Category Archives: News

Mamma Zu Grub

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Food blogger “grub like a girl” recently posted a review of Oregon Hill’s Mamma Zu restaurant.

Excerpts:

Forget “have it your way” hospitality, Mamma Zu has customers playing their way; of course, this can make pretentious diners feel powerless, making for one interesting customer service experience. For me, I prefer the raw un-fluffy service and ambiance centered around good food, not fancy font menus or hand stitched table linens. If you’re open to mediocre service, no ass-kissing, and food that’ll make you melt with delight, this is your place.
…
Mamma Zu isn’t one of Richmond’s top restaurant for nothing, this place is an experience and the food is exceptional. For me, it solidifies the ongoing admiration I have for local eateries and the servers, cooks, and team that delivers authentic deserving food.

Community Biking Forum On Sunday

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From RideRichmond.net:

Richmond’s Bike-Ped Coordinator will be present, as will members of Virginia Bicycling Federation and BikeVirginia. With the General Assembly for the Commonwealth in Richmond, we have to make use of our community strength to effectively lobby and show that as cyclists, we’re also humans, and deserve rights and legislation that protects us on the road.

Flying Brick Library Schedules Screenings of “The Century of the Self”

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From their website:

Join the Flying Brick Library for a four-part workshop/screening of “The Century of the Self,” a British documentary mini-series that covers the western psychological theories of the 20th century as they relate to capitalism and democracy… specifically, in terms of consumerism, propaganda, mass media, advertising and ideas about normalcy and identity.

Each session will start with a screening of an hour-long episode, followed by discussion. You don’t need to attend all four events to attend one, although each flows into the next.

When: 4pm on Dec 10, 13, 17 and 20 (Mon and Thurs)

Congratulations to Ram Bhagat

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Ram Bhagat, celebrated Open High teacher, founder of Drums No Guns and the Richmond Youth Peace Project, recently received one of this year’s Pollak Awards. (Click here for article).

Here is a an earlier profile from a Richmond Magazine article on standout teachers:

Although Ram Bhagat’s students don’t always relish their time in his demanding science classes, the Open High School teacher says “99 percent” of them like him after the classes are over. In his large classroom lined with windows, Bhagat teaches chemistry and AP environmental science.

Open High, part of the Richmond Public Schools system, has always taken an expansive approach to education, allowing students to follow their interests and learn subjects in creative ways. So, when Bhagat’s students study how water molecules behave, they may invent a dance or go to the James River. A teacher for 27 years, Bhagat is a Virginia State University graduate who grew up in New Haven, Conn. In college, Bhagat says, he became engaged in learning, particularly about microbiology, his major. The teachers there were “very inspirational by the way that they taught and cared.”

Chicken History

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From letter to editor by Russell B. Rowe in the Charlottesville Daily Progress:

I read with great interest about the chicken problem in Albemarle County.
Let me give you some firsthand witness of living with chickens, as opposed to some “scientific study” or “snooty opinion” on living in a chicken environment, close quarters.

During the Great Depression, my four brothers, mama and daddy lived on Oregon Hill, a working class neighborhood in the heart of Richmond. Most of the houses were tied together, with a walk-through alley sometimes mixed in. My dad, I suppose to keep down trouble with neighbors, built a fence wherever we moved.

Click the link above for more, but the letter concludes:

What I’m trying to get to is we had at least seven people in that frame house with a fenced-in dirt backyard and 48 chickens, and I am 89 years old and in good health. All my brothers got in their three score and 10 years, plus.
The neighbors, in those days, never complained, and apparently the health department didn’t care, so scientific studies were not necessary.
My conclusion is: You have to have one rooster, and he is going to crow at dawn every day, but other than that, chickens never hurt anybody.

Expect some new ordinances to be considered at Richmond City Council in 2013.

CancerDancer Holiday Party at EAT(formerly Pescados)

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On Monday, December 10, EAT Oregon Hill (formerly Pescados China Street) is hosting a fundraiser for a group that focuses on ovarian cancer.

From the FaceBook event page:

We are doing it again this year, because it was so much damn fun last year. Special drinks, great food, friends, free gifts. We want to say thank you to all our supporters. And, of course, Eat is donating 20 percent of all sales.

