Lead Pipes, a Bike Network, and City Priorities on Art
Cheers RVA!
Today will be cloudy with continued warm temperatures, a high of 80 and a low of 52. The weekend will cool down a bit with highs in the mid 60’s.
the juice:
The Department of Public Utilities (DPU) will be sending letters to 85k Richmond City residents notifying them their main water service line material is unknown, contains lead or is galvanized.
EPA regulations require all lead pipes be replaced within 10 years.
The DPU says Richmond’s drinking waters always meet and usually exceeds standards set by the EPA and the Virginia Department of Health.
Check out the interactive map here.
the pulp:
South Richmond News has a recent article on the “fairly decent bike network” south of the river, and has created a map of both existing bike paths and proposed projects.
Richmond Police have released bodycam footage of the deadly officer-involved shooting in Churchill earlier in the month, from channel 8.
the dive:
Style Weekly has interviewed all the mayoral candidates, with a focus on local arts and culture.
The questions are specific, including asking candidates if they are in favor of a moratorium on admissions taxes on places of entertainment.
The owners of the new Allianz Ampitheatre will not have to pay the 7% admission tax on tickets for 20 years, yet small businesses are still required to do so.
Another questions notes that while in 2018 City Council approved a mandate that 1% of all Capital Improvement Projects be allocated for the arts, that mandate has not been adhered to.
Everybody knows the cyclical pattern: Affordable cities attract young people and artists, diverse scenes and locally owned businesses coalesce around them; the city becomes popular and earns rave write-ups (sometimes ridiculously wrong) in national magazines or pithy website listicles. And as demand rises, rents go through the roof. Longtime residents are displaced, artists and local businesses can no longer afford to be there or rent studio spaces and pretty soon, the city becomes a husk of its former vital and diverse self, dominated by cookie-cutter apartments, terrible parking and dysfunctional government services, and ridiculously bloated costs for a steady diet of chain restaurants, corporate overlords and ever-shrinking city amenities.
Read the full interview here.
the vibe:
Have an artsy day RVA!
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