Good morning, RVA! It's 49 °F, but today—and the weekend ahead of us—looks amazing. You can expect highs in the mid 70s this afternoon with plenty of sunshine, and then temperatures will creep up into the 80s over the next few days. Worryingly unseasonable? Yes. Great weather to ride bikes? Also yes.
Water cooler
As of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 158, 65, and 90, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 8.1. Another week, another petty much exactly the same coronapicture. Cases rates and hospitalization rates continue to fluctuate in a frustrating plateau-y way, with the warmer weather possibly staving off some of the anticipated fall and winter increases. But, just because the numbers refuse to budge, doesn’t mean that you should head out to the nearest large, in-person gathering and start spitting in each others’ mouths! Cases of flu and RSV are both on the rise, and thousands of people are still dying of COVID-19 every day. Aside from keeping your spit to yourself, the best, easiest, and least disruptive way to protect yourself and your family from severe disease and a trip to the hospital is to get your COVID-19 booster (and your flu shot), if you haven’t already. If you want to go harder, Katelyn Jetelina has a thoughtful, if a little sobering, rundown of how she’ll navigate spending the holidays with high-risk, vulnerable family members this year. It sounds a lot like the last two years of life, which is hard to read, but she’s not wrong.
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that the City has issued a Request for Interest for the planned City Center redevelopment: “The 242-page document invites teams to submit their information to be considered for development of a 9-acre assemblage that includes the shuttered arena and the site of a long-sought convention center hotel.” If you want, you can download the full PDF here—the first 30-or-so pages are pretty interesting and readable. The first phase of the redevelopment will include demolishing the Coliseum, figuring out what to do with the Blues Armory, improving infrastructure, and building the convention center hotel alongside some new office and residential (check out page 17 of the big PDF for more details). Transit, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure are all considered priorities, and, with some clever planning, this project could really make getting around downtown safer and more pleasant—something to keep an eye on. Developers will have until December 20th to submit their responses, with final selection sometime next spring or summer. Honestly, it’s great to see the City moving forward on this project alongside the Diamond District, and fingers crossed they keep up the good work.
The Virginia Mercury’s Graham Moomaw has an interesting report on the State’s tax brackets, which have remained unchanged since 1990 and currently set the highest tax rate for those making more than $17,000 per year. That means someone who makes $17,001 pays the same rate as someone who makes $17,000,001—not super progressive. Adjusting the rates for inflation would move that highest bracket up to $35,348, but, still, not great if you ask me. Especially since Moomaw also reports that “the state’s wealthiest 1% accounted for 16% of total income in Virginia for 2018, up from 11% in 1990.” The solution here, obviously, is to tax the rich more, giving relief to people with low and moderate incomes while also increasing revenue for the State (see an example of this at the bottom of Moomaw’s article). Of course you won’t see a common-sense solution like this come out of the current Republican administration, so don’t get your hopes up.
Jack Jacobs, also at Richmond BizSense, reports that Cannabist, a medical marijuana dispensary, has officially opened in the old Need Supply building in Carytown. Seems like a perfect place for such a thing—especially once the State legalizes true retail sales—but also something I never thought I would see in my life time. Cool / weird!
Remember: Daylight Saving Time ends this Sunday! Make sure to emotionally prepare yourself for however this impacts you and yours. This whole ordeal is definitely one of our silliest things, but I’m not going to get too upset with another hour of sleep and a little bit more light by which to write these emails.
This morning's longread
The author of Gideon the Ninth explains herself
I’m in the middle of re-reading book two of The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir before I dig into the recently-released third book. I loved this interview, but, be aware, there are definitely book one and book two spoilers within! If you haven’t spent any time with Gideon or Harrowhark, maybe save the link, read the books as quick as you can, and then come back to it.
As anybody else who was born in and around 1985 will know, a lot of the stories we got fed, even in a time where women were out in the battlefield more, was that at the end of the day, being angry and fighting actually wasn’t great. And so what the real takeaway at the end of the day was, the love of your friends and hugs is the greatest thing that a woman can have. So being able to repudiate that and give a middle finger to the “a woman’s place is actually the peacemaker and the heart of the group” has undeniably set the tone of the books. I’m really glad to see other books and media kind of picking that up. I think that if you looked at the ages of the people involved, they grew up as women identifying as women in that era, and I think it’s something that pissed off a hell of a lot of people. And it’s been incredibly fun to just let loose. So I hope that every girl who got told off for being angry, and who, like me, in their secret heart of hearts, just kind of pretends that she has a huge broadsword or ax and hits people, it’s for them. It’s for you. Go nuts.
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Picture of the Day
Scenes from Jackson Ward.
