season right around the corner, we’re all about to get a front row seat to this new-look Council, with their new leadership and new staff. Fun stuff!
Not Richmond-related, but Virginia Beach residents will vote in a special election for Virginia’s 7th Senate District today. Democrat Aaron Rouse faces Republican Kevin Adams, and Ryan Murphy, writing for VPM, says it’s “the most expensive special election in Virginia Senate history and more expensive than 85% of the state Senate races held in 2019.” Why so much cash flowing into this race? Should Rouse win, it’d give Democrats a two-seat, Joe-Morrissey-proof majority in the Virginia Senate, severely diluting that man’s power and assuring the Democrat’s brick wall against any shenanigans—specifically around abortion or public school funding. Not having to think about Morrissey for an entire General Assembly session would certainly lower my personal stress levels.
Turns out, that’s probably not possible anyway as Mayor Stoney and Sen. Morrissey have already started public dueling over which city—Richmond or Petersburg—gets to host a casino. Yesterday, the Mayor released this letter to our region’s legislators reaffirming his support for bringing a casino to Richmond (despite it already failing at the ballot box once). Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch spoke to some of those legislators and they all seem...lukewarm...at best and, at the moment, hesitant to get too involved. I bet they’ve all got their eyes on the previously-mentioned special election in Virginia Beach, though. If Democrats lose that election and need Morrissey to go along with some important statewide votes, authorizing a casino in Petersburg seems like a readily available bargaining chip.
Brianna Crane at Axios Richmond talked to some folks about what 2023 will bring for the region’s housing market. Seem not great: Supply will remain low, sales activity will slow, and sale prices will rise. Not exactly what you want to see during a housing crisis.
Tonight, at 5:30 PM, PlanRVA will host a virtual meeting to present the results from that West Broad Street BRT Corridor Analysis study they ran awhile back. You can register for the Zoom here, or you can wait until the meeting is posted to their YouTube channel. This study/survey looked at extending the Pulse further west, past Willow Lawn, and I imagine the results will say something along the lines of “Yes! We should totally do this, but, dang, that sounds really hard!” Eventually, the manifest destiny of the Pulse lies in Short Pump. However, until we figure how to entirely shift the streetscape and make that place hospitable to non-car human life, we should focus on slowly pushing our rapid transit a few miles westward at a time. Adding three-ish new stations and a new western terminus at Glenside sounds great.
This morning's longreadJust "Prioritize Ridership": Is it That Easy?As promised, here’s Jarrett Walker’s response to yesterday’s longread by Matt Yglesias in which he wondered why transit agencies don’t just prioritize increasing ridership over everything else. Turns out there are some really good, equity-based reasons why a city may want to focus on providing access to public transit—even if it’s infrequent and ultimately serves fewer riders—to as many people as possible.
The suburbanization of poverty in many cities has increased the number of low-income people and people of color living in suburban land use patterns that are just inimical to public transit. Those areas have fast roads that are unsafe to cross, no sidewalks, disconnected street patterns that obstruct walks to the stop, road patterns that require buses to make crazy loops, etc. A strictly ridership-based approach would not go to a lot of those places, but will put lots of service in dense inner cities that happen to be increasingly gentrified. The result can be something that is measurably inequitable by both race and income. In other words, sometimes, in some common geographies, there’s a ridership vs equity tradeoff.
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Picture of the DayBamboo is terrifying and will grow anywhere.
Good morning, RVA! It's 38 °F, and today looks chilly with highs topping out around 50 °F sometime later this afternoon. You can also expect the sun to come out and, with any luck, dry up all of yesterday’s soggy rain. Look forward to more of the same—with maybe some more clouds—for the rest of the week.
Water coolerCity Council meets today for their first real, full meeting of 2023, and you can find the agenda here. It’s a pretty full agenda—31 total items—but all of them live on the Consent portion. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen an empty Regular Agenda. Also Council-related, check out this overview of the City’s budget put together by Steve Skinner, City Council’s public information officer. It’s filled with lots of neat facts to tide you over until we officially kick off this year’s budget season—which should be sometime soon with the superintendent’s presentation of needs to the RPS School Board. Of course, last year, getting the School Board to actually approve their budget so the Mayor could introduce his budget, was a whole situation. I’m looking forward to less situations this year, to be honest!
Megan Pauly at VPM has a good explainer on Governor Youngkin’s newest plan to defund public schools, this time through a program he’s calling “education savings accounts.” Here’s just a couple of the quotes from the experts Pauly talked to: “Voucher programs [like the education savings accounts] give money to private schools and private education providers that can discriminate, and pick and choose which students they want to admit, pick and choose whether they're going to discipline students for things like their sexual orientation, and pick and choose whether they're going to offer things like special education to students who need it” and “Chad Stewart, Virginia Education Association’s policy analyst, points out that the funds families could receive through an ESA account would cover a fraction of the cost of most private schools in the state.“ and “Rob Shand, a professor of education policy at American University, has studied voucher programs in other states and said they tend to most greatly benefit more affluent families.“ So whatever blah-blah-blah you may hear about this or similar programs, remember that the consistent goal of this administration—and Republicans nationwide—is the systematic dismantling of our public schools. I still don’t think Virginia’s Senate has even the smallest interest in this sort of thing (although someone did remind me that it’s difficult to predict what Sen. Morrissey will do with any given bill).
Early voting for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District—aka the seat Sen. Jennifer McClellan is running for—started this past Friday. You can stop by your local registrar’s office to cast your ballot at any point from now until the Saturday before the election (February 18th). Sen. McClellan has put together a nice timeline of all the various voting dates leading up to her election if you need a handy reference.
Local Internet Person Taber has a really neat video he took of Ethan Hawke running through Jackson Ward while filming Raymond and Ray that he then synced up with the actual scene from the movie. I think this is GMRVA’s first Mastodon link!
I have to link to this every time it comes up on /r/rva: Who has the best fries in RVA? I eat a lot of Cobra Cabana’s fries and certainly love them, but, ever since Greenleaf’s Pool Room closed, I’m still looking for my new favorite.
This morning's longreadAmerican transit agencies should prioritize ridership over other goalsLast week Matthew Yglesias wrote about public transit’s twin goals of ridership and coverage. If you were a transit planner and you decided to focus on ridership, you’d put as much service on the busiest streets to encourage as many folks to ride as possible. If you wanted to focus on coverage, you’d send service squiggling out into the nooks and crannies of neighborhoods, making sure as many folks as possible had access to at least some sort of service. With limited transit budgets, these goals are often in conflict and communities need to decide where on the ridership-coverage spectrum they want to live. Yglesias argues for always prioritizing ridership, and, in a lot of ways he’s not wrong. But not in every way! Stay tuned because tomorrow, I’ll link to transit planner Jarrett Walker’s response (you may remember Walker from Richmond’s bus system redesign a couple years back).
But I’m a columnist and I’m here to say that it’s a shame that so many cities spend non-trivial sums of money on bus systems that few people ride. Even if the transit agencies had clear mandates to prioritize increasing ridership, they would of course make mistakes — nobody’s judgment is flawless and the United States of America does not have a culture of strong and successful transit agencies. But every agency’s existing personnel are good enough at their jobs to see that some pro-ridership changes are being left on the table due to considerations like “I don’t want to get yelled at at a community meeting.” Telling agencies to prioritize ridership would result in ridership going up, and over time, it would also create an agency culture focused on improving ridership and learning what strategies do and do not work.
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Picture of the DayEastbound morning commute is intense.
Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, and cooler temperatures have returned! Today you can expect clear skies and highs in the 50s. It’s not what I’d call “classic January” weather, but it’s certainly less ominously warm. You can expect the same sort of deal tomorrow and even cooler temperatures—maybe even cold!—on Sunday.
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield all have a high CDC COVID-19 Community Level. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 72, 226, and 182, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 21.8. Despite the sizable difference in case rates across the region, it’s the hospital admissions number that’s put us back into the high community level. If you want to dig into the numbers a bit more, look at the hospitalization graphs on the aforelinked CDC page and you’ll see some worryingly hockey-stick shapes. It is definitely time to break out the masks again! Remember: When in a high level, CDC recommends wearing a high-quality mask or respirator, and, if you are at high risk for getting very sick, you should consider avoiding non-essential indoor activities in public where you could be exposed.
Anna Bryson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on Governor Youngkin’s newest plan to defund public schools using something called “education savings accounts.” The idea is that the state would direct its per-pupil funding not to public schools, but, instead, into these savings accounts that parents could ostensibly use to pay for private school tuition. Delegate VanValkenburg, a public school teacher himself, points out just one concern with this proposed program: “There is no accountability with the money...St. Christopher’s School and Collegiate School don’t have more spots. Ideological schools and for-profit schools will pop up, offer inferior product, and discriminate based on their beliefs. All with public monies.” If the state’s Republicans were truly concerned about the quality of education Virginia’s students receive, they’d fully fund public schools instead of attempting—and failing—to do exactly the opposite. I’ll definitely keep an eye on this, but, like the Governor’s whiff on charter school last year, I don’t imagine the State Senate will have any appetite at all for defunding public schools. You can follow HB 1508, introduced by Del. Davis, over on the State’s legislative website.
Earlier this week I wrote about the ongoing efforts to raise enough money to purchase Mayo Island and turn it into new, public green space right in the middle of the James River. We’re not quite there yet, and, at the moment, the Capital Region Land Conservancy is still $2.6 million short of their $11.8 million goal. However! Richmond BizSense’s Mike Platania has a small and exciting update: The Capital Region Land Conservancy is “in conversations with other philanthropic sources about funding the remaining $2.6 million” and “is scheduled to close on the island in 2023.” Those must be pretty solid conversations if they’re planning on closing the deal this year! I’m excited to see this happen and really looking forward to the planning process for what to do with the island after tearing up all those horrible parking lots.\
Jakob Cordes at WRIC reports on a planned 1,000-home development out in eastern Henrico called “Arcadia.” As you’d expect, there’s lots of opposition to this sort of sprawly, suburban development on what is currently pretty and sweeping farmland. But 1,000 homes is a lot of homes, and I don’t know how anti-housing you can be given Richmond’s current housing crisis. It’s complicated, and I appreciate the conversation currently unfolding on /r/rva which highlights a lot of the pros and cons of this level of development this far out from the city center.
This morning's longreadDoors of McMurdoCheck out this photo essay of the doors of a research station? town? community? in Antarctica. I’ve definitely filed this entire blog away to read more of later.
One of the most underrated and fascinating parts of McMurdo is its patchwork evolution over the decades. This is not a master-planned community. Rather, it is a series of organic responses to evolving operational needs. The buildings reflect this patchwork approach. Each building has its own unique style, based on when it was built, the standards at the time, the parties involved in its construction and operation, and what role it plays in town. Nothing more clearly illustrates this than the doors to the buildings. I thought I’d share a collection of my favorite doors, to give a sense of what it’s like on a day-to-day basis doing the most basic task around town: entering and exiting buildings.
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Picture of the DayI think you could probably eat this.
Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and today you can expect another round of unseasonably warm weather with highs in the mid 60s. Tomorrow, though, cooler weather returns, reminding us that it is, technically, winter. When I peer into the depths of the 10-day forecast I can eventually see temperatures below freezing, so you should take advantage of today’s clear, sunny highs and get out there and enjoy it if you can.
Water coolerJahd Khalil at VPM has a tiny interview with Mike Jones, the newly-presidential councilmember from the city’s 9th District. No new news here, but you can catch a glimpse of Jones’s tone and tenor which is a decent-sized shift from outgoing president Councilmember Newbille. This quicky interview also hits on the two things I’m most interested in about the beginning of Jones’s tenure as Council president: How he’ll run the budget process and how he’ll manage all of his local responsibilities while also running for a House of Delegates seat. The former kicks off in March and the latter has already started picking up steam.
VPM has brought back the People’s Agenda to help guide their coverage of the 2023 General Assembly session! Popularized by one of my favorite news thinkers, Jay Rosen, the People’s Agenda seeks to ask regular people what they think is important about an election and then has those answers guide a newsroom’s coverage of that election. Seems obvious, but if you’ve ever read any news during election season, you know there’s a lot of focus on who can win, who is winning, who will win, and the generally exciting-but-useless horse race between candidates (for a recent example see all the doomsaying about this past fall’s Red Wave which never materialized). This year VPM is bringing the People’s Agenda concept to their General Assembly coverage and has just one simple questions for readers: “What do you want to learn about the most during the 2023 Virginia General Assembly session?” I think for me, that’d be public school funding and abortion—with the caveat that I don’t really care about bills specifically designed to generate headlines but have no hope of passing. There’s too much at stake and we’re all too exhausted to waste precious braincycles on people playing legislative games! So go ahead and fill out the form at the bottom of the aforelinked article and help guide this year’s General Assembly coverage. It’ll take you just 90 second and is an easy way to directly participate in The News.
Lyndon German at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some before-and-after maps of the changes coming to GRTC’s bus routes in January. I still think it’s a bad idea to break the #1 into two parts—a northern half and a southern half—and force a stopover at the transfer plaza. Cross-town, one-seat rides were part of the plan when the bus system was redesign several years ago, and this change is counter to that plan. Also as part of the January changes, the #77 and #78 will see their frequency drop from every 45-minutes to hourly. It certainly feels like our bus system has suffered a slow series of small cuts over the last handful of years, but it’s hard for my brain to keep track of it all. I need someone to do a line-by-line comparison of the bus service we had in 2019 to what we’ve got now. I think it’d help when advocating for more funding and resources from our local, regional, and state governments.
Remember when a storm rolled through and high winds blew the roof off of an apartment building on Arthur Ashe Boulevard? That building has sat roofless since then! Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that the entire building just sold for $1.25 million, and the new owner hopes to have repairs and renovations done by March. Wild.
Via /r/rva a picture of a car in Byrd Park lake. In what’s gotta be the worst luck of all time, apparently someone was changing their tire, forget to set the parking break, and the car rolled down the hill into the lake. Oof.
This morning's longreadLove and Longing in the Seaweed AlbumHere’s a long and charming piece about 19th Century seaweed collections. Also: Who knew The Public Domain Review was a thing? I love it!
Naturalists of the nineteenth century took a different angle. Although they understood that seaweed “conferred a positive benefit on the atmosphere”, its appeal was precisely its lack of utility. The same word that described seaweed on shore — “rejectamenta” — also described anything more generally considered detritus. Seaweed seemed to be a weird, surplus embellishment that existed for no particular purpose except to express the wonders of the deep ocean. When the preeminent algae scholar William H. Harvey decided at age fifteen to devote his life to algology, it was the same as if he’d pledged allegiance to profitless esotericism. He wrote his former teacher that he intended “to study my favourite and useless class, Cryptogamia. I think I hear thee say, Tut-tut! But no matter. To be useless, various, and abstruse, is a sufficient recommendation of a science to make it pleasing to me.”4 No other field of study was so delightfully feckless.
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Picture of the DaySilent Hill? Haunted TB hospital? Pine Camp during that really foggy morning last week?
Good morning, RVA! It's 60 °F, and our streak of weirdly warm weather continues. Today, while you can expect highs near 70 °F (!?), which sounds great, you should also get ready for some rain to move through, which sounds less great. I hope you spent some time outside yesterday, because today looks soggy.
Water coolerUnlike the U.S. House of Representatives, City Council successfully elected their new leadership last night: 9th District Councilmember Mike Jones will serve as president and 4th District Councilmember Kristin Nye will serve as vice president. You can check out the new committee assignments here. I’m bummed to see Jones leave the Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee, which now consists of Councilmembers Addison (chair), Robertson (vice chair), and Lambert. Also of note, Councilmember Trammell remains the chair of the Public Safety committee, with Lambert and Nye joining. Interestingly, Public Safety is Trammell’s only committee assignment other than the Organizational Development committee (which the entire Council sits on). Like I said yesterday about School Board, the role of president doesn’t hold a ton of power, but the president does get to run the meetings which can certainly set the tone for how the group works together—especially during budget season. We’ve seen more and less effective presidents over the years, and I’m excited to see how Jones fills the role.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s editorial board has basically endorsed keeping Acting Police Chief Rick Edwards around, at least until the end of Mayor Stoney’s second term. Beware if you tap through: There are some right-wing talking points sprinkled throughout the piece. On the whole, though, I agree with the RTD. With only two years left in Stoney’s time at City Hall, I just don’t think the head job at the RPD will attract top-tier candidates in a national search. If Edwards can avoid major missteps—like, oh, I don’t know, inventing a fake mass shooting plot—I say give him a chance.
Last month, Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond reported that the Capital Region Land Conservancy had started piecing together grant money to purchase the privately owned Mayo Island—a long time goal for the City and for people who’d love to have another amazing island as part of the James River Park System. At the time, the Conservancy had raised $1.5 million from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation, which, to me, seemed a little drop-in-the-bucket for a piece of land—in the middle of the river!—listed at $19 million. Well, last week, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation awarded the City $7.5 million for “Mayo Island acquisition.” Bite my tongue, because this is no longer drop-in-the-bucket money but real-deal, messing-around cash! In fact, in the application for this DCR grant, the City says they’re aiming to acquire the island for “just” $11.4 million. That would leave $2.5 million to raise from other sources, which seems totally doable! Keep an eye out for further announcements about closing this funding gap soon (or maybe even a line item in this year’s budget).
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers has a nice update on some new zoning planned for the Diamond District (certainly of interest to readers of this email). Earlier this week, Planning Commission set the process in motion to rezone the area around the Diamond away from its current and good TOD-1 zoning to a new “Stadium” zoning district. I had a skeptical face about this when I saw it on Planning Commission’s agenda, but Kevin Vonck, the City’s planning director, says, “The framework for this [new zoning] will be TOD-1, with some things changed in it to reflect the nuances that are proposed in the development plan...It should be pretty familiar, and I think that’s why we can propose something rather quickly.” Some of those nuances are permitting the actual stadium itself, which seems important, and allowing for taller, 20-story buildings, which sounds great to me.
Want to be the City of Richmond’s next poet laureate? Well, you’ve got until February 1st to apply. I think this is a pretty neat opportunity for the right someone, so if you, like me, have absolutely zero poetry prowess consider sharing the application around with folks who might. You can check out the City’s current poet laureate, Roscoe Burnems, and some of his poems over on Instagram.
This morning's longreadHow Tall Is Too Tall?I’ll admit that I started in on this article in the Atlantic about super-tall buildings thinking it’d be your typical NIMBY blah-blah-blah. Now, after reading the piece, I’m pretty sure the Jurassic Park Maxim applies to these structures: They were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
Building engineers, like judgy modeling agents, have varying definitions of superslim, but they usually agree that such buildings must have a height-to-width ratio of at least 10 to 1. To put that in perspective, the Empire State Building (one of the world’s first supertalls, completed in 1931) is about three times taller than it is wide—“pudgy,” as one engineer described it to me. Steinway Tower is 24 times taller than it is wide—nearly as slim as a No. 2 pencil, and the skinniest supertall in the world. (The developer’s official name for the building is 111 West 57th Street.) These superslim buildings—and supertalls generally—have relied on engineering breakthroughs to combat the perilous physics that go with height. A 2021 article in the journal Civil Engineering and Architecture declared: “There is no doubt that super-tall, slender buildings are the most technologically advanced constructions in the world.”
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Picture of the DaySometimes I want to grow a wilderness beard, walk into the forest, and never come back.
Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and today looks cloudy with highs...right around 70 °F? On the third day of January? Seems ominous, but I’ll take it. You can expect more warm weather, plus a chance for rain, tomorrow and Thursday. As for today, I think you should get out there and enjoy this unreasonable unseasonable weather while it lasts!
Water coolerHello again, and welcome to 2023—a year so far into the future that whenever I type it I feel like I’m in a science fiction movie. I typically don’t do end-of-year recaps, mostly because, for me, the end of the year is often a slow, injured limp to the finish line, and I can’t bring myself to do the mental work necessary to reflect back across an entire year. Despite my sluggish brain, though, I really did want to look back at some of the more important legislation Richmond’s City Council passed in 2022, and, luckily, I have an entire Trello board that did most of the mental work for me.
Below you’ll find, in my estimation, some of the most interesting legislation passed by City Council in 2022—plus a few thoughts on each:
- ORD. 2022-010, City Center Small Area Plan — After the whole Navy Hill situation, it felt real good to start the year off with City Council approving a new small area plan for the City Center—one that doesn’t include an arena! Pieces of this solid bit of planning are coming together as we speak, and we should see the Coliseum come down in the not-too-distant future.
- ORD. 2022-112, George Wythe Money — Remember what a disaster funding the construction of a replacement for George Wythe High School was? The RPS School Board, at the peak of its 2022 dysfunction, couldn’t get their act together on a plan and it got bad enough that City Council and the Mayor stepped in to deny them access to the necessary funding. Eventually School Board took the L, compromised with Council, and moved on to their next middle-of-the-night meeting. P.S. If I did do a year-end recap, much of it this year would have focused on the School Board.
- RES. 2022-R055, RVA Diamond Partners LLC are go for Diamond District — Thankfully, the Diamond District process, also a large-scale neighborhood redevelopment plan, successfully avoided the monthslong pot of community anger stirred up by Navy Hill. Most of that is because the Diamond District plan is just a better plan, but some of it is because the City learned—and applied!—some lessons from the doomed Navy Hill process. I think the jury is still out on the final, final plans for the Diamond District (another Big Question for 2023), but I feel decent about how we got here.
- ORD. 2022-221, Collective bargaining compromise — After dueling collective bargaining ordinances floated around on Council’s agenda for a while, we finally ended up with a compromise the Mayor and Council could both live with. How—and if—this gets implemented is one of my Big Questions for 2023, because it’s already running behind schedule.
- ORD. 2022-261, Civilian Review Board compromise — Just copy/paste the above paragraph about collective bargaining, because it’s an almost identical situation. Watching how the as-yet-implemented CRB interacts with the new RPD leadership is another one of my Big Questions.
- UDC 2022-16, The plans for The Circle at Monument and Allen — City Council didn’t have much to do with this one, as it was mostly a Urban Design Committee affair. Unfortunately, because UDC took too long to approve the landscaping plans for the circle, the horrible fencing is still up and still looks horrible.
- ORD. 2022-270, $1.20 real estate tax rate — After some dangerous flirting with lowering the real estate tax rate, Council decided to keep the rate where it’s been for ages. Disaster narrowly averted! The State requires Richmond to pass this same paper each and every year (or the rate auto reverts to an even lower, even more asinine level), so we will revisit this conversation soon. In the intervening time, it’ll be critical for the Mayor and a majority of council to come up with a sound plan for how to deal with the impact rising assessments have on folks with lower incomes.
- ORD. 2022-304, Do a real estate tax rebate — The plan to rebate some of the real estate tax was part of the multi-pronged plan to address the negative impacts of rising assessments while also not screwing Future Richmond. Without it, the above ordinance would have never passed. While it worked this year, it doesn’t feel like “just do a rebate if we need to” is a long-term strategy.
If I were to draw one thematic line through these ordinances and resolutions it would be that while Council did passed a lot of important legislation last year, most of it set the stage for execution at a later date. This year, Council—and the Mayor’s administration—need to follow through, execute, and make sure we take advantage of some of the good plans put together over the last 12 months.
Now, if only I had a good Trello board for tracking my hopes and dreams, maybe I could throw together a good set of prediction for the coming year. Maybe in 2024?
Related, City Council will meet tonight to elect a new president, vice president, and reshuffle committee members. While Council President doesn’t hold a ton of power, they do run the meeting, which, as we’ve seen with School Board, can really have an impact. Speaking of, School Board elected their new leadership last night (Twitter): 5th District’s Stephanie Rizzi will serve as chair and 7th District’s Cheryl Burke will serve as vice-chair.
NBC12’s Henry Graff has a look at how Acting Police Chief Rick Edwards plans to run his police department. I think the RPD deserves all the skepticism it gets—especially after the last three years. That said, the tone the new Chief uses when speaking to the media about Richmond and, specifically, about the summer of 2020 is just so different from the previous guy: “Not just because of COVID but civil unrest changed, you know how some of our officers felt about being a police officer in the city, so it’s my goal to get us back to where we were when we were fighting crime, but doing it in a way that didn’t alienate the very people in our community that we need to successfully address crime long term.” So much less defensive! Like I said, I do think it’s OK to be skeptical while we wait to see if the new tone translates into new action.
Tonight, from 5:30–7:00 PM, the Valentine will host an in-person conversation about “segregation in schools and the learning leaps and deficits post COVID-19” featuring the Commonwealth Institute’s Amy Wentz and VCU’s Genevieve Siegel Hawley. If you’re looking to start your 2023 off with a conversation between two smart people about an incredibly important topic, look no further!
Via /r/rva look at these beautiful pictures of a foggy sunrise on the James River. Come on!
This morning's longreadHuman this ChristmasDespite the titles, this isn’t a late longread about Christmas but a couple of good thoughts on how AI impacts higher education by Tressie McMillan Cottom. Will educators see AI-generated essays start to show up in their classrooms? Probably (if they haven’t already)! Will it be The End of Higher Ed As We Know It? Probably not.
I would be worried, except my profession has been declared dead so many times that I’ve bought it a funeral dress. Humanities are not dead. Writing isn’t dead. And higher education will hobble along. You know why? For one, because this technology produces really creepy stuff. A.I. writes prose the way horror movies play with dolls. Chucky, Megan, the original Frankenstein’s monster. The monster dolls appear human and can even tell stories. But they cannot make stories. Isn’t that why they are monsters? They can only reflect humanity’s vanities back at humans. They don’t make new people or chart new horizons or map new experiences. They are carbon copies of an echo of the human experience.
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Picture of the DayI know Erosion Creek at Pine Camp is bad, but it’s so beautiful.
Good morning, RVA! It's 28 °F, and you can expect highs in the mid 40s later today. Tomorrow, rain soggily tramps back in and maybe sticks around most of the day. After we muddle through that, though, we’ve got clear and bright days—with teeth-chattering lows—on through to next week.
Water coolerDemocracy! Yesterday’s Democratic firehouse primary to nominate a candidate for Virginia’s 4th Congressional seat was really special. I voted at Diversity Thrift with thousands of other folks who patiently stood in line for an hour on a cold and dark Tuesday evening. The vibe was so positive and wonderful, and I truthfully had a blast. Thank you to all of the volunteers who pulled off an incredible event at Diversity—and I hear things went just as smoothly at Dogtown Dance and at the other polling locations across the region. Vote counting starts this morning at 10:00 AM (Twitter), so tune back in later today for results!
Yesterday, GRTC announced that they would continue fare-free bus service through at least June 2024. Here’s the important bit: “GRTC recently received funding from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to support the program through June 2025 with assurances that a local match would be made to offset the total cost of the annual $5.6 million program.” This is good news; the zero-fare program removes a lot of the friction of riding the bus, improving access for lots of folks. I still think our region has a lot of work to do to make our free-to-ride system better and more useful for riders, and I worry that all of this money going to offset fares could be used instead to expand and improve bus service. Some specific concerns: Since the system redesign a couple of years back, two of our most frequent, 15-minute routes—the #4 and the #5—have quietly become barely acceptable 30-minute routes; GRTC is considering bisecting the #1, ending cross-town, one-seat rides; and every day a handful of buses just never make it into service causing frequent delays. There’s lots to fix and improve in addition to keeping fares free, and I hope we don’t lose sight of that over the next couple of years. No one will ride the bus—no matter how free it is—if it’s slow and doesn’t get you where you need to go.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams reports that eight or nine century-old shade trees have been cut down in Mosby Court, one of Richmond’s public housing neighborhoods. A Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority spokesperson said that the trees were cut down “as part of a curb appeal improvement request that came from the City of Richmond.” However, according the the Mayor’s spokesperson, the City “requested RRHA to pick up trash and remove brush—not trees.” What a big and irrecoverable mistake. Even if RRHA or the City replants five times as many replacement trees it’ll be decades—assuming the City can keep them alive—before they provide enough shade to cool these communities during our ever-hottening summers. I mean, it should not be at all shocking or surprising that Mosby Court has one of the highest levels of urban heat vulnerability in the city, according to RVA Green 2050. The new RRHA CEO has paused any further removal of trees for now, but the damage is already done. I think someone, the City or RRHA, needs to do something to make this right—above and beyond planting new baby trees (which also needs to happen).
Autumn Childress at WRIC followed up on the story about Richmond’s Sheriff polygraphing two employees to find out who leaked information to the media. The Sheriff says, “We have a right to polygraph,” which I’m not sure is ever the quote you want to lead with when talking about your own employees.
Via /r/rva these neat pictures of old Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike toll tickets. Of course, construction of the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike would go on to tear permanent holes through Richmond’s majority-Black neighborhoods—definitely not neat by all counts.
Logistical note! We did it: This is the last Good Morning, RVA of 2022! First, we’ve definitely entered the part of the year when there’s not a ton of new news and year-end lists and retrospectives start to take over the headlines. Second, I’m exhausted. Despite a waning and transitioning pandemic, 2022, at least for me, was still a lot. So I’m going to take the next dozen or so days to rest, relax, play some video games, watch some horror films, spend time with my family, and, if I can find enough layers, ride some bikes. I hope you’ve got some time set aside to work through your own list of extracurriculars—or, if that sounds too much like work, that you find time to sit quietly and stare out a window. I’ll be back in your inboxes on January 3rd. Have an excellent rest of 2022 and ride safe.
This morning's longreadThe Case For Protected Bike LanesI chose this morning’s longread solely for its blurb: “Giving cyclists their own space results in some pretty big benefits beyond just a lack of dead cyclists.”
Bike advocates argue that separation is key to driving up cyclist participation. And so it appears from a new study of early separated lane projects in the U.S. Across six cities, the study finds a rise of ridership between 21% and 171% after the lanes were installed...Almost half of riders said they were cycling more frequently as a result of the new lanes, with those on Dearborn Street, in Chicago, reporting the biggest increase. Most importantly, the research found that the lanes increased participation in cycling generally. Ten percent of cyclists said they would have used another form of transportation before the lanes were built.
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Picture of the DayJust doing some democracy.
Good morning, RVA! It's 25 °F, and it’s cold outside! Today you can expect highs around 40 °F as things start to warm up a bit before the weekend. Disappointingly, despite the sub-freezing temperatures forecast for this weekend, I think our chance for a white Christmas has left the building.
Water coolerToday’s the day! Residents of Virginia’s 4th Congressional District have the exciting opportunity to cast a ballot in a rare December primary. First, if you’re not sure which district you live in, you can check your voter information on the Department of Elections website. Second, you can see the full list of the candidates that will appear on the ballot here. Third, you should make a plan to get to one of the eight polling locations scattered across the District (four of which are in and around Richmond) between 6:00 AM and 7:00 PM. Fourth, I’ll be voting for Sen. Jennifer McClellan, and I can’t think of anyone better equipped to represent me in Congress than her. I so rarely get to vote for someone with absolutely zero reservations, but this is definitely one of those times!
It’s sort of news-business inside baseball, but the Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial board has a good and even-handed editorial about Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act and how government agencies can abuse the current regulations. I think most folks’ eyes glaze over when you mention “FOIA legislation”, but, let’s be honest, other than zoning and rezoning, this email newsletter lives for news about the news. FOIA is complicated! Having both submitted and received FOIA requests, I know how important they can be to keeping the public informed but also how they can sometimes be used in bad faith to gum up the gears of government. Del. Roem’s proposals—which requires state government to fulfill FOIA requests that take no more than two hours free of charge—is a good compromise between transparency and the practical constraints of reality. So far all of Roem’s bills have failed to make it out of committee and will probably continue to do so given the current administration, but I still think it’s good and important work.
Yesterday, GRTC announced they’d received a $4 million grant from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to “close gaps in rural and suburban areas of Richmond through microstransit, an on-demand system that allows people to book rides in real time and get picked up and dropped off in designated areas.” You can take a look at a map of the proposed “microtransit zones”, which are mostly scattered across the region’s more suburban and rural areas (but does include one just northeast of the city in Henrico County). I’m skeptical of microtransit in general, but this three-year pilot seems like an interesting experiment. Also of note: GRTC expects “systemwide ridership to recover to 2019 levels by 2023.” That’s pretty exciting and impressive!
I think there are mostly no updates in this piece by the Virginia Mercury’s Nathaniel Cline about the Governor’s proposed anti-trans policies for public schools. While the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules objected to the proposed policies (and sent a Very Offical Letter!), they admit they don’t have a ton of authority over this type of thing. I think we just have to wait until the state Superintendent of Public Instruction finalizes the policies and then see how our local school districts react. Remember: Some school districts didn’t feel the need to comply with the previous administration’s policies protecting trans kids, and it’ll be interesting to watch what happens now that the roles have flip-flopped.
This morning's longreadNo One Knows What’s Inside the Smallpox VaccineSince we’re all vaccine hobbyists at this point, I thought I’d share this fascinating piece in the Atlantic about the now-mysterious origins of the smallpox vaccine.
José Esparza first began wondering about vaccinia in the 1980s, when he was assigned an office at the World Health Organization next to the smallpox archives. By then, the disease had already been eradicated, and people had, he says, “little interest in understanding the origins of the vaccine.”...For years now, he has been scouring museums and eBay for old vials of smallpox vaccine, scoring a couple every year. (“EBay—you can find anything you can imagine!” he says.) These vials no longer contain live virus, but the technology now exists to sequence the fragments of viral DNA that remain. This DNA has revealed tantalizing if perplexing clues. Vaccinia turns out to be most genetically similar to another poxvirus called horsepox. But scientists have only ever sequenced one horsepox sample in the world, and they may never find another; the disease largely disappeared in the early 20th century. If horsepox really is the progenitor of vaccinia, how did that happen? And how did it then become lost to time?
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Picture of the DayHave y’all been by the Dominion building downtown?
Good morning, RVA! It's 25 °F, and and today looks cold and bright. Expect highs in the mid 40s, but colder temperatures after the sun sets—which, at 4:54 PM, is remarkably soon today.
Water coolerI always learn something when reading Councilmember Jordan’s email newsletter and recommend you subscribe even if you don’t live in the City’s 2nd District. This week, the Councilmember has a short update on the status of MDP Circle: “...the hope was to have irrigation work and landscaping done by the end of the year. Because of the lack of planting inventory late in the planting season, and other logistical difficulties, DPW has not yet begun that work. As we go into the new year, we expect to see DPW out in the circle working on fixing the irrigation system, followed by planting and landscaping in the early Spring. Once that work is completed, the fencing and jersey barriers will be removed.“ Disappointing but predictable after all the time the landscaping plan spent caught up in the Urban Design Committee / Planning Commission process earlier this fall. Now, unfortunately, we wait for another season to pass before the horrible fencing around the circle can come down.
It’s still very early, but Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond has a good reminder of how things will mostly likely play out as the General Assembly grapples with abortion law in the post-Roe v. Wade era. Democrats currently hold a one-seat majority in the Senate, which potentially dooms any Republican plans to further restrict the rights of women in Virginia. However, two things stress me out: 1) That majority includes loose-cannon and sometimes-abortion-opponent Joe Morrissey, and 2) The special election to fill Rep. McEachin’s congressional seat will take place on February 21st, three days before the end of the General Assembly session. I don’t know enough about GA procedural rules, but I am a little nervous about Republicans doing some shenanigans to quickly pass an anti-abortion law in a (theoretical) narrow window of time between elections when Democrats do not hold a majority in the Senate. Some hobbyist parliamentarian let me know if this is something to worry about or not!
Meghan McIntyre at the Virginia Mercury reports that the Virginia ABC will revamp all of its remaining plexiglass ensconced counter-service stores—three total, two of which are in Richmond. Great news, because those bulletproof, walk-up stores feel at least a little offensive and definitely a lot customer-hostile. McIntyre says there’s no specific timeline for the revamp, but you probably shouldn’t expect anything in the next couple of years.
This past Friday afternoon, the Governor issued Executive Order #24, banning TikTok and WeChat from state-owned devices and wireless networks. He cites “safeguarding data and ensuring cybersecurity” as the reasoning, and I don’t think he’s wrong there. However, TikTok’s ascent among young people seems near universal, so I do wonder what banning the entire network means for government agencies who need to connect with their constituents.
The results from RVAMAG and GayRVA’s 2022 reader poll are in, and I feel like, at least when it comes to places to grab lunch or coffee or beer, I still maintain a tenuous—but measurable!—grasp on Cool. If you’re looking to make plans over the holidays, check out these categories for winners that I most strongly agree with: Local Cafe, Date Night, Pizza, and Dive Bar.
I really agree with this post on /r/rva: “I’m going to miss the vibrancy of the orange leaves of fall. RVA is beautiful in the winter as well though.” I don’t know what it is about this year, but I’m really enjoying just how stunning Richmond looks as we fully transition into winter.
Reminder: Make a plan to vote in tomorrow’s Firehouse Primary for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District! There are four locations in and around Richmond, and polls will be open from 6:00 AM–7:00 PM.
This morning's longreadMark Meadows Exchanged Texts With 34 Members Of Congress About Plans To Overturn The 2020 ElectionI think the most shocking thing about these text messages sent by Republican Congressmembers as Trump was actively trying to destroy our democracy, is that these Republicans actually believe all of the eye-rolly, conspiratorial garbage they spout in public. I’d mostly assumed that they put on this horrible act to grab and hold power, not that they’d actually fallen for it themselves.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows exchanged text messages with at least 34 Republican members of Congress as they plotted to overturn President Trump’s loss in the 2020 election...Meadows’ exchanges shed new light on the extent of congressional involvement in Trump’s efforts to spread baseless conspiracy theories about his defeat and his attempts to reverse it. The messages document the role members played in the campaign to subvert the election as it was conceived, built, and reached its violent climax on Jan. 6, 2021. The texts are rife with links to far-right websites, questionable legal theories, violent rhetoric, and advocacy for authoritarian power grabs.
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Picture of the DayThe first taste of this year’s egg nog.
Good morning, RVA! It's 36 °F, and yesterday was too freaking gloomy. Today, though, we can expect sunshine, highs in the 50s, and a great opening to the—at least for me—long-awaited weekend. In fact, NBC12's Andrew Freiden says today is the verified best weather day of the week. Get out there and enjoy it!
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have medium CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 86, 152, and 128, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 11.2. If the third straight week at a medium level does not convince you to take a few extra measures to keep you and yours healthy, maybe reading the latest post by Katelyn Jetelina about longcovid will do the trick. 16 million working-age Americans have longcovid and it will have a total economic cost of about $3.7 trillion. Your risk of getting longcovid is about twice that of being permanently injured in a car crash (1-in-370 compared to 1-in-700). Luckily, getting vaccinated not only helps prevent you from getting COVID original, but studies have show that vaccinated people are less likely to get longcovid, too. Double lucky, at least for babies, everyone aged six months and older is now eligible for not only a COVID-19 vaccine but one of the new, bivalent vaccines that also protects against the omicron variant. If you haven't yet for some reason, make a plan this weekend to get everyone in your immediate sphere of influence boosted and keep your holidays healthy.
Exciting news about next week's Firehouse Primary to fill Virginia's 4th Congressional District seat: Delegate Lamont Bagby has suspended his campaign and endorsed Senator Jennifer McClellan. Bagby's not the only one to endorse the senator, though, and you can read through her list of more than 75 endorsements (and counting!) here. McClellan has done the seemingly impossible and found something that the Mayor, a majority of City Council, and a majority of the School Board will all agree on—herself! If you live in the 4th, you can (and should, because there will be other candidates on the ballot) vote for Senator McClellan on Tuesday, between 6:00 AM and 7:00 PM at one of eight location around the region.
A while back, the RPS School Board voted to give District employees the right to collectively bargain, and, as of last night, RPS and the Richmond Education Association reached their first-ever collective bargaining agreements. RPS Superintendent Kamras has some of the specifics in his newsletter from last night. At least from this perspective, it seems like the process was a success—maybe something that the City can model whenever they get around to kicking off their own collective bargaining.
Yesterday, the Governor released his proposed budget amendments. You can read the press release here and, perhaps more interestingly, read through the actual amendments here.pdf?1671114041). Youngkin's $230 million proposed behavioral health and substance abuse plan headlines the list, followed by tax cuts, a bunch of cop stuff, and some significant investments in "resiliency and the Chesapeake Bay." Of course, as always, the warm and fluffy world described in a press release is often miles apart from the cold, harsh reality of a budget. If you're looking for something closer to the latter, Graham Moomaw and Sarah Vogelsong at the Virginia Mercury have a good early look at the Governor’s proposal.
