Good morning, RVA: HIGH COVID-19, Monkeypox, and a budget for the State

Have a great, excellent, and hopefully long weekend!

Good morning, RVA! It's 68 °F, and it looks like we have an even chance for storms, some severe, today—the region's under a tornado watch until 2:00 PM. But, this weekend! This weekend looks incredible with highs in the 80s, dry skies, and even some sunshine. First, I hope you have Monday off. Second, I hope you spend the long weekend getting some rest, spending at least some of the time on the patio or porch of your choosing, and having at least one great conversation with a good pal.

Water cooler

As of last night, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield all have a high COVID-19 Community Level. 7-day case rates per 100,000 people in each of the localities are 274, 297, and 309, respectively (the threshold for a high level is 200). The 7-day rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people for the whole region is 10.5 (the threshold for a high level is 10). This is the first time we've seen a high level in Central Virginia, and it does meaningfully change the CDC's guidance for individuals: Everyone, regardless of vaccination status, should wear a well-fitting mask indoors in public. I don't think we'll ever again see any sort of mask mandates—especially not from the current state-level leadership—as we've mostly thrown up our hands over requiring public health measures, but you may see employers and businesses change their masking policies over the next few days. If you haven't yet, you probably should just keep a mask or two stashed in each of your bags.

Here's another reason to build a good mask habit: Yesterday, Virginia reported its first case of Monkeypox. Luckily(?), the patient had traveled to Africa and was not infectious during their travel back to Virginia—so we're not seeing the disease spread around in the community (not yet at least). To quote the release: "No additional cases have been detected in Virginia at this time." OK, whew, but I'm keeping an eye on you, Monkeypox.

Michael Martz at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate have reached a compromise on the State's budget. It does sound like an actual compromise, too—with both sides moving towards each other—especially over the Governor's proposed elimination of the gas tax and raising the standard deduction, something that I continue to not understand. Martz points out some Richmond-specific items, too, like $100 million to chip away at our billion dollar sewer issues, and "up to $470 million in state funds...to close 'the gap' on I-64 by widening the interstate to three lanes each way between Bottoms Bridge in New Kent County to Lightfoot in James City County." For a depressing comparison, the budget adds just a third of the cost of widening a single stretch of highway ($150 million) to the Virginia Housing Trust Fund. The full budget should drop this weekend, and both the House and Senate are set to vote on Wednesday.

The Virginia Mercury's Sarah Vogelsong has an interesting look at the present and future of nuclear power in Virginia. Since we're trying to decarbonize our electricity grid by 2050ish, keeping the Commonwealth's two nuclear power plants up and running will remain an important part of that work.

Due to tonight's potential for severe weather, Friday Cheers has been postponed. It was RVA Music Night, too! Bummer.

Logistical note! This coming Monday is Memorial Day, and, as such, I will take the day off from this email. I currently have plans to spend a good amount of time in the yard creating order, maybe watch a horror film, and finish reading this George Romero book about zombies. Until Tuesday!

This morning's longread
One Man’s Quest to Fix San Francisco’s Housing Crisis

Uh, speak for yourself, article, because land-use-and-transportation-committee-watching parties sound amazing. Maybe we should have virtual watch parties when the Council agendas are meaty and exciting? I could be into that!

“People just have no idea what goes on with these hearings, most of the time,” he told me. “You don’t hear about it except for snippets that occasionally make the news.” No wonder. Not everyone enjoys watching neighbors squabble over the positioning of a bike lane or bureaucrats ensure that a building has the right paperwork to add an annex. “No one’s ever going to have a land-use-and-transportation-committee-watching party the same way people have an Oscars-watching party,” Fruchtman said. But what happens at these sorts of meetings is important.

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