Restless City Nights

Let’s face it, Richmond has a lot of things but a sound dating scene is not one of them. Pretty much everyone acknowledges that people in Richmond stick to their own little cliques and for the most part that is how things work in this town. Of course, with this being the case it makes meeting new people rather difficult. I have seen various promotions for speed dating and a variety of other events for singles. I don’t know about the average person, but I am not inclined to go to these sort of events. I like to ease myself into a dating scenario. I prefer to know a good deal about the person with whom I am spending my time. That being said, Richmond affords few opportunities for single people to mingle and interact with each other in a social setting.

On a recent trip to Milwaukee I noticed something that struck me as unique and a little unusual. Milwaukee is home to the Brewers MLB team. Everyone in Milwaukee is a Brewers fan (obviously) and this creates a sort of understood bond between people of that city. For example, one might notice a person wearing a Brewers hat (or other article of clothing) and you could say something to the effect of “I can’t believe that play so and so made in the 4th inning last night”, and presto! you have initiated conversation. The ice is effectively broken and you have started on a topic which the other person will undoubtedly be more than willing to talk about (from my experience they will talk at great length about their team or baseball in general).

This is something Richmond lacks. I don’t mean a professional sports team (though it would be pretty cool). Richmond is missing a uniting element that can serve as a universal icebreaker. (Girls, let’s face it: you all come off as though you want nothing to do with someone you don’t know. Guys: we should probably be more polite and not use high school pick up lines). I have wracked my brain to no avail trying to come up with something that would serve as our universal ice breaker. The problem is that there is nothing in Richmond that is “universal”. Sure you can try your luck with a variety of topics ranging from what’s playing at Toad’s Place or The National or maybe you could try and find out what their favorite restaurant is. In my experience these topics have a high rate of failure resulting in either single word answers or a brief conversation at best. I have a tendency to rely on more personal articles to initiate conversation, but even that has a tendency to backfire.

I propose that as a whole, the single population of Richmond ought to host a website dedicated to people trying to find other people to do things with. I know, I know, you are probably thinking I should just use Craigslist. I will admit that it was my first choice when trying to find a companion for a local event (Watermelon Festival, Concerts, etc.) but it has yet to work out. I think there is a certain stigma surrounding looking for a companion in online classifieds. This stigma manifests itself when ads in the classifieds begin with, “I don’t normally do this…” and then they proceed to dispense a series of either too high or too low standards or expectations with such appalling grammar and usage that some people are immediately turned off (I personally cannot tolerate people who type ads like they are talking via text messages).

I Think I have made my point, but I also believe that I have failed to find an adequate solution to this unusual problem. I welcome any ideas to be posted here and with any luck maybe we can get some sort of single community rolling or at the very least find some other people who are seeking the same thing. I guess at this point that’s all we can ask for.