Good morning, RVA: 5,379 • 49; leaders who lead; and rad dudes

Good morning, RVA! It’s 38 °F, and we have a chance of snow this morning. Not, like, good, fun snow, but snow may fall from the sky, distracting thousands of kids stuck inside for virtual learning. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says, “this is far from an ideal Snow setup for us.” Booooo!

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 5,379 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 49 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 497 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 189, Henrico: 196, and Richmond: 112). Since this pandemic began, 577 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average for statewide new reported positive cases continues to break records and now sits at an all-time high of 4,728. Locally, our seven-day average of new cases—478, also an all-time high—has doubled since December 5th. With today’s data dump, our region will pass an ominous milestone: All three localities will have reported over 10,000 coronavirus cases since March. Here’s the stacked graph of new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, and here’s the graph of new cases in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield. As another sign of how things are trending, Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that area hospitals have started instituting no-visitors policies to help keep the disease from spreading within their facilities. Also, now that I’ve got about two weeks of data, I’ll try to put together some vaccine-related chartsandgraphs over the weekend.

RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras has a good reaction to this week’s violent coup attempt, which I’m going to quote at length: “Yesterday, mostly white men seized and vandalized the United States Capitol—and were then allowed to simply walk away. Last summer, peaceful, mostly Black protestors, who had gathered a block away from the White House to make their voices heard, were gassed and forcibly removed with military tactics, including the use of a US Army helicopter. I shudder at the thought of what would have transpired if the individuals who attacked the United States Congress were Black. As educators and parents, we need to talk about this with our children. And those of us who are white have a special responsibility to do so. For our national ‘reckoning’ on race to yield tangible results, we must actively and repeatedly call out inequity, educate our children about it, and teach them to uproot it. Yesterday’s events were horrific. But rather than run from them, let’s confront them and the uncomfortable truths about race that they laid bare. In doing so, perhaps we can take one more step towards fulfilling the ideals symbolized by the United States Capitol.” While the world’s chaos makes me feel dangerously unmoored, it is so clarifying and anchoring to hear one of our leaders simply say what they believe and tell me how to put the chaos into context. I guess I am defining leadership, and it feels good to be led through this mess.

When folks are like “The federal government needs to send more coronarelief money to local governments!” this piece by Chris Suarez in the RTD is what they’re talking about: “Funding for an emergency child care program serving about 1,000 Richmond Public Schools students during the COVID-19 pandemic will not last the rest of the school year.” Kind of related, Mayor Stoney has a column in the paper asking the state to extend its COVID-19 Relief Fund—a fund which “distributes money collected through the taxation of skill game machines.” 1) Yes, 2) It’s hard for my brain to not connect the dots from this column to the City’s recent efforts to bring in a resort casino. I expect to read a bunch of sentences like these once we get closer to the potential November casino referendum: “In Richmond, we are using the funds to keep the wheels of government turning, paying the salaries of vital public service providers and accounting for the increased cost of service delivery during a global pandemic. Those needs won’t go away in a matter of months.”

Are you a small business based in Richmond and would like a free box of PPE? This coming Monday and Thursday, the City will distribute 500 boxes of cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves from 9:00 AM–5:00 PM at the Convention Center. You should preregister to speed things up and make folks' lives easier, and you’ll need to bring along your biz license or utility bill or some other document showing your business is located in the City.

I’ve now got a chart of total unemployment insurance claims in Virginia from the start of the pandemic through the end of the year. The most recent update in data, which covers the week ending January 2nd, saw a 9.4% increase in total claims—driven almost entirely by a 64% increase in initial claims. Things are, of course, “better” than they were back in the spring but still way outta wack compared to pre-pandemic times.

To close, a video of some rad dudes skateboarding around parts of Richmond you’ll probably recognize. Pretty amazing stuff (but please wear a mask if you’re outside within six feet of another person (or just don’t get within six feet of other people at all)).

This morning’s longread

10 Stupid yet Robust Games for Video Calls

As the virus burns and rages, these seem like fun. “Draw the third biggest duck” got me.

2020 is a weird year. A lot of people are relying on video calls for holiday gatherings. This is fine, but it does limit the type of holiday games that can be played. For some participants, setting up a video call might push their technical skills to the limit. Asking them to also download an application, share a screen, learn a video game, or install something would lead to disaster. I’ve come up with (or, more accurately, adapted, stolen, or lightly improved) 10 stupid robust games for video calls. They’ve all been tested. Criteria: Will work over video chat; Cannot require special items, applications, or elaborate preparation; Cannot rely on the physical fitness of any participants; Are not intellectually challenging; Are sufficiently ridiculous that anyone who gets overly competitive will feel a bit silly, yet still retain a degree of competition.

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