Good morning, RVA! It’s 27 °F, and I need to put another blanket on my bed tonight. Today, though, you can expect cloudy skies and highs in the mid 50s (which is right on track with the historical average, turns out). Tomorrow, one of Richmond’s big Holiday Event Days, we might see some rain early on in the morning so keep an eye out.
 

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As of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield popped back up to a medium CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 87, 92, and 101, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 10.2. This is the first time in a while we’ve crossed back over into medium’s yellow territory—and that’s before we see whatever impact the long holiday weekend, filled with travel and family get-togethers, will have on the spread of COVID-19. As for how this should change your own personal behavior, the difference in CDC guidance between a low/green level and a medium/yellow level is the addition of this sentence, “If you are at high risk for severe illness, consider wearing a mask indoors in public and taking additional precautions.” Since this is America, it is totally up to you what precautions you take, but with an increased amount of flu and RSV floating around, too, I’d suggest keeping your respiratory disease toolbox handy: staying home if you’re sick, spending time outside or in well-ventilated spaces if you can, washing your hands, and wearing a mask.
 

This seems weird: Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the City of Petersburg has “no records available to show how the city selected The Cordish Companies” to operate their proposed casino. In response to a FOIA request submitted by the RTD, the City replied: “There are also no public records of any evaluation of potential casino resort projects proposed to the City of Petersburg in this calendar year.” That seems wild! Not even a single email from a public official about who to pick to build and run their (proposed) multi-million dollar casino? I find that hard to believe, but Petersburg has apparently contracted all of the work—and I guess, like, really 100% all of it—out to a third-party consultant. I have no idea what this means, if anything, but I think it’s really interesting. As for where we are in this ongoing, tumbledown casino process, the General Assembly will most likely decide in their upcoming session whether Richmond, Petersburg, or both can host a casino. Pending that GA approval, the casino would then still need voter approval in either city (or both).
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, and today looks bright, clear, and a bit cooler than yesterday. You can expect highs right around 50 °F, with temperatures dropping below freezing tonight. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to move fully into True Winter and leave this transitional weather behind!
 

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Today, the Richmond Police Department will graduate their 125th Basic Recruit Class, which will add 12 new officers to their ranks. First, I’m fully and deeply aware that the police often get to write their own, unchallenged narrative and often that narrative is not an accurate portrayal of reality. Second, I think the language in RPD’s press release about these new recruits is really interesting: “These men and women join RPD and bring with them diverse backgrounds and perspectives. A brand new mother who completed training after giving birth to her son, an Iraqi who has past experience from a war torn country, and an elected female class president of the 125th BRC stand to bring fresh perspective, drive, and conviction to change the stigma of law enforcement officers. Relating to the younger generation and feeling the impact of the events of 2020, these twelve officers are inspired to be the catalyst for change. Empathy and awareness stand to support bringing about a new public perception of law enforcement officers.” Again, take the content with a grain of salt, but the tone here is definitely a marked shift from the typically defensive and paternalistic RPD releases I’ve read in the past. I wonder if this change comes from the department’s new leadership? More importantly, I wonder if we’ll see on-the-ground actions that match this shift in public tone.
 

NBC12’s Henry Graff has some early details on a proposed Richmond Region Tourism Improvement District, which would add a 2% fee to hotel rooms across the region to pay for marketing and advertising designed to lure people into Richmond’s eternal embrace. Richmond Region Tourism, our regional tourism and marketing group, estimates that the new fees would generate $8.2 million the first year, and City Council’s Organizational Development committee will hear a presentation on the proposal this coming Monday, which you can flip through here. I like that this fee is distributed evenly across localities and would apply to “all lodging properties of 41+ rooms located within the boundaries of Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico counties, Town of Ashland, and the cities of Richmond and Colonial Height.” Side note: This proposal makes me want to remember how our lodging tax works, the vast majority of which, I think, currently funds debt payments on the convention center. I wonder if it’s time to revisit how that agreement shakes out.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, and today looks bright, clear, and a bit cooler than yesterday. You can expect highs right around 50 °F, with temperatures dropping below freezing tonight. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to move fully into True Winter and leave this transitional weather behind!
 

