🌽 Good morning, RVA: Traffic violence, the final Confederate monument, and corn mazes

Good morning, RVA! It’s 51°F, and today looks beautiful. If you’re lucky, you can spend some time outside enjoying highs in the 60s and lots of sunshine. Get into it, because clouds and cooler temperatures return tomorrow. Looking further down the extended forecast, and it looks like we have at least another week of Richmond In The Fall™ ahead of us!
 

Water cooler

The Richmond Police Department is reporting that a driver hit and killed a pedestrian on the 2900 block of Chamberlayne Avenue: “At approximately 6:44 p.m., officers were called to the 2900 block of Chamberlayne Avenue for the report of a collision. Officers arrived and found an adult male down and injured in the right lane of the southbound lanes of Chamberlayne Avenue after being struck by a truck.” WRIC reports that the truck in question was street sweeper. This part of Chamberlayne—between Brookland Park Boulevard and VCU—is fast, wide, dangerous, and full of people walking around. I have no idea what a street sweeper was doing going fast enough to kill a person, but I do know lots of ways we could redesign this street to make it safer for people.
 

Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that the property arm of Sauer, Richmond’s spice and mayo empire, acquired the last piece they needed to complete their 38-acre mixed-use complex on Broad Street. Well, almost all of it: “The only properties it doesn’t own within the tract are the Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken building.” Stay strong, Lee’s, stay strong.
 

I ran out of time yesterday to link to this story by VPM’s Jahd Khalil who reports that a Richmond Circuit Court judge “ruled that the city of Richmond will decide where the statue of A.P. Hill goes after it is removed.” The implication here is that the City can now get rid of its last major Confederate monument, but we’ll see. Hill’s descendants have 30 days to appeal the ruling, and who knows what else could happen before the trucks and cranes get out there—but I’m cautiously optimistic. I’ll be especially stoked when this one does come down, though, because that intersection is incredibly unsafe as it stands.
 

Tonight at 6:00 PM, join Breakaway RVA—one of Richmond’s chillest group bicycle rides—for “Heavy Pedal: A History Tour of the Richmond Music Scene.” Over the course of the 6.7 mile ride, you’ll stop by some of the most significant places in Richmond’s long, gritty, and wonderful music history, which, for me, is really just 929 W. Grace Street and the 50 different venues it’s been. This is the final Breakaway ride of 2022, so if you’ve been meaning to make it out but just haven’t found the time, this is your last chance until…later!
 

Want to get real spooky this weekend but don’t know where to start? RVA Mag has a great list of Halloween events with a little something for everyone—movies, dancing, parades, all kinds of things. Or maybe spending time with your fellow Richmonders sounds pretty unpleasant, and you’d rather wander around alone in a corn maze for a couple of hours—who am I to judge! If getting lost sounds pleasantly isolating, /r/rva has some suggestions on where to find the best corn mazes in our region.
 

This morning’s longread

A Plan to Cool Off the Hottest Neighborhoods

Yonkers isn’t the only place local nonprofits are putting in the work to make our communities greener, cooler, and more livable. Plenty of everything mentioned in this Atlantic piece is happening right now in Richmond! I did, however, like the sentiment of the below paragraph about how folks (especially the more affluent among us) can get involved right now—while we wait for the trees we plant to take root and grow.
 

Even if neighborhood adaptation taps into federal funds or foundation money, the nonprofit leaders I interviewed say the efforts are always more successful when led or at least guided by locals. For example, lots of climate-adaptation projects center on planting trees for shade, but Skipper told me that Southwest Yonkers can’t afford to wait for them to grow. She wants money for businesses downtown to install shade awnings so people without cars can safely do errands in the heat. She also wants reliably open cooling centers and legal support to help people behind on their electricity bills avoid shutoffs—not necessarily projects that well-meaning outsiders would have prioritized. Those well-meaning outsiders, Skipper said, can help by advocating for climate justice with local elected officials, protesting, and organizing—amplifying their neighbors’ voices. “Don’t get me wrong; we will definitely still take your money as well,” she said, laughing.
 

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Picture of the Day

Oregon Hill sometimes still looks like 200 years ago.