RVANews

Leaves of three, let it be

Nathan Cushing — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 13:10:39 +0000

Original -- July 02, 2014

Poison ivy¹ makes its home in Asia and North America and affects over 350,000 people annually in the US. Many of us know it well.

"It's everywhere," said Peggy Singlemann, Director of Horticulture at Maymont and co-host of WCVE's Virginia Home Grown radio show. "It's a common native plant here in the Richmond area, and all of Virginia for that matter."

Singlemann doesn't mince words about poison ivy's hazards. "This is not a plant to take lightly," she said.

Don't hate the player, hate the allergen

Poison ivy would be another ho-hum plant if it weren't for urushiol, the clear sappy liquid it exudes. Urushiol's potent stuff: you need just the amount that fits onto the head of a pin to infect 500 people.

Roughly 15 percent of the population is unfazed by urushiol and will never develop a reaction to it (yay!). Unfortunately, for those who are affected by urushiol, repeated exposure often makes subsequent rashes worse (boo!).

If you do touch poison ivy, Singleman recommends you wash the spots with Tecnu, the wash used by Maymont employees. "Soap and water will not take this oil off," she said. It's best to use the wash within six hours of exposure.

After coming into contact with poison ivy, do your best to quarantine the part of you body exposed to it. "The [urushiol] can attach to your clothing and your pet's fur," Singlemann said. "The oil is so persistent. It doesn't go away." Immediately wash the clothing you were wearing when you were exposed.

If a rash develops,² take an antihistamine (Benadryl) to ease itching and use a topical cortisone ointment (Cortisone-10) to reduce inflammation.

How do I spot poison ivy?

"Leaves of three, let it be." It's true: poison ivy leaves do grow in bunches of three. But leaves can be smooth or jagged, making poison ivy tricky to spot. To make it more challenging, leaves are green in spring and summer, but change color in autumn with the fall foliage.

Each poison ivy leaflet grows on its own stem that connects to the main vine. "There's a definite sheen to it," Singlemann said, describing the leaves. "It's got a little shine."

Singlemann said there's often a reddish dot where the three leaves come together. "That tends to stand out pretty quickly for people," she said.

Another tell is that poison ivy stems are often brown, not green like other native plants. Poison ivy stems often have dark brown hair-like tendril, especially when the plant is climbing up something, like a wall or tree.

Poison ivy also lacks thorns, and will sometimes gave berry-like drupes that are green at first and become white and waxy.

And just because you see animals touching or eating leaves, that doesn't mean they're OK for us. Animals can graze on poison ivy with no ill-effects.

How do I deal with the stuff?

"Poison ivy is everywhere in our community," Singlemann said. "I think we all need to understand it's out there." Wear pants, long sleeves, and gloves when you're doing yard work or hiking.

If you spot poison ivy in your yard, don't burn the plant. "The oil does travel in the smoke," she said. If inhaled, urushiol can irritate and swell your lungs.

Despite its many drawbacks, poison ivy does have an upside. Some argue that poison ivy-ridden Fire Island off Long Island in New York was named not only for the plant's fiery itch, but for its reddish beauty in autumn.

"There's always a silver lining," Singlemann said.

"Least-Welcome Sign of Summer"; The Wall Street Journal

photo by Beatrice Murch

Toxicodendron radicans for you botanists in the audience. ↩
Some people may develop blisters after exposure to poison ivy. If that happens, GO TO A DOCTOR. ↩

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RVA’s bus rapid transit updated

Nathan Cushing — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 14:38:45 +0000

Update #1 -- January 27, 2015; 9:06 AM

The first of two meetings to show off and discuss the rapid transit plan occurred last night. As expected there were some changes to the original plan and quite a few details were released.

