Good morning, RVA! It’s 50 °F, and today’s weather looks excellent. Expect highs near 70 °F and no rain. Get out there, and let the sun recharge your battery.
 

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 842 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 21 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 85 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 46, Henrico: 33, and Richmond: 6). Since this pandemic began, 1,290 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 912. No idea what he’ll say, but the governor will hold a press conference today at 11:00 AM to “provide updates on the Commonwealth’s response to COVID-19 and vaccination program.” I don’t see a placeholder for it yet, but you can most likely stream the event live from VPM’s YouTube. Since we’ve got a sizeable loosening of coronarestrictions headed our way on May 15th, I’d wager that he’ll mostly speak on the State’s vaccination program. Maybe he’ll talk through the new walk-up options at CVS that fall in line with President Biden’s announcements earlier this week?
 

Over in vaccine world, Cameron Thompson at WTVR reports that Henrico County will host their last mass vaccination event at the Raceway on May 27th. Between now and then you can just walk on up—no appointments required—on the 11th, 12th, 19th, 20th, 26th, and 27th and get yourself vaccinated. Remember: You can also walk up to George Wythe High School on Wednesdays for a one-and-done Johnson & Johnson shot. Closing the Raceway, of course, does not mean that all of Henrico County got jabbed and is now good to go. It means that demand has dipped and public-health humans will need to change things up in clever ways to make it as easy as possible for the rest of the region to get vaccinated. Thompson grabbed this perfect quote from someone at yesterday’s walk-up event at Wythe: “I kept saying I was going to make an appointment, make an appointment, never did. But, once I’ve seen this become available I just decided to jump on.” I wouldn’t call this vaccine hesitancy, I would call it “people have lives to lead and hopping through technology hoops to find inconvenient vaccination appointments at a hard-to-reach racetrack doesn’t work for some folks.”
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 64 °F, and you can expect another day like yesterday: Hot highs, a chance for brief-but-severe weather, and cooler temperatures following. Looking at the forecast for the next couple of days and it’s highs in the 70s as far as the eye can see!
 

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 771 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 16 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 87 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 44, Henrico: 30, and Richmond: 13). Since this pandemic began, 1,288 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 952. Another day, another report of even fewer new cases of COVID-19—this is great news. I am a little skeptical of these numbers—not a ton! just a little!—if only because we’ve seen big fluctuations in the past due to Data Reporting Issues. Plus, the number of vaccines administered reported locally lately is real, real low, which makes me go hmmmm.
 

The New York Times has good coverage of President Biden’s announcement that he’ll shift the country’s vaccination strategy in hopes to get 70% of adults at least one dose of the vaccine by July 4th. As demand for the vaccine falls, Biden wants to focus on walk-ups, pop-ups, and mobile events. Lucky for us, locally, the Richmond and Henrico Health District are already doing all of these things. In fact, there’s a walk-up event today at George Wythe High School from 11:00 AM–4:00 PM. Just show up, no appointment required, and get your one-and-done Johnson & Johnson vaccine. I think we’ll need to continue this focus on clever, proactive, and methodical outreach over the next few months—I mean, look at this graph of new people in Virginia with at least one dose.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and today’s weather looks a lot like yesterday’s. Expect highs in the 90s and a chance for thunderstorms later in the day. Stay cool, stay dry, and stay safe.
 

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 611 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 16 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 90 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 35, Henrico: 29, and Richmond: 26). Since this pandemic began, 1,286 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the state sits at 999. Whoa, what’s this? A barely three-digit seven-day average of new reported cases! The last time that happened was way back on October 20th. This, for some brains-are-weird reason, feels like real progress to me. The number of deaths is still pretty high, though. I know I’ve done the flu-comparison math before, but I think it’s helpful to revisit it. According to the CDC, Virginia had an “influenza/pneumonia” death rate of 11 per 100,000 people back in 2019. If you take today’s seven-day average of COVID-19 deaths (14.4), multiply it by 365 (5,256), and then divided it by 85.35 (the state’s population divided by 100,000), you get 61.58. According to this quick and shoddy math, that’s a coronadeath rate about 5.6 times higher than that of the 2019 flu. That year, 1,100 people died from “influenza/pneumonia”, which is about three people per day, if you want to look at it that way.
 

