Good morning, RVA! It's 64 °F, and while we’ve got highs in the mid 80s today, just you wait until middle of this week when really, truly cooler temperatures roll through. I’m not saying it’s time to break out the boots and flannel yet, but you can maybe make a plan to dig them out from under the bed this weekend.
Water cooler
The FDA’s advisory committee met this past Friday to discuss boosters, and, after a lot of talk, they ended up recommending Pfizer booster shots for people aged 65 and older and for those at high risk of getting severe COVID-19. They also took an informal poll—which they made very clear was not an actual vote—in favor of including, basically, frontline workers in that bucket of high-risk individuals. Importantly, their recommendation is non-binding, and the FDA will release its decision early this week. Next up, an advisory committee to the CDC will talk things through, and then the CDC actual will make a final call—all of which should also happen this week. The New York Times has some more details if you want to dig in. So if all goes as planned, at least some set of folks should be able to schedule appointments for Pfizer booster shots next week, but we’ll have to wade through these committee meetings to know exactly who all is included. Honestly, I think the spectrum of possible decisions is pretty wide, with just 65+ Pfizer humans on one end and, on the other end, anyone with Pfizer or Moderna in the loosely defined group of essential workers or folks with a condition that increases their risk of severe COVID. That’s an enormous group and contains...basically everyone.
Related, the New York Times is also reporting good Pfizer news for children 5–11 years old and that the FDA could authorize the COVID-19 vaccine for those kids before Halloween. Who wants to dress up as Comirnaty this year??
Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that, in Richmond, “white kids have up to three times the vaccination rates of Black children.” This isn’t strictly a local issue, either: “Only Washington, D.C., and six states — Connecticut, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, South Carolina and Wisconsin — have compiled the percentage of children who have received a COVID-19 shot by race and ethnicity as of Sept. 7. In all of the reporting areas, Black children were the least vaccinated.”
Fulfilling my promise to make this an exclusively sewer and sewer-adjacent morning email, here’s a link to a wonderfully informative post by the Science Museum of Virginia about last week’s flooding in the Fan. Two important takeaways from this post: First, the amount of rain that fell in a single hour (3.4 inches!) far exceeded the capacity of our sewer system; Second, while this was a rare storm (possibly even a 500-year event), the climate crisis means we should expect more and more frequent severe weather. We really do need to find and spend the one billion dollars necessary to upgrade the City’s sewer system to handle what’s coming. We also need to depave, plant trees, stop widening roads, and build more pervious/green infrastructure. Weather like we saw last week isn’t going anywhere, and we need to start investing in ways to mitigate its impacts.
The RTD’s Chris Suarez reports that Chesterfield County and GRTC are having a heckuva time finding a place to put the bus stop that would allow them to extend the Route 1 bus to the Geenleigh trailer park. Apparently, property owners in the area don’t want a bus stop for all of the classic reasons (“traffic safety” and “effect on value and future use of the site”). That’s unsurprising. The surprising part is this quote from an actual member of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors: “I don’t like eminent domain. It’s not my intention to take it that way. But if all the people there want [the bus stop] and if the owner is being stubborn, I may be willing to go all the way with it.” Two-years ago me cannot even imagine the County considering a bus route expansion, let alone using eminent domain to make it happen.
The James River Association has an opportunity for you to weigh in on the proposed James River Center, which they plan to build on the newly-acquired piece of land directly east of Great Shiplock Park. The renderings look pretty rad, if you ask me. If you want to do more than fill out a survey, JRA will host three community discussions on the proposal, tonight at 6:00 PM, tomorrow at 9:00 AM, and Wednesday at 12:00 PM.
One small City Council note: They’ll get the gang together today at 1:00 PM for an ARPA work session. You can tune in over on the City’s legislative website.
This morning's patron longread
Revolt of the NYC Delivery Workers
Submitted by Patron Sam. I love learning about different types of bike culture. While the circumstances NYC delivery bikers deal with sound awful, the community they’ve built sounds pretty wonderful.
Even before the thefts started, the city’s 65,000 delivery workers had tolerated so much: the fluctuating pay, the lengthening routes, the relentless time pressure enforced by mercurial software, the deadly carelessness of drivers, the pouring rain and brutal heat, and the indignity of pissing behind a dumpster because the restaurant that depends on you refuses to let you use its restroom. And every day there were the trivially small items people ordered and the paltry tips they gave — all while calling you a hero and avoiding eye contact. Cesar recently biked from 77th on the Upper East Side 18 blocks south and over the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, then up through Long Island City and over another bridge to Roosevelt Island, all to deliver a single slice of cake for no tip at all. And now he had to worry about losing his bike, purchased with savings on his birthday.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.
