Good morning, RVA! It's 51 °F, and the fog has returned! Once it burns off, though, we've got a great day ahead of us—and a great weekend ahead of us, too. Expect highs in the mid 70s, sunshine, and, if we're lucky, presidential election results.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,366↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 11↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 149↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 38, Henrico: 58, and Richmond: 53). Since this pandemic began, 438 people have died in the Richmond region. Here's this week's stacked graph of new reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths across Virginia. Seven-day averages of new cases over 1,200 definitely represent a new peak for the state, and we haven't seen seven-day averages of hospitalizations around 60 since back at the end of August. The number of people dying each day remains low (all things considered), and I think that's still a testament to how much we've learned about how to treat COVID-19—but, keep in mind, deaths typically lag a couple weeks behind hospitalizations. I mean, at some point, we need to change our behavior and not just sit around and watch these numbers tick up and up and up, right?
Elections! They are...ongoing. Still. Locally, Alexsis Rodgers officially conceded, and you can read her statement here. I'm excited to see what's next for Rodgers and hope she sticks around and continues to, in her words, "fight for a Richmond that works for all of us." As for City Council races, who knows! 2nd District Candidate Katherine Jordan said in an email that the registrar told her "not to expect anything until late Tuesday." Blerg. Nationally, blergs also abound. Overnight, Biden took the lead in Georgia by about 1,000 votes, he holds a 47,000 vote lead in Arizona, and Trump leads by just 18,000 votes in Pennsylvania with something like 234,000 ballots left to count. Plus whatever's going on in Nevada. Not much has changed since yesterday, and we're still in the same holding pattern: If Biden can hold Arizona and win any other state _or_ win Pennsylvania, then we can start thinking about what a Trump-less federal government looks like.
Chris Suarez at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the "RVA Coalition of Concerned Civic Associations", a NIMBY-drenched name if ever I heard one, has filed suit to stop City Council from voting on upzoning the area around the Science Museum, Alison Street, VCU & VUU Pulse stations. The Concerned want to delay the vote "until the city can hold more public in-person meetings about the plan and provide records the coalition has requested." I do not believe this is a good-faith request, and think they are using "community engagement" as a delay tactic to ultimately kill this particular rezoning (which has been in the works for three years). Regardless of whatever historical or architectural or neighborhood-character arguments you may read by tapping the above link, preventing this upzoning—along and around our City's biggest and most transit-friendly corridor—is about keeping people out. It's about making the desirable parts of our City available to only a certain group of people that already live in those neighborhoods and can afford to file lawsuits to keep it that way. It's about working to undermine our climate, housing, and transit goals. It's about maintaining the status quo and keeping Richmond a place that only works for some of us.
Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense asks "Will Richmonders want to eat outside in the winter?" Restaurants are banking on it, he says. OK, now the next logical question is: Will the City finally move on a comprehensive slow streets program to give people more safe outdoors space? The answer throughout the spring and summer was a resounding and disappointing "No!" But, maybe after a year of coronavirus, elections, and rising case counts we'll see that change?
The City's Department of Public Works will host an asynchronous virtual meeting about the proposed Gillies Creek shared-use trail from November 5th–19th. Flip through this 13-page presentation (PDF) and then take this survey. The plan is to build a Capital Trail-esque path on the west side of Stony Run Road down by the BMX track, eventually connecting the Capital Trail itself to the northern parts of Church Hill. Fingers crossed, the City hopes to have construction begin by May! Filling out the survey will take you just a couple of minutes and will help the City move forward with building another piece of separated bike infrastructure. Get it done!
Check out this cool project, Portrait of Immigrant Voices over on the RVA Strong website. Starting back on October 28th and running through Thanksgiving, the collaboration between the City's Office of Multicultural Affairs and Studio Two Three will unveil a new portrait of an immigrant—both illustrated and written—each day. I love when the City finds a way to have its own voice and directly share the stories it thinks are important. Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some more details and background on the project.
Perhaps unbeknownst to you, I continue to make this graph of weekly unemployment claims in Virginia. The numbers are still shocking: Over 100,000 Virginians filed for unemployment insurance the week ending October 31st. That's, like, over 80,000 more filings than the same week last year. So it's not a great situation, but the steady and increasing decline in claims means, unless something changes, I'll just share this chart at the end of each month.
This morning's longread
Making Amends With Lean Cuisine
Sad, I think, but well-written.
The thing about Lean Cuisine is that you had to look at the picture on the box while eating it. Self-deceit was the only way to convince yourself that the low-calorie frozen entree didn’t taste like homework, Facebook photo albums, syndicated reruns, nights home alone, and, actually, hunger. (This was when TV dinners became desktop dinners but before lunch al desko and breakfast con smartphone.) With Lean Cuisine, you never knew if you were going to burn your tongue or hit a cold patch, but you could always count on feeling bad about yourself.
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