Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and we’re under a Winter Weather Advisory until 10:00 AM tomorrow. You can expect whatever snow that’s headed our way to start later this evening and continue on through early Saturday morning. NBC12’s Megan Wise has downgraded our accumulation totals to 1–2 inches. Boooo!
 

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Ian M. Stewart at VPM talked to a couple of Chesterfield County Public School parents about how they’ve prepared their children to deal with a school enviornment where masks are no longer required. Obviously, I disagree pretty strongly with parents who think their own individual choices outweigh what’s best for the public health—thus, I am a Democrat. That said, though, I found it pretty interesting to hear parents talk through concerns on either side of the issue. I’m still thinking about that final line in the piece from Slate I shared earlier this week: After the governor issued his anti-mask Executive Order #2, “teaching just became significantly harder in Virginia.”
 

The Commonwealth Institute, one of our local policy think tanks, put out this depressing report about the wages of Richmond City employees: “One in 8 general Richmond city workers who work full-time and year-round do not make enough to support themselves, and 4 out of 5 do not make enough to support a family.” TCI also says the problem is widespread, not confined to any one department, and has exacerbated an increasingly high turnover rate. They also point to unionizing as one of the ways out of this situation, which is timely as Council will consider two collective bargaining ordinances next week! ORD. 2021–346 would authorize a handful of City departments to unionize, while ORD. 2021–345 would authorize everyone (cops included) to unionize. From TCI’s report, “Overall, public-sector collective bargaining tends to boost pay by 5% to 8%.” Council’s Organizational Development committee could/should take up both of these papers on February 7th (assuming they don’t get continued).
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and colder temperatures have returned. Expect highs(ish) in the mid 30s for the next little while. Make sure to keep an eye on Friday night or Saturday morning as that’s our next best chance for snow to move into the region.
 

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I’ve still got a lot of thoughts about Council and the Mayor’s plan to pair a second casino referendum with a two-cent reduction in the City’s real estate tax—most of them, at the moment, aren’t very constructive. But, basically, I’ve got two main issues with this plan: 1) I’d rather the City build thriving neighborhoods than big, shiny projects, 2) Given the decades of racist disinvestment, the City needs MORE revenue, not less. Following the whole Navy Hill situation, Richmond has done pretty well with that first point. We’ve got a new City Center plan, which was just adopted this past Monday by Council, and the Diamond District development process is humming along. Both should—fingers crossed—build new neighborhoods that create stable and long term tax revenue for the City. However, neither of those two neighborhoods are on the Southside and the casino is. That said, a casino is not the only way to bring investment, and nothing prevents us from building thriving neighborhoods on the Southside, too. In fact, take a look at this draft Southside Economic Plan introduced at last week’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meeting. While a lot of this document is plans within plans, it lays out the path towards serious, solid, urbanist investment across the Southside! I mean, check out some of the highlights: BRT plans along Hull and Midlothian, rezonings, plans to update infrastructure like sidewalks and bike lanes, adding a bunch of properties to the land bank, and redeveloping big sites like Southside Plaza and Oak Grove Elementary School. The City could turn its focus from a bright-and-shiny, high-risk, morally-questionable casino and go all-in on something like this plan to build thriving, sustainable Southside neighborhoods. It’s harder work, for sure, and will take a long time, but it’d certainly be worth it. A short postscript: I think the casino is pretty much a done deal (although I thought that last time!), and, should it pass, the City should take the huge up-front check and pour it straight into kicking off pieces of something like the Southside Economic Plan.
 

Earlier this week, Richmond Public Schools launched a Test to Stay program as part of their COVID-19 protocols, and you can read through the four-page FAQ here. Test to Stay, or TTS, uses the magic of rapid tests to allow folks identified as close contacts to return to school—as long as they repeatedly test negative. From the FAQ: “TTS provides testing on the school nights of the first five days of an individual’s assigned quarantine period and allows participants to attend school and/or work throughout the full 10-day quarantine period, assuming negative test results.” This is incredibly helpful for minimizing quarantine disruptions—both for staff and students. Participants in the TTS program must wear a mask when back at school, which makes some students who cannot wear a mask ineligible, and adds an interesting wrinkle to the ongoing conversations about the Governor’s anti-mask Executive Order #2. Can you even safely implement a TTS program if a school district has given up on masks?
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and colder temperatures have returned. Expect highs(ish) in the mid 30s for the next little while. Make sure to keep an eye on Friday night or Saturday morning as that’s our next best chance for snow to move into the region.
 

