Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and highs today will stick around in the 80s. Tomorrow though, tomorrow you should expect unseasonably hot temperatures and all kinds of reasons to stay inside. If you want to get out and around, today's your day!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 76 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 10 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 12 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 4, Henrico: 7, and Richmond: 1). Since this pandemic began, 1,320 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 378. Whoa! Look at these new numbers! Fewer than 100 new reported cases across the Commonwealth and single digit case counts in all three local jurisdictions. The last time my spreadsheet says that happened was over a year ago, on March 27th, just three days after I started tracking local numbers. What great news—let's hope it continues!
Over in vaccine world, I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but the VDH vaccine dashboard now reports that over 50% of Virginians have received at least one dose of the vaccine (53.2%). And, maybe even more exciting if you're into tracking progress towards quasi-arbitrary goals, 65.7% of adults have had at least one dose. With 40 days remaining, I think we'll hit Biden's 70% goal with time to spare. That's more great news that I hope continues!
Today, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a ton of retrospective stories from Richmonders reflecting on the year that's passed since George Floyd was murdered by a police officer. Make sure you carve out some time today to work your way through them all, but, especially, these from Kalia Harris who helped organize mutual aid, artist Jowarnise Caston, Henrico Supervisor Tyrone Nelson, and I'll just quote the one from the Richmond Police Department in its entirety: "Thank you for reaching out about this opportunity. RPD courteously declines to participate in this story at this time."
OK! City Council met last night and did some work. Hilariously, I totally forget they'd planned on passing the budget—which they totally did! So much for being in love with budget season, am I right? Chris Suarez at the RTD has the budget details, none of which have really changed since last we spoke. Aside from the budget papers, It looks like the resolution kicking off the process to get rid of parking minimums passed—which should get retail and restaurant owners excited. The two other papers I've got my eye on, those embarrassing Richmond 300 amendments and requesting that money from the ARP end up in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, both got continued until later meetings.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense sat down with Kevin Vonck, the new, bow-tied acting director of Richmond's planning department. Here's Vonck on...zoning(!): "Obviously, there are some areas of the city where we do need the zoning to catch up and reflect the market demand and development that’s occurring. We deal with a number of special-use permits because the market will maybe be ahead of where the zoning is at, and now that we have Richmond 300 in place, we have some guidance in terms of what the future land use should be in some of these areas." He ends his interview with maybe the best description of Richmond I've ever read: "a cool place to end up."
In a press release yesterday, the City, Virginia Union University, and RRHA announced a "first-of-its kind partnership and 20-year commitment to support and empower residents of the Gilpin Community." Specifically, VUU will offer STEM programming targeted at middle schoolers through their Community Mentoring Initiative alongside some new workforce training programs. The housing authority will identify and enroll folks while the City will chip in $100,000 to help pay for the new program. I like this quote from the Mayor, who calls it "a great example of being a good neighbor." This is not the first time VUU has stepped in to help support Richmond's youth. Remember when they started giving 50 RPS students full rides a couple years back?
There's a bunch of bicycle stories in the new issue of Richmond Magazine! If you've only got time to read one, because you're so busy riding a bike of your own, make it this one by Eileen Mellon about the Urban Cycling Group.
Bittersweet news, VPM's Roberto Roldan is leaving to take a job in Louisville, which, honestly, sounds wonderful. Roldan is a great city reporter and was a crucial voice during last summer's protests against police violence. I'll miss his reporting! VPM has posted the job to replace him, so, if you want to be Richmond's Next Great City Reporter, get after it!
The New York Times has a really shocking rendering of Tulsa before the 1921 Race Massacre. Included are some really horrifying pictures of streets (that look a lot like Richmond's older streets) after a mob of white people burned the buildings to the ground.
This morning's longread
‘The Fledglings Are Out!’
Whoa. To be able to write like this as a young person!
This diary chronicles the turning of my world, from spring to winter, at home, in the wild, in my head. It travels from the west of Northern Ireland in County Fermanagh to the east in County Down. It records the uprooting of a home, a change of county and landscape, and at times the de-rooting of my senses and my mind. I’m Dara, a boy, an acorn. Mum used to call me lon dubh (which is Irish for blackbird) when I was baby, and sometimes she still does. I have the heart of a naturalist, the head of a would-be scientist, and bones of someone who is already wearied by the apathy and destruction wielded against the natural world. The outpourings on these pages express my connection to wildlife, try to explain the way I see the world, and describe how we weather the storms as a family.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.
