Good morning, RVA! It's 44 °F, and today you can expect dry skies and highs in the 60s. I think we might could even see the sun later this afternoon! If you can, take the mid-week opportunity to walk, roll, or ride around your neighborhood in the unseasonably warm weather (not thinking too, too hard about what it all means).
Water cooler
Caroline Coleburn at WTVR reports on a new study conducted by the Science Museum of Virginia which shows that “going for a walk in a quiet, green space has better mental health and physiological outcomes than going for a walk in a busy, gray or loud environment.” For anyone who’s walked along Broad Street versus, say, Floyd Avenue, those results shouldn’t be too shocking. Sort of related: This story reminded me that the Science Museum’s cool new park, which used to be a horrible, hot parking lot, is now open for folks to explore. I rolled through there the other night, and it’s beautiful. The new park (plus the Museum’s ProtoPath) already make up my preferred way to get from points north to Robinson, and its going to really shine once spring hits and the plant life starts to do its thing.
Charlie Paullin at the Virginia Mercury reports that, as foretold, Democrats in a Virginia Senate committee killed a bunch of bills that would have decoupled the Commonwealth from California’s Clean Car standards. States can choose one of two options to follow for vehicle emissions: California’s or the EPA’s. California’s requirements are more climate-friendly and would require, among other things, that “all new vehicles sold be zero-emission starting in 2035.” That’s right around the corner! I’m thankful for the slim majority Democrats hold in the Senate, and this is just one example of the backstop they provide against Republican’s anti-climate agenda. Remember: There are probably similar bills floating around that will pass through and out of the Republican-controlled House, but they’ll most likely die a similar death when they crossover to the Senate. Of course, nothing’s truly dead until the session adjourns!
VPM’s Megan Pauly has an update on RPS’s progress in rebuilding Fox Elementary School, which burned down a year ago next month. You can find early renderings, layout diagrams, and a few of the plans to reconfigure and modernize some of the spaces in this presentation given to School Board last night. Sounds like there’s still no timeline for when the construction will begin, but, when it does, it’ll take about 15 months to complete.
Yesterday, GRTC announced that Sheryl Adams, longtime member of the bus company’s executive team, will now serve as their new CEO. Adams replaces Julie Timm, who last year left Richmond for the top job at Seattle’s Sound Transit.
Really critical stuff from /r/rva this morning: “What restaurant has the best milkshakes in town?” I’d probably have said The Village, but I’m interested in learning more about Minglewood Bake Shop which will “make you a milkshake with any baked good in their case.” Sounds incredible.
This morning's longread
US Cities Are Falling Out of Love With the Parking Lot
Richmond itself is noodling on removing parking minimums, and we should see an ordinance to do so submitted to City Council in the coming months. It’s exciting stuff and slowly starts to shift how we prioritize our extremely limited physical space for people and places, not storing cars.
Several cities across the country are now rushing doing the same, with Anchorage, Alaska; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Nashville, Tennessee, all recently loosening or scrapping requirements for developers to build new parking lots. “These parking minimums have helped kill cities,” said Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Business School who accused political leaders of making downtowns “look like bombs hit them” by filling them with parking lots. “Getting rid of parking minimums is an amazing step. It’s a piece in the puzzle of climate policy,” said Wagner, who pointed out that transportation is the largest source of planet-heating emissions in the US. “There’s a major rethink going on now, which is good for cities and for families.”
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Picture of the Day
The collective noun for chairs is “a chungle.”
