Category Archives: editorial

City Planners Determined To Ignore And Destroy Oregon Hill Community

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Tomorrow, July 13th, is the deadline for public comment on the Richmond 300 Draft Plan, which is supposed to be the city’s vision for the next 20 years. Sadly, ‘the city’s vision’ does not include the Oregon Hill community’s.

The last three decades have seen great changes for Oregon Hill. Despite much turmoil, the community has worked hard to try to keep a vision as a real neighborhood where families could settle and live. It has had successful historic preservation and affordable housing programs. It has honored early inhabitants’ abolitionist roots. It has developed its green spaces and connections. More probably could have been done, but much time and effort has been used instead on battling unwelcome, inappropriate development from the VCU administration and unscrupulous developers whose overall goal is to gradually chip and scrape away Oregon Hill’s historic integrity and dismantle it’s residential character. It’s also very telling that VCU is not interested in entering into a written agreement of any type with Oregon Hill – the neighborhood has been asking for a Memorandum of Understanding for over a decade.

Sadly, what Oregon Hill has worked for and fought to become (supplying a great tax base and attraction for the City, we might add), is now terribly threatened.

The number one principle of successful planning is to involve the affected community.

Oregon Hill has participated in the process from the beginning but our input has been ignored. The planning process is illegitimate if the input from the affected community is ignored. We have consistently demanded a residential future land use designation for our residential Oregon Hill Historic District.

Sadly, it’s been to no avail so far. City officials just don’t seem to care. Under the guise of the Richmond300 plan, City staff, with coaxing by the VCU administration and greedy developers, could determine that buildings of eight or more stories are consistent in Oregon Hill. Every block could see demolition of historic housing stock and new development like what happened at 805 W. Cary.

It’s important to recognize the ticking time bomb that the Richmond300 is planting:

As the Richmond300 process heads to its conclusion, we can anticipate some of their positions and responses:

City: “Don’t worry about the future land use designation impacting future rezoning of Oregon Hill because the neighborhood will be closely involved in the process.”
Oregon Hill response: A stated objective of the Richmond 300 plan is to rezone the city in accordance with the future land use plan. The city planning department has ignored the input of the affected neighborhood when preparing the Richmond 300 plan and will likely ignore the input of the affected neighborhood when the city moves to redefine the zoning districts. The mixed use future land use designation is incompatible with the desired R-7 zoning of the Oregon Hill Historic District.

City: “The neighborhood mixed use future land use designation is the closest designation to the R-7 zoning.”
Oregon Hill response: Oregon Hill fought hard for the R-7 zoning which is a residential zoning with a 35 foot height limit. The mixed use designation is not compatible with the R-7 zoning either in function or building height.

City: “The Richmond 300 plan lowered the number of future land use designations, so the mixed used designation is now the closest to fit Oregon Hill.”
Oregon Hill response: The city arbitrarily removed the medium-density residential and single family future land use designations that matched Oregon Hill’s R-7 zoning. With these removed, the “Residential” future land use designation remains the closest match for the form and function of the Oregon Hill Historic District. It’s important to recognize how the City has purposely time taken away any ‘middle ground’ over time. The neighborhood could not even get the urban business zoning it wanted for W. Cary street corridor. City planners blocked that too, less they upset VCU admin and their developer buddies.

City: “Oregon Hill is a mixed use neighborhood, you have two of the finest restaurants in the city and we want more businesses.”
Oregon Hill response: Within the R-7 zoning of Oregon Hill 99% of the 650 buildings are residential dwellings of two story in height. It is inappropriate to set a future land use to match 1% of the building functions within the Oregon Hill Historic District. (It’s also worth noting that if you look at the ugly new development at 805 W. Cary, its been corporate chains moving in. Not to mention that prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Richmond restaurants had oversaturated the city, and now it will be lucky if 50% of the City’s independent restaurants will survive). Yes, there are existing nineteenth century storefronts that could be brought back to commercial purposes, but we are sure that what this Richmond300 plan portends is demolition, not renovation.

