Photo by: KCIvey
Good morning, RVA! It’s 18 °F, and today we’ll finally see temperatures above freezing! Cloudy skies will take up most of your day as the high creeps toward to the upper 30s and stays there. See ya, snow!
However, things continue to be delayed and closed. Make sure you check before heading out somewhere.
Water cooler
Citizens! Today there is a special election in the Virginia 9th Senate District, and you have a chance to vote for the wonderful Jennifer McClellan. You can check your voter status and precinct location right here (although we just went through all of this so already you should know this info). Poll are open from 6:00 AM–7:00 PM. Remember! If/when McClellan wins, there will be another election to fill her House of Delegates seat.
Last night New City Council (which from here on out will be referred to as just “City Council”) met for the first time in what was a fairly straightforward meeting. The Grace Street Parking Tower ordinance (ORD. 2016–270) was continued, Council President Hilbert ran an efficient meeting, and it was fun seeing some of the new faces start to stake their claims. The mayor was also in attendance and stayed until the bitter end when Councilman Hilbert invited him up to give some announcements. This is a big and visible change from the previous mayor who basically never attended council meetings! Ned Oliver at the RTD has a recap.
Speaking of the Grace Street Parking Tower, it is the subject of today’s Michael Paul Williams piece. It makes me heart sing with gladness, and I want to quote the entire thing to you, but this bit will have to do: “But this proposal, as is, places the city potentially at odds with its objective of making downtown more pedestrian-friendly and its government more people-friendly. Grace Street, a relatively quiet two-way corridor in this part of downtown, does not need to be overwhelmed by hundreds of additional cars.” Yes! I will say that the 2009 parking study mentioned by Williams is woefully out of date, and I will totally get behind whatever it takes to get a new, comprehensive study done.
Whoa, in unexpected news, at least to me, Former Mayoral Candidate Jack Berry is now Petersburg Interim Assistant City Manager Jack Berry. That dude will not be stopped! I’m looking forward to seeing what he gets done down in Petersburg.
Every single word in this piece by Stephanie Breijo about Heritage’s new late night menu sounds delicious—especially “sloppy sandwiches.”
The New York Times has ongoing coverage of today’s confirmation hearings. Meanwhile, President Obama will deliver his farewell address tonight at 9:00 PM.
Sports!
Clemson beat Alabama in the college football National Championship game. You can watch some extremely stylized highlights over on ESPN.
- Hokies host Syracuse at 7:00 PM, and you can watch on ESPNU.
This morning’s longread
Spies in the Skies
Aw man.
Each weekday, dozens of U.S. government aircraft take to the skies and slowly circle over American cities. Piloted by agents of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the planes are fitted with high-resolution video cameras, often working with “augmented reality” software that can superimpose onto the video images everything from street and business names to the owners of individual homes. At least a few planes have carried devices that can track the cell phones of people below. Most of the aircraft are small, flying a mile or so above ground, and many use exhaust mufflers to mute their engines — making them hard to detect by the people they’re spying on.