Good Morning, RVA: Council blah blah, happy hour ga ga, vegetable goo goo, and what else is new
Great weather today, but the extended forecast looks wet.
Photo by: sandy’s dad
Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and you should definitely soak up the sun today. This evening, storms may roll into the area–if they do, get used to it, because they’re here to stay through Friday.
Water cooler
At their informal session, City Council heard a presentation by the consultants running the public feedback process on Boulevard redevelopment. Their findings are…unsurprising. With all the recent conversations about BRT, trees, and schools, I feel like we’ve lost our way a little bit with what to do about baseball and where, if anywhere, it should live. All I know for sure is that spending a bucket of public funds on sports would make most folks insane with anger in the current (or any?) climate.
The formal City Council meeting was brief with the only controversy provided by some folks supporting the full funding of Richmond Public Schools speaking out of turn. The fact that Council is looking for about $5 million, and not the whole $18 million requested by RPS, should not be a surprise to anyone. When Council submitted their budget amendments on the 18th, the only one with more than five co-patrons totaled $4,974,906. As the city posts the audio for yesterday’s budget work session, informal meeting, and formal meeting, I’ll add them to our podcast feed of such things, The Boring Show. Council will have another budget work session on Thursday, April 28th at 3:00 PM.
Connoisseurs of fine outdoor happy hours take note: the rooftop bar at the Quirk Hotel is now open!
Oh dudes! It is definitely farmers market season, and Stephanie Ganz has definitely rounded up all of RVA’s market options–which number way more than I expected. Time was, you had to travel over the river and through the woods (literally! depending on your starting point, I guess) to get a fresh-from-the-farm vegetable in this town. Now you can just stumble out of your home in your pajamas and land in a pile of local, organically-grown kale. What a time to be alive.
Those of you smugly making the joke that with all of this street art, how come none of it is actually on the street need to find a new (and better) joke. DPU is sponsoring a storm drain art project, which I think is a great idea. Interested artists need to apply by May 30th.
BRT info alert! There is a Pulse-related public meeting tonight at Armstrong High School at 6:00 PM to “provide an informal project update and a status report of the Design-Build procurement process.” Also, and there’s nothing there yet, but the GRTC has set up a BRT construction info page. One assumes that once constructions starts in earnest you’ll be able to check that page to see progress, sidewalk closures, that sort of thing.
The continuing saga of Tesla vs. the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association continues. After many, many hours of hearings, Tesla is still inching towards selling their electric cars directly instead of through an independent dealership. Virginia’s independent dealer laws are fascinating.
Want to see a jillion cargo ships serenely move about earth’s oceans? Don’t stare at this map too long, or you’re likely to lose a whole day.
Primaries today in: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, with 172 and 462 delegates up for grabs for Republicans and Democrats respectively.
Yesterday, I said we’d launched a Patreon, and today this is still true. For those of you asking “What even is a Patreon,” it’s a site that lets people pledge a small amount of American currency each month towards creators making things they enjoy. If you enjoy our creations, like this very Good Morning, RVA, and if you’d like to support us in a small, direct, and personal way, now you can!
Sports!
- Squirrels picked up an 8-6 win over Bowie yesterday, breaking their three-game losing streak. They’ll play again tonight at 6:35 PM.
- Nats start a series with the Phillies tonight at 7:05 PM.
This morning’s longread
Many Middle-Class Americans Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck
This is the mosty terrifying thing I’ve read in a while. Happy Tuesday!
I know what it is like to have to juggle creditors to make it through a week. I know what it is like to have to swallow my pride and constantly dun people to pay me so that I can pay others. I know what it is like to have liens slapped on me and to have my bank account levied by creditors. I know what it is like to be down to my last $5–literally–while I wait for a paycheck to arrive, and I know what it is like to subsist for days on a diet of eggs. I know what it is like to dread going to the mailbox, because there will always be new bills to pay but seldom a check with which to pay them. I know what it is like to have to tell my daughter that I didn’t know if I would be able to pay for her wedding; it all depended on whether something good happened. And I know what it is like to have to borrow money from my adult daughters because my wife and I ran out of heating oil.
This morning’s Instagram
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Ross Catrow
Founder and publisher of RVANews.
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