Good morning, RVA! It's 49 °F, and we've got another excellent fall day in front of us. Expect highs in the mid 70s and every reason to take at least one of your Zooms out on the porch.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 687↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 3↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 39↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 10, Henrico: 11, and Richmond: 18). Since this pandemic began, 379 people have died in the Richmond region. Do we have a word for "shocking yet unsurprising?" Because the New York Times reports that the "White House has decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members at the Rose Garden celebration 10 days ago for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, where at least eight people, including the president, may have become infected, according to a White House official familiar with the plans...It has also cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has the government’s most extensive knowledge and resources for contact tracing, out of the process." Cool, cool, cool. This is bad for the people involved, sure, but it's also bad for all of the contact tracers out there working hard to help prevent the spread of a deadly virus. Now they've got to deal with folks who may just opt out of the process because of the president's bad example.
The Richmond Free Press has the results of a district-level mayoral poll which puts Mayor Stoney "significantly ahead" in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Districts. Councilmember Gray leads in the 1st and the 2nd Districts, and the two are within the margin of error in the 3rd and 4th Districts. Remember! Mayoral candidates need to win five out of nine Council Districts, not the popular vote. If no candidate wins a majority of districts—if, say, Alexsis Rodgers picked up a district or two—we move into a run-off and I probably die of stress.
Related, Marc Cheatham at the Cheats Movement has kicked off a series of essays on the mayoral candidates and starts with Mayor Stoney. I agree with almost everything Cheatham says: it's the Mayor's election to lose, and, outside of his absolutely trash handling of the police and protests, he's done a pretty good job in his first term. It's easy, four/infinity years in, to forget about the embarrassing state of affairs left behind by the two previous administrations. Mayor Wilder literally evicted the school administration from their offices. Heading into the 2016 elections, the City had no money or employees to cut the dang grass and actually asked for volunteers to help out. It was bad, and things are way better than they were four years ago. The School Board hired Jason Kamras and the relationships between Schools, Council, and the Mayor are stronger than I've seen in a while. And even though I've had my fair share of complaints about Public Works and their handling of, well, all sorts of things, you can't deny that they've filled the potholes, paved the streets, and cut the grass. With that said, I'm going to quote this section from Cheatham's piece in full, because I entirely agree with it, too: "Stoney has been bad in dealing with the Richmond Police Department (RPD) in the face of civil unrest and protest. The RPD has been awful in dealing with the protest and protestors. We’re on our 3rd Police Chief since the unrest has started and I’m not sure that this new Police Chief is the 'right' man for the job either. RPD attacking protesters with tear gas and other chemical agents is just trash. Arresting protesters that didn’t need to be arrested, breaking up demonstrations at Marcus-David Peters Circle, all trash. RPD not even wearing masks? What is that…just trash."
And related to that, the Richmond Police Department sent out this press release last night under the subject line "Officers indicted": "On Monday, the Richmond Grand Jury deliberated 18 indictments involving Richmond Police Officers regarding their actions during the summer civil unrest. They came back with True Bills on two officers. Mark Janowski and Christopher Brown have been charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. Janowski, a detective, has been with the Department since 2014. Brown, a detective, has been with the Department since 2015. 'These events are unfortunate,' said Chief Gerald Smith. 'However, we must allow the legal process to work. The officers will be placed on administrative assignment until a verdict is reached.'" Ben Dennis and Alonzo Small at WRIC have a few more details about what exactly that means.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Kenya Hunter reports that the Richmond School Board decided last night to shorten RPS's school day for all students. While this decision will certainly help with kids who've gone all zombie-eyed by the end of a long day of Zooming, I do wonder how this will impact folks' childcare situations. You can look through the proposed schedule changes in this PDF, but, beware, I'm not sure if the Board made any tweaks to what Superintendent Kamras proposed. We should know ultra soon, though, because School Board wants the new changes rolled out ASAP—like within two weeks.
Roberto Roldan, one of our excellent and talented local journalists, will moderate a mayoral forum tonight at 7:00 PM hosted by ChamberRVA, VPM, and NBC12. Tune in to hear where the candidates stand on all sorts of things and to see who decides to follow best practice and wear a mask while indoors!
The Valentine hosts one of their Controversy/History events tonight at 5:30 PM and will focus the conversation on voting, which I think makes a ton of sense at this particular moment. For some of us (white men) it feels like we're living in the worst timeline where powerful people suddenly want to suppress our votes, while others of us (everyone else) are like, "welcome to the party, pals." American history is packed with examples of people trying to keep other people from voting, and I bet/hope these are the types of conversations you can expect at tonight's event!
The Henrico and Richmond City Health Districts will host a free community COVID-19 testing event today at Diversity Richmond (1407 Sherwood Avenue) from 4:00–6:00 PM. Raine or shine!—but I don't think you need to worry about rain today. If you do need a test but today doesn't work for you, check out this list of public testing sites in Richmond and Henrico, or you can, of course, always call the COVID-19 hotline (804.205.3501). Don't not go get a test if you need one!
This morning's longread
A Decade of Music Is Lost on Your iPod. These Are The Deleted Years. Now Let Us Praise Them.
There might be some confirmation bias going on here, but this resonates with me and people exactly my age. Some real weird stuff went on during the early years of mass internet adoption.
I know my favorite music from 1997, because I’m hoarding CD booklets overstuffed with post-Oasis Britpop, Ben Folds Five, and Soul Coughing. I can call my favorite music from 2017 right up on my phone, because I make year-end playlists in both Apple Music and Spotify and post them on Twitter at Christmas (which I think we can agree is not the same as burning a CD). But if you ask me to name my favorite songs from 2007, I might need to use a lifeline. The music of the mid-aughts to early-teens is largely gone, lost down a new-millennium memory hole. There is a moment that whizzed right past us with no cassettes, discs, or Shazam queries through which to remember it. These are the Deleted Years, and we need to start honoring this period, right now, before we forget it forever.
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