Good morning, RVA! It's 59 °F, and, once again, foggy. What even is fog? How come we’ve had so much of it lately? Is meteorology a dark science? We’ll never know the answer to these questions, but today we can expect a pleasant day with highs in the 80s.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,018↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 30↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 122↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 59, Henrico: 52, and Richmond: 11). Since this pandemic began, 395 people have died in the Richmond region. Amy Friedenberger at the Roanoke Times has a rundown on the COVID-19-related bills that Governor Northam just signed into law. Of note: requiring the health department to publish when medical care facilities, residential or day programs, facilities operated by the Commonwealth, schools, and summer camps have an outbreak; and allowing a $500 civil penalty for violations of the Governor's executive orders—like his mask-wearing EO 63. I am _so_ conflicted on how to enforce mask-wearing. Wearing a mask is incredibly important for public health and keeping people safe, but I have some equitable enforcement concerns about hitting folks with $500 fines.
Kenya Hunter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a preview of tonight's Henrico County School Board meeting where the Board could decide whether or not to return the District to some form of in-person instruction. Henricoans (and folks generally interested in how these regional conversations about school reopening will play out) can stream tonight's meeting from the HCPS website. I'm interested in how the public narrative shifts should Henrico decide on in-person instruction. That'd leave Richmond Public Schools as the only fully-virtual district in the region, and I have no idea whether that would be celebrated or condemned. Honestly, it probably depends on the number of coronavirus outbreaks in the opened districts (something we should learn more about thanks to the new legislation mentioned above).
How good is the Virginia Capital Trail? So good! I say this all of the time, but when I get out there and ride my bike for miles and miles on a dedicated, separated piece of bike infrastructure—and see all sorts of people, Black, white, young, old out there having a blast—it’s hard to believe that our region actually built something like this. That's why I've been stoked on the prospect of the Ashland to Petersburg Trail, a similar (yet different) north-south trail. Yesterday the Governor officially broke ground on the ATP and christened it with its new, official name: The Fall Line. For what it's worth I love the name, and I love the logo. If you're looking to get involved, the folks at Bike Walk RVA have been doing a bunch of the advocacy around pushing this project forward and they've set up a donation page where you can chip in a few bucks to support that work (plus you get a shirt with the rad logo on it). Moving forward, our region will need advocates like Bike Walk RVA (and you!) to convince localities to commit the funding towards building this new trail. Personally, I've got my eyes on all of that Central Virginia Transportation Authority money that should be used for anything but building and widening roads. This is an absolutely perfect opportunity for a locality like Hanover to spend transportation cash on something not car-oriented.
Tonight at 6:00 PM, the YWCA will observe the 25th annual Remember My Name memorial at Monroe Park Pavillon (620 W. Main Street). This vigil service commemorates those in the Richmond region who have lost their lives due to domestic and intimate partner violence over the last two decades. October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and, in Virginia, "nearly one-third of all homicides...are attributed to domestic or intimate partner violence."
I'm going to keep mentioning these community testing events forever and always, because even if y'all never take advantage of them, I think it's important to remember that there are lots of opportunities to get a COVID-19 test. Today the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts will host a free testing event at Saint Paul Baptist Church North (4247 Creighton Road) from 10:00 AM–12:00 PM. This is a drive-thru testing event, but should you walk, roll, or ride your way out there you should be fine. Call the hotline with questions, though (804.205.3501)!
This morning's longread
A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon
This piece shifted or clarified how I think about QAnon (despite it sometimes sounding a little like QAnon itself??).
I’ve worked in Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), LARPs, experience fiction, interactive theater, and “serious games”. Stories and games that can start on a computer, and finish in the real world. Fictions designed to feel as real as possible. Games that teach you. Puzzles that come to life all around the players. Games where the deeper you dig, the more you find. Games with rabbit holes that invite you into wonderland and entice you through the looking glass. When I saw QAnon, I knew exactly what it was and what it was doing. I had seen it before. I had almost built it before. It was gaming’s evil twin. A game that plays people.
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