🎫 Good morning, RVA: Scary COVID numbers from Florida, vaccine passports, and a raw sewage update

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, and today looks like a stunner. Expect highs in the mid 80s, a dip in humidity, and every excuse in the world to spend some time outside. The cooler weather should extend throughout the week, so enjoy!
 

Water cooler

The COVID-19 numbers coming out of Florida right now are deeply scary. The NYT’s COVID-19 data tracker reports a daily average of 15,818 new cases and 9,451 people hospitalized as a result of the virus. For them, that’s on par with the pandemic’s winter peak. In light of those terrifying numbers, I think it’s worth taking a few minutes to poke around in the VDH data dashboard this morning—or at least look at the all-time graphs of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Cases in Virginia are on a big upswing, hospitalizations on a lesser upswing, and deaths remain very low. Both of the latter two do, however, typically lag behind cases, so I don’t quite know what to make of them at the moment. Still, though, Virginia’s seven-day average of new cases is less than 700, and the seven-day average of new hospitalizations is less than 20. We’re nowhere near Florida’s situation, but our governor isn’t out there banning masks in schools, either.
 

I think this is new to Richmond: Longoven says, effective yesterday, that they will require all guests to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. For the former, you can show your vaccine card or use the VaxYes or MyIR Mobile apps. I have done absolutely zero research into vax passport apps, so I’m not sure if one is better than the other. Regardless, I think you should probably expect to see more of this from private businesses who are doing their best to 1) make money and 2) keep their employees safe.
 

Raw sewage update! VDH says they’re running more tests on the poop levels in the river, will submit them to a lab as soon as possible, and hopes to hear back by Wednesday. If it looks like the raw, undiluted sewage has been successfully flushed, VDH will update their currently advisory (which recommends folks not submerge their bodies in the river). For now, the river definitely stays in look-but-don’t-touch mode.
 

The City’s Planning Commission meets today with just a single thing on their agenda: The plans for GRTC’s new temporary transfer plaza. We’ll see what they have to say about the fencing that blocks folks from cutting through an adjacent parking lot. The Urban Design Committee looked at it a while back and had a couple suggestions, including using a different material for the fence, some more pedestrian access, and finding a more permanent bathroom solution. Unrelated but also in cool government meeting news, City Council will meet today for an ARP work session. Tune in to find out how they plan to spend all of this money and if it’ll align with the Mayor’s plans!
 

Oh! Speaking of fencing, has anyone seen the new fencing going up around the Coliseum? It is Very Tall and looks like it’ll prevent me from cutting through that block on foot or by bike—something I do on the regular. I need to pop over there and check out the extent of where you can and cannot get to now. I’m not a big fan of all the Very Tall Fences that have popped up in town recently and am really hoping its not starting to become a tool to use in place of legislation and policy.
 

Jack Jacobs at Richmond BizSense reports on three different marijuana-adjacent businesses that have popped up since the State’s legalization on July 1st. We haven’t even gotten to the part where you can buy and sell marijuana yet, but we already have a surprisingly thriving support-services industry.
 

Virginia Community Voice is looking for 14–18 people to join the Southside Green Collaborative Working Group, which looks to “center the voices of people directly affected by climate change and enhance neighbors' capacity to join in decision making about how to make Richmond’s Southside resilient, greener, cooler, and more beautiful.” You can read a description of the responsibilities here and apply here. Applications are due August 4th, so fill out the application (or spread the word) as quick as you can.
 

This morning’s patron longread

Hmm Weekly for July 27, 2021

Submitted by Patron Susan. A story about how it’s easy and important to use the right words.
 

It is supposed to feel a little disorienting, both morally and practically, to make these sorts of corrections when everyone’s been using the old name for so long. In the United States, especially, where the actual Roma are not a particularly salient ethnic minority, the slur was widely taken as neutral or innocent or abstract. There’s a groovy Curtis Mayfield song, there’s a famous musical, it’s forever popping up in children’s books—sometimes identifying a shifty villain, but mostly as an image of freedom and romance. Rarely is it flung at a person directly, the way our more notorious slurs can be. Certainly we weren’t thinking anything negative about people when we were busily hacking the moths off the trees of Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation. Nevertheless, we were trying to exterminate an invasive plague, while using a word that was used against the targets of genocide.
 

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Picture of the Day

I messed up.