Good morning, RVA! It's 72 °F, and there's a 100% chance of rain at some point today. Expect temperatures to stay right about where they are, tons of clouds, and maybe even some thunder and lightning. Stay dry out there!
Water cooler
Ned Oliver's got the piece about Mosby Court I've been waiting for: "With redevelopment of Richmond's public housing still a distant goal, authority considers interim measures to curb violence." And here's another one by Jeremy Lazarus at the Richmond Free Press: "When is enough enough?." Unfortunately, if we're serious about making Richmond's public housing nieghborhoods safer places to live, parking decals—and especially more fences and gates—are not going to get it done. I'd still like to see a summit of some sort, in Mosby Court, with residents, neighbors, non-profits, faith communities, the police, and the city all talking about creative ways to improve things with the limited resources on hand. We've got to be creative because the long term solutions of de-densifying poverty across the city are slow and super expensive. Just what will it take to dig us out of the multi-decade public housing funding hole we're in? RRHA CEO T.K. Somanath says with $10-12 million per year he could make some real changes—which, due to the dismal state of national politics, most likely needs to be locally/regionally funded. Augh.
The RTD has picked up Chesterfield Supervisor Jim Holland's plan to bring bus service to Jeff Davis Highway. There's an excellent quote from Holland in there about how constituents have changed his mind on public transportation by consistently showing up at meetings. Elected officials do listen!
The Planning Commission will hear a presentation on the new B-8 zoning district as part of their regular agenda today at 1:30 PM. I know that some of you don't get excited by zoning changes, but this particular change allows for denser, transit-oriented development—which is totally exciting. The idea is to take these zoning changes and apply them to the Broad Street and Boulevard adjacent parts of Scott's Addition to take advantage of the Pulse.
Jackie Kruszewski of Style Weekly was at the March for Truth this past Saturday and has a quick recap.
Also: A quick correction to Friday's email. I said that the mayor's new choice for fire chief was an internal hire, which is only kind of true. Chief Carter spent some time working for the McAuliffe administration after his time with the Richmond Fire Department!
Wonder Woman broke $100 million in its opening weekend—a first for a female director. It's the 3rd best opening of the year and currently the 12th highest grossing film of 2017.
There's an Apple event today at 1:00 PM. If you need anything from the nerdy technology people in your life, make sure you get at them before it starts!
Sports!
- Squirrels took 2-of-3 from Trenton and celebrate with a day off.
- Kickers fell to the New York Red Bulls II, 0-1.
- Nats also went 2-of-3 against the A's over the weekend. They'll start up a series with the Dodgers tonight at 10:10 PM.
This morning's longread
For these Philly librarians, drug tourists and overdose drills are part of the job
Librarians, y'all.
For nearly 30 years, Judi Moore has worked as branch manager and children’s librarian at McPherson, which serves the drug-ravaged neighborhood around Kensington and Indiana Avenues. Her desk offers a gunpoint vantage. Until last year, she recalls just one overdose in the library. Then heroin exploded. Since then, there have four overdoses in her building. None has been fatal.