Good morning, RVA: New sidewalks, ice hockey, and artober

Good morning, RVA! It’s 62 °F, and highs today should hit somewhere in the low 80s. I think this might be the warmest day of the week and True Fall temperatures are on the way / here to stay.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting that Devon A. Lyles, 22, was fatally shot yesterday morning on the 200 block of N. 18th Street. Police found him collapsed on the 1700 block of E. Broad Street.

I’ve got a couple North of Broad updates to start off your week. Somehow, I did not put the list of Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission meetings on my calendar and missed that they had their first one this past Saturday (the next one is October 19th). I’ll keep an eye out for audio and dump it into the Boring Show should it exist, and will get the entire slate of future meetings added to my calendar. I promise! Also, City Council will have their second all-day North of Broad work session today from 10:00 AM–2:00 PM and will focus their questions on the “finance and operating structures of arena and armory; property transfers; private development; right-of-way and infrastructure.” Right-of-way and infrastructure—should be thrilling stuff!

Here’s a blurry copy of Richmond’s Department of Public Works fall paving and sidewalk schedule. Congratulations to 22nd Street, Hanover Avenue, Q Street, Cary Street, and Kensington Avenue for landing sidewalk restoration projects before the close of the year. Lots of other spots around town are getting repaved in various ways, which is nice for bikes and buses (and cars, too, I guess). I wonder if any of these repavings are good opportunities to stripe in a bike lane real quick after they finish up with the asphalt?

I didn’t know that Richmond had an ice hockey team called the Richmond Robins in the mid 70s, and I love the name and the logo. It’s easy (for me at least) to reminisce about Renegades games in the Coliseum, but I think this comment from reddit user /u/vibe4it gets it right: “People always say this. But I was as this Robins game. Went to a lot of Robins games. And a lot of Renegades games. And a few Rifles games. And no Riverdogs games. (And I may be leaving out some teams. There have been a bunch in 50 years.) I also used to play hockey at Ice Unlimited on Broad, as part of the Old Dominion Hockey Association. Over the years, a whole bunch has changed in RVA. But one thing that hasn’t changed is that not enough people in Richmond care about hockey. Richmond has found its niche in other places.” When we talk about bringing in minor league hockey as a tenant for the new Downtown arena, keep this in mind.

Give this episode of the Eat It, Virginiapodcast a listen—they talk to one of my favorite bartenders in town, Beth Dixon. Dixon currently manages the bar at Perch, which reminds me I need to go grab a drink out that way.

Did you know that October is artober, “an annual celebration of arts and culture in Richmond and the Tri-Cities area?” Well it is! Check out the artober calendar for a big, big list of art-focused events around the region. Also, and this is cool, the folks who put on artober (CultureWorks) have partnered with Bonfire to produce T-shirts designed by Richmond artists. The shirts look rad, and all proceeds benefit CultureWorks and a nonprofit of each artists choosing. I’ll tell you what, the pink version of the Emily Herr shirt makes me feel some kind of way.

Richard Hayes at RVAHub has some cool pictures from the National Women’s Arena Open & Handicap Polo Tournament in Charlottesville. He also points me towards the Richmond Photography Meetup Group, a community of folks that get together a couple of times a month to photograph interesting places and events. I love this idea!

This morning’s longread

It’s so much more than cooking

This is so super true. Getting cooked food on the table is so, so much more than just using the pots and pans.

In offering to make dinner, my husband, with the absolute best of intentions, had focused on the one thing he’d promised to do: grab a pot and a pan, put something in it, and make edible food. But what I’d wanted him to do was much more complex, so ingrained in my experience of cooking that I didn’t even think to articulate it. I wanted him to pick up the baton. To check what ingredients we already had, and what might need using up. To plan out a meal that would meet everyone’s dietary needs and preferences (including a balanced amount of protein and starch, and at least one vegetable). I wanted him to look up recipes, and make a grocery list if needed, and stop by the store on the way home. I wanted him to make food appear without my having to think about it. I wanted him to make dinner. And it hadn’t even occurred to him to look in the fridge before he left for work that morning.

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