The Model Cities Program, an element of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty, was a federal urban aid program in the late 1960s and early 1970s intended “to make a blighted section [...] a pleasant place to live”. In Richmond, this manifested as the Church Hill Model Neighborhood Program, whose most lasting contribution to the neighborhood might just be the Chimborazo Mini-Mall.

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Katie writes in asking if anyone can help out with a hit&run from Friday afternoon:

A red, two door, Blazer, with a young girl driver came out of the Chimbo Mart parking lot, and hit my car which was parked in the street. She continued to go up the curb and hit the bus stop bench on the corner. A man then got out of the passenger seat and yelled at the young girl to get out of the car. They switched spots and he drove away. They would have damage on the passenger side of the vehicle, possibly white paint that rubbed off from my car. If anyone can give me details about it hit and run, or if they have seen the vehicle in the area, I would be glad to make a bunch of Christmas goodies as a reward!

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Following up on an incident initially reported as a woman being run over by her boyfriend, wtvr has some details on the hit&run outside the Chimbo Mart yesterday:

“We got a call that a female had been run over by a vehicle, units responded and found a woman down in a parking lot,” said Lt. Robert Marland, Richmond Police Department. Some employees from inside the store rushed to find out what had happened and walked in to an active crime scene. “I happened to see a young lady laying on the curb somebody had pushed her out of the car and tried to hit her with it,” said employee Sean Harper.

The RPD’s Noteworthy Incidents scantily reported a robbery at 515 Chimborazo Boulevard just before 3PM on Saturday as: “An employee reported an unknown male with a gun robbed the business.” Turns out that 515 is the Chimbo Mart and readers have added some detail:

Allegedly the robber(s) only robbed the store. The customers were not robbed. To flee, the suspect(s) ran into the woods on 35th street between Marshall and Clay streets. Police surrounded the area for several hours, even bringing in the K9 unit.

I’ve heard recently that 1) there have a been a rash of day-time burglaries around the 1000 block of 22nd Street (quickly in and out, through the back door), 2) that there have been recent rezoning requests for some of the light-industrial areas between 17th and 18th at Clay Street (to allow for commercial and residential use [aka apartments and condos]), and 3) that Ellwood-Thompson’s has bought the old Chimbo Mart.