Category Archives: schools

National Food Day Thursday

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On Thursday, October 24, National Food Day will be celebrated at the Byrd House farmlet beginning at 3:30 pm. National Food Day serves to promote safer, healthier diets; support sustainable and organic farms; reduce hunger; reform factory farms to protect the environment and farm animals; support fair working conditions for food and farm workers.

The event will feature games, a Pop-Up photography exhibition, and family-style dinner tables hosted by Slow Food RVA, Tricycle Gardens, Farmers Market @ St. Stephens Church, Renew Richmond, Faces of Hope, Shalom Farms with Greater Richmond Coalition for Healthy Children, Open High School, Sub Rosa Breads and William Byrd Community House.

Each organization will provide the framework for conversation for their table and be responsible for recording the issues, solutions, plans and actions discussed. The insights from all the groups will be compiled, distributed to all attendees and made available to the public. While the event is not open to the public, media is invited to attend and engage in conversations with each of the parties.

For more information about this Food Day event, please contact Ana Edwards, Manager, Byrd House Market, 804/517-4049, byrdhousemarket at gmail.com.

Trash/Recycling Pickup Tomorrow

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This Wednesday is a red Wednesday, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night. They do not belong on the sidewalk after tomorrow night.

Also Wednesday:

Sierra Club Falls of the James Group. Wednesday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m. Jepson Alumni Center on the University of Richmond campus. Students from Virginia Union University, Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Richmond will review their recent green accomplishments— both on and off-campus— including e-cycling collections, rainwater irrigation, community gardensand much more. Join us to learn about their projects for the upcoming school year considering the needs of their campuses and neighboring communities. Located on Crenshaw Way; fordirections go to http://events.richmond.edu/jepson-alumni-center/directions.html.

Also, don’t forget the Fall Plant Exchange tailgate before the meeting 5:30-6:45 in the adjacent parking lot!

Idlewood Roundabout Project Receives Funding From VCU

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This ordinance was passed by City Council last night:

Ord. No. 2013-209 (Patron: Mayor Jones) – To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept $250,000 from Virginia Commonwealth University and to appropriate the increase to the Fiscal Year 2013-2014 Capital Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Public Works’ Traffic Calming/Idlewood Roundabout project in the Transportation category by $250,000 for the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Idlewood Avenue, Grayland Avenue and an off ramp from the Downtown Expressway.

More on this here and here.

Correspondent of the Day: Renovate Monroe Park carefully

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Oregon Hill neighbor had the Letter of the Day in the Times Dispatch this morning:

Renovate Monroe Park carefully

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Monroe Park is Richmond’s first and most historic municipal park. Once the site of an agricultural fairground, the city’s first baseball games and concerts by Bruce Springsteen and Jerry Lee Lewis, the city’s upcoming $6.2 million historically sensitive renovation is cause for jubilation as the park has fallen into deep disrepair.

As we improve the physical aspects of Monroe Park, let’s not forget its essence which should also be preserved and celebrated. As a forum for free speech over the years, the grounds have echoed with voices supporting civil rights, reasonable gun control, anti-war sentiment and other just causes.

Its beautiful old-growth trees have shaded generations of Richmonders and deserve protection, care and augmentation to re-establish the lush greenery of its historic era circa 1900. A conservation easement such as the one placed on James River Park is strongly advised to define that protection.

The park also needs a zero impact policy with enforcement regarding bringing large amounts of trash in for feedings, etc. Too often groups come in and leave huge amounts of garbage on the ground, which eventually gets blown by the wind into surrounding neighborhoods. It should be a group’s responsibility to remove what it brings into the park. The city must step up, enforce these rules and provide requisite supervision. Richmond Parks Division simply can’t cover this job.

What the park doesn’t need is to be transferred via lease to a third party, establishing VCU as the operating agency. This could destroy its essence as a free gathering space and homogenize it into something very different. Monroe Park is not Maymont; it is a 7.5-acre green space well within the city’s capacity to manage.

The renovated Monroe Park should welcome all residents, students and visitors with open arms. It can truly be Richmond’s gem.

C. Todd Woodson. Richmond.

(ed. note: This letter comes after VCU recently placed a metal billboard sign up in Monroe Park but then removed it after the City declared it illegal. There is another controversial VCU sign at the corner of Belvidere and Cumberland that has not been acted on yet.)

Monroe Park Happenings- Tonight, Bicycle Parade!

