Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and temperatures continue to climb. Today you can expect sunshine (yay!) and highs in the mid 90s that feel closer to 100 °F (boo!). Actual temperatures reach triple digits tomorrow, and that heat will continue until Sunday when some relief arrives. It’s one of those weeks when I either need to ride the bus to work or bring an extra shirt since even 10 minutes spent on a bike will have me covered in sweat.
 

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Jahd Khalil has an early look at the City’s proposed short-term rental ordinance (ORD. 2023–235) which was introduced at this past Monday’s City Council meeting. Tap through to get a sense for how the City’s trying to delicately balance the need to create more housing while also making sure 100% of that housing doesn’t instantly become Airbnbs. It’s complicated, and I think I’ll need a minute to scroll through the text of the ordinance to see what’s actually going on.
 

One other quick note on City Council’s doings before they head out on their annual August vacation: Council’s Governmental Operations committee will meet today at 1:00 PM and consider two papers I’ve got my eyes on. First, RES. 2023-R011 asks the CAO to come up with a plan to acquire Evergreen and East End Cemeteries from the now-defunct EnRichmond Foundation. This paper has bounced back and forth between Council and this committee since February, and I’m starting to wonder what’s holding things up. Second, RES. 2023-R047 will realign all of the City’s boards, commissions, and committees and require them to report to specific City Council subcommittees. For example, the Green City Commission will report to the Governmental Operations committee. This is mostly a boring, administrative paper, but if you tap through to the actual text of the resolution you get a nice list of every board, commission, and committee sorted by interest area. Could be useful (to a very specific type of person)!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and today begins the hottening. You can expect sticky highs near 90 °F with plenty of sunshine—and this is just the beginning, too. Temperature forecasts increase to triple digits by the end of the week and overnight lows will hang around near 80 °F! You know the drill: Stay cool, stay hydrated, and make smart choices!
 

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The Urban Institute’s Yonah Freemark pulled new data from the FTA’s National Transit Database to check in on post-pandemic ridership at public transit agencies from across the country. Would you believe that Richmond is one of seven “large” transit agencies to exceed pre-pandemic ridership numbers (Twitter)?? This is a huge deal! I’m shocked, especially given the ongoing challenges GRTC faces with the operator shortage and its impact on service reliability. The region should take these impressive numbers as a signal to double down on its investment in public transportation! Don’t delay, don’t wait for years to invest in greater frequency on the highest-ridership routes. Keep planning for big, new infrastructure projects like the north-south BRT, sure, but do everything possible now to make our existing service better and more useful to riders.
 

City Council’s Public Safety committee meets today and will hear a presentation from Christie Chipps Peters, Director of Richmond Animal Care and Control. Definitely flip through this PDF to see how much has changed for this City department over the last decade. Check out page four for a dramatic set of pie charts showing the reduction in animals euthanized since 2012 and page 10 for how the RACC foundation has 43x’d their annual donations over that same time period. Incredible. Shout out to RACC’s communications team who makes a lot of this possible!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and today begins the hottening. You can expect sticky highs near 90 °F with plenty of sunshine—and this is just the beginning, too. Temperature forecasts increase to triple digits by the end of the week and overnight lows will hang around near 80 °F! You know the drill: Stay cool, stay hydrated, and make smart choices!
 

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The Urban Institute’s Yonah Freemark pulled new data from the FTA’s National Transit Database to check in on post-pandemic ridership at public transit agencies from across the country. Would you believe that Richmond is one of seven “large” transit agencies to exceed pre-pandemic ridership numbers (Twitter)?? This is a huge deal! I’m shocked, especially given the ongoing challenges GRTC faces with the operator shortage and its impact on service reliability. The region should take these impressive numbers as a signal to double down on its investment in public transportation! Don’t delay, don’t wait for years to invest in greater frequency on the highest-ridership routes. Keep planning for big, new infrastructure projects like the north-south BRT, sure, but do everything possible now to make our existing service better and more useful to riders.
 

City Council’s Public Safety committee meets today and will hear a presentation from Christie Chipps Peters, Director of Richmond Animal Care and Control. Definitely flip through this PDF to see how much has changed for this City department over the last decade. Check out page four for a dramatic set of pie charts showing the reduction in animals euthanized since 2012 and page 10 for how the RACC foundation has 43x’d their annual donations over that same time period. Incredible. Shout out to RACC’s communications team who makes a lot of this possible!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and this morning looks a lot like rain alongside some cooler temperatures with highs right around 80 °F. Then, this afternoon, you can expect the skies to dry out but that unseasonably cool weather to stick around. Get out there and get after it, because hot hot highs in the upper 90s return later this week!
 

