OHNA Meets Tuesday Night

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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?

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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

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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

Mayoral Election RCV Poll

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Screenshot

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…

Oregon Hill Block Party On October 19th

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From announcement:
Saturday, October 19th is the FOURTH ANNUAL Oregon Hill Block Party!! From 11am-3pm on China St. between Laurel and Pine St! We look forward to seeing you then. More information coming soOoOon.
Thank you, @broo_gus for once again making a stellar illustration for this years event! We will be sharing information about vendors, participants, merch, and more in the coming week! Can’t wait to see you all! SHARE WIDELY!

Solidarity With Assange

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Julian Assange during a 2014 press conference attended by international media

On October 1, 2024, Julian Assange broke his silence. The WikiLeaks founder testified before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) about the chilling effect his detention and conviction has had on human rights. When Assange was detained, The Committee previously found he met PACE’s definition of a political prisoner. Assange’s testimony marked his first substantive, public comments in over half a decade. Other than his remarks at his sentencing hearing, the public has largely not heard from Assange since his 2019 arrest.

For what it is worth, this ‘community news site’, even in its mostly ‘amateur’ status, declares its solidarity with Julian Assange. Hopefully, this site will not get targeted by the C.I.A. for doing so. It is more noteworthy and distressing that local ‘professional’ journalists have not done more to declare their solidarity.

It’s also an election year, and, incredibly, Donald Trump is running for re-election as President of the United States. What is sad and remarkable is that many citizens still don’t know or have forgotten that Assange revealed how Trump was made into a serious political candidate in the first place. The reality is that much of the ‘transnational repression’ we have seen from the U.S. government in regard to Assange is most likely not instigated from the WikiLeaks publication/documenting of U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, but from their revelations on the amount of triangulation involved in American politics.

It’s noteworthy that one of Oregon Hill’s previous Halloween parades (2013) was in honor of whistleblowers Assange, Manning, and Snowden.

When journalism is criminalized, as in Assange’s case, things get truly scary.

Trash/Recycling Pickup Tomorrow Morning

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Tomorrow is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup.

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.

In recycling news, just as auto technology has changed with growing electrification, so has auto recycling. You may think auto recycling is just about scrapping end-of-life vehicles, but both state and federal legislation initiatives are shifting the landscape dramatically.

Folk Festival Weekend Began Last Night

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Rancho Aparte

Bombino, a crowd favorite, returns

Neighbors are encouraged to take advantage of the Richmond Folk Festival. You can be against the new amphitheater but still enjoy world class musicians playing for free only a short walk away.

But then there is also the Festival of India, the Richmond International Film Festival, and then next week, the State Fair of Virginia, the Richmond Veg Fest, the Richmond Zine Fest, and so much more.