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Take a quick survey on 25th Street/Nine Mile

30 comments

D 08/02/2016 at 8:33 AM

In all honesty, this area is the big joke of Church Hill. It is right by the police station and is the most blatant area of drug dealing in the area.

Every morning (for the last 4 years) I have drove past this corridor and see these transactions taking place, most right in front of the ocean grocery (which is caddy cornered to the police station/two block from 9 mile/25th intersection/can’t miss it has the Joe Morrissey signs).

For the purpose of this article, the first thing that needs to be cleaned up is the drug dealing going on between 25th/nine mile and 25th/Q.

This would be the essential start to change, that would be good for the area.

It is known by the locals of 25th of what goes on in and around the area the ocean grocery. If you are ever interested, stop. Park your car, and watch the traffic that goes in and out of the store. People go in and out, in and out, most of the time with nothing visible that is purchased. Also, FYI, this is not just a hunch, ask some people that hang out on that block what goes on.

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Maritza 08/02/2016 at 9:02 AM

Who is behind the survey?

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mary 08/02/2016 at 9:48 AM

This has nothing to do with the survey except to show how long-standing the current situation is along that stretch…particularly from the intersection of N. 25th and Venable north a few blocks. A week or so before graduation from the RPD academy in the 70s our recruit class was loaded into a bus to ‘tour’ the city’s verifiable hot spots. Thar stretch, particularly Ocean Grocery, was on the tour – and it was then as it is now.

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BAF 08/02/2016 at 3:13 PM

I second D’s comments. Until the open distribution of drugs, open air gambling and general loitering while consuming open containers of alcohol are cleaned up, upgrading that area is going to be very difficult.

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Drizzle 08/03/2016 at 8:28 AM

I’ve mentioned it before on here and I’ll mention it again. This area, and 75% of all areas north of M street are crime/drug havens. My girlfriend can’t even jog through the area without getting catcalled and she once got her ass grabbed walking down 25th st. The lower-income residents in this area walk down and spread crime throughout the rest of southern church hill.

I propose we build a wall down M Street. Doesn’t need to be grand, but it needs to stop car and foot traffic. It needs to go from the interstate to another natural barrier (creeks or whatever). We could even use simple sound barriers that are typically placed along the highway.

The area is lost. There is no revival or recovery coming for that area. The city had plenty of revival plans for south church hill and now they’ve moved on to other area. It’s time to get real people.

As far as funding, it shouldn’t be too costly on the city to just use the funds the mayor routed to his “church” account/retirement fund.

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J 08/03/2016 at 10:34 AM

Despite the drugs, I think that section of 25th (Q to Nine Mile) is by far the most interesting in the entire neighborhood. Culturally/sociologically, it is beyond what many of us know. We just drive through on our way to Target, locking our car doors. In reality, it’s a village square. Those folks aren’t going to Roosevelt to spend 50 bucks on a meal or buy an 8-dollar hot dog at Stroops. And they are surely not going to fill out an online survey. They’re hanging out with their friends in a completely different way than we hang out with our friends. I’m not trying to romanticize or assume anything. I just know that none of those people will be there in 5 years because they’ve all been pushed out, aka “upgraded.” It’s like the bulldozing of Fulton, except over years and with a well-meaning smile. The only reason this is happening now is because wealth is pouring into the neighborhood. There’s got to be a way to attack the poverty and not take away the social structure of a community. Of course, I have no answers.

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John M 08/03/2016 at 11:12 AM

@J – For what it’s worth, there were hundreds of printed copies of the survey distributed at last night’s National Night Out event at 26th and Nine Mile. We’re working to get a broad response to this.

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Lee 08/03/2016 at 1:37 PM

Drizzle – without even addressing the logistical difficulties or bias concerns raised by your suggestion of building a wall ( perhaps my sarcasm detector needs to be calibrated, can’t tell if you’re serious or joking), i think you’re wrong in assuming that the area can’t be saved. There has already been substantial progress in terms of residential redevelopment past M Street. It’s going to take time. But the area between M and broad is already almost out of redevelopment opportunities. I think the netherwoods project at 25th and O will clearly push the psychological or socioeconomic “border” much further north, assuming it is ever finished. Regardless, there are several pockets of corner retail spaces throughout the neighborhood north of M street which will eventually be redeveloped and should have the same effect.