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This past weekend, Cat Anthony, Executive Director of the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation, had a great piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch titled “Poor street design, not happenstance, are responsible for pedestrian deaths.” I think this bit gets exactly at the problem and the solution: “Local leaders should take these gut-wrenching pedestrian fatalities as a wake-up call: Current street designs in our region do not prioritize the safety and well-being of anyone. Instead, much of our road network is designed for high speeds, which are far more likely to result in the deaths of drivers and pedestrians alike.” Our streets are broken and local leaders need to work up the courage to fix them—whether that’s by passing legislation to retrofit our streets with better, safer infrastructure, or by forcing existing staff to change their internal policies and procedures. Doing nothing—or meekly asking drivers to drive slower and pedestrians to wear bright clothing—is not a serious plan to save people’s lives.
 

City Council meets today for their last meeting until September, and you can find the full agenda here. Both the exotic animal ban (ORD. 2023–130) and the new utilitiy advisory commission ORD. 2023–188 sit on the Consent Agenda—along with a billion Special Use Permits, transportation funding papers, and other smaller items. In fact, Council has no Regular Agenda today, which should make for a quick meeting. One item of note from their informal meeting: Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s newish CEO will give a presentaiton on RRHA’s proposed homeownership program. This looks like a big deal, and I would like to learn more! We need to approach Richmond’s affordable housing crisis from every angle simultaneously, and making homeownership an option for current residents of public housing is definitely one angle (of many, many angles).
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and today we’ve got more of the same: Highs in the 90s, sunshine, and lots of sweat. This continues, with some slightly cooler temperatures, through the weekend and into next week. Remember to hydrate yourself, your loved ones, and your plants!
 

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This morning I woke up with two fun municipal press releases in my inbox. First, the City announced that they’ve hired Michael Webb as Richmond’s first Urban Forester. Webb will focus on building a comprehensive tree strategy (like how to equitably maintain, plant, and remove trees) with the ultimate goal of increasing the overall tree canopy in the city. Sounds like creating an Urban Forestry Master Plan (which I think we really, really need) is one of his first tasks. Second, the Department of Public Works and the Department of Public Utilities have installed “high water detection systems” at two locations prone to flooding (Magnolia Avenue on the Northside and Bainbridge Street on the Southside). From the release: “Once triggered, these advance warning stations will activate flashing beacons, message signs, and automatic road barrier gates.” Pretty neat! DPW’s Twitter account has posted some pictures of the flood conditions and the newly installed gates—which, if you squint, also function as curb extensions that narrow the road and slow drivers down. Good stuff all around.
 

Earlier this week, I wrote that reporters needed to come up with a better way to describe the Governor’s new anti-trans policies than defaulting to the Republican talking points—terminology that’s intentionally unclear and specifically designed to confuse the reader. Today, Whitney Evans and Dawnthea M. Price Lisco at VPM report on some reactions to Youngkin’s new anti-trans policies for public schools, and do a great job with this. “Parental rights” is mentioned just a single time in the entire piece, and only in this paragraph: “‘Parental rights’ is a reframing of public education that focuses on objecting to teaching cultural issues and sensitive topics—such as systemic racism, sexual orientation, climate change and gender diversity.” The reporters do not slip into the Republican trap of describing Youngkin’s offensive policies as a focus on “parental rights” and instead say the new rules “highlight the rights of ‘all’ students and the innate authority of their parents or legal guardians” (scare quotes theirs!). I’d go harder, of course, but I’m not an actual reporter. I think this shift in language—from reporting just earlier this week—is really wonderful. I’m thankful for it!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and today we’ve got more of the same: Highs in the 90s, sunshine, and lots of sweat. This continues, with some slightly cooler temperatures, through the weekend and into next week. Remember to hydrate yourself, your loved ones, and your plants!
 

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This morning I woke up with two fun municipal press releases in my inbox. First, the City announced that they’ve hired Michael Webb as Richmond’s first Urban Forester. Webb will focus on building a comprehensive tree strategy (like how to equitably maintain, plant, and remove trees) with the ultimate goal of increasing the overall tree canopy in the city. Sounds like creating an Urban Forestry Master Plan (which I think we really, really need) is one of his first tasks. Second, the Department of Public Works and the Department of Public Utilities have installed “high water detection systems” at two locations prone to flooding (Magnolia Avenue on the Northside and Bainbridge Street on the Southside). From the release: “Once triggered, these advance warning stations will activate flashing beacons, message signs, and automatic road barrier gates.” Pretty neat! DPW’s Twitter account has posted some pictures of the flood conditions and the newly installed gates—which, if you squint, also function as curb extensions that narrow the road and slow drivers down. Good stuff all around.
 