Huge vaccine news in the New York Times: “The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorize use of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in adolescents 12 to 15 years old by early next week.” Dang that was fast! I have no idea how many 12–15 year olds exist in Virginia or in our region, but I’m sure it’s thousands and thousands—and I’m sure many of them are stoked to get vaccinated (including the one I live with). The NYT also says to expect a similar announcement from Moderna soon. Get excited for another, smaller flurry of vaccine news and for some interesting reporting on what adolescent vaccination means for this fall’s school year.
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, but today—and the next several days—looks amazing. Expect highs in the 70s until at least Friday and lows no lower than somewhere in the 50s. With the sun setting after 6:00 PM, there’s a real and good opportunity to knock off of work a bit early and spend some time outside. Do it!
 

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 892 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 87 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 90 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 37, Henrico: 33, and Richmond: 20). Since this pandemic began, 1,125 people have died in the Richmond region. Whoa, a triple digit case count. Haven’t seen one of those since the end of October.
 

Yesterday, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts, along with the Chesterfield and Chickahominy Health Districts, announced that they’ve expanded vaccine eligibility to more folks in Phase 1b. For Richmond, Henrico, and Chickahominy that’s all of Phase 1b, for Chesterfield that’s just frontline essential workers groups one through six. So, to put it all in one place: Eligible folks in Richmond and Henrico now include people over the age of 65, frontline essential workers from all 11 groups, and people aged 16–64 with underlying conditions or disabilities that increase their risk of severe illness from COVID-19. That’s a lot of humans—almost half of all Virginians! Additionally, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts included “food service” folks in 1b (previously part of 1c), which includes restaurant staff—both front and back of house. That’s a big deal, I think! Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some of the details, including the rationale for shifting restaurant workers up into 1b: “…tight workspaces among restaurant workers—where social distancing from customers without masks is almost impossible, create a high-risk environment for COVID-19. Most food service workers are uninsured or underinsured and lack paid sick leave…many areas of Richmond and Henrico are underserved by grocery stores, restaurants are often important points of access to food for lower-income communities.” At the moment, and, with any luck, for the foreseeable future, vaccine supply is plentiful, but, should it become constrained again, you can read how the Richmond and Henrico Health District will equitably prioritize vaccine doses across all of these newly eligible folks. Your next step, should you want to be vaccinated: Fill out the statewide pre-registration form so you can get in the system!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 36 °F, but today—and the next several days—looks amazing. Expect highs in the 70s until at least Friday and lows no lower than somewhere in the 50s. With the sun setting after 6:00 PM, there’s a real and good opportunity to knock off of work a bit early and spend some time outside. Do it!
 

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 892 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 87 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 90 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 37, Henrico: 33, and Richmond: 20). Since this pandemic began, 1,125 people have died in the Richmond region. Whoa, a triple digit case count. Haven’t seen one of those since the end of October.
 

Yesterday, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts, along with the Chesterfield and Chickahominy Health Districts, announced that they’ve expanded vaccine eligibility to more folks in Phase 1b. For Richmond, Henrico, and Chickahominy that’s all of Phase 1b, for Chesterfield that’s just frontline essential workers groups one through six. So, to put it all in one place: Eligible folks in Richmond and Henrico now include people over the age of 65, frontline essential workers from all 11 groups, and people aged 16–64 with underlying conditions or disabilities that increase their risk of severe illness from COVID-19. That’s a lot of humans—almost half of all Virginians! Additionally, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts included “food service” folks in 1b (previously part of 1c), which includes restaurant staff—both front and back of house. That’s a big deal, I think! Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some of the details, including the rationale for shifting restaurant workers up into 1b: “…tight workspaces among restaurant workers—where social distancing from customers without masks is almost impossible, create a high-risk environment for COVID-19. Most food service workers are uninsured or underinsured and lack paid sick leave…many areas of Richmond and Henrico are underserved by grocery stores, restaurants are often important points of access to food for lower-income communities.” At the moment, and, with any luck, for the foreseeable future, vaccine supply is plentiful, but, should it become constrained again, you can read how the Richmond and Henrico Health District will equitably prioritize vaccine doses across all of these newly eligible folks. Your next step, should you want to be vaccinated: Fill out the statewide pre-registration form so you can get in the system!
 

