Good morning, RVA! It's 59 °F, and today you can expect beautiful weather with low humidity and highs right around 80 °F. The amazing temperatures continue right on through the weekend, too, so I hope you have something planned that involves at least some sort of outdoor physical activity. I know that this is probably 2022's False Fall and we should prepare ourselves for an impending Second Summer, but, dang, this weekend's gonna feel great!
Water cooler
As of last night, the CDC’s COVID-19 Community Levels for Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield are all medium across the board. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 170, 131, and 156, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 13. The big question I have is whether or not the approaching fall and winter will bring with it another coronawave or if we're really starting to see a permanent decrease in the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. We'll find out in 6 weeks, I bet. Until then, you, personally, can help keep those numbers down (and help keep yourself out of the hospital) by making an appointment for one of those new bivalent boosters. The region is lousy with appointments, and you can probably even find one today at your local pharmacy. The best part: These boosters work against the original strain of COVID-19 and the newer Omicron strains—all in a single shot! Why not get your flu vaccine while you're there, too? You'll walk out having strong protection against all sorts of things! You'll be the She-Hulk of respiratory diseases!
You should read through 1st District Councilmember Andreas Addison's September newsletter. He's been the advocate on Council for implementing a Land Value Tax in Richmond, and he explains where we are in that process—delayed and slow moving, which isn't great news as Council already has an ordinance to lower the real estate tax on their agenda. Maybe that's not a done deal, though! Addison says, "We are exploring a real estate tax rebate funded through our FY2022 Budget Surplus based upon last years approved budget. I am interested in capping or limiting the amount real estate assessments can be increased per year to 5%...We have a proposal on the table to lower the tax rate. I am concerned that the solution of only lowering the rate will not address the underlying problem in how we calculate our taxes and how an inflated housing market is currently driving this problem." Yes to all of this. These are great examples of creative ways to provide tax relief to those who need it while not hamstringing Richmond Of The Future should, for whatever reason or recession, assessments and revenue crater. Here's the rub: With no other solutions on the table, Councilmember Nye and Trammell's plan to cut the real estate tax by four cents will most likely pass. However, if Councilmember Addison can quickly tee up some of these alternatives, a majority of Council may be willing to delay any rate cuts, giving time to fully flesh out a LVT plan for next September.
Yesterday, Ned Oliver at AXIOS Richmond answered a question a GMRVA reader had asked me a couple months ago (that's still sitting in my todo list, I swear!): Why is the Lee Bridge still named the Lee Bridge? From Oliver: "The council already voted to rename the bridge two years ago, but the Confederate general's name was never actually removed. That's because the resolution tasked the mayor's History and Culture Commission with recommending a new name...But that commission never held required public meetings, nor does it appear to have met since 2019, according to its website." Yikes. However, sounds like Councilmember Lynch will submit some new legislation to just get this done—tap through for her suggested new name for the bridge!
David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the world’s largest indoor vertical farm is coming to Chesterfield County—and that they'll grow Driscoll's strawberries! Vertical/indoor farming fascinates me, and I'm pretty excited that we might see "Product of Virginia" strawberries in stores as early as next year.
The RVA Street Art Festival kicks off today, down along the canal where the whole thing began ten years ago. Stop by between 3:00 – 7:00 PM, and then basically at any point throughout the weekend, to watch the muralists at work! They will be painting over the original murals, which have now become such an integral part to Richmond's Instagram landscape over the last decade, so prepare yourself emotionally for that. At the end of this weekend we should have a whole new set of beautiful walls to pose in front of, though, and I'm excited to see how they turn out.
Also kicking off today: St. Benedict’s Oktoberfest, which is chock full of beer, sausage, pretzels, and weird feats of strength. This is your first and best chance to drink fresh Spaten Oktoberfest in a church parking lot in 2022. There's also an overwhelming list of non-Spaten beers available, too, including half a dozen local Oktoberfest options.
This morning's longread
The Reactionary Geeks Are Mad About 'Rings of Power'
"Reactionary Geeks are Mad About \
The interesting thing about this particular sort of backlash is that someone is willing to express such sentiments so explicitly. Backlashes against Black actors being cast in prominent genre roles are almost reflexive at this point, but the critics usually avoid stating outright that the integrity of the work requires an all-white cast. Most of the time, they stick to the argument that inserting politics into art diminishes the quality of the acting or storytelling, even if the shows merely acknowledge the existence of people who are not white or straight or men. The benefit of Morse’s candor is his clarity that his demand to keep politics out of art is itself a demand for art to conform to conservative politics. There are a number of reasons these reactionary backlashes happen so often. The first, obviously, is that some people lack the imagination to see themselves in protagonists they do not aspire to resemble, at least in their mind’s eye.
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