Good morning, RVA! It's 48 °F, and today looks pretty nice with highs in the 50s and dry skies. But how about yesterday's weather?? I thought I wanted at least one more snow before winter packed up and left, but, dang, I could get used to that.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,907 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 149 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 201 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 73, Henrico: 58, and Richmond: 70). Since this pandemic began, 851 people have died in the Richmond region. The notice about backfilling deaths still sits atop the state's data dashboard page, but the data team has made big progress in filling the gap. Just compare and contrast these two Number of Deaths by Date of Death graphs, the first from Tuesday and the second from this morning. Now we can see the full (and terrible) shape of deaths that occurred over the winter.
Yesterday, at his now-weekly press conference (do you remember back before Thanksgiving when he said he was just not going to do regularly-scheduled press conferences anymore??), the Governor announced a loosening of some of the state's coronarestrictions. The big ones: he lifted the curfew (which maybe you had already forgotten about), the limit on private social gatherings increases to 25 people, more spectators are allowed at entertainment venues, restaurants can sell alcohol until 12:00 AM (but still must close at 12:00 AM), and overnight summer camps are back on the table. You can read the full release here or just dig right into the full text of the Executive Order here (PDF).
In exciting vaccine news, it sounds like the FDA could authorize the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as soon as this weekend, and then, according to the Gov, we could have it on the ground in Richmond shortly thereafter. With now three different vaccines and two different types of vaccines, which should you get? Whichever one is offered to you! Here's a short video of Dr. Robert Winn, director of the VCU Massey Cancer Center, talking about how all of these vaccines have incredibly high efficacy rates. Plus! The Johnson and Johnson vaccine doesn't need super cold storage and only requires one dose!
More casino entrants! Mike Platania at the Virginia Mercury reports that Golden Nugget and Wind Creek Hospitality both submitted applications for Richmond's resort casino RFP. That brings the total applications we know about to six, with most of them scoping out locations on the City's Southside. I still haven't seen a big list of all the actual proposal documents (and neither has Platania), but I assume that's coming soon.
Earlier this week, Sarah Vogelsong at the Virginia Mercury wrote about "advanced recycling," which sounds made up. But, turns out, it's a real thing, and "on the most elementary level, the process involves putting shredded plastics into an oxygen-free vessel that is heated until the plastic melts and vaporizes." Well, OK! The very same Sarah Vogelsong has a good explainer on advanced recycling that she wrote back in January that'll give you some background on the industry and on the legislation working it's way through the General Assembly. Neat stuff, but, still, we should all probably be actively limiting the amount of plastic we bring in to our lives.
Ben Dennis at WRIC has a picture of the very first Richmond Highway sign, at its intersection with Bellemeade Road. Dennis says that we should see the rest of the signs replaced in the coming weeks.
The RTD's Holly Prestidge says Hanover County will consider allowing folks to drive golf carts around their subdivisions. A small part of me thinks that this legislation will probably cut down on some really unnecessary car trips—car trips powered by fossil fuels. A much, much larger part of me shouts "But what about bikes!" We could build subdivisions that make it easy and safe for folks to get around without a car, or we could build and legalize tiny electric cars. The most America of solutions!
The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts will host a free community COVID-19 testing event today at Second Baptist Church (3300 Broad Rock Boulevard) from 1:00–3:00 PM. More details on the RHHD website.
This morning's patron longread
Inspired by COVID biking boom, cycling bills reintroduced in Congress
Submitted by Patron Brantley. Listen, if I don't know enough about how the state government works, I double definitely don't know enough about how the federal government works. However, this is still a useful read that explains how a change in federal policy can have an impact on our small, local transportation systems.
Getting bike-share codified as a mode of transit could be crucial for funding purposes, said Caron Whitaker, vice president of government relations for the League of American Bicyclists. She said federal funding up to this point has only been usable for docking stations and not for the bikes themselves, as transit funding cannot be spent on any single-occupancy vehicle. Having bike-share defined in federal law as a mode of transit could also enable dockless systems to be eligible for federal funding, Whitaker said.
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