Neighbor Charles Pool took a few photographs today of the crew working on rebuilding the Tredegar wall.
Click here and here for background on this project.
Rebuilding The Tredegar Wall
Reply
Author Archives: Scott
Victory Garden
Nice flower plantings at Victory Rug Apartments!
WRIC Story On St. Andrew’s Farm to School Program
WRIC recently featured a story on St. Andrew’s School’s Farm To School program.
Excerpt:
What will happen if students eat only fresh, local foods in school? Will their grades improve? Will absences go down? It is a study going on at Richmond’s St. Andrew’s School, and the kids are eating it up!
There is excitement in the lunch line. Today’s menu is another great one: burgers made with beef and beet, plus plenty of produce.
“I like how at the salad bar we can have eggs and cucumbers and sometimes tomatoes,” says fifth grade student Joshua Bush.
This program is built on a partnership with a purpose. Chefs from Edible Education cook and serve up fresh food brought in by Field of Dreams Farm. About 90% is grown nearby. At the beginning of the year, nurses checked each student’s weight, height and general health. Now they are following them to see how this fresh food is fuel for the classroom.
“When you’re eating healthy, you’re able to pay attention, stay focused,” says Cyndy Weldon-Lassiter, the St. Andrew’s Head of School.
Oregon Hill Funk All-Stars Playing Mojo’s Saturday
From FaceBook event page:
Live music at Mojo’s? what? Come check out Oregon Hill Funk All Stars at Mojo’s Saturday Night. 4-4-15 Music starts at 10. No Cover. 21+
Drug Violation On W. Cary
From RAIDSonline.com
DRUG/NARCOTIC VIOLATION
8XX W CARY ST
Mar 31, 2015 at 8:45 am
Data provided by Virginia Commonwealth University Police Department
Neighbor Creates ‘Sanctuary’ to Help Formerly Incarcerated Citizens
Congratulations to Pine Street neighbor Liz Canfield!
She is featured on this WTVR report: VCU professor creates ‘Sanctuary’ to help formerly incarcerated residents ease back into society
Excerpts:
Virginia Commonwealth University and the Richmond City Sheriff’s Office have teamed up to provide formerly incarcerated Richmond-area residents and their families a place to learn, create, and transition back into society. Sanctuary, which opened March 30 at 101 W. Broad Street, will provide GED tutoring, job preparation and resources, resume building, and creative expression through art for members re-entering the community.
…
Sanctuary co-founder Dr. Liz Canfield is an assistant professor at VCU in the College of Humanities and Sciences’ Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies.
“We wanted to build a safe place on the outside where people can go when they got out,” she explained.
Sanctuary is an extension of Open-Minds, a program Canfield co-directs with VCU English professor Dr. David Coogan. Open-Minds provides dual enrollment classes for VCU students and incarcerated people at the Richmond City Jail.
Illegally Demolished Historic Wall To Be Rebuilt HIGHER
After the historic Tredegar wall was illegally demolished several years ago, and much controversy resulted, several promises were made to rebuild the wall.
Recently, a neighbor who works in historic preservation has been helping preparations to finally start work on rebuilding the wall.
However, this website has recently learned that there are new plans to rebuild the wall at least twenty feet higher than its previous height. No one could comment on this development at press time.
While it remains a mystery as to the exact reasons being given for this raise, there is some speculation on the need to use ‘extra’ historic bricks that will be made available from the planned updating of old City Hall. Some Oregon Hill residents believe the higher wall will be used to host community movie screenings, while others believe that the City is preparing the wall for river level rise due to climate change.
Please stay tuned as this story develops.
St. Andrew’s Church and School To Host Blip Hop Symposium
In what is sure to stir up music fans and parishes alike, St. Andrew’s Church and St. Andrew’s School announced today that they will jointly host an academic and music symposium on the small, mostly instrumental genre of modern music known as blip hop.
