The Times Dispatch has an article about the 2nd Street Connector At City Council yesterday. It manages to not mention the citizen opposition from the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association and the Sierra Club Falls of the James group.

Richmond is preparing to build a new road to its downtown riverfront, while keeping open a remnant of the city’s historic canal system to one day float boats again.

The capital budget that will be presented by Mayor Dwight C. Jones next week for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 will include $385,000 to preserve a section of the James River and Kanawha Canal with an open-bottom culvert beneath the proposed Second Street Connector.

However, it does mention how 5th District Councilperson Marty Jewell is supporting the road (despite the neighborhood’s wishes):

Councilman E. Martin Jewell, of the 5th District, supports the road but not the culvert beneath it because of the $385,000 price tag that the mayor is expected to include in his proposal capital budget for fiscal 2013.

“To do this now is ridiculous,” Jewell said.

But city planning and economic development staff said Richmond would get only one chance to preserve the remnant of the canal that extends from downtown as far west at Maymont Park.

“This is the first opportunity for the city to have a say about how the canal is treated,” planner Jim Hill told council.

“We think there’s an invaluable benefit to the city … by not foreclosing the opportunity for the future,” Hill said.