Good morning, RVA! It's 72 °F, and you can expect another hot day with a chance of rain pretty much throughout. Tomorrow, though! Tomorrow we’ve got highs around 70 °F. Can’t wait.
Water cooler
Yesterday, Johnson & Johnson announced that a two-dose version of their single-dose COVID-19 vaccine provides “94% protection against symptomatic infection.” The aforelinked CNN article has tons of different quotes and effectiveness percentages for different situations and demographics, but for J&Jers like myself, here’s the ones you probably care about: “The company's ongoing Phase 2 trial of a two-dose regimen showed giving two doses 56 days apart provided 100% protection against severe Covid-19 and 94% protection against moderate to severe Covid-19 in the United States.” Those are big numbers and are numbers in line with the two mRNA vaccines—which, small sigh of relief. Johnson & Johnson will submit data to the FDA, and, in some amount of time, we’ll most likely see recommendation that folks go out and get a J&J booster shot.
Speaking of boosters, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet today at 10:00 AM to discuss authorizing Pfizer booster shots for...some group of humans. You can stream the meeting here. Remember, on Friday an FDA advisory committee recommended boosters for people over the age of 65 and for those at risk for severe COVID-19—they also hinted that the latter could mean frontline workers, which is an enormous number of people. We’ll see how ACIP feels today and if they’ll narrow that scope of booster eligibility or not.
Yesterday, I definitely got the stuff about rezoning and heigh restrictions on Broad Street wrong. I apologize for that! Here’s where I screwed up: The southern side of Broad Street between Arthur Ashe and Ryland is currently zoned B-5/B-6 which already restricts height to four or five stories. You probably remember the rezoning from just a couple months ago—which I even mentioned yesterday!—that prevented taller buildings on the southern side of Broad to appease wealthy home owners living on W. Grace Street. So, to be clear, I don’t think RES. 2021-R070 adds any new height restrictions that don’t already exist. What I also missed was RES. 2021-R071, which would rezone this same section of the southern side of Broad to TOD-1, a theoretically more progressive zoning category. So when taken together, the two papers would give you TOD-1 zoning (good) with four- or five-story height restrictions (bad, but the current state of affairs). So that’s my understanding of the situation, but I’m still pretty confused about why we’d rezone this area after literally having done so just a couple months ago. I’m concerned that I’m missing something nefarious in these papers that would further limit density on this, our biggest and broadest commercial corridor. Here’s what I care about: Does this re-rezoning allow us to build more places for people to live? Is it even a good use of the City’s time? I need to learn more!
Ian M. Stewart at VPM reports on yesterday’s GRTC board meeting and has this worrisome news: “GRTC CEO Julie Timm told the board that riders can expect some service cuts due to a current and pending driver and mechanic shortage.” Anyone who follows the GRTC Twitter account could probably have predicted this; many routes across the system are currently experiencing daily delays due to operator shortages. The Mayor sent this sternly worded letter to GRTC’s board saying, “For the first time in a long time, we can say that these setbacks are arriving at a time when it’s actually politically popular to invest in transit services. It is inexplicable that we have regional and federal dollars coming in and we are proposing cutting 20 percent of GRTC’s service.” Here’s the thing: Being a bus operator is a hard job, and, like many other hard jobs across America, we’ve reached the point where folks just aren’t willing to do those jobs for the current level of pay. The solution to this isn’t microtransit or volunteer bus fleets, it’s paying operators more—which will either mean increasing funding for GRTC or cutting bus services. Unpopular idea: I’d definitely scrap free fares if it meant we could use that money to increase operator pay and stabilize our regional transit system.
The Richmond Police Department reports that, this past Saturday, a driver killed a man crossing Belvidere at Holly Street (the southern end of Oregon Hill). Here’s the sentence I say after almost every fatal crash involving a pedestrian: That portion of Belvidere is way too wide and incredibly fast. The saddest part is that we know that this street is dangerous for pedestrians and even have plans to install a Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon on that exact block.
I’m sure you’ve been on pins and needles waiting for the City’s second round of community engagement on how they should spend the $155 million of ARPA money. Needle no longer, friends! You have until October 4th to fill out this survey, and you have three opportunities to attend in-person, public meetings over the next week or so (meeting details here). Keep in mind that this is engagement on the Mayor’s proposed spending plan, not Council’s plan, and Council has the ultimate, final say. I’d love for someone to put together a spreadsheet cross referencing what the Mayor wants and what Council wants so we could see the major investments they agree on and see any major differences in priorities.
Rain or shine, today at 10:00 AM you can attend the dedication and unveiling of the Emancipation & Freedom Monument on Brown’s Island. According to the website, umbrellas will be permitted! Here’s the intense description of the intense monument: “The monument, designed by Thomas Jay Warren of Oregon, features two 12-foot bronze statues representing a man, woman, and infant newly freed from slavery.”
This morning's longread
The Surprisingly Big Business of Library E-books
I don’t love that library e-books are a “big business” at all and wish that digital books worked more like physical books. I mean, they’re libraries!
“We then saw the first wrinkle in one copy, one user,” Potash said. In 2011, HarperCollins introduced a new lending model that was capped at twenty-six checkouts, after which a library would need to purchase the book again. Publishers soon introduced other variations, from two-year licenses to copies that multiple readers could use at one time, which boosted their revenue and allowed libraries to buy different kinds of books in different ways. For a classic work, which readers were likely to check out steadily for years to come, a library might purchase a handful of expensive perpetual licenses. With a flashy best-seller, which could be expected to lose steam over time, the library might buy a large number of cheaper licenses that would expire relatively quickly.
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