The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association is meeting tonight at 7 pm at St. Andrew’s Church.
The agenda will include a short presentation by a group concerned with recidivism and alternatives to incarceration, new data regarding traffic and speeding along Idlewood,
new stop signs, parks master plan suggestions from Storefront for Design, an update on non-demolition overlay district application. Also, 5th District City Council candidate Stephanie Lynch is supposed to make an appearance.
If Richmond citizens want to be able to vote on the VCU/Farrell/Stoney coliseum scheme, their last chance to do so may be decided in the next few days. Over 13,000 Richmond citizens have signed the petition for the “Choose Children over a Costly Coliseum“ Referendum, drafted by Paul Goldman, supported by the Sierra Club Falls of the James and others. Many of these signatures were done on Election Day last year, but the deadline to file the petition is coming up quickly (like in the next few days!), and more signatures are needed to ensure it getting on the ballot. If it does not make it on the ballot, citizens may be forced to live with and pay up for whatever the Mayor and City Council do with the $1.4. billion scheme, and it could effect City budgets for a decade to come. So, what’s it going to be? Schools or corporate welfare?
In the interest of informing the public, I am going to post the petition/referendum here. However, please ask yourself, why has local media not done so- again, over 13,000 Richmond citizens have already signed it. So why have Times Dispatch, Style, RVA Magazine, etc. mostly ignored this heroic grassroots effort? If you have been following along, including the latest FOIA struggle, things may be more clear. The Richmond Free Press and oregonhill.net have offered the most coverage on it.
The first Put Schools First referendum was fairly straight forward in demanding that Richmond leaders, especially the Mayor, come up with plan to modernize the schools first in the City’s budget planning. This second referendum, perhaps due to opposing nature, is a bit more convoluted, so here’s a quick explanation: it first states that citizens want schools to come before a new coliseum. It then includes a poison pill provision against using a TIFF (Tax Incremental Financing Fund) to finance the scheme by stating that a majority of the funding raised would have to go to schools first. It then ends with a measure to keep the schemers from going back to the meals tax for money.
If you are a resident of the City of Richmond and a registered voter, please take the time to sign this petition, even if you ultimately decide to not vote for it once it is on the ballot. 13,000 of your neighbors have already done so, don’t let them down! Give people a voice!
Oregon Hill is once again looking at possibly changing traffic patters as a new proposal is being weighed at City Council’s Land Use, Housing, and Transportation Committee.
Ordinance 2019-147 reads:
To erect all-way stop signs at the intersections of Spring Street and South Pine Street, Spring Street and South Laurel Street, Albemarle Street and South Laurel Street, and Albemarle Street and South Cherry Street, with a painted stop line at each intersection.
This follows neighbors’ discussion with City Councilperson Parker Agelasto’s office in regard to continued concerns about traffic safety. To quickly recap, neighbors originally requested all-way stop signs at Spring and Laurel and Spring and Pine, but agreed to try changing more intersections’ stop sign direction, now that concerns have continued, all-stops are being reconsidered.
Received this media advisory about a public meeting to detail bicycle infrastructure plans from the City’s Department of Public Works. It’s taking place May 30 from 5 to 7 pm at the Main Richmond Pubic Library.
OHNA (Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association) will be meeting this coming Tuesday (fourth Tuesday of the month) at St Andrew’s Church at 7PM.
On the agenda are updates from VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University, RPD (Richmond Police Department), VCU police, Councilperson Agelasto’s office, a presentation by St. Andrew’s School of it’s proposal for the William Byrd Community House and Idlewood property, a presentation by the Storefront for Design on neighborhood parks, a presentation on an Open High School and Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay grant, stop sign petitioning, an update on the Oregon Hill/Open High/Richmond Parks beehives (Please remember to plant bee friendly plants and please DO NOT use Roundup or any other glyphosate based products as it poses a threat to the bees and possibly to humans. L.A. County recently banned its use as are other localities), FiOS installation, crosswalk painting, New Market corporation’s plan to fill in part of the historic canal, and other important matters.
From the Virginia Housing Development Authority website:
A meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Virginia Housing Development Authority will be held at 1:00 p.m. on May 21, 2019, in the Board Room on the First Floor of its offices located at 601 South Belvidere Street, Richmond, Virginia. The Board may also meet during meals before or after the meeting on May 21, 2019. No time period has been scheduled during the meeting for public comment.
From email announcement:
Dear Friends
This Friday, May 17th at 4PM there will be a peaceful rally asking to TERMINATE THE LEASE on Monroe Park held by the Monroe Park Conservancy. This will occur at Monroe Park across from the big tent. We will gather on Main st.
All members of the community are invited. The Monroe Park Conservancy holds a 30 year lease (since 2014) on the City’s oldest and most historic municipal park, purchased in 1851 by the City. The Park was reopened last Autumn after a 22 month renovation overseen by the City and the Monroe Park Conservancy. During that “renovation”, a substantial portion of the historic tree canopy was destroyed, ALL public restrooms were removed, the WWII Memorial was desecrated by a large electrical box and poorly planned and executed pathways were installed that wash gravel dust into the sewer system whenever it rains. Its time for the City to terminate this lease and start fresh on a new plan to fix all the things that went wrong under the Monroe Park Conservancy. Additionally, a recent City audit found that $345,000.00 used in the botched “renovation” was billed to the City’s School Building Fund. We ask that City officials work in partnership with the stake holding community to achieve positive changes in the Park.
Thank you,
Todd Woodson, director
Fans of Monroe Park
(Editor’s note: The Sierra Club Falls Of The James has previously called for ending the lease.)
This past Thursday, the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority met at the VCU East Engineering Hall. Here are videos from this meeting…
The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association is meeting tomorrow night, April 23.
The Richmond Free Press has been covering multiple lawsuits that seek the removal of Councilperson Agelasto from his 5th District City Council seat for moving his residence and family to the 1st District.
From the latest article by Jeremy Lazarus:
Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring told the Free Press that he would file his own lawsuit to remove Mr. Agelasto if the City Council member fails to notify Richmond City Council soon that he will resign his office by the end of the year.
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Mr. Agelasto declined comment Monday on Mr. Herring’s statement, leaving it to his attorney, Anthony F. Troy, who also is not commenting on settlement offers.
Meanwhile, two former City Council members, Sa’ad El-Amin and Henry W. “Chuck” Richardson, have filed separate legal actions requesting the Richmond Circuit Court remove Mr. Agelasto from office. Neither case has been set for trial.