Good morning, RVA! It's 66 °F, and today looks a little warmer than most of last week. Expect highs in the 80s and a decent chance of rain this afternoon. More potential rain tomorrow, but the back half of this week looks lovely.
Water cooler
The Richmond Police Department is reporting two murders from last week. Early Wednesday morning, officers found Rosalind P. Gibson, a woman in her 40s, shot to death on the sidewalk of the 1100 block of N. 25th Street. Then, early Friday morning, police were called to the 1700 block of Clarkson Road where they found Rolando Maldonado-Ortega, a man in his 40s, fatally shot. He would later die at a local hospital.
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 736↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 15↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 71↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 40, Henrico: 19, and Richmond: 12). Since this pandemic began, 366 people have died in the Richmond region. The big coronanews around Virginia this past weekend was that the Governor and First Lady tested positive for COVID-19 late last week. I imagine the Gov has a ton of potential exposures doing his day-to-day, but this should serve to remind you that anyone, anywhere can catch this virus! Wash your hands, wear a mask, keep your distance, and take preventative public health measures seriously!
Chesterfield County released their hybrid reopening plan, and I find it complex and fascinating. The gist, as I read it, is that students will go back to in-person instruction in phases, with younger students heading back first. The County will split each class by last name with the first half of the alphabet attending in-person instruction on Mondays and Tuesdays and the second half of the alphabet attending in-person instruction Thursdays and Fridays. The wild thing to me is that students will basically do asynchronous learning for the entire three days they are not in schools. For younger kids, like K–3, that seems like it'll require a lot of management from parents. I'm really interested to see how it all works and the parent/teacher reactions. The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Jessica Nocera and Kenya Hunter say those K–3 students, dubbed Cohort No. 2, could return as soon as October 12th. They also say that "611 Chesterfield teachers have either resigned or retired as of September 21." I don't know how much turnover the County experiences in a "normal" year, but 611 sounds like a lot (insert my constant pleas for a denominator here)!
Over the weekend, the RTD dropped their 5th District questionnaires for City Council and for School Board. That Council race has winnowed to just three—Stephanie Lynch, Jer'Mykeal McCoy, and Mamie Taylor, with Taylor not responding to the RTD's questions. Also of interest to election watchers (and voters, so, like, that should be pretty much everyone), Richmond Magazine has released their Q&A with all of the mayoral candidates. I'll continue to add this sort of info to the Big List of Richmond's 2020 Candidates so folks have a single spot to soak up as much candidate info as possible.
Speaking of, City Council will meet today at 6:00 PM for their regularly scheduled meeting. You can find the full agenda, as it stands at this moment, right here. Of note, ORD. 2020-153, which would rename the portion of Jefferson Davis Highway in the city, has been continued until December (this was on the recommendation of the Land Use, Housing, and Transportation Committee, something I missed earlier). I'm not sure why this paper needed continuing, and the cynical part of me says the impending election has something to do with it (most of Route 1 in the City sits in the 8th District). Also, ORD. 2018-236, Council's longest-running agenda item now having spent 749 days floating around various dockets, has again been continued until October 12th. It's been almost a year since this paper even went to a committee! Can we get an agenda item mercy rule or something? You can check a couple of other ordinances and resolutions I'm watching on this Trello board, but I imagine tonight's big discussion will center around rezoning the area adjacent to the Science Museum, Allison Street, and VCU & VUU Pulse stations. Council should most definitely approve the collections of papers that make this happen, but I'd guess some councilmembers will hear the inevitable complaints from NIMBYs and neighborhood associations and ask for More Community Engagement In These Troubling Times. I hope to be proven wrong, though!
Big bike lane news! Starting today and continuing through January, the Department of Public Works will begin installing the 1st and 3rd Street bike lanes. Expect off-and-on lane closures on 1st from Duval to Franklin and on 3rd from Franklin to Broad. I think this is just the first half of this particular set of bike lanes, which will eventually connect Duval Street (just south across the highway from Gilpin Court) all the way to Spring Street (over the other highway and down by the Virginia War Memorial). We lack real north-south connective bike infrastructure downtown, so I'm stoked on this! And, residents and businesses owners who are not stoked, please don't freak out: "Residential and emergency access along both 1st and 3rd streets will be maintained at all times. The city will work diligently to minimize adverse impacts on businesses and residents."
Michael Paul Williams wrote about annexation over the weekend. Along with zoning, I've got to link you to each piece of annexation content. This is one of them!
Leadership Metro Richmond has announced their Laura Robins Speaker Series, which, this year, focuses on equity. Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the The 1619 Project, will headline (!) on November 17th, but you can register now ($25 for full-time students, $50 for the rest of us). I imagine they'll sell out and sell out quickly, so if that sounds like something you're interested in, get to clicking!
The United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg has a fun volunteer opportunity for a couple of folks: Installing Little Free Libraries around the region. They're still looking for a few handy hands Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Maybe that's you? We've got three LFLs in our neighborhood, and, while in no way meant to replace the actual library down the street, they add a nice booky texture to the area. I highly recommend!
This morning's longread
We now know what Trump was trying to hide by holding back his tax returns
Here's the quick Vox summary of the New York Times's huge Trump Tax Returns story. The original—which is probably important to read—is long, and you'll need to set aside a good chunk of time to both read it and process your anger afterwards.
After more than four years, Buettner, Craig, and McIntire of the Times got the goods. Their story reveals the following: Trump did indeed pay zero in income taxes from 2011-2014, and the paltry amount of $750 in 2016 and 2017. He pulled this off by claiming that his businesses lost massive amounts of money. He has $421 million in debt coming due in the next few years, and he could owe $100 million more to the US government if he loses his audit battle with the IRS. There are ample political reasons in here for Trump to have been so reluctant to release these tax returns.
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