Good morning, RVA! It’s 50 °F, and cooler weather has arrived! Today you can expect temperatures in the upper 60s and, of course, some more morning fog. I think we’ve seen the last of 80-degree days for awhile!

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 999↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 1↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 126↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 46, Henrico: 54, and Richmond: 26). Since this pandemic began, 410 people have died in the Richmond region. Last week, the governor signed into law the General Assembly’s request that VDH make public COVID-19 outbreaks in schools and, now, behold: The Kindergarten–12th Grade School Outbreaks dashboard. Before you dig in and post screenshots to Twitter supporting whatever plan for schools your heart desires, take note of a couple things! First, outbreaks are defined as “at least two confirmed cases of COVID-19 where persons are linked by a common exposure to an ill person, setting, event, and time period,” and, specifically, these outbreaks are school-associated, meaning the “transmission occur[ed] within the school setting or at a school-sponsored event between students, staff, or visitor.” Keep in mind that the numbers on this page will probably differ from what schools report as they keep track of students and staff who contract COVID-19. Think of this dashboard as a way to help track the coronavirus cases spread by schools versus the impact that coronavirus has had on schools. Also, this dashboard list both public schools (which have started to offer in-person instruction just recently) and private schools (some of which have operated in-person for a while now). You can filter the data using the drop down in the top right—note that “outbreak pending closure” does NOT meant that the school is about to close but that “28 days have passed without a documented new case and the outbreak has not yet been closed” in VDH’s systems. Asterisks in the table mean fewer than five cases have been reported—to “protect anonymity of cases.” As of this moment, Chesterfield Public Schools had one outbreak on 9/22 (before students returned to in-person instruction), which is now closed.

On Friday, the Governor announced he’ll dedicated $22 million of CARES Act money to “create a statewide program to distribute COVID-19 vaccines when such vaccines are approved for public use.” VDH’s draft vaccination plan exists, but is a PDF too far for even a PDF lover like myself—but maybe you’ll want to dig in? I’m really interested to see how vaccination plays out in the Richmond region. There are about a billion complicated details to distributing a COVID-19 vaccine to the general public: limited supply, ultra-cold storage requirements, reminding folks to take multiple doses if necessary, and some totally legitimate (and totally illegitimate) vaccine hesitancy. It’s a tough knot to untie, and we’ll have to see how much is handled locally, regionally, by the state, and federally—I guess some of that depends on Election Day.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, and foggy yet again! What’s with all the ominous build up to Halloween? OK, WE GET IT, SPOOKY. Anyway, today you can expect highs in the 80s as our return to warmer temperatures continues.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 926↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 28↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 103↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 42, Henrico: 36, and Richmond: 25). Since this pandemic began, 391 people have died in the Richmond region. Robert Zullo at the Virginia Mercury works through the most recent University of Virginia coronamodel, which now has a potential new peak of COVID-19 cases the week ending November 22nd. Zullo touches on “COVID fatigue”, and folks' increasing tendency to relax the strategies they’ve adopted to keep themselves and others safe. Don’t do that! Continue to keep your distance, wear your masks, don’t gather in poorly-ventilated spaces, and get tested if you think you might be sick. I know that it’s both hard and boring to keep at this stuff for months and months and months, but it’s so very important to do so!

