Good morning, RVA! It's 55 °F, and highs today are back up near 70 °F. You should expect some clouds and a small chance of rain throughout the day. These warm-weather vibes should continue for the rest of the week.
Water cooler
The Virginia Department of Health announced that the Commonwealth now has five positive cases of the coronavirus—including one in Spotsyvlania. VDH recommends, first and foremost, that you wash your hands with soap and water and avoid coughing directly into other people's faces. If you're sick, stay home, and "avoid non-essential travel." This is an extremely rapidly changing situation—going viral is named after actual viruses for a reason. Keep your information up-to-date and solidly sourced (like, from the CDC or VDH).
Quick short-term rental update: City Council continued ORD. 2019-343 to their March 23rd meeting. I tuned in to the meeting late, so I didn't catch their reasons for continuing the paper, but this does mean that all Airbnbs in Richmond are still illegal. Council's Culture of Continuation strikes again! City staff have worked on this legislation for years and there have been many opportunities for folks to get involved—both regularfolks and councilfolks. Do we really need another 14 days to ask people how they feel about this particular ordinance? One other, unrelated-but-interesting Council update: At 10:00 AM, the Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee will meet today to interview new candidates for the Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority board of commissioners. They'll post up in the 2nd Floor Conference Room which, I think, means no live audio—but maybe you could pop in??
VPM's Whittney Evans has the updated details on the NAACP's attempts to force Hanover County to change the names and mascots of two County schools. Y'all! Lee-Davis High School's mascot is literally "The Confederates"! That seems so bananas here in 2020. I truly believe that there is absolutely no timeline in which Hanover can keep a high school named after two different White supremacists. It's just a matter of time and a matter of how much money the County wants to spend dragging their feet.
Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense says the former executive pastry chef at the Jefferson has opened a new bakery in Jackson Ward. I had to Google "petit fours."
The world is full of things lately—some very scary! To help with that, following the suggestion of a Good Morning, RVA patron, I want to link to two wildlife cams: The Richmond Osprey Cam and the Richmond Falcon Cam. Truth be told, I'm pretty scared of birds when we're in the same space, but when we're separated by many miles and a glass screen, I kind of find them soothing. With any luck, you will, too!
For your listening pleasure, I present Episode 74 of the Sam and Ross Like Things podcast! Tune in and hear me talk excitedly about The Witcher, which has rapidly taken its place near the top of my List of Favorite Things.
This morning's longread
The Diet Industrial Complex Got Me, and It Will Never Let Me Go
Dang, this is a dark piece.
I, who can count the number of calories on a table laden with 10 dishes in less time that it takes most people to tie a pair of shoes, did not see the body positivity movement coming, not at all. Suddenly, about a decade ago, when I started to notice that fat women were a) calling themselves fat, with pride, and b) walking down the streets of our nation’s great cities nonchalantly wearing tight or revealing clothing with a general air of, “yeah I will wear this and I will wear whatever I want, and I am hot, too, I will be hot forever, long after you have all died,” I thought to myself, Oh my God WHAT? The solution is not … the diet?
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.