Category Archives: community

Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association Meeting On Tuesday

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From OHNA email today:

Tuesday October 27: OHNA Monthly Meeting
Join at 7pm. Bylaws changes will be discussed—VIEW HERE:
Bylaws Summary of Proposed Amendments
Bylaws Redline showing proposed new and deleted language.
(Editor’s note Contact OHNA for meeting Zoom link and copies of the information above)

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Saturday, October 31: Hallowe’en in Oregon Hill
Hallowe’en Parade: Beginning around 7:30 pm, from Monroe Park, down Laurel, and up Pine to Albemarle and the Linear Park.
Expect many Trick-or-Treaters beginning before dark.
Get a hot dog at Pine Street Baptist!

OHNA Elections: Run for (OHNA) Office!
OHNA holds officer elections each November. Express interest now!
Any OHNA resident or member can serve as an OHNA officer or committee chair.
Get involved! Express interest in serving here: https://tinyurl.com/cnj2p7r4
An ad hoc Elections Committee will review expressions of interest, matching candidates to interests, skills, and available positions.
Learn more: OHNArva@gmail.com.

November:

Oregon Hill Street Tree Planting Blitz
Thursday 11/5 9:00am – Dominion workday
Friday – 11/6 9:00am – Alliance for Chesapeake Bay lead
Saturday – 11/7 9:00am – Arbor Day: Oregon Hill Community day!
Come for as many of the three days as you can, or just one! We’ll be planting trees each day. Meet 9am at Pleasants Park; drop ins are welcome any time.
Sign up to volunteer and more information (impacts, maps, tree species) here.
NOTE: Expect some neighborhood sidewalk impacts the week of November 2nd as augering, planting and watering occurs and impacts around Pleasants Park for staging.

Oregon Hill Community Craft Night
November 19, 6pm: Pine Street Baptist Church, 400 S Pine St

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Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association
Valerie L’Herrou, President
John Bolecek, Treasurer
Amanda Bradley, Co-Vice-President
Bryan Clark Green, Co-Vice President
Jennifer Hancock, Co-Vice President
Susan Hill, Co-Vice President
Scott Racette, Secretary

OHNA Committees:
Bylaws: ohna-bylaws@googlegroups.com
Concert Relations: ohna-concert-relations@googlegroups.com
Events: ohna-events@googlegroups.com
FOOHP: foohp@googlegroups.com
Traffic & Safety: ohna-traffic-safety@googlegroups.com
Zoning: ohna-zoning@googlegroups.com

JOIN OHNA: https://forms.gle/joCpHqcPrShu8qf86
For events and more: https://ohnarva.org/

OHNA Fall Festival Postponed To NEXT Saturday, Oct. 24th

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From email announcement:

The Fall Festival is postponed from Saturday, October 17th, until Saturday, October 24th.
We scheduled a rain date for a reason, and we unfortunately need to use it!

Please come out on October 24th at 4:00pm to celebrate with your neighbors!

A reminder of the schedule:
4:30pm: Kids costume contest
4:45pm: Pet costume contest
5:00pm Visit from a firetruck
6:30pm outdoor movie: The Nightmare Before Christmas
All of the fun we have planned:
Hot dogs and popcorn donated by our friends at Pine Street Baptist Church
Incredible 6-person dinner to L’Opossum for auction
Gift cards to Adarra and Allianz Amphitheatre for raffle
Crafts and games for kids
Bake sale
Fabulous tee-shirts for sale
See you then!!

Questions? Contact Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association at ohnarva@gmail.com

Community Craft Night & Pumpkin Decorating This Thursday

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From FaceBook event page:

Join the monthly Community Craft Night at Pine Street Church. This month, we will also have pumpkin decorating at our gathering. Bring your own craft to work on, a snack to share, and conversations to enjoy with your neighbors. All ages and crafting abilities welcome. Enter through the Albemarle Street door.

Dada the Data! A Funeral March for Intelligence! – Halloween Parade Announced

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From All The Saints Theater Company:

Dada the Data! A Funeral March for Intelligence! Our 21st Annual Halloween Parade!!! What is dada but the ether, the string and the oscillation, the vibes are Dada. The oppressors who push for a post human realization, 100 years aftter Dadaism was born because the deranged taste for violence, war, and tyranny had left the people no choice! Again we must stand up to the oppressors and their mania for improvement, all the while we sell our blood and days for the promise of intelligence and a glimpse of immortalizzed bourgeoisie. We do not consent! Saintly Dadaist believe in the divine ability to be silly in the face of war. Join us in this Requiem of data collection. Let us smash the flocking reality that does not serve us. We have the right to privacy, we do not consent to surveillance. As the late great Dada Parton taught us, 9-5 blue collar dadaists roll out of bed and sip out of the holy grail of ambition and take to the streets every Halloween and to go to work on Monday!!!!!so we can go head to head with the Money God system and their liquid intelligence. So intelligence is dead!! And so what?? What for do we care ? What for do we love?? What for makes us shiver when the wind touches our scalp? The stocks are nothing but paper plates!to be trades people to burn the meat robot makers from the inside out! Time to play dumb, intelligence is dead, the resistance is full of fools, and boo hoo, big scum!! Create your own world, mimes the word, and pie the clowns is the new eat the rich!!!!

