Good morning, RVA! It’s 61 °F, and this afternoon you can expect highs in the 70s?? This evening, if it stops raining long enough to get out before the sun sets, you can find me me zooming through some damp Northside alleys on two wheels.
 

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The RPS School Board failed to pass a budget last night, with the same oppositional five-member voting bloc each voting against the Superintendent’s proposal. @KidsFirstRPS has a long, live Twitter thread if you want get a feel for the meeting. As with the George Wythe debacle, these five members of the School Board can think they have the leverage all they want, but the Mayor introduces the City’s budget (which funds the school system) and City Council approves that budget. RPS gets what they get. The Mayor is required to submit his budget by March 4th, just nine days from now, and has requested the RPS budget by Friday or has said he’ll move forward using last year’s funding level for schools. Working with the Superintendent to craft a budget to give to the Mayor is the Board’s best opportunity to lay out their priorities and influence the process. Taking this week to grandstand and point fingers will mean they’ve given away their ability to get involved in the process to the Mayor and City Council, who, believe me, will have no problems setting an RPS budget all on their own. While flat-funding RPS would put the District in a world of hurt (see below for more bad budget news), five members of the School Board do not get to hold the entire City budget hostage.
 

In his email last night, before the disappointing budget meeting, RPS Superintendent Kamras sent out a call-to-action around the State’s budget. Here’s his words: “I’ll cut to the chase with some simple math: the Senate’s budget proposal would ADD $2 million to RPS while the House version would SUBTRACT $12.5 million. The House has proposed cutting what’s called the At-Risk Add-On, which is special funding for school divisions like RPS that serve a high percentage of low-income students. It’s time to act.” If you’d like to act, and you should, RPS has put together a very helpful page with exactly the language you should use and which legislators you should email. Imagine the kind of world our students will be living in with the existing $7 million cut in state funding, an additional $12.5 million cut proposed by Republican legislators, and then a potential flat-funding from the City because the School Board’s five-member voting bloc can’t seem to pass a budget. I think, total, that would be something like a $40 million shortfall? An 11% cut from the proposed budget? I’m sure something, somewhere will shake out of all these in-progress budgets, but it won’t be a full funding of RPS—that’s for sure. It’s exhausting to have to battle for public school dollars from the three separate levels of elected government.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and today you can expect warm and wet weather. Highs should top out in the mid 60s while rain may move in this afternoon and evening. I hope you took advantage of yesterday’s most excellent weather!
 

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Here are this week’s graphs of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 in Virginia. The case rate per 100,000 people in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield is 160, 202, and 150 respectively. While community transmission is still “high” across all three localities, that could change quickly (at least in our region). For a bit of hope, look towards NOVA and Hampton Roads where a few counties have dipped below 100 cases per 100,000 and have fallen into the “substantial” (orange!) level of community transmission. Substantial is still a word that means “a lot,” but it also means progress. Who knows that the future will actually bring, but if you’re using some sort of metric-based framework to guide your own personal behavior—like this one from Katelyn Jetelina—I bet next week could see some exciting changes to your social calendar.
 

Richmond’s budget season is off to a spicy start, as the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Chris Suarez reports the Mayor has warned the School Board that they better pass the RPS budget this week or else face a year of flat funding. That’d be particularly brutal as the Superintendent’s budget relies on $22 million more from the City as compared to last year. We’ll have to see if this added pressure works and School Board gets a move on, because the piece closes with this ominous quote from 4th District Schoolboard member Jonathan Young about the Superintendent’s budget, “I will not be voting in favor of it. And at the risk of speaking for my colleagues, I don’t believe he has the five votes.” Yikes. Just a couple more days until Friday, so we’re sure to learn more soon.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F and windy. Temperatures fall from now straight through until tomorrow morning, which is kind of weird. Over the weekend, you can expect cooler but still decent temperatures, and if you’re lucky enough to have Monday off, it looks like the best day out of the next few. Enjoy!
 

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RPS Superintendent Kamras shared the District’s updated masking plan last night and it makes a lot of sense to me (given the new, shortsighted legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor). Here’s the gist: Starting March 1st, all adults—staff, parents, and visitors—must still wear masks; families must email a specific email address requesting that their student not wear a mask (no reason need be provided); and masks must still be worn on the bus (because that’s a federal law). If caregivers have not taken that proactive step to opt-out of the mask mandate, their children will be required to wear a mask. That’s probably the best we can manage, and, at least in Richmond’s schools, will probably mean the majority of students remain masked for the rest of the coming school year. Also, because Kamras’s administration almost always approaches tough moments with empathy: “No student will be separated, singled out, our disparaged in any way if their parent/caregiver elects to have them not wear a mask.” Out in the County, Henrico County Public Schools have decided on a less strict policy: “The division strongly recommends universal mask use indoors by students during times of high community transmission; however, school leaders understand that some parents/guardians will opt their children out.” Like RPS, staff and visitors, for now, must continue to wear masks inside HCPS schools. I feel the strongest desire, and I know you feel it too, to check back at the end of March and see how these two differing mask policies impacted the spread of COVID-19 in schools. But! I think there may be too many variables involved to really learn anything useful—the current and steady decline in case rates across Virginia, differing vaccination uptake rates between Richmond and Henrico, and the political makeup of the individual schools just to name a few.
 

