Good Morning, RVA: Big Bike Ride™, body cams, fires, and superheroes
A beautiful day in the neighborhood…for now.
Photo by: JD Hancock
Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F, and, if you squint, today’s highs could hit 80 °F. Wind gusts of more than 15 mph will greet you on your way home and lead the way to some possible thunderstorms overnight. Expect more of that tomorrow, so get in your sunshiney things today.
Water cooler
So what was the governor’s big, mysterious, bike-related announcement yesterday? Did you die of anticipation and are no longer able to read these very words? For those of us still among the living: McAuliffe announced a Richmond to DC bike ride (a Big Bike Ride™, if you will) with proceeds benefiting statewide bike and pedestrian infrastructure and advocacy. You can sign up right now on the Sports Backers website.
Last month, the Richmond Police Department introduced their first-ever body cameras–which sounds great, right? But while more accountability and transparency for officer actions is a definite positive, what about all the other stuff that comes with constantly recording every interaction officers have? Can you, Ms. Regular Citizen, opt out of being recorded? Are the police allowed to pick and choose who they record? How long and where do they keep the footage? It’s a complex situation, and Susan Howson explains some of the issues the police, lawmakers, and ACLU are working through.
Last night, Hanover’s Board of Supervisors approved Chickahominy Falls, the farm-based neighborhood focused on baby boomers. This idea, awkwardly termed “agriburbia“, fascinates me. Like, you can buy a $450,000 house, and instead of a golf course, the neighborhood comes with a farm that you can spend your retired-person time in. I mean, that sounds way better than golf to me personally, but I thought I was the only one!
Man, I bet fighting a fire on an island in the middle of the river is a big pain in the butt. This one, which started yesterday, is still going this morning. People, please don’t start fires if you’re hanging out down by the river–plus, if you do end up starting a brush fire you are liable for the suppression costs and can be fined $500.
This, from Alane Miles in Style Weekly, made me feel simultaneously old and hopeful. An excerpt: “I was young for many a Richmond spring, so I got this. I know how the mélange of your dogwoods and azaleas in bloom makes couples have an allergic reaction to their clothes with a concurrent magnetic attraction to each other. I know what’s on parade at the annual Easter parade and I’m telling.”
Vox’s Alex Abad Santos describes Batman v Superman as “a stink bucket of disappointment, a sad and unnecessary PG-13 orphan fight that director Zack Snyder believes is an homage to DC Comics’ most iconic heroes but is more along the lines of a home invasion perpetrated on comic book culture.”
Speaking of stink buckets, North Carolina’s legislators got together last night to pass some discriminatory bathroom laws, because that’s probably a good use of their time. The new legislation will not only bar folks from using bathrooms that “do not match their birth gender” but also prevents localities from “creating their own antidiscrimination policies.”
Sports!
Here’s a neat sports piece by the RTD’s John O’Connor to tide you over until basketball resumes tomorrow: “Each Sweet 16 team has a Virginia connection, if you look hard enough.”
This morning’s longread
FULL TEXT: Speaker Ryan on the State of American Politics
Remember yesterday when I said Paul Ryan would make a speech on the state of politics in America? Here’s the surprisingly reasonable full text.
I’m certainly not going to stand here and tell you I have always met this standard. There was a time when I would talk about a difference between “makers” and “takers” in our country, referring to people who accepted government benefits. But as I spent more time listening, and really learning the root causes of poverty, I realized I was wrong. “Takers” wasn’t how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap, just trying to take care of her family. Most people don’t want to be dependent. And to label a whole group of Americans that way was wrong. I shouldn’t castigate a large group of Americans to make a point.
So I stopped thinking about it that way–and talking about it that way. But I didn’t come out and say all this to be politically correct. I was just wrong. And of course, there are still going to be times when I say things I wish I hadn’t. There are still going to be times when I follow the wrong impulse.
This morning’s Instagram
— ∮∮∮ —
Want to automagically get Good Morning, RVA in your inbox every morning? Sign up below!
-
Recommend this
on Facebook -
Report an error
-
Subscribe to our
Weekly Digest
Ross Catrow
Founder and publisher of RVANews.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.