Good morning, RVA! It's 40 °F and rainy. Looks like the rain will continue throughout the day and into the afternoon. After we get through today’s wet forecast, we’ve got two wonderful-looking days ahead of us.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 290 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and seven people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 35 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 10, Henrico: 14, and Richmond: 11).
Alright! RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras got some guidance from the Virginia Department of Education (which you can read for yourself right here (PDF)) about how to handle students, graduations, and curriculum in This Most Unusual Time. Since it’s from the State, this applies across the Commonwealth, but there is some flexibility in the guidance. Your mileage may vary with how different school districts decide to go about implementation. The gist: high school seniors will receive their diplomas, GPAs are kind of a question mark, and students will not be held back. That last one though comes with some caveats. Here’s Kamras again, “That said, we will need to provide a plan for how students will learn the content they would have otherwise been exposed to this spring. That could take the form of online learning and/or physical packets now, additional instructional time this summer, a longer 2020-21 school year, and/or other measures.” Sounds like those of us trying to quickly figure out homeschooling will have even more to learn over the next couple months. If you’ve got questions—in general or about your specific situation—you can submit them to RPS here.
Mayor Stoney wants you to know that no gatherings of 10 people means no Spring Breaking at the river! C. Suarez Rojas at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has this great quote from the Mayor: “If folks are at Texas Beach with a bunch of PBRs, then obviously we’re going to provide some guidance that they should disperse.” Did you hear him? Disperse! Don’t make him close the parks, y’all! He’ll do it, he’ll turn this park right around if you don’t chill, socially distance, and stay the heck home. P.S. Please never, ever bring glass bottles to the river. Thank you.
City Council diffused some of my anxiety about how they can continue to meet and pass legislation during this emergency while apparently not being allowed to meet—in person or otherwise. From my inbox: “In light of the current situational context, Richmond City Council is currently working to delineate processes and procedures for holding electronic public meetings, and will share the meeting schedule and method for public involvement once finalized.” OK! That seems like progress! Chesterfield, because they’re Chesterfield, has already figured out their processes and procedures and that includes streaming (and I assume archiving) meetings on YouTube. This is way better than relying on Facebook (but still not as good as the County owning the content on their own website). Also, one update specific to ORD. 2020-092 : Council is, at this point, committed to “adopting in mid-April an ordinance extending the filing deadline for applications and certifications for tax relief for the elderly and the permanently and totally disabled to mid-May.”
Henrico, because they are Henrico, has already started the process of updating (aka slashing) their proposed FY21 budget—the one that was just introduced weeks ago—in light of the coronavirus’s anticipated impact on the economy. Tom Lappas at the Henrico Citizen has the early news, including this sobering quote from the County’s budget director: “[The revised budget will be] more conservative than you’ve probably seen from Henrico County...This is going to be a year unlike any we have seen in the past.” They go on to say that the County will consider adjusting the budget every 90 days, which seems smart. At this point, no one knows what tax revenue will look like in June, and it seems super risky to put together a yearlong budget based on enormous, unknowable question marks. Heck, even tomorrow seems enormous and unknowable.
Looks like late last night—or, rather, early this morning—the federal government came to agreement on a $2 trillion stimulus package. Details are sketchy at the moment, but it does sound like a lot of folks will get $1,200 checks in the coming days. Congress looks to pass the legislation today, so I’m sure we’ll learn more about the specifics soon.
Some how I forgot to include this huge news from a couple days back: RRHA CEO Damon Duncan will resign after a “60 to 90-day transition.” Micheal Paul Williams at the RTD has some thoughts, including this bummer of a paragraph: “Friday, he pledged to stick around to help the agency and residents through the COVID-19 pandemic, but this virus does not respect deadlines or timelines. An inexperienced board will have to find a new leader during a global crisis...”
Beautiful RVA has offered to build raised garden beds—at no cost—for folks facing food insecurity during the coronavirus crisis. I know most of the folks reading this newsletter are not, at this moment, facing food insecurity, so please make sure that Beautiful RVA’s resources go where it’s needed most. In fact, if you’re especially stoked on this project and would like to help, go donate a couple of bucks so Beautiful RVA has the cash on hand to build as many raised beds as needed. It costs between $75-100 to build one bed, let that information guide your donation amount! If you’ve got your own raised beds but feel like you need some help getting more out of it, check out some of these resources put together by Beautiful RVA’s Duron Chavis.
NBC12’s Andrew Freiden has a neat thread on Twitter about the green screen he’s got in his garage?? Despite social distancing and lockdowns, the weather must go on! Love it.
Waffle House has closed 365 restaurants. When Waffle House starts closing, you know things are serious.
This morning's patron longread
How South Korea Flattened the Curve
Submitted by Patron Blake. What can the U.S. do to start flattening the curve like South Korea? Probably not by pretend everything is fine starting April 12th, I’ll tell you what!
Leaders concluded that subduing the outbreak required keeping citizens fully informed and asking for their cooperation, said Mr. Kim, the vice health minister. Television broadcasts, subway station announcements and smartphone alerts provide endless reminders to wear face masks, pointers on social distancing and the day’s transmission data. The messaging instills a near-wartime sense of common purpose. Polls show majority approval for the government’s efforts, with confidence high, panic low and scant hoarding. “This public trust has resulted in a very high level of civic awareness and voluntary cooperation that strengthens our collective effort,” Lee Tae-ho, the vice minister of foreign affairs, told reporters earlier this month. Officials also credit the country’s nationalized health care system, which guarantees most care, and special rules covering coronavirus-related costs, as giving even people with no symptoms greater incentive to get tested.
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