Good morning, RVA! It's 34 °F, and maybe it snowed where you are? Nothing over here. Bummer. Looking ahead, today we’ve got highs in the 40s and cloudy skies. Tomorrow, though, the sun comes out, a cold(er) front moves in, and we probably won’t see temperatures above freezing. Honestly, it’ll probably be a beautiful weekend—but just so dang cold. Get out there if you can, or maybe hang inside under a blanket with whatever show you’re current working through (for us, it’s Vampire Diaries).
Water cooler
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Anna Bryson reports that “Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras appears safe in his job after the release of the Richmond School Board’s report into the fatal shooting outside the Altria Theatre in June.” I think the final sentence of Bryson’s piece really gets at the dysfunction the School Board has faced over the last several years and how, in some real ways, they have worked past that dysfunction: “Though Jones’ absence takes one vote away from the bloc that generally supports Kamras, School Board members who have historically tried to fire the superintendent would still not have enough votes to do so” (remember that the Board is down to just eight members as they work to replace 9th District’s Nicole Jones, who now sits on City Council). Time was—and not so long ago!—that a handful of board members would have leaned into the one-seat vacancy as an opportunity to cause as much chaos and upheaval as possible. I would have spent a bunch of words over the last several days asking you to email your School Board rep in support of the Superintendent and the importance of following proper process in make huge, District-altering decisions (which, you can still totally do, by the way). Will someone still try to introduce a same-day motion to fire the Superintendent (or however that works) at this coming Monday’s School Board meeting? Maybe! Will it even make it to a vote, though? I probably wouldn’t bet on it—which is a huge change from 12 or 18 months ago. I imagine if I’m overly optimistic and the votes aren’t as strong as indicated in this piece, we’ll hear more about it over the weekend and leading up to Monday night’s meeting.
Karri Peifer at Axios Richmond reports that “Hatch Local Food Hall will shut down at the end of March and transition to a new food business incubator model.” Earlier this month, when the plans for the long awaited Scott’s Addition food hall fell through (again), I wondered aloud if food halls are no longer a thing. Well, I wonder it again!, because it sure seems hard get these things off the ground or even maintain existing ones in 2024. I’ll tell you what, I’d read a longread surveying the national food hall landscape.
Better late than never, I guess! Yesterday, Governor Youngkin signed Executive Order 30, which “implements AI Education Guidelines for the classroom and AI Policy and Information Technology Standards that safeguard the state’s databases while simultaneously protecting the individual data of all Virginians.” I think these documents are mostly boring, commonsense next steps as everyone—in every industry—tries to figure out acceptable ways to integrate AI into their work. The schools-related PDF basically directs various agencies and boards to come up with policies that try and walk the line between preparing students for a world where AI is definitely a thing and making sure that students learn to use these new tools in ethical and legal ways. The state government one is real concerned about data privacy, which makes a ton of sense—no one’s out here trying to train a large language model on sensitive data like, say, voter registration roles or Medicare applicants. I think, if I’m honest with myself, I was expecting something more bombastic, along the lines of the Republicans’ current infatuation with banning TikTok, but this all seems fine.
I’m glad Meghan McIntyre at the Virginia Mercury has resurrected their “interesting bills of the week” feature, because how else would you know about HB 1382, the “lab-grown meat labeling” bill?
This morning's longread
Could Better Buses Fix Your Commute?
First, this article violates Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, which states that any headline ending in a question mark can be answered with a ‘no’. Sorry, Betteridge, better buses and dedicated bus infrastructure definitely can fix your commute. Second, most folks reading this newsletter already know allllll about Bus Rapid Transit, its benefits, and the tools it uses to speed up bus service. Third, you gotta tap through anyway, because look at these cute illustrations of GRTC’s local service and Pulse buses! I want this on a poster!
Despite these disadvantages, buses are the most widely used form of transit in the United States, accounting for nearly half of all transit trips. “For so many people, buses are just not sexy. Light rail is sexy, streetcars are sexy,” said Ms. Sadik-Khan. There has been a bias, she said, toward heavy infrastructure projects that are seen as a spur to development. But rail projects are less flexible, can cost billions of dollars and may take decades to complete. Improving bus systems also allows cities to take advantage of infrastructure the U.S. has already invested hundreds of billions of dollars in: roads.
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
Say what you will about Atlantic City (which I have, plenty), but they did just plop down these awesome wind turbines right next to town.
