Good morning, RVA! It's 36 °F, but today—and the next several days—looks amazing. Expect highs in the 70s until at least Friday and lows no lower than somewhere in the 50s. With the sun setting after 6:00 PM, there’s a real and good opportunity to knock off of work a bit early and spend some time outside. Do it!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 892 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 87 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 90 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 37, Henrico: 33, and Richmond: 20). Since this pandemic began, 1,125 people have died in the Richmond region. Whoa, a triple digit case count. Haven't seen one of those since the end of October.
Yesterday, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts, along with the Chesterfield and Chickahominy Health Districts, announced that they've expanded vaccine eligibility to more folks in Phase 1b. For Richmond, Henrico, and Chickahominy that's all of Phase 1b, for Chesterfield that's just frontline essential workers groups one through six. So, to put it all in one place: Eligible folks in Richmond and Henrico now include people over the age of 65, frontline essential workers from all 11 groups, and people aged 16–64 with underlying conditions or disabilities that increase their risk of severe illness from COVID-19. That's a lot of humans—almost half of all Virginians! Additionally, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts included "food service" folks in 1b (previously part of 1c), which includes restaurant staff—both front and back of house. That's a big deal, I think! Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some of the details, including the rationale for shifting restaurant workers up into 1b: "...tight workspaces among restaurant workers—where social distancing from customers without masks is almost impossible, create a high-risk environment for COVID-19. Most food service workers are uninsured or underinsured and lack paid sick leave...many areas of Richmond and Henrico are underserved by grocery stores, restaurants are often important points of access to food for lower-income communities." At the moment, and, with any luck, for the foreseeable future, vaccine supply is plentiful, but, should it become constrained again, you can read how the Richmond and Henrico Health District will equitably prioritize vaccine doses across all of these newly eligible folks. Your next step, should you want to be vaccinated: Fill out the statewide pre-registration form so you can get in the system!
Last night City Council approved ORD. 2020-261, which modifies the City's zoning ordinance to allow for emergency, transitional, and permanent supportive housing to be built by right in more places. Roberto Roldan at VPM puts it well: "Right now, when someone wants to open a homeless shelter or transitional housing they have to go through a special permitting process. Even if they pass that hurdle, Richmond City Council can also block the development. Allowing these types of emergency and supportive housing 'by right' would eliminate those barriers....The goal of the legislation is to stop the game of hot potato city officials have been playing with homeless services for years." Roldan's whole piece is worth reading, if just to remind yourself of how much gross hot potato our local legislative body has played with some of the most vulnerable Richmonders.
Everyone should take 30 minutes and read through this RVA Recovery Budget Investment Proposal (PDF) document from the folks at Richmond Together. They've put together a vision for how to equitably invest in specific services and programs over the next two years to rebuild and recover from the impacts the pandemic has had locally. In their words: "We are pleased to present this comprehensive investment proposal, designed to address many of the most severe consequences of the current crises and to also lay the groundwork for progress that helps Richmond begin to address long-standing racial and economic disparities." Y'all, I do not know the last time I saw a local document like this that laid out specific strategies to address inequity, how much it would cost to implement those strategies, and then also where that money would come from. Some of the strategies I dig: A COVID recovery special fund for the Health District to manage, expanding the Mayor's Youth Academy, increasing the City's contribution to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, supporting child care providers in financial jeopardy, and free municipal wifi. Some of the funding mechanisms that I find clever: a continued hiring freeze, a 3% one-time reduction in the Richmond Police Department's budget, and "a Racial Equity Tax Increment Financing Zone along Monument Avenue so that increased property tax revenues resulting from planned reimagining of Monument Avenue area may fund Racial Equity and Community Wealth Building activities." Importantly: "We do not rule out potential tax increases in the future, but believe the need for them can be offset in whole or in part by successful implementation of other measures." I'll take it. Anyway, read this document and the accompanying explainer in Style Weekly and think about it often as we move through budget season.
Scooter alert! Richmond BizSense's Jack Jacobs says Lime scooters have hit the ground in Richmond. Unfortunately they don't have plans yet to bring in dockless bikes, but it sounds like that's not completely off the table. The operational area for this particular scooter fleet is constrained to south of 95, parts of Church Hill, parts of Forest Hill, and most of Manchester. Two thoughts: First, I think Bolt is the only scooter company to allow free range of the entire city; Second, surely a way exists to just have one scooter app on my phone? Do I really need a fleet of apps just to take the scooter nearest me?
Jonathan Spiers, also at Richmond BizSense, has an update on the Short Pump Town Center planning charrett. Look at all the stuff they can fit into what's now just surface parking! Incredible. If you really want to, you can watch the full hourlong presentation over on YouTube.
Last week I posted a picture of a nandina plant and captioned it with "Never-wake-up berries?", which is a weak Blue Lagoon (1980) joke. Turns out nandina are never-wake-up berries...but for birds! The folks at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden pointed me towards this post from their Dirty Dozen series which explains how nandina is not only poisonous but an invasive non-native. What the heck! Time to break out the shovel, do some digging, and open up some space in my back yard—this stuff is everywhere.
This morning's patron longread
Buttigieg Says US DOT Should Support ‘Right-Sizing’ City Asphalt
Submitted by Patron Brantley. I’m not going to count my road depavings before they hatch, but it’s wild to hear Secretary Mayor Pete even mention getting rid of some asphalt.
Under current DOT formulas, states receive federal dollars based on factors like their total lane miles and the total vehicle miles travelled by drivers each year — a system that all but guarantees that when communities spend those dollars, they’ll prioritize expansion over simple maintenance (much less asphalt subtraction) wherever possible, regardless of the harm done to vulnerable communities by urban heat island effects, pollution, traffic violence, and the countless other impacts of overbuilding our road network. Between 2009 to 2014 (the last year for which final data is available), states spent about $120 billion on road repair and roughly the same amount on road construction, despite the fact that it should have taken an estimated $231.4 billion every year simply to bring the car-focused streets we already had up to par — a problem that hasn’t gotten any better in the years since.
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