Category Archives: community

OHNA Meeting Tomorrow Night

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From meeting announcement:

Good evening OHNA (Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association) members,

I look forward to seeing everyone Tuesday at 7pm for our monthly OHNA meeting.

We will be meeting by Zoom only this month. With the spread of the Omicron variant, and the number of friends and neighbors who have contracted the virus, it seems best to meet remotely this month. We will reevaluate in February, and if it is safe to return to a hybrid (in-person AND Zoom) meeting, we will.

The Zoom link is provided below. This should allow for full remote participation.

I have attached to this email
1. the agenda for the 25 January 2022 meeting (also pasted in below),
2. the minutes for the December 2021 meeting,
3. the 2022 meeting schedule

We look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow evening.

Thanks,
Bryan

Monthly Meeting Agenda
Tuesday 25 January 2022
7:00PM

Location: Remote only

Join Zoom Meeting

(Editor’s note: Zoom and phone logins redacted, please contact OHNA through their email OHNARva@gmail.com, prior to the meeting)

We ask that invited guests limit their presentations to no more than 5 minutes.

We ask that questions, comments, and suggestions be kept to no more than 3 minutes.

This meeting will be recorded.

Welcome

· Treasurer’s Report

Community Updates:

1. Lt. Brian Robinson, City of Richmond Police Section Lt, 4th Precinct
2. Officer Luke Schrader, Police Liaison, VCU
3. Mr. Tito Luna, VCU Liaison
4. Ms. Stephanie Lynch, 5th District Councilperson
5. Ms. Colette McEachin, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney

Updates

1. Proposed all-way stops on South Pine Street at its intersection with China Street (at Open High School) and South Pine Street at its intersection with Albemarle Street

· The paper has been submitted and approved. The stop sign at China Street has been installed; the stop sign at Albemarle Street has not.

2. Proposed Amendments to the Richmond 300 Land Use Plan / Neighborhood Coalition Update

· Move Oregon Hill from Neighborhood Mixed Use to Residential land use category (Randolph is in this category).

· If Planning will not move Oregon Hill to Residential, then change the maximum height in the Neighborhood Mixed Use category from four stories to two stories.

· Remove the clause that allows taller buildings along major streets.

o Idlewood and South Laurel between VCU and Idlewood are designated major streets

o The amendments were continued by Land Use Committee. City Planning staff have recommended that no amendments be adopted.

o It was continued, yet again, to Tuesday 16 November 2021.

3. New SUP, 617-719 China Street

· We should see this at our February 2022 meeting.

4. Holly Street Playground cleanup took place on Saturday 15 January 2022, from 10am to 4pm.

5. Resolution of support for the creation of a new mural on the brick wall along Belvidere was submitted.

· If accepted, the Public Art Commission will sponsor the process to select an artist (with neighborhood input) and pay the artist for the work.

Continued Business

1. VCU student party issues

· There have been several large, loud parties in the last few weeks. There are problematic, repeat issues in the 200 block of South Laurel, and the intersection of South Laurel and China streets.

· Report issues to both RPD and VCU. Keep track of: date, time, location, fraternity / sorority affiliation, names of individuals involved, names of landlords, etc.

· OHNA is setting up an online form to track problem party locations, so that we may follow up with RPD and VCU. We will keep a spreadsheet of problematic locations and fraternity / sorority locations, and regularly report this information to VCU.

2. Bulletin board for Pleasant’s Park

· Any volunteers to make the needed repairs?

3. Pleasants Park – unleashed dog-related issues

· When the City was petitioned to add gates, the intent was to make it safer for both dogs and kits, with the idea that the park would be shared.

· Complaints about unleashed dogs have gone to Parks and Recreation.

· City requires that all dogs in city parks be leashed at all times – this is not something that we as a neighborhood can change

· The only way that a dog park – an area for unleashed dogs – can be created is to go through the City process for creating them. It involves requesting use of city land, creating a non-profit organization that covers the cost of the fencing, regular maintenance, and maintains liability insurance for the area. A portion of Linear Park might be a potential location. This is now Barker Field, near the Carillon, was created and is maintained. Any volunteers to head this up?

New Business

1 Traffic issues along Idlewood at Cherry and Pine Streets

· There have been a number of recent accidents at these two locations.

· These two intersections suffer from poor visibility and the high speed of cars exiting 195 east onto Idlewood.

