Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, but this afternoon looks excellent. Expect highs in the mid 70s and a wonderful evening to spend sitting on the porch. Watch out for tomorrow night, though, when a cold front moves through—especially if you’ve already put in your garden!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 978 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 14 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 141 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 50, Henrico: 53, and Richmond: 38). Since this pandemic began, 1,260 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 1,464. Mel Leonor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a quick report from the Governor’s COVID-19 press conference yesterday. Of note, the Gov said “We’re making a few small tweaks to guidelines. We’ll have more to say about that in the coming weeks.” Plus the Gov tweaked existing restrictions to allow, and this is not a joke or a typo, 68 runners at the starting line of a cross country event instead of 50. I would love to know how they got to 68. Plus, “performances, like drama and musicals, will be reclassified as athletic events rather than social events,” increasing the amount of spectators allowed. The thought of drama as athletics makes me laugh, too, but it didn’t make any sense why basketball players could have their families and friends come watch them perform while oboists could not.
FYI: The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will hold an emergency meeting to discuss the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on April 23rd at 11:00 AM–5:00 PM. Woof, that’s a long meeting.
The RTD’s Kenya Hunter has updates on the RPS School Board’s recently passed resolution to take control of procurement and construction of school facilities. Yesterday afternoon, members of school board, council, and the mayor held a press conference outside of George Wythe High School to advocate against the Board’s resolution, which would most likely delay construction of a replacement building for Wythe while RPS staffs up to handle overseeing that whole process. Side note: Just getting members from all our elected bodies together to advocate for a single thing is kind of impressive. Anyway, last night, School Board had a discussion about how to move forward without delaying construction of Wythe’s replacement, and, to be completely honest, I fell asleep before they got to the good parts. I hate how School Board continually has these very important conversations in the middle of the night / 10:00 PM! So, maybe they came to some sort of consensus last night, but it was after my bedtime and after reporter deadlines, so, for now, your guess is as good as mine.
Hey now, this seems like big news: The City has acquired 1305 N. 5th Street “the known location of the historic Burial Ground for Freed People of Color.” This is the small lot bounded by Fifth, Hospital, the highway, and the railroad tracks. Over the years this site, which was established as a burial ground for enslaved people and freed people of color in 1816, has been isolated, nipped, tucked, built upon, and all but forgotten as sacred space. The DC2RVA high-speed rail project will, potentially, as have a half dozen other transportation projects over the last 200 years, impact this site. With the City now in control of the land, I feel like there’s at least the possibility to bend the rail around the historic site.
City Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meets today and will consider ORD. 2021-086, which will accept about $2 million from the Department of Rail and Public Transportation to paint the Pulse lanes red. This is the easiest kind of ordinance to pass—one that accepts money from the state to do a thing—so I’m confident LUHT will smile upon it. But, just like in the General Assembly, bills can die quickly and in interesting ways, so I’ll continue to keep an eye on this one. I’m already emotionally invested in its outcome.
Related, Chris Suarez at the RTD, has some interesting news on Henrico’s involvement in GRTC. The County has had a growing interest and investment in bus service over the last couple of years—which is great—and I think it does make sense for them to be more directly involved in the decision-making process moving forward. That said, that vast, vast majority of the bus service is in the City, and the City should have a lot a lot of say in what happens to that bus service. Figuring out this leadership structure will be complicated, especially since running even infrequent bus service out to far-flung suburban centers in Henrico will be expensive. With just a couple of new routes, Henrico could be spending more than the City, but have far fewer actual bus routes for humans to use. In fact, Suarez reports that the County “expects to allocate $13.9 million to GRTC in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.”
I’m continually impressed with the way the City’s Office of Sustainability communicates around their RVAgreen 2050 initiative. In their most recent email, which you can sign up for right here, they included this map highlighting where in the City the feedback on RVAgreen 2050 is coming from. It’s not the most diverse map, with most of the feedback coming from the whiter parts of the city—the Fan, the 4th District, Forest Hill, and the Northside. This is pretty much par for the course when it comes to online civic surveys in Richmond, but I don’t think I’ve seen folks—especially folks working for the City—be so transparent and upfront with this data while a survey is ongoing. I love it. You can weigh in on RVAgreen 2050 (regardless of where in Richmond you live) here.
This morning's longread
Thieves Nationwide Are Slithering Under Cars, Swiping Catalytic Converters
My Nextdoor is awash in complaints from folks—especially Prius owners—who have had their catalytic converters stolen. Turns out, it’s a nationwide trend. Who knew!
Determined to deter future thieves, Mr. Fontanive, who often uses metal in his artworks, drew on his metalworking skills. He bought an aftermarket metal guard for his catalytic converter, then made his own modifications, with security screws and hardened steel bell pins that would be hard to saw through. “I really went overboard,” he said. “If they look under my Prius now, they’re just going to be like: ‘No way.’” For car owners who aren’t trained in metalworking, or don’t want to dole out money for a metal guard, the police advise parking in secure garages or well-lit areas. Etching a vehicle identification number or license plate ID on the converter could also help track it down if it does get stolen.
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