Last year multimedia journalism graduate student Jaclyn O’Laughlin created an article on neighborhood tensions between VCU students and longtime Oregon Hill residents. I have purposely waited to post it here until the semester started.

Here’s an excerpt:

“For many students that are here, they are away from home for the first time and they can go hog wild. It all comes down to the kids being young, which is not a problem, but they don’t have a lot of experience and some of this stuff hasn’t occurred to them,” said Jennifer Hancock, interim president of the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association. “The point of view for some of them is that they are only going to be here for four years and they don’t care.”

The residents of Oregon Hill are not trying to pick on or “dog pile” the students, Hancock said. She believes that students have a different perspective than the long-term residents that live in Oregon Hill, because most students know they will only live in the neighborhood for a few years and eventually move away.

Read the entire article and see online video by clicking here.

Glad to see this…(I have been asking for about three years..)

RichmondBizSense:
Finally, Zipcar is in Richmond

Zipcar is known for renting cars, usually the environmentally friendly type, by the hour in cities and college campuses across the country. Before coming to Richmond, Zipcar already had cars at the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University and The College of William & Mary.
That’s why it was hard to discern why the company continued to bypass Richmond. BizSense has an inquiry in to Zipcar’s corporate headquarters to find out why Richmond finally got its chance.

TimesDispatch:
VCU offers Zipcars, additional bus service

The cars are not limited to student use, though clean driving records are required. VCU students must be 18 years old and community members at least 21 to rent a car at a cost of $8 an hour on weekdays and $9 on weekends. That includes gas, insurance and 180 free miles.

There’s also an annual membership fee of $35 for students, faculty and staff. Drivers not affiliated with VCU pay a $50 annual fee plus a $25 application fee.

The Times Dispatch ran this story today:

Private housing for VCU going up east of Belvidere

Excerpts:

Gilbane Development Co. of Providence, R.I., said its 540-bed, eight-story apartment building off Canal Street should be ready for the start of the 2011 school year.

“We’ll start leasing over the next month,” said Russell Broderick, vice president and senior development manager for Gilbane. “Students will move in in August 2011.”

The $18 million building, designed by Grant Architects of Baltimore, includes 160 apartment units on six levels, and parking on two levels.

——-

Rents will be in the range of $600 to $700 per person, Broderick said. The units will be furnished.

“We’re excited to offer students a modern environment including amenities which appeal to today’s lifestyle, including flat-screen televisions, in-unit washer/dryers, and full kitchens,” Robert V. Gilbane, chairman and CEO of Gilbane Development, said in a statement.

Campus Advantage will offer students activities designed to create a thriving student community.

The green project was designed in accordance with the LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — accreditation system, the development company said.

The project — called 8½ Canal Street — broke ground in early spring.

With 32,000 students, but only 4,882 spaces for students in university housing, VCU believes demand is sufficient to fill both its own residence halls and privately developed projects…

Email from VCU:

MPC move in map.2010

Friends of VCU,

It is time for all new and returning VCU students to begin moving in. This process may impact all of us in different ways. In an effort to better manage, I am attaching our move in maps for both the Monroe Park Campus and the MCV campus. We will begin blocking off surrounding streets at approximately 6:00 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday and will end the process at 7pm on Saturday and 6pm on Sunday. I am also attaching the informational letter we send to students about how the process works.

Ron Brown

Byrd House Market happens every Tuesday from 3:30 pm to 7 pm May thru October.

Greetings all,

Byrd House Market expects much better weather and continued good spirits at this week’s market. St. Andrew’s School will take up their traditional residence in our Byrd House Market information booth; Nandi Shabazz will do face painting (HURRAY!) and Pair-a-dice Farm will be back when the lambs are ready for market once more. If you missed Baby Boy, Wild Heaven’s goat, well you missed a lovely pet (pun intended). We were visited by our friendly neighborhood VDACS health inspector and all went quite well.

If you haven’t been by the market yet this season, don’t let the cool of spring pass you by – jump up and come see the goodies at the market.

Ana Edwards
Market Manager…

and don’t forget to EAT GOOD & GROW GREAT!

–
Byrd House Market
William Byrd Community House
224 South Cherry St. Richmond, VA 23220
ByrdHouseMarket@gmail.com
(804) 643-2717
byrdhousemarket.blogspot.com

Got a tip/rumor about possible school news:

Are you guys up on the merger of Clark Springs and Maymont? My spouse attended a meeting whereby the the Richmond Public Schools official discussed plans to convert Maymont into a PreK center. Just wondering if you guys were on top of it. I’d like to discuss… share… whatever, a little more if you’re up for it.

The Times Dispatch ran an article this past Tuesday on a proposed eight story apartment building for VCU students in nearby Monroe Ward.

From the article:

Gilbane Development Co. is seeking a special-use permit from the city for the 160-unit, 546-bedroom complex, which would include ground-floor retail space along Canal. The project also would include 195 parking spaces—about 1.2 per unit. That translates to a little more than one parking space for every three bedrooms.
The 1-acre site, between South Adams and South Foushee streets and bordering the Downtown Expressway, covers the southern half of the block and is currently an industrial-zoned parking lot. VCU’s Brandcenter is one block to the west, toward Belvidere Street.
Gilbane’s development could be finished sometime next year and would be the first new housing designed for VCU students in Monroe Ward since the university opened its 409-bed residence hall at Cary and Belvidere streets in fall 2008, said Reuban Rodriguez, VCU’s associate vice provost and dean of student affairs. The university has about 32,000 students but on-campus housing for only about 5,000.

