Good morning, RVA (lite): Pound of flesh (free delivery), Slave Trail access, and a bad transit editorial 😡

Good morning, RVA! It’s 31 °F, and that’s cold! Temperatures will rise above freezing, but it’ll take a bit. Be careful if you’ve gotta use a road for some reason. As for this weekend’s possible winter weather, Andrew Freiden and the team at NBC12 have the update.

Water cooler

What pound of flesh was the Richmond region willing to give Amazon to entice them to move their HQ2(s) to the region? Ned Oliver and Michelle Hankerson from the Virginia Mercury have all of the embarrassing details! I get urbanism embarrassment transfer when reading through some of these things: “Chesterfield County pitched Amazon on undeveloped land five miles outside the city center at the intersection of Powhite and Chippenham parkways, which they said offered ‘a bespoke solution in an urban location.’ They dubbed the area ‘The Galleria.’” Sure.

A couple weeks ago, General Assembly Republicans asked to delay primaries as The Courts figure out Virginia’s redistricting situation. That’s still all up in the air, but Graham Moomaw reports that the Virginia State Board of Elections and the Department of Elections are real wary of doing so. Moomaw also says the court-appointed map drawer should have his new map ready as soon as tomorrow.

The Urban Design Committee meets today at 10:00 AM, and will consider some interesting improvements to the Richmond Slave Trail (PDF). I definitely appreciate the addition of a buffered bike and pedestrian lane under I-95 to make access to the trail safer. I’ve been out that way with a bunch of high school kids, and it was a lot of “please watch for cars and stay out of the road!” Also, the new trail head at Ancarrow’s Landing that’s an amphitheater based on slave ship dimensions seems appropriate and a nice addition. I was unaware of any of these improvements! Unrelated, UDC will take up new GRTC bus shelters, which are totally needed and totally have sides that will protect you from wind and weather. I think we’ve picked a dated design that looks like it belongs in Colonial Williamsburg and could do better (from the same bus shelter company even!), but I’m not going to complain too, too hard about it.

Here’s another disappointing editorial from the RTD Editorial Board about public transportation. There are some really intellectually dishonest and bad-faith arguments in here, but first, to set the record straight, 77% of Chesterfield residents want more bus service in the County. Second, the Route 1 Corridor in particular (PDF) is dense (p. 25), supports many low-income residents (p. 28), and is an area where many, many folks do not own a car (p. 29). So when the Board condescendingly says “But in what sense do Chesterfield residents ‘need’ mass transit?” I’d say in several, very real and important ways. Also, personal pet peeve, but if you ever come across anyone using jurisdiction-wide population density instead of corridor-specific population density to argue against transit they are intentionally misleading you.

And speaking of the Editorial Board, look at this fascinating news: Bob Rayner will retire as the editor of the RTD’s Editorial Pages. The paper says “A search for a successor will begin soon.” 🤔

Style Weekly has the news that everybody’s favorite bike advocate, Max Hepp-Buchanan, is joining Venture Richmond as the Director of Riverfront and Downtown Placemaking. That’s exciting news, and I’m excited to see how Hepp-Buchanan brings his passionate love for the City over to Venture.