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Today, the Richmond Police Department will graduate their 125th Basic Recruit Class, which will add 12 new officers to their ranks. First, I’m fully and deeply aware that the police often get to write their own, unchallenged narrative and often that narrative is not an accurate portrayal of reality. Second, I think the language in RPD’s press release about these new recruits is really interesting: “These men and women join RPD and bring with them diverse backgrounds and perspectives. A brand new mother who completed training after giving birth to her son, an Iraqi who has past experience from a war torn country, and an elected female class president of the 125th BRC stand to bring fresh perspective, drive, and conviction to change the stigma of law enforcement officers. Relating to the younger generation and feeling the impact of the events of 2020, these twelve officers are inspired to be the catalyst for change. Empathy and awareness stand to support bringing about a new public perception of law enforcement officers.” Again, take the content with a grain of salt, but the tone here is definitely a marked shift from the typically defensive and paternalistic RPD releases I’ve read in the past. I wonder if this change comes from the department’s new leadership? More importantly, I wonder if we’ll see on-the-ground actions that match this shift in public tone.
 

NBC12’s Henry Graff has some early details on a proposed Richmond Region Tourism Improvement District, which would add a 2% fee to hotel rooms across the region to pay for marketing and advertising designed to lure people into Richmond’s eternal embrace. Richmond Region Tourism, our regional tourism and marketing group, estimates that the new fees would generate $8.2 million the first year, and City Council’s Organizational Development committee will hear a presentation on the proposal this coming Monday, which you can flip through here. I like that this fee is distributed evenly across localities and would apply to “all lodging properties of 41+ rooms located within the boundaries of Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico counties, Town of Ashland, and the cities of Richmond and Colonial Height.” Side note: This proposal makes me want to remember how our lodging tax works, the vast majority of which, I think, currently funds debt payments on the convention center. I wonder if it’s time to revisit how that agreement shakes out.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 49 °F, and it’s raining. It looks like it’ll keep raining until after lunch, so bring your coat or umbrella if you’ve got somewhere to be this morning. After the rain moves through we might have a decent, if windy, day ahead of us.
 

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As folks continue to remember and pay their respects to Representative Donald McEachin (including President Biden), Jahd Khalil at VPM has some of the complicated date math involved in setting a special election to fill McEachin’s seat. The Governor, who gets to decide when the special election will take place, says “there are folks that I’m going to want to listen to as to the best time in order to call this [election],” which, depending on how you read that may sound ominous. The gist, however, is that Youngkin can call a special election any time between today and April 26th. After April 26th, it’s too close to the June 20th primary, and the election would fall on that day instead. Once the date is set, candidates have 60 days to file—unless the special election is fewer than 60 days away, which then means they have five days to file. Clear? Depending on the state of readiness among candidates, you can see how accelerating or slow-walking the timeline could be a big strategic decision for the Governor and his party.
 

Speaking of, if you’re looking for a good remembrance of the congressman, take a minute to read this one from Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams. Williams and McEachin grew up together in the same neighborhood in Henrico called Middletown Gee, “a neighborhood built on 33 acres owned by an African American brick mason, contractor and developer named George Washington Gee.” Surely that’s the same Gee of McEachin and Gee, the law firm run by the congressman before he launched his political career? This piece from Williams is like a tiny lesson in 1970s Richmond history, and now I want to know more!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and yesterday was chillier than I expected with all that wind—nearly got blown right off my bike! Today, though, you can expect highs near 60 °F and fewer gusts, at least until tomorrow when wind and rain return with a vengeance!
 

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Last night, Congressman Donald McEachin died from “secondary effects of his colorectal cancer from 2013.” You can read reactions from Senator Kaine, state Senator McClellan, Mayor Stoney, and this in-memoriam piece by Michael Martz in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. So sad. McEachin has represented at least parts of Richmond (and now all of it) in Congress for the last five years, and had been a mainstay of Central Virginia politics since the early 2000s. He was a reliable advocate for Richmond at the federal level and a surprising leader on mitigating climate change. It’s crass to think about today, but the special election to fill McEachin’s now-vacant seat will mostly likely have a domino effect on Richmond politics, as local elected leaders shuffle upwards leaving empty seats behind them.
 

It’s Giving Tuesday, which means you’ve probably got an inbox stuffed with an endless amount of email from all of Richmond’s wonderful non-profits asking for end-of-year donations. You should definitely follow your heart and give to the organizations that have an impact in a way that aligns with how you see the world, however, this morning, I’m going to suggest that you donate to the Richmond Public Schools Education Foundation, and specifically to their “Honoring the Memory Fund.” Over the Thanksgiving holiday, another RPS student, Tyrae Clanton, was killed by gun violence, and the Honoring the Memory Fund “helps RPS families who have lost a student with funeral costs, co-pays for mental health support, and any expenses incurred for taking time off work to grieve.“
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 32 °F, and both today and tomorrow look great! You can expect dry skies, highs in the 60s, and the perfect weather for being grateful for the people closest to you. Keep an out for rain rolling through for much of the weekend, though. That totally works for me, because I’ve got a long backlog of horror films I need to work through over Thanksgiving break. Hope you find time to do the same (or find time to do whatever is your horror movie equivalent)!
 

