Good morning, RVA: 12-story on Broad, crossing guards, and looking for a tree artist

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today we’ve got highs in the upper 50s with a bunch of clouds in the sky. Tomorrow you can expect warmer temperatures and some early-morning rain.

Water cooler

Correction! Last week, in an attempt to find bipartisan agreement in the, of all things, immunization discussion, I attributed a pro-science quote to “Republican Del. Adams.” This was incorrect! There are two Del. Adamses, and the Democrat, Del. Dawn Adams (a nurse practitioner), is the one with the good, pro-herd-immunity quote. For what it’s worth, the Senate version of the immunization bill in question did see actual Republican Sen. Dunnavant vote for it in committee, so, at least in that chamber it’s not strictly party lines.

Today, City Council meets for its regularly scheduled meeting at 6:00 PM, and you can find the agenda in its current state here(PDF). Two things to note! First, Council will consider ORD. 2020–030, the Special Use Permit allowing a 12-story apartment building on the northwest corner of Broad & Lombardy. This is high-density, transit-adjacent, urban living that helps us meet our housing and climate goals. If you’re a City resident—especially of the 2nd or 3rd Districts—take a minute and email your City Council rep telling them to support ORD. 2020–030. If you’ve got more than a minute, consider heading down to City Hall tonight and giving public comment in support—which is always both fun and nerve-wracking. Maybe once we get a bunch of new folks living at that intersection we can start pushing for an in-fill Pulse Station? Second, at their informal meeting, Council will get an update on what they’ll need to do should the casino bills floating around the General Assembly move forward. Since both the House version (HB 4) and the Senate version (SB 36) require holding a referendum, City Council has a bunch of work to do should they want to hold that referendum this coming November. This handy two-pager explains all of the state-mandated deadlines the City must comply with (PDF). Basically, if we want folks voting on casinos this coming election, Council needs to get moving. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has a piece about how the State needs to take problem gambling more seriously if its going to legalize casinos.

Adam Lockett, Vice Chair of GRTC’s Transit Advisory Group, has a column in today’s paper about the Transit Development Planand how it can guide the City’s future investment in public transit—especially on the Southside. The TDP is a great, long PDF that lists out and prioritizes exactly what our region should spend transit money on should it suddenly find itself flush with additional cash. Here’s the most recent update (I think), which was published back in 2018 (PDF). Check out page 207 for a straightforward plan of where and how we should upgrade transit next—we’ve already done a bunch of the recommendations, so good job us! Also, 10 points to you if your mind immediately went to HB 1541 and its bucket of new regional public transportation money as a way to pay for some of these recommended upgrades.

Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, says Superintendent Kamras has included money in his budget to expand the pilot crossing guard program 💸. Crossing guards are great, and, unfortunately, desperately needed at many of our City’s schools that are bounded by high-speed, multi-lane stroads. The rad thing about this particular program is that the crossing guards already work at the schools in another role, so they’re familiar with the neighborhood, community, and students.

I enjoyed this piece by Mike Town, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, about all the conservation-related progress made down at the General Assembly this year. It’s (way) more than just getting Dominion to burn less coal!

Tree people! I love this opportunity for some talented tree artist to turn this (very tall) stump down by the river into a piece of public art. Before people email me, this is a dead tree—please don’t carve living trees, and I’m pretty sure it’s on private property.

This morning’s longread

The case against a ‘throwaway’ society

I’ve been thinking a lot about the “reuse” portion of “reduce, reuse, recycle” lately.

Morris was a utopian socialist who attributed the loss of quality in decorative objects to the rise of capitalism and the division of labor brought about by industrial production. What was once the slow, methodical, dedicated work of rural folk, craftspeople, or artisans was now the work of low-wage workers toiling away in smoky, hellish factories that robbed the joy from the creative process. Despite their age, the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement still resonate. The industry Morris critiqued a century ago has only accelerated in both scale and disposability, and with the climate crisis looming, criticisms of modern modes of production, once considered passé in a time of emphasis on technology and efficiency, have once again reared their head in contemporary architecture and culture, informing the shift toward vintage furniture and arguments for banning disposable plastics.

If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.