Good morning, RVA: 432↘️ • 14↗️; evictions to resume, maybe?; and student journalists

Good morning, RVA! It’s 64 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday which looks a lot like tomorrow and the next couple of days. I can handle the heat and humidity and am just happy for clear skies.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 432↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 14↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 80↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 25, Henrico: 37, and Richmond: 18). Since this pandemic began, 219 people have died in the Richmond region. For the past two weeks, the number of new reported cases in Virginia has remained relatively stable, as testing (however you choose to define that) has continued to increase. I haven’t had the time, but I’d love to break down the number of new reported cases by region. I wonder if some regions are seeing cases increase at a similar rate to regions seeing a drop in cases? Kind of like what was happening across the country for several weeks, as the Northeast cooled off while the South and West heated up? Maybe over the weekend! One last bit of virus news, Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury says the Governor will “discontinue his twice-weekly briefings, citing a rise in testing and a decreasing percentage of results that come back positive.” OK. I don’t get it. More communication is always better than less, and I just can’t understand why our elected officials—and this applies locally, too—have decided to dip out during a time of crisis.

I think, for the most part, for the first time in 27? 28? days, there were no major protests in Richmond last night. The word “major” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, because the Richmond Times-Dispatch says 50 folks were at the Lee Circle until 12:00 AM, and WTVR says 15 folks were arrested for conducting a sit-in out front of the Commonwealth Attorney’s home. Both of those things would be ultra headline news at any other moment in time but not this morning!

There’s a lot of eviction related news lately, and I’m having a hard time understanding exactly what’s going on. The Virginia Supreme Court’s statewide moratorium on evictions lifts on Monday, and, while Governor Northam did not ask the Court to extend the moratorium, he is “asking chief circuit court judges around the state to bar evictions until July 20,” says Justin Mattingly in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The Governor will also make available $50 million of federal CARES Act money to fund a new program to help people pay their rents and mortgages beginning on…Monday. The same day the ban on evictions lifts. That’s not a whole lot of time to get a statewide eviction program up and running! Also, a couple days ago, Mayor Stoney announced that he’ll dedicate $6 million, or 30% of the City’s entire CARES Act money, to “support both households currently facing evictions pending in the courts as well as those at risk of eviction due to economic challenges arising form COVID-19.” The City says 1,900 households currently face a pending eviction. I’m honestly unsure how to reconcile the Governor’s choice not to extend the eviction moratorium with his quotes like this: “We don’t want anybody getting evicted at any time, but especially not at this difficult time.”

I listened to the absolutely fascinating Governmental Operations committee meeting yesterday so you didn’t have to (but you still totally can). The meeting, run by Chair Andreas Addison, focused on the process for removing our Confederate monuments and if there was any possible way to take them down before jumping through the State’s required and paternalistic hoops. The City Attorney, again, says no despite the various states of emergency and clear public safety hazard posed by the multi-ton statues. Well, to be clear, the Attorney said that there’s no way to remove the statues without opening up either the City, the City Council, the Mayor, or even the contractors paid to take the monuments down to risk of lawsuit. The Attorney also said that both the City’s Planning Commission and the Commission of Architectural Review will have to sign off on bringing the statues down. For those following at home, according to the City Attorney, here’s what needs to happen before anyone can head out to Monument Avenue with a crane: Council must introduce legislation on July 1st saying they want to take the monuments down, they’ve got to then schedule a public hearing 30 days from the date notice of the hearing is published in the paper, Planning Commission has to approve of removal, the Commission of Architectural Review has to approval of removal, if necessary City Council may need to override either of those decisions, the public hearing needs to happen, Council then can vote on removing the monuments, then the monuments need to sit there for 30 days so the City can entertain offers from museums and battlefields and such. That’s a boring list of things, but I hope it makes clear that without new legal guidance from the City Attorney (or some other lawyer, including the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Attorney General), absolutely nothing is happening any time soon. Honestly, I’m frustrated by how this entire conversation was framed—starting from no—and would have much preferred something along the lines of “Please, Attorney, tell me how to do what I want to do and the risks associated with it.” Councilmember Jones eventually asked what was the worst possible thing that could happen if we took the monuments down immediately, and the Attorney said a judge may order them to go back up. O…K? I mean, they’re up now? Like, the worst possible consequence is the one we are living with today? While Council will look for additional legal advice, they’re also going to ask the state to consider shortening their required process, which, sure.

According to the Virginia Employment Commission’s weekly press release, around 400,000 folks filed for unemployment insurance the week ending June 20th. That’s just under two entire City of Richmonds of people without jobs.

VPM’s Alan Rodriguez has this great profile of the student journalists at the Commonwealth Times who’ve provided absolutely essential coverage of Richmond’s nightly protests. You will recognize the names in this piece—Andrew Ringle, Hannah Eason, Eduardo Acevedo—because I’m constantly linking to their work. I’m impressed and thankful for their commitment, especially since they haven’t been paid since March!

This morning’s patron longread

Take Back the Streets From the Automobile

Submitted by Patron Lisa. Richmond, too, has seen its share of biking massively increase since the pandemic sent everyone home to shelter in place—just try to get an appointment at a local bike shop for small repairs! I do worry, though, that we missed our moment, and, with Phase Three on the horizon, we’re about to head back to our car-centric lives having made absolutely zero changes to the way we prioritize our public spaces.

All over the world, forward-looking cities large and small have already jumped into action. In Medellin, the innovative Colombian city nestled in the Andes, workers are seizing traffic lanes and slapping down yellow paint to signify a change: Cars have been evicted and the lanes are now reserved for bicyclists. In Kampala, the capital of Uganda, the authorities have closed streets, encouraged cycling, and sped the construction of new bike lanes and walkways. In European cities, “corona cycleways” have become the new norm.

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