Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and, whoa, today you can expect highs around 90 °F. That sounds a lot like summer! Stay cool, and stay hydrated.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 491 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 6 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 58 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 26, Henrico: 27, and Richmond: 5). Since this pandemic began, 1,311 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 454. How have y'all—at least those of you who are fully vaccinated—been handling the new mask guidance? I've been to a couple of place since the Governor brought Virginia's mask policy inline with the CDC, and I've continued to wear a mask whenever I go indoors. Thus far I've not been met with looks or confronted about how it's technically no longer necessary—but I am a white guy, which means my experience in the world is way different than a lot of folks. Honestly, I feel pretty comfortable and safe settling into a summer of outdoor hangs and quick, masked-up errands inside (I do realize this has been a lot of folks' reality for the past year). Part of this new-to-me freedom only comes because my son is 12-years-old and has already had his first shot. Parents of younger kids don't necessarily have the same feeling of freedom and are caught in a guidance no-man's land, which is frustrating. Emily Oster addresses it in her newsletter today, saying "CDC: Could you please, please provide some more guidance for those of us with kids under 12, who cannot be vaccinated? And especially for those with kids under 2?" She also points to this piece in the New York Times by David Leonhardt who asks similar questions.
Over in vaccine world, I missed an important milestone: Over 50% of all Virginians have receive at least one dose of a COIVD-19 vaccine! That's huge! Perhaps even huger, 64.3% of adults have had at least one dose—which is already pretty dang close to Biden's goal of having 70% of adults with at least one dose by July 4th. Here's a look locally at percentage of total population with at least one dose: Richmond, 41.2%; Henrico, 50.8%; and Chesterfield, 47.7%.
The drama surrounding George Wythe, the School Board, and the rest of our elected government continues. Yesterday, the Mayor and Councilmembers Newbille, Robertson, and Lynch put out the following statement: “Monday evening, five members of the School Board – Representatives White, Gibson, Young, Rizzi and Harris-Muhammed – declined to consider or even discuss the city’s proposal to collaborate on school construction. Simply put, this refusal jeopardizes our collective ability to open a new George Wythe High School in August 2024. Our children and their families deserve better. Denying constituents the right to be heard on a significant policy shift that directly impacts district finances and student welfare is also deeply disappointing and concerning. By contrast, the good-faith efforts of Chairwoman Burke and Representatives Doerr, Jones and Page to discuss compromise and consider the city’s proposal reflects a shared commitment to the Wythe community. As elected leaders, we will continue to stay focused on our children, and consider all options that gets them into the facilities they deserve, as soon as possible." While those five School Board members seem determined to go down this path—in my opinion—they should really think through what impact their actions now will have on their future relationship with City Council and the Mayor. School Board is entirely dependent on both the Mayor and Council to fund their budget, and I've watched enough budget seasons to know that this moment right now, with School Board refusing to even discuss the compromise on the table, will almost certainly lead to consequences next budget season. I don't know what those consequences will be, but Richmond is filled with long memories.
The Department of Parks & Rec has requested a final location, character, and extent review from the Urban Design Commission "for permission for the ability to remove a monument and pedestal" from alllll of the City-owned monument locations. First, it's interesting that the responsibility for physically getting rid of the monuments fell to Parks & Rec. Second, and importantly, "this application for review does not speculate where any of these assets may or should end up...[and] this application does not propose what should exist on these sites in the future." What you'll see in the aforelinked PDF is not the foreverplans, but what will exist after the monuments and their plinths are trucked away to whatever top secret location to be dealt with later giving our community space to figure out what to do with some of these spots permanently. So what do you see in these plans instead? Intersections return to intersections (like at Laburnum & Hermitage and Arthur Ashe Boulevard & Monument), grassy circles become grassier with maybe some shrubs (like at Davis & Monument and Stuart Circle), and little monuments in existing parks just disappear. It looks like UDC will consider all of the monuments separately at their June 10th meeting.
Yesterday, hundreds of folks marched in support of Palestine down at Monroe Park, and VPM's Alan Rodriguez has the details. Rodriguez also has quotes from a handful of Virginia's elected Democrats as they try and find their own public positions.
I have one, tiny budget-related news item to share with you: City Council's Finance and Economic Development committee meets today and will consider RES. 2021-R028, a non-binding resolution to ask the Mayor to put $7.1 million dollars from the not-yet-received American Rescue Plan money into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. This is a good use of future ARP money, and one supported by a bunch of Councilmembers. That said, I still want a thoughtful, holistic, future-looking process set up to handle ARP money—not a piecemeal, hungry hippo free-for-all (to borrow a phrase from a pal).
I'm late in letting you know about this, but Bike Walk RVA and artist Silly Genius will paint two street murals in the Bellmeade community tomorrow and Saturday. They're looking for volunteers to help paint and direct traffic—can you help them out?
Richard Meagher, writing for the Virginia Mercury, has some early prognostications about this fall's gubernatorial elections in Virginia. Idk! I am still traumatized from 2016 and will not prognosticate on anything, but I am not nearly as confident as Meagher.
FYI: The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts will host a community testing event today at the East Henrico Health Department (1400 N. Laburnum Avenue) from 2:00–4:00 PM.
This morning's longread
How Parking Destroys Cities
Apropos of our current discussions, The Atlantic published a story about parking minimums two days ago! I just opened the paper and there it was!
Because parking requirements make driving less expensive and development more so, cities get more driving, less housing, and less of everything that makes urbanity worthwhile. This process is subtle. Many mayors today declare their support for walkable downtowns and affordable units. But cities are built at the parcel, not from mayors’ podiums. And parcel by parcel, the zoning code quietly undermines the mayors’ grand vision. A commercial requirement of one parking space per 300 square feet means developers will put new retail in a car-friendly, pedestrian-hostile strip mall. And a requirement of one parking space per 100 square feet for restaurants means the typical eating establishment will devote three times as much space to parking as it will to dining. America did not become a country of strip malls and office parks because we collectively lost aesthetic ambition. These developments are ubiquitous because they are the cheapest way to comply with regulations.
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