Remember just yesterday when I was like, "hmmm maybe keep an eye on the situation at the jail"? Well, WTVR’s Tyler Layne reports that "after Richmond officials put a spotlight on safety concerns at the Richmond City Jail, Sheriff Antionette Irving's office polygraph tested at least two deputies, multiple sources told CBS 6. Sources said the sheriff's office attempted to find out which jail officers have been leaking information from inside the jail to members of the public and the press." What the heck! That doesn't seem appropriate at all.
This morning's longreadElon Musk Is a Far-Right ActivistI know, I know, another boring article about Elon Musk and Twitter—I still can't help myself. This article, Musk's recent anti-trans and COVID-denialism tweets, and his recent banning of reporters has convinced me to begin a transition away from using the platform as a news source. What took so long, right? Moving forward, I'll try my best to avoid linking to tweets in this email (not always possible, see previous link). I still don't know where to _go_ for the type of first-person, live, breaking-news information that ends up on Twitter, but I hope it's something we'll figure out together (and soon).
The hypocrisy at the center of Musk’s Twitter tenure is crucial to the understanding of Musk’s political activism. He has championed ideals of free-speech maximalism and amnesty to those who’ve offended his rules. Twitter, under his management, has let back on organizers of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; neo-Nazis such as Andrew Anglin; and January 6–investigation personalities such as Roger Stone. At the same time, Twitter has suspended accounts that have mocked Musk or expressed left-leaning views. Whether intentionally or not, Musk has, in effect, been governing Twitter using the classic Frank Wilhoit maxim: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Put differently, the billionaire has been advancing a long-running right-wing political project described recently by my colleague Adam Serwer as a “belief in a new constitutional right. Most important, this new right supersedes the free-speech rights of everyone else: the conservative right to post.”
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Picture of the DayDeeply ready for a drier winter.
Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, and its gross and rainy outside right now. Unfortunately, you can expect the cold and the rain to continue on and off until this evening. But! The weekend ahead of us—which is so, so close—looks bright, crisp, and wintery.
Water coolerWhile the CDC will not update their COVID-19 Community Levels until this evening, all signs point to another week at a medium level in our region. This means a lot of disease floating around in our communities as we head into the holidays and start spending more time with the vulnerable people in our lives. Remember: One of the best ways to keep your gross germs to yourself is to stay home if you’re sick, and, regardless of your symptoms, take a COVID-19 test before heading out to your next holiday party. To that end, this morning you can order four more free COVID-19 tests from the United States Postal Service to be delivered next week, just in time for the High Holidays. Even if you have a a few tests laying around, go ahead and place an order—they’re free and you will almost certainly use all of them over the next couple of months.
Yesterday, the Mayor held a press conference to talk through the future of the City’s streets, infrastructure, and Vision Zero—Lyndon German at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the details. I feel ambivalent about this sort of thing. Over the past six years, the City has spent tens of millions of dollars catching up on decades of deferred maintenance to our streets. It’s been impressive to watch—especially compared to years previous when other folks were in charge. That said, I don’t see the appropriate amount of urgency for making our streets safer as traffic violence continues to rise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very thankful that our Department of Public Works staff has a pretty incredibly success rate at applying for (and winning!) long-term funding for ongoing infrastructure projects. But there are many, many, many things the City could do to make our streets safer without millions of dollars. We could allow neighborhoods to create pandemic-era “slow streets” (which Richmond never did a single time) or close streets entirely to vehicular traffic, we could increase the frequency of bus routes making public transportation more useful, and we could use cheap, temporary infrastructure to pilot tactical traffic calming projects. There are thousands of things we could be doing in addition to working hard at squeezing those long-term funding sources. So, yes, the City has come a long, long way since 2015, but I don’t think “we’ve applied for a bunch of money” is an exciting and bold plan to adequately address the issues we’re facing in 2022. What we’ve done is good, but we need to do better.
Something to keep an eye on: Tyler Layne at WTVR reports that a person incarcerated at the City’s jail died earlier this week. This is the second person to die at the jail in as many months. Reporters have started asking questions, which seems appropriate, and the sheriff’s office (which runs the jail) has started issuing defensive (and expensive) responses to FOIA requests, which seems less appropriate. Luca Powell says the RTD got quoted $1,385 for a payroll request, and Layne says “the Sherrif’s Office also hit CBS6 with a $1,000+ cost estimate for data about assaults on deputies.” Responding to FOIA requests can be complicated, and I don’t begrudge public institutions for charging reasonable fees, but I get to wondering when you start to combine investigative reporting, eyebrow-raising FOIA fees, and a failure to respond to reporter questions.
The roof of Richmond’s Fire Station 8 catching fire is the ironic bummer of the week. Originally, the City’s Capital Improvement Plan had allocated dollars to replace this roof, but maybe now insurance will cover it?
Axios Richmond’s Karri Peifer has a list of seven new restaurants for you to try over the coming weeks. It’s a pretty diverse list, too—Indian, Italian, burgers, fried chicken, wine. Take your pick!
This morning's longreadThe Blade Runners Powering a Wind FarmThe New Yorker has some really fantastic photos and videos of a wind farm in Keyser, West Virginia. Intense, blue-collar jobs remain intense whether they’re under the earth or up in the sky.
Five full-time employees maintain the turbines. Each tower has an internal ladder. After climbing to the top, the workers can investigate errant temperature readings—the gearbox can overheat—or worrisome signals from the tower’s sensors. Once a year, the team adjusts the calibrations of the blades, checks the tension on bolts, and tests the structural integrity of the equipment. Cleanliness is important to the successful functioning of such a delicate apparatus, and the employees take pride in their work. They often lug up a trash bag filled with rags, and use Simple Green cleaner to leave the towers gleaming in the sun. This is the first generation of West Virginians to trade work underground for work up high.
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Picture of the DayA+ bus design.
Good morning, RVA! It's 26 °F, and that’s cold! Today you can expect highs in the mid 40s, clouds, and a vibrating sense of anticipation as we wait for tomorrow’s storms. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden expects an inch or more of rain and warns that we should all prepare for a cold and wet Thursday.
Water coolerAlright, Congressional primary news! The Firehouse Primary to determine the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District will take place this coming Tuesday, December 20th. You can vote at one of five locations across the district at any point between 6:00 AM and 7:00 PM, and, at the moment, you have the choice between State Senator Jennifer McClellan and two men. Potential candidates still have until 12:00 PM on Friday to collect signatures and pay a fee ($3,480, which is, interestingly, 2% of a Congressional salary), so we might see another candidate or two added to the list. I’ll wait for the finale slate before saying too much, but this sure seems like a missed opportunity to have used ranked-choice voting. If you’d like to volunteer to help out with the primary on Tuesday, you can fill out this form.
Eva Russo at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has pictures of work crews lifting the corpse of A.P. Hill out of the ground, wrapping it in a Virginian flag, and putting it on a gurney. I find this photoset, which is not at all explicit or gruesome, to be incredibly surreal.
Natalie Barr, writing for the Capital News Service at VPM, reports on the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority, an independent governmental group formed, at least initially, to distribute cash from national, multi-billion dollar opioid settlements. According to Barr, the five localities that will receive the highest percentage of settlement money are Chesterfield, Fairfax, Henrico, Richmond, and Virginia Beach. More on this, I’m sure, as the process moves along but sounds like this money will definitely have an impact on our region.
Via /r/rva, a list of things to do in Richmond for under $10. Tap through for lots of good suggestions, but I think my list would be: The T. Pott bridge, the Flood Wall, and the VMFA. Also, you could definitely get in and out of Cobra Cabana during happy hour for less than 10 bucks.
Importantly, Sarah Vogelsong at the Virginia Mercury reports that Senator Tim Kaine has urged Coca-Cola to resume production of Northen Neck ginger ale. The senator himself testifies that there is “no better ginger ale on the planet”!
Tonight at 6:00 PM at the Main Library (101 E. Franklin Street), the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities and Housing Opportunities Made Equal will host RVA Table Talk: Housing. This is an opportunity for community members to get together, learn, and engage about housing—maybe the single most important issue facing Richmond right now. Specifically, over the course of a couple hours, facilitated small group discussions will focus on “the needs and ways in which we've adapted and grown since 2020” and “ways we can apply these lessons to continue building better communities in the present.” Talking through important topics with two great organizations seems like a great way to spend a chilly Wednesday evening.
This morning's longreadWhat You Learn From Eating AloneThis piece by Mari Andrew in the Atlantic is just so charming! While I don’t do a ton of Solitude Food myself, I am definitely married to someone who loves nothing more than to eat lunch alone while quietly looking out a window.
A personal pizza can be Solitude Food too. I buy a personal pizza when I’m anticipating a glorious night entirely to myself: feet up on the coffee table, sparkling water I drink straight from the bottle, some totally uncool wine (like a merlot from the Dave Matthews winery), and a show I’ve seen a hundred times. Just me, melted cheese, and the Thanksgiving episode of Gilmore Girls. That’s divine solitude. But as we’ve all experienced, Solitude Food can become a Lonely Food—and that’s when it turns sad. Solitude is slippery and can morph into loneliness with an accidental listen to a particularly evocative song on shuffle, or when the place you’ve chosen to eat isn’t as charming as you anticipated, or when something goes awry in your pursuit of Solitude Food and it goes from an indulgence to a burdensome ritual.
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Picture of the DayThis year’s batch of egg nog finishing up.
Good morning, RVA! It's a wintery 32 °F, and highs today will stay in the mid 40s. We should also expect plenty of sunshine, setting us up for a lovely, cold, bright, and clear December day. If you can find 15 minutes in your day, bundle up and take a quiet walk around your neighborhood. I love Richmond in the winter!
Water coolerYesterday, the Governor set the date of the special election to fill Rep. McEachin’s Congressional seat for February 21st. If you remember our date math around these special elections from last week, candidates have 60 days from the date of the special election to file their paperwork, which means Democrats need to decide on their candidate by...December 23rd. 10 days from now, eight working days, the week before the holidays. While it is the Governor’s prerogative to schedule special elections, nothing says he has to be so petty about it. Now, with so few days to organize, Democrats will scramble to hold a Firehouse Primary on Tuesday, December 20th—a week from today. This is new territory for me, but apparently “a Firehouse Primary, or unassembled caucus, allows any Democrat in VA-04 to cast their ballot. There will be multiple locations across VA-04 where voters can cast their ballot for their preferred candidate.” First, the Governor could have picked March 7th for the date of the special election and avoided this mad year-end scramble, but he didn’t and I think that’s petty and unnecessary. Second, thank you to all of the volunteers who now need to spend these next two weeks putting together a primary instead of winding down and spending time with their loved ones. Third, more information on next Tuesday’s primary as soon as I see it!
Super related and super exciting: “On Tuesday, December 13th at 10:00 AM, Sen. Jennifer McClellan will make a major announcement at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square.”
I still need to ride by and check it out for myself, but the A.P. Hill monument came down yesterday, and Richard Hayes at RVAHub has a few pictures of the removal. Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond ominously reports that, “Workers spent the rest of the day slowly disassembling the stone pedestal, carefully searching its interior for Hill's remains, which, by nightfall, remained unaccounted for. The excavation continues today.”
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports on the plans for a new apartment complex to take the place of the Quality Inn on Arthur Ashe Boulevard just north of the highway. The current proposal has way too much parking (510 spaces for 366 apartments and zero commercial space), but maybe it can become shared parking for visitors to the Diamond District? Anyway, Old Man Bicycle complaints aside, building more homes in this part of town seems great.
Quick City Council update: The real estate tax rebate ordinances passed as did the eyebrow-raising ban-convenience-stores resolution. About the latter, as you all know, a resolution like this is just the first step of many in Doing A Rezonning. Planning Commission will surely have lots to say, as will the Director of Planning who is directed to create some sort of “neighborhood-based convenience store overlay district.” I’m still confused and have yet to see a decent explanation of the why behind this zoning change. David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports “[Councilmembers Ellen Robertson and Ann-Frances Lambert] cited public safety concerns and the fact that the stores do not offer a broad range of fresh foodstuffs.” Public safety concerns at literally every single convenience store across the entire city? If there is a real problem with the safety of convenience stores in the 3rd and 6th Districts, maybe that’s a conversation to have with the Police instead of the Planners? It just doesn’t seem like zoning is the right tool for this job.
Also zoning-related, the City will host the final meeting to discuss Those Three Zoning Changes tonight, in-person at the Main Library (101 E. Franklin Street), at 6:00 PM. Whether or not you attend tonight, make sure you fill out the very short public comment survey (my opinion: 👍 by-right ADUs, 👍 eliminating parking minimums, 🫤 removing the Airbnb residency requirements). Also, completely unrelated to the meat of these changes, I really enjoy how they were branded the “Three Zoning Changes” and how that branding stuck so quickly and effectively.
This morning's longreadBecoming Athletic In My 50sI share today’s longread knowing I’ve shared something similar by Anne Helen Petersen before (mentioned in this piece!) and that I’m only further cementing my status as resident old man who rides bikes. But! I think Clive Thompson’s experience with bikes can be true for anyone who doesn’t consider themselves athletic—whether you’re 20, 50, or 70. Maybe that’s you??
With long-distance cycling, though, it really did feel like I was just measuring myself against myself. There was no competition with others. It felt more like a deeply nerdy experiment in science and psychology: So, Clive - can you handle this? And what I've found is that, delightfully, most often I can. And it's also fine when I can't, or shouldn't. Listening to how my body responds to athletic demands, and respecting its natural limits, is another odd pleasure in this new life of mine. It no doubt helps that I have no interest in racing. I don't care if I'm faster than others. Quite the opposite: When I do these epically long rides, I ride quite slowly, certainly compared to the heads-down lycra-clad cyclists blowing past me in hyperspace mode, straining atop their elite carbon-fiber featherweight bicycles reverse-engineered from crashed UFOs. Me, I ride an inexpensive and frankly kind of heavy standard hybrid bike. I do not ride in an aerodynamic posture. I just mosey along. I'll get there when I get there. My goal is sheer, mulish endurance.
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Picture of the DayI have no idea. I’m guessing very specific pornography or an educational video from the 80s?
Good morning, RVA! It's 36 °F, and today you can expect highs just under 50 °F with a few clouds here or there. This week looks chillier and drier than last, which sounds like an upgrade to me.
Water coolerCity Council meets tonight for their very last regularly-scheduled meeting of 2022—and what a year’s it’s been! Today they’ve got a beefy agenda, and at least three things I’ve got my eyes on.
- First, I’m pretty sure the stack of ordinances that’ll make the real estate tax rebate happen should pass without issue.
- Second, according to Councilmember Jordan’s email newsletter, “there will be a motion to amend Resolution 2021-R026, the paper containing all of Council's submitted amendments to the Richmond 300 Master plan. This paper would ask Planning Commission to incorporate the amendments as an appendix to the plan, and would then use those amendments as a starting point for the comprehensive amendments process in 2025.“ You might know RES. 2021-R026 as the “embarrassing Richmond 300 amendments paper” that’s been on Council’s agenda since April 26th, 2021. While I’m glad Council has decided not to try and hastily force their laundry list of amendments into our award-winning master plan, I still wish the entire resolution ended up in bin instead. I supposed “filed away as an appendix” is as close as we’re going to get to that.
- Third, Council will consider RES. 2022-R073, which would kick off the process to rewrite our zoning ordinance to ban convenience stores from lots of different zoning districts. I don’t really understand the purpose or intent of this resolution, but, to me, it certainly reads in opposition to our (previously-mentioned) award-wining master plan, which, at its heart wants to get away from these sorts of use-based restrictions. I’m surprised the Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee recommended it for approval, and I’d like to know more from the paper’s three patrons (Robertson, Lambert, and Addison).
Looks like all signs point to the A.P. Hill monument coming down this morning, and Elizabeth Holmes at WTVR has the updating story. The City should, eventually, replace the statue with a true protected intersection, but, until then, even installing a regular-old traffic light will decrease the number of crashes on the Northside by a bunch.
From my inbox, an update on Rep. McEachin’s congressional seat: “Delegate Lamont Bagby will officially announce his campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives to fill the seat vacated by the late A. Donald McEachin.” But! According to Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Senator Jennifer McClellan is ‘very likely to run,’ and will announce her plans early this week, spokesman Jared Leopold said Sunday.” As of this morning, the Governor has still not set a date for the special election.
Last week, I asked the internet for a bike route version of this Axios Richmond Tacky Light Tour, and an actual person, Emily Monroe at BikeWalk RVA, put one together! At just under 11 miles, this loop will take you past plenty of tacky light highlights, plus a few excellent overlooks of the city skyline, and send you down some of the Fan’s most lit-up streets. Grabby your scarf, gloves, and your best bike-gang pals, and spend some time taking in Richmond by bike! Thanks, Emily!
Yesterday afternoon NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down off the coast of California after a month-long, 1.4 million mile trip around the moon and back. You can watch a quick video of the landing that, honestly, doesn’t look a ton different from splashdowns five decades ago. Next up for the Artemis program: Artemis II, which will send human astronauts around the moon and back some time in, fingers crossed, 2024.
This morning's longreadThe World Cup’s New High-Tech Ball Will Change Soccer ForeverI know we’re already deep into the World Cup, but I just got around to reading this piece about the positioning technology inside the soccer ball—so cool! Now, the next obvious (and American) question is: So when are we doing this for football? Measuring first downs with “chains” is one of the more ridiculous things in contemporary sports.
So any time the ball is kicked, headed, thrown or even so much as tapped, the system picks it up at 500 frames per second. Data is sent in real time from sensors to a local positioning system (LPS), which involves a setup of network antennas installed around the playing field that take in and store the data for immediate use. When a ball flies out of bounds during the course of play, and a new ball is thrown or kicked in to replace it, KINEXON’s backend system automatically switches to the new ball’s data input without the need for human intervention. KINEXON’s in-ball device is supported by suspension technology provided by Adidas, designed to house the sensor at the central interior point of the ball and keep it secure in a consistent location.1
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Picture of the DayRIP Saison Market chicken biscuit. You were a good friend.
Good morning, RVA! It's 43 °F, and today you can again expect cloudy skies with highs in the 50s. Depending on where you’re sitting, though, you might see the sun break through—which is exciting. Count on more of the same over the weekend, and then, fingers crossed, some cold, sunny, winter days next week.
Water coolerAs of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield posted their second week at medium CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 22, 177, and 112, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 10.6. Looking at those case rate numbers, and one of those things is definitely not like the others; I have no idea why Richmond’s case rate is eight times lower than Henrico’s, and I’d take those numbers with a grain of salt. But! The hospital admission number I accept salt-free and has continued to creep up since last week. So whatever you think about the wonky case rates in our region, more people are ending up in the hospital right now and you should keep that in mind when you’re out-and-about or while putting together your holiday plans. It’s simple: If you haven’t yet gotten your bivalent COVID-19 booster, do it this weekend and chase it with a flu shot. Getting vaccinated against these diseases is the best and easiest way to protect your friends and family over the holidays.
Delegate Lamont Bagby, one of the top contenders (or maybe the top contender) for Representative McEachin’s Congressional seat, posted this cryptic teaser tweet last night: “My name is Lamont Bagby and as Chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus I have been focused on saving Virginia's children’s classrooms from Glenn Youngkin trying to erase Black history from our schools. Please Retweet and follow me— I have a major announcement coming soon!” This sure sounds like a “I’m going to Congress!” tweet to me. Bagby moving up to the federal level wouldn’t set off a bunch of election dominos in Richmond, as the 74th District is almost entirely parts of Chesterfield. Stay tuned, I guess.
Scott Bass has an interesting column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch reflecting on Mayor Wilder’s police chief, Rodney Monroe. While you can’t deny how popular Chief Monroe was at the time, the head RPD job in 2005 was just entirely different. It’s hard for me to tell if Monroe was in the right place at the right time or if he brought some sort of special magic to the position. Whatever the case may be, it’s not great that, as Mayor Stoney looks to hire his next police chief, we’re looking back two entire decades for an example of what works.
VPM’s Ben Paviour reports some related and predictable news: The Virginia State Police have asked for $25 million more dollars in this year’s budget to hire more officers, give pay raises, and replace two helicopters. I can think of about 25 million better ways to use that money—schools or public health or housing are easy answers.
Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond has put together a great (and bike-friendly) tacky light tour. Can someone build a route on Strava or Ride With GPS and send me the link?
I’m pretty sad about Saison Market closing—after 12 years in business!—this coming Monday. It’s the only place that ever had my coffee waiting for me before I came in the door. Eileen Mellon at Richmond Magazine has a good farewell piece.
Tomorrow, December 10th, from 9:00 AM–12:00 PM, you can join 79 other people in “One Great Morning of Raking,” a delightfully-named volunteer opportunity hosted by Maymont. They’re looking for literally 80 people (38 spots remaining!) to help rake out the Japanese Garden. I can’t imagine what a volunteer army of seven dozen rakers looks like, but I bet its awesome. Please bring your own rake!
This morning's longreadEvery "chronically online" conversation is the sameThis piece in Vox puts words to a lot of what I feel about The Online Discourse. While the author, in my opinion naively, hopes that it “doesn’t have to be this way,” I’d suggest that social media platforms are specifically designed to encourage these types of horrible (and horribly boring) results.
Because none of these encounters matter. It literally doesn’t matter that someone made chili for their neighbors because you were never meant to know about it in the first place. It’s not your business. To demand retribution against someone who says they enjoy coffee with their husband or makes surprise chili for strangers — or even someone who complains about these things! — reflects something far more disturbing than humblebrags or being a presumptuous neighbor. It’s that these reactions are so normalized online that they’re almost boring. Of course people are going to freak out about someone’s misguided problematic author spreadsheet even though it has zero bearing on the real world whatsoever, and of course people are going to accuse a beloved indie rocker of ableism for being annoyed by constant flash photography. It doesn’t have to be this way! People in their regular lives don’t react this way to things. It’s only on platforms where controversy and drama are prioritized for driving engagement where we’re rewarded for despising each other.
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Picture of the DayVCU fall colors.
Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F and cloudy, and that’s about what you get today. You can expect highs to creep up a bit (into the upper 50s) and maybe a little sunshine this morning, but warmish and cloudyish seems to be the situation for the next few days. With any luck, though, a (fingers crossed) lack of actual rain will still give things a chance to dry out. How do people in the Pacific Northwest live like this?? Are they just covered in mold constantly?
Water coolerToday the City will host two, fun public meetings. First, the second of three meetings about Those Three Zoning Changes takes place virtually tonight at 6:00 PM. If you want to do some homework before attending, Jonathan Spiers’s reporting in Richmond BizSense from yesterday remains the best I’ve read on the proposed changes. If you feel like you already know enough, you can skip the meeting entirely and give a public comment by filling out this quick, one-minute form. Second, and I really dropped the ball on this one, but Richmond Connects, the process to update the City’s multimodal transportation plan, will host two telephone town halls (the first of which was yesterday, sorry). Worse than that, registration for today’s 12:00 PM event is already closed. But! There is an option to register for “ALL City of Richmond Telephone Town Hall Meetings”? Maybe selecting that option will get you added to today’s meeting, too? Anyway, I mostly mention this to put Richmond Connects back on your radar as we move into 2023 and further into their community engagement process.
Bleh. The Virginia Mercury’s Charlie Paullin reports that the State Air Pollution Control Board “officially began the process of withdrawing Virginia from a regional carbon market.” Questions abound about the legality of Board’s vote, but, regardless of the legal outcomes, we should fully expect the State’s Republican leadership to continue the strategic dismantling of legislation and policies that reduce the impact of climate change on Virginians. It’s going to take a decade to make back the progress lost over the course of this administration—on climate and on everything else.
In this morning’s Axios Richmond email, you can read “Youngkin’s post-midterm vibe check,” which lines up pretty well with my current thinking on our Governor’s presidential potential. I just don’t think there’s any actual space (or voters) for a guy whose policies are deeply Trumpian but doesn’t vomit them out with a rotten, childish attitude. Florida’s DeSantis offers both at the same time, and I think he’d easily crush Virginia’s bevested governor in a primary. I have, of course, been wrong about basically everything since 2016, so take those last few sentences with a grain of salt.
Peggy Singlemann, formerly Maymont’s gardening wizard, has a column in VPM packed full with winter gardening advice. Yes, reader! There are still things to do in your garden in December! Here’s one piece of advice I will definitely follow: “After tending to the tools, I take time to review the garden and landscape photos I have taken over the past few months to assess the past growing season, and mentally establish a starting point for next year.” I’m deeply jealous of Singlemann’s slow and steady year-round pace—which is what appeals to me most about gardening—and look forward to doing some serious plant-planning over holiday break.
This picture via /r/rva has it all: The train bridge, the river, a gentle and cozy mist. We live in a beautiful place.
This morning's longread‘It was like an apocalyptic movie’: 20 climate photographs that changed the worldYou’ll definitely recognize some of these photos—bros golfing in the midst of a wildfire is an image I’ll never forget—and be newly shocked by others. Take a minute and scroll through these images of just some of the impacts of climate change, because staying newly-shocked is important.
This startling image of husky dogs pulling a sledge through melted ice in north-west Greenland was captured by Steffen Olsen, a scientist with the Danish Meteorological Institute. Olsen and a team of local hunters were collaborating on a project to monitor climate change, ocean conditions and the sea ice in the Inglefield ford. He snapped the photo on his phone during an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the team's scientific instruments before the ice melted. "We had not previously experienced water on the ice this early in the summer," he recalls. "The local team working with me said this was beyond anything they had experienced before.'
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Picture of the DayI got these really high-quality clothespins for my birthday, and they are my new favorite thing.
Good morning, RVA! It's 53 °F, and today, after the wet weather moves through, looks like our warmest day of the week. Expect highs in the 60s to go along with a small possibility of rain this morning. I think, after today, we might get enough rain-free days to dry out our soggy landscapes! P.S. You are not imagining it: Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond reports that our average winter temperatures are four degrees warmer than in the 1970s.
Water coolerBig news from RPS Superintendent Kamras’s daily email: The school district has hired a new Chief Wellness Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Both internal hires, Renesha Parks (previously the Director of Exceptional Education) will serve as the CWO, while Dana Fox (the Director of School Construction) will take over at COO. Congratulations to these bold, brave women who step into important and complicated roles. We’ll see what the future holds for them, because I was pretty convinced that the School Board would pull some shenanigans to keep these positions open even longer.
Jahd Khalil at VPM reports that the Mayor’s administration has finalized the total amount of revenue collected from the City’s real estate tax, which clocks in at $21 million over their original estimate. Most of the additional cash will help pay for inclement weather shelters and additional raises for police, fire, and emergency communications staff. Quick aside about the latter: “A press release from the mayor’s office said those pay adjustments would be for employees not accounted for in a $17 million increase in first-responder wages in May’s budget.” This sort of “Ope! We found more money!” happens every year to some extent, so you shouldn’t be too scandalized by this reporting—but it’s clearly not the best way to run things. Would last year’s budget process have gone any differently with an additional $17 million hanging around? No clue, but it’d be nice to have all the money on the table before we head into budget season. That’s why (I think), when the Mayor introduced his plan to issue real estate tax rebates, an additional piece of the assessments puzzle was to “align the city’s assessment and budget cycles.” Theoretically that administrative shift might could fix these sorts of year-end money influxes.
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers has some great reporting on the draft details of Those Thee Zoning Changes, specifically the proposed changes to the City’s Airbnb regulations: “the recommendations would eliminate a primary residency requirement in which operators must reside at the property being rented for at least half the year. Instead, [Short-Term Rentals] would be permissible in any dwelling in any of the city’s zoning districts, but with a distance requirement separating the unit from another STR at a non-primary residence.” This is a hard sentence for my brain to understand, but, I think the intent here is to allow landlords to run multiple Airbnbs but prevent them from buying up entire blocks of housing to use as short-term rentals. This is, of course, anti-housing and will reduce the amount of housing stock in Richmond, but I think it is a compromise I’d be willing to trade for permitting by-right Accessory Dwelling Units everywhere and the entire elimination of parking minimums (the other two zoning changes). You can flip through the City’s presentation on these changes here and you can leave a public comment here.
We all know the A.P. Hill monument at Hermitage and Laburnum is horrible, creates one of the most dangerous intersections in the city, and will, at some point, come down. When, though? I’ve been pretty wait-and-see, since legal challenges tend to take forever to lawyer their way through the system, but it does feel like we’re getting close. NBC12’s Henry Graff reports that the statue could come down as early as next week. Exciting!
This morning's longreadHow Apples Are RankedI’m almost positive I’ve linked to this apple guy before, but now he’s got his own, very thorough, very funny apple ranking site. Yes, it’s mostly a joke, but it’s also entirely a real apple ranking site.
Thankfully in the early 2000s, due to the emergence of a class of idle yuppies willing to shell out disproportionate amounts of disposable income at organic grocery stores, it became economically viable to invest in the development of what I term “designer apples.” As a result, a dizzying array of new apples hit the shelves and continued to do so year after year. With so many new breeds, the antiquated system of delegating an apple as “good” or “bad” is an unworkable injustice of oversimplification. Society demands an updated rubric for apple evaluation that meets the moment. I have created that rubric. I have no children. This rating scale is my only hope to keep my namesake alive. It is something I hope to be utilized for generations to come and is my only chance at achieving immortality. Therefore I am naming this system: The Frange 100 Point Apple Rating Scale aka the F100.
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Picture of the DayJust seconds before runneling.
Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, and today you can expect highs in the 50s, light rain this morning, and then some real rain later on this evening. This kind of soggy-but-still-cold weather makes biking and walking a challenge, and you’ll probably start to find me on the bus more and more this week—at least until things dry out.
Water coolerI haven’t written about it before, but, over the last couple of months, Forest Hill residents have started to get heated over the plans to build a new Sheetz at Forest Hill and Hathaway. No one hates gas stations or building more car-based crap in our neighborhoods than me, but this development is by-right, meaning it’s explicitly allowed by the area’s current zoning. The City has put together this really great PDF that explains how by-right development works and pleads with the reader not to blame the City or Council for allowing yet another long-lasting, climate-unfriendly development on a piece of our extremely finite and limited square miles. As the PDF points out, the only way to prevent this sort of thing in the future is with a thorough, A+, progressive rewrite of the zoning ordinance—which is happening! We could, if we wanted, change our zoning ordinance to ban gas stations in the entirety of Richmond. While I don’t think that’ll happen (people are much more likely to oppose the gas station in their own neighborhood than the idea of gas stations generally), I do think we can make several good, sweeping changes to the rules that control what gets built where. Stay tuned for more on this process, especially if the Sheetz debacle gets you heated! While there’s not much we can do about this specific project, we can set out guidelines for development that hew a lot closer to our vision for Richmond’s future.
Tyler Lane at WTVR has an update on the fatal crash on Chamberlayne that killed a pedestrian this past Friday. Lane reports a few interesting things: 1) “data from the DMV shows at least six other crashes involving pedestrians along Chamberlayne in 2022,” up from three in 2021; 2) a nearby business has been hit by drivers three times, the owner of which was “alarmed, but unfortunately not surprised” by the recent fatal crash; and 3) the City has recently installed a stoplight on the 1400 block of Chamberlayne, where the fatal crash occurred, but it’s “not yet fully functioning.” I guess I’ll just keep saying the same thing again and again, into whatever black hole I can find: If it wanted, the City could pilot quick and cheap traffic calming measures on Chamberlayne today—measures that would be up and functional probably before the new traffic signal gets wired up.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch has put together a handful of photos of Main Street Station from the 80s, during its short-lived time as an urban shopping mall. I don’t know if this sort of thing would thrive today (probably not), but the current use—ostensibly an event space but mostly a massive glassed-in empty room—could be better! Also, I had no idea that the building caught fire in 1983.
Interesting job opportunity alert! The City of Richmond is looking to hire an Energy Program Manager to join their Office of Sustainability (which just hired its first director back in October). From the job description: “The person in this position will develop, facilitate, and implement effective, practical strategies to reduce municipal energy demand and consumption in support of the city’s stated energy and greenhouse gas emissions goals.” Could be cool!
Here’s a fascinating thread via /r/rva: “You have been hired by the city government to anger as many people as possible. You can, however, change or introduce only one thing. What would you do?” The most interesting part of this whole discussion is that the vast, vast majority of responses have to do with driving or parking. Weak! For this sort of experiment, you need to think big and like a comic book villain, so, if it were me, I’d evict Richmond Animal Care and Control (and all their cute animals!) from their current building, immediately.
Richard Hayes at RVAHub has a bunch of really great photos from RVAKrampus, a terrifying Krampusnacht parade in Carytown that happens every year. Shoutout to the person who’s dressed as either a horse wearing armor or a low-polygon render of a horse.
Today at 12:00 PM, the City of Richmond will host the first of three meetings to discuss the draft recommendation for Those Three Zoning Changes that have floated around for the last couple of months: Changes to the Airbnb rules, getting rid of parking minimums, and allowing accessory dwelling units everywhere. I haven’t seen the actual draft recommendations with my own eyes yet, but attend at 12:00 PM today–or at any of the subsequent meetings—and hopefully all will be revealed. Last we talked about these, I was excited about the parking minimum and accessory dwelling unit changes and worried about the Airbnb tweaks. More on this after I get myself some PDFs.
This morning's longreadReading is Important to Me and I Will Prove ItAnother wonderful read from Anne Helen Petersen, this one about the value of reading. How good is reading??—and reading real, substantial things, giving your mind a chance to turn an idea over, not mindlessly scrolling down or right or whichever direction.
For all the value of the skim (and it truly is a skill!) Wolf emphasizes what’s lost when the skim is all we do: we fail to reach that immersive, focused state, which isn’t just a font of understanding (the text, an idea, a theory) but of wisdom (applying or extending that idea to one’s life, layering it upon another idea, finding empathy for someone whose situation is not your own). Some of Wolf’s takes on, say, children and screens strike me as alarmist, but the idea that reading is never just about what we read, or how much we read, but how we read — it tied together so many of my frustrations with past incentives to read, and my own quiet fears about my ability to focus on the ideas in front of me.
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Picture of the DayA bike runnel down on the Canal Walk! I’m pretty sure this is the city’s first and only bike runnel. More of these everywhere, please!
Good morning, RVA! It's 29 °F, and you can expect highs in the 50s and the last dry skies for awhile. This week’s current forecast predicts rain for three of the next four days. That’s too soggy for me—I need some time to dry out!
Water coolerThe Richmond Police Department reports that a driver hit and killed a woman on the 1400 block of Chamberlayne Avenue this past Friday night. This is the second person killed by a driver on Chamberlayne in the last 40 days, and, to my knowledge, nothing has been done to slow traffic or make this street any safer for people. As this corridor continues to add retail and residential—and as the region looks to improve north-south bus service—we have to start making the street safer now or more and more people will have their lives irrevocably changed by traffic violence. My suggestion: Put up a ton of barrels to create a bus-only lane, narrowing and slowing the entirety Chamberlayne. After that, build some safe, well-lit, and comfortable pedestrian crossings. At least do something!
RPS’s School Board meets tonight for one of their regularly schedule meetings, and you can find the full, massive agenda here. RVA Dirt has an agenda preview, which, like the agenda itself, is long. We all know there’s a ton going on in RPS right now, but such a huge agenda necessarily means late-night meetings with important decisions made after most people have (or should have!) gone to bed. In fact, according to RVA Dirt, the Council of the Great City Schools recommends school boards tackle no more than three discussion items per meeting—not almost 20! We’ll see if they even get to “Discuss FY23-24 Budget priorities,” which, after last year’s budge debacle, seems like a pretty important agenda item.
Anna Bryson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch continues her reporting on the Governor’s plans to unravel the State’s history standards for K–12 schools. As foretold weeks ago, several national right-wing organizations contributed to writing the new standards, while “the Youngkin administration excluded the input of hundreds who worked on the Northam draft, including Edward Ayers, a historian, professor and former University of Richmond president.” Excluding input from Ed Ayers—shameful! He’s, like, one of our top history guys! Also of note for a document that mentions Reagan six times and Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden a total of zero times: “Former President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of education, William Bennett, is among the individuals who contributed to the Youngkin draft.” Shocking. Anyway, the State’s Board of Education will hold a special meeting in January to look over a third (fourth? fifth?) draft of the standards that will, theoretically, contain elements from both the Northam and Youngkin versions.
We’re definitely in the General Assembly’s pre-filing season, where we get to read reporting about the bills that legislators plan on submitting—with most of them destined to die silent deaths as they wind their way through Virginia’s ancient legislative process. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has an exciting example with Republican Delegate Tim Anderson’s proposal to delete the ban on gay marriage from the State’s constitution. Who knows if Republican leadership, who control the House of Delegate, will let this bill onto the floor for a full vote—but if they did it, at least this year, feels like it would pass.
I took the RVAMAG and GayRVA Reader’s Poll and, first, felt old because I definitely did not know a single DJ on the DJ list—and maybe have never known a single DJ on any DJ list? But then, after I saw that a lot of my responses lined up with the most popular answers, I felt the small spark of whatever remaining hipness I have grow at least two sizes.
This morning's longreadWebb, Keck Telescopes Team Up to Track Clouds on Saturn’s Moon TitanThe James Webb Space Telescope can look at objects incomprehensibly far from earth, like galaxies swirling around just after the birth of the universe. Or it can look across the street at one of our own solar-system neighbors, like Saturn’s moon Titan. I don’t pretend to understand much of this article, but look how charming this one scientist is about seeing a space cloud!
Team member Sebastien Rodriguez from the Universite Paris Cité was the first to see the new images, and alerted the rest of us via email: “What a wake-up this morning (Paris time)! Lots of alerts in my mailbox! I went directly to my computer and started at once to download the data. At first glance, it is simply extraordinary! I think we’re seeing a cloud!” Webb Solar System GTO Project Lead Heidi Hammel, from the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), had a similar reaction: “Fantastic! Love seeing the cloud and the obvious albedo markings. So looking forward to the spectra! Congrats, all!!! Thank you!”
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Picture of the DayNightwing.
Congressman McEachin was a reliable advocate for Richmond at the federal level and a surprising leader on mitigating climate change. So sad.
I am very excited to take part in the multi-year process to rewrite Richmond’s zoning ordinance.
Take eight minutes and fill out this survey about expanding Pulse service west past Willow Lawn.
I’m pretty happy about how Council and the Mayor worked together on the real estate tax rate / rebate.
Really stoked on the Mayor and City Council working together on a better solution than “Welp, I guess we’ll just lower the real estate tax rate forever.”
Pretty excited that Council might be considering alternatives to reducing the real estate tax rate.
With some clever planning, the City Center redevelopment could make getting around downtown way safer and more pleasant.
Highways are expensive, dangerous, and the last thing we should spend our money to expand.
Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and we’ve got another day of weirdly temperate weather, and you should expect highs in the 70s served alongside some clouds. Just to make sure I’m not misremembering all the previous Novembers of my life, I went and pulled the historic average temperatures for November in Richmond. Typically we see highs around 65 °F in the beginning of the month—compare that to this weekend’s forecasted highs in the 80s!
Water cooler Today, the Capital Region Land Conservancy announced that local residents have gifted them 3.5 acres of river-adjacent property, adding new green space to the James River Park System and protecting portions of the Buttermilk Trail forever. From the press release: “The Rogers have subdivided their property and donated 3.46 acres, including the entirety of the trail network located on their property, to the Capital Region Land Conservancy to be protected in perpetuity and be added into the James River Park System conservation easement upon transfer to the City of Richmond.” For whatever ancient and historical reason, portions of the Buttermilk Trail—which people use to walk, hike, and get rad on bikes—crossed over onto the private property of Josh and Carrie Belt Rogers. You can imagine that the idea of folks getting a little too rad and injured while on their property stressed the Rogers out. We should all be really thankful that they decided to permanently preserve the trail system as it is rather than putting up some fences and blocking access—something that would have been totally within their rights to do. AXIOS Richmond has a nice map of the new easement and location of the existing Buttermilk Trail.
