Good morning, RVA: 1,549 • 383; new budget PDFs; and replacing road signs

Good morning, RVA! It’s 39 °F, and we’ve got another pleasant day ahead of us. Expect highs in the mid 50s and plenty of excuses to take a walk while on one of your afternoon calls.

Water cooler

The Richmond Police Department reports that Corey Holmes, a man in his 30s, was shot and killed on the 2200 block of N. 26th Street this past Monday. This is the seventh reported murder of 2021.

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,549 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 383 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 168 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 73, Henrico: 78, and Richmond: 17). Since this pandemic began, 1,094 people have died in the Richmond region. 17 new cases in Richmond is not very many new cases—the fewest number of new reported cases since November 15th, in fact. And the seven-day average of 38.1 is way, way down from it’s January 19th peak of 138.7. I’m feeling some serious light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel vibes, and we can’t get lazy and distracted like some other states.

Pretty big local vaccine news: The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts plan to vaccinate upwards of 12,000 seniors over the next week. Emails and calls to register folks for vaccination appointments started going out yesterday, so, if you are a senior or are the IT manager for a senior in your life, please check your email and pick up random calls. For some supply context, the region didn’t vaccinate 12,000 people totaluntil the last week in January.

I don’t know why it works like this, but the City’s Planning Commission will get their hands on the Capital Improvement Plan portion of the Mayor’s budget today, and the Mayor will present the rest of his budget to City Council tomorrow. Seems kind of like a spoiler. But! That means you can get a small sneak peek at some of the Mayor’s priorities—at least the capital priorities—by tuning into the the Planning Commission meeting today or flipping through this CIP presentation (PDF) or this CIP summary(PDF). Top-line items from the presentation: $200 million for RPS “schools modernization” in FY24, a new fire station in FY22, and $28 million for “the Enslaved African Heritage Campus” by FY26. There’s all kinds of other good stuff in the summary document, but, since the CIP looks five years into the future, you’ll really need to pull out last year’s CIP to compare/contrast what’s changed. For example, this year’s summary shows between $7–8 million dedicated to “Complete Streets” each year for the next five years. This is a new category in the CIP, and I’m not sure if it’s a net increase or a merging of other categories, like “Sidewalk Projects” which had $8.45 million allocated over the next five years but now has been zeroed out. I really need a track changes version! Anyway, get excited for the Mayor’s budget presentation tomorrow, and the official, for-real start of the 2021 budget season.

GRTC has released their 2020 annual reportwhich looks back at the weird year that was for public transit in the Richmond region. Still mind-blowing to me: local bus service ridership (so not the the Pulse and not express routes) only fell 3.2% compared to 2019. There’s a lot of good info in here, and it’s worth some flipping—perhaps over the weekend!

Richmond’s Department of Public Works is busy swapping out old road signs for the new Richmond Highway signs. I don’t know why, but I love this picture of a huge stack of green Richmond Highway signs.

Tonight, from 5:30–7:00 PM, you can join a fascinating conversation on planing, public health, and race in Richmond. The talk will feature Melicent Miller, president and CEO of Health Forward, and Dr. Scientist Jeremy Hoffman, Chief Scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia. I think this is right up y’all’s alley, I mean: “Our presenters will cover some of the many ways the built environment impacts public health in Richmond, with a focus on its disproportionately negative impact on Black and brown communities.” The event is free, but you’ll need to register over on the Eventbrite.

The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts will host a free COVID-19 community testing event today in the rear parking deck of Regency Square (1420 N. Parham Road). This is a drive-thru event. You can register for a COVID-19 testing event online if today doesn’t work for you.

This morning’s patron longread

How a Shadow Army of Ghost Kitchens Took Over America’s Restaurants

Submitted by Patron Brandon. Wait, what? Has anyone seen this in Richmond yet?

In late January, I put my digital restaurant skills to the test by opening up my Seamless app and searching for wings, perhaps the most popular offering in the virtual kingdom because of their easy portability and high margins. Immediately, among some familiar entries, I saw listings for generic-sounding restaurants that almost always referenced wings in its names, a telltale sign of a virtual brand. Among the range of wing spots in the northern suburbs just outside of New York City were Neighborhood Wings (operated by Applebee’s), Alfonso’s Wings (a spinoff of a local pizza shop), Chicken Wing King (operated by a local bar), Wings Express (operated by a local diner), and Wings, Mac, & More (a ghost kitchen apparently willing to shlep wings to me all the way from New Jersey). Ultimately, all this research got the best of me and I ordered from Wings of New York, the option with the shortest delivery time.

If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Picture of the Day

So metal.