There was a ruckus among students yesterday at Martin Luther King Middle School at the end of the school day:

Some parents are upset with Richmond Police after a brawl at Martin Luther King Middle School spills over into Mosby Court. The fight happened Wednesday after school let out. Police came and disbursed the crowd and some parents claim they used excessive force. One juvenile faces disorderly conduct charges.

Sugar is 52 pounds, short hair, very athletic, and the color of a German Shepherd. If you see her, contact Diane Worthington at (804)447-3298.

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A new community group, Friends of Chimborazo Playground, has formed to address crime, safety and health issues at the Chimborazo Park Playground and Recreational area. The group wants to hear your ideas for how to make the playground and recreational area a safer, more beautiful place. Send in your ideas at imaginechimbo.org.

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There will be 3 community meetings of note on Monday evening: the Richmond Department of Parks & Recreation will hold a focus group meeting to discuss and exchange ideas on the redesign of the Chimborazo Playground and Recreation area, the RTD will be hosting a “Public Square” on the James River and development, and the School Board will likely be voting on the Patrick Henry Charter School Initiative.

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In advance of the RTD’s Public Square on the James River, the Church Hill Association has reconfirmed its position with regard to Echo Harbor:

The developers are proposing 250 condominium units to be built in two 350′ wide buildings, (in a stair-step configuration), separated by a 275′ view corridor. These structures are to be placed atop a 3 level of parking garage, all of which would be setback 50′ from the river. Following the Q&A session “¦a motion was made, seconded, and universally approved. It stated: “The Church Hill Association opposes the development as proposed and recommends no rezoning other than RF-1 with its 60 foot height limit.”

Tricycle Gardens is selling seedlings for veggies, herbs, and flowers at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Sale which wraps up today. 9AM-3PM.

Meeting on Chimborazo Playground; The James River – RTD Public Square; Beginning Computer Classes for Adults; open mic @ Poe’s Pub; Public Hearing on RRHA Comprehensive Agency Plan; Fairmount neighborhood clean-up; Union Hill neighborhood clean-up; MORE…

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Hurricane Hazel, the only recorded Category 4 hurricane to make landfall as far north as North Carolina, was the worst hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the worst hurricanes of the 20th century. The storm hit Richmond on October 15, 1954, with 79 mile-an-hour winds that bent the steeple of the Trinity Methodist Church on East Broad Street.

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As of February 19th, the Fairmount Historic District is officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Check out a map of the district (PDF), or view the application (PDF) or a few photos from the area.

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The RTD’s A real space challenge presents overcrowded Woodville Elementary as an example of what can come of closing schools without building new ones. Woodville absorbed more than 100 children after Whitcomb Court Elementary School closed in 2006, and currently serves 573 students in a building with space for 530.

The 19th-century Italianate house at 2311 M Street, slated for demolition in 2005, was saved when ACORN found in David Collett a buyer for the house up for the massive task of total renovation and rehabilitation. ACORN’s next Renovator’s Open House will be at this now wonderfully renovated house on May 21st from 5:30 to 7PM.

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The shiny new Friends of Chimborazo Playground site has notes from the focus group meeting last night at St. John’s to discuss the redesign of Chimborazo Playground. With a budget of $250,000, the redesign is aimed at ameliorating some of the problems facing the park now, and to “address crime, safety and health issues and provide a beautiful place for community members of all ages to play, gather and enjoy by encouraging community involvement in the care of our historic park.”

Work began today on getting the fence up for the Church Hill Dog Park.

The City of Richmond Youth and Workforce Development Division is now accepting Youth Eligibility Pre-Screening Applications for the 2008 City of Richmond Youth Academy Summer Session from May 1- May 30, 2008.  The Youth Academy Summer Session will offer participants, ages 14 to 17 workforce opportunities and placement from Monday, June 30, 2008 to Friday, August 8, 2008. 

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The RTD gives some good coverage to the Ed Trask exhibition @ Eric Schindler Gallery. The show will be up until May 13.

“This is my second one-man show of Ed’s work,” says gallery owner Kirsten Gray. “I had one in 2006, and it nearly sold out. This is even better. It’s my favorite body of work he’s put together.”

An accident at Venable and 24th Streets involving a police cruiser and an allegedly “very drunk man” in a minivan left the cruiser wedged against a power pole, the minivan smashed in the middle of 24th, and parts and pieces of both scattered all over the intersection. At the scene, at least one of the elderly residents of the Church Hill House was complaining of being hit by debris from the accident; no word on possible injuries to either of the drivers.

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With 2104-2106 Cedar Street apparently safe for now, there is some decidedly mixed news coming to light about 2116 Cedar Street.

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A “Legal Notice – Demolition of Structure” published in this week’s issue of the Richmond Free Press has a list of properties that “have been condemned and may be demolished by the City of Richmond without any further notice”.

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The Spring 2008 issue of Blackbird, VCU’s online journal of literature and the arts, has a few poems by local writer a Joshua Poteat “that involve Church Hill and the surrounding area. They’re kind of downers, and strange [...]“. Check’em out.

Attend Tricycle Gardens’ rain barrel work shop and build your own rain barrel! This Sunday, May 18, 2008, from 12-2:30ish @ Neighborhood Resource Center (1519 Williamsburg Road) in Fulton, take home your own rain barrel for $40 OR $10 to attend and learn only.

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