A New Animal Shelter, Foro Con Los Candidatos, and New Bike Lanes
Cheers RVA!
Today will be mostly sunny with a bit of a breeze in the morning, and a high of 73. The evening will cool down to a low of 47. The week ahead is looking significantly cooler.
the juice:
City council meets tonight and is expected to approve a resolution for the city to purchase a building on West Cary St. to serve as a new shelter for Animal Care and Control, via the Richmonder.
The current shelter on Chamberlayne provides 15000 square feet to care for pets needing a home, with the new building to provide (if approved) an additional 10000 square feet of space.
Director Christie Chipps-Peters envisions cat condos in the front window, a store, and a social space. She told channel 6 earlier this month:
The possibilities are endless. But for the animals — it will be such a blessing for them to have bigger spaces while they await their forever homes and hopefully a less stressful situation. It's going to be great.
Also on the council agenda are the two ordinances regarding the city property tax, but a vote tonight is unlikely.
the pulp:
A teen was shot on Dock Street in Shockoe Bottom early Saturday morning, via channel 6. The 16-year old suffered life-threatening injuries and underwent surgery.
South Richmond News reports another mayoral forum will be held tonight at 6:30 pm at Boushall Middle School. The forum is an “opportunity for Richmond’s Latino and Indigenous communities to hear from the mayoral candidates.”
New bike lanes are coming to Downtown, from channel 6. Construction is expected to begin later this month and be completed by February.
the dive:
Ross Andersen from the Atlantic writes about the scourge of “win probability” in sports, and how broadcasters are increasingly including outcome odds during games.
In the upper-left corner of the screen, just above the score, each team’s chance of winning the game is expressed as a percentage—a whole number, reassuring in its roundness, that is recalculated after every at-bat. Its predictions may help tame the wild and fearful id of your fandom, restricting your imagination of what might happen next to a narrow and respectable range.
He notes that many fans spend less time playing the sports they watch than they did in the past, and many see themselves more as coaches and general managers:
They find it easier to cast themselves as coaches and general managers—numerate strategic thinkers surrounded by stacks of Excel printouts. Fantasy leagues were a gateway drug for people who liked their sports with a heavy dose of statistical analysis. Sports-gambling apps have become their heroin.
The article notes there may be positive effects to this proliferation of statistical literacy in society, citing knowledge of temperature in the mid-18th century as a historical example:
Still, whatever its downsides, the spread of probabilities through culture and entertainment may be having some positive effect on people’s statistical literacy. Kenny Easwaran, a philosopher at UC Irvine, compared it to the way the concept of temperature came to be appreciated by the public. In the mid-18th century, some scientists were skeptical that there would ever be a way to represent all the varied phenomena of hot and cold—a pan’s searing surface, a steamy jungle, the chill of a glacier—with a single number. But then the thermometer became pervasive, and, with practice, people learned to correlate its readings with certain experiences. A similar transition is now underway, he told me, as probability percentages have seeped into mass culture, in weather forecasts, medical prognoses, and election coverage.
Read the full article here.
the vibe:
Have a calculably pleasant day RVA!
Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment. If you enjoy this newsletter, tell a friend to subscribe!