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Last night at least seven people were killed and five injured in a mass shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake. The Virginian-Pilot has ongoing coverage. This is the second mass shooting in Virginia in as many weeks.
 

120 days ago yesterday, Richmond passed the ordinance authorizing collective bargaining for City employees (ORD. 2022–221). I had written down on my super secret Good Morning, RVA calendar that the City must have hired a “labor relations administrator” by now, I think mostly because of this article in VPM. Looking over the text of the ordinance this morning, though, and 1) I again wish I was a lawyer or could at least read lawyer, and 2) I think that the City is not required to hire a labor relations administrator by yesterday, but, because they have not (as far as I know), a different process for addressing labor disputes is now in place. Honestly, I’d love a general collective bargaining update to sort all this out! Have the five collective bargaining units started to organize? Can they even do so without the labor relations administrator? Are good candidates for that position working their way through the hiring process? What’s the haps??
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and today we get some incrementally warmer weather with highs right around 60 °F. While the nights are still cold—right around freezing—the next couple of afternoons look pretty pleasant. I think I might go for a walk around the neighborhood today to start preparing my body for the onslaught of food it’s about to endure.
 

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Yesterday, Katelyn Jetelina at Your Local Epidemiologist put up a really nice post with some concrete guidance on how to stay safe and protect high-risk and older family members over Thanksgiving. The gist: If you’re planning to see grandma and grandpa (or anyone that’s at high-risk for COVID-19) on Thursday, consider testing both today and tomorrow and wearing a mask if you’re out and about. As I read through Jetelina’s advice, I keep thinking about Figure 15 from this recent CDC report. It shows the proportion of in-hospital deaths due to COVID-19, split out by age and vaccination status. 72% of people over the age of 65 dying from COVID have had just their primary series of the vaccine or a single booster—that’s comparable to the proportion of unvaccinated people aged 50–64 who died from COVID (68%). Older folks need to get that bivalent booster ASAP, if they haven’t already, and everyone else needs to do what they can to keep the more vulnerable members of our communities safe and healthy.
 

City Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meets today, and you can find the full agenda here. Of deep and burning interest to readers of this newsletter: Kevin Vonk, director of the Department of Planning and Development Review, will give a presentation on the long-awaited complete rewrite of the City’s zoning ordinance. I really like this presentation! It runs through a bunch of slides stating what a new zoning ordinance will do—stuff like, “allow for neighborhoods to evolve without losing their foundation of order” and “align the maximum development potential of a parcel with the existing and future capacity of transportation networks and public infrastructure” and even “more appropriately regulate structural form, more specifically in established neighborhoods, and more architecturally in old and historic districts.” Check out slides 16–19 for how the process will work and slide 25 for an estimated timeline. It’s a big project to tackle, so I’m not surprised that Vonk thinks the entire process will take at least two years. Also of note on LUHT’s agenda, RES. 2022-R073, which would kick off the rezoning process to…ban a lot of convenience stores? Submitted by Councilmembers Robertson and Lambert, this resolution would remove convenience stores as a permitted use from a lot of existing zoning districts and, instead, have them “be regulated through either a neighborhood-based convenience store overlay district…or the conditional use permit process.” I have no idea what is going on here and would like to learn more. Regardless of the intent behind this paper (which, conspiratorially and baselessly, I think is to address a specific convenience store in the 6th District), using the zoning ordinance as a cudgel to bang away at a specific problem in one council district seems incredibly counter to the thoughtful goals laid out in the above zoning rewrite.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 23 °F, which is definitely cold, but highs today should reach up into the 50s, which is definitely a bit more pleasant than yesterday. Warmer(ish) temperatures and sunny skies continue over the next couple of days, so get out there any enjoy it if you have an easy-breezy and short holiday week.
 