City: “The new neighborhood mixed use designation is meant to increase affordable housing in the city.”
Oregon Hill response: Oregon Hill has been a resource for affordable housing since the 19th century. Many residents strongly believe in affordable housing and had worked and volunteered with the Oregon Hill Home Improvement Council and other affordable housing groups in the City, that does not mean we want to see our historic neighborhood demolished. The mixed-use designation will undermine the successful residential function of the neighborhood.

City: “Don’t worry, the Richmond 300 plan has a priority objective for preserving historic neighborhoods.”
Oregon Hill response: The preservation of the Oregon Hill Historic District will be undermined by an inappropriate mixed-use future land use designation with inappropriate function and building height limits.

City: “Don’t worry about the future land use designation because the city will help Oregon Hill obtain the city historic designation.”
Oregon Hill response: Any discussion of an historic district designation is a non sequitor that is not germane to the appropriate future land use designation of Oregon Hill in the Richmond 300 plan. (It should be noted that at one point during the 805 W. Cary discussions, City staff told neighborhood leaders that a non-demolition overlay was possible and would be the quickest way to protect the neighborhood. Of course when the neighborhood association pursued it, they stalled and eventually changed their story and said it was not a possibility. They had thrown us a red herring).

In short, it is not Oregon Hill which is being unreasonable, despite all the efforts to portray it that way.

Again:

The number one principle of successful planning is to involve the affected community.

Oregon Hill has participated in the process from the beginning but our input has been ignored. The planning process is illegitimate if the input from the affected community is ignored. We have consistently demanded a residential future land use designation for our residential Oregon Hill Historic District.

We hope that elected officials and the public understand what is happening here. Please take the time to contact our 5th District council rep Stephanie Lynch to let her know your opposition to the Richmond300 plan: stephanie.lynch@richmondgov.com

Mask Up!

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Saw this report from a friend:

A face-masked walk on Belle Isle yesterday was a real eye opener for me. It was really crowded with people, uncomfortably so even for non-covid times, and I estimated that maybe 1% of the people had masks or any coverings on their faces! I fear that this does not bode well for our community…

Regardless ofwhat the government does, its important to recognize that the coronavirus pandemic is still raging and is still in danger of intensifying.

Voting By Mail, Ballot Access, and RCV (During A Plague)

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The Richmond Free Press has an article this week on Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring’s announcement this past Tuesday that he agrees with a federal lawsuit seeking the temporary suspension of the state’s current requirement that voters casting mail-in ballots have someone present as they open the letter containing the ballot and sign the envelope in which the ballot is returned.

The Virginia American Civil Liberties Union and the Virginia League of Women Voters celebrated the decision – “We are thrilled that today’s agreement means voters will not bear the burden of finding a witness for their absentee ballots during a global pandemic,” said Deb Wake, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia. “We are optimistic the judge will rule favorably so that Virginia voters do not have to choose between their health and their vote.”

At the same time other groups have expressed concern about the possibility of voting by mail becoming the standard during the pandemic. The California Republican Party is suing Governor Gavin Newsom to prohibit the practice of ballot collecting or “ballot harvesting” during two upcoming special elections in the state, arguing it stands “in direct conflict” with social distancing guidelines and Newsom’s shelter-in-place mandate to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Just to the north, the state of Oregon continues to use mail-in voting exclusively.

But lest you think this is just about battling voter suppression or usual political corruption, recognize that many independent voting rights activists have their own concerns and are lobbying for any VBM (voting by mail) to be ‘temporary’ with safeguards put in place to somewhat minimize fraud and disenfranchisement. So, the debate over VBM is most likely going to intensify, pandemic or no pandemic.

Furthermore, this community news site has steadfastly advocated for ranked choice voting (RCV) and will continue to do so, especially as we see American election pressures mount. If Virginia is going to risk voting by mail this year, why not also implement ranked choice voting at the same time? As Fair Vote Virginia has noted, Governor Northam has already signed bills allowing some RCV to proceed. Use emergency powers during the pandemic to give voters more voice!