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I’ve still got a lot of thoughts about Council and the Mayor’s plan to pair a second casino referendum with a two-cent reduction in the City’s real estate tax—most of them, at the moment, aren’t very constructive. But, basically, I’ve got two main issues with this plan: 1) I’d rather the City build thriving neighborhoods than big, shiny projects, 2) Given the decades of racist disinvestment, the City needs MORE revenue, not less. Following the whole Navy Hill situation, Richmond has done pretty well with that first point. We’ve got a new City Center plan, which was just adopted this past Monday by Council, and the Diamond District development process is humming along. Both should—fingers crossed—build new neighborhoods that create stable and long term tax revenue for the City. However, neither of those two neighborhoods are on the Southside and the casino is. That said, a casino is not the only way to bring investment, and nothing prevents us from building thriving neighborhoods on the Southside, too. In fact, take a look at this draft Southside Economic Plan introduced at last week’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meeting. While a lot of this document is plans within plans, it lays out the path towards serious, solid, urbanist investment across the Southside! I mean, check out some of the highlights: BRT plans along Hull and Midlothian, rezonings, plans to update infrastructure like sidewalks and bike lanes, adding a bunch of properties to the land bank, and redeveloping big sites like Southside Plaza and Oak Grove Elementary School. The City could turn its focus from a bright-and-shiny, high-risk, morally-questionable casino and go all-in on something like this plan to build thriving, sustainable Southside neighborhoods. It’s harder work, for sure, and will take a long time, but it’d certainly be worth it. A short postscript: I think the casino is pretty much a done deal (although I thought that last time!), and, should it pass, the City should take the huge up-front check and pour it straight into kicking off pieces of something like the Southside Economic Plan.
 

Earlier this week, Richmond Public Schools launched a Test to Stay program as part of their COVID-19 protocols, and you can read through the four-page FAQ here. Test to Stay, or TTS, uses the magic of rapid tests to allow folks identified as close contacts to return to school—as long as they repeatedly test negative. From the FAQ: “TTS provides testing on the school nights of the first five days of an individual’s assigned quarantine period and allows participants to attend school and/or work throughout the full 10-day quarantine period, assuming negative test results.” This is incredibly helpful for minimizing quarantine disruptions—both for staff and students. Participants in the TTS program must wear a mask when back at school, which makes some students who cannot wear a mask ineligible, and adds an interesting wrinkle to the ongoing conversations about the Governor’s anti-mask Executive Order #2. Can you even safely implement a TTS program if a school district has given up on masks?
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and today’s highs will hit 50 °F for the last time in the foreseeable future. What a difference a day makes, because this morning Nick Russo and Megan Wise at NBC12 are tracking another chance for snow on Friday night. I hope this one pans out—I’m tired of these unfulfilling dustings!
 

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It’s still early, but I’m optimistic about the graphs of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 in Virginia. Both have at least plateaued or even started to decline. This matches what we’re seeing across the country, especially in northeastern states that got Omicron’d before we did. Still though, the absolute number of people hospitalized is very high, and if, for some reason, you needed additional convincing to get vaccinated, check out these graphs from the CDC comparing hospitalization rates of unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people. To quote from the words bit, “in December…monthly rates of COVID-19 associated hospitalizations were 16x higher in unvaccinated adults.” That’s a lot of Xs. Finally, I’ve seen a couple Concerned Tweets about a new sub variant of Omicron, termed BA. 2. Yesterday, Katelyn Jetelina, my favorite yet not-exceedingly-optimistic epidemiologist newsletter person, had this to say on the topic: “We know this virus will mutate. And BA.2 is an example that it’s doing what we expect. We should keep an eye on this, but I’m not too concerned right now. I’m more concerned about another variant popping out of nowhere like Omicron did.” She’s got some data and studies to back that position up, and I encourage you to tap through and read.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and today’s highs will hit 50 °F for the last time in the foreseeable future. What a difference a day makes, because this morning Nick Russo and Megan Wise at NBC12 are tracking another chance for snow on Friday night. I hope this one pans out—I’m tired of these unfulfilling dustings!
 

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It’s still early, but I’m optimistic about the graphs of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 in Virginia. Both have at least plateaued or even started to decline. This matches what we’re seeing across the country, especially in northeastern states that got Omicron’d before we did. Still though, the absolute number of people hospitalized is very high, and if, for some reason, you needed additional convincing to get vaccinated, check out these graphs from the CDC comparing hospitalization rates of unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people. To quote from the words bit, “in December…monthly rates of COVID-19 associated hospitalizations were 16x higher in unvaccinated adults.” That’s a lot of Xs. Finally, I’ve seen a couple Concerned Tweets about a new sub variant of Omicron, termed BA. 2. Yesterday, Katelyn Jetelina, my favorite yet not-exceedingly-optimistic epidemiologist newsletter person, had this to say on the topic: “We know this virus will mutate. And BA.2 is an example that it’s doing what we expect. We should keep an eye on this, but I’m not too concerned right now. I’m more concerned about another variant popping out of nowhere like Omicron did.” She’s got some data and studies to back that position up, and I encourage you to tap through and read.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 25 °F, and we’ve survived the cold, cold weekend and have emerged to a decent Monday. Expect highs in the mid 40s and even warmer temperatures tomorrow. As of this moment, the extended forecast is clear of any snow!
 