On-street parking between Interstate 195 and 14th Street will be removed for a bus lane (according to Style Weekly the lane is 9 feet wide and the buses are 10.5 feet wide, so that's an issue to resolved)
Station locations have been shuffled, with a downtown stop heading to the location of Stone Brewing and another moved closer to Scott's addition
Station designs revealed (seen above) and will allow passengers to walk directly onto the buses without dealing with steps
Stations will allow passengers to buy tickets, including daily, weekend, and weekly passes
Buses would operate every 10 minutes during peak hours and 15 during off peak and cost $1.50

More information at Style Weekly and RTD.

— ∮∮∮ —

Original -- September 15, 2014

Sen. Mark Warner announced last week that GRTC received a $24.9 million grant from the US Department of Transportation to help fund a bus rapid transit system along Broad Street stretching from Rocketts Landing to Willow Lawn.

Funding roughly half of the project, the grant brings beaucoup bucks to the project that GRTC and others have studied for five years.

The grant comes just weeks before the man behind the standard for bus rapid transit system in the US, Joe Calabrese, travels from Cleveland, OH to speak about that city's award-winning HealthLine bus transit system.

Richmond has never been closer to its own system than it is now. But just how close is it, and why are people so pedal-to-the-metal about it?

"Something we care about"

Bringing Calabrese to Richmond is RVA Rapid Transit, an advocacy group founded in March 2013.

"What RVA Rapid Transit is doing as a group of citizens is promoting a full-scale regional vision for rapid transit," said Andrew Terry, coordinator for the group, by phone last week.

With the help of VCU Brandcenter alumnus Charles Merritt, RVA Rapid Transit has spent hours giving a 15-minute presentation to groups across the region underscoring bus rapid transit benefits: faster service than traditional bus routes, less expensive to operate than rail services, affordability for nearly every Richmond resident, etc.

"We've done it hundreds of times now," Terry said about the presentation. "In a church basement to the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce, the Capital Region Collaborative process, rotary clubs, real estate associations...the reaction to the presentation has been overwhelmingly positive."

Some have lobbied for bus rapid transit for years, but have yet to see progress. Terry believes he knows why, and believes bus rapid transit supporters can expect a different outcome this time around.

"Usually it's a bunch of planners, government officials sitting together, and maybe some business leaders who have an interest. Essentially, it's planners trying to convince civic leaders of the necessity of regional transit progress," Terry said. But public urging for bus rapid transit in recent years has changed things. "What's different in this equation is the fact that citizens from four jurisdictions...[Hanover, Henrico, Chesterfield, and the City]...are getting together and entering into the conversation and saying this is actually something we care about."

Proof is in the numbers. "Being able to turn out a couple hundred people at a [GRTC] public meeting [about bus rapid transit] is very different when rapid transit was talked about three or four years ago," he said.

In 2009, the The Broad Street Rapid Transit Study (PDF) identified a key corridor on Broad Street running about seven miles, stretching from Rocketts Landing to Willow Lawn.

Recommended map for bus rapid transit from the Broad Street Rapid Transit Study (2009) (click to enlarge)

Members of the local study noticed that the local corridor resembled the Euclid Corridor project in Cleveland, what would become the HealthLine. "So they used Cleveland as a proxy for their proposal," Terry said.

The phrase "bus rapid transit" may not titillate the imaginations of all business leaders, but "$5.8 billion in economic development" sure does, which is the amount the HealthLine has raked in since launching in 2008.

Last year, the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy awarded Cleveland's transit route a silver designation, the only such designation in the US. "The gold ratings are only in South America and Asia," Terry said about Cleveland's HealthLine. "So it's widely recognized as a model [for other US cities]."

RVA Rapid Transit invited the general manager of Cleveland transportation, Joe Calabrese, to speak at a now sold-out event on September 17th to "provide a forum for citizens, business and civic leaders, and for transportation economic development planners to hear about Cleveland's successes," Terry said.

"The Future" On Wheels

"Bus rapid transit...is really taking everything we've learned over the last 200 years and integrating it into a new mode of transit, really taking the best of all modes," said Joe Calabrese, general manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), by phone from Cleveland last week.

