In Monroe Park Saturday

VCU holds its 2016 Intercultural Festival. With the tagline “Uniquely United”, the ICF happens April 2nd from 1-6pm in Monroe Park.

Join us for live entertainment, cultural activities, and food from around the world!

Also in Monroe Park, at 2pm, the group ASWAN is holding a third community forum on the south edge of the park.

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For more information, a recap of forum #2, printable flyers, and more, check out ASWAN’s website:
http://www.aswan-rva.org/2016/03/31/weekend-of-32-community-forum-art-making-meeting/

Urban Wildlife Camera Project

From Science in the Park webpage:

In the spring of 2014, we set out to catalog the biodiversity, or the number of different species, found within the James River Park System. Healthy and diverse habitats support healthy and diverse groups of plants and animals, but the animals in our park can be elusive and often go unseen. To catch them on video, we set out special “game cameras” that record a video when triggered remotely by motion or temperature. Scientists use these cameras to track and monitor wildlife or to record how a species behaves, and our animal friends did not disappoint! For almost a year, we recorded hundreds, if not thousands, of videos that reveal the animals that call our park home — some common and others that may surprise you …!

If you enjoy these photos and videos, you may want to join the Urban Wildlife_JRPS FaceBook page to stay updated with the latest…

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VCU-Community Meeting on the Gladding Residence Center Capital Project On April 5th

From VCU Division of Community Engagement:

Tuesday, April 5
West Grace Street Student Housing – South
835 W. Grace St., Room 1004a
5:30 – 6:30 PM

VCU invites its neighbors to a meeting on April 5 to discuss VCU’s current capital project, Gladding Residence Center, located at 711 W. Main St. This project is part of VCU’s Housing Master Plan and is a public-private partnership between VCU and American Campus Communities. An article on the project appeared in the RTD on February 29.

This will be VCU’s fifth meeting with community members since May 2015. Project designs have evolved, thanks in large part to the community’s feedback. Thank you for your continued participation.

If you plan to attend, kindly RSVP at http://goo.gl/forms/4R8WiUcPVE

Civic Leaders and their Neighborhoods At U of R

From the University of Richmond’s Center for Civic Engagement:

CCE Brown Bag: Civic Leaders and their Neighborhoods Friday, Feb. 12, 12:30-1:25 p.m., Weinstein Hall Brown Alley Room 313
Join us for this week’s Brown Bag discussion on “Civic Leaders and their Neighborhoods” with Ryan Rinn, executive director, Storefront for Community Design; Jo White, chapter commander, Alliance of Guardian Angels; and Maura Meinhardt, citizen leader, Oregon Hill neighborhood. Please note: this week’s Brown Bag discussion will be in the Weinstein Hall Brown Alley Room 313 (not THC 305).
http://engage.richmond.edu/events/brown-bag/index.html

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Profile On New Binford Principal

The Times Dispatch has a good profile on Melissa Rickey, the new principal at Binford Middle School, Oregon Hill’s public middle school.

Excerpt:

Rickey was hired in May to lead the turnaround of Richmond’s Binford Middle School.
The once-popular school in the Fan District struggled academically for years and, after its enrollment dipped to barely 200 students last year — about 40 percent of building capacity — city school leaders debated whether they wanted to keep it open.
Instead of closing the school, Superintendent Dana T. Bedden and his staff proposed using it as the home for two new-to-Richmond academic programs, the College Board’s Springboard program and their own arts-integrated curriculum.
Then they hired Rickey from Chesterfield County, where she had been a teacher and an administrator, to make it all work.

Havana Mañana

Dear President Rao,

I read with interest in today’s Richmond Times Dispatch that VCU has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with a Cuban university. As your neighboring Oregon Hill representative on VCU’s Community Advisory Board, I congratulate you on this effort but I question why VCU is able to work out a Memorandum of Understanding with a Cuban university but unable to work on a MOU with your neighbors in Oregon Hill.

Your neighbors in Oregon Hill have repeatedly requested a written agreement approved by the VCU Board of Visitors stating that VCU will honor West Cary Street as the border between the Oregon Hill Historic District and VCU. We need a MOU that VCU or its foundations will not purchase property south of Cary Street within the Oregon Hill Historic District. This is of particular importance now that VCU is purchasing property outside the boundaries of its Master Plan, without consulting with the community.

Please let us know when you would agree to meet with representatives of the Oregon Hill neighborhood in order to produce such a Memorandum of Understanding. I believe that your neighbors deserve the same regard as a university in Cuba.

Sincerely,
Scott Burger

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Navel Blockade

This photo is from yesterday morning when Open High School kids were helping unload boxes of navel oranges from truck on Pine Street.

By the way, the December 8th meeting of the Open High PTSA is cancelled, however they will meet in January.

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