Good morning, RVA! It's 60 °F already, and that’s about the temperatures you can expect today, with highs creeping up a tiny bit to 70 °F by lunchtime. At that point it’ll probably start to rain. Deal with it, though, because come tomorrow morning, the sun will come out, and we’ll be headed into a long stretch of really beautiful weather.

Water cooler

Part of the official GMRVA process each morning includes checking the City Auditor’s website for fresh, hot-off-the-presses audits. Today, I found two new documents—the first for this year and the first from the City’s new auditor Riad Ali:

The former—which really, really wants you to know that it is not an actual official audit—lays out what the City has done to clean up their meals tax collection efforts. Flip to page five to see exactly what changes got implemented when, and, importantly, check out final page of recommendations which reads: “The City Auditor’s Office will not issue any additional recommendations as the City is already committed to the process of informing delinquent account holders of their outstanding balance. As requested by City Council, City Administration, and the Director of Finance, the City Auditor’s Office will audit the meals tax program after RVAPay is implemented.”

The latter audit...I have a hard time understanding. I think it’s like a combo meal of mini audits all bundled up into one 39-page PDF so folks don’t have to continually request reports and audits on common topics. Don’t get me wrong, there’s interesting information contained within: Like, scroll to page three for a list of overtime hours by department for the last couple of years. Police, Fire, and the Sheriff account for about 70% of the $29.4 million dollars the City spent on overtime in 2023. See? Interesting stuff.

Eric Kolenich at the Richmond Times-Dispatch continues reporting on the shifts and changes to the planned Diamond District development. This morning he’s got news of 700 more homes added to the plan. The development now totals “1,700 homes in Phase 1, the vast majority will be rental units. Twenty-four homes will be for sale, described as 2-over-2 condominiums...One in five residences will be designated affordable for households making $65,000 or less per year. The city also will offer vouchers to assist families making $33,000 or less.” Sounds great. On the not-so-great side: “The latest version of the project also includes more commercial space and nearly double the number of parking spaces to more than 2,000. The size of the grassy park that weaves through the neighborhood will shrink from 11 acres to eight.” I know planners didn’t directly replace acres of green space with acres of parking, and portions of the park most likely got swapped for those 700 new homes and the structured parking that goes with them. I’m ambivalent! I love green space, but I also love increasing the supply of housing. Either way, it’s hard to fit all the puzzle pieces of this plan together, especially as the (financial) picture on the box keeps changing. P.S. Tap through for, what I think is, the latest rendering of the neighborhood.

Dillon Rule at work: Governor Youngkin vetoed the legislation that would have allowed localities to impose a 1% sales tax for school construction and modernization, reports Nathaniel Cline at the Virginia Mercury. Because the State says no, Richmond will, yet again, lose out on needed money for its public schools—which, I suppose, is the point. Frustrating! If you want to get even more mad, read the Governor’s veto statement which ends with “The Commonwealth should pursue a tax policy that unleashes economic development and prioritizes job and wage growth through innovative reforms. These reforms must allow hardworking Virginians to keep more of their money, not less; any proposal that increases the cost of living and the cost of business is not a policy we should pursue.” I’d love for him to come read this aloud inside any one of the RPS facilities in desperate need of replacing.

DPW will close the bridge on Commerce Road near Bellemeade a month earlier than planned, because “a bridge inspection this morning revealed severe deterioration.” Listen, no one’s trying to screw around with failing infrastructure, especially an 84-year-old bridge that was already scheduled for replacement in May. If you’re a frequent user of this bridge, you’ll need to detour via Bellemeade over to Richmond Highway and cut back on either Ruffin Road or Bells Road. Get used to your new route, because the replacement bridge won’t open until late 2025.

Via /r/rva, check out the massively beefy tow truck required to tow a GRTC bus!

This morning's longread

The Climate Charts Are Not Okay

I definitely worry about what “an era of constantly broken records,” especially terrifying records like ocean temperatures, will do to how we process information. Literal off-the-charts climate data certainly fill me with existential dread, but, after awhile, I’m nervous that I’ll acclimatize and just sort of stop caring. “This is just how it is now,” I can hear myself saying—just like what I now say about the lack of snow and the brutally hot summers.

For the moment, 2024’s line on the chart is staying well clear of its predecessors, and staring at this continuing crime against nature has me asking myself over and over: if every day is a new record, is any day a new record? This is, quite clearly, an absurd question. The answer is yes. Obviously. A record is a record. But that is what an era of constantly broken records does: it renders everything a bit askew, makes thought processes turn on their axes, makes us all a little bit crazy. And that’s the world now, records falling essentially every day. “The new normal” gets thrown around quite a bit, but it is true that “normal” has a new meaning now, and it is for records to fall. It is normal for the theoretically abnormal to occur. It would be weird and unexpected now if the records stopped falling. That’s the way it will continue to be. It’s not just the oceans, of course. Last year was the warmest year in recorded history, and probably in at least 125,000 years.

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Picture of the Day

Sorry, can’t stop staring at this flower.

Good morning, RVA: New audits, more housing, and a chonky tow truck

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