David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Councilmember Lynch has withdrawn her proposal to rename the Robert E. Lee Bridge to the Belvidere Bridge. While Belvidere Bridge probably makes the easiest sense as a new (and needed!) name for this bridge, the namesake Belvidere was a 1700s estate owned by William Byrd III—a rich white man who enslaved people. Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams has some more on that history of Belvidere and some reactions from community members, if you want to dig in. I get it, like Lynch says in one of the aforelinked stories, “Richmond’s history is complicated.” Unfortunately for us, a lot of the names attached to our streets and infrastructure have disturbing histories that we’ve forgotten (or intentionally ignore), and its worth being thoughtful before attaching a new, long-lasting name to a thing. I think pumping the brakes on this particular renaming and switching to a community-driven process was a good idea. I also think that the City could just take down the “Robert E. Lee Bridge” signs today, and not wait for the results of that community process. I also also think we should just rename it back to the James River Bridge, its original 1933 name before the Lost Causers got ahold of it.
Charlotte Rene Woods, also at the RTD, reports that the Virginia NAACP has paid $20,000 to the state Attorney General’s office for a FOIA request related to the office’s “Election Integrity Unit.” These Republican-created voter fraud tasks forces typically find zero cases of actual fraud and mostly exist to create headlines. Given that the AG’s EIU is probably vaporware, who knows what will result from this request. Either way, that is a ton of money to spend on a FOIA.
Huge news! according to their instagram, shoestring fries are back Joe’s Inn: “Five years ago, on October 4, 2017 - we got new fries. People were upset, people were divided. Since then, we can all agree that much has occurred. While the world has changed around us — we haven't forgotten those delicious golden skinny shoestring fries of yore. After an exhaustive search we have finally found a fry we can be proud of. And so, starting today (and beyond) we are happy to report that SHOESTRING FRIES ARE BACK!” This is personally exciting to me as, for my money, nothing beats sopping up the remains of an over-medium egg with crispy shoestring fries.
This morning's longread Fall In Yep, still exploring time and calendars and seasons and phases. We’re all on a journey together, and I hope you’re enjoying it!
This leads to a question: Should one also change in conjunction with the seasons? By this I mean more than donning a natty scarf when the temperature drops below a certain level—I mean changing things about the way you eat, sleep, live, and work. Conventional productivity advice doesn’t really take up this question. One of the things, in fact, that irks me about such advice is that it tends to frame things in terms of daily routines, routines that are ostensibly the same regardless of the season. In other words, most productivity advice is seasonless. Here I’m thinking of things like Mason Currey’s engrossing 2013 book Daily Rituals and Tim Ferriss’s more tech bro-y late-2016 knockoff Tools for Titans. Now, I’m as interested in famous people’s daily routines as anyone. But at the same time, I feel it’s important to resist the tyranny of “the day.”
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Picture of the Day Hitching a ride.
I’d like to see more analysis from City Council before they vote on adjusting the real estate tax rate.
New trails inside the City of Richmond are very exciting—we only have but so much space to do things like this!
FWIW, solar and wind power are typically cheaper than nuclear power—plus you end up with fewer Hulks.
Well now I need to get some kitchen scrap containers that fit perfectly in my bike baskets.
Next year, I think you'll be able to take a bus to almost every mall in the region? VCC, you're next!
I’d like to live in a world where I write less about where children go to the bathroom.
Someone should put together a good presentation comparing Land Value Tax to an across-the-board cut in the real estate tax rate.
Either some of these rejected license plates are totally innocuous, or I’m too old to get the reference.
Students: Good luck, it'll be awesome. Families: You did it, you made it through the summer.
New FDA guidance means you probably should grab a stack of at-home COVID tests next time you're out.
I don't know if this newsletter can handle tracking data for two public health emergencies.
I know it's so freaking hot, but you should still be wearing a mask in indoors public places.
If you're at high risk, fill out this monkeypox vaccine interest form: rhhd.gov/monkeypoxvax
Seeing the Mini Street and Sidewalk Sweeper in the wild is like finding an ice cream truck but for old people on bikes.
I'm not sure I've ever seen green bike lanes, red transit lanes, and sidewalks all in the same infrastructure survey before.
Who among us is brave enough to introduce an ordinance banning gas-powered leaf blowers??
I spent yesterday afternoon hiding from the storm in my basement. Related: The Virginia Mercury is hiring a climate reporter.
Bikepeople! Take your vast knowledge of where our streets are unsafe and cram it into this Richmond Connects survey!
I’m pretty excited about the Richmond Connects process—which kicks off in earnest today.
The James River is our very best thing, and folks shouldn't be able to buy and hoard that for themselves.
I'm pretty excited about the bike/ped improvements that should come out of the Diamond District and VCU's Athletic Village.
Today I've got two stories about native plants—it's Richmond's only zoning, budget, and plant-obsessed email newsletter!
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Do you know about rose rosette disease? Do you see it everywhere and constantly point it out to your eye-rolly family?
I was wondering what would suck up all of my attention this summer, and it sure looks like it'll be casino round two.
It must be nice and cool for folks who live places where they don't feel deep anxiety over what their schoolboard may do next.
I don't love how so many people's rights hinge on someone with chaotic neutral alignment.
It’s not nearly as interesting to me, but I guess the state’s budget season is still ongoing.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a more thoughtful, effective, and unified public comment period than at last night’s School Board meeting.
Honestly, a city that’s safer for horses is probably one that’s safer for pedestrians and people on bikes, too.
I never know what feedback to give on huge lists of transportation projects other than "don't do any of the highway widenings."
Good morning, RVA! It's 49 °F, and it rained! I haven’t been outside yet this morning, but I’m just going to confidently assume that the gritty yellow coating layered atop every outdoor surface has been washed clean. The willow oaks on my street have almost dropped all of their pollen, so I think we might be close to the end of the The Pollening and ready to move on to Actual Spring! For me, that means spending an infinite amount of time on my screen porch. I’m stoked. As for this weekend, the weather looks decidedly springlike with highs in the 60s and a bit of a chance of rain at some point on Saturday. Enjoy!
Water cooler Bad news at the Richmond Times-Dispatch: The Richmond Newspapers Professional Association (the labor union representing RTD reporters), says Lee Enterprises laid off three “top editors” yesterday. According to former RTD reporter Kenya Hunter, one of those was Lisa Vernon Sparks, one of two Black opinion writers at the paper and the only Black opinion editor. Another former employee, Katy Evans, posted this ominous tweet: “@RTDNEWS staff seeking answers today after more layoffs...[they] were told @LeeEntNews ordered cuts last week, w/no biz justification. ‘I can't defend this,’ one leader said.” The RTD has lost reporters covering food, education, and housing all within the last couple of months. The current “above-the-fold” section of the front page features three stories about sports, two about weather, a story out of Hanover, and a story covering a CNBC story about the governor. In reading the paper every single day, to me, an outside observer, the last couple of months have seen a dramatic and bleak shift away from the really stellar work done over the course of 2020. It’s not just me, either. Current reporter Sabrina Moreno sums it up with this: “I’m really mourning how we had a brief moment where so many of us got a glimpse of what this paper could be, and then it collapsed within months.” You can feel whatever way you want about the RTD, but we’re undeniably a way worse town without lots of committed, supported, full-time local reporters—real reporters, not people with online newsletters having opinions!
Related, in as much as it doesn’t take a skilled editor to throw together pictures from the archive, the Richmond Times-Dispatch put together a bunch of photos of Mayo Island over the years. First, check out the header image which gives you a great view into Manchester before the last decade’s flood of apartments—looks like a totally different place. Second, I still think the City should buy the island and turn it into public space. Maybe some rich, urbanist benefactor could pay for half? Just spitballing here!
@MzFtz on Twitter has pictures of the brand new flex posts that now protect the recently revamped Brookland Parkway bike lane! With the new posts, hashed buffer, and simple signage, I think we finally have a bike lane that makes it super clear that you shouldn’t drive your car through it. We’ll see, though. Drivers: Am I right?!
Via /r/rva, a peacock wandering around the Near West End? Do we have a feral peacock population? Seems beautiful but suboptimal.
Karen Newton at Style Weekly has the details on Richmond’s first African American Book festival, which takes place this Saturday from 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM at Richmond’s Main Library (101 E. Franklin). This seems rad: “Over forty authors will be on hand selling their work, along with Books and Crannies, a Black-owned bookstore out of Martinsville, and several publishers.” Stop by, check it out, and grab a couple books for your own personal library.
This morning's longread Is There Really Such a Thing as Low-Carbon Beef? A clear example of Betteridge’s law of headlines: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word _no_.” However, I picked this story as today’s longread to both remind folks to quit eating beef and to be wary of any “low-carbon” marketing that may start to show up on our grocery store shelves.
Shoppers staring at a “low-carbon” sticker on a steak probably won’t know how to answer the crucial question: Compared to what? Such a label “implies that it’s lower-carbon than something else that they could pick up right there,” says Matthew Hayek, an environmental scientist at New York University. Yet a steak labeled “low-carbon” has probably sent many times more emissions into the atmosphere than just about any other protein a shopper might choose. Beef has perhaps the heaviest carbon footprint of any food. Per gram of protein, it produces about two times more emissions than lamb, six and a half times more than pork, nine times more than poultry, and 25 times more than soybeans, according to a 2018 analysis.
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Good morning, RVA! It's already 69 °F out there! Today you can expect more of those warm temperatures, and then a pretty decent chance for storms this afternoon. Cooler temperatures move in overnight, but the rest of the week still looks pretty lovely to me.
Water cooler Meg Schiffres at VPM reports on the complex situation for folks experiencing homelessness. The City's inclement weather shelter will close tomorrow (it only operates in the fall and winter), and the CARES Act-funded non-congregate shelter will close later this month as that funding expires. This leaves the region's existing, and already taxed, emergency shelters to try and make space for a couple hundred extra people. Thankfully, Commonwealth Catholic Charities, who run the non-congregate shelter, has "helped a little under half of those staying at the non-congregate shelter find alternative emergency housing options." Also, I appreciate Schiffres specifically comparing the cost of keeping the shelter running through October ($265,980) to the size of the Richmond Police Department's budget ($110 million dollars). I haven't read through the entire thing, but the fourth bullet point in the City's Strategic Plan to End Homelessness is "Increase financial support to the City’s registered homeless providers to ensure supportive services are available to every homeless person." This is why budgets are awesome and important: They make your city's values extremely clear.
Richmond BizSense's Jonathan Spiers has some new information on one of the groups competing to redevelop the Diamond District. I thought this quote from the developer was pretty good: "One of the things that’s interesting about the Diamond District is that at its scale, it presents some interesting opportunities for district-wide infrastructure solutions. Things like geothermal or (photovoltaic) array or district cooling." Whoa! You know that, personally, I'm most excited to see what these teams come up with to help rebuild that neighborhood's infrastructure. And we shouldn't have to wait too much longer to know more about what each of the six development teams have proposed, either, as they've got an April 25th deadline to get the City more information.
Want to weigh in on how the state could improve Semmes Avenue? Richard Hayes at RVA Hub has the details, including a link to this survey that you can take until April 22nd. Looks like the current proposal has a shared bike/bus lane, a travel lane, and then a turning lane in the center. I'm not sure how I feel about a shared bus-bike lane and think I'd like to see a version with protected bike lanes on the outside. With the addition of bus boarding platforms, like this one in L.A., you could keep bikes protected while making bus stops efficient. Anyway, leave your feedback if you've got thoughts and opinions! Note: This is different than the other survey I linked to awhile back about reworking the intersection of Semmes and Forest Hill.
If you'd like to read an entire article about how governors and legislators can be exceedingly petty to one another, check out this piece by VPM's Ben Paviour: "With slew of vetoes, Youngkin plays ‘hardball’ with Democrats." You say hardball, I say wasting time playing silly games.
This morning's longread 'Vision Zero' at a Crossroads as U.S. Traffic Death Rise It's possible to reduce traffic deaths in America, but it'll take hard work from bold politicians. We've taken some small steps in Richmond, but we need to do more! Elected officials have to demand more from our DPW-type folks and empower them to make our streets safer for everyone. Two specific things I loved from this piece: 1) Creating a thorough, infrastructure-focused report every time someone is seriously injured or killed on our streets, and 2) passing legislation to require that bike lanes laid out in the City's transportation plan get put down during repaving.
Vision Zero’s track record in the U.S. contrasts sharply with Europe, where road deaths have been drifting downward for years. In 2019, Helsinki had exactly three traffic fatalities — and none was a pedestrian or cyclist. For comparison, the capital of Finland has roughly as many residents as Las Vegas, a Vision Zero city where 304 people died on the road that same year. Despite Vision Zero being one of the hottest ideas in traffic safety, its European success has not translated across the Atlantic. Current trends suggest that is unlikely to change, absent a fundamental rethink around policy implementation.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 64 °F, and today looks great. You can expect another day with highs in the 80s! The 80s! Looks like tomorrow has some rain in store for us, which I'm not too broken up about because it might help wash away some of this pollen that coats every single surface.
Water cooler Tonight at 6:00 PM, the City will hold a virtual meeting about the newly-approved City Center Innovation District and potential ideas for its rezoning. You can see the current zoning map on the aforelinked website, and, embarrassingly, I can't seem to find the proposed zoning map. I'm sure it exists somewhere, though! You can, however, find the future land use map for this part of town on page 33 of the City Center Innovation District Small Area Plan. What's the difference between land use and zoning? The land use is, just like the name says, how we'd like the land in that part of town to be used—in this case, mostly "downtown mixed-use" and "institutional" with a touch of "neighborhood mixed-use." Then you can flip over to Richmond 300 to check out how Richmond defines which buildings and uses make up these broad categories with human-understandable names. For example, "downtown mixed-use" should be: "urban in form and may be of larger scale than existing context. Plazas and setbacks create an engaging street life. Many buildings are vertically mixed-use" (page 66 of this enormous PDF). Once you've got a nice description of what we should do with the land, we then try to apply existing zoning districts from the City's zoning ordinance to make development of those sorts of uses legal. Maybe development that's "larger scale than existing context" is illegal to build in parts of downtown today, so you've gotta change the laws to allow it. This, by the way, is where things transition from something humans can understand to something lawyers can understand. Finally, sometimes you don't have the zoning districts you need to support the development you want, and that means creating new districts. Richmond did that semi-recently with the creation of TOD-1, or the Transit-Oriented Development district. Finally finally, if it's been 100 years since you've done a KonMari deep clean on your zoning ordinance, sometimes you just need to do an entire rewrite of that thing. The City plans to do exactly that, should money stay/end up in this year's budget. Got it? This has been you friendly, unplanned, early-morning zoning explainer!
For those of you looking, here's ORD. 2022-112, the ordinance that the Mayor submitted to City Council on Monday night to transfer $7.3 million to RPS for building an 1,800-seat replacement for George Wythe High School.
Jessica Nocera at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Henrico County passed their $1 billion budget last night. This sentence really illustrates how politics and government in Richmond and Henrico are just so very different: "There was no discussion regarding the budget Tuesday night."
Also at the RTD, you're going to want to check out this big collection of newspaper ads from the 1980s. "When you've the urge to splurge, and your wallet says don't—it's time for Traveler, the x-tra light 10-speed by Schwinn." For sale at Agee's (at their same location in Carytown) for just $181.95! I had to close the tab or this email would have never made it to your inboxes.
Richmond BizSense's Jack Jacobs reports on some tweaks to Virginia's medical marijuana laws that the governor just signed. Sounds like it'll be easier and cheaper for folks to get approved for using medical marijuana: "Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed into law this week legislation to eliminate the requirement that people register with the state’s Board of Pharmacy before being cleared to buy medical cannabis products from approved sellers in the commonwealth." Also, in related, apparently old (or forgotten), news, gLeaf has plans to open a medical marijuana dispensary in the old Need Supply building in Carytown.
Mike Platania, also at Richmond BizSense, reports that Mayo Island is for sale—just $19 million and you can own an island! Honestly, the City should buy this and turn it into a river park.
This morning's longread The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem I was doing some research into pest control and came across this article about these really horrible anticoagulant rat poisons and the loose regulations governing their online sales. Then I ended up listening to this rat-based episode of the Throughline podcast. Just surrounded by rats lately, I guess!
The global market for anticoagulant rodenticides is expected to grow from $3.8 billion in 2020 to $5.8 billion by 2027, with the United States accounting for more than one-third of sales, according to market research firm Global Industry Analysts. One reason for this skyward growth is that in recent years rat populations have been surging in cities and expanding into suburbs, and there are reports that the pandemic has only made matters worse. Wherever rats go, they threaten outbreaks of extremely unpleasant human illnesses, including scrub typhus, salmonellosis, and leptospirosis. The poisons are also increasingly deployed in the agricultural sector, where rodent urine and feces spoil an estimated 20 percent of the world’s food supply. Perhaps the biggest factor behind the success of second-generation anticoagulants is the simple fact that they are really good at killing rats.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 60 °F, and we've got another lovely day ahead of us. Get yourself ready for highs in the mid 70s, some sunshine, and every reason in the world to say goodbye to your socks. Slip-ons for life! Bring on True Spring!
Water cooler It's Tuesday, and the CDC's Community Level in each of Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield is low. The Community Level in nearby Goochland, though, still sits at medium, and the case rate in Richmond and Henrico have definitely increased over the last seven days. I think it is officially time to Keep An Eye On Things™. Maybe stock up on a some masks and at-home tests if you don't have any, just in case?
Yesterday morning, Mayor Levar Stoney and members of City Council put on a stern and combined press conference about replacing George Wythe High School. The Mayor offered School Board's five-member voting bloc "one last effort at compromise," and introduced an ordinance at last night's City Council meeting to release the funds to design an 1,800-seat school that, if needed, could be later expanded. That paper will have a public hearing on April 25th. I can already hear your eyes rolling about what impact a press conference could possibly have over a very intent School Board. But wait! Before you get too cynical about it, check out this thread from last night's Board meeting via @KidsFirstRPS. After 9:00 PM last night, the RPS School Board voted 5-4 in favor of an 1,800-seat George Wythe replacement (Yes: Doerr, Harris-Muhammed, Burke, Page, Jones; No: White, Gibson, Young, Rizzi), with 6th District's Dr. Harris-Muhammed flipping her vote and finally breaking the five-member voting bloc's hold over this process. Whew! What an exhausting couple of months! I don't think you should take last night's vote as any sort of sign about the dissolution of the five-member bloc, and I'm sure they'll continue to exert their majority as we move forward in building a replacement for George Wythe. That said, I appreciate Dr. Harris-Muhammed's decision, which I'm sure was difficult and definitely does not make her life any easier. Also, it's so rare to see a majority of City Council and the mayor publicly on the same page like this. I love it, and I love that, together, they were able to reach a compromise to unstick this incredibly stuck process. Great work! Now on to the next thing!
Longtime readers of this email know that I love the work of NYU journalism professor and media critic Jay Rosen. Rosen is deeply critical of the media's coverage of elections, especially their tendency to focus on the "horse race," which has journalists reporting on who is going to win rather than who represents issues and solutions that citizens care about. With most journalism covering the horse-race aspects of an election, it means, oddly, that candidates rarely find themselves in a position to discuss issues that matter to the people that elect them. There is an alternative way to cover an election, though, and Rosen calls it "the citizen's agenda." Here's Rosen explaining the core of this model: "The idea was simple: campaign coverage should be grounded in what voters want the candidates to talk about. Which voters? The ones you are trying to inform. It revolves around the power of a single question: 'What do you want the candidates to be discussing as they compete for votes?'" Locally, and this is very exciting for me, VPM will use the citizen's agenda model in their coverage of the 5th and 7th House District elections. If you live in or near those districts, which is almost everyone reading this email, you've got until May 13th to fill out the aforelinked survey to tell VPM what you want candidates to talk about as they compete for votes. Fill it out, and I'll keep an eye on this project over the next bunch of months!
Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury reports that Governor Youngkin has appointed McKenzie Snow, a former aide to Betsy DeVos, as Virginia's Deputy Secretary of Education. The new deputy, unsurprisingly, has a history of pushing public funding away from public schools towards charter schools. That Governor Youngkin continues to appoint ex-Trump people to his administration really underscores the fact that he is not, in any way, just a moderate guy in a fleece vest.
This morning's longread The Secrets of the Plant People Here's part two in an Anne Helen Petersen series about houseplants. Below you'll find what's basically a description of my house. I'm OK with that.
With this piece, we’re going to try and unlock some of those aesthetic motivations of those 1960s and ‘70s “plant people.” If you’re of an age to have memories from that time, you might have memories of a growing number of houseplants in your home: rubber trees, endless ferns, snakeplants (formerly known as ‘Mother-in-Law’s Tongues), proliferating spiderplants suspended in macrame holders, dusty Christmas cacti, clusters of fuzzy-leaved African violets, knobby jade plants, unchanging and treacherous barrel cacti, and, of course, the slowly dying ficus. (A lot of great memories in the replies to the tweet below)
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Good morning, RVA! It's 38 °F, but the rest of today looks amazing. Expect highs in the 70s and, if you have a virtual meeting this afternoon, at least one person taking the call from their patio. This entire week looks warm and wonderful, with a possible chance for rain on Thursday. Enjoy!
Water cooler Today’s the day! Crews will begin repaving Broad Street and won’t stop until some time later this summer. This will be intense! From the release: “Paving will be a 24-hour operation, starting at 6 p.m. on Sundays and ending at 6 p.m. on Fridays and there will be some complete street closures.” If you’ve got to get around downtown—regardless of your mode of transportation—build in some extra time, especially these first couple of days as folks sort out what the heck is going on. As you can imagine, this paving project majorly impacts the bus system, Pulse included. GRTC has a list of detours and temporary stops up on their website, and the good news that Grace & 2nd, Grace & Adams, and Grace & Monroe will function as temporary stops for the Pulse. Good luck everyone, and remember to be a extra patient with the people in your life who may have to figure out new travel routines this week!
City Council has a packed schedule this afternoon, with a budget session focusing on parks and the City’s revenue, an informal meeting, and then a formal meeting that includes a public hearing on the proposed redistricting map. Even with all that other stuff going on, I want to point out two things from the regular part of Council’s regular meeting. First, they’ll (theoretically) consider the confusing laundry list of amendments to Richmond 300—RES. 2021-R026, which, by the way, was introduced 350 days ago. I imagine they’ll just continue this once again, but I did want to flag it. Second, Councilmember Jordan will introduce an ordinance to implement ranked-choice voting for the 2024 City Council Elections. I am very excited about this and pretty sure ranked-choice voting would have altered the outcome of at least a couple recent local elections. However, I don’t have a good sense for how some of the more...established...members of Council will feel about this sizable change in process. There might be a bit of an advocacy lift required to get them to consider it seriously. Jordan says that the Governmental Operations committee will discuss the paper on April 27th, so tune in then to get a lay of the land.
Megan Pauly at VPM reports on a clash between the City’s auditor and its CAO over a report issued by the former about school construction costs. I am not smart enough to know anything about the changing landscape of school construction costs given pandemic and inflation and everything else, but this piece links to a lot of good information if you want to dig in. For me, the most interesting part of this story is how different communication mediums carry with them different contexts. An email from the CAO to the auditor asking for more/different information to be included in a report? Seems fine. A text message, though? Stressful.
Whoa, shocking: Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that “after years of seemingly sitting on its holdings in the neighborhood, Douglas Development is starting work on the first of what it says will be more projects to come along a stretch of East Broad Street” This is big news! A bunch of core buildings on Broad are owned/hoarded by Douglas Development, and to get them back into use will do a lot for the corridor. I’m interested in how this specific development at 2nd and Broad will impact the bus stop there—one of the busiest in the entire city. Looking at the photo provided by BizSense, I can already see that, because they’ve closed the sidewalk, folks transferring from a Broad Street bus to any northbound bus are forced to walk in the street. Booooo!
Here’s how the Governor’s team titled their press release announcing the repeal of Northam’s restriction on single-use plastics at state agencies: “Governor Glenn Youngkin Signs Executive Order Recognizing the Value of Recycling and Waste Reduction.” I’m still, somehow, shocked by such blatant, breezy doublethink!
This morning's longread The Ultra-Introverts Who Live Nocturnally I have no interest in a nocturnal lifestyle, but I can definitely see its appeal. I think if I were to go ultra-introverted, I’d move to a remote forest cabin on a creek somewhere.
Some find the inconveniences and health risks to be acceptable trade-offs for a lifestyle that they say has made them immeasurably happier. “There’s a sense of timelessness,” I heard from one woman who asked not to be named, not wanting to insult people she’d spent time with before going nocturnal. “It feels like you’re in a free-floating abyss.” The night gives you freedom—from expectations, from obligations, and from distractions. It allows you to just be. “The daytime forces all these identity possibilities on you,” Rufus told me. “The nighttime, with its silence and its darkness and its solitude, helps you settle more into who you really are.”
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Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and how nice was yesterday?! Today, though, you can expect highs in the mid 60s and a chance for storms most of the day. Stay dry, stay safe, and keep an eye on your weather app of choice!
Water cooler Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams reports on a really interesting governance situation at Montpelier, the estate of James Madison, fourth president and enslaver of hundreds of people. I had no idea but, "Montpelier, the estate of James Madison, became the toast of the museum world with a June 2021 board restructuring that gave descendants of the enslaved there 'structural parity' on its foundation's board." Sounds like a really bold and progressive move that was maybe a little too bold and progressive for the board, who has since dialed back some of that structural parity. Williams puts it this way: "French and others describe an insular foundation board at a crossroads of inclusion and national acclaim, uncomfortable at taking the next step. Montpelier was poised to stand out. Now it's standing out for all the wrong reasons. The board has a choice: It can engage in true power-sharing with the descendants of the enslaved in modeling an expansive vision. Or it can maintain an exclusionary death grip on a diminished institution."
I took advantage of yesterday's amazing weather to ride my bike around the 1st District while listening to City Council budget sessions four through six. I'm here to officially recommend you give the sixth session a listen—especially Director of Budget and Strategic Planning Jason May's walkthrough of the Capital Improvement Plan. May replaces previous director Jay Brown (also one of my favorite budget season characters), and has only been with the City since 2019 so you may not yet have had a chance to hear from him. He delivers a clear, straightforward look at not only how the CIP works but how it should work. You can flip through his slides here, but I'll tell you right now that the presentation is magnitudes better than the slides. It's refreshing to hear someone speak plainly on the decades of deferred maintenance in the City and the strategic, long-term investments we need to make to address them. I feel a little inspired!
What's this? A new RVA Bikeshare station? All the way up on the Northside?? It's true: The Battery Park Pool now has its very own bikeshare station, bringing the total number of active stations to 17. I appreciate the bike share network expanding beyond it's Fan-centric roots into the Northside, deep into Church Hill, and even a planned station out at the Broad Rock Library. However, these far-flung outposts (relatively speaking) need to be connected back into the existing network by a breadcrumb trail of additional stations! The planned Broad Road Library station, which would be the only one on the entire Southside, is a five mile ride to the next nearest station (down on the Canal Walk). While maybe this makes sense for commuting from the immediate area around the library into Downtown, it doesn't give folks the opportunity to get around their neighborhood using the bike share system. Listen, it's progress, so I'll chill on complaining too much!
Hey, do you want to get into pickleball? I mean: "The game, a combination of tennis, badminton and Ping-Pong, is fast-paced with lots of hot net play and ground strokes that either lob over opponents’ heads or try to bunch them up to miss the shot." If small tennis sounds fun, Peter Galuszka at Style Weekly reports on the local pickleball scene if you want to get involved. I will, however, dispute that "the game came to the Richmond area in June 2010," because I definitely had to play pickleball in gym class all the way back in the nineteen nineties!
The Richmond Night Market returns to the 17th Street Market this coming Saturday (and every second Saturday through November). The temperatures are up, COVID-19 is down, and it seems like a lovely weekend to get out and enjoy some Richmond stuff—especially breezy outdoor hangs like the Night Market.
Logistical note! I am taking tomorrow off, so the next email you get from me will arrive on Monday morning. I plan on spending my Friday free time catching up on email newsletters, playing Elden Ring, and eating chips. Have a great weekend!
This morning's longread The world’s oldest pants are a 3,000-year-old engineering marvel Here's an article about the world's oldest pants. I mean, how can you not read something like this?
For the makers of the world’s oldest pants, produced in China around 3,000 years ago, the answer was apparently to use different weaving techniques to produce fabric with specific properties in certain areas, despite weaving the whole garment out of the same spun wool fiber. The world’s oldest-known pants were part of the burial outfit of a warrior now called Turfan Man. He wore the woven wool pants with a poncho that belted around the waist, ankle-high boots, and a wool headband adorned with seashells and bronze discs. The pants' basic design is strikingly similar to the pants most of us wear today, but closer inspection reveals the level of engineering that went into designing them.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 60 °F, and the day ahead of us looks pretty great. Expect highs in the 70s, some sunshine, and not much chance of rain until tomorrow morning. Today looks like the best day of the week, and maybe the best day until Monday! I hope you can find the time to get out there and enjoy it!
Water cooler Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has an interesting/terrifying report about the use of cell phone tracking by Virginia's police departments. From the piece: "At least nine of the 18 police departments sampled track cell phones, but how frequently varied considerably by department. At the high end, Chesterfield accounted for 4,500 days of tracking and 346 warrants, while Norfolk Police, at the low end, reported 63 days of tracking across six warrants." Police must get a warrant to track a phone's location, but it sounds like, in practice, that's not particularly challenging. Also interesting, Verizon charges just $200 for a month for secretly tracking a customer's phone, while AT&T charges $850.
Last week, I linked to this really inspiring Henrico Draft Bike Lanes map, which is part of the County's update to their Comprehensive Plan. Today, I want to link to this public engagement survey where Henrico residents can leave feedback on the long term future of the County. I flipped through the survey (but didn't submit since I don't live in Henrico), and found this extremely fascinating map of where respondents think the County should protect, change, grow housing, grow employment, invest, and focus on transportation. Almost every transportation pin sits in the western part of the county, every "protect" pin in the eastern part, and most of the housing pins encircle the City. I'm not sure what it means, but it's a striking map. Anyway, Henrico runs fast and tight with their public engagement processes, so if you're a resident you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity to weigh in! You've got until April 22nd to do so.
Hey, look at this! The League of American Bicyclists named Bike Walk RVA's Brantley Tyndall their Advocate of the Year! The League is a national bike advocacy group and each year recognizes "a leader of a bicycling and/or walking advocacy organization who has shown tireless commitment to promoting bicycling and walking in their state/community. This person goes above and beyond the call of duty to transform their state/community into a great place for biking and walking. Their time, knowledge, creativity, and commitment are the highest standard of excellence exemplifying a role model for peers." That definitely describe Brantley and his work in the Richmond region and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Congrats, and thank you for your hard work to make biking better!
Colleen Curran at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the Catrow family can continue enjoying takeout margs for at least another two years! Curran says the Governor signed two bills (HB 426 and SB 254) extending takeout and delivery cocktails until 2024. Unfortunately, the new bills have some stipulations that could cause just enough friction that some restaurants may choose to just not. Specifically, the law requires containers that display the name of the restaurant with no straw holes. That means buying separate containers and either custom printing them or slapping a sticker on the side. Maybe someone will come up with a cheap and easy solution to this mostly invented non-problem?
Via /r/rva, is it worth getting a library card from all three of Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield library systems? Yes! The three localities each allow neighboring residents to sign up for cards, and you can then add those cards to the Libby app—dramatically increasing the chances of finding whatever you're looking for. Plus, the three systems seem to have a bit of a different selection, too. Why not!
P.S. City Council budget sessions #5 and #6 are up on The Boring Show. We've got just one more regular budget session before Council moves on to trying their best to amend the Mayor's budget. Typically, the budget amendment process is not the most fruitful, but maybe this year they'll all get on the same page about some Council priorities that differ from the Mayor's priorities (as reflected in his proposed budget—the Civilian Review Board comes to mind...).
This morning's longread Your Camera Roll Contains a Masterpiece I really enjoyed this thoughtful piece about taking the time to actually process, edit, and contemplate the photos on your camera roll. I love taking pictures but, recently, have kind fallen out of that (important!) part of the practice. This article was like a nice, gentle reminder to put some more effort back into it.
Redacting takes time. You can’t edit pictures by thinking; you have to do it by looking. The more pictures you have, the more you have to look. Everyone’s different, but here’s how I worked back in the film days. Every other night, I’d develop three rolls of Kodak Tri-X film, standing at my kitchen sink. With a lighted magnifier, I would carefully examine the three contact sheets, each containing thirty-five frames. Looking at the miniature pictures, I knew the cost of each one to the cent. From them, I’d select maybe fifteen pictures, making eight-by-ten work prints of them. At first, I’d think they all showed the same promise. But then I’d pin them up on the wall for five days and look at them. Day by day, something mysterious would happen. Perhaps three of the pictures would pull me in further, with force, until I loved looking at them. The other twelve I’d never need to see again.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and, whoa, that was a weird weather afternoon, was it not?? I spent about an hour in my basement waiting out tornado warnings but didn't end up with much weather at all in my part of town—for which I'm thankful! For future severe weather situations, here's a helpful pneumonic for remembering the difference between a Watch and a Warning: Warning has more letters so its more scarier. See? So easy! Anyway, today you can expect less drama, temperatures around 60 °F, and the start of a pretty springlike weekend. Enjoy!
Water cooler Katelyn Jetelina, aka Your Local Epidemiologist, has a really nice Fourth Dose Q&A. The whole thing's worth reading, but I wanted to highlight two parts. First, should you try to time your fourth dose/second booster to line up with some theoretical, future coronawave? Here's Jetelina: "I would caution against trying to time a booster right before a wave...We know that this virus continues to mutate and a variant of concern could pop up. We also know that boosters take time to work to their full potential. Finding a timing sweet spot of boosting before a wave is possible, but potentially risky with not much added benefit." Second, if you are or have a J&Jer in your life, scroll down to a new graph of vaccine effectiveness for various combinations of J&J mix-and-matches. One J&J dose plus one mRNA dose is 79% effective at keeping folks out of the emergency room and 78% effective at preventing hospitalization—that's compared to 83% and 90% for three mRNA doses, respectively. Seems pretty good!
Today at 1:00 PM City Council will host their fifth budget work session—they're just moving right along, aren't they? Council will hear from Kevin Vonck, the director of Planning and Development Review, and handful of folks who handle the City's vehicle fleet (with a focus on potential "green fleet options"). I know I always say to tune in to these sorts of things, and of course I find them all to be fascinating and worth the time, but, if you enjoy this email in any way whatsoever, you should definitely make the time to listen to the head of Planning talk through his department's needs and priorities. That's basically like a GMRVA bonus episode!
Richard Hayes at RVAHub reports that the Greek Festival won't happen this year due to "an abundance of caution, supply chain limitations, and other concerns." I have no love of standing on sweltering asphalt surrounded by hundreds of people while trying to juggle plates of baked goods and glasses of wine, but, that said, a lunch date at the Greek Festival is such a really wonderful Richmond thing. They do plan on hosting a Mini-Greek Festival in September with a drive-thru and indoor dining. Don't get too disappointed, though, because if you have a deep, unmet hunger for in-person baklava, the Lebanese Food Festival—also extremely legit—is still set for the weekend of May 13th.
Yesterday, Maymont announced that Peggy Singlemann, Director of Park Operations and Horticulture, will retire this coming June. If, like me, you've come to really enjoy Singlemann's gardening column over at VPM, worry not! From the release: "In the future, Peggy plans to continue to share her extensive knowledge of gardening and landscape management as host of Virginia Home Grown, produced by Virginia Public Media, as well as through writing and speaking engagements, and looks forward to traveling and spending more time with her family."
Reminder! Today is April 1st, which means some of the things you read on the internet may be terrible lies! I think, generally, the internet has moved past every tech company and brand feeling compelled to put a ton of time and effort into an April Fools joke that then gets picked up by unsuspecting humans (and, sometimes, reporters). I'm glad to be mostly done with that phase of online culture. Still, though: Remember to stay vigilant.
This morning's longread The Ugly History of Beautiful Things- Mirrors Does this genre of writing have a name? Where you pick something mundane—like mirrors—and do a cultural deep dive into the history of that thing? I love it and will read anything like it set in front of me. Tell me everything there is to know about anything!
Some scientists have theorized that our attraction to reflections has an evolutionary purpose. Supposedly, we like gemstones that sparkle and objects that reflect because they remind us of life-giving water. This is just one theory, but I find it interesting. It explains, in part, the seemingly global allure of glitter, polished metals, and atoms arranged in a crystalline structure. Even infants are more likely to shower attention on shiny plates (which they show by picking them up and licking them) than on dull ones, according to a 2003 study from UC Davis. Even cultures that never had to compete with their neighbors for resources hoarded gold and gems, although they had no need to accumulate symbols of wealth or worry about trading. For these people, gold should have been just another rock. But it wasn’t, because we like shiny things.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 63 °F, which is a heckuva lot warmer than it was 24 hours ago. Expect even warmer temperatures today and a chance for severe weather later this afternoon / evening. NBC12's Andrew Freiden says "a lot of neighborhoods will stay dry today but where storms pop, they could be very strong." Keep an eye on things and be careful!
Water cooler Each school night, RPS Superintendent Kamras sends out two emails: RPS Direct, which that lets you know about every single RPS-related thing you could care to know about (subscribe here); and a COVID-19 Updates email that lists all of the reported COVID-19 case in the district from that day. Here's yesterday's entire list of reported cases: "No new cases." That seems like a big deal to me! As you can imagine, the list of reported cases shrinks and grows alongside the actual level of disease in our community, and zero reported cases in the local school districts seems like another indicator that we're riding through a COVID-19 low point. Will it last forever? Probably not, but it's good news nonetheless.
Yesterday, the Virginia Department of Health put out a press release clarifying the new second COVID-19 booster eligibility requirements and answered my J&J questions. From the release: "Adults aged 18–49 years who received Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine as both their primary series dose and booster dose may receive a second booster dose using an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine." So if you mix-and-matched J&J with an mRNA vaccine (and are not yet 50 years old), at this point, you are not eligible for a second booster. Clear as mud?
Michael Phillips at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the Washington Commanders may give up their annual trip to Richmond for spring training. What would that mean for the training camp that the City spent $10 million to build for an extremely wealthy NFL franchise? Chris Suarez and Eric Kolenich, also at the RTD, have some reactions from councilmembers and other government officials, but sounds like no one really knows and that everyone hopes the Commanders do decide to come back. There's a lot of non-football potential in this big, open, undeveloped green space! I mean, check out the Greater Scott's Addition chapter of Richmond 300, which marks the area as "public flex site: space to meet future community needs such as a school, library, rec center, or public space." All of those things sound way better than "NFL training camp' to me.
RVA Rapid Transit will host another virtual Transit Talk today at 12:00 PM. Log on to hear GRTC CEO Julie Timm, GRTC Board President Ben Campbell, and Hampton Roads Transit President William E. Harrell discuss...transit governance! Sounds incredibly interesting to me, a person who spends their free time thinking about things like transit governance. But! I think even normal people will get something out of today's talk—especially as Henrico County gets ready to join GRTC's board, making its leadership structure reflect the region it serves for the first time in...decades? ever?
The Virginia Transit Association has a related opportunity for you to get involved in state-level public transit policy by asking your legislators not to strip rail and transit funding from the Commonwealth's budget. This seems real bad: "The bulk of the cuts come from the suspension of, and changes to, the gas tax user fee which will reduce public transportation funding by about $107 million and passenger rail funding by $32 million. These reductions are on top of the $118 million in cuts to the passenger rail and public transit funds from the elimination of the sales tax for groceries dedicated to transportation projects." Take four minutes and use this form to email your legislators, asking them to oppose the cuts to our rail and public transportation funds!
FYI! I know it's Thursday, but City Council's fourth budget session from this past Monday is now up on the Boring Show for your listening pleasure.
This morning's longread Inside the Palace With Mohammed bin Salman If you're like me and know very little about foreign affairs, you'll probably find this long interview/profile of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia fascinating. The tone is weird at times, but, dang, did I learn a lot.
