Trash/Recycling Pickup Tomorrow

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This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In positive recycling news, giant piles of discarded tires around the country are shrinking.

“I would say that scrap tire recycling in this particular report demonstrates a real environmental success story,” John Sheerin, USTMA’s director of end-of-life tire programs, says. “In 1991, over 1 billion scrap tires [were] in stockpiles, now it’s at 60 million. So, it’s a 94 percent decrease—a positive story to tell.”

Stop Sign Update

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From a Holly Street neighbor:

After contacting the police about so many vehicles running the stop sign at Oregon Hill Parkway and Pine St, they sent out an engineer to look at it. They got back to me today with a summary:
The RPD traffic division has contacted the Department of Public Works regarding the traffic issues you brought to our attention. Together, they have devised the following plan of action:
– Oregon Hill Pkwy and Pine St
o DPW plans to place a stop bar and improve the placement of the stop sign.
– Holly and Pine
o DPW will place a stop ahead sign and replace the stop sign for the eastbound movement

RVA Archeology: Video On Penitentiary Burials

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RVA Archeology has released a new video on YouTube and elsewhere about burials at the old Virginia State Penitentiary, close to Oregon Hill.

The Virginia State Penitentiary was a notorious Richmond prison — where many prisoners died. This video introduces the human skeletons that were found there, and who they represent. If this story interests you, please take our survey about how we should proceed next to investigate and memorialize the site: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RZMCHK8

A few quick notes-

Some of these burials are probably related to the building of the James River and Kanawha Canal, a history that the neighborhood has tried to bring forward.

If you are looking for a good history of the old prison, you may to want to pick up Dale Brumfield’s book Virginia State Penitentiary: A Notorious History, which was released just last year.

Of course, Oregon Hill’s history has often intertwined with the Penitentiary’s, but a lot of history, including these burials, is still coming to light.

Letter On Monroe Park

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Cherry Street neighbor (and Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association President) has a letter to the editor in today’s Times Dispatch.

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Less than three months after reopening, Monroe Park is showing signs of massive design failures that need immediate remedial attention. The 22-month renovation took much longer than anticipated and came in way over budget, costing about $1 million an acre.

What will it cost to address these egregious planning blunders? The destruction of a significant portion of a wonderfully healthy tree canopy and other design and construction errors have caused the pathways to erode, sending large amounts of gravel dust into the sewer system where it will inevitably end up in the James River. The Sierra Club’s Fall of the James chapter has called the newly made-over park an environmental disaster. One of Richmond’s most popular gathering places, the renovation removed all public restroom facilities and the 1945 World War II memorial was desecrated by an ugly electrical apparatus. Large puddles of standing water languish on damaged lawns where there was never a problem before.

It didn’t need to be like this. A wonderful master plan was crafted and adopted by City Council but was tossed in favor of turning over the park by lease to a corporation weighted heavily by institutional and large corporate interests. Bad logic prevailed, removing the trees as well as a designated resource area for children. Funny that in the past, the Redskins Training Center also lost a significant portion of desirable tree canopy and in an amazing public letter of apology, then-Mayor Dwight Jones expressed contrition for that error.

Mayor Stoney has shown discomfort over the situation in Monroe Park but says he inherited the situation. Now the same planning firm that worked on Monroe Park is working on plans for the historic Pump House. Can we really afford more bad decisions with this architectural masterpiece?

Charles Woodson

Richmond

Even today, as seen from the VCU Ram Cam (photo above), the grass in Monroe Park still bears the scars of the corporate tents from almost a year ago. Again, Woodson and the Sierra Club ask for a comprehensive tree planting schedule to replace the destroyed canopy in the entire park. And bigger questions still remain- what happened to the public restrooms? How has $7.5 million been spent?

Neighbor Helping Lead Effort To Save Grace Street Music Venue

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Bobby Egger, Pine Street neighbor and proprietor of Vinyl Conflict record store and label, has announced his involvement in an effort to make sure 929 W. Grace Street remains a music venue.

From his Facebook post:

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working with a couple friends. This was just an idea and it simply whirl-winded into a reality. After speaking with so many of you yesterday, I realized we need to act on this rather than brainstorm.
Myself, Gabe Lopez and Harry Pinnix want to keep 929 West Grace Street a venue, just like all of you do.
I’ll keep this brief, I believe in this space. We will be taking the proper loans to make this right. We will continue to bring you the entertainment that you have enjoyed in this location for the last few decades. There is plenty that needs to change and we are already working to make sure that the space will adapt and update how it needs.
Help us share this link, there is a long road ahead of this, but I am confident in this decision.
yours in punk
-Bobby Egger

Click here for the GoFundMe.com page associated with this.

Also, if you are so inclined, click here for some history of 929 W. Grace.