Photo by: Massmo Relsig
Good morning, RVA! Itâs 66 °F, and todayâs the first day in awhile with a nontrivial chance of rain. If storms do roll in, itâll be later this afternoon as the temperatures approach 90 °F.
Water cooler
The (unofficial) results from yesterdayâs 4th Congressional District primaries are in! Donald McEachin won on the Democratic ballot with 74.83% of the vote, and Republican Mike Wade won with 64.17%. You can download the entire data set (even in JSON!), which I think is really awesome of the State Board of Elections.
It is June 15th, or as I like to call it F-Day + 1. The filing deadline for folks wishing to serve on City Council, School Board, or as the Mayor has come and gone. Now the registrarâs office will take the candidatesâ stacks of signatures back to their secret electoral cave and begin to count. Ned Oliver at the RTD has a pleasant alphabetically sorted list of the 13 candidates that at least managed to file their paperwork.
So, this is unfortunate. After a picture of a bunch of cars parked in a bike lane got circulated around the internet, Richmond police are now saying that they have no authority to do anything about it. Thatâs pretty different from what was said back in May when Council considered ORD. 2016â125, which would have explicitly prohibited parking in a bike lane, but ultimately had the bike-lane language struck from the legislation. My understanding of that conversation was that since bike lanes are travel lanes, and you canât park in travel lanes, itâd follow that you canât park in bike lanes. Go listen to the audio from the April 26th Public Safety Standing Committee and May 9th Informal Council Meeting and decide for yourself. Itâs just extra dang disappointing that the language was in the ordinance, stripped from it because it was deemed unnecessary, and now said ordinance is used as an excuse for inaction. Gah.
Jason Roop at Style Weekly answers a question Iâd been thinking about for a couple of months: âWill Off the Hookah still exist after CarMax moves in to that building?â
I would be a terrible child of the 90s if I did not link to this interview with Chris Cornell by Hilary Langford. Sun-kissed, rock-god body indeed!
The latest episode of my podcast, Sam and Ross Like Things, dropped a couple days back. If youâre unfamiliar, itâs pretty much what it says on the tin: a podcast wherein Sam and Ross like things. This week I liked ânot taking a shower,â while my cohost Sam Davies liked âtaking the bus.â Give it a listen if you havenât already!
Whoa, sad: The first documented extinction of a mammal because of climate change.
Sports!
- Squirrels bopped Binghamton, 8â1. Thatâs seven of the last eight theyâve wonâkeep it up, yâall! Watch them keep it up tonight at 6:35 PM as the series against Binghamton continues.
- Nats lost to the Cubs 3â4. Todayâs game at 4:05 PM decides the series.
This morningâs longread
D.C. Metro SafeTrack Service Outages Seem to Be Pushing Bike Commuters
These are some insane increases, and I, like the article, wonder if itâs a result of the metro generally sucking or if something more magical is going on.
Make that way, way up: Monday through Wednesday, automated counters stationed throughout Arlington County showed increases of two-wheeled traffic up to 94 percent* compared to June 2015 (see the chart below, provided by Bike Arlington, a county-supported cycling initiative).
Bike Walk RVA recently had folks out collecting bike and pedestrian data in Richmond, so I imagine weâll be able to put together our own, similar chart pretty dang soon. Hereâs the data from last year.