iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 03/05/2025

That second goal from a giveaway was a gut punch. Good fight from the boys though. Bagpipe in the Red Army 10/10.

Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 28/03/2025

Directly in front of me is the site of Edward Valentine's sculpting studios — which are annotated on the 1905 Sanborn map. Today it's the GRTC transfer center.

A screenshot of a Sanborn map from 1905, focusing two buildings that were sculptor's studios. Each building has an annotation indicating that they had skylights.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 28/03/2025

Nice view from my temporary office over Leigh St. #RVA

A view of downtown Richmond VA behind a laptop screen showing Sanborn maps.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 14/03/2025

Amen. Their ability to locate any one showing up at the lot or terminal in less that two minutes is incredible.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 04/03/2025

Dang! Hopefully a much bigger opportunity elsewhere?

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 19/02/2025

Zorch by the slice while watching a game would be heavenly.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 18/02/2025

🚲🌊 When the James River and your evening commute become one (Riverside Dr between Rockfalls Dr and the Z Dam).

A video showing the James River flooding over Riverside Drive at sunset.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 16/02/2025

The outfall events are a huge bummer but there are positive changes in the works to mitigate them. These maps are from the CSO 2024 Final Plan – worth skimming on a torrential day like today. rvah2o.org/wp-content/u...

Map and table showing 4 projects selected for the Richmond Combined Sewer Overflow plan. The plan aims to reduce untreated wastewater overflow by 785 million gallons per year.

Map and chart of the Combined Sewer Overflow system showing that the Shockoe and Southside outfalls contribute 91% of bacteria load.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 16/02/2025

Today's combined Sewage Overflow map AKA "Richmond's Map of Shame" — 12 of 25 outflows currently spewing our raw wastewater into the James and Gillies Creek. apps.emnet.net/richmond-pub...

A map of the James River in Richmond showing that 12 of the 25 Combined Sewer Overflow outfall sites are overflowing on Feb 16, 2025.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 11/02/2025

We're one step away from a beautiful Mayo Bridge... #RVA richmondbizsense.com/2025/02/11/l...

A Star Trek Geordi meme stating that an unprotected bike lane shown in the latest Mayo Bridge design is not it — the bike lane needs a proper barrier.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 11/02/2025

Special shout out to Marvin Hicks, Community Memory Fellow — he is doing some great work in the memory lab and getting deep into visualizing Richmond history. Looks like RPL has some exciting stuff upcoming. rvalibrary.org/shelf-respec...

rvalibrary.org

Meet the Community Memory Fellow: Marvin Hicks - Richmond Public Library

The Community Memory Fellow (CMF) position was created to broaden the notion of what public history is in Richmond and make that history accessible to everyone. Over the course of […]

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 11/02/2025

Latoya Gray-Sparks gave an excellent (and heartbreaking) talk about Urban Renewal history in #RVA tonight. RPL Memory Lab was a great host and put together these fantastic Sanborn map displays with monopoly pieces to show homes razed for Gilpin Court, I-95, and the downtown expressway.

Latoya Gray-Sparks presenting maps and images of north Jackson Ward before its destruction to make way for public housing in the 1940s.

A table with a collage of Sanborn maps and photos. Small plastic houses from a monopoly set are placed on top of the maps to represent the dwellings destroyed in the 1940s and 50s to make way for public housing and the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike.

A man looks through a magnifying glass at a table with a collage of Sanborn maps and photos. Small plastic houses from a monopoly set are placed on top of the maps to represent the dwellings destroyed in the 1940s and 50s to make way for public housing and the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike.

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Reposted by Riley Champine

Doug @dfrsh757.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

A group is trying to effectively sabotage the Fall Line trail’s path through Bryan Park. Sign BikeWalk RVA’s petition here to tell City leadership you support the trail! www.sportsbackers.org/program/bike...

sportsbackers.org

Sign The Petition - Sports Backers

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 06/02/2025

I dabbled in some local reporting last night. Moral of the story — RVA311.com is fully staffed and improving. The more folks log on and upvote requests the better it works.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 02/02/2025

New music from Butcher Brown coming fresh out of #RVA might be the only thing keeping me sane after two weeks of the new admin’s cruelty and bullshit. youtu.be/2cs0CKylxPI?...

youtu.be

Butcher Brown: Select Cuts - “Ibiza” (Official Live Performance)

YouTube video by Butcher Brown

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 29/01/2025

Ever since the @richmondkickers.bsky.social brought out the old '90s logo in 2022 I've been toying with ideas for a new crest that brings back that OG soccer feel in a fresh way. I'm not sure I cracked the code but I wish the new crest went in this direction instead of old-timey baseball.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 29/01/2025

@richmondkickers.bsky.social I love you but this logo is a mess. It looks like an illegible monogram for RFK. Is it supposed to be evoking an old-timey baseball logo? We're an OG soccer club from the '90s. I really wish there was some outreach to the fans about this...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 27/01/2025

Excellent to see work underway!

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 26/01/2025

Wild ice falls in #RVA — at the back of the quarry loop off of the Buttermilk trail. These cliffs seem to have the perfect mix of runoff (possibly spring water?!) and no sun.

Cascading ice frozen in 8-12 foot tall icicles on a sheet rock face.

A forested cliff with frozen ice falls. In the background the sun sets behind a few houses.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 14/01/2025

#RVA journalists shined this past week. Thanks for your hard work — keep digging! One question I would like to get answered is how much of a difference would a full capacity reservoir have made? Did DPU forget to factor in the renovation when they noticed it was drawing down faster than expected?