So far, Neom is less a city than an urbanist cargo cult. The practicalities can come later, or not at all. (The projected cost is in the hundreds of billions of dollars, a huge sum even for Saudi Arabia.) But many good ideas look crazy at first. What struck me was that Neom’s vision is really an anti-vision. It is the opposite of the old Saudi Arabia. In the old Saudi Arabia, and even to an extent today, corruption and bureaucracy layered on each other to make an entrepreneur’s nightmare. Riyadh has almost no public transportation. No matter where you are, you cannot walk anywhere, except perhaps to your local mosque. No one in Neom mentioned religion at all. Even Neom’s location is suggestive. It is far from where Saudis actually live. Instead it is huddled in a mostly empty corner, as if seeking sustenance and inspiration from Jordan and Israel. Seen this way, Neom is MBS’s declaration of intellectual and cultural bankruptcy on behalf of his country.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 40 °F, and earlier this morning some "snow rain" moved through?? It is spring! Get outta here with that—especially since highs later today will settle somewhere in the 60s. Severe weather could dampen your plans tomorrow, but, after that, the end-of-the-week weather looks great.
Water cooler Oh, hey, that was quick: Via the New York Times, the FDA authorized "second booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines on Tuesday for everyone 50 and older, describing the move as an effort to bolster waning immunity against severe disease in case the virus sweeps the nation again in the coming months." The CDC then updated its guidance, allowing second boosters, which the NYT frames as less enthusiastic than the FDA's move. CDC also has an update for J&Jers, saying "Separately and in addition, based on newly published data, adults who received a primary vaccine and booster dose of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at least 4 months ago may now receive a second booster dose using an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine." I haven't seen what that means for folks who mix-and-matched J&J with a mRNA booster, though. The further we move down this booster path, the more complicated it gets!
Councilmember Addison's 1st District email newsletter is packed with great information this month. I couldn't figure out how to link to an online version of it, so you get this PDF printed from my inbox. First, Addison has a new liaison, Whitney Brown (who you should, of course, copy whenever you email the councilmember). You can meet Whitney at an April 5th town hall (both in-person and over Zoom). Congratulations, Whitney, and good luck! Second, Councilmember Addison lays out eight important points about replacing George Wythe High School, including his position that "I will commit to releasing the funds to School Board tomorrow with the commitment to build the school at a capacity of 2000. I cannot support funding anything less than that for our children." I don't envy Council's position at the moment. It feels like Richmonders have started to transition to "I don't care how big, just freaking build it," which, while totally understandable, is not the way I'd prefer a decision that'll impact the Southside for decades gets made. Third, check out this side-by-side comparison of the Council's Civilian Review Board recommendation and the mayor's CRB recommendation put together by City Council staff. What a useful document that answers a lot of my questions! Looking at it like this I do think they can find a reasonable middle ground—if Council wants to put in the work. Anyway, good stuff, and regardless of where you live you can subscribe to the 1st District newsletter here.
Up in Hanover, that County's School Board is trying to limit the rights of trans students. Megan Pauly at VPM reports that, "the Hanover County School Board voted to allow the Arizona-based group Alliance Defending Freedom – which the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed an anti-LGBTQ hate group – to review a district policy pertaining to the rights of LGBTQ students in school." Pauly has a good explainer of the extreme views held by ADF and why a public school board has absolutely no business bringing them in to advise on any sort of policy. Over in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Holly Prestidge reports that "some Atlee High School students are being suspended this week following their participation in a student-organized walkout on March 18 in protest of the Hanover County School Board’s policies on transgender students." About the suspension, I love what one of the students involved has to say: "I think what I did was the right thing — I’m not too upset about it...We know what’s going on is unfair. I just want [the board] to understand that ... all we want is to be treated equally.”
The Collegian's Jackie Llans and Madyson Fitzgerald report that the University of Richmond will strip the names of six enslavers from buildings on their campus. UR went through a whole process to rename these buildings, and part of that involved creating this really interesting 10-point "naming principles" document which specifically includes: "No building, program, professorship, or other entity at the University should be named for a person who directly engaged in the trafficking and/or enslavement of others or openly advocated for the enslavement of people." Tap through to read the other nine points which seem pretty thoughtful.
This morning's longread Lee Jacobs’s Quilt Can Speak Quilts and quilting are so rad. I definitely would read a longer longread about quilts—especially from the South.
These childhood experiences shaped Jacobs’s approach to quilting and her aesthetic. “I like them old-time quilts,” she recalled. “I reckon because I learned how to do quilts old-timey.” Such quilts required a degree of self-reliance. “Old-time was what you knowed yourself. You didn’t have no paper and book kind of stuff. You accumulate this with your own mind.” Jacobs, who attended school through seventh grade before leaving to work on the family farm and later marry, had to use available materials such as sewing scraps and sackcloth in her quilting. But frugality did not mean sacrificing beauty. “A quilt that’s made and put together with many colors, seems like it’s pretty to me,” she reflected. “The littler the scrap, the prettier the quilt.”
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Good morning, RVA! It's 25 °F, and that's too cold! Temperatures should figure themselves out today, with highs in the mid 40s, and then by tomorrow we should back to very springy mid 50s. I hope all of your outside plants made it through this morning's nearly record cold temperatures! Bundle up if you've gotta leave the house any time soon!
Water cooler Today's Tuesday and, good news, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield still all have a LOW (aka green) COVID-19 Community Level. The all-time graphs of cases and deaths show marked decreases, and I'm sure hospitalizations would follow the same pattern if I could find that graph (here's a national graph of hospitalizations from the New York Times instead). Things are pretty much following the same trends as they have for the past couple of weeks, which, in our case, is great. This week's big coronanews is not about disease transmission but about vaccines: the White House may decide to recommend an additional, second booster for folks aged 50 or older. The timing for this second booster seems unclear, with the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee having a meeting on the books for April 6th but the NYT reporting that "Unlike with the first round of regulatory decisions on booster shots, no meetings of the advisory committees of either the F.D.A. or the C.D.C. are planned ahead of the decision on second boosters." The President's administration seems to be preparing for another summer or fall wave and wants to get ahead of it. Ugh/yikes/bleh. P.S. If you can stomach the thought of it, bookmark the CDC's wastewater surveillance site to get an early look at any potential coronawaves.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Chris Suarez reports on City Council's meeting last night and has the big no-news about the funding to start redesigning a replacement for George Wythe High School: "With six votes needed for the ordinance to pass, only four voted in favor of releasing the funds. City Council President Cynthia Newbille, Andreas Addison and Reva Trammell abstained from voting. Council members Ellen Robertson and Michael Jones were absent." Which, to do the math for you, means Jordan (2nd District), Lambert (3rd District), Nye (4th District), and Lynch (5th District) voted for the ordinance. Sounds like a pretty solid deadlock, especially with six votes needed on Council and School Board Chair Shonda Harris-Muhammed informing the mayor's administrations "that the board will not consider building an 1,800-seat school instead." I honestly don't know where things go from here? Maybe the money set aside for school construction in the mayor's budget ($200 million according to Suarez) could be used to redesign George Wythe without City Council's involvement? That'd delay the project, of course, but we're already so far off schedule I wonder if it even matters.
Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury reports on the slow recovery of public transit across the state. Bummer...BUT check out this bit about Richmond's bus system: "'We are definitely at pre-pandemic levels,' said Julie Timm, the CEO of the Richmond-area transit agency. By serving large numbers of essential workers who still needed to get to jobs during the pandemic (an intentional feature of the system’s 2018 redesign), Timm said, GRTC didn’t see its numbers drop as dramatically as other areas did." I'll tell you what, I'm really interested in looking into this fall's ridership numbers (assuming no crushing coronawave), when VCU students first come back and more folks typically ride the bus.
Related, the City will start repaving Broad Street, in five phases, starting April 14th. This will mean a disruption for a ton of GRTC buses, including the Pulse, and also, I suppose, drivers. Check out this silver lining though: "30 days after each phase is complete, the City of Richmond will paint the median Pulse Bus Only lanes red between Thompson and Foushee Streets. This color is the international standard for transit-only traffic. The red lanes will alert other drivers to vacate the dedicated lane to help improve efficiency and pedestrian safety." Make sure you check the aforelinked page for a list of specific detours as we get closer to paving.
As you know, Style Weekly is back!, and that means their Top 40 Under 40 is also back! They've put together a great list this year that includes some of Richmond's best folks. Shout out to Cat Anthony, Executive Director of the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation; Eva Colen, head of the City's Office of Children and Families (see below!); Lucas Fritz, owner of the Broadberry; Goad Gatsby, activist and general guy about town; Shadae Harris, RPS's Chief Engagement Officer; Maritza Pechin, Deputy Director of the City's Office of Equitable Development; and Joanna Cirillo, my coworker and, as Dr. Danny Avula put it, "the lifeblood of Richmond and Henrico's COVID-19 response." Congratulations everyone, and thanks for making Richmond your home.
Do you live in the City of Richmond and have children—especially young children? Then take this survey from the City's Office of Children & Families about what your family needs to thrive (with a focus on daycare and preschool). While the cost and logistics would be a huge challenge, just think about how many lives would shift if the City could provide free daycare and preschool to every child?
This morning's longread Who Was Alice Augusta Ball? I learned a lot about Alice Augusta Ball (a young, Black chemist), plants, leprosy, and Hawaii in this piece!
Blockaded by 2,000-foot-tall cliffs, the remote settlement was only accessible by boat (or later plane), mule, or foot. Initially, conditions were stark, with patients lacking adequate housing and supplies. Board of Health workers, Christian missionaries and na kokua (people who voluntarily joined their loved ones in isolation) helped the exiles transform the leprosarium into a community, constructing churches, a bar, a store, a theater and a social hall that hosted dances. Some residents held jobs, working as clerks, waitresses, fishermen or hospital orderlies. But the fact remained that patients were forcibly removed to Kalaupapa—sometimes by bounty hunters tasked with tracking down leprosy patients across the islands—and expected to remain there for the rest of their lives.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 27 °F, and today you can expect chilly highs in the mid 40s. After lows drop back down into the 20s tonight we should head back into normal springtime temperatures. Good luck, outside plants!
Water cooler The Virginia Progressive Legislative Alert Network has put together their fifth annual VAPLAN scorecard which ranks all of the General Assembly’s legislators from most progressive (Del. Marcus Simon) to least progressive (Del. Todd Gilbert and Del. Thomas Wright, Jr.). The GA’s senators are more moderate bunch, with Sen. Creigh Deeds the most progressive and Sen. Stephen Newman the least progressive, both of which would end up somewhere in the middle of the pack in the House. Measuring “progressiveness” is hard to do consistently, so make sure you read through VAPLAN’s explainer and caveats about how to use and interpret the data. I wish something like this exited for our local legislators! I do a bad job of remembering/tracking how our councilpeople and school board members vote on things—even big-ticket, high-profile items. This would be a good spreadsheet project for someone to take on!
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense continues his series on the issues at the City’s permitting office, this time talking to 1st District’s Andreas Addison about the Councilperson’s own issues getting a permit for a development in Scott’s addition. You gotta love how Addison lays out the connections between permitting, land use, affordable housing, and Richmond’s master plan. Really great stuff that’s worth reading.
City Council will host its fourth budget session this afternoon, and will focus on an analysis of the mayor’s operating budget. Should be interesting (at least for some of us), and I promise to get the audio up on The Boring Show as quick as I can. Council will then move directly to their regularly-scheduled meeting, and will consider, among other things, ORD. 2021-308. That ordinance would give the School Board the money they need to start designing a replacement for George Wythe High School. At last week’s combined City Council and School Board meeting, I got the sense that Council may be a little more willing than they have in the past to hand over the money to School Board—despite the majority being pretty set against the Board’s plan to build a smaller facility. Tune in tonight to see which way they go and if they find a path forward.
Speaking of George Wythe, if you’re a member of the Wythe community you’ve got lots of opportunities to attend a public meeting to help determine “the design, focus, and overall objectives and purpose of the new school, including whether it will be themed as an Arts High School or STEM/STEAM High School.” Those meetings kick off tonight at Lucille Brown Middle School from 6:00–7:00 PM. Check out the full slate of meetings (and community walks, which sound fun) here.
I always listen to Peggy Singlemann, Director of Park Operations and Horticulture at Maymont, and she says to pump the brakes on planting this year’s garden until April. Despite an incredibly warm spring thus far, this week’s cold weather proves her right, I think. Don’t worry, though, there’s plenty of other garden work to be done while we wait for April to show up.
This morning's longread It’s huge, expensive, and years late—but the SLS rocket is finally here While the current era of NASA-developed space flight is disappointingly similar to 1960s technology, I’m still glad it exists. Are we really going to count on Elon Musk to do all our rocket stuff from here on out?? Remember when he shot a car into space?
Frankly, it is hard to know how to feel about this rocket. Certainly, one cannot help but be awed by a rocket that is as tall as a US football field is long. Designing, building, and testing such a large and complex machine represents a significant engineering achievement. But it's impossible to have a rational discussion about the Space Launch System rocket and its payload, the Orion spacecraft, without considering its enormous expense, ongoing delays, and looming obsolescence. One thing seems clear: although this fully stacked SLS rocket and Orion crew capsule have set the stage for the uncrewed Artemis I test launch later this year, the rollout does not mark the end of the beginning for this launch system. Rather, it's the beginning of the end. This is probably the last gasp of the Apollo era of NASA that has gripped the space agency for six decades.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 53 °F, and I think the humidity from the last couple of days has passed. Today you can expect pretty consistent temperatures in the 60s and an end to the rain. Colder temperatures move in on Sunday—possibly below freezing—so good luck little spring plants!
Water cooler How the heck did I miss this story from Wednesday? The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Chris Suarez reports that deep into Monday night, the RPS School Board ”effectively prevented the hire of the chief wellness officer after a discussion in closed session about personnel matters that ended around midnight Monday. The board deadlocked on a 4-4 vote to approve a bloc of unspecified personnel actions.“ First, decisions made by a public body at midnight are a clear sign of dysfunction, plain and simple. Second, this issue—allowing the Superintendent to hire his COO and CWO—came up weeks ago and the public turned out to give dozens and dozens of comments in support of the Superintendent. At that meeting, the School Board’s five-member bloc acquiesced to public pressure and voted to let those hirings go forward. Apparently that decision was not made in good faith, and those members have now, under the literal cover of darkness, broken those previous promises made in public. 1st District School Boardmember Liz Doerr sums it up: “This is clear act of retaliation and harassment against the superintendent...Since several of my colleagues were not able to cut the position, they’re now going to prevent him from filling it.” I agree, and it’s hard not to see those five members—White, Gibson, Young, Rizzi, and Harris-Muhammed—as working to sabotage the Superintendent and set him up for failure...the Superintendent that they hired and gave a four-year contract extension to just last year! It makes no sense! So: If you want to express your disappointment or ask some questions about why the Board is making secret late night decisions, you can find all of their email addresses here. I’d encourage you to copy the entire board along with your City Council representative and their liaison. Then, if you’re feeling especially spicy, post a screenshot of your email to the social network of your choice and encourage others to do the same. I think it’s extremely important that more folks start paying attention to Richmond’s School Board and talking about how the way they’ve done business over the last handful of years is not normal, efficient, or even functional.
Eric Kolenich, also at the RTD, says VCU’s Athletic Director claims that men’s basketball ticket sales declined this past season “in large part from fans who refused to wear masks during the omicron surge.” What a disappointing take from the AD of the only program in the whole country to not play in last year’s NCAA tournament due to COVID-19 protocols. You’d think he’d know the importance of mitigation measures. I’m a VCU season ticket holder, and I can tell you that rampant spread of disease was the reason I only attended just a single game, not VCU’s commonsense mask policy!
Hmmmm Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports on changes to the replacement for the bad and decrepit Public Safety building. Spiers says recent plans submitted show an all around smaller structure and some tweaks to the proposed uses—including elimination of street-level retail space. I don’t know what it all means, and it seems like Spiers still has a ton of questions, but any new development in that part of town should for sure conform to our lovely new City Center small area plan.
The Virginia Mercury’s Sarah Vogelsong has a really interesting piece about a failing dam in Fluvanna that’s really more about the scale and cost of aging infrastructure across Virginia. How about this nightmare fuel: “Currently there are more than 1,800 dams in the DCR inventory that are believed to be of regulatory size but do not have a regulatorily required hazard classification determination,...Of those 1,800, it is anticipated that at least 400 will be determined to be high-hazard dams.” Water is terrifying to me!
This morning's longread Our Fundamental Right To Shame And Shun The New York Times Cancel Culture is a whole complicated thing, and I don’t know that I’ve fully processed all of my thoughts on the matter. This piece, though, has some thoughtful insights that I hadn’t considered (including the below “first speaker problem”) and at least hazards an attempt at actually defining Cancel Culture.
But a discussion of norms that value proportionality and make people more comfortable speaking isn’t serious if it doesn’t take into account the interests of the people who want to speak in return. This is what I’ve called the “First Speaker Problem” — a focus on the freedom and feelings of whoever started talking to the exclusion of the freedom and feelings of whoever is responding. The First Speaker Problem is a categorical error. It treats its focus — the First Speaker — as being in a different category than people responding, and ignores the fact that the First Speaker is almost certainly responding to someone else’s speech. It assumes, without evidence, that the First Speaker’s speech somehow promotes open discourse and isn’t itself “disproportionate” — in other words it utterly fails to aim the norms-based analysis at the First Speaker’s speech.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 66 °F, and today you can pretty much expect a repeat of yesterday: Warm, humid, and a chance for pouring rain. Grab that rain jacket before you head out the door and be prepared to get sweaty inside of it as you walk around (the absolutely worst!).
Water cooler The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Ali Rockett has a great update on City Council's work to create a Civilian Review Board. Rockett reports that, "The governmental operations standing committee on Wednesday delayed until next month a paper introduced by Mayor Levar Stoney’s administration after members of a council-appointed task force, as well as members of the public, criticized the proposal, saying it ignored recommendations from the task force." Tap through for a really helpful comparing and contrasting of the Mayor's CRB proposal and Council's own CRB Task Force's proposal. Again, I'll be really disappointed if Council put alllllll that work into coming up with their own proposal just to toss it out in favor of what the Mayor's put together. Council at least owes the public a good-faith effort to find a compromise between the two approaches.
Governor Youngkin has called the General Assembly back for a special session to finish up the Commonwealth's budget on April 4th. He did so officially via this proclamation and unofficially via this basketball ad. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury reports that, "Youngkin indicated he had not yet taken his case to Senate Democrats in private talks. But he seemed enthusiastic about his ad, which he told reporters was 'pretty good.' Asked about the strategy behind the unusual move of running an ad about pending budget talks, Youngkin said that, as an outsider, he came into office with different ideas about how to communicate." I guess one of those different ideas is to just not communicate to the legislators whose votes are required to pass his budget?
I definitely missed this opportunity to tell y'all about a chance to get involved in Henrico's update to their Comprehensive Plan, for which I apologize; Think Richmond 300 but for Henrico County. But that doesn't mean you can't poke around on the Comp Plan's website, and look through this awesome treasure trove of planning-related documents, including the old comprehensive plan, a Transportation Existing Conditions report, and this awesome Draft Bike Lane Map. Tap through to that bike lane map and imagine a Henrico with shared-use paths stretching as far as the eye can see. Big whoa.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports on some new apartments planned for Six Points in Highland Park. What caught my eye: The project "would involve income-based apartments, with at least half of them rented to households at or below 50 percent of the area median income. The rest of the primarily one- and two-bedroom units would range in rent from 40 to 80 percent AMI." That's pretty deep affordability as far as things go these days. More of this!
I feel like I've been writing about food halls for years, but Richmond's first just opened?? Richmond BizSense's Mike Platania reports that Hatch Local's location at 400 Hull Street is now ready for business with seven different vendor stalls serving up all kinds of food hall fare. I like the food hall concept and will definitely figure out a way to take the bus over there for lunch or beers at some point!
Tonight at 7:00 PM you've got a cool opportunity to join STAY RVA for a virtual panel on "School and Community Violence: Ruminations, Revelations, and Remedies." They've put together a great list of panelists: Ram Bhagat, RPS Manager for School Culture & Climate; Iman Shabazz, CEO of Maximum Impact, LLC; 9th District School Board Member Nicole Jones; Robert Dortch, founder of the Dortch Group; and Jackie Lawrence, Director of Health Equity at the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts. That's a smart group of folks! Tickets are free, and you can register over on their Eventbrite.
As you can probably tell from years of plant-related Pictures of the Day, I spend a lot of time thinking about house plants, yard plants, and garden plants. It's a challenging, slow hobby, with a pace unlike just about anything else in our current world—I love it! If you don't have the time, resources, or space (although house plants can be charming and small!) but still want to dig around in the dirt, consider one of these volunteer opportunities at Maymont. I bet you'd learn a ton and would definitely sate whatever need you have to bring order to the natural world.
This morning's patron longread Progress on infrastructure spending can mean more deaths, decrepit bridges Submitted by Patron Suzanne. Now that Congress has passed the federal infrastructure bill, states have the opportunity to fund tons and tons of transportation and infrastructure projects. That's great! Unfortunately, the Department of Transportation doesn't have the authority to force states to spend money in ways that make our roads safer and keep our planet from catching on fire. That's not great.
The highway administration concluded it had no legal authority to approve or disapprove a state’s goals, saying they were free to “establish targets that have performance holding steady or, declining targets.” On safety measures, states can set targets that call for more deaths and injuries than in previous years, then they only have to meet four of the five goals for “significant progress.” On those terms, 22 states made progress on safety when grading themselves against an average of the past five years, but only eight logged actual safety improvements across four or more of the measures
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Good morning, RVA! It's 48 °F, and today looks humid, cloudy, and wet. Expect a chance of rain throughout the day—and even an opportunity for some severe storms. Bring a rain jacket with you when you walk out the door!
Water cooler I watched the entirety of last night's combined School Board and City Council meeting at which they talked about the size and funding of a replacement for George Wythe High School. If you've got two hours, you can do so, too, over on Richmond Public Schools' YouTube (crank that thing up to 1.5x and save yourself some time, though). Basically each member of each body went around the circle and gave a quick speech about why they thought the new high school should seat 2,000 students or 1,600 students (the latter despite rising population projections and an already overflowing feeder middle school). It didn't feel like a particularly productive meeting, and I don't think anyone changed their mind or position. The five member voting block of the School Board made a lot of fuss about Schools having the final say on how (and how big) schools get built, but City Council—not School Board—is ultimately responsible and accountable for appropriating the money. If a too-small school gets built and opens at capacity on day one, it's City Council who will have to find the funds to fix the problem. I sympathize with them and totally get why they'd want to have some oversight into this process—especially given how controversial seemingly every recent School Board decision has been. As for next steps, sounds like Council will again attempt to vote on releasing money for the design of a George Wythe replacement on Monday. Will it happen? Will School Board compromise on the size of the school? Who knows!
I've got two City Council updates from earlier this week! First, if you read my paragraph about municipal debt and desperately want to know more, I really recommend listening to the Council's third budget work session. I got around to listening to it yesterday, and, dang, I learned a lot! City Council's financial consultants do a great job of explaining how the City's debt policies work, what they mean, and what they think the future holds. They also answered some of my questions about slide 12 of this presentation, which shows the need for upwards of $14 million of new revenue to cover the City's debt payments just six years from now. Give it a listen yourself, but what I heard was that existing growth and new economic development could, fingers crossed, pay for these increased payments alone. "Fingers crossed" is not my favorite way to plan for the financial future of the City, and while the Mayor's Administration believes that Casino 2.0 (and other future development) paired with a real estate tax cut will net enough to cover the payments, I still think reducing revenue right now is a really bad idea. We've got billions of dollars in needs, and we shouldn't operate from such a scarcity mindset. Also, despite it reported otherwise, absolutely no one is suggesting, advocating, or even predicting that the City raise the real estate tax to cover the increase in required debt payments. Not the financial consultants, not the Mayor, not Council, and not even pro-tax people like me!
OK, second Council update! The Diamond District presentation from yesterday's Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee got posted, and you should tap through to look at this new-to-me timeline on slide four. On March 23rd, that's today!, the City will invite six developers from the 15 who responded to the Request for Interest (RFI) to respond to a Request for Additional Information (RFAI). That thing's due on April 25th, the candidate pool is further narrowed in early May with finalists submitting their pencils-down, final answers in June. By early summer we should know a lot about the who and the what and the when of the Diamond District's future. I'm pretty excited about this one, and Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense has some more details from the presentation.
The Reconnect Jackson Ward Feasibility Study folks will host a pop-up event today, from 5:00–7:00 PM, at Maggie Walker Plaza (weather pending, I suppose). Stop by and learn more about how we can undo at least some of the disconnection and damage done by building I-95/64 straight through a neighborhood. If in-person events and potential rain aren't your thing but you still have thoughts and feelings, make sure you take a couple minutes to fill out their survey, which is open until March 31st.
This morning's longread The two-faced Moon Tuck in for a little bit of MOON HISTORY. Did you know the far side of the moon (which we had never seen until we sent spaceships out there) is way different than the side we look at every night? Fascinating!
Scientists are especially interested in this lunar dichotomy because it’s tied to the Moon’s formation and evolution. Scientists think Earth and the Moon have a shared origin, formed when a Mars-sized object collided with the proto-Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. While active geological processes have erased hints of our planet’s makeup in those early years, the material from early Earth that formed the Moon remains largely preserved on our airless cosmic neighbor. This is especially true for the lunar farside where large regions haven’t been volcanically altered. Studying rocks here can give us insight into the early Earth while teaching us about the Moon’s history. Understanding what caused our Moon’s dichotomy will also allow us to better gauge why Mars and other solar system bodies are also asymmetric.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 48 °F, and today's weather looks amazing. Expect highs in the mid 70s, plenty of sunshine, and lots of time after work or school to wander around looking at all of the new plants popping up. Get yourself one of those plant identifier apps and learn about what's growing in your neighborhood!
Water cooler I need to rethink how and what I'm looking at each Tuesday to track our coronaprogress regionally and in the Commonwealth. I don't love focusing on just cases, although they're way way down. The hospital graph is no longer available on the Virginia Department of Health's data dashboard, and that dataset has too many datapoints to easily graph on Virginia's open data website, which bums me out. You can still easily get at COVID-19 deaths, though, which is something. I guess I could start up the ol' coronacounts spreadsheet again, but that—unless I can automate the snot out of it—doesn't sound like it'd necessarily be a good use of my time. I'll keep thinking on it. Until then, read Katelyn Jetelina's newest State of Affairs post about how differently the omicron subvariant (BA.2) has spread in different parts of the world. Here's her bottom line: "BA.2 now makes up 23% of cases in the U.S. and we expect this to increase to 100% over time. We don’t know what BA.2 will look like in the U.S. We could see a second hump, like Europe, or no overall increase, like South Africa. Or, perhaps we may see an increase in only some states. (This is exactly what happened with Alpha and has my vote.)"
City Council has a busy day today, with a meeting of both the Public Safety and the Land Use, Housing and Transportation committees, plus a special bonus meeting of the full Council and the School Board at 6:00 PM at the Main Library to talk about, as the agenda puts it, "New George Wythe High School." That last one should be a real page turner. As for the less dramatic meetings (maybe!) the Public Safety Committee will look at ORD. 2022-091, the Mayor's ordinance to set up a Civilian Review Board to his own preferred specifications. This paper was technically referred to the Governmental Operations committee tomorrow, but Public Safety will also discuss it today. LUHT will host four presentations, and surely at least one will make you want to tune in: 1) Path to Equity, 2) and update on the Diamond District's Request for Interest process, 3) North-South BRT and the Fall Line Trail, and 4) BridgePark RVA. All interesting and probably worth your time! You can tune in live or listen later on the City's legislative website.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Chris Suarez reports on yesterday's Council budget meeting, which, by the way, is already up on the Boring Show and ready for your listening pleasure. Suarez focuses on the question I had yesterday about how will the City afford rising debt payments if Council goes along with the Mayor's plan to lower the real estate tax to get folks to vote for Casino 2.0. The Administration plans to cover those rising debt costs with revenue from future economic development, which I think definitely should be part of the picture, but, in my opinion, isn't a predictable enough source of revenue to warrant fiddling with the real estate tax. These elevated debt payments hit in about six years. Do you know what six years from now will look like? Could you have guessed what 2022 would look like back in 2016?
A Chris Suarez double header! Suarez also reports that we're slowly creeping towards the vote on Casino 2.0, clearing legal hurdles as they arise. Importantly, the State budget (because legislation is weird) will ultimately decide whether or not Richmond can hold its second casino vote—and that process is currently on hold as the General Assembly couldn't agree on a budget before their session ended. Now we'll wait for the Governor to call a special session so the GA can, theoretically, reach a compromise. Again, legislation is weird.
From Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense, all you need is the caption from the header image: "A 15-story tower may soon replace this parking lot in Monroe Ward." Tap through to remind yourself of all the development and infill coming to Monroe Ward.
Via /r/rva, a very important thread: Where can one find the best baguette in Richmond?
This morning's longread How to make holographic chocolate I don't know what I'd use holographic chocolate for, but now I must make it.
The key is to use a surface with tiny grooves as a mold for molten chocolate. Think of the rainbow shine of a CD. It has those colors because of microscopic pits that encode data, which are small enough that they also cause light waves to interfere with each other in an effect known as diffraction. You’ll be using a thin, grooved sheet called a diffraction grating as your mold. When you melt chocolate onto a grating, the chocolate seeps into all the little grooves. When the chocolate hardens and you lift the grating off, the chocolate itself will have the grating pattern on its surface. If you shine white light on the chocolate, you’ll see a rainbow. If you use a laser to shine just one color of light on the candy, the chocolate will diffract light into spots. Technically speaking, you’ve created a simple hologram.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 36 °F, but this first day of spring looks lovely. Enjoy highs right around 70 °F, sunshine, and the start of a great week.
Water cooler City Council meets today at 1:00 PM for their third budget work session. This one will focus on the thrilling topic of municipal debt! Because of capitalism, the City can only borrow but so much money at a time and retain its credit rating (usually AA+ or Aa1 or some similar combination of As). With a “good” credit rating it’s cheaper for the City to borrow money and, therefore, cheaper to do big projects that require tons of cash. But, since we’re limited in how much we can borrow, debt decisions now impact future Richmond’s ability to take on new projects. For example, scroll to slide five in the aforelinked PDF to see how much of our existing debt until 2030 is soaked up by the jail and new school construction. That’s about as deep of a municipal finance explainer I can give before I get lost and confused. I’ll definitely be tuning in (once I get the audio up on The Boring Show) to learn more, especially about slide 12 which shows the projections for new revenues needed in the coming years to support our existing debt payments. I don’t see how that aligns with the Mayor’s plan to reduce the real estate tax, but, like I said, I hope to learn more soon!
Homeward has released its 2022 Winter Point-in-Time data, which shows the number of folks in our region experiencing homelessness. From the report: “The January 2022 PIT count found that the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Richmond region decreased by 11 percent compared to the PIT count in January 2021, from 736 people in January 2021 to 654 people in January 2022.” Seems good, but: “The January 2022 PIT count revealed a 35% percent increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness compared to the July 2019 PIT count, which occurred before the pandemic.“ The report points out an important lesson learned, which seems like an evergreen lesson: “Emergency shelter is a life-saving intervention, but quality and affordable housing, steady income, and supportive services that support housing stability end homelessness for our neighbors.”
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers has a long report on the City’s building permitting process that you should read (part one of three!). I feel atwixt about this: On the one hand, permitting has been a source of frustration for years and years and years; on the other hand a pandemic, a hiring freeze, and an onslaught of new projects has probably created an perfect storm of workload badness. I’d like to know the long term way forward, and I’m interested in the second and third part of this reporting to see what’s planned.
Back on February 2nd, I wrote this: “Remember, Youngkin's nomination of Wheeler [as Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources] was always intended mostly to make liberals angry. Even if he's not appointed, he'll still float around the administration.” Over the weekend, we leaned that the Governor has indeed appointed Andrew Wheeler, former Trump EPA head, as a Senior Advisor to the Governor. So while Wheeler won’t have any direct say in destroying the agencies in the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources’s portfolio, he’ll still get to whisper climate denials in the room where it happens.
Related, Patrick Wilson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Youngkin also appointed Susan Beals, former legislative assistant to Sen. Amanda Chase, as the new Comissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections. I don’t know anything about Beals, but it doesn’t seem great to put Virginia’s elections in the hands of someone who worked on a variety of election-related Republican fever-dream bills and a handful of anti-vax legislation.
Finally, I’d like to close with a question for readers: If you currently commute by driving, is there a price at which gas is so expensive you’d consider switching to some other mode of transportation (walking, bikes, buses, carpooling)? You can just reply to this email and let me know, or @ me on twitter (@rosscatrow).
This morning's longread How the Ukraine Crisis Led to ... Nickel Hoarding That sound you hear is dozens of people explaining to their exhausted, blank-staring partners, “No, no, you’re not getting it. Each nickel is worth sixteen cents!”
During all of this, of course—of course—some Americans found a roundabout way to make some money: hoarding nickels. Yes, the coin is worth just five cents, but the metal it contains—75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel—has long been worth more than that. According to Coinflation.com, a website that tracks the value of the metals in coins, the “melt value” of a single nickel currently stands at eight cents. Last week, during the height of nickelmania, it ratcheted all the way up to 16 cents. Actually melting down those nickels for profit is illegal, but that hasn’t stopped opportunistic investors from zigzagging between banks and credit unions to gather nickels, with the hopes of one day selling them off for more than five cents.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 46 °F, and today looks beautiful. After we get through some fog this morning, you can expect sunshine and highs in the mid 70s—definitely do a patio thing this evening. Tomorrow looks real warm, but with a chance of severe storms, and then temperatures drop a bit on Sunday. Positives and negatives, I guess!
Water cooler In the midst of budget season, School Board drama, and the General Assembly session, I 100% forgot about redistricting. Gasp, I know. Almost 10 entire days ago, City Council adopted "Draft Demonstration Map 2C" for public review and comment. Tap through for a nice map that overlays both the current Council Districts (colors) and the proposed Council Districts (black outlines) giving you an easy way to spot the proposed changes. The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th Districts see the biggest shifts, which makes sense as they had the largest population imbalances that needed to be sorted out. I...don't think I have a lot of thoughts on these new maps! The new districts look less wobbly (aka more "compact" in redistricting parlance), which I think is a win, and, qualitatively, the area around Brookland Parkway always felt more like part of the 3rd than the 2nd to me, so there's that. But if you have more specific and useful thoughts than I do, the official mechanism for feedback is to email your Councilmember and liaison. You've got until April 25th to weigh in.
Earlier this week the Governor's administration released a report on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which, eye roll. The Governor has tried his very best to remove Virginia from the regional carbon market (one of the most conservative, free-market ways to address emissions), but has so far not found the authority to do so. I hadn't linked to it yet because I don't love the idea of encouraging folks to spend their time flipping through a 78-page climate-denying report—plus, I was hoping the Virginia Mercury's Sarah Vogelsong would dig into it for me. And lo! Today you can read her report on the report, which includes choice quotes like: "Multiple environmental groups and state energy policy experts, however, say the document’s conclusions are contradictory and fail to take into account how RGGI costs disincentivize the use of carbon-emitting units in the regional electric grid." and "'The conclusions in this report really don’t match the data,' said Benforado. 'While the governor attempts to brush aside the need for RGGI, the report actually confirms the need for RGGI.'"
I don't know what it means, but I'm interested in this report about the State Board for Community Colleges defying Governor Youngkin's request to restart their chancellor hiring process. Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the details. It's not clear to me if the Governor dislikes the Board's pick for Chancellor or if he's just miffed at not being included in the process; in a letter sent to the Board earlier this month, the Gov wrote these words: "Our exclusion from this process demonstrates misfeasance, and I would be derelict if I did not express that the next chancellor should be aligned with the governor." I also don't know why public official insist on writing this way! No one talks like that!
I love thinking about cursed restaurant spots, and /r/rva has a whole thread of them. Are certain spots cursed because of subtle built-enviornment reasons, like bad street lighting or poor sidewalks? Maybe eager restauranteurs have yet to land on a concept that the neighborhood will support? My favorite cursed spot has to be 506 W. Broad Street, currently The Riviere, but previously Tiny Victory, Antler & Fin, The Belvidere, and Boka Tavern. Spooooooky!
If you're into the proliferation of silly March Madness-inspired Twitter polls this time of year, I'll direct your taps to this bracket of the 64 best small parks in America. Our very own Maymont Park is a 7-seed and matched up against the 10-seed "Laurelhurst Park" in Portland, which is probably a garbage park, right? Ack! Look at what sports does to people! I've never even been to Portland!! Anyway, here's the direct link to vote for Maymont, if you're feeling it.
This morning's longread Why Americans Hate the Media Whoa there's a lot to unpack in this piece from 1996—including all of the 1996 stuff! Jay Rosen, one of my favorite media critics, often talks about horse race journalism and the savvy style, and you'll find both criticized in this piece. I'm definitely guilt of both of these things from time to time, especially the latter, so I think this is worth the read for all of us!
When ordinary citizens have a chance to pose questions to political leaders, they rarely ask about the game of politics. They want to know how the reality of politics will affect them—through taxes, programs, scholarship funds, wars. Journalists justify their intrusiveness and excesses by claiming that they are the public's representatives, asking the questions their fellow citizens would ask if they had the privilege of meeting with Presidents and senators. In fact they ask questions that only their fellow political professionals care about. And they often do so—as at the typical White House news conference—with a discourtesy and rancor that represent the public's views much less than they reflect the modern journalist's belief that being independent boils down to acting hostile.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and rainy and it'll continue to rain for most of the day. NBC12's Andrew Freiden says we might see some sunshine for a few hours late in the day—fingers crossed!
Water cooler The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Ali Rockett reports on ORD. 2022-091, an ordinance submitted by Mayor Stoney to create a Civilian Review Board. According to Rockett: "The [Mayor's] proposal closely matches recommendations suggested by William Pelfrey Jr. — a professor at VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs with expertise on policing, whom the administration hired as a consultant — but ignores many of the recommendations from a council-appointed task force that called for a completely independent office to handle all complaints against officers, audit police data and procedures, and make binding disciplinary decisions." If I were City Council, I would immediately reject the Mayor's ordinance and focus on drafting something that more closely matched the recommendations from Council's own Civilian Review Board Task Force. To spend so much citizen time and effort on crafting these recommendations just to pass them by in favor of the proposal submitted by the Mayor would make for a serious violation of the public trust. It's not that the Mayor's proposal is bad (although I think it could be stronger), but it is certainly not what Council has promised through their own extensive public process.
This past Monday's episode of The Boring Show (aka City Council's second budget meeting) is now up and available for your ears. I haven't listened yet, but can't wait because RPS Superintendent Kamras stopped by to give an overview of the Schools' budget, which, I think, still has some pretty big open questions surrounding it. Anyway, I plan to zoom through at 2x speed today as I commute by bike (or bus, depending on the weather). Council will hold their third work session this coming Monday at 1:00 PM and will focus on an analysis of the Mayor's proposed operating budget.
Samantha Willis at VPM reports on teacher burnout across the Commonwealth. Unsurprisingly, lots of teachers are burnt out—starting even before the pandemic but certainly exacerbated by it—and have left teaching. Willis also points to the Governor's attempts to stifle classrooms as an additional hum of background anxiety layered on top of all the day-to-day stressors of teaching. I read through to the end of the piece, hoping to find a solution or path forward, but came away empty handed, which is troubling (but maybe also unsurprising?).
Today at the Black History Museum, HOME of VA will host a discussion about the gap in homeownership rates between Black and white individuals. Homeownership is one of the primary ways people build wealth in America, so systemic, racial disparities in homeownership mean systemic, racial disparities in wealth. It's fascinating and shocking, and today you can learn more about the topic and what HOME of VA does to help close that gap. The event kicks off at 11:45 AM with a self-guided tour of the Museum's fair housing exhibit with the discussion starting at 12:15 PM. In-person tickets are $6, virtual tickets are free.
Trevor Dickerson at RVA Hub reports that the VMFA now has a Norman Rockwell! From the release: "Norman Rockwell’s 1971 painting, _The Collector.jpg)_, is the first work by this beloved American artist to enter VMFA’s collection."
It is St. Patrick's Day, which you can, of course, celebrate in whatever fashion you think appropriate. For some of us that's nothing at all, for some of us it's wearing a bit of green and grabbing a beer after work, and for others it's dressing up an enormous skeleton as some sort of terrifying undead leprechaun. Excellent work, everyone involved.
