Good morning, RVA! It's 42 °F, maybe a little foggy, maybe a little rainy depending on where you're sitting. You can expect similar temperatures and a bit drier skies as the day moves along.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 3,771 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 8 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 419 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 153, Henrico: 165, and Richmond: 101). Since this pandemic began, 565 people have died in the Richmond region. I hadn't checked on it in a while, but the seven-day average percent positivity across the state has reached 15.8%! We haven't seen that sort of percent positivity since back in May when the state was doing far, far fewer tests. Some of this, I'm sure, is related to the holidays—a combination of data reporting issues and people having less time to go get tested. But still! Disease spread is real bad. The set of maps on VDH's pandemic metrics dashboard right now are grimly useless, with the entire state awash in red or deep blue. Again, I have to wonder about the point of "pandemic metrics" if there are no new policies or guidance when the metrics top out their y-axis. Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says the Governor will hold a press conference on Wednesday, so I guess we'll see if he's got new policies and guidance for us then. Also, the aforelinked piece by Moreno is mostly about the rate at which the COVID-19 vaccine has been administered so far in Virginia. I'm hesitant to have too many opinions on it yet, since my spreadsheet has only a few rows in it at this point. A spokesperson for the Gov says they're dealing with—you guessed it—data reporting issues. Given my experience with VDH dashboards over the last 300 days, I definitely believe that.
Yesterday, City Council swore in their new members and picked a president and vice president. Councilmember Newbille retained her seat as president, and she'll be joined by Councilmember Robertson who will serve as vice president. I haven't seen committee assignments yet, but I'm hoping a couple of those to get shuffled around, too. Oh, also! Update your contact cards and spreadsheets, because here are the two new members' email addresses: 2nd District's Katherine Jordan (<katherine.jordan@richmondgov.com data-preserve-html-node="true">) and 3rd District's Ann-Frances Lambert (<ann data-preserve-html-node="true"-frances.lambert@richmondgov.com>). If you live in the 2nd or 3rd, drop them a congratulations email. Roberto Roldan at VPM has an interview with both new councilmembers as they kick things off and head into an incredibly trial-by-fire next couple of months.
I listened to the top half of the Richmond School Board meeting last night, and...it was intense. First, Cheryl Burke and Jonathan Young were selected as chair and vice chair respectively. The vote on the former passed 5-4 illustrating what I think will probably be this group's voting lines (Gibson, Rizzi, White, and Harris-Muhammed voting against)—at least in the short term. Second, the public comment period was absolutely bananas. While I did hear lots of support for a four-year contract extension for superintendent Kamras, there were just tons of hateful comments about National Teacher of the Year Rodney Robinson—most likely organized or egged on by that one failed 1st District rightwinger City Council candidate. Context: Earlier this week, Robinson made a bad joke about Mitch McConnell on Twitter and has since apologized. My biggest takeaway after listening to all of those comments—other than people can be extremely cruel—is that the School Board should adopt similar public comment guidelines to City Council (PDF, p. 4). The Board should also set aside a small number of public comments each meeting for matters not on the agenda (for Council it's eight) and then restrict the rest of the comments, of which there can be an unlimited number, to agenda items.
Lucas Kenley and Morgan Smith have a guest column in the Virginia Mercury about affordable housing with a focus on how Richmond's Maggie Walker Community Land Trust fills an important role in that work. They also highlight some of what the General Assembly has done (like reducing discriminatory housing practices) and what they have failed to do (like inclusionary zoning). All of these things—including the local Affordable Housing Trust Fund—are tools in the tool box, and we should use them all to their fullest extent!
Today, from 1:00–3:00 PM, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts will host a drive-thru COVID-19 testing event at the Eastern Henrico Health Department (1400 N. Laburnum Avenue). Look at those numbers at the top of this email! If you think you might have caught the coronavirus, please, please, please go get tested! If you can't make this testing event, there are a couple more scheduled this week, and you can always work your way through the Big List of Testing Locations.
This morning's longread
LARPing your job
I continue to love Anne Helen Peterson's email newsletter. I really enjoyed a lot in this issue about performing your job for other folks—and for a sense of self worth.
To be clear, I do think that Slack (and video chats) makes it possible for me to 1) Live in Montana and 2) Collaborate with my editors to publish pieces. And I also love bullshitting or discussing articles with my coworkers, and I know that my editors would say that there is no need to compulsively perform on Slack. But I think that people who do “knowledge work” — whose products are often largely ineffable — struggle with the feeling that there’s little to show, little tangible evidence, of the hours of work that they sit in front of their computers. Hence: LARPing your job. The compulsion, I think, is heightened for those of us who worked, jobsearched, or were laid off during the post-2008 recession: we’re desperate to show that we’re worthy of a salaried job, so eager to demonstrate just how much labor and engagement we’re willing to give in exchange for full-time employment and health insurance.
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