North Richmond News

The University of Richmond is actually pretty involved in the Northside, both with Boaz and Ruth and their own programs. Below is a spotlight on Carly Vendegna who is starting some community garden projects in Highland Park.

Working with Backyard Farmer and a local church, Vendegna is also helping to develop a compost unit and kitchen garden on a plot of land owned by Boaz and Ruth. The garden will educate Highland Park residents on the value of good nutrition while simultaneously supplying fresh produce to a restaurant operated by Boaz and Ruth. Rather than giving instructions on which seeds to plant, Vendegna starts by asking community members: “What do you want to grow?”

Perhaps the saddest part of the article is she classifies Highland Park as a food desert.

The Richmond History Center has posted their schedule of walking tours with several in the area:

• May 8th: Barton Heights
• June 6th: Ginter Park
• August 7th: Bellevue
• September 8th: Hounds of History — Ginter Park

A reader asks:

I am a Lakeside resident and cannot for the life of me find any information on when the 13 acres yard sale will be held this year (at the corner of Laburnum and Hermitage). Many of us in the Lakeside area WAIT for this yard sale every year — please let me know if you have any info.

Anyone have the details?

The Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities will celebrate women in the arts — specifically women in fiber arts — in an exhibit at the Spotlight Gallery that will open with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday March 12.

The exhibit will hang through April 16 and is part of a statewide celebration of women in the arts called “MINDS WIDE OPEN: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts” which includes thousands of special events, performances, literary readings, films and art exhibitions that feature the contributions of women to arts and culture.

The Spotlight Gallery will feature the works of several local artists, including Susan Quel, who teaches at the Pine Camp Arts and Community Center where the Spotlight Gallery is located and who has been featured in fiber art magazines. Rhonda Corley, a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York; Cheri Hankins, who specializes in weaving tallitot; and the Sisters of the Yam African-American Quilters Guild are among the others who will be featured in the exhibit.

The Spotlight Gallery is located at the Pine Camp Arts and Community Center, 4901 Old Brook Road. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Yesterday four different real estate tax rates were introduced at City Council:

• $1.23
• $1.22
• $1.21
• $1.20 (current rate)
• $1.19

Knowing that the city faces a thirty million dollar budget shortfall, I don’t see Council keeping the rate the same (or lowering it). As Northside property values stayed roughly the same last year, it looks like we’ll all be getting a larger bill next year.

Council will vote on the new rate on April 12th.

CHPN has an ongoing discussion on the matter as does Hills and Heights.

An SUV crashed into a parked car, careened across several lawns, and smashed into a house on the 1500 block of Laburnum Avenue. NBC12 has the video:

The Robins Foundation has responded to criticism over plans to demolish two historical Chamberlayne homes.

The Chamberlayne Avenue properties were vacant when they were acquired and have remained unoccupied since that time. They have been for sale since February 2009. There have been very few inquiries regarding the properties, and, as of mid-February, when the Foundation applied for a demolition permit, no serious offers had been received. The Robins Foundation concluded that it could be several years before the market improves enough to complete a sale at a fair price. Given the poor state of the economy and the ongoing costs and management challenges associated with the properties, demolition appeared to be the most prudent and economical course of action.

Recent publicity has generated some inquiries regarding the properties and the Robins Foundation is prepared to consider any serious offer for a purchase. The asking price has been reduced, and we would certainly be pleased if an early sale could be arranged.

We first covered the story here and here.

The full text of the email response is after the jump.

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Yesterday, around 5pm, Gilpin Court was the scene of a triple shooting and the City’s seventh homicide of the year. The police are currently looking for Tion Randell Bates, a Northside resident.

The Richmond Police Department needs the public’s assistance in locating a murder suspect.

Tion Randell Bates, 18, is wanted in connection with the murder this evening of Keith Lamont Brunson, 23, of the 200 block of West Home Street.

At 5:50 p.m. Richmond Police received a call regarding random gunfire in the 1200 block of St. John Street. When officers arrived, they found Brunson next to a vehicle deceased from a gunshot wound.

Two other men also were injured by the gunfire. They were taken to VCU Medical Center. Their injuries are not considered life threatening.

Bates is a black male, 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 190 pounds. His last known address is 237 Knighthood Court.

Anyone with information about Bates’ whereabouts or information about Brunson’s murder is asked to call the Richmond Police Tips Line at 514-TIPS (8477) or Crime Stoppers at 780-1000.

This brings the City’s murder total for 2010 to seven. RVANews provides a google map of the murders.

From the ever wonderful Richmond Fire Department twitter:

Units working a 2nd alarm fire in the 1700 blk of BELLEVUE. NFD

FIRE in the 17OO blk of BELLEVUE AVE UNDER CONTROL.

ACORN has purchased the selling option on a vacant neighborhood house (2927 Garland Avenue) owned by the notorious Oliver Lawrence.

