Good morning, RVA! It's 30 °F, and, while the sun will stick around today, the temperatures will scooch down to the mid 40s.
Water cooler
Ruh roh Raggy, Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that folks are pushing to get Councilmember Agelasto removed from City Council after Robinson reported that Agelasto no longer lives in the 5th District. Call me cynical, but it does not seem like a coincidence that former 5th District Councilmember and 2016 mayoral candidate Chuck Richardson is leading this particular charge. I dunno y’all, rules is rules, and out of all sitting Councilfolk, Agelasto is the most intense about following the rules! So this really flips my lid. That said, for whatever reason—Agelasto’s long record of hard work in the 5th District, his encyclopedic knowledge on legislation in the 5th and citywide, that he’s not living out in Chesterfield or Henrico but down the road in the 1st District—I have a hard time getting my hackles up about this. I’m also nervous about losing one of the most detail-oriented people on Council right as we head into the heart of the conversation about the proposed Coliseum redevelopment.
Of note from City Council today, the Governmental Operations committee, aka GovOps, will meet today for their regularly scheduled meeting and will take up two chicken-related papers (ORD. 2018-272 and ORD. 2018-294)—both to allow for folks to keep six birds instead of four. Apparently the come in a six pack. We’ve discussed this before, but for some reason I have it in my list of ordinances to watch. Also of note is RES. 2018-R100, which, I think, would solidify in code some of the voter registration and absentee voting deadlines as they relate to potential runoffs in a mayoral election. Maybe those just don’t exist now? Legal Eagles, lemme know!
In the RTD, Graham Moomaw has an update on redistrciting: State Republican legislators have asked courts to stop redistricting and postpone primaries, which...does not seem like forward progress? Speaker Kirk Cox says everything needs to wait on a pending Supreme Court of the United States decision, which would most likely come after the currently scheduled primaries. I’m glad I’m not a state-level candidate, because not knowing the timeline for this sort of thing sounds incredibly stressful.
I don’t think I can overstate how cool it is that Boots Riley is in Richmond to discuss his film Sorry to Bother You on Saturday as part of the Afrikana Independent Film Festival. This movie...AHHHHH! I watched it a couple weekends ago (now streaming on Hulu) and have not stopped thinking about it since. It’s definitely worth the $20 ticket!
Tomorrow, the 17th Street Market reopens! To celebrate, there’s a ribbon cutting at 5:00 PM, tree illuminating, ice skating, carriage rides, fire spinners—you know, all the classic holiday stuff. This coincides with the Grand Illumination of Downtown at 6:00 PM, where you can expect lots of humans, street closures, and lots of other good reason to ride your bike or take the bus! If you’re planning on the latter, the #5 and #14 will have a few detours to be aware of.
If you want season tickets for the Richmond Kickers, you can put in your deposit now. At $125 for 14 games, this seems like a great deal.
This morning's longread
The Rise of Women Coaching Men
Can you imagine the number of dumb and irritating comments you’d get after people ask you what you do? Actually, there are definitely many of you reading this right now that live this life on the day to day! For the rest of us, tap the link and read some of those stupid comments for yourself!
While these examples are essentially harmless, they’re still a never-ending problem for female coaches — let alone those who coach the opposite sex. Women who coach boys’ and men’s programs are subject to sexual harassment, gender inequality and tokenism. They are forced to constantly justify their qualifications — “What does a woman know about football? How can a woman coach my son?” — while male coaches with little to no knowledge of or experience playing sports like softball or field hockey are handed jobs around the country without question.
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