Read this piece from Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch about the RRHA Housing Choice Voucher Program waitlist and tell me we’re not in an affordable housing crisis. 15,000 people called in to get their names on the waiting list—a waiting list that opened up for the first time since 2015. And it’s worse than that: “Those who signed up last week are not guaranteed a voucher, or even a slot on the waiting list. A computerized lottery will select 5,000 people from the pool for a spot. RRHA will contact each person who applied to notify them of their acceptance or denial by the end of the first week of November. Then, for those on the list, it’s another round of waiting.” We’ve got a crushing need for a massive and ongoing investment in deeply affordable (and public!) housing in our region. I know we’ve got folks working on plans and solutions, but is it enough? I dunno! I think it doesn’t feel like enough??

Good morning, RVA! It’s 59 °F, and today looks like a repeat of yesterday but maybe a bit warmer. Expect highs near 80 °F, some early fog, but otherwise a pretty pleasant day.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 690↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 24↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 33↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 16, Henrico: 8, and Richmond: 9). Since this pandemic began, 387 people have died in the Richmond region. I think it’s really interesting how our local institutions of higher learning are planning for the upcoming spring semester. Virginia Tech just announced their plans which include four fully-online days to kick things off, and then they’ll move in to a mix of virtual and in-person instruction. The university will also split up spring break into five separate one-day breaks to prevent travel. Sounds smart, but definitely less of a recharge for students.

I keep meaning to mention this story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch by Jessica Nocera about Chesterfield’s return to in-person instruction. I’ve been pretty open about how I think returning our littlest learners to in-person instruction is worth doing. However, this is an impossible thing for me to communicate empathetically since I’m not one of the teachers who’d be back in a classroom surrounded by a gaggle of snotty kids. Teachers, obviously, have a real, practical, on-the-ground impact on a school or school district’s ability to reopen. If teachers don’t feel safe—whether that feeling is science-and-studies-based or otherwise—it’s tough to do school. I mean, look at these grim stats from the RTD article: 611 employees have resigned or retired in Chesterfield and nearly 400 of those are coronarelated, the County cut food distribution from 170 sites to 65 because of transportation issues, and “the district is getting by with having school administration employees who have teaching degrees step in and teach in-person classes.” All of that is yikes. If we want some sort of return to in-person instruction, we can’t do it without getting the schools, the teachers, the parents, and the students all on the same page. That’s a major duh, but, at the same time, an incredibly complicated challenge.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 53 °F, and, whoa, look out! Expect highs in the mid 70s after some morning fog. You should expect some pretty great weather over the course of this new week.

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Richmond Police have identified the victim of a murder two Sundays ago. Late morning on October 11th, officers responded to the 100 block of Erich Road and found Ricky G. Seldon, a man in his 30s, shot to death. You can see the police department’s full list of murder victims over on the major crimes section of their website.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 52 °F, and, look!, another great day of weather sits ahead of us. Expect highs in the upper 70s and lots of good vibes. Rain moves in and sets up shop for most of the day tomorrow, though.

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The Richmond Police Department is reporting that Daniel A. Stark, a man in his 30s, was murdered this past Tuesday. Officers arrived to the 1800 block of Fernbrook Drive and found Stark “unresponsive and suffering from trauma.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 52 °F, and, look!, another great day of weather sits ahead of us. Expect highs in the upper 70s and lots of good vibes. Rain moves in and sets up shop for most of the day tomorrow, though.

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The Richmond Police Department is reporting that Daniel A. Stark, a man in his 30s, was murdered this past Tuesday. Officers arrived to the 1800 block of Fernbrook Drive and found Stark “unresponsive and suffering from trauma.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and I think we might see the sun again today! Expect a dry day with highs in the upper 70s. Looks like we’ve got a pretty good stretch of nice weather ahead of us.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 854↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 3↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 79↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 32, Henrico: 32, and Richmond: 15). Since this pandemic began, 381 people have died in the Richmond region. As Chesterfield County returns a small portion of their students to in-person instruction this week, I wanted to link to this document from the Virginia Department of Health: VDH Algorithm for Evaluating a Child with COVID-19 Symptoms or Exposuire. I like this document because, in all honesty, it’s not too hard to follow, and it makes me feel better for not knowing what to do in any one of the million and two edge cases—turns out, figuring out what to do is complicated! Make sure you check out the bottom left hand corner where some of the possible outcomes are based on the new CDC School Metrics (number of positive cases per 100,000). I think this might be first time I’ve seen a direct “if the numbers are this, do that.”

