Good morning, RVA: 1,202↗️ • 1↘️; a dangerous Trump Train; and thrilling building codes

Good morning, RVA! It’s 37 °F, and that’s a lot colder than last week! Today you should expect highs right around 50 °F and plenty of general stress about the future of the world.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,202↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 1↘️ new death as a result of the virus. VDH reports 123↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 28, Henrico: 54, and Richmond: 41). Since this pandemic began, 437 people have died in the Richmond region. The Commonwealth’s seven-day average of new reported cases sits at 1,289 and has topped 1,000 for 20 of the last 21 days. Percent positivity, too, is on the rise across the state—climbing from around 4.6% in the beginning of October to 5.7% as of yesterday. As you’d expect, the seven-day average of new hospitalizations has now climbed—and stayed—above 50 for the last couple of weeks, too. While I’m writing about numbers, I also wanted to link to VDH’s K–12 Schools Reporting Outbreaks of COVID-19 dashboard, since they update it on Fridays. I see 10 schools reporting outbreaks, with just one locally: Bon Air Elementary School in Chesterfield. They’ve got an asterisk in the “Cases” column for this particular outbreak, which means fewer than five total cases associated with it. I don’t know how to do it, but I’d like to see some sort of comparison between the rise in COVID-19 cases generally, those that impact schools, and those that are caused by schools. Honestly, I’d like to see this sort of thing for all kinds of business/organizations. That way we could look and say “Ah yes, bars and Trump rallies are spreading an outsized portion of the virus!” By the way, if you’d like an overview of the school reopening situation across the region, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Jessica Nocera and Kenya Hunter have you covered with this piece from over the weekend.

Yesterday, a “Trump Train”—a caravan of truck-driving Trump supporters flying various Trump-related flags, which is the opposite of an actual train—drove from Henrico to Marcus-David Peters Circle, and, honestly, I don’t know exactly what happened but all of it was bad. Here’s some video of a person angrily driving over and across the Monument Avenue median, here is a time-stamp breakdown of a Facebook live video that I’m unwilling to watchbecause at 1:03 “A person named Gary is hit by a white Lexus.”, and here’s the RTD’s Reed Williams with some more details. Also, here’s the statement from the RPD: “A mobile political rally, which dubbed itself as a “Trump Train” originated in Henrico County, entered the city of Richmond this afternoon. The mobile rally drove to the Lee Monument circle at Monument and Allen avenues and confrontations with individuals at the circle ensued. Some of the vehicles left the roadway and crossed grassy medians near the area. At approximately 4:18 p.m. an adult female who was at the circle reported she was pepper sprayed by an unknown individual from a vehicle. A few minutes earlier, officers responded to the 1800 block of Monument Avenue (near the Lee circle) to investigate a report of an unoccupied vehicle struck once by gunfire. No other injuries were reported to the Richmond Police Department. Officers responded to clear the area and investigate the assault.” This kind of thing, two days before the election, terrifies me. If you feel called to counter protest this sort of pro-Trump display of force, please, please be careful. Anger, guns, and huge trucks make for a very dangerous combination.

Graham Moomaw at the Virginia Mercury has put together a nice, Virginia-centric look at tomorrow’s election. It’s tough for me to remember that there’s a lot more going on than the presidential, mayoral, and City Council elections—I’ve got a state-level blindspot! We’ve got congresspeople and constitutional amendments on the ballot to stress over, too.

Also in the Virginia Mercury, Sarah Vogelsong explains how building codes are both thrilling and crucial to energy efficiency. In Virginia—because we believe ourselves special snowflakes—we have not updated our building codes to match newer national standards and have opted instead for a piecemeal update approach that I’m sure was described at some point as “what’s right for Virginians.” Cynicism aside, though, it does seem like we’re making some progress on this.

You know I love food halls, and, somehow, I’d totally forgotten about the Ukrop’s plan to build one out by UR at Horsepen and Patterson. The RTD’s Gregory Gilligan says that project is still on track and that they will service fried chicken and potato wedges. But also, “the two executives at Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods also say they are nervous about opening the food hall in the middle of a pandemic, which has created additional challenges.” Uhhh yes, yes I would be nervous about that, too.

Via /r/rva, the best bike-related Halloween costume of the year.

Finally, get some rest. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.

This morning’s longread

How email became work

I know we’ve all hated email for a long time now, and we’ve all come up with our own systems and strategies to deal with the never-ending inbox onslaught…but remember when email was a delight? Maybe not! It’s been awhile.

The pandemic has created new problems but mostly it’s just amplified existing ones. Email is truly intolerable now because it was just barely tolerable before. The fact that we view our failure to manage it as a personal one, our Inbox of Shame, is also instructive. If personal inbox management strategies got us where we are, what’s the solution? It has to be holistic and cultural. It can come in the form of the then-widely-mocked French legislation that those who work for companies with more than 50 employees cannot send or reply to email after official working hours — and similar “Right to Disconnect” Legislation in Italy. In Germany, several major companies have implemented programs that forbid management from contacting workers in any capacity after work hours — or even completely deleting all emails that a worker’s email account receives when they off.

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