Cars replaced horses and carriages on streets nearly 100 years ago,¹ he says. Buses arrived in many cities in the 1950s. Heavy and light rail followed after that.

Calabrese said that traditional bus systems have two main pros: its relative low operation costs and flexibility, meaning routes can adapt to usage. It's cons: it's relatively slow and has low capacity, is "viewed by many people as a second-class mode of transportation", and rarely spurs economic development.

Rail's pros and cons are inverse: rail has high capacity, is fast, respected, and often spurs economic development. But its operation costs are big, its routes inflexible.

"Bus rapid transit takes those two popular modes, rail and bus, and combines them into a new mode with the benefits of both," Calabrese said. "The higher speed, the higher image of rail, that sense of permanence of rail, but yet with the flexibility of a bus system and a cost structure that is typically one-third the cost to build and one-third the cost to operate."

RVA Rapid Transit rendering of what a bus rapid transit system might look like on Broad and 7th streets.

Cleveland installed the nation's first comprehensive bus rapid transit system in 2008. Part of HealthLine's success came from its branding. "It's not viewed as a fast bus. We don't use the word 'bus' in the description of what we do," Calabrese said. "In the way we designed this, the way we marketed this, the way we branded this was just as one would a rail system."

In addition to stocking its fleet of vehicles and installing waiting stations, the GCRTA planted 1,500 trees, replaced traffic and signal lights along the 7-mile route, created safer crosswalks, rebuilt roads, sidewalks, and curbs. Employees even change out flowers at stations based on the season.

The HealthLine has changed how Americans should look at bus rapid transit, and transportation in general. Calabrese still believes in the marketing mantra GCRTA coined for its rapid bus transit system: It's not a bus. It's not a train. It's the future.

A future Richmond wants to be a part of.

Quality of Life

During a phone interview last Tuesday at 10:00 AM, Stephen McNally, project administrator at GRTC, got a call on his cell phone. He declined the call, apologizing for the interruption.

He'd later learn the call was from Sen. Mark Warner's office telling him that GRTC had won a $24.9 million grant from the federal government to help fund the city's bus rapid transit project.

When speaking later that morning after learning the news, McNally let out a WAAHOO heard as far as Petersburg.

"Everybody up here is off the wall," he said about the federal grant that halfway funds the $49.8 million bus rapid transit project he and GRTC are prepping for.

"We are now just considering the results of a request for proposal for architectural and engineering firms, and we'll shortly be awarding that contract...for that first phase."

McNally said the "common and accepted process" for projects involving federal money revolves around three-phases measured by the percentage of a project's completion:

Phase One • 0 - 30%
Phase Two • 30 - 60%
Phase Three • 60 - 100%

GRTC now approaches Phase One.

"What gets accomplished in that first phase is a tremendous amount of activity and due diligence on the project as far as identifying and setting the base course for going forward with the rest of the design," McNally said. "It really shifts, in that first phase, from a transit study to an implementation project."

Part of the implementation is making sure you can fund the project. With the $24.9 million coming from the federal government, the remaining funds to cover the $49.8 million total will, according to McNally, roughly shake out thus:

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation • $16.9 million
City of Richmond • $7.6 million
Henrico County • $700,000²

Aside from funding, figuring out the nuts and bolts of the project include: collecting and examining information like traffic modeling, surveying, and mapping which will include "an analysis of loss of on-street parking," McNally said, adding it's "critical" for rapid transit buses to have "dedicated lanes."

Phase Two includes getting construction firms and architectural firms together to hash out feasibility and logistics. Giving construction firms input into the project is vital because "they have to deliver a certain project in a certain timeframe for 'x' amount of dollars," McNally said.

Phase Three comprises construction, which could begin as early as 2016. But that inaugural ride on Richmond's bus rapid transit won't happen for awhile. "Our end date on that right now is August 2018 as far as opening for service," McNally said.

GRTC's project administrator is most excited for how the city's foray into bus rapid transit system will improve the "quality of life" for citizens.