Bryan Clark Green, President

David Cary, Co-Vice-President

Jennifer Hancock, Co-Vice-President

Chris Hughes, Co-Vice-President

Harrison Moenich, Secretary

John Bolecek, Treasurer

Neighbor Honored For His Service As Animal Control Officer

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Cherry Street neighbor Daniel Leech works Animal Control Officers at Richmond Animal Care and Control. In a neighborhood of dog and cat and wildlife fans, Daniel and his wife Sarah fit in very well. They are known for volunteering extra hours in helping lost animals that show up in the neighborhood.
Its always interesting to see what creatures Daniel is rescuing next- from big hawks to small snakes and dogs of all sizes.
Daniel’s work can be very difficult also as he has often must deal with the horror of animals that are lost, neglected, and terribly abused. Some must be euthanized.
Through it all, Daniel keeps an even emotional keel -sometimes using humor, declaring himself ‘Bird Cop”. Still, it is very challenging.
A coworker nominated him for recognition by local television station NBC 12 and it comes as no surprise but with great satisfaction and pride in seeing him publicly lauded for his “Acts of Kindness” in serving local human and animal residents.

“In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower”

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Virginia Festival of the Book is presenting a book discussion on Facebook Live or Zoom this Thursday that may be of interest to Oregon Hill residents.

Davarian L. Baldwin (In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities) discusses how universities have become big business and the costs for those living in their shadows, with Jalane Schmidt, director of the UVA Democracy Initiative’s Memory Project and associate professor of Religious Studies.
In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower takes readers from Hartford to Chicago and from Phoenix to Manhattan, revealing the increasingly parasitic relationship between universities and our cities. Through eye-opening conversations with city leaders, low-wage workers tending to students’ needs, and local activists fighting encroachment, scholar Davarian L. Baldwin makes clear who benefits from unchecked university power—and who is made vulnerable.
A wake-up call to the reality that higher education is no longer the ubiquitous public good it was once thought to be, Baldwin shows there is an alternative vision for urban life, one that necessitates a more equitable relationship between our cities and our universities.
“Insightful, compelling, and timely. This book lays the groundwork for the role of universities in creating equitable and just cities.”―Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Davarian L. Baldwin, author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower, is a leading urbanist, historian, and cultural critic. He serves as the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies and founding director of the Smart Cities Lab at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
Jalane Schmidt is associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, where she is the director of the Democracy Initiative’s Memory Project. She is a scholar-activist in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she teaches public history in different community forums.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Thanks to New Humanities, our partner for this event. A project of Virginia Humanities, New Humanities is a community-driven media project designed to document and preserve the history of families in one of Charlottesville, Virginia’s historically Black neighborhoods. The project works closely with 10th and Page residents to digitize their physical materials and to record oral histories.
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This program, FREE to attend and open to the public, is part of SHELF LIFE, a series of virtual events presented by the Virginia Festival of the Book, a program of Virginia Humanities. To attend, please register here or simply make plans to watch on Facebook.com/VaBookFest.
This event will offer closed captions and an accompanying live transcript using Zoom’s built-in automatic speech recognition software (ASR). To request live-captioning accommodations, please write vabook@virginia.edu no later than seven days before the event. A video recording from this event will be provided soon after completion and an accurate transcript will be available at a later date, at VaBook.org/watch.

OHNA Meeting Tomorrow Night

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From email announcement:

Good morning OHNA members,

I look forward to seeing everyone Tuesday at 7pm for our monthly OHNA meeting.

We will be meeting in St. Andrew’s Church — they have kindly allowed us to meet in their chapel. St. Andrew’s has asked that all participants remain masked during the meeting and remain socially distanced.

We are also providing a Zoom link provided for those who wish to join remotely. This should allow for remote participation, including the ability to ask questions remotely — those in person won’t be able to see remote participants, but we should be able to hear them. Please be patient –between masking and spreading out, it might be a little more of a challenge to hear clearly. We will do our best to make sure that those who join us remotely can hear and be heard.

Two items to highlight for your consideration:
1. Dominion is holding a tour of their new solar array at the Dominion energy Office at 120 Tredegar Street on Wednesday 5 January at 3:00pm and 6:00pm. If you would like you mist RSVP by 30 December with your full first and last name to:
Felix.Sarfo-Kantanka@dominionenergy.com

2. Below is a draft resolution for consideration to request that the Public Art Commission — at its January 2022 planning meeting — include in its budget funds for a mural along Belvidere, and involve Oregon Hill residents in the process:
The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA) requests that the Public Art Commission add to its 2022 work plan a request for funding to support the design and creation of a mural to revitalize the brick wall that forms the eastern boundary of the neighborhood, along Belvidere Street.

This request comes from a desire to refresh the wall with some contemporary murals that will replace the outdated bike race mural, which was, unfortunately, not completed for the 2015 bike race; it remains incomplete. Our hope is to source artists local to Richmond Virginia, who will create art that is more reflective of our diverse neighborhood, and speaks in some form to the history and people of Oregon Hill. We also hope that residents of Oregon Hill will be included in the selection committee for the project.

I have attached to this email
1. the agenda for the 28 December meeting (also pasted in below),
2. the minutes for the November meeting,
3. invitation to view the Dominion Energy solar array at 120 Tredergar Street.

We look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow evening.

