Good morning, RVA! It's 40 °F right now, and I will not tell you the temperature in my “No Heat ‘til November” house. But! Today, highs will creep back up into the 70s and continue to increase through this coming Monday when we’ll see temperatures in the upper 80s. Again: Probably bad if you think too hard about it, but great for this weekend’s Halloween parties.
Water cooler
Connor Scribner at VPM reports on how redlining and systemic racism impact homeownership in the Richmond region. This is a long piece that’s filled with a bunch of complicated, interlocking reasons why it’s a challenge for folks—especially people living in majority Black and Brown neighborhoods—to own, maintain, or keep up with the taxes on a home. For some additional reading, tap through to Damon Harris’s Teal House Company to learn more about his approach to equitable real estate that actually creates more homeowners. And, for additional context, check out the old redlining maps for Richmond so you have a sense of where these neighborhood sit.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Anna Bryson reports on the impending (or maybe already arriven) child care funding crisis. From the piece: “Expansions to a federal child care subsidy program expired Sept. 30, and an additional $15 billion in child care grants that target low-income families are set to end Sept. 30, 2024....child care providers and business leaders worry about how the loss of child care services for thousands of Virginians could affect families’ ability to afford child care and therefore be able to work.“ This funding cliff just exacerbates the existing child care crisis in Virginia. Remember, the State’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, just last week, reported that over three quarters of families cannot afford childcare. What’s more, 24,000 kids in Virginia could lose access to childcare should these federal funds evaporate (although Sen. Kaine thinks that number could stretch all the way to 80,000). This is such a huge problem that it really only feels fixable at the federal level, which is currently adrift in a see of dysfunction. Or maybe the state level: The Virginia Early Childhood Foundation found that it’d cost the commonwealth $320 million annually to preserve all of the current, about-to-vanish funding. I’m going to keep an eye on the Governor’s budget this year to see if/how he chooses to address the issue.
Dean Mirshahi at WRIC reports on two grant agreements the City’s working on that will create about 230 units of affordable housing (to people making 60% of the Area Median Income). Both located on the Southside, these projects will agree to a handful of stipulations that should help maintain their affordability for years to come. If you’re interested, you can check out the full text of one of the agreements in the attachments of ORD. 2023-309.
Important update: Axios Richmond’s Ned Oliver stopped by the new General Assembly building and got a slice of pizza from the only publicly-owned pizza oven (that I’m aware of). His verdict: “I’ve eaten worse pizza that looked prettier.”
I’ve only loosely followed Republicans’ trainwreck of a House speaker election, so I appreciated this guide to the eight current candidates from the Virginia Mercury’s Jacob Fischler. A full six of these jokers voted against certifying the 2020 election, which should absolutely disqualify each of them. Sounds like we could see the next round of voting as early as today.
This morning's longread
How Nebraska cultivated a volleyball fan base 90,000 deep
This past weekend, #2 Nebraska beat #1 Wisconsin (in five sets!) for the first time since 2017. Here’s the story of how Nebraska built their volleyball program and how, earlier this year, they hosted over 90,000 fans in the Cornhuskers’ football stadium—one of the biggest crowds to watch a women’s volleyball match ever. My family has gotten real into volleyball lately.
But in 2011, when Nebraska announced that its basketball teams were leaving the Bob Devaney Sports Center for Pinnacle Bank Arena, Osborne, Nebraska's athletic director at the time, wanted volleyball to make Devaney their home. A reporter called Cook and asked what he thought of the move, and Cook said that if the arena wasn't good enough for basketball, why is it good enough for volleyball? The story ran, and the phone rang in the volleyball office. It was Osborne, and he wanted to see Cook right away. Cook calls Osborne a mentor, and said he loved working with him because he "knows how coaches feel." But on that particular day, Osborne was not calling to exchange pleasantries.
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Picture of the Day
I want to stop and take a picture of every fallen red leaf!
