Breaking News: James River Skyway Announced

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This morning an Italian-Japanese conglomerate, Fuki-Trani Ltd., announced plans for an exciting new riverfront project, a high-speed cable car crossing the James River. The preliminary design would have one side of the crossing originating at a station on a portion of Oregon Hill near the Overlook townhouse complex, with heavy duty cable going over the James River and the Belle Island park to the other terminal station on top of the Riverside Apartments building on Riverside Drive on the south side.

Example of gondola lift/skyway at Sulphur Mountain in Alberta, Canada:

Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones and Councilperson Parker Agelasto were beaming as they briefed a few media members on the outline of the deal in the first floor of City Hall late last night. “This represents a fantastic opportunity to leverage Richmond’s natural assets and create jobs,” said Mayor Jones. “What a beautiful way to connect the opposite sides of the James River, the City, and the 5th District,” added Councilperson Agelasto.

The amount of investment by the Fuki-Trani group is estimated at between 8 and 10 million dollars, and the City of Richmond is putting in $2 million into the project initially. Dominion Resources had to approve of the project in advance because it will use airspace above their riverfront headquarters facility. The Oregon Hill station will require zoning changes as it adaptively re-uses the land where Overlook construction ceased and there are a few town home foundations. (Residents may recall at one point a developer from Cleveland was considering them a few years ago). According to preliminary plans, the station would operate from 6 am to 11 pm and employ 2 to 3 people with a small walk-up snack bar. Rides would cost between $5 to $8, though a commuter/student discount may be possible. Some nearby residents along the Oregon Hill Parkway have already expressed concern for noise from the station.

Fuki-Trani spokespeople offered few other details at this time, though they did say that they were already looking at possible future skyways in other parts of Richmond. Here is some additional information on gondola/cable car lifts, courtesy of Wikipedia:

While gondola lifts are traditionally used for ski resort purposes, in recent years they are finding increased usage in urban environments as seen in the installations of the Metrocable (Medellín), Portland Aerial Tram, Metrocable (Caracas) and Cable Aéreo (Manizales). The Metrocable systems in Medellin and Caracas are fully integrated with the public transit network which provides passengers the ability to seamlessly transfer to the local metro lines. London, UK, has built Emirates Air Line (cable car) for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
In terms of urban gondola systems for the future, TransLink in Metro Vancouver has proposed to build a gondola up Burnaby Mountain to Simon Fraser University in an announcement in September, 2010.
In late 2012, a widespread aerial gondola system was proposed for Austin, Texas in an effort to expand mass transit options in the rapidly growing city.

Oregon Hill Featured In ‘Deleted Scenes’ On ‘Lincoln’ DVD

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The movie ‘Lincoln’ continues to spark conversation. While many Oregon Hill residents were delighted to see their neighbor Silver Persinger portray a statesman in the Congressional scenes of the movie ‘Lincoln’ (including clips seen during the televised Academy Awards), some were were surprised to see the neighborhood itself featured in the ‘Deleted Scenes’ portion of the recently-released, best-selling ‘Lincoln’ DVD.

Oregon Hill resident Silver Persinger as Congressman listening to Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens

The 2 1/2 minute scene happens outside of 324 S. Pine Street (where Vinyl Conflict record store is today). In it, Union spies are briefly exchanging information on the sidewalk before entering the storefront/house structure, which in the movie represents a bordello. Of course, in real life, 324 S. Pine Street has had an interesting history as a dry-goods store.

In the ‘Director’s Commentary’, Spielberg does not say too much about the scene, other than it was a relatively quick shot at night. Along with the Bread Riot scene, and Lincoln looking over the captured Tredeger Iron Works, the Pine Street scene was not considered vital to the plot and cut. In the DVD liner notes, there is mention that these cut scenes might be recycled for the upcoming bio-pic “Jeff Davis”.

New Twist On Urban Chicken Debate

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Later today there will be an unveiling for Oregon Hill’s “Virtual Chicken House”. A neighborhood resident and artist, who does not want his address or name published, has created a project that he says was inspired by the local debate over urban chicken-keeping. “I was working on it before the recent flurry of messages over the neighborhood Yahoo list,” he said, “but with proposed legislation before City Council, now maybe the perfect time to take it public.”