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I’ve got lots of updates on mask-wearing in schools, starting with: Today, the Governor’s Executive Order #2, the one banning mask mandates in PreK–12 schools, takes effect. For now, though, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield schools have all decided to carry their mask mandates forward. Depending on how you frame it, this is either the local school districts adhering to the state law that requires them to follow CDC guidance to the maximum extent practicable or it is them defying the Governor to protect the safety of students and staff. Either way, I’m here for it. Additionally, RPS has (maybe) gone a step further and, according to Kenya Hunter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “voted Sunday to take legal action to preserve its authority to oversee city schools and enforce COVID-19 protocols in an apparent effort to block the governor’s executive order on masks.” Due to lawyery stuff, we don’t know for sure what the Board voted on yesterday afternoon, so stay tuned on that front. Also over the weekend, the Virginia Department of Health and the Virginia Department of Education put out this Interim Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in Virginia PreK–12 Schools. If you want to get into the details of how the State’s public health agency is dealing with an anti-public health executive, scroll down to page 10 and read the section on masking. Finally, if you’re a family hopelessly confused about when to send your kid to school if they’ve been exposed to or caught COVID, VDH put out this flowchart illustrating the (very complicated) isolation/quarantine guidance for kids trying to go to school. This particular document, although overwhelming to look at, is much less wishy-washy on mask-wearing, and, as far as I can tell, matches the current CDC guidance.
 

The Governor also dropped this 14-page PDF of his legislative and budget amendment priorities for this General Assembly session. Two important things: First, I don’t know how many of these bills sound innocuous in the descriptions but do some secret, terrible thing to roll back decades of progress; and second, I don’t have any sense at all which of these bills are dead on arrival and which have a chance at convincing one or two Democratic senators. You’ll see a ton of big-ticket items, like charter school bills, which feel like the Governor’s biggest priority this session. You’ll also see some smaller-but-terrible bills like HB 1010 / SB 620, which would require localities to hold a referendum to increase the real estate tax rate. Not that we have the political gumption to raise the real estate tax in Richmond right now, but if the City was required to hold a referendum to do so it would literally never, ever happen. Unfortunately, because of a lot of racism, raising the real estate tax is one of the very, very few ways Richmond can afford to undo the decades and decades of disinvestment in our housing, schools, and infrastructure.
 

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

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

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

Good morning, RVA! It’s 40 °F, but rain and colder temperatures move in this later this morning. At some point this afternoon expect the rain to switch over to snow while temperatures continue to drop and kids look expectantly for a school-cancellation email. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says we should expect 1–2 inches of snow to stick around this evening. Be careful if you’ve got to move around the region tonight!
 

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We know that both Richmond and Henrico County Public Schools have decided to keep their mask mandates, despite whatever the Governor’s Executive Order #2 says. But what about Chesterfield County Public Schools? Their school board will meet tonight to decide exactly that, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a good piece by Jessica Nocera pointing out some of the challenges the County’s teachers are facing as Omicrons tears through the district. Also in the RTD, Holly Prestidge reports that the Hanover County School Board will hold a similar meeting on Monday, which is the day the EO takes effect but a previously scheduled flex, at-home day for students. These will both be epic meetings, I’m sure, but I’m most interested in where Chesterfield ends up, especially since the County split pretty evenly between Youngkin and McAuliffe in the gubernatorial election (51.8% to 47.4%). And a final reminder that I feel compelled to keep saying out loud: Despite the previous sentence, the science supporting masks-wearing is not political. Masks are cool and good and are an easy way to keep people safe in school buildings.
 

Bills come and go quickly during this early stage of the General Assembly, so it’s important to have realistic expectations and not to fall in love with anything too fast. But, sometimes you can’t help yourself. SB 472, introduced by Senator McClellan, would authorize Richmond to levy a 1% sales tax to pay for school construction. If Richmond is anything, it’s a locality with big school construction needs that lacks the debt capacity to pay for those needs, and this bill would certainly help address that. Michael Martz at the RTD has some more details that you should casually note while not getting your hopes too high.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 29 °F, and those not-so-cold temperatures continue today and into tonight. Expect some rain this evening followed by three days of potential winter weather. Will it be rain, sleet, snow, or just a big huge bust? We’ll find out soon, so get your milk and bread while. you. still. can.
 

