Laurel Street neighbor Charles Pool took this great photo of RVAGoats doing their thing of chomping on excessive and invasive vegetation on steep slope in Hollywood Cemetery.
Goats in the Cemetery
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Community Hospital Saved!
A welcome follow up to a previous editorial–
As reported by Richmond BizSense yesterday, Virginia Union University’s decision to revise its apartment plans and fully preserve the Richmond Community Hospital building represents a major win for community activism. This victory is largely credited to the grassroots efforts of locals Viola Baskerville and Farid Alan Schintzuis, who formed the ‘Save Community Hospital‘ group. Their efforts began with Baskerville’s letter to the Richmond Free Press in February. Shortly after, Michael Paul Williams’ editorial in the Richmond Times-Dispatch further amplified the issue, bringing it into the spotlight and rallying broader community support.
It should be noted that Farid Alan Schintzius also is one of the citizens who tried to prevent the Jacob House from being moved from its original location (possibly an “Underground Railroad” site) and ultimately helped save the Jacob House itself. He also deserves credit for helping found community radio station WRIR.
Oregon Hill can only hope that these senses of historical preservation and community activism will also be felt during the City’s rezoning process, as the City begins to truly enact its Richmond300 Plan.
2024 OHNA zoning resolution –
Whereas, the Oregon Hill Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic places and the Virginia Landmarks Register as a rare intact historic district built as a working class neighborhood, and
Whereas, Oregon Hill is a built-out neighborhood of two-story dwellings with great density, having the majority of the homes attached on one or both sides, and
Whereas, Oregon Hill residents fought long and hard to obtain our current R-7 residential zoning, and
Whereas, the current R-7 zoning with a 35 foot height limit matches the neighborhood’s historic fabric and helps to protect the historic character of Oregon Hill, and
Whereas, the current R-7 zoning has allowed the Oregon Hill Historic District to thrive, with very few empty lots, and
Whereas, Section 17.05 of the Richmond City Charter states that a duty of the Planning Commission is to, “… preserve historical landmarks …”, and
Whereas, Oregon Hill is adjacent to and has faced encroachment by the adjacent Virginia Commonwealth University, and
Whereas, the City of Richmond values the character of its unique historic districts which make Richmond a special place to live, and must protect the character of our historic district through appropriate zoning,
Therefore, be it Resolved that the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association strongly urges the Richmond Planning Commission and the Richmond City Council to respect and maintain the R-7 zoning or its equivalent with a 35′ height limit within the Oregon Hill Historic District, in keeping with the current designation’s purpose in preserving the character of older urban neighborhoods in the city’s inner areas.
Of course, a lot of Richmonders overlook the small places that families lived in like the historic John Miller House. “John Miller, a free black cooper and minister, built this house about 1858. It is significant as a rare surviving antebellum house in Richmond constructed by and for a free African American family. More than two thousand free blacks lived in Richmond at the time of the Civil War; at least two hundred of them were homeowners. Miller was an influential member of the small free black community that existed in present-day Oregon Hill. Originally erected at 614 S. Laurel Street, the dwelling moved to its present location in 1917, two blocks to the west of here at 617 S. Cherry Street, by Richmond businessman Moses Nunnally.”
Meeting On Holly Street Playground
From Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association announcement:
The first of two community engagement meetings will take place on 10/28 at 5:30pm in Holly St. Playground. We want community input on the first design of a full park renovation, as well as new ideas! Please come share your thoughts. This first draft will be discussed as well as other ideas.
Vox Concordia At Pine Street Baptist Church On Sunday
Vox Concordia, a VCU choral group, will be part of Pine Street Baptist Church’s Sunday worship service at 11 am.
From event description:
Vox Concordia of VCU
Lisa Fusco, Director
Vox Concordia is the select treble choir of Virginia Commonwealth University and is open to students of any major who sing soprano or alto. Vox Concordia is Latin for “voices together in one heart.” These diverse singers, with majors in music, criminal justice, international studies, psychology, and more, unite in an inclusive choral community to make music that reflects the diversity of our world. In addition to performing the classics of treble repertoire, Vox Concordia often sings works written by women and living composers from underrepresented cultures with texts that address contemporary issues. Vox Concordia has sung in the Richmond area for community organizations such as the Lewis Ginter GardenFest of Lights, senior living communities, and for VCUsports games. The choir is conducted by Lisa Fusco, Adjunct Instructor at VCU.
