Category Archives: editorial

Open The Canal – From “Access Week” On James River News Hub

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Last week, fairly new community news site James River News Hub hosted “Access Week”, where it looked at various ways to make the James River more accessible and usable by the public. Here is what it said about the Kanawha Canal:

Secondly, open up the canal behind Dominion at Oregon Hill to form a circuit for paddlers from Tredegar to Pump House Park. I’ve done field research by scouting some of the land one might see along the canal. That one might be a tougher sell to CSX and would require a lot more effort for the paddlers to get about two miles up river.

Although we have not seen it yet, Oregon Hill residents have asked that the new canal bridge be high enough to accommodate boats eventually.

Meanwhile In The General Assembly…McEachin Powers on

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Oregon Hill’s State Senator Donald McEachin is doing great work to push forward a clean energy agenda for Virginia in the current General Assembly session.

Sadly, his bill to limit offshore oil drilling (while promoting offshore wind), SB814, died in committee yesterday. This is particularly galling to those concerned about the undue influence of the fossil fuel corporations and their disasters.

Fortunately, there are other bills to root for. In particular, SB907, also sponsored by McEachin, which is now scheduled to come up (again) in the Senate Commerce and Labor committee next week. SB907 would direct the State Corporation Commission to order utilities to develop an appropriate pricing strategy to incentivize residential customers to reduce their consumption. Inclining block rates (IBR) is just such a strategy and is designed so that the more electricity consumers use, the more they pay, sending a price signal, especially to high-use residential customers, to reduce their consumption.

Does this sound familiar? It should, because it is similar to the municipal water reform that Oregon Hill residents have lobbied for in the recent past. Paying for what you use and rewarding conservation makes the sort of common sense that many citizens want to see on all levels of our government.

Plastic Bag Debate

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Bag on Belvidere

RVANews is covering the General Assembly debate.

A few points that are still not getting through to the public are the extent to which plastic bag litter is negatively impacting our environment/wildlife, how much bags are interfering with farming harvests, how much oil can conserved by reducing plastic bag use, and how much money businesses could save by not offering bags.

Instead of Another Monroe Park Question, Another Controversy

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From Oregon Hill resident Todd Woodson:

In 2008 a Monroe Park Master Plan was adopted by the City to make much needed improvements to the City’s oldest Park. Among the many improvements are to restore the dilapidated concrete sidewalks on its perimeter from cracked and perished concrete slab to brick pavers with substantial green growing strips to plant new street trees. The benefits are many- brick pavers are porous so runoff wont be sent into the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the planting strips promote healthier street trees, repairs can be made in small areas should anything happen and they are historic and look great.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see a big part of the sidewalk on Laurel street across from the Landmark Theatre pulled up yesterday for renovation. Upon speaking with the contractor and a city worker, my worst fears were realized: VCU had requested the sidewalks be replaced as they were dangerous to their students and the City, in its haste to obey, contracted the entire sidewalk- from Franklin to Main, to be demolished and replaced with- no not brick pavers and trees as the Master Plan dictates, but concrete slabs- which would be ripped up for the correct fix in the next few years. Surely the sidewalks need replacing but they haven’t changed in the last 25+ years, so what’s with the haste?
One should ask “Was VCU NOT aware of the Monroe Park master plan before their request?”. The answer is not only is VCU aware of it, but they participated in its creation.
I measured the area today and it is 860 feet long by 15 feet wide comprising a square footage of 12,900. At an estimated $5 a square foot to pour the concrete, the bill for this two year fix is $64,500.00 and with the second demolition, this boondoggle could swell to well over 100 grand. That’s YOUR taxpayer dollars wasted, Richmond friends.
Hoping to stem off this waste, I contacted the interim Director of Public Works, the auditor Umesh Dalal and many other denizens of the city payroll a day before the pouring and advised them of the conflict. Still, the trucks showed up today and a section of the sidewalk was poured and screed- INCONSISTENT to the Master Plan. I think most of City Hall has gone home for the holiday, leaving their mistakes to burn us in their absence.
I respectfully request that the City of Richmond and its contractors, cease all non conforming repair work on Monroe Park sidewalks and deliberate once you return to work and proceed with fixing the sidewalks RIGHT the FIRST TIME and stop WASTING our money. You are aware of the Master Plan.

Richmond Honored for Sustainability Achievements

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From the City’s Department of Community Development newsletter:

The city of Richmond was honored recently with two important awards in recognition of its commitment to and achievements in climate protection and sustainability.

The city received a Silver Award in the 2010 Virginia Municipal League (VML) Green Government Challengeand recognized for completing its Baseline Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, which completes Milestone One of a Five Milestone process.

The Green Government Challenge is a friendly competition among local governments to encourage the implementation of specific environmental policies and practical actions that reduce carbon emissions.

Richmond earned its award by (1) hiring its’ first Energy Manager to develop a comprehensive Energy Management Program that includes improving the energy performance of all city agencies; (2) retrofitting traffic signals with LED lights at 220 intersections, The Department of Public Works will convert 220 intersections by the end of 2010 that will save more than $108,000 in annual energy costs and, (3) the city also created the first two Green Alleys in the city to reduce stormwater pollution by using permeable pavers which allow water to soak through rather than run off.

