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Passion for a place: Church Hill & Richmond’s East End
09/15/2010 3:36 PM by John M
Elaine Odell’s Passion for a place: Church Hill & Richmond’s East End documents this summer’s East End Transformation Charrette:
In the summer of 2010, residents of Church Hill and Richmond’s East End met with planners, government officials, corporate leaders and human service organizations to craft a vision for revitalizing a once-vibrant commercial corridor.
This 13 minute documentary explains the “charette” process, provides historical perspective and shares the personal opinions of people who live and work in the community.
Produced by a 20-year resident and business owner in Church Hill.
At one time folks had pride and respect for the area whcih they lived. Look at that area now. Ran down buidling, high grass, vacant boarded up structures.
Its not the same.
I think I might have made the “if only colored pencils could turn into dollars” statement and I’m embarrassed at its cynicism in retrospect.
I actually do believe that city staff are working to put this plan in place, even if incrementally. They are actively working to recruit a grocery store in fulfillment of the plan and have secured the funding for the proposed roundabout. Cynthia Newbille has shown great interest in reviving the urban tree-scape, including along Venable Street, in very short order.
I expect good things will come from this and I know the Marys will hold the City’s feet to the fire if it doesn’t start soon!
I think you did 🙂
I so badly want to see this come to fruition, and agree that the from everything that I have seen, the city is really working towards making something happen. I’m a little afraid to hope too much at this point.
…and didn’t Elaine do a freakin’ wonderful job? This is just so damn cool to see and have as a record of this moment in time. I want to be able to come back to this in 5, 10 – 25! years and see how it connects.
excellent
@1…when you change the people, the area will change. until then, i’m afraid you’re spot on.
Well done Elaine! Now it is time to buckle down, get to work-it will take some blood, sweat & tears y’all!
Remember, the city jail did not exist at its current site. In 1964 the jail influenced Church Hills culture and economic development. Along with Brown vs. the Board of Education changing how we educated our children many of the citizens of Church Hill moved to areas to seek schools that reflected a population of their choice. What we need to do to make it work is to stay on top of the city planners. NO NEW JAIL AT THE CURRENT SITE.
Funding these ideas will be the big problem. Who would take the risk, especially in tough economic times?
Any type of progress will be slow, especially if the public housing in the area continues in its current form.
You know the best way to see progress in the east end in our lifetime?
Eliminate the large swath of public housing and give the land to VCU to create an east end campus and/or community college.
A campus would bring in huge amounts of money, not just for the campus, but with businesses who want to serve students.
It could also help create high-quality jobs, training and educational opportunities for people in our neighborhood and affordable housing that would be needed for students. Partnerships with a college could also greatly benefit city schools in our area.
I don’t think public housing needs to be eliminted completely in the city, I just think regardless of what form public housing takes, it needs to be decentralized.
Also, I like the idea of putting in traffic circles for a main throughfare up 25th Street and Nine Mile, but fountains are not the way to go. A better idead would be to put statues of famous Richmond residents. I think they would be easier to maintain, easier to raise money for and would draw people to the area. It could become like a Monument Avenue for the east end. Maggie Walker, Patrick Henry, John Marshall, Oliver Hill, etc.
Fantastic video!!
Really excellent work at capturing the ideas resulting from the Charette and the feelings of the residents.
David Herring asked what policies and programs could be put into place to make the development a reality. There are many new federal programs promoting neighborhood economic development that could be combined with state and local efforts. One example could be to start a neighborhood based Community Development Corporation to package funds for residential development of affordable housing, workforce development and youth/education services. The Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation actually supports several successful CDCs in West Baltimore which would be a good model with a partner related to one of the assets in the East End. NeighborWorks, the national network of CDCs, would also be a good resource.
Its going to be an up-hill battle with the projects lurking just a few blocks away North,East & West. Times have changed, the neighborhood went down because only about 20% of the people pull their own weight (along with the weight of the remaing 80%). We must stop enabling the free loaders. But thats a much larger issue. To end on a positive note: the plans look great, and there are still a lot of great people on Church Hill. Good video as well!
I’m with RKM. Just do not move here unless you are going to get engaged in a civic association, church, or community group focused on the betterment of the neighborhood and welfare of its residents.
The East End is not Wyndham or Brandermill. You can’t shut your garage door and expect things to take care of themselves. And that’s a good thing.
Excellent video!
Really good video. Excellent quality.
But….
As a lifelong Richmond resident I think I can say with certainty that unless there is real change in the people of the area, then change to the neighborhood will never happen.
If you live on the hill then you know that you can’t even leave a BBQ grill on your front overnight before someone steals it. Heck….they steal potted plants!
And it’s common knowledge that people LEAVE the hill when they have children because of the sorry state of the city schools.
It will take jobs, pride in your accomplishments (ie home OWNERSHIP), responsibility, progress in the schools, much less government assistance, and a real sense of security to make these dreams reality.
Right now that’s all they are…..just dreams.
I’m with John…cynical.
But nice video!
Love it! But I am also surprised to see me 3 times. I do hope that the vision becomes reality. I’m so tired of the negative images people have and bring up. It’s time for a change.
@ #11 – I’m glad you like the traffic circles, but I hope you’re at least somewhat supportive of the fountain idea. Richmond’s own Downtown Master Plan calls for making more connections to the River. If you follow 25th Street to its southern terminus, you reach that exact destination. Perhaps the fountain could serve as a reminder of the City/Region’s connection to the River, which could possibly/thematically be considered one of Richmond’s “famous residents.”
@ # 17 – The area is changing. While I’ve only been here for the last 5, I’ve definitely noticed more vacant houses being renovated/restored and occupied and vacant lots being filled in with new housing units – some even during this economic downturn (check out 28th and M and 29th and M). Just look at the increase in the Census mail response rate between the 2000 and 2010 Census for our area (http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/) and you’ll see that more people have definitely moved to the area (or maybe just more folks filled out their questionnaires). The Church Hill North area, for example, jumped from a 54% mail response rate in 2000 to 74% in 2010 – the biggest increase across the entire City of Richmond. Hopefully, with this increase in population and density, more businesses will choose to locate here and serve our needs. Then by accommodating a mixture of uses to serve a diverse array of residents within our urban environment, we can add more “eyes on the street” to watch over our households while we’re away at work or later at night through increased pedestrian activity visiting these establishments after business hours. It’s not a foolproof system, but perhaps the would-be thief would reconsider his or her actions if it meant stealing pots and plants from someone’s front porch while just down at the end of the block folks were walking in and out of a great Church Hill restaurant. Just my two cents.
Let’s stop blaming the situation of a population that has not been taught any better. We need to pointing the finger at the past city planners and officials that had little to no vision . Blame them for misappropriated federal funds or fail to acquire the funds to make this city great. We need to start by requesting that RRHA give vouchers to single family dwellings and not to refaced out dated housing projects. The crime will not stop or the under education of poor children until we help their environment. The East End has too many public housing units. More than any other district in the city. I would rather see my federal tax dollars in my neighborhood rather than in the pockets of those who don’t really need them. NO JAIL, NO PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECTS…BETTER SCHOOLS.
Great Video !!! Let the civics students @ MLK, AHS, and FMS develop a lesson plan on this for their peers and elementary students. We can’t move forward without knowing where we came from. PEACE AND LOVE.
concentrated poverty leads to increased crime which means no businesses will come. the efforts should be focused on eliminating the concentrated poverty. until then, all of this talk of revitalization is meaningless nonsense.