Good morning, RVA! It's 65 °F, and today looks not-so-hot, still humid, cloudy, and probably rainy at points—especially this morning. Expect highs in the 70s, and a slow, but productive, start to the week ahead.
Water cooler
Saturday morning, a drunk driver hit and killed Jonah Holland and critically injured Natalie Rainer while they were riding their bikes out on Osborn Turnpike. I'd known Jonah for the better part of two decades—working with her to promote Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden through RVANews, and, even before that, during the early social media days in Richmond. Last year, I posted a picture of a Nandina in my yard, and she let me know how poisonous and invasive they were (which had me and my mom out there pulling up Nandina for a few weeks). Just a couple of months ago she sent me a kind note wishing me luck on my first bikepacking adventure. The last time I saw Jonah, was back in May at a Richmond Area Bicycling Association ride out in Goochland. We met up at the halfway point, and she tried to convince me to join her riding club before speeding off as I took a break in the shade. Jonah's the first person that I've known, known to be killed while biking—biking on a stretch of road that I've ridden a thousand times, at least once with my parents and my son. I didn't know Natalie, but her family has set up a gofundme to help with medical bills. If I hear about memorial funds or group rides for Jonah, I'll make sure they end up in this space.
Last week, the CDC released new COVID-19 guidance that made me feel pretty ambivalent. Since then, both Katelyn Jetelina and Emily Oster have weighed in on the new guidance (with Oster much more positive than Jetelina, but in a schools-and-kids focused way). If you're feeling unmoored about the new guidance, or just the whole pandemic in general, I recommend reading both pieces—especially the last two paragraphs of Jetelina's. To quote a bit: "...we are in a very strange phase of the pandemic: somewhere between endemic and a full blown emergency. If you’re confused on what to do, know that we are all confused and just trying to do our best. Give yourself and others grace through this time."
The City's Planing Commission meets today, and you can find the full agenda here. Of note for me: the conceptual location, character, and extent reviews of both the Main Library and two new community centers are on the Consent Agenda—meaning they should, fingers-crossed, move forward without much controversy. Planning Commission had Some Thoughts the last time the Main Library plans showed up in front of them, but seems like those issues have been worked out. In more controversial topics, the resolution to change the future land use category of Oregon Hill—from Neighborhood Mixed-Use to Residential—sits on the regular agenda. The staff report is worth reading in full, but here's the juicy bit: "Staff finds that the proposed changes undermine the integrity of the Master Plan overall...Staff finds that the Master Plan was adopted after several years of extensive community engagement and the final Master Plan was adopted after making significant revisions in response to community comments, including changes based on comments from Oregon Hill community members. Staff finds that making these changes after only 60 days of notice is poor public planning process, especially given that the Master Plan was adopted less than 2 years ago and that Oregon Hill comments were heard during the plan development process and responded to in the final Master Plan." Strong agree, staff. I predict a bunch of angry public comment at today's meeting, so tune in at 1:30 PM if that's your jam!
The Carytown Watermelon Festival was this past weekend and one of the attractions—other than a preview of what Carytown could look like if they closed the street to cars—was MF Broom, Richmond newest, most adorablest bike-lane sweeper. I continued to be charmed by how well the city has adopted this thing as almost a mascot.
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that the Buffalo Wild Wings down in the Bottom has closed. I think I mostly link to this story because 1) wings are awesome, and 2) that BW3s had been there for 19 years!? I can still remember how, at the time, people grumbled about it looking way too modern for that tobacco-warehouse-saturated part of town. Where even are the bricks??
This morning's longread
4 solutions for trees and forests threatened by a hotter world
Depressing but inspiring stuff! One of the things I like about the work to save forests is the combination of extreme urgency with the fact that trees are just so slow.
Even with a lot of help in British Columbia, there’ll be hard limits to how quickly forests can adapt. Since no one suggests cutting down healthy forest to replant, foresters can make headway only by planting on burned or logged lands. At the current rate, the province won’t fully replace its logged forests for 80 years. Even then, new trees will just keep pace with climate change rather than outrun it, because it’s nearly impossible to plant trees far enough ahead of their current range for them to thrive many decades from now: Winter chills can stunt or kill seedlings of trees suited for warmer weather if they’re planted too far beyond where they currently thrive.
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