Good morning, RVA! It's 75 °F, and today you receive a slight respite from the heat: Highs slightly below 90 °F! Take advantage of not instantly melting when you walk outside.
Water cooler
What an exciting City Council meeting last night! Council unanimously voted to adopt the Pulse Corridor Plan, the city's first transit-oriented development plan. This means area-specific zoning and rezonings can begin, and we can start making and encouraging the best use of the land (parking is probably not one of them!) around the Pulse. There was also a looooong discussion about the Better Housing Coalition, a lawsuit, and a $6 million community block grant from the federal government—Ned Oliver has you covered on that one. Not discussed last night was the Mayor's Education Compact, which was continued until August 21st. The School Board is still scheduled to host their public hearing on the Compact on August 7th.
Today's Michael Paul Williams piece is about schools, poverty, segregation, and it is dark. He starts with the situation at George Mason (remember, there's a public hearing on that this coming Monday) and ends in a more pessimistic place that where I stand at the moment. Yeah there's lots of stuff that needs fixing—not just with school, either—but there's also lots of folks working hard on doing the fixing.
Ahhh RVA Hub remembered to look for the Police Department's mid-year report PDF. You should download the full report (PDF) and take a look for yourself. The narrative that crime is at an all-time high isn't quite right, but the city has seen increases in major and violent crimes over last year. Also, who thought it was reasonable to create charts with annual data stretching back to 2000 while also including just the first six months of 2017? Possibly unintentionally, but really misleading!
This week is rvatech/jam! It's an entire week focused on startups, technology, and innovation. There's absolutely a ton of stuff going on throughout the week, so go take a look at the calendar and get involved.
J. Elias O'Neal in BizSense has the word on a new waffle shop coming to downtown. We all know how I feel about Reubens, so you can probably predict my feelings towards a Reuben waffle.
I am a sucker for a What's In Your Bag article, and I made no exception for this article in Richmond Magazine about wedding planner bags. Now someone do City Council members!
Senate Republicans' months-long quest to take health insurance from millions of Americans comes to a head today. Presumably, although it seems like nobody knows for sure, the Senate will vote to open debate on a bill which no one has seen, they'll have a couple of days to debate and amend, and then they'll vote to pass it—whatever it is. In a drama-maximizing move, Senator McCain will return from receiving government-subsidize healthcare for his recent brain cancer diagnosis to participate in these votes. Terrifying.
Sports!
- Squirrels beat the Senators, 5-4, and try to keep their winning streak alive tonight at 6:35 PM. Tickets are available online.
- Nats open a series against the Brewers tonight at 7:05 PM.
This morning's longread
Searching London for My ‘Third Place’
Tell me some of your Richmond third places...
I needed to find my third place, the place that could connect the authentic me, the persona I am at home, with my surroundings — with my wider home. Since moving to London from the north of England five years before, something had been missing for me — some deeper connection with the city. I hoped finding my third place would give personal meaning to the random masses of concrete and strangers I happened to live among.