Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and, whoa!, things have cooled off. Today we've got highs in the mid 70s and even cooler temperatures coming our way on Saturday and Sunday.
Water cooler
WRIC is reporting a pedestrian was hit by driver yesterday on Forest Hill Avenue at Shelia Lane and suffered life-threatening injuries. This seven lane stretch of Forest Hill is right near the Walmart, Lowes, and a bunch of other stores and restaurants. I'm going to keep saying it until they decide to do something about it, but: The City needs to begin real work on its Vision Zero program to reduce these preventable crashes. People should not die or suffer serious injuries while crossing the street to shop, eat, or get to their job.
Another day, another article about wooing Amazon to Richmond, and today, Michael Paul Williams lists out some of Richmond's pros and cons. You know I have to quote this sentence at you: "In a city with significant shortcomings in linking bus service to jobs, mass transit remains a liability in luring a business like Amazon." But, of course, there are other non-transit deficiencies on the con side of Richmond's ledger: public schools, concentration of poverty, and an un-dealt-with history of racial inequity. Richmond should take this Amazon RFP, hang it up on the wall of it's cubicle, and start working to build the sort of place that'll be appealing to the next Amazon—which, turns out, is just the sort of place existing Richmonders want to live.
In Richmond Magazine, Gary Robertson has a piece about this year's iteration of the State Fair of Virginia, which begins today and runs through October 8th. Unpopular opinion maybe: I'm into anything that reduces the fair's focus on the fried carnival midway stuff and shifts it to the agriculture 4-H education kind of stuff. Basically the opposite of whatever this is. Grab your tickets online—$15 for adults, $11 for kids under 12.
Density alert! Richmond BizSense's Jonathan Spiers reports on a possible new 105-unit apartment building coming to the consistently empty parking lot on the southeast corner of Grace and Lombardy. In the plans the developer submitted to the Commission of Architectural Review, you can even see some underground parking!
Did you know we have a contemporary art fair? It's true! Check out the CURRENT Art Fair today through Sunday at the Main Street Station. Take a look at the schedule (PDF), and then block out some time this weekend to get artified.
Vox's update on the 9+ things you need to know about the crisis in Puerto Rico is ultra depressing. By the by, and certainly not the only way to get involved, but First Lady McAuliffe will host a fundraiser for Funding United for Puerto Rico tonight at Stone Brewing.
Sports!
- Kickers host Orlando at 5:00 PM on Saturday, and you can get your tickets online.
- Spiders face Albany at 3:00 PM in Robins Stadium on Saturday.
- #12 Hokies welcome the #2 Clemson Tigers to Blacksburg at 8:00 PM.
- Wahoos and Duke kickoff at 12:20 PM.
- Nats beat the Pirates, 5-4, and continue the series tonight at 7:05 PM.
This morning's longread
Better Pasta
Advice on how to better cook your pasta from one of my favorite opinionated podcasters.
Fill your pot with cold water from the tap. Hot water is more likely to pick up unpleasant stuff from the pipes. Salt the water until it tastes like the ocean1. (If you don’t know what ocean water tastes like, please take a break now and find out. This blog post will be here when you return.) Nothing other than salt needs to be in the water. Do not add oil. I’ve heard people say they add oil to the water to prevent the pasta from sticking to itself. This is misguided on multiple levels. First, the pasta will spend most of its time below the surface of the water, far from the oil which will all stay on the surface of the water. Second, you want pasta’s natural, starchy surface to be exposed upon exiting the water so the pasta can absorb the flavorful ingredients you’re about to combine it with. An oil coating would impair that.