Good morning, RVA! It's 50 °F, and today—and the rest of the week—looks cooler and sunnier than last week. Expect highs right around 60 °F and lots of sunshine. Get out those flannels, I say!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,161↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 1↗️ new death as a result of the virus. VDH reports 86↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 36, Henrico: 34, and Richmond: 16). Since this pandemic began, 442 people have died in the Richmond region. VDH has updated their K–12 Schools Reporting Outbreaks of COVID-19 dashboard, and there is still just the one outbreak in progress at Chesterfield's Bon Air Elementary. That outbreak, at the moment, has fewer than five associated cases. The big coronanews, though, was the Governor's rocky rollout of new statewide restrictions in the face of rising case counts across the Commonwealth. You can read his sixth amended version of Executive Order 67.pdf) (PDF), but here's the gist: children five and up must wear masks in indoor public spaces, restaurants must stop serving alcohol after 10:00 PM and close at 12:00 AM, a few types of businesses now have lower occupancy caps, the Virginia Department of Health will start enforcing compliance with the Governor's restrictions for all types of business, and private/public gatherings are limited to 25 people. Mel Leonor and Karri Peifer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch have some choice words about how the sudden, Friday-afternoon rollout—plus just plain unclear guidance—caused a bit of a panic. Other than having no idea when "Sunday at midnight" actually is (12:01 AM on Monday, turns out), the biggest question was around the 25-person limit on gatherings. Unfortunately, this limit does not apply generally, but only to public and private "gatherings"—parties, cookouts, big family Thanksgiving get-togethers, those types of things. It does not apply to "religious services, employment settings, retail stores, or school classrooms." While the new restrictions don't go as far as I'd like, I do think a lot of good can come from simply announcing new restrictions, reminding folks that there's still a pandemic on, and that we all have to do our part. I don't know what kind of impact the new guidelines will have, but that's what the spreadsheet is for! Stay tuned.
The City's Planning Commission will meet today to discuss ORD. 2020-217, the ordinance that would turn a couple of the medians around Marcus-David Peters Circle into city parks, bringing an entire parks-related set of rules and restrictions to what now is public right-of-way. I've written about this a ton previously, but I still really dislike using park-creation—without a single bit of planing or community engagement—as a means to control where people can and cannot access. If folks really want medians-as-parks in a reimagined Monument Avenue, let's have that discussion as part of an actual public planning process—not a one-off ordinance designed to keep people out of the area.
Mark Robinson at the RTD says a new cold weather overflow shelter will open up in a hotel on Midlothian Turnpike out near the City line. A hotel room sounds way, way better than the mats-on-the-floor situation at the Annie Giles Center, the previous cold weather shelter location. The new location is on a bus line, which is good, but that's a heck of a haul to get out there. I think we've made progress over the last couple of years in that folks now realize that everything needs to be accessible by public transit. The next step will be getting people to think about the usefulness of that nearby public transit. For a great counter example see: the location of the new Registrar's office in Richmond and its proximity to an hourly bus designed to mostly serve Henrico.
Every year since 2000, Historic Richmond has hosted the Golden Hammer Awards "with the goal of honoring excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects throughout Greater Richmond." You can read through the list of this year's nominees, and I just absolutely love that, according to the RTD, the guerrilla signage project that popped up around Marcus-David Peters Circle this summer (and was then promptly removed by the City) won the Best Placemaking category.
The Richmond City and Henrico Health Districts will host a free COVID-19 community testing event today at Parham Road Baptist Church (2101 N. Parham Road) from 2:00–4:00 PM. Did you read all that stuff up in the first paragraph?? If you think you may be sick or may have been exposed to the virus, go get tested! If today's community testing event doesn't work for you, look through this massive list of spots around the region at which you can get tested. No excuses!.
I feel like the coolest thing about SpaceX's successful launch of humans into space—other than the whole "successful launch of humans into space" thing—is these cool new astronaut suits!
This morning's longread
The Great 21st-Century Treasure Hunt
Goonies, but real life!
Years later, in 2012, when Posey was 29, his wife, Jennie, emailed him a Newsweek article about a different treasure. Hidden in “the mountains north of Santa Fe,” the treasure sounded almost fantastical — diamonds, rubies, and sapphires; gold coins, gold nuggets, a 17th-century Spanish ring. The key to finding the treasure lay in a 24-line poem in a self-published memoir, The Thrill of the Chase, by Forrest Fenn, the wealthy 82-year-old eccentric who had hidden it. Fenn, who estimated the treasure to be worth more than $1 million, said he hid it to motivate people to put down their digital devices and get out into nature. He was still alive and willing to engage with searchers. The hunt was free; the purse was big. The poem’s puzzle could theoretically be solved by anyone.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.