Good morning, RVA! It's 34 °F, and todays highs will creep up into the low 40s. Keep an eye out for actual snow beginning this afternoon, continuing through the evening, and maybe impacting commutes tomorrow morning. Andrew Freiden at NBC12 says we’re right on the edge, so don’t expect more than an inch of accumulation at best—but, as we all know, that could shut the entire region down.
Water cooler
That Scott's Addition PDF I was looking for the other day now exists (PDF) along with this handy one-pager map / cheat sheet (PDF). First, this is a draft framework—not an adopted plan or a sanctioned RFP. Second, whoa! There's a lot going on in here, but I want to highlight the amount of density envisioned along Arthur Ashe Boulevard (and, honestly, throughout), the rad crescent of open spaces stretching from the highway down past the Whole Foods, and the "landmark bridge" that would finally give folks a safe way to cross the railroad tracks on foot or by bike. Stay tuned for a survey where you can send the planning folks all of your Scott's Addition thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Partnership for Smarter Growth's Stewart Schwartz has a column in the Virginia Mercury about the proposed Central Virginia Transit Authority's potential to create a ton of sprawl—which is not smarter growth. This is HB 1541, which I've written about at length, and, speaking strictly as Ross the Good Morning, RVA guy, yeah, this new source of funding will create enormous pots of new money that the region can use to build new and terrible roads. Luckily, these sprawly buckets of new tax revenue are mostly unrestricted, and, if convinced by their constituencies, instead of roads localities could (theoretically) built great sidewalks, wonderful bike lanes, and even extend and expand public transit operations. Advocates, which definitely includes each and every one of you reading this, will have to work hard to convince their elected officials and decision makers that we've got to continue to reverse the decades-long trend of regional disinvestment in public transit and safe, people-scale infrastructure.
Sounds like things are coming to a head at the General Assembly over redistricting reform. Mel Leonor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says that House Democrats will not take up a constitutional amendment on redistricting reform 💸. This bums me out a lot. Del. VanValkenburg has a column in the RTD addressing some of the concerns with the amendment that you should read, too. And if you think redistricting reform is an important thing—maybe the important thing—take two seconds and fill out this form at One Virginia 2021 to contact your legislators.
The Virginia Mercury's Sarah Vogelsong has written the extremely helpful "Ten Things to Know About the Clean Economy Act." This omnibus will address one particular facet of climate change: Energy policy. That means we've still got lots of work to do, at all levels of government, to pass land use, housing, transportation, and sustainability laws—slowing climate change is not just about electrifying things!
Hey! Do you live, work, or play in the West End? GRTC has a plan to rejigger the City's routes out that way, and would like your feedback before February 27th via this survey. The big changes here are that the #77 gets straightened out, connecting UR to Monroe Park; the #50 heads allllll the way into Downtown; and the #75 goes away.
Here is a very bizarre thing via /r/reddit: a Mercator projection of the world with Richmond centered at one end. From Wikipedia, an explanation of why this looks so bizarre: "As a side effect, the Mercator projection inflates the size of objects away from the equator. This inflation starts infinitesimally, but accelerates with latitude to become infinite at the poles"
I am always skeptical of lists and rankings that include Richmond because our weird independent city situation tends to make per-capita numbers either extremely high or extremely low. You gotta include at least parts of the region when trying to compare/contrast to other cities, and not everyone knows that. That said, check out this super interesting analysis of Yelp data to find out which metros have the most independent restaurants. Richmond has a lot of chains, which, on the one hand, is maybe disappointing, but, on the other hand, Cook Out is delicious. Follow that article up with this extremely on-brand chaser that compares cities with a lot of chain restaurants to how many miles folks drive each day. As you'd expect, places with more chain restaurants are places you've got to drive more to live your life. I don't know what to take from these two articles, other than I have no desire to live in Nashville.
This morning's longread
A Regional Minimum Wage Would Accelerate Inequality In Virginia
The Commonwealth Institute's analysis of the State Senate's plan to regionally increase minimum wage is worth reading. As with literally everything, disaggregating data by race is so very important and usually reveals important disparities.
But an unintended consequence of SB 7’s regionalism is that Black workers could again be left behind, as only 23% of Black people in Virginia live in the area that would likely receive the largest minimum wage increase. This means the vast majority of Black workers in low-wage jobs would be systematically excluded from the strongest feature of SB 7: a guaranteed $1 increase in the minimum wage until $15 per hour is reached. Many of Virginia’s majority-Black cities and counties such as Greensville and Sussex are in Southside, which has one of the lowest regional median incomes and therefore would see some of the smallest increases in the minimum wage. Overall, by undercutting the minimum wage, a regional approach would make it more difficult to close the wage gap between white and Black workers.
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