"The Swimmer," but make it Richmond

I’m a 37 year-old white guy with an English major from the Northeast, so naturally once of my favorite short stories of all time is “The Swimmer,” John Cheever’s 1964 masterpiece exploration of suburban malaise. In it, the main character decides to pool-hop from a friend’s backyard oasis one side of New York’s tony Westchester county to his home on the other. I won’t insult Cheever (or you) by trying to summarize the iconic work’s themes here. It’s not long, just read it.

With that literary marker laid down, you’ll have no trouble grasping why I was immediately enamored by Ride and Dive RVA. Now in its sixth year, this annual summer cycling adventure charts a course between all seven of Richmond’s public pools, stopping at each one for a quick dip. It’s “a race against the clock to bike to and swim in every public pool before they close for the day and the summer,” as its founder, longtime Church Hill resident Alex Fisher, describes it on the event’s Facebook page. Basically: the most Richmond version of “The Swimmer” imaginable.

Ride and Dive 2025 is set to roll on Saturday, August 30th with the East End’s Fairmount Pool as its first stop. And by the looks of things, it’s shaping up to be the biggest one yet, Fisher told The Lookout in a recent phone interview. Well… as far as he can tell, at least. “Facebook [event] RSVP numbers don't really mean anything, but that’s the only metric I’ve got,” he said, laughing, but benchmarking against previous years’ RSVPs, this year’s free ride is already trending ahead of any other dating back to 2019. Last year say approximately 80 riders take to Richmond’s streets for the five-hour swimming sortie. “Honestly, I think we're kind of getting to like the maximum size,” Fisher says. “If we have over 100, that's just a lot of bikes to figure out locking up outside of the pools.”

Having dialed in the Ride and Dive every year since the inaugural, informal two-man excursion Fisher and a buddy did on a whim six summers ago, he feels confident he’s settled on the ideal route for 2025’s excursion, which kicks off at noon on the (unofficial) final Saturday of the summer. Here’s the official order:

1. Fairmount

2. Woodville

3. Hotchkiss

4. Battery Park

5. Randolph

6. Blackwell

7. Powhatan

After that, the pool-soaked peloton will cruise to Triple Crossing Beer’s taproom in Fulton Hill for celebratory pints and pizzas.

Fisher, who regularly commutes to work by bike via the Leigh St. Viaduct, sees a dual mandate for Ride and Dive. “Number one, it's a fun, silly, goofy thing to do, just kind of a big party ride,” he said. But as it’s grown in popularity, with Richmond cyclists of all ages and abilities joining the amphibious urban menagerie, he’s also begun pondering “a bigger purpose” that the event can serve. “I want to show show people, especially people who are newer to the city, how you can get around the city on on bikes and on bike friendly routes, to try to really highlight bike infrastructure.”

In Fisher’s view, Richmond’s bike-lane network has gotten a lot better since he’s been riding here, and he praised the city’s work in the past couple years especially to improve it further. But our road system still features plenty of negligent designs that facilitate dangerous driving, so as a seasoned River City rider, he worked this year’s map to minimize scary stretches. But even where bike lanes do exist, riders must remain vigilant to avoid consequences of poor maintenance—a reality that he believes is equally important to highlight. For example, the downhill run going westbound on Fairfield Avenue after Woodville Pool “is the worst maintained bike lane” on the route, because even though it’s semi-separated from car traffic by plastic flexposts, “normally there are leaves and branches down in it, and tons of broken glass.” “It's kind of a microcosm of everything,” Fisher told me. “It's great that the city put this bike lane here where people need it… but there's absolutely no maintenance, so it's almost not usable.”

Still, a leisurely Saturday ride allows for a relaxed tempo, and cycling in a big, highly visible group is almost always safer than braving traffic solo. “It’s party pace; it is slow,” Fisher emphasized. “We have had people on all types of rides, or all types of bikes. We even had our first tandem bike do the whole thing last year.” Riding between each pool takes 20-30 minutes, and the only serious climb on the route is the approach to Powhatan Pool, the final stop of the tour. “People will walk, and that’s totally fine,” he added, laughing.

In “The Swimmer,” the main character’s strokes across Westchester County’s public pool is a harrowing crisis of suburban classism. On the contrary, here in contemporary reality, Fisher’s enthusiasm for Richmond’s public pool system is evident. He’s made friends with some of the lifeguards, one of whom has even handed out Ride and Dive flyers for him over the years. He knows which ones have the best shade (Fairmont) and which have the best facilities (Randolph, “the quote-unquote ‘West End’ pool.”) When we spoke earlier this month, he was gearing up for a test ride of this year’s route, to make sure the official event went off without a hitch.

