Good morning, RVA! It's 71 °F, and you've got another hot and humid day lined up in front of you. Summer in Richmond continues!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 801↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 9↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 121↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 62, Henrico: 34, and Richmond: 25). Since this pandemic began, 272 people have died in the Richmond region. Yesterday, the Governor did hold a coronavirus press conference in light of the increasing number of reported positive COVID-19 cases across the state—especially in the eastern part of the Commonwealth. Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has one recap which focuses on the the lack of specificity and transparency in the public VDH datasets and another with the details on the Governor's plan to combat rising case counts by getting the Virginia ABC and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to conduct unannounced mask inspections at businesses. The ABC will also ban alcohol sales after 11:00 PM. I dunno, y'all. Is enforcement really the best and most equitable way to get people to practice safe public health behavior? When we talk about Vision Zero and making streets safer, it's implementing actual, physical changes to a street that shifts behavior—not setting up a speed trap for a weekend. In fact, lots of groups have dropped "enforcement" from their Vision Zero strategies entirely. I'm not convinced that deploying a couple hundred inspectors to enforce the mask and social distancing requirements will actually shift folks' coronabehavior, and I'm concerned about which businesses and people will be on the receiving end of that enforcement. I think we probably need to do the equivalent of making actual, physical changes to a street and close bars and indoor dining for a while.
Richmond's School Board met last night and, after hearing hours of public comment, voted 8-1 to move forward with Plan E—an entirely virtual first semester for all students. The Board could change course if the public health picture improves, but, for now, it looks like kids across the city are stuck at home (and I mean that in the best possible way) for the rest of the calendar year. It also looks like longer-term childcare will become an even more critical need for families whose work situations just will not allow them to stay home to help facilitate online learning. If you want, you can read the 122-page document (PDF) of alllllll the public comments and maybe check out a quick refresher of the key elements of virtual instruction on page nine of this PDF. This is a big freaking deal, and, while I think I'm still convinced that in-person school for our youngest students is probably a good idea, I'm impressed that the School Board was able to make this decision quickly and decisively. At least now we all know what to expect in the City come September. We'll now get to see how Richmond's path forward impacts what Henrico and Chesterfield decide to do. That school reopening is not a decision made regionally blows my mind!
Also on the regional schools tip, last night the Hanover County School Board voted to finally rename Lee-Davis High School and Stonewall Jackson Middle School. C. Suarez Rojas at the RTD has the details. What great news, and it only took a million years and the extremely persistent work by advocates in Hanover—including a bunch of former and current students. There's obviously a lot of work left to be done—the vote was a 4-3 split after all—but, for now, congratulations to the folks who've waited literal decades for this moment.
I'm thankful that the RTD's Ali Rockett has explained the videos floating around of Mayor Stoney talking with police about the time an RPD officer drove their vehicle into protestors. I desperately hate car culture and am extremely disappointed that anyone, especially an elected official, can think that driving a vehicle into people is totally fine. It doesn't matter if the crowd of protestors "moved in front" of the police officer's SUV; if there's a couple dozen people in front of you, maybe just wait a second and don't drive your car over there? And maybe especially don't drive it up onto the sidewalk? I'm sure there are political and electoral hot takes to be made from this video, and you're free to make them, but I'm going to sit here and seethe about traffic violence instead.
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense says the City has bought back a piece of the Canal Walk from developers. I'm into it! This is public space and should belong to the public.
Oooo look at this exciting picture via /r/rva: City crews are getting ready to stripe the bike lanes on Malvern! Somehow, after a bunch of years of work, we're close to having an actual bike network in Richmond. That's exciting.
This morning's longread
Why the term "BIPOC" is so complicated, explained by linguists
I absolutely love linguists! The context, history, and evolution of language is one of my most favorite things to learn about.
But Ross also explained that in the decades since those minority women’s groups came together to form their alliance, the term “women of color” has been flattened and lost its political meaning. “Unfortunately, so many times people of color hear the term ‘people of color’ from other white people that they think white people created it,” she said, “instead of understanding that we self-made ourselves. This is a term that has a lot of power for us. But we’ve done a poor-ass job of communicating that history so that people understand that power.”
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