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BAF 08/03/2016 at 10:10 PM

@Drizzlle

You forgot to say that you were going to make the people you were going to walk out pay for said wall. If you’re going to do low-rent Trump shtick, do it right.

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Drizzle 08/04/2016 at 8:59 AM

@BAF confirmed to live above M street. And I was thinking more like the Great Wall of China. How many drugged up Mongolians do you see stumbling around China since that thing was installed? Zero. Trump isn’t going to build a wall anyway, no way Congress would pass a bill doing so or allocating funds to. The threat is a negotiation tactic.

And how TF we gonna make people living in section 8 housing pay for it? The Mayor’s “Church Fund” should have been getting spent on them anyway, not his retirement. Instead it’s not, and consequently they steal my packages so reliably at this point I get them shipped to work. I work for the US Government and with all the security scans, packages take an extra 2 weeks to arrive at my desk. Sadly, this is now preferable to shipping to my house.

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BAF 08/04/2016 at 2:23 PM

@Drizzle

I live above M Street. I am well-aware of the social problems. It would be better if the local precinct would deal with the social problems in full view of officers getting in and out of the cruisers.

Perhaps my sarcasm meter is miscalibrated today too, and your posts are meant to be funny. If so, I apologize for not finding it as such. Perhaps your post was intended to be Swiftian satire although I did not sense it as such. It just came across as a crude proposal to ghetto these people. We’ve seen how well that works.

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HB 08/05/2016 at 9:56 AM

Build the wall and make them pay for it!!!

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D 08/05/2016 at 9:59 AM

@Drizzle

Just curious, if you and your wife know these are crime/drug havens, why are you letting her go running through this stretch of 25th street (and I hope she is not the “not wise” woman that I see running through this section with booty shorts on and sports bra….) ? You know there are a lot of other non-crime/drug havens yall could choose to run through in church hill.

You state “The area is lost. There is no revival or recovery coming for that area. The city had plenty of revival plans for south church hill and now they’ve moved on to other area”.
As I recall… Most of chuch hill used to be just like this.. not too long ago. When I grew up in Richmond area, we were told not to even start to go up the hill to church hill.

Church Hill has come a long way, even this area. I’m not too sure about what you consider “south church hill”, but I consider this area to nine mile road, more central or north.

Also, I disagree with your comment about the efforts to change have moved away from the area. Have you not seen the section of nine mile rd close to the roundabout? Well, lets start with that roudabout, someone put some money into that. The new grocery store? What about the Richmond Community Hospital area? Have you seen the new building going up and new landscaping where the new medical office buildings are coming next year? What about Creighton and the new complex? Sounds like some progress in the future to me.

My guess is in 5-10 years (or less) this section of 25th and nine mile will be cleaned up and similar to Broad! With proper police focus, this area could be cleaned up in a matter of weeks…

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HB 08/05/2016 at 10:39 AM

@D. While your observation often improvements of the neighborhood are accurate, there is still quite obvious crime occurring and it’s happening within sight of the police precinct. Clearly, they have given up as well. The police, while I think to have made significant progress over the years, I also think this is one area they choose to ignore for whatever reason. It won’t get better as long as blatant illegal activity is allowed to continue. From other comments, it appears this has been a hotbed for decades.

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Stewart Schwartz 08/06/2016 at 7:45 PM

I’m pleased there is a working group. But I would like to see Bon Secours release and publish the full report from the original 25th Street/9 Mile Road vision plan/charrette which Bon Secours funded (done by DPZ, Duany Plater-Zyberk) A great diversity of residents participated in that process and a lot of work went into it. The information collected and design ideas would be helpful. Yet it’s not available online as far as I know.

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John M 08/07/2016 at 8:05 AM

Stewart – I’ll bring this up.

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