Good morning, RVA! It's 54 °F, and today you can expect dry skies and highs in the 70s. The week ahead of us looks a lot warmer than the week that was, which feels like a gift this far into October. Take advantage of it if you can—only a few more of these excellent fall weeks before winter starts to move in!
Water cooler
This morning the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released the 2022 Mathematics and Reading report cards for grades four and eight, giving the nation a comparison to 2019, pre-pandemic educational scores. Unsurprisingly, states across the country saw deep declines, and "the national average score declines in mathematics for fourth- and eight-graders were the largest ever recorded in that subject." You can read through some of the highlights (lowlights?) directly from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, and, if you can figure out the website, explore some of the more granular data. I liked this explainer piece from Chalkbeat, though, which includes some helpful charts and this clarifying bit on how to interpret these results: "The declines don’t mean that students failed to learn anything or forgot things they already knew between 2019 and 2022. Rather, students did learn over that period, but progressed at slower rates than their peers had in prior years." Get ready, because you will almost certainly hear more about this over the course of the coming week. Governor Youngkin has remarks scheduled for 8:00 AM today at which he will no doubt point the finger at Democrats and the previous administration and use the nationwide scores decline as a reason to further defund Virginia's public schools and continue to advance his charter-schools-everywhere plan. We'll check back in tomorrow on what he's got planned.
Last week the CDC added COVID-19 vaccines to the their schedule of childhood immunizations, and AXIOS Richmond’s Ned Oliver clarifies what that actually means. Here's the important part: Only the General Assembly or the state Board of Health can change Virginia's required school-age vaccines, despite whatever 100% non-existent mandate the Governor has vowed to fight/tweet against.
Patrick Larsen at VPM wraps up Richmond's weeklong Arbor Day celebration by talking to some of the folks working hard at bringing new trees to the city and maintaining our existing canopy. I've got three things for you to take away from this piece. First, the founder of the James River Park System's Invasive Species Task Force (and master naturalist) is named Laura Greenleaf!? Second, I love the term "tree-freeing" for cutting back invasive species like wintercreeper and privet to give native trees a chance to thrive. Third, read all the way through to the end for an update from Reforest Richmond’s Daniel Klein about the City hiring an urban forester. According to Klein the money exists, but some legislative work still need doing—but it's progress!
Alert! The Greater Scott's Addition Association has a cool volunteer opportunity this coming Wednesday, October 26th: They need a handful of folks to come out to the new triangle park at Wayne, Cutshaw, and Broad to count cars. The goal is to collect enough traffic data to support expanding the park even further, presumably by closing off some of the surrounding streets that border and bisect the triangle. This is tactical urbanism—for a good, green cause—in the works! If you've got two hours to spare on Wednesday, go ahead and tap through and sign up for a volunteer slot while you're thinking about it.
Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense has some sprinkle-sized news about Charm School’s plan to open an ice cream shop in Scott’s Addition. Charm School makes pretty great ice cream, and I was pretty bummed when they closed up their Broad Street retail location. Lucky for me, and, presumably others, this new spot will "eventually" offer retail ice cream to-go. Totally un-related: Tap through to look at the pictures of their new building and the utter lack of surrounding urban infrastructure. Scott's Addition is the absolute weirdest place, and I'm thankful for folks trying to build a cohesive neighborhood out of so many oddly-shaped pieces (see above!).
People love baseball! I do not, but I love that people do! If, like me, you're completely untethered from the baseball season, you should probably know that the Philadelphia Phillies will face the Houston Astros this coming Friday, October 28th in the first game of the World Series. Now you can nod along knowingly when your baseball-loving friends and coworkers talk excitedly about how they plan on spending their Friday night.
This morning's longread
You Need a Horror Movie Friend for a More Frightening, Less Lonely Life
I love horror movies and definitely pumped my fist in the air at several paragraphs in this New York Times piece. It's October! Find yourself a horror movie friend and get spooky!
Horror movies articulate that the world is horrible and that the most horrible thing of all is simply that we are alive and fragile and bound for death. There is no protection from this, no other way out of this life. People you love will get sick — maybe you will. Violence will be done by charismatic strangers and, worse still, by lovers and friends. But sharing that understanding with someone makes the world, perhaps paradoxically, less scary. You can’t undo what is terrible about the universe, but you can stand against it together.
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Picture of the Day
We've been waiting for safe bicycle infrastructure in Richmond for a long time.
