🌀 Good morning, RVA: Richmond 300 amendments, heated patios, and an urban forester

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 cooler

Tonight—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 longread

The Original Nachos Were Crunchy, Cheesy and Truly Mexican

The 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.
 

If you’d like to suggest a longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.
 

Picture of the Day

Whoa, amaryllis, whoa.