May 1st In Monroe Park
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Monthly Archives: April 2014
Trash/Recycling Pickup Tomorrow
This Wednesday is a red Wednesday, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night. They do not belong on the sidewalk after tomorrow night.
In recycling news…let’s see…I covered ‘Project Clean Move’…I mentioned the upcoming Sierra Club Falls of the James recycling/yard sale at U of R…how about this? While Richmond.com’s Phil Riggan counters skepticism about local recycling, I personally agree with a lot of treehuggers who think that skepticism of recycling is a healthy thing. That said, here in Virginia, business is warming up to recycling in a big way- “Recycle, repurpose, reuse”.
…And They March!
Keeping to their word, Open High School students, some of Richmond’s best and brightest, walked out of the former Grace Arents school today to march on City Hall. Their message? Something that many of my neighbors and I have been saying for years- PUBLIC priorities, such as schools, should come before private special interests like the Redskins. Hopefully the Mayor and City Council will listen to these young citizens.
Tyler Potterfield
From a neighbor:
Our beloved neighbor, historian and all around great guy Tyler Potterfield passed away suddenly Friday morning. A memorial and celebration of Tyler’s life will be announced shortly.
Many Richmonders know Mr.Potterfield from his book, Nonesuch Place: A History of the Richmond Landscape.
From Times Dispatch obituary:
POTTERFIELD, Tyler, of Oregon Hill, Richmond, died suddenly on Friday morning, April 25, 2014. The loss of this good and beautiful man is unfathomable. His enthusiasm, love and devotion to his work and city planning, the James Riverfront, his cycling, gardening, hiking and community building projects were unbounded. He was a man of information and a writer and researcher of history and culture. He was devoted to his family and much loved in return by them; his wife, Maura Meinhardt; parents, Ruth and Tom Potterfield of Savannah Ga.; sister, Beth Hiers and her family of Destin, Fla.; and countless friends and colleagues, whose lives he generously embellished in his city of Richmond and on his beloved banks of Penns Creek.
“Project Clean Move” On The Move
As with the recent VCU event Paint The Town Green, VCU should be commended for redoubling its efforts with the City to address public dumping by student renters at the end of school year and lease time. Hopefully messy trash sites will not happen so often in the future. VCU policeman Greg Felton deserves a lot of credit for also getting the word to local landlords.
Oregon Hill may or may not get a dumpster like the one pictured below. If we do, it will likely be on Albemarle Street between S. Cherry and S. Laurel.
From Councilperson Parker Agelasto’s FaceBook page:
Project Clean Move is operational. On Friday, dumpsters were placed at 4 locations near VCU to facilitate with the significant trash and bulk items resulting from students moving out of their residences. The dumpsters will remain until June 2. Please note that these will be emptied by the City’s Department of Public Works.
Dumpster Locations:
1) N. Plum Street between W. Main Street and Floyd Avenue
2) S. Morris Street between W. Main Street and W. Cary Street
3) N. Morris Street at the corner of Grove Avenue
4) Ryland Street at the corner of Grace StreetAll residents are encouraged to use these dumpsters between April 25 and June 2. DPW will still respond to individual bulk pick-up requests as they are received. To report bulk pick-up, please call 311 or use SeeClickFix. If you have items in good condition, please also contact CARITAS Furniture Bank or Goodwill to donate them rather than adding to a land fill.
That last part is important. For VCU to continue to improve its sustainability efforts, it needs to get more students’ belongings recycled. The Sierra Club Falls of the James has helped University of Richmond do this through its Big Yard Sale (coming up this year on May 17th), but its understand able that VCU (and Virginia Union and other schools) may need to come up with its own model.
Heavy Metal Trivia and Wing Night at Mojo’s This Monday
From the FaceBook event page:
Monday night is trivia and wing night again at Mojo’s. This week’s theme is Heavy Metal! Wing and drink specials 7-11pm. Trivia starts around 8. Free to play. Prizes each round.
Open High Students Lead RPS Walkout On Monday
From Times Dispatch article:
A group of students from Open High School is planning to lead a march on City Hall on Monday to protest the physical condition of school facilities in the city of Richmond.
The students plan to walk out of class at 8:30 a.m. and begin the mile-plus march from Oregon Hill toward downtown. They should reach City Hall by 9 a.m. and plan to hold a peaceful demonstration.“It’s a way for the public to see the faces of students of Richmond Public Schools,” said Isabella Arias, a senior at Open.
She said the idea came up early this month after media reports of several particularly decrepit school buildings.
In a Facebook event called “RPS Walkout,” Arias and other organizers cited several specific problems, including roof failures at Fairfield Court Elementary and Thompson Middle schools and rodent problems at Carver Elementary and Armstrong High schools.
“When we read that, we were really horrified at how terrible the conditions are,” she said.
“These conditions continue to worsen as time passes and are simply disregarded by school officials, City Hall, the mayor and many others,” the organizers say on Facebook.
“Funds could be allocated to repair our dilapidated schools (as was done for the Redskins training camp) if those in charge saw it as a priority. Instead however, the officials of Richmond brush off the needs of RPS students.
“We are not their priority. They fail to see the value in our education or even our general well-being. They must be reminded of our numbers so that they may see our value.”
‘Wicked’ Restaurants
Karri Peiffer has nice article in Richmond.com that looks at restaurants that are within walking distance (six blocks) of the Altria Theater (Landmark, Mosque). With ‘Wicked’ musical coming to the theater, we are sure to see more traffic.
Her first pick?
Dinamo, 821 W. Cary St, (804) 678-9706
At .2 miles, Dinamo is one of the closest restaurants. The space is tiny, but it’s worth the wait for this Italian / Jewish fare.
Monday – Friday 11 a.m. – close (whenever dinner let’s up)
Saturday 5:30 – close
Reservations are accepted.
Dominion’s Bogus Plans
There was a small article in yesterday’s Times Dispatch regarding the move of Dominion’s operations center from Innsbrook to I 295.
When Dominion applied for the special use permit for its Tredegar St. headquarters back in 2001, approval was given because they promised to move their operations center with “hundreds of jobs” from the county to Tredegar Street. A neighbor showed photos of flooding at the Tredegar site, and neighbors pointed out that it was absurd to think that they were moving their operations center with a fleet of vehicles and fueling infrastructure to this site beside the river with limited access. But the City’s Planning Commission rubber stamped the bogus plan anyway. When neighbors met with Dominion as recently as two years ago regarding the 2nd Street connector, the Dominion representative still maintained that they have the right to build in the future the huge tower that was supposed to be the new operations center!
Hopefully, Church Hill will fare better than Oregon Hill has in fending off rapacious, private development that goes against existing planning and steals from the public river view sheds. It should come as no surprise that many of those forces supporting the high rise project against Church Hill are the same as who are supporting the flawed Shockoe stadium proposal. City government should recognize the difference between good, popular development projects that enhance residents’ quality of life vs. bad, dishonorable development projects that are based on greed.
Chair Donation
From St. Andrew’s School FaceBook page:
Thank you to Grace & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church for the donation of chairs for our library! Our 5th graders helped with the heavy lifting – always with a smile.