Thanks,
Bryan

Location: St. Andrew’s Church
Topic: OHNA December 2021 Meeting
Time: Dec 28, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting (Editor’s note: Zoom info redacted; please email OHNA at ohnarva@gmail.com if info needed)

St. Andrew’s Church has kindly allowed us to use the church for this meeting.

They ask that all participants remain masked and socially distanced during the meeting.

We ask that invited guests limit their presentations to no more than 5 minutes.
We ask that questions, comments, and suggestions be kept to no more than 3 minutes.
This meeting will be recorded.

Welcome
• Treasurer’s Report

Community Updates:
1. Lt. Brian Robinson, City of Richmond Police Section Lt, 4th Precinct

2. Officer Luke Schrader, Police Liaison, VCU

3. Mr. Tito Luna, VCU Liaison

4. Ms. Stephanie Lynch, 5th District Councilperson

5. Ms. Colette McEachin, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney

Updates
1. Proposed all-way stops on South Pine Street at its intersection with China Street (at Open High School) and South Pine Street at its intersection with Albemarle Street
• The paper has been submitted.

2. Proposed Amendments to the Richmond 300 Land Use Plan / Neighborhood Coalition Update
• Move Oregon Hill from Neighborhood Mixed Use to Residential land use category (Randolph is in this category).
• If Planning will not move Oregon Hill to Residential, then change the maximum height in the Neighborhood Mixed Use category from four stories to two stories.
• Remove the clause that allows taller buildings along major streets.
o Idlewood and South Laurel between VCU and Idlewood are designated major streets
o The amendments were continued by Land Use Committee. City Planning staff have recommended that no amendments be adopted.
o It was continued, yet again, to Tuesday 16 November 2021.

3. New SUP, 617-719 China Street
• We should see this at our January 2022 meeting.

4. Dominion is holding a tour of their new solar array at the Dominion energy Office at 120 Tredegar Street on Wednesday 5 January at 3:00pm and 6:00pm. If you would like you mist RSVP by 30 December with your full first and last name to:
Felix.Sarfo-Kantanka@dominionenergy.com

Continued Business
1. Sculpture for Pleasant’s Park, by local artist Mickael Broth
• The sculpture will be installed in Pleasant’s Park.
• The sculpture has been purchased
• Met with Public Art Commission staff, and told that we have to go through the process of donating it to the City, not through Urban Design Committee as we had been told
• If approved, we will begin the process of location approval with Parks & Recreation and the Urban Design Committee.

2. VCU student party issues
• There have been several large, loud parties in the last few weeks. There are problematic, repeat issues in the 200 block of South Laurel, and the intersection of South Laurel and China streets.
• Report issues to both RPD and VCU. Keep track of: date, time, location, fraternity / sorority affiliation, names of individuals involved, names of landlords, etc.
• OHNA is setting up an online form to track problem party locations, so that we may follow up with RPD and VCU. We will keep a spreadsheet of problematic locations and fraternity / sorority locations, and regularly report this information to VCU.

3. Bulletin board for Pleasant’s Park

New Business
1. Resolution of support for the creation of a new mural on the brick wall along Belvidere.
• We met with Public Art Commission staff and were told if we sent them a proposal for their January 2022 planning meeting, we could be considered for sponsorship for such a mural.
• If accepted, the Public Art Commission would sponsor the process to select an artist (with neighborhood input) and pay the artist for the work.

2. Holly Street Playground cleanup is scheduled for 15 January 2022, from 10am to 4pm. We are trying to put together a date, and will let everyone know once it is settled. We will focus on clearing brush just beyond the south and west fence lines.

3. Pleasants Park – unleased dog-related issues
• When the City was petitioned to add gates, the intent was to make it safer for both dogs and kits, with the idea that the park would be shared.
• Complaints about unleased dogs have gone to Parks and Recreation.
• City requires that all dogs in city parks be leashed at all times – this is not something that we as a neighborhood can change
• The only way that a dog park – an area for unleased dogs – can be created is to go through the City process for creating them. It involves requesting use of city land, creating a non-profit organization that covers the cost of the fencing, regular maintenance, and maintains liability insurance for the area. A portion of Linear Park might be a potential location. This is now Barker Field, near the Carillon, was created and is maintained. Any volunteers to head this up?

Bryan Clark Green, President
David Cary, Co-Vice-President
Jennifer Hancock, Co-Vice-President
Chris Hughes, Co-Vice-President
Harrison Moenich, Secretary
John Bolecek, Treasurer

YWCA’s Sprout School To Have Oregon Hill “Outpost”

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RichmondBizSense.com reports on the YWCA’s plans for expanding its childcare program.

The nonprofit’s Sprout School, a full-day and year-round early childhood education program, is expected to open a downtown Richmond location in spring 2022 and an Oregon Hill location in winter 2023.
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The Oregon Hill outpost will be located at St. Andrew’s School at 227 S. Cherry St. The school and nonprofit have already signed an agreement to open the location, Tissiere said.