Good morning, RVA! It's 39 °F, and chillier days are upon us! Today you can expect highs right around 50 °F and a decent chance of rain at some point this evening. It's pretty much the same for Saturday and Sunday—although maybe expect a bit more wet weather toward the end of the weekend. Enjoy the next couple of days, and if you feel like staying inside curled around a warm beverage of your choosing, I wouldn't blame you!
Water cooler
The Richmond Police Department are reporting three murders that took place over the last five days. On Sunday, Tyshawn Wyatt, 25, was shot and killed on the 1400 block of Harwood Street; on Monday, Tyrek Brandon, 21, was shot and killed on the zero block of E. 16th Street; and on Thursday, Asha Hite, 39, was shot and killed on the 1100 block of Hollister Avenue. All three of these fatal shootings happened on the City's Southside but not in the same neighborhood. RPD reports 14 homicides thus far in 2023, up four from this time last year.
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 0, 51, and 96, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 5.7. At this point, I think you can consider Richmond's numbers fully broken and just use Henrico and Chesterfield's as a proxy. Thankfully, across our region, all of the COVID-19 numbers—proxy or otherwise—continue to trend downward. Another couple weeks spent in The Green, and I might reduce this newsletter's weekly COVID-19 update to monthly!
Thinking about further reducing COVID-19 coverage in this email had me taking a trip through (horrible) memory lane and poking around in the archives. Turns out, yesterday was the three year anniversary of the first mention of COVID-19 in Good Morning, RVA. On March 9th, 2020, I wrote, "The Virginia Department of Health is reporting two cases of coronavirus in the Commonwealth, both in Northern Virginia. You're washing your hands, right? You should definitely wash your hands." Then, On March 11th, I kicked off what would be three years (and counting) of regular updates on COVID-19, saying "I guess, for the foreseeable future, these emails will lead off with a coronavirus update—something I'd trade away in a second to go back to continually talking about the Mayor's proposed downtown arena." Simpler times!
Yesterday, City Council announced that the Richmond City Attorney has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Council's statement reads, in part, "Driving under the influence is a serious matter and Richmond City Council respects law enforcement. We trust the legal process as it moves forward. We are awaiting additional information to determine next steps." First, it doesn't sound like anyone was hurt, thankfully. Second, just put the Transit app and the Uber/Lyft apps on your phone. It's 100% OK to come back and get your car tomorrow—in fact, if you do, people will give you high fives for making the correct and safe choice.
Via /r/rva, visual evidence that The Pollening has begun. Just looking at this picture of a pollen-coated Swift Creek Reservoir makes my face itch.
The RVA Environmental Film Festival kicks off tonight with Wildcat at 7:30 PM in The Dome at the Science Museum of Virginia. All events are free to attend, so take a look at the aforelinked list of films and make a plan to fill your weekend with movies—I mean, you saw the weather forecast, right?
Reminder / warning: Clocks spring forward this Sunday.
This morning's longread
America’s after-school afterthought
This longread from Vox looks at the almost universal underinvestment in after-school care despite the reams of evidence supporting the importance of having a safe, productive place for younger kids after the school day ends. In Richmond, we're not starting from zero on this, and I definitely wouldn't say after-school care is an afterthought. In fact, after-school care has been a focus for Mayor Stoney and RPS since the Mayor's first term. What this piece will show you, though, is that massive investment is needed not just from the local government, but state and federal governments, too, where, at the moment, it's just not a priority.
About 8 million kids are enrolled in after-school programs today, but that’s less than a quarter of total demand, according to the nonprofit Afterschool Alliance. Research it led in early 2020, just before the pandemic, found that nearly 25 million more children would be enrolled in an after-school program if one were available to them, up from 19 million in 2014. The top-cited barrier to enrollment was money: 57 percent of parents reported that programs were too expensive. While about a quarter of parents pay nothing for after-school programs, of the 77 percent who do pay, the average cost per child stands at $100 per week. Despite the unmet demand, there has been little public investment in after-school care, and most programs are financed through parent fees.
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Picture of the Day
The Virginia Women’s Monument at the Capitol is pretty rad.
