Flyer at W.Cary and Linden:
I missed the peaceful march yesterday that started in Monroe Park, but the editor of this community news site would like to express his support. In a small way, I hope this helps with forgiveness for past neighborhood transgressions.
Oregon Hill residents have had a real love/hate relationship with the annual fireworks displays surrounding the Fourth of July. And if asked, I am sure it would mostly be ‘love’.
That said, this year the RVA Fireworks on The James (usually on July 3rd) is not happening. Before everyone complains and accuses certain Oregon Hill residents of being NIMBY party poopers, it should be recognized that the reason that they are not happening is that major sponsors decided not to support the event this year.
So, fireworks fans can certainly attend other fireworks displays throughout the area, including the free one sponsored by the City at the Dogwood Dell on the 4th. What happens in future years is anyone’s guess, but one way to adjust is to change the nature of the fireworks displays themselves by making them more respectful of nature.
The New York Times has a wonderful recent article on the increasing popularity of ‘quiet fireworks’:
In parts of Europe, quiet fireworks displays have grown increasingly common. In Britain, venues close to residents, wildlife or livestock often permit only quiet fireworks. One town in Italy, Collecchio, passed a law in 2015 that all fireworks displays must be quiet.
By relying on rich color effects and tight visual choreography, designers of quiet fireworks programs can forgo the big explosions and still deliver a stunning show. The hope is that softer celebrations mean less stress for noise-sensitive children, veterans, older people, pets and wildlife.
“We’ve seen more competitors in the last decade or so,” said Rino Sampieri, a senior display manager at Fantastic Fireworks, a company based in England that started selling a quiet fireworks package 30 years ago. “Today, quiet fireworks are part of everybody’s inventory.”
Quiet fireworks are not a new invention. In fact, they are used routinely in classic firework shows as visual effects to accompany the loud bangs. Think of the “comet tail,” which shoots into the sky with a trail of sparkles before quietly fizzling out. Or the “flying fish,” which features tiny tadpole embers scattering away from a silent burst.
What is new is the emergence of a genre of low-key, quiet fireworks displays for audiences that want the fanfare of fireworks without the auditory disturbance.
In addition, there is more development being done on ‘green fireworks’ that do not dump as much heavy metal residue as regular ones. Still, there are a lot of compelling reasons to just not do fireworks altogether. Perhaps the City leaders can take more responsibility and promote better alternatives. Laser light shows, for example, are becoming increasingly sophisticated and crowd pleasing.
Paul Goldman has yet another Washington Post editorial that follows up on the long-running water utility reform campaign by neighborhood residents. In this one, he gets down to numbers and compares to food tax.
From editorial:
The food tax bill is now about $80 dollars a year for the average low-income family – and it’s still considered too high by such groups as the NAACP and Democratic liberals. We agree.
But in Richmond, the average poor family is paying $150 to $200 a year for regressive, non-existent taxes embedded within their utility bills.
City leaders, aware of these facts, refuse to take action.
…
Based on Richmond’s new budget, DPU will likely collect between about $30 million of such revenue. Of that, roughly $7 million will be fleeced from the poor.
And again, the real question is how will Council and Mayoral candidates acknowledge and confront this and other financial issues?
OregonHill.net and seven other sites are today launching Small Richmond, a new site featuring local independent news in the city.
The eight participating sites cover core Richmond geography and
areas of interest. We are stoked to partner with Church Hill People’s News, Brookland Park Post, Dogtown Dish, Randolph RVA, Richmond Outside, Springhill RVA, and VCU Ram Nation to connect Richmond readers and publishers.
Contact John Murden at murden@gmail.com or (804)564-1360 to suggest a site for inclusion, if you would like to set up a community blog for your area, or for more information.
Thankfully, Norman Leahy and Paul Goldman pick up on Oregon Hill residents’ long-running campaign for utility reform.
Will we see responses from Mayoral candidates?
From their Washington Post column:
The government in Virginia’s capital, Richmond, has a dirty little secret: It uses a little-known city charter provision to rip off poor residents by adding a phony, non-existent “tax” — including a bogus federal “tax” charge — to their water and certain other utility bills.
Over the years, this unconscionable rip-off has totaled many hundreds of millions of dollars. It stems from a Jim Crow-era state law added to Richmond’s charter at the request of city leaders.
While the Richmond Police Department prepares security for Presidential candidate Trump’s appearance at the Richmond Coliseum on Friday, protesters are planning an-anti-Trump rally in Monroe Park for that evening and the weekend.
If that was not enough, the Richmond Recreational Dispute Group (RRDG) will be hosting their second annual meeting in Monroe Park this Saturday. From announcement:
Hi! It’s time again for RRDP to host our second event. After our success on Mayo Island we figured we’d hold our second event earlier in the year to fit in a third. We promote engaging in disputes of different varieties including civil, uncivil (shouting matches), and untraditional (Bare knuckle and gloved). WE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING “TRAIN PEOPLE” AFTER FEBUARIES INCIDENT. At least in the untraditional activities. Large groups are encouraged for group activities. Pizza will be provided but come early. Things kick off at 10PM, possible alternate location is the old Pleasant’s downtown parking lot.
Now, regardless of whether or not any of this is real, Monroe Park supporters are still concerned about the park itself- from Cherry Street neighbor Todd Woodson:
Friends- as of April 14, 2016, its been two years since City Council approved the lease for Monroe Park without, in my opinion, fully vetting the leadership of the Monroe Park Conservancy. The city announced last winter that the park would close in May. I requested updates from both Charles Samuels and the Conservancy months ago on the timeline for renovations and they have failed to even respond. Samuels is not running for reelection to the second district council seat this year.
