My sticker shock is that the DNC isn't vocally backing Kelly. We're tired of your spineless bait & switch politics.

Grow a backbone and stand up for your colleagues and constituents before they start disappearing us all.

Now that's some patina

There is, but the short version is that the three of us ended up having to live together during the pandemic. We realized we both like horror movies (my wife does not), and started watching them together. Next thing you know we're belting out Friends in Low Places for living room karaoke.

People are bitter and envious. If you have something they want, you're not allowed to have any complaints about it.

You have the types of problems they want to have, and that makes them angry

Of course they're not. For the same reason I have to work two jobs and don't have time to participate in democratic processes — they don't want people like me involved

I've been trying to. And I am a strong believer in local organizing. But I'm also juggling one full- and one part-time job and this whole new fatherhood thing, so my time/energy/sanity is unfortunately somewhat limited at the moment.

That is my primary concern. I want vibrant community, not enclosing walls of aluminum apartment buildings and sprawling corporate chains. I don't want to lose what I love about this place.

But I do fear that's the most likely outcome.

I'm in one not far from you and feel exactly the same way. I might have a small yard, but there are rabbits and woodpeckers and deer in it.

And beyond that, it really feels like a neighborhood. I just wish more small businesses would move in

Impeccable timing — it happened again today.

I'll run with the Duncan theory

That's understandable haha. I lived there for a year in maybe 2006 or 07. Hull was still mostly empty

That's fair. I'm sure I would be too if I moved away.

I don't know exactly how long it's been since you visited, but chances are that Southside will be absolutely unrecognizable. Take a drive across the Hull St. bridge if you get a chance. It's mindblowing

Now don't get me wrong, lower crime and fewer dilapidated buildings are great. And our food scene is incredible. But I just sometimes feel like something got taken for granted and eventually went missing

And unfortunately what it's become has priced out a lot of the people who made it desirable for everyone moving here. And those people are bringing with them investor attention, which is slowly chipping away at what makes Richmond... Richmond

In many ways. In others it's not. There was a palpable sense of possibility in the early 00s. Like because the city was ignored it was anyone's to create. And that gave rise to a pretty vibrant if quasi underground arts scene. Strong subcultures.

That's mostly gone. It's become what it's become.