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This past Friday, Governor Youngkin announced his “Make Virginia Home” housing plan to “promote increasing the supply of attainable, affordable, and accessible housing across the Commonwealth.” I’d love to see the actual legislation behind this plan, but, for now, all we’ve got is the aforelinked short list of talking points—which do contain some good words like “comprehensive reforms of Virginia’s land use and zoning laws” and “increasing the supply of land for housing.” It also mentions providing a “more efficient way” for projects to meet mandated wetland and stream mitigation requirements, which reminds me a lot of this longread from last week criticizing how federal NEPA standards bog down important infrastructure. Of course, with these sorts of things, the devil is in the details. Will the zoning reforms make it easier to built single-family homes while preventing incredibly needed multi-family housing? How will increasing the supply of land for housing impact green spaces? Will any of part of this plan approach development in a sustainable way, and will any of the housing that gets built follow sustainability and climate best practices? I have no idea, but I think you can forgive me for starting from a fairly skeptical place given the current administration’s approach to every other issue thus far.
 

Patrick Larsen at VPM reports on last week’s meeting of the Richmond Coalition for Healthcare Equity, the group organizing around Richmond Community Hospital in the East End and Bon Secours’ use of 340B funds. Larsen provides a good synopsis of the issue: “Richmond Community is supposed to benefit from a federal program called 340B – which allows the facility to purchase medicine at a discount, while charging close to full price to insured patients and their insurers, leaving the difference to be reinvested. Bon Secours registered a series of clinics in wealthier parts of the city through Richmond Community, allowing the hospital to buy deeply discounted drugs, despite a well-insured patient base.” The Coalition has a bunch of actions they’d like to see from Bon Secours—including investing 100% of its profits from the 340B program in the East End—and will meet again on December 15th to figure out some next steps.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 23 °F, which is definitely cold, but highs today should reach up into the 50s, which is definitely a bit more pleasant than yesterday. Warmer(ish) temperatures and sunny skies continue over the next couple of days, so get out there any enjoy it if you have an easy-breezy and short holiday week.
 

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This past Friday, Governor Youngkin announced his “Make Virginia Home” housing plan to “promote increasing the supply of attainable, affordable, and accessible housing across the Commonwealth.” I’d love to see the actual legislation behind this plan, but, for now, all we’ve got is the aforelinked short list of talking points—which do contain some good words like “comprehensive reforms of Virginia’s land use and zoning laws” and “increasing the supply of land for housing.” It also mentions providing a “more efficient way” for projects to meet mandated wetland and stream mitigation requirements, which reminds me a lot of this longread from last week criticizing how federal NEPA standards bog down important infrastructure. Of course, with these sorts of things, the devil is in the details. Will the zoning reforms make it easier to built single-family homes while preventing incredibly needed multi-family housing? How will increasing the supply of land for housing impact green spaces? Will any of part of this plan approach development in a sustainable way, and will any of the housing that gets built follow sustainability and climate best practices? I have no idea, but I think you can forgive me for starting from a fairly skeptical place given the current administration’s approach to every other issue thus far.
 

Patrick Larsen at VPM reports on last week’s meeting of the Richmond Coalition for Healthcare Equity, the group organizing around Richmond Community Hospital in the East End and Bon Secours’ use of 340B funds. Larsen provides a good synopsis of the issue: “Richmond Community is supposed to benefit from a federal program called 340B – which allows the facility to purchase medicine at a discount, while charging close to full price to insured patients and their insurers, leaving the difference to be reinvested. Bon Secours registered a series of clinics in wealthier parts of the city through Richmond Community, allowing the hospital to buy deeply discounted drugs, despite a well-insured patient base.” The Coalition has a bunch of actions they’d like to see from Bon Secours—including investing 100% of its profits from the 340B program in the East End—and will meet again on December 15th to figure out some next steps.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and that’s cold! Overnight lows for the next couple of days will sink below freezing, putting an end to whatever’s still living in your garden (and sending a wave of abominable spider crickets indoors to take disgusting refuge). Today, though, you can expect middle-of-November highs in the upper 40s with plenty of sunshine.
 

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Yesterday, blistering reactions to the Virginia Department of Education’s changes to the history and social science learning standards started to pour in. The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus penned this open letter, saying they “have deep concerns with the politically-drafted revised standards that literally revise, whitewash, and omit important history in Virginia’s school curriculum.” An example: The draft standards VDOE released this past Friday did not mention Martin Luther King Jr. until 6th grade, something the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Anna Bryson says VDOE has since quietly updated calling the omission “unintentional.” Another example, and huge red flag: “The original Northam administration draft references multiple times that slavery was the central cause of the Civil War, while the Youngkin administration draft does not.” Bryson also reports on some of the other topics scrubbed out of the new standards and the role Hillsdale College—whose president led the extremely eye-rolly “1776 Commission”—may have had in the recent update. The State Board of Education will look over the new draft at their meeting today (agenda here, livestream here), but you’ll definitely have an opportunity to get involved at a few public engagement sessions over the next couple of months.
 

