Followed By The Black Dog….

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from recent blog post:

Interesting note, when the voices came back I was in college at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University). I’m an aspiring writer and love the unknown and grave yards and one day I walked around Hollywood Cemetery, a very large and peaceful place, admiring the old tomb stones and sepulchers. Its. As I entered I immediately felt like the dead knew I was there. I felt like I was floating away from the outside world. The cars and outside noises went away. I felt something calling me in the very center of the cemetery. If I were to follow it it be like I’d float right out of my own body. Hollywood cemetery, local legend, is known to be haunted. I followed the calling out of interest and as I went further I saw a black dog come out of nowhere. Now I know black dogs guard the line between life and death but I took it as a real dog. So I backed away and turned around, avoiding eye contact. I turned back around to see if it was following me, it wasn’t. It had disappeared.

(Btw, though no Black Dog in it, click here for another recent blog post about a walk through Hollywood Cemetery)

Magazine33 Correspondent Sadie Powers profile

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Local, music/culture online publication Magazine33 has added a nice profile of one of its writers, Sadie Powers:

Sadie Powers is the bass player for indie band Those Manic Seas, based in Richmond, Virginia. She started playing violin in fifth grade to get out of math class and met the love of her life, bass, four years later. Powers has played in several bands, including the Richmond cult post-rock band Planar.

…

Powers lives in Oregon Hill, RVA and restores porcelain in order to fund her music habit.

Today: PH Construction and Tredegar Firing Demonstration

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Sorry for the late notice, but a few notes for today:

Received a press release:

The Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts, Virginia’s first elementary charter school, kicks off its construction schedule with a week-long playground renovation and garden build.

The renovation, which will be mostly done thanks to the work of school and community volunteers, will begin on Saturday, April 16th at 9 a.m. On this day, volunteers will be clearing mulch and preparing the site for the new playground equipment to be installed Monday, April 18th. The garden team will be preparing the beds for spring planting.

Where: Patrick Henry School Building at 3411 Semmes Avenue, Richmond, 23225.

When: Saturday, April 16th from 9 a.m – 3 p.m.

About PHSSA: Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts (PHSSA) is a kindergarten through fifth-grade school based on meaningful parent, educator and community involvement. The school will provide the children of our diverse community with an academically rigorous science- and arts-based curriculum that emphasizes environmental awareness and social responsibility.

About Patrick Henry Building: PHSSA will be continuing construction, including ADA and life safety upgrades to the 90 year-old school building, over the next two years. PHSSA will also replace kitchen equipment and windows to make the building energy efficient, provide computers and other technology for students, and make cosmetic upgrades to create an inspiring learning environment for the children. By investing in capital improvements in the building, PHSSA is also preserving a historic building. The overall cost of the renovation is $1.45 million. The cost of the renovations will be covered by a unique financial package that includes historic tax credits, private donations, a small portion of local and state funding and grants.

Also, I previously mentioned Civil War and Emancipation celebration, but then there is also this on the schedule:

3.30pm

Check out an Infantry Firing Demonstration at Historic Tredegar. It’s hard to imagine this as being anything but awesome.

Passing of Tom Robertson

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A neighbor supplied this sad news…though more can be seen on a FaceBook page.

Thomas E. Robertson (1942-2011) passed away April 7 after a brief illness. Tom resided at 302 S Laurel St.

Born in Richmond, Tom was orphaned and left school in the third grade. He was pipefitter by trade, Tom was with his beloved domestic partner Bette Wilson for 34 years until her passing last year. Despite a lack of education, Tom bought and sold property and ran an innovative natural lawn care service/health food store in Northside. Tom picked up stray animals out of kindness. Tom left no family but will be missed by Bette’s four grown sons, and his dog Cleo. Tom will be cremated; in lieu of a funeral.

Favorite Lyric:

Broken windows and empty hallways,
a pale dead moon in a sky streaked with grey.
Human kindness is overflowing,
and I think it’s gonna rain today.