Results (So Far) For Mayoral Election RCV Poll
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The Mayoral Election RCV Poll remains open, but here are the results so far:
Addison wins.
Of course, this is unofficial and because this poll is public and wide open, there is nothing to stop people from voting multiple times, but if people do respect it and vote once, it will be interesting to see how it compares to other polling and voting.
If you have not already voted…
OHNA Meets Tuesday Night
From email announcement:
The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association will meet on Zoom Tuesday evening, 10/22, at 7pm. The agenda is below and attached.
O T H E R N E W S :
Potential housing relief: The city of Richmond is considering providing some relief to low-income home owners and residents, including a property tax rebate for all property owners, and grants and tax relief for low-income renters and homeowners. Learn more about these proposals here: https://rva.gov/finance/rva-stay. They will be considered at City Council’s Oct 28 meeting.
Richmond Parks Survey: let the city know how you use city parks and what you’d like to see included in a city-wide parks and recreation plan: https://www.richmondinspire.com/
Get involved in zoning: Richmond is revising its zoning codes. This revision could have a big impact on Oregon Hill. Learn more about plans here: https://www.rva.gov/planning-development-review/code-refresh and view a webinar here: https://www.rva.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/Zoning%20101%20Webinar%20-%20June%2024-25%202024.mp4
Hallowe’en: get ready for Halloween! If you are new to Oregon Hill, prepare for lots of trick-or-treaters, and the 19th annual All the Saints Theatre Co Parade, beginning 7pm in Monroe Park.
Election day: Nov 5. Vote at Clark Springs elementary school., 6am-7pm. You may also vote early, at the Office of Elections at 2134 West Laburnum Avenue or at satellite locations including City Hall at 900 East Broad Street the following days and times: 8:30am – 5pm, Monday through Friday until November 1st. You may also vote at these locations on the following days: 9am – 5pm Saturday, October 26th and November 2; and 1pm – 5pm Sunday, October 27th. The fifth district ballot: https://www.rva.gov/sites/default/files/2024-09/FULL%20-%20District%205.pdf
Pleasants Park workday: November 9, 10-2. Please join us in weeding, mulching, and completing the brick borders around the beds.
November OHNA elections: at its November 17 meeting, OHNA will hold its annual elections. Consider getting more involved! Attend the meeting on Tuesday to learn more.
Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association
Monthly Meeting Agenda
Tuesday 22 October 2024 – 7:00PM
This meeting will be held by Zoom, at the link below.
(Editor’s note: Zoom meeting link redacted. Please contact ohnarva@gmail.com to obtain that link)
Welcome:
Community Updates:
1. Lt. Bill Brereton, City of Richmond Police Section Lt, 4th Precinct
2. Officer Cain Green, Police Liaison, VCU (greenc4@vcu.edu)
3. Ms. Verenda Cobbs, VCU
4. Ms. Stephanie Lynch, 5th District Councilperson
5. Ms. Colette McEachin, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney
Q&A on street safety issues in OH:
Representative of Traffic Engineer Department of DPW.
Announcements:
Next Pleasants Park workday, November 9
Annual Town Meeting, December 17
All the Saints Halloween Parade
City “zoning refresh” process
Updates and Continued Business
1. Report Fall Festival Block Party, Halloween parade and activities (Harrison Moenich)
2. Friends of Oregon Hill Parks (FOOHP):
Next Pleasants Park workday
Planning process for Holly Street Playground updates
3. Update from Bylaws committee
New Business
Carter’s Dry Goods: discuss support for Jake Urbanksi to open a coffee shop?
November OHNA elections. Please consider taking on an OHNA leadership role!
—
Valerie L’Herrou, President
Bryan Clark Green, Co-Vice President
Harrison Moenich, Co-Vice-President
Jennifer Hancock, Co-Vice-President
Mike Matthews, Secretary
John Bolecek, Treasurer
Trash/Recycling Pickup Tomorrow Morning: Updated- Pushed To Thursday?
Tomorrow is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup.
Update: Looks like trash/recycling pickup may be tomorrow, Thursday morning, not this morning. I suspect it’s getting pushed due to the Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday this past Monday. In my defense, the official calendar has it wrong too.
Please go over what can be recycled.
