Good morning, RVA! It's been a minute—let’s see if I remember how words even work! Today, you can expect highs in the 90s, some isolated thunderstorms early evening, and maybe some smokey haze (DEQ forecasts Richmond’s Air Quality today as “moderate”). Also, you should definitely stay out of the James River. All of yesterday’s rain has brought the river into a “minor” flood stage, and, while “minor” sounds like no big deal, the City’s Department of Parks and Rec says “excessive amounts of debris in the water will make water rescues extremely difficult, placing water rescue personnel in harms way. Additionally, the following areas will be closed due to flooding: Water Street at Dock Street, sections of Riverside Drive and River Road, Huguenot Flat Ramp, and The Capital Bike Trail also is expected to flood.” Also, the City’s Department of Public Utilities reports that several Combined Sewer Overflow sites are in the “overflow” status, if you needed another, more fecal reason to keep your body out of the river.
Water is scary and demands your respect!
Water cooler
Today, Richmond’s Planning Commission will meet at 1:30 PM, and will consider the ordinance to legalize Accessory Dwelling Units everywhere (ORD. 2023-196)—well, sort of. What they’re really planning on doing is continuing that paper all the way until their September meeting, and that bums me out. According to Councilmember Jordan’s email newsletter (which you should sign up for), she’s lobbying to get the ADU ordinance considered in tandem with the Airbnb ordinance, writing, “I fully support allowing ADUs by-right, but I have requested the Planning Commission continue that paper until their next meeting, so that the ADU and short-term rental (STR) papers can be considered together.“ Her main reasoning for this paring is that “residents overwhelmingly support ADUs, but not if it results in a proliferation of short-term rentals” (aka Airbnbs). I mostly agree with that but do have some (perhaps misplaced) anxiety that we’ll lose out on a perfectly good ADU ordinance because of an imperfect Airbnb ordinance. I guess we’ll find out in a couple of months! Until then, you can remain cautiously optimistic while scrolling through this really helpful presentation about how the proposed ADU ordinance will work.
Richmond Connects has a fun and comprehensive set of surveys to fill out that will give you a voice in prioritizing short-term, high-priority transportation infrastructure needs in 17 neighborhoods across the City. These are actual recommendations that the City (presumably) will actually begin working on in the actual short-term future. It’s probably one of the most tangible transportation survey you’ll come across. I just filled out the one for my neighborhood, and, dang, it’s a real “pick your favorite child” situation over there. How do you choose between sidewalks and bus frequency and safe bike infrastructure?? Unfortunately, the choice must be made (JK, there is no “unfortunately” about this survey at all!).
Also transportation-related, David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch sat through last week’s Central Virginia Transportation Authority meeting and reports that the regional group has signed off on (at least a portion of) GRTC’s proposed Transit Strategic Plan. You can find the dense meeting agenda here, but scroll all the way to the last page for a nice table of what GRTC has planned for the next fiveish years. Up first: Extending some routes along the region’s major corridors into various counties—a necessity if we ever want to get around to building a truly regional rapid transit system. That’s definitely important stuff, and I’m glad they’re tackling it soon, but the most exciting line items for me are the planned frequency increases on the #5, #7, #86, #87, and #20 in FY 25.
The Virginia Mercury is celebrating its five-year anniversary this week, and Editor-In-Chief Sarah Vogelsong took a look back at the last half decade. She also hit up some Mercury alums (Ned Oliver, Michelle Hankerson, Kate Masters, and Katie O’Connor) to ask them about their favorite stories during their time at the Mercury. I love this sort of thing!
Despite their protestations in this piece from the RTD’s Sean Jones, I’m pretty sure that Hanover County elected officials and their appointees will soon attempt to ban books in the locality’s public libraries, too.
This past weekend, the United Soccer League announced that they’ll launch a pre-professional women’s soccer team in Richmond for the 2024 season. That seems rad, and it’ll be the first time since 2009 that Richmond has had a team in this league (the details of which I’m still a little fuzzy on). You can follow the new team, which has yet to be named, on various social media channels (Instagram, Threads).
This morning's longread
The Man Who Broke Bowling
I’m a sucker for a sports story about someone challenging long-held norms and then absolutely dominating the field. Here’s one about two-handed bowling, and it’s fascinating.
For nearly every other bowling mortal, the idea of a comeback would have been an exercise in self-delusion. But Belmonte, 39, has never conformed to expectations. When he first alighted on the scene, Belmo, as he’s known to his fans, resembled an alien species: one that bowled with two hands. And not some granny shot, to be clear, but a kickass power move in which he uses two fingers (and no thumb) on his right hand, palms the front of the ball with his left, and then, on his approach, which is marked by a distinctive shuffle step, rocks the ball back before launching it with a liquid, athletic whip, his delivery producing an eye-popping hook, his ball striking the pins like a mini mortar explosion. Not everyone welcomed his arrival. He’s been called a cheat, told to go back to his native Australia; a PBA Hall of Famer once called the two-hander a “cancer to an already diseased sport.”
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Picture of the Day
Vacation pics! People actually fish in the ocean, and I’m so impressed by that.