For whatever reason, I absolutely blanked on yesterday’s City Council meeting. As foretold, Council approved the good tweaks to B-3 zoning making it less car-centric (ORD. 2020–209) and resoundingly voted to strike the resolution asking the Richmond Police Department to stop using less lethal weapons against protestors (RES. 2020-R048). The process for the latter is a bit weird, but since the Public Safety Committee recommended the resolution be stricken, a majority of councilmembers would have had to vote during their informal meeting to put RES. 2020-R048 back on the agenda. They did not, so this bill never even made it in front of full Council and folks didn’t have a chance to speak for or against it in the time-honored, formal public-comment way. Councilmember Jones, one of the paper’s sponsors, had this to say on Twitter: “City Council voted 2–7 to strike the paper on banning certain non lethal weapons. COUNCIL has the power to bring about change. They lacked the compassion to allow the public to speak about their concerns. That is not transparency. That is not leadership. This is undemocratic. What infuriates me was that Councilmembers knew there were people who wanted to speak on this paper. However they still didn’t allow for their voices to be heard. I wouldn’t do that even if I wasn’t in favor of something. I’d hear from the people.” I don’t know the rules about reintroducing legislation that has already once been stricken, but, perhaps with a more progressive City Council, we could try again in January? I dunno. I’m not surprised by this result, but I’m still upset by it.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 64 °F, and you can expect this past weekend’s rain to continue right on through most of today and into the evening. Things should dry out tomorrow, though.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 811↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 4↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 29↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 15, Henrico: -12, and Richmond: 26). Since this pandemic began, 381 people have died in the Richmond region. I…don’t know why a few times lately localities have posted negative coronacounts. I assume there’s a complex labyrinth a positive test result must wind its way through before it ends up posted to VDH’s public dashboard, and I imagine there’s all sorts of administrative minotaurs waiting to screw things up.

Today is Indigenous Peoples' Day in both Richmond City and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Last year, Mayor Stoney officially replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day, and this year the Governor followed suit at the state level. Actually, since Columbus Day is a federal holiday, I think “replace” might be too strong a word. Maybe “recognized in addition to” is a better way to put it? I’m not sure how this whole holiday process works.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 59 °F, and we’ve got yet another gorgeous day ahead of us. You know the deal: Expect highs in the 70s and lots of sunshine. Looking forward, I think we’ll get to tack one more day on to our streak of excellent weather before clouds start rolling in over the weekend.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 509↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 12↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 26↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 15, Henrico: 9, and Richmond: 2). Since this pandemic began, 379 people have died in the Richmond region. I finally put together a chart of the seven-day average of local positive reported cases over on my public coronacounts Google Spreadsheet. You can see that the number of reported cases has trended down over the past month, and—despite blips here and there—Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond are all experiencing the same general numbers and trends. You can also see that, for whatever reason, Google decided to appropriately label the x-axis of this particular graph unlike literally every other chart I’ve ever tried to make with it.

In his daily email, Superintendent Kamras announced that the new Richmond Public Schools daily schedules approved by the School Board earlier this week will take effect Tuesday, October 20th. If you’d like to learn more than what you can glean from the aforelinked Google Doc, head over to RPS’s Facebook page tonight at 5:30 PM to hear some folks from the Curriculum and Instruction Department discuss the updated schedule.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and we’re heading into, at least, day three of excellent weather. Expect highs right around 80 °F with plenty of sun in the sky. Love it!