Wyatt Gordon put together a good thread on Twitter about the transformation of the industrial area along Chamberlayne near Virginia Union University into a dense residential neighborhood. There’s lots to love going on in this area—spurred by the VUU/Chamberlayne Neighborhood Plan (one of my favorite small area plans)—but lots of work left to do to make it a hospitable place for humans. Most of that work involves narrowing Chamberlayne Avenue, prioritizing bus traffic, and creating safe ways for folks of all ages and abilities to cross the street. That’s such a low bar, but it really underscores how the City needs to level up the public infrastructure quickly to support all of the private development already going on in the area.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 53 °F, and today, while a bit cloudy, will feature lovely springlike temperatures in the 70s. Feels odd, but I’m into it and will schedule some time to at least walk around the block after lunch. I hope you’ll find some time to get outside, too.
 

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The Virginia Mercury’s Graham Moomaw reports that Govenror Youngkin signed SB 739, the bill banning school mask mandates, into law yesterday. The bill did end up with an emergency clause, adding a March 1st deadline for school districts to comply. I think Richmond Public Schools superintendent Jason Kamras put it best: “Earlier this afternoon, the Governor signed new legislation from the General Assembly banning masks mandates in schools as of March 1. As I’ve shared before, I think this is bad policy that will undermine our ability to keep everyone safe and limit interruptions to learning. That said, it is now the law in the Commonwealth. We’re assessing exactly what the legislation requires and its implications for RPS.” I continue to think that this legal prohibition against a legitimate public health tool is anti-science and dangerous. I also think that, in a couple of months (🤞), we could be living in a world where most folks do not need to wear masks inside. This was always the goal, and it’s ridiculous we couldn’t get there in a safe, science-based way.
 

City Council’s Finance and Economic Development committee meets today with a couple interesting items on their agenda, including a few papers that look related to Councilmember Addison’s proposal to raise the threshold for the Business, Professional and Occupational License tax (BPOL). I wrote about this earlier in the week and wondered how much money the City would lose out on if we raised the threshold at which businesses start paying significant taxes up from $100,000 to $250,000. Lucky for us, the ordinance’s Staff Report (ORD. 2022–032) has the details: “Reducing the tax obligation of 13.0% of all Richmond businesses, based on the analysis of FY21 actuals, would lead to a minimal impact of FY23 revenues of approximately $417,768 dollars (a reduction in BPOL taxes of -1.4% of the observed FY21 amount).” A little more than $400,000 does not seem like a ton of cash, especially if it gets us more in line with the Counties on this particular tax. Also on the Finance committee’s agenda, RES. 2022-R007, the non-binding resolution that express Council’s support of the Mayor’s plan to reduce the real estate tax should the casino referendum pass. At the moment, the resolution has three patrons: Councilmembers Robertson, Newbille, and Trammell. While I know at least some members of City Council do not support this shortsighted plan to reduce the City’s revenue, I don’t know if you could find five votes against it. We’ll see. We’ll also see if the looming costs of replacing Fox Elementary changes anyone’s willingness to place bets with the City’s future revenue.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 26 °F, but later today we should see temperatures around 60 °F and the beginning of a great stretch of warm-for-February weather. With the sun setting at 5:51 PM, there’s even a little extra time to get out there and enjoy it!
 

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As Fox Elementary students head back to (virtual) school today and as Richmond Public Schools searches for a long-term temporary home, I feel like I have enough space from Friday’s fire to start thinking through my uncouth political and urbanist questions. If you’re a member of the Fox community and it’s too soon for you to think through some of these questions, I totally understand if you throw this email into the garbage! With that said, presented in no particular order:
 

