Good morning, RVA: 645↗️ • 6↘️; first day of school; and getting rid of surface parking

Good morning, RVA! It’s 63 °F, and was that not the best long weekend of weather in recent memory?? Expect similar weather today with highs in the mid 80s and lots of sunshine. Rain moves in to the region soon, so prepare yourself.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 645↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 6↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 83↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 5, Henrico: 60, and Richmond: 18). Since this pandemic began, 326 people have died in the Richmond region. Make sure you take this morning’s numbers with a grain of long-weekend salt. Remember a couple weeks ago when the CDC updated their guidance on if you should get tested if you had close contact with someone with COVID-19? Right now that CDC guidance (still) says “You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.” I think at the time I said that was stressful guidance—and it still is! I am, however, glad to see this list of “Who should get tested for COVID-19” from the Virginia Department of Health: People who have symptoms of COVID-19, people who have had close contact with someone with COVID-19, and people who have been asked or referred to get testing by their healthcare provider or the health department. That’s less stressful than the federal guidance, for sure!

It’s the first day of school for Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield public school students! This is normally when I’d remind those of you driving around to be extra cautious as students make their way through our neighborhoods to schools or bus stops, perhaps a bit distracted by first-day jitters. Don’t have to worry about that today, though! So instead, good luck to families as we all try to figure out what it looks like when you combine working, schooling, and living into the same physical space (and on the same available internet bandwidth). May your Zooms be lag-free and your inbox be zeroed!

Abby Church at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Hanover’s Liberty Middle School has delayed their in-person opening after three faculty members tested positive for the coronavirus. Yeahhhhh, that’s not a great start to the first week of school. I tell you what, though, it’s a strange and new feeling to read eyebrow-raising stories about the suburban and rural school districts in our region rather than just a constant onslaught of negatives stories about Richmond Public Schools. I know, it is just the first day of school, and there is still plenty of time for any district to make some epic missteps, but, that said, it’s been exciting to see RPS lay out their plans, overcommunicate them, and stick to them as much as possible.

Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has an update on what the General Assembly has been up to while we’ve all been out enjoying this beautiful weather. A bunch of bills passed the House of Delegates—but Del. Bourne’s qualified immunity bill did not: “Only one of the 12 measures failed when five Democrats voted with GOP lawmakers to oppose a bill rolling back qualified immunity for police, which often shields officers from lawsuits alleging misconduct.” Cool cool cool.

City Council will meet today at 5:00 PM to consider ORD. 2020–184, the ordinance to ban guns at or adjacent to protests. If you want to support this ordinance, one of the few gun-related laws the City has the power to pass, make sure you get your public comment into the City Clerk ([email protected]) before 10:00 AM today. Also of note on Council’s calendar, they’ll host Sheriff Irving at today’s Organizational Development committee meeting for a “Richmond City’s Sheriff’s Office Update.” I imagine they’ll want to talk about the status and spread of coronavirus within the jail. We’ll have to wait and see if any one on Council brings up the Richmond Police Department’s shameful and violent behavior out front of the jail last week.

Planning Commission will also meet today with a couple items of note on their agenda. The most boring, but definitely raddest, is ORD. 2020–174 which modifies the off-street parking space requirements for 104 W. Franklin. That’s one of the taller apartment buildings in that part of town, and, with 204 units, is required to have 145 off-street parking spaces. Some of those are in a below-grade garage, but 88 are “located in surface parking areas at 104, 108, and 109 W. Grace Street.” This ordinance would allow all of that horrible surface parking to be used for actual city-stuff instead of storing empty cars. Sounds great. Also on the Commission’s agenda, the ordinance to rezone properties around the Science Museum, Allison Street, and VCU & VUU Pulse Stations (ORD. 2020–104). I have no idea what the Planning Commission plans on doing with this paper. Passing it is the right thing to do, but the NIMBY, anti-density forces slowly gathering against this ordinance are strong.

If you’d like to build your civic advocacy skills, consider applying for the Fall 2020 Bike Walk RVA Academy. It’s bike-focused, which, bikes are amazing of course, but you’ll also learn how local government works and how to do effective advocacy for whatever your heart desires (like rezoning for density around rapid transit stations). Applications are due by September 14th. This is a strong program, and I can’t recommend it enough!

People from a certain part of the country love Dunkin' Donuts, which I think is now just called “Dunkin'”. I don’t get it, but that’s OK, not everything needs to be for me. Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense says the new Dominion tower will get its own Dunkin', and I hope that will bring joy to some folks' mornings.

This morning’s longread

The election will likely spark violence — and a constitutional crisis

Despite the bad headline, this article about situation planning for different election results was pretty interesting.

That dystopia is based on how events played out in one of the Transition Integrity Project’s exercises. We explored the four scenarios experts consider most likely: a narrow Biden win; a big Biden win, with a decisive lead in both the electoral college and the popular vote; a Trump win with an electoral college lead but a large popular-vote loss, as in 2016; and finally, a period of extended uncertainty as we saw in the 2000 election. With the exception of the “big Biden win” scenario, each of our exercises reached the brink of catastrophe, with massive disinformation campaigns, violence in the streets and a constitutional impasse.

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