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 625↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 15↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 52↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 12, Henrico: 25, and Richmond: 15). Since this pandemic began, 379 people have died in the Richmond region. Hey, did you put COVIDWISE on your phone yet? As with a lot of things public health, COVIDWISE only works if…a lot of the public…really participates. If you’ve got concerns about privacy (see today’s longread!), I hear you, but would encourage you to read through the FAQs over on VDH’s website. Also, the app is open source and based on a standard created by Apple and Google (maybe see today’s longread again 😬). Anyway, downloading an app is literally the easiest way to do your part and help keep your neighbors safe and healthy, and you should do it today if you have not already!

Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense reports on Planning Commission’s meeting from this past Monday. He says that the Commission voted in favor of both Richmond 300 (yay!) and the proposed changes to B-3 zoning (also yay!). I’m fascinated by the next steps for Richmond 300 which have it “introduced to council Nov. 9, with a final vote anticipated at its Dec. 14 meeting.” That’s, obviously, after the election and just a couple of weeks before New Council would take office. I can’t decided if Current Council will want to punt such an important vote to New Council, or if they’ll see it as finalizing the large amount of work done during their existing terms. Also, I do have a tiny bit of concern—even with a theoretically more progressive New Council—that some of the new folks would want to take the plan apart again to put their own stamp on it. I think I’d prefer to just get the thing voted on, in the books, and have New Council move straight into The Most Stressful Budget Season Of Our Lives.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 49 °F, and we’ve got another excellent fall day in front of us. Expect highs in the mid 70s and every reason to take at least one of your Zooms out on the porch.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 687↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 3↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 39↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 10, Henrico: 11, and Richmond: 18). Since this pandemic began, 379 people have died in the Richmond region. Do we have a word for “shocking yet unsurprising?” Because the New York Times reports that the “White House has decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members at the Rose Garden celebration 10 days ago for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, where at least eight people, including the president, may have become infected, according to a White House official familiar with the plans…It has also cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has the government’s most extensive knowledge and resources for contact tracing, out of the process.” Cool, cool, cool. This is bad for the people involved, sure, but it’s also bad for all of the contact tracers out there working hard to help prevent the spread of a deadly virus. Now they’ve got to deal with folks who may just opt out of the process because of the president’s bad example.

The Richmond Free Press has the results of a district-level mayoral poll which puts Mayor Stoney “significantly ahead” in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Districts. Councilmember Gray leads in the 1st and the 2nd Districts, and the two are within the margin of error in the 3rd and 4th Districts. Remember! Mayoral candidates need to win five out of nine Council Districts, not the popular vote. If no candidate wins a majority of districts—if, say, Alexsis Rodgers picked up a district or two—we move into a run-off and I probably die of stress.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 49 °F, and we’ve got another excellent fall day in front of us. Expect highs in the mid 70s and every reason to take at least one of your Zooms out on the porch.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 687↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 3↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 39↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 10, Henrico: 11, and Richmond: 18). Since this pandemic began, 379 people have died in the Richmond region. Do we have a word for “shocking yet unsurprising?” Because the New York Times reports that the “White House has decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members at the Rose Garden celebration 10 days ago for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, where at least eight people, including the president, may have become infected, according to a White House official familiar with the plans…It has also cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has the government’s most extensive knowledge and resources for contact tracing, out of the process.” Cool, cool, cool. This is bad for the people involved, sure, but it’s also bad for all of the contact tracers out there working hard to help prevent the spread of a deadly virus. Now they’ve got to deal with folks who may just opt out of the process because of the president’s bad example.

