Good morning, RVA! It's 75 °F, and our respite from blazing hot temperatures is over. Today, you can expect highs near 90 °F and plenty of humidity to go along with the heat.
Water cooler
Richmond Police are reporting two murders from last week.
On August 20th, Damon L. Teach, a man in his 40s, was found dead on the 5400 block of Blue Ridge Avenue. The Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.
On August 19th, police responded to the 1100 block of St. Paul Street and found a juvenile, and RPS student, shot to death. In his email last Thursday, Superintendent Kamras said, "I'm devastated to share that we have once again lost a student to gun violence. Last night, an 11th grader who had attended both TJ and Marshall was fatally shot. I've now written some version of this sentence dozens of times as Superintendent. I beg of you, regardless of which political party you call home, please support candidates this November who will enact common sense gun control legislation. Our students' lives literally depend on it."
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 894↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 24↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 146↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 38, Henrico: 68, and Richmond: 40). Since this pandemic began, 308 people have died in the Richmond region. Additionally, VCU updated their data dashboard and now report 58 total student cases of the coronavirus (33 new cases) and 12 employee cases (one new case). A total of 96 people are either in isolation or quarantine. I wish, like the UNC dashboard, that VCU would report other data like percent positivity and number of clusters in residence halls. Now, though, we wait and see if those case numbers continue to increase at the current rate, and, if so, what that'll mean for the University's in-person instruction plans.
Remember this past Thursday when police showed up at GWARBar in response to a dubious flyer and a handful of folks standing around on the bar's private property (possibly protestors, possibly neighbors, possibly people hanging out at GWARBar)? VPM's Roberto Roldan has owner Michael Derks's statement which is worth reading. Derks says he gave his permission for people to be on his property, told the cops as much, and was ignored by officers on the scene: "I asked to speak to the officer in charge, as owner of the property I wanted to be told what [the officers'] reasoning was for coming on the property and arresting people. I was told that they were obstructing justice but the Captain on the scene did not ever come speak with me even after I requested several times." I said this last week, and it continues to be true, but each public interaction like this just further radicalizes everyday people against the police. It still won't be easy, but the path towards meaningful police reform in Richmond gets less and less complicated with more and more public support.
Here's an example of how elected officials can quickly lose that public support as they attempt to navigate the politics of police reform: Alex Guzmán has resigned from the Mayor's Task Force to Reimagine Public Safety following the police actions at GWARBar described above. Alex joined the Task Force after criticizing the Mayor for not including a single Latinx voice, and his open letter to the Mayor, Council, and the rest of us about why he left the Task Force is worth your time this morning. Here's an excerpt: "At the end of the day, processes matter. I do not believe the task force was ever intended to provide real solutions. It included individuals who would knowingly make it difficult to “reimagine” public safety in any meaningfulway. It relied on a limited framework that still saw police at the forefront of the public safety continuum. It has a 90-day timeline to produce actionable recommendations, which is a mighty task for a group of volunteers. It feels like pageantry. I don’t do pageantry." You can watch the first meeting of the Task Force over on the City's YouTube, but, don't expect too much in the way of policy as it's mostly a context-setting agenda.
One more police-related story: According to the RTD's Katy Burnell Evans, today Henrico County will host a "media briefing regarding the hiring of a new chief of police." The current chief, Humberto Cardounel Jr. announced back in June that he'd retire September 1st, so this isn't a huge surprise. There has been some work toward police reform in the county, mostly led by Supervisor Nelson, and I'm interested in how reform-minded the new chief will be. Speaking of, RVAHub has all the information you need to tune into the Henrico Board of Supervisors work session tonight at 5:15 PM where they will discuss a Civilian Review Board of their own.
Holly Prestidge at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has an interesting piece about a local balloon company (I did not know we had a local balloon company) creating a "pod" for high-school aged kids of its employees. Balloon School, which is charmingly capitalized as such throughout the article, involves a bunch of socially distanced teens, sitting at their own desks, doing their own virtual learning while a hired facilitator keeps everyone on track. It's a clever way to try and solve childcare issues for older kids while still allowing parents to do in-person work that can't be done from home—like, I would guess, making balloons. Creating a school enviornment inside of a workplace does compound the coronarisks, and I hope the balloon people are taking the time to familiarize themselves with all of the proper CDC guidances—both for balloons and for high school students.
Looking for a volunteer opportunity? Consider helping Richmond Public Schools pack and distribute academic kits—all the supplies and subject-specific materials students will need to start off the virtual school year. HandOn has lots and lots of school-specific time slots for volunteers to sign up for, so, if you want, you can volunteer right at your neighborhood school.
This morning's patron longread
Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful
Submitted by Patron Val. We're living in a truly weird time, and it's OK to acknowledge that we're all operating at something other than peak performance.
She says people are having to live their lives without the support of so many systems that have partly or fully broken down, whether it’s schools, hospitals, churches, family support, or other systems that we relied on. We need to recognize that we’re grieving multiple losses while managing the ongoing impact of trauma and uncertainty. The malaise so many of us feel, a sort of disinterested boredom, is common in research on burnout, Masten says. But other emotions accompany it: disappointment, anger, grief, sadness, exhaustion, stress, fear, anxiety — and no one can function at full capacity with all that going on.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.