Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and today looks lovely. Expect sunshiney highs in the 70s and no chance for rain until Friday. This looks like a great afternoon to spend on the patio of your choosing.
Water cooler
Yesterday, COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 5–11 cleared their first hurdle as an FDA advisory committee voted to recommend the shots. The New York Times has the details. Sounds like the committee was at it for hours and, while they ended up voting unanimously in favor of kid vax, some folks had concerns about the number of kids involved the clinical trials and whether or not all kids 5–11 needed vaccination or just high-risk children. Honestly, I think regular folks and families would have lost their minds if the vote had gone a different way, and I'm not really sure what to do with that feeling. Next up, the full FDA will need to give its authorization, and then we're on to the CDC's advisory committee which already has meetings on the books for November 2nd and 3rd. Barring an unexpected plot twist, we should see shots in little arms by the end of next week.
Chris Suarez at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports on GRTC's board meeting (which you can watch in full here) and has the disappointing news about proposed bus service cuts due "an ongoing shortage of drivers and mechanics amid the COVID-19 pandemic." Riders could see reduction of frequency across a bunch of routes (#4A, #4B, #5, #20, #76, #77, #78, and #88) and even the Pulse—which could have its headway cut back to 15-minutes or 30-minutes off-peak. Yuck. GRTC CEO Julie Timm expects cuts to be temporary, but, dang, still, any cuts in bus service make me worry about our ability to restore them at a later date. While we're at it, take a look at this graph comparing systemwide ridership over the last four years. While bus ridership has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, it has increased compared to last year, which I think is a good sign.
Also in the RTD, Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams does a better job at what I was trying to get at yesterday while writing about Critical Race Theory and Chesterfield County: "Never mind that critical race theory as a curriculum is nonexistent in K-12 education in Virginia (or pretty much anywhere else). Republicans have employed it as a catchall phrase to challenge educators who would teach about America’s history of systemic racism. The all-but-spoken goal: Make history white again." And the closer is just so good and true: "Frankly, it seems like racial insensitivity, intentional ignorance, gatekeeping and bullying are in full flower in Chesterfield, where the school district’s teaching materials were deemed “culturally insufficient” in an internal audit last year. An all-white School Board overseeing a majority-minority school district has enacted a policy that would prevent its employees from potentially learning more about systemic racism. Ignorance is not the answer. Ignorance is the problem."
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense sat down for an interview with the CEO of Urban One, aka the Casino people. I voted no, of course, but this is still an interesting read given that I think the casino referendum will easily pass.
As foretold, a subcommittee of the newly-formed Cannabis Oversight Commission is already looking for ways to speed up the launch of Virginia's legal retail market for marijuana. Richmond BizSense's Jack Jacobs has the details, including Sen. McClellan's concern that opening up early retail sales to the existing medical dispensaries gives them an advantage and damages our equity goals. I agree with both things! Let's speed up the retail market and do it in an equitable way.
Richmond BizSense hat-trick! Have you ever wondered what the inside of the penthouse at the Prestwould (the building overlooking Monroe Park) looked like? Jonathan Spiers has some pictures that you're gonna want to see.
Do you know a history maker? Nominations for the Valentine's annual History Makers awards are open through 11:59 PM October 29th (that's Friday). You can nominate an individual, organization, or corporation in one of the following categories: Creating Quality Educational Opportunities, Demonstrating Innovative Economic Solutions, Improving Regional Transportation, Championing Social Justice, Promoting Community Health, and Advancing Our Quality of Life. I feel like I write about folks doing these sorts of things every single week, so I know we're not lacking for nominees.
This morning's longread
It’s time to create an alternative path into a journalism career
While I am certainly not a journalist, I love thinking about journalism. This piece explores one way we could overcome some of the systemic barriers to getting more underrepresented folks into newsrooms. The sum of our local news reporting has certainly improved with the semi-recent addition of more voices that aren't white men.
The most famous teacher alt-cert program is Teach for America, so one might think of the analogous Report for America, which currently places hundreds of young journalists into local newsrooms around the country, picking up part of the tab. I think Report for America is terrific, and they should be vigorously applauded for placing reporters who are waaaay more diverse than the newsrooms they’re entering — or, frankly, than who those newsrooms would be hiring on their own. (45% of the current group are people of color.) But RFA is aimed at someone with more experience than your typical j-school master’s student. “Corps members are typically emerging journalists with fewer than 8 years’ experience,” the site’s FAQ says. “We want people who can have an impact on Day One, which means some meaningful journalism experience.”
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