"I think overall it's going to make transit safer, it's going to make it more reliable, definitely faster, and desirable in Richmond, and really reduce the household transportation costs," McNally said.

He reported census statistics indicating that roughly 10 percent of households along the proposed transit corridor don't have a car. "There is a considerably higher percentage of zero car households [across the city], and with [bus rapid transit] running down that central artery in Richmond, it really provides that transportation choice for access to jobs, education, retail, healthcare centers, [etc]." McNally said. "That's what we're excited about."

With luck, Richmond's first bus rapid transit corridor won't be its last. McNally said there additional corridors -- ones extending out to Short Pump or Richmond International Airport, and new ones on Hull Street and Midlothian -- are feasible and would further invigorate the region.

"But you've got to start somewhere," he said.

Photo of Cleveland's HealthLine by John Greenfield

Although Richmond beat other cities by having the world's first electric trolley system in 1888. ↩
Henrico's contribution is less than the others because only a relatively small portion of the rapid bus transit corridor reaches into the county. ↩

Nonprofit Learning Point: Helping boost RVA’s nonprofits for 20 years

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 11:00:14 +0000

When, in 1995, Nonprofit Learning Point began offering courses to help people in the nonprofit sector better themselves and their organizations, a 15-hour class cost just $25.

"We know that we were the only program of this type in the country," said Rachel Douglas, Program Director¹ of the program that provides professional development for nonprofit workers." So I used to say, 'Either we're brilliant, or this is a really dumb idea.'"

Definitely the former.

For 20 years, NLP has helped people "do their jobs better, faster, more effectively, and efficiently," Douglas said. To celebrate its history, NLP looks forward to even more community engagement and changing the way the nonprofit world looks in the future.

From two to 70 in two decades

The Community Foundation, a local organization that fosters empowerment across the region, saw an upswell of nonprofit activity in the early and mid-1990s. "The Community Foundation was seeing these grants come in and they saw the need the nonprofit sector had for some professional development," Douglas said.

So The Community Foundation partnered with VCU's Division of Community Engagement² to offer the unheard of: two classes tailored to nonprofit workers that came with academic credit, which "enabled us to keep the cost of our classes really low³ so that it was accessible to nonprofit folks," Douglas said. "The classes just filled up immediately. So they knew they were onto something."

NLP now offers 70 classes spanning topics like communications, HR management, fund development, organizational development, and more. It also offers group and individual coaching for senior nonprofit leaders, as well as the Emerging Nonprofit Leaders Program.

NLP's growth reflects that of Richmond's nonprofit (or social) sector. "Nonprofits make up eight percent of jobs in the state, and we know that here in Richmond we have about 1,600 nonprofits,"⁴ Douglas said. "It's a lot."⁵

The NLP class enrollment and leadership program participation reflect the city's diversity. "We have a lot of racial diversity and a lot of diversity in terms of education, anything from GEDs to PhDs," she said, adding "Not a lot of gender diversity, but that's sort of reflective of the sector in general."

The represented nonprofits also vary. "We have everything from kitchen table nonprofits to $15 - $20 million organizations that are sending us folks," she said. "We have folks who've always worked in the nonprofit sector, and then we have career switchers...we have board members who work in corporate who volunteer for nonprofits, and some people who are just dipping their toe in the water."⁶

A sense of duty

Boosting growth in nonprofits, both locally and nationwide, is a feeling of responsibility, said Abbi Leinwand, Director of Development for the Partnership for Nonprofit Excellence.⁷

"There's a lot of research about public service motivation, which has been primarily about working for the government," she commented. "But with new generations, you're seeing more of a nonprofit service motivation, a way to give back to their community and fulfill a sense of duty to their community."

Rachel Douglas said a common misapprehension people outside the sector have about nonprofits is how those organizations run. "Nonprofits are businesses, and so you have to go and get incorporated. That process can be complex," she said.

She says that a good idea or cause doesn't necessarily require its own organization. Other avenues exist. "It's not only about starting your own nonprofit, it's looking around at what are some of the other nonprofits that are already in existence and saying, 'Could my idea help them or fall under them' or 'Could this be a nice collaboration?' instead of always just doing your own thing."

