Good morning, RVA! It's 31 °F, and today you can expect highs in the mid 50s with, again, some rain showing up late this evening and on through to tomorrow morning. I’m choosing to ignore what I think is a freezing rain? sleet? icon in my weather app. Once Saturday morning’s rain tapers off, though, it looks like we’re in for a really pleasant weekend. You can probably guess what my family and I are doing for the next couple of days (volleyball), but if you happen to have some sort of life that’s not related to youth sports, I recommend you spend some of it outside!
Water cooler
In his email from last night, RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras has some really thoughtful words at the conclusion of the Graduation Day shooting trial: “Many of you may not realize that Shawn and Amari were childhood friends. They even played at each other's homes as young boys. Now one is dead at the hand of the other, and both families are forever destroyed. I long ago lost count of the number of RPS students lost to gun violence. I can tell you with certainty that it is more than 50 since I've become superintendent. Like many of you, I have become weary – depleted really – by the anguish, the heartache, and the trauma.” Tap through to read a joint statement from Kamras and RPS School Board Chair Stephanie Rizzi.
If you’d like more details on the trial itself, Luca Powell at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has more coverage. But I’d skip it—content warnings for violence, of course, plus the all-caps, bold, alliterative headline makes me feel gross.
Joseph Maltby, writing for the Henrico Citizen, reports that the Henrico Board of Supervisors has “unanimously passed an ordinance at its Feb. 27 meeting prohibiting possession of firearms, ammunition and components in all county buildings, as well as those owned by the county but operated by another entity, like the Henrico Sports and Events Center.” Great work, everyone! Thank you for making the next volleyball tournament I attend at the new Sports and Events Center that much safer. Youth sports aside, I’m definitely keeping my eye on what the new, Democratic-majority Board gets up to. While this particular change is pretty low-stakes and possibly even something the previous Board would have passed, maybe it’s a sign of more progressive legislation to come? I’m hoping so, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Axios Richmond’s Sabrina Moreno has a great report on the Broad Street Bullies, Richmond’s biggest, most-disruptive, wheelie-poppinest group of people who love bikes. I love everything about this: “The Broad Street Bullies are impossible to ignore — and that's the point. Their 300-person Thursday bike rides are a direct response to the lack of safety many cyclists feel riding alone in Richmond...So if taking over Richmond's roads gets people talking about the city's bike infrastructure — and helps riders feel safer cycling through the city — then they're happy ‘being the unlikeable group,’ says Amin Hazim, another co-founder who films the rides.” I mean, come on, such good vibes!
Over on South Richmond News, John Murden has a good City Council fun fact: “Two of our current City Council representatives are the longest serving in the modern history of City government.” Do you know which two? They’ve both served 21 years on Council, which is an epically long time.
OK, here we go: The RTD’s David Ress reports that the legislation to create a legal, regulated, retail market for marijuana has escaped the General Assembly alive and now sits on the Governor’s desk. Interestingly, the bills technically passed with bipartisan support—all Democrats voted in favor as did Republican Del. Chris Obenshain. We all know this was not one of the Governor’s priorities and that he said he’s “not interested” in this sort of legislation. But is he not interested enough to get out his veto pen?
Be aware: Trump will bring his traveling circus to Richmond’s convention center tomorrow evening. If I were you, I’d avoid the area for the entire day.
Need a reason to get out of the City on Saturday? What about robots fighting each other to their metally deaths? Richmond Area Bot Instigated Destruction will host March Mayhem out in Chesterfield County—far enough away from whatever shenanigans may happen downtown and still plenty cathartic if you need a safe space to watch stuff get smashed to bits. And remember: “No heat, fire, smoke, entanglement, or other weapons that do not fit the spirit of the rules.”
This morning's longread
The Kids from Cool Lane Just Want to Ride Bikes
Outside has put together a really nice profile of the kids from Richmond Cycling Corps that you’ll want to read. I absolutely love the title of this piece! Kids just want to ride bikes! Heck, I just want to ride bikes, too.
The team races hard. All of them. And when they’re not racing, they’re zipping around the course, cheering on their teammates and friends, and taking videos for social media and one another. In the junior varsity race, with a field of more than 100 riders, both Naz and Wop get caught up in crashes right at the start. Wop gets buried under a pile of kids and can’t untangle his bike. When he’s up and rolling again, he’s well behind the leaders, but he tries to pass as many kids as he can. Coming into the finish, he sees Korey and Joe at the edge of the woods, urging him to catch the rider ahead. Wop accelerates as he flies past and says, “Gonna spark him up!” Korey and Joe find this hilarious. After the race, the boys watch the video again and again, doubling over with laughter each time.In the lazy moments between races, waiting for the varsity boys and girls to start, Knowledge and Kamari lie on a blanket spread in the shade. Kamari’s race went well, much better than last year, when her handlebar caught a tree and tossed her off the trail. Now she is methodically munching on Funyuns. Korey takes off his shirt in the heat and lounges in a folding chair. A tattoo on his right shoulder says MOM DUKES, an homage to his mother. The rest of the older boys take their shirts off too, the sweat beading on their chests.
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Picture of the Day
Sometime the light from the window streams in and hits your measuring cup of six raw eggs just right.
