Good morning, RVA! It's 53 °F, and today's highs are way up into the mid 70s. Enjoy it while you can this afternoon, taking a walk, run, or a roll around your neighborhood. Rain will move in tonight, and the rest of the weekend looks pretty cloudy.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 460 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 13 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 35 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 12, Henrico: 21, and Richmond: 14). New on the aforelinked page are age, sex, and race information for reported positive cases. To dispel any sense you may have that this disease only impacts the elderly: About 45% of all reported positive cases are folks between the ages of 20 and 50. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has some more clarification on the accuracy of these reported numbers: "On March 19, state health officials said there’s a 19-hour lag in the reporting of statewide numbers, and figures on the website might not include cases reported by individual localities or local health districts. The Health Department did not explain Thursday precisely why there could be an eight-day lag between reported symptoms and test results. A shortage of tests and testing equipment have been reported across the country this month, and Virginia has turned to private labs to help provide test results." So, please, don't use these numbers as a direct indicator of the spread of coronavirus in Virginia. Don't let them convince you that "it's only 460 case." But, please, do stay home if you can and help prevent further spread of the virus!
The Governor "directed all hospitals to stop performing elective surgeries or procedures to help conserve supplies of personal protective equipment." That's good and cool, I guess, but, like, when he is going to commit to a full stay-at-home order? Remember what Dr. Fauci says about our response to this pandemic: "...if it look like you're overreacting, you're probably doing the right thing." Personally, at this moment in our viruscurve, I'd like to see more overreacting from the State before things get out of hand. Also, I think it's time for an emergency session of the General Assembly. Localities need guidance and support—both through policy and through cash. As far as I know, the State's budget is not yet finalized, and legislators could work through the changes they'll need to make to give cities and counties across the Commonwealth the funding needed to maintain core services. A couple days ago, Del. Carroll Foy asked for an emergency session to raise the weekly unemployment cap. I wonder if Richmond's legislators will ask/have asked for an emergency session? The City will have a ton of needs very, very soon, and I think I'd like to see some of that Fauci-style overreacting from our elected reps sooner rather than later.
The Virginia Employment Commission released unemployment claims for the week ending March 21st, and they are shocking. 46,277 claims were filed, up from...2,706...the previous week. Absolutely staggering. The two maps of claims, before and after coronavirus, are morbidly fascinating, and, once again, show that Virginia's urban areas will need State support to get through this crisis.
In yesterday's public briefing the City announced that time limits on parking will not be enforced. Go wild, Parking People!! However, Parking People, you must remain vigilant. There's a ton of paving going on right now, and if you park in an obvious construction zone, your car will be disappeared. Non-parking People, take heart, because this newest round of paving should lead to both the Brook Road and Patterson/Malvern Ave bike lanes! I am excited to see them once we're done sheltering in place.
RVA Hub says that the South of the James Market will take place this Saturday, March 28th, from 9:00 AM–1:00 PM. However, for everyone to maintain their safe social distance, customers must attend the market in a car and must pre-order with vendors. I know I'm #bancars guy, but we've got to figure out how to safely conduct events like this while making them accessible to people who don't, won't, or can't own cars. It's a complex problem that I don't know how to solve, but restricting access to healthy food to car-owning folks isn't the answer. This isn't just about food access, either! I have the same sort of questions about pop-up drive-thru coronavirus testing.
Mallory Noe-Payne at RadioIQ has a piece about how home health workers from across the state have been impacted by the coronavirus. I often think of doctors and nurses in hospitals when I think about caregivers, but there are thousands of people providing critical in-home care to folks—and facing similar PPE shortages, lacking specific guidance from officials, and doing it all for far less pay.
This morning's longread
Eight marvelous and melancholy things I've learned about creativity
As we're all stuck in side looking for way new ways to express ourselves (or to hone the current ways we do so), I found this piece from The Oatmeal helpful.
Ten years ago I created The Oatmeal. I thought an appropriate way to mark the decade would be to publish a comic called "Ten things I've learned about creativity in ten years." Ten things. Ten years. Clean, simple, appropriate. That was the plan. It was a good plan. But as you'll see, creativity is not a horse. It cannot be trained or ridden. You cannot tell creativity, "I would like ten of those, please." Because creativity is not a horse. It is a mountain lion. It is an autonomous beast with fur, claws, and a mind of its own. On rare occasions, however, it can be trained. It can be ridden. I suppose it's more of a horse-cat combo. My point is this: ten is an arbitrary number, and the fickle beast that is creativity stopped me where it saw fit, which wound up being at the number eight. So, without further ado I present Eight Marvels & Melancholy Things I've Learned About Creativity.
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