What Douglas has seen in recent years, and what she expects will continue, are the "blurring of the lines" between businesses, governments, and nonprofits. Once they were three distinct, delineated states of mind. Now they're bleeding into one another more and more. "There are a lot of businesses⁸ that do things that feel really good and are making wide social impact," she said.

She hopes that these blurred lines lead to nonprofits joining regional partners making decisions that affect the area. "People naturally think of business and government as having a seat at the table when we're looking at regional collaboration. But that nonprofit voice is super important, because I feel the nonprofit folks are the ones on the ground, doing the work to implement a lot of the priorities that come out of some of those regional task forces," she says. "It would be great to be invited."

Part of who we are

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, NLP will focus its next annual conference on the future of the social sector. "We wanted to do something big and exciting, so we're going to do a TEDxNonprofit," Douglas announces. "This is a chance to bring national and local folks together to specifically focus on what the next 20 years are going to look like."

Douglas hopes discussions include "dismantling laws that have been on the books for a really long time that just aren't applicable if we really want to move forward in a different way."

Take the requirement that nonprofits must have a board of directors, which serve as a nonprofit's governing body. Those on the board aren't necessarily in tune with (and sometimes even aware of) their nonprofit's mission. Yet they're the ones who are legally and fiscally responsible for the organization. "Does that make sense?" Douglas asks. "To me it really doesn't."

So what does a more practical solution look like? "I have no idea," she admits. "But I'd love to be a part of that conversation."

No matter if or when archaic rules get taken off the books, NLP is still committed to helping the people that make nonprofits work. Abbi Leinwand believes local nonprofits, and the nation's social sector at large, isn't going away anytime soon.

"Just the nature of the American people in general is to be involved in their community and give back. I don't think that's going away," Leinwand insists.

"That's part of who we are as a nation."

Economic impact study of Virginia nonprofits

Photo courtesy of Nonprofit Learning Point

After over six years of leading NLP, Douglas will become the executive director of Chrysalis Institute in early 2015. ↩
By the end of 2014, NLP will have transitioned from a VCU partnership to a full Partnership for Nonprofit Excellence program. ↩
NLP class prices are still affordable, although now based on a sliding scale. ↩
Here's the makeup of local nonprofit services, based on people who take use of NLP's services: Health (21 percent); Personal development (21 percent); Youth (16 percent); Educational (15 percent); Community development (13 percent); Other (14 percent) ↩
There are roughly 1.5 million nonprofits in the US. Roughly 1 million are classified as a 501c3. ↩
For those new to the social sector, NLP offers "Nonprofit Organizations Crash Course" and "Starting a Nonprofit" classes. ↩
The Partnership for Nonprofit Excellence is an umbrella organization that oversees four programs: Nonprofit Learning Point, HandsOn Greater Richmond, ConnectVA, and Organizational Solutions. ↩
See how Mark Smith operates four local Midas franchises. ↩

Extended: VMFA unveils relics from the Forbidden City

Nathan Cushing — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 11:24:18 +0000

Update #1 -- January 5, 2015; 1:37 PM

The VMFA has announced that, due to the popularity of the Forbidden City exhibit, it shall be extended through Monday, January 19th. If you've had trouble getting over there, what with the holidays and all, now is your time to shine.

Reminder: you must purchase tickets at the box office or online for a specific time. We recommend doing it online, just as we recommend doing everything.

— ∮∮∮ —

Original -- October 17, 2014

Over 200 artifacts from the Forbidden City will be exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts starting tomorrow in Forbidden City: Imperial Treasures from the Palace Museum, Beijing, the first time the VMFA has exhibited Chinese art sourced directly from China.

The exhibit serves as the centerpiece in the VMFA's seven-year relationship with the Palace Museum, the first collaboration forged between any US museum and its Beijing counterpart.¹ Hardywood has even joined the mix by releasing a white ale with red dragon fruit called Forbidden² to tie into the exhibit.

