June’s Hollywood Cemetery and Civil War Tours

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From the Valentine Richmond History Center:

June 10 Hollywood Cemetery (2-4pm) WALKING TOUR
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.

June 23 NEW! Hollywood Cemetery: The Civil War (2-4pm) WALKING TOUR
From the Pyramid to the gravesite of Jefferson Davis, high above the James River, Hollywood Cemetery is the final resting place for thousands of Confederates. Come visit the graves of such notables as J. E. B. Stuart, George Pickett, Fitzhugh Lee, Jefferson Davis and many others whose stories continue to capture our imagination 150 years after the Civil War began. Meet at the cemetery entrance at Cherry and Albemarle streets.

Charlies’ Letters

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Neighbor Charles Pool’s letter got printed in the Times Dispatch today:

Proposed water and sewer hikes are outrageous

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

While commuters are protesting the proposed $1 monthly service charge for the E-ZPass, there is little notice as the city of Richmond quietly hikes the minimum monthly service charge for water and sewer to $49.40 per month.

How many cars would use the toll roads if those monthly service charges were raised to $49.40 a month? Unlike the toll roads, water service is a necessity and the city knows that no one will be digging a well in his backyard to avoid the rate hike.

We don’t have the option of turning off the water, but we can vote. Every candidate for city office in this election cycle should be challenged to explain why Richmond’s outrageous, minimum water and sewer bill is the highest in the country.

Charles Pool.

Richmond.

At least one other Charlie and City Council candidate is speaking up:

Let’s Reward Conservation of Our Resources
An opinion piece appeared in the Times Dispatch on May 24, 2012 addressing what we are charged for water and sewer in Richmond. After reading Scott Burger’s piece over many times, I tried to write a blog post in reference to the minimum fee method of charging us for the water we do or do not use. As I tried over and over, I realized that the only fair thing to do was to share the opinion piece with you, my supporters and potential supporters, in its original form.
It is simply unfair for a person who uses 1 CCF of water per month to pay an amount equal to or slightly less than the person who uses 10 CCF per month. People should be rewarded for their conservation, not punished for it.

Editor’s note: This does not constitute an endorsement of Diradour (…But what are other candidates saying?)

Concern Grows About Ord. 2012-74

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C. Wayne Taylor has more City government news to share:

Ordinance 2012-74 is scheduled to go before Richmond City Council on June 11th. The ordinance would give the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) additional authority to grant exceptions to the city’s zoning regulations.

The ordinance was discussed at the Council’s informal meeting held on May 29th. Councilor Samuels stated that he was getting many phone calls about the ordinance. The administration was pushing very hard for Council to adopt the ordinance without delay.

The administration kept the preparation of the ordinance a secret and did not tell the Planning Commission about it until the Commission was asked to initiate a code amendment. One commissioner is recorded in the minutes as surprised by the request.

The administration gave the Planning Commission false and misleading information. For instance, the Commission was told that it takes 4 to 6 months to get a Special Use Permit approved by City Council. The actual time is closer to 2 months. Another example: the Commission was told that the BZA cannot grant a variance under the existing standard except under very extraordinary circumstances. Actually, about 20% of the BZA approvals are for variances.

The administration repeated the “4 to 6 month” claim to City Council on May 29th. The administration also told Council that the ordinance does nothing more than expand on existing provisions. In fact, it adds several totally new subsections.

The administration repeatedly told Council that the changes are no big deal. New sub-section 17 in the proposed ordinance gives the BZA control over building heights. The BZA would be given authority to allow a building of any height in all but a few districts. Given that the BZA approved 90% of the requests it considered it 2011, one should expect most requests for additional building height will be approved. (City Council approved a 160′ tall building at the Dominion Resources site along the riverfront. The BZA would certainly refer to that.)

The Council agreed to Mr. Samuels request for a delay. Mr. Samuels wants the administration to attend a neighborhood association meeting to address citizens’ concerns.

A brief summary of the May 29th meeting can be seen by clicking here.

Re-Connecting Cherry Street to Riverside Park?

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What is the City doing?

I suspect they are just creating a service alley before they figure out what they will do with 816 Riverside Park, but could this be part of a larger plan to reconnect Cherry Street with Riverside Parkway? Who has the skinny? Anybody, Historic Richmond?

Update: According to nearby neighbors, this relates to the larger plumbing work that is being done throughout the neighborhood.

Team Shoebaru

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Neighbor Joe Pyrek wrote in about his Shoebaru project, which adds background to this previously posted picture:

Over the past few months, I’ve been building up two Subaru Foresters to look like a pair of Chuck Taylors. Many Oregon Hill residents have stopped by and asked what we were doing and have kept up with our progress and everything. Perhaps you too have seen the shoe cars at the corner of Laurel and Idlewood.

Once we are doing “shoe-ing” the cars, we are shipping them to the UK and will then be driving from southern England to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. We are doing this under the team name “Shoebaru” and are raising money for Awassa Children’s Project, an orphanage located in Ethiopia that houses, educates, and cares for children who were primarly orphaned from parents that had AIDS.

Richmond Magazine featured one of the cars in its most recent issue and Joe will be on the Elliot in the Morning radio show tomorrow morning to talk about the trip.

Here’s a link to the project’s website: http://shoebaru.com/