• The biggest, most headline-grabbing issue in replacing Fox Elementary will almost certainly be the lack of progress in replacing another school: George Wythe. It’s taken forever and a day to make even the babiest of steps towards replacing George Wythe High School, and any rapid movement on building a brand new Fox while Wythe sits untouched will be met with plenty of justifiable community anger.
• It makes me wonder who on School Board or City Council will use the pressing need to replace Fox as leverage to push either the 1,600-seat or 2,000-seat plans for a George Wythe replacement (the former favored by the School Board’s majority voting bloc, the latter, I think, the correct path forward).
• RPS currently lacks the staff to manage building a single school, let alone two. In fact, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Chris Suarez reported last week that Boardmember Jonathan Young wants to cut two construction management jobs from Superintendent Kamras’s budget. Living into their “schools build schools” mantra just got twice as hard for the School Board, and I’m not sure the District, at the moment, has all the resources they need to make a successful go at it.
• State Senator McClellan is a Fox parent herself and chairs the School Construction and Modernization Commission. Plus, she has a bill floating around the General Assembly to allow localities to levy a new sales tax to use for construction and renovation of schools. McClellan is one of the best and most effective legislators we’ve got, and I’m interested to see if she can squeeze any support out of the State.
• What’s up with the City’s debt capacity? How will the insurance money impact that limit? If there is insurance money, but it doesn’t cover the entire replacement of the school, will Richmond even be able to borrow enough money to fund construction?
• Probably my most uncouth thought: How will not having a school in the Fan impact real estate prices? Fox being “one of the good schools” (which, to be clear, is an incredibly harmful narrative) is a main reason mostly white, mostly affluent families move to the Fan. If it takes half a decade to rebuild Fox what happens? If students get relocated to Clark Springs Elementary in Randolph, what happens to housing over there?
• City Council elections are just two years away, and I don’t think we’ll have a new Fox Elementary by then. The 2nd District School Board and City Council races will almost certainly revolve around how the current representatives have handled this crisis.
• I’m excited to see what building an new, urban school on a smallish piece of land looks like in the 2020s. What if RPS built dense, deeply affordable housing on half the property?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 26 °F, but later today we should see temperatures around 60 °F and the beginning of a great stretch of warm-for-February weather. With the sun setting at 5:51 PM, there’s even a little extra time to get out there and enjoy it!
 

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As Fox Elementary students head back to (virtual) school today and as Richmond Public Schools searches for a long-term temporary home, I feel like I have enough space from Friday’s fire to start thinking through my uncouth political and urbanist questions. If you’re a member of the Fox community and it’s too soon for you to think through some of these questions, I totally understand if you throw this email into the garbage! With that said, presented in no particular order:
 

• The biggest, most headline-grabbing issue in replacing Fox Elementary will almost certainly be the lack of progress in replacing another school: George Wythe. It’s taken forever and a day to make even the babiest of steps towards replacing George Wythe High School, and any rapid movement on building a brand new Fox while Wythe sits untouched will be met with plenty of justifiable community anger.
• It makes me wonder who on School Board or City Council will use the pressing need to replace Fox as leverage to push either the 1,600-seat or 2,000-seat plans for a George Wythe replacement (the former favored by the School Board’s majority voting bloc, the latter, I think, the correct path forward).
• RPS currently lacks the staff to manage building a single school, let alone two. In fact, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Chris Suarez reported last week that Boardmember Jonathan Young wants to cut two construction management jobs from Superintendent Kamras’s budget. Living into their “schools build schools” mantra just got twice as hard for the School Board, and I’m not sure the District, at the moment, has all the resources they need to make a successful go at it.
• State Senator McClellan is a Fox parent herself and chairs the School Construction and Modernization Commission. Plus, she has a bill floating around the General Assembly to allow localities to levy a new sales tax to use for construction and renovation of schools. McClellan is one of the best and most effective legislators we’ve got, and I’m interested to see if she can squeeze any support out of the State.
• What’s up with the City’s debt capacity? How will the insurance money impact that limit? If there is insurance money, but it doesn’t cover the entire replacement of the school, will Richmond even be able to borrow enough money to fund construction?
• Probably my most uncouth thought: How will not having a school in the Fan impact real estate prices? Fox being “one of the good schools” (which, to be clear, is an incredibly harmful narrative) is a main reason mostly white, mostly affluent families move to the Fan. If it takes half a decade to rebuild Fox what happens? If students get relocated to Clark Springs Elementary in Randolph, what happens to housing over there?
• City Council elections are just two years away, and I don’t think we’ll have a new Fox Elementary by then. The 2nd District School Board and City Council races will almost certainly revolve around how the current representatives have handled this crisis.
• I’m excited to see what building an new, urban school on a smallish piece of land looks like in the 2020s. What if RPS built dense, deeply affordable housing on half the property?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 18 °F, and that’s way too cold. Temperatures will triple by this afternoon and then head into the 60s and 70s over the next couple of days. Weird, but I accept!
 

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It’s Tuesday, so here’s your weekly look at the graphs of hospitalizations and deaths in Virginia due to COVID-19. Looks like we’re definitely on the backside of the hospitals peak, and maybe just getting to a similar place with deaths. Pending some drastic shift in trends, two weeks from now these graphs—and the spread of disease in our communities—will look a lot different. As of yesterday, the CDC Data Tracker lists Richmond’s Case Rate Per 100k at 251, Henrico’s at 310, and Chesterfield’s at 344. Those are all still “high” levels, but they’ve all dropped about 30% over the last seven days. Sooner rather than later we will see a drop in our “community transmission” level from that high level (scary red) to substantial (less scary orange). That’s something to look forward to, and, for me, will mean more engaging with the world!
 

