Good morning, RVA: 638↗️ • 28↗️; Stuart down, Soldiers and Sailors next; two plans to reopen schools

Good morning, RVA! It’s 73 °F, and we’ve got another hot and humid day ahead of us. Looks like we should avoid the rain that other parts of the state will see this afternoon, though.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 638↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 28↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 69↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 33, Henrico: 23, and Richmond: 13). Since this pandemic began, 248 people have died in the Richmond region. I’ve got a couple data points I want to mention this morning. First, aside from yesterday’s weird holiday reporting, Virginia has seen more than 500 new reported positive cases every day in July—here’s that graph. Second, the seven-day average of new reported positive cases in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield have settled back into the same neighborhood (13, 17, and 23 respectively). Chesterfield no longer reports a big discrepancy compared to the rest of the region—here’s that graph. Third, and finally, 27 people have died in the Richmond region as a result of the virus since June 30th. That seems like a lot to me. Here’s that graph, but be careful with this one since its full of really small numbers and any weird reporting situation has a big impact.

Yesterday morning, right after I hit send on Good Morning, RVA, crews showed up at Stuart Circle and took down the J.E.B. Stuart monument like it was no big deal. Andrew Ringle from the Commonwealth Times has some photos and videos of the moment, which lacked the same crowds (and involuntary gasps from me) from when the Stonewall Jackson monument lifted off its pedestal last week. Did we normalize tearing down 100-year-old statues to white supremacy within the course of one week? People are amazing. Anyway, I imagine at least one more monument will come down today, and /r/rva says its the Soldiers and Sailors monument on Libby Hill (which has had some cool new context added to it in recent days).

After the Mayor gets through warehousing all of these Confederate statues and memorials, the City still needs to go through the State’s dumb and required monument removal process. The Interim City Attorney gave some updates to that at this week’s Organizational Development committee meeting, and the big news: The City will hold a public hearing on the monument removal ordinance (ORD. 2020–154) on August 3rd. The Attorney said that because the State legislation requires “a place” for folks to give public comment on removal, that hearing must happen in person, with a majority of City Council present, in Council chambers. Sounds terrifying, but City staff are already working on a plan to make that experience safe and less terrifying—plus, if you’re still terrified, you can always submit public comment via email to the City Clerk. Then, on August 3rd, Council will vote on ORD. 2020–154 and that’s that. Technically, we then enter a 30-day period for museums and historical societies and whatever to claim the statues, but the Attorney says the City can move forward as soon as they have a taker lined up. I imagine there are many, many folks who’ve already emailed their councilmember about claiming the monuments, but there are probably only two or three appropriate places to serve as final destinations for old, massive monuments to white supremacy. I don’t think that part of the process should take very long. So! All of that to say: Mark your calendars for August 3rd.

One other small update from the Organizational Development committee meeting—which I think maybe you should listen to while folding the laundry or doing 90-minutes of dishes—Councilmember Jones requested that all of the police reform legislation be moved from the Consent Agenda to the Regular Agenda. This is smart and means that now each piece of legislation (which you can see over on the GMRVA Legislation Tracker) now gets its own public hearing by default, giving folks more opportunity to weigh in with their thoughts, feelings, and concerns. As of now, all of that legislation sits on Council’s July 27th agenda, so mark your calendar. I’m writing up a short summary of each item and should have that to y’all late this week or early next. That should give you plenty of time to get your smart public comments in order.

Oh! Also at the OrgDev meeting, the new Police Chief formally introduced himself to Council, and everyone was very excited to start working with him moving forward. Councilmember Jones, however, tempered that excitement with this amazing quote about the recent protests over systemic racism and police violence: “Y’all have earned all of this…over decades of abuse. That’s simply a fact.”

This Thursday, tomorrow, the Richmond School Board will meet to discuss how the heck they plan on reopening schools this fall. In his email from yesterday, Superintendent Kamras says he’ll introduce two reopening plans at that meeting: Plan A—A fully virtual option, plus a hybrid option that includes two days of in-person instruction and three days of virtual instruction each week, plus five days of in-person instruction each week for students with greater academic needs; and Plan B—A fully virtual option, plus a fully in-person option. He says that Plan B is only possible due to new guidance that allows for kids to keep just three feet of social distance as long as everyone is wearing a mask (PDF). The Superintendent also says that they’re looking into ways for high-risk employees or employees who live with high-risk folks to work from home. This is stressful stuff, y’all, and the trade-offs in either direction are intense. The School Board will not vote on Thursday, so there is still time for you to listen, learn, and let your school board rep know how you feel. I recommend you read today’s longread, and then listen in to tomorrow’s School Board meeting.

As Confederate monuments continue to fall in Richmond, Samantha Willis writes for the Virginia Mercury about Hanover’s insistence on clinging to their Confederate iconography in the form of school names. To quote a bit: “In the continued absence of any meaningful words or actions by the school board to change the school names, former and current residents of Hanover are speaking out instead. Four fellow Hanoverians I talked with hold a common conviction: the Confederate school names and Hanover leaders’ unwillingness to change them is a reflection of the county’s long-festering culture of racism.”

Tonight, the Richmond 300 Advisory Council will meeting and one entire hour of their 6:00 PM meeting is dedicated to listening to public comments. You can find the Microsoft Teams link and agenda items over on the Richmond 300 website. I have not yet had a chance to read through all of the newest round of changes to the draft Richmond 300 plan, but, dang, some of the comments just…seriously bum me out. The summary of almost every single neighborhood’s concerns is “this is too tall/dense.” People. Richmond needs more homes, more density everywhere if we want to reach our equitable housing goals.

This morning’s longread

Why Is America Prioritizing Bars Over Schools?

Reopening schools, I think, is our next (current?) big conversation to have as a community. Emily Oster’s article in the Atlantic that I briefly mentioned the other day is worth reading to give yourself some context.

Given that bars and restaurants in many parts of the United States are beginning to reopen, while the prospects for school remain hazy almost everywhere, you might think that scientific evidence about kids and the coronavirus is nonexistent. The truth is that we are still somewhat in the dark, but not completely. Here’s what we know, what we kind of know, and what we need to do to know more.

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