Category Archives: editorial

Stop the Deforestation of Richmond’s Historic Monroe Park

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Letter from neighbor:

Dear Richmond Urban Design Committee and Planning Commission

Monroe Park was once a beautiful public park with its most delightful feature being its vibrant urban tree canopy. Now, under the guidance of a few individuals, it has lost much of its beautiful urban forest which previously served as an aesthetic wonder, habitat for animals and the proverbial “lungs” of our city. The city under the direction of the Monroe Park Conservancy is now requesting to forego planting 8 more trees that were included in the approved master plan and replacing them with planters in order to increase the surveillance scope from cameras attached to the Checkers House soffit. This is unacceptable and I respectfully ask that this request for approval of the tree deletion be denied.

Thank you,

Charles T Woodson
Richmond Va 23220

The tree removal request will be heard THIS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5th at 10am at the Urban Design Committee meeting. Please sign and share!
New petition on Change.org

Car Thieves!

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A neighbor reported this morning:

Two guys, faces covered by hoods, heading down Laurel looking into car windows.

Another neighbor reported:

My partner forgot to lock the car. One got in but I scared him off. He’s in the gray hoodie. They been on Spring and Cherry . Police are looking for them.

Editorial comment: I guess now that students are back, criminals think we are easy pickings. Its up to neighbors to prove them wrong.

How’s Your Utility Bill?

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There’s been a lot of discussion over email, FaceBook, and the NextDoor social media about City utility bills, including water.

A lot of citizens, including Oregon Hill residents, seem surprised by the amounts on their bills, as well as late fees.

Some have already called in to the City’s Utility Department. From one neighbor:

So I called the utility department and they removed my late fee.
They might remove yours too.
Their number is 646-4646.

It’s hard to pin the problems down, and there is a lot of speculation about what is causing the high bills. Some have anecdotal reports about checking for leaks and looking for high usage. It’s also hard to say how much can be related to previous reform efforts. But there’s something to be said for keeping abreast of the situation, especially as the City government attempts to address Utility concerns. Also , don’t forget the Larus Park/Chesterfield selling issues.

Congratulations To Open High! Another Excellence Award

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Open High School has been awarded a 2017 Board of Education Excellence Award.

This is the second tier in the Virginia Index Of Performance Awards. The VIP incentive program recognizes schools and divisions that exceed state and federal accountability standards and achieve excellence goals established by the governor and the board. This means Open High also met all state and federal accountability benchmarks and made significant progress toward goals for increased student achievement and expanded educational opportunities set by the board.

Oregon Hill is lucky to have such a great neighbor, which can trace its history (and protection) back to Grace Arents’ legacy.

Hopefully, this will add pressure to put ALL schools first. It would also be great to see Open High’s aging building get more fully renovated in a historically sensitive manner.

Need More Personal Responsibility For Alley Trash

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This photo looks down the alley between the 600 block of S. Laurel and S.Cherry.
Trash and recycling trucks already went through on Wednesday. This photo was from after that.

Dear landlords and tenants,

The citizens of Richmond need you to take more responsibility for your refuse. I know some of you think that taxes are only good for two things, fire protection and refuse collection, but the truth is that OUR taxes also pay for things like police, schools, parks, etc. When the City spends all of its money picking up at the end of your leases, it can take away from other priorities.

While I appreciate efforts to improve the City’s services, you have a personal responsibility to make a point of either taking your excess to the dump, or, at the very least, scheduling a ‘bulk refuse’ pickup with the City. Just leaving it out in the alley, no matter how neatly, is not the neighborly thing to do. Let’s do better.

http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/RefuseCollection.aspx

More High Speed Dreams And #Rally4Trains

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It seems like I wrote this decades ago, but it was years- The Dream of High Speed Rail.

Still, recent headlines promise and disappoint in a bewildering order.

High-speed rail meetings chugging along in Hanover

84 Amtrak passengers stranded five hours after train gets stuck on tracks in Charles City

As often as my hopes are dashed, I hope they can stay alive. To that end, join Mayor Stoney and others at the RVA #Rally4Trains this evening:

President Trump’s FY 2018 budget eliminates 48% of Virginia’s passenger rail service and we are rallying in support of improving our passenger rail network, not cutting it!

Join Virginians for High Speed Rail, Southern Environmental Law Center, and National Association of Railroad Passengers for RVA’s Rally for Trains at Main Street Station on June 28th at 5:15pm with Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney.

(You can then join Mayor Stoney at his 5th District Community Community Meeting at the Randolph Community center at 1415 Grayland Avenue at 6:30 pm (and ask him what really comes first, schools, or stadiums?).

Put Schools First, Breaking Records and the Status Quo

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While some Richmonders discuss how to deal wth the past, others are acting on its future.

The Richmond Crusade for Voters (a historic black civil rights group) gathered over 6,000 signatures on primary election day, which may be a new record for petitioning on one day! The signatures are for www.PutSchoolsFirst.org, a petition for a future voter referendum to make school modernization first priority in the City budget planning. It’s important to note that this is revenue-neutral and allows for proper adjustment with City Council’s input. For the petition language, please visit the website.

