A longtime Oregon Hill resident reports:

12:30AM April 10, 2010

8 RPD patrol cars (2 were unmarked) were in the rear and
front of the houses on 200 block S Cherry where an out of control VCU
party was taking place. I would estimate that between the people
outdoors in the back yards and the people spilling into the street
out front there were 300-400 students or more that dont live in the
neighborhood. The noise was amazing with the screaming sounding like
a huge sporting event and music through some kind of PA. One kid had
a bullhorn he was screaming through. Most of the kids looked
underage and carried cases or 12 packs of beer or open containers-
many 40 oz bottles.
As I sat on my porch, a student came within 10 feet of me and
started urinating in my yard until I screamed for him to get the h*ll
out of there.
It took the officers well over an hour to disperse the crowd
and they circled the block for another hour or so as hangers on tried
to start the party back up at other houses on the 200 block. This
was a huge endeavor and use of resources for the City Police who have
their hands full elsewhere.
Oddly enough, a VCU student escort bus delivered 6 or so
party goers to the location that disembarked before they realized the
cops were shutting down the party. They sure looked bewildered. I,
for one, dont appreciate VCU using this shuttle to transport party
goers into Oregon Hill after midnight. It compounds the problem and
it has happened before.
These houses are owned by Hugh Edmunds (some by he and his
brother) and are the site of chronic out of control VCU parties. His
only interest seems to be keeping them full of VCU students.

A resident gave me permission to post the following:

Last night (Thursday night) or early this morning (Friday morning), a red, 1994 Pontiac Firebird was broken into on the corner of Holly and South Pine. Most likely, the thiefs were trying to steal the T-Top, which may make this somewhat of an insolated incident: driver-side window was busted out and then the T-Top was also smashed in.

If you have any information, please call 646-4105 (case # 201003120160).

With this said…

1) Obviously lock your doors and remove items from your car.

2) Call in grafitti when you see it by calling the city at 311 or going online to make a request: http://eservices.ci.richmond.va.us/applications/citizensrequest/frmNewEntryType.asp (Studies have shown that grafitti invites crime)

3) Pick up trash…again, the more trash around, the more likely that thiefs think that residents don’t care about their property and less likely to respond to crimes.

Overall, our neighborhood has never had any major problems, but if we consistently do the above, we can help keep it this way!!

Apart from the regular New Year’s Eve noise, there are several residents’ reports that New Year’s Eve parties at VCU students’ houses last night on Cherry and Laurel Streets were out of control and lead to street brawls and vandalism. Police and ambulances were on the scene, but no word on any arrests or specific injuries.