Good morning, RVA! It's 70 °F, and it’s blerg-hot again. You should expect highs in the 90s, some sunshine, some rain this evening, and for every small-talk conversation you have to begin with a discussion of the heat. It’s summer in Richmond. This Is The Way.
Water cooler
From the Capital Trail monthly newsletter comes this news about a half-mile bit of shared-use path connecting Varina High School to the Capital Trail itself. This is a cool project on its own, but it’s also a perfect example of the type of projects Richmond and Henrico should already be thinking about when it comes to the Fall Line Trail. The Fall Line should function as a thick, meaty spine, running from Ashland to Petersburg, with dozens of thin, pliable ribs branching off to connect schools, libraries, neighborhoods, breweries, ball parks, museums, government buildings, parks, rivers—every dang thing!
Over in The Hill, Mayor Levar Stoney and Climate Scientist Dr. Jeremy Hoffman, two names you’re probably familiar with, have a column about climate change, extreme heat, and how all levels of government can and should get involved in the work to keep us from burning alive. Just like with our aging sewer system (which is also a climate-adjacent issue), I think fully addressing climate change in Richmond will take more money and resources than we have available at the local level. We need massive, federal programs like the Inflation Reduction Act, but, like, a bunch of them year after year. That doesn’t seem like a realistic goal, but I don’t know how to actually impact the issue any other way.
Via /r/rva this scary picture of a fire at the building next to the Hippodrome on 2nd Street. VCU sent out a “Fire Emergency” alert at 6:28 AM and a “Fire Extinguished” alert 6:43 AM. You should probably continue to avoid the area this morning.
Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that VCU’s “incoming class is so large that some students will live in an off-campus hotel.” Two facts from this reporting that caught my eye: Rams will pay $9,260 for these rooms, and “because the hotel doesn't have washers and dryers, students will have to visit another dorm to launder their clothes.” Oof.
Yesterday, the Richmond Police Department announced “360 Blitz,” a two-day effort to reduce pedestrian deaths on U.S 360 that spans a ton of localities. First, I appreciate the regional effort to address the safety of our streets—it’s not like roads begin and end at jurisdictional boundaries (although the quality of infrastructure often does shift dramatically). But, as readers of this email should know, speed enforcement by police—especially just 48 hours of enforcement—is not the best way to slow down drivers and save people’s lives. We’ve got to redesign these roads, build new infrastructure, and shift our focus away from optimizing the flow of vehicles and towards keeping folks safe. These one-off events, which have happened for at least five years now, show that the willingness to work regionally exists. Now we just need to take that energy, multiply it, and put it to work.
Reminder! You can join Breakaway RVA’s August ride tonight at 5:45 PM. Join a couple dozen of your best bike pals as you slow-pedal through the city learning about the history of our public works and our public parks. Meet up at Monroe Park, bring plenty of water, and prepare to have an excellent time.
This morning's longread
Everyone in Bushwick Wants This Stew
This infinite stew idea is interesting, and I’m into it, but I think this article is more about fame or maybe people with good ideas? The woman who started Depths of Wikipedia is roommates with the Birds Aren’t Real guy and can get a crowd of people to show up for a weird food thing just by speaking it into the internet. Surely this means something and there’s some lesson those of us with weird-but-cool ideas can take away from this? Right?
After hosting the first stew night, Rauwerda posted a TikTok featuring all of the attendees and their ingredients of choice. Thousands of commenters wrote in to voice approval of some ingredients and harsh disapproval of others (as with the Ph.D. candidate who arrived with a single clove of garlic). “The next day, someone stopped Annie in the grocery store and said, ‘Are you the stew girl?’” Shayne recalls. “She eventually sussed out that this person had never even heard of Depths of Wikipedia. She’s, like, pivoting from a Wikipedia influencer to a stew influencer.”
If you’d like to suggest a longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.
Picture of the Day
Straight from Illinois, poppy seed buns! We’re having Chicago dogs this week!
