Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and today looks beautiful. Expect highs in the 70s, lots of sunshine, and the start of what’s sure to be a really excellent week (at least weatherwise). This lovely spring weather continues straight on through until the end of the week when we could see some honest-to-goodness hot temperatures and possibly some rain. If you put plants in the ground over the weekend, remember to keep them watered!
Water cooler
Today, Richmond’s Planning Commission will consider the ordinance to eliminate parking minimums across the city (ORD. 2023-101). Unfortunately, the ordinance now sits on CPC’s regular agenda, which probably hints that some meaningful opposition has started to bubble up. You can, if you really really want, tap through the previous link and read some of that opposition’s letters, which mostly conflate eliminating parking minimums with elimating parking entirely. Assuming this ordinance does eventaually make it out of Planning Commission, it will head to City Council where, until recently, I though it had the votes it needed to pass. Now, I’m not so sure. Councilmember Jordan said this in her recent 2nd District Newsletter, which, if I read between the lines, sounds like someone who will not be voting for the paper as written: “As I shared previously, I will continue to work through questions and concerns to understand how parking minimums fit into a larger city-wide parking strategy that is responsive to the different parking realities throughout the Second, and ensures we're meeting the goals of lessening cost burdens for housing development and our small businesses, and facilitating sustainable and multimodal future growth in our City.“ We’ll have to see what, if any, changes get proposed, but to water down this bill would be a huge bummer—especially coming from one of Richmond’s most outspoken Councilmembers on the environment. Tune in today at 1:30 PM to get a better sense for how hot the discussion over this proposal will get in the coming weeks and if anyone has thoughtful ideas to help squeak the ordinance through Council.
Also today, City Council will meet for what sounds like their last real budget work session of the 2023 season. This afternoon they’ll finalize amendments for introduction at their April 24th meeting and then, on May 8th, will host a public hearing for the final final real and true budget. Fingers crossed, they’ll vote that same night—a week ahead of the deadline to adopt a schools budget and three weeks ahead of the deadline to adopt the City’s budget. This year’s budget season lacked almost any dramatic fireworks (at least so far), and, to my surprise, I kind of liked it that way!
Patrick Larsen at VPM reports on a controversial proposal to build a training facility on the city’s Southside for the Richmond Fire Department. I’m sure there are great reasons to build this facility within the city limits, but, given the extremely limited space we have (62.5 square miles forever and ever, never to be expanded!), I can’t help but think finding somewhere in a neighboring county would be a better choice.
Via /r/rva pictures of headstones from Richmond’s oldest...pet cemetery?? I didn’t even know we had one of these, let alone one that’s nearly 100 years old! Pet Memorial Parks is located at 1697 Terrell Drive, in an interesting part of the West End, and you can learn (the tiniest bit) more over on their Facebook page.
For your calendar: Tomorrow from 5:30–8:00 PM, the City’s Department of Public Works will host a “Speed Management Symposium” on the second floor of Main Street Station. From the press release: “The City implements a comprehensive safety program to achieve significant reductions in traffic crashes, fatalities and injuries on public roadways – Join us to learn more on the actions the City is taking to help manage speed!” The agenda includes three presentations from the City, a Q&A session, and “safer streets information tables” representing a bunch of City departments, planning organizations, and Bike Walk RVA. I’m not super clear on the goals of this meeting, but it’s a valuable opportunity for folks to give their feedback to lots of the people who hold the power to make our streets safer—all at the same time and in the same place! If you’re planning on going and giving those people some of your thoughts and feelings, make sure you read how Bike Walk RVA put it in their email about the event: “It is important to be open-minded while also staying laser-focused on the fact that the most impactful way to slow speeds is through INFRASTRUCTURE and STREET DESIGN. PSAs and asking drivers politely will do little to change driver behavior. Do not lose focus on demanding safer streets that are difficult to speed on.“ Also, I really appreciate them for saying this part explicitly and out loud: “Things that don't help reduce speeding: Simple repaving (if anything, this ENCOURAGES speeding), asking drivers to slow down (using tools like Twitter, PSA commercials, encouraging pedestrians to carry flags).” I’ll make sure to give everyone another reminder about this event tomorrow!
This morning's longread
Clarence Thomas Is as Free as Ever to Treat His Seat Like a Winning Lottery Ticket
When big-deal federal government stuff goes down, I eagerly await Jamelle Bouie’s insight and history-based analysis. Here he dives in to Justice Clarence Thomas’s incredibly unethical financial relationship with Republican billionaire Harlan Crow.
This has always been true of the Supreme Court — a reliable friend of property, capital and class rule throughout its 234-year history, occasional bouts of decency notwithstanding — but it has become an acute problem in this era of unchecked judicial supremacy. As the court arrogates more and greater power to itself, and grows both distant from and contemptuous of public opinion, it naturally attracts flatterers and intriguers. With his close ties to a powerful, property-owning billionaire, Thomas embodies the historic role of the Supreme Court in American politics, not as a liberator or defender of the rights of political and social minorities, but as a partner to and ally of moneyed interests.
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Picture of the Day
Just really amazing clouds over Virginia Tech’s Drillfield.