The Virginia Mercury’s Graham Moomaw reports that the bill banning mask mandates in schools passed the House of Delegates and will now head to the Governor for his signature. He’ll probably recommend an “emergency clause” which would turn this bill into a law within the next couple of weeks. I’m still upset at Senate Democrats for allowing this to happen, and I just hope COVID-19—or some other horrible disease—doesn’t drop us in a public health crisis where we need masks in schools to keep our kids safe.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and as per all of 2022’s weather, the weekend snow was a disappointing let down. Today, though, you can expect highs in the 30s, so bundle up! Warmer weather returns on Wednesday.
 

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I’m sure you’ve already seen it, but, on Friday night a three-alarm fire hit Fox Elementary in the Fan, destroying the roof and the second floor of the building. This drone footage will show you the extent of the damage. Fox students have today and tomorrow off and will move to virtual learning on Wednesday. I have a bunch of uncouth urbanist and political questions about what happens next that I’ll save for later, but, for now, you can donate money to help Fox students and staff through the RPS Education Foundation website (making sure to select “Fox Elementary Fire Response” from the dropdown).
 

Tangentially related, City Council will meet tonight to potentially discuss ORD. 2021–308, which, if passed, would give Richmond Public Schools the money to start the process of redesigning a replacement for George Wythe High School. There’s still an open and unresolved question of how big to build that replacement—for 1,600 or 2,000 students—and thus far City Council has been unwilling to appropriate any money at all until the School Board can get in alignment. Richmond Together has put together the best argument for why the City should move forward with the original, 2,000-student plans, and, if you’ve been wondering what all the hubbub was was about, this is the PDF you need to read this morning. Personally, I’m pretty convinced by the arguments that a 1,600-seat Wythe replacement could open on day one already at capacity—especially the arguments about planning for a future with a lower dropout rate among Richmond’s Latino students. From the paper: “It should be a given that RPS will build schools on the expectation that all racial and ethnic groups will attend and graduate at a rate comparable to the statewide average (just above 90%). Any analysis of Wythe’s capacity should note that at least 200 students are in effect ‘missing’ because of the high Latino dropout rate.” Anyway, I think there’s a good chance that Council will continue this paper again, but if after reading this PDF you want to contact your Councilmember in support of a 2,000-student George Wythe, you should do so this morning just in case they get down to business!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, and, what the heck!, this afternoon will spend some serious time in the mid 60s. Please get out there and enjoy two wonderful days in a row until winter weather moves in on Sunday, when you can expect temperatures in the 20s, rain, and snow. Let’s just say I’m…skeptical…about just how many businesses and schools will open on Monday morning.
 

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Bad news bears for pro-casino Petersburgers: Chris Suarez at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that “A powerful state Senate committee killed a proposal on Thursday evening that would have allowed Petersburg residents to hold a referendum on hosting a casino in the city.” Of course, nothing is truly dead in the General Assembly until…well, until one of several confusing things happens, but certainly this split committee vote (a very bipartisan 9–7) doesn’t mean Sen. Morrissey’s mission is all dead, just mostly dead. And mostly dead is slightly alive. Suarez reports that the senator plans to “discuss the vote with the Democratic caucus and will try to revive the bill.” Do I think it’ll work? It’ll take a miracle; there’s just too much oomph behind the plan to revive Richmond’s casino instead.
 

Mel Leonor, also at the RTD, has a really clear and interesting report on the progress of the Governor’s plan to defund public schools in favor of standing up hundreds of charter schools across the Commonwealth. Sounds like the Virginia Senate isn’t having it, but is willing to consider creating some “lab schools” run by colleges and universities. Two keys from Senate Democrats that are sure to run afoul with the Governor’s team: These lab schools could not be run by private or for-profit colleges and they would “not be funded using local, state or federal per-pupil dollars.” These changes would defeat the primary purpose of Youngkin’s education platform—to defund public schools—and, honestly sounds kind of interesting? Henrico’s Del. VanValkenburg, who’s typically my go-to for state-level education stuff (and is dealing with an entirely different version of the bill in the House of Delegates), seems generally in favor of funding the lab schools that are allowed under current Virginia law. I’d like to learn more!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today looks beautiful. Expect highs near 60 and sunshine and people outside doing their thing. This great, unseasonable weather continue through Saturday, after which NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says we could see some snow on Sunday.
 

