One reoccurring question on this community news site concerns the future of our alleys. Oregon Hill, one of Richmond’s oldest neighborhoods, sadly had many of its alley stripped of their historic cobblestones by the City and developers years ago (Where did they go?). Over time, their surfaces have been made either loose gravel or smooth pavement. The results have been less than desirable.

In the alleys that have been paved, residents have experienced more cars speeding and more rain runoff. In the alleys still with gravel, giant potholes, huge ruts, and spillover into streets (as in the picture below on the 500 block of S. Cherry) develop.

Things have recently come a head in the 100 blocks above the expressway (wryly known as the Oregon Heights) and have been discussed a bit on the City’s SeeClickFix system.

Excerpts:

There is a huge ditch created by water run off from the rain in the alley between s pine st rva and s laurel st. the ditch is about 1ft deep and approx 1.5ft wide and about 15- 20 ft long , this is big enough to swallow small cars tires and get them stuck, many times me and my roommates have gotten stuck trying to get in and out of our driveway due to this ditch running down the middle of the alley. Since this problem was recently fixed in aug and has happened again we believe that this alley should be paved just like green alley and surround alleys.

Issue Acknowledged
This request has been received and submitted to DPW Roadway Division via City Works #131859 – rgm10/24/2011
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Regarding pedestrians. I am afraid that by paving the alley, cars will speed through it. Since it is heavily used, there is potential for disaster.
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Something definantly needs to be done. I own 122 S. Laurel and when I went to see my tenants, my tire got caught in the “ditch” and the underside of my car scraped bottom, causing damage to my muffler. This needs more than to be filled with gravel, as all of that has washed away in the rain. It needs to either be graded and more gravel put down, or graded and paved. With all of the run off going thru that alley, I think paving would be most effective. I am not quite sure how paving would be dangerous to pedestrians, as Nancy has said, but I know that the ditch is currently a danger to both walkers and drivers. It is very dangerous to pedestrians and damaging to vehicles.
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I don’t agree with paving, since it is a wide alley and could become dangerous to pedestrians, but perhaps grading it and ensure the drainage is correct.
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This alley that is on the west side of Pine Street and runs north and south is a huge reoccuring problem. The city of Richmond needs to regrade again and then pave it. It is run off water from Pine Court I and Pine Court II that comes from when it rains. It also has a huge run off from the buildings on the corner of Pine and Cary that were newly developed as well as the one at Belvidere and Cary. Since there are now paved areas and buildings that go almost lot line to lot line it is creating a huge problem for the preexisting buildings and streets that now flood like a river. This alley needs to be paved as it is a heavily traveled alley and the water is constantly eroding it.It runs from 122 south Pine at Cumberland all the way north to green alley. Thank you!!!!

Some editorial:

The City of Richmond now has a stormwater utility. This is exactly the sort of issue that the fees collected from that utility should go to. I have pointed again and again to what other cities are doing with green, permeable paving that creates safe surfaces while allowing rain water to go to ground. Chicago has a whole Green Alley program (not to be confused with Oregon Hill’s Green Alley). Where is Richmond’s Green Alley program?

In my personal opinion, citizens should settle for nothing less than this type of attention for Oregon Hill alleys. After all, the cobblestones, the original, green alley surfaces, were taken from us. And as VCU and other developers have encroached, we have seen more and more stormwater problems. The neighborhood, and “The Heights” portion in particular, deserve better infrastructure attention. And in the bigger picture, every neighborhood in Richmond deserves beautiful green alleys.