The Richmond Free Press has the results of a district-level mayoral poll which puts Mayor Stoney “significantly ahead” in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Districts. Councilmember Gray leads in the 1st and the 2nd Districts, and the two are within the margin of error in the 3rd and 4th Districts. Remember! Mayoral candidates need to win five out of nine Council Districts, not the popular vote. If no candidate wins a majority of districts—if, say, Alexsis Rodgers picked up a district or two—we move into a run-off and I probably die of stress.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 53 °F, and we’re looking at what could be a pretty excellent week of weather. Today expect highs in the 70s with lots of sunshine, and expect that for the next bunch of days, too. Make a plan to get outside and take advantage of this wonderful fall week.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,067↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 3↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 75↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 38, Henrico: 23, and Richmond: 14). Since this pandemic began, 379 people have died in the Richmond region. The average number of statewide new reported cases over the last three days broke 1,000 for the first time since September 19th. It’s odd that that should happen over a weekend when, typically, VDH reports fewer cases. Something to keep an eye on, I guess.

The City’s Planning Commission meets today at 1:30 PM and will vote on Richmond 300. If you’ve got last-minute thoughts or want to drop a note of support for all of the literal years of hard work that went into this update to our City’s master plan, please email PDRLandUseAdmin@richmondgov.com by 10:00 AM today. Honestly, it’s kind of surreal that this whole process is coming to a close—I’ve been writing about Richmond 300 in this space for over three years now. Here’s what I said back on July 11th, 2017: “As you can probably guess, I’m super excited about this and can’t wait to attend public meetings, leave comments, and read PDFs. But! The Master Plan process is not only for insufferable city nerds like myself! The kickoff event will take place on July 18th from 10:00 AM–10:30 AM at the City Hall Observation Deck, after which city staff will host an activity ‘asking individuals to write what they love about Richmond.’ This is a thing anyone can do—insufferable or not!” I did end up attending meetings, leaving comments, and reading PDFs—and I hope, that at some point in the last three years, you found the time and interest to participate, too. The way Richmond 300 involved Richmonders (insufferable and otherwise) is a model to build from, and I hope we’ll see more of it in the future. Congratulations team, and now let’s get this thing passed!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and today you can expect cooler temperatures in the upper 60s. Honestly, I think you could consider wearing a layer! Look forward to similarly wonderful fall-like weather throughout the weekend.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 450↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 20↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 23↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 4, Henrico: 10, and Richmond: 9). Since this pandemic began, 374 people have died in the Richmond region. The stacked graph of new positive reported cases, new hospitalizations, and new deaths is pretty interesting. As we head into fall, the daily case count has steadily dropped for almost the past two weeks—which feels like a solid trend. The new hospitalizations graph, while showing some downward trend, doesn’t really mirror the same action we’re seeing in the new cases graph, and I don’t know what that means. The big news is not these graphs I boringly make in a Google spreadsheet but that Trump has tested positive for COVID-19. At 12:54 AM he tweeted “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” I’m sure that due to his absolute lack of seriousness about the virus and his total disregard for public health, the contact tracers working this particular case have a heckuva lot of work in front of them. Also, I plan on continually refreshing Joe Biden’s Twitter feed until I see him post something about his COVID-19 test results. I’m pretty sure he’ll want to take one as soon as possible after he spent 90 minutes getting yelled at by someone standing 10 feet away who wasn’t wearing a mask.

If you read the above paragraph and were more interested in the spreadsheet news than the #TrumpHasCovid news (an actual trending hashtag), maybe you’ll also be interested in this announcement from the Governor’s office about a new data portal. The new portal “now includes more than a dozen new COVID-19 datasets from the Virginia Department of Health” and is part of the existing Virginia Open Data Portal. Now you can liberate all of that coronadata from the steely grip of VDH’s Tableau dashboard and do whatever you want with it! I’m glad dashboards and Tableau exist, but sometimes it’s nice to just work with numbers in a spreadsheet, you know?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F, and we’ve got a beautiful day ahead of us and a wonderful start to October. October! Today, you should expect sunshine and highs around 80 °F for the most part with clouds and a chance of rain moving in this evening.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting that Tequan T. Greenhowe, a man in his 20s, was found shot to death outside of his residence on the 1200 block of Admiral Gravely Boulevard early Sunday evening. From the RPD press release, “Detectives are working to determine whether this incident is connected to the homicide which occurred several hours earlier in the same area.”