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Bicycle Parade info from FaceBook event page:

Come out for the monthly bicycle parade!
Every last Friday of the month!
6pm in Monroe Park

Bring a freaky bike or your everyday rider
Bring your own flags, costumes, music, etc!!
(BBQ Bikes get extra credit)

Riders of all sorts and skill levels welcome
Pace will be casual, set for the slowest rider
Marshals will help communicate and keep the ride safe from car traffic

UPDATE: -The first direction of the parade will be passing by the Federal Courthouse at 7th and Broad, where our friends are holding a rally and march against US military involvement in Syria.
We are changing the normal route and making a pass by the demonstration as a gesture of solidarity with those affected by the struggle in Syria, as well as to support the message against US involvement. So, we encourage folks to bring signs, flags, etc to show support.
The ride will only pass by, and continue on from there, but anyone is welcome to depart and join the demonstration.

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Speaking of Syria, there is a 9 am protest against war at Syria at Monroe Park on Saturday, part of the international morning of protests happening around the world. And , speaking of protests, although it is not happening in Monroe Park , there is the March on Richmond for Jobs and Freedom on Saturday as well:

People from across the Richmond region will march for fairness, social justice, and expanded business and employment opportunities. We will gather at Festival Park behind the Richmond Coliseum by 9:00 a.m. Marchers will depart at 10:00 a.m. and proceed to the Bell Tower on Capitol Square for an 11:00 a.m. rally. The March on Richmond commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

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At the same time, it is worth noting that VCU is still putting up obnoxious signage everywhere. VCU just installed banners on the northern side of Monroe Park on light poles situated on the sidewalk right of way. They even installed one in front of the Prestwould. Have these passed muster with the City’s Department of Public Works? Monroe Park is Richmond’s oldest and most historic municipal PUBLIC park, listed on both the state and the federal registers of historic places. Are these signs a measure foreshadowing a takeover of the park by VCU and the proposed lease with the Monroe Park Foundation?

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Welcome to ‘The Hill’

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Pine Street Baptist Church held a welcoming party for VCU students yesterday evening in Pleasants Park.

Trash/Recycling Pickup Tomorrow

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This Wednesday is a red Wednesday, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night. They do not belong on the sidewalk after tomorrow night.

In recycling news, the Sierra Club Falls of the James group announces their second annual Recycling Breakthrough! contest. Last year, George Mason Elementary School won first prize ($1,000). For more information, email recyclingbreakthroughcontest@gmail.com.

Also, there is the first annual RVA Environmental Film Festival Local Documentary Contest-

http://rvaenvironmentalfilmfestival.com/contest/

More On VCU’s Illegal Sign In Monroe Park

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From email about the sign (see earlier picture by clicking here):

Dear Members of the Urban Design Committee,

Please allow me to express the profound horror felt by myself and many members of the community over your recent consensus to recommend approval of a huge metal VCU Billboard encroachment in the sidewalk right of way adjacent to the intersection of Belvidere and West Main streets. I have attached a picture of the sign as it was installed- by mistake within the park property.

Even when positioned on the sidewalk location recommended by your committee, this sign obstructs historic sight lines through Monroe Park and is inconsistent with the Monroe Park Master Plan as adopted by the city.

The Monroe Park Advisory Council labored for 8 years coming up with an exciting and comprehensive Master Plan to implement an historically sensitive renovation which will return the Park, which is Richmond’s oldest and most historic park, to the jewel it should be. The city has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultant fees as well as in crafting construction documents. Your bad recommendation undermines all of this hard work and capital expenditure.

The manner in which you came to your conclusion is especially troubling. Not only were stakeholders, to include the Monroe Park Advisory Council and the neighborhood associations adjoining the park not advised of the vote in advance, but neither was city council. The neighborhoods that surround and use this park will be severely impacted by this ugly and huge metal billboard encroachment. Furthermore, since you opted not to meet in August, the minutes of the July 3, 2013 meeting in which you arrived at your recommendation were not voted for approval and consequently not placed on your website. This left the stakeholders totally in the dark and created a fete accompli for VCU and this wretched sign. For all intents and purposes, this huge billboard incorrectly “brands” Monroe Park as a VCU Facility. As guardians of aesthetic matters in the city, I just can’t imagine what you were thinking when you recommended approval for this huge billboard encroachment.

VCU participated in the design and supported the final draft of the Monroe Park Master Plan. By submitting the application which is inconsistent with the Master Plan, they are again engaging in ethically questionable behavior. Oregon Hill and other nearby neighborhoods have suffered at the hand of the VCU administration through unbridled encroachment during the Trani years and obviously again now that Rao is president.

In closing, I find the way that this issue was handled by the UDC to be the exact opposite of transparent government. I sincerely hope that city council will investigate and make recommendations limiting the scope of responsibility of the Urban Design Committee if not completely redefining the body. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Sincerely,

Charles T. Woodson