Category Archives: politics

OHNA Meeting Announcement/5th District Candidate Forum/Dangerous Chemical In Monroe Park

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OHNA President Todd Woodson sent out an email that announces this coming Tuesday’s Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA) meeting. It is very full of additional information, including some information about an upcoming candidate forum for 5th District City Council seat and chemical spraying in Monroe Park.

Good morning Friends and Neighbors

Our monthly OHNA meeting will be this Tuesday August 27th at 7pm at St Andrews.

There are some events coming up that I encourage you to be a part of including 5th District City Council candidate meet and greets and a fundraiser for the 14th Annual Halloween Parade *YES! Its happening again in Oregon Hill this year! Lets make it the coolest ever!:

* Wednesday August 28 Jer’Mykeal McCoy will have a meet and greet at Little Mexico restaurant at 1328 W Cary st 6-8 pm. Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to: staff@mccoyforrva.com contribution levels go from $25-1000.

* Tuesday, September 10 There will be a meet and greet for Stephanie Lynch at the home of Ruth Twiggs, 329 1/2 S Pine St from 6-7:30. Refreshments will be served and special guest is Ghazala Hashmi, candidate for 10th District State Senator. Please RSVP to Catherine Travers at electstephanielynch@gmail.com

* Thursday, September 12 at 7pm at Patrick Henry Charter School Auditorium there will be a candidates forum for all 8 candidates vying for our 5th District City Council Seat, currently held by Parker Agelasto. This is sponsored by many neighborhood associations including Oregon Hill , Randolph, Woodland Heights, Byrd Park as well as the Sierra Club Falls of the James Chapter. I am doing publicity for this event so will be reminding everybody. Each neighborhood can submit 3 questions for the candidates, so please email me your questions. It is important that we hear the candidates so we can make a wise choice to keep up the high standards provided by Councilman Agelasto.

* 14th Annual Halloween Parade Fundraiser!!! will be held (ironically) on Friday the 13th of September from 7-11 at 2718 Bainbridge St 23225. There will be MUSIC and PUPPETS and DANCING!

Our OHNA meeting will include all the usual updates from police and VCU and our councilman and the only current agenda item is a presentation by a VCU group to promote a writers group.

In other announcements, OHNA has been awarded a Community Roots Grant that will provide 10-12 street trees for our neighborhood! I’ve placed the priority on trees that will positively impact Open High and St Andrews School, but other wells will get trees as well. We will need volunteers to help plant the trees and to participate in watering for the first 2 years. Email me if interested.

Finally, I ask that you be careful if visiting Monroe Park, especially with pets and small children. A lady and her dog from the area were recently in the Park as they were spraying chemicals on trees and her dog collapsed from a seizure, presumably from the exposore. She incurred a $300 Vet bill. One of the chemicals sprayed was an RTSA Horticultural Oil which is listed as a category 1 substance in the Aspiration Toxicity Category by the government. If you get enough of this in your body, it will KILL YOU. I just received the lengthy FOIA Request yesterday and will have more information soon. These chemicals were sprayed by a company hired by VCU.

See you Tuesday, Todd

Councilmember Parker C. Agelasto’s 5th District Meeting Thursday

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REMINDER The 5th District Meeting is this Thursday, August 22 at 6:30pm at Ephesus SDA Church, Richmond (3700 Midlothian Turnpike). The agenda is list below.
AGENDA
• Back to School Drive
Please bring school supplies for donation to students of Richmond Public Schools
• Richmond Public Schools Updates for the 2019-2020 School Year and School Rezoning Process for the 2020-2021 School Year
• Proposed Richmond Navy Hill Development Project: Presentation with Questions & Answers
Sharon Ebert, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Richmond Department of Economic and Community Development
• Richmond Central 5th Voter District Updates
The Honorable Parker C. Agelasto, Councilmember, Richmond City Council, Richmond Central 5th Voter District
• Questions & Answers

***Another reminder that the next community cleanup will be Saturday, September 14 at 9am.

Legal Attempts To Force Councilperson Agelasto From Office Fail

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The Times Dispatch has an article that reports that legal bids to make Councilperson Agelasto leave office after he moved his residence out of the district have not been successful.

Judge William R. Marchant declined to issue a declaratory judgment deeming Agelasto’s seat on the City Council vacant after his move last year. Seeking the judgment was former Councilman Henry “Chuck” Richardson, who is among a field of candidates vying to replace Agelasto on the nine-member council in a special election scheduled for November.

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A separate challenge by another former councilman, Sa’ad El-Amin, also encountered a procedural stumbling block earlier this summer. El-Amin resubmitted his challenge in July, but no hearing has been scheduled on his new filing to date.

In April, Agelasto announced his plan to resign at the end of November, 13 months before his term expires. He has served as the council’s 5th District representative since 2013.

Mayor Stoney Dismisses 15,000 Richmond Citizens

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Remember what’s been written previously about “Richmond leadership that has been hostile to public demands”.