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Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has some more reporting on the demise of any and all future mask requirements in our public schools. There are some absolutely wild quotes from legislators in this piece, like:
 

• “We are telling parents what to do…and as a legislator, I just don’t believe that I have the audacity to tell them what they can do and they cannot do.” — Sen. Joe Morrissey, Democrat
• “The truth here is that the only mitigation that actually works is the vaccine.” — Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, Republican (not at all true, by the way)
• I don’t have a doctorate in medicine…but I do have a doctorate in common sense." — Sen. Chap Petersen, Democrat (sponsor of this bill)

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and today looks beautiful. Expect highs near 60 and sunshine and people outside doing their thing. This great, unseasonable weather continue through Saturday, after which NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says we could see some snow on Sunday.
 

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Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has some more reporting on the demise of any and all future mask requirements in our public schools. There are some absolutely wild quotes from legislators in this piece, like:
 

• “We are telling parents what to do…and as a legislator, I just don’t believe that I have the audacity to tell them what they can do and they cannot do.” — Sen. Joe Morrissey, Democrat
• “The truth here is that the only mitigation that actually works is the vaccine.” — Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, Republican (not at all true, by the way)
• I don’t have a doctorate in medicine…but I do have a doctorate in common sense." — Sen. Chap Petersen, Democrat (sponsor of this bill)

Good morning, RVA! It’s 25 °F, and, highs today will hit the upper 50s. I think that’s a wonderful excuse to get outside and move your body through space in whatever way makes you feel good. You’ve got three more days of warmish weather before cold temperatures return—take advantage of them!
 

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Mel Leonor reports that, unless something dramatic happens in the next couple of days, the General Assembly will ban mask mandates in schools. Yesterday, the Democratic-controlled Senate approved legislation that would “prevent local school boards from levying mask mandates and from punishing students whose parents opt to send their child to school without a mask.” Legislation that bans mask mandates is a whole different ball of wax than an overreaching, hastily issued Executive Order, and I don’t know that local school boards—Richmond and Henrico’s included—would have much leeway to do anything about it. Katelyn Jetelina said it early this week: Population-level solutions are so much more effective at keeping people safe and preventing the spread of disease than individual-level ones, and the GA’s Democrats are making an incredibly short-sighted decision to forever strip a useful public-health tool from Virginia’s tool box. This isn’t just about COVID, either! The next time—and there will be a next time—we encounter a dangerous airborne illness we will be without an important population-level mitigation measure unless the General Assembly passes a law. So dumb.
 

The Mayor delivered his 2022 State of the City Address last night, and I thought it was pretty good! You can read the speech here, or watch it on the City’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. I think we already knew most of the Mayor’s announcements, given that the more exciting ones come from ARPA funding and we’ve already seen a bunch of presentations on how the City plans to allocate that huge bucket of cash. I hadn’t heard about the $500,000 for a gun buyback program which seems pretty cool, though. Chris Suarez at the RTD has a short summary of the speech which includes pictures of the mayor’s podium surrounded by a dozen ferns. If anyone at the City is looking to re-home some of those plants, please let me know, OK?
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, and my weather app has informed me that we have a chance for “FREEZING FOG” this morning until 9:00 AM. I’ve seen The Day After Tomorrow, and I’m sufficiently aware of how dangerous weather can creep right up on you (and chase you through the New York Public Library)—so be careful out there this morning. Warmer weather moves in after lunch when we should see highs near 50 °F.
 

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It’s Tuesday, so here’s this week’s charts of hospitalizations and deaths in Virginia due to COVID-19. Hospitalizations continue to decrease while deaths, now, appear to have plateaued. While I’m not spending as much time tracking the graph of cases, I have been keeping a loose eye on the case rate per 100,000 people. In Richmond it’s 467, in Henrico 562, and in Chesterfield 538. You can find those numbers, updated daily, on this CDC COVID Data Tracker page. Related, and mostly the reason for keeping track of this unintuitive number, Katelyn Jetelina has put together a nice framework for how individuals can re-enter (and retreat from!) the world based on case rates per 100,000. I like this tool because it’s simple to use and helps me avoid constantly thinking through my own personal risk-reward ratio for every dang hangout. If the level of cases is red (anywhere above 100 per 100,000), the framework recommends that you “avoid indoor, crowded public areas where not 100% masked and vaccination status unknown.” Simple! As the case rates decrease, you can mitigate less and do more things; at a yellow case rate (between 10 and 49 per 100,000) indoor, crowded events are fine without even masking! Jetelina is quick to point out that individual actions are not the way out of this pandemic but, unfortunately, it’s the focus of today’s reality: “This is for individual decision making. In other words, it answers: What should I do today? As a public health official, I do not agree that we need individual-level solutions. They are far less effective than population-level ones. But in our increasingly individualistic society, we need to arm people with evidence-based solutions in the landscape they are forced to navigate.” Anyway, I hope this tool helps—it certainly gave me some clarity on how to navigate the spring and summer.
 

