Good morning, RVA: Congressman McEachin, Honoring the Memory, and GRTC route updates

Congressman McEachin was a reliable advocate for Richmond at the federal
level and a surprising leader on mitigating climate change. So sad.

Good morning, RVA! It's 36 °F, and yesterday was chillier than I expected with all that wind—nearly got blown right off my bike! Today, though, you can expect highs near 60 °F and fewer gusts, at least until tomorrow when wind and rain return with a vengeance!

Water cooler

Last night, Congressman Donald McEachin died from “secondary effects of his colorectal cancer from 2013.” You can read reactions from Senator Kaine, state Senator McClellan, Mayor Stoney, and this in-memoriam piece by Michael Martz in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. So sad. McEachin has represented at least parts of Richmond (and now all of it) in Congress for the last five years, and had been a mainstay of Central Virginia politics since the early 2000s. He was a reliable advocate for Richmond at the federal level and a surprising leader on mitigating climate change. It’s crass to think about today, but the special election to fill McEachin’s now-vacant seat will mostly likely have a domino effect on Richmond politics, as local elected leaders shuffle upwards leaving empty seats behind them.

It’s Giving Tuesday, which means you’ve probably got an inbox stuffed with an endless amount of email from all of Richmond’s wonderful non-profits asking for end-of-year donations. You should definitely follow your heart and give to the organizations that have an impact in a way that aligns with how you see the world, however, this morning, I’m going to suggest that you donate to the Richmond Public Schools Education Foundation, and specifically to their “Honoring the Memory Fund.” Over the Thanksgiving holiday, another RPS student, Tyrae Clanton, was killed by gun violence, and the Honoring the Memory Fund “helps RPS families who have lost a student with funeral costs, co-pays for mental health support, and any expenses incurred for taking time off work to grieve.“

GRTC will hold a public meeting tonight at the Main Library (101 E. Franklin Street) to ask for feedback on “a reconfiguration of Route 1A/B/C to improve reliability and increasing frequency of routes 1B and 1C in Southside Richmond.” Scrolling to page 15 of November’s GRTC Board Packet, and it looks like they’re going to cut the Route 1 in half at downtown, making a Route 1 (north of Downtown) and a separate Route 1/A/B/C (south of Downtown)? Setting aside the confusing naming scheme, would this eliminate one-seat rides from one side of town to the other? If so I have lots of thoughts and would like to learn more. For sure the 1B and 1C aren’t the most...timely...of buses, and bottlenecks at Hull Street and 14th make solving that problem a challenge, but I’m not sure breaking apart our semi-recently redesigned transit system is the way to go about it.

Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond reports on road-side saliva tests for marijuana. First, do not drive high. Second, these saliva tests sound like a way to make enforcement of Virginia’s marijuana laws more invasive and more inequitable—exactly opposite of their original intention.

Check out this absolutely incredible picture of the Orion spacecraft, the moon, and the earth taken 268,563 miles out into space. Amazing.

This morning's longread
The Case for Supreme Court Term Limits Just Got a Lot Better

Another really “fascinating but probably never going to happen” piece in the New York Times by Jamelle Bouie. I almost always agree with his suggestions for improving the American political system, and it’s nice to know that there’s usually historical precedent for sweeping changes—things don’t have to be this way forever! However, that doesn’t mean I think any of these fun thought experiments are possible in this present moment, though.

But what if lifetime tenure, rather than leading judges away from temptation, makes it easier to tempt them? In an era in which the Supreme Court is as powerful as it has ever been — and which, not coincidentally, the wealthiest Americans have an almost unbreakable grip on our politics — what if lifetime tenure, rather than raising the barriers to corruption, makes it easier to influence the court by giving interested parties the time and space to operate? And beyond the question of undue influence, what if lifetime tenure works too well to sever the court from the public, rendering it both unaccountable and dangerous to the popular foundations of American government?

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Picture of the Day

Happy holidays!