Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and the chance for rain continues throughout the day and into the night. Looks like late afternoon may be your best bet to spend some drytime outside. Good luck!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 380 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 6 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 56 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 13, Henrico: 25, and Richmond: 18). Since this pandemic began, 204 people have died in the Richmond region.
Day 18 of protests in Richmond for police and social justice reform peaked with more violence from the police. Last night, the Richmond Police Department once again defended the small surface-level parking lot across from their headquarters on Grace Street with rubber bullets, chemical weapons, riot shields, loud explosions, and clouds of smoke. Andrew Ringle, editor at The Commonwealth Times, has a good thread recapping events, including this video of what looks like a war zone and this tweet: "Police backed me and others up against a wall as I filmed them spraying us and throwing explosives. Two protesters that I didn't get the names of shielded me with umbrellas. Thank you to those guys." You can read the CT's full write-up here. Both Councilmember Jones and Councilmember Lynch were on hand, the former saying "Can't believe what I saw this evening." and the latter "Shots fired into the crowd—tear gas everywhere. Scared for the people who are closer in...here to see it firsthand. This is absolutely unacceptable." Last night's protest followed Sunday night's protest—at which the RPD gassed and pepper sprayed the crowd. Sunday night's protest followed Saturday night's protest—at which an RPD officer drove their SUV up onto a sidewalk and into a crowd of people. Both of these come after June 1st's unprovoked and absurd tear gassing of peaceful protestors at the Lee Monument. I'm shocked that the RPD—night after night as the entire city watches—continues to respond to protests against police violence by tear gassing the shit out of people. If the police wanted to radicalize the entire city against them and their $100 million budget, they’re doing a great job of it. And its not just me! Sen. Jennifer McClellan said, before last night's events, "I'm disturbed by reports of RPD behavior towards protesters this weekend. I agree that we need to reimagine the role of police and how we keep communities safe, and that the rights of protesters must be respected/protected." The ACLU of Virginia sent a letter to Mayor Stoney, Police Chief Smith, and Commonwealth's Attorney McEachin saying "All of you must take positive action—individually and collectively—to lead changes in the laws, policies, practices, and police culture that allowed these events to take place. You must lead the implementation of lasting reforms that reimagine the role of police in our Commonwealth and how we keep communities safe." Councilmember Jones released a statement saying "City Council must immediately be presented with budget amendments for the Fiscal Year 2021 Budget that withdraws funding from areas associated with aggressive policing and reallocate these funds into community support functions, and City Council should take immediate steps to execute our oversight responsibly by way of the Public Safety and Organizational Development committees." (btw, see more about that below). The Mayor, however, (as of this morning) has said nothing beyond his statement on Sunday about asking the Commonwealth's Attorney to open an investigation into the SUV incident. The silence and inaction on the Mayor's part is frustrating and hurtful.
Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has an update on the folks suing to keep the Confederate monuments on Monument Avenue. Six new residents—who have chosen to remain anonymous—have joined the existing lawsuit and allege that removing the statues will, and this is real rich, "have substantial adverse impact on plaintiffs, including the loss of favorable tax treatment and reduction in property values." Loss of favorable tax treatment for people living in multimillion dollar mansions on Monument Avenue! Read the room, y'all! I can see why they wish to remain anonymous.
8th District City Council candidate Amy Wentz points out that this month's Public Safety Committee meeting is cancelled, which, seems like, given everything above, that's a council committee that needs to meet early and often. In fact, looking back at the City's legislative calendar, this committee hasn't met since February. What gives? All of Council's other committees have switched over to the new socially-distanced virtual meeting format at least a month ago. It's a bit awkward, but it works. I'm not sure what the rules are about a committee just deciding not to meet, but it might be worth sending a note to Chair Reva Trammell (<Reva.Trammell@Richmondgov.com data-preserve-html-node="true">) and Vice Chair Kim Gray (<kimberly.gray@richmondgov.com data-preserve-html-node="true">). I imagine we'll have some police- and public-safety-related legislation introduced at an upcoming Council meeting or two, and it'd be nice to have a committee to which they can send those papers.
Speaking of City Council, Councilmember Lynch has a paper in front of the Land Use, Housing and Transportation Committee today to kickoff the process of renaming the Robert E. Lee Bridge aka the Belvidere bridge (RES. 2020-R043). The resolution text includes some interesting history: Did you know that the original bridge was built in 1933, named the James River Bridge, renamed the Robert E. Lee Memorial Bridge in 1934, and then rebuilt in 1985 but stuck with the same name? This is great and easy legislation, and expect more of these papers from Councilmembers as they start building their district's inventory of Confederate infrastructure. P.S. Someone get Tim Kaine to write a letter of support in renaming Confederate Avenue in Councilmember Hilbert's 3rd District.
Richmond Public Schools family! If you've got a student headed back to school in the fall (assuming both "school" and "the fall" exist), take a couple of minutes and fill out this survey about what that return to school should look like. There are four interesting options RPS will consider to keep school facilities socially-distanced and clean that involve rotating kids through parts of the day, days of the week, or even weeks of the month.
Also on the schools tip, the Richmond Times Dispatch's Kenya Hunter was on the School Board call last night and says that RPS "will engage in a 90-day review to examine RPS's relationship with RPD. The review will include data gathering and student focus groups, as well as a public hearing."
Richmond 300 events continue! Tonight they'll focus on the Route 1/Bellemeade/Bells area, and you can register over on the Eventbrite.
This morning's patron longread
‘Corona Cycleways’ Become the New Post-Confinement Commute
While I’m thankful for DPW’s work laying down some low-hanging-fruit bike lanes lately, I read pieces like this and get real bummed. In some ways, I wish we’d used our pandemic time better, but, in other ways, it seems like we’re using that time just fine.
As France got ready to lift its national quarantine, Ms. Hidalgo ordered work crews to create pop-up bike paths around Paris and its outer suburbs as quickly as possible in the middle of the night, with the aim of adding 50 kilometers by June following existing underground metro and suburban train tracks. The Rue de Rivoli, once one of the most traffic-snarled thoroughfares in central Paris, is now entirely reserved for bikes, buses and taxis. The pop-up paths are intended to be temporary, but Mr. Najdovski said the city could consider making them permanent “if they work.”
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