Mayor Levar Stoney will deliver his sixth (I think?) State of the City address tonight at 6:00 PM. If you’re using the above framework and trying to avoid large, indoor public gatherings, you can livestream the address on the City’s Facebook page. I always enjoy the State of the City. Yeah it’s a lot of victory-lap stuff, which, to be honest, at this moment in time it’ll be pretty nice to hear about some successes, but it’s also a chance for the mayor to lay out his vision for the year ahead. Sometimes we even get cool policy and project announcements, later expanded upon in his budget presentation. It’s a good night to curl up on the couch and root for the home team.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 33 °F, and, once things get going today, it looks cold and rainy. Highs should trend upward for the rest of the week, though.
 

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I’m sure y’all saw this already, but VPM reports that “an Arlington judge ordered on Friday that schools can continue requiring students to wear face masks - for now.” I’m sure the Governor and his team will appeal this temporary decision and we’ll have to keep hearing about this—possibly through the end of the school year (137 days from now). I enjoyed this email sent to Henrico County Public School families following the court’s decision: “…HCPS will strictly adhere to our universal mask requirement except during mealtime, when students are outdoors (with appropriate physical distancing), or when they participate in designated athletic activities. Recent accommodations made in place of mask use, based on parent choice and the executive order, will end immediately. Students are expected to adhere to the universal masking requirement, and anyone who refuses to wear a mask will face disciplinary action in accordance with the Code of Student Conduct for disruption of the school day.” Emphasis theirs!
 

Today, both the City’s Planning Commission and Council’s Organizational Development committee meet and will take up a few papers that we’ve been tracking for a bit. First, Planning Commission will consider the W. Broad Street rezoning (ORD. 2022–017). Rezonings, as you know, have to jump through a bunch of different hoops before they get implemented, the last of which is City Council passing this ordinance after Planning Commission has their way with it. You can flip through a presentation on the rezoning here; you’re probably looking for pages 17 and 20 which will let you see the current and future zoning maps. The proposal will replace a quilt of different zoning district running mostly along Broad and down Hamilton with TOD-1. The residential neighborhoods south of Broad stay residential, so folks shouldn’t (but probably will anyway) fire off angry emails about parking and high-rises blotting out the sun. I imagine since this rezoning tightly aligns with the City’s master plan, it will easily pass Planning Commission. Then, later this evening, Council’s Org Dev committee will take up both the City employee union papers: ORD. 2021–345 and ORD. 2021–346. The former would authorize collective bargaining for a whole set of City employees (including police) while the later just for employees in the Departments of Public Utilities and Public Works. I don’t have a great sense of how Council feels about this issue, but I think if you looked hard enough you could probably find five votes for authorizing collective bargaining across the board.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 62 °F. What the heck! Despite this morning’s late-spring temperatures, you can expect a cold front to move in this afternoon and for the day to end somewhere in the 30s. Boringly, the rain will let up just as temperatures start to drop. Expect cold—but clear—weather for the rest of the weekend.
 

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Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has some good reporting on the Youngkin Administration’s refusal to turn over communications and documents pertaining to the governor’s education-related executive orders. I’m sure y’all have read about the Governor’s tip line for parents to report educators who dare to teach their students about the existence of systemic racism. He casually rolled it out a couple weeks ago on a right-wing radio show, and then it got picked up by national news and spread around on social media—mostly by liberals hoping to encourage other liberals to flood the email address with sickburns. While this seems like another misstep for the new, inexperienced governor, I think things are pretty much going according to plan! Remember, the goal here, as always, was not to collect actual feedback from parents concerned over the teaching of “divisive” subjects, but to make liberals angry. Not only did the tip line succeed at that primary objective, its also convinced thousands of folks to spend what little civic time and energy they have shooting off angry emails into a black hole rather than emailing their legislators, submitting public comments, or attending a public meeting. Honestly, I would not be surprised if the tip line inbox literally did not exist (which would explain why subsequent FOIA requests for tips submitted have been denied by the Administration). I appreciate Kate Masters reporting, though, because she points to a larger trend within the Governor’s team to improperly use FOIA exemptions to shield their work from the public. This lack of transparency is Not Good—especially around topics like the enforcement of Executive Order #1 which, theoretically, bans the teaching of systemic racism in classrooms. Have they denied these FOIA requests because what they’d turn up would be embarrassing or damning (or both)? I think that’s an important question.
 