In addition, The Sierra Club Falls of the James, an (almost all white) environmental group, is supporting the www.putschoolsfirst.org petition/referendum campaign, adding that school modernization should include green building and solar energy (other Virginia localities like Charlottesville and Arlington are doing it, why not Richmond?).

Despite some of the projections in the local corporate media, this school modernization effort is not ‘against’ anyone, not Mayor Stoney, not his ‘Education Compact’. It is neutral other than stating that the status quo is unacceptable.
It’s worth noting the grassroots aspect of this and it comes after many previous grassroots movements, including from Oregon Hill’s Open High School.

Right now, the Richmond Crusade for Voters is reaching out to black churches across the City, and the Sierra Club is reaching out to like minded environmental organizations. Hopefully more progressive groups will reach across racial lines and join this very important school modernization effort. To paraphrase Dr. King again, If not now, when?

Chesterfield County’s Water

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Why is the Oregon Hill community news site posting about Chesterfield County’s water?

You probably still need to read this week’s Richmond Free Press. As with last week’s article on Monroe Park, reporter Jeremy Lazarus is supplying some valuable insight to how this area (dys)functions. For some mysterious reason, the following front-page article does not appear on the newspaper’s website, but here are photos of the printed version:

Please take the the time to read the second page, which includes hard-hitting quotes from former Sierra Club leader Dr. Charles Price on this attempted usurping of a public park as well as from Laurel Street neighbor Charles Pool on the City’s regressive water utility fees.

Although the Richmond Free Press article does not mention it, some neighbors are also speculating about how Chesterfield County might resell their ‘bargain’ on City water to Niagra Bottling LLC. Is City of Richmond not only forced to provide Chesterfield Co. water at a fifth the cost that Richmond customers must pay, but also subsidizing cheap water for the Niagara Bottling LLC? Are we really going to be damaging a Richmond city park to build a water facility so that Niagara Bottling Company can have cheap water?!

While Oregon Hill is not in Chesterfield County, our neighbors continue to keep an eye on local water issues and hope more media like the Richmond Free Press does the same.

Editorial: Free Press Article On Monroe Park Both Vindicates and Condemns City Council

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There was a great piece of reporting this week from the Richmond Free Press on Monroe Park financial wrangling. From reporter Jeremy Lazarus:

After telling City Council in December that the projected $6 million Monroe Park project — half to be paid by private donations — had adequate funding, the city’s chief administrative officer, Selena Cuffee-Glenn, quietly shifted $833,569 to the project in recent months from reportedly unused capital funds.

The shift was made without notice to City Council and was disclosed as the result of queries from Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, 5th District, and the council’s budget staff.

Mr. Agelasto also was surprised to learn that nearly half of the money shifted, $394,000, was listed as coming from two paving projects in his district that already had been completed and paid for — one involving Allen Avenue and the other involving paving at Meadow Street, Colorado Avenue and Harrison Street.

As the article mentions, this vindicates City Council’s amendment to Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s proposed budget that requires the administration to seek council approval before shifting funds between programs in major departments. Despite some previous editorials’ characterizations, City Council is not ‘overreaching’ by trying to get a handle on the City’s finances. (Special appreciation to 5th District Councilperson Agelasto for his dogged questioning.)

On the other hand, these revelations reflect City Council’s poor judgement in turning historic Monroe Park over to the Monroe Park Conservancy in the first place. Many citizens and the Sierra Club Falls of the James have previously called for a termination of the Conservancy’s lease and a return to public investment and public oversight of renovations of this public park. Many are questioning why corporations seem to have special tent rights for park use. While it’s too late to save many park trees, it’s not too late for City Council to do the right thing.

‘Comey’ Over Here And Bet Me

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Another editorial venture over to national politics….hey, the Times Dispatch does it…

So far I have no takers on my bet that this ‘Russiangate’ stuff will not result in impeachment of Trump. Anyone? As much as I would like to see Trump impeached, I think the ridiculous Red-baiting is a very sad attempt by Democrats to excuse their horrible Presidential campaign. I keep hoping that Trump’s other, outstanding conflicts of interest will be used to impeach him, but I don’t see corporate Democrats doing that because that tact might then be used against them in the future. All along I have been hoping that people would refocus on reforming the entire system- IRV/RCV for example, banning corporate campaign funding, or at least getting us out of these stupid foreign wars, but no, the corporate media wants us to spend time plumbing Comey’s inner soul or something.

Surely there’s someone out there-
As we have proven already today, talk is cheap. I am wagering that “Russiangate” investigation will NOT result in Trump’s impeachment. Do you want to bet? Honestly, as with the Burger Bernie Belly Crawl Challenge, I would love to be proven wrong, as I would love to see Trump impeached and I would have loved to have seen Bernie Sanders get the Democratic nomination this past election.