But getting back more to this week’s developments… of course, what the Democratic Virginia Attorney General and the Democratic Party-leaning ACLU and League of Women Voters have not concerned themselves with is good ol’ fashioned ballot access during this pandemic. They have ignored the Green Party of Virginia’s appeal to waive the petition of qualified voters requirement for ballot access in light of the Governor’s declaration of a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collecting ballot petition signatures requires close physical contact on the part of both voters and petitioners and the state burdens ‘independent’ or ‘minor party’ campaigns with collecting these petitions, while exempting ‘major party’ candidates. And if you think this is just a state Green Party problem, consider how local campaigns are desperately struggling with these requirements. Some Oregon Hill neighbors have already tried to help Mayoral candidate Justin Griffin with signature by appointment. Electoral reforms like VBM and RCV can only help so much to improve voter choices if candidates are thwarted by ballot access (but perhaps that is the plan by the PTB,’Powers That Be’).

Circling back to the Richmond Free Press… it had this short thought in their editorial section- Something to think about.

Skipping April Fool’s Day This Year

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Sorry, folks, no April Fool’s day stories on oregonhill.net this year. Things are just grim and crazy as is with the pandemic, and I think people are too on edge. I had some wacky ideas, and Charles Pool had some too, but I don’t think they would have gone over well in this climate. This is not the first time I have decided to skip, see this 2014 post. Everyone work on staying healthy, be glad the coliseum scheme was beaten back, find laughs elsewhere, and we will do next year.

Busy Weekend Ahead with ‘Shiver In The River’ and War Memorial Ribbon Cutting

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It’s forecast to be a sunny but chilly weekend ahead here in RVA, and neighbors can expect a lot of weekend visitors as the 6th Annual Shiver In The River celebration happens down at the riverfront and the Virginia War Memorial is having a grand opening for its finished expansion.

So, no raining on the parades, but worthy of some consideration-

Shiver In The River combines a lot of activities- a community clean up that helps keep our neighborhood and riverfront clean, a 5 kilometer walk/run that allows appreciation of the natural beauty of the area, and lastly, a group dip or ‘polar plunge’ into the James River designed to raise money for Keep Virginia Beautiful.

On the surface, all of these activities sound fun and worthwhile, and they might still be, but citizens should also be aware of the backstory- Keep Virginia Beautiful’s mission is programming that supports litter prevention, community outreach, education, recycling and beautification for the Commonwealth of Virginia. It started as an offshoot of Keep America Beautiful, a national organization that was founded in 1953 by group of businessmen from the beverage and packaging industries who were concerned that government would make them responsible for solving the litter problem by regulating their industries.

In the early 1970’s a new campaign was launched with the theme “People Start Pollution, People Can Stop It”. Environmentalists were not happy with the campaign theme and wanted KAB (Keep America Beautiful) to focus on making producers responsible for packaging waste, but the organization’s industry backers refused. In 1974 KAB publicly opposed California’s proposed bottle bill. However due to reactions that the organisation was self-serving, they decided to drop any official position on the issue. KAB changed their approach to promote alternatives to bottle bills instead. In 1975 KAB introduced a Clean Community System campaign which encouraged local communities to clean up their litter and had the effect of keeping interest in bottle bills at bay. In 1976, more than a dozen environmental and citizens groups quit KAB after a member of the board of directors called for the organization to oppose four upcoming bottle bills. In the 1980s the Clean Community System expanded and became more focussed on encouraging people to recycle. In the 1990s there was a new campaign theme “Let’s not waste the 1990’s” which purported to support a sensible strategy to managing waste with source reduction, recycling, composting, incineration and sanitary landfilling. In practice, however, the campaign did not attempt to implement any real methods or targets for achieving improvements. And so it goes…it should be noted that in recent years KAB have launched a cigarette butt litter prevention program with support of Philip Morris. As part of this they have undertaken a significant public service announcement campaign stressing the fact that cigarette butts are a significant pollutant and that the chemicals leaching from them into our soils and waterways are a severe environmental concern. And, the plastics industry has become an even greater support of Keep America Beautiful.

