Good morning, RVA! It's 58 °F, and today's forecast looks to be a lot like yesterday's—sunny, coolish, not a ton of humidity. If you have the opportunity, get on your bike and ride, because the weather out there is wonderful.
Water cooler
Today, Ned Oliver and Michael Martz at the RTD follow up on yesterday's BizSense report by Michael Schawrtz about the Coliseum. Some of the new details that interest me: reconnecting the street grid in that part of Jackson Ward and the acknowledgment that the area sits directly in the Pulse Corridor and should be thought of in a transit-oriented way. Lots of land back there is owned by the City, so while at moment this is only Rich Dudes Being Rich Dudes, if any plans move forward we'll need to start some sort of public process. Stay tuned.
Style Weekly has put out yet another exhaustive guide: This time it's an A-Z bar guide. This is a neat format for the classic Richmond Media Does a Guide on a Thing set of articles. I really enjoyed "K: Knowing when it's time to leave."
Have thoughts on what the downriver portion of our riverfront should look like? Tonight at 6:00 PM you can head on over to the Powhatan Community Center (5051 Northampton Street) and talk to City staff about your thoughts, feelings, and emotions (strictly riverfront-related stuff, please). Here's the Downriver amendment to the Riverfront Plan (PDF) to get you all caught up before the meeting!
RVA Hub has the details on Secco's first-ever happy hour—but to get the discounts and deals you've got to put your phone in a box in the middle of the table. I am fascinated by this idea!
Tomorrow, June 29th, is the next Breakaway RVA ride! You should sign up, ride your bike with some pals to an undisclosed location, and hang out—it's all very awesome and all very Richmond. I highly recommend it!
If you heard about a woman who was pulled into an alley at knifepoint near Lombardy and Monument, that whole thing is a JK. According to WTVR, police have determined the report was unfounded.
The New York Times has a blind taste test of a bunch of hotdog brands. Are you feeding your family the best possible version of a delicious-yet-garbagey food item? Full disclosure: We had hotdogs for dinner last night in my house. Also, the article includes a bunch of really close up photos of hotdogs, so consider yourself warned.
The Senate has delayed the Healthcare Apocalypse vote until after the July 4th recess.
Sports!
- Squirrels fell to Trenton, 4-10, that series continues tonight at 7:00 PM.
- Nats beat the Cubs, 6-1, and will play the penultimate game in that series tonight at 7:05 PM.
This morning's longread
On VidCon, Harassment & Garbage Humans
Gamergate is not over, and some people are still terrible.
To kick off the Women Online panel at VidCon last Thursday, the moderator posed the question: Why do we still have to talk about the harassment of women? I replied, “Because I think one of my biggest harassers is sitting in the front row.” He showed up with several others; together, his group took up the two front rows at the panel. Their presence was plainly not, as one of them later said in an “apology” video he posted to Twitter, to “give us the chance we never gave them” and to “hear us out,” but was instead to intimidate me and put me on edge. They will no doubt plead innocent and act shocked at what they characterize as the outrageousness of such allegations. This, too, is part of their strategy: gaslighting, acting in a way intended to encourage me and their other targets to doubt ourselves and to wonder if all of this isn’t just in our heads. But to anyone who examines their patterns of behavior with clear eyes, the intentions of their actions are undeniably apparent.