Perhaps if more people emailed and asked what’s going on, we could get an answer. Please email both Councilman Charles Samuels and Alice Massie with the Conservancy and ask why there has been no progress and in fact, more deterioration over the last two years plus. Thanks- Here are the email addresses:
charles.samuels@richmondgov.com
amassie@monroepark.com
One final note: Despite my best hopes, it does not look like anyone seriously took up my challenge and it does not look like I will be crawling.
From Times Dispatch article:
“Our local programming committee has outdone themselves, once again,” said festival director Lisa Sims in a statement. “Dancers from Sri Lanka, zydeco players from Louisiana, virtuosic musicians from Afghanistan, gospel singers from Tennessee and dozens of others will all offer free performances within a half-mile of each other. There’s really nothing else like it in the Virginia.”
Last year, a record-breaking 200,000-plus people attended the festival, up 50,000 from a rainy 2014.
Quick editorial: Hopefully Venture Richmond can become a better neighbor and we can all enjoy it this year as in years past. Still waiting for more agreement to neighborhood’s reasonable requests.
There are also still outstanding questions about how this important, historic area of the riverfront will be recognized and preserved in the future.
https://www.oregonhill.net/2015/10/12/folk-festival-and-a-deliberately-missed-opportunity/
Laurel Street neighbor Charles Pool had a “Correspondent of the Day” letter to the editor in today’s Times Dispatch:
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Your editorial, “Fix it,” makes some good points regarding Petersburg’s troubled water utility, but what about Richmond’s own deplorable water billing? Unlike Petersburg, Richmond tacks on a payment in lieu of federal income tax onto its water bill. Charging federal income tax on the water bill costs Richmond water customers about $5 million annually and is the most regressive way to raise general funds for the city.
Richmond’s monthly water and sewer service charge, the amount the customer pays before drawing the first gallon of water, is almost $10 higher than Petersburg’s. At $29.03, Richmond’s minimum monthly service charge is one of the highest in the country, and disproportionately penalizes those who conserve water. Many Richmonders are not aware of this high service charge because it is still not shown on the customer’s bill, after years of promising to do so.
Richmond is blessed to own its water utility, but it is wrong to use water, which is a necessity, as a cash cow for padding the city’s general fund. Richmond’s water billing may be more efficient but less fair than Petersburg’s.
Charles Pool.
Richmond.
For more perspective on this, click here. Perhaps Mayoral candidates would like to speak to this issue also.
This morning some people were surprised by this headline in the Times Dispatch: “Application filed for hydroelectric project at Bosher’s Dam”.
If they had attended the author’s talk earlier this week, they might not have been. Tredegar Iron Works and other Richmond industry relied and used hydroelectric power well into the last century.
For myself and perhaps other Oregon Hill residents, this recalls earlier conversations and speculation about riverfront development and ambitions.
Hopefully, regardless of whether the hydroelectric proposal happens or not, it adds on pressure to do something to improve the river’s health and accessibility AS WELL AS forcing Dominion Power to do more with distributed, renewable energy.
Was the City’s utility department authorized to oppose this proposal, submitted in February? And if so, by who?
This also figures into a Kanawha Canal restoration goal that ‘public private partnership’ Venture Richmond unofficially announced earlier this month. I guess the local media is still not ready to report or discuss this yet, but the devil will be in the details- including water levels and water use, recreational opportunities, whether Venture Richmond will respect neighbors’ very reasonable concerns going forward, and costs in relation to other priorities. The City’s Department of Public Utilities manages the Kanawha Canal level as well as the City’s river level. Yes, there’s a Richmond Riverfront Plan, but we all know how these plans are pretty subjective- for example, there’s no Tredegar Green amphitheater in the Plan and there was a previous canal restoration plan that has been thrown aside.
Going back to this hydroelectric proposal, it may be that upriver (and more affluent) neighbors are able to ‘NIMBY‘ it, or maybe the environmental issues with even micro-hydro-electric at this site are too large to overcome, or maybe there is even more interest in the longterm in getting rid of Bosher’s Dam altogether. But the point is, this proposal and others should be part of a more open, public conversation over the future of the James River, local energy/water policy, and our local government.
Someone find me a local judge (after trying to draw attention to this issue again, again, and again, I have just about given up on a local journalist or anti-poverty commission)…
After reading this article, entitled “Flint residents paid America’s highest water rates”…
If Flint’s bill included both water and wastewater, Richmond’s bill is MUCH higher.
Flint’s bill for 60,000 gallons of water service= $864 annually
Richmond’s bill for 60,000 gallon of water/sewer service annually is $1,069.
748 gallons per CCF of water. 60,000 gallons = 80 ccf 80ccf divided by 12 equals 6 ccf per month.
Richmond’s base service charge for water is $12.99 per month and for sewer is 16.04 per month for a
total base water/sewer service charge of $29.03 per month or $348 per year.
Richmond’s volume charge for water is $3.60 per ccf and volume charge of sewer is $6.42 per ccf for a total of $10.02 per ccf for water/sewer. 6 ccf X $10.02 + $60.12 per month x 12 equals $721 annually.
$348 annual base water/sewer service charge + $721 for 6 ccf water/sewer service annually = $1,069 annually for 60,000 gallons of water/sewer service. This is 20% higher than Flint’s bill which is mentioned as the highest in the country.
Of course, Richmond residents can at least drink our water….for now…