This morning's longread NASA’s Webb Reaches Alignment Milestone, Optics Working Successfully The James Webb Space Telescope, which sits contentedly out in the middle of space, has hit an important milestone by aligning its 18 mirrors and producing one, mostly in-focus image. Pretty amazing stuff! The telescope's team will continue to nudge and tweak and shimmy components for the next couple of months, and we should see the first amazing images this summer. I can't wait!
“More than 20 years ago, the Webb team set out to build the most powerful telescope that anyone has ever put in space and came up with an audacious optical design to meet demanding science goals,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Today we can say that design is going to deliver." While some of the largest ground-based telescopes on Earth use segmented primary mirrors, Webb is the first telescope in space to use such a design. The 21-foot, 4-inch (6.5-meter) primary mirror – much too big to fit inside a rocket fairing – is made up of 18 hexagonal, beryllium mirror segments. It had to be folded up for launch and then unfolded in space before each mirror was adjusted – to within nanometers – to form a single mirror surface
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Good morning, RVA! It's 44 °F, and we've got another lovely day on deck. Expect highs in the 70s and a strong desire to take your lunch outside. Rain will probably move in later tonight and last through most of tomorrow.
Water cooler Mel Leonor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on the Governor's new COVID-19 guidance for employers. I think these brief, general, "hey man, do what feels right for you" regulations, if you can even call them that, are mostly nothingburgers while cases and hospitalizations continue to decrease. However, should we see a rise in cases and severe outcomes due to a new variant (for more on this read Katelyn Jetelina's latest), the Governor's going to be in a real tough spot. I do hope he gets to continue his meaningless victory lap, though, because I don't know if I can handle another coronawave at the moment.
As spring continues to do its thing, I continue to get excited about plants poking up in the yard, planning this year's garden, and spending too much time asleep in a hammock. Along those lines—if stuffing bags full of leafy vegetables, sticky doughnuts, and other local fare is part of your spring routine—the folks at RICtoday have put together this useful map of some of the farmers' markets in town. I notice a lack of pin points on the city's Southside and East End, which surely doesn't reflect reality, right? In fact, it reminds me of ORD. 2021-360, which just passed City Council last month and grants a special use permit to Second Baptist Church (3300 Broad Rock Boulevard) for the purpose of hosting a farmers' market. Read through Second Baptist's applicant letter for a good look at how they hope the market will impact the nearby community.
Richmond BizSense's Mike Platania reports that the forested lot next to Movieland has sold to developers. I'm torn between wanting everyone to keep building houses on every piece of land we've got and a strong desire to turn this space into some urban mountain bike trails, sort of like the Belle Isle skills course.
Do you want to be inspired? Read this piece by Ben Paviour at VPM about teens advocating at the General Assembly for better mental health resources. Whenever I talk to young people, I encourage them to get involved in the legislative process—especially at the local level—exactly because of stories like this. Nothing generates media coverage of an important issue like smart young people asking our elected officials to do better. The critical next step, though, is for other folks (less young or not!) to take action once they've been inspired. So: If you've got a minute this morning, email your state legislators a link to this article and ask them to support Sen. McClellan's work to include funding for some of this work in the final budget.
Another Ever Boat is stuck—the Ever Forward this time—and has run aground in the Chesapeake Bay. Ali Sullivan in the Virginia-Pilot has the details, including the important fact that the Bay is not a very narrow shipping lane that can be blocked by a single boat and delay shipments of PS5s to the entire world.
This morning's longread A Case of Zoom Dysmorphia A good piece by Anne Helen Petersen about what it means to look at your own dang face all day long on Zoom calls.
Part the problem of Zoom Dysmorphia, then, is that no one is supposed to look at their faces all day. But the deeper problem is that women are trained to dislike those faces — not because they don’t look like their own, but because they don’t look like the ideal: supple but not plump, smooth but not shiny; made-up but not overly so; alert but not aggressive; listening but not overly-eager, not too pale (for white people) and not too dark (for POC) — with nothing about their demeanor, their accessories, their hair, or their teeth that reads as “unprofessional,” so often code for “looks poor,” “fat,” “not straight or cis-gender presenting,” and/or “Black.” For people who aren’t cis-gender white men, professionalism entails endless maintenance.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 37 °F, but today's weather looks stunning. Expect clear skies and highs in the 70s. Get out there and enjoy it because rain moves in at some point over the next two days.
Water cooler Here's this week's graph of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 across Virginia. You'll notice the hospitalizations graph is more colorful (and more useful) due to a reorganizing of VDH's COVID-19 dashboard. One of the other changes made during that reorganization means you can no longer pull a graph of hospitalizations by locality, but, according to the press release, you can get at the same data over on Virginia's open data portal. After poking around for 30 seconds and failing to build the chart I wanted, I bailed. I'll do better next week!
City Council's Governmental Operations committee meets today at 4:00 PM, and the City Clerk's office will give a really fascinating presentation on the state of boards, commissions, and similar entities. We've got 54 of these groups, 50 are active, and 78 seats remain open (a full 15%!). Scroll through the aforelinked PDF for some great charts about which of Council's committees has the most boards reporting to it (Land Use, Housing and Transportation), the length of terms (typically three years), and which Council districts have the most members (the 8th and 9th Districts each have about a third of the total number of members when compared to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Districts). Pages 12–15 list the Clerks considerations for cleaning up our whole Boards & Commissions process—including addressing barriers that impact diversity in board membership. I frequently write about how folks should apply and participate in one of these things because it's an easy way to get directly involved in the workings of City government, so I'd love to see any tweaks that make the process easier. Tune in today if you want to hear the conversation! P.S. Today is the last day to apply for one of those 78 vacant seats until the next round of applications opens up.
Whoa, check this out: GRTC has partnered with RVA Rapid Transit to launch an Adopt-A-Stop program. The requirements are exceedingly chill—mostly picking up trash and keeping things tidy—and it sounds like a perfect activity for a family, group of transit-oriented pals, or a more progressive civic association. RVA Rapid Transit has a list of nine stops that need adopting, and I'm fairly confident that the readership of this newsletter can have the vast majority of these adopted before the end of the week. Let's make this happen, OK?
Mike Platania has this really interesting report in Richmond BizSense about Mosaic Catering + Events bailing on converting 3013 Cutshaw Avenue into an event space. First, you should tap through and read to get a sense for how hot the urban real estate market is at the moment. Second, the area around the Scott's Addition Pulse Station and the fun new triangle park is going to be a totally different and probably really awesome mini-neighborhood in the next couple of years.
Mel Leonor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the close-to-final reporting on the Governor's attempts to defund public schools through a proliferation of privately-run charter schools. Basically: "The governor’s only remaining bill to usher in more privately run public schools would expand the ability of colleges and universities to open and operate 'lab schools,' using public dollars to foster innovation in education." Democrats in the Senate are willing to entertain lab schools but unwilling to see any existing public school dollars go towards their funding. Seems like they're pretty clear about that and unwilling to compromise (at least on that point).
This morning's longread Our Brains Want the Pandemic's Story to Be Something It Isn’t I liked this idea of how humans feel actual anxiety when reality refuses to conform to satisfying narratives. It certain applies to the pandemic where the antagonist is virus that doesn't care about its redemption arc, but I bet it applies to all kinds of other things, too—like when people do bad things for extremely unsatisfying, boring reasons like greed or stupidity.
When you want reality to match a story line you’re accustomed to, but reality doesn’t comply, that’s stressful. McAdams told me that people, and perhaps Americans especially, have a strong desire for, even an expectation of, “redemptive” narratives—stories that go from bad to good. In sermons, commencement speeches, and national myths, people constantly hear tales of triumphing over adversity, but the pandemic’s story has withheld that positive resolution and refused to end, let alone end well. This narrative rupture helps explain why Delta’s emergence particularly stung—it punctured the happy ending that people have come to expect and that seemed for a moment to be within our grasp.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 29 °F, but later today you can expect highs in the 60s. In fact, other than some rain on Thursday, this week’s weather looks amazing.
Water cooler Whitney Evans at VPM has a quick report on the General Assembly’s decision to adjourn the session without agreeing on a budget. This means the Governor, at some point, will have to call the GA back for a special session so they can pass a budget, but, as of now, it’s unclear how the two chambers will reach a compromise. The Governor and Republicans in the House of Delegates want to gamble with the State’s future and defund a bunch government programs by giving out inequitable tax refunds. Democrats in the Senate want to give smaller refunds, but add in a refundable Earned Income Tax Credit—which the Commonwealth Institute says is “critical for reaching families with low incomes, who would see little to no benefit from other proposed tax policies that would primarily benefit middle-income tax filers, such as increasing the state standard deduction.” Virginia’s gotta have a budget, so something, somewhere, at some point will have to give.
Today at 1:00 PM, City Council begins a long slog of meetings starting with their second budget work session, continuing in to their informal meeting, and then heading straight on through to their regularly scheduled Monday night meeting. I don’t envy them this schedule and hope they remember to eat dinner and hydrate. For the budget curious, the agenda and meeting documents haven’t yet posted for that meeting, but I’ll make sure to get the audio up on The Boring Show as soon as I can. As for Council’s regular meeting, you can find the full agenda here which is mostly made up of Special Use Permits from Planning Commission (although, for now, the confusing laundry list of Richmond 300 amendments sits on the Regular Agenda). Make sense to me—who’s got any brainsmarts left to deal with real legislation after six hours of meetings?
Related, State Senator Jennifer McClellan has a column in the paper supporting collective bargaining for all City employees. Both of Richmond’s current collective bargaining ordinances—ORD. 2021-346, which would authorize collective bargaining for a subset of employees, and ORD. 2021-345, which would open up collective bargaining for everyone (cops included)—have been continued until Council’s May 9th meeting. We’ll see when we get there, but it feels like there’s more momentum behind the latter ordinance at the moment.
The Virginia Mercury’s Sarah Vogelsong reports that Virginia just raked in $74 million from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. From the piece: “$37.1 million of that money must go to the Community Flood Preparedness Fund, which supports local flood protection efforts, while just over $33 million must go toward low-income energy efficiency programs.” This is the same initiative that the Governor has tried his best to quit, but, so far, has found that he lacks the authority to do so. Tap through and read to the end for a great quote from Senator Lewis on power companies complaining about the burden of paying for carbon credits. Yeah, power companies, that was the entire point!
It’s Pi Day! Here are the digits of Pi I’ve got memorized: 3.141592653589793, and here are the first 100,000 digits if you need them.
This morning's longread What Happens When an Élite Public School Becomes Open to All? Remember last week’s story about the recalled school board members in San Francisco? Opening up the prestigious Lowell High School to a lottery system—instead of applications and standardized tests—played a part in that whole fracas. However, my biggest takeaway from this piece is not about magnet school admission but that every school needs, like, $2 million more dollars in their operating budget.
The problem is that special access is the opposite of what public school is supposed to be about. This puzzle has been worked at like a Rubik’s Cube for years. In 1961, during the so-called Battle of Lowell, the superintendent sought to make Lowell—then the only high school in the United States to have produced two Nobel laureates—mostly a neighborhood school, arguing that its citywide application process was bad for equality because it made other schools de-facto second rate. Opponents argued that assigning schools by neighborhood was unfair—also bad for equality—since different neighborhoods were privileged in different ways. In 2014, the school district eliminated honors tracking, teacher discretion about who can enroll in advanced courses, and middle-school Algebra 1 offerings; people were concerned that these things, too, worked against equality. Not everyone agreed.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 32 °F, and I'm not wearing socks, which was a mistake. Other than that, today looks lovely with dry skies, highs in the 60s, and plenty of reasons to spend time outside with your best pal. Tomorrow though...tomorrow looks like a cold, wet disaster—perfect for staying in and getting caught up on the latest film in The Conjuring Cinematic Universe.
Water cooler I listened to a bit of City Council's Education and Human Services committee yesterday and will throw the audio up on The Boring Show this morning because it's probably worth your time (at least at 2x). After listening in and reading this statement from Richmond Together, it seems like a ton of unanswered questions remain about RPS's budget. This bit from Richmond Together's statement causes me the most anxiety: "Even more worrying, it is our understanding that the School Board Chair on March 1st transmitted to the Mayor and City Council a short letter summarizing the total proposed budget totals for RPS...but did not attach a completed budget...this means that no actual budget has in fact been sent to the City." The letter goes on to show a bunch of receipts from previous years of when School Board sent the full operating budget over to Mayor and Council: FY17, February 11th; FY18, February 21st; and FY22, February 18th. In fact, I looked in my own PDF library, and I added the RPS's FY22 budget on February 22nd, 2021. I don't know what's going on or why the School Board is slow-walking their own budget, but it's dysfunctional and will almost certainly end poorly (for everyone involved!).
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Mel Leonor reports on a letter all 133 state superintendents sent to Governor Youngkin challenging his attempts to ban teaching about equity and systemic racism. You can read the full letter here, which has some great quotes like: "division superintendents disagree with your assumption that discriminatory and divisive concepts have become widespread in Virginia school divisions without your having involved educators in formulating that position or without having provided evidence to support that position." And, remember, this is on behalf of literally all of Virginia's superintendents. A couple weeks ago, the Governor "scrapped dozens of resources for schools aimed at promoting diversity and equity, calling them divisive and at times discriminatory," which was the impetus for this letter. I didn't write about it at the time because it really felt like one of those things done specifically to make liberals angry (which it did). But, I'll tell you what, 133 superintendents across all of Virginia's localities are likely not a uniformly liberal group of folks—in fact, I'd say, on the whole, they're probably pretty split on their political beliefs. It's impressive that the Governor managed to make all of them angry.
Chris Suarez, also at the RTD, listened to more of Council's Education and Human Services committee meeting than I did and reports on the Superintendent's recommendation to renovate—rather than demolish and rebuild—Fox Elementary. Suarez closes with this sentence: "Sarah Abubaker, the school division’s spokesperson, said the School Board will make a final decision about whether to rebuild or renovate the school." Sounds ominous given everything above, but with the Superintendent, the 2nd District Councilperson, and the 2nd District Boardmember all on the same page we should be good.
Spring has sprung, and that means Peggy Singlemann, Maymont's Director of Park Operations and Horticulture, has another great post over on VPM about what to do with your plants and gardens. Trim your rose bushes! Prune your perennials! Plant your cool-weather crops! Budget season aside, this is one of the best and most exciting times of the year.
If you're looking for something to get into on a blustery Saturday, John Marshall High School's boys basketball team will face Radford High School in the VHSL State Class 2 Championship. Fred Jeter at the Richmond Free Press has the write up on the Justice's path to the Championship, and you can get your tickets online. Tip off is 2:00 PM at the Siegel Center.
Reminder: Clocks spring forward this Sunday! That means Daylight Saving Time starts, which is something I can never remember and have to look up. For me, the longer days mean more daylight for evening bike rides!
This morning's longread Explore the ambition of Notre Dame Cathedral’s faithful restoration I opened this up and thought, "Oh, a cute infographic from National Geographic about Notre Dame's restoration, I'll scroll through real quick." Ten minutes later I was still scrolling and zooming and reading.
Notre Dame Cathedral has endured for more than eight centuries. Built to reflect the church's spiritual reach, its audacious, towering walls and buttresses remain as much a marvel today as they were in the Middle Ages. The cathedral was commissioned in 1163 by a landowning clergy with power over much of Paris. By the 1300s, the city had become France's royal, judicial, and intellectual center.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 37 °F, and today looks cloudy, chilly, but dry—which seems like an upgrade from yesterday. Expect highs in the 50s today and then one more decentish day before rain and winter weather roll through on Saturday. Do your outside stuff today or tomorrow!
Water cooler Today, at 2:00 PM, City Council's Education and Human Services committee will meet and hear a presentation from RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras on the school district's "requested budget versus funded budget." I'm not sure when this item ended up on the agenda and if it predates the Mayor's decision to flat fund RPS due to the School Board's failure to submit their budget on time. I don't feel like I have a good sense for where each member of Council stands on the current School Board budget shenanigans, so I'm hoping today's committee conversation will be an illuminating one and will set the tone for full Council's discussions in the coming weeks. There's lots going on in this year's budget worth Council's attention, but I think funding RPS will take the most time and generate the most headlines (that and the utility rate hikes).
Megan Pauly at VPM has a really thorough explainer on what the heck's going on with admissions at governor's schools. Recent changes in admission procedures to increase the number of Black students at the Very Prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in NOVA have led to lawsuits claiming racial discrimination. It's complicated, at least for me, a person with a very Richmond-centric point of view, because the majority of students at this school are not white but Asian—something we don't really see in Richmond. I'm not sure if or how any of these eventual court decisions will impact the Maggie Walker Governor's School in Richmond, which just this past fall updated its admission procedures with the aim of increasing equity.
Yesterday, the Richmond Police Department released a statement on the violent arrest that took place at the Family Dollar on Westover Hills Boulevard. Police action aside: Because I spend a lot of my life thinking about words, I can't not point out how RPD use the most passive language in describing the arrest: "In response to her noncompliance and physical resistance, the officer used force to gain compliance and that force is presently being investigated to include video footage that precedes the video being circulated on social media at this time." Watch the video for yourself and see if "used force to gain compliance" accurately describes what happened. Careful if you do decide to tap through because the video is violent and disturbing.
The Chesterfield Observer's Sarah King has a good overview of GRTC's planning process to expand Bus Rapid Transit into Chesterfield. First, it's amazing to even write that previous sentence. Second, while I wish we would have started this planning process the day after the Pulse opened, I'm glad the region has moved on the next phase of truly regional, truly rapid public transportation. It's gonna take a while get fast, frequent buses on the ground, so no time like the present to get started.
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that Stone Brewing increased their brewing capacity last week. That's cool and all, I do love beer, but really I think you should tap through just to see the four huge tanks arriving at Rockett's Landing on a river barge.
Via /r/rva, an organ abandoned at Texas Beach. This has been your Very Richmond moment of the day.
This morning's longread What Pundits Don’t Understand About the San Francisco Recall You probably heard about the recall of three school board members in San Francisco a while back. Here's the fascinating local angle(s) that you probably missed when the story made national headlines.
In summation, this recall was a vote about a lot of issues, but overall it was a vote against incompetence. The coalition that came together to recall the board members was an extremely unique patchwork. Some people cared deeply about Lowell. For others, that was way down or not even on their list. And yes, San Francisco parents were anxious about school reopening and safety plans. But what really set them off was that the board had no plan, and that it stopped Matthews and other officials from making a plan. All of these issues are fraught and complex and required care and consensus-building. Instead, it felt like the board was playing politics, very ineptly. They prioritized performativeness over performance, and they brushed away any critique as coming from people who were insufficiently radical.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 42 °F, and rainy. You can expect the rain to continue through the morning and maybe even into the afternoon. Temperatures are way cooler, too—like, in the mid 40s for most of the day. Put some extra layers on under that rain jacket!
Water cooler Have you had a chance to look through the mayor's proposed Capital Improvement Plan for FY23 yet? I mean, who doesn't rush to scroll through a 167-page budget PDF in their free time?? Remember, the CIP is the City's budget for tangible things you can touch with your hands—bridges, buildings, bike lanes, that sort of stuff—and the best thing about the CIP, in my opinion, is it's just so dang readable. Each project has a single dedicated page that includes a couple paragraphs of narrative and a table showing the funding allocated (or removed) over the next couple of years. That's it! Want to know more about the plan to replace the rickety, old bridge over the train tracks on Lombardy (originally built in 1903!)? Turn to page 81, and you'll see that it'll cost about $10 million, is funded mostly by VDOT and the federal government, and has $4.1 million of funding allocated towards it this coming year. What about upgrading our city's stormwater and sewer infrastructure? Page 117 and 118 show almost $80 million allocated for both this coming fiscal year, funded by user fees (that's our utility bills) and bonds. See? Such an easy and fun PDF. Of course some of the projects are very broad and cover a ton of work (like Complete Streets, p. 96, $17 million), and you'll probably wish you knew which streets were getting completed out of that bucket in FY23. Unfortunately, that requires some more digging and isn't really the purpose of the CIP and this particular document. Anyway, it's a good read, and I encourage you to at least read the Mayor's introduction on page 33, scan through the list of completed projects on page 39, and briefly flip through the rest. You won't regret it (probably!).
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Reed Williams reports on a disturbing confrontation between a woman and a Richmond Police officer at the Family Dollar on Westover Hills Boulevard. Tap through for a video, but, be aware it's violent and hard to watch as the officer pins the woman to the ground and tries to handcuff her as she screams in pain. RPD released the following statement: "Richmond Police Department has become aware of a video that is circulating on social media regarding an arrest made by RPD yesterday, March 7, in the 1200 block of Westover Hills Boulevard for a report of a shoplifting in progress. The Department is investigating the incident and will provide a statement at the appropriate time." Related: The Mayor has included $204,199 in his FY23 budget for the Civilian Review Board, and Council's Civilian Review Board Task Force recommended a budget of $1.2 million.
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense has a really fascinating story about the Die Teufel club in Jackson Ward, something I knew absolutely nothing about. From the piece: "Initially known as The Devil’s Club, the social club has been a gathering place for black men and women since 1937. Willie Lucas, the club’s treasurer and a member of its board of directors, said a group of black men founded the club at a time when they weren’t allowed at other social clubs because of their race." The club moved to its current location in 1972 and has listed the building for $1.1 million.
Gas prices got you down? John Hood at NBC12 says GRTC has seen bus ridership increase alongside prices at the pump. It makes a lot of sense: Walking, biking, and bussing are all free ways to get around town. I'd love to have seen the Mayor take advantage of this moment and increase local funding to GRTC—above the required inflationary amount—and expand service in the city a bit.
This morning's longread The Age of Houseplants Anne Helen Petersen has a great piece on houseplants (inspired by 1993's Age of Innocence), in which she lays out two types of folks: Plant People and Plant Designers. I am definitely the former! My dream is for my entire home to look like a Victorian parlor.
Here, you can see two overarching (and occasionally overlapping) stereotypes of indoor plant design and maintenance emerge. The first is the PLANT PERSON, in which a home overflows with plants overseen by an obsessive, feminized owner (regardless of actual gender). This stereotype frames cultivation as a domestic craft, and embraces an aesthetic that’s often understood as cluttered, irrational, ostentatious, or crass. In these scenarios, plants are always in danger of becoming overgrown, or multiplying with great rapidity, or being over-watered — a symptom of the overindulgent parent. There are always cuttings propagating in slowly-browning glasses of water. There’s anthropomorphizing, and human names for individual species, and emotional attachment. It’s the Victorian attempt at domestic beauty gone horribly sour.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 48 °F, and yesterday's weather was weird. Today, though, you can expect highs near 60 °F throughout most of the day, and you don't need to worry about 45mph gusts of wind ripping down your flags or pushing you off your bike. In summary: Cooler and less apocalyptic.
Water cooler As of today, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield's COVID-19 community levels—that new metric from the CDC—are all "low" (aka green, aka live-your-life level). The case rates per 100,00 people over the last seven days for each locality are 105, 104, and 107, respectively. The pollen count, however, is pretty high and will surely induce some coronanxieties in allergy sufferers across the region. I also think you should read this column from Governor Youngkin in the Danville Register & Bee about his views and plans to continue to increase the vaccination rate among Virginia's unvaccinated—especially those in the south and southwest parts of the commonwealth. It's very personal freedom, anti-mandate, anti-government blah, blah, blah, but it's pro-vaccine and miles away from the governor of Florida's plan to actively recommend against vaccinating children.
Chris Suarez, who I guess covers the education beat for the Richmond Times-Dispatch now that Kenya Hunter's gone, reports on last night's RPS school board meeting. The big news for Fox Elementary families: Starting March 21st, Fox students will temporarily head over to First Baptist Church on Monument Avenue for in-person school. @KidsFirstRPS live tweeted the meeting if you want to dig in to the Board's other agenda items. I haven't read through the whole thing yet, but I still haven't seen any sort of comment from the Board on the Mayor's budget which is shocking to me. I anticipated a slew of medium posts, twitter threads, and interviews in the paper!
The RTD's Ali Rockett and Reed Williams have the details and follow-up reporting from Sunday night's fatal police shooting in Fulton. Sounds like a terrifying situation with officers firing at an armed person in the direction of an occupied home. Rocket and Reed also report that police took about 20 minutes to initially arrive at the scene and that the City's 911 system did not answer a nearby neighbor's call.
In interesting Northside news, Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense reports that Virginia Rep will buy the massive Scottish Rite Temple on Hermitage and use it as a children- and family-focused theatre and performing arts space. That's such a great part of town with tons of potential, just utterly disconnected by the highway. Within a quick walk or a ride from this location you have: Bryan Park, McArthur Avenue, all the shops on Lakeside, and whatever theoretical thing eventually ends up at the old Azalea Mall site. With some thoughtful planning, I think you could reconnect a lot of these amenities and make moving between them safe and comfortable. I'm not trying to Small Area Plan everything to death, buuuuut...
Ack! It's already Tuesday, and I'm three days late in writing about this year's Richmond Black Restaurant Experience. This week (and any week, really), if you're planning on eating in, getting take out, or grabbing some food for a meeting consider ordering from one of the 40+ participating Black-owned restaurants. Eileen Mellon at Richmond Magazine talks to some of the founders of the Richmond Black Restaurant Experience, now in its sixth year.
Richard Hayes at RVA Hub reports that the Richmond Falcon Cam is back—now with chirpy bird audio!
This morning's longread Buttigieg tells states to consider safety for road projects Look at this! The AP covers the federal government's push to fund transportation projects that protect the safety of all users—people walking, riding, rolling, or driving. We'll see how this plays out at the state level, because "six-lane highway with a four-foot, unprotected bike lane on either side" does not make anyone safer and should not qualify as a complete streets project.
In a report submitted to Congress and made public Wednesday, the Department of Transportation says it will aim to prioritize the safety and health of the all the users of today’s modern roadway, from riders of public transit and electric scooters to Uber rideshare pickups and people delivering goods. Projects such as bike paths and traffic roundabouts, enhanced sidewalks, pedestrian pathways to bus stops and transit lanes will be favored in the distribution of the money.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 63 °F, and today’s weather is...atypical. You can expect highs in the 80s, winds in the 20mph range (with gusts up to 45mph (?!)), and then a chance for severe storms this evening. Enjoy? I guess?
Water cooler This past Friday, Mayor Stoney introduced his FY 2023 budget and Capital Improvement Plan.pdf), and you can now (finally) scroll through both hefty PDFs all you want! You can also listen to the mayor’s introduction speech over on the Boring Show, which I recommend as a short, high-level introduction to his priorities (or read p. 35–44 of the budget PDF). The item of most intrigue is clearly Mayor Stoney’s decision to follow through on his promise to flat fund RPS since they turned in their budget late. That doesn’t mean schools will just have to do without any of the extra cash they asked for; the mayor put $15 million ($1 million less than the RPS request) into a reserve fund that “can be made available through the course of the fiscal year based upon needs demonstrated by the Richmond Public Schools leadership.” This new fund will require City Council to pass an entire ordinance to distribute any of the money—that means School Board and a majority of Council needs to all be on the same page, which, at this point, seems like a heckuva bar to clear. We’ll see if Council approves of this arrangement and includes it in the final budget they pass, the process of which will probably give us some insight into how easy or hard access to that money will be over the coming year. Outside of schools, there’s tons of stuff to dig into like city employee raises (5% raises for all employees, additional raises on top of that for cops), more funding for the Richmond Public Library, an increase in hourly parking fees, and modest increases in utility rates. And that’s not even touching the CIP which funds all the cool stuff like bridges, trails, and buildings. I’ll get into that later this week. As for next steps, City Council will have their first hands-on with the budget this coming Monday, so, until then, get out your favorite PDF reader and spend some time processing how our City will spend $836 million. One final note: This is the best looking budget document I’ve seen out of Richmond since I’ve been paying attention. Great work to all the staff who helped put it together!
Super related, Richmond’s School Board will meet tonight with a pretty packed agenda, including a handful of budget-related items. I haven’t seen any public reactions from School Board members about the Mayor’s plan to stick $15 million of their operating budget in a Council-controlled lockbox, and, despite the pre-existing agenda, I can’t imagine that won’t be the primary topic of conversation tonight. The Board will also discuss options for relocating Fox Elementary. At this point, the Administration recommends a short-term move to First Baptist Church on Monument Avenue for a couple weeks and then a permanent(ish) move into Clark Springs at some point in April.
The Richmond Police Department sent out a press release last night announcing an “officer involved shooting” in which police officers shot and killed a suspect on the 1200 block of Garber Street. Here’s the language from the press release: “At approximately 10:43 p.m. Sunday night, Richmond Police officers responded to the call of an unknown armed individual at a residence in the 1200 block of Garber Street. Police officers arrived on scene and located a white adult male with a firearm. Officers commanded the adult male to drop the firearm. Due to aggressive actions towards the officers by the suspect, officers fired their weapons in response and struck the suspect. The suspect was taken to a local hospital for treatment and later succumbed to his injuries.” I haven’t seen any further reporting on this but will keep an eye out for it.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams had a good piece over the weekend about all the different ways Virginia’s Republicans are making our schools a more inequitable environment for students. In his words: “In what has become a pattern in Virginia education, systemic racism’s reality and remedies are being attacked more aggressively than the disease itself.” But, as Williams half-jokingly says, it could be worse. The brick wall in the State Senate has done a great job at killing almost every terrible bill—education and otherwise—it could get its hands on. I mean, look at this list of dead bills from VAPLAN.
Finally, let’s end with this great tweet from State Senator Louise Lucas: “The Governor’s only win this session was changing a school mask rule that was going to change anyway when cases got this low? Rough session for my man in fleece.”
This morning's longread Bones, Bones — How to Articulate a Whale I love when writers do weird things and then reflect on them. Writers: Go find the dead whale in your own life!
And now the work begins. For the next six hours, some 30 volunteers — colleagues from the biology department, two theology professors, and a whole lot of science majors — will flense the whale, cutting away blubber, muscle, fat, tissue, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage until we reach bone. This is the second whale I’ve worked on. The first was three-quarters buried in a beach. The sand hid the carnage. This whale, however, displays her full body, inside and out. The dirt reddens. A particular scent fills the air. Scent is too weak a word. Odor? That, too, seems too weak. The whale is here, and so is her smell. It’s as much of a being here as the body itself, that familiar mixture of brine, fish, digestion, rancid oil, and Death only heightened in the week of decay since the necropsy.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 31 °F, and you might need to grab a flannel today as temperatures will max out around 50 °F. Tomorrow and Sunday, though! Prepare to take advantage of some really stunning weather over the next three days.
Water cooler Today's the day! At 3:00 PM, Mayor Stoney will introduce his FY23 budget to City Council. You can watch live over on the City's legislative website. Of course all ears will be tuned in for how the mayor has decided to fund Richmond Public Schools, but he'll undoubtedly cover plenty of other topics that should interest readers of this newsletter: gun violence prevention, the Civilian Review Board and police officer pay, paving and public transportation—all sorts of stuff! Due to a dark and ancient tradition I don't really understand, Mayor Stoney will technically present the Capital Improvement Plan to the Planning Commission today at 10:00 AM, before he heads over to City Council. This is the capital portion of the budget—buildings, bike lanes, parks, things you can touch with your hands—and is often where you'll find the funding for the exciting projects coming to your neighborhood. Watch both live today, if you dare, or check The Boring Show podcast early next week for the audio. Budget season has begun!
The Richmond Public Library continued the public part of a process to redesign the Main Library earlier this week, and I totally missed it! Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense has all of the details, including some neat renderings. You can also find a recording from this week's public meeting on the Library's website along with the results of their community survey, too. Note the conversion of the current basement into an underground parking lot and the proactive decision to avoid surface-level lots. Also, connecting the dots to budget season, this is exactly the type of thing that would show up in the Capital Improvement Plan. Sounds like the Library will finalize the renovation plans and then pitch them to the Mayor for inclusion in next year's CIP—set a reminder to start advocating for this when fall rolls around!
I appreciate Ben Paviour at VPM for continuing to poke at the Governor's probably-fake snitch-on-your-teacher-for-acknowledging-racism tip line. Youngkin's administration has blocked public records requests for tips submitted and even for "the volume and subject matter of withheld records." My guess is that 95% of the tips are from liberals across the country trolling the governor, 4% totally inane requests from Republican-adjacent groups that would be offensive to read aloud, and 1% actual tips. Still though, I appreciate Paviour's work on this because the Governor's choice to block this early, probably trivial request certainly sets the stage for later reporting. It's clear that this governor is not interested in transparency and will warp existing public record laws as much as he can to keep his administration's business in secret. While it might work that way in hedge fund world, that's not how it works in government!
Whoa, how freaking cool is this: Via /r/rva, an old Richmond trolley fare token found in someone's back yard. If you're really into public transportation, you can get an enamel pin reproduction of one of these (I have two!).
This morning's longread What Does the End of Beef Mean for Our Sense of Self? I wish this article would have explored the concept in the headline a bit more, but tap through anyway because the pictures in this thing are...arresting? Disturbing?
Although the American love of meat has infiltrated almost every corner of the globe, the world’s consumption of meat per capita remains only a third of North America’s. On average, Asians eat a fourth as much meat as Americans; Africans less than a fifth. Outside the West, a number of countries have long-lasting and sophisticated vegetarian traditions, from India — home to nearly 1.4 billion people, of whom 39 percent identify as vegetarian and another 41 percent restrict how much meat they eat — to Ethiopia, where more than 40 percent of the population are Orthodox Christians and the most devout shun both meat and dairy on 250 fasting days a year.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 49 °F, and the nice weather keeps rolling right on through Richmond. Today you can expect highs in the 60s, but I'm already looking forward to this weekend, when we could see highs near 80 °F!
Water cooler It took a few days longer than expected, but I finally got around to updating The Boring Show with City Council's first meeting of the 2022 Budget Season. If you're new to Good Morning, RVA, every spring I take the publicly available video from each of Council's budget meetings and make a podcast out of it called The Boring Show (you can subscribe here). In my very biased opinion, it's the best way to get a feel for Council's priorities for the year ahead, plus you can listen at 2x speed while riding your bike through the forest or walking around the block in the early spring weather. It's both boring and fascinating—perfect for subscribers of this newsletter. Anyway, try and get through the first episode today (it's about two hours long if you're listening at a snail-like 1x), because the Mayor introduces the budget tomorrow at 3:00 PM! Exciting stuff!
Related, Scott Bass at Richmond Magazine has a nice recap of where we are with School Board's budget just one day ahead of the Mayor introducing his own budget—which may or may not fully fund RPS's requests. Bass nails it: "Later in the night, the board would acquiesce. It approved a reduced budget proposal of $356.6 million, keeping funding for the virtual academy and the chief operating officer and wellness officer, but the drama raises the specter of more conflict around the corner. The mayor is expected to introduce his fiscal 2023 budget on Friday, which will kick off another round of negotiations over the next several weeks." The focus of this year's budget season is now fully on public schools, which does feel like a shift from a couple months ago. Tune in tomorrow, though, to see how the Mayor decides to fund RPS. It's the one of the biggest budget buckets, and tomorrow we'll see the City's starting bid for how much to fill it up.
Also related, the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Michael Martz has some updates on the General Assembly's attempts to set aside state money for school construction. Tap through and read, because it's a familiar conversation but with a fascinating party switcheroo: Instead of local Democrats betting the future on theoretical casino revenues, we've got state-level Republicans rolling the dice on casino cash to pay for schools. I'm with Senator McClellan, who had this to say: "I'm still skeptical that the casino money is going to be enough."
Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense answers my barbecue development question from the other day! You gotta scroll past all the anti-labor stuff, but Buz and Ned's "will be demolished to make way for a mixed-use development...planned to include 14,000 square feet of retail space and 300 apartments."
Over the course of this session, the General Assembly has tried to pass laws forcing Richmond to upgrade its Combined Sewer System faster than is practically possible. The Virginia Mercury's Sarah Vogelsong reports that those bills are dead. To "fix" our CSS we'd need to build five, huge underground structures to contain overflow during big rains—April Bingham, Director of DPU, says "If you think about what we have to build, you think about an Olympic swimming pool. We need about 760 of those." Dang! That work will cost over a billion bucks, to which the State, despite their desire to see the project completed ASAP, will contribute only $150 million.
The folks working on the feasibility study for decking over I-95/64 (aka "Reconnect Jackson Ward Feasibility Study") will hold a community event tonight from 6:00–8:00 PM at the Black History Museum (122 W. Leigh Street). Pop in to "learn more about the project, understand the history, and explore ideas for reconnecting Jackson Ward." You should also checkout the Reconnect Jackson Ward website, which has this preliminary survey about the project that you should take. They've got an interesting question about which section of the study area you'd like reconnected—I picked the areas adjacent to existing connections. But maybe we'd be better off doubling the number of connection instead of improving existing ones? I'd like to learn more!
This morning's longread Inside the booming business of cricket catching Crickets as an energy- and climate-friendly, scalable protein source! Let's do it!
At the bottom of the metal sheets, dozens of drums stand empty. Soon, hopes Kiggundu Islam, chairman of the local bush cricket trappers association, they’ll be filled with millions of the nearly three-inch-long insects. The “visitors,” as they’re called locally, come together to mate and feed in huge swarms after each rainy season in the autumn and spring, when hundreds of people across the country set aside their day jobs to come out and catch them. Salted and fried, the crickets are a delicacy in Uganda, sold for two dollars a bag at open-air markets, taxi parks, and roadsides. (“You see how you enjoy having a movie with popcorn? Me, it’s a movie with nsenene,” says one fan.)
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Good morning, RVA! It's 46 °F, and today looks lovely. You can expect highs near 70 °F, making today the Andrew Freiden Verified Best Day of the Week™. Lunch outside seems like a very strong possibility.
Water cooler Katelyn Jetelina, my current favorite epidemiologist with a newsletter, has a great new post about understanding risk that features two charts I've wanted for months and months. Before 2020, most of us went about our lives never giving much thought to the flu, despite (or maybe because of?) the annual reminders to get your flu shot. The flu is a real and serious disease that kills a bunch of people each year, but, for whatever reason, the risk of catching and dying from influenza is a tolerable one for most Americans. This graph compares the lethality of COVID to that of the flu over the course of the pandemic, and, right now, the risk of dying from COVID-19 is about twice that of dying from the flu. Due to "vaccines, infection-induced immunity, therapeutics, better understanding of care, and many more factors" that's way down from just a year ago when COVID-19 was 20 times deadlier than influenza. Is "2x flu" a risk that feels worth taking for you? Maybe! It's certainly a good data point to have while making decisions about living your life. The second chart I wanted to point out is this one that standardizes your risk of dying doing normal, everyday things by using "MicroMorts", or a one-in-a-million chance of dying. For example, you have about a one-in-a-million chance of dying every time you drive 250 miles, so that's a risk of 1 MM. Motorcycles are particularly deadly and have a risk level of 4 MM for driving just 25 miles. This table lists the risk level in MicroMorts for unvaccinated, not boosted, and boosted individuals by age. For an individual aged 18–49 that's up-to-date on their vaccines, the risk of dying from COVID-19 (48 MM) is significantly less than driving for a year (100 MM) or giving birth in the US (210 MM). I don't do either of those things, but—#bancars discussion aside—they are risks that I mostly accept as I move about the world. Your level of risk tolerance may be different than mine, and that's OK, but knowing the current risk level and how it compares to daily activity seems like an important tool for this coronatransitional time.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports on a fascinating update to Richmond's Casino Saga: Last week, Senator Joe Morrissey introduced a budget amendment that would prevent Richmond from holding a second casino referendum until 2023. The state budget, with this amendment included, passed the Senate and now sits with the House. Morrissey's previous legislative efforts to prevent Richmond's repeat referendum failed, but this one seems to have at least a little bit of momentum—we'll see if House Republicans agree. Also interesting, Spiers reports on a new resolution introduced by Councilmember Lynch (RES. 2022-R014) that would request a third of all future, theoretical casino revenues be kept in a reserve fund to cover the anticipated decreases in schools funding from the state. While I'm not necessarily against this idea, I hope this is not a resolution that will provide cover for Councilmembers voting to lower the real estate tax should a casino ultimately be approved by voters!
