Good Morning, RVA: The Tuesday awakens
Warmer but maybe a small chance of flurries?
Photo by: cpjRVA
Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, today’s high is projected to hit 50 °F, and everything should stay dry throughout the day. Come evening though, we might see rain? Maybe flurries?
Water cooler
Last night’s city council meeting lacked any legislative fireworks–pretty much business as usual. A bunch of fire safety legislation passed, a new development in Fulton Hill will move forward, and the city will accept $5 million from Dominion in exchange for changing the name of CenterStage to the Dominion Arts Center. Lots of folks got up to speak against the latter, citing bad stewardship of the environment. Councilman Agelasto, while supportive of the name change, said it should be used as a time to look at walking back the meals tax increase from a bunch of years ago that benefited CenterStage. Also of note, Council expedited a paper to show their full support of Main Street Station as The One Station To Rule Them All when it comes to high-speed rail. Read through last night’s full agenda here, in case you missed the fun.
Everyone’s sketched out by the possibility of lots of folks working for the city with direct ties to the church at which the mayor is the senior pastor. Simultaneously, no one wants to get fired over violating someone’s right to religious freedom by asking folks if and where they go to church in the context of “maybe you got this job unfairly?” Katy Burnell Evans and Ned Oliver have a teensy bit more on this ongoing story. Meanwhile, Attorney General Herring says, “This is not likely to lead to a formal criminal investigation.”
Today at 5:30 PM, the city will hold a public meeting on the design of the new Maggie Walker statue and accompanying plaza. The artist, Toby Mendez, and the design team will be in attendance. I do hope that someone has briefed them on the very real possibility that they will be listening to people shout about a tree for two hours.
Have you ever wanted to fly nonstop from Richmond to Denver? You can now do this on United, starting on April 5th. More convenient marijuana tourism for the region?
President Obama will give his State of Union address tonight at 9:00 PM, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will give the Republican response. The New York Times has a nice list of what the President has promised in previous SOTUs and how he’s delivered or not delivered.
Sports!
You may have noticed that there was a “college football national championship” last night. Alabama won 45-40, giving them four of the last seven titles.
- #13 Wahoos hope to end their two-game losing streak against #8 Miami tonight at 7:00 PM.
This morning’s longread
What Goes Through Your Mind: On Nice Parties and Casual Racism
The night after Christmas finds me seated with relatives and friends at my in-laws’ crowded dinner table, enjoying a delicious meal and happily chatting about television — one of few topics that’s nearly always safe to discuss in mixed company. Of the fourteen people laughing and passing laden platters around, only one is new to me. Someone mentions my interview with Constance Wu of Fresh Off the Boat, and this, apparently, is her cue to look up and address me for the first time since we exchanged our initial his and nice to meet yous.
“Do people ever tell you that you look just like everyone on that show?” she asks.
This morning’s Instagram
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Ross Catrow
Founder and publisher of RVANews.
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