It consists of a wooden backyard structure that is a little bit bigger than a standard chicken coop, but fully networked for an array of a half a dozen reconfigured Roomba vacuum robots, that simulate chickens. Using timers, cameras, microphones, and speakers, the ‘chickens’ periodically go in and out of the ‘house’, making slight clucking and pecking noises. The website with Roomba-chicken camera feeds is not yet online.

Photo Credit “Moving in for the Kill” Eirik Newth @ Flickr. Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.

“I thought about naming each Roomba after City Council members and various City officials and adding their photos to the tops of the Roombas, but I thought that might cause bad feelings so I decided not do that,” said the artist. Instead, he will be offering patrons the chance to adopt and name the individual Roombas. He noted that are other chicken Roomba automation schemes out there, as well as other forms of Roomba art.

Note: Roomba is a trademark of the iRobot company.

Article On Condemned Pine Street House

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From article in this morning’s Times Dispatch:

While a single dilapidated property can drag down values in a neighborhood, in many cases it wouldn’t be quite as literal as what’s happening to W. Thomas Wiles’ two-story row house at 418½ S. Pine St. in Richmond’s Oregon Hill community.
The condemned end unit next door, which shares a wall, roof and porch with Wiles’ property, has been vacant since late 2004, crumbling into ruin and pulling his house along with it, said Wiles, who keeps a binder full of code violations that the neighboring owner, believed to live in Maryland, has racked up with the city.
Despite eight years of phone calls and emails, he has been unable to get the city to do anything about the house besides tabulating code violations and tacking up bright-orange condemnation notices that have made it tough for Wiles to sell or rent his property.

There is also a related gallery of photos.

History Tourism

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While the City is supposedly working on its tourism plan, the Valentine Richmond History Center is refining and announcing theirs. Here are a few of the Oregon Hill/Hollywood Cemetery ones:

April 1
Highlights of Hollywood Cemetery Walking Tour (10-11:30am)
Monday – Saturday, April 1-October 31
Learn about the cemetery’s history, artwork, symbolism and famous residents, including two U.S. Presidents, writer Ellen Glasgow, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Generals George Pickett and J.E.B. Stuart. Meet at the rear of the stone structure on the left at the cemetery entrance, Cherry and Albemarle streets.

April 6
Civil War Sampler Bus Tour (1-5pm)
A comprehensive look at the unique role Richmond played as the Capital of the Confederacy. Includes Church Hill, Shockoe Bottom, Court End, the canal area, Hollywood Cemetery, Monument Avenue and the battlefields at Gaines’ Mill and Cold Harbor. Reservations: (804) 649-0711 x301. Meet at the History Center.

April 14
Hollywood Cemetery Specialty Walking Tour* (2-4pm)
An extension of the daily “Highlights” tour, this version covers in more detail the cemetery’s unique history, landscape design, architecture, symbols and residents. Meet at the cemetery entrance at Cherry and Albemarle streets.

April 27
History Hounds Explore Hollywood Cemetery Walking Tour (10am-12pm)
Dogs are invited to join their owners for this walking tour of Hollywood Cemetery, in partnership with the Richmond SPCA. Dogs must have current shots, mix well with others and remain on a leash. Owners are responsible for water and cleaning up after their dogs. Space is limited. Reservations: (804) 649-0711 x301. Meet outside the cemetery gates at Cherry and Albemarle streets.

There are even more in May. Check out the schedule by clicking here.

New Start Up: RVA Water Services

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Oregon Hill resident Nolen Blackwood has started a new venture called RVA Water Services.

RVA Water Services is a water based energy efficiency company focused on providing a water and sewer usage reduction program for multi-family properties by analyzing current usage and installing effective and efficient fixtures. These fixtures will be installed at no cost to the current owners with water and sewer charge savings split between owner and RVA Water Services over a fixed term. This model allows the owner to see positive cash flow from the beginning of the project and not requiring any capital outlay. Current technology allows for efficient fixtures to greatly outperform older products.
RVA Water Services is a member of Energy Star Portfolio Manager Program.

One of the catalysts is the proposal by the Mayor for Richmond’s water utility to switch to a conservation rate structure.

Blackwood has also asked neighborhood residents to help RVA Water Works win the 2013 i.e.* Start-Up Competition. Voting began yesterday and people can vote once per day for the next two days. RVA Water Works is listed under the Energy and Green Tech or you can follow the link to vote:

http://www.ie-rva.org/contest/start-up-competition-2013/rva-water-services/