Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and we’ve got another great day ahead of us. Expect highs in the mid 70s, some clouds here or there, and a bit of wind. There is a 100% chance you’ll find me riding a bike to one of my morning meetings and then nervously checking in on the newly-planted vegetable garden in the afternoon. I’m loving spring this year and trying to spend as much of it outside as possible!
Water cooler
OK, yes, it’s official, the entire RVA Bike Share system has shut down after the vendor, Bewegen, unexpectedly pulled the plug. Yesterday, DPW sent out a release saying, “Due to a last-minute, two day notice and shut down by Bewegen Technologies, the city was forced to suspend the current bicycle rental system until a new software system is in place. Bicycles will not be available to rent while the City secures a new contractor. In the meantime, the City encourages bike share users to utilize the three e-scooter vendors - Bird, Lime, and Spin. Once the new bike share system is operational, the City will welcome users back with free rides for everyone for 30 days.” I have so many questions! Does the City now own any of the code or the app that ran RVA Bike Share. If not, are they planning to hire a contractor to rewrite the whole system from scratch? At what cost and timeline? Or does a company exist that can just come in and run Bewegen’s now-defunct system? Will they be able to make upgrades and fixes moving forward? At what point does it make more sense to scrap the Bewegen hardware and just start over? Maybe I’m overly cynical, but I’ll be (pleasantly!) surprised if RVA Bike Share is back up and running before the end of the year. Honestly, I’ll be even more pleasantly surprised if the City just goes ahead and quickly announces an entirely new bike share vendor.
I absolutely love the Virginia Department of Health’s new Wastewater Surveillance data dashboard which shows the amount of SARS-CoV-2 detected in wastewater. It’s a fascinating combination of sewer stuff and COVID-19 data stuff—two of my favorite stuffs for sure. Tap through and take a look at the map, which is interesting, sure, but the real winner is the “COVID-19 Wastewater Surveillance Percentiles” chart. It’s a super clever way to see the changing COVID-19 picture over time across the whole commonwealth. I love it! As you can see, pretty much everywhere, the amount of COVID-19 people are pooping out in Virginia is very, very low. That’s great news. Data on this dashboard are updated weekly on Tuesdays, so set a reminder if you’re dying for a first look at the week’s newest coronadata.
Quick City Council update from last night: They adopted ORD. 2023-151, the ordinance that will allow Richmond to start taxing Airbnbs. Remember, the way this new revenue eventually makes its way back to the City is, as described by staff, circuitous. Richmond pays alllll of its hotel tax to the Convention Center and then, after they pay off their bills, they return any excess funds back to the City. Maybe at this coming year’s budget session we’ll hear a presentation on how the amount returned to Richmond by the Convention Center has increased over this past year—fingers crossed.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that the proposed amphitheater down by the river took another step towards reality last night: “The group behind the proposed Richmond Amphitheater announced Monday it has worked out a performance grant agreement with the City of Richmond to make the downtown riverfront venue a reality in time for the 2025 outdoor concert season.” City Council, of course, needs to get involved and pass a thing or two, so stay tuned for, what’s sure to be, lively public comments about parking and noise.
Reminder! Richmond’s Charter Review Commission meets tonight at 6:00 PM in the Police Academy building (1202 W. Graham Road), and today they’re focused on hearing your comments about how the City should tweak, update, or burn to the ground its current Charter. The latter thing will not happen, but I bet we still could see the Commission make recommendations for pretty significant changes to how Richmond’s government works. And, regardless of whether you can make the meeting or not, you should fill out their online survey before June 21st!
Scroll through Superintendent Kamras’s email this morning so you can see the names of the young Richmonders honored at RPS’s 2023 Student Recognition and Awards Ceremony. First, look at all these smart and impressive kids! Second, it’s great—for me at least—to remember that, while we talk about schools all the time, they’re filled with actual, small, human people doing amazing things.
Zach Joachim at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a cool profile of Kelsey Knoche, VCU’s new director of operations for men’s basketball. Knoche says she thinks there’s less than 15 women who hold her position in Division I men’s basketball, and it’s pretty cool that VCU now joins that number
If you missed Riverrock this past weekend, Richard Hayes at RVAHub has a ton of really great pictures of the people, the dogs, the weird feats of strength—really great stuff.
This morning's longread
Saving the Monarch Butterfly Migration
No doubt the monarch butterfly migration is magical and majestic, but I can’t help wondering how we’d feel about a cockroach migration or a horsefly migration. I’m just saying—that’s a lot of insects all in one place!
Each fall, millions of monarchs descend from all over the U.S. and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains, creating a tightening funnel through Texas and continuing to their overwintering ground in Central Mexico where they hibernate and roost for about four months. At a cruising altitude of about 4,000 feet and averaging 12 mph, the monarchs fly across our imaginary borders in both spring and fall. From approximately April through October, they move across the Central U.S. up through southern Canada until making their way back down, nectaring and reproducing along the way. The entire population goes from spanning much of the U.S. and Lower Canada to consolidating into less than 20 sites, where they gather in staggering numbers: 10-30 million per roost.
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Picture of the Day
I know we’ll probably have to at some point, but I hope we never get rid of the weird intermediate terminal building.
