Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and today looks lovely. Expect highs in the upper 60s and lots of sunshine—for the next couple of days, even!
Water cooler
Gah! What a stressful, wild-ride of an Election Night. Locally, Senator Tim Kaine won his reelection, dominating Corey Stewart—who will now, fingers crossed, just go away. Democratic women flipped three Republican congressional districts: Elaine Luria in the 2nd, Jennifer Wexton in the 10th, and, of course, Abigail Spanberger in the 7th. Cheryl Burke will continue to represent the City’s 7th District on the RPS School Board. Dan Schmitt won the Henrico Board of Supervisors Brookland District Special Election, handing control of the Board back to Republicans. And the two Constitutional Amendments both passed easily. Nationally, lots of things happened, but Democrats retook control of the House, Florida restored voting rights to millions of felons, and Michigan dramatically modernized their voting system. I had four goals going into last night: Democratic control of the House, Democratic control of the Henrico Board of Supervisors, SPANBERGER, and that racist Iowa Representative Steve King would lose. I went two for two.
This Back Page column in Style Weekly by Nikki Patterson-Russel is exactly the kind of thing I think about when we talk about rolling back the recession-era cuts to the property tax. We have deep, immense needs in Richmond—needs that stretch beyond schools and into public housing, affordable housing, and transportation. Whenever we decide to get up the political gumption to have a serious conversation about the property tax, we gotta think about all of our needs.
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense says the Richmond Food Co-op is done for good. The folks involved have been kicking this idea along for years, and I bet this was a tough decision for them.
John O’Connor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says the Squirrels will install a new videoboard at the Diamond ahead of the 2019 season. Don’t you think all the recent attention on a downtown arena grinds their gears a bit? I mean, the Squirrels were basically promised new facilities ages ago (multiple times) and have made due, schlepping along, with continual incremental upgrades. I’m not saying we should build a new ballpark (or even a downtown arena, for that matter), but it’s wild how the winds of Economic Development shift.
Elise Kim at Richmond Magazine says the Science Museum has a new makerspace/permanent exhibition called The Forge. She learned how to make a pencil! With, like, tools and stuff!
The Urban Hang Suite is rad and you should definitely grab your next cup of coffee there.
RVA Hub has a neat time-lapse video of the construction of the American Civil War Museum expansion. Definitely worth 30 seconds of your life.
This sunset double rainbow photo on /r/rva is incredible! Is there a proper name for such a thing? A double down evening dog?
This morning's longread
Esports vs. pro sports: Jeremy Lin is betting on both
Earlier this week, a smart person wondered aloud to me if that instead of trying to court an AHL team for our proposed downtown arena (an idea that seems straight out of the purple and teal 90s), if we should be courting an esports team/league.
The social component is what will make scaling the industry possible. Not only do you game with other people—whether it’s with your housemates in the same room, your friends across the country, or strangers on the other side of the world—you now watch other people play video games, just like I used to watch my brothers on the couch. Stadiums sell out tournaments with more than 15,000 attendees, and half a million people can tune in online to watch a single game.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.