Good morning, RVA: Gov thoughts, GRTC concepts, and A Look Back

A new section of the newsletter (that I am not promising to revisit often
or even ever again)!

Good morning, RVA! It's 45 °F, and today looks beautiful. Prepare yourself for sunshine; dry, clear skies; a slight breeze; and temperatures in the mid 70s. If ever there were two spring days made for sitting on the grass outside with your eyes closed, face pointed up at the sun, it’s today and tomorrow.

Water cooler

Last week, Governor Youngkin signed HB 174, a marriage equality bill, into law. The new law “provides that no person authorized to issue a marriage license shall deny the issuance of such license to two parties contemplating a lawful marriage on the basis of the sex, gender, or race of the parties. The bill also requires that such lawful marriages be recognized in the Commonwealth regardless of the sex, gender, or race of the parties. The bill provides that religious organizations or members of the clergy acting in their religious capacity shall have the right to refuse to perform any marriage.” Seems pretty good? Please let me know if there’s some sort of hidden catch, but, as David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, the Family Foundation is upset which is always a great sign. Not that it matters to the lives of regular Virginians just minding their own business, but I am sort of constantly confused by the Governor’s political strategy and wonder what he’s angling to do after his job wraps up in the next couple of years.

I mean, see, look at this headline from WRIC’s Sierra King: “VCU professors concerned after Youngkin requests to review racial literacy curriculum.” Like, this seems more in line with Youngkin Classic and is, I don’t know, maybe something that would get him noticed for a future Trump appointment? Again, I know I shouldn’t care so much about The Life and Times of Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, I just can’t stop thinking about it!

RIC Today reminds me that as temperatures increase, we get closer to cicada brood release (which is a good but useless pneumonic). Specifically, “cicadas usually emerge when the soil hits 65 degrees,” but, despite this week’s warmer temperatures, we’ve got a ways to go before we get there. Still, though, I’m looking forward to it! I love the summer sound of cicadas in the trees, and, despite how they stupidly crash into me as they flumble about, I’d really miss them if they disappeared. Lucky for me, Brood XIX, literally know as The Great Southern Brood, will emerge in just a couple months as it reaches the end (or beginning?) of its 13-year cycle.

Tonight at 5:30 PM, GRTC will host their second Downtown Transfer Hub public meeting at the Main Library (101 E. Franklin Street). They’ll present their “final site selection options and initial design concepts for a mixed-use Downtown Transfer Hub.” I’ve written a lot about Downtown Transfer Hubs over the past forever, but, if you’re gonna build one, these are some of the right words to use to describe it: “the hub will take advantage of prime downtown real estate by adding housing and retail options and continuing to provide high-quality transit service while improving available resources for riders.” So come out tonight, check out a larger version of this design concept, and, get excited, because, according to the release “There will be pizza.”!

Somehow the Atlantic 10 men’s basketball tournament tipped off yesterday? On a Tuesday? Anyway, #5 VCU takes on #12 Fordham today at 2:00 PM (you can watch on the “USA Network”), and #1 Richmond will face either #8 George Mason or #9 Saint Joseph’s tomorrow at 11:30 AM.

A look back

Over the weekend, I put together a quick process that helps me pull newsletters from this date one, two, three, and four years ago—mostly because I started thinking about the four-year anniversary of everything shutting down as the pandemic descended. For some reason, I want to relive my life as I wrote through that experience. But also, I recently read this really wonderful piece on Cory Doctorow’s blog about his writing process in which he says:

For example, it’s hard to write long and prolifically without cringing at the memory of some of your own work. After all, if the point of writing is to clarify your thinking and improve your understanding, then, by definition, your older work will be more muddled. Cringing at your own memories does no one any good. On the other hand, systematically reviewing your older work to find the patterns in where you got it wrong (and right!) is hugely beneficial — it’s a useful process of introspection that makes it easier to spot and avoid your own pitfalls.

So, with that in mind, welcome to A look back, a new section of the newsletter that I am not promising to revisit often or even ever again! But I do think I will continue to look back at the last couple of years to see how hard I cringe at my own writing and, if it’s interesting, surface anything that I think y’all will appreciate. Like...

Four years ago yesterday, Governor Northam declared a state of emergency in Virginia kicking off three plus years of pandemic life. Richmond Public Schools closed for two weeks, with Superintendent Kamras saying, “Finally, a word to our extraordinary students: I know this is a scary time. Please know that we are going to do everything possible to support you and that we love you.” Events across the City, region, and State closed, and City Council even canceled public meetings which had me concerned about the future of the 2020 budget season (lol, you sweet, innocent baby).

I wrote this pretty good sentence, which I think remained true throughout the pandemic: “Now that we’re all in this together, I want three things out of our State, City, and institutions: 1) High-quality and up-to-date information, 2) Whatever the institutional version of social distancing is, and 3) Clever policy and action to keep folks safe and thriving until this crisis passes.”

However, I closed with this sentence, which would not turn out to be true at all, because, for a long time, the only news that existed was COVID-related: “I’m sure there’s other, non-corona news out there, but, today, you’ll just have to find it yourself!”

Of note from just last year, Council had already started their budget season by this time and were hosting their second budget session (remember, they’ve since adjusted due dates to give everyone a bit more time to process).

Also, “Naatu Naatu” won the Oscar for Best Original Song, and watching it is a great way to start your Wednesday morning!

This morning's longread
100 Years Ago in Photos: A Look Back at 1924

100 years seems like forever, but, I dunno, something about this century-old photosset in the Atlantic doesn’t feel all that long ago. Yeah there’s farm land in the Bronx and a zeppelin floats over D.C., but there’s also baseball, and highways, and rich people with weird pets—we’ve got that same stuff today.

A century ago, regular radio broadcasts were on the rise, and people began tuning in to entertainment and news from around the world. Paris hosted the 1924 Summer Olympics, advancements in aviation were being made on several fronts, automobiles were becoming more prevalent (and dangerous), and prohibition in the U.S. was still in full swing. Students were using tablets made of slate, and “computers” were human beings that operated calculating machines. Below are a handful of images of some of the events and sights around the world in the year 1924

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

Picture of the Day

Here’s the D&D set up for a few of my kid’s friends the very last day before The World Stopped four years ago.