The test ride, unfortunately, didn’t: Fisher got a flat and only managed to finish half the ride. Such are the perils of glass in bike lanes, see. But in a text exchange with The Lookout, Ride and Dive’s founding marshal was in high spirits despite the blowout. “Got a new one and am using it as an excuse to take a day off work next week and do the rest.” In a race against summer’s end, you find the time.

📜 Possum Poetry

Possum Poetry is original verse written exclusively for The Lookout by Penelope Poubelle, the Lookout’s litter critter-at-large. If you spot roadside trash you’d like her to immortalize in doggerel, email a photo to [email protected]. All submissions anonymous!

⚠️ Richmond’s speed cameras are hammering dangerous drivers

Hot on the heels of the launch of the city of Richmond’s newly public speeding-data portal, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Samuel B. Parker obtained a related batch of data via public-records request: the total citations and penalties flowing from the 26 speed cameras placed throughout 13 Richmond school zones so far in 2025. Both figures came back pretty eye-popping. The cameras clocked 58,834 instances of speeding in these zones, racking up around $2.2 million in revenue and $1 million in profit. In a bit of good news—and frankly, kind of shocking—news, the East End’s only camera location near Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School on Mosby St. was not among the city’s most productive. Which either means that all the dangerous driving I and others have witnessed on that corridor has been a mirage (no) or other parts of Richmond are even worse (yes.)

And remember, that’s just a small portion of the actual total, because the system is significantly constrained. Parker (emphasis mine):

Earlier this summer, City Council had been debating whether it was worth the cost to install more speed cameras at “high-risk intersections” (which is one of the only other contexts it’s permitted to by Virginia law, and only thanks to a 2024 amendment.) The body appeared somewhat supportive at the time, though I’m not clear on the outcome of that conversation, if there was one. Hopefully these data demonstrate just how rampant speeding is, and how vital it is to aggressively and wherever possible penalize the jagoff drivers making our streets dangerous. Get their asses!

🏫 The “yes, and” on RPS teacher attendance

Last week, I highlighted the fairly poor attendance record of Richmond Public School teachers, and in particular those that serve East End schools. My column was based on data obtained by The Richmonder via public-records request, and mostly focused on a comparison of teacher truancy rates at the RPS schools in our neighborhood with citywide rates, and similar figures from other states.

But of course, data never tells the whole story. And having previously reported on the half a million dollars’-worth of urgently needed repairs and renovations the East End’s schools need thanks to decades of underfunding and neglect, your humble Lookout editor wasn’t so surprised to read reports in both The Richmonder and the Times-Dispatch earlier this week on dismal condition of some of RPS’ facilities, which included tales of failing air-conditioning and the presence of asbestos and concerning mold. The fact that many of these schools are simply not well-maintained is not exculpatory for poor teacher attendance, nor was deteriorating facilities directly cited by Richmond Educators Association as a reason for RPS’ educators higher-than-Henrico absenteeism. But I can’t imagine it helps!

📢 Happenings on The Hill

• Joyeux anniversaire: Happy sixth trip around the sun to Church Hill’s favorite steak frite slinger, Grisette. Read the birthday post. 

• Tunin’: The Bellwether Sessions are back this Saturday evening (8/23) starting at 7pm. Flyer here, and more about the series here. 

• Sunset treats: Davvero Gelato will be posted up at Libby Hill Park this Sunday from 5-8pm-ish. Here’s the scoop. 

• Charmed, I’m sure: Kitty Collections is popping up at Second Bottle on Sunday (8/24) from 5-7pm for a ca-YOOT interactive charm bar/tutorial/etc. Tickets here.

• Tunin’ times two: Union Market Live is back again this Sunday evening (8/24) from 6-8:45pm on the patio. Check the lineup. 

• Tunin’ times three: The fourth installment of the Church Hill Association’s Sunset Garden Concert Series at Reed Square is Sunday at 7:30pm. Get the details.

Happenings on The Hill is a digital bulletin board for events, causes, and other items of interest to East Enders that don’t necessarily merit full editorial treatment. Got something for a future edition? Email the relevant details, links, etc. to [email protected] for consideration!

📸 A Very CHill Photo

Want to share your Very CHill Photo from the neighborhood? Email it to [email protected] with your name as you’d like it to appear for publication, and the camera you shot it on.