You should read this piece by Mel Leonor in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about how the Virginia Senate has slowly started to dismantle the Governor’s agenda piece by piece. That was a smug sentence! I thought two things while reading through this good reporting: 1) Bills in the General Assembly die and resurrect with alarming, unpredictable frequency, so don’t consider Governor’s push for all charter schools all the time dead until the end of the session, and 2) Folks really need to vote! Can you imagine how different things would look without that slimmest of majorities in the Senate? Big yikes.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 43 °F, and today looks warm and rainy. Expect highs right around 60 °F and a persistent chance of rain basically until the sun sets tomorrow. Good sloshin' around weather!
 

Water cooler

I’ve really enjoyed some of the salty ledes that reporters at the Richmond Times-Dispatch have written while covering the Youngkin administration’s early attempts to push its agenda. Here’s a good one from Michael Martz about Youngkin’s effort to get rid of the grocery tax (which, at this point, does not have universal Republican support): “Legislators are beginning to remember why eliminating the sales tax on groceries has been hard to do, after decades of trying.” Who knows what will come of any of these grocery tax bills—between skeptical Republicans; a slim Democratic majority in the Senate; and an oppositional quote from Sen. Peterson, one of the few swing votes in that chamber—but a lot of critical school funding for localities hangs in the balance.
 

Ben Paviour at VPM details another one of the many small decisions made by Governor Youngkin to walk back Virginia’s progress on racial justice wherever he can—this time in the governor’s mansion. From the piece, “[Kelley Fanto] Deetz’s work updating the mansion’s tours is part of a multiyear project that draws heavily from the experiences of descendents of enslaved workers. It’s not clear where it stands after Youngkin’s Jan. 15 inauguration.” Deetz, who has done similar work elsewhere, had started to shift the public history of the governor’s mansion away from “oil paintings and whimsical gubernatorial anecdotes” to include the lives and stories of the enslaved people who built and staffed the building. We’ve seen similar, very successful efforts at other Virginia historical sites like Montpelier and Monticello. I know Republicans like to do these small, performative erasures to make folks mad, but this part seems particularly mean: “A planned educational room for schoolchildren had been turned into a family room for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.”
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 43 °F, and today looks warm and rainy. Expect highs right around 60 °F and a persistent chance of rain basically until the sun sets tomorrow. Good sloshin' around weather!
 

Water cooler

I’ve really enjoyed some of the salty ledes that reporters at the Richmond Times-Dispatch have written while covering the Youngkin administration’s early attempts to push its agenda. Here’s a good one from Michael Martz about Youngkin’s effort to get rid of the grocery tax (which, at this point, does not have universal Republican support): “Legislators are beginning to remember why eliminating the sales tax on groceries has been hard to do, after decades of trying.” Who knows what will come of any of these grocery tax bills—between skeptical Republicans; a slim Democratic majority in the Senate; and an oppositional quote from Sen. Peterson, one of the few swing votes in that chamber—but a lot of critical school funding for localities hangs in the balance.
 

Ben Paviour at VPM details another one of the many small decisions made by Governor Youngkin to walk back Virginia’s progress on racial justice wherever he can—this time in the governor’s mansion. From the piece, “[Kelley Fanto] Deetz’s work updating the mansion’s tours is part of a multiyear project that draws heavily from the experiences of descendents of enslaved workers. It’s not clear where it stands after Youngkin’s Jan. 15 inauguration.” Deetz, who has done similar work elsewhere, had started to shift the public history of the governor’s mansion away from “oil paintings and whimsical gubernatorial anecdotes” to include the lives and stories of the enslaved people who built and staffed the building. We’ve seen similar, very successful efforts at other Virginia historical sites like Montpelier and Monticello. I know Republicans like to do these small, performative erasures to make folks mad, but this part seems particularly mean: “A planned educational room for schoolchildren had been turned into a family room for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.”
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 23 °F, but temperatures today could stretch into the 50s—and you can expect even warmer weather tomorrow. Unfortunately, I’ll be spending my afternoon at the dentist, but I do expect some of you to get out there and take advantage of the pleasantish weather for me. Wish me luck.
 

Water cooler

A single, quick COVID update this morning: Pfizer did go ahead and ask the FDA to authorize a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine for children under five yesterday. According to the aforelinked NYT article, the now-familiar series of necessary advisory committee meetings will begin on February 15th—just two weeks from now! Should that first group feel OK with the less-effective, two-dose regimen, the subsequent approval dominos usually fall fairly quickly afterwards. Yesterday, I said the science nerds would have lots of questions about Pfizer’s decision to move forward with a less-effective, two-dose vaccine (while still studying a three-dose version), and, today, Katelyn Jetelina works through some of those questions.
 