And…

All the Saints Annual Halloween Parade is a labor of love, supported through community fundraising and donations. This year, Puppets Off Broad Street is thrilled to help with fundraising in celebration of the 21st Anniversary of this Richmond tradition. Your donation is tax deductible.
Dada your dollars!
This year we are using everything but the kitchen sink to bring you a ready made revolution. All the Saints humbly ask for some money love from the Richmond community to help support the small but mighty crew of blue collar Dadaists coming together to bring you the parade. In the last few years, our crew has been larger, encompassing more traveling artists. This year we are scaling back to a small core team and using up our existing materials in order to shrink our overhead and fundraising goal to make the parade more sustainable. Please help us keep the parade alive this hallows eve by throwing us some bones.
Donations go towards
Material Costs & Art Supplies:
We strive to use recycled and donated materials primarily, but additional material costs do come up! Paint, brushes, fabric, hardware, bells, tape, cornstarch. Art ultimately is free, but paint is not. It shouldn’t be unsustainable to create art, a little goes a long way to help us manifest the full colorful world we build (and repair) every year without putting the saints in debt.
Transportation
Every parade is a beautiful storm of coordination, favors, and a love for Halloween. We pull upon a network of friends with vehicles able to transport the puppets all around town during October and to ferry our cardboard creations to the parade and back. Additionally we rent a truck. Donations help keep gas in the tank and us able to show up with more and more puppets.
We’re really just trying to cover costs and keep our crew fed this year, but anything additional gets distributed amongst the artists as compensation for all the hard work they do.
Thank you for supporting us Richmond, see ya on the streets 🙂
Our goal is $5500 this year✨
https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=TNLAK5SEALHPQ
If you’d prefer sending us donations via Venmo, send donations to @saintmarkoos

Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association Meets Tuesday

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From email announcement:

September OHNA Meeting:
Will be held on Sept 22 at 7pm, on Zoom.
Agenda and August minutes attached; see below.

September OHNA Calendar:
Check the OHNA calendar on OHNArva.org for more events and information!
EVERY SATURDAY, 9AM: Community garden hang – Linear Park 614 Holly Street
SEPT 25, FRI 7:30PM MOVIE NIGHTS W/ PINE STREET BAPTIST CHURCH
OCT 3, SAT 10am FOOHP Pleasants park cleanup
OCT 6, TUE 7:30 PM OHNA BYLAWS COMMITTEE MEETING (VIRTUAL)
OCT 9, FRI 7:30PM MOVIE NIGHTS W/ PINE STREET BAPTIST CHURCH

October: ____________________________
Fall festival and Hallowe’en events:
Fall festival: October 17, Pleasants Park.

NOVEMBER : ________________

OHNA Elections:
Run for (OHNA) Office!
OHNA holds its officer elections each November. Any OHNA resident or member can serve as an OHNA officer or committee chair. Get involved! Express interest in serving here: https://tinyurl.com/cnj2p7r4
An ad hoc Elections Committee will review expressions of interest, matching candidates to interests, skills, and available positions.
Learn more: OHNArva@gmail.com.

Oregon Hill Street Tree Planting Blitz
Thursday 11/5 9:00am – Dominion workday
Friday – 11/6 9:00am – Alliance for Chesapeake Bay lead
Saturday – 11/7 9:00am – Community day
Come for as many of the three days as you can, or just one! We’ll be planting trees each day. Meeting place is 9am at Pleasants Park, and all help is welcome. If you are able to help earlier than 9am, please sign up here for a few special tasks https://volunteersignup.org/Y9XFA

Other News & Events: _________
RVA Utility Billing Problems:
DPU has hired additional local staff to respond to ongoing problems with utilities billing since the system was updated. Learn more: https://rva.gov/public-utilities/accountupdate
Call or email DPU staff here: (804) 646-4646, dpucustserv@rva.gov

Tuesday, September 22 at 6:00 p.m.
Code Refresh 4th/5th District Joint Meeting
Lucille Brown Middle School
An opportunity to dig into how Draft 3 of the Code Refresh proposal will impact the 4th and 5th districts with Councilmember Stephanie Lynch and Councilmember Sarah Abubaker
Additional links and RSVP information:
RSVP and Submit Questions in Advance
Code Refresh Website
PDF Draft Three of Code Refresh
Interactive Draft Three Zoning District Map

