Good morning, RVA: A media acquisition, bus operator shortage, and you still should email your state representatives

If you haven't yet, please tell your state representatives not to ban bikes
on Bank Street!

Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, and, as foretold, today will be chilly. Expect highs right around 50 °F today and tomorrow, with maybe a little warmer weather headed our way on Sunday. We've got a boots-and-flannel weekend in front of us, for sure!

Water cooler

Yesterday, VPM announced that it has acquired Style Weekly. This is fascinating! From the release: "In the coming weeks, VPM plans to resume publication of arts and culture feature stories and the calendar of events on StyleWeekly.com and its Facebook, Instagram and Twitter channels as it evaluates the future of the print publication." I wonder if they'll mirror stories on both the VPM site and the Style Weekly site or if Style Weekly will live on its own tiny media island. Will they bring back the same editors, reporters, and freelancers? So many questions!

Wyatt Gordon at the Virginia Mercury looks into the bus operator shortage that's impacting public transit service in Richmond and, basically, everywhere else in Virginia. In fact, GRTC plans on cutting a bunch of service in December because they just don't have enough operators to drive enough buses—this despite an $8,500 hiring bonus. So what can we do? David Bragdon, head of the national transit advocacy nonprofit TransitCenter, gets it right: "There is not really a lack of bus operators...There’s just a lack of labor at the wages employers are willing to offer, so raising pay has to be part of the answer to the perceived shortage." If our region wanted to solve this problem, it would mean localities increasing their transit funding—without expanding service—to pay higher operator salaries. That'll be a tough sell to the mayor and county managers, though.

Civic's reminder! If you haven't already emailed your House of Delegates and Virginia Senate representatives about the State's plan to ban bike traffic on Bank Street forever please do so this morning! All you have to say is: "Dear elected human, I live in your district, and I am writing today to ask that you request the Department of General Services include a 10-foot-wide bike lane with no requirement to dismount on Bank Street." Of course you should do this if you live in Richmond, but please consider sending a similar email even if you live elsewhere in the Commonwealth. This is your Department of General Services making the bonehead decision to sever a city's bike network. It's certainly within your (bike)lane to ask that they make better choices. You can find your reps and their email addresses here.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Frank Green reports on the State's ongoing redistricting process. I've written about this for so long now that I've got sunk-cost fallacy about it and feel like I have to keep writing about it even when it is so, so boring. Anyway, Republicans have submitted three new "special masters" to the Virginia Supreme Court and Democrats have submitted one. At some point, the Court will select one from each side of things and have them "work together" on new maps. We'll see how that goes!

Also in the RTD, via Gregory J. Gilligan, this excellent news: We're getting a Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in Carytown. First, Jeni's is delicious. Second, Carytown is kind of cursed when it comes to ice cream shops. We'll see if that's changed given all the development at the western edge of the neighborhood where Jeni's will set up shop (in Carytown Exchange).

It's that time again: The City of Richmond has a ton of vacancies on its various boards and commissions and needs citizens like you to apply to fill those spots. Some of the vacancies can be filled by basically anyone (Sister Cities Commission is looking for a single human who either lives or works in Richmond), and some have stricter requirements (Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks needs both a 5th and 9th District Resident and the Urban Design Committee is looking for a "member of the faculty of a design or arts division of a local college or university"). Joining a board or commission can be a great way to get involved in the workings of city government, and it also gives you another thing to mention when emailing your elected representative about bike lanes or whatever. Applications are due December 15th, so poke through the list and set aside some time this weekend or next to fill out the paperwork.

This morning's longread
No One Cares!

Great advice in general but maybe a must-read for folks whose social media scrolling makes them feel bad feelings.

Other people’s influence on your opinions about the world pales in comparison to their influence on your opinion of yourself. Evolution neatly explains why: For virtually all of human history, humans’ survival depended on membership in close-knit clans and tribes. Before the modern structures of civilization, such as police and supermarkets, being cast out from your group meant certain death from cold, starvation, or predators. This can easily explain why our sense of well-being includes others’ approbation, as well as why the human brain has evolved to activate the same neural substrates when we experience physical pain and when we face social rejection.

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