Good Morning, RVA: Supersaturated
Rain as far as the eye can see.
Photo by: gmayster01 on & off …
Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, and today’s forecast is rainy. After the rain, it’ll be cloudy, then rainy some more, then really rainy. Basically, it’s gonna rain.
Water cooler
Police are reporting another murder on Chamberlayne Avenue, just a block away from the double homicide they reported earlier this week. If it feels like I’ve been talking about murders a ton lately, it’s because I have. The last time Richmond saw three months in a row with five or more murders was way back in 2007 (we ended that year with 55). I think you need to be super careful about using only three months of murder data to create any sort of mental trend line describing safety or violent crime in town–but, regardless, it is heartbreaking. Councilman Hilbert, whose 3rd District is where a bunch of these murders have taken place, used his announcement time at last night’s council meeting to talk about these violent crimes and a bit about what he and the police are doing about it.
The rest of the council meeting was less depressing and went smoothly. The mayor was on hand to talk about his administration’s anti-poverty efforts. Most of the public commenters were folks speaking in favor of fully funding Richmond Public Schools, specifically reversing teacher salary compression and repairing/replacing school facilities. The mixed-income housing going into Jackson Ward was moved from the Regular Agenda to the Consent Agenda, so no fireworks there. Ned Oliver has a quick recap. To be honest, we all needed to catch our #rvacouncil breath after that BRT meeting anyway.
Meanwhile, over in our commonwealth’s legislative body, everybody’s favorite Senate Majority Leader is trying to pump the breaks on the proposed Airbnb legislation. I love the one picture the RTD keeps using for Senator Norment.
Whoa, WRIC has an interview with Elizabeth Johnson Rice, one of the 34 VUU students arrested in 1960 for a sit-in at the then White-only Thalhimers lunch counter.
Attention fellow PDF nerds (surely there must be a few of you out there)! Here’s the full plan for the Maggie Walker statue and plaza.
If you plan on voting absentee in the upcoming primary because you were too lazy to update your voter registration (or any other, more valid reason), the deadline to mail in your ballot is today!
Elsewhere in the nation, specifically in Nevada, Republicans will caucus! Tune in tonight to, well, probably everywhere, for realtime results.
Sports!
- #3 Wahoos fell to #12 Miami, 61-64.
- Hokies head up to Boston College tonight for a 9:00 PM tipoff (watch on ESPNU). The last time the Hokies won on the road was back on January 16th.
This morning’s longread
Things You Can’t Talk About in a Coca-Cola Ad
Still, some prohibitions betray sense. What does the Coca-Cola Company have against the mild-mannered saxophonist? Why may one not drink Coca-Cola in a canoe? What does Coke have against being courageous or winning a championship? I can see why immigration or might be a topic of concern, but keycard? Why may one not refresh oneself whilst recording an echogram or deploying the ideogrammatic capacities of emoji? Perhaps we’ll never know.
This morning’s Instagram
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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.