Good morning, RVA! It's 50 °F, and it looks like the rain should clear out in a couple of hours. That was a lot of rain! I had plenty opportunities to gaze out the window yesterday and say, "Wow. It's really coming down out there." Today, expect highs in the mid 60s and, eventually, the sun. Similar stuff throughout the weekend, enjoy!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,521↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 17↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 157↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 75, Henrico: 51, and Richmond: 31). Since this pandemic began, 441 people have died in the Richmond region. Here's the stacked graph of new reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths—it should worry you. The seven-day average of new cases is at a clear all-time high, and, most worrying I think, the number of hospitalizations has crept up steadily across the state for weeks. The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, which tracks the hospitalization data, has a dashboard with a little more data you can look at—check out the Hospitalization Trends tab. We're quickly approaching July's peak of total current COVID hospitalizations. The number of "vent hospitalizations" has trended down since July, which is good, but the ICU hospitalizations data is a little too spiky for me to tell if it's headed up or down. This map of hospitalizations per 100,000 people by locality is...less useful than I thought it'd be. Locally, as far as case counts go, we're seeing the same troubling trends with totals approaching our spring peak and percent positivity edging its way upward.
Chris Suarez at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that 25 City employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and "an additional 57 workers—including 37 police department employees—are quarantining due to direct exposure to a coworker or someone from the public with the disease." Also, the General Registrar, where at least some of this virus-spread started, announced yesterday that the Office of the General Registrar will close through November 20th "out of an abundance of caution....following confirmation of an additional case of COVID-19 in that office." Apparently they'll work with the Virginia Board of Elections to still meet the impending election certification deadlines. Stressful, y'all! Wear your masks, keep your distance, wash your hands, and limit your exposure to other humans when possible! There's still a pandemic on!
There's obviously a lot going on in the Registrar's office at the moment. 2nd District still-Candidate Tavarris Spinks sent out this press release saying he'd submitted a FOIA request related to how that District's vote count has bounced around a bunch since Election Day. From the release: "In results posted to the Department of Elections website in the days following the election, unofficial totals including all in-person voting and absentee ballots received on or before election day; Spinks was shown with 7,056 votes with his opponent Katherine Jordan receiving 7,030. This request is regarding amended results posted on the evening of Tuesday, November 10, 2020, that show Spinks with 5,961 and Jordan with 7,195." For what it's worth, I don't think this is sour grapes but an honest desire to figure out why his vote total dropped by over 1,000 votes. I know this election was about as atypical as you get, but I still think it's OK for folks—candidates and citizens both!—to want insight into the atypical process.
Yesterday, the City closed parts of the floodwall! That's exciting for reasons I can't quite explain. I mean, putting to use massive In Case of Emergencies infrastructure is exciting, right? If you'd like to learn more, turn to the @rvah2o Twitter account. Every once in a while they'll put together an incredibly long and nerdy thread on Twitter—I think last time they taught us all about how the Combined Sewer Overflow system works. Last night, they took us on a wonderful journey to learn how and why the floodwall exists. If you can't be bothered to read the whole thing, here's the money shot: a picture of Dock Street closed due to floodwall. The thread wraps up with a floodwall poem in the style of Goodnight Moon, if, for some reason, you needed another reason to tap the link!
I didn't know this was in the works, but Henrico's Douglas Freeman High School swapped their Confederate-inspired "Rebels" mascot for a much more Tom-Cruisian "Mavericks." Eric Kolenich at the RTD has more details, including some shots of the new branding.
The General Assembly decriminalized weed this past session, so is full legalization next? Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has these words which would have shocked two-years-ago Ross: "Members of the House of Delegates expect it to pass. In the Senate, they give it 'slightly better than 50-50 odds.' And Gov. Ralph Northam’s office says he’s 'certainly open to it.'" I say, let's do it! This spring, the GA tasked some committee or other to run a study on legalization that's due before the end of the year, and, pending that study, I think you could make a good justice-oriented argument around legalization and a good budgetary one, too. Also, depending on how Virginia's inevitable regulatory system gets set up, we could do some reparatory work around who eventually gets to sell marijuana in the state.
Despite pandemic, 1708 Gallery's 13th annual InLight is this weekend! The theme this year is Safety and Accountability. This year, to limit crowding and slathering each other with virus, InLight will take place at a bunch of different outdoor sites across the city. To me this has nighttime artcawl by bike written all over it.
This morning's longread
The Future of Farming Is Inside This Bomb Shelter
What thing in Richmond could we most turn into an urban farm? That weird shed on Belle Isle? The Church Hill Train Tunnel? 6th Street Marketplace?
Deep beneath the streets of London, in a complex of bomb shelters left abandoned since World War II, something is growing. Thousands of green sprouts burst from their hydroponic trays, stretching toward glowing pink lights that line the arched ceilings. These plants, along with tens of thousands of other salad crops, are being grown from seed without soil or sunlight, in tunnels transformed into a high-tech commercial farm. The farm is known as Growing Underground (GU), and it’s located 108 feet below the main street in Clapham, a south London suburb. Every year, in 6,000 square feet of old bomb shelter, more than 100 tons of pea shoots, garlic chives, cilantro, broccoli, wasabi mustard, arugula, fennel, red mustard, pink stem radishes, watercress, sunflower shoots, and salad leaves are sown, grown, and prepared for dispatch.
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