Podcast appearances and mentions of michael martz

Good morning, RVA! It's 47 °F, and today looks sunny and wonderful with highs in the 70s. NBC12's Andrew Freiden says it's his Verified Best Weather Day of the Week™ and that it caps off the “third warmest Meteorological Winter in Richmond's history.” If I weren't headed to VCU's final home game of the season, I'd spend the evening out getting lost in the woods. I hope you find the time today to get out there and enjoy it! Water cooler This past Sunday, Henrico County Supervisor Tyrone Nelson hit a person riding their bike with his car. From NBC12's report: “The Henrico Police Department says Tyrone Nelson failed to give a three-foot distance when trying to pass the cyclist in the 6500 block of Osborne Turnpike around 11:45 a.m.” This block of Osborne Turnpike is just 1.5 miles from where a driver hit and killed Jonah Holland while she was riding her bike this past August. There's no doubt that this stretch of road is dangerous, but how many people need to get hurt or killed before the County does anything about it? If an elected official, someone who has the actual power to make this street safer, can hit someone with their car and just move on with life...I don't know. Depressing. Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some electoral next steps now that we've got this past weekend's firehouse primaries behind us. First up, the special election on March 28th, and then the Democratic primary on June 20th (which gears up for the big November election). Also this is the first reporting I've read that confirms soon-to-be Senator Bagby (from the now-old 9th Senate District) will run in the new 14th Senate District in that June 20th primary. Speaking of the General Assembly, Bob Lewis at the Virginia Mercury pulls the numbers on the part-timedness of our commonwealth's legislative body. Given the ridiculously short amount of time our legislators spend actually legislating (just 46 days this year), to get through all of the bills submitted they'd need to “average final action on 45 bills per day.” Impossible! What's also impossible is changing the system to something that makes a little more sense. I think a lot folks like how the General Assembly works because it's weird, brutal, and inaccessible—sort of like an unnecessarily painful badge of civic honor. Today is the very last day that you can weigh in on the City's plan to bring bike lanes to Westover Hills Boulevard from the Nickel Bridge to points south. I encourage you to fill out the quick survey if you haven't already, asking for physical protection along the lanes and (kindly) reminding the City's Department of Public Works that sharrows are not real infrastructure. Additionally, the folks at Bike Walk RVA point out that extending the bike lane down 49th Street to a residential dead end doesn't connect anything to anywhere at the moment, and the proposal should, instead, continue the lanes down Westover Hills Boulevard south to Crutchfield. If, like me, you have to see it on a map, I crayoned Bike Walk RVA's preferred alignment here. So, to recap: 1) Add protection the the bike lanes, 2) Don't use sharrows, and 3) Extend the bike lanes on Westover Hills Boulevard to Crutchfield. Take four minutes and fill out the survey this morning (it's your last day to do so!). This morning's longread Let Lily Kwong—and a Mountainful of Orchids—Resensitize Your Cold, Dead Heart First, orchids! Second, I thought this was an incredibly thoughtful answer to the nihilistic question (which I see pop up in internet discourse constantly) of “why do anything at all, isn't everything terrible?” Before I go, I'm curious how Kwong, whose work in horticulture and urban design has also sought to address issues of native gardening and food insecurity, sees how these flashy, large-scale stunners, often brought to life at the behest of corporate brand partnerships, exist in conversation with her overall mission to connect people with the natural world. In response, Kwong eagerly asks me if I've ever been to Muir Woods. “They're the tallest trees in the world—literally these ancient giants that are hundreds of years old,” she says, thinking back to her childhood again. “It's a spiritual experience walking through them,” Kwong explains. “It feels almost like a cathedral…that is my framework of how I first connected with nature. So, when I do a piece like this, or Grand Central, I'm trying to channel that frequency of awe. Because in my experience, from awe came the curiosity. Then came education, knowledge, understanding, and stewardship.” If you'd like to suggest a longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol' Patreon. Picture of the Day Getting lost in the forest.

I must admit, I'm a sucker for a good transformation story. I never get tired of hearing how people face great challenges and overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. There's just something about stories of facing hardship – of real-life struggles – and coming out the other end a better person. And today's guest is a perfect example of this. He had an active and athletic background – he was the captain of his high school football team – but somewhere in midlife his health took a turn for the worse. He was married, had five kids, a high-pressure job, and he put self-care on the back burner. He was no longer active and was eating what many stressed out parents eat – which is quick and easy – but very unhealthy – meals. And he grew heavier and unhealthier. He stopped weighing himself after he hit 315 pounds. Things were bad, and about to get much worse. He was diagnosed with cancer. But – because this is a transformation story – this tale has a happy ending.My guest today is Michael Martz. Michael is a personal trainer and fitness coach who specializes in helping men and women over 40 reach their fitness goals and lead a healthy life. Join us as Michael shares his amazing personal transformation story as well as his thoughts and tips on strong healthy aging! You can connect with Michael here:Website - https://www.martzfitness.com/Instagram - @martzfitnessFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/MARTZFitnessEmail – martzfit50@gmail.comSponsor Information – Energy BitsWhat the heck is an “energy bit?” Bits are tiny “bits of nutrition” made purely of algae, a sustainable whole food crop endorsed by NASA and United Nations as the most nutritionally dense food in the world. Scientific studies have shown that algae's nutrients improve immune health, gut health, energy, longevity, nutrition and beauty. Swallow or chew a few algae tablets to flood your body with pure, toxin-free nutrition, protein and nutrients you simply can't get from any other food or supplement.Main website - https://www.energybits.com/Vitality Bits (50/50 Spirulina/chlorella) - https://www.energybits.com/vitalitybits.htmlUse coupon code “silveredge” to save 20% off your order!

"Be authentic, be active." In this installment, Jamar and Randy sit down with business owners Danielle Rath, Michael Martz, Vicky Valenza, Becca Lee Schiek, and Renee Eckberg to discuss how to re-ignite your social base; motivating your audiences to engage with your content.

 CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:53). Sections below are the following:Transcript of AudioAudio Notes and AcknowledgmentsImagesSourcesRelated Water Radio EpisodesFor Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 5-14-21. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

Good morning, RVA! It’s 42 °F, and chilly out. But, as promised, warmer weather returns this afternoon with sunshine and temperatures in the 70s. I’m excited because we could have some seriously A+ porch-sitting weather later in the evening.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 561 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 15 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 69 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 35, Henrico: 26, and Richmond: 8). Since this pandemic began, 1,296 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 658. The last time we had a seven-day average of new reported cases under 700 was July 11th!Two big pieces of vaccine news this morning! The first, after all of the necessary governing bodies gave their OKs yesterday (FDA —> ACIP —> CDC —> VDH), kids ages 12–15 are now eligible to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The efficacy of this vaccine seen in these youth trials was 100%, which is a lot of percents. Parents and caregivers have three main ways to find a Pfizer jab for their tween or teen. First, check out vaccines.gov (née vaccinefinder.org) to find a list of pharmacies near you that offer the Pfizer vaccine. Be aware that just because a pharmacy has Pfizer in stock, doesn’t necessarily mean they have appointments available—this is less of a concern now given the amount of vaccine floating around, though. Second, if you have one, you can call your pediatrician to see if they’re offering the vaccine to existing kid patients. Third, you can attend any of the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts’ Pfizer events. I think this age group of kids was in the unique position—and I’m biased because I have one—of being old enough to really understand the impact of COVID-19 and understand what it meant to be denied the opportunity to get vaccinated. I’m excited for them, even if the one I’m related to refuses to express any emotions about it other than a single grumpy shrug.The second bit of vaccine news was buried in that last link—did you catch it? As of yesterday, all of the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts’ vaccination events are now also walk-up events. You can see the full list of when, where, and what type of vaccine is on offer here. Just walk on up! No appointments required! For those of us, myself deeply included, who would much rather have an actual appointment time, you can still schedule yourself directly at vax.rchd.com. Remember when finding a vaccine was impossible? Now you can basically trip over them in the middle of the street!If you’ve been following along to this year’s budget season, you know lots and lots of local budget decisions have been deferred, or at least impacted, by the potential and immediate flood of American Rescue Plan money. Yesterday the Governor and a bunch of his pals in the General Assembly released a joint statement on their “shared priorities for American Rescue Plan Funding.” This is $4.3 billion that the State plans to invest in five large buckets: public health, small businesses, workers, public schools, and broadband. It’s a lot of money and could be transformative. Also, are there actual humans out there that are calling for the state to reject this money? I had no idea. The release mentions this a couple of times: “We reject calls to refuse these federal dollars,” and “Virginia has two options: Invest these dollars in Virginia’s future, or reject them and let Congress use our dollars for some other federal purpose. We choose the future.” Also, the release ends with this sick-but-real burn: “All Republican members of Congress voted against the law, including those representing Virginia.” Michael Martz in the Richmond Times-Dispatch says that we should expect the GA to hold a special session in July to dig into what funding these priorities actually looks like.This story in the RTD that originally ran in the Winston-Salem Journal made me laugh: Chick-fil-A limits sauces, citing supply shortage. “The company said that industry-wide supply chain issues led to to the decision to limit each customer to one sauce per entrée, two sauces per meal and three sauces per 30 count nuggets.” I’ll do the math for you: That’s just ONE sauce per 10 nuggets! Unacceptable. Additionally, in case you were worried, “Chick-fil-A said it has not been affected by any chicken shortage.”East Enders! Tonight is your opportunity to tune in to RPS’s Reopening With Love 2.0 East End-specific community conversation. The virtual meeting kicks off at 6:00 PM, and you can find the Zoom info on the aforelinked page.Despite all of the great vaccine news, COVID-19 testing is still important, and the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts still offer it for free every Thursday. Today’s free community testing event takes place at the East Henrico Health Department (1400 N. Laburnum Avenue) from 2:00–4:00 PM.This morning’s longreadWe Should All Be More Afraid of DrivingSomething like four years ago a driver ran a red light (he was playing with his GPS) and T-boned me and my son as I drove through an intersection. Everyone was fine, but I still have a lot of (what feels like) disproportionate fear and anxiety about driving. This article was hard for me to read, so, consider this your trigger warning.Much later, I came across a study in which researchers found that almost 40 percent of people involved in car accidents developed PTSD. Symptoms: frequent, intrusive thoughts or dreams about the accident; fear of driving; feeling isolated even from close loved ones; insomnia—and intense guilt, whether the person was at fault or not. J. Gayle Beck, a psychology professor at the University of Memphis, is one of a handful of researchers who studies PTSD linked to car wrecks. Being in a serious accident, she told me, “violates our beliefs about how life should be and who we are.” We think we’re in control of what happens on the road. If we’re in control, then we must be responsibleIf you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the DayA grave or marker for people who donated their bodies to science.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 45 °F, and after this morning’s clouds clear, today looks pretty great. Expect highs in the 70s, some sunshine, and a chance to spend some time outside in a garden.