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Folks, including the Governor’s own team, continue to react to the masked-related Executive Order #2 he signed on Saturday. First, and I don’t know how I missed it, but Lt. Governor Earle-Sears showed up on FOXNews over the weekend threatening to pull funding from schools that do not follow the EO. I think this was mostly a troll, and Youngkin’s spokesperson has chosen to continue the troll by neither confirming nor denying the possibility that the Governor who ran on “excellence in education” was already considering stripping funding from schools on day one of his term. Locally, the mayor had Superintendent Kamras join him on his regularly scheduled press conference yesterday, and both of them had some strong things to say about the EO, which you can read in this piece by Jessica Nocera, Mel Leonor, and Patrick Wilson over in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Then, last night, Richmond’s School Board passed a resolution affirming their mask mandate (8–1, with 4th District’s Jonathan Young the lone vote against). Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury says the Governor’s administration “won’t say how his school masking opt-out order will be enforced” and a group of parents from Chesapeake are suing the Governor in an effort to scrap the Executive Order. And it’s only Wednesday! Now that the lawyers have gotten involved, though, I do think we’ll have some sort of progress in one direction or another before the Order takes effect on Monday. Which direction? I have absolutely no idea. Finally, I think it’s important to say out loud that masks in schools are great, prevent transmission of disease, and are supported by science. The Governor’s EO is anti-science and should be rescinded. These are not two equal sides of the same coin that we should sit down and have a rational debate about. Don’t let the media coverage (mine included) of the process to sort all this out obfuscate the fact that this particular Executive Order is not supported by facts and science!
 

Also in the RTD, Eric Kolenich reports that VCU, JMU, Virginia Tech, and William and Mary have all removed their employee vaccine mandate as a result of the Governor’s Executive Directive #2. Again, while not great, this is mostly a nothingburger as these universities have required employees to be vaccinated for months and, presumably, have very high vaccination rates (in an email to staff, VCU said “97 percent of faculty and staff were vaccinated” at the end of last semester).
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and temperate weather continues! Today you should expect highs in the 40s and plenty of sunshine—brisk but doable. That vibe should continue into tomorrow, and then, watch out, because real cold weather moves in on Thursday!
 

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After his inauguration, at which he yelled “THE SOUND OF FREEDOM” to overhead fighter jets reminding me very much of a bizarro Howard Dean, Governor Youngkin signed nine Executive Orders and two Executive Directives. Most, but not all, of these EOs are sort of like City Council resolutions—non-binding or unenforceable or sternly asking some other group to do a thing because you cannot. They let the Governor take a victory lap for “fulfilling” his day-one promises while not actually doing the hard work of changing laws or policies. Some of the EOs, though, will have an impact, but it’s hard to say exactly what. For example, Executive Order #2, “Reaffirming the Rights of Parents in The Upbringing, Education, and Care of Their Children,” has the potential to create a lot of chaos in local school districts across the Commonwealth this morning, as it upends the current mandate for masks within K–12 public schools. To quote from the EO: “The parents of any child enrolled in a elementary or secondary school or a school based early childcare and educational program may elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the child’s school or educational program.” Locally, both Richmond Public School and Henrico County Public Schools have said, despite the EO, that they will continue with their mask mandate, following state-level legislation and CDC guidance. Executive Order #1, “Ending the Use of Inherently Divisive Concepts, Including Critical Race Theory, and Restoring Excellence in K-12 Public Education in the Commonwealth,” is mostly a nothingburger, but will, I’m sure, have an intentional chilling effect in classrooms across the Commonwealth. To quote from Superintendent Kamras’s email: “As for the far more nebulous prohibition against teaching divisive concepts, all I can say is this: At RPS, we will continue to honestly study the fact that the Commonwealth of Virginia was literally created on the backs of enslaved Africans, and we will continue to help our students understand the connection between that history and the injustices that still grip our community today – in education, housing, healthcare, the legal system, and more.” Before you scoff too loudly at the failure of these flimsy Executive Orders to make a practical impact on the lives of Virginians, remember that the guiding principle for Republicans is not passing legislation but making liberals mad. These EOs did exactly that and, by that account, were a huge success.
 