Yesterday, at his press conference on his proposed 1.5 (was previously 1.4) billion dollar coliseum scheme, Mayor Stoney was asked by a reporter about the ‘Put Children Before Costly Coliseum’ referendum, which over 15,000 City of Richmond voters have signed. His response was curt and dismissive:
“The project’s moving forward either way. I don’t have time to worry about political stunts.”

Its very clear that the Mayor and other leaders who ran and were elected on ‘Education’ platforms now champion the Tom Farrell/VCU coliseum plan IN SPITE OF the Put Schools First movement. They don’t care what citizens think. They don’t care about public ownership. They certainly don’t care about public schools. They just want their coliseum, period. And they are willing to skirt the law and use ‘fait accompli’ tricks to do it. This is straight from former VCU President Trani’s playbook.

Richmond’s citizens should be asking themselves and others how much public money and attention have already been wasted on just ‘the planning’ around the coliseum scheme? How many times have Richmond leaders broken promises surrounding these giant projects? Richmond citizens have heard the same sales pitch for years and years on project after project- they have all resulted over and over again in deferred maintenance for PUBLIC schools and parks while PRIVATE corporate welfare projects abscond with the taxpayers’ money. We now have the Put Schools First movement, which says enough is enough, invest in schools first, yet Richmond leaders dismiss it and continue to jam the same sales pitch down our throats.

This is the ugly, top-down, oppressive, corporatist culture of Richmond politics. It is anathema to true progress. Many Richmond residents keep hoping that new arrivals from other locales will recognize it and work to change it, instead of being indifferent and then eventually leaving. Citizens should unite in condemning this Mayor’s statement and actions.

Presidential Candidate Visits Tomorrow Evening

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Dario Hunter, Presidential candidate and member of the Youngstown, OH Board of Education, visits Richmond, VA to talk about his plan to build a greener and fairer America as well as the strategy to grow the Green Party through the 2020 race and beyond.

He will be at the Main Richmond Public Library on Franklin Street at 6 pm tomorrow.

Disclaimer: This event is not sponsored or endorsed by the Richmond Public Library.

Last Chance To Give Voters A Voice On VCU/Farrell Coliseum Scheme

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If Richmond citizens want to be able to vote on the VCU/Farrell/Stoney coliseum scheme, their last chance to do so may be decided in the next few days. Over 13,000 Richmond citizens have signed the petition for the “Choose Children over a Costly Coliseum“ Referendum, drafted by Paul Goldman, supported by the Sierra Club Falls of the James and others. Many of these signatures were done on Election Day last year, but the deadline to file the petition is coming up quickly (like in the next few days!), and more signatures are needed to ensure it getting on the ballot. If it does not make it on the ballot, citizens may be forced to live with and pay up for whatever the Mayor and City Council do with the $1.4. billion scheme, and it could effect City budgets for a decade to come. So, what’s it going to be? Schools or corporate welfare?

In the interest of informing the public, I am going to post the petition/referendum here. However, please ask yourself, why has local media not done so- again, over 13,000 Richmond citizens have already signed it. So why have Times Dispatch, Style, RVA Magazine, etc. mostly ignored this heroic grassroots effort? If you have been following along, including the latest FOIA struggle, things may be more clear. The Richmond Free Press and oregonhill.net have offered the most coverage on it.

The first Put Schools First referendum was fairly straight forward in demanding that Richmond leaders, especially the Mayor, come up with plan to modernize the schools first in the City’s budget planning. This second referendum, perhaps due to opposing nature, is a bit more convoluted, so here’s a quick explanation: it first states that citizens want schools to come before a new coliseum. It then includes a poison pill provision against using a TIFF (Tax Incremental Financing Fund) to finance the scheme by stating that a majority of the funding raised would have to go to schools first. It then ends with a measure to keep the schemers from going back to the meals tax for money.

If you are a resident of the City of Richmond and a registered voter, please take the time to sign this petition, even if you ultimately decide to not vote for it once it is on the ballot. 13,000 of your neighbors have already done so, don’t let them down! Give people a voice!

School Rezoning and Oregon Hill

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Laurel Street neighbor Teresa Birchett wants to be sure that neighbors are aware of the rezoning discussion.

Richmond is currently exploring rezoning of schools. They have released two potential options. If you look at both options they would impact Oregon Hill. For elementary we are currently zoned Cary. From what I can tell for elementary schools, Option 1 would divide the neighborhood at the expressway with some kids zoned for Carver and the majority of the neighborhood Cary. For Option 2 Oregon Hill would be completely rezoned for Carver. For middle school the entire neighborhood is currently zoned Binford. Option one would divide the neighborhood again at the expressway, with the upper half of the neighborhood zoned Hill and the lower Binford. Option two would keep the neighborhood Binford. For high school we are currently zoned Thomas Jefferson. Option one and two would rezone the neighborhood to John Marshall High School. If you have concerns or support one of these changes, now is the time to let RPS know.
Here is a link to the two possible proposed zoning changes, the proposed map changes are at the bottom of the document.