Community Movie Night
Friday, September 21
7:30 pm
Pleasants Park
Refreshments Served
“Beauty is my power” – Community Movie Night!
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Author Archives: Scott
Richmond Water Rates Protest On Monday
There is a water rate protest planned for this coming Monday outside City Hall before the formal City Council meeting. The All the Saints Theater troop, the same group that organizes the Halloween Parade in Oregon Hill, is planning to attend with puppets and posters.
From the Facebook Event page:
This is an important demonstration to be held at Richmond City Hall at 5:00 p.m on Monday Sept. 24th to protest the city of Richmond’s outrageous minimum water/sewer service charge of $49.40, which is the highest in the nation. This is a real burden for every social security grandma and other low income residents to have to pay $592 annually just to be connected to the water supply. The city utility raises over $30 million annually from this residential water/sewer service charge, and almost half of this, $12 million is, paid directly into the city’s general fund. This is the most regressive means possible to raise general funds for the city– putting an outrageous service charge on the most basic necessity — water. Furthermore, Richmond’s water rate does not promote conservation because the city utility gets more than half of its revenue from the minimum service charge instead of the volume charge.
This protest is part of campaign that has seen over 1300 people sign an online petition that demands the City adopt the rate schedule used by Henrico County, which buys water from Richmond’s water utility.
From the petition:
Henrico’s water/sewer rates are equitable and promote conservation. Henrico’s minimum monthly water/sewer service charge is about a third of Richmond’s. To encourage conservation, Henrico offers a volume use discount for customers who use 6 ccf or less of water, while customers using over 6 ccf pay a premium water/sewer volume rate. Richmond can receive the same total revenue from its water works by slashing the minimum monthly service charge, eliminating the high volume discount, and charging a premium for customers using over 6 ccf of water/sewer.
The City of Richmond has a long-term financial incentive to adopt Henrico’s rate schedule. By giving customers genuine incentives to conserve water, Richmond will reduce the need for future treatment facilities and reduce pollutants downstream.
Neighbor Charles Pool is scheduled to speak on the water rate issue during the Citizen Comment period at the City Council meeting. The campaign to reform the CIty’s water rates goes back at least five years.
Yet Another Theft From Vehicle
From Richmond Police:
4th Precinct
THEFT FROM MOTOR VEHICLE
9/15/12 – 9/16/12 7:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
715 Holly St.
An iPod, a jacket and boots were stolen from a vehicle.
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.
As for recycling news, which local universities have their recycling game on? Sadly, according to the website, only two Virginia schools are participating in the Game Day Challenge: UVA and VMI. Where’s VCU, VSU, U of R, and VUU?
This Tuesday At The Market
From email announcement:
Greetings all
Well, we’re on weather watch, specifically the threat of damaging winds. As a result, the 3rd Tuesday Jam is canceled; Amy’s Garden and Wild Heaven Goat Soaps will not be present. We’ll try to keep you posted if others will also not attend. The Byrd House Information tent will be up, but we will not set up the cafe tables and umbrellas, and there will be no storytelling or face-painting. We’ll be streamlining operations to the essentials, just in case. So, like our stalwart vendors, our hardy shoppers will come to get their weekly good stuff, while keeping an eye on the weather.
Ok, voting for Richmond Unite is over and we don’t know our standing yet. In the meantime, the Amazing Raise begins Wednesday at 6 am and lasts through Thursday 6 pm. Donate to WBCH your little pocket out for 36 hours. Go to WBCH.org and click on the Amazing Raise link.Eradication of Poverty: Utopia or Reality?
WBCH hosts the annual Hans S. Falck Lecture on Social Responsibility on Thursday, October 4, 7-9 pm. Panelists include John Moeser (policy), Youngmi Kim (social work), Michael Paul Williams (journalism), Garet Prior (urban planning). Learn more and RSVP at hanssfalcklectures.blogspot.com.National Food Dayat the Market!!!
Byrd House Market celebrates National Food Day on Tuesday, October 23rd, 3:30-7pm. Eat Good Grow Great with 25+ food vendors. $10 and a Student ID gets you a Student Food Box! VCU’s Wellness Center, World Chiropractic, Robin Raver’s Chair Massage, Food Rescue activities and a Film+Discussion: “Ingredients” – Our partners are Shalom Farms and Victory Farm. Many thanks to Slow Food RVA for loaning us their copy of the film (and for being the Richmond coordinator of National Food Day!)I talked a little bit about dog poop last week and things have improved. This week I get to talk about Parking! Geographically our market is bounded by S. Linden St. on its west (downhill) side and the gravel drive on its east (uphill) side. Turning left onto the gravel drive from Idlewood Ave, there are 3 or so spots that face the community garden fence. The tenants of the apartments along Cherry St. have the parking on the other side of the gravel drive and have recently let us know that they often come home to find their spots filled by shoppers or vendors off-loading. Legally, they have the right to have cars towed from their spots just as we have the same right if they park on market grounds or in our spots. But I would not like for any of us to take that path. So we thank you in advance and for the remainder of the season, for keeping to Idlewood Ave., S. Linden St., the soccer field, and the 3 spots facing the community garden fence. Thank you.