Earlier this week, I wrote that reporters needed to come up with a better way to describe the Governor’s new anti-trans policies than defaulting to the Republican talking points—terminology that’s intentionally unclear and specifically designed to confuse the reader. Today, Whitney Evans and Dawnthea M. Price Lisco at VPM report on some reactions to Youngkin’s new anti-trans policies for public schools, and do a great job with this. “Parental rights” is mentioned just a single time in the entire piece, and only in this paragraph: “‘Parental rights’ is a reframing of public education that focuses on objecting to teaching cultural issues and sensitive topics—such as systemic racism, sexual orientation, climate change and gender diversity.” The reporters do not slip into the Republican trap of describing Youngkin’s offensive policies as a focus on “parental rights” and instead say the new rules “highlight the rights of ‘all’ students and the innate authority of their parents or legal guardians” (scare quotes theirs!). I’d go harder, of course, but I’m not an actual reporter. I think this shift in language—from reporting just earlier this week—is really wonderful. I’m thankful for it!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F, and today looks like regular summer stuff. You can expect highs right around 90 °F, sunshine, sticky humidity, and iffy air quality (OK, that last one is slightly irregular but probably part of the deal moving forward). I don’t see much rain in the extended forecast so maybe set some reminders to keep your plants watered!
 

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Jahd Khalil at VPM reports that Interim Police Chief Rick Edwards will become Actual Police Chief Rick Edwards at a swearing-in ceremony on Monday. You can read the City’s press release here, which, along with a ton of supportive quotes, details the process that lead to Edwards’s selection, which I appreciate. Out of 26 candidates, four made it past the initial screening, three accepted interviews, and Edwards was the hiring panel’s unanimous selection. James Millner of Virginia Pride said “Every candidate we interviewed was great, but Rick was exceptional. His deep love for the city, his understanding of its diversity, and his knowledge of the department make him the right choice for chief of police." RCOP, the police union, gave the most milquetoast quote (which, honestly, is probably a good sign) saying “RCOP looks forward to working with the new Chief in making the agency equitable and fair for our officers while developing better community relations. As with any Chief, RCOP will hold him to high standards and work together toward progress." Now Edwards will start pushing the department towards his own vision of policing in Richmond, and we’ll get to really see what he’s really all about. I’m keeping an open mind; during his time as interim chief he did not invent a fake mass shooting plot, so he’s got that going for him.
 

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Em Holter has a fascinating and confusing story about the future of the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board. I’ve read it a couple times now and still feel like I’m missing some of the pieces, but, at its core this seems like tension between the Mayor and City Council and their differing visions for how the City funds affordable housing.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and today you can expect cloudy skies, a small chance of rain throughout the day, and temperatures just under 90 °F. That sounds like an improvement over yesterday’s hot, humid, and hazy cocktail of sweaty sadness.
 

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Dawnthea M. Price Lisco at VPM reports on the Virginia Department of Education’s newly issued “Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools.” You can read the 18-page PDF for yourself here, but, as you might expect from the Youngkin administration, the intent of the document is mostly opposite the document’s name—a classic Republican technique used to obfuscate their actual, usually evil, intentions. For example, the policies require that “School Division personnel shall refer to each student using only the pronouns appropriate to the sex appearing in the student’s official record” unless parents provide written instruction otherwise—which sounds exactly the opposite of protecting privacy and dignity. This disrespect of students, specifically trans students, is, of course, one of the guiding lights of the contemporary Republican platform. It’s cruel and mean and exists for no other reason than to rile up their base and make their political opponents furious (Lisco notes that the policy “does not appear to include an enforcement mechanism, a time limit or obvious penalties”). Equality Virginia’s statement (on Twitter, ironically) reads, in part, “The Governor is showing what his priorities are through this policy: disregarding expert opinion, harming students and eroding trust between parents, educators and school personnel.” Stay tuned for how local school districts react and how—if at all—they’ll work on implementation.
 