Continue reading →

Get Wise About Plants At The Library Tomorrow

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From the Grace Arents Facebook page (now what would she think of social media?):

Get ready for Virginia Garden Week – John Wise, one of our favorite garden Gurus and a BHM vendor will be at the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library on Wed. April 13 at noon for a talk about the history of landscape plants in Richmond. It is a free talk and open to the public. Come and ask John garden questions, his knowledge about woody plants is encyclopedic/wikipedic!

Mayor’s Walk-Through Tomorrow Afternoon

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Mayor Jones’ office has confirmed that he and other City staff, including members of Public Works, Richmond Police Department, and Community Development, will be conducting a ‘walk-through’ of the Oregon Hill neighborhood tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday).

One of the main purposes of this event is to give residents a chance to meet first-hand with the Mayor and provide valuable feedback on City services and neighborhood needs.

The walk though will start at 4:30 pm at the William Byrd Community House on Cherry Street. Weather permitting, the group will then walk to different parts of the neighborhood.

(Personally, I encourage residents to attend and to bring written or printed documents to share with City staff in order to have an effective meeting.)

High Speed Rail Dreams Fade, So What Is The Future of Transportation In Richmond?

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Despite citizen hopes, the dream for high speed rail or even improved passenger rail service is faltering. It’s too bad, given the fact that before the devastation of the Civil War, Richmond was competing with New York City as a passenger rail center, and is famous for early light rail innovation.

The Times Dispatch feigns surprise, but CSX executives are quite blunt about being against passenger rail. From the linked Jacksonville Business Journal article:

“I’m a corporation. I exist to make money, OK?” Ward said. “You can’t make money hauling passengers, so why would I want to do that? That wouldn’t be fair to my shareholders.”

His comments come as CSX, the nation’s third-largest railroad, protests the State of New York’s plan to provide up to 110 mph passenger rail service between Albany and Buffalo. The Jacksonville-based railroads said the passenger trains will damage the track and cause service disruption to its freight trains.

So what is the future of transportation in Richmond?
On Wednesday, the Richmond First Club will host a panel discussion about this subject.

What can we expect?
More begging for the Richmond airport and ‘low-cost’ carriers?
Maybe more news on the BRT concept from GRTC?

At the same time, remember that Richmond is considered a test market for all sorts of advertising and new product launches. To that end, right now we see a new campaign for energy conservation sponsored by Shell Oil (perhaps part of a larger efforts, including the oxymoronic ‘clean coal’. Perhaps we will learn more about this on April 30 at the Science Museum. Green or greenwashing?

Richmond may also see more electric vehicles in the near future. In addition to the latest from STIR and Richmond Segway tours, I keep hearing rumors of electric car chargers in Broad Street garages with giant solar canopy arrays. While I share questions about the overall economic sustainability of electric cars, others are already cheering possible environmental advantages.

Personally, I am less critical and more celebratory about more electric bicycles in Richmond. They are much less expensive than cars and with pedal assist, are easily more energy efficient. Rumor is that Virginia Commonwealth University will be introducing Sanyo eneLoops for its police in order to enforce parking regulations. This, plus Richmond Bike Week, immediately improves the mood.

The new MegaBuses offer a glimmer of hope as well, increasing routes and perhaps doing what government could not by supplying a transfer station in Shockoe Bottom.

Still, at the very least, hopefully the members of the Richmond First Club will recognize that coal, and specifically CSX coal trains, are holding back passenger rail transportation. Mitigate the coal trade, clean up Acca train yard, and let passenger rail work. As I have expressed before, Richmond sits on a Gordian knot that includes strands of energy and transportation policies and must be loosened at all ends before real progress can be made. Sadly, locally as well as nationally, corporations and their demand for short-term profits seem to have a lock hold on those policies and any long term thinking that would benefit country or citizens.