Good morning, RVA! It's 47 °F, and while we may have some warmer temperatures today, beware tonight and tomorrow night! NBC12's Andrew Freiden says we've got a chance for garden-killing frost both nights and helpfully points to this post on how to avoid damage to your vegetable younglings if you've already put them in the ground.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 585 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 32 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 136 new cases over the last two days in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 61, Henrico: 40, and Richmond: 35). Since VDH missed Wednesday's data dump, they included all of those results in Thursday's data dump, and now all my graphs are weird. That said, I think we've seen a four-day decrease in reported positive cases, which is the first time that's ever happened in Virginia. Eternal caveat to that: The Commonwealth continues to do fewer tests per capita than almost any other state in America. Related: The Virginia Mercury has a column from Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of New Virginia Majority, about the Governor's current plan to move into Phase One of recovery by May 15th, saying "The move to reopen should also include providing those with little or no health insurance access to health care facilities and reliable medical treatments that are affordable, culturally-sensitive, and are considerate of language accessibility. Until we can keep our most vulnerable safe and cared for, Governor Northam must reconsider his premature reopening. Virginia should be a welcoming place for all of us, not a place where some of us are dispensable."
It is Friday, and the Virginia Employment Commissions has released their weekly unemployment chartsandgraphs update. While the number of new claimants continues to decrease, the number of continued claimants continues to go up each and every week. As of May 2nd, there were 436,320 folks total filing for unemployment insurance. Even with the decrease in new claimants, the VEC reminds us that while "the volumes of initial claims has retreated from its recent peak, it may not return to pre-pandemic levels for some time." VEC has also put together this data dashboard that includes a bit of demographic data. As you could have probably guessed, Black Virginians represent 28% of claimants yet only around 20% of the total population of the state.
Brief reminder: City Council will hold the (theoretically) final public hearing on the budget this coming Monday, May 11th. If you've got thoughts, feelings, or comments on the budget, now is the time to let Council know by emailing the City Clerk (cityclerksoffice@richmondgov.com). If all goes as planned—which, as we all know, during virustime everything always goes according to plan—Council will meet monthly to assess revenues and expenditures and to adjust their adopted budget accordingly.
For folks who will vote in the upcoming June primary, did you know you can vote absentee and, in fact, are encouraged to do so? Head over to the Department of Elections website and apply online for an absentee ballot. I'm assuming this will be The Way for November's election, too, but will look for some more guidance after we get through June.
Richmond's own Dr. Jeremy Hoffman and Alicia Zatcoff make an appearance in this New York Times article about addressing extreme heat while simultaneously dealing with a pandemic. As we move into summer, Zatcoff's working on getting air conditioners to folks who need them, while Hoffman's pushing for open streets that function as natural spaces that can be cooler than places without air conditioning. It's the Virusyear of Our Lord May 2020, and Richmond still does not have a single open/slow street! Despite dozens of reasons to create some and many successful examples across the country!
I'm looking forward to this short on Richmond's experience with the 1918 flu pandemic, which drops today on The Future of America's Past. I mean, this teaser text speaks directly into my heart: "What happens when you reopen too soon? States plan to reopen even as the coronavirus crisis continues to grow. This impulse has a precedent: it's what many towns did during the flu pandemic of 1918."
Karri Peifer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says Virginians are drinking tons of coronabooze—sales have shot up 15% compared to last April. She's also got the list of the best sellers in the region, and Tito's vodka comes in at #1. See if you can guess what rounds out the rest of the top 10.
This morning's longread
The Floor
The floor is lava! Or is it quicksand? Or maybe just off limits?
Now, in 2020, the go-to term for games about avoiding the ground is one big phrase: “The Floor is Lava”. Which is frustrating to me, the way that this name—and it’s a good name, evocative, clear—has started to overwrite all the other things that the floor could be. Surely, I thought, people who have lava floors are in the minority—or at least, surely they would be if the phrase “the floor is lava” wasn’t spreading so widely, flowing over other dangerous floorspaces, hissing over quicksand and piranhas and mysterious voids and rustling snakes. So I ran a survey to find out what else the world’s imaginary dangerous floors are made of. And around 3500 people responded. This essay is a collection of some of the things I found out when I went through their answers.
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