Good Morning, RVA: A hot, sticky mess

Plants and yards rejoiced last night as we saw the first rain in over a week.

September 3, 2014; 7:11 AM • by Ross Catrow

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and it totally rained last night. Technically, things have cooled down now that the storms have moved through, but yesterday’s high was 101 °F–the hottest September 2nd since 1980. As a result, today’s “cooler” temperatures are still stuck in the mid-90s and saturated to the core with humidity.

Water cooler

Yesterday, the mayor announced that he’d like to reduce real estate tax rates by one or two cents. He decided to pair that with the announcement of a new working group made up of some of the region’s financial heavy hitters tasked with finding “creative, nontraditional approaches to fixing the city’s schools.” Cool idea, except the School Board already has a facilities task force (of which city CAO Byron Marshall is a member) working on this very same thing with a report due out in November. The mayor would go on to say that when deciding where to spend the city’s money “we have to consider the whole population” and that “the reality” is RPS students only make up 11 percent of the city’s population. What a callous and misleading way to use that stat.

The Answer, Mekong’s new and adjacent brewpub, opened yesterday. The beer list is massive, well-chosen, and not so single-mindedly focused on Belgians (which is great, if you ask me). They’ve yet to brew their first batch, but they do have several collaborations with local breweries on tap. I imagine the crowd will be bananas for the next couple of days, so if close proximity to other humans gives you the shivers maybe wait until next week for your maiden voyage.

A new 94-unit apartment complex in Scott’s Addition plans to have over 1,000 roof-mounted solar panels in addition to a bunch of other energy-saving wizardry. If all goes according to plan, when it opens it will be the largest generator of solar power in Richmond and the fourth largest in the Commonwealth.

Worst headline ever: Asian Camel Crickets Now Common in U.S. Homes. OH GREAT. The “academic study” insists that spider crickets pose no threat to humans, ORLY? On the contrary, I present this quote from a super weird and spammy rewrite: “Camel crickets or sprickets are dangerous for people, saw that bring infectious diseases and eat tissues.” I KNEW IT.

Sports!

• Squirrels start their five-game playoff series at Altoona tonight at 6:35 PM. Time to make toona sandwiches! Go nutz!
• Nats dogged by Dodgers, 1-4. Winner of today’s game (at 3:10 PM) takes the series.

This morning’s longread

The Star Wars Expanded Universe: A Eulogy

Yesterday, many words about the villain of the recent Marvel movies, today even more words about Star Wars–and not even the Star Wars movies but the books!

And yet, it seems to me we ignore the gift of a universe. My passion to know, to consume, to understand, to control the EU is regarded as the sad, bookish cousin of the fandom feelings. But why should it be? The project of carving out a space of control, of finding and seizing opportunities for mastery, is such an important part of childhood. It’s such an important part of life. It’s such a darling, nerdy type of love. We should be grateful for such a well-formed opportunity as the Star Wars EU provided. It’s hard to imagine a world built more beautifully to just the right scale.

Photo by: AlbinoFlea

This morning’s Instagram

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September 3, 2014 7:11 AM 1