Tonight at 6:00 PM, the newly-formed Richmond Coalition for Health Care Equity will host a community meeting at Mount Olivet Church (1223 N. 25th Street) to “discuss recent reporting calling into question Bon Secours’s use of the 340B federal program intended to help hospital systems reinvest in services benefitting low-income patients and communities.” The tone for the evening sounds serious, informational;, and action-oriented; I really like the language they chose for the event flyer: “What has Bon Secours Mercy done to Richmond Community Hospital, and what can we do about it?” Richmond Together, a local progressive group with smart thoughts on policy change, has helped put together this new coalition to tackle an important and timely issue. I think that’s an interesting, grass-rootsy model, and it avoids the hours and expense required to stand up an actual single-issue nonprofit. I’m looking forward to seeing what next steps towards accountability and restitution come out of tonight’s meeting.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, and today, with its highs in the mid 50s, is probably the warmest day we’ve got for an entire week. You can expect dry skies for as far as the extended forecast stretches, so outside plans are definitely an option if you put on a couple layers!
 

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PlanRVA, our regional transportation planning group, has launched a survey to gauge folks’ interest in expanding the Pulse west past Willow Lawn. Serving the rest of Broad Street, all the way out to whatever we call just past Short Pump, is clearly the Pulse’s manifest destiny, but it won’t be cheap to expand frequent service that far (and through some of the most congested parts of the region). However! We now have a regional funding mechanism in the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, and these sorts of region-level studies are pretty important to, fingers crossed, help convince the CVTA to eventually chip in funding for expansions like this. Responses are due December 15th, but just take eight minutes this morning and fill it out. Do it! It’s important!
 

Speaking of! Join RVA Rapid Transit tonight at Common House (303 W. Broad Street) for the premier of Richmond by Bus, a short film created in partnership with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network to show folks “what it’s like for everyday bus riders using public transportation in the Richmond Region.” You can get your ticket for free over on the Eventbrite; watch the film at 6:00, 6:30, or 7:00; meanwhile grabbing a drink or two with some of the region’s biggest transit fans. As we all know, talking public transportation with like-minded folks is an excellent way to spend an evening (and how I spend many of my own evenings!).
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, and today, with its highs in the mid 50s, is probably the warmest day we’ve got for an entire week. You can expect dry skies for as far as the extended forecast stretches, so outside plans are definitely an option if you put on a couple layers!
 

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PlanRVA, our regional transportation planning group, has launched a survey to gauge folks’ interest in expanding the Pulse west past Willow Lawn. Serving the rest of Broad Street, all the way out to whatever we call just past Short Pump, is clearly the Pulse’s manifest destiny, but it won’t be cheap to expand frequent service that far (and through some of the most congested parts of the region). However! We now have a regional funding mechanism in the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, and these sorts of region-level studies are pretty important to, fingers crossed, help convince the CVTA to eventually chip in funding for expansions like this. Responses are due December 15th, but just take eight minutes this morning and fill it out. Do it! It’s important!
 

Speaking of! Join RVA Rapid Transit tonight at Common House (303 W. Broad Street) for the premier of Richmond by Bus, a short film created in partnership with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network to show folks “what it’s like for everyday bus riders using public transportation in the Richmond Region.” You can get your ticket for free over on the Eventbrite; watch the film at 6:00, 6:30, or 7:00; meanwhile grabbing a drink or two with some of the region’s biggest transit fans. As we all know, talking public transportation with like-minded folks is an excellent way to spend an evening (and how I spend many of my own evenings!).
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 32 °F, and today looks cold and, later this evening, rainy. Expect highs right around 50 °F, which is still pretty chilly, if you ask me. Slightly warmer temperatures move through tomorrow, but, really, we’re looking at some regular, early-winter weather for the rest of this week.
 

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David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that City Council (thankfully) voted to keep the City’s real estate tax rate at $1.20, avoiding shortchanging Future Richmond millions and millions of dollars. That’s great news! They also introduced the legislation to issue a one-time real estate tax rebate to homeowners, which should work its way through the bill-becomes-a-law process over the next month or so. With six supporters already on board, I don’t see any obvious roadblocks—plus the Mayor wants to get checks in the mail early next year, not leaving a ton of time for Council to delay. Assuming the rebate does pass, I think this was a pretty good outcome, all things considered. Richmond avoided a potentially catastrophic misstep and now has some time to figure out how best to ease the impact rising assessments can have on folks with lower incomes.
 