Locally, RVA Cleansweep and other groups have continued to work with Keep Virginia Beautiful, and that is understandable. (Editor’s note: I have taken part in the litter pick ups and the James River Jump in past Shiver In The Rivers). On the whole, the organization does great work and its leaders should be appreciated, but it’s important that the ‘greenwashing’ potential be explained and information shared. This is more important than ever now that we know that we can never recycle or ‘litter pickup’ our way out of the plastics crisis, and that this crisis is becoming more and more pressing.

In a similar vein, there are things to know about the Virginia War Memorial.

Where the War Memorial is today used to be Oregon Hill ‘proper’. Technically, what is known as Oregon Hill today was known as Belvidere Hill, a subsection of the original neighborhood. It’s important to recognize that part of the neighborhood was sacrificed for the Virginia War Memorial and that was not just ‘blank land’ where it stands today. From the National Parks Service:

“In 1847, the Harvie Family platted their property east of Belvidere and south of the penitentiary as the Oregon Hill subdivision. The community’s name came from the witty geographic observation that a pedestrian excursion trip from the center of Richmond to Oregon Hill seemed the equivalent of a trip to Oregon by the standards of the day. The original portion of Oregon Hill consisted of modest houses east of Belvidere and south of Spring Street. Its early occupants were a mixture of white and African American laborers and artisans. This area, just outside the boundary of the district, was demolished to construct the Virginia War Memorial and state office buildings.”

Oregon Hill residents hope the Virginia War Memorial will continue to be a good neighbor and help protect our river views.

Another thought is that, while most people are not against memorializing those who have died in battle, many do wish our country was expanding its peace efforts instead. The ‘endless’ foreign wars in the Middle East keep supplying a trickle of new names for the War Memorial. Some of the wars are ‘covert’, but the names keep coming. Between Hollywood Cemetery and the Virginia War Memorial, there are some strong solemn presences around the neighborhood.

DISHONORABLE AND DISGUSTING ‘Business Leaders’ Pressuring City Councilperson’s Employer

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The Richmond Free Press newspaper yesterday published an article on the doomed ‘Navy Hill’ project, in which it also confirmed what 5th district residents have already been hearing- ‘business leaders’ who live in the surrounding counties are putting pressure on our City Councilperson though her employer. That’s not just inappropriate, it’s deliberately attempting to subvert democracy. It’s VILE, DISHONORABLE, AND DISGUSTING.

It’s great to see the community-oriented Richmond Free Press buck the system and make this particular story known, but more has to be done to dig this scum out. Earlier this week, we saw more corporate media, notably the Times Disgrace newspaper, run articles that not so subtly conveyed ridiculous threats- that if ‘Navy Hill’ does not happen, sick children would suffer and jobs would be lost and it would all be City Council and ‘activists” fault. Never mind that Richmond schools would again lose or that VCU Medical as a massive nonprofit hospital is not exactly penniless, or that Richmond citizens are under NO obligation to provide sweetheart deals to any corporation and we don’t have to give up more real estate to VCU’s empire.

Now, sadly, this is nothing new for Richmond. Citizens have heard many other tales of infamous arm twisting of decision makers by ‘business leaders’ who want to coerce government. And this sort of thing is happening at every level, from City Council and City department, to Urban Design Committee to even neighborhood association.

It’s part of Richmond’s dirty secret- that while there are good opportunities here with amazing natural and historic resources and Southern charm, the civic scene is one of oppression. Yes, the United States has become a country increasingly under the undue influence of corporations in commerce, society, and government, but Richmond’s top-down, almost aristocratic, corporate rule is overwhelming.

It has been for a long time a deep corruption where public concerns and priorities are thrown aside for corporate ones. Decade after decade, Richmond citizens have seen this again and again in everything from arts, to parks, from riverfront planning to even down to our water utility payments.