Saturday, September 26, 11:00 AM to 7:30 PM.
¡Virginia Fiesta! 5th annual Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. Free, family-friendly event with live music, cultural dance, interactive workshops, and authentic cuisine at the Southside Community Center, 6255 Old Warwick Road. https://www.facebook.com/share/1BycXfXqNZ/
Thursday, October 15, 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM
RVA Schools Modernization Plan Meeting
District 5 Meeting (at Richmond High School for the Arts)
5th District City Budget Priority Form
Councilmember Lynch has posted a form to collect top priorities for the 5th District and for the City in the City’s FY28 Budget (July 1, 2027-June 30, 2028). The FY28 Budget will be delivered in March 2027 but budget planning starts early. You can review previous budgets HERE.

VCU Mary & Frances Youth Center on Linden St
–Pickleball Open Play Sessions–all skill levels are welcome.
Equipment is available on-site. Saturdays & Sundays: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM
–After School Program for kids: applications are being accepted.
For more info, email Verenda Cobbs at s2vkcobb@vcu.edu.

OHNA Monthly Meeting Agenda: Sept 22 2026
Join Zoom Meeting (Editor’s note: contact OHNA directly for Zoom link)
Welcome
Approval of Minutes: Scott Racette
Community and local Officials Updates: Councilmember Stephanie Lynch; Verenda Cobbs, VCU; Ashley Graves (VCU PD); Kelyn Gibson, Commonwealth Attorney’s Office; Johnny McRoy, RVAPD
Committee reports: Zoning, Parks, Events, Traffic and Safety, Bylaws, Amphitheater, Treasurer
Announcements: Upcoming committee meetings and events; October Parks events; November officer elections; November tree planting
Zoning Committee Presentation: How does Code Refresh Draft 3 impact Oregon Hill?
Continued Business:
New Business: SUP Application, 313 S Pine St; Overlook Gazebo

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Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association
Valerie L’Herrou, President
John Bolecek, Treasurer
Amanda Bradley, Co-Vice-President
Bryan Clark Green, Co-Vice President
Jennifer Hancock, Co-Vice President
Susan Hill, Co-Vice President
Scott Racette, Secretary

JOIN OHNA: https://forms.gle/joCpHqcPrShu8qf86
For events and more: https://ohnarva.org/

A Plea To Local Non-Profits: Ditch CodeRefresh Before It Is Too Late!

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On the eve of ‘Richmond Habitat’s Framing the Future Gala’ at the Altria Theater this Saturday evening (sponsored by Co-star of course), I would like to make this direct plea to its board and the boards of other local non-profits: Ditch the City Code ReFresh plan before it is too late!

Code Refresh is a scam for developers that is being forced on Richmond citizens. It will not help affordable housing, it will raise taxes and displace more poorer, long term residents. We have already seen CodeReFresh backtrack on some of its promises for affordable housing- trust me, in the end, the planners will backtrack more to gain favor with their developer buddies.

Furthermore, if it is rammed through City Council, despite almost 70 percent of Richmond’s citizens being against it, it could spell the end for Oregon Hill and other City neighborhoods.

Oregon Hill, which historically became one of Richmond’s most dense neighborhoods, has fought hard for decades for historical preservation and its environment, despite continued pressure and encroachment. Notably, it has also embraced truly affordable housing decades ago and still provides ‘starter homes’ for young families. Don’t ruin it by giving developers (and, behind the scenes, VCU), free rein.

Also to the local Sierra Club: Code ReFresh will incentivize more demolition and take away green space, creating real environmental disasters. If you think storm water runoff is a problem now, wait until Oregon Hill plots are zoned with only a 5% vegetative space requirement. Expect more highly questionable excuses to bring down more mature trees. It’s truly a ‘taxes up, trees down’ situation that deserves rebuke, not coddling.

There are alternatives to this that need to come forward, free of corporate developers’ ambitions. Send a strong message that supports affordable housing that does NOT give into CodeRefresh’s bad planning and allow it to use your good name, with your hard work, in support of such disaster.

Community Craft Night Thursday

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Pine Street Baptist Church is hosting ‘Community Craft and Pizza Night’ tomorrow, Thursday, night from 6 pm to 8:30 pm.

From FaceBook event page:
“Join us for another Oregon Community Craft Night at Pine Street. Enjoy your craft and your neighbors’ crafts, good conversation, and a slice of pizza. All ages welcome.”

(Editor’s note: I would have loaded the flyer for this post, but I am having technical difficulties)