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 336 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 7 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 36 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 16, Henrico: 15, and Richmond: 5). Since this pandemic began, 1,295 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 723. I say don’t get too distracted by today’s extremely low number of new reported cases (just 14 new reported hospitalizations and 7 new reported deaths, too). Keep your eyes on those seven day averages, which, thankfully, also continue to decrease.Last night, the FDA authorized the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use in kids 12–15. Amazing! The next step here is for the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to give Pfizer For Kids the go ahead, and then pharmacies, pediatricians, and health departments across the country can start vaccinating tweens and teens. ACIP has a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, which you can watch live if you really want! I’d expect a similar announcement from the FDA about Moderna, too, in the coming weeks. I also wanted to mention two round numbers that our stupid human brains, for some reason, are designed to care about: over 4 million Virginians have received at least one dose of the vaccine and over 3 million Virginians are fully vaccinated.I’ve got the teensiest of budget news: City Council met last night and approved the Richmond Public Schools budget. Kenya Hunter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the details. Hunter reports that Councilmember Lynch has the same question I have about this version of the school budget and recent push for schools to run the facilities procurement and construction process: “Fifth District Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch sparked the discussion by asking whether the schools’ proposal would need to be revised to pay for people to oversee construction.” I don’t see the answer in this RTD piece—but it seems like an important thing to know? Right? If Schools needs to hire approx 10 new people, that seems like a hefty budget increase (or a hefty cut from somewhere else). Anyway, I’ll go listen back to The Boring Show once I get it online later today and try to dig up some answers that way.Michael Martz, also at the RTD, has an update on the American Rescue Plan money headed to Virginia. Our state’s independent city system, which is unique in the nation, means weird things happen when we compare our data to other cities' data. Usually it means we make top lists like the Most Number of Tattoo Parlors Per Capita (small denominator). I also suspect it has at least something to do with why five of Virginia’s cities made the top ten list of highest rate of eviction judgments in that NYT evictions piece a while back. It also means that Virginia’s cities get two ARP payments from the federal government: One for being a city and one for being a county. That means Richmond will see something like $155 million over the next couple of years! City Council will most likely have a some meetings after they pass this year’s budget to discuss how to spend that sweet, sweet ARP money—so keep an eye out. Despite wanting to take a holistic look at how a once-in-a-generation influx of cash could impact Richmond, several councilmembers have already earmarked bits and pieces of ARP money for projects here and there. We’ll see how big-picture they can stay once all this money eventually drops in their laps.Richmond BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers reports on a new plan for apartments at 17th and E. Grace Street aka the former Weiman’s Bakery property (which also includes a bunch of surface-level parking lots). The developer plans to build 145 apartments, commercial store fronts, and only 85 parking spaces. I think that’s not even a sarcastic “only”! Just a little over half a parking space per unit seems pretty good for Richmond. I’d love for folks to share with me examples of developers making it work with even less parking.The Virginia GOP has settled on Glenn Youngkin as their gubernatorial nominee, and Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has a bit of a bio piece on him. Youngkin has basically no political experience, no voting record, and tons of personal wealth to contribute—all things the statewide Republican Party feels like they need to be competitive. Here’s all you need to know about Youngkin: “He launched his campaign with a focus on election security and has refused to say whether he believes President Joe Biden won the election legitimately.” Shameful.This morning’s longreadA current list of my top problems in pressthinkI’ve followed Jay Rosen for yeas now, and his thoughts on how media works (or should work) are fascinating—and usually dead on. Read this piece on some of the problems he sees for media in the immediate post-Trump world.By anti-democratic I mean willing to destroy democratic institutions to prevail in the contest for power. This is true, not only of individual politicians, but of the party as a whole. As (Republican) and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson writes, “For the activist base of the Republican Party, affirming that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential contest has become a qualification for membership in good standing.” A qualification for membership. Journalists had adapted to the old system by developing a “both sides” model of news coverage. It locates the duties of a non-partisan press in the middle between roughly similar parties with competing philosophies. That mental model still undergirds almost all activity in political journalism. But it is falling apart.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the Day

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, but this afternoon’s temperatures look extremely pleasant. Expect highs in the 60s and sunshine. I think we’ve got at least one more day of dry weather before some rain moves in later this week.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,159 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 13 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 116 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 43, Henrico: 54, and Richmond: 19). Since this pandemic began, 1,185 people have died in the Richmond region. Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a one-year-later look back at the early and deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center. Over 50 people died, which is shocking—a little less than 10% of Henrico’s total deaths to date. It’s interesting/bizarre/sad to read about how little we knew about this disease back then and how much we learned from this particular outbreak.Over in the vaccine side of the house, for the third week in a row the region vaccinated more than 37,000 people—easily defeating my (and the Governor’s) vaccination goals. You can see a satisfying graph of Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield’s steadily increasing vaccination work here. At this point, over 2 million Virginians have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine—almost 25% of the Commonwealth’s population! With supply of the vaccine less of an issue these days, that number should just continue to creep upwards. Speaking of supply, I’d never scrolled all the way down to the bottom of VDH’s vaccination data dashboard, where you’ll find this fun graph of types of vaccine received by the state over time. Looks like those of you hoping to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will have to wait a minute.Good news! City Council will host their first budget work session today at 1:00 PM, and you can stream it live here. In years past, they’ve posted a list of which departments were scheduled to come present to Council when, but I haven’t found such a list for this year yet—I’ll keep looking. On today’s agenda for sure, though, is a presentation by RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras. Looking at the RPS (PDF) and the City(PDF) budget documents, the Mayor has fully funded RPS’s operating budget request, which I doubt City Council with futz around with. Might could be a short work session! Once the video of today’s meeting gets posted on the City’s website, I’ll get it added to The Boring Show.Mark Robinson at the RTD has an update on the proposed redevelopment of Creighton Court that you should read. Specifically: “The housing authority asked the city for $6.8 million in capital funding for infrastructure improvements at the Creighton site. RRHA officials said the work is a precursor to building new homes, but also crucial to securing coveted low-income housing tax credits that the project’s financing will rely on. The five-year capital improvement plan Stoney pitched to the council earlier this month directs no money to the effort this year, or in any of the next five years.” I don’t know why the Mayor didn’t include money for this project in his CIP—maybe he’s unwilling to commit significant new funding until the agency gets their constant leadership turnover sorted out? Regardless, I do know, that even with the limited coronabudget we’re working with, a couple million dollars could be pulled from other projects. Or, I dunno, we could stop operating with such a scarcity mindset, raise the property tax, and fund basic services like public housing. Several members of City Council have made statements in the past about how strongly they believe in funding public housing, so we’ll see if any of them submit budget amendments to reflect that belief.The Governor went ahead and signed HB 2208, which will remove the statue of Harry F. Byrd Sr. from the Capitol grounds. I’m pretty stoked on this and feel like it’s a significant and important step for the General Assembly to continue acknowledging that racism didn’t end after the early 1900s. Plus, that statue’s proximity to the Barbra Johns statue is just gross.In a related but opposite update, the University of Richmond Board of Trustees issued a statement about removing the names of racists from their buildings, saying in part: “This work has revealed the University’s complicity in slavery in the Ryland era and the advocacy of past-Rector Douglas Southall Freeman for segregation, disenfranchisement, racial purity measures, and eugenics — advocacy arising from false, racist, and abhorrent beliefs. Many of the actions and views brought to light by the research are wholly inconsistent with the institution we are today….We believe, however, that removing building names is inconsistent with the pursuit of our educational mission, which informs all of our actions.” OK. Sounds like, for now, the names are sticking around.I didn’t know this was happening, but the Asian American Society of Central Virginia, the Organization of Chinese Americans’ Central Virginia Chapter, and the Korean American Society of Greater Richmond sponsored a vigil this past Saturday in memory of the people killed in Atlanta last week. If folks know about future events like this, please drop me an email.Today at 2:00 PM, the VCU women’s basketball team takes the court in their first NCAA tournament since 2009! Tune in on ESPNU. The VCU men’s basketball team, though, had to forfeit their opening game against Oregon due to COVID-19, which is a huge bummer. Again, why are we doing these large sporting events?This morning’s longreadThe Pandemic for PedestriansHere’s a good but depressing longread from the folks over at Sports Backers.If you don’t read anything else in this blog post, you should know that in the year of our pandemic 2020, driving in Virginia dropped significantly (16.6%) but traffic fatalities actually increased (2.4%). Speeding-related fatalities increased (16.3%), but overall speeding crashes and injuries decreased (20% each). What this means is that crashes got deadlier – in large part because of speeding and the increased impact energy. Virginia pedestrian fatalities, which hit a record high in 2019 at 126, dropped modestly by 2.4% to 123. However, when compared to the unprecedented drop in driving, pedestrian fatalities actually increased a whopping 17%. That is not a typo – it is a very big increase in pedestrian fatalities relative to their exposure to driving rates.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the Day

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today you should expect warmer temperatures and plenty of wind. Maybe by the end of the day we’ll all feel a little less soggy and ready to head into tomorrow, which looks to be the best-weather day of the week.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,155 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 155 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 187 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 68, Henrico: 55, and Richmond: 64). Since this pandemic began, 797 people have died in the Richmond region. First, a data reporting note on the huge number of deaths reported both statewide and locally: “VDH is now processing 2021 death certificates related to the post-holiday surge of COVID-19 cases. As a result, a larger number of deaths is expected to be added by report date. To observe the trends in COVID-19 deaths most effectively, please review the chart that shows deaths by date of death on the cases dashboard.” That graph is wild (you need to select “Deaths” from the map above and then scroll down to see the trend graph, or just tap here), and you can clearly see the missing chunk of data VDH will now backfill. Keep this in mind, because Friday’s stacked chart of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths is gonna look real broken. Second, and this is good news, the seven-day average of new reported cases across the state has dropped below 2,000 for the first time since November 19th.Due to the limited supply of vaccine and last week’s inclement weather, the region failed to hit my Stupid Math Goal of administering 20,000 vaccines per week. It got close, though, and that’s impressive. I’m still not sure it’s useful, but here’s the same graph with number of statewide doses received overlaid on top of it. I think the biggest takeaway from this second graph is that some of the doses delayed due to weather showed up this week: Virginia reported receiving over 300,000 doses in the last couple of days.Resort casino applications were due to the City by 3:00 PM yesterday, and Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says “at least four” folks submitted proposals. Martz says the City will release the full list of names and proposals in the next week or so, but until then, we’ve got his list of four to noodle on: the Movieland Parking Lot Proposal (by The Cordish Companies), the Weren’t They Gonna Build Amazon Here Proposal (by Bally’s Corp.), the Casino By The Port Proposal (by Urban One), and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe Proposal (by the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, but “four miles south of the property it originally proposed”). As you can imagine, I’m excited to get my hands on some of these PDFs. As for next steps, Martz says a City panel will evaluate the proposals and then make recommendations to Mayor Stoney, then Council will vote on the recommendation, and then you and I will vote in a fall referendum. More thoughts and feelings after I’ve seen some more details on each of the proposals.Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury reports that the General Assembly has sent legislation abolishing the death penalty to the Governor for his signature. Should Northam sign the bill, which it sounds like he will, Oliver says Virginia will be “the first state in the South and the 23rd in the nation to end capital punishment.”RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras’s newsletter from yesterday is worth checking out if you have questions about the year-round school proposal. He’s got a good summary of the proposed changes, some links to studies on the benefits of a year-round calendar, and then a bunch of FAQs. If you haven’t already, RPS parents/caregivers can fill out this surveyand teachers/staff can fill out this survey. Unrelated to the calendar, I hadn’t realized that RPS will try and offer both in-person and virtual instruction next year: “Our goal is to open fully in-person next school year, while also offering a virtual pathway for families who would prefer that option.”Doug Allen on Twitter reminds me that it’s been almost a month since the Department of General Services put up that horrible fencing around MDP Circle, yet the statue of Robert E. Lee still stands. What gives? I feel duped and embarrassed for not listening to folks who know better. I should have know, I mean when was the last time great things happened because the State decided to fence off public space?Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense has the details on Henrico’s Short Pump Town Center planning sessions. I love that the County is already thinking about how to repurpose some of the vast sea of parking surrounding the mall: “…county planning director Joe Emerson said the nearly 20-year-old outdoor mall does provide opportunities for reimagining to keep it up with the times. The mall’s expansive parking lots could provide for infill development, and additions to the mall.” Yes! The County has a couple virtual events scheduled this week for folks to learn more and weigh in, too.Can it be?? Last night City Council struck former-Councilmember Kim Gray’s, ORD. 2018–236, finally ending its reign as Richmond’s Most-Continued Ordinance. Gray introduced ORD. 2018–236 on September 10th, 2018 a full 897 days ago! It hadn’t even taken a trip to a Council committee for 460 days. It just sat on the agenda, getting continued over, and over, and over again. Goodbye, long-familiar friend! Joking aside, it’s bad in all sorts of ways to have shriveled and rotting legislation cluttering up agendas, and I’m glad to see this go. Now the (dis)honor of Most-Continued Ordinance belongs to Councilmember Addison’s ORD. 2019–275, which would establish a technology zone program. It was introduced on October 14, 2019—498 days ago.This morning’s patron longreadThe Mushrooms Will Survive UsSubmitted by Patron Gretchen. I guess I need to get a mushroom kit now??In a world where the construction industry produces more than one-tenth of all greenhouse gases, fungi may become a sustainable building material; mycelium grow obscenely quickly and can be coaxed to take the shape of architectural molds. So far, tinkering researchers have managed to guide it into the form of compostable bricks and rather organic-looking chairs. Some fashion designers are also experimenting with mushroom leather.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the DayIf we had one, this would be my family logo.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and it’s gonna rain. I’m not sure my already-soggy neighborhood needs another half inch of rain, but that’s what’s happening this afternoon. If you need to go out, make sure you bring something to keep you warm and to keep you dry, too.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 2,303 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 134 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 230 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 90, Henrico: 85, and Richmond: 55). Since this pandemic began, 755 people have died in the Richmond region. Now that Chesterfield has its data reporting issue sorted out, the local seven-day average of new reported cases in the region, like the statewide numbers, has fallen to a level not seen since early December. Everyone: Keep doing what you’re doing (unless you’re one of those people who just haven’t changed their behavior at all over the past year—then to you I make a rude gesture with both of my hands). We don’t want a repeat of the winter or last spring. Just look at this powerfully simple graph of weekly deaths in the United States over the last five years. The past 12 months have been real, and its hard to argue otherwise looking at this graph. Almost 500,000 people have died in the U.S. because of this disease—it’s hard to comprehend.Over in vaccine land, I’ve been tracking how much vaccine the state reports receiving each week, and last week was a bust. Just 99,750 doses, compared to an average of 218,892 doses over the previous three weeks. Some of that, I’m sure was weather related, but dang. Everything, and I mean everything, changes when we have abundant supply of the various vaccines—and, I think, that time is coming sooner rather than later.Jessica Nocera at the Richmond Times-Dispatch writes about families making the choice to send (or not send) their kids back to school at Chesterfield’s J.A. Chalkley Elementary. Nocera does a great job of laying out how freaking complex this decision is, especially for families of color: “At Chalkley, where 45% of students returned, only 1 in 3 Black students showed up on the first day back, while nearly half of Hispanic students and about 6 in 10 white students did, according to state and county data. The district’s whitest school zone, Bettie Weaver, had the highest percentage of students who signed up to return.” I think statistics like this underscore how the Governor’s decision to mandate/strongly encourage/whatever that all school districts open up to in-person instruction by March 15th felt a little tone deaf to some folks.As I keep saying, bills can die rapid and interesting deaths in the General Assembly, so don’t get your hopes up. That said, check out this piece by the Virginia Mercury’s Sarah Vogelsong about the GA getting pretty close to adopting California’s “stringent” vehicle emission standards and electric car sales targets. “Transportation”, writ large, accounts for almost 30% of emission in the U.S., and personal travel is a big chunk of that. Converting as many cars as we can to electric will put a big dent in our emissions, but electric cars do not “solve” climate change. They do nothing to make our cities better places to live—places where people can walk, bike, and take transit. They do nothing to combat sprawl, itself a huge driver of emissions. But! We can and should do both things: Create ways for folks to live less car-dependent lives andget as many vehicles running on electricity as possible. Side note: I really like this graph of California’s greenhouse gas emissions by category which shows transportation accounting for 40.1% of the states emissions and passenger vehicles making up 69.8% of that (PDF, p. 6).RVA Rapid Transit has launched a new program, called The Rider’s Voice, to collect stories and experiences of folks who use transit. You can either call in and leave a voicemail (804.286.0007) or take this online survey. This month’s topic is “How has free bus fare affected you?”The RTD’s Michael Martz reports that Urban One, a “Black-owned Washington media company,” will team up with the owner of Colonial Downs and submit an application to build a casino on the Southside of Richmond (the deadline for those applications, by the way, is today at 3:00 PM). I still don’t think I want any resort casinos in the City, but this new proposed location—in a hard-to-reach, Phantom Zone out by the Port of Richmond—is at least better than adjacent to Hillside Court or in the Movieland parking lot. In fact, you might remember this old, unused Philip Morris property as the spot the City briefly pitched to relocate the Department of Social Services during the whole Navy Hill situation—I had a lot of thoughts and feelings about that!City Council will meet tonight, and I don’t see the paper that would accept money from DRPT to paint the Pulse lanes red—but, remember, the agenda can and does change frequently. One new ordinance to keep an eye on: ORD. 2021–021 will keep sidewalk dining applications free for restaurants (normally $300) until June 30, 2021.This morning’s patron longreadShort of Vaccine, States Find Hidden Stashes in Their Own BackyardsSubmitted by Patron Lisa. Hey look, it’s Richmond’s Dr. Danny Avula in the New York Times!Until a software patch was created, vaccinations of hospital staff did not show up in the state’s system. Some clinics were using paper records and were slow to file. Dr. Avula put a 10-person team on “pounding the data,” and the state began rising in the national rankings. Then he tackled stockpiles. Walgreens and CVS had already drawn down most of the quarter-million doses allotted to the state’s long-term-care program. On Jan. 25, with the C.D.C.’s permission, Dr. Avula put the 62,000 doses that were left under state control. Many other states are doing the same. At least 20 states said they had shifted or planned to shift doses that had been set aside for long-term-care facilities, according to a New York Times survey of all 50 states.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the DayI might be getting a little too into these homePod Minis.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and temperatures should warm up a little once the sun has a chance to get up and going later this morning. We are officially under a Winter Storm Watch that expires at 1:00 PM on Friday, and, as of this movement, we could see three to five inches of snow starting tomorrow afternoon. NBC12 puts us in the two-to-six inches band.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 3,291 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 78 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 440 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 222, Henrico: 133, and Richmond: 85). Since this pandemic began, 714 people have died in the Richmond region.The seven-day average of new reported cases continues to mostly fall, but, worryingly, hospitalizations are on the rise and have topped 100 five of the last seven days. In fact, new hospitalizations haven’t really followed the peak-and-fall pattern of cases over the last few weeks at all, instead, staying on a 100+ plateau since the second week of December. VDH’s pandemic metrics dashboard says that 87% of the Central Region’s hospital beds are occupied and that number has increased over the last 15 days. Also, our statewide hospitalization graph looks nothing like the nationwide graph put together by the COVID Tracking Project—not that it always should, but it definitely doesn’t at the moment. Something to keep an eye on.Yesterday, I said this about CVS’s attempts to open up an additional way for folks over the age of 65 to get vaccinated: “Details are scarce—just like vaccine—which I’m sure won’t make for a stressful situation at all.” Then, just a couple hours later, CVS opened up their appointments—apparently to whoever was willing to check a couple of boxes—and instantly, like a PS5 on Target.com, those appointments vanished into people’s online shopping carts. Dr. Danny Avula describes the botched rollout, which favored “people who get up super early…trolling the internet,” saying “This is not a system that allows equitable access. That’s what we’re fighting for and, unfortunately, we weren’t able to work it out in this scenario.” Michael Martz and Sarbina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch have more details on how that all could have gone a whole lot better. This sucks, but, the only reason it sucks is that we have such an extremely limited supply of vaccine right now. Please keep that in mind—and who’s responsible for that—every time you’re filled with fury thinking about seniors getting up in the middle of the night to refresh their browsers over and over, hoping to find an appointment.I didn’t listen to last night’s RPS School Board meeting, but luckily the RTD’s Kenya Hunter has the update on how the District plans on dealing with the Governor’s request to open schools to in-person learning by March 15th. It seems like the Superintendent and the School Board are on the same page (!?) that getting folks into buildings in less than 40 days doesn’t seem possible. Not only from a health safety perspective—millions of dollars of HVAC upgrades are still pending—but just from a logistics perspective: “The district is 27 custodians short of meeting industry standards, the board heard Tuesday.” Now I’m interested in what happens if districts just decide to not listen to the Governor? Is a good faith effort toward getting the pieces lined up for in-person school next year enough? Meanwhile, down in Chesterfield County, that District’s School Board voted unanimously to open up the option of in-person instruction to middle and high school students beginning March 9th.Via /r/rva a video of Slaughterama in 2006. Slaughterama—which doesn’t exist any more (or I’m now too old to know about it)—was an open-air, beer-fueled bike festival/olympics. It was one of my favorite things about 2000s-era Richmond! But, looking back, it’s also a clear example of how white people can pretty much do whatever they want in public space with absolutely no consequences.Yesterday, the Senate’s second impeachment trial of Donald Trump got underway, and you can read the recap over on impeachment.fyi. Of note, House Managers (the folks acting as the prosecution) showed this intense, hard-to-watch video of the January 6th insurrection. It’s not a pleasant way to start your morning, but it’s probably something that you should find the time to watch.This morning’s longreadHow the Federal Government Could Help Kill the Highways It BuiltWhoa! Federal money to study undoing the damage caused by running highways through Black and Brown neighborhoods! Should this money actually end up existing, Richmond should go after it with an eye toward capping I-95/I-64 between 1st and St. James Street as recommended by Richmond 300 (PDF, p. 126).Now, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has unveiled legislation that would reverse this decades-old infrastructure formula, offering billions in federal dollars for cities willing to demolish those urban highways. As Streetsblog reported on Jan. 11, the Economic Justice Act, a spending package worth over $435 billion, includes a $10 billion pilot program that would provide funds for communities to examine transit infrastructure that has divided them along racial and economic lines and potentially alter or remove them. It would also help pay for plans to redevelop reclaimed land. The program contains specific language requiring projects funded through it prioritize equity and avoid displacement. It also provides grants meant to facilitate community engagement and participation as well as construction.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.Picture of the DayA #2 bus stop out front of 4000 Forest Hill Avenue.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 32 °F, and today looks like a bright and sunshiney day. Expect highs in the mid 50s and a brief but full sense of wellbeing.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 4,561 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 84 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 391 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 126, Henrico: 171, and Richmond: 94). Since this pandemic began, 599 people have died in the Richmond region. That’s two straight days with new case numbers under 5,000—which is “good”—but, as per always, Monday and Tuesday case count numbers are typically lower than the rest of the week. Check back tomorrow to see if this mini trend holds. As for hospitalizations and deaths, both have increased at a pretty steady rate since at least November with a few peaks and troughs along the way. Yesterday, the state posted an especially dire peak and reported 84 deaths—the most ever in a single day. The seven-day average of coronavirus deaths in Virginia has hit 40.9, and at this rate, using more Stupid Math, now tops this list of leading causes of death in Virginia. Locally, we’ve seen 99 people die from this disease since December 11th. That’s a dark set of sentences, but they’re important, and I hope they inspire you to think more about Swiss cheese and how you can add on a couple additional layers of mitigation strategies to keep you and yours safe.As the virus continues to burn through our communities, and with no new guidance from the Governor or President (scoff!), local institutions are left to figure it out for themselves—which, honestly, has been the story for most of the pandemic. Yesterday, VCU announced that they’ll still begin the spring semester on January 25th, but they’re moving almost all classes virtual. As far as I can tell, UR is still heading toward an in-person semester, but look at their process for moving into the dorms. Probably seems normal for students at this point, but, dang. Henrico County Public Schools pushed their in-person start date back again, to “some point in February” although Tom Lappas at the Henrico Citizen says there’s some confusion about why. Then, down in Chesterfield, their School Board just voted to bring elementary school students back on February 1st, reports Jessica Nocera in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. As you can see, everyone’s doing their own thing, which sounds suboptimal to me. That said, I really do believe everyone’s doing their best to balance one hundred and one simultaneous terrible consequences while trying to chart their own best path forward. It’s complicated, and it sucks.Here’s a fun opportunity—fun, I guess, if you’re the type of person that subscribes to this