The James River Parks System has a new Superintendent: Giles Garrison! JRPS is one of our best things, and, after reading Garrison’s love letter to the James, I feel like JRPS is in good hands. Check out her video, too, to learn more about what exactly a park superintendent is and does.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 37 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday. Tomorrow, though, cold weather moves in, dropping temperatures down into the icy teens—I just set a reminder to leave the faucet running in the one freezing-cold bathroom. On Sunday you should expect some sort of winter weather that will likely lead to some sort of accumulation. Megan Wise at NBC12 says we could be looking at a snow-to-sleet-to-rain situation Sunday that leaves us with 2–5 inches on the ground.
 

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I think Governor-elect Youngkin has made the last of his appointments, choosing his Superintendent of Public Instruction and then a boatload of appointments across a ton of agencies. Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has a profile of the superintendent, Jillian Balow, which you could probably write yourself—she wants to stop teaching kids about racism and inequity, she’s big flustered by The 1619 Project, and she’s excited to ban books that make her feel uncomfortable. Youngkin’s pick for Assistant Secretary, Elizabeth Schultz, hails from Fairfax, where she led a movement to keep Black and Hispanic students out of their governor’s school. Here’s Youngkin’s quote on the appointments, “Jillian and Elizabeth are going to be crucial in helping Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera restore excellence in education.” It should be super clear to everyone that “restore excellence in education”—like “Make America Great Again”—is coded language for repealing and reverting progress made in making our schools more equitable for Virginia’s kids.
 

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Mel Leonor has great background on the early legislative progress to bring to life Governor-elect Youngkin’s promise of charter schools everywhere. Despite Republicans' insistence that smaller, local government is better, the current proposal (which is still in the early goings) would create “regional bodies [that] would have the power to approve new charter schools…Under that system, localities would always have minority power and would be unable to reject charter school applicants — outnumbered by board members appointed by a charter-friendly state government.” Expect more on charter schools throughout the winter, as this looks like one of the General Assembly’s most high-profile legislative priorities.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 28 °F, and highs today should hit 50 °F—NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says today’s the warmest day of the week. Enjoy today and tomorrow and then bundle up for big temperature drops come Saturday!
 

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It’s General Assembly season during a gubernatorial transition, so state-level politics will dominate this newsletter for a bit, despite my deep preference for all things local. Before we sink too far into this Republican-led mire, like Artax in the Swamp of Sadness, I wanted to do a quick level-setting. Nationally, and more and more at the state level, Republicans' guiding principles are whatever makes Democrats the most mad. The live and love to troll, and that trolling will dominate headlines for the next four years. It will make us very mad. Some people are bad at it, like new Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert, who tweeted last night, “Ralph Northam is leaving office as his own lost cause, condescendingly lecturing us all from some assumed moral high ground because he read the book ‘Roots’ and then went on a non-stop reconciliation tour. Saturday can’t come fast enough.” Gilbert lacks subtlety and skill, but, nonetheless generated a bunch of angry responses from liberals—which was the goal. On the other hand, some people are masterful trolls, like Sen. Tommy Norment, who introduced SB 116 which would “Imposes a $500 fine on the operator of a bicycle who fails to stop at a stop sign. The bill also provides that the bicycle shall be impounded for a period of six months.” It’s an infuriating piece of legislation that won’t make it out of committee as written and wastes everyone’s time—and may still generate an angry response from this particular liberal. It’s an A+ troll, though, gotta give him that. I bring up these two specific examples, because I think we should—and will try to do so from here on out in this newsletter—entirely ignore these attempts to raise our hackles and distract us from actual, serious, and important legislation. Because while Republicans live to troll, they also love to pass terrible bills, destroy the government institutions they’ve been charged to lead, and enrich the wealthy whenever possible. That stuff won’t dominate the headlines like a bad tweet, but it’s what we should focus on if we want to protect the better, safer, and more progressive Commonwealth we’ve built over the last four years.
 

“General Assembly Republicans go maskless as omicron surges,” reports Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury. Dumb and mostly a troll (see above), but one with consequences! With our local hospitals at capacity and hovering on the brink, every Republican legislator that spreads COVID-19 to a coworker, staff member, lobbyist, or member of the public has increased the load on our healthcare system—not the healthcare system from wherever they may hail. Masks are an easy and efficient way to help get us through the current surging demand on hospital beds and to not wear them for the lolz is childish.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 26 °F, but temperatures should head back up near 50 °F today. Soak it up and take a lunch-break stroll, because cold weather arrives on Friday and with it the potential for a winter storm—including snow!—on Sunday.
 

