Good morning, RVA! It's 36 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday: temperatures approaching 60 °F, cloudy, and clear with the promise of something just a little nicer over the horizon. Don’t get me wrong! I’ll take today’s decidedly fall-like weather over a cold November rain any day of the week, but tomorrow and Friday look really special.
Water cooler
City Council’s Governmental Operations committee meets this afternoon and you can find the full agenda here with three things worth learning more about. First, check out this neat, quick presentation on sustainable design standards recently(ish) required by state law. The coolest part about these standards, at least for this particular newsletter, is that they’ll align with and support the upcoming rewrite of Richmond’s zoning code. Expect some sort of community engagement process and a chance to give your feedback in the coming months. Second, I think I like these small tweaks to the City’s Urban Forestry Commission (ORD. 2023-331). Interestingly, the Director of Public Works and the Director of Community Development are removed as non-voting members and, instead, replaced with the City’s urban forester, a representative from the Office of Sustainability, and a rep from the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities. Honestly, this probably makes a ton of sense and, I’d guess, adds a bit more of the Why Trees Are Important to the group. Also, within six months, the Commission must submit a report laying out how they intend to function moving forward and how they’ll ensure “continued future success.” Richmond’s tree people are a motivated bunch, so expect to hear more from this commission and keep an eye out for their initial report. Third, and just something to note, the GovOps committee will close their meeting today with another conversation on what (if any!) steps to take on updating the City’s Charter.
VPM’s Patrick Larsen reports on the Public Utilities and Services Commission that I’ve written about a ton of times and that City Council officially created this past Monday. Tap through from some good background on what this group could do, including my absolute favorite task of “providing advice on how the city can transition away from the use of its gas utility.” As with the above commission, this commission is also required to put together a report—due next fall, so mark your calendars.
Charlotte Rene Woods at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the story about Senator Hashmi not living in her new district has quickly escalated all the way to the Lawsuits Against the County Registrar level. Regardless, the Board of Elections meets on December 4th to certify election results, and, at least at this point, I fully expect them to put their stamp of approval on the senator’s election-night victory.
As a person who has strong opinions on bar bathroom aesthetics, I love that I’m not alone! Scroll through this thread on /r/rva of local “visually interesting bathrooms” and see how many you’ve got in your camera roll (I’ve got at least a half dozen).
Reminder! The City will host a virtual community meeting to discuss the proposed Cultural Resources Management Plan tonight from 6:00–7:30 PM. The CRMP, which is not the best acronym I’ve ever seen, looks to come up with policies that allow Richmond to walk the fine line between historic preservation and the continual renewal that defines how cities live and grow. I think it could be a really important document!—maybe something that helps us reframe and diversify what needs preserving...or maybe an unintentional tool for NIMBYs to shut things down. That last bit was maybe too cynical! Log on tonight and decide for yourself.
This morning's longread
A ’90s comedy re-emerges.
Roc! A show I have not thought about for at least a couple decades! I liked this short essay about what a show like Roc—one that dealt with race and family—meant in the early 1990s. I also love the idea of gently unearthing old shows like this as a sort of time capsule, and I agree with the author that we need to get as many of these onto as many streaming platforms as possible.
“Roc” looks its age, which is no great shame: sorta fuzzy and more theatrical than telegenic. That stage-play feeling is even more central in the second season, whose episodes all aired live. Live! Each of those episodes begins with a cast member describing the events of the day as proof that the show was not taped; this alone is an interesting snapshot of not-so-current events I’d long forgotten. This device is particularly fun in the episode that aired the night of the 1992 presidential election, which lends a real vividness to the characters’ political debates. Unlike many other 1990s sitcoms, “Roc” has largely vanished from the pop imagination — series like “Living Single,” “The Nanny,” “Frasier,” “Martin,” “Murphy Brown” and “Roseanne” have all remained far more present for a host of reasons. I almost felt bad opening its tomb and exposing it to the toxic air and oily ephemera of modernity, beholding its intact opening credits like a nervous book conservator wary of creasing a spine.
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Picture of the Day
A Monroe Ward sunset.
