Good morning, RVA! It's 68 °F, and today is the last full hot day for a good long while. Temperatures drop this evening, rain probably moves in tomorrow, and then we’ve got highs right around 80 °F for (almost) as far as the extended forecast can see. Until then, though, expect highs around 90 °F and soaked-through undershirts in your immediate future.
Water cooler
Yesterday, the FDA authorized the new fall version of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. These new vaccines are monovalent, meaning they’re designed to protect against one strain of COIVD-19, the recent Omicron variant XBB 1.5. Then, at 10:00 AM today, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet to suss out the final details, and by tomorrow, fingers crossed, we should know more about who, when, and how folks can start getting their fall boosters. I’m stoked to get mine, because it sure feels like it’s been a while. I would even bet that a pharmacy near you will have appointments ready to go as soon as this weekend (but maybe wait until at least tomorrow before trying to snag one).
Ian M. Stewart at VPM stopped by the ribbon cutting for GRTC’s new Downtown Transfer Station and has a quick report. I love this quote from the mayor: “If we want to be a competitive, equitable and welcoming city, we have still a long ways to go...We got to continue to work on frequency, we got to continue to work on accessibility, we got to continue to work on more routes throughout the entire region.” Any time I see elected officials advocating for more frequent and far-reaching regional transit, I count it as progress. Now we just need commitments from the City and its regional partners to invest actual money in that frequency and expanded coverage. Stay tuned for the upcoming local budget season to see if any of the localities served by GRTC increase their contributions—or, if you’re feeling active this morning, send your elected representatives this article and ask them to invest in frequency and new routes, just like the mayor said.
Here’s a fun City Council update that most people would find boring, but I’m sure readers of this newsletter will excitedly click through to read more about: Yesterday Council passed RES. 2023-R047, which reorganizes all of the boards and commissions and reassigns the Council committee to which they should make their regularly scheduled reports. The Participatory Budgeting Steering Commission? Finance and Economic Development. Richmond Public Library Board? Education and Human Services. The Green City Commission? Governmental Operations. Now you kind of know who to bother about a given topic or who to poke to learn more about all of the City’s fascinating boards and commissions—which, by the way, have open vacancies that you can apply for until September 15th!
Yesterday, I mentioned an old planning PDF that referred to the James River as Richmond’s “great, wet Central Park.” Thanks to Reader John, for sending me the 2009 Richmond Downtown Plan, which confirms I did not make up this wonderful phrase in some sort of planning/marketing fever dream. The 15-year-old plan lays out seven foundations for a great downtown Richmond, one of which is River: “The James River is Richmond's ‘great, wet Central Park.’ Allow residents and visitors to fully enjoy this unique natural feature by creating a series of clear connections to the riverfront. Develop a comprehensive system of natural open space along the river and create green connections between city parks and the riverfront. Expand existing recreational activity along the river, such as waterfront festivals, kayaking and rowing. Preserve views to the river by limiting building heights and protecting important view sheds.” Check out page 61 for a little more detail on these goals and to see how we’ve done since creating this plan way back in 2009. Honestly, pretty OK, I think. The phrase, ‘great, wet Central Park’ has obviously stuck with me for the last decade and a half, and I think it’s probably something we should continue to focus on as we move forward on the City’s other river-related plans.
Via /r/rva, a drone photo capturing the ongoing roof replacement of the Byrd Park Reservoir. Have you ever wondered what it looked like inside of there?? Now you can verify that the interior of a big concrete water storage facility looks exactly how you’d think it’d would.
This story from Henry Graff at NBC12 is, I think, as close as you can get to universe screaming “BAN CARS!!”
This morning's longread
America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow
Prepared to be terrified by this piece in the New York Times about the shocking and irreversible depletion of underground drinking water across large swaths of America. Now I get why climate scientists always include “access to large amounts of fresh water” when they talk about places with long-term climate resilience.
In Maryland, almost three-quarters of monitoring wells have seen their water levels drop over the past 40 years, some by more than 100 feet. Charles County, which contains fast-growing suburbs of Washington, has used most of its groundwater for homes and agriculture. And it isn’t coming back anytime soon. “Most of the water we’re pulling out of the ground is thousands of years old,” said Jason Groth, the county’s deputy director of planning and growth management. “It’s not like it rains on Monday, and by Saturday it’s in the aquifer.” Mr. Groth said the county, which gets the vast majority of its water from its own aquifers, will hit a point within a decade where it doesn’t have enough water.
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Picture of the Day
Get after it, pollinator!