Ana Edwards, Manager
Byrd House Market & Library Programs
Grace Arents Library & Education Center
William Byrd Community House
www.wbch.org / 804.643.2717 ext.306
Stolen From Unlocked Vehicle
From Richmond Police:
4th Precinct
THEFT FROM MOTOR VEHICLE
9/16/12 1:00 a.m. – 5:30 a.m.
700 block of South Pine Street
An unknown person(s) entered the unlocked vehicle and stole three backpacks and a firearm.
School Board Candidate Forum
From the flyer:
Richmond School Board Candidate Forum
This November, elections will decide who will represent you. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear the candidate’s vision for education.
September 20th 7:00 PM
VCU Student Commons Theater 907 Floyd Ave
(Between Main and Floyd at Cherry)
moderator Dr. Kim AllenSponsored By
L Douglas Wilder School of Government in partnership with
A Philip Randolph Institute – Richmond Alliance for Progressive Values – Coalition to Stop Gun Violence – People of Faith for Equality – RePHRAME – Richmond NOW – Sierra Club – Fall of the James Southerner on New Ground S.O.N.G. – Unite Women-Va – Virginia Organizing – Virginia New Majority – Central Virginia ChapterFor more information roland.winston@gmail.com
St. Andrew’s School and The Amazing Raise
Another fundraising contest.
From the St. Andrew’s School FaceBook page:
Help turn $50 into $20,000 for St. Andrew’s School! The Amazing Raise is a 36-hour online give-a-thon that will take place from 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, September 19, 2012 until 6:00 p.m., Thursday, September 20, 2012. Your donation of $50 or more through giverichmond.org during this time will enter St. Andrew’s School into grand prize drawings for bonus incentives of up to $20,000 from The Community Foundation! The more unique donors who give a gift of $50 or more to our School, the greater the chance of us winning a grand prize of $20,000.
Connecting The Canals
When Venture Richmond’s Jack Berry did his presentation to OHNA, he said that there had never been a study to connect the canals.
Yet here one is:
Click here for Richmond Canals pdf.
I guess Berry just did not know, but then he’s been around Richmond for a long time. It’s certainly not the first time that plans for RIchmond have been buried, only to be dug up by citizens later.
OHNA Response to Proposed Changes at Possible Amphitheater Site
From email:
Dear Mr. Berry,
Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to visit the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA) on August 28, 2012 to make a presentation on the proposed amphitheater located near the Oregon Hill neighborhood. In your presentation, you discussed the changes Venture Richmond wished to make to the site, including a proposal to trim the south bank of the historic James River and Kanawha Canal in order to improve the sight lines for the amphitheater, which you envision accommodating 10,000 people.
At the same meeting, OHNA voted to oppose any damage to the historic James River and Kanawha Canal and, specifically, removing any portion of the south bank of the canal. The Oregon Hill neighborhood has important historic connections to the canal. The surviving home at 601 Spring Street belonged to Samuel P. Parsons, the canal Superintendent responsible for the canal’s expansion to Lynchburg. These connections also include the surviving home at 619 W. Cary Street that belonged to the Messler family, who owned a canal boat building business in Penitentiary Basin, just east of the proposed amphitheater.
While we deeply appreciate the worthwhile efforts of Venture Richmond in bringing the Folk Festival to Richmond, we believe that this can be accomplished without damaging the irreplaceable historic canal. This is an original portion of the canal that was built when George Washington was the first president of the canal. The city is going to considerable expense to protect the canal in the construction of the 2nd Street connector, so it would be unacceptable to damage the canal just to the west of this connector.
Suggestions made by members of OHNA include: covering the canal with a temporary protective structure during the folk festival, encouraging Venture Richmond to consider a smaller venue at the location of the amphitheater that would not require damage to the historic canal, moving the adjacent Children’s Stage to another location and using the new open space as a part of the proposed amphitheater, or placing an impermeable liner inside the canal, filling it with soil and flowers and building bridges to cross the canal.
OHNA is also asking that Venture Richmond limit the number of performances at the amphitheater to 15 days per year and to limit the times of the performances to 10:00 pm on weeknights and to 11:00 pm on weekends.
Again, we appreciate Venture Richmond’s presentation to our organization, and we hope that you will keep us informed regarding developments of the proposed amphitheater.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Hancock
Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association, President
For more background on this, please click here and here and here.