email. In his latest newsletter RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras says that they just learned the District will receive $54.6 million from the latest federal stimulus package. They can spend it kind of however they want, but it is one-time money so probably best not to hire new folks or create new on-going programs. Here’s the fun part, to quote from his email: “On Tuesday, I’m scheduled to present a draft budget for the 2021–22 academic year to the School Board. As you can imagine, today’s news has prompted me to rework a few things. As I do so, I’d love to hear from you. Put simply, knowing everything outlined above about how the stimulus can be used, what would you prioritize for next year? Feel free to email me at jkamras@rvaschools.net!” Selfishly, I want to suggest renovating the basketball and tennis courts between Henderson Middle and John Marshall High. But, honestly, you could probably dump the entire $54.6 million into capital projects to make our school buildings more hospitable to students (aka $54.6 million of boring but critical HVAC work).The General Assembly kicks off their 2021 session today! It’s that time of year where I valiantly attempt to understand how state government works, get overwhelmed, give up, and feel bad about myself. Hooray! To get me through it, I will lean heavily on the work of folks like Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury, who’s got a good piece today on the Democrats' legislative priorities. Related to the session’s kickoff, Michael Martz at the RTD says the Department of General Services denied some permits for Lobby Day (this coming Monday) and will “close Capitol Square in the coming days as we take steps to secure the grounds.” The Governor will deliver his State of the Commonwealth Address tonight at 7:00 PM, and you can probably stream it from any of the local news stations.Whoa: The James River Park System hit 2 million visitors in 2020. JRPS is so dang rad, and we are lucky to have it. I hope the City will use these massive turnout numbers as reason to increase funding, staff, support, or whatever else Parks & Rec feels like they need.Remember! The House will introduce—and probably vote on—Articles of Impeachment today. By this evening we could have a twice-impeached president. As this process hurtles forward, more and more Republicans have started to come out either in direct support of impeachment or at least in support of the process.This morning’s longreadThe Debate About School Safety Is No Longer RelevantAnother article in The Atlantic by local Elliot Haspel. This one brings up an interesting question: Are we even having the right discussions about reopening schools? Good context for some of the paragraphs above.The reason for the shortages isn’t intransigent teachers’ unions or unreasonable fear; it’s simply that the virus is too widely spread. Upwards of 200,000 new COVID-19 cases are reported most days, and Anthony Fauci recently warned that January numbers will likely look even bleaker. The new viral variant, if it takes hold in the U.S., may worsen matters further. With so much spread, a significant number of teachers, nurses, bus drivers, food-service workers, custodians, and other staff in any given district will inevitably catch COVID-19 or be exposed, week after week. That’s bad enough on its own, and depending on a district’s particular policies for quarantining contacts (for instance, whether everyone in a building with a positive case must isolate, versus only those who had direct contact with the infected individual), a further multiplier effect can exacerbate the consequences for staffing.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and today looks pretty nice. Expect highs around 50, lots of sunshine, and maybe an opportunity to take an afternoon walk around your neighborhood should you get a minute.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 4,530 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 10 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 366 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 92, Henrico: 188, and Richmond: 86). Since this pandemic began, 591 people have died in the Richmond region. I missed this yesterday, but the seven-day average of statewide new reported cases broke 5,000; this morning’s seven-day average is 5,121. Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association has officially asked the Governor to impose more restrictions to fight the dramatic spread of the virus, specifically to “consider temporarily implementing additional public health measures regarding limits on indoor dining, stricter occupancy limits, expanded use of telework, and requirements for non-essential businesses.” It does make me feel better—in a dark, morbid way—to hear folks with some influence asking the Governor to take further actions to slow down the disease while we wait on the vaccine. Speaking of, on the vaccine side of things, here’s my first attempt at a graph of our regions vaccination efforts. I don’t love it yet and reserve the right to change it in the future! Remember, Ross’s Stupid-Math Goal (which is not anyone else’s goal and should not be treated as such), is around 2,720 vaccinations per day in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield. Over the last seven days, the region averaged 1,683 vaccinations. I think that’s pretty good considering we’ve only been at this for a couple weeks now; the health systems, health districts, and pharmacies are still in the process of ramping up their vaccine machines; and, of course, the ever-present data-reporting issues. Once we do get some more data, though, I think I’ll move to looking at a weekly regional goal of around 20,000 vaccinations.I didn’t watch City Council last night because I had my first ever viewing of the Christian Bale classic Newsies. Which was more drama-filled? Which had more dance fighting? I’ll never know. For those of you that did watch City Council, you saw that ORD. 2020–214, the ordinance that helps fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, passed. Interestingly, the amended Monument & Allen medians ordinance, ORD.2020–217, was stricken. You don’t see that a ton, but the patron, Kim Gray, no longer sits on Council and can no longer withdraw bills (which is usually the more common option). I am bummed to have missed seeing all of the first-meeting jitters of the new councilmembers, but I’m glad to have finally been introduced to “Spot Conlon.”Yesterday, the House, for the second time, introduced Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump. As a result, one of my favorite newsleetter from the twenty-teens, impeachment.fyi, is back. I encourage you to subscribe and let Dan Sinker walk you through the next couple of weeks with a single evening email covering all of the day’s impeachment news. Sinker says the vote on impeachment is set for Wednesday, and the Articles already have enough cosponsors to make it a done deal that Trump will be a twice-impeached president—an American first. What happens in the Senate, though, is anyone’s guess (although I will guess right now: Nothing, nothing will happen in the Senate).Related, the next week or so at the state Capitol promises to be…something. The General Assembly kicks off their 2021 session tomorrow, which means Lobby Day (also MLK Day) is right around the corner. Last year’s Lobby Day was pre-pandemic, which seems hard to believe, and featured thousands of gun-toting men trying to intimidate legislators from voting for some pretty basic gun legislation. Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury says one pro-gun-violence group still intends on going through with whatever kind of rally they plan on hosting this coming Monday. Additionally, Michael Martz at the RTD says the governors (and mayor) of Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. have asked that folks not come to Biden’s inauguration. Very cool and normal stuff here in America lately.This morning’s longreadSix hours of paralysis: Inside Trump’s failure to act after a mob stormed the CapitolWith impeachment back on the table, it’s worth reading this good tick-tock of last Wednesday’s horrible events.But as senators and House members trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday begged for immediate help during the siege, they struggled to get through to the president, who — safely ensconced in the West Wing — was too busy watching fiery TV images of the crisis unfolding around them to act or even bother to hear their pleas. “He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV,” said one close Trump adviser. “If it’s TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.” Even as he did so, Trump did not move to act.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and today looks hot and humid with a chance of rain later this afternoon. Feels Likes will hit triple digits, so if you’re out and about make sure you hydrate.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,021↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 32↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 175↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 60, Henrico: 92, and Richmond: 23). Since this pandemic began, 325 people have died in the Richmond region. That’s a lot of dang new cases in the region, with Henrico now posting a seven-day average of 82 new positive cases per day. That’s a full 8% of the seven-day average of new reported positive cases across the entire Commonwealth (997) and 221% of Richmond’s seven-day average (37). VCU, on the other hand, reported just six new positive cases, bringing their total of reported cases to 165, and has 126 folks currently in isolation or quarantine. I’m still not ready to put my own graphs out yet, but a reader sent me a link to this neat page someone put together that scrapes the VCU dashboard and autogenerates graphs. Great work, whoever you are! Meanwhile, out in the western part of our state, JMU has decided to “transition primarily to online learning, with some hybrid instruction for accreditation and licensure requirements, graduate research, and specialized upper-class courses requiring equipment and space, through the month of September…Additionally, in an effort to reduce the number of people on campus, residents will be asked to return home by Sept. 7.” I’m a little confused about how to read JMU’s data dashboard, but they’ve had 513 active cases since July 1st.Yesterday, folks protesting coronavirus-related conditions at the Richmond City Justice Center (aka the jail) were met with a violent response from the Richmond Police Department. I don’t know how to find the number of COVID-19 cases in jails for just Richmond City, but 8News says that late last month 103 people in the jail and six staff members at the jail were “quarantined, displaying symptoms, or [had] come in contact with those infected with the virus.” At that time, the jail housed 675 people with 325 staff. From what I can gather, last night protestors showed up on the sidewalk and in the street on Oliver Hill Way, below a small berm leading up to the jail. At some point things escalated—either between protestors and cops or protestors and a tow truck, it’s unclear to me—and the evening ended with almost a dozen people arrested, most for “obstructing RPD officers as they attempted to restore order.” You can watch this horrifying video of a police officer tackling a person off of their bicycle, smashing their head onto the sidewalk. It’s awful, and I won’t blame you for not tapping on that link, but now read how an RPD press release describes what happened to that person riding their bike: “Shortly before 7:00 p.m., a bicyclist blocked a tow truck as it attempted to remove a vehicle parked illegally outside the Justice Center. When an RPD officer arrived, the bicyclist attempted to flee the scene and was stopped by the officer.” Would you, or any other sane person, describe what happens in that video as “was stopped by the officer?” This is appalling—and routine!—behavior. Now it’s just out in the open, in the daylight, in front of TV news cameras, and white people are generally the victims. We see it more, but it’s always been there, and it’s the same behavior we’ve seen from police departments across the country—in big cities, small towns, north, west, south, and east. @tormaid was at the protest and has a long thread with a few pictures and videos if you’d like to scroll through.Plot twist! Del. Jeff Bourne’s qualified immunity bill, HB 5103, rose from the dead yesterday and reported out of the House’s Appropriations committee. Del. David Reid, one of the original Democratic NAY votes, switched to YEA. And so the bill lives again! Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says “Bourne introduced a substitute bill to address concerns that Reid had expressed about how it applies to police officers working as off-duty security.” So, we’ll see how long HB 5103 will live, and if it’ll survive a trip to the Senate which has already voted down a similar bill.Our regional transportation planning body has a transportation-related survey for you to fill out. I know this kind of thing can feel like a drag, but it legitimately does influence how transportation money gets spent in the Richmond region. Do you want it spent on stupid highway building and road widening? Would you rather it go toward sidewalks, trails, bike lanes, and public transportation? Yeah, duh! So fill out this survey and be unabashedly multi-modal about it.Via /r/rva, for Richmonders of a certain age and era this will bum you out: Mike Levay, announcer for the Richmond Renegades, died last month. Levay spent a lot of time announcing games at the University of Richmond, but I know him from my time spent at Rrrrrrrichmond Rrrrrrrenegades games.The Henrico and Richmond City Health Districts will host a free community testing event at the Broad Rock Community Center (4615 Ferguson Lane) today from 9:00–11:00 AM. Stop on by if you need, want, or feel like you should get tested.The Science Museum of Virginia now has an enormous mask covering its entrance colonnade. I love this. Do you make sure to cover your face’s entrance colonnade with a mask when you leave the house??This morning’s patron longreadHow Do Algorithms Work? A Basic Primer for Non-MarketersSubmitted by Patron Rachel. Algorithms! Are they magic? Are they out to get us? And, more importantly, are they biased?And, more recently, I saw a comment thread amongst Facebook friends claiming that if you search any 3-digit number and the words “new cases,” you’ll get news about COVID cases with those exact numbers – which to them proved that COVID is a hoax. Political and medical affiliations aside, the underlying issue is often that people don’t trust algorithms and machine learning because they don’t have a complete understanding of how they actually work. So let’s go over a basic primer of how these work for things like search, social media, and other common technology applications we use daily.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and today’s weather looks pretty OK. Expect highs in the 80s and a chance of rain—particularly later this afternoon.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 861↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 11↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 164↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 61, Henrico: 82, and Richmond: 21). Since this pandemic began, 310 people have died in the Richmond region. Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch looks at the extreme racial disparity in those local coronanumbers, saying “The impact has become painfully apparent in Richmond, where more than 80% of coronavirus cases are Black or Latino, and Latinos have nearly three times the number of cases than white Richmonders despite being only 7% of the city’s population. Black Richmonders account for more than 60% of the city’s deaths.” Checking in on higher education, yesterday, Notre Dame and Michigan State joined UNC in hastily abandoning their in-person instruction plans. The former plans on going remote for just two weeks while the latter sounds like they plan to stay virtual for the entire fall semester. This spring, UVA led the state in early plans to send students home, so maybe keep an eye on Charlottesville for similar plans this fall. At this point, though, the Commonwealth’s major public universities are full-speed ahead and have yet to report any major COVID-19 outbreaks.The RTD’s Michael Martz has a story about gas taxes, which, I know, is about as interesting as it sounds. As you can imagine, and despite the apparent shock and disbelief from the Virginia Petroleum & Convenience Marketers Association, the time that all of Virginia shut down for months and did not leave their homes has resulted in lower than expected gas tax revenues. Wild, right? I link to this story mostly to remind you that the General Assembly created the Central Virginia Transportation Authority this past winter, and that it is, in part, funded through a wholesale fuels tax. Richmond and Henrico both halved their local contribution to GRTC with the expectation that the CVTA would use its new revenues to backfill those cuts. With CVTA revenues uncertain due to the impact of the coronavirus, I’m extremely nervous about what that means for public transportation funding in the Richmond region. Will the localities restore some of GRTC’s funding? Will they move to cut bus service and force me to write tens of thousands of angry words? I have no idea, but this coming budget season will be intense.If you’re interested in the rule-setting portion of the GA’s special session, you can read this piece by Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury. It feels like something I should care about, but, for whatever reason, I have a hard time getting excited about partisan arguments over process at the state level. Give me local process arguments any day, though!The Richmond Public Library has a COVID-19 Community Needs Survey that you should fill out if you’re a fan of the library—and if you’re not a fan of the library maybe you should do some serious introspection. It’ll take you just a couple of minutes and will help guide the library’s plans to reopen early next month.Quick reminder to check in on the Big List of 2020 Candidate Events. There are at least seven events spread across a bunch of candidates over the coming week—each one an opportunity to learn more about the folks that will end up leading our city out of a crisis.I missed this yesterday, which kind of speaks to how far we’ve left to go, but, on August 18th, America celebrated 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment and women’s right to vote. It’s a good and short amendment, and I’ll quote it here in its entirety: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” The New York Times has cool piece up called “Suffrage at 100: A Visual History” that’s got all sorts of neat pictures and memorabilia and is definitely worth your time. Guess what, though? There are no pictures of men working to win the right to vote because we’ve always had it—since even before cameras existed. 100 years is not that long ago!I think the roll call vote from last night’s Democratic National Convention is worth watching. Rather than boringly zooming into a sea of people standing inside of an arena only to watch them holler into a microphone, this year’s coronaconvention cut together 57 short clips shot in each of the 50 states and seven territories. It’s like the Olympic’s Parade of Nations but for America. I love it! P.S. You’ll definitely want to check out Rhode Island, which kind of stole the show—the Calamari Comeback State of Rhode Island!This morning’s longreadThe Unraveling of AmericaI didn’t agree with some of the specifics of this piece, but it was too dark not to share!The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness. How can the rest of the world expect America to lead on global threats — climate change, the extinction crisis, pandemics — when the country no longer has a sense of benign purpose, or collective well-being, even within its own national community?If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

You're obviously listening to a podcast series dedicated to cult movies, but what exactly is cult cinema? Ann-Eliza Musoke Taylor, Michael Martz, and Tyler Martinolich break it all down in this inaugural episode of Second Screen Cult Cinema. 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F, and you might see some rain this morning! After that, though, we’re back to the standard hot and humid Richmond summer.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 888↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 4↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 87↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 20, Henrico: 38, and Richmond: 29). Since this pandemic began, 270 people have died in the Richmond region. I think it’s pretty clear now that reported positive case in Virginia are trending upward, and the last time the Commonwealth saw the same number of cases while they were increasing was back in mid April (so on the way up the previous spike, not on the way down). The number of tests reported does continue to increase, yet the statewide percent positivity also has crept up almost a percentage point as of the last couple weeks of June. Since the Governor has stopped his regularly-scheduled COVID-19 press conferences, we’ve got to catch him at public appearances, like this one in Hampton Roads. In light of the worsening coronastats, he announced that he “won’t hesitate to impose restrictions if needed,” and that, if necessary, he’d consider a move back into Phase Two or modifying Phase Three’s requirements around large gatherings. About schools (more on that below) the Gov said "…if our numbers don’t stay where they are and we can’t remain in Phase Three then we are not going to be able to move forward with that.” So keep an eye on that and the willingness to monkey around with the requirements of Phase Three to avoid moving back into Phase Two and forcing the closures of schools.Last week, I recapped the Richmond School Board meeting where they heard from experts and discussed possible plans for reopening the District. At the time, the Superintendent had put forward two plans—Plan A and Plan B—one would have students in schools a couple of days a week, one would have students in schools every day, both would provide fully-virtual options for families that wanted to stay home. Now the Superintendent has three more plans, Plans C through E. Plan C would have elementary schools students back for full-time, in-person instruction and everyone else would do fully virtual learning. Plan D would allow for full-time, in-person instruction for high-needs students with every one else fully virtual. Plan E would keep everyone fully virtual for the first semester. Note with every plan, all students will have the option to go fully virtual, and, in the Superintendent’s words, “No RPS employee will be forced to work in-person. Period. Full stop.” Plan C is the exact modification to Plan B I wrote about last week, so I’m glad its now an official, lettered option. School Board will have another meeting this Tuesday, tomorrow, to further discuss all of these options and to try to chart a path forward. If you’ve got thoughts and opinions, you can make an official public comment by emailing speakers@rvaschools.net (which they will totally read at the meeting) or you can email the Superintendent (jkamras@rvaschools.net) and the School Board directly.Mayor Stoney announced the folks that will make up his Task Force to Reimagine Public Safety, and you can read through that list at the bottom of this press release. They’ve got 45 days to do their work, which the release describes as, “reviewing the police department’s use of force policies, exploring an approach to public safety that uses a human services lens and prioritizing community healing and engagement.” I’m hoping this Task Force stays aware of and aligned with Council’s current stack of pending police reform legislation—which you can expect an email from me about later today—and that we don’t see a bunch of duplicative work. Councilmember Ellen Robertson does sit on the Task Force, so, fingers crossed. Also, I don’t know a lot of the names on this list, but, if it’s true that there’s not a single Latinx voice on the Task Force, then that’s unacceptable.Speaking of police reform, Ali Rockett at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says that the RPD’s use-of-force report from June didn’t include any of those times that police officers gassed protestors or shot them with rubber bullets. That is until Rockett started poking around, and then, three days later, RPD updated their data. I honestly can’t tell if this is a case of bad and slow process or an intentional attempt to mislead. Either is bad, especially since the literal reason folks are protesting—and continue to protest—is bad, violent, and racist police policies. Fudging the data on their use of violence is exactly that!Two quick monument notes: First, Michael Martz at the RTD says the Department of General Services has approved a plan to remove the Lee monument—whenever the legal stuff gets sorted out. The plan involves cutting the statue up into three segments because the statue as a whole won’t fit under highway overpasses. That’s a surprising concern to me, because I thought for sure the bronze parts would end up somewhere in town at a museum or a cemetery or something. Also, DGS apparently has plans to remove the granite pedestal, too. I absolutely think they need to consider calling a timeout on that and, at the minimum, boot up a public engagement process around what to do with the plinth. It’s evolved into a public memorial over the last couple of months, and I just don’t think you can box it up without first talking to anyone. Second, the AP reports that the Arthur Ashe statue will not be taken down.The WaPo reports that Washington’s football team will retire their name today and announce a new name at a later date. Dang, they’re about to make so much money off of merch sales.This morning’s longreadDon’t Fall For The ‘Cancel Culture’ ScamMichael Hobbes from the You’re Wrong About… podcast has a good explainer of the Cancel Culture Letter you may have seen floating around last week.On Monday, 153 prominent writers, academics and public figures signed their names to a statement entitled “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate.” According to the signatories, “The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted.” While the letter itself, published by the magazine Harper’s, doesn’t use the term, the statement represents a bleak apogee in the yearslong, increasingly contentious debate over “cancel culture.” The American left, we are told, is imposing an Orwellian set of restrictions on which views can be expressed in public. Institutions at every level are supposedly gripped by fears of social media mobs and dire professional consequences if their members express so much as a single statement of wrongthink. This is false.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F? Depending on where you live you may have even seen a bit of snow this morning?? Well, with that out of the way, temperatures should be back up in the mid 50s later this evening with the spring we know and love returning tomorrow.Water coolerRichmond Police are reporting that Francesca Harris-Scarborough, 31, was shot and killed on the 3400 block of Blakey Street this past Thursday. This murder brings the City’s total to 15, according to the RPD.As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 6,171 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 154 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 891 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 241, Henrico: 432, and Richmond: 175). Here’s the Governor’s release on that new coronavirus model out of UVA that I wrote about yesterday—which includes a link to a video of the scientists' briefing if you’ve got spare time this morning. The Gov says that “current social distancing efforts starting March 15 have paused the growth of the epidemic in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In this scenario, ‘paused’ growth means that the rate of new cases is holding steady rather than increasing.” That’s not what I see when I look at the graph of new cases since March 15th, but what do I know! I guess that’s reassuring to hear, but I’m still concerned about how Virginians can know that the rate of new cases is “holding steady” when we’re testing fewer people per capita than almost every other state(Virginia in black marked with Xs, data from The COVID Tracking Project). Again, I know almost nothing other than how to tap a few buttons on a spreadsheet, and maybe over the next few days we will start to see the amount of testing go up while the number of reported positive cases remains constant. Regardless of whether the Commonwealth has paused the spread of the virus or just slowed it down, the Governor still—and rightly—cautions against lifting social distancing restrictions too quickly. No one’s trying to have a second wave of infections. This is in direct opposition to whatever nonsense the federal government is getting ready to recommend according to the Washington Post. Also: If anyone knows anyone at UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute, tell them to publish a CSV of their model’s predicted new cases each day. I want to make a graph of predicted vs. actual!The Mayor also gave a briefing yesterday, and you can watch the video here. For whatever reason, for me, it was nice/reassuring to hear his voice? I didn’t expect to feel that way, but maybe you will, too! The Mayor says that, in Richmond, Black folks make up a disproportionate number of positive coronavirus cases when compared to White folks (62% vs. 24%). For context, in 2016, Black people made up just 57% of the population of the City. Dr. Danny Avula, from the local Health District, was also on hand and says they’ll create some walk-up (not drive-through!) testing sites at lower-income housing neighborhoods maybe as early as next week. Says Dr. Avula, “We’re looking at two populations—residents of long-term care facilities and un- and underinsured people of color throughout our community.” Samuel Northrop at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a written recap of the briefing if you’re not feeling the video.Michael Martz and Sabrina Moreno, also at the RTD, continue their reporting on the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in western Henrico. 45 people have now died at the facility, and while officials think they’ve “overcome the crest,” they still expect more folks to die in the coming weeks.Richmond Public School seniors now have free laptops in hand! On Friday, the District will begin distributing laptops to 9th, 10th, and 11th graders, then, once they get through high schoolers, they’ll move on to the middle and elementary school students. Superintendent Kamras has some more details in yesterday’s email (including where to sign up if you or yours needs a laptop).Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense says Henrico County plans on cutting 7% of their proposed budget for this coming year. That’s almost $100 million and a greater percentage cut than the 5% cut proposed by the Mayor for the City’s budget. That link is worth tapping on for the bizarre picture of the press conference alone.I’m not sure what they thought would happen, but top-of-the-class Richmond brewery The Veil released a new beer yesterday and here’s what the line for to-go orders looked like. I really appreciate The Veil’s response, though: “In response to our overwhelming turnout today, starting tomorrow we will no longer be offering sales of to go beer at either of our tap rooms. We unfortunately can not in good conscience continue to move forward with in-person sales in a safe and responsible manner at our tap rooms. We will be moving to 100% deliveries for the remainder of the week while we work on implementing an online order system for curbside pick up.” This is why folks in charge have totally legit fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections if social distancing restrictions are lifted too early!This morning’s longreadPeople fall off cruise ships with alarming regularity. Can anything be done to stop it?Ha. Remember cruise ships? Turns out they were fraught with peril even pre-virus!That a cruise passenger’s statistical likelihood of dying as a result of an MOB is very low cannot be denied. But Michael Lloyd—a former sea captain with 50 years at sea, and now a marine-safety consultant, victims’ advocate, and cruise industry critic—posited a useful thought experiment. He asked me, as a journalist covering the travel industry, to imagine what would happen if, every month, one to two people died on an airplane for a predictable operational reason, such as sustaining a traumatic head injury during turbulence due to failure to wear a seatbelt. It’s a scenario I find impossible to imagine, after years of flight-safety demonstrations, seatbelt checks, and back-of-the-seat cards.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F and windy and rainy. We’re under a tornado watch until 12:00 PM today, so please stay inside if you can and keep an eye on your weather service of choice for further alerts.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 5,274 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 141 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 759 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 209, Henrico: 379, and Richmond: 154) VDH also has this notice to pair with this morning’s numbers: “The count of new cases on Sunday, April 12 may be underestimated. The report on Monday, April 13 will return to normal procedures, including all cases identified by 5 pm the previous day. This effort will enable VDH to provide more detailed data on COVID-19 in Virginia moving forward.” If you look at the graph of the number of new cases reported each day you can see what they’re talking about and how yesterday saw a big dip in positive cases. As for the number of tests results reported over the weekend, Virginia still seems unable to report more than 2,500 per day—which has been the case since about April 4th. I haven’t updated my spreadsheet with data from over the weekend, but the Commonwealth is near the very bottom of all states in tests results reported per capita and about middle of the pack in total tests. I’ll try and get that graph updated and share it with y’all tomorrow. But! Maybe there’s relief on the way, though, as Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury says Virginia has signed a contract with McKinsey & Company to “procure more personal protective equipment and testing supplies.”The Governor signed one million bills into laws yesterday, including but not limited to, the Virginia Clean Energy Act, repeal of voter ID, making Election Day a state holiday, protections for LGBTQ folks (the Virginia Values Act), a bucketful of gun laws, and legislation allowing localities to teardown their Confederate monuments. He only vetoed one bill, the weird one about milk labeling. Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has the details on the six “big-ticket bills Northam wants to amend” and that does include pushing the minimum wage start date to May 1st 2021, five months further into the future. I’m not an economist, and I know economists have a lot of opinions they’re about to share with me on this, but seems like we could use an increase in the minimum wage sooner rather than later? Finally, @rjmarr on Twitter reminds us of how exactly a bill becomes a law in the State of Virginia—a good refresher!Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says the Governor also has a plan to “delay a ban on electronic skill games for a year, tax their profits and use the money for a COVID-19 response fund to help small businesses, protect people’s housing and support nursing homes and other health care providers.” So wait a second, we’re pushing back the minimum wage increase while taxing “electronic skill games,” something that’d primarily impact people with lower incomes? What if—and I know this is some real out-of-the-box thinking here—what if we taxed people with a lot of money a little bit more??

Good morning, RVA! It’s 41 °F, and those cooler temperatures have moved in. Today you can expect highs in the mid 50s—but plenty of sunshine to go along with ‘em. Saturday looks pretty incredible and we might see some rain on Sunday. In as much as you’re able, enjoy the weekend!Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 4,042 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 109 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 638 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 158, Henrico: 319, and Richmond: 126). Like most of you, I’m sure, I’ve been keeping my own spreadsheet of the VDH data; how else do you make graphs if you don’t have your own spreadsheet?? So after poking around the data for a couple of weeks, what concerns me most is the continued lack of coronavirus testing in Virginia. The VDH website reports cumulative tests right at the top of the page—33,026 as of this moment—and that seems like a pretty big number. It’s got five digits! But, I think the more helpful way to look at it is number of new tests per day, which I’ve put together in graph form here. Since the beginning of April, the State has averaged just 2,180 new tests per day. That’s for the entire state! At the current rate, it’d take over five years just to get a majority of folks living in Virginia tested. I’d love to know what the Governor’s plan is to massively increase the number of tests available for Virginians over the next couple of weeks. Also, take those previous sentences with a grain of salt, because I can only know what data VDH publishes each day. If there’s secret, unpublished COVID-19 testing going on, great (I mean, not great, but, you know).Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch continues his reporting on the tragedy taking place at the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in western Henrico. 39 folks have died, and the facility’s medical director says, “We will have more deaths.” Absolutely awful. Related, Bridget Balch and Justin Mattingly, also at the RTD, report that the recent jump in statewide deaths due to the coronavirus—doubling in just a couple of days—is due to delays while VDH reviews and verifies data. They say, “The number of deaths jumped Thursday because the state had not entered deaths from the past two weeks at one Henrico County nursing home — where to date 39 residents have reportedly died from COVID-19 — into the state’s count until the past couple of days.”It’s Friday, which, unfortunately, means I get to write about the new unemployment numbers from the Virginia Employment Commission. For the week ending April 4th, they report 147,369 new claims, which brings the total since March 21st to 306,143. Shockingly, this “equals all of the previous weeks’ claims from 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined.” The final map on this page shows that Chesterfield and Henrico have some of the largest increases in unemployment insurance claims over this past week. If it wasn’t about people’s lives, I’d be stoked to read these releases from VEC—they’re absolutely packed with interesting data, charts, and maps.Richmond Police posted these new parking restrictions on Twitter yesterday. I don’t know for sure, but I’d guess this is a continued effort to keep folks from springbreaking the river. The City has closed parking lot access at major river spots, and these are streets adjacent to parking lots that are adjacent to major river spots.Here’s another way for people to help out during the coronacrisis! The excellent folks at Studio Two Three have put together some really great infrastructure to help with making protective masks for “home and public health care workers, behavior health workers, bus drivers, and individual working with homeless populations.” Heck yes! You can donate to the cause, volunteer for a mask making shift, donate supplies, or make masks at home.I’m a sucker for pics of old cobblestones revealed by street milling. From /r/rva, here’s one of Grace Street near 20th.This morning’s longreadMasterpiece TheaterDang, y’all. Art forgery just seems like a ton of work.A successful forger has the ability to produce art of high quality, certainly, and also an inside knowledge of the workings of the art world, from its business dealings to its social mores. A forger is a storyteller, even a performer—someone who can charm customers, appear trustworthy, and spin a convincing tale about where an artwork came from and how they came to possess it. To forge art takes showmanship and a healthy dose of chutzpah. Frauds must be willing to brazenly claim that a work is genuine; some go so far as to approach experts or artists themselves and request authentication.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 62 °F, and temperatures today will end up in the 80s. Expect some clouds and a small chance of rain throughout the day. Cooler weather returns on Friday.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 3,333 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 63 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 505 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 128, Henrico: 267, and Richmond: 110). Yesterday’s data reported more new cases (455) than any previous day. Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that four more people died at the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center. About half of the COVID-19 deaths in the entire state are in this one facility. Martz also has some more details about other long-term care facilities fighting to control virus outbreaks—but nothing like what’s happening in Henrico. It’s shocking and eye-opening to see how quickly a few infections in a closed environment can quickly ignite into a tragedy.City Council has updated and released their meeting schedule for the FY21 budget season. Beginning with a two hour meeting on April 13th, Council will have two work sessions, three amendment work sessions, two public hearings, and a goal of adopting the budget on May 11th. That seems like a lot of meetings when listed out like that, but it’s four fewer than originally planned, and this year’s schedule already cut a handful from what took place last year. Obviously, I’m bummed about a shorter budget season (the most wonderful time of the year), but I do still plan on tuning in on the 13th—assuming Council staff gets all of the technical difficulties worked out. The biggest question I have at the moment is if the Mayor will submit a new budget (or new budget guidance) to Council, or if Council will just start working on the pre-virus budget they have in hand. The former seems like a significantly better way to move forward to me.Superintendent Kamras has updates on how the School District will calculate grades for students. I appreciate these two goals they had in mind while trying to figure out grades: “1) do no harm to students; and 2) create guidance that is simple to execute and east to understand.” I feel like, applied generally, this is good virustime advice for almost anyone. Elementary school students will not receive final grades, and middle and high school students will receive the “average of the grades for Marking Periods 1, 2, and 3, each making up 33% of the final grade.” If you’ve got a high school student in your life, you probably should read this document that provides guidance on how they can continue to make progress on credit-bearing courses (PDF).Remember all of that cool stuff in the State’s proposed budget? Yeah, well, not so much. Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury says the Governor has put a stop to all new spending and that “the state will enter the next fiscal year on July 1 with the same budget it’s currently operating under with the exception of some mandatory spending categories.” Ugh. That’s going to especially hurt locally, where the City planned on taking advantage of millions of new state-level education money. Moving forward, localities are going to need just tons and tons of money from both the federal and state governments to keep people safe and thriving.GRTC has announced their first service cuts due to the coronavirus. Beginning today, most express routes will see reduced trips, and the 28x is suspended until further notice. Note that the 95x Petersburg route will maintain its normal schedule. If service cuts must be made, express routes are the right place to start making them: A lot (but not all) of the folks who ride express buses are stuck at home during This Most Unusual Time.Also bus-related, I talked with the RTD’s Michael Paul Williams about how critical bus operators are during times of crisis and how we need to do everything we can to protect them. What’s a good, easy-to-scale way to show appreciation to bus operators? I’m thinking something simple and visible like the yellow Support Our Troops ribbon? Who’s got good ideas?A couple days ago (I think?), I mentioned the Central Virginia COVID-19 Response Fund, which the Community Foundation helped put together. Already the fund has raised over $4.1 million from foundations, corporations, and individuals. If you’re looking for a way to get involved, you can donate cash through the aforelinked website (matched by the United Way of Greater Richmond for the moment) or volunteer through HandsOn (they’ve got both in-person and virtual ways to help out).This morning’s longreadThe unlisted: how people without an address are stripped of their basic rightsThis piece is kind of all over the place, but I love the idea that a straightforward thing like giving every place an address can massively improve folks' lives.Street addresses tell a complex story of how the grand Enlightenment project to name and number our streets coincided with a revolution in how we lead our lives and how we shape our societies. And rather than just a mere administrative detail, street names are about identity, wealth and, as in the Sonny Carson street example, race. But most of all they are about power – the power to name, the power to shape history, the power to decide who counts, who doesn’t, and why.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 52 °F, and temperatures today are way up in the 70s. Keep an eye out for some rain later this afternoon. These warmer vibes will continue for the next couple of days.