Good morning, RVA: 996↗️ • 17↘️; protests return to downtown; Devil's Half Acre concepts

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and highs will top out near 90 °F with plenty of humidity thrown in for good measure. Keep an eye on the sky this afternoon and evening for possible storms.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 996↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 17↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 193↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 69, Henrico: 85, and Richmond: 39). Since this pandemic began, 307 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases in Henrico (78) is more than double the same seven-day average Richmond (31). The graph of that stat in Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond over time is kind of startling, but keep in mind we’re running way more tests now than we were back in June (but fewer than we were in July). Still, though, I’m startled!

Protestors hit the streets of downtown Richmond last night and the CT’s Hannah Eason tagged along and put together this Twitter thread and this interactive map of the protest’s route through the city. Protestors smashed windows at the John Marshall Courts Building again, tagged the Dominion building, and broke some more windows downtown. From what I can tell both protestors and police stayed out of each other’s hair, and we, thankfully, avoided another night of tear-gas filled neighborhood streets. Since no one offered to listen to the two hours worth of audio from the recent Task Force to Reimagine Public Safety meeting, I guess I’ll need to make time for it. Will the Task Force act boldly enough to address the concerns of protestors? What even are the concerns, which I do feel stretch deeper and broader than this list? It’s a good list, but I want a far-reaching plan to make systemic change in how we do public safety in Richmond—or at least I want this Task Force to say as much out loud.

You should read this piece by Michael Paul Williams in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about what’s going on with the Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project. You’ll remember RTAP from opening up the Richmond Police Department’s data and teaching everyone about Civilian Review Boards. There is a lot to unpack in here, and the core of the problem seems to be white advocates taking up space (too much space?) in a black-led movement. Rather than do the same, I want to encourage you to read the MPW piece and then spend some time scrolling through the RTAP twitter timeline.

Is this new or just new to me? The Lumpkin’s Slave Jail Site / Devil’s Half Acre Project website has some conceptual design and imagery of what a new “memorial-museum” could look like, and whoa. For a space trapped between a railroad, a highway, and a major urban corridor, the concepts look like a pretty nice place to spend some time. I think this forward progress ties in with the Mayor’s recent commitment of $25–50 million in the City’s Capital Improvement Program for this specific project. So maybe we’ll start seeing some next steps or cost estimates soon? To be honest, I feel out of the loop on this entire project.

Mark Robinson at the RTD has the details on what Mayor Stoney would like from our state-level legislators at next week’s special legislative session. Robinson’s piece focuses on legalizing marijuana, which, yes, let’s do it, right now. If you’re unconvinced about the impact legalizing would have on equity, check out this mind-blowing stat the Mayor dropped: “Not only do marijuana arrests comprise a majority of the total arrests in Virginia, but out of those arrests a disproportionate number are of Black people,” A majority of total arrests?? That’s wild! Plus, from the economic side of things, legalizing marijuana right now seems like a great way to create a new source of revenue during a coronarecession. Here’s the full text of the letter Mayor Stoney sent to the Governor.

As a Richmond Public Schools parent with a student heading back to school in a couple of weeks (in as much as students are heading back anywhere), I appreciate this #ReopenWithLove Family Checklist the Superintendent put together. Everything is new and different this school year, and I am bound to forget some critical piece which will catch me a withering stare from my son. I like to avoid withering stares from my family, if at all possible.

This is rad: RVAHub says that the Institute for Contemporary Art and VPM will partner to create a community media center in the ICA: “The VPM+ICA Community Media Center will create new opportunities for storytelling, train and educate the next generation of audio producers, and amplify voices often missing from traditional media.” This sounds exceedingly cool, and that Chioke I’Anson will head up the program is even exceedingly cooler.

This morning’s patron longread

Immunology Is Where Intuition Goes to Die

Submitted by Patron Gretchen. I read this piece yesterday and then, while scrolling through Twitter this morning, came across a tweet from an immunologist that literally says the words “sorry, immunology is complicated.”

Even the word immunity creates confusion. When immunologists use it, they simply mean that the immune system has responded to a pathogen—for example, by producing antibodies or mustering defensive cells. When everyone else uses the term, they mean (and hope) that they are protected from infection—that they are immune. But, annoyingly, an immune response doesn’t necessarily provide immunity in this colloquial sense. It all depends on how effective, numerous, and durable those antibodies and cells are. Immunity, then, is usually a matter of degrees, not absolutes. And it lies at the heart of many of the COVID-19 pandemic’s biggest questions. Why do some people become extremely ill and others don’t?

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