Good morning, RVA! It's 45 °F, and after this morning's clouds clear, today looks pretty great. Expect highs in the 70s, some sunshine, and a chance to spend some time outside in a garden.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 336 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 7 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 36 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 16, Henrico: 15, and Richmond: 5). Since this pandemic began, 1,295 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 723. I say don't get too distracted by today's extremely low number of new reported cases (just 14 new reported hospitalizations and 7 new reported deaths, too). Keep your eyes on those seven day averages, which, thankfully, also continue to decrease.
Last night, the FDA authorized the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use in kids 12–15. Amazing! The next step here is for the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to give Pfizer For Kids the go ahead, and then pharmacies, pediatricians, and health departments across the country can start vaccinating tweens and teens. ACIP has a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, which you can watch live if you really want! I'd expect a similar announcement from the FDA about Moderna, too, in the coming weeks. I also wanted to mention two round numbers that our stupid human brains, for some reason, are designed to care about: over 4 million Virginians have received at least one dose of the vaccine and over 3 million Virginians are fully vaccinated.
I've got the teensiest of budget news: City Council met last night and approved the Richmond Public Schools budget. Kenya Hunter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the details. Hunter reports that Councilmember Lynch has the same question I have about this version of the school budget and recent push for schools to run the facilities procurement and construction process: "Fifth District Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch sparked the discussion by asking whether the schools’ proposal would need to be revised to pay for people to oversee construction." I don't see the answer in this RTD piece—but it seems like an important thing to know? Right? If Schools needs to hire approx 10 new people, that seems like a hefty budget increase (or a hefty cut from somewhere else). Anyway, I'll go listen back to The Boring Show once I get it online later today and try to dig up some answers that way.
Michael Martz, also at the RTD, has an update on the American Rescue Plan money headed to Virginia. Our state's independent city system, which is unique in the nation, means weird things happen when we compare our data to other cities' data. Usually it means we make top lists like the Most Number of Tattoo Parlors Per Capita (small denominator). I also suspect it has at least something to do with why five of Virginia's cities made the top ten list of highest rate of eviction judgments in that NYT evictions piece a while back. It also means that Virginia's cities get two ARP payments from the federal government: One for being a city and one for being a county. That means Richmond will see something like $155 million over the next couple of years! City Council will most likely have a some meetings after they pass this year's budget to discuss how to spend that sweet, sweet ARP money—so keep an eye out. Despite wanting to take a holistic look at how a once-in-a-generation influx of cash could impact Richmond, several councilmembers have already earmarked bits and pieces of ARP money for projects here and there. We'll see how big-picture they can stay once all this money eventually drops in their laps.
Richmond BizSense's Jonathan Spiers reports on a new plan for apartments at 17th and E. Grace Street aka the former Weiman's Bakery property (which also includes a bunch of surface-level parking lots). The developer plans to build 145 apartments, commercial store fronts, and only 85 parking spaces. I think that's not even a sarcastic "only"! Just a little over half a parking space per unit seems pretty good for Richmond. I'd love for folks to share with me examples of developers making it work with even less parking.
The Virginia GOP has settled on Glenn Youngkin as their gubernatorial nominee, and Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has a bit of a bio piece on him. Youngkin has basically no political experience, no voting record, and tons of personal wealth to contribute—all things the statewide Republican Party feels like they need to be competitive. Here's all you need to know about Youngkin: "He launched his campaign with a focus on election security and has refused to say whether he believes President Joe Biden won the election legitimately." Shameful.
This morning's longread
A current list of my top problems in pressthink
I've followed Jay Rosen for yeas now, and his thoughts on how media works (or should work) are fascinating—and usually dead on. Read this piece on some of the problems he sees for media in the immediate post-Trump world.
By anti-democratic I mean willing to destroy democratic institutions to prevail in the contest for power. This is true, not only of individual politicians, but of the party as a whole. As (Republican) and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson writes, “For the activist base of the Republican Party, affirming that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential contest has become a qualification for membership in good standing.” A qualification for membership. Journalists had adapted to the old system by developing a “both sides” model of news coverage. It locates the duties of a non-partisan press in the middle between roughly similar parties with competing philosophies. That mental model still undergirds almost all activity in political journalism. But it is falling apart.
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