Check out Chicago’s Green Alley program by clicking here. I am not sure where Oregon Hill alleys fall in with the City of Richmond’s Green Alley initiative, but I am looking forward to seeing more permeable pavers.

It’s important to note that while some citizens may not be happy with the stormwater utility fees, the City of Richmond is LEADING the counties in addressing the stormwater problem and deserves praise for doing so. Let’s see if the counties rise to the challenge like the City has, for they will need to deal with their own stormwater sooner than later.

I was reminded of this when I attended a Virginia Department of Environmental Quality James River TDML meeting last night:

TMDL Background:

Virginia agencies developed a study to identify sources of the bacterial contamination in the waters of the James River and it’s tributaries in the following jurisdictions:

Stream
County/City
Length (mi.)
Impairment
Bernards Creek
Chesterfield, Powhatan
6.95
Bacteria
(Primary Contact Use)
Powhite Creek
Chesterfield, Richmond City
8.13
Reedy Creek
Richmond City
3.69
James River
Richmond City
2.99
Gillie Creek
Richmond City, Henrico
5.75
Almond Creek
Henrico
2.08
Goode Creek
Richmond City
1.22
Falling Creek
Chesterfield
3.10
No Name Creek
Chesterfield
2.07
James River
Chesterfield, Henrico, Richmond City
6.75

These streams are impaired for failure to meet the Primary Contact (Recreational) designated use due to bacteria standard violations. The study reported sources of bacterial contamination and recommended total maximum daily loads, or TMDLs, for the impaired waters. A TMDL is the total amount of a pollutant a water body can contain and still meet water quality standards. To restore water quality, bacterial levels have to be reduced to the TMDL amount. The report, which was submitted to EPA on 9/30/10, is available on the DEQ website: http://www.deq.virginia.gov/tmdl/drftmdls/jamesg3.pdf. A TMDL study is meant to address “what” the problem is and how much of the pollutant must be reduced to meet water quality standards. The TMDL is then followed by Implementation Planning, which addresses “how” we meet the reductions identified in the TMDL study in order to meet water quality standards.

Another Monroe Park Question

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Well, I hoping to get a short and decisive answer to a ‘quick’ question about Monroe Park controversy, but then this is Richmond…The answer, judging from the overall comments (which I have since closed), is that Food Not Bombs will be allowed to serve in Monroe Park after renovations are done. Keep in mind that Michael Paul Williams raised the specter of a negative possibility in his newspaper column before the question was posed here. If anyone has new facts to share on the answer to that question, please do send them in.

Now, for a second question. Again, there are a lot of important questions in regard to this controversy, but the idea is to be objective and get to the facts.

Does Monroe Park have to be fully closed during all renovations?

Just a little background- Monroe Park Advisory Council (MPAC) has said that they invited Food Not Bombs to meetings on the renovations, but they did not take part. The City of Richmond says that Monroe Park must be fully closed while it is undergoing renovations due to logistics and expenses.

Food Not Bombs has demanded that at least two acres of the Park remain open during renovations in order to continue serving food there.

Quick Monroe Park Question

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Unfortunately, the controversy over the Monroe Park renovations and the feeding programs continues to grow, with the media circling.

Here’s a simple question:

Will Food Not Bombs be allowed to serve food in Monroe Park after renovations are done?

Yes or No?

Is there a definitive, official answer?

Of course there are other important questions in regard to this, but it seems to me that this needs to be answered first by civic leadership to dispel or confirm some of the fear and distrust that surround the issue. I might add, without injecting further personal opinion, that there is a history to this that you may or may not agree with.

(Alright, a little more personal opinion: there are a few citizens on different sides of the issue, and they know who they are, who are doing what they can to keep lines of communication open and they deserve appreciation).

Congressional Candidates At The Crusade

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Pictures of 3rd District Congressional Candidates at the Crusade for Voters meeting earlier tonight- in no particular order:

John Kelly


Bobby Scott


James Quigley


Chuck Smith

I did not get my question in for the candidates, but if you will forgive some editorial license, I will go ahead and pose it here:

Will you take the following pledge?
The Supreme Court’s flawed decision allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts to influence election outcomes endangers our democracy and threatens to drown out the voices of individual citizens. I pledge to protect America from unlimited corporate spending in our elections by supporting a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision giving corporations the same First Amendment rights as people.

Two Years Later, Still Waiting For Positive Step By VCU

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VCU sent out an email earlier this month about VCU’s Strategic Plan and their new website for it: http://www.future.vcu.edu/

In terms of VCU’s community outreach, I will just remind the VCU community of a two-year old request from its neighbor for a permanent commitment.

We need a lasting compact that includes NOT building new facilities or purchasing additional property south of Cary by the University OR its private real estate foundation,” says Burger. He suggests that this positive step would perhaps allow a normalization of relations with VCU from its current state of distrust. He also notes the original Downtown Master Plan draft, which suggest that Richmond’s historic downtown neighborhoods receive more protection

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