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 2,878 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 54 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 420 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 108, Henrico: 207, and Richmond: 105). We’ll see how those numbers update today, as Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says that 28 people have died of COVID-19 at the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Henrico and 116 residents of the same facility have tested positive for the disease. That’s over half of Henrico’s total reported number of cases. For those of us coping with the enormity and brutality of this situation by tracking data and keeping spreadsheets, here’s an odd sentence several paragraphs down: “The number of deaths from COVID-19 in the Richmond region is not clear because there is no reporting requirement, said Dr. Danny Avula, director of the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts.” Further, a whole team of RTD folks covered the Governor’s press conference and compared the amount of coronavirus testing done in Virginia (24,521) to smaller, neighbor states like North Carolina (40,045). The number of test still has such a huge impact on not only our ability to make spreadsheets but to track and stop the spread of the coronavirus. I don’t know what to make of the apparent low number of tests-per-capita in the Commonwealth.One more bit about data: The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association has launched their own data dashboard focusing on the number of folks hospitalized for actual COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19. They’ve also got some stats on ICU beds, ventilators, and hospitals that are having difficulty obtaining supplies.I didn’t know where to fit it in the above two paragraphs, but the Governor also said that Virginians should wear masks when they go outside. Time to put those mask-making resource to good use!Yesterday, Richmond Public Schools launched daily, grade-specific, learning-at-home resources for all students. This is a massive resource that required, I imagine, a massive amount of work to put together. If you’ve got a tiny human at home, consider taking advantage of it. Or, honestly, don’t! I’m extremely empathetic for the very specific overwhelmed feeling that comes from tapping on a link and seeing an array of resources that you totally don’t know how, exactly, to put to use. If that sounds familiar, maybe just bookmark the link so you have it for later? Anyway, clearly students need a computer and internet access to take advantage of all of these resources, and Superintendent Kamras says, “we’re working around the clock to get laptops and wifi hotspots ready for distribution…I’m happy to report that they’ll begin going out later this week.”I know I keep reminding you about this, but the application for Richmond’s no-interest loans for small businesses dropped yesterday. You can find more information and the application itself here. Remember, the Economic Development Authority will consider applications in the the order in which they were received. If you’re planning on applying, do it ASAP!If you’ve ever seen me do my day job, or, really, spent any time with me at all, you’ll know that I think annexation (or, more accurately, the State’s prohibition on any future annexation) is one of the most important and defining characteristics of our region. Lucky for us big-time annexation foamers, VCU and UR have made John Moeser’s book, The Politics of Annexation, free to download! Moeser is the literal expert on annexation in our region, and I’m stoked to move this book to the top of my queue (right after Pride, which I’m really enjoying). You can download The Politics of Annexation in a variety of formats here.Via /r/rva, extremely bad news on the cheap beer front. But, on the other hand, you can now get liquor shipped to your door from Virginia distilleries. During a pandemic you win some, you lose some.This morning’s longreadReal estate for the apocalypse: my journey into a survival bunkerThe things rich people do to prepare for a crisis makes me sad for how they view humanity.Vivos was offering more than just the provision of ready-made bunkers and turnkey apocalypse solutions. It was offering a vision of a post-state future. When you bought into such a scheme, you tapped into a fever dream from the depths of the libertarian lizard-brain: a group of well-off and ideologically like-minded individuals sharing an autonomous space, heavily fortified against outsiders – the poor, the hungry, the desperate, the unprepared – and awaiting its moment to rebuild civilisation from the ground up. What was being offered, as such, was a state stripped down to its bare rightwing essentials: a militarised security apparatus, engaged through contractual arrangement, for the protection of private wealth.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 44 °F, and highs today will hit 65 °F at some point this afternoon. Expect the warm and sunny weather to continue through the weekend. Enjoy in the most safe and responsible way you can!Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,706 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 41 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 212 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 73, Henrico: 87, and Richmond: 52). Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says that 16 people have now died from COVID-19 at the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in western Henrico. Just awful—a significant portion of the state’s deaths in one building.If you, like me, have a morbid fascination with virusdata, Alejandro Alvarez, the digital editor at WTOP, has put together this absolutely beautiful coronavirus spreadsheet tracker for Virginia, D.C., and Maryland. If you’re looking for a dark data dashboard to start your day, you probably won’t find anything better than this.The Virginia Employment Commission released this week’s unemployment insurance claims numbers, and they continue to shock me: 111,497 people filed claims, up from 46,277 last week. For sobering context, around this time last year about 2,700 people filed unemployment claims. I mean, look at this absolutely horrifying graph. We’re in truly unprecedented times, and hundreds of thousands of people will need serious assistance from the state and federal governments as soon as possible. Given the number of orange alert boxes on the VEC’s website, it seems like getting that assistance to the people who need it has maybe hit some technical and logistical roadblocks.It only took a pandemic, but the Washington NFL team has agreed to allow the City to eliminate their 2019 and 2020 cash contributions for the Washington Training Camp. That’s great news; the 2019 contribution alone totaled $161,000. The Mayor also announced the Economic Development Authority has created a small business loan program that will offer “interest-free emergency loans of up to $20,000 to small businesses within the city limits.” If you’re a small business owner you should get your stuff in order, because applications for that loan program open on April 6th and will be considered in the ordered they are submitted. That sounds stressful! Take the weekend to prepare, OK?? Mark Robinson at the RTD has more detail about how to qualify. As for the source of the loan money, Mayor Stoney said that cash saved from the Washington Training Camp deal will directly fund this new small business loan program.Alright, y’all. City Council met yesterday for less than four minutes to introduce legislation that will allow them to meet virtually until September (ORD. 2020–093). This ordinance applies not only to City Council, but to a whole slew of public bodies and should get a bunch of the various boards and commissions meeting again, too. Of note: Public bodies wishing to have public comment must allow folks to submit those comments electronically before the meeting. They can, additionally, decide to allow “telephonic or other electronic communication means during the course of the meeting”—which, honestly, sounds terrible. This is definitely step zero in setting up a process for remote, asynchronously civic engagement! However, if you take four minutes and listen the audio from yesterday’s meeting, you’ll see (well, hear, rather) that Council still has a ways to go in figuring out the technical bits. While you could hear Councilmembers Newbille, Grey, and Trammell—who were all sitting in actual Council Chambers—everyone else who dialed in was but a whisper. Council will hold a public hearing on this paper next week on April 9th.For whatever reason, American society has decided to try to carry on life as best it can by moving every possible in-person encounter to a video conference call hosted by Zoom. I don’t know how everyone simultaneously decided on using Zoom as a platform, but it happened. Now, Zoom is both a noun and a verb I say regularly in my professional life when just two weeks ago it only applied to dogs running around in cute circles. So—whether you wanted to or not—you probably know about Zoom, but do you know about ZoomBombing? Nefarious folks have scraped up public Zoom invites and popped into meetings uninvited spraying hate, grief, and offensive material. Bummer yet predictable, I guess. UR has put together this very helpful page of tips for how anyone hosting Zooms can make those meeting a bit more secure. Take note! Especially those of you meeting with kids!This morning’s patron longread‘White-Collar Quarantine’ Over Virus Spotlights Class DivideSubmitted by Patron Blake. It’s a trope at this point, but coronavirus has certainly revealed who the essential workers are and it’s not Richard Florida’s creative class. Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has a piece on what this looks like locally.In some respects, the pandemic is an equalizer: It can afflict princes and paupers alike, and no one who hopes to stay healthy is exempt from the strictures of social distancing. But the American response to the virus is laying bare class divides that are often camouflaged — in access to health care, child care, education, living space, even internet bandwidth. In New York, well-off city dwellers have abandoned cramped apartments for spacious second homes. In Texas, the rich are shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to build safe rooms and bunkers. And across the country, there is a creeping consciousness that despite talk of national unity, not everyone is equal in times of emergency.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, but highs today are back up in the 60s and we should see plenty of sunshine. As far as the weather goes, we’ve got a bunch of pleasant days ahead of us.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,484 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and 34 people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 170 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 59, Henrico: 78, and Richmond: 33). Big grain of salt with these numbers this morning, though. 11 hours ago (which is more recent than the last update to the VDH site), Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported 103 positive cases in Henrico and 67 in Richmond. Again, my standard disclaimer about the number of tests administered still applies.Sean Gorman and Mel Leonor at the RTD have some updates from the Governor’s press conference yesterday. I appreciate the Gov saying that Virginia will hit peakvirus between late April and late May and that he wants “Virginians to prepare themselves for the long haul.” I think we should keep in mind that the long haul might, in fact, be much longer—even after peakvirus. This tweet from @pinboardresonates: Once we get through the worst of times locally, it’ll be really hard for folks to continue sheltering in place—which is exactly what we’ll need to do!Reminder: City Council meets today at 3:30 PM for a special meeting to introduce legislation that will allow them to meet remotely and finally get around to passing some laws. They will stream audio from this meeting, and, assuming no technical issues (probably a totally fine assumption, right?), you can tune in here. After they get the audio sorted and we can all hear what they get up to, I’m excited for Council to keep thinking about what public engagement looks like moving forward. More and more I feel like if you want folks involved, you have to provide asynchronous ways for them to do that. I’m not sure what that looks like for City Council or how they can do it equitably, but I am sure a single Facebook Live session at a specific time is not it.The YWCA announced that they have re-opened their downtown preschool and will provide full-day childcare to essential personnel in Richmond. It costs $250 per week, but there is a sliding scale and full scholarships for families that qualify. If this sounds like you or an essential worker you know and love, apply via sprout@ywcarichmond.org. Also, while we’re talking YWCA, their regional hotline for domestic and sexual violence is, of course, open 24 hours a day: 804.612.6126. Another number to put in your phone for whenever you may need it.As pictured above, the Brook Road bike lanes are totally under construction! I walked out there with my family yesterday during our scheduled “go outside” time, and grabbed that picture of the southbound lane near Bellevue. Crews are still working on paving the northbound lane in that area, but, progress! Plus, I hear work on the Patterson and Malvern lanes will begin soon, too. If you see other cool infrastructure popping up around town, please send a few pictures my way.NPR’s World Cafe stopped by Richmond to talk with Matthew E. White from local recording studio Spacebomb. Spacebomb just put out that new Angelica Garcia albumthat I can’t stop listening to, so make sure you check that out after listening to this interview.Yesterday was “Census Day,” of which I was unaware until I saw a bunch of people tweeting about it last night. If you haven’t taken the literally four minutes to fill out the Census, please make sure you do so. A lot of federal funding, something that’s going to be absolutely critical over the next year or two, is distributed according to Census data. Filling out the census means more money for the place you live.This morning’s longreadCities are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic — not the cause of it.I love this piece from a city councilmember in St. Paul. Imagine what Richmond could be like if our City Council was filled with progressive people who loved cities this much?At the end of the day, here’s what our response to COVID-19 will tell us: you either care about people of color, young people, old people, poor people, sick people, transit-dependent people, undocumented people, queer people and people who can’t afford a home — or you don’t. You either believe our cities and communities are for all of us, or you openly and proudly hope the experiment to make it that way fails, because you stand for the opposite. Candidates, columnists, and anyone else right now crowing against urbanism, science, human decency and good governance are telling us what they stand for. Let it be known in this moment, in our cities and across our country, what we stand for. We are fighting for a rent and mortgage suspension, moratorium on evictions, healthcare for all, massive transit and green infrastructure funding to aid economic recovery, compassionate homelessness response, labor rights for those taking care of us, bailouts for the people whether or not you have papers, and so much more, because we don’t just believe in the idea of cities. We believe in the people of them, and in our non-negotiable right to live with what we need, where we are, close to those we love.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 41 °F, and the rain has moved on outta here. Today expect sunshine at some point and temperatures right around 60 °F. This might be our coolest day for a while.