WHAT: Maggie L. Walker Initiative for Expanding Opportunity and Fighting Poverty WHEN: Tuesday, October 1, 2013 Noon to 2 p.m. WHERE:    City Hall                    900 East Broad Street                    5th Floor Conference Room                    Richmond, VA BACKGROUND: This meeting of the Maggie L. Walker Initiative for Expanding Opportunity and Fighting Poverty (previously known as the Mayor’s Anti-Poverty Commission) will feature a presentation by Dr. Ted Howard. Dr. Howard is the founding Executive Director of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland and is a national leader in the fast-growing field of community wealth building and policy development. He also serves as the Minter Senior Fellow for Social Justice with The Cleveland Foundation and was the driving for...

The 17th Street Farmers’ Market is evolving and the City of Richmond is requesting input from residents and businesses as to how the new public space will look and function. Two community workshops will be held to gain this input with the first being on Tuesday, October 1 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and the second on Wednesday, October 2 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. The meetings will take place on the second floor of Main Street Station, 1500 East Main Street. The workshops are an outgrowth of the effort began by the City in 2010 when the Department of Economic and Community Development worked with the community and Shockoe stakeholders to develop a revitalization strategy for the area. The community desired a more open urban space at the public market that would serve the vendors on market days, continue to serve large events, but also support a wider range of community and family-oriented programming.  In FY 2013 and FY 2014, the City supported the concept and Mayor Dwight C. J...

Mayor Dwight C. Jones invites the public to join in a Day of Service and Remembrance on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, in recognition of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The event will be held outside of Marshall Plaza at 900 East Marshall Street. The formal event will begin at 8:45 a.m. with the ringing of bells and moment of silence. Following the formal event, there will be an opportunity to learn more about emergency preparedness through a training session held by the City of Richmond’s Office of Emergency Management, as well as guided tours and learning sessions in the City’s Mobile Command Post and the mobile Fire Safety House. Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn Hands-Only CPR with our partners from Richmond Ambulance Authority. There will also be volunteer opportunities throughout the day. Volunteer registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. before the formal event. For more information about volunteering throughout the year, visit www.RichmondGov.com/neighbort...

Major road changes are scheduled to begin on Monday, September 9, to permanently remove the 8th Street Connector. The re-routing of 8th Street marks the second of three phases of road modifications taking place ahead of construction of the $110 million Gateway Plaza building on East Canal Street between 8th and 9th Streets. Once the 8th Street Connector closes, motorist traveling on 8th Street will turn left onto East Canal, travel east on the new, one-block, two-way portion of East Canal and, then turn right at 9th Street onto the bridge approach.  Canal will remain as two westbound lanes, with the anticipation of opening a temporary third through lane, abutting the Gateway site, in several weeks.  Completion of the second phase is expected by early October. Signage will be posted instructing motorists of detours and changes in traffic patterns throughout each phase of the traffic conversions.  All related traffic and road work should be completed by early November.

=In observance of Labor Day, City government offices, including City Hall, will be closed on Monday, September 2, 2013. City offices will reopen at regular business hours on Tuesday, September 3, 2013. Monday’s Labor Day closings include all branches of the Richmond Public Libraries and all Department of Parks and Recreation community centers. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday. Refuse collection will not take place on Monday as the City’s Solid Waste Management Division will also be closed. This closure will result in a one-day delay of refuse collection for the week, as the collection schedule will begin on Tuesday, September 3 and continue through Friday, September 6. The East Richmond Road Convenience Center and Hopkins Road Transfer Stations are also closed on Monday, September 2. Each facility will resume its normal schedule on Tuesday. For more information on City services and schedules, please visit www.RichmondGov.com .

The City of Richmond, in partnership with Chesterfield County, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and the Virginia based planning and design firm Rhodeside & Harwell were recently honored at the annual conference of the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA-VA) with an Outstanding Plan Award for their Comprehensive Revitalization Plan for the Hull Street Corridor.   APA-VA awards recognize specific individuals, organizations, firms and/or communities for outstanding contributions to planning in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Any APA-VA member may nominate plans, projects, programs, individuals, or organizations for one of a limited number of awards. Recipients are chosen to receive awards based on their strengths in these five categories: innovation, transferability, quality, implementation, and comprehensiveness. The Hull Street Plan’s capacities in these five categories, as described below, merited its selection. Innovation: The...

~ OEM also Continues to Train Internal Departments ~   On Saturday, August 10 the City of Richmond Office of Emergency Management will start the latest Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training class.  The CERT training program is designed to educate people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. Dates:             August 10, 24 and 31(All Saturdays) Time:              9 a.m. – 5 p.m. each day Location:        Richmond Ambulance Authority           ...