NOTE: CVWMA (Central Virginia Waste Management Authority) has announced that all curbside recycling must now be INSIDE the CVWMA containers with lid closed. Items beside the container or on top of it will not be collected. In fact, incorrect setouts may not be collected at all. This is new as of July 1 for all our curbside recyclers, with the exception of townhomes/condos still using small bins. (And yes, this also applies to flattened cardboard boxes.)
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 it seems like pickup did not happen, use this online form:
https://cvwma.com/programs/residential-recycling/recycling-service-request-form/
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.
OHNA News Update
From Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association (OHNA) email announcement:
Interested in entering the best-decorated house contest?
The Oregon Hill Halloween House Decorating Contest is now accepting submissions! If you would like your house to be considered, send an email with your address to OHNArva@gmail.com before Midnight this Monday, October 14, subject line “Halloween House Contest.”
FOURTH ANNUAL Oregon Hill / Open High Halloween Block Party!!
Oct 19, 11am-3pm on China St. between Laurel and Pine St at Open High School.
Arts, crafts, games, food trucks (Horne Dogs and TBT El Gallo), music, costume contests, and more. Most importantly: the RAFFLE! Once again, many of our favorite local businesses are supporting the neighborhood and Open High by generously donating gift cards, merchandise, and other great things! This year, the raffle will be online. Tickets are only $5 each–purchase as many tickets as you want for the prizes that you’d love to win! And remember, the more tickets you buy, the better your chances of winning the item you really want! Funds raised support the students of Open High, helping to pay for travel abroad scholarships, field trips, school supplies, and more!
Enter the raffle here: https://ohsrva.ptboard.com/formvw/store?store=5597
If you’d like to volunteer or have any questions, email OHNArva@gmail.com
Reminder: City Parks Survey
The city is planning parks improvements throughout the city through a new initiative called “Richmond Inspire.” They are collecting input on what residents want to see in our community parks: Surveys will be accepted until September 27 at 5pm. Complete the survey to be entered to win one of three $50 Target gift cards. https://www.richmondinspire.com/
OHNA Committees:
Please let us know if you are interested in serving on any OHNA committees. You can contribute to making Oregon Hill such a great neighborhood!
Pleasants Park Cleanup Day
Organized by Friends of Oregon Hill Parks on November 9 10-2. Bring tools and gloves if you have ’em, just come along if you don’t–water and snacks provided. Btw, join Friends of Oregon Hill Parks fb group to get involved with improvements and events! https://www.facebook.com/groups/191425087363006
The next meeting of the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association
will be Tuesday, October 22, 2024 at 7pm, on Zoom. Please send any agenda items you may have.
Sincerely,
Valerie L’Herrou, President
Bryan Clark Green, Co-Vice President
Harrison Moenich, Co-Vice-President
Jennifer Hancock, Co-Vice-President
Mike Matthews, Secretary
John Bolecek, Treasurer
Water Leak On S. Pine Street – UPDATE: HAS BEEN FIXED
UPDATE: FIXED AS OF OCTOBER 11TH
Mayoral Election RCV Poll
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We know we cannot count on the corporate media to supply alternatives, so we have to take it upon ourselves (the WRIR lesson)….
As stated here previously, Paul Goldman deserves a lot of credit for almost single-handily obtaining the 10,000 signatures needed to make the City charter change for voting Mayor at large in the first place, but it’s past time for more electoral reform. We know we need to update and strengthen the City’s Board of Elections anyway, so we might as well join other cities around the world in enacting RCV/IRV.
Ranked choice voting (RCV) — also known as instant runoff voting (IRV) — makes our elections better by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference.
RCV is straightforward: Voters have the option to rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third and so forth. If your first choice doesn’t have a chance to win, your ballot counts for your next choice.
RCV works in all types of elections and supports more representative outcomes. RCV means better choices, better campaigns, and better representation. That’s why it’s the fastest-growing voting reform in the nation…
Except, of course, in decidedly unprogressive Richmond, VA, where City Council tossed it aside.
UVA, GMU, JMU, and Washington & Lee use it for their campus/student government elections, but VCU, UR, and VUU are still behind the times, despite the offered prize.
Anyway, back to challenging the status quo… Note that this is just a poll, of course, and that according to the current Mayoral election rules, the winner is not who wins the popular vote. It’s not who gets the most votes, it’s who gets the most votes out of five out of the nine City Council districts. Which does makes an expensive runoff election a distinct possibility… a problem that RCV could solve.
But for now, vote in this ‘mock election’. Just don’t forget the real stakes involved and tell your favorite candidate to do the required homework…