NBC12's Hannah Smith has a good reminder not to pick up random kittens—no matter how cute—because you never know where they've been or if they have rabies.
Whoa, in big Richmond Institution news, Buz and Ned's on Arthur Ashe Boulevard has closed. Richard Hayes at RVAHub has the details. Luckily for Buz fans, the 8205 W. Broad Street location will remain open. I should look up what the Diamond District plan says about this stretch of Arthur Ashe Boulevard. Tall buildings, I hope?
This morning's longread Amazon Opens a Whole Foods With the Next Step in Automation Seems 100% certain that Amazon will eventually use this technology for evil, right?
As a longtime customer of Glover Park’s Whole Foods, I had missed the dark, cramped and often chaotic store and was excited to explore the changes. But somewhere between the palm scan and the six-pack banana bundles, I began to feel ambivalent. I noticed a sign near the entrance that forbade shoppers to take photos or videos inside. My eyes drifted toward the ceiling, where I noticed hundreds of small black plastic boxes hanging from the rafters. An employee jumped in. “Those are the cameras that will follow you during your shopping experience,” she explained, with no hint of irony.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 31 °F, but highs today, and over the next couple days, should settle in the 60s. Don't look now, but this weekend we could see temperatures in the 80s! Incredible!
Water cooler It's Tuesday, and so I bring you this week's graphs of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in Virginia. Check out the hospitalizations graph in particular; the Commonwealth now has fewer hospitalizations now than when the Omicron wave began. Pending an unknowable and unpredictable change at some point in future, we're just a couple of weeks away from numbers not seen since the magical, care-free time of last summer. However, we're not quite there yet, and our shiny new "community level" indicator remains at yellow (or medium). One last coronaupdate: The Governor's anti-mask legislation banning mask mandates in public schools goes into effect today, just days after the CDC went ahead and adjusted their masking recommendations. Masks in schools were never going to be a forever thing, and now, due to this shortsighted legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor, we've lost an important public health tool should we need it again.
Chris Suarez at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Richmond's School Board unanimously passed a budget last night that, while smaller than what the Superintendent proposed, still funds the District's Chief Operating Officer and Chief Wellness Officer. I spent most of yesterday nervously tied up in knots, hoping the Board would not strip these position and create an untenable situation for Superintendent Kamras. I will now exhale, take a minute for my heart rate to return to normal, and celebrate that—as the sun rises this morning—RPS still has a superintendent. Compromise, which the Board managed to find yesterday, is good and I am glad for it! This political brinkmanship, though, is poisonous. That the School Board ultimately chose to do the right thing does not distract me from the fact that, without the direct involvement of hundreds of Richmonders, they planned on passing a budget that would have, in Kamras's words, "tied my hands behind my back and expected me to perform miracles." There's a lot of work to be done moving forward.
Meanwhile, across the river, City Council met to work through their packed agenda—which included passing RES. 2022-R011, the resolution in support of adding Henrico to GRTC's Board. One thing I did I miss on the agenda for yesterday's informal City Council meeting was a presentaiton on the Civilian Review Board—not by the City's Civilian Review Board Task Force, but by a professor hired by the Mayor's administration. Ali Rockett at the RTD has the details, and puts it this way: "At odds on many points, both plans agree on one primary premise: Richmond should have a civilian review board." Hmm. Dr. Eli Coston, who served as co-chair for the CRB Task Force, has a letter in response to last night's presentation that you should read. Council still has some decisions to make, but I will be very, very bummed if they decide to disregard all of the citizen time and effort that the CRB Task Force put into creating the existing CRB recommendations.
Richmond BizSense's Jack Jacobs reports that House Republicans killed the attempt to legalize retail sales of marijuana this coming September. While I still don't think we'll need to wait all the way until January 2024 for fully legal retail sales, it does sounds like any hopes for a 2022 legalization have gone up in smoke.
President Biden will deliver the State of the Union tonight at 9:00 PM, and you can tune in pretty much anywhere and everywhere. I feel a lot of sympathy for the President's speech writers, who've surely had a ton of work to do revising the speech over the last five of days.
This morning's longread Sea Level Rise Will Be Catastrophic—and Unequal I had never once thought about the vertical movement of land as a contributing factor to sea level rise!
In Galveston in particular, the land has been collapsing at an astonishing rate. “The numbers I'm going to give you are going to be hard to believe, but there's an area in Baytown, where there's a big Exxon Mobil industrial plant, that sank about 11 feet in a period of 50 or 60 years, because they were just unsustainably pulling water out of there,” says Bob Stokes, president of the Galveston Bay Foundation, a conservation nonprofit that wasn’t involved in the new report. “There was a nice upper-middle-class subdivision where all the Exxon executives lived that ultimately had to be condemned, because water was lapping up the foundations of these houses.” (Whether or not the irony was lost on them isn’t clear.)
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Good morning, RVA! It's 31 °F, and today you can expect sunny highs in the 50s. The week ahead of us looks clear, dry, and pretty dang warm for a first week of March—I’ve already made plans to work in my yard this weekend. Spring has almost sprung!
Water cooler Late last Friday, the CDC announced new guidelines for helping you decide if and when you should wear a mask. Now, instead of “community transmission,” we’ve got “community level”, a three-tier framework that’s based on new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people, and the percentage of staffed inpatient hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. You can see the big shift here is to include not just cases but hospitalizations in a decision-making framework for folks. Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield are all currently at “medium” (yellow) level which means that the CDC does not recommend most people wear a mask indoors in public. This is a big change! I’m still processing what it all means, but I found this PDF from the CDC comparing community level with community transmission over past few COVID-19 waves pretty helpful. Also helpful, Katelyn Jetelina already wrote up her initial reactions to the new guidance, and gives it a general thumbs up.
Tonight, at River City Middle School from 6:00 PM until question mark, the RPS School Board will host a meeting to, theoretically, pass their budget. The big question is: Will the Board meddle in the operation of schools—during several concurrent and ongoing crises—and cut funding for the District’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Wellness Officer with almost no planning or community engagement? Tonight feels like a big inflection moment for Richmond Public Schools. In one possible future, the School Board continues down their current path of grandstanding, micromanaging the superintendent, and stripping his administration of the tools needed to successfully do the job. That’s the bad timeline and the one where, before too long, RPS is probably searching for a new superintendent to come work in its openly hostile environment. In another future, the five-member voting bloc puts Richmond’s kids first, passes a budget that includes the COO and CWO, and quickly asks the Mayor and Council very, very nicely to fully fund the RPS budget request. The first, bad timeline should terrify you—even if you don’t have children in Richmond Public Schools. Who would want to take this job should Kamras leave? What qualified leader would want to come into a clearly dysfunctional situation and work for a Board that, for some incomprehensible reason, made the job so hard for the previous guy that he up and quit? I love Richmond, deeply, but this is not a top-tier job at the moment and we would not see top-tier candidates. OK, on to the empowering, action part of this email! First, you should email the entire School Board, copying all of City Council and their liaisons, and ask them to pass a budget tonight that includes the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Wellness Officer. Then, you should screenshot that email and post it on the social media platform(s) of your choice, asking others to send similar emails. Here are some talking points if you need them. Finally, according to the agenda for tonight’s in-person School Board meeting, there will be public comment. The more people that show up to this meeting and give public comment in support of Superintendent Kamras the better. Things seem dark after that whole paragraph, but the future is still unwritten and the bad timeline is not a foregone conclusion. Hopefully, with enough public outcry, School Board’s five-member voting bloc will make the decisions necessary to support the superintendent, the District, and kids.
Honestly, City Council has too much going on today. In addition to all of its regularly-scheduled business—like adopting RES. 2022-R007, in support of reducing the real estate tax because of theoretical casino money, and RES. 2022-R011, adding Henrico to the GRTC board—Council will also attempt to look at the new redistricting maps and host the first official budget meeting. That’s not even including the George Wythe money ordinance (ORD. 2021-308) and whatever other stuff Council plans on doing to put pressure on School Board ahead of tonight’s meeting. It’s a lot, and I would be zero percent surprised if a large number of items just got pushed until a later date.
Jessica Nolte at the Virginian-Pilot reports that Virginia’s ABC stores will “remove seven Russian-sourced vodka brands from its shelves.” Seems a little on the nose, and I would not have guessed that this is how Virginia would first wade into the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Interestingly, “the stores will not be removing products such as Stolichnaya and Smirnoff, which are Russian-themed but not produced in Russia.“
Via /r/rva, this seriously impressive greenhouse in Church Hill. I just want to live in there.
This morning's longread The Russian Invasion Is a ‘Five-Alarm National-Security Crisis’ The Hilary Clinton in The Atlantic writes about how Republicans’ anti-democracy shenanigans at home have a huge impact on our foreign policy abroad—especially with China and Russia.
These are the stakes of the argument between democracy and autocracy. And when Republicans undermine American democratic institutions and trash our democratic norms, they make it harder to win that argument. They make it harder for the United States to encourage other countries to respect the rule of law, political pluralism, and the peaceful transfer of power. Those values should be among America’s most potent assets, inspiring people all over the world and offering a stark contrast with authoritarians whose power depends on squashing dissent and denying human rights. Instead, America has shown the world the ugly sneers of the insurrectionist and the conspiracy theorist.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 35 °F, and this morning looks cold and rainy while this afternoon looks a whole lot drier and warmer. Cool—but dry!—weather over the weekend means plenty of opportunities to spend some time outside if you get your layers on.
Water cooler The New York Times reports that as soon as today the CDC could “loosen its guidelines for when and where Americans should wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, allowing most people to go without them in public indoor spaces.” This, I think, is maybe a slightly misleading way to frame things? From further down in the piece: The new recommendations will “place less emphasis on case counts and give more weight to hospitalizations.” A hospitalization-based framework only results in loosened mask guidelines because hospital rates (and cases, too, btw) are way, way down across the country. If we’re hit with a new variant and hospitals start to fill up, presumably the guidance would require more masks in more places, right? I haven’t read the new guidance or read any smart-people takes on the new guidance, but I’m sure, whatever it is, some folks will be very angry about this change. I get it! It’s tough for the coronarisk-adverse, in which I include myself, to shift out of deep pandemic mode and into a more permissive, casual-hangout lifestyle. But wearing a mask in all public places for the rest of time was never the end goal here, and moving toward a future where we mask up as the COVID-context dictates (and other diseases, too!) seems good. An important addendum: Some people are at high-risk for severe and terrible outcomes from COVID-19, and while we have more tools and treatments to keep those folks safe, seeing more and more of their neighbors move through the world carefree is probably really hard.
Chris Suarez at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the RPS School Board has demanded that Superintendent Kamras fire his Chief Operating Officer or they will refuse to pass a budget. This makes absolutely zero sense and feels like an extreme dereliction of duty. How does this School Board expect the Superintendent to run a district deep in disinvestment, emerging from COVID, with desperate (and increasing) facility needs without a Chief Operating Officer? Why would they put the entire RPS budget at risk (remember, the mayor needs the schools’ budget by today) over reducing capacity of the superintendent’s leadership team? This really feels like another petty, bad-faith effort by the Board’s five-member voting bloc to make the Superintendent’s job so hard and so terrible that he leaves. And who could blame him! There are probably one million School Districts out there where the School Boards are not actively working to undercut schools and students who would love to hire a Superintendent with a track record of success like Kamras.
First, You can express your displeasure first, by emailing all of the School Board members and telling them to pass a budget and to forget about firing the COO.
Second, and it makes me feel like an unhinged twitterperson to suggest it, but, in all seriousness, I think it might be time to start reading the Code of Virginia section on Removal of Public Officers from Office. From the Code: “Upon petition, a circuit court may remove from office any elected officer or officer who has been appointed to fill an elective office, residing within the jurisdiction of the court: For neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties when that neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties has a material adverse effect upon the conduct of the office...The petition must be signed by a number of registered voters who reside within the jurisdiction of the officer equal to ten percent of the total number of votes cast at the last election for the office that the officer holds.” An average of 11,898 people voted for each of the current five-member bloc of School Board in the last election. Recalling an elected official is a sad, big, serious deal, and a lot of work—finding 1,200 registered voters in a district to sign a recall petition is a BIG lift. I’m not sure it’s even possible, but I’m not sure what else to do at this point. Those five School Board members just seem so disconnected from their voters, communities, families, and students.
Tomorrow, February 26th, at 10:00 AM you can join members of the Fox Elementary community at 2300 Hanover Avenue in “a march from Fox Elementary to Monroe Park to raise awareness of the lack of state level funding for safe school buildings and to demand that the state start funding school facilities more thoroughly.” The march is specifically in support of Senator McClellan’s SB 472 which allows a locality to raise taxes to fund construction and renovation of school buildings. The House Finance Subcommittee will hear the legislation at 7:30 AM this morning, so it’s a little too late to get involved at that particular part of the process, but you can check out this advocacy toolkit from Charlottesville United and send a supportive email to Del. Roxann Robinson and Chris Runion who sit on that committee anyway.
A friend sent me this Twitter thread from a Ukrainian ex-pat, which was a wonderful, human-scale read this morning. Strong recommend.
This morning's longread A Guide to Getting Rid of Almost Everything This piece in the New Yorker, while sometimes overly New York-specific, is a great reminder that a lot of your own personal garbage can end up somewhere other than a landfill.
A few months ago, I decided to deaccession an assortment of my things by whatever means feasible: selling, donating, recycling, giving them away, losing them on the subway, or reserving a spot for them on the next Mars Explorer. I gathered my unwanteds and piled them in the living room. A fraction of what was in that jumble: seven antique glass cake stands that belonged to my mother; a dormitory’s worth of new sheet sets and blankets for a bed size that is not mine; a set of Lenox china that my grandmother gave to my mother, who gave it to me, and was never used; clothes galore; a Viking stove grate that arrived cracked, and which I saved because I planned to weld it into a sculpture someday, after I learned how to weld; several rolls of Trump toilet paper that I wrongly thought were amusing a few years ago.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, and you can expect a wet and cold day ahead of us. Temperatures should stay about where they are right now, so bring a coat, bring an umbrella, and wear some warm socks.
Water cooler Breaking international news: The New York Times reports that "Russia Attacks Ukraine From Land and Sea." The aforelinked page has a good summary of the evolving situation pinned at the top, a map of reported overnight missile strikes across the country, and a live-updating feed of breaking news. Here's President Biden's statement on the attack in which he promises to "speak to the American people to announce the further consequences the United States and our Allies and partners will impose on Russia for this needless act of aggression against Ukraine and global peace and security."
In what I hope is now just a regular part of budget season, Richmond Together has released their budget advocacy statement, listing out their recommendations for how the City should spend and invest in the coming year. It's going to be a complicated and lean budget season, and so Richmond Together has focused on six, modest recommendations: Jump-starting implementation of the Community Center Initiative, fully funding RPS, continuing to fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, supporting new initiatives for addressing gun violence, investing in the Office of Community Wealth Building, and creating two positions to strengthen the Performance Management Office. Flip to page five for a scary chart from the Department of Budget and Strategic Planning that shows the City's expenditures outstripping revenue as soon as next year. From the report: "Given the City’s looming revenue gap, we are deeply skeptical of any proposal to reduce the property tax rate in conjunction with proposed economic development deals. We also must continue to think creatively about possibilities for building community wealth above and beyond existing initiatives." Same, PDF, same. Anyway, the whole document is worth your time—check out the Department of Transportation and Land Value Tax mentions! For me at least, this PDF sets the local bar as far as progressive policy documents go. Great work, everyone!
Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams has a good update on the status of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground. Williams reports that the City, Rep. McEachin, and Senator Kaine have all started to lobby for adding the space to the National Register of Historic Places. If you haven't been out by this spot, you should make the time to do so (just head north on 5th Street from Downtown until you get to the enormous billboard). It makes for a striking contrast to the nearby Shockoe Hill Cemetery. I've followed this story for a bunch of years now (starting with the impact high-speed rail from DC would have on the property), and it keeps getting more and more interesting to me. It's such a great example of the impact one dedicated person can have on a place.
Looks like Governor Youngkin will take an L on his plans to legislate a ban on teaching kids about systemic racism. Mel Leonor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that House of Delegates Republicans "ignored a request from the Youngkin administration for language in the state budget that public schools be banned from teaching 'inherently divisive concepts.'" Alongside a couple similar, now-dead standalone bills, this brings an end to the Governor's day-one promise to keep Virginia's students uneducated about the present-day impacts of centuries of racism. For now! You definitely should expect this to come up again and again for exactly as long as denying that systemic racism exists wins Republican elections.
NBC12 reminds me that cocktails to-go was a temporary, COVID-19 measure, but that the General Assembly just extended it through July of 2024 (via HB 426). This is good news for the Catrow Household, who enjoy biking over to the local Mexican restaurant to pick up tacos and margs. I had a real galaxy-brain moment when I realized I could dump a margarita into a Nalgene for a spill-free ride home.
He's engaaaaaaged! Yesterday, according to this charming post on Instagram, Mayor Stoney got engaged. Congratulations, Mayor!
This morning's longread American Girl Cafe Attracts the Influencer Set Something light and distracting: Adults partying at American Girl Doll restaurants.
Of the dozen American Girl Place locations, five feature full-service restaurants that serve items like cinnamon buns, macaroni and cheese, and smoothies, along with an extensive dessert menu. The original Chicago location, which opened in 1998, secured a full liquor license so it could host galas and benefits. New York is the only other location that serves liquor, but beer and wine are served at all of the cafes. A representative for the company said that it doesn’t condone its dolls engaging in age-inappropriate behavior such as drinking alcohol, but the company welcomes American Girl fans of all ages.
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Picture of the Day A rad old jar filled with a solid clump of rusted bottle caps. I found this in the creek next to the garbage dump featured in yesterday's Picture of the Day.
Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and this afternoon you can expect highs in the 70s?? This evening, if it stops raining long enough to get out before the sun sets, you can find me me zooming through some damp Northside alleys on two wheels.
Water cooler The RPS School Board failed to pass a budget last night, with the same oppositional five-member voting bloc each voting against the Superintendent’s proposal. @KidsFirstRPS has a long, live Twitter thread if you want get a feel for the meeting. As with the George Wythe debacle, these five members of the School Board can think they have the leverage all they want, but the Mayor introduces the City’s budget (which funds the school system) and City Council approves that budget. RPS gets what they get. The Mayor is required to submit his budget by March 4th, just nine days from now, and has requested the RPS budget by Friday or has said he’ll move forward using last year’s funding level for schools. Working with the Superintendent to craft a budget to give to the Mayor is the Board’s best opportunity to lay out their priorities and influence the process. Taking this week to grandstand and point fingers will mean they’ve given away their ability to get involved in the process to the Mayor and City Council, who, believe me, will have no problems setting an RPS budget all on their own. While flat-funding RPS would put the District in a world of hurt (see below for more bad budget news), five members of the School Board do not get to hold the entire City budget hostage.
In his email last night, before the disappointing budget meeting, RPS Superintendent Kamras sent out a call-to-action around the State’s budget. Here’s his words: “I'll cut to the chase with some simple math: the Senate's budget proposal would ADD $2 million to RPS while the House version would SUBTRACT $12.5 million. The House has proposed cutting what's called the At-Risk Add-On, which is special funding for school divisions like RPS that serve a high percentage of low-income students. It's time to act.” If you’d like to act, and you should, RPS has put together a very helpful page with exactly the language you should use and which legislators you should email. Imagine the kind of world our students will be living in with the existing $7 million cut in state funding, an additional $12.5 million cut proposed by Republican legislators, and then a potential flat-funding from the City because the School Board’s five-member voting bloc can’t seem to pass a budget. I think, total, that would be something like a $40 million shortfall? An 11% cut from the proposed budget? I’m sure something, somewhere will shake out of all these in-progress budgets, but it won’t be a full funding of RPS—that’s for sure. It’s exhausting to have to battle for public school dollars from the three separate levels of elected government.
In more positive RPS news, Chris Suarez at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that insurance money will cover the replacement of Fox Elementary. This, given all the budget discussion above, is great news. It also sounds like moving Fox students to Clark Springs Elementary is the most best option—although that’ll require some money and elbow grease. At the meeting last night, Superintendent Kamras said students could start at (return to?) Clark Springs as soon as the week after spring break.
Yesterday, I mentioned RES. 2022-011, which would express the City’s support for adding Henrico to GRTC’s board of directors. I expressed some concerns about having two suburban localities with a potential majority on the board of a transit company that serves mostly urban riders. Not so fast, though! An astute reader pointed me to the section of the proposed bylaws on voting, which reads: “An affirmative vote of at least two of the directors nominated or appointed by the governing body of each locality identified in Article V, Section 2 constitutes a majority vote of the Board of Directors present, and each such majority vote is the act of the Board of Directors.” I think this means that each locality effectively has veto power on any board action, which, in theory, protects the region from runaway suburbanization of the transit system. High five to whoever at the City brokered that agreement! I do, however, feel the need to again underscore that while I love this bylaws backstop, over the last handful of years the GRTC board has stayed focused on expanding local service in places that make sense. In fact, before the pandemic, the speed of progress felt blistering—as far as public transit progress in a mid-sized Southern city goes—and now it kind of feels like things are starting to ramp up again. Honestly, I think I’m cautiously optimistic about the future of regional transit decision making? The Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee forwarded RES. 2022-011 along to full City Council with a recommendation to approve at this coming Monday’s meeting. I’m sure Henrico, Chesterfield, and the GRTC Board itself need to do similar things to make this governance change a done deal.
Related, the VCU Wilder School will host a free Lunch and Learn with GRTC’s Director of Equitable Innovation and Legislative Policy Joe Dillard, Jr. today at 1:00 PM. Hop on zoom for “a lively exploration” of how “major employers like VCU can use public transit to connect their strategic efforts to improve economic, educational, social, and health outcomes for surrounding communities.” The Wilder School will post a recording of the session on their YouTube channel following.
If you missed the previous redistricting meetings, you’re in luck, because today at 3:00 PM the City will host a final public information meeting to review draft maps and determine what gets officially introduced to Council this coming Monday. An official 30-day public comment period will follow, so this is not your last time ever to get involved, but now’s the time if you wanted to express your thoughts, feelings, or emotions while the maps are still in draft form.
This morning's patron longread Black and brown cyclists face heightened policing and poor infrastructure Submitted by Patron Tim. Lots to chew on in this piece about biking while Black. Luckily, I think we see Richmond starting to address some of these challenges head on. Creating the Path to Equity document before even starting on the update to our city’s transportation plan is a great example of just that.
Additionally, Jesus Barajas, an assistant professor in the department of environmental science and policy at the University of California, Davis, conducted research that found that a lack of infrastructure and police presence in underserved neighborhoods go hand in hand—the physical design of neighborhoods and disparate implementation of bike lanes allow racist enforcement of traffic laws to flourish. Together with the overrepresentation of white residential needs in city development and planning, BIPOC cyclists become trapped in an ongoing cycle in which infrastructure ignores or is outright hostile to their use, which discourages BIPOC from participating in further city plans, which leads to their needs being underrepresented in infrastructure development, and so on.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 58 °F, and today you can expect warm and wet weather. Highs should top out in the mid 60s while rain may move in this afternoon and evening. I hope you took advantage of yesterday's most excellent weather!
Water cooler Here are this week's graphs of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 in Virginia. The case rate per 100,000 people in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield is 160, 202, and 150 respectively. While community transmission is still "high" across all three localities, that could change quickly (at least in our region). For a bit of hope, look towards NOVA and Hampton Roads where a few counties have dipped below 100 cases per 100,000 and have fallen into the "substantial" (orange!) level of community transmission. Substantial is still a word that means "a lot," but it also means progress. Who knows that the future will actually bring, but if you're using some sort of metric-based framework to guide your own personal behavior—like this one from Katelyn Jetelina—I bet next week could see some exciting changes to your social calendar.
Richmond's budget season is off to a spicy start, as the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Chris Suarez reports the Mayor has warned the School Board that they better pass the RPS budget this week or else face a year of flat funding. That'd be particularly brutal as the Superintendent's budget relies on $22 million more from the City as compared to last year. We'll have to see if this added pressure works and School Board gets a move on, because the piece closes with this ominous quote from 4th District Schoolboard member Jonathan Young about the Superintendent's budget, "I will not be voting in favor of it. And at the risk of speaking for my colleagues, I don’t believe he has the five votes." Yikes. Just a couple more days until Friday, so we're sure to learn more soon.
City Council's Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee will meet today and has a couple of interesting items on their agenda. Most interesting and least likely to pass: RES. 2021-R068 which would express Council's support for the mayor to create space in both his budget and org chart for a Department of Transportation. This is and has been my hope for the last forever, but I just don't see it happening given all of the other needs and this administration's priorities. Put a pin in it, and someone make it part of their mayoral platform in 2024! Moving on, LUHT's most interesting and most likely to pass piece of legislation has to be: RES. 2022-R011, which gives City Council's official support to expanding GRTC's board to include Henrico County. That Henrico is not currently a voting member of the GRTC board doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and I think this move to make GRTC more fully regional is probably, long term, a good one. However, I do have some anxieties about two suburban counties having a majority vote on the board of a transit system that, for the most part, serves far more urban residents than otherwise. For example: I would hate to see a future focus on commuter routes instead of beefing up heavily-used, frequent routes in the city. That said, both Chesterfield and Henrico have bought in on expanding regular ol' local service in their localities over the last couple years, so I think this might be fine (and even good).
Via /r/rva: Where can you get an early breakfast in Richmond? Obviously City Diner, but the thread has some more options if you're looking.
And some old news from late last week: Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that Shake Shack is (finally) coming to Richmond. The burger joint has filed permits to begin demolition at 5400 W. Broad Street—an old, boarded-up Applebee's just a short walk west from the Willow Lawn Pulse stop. I am always here for another place to get milkshakes.
This morning's longread The Next Affordable City Is Already Too Expensive This story in the NYT is about Spokane, but it totally could be about Richmond.
Mr. MacDonald knows the pattern, and so does everyone else who has been following the frenetic U.S. housing market for the past decade. The story plays out locally but is national in scope. It is the story of people leaving high-cost cities because they’ve been priced out or become fed up with how impossible the housing problem seems. Then it becomes the story of a city trying to tame prices by building more housing, followed by the story of neighbors fighting to prevent it, followed by the story of less expensive cities being deluged with buyers from more expensive cities, followed by the less expensive cities descending into the same problems and struggling with the same solutions.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 66 °F and windy. Temperatures fall from now straight through until tomorrow morning, which is kind of weird. Over the weekend, you can expect cooler but still decent temperatures, and if you're lucky enough to have Monday off, it looks like the best day out of the next few. Enjoy!
Water cooler RPS Superintendent Kamras shared the District's updated masking plan last night and it makes a lot of sense to me (given the new, shortsighted legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor). Here's the gist: Starting March 1st, all adults—staff, parents, and visitors—must still wear masks; families must email a specific email address requesting that their student not wear a mask (no reason need be provided); and masks must still be worn on the bus (because that's a federal law). If caregivers have not taken that proactive step to opt-out of the mask mandate, their children will be required to wear a mask. That's probably the best we can manage, and, at least in Richmond's schools, will probably mean the majority of students remain masked for the rest of the coming school year. Also, because Kamras's administration almost always approaches tough moments with empathy: "No student will be separated, singled out, our disparaged in any way if their parent/caregiver elects to have them not wear a mask." Out in the County, Henrico County Public Schools have decided on a less strict policy: "The division strongly recommends universal mask use indoors by students during times of high community transmission; however, school leaders understand that some parents/guardians will opt their children out." Like RPS, staff and visitors, for now, must continue to wear masks inside HCPS schools. I feel the strongest desire, and I know you feel it too, to check back at the end of March and see how these two differing mask policies impacted the spread of COVID-19 in schools. But! I think there may be too many variables involved to really learn anything useful—the current and steady decline in case rates across Virginia, differing vaccination uptake rates between Richmond and Henrico, and the political makeup of the individual schools just to name a few.
Wyatt Gordon put together a good thread on Twitter about the transformation of the industrial area along Chamberlayne near Virginia Union University into a dense residential neighborhood. There's lots to love going on in this area—spurred by the VUU/Chamberlayne Neighborhood Plan (one of my favorite small area plans)—but lots of work left to do to make it a hospitable place for humans. Most of that work involves narrowing Chamberlayne Avenue, prioritizing bus traffic, and creating safe ways for folks of all ages and abilities to cross the street. That's such a low bar, but it really underscores how the City needs to level up the public infrastructure quickly to support all of the private development already going on in the area.
Lab School, Charter School, what's the difference? Megan Pauly and Ben Paviour at VPM have a great explainer on Virginia's history with lab schools, the current Governor's push to defund public schools via his All Charter Schools All The Time plan, and how the existing lab school legislation is maybe a place to meet in the middle. Sen. McClellan is deeply involved in the ongoing discussions, so that makes me feel better about potential outcomes.
RVAHub points me to Longoven's interesting fundraising idea for Fox Elementary and other RPS elementary schools. I like the the thought put into this and the acknowledgement that Fox is not the only elementary school that could use a fundraiser. In fact, I would say Fox is a uniquely resourced RPS community, and we need more ideas like this that address the needs of schools across the city.
Logistical note! Monday is Presidents' Day, or, if you're the Commonwealth of Virginia, "George Washington Day." This means I'll be taking the day off, sleeping in, sitting quietly, maybe taking a nap, who knows! I'll show back up in your inboxes on Tuesday. Have a great weekend!
This morning's longread Songs for a South underwater Flooding along the Mississippi River in the spring of 1927 inspired a whole mini genre of Blues: flood records. This piece in Scalawag is fascinating and comes with a playlist that you should definitely listen to while reading!
When the reporting of truth is suppressed, as it was with the second Moton report, Black creators have turned to art to document their experiences and those of their community. Amplified and refracted through the artist's lens, these works transmitted the gravity of the cultural trauma over the airways to Black audiences who hungered for them, and who represented a burgeoning profitable market for the music industry. These songs' commercial success is a testament to their appeal: Listeners could hear their own experiences sung back to them, as well as be entertained. And as the march of history drummed steadily onward, the songs only increased in poignancy, adding new layers of meaning—even as they became increasingly detached in the public imagination from their historical basis.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 53 °F, and today, while a bit cloudy, will feature lovely springlike temperatures in the 70s. Feels odd, but I'm into it and will schedule some time to at least walk around the block after lunch. I hope you'll find some time to get outside, too.
Water cooler The Virginia Mercury's Graham Moomaw reports that Governor Youngkin signed SB 739, the bill banning school mask mandates, into law yesterday. The bill did end up with an emergency clause, adding a March 1st deadline for school districts to comply. I think Richmond Public Schools superintendent Jason Kamras put it best: "Earlier this afternoon, the Governor signed new legislation from the General Assembly banning masks mandates in schools as of March 1. As I've shared before, I think this is bad policy that will undermine our ability to keep everyone safe and limit interruptions to learning. That said, it is now the law in the Commonwealth. We're assessing exactly what the legislation requires and its implications for RPS." I continue to think that this legal prohibition against a legitimate public health tool is anti-science and dangerous. I also think that, in a couple of months (🤞), we could be living in a world where most folks do not need to wear masks inside. This was always the goal, and it's ridiculous we couldn't get there in a safe, science-based way.
City Council's Finance and Economic Development committee meets today with a couple interesting items on their agenda, including a few papers that look related to Councilmember Addison's proposal to raise the threshold for the Business, Professional and Occupational License tax (BPOL). I wrote about this earlier in the week and wondered how much money the City would lose out on if we raised the threshold at which businesses start paying significant taxes up from $100,000 to $250,000. Lucky for us, the ordinance's Staff Report (ORD. 2022-032) has the details: "Reducing the tax obligation of 13.0% of all Richmond businesses, based on the analysis of FY21 actuals, would lead to a minimal impact of FY23 revenues of approximately $417,768 dollars (a reduction in BPOL taxes of -1.4% of the observed FY21 amount)." A little more than $400,000 does not seem like a ton of cash, especially if it gets us more in line with the Counties on this particular tax. Also on the Finance committee's agenda, RES. 2022-R007, the non-binding resolution that express Council's support of the Mayor's plan to reduce the real estate tax should the casino referendum pass. At the moment, the resolution has three patrons: Councilmembers Robertson, Newbille, and Trammell. While I know at least some members of City Council do not support this shortsighted plan to reduce the City's revenue, I don't know if you could find five votes against it. We'll see. We'll also see if the looming costs of replacing Fox Elementary changes anyone's willingness to place bets with the City's future revenue.
Bummer local news news: The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Mark Robinson got laid off yesterday. In just a couple of weeks the RTD has lost their housing reporter and their education reporter (Kenya Hunter, who left to take a job in Atlanta). It doesn't sound like the paper's parent company plans on filling the roles, either. I don't know about y'all but "housing" and "education" are not the two beats I'd have picked to cut reporters from—those folks had years of knowledge, context, and contacts.
Patrick Larsen at VPM reports that work crews have found another Lost Cause time capsule, this one buried under the Jefferson Davis monument. From the piece: "It’s a time capsule which, according to historical reports, was intended for a Confederate temple in the city’s Monroe Park." Wait, a what now? Tap through to see a drawing of what would have been a massive, ridiculous monument to white supremacy right in the middle of Monroe Park.
I haven't listened yet, but The Cheats Movement podcast hosted Mayor Levar Stoney on their most recent episode. Marc's a great interviewer, so I'm confident this is worth your time, and I'm going to bump it to the top of my queue (right after this episode of Maintenance Phase).
This morning's patron longread Pedestrian Deaths Spike in U.S. as Reckless Driving Surges Submitted by Patron Lisa. A couple folks sent this to me, and, yeah, not great! The rise in enormous, deadly vehicles—plus the added layer of whatever pandemic trauma folks are dealing with as they drive around—points to how clearly we need safe, separate, protected infrastructure for people who walk, roll, or ride. Asking drivers to slow down just isn't going to cut it. We've got to change the streets to make them safer.
New Jersey had its highest number of pedestrian fatalities in more than 30 years. Last year was also the deadliest on Utah’s roads since the start of the century, as pedestrian deaths rose 22 percent. Washington State ended 2021 with a 15-year high in traffic fatalities. And pedestrian deaths in Texas climbed last year to a record high. Going into the pandemic, some traffic specialists were optimistic that pedestrian deaths would decline. After all, millions of motorists were slashing their driving time and hewing to social distancing measures. The opposite happened. Empty roads allowed some to drive much faster than before. Some police chiefs eased enforcement, wary of face-to-face contact. For reasons that psychologists and transit safety experts are just beginning to explain, drivers also seemed to get angrier.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 30 °F, and my weather app has informed me that we have a chance for "FREEZING FOG" this morning until 9:00 AM. I've seen The Day After Tomorrow, and I'm sufficiently aware of how dangerous weather can creep right up on you (and chase you through the New York Public Library)—so be careful out there this morning. Warmer weather moves in after lunch when we should see highs near 50 °F.
Water cooler It's Tuesday, so here's this week's charts of hospitalizations and deaths in Virginia due to COVID-19. Hospitalizations continue to decrease while deaths, now, appear to have plateaued. While I'm not spending as much time tracking the graph of cases, I have been keeping a loose eye on the case rate per 100,000 people. In Richmond it's 467, in Henrico 562, and in Chesterfield 538. You can find those numbers, updated daily, on this CDC COVID Data Tracker page. Related, and mostly the reason for keeping track of this unintuitive number, Katelyn Jetelina has put together a nice framework for how individuals can re-enter (and retreat from!) the world based on case rates per 100,000. I like this tool because it's simple to use and helps me avoid constantly thinking through my own personal risk-reward ratio for every dang hangout. If the level of cases is red (anywhere above 100 per 100,000), the framework recommends that you "avoid indoor, crowded public areas where not 100% masked and vaccination status unknown." Simple! As the case rates decrease, you can mitigate less and do more things; at a yellow case rate (between 10 and 49 per 100,000) indoor, crowded events are fine without even masking! Jetelina is quick to point out that individual actions are not the way out of this pandemic but, unfortunately, it's the focus of today's reality: "This is for individual decision making. In other words, it answers: What should I do today? As a public health official, I do not agree that we need individual-level solutions. They are far less effective than population-level ones. But in our increasingly individualistic society, we need to arm people with evidence-based solutions in the landscape they are forced to navigate." Anyway, I hope this tool helps—it certainly gave me some clarity on how to navigate the spring and summer.
Mayor Levar Stoney will deliver his sixth (I think?) State of the City address tonight at 6:00 PM. If you're using the above framework and trying to avoid large, indoor public gatherings, you can livestream the address on the City's Facebook page. I always enjoy the State of the City. Yeah it's a lot of victory-lap stuff, which, to be honest, at this moment in time it'll be pretty nice to hear about some successes, but it's also a chance for the mayor to lay out his vision for the year ahead. Sometimes we even get cool policy and project announcements, later expanded upon in his budget presentation. It's a good night to curl up on the couch and root for the home team.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Chris Suarez reports on last night's RPS School Board budget meeting. The Board continues to grapple with how to make up a $7 million cut in state funding—a particularly galling predicament given how flush the Commonwealth is with cash at the moment. Ultimately, RPS will have to ask the Mayor and Council for more money, which they're not gonna love, and I imagine they'll all land somewhere in the middle. Stay tuned, because Suarez says Kamras will submit a revised budget later this month. Also, here's an unrelated, underinformed prediction: I'm pretty sure School Board Member Jonathan Young has decided to run for some other office. His quotes in the paper are increasingly oppositional and increasingly Republican (“Before I authorize expenditures for more people, I want to see the results that our new positions have provided for.” he says less than a year after creating those new positions). There aren't a ton of places a Republican candidate can win in Richmond, but the 4th District City Council seat could be one of them.
Mark Robinson, also at the RTD, reports on some pretty big local fair housing news: Housing Opportunities Made Equal, along with a handful of other fair housing organizations, reached a $53 million settlement with the Federal National Mortgage Association, aka Fannie Mae. From the piece: "The lawsuit alleged the Federal National Mortgage Association...maintained and marketed foreclosed homes in white neighborhoods while simultaneously allowing those in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods to deteriorate. The differing treatment violated the Fair Housing Act, compounded damage done to Black and Latino neighborhoods during the Great Recession, and slowed their recovery, according to the lawsuit." HOME of VA's press release says that they'll use a portion of the settlement to "promote home ownership, neighborhood stabilization, access to credit, property rehabilitation, and residential development" and provide "much-needed grants, including for down-payment assistance for first-generation homebuyers and renovations for homes that languished in foreclosure." HOME of VA is so legit! We are lucky to have them in Richmond.
One quick City Council update: The Governmental Operations committee sent both of the collective bargaining ordinances (ORD. 2021-345 and ORD. 2021-346) back to City Council with a recommendation to continue.
Here's a great picture via /r/rva of the canal completely empty. The City does this on occasion to dredge and clean, which I'm sure is what's happen—either that or We've Got A Big Problem Here.
This morning's longread There Is No Punk Without Black Women Read this quick piece about the contribution Black women have made to punk while adding a ton of albums to your queue.
Following X-Ray Spex’s breakup in 1979, Styrene released a post-punk album in 1981, became a Hare Krishna initiate, and then left the sect a few years later due to misogyny. Styrene returned to music in 2008 and released new music up until her death in 2011. Though her career abruptly ended, she inspired future generations of women in the industry, including FKA twigs, Karen O, and Beth Ditto. And without Styrene, we wouldn’t have the riot grrrl movement. In recent years, there has been a renewed commitment to amplifying Black musicians and their Black fans in the punk scene. The 2003 release of the documentary Afro-Punk paved the way for the now international Afropunk Festival. Afropunk may have evolved into a global phenomenon for Black punks and alt kids, but gender still impacts the scene. In one of her final interviews, Styrene told Flux magazine that she was hesitant to say that gender equality had improved over the past 30 years.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 33 °F, and, once things get going today, it looks cold and rainy. Highs should trend upward for the rest of the week, though.
