Good morning, RVA! It's 56 °F right now, but by this afternoon temperatures should top out in the 80s. This weekend, and for several days after, you can expect highs in the mid 90s—remember to hydrate and wear sunscreen.
Water cooler
Michael Paul Williams picks up the story about the mayor's Education Compact. He feels like the Mayor is overreaching with the Compact and that, paired with the recent and abrupt firing of Superintendent Bedden, paints an ominous cloud over the whole situation. Maybe I am just some naive, PDF-reading dude, but a document that outlines a structure of working together does not seem like an overreach to me? Especially one supported by the School Board? I mean, go read the document and decide for yourself, or read Garet Prior's rundown on Richmond Forward if PDFs give you hives. Also, I'm with Press Secretary Jim Nolan: If I were a theoretical superintendent candidate, the lack of collaboration on a framework to improve collaboration would give me pause. Anyway, read MPW's piece, think about how you'd like all this to work out, and then let your elected officials (School Board, City Council, and Mayor) know how you'd like them to proceed.
Density, density, density! With all this new office space moving in to Scott's Addition, I wonder if we could get a pilot of a Free Transit Pass for Workers program? One of the business districts in Columbus (which had taxing authority, so keep that in mind) instituted a similar program and doubled the amount of workers using transit to commute—pulling cars off the road and lessening the burden on parking.
The 6PIC opening was a couple days back, and Brent Baldwin at Style Weekly has some words to read if you missed out. Prepare to be inspired!
Marc Cheatham launched a new podcast this week called Top Billin', a "deeper dive into culture, community, politics, education, and all things affecting our lives." The first episode features a chat with the dang mayor!
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense has a list of local winners from the Virginia Craft Beer Cup. You may be surprised at some of the victors, and I now know that I need to find some of Castleburg's Cream Ale ASAP.
The New York Times has an ever-updating piece on the state of the UK election—which did not go according to plan (apparently).
Sports!
- Squirrels beat Binghamton, 6-3, and head up to Altoona tonight.
- Kickers travel south to face the Charleston Battery at 7:00 PM on Saturday. You can watch on WTVR.
- Nats picked up a win against the Orioles, 6-1, and will start a series against the Texans tonight at 7:05 PM.
This morning's longread
Girlhood Gone: Notes from the New Nashville
This is not about Richmond, but I bet some of this rings true for a lot of the lifers out there.
What I see now is that the blurry resentment I held toward my hometown at 18, as a girl chafing to get away, was part of a mosaic. The shame I felt for Nashville nestles against the shame I felt for my region of birth, the South, a setting shaped by vanquish, a place and a people on the wrong side of history. Then there’s the shame I have felt for my own dark turns of mind—to borrow a phrase put in my head by Gillian Welch, a Californian who found her voice in the South. And this shame snuggled up to another: that of my female body, its curves themselves an echo of the gently rolling hills of Middle Tennessee, the physical geography I know better than any other. People talk about Southern pride. But in the South, shame is always pride’s flipside. This is at least partly what Patterson Hood of the Drive-by Truckers means when he talks about the “duality of the Southern thang.” I knew shame before I knew any sense of pride.