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 09/01/2025

⚠️ Re: dishes it's unclear if handwashing okay, or just dishwasher with sanitize setting. To be safe I'm leaning toward latter.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 09/01/2025

Noon press conference on #RVA water crisis: • All nine water zones pressurized!!! • 1st test began in the last hour • 2nd test 16 hours later needed to lift boil advisory • Mayor optimistic for Friday or early Saturday lift • "Absolutely feel free to take quick showers" • "Okay to wash dishes"

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 09/01/2025

Shout out to @southrichmondnews.bsky.social for listing all of these items this morning!

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 09/01/2025

3 actions to consider on day 4 of #RVA water crisis: Volunteer to hand out drinking water (3hr): www.cfengage.org/search (search "Water distribution") Take the MapRVA survey, pinpoint outages (30 sec): survey123.arcgis.com/share/79b3f9... Donate to test Wayside Spring (30 sec): gofund.me/022c8fa4

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 07/01/2025

#RVA Mayor's press conference on Richmond's water crisis just wrapped. Mixed news: • Two pumps now online after stops and starts overnight • Cautiously optimistic water service to return today • Boil-water advisory likely to continue for 48 hours • RPS likely to remain closed (somewhat unclear)

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 03/01/2025

Sanborn detail of #Detroit, 1949 — Carstens Elementary School — one of 195 schools closed in Detroit between 2000 and 2015. This section of the city's east side suffered from heavy abandonment, typically attributed to white flight and auto industry consolidation. historicdetroit.org/buildings/ca...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 20/12/2024

Explore 1952 #Baltimore on Old Insurance Maps: oldinsurancemaps.net/viewer/balti...

Screenshot of Sanborn maps of showing hundreds of brick row houses on the gridded streets of West Baltimore.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 20/12/2024

Sanborn detail of #Baltimore 1952: "Public School No 176" aka "Francis M Wood [School] For Handicapped Colored Children". This block and ~20 others would be cleared to build West Baltimore's "Highway to Nowhere". Read more: www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/busi...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 18/12/2024

If this is how Disney feels then they should sell ABC and any another entity reporting on the administration. I guess journalism isn’t “family-friendly” 🐀 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/b...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 15/12/2024

Infuriating that Disney and their legions of lawyers didn’t fight this harder . The mouse is not committed to journalism — it’s one of the big reasons I left Nat Geo. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/14/b...

nytimes.com

ABC to Pay $15 Million to Settle a Defamation Suit Brought by Trump

The outcome of the lawsuit marks an unusual victory for President-elect Donald J. Trump in his ongoing legal campaign against national news organizations.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 14/12/2024

It’s perfect “stay inside and watch premier league” weather in Richmond today

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 10/12/2024

I’m a big fan of these candy cane flex posts now bringing some cheer to Blanton Ave 🎄🚲

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 07/12/2024

There's a lot in LOC — 1885, 1891, 1897, 1903, 1908, 1915, 1950, 1956: www.loc.gov/item/sanborn...; www.loc.gov/item/sanborn...; www.loc.gov/item/sanborn... www.loc.gov/item/sanborn... www.loc.gov/item/sanborn... www.loc.gov/item/sanborn... www.loc.gov/item/sanborn... www.loc.gov/item/sanborn...

loc.gov

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Petersburg, Independent Cities, Virginia.

Sep 1885. 14 sheet(s).

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 07/12/2024

This made me so jolly when I saw it

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 04/12/2024

Yes! We had a meeting here at UR a few weeks ago to talk shop and look at maps: oldinsurancemaps.net/viewer/richm...

oldinsurancemaps.net

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 04/12/2024

Truly. I am hoping to do a systematic count of how many buildings, churches, dwellings, businesses etc. we can see on the Sanborn maps that are in the path of the eventual highway. Plus there's this newly processed archive to dig into: uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com/blog/2024/10...

uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com

Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Authority

The Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Authority was established in 1955 to build the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike. The Authority was a small state agency created by the General Assembly, to administer (design, finance, acquire right-of-way, construct, operate, collect tolls, and maintain) the Turnpike.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 04/12/2024

Great find! I found Cave St also on this map made from an 1858 survey. Looks like it went down a long embankment to access Shockoe Creek... so perhaps some evidence for there being an actual cave??? Map lives in Library of Congress here: www.loc.gov/resource/g38...

Screenshot of a map showing how Cave St extended from Duvall St in the west to Shockoe Creek in the east, following an embankment or perhaps a ravine.

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 04/12/2024

Sanborn detail of Richmond, VA 1950 — Jackson Ward. I am so intrigued by this so-called "Cave" street that cut diagonally across the center block here. Was there an actual cave at some point? This block, like so many around it, was razed to make way for the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike. #RVA

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 02/12/2024

Photo credit @jamellebouie.net and this amazing post: bsky.app/profile/jame...

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Riley Champine @rileydchampine.com · 02/12/2024

Screenshot from an alternate reality — the Google Maps search result for "Shockoe County". After reading today's editorial by @times-dispatch.bsky.social, I imagined this fictional county formed by the dissolved boundaries of Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond. Article: richmond.com/opinion/edit...

Fictional screenshot of a Google Maps search result for "Shockoe County" which shows an image of the James River and the 9th Street Bridge and a fictitious map of a county formed by the dissolved boundaries of Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond. The image contains the following important text: "Shockoe County is a county in Central Virginia home to the Commonwealth’s capital, Richmond. The county is bounded by the Chickahominy River to the north and the Appomattox River to the south. Its name is derived from the native Powhatan word for stone, shacahocan, which was used to describe a creek and prominent rock landing at the Falls of the James. According to the American Community Survey of 2023, the county’s total population is 947,883, making it the second most populous in Virginia and ranking 57th among all counties in the United States. Sources: VGIN, Shockoe Examiner, U.S. Census Bureau. Photo: @jamellebouie.net. Fictional map illustration: @rileydchampine.com"

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