Good morning, RVA! It's 37 °F, and welcome to a foggy first workday of 2021. Today, and for the rest of the week, you can expect dry days and temperatures in the 40s.
Water cooler
The Richmond Police Department reported a murder this past Thursday. At 4:40 AM on the 2900 block of Richmond Highway, Eusebio Calderon, a man in his 60s, was found suffering from a fatal gunshot wound. I think that puts the final number of people murdered in 2020 in Richmond at 66. That's five more than in 2019.
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 5,010 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 7 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 403 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 131, Henrico: 170, and Richmond: 102). Since this pandemic began, 564 people have died in the Richmond region. A lot has happened in virusland since last we spoke. In Virginia, we've seen over 5,000 new reported cases three out of the last four days (December 31st was our first day ever over 5,000). At 38.6 the seven-day average of new deaths across the state is higher than it's ever been before. We're seeing the same sort of thing locally, too, with a seven-day average of new reported cases of 434—twice what it was just a month ago. Here's the statewide stacked graph and the local new reported cases graph to give you some context. And, in a horrible first for the Commonwealth, a sitting state senator, Republican Ben Chafin Jr., died from the virus on Friday. But it's not all awful news: In just a couple weeks, over 87,000 Virginians have received their first dose of the COIVD-19 vaccine. You can follow Virginia's vaccination progress on this new VDH dashboard—which means I started a couple new tabs in my spreadsheet over the holiday.
Today, Richmond's new City Council and School Board members will get sworn in, and we'll kick off the next four years with our new set of elected officials. It's like the beginning of a new sports season—so much excitement, so much potential! You know, everyone starts the season undefeated. Welcome: Katherine Jordan, Anne Lambert, Mariah White, Stephanie Rizzi, Shonda Harris, and Nicole Jones (all women!). For the latter set of folks, Kenya Hunter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a nice Get to Know Your School Board Member piece.
Speaking of School Board, tonight the (new) Board will have a closed-door session to consider the particulars of extending Superintendent Jason Kamras's contract. This should be a no-brainer vote for the Board—even for the new folks. It's absolutely terrifying to think about how some of the previous leaders of RPS would have shepherded the District through the last 10 crisis-filled months. Unfortunately, no-brainer this decision is not for some board members, and now this #KeepKamras petition exists for folks to sign. While I don't think the Board will dare fire the guy, there is some concern floating around that they'll only extend his contract by two years instead of four. I think that's ludicrous. The last thing we need to be doing come next summer is looking for a new superintendent to replace the best one we've had in ages. It'll take years and years to undo some of the damages caused by the pandemic, and we don't need a shift in leadership right in the middle of that work. So: Sign the petition, and email your school board rep (but keep in mind the new folks probably won't have email addresses until tomorrow).
Wyatt Gordon has a nice overview of the state of transit in the region over at Greater Greater Washington. The tl;dr: Folks are still riding the bus, we still aren't spending enough money on public transit, GRTC's CEO is doing a good job, and how the region decides to spend their new regional transportation money is the biggest question mark of all.
Also transportation-related: Virginia's handheld driving ban went into effect on the 1st. It is now against the law to hold your phone while driving, and it is a primary offense for which you can be pulled over. Put down the phone!
I guess the pre-RFP engagement phase for Richmond's potential resort casino has ended, because you can download the full, 53-page RFP here (PDF). I haven't read through the whole thing, but I do give half an eye role that one of the goals is to create "opportunities for upward economic mobility and wealth building for Richmond residents." The City's website has a handful of FAQs that are a bit more accessible than this giant RFP PDF.
Finally, via Marc Cheatham, NO BS! Brass released a new video "Applause," and it's a great way to start your week.
This morning's longread
The Very Real, Totally Bizarre Bucatini Shortage of 2020
This bucatini mystery has so many twists and turns! I've never had bucatini, and now it sounds like I won't for a while.
I’d like to go a step further and praise its innate bounciness and personality. If you boil bucatini for 50 percent of the time the box tells you to, cooking it perfectly al dente, you will experience a textural experience like nothing else you have encountered in your natural life. When cooked correctly, bucatini bites back. It is a responsive noodle. It is a self-aware noodle. In these times, when human social interaction carries with it the possible price of illness, bucatini offers an alternative: a social interaction with a pasta.
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