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The Chesterfield Education Association, as close to a teachers union as they’ve got, issued this release last night, raising concern about the County’s “ability to conduct effective in-person learning under the current conditions.” Richmond’s version of the same group raised the same flag last week. There are a lot of simultaneously true things happening right now, and it’s hard—at least for me—to make sense of them all. 1) You can’t have school without teachers, 2) In-person learning is waaaay better for kids than virtual learning, 3) Omicron is incredibly transmissible, 4) Omicron is maybe way more mild?, 5) Regardless of how mild it is, isolation and quarantine guidance will keep a lot of kids and teachers out of school, 6) More people are in the hospital now than ever before. I don’t know how you take that (surely incomplete) list, fit all the piece together, and come up with something to keep everyone safe, healthy, and moving forward. Rather than schools hurtling forward toward some inevitable decision, it feels more like they’re stuck, getting pulled in 100 different directions, tearing at the seams.
 

Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury reports on Governor-elect Youngkin’s newest COVID-19 adviser, Dr. Marty Makary. Here’s a fun quote from the piece, “in February of 2021…Makary predicted that COVID-19 would be ‘mostly gone’ by that April. The reason, he wrote, would be natural immunity combined with vaccines, which would protect enough Americans to nearly halt transmission of the virus.” Or how about this one: “In an August column for the Wall Street journal, Makary argued against mask requirements in schools, claiming that face coverings could be ‘vectors for pathogens.’” I dunno, if it were me, I’d want the person leading my COVID-19 team to at least have avoided making incredibly inaccurate COVID-19 predictions in international newspapers.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, and, as I look out across the extended forecast, there’s not a hint of snow (at least through Friday). Today you can expect temperatures in the 40s and just enough sunshine to get you through the day. Enjoy, and welcome to second week of January!
 

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I had time over the weekend to read the City’s Path to Equity: Policy Guide for Richmond Connects and, let me tell you, it is a heckuva thing! I think this might be the single most progressive PDF to come out of City Hall, and I can’t recommend it enough—especially if you’re looking for a primer on systemic racism and how the history of Richmond’s built enviornment has contributed to deep, long-lasting racial inequity. I mean, we know these things—that the City tore down Black neighborhoods, built highways, and displaced long-time residents—but to see the City’s role in these things written down in the City’s own document feels different. It makes me optimistic about the full rewrite of Richmond’s citywide transportation plan that kicks off this spring. Fingers fully crossed! Anyway, Path to Equity is 63 pages long, but filled with maps and sidebars, so it’s not a chore to read at all. It’s totally worth your time. However, if reading’s not your thing, you can tune in to a webinar today at 1:00 PM to hear more about the document, the process, and how to leave feedback (which you can do until January 31st).
 

Speaking of wonderful documents, RVA Rapid Transit, Richmond’s transit-dedicated local nonprofit, released their 2021 State of Transit report and it is lovely. You’ll definitely want to check out pages 8–11 which map out our existing regional transit system, its current frequencies, and what segments are just plain missing. Then they overlay that map on population, income, and job access. It’s good stuff, and, while we’ve got a long way to go before we have a truly regional transit system, we really have made a ton of progress over the last five or six years.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 31 °F, and that snow event sure was a bust, wasn’t it? This morning, despite the mostly-OK conditions outside, you’ll still encounter a lot of delays and closures so check websites and social media accounts if you’ve got somewhere to be. Temperatures will stay right around freezing the entire day, so make a hot beverage of your choice, put on your favorite wool socks, and take the opportunity to sit quietly and prepare yourself for the last bit of week before the weekend hits.
 

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With COVID-19 tests in short supply, yesterday, the Governor announced new funding for a handful of state-run testing sites across the Commonwealth. The “Community Testing Centers,” or CTCs, are built on the successful Community Vaccination Center model, one of which has offered vaccinations locally at the Arthur Ashe Athletic Center for the last forever. Richmond will kick off this new state pilot with a CTC at the Richmond Raceway this coming Saturday from 9:00 AM–6:00 PM—stay tuned for more information about how to sign up for an appointment. Additionally, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts host COVID-19 testing events on the regular, including one today at Diversity Thrift from 1:00–3:00 PM. Find their full list of testing events here, and check back frequently as they add more events (and at-home test pick-up locations!) for the coming weeks. Finally, the Richmond Public Library just got a new stock of at-home tests for folks. Please call ahead before you rush on over, though, as those things never stick around for long.
 

