Good morning, RVA! It's 70 °F, and temperatures continue to climb. Today you can expect sunshine (yay!) and highs in the mid 90s that feel closer to 100 °F (boo!). Actual temperatures reach triple digits tomorrow, and that heat will continue until Sunday when some relief arrives. It’s one of those weeks when I either need to ride the bus to work or bring an extra shirt since even 10 minutes spent on a bike will have me covered in sweat.
Water cooler
Jahd Khalil has an early look at the City’s proposed short-term rental ordinance (ORD. 2023-235) which was introduced at this past Monday’s City Council meeting. Tap through to get a sense for how the City’s trying to delicately balance the need to create more housing while also making sure 100% of that housing doesn’t instantly become Airbnbs. It’s complicated, and I think I’ll need a minute to scroll through the text of the ordinance to see what’s actually going on.
One other quick note on City Council’s doings before they head out on their annual August vacation: Council’s Governmental Operations committee will meet today at 1:00 PM and consider two papers I’ve got my eyes on. First, RES. 2023-R011 asks the CAO to come up with a plan to acquire Evergreen and East End Cemeteries from the now-defunct EnRichmond Foundation. This paper has bounced back and forth between Council and this committee since February, and I’m starting to wonder what’s holding things up. Second, RES. 2023-R047 will realign all of the City’s boards, commissions, and committees and require them to report to specific City Council subcommittees. For example, the Green City Commission will report to the Governmental Operations committee. This is mostly a boring, administrative paper, but if you tap through to the actual text of the resolution you get a nice list of every board, commission, and committee sorted by interest area. Could be useful (to a very specific type of person)!
Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers reports that a Richmond judge “entered an order effectively placing the casino question on the Nov. 7 ballot via a referendum.” Unsurprising, but still disappointing. I suppose the General Assembly could block Richmond’s second casino vote, but that doesn’t seem likely given the support from high-profile GA members like Sen. Louise Lucas (who does not even represent Richmond). So, here we go again, and, just like last time, I will be voting no on this newest casino attempt. Nothing has changed in the intervening years, and it’s not like I’ve suddenly grown supportive of predatory institutions that we’ll just end up having to replace within a decade or two.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams writes about a really fascinating example of actual reparations taking place in the Richmond region: “a collaboration between Richmond's Duron Chavis, an urban agriculturalist and food activist, and Callie Walker, the daughter of an Amelia County cattle farmer, has resulted in a effort to provide reparations for descendants of the enslaved on 80 acres Walker inherited from her parents.” The pair will work through a new nonprofit to give “low-cost or no-cost 99-year leases to individuals who want to farm on the land.” What an interesting pair and an interesting project!
GRTC will host their final, final public meeting to collect feedback on potential north-south Bus Rapid Transit routes tonight from 5:30–7:30 PM at Main Street Station (1500 E. Main Street). The northern piece of the route is pretty uncontroversial: Start at whatever we’re calling Virginia Center Commons these days and follow Route 1 down into the city—basically an extension of the current #1 bus. The southern end (and how to navigate across the river), though, could take shape in a bunch of different ways, following either Midlothian, Hull Street, or Route 1 all the way out to 288. They’re all good routes, with good arguments supporting each, but I think I’d prefer either Midlothian or Route 1. That said, and like I keep saying, I hope we build high-quality, frequent regular service on all of these corridors while we continue to work on putting together the plans for our region’s second BRT. So many folks—today!—would benefit from plain ol’ bus service on each of these proposed routes.
The United States Women’s National Team takes on the Netherlands tonight at 9:00 PM in Group E of the World Cup. Just like the last match (which USA won 3-0), you can head over to City Stadium and watch on a massive screen with thousands of other local soccer fans. Entrance is free, but you’ll need to reserve your ticket online, and gates open at 7:00 PM if you want to take advantage of the happy hour specials (!?).
This morning's longread
Everything I know about gardening
This is some good advice on how to build a yard that doesn’t look like it fell out of the Ryan Homes website. But, also, is this about gardening or life, because it kind of sounds like great life advice, too?
This looks as it does not because anyone thinks it is pretty (I hope), and not because its maintenance free, but because the design allows for low-context maintenance. The ocean of mulch is not designed for the viewer, but for the maintainer, so he can see it better. Among the sea of mulch and harsh edging, anyone can understand what needs to be done to make it look “correct”. Pull the weeds that are not the little shrubs. Cut grass along the curve. Mow. Spray. Done. The focus is not on vegetation fitting in, but making sure vegetation is easy to remove. It less resembles a garden than a perpetual horticultural demolition site. There are no cuttings to take here, and no strolling through.
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Picture of the Day
Bus stop finds.