Remember how the Virginia Board of Education has delayed voting on the new history and social science learning standards a couple of times? With each delay I felt the likelihood of bad-faith Republican shenanigans increase, and, now, the Washington Post reports that “The Virginia Department of Education proposed revisions to the commonwealth’s history and social science learning standards late Friday in a move that would significantly alter the guidelines it had previously recommended and prompted a blistering response from critics who described it as political meddling.” You can find the draft standard here, which has six mentions of Ronald Reagan and zero mentions of Carter, Clinton, Obama, or Biden. I have no idea how that compares to the current standard or the standard proposed earlier this year before all the delays, so take my cmd+Fing with a grain of salt!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 32 °F, and today looks cold and, later this evening, rainy. Expect highs right around 50 °F, which is still pretty chilly, if you ask me. Slightly warmer temperatures move through tomorrow, but, really, we’re looking at some regular, early-winter weather for the rest of this week.
 

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David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that City Council (thankfully) voted to keep the City’s real estate tax rate at $1.20, avoiding shortchanging Future Richmond millions and millions of dollars. That’s great news! They also introduced the legislation to issue a one-time real estate tax rebate to homeowners, which should work its way through the bill-becomes-a-law process over the next month or so. With six supporters already on board, I don’t see any obvious roadblocks—plus the Mayor wants to get checks in the mail early next year, not leaving a ton of time for Council to delay. Assuming the rebate does pass, I think this was a pretty good outcome, all things considered. Richmond avoided a potentially catastrophic misstep and now has some time to figure out how best to ease the impact rising assessments can have on folks with lower incomes.
 

Remember how the Virginia Board of Education has delayed voting on the new history and social science learning standards a couple of times? With each delay I felt the likelihood of bad-faith Republican shenanigans increase, and, now, the Washington Post reports that “The Virginia Department of Education proposed revisions to the commonwealth’s history and social science learning standards late Friday in a move that would significantly alter the guidelines it had previously recommended and prompted a blistering response from critics who described it as political meddling.” You can find the draft standard here, which has six mentions of Ronald Reagan and zero mentions of Carter, Clinton, Obama, or Biden. I have no idea how that compares to the current standard or the standard proposed earlier this year before all the delays, so take my cmd+Fing with a grain of salt!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 31 °F, and that is a winter temperature. Today, and for the foreseeable future, you can expect afternoon highs around 50 °F and evening lows in the 30s—a big change from last week’s weirdly warm, weirdly humid situation. While I don’t love biking home from work in the frigid dark, I do always enjoy an opportunity to get the box of scarves out of winter storage.
 

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Don Harrison at Richmond Magazine writes about closing Carytown to vehicle traffic, and comes to the conclusion that it’s just too hard and we shouldn’t even try. I disagree! We could (and should) pilot closing Carytown to cars for just the cost of a couple hundred cones! What if: Every Sunday and on holidays, we put out some signs, cones, and barricades, and opened up Cary Street for folks to walk, roll, and bike around? It’d be a nice compromise between the huge number of people who want a pedestrianized Carytown and the Carytown Merchant’s Association. Technically, this is called a ciclovía and Bogotá, Colombia has been doing them for decades, but we could give it a different name so it felt like something we came up with on our own. It’s so disappointing that we inevitably come up with a bucketful of excuses to not even try these sorts of things. The lack of imagination and exploration into pilot and temporary infrastructure projects is so endemic to Richmond, and we need a handful of fun, successful pilots to show folks what’s possible.
 

City Council gathers today for their regularly scheduled meeting and you can find the full agenda here. Right before that meeting, however, they’ll discuss the City’s formal State Legislative Priorities—the parchment scroll of demands we give to our lobbyist to take across Broad Street and nail to the General Assembly’s door. The aforelinked PDF is worth scrolling through to get a sense for the City’s priorities (at the top of the list: “preserve and defend Richmond’s authority to hold a casino referendum in 2023”), but you should probably read with a big grain of realism salt. While it’s awesome to hope-and-dream for more local authority over property tax exemptions and inclusionary zoning, these don’t feel Iike legislation that has much chance of passing in the current split-control environment. Can’t hurt to ask, of course, but don’t hold your breath. As for the regular portion of their meeting, Council will consider the three ordinances that would maintain or decrease the City’s real estate tax rate. Given last week’s announcement of one-time tax rebates—with six supportive councilmembers!—I think Council will quickly pass ORD. 2022–270 and keep the rate at $1.20. Tune in, though, and listen to the inevitable speechifying for clues about how each member feels about longerterm ways to easy the impact rising assessments have on folks with lower incomes.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 47 °F, and today looks nice, cloudy, with highs in the 70s. Tomorrow, though, you should expect the remnants of Hurricane Nicole to roll through and bring with it showers, potential storms, and even the possibility of a tornado, says NBC12’s Andrew Freiden. Keep an eye on the weather app of your choice!
 