Quick side note on the previous paragraph: Reporters and news organizations desperately need to come up with a better way to describe these hateful Republican policies. “Parental rights” is a partisan Republican talking point; is incredibly unclear; and does not, in anyway, help the reader understand the news. While I don’t believe reporters are unbiased, by using “parental rights” without giving context, they casually promote right-wing propaganda—something that I doubt any of them want to be associated with!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F, and today looks hot. Expect highs in the 90s with Feels Like temperatures approaching 100 °F. If you’ve got stuff to do outside, please be cautious and stay hydrated. Also, because climate change is a multifaceted horror, the Department of Environmental Quality forecasts “moderate” air quality for the Richmond region today. I’ve found that DEQ sometimes underforecasts air quality in Richmond proper, so make sure you keep an eye on the AQI, too. If you’ve got a recentish iPhone you can add the Weather app’s AQI widget to your phone’s lock screen, which I’ve found useful.
 

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It’s hot, and one of the best ways to stay safe and cool during extreme heat is to shun the outdoor sauna of Richmond summers and head back inside to wallow in the air conditioning (while chugging liters of water). If you can’t afford or don’t have air conditioning, though, it’s gonna be hot inside, too. The Virginia Department of Social Services offers cooling assistance—which applies to both your utility bills and air conditioning equipment—to a small subset of folks, and, with this week’s hot hot forecast I thought it worth mentioning. Eligible Virginians must have at least one vulnerable individual age 60 or older, disabled, or under age six in their household, and you’ve only got until August 15th to apply. If that’s you, tap through to DSS’s website to learn more about eligibility requirements and how to apply.
 

City Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meets today with an absolutely packed agenda. They’ll hear four different and interesting presentations: a list of new property acquisitions by the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, an overview of the Jackson Ward Community Plan draft, an update on Richmond Connects, and the Director of Planning will answer some questions about the proposed rental inspection program. Plus the committee will consider a bunch of resolutions asking the State to help fund cool transportation infrastructure projects over the next several years. None of these projects are a sure thing (yet) and many are several years in the future, but, I’m still pretty excited about plans to install permanent, concrete protection on the Franklin Street bike lane; extend the Patterson Avenue bike lane to Willow Lawn; and add two safe(r) crossings to Chamberlayne Avenue.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s been n a minute—let’s see if I remember how words even work! Today, you can expect highs in the 90s, some isolated thunderstorms early evening, and maybe some smokey haze (DEQ forecasts Richmond’s Air Quality today as “moderate”). Also, you should definitely stay out of the James River. All of yesterday’s rain has brought the river into a “minor” flood stage, and, while “minor” sounds like no big deal, the City’s Department of Parks and Rec says “excessive amounts of debris in the water will make water rescues extremely difficult, placing water rescue personnel in harms way. Additionally, the following areas will be closed due to flooding: Water Street at Dock Street, sections of Riverside Drive and River Road, Huguenot Flat Ramp, and The Capital Bike Trail also is expected to flood.” Also, the City’s Department of Public Utilities reports that several Combined Sewer Overflow sites are in the “overflow” status, if you needed another, more fecal reason to keep your body out of the river.
 

Water is scary and demands your respect!
 

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Today, Richmond’s Planning Commission will meet at 1:30 PM, and will consider the ordinance to legalize Accessory Dwelling Units everywhere (ORD. 2023–196)—well, sort of. What they’re really planning on doing is continuing that paper all the way until their September meeting, and that bums me out. According to Councilmember Jordan’s email newsletter (which you should sign up for), she’s lobbying to get the ADU ordinance considered in tandem with the Airbnb ordinance, writing, “I fully support allowing ADUs by-right, but I have requested the Planning Commission continue that paper until their next meeting, so that the ADU and short-term rental (STR) papers can be considered together.“ Her main reasoning for this paring is that “residents overwhelmingly support ADUs, but not if it results in a proliferation of short-term rentals” (aka Airbnbs). I mostly agree with that but do have some (perhaps misplaced) anxiety that we’ll lose out on a perfectly good ADU ordinance because of an imperfect Airbnb ordinance. I guess we’ll find out in a couple of months! Until then, you can remain cautiously optimistic while scrolling through this really helpful presentation about how the proposed ADU ordinance will work.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s been n a minute—let’s see if I remember how words even work! Today, you can expect highs in the 90s, some isolated thunderstorms early evening, and maybe some smokey haze (DEQ forecasts Richmond’s Air Quality today as “moderate”). Also, you should definitely stay out of the James River. All of yesterday’s rain has brought the river into a “minor” flood stage, and, while “minor” sounds like no big deal, the City’s Department of Parks and Rec says “excessive amounts of debris in the water will make water rescues extremely difficult, placing water rescue personnel in harms way. Additionally, the following areas will be closed due to flooding: Water Street at Dock Street, sections of Riverside Drive and River Road, Huguenot Flat Ramp, and The Capital Bike Trail also is expected to flood.” Also, the City’s Department of Public Utilities reports that several Combined Sewer Overflow sites are in the “overflow” status, if you needed another, more fecal reason to keep your body out of the river.
 