Water cooler I'm sure y'all saw this already, but VPM reports that "an Arlington judge ordered on Friday that schools can continue requiring students to wear face masks - for now." I'm sure the Governor and his team will appeal this temporary decision and we'll have to keep hearing about this—possibly through the end of the school year (137 days from now). I enjoyed this email sent to Henrico County Public School families following the court's decision: "...HCPS will strictly adhere to our universal mask requirement except during mealtime, when students are outdoors (with appropriate physical distancing), or when they participate in designated athletic activities. Recent accommodations made in place of mask use, based on parent choice and the executive order, will end immediately. Students are expected to adhere to the universal masking requirement, and anyone who refuses to wear a mask will face disciplinary action in accordance with the Code of Student Conduct for disruption of the school day." Emphasis theirs!
Today, both the City's Planning Commission and Council's Organizational Development committee meet and will take up a few papers that we've been tracking for a bit. First, Planning Commission will consider the W. Broad Street rezoning (ORD. 2022-017). Rezonings, as you know, have to jump through a bunch of different hoops before they get implemented, the last of which is City Council passing this ordinance after Planning Commission has their way with it. You can flip through a presentation on the rezoning here; you're probably looking for pages 17 and 20 which will let you see the current and future zoning maps. The proposal will replace a quilt of different zoning district running mostly along Broad and down Hamilton with TOD-1. The residential neighborhoods south of Broad stay residential, so folks shouldn't (but probably will anyway) fire off angry emails about parking and high-rises blotting out the sun. I imagine since this rezoning tightly aligns with the City's master plan, it will easily pass Planning Commission. Then, later this evening, Council's Org Dev committee will take up both the City employee union papers: ORD. 2021-345 and ORD. 2021-346. The former would authorize collective bargaining for a whole set of City employees (including police) while the later just for employees in the Departments of Public Utilities and Public Works. I don't have a great sense of how Council feels about this issue, but I think if you looked hard enough you could probably find five votes for authorizing collective bargaining across the board.
Chesterfieldians! Exciting public transit news: The County has launched a survey about bringing bus service to Midlothian Turnpike from the City limits out past Huguenot Road. If you live, work, or play in that part of town, please take 15 minutes and fill it out! Honestly, I have a hard time finding the words for how surprising and exciting it is that the County continues to make progress on expanding their (teensy) bus network. It was not that long ago when Chesterfield had zero bus line and no intention changing that—despite owning a 50% stake in GRTC. Sure, it's slow goings over there, but goings nonetheless.
Remember the archeologist and historian who'd help shift the public history of the Governor's Mansion to include the stories and lives of the enslaved people who built and staffed it? We'll, Ben Paviour at VPM reports that she's resigned. Paviour also has an update on the room that was maybe going to be an educational space but then possibly a family room but maybe not that either: "On Saturday, after the publication of the story and over two weeks after VPM first inquired about [the historian's] observations, Porter clarified that the former educational space was not being used as a family room." Mmmhmm.
I don't know what this means, but I sure feel like it means something: A subdivision at Laburnum and Nine Mile sold for $154.4 million, and Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that "the overall price tag is the largest ever paid for a multifamily property in Henrico County and the largest such deal in the region as a whole in recent memory." It makes me look at the current (lack of) frequency of the #7A/B bus and wonder if the County has plans to make that a more reasonable means of getting into town.
This morning's longread America’s Gambling Addiction Is Metastasizing This doom-and-gloom piece in The Atlantic is not directly about cities that decide to open up casinos, but it's not not about that either.
For society as a whole, if such a thing exists anymore, there are benefits as well as costs to legal gambling. The chief benefit is that there’s a lot of money to be made, for governments and businesses both. The primary cost is that many unlucky and vulnerable people are destroyed. American society has accepted that trade-off—big money now for social crisis later—on any number of fronts: in its banking sector, in its housing markets, in its health-care industry. The rise of gambling is simply one example of our boundless desire for risk.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 62 °F. What the heck! Despite this morning's late-spring temperatures, you can expect a cold front to move in this afternoon and for the day to end somewhere in the 30s. Boringly, the rain will let up just as temperatures start to drop. Expect cold—but clear—weather for the rest of the weekend.
Water cooler Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has some good reporting on the Youngkin Administration's refusal to turn over communications and documents pertaining to the governor's education-related executive orders. I'm sure y'all have read about the Governor's tip line for parents to report educators who dare to teach their students about the existence of systemic racism. He casually rolled it out a couple weeks ago on a right-wing radio show, and then it got picked up by national news and spread around on social media—mostly by liberals hoping to encourage other liberals to flood the email address with sickburns. While this seems like another misstep for the new, inexperienced governor, I think things are pretty much going according to plan! Remember, the goal here, as always, was not to collect actual feedback from parents concerned over the teaching of "divisive" subjects, but to make liberals angry. Not only did the tip line succeed at that primary objective, its also convinced thousands of folks to spend what little civic time and energy they have shooting off angry emails into a black hole rather than emailing their legislators, submitting public comments, or attending a public meeting. Honestly, I would not be surprised if the tip line inbox literally did not exist (which would explain why subsequent FOIA requests for tips submitted have been denied by the Administration). I appreciate Kate Masters reporting, though, because she points to a larger trend within the Governor's team to improperly use FOIA exemptions to shield their work from the public. This lack of transparency is Not Good—especially around topics like the enforcement of Executive Order #1 which, theoretically, bans the teaching of systemic racism in classrooms. Have they denied these FOIA requests because what they'd turn up would be embarrassing or damning (or both)? I think that's an important question.
You should read this piece by Mel Leonor in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about how the Virginia Senate has slowly started to dismantle the Governor's agenda piece by piece. That was a smug sentence! I thought two things while reading through this good reporting: 1) Bills in the General Assembly die and resurrect with alarming, unpredictable frequency, so don't consider Governor's push for all charter schools all the time dead until the end of the session, and 2) Folks really need to vote! Can you imagine how different things would look without that slimmest of majorities in the Senate? Big yikes.
Also in the RTD, Chris Suarez reports on some local progress on gun violence prevention. The City is "working alongside a local nonprofit to distribute $1 million in grants for the first phase of a new gun violence prevention effort" and will also hire a new community safety coordinator who will serve as the City's point for all gun violence issues. Suarez says the new coordinator position was recommended by the Mayor's Task Force to Reimagining Public Safety from a thousand years back (aka November 2020), but, looking through the report, I see a couple recommendations to create an entire Office of Restorative Justice and Community Safety, not just a coordinator position. Perhaps this is step one, though. Actually, it'd be really interesting for someone to take the Taskforce's report from a year and a half a go and see which of its recommendations the City has implemented. Some of them are big, expensive, and will take a lot of work (like creating an entire Office of Restorative Justice and Community Safety), but some are small and practical (like changing the languages used by police officers). Anyway, I'm stoked to see the impact of this $1 million and the new community safety coordinator. We've got to do whatever we can locally, while the state and federal governments actively prevent us from getting the guns out of our communities.
I'm trying to remove beef from my diet, because, while delicious, meat farming certainly doesn't help our burning planet. ZZQ, makers of the finest beef brisket in the region? the state? have not made things any easier by announcing a new burger joint in Scott's Addition. Eileen Mellon at Richmond Magazine has the greasy details...which literally acknowledge my burning-planet concerns! "A huge part of Eazzy Burger is going to be our mission to be good stewards of the environment and advocates for fighting climate change, particularly how the beef industry factors into that...We want to make it so our guests aren't having to make decisions to make good decisions." I'm skeptical, interested, and hungry.
Via /r/rva, here's a picture of a hawk sitting on top of a stop sign. Also via /r/rva, here's a picture of an owl sitting on top of stop sign. What...is happening?
This morning's longread Why Is Everyone Smoking Toad Venom? People will literally smoke anything! How does humanity even learn to smoke toad venom unless there's a dedicated group of people smoking every single thing, living or dead, that crosses their path?
For nine months of the year the Sonoran desert toad lives under the sands of the Mexican desert to survive the scorching heat, but when the winter rains arrive, it emerges for a Caligula-like orgy of eating and fornicating. Glands on the sides of its neck and legs emit a venom so toxic it can cause death in a predator within seconds. Bufo hunters catch the toads at night using flashlights—the toads freeze when confronted by a bright light—then milk the venom from the toad’s parotid glands, typically holding a mirror up to catch the spray. Overnight, the milky venom dries on the glass, turning into flaky crystals, leaving behind only the 5-MeO-DMT and none of the lethal toxin. (The toads are allegedly unharmed.)
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Good morning, RVA! It's 43 °F, and today looks warm and rainy. Expect highs right around 60 °F and a persistent chance of rain basically until the sun sets tomorrow. Good sloshin' around weather!
Water cooler I've really enjoyed some of the salty ledes that reporters at the Richmond Times-Dispatch have written while covering the Youngkin administration's early attempts to push its agenda. Here's a good one from Michael Martz about Youngkin's effort to get rid of the grocery tax (which, at this point, does not have universal Republican support): "Legislators are beginning to remember why eliminating the sales tax on groceries has been hard to do, after decades of trying." Who knows what will come of any of these grocery tax bills—between skeptical Republicans; a slim Democratic majority in the Senate; and an oppositional quote from Sen. Peterson, one of the few swing votes in that chamber—but a lot of critical school funding for localities hangs in the balance.
Ben Paviour at VPM details another one of the many small decisions made by Governor Youngkin to walk back Virginia's progress on racial justice wherever he can—this time in the governor's mansion. From the piece, "[Kelley Fanto] Deetz’s work updating the mansion’s tours is part of a multiyear project that draws heavily from the experiences of descendents of enslaved workers. It’s not clear where it stands after Youngkin’s Jan. 15 inauguration." Deetz, who has done similar work elsewhere, had started to shift the public history of the governor's mansion away from "oil paintings and whimsical gubernatorial anecdotes" to include the lives and stories of the enslaved people who built and staffed the building. We've seen similar, very successful efforts at other Virginia historical sites like Montpelier and Monticello. I know Republicans like to do these small, performative erasures to make folks mad, but this part seems particularly mean: "A planned educational room for schoolchildren had been turned into a family room for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin."
Should we build more houses in the Richmond region? Yes! Gregory J. Gilligan at the RTD reports that the average price of a home jumped a shocking 11.3% over last year. The cause of this massive increase? Laura Lafayette, CEO of the Richmond Association of Realtors and all-around housing expert, says "So that’s insufficient supply and when demand outstrips supply this is what you get...It’s some natural growth and price appreciation, but historically that’s more around the numbers of 5% to 7% year-over-year. But just generally speaking, a significant portion of this price appreciation is absolutely supply [and] demand." It's so absolutely frustrating to see these clear symptoms of our ongoing housing crisis while still having to fight to the death over each and every marginal increase in density.
This Ned Oliver story in the Virginia Mercury really underscores the need for a legal and regulated marijuana retail market. It also explains the recent drama between Sen. Louise Lucas, Oliver, and the rest of Virginia's press corp.
Earlier this week, the Washington Football Team announced that, henceforth, they'd be known as the Washington Commanders. I'd kind of loved the simplicity and straightforwardness of "the Washington Football Team," and doubly enjoyed the "WFT" shorthand. I'm not really much of an NFL fan, but I do find sports branding fascinating, so I've been waiting for something like this article in the Washington Post explaining the logo, crest, and other aspects of the new look. Personally, I don't love the new logo—it looks like it belongs on the tail of an airplane to me—but it does look pretty tight on a helmet.
This morning's longread Making Sense of Our Covid Losses Dang I really love everything Kathryn Schulz writes, and this piece about the internal emotional conflict caused by the last two years is no exception!
These are important and generous reactions. They attend, as we too seldom do, to life’s uneven allocation of suffering, and they remind us to be grateful both for what is going well in our lives and what could be going worse. Still, when we find ourselves counting our blessings this carefully, it is generally because some of them have gone missing. The pandemic has rendered many of us reluctant to lament those lesser losses, even though they reveal a fundamental truth not only about the times we live in but about life in general: We are almost always facing more than one thing at once and therefore feeling more than one thing at once. We feel sympathy together with self-pity, good fortune together with frustration, gratitude together with grief.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 23 °F, but temperatures today could stretch into the 50s—and you can expect even warmer weather tomorrow. Unfortunately, I'll be spending my afternoon at the dentist, but I do expect some of you to get out there and take advantage of the pleasantish weather for me. Wish me luck.
Water cooler A single, quick COVID update this morning: Pfizer did go ahead and ask the FDA to authorize a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine for children under five yesterday. According to the aforelinked NYT article, the now-familiar series of necessary advisory committee meetings will begin on February 15th—just two weeks from now! Should that first group feel OK with the less-effective, two-dose regimen, the subsequent approval dominos usually fall fairly quickly afterwards. Yesterday, I said the science nerds would have lots of questions about Pfizer's decision to move forward with a less-effective, two-dose vaccine (while still studying a three-dose version), and, today, Katelyn Jetelina works through some of those questions.
Tonight at 5:30 PM, the Richmond Land Bank (which is part of the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust) will hold a meeting of their Citizens Advisory Panel that's open to the public. They'll discuss a really interesting proposal from the JXN Project to purchase 10 properties in Jackson Ward owned by the Land Bank and bring the Skipwith Roper Cottage back to the neighborhood. This should sound familiar! Abraham Skipwith was "the first known free Black person to reside in what would become Jackson Ward," and his home, built originally at 400 W. Duval Street, now sits on a farm in Goochland. Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams wrote a great history of Skipwith in the Richmond Times-Dispatch last April that you should definitely read (or reread). It's really fascinating stuff, and if you'd like to comment in support of this particular project (or any of the work the Land Bank has going on) you can do so tonight!
Richard Hayes at RVA Hub reports that the City is looking for input on a redesign of the oddly shaped intersection of Semmes, Forest Hill, Dundee, and 34th. I'm almost never over that way so it's hard for me to get a feel for where the trouble spots are, but this enormous PDF does show narrowed streets, curb bump-outs, and attempts to make safer pedestrian crossings. If you've got thoughts and feelings, make sure you get them in before February 18th!
The RTD's Michael Martz reports on some good news from the Virginia Senate: Sounds like at least some of the proposals to force localities to hold referendums to increase their real estate tax rate got killed in committee. I mean, it seems pretty clear to me that localities should want as much flexibility to control their primary source of income as possible. I am not an economist nor do I have any idea what the future may hold for assessments, but I wouldn't want some horrible, future economy thing to hamstring the City's ability to provide basic services. Here's a great quote from Republican Senator Hanger, who "said that for him to support these restrictions on local taxing authority, 'it would have to be in tandem with a commitment for the General Assembly to adequately fund core services back to local government...That’s where the pressure is...They have to do this because many times we don’t meet our responsibilities back to local government.”
Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury reports that Democrats in the Virginia Senate also voted to "strip former Trump EPA chief Andrew Wheeler from a list of approved hires for Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s cabinet." There are, of course, still some paths forward for Wheeler, including this delight: "even if Wheeler isn’t confirmed, the Youngkin administration could move him into a different role that doesn’t require General Assembly approval." Remember, Youngkin's nomination of Wheeler was always intended mostly to make liberals angry. Even if he's not appointed, he'll still float around the administration, and whoever eventually ends up taking on that role will still have the same anti-environment, anti-climate views—but probably won't be as outwardly spoken about it.
FYI! Crews will begin removing the Confederate monument pedestals this week. I'm sure this work will have some sort of traffic impact, but I'm more interested in how it will dramatically change the visual impact of those spaces. Pretty exciting. Bonus points for the Northside, because: "The A.P. Hill statue and pedestal are also included in this contract. Specifically, this includes the removal of the cast iron monument and removal of the stone pedestal and all associated materials. The City of Richmond will coordinate the chain of custody for the burial site and remains of A.P. Hill and the required permitting with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources." You know I am VERY excited about the process to rebuild the intersection of Laburnum and Hermitage once this man's corpse is removed—it's one of the most dangerous intersections in the city!
This morning's longread We can't thrive without friction As a person who has, for the most part, quit Twitter but continues to send daily thoughts and opinions out into the internet, this piece rang incredibly true for me. The basic structure of social media is finely tuned to give complete strangers the most frictionless ways to make you feel bad.
But even more crucially is the friction that underpin these forms of exchange. For someone to write me a reply to something I've written on email requires original thought (you don't get to see other replies), and an intrinsic motivation based in genuine curiosity (there's no quick hit of belonging). Thus unlocking the kind of human connections we all in theory say we want: Authentic, good-faith, and considerate. This friction serves as a high-grade filter. Cleaning the feedback of the frivolous and the malevolent. Out of the thousands of people who might read something I write about antitrust, vaccines, polarization, hiring, or whatever, most will probably have some type of reaction. Maybe they're appreciative, maybe they're annoyed, maybe they're ecstatic, maybe they're outraged. But in almost all cases, I won't ever know!
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Good morning, RVA! It's 26 °F, and highs today will hit the upper 40s. We've got warmer temperatures on the extended forecast from here until Friday. Get out there and enjoy it!
Water cooler It definitely looks like the country as a whole has passed its Omicron peak, both in cases and hospitalizations—we're still, unfortunately, waiting for deaths to catch up. The CDC says the nationwide 7-day average of new cases has dropped 19.9% since the previous seven days, and the 7-day average of hospitalizations has dropped 8.8% over that same time. Deaths, however, are still rising, and have increased 25.1% over the past week and have now passed this fall's Delta peak. I think we can see the light at the end of this wave, though. In Virginia, we're experiencing the same trends, if a little delayed from our northern neighbors, with the number of hospitalizations and deaths dropping—or at least seriously plateauing. Despite decreasing numbers, there's still a lot of disease floating around in our communities! If you haven't yet gotten vaccinated or boosted, just look at these graphs of hospitalizations by vaccination status and go get your shot today!
In more uplifting coronanews, the New York Times reports that Pfizer could ask the FDA to authorize a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine for kids under five...as soon as today?? Remember, though, that there are a series of meetings and hoops a potential vaccine must jump through before you can stroll on down to CVS and get one, but it sounds like we're looking at end of February, early March? Those very science-y, very nerdy hoops and meetings should be interesting to watch as Pfizer hasn't changed anything about the vaccine since last we spoke of it when "among children ages 2 to 4, the [immune] response was less robust." What has changed, though, is: "The setback prompted the companies to test a third low dose of the shot in young children. Rather than wait for those results, federal regulators took the unusual approach of encouraging Pfizer to apply for authorization for a two-dose regimen to begin protecting children from the Omicron variant and other possible subsequent mutations..." I think the scientists will have thoughts on this strategy! There's a real complicated tension between demonstrably less protection in kids aged 2–4 and more delays before any vaccine is available for them at all.
Anna Bryson at the Henrico Citizen reports on the very, very small number of Henrico families not complying with Henrico County Public Schools' mask mandate. From the piece: "Of the small group of families who are refusing to have their children wear masks, most are at Deep Run High School. A group of 13 Deep Run students whose parents would not let them wear masks last week completed school work from the auditorium, according to students and teachers." Deep Run High School sits just north of the Short Pump Town Center in the far western part of the County. I love this quote from a Deep Run student, "We’ve worn masks for half the year now, I think we can all survive and wear them for the rest of it."
Richmond BizSense's Jonathan Spiers has a great What's Next piece on the recently-passed City Center plan. I am very, very happy that the City ended up bailing on Navy Hill and the plan to bring a new arena to downtown and has, instead, decided to build a thriving neighborhood in its place. I had no idea that solicitations for tearing down the Coliseum will go out this year! That's awesome. Between this and the Diamond District, the City's Planning Department has some really exciting projects in the works.
Michael Martz at the RTD reports on the unsurprising work the House of Delegates' Republicans are doing to make rich folk richer. The story is mostly a "yeah, yeah, we know," but I absolutely love Martz's lede: "Democrats now in the minority in the House of Delegates have discovered a form of tax relief that Gov. Glenn Youngkin doesn’t support — one meant to directly benefit low-income working families." I can definitely get behind reporting that avoids hollow both-sidesism and just puts plainly what our elected leaders are up to.
This morning's patron longread Here’s Why You’re Wrong for Supporting Either In-Person or Virtual School Submitted by Patron Brandon. This is from McSweeney's, but sure feels like both versions could have come from The Atlantic.
The science could not be more clear on this. There are millions of children who [STILL CANNOT GET VACCINATED/HAVE ALREADY SUFFERED FROM YEARS OF ISOLATION]. If we wait just a little longer to bring our kids back to classrooms, they’ll be dramatically more [SAFE/STUNTED]. How can you live with yourself, knowing you have absolutely no regard for the [PHYSICAL/MENTAL] health of our youth? And what about the loss of learning? Have you considered the long-term implications of [SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS TEACHING THE ROCK CYCLE/LEARNING ABOUT THE ROCK CYCLE WITH VIRTUAL ROCKS]? It’s truly disquieting to see how far we’ve fallen from the flawless status quo that the American public school system was enjoying in 2019.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 20 °F, and I continue to be disappointed with our snow situation. What even was that! Bleh. Today, though, you can expect temperatures in the mid 40s, and, later this week, even warmer temperatures through at least Thursday.
Water cooler Genevieve Siegel-Hawley had a must-read column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch over the weekend: “Lawmakers should hold the line on privatizing public education.” Siegel-Hawley is real smart and this is the column I’ve been looking for on Virginia’s return to segregation academies via Governor Youngkin’s push to expand charter schools. Here’s a quote from the piece: “Effectively recreating dual systems of schooling — a hallmark of the pre-Brown era — by increasing neovouchers and charter schools in Virginia is problematic for all of us. Siphoning substantial funding away from our woefully underresourced, overstretched regular public schools doubles down on separate and unequal schooling for the students left behind. And white, segregated charter and private schools will receive government support to ill-educate future citizens for a multiracial society.”
This is the second, must-read piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Chris Suarez reports on the new attempt to bring a casino to Richmond’s Southside and the extremely stressful plan to pair it with a reduction in the real estate tax rate. Suarez does a great job of laying out how the mayor’s proposed tax reduction would mostly benefit affluent home owners, who mostly voted against the casino. Here it is, plainly put: “Homeowners in precincts that supported the casino on Election Day would save about $40, while those in precincts that opposed it would save about $90.” For context, the tax reduction would cost the city $5.7 million in annual revenue, and, once the rate goes down, it’s nearly impossible to raise again (especially if the Republicans in the General Assembly get their way). That’s a lot of money to hope the casino covers for literally forever. Suarez also talks to local political analyst, Richard Meagher, who points out that throughout his two terms, Mayor Stoney has advocated, multiple times, for tax increases. I can see how the mayor, searching for revenue but stymied by Council, would want to switch his tactics from directly raising it through taxes to enticing huge, taxable developments to the City—see Navy Hill, Casino One, and now Casino Two. I think this is, at least, a consistent and good-faith strategy. It’s not one I agree with, of course, and I’d prefer we replicate what the City’s doing with the Diamond District 100 times, everywhere we can. Where you really lose me, though, is proposing to strip the City from almost $6 million annually—that’s the entire budget of the Richmond Public Library! If folks want to take another swing at a casino, fine, but let’s do that without putting the future work of reinvesting in Richmond at risk. P.S. I think this is one of the best things I’ve read in the paper in a good, long while. Great work (and thank you) to everyone involved!
Michael Martz, also at the RTD, writes about Richmond’s sewers and so I am honor-bound to link you to the piece. I love seeing our federal legislators involved in the massively expensive work to upgrade Richmond’s aging combined sewer system—especially how they’re angling to remove a local-match requirement from some of that sweet, sweet infrastructure bill money. That’d certainly help move things along because, according to April Bingham, director of Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities, “the city’s ability to match additional federal or state contributions ‘has been exhausted.’” Bingham also notes that any Republican efforts to speed up the City’s timeline on replacing the sewer system is “just not feasible, even with federal funding.” Please keep this in mind! The Governor wants to make this sewer work a key piece of his environmental platform, but it sure sounds like he has set unrealistic timelines for the City. That’ll let him point fingers and shrug shoulders when the enormous amount of work hasn’t been completed at the end of his term.
The New York Times has a piece about restaurants ditching their phone lines that opens with local spooky/charming mini-golf bar Hotel Greene. I guess some people are annoyed by this, but for those of us with an irrational fear of the phone it seems just fine!
I’m a sucker for long exposures photos of water AND a sucker for drone photos of the James River. Via /r/rva, here’s a set of photos that are both!
Reminder! Today is the last day to submit feedback on the City’s transportation plan policy guide, aka Path to Equity. I know I’ve said this before, but, even if you don’t plan on submitting feedback or if you don’t particularly care about “policy guides” in general, you should still read this PDF. In fact, you should read this PDF and then you should send it to a couple of your friends to read, too. It does such a great job of laying the foundational context to a lot of Richmond’s biggest (and most expensive, see above) challenges. It’s such a great primer, and I’m gad it exists!
Because it might literally come up at the water cooler today, the Rams will play the Bengals on February 13th in Super Bowl LVI (56). Show off your sports knowledge by saying things like “the Bengals were a 125-1 shot to reach the Super Bowl!” and “did you see that ludicrous display last night??”
This morning's longread We Still Can’t See American Slavery for What It Was Jamelle Bouie, who lives right down the road in Charlottesville, has a really interesting piece in the New York Times about quantizing the trans-Atlantic slave trade. I know its not the same thing, but I wonder how we take the lesson here—of being careful when abstracting data away from humanity—and apply it to our now-daily COVID-19 quantitative data habits?
Years ago, I worked with colleagues at Slate magazine on an infographic that showed the scale and duration of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, using data from the SlaveVoyages website...What I did not appreciate at the time was how we, the creators, would lose control of our creation. People encountered the infographic in ways we could not anticipate and that lay outside of our imagination. It was repurposed for schools and museums, used for personal projects and in exhibitions. Inevitably, some of these people would contact us. They would want to know more: about the ships, about the journeys, about the people. And we couldn’t answer them. When I think back to the creation of that infographic, I wonder whether we had shown the care demanded of the data. Whether we had, in creating this abstraction, re-enacted — however inadvertently — some of the objectification of the slave trade.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 28 °F, and we're under a Winter Weather Advisory until 10:00 AM tomorrow. You can expect whatever snow that's headed our way to start later this evening and continue on through early Saturday morning. NBC12's Megan Wise has downgraded our accumulation totals to 1–2 inches. Boooo!
Water cooler Ian M. Stewart at VPM talked to a couple of Chesterfield County Public School parents about how they've prepared their children to deal with a school enviornment where masks are no longer required. Obviously, I disagree pretty strongly with parents who think their own individual choices outweigh what's best for the public health—thus, I am a Democrat. That said, though, I found it pretty interesting to hear parents talk through concerns on either side of the issue. I'm still thinking about that final line in the piece from Slate I shared earlier this week: After the governor issued his anti-mask Executive Order #2, "teaching just became significantly harder in Virginia."
The Commonwealth Institute, one of our local policy think tanks, put out this depressing report about the wages of Richmond City employees: "One in 8 general Richmond city workers who work full-time and year-round do not make enough to support themselves, and 4 out of 5 do not make enough to support a family." TCI also says the problem is widespread, not confined to any one department, and has exacerbated an increasingly high turnover rate. They also point to unionizing as one of the ways out of this situation, which is timely as Council will consider two collective bargaining ordinances next week! ORD. 2021-346 would authorize a handful of City departments to unionize, while ORD. 2021-345 would authorize everyone (cops included) to unionize. From TCI's report, "Overall, public-sector collective bargaining tends to boost pay by 5% to 8%." Council's Organizational Development committee could/should take up both of these papers on February 7th (assuming they don't get continued).
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Mel Leonor reports on Governor Youngkin's early moves to flood Virginia's educational landscape with charter schools. I'm not smart enough to know the full impact of standing up charter schools all over the place, but two quotes from this piece raise bright red flags for me. First, "While Youngkin said the bill is centered on colleges and universities, it would also allow private, for-profit businesses to open charter schools using public dollars.", and second, "Other Youngkin-backed legislation would allow the state Board of Education and regional charter agencies to approve applications for new charter schools." Our public schools, especially in Virginia's cities, are already underfunded, and creating a ton of charter schools—possibly run by for-profit businesses!—funded from the same pot of money seems like a great way to increase the disinvestment in our existing public school system. Also, dang, so much for local control, right? Removing local school boards' authority to create and approve charter schools seems like a big, terrible overreach likely to make me feel hopeless in the future. To quote Sen. McClellan, "I would also remind everyone that the last time the state tried to step in and override local school boards on decisions that were made was Massive Resistance."
Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury reports on a great example of how centering a policy platform on "making liberals angry" can have real, unintended consequences. The Governor plans to "increase state funding for local [police] departments by $26 million, 'but only in localities that are increasing funding for their police departments.'" This is, presumably, a sick burn to liberal cities where protestors chanted "defund the police" yet whose subsequent police budgets remained mostly unchanged. In fact, 40 of 48 localities that dropped funding for their police departments (83%), voted for Youngkin and are mostly tiny, small towns that have tiny, small, and fluctuating budgets. Oops.
This morning's longread How Putin Is Using Russia’s Military as a Tool for Foreign Policy I'm trying to learn more about what's going on with Russia and Ukraine at the moment, and a reader sent me this piece that helped provide some of the historical/military context.
And instead of socks, poorly trained soldiers often wrapped their feet in swaths of cloth, the way their Soviet and Tsarist predecessors had. Two decades later, it is a far different fighting force that has massed near the border with Ukraine. Under Mr. Putin’s leadership, it has been overhauled into a modern sophisticated army, able to deploy quickly and with lethal effect in conventional conflicts, military analysts said. It features precision-guided weaponry, a newly streamlined command structure and well-fed and professional soldiers. And they still have the nuclear weapons.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 16 °F, and I hope you’ve got some socks on! Today you can expect highs to maybe reach 40 °F as we wait for colder weather to move in tomorrow along with another winter storm. We’re currently under a Winter Storm Watch until 4:00 PM on Saturday, and NCB12’s Andrew Freiden says we should expect 1–4 inches of snow starting on Friday night. Get your milk and bread while you still can!
Water cooler This week, my two favorite epidemiologist newsletter ladies, Emily Oster and Katelyn Jetelina, both talked about what the end of this pandemic looks like. As cases peak across the country, I think it’s something we’re all thinking about as we start making plans and envisioning what the rest of 2022 (and beyond) will look like. For me it’s a whole lot of hope mixed with a general buzz of anxiety over the unknown. I appreciated both of these perspectives as I sort through my own thoughts and feelings! Here’s Oster, who’s just now recovering from a mild COVID-19 infection: “This post-infection moment feels, to me, like a possible opportunity to start making the emotional transition to living with COVID that I think many of us need to do. Part of living with COVID means accepting the risk that you’ll get it; it’s not the same as welcoming it or ignoring it or being cavalier. But even if you’re careful, you may get COVID, just like the flu or other illnesses, and it is something we will ultimately need to accept and still be able to do the other things that bring us joy.” And here’s Jetelina, who, as I mentioned earlier this week, is definitely less...positive...than Oster: “On an individual-level, we pay attention to transmission on the ground. If transmission is high, tighten up behaviors: wear masks inside, consider cancelling big events, use antigen tests a lot, trust positives, and isolate. When we are at low transmission, loosen up restrictions: we eat inside restaurants, we take off our masks, we let our kids play at indoor trampoline parks. We ride the waves while, simultaneously, pushing towards an endemic state...There will be an end, it’s just not how you pictured it. The journey to reach stasis is dependent on the virus, our population-level policies, and our individual-level decisions.”
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers has an early look at the City’s work to revise the current Airbnb regulations. There’s a lot going on in this piece! The major takeaway for me, though, is that Airbnb hosts don’t really care about being in compliance with the existing regulations and something about the program needs to change—either the enforcement, the regulations, or something. I plan on keeping an eye on the proposed changes, because currently folks are limited to only Airbnb-ing their primary residence. The idea being that—during a housing crisis—people shouldn’t buy up homes to use as exclusively as short-term rentals.
Hey, do you want to serve on one of the City’s many boards and commissions? You can, you should, you must, and you have until March 15th to apply for one of the current vacancies. Here are a few of the open spots that sound most interesting to me (but make sure you tap through for the full list, too): the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Supervisory Board (a member of a charitable institution or a developer), the Maggie L. Walker Community Land Trust Citizens’ Advisory Panel, the Participatory Budgeting Steering Commission (resident of public housing or a person with a disability), the Safe and Healthy Streets Commission, and the Urban Design Committee. Depending on the board or commission the level of commitment can be pretty low—some meet just quarterly—and still let you stick a hand into the warm and thrumming inner workings of government. Gross but cool! You can also fill out this form and get on the City Clerk’s email list to learn about future vacancies in case I forget to tell you about them.
Patrick Larsen at VPM has a really nice, plain-language explanation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Governor’s botched plan to pull Virginia out of the cap-and-trade program. It sure doesn’t sound like the Governor has the authority to quit RGGI on his own, and the actual, legal path to do so seems real narrow. The Virginia Mercury’s Sarah Vogelsong explores the four possible ways Republicans maybe could bail on RGGI (and our future generations). Honestly, I can’t tell if the gov got bad advice from his legal team, or if this another attempt to not really _do_ anything but just make liberals angry. If the latter, mission accomplished!
City Council will hold another Redistricting Information and Engagement Meeting tonight at 5:00 PM. I’m not sure if this is a repeat of the previous two meetings or if they’ll cover new information since Council introduced some revisions to their redistricting schedule this past Monday. Either way, Council moves on to publicly drawing new district maps on February 9th, which sounds like a ton of nerdy fun. I wonder how they’ll facilitate map drawing among nine Council members in a virtual meeting?
First, watch this absolutely bananas video of people on dirt bikes and cops in cars battling each other by zooming around Broad Street in the middle of the day (Warning: Near the end an officer runs out into the street and is hit full-on by a person on a dirt bike, and it’s hard to watch). Second, read the press release the Richmond Police Department sent out about the incident. Third, think about all the times you’ve read a police press release in the media that’s presented without any additional reporting, comment, or other side of the story.
This morning's longread Can Science Fiction Wake Us Up to Our Climate Reality? I just finished reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future a couple weeks ago, and then, boom, the New Yorker has this good and long pröfile of him.
There is knowing and knowing. Some knowledge sits inert within us; other knowledge shapes us. This past summer, Robinson and Lisa drove across the country. “In Wyoming, we hit a pall of wildfire smoke so thick that we couldn’t see the mountains just a few miles away on each side of the road,” he wrote, in an article for the Financial Times. “It went on like that for 1,000 miles”—a sign as clear as one of the ten plagues. Among the most disconcerting ideas in “The Ministry for the Future” is that the signs of climate change will have to become unmistakable—and painful—before we really acknowledge what we know. We will learn only with experience.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 28 °F, and colder temperatures have returned. Expect highs(ish) in the mid 30s for the next little while. Make sure to keep an eye on Friday night or Saturday morning as that's our next best chance for snow to move into the region.
Water cooler I've still got a lot of thoughts about Council and the Mayor's plan to pair a second casino referendum with a two-cent reduction in the City's real estate tax—most of them, at the moment, aren't very constructive. But, basically, I've got two main issues with this plan: 1) I'd rather the City build thriving neighborhoods than big, shiny projects, 2) Given the decades of racist disinvestment, the City needs MORE revenue, not less. Following the whole Navy Hill situation, Richmond has done pretty well with that first point. We've got a new City Center plan, which was just adopted this past Monday by Council, and the Diamond District development process is humming along. Both should—fingers crossed—build new neighborhoods that create stable and long term tax revenue for the City. However, neither of those two neighborhoods are on the Southside and the casino is. That said, a casino is not the only way to bring investment, and nothing prevents us from building thriving neighborhoods on the Southside, too. In fact, take a look at this draft Southside Economic Plan introduced at last week's Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meeting. While a lot of this document is plans within plans, it lays out the path towards serious, solid, urbanist investment across the Southside! I mean, check out some of the highlights: BRT plans along Hull and Midlothian, rezonings, plans to update infrastructure like sidewalks and bike lanes, adding a bunch of properties to the land bank, and redeveloping big sites like Southside Plaza and Oak Grove Elementary School. The City could turn its focus from a bright-and-shiny, high-risk, morally-questionable casino and go all-in on something like this plan to build thriving, sustainable Southside neighborhoods. It's harder work, for sure, and will take a long time, but it'd certainly be worth it. A short postscript: I think the casino is pretty much a done deal (although I thought that last time!), and, should it pass, the City should take the huge up-front check and pour it straight into kicking off pieces of something like the Southside Economic Plan.
Earlier this week, Richmond Public Schools launched a Test to Stay program as part of their COVID-19 protocols, and you can read through the four-page FAQ here. Test to Stay, or TTS, uses the magic of rapid tests to allow folks identified as close contacts to return to school—as long as they repeatedly test negative. From the FAQ: "TTS provides testing on the school nights of the first five days of an individual’s assigned quarantine period and allows participants to attend school and/or work throughout the full 10-day quarantine period, assuming negative test results." This is incredibly helpful for minimizing quarantine disruptions—both for staff and students. Participants in the TTS program must wear a mask when back at school, which makes some students who cannot wear a mask ineligible, and adds an interesting wrinkle to the ongoing conversations about the Governor's anti-mask Executive Order #2. Can you even safely implement a TTS program if a school district has given up on masks?
Speaking of! Jessica Nocera at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Chesterfield County Public Schools voted to ditch their mask mandate this coming Thursday.
City Council has a couple quick things floating around today. First, they'll hold a special meeting to get one-time COVID-19 bonuses sorted for certain City employees. Second, the Governmental Operations committee will meet and consider RES. 2022-R006, which expresses Council's interest in translating all of their meetings and materials into Spanish—including providing live Spanish-language translation during their meetings. This is a super early (and non-binding) resolution that basically asks Council's staff to figure how much all of that would cost, but I'm still excited about it. Richmond Public Schools manages to do this well, so we know its possible!
This morning's longread Virginia schools mask mandate — Glenn Youngkin has created chaos. I enjoyed reading this piece in Slate about the rollout of Governor Youngkin's executive order removing the PreK–12 mask mandate. While y'all already know the gist, it's still interesting to see a national magazine's take on what's happening locally. Plus, the piece includes about 600 links, and, if you wanted, you could easily find yourself deep into an anti-mask rabbit hole.
The best way to ensure public contempt for every level of government is by pitting various parts of it against one another, dumping it all on the courts to resolve, and then telling a million parents to do whatever they want in the interim (just do it with “love”). It hardly matters what a court says at this juncture—parents have been told to defy any authority but their own. Teaching just became significantly harder in Virginia.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 38 °F, and today’s highs will hit 50 °F for the last time in the foreseeable future. What a difference a day makes, because this morning Nick Russo and Megan Wise at NBC12 are tracking another chance for snow on Friday night. I hope this one pans out—I’m tired of these unfulfilling dustings!
Water cooler It’s still early, but I’m optimistic about the graphs of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 in Virginia. Both have at least plateaued or even started to decline. This matches what we’re seeing across the country, especially in northeastern states that got Omicron’d before we did. Still though, the absolute number of people hospitalized is very high, and if, for some reason, you needed additional convincing to get vaccinated, check out these graphs from the CDC comparing hospitalization rates of unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people. To quote from the words bit, “in December...monthly rates of COVID-19 associated hospitalizations were 16x higher in unvaccinated adults.” That’s a lot of Xs. Finally, I’ve seen a couple Concerned Tweets about a new sub variant of Omicron, termed BA. 2. Yesterday, Katelyn Jetelina, my favorite yet not-exceedingly-optimistic epidemiologist newsletter person, had this to say on the topic: “We know this virus will mutate. And BA.2 is an example that it’s doing what we expect. We should keep an eye on this, but I’m not too concerned right now. I’m more concerned about another variant popping out of nowhere like Omicron did.” She’s got some data and studies to back that position up, and I encourage you to tap through and read.
Look at this dumb thing I wrote yesterday: “I really don’t see five members of Council voting to overturn a referendum on a controversial project and attempting to redo the whole thing—especially during an non-presidential election year.” Not only was I incredibly wrong, but Council passed the Casino Re-Referendum papers 8–1 with Councilmember Jordan the only vote against. However, to my credit, when I made yesterday’s very incorrect prediction, I was missing this key piece of information reported by Chris Suarez at the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and several members of the City Council are proposing a 2-cent reduction to the city’s real estate tax rate to get voters behind a second casino referendum.”
First, you should be angry that our elected leadership is wasting precious time and energy re-rolling the dice on a casino referendum and willfully ignoring and discarding the results of a referendum. Let me quote Allan-Charles Chipman, one of my favorite voices on the casino, “The passage of this legislation would defy the expressed will of the people in Richmond. It is a frequent tactic of casinos once they lose any democratic referendum to try and break the will of the people with consecutive referendums...While double or nothing is an acceptable tool for someone who lost a bet in the casino, it is not an acceptable option for the members of this body who lost a bet on a casino.”
