Good morning, RVA! It's 65 °F and rainy. You should expect the rain to continue for most of the day and for temperatures to drop straight on through the night. I know it's a little too early, but, dang, this weekend's weather forecast looks pretty nice. Despite the great weather, make sure you stay out of the river, though. All of this rain has sent the James into an angry tizzy, and it'll take a few of days for the river to return to its normal, tizzy-free levels.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,585↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 15↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 188↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 88, Henrico: 59, and Richmond: 41). Since this pandemic began, 441 people have died in the Richmond region. These are big numbers, both statewide and locally. Yesterday, VDH reported 90 new hospitalizations, bringing the seven-day average of new hospitalizations in Virginia to 68, the highest seven-day average since June 5th. The COVID Tracking Project has an ominous thread on yesterday's nationwide numbers that's worth scrolling through. 38 states reported over 1,000 cases; the death toll reached 1,562, the highest since May 14th; and on "a per capita basis, more people are now dying across the Midwest than even at the peak of the summer surge in the South." I continue to wait for our elected leaders to make the call to tighten policies. The New York Times has a piece tracking state-level polices, and, while I don't like the term "reversing," just a handful of states have either paused their reopening efforts or adjusted course. The Virginia Mercury's Kate Masters, reporting from the Governor's last COVID-19 briefing until after Thanksgiving (!?), says "[the Governor] said he won't impose any new restrictions, unlike neighboring Washington, Maryland, and North Carolina." We'll see, I guess.
Election results! While the 3rd and 8th City Council District races have sorted themselves out, we still don't quite know the results of the 2nd District election because of vote-counting weirdness coming out of the registrar's office. While it doesn't sound like Shenanigans™, it's still frustrating to see any sort of confusion when it comes to tabulating results for local elections. At the moment, though, it looks like Katherine Jordan will be our next 2nd District representative. Also, I love how magnanimous both Candidate Spinks and Candidate Jordan have been throughout this process. Here's Spinks's statement, in which he says "One of the reasons I was so honored to appear with Katherine Jordan on the ballot was because of our shared commitment to ensuring our community's voices are heard...I want to make myself very clear, I will fully respect any outcome, including the current figures, as soon as voters can be assured that results have been accurately calculated." And here is Jordan's reaction to that statement: "I support [Spinks] and any candidate asking for clarification and transparency in their race results. If our results flip, I will fully support him as our City Council representative." Should the current election results hold, 15 of our 19 elected representatives will be women.
While I'm most disappointed by Amy Wentz's loss in the 8th District, I love seeing her move quickly on 8 Action Steps Forward for Change in the 8th District. I'm going to list them all here because I think they form a great model that folks should reproduce across the city: 1) Create a working group to "build an advocacy plan around education, infrastructure, growth, housing, transportation, and health & safety"; 2) Host a class on city civics; 3) Commit to watching City Council and Council committee meetings; 4) Attend all 8th District meetings to "ensure our representative is providing a plan to address the neglect and needs of our neighborhoods"; 5) Read the current budget and capital improvement plan; 6) Join or start a neighborhood association near you; 7) Start working on increasing voter turnout now; and 8) Stay connected to Amy and others working on change in the 8th District. This is, of course, a lot of work for the people organizing all of this. But! An informed, engaged, and connected citizenry can wield a lot of power—regardless of who sits on the dais. I'm looking forward to following Amy's experiment over the next couple of years and hope others across the city pick it up, too.
Daniel Moritz-Rabson at VPM has a story up about the Richmond Police Department seizing protestors' phones and...just keeping them? Specifically, the police snatched the phones of folks who spent a large portion of the summer documenting police behavior for the rest of us on Twitter. Seems bad. Here's a quote from Ashley Shapiro, senior assistant public defender for the Richmond Public Defender's Office: "They’re not allowed to just take your phone. That is illegal. There has to be probable cause to seize it. There has to be probable cause to search it. It can’t just be you’re at a protest and we’re taking your phone. And it can’t just be in an unlawful assembly and taking your phone."
This morning's longread
Trump Is Trying to Overturn the Election, but I’m Not Panicking—Yet
The tone of this is excellent, and it did make me feel better about the political chaos we're living through at the moment.
It feels smart to consider that he might have a secret plan to retain that job, despite being voted out of it. Trump is the Michael Myers of our politics: He can’t be defeated, because the horror movie franchise makes too much money to ever end. And yet, despite all this, I have gone to bed every night since Friday confident that President-elect Biden will become President Biden. I’ve come to this peace over the objection of my amygdala, which is the part of the brain that screams in fear and anxiety and tries to overpower rational thought. Here’s what I tell myself in order to help me sleep at night. Perhaps these are conversations others can have to achieve my level of forced serenity.
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