Good morning, RVA: 861↘️ • 11↘️; gas tax; and 100 years of women's suffrage

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and today’s weather looks pretty OK. Expect highs in the 80s and a chance of rain—particularly later this afternoon.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 861↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealthand 11↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 164↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 61, Henrico: 82, and Richmond: 21). Since this pandemic began, 310 people have died in the Richmond region. Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch looks at the extreme racial disparity in those local coronanumbers, saying “The impact has become painfully apparent in Richmond, where more than 80% of coronavirus cases are Black or Latino, and Latinos have nearly three times the number of cases than white Richmonders despite being only 7% of the city’s population. Black Richmonders account for more than 60% of the city’s deaths.” Checking in on higher education, yesterday, Notre Dame and Michigan State joined UNC in hastily abandoning their in-person instruction plans. The former plans on going remote for just two weeks while the latter sounds like they plan to stay virtual for the entire fall semester. This spring, UVA led the state in early plans to send students home, so maybe keep an eye on Charlottesville for similar plans this fall. At this point, though, the Commonwealth’s major public universities are full-speed ahead and have yet to report any major COVID-19 outbreaks.

The RTD’s Michael Martz has a story about gas taxes, which, I know, is about as interesting as it sounds. As you can imagine, and despite the apparent shock and disbelief from the Virginia Petroleum & Convenience Marketers Association, the time that all of Virginia shut down for months and did not leave their homes has resulted in lower than expected gas tax revenues. Wild, right? I link to this story mostly to remind you that the General Assembly created the Central Virginia Transportation Authority this past winter, and that it is, in part, funded through a wholesale fuels tax. Richmond and Henrico both halved their local contribution to GRTC with the expectation that the CVTA would use its new revenues to backfill those cuts. With CVTA revenues uncertain due to the impact of the coronavirus, I’m extremely nervous about what that means for public transportation funding in the Richmond region. Will the localities restore some of GRTC’s funding? Will they move to cut bus service and force me to write tens of thousands of angry words? I have no idea, but this coming budget season will be intense.

If you’re interested in the rule-setting portion of the GA’s special session, you can read this piece by Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury. It feels like something I should care about, but, for whatever reason, I have a hard time getting excited about partisan arguments over process at the state level. Give me local process arguments any day, though!

The Richmond Public Library has a COVID-19 Community Needs Survey that you should fill out if you’re a fan of the library—and if you’re not a fan of the library maybe you should do some serious introspection. It’ll take you just a couple of minutes and will help guide the library’s plans to reopen early next month.

Quick reminder to check in on the Big List of 2020 Candidate Events. There are at least seven events spread across a bunch of candidates over the coming week—each one an opportunity to learn more about the folks that will end up leading our city out of a crisis.

I missed this yesterday, which kind of speaks to how far we’ve left to go, but, on August 18th, America celebrated 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment and women’s right to vote. It’s a good and short amendment, and I’ll quote it here in its entirety: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” The New York Times has cool piece up called “Suffrage at 100: A Visual History” that’s got all sorts of neat pictures and memorabilia and is definitely worth your time. Guess what, though? There are no pictures of men working to win the right to vote because we’ve always had it—since even before cameras existed. 100 years is not that long ago!

I think the roll call vote from last night’s Democratic National Convention is worth watching. Rather than boringly zooming into a sea of people standing inside of an arena only to watch them holler into a microphone, this year’s coronaconvention cut together 57 short clips shot in each of the 50 states and seven territories. It’s like the Olympic’s Parade of Nations but for America. I love it! P.S. You’ll definitely want to check out Rhode Island, which kind of stole the show—the Calamari Comeback State of Rhode Island!

This morning’s longread

The Unraveling of America

I didn’t agree with some of the specifics of this piece, but it was too dark not to share!

The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness. How can the rest of the world expect America to lead on global threats — climate change, the extinction crisis, pandemics — when the country no longer has a sense of benign purpose, or collective well-being, even within its own national community?

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