Something to definitely keep an eye on: Kenya Hunter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that “the Richmond teachers union said Thursday that it’s ‘deeply concerned about our ability to conduct in-person classes’ after a return to school in which 160 teachers and multiple bus drivers were expected to be absent because of COVID-19.” We’re seeing similar conversations play out nationally, too. In Chicago, where labor law is an entirely different universe, the school district has had to cancel the last three days of school due to teachers union concerns about in-person COVID-19 safety measures. That could never happen here, of course, since the General Assembly passed an eye-rolly law requiring schools to meet in person, but it does make me wonder about where things are headed for in-person learning if Omicron continues to burn.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 35 °F, the streets are dry, the forecast is clear, the temperatures are headed into the 50s, and the kids are back in school. Life in snow-adverse Richmond resumes!…a day before the forecast calls for another round of snow overnight. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says we can expect one to three inches to fall tomorrow before the sun comes up, and, as long as the entire region doesn’t shut down again, I’m all for it.
 

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Yesterday, a CDC advisory committee met and recommended those three changes to Pfizer booster eligibility I wrote about earlier this week: Kids 12-and-up can now get a Pfizer booster; anyone who got Pfizer originally should get a booster five months after their second shot; and children 5–11 who are immunocompromised can get a third Pfizer dose 28 days after their second (which is not a booster). The Virginia Department of Health adopted those recommendations last night, which means, as of this morning, middle schoolers can get out there and get boosted. Here’s the list of Richmond and Henrico’s walk-up vaccination events, but I’m sure you’ll be able to make appointments on local pharmacy websites, too. Boosters do good work against Omicron, and, if you’re eligible, you should go get one!
 

Speaking of middle schoolers, mine is back in school today for the first time since December 17th. I’m thankful for that, even though it sounds like we should expect 2022’s first day back to be a little rocky. In last night’s newsletter, RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras said “as a result of Omicron, we anticipate about 160 teacher vacancies.” Additionally, they expect a bunch of bus operator vacancies and note that “families should expect delays on many routes.” The decision to open up schools and return to in-person learning in the face of skyrocketing COVID cases and increasingly-stressed hospitals is a freaking tough one that I would not want to make. Kamras lays out the case well, though: “Even with Omicron, we are in a very different place than last year. Vaccines are widely available for all staff and nearly all students – and have been for quite some time. We have very robust mitigation strategies in place, and the data shows that they’re working. And while Omicron is more transmissible than previous variants, it’s leading to milder cases of COVID-19. When you balance the risk of serious disease from in-school transmission (very low) against the risk of further academic and social/emotional harm (very high), I believe our charge is clear: keep our doors open.” Tangentially related side note: Should it snow tomorrow and close schools, Friday will be a virtual learning day for students. This is consistent with the District’s COVID goal of minimizing lost instructional time, although, I’m sure it’s a huge bummer to kids everywhere.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 31 °F, and we are, technically, under a winter weather advisory until 9:00 AM for light freezing rain with “total ice accumulations of a light glaze.” Seems pretty dry in my neck of the city at the moment, but there’s still plenty of time to glaze things over, I guess. If you need to move about the region this morning, take it slow!
 

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Yesterday, despite the river of good jokes on social media, the CDC did not tweak their newish guidance on when folks can end isolation if they test positive for COVID-19. As of right now, at least, if you test positive you need to isolate for five days and if you are fever-free for 24 hours (without any fever-reducing medication!), you can go about your business in the wide, wide world as long as you wear a well-fitting mask for five more days. Here’s the bit they did add: “If an individual has access to a test and wants to test, the best approach is to use an antigen test towards the end of the 5-day isolation period…If your test result is positive, you should continue to isolate until day 10. If your test result is negative, you can end isolation, but continue to wear a well-fitting mask around others at home and in public until day 10.” If I were to guess, I’d say the national scarcity of tests (which feels like it’s getting a bit better) made the CDC real hesitant to require testing as part of the process to end isolation. Maybe this changes if President Biden’s proposal to ship free tests to everyone gets off the ground?
 

And, because it’s not all cynicism and anxiety, my favorite newsletter epidemiologist, Katelyn Jetelina, has a special good-news post today that you should read if your insides feel like a gray, featureless expanse stretching endlessly forever in every direction. The miraculous vaccines we have work really well! Omicron could have gone a way different direction! Etc!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 17 °F, and that’s too cold for me. f you’ve got to leave the house this morning, please be careful as I’m sure everything out there is coated in a thin layer of ice just waiting for you to slip-and-fall. Take it slow! Don’t become a hilarious .gif! Temperatures should get back above freezing around lunchtime, which should help melt everything back a bit. P.S. Don’t forget to shovel your section of the sidewalk if you’ve got one!
 

