Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and, while we've dodged any chance of weekend snow, we've still got cooler temperatures to deal with. Today's highs are happening right now and temps will continue to fall over the course of the day—plus it may rain a bit this morning. Woooo.
Water cooler
Michael Paul Williams talks affordable housing in the RTD today. The first half of the piece centers on the federal investigation into possible civil rights violations in Hopewell. In the second half, he speaks to CEO of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority T.K. Somanath about how Trump/Ben Carson's impending HUD budget cuts will impact Richmond. It's scary and not good.
Have we talked about the rad-looking concepts for the Reynolds Culinary Institute out on 25th and Nine Mile yet? The Urban Design Committee chatted about a small portion of the plan this week, which Tammie Smith in the RTD will tell you all about. She also says one of the principals of the firm designing the culinary institute is associated with Steven Holl Architects, the group behind the ICA.
Police Chief Durham also feels ashamed about how all those guns that ended up in Brooklyn came from Virginia, Melissa Hipolit from WTVR reports. He wants the state to pass legislation that he worked on this past year to require folks to report lost or stolen guns—good luck with that, Chief!
Chesterfield County Manager Joe Casey released his budget yesterday (PDF). If you're looking for transit money in there, you're out of luck. Other than GRTC's unfunded request of $2,000,000 for express routes, the budget is silent on fixed-route service in the county that owns half of GRTC.
Have you contacted your Congressional representatives about Obamacare? If you got a response, Vox wants to hear about it. They're fact checking all the (sometimes inane) things reps are saying about the ACA, and they need more data! Give them your data!
Don't forget! Black Restaurant Week runs through this Sunday! The Cheats Movement has some pictures to get you motivated, and here's the list of participating restaurants.
Sports!
Conference tournaments are wrapping up, and we'll close out the weekend with Selection Sunday.
- #2 Rams will face #7 George Mason tonight at 6:00 PM in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
- #3 Spiders matchup with #6 George Washington at 8:30 PM.
- Hokies were bounced from the ACC tournament by Florida State, 68-74.
- Hoos leave the tournament as well with a 58-71 loss to Notre Dame.
This morning's longread
Can D.C's Homeless Live in Discarded Subway Cars?
This idea of making living space out of discarded rail cars seems innovative, but I first heard about it in the Two People podcast. Barbara Given talked about living in a retrofitted railroad car as a child. Everything old is new!
The idea to retrofit the Metro’s venerable 4000-series cars, which date back to the early 1990s, into 1-bedroom, 1-bath units came to Moore after seeing news that the District plans to discard the cars this year. CityLab readers may hear echoes of this scheme in the storage-unit apartment trend, or in similar projects that adapt shipping containers into housing for the homeless (or trend-seeking Millennials). But Moore’s design demonstrates how the cars’ features make them far easier to live in than shipping container