Ritual bells cast with dragons (dated 1713)

Built between 1406 and 1420, the Imperial Palace spanned both the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Only the ruling emperor³ decided who could enter and leave the Imperial Palace (hence the Forbidden City name).

Enclosed by a 26-foot-high wall, the Forbidden City's 900+ buildings spanned over 3,000 feet north-to-south and nearly 2,500 feet east-to-west.

Li Jian, the East Asian Art curator at the VMFA, said the new exhibit was designed so that visitors could simulate a walk through the grounds.

"The exhibition layout [is] based on the layout of the Forbidden City," she said. That makes the VMFA exhibit unique. "I haven't seen any [past Forbidden City] exhibition arranged like that."

The first of the exhibit's four sections represent the rituals of the Qing court and features roughly 90 objects depicting historic events. The next two sections show items (furniture, portraits, decorations) representing imperial prestige and various paintings depicting animals, landscapes, and figures featuring Qing dynasty symbolism.

The final section highlights religion, celebrated and recognized in the centermost portion of the city. Roughly 30 works (sculpture, thangkas, sutras, pagodas) showcase the Buddhist and Daoist beliefs spanning 500 years of Chinese history.

3D replica of the Forbidden City

The VMFA has also added modern technology into the exhibit. The museum mounted a scaled replica of the Forbidden City, created by 3D printers, onto a wall. Additionally, visitors may watch two 3D printers in the museum atrium create a second scaled replica for the duration of the exhibit.

Curator Li Jian, who traveled to China in 2010 to begin the process of cultivating the new exhibit, said China had a once "very open society." That's manifested in Forbidden City objects with Tibetan and Mongolian sensibilities, as well as Western artistic tastes that traveled with missionaries.⁴

Jian said embracing diversity is a central theme of the exhibit. "People can accommodate other cultures and learn from other cultures, and bend it and create it" to make your own culture better, she said. If the 15th Century Ming dynasty could do it, "we can definitely do it ourselves."

She added: "We have so much to learn from the past."

Two of the 16 Luohans (Buddhist deities) (circa 1777)

Forbidden City: Imperial Treasures from the Palace Museum, Beijing runs from October 18, 2014 to January 11, 2015. Tickets range from $10 - $20. The exhibition is free for museum members. The VMFA will hold several events related to the new exhibit in the coming weeks.

Photos by Nathan Cushing

As part of the collaboration, the VMFA's Fabregé Egg collection will be displayed in China in 2016. ↩
Available at select locations in the city. ↩
24 emperors called it home. ↩
Read about one notable missionary, Matteo Ricci, here. ↩

Early Bird Biscuit: Out of time, out of this world

Nathan Cushing — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 11:00:09 +0000

Who: Tim Laxton
What: Handmade, old-fashioned biscuits and baked goods
Where: 5411 Lakeside Avenue in Northside
When: Opened July 2014
Why: To leaven a gimmick at long last
Dishes: Flaky buttermilk biscuit with jam made daily ($2.50); Ham biscuit featuring local Virginia ham on a classic buttermilk biscuit ($3.00); Biscuit and gravy with gravy flavors that rotate between a sausage gravy, featuring locally sourced sausage, and a vegetarian cheddar sawmill option ($5.50).

— ∮∮∮ —

Tim Laxton had nearly fallen asleep one night when a thought crossed his mind.

"Y'know, Richmond needs a really good biscuit," Laxton said, recalling that thought. "My mom always used to say, you need to have a gimmick," Laxton says. "The thing that is you. The thing that makes you feel alive...the thing that you know you were called to do." Since last July, the proprietor of Early Bird Biscuit Co. & Bakery has been baking the city's first true really good biscuit.

Vintage knickknacks and kitsch decorate his little 725-square-foot bakery: There's the cuckoo clock that belonged to his grandmother ("I used to love to pull the pine cones,"), rotary phone, collection of old rolling pins long past their prime, and other retro accoutrement that make Early Bird Biscuit as much a time machine as it is the city's first bona fide biscuit shop.