Water is scary and demands your respect!
 

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Today, Richmond’s Planning Commission will meet at 1:30 PM, and will consider the ordinance to legalize Accessory Dwelling Units everywhere (ORD. 2023–196)—well, sort of. What they’re really planning on doing is continuing that paper all the way until their September meeting, and that bums me out. According to Councilmember Jordan’s email newsletter (which you should sign up for), she’s lobbying to get the ADU ordinance considered in tandem with the Airbnb ordinance, writing, “I fully support allowing ADUs by-right, but I have requested the Planning Commission continue that paper until their next meeting, so that the ADU and short-term rental (STR) papers can be considered together.“ Her main reasoning for this paring is that “residents overwhelmingly support ADUs, but not if it results in a proliferation of short-term rentals” (aka Airbnbs). I mostly agree with that but do have some (perhaps misplaced) anxiety that we’ll lose out on a perfectly good ADU ordinance because of an imperfect Airbnb ordinance. I guess we’ll find out in a couple of months! Until then, you can remain cautiously optimistic while scrolling through this really helpful presentation about how the proposed ADU ordinance will work.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and today you should expect highs near 90 °F, maybe a bit of rain this evening, and another round of bad air. DEQ has forecasted a yellow, or “moderate,” day ahead of us, with an AQI below 100. However, my current weather app shows 152, just over the edge into the red “unhealthy” zone and about where we ended up yesterday. Make smart decisions about exerting yourself outside, take lots of breaks, and remember: Hydrate or diedrate!
 

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Yesterday, the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in college admissions with a 6–3 vote. SCOTUSblog has the easy-to-understand analysis that I was looking for, and quotes Justice Sotomayor, in the dissenting opinion, saying, the decision had rolled “back decades of precedent and momentous progress" and "cement[ed] a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society.” The Washington Post put together some data visualizations on how banning affirmative action has impacted enrollment diversity in the handful of sates that have done so at the state level. Also, Connor Scribner at VPM talked to some local universities about the impact the decision will have on their admission policies. It’s all very bleak. You have to wonder how long President Biden will allow the Supreme Court to grind important American systems into dust without taking a single step to reform the Court—or even threatening to do so!
 

David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a long list of just some of the laws that go into effect tomorrow, July 1st. Related, the Virginia Mercury’s Meghan McIntyre reports that Pornhub has blocked all of Virginia ahead of the Commonwealth’s new age-verification law.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 62 °F, and today you can expect highs around 90 °F, cloudless skies, and…fine particulate matter filling the air from Canadian wildfires. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has issued a Code Orange Air Quality alert (that’s “unhealthy for sensitive groups”) until midnight tonight. Keep an eye on the weather app of your choice, though, because, as of right now, mine reports an AQI of 159 which would put us in the red zone (or “unhealthy” for everyone). If we do end up spending most of the day at the red level level, sensitive groups—people with lung disease, older folks, children, minority populations, and outdoor workers—should avoid long or intense outdoor activities and consider rescheduling or moving those activities indoors. Everyone else should keep it breezy and take more breaks. Keep this Air Quality Guide for Particle Pollution handy, it’s the best resource I’ve found for remembering how to stay safe and healthy during bad air days—which are sure to continue throughout the summer.
 

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City Council update: The Public Utilities and Services Commission paper, which I’m now officially obsessed with (ORD. 2023–188), cleared the Governmental Operations committee and will now (theoretically) show up on full Council’s July 24th agenda. The paper has three patrons (Addison, Jordan, and Lambert), and to become a real boy/law it needs to find two additional votes out of the group of Nye, Lynch, Robertson, Newbille, Trammell, and Jones. Lynch sits on the Governmental Operations committee, but I’m not sure how she voted yesterday (and I can’t get the video to load). It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the group goes—especially someone like Councilmember Trammell who values keeping an eye on rising utility rates, but would not, I assume, be a strong supporter of removing methane gas sales from DPU’s service portfolio. Stay tuned!
 