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s David Ress reports on the exciting news that the Mayor and six members of City Council (Addison, Jordan, Lambert, Lynch, Newbille, and Jones) have proposed a one-time $0.05 real estate tax rebate. That’s $0.05 for every $100 of your property’s assessed value, so if your home (and your land) is currently assessed at $200,000 you’ll be getting a $100 check at some point in “early 2023.” You can watch the full press conference over on the City’s YouTube channel. I’m stoked on this! The mayor seems pretty set against both the across-the-board tax cuts proposed by Councilmembers Nye and Trammell, saying: “Permanently cutting the tax rate would impact our ability to provide core services to our residents and our communities, it would also mean we couldn’t keep up with the increasing maintenance fees of our roadways, our parks, our libraries, and our schools.” Note that neither of Nye nor Trammell have sponsored this new proposal. It’s encouraging, like, really encouraging, to see the Mayor and a majority of Council work together to come up with a better solution to rising assessments than cutting the real estate tax rate. This is how things are supposed to work! Now, should this rebate pass, it feels like we’ve got a single year—two at the most—to find a clever, targeted, permanent solution or we’ll be right back in the same place debating lazily reducing the tax rate to the detriment of core services, roadways, parks, libraries, and schools.
 

Grace Todd’s November Attack of the Killer Thumbs column is out in RVA Mag, and, as always, you should tap through for your monthly dose of gardening advice. Like this: “I know it’s a Law of Suburban Dads that leaves must be raked and bagged by sullen teens in order to build character, but — color me shocked — dad was wrong about this one. Leave those leaves in the yard! They’ll rot away just fine, and your soil will thank you for all the nutrients they provide. Mulch them, compost them, run the mower over them to break them up, whatever.” Just this past weekend, we raked our leaves into the yard and had the sullen teen mow over them a couple times—helping both the Law of Suburban Dads and our lawn thrive.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 42 °F, and, with highs in the 60s, today certainly feels more like a Wednesday in November than the last couple of Wednesdays did. That said, it looks like we’ve got some warmer weather on deck in the next couple of days before chilly, True Fall Weather sets up shop (for good?).
 

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Yesterday, elections happened! And, turns out, the “red wave” predicted by less-than-useful horse-race journalism did not materialize. The New York Times—who are certainly guilty of forcing that sort of narrative—has put together a nice page of the results from across the country (trigger warner: there are four needles). Many key races remain uncalled, as does which party will control the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Locally, Rep. Spanberger won in her newly redrawn district, which was one of the national Will They Or Won’t They races to watch. We’ll have to wait a couple of days before we know what it allmeans, but, as of this morning, things look slightly more hopeful than they did 24 hours ago.
 

The Richmond Police Department reports that a driver hit and killed a 75-year old man on Robinson Street just north of the Starbucks in the Fan. According to RPD’s release, this past Sunday afternoon, the victim was “attempting to cross [Robinson] just south of the intersection heading towards Stafford Avenue when he was struck by the [driver].” While the head of Richmond’s Department of Public Works thinks that “we can’t infrastructure our way out” of speeding, some easy infrastructure could have slowed down this driver and maybe saved a life. Robinson at the intersection of Kensington does not have a four-way stop or a stop light—just an odd, single yellow light and an aspiration pedestrian crossing sign.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 64 °F, and highs today could hit 80 °F—as if November 7th was some sort of summer’s day! Nick Russo at NBC12 says we broke the all-time record for high temperatures yesterday, set in 1975, and we might could break today’s record, too. I guess get out there and enjoy it, despite how wrong and bizarre it feels, because cooler(ish) temperatures return tomorrow.
 

