Good morning, RVA! It's 65 °F, and we've got a cold front moving through this afternoon. Expect a chance of rain, maybe some thunderstorms, and then chilly temperatures—like in the 50s—until Monday. You probably need to find socks again.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths as: 360, 37, and 12.3, respectively. VDH reports a seven-day average of 32.9 new cases in and around Richmond (Richmond: 4.9; Henrico: 14.3, and Chesterfield: 15.7). Since this pandemic began, 1,315 people have died in the Richmond region. 42.8%, 53.3%, and 49.8% of the population in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Here's this week's stacked chart of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. After the steep slide down from this winter's horrible coronapeak, the last couple weeks of the statewide hospitalizations graph has to be one of the most hopeful charts I've seen in a while. Clearly fewer and fewer people are ending up in the hospital due to COVID-19, which is the whole point.
Well, without much fanfare, all of the Governor's COVID-19 distancing and capacity restrictions lifted overnight. Here's a tweet from the Governor which says, "All remaining COVID-19 mitigation measures related to distancing and capacity are lifted." Here's the newish Executive Order 79.pdf), which is mostly about masks, but does contain a line near the bottom about terminating Executive Order 72.pdf). If you were doing any of the the things in Executive Order 72—things like keeping tables six feet apart or limiting number of people at an indoor show—I guess you can just stop now? Seems like a big deal and like something folks will have lots of questions about moving forward. I...anticipate more from the Governor at some point. According to my inbox, at 10:00 AM today, the Governor will "join President Joe Biden to celebrate summer as Virginia lifts all COVID-19 distancing and capacity restrictions."
Hey! Important reminder: Today is the last day that you can request an absentee ballot to vote in the June 8th primaries! You can do that right here, and it takes just a minute.
Whoa, whoa, whoa Richmond Together. First a helpful commonwealth's attorney questionnaire and now a sheriff questionnaire? What next?? If you would like to be a better-informed voter when your recently-requested absentee ballot shows up, you can read through incumbent Antoinette Irving's responses here and challenger William Burnett's responses here.
Another important reminder while I'm reminding you of things: The Department of Public Works's new bike lane survey closes this coming Sunday. If you haven't yet filled it out, please do so! While a lot of the conceptual designs for the proposed new bike lanes are great (and more bike lanes is almost always more better), some of them could benefit from better physical protection and, in a few cases, narrower travel lanes. If you agree (or if you disagree!) get in there and leave your comments. The designs are just conceptual at this point, so there aren't a ton of wrong answers (one wrong answer being, of course, "fewer bike lanes, please").
Ali Rockett at the Richmond Times-Dispatch covers some of the back-and-forth between the Richmond Police Department and the task force putting together the Civilian Review Board. I have a few unconnected thoughts after reading that piece. First, if representatives from the police department wanted to be at these task force meetings they could have—I knew about the meetings, y'all knew about the meetings, it wouldn't have been hard for RPD to make it a priority to attend. Second, take two minutes and watch the video on the RTD's website to catch the Chief's tone and body language (or watch the entire meeting here). He looks defensive, he interrupts, it doesn't make me feel great. All of our local public servants leaders like this should log on to a School Board meeting and take notes on how Superintendent Kamras and his team receive critical feedback from the public and the Board. It's quiet, respectful, and you feel like they're actually listening. Third, Rockett reports that the task force lacks the funding and human-power to get some of the basics of their work done, which seems real bad: "In an unrelated discussion, more frustrations boiled over when the group learned its request for funding for a website and a research assistant was unlikely. The task force’s discussions are frequently mired by procedural bureaucracy that its members, all of whom are volunteers, aren’t sure how to navigate."
Chesterifeldians! VPM's Ian Stewart reports that the County will kick off a rewrite of their zoning ordinance in the coming weeks and months. As we all know, zoning is one of the most powerful tools to prevent affordable housing, density, climate-friendly development, and transit-accessible neighborhoods. Getting it right can really encourage thriving neighborhoods; getting it wrong can curse a place with decades of strip malls and six-lane stroads. While I don't think Chesterfield's out here trying to ban single-family zoning or anything, a group of organized individuals could probably push the zoning rewrite in a more progressive direction. Maybe those individuals already exist? If so, I'd like to subscribe to their newsletter.
It's already sold out, so don't get your hopes up, but GWAR has teamed up with Catoctin Creek Distilling to make Ragnarök Rye whiskey. This paragraph from the Virginian-Pilot gets it right: "Ragnarök Rye is fire and it is whiskey. It is blood magic. It is overproof rye with the terrifying flavors of... delicate sugar maple? And cherrywood?"
Logistical note! Monday is Memorial Day, and I'll be taking the day off from this morning email to sleep in a little and make a few tweaks to my morning email process! Never not thinking about the morning email! I hope you find time to rest, recalibrate, and celebrate Memorial Day in whatever way you choose.
This morning's longread
Can Removing Highways Fix America’s Cities?
Not that I believe Democrats in Congress have the votes to pass any exciting and progressive legislation, but part of President Biden's infrastructure plan includes money for repairing some of the damage done to cities by urban highways. Capping I-95/64 on the north side of the city is even in our newly adopted master plan! Could be cool (but I will not get my hopes up).
And the big fear of removing a highway — terrible traffic — hasn’t materialized. Lovely Warren, who has served as Rochester’s mayor since 2014, said the project is proof the city can undo some of its mistakes. In the past, “we created a way for people to get on a highway and go directly out of our community,” she said, adding that highways also created “barriers that were really detrimental to the communities left behind.” Now, Rochester is trying a different approach: Instead of moving people in and out of downtown as quickly as possible, the city is trying to make downtown a more livable place. The highway removal and other deconstruction projects are part of a long-term plan for a city still struggling to come back from years of economic and population decline.
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