Good Morning, RVA: A gorgeous weekend approaches!

What will we do with all of this amazing weather?

August 21, 2015; 6:59 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: Saarblitz

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F and we’re staring into the gaping maw of a beautiful weekend. Prepare yourself for tons of sun and wonderfully not-too-hot temperatures in the upper-80s. Then prepare yourself to go ride a bike, or swim in the river, or take a nap on your porch. It’s gonna be great!

Water cooler

Yesterday, the Urban Design Committee unanimously voted to recommend the 30% conceptual design for Bus Rapid Transit. The RTD’s Ned Oliver has a few more details on some of the committee’s specific suggestions–one of which is more median-running buses and fewer curb-running buses. This is something I think most folks would like as well, but I’m not sure the roads downtown are wide enough to support it. Sounds like an oppourtunity for me to nerd out on some transit studies this morning! The next step in the BRT timeline is the September 8th Planning Commission meeting at 1:30 PM.

Sooooooo, what’s going on with the city’s finance department? Inquiring minds want to know, this includes the inquiring mind of Michael Paul Williams and the minds of a growing number of concerned citizens.

A portion of the Big Bike Race™ course stretches down Monument Avenue, past monuments which reflect and celebrate an embarrassing part of Richmond’s history. Should the race course be changed? Should Monument Avenue be changed? Should we just sigh and throw our hands up? Susan Howson tackles these questions.

This is pretty rad. But…do not read the replies to that tweet.

And today’s best headline, from Vox: “Deez Nuts, explained.”

Ho there, reader! Next week I will be on vacation, so I’ll place this column in the capable hands of Susan Howson. You can feel free to direct all complaints toward her. Have a wonderful week without me! I’ll miss you so!

Sports!

In last night’s preseason game against Detroit, Washington QB RGIII suffered a concussion. Dudeman is injury-prone like whoa.

• Squirrels had their game against Binghamton canceled last night. They’ll travel to Trenton tonight at 7:00 PM.
• Kickers and Saint Louis FC face off in City Stadium, Saturday at 7:00 PM. There are only four more home games left in the regular season! Get your tickets here.
• Nats lost to the Rockies, 2-3, and missed out on the sweep. They’ll now host a series with the Brewers starting tonight at 7:05 PM.
• D.C. United take on the SJ Eathquakes tomorrow at 7:00 PM in RFK.

This morning’s longread

Married To Surfing: Talking to William Finnegan About His Barbarian Days 

I absolutely loved this interview with surfer / journalist William Finnegan. It made me want to watch The Endless Summer on repeat.

Writing the book, I got back a huge cache of letters that I wrote to my best friend in California, and in them you can see this enchantment deepening. There’s some in the letters about school and girls, but mostly it’s about surfing. I went that much deeper into it at that point–surrendering to it, not feeling that I had a choice. I felt that there was land and there’s the ocean, and I was going to have this bipolar life, which ended up being true–this great split, although it ended up being along another division. Surfing is the North Pole of irresponsibility for me. It’s such a useless, monomaniacal, unproductive thing to do.

This morning’s Instagram

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August 21, 2015 6:59 AM 0