Good morning, RVA! It's 40 °F, but highs today are back up in the 60s and we should see plenty of sunshine. As far as the weather goes, we’ve got a bunch of pleasant days ahead of us.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,484 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 34 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 170 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 59, Henrico: 78, and Richmond: 33). Big grain of salt with these numbers this morning, though. 11 hours ago (which is more recent than the last update to the VDH site), Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported 103 positive cases in Henrico and 67 in Richmond. Again, my standard disclaimer about the number of tests administered still applies.
Sean Gorman and Mel Leonor at the RTD have some updates from the Governor’s press conference yesterday. I appreciate the Gov saying that Virginia will hit peakvirus between late April and late May and that he wants “Virginians to prepare themselves for the long haul.” I think we should keep in mind that the long haul might, in fact, be much longer—even after peakvirus. This tweet from @pinboard resonates: Once we get through the worst of times locally, it’ll be really hard for folks to continue sheltering in place—which is exactly what we’ll need to do!
Reminder: City Council meets today at 3:30 PM for a special meeting to introduce legislation that will allow them to meet remotely and finally get around to passing some laws. They will stream audio from this meeting, and, assuming no technical issues (probably a totally fine assumption, right?), you can tune in here. After they get the audio sorted and we can all hear what they get up to, I’m excited for Council to keep thinking about what public engagement looks like moving forward. More and more I feel like if you want folks involved, you have to provide asynchronous ways for them to do that. I’m not sure what that looks like for City Council or how they can do it equitably, but I am sure a single Facebook Live session at a specific time is not it.
The YWCA announced that they have re-opened their downtown preschool and will provide full-day childcare to essential personnel in Richmond. It costs $250 per week, but there is a sliding scale and full scholarships for families that qualify. If this sounds like you or an essential worker you know and love, apply via
As pictured above, the Brook Road bike lanes are totally under construction! I walked out there with my family yesterday during our scheduled “go outside” time, and grabbed that picture of the southbound lane near Bellevue. Crews are still working on paving the northbound lane in that area, but, progress! Plus, I hear work on the Patterson and Malvern lanes will begin soon, too. If you see other cool infrastructure popping up around town, please send a few pictures my way.
NPR’s World Cafe stopped by Richmond to talk with Matthew E. White from local recording studio Spacebomb. Spacebomb just put out that new Angelica Garcia album that I can’t stop listening to, so make sure you check that out after listening to this interview.
Yesterday was “Census Day,” of which I was unaware until I saw a bunch of people tweeting about it last night. If you haven’t taken the literally four minutes to fill out the Census, please make sure you do so. A lot of federal funding, something that’s going to be absolutely critical over the next year or two, is distributed according to Census data. Filling out the census means more money for the place you live.
This morning's longread
Cities are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic — not the cause of it.
I love this piece from a city councilmember in St. Paul. Imagine what Richmond could be like if our City Council was filled with progressive people who loved cities this much?
At the end of the day, here’s what our response to COVID-19 will tell us: you either care about people of color, young people, old people, poor people, sick people, transit-dependent people, undocumented people, queer people and people who can’t afford a home — or you don’t. You either believe our cities and communities are for all of us, or you openly and proudly hope the experiment to make it that way fails, because you stand for the opposite. Candidates, columnists, and anyone else right now crowing against urbanism, science, human decency and good governance are telling us what they stand for. Let it be known in this moment, in our cities and across our country, what we stand for. We are fighting for a rent and mortgage suspension, moratorium on evictions, healthcare for all, massive transit and green infrastructure funding to aid economic recovery, compassionate homelessness response, labor rights for those taking care of us, bailouts for the people whether or not you have papers, and so much more, because we don’t just believe in the idea of cities. We believe in the people of them, and in our non-negotiable right to live with what we need, where we are, close to those we love.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.