Good morning, RVA: Safer intersections, a new podcast, and papusas

If we wanted to, there are many, many cheap and easy ways to make our
streets safer.

Good morning, RVA! It's 71 °F, and today looks pretty decent. Expect highs in the upper 80s, and, according to NBC12's Andrew Freiden, a bit less humidity than we sweated through yesterday. He says tomorrow "looks perfect," which is just what I want to hear for the Friday following a long week!

Water cooler

The Washington Post has a nice article about the new intersection improvements at Marshall and Adams Streets—which include a beautiful new street mural, some bike parking, and a lovely new parklet. It looks nice, sure, it has tons of beautiful seating, yes, but it's safer too: A recent study shows a "50% decrease in the rate of crashes involving pedestrians or other vulnerable road users" after installing sweet-looking asphalt art. It's awesome seeing cool projects in Richmond make the national news, but it's even more awesome when Richmond implements low-cost ways to make our streets safer. Like Janette Sadik-Kahn, the Janette Sadik-Kahn, says in this piece, "This data shows that safer, sustainable streets don't need to cost millions of dollars." All it takes is finding the political will to get project like this on the ground, or, even better, finding the political will to empower City staff to just go out and do this sort of thing.

Patrick Wilson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on some of Virginia's LGBTQ advocacy groups boycotting the Governor's pride event, which does not surprise me in the least. Here's James Millner, director of Virginia Pride, "I have serious concerns about the Governor’s on-the-record positions on issues like same-sex marriage and rights and protections for the transgender community, especially transgender youth. If the Governor can demonstrate that he and his administration are true allies to our community by working with us to protect and advance our hard-won progress, I would happily attend a celebration with him next year." And here's Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia, "The Governor spent months campaigning on a platform of homophobia and transphobia, attacking some of the most marginalized members of our community — transgender and non-binary youth...We encourage the Governor to meet with us, hear our stories, learn about our lives, and make a commitment to fight for our lived equality." Related, Patrick Larsen at VPM reports that five members of the State's LGBTQ+ Advisory Board will not seek reappointment. Every day is a another reminder of how important the 2023 elections will be to the lives of so many Virginians!

Also Gov-related, Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond reports on some possible amendments we could see to the state's budget from Governor Youngkin. First, weigh in your mind the inconsistency between trying to implement gas tax relief while also requiring all state workers to commute back to the office five days a week. Second, tap through to read an absolutely bananas quote from the Attorney General that I will not reproduce here.

Richmond has a new logo, kind of, and Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense has the all of the details. I hate writing about new corporate and municipal identity campaigns—unless they're really striking—but Spiers answers the immediate question I had: What will happen to the ubiquitous RVA logo and the really unique bateau boatman that shows up on the City's flag and seal? Spiers says the RVA that we're all very familiar with is a brand for the entire region, while the bateau boatman will be used for "official city business." The new logo, a stylized R, "will be used for promotional efforts such as tourism and economic development." OK, whew, crisis averted.

For your podcast queue: Mallory Noe-Payne has a new five-part series on NPR called Memory Wars about "how Germany has confronted its horrific past and whether America could ever do the same." For some context, Noe-Payne is Richmond-adjacent and this series features conversations with Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams. I'm gonna guess that we'll hear a lot about Richmond's horrific past and our newly-discarded Confederate monuments in this series.

Sara Riso at Style Weekly has important papusa-related reporting on Cocina Calle, a roving papusa food truck. I love handfoods from all over the world and papusas are no exception. Also those yucca tots sound worth trying, too.

This morning's longread
Twilight of the NIMBY

The New York Times takes a look at how folks who are ostensibly progressive end up using all of their advocacy bandwidth on preventing new homes from being built in their neighborhoods—this, despite a housing crisis on fire. The woman featured in this piece has spent two decades (successfully!) fighting against 20 condos at the end of her block. Imagine if her time were spent on something else?

It seems like a lot to dump on what amount to hyperlocal disputes that largely consist of homeowners trekking down to city hall to complain about a new condominium building or proposed row of townhomes. But take a step back: What’s at stake in these disputes is the structure of American civilization. In a country with little national housing policy, the thicket of zoning, environmental and historic preservation laws that govern local land use are the primary regulators of a multi-trillion-dollar land market that is the source of most households’ wealth and form the map for how the nation’s economy and society are laid out.

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