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Tomorrow is Election Day! Up until now you’ve already had many, many opportunities to vote, thanks to the hard work Democrats did in recent years to expand access to voting in Virginia. But, if you still haven’t cast a ballot, you can do so tomorrow at your local polling place from 6:00 AM – 7:00 PM. Did you ignore all of my warnings over the past few months and fail to register to vote? Don’t worry (too much), starting this year Virginia now allows same-day voter registration: Just head to your local polling place and cast a provisional ballot. There are literally no excuses not to get out there and vote tomorrow!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 49 °F, but today—and the weekend ahead of us—looks amazing. You can expect highs in the mid 70s this afternoon with plenty of sunshine, and then temperatures will creep up into the 80s over the next few days. Worryingly unseasonable? Yes. Great weather to ride bikes? Also yes.
 

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As of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield continue to have low CDC COVID-19 Community Levels. The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 158, 65, and 90, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 8.1. Another week, another petty much exactly the same coronapicture. Cases rates and hospitalization rates continue to fluctuate in a frustrating plateau-y way, with the warmer weather possibly staving off some of the anticipated fall and winter increases. But, just because the numbers refuse to budge, doesn’t mean that you should head out to the nearest large, in-person gathering and start spitting in each others’ mouths! Cases of flu and RSV are both on the rise, and thousands of people are still dying of COVID-19 every day. Aside from keeping your spit to yourself, the best, easiest, and least disruptive way to protect yourself and your family from severe disease and a trip to the hospital is to get your COVID-19 booster (and your flu shot), if you haven’t already. If you want to go harder, Katelyn Jetelina has a thoughtful, if a little sobering, rundown of how she’ll navigate spending the holidays with high-risk, vulnerable family members this year. It sounds a lot like the last two years of life, which is hard to read, but she’s not wrong.
 

Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports that the City has issued a Request for Interest for the planned City Center redevelopment: “The 242-page document invites teams to submit their information to be considered for development of a 9-acre assemblage that includes the shuttered arena and the site of a long-sought convention center hotel.” If you want, you can download the full PDF here—the first 30-or-so pages are pretty interesting and readable. The first phase of the redevelopment will include demolishing the Coliseum, figuring out what to do with the Blues Armory, improving infrastructure, and building the convention center hotel alongside some new office and residential (check out page 17 of the big PDF for more details). Transit, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure are all considered priorities, and, with some clever planning, this project could really make getting around downtown safer and more pleasant—something to keep an eye on. Developers will have until December 20th to submit their responses, with final selection sometime next spring or summer. Honestly, it’s great to see the City moving forward on this project alongside the Diamond District, and fingers crossed they keep up the good work.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 51 °F, and today looks beautiful. Expect highs in the 70s, sunshine, and an absolutely amazing evening for small talk on the porch or patio of your choosing.
 

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Jahd Khalil at VPM talks to Martin Wegbreit at the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society about the large number of evictions scheduled this week in Richmond—126 to be exact. While the pandemic put a pause on evictions across the state, that’s longer the case, especially in the city. In fact, RVA Eviction Lab says evictions could soon surpass their pre-pandemic levels: “By the third quarter (Q3), filings exceeded Q1 2020 numbers, reaching 87.8% of pre-pandemic levels. In Chesterfield, Petersburg, Hampton, Virginia Beach, Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, and some parts of Richmond, the rate of filings was higher than it was in 2019. At this pace, the rate of eviction filings in Virginia will soon return to their pre-pandemic status, and could even surpass it, resulting in an eviction crisis greater than the conditions prior to the pandemic.” And, remember, those pre-pandemic conditions in Richmond made national headlines back in 2018. It’s upsetting that we’re headed back into the same, horrible place again, and Tracey Hardney-Scott at the NAACP reminds us that housing is absolutely critical for, well, everything: “You can’t do anything without housing. You can’t get a job without an address. You can’t [get a license] without an address…Imagine that all being taken away from you.” To prevent this statewide backslide, RVA Eviction Lab calls for legislation to protect vulnerable renters at this coming General Assembly session. I don’t know how realistic that is, but I definitely would like to learn more about the eviction diversion options on the table given we have a divided GA and a Republican governor.
 

Axios Richmond’s Ned Oliver got ahold of some of the emails sent to Governor Youngkin’s mostly fake Critical Race Theory / school tip line, and the results are about what you’d expect: mostly unserious, bad faith “tips” with a few bizarre emails thrown in for fun. Oliver says that as of this past Wednesday, “the tip line appears to have been shut down…Emails sent by Axios bounced back as undeliverable.” The Governor’s spokesperson had no comment about that.