Good morning, RVA! It's 48 °F, and yesterday's weather was weird. Today, though, you can expect highs near 60 °F throughout most of the day, and you don't need to worry about 45mph gusts of wind ripping down your flags or pushing you off your bike. In summary: Cooler and less apocalyptic.
Water cooler
As of today, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield's COVID-19 community levels—that new metric from the CDC—are all "low" (aka green, aka live-your-life level). The case rates per 100,00 people over the last seven days for each locality are 105, 104, and 107, respectively. The pollen count, however, is pretty high and will surely induce some coronanxieties in allergy sufferers across the region. I also think you should read this column from Governor Youngkin in the Danville Register & Bee about his views and plans to continue to increase the vaccination rate among Virginia's unvaccinated—especially those in the south and southwest parts of the commonwealth. It's very personal freedom, anti-mandate, anti-government blah, blah, blah, but it's pro-vaccine and miles away from the governor of Florida's plan to actively recommend against vaccinating children.
Chris Suarez, who I guess covers the education beat for the Richmond Times-Dispatch now that Kenya Hunter's gone, reports on last night's RPS school board meeting. The big news for Fox Elementary families: Starting March 21st, Fox students will temporarily head over to First Baptist Church on Monument Avenue for in-person school. @KidsFirstRPS live tweeted the meeting if you want to dig in to the Board's other agenda items. I haven't read through the whole thing yet, but I still haven't seen any sort of comment from the Board on the Mayor's budget which is shocking to me. I anticipated a slew of medium posts, twitter threads, and interviews in the paper!
The RTD's Ali Rockett and Reed Williams have the details and follow-up reporting from Sunday night's fatal police shooting in Fulton. Sounds like a terrifying situation with officers firing at an armed person in the direction of an occupied home. Rocket and Reed also report that police took about 20 minutes to initially arrive at the scene and that the City's 911 system did not answer a nearby neighbor's call.
In interesting Northside news, Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense reports that Virginia Rep will buy the massive Scottish Rite Temple on Hermitage and use it as a children- and family-focused theatre and performing arts space. That's such a great part of town with tons of potential, just utterly disconnected by the highway. Within a quick walk or a ride from this location you have: Bryan Park, McArthur Avenue, all the shops on Lakeside, and whatever theoretical thing eventually ends up at the old Azalea Mall site. With some thoughtful planning, I think you could reconnect a lot of these amenities and make moving between them safe and comfortable. I'm not trying to Small Area Plan everything to death, buuuuut...
Ack! It's already Tuesday, and I'm three days late in writing about this year's Richmond Black Restaurant Experience. This week (and any week, really), if you're planning on eating in, getting take out, or grabbing some food for a meeting consider ordering from one of the 40+ participating Black-owned restaurants. Eileen Mellon at Richmond Magazine talks to some of the founders of the Richmond Black Restaurant Experience, now in its sixth year.
Richard Hayes at RVA Hub reports that the Richmond Falcon Cam is back—now with chirpy bird audio!
This morning's longread
Buttigieg tells states to consider safety for road projects
Look at this! The AP covers the federal government's push to fund transportation projects that protect the safety of all users—people walking, riding, rolling, or driving. We'll see how this plays out at the state level, because "six-lane highway with a four-foot, unprotected bike lane on either side" does not make anyone safer and should not qualify as a complete streets project.
In a report submitted to Congress and made public Wednesday, the Department of Transportation says it will aim to prioritize the safety and health of the all the users of today’s modern roadway, from riders of public transit and electric scooters to Uber rideshare pickups and people delivering goods. Projects such as bike paths and traffic roundabouts, enhanced sidewalks, pedestrian pathways to bus stops and transit lanes will be favored in the distribution of the money.
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