Good morning, RVA: A model for the nation, NoBro inches forward, and actually safer streets

Good morning, RVA! It’s 45 °F, and temperatures today are positively fall-like. Expect—and enjoy—highs right around 60 °F. It’s totally hoodie weather.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting that Roddell L. Mayfield, 27, was fatally shot on the 700 block of Mosby Street yesterday morning. According to the Police, Mayfield was the 45th person murdered in Richmond in 2019.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Justin Mattingly stopped by the Matthew Desmond talk at VCU last night and has a quick recap. Desmond, author of Evicted, called Richmond’s response to our awful and nation-leading eviction rates “amazing,” “beautiful,” and “a model for the nation”—so that’s something! @RVAEvictionLab has a play-by-play of the event over on Twitter if you’re looking for more. Oh! Also! Scroll back in their timeline for a conversation between Desmond and VCU’s Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom, too. Actually, you should probably just give the @RVAEvictionLab account a follow.

J. Elias O’Neal at Richmond BizSense says the new development just north of the Rocketts Landing Pulse station has scored its final approvals from both Richmond and Henrico. Phase One of the multi-phase project includes 3,200 square feet of retail that I’m pretty stoked about, because, unless you live at Rocketts, the eastern terminus of the Pulse feels like it needs some more anchoring. A bunch of shops could help with that. Plus, the developer has promised to improve the pedestrian connections from Rocketts, under the scary, probably-troll-infested train trestle. This will make the trip for folks walking or catching the #4 bus into Fulton a lot less terrifying.

As foretold, the Planning Commission met yesterday and recommended for approval the half-dozen or so NoBro ordinances that dealt with land transfers, right-of-way, and zoning. These ordinances will now head back to Council for final approval—some of them requiring five votes and some requiring seven. The timeline for things moving forward gets a little murkier, though, since the both City Council and the Navy Hill Advisory Commission still have a bunch of meetings left to host. While these papers will show up on Council’s agenda, barring miracles or shenanigans, I wouldn’t expect a vote until next year. Rodrigo Arriaza at Richmond Magazine has a few quotes from folks at the meeting.

Last week a GRTC Pulse driver hit and killed a woman crossing Broad Street. It’s an awful situation. However, it’s hard, for me at least, not to be cynical about the response from certain elected leaders about this loss of life. Yes of course we need to make Broad Street safer for pedestrians—and painting the bus lanes red would help with that—but it’s not buses that kill and injure the vast, vast majority of people on our streets. It’s the people driving cars. That’s why I’m thankful for Councilmember Jones’s efforts to reduce speed limits across the City. We need real, proven solutions that keep people safe, not new (and probably illegal) traffic signals.

Richmond Public Schools’ Rezoning Advisory Committee will meet tonight at George Wythe High School (4314 Crutchfield Street) at 6:00 PM. If you really want to immerse yourself in the rezoning conversation, you can show up at 4:00 PM for a community conversation headed up by the mapping folks who put all of the rezoning recommendations together. We are nearing the end of this process (theoretically), so take advantage of your options for in-person feedback!

This morning’s longread

How America Lost Dinner

I feel a lot of shame over how I’m apparently unable to consistently make meals for my family—that means you get a bunch of longreads about the tyranny of dinner!

Today, half a century after these ideals took hold in the American psyche, plenty of cultural pressure still exists for both women and men to fulfill them, at the dinner table and beyond. Americans still want the economic stability and work-life balance that would enable them to regularly cook and eat with loved ones, even if they want the institution of dinner itself modernized. And, certainly, people still find ways to sit down and eat together as frequently as possible. But there has also been tremendous upheaval in the structures of American life and work. Women—the people traditionally forced into meal management—have voluntarily entered the workforce in droves or been forced into it for financial reasons. Average commute times get longer seemingly every year, ensuring that working adults get home later and later. And almost all middle-class work now involves a great deal of time spent on a computer, which means millions of Americans’ jobs don’t end for the day when they leave the office. For many, their work never really ends at all.

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