Good morning, RVA! It's 73 °F, and today's high is a mere 94 °F. Look for the temperature to settle into the upper 80s for the rest of the week.
Water cooler
Richmond Police are reporting two homicides over the weekend. The first occurred on Friday night at 8:47 PM. Police arrived at the 2700 block of North Avenue and found Michael D. Johnson, 25, shot to death. Then, early Saturday morning, police were called to the 1900 block of Hopkins Road where they found Melvin L. Chambliss, 52, also shot to death.
Alright! Tonight, City Council will hold a public hearing at 6:00 PM on the lastest version of the Mayor's Education Compact. If you've got thoughts and feelings you can, of course, attend the meeting and give a public comment for or against. You can also blow up your Councilperson's inbox. Council has a ton of other stuff on its agenda (PDF) (assuming most of it survives the earlier, informal meeting), including formally adopting the Pulse Corridor Plan as part of the City's Master Plan.
Also on the education tip is this long, depressing piece from Katy Burnell Evans about the state of George Mason Elementary School which you can pair with this shorter, equally as depressing piece from Saraya Wintersmith in the Richmond Free Press. Not a ton of new info in either article, but they're both a good reminder that something needs to be done to get students out of the crumbling building. The School Board has a couple options for that something—including the option to do nothing—which they'll consider next Monday, July 31st. Richmond Forward is working with the Peter Paul Development Center, CHAT, and the staff of George Mason to provide free food and transportation to this School Board meeting. If you're part of the Mason community, put this meeting on your calendar and get ready to share your thoughts, feelings, and emotions!
I'm glad to read this piece by Jackie Kruszewski about Councilmen Agelasto and Addison's efforts to reform the process by which the City sells property it owns. We've see a couple recent examples of how/why the process could use a revamp—Blue Bee Cider's new spot and the Grace Street Parking Tower. It'd be good to get something new on the books, especially for what happens when the City receives a unsolicited offer for one of its properties.
Brad Kutner, writing for Style Weekly, says you can watch a new show on the Fusion Network tonight at 11:00 PM about Richmond's own Hells Satans. They're a moped gang—but, like, gang in only the loosest, mopedy of ways.
The potential governors debated over the weekend! You can watch the full, hour-and-a-half long video over on the PBS NewsHour YouTube channel.
Sports!
- Squirrels beat Akron 4-2 on Sunday, but lost the series 3-1. They return home tonight and host the Harrisburg Senators at 6:35 PM. Tickets are available online.
- Kickers beat Bethlehem Steel FC, 3-2. Hey! That's their first win in 13 matches!
- Nats took two of three from Arizona over the weekend.
This morning's longread
Two Funerals And A Funeral
Ugh, sad.
I was en route to class, driving to San Francisco from my house across the Bay when the phone rang. It was Anna, one of my closest friends from high school, her voice high-pitched and on edge. The last time she’d rung in such distraught panic had been a year before. I’d missed her calls and later encountered a voice mailbox full of terrified messages laying out the realisation of a pregnancy. She wasn’t one to tip over the edge for little things, and my heart sped up when I heard her tone. “Noel is dead.” She didn’t mince words. “Hit by a car late at night.”