Lora Toothman reports that at the last Union Hill Civic Association meeting, the group decided to target specific areas of the neighborhood for attention from the city, and to coordinate requests for maintenance for those areas so that many people request the same action items at once. The hope is that the city notes the influx of requests for the area and fixes those problems. The first area chosen is immediately around the triangle at the intersection of 23rd, Jessamine and Cedar Streets.

From the email:

The sidewalks on the 700 blocks of Jessamine and 23rd and on the 2200 block of Cedar are in pretty rough shape, where they exist at all. Several of us, independently, have requested sidewalk maintenance before, but those requests haven’t gotten us anywhere. In addition to the sidewalks, we have the remains of a couple of wood and iron benches that were installed (by the City, we believe) in the right-of-way on the little triangle. One bench still has slats, but the other was so badly vandalized years ago that a neighbor removed the broken slats to prevent injuries. We’d like to get the broken bench removed and the other one repaired.

Thanks to Mark Kronenthal, we will soon be planting some lovely Eastern Redbuds in the tree wells in the area, and we’d really like the City to help spruce up the area to show off our new trees. We would really appreciate your help with a concerted City services request to get this ball rolling.

On Wednesday, October 3, please consider sending a request to the City by going to the city citizen request page and filling out a service request.

You’ll need an account, which is pretty easy to set up and requires giving your email address and creating a password. If you’d rather just call to request the service, please contact the City Department of Public Works at 804-646-0999.

Either way, please ask that the sidewalks along the 700 block of N. 23rd and Jessamine Streets and the 2200 block of Cedar be repaired, and that the broken iron bench frame on the sidewalk on the 700 block of N. 23rd be removed and the other wooden and iron bench be repaired.