First, from Fans of Monroe Park Facebook Group:

Good news, friends- the Monroe Park Master plan/document was unanimously approved by the Planning Commission on Monday, Oct 19th. Now the City needs to come up with some major dollars to make this park the historic jewel the City deserves!

While Oregon Hill neighbors continue to ask for a traffic circle for Idlewood Avenue, other neighborhoods receive…the lack of action is disturbing. I will continue to give voice for my neighbors’ concerns:

Thank you for your work on this issue.

There were several distinct reasons to support the roundabout. Others
have made the same observations; just making the notes below to
refresh some of the local experience.

During the building of the Grace Arents Community Garden (GACG),
workers saw numerous cars going the wrong way down Idlewood after
passing through the traffic light at Cherry Street. There were close
calls with cars coming off the exit ramp, including one screeching
moment long enough for garden workers to look up & take in the whole
thing, conscious of the split second swerve that avoided what could
have been a fatal head-on crash. Even that incident, & certainly none
of the other times cars went the wrong way down the street, never made
it into a police accident report, because near-misses are not
recorded. The heart-pounding of the witnesses could not have been a
fraction of the terror of those in the vehicles; too bad none of their
voices were raised in an official appeal to traffic designers to never
let it happen to anyone else.

The William Byrd Community House had a persuasive point that the
property on which the GACG & Byrd House Market currently operate might
someday be used for much needed subsidized elder housing under
auspices of WBCH. Adding residents, staff & visitors of an elder
housing establishment into the current limited access to the site
would add even more traffic confusion.

If the long-term proposal for elder housing does not happen anytime
soon, then the GACG & market may continue to grow in importance as
local food security infrastructure. The one-way traffic pattern
effectively reduces awareness & participation, especially by Randolph
neighborhood.

If the elder housing does come to pass, then the community garden &
market might be moved further down the Garden Mile, possibly nearer
Clark Springs school. At that time, our neighborhood might be in the
position that Randolph is now with regard to being uninvited to
participate by the one-way traffic design.

Rush hour coming off of the RMA, with a good chunk of it being VCU
traffic, tries impatiently to get through the bottleneck of our
neighborhood at a time most dangerous for children & elders attending
WBCH programs, for students attending St.Andrews school, & even for
walkers to Open High School. The confusion, irritation & danger would
be reduced considerably by splitting off all the traffic that is
actually west-bound before it has to come through the light at Cherry
Street.

One other element of the discussion is the roundabout itself.
Statistics prove that it increases safety at intersections. It
reduces gridlock by being designed for almost continuous flow.