Good morning, RVA: Keeping our bike lanes clean, gubernatorial powers, and some useful maps

Seeing the Mini Street and Sidewalk Sweeper in the wild is like finding an
ice cream truck but for old people on bikes.

Good morning, RVA! It's 71 °F, and, guess what, today’s gonna be hot. You can expect highs in the mid 90s, with almost no chance of relief. I know I sound like a broken record when I talk about extreme heat and staying hydrated, but it’s important! You can’t do your best work if you’re dehydrated. Stay cool, stay safe, and drink a ton of water.

Water cooler

Yesterday, Richmond’s Department of Public Works announced that they’d purchased a charming Mini Street and Sidewalk Sweeper to help keep our city’s bike lanes free of garbage (not cars, to clarify, but actual trash garbage). You can check out a video of the sweeper in action here, which has just the best audio so make sure you turn the volume up. This seems like a such a small thing—“keep the bike lanes clean”—but it really does impact the safety and use of our bike infrastructure. The Brook Road bike lane, for example, is often so full of trash and sticks and urban decay that sometimes it’s safer to just ride in the road, and that kind of defeats the point. So, thank you, DPW, for looking out!

Also on the streets beat, Katherine Lutge at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the City’s crews will finish painting the Pulse’s bus-only lanes red on Friday—a month early! Great work, team.

Ben Paviour at VPM reports on how the Governor’s power to appoint members of boards and commissions gives him extra-legislative power to impact folks’ lives—another reminder of how important it is to get out and vote in gubernatorial elections (and all elections, really). Regulations implemented (promulgated?? is that the right word?) by these boards—which don’t need to pass through the razor-thin Democratic Brick Wall in the Senate—can have all kinds of impacts on your day-to-day, and you can bet Republicans will use every opportunity they can to advance their agenda without having to contend with the General Assembly. Anyway, voting is really important.

Super related, Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams writes about Youngkin’s recent appointment of Lost Cause truther Ann McLean to the Virginia Board of Historic Resources. And, like, McLean is not Lost Cause-adjacent—she is full on, literal definition of a Lost Causer. Here she is, in her own words, about the racist Confederate monuments: “‘And this whole tragedy is that these statues were built to tell the true story of the American South to people 500 years from now...But we have forces right here 150 years later that want to destroy the evidence of that story,’ she said, framing the Civil War as a ‘fight for sovereignty of each state and constitutional law.’” Says MPW, “This appointment is an insult, not just of Black folks, but people who take their history seriously.” Also, not related to the Governor’s ability to appoint people to boards, but this quote from Williams at the end of his piece absolutely nails a lot of things I’ve been thinking over the last six months: “Indeed, the ambitious Youngkin’s superpower has been his ability to cloak his radicalism in a deceptive veneer of moderation. Never trust a red vest and a smile. When someone consistently shows you who they are, believe them.”

Alert, nerds! Richmond BizSense has put together a handful of maps to help track all of the development going on in a bunch of neighborhoods across the region. Check out this one for Scott’s Addition, and look at all of those projects in the planning stages and under construction! This visual really gives you a sense for how much that neighborhood is changing (and will continue to change over the next couple of years). I love this sort of resource, and will mostly likely be referring to it frequently in the future.

Leah Small at Richmond Magazine sat down with RISE for Youth’s executive director, Valerie Slater, to talk about gun violence and how Virginia’s current prevention strategies leave a lot to be desired. Slater would know, and you should check out RISE for Youth’s website to learn more about their work on “dismantling the youth prison model and ensuring every space that impacts a young person’s life encourages growth and success.”

Want to work for Richmond Public Schools? Now is the time! The District is offering a $6,000 moving stipend for folks 50 miles outside of Richmond, a $4,000 signing bonus for teachers with more than two years of experience, and a $2,000 signing bonus for new teachers. You can find more information on RPS’s website, and, if you’re not a teacher, maybe you know someone who is? Spread the word!

This morning's longread
The Weird, Analog Delights of Foley Sound Effects

I loved everything about this article in the New Yorker about foley artists. What a cool and specific job!

There are certain well-worn tricks of the trade. Vegetables are old standbys: snapped celery for broken bones, hammered cabbage for a punch. (According to the Web site Atlas Obscura, during the climax of “Titanic,” in which Kate Winslet floats, shivering, on a piece of debris, Foley artists peeled back layers of frozen lettuce to add texture to the sound of her crisping hair.) Paper clips or nails, taped to the tips of a glove, are useful for the clicking footsteps of a house pet. Wet pieces of chamois leather, the sort that is used for cleaning cars, are highly versatile. “They sound just like mud,” Rowe said. “Also, they’re excellent for blood. If you want to stab somebody in the chest, and you want to hear the sound of the knife going in”—here she made a gushing, kuschhy sound—“get that chamois out and just squish it. I found this big plastic cup, and when you put a chamois in it, when it’s wet, when you rub it up and down”—she emitted another guttural gush—“it makes this incredible sound.”

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Picture of the Day

Apparently it is [Hot Dog Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Dog_