Good morning, RVA: 94, 2; fewer budget sessions; and a call to action at the federal level

Good morning, RVA! It's 68 °F, and highs today will top out in the mid 80s. Sounds like a fantastic day for a run or a roll in your favorite park. Take advantage of today, because tomorrow temperatures drop and rain rolls in for maybe the next handful of days.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 94 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and two people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 12 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 6, Henrico: 3, and Richmond: 3). Almost 2,000 folks have received the test, up from just 408 at the beginning fo this week. Here's a quick and not-very-helpful graph of reported positive cases each morning since March 14th. Remember: Until we're testing everyone, this graph will always be extremely influenced by the number of tests available.

I really enjoyed reading this strong open letter to our state and federal legislators from Phillip Ray, co-founder of Center of the Universe Brewing Company up in Ashland. Since the pandemic started impacting folks' day-to-day, COTU has seen a 70% drop in revenue, which is terrifying. I wonder if one of the longer-term impacts of the coronavirus on American culture will be more folks getting more politically involved.

I just got the updated City Council budget schedule, after I notice they'd canceled the planned budget sessions up through the beginning of April. Bad news budget fans: Those sessions weren't rescheduled at all. Council now plans on holding just two budget work sessions (April 13th and 20th), three amendment work sessions, and two public hearings. First of all, who even knows what the world looks like on April 13th—that's 24 days from now, or approximately 32 years in virustime. Second of all, how do we public hearing when the Governor has recommended against gatherings of 10 or more? I know folks have way more important things to deal with at this moment than participating in the City budget process, but, once adopted, this will pretty much be our budget for an entire year.

Related, I also got this update from City Council: "Richmond City Council is providing residents the opportunity to email any public comments they may have regarding pending legislative items scheduled for its upcoming Formal Meeting to by 12:00 PM on Monday, March 23, 2020." You'll need to include your full name, and your comments will be published with the Council meeting minutes—it is a public comment after all. You can read through the agenda, as it stands at this moment in time, here (PDF). It's a supremely light agenda as all of the committees that need to weigh in on legislation have also had their meetings cancelled. I dunno, y'all, weird times. As seen in the last two paragraphs, I keep thinking about how folks can stay civically involved while stuck at home and incredibly distracted. My current take—and I'd love to hear your opinions—is that City Councilmembers need to reach out to people and organizations already in their networks directly to collect thoughts, feelings, and emotions on pending legislation. It's a lot of work, but just Facebooking or emailblasting about a thing isn't going to get useful results.

The Governor continues to take what action he can to help folks impacted by the coronavirus. Yesterday he announced some good changes to how Medicaid covers COVID-19 testing and treatment and the availability of low-interest, small business loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration. If you own a small business, these loans are available to even cover things like payroll.

Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the final(?) update on the folks living in tents off Oliver Hill Way. As of yesterday, 80 people living there had either "accepted a two-week hotel stay or emergency shelter placement," and the City has removed the camp. Kelly King Horne, Executive Director of Homeward, says that they'll now shift their focus to "connecting people to stable housing and services." You can read the City's release here.

Mark your calendars: Dominion will implode their old office building at 7th and Cary Streets on May 30th. I've got about a billion ideas for rad, socially-distanced spots from which to watch this.

I don't often talk about federal legislation or the actions we can take to influence it, but I think this one is important: Transportation for America needs folks to contact their Congressfolk and ask them to include funding for public transportation in any coronavirus relief or stimulus package. If airlines and cruise lines get a huge chunk of cash, so should our public transit agencies. Please tap on the previous link, and take literally two minutes to send an email to your senators and congressperson. Also, Transportation for America has posted a good explainer if you're looking for more details on how This Most Unusual Time could have a long-lasting, detrimental impact on public transit across the country.

This morning's longread

Five Quarters of the Orange: A Sense of Place in the Inland Empire

This piece, from almost ten years ago, about oranges in California is a soothing balm.

She was married three times, an abolitionist (her third husband, Mr. Tibbets, campaigned as a "Radical Republican" who tried integration in Virginia), a suffragist who tried to vote in 1871, a spiritualist who led séances in Riverside when she got here. But in 1873, she sent to Washington's new Bureau of Agriculture for the first two seedling trees of a new variety of seedless oranges from Bahia, Brazil, and planted them in her yard in Riverside. She kept them alive with dishwater, shared the fruit and more cuttings, and changed the economy and the very look of Southern California. (Neither she, born in Cincinnati, or the seedlings, were natives.)

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