Good morning, RVA! It's 65 °F, and we've got another hot day in front of us. Expect highs around 90 °F again as we patiently wait for Friday's cooler temperatures (and maybe even temperatures that starts with a six!). However, for today, stay cool stay hydrated!
Water cooler
Patrick Larsen at VPM has a few quotes and thoughts from local School Districts about Governor Youngkin’s new regressive anti-trans public school policies. Of course I deeply appreciate RPS Superintendent Kamras quickly and forcefully asking the School Board to "object to this model policy as vociferously as we possibly can to prevent its implementation." But I also like where Dot Heffron, Chesterfield School Board Member, is coming from, too. She seems frustrated at the no-notice, drastic shift in a policy that's been, in her words, "a nonissue." RPS School Boardmember Liz Doerr introduced a motion last night to reject the Governor's new model policy, an action which should show up on their October 3rd agenda.
Speaking of the RPS School Board, KidsFirst RPS live-tweeted their meeting last night and reports that the Board wrapped things up at 8:41 PM! That's way before bad-decision o' clock!
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports on the plans to replace the Southern States silos with housing—specifically the "tallest new-construction residential building the city has seen in recent years" (20 stories!). I know the silos are iconic, and I know there will be much gnashing and rending over the decision to pull down something old and derelict and replace it with something new and homey. But, as someone on /r/rva put it: "Silos are cool, but more housing is WAY cooler." Platania says demolition of the silos will begin later this year.
City Council's Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meets today with two really interesting presentations on its agenda. First, they'll hear a presentation on Assessments of Affordable Housing Properties by Jovan Burton at the Partnership for Housing Affordability. Tap through to see how rising assessments have contributed to rising rents in our city's super-limited affordable housing stock. I keep yammering on about how across-the-board cuts to Richmond's real estate tax rate is not the best solution to some of the impacts of rising assessments. Well here's some more yammer! Slide 13 of Burton's presentation gets at another creative solution: The City Assessor should "assess affordable properties based on rental income." Gasp! Is that even possible / legal, I hear you say? We'll, turn to the second presentation, titled "Virginia Law Governing Assessments of Affordable Housing Properties" by the hotshot lawyers at Williams Mullen. Scroll through those slides, if you dare—I especially liked the entire slide devoted to legally defining "shall consider." I am not a lawyer, which should be hilariously obvious, but it does seem like the hotshot lawyers do believe the City Assessor could (and shall?) consider rental rates when calculating the assessments for affordable housing. It'll be interesting to see what the City does with this information! Honestly, if today's presenters can convince the City Attorney, I bet targeted affordable housing assessments — or whatever we want to call it — could get both Mayoral and Council support.
Richard Hayes at RVAHub has some really nice photos from this past weekend’s RVA Street Art Festival. I still haven't been down there yet to see all the new, finished murals, but some of these in-progress shots look amazing.
This coming Thursday, September 22nd, the Richmond Flying Squirrels will host the Erie SeaWolves in their first at-home playoff game since 2014. You can get your tickets here, and, if you're interested, you probably shouldn't dillydally as I imagine they'll sell out. The Southwest Division series is a best-of-three, with Game One tonight and Game Two on Thursday. Richmond will also host Game Three, if it's needed, and you can get theoretical tickets for that game, too. Even if baseball's not your most favorite of sports, everyone can get into playoff season!
Quick reminder: The City will host a Diamond District telephone town hall tonight at 6:30 PM. Dial in, ask the chosen developer some friendly-but-pointed questions, and learn more about the plans to transform the neighborhood.
This morning's longread
Chloe Toscano's personalized prosthetic arm has sparkle butterflies
The uncanny valley is everywhere—not just video game cutscenes!—and I thought this piece about avoiding the uncanny valley of prosthetics was really interesting. Also, sparkle butterflies are great.
I’ve been operating with one arm since long before it was removed. Opening a Tupperware with one hand at this point feels more natural than if I were to get a second hand involved. And because there’s no prosthetic arm that beats a real arm, I wanted something I could wear as an accessory that would also enable me to do the few activities I otherwise can’t do, such as lifting weights, kayaking, holding two ice cream cones, using those self-serve fro-yo machines or carrying large pizza boxes — the latter being a priority.
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