🥪 Good morning, RVA: A COVID-19 Action Plan, mask mandates, and big sandwiches

Good morning, RVA! It’s 24 °F, and today’s high is freezing! Expect cold, cold, cold temperatures in the 20s for the entire day and maybe some snow this evening, but probably nothing to get too excited about. Temperatures warm up (relatively) over the weekend. Stay bundled!
 

Oh, also! Tons of things are opening late this morning—including school districts—so check a website or two before you head out to whatever thing you need to do this morning.
 

Water cooler

The Governor has released his COVID-19 Action Plan, a short, 3-page document that you can read through in just a couple of minutes. I think he mostly plans on continuing the work that’s been in motion for the last year or so, although the “prioritized testing guidelines” section at the bottom does mention that the Governor will discourage asymptomatic individuals from testing and that the State Health Commissioner will issue “new guidelines that prioritize the use of rapid tests.” These new guidelines will address the current testing shortage (that we’re maybe already coming out of), but I wonder how they will apply when tests are, once again, plentiful and easy to find? Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has more details, including a look at what local health districts are doing to increase the supply of tests.
 

Ian M. Stewart at VPM reports the wonderful, if a bit surprising, news that the Chesterfield County School Board voted yesterday to keep their mask mandate for now. Sounds like their biggest concern is the lack of clarity in the Governor’s EO rather than any major hold-ups with the substance of the Order. Here’s a quote from one of the boardmembers, "There’s a litany of issues…Does this apply to just educational settings? What about after-school settings? There’s so much minutiae and so many nuances that we need to look at before we literally just dive right in. I don’t want to make a mistake.” Meanwhile, Attorney General Miyares has “asked the Supreme Court of Virginia to dismiss the lawsuit against Governor Youngkin and Executive Order 2.” He says he does this to “affirm that parents matter,” but clearly not the parents who filed this very lawsuit! Here’s what I think happens: The Governor’s Executive Order stands, the local school districts who’ve kept their mask mandate continue to do so, a small percentage of kids show up on Monday without masks on in those districts, and everyone takes a half-hearted victory lap.
 

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Mark Robinson went to yesterday’s Partnership for Housing Affordability State of Housing event so you didn’t have to. It should come as no surprise to readers of this email, but we need way, way more housing in the region.
 

For your calendar: RPS’s School Board has called a special meeting this coming Monday, January 24th at 6:00 PM. I looked on the District’s BoardDocs website—where they keep all of their meeting agendas—and didn’t see anything for Monday’s meeting, so I have absolutely no idea what they’ve got on their minds. Youngkin’s Executive Order #2 goes into effect on Monday, so maybe it’s something to do with that? Or maybe they want more space to discuss the Superintendent’s proposed budget? Maybe another plot twist in the George Wythe Saga? Who knows! This makes me feel how I do when a friend says, “Oh man, the WEIRDEST thing happened to me today, absolutely bananas, I’ll have to tell you later.” Don’t bring it up if you’re not gonna tell me! Anyway, tune in to YouTube on Monday to find out.
 

In important sandwich news, the folks behind Black Sheep—a huge-sandwich shop in Carver from a while back—are getting the band back together for a Black Sheep pop-up at Secco Wine Bar on January 31st. Eileen Mellon has the delicious details.
 

Reminder! City Council will hold their second Redistricting Information and Engagement Meeting today at 12:00 PM. This is a repeat of yesterday’s meeting and should get you up to speed on the process to shift a couple thousand folks around between the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th City Council Districts.
 

This morning’s longread

Old, Primeval Forests May Be a Powerful Tool to Fight Climate Change

I don’t know how much “saving old trees” really helps us keep the planet alive, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Plus, how great are huge, old trees?
 

Over the decades, Leverett’s work has made him a legend among “big-tree hunters,” those self-identified seekers who spend their weekends in search of the tallest, oldest trees east of the Mississippi. Big-tree hunters are more like British trainspotters than gun-toting outdoorsmen: They meticulously measure and record data—the height of a hemlock, the breadth of an elm—for inclusion in the open database maintained by the Native Tree Society, co-founded by Leverett. The goal, of course, is to find the biggest tree of a given species. As with any amateur pursuit, there is disagreement as to standards and protocols, but the one thing everybody seems to agree on is that when you have a lead on the biggest or the oldest, you call Leverett, who is always ready to talk big trees and will often travel to larger specimens to measure them himself. 
 

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Picture of the Day

Tour of Houseplants, Day 4.