Y'all!

Once upon a time I ran a news site, now I just have opinions on the news. 

Good morning, RVA: Polls, old photos, and bike laws

Good morning, RVA! It's 62 °F, and today's forecast looks extra pleasant. Highs should reach the mid 70s, the sun should shine, and folks everywhere will feel unnaturally pleasant. Don't forget to water your gardens!

Water cooler

The Quinnipiac people have released a poll in which they asked Virginians a bunch of things. The RTD's Andrew Cain dives into the gun violence questions and responses. Here are some highlights: almost no one thinks it's too difficult to buy a gun in Virginia, a majority of folks are OK with a one-handgun-per-month limit, and almost half of all men think Virginia would be safer if more people had guns. Eyeroll. Anyway, there's a ton of other interesting, non-gun stuff in there that you should check out. For example, did you know a majority of folks, no matter how you slice the respondents, support the use of medical marijuana? In fact, 59% of all people surveyed support allowing Virginians to "possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use"—only Republicans (61%) and people over 65 (60%) oppose.

This "From the Archive" piece in the RTD of pictures from Chamberylane Avenue is neat and heartbreaking. Especially tough to look at is the April 26th, 1960 photo announcing the zoning changes to allow commercial development south of Brookland Park Boulevard. It is, however, definitely neat to see a #37 bus in a photo taken that same day following the same route it does today.

Y'all, I really, really like deviled eggs. Stephanie Ganz writing for Richmond Magazine reminds me that I need to eat them more often from more places.

Senator Mark Warner was on the Pod Save the World podcast talking about the role of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Russia, and other fascinating stuff.

This satellite image of California's wildflower superbloom is amaaaaaazing.

Sports!

  • Squirrels got blanked by Alton, 0-4. They travel to Reading tonight.
  • Nats lost last night's game to the Cardinals, 6-1, but they won the series, 2-1. They've got today off.

This morning's patron question!

Patron Erica asks:

What are the City's rules with regards to bicycles on sidewalks? Is it legal or just generally accepted? What is the best way for a new Richmonder to learn the basic City cycling rules? Is there something online?

YES! BIKES!

First, it is totally legal to ride your bike on the sidewalk in Richmond as long as you yield to pedestrians. However, it is, in my opinion, extremely inadvisable. Not only could you crush a pedestrian under your two wheels, but cars turning and crossing over sidewalks aren't really in the habit of looking for bikes zooming along from either direction. Here are the applicable sections of the Virginia code and City code.

An unrelated, interesting thing I think I just learned: Whenever we get our bikeshare system with electric-assist bikes, it will be against the law to ride those bikes on the sidewalk.

Second, the city has a pretty good list on their website of the legal Dos and Don'ts for bikers. Read to the bottom to see when it is completely legal to take up an entire lane—I'm looking at you Lom-"substandard width lane"-bardy just south of Brook.

BTW, if you want to stay in the know about all things bikes, your best bet is to join the Bike Walk RVA email list. They're the real bike experts!

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

This morning's longread

The jellyfish are coming. Brace yourself for goomageddon

Honestly kind of skeezed by this whole thing.

The second problem is that when you cut jellyfish open, they release all their eggs and sperm at once. The cells fertilize each other. And next season, your jellyfish bloom is exponentially worse. “We’ve rethought the shredder,” Myung says. A new version of JEROS scoops jellyfish out of the water and into a storage container that holds 420 animals. But what do you do with the creatures once you’ve caught them? It’s not like all jellyfish are edible. “We’re wondering the same thing,” Myung says. “I saw a paper recently that proposed using jellyfish as fertilizer in rice farming.”

This morning's Instagram

Good morning, RVA: Bryan Stevenson, Rapp reopens, and dogs in hats

Good morning, RVA: Continued violence, women in music, and grocery store news