Good morning, RVA! It's 72 °F, and, after this past weekend's blazing hot temperatures, we've got mostly more of the same today. Expect highs in the 90s—but with Feels Likes near 100 °F. Keep your water bottle nearby and prepare yourself for more of this over the next several days.
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: 193, 32, and 9, respectively. VDH reports a seven-day average of 23.3 new cases in and around Richmond (Richmond: 7.6; Henrico: 6.6, and Chesterfield: 9.1). Since this pandemic began, 1,329 people have died in the Richmond region. 44.2%, 55.2%, and 51.5% of the population in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, the slow work to vaccinate the remaining four million or so Virginians continues! Check out the graph of new folks vaccinated each day, and you can see that after whatever happened with the addition of federal doses (#datareportingissues), the graph has resumed a similarly-sloped slow decent. Still though, 67.8% of adults in the Commonwealth have received at least one does of the COVID-19 vaccine, and we're well on track to hit Biden's 70% by the 4th goal. You can see additional slow-but-steady progress in the graph of local vaccines administered by week. This next phase of the vaccine campaign is totally different! We should find ways to celebrate the progress we're making at this new, more methodical pace. Graphs like this don't help, he says to himself.
Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times Dispatch reports that RRHA will give the public a chance to weigh in on the agency's annual and capital plans, which you can read in full over on RRHA's website. These documents are way over my head, but Robinson does a good job of explaining some of the policy shifts RRHA will consider. I'd like to understand the capital plan more, but my brain needs some time to marinate with these PDFs before it can make sense of them.
City Council and their related committees have some fun and interesting papers in front of them today that I want to share with you. First, the Organizational Development Committee, which includes all nine members of Council, will meet and consider RES. 2021-R034, the official resolution to declare the 8th District casino proposal as the preferred operator and location. I think this will easily pass in the coming weeks, giving voters a chance to thumbs it up or down in November. Next up, Council will decide whether not to rezone the Southern States Silo from Riverfront District to Central Business District (ORD. 2021-115). Aside from dramatically changing Richmond's skyline, a thoughtful development at this location could do a lot to connect the two sides of the river. Finally, Planning Commission will also meet and hear a presentation on the small area plan for the City Center. They haven't uploaded the actual presentation yet, but I'm excited to see what the Planning folks recommend for the Coliseum wasteland now that Navy Hill is dead and gone. I'll try and remember to snag the PDF so we can all look at it together. Oh, also, Planning Commission will consider ORD. 2021-130, a Special Use Permit that would allow Stoplight Gelato in Jackson Ward to expand to include a brewery run by the Richmond Seltzer Co people. I think that a gelato and a seltzer sounds like a delightfully summery way to finish out a work day or start a weekend.
D'Andre Henderson at WRIC reports that a couple dozen Henricoans took to the streets to protest the County's decision to scrap the plans to create a Civilian Review Board. Or, more accurately, they're protesting the lack of support on the Board of Supervisors to even explore creating a Civilian Review Board. I don't know how—if at all—the County would respond to continued pressure on creating a CRB, but I'm here for it!
Alert and reminder! Virginia's Democratic primary takes place tomorrow! If you have not voted already, make sure you take some time today to educate yourself and get your ballot settled before heading off to the precinct tomorrow.
Local bearded musician Matthew E. White has a new album, K Bay, that, following standard album release protocols, is trickling out new singles. I've had "Genuine Hesitation" on repeat for most of the last week, and you should check it out on Apple Music or Spotify.
This morning's longread
One Month Of Lockdown - Nothing Improves
Robin Wong is a photographer living in Malaysia, and I've followed his blog for a bunch of years now. Read this most recent post to remind yourself that while the pandemic seems to be receding here in America, that's certainly not the case across the entire world.
The only short term solution the government had was to impose lockdowns of various degree, one after another, in hopes to control the movement of the people and bring the number of cases down. We have just implemented full lockdown since 1 June, one week ago. With the number of daily cases not showing any signs of slowing down, and the rate of vaccination being so unbelievably slow, I don't know what else the government will do next. If the numbers don't go down at all, or not fast enough for the next few weeks, or a month, the lockdown is expected to be prolonged. This will be disastrous to everyone here. Many have lost their jobs, and quite frankly there are no happy stories going around lately to talk about. Say we can achieve about 50% of of the people being successfully vaccinated by the end of the year, which is quite an incredible feat by itself considering the efficiency of the current practice, and the numbers start to come down. Will there be anything else to go back to after that? Will the country still be even standing?
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