Related, Patrick Larsen at VPM reports on this past Tuesday’s rally against Dominion’s plans to build a new methane power plant in Chesterfield. I’ll tell you what, I’m pretty tired of Dominion’s circular talking points about how to meet rising electricity demands. If Dominion wanted to, they could build clean power facilities to crank out more power during peak periods. Nothing says that we’ve got to burn methane gas to make sure people have enough juice to run their air conditioners in the summer (which are hotter due to climate change) and heaters in the winter (which will have more severe storms due to climate change). We shouldn’t make the long term problem worse trying to meet the short term needs.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 62 °F, and today you can expect highs around 90 °F, cloudless skies, and…fine particulate matter filling the air from Canadian wildfires. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has issued a Code Orange Air Quality alert (that’s “unhealthy for sensitive groups”) until midnight tonight. Keep an eye on the weather app of your choice, though, because, as of right now, mine reports an AQI of 159 which would put us in the red zone (or “unhealthy” for everyone). If we do end up spending most of the day at the red level level, sensitive groups—people with lung disease, older folks, children, minority populations, and outdoor workers—should avoid long or intense outdoor activities and consider rescheduling or moving those activities indoors. Everyone else should keep it breezy and take more breaks. Keep this Air Quality Guide for Particle Pollution handy, it’s the best resource I’ve found for remembering how to stay safe and healthy during bad air days—which are sure to continue throughout the summer.
 

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City Council update: The Public Utilities and Services Commission paper, which I’m now officially obsessed with (ORD. 2023–188), cleared the Governmental Operations committee and will now (theoretically) show up on full Council’s July 24th agenda. The paper has three patrons (Addison, Jordan, and Lambert), and to become a real boy/law it needs to find two additional votes out of the group of Nye, Lynch, Robertson, Newbille, Trammell, and Jones. Lynch sits on the Governmental Operations committee, but I’m not sure how she voted yesterday (and I can’t get the video to load). It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the group goes—especially someone like Councilmember Trammell who values keeping an eye on rising utility rates, but would not, I assume, be a strong supporter of removing methane gas sales from DPU’s service portfolio. Stay tuned!
 

Related, Patrick Larsen at VPM reports on this past Tuesday’s rally against Dominion’s plans to build a new methane power plant in Chesterfield. I’ll tell you what, I’m pretty tired of Dominion’s circular talking points about how to meet rising electricity demands. If Dominion wanted to, they could build clean power facilities to crank out more power during peak periods. Nothing says that we’ve got to burn methane gas to make sure people have enough juice to run their air conditioners in the summer (which are hotter due to climate change) and heaters in the winter (which will have more severe storms due to climate change). We shouldn’t make the long term problem worse trying to meet the short term needs.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, and today looks charming and wonderful from start to finish, with highs in the mid 80s and lots of sunshine. The three-day forecast says we’ve got a couple more days of this, so make some plans to get out there and enjoy it! Maybe explore a part of the James River Park that you’ve never experienced before?
 

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Yesterday’s longread highlighted the success of Denver’s municipal e-bike subsidy program, which I think is fascinating and something Richmond should learn from and implement instantly. Folks from PlanRVA, one of our regional planning bodies, then pointed me to a pretty cool map they maintain that catalogs e-bike financial incentive programs across the country. So far, PlanRVA has marked 111 programs, in various states of implementation, with the average rebate value just over $800. This seems like another great resource for folks wanting to advocate for Richmond to create its own e-bike incentive program!
 

Michael Martz and David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch report that state budget negotiations appear to have broken down just days ahead of the new fiscal year. Since Virginia operates on a biennial budget, which the General Assembly passed last year, you don’t need to worry about a government shutdown. However, any changes or updates—like tax rebates or state employee raises—are on hold until legislators figure out a compromise. The Governor, who doesn’t seem interested in rolling up his sleeves and getting involved in the negotiation work, said of his original, unrealistic proposal, “I put a reasonable budget in front of them…They should just send back to me what I sent to them and let’s get this done.”
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, and, dang, that was some weather! I hope you made it through the night dry and connected to the electrical grid—looks like a couple hundred people across the region are still without power this morning. Today, though, is a vast improvement over all that wind and rain, with highs in the mid 80s, sunshine until the afternoon, and then a chance for more storms this evening (but mostly likely nothing as severe as last night).
 