Second, you should be angry that our leaders—who spent last night talking about how a casino will bring much-needed revenue to the City—are selling this re-referendum by pairing it with a reduction in the real estate tax. Our leaders are, right now, contemplating trading extremely stable, predictable, and long-term revenue, for a big check up front and an uncertain future. It’s shocking. I’ve written about it one trillion times before, but the real estate tax is one of our only tools to generate the money we need, on the scale we need it, to tackle decades and decades of disinvestment. And once you lower the real estate tax, it is nearly impossible to raise it back up. In fact, Republicans (and maybe some Democrats) in the General Assembly would like to make it nearly impossible to ever raise the real estate tax again by requiring localities to hold a referendum to do so (HB 1010 / SB 620). Here’s the worst case scenario: Council lowers the real estate tax and fails to spend the big, upfront casino cash addressing systemic problems on the Southside; the General Assembly prevents localities from ever again raising the real estate tax; and the casino revenues flames out in a half-dozen years leaving us with a hole in our budget that we must fill by cutting people and programs (and we can probably guess which part of town will feel those cuts most).
Looking forward, I see a couple of things to keep in mind as the City plods endlessly toward another casino vote. One is that Sen. Joe Morrissey would love to put a casino in Petersburg and has legislation floating around in the GA (SB 203) that would authorize Petersburg to hold their own referendum and ban Richmond from holding a second referendum for five years. Another is the possibility of a Land Value Tax in Richmond, which would be the only way I could ever get behind a reduction in the real estate tax. We have the authority to do so, it’d result in a better and more equitable source of revenue for the City, and it wouldn’t be such a short-sighted gamble. It’d require a lot of messaging and courage from our elected leadership, though.
I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts and feelings on this as we move closer to November, but, right now, I’m just feeling incredibly deflated and disappointed.
Dang, is there a lot of big stuff going on at the moment! The Washington Post reports that Richmond Public Schools joined a lawsuit against the Governor’s anti-mask Executive Order along with Fairfax, Alexandria, Hampton, Falls Church, Arlington, and Prince William County schools. Kenya Hunter at the RTD has some quotes from locals and local legislators. I haven’t seen a timeline for how this lawsuit will play out, so stay tuned for possible injunctions or whatever the lawyer word is! Related, Holly Prestidge, also at the RTD, reports that Hanover County Public Schools have decided to go along with Governor Youngkin’s EO and make masks optional, and Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury points out that the EO applies to private schools as well.
This morning's longread Tide and Time You really gotta read this piece about the impact hasty, thoughtless development and climate change (although the former really is part of the latter, isn’t it?) has on the Outer Banks. I quote an optimistic section below, but living with the effects of climate change means we probably need to let some places go—and the Outer Banks might just be one of those places.
The good news is that humans can reverse these problems because humans created them. However, Dare County’s proactive, yet undercoordinated patchwork of resilience solutions can only address the symptoms but not the causes of climate change, or the islands’ erosion. Slowing or reversing climate change over the coming centuries will require humans to immediately stop burning fossil fuels and confront the exploitative economies that created this climate crisis. We must switch to clean energies and agricultural methods and develop technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Reversing the erosion on the Outer Banks will require North Carolinians to reimagine the tourism and development that wither the islands.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 25 °F, and we’ve survived the cold, cold weekend and have emerged to a decent Monday. Expect highs in the mid 40s and even warmer temperatures tomorrow. As of this moment, the extended forecast is clear of any snow!
Water cooler I’ve got lots of updates on mask-wearing in schools, starting with: Today, the Governor’s Executive Order #2, the one banning mask mandates in PreK–12 schools, takes effect. For now, though, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield schools have all decided to carry their mask mandates forward. Depending on how you frame it, this is either the local school districts adhering to the state law that requires them to follow CDC guidance to the maximum extent practicable or it is them defying the Governor to protect the safety of students and staff. Either way, I’m here for it. Additionally, RPS has (maybe) gone a step further and, according to Kenya Hunter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “voted Sunday to take legal action to preserve its authority to oversee city schools and enforce COVID-19 protocols in an apparent effort to block the governor’s executive order on masks.” Due to lawyery stuff, we don’t know for sure what the Board voted on yesterday afternoon, so stay tuned on that front. Also over the weekend, the Virginia Department of Health and the Virginia Department of Education put out this Interim Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in Virginia PreK–12 Schools. If you want to get into the details of how the State’s public health agency is dealing with an anti-public health executive, scroll down to page 10 and read the section on masking. Finally, if you’re a family hopelessly confused about when to send your kid to school if they’ve been exposed to or caught COVID, VDH put out this flowchart illustrating the (very complicated) isolation/quarantine guidance for kids trying to go to school. This particular document, although overwhelming to look at, is much less wishy-washy on mask-wearing, and, as far as I can tell, matches the current CDC guidance.
The Governor also dropped this 14-page PDF of his legislative and budget amendment priorities for this General Assembly session. Two important things: First, I don’t know how many of these bills sound innocuous in the descriptions but do some secret, terrible thing to roll back decades of progress; and second, I don’t have any sense at all which of these bills are dead on arrival and which have a chance at convincing one or two Democratic senators. You’ll see a ton of big-ticket items, like charter school bills, which feel like the Governor’s biggest priority this session. You’ll also see some smaller-but-terrible bills like HB 1010 / SB 620, which would require localities to hold a referendum to increase the real estate tax rate. Not that we have the political gumption to raise the real estate tax in Richmond right now, but if the City was required to hold a referendum to do so it would literally never, ever happen. Unfortunately, because of a lot of racism, raising the real estate tax is one of the very, very few ways Richmond can afford to undo the decades and decades of disinvestment in our housing, schools, and infrastructure.
City council meets today at 6:00 PM for their regularly scheduled meeting, and you can find the full agenda here. You can also see allllll the bills I’m tracking over on the GMRVA Legislation Tracker Trello board. Of particular note for today: Council looks like they’ll vote on ORD. 2021-308, the ordinance which would give the School Board the money necessary to pay for designing a replacement for George Wythe High School. I haven’t seen any public discussion on if City Council and School Board came to an agreement on the size of that replacement, so I don’t have a great sense for how the votes will go tonight (or if it’ll get continued again at some point today). Also on the agenda tonight is Councilmember Trammell’s ORD. 2022-015, and a few accompanying papers, that would reinitiate the casino referendum process. I really don’t see five members of Council voting to overturn a referendum on a controversial project and attempting to redo the whole thing—especially during an non-presidential election year. Finally, at their informal meeting, City Council will review the FY2023 budget schedule, which I am very excited about.
Extreme PDF alert! The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development released the HB854 Statewide Housing Study—all 426 pages of it! That’s way too many pages, even for me, but the first dozen or so give a really good high-level picture of the state of housing across the Commonwealth. If anyone ends up summarizing this beast, will you let me know?
As foretold, Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury reports on the now-Republican-led House of Delegates and their attempts to hurry up retail marijuana sales into 2023 instead of 2024. Oliver also reports on a ton of other details that are sure to shift—mostly changes removing any sort of equity or reparative aspects of the new laws.
This morning's longread World’s Largest Wildlife Crossing Is Now Under Way in L.A. It’s like reconnecting neighborhoods split apart by highways, but for animals.
Transportation planning largely does not take the habitats of species other than humans into consideration, but L.A.’s proposal could help change that. Wildlife bridges received $340 million in the federal infrastructure bill, and as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg noted yesterday, preventing such collisions makes roads safer for humans too. According to the Federal Highway Administration, about 300,000 wildlife collisions happen on U.S. roadways each year — “Those are just estimates,” says Pratt, “and that’s just the big stuff” — but many are not reported. Pratt says the solution doesn’t necessarily mean building dedicated infrastructure for every animal; rather, it’s about creating more corridors similar to this one, where humans can move around safely without murdering other living things (or each other).
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Good morning, RVA! It's 24 °F, and today's high is freezing! Expect cold, cold, cold temperatures in the 20s for the entire day and maybe some snow this evening, but probably nothing to get too excited about. Temperatures warm up (relatively) over the weekend. Stay bundled!
Oh, also! Tons of things are opening late this morning—including school districts—so check a website or two before you head out to whatever thing you need to do this morning.
Water cooler The Governor has released his COVID-19 Action Plan, a short, 3-page document that you can read through in just a couple of minutes. I think he mostly plans on continuing the work that's been in motion for the last year or so, although the "prioritized testing guidelines" section at the bottom does mention that the Governor will discourage asymptomatic individuals from testing and that the State Health Commissioner will issue "new guidelines that prioritize the use of rapid tests." These new guidelines will address the current testing shortage (that we're maybe already coming out of), but I wonder how they will apply when tests are, once again, plentiful and easy to find? Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has more details, including a look at what local health districts are doing to increase the supply of tests.
Ian M. Stewart at VPM reports the wonderful, if a bit surprising, news that the Chesterfield County School Board voted yesterday to keep their mask mandate for now. Sounds like their biggest concern is the lack of clarity in the Governor's EO rather than any major hold-ups with the substance of the Order. Here's a quote from one of the boardmembers, "There’s a litany of issues...Does this apply to just educational settings? What about after-school settings? There’s so much minutiae and so many nuances that we need to look at before we literally just dive right in. I don’t want to make a mistake.” Meanwhile, Attorney General Miyares has "asked the Supreme Court of Virginia to dismiss the lawsuit against Governor Youngkin and Executive Order 2." He says he does this to "affirm that parents matter," but clearly not the parents who filed this very lawsuit! Here's what I think happens: The Governor's Executive Order stands, the local school districts who've kept their mask mandate continue to do so, a small percentage of kids show up on Monday without masks on in those districts, and everyone takes a half-hearted victory lap.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Mark Robinson went to yesterday's Partnership for Housing Affordability State of Housing event so you didn't have to. It should come as no surprise to readers of this email, but we need way, way more housing in the region.
For your calendar: RPS's School Board has called a special meeting this coming Monday, January 24th at 6:00 PM. I looked on the District's BoardDocs website—where they keep all of their meeting agendas—and didn't see anything for Monday's meeting, so I have absolutely no idea what they've got on their minds. Youngkin's Executive Order #2 goes into effect on Monday, so maybe it's something to do with that? Or maybe they want more space to discuss the Superintendent's proposed budget? Maybe another plot twist in the George Wythe Saga? Who knows! This makes me feel how I do when a friend says, "Oh man, the WEIRDEST thing happened to me today, absolutely bananas, I'll have to tell you later." Don't bring it up if you're not gonna tell me! Anyway, tune in to YouTube on Monday to find out.
In important sandwich news, the folks behind Black Sheep—a huge-sandwich shop in Carver from a while back—are getting the band back together for a Black Sheep pop-up at Secco Wine Bar on January 31st. Eileen Mellon has the delicious details.
Reminder! City Council will hold their second Redistricting Information and Engagement Meeting today at 12:00 PM. This is a repeat of yesterday's meeting and should get you up to speed on the process to shift a couple thousand folks around between the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th City Council Districts.
This morning's longread Old, Primeval Forests May Be a Powerful Tool to Fight Climate Change I don't know how much "saving old trees" really helps us keep the planet alive, but it certainly doesn't hurt. Plus, how great are huge, old trees?
Over the decades, Leverett’s work has made him a legend among “big-tree hunters,” those self-identified seekers who spend their weekends in search of the tallest, oldest trees east of the Mississippi. Big-tree hunters are more like British trainspotters than gun-toting outdoorsmen: They meticulously measure and record data—the height of a hemlock, the breadth of an elm—for inclusion in the open database maintained by the Native Tree Society, co-founded by Leverett. The goal, of course, is to find the biggest tree of a given species. As with any amateur pursuit, there is disagreement as to standards and protocols, but the one thing everybody seems to agree on is that when you have a lead on the biggest or the oldest, you call Leverett, who is always ready to talk big trees and will often travel to larger specimens to measure them himself.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 40 °F, but rain and colder temperatures move in this later this morning. At some point this afternoon expect the rain to switch over to snow while temperatures continue to drop and kids look expectantly for a school-cancellation email. NBC12's Andrew Freiden says we should expect 1–2 inches of snow to stick around this evening. Be careful if you've got to move around the region tonight!
Water cooler We know that both Richmond and Henrico County Public Schools have decided to keep their mask mandates, despite whatever the Governor's Executive Order #2 says. But what about Chesterfield County Public Schools? Their school board will meet tonight to decide exactly that, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a good piece by Jessica Nocera pointing out some of the challenges the County's teachers are facing as Omicrons tears through the district. Also in the RTD, Holly Prestidge reports that the Hanover County School Board will hold a similar meeting on Monday, which is the day the EO takes effect but a previously scheduled flex, at-home day for students. These will both be epic meetings, I'm sure, but I'm most interested in where Chesterfield ends up, especially since the County split pretty evenly between Youngkin and McAuliffe in the gubernatorial election (51.8% to 47.4%). And a final reminder that I feel compelled to keep saying out loud: Despite the previous sentence, the science supporting masks-wearing is not political. Masks are cool and good and are an easy way to keep people safe in school buildings.
Bills come and go quickly during this early stage of the General Assembly, so it's important to have realistic expectations and not to fall in love with anything too fast. But, sometimes you can't help yourself. SB 472, introduced by Senator McClellan, would authorize Richmond to levy a 1% sales tax to pay for school construction. If Richmond is anything, it's a locality with big school construction needs that lacks the debt capacity to pay for those needs, and this bill would certainly help address that. Michael Martz at the RTD has some more details that you should casually note while not getting your hopes too high.
The Virginia Mercury's Sarah Vogelsong has a great context-setting piece as the General Assembly's Republicans look to undo the important, yet still-too-little climate legislation passed over the last couple of years. Tap through for some frustrating quotes and a total lack urgency.
City Council kicks off it's better-late-than-never redistricting public engagement process tonight at 6:00 PM. Given the detailed agenda, which you can find in full here, it looks like tonight's meeting will mostly walk through an overview of the redistricting process. Tomorrow, Council will host an identical meeting at 12:00 PM for the lunchtime crowd. If you'd like to learn more, you can read through some background redistricting information on the City's website, where you'll also find a couple tables listing out the shifts in population since the last redistricting. Somehow, through a number of small tweaks to district boundaries, the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th City Council Districts need to have a couple thousand people spread around between them. Will that result in drastically new Council districts? I doubt it, but I'm excited to see new proposed maps—even if they're very, very similar to the maps we have today.
Today at 4:00 PM you can join the Partnership on Housing Affordability for an update on the State of Housing in the Richmond Region. It's a free, but in-person, event, so evaluate your risk-reward accordingly. If you can't make it out that way but still want the latest on Richmond's affordable housing crisis, I'd wager that today's content might just show up as a PDF on their website at a later date.
Via /r/rva, what public services should you take advantage of but may not be common knowledge? I definitely did not know about the Library of Virginia and Science Museum of Virginia's Nature Backpack program (which includes a parking pass for any Virginia State Park!).
This morning's longread Deer Wars and Death Threats Too many deer in your neighborhood? What if we gave them all vasectomies?
Ed Burke, the borough’s deputy president, remembers first seeing deer in the news in the nineteen-nineties. Every once in a while, one would swim over from New Jersey, a feat that is impressive not necessarily for the swim—deer are strong swimmers and the Arthur Kill is fairly narrow—but for the fact that the deer first had to navigate a heavily trafficked industrial corridor of the Jersey shoreline sometimes known as the Chemical Coast. Once on the island, the animal’s exploits were often covered like those of a visiting dignitary, or a colorful drunk: someone who did not understand the local customs but who was nevertheless appreciated for his peculiarity and his novelty. “Did he pay the toll?” Burke joked.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 29 °F, and those not-so-cold temperatures continue today and into tonight. Expect some rain this evening followed by three days of potential winter weather. Will it be rain, sleet, snow, or just a big huge bust? We’ll find out soon, so get your milk and bread while. you. still. can.
Water cooler Folks, including the Governor’s own team, continue to react to the masked-related Executive Order #2 he signed on Saturday. First, and I don’t know how I missed it, but Lt. Governor Earle-Sears showed up on FOXNews over the weekend threatening to pull funding from schools that do not follow the EO. I think this was mostly a troll, and Youngkin’s spokesperson has chosen to continue the troll by neither confirming nor denying the possibility that the Governor who ran on “excellence in education” was already considering stripping funding from schools on day one of his term. Locally, the mayor had Superintendent Kamras join him on his regularly scheduled press conference yesterday, and both of them had some strong things to say about the EO, which you can read in this piece by Jessica Nocera, Mel Leonor, and Patrick Wilson over in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Then, last night, Richmond’s School Board passed a resolution affirming their mask mandate (8-1, with 4th District’s Jonathan Young the lone vote against). Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury says the Governor’s administration “won’t say how his school masking opt-out order will be enforced” and a group of parents from Chesapeake are suing the Governor in an effort to scrap the Executive Order. And it’s only Wednesday! Now that the lawyers have gotten involved, though, I do think we’ll have some sort of progress in one direction or another before the Order takes effect on Monday. Which direction? I have absolutely no idea. Finally, I think it’s important to say out loud that masks in schools are great, prevent transmission of disease, and are supported by science. The Governor’s EO is anti-science and should be rescinded. These are not two equal sides of the same coin that we should sit down and have a rational debate about. Don’t let the media coverage (mine included) of the process to sort all this out obfuscate the fact that this particular Executive Order is not supported by facts and science!
Also in the RTD, Eric Kolenich reports that VCU, JMU, Virginia Tech, and William and Mary have all removed their employee vaccine mandate as a result of the Governor’s Executive Directive #2. Again, while not great, this is mostly a nothingburger as these universities have required employees to be vaccinated for months and, presumably, have very high vaccination rates (in an email to staff, VCU said “97 percent of faculty and staff were vaccinated” at the end of last semester).
COVIDtests.gov launched yesterday, and that means, theoretically, every household in America can get four free at-home COVID-19 tests shipped directly to them. A single batch of four tests is not a ton of tests, especially for families with more than four members, but! it’s a start. I hope the president expands this program into some sort of regular, ongoing shipment of COVID-19 tests—like we’ve seen in other countries—but I also recognize there are, theoretically, many other ways to get tested for COVID-19. Also, for what it’s worth, I’ve heard about order issues for people who live in apartment buildings or other multi-family residential settings like duplexes, so if things go sideways during your order process, maybe check back in a couple of days. Finally, if you feel sick but can’t find a test or can’t make it out to a testing event, please stay home!
I really enjoyed this piece of reporting by Michael Martz in the RTD on the General Assembly’s attempts to fix Richmond’s combined sewer overflow problem. It’s a big problem! Like billions of dollars big, and if state-level politicians want the problem fixed then the state-level politicians will need to put up a significant portion of those billions of dollars. Governor Youngkin has said ending sewer overflow events is a priority for his administration—I think mostly to offset his climate denialism—so we’ll see if he can jam some more resources for Richmond into this year’s budget. Finding the cash to accelerate this project’s timeline would be huge!
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense has a close-to-final update on the new apartments nearing completion at Lombardy and Broad. The development, which “is the first along that stretch of Broad to take full advantage of the 12-story heights allowed under the city’s TOD-1 Transit-Oriented Nodal zoning,” should finish up in August. I’m so excited for these apartments and for what kind of similarly-tall buildings they’ll hopefully spawn over in the Lowe’s parking lot.
This morning's longread The Great Siberian Thaw I think I’ve shared a longread about attempts to reintroduce woolly mammoths to Siberia—as a way to encourage the growth of light-reflecting, planet-cooling, permafrost-preserving grasses. The New Yorker zooms out a few levels and has a good, general piece about the state of the Russian permafrost and what it means now that it has started to thaw (FYI, it means bad stuff).
Over thousands of years, the frozen earth swallowed up all manner of organic material, from tree stumps to woolly mammoths. As the permafrost thaws, microbes in the soil awaken and begin to feast on the defrosting biomass. It’s a funky, organic process, akin to unplugging your freezer and leaving the door open, only to return a day later to see that the chicken breasts in the back have begun to rot. In the case of permafrost, this microbial digestion releases a constant belch of carbon dioxide and methane. Scientific models suggest that the permafrost contains one and a half trillion tons of carbon, twice as much as is currently held in Earth’s atmosphere.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 28 °F, and temperate weather continues! Today you should expect highs in the 40s and plenty of sunshine—brisk but doable. That vibe should continue into tomorrow, and then, watch out, because real cold weather moves in on Thursday!
Water cooler After his inauguration, at which he yelled "THE SOUND OF FREEDOM" to overhead fighter jets reminding me very much of a bizarro Howard Dean, Governor Youngkin signed nine Executive Orders and two Executive Directives. Most, but not all, of these EOs are sort of like City Council resolutions—non-binding or unenforceable or sternly asking some other group to do a thing because you cannot. They let the Governor take a victory lap for "fulfilling" his day-one promises while not actually doing the hard work of changing laws or policies. Some of the EOs, though, will have an impact, but it's hard to say exactly what. For example, Executive Order #2, "Reaffirming the Rights of Parents in The Upbringing, Education, and Care of Their Children," has the potential to create a lot of chaos in local school districts across the Commonwealth this morning, as it upends the current mandate for masks within K–12 public schools. To quote from the EO: "The parents of any child enrolled in a elementary or secondary school or a school based early childcare and educational program may elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the child’s school or educational program." Locally, both Richmond Public School and Henrico County Public Schools have said, despite the EO, that they will continue with their mask mandate, following state-level legislation and CDC guidance. Executive Order #1, "Ending the Use of Inherently Divisive Concepts, Including Critical Race Theory, and Restoring Excellence in K-12 Public Education in the Commonwealth," is mostly a nothingburger, but will, I'm sure, have an intentional chilling effect in classrooms across the Commonwealth. To quote from Superintendent Kamras's email: "As for the far more nebulous prohibition against teaching divisive concepts, all I can say is this: At RPS, we will continue to honestly study the fact that the Commonwealth of Virginia was literally created on the backs of enslaved Africans, and we will continue to help our students understand the connection between that history and the injustices that still grip our community today – in education, housing, healthcare, the legal system, and more." Before you scoff too loudly at the failure of these flimsy Executive Orders to make a practical impact on the lives of Virginians, remember that the guiding principle for Republicans is not passing legislation but making liberals mad. These EOs did exactly that and, by that account, were a huge success.
The James River Parks System has a new Superintendent: Giles Garrison! JRPS is one of our best things, and, after reading Garrison's love letter to the James, I feel like JRPS is in good hands. Check out her video, too, to learn more about what exactly a park superintendent is and does.
It's 2022, and I feel newly focused on keeping track of local legislation—mostly because things feel less likely to spin chaotically out of control when compared to whatever's going on at the General Assembly. With that in mind, I've resurrected the GMRVA Legislation Tracker Trello board and created a few tools on my end to make updating it easier. This morning, the board tells me that Council's Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee will meet today and consider: the DOT resolution (RES. 2021-R086), adopting the City Center Small Area Plan as part of our official master plan (ORD. 2022-010), and the resolution about finally getting rid of the Confederate monuments (RES. 2022-R002). The latter two seem likely to pass without a hitch, but we'll see how folks feel about asking the mayor to create an actual Department of Transportation. Also, if you're still reading this paragraph, LUHT will hear a presentation on the Path to Equity, which you're welcome to flip through, but I really recommend just reading the full document! It's an easy and super informative read!
Richmond's School Board will also meet tonight and has an absolutely packed agenda. They'll look to adopt the 2022-23 school calendar (which is not year-round-school), chat about the ongoing process to replace George Wythe High School, deal with the Governor's Executive Order #1 (see above), and, most exciting to me, kick off Richmond's budget process with a first look at the Superintendent's proposed RPS budget (full, 192-page document here). Here's the budgetary gist from Superintendent Kamras in one of the aforelinked documents: "We are starting this budget cycle with a $7 million deficit, largely because of reduced State funding. Nonetheless, the Administration believes RPS needs, at a minimum, an additional $19 million for critical new investments (most notably, a teacher raise). To pay for these new investments AND cover our shortfall, we would need $26 million ($7 million for the shortfall and $19 million for the new investments). To meet the $26 million mark, the Administration proposes cutting $4 million from the Central Office and submitting a request to the City for $22 million." And with that, it's here! The most exciting time of the year—budget season—has arrived, and I fully intended to distract myself with it for the next several months. Expect more on this over the coming days, weeks, and months!
This morning's longread In the Future, You Won't Own Any Gadgets This clickbaity headline worked and got me to read through this interesting piece about the consequences of every company ever switching to a service-first revenue model.
This is the reality of a service-first world. The power has shifted so that companies set the parameters, and consumers have to make do with picking the lesser of several evils. Even then, users don’t really have a choice. The internet is now considered a utility, and it’s not like we can put connected devices back into Pandora’s box. You might be able to opt out now, but that’s going to be increasingly unviable. Really, you only have the illusion of choice. This isn’t new. As technology advances, we have fewer options to choose from even as companies tell us we have more choices than ever.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 37 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday. Tomorrow, though, cold weather moves in, dropping temperatures down into the icy teens—I just set a reminder to leave the faucet running in the one freezing-cold bathroom. On Sunday you should expect some sort of winter weather that will likely lead to some sort of accumulation. Megan Wise at NBC12 says we could be looking at a snow-to-sleet-to-rain situation Sunday that leaves us with 2–5 inches on the ground.
Water cooler I think Governor-elect Youngkin has made the last of his appointments, choosing his Superintendent of Public Instruction and then a boatload of appointments across a ton of agencies. Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has a profile of the superintendent, Jillian Balow, which you could probably write yourself—she wants to stop teaching kids about racism and inequity, she's big flustered by The 1619 Project, and she's excited to ban books that make her feel uncomfortable. Youngkin's pick for Assistant Secretary, Elizabeth Schultz, hails from Fairfax, where she led a movement to keep Black and Hispanic students out of their governor's school. Here's Youngkin's quote on the appointments, "Jillian and Elizabeth are going to be crucial in helping Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera restore excellence in education." It should be super clear to everyone that "restore excellence in education"—like "Make America Great Again"—is coded language for repealing and reverting progress made in making our schools more equitable for Virginia's kids.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Mel Leonor has great background on the early legislative progress to bring to life Governor-elect Youngkin's promise of charter schools everywhere. Despite Republicans' insistence that smaller, local government is better, the current proposal (which is still in the early goings) would create "regional bodies [that] would have the power to approve new charter schools...Under that system, localities would always have minority power and would be unable to reject charter school applicants — outnumbered by board members appointed by a charter-friendly state government." Expect more on charter schools throughout the winter, as this looks like one of the General Assembly's most high-profile legislative priorities.
Ben Paviour at VPM has a really interesting profile on Lt. Governor-elect Winsome Sears. I do not know what to make of this person, but she's famous for holding a machine gun and refusing to disclose her vax status so...
Saturday at 12:00 PM Governor-elect Youngkin becomes Governor-regular Youngkin in an inauguration ceremony held at the Capitol, which you can livestream here. Richard Hayes at RVAHub has a map and a list of all the road closures, and many bus routes will make detours in and around Downtown. Plan ahead if you're headed out on Saturday!
Also from Richard Hayes at RVAHub this really excellent photo of one of the smallest dragon fly in Virginia, the Eastern Amberwing.
Logistical note! Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a state holiday, and I will take the morning to sleep, tinker with some of my GMRVA processes, and gird myself for the incoming gubernatorial administration. I'll be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. Have a great weekend, stay warm, and enjoy the snow!
This morning's longread Mirror, Mirror…On Its Way! Way out in space, over the next many months, hundreds of mirrors will move just millimeters per day, aligning into a single, amazing space telescope. Incredible!
The mirror control system is designed to operate only one actuator at a time. That way is both simpler (in terms of the complexity of the control electronics) and safer (since computers and sensors can closely monitor each individual actuator as it works). Furthermore, to limit the amount of heat put into Webb’s very cold mirrors from the actuator motors, each actuator can only be operated for a short period at a time. Thus, those big 12.5-millimeter moves for each segment are split up into many, many short moves that happen one actuator at a time. Scripts sent from the Mission Operations Center will direct this process under human supervision, slowly and steadily moving one actuator at a time, taking turns between segments. At full speed, it takes about a day to move all the segments by just 1 millimeter. It’s about the same speed at which grass grows!
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Good morning, RVA! It's 28 °F, and highs today should hit 50 °F—NBC12's Andrew Freiden says today's the warmest day of the week. Enjoy today and tomorrow and then bundle up for big temperature drops come Saturday!
Water cooler It's General Assembly season during a gubernatorial transition, so state-level politics will dominate this newsletter for a bit, despite my deep preference for all things local. Before we sink too far into this Republican-led mire, like Artax in the Swamp of Sadness, I wanted to do a quick level-setting. Nationally, and more and more at the state level, Republicans' guiding principles are whatever makes Democrats the most mad. The live and love to troll, and that trolling will dominate headlines for the next four years. It will make us very mad. Some people are bad at it, like new Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert, who tweeted last night, "Ralph Northam is leaving office as his own lost cause, condescendingly lecturing us all from some assumed moral high ground because he read the book 'Roots' and then went on a non-stop reconciliation tour. Saturday can’t come fast enough." Gilbert lacks subtlety and skill, but, nonetheless generated a bunch of angry responses from liberals—which was the goal. On the other hand, some people are masterful trolls, like Sen. Tommy Norment, who introduced SB 116 which would "Imposes a $500 fine on the operator of a bicycle who fails to stop at a stop sign. The bill also provides that the bicycle shall be impounded for a period of six months." It's an infuriating piece of legislation that won't make it out of committee as written and wastes everyone's time—and may still generate an angry response from this particular liberal. It's an A+ troll, though, gotta give him that. I bring up these two specific examples, because I think we should—and will try to do so from here on out in this newsletter—entirely ignore these attempts to raise our hackles and distract us from actual, serious, and important legislation. Because while Republicans live to troll, they also love to pass terrible bills, destroy the government institutions they've been charged to lead, and enrich the wealthy whenever possible. That stuff won't dominate the headlines like a bad tweet, but it's what we should focus on if we want to protect the better, safer, and more progressive Commonwealth we've built over the last four years.
"General Assembly Republicans go maskless as omicron surges," reports Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury. Dumb and mostly a troll (see above), but one with consequences! With our local hospitals at capacity and hovering on the brink, every Republican legislator that spreads COVID-19 to a coworker, staff member, lobbyist, or member of the public has increased the load on our healthcare system—not the healthcare system from wherever they may hail. Masks are an easy and efficient way to help get us through the current surging demand on hospital beds and to not wear them for the lolz is childish.
Somehow I totally blipped on Governor Northam's final State of the Commonwealth address last night, which you can read as prepared here or watch over on YouTube. Thankfully, Mel Leonor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a tl;dr if you don't want to spend an hour and fifteen minutes of your life watching Northam's farewell speech—or maybe you do because you'll miss his folksy charm!
Bike Walk RVA has put together a quick petition for folks to sign in support of the trail funding in outgoing Governor Northam's proposed budget. I haven't gotten a sense yet of how much—if any—of the outgoing governor's budget is in peril, so I don't know if this sort of thing is a nice-to-have or a necessary. That said, it takes literally 30 seconds and is the very smallest civic action you can and should take this morning! Just do it!
For Diamond District watchers, Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense has an update on the City's Request for Interest. The planning team held an informational webinar the other day and over 100 people showed up! With any luck this means we'll have multiple, competitive bids (unlike Navy Hill), and the City will be able to find something the meets—or exceeds!—all of its goals.
This morning's longread The Future Will Hunt You Down I love the Indignity newsletter, and, if you can weather Two Dudes Talking About a Movie, this edition is filled with a lot of really good insights. "Idiotopian" is the word I've been looking for this entire time!
The other genre, in which The Running Man stood out as a more memorable landmark, is what I call Idiotopian works—those movies and TV shows that do that thing you just described, taking the most debased and moronic tendencies of present-day culture and imagining what happens if everything stays the same, only more so. The Idiotopian vision has quietly had a more productive long tail than the orthodox Schwarzenegger blockbuster, carried on through works like Idiocracy and Sorry to Bother You, but I now realize that 1987 was probably the year for that mood; besides The Running Man, it brought us Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop, which is the definitive masterwork on the theme, and the American network TV premiere of Max Headroom.
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Good morning, RVA! It's 26 °F, but temperatures should head back up near 50 °F today. Soak it up and take a lunch-break stroll, because cold weather arrives on Friday and with it the potential for a winter storm—including snow!—on Sunday.
Water cooler The Chesterfield Education Association, as close to a teachers union as they've got, issued this release last night, raising concern about the County's "ability to conduct effective in-person learning under the current conditions." Richmond's version of the same group raised the same flag last week. There are a lot of simultaneously true things happening right now, and it's hard—at least for me—to make sense of them all. 1) You can't have school without teachers, 2) In-person learning is waaaay better for kids than virtual learning, 3) Omicron is incredibly transmissible, 4) Omicron is maybe way more mild?, 5) Regardless of how mild it is, isolation and quarantine guidance will keep a lot of kids and teachers out of school, 6) More people are in the hospital now than ever before. I don't know how you take that (surely incomplete) list, fit all the piece together, and come up with something to keep everyone safe, healthy, and moving forward. Rather than schools hurtling forward toward some inevitable decision, it feels more like they're stuck, getting pulled in 100 different directions, tearing at the seams.
Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury reports on Governor-elect Youngkin's newest COVID-19 adviser, Dr. Marty Makary. Here's a fun quote from the piece, "in February of 2021...Makary predicted that COVID-19 would be 'mostly gone' by that April. The reason, he wrote, would be natural immunity combined with vaccines, which would protect enough Americans to nearly halt transmission of the virus." Or how about this one: "In an August column for the Wall Street journal, Makary argued against mask requirements in schools, claiming that face coverings could be 'vectors for pathogens.'" I dunno, if it were me, I'd want the person leading my COVID-19 team to at least have avoided making incredibly inaccurate COVID-19 predictions in international newspapers.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Mel Leonor and Andrew Cain report on this year's Republican-driven General Assembly session—which starts today! Expect lots of petty bills designed to roll back progressive changes made by Democrats over the last handful of years. We'll see if the Senate, which lacks a Republican majority, has an appetite for garbage like decreasing the grand larceny threshold and removing the authority for local governments to restrict guns in their own buildings.
Meg Schiffres at VPM reports on City Council's reaction to the news that Richmond's public housing authority has already resumed the eviction process for families late on rent. You can flip through RHHA's presentation to Council here. Residents do have a handful of options to avoid eviction—including applying for rent relief—but, given the first paragraph of this email, is now really the time to boot up evictions in our public housing neighborhoods? Also, and I am not a lawyer, but City Council is a legislative body! It seems to me that if they really wanted to intervene and stop evictions, they could draw up and pass some ordinances. Additionally, Council appoints the RRHA board, so keep this week's strong concerns in mind next time those appointments come up for approval.
Today at 9:00 AM, the Central Virginia Transportation Authority's Fall Line Working Group will meet to noodle on a timeline for building out segments of the multi-use trail that will eventually stretch from Ashland to Petersburg. Tune in if you want, but really I'm just excited to point out that the wheels of government have started to turn and the Fall Line is rapidly becoming a Real Boy! If you have some time this morning, stare dreamily at the proposed alignment which crosses eight different localities.
This morning's longread Chicago’s “Race-Neutral” Traffic Cameras Ticket Black and Latino Drivers the Most ProPublica has a complicated story about racial disparities issued by automated speeding cameras in Chicago, but I think the excerpt below gets it right. Much like how redlined neighborhoods have historically and systemically lacked the investments that bring cooling tree cover, they also, because of racism, can have more than their fair share of huge, fast streets that encourage speeding, which, in turn, leads to more automated speeding tickets issued in Black and Brown neighborhoods. Really and truly, infrastructuring our way out of this is the only option (which itself is complicated).
Perry said he takes responsibility for getting tickets. But he can’t help but notice something every time he drives through majority-Black neighborhoods: There are fewer pedestrians and more vacant lots and industrial areas. “It’s almost like you feel like there is nothing there. Nothing to slow you down,” he said. When Perry enters more densely populated Latino neighborhoods, he sees bustling commerce and more pedestrians. And in majority white neighborhoods, there are even more pedestrians and “a stop light every few blocks. A stop sign between those. Crosswalks,” he said. “There’s a million reasons to stop once you pass downtown on the North Side.” It all makes him wonder: Does the way a neighborhood looks affect whether a driver will get a ticket?
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Good morning, RVA! It's 23 °F, and today looks cold! Dig through your drawer for the warmest, woolest socks because you should expect highs to settle in right around freezing. Temperatures warm up a bit tomorrow and then drop again over the weekend. I think we're in winter!
Water cooler Here are this week's all-time graphs of hospitalizations and deaths in Virginia due to COVID-19. While cases are skyrocketing, hospitalizations in the Commonwealth have increased at a much slower rate, not yet reaching the numbers we saw this past fall. It's fascinating to toggle between the cases and hospitalization graphs and see how the peaks of Winter '20, Fall '21, and Winter '22 _do_ line up, but they don't match in order of magnitude at all. This current wave we're riding just isn't sending as many Virginians to the hospital—either because so many folks are vaccinated, Omicron is less severe, or both. This doesn't mean everything is lovely and we can return to the blissful life-that'll-never-again-be of 2019; a smaller percentage of a huger number is still going to be a big number, a number that could quickly incapacitate our hospital systems. So! Keep yourself and yours out of the hospital by following the same ol' boring advice: Stay up-to-date on your COVID-19 vaccinations, wear a N95 or KN95 mask, get tested if you can, and stay home if you're sick.
Outgoing-Governor Northam gave his final COVID-19 briefing yesterday, announcing that he'd declared a 30-day State of Emergency to mostly allow hospitals to increase their capacity during the Omicron wave. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has the details. I've grown accustom to watching Northam announce darkly important coronanews in his whistley Eastern Shore drawl and am interested to see if Governor-elect Youngkin will hold similar briefings and, if so, how they will change in tone and tenor. NBC12's Henry Graff got the incoming governor's supportive statement on Northam's executive order—a surprise since his transition team typically doesn't have a statement on much of anything.
Well, I did pretty well with my City Council prediction yesterday. As foretold, Council adopted the ordinances accepting the Lee Monument and circle from the state (ORD. 2021-351) and the creating the Office of Sustainability (ORD. 2021-348), plus they continued the increasingly old list of haphazard Richmond 300 amendments (RES. 2021-R026). The one I wasn't sure about—ORD. 2021-308 or, in Friends parlance, "The One That Would Have Funded Design Work For a George Wythe High School Replacement"—they decided to continue that until their January 24th meeting. Out of this set of things, I'm most immediately excited for the Office of Sustainability and to see what they get up to with a little more freedom given their new place in the City's orgchart.
Also on the Council beat, the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Chris Suarez says City Council approved a new, March 28th redistricting timeline after one of the City's lawyers "recommended more time for residents to help draw the map." I don't imagine the districts will change all that much, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get involved! Expect some public meetings, engagement opportunities, and a 30-day comment period later this month.
Speaking of sustainability, make sure you take this month's RVAgreen 2050 flash survey. This one's about community engagement, which is timely given all 600 of the projects—including RVAgreen 2050—that the City has going on at the moment. It'll take you less than two minutes to fill out. I just did it between writing this sentence and the previous one!
Finally, this gray skyline photo from Rocketts Landing, via /r/rva, hit just right on this cold, wintery morning.
This morning's longread Paige Bueckers, a College Athlete Who’s Cashing In I don't know what kind of impact college sports' name, image, and likeness stuff will have, but I bet it will be big!
Bueckers is the latest in a long line of UConn women’s basketball superstars, and no matter what she does on the court, she’ll probably never surpass Diana Taurasi—the GOAT—or Breanna Stewart, who led the Huskies to four titles in four years. Off the floor, though, Bueckers is a revolutionary. She’s among the most notable to capitalize on new NCAA measures after the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic June 21 ruling struck down the organization’s antitrust immunity and opened the door for players to profit. Bueckers and all other college athletes are now free to seek financial compensation for use of their name, image, and likeness, or NIL, three little letters that have transformed the business of college sports.
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