Good morning, RVA: Vetoes, dad hats, and RIP Bakers Crust

Good Morning, RVA!

Good morning, RVA! Whoa it is already 60 °F, and today you can expect highs right around 80 °F. For most of the day clouds will probably fill the sky as we wait for some potential rain to move in later this evening. Don’t get too down about it, though, because the rest of the weekend looks pretty dry with temperatures in the upper 60s. You should definitely plan to move forward with whatever full slate of excellent, outdoor weekend activities you already had planned.

Water cooler

Yesterday, the Governor “took final action on 50 pieces of legislation, signing 30 bills into law and vetoing 20 bills.” In what’s either good news or bad news for Richmond’s new women’s soccer team, the Governor vetoed HB 1167 which would have prevented the sale of English ivy in Virginia. Looks like the Governor is totally fine with sustaining a legal retail market for this particular weed.

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By the way, Richmond Ivy dad hats do exist, and you can order one right here.

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It’s budget season all around the region, and Sean Jones at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a look at Henrico’s proposed $1.2 billion budget. Top priorities for the County include: a pay increase for County employees, schools, and infrastructure. Also, Henrico will spend $30 million from the Central Virginia Transportation Authority on “sidewalk, pedestrian and road projects.” It’s hard to tell, without digging deep into the actual budget document itself, just how that $30 million will be spread across those three areas, but I like that Jones at least started off with sidewalks.

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Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports that “Baker’s Crust Artisan Kitchen ceased operations at 3553 W. Cary St. on March 3, marking the end of a 26-year-run.” I’m shocked! Not that I’m a super fan or anything, it’s just that Baker’s Crust has been a part of my Carytown experience ever since I first started loitering and causing trouble there way back in the 90s. What’s next? Agee’s Bicycles is going to stop bringing out the best in me??

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Fruits and Veggie Week takes place from March 25–29 at 13 RPS schools across the School District. To make the week a success, Greater Richmond Fit4Kids needs a bunch of volunteers to 1) help cafeteria staff portion out fresh fruit and vegetables, and then 2) breezily convince kids that fruits and vegetables are worth trying. All The Cool Kids Are Doing It, Man. Check out the Fit4Kids Sign Up Genius to find the schools that still need volunteers, and sign up this morning!

A look back

March 15th, 2021 marked one year since I’d created my own COVID-19 spreadsheet. I don’t know why I had the inclination or foresight to start tracking COVID-19 data all the way back in March of 2020, but I did and I continued to do so all the way until July of 2021. By that point, CDC and VDH had both put together enough of their own interesting data products that what I was doing felt duplicative—plus I got tired of spending 15 minutes every single afternoon, regardless of what was going on in my life, copying numbers into a spreadsheet.

This morning's patron longread

I read all the studies on the economic impact of bike lanes. Here's what I learned.

Submitted by Patron Casey. Installing bike lanes almost never negatively impacts a business—in fact, generally, bike lanes are good (to great!) for businesses. I know this, you know this, but a lot of folks who own businesses either do not know this or do not have the time and energy to read 32 academic studies about whether or not this is true. Thankfully this article does most of the work for you and even links off to all of the primary source material, too!

“As someone whose family had a small business when I was growing up, I know how invested you get in it,” says Joseph Poirier, a senior researcher at the urban-planning consultancy Nelson Nygaard. “It’s your whole life. Anything you think could threaten that, even if the government and their consultants tell you it’s not going to be a problem, is very scary. It makes sense.” It’s also wrong. Four decades’ worth of research proves it. I know this because I’ve read every study and report I could find that looked specifically at the economics of bike lanes since 1984 — 32 research articles, to be exact. The results show that making streets friendlier for bikes — and sidewalks friendlier for pedestrians — is actually good for business. The rise of “complete streets” and “road diets,” as urban planners call them, has been a huge boon to businesses in cities.

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

...feed me Seymour?