Good morning, RVA! It's 28 °F, and temperatures should warm up a little once the sun has a chance to get up and going later this morning. We are officially under a Winter Storm Watch that expires at 1:00 PM on Friday, and, as of this movement, we could see three to five inches of snow starting tomorrow afternoon. NBC12 puts us in the two-to-six inches band.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 3,291 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 78 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 440 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 222, Henrico: 133, and Richmond: 85). Since this pandemic began, 714 people have died in the Richmond region.
The seven-day average of new reported cases continues to mostly fall, but, worryingly, hospitalizations are on the rise and have topped 100 five of the last seven days. In fact, new hospitalizations haven't really followed the peak-and-fall pattern of cases over the last few weeks at all, instead, staying on a 100+ plateau since the second week of December. VDH's pandemic metrics dashboard says that 87% of the Central Region's hospital beds are occupied and that number has increased over the last 15 days. Also, our statewide hospitalization graph looks nothing like the nationwide graph put together by the COVID Tracking Project—not that it always should, but it definitely doesn't at the moment. Something to keep an eye on.
Yesterday, I said this about CVS's attempts to open up an additional way for folks over the age of 65 to get vaccinated: "Details are scarce—just like vaccine—which I'm sure won't make for a stressful situation at all." Then, just a couple hours later, CVS opened up their appointments—apparently to whoever was willing to check a couple of boxes—and instantly, like a PS5 on Target.com, those appointments vanished into people's online shopping carts. Dr. Danny Avula describes the botched rollout, which favored "people who get up super early...trolling the internet," saying "This is not a system that allows equitable access. That’s what we’re fighting for and, unfortunately, we weren’t able to work it out in this scenario." Michael Martz and Sarbina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch have more details on how that all could have gone a whole lot better. This sucks, but, the only reason it sucks is that we have such an extremely limited supply of vaccine right now. Please keep that in mind—and who's responsible for that—every time you're filled with fury thinking about seniors getting up in the middle of the night to refresh their browsers over and over, hoping to find an appointment.
I didn't listen to last night's RPS School Board meeting, but luckily the RTD's Kenya Hunter has the update on how the District plans on dealing with the Governor's request to open schools to in-person learning by March 15th. It seems like the Superintendent and the School Board are on the same page (!?) that getting folks into buildings in less than 40 days doesn't seem possible. Not only from a health safety perspective—millions of dollars of HVAC upgrades are still pending—but just from a logistics perspective: "The district is 27 custodians short of meeting industry standards, the board heard Tuesday." Now I'm interested in what happens if districts just decide to not listen to the Governor? Is a good faith effort toward getting the pieces lined up for in-person school next year enough? Meanwhile, down in Chesterfield County, that District's School Board voted unanimously to open up the option of in-person instruction to middle and high school students beginning March 9th.
Via /r/rva a video of Slaughterama in 2006. Slaughterama—which doesn't exist any more (or I'm now too old to know about it)—was an open-air, beer-fueled bike festival/olympics. It was one of my favorite things about 2000s-era Richmond! But, looking back, it's also a clear example of how white people can pretty much do whatever they want in public space with absolutely no consequences.
Yesterday, the Senate's second impeachment trial of Donald Trump got underway, and you can read the recap over on impeachment.fyi. Of note, House Managers (the folks acting as the prosecution) showed this intense, hard-to-watch video of the January 6th insurrection. It's not a pleasant way to start your morning, but it's probably something that you should find the time to watch.
This morning's longread
How the Federal Government Could Help Kill the Highways It Built
Whoa! Federal money to study undoing the damage caused by running highways through Black and Brown neighborhoods! Should this money actually end up existing, Richmond should go after it with an eye toward capping I-95/I-64 between 1st and St. James Street as recommended by Richmond 300 (PDF, p. 126).
Now, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has unveiled legislation that would reverse this decades-old infrastructure formula, offering billions in federal dollars for cities willing to demolish those urban highways. As Streetsblog reported on Jan. 11, the Economic Justice Act, a spending package worth over $435 billion, includes a $10 billion pilot program that would provide funds for communities to examine transit infrastructure that has divided them along racial and economic lines and potentially alter or remove them. It would also help pay for plans to redevelop reclaimed land. The program contains specific language requiring projects funded through it prioritize equity and avoid displacement. It also provides grants meant to facilitate community engagement and participation as well as construction.
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