This event helps CancerDancer spread the word about ovarian cancer to women who need to know about its symptoms. Through our website, www.ocancerdancer.org we support the ovarian cancer community as well.

Eat well — fight cancer.

Fire Damages New Pedestrian Bridge

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From a neighbor:

Sorry to have to report this but over the weekend someone damaged the new walk bridge over the canal. It looks like someone built a fire on the bridge, and it has seriously damaged four of five of the boards. This is pretty discouraging that the new bridge has been so thoughtlessly damaged.

This week at the Renegade & then some!

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From email announcement:

Who’s Going to Renegade This Week?
Byrd Farm, Faith Farm Foods, Deer Run Farm, Tomten Farm, Agriberry, Ettamae’s Oven …

Last days to buy tickets!
Perly’s (all you can eat) Spaghetti Dinner benefits William Byrd Community House. This annual event will be held this year on Thursday, December 6th from 5:30 to 8:30. Tickets are just $15 per person. For tickets, visit: WBCHPerlys.eventbrite.com or call 804/643-2717. Isn’t this your once a year time to hang with the peeps of your favorite 501(c)(3)? Then don’t miss it!

Dec.18: Byrd House RENEGADE Just-in-Time HOLIDAY Market
Mark your pockets, wallets, cards and calendars. Come shop for those PERFECT gifts that are only inspired during those last breathless gift-selecting moments in the week before Xmas, Channuka, Kwaanza, Etcetera. These are the artisan consumables that really get consumed, never gathering dust on a shelf – eaten, savored, enjoyed. YES! You! Should! Do! This! For yourself, your fella-students, your teachers, mom, sibs, pops, grammies and pop-pops, BFFs, puppy luvs, kit kats and old dogs.

A few notes …
The Renegade Market is an “at-will” market. Except for Byrd Farm/Rural Va Market and Faith Farm who come EVERY week, vendors come when they have goods to sell and/or when the weather permits. I will include a list of participating vendors in these notices, but changes do occur, so please take it as a guide. In addition, new vendors will occasionally test their products at our Tuesday afternoon market, so there’s always the chance of making a wonderful new discovery.

And, don’t forget to thank your Renegade Market vendors. They brave the weathers to grow and tend, harvest and haul their good stuff to this market, sometimes from far far (locally) away for the scant 3 hours they set up in our neighborhood. Good people. Thank them, cause they’re grateful for you too!
See you at the market!
_____________________

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

Home Economics

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Excerpts from article/viewpoint Home Economics from American City:

A campaign to retrofit the country’s aging housing stock and commercial buildings could make a major dent in reducing emissions nationwide. But despite all the talk of energy independence during the 2012 presidential campaign, retrofitting buildings received only passing mentions from President Obama. Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s energy platform did not mention it at all.

Yet Democrats, Republicans, environmentalists and financial institutions alike agree that the country must become more energy efficient — not just for the environment, but for the bottom line.
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“Let’s address communities as communities,” Cochrane said. “We have this perfect alignment of the owners’ immediate needs, the utility’s long-term investment interests and actually delivering these deep savings.”

CDFIs could play an important role here, too. The energy efficiency market is full of uncertainty. From unreliable contracting costs to fluctuating energy prices and shifting weather patterns, there are many unpredictable variables. More standardized data coming from an organized network of local or regional CDFIs could attract more private investment, industry players said.

This is one of the best articles I have seen on this subject. Think about sharing it with your neighbors.

A Cross-Section of the Canal

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During the construction of the new bridge for the 2nd Street Connector, the contractors made a clean cut through the canal. This cut provided a cross-section of the canal.

As shown clearly in this photograph, there is only about a foot of dark top soil above the yellowish clay liner of the south bank of the canal. (photographer placed a 4 foot ruler in the photograph to show the scale.) Bill Trout, who is the former President of the American Canal Society, visited the site, and he took a sample of the clay and demonstrated how the clay was “puddled” with water to form an impervious barrier that kept the water from leaking from the canal.

This is important because Venture Richmond’s proposed plan to slice off 5-6 feet from the top of the south bank of the canal would definitely damage the integrity of the canal by slicing into the important clay liner of the canal.