Tonight at 5:30 PM, the Richmond Land Bank (which is part of the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust) will hold a meeting of their Citizens Advisory Panel that’s open to the public. They’ll discuss a really interesting proposal from the JXN Project to purchase 10 properties in Jackson Ward owned by the Land Bank and bring the Skipwith Roper Cottage back to the neighborhood. This should sound familiar! Abraham Skipwith was “the first known free Black person to reside in what would become Jackson Ward,” and his home, built originally at 400 W. Duval Street, now sits on a farm in Goochland. Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams wrote a great history of Skipwith in the Richmond Times-Dispatch last April that you should definitely read (or reread). It’s really fascinating stuff, and if you’d like to comment in support of this particular project (or any of the work the Land Bank has going on) you can do so tonight!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 26 °F, and highs today will hit the upper 40s. We’ve got warmer temperatures on the extended forecast from here until Friday. Get out there and enjoy it!
 

Water cooler

It definitely looks like the country as a whole has passed its Omicron peak, both in cases and hospitalizations—we’re still, unfortunately, waiting for deaths to catch up. The CDC says the nationwide 7-day average of new cases has dropped 19.9% since the previous seven days, and the 7-day average of hospitalizations has dropped 8.8% over that same time. Deaths, however, are still rising, and have increased 25.1% over the past week and have now passed this fall’s Delta peak. I think we can see the light at the end of this wave, though. In Virginia, we’re experiencing the same trends, if a little delayed from our northern neighbors, with the number of hospitalizations and deaths dropping—or at least seriously plateauing. Despite decreasing numbers, there’s still a lot of disease floating around in our communities! If you haven’t yet gotten vaccinated or boosted, just look at these graphs of hospitalizations by vaccination status and go get your shot today!
 

In more uplifting coronanews, the New York Times reports that Pfizer could ask the FDA to authorize a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine for kids under five…as soon as today?? Remember, though, that there are a series of meetings and hoops a potential vaccine must jump through before you can stroll on down to CVS and get one, but it sounds like we’re looking at end of February, early March? Those very science-y, very nerdy hoops and meetings should be interesting to watch as Pfizer hasn’t changed anything about the vaccine since last we spoke of it when “among children ages 2 to 4, the [immune] response was less robust.” What has changed, though, is: “The setback prompted the companies to test a third low dose of the shot in young children. Rather than wait for those results, federal regulators took the unusual approach of encouraging Pfizer to apply for authorization for a two-dose regimen to begin protecting children from the Omicron variant and other possible subsequent mutations…” I think the scientists will have thoughts on this strategy! There’s a real complicated tension between demonstrably less protection in kids aged 2–4 and more delays before any vaccine is available for them at all.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 20 °F, and I continue to be disappointed with our snow situation. What even was that! Bleh. Today, though, you can expect temperatures in the mid 40s, and, later this week, even warmer temperatures through at least Thursday.
 

Water cooler

Genevieve Siegel-Hawley had a must-read column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch over the weekend: “Lawmakers should hold the line on privatizing public education.” Siegel-Hawley is real smart and this is the column I’ve been looking for on Virginia’s return to segregation academies via Governor Youngkin’s push to expand charter schools. Here’s a quote from the piece: “Effectively recreating dual systems of schooling — a hallmark of the pre-Brown era — by increasing neovouchers and charter schools in Virginia is problematic for all of us. Siphoning substantial funding away from our woefully underresourced, overstretched regular public schools doubles down on separate and unequal schooling for the students left behind. And white, segregated charter and private schools will receive government support to ill-educate future citizens for a multiracial society.”
 

This is the second, must-read piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Chris Suarez reports on the new attempt to bring a casino to Richmond’s Southside and the extremely stressful plan to pair it with a reduction in the real estate tax rate. Suarez does a great job of laying out how the mayor’s proposed tax reduction would mostly benefit affluent home owners, who mostly voted against the casino. Here it is, plainly put: “Homeowners in precincts that supported the casino on Election Day would save about $40, while those in precincts that opposed it would save about $90.” For context, the tax reduction would cost the city $5.7 million in annual revenue, and, once the rate goes down, it’s nearly impossible to raise again (especially if the Republicans in the General Assembly get their way). That’s a lot of money to hope the casino covers for literally forever. Suarez also talks to local political analyst, Richard Meagher, who points out that throughout his two terms, Mayor Stoney has advocated, multiple times, for tax increases. I can see how the mayor, searching for revenue but stymied by Council, would want to switch his tactics from directly raising it through taxes to enticing huge, taxable developments to the City—see Navy Hill, Casino One, and now Casino Two. I think this is, at least, a consistent and good-faith strategy. It’s not one I agree with, of course, and I’d prefer we replicate what the City’s doing with the Diamond District 100 times, everywhere we can. Where you really lose me, though, is proposing to strip the City from almost $6 million annually—that’s the entire budget of the Richmond Public Library! If folks want to take another swing at a casino, fine, but let’s do that without putting the future work of reinvesting in Richmond at risk. P.S. I think this is one of the best things I’ve read in the paper in a good, long while. Great work (and thank you) to everyone involved!