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 391 positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth, and nine people in Virginia have died as a result of the virus. VDH reports 35 cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 11, Henrico: 20, and Richmond: 13). This is the biggest single-day increase in reported positive cases so far, and it’s important to remember just that: These are folks that have been tested and have had those test results reported by VDH. “391” should not be taken as a direct measure of the amount of COVID-19 cases in Virginia! There are, most likely, many, many people who are not in high-risk groups and weren’t tested or simply never developed major symptoms (an especially sneaky part of this particular virus that aids in transmission). When looking at these numbers each day, please keep in mind that both reported positive cases and deaths are only indirect measure of the extend of the virus in Virginia. For comparison: Georgia has 1,387 reported cases and 47 deaths, while Maryland has 423 reported cases and four deaths.The Richmond Police Department has released their guidelines for dealing with folks violating the Governor’s new rules on social distancing. If you need a refresher on those rules, you can find it here, but, basically, no gatherings over 10 people and a bunch of non-essential businesses need to close as of last night. First: Even if you think you’re being helpful, do not call 911 if you see a business out of compliance or a gaggle of springbreakers at Texas Beach with their PBRs. Please use RPD’s non-emergency number instead (804.646.5100). To handle noncompliant businesses, springbreakers, or corona truthers, the RPD will first give a warning to the responsible parties, then issue a Class 1 misdemeanor, and then “contact supervision for assistance and proceed with criminal charges, if appropriate.” Maybe this is naive, but I’ll be surprised if anyone is actually charged with a misdemeanor for violating the Governor’s executive order.I tried to find more info on this, but failed. RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras says the school district will use “a combination of reallocated money from our budget and RVA philanthropy” to buy 10,000 computers for students who need them? He says we’ll have more details soon, so I guess I’ll just have to wait!Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has an update on a rehabilitation center in Henrico that accounts for three of Henrico’s 20 reported COVID-19 deaths. I think this piece is worth reading. While this is the most serious outbreak in our region that I’m aware of, the folks involved from the County, the Richmond/Henrico Health District, and the regional hospitals do sound like they’re taking the situation very seriously. The precautions and logistics and preparations described by Martz make me feel a bit of optimism—a strange and unfamiliar feeling!Ali Rockett, also at the RTD, writes through the Governor’s press briefing yesterday(2:00 PM daily!), and says that state parks are closed at night and that Chesterfield will “begin removing the rims from basketball courts; nets from tennis, pickleball, and volleyball courts; and soccer and lacrosse goals throughout the county’s park system.” I rode my bike through Bryan Park the other day and all of the soccer fields were closed. This is serious business, people! Playing team sports is the opposite of social distancing!Yo, this is messed up. From Roberto Roldan at VPM: “Three employees told VPM they were fired from Richmond bowling alley River City Roll because they declined to work a crowded event two weekends ago…The company asked employees to sign a liability waiver, which VPM obtained, to work the St. Patrick’s Day event. It said ‘I have been made aware of any and all health concerns in regards to Coronavirus (COVID-19). I understand my employer, River City Roll, is not to be held liable if I contract COVID-19.’ Some Employees who did not sign the waiver and didn’t show up to work were fired.”The federal stimulus bill passed the Senate last night, and will head to the House for a vote on Friday at 9:00 AM. Here’s one of the better explainers I’ve found of what’s in the bill, from @yfreemark (with a transportation slant).The Commonwealth Institute has put together a good post about some of the newly-created resources for folks impacted by the coronavirus. Unlike the federal stimulus check which should just show up in the mail (for most documented folks who are In The System, at least), a lot of these new or expanded programs require folks to sign up, apply, or take some sort of action. If you know anyone who could take advantage, please make sure they do! And maybe help them with the forms—via the telephone, of course.BREAKING NEWS FROM THE RVA OSPREY CAM: Somehow the birds got ahold of a Kroger employee’s apron and have incorporated it into their nest. Marqi, if you’re looking for your apron and name tag, I have some bad news for you.This morning’s longreadGrieving the Losses of CoronavirusThis piece in the NYT resonated with me, especially the idea that we’re all grieving, and some of us are grieving not over the loss of life or loved ones but over the loss of normalcy.There’s a term to describe the kind of loss many of us are experiencing: ambiguous grief. In ambiguous grief, there’s a murkiness to the loss. A typical example could be a person whose spouse has dementia: you’re still married but your spouse no longer recognizes you. (Your partner is alive but “not there.”) Another might be the inability to get pregnant. (You’re grieving the loss of a child you haven’t yet had.) With Covid-19, on top of the tangible losses, there’s the uncertainty about how long this will last and what will happen next that leaves us mourning our current losses as well as ones we haven’t experienced yet. (No Easter, no prom, and what if this means we can’t go on summer vacation?)If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 45 °F, and highs are back up in the 60s today—plus we should see lots of sunshine. Sounds great to me!Water coolerYesterday, Virginia voted and Joe Biden came out ahead in the Commonwealth and across much of the country’s Super Tuesday primaries. I’ll leave the national race prognostication to someone else and focus on what, if anything, the results mean locally. First, turnout was way, way up from 2016’s Democratic primary—@taber says up 64% this year! I imagine that—if we survive until November—turnout will also be way, way up in the General Election. That means lots of folks voting locally for Mayor, City Council, and School Board. Looking at the results by Council Districtand using Bernie vs. Biden as a lazy proxy for progressiveness, I think extremely progressive/urbanist candidates should run for City Council in the 2nd District, 5th District, 6th District, and 7th District. Of course, I could also phrase that as “incumbents in the 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 7th should run on extremely progressive/urbanist platforms.” Here’s Bernie’s margin in each of those districts, respectively: +28%; +13%; -8%; -2%. I didn’t have time to throw Elizabeth Warren votes into Bernie’s bucket, but I think you get the picture. Especially in the 2nd District, where Councilmember Kim Gray has started to explore a run for mayor, I think there’s support for a very progressive voice on City Council.Speaking of people running for mayor, I was at the Main Library yesterday and someone asked me to sign a petition to get Paul Goldman on the ballot for mayor? I don’t know what that means, but I thought I’d share it with you.Did you know that because Richmond is a centuries-old city that it also has a centuries-old old sewer system? Sometimes that system discharges untreated sewage into the river, by design, during extreme rain or flooding. It’s called the Combined Sewer Overflow system, and the Department of Public Utilities has a charmingly boring video explaining more than you ever wanted to know about how sewers work. Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says the General Assembly is getting closer to passing legislation requiring (and funding?) Richmond to clean up its act and prevent untreated sewage from spewing into the river during extreme weather events

Good morning, RVA! It’s 26 °F, and you shouldn’t expect temperatures to get above 40 °F today. Bundle up, stay warm, and look forward to a sunny weekend with highs back up in the upper 50s.Water coolerI appreciate this thread by Twitter user @SheriShannon27 about the casino proposed for Richmond’s Southside. Before anyone can build any sort of casino in Richmond, they’ve got to jump through a couple of legal hoops. And before those hoops even get set up, the General Assembly needs to pass HB 4 / SB 36. And before I decide whether or not I think this is a good plan for Richmond’s Southside, I’d like to read some more about giant casinos dropped into off-the-beaten path parts of towns because I’ve got a ton of questions. Do these casinos typically succeed? Do they create local jobs and tax revenue? What impact do they have on folks with lower-incomes? What impact do they have on nearby housing affordability? What does it mean that the proposed location of this specific casino is adjacent to Hillside Court? Like I said, lots of questions, and I’m sure I’ll have more in the coming months. Luckily, both the House and Senate versions of the enabling legislation require Richmond to hold a referendum, so, should they pass, I’d imagine we’ll start seeing some opportunities for the public to learn the answers to some of these questions.There are now 17 RVA Bike Share stations, thanks to the new one that just opened at Main Street Train Station. This is a particularly useful spot for shareable e-bikes since it sits at the very bottom of a valley and gives folks a quick and easy way to get up either hill into Downtown or Church Hill. I still haven’t renewed my membership to RVA Bike Share yet, but it is nice to see some sort of progress made toward the 40 stations we were promised years ago. With 40 stations, I think you’d have a usable system. Then, maybe we’d get the buy-in from folks needed to expand to 60 or 80, which is when things start to get interesting. Station density is super important to a successful bike share system, and we should shoot for something like four stations per square mile. To put that in context, Downtown should have about 16 stations on its own.We’re approaching the end of this year’s GA session, but I’m sure a few twists, turns, and surprises still remain. For now, though, Michael Martz works through some of the details of the budgets passed by both the House and the Senate

Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and highs will hit the mid 40s before dropping a bit this evening. Keep an eye out for rain tonight and tomorrow morning with a pretty neutral weekend following. Temperatures next week, though! Break out your slip-ons.Water coolerDel. Jeff Bourne told Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury he’s dropping his bill that would allow some state sales tax revenue to pay for a portion of the proposed downtown arena project, aka NoBro. As far as I understood it, that bill would have given the project developers enough cash to allow them to shrink the 80-block BigTIF back down to a more reasonable size, basically the project footprint. The NH District folks (the developers) told VPM’s Robert Roldan that they are still “committed to reducing the size of the increment financing area and are exploring other avenues to help us achieve that goal.” I would love to know what those avenues are! Honestly, I felt like Bourne’s Bill was pretty OK, all things considered. I’ve no qualms with taking state money to pay for local things given how the state regularly stiffs the City on all sorts of stuff—most directly by taking up a huge portion of our downtown land with their tax-exempt buildings. But, with five councilmembers asking the Mayor to withdraw his NoBro ordinances this past Monday, the writing is on the wall, the blood is in the water, or some other noun is preposition the other noun phrase. Moving forward from this specific downtown project, I love this quote from the Mayor’s press secretary, “Regardless of whether it’s used for Navy Hill, there’s no reason this tool for economic development shouldn’t be available to Richmond, as it is for other cities.”Also at the Virginia Mercury, Ned Oliver and Graham Moomaw look at all the progress The New Democratic Majority have made on guns this General Assembly session: “Both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly have passed major gun-control bills creating universal background checks, a red-flag law and reinstating the former one-handgun-a-month rule.” Heck yes! Now our elected leaders just need to decide if they’re willing to tackle an assault weapons ban. What a bizarre sentence that you can only write in America.Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a long, complex update on the state of gambling bills down at the General Assembly

Good morning, RVA! It’s 47 °F, and boy did it rain overnight—and might could keep raining for a while. However, things should dry up later this afternoon with temperatures sticking right around 50 °F.Water coolerI did a new thing yesterday and sent out some bonus GMRVA content in the form of a superlong explainer on HB 1541. That’s Del. Delores McQuinn’s bill which would (finally!) provide the Richmond region a couple buckets of dedicated transportation funding—even a bucket specifically for public transit (kind of). I love doing this sort of longer-format, more in-depth writing, but, turns out, it takes a lot of time. If you’d like to see more of it, you can join my Patreon to give me actual money. Please do! Related, Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch talked to the elected leaders involved and got a bunch of victory-lap quotes from all across the region

Virginia rolls the dice on gambling as industry readies for a legislative fight. Politics reporters Graham Moomaw and Michael Martz discuss the stakes with Jeff Schapiro, politics columnist. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the latest Capitol Chat podcast, Times-Dispatch politics reporters Michael Martz, Mel Leonor and Patrick Wilson discuss with columnist Jeff Schapiro the partisan eruptions in Jamestown and Richmond that overshadowed the state's $24 million birthday party for American democracy, established 400 years ago in Virginia. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Episode #13 of Films We’ve Watched! Join hosts Nick Pratt and Brad Winter of Yodeyay Films as they sit down with Michael Martz and Ann-Eliza Musoke of Second Screen Cult Cinema to discuss the ins and outs of hosting film screenings and what it takes to revitalize cult classics. Then the four discuss five films each that they feel defines cult cinema. Share, comment, subscribe, and review! #FilmsWeveWatched #StateLines

Capitol Chat: Jeff Schapiro is joined by politics reporters Mel Leonor, Patrick Wilson and Michael Martz in previewing the Va. legislature's spring session with Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeff Schapiro is joined by Mel Leonor, Michael Martz and Graham Moomaw to discuss the 2019 General Assembly session. Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Times-Dispatch political reporters Graham Moomaw and Michael Martz join Jeff Schapiro in a look at the 2019 agenda for the General Assembly on Capitol Chat Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Times-Dispatch reporter Michael Martz joins Jeff Schapiro to talk about Gov. Ralph Northam's budget proposals Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Times-Dispatch reporter Michael Martz joins Jeff Schapiro to talk about Amazon's second headquarters arrival in northern Virginia Support the show: http://www.richmond.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.