Good morning, RVA! It's 69 °F, and with highs in the mid 80s, today’s a bit warmer than yesterday. And, yes, there is Yet Another Chance of Thunderstorms this afternoon. Things should dry out after today, though.
Water cooler
The General Assembly, faced with a pressing need to pass a budget and expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of Virginians, did not cease their futzing yesterday. In fact, the Senate Finance Committee continued to futz and decided they wouldn’t even meet this week! As you can imagine, folks are displeased with the continued delay tactics—including the Governor, who weighed in with: “This unnecessary delay is made more insulting to Virginians by the reality that the House of Delegates passed a budget that expands health care weeks ago, and a majority of Senators have indicated they would vote for a similar measure if the Senate would simply put one on the floor. Virginians have waited long enough.” To be continued until next week or whenever Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment decides to do a thing—your guess is as good as mine on that guy.
Further fallout from that NYT article about eviction and something to keep an eye on: Yesterday, the Campaign to Reduce Evictions (CARE) hosted their first meeting to present data, and the RTD’s Ned Oliver was there to catch some quotes. If you’ve got an eviction story of your own, you can help their efforts by contributing that story over on CARE’s website.
The Franklin Street bike lane opened this past Friday, the Pulse (and accompanying bus network redesign) opens on June 24th, and then Monroe Park will reopen on August 15th, says Alix Bryan at WTVR. That’s great news! Now we just need a really cool thing to open up in July to fill out our summer. What about...new bike share stations?
This summer the ICA will host a series of free, public programs to pair with their main exhibition, “Decleration.” One of those, ICA Cinema, debuts on June 13th and is a summer film series that looks super interesting (PDF). Also, while searching for the film schedule on the ICA’s website I found out about The Mending Project which also sounds really interesting. Take a garment by the ICA that needs mending and a volunteer will repair it while chatting you up. This is art! Seriously: “Lee Mingwei’s The Mending Project invites visitors to bring a garment in need of repair. A volunteer mender will repair the item while engaging in conversation with its owner. The goal is not to restore the item to its original condition, but to share in the gift of conversation with a total stranger.”
Every once in a while, I’ve mentioned the East End post office in this space. Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says that it’s now open.
Style Weekly’s 2018 Best Of Richmond issue is out, and there are a bunch of awards and categories for you to scroll through. Good Morning, RVA did not win Best Daily Zoning and Rezoning Newsletter, which I think is garbage.
If a road look like this, you should not drive on it, OK?
Sports!
- Squirrels had their battle with the Rumble Ponies postponed and will try again today at 5:35 PM.
- Kickers return to U.S. Open Cup action tonight and face Penn FC at 7:00 PM.
- Nats beat San Diego, 2-1, and finish that series today at 4:05 PM.
- Caps and Lightning face off in game seven of the conference finals TONIGHT at 8:00 PM!
This morning's longread
An Ode To Winston Bishop, The Lovable Weirdo Of “New Girl"
We’ll miss you, Winnie the Bish.
New Girl’s end, after seven seasons (including the astonishingly good and near-flawless second and third seasons), 146 episodes and several thinkpieces on the meaning and adoptability of “adorkable,” necessitates a focus on the show’s place in sitcom history and what it has meant for the art form at large. But there also exists an ardent amen corner in the fandom, glad to see Winston in particular complete his arc. Winston was a surprisingly excellent version of a black man with too many quirky-white people-who-play-complicated-drinking-games as friends. He was flawed and human, a weirdo allowed (and encouraged!) to be weird, and an all-around fantastic, genuinely nuanced character. We will miss him dearly.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.