It should be made immediately clear that what happened to Councilperson Lynch reflects poorly on ALL of Navy Hill’s backers- Venture Richmond (previously known as Richmond Renaissance), RVA Chamber of Commerce, Retail Merchants, VCU administration, and, of course, the monopoly that controls our State Capital, Dominion. The public should hold them all in contempt until there are sincere apologies.

What should citizens do?

Of course, they should shame these people and groups’ DISHONORABLE AND DISGUSTING arm twisting tactics for this, and previous transgressions.

Last week, the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association, having heard these allegations, immediately voted at its January meeting to oppose the Navy Hill Dominion-VCU coliseum scheme in its current form. Other civic guards should do the same- reject the Navy Hill scheme WITH PREJUDICE and STAND BY AND SUPPORT our PUBLIC officials, at least the ones are honest and have not given in to the corporate slime.

Furthermore, citizens should look to reform measures- not only ones that promote transparency, but ones that beat back corporate influence altogether. On the local level, consider that the City of Charlottesville joined localities all across the nation and passed a resolution in support of the Move To Amend movement, which would overturn the Supreme Court’s terrible Citizens’ United decision and establish that corporations are not people and money is not speech. Why not the City of Richmond? Why not for both the federal AND state constitutions?

Speaking of state, support HB111 in the General Assembly. Let’s take this City and state back from Dominion control!

In the wake of the public exposure of the corporate hegemony, now’s not the time to go on with business as usual, but to revolt and demand better. If RVA is truly going to live up to its potential, we need to throw the corporate welfare mavens out for good!

Burger’s Bernie Belly Crawl Challenge II: The Sequel

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Well, it’s been four long years…and, sadly, here we are again…and again, I insert the disclaimer that I do not portend to represent ALL of Oregon Hill residents’ opinion on anything (unless, perhaps, when I am wearing my crown)…

Many Oregon Hill residents, and citizens in general, are pinning hopes on the Senator from Vermont in his renewed run for President. While I truly like Bernie’s story and many of his stances (but not all of them), the reality is that the Democratic National Committee will never, ever allow him their nomination. They don’t want anyone who will rock their corporate sponsors’ boats, go anti-war, or sincerely promote the idea of single payer health care for the United States. They will dishonesty smear one way or another, cheat (again) one way or another, or worse to prevent him from receiving the nomination.

For his part, Sanders has promised to support whoever does receive the Democratic nomination. Harnessing fear and the noise of the ‘But Trump’-ets’, the Democrats will undoubtedly select someone who is very similar to their last Presidential candidate (note that Clinton has been meeting with Warren already), coming dangerously close to the 2016 strategy (but hopefully not repeating the previous, disgusting mistake of elevating Trump’s racism).

I repeat my friendly wager/challenge- I hereby announce that if Senator Bernie Sanders does become the Democratic Party’s nominee for President, I, Scott Burger, promise to crawl on my belly south from Idlewood Avenue down to the James River. (In the unlikely circumstance that I lose this bet, I will concede my loss on a date of my choosing, and upon losing, and I will fulfill my promise to do this crawl on a time and date of my choosing.)

So, if you want to help Bernie or would enjoy seeing me punished and brought low for my political thoughts, I urge you to vote in the Democratic Primary on March 3rd and see if you can help prove me wrong. Will any ‘Bernie bros’ (or gals) dare to bet against me- pledge to do the belly crawl if I am right and he does not receive the nomination? (By the way, I am certainly not alone in this crude speculation and if you would like to bet real money, there are already websites that will cater to this.)

The sequel to my 2016 challenge with the same thoughts- as with some other bets, I sincerely hope I am wrong. This country needs a big change in direction- it needs the left wing populism represented by Sanders as an antidote to the right wing populism unleashed by the Conman-In-Chief, Donald Trump.

With Virginia’s electoral votes likely going to the blue team again, I am personally planning to continue my Green Party streak. But if I am sadly correct about the situation, the real question is what will Sanders supporters do when he is no longer in the race. With electoral reform still far off, I am not optimistic about the country’s direction, even if Trump is defeated.