Although not in Oregon Hill proper, there was some concern expressed at this past Tuesday’s Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association meeting that while this project could alleviate some VCU housing needs, it could also bring more traffic and parking issues to the neighborhood.

I hope I do not ruin any surprises (or grades) by posting this picture of a student engineering project from this past Saturday. S. Laurel Street in action, folks.

Richmond Magazine has recently run a few articles on the state of ADA compliance for Richmond Public Schools. Click here for first article.

Although they do not mention Oregon Hill’s Open High or the new Patrick Henry charter school, they do give a good idea of some of the issues involved with updating the ADA in RPS.

Here’s an excerpt:

Kneeling, he applies an electronic level to the ramp that cost Richmond Public Schools $41,746 to design and install. He lifts his head, and his Oakley shades catch the reflection of a man seated in a wheelchair next to him. “This is a non-ADA-compliant entrance. It’s just all wrong.”

“Oh, my goodness,” says the other man, Michael Chenail, president of Compliance Alliance, a local company that specializes in providing consultation to businesses and governments trying to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ramp descends from Ginter Park’s side stoop at too steep a gradient, a potentially costly mistake for Richmond Public Schools, agree Chenail and Waters, a commercial concrete contractor from Midlothian who specializes in ADA projects.

The district is deep into a years-long, federal court-monitored effort to bring its nearly 50 school buildings, including Ginter Park, into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, enacted in 1990. And with a federal judge watching to ensure compliance with the 2006 settlement agreement, school officials are under pressure to get right what was ignored for 20 years. Projects began in 2008 and must be completed by 2013.

Richmond Schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby responded to inquiries regarding the projects via e-mail, indicating that the district is working to be “as fiscally responsible as possible while meeting all necessary conditions” of the “approximately 240 ADA modification projects via the Settlement Agreement.”

Cosby would not comment on specific projects, such as Ginter Park’s ramp.

The Americans with Disabilities Act ensures that public spaces and businesses provide equal or at least adequate access to all. In the case of children and parents in Richmond schools, it is supposed to ensure that those who rely on wheelchairs or crutches can make it to class and school functions like parent-teacher conferences.

Also, be sure to check out the update:

A Second Look: Richmond Public Schools moves to doublecheck ADA

An excerpt from that:

Prezioso writes: “Per the Trice report, the basis of the settlement in federal court, the parking at Martin Luther King Middle School is compliant, and therefore, RPS is not addressing the parking at that school as part of the ADA work. The parking project listed on RPS’ website actually involved the accessible route to the parking spaces. The Trice report indicates that ‘a curb cut adjacent to the accessible parking is required.’ Therefore, the scope of work was limited to a curb cut and accessible route, next to existing parking.”

However, according to ADA guidelines, there should be one designated handicap spot for every 25 spaces (until a parking lot exceeds 100 spaces, where the standards change), meaning that Martin Luther King’s parking lot is still not in compliance.

In some cases, design costs equaled or exceeded the cost to restripe the spaces. At Blackwell Elementary annex, architects were paid $2,764 of the total $6,024 needed for the project; Broad Rock Elementary spent $2,764 of $5,145 on design. At Carver Elementary, the $3,014 in design costs exceeded by hundreds of dollars the cost to actually do the work.

ADA accessibility is a part of Universal Building Code; it is wrapped in with the federal Fair Housing Act. But it’s also separate law. While the Virginia building code has special sections on accessibility, those requirements are dispersed throughout the code, and not all of the specific requirements for construction found in the ADA are included in the building code.

As a result, says Chenail, there is often a disconnect.

“One of the things I have found in my experience is a lot of architects and builders … still do not build correctly to the ADA guidelines,” he says. “They build only to state code requirements.”

The state building code does include charts indicating the appropriate number of accessible parking spaces based on total parking. It also includes some basic information on required maximum slope for accessibility ramps.

But the disconnect between ADA and building-code officials is one that Chenail says he’s witnessed in the field as well, with building inspectors.

“Some have enough experience where they’ve started to include that into their repertoire, but I’ve talked to many who say, ‘I’m going to tell you right up front, I don’t know anything about the ADA.’ ”

City spokesman Mike Wallace confirms that the inspectors follow the Virginia building code, and that ADA compliance is the schools’ responsibility.

Prezioso says the school process is going along swiftly, with year two’s projects proceeding on schedule. She writes, “There are a total of 51 projects in various stages of bidding or construction, which are scheduled to be completed by Sept. 1, 2010.”

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Commons Plaza

From webpage:

Ride your bike to campus on April 14 for a tune-up and registration, and talk shop with other VCU riders. All bike riders – serious, silly and sensible, alike – are welcome.

This program is for the every-day, casual bike rider. Competitive and serious cyclists are welcome but will likely have knowledge and assistance beyond what the Great Bike Round-Up offers. VCU Police will be here to help get students’ bikes registered. Mechanics from local bike shops will be here giving free tune-ups and are here to answer any questions you may have about your bike. Food will be provided while supplies last!

Celebrate Earth Day early by getting your bike set up and ready to ride! We thank you for choosing alternative transportation!