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Yesterday, I mentioned how transformative it would be to have the federal government commit to recurring investments in our local communities at the scale of the American Rescue Plan Act—consistent support rather than this once-in-a-generation windfall. Turns out, Mallory Noe-Payne at Radio IQ was a mile ahead of me and reported four separate stories from Virginia towns where ARPA or CARES Act funding made transformational projects a reality. In Roanoke they built a grocery store in a neighborhood once leveled by Urban Renewal. In Bristol they started construction on a new school, replacing one declared functionally obsolete in 2011. In Afton they launched a public bus line over the mountain, connecting Staunton, Waynesboro, and Charlottesville. And, finally, in Scottsville they added DMV services to their Town Hall which serves a large, rural surrounding area. None of these are glitzy projects, wasting tax payer dollars so elected officials can have something big and shiny to point at when the next election cycle comes around. They are all great examples of things that—in a country not obsessively focused on cutting public services down to the bone—should make up some of the core functions of government. Just think about what your neighborhood would be if we had enough money for the basic of civilization—things like roads, sewers, and schools!
 

Ben Paviour at VPM reports that residents who “want to browse online pornography in Virginia will have to identify their age using unspecified technology under a new law that goes into effect Saturday.” I have so many thoughts! First, its fascinating what things Republicans want to paternalistically legislate and what things they think should be left up to parents to handle (although this bill did pass with large, bipartisan support). Second, the language in this bill (SB 1515) is wild! It defines “content harmful to minors” as “any description or representation of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse when it (i) appeals to the prurient, shameful, or morbid interest of minors; (ii) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors; and (iii) is, when taken as a whole, lacking in serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors." Prurient, shameful interest of minors?? What the heck, did The Scarlet Letter write this legislation!? Third, Wirecutter has a decent list of VPN’s that will allow you to shift the location of your internet traffic to wherever you’d like and circumvent any sort of geographic-based age verification. Makes sure you read “the competition” section for a ton more options. Fourth, what you browse is your own personal business, not the General Assembly’s and certainly not some random internet company! This whole thing certainly seems like a slippery slope we’re about to slide down right into some protracted court cases. Until then, I await the digital privacy experts out there to send me a good longread!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F, and today looks hot, with highs in the 90s plus a chance for some severe weather. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden has declared today a First Alert Weather Day with a decent chance for wind, rain, hail, and flooding later this afternoon. Keep an eye on the sky, and make smart decisions! It’s never too late to starting making an emergency plan for you and yours.
 

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City Council will get together today for their regularly scheduled meeting and has a few items on their agenda that got my brain thinking. First, ORD. 2023–180 authorizes the CAO to accept the second tranche of American Rescue Plan Act money from the federal government—that’s a $10 million deposit into the City’s bank account! I can’t help but think about what it’d be like if this sort of transformative investment in communities across the country was a regularly occurrence instead of a once-in-a-generation lottery windfall. Second, ORD. 2023–177 will dedicate $80,000 to a second Gun Buy Back program, this one in conjunction with The Liberation Church. I hadn’t heard anything about this second round of Gun Buy Backs until I saw it floating around on the City’s legislative website, so I’m not sure about any date and time details. I’m for it though! My thoughts on Gun Buy Backs remain unchanged from the last go around: While maybe not the most effective gun control strategy, it’s one of the very few things the City has the authority to do on its own. Unfortunately, localities (especially in Virginia) are mostly held hostage by the inability of our state and federal legislators to pass even the most modest of gun control legislation. Third, ORD. 2023–145 will convert a two-way stop at Nottoway and Fauquier Avenues into a four-way stop. This sort of ordinance shows up pretty regularly on Council’s agendas, almost always in the non-controversial “Consent” portion. That seems like a symptom of a broken process to me—it’s wild that City Council is required to pass a law to put up two stop signs! Why is Council involved in this sort of thing at all? Shouldn’t we leave the implementation of safe transportation infrastructure in our neighborhoods to experts? Corollary: Shouldn’t we hire experts at implementing safe infrastructure in our neighborhoods?
 

This past Friday, the Richmond Police Department had a press briefing scheduled to update media about the mass shooting at Huguenot High School’s graduation ceremony. After talking to the Commonwealth’s Attorney, they scrubbed the update and put out this statement instead. I’m not sure how much of this is new news, but notable items for me were: one of the victims will be released from this hospital this week, police have confirmed that a second suspect was not involved in the shooting, and, in the RPD’s words, “based on what we know, this is not gang-related.”
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 64 °F, and, guess what, today looks wet and rainy! You can expect a shower or a drizzle for pretty much the entire day, and you should definitely keep an eye out for potentially severe thunderstorms later this afternoon. Maybe cancel your after-dinner stroll. I think we’ve got at least another day of this soggy situation, and then, on Saturday, things should start to warm up and dry out a bit.
 

