Here is something useful if you need to request some kind of service from the city — the Citizen Request page. We’ve used it to report activity in abandoned houses, trash in the alleys, and to get the grass cut on ignored city property.

The Richmond Voice is carrying the story of a Church Hill couple that needs a first-floor apartment because of their wheelchair-bound 11-year-old daughter. They have credit problems and are having a problem finding an apartment.

A man was found shot and seriously wounded Thursday night in the 1100 block of Mosby Street. Police said the man was wounded in the face shortly before 10:15 p.m. and was being treated at VCU Medical Center, where a report on his condition was not available Friday morning.

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A special grand jury empanelled last fall to hear evidence on the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Santanna Bryant Olavarria by two Richmond police officers has recommended that the case be forwarded to the Justice Department for “further investigation and prosecution.” The May 29, 2004, traffic stop shooting occurred at the corner of Mechanicsville Turnpike and Fairfield Avenue, moments after he was pulled over for running a stop sign.

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The long-empty house at 1111 North 23rd Street and it neighbor at 1109 have both recently had renovation started. They will be nice additions to the area. New sidewalks have been poured on the 1000 block of 22nd Street, and it looks very sharp.

The Richmond Defender is reporting that, as of May 2nd, the basketball nets are up at the Chimborazo Playground and that at least one gate is open.

Style Weekly is reporting that the city council is considering a bill that would “would reduce the number of years owners can forgo paying taxes on improvements to commercial and industrial property”.

Style Weekly has a small article about R. Sawan White’s “For Doing, For Being,” a collection of oil-on-wax works opening at Eric Schindler Gallery on May 13.

To promote rehabilitation efforts of the proposed site for the East End Teen Center (1001 N 29th St.), designers and faculty from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Design Center and approximately 30 youth from the neighborhood will give the old railway terminal an exterior design face lift. Rehab efforts will begin mid-summer ‘05 with an expected completion date of spring ‘06.

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A reader wrote in with this question: I have a decent computer that I plan to give away. Is there an organization in the neighborhood that I could donate this to?

A security scare at Chimborazo Elementary School just before 2pm prompted authorities to lockdown the building this afternoon. Richmond Police officers surrounded the school after a strange man was seen in the building. Officers patrolling the area before the lockdown had seen the man running toward the school from an area nearby where residents reported gunshots.

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A Richmond preschool student at the Preschool Development Center on North 29th Street has tested positive for tuberculosis. Students and teachers were tested yesterday and the results are expected tomorrow. The student who tested positive has not attended school in about a month for unrelated reasons.

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Richmond Police are investigation a triple shooting in Mosby Court on the 2100 block of Accommodation Street Tuesday night. Timothy Williams, the 31st homicide victim in Richmond this year, was a 1996 graduate of Armstrong High School and worked for Braxton Moving Company.

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The old Armstrong High School building won’t be the new home for Richmond school offices. With a costly deadline looming, the School Board says converting the building into office space is too costly.

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A 16-year-old Richmond youth, Tiwan Dante Parham, pleaded guilty yesterday to second-degree murder in the beating death of Roscoe J. Coleman behind Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School last July.

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