Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and today, like yesterday, also looks very nice—expect highs in the 80s and sunshine. Temperatures start to creep up a bit over the next few days, but I'm going to pretend not to even notice!
Water cooler
Yesterday, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, making the largest investment into mitigating climate change...ever? As President Obama said, "This is a BFD." You can read a bit more in the Washington Post, but, even if that sounds boring, definitely tap through to see a great picture of Biden giving a "Can you believe this guy??" look to Joe Manchin after signing the Act. I'm impressed that Democrats got this bill passed—a bill investing billions in climate and health insurance!—given their incredibly thin majority and the raging anti-science opposition from Republicans. Exactly zero republicans in either the House or the Senate—Liz Cheney included—voted to invest in giving our burning planet a chance to support habitable life for the next couple of generations. Mindblowingly sad. I'm still looking for the best explainer on everything this new law accomplishes, so if you find a good, comprehensive one, send it my way!
Patrick Wilson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a big update on the Richmond Police Department’s alleged 4th of July plot: "[Chief] Smith misspoke at a July 6 news conference in which he erroneously said an anonymous tipster specified Dogwood Dell as a targeted location for a mass shooting on July Fourth." While the Chief admits that no one, at any point, mentioned Dogwood Dell, he doubles down on there being "a plot that there would be a mass shooting, 4th of July, large event, Richmond Virginia." This interview with the Chief comes just a week after he said he was done talking about the alleged plot and would watch as the federal cases move forward (which I still don't think have anything to do with mass shootings). Staying quiet and trying to ignore it all was never going to be a winning strategy for the RPD, but I'm not sure this interview made anything better, either. Tap through to watch a short segment of the interview and read about some weird details around how the interview was set up. If I had to guess, we'll hear more soon—maybe even from the Mayor. Smith did more interviews with WTVR, NBC12, and WRIC, if you want to check them out.
Keep an eye on this: VPM's Ben Paviour reports that Governor Youngkin’s Superintendent of Public Instruction wants to put a hold on adopting new history and social science standards to correct "serious errors and omissions." The new standards have apparently been in the works for two years and have already gone through some public engagement—and y'all know how I feel about making big changes to public documents after the engagement process. Let's see what kind of edits the Youngkin administration comes back with and if it's just minor corrections and adjustments or wholesale replacements.
OK, OK, I promise you no longer have to hear me go on about those three zoning changes (Airbnbs, parking minimums, and accessory dwelling units), because today, at 12:00 PM, is the final telephone town hall. You can find the call-in information and slides from other meetings here. Also City-related, Council will meet for a special meeting today, and, from what I can tell, will NOT discuss anything related to the Richmond Police Department or their alleged 4th of July plot. You can find the agenda for that meeting here.
There's something oddly compelling about pulling weeds. It's instantly satisfying—you can immediately see how much your work has changed the landscape—but it's also a forever job, with weeds popping back up—a little less each time—for infinity. This week, and several weeks throughout the fall, get oddly compelled as the James River Association hosts invasive plant removal on Chapel Island. Show up at Great Shiplock Park, bring your own gloves, and spend a couple hours helping to restore one the James River Park System’s beautiful islands. You'll focus on pulling Chinese privet, about which Wikipedia says "It was introduced to North America to be used for hedges and landscaping where it has now escaped from cultivation and is listed as an invasive plant in southeastern states. It is estimated that Chinese privet now occupies over one million hectares of land across 12 states ranging from Virginia to Florida and west to Texas, with detrimental effects to biodiversity and forest health." Gross / yikes.
This morning's longread
How to Embrace Doing Nothing
Remember, just a couple weeks ago, when the Atlantic was all "if you're just sitting around and not riding your bike on vacation, you're doing it wrong"? Well here they are telling us the opposite—that everyone needs to spend more time doing nothing. I like this take better! Honestly, sitting on the bus and staring out the window for 20 minutes is one the more refreshing routines in my life.
Even when, in 2020, many of us were handed a golden opportunity to decrease the number of hours we spend working or commuting, most of us didn’t take it. In fact, among knowledge workers, the average workday increased by 48.5 minutes during the early months of the pandemic. For me, the increase didn’t just come from repurposing my commute: I found my work seeping into my evenings and weekends, like radon gas. When my home became my office, the boundaries separating my job from my life evaporated, and I could not escape from work. I wanted more leisure, and it was right in front of me for the taking, but it still felt weirdly inaccessible.
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