“VCU, and not Richmond residents, stands to gain from Navy Hill project”

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Laurel Street neighbor Charles Pool has a letter to the editor in this week’s Richmond Free Press. For some people, it will clarify how this SHAMEFUL VCU/Dominion sponsored scam is distracting from truly public priorities like fixing our schools.

VCU, and not Richmond residents, stands to gain from Navy Hill project
The main beneficiary of the proposed Navy Hill project is Virginia Commonwealth University, not Richmond’s residents.
Dominion Energy Chief Executive Officer Tom Farrell II, who also heads the Navy Hill Development Corp., sat on VCU’s Board of Visitors, and his son, Peter Farrell, recently was appointed to the VCU board by Gov. Ralph S. Northam.
The newly approved VCU Master Plan quietly includes plans to partner in the Navy Hill development: “VCU and VCU Health System support the project and are exploring potential partnerships.”
There exists a tremendous pent-up demand for housing and office space near VCU’s land-locked medical campus. However, the Navy Hill Development Corp. would have us believe that the city-owned land adjacent to the VCU campus is of depressed value and won’t be developed without their help. The city-owned land adjacent to VCU is worth many times the value stated in the Navy Hill proposal.
It is unseemly that the city accepted only one bid for the $1.5 billion Navy Hill project from Mr. Farrell’s group. Then, after the bids were closed, the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) zone morphed by 800 percent from 10 blocks to 80 blocks to include Mr. Farrell’s new Dominion tower south of Broad Street.
Richmond should not be duped into thinking that the proposed dorm-like studio apartments will help our low-income residents. The project’s ballyhooed 480 new affordable housing units would be occupied largely by students at VCU’s medical campus, which has a large shortage of dorm rooms.
Likewise, VCU needs the office and research space that would be built by the growing university, regardless of the Navy Hill project.
A new Richmond Coliseum would be a venue for VCU commencements, sporting events and concerts. So why is VCU, which pays no city real estate taxes, putting no “skin in the game” toward building the new Coliseum?
It is worth noting that the much-heralded John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville was built by the University of Virginia and not by the City of Charlottesville.
The unintended consequence of the Navy Hill District proposal would be to starve city schools of funding while subsidizing a development bonanza for VCU. It would be reckless for Richmond to mortgage all new revenue from 80 prime blocks of its Downtown for the next 30 years for this project.
Let’s hope that Richmond City Council votes down this Navy Hill boondoggle.
CHARLES POOL
Richmond

A couple of quick notes-

Don’t forget VCU President Rao’s disgraceful letter from last year.

There’s already talk that this ‘much-studied’ scheme will morph yet again, from an 80-block TIFF back to a 10-block TIFF. It has intentionally become a moving target.

Beyond state delegate Bourne’s bill, there is other possible boondoggle support coming from the General Assembly- as political activist Paul Goldman notes-

Is Speaker Filler-Corn’s Bill HB1414 creating new all powerful transportation agency a way to help Coliseum proponents bypass opponents to the development project, indeed city officials should the boondoggle get passed? Read lines 569-571. This would have been very helpful, if applicable, for Mayor Jones and his Council cronies in pushing through Shockoe Bottom Baseball Stadium despite overwhelming public opposition.

Which bring us to a longstanding question- Is it ‘unintended’ that that these proposals distract from properly funding Richmond schools? The ongoing record suggests otherwise. (See previous editorial, ‘Broken Promises: Richmond’s Leaders Don’t Want To Put Schools First’.)

Oregon Hill Neighbors Watching The Corporate Moves!

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From a watchful Oregon Hill neighbor:

Hi Scott,
As you can see from the attached photos, they completely removed the sandy beach in front of Tredgar that was very popular. They are also completely removing the Tredegar machinery, including the 35 ton wheel.

I guess you saw the TD article today where Navy Hill also wants to tap the state sales tax. Before long they will be tapping the water rates!