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Alec MacGillis at ProPublica has a long story about learning loss caused by the pandemic, Richmond Public Schools, the nascent teacher’s union, the RPS School Board, and the Board’s stumbly attempts to launch a year-round school pilot. There’s a lot in here! I always get nervous when an out-of-town reporter does a deep dive on something so very local and nuanced. On the one hand, it’s great to have national attention brought to some of the challenges facing Richmond, pressuring leaders to act (think Emily Badger’s reporting on eviction rates in Richmond for the NYT). On the other hand, can anyone who hasn’t spent the last forever living here really understand why we are the way we are? I’m not the only one to have complicated feelings: A quick scroll through the Horrible Bird Site shows that people have lots of thoughts and opinions on this piece, including the Mayor himself who said: “But, instead of leading boldly and doing whatever it takes to support our kids' post-pandemic recovery, leaders on the School Board and in the Richmond Education Association choose to sit idly by & maintain the status quo.” Yikes. I’ve got plenty to say about the School Board and their dysfunctional performance over the last handful of years, but I’m not the mayor! It’s definitely an intense quote from Richmond’s top elected official, with some surprisingly anti-union vibes. Anyway, I probably need to read the whole thing again before I have more coherent thoughts, but I did want to assign it as homework and put it in your queue for this weekend.
 

Richard Hayes at RVAHub reports that Richmond Animal Care and Control will close for two weeks due to an outbreak of canine flu. That means you can’t drop off any stray animals for the next 14 days (you remember how quarantine works, right??). However, before you go all Outbreak, Wikipedia says that “the H3N2 virus as a stand-alone virus is deemed harmless to humans.”
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, and it’s rainy. In fact, the current weather forecast suggests that it’ll continue to rain for most of the day and then straight on through most of the weekend, too. It’s gonna be a soggy next couple of days—keep an eye out for breaks in the weather to get outside or do your best mushroom impression and start working on your backlog of movies and TV shows.
 

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The election results are in, and some of them are fascinating. The Virginia Public Access Project is, as always, the best place to find and explore yesterday’s election data, and they’ve got all of the results nicely sorted into Close Races, Senate, House, and Local. Of note in our region: Current 3rd District Councilmember Anne Francis Lambert lost her House of Delegates race to Rae Cousins by a wide margin, Glenn Sturtevant edged out Virginia’s Trumpyiest senator Amanda Chase, Lamont Bagby coasted to victory over Katie Gooch, and Lashrecse Aird absolutely dominated Joe Morrissey. That last one in particular is big, good news. Assuming Democrats hold on to all the necessary seats in the Senate, the one anti-choice (and tie-breaking) Democrat likely to side with Republicans on bills restricting abortions just got the boot. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has some more flavor from last night’s elections, including this lovely quote from a Petersburg resident about Aird: “She’s just an overall better human being.”
 

Jahd Khalil at VPM reports that VPM has plans to move its headquarters downtown and build a new facility on the southern side of Broad Street between 1st and Foushee Streets. Tap through to see some really beautiful renderings of what could take the place of a currently wasteful surface-level parking lot (see below about “places vs. non-places”). VPM hopes to raise funds to break ground by early 2024, so, unfortunately, we still have to live with the parking lot for a while longer.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and today you can expect cloudy skies with highs right around 80 °F. I’d keep an eye out for rain throughout the day—which is probably good advice for the rest of the week, too. Summer is here and, as often as possible, I plan on enjoying its random, pop-up storms from the my screen porch. How good does a summer shower smell—can’t beat it!
 

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It’s Election Day! If you haven’t already, you have until 7:00 PM to make your way out to your polling place and cast a ballot in this very important Primary Election. If you need to get grounded and do a quick bit of day-of research, that’s OK, and the Virginia Department of Elections has all the information you need, including candidate lists and polling locations. Do make sure you double and triple check your polling place, though, because a handful of the regular sites are closed due to RPS’s summer school. Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond details some of the drama in a lot of these races, but, starting tomorrow, after the votes are counted and winners declared, we put the drama aside and get serious about taking back the majority in the House of Delegates and preserving the Senate’s Democratic Brick Wall . As we’ve seen over the last couple of years, elections are important!
 

The RPS School Board meets tonight, and you can find their full agenda here, which includes final votes on a bunch of school renamings. Related, RVA Dirt has a recap of the Board’s June 5th meeting, where they discussed an array of topics, but I think you should tap through to read a perfect example of why I keep saying we should only rename schools after plants or places.