Although many details still need to be confirmed, including which August weekend has been reserved, exciting aspects are starting to take shape. Some big names in blip hop have already been invited (though their appearances still need to be scheduled), including German techno duo Mouse on Mars, Matthew Herbert, and blip hop enthusiast and Grammy-winning pop musician David Byrne (formerly of the Talking Heads). Local artist ENE (aka Scott Hudgins) has definitely committed and plans to attend the entire symposium. Regardless of the final line up, tickets will be free and offered first come first serve (reserve now by calling the church office at 804-648-7980)
In the spirit of community there will be several pieces performed in conjunction with the church’s choir and organist and the school’s violin, chorus and piano classes throughout the event. Workshops on blip hop dancing will also be offered. Live concerts will be held in the church’s Baldwin Hall, near the Grace Arents Community Garden, the William Byrd Community House, and Oregon Hill’s Riverside Park. Other sponsors are still being decided though possibilities include community alternative radio station WRIR, University of Richmond radio station WDCE, Plan 9 Music, Councilperson Parker Agelasto’s Office, Girls Rock! RVA, Richmond2015 UCI Bicycle Race, and Dinamo restaurant.
Asked why St. Andrew’s Church and School is so interested in blip hop, church leadership pointed to several factors. St. Andrew’s, of course, does have historic Welsh and Scottish links to the Northern European culture that David Byrne himself has praised in blip hop. “We realized that we do have tangible links to electronic music”, said one vestry board member. He mentioned the renovated St. Andrew’s House (236 S. Laurel Street) as previously being the starting place of the seminal band LaBradford. He also said that there had been some past confusion between the church’s EFM (Education for Ministry) group and EDM (a popular acronym for Electronic Dance Music).
St. Andrew’s School is still celebrating its 120 year anniversary,” gushed the St. Andrew’s Head of School, “and this symposium is another change to highlight how music has played an important part in our education efforts.”
St. Andrew’s rector, Rev. Abbott Bailey, herself a not-so-secret Zap Mama fan, said that she sees the blip hop symposium as “a way to engage with the lost children of the nineties.”
A member of Grace-On-The-Hill, a youth ministry of St. Andrew’s Church in partnership with the Diocese of Virginia, had this thought to offer:
“Instead of just rhythm pounding on like a soothing metronome, creativities and personalities layer atop it. Things meld together as strong but diverse parts join the score. Life departs what we’ve known and suddenly feels nothing like the squishy, germ-filled meat mush in the grind nor the innocent swing of habit; it transforms into a grand experience of unity within a beat. Different components add to the piece, and it is far too complex to brave its performance alone.”
Mouse on Mars on YouTube:
Gazebo To Get Solar
Oregon Hill residents are gratified that the City workers recently repainted the historic gazebo that sits as the end of S. Pine Street, near the overlook. With the UCI Road World Championship bicycle races approaching, residents are hoping the gazebo will look enticing for spectators.
But now the City has additional news: As part of longterm restoration plans, the gazebo roof will be fitted with not only roof-flush photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and batteries to power the lighting installations around it, but also a retractable solar thermal array that will provide steam for picnic cooking as well as hot beverages in cooler temperatures.
The design for this array comes from Wolfgang Scheffler, who is well know for designing similar arrays for community kitchens across India. City officials expect to have both the PV array and the thermal array up later this summer, as long as they can get past regulation in the City’s VEPGA.
Community Movie Night Season Opens With Gangster Film ‘Scarface’
For years, there have been Friday night community movies at Pleasants Park, next to Pine Street Baptist Church.
But this year, the chief organizer behind these movie nights is about to realize a longtime dream of showing in the park the 1983 film Scarface, starring Al Pacino. It is scheduled for just a few weeks as the season opener. Yes, he knows that he will be relying on parents to keep their children from being influenced or frightened by the film’s excessive violence, frequent strong language and graphic hard drug usage. But after decades of showing more family-friendly fare, he is ready to take more chances with his screenings, and hopes nearby neighbors will indulge him.
“I am a big DePalma fan”, he says, “And who can forget Pacino?
‘You wanna play rough? Okay. Say hello to my little friend!'” (with accent).
Free grilled hot dogs and beverages will be served as long as supplies last. The full schedule for the series has not yet been announced.