2927 Garland Avenue is listed as a contributing structure in the Brookland Park Historic District, making it eligible for state and federal historic tax credits. This 2-story stucco residence has a wide front porch and entry with transom and sidelight windows. Please call the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods at (804) 644-5040 for more information or to make an appointment with property director Lane Pearson.

• Zoned: Residential Two-Story
• Description: 35″ wide x 135″ deep
• OPTION ASKING PRICE: $52,500
• Contact: Lane Pearson, 804-644-5040, lpearson@richmondneighborhoods.org

Info on ACORN’s option properties

This is when A.C.O.R.N. purchases selling options with our Revolving Fund on vacant or abandoned buildings in Richmond’s old neighborhoods. An “Option To Sell” gives A.C.O.R.N. an exclusive right to find a purchaser for the property during a specific time frame at an established price. This means that A.C.O.R.N. would use the agreed upon period of time to find a purchaser committed to renovating the property. A.C.O.R.N. does not profit from the sale of an option, by keeping prices as low as possible we hope to move more properties back to productive use.

You can read more here.

A couple of weeks ago we ran a story about two historical homes on Chamberlayne that had demolition permits filed against them. Local resident and the Ginter Park Residents Association were working hard to find a buyer before the neighborhood lost these two old houses to newer construction. Earlier this week ACORN sent out an email to all of its contacts urging someone to make an offer on the two properties — and someone has.

The Robbins foundation, owner of the properties, has said that it will consider all serious offers.

The foundation is asking for $425,000 for both properties combined.

More on ACORN’s site as well as from NBC12.

The RTD has a weirdly formatted article¹ with the number of drug sweeps and arrests at public middle and high schools in 2009.

• John Marshall had two sweeps last year with zero arrests and zero contraband found.
• Henderson had zero sweeps.

The majority of the drugs found were marijuana or over-the-counter drugs.

¹ The article is missing spaces between the columns of data.. So instead of 20 drug sweeps at John Marshall, you should read that as two sweeps with zero arrests.

A reader asks:

As I was pulling up to the intersection at Hermitage and Westbrook, I noticed a granite type headstone in the median. It had four letters engraved on it. Does anyone know what that is or referring to?

Anyone? Anyone?

Tricycle Gardens is hosting a class at Bryan Park on seeds and soil:

Learn how to grown your own vegetables and flowers by starting them from seed. We’ll discuss everything you need to know to successfully start seeds for your garden, how to prepare your garden soil & how to care for your young seedlings. We’ll also discuss popular vegetable varieties that will grow well in this area.

Info

• When: Saturday, February 27, 10am-12pm
• Location: Bryan Park Greenhouse
• Instructors: Allison Mesnard & Stacey Moulds
• Cost: $20
• Contact: allison@tricylegardens.org

The City of Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities is closing the main entrance to Bryan Park off of Hermitage Road tomorrow morning, Feb. 26, at 7 a.m. while it makes repairs to a broken water main.

The department estimates that the main entrance to the park will be closed to vehicular traffic for five to six hours. During this time the park will remain open, however there will be no vehicular access to the park.

From the Mayor’s newsletter:

Another of Richmond’s historic parks is also getting a remake. On the city’s north side, one project in Bryan Park is already complete and another is underway. The dredging of the park’s Azalea Garden pond (shown at right), which was choked with cattails, has been completed, and the pond’s fountain has been restored, completing this project. In addition, work on the lake wall at Young’s Pond, located on the north side of the park, is underway. The heavy fall rains and the winter snow have delayed this project, but once completed, Bryan Park will also regain much of its former glory.

Anyone got a current picture of the fountain in action?

Councilman Hilbert will be hosting one of his regular 3rd District meetings tonight at 6pm. The meeting will be held at the Richmond Police Department Training Academy auditorium at 1202 W. Graham Road

Agenda

• 2010 Richmond Real Estate Tax Assessments
• James Hester, Richmond City Assessor
• Richmond City Council Office of the Assessor of Real Estate

Richmond City Councilman Chris A. Hilbert, Northside 3rd District, will hold a meeting in the Northside 3rd District. Councilman Hilbert holds individual meetings in Richmond’s Northside 3rd District throughout the year that include information on his goals and accomplishments; a topical agenda; and, special guests. The meetings are free and all Northside 3rd District citizens are invited and encouraged to attend.

The University of Richmond is partnering with Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity (again) to build an affordable house in spring 2010 at 621 E. Brookland Park Blvd in Northside Richmond’s Highland Park neighborhood. The student-run University of Richmond Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter and the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) are working with RMHFH to coordinate the logistics of the build.

The build will run from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. every Wednesday-Saturday from February 24-April 24.

Check out http://engage.richmond.edu/habitat.html for more information.

Union-PSCE students, faculty and staff will join the staff of the Presbytery of the James to form a human chain from the Presbytery office to a waiting truck to load more than 2,000 hygiene kits that will be sent to Haiti.

The rest of the press release is after the jump.

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Barton Heights began as a real estate development project in the fall of 1880s, one of several contemporary efforts to create new suburban towns just outside the Richmond city limits in Henrico County.

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