Good morning, RVA! It's 70 °F, and it's hot again. Expect highs in the mid-to-upper 80s and lots of sunshine on the side. I think come this weekend we'll start seeing more fall-like temperatures.
Water cooler
Richmond Police are reporting that Tara L. Anderson, 33, was struck by a driver and killed as she walked across Azalea Avenue between Brook Road and Chamberlayne Avenue. Many people cross this street on foot to get to the grocery store just north of Azalea. It's far past time for the city to begin creating and implementing a Vision Zero plan; no one should die walking to the grocery store.
City Council meets tonight for their regularly scheduled meeting at 6:00 PM. On the agenda (PDF) (which is subject to change riiiiiight up until the meeting): the necessary ordinance to create the transit-oriented zoning for the Pulse Corridor Plan, establishing a microenterprise loan program, tweaks to the process of selling city-owned land, and a ton of budget-related items as required by Council's new oversight powers. Also of note: a resolution nominating the Rev. Ben Campbell to the board of GRTC.
Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch writes about this recent report from a bunch of folks but notably Genevieve Siegel-Hawley and Housing Opportunities Made Equal: "Confronting School and Housing Segregation in the Richmond Region: Can we learn and live together?" (PDF). It's 40 pages, supremely readable, and filled with fascinating (and sometimes terribly depressing) maps and charts—compare the 1970s school segregation map on page 9 with the contemporary school segregation map on page 22.
Graham Moomaw writes the really fascinating story of the mural at the old post office building on Broad Street—aka the Mobelux office. Can you imagine a post office with a massive mural of the burning of Richmond that featured a, gasp, half naked lady? Neither could 1930s-era Richmond, so the mural was never painted until Mobelux moved in, uncovered the story, and had a sketch of the mural blown up and hung on the wall.
Take a minute and scroll through the #rvastreetart tag on Instagram (or, alternatively, the #rvastreetartfestival tag) to see the newly colorized, way less dull and drab Diamond. I wasn't sure how much of an impact the RVA Street Art Festival would have on the general vibe of The Diamond as seen from the street, but, whoa! Big changes, and it looks great! RVA Mag's Angie Huckstep has more if you'd like to read words instead of look at pictures.
In national news, the travel ban is back, as is Zombie Obamacare Repeal Version Who Can Even Remember, Angela Merkel won her 4th term election, someone is using private email to conduct official business in the White House, and Puerto Rico desperately needs more federal assistance (they're American citizens!).
Sports!
- Kickers rocked the Rhinos, 1-0.
- Spiders lost to Elon, 33-36.
- #12 Hokies moved to 4-0 with a shutout of Old Dominion.
- Wahoos beat Boise State, 38-18.
- Nats went two of three over the weekend against the Mets and begin a new series against the Phillies tonight at 7:05 PM.
- Washington ran out the Raiders, 27-10.
This morning's longread
Colin Kaepernick Has a Job
This longread about Kaepernick was written a couple weeks ago—before Trump's Alabama rally and this weekend's outpouring of support across the NFL.
You can’t help but feel for this place—America, approaching its 250th year overdue for rehab, damned by the denial that its past is directly responsible for this country’s problems in the present. You feel bad for Colin too, of course, driven away from the game that he loves, the game he was willing to risk it all for. But right now, even and especially if you don’t care about the injury status of starting quarterbacks and the inexperience of their backups, you will realize that the least important important issue is Colin Kaepernick’s employment. This is bigger than him, which is something Colin seems to understand, but so many of us forget. And even if his leadership was clumsy at first, right now he is very much built for this, the life that he has brought upon himself, that he has imposed upon his home, that he has forced upon America.