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It’s been a while, so here are this week’s graphs of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19. If you must, here’s the graph of COVID-19 cases, but I’m not really sure what it even means at the moment. Yes, there are a zillion cases—like more than ever before—but it’s still not super clear to me how I should use that information to change my behavior. More interesting to me is that the hospitalizations remain at about half their Fall 2021 Delta Wave peak, which seems promising. But! That does not mean hospitals and healthcare workers are doing just fine. Andrew Cain and John Ramsey at the Richmond Times-Dispatch report that VCU Health has postponed “non-urgent surgeries and procedures requiring a hospital bed or donated blood products, due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.” Please do not casually stroll over to the emergency room if you’re looking for a COVID-19 test. While tests are scarce at the moment, there are other, better options if you are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.
 

Looking forward a bit, Katelyn Jetelina (of the Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter) has a state-of-affairs post from yesterday that dives into the “decoupling” of the number of cases vs. the number of hospitalizations we’re seeing. Definitely worth a read! It’s old advice at this point, but, like a weathered and worn jeans jacket, it only improves with age: Get vaccinated, get your booster, wear a mask, stay home if you’re sick, and test if you can.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 17 °F, and that’s too cold for me. f you’ve got to leave the house this morning, please be careful as I’m sure everything out there is coated in a thin layer of ice just waiting for you to slip-and-fall. Take it slow! Don’t become a hilarious .gif! Temperatures should get back above freezing around lunchtime, which should help melt everything back a bit. P.S. Don’t forget to shovel your section of the sidewalk if you’ve got one!
 

Water cooler

It’s been a while, so here are this week’s graphs of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19. If you must, here’s the graph of COVID-19 cases, but I’m not really sure what it even means at the moment. Yes, there are a zillion cases—like more than ever before—but it’s still not super clear to me how I should use that information to change my behavior. More interesting to me is that the hospitalizations remain at about half their Fall 2021 Delta Wave peak, which seems promising. But! That does not mean hospitals and healthcare workers are doing just fine. Andrew Cain and John Ramsey at the Richmond Times-Dispatch report that VCU Health has postponed “non-urgent surgeries and procedures requiring a hospital bed or donated blood products, due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.” Please do not casually stroll over to the emergency room if you’re looking for a COVID-19 test. While tests are scarce at the moment, there are other, better options if you are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.
 

Looking forward a bit, Katelyn Jetelina (of the Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter) has a state-of-affairs post from yesterday that dives into the “decoupling” of the number of cases vs. the number of hospitalizations we’re seeing. Definitely worth a read! It’s old advice at this point, but, like a weathered and worn jeans jacket, it only improves with age: Get vaccinated, get your booster, wear a mask, stay home if you’re sick, and test if you can.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 37 °F, and today is full of weather! You can expect dropping temperatures and lots of rain, sleet, and snow in that order. How much of each? Who knows, but it’ll be enough to make moving around the region gross and dangerous. The grab bag of winter weather should taper off sometime after lunch, but if you’re looking to do things this morning, check for cancellations first!
 

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School children across the region rejoice! Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield public schools are all closed today due to the inclement weather (which has just switched over to sleet as I write this parenthetical). However, assuming the rain/sleet/snow passes and schools wrap up their weather-related closing by tomorrow, they still will need to navigate preventing COVID-related closings as we move into 2022. Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras put out his five-point plan to keep schools open and in-person this past Thursday, and it’s worth reading through (even if you don’t have school-aged kids running around). Here’s the five points: 1) The district gave out over 8,000 at-home tests to staff and students yesterday, 2) RPS will pilot a test-to-stay program starting as soon as next week, 3) all unvaccinated staff will be tested weekly, 4) “we have purchased a quarter million KN95 masks for staff, high school, and middle school students,” and 5) they’ll continue to host vaccination events—with 15 planned over the next couple of months. These are all good, concrete, and proactive moves to keep our kids in school! I’m most interested in the second thing and am looking forward to if/how the test-to-stay pilot and the CDC’s new, shortened isolation and quarantine guidance work together. Part of my brain, the part that had to be really convinced that it was OK to walk to the grocery story to pick up some cornbread mix last night, is terrified at any return to anything. But the the other, less reptilian part, knows that test-to-stay and shortened quarantines are both signs of us moving past pandemic and into endemic. Transition times like this are stressful, and for the next several months I fully expect to feel plenty of stress while making skeptical/constipated faces about many of these moves!
 

Last week, the City posted the Diamond District Request for Interest PDF, which you can download and store away in your own PDF library. The RFI itself is a breezy 24 pages, followed by 139 pages of appendixes that include a market analysis of both the neighborhood and of building a new ball park. While this is, ostensibly, a document for developers, I think reading through it is a nice and easy way (if you skip the appendix) to see what the City envisions for the mostly-wasteland currently surrounding the Diamond. I recommend it! Developers have until February 15th to submit their proposals. They’re required to keep the proposals under 30 pages, which means they should be pretty readable for normal people like us.