A quick bread in your back pocket

Laxton grew up in a home that encouraged curiosity. "We were taught as kids to seek out knowledge," Laxton said of his childhood on the Eastern Shore. "If we had a questions, our parents always encouraged us to look it up."

Laxton did just that when he was eight years old and decided, for whatever reason, to bake a soufflé. Inside the family farmhouse was a large pantry of canned goods and one-of-a-kind church and community cookbooks passed around from home to home in a pre-digital age. "These are people who have shared something deeply personal and had them printed," Laxton said. And outside of the pages of those books, "a lot of those recipes just really don't exist anymore."

The eight-year-old Laxton picked out a soufflé recipe from one of the books, gathered ingredients, and then voilà. "That's how we learned. We were always encouraged just to tackle things."

Raised in a Southern family, Laxton often ate a regional staple: the biscuit. "It's a quick bread," he says. "My mom used to say you need to have a quick bread in your back pocket just in case you're entertaining" or need it to pair with a meal.

Laxton later traveled to Richmond in the late 1980s to attend VCU. "It was a culture shock coming to Richmond from the Eastern Shore," he said. "I loved it."

After graduating from VCU in 1990 and working various part-time jobs, Laxton landed a corporate sales position at Marriott. But after a decade, the company restructured in a way that ultimately put Laxton out of work at the height of the recession. So he did what any average person would do: created a successful pool-cleaning business in Middlesex County.

A few things done well

Laxton enjoyed being the local pool boy. "I was successful. Great customers. I did really well," he said. "I got to drive a pickup truck, call my own hours, wear shorts to work everyday. I got to be my own boss."

But it wasn't his gimmick. "I just hadn't settled on that one thing that made me feel alive and nourished," he said. Until the night of his biscuity epiphany.

While driving to a New Year's Eve party in 2012, Laxton passed a vacant property at 5411 Lakeside Avenue. "I just looked at the building and said, that's it. I just knew it." That's where he'd bake biscuits for a living.

Tim Laxton

"I knew that I made really good biscuits," he said. "I grew up eating biscuits. My mom made great biscuits. My grandmother made great biscuits. When you're from the South, that's just something you have to know how to do, or at least consume."

He said biscuits are the "quintessential Southern vehicle," something you can eat alone, use for a sandwich, or to sop up any remaining sauce. "It's something that's really basic and straightforward," he said.

While simple on paper, really good biscuits, like the ones his mother and grandmother made, have to be hand-mixed, hand-rolled, and handmade with love. And Laxton extends that personal touch philosophy to the rest of his business. "That was one thing I decided--I was going to have a storefront and I was going to offer hospitality to people who came in...I wanted to touch as many parts of that product as I could."

He also eschewed an elaborate menu. "How do you maintain quality when you have that many items on the menu? So I just wanted to offer a few things that were just done really well," he said. "That's pretty much my business model."

Early Birds

Laxton took inspiration for Early Bird's nostalgic decor from the building itself. "This building...is all mid-century modern," he said about the small shopping center stretching along Lakeside, built circa 1950s. "I wanted to play with that a little bit. But in a fun sort of way."

Juxtaposing the vintage ephemera are bits of modernity (next to the rotary phone is an iPad equipped with Square). But even with its modern conveniences, Early Bird Biscuit feels like Grandma's kitchen: warm and welcoming. "It's funny, when people come in, they're like, 'This place is so tiny. But I feel happy. It makes me feel comfortable,'"¹ Laxton said. "That's what I was going for."

On a busy day, Early Bird pumps out 400 biscuits, in addition to the homemade apple pie, chicken salad, pimento cheese, and other offerings. Not long ago, after closing up on a Friday afternoon, Laxton took part in the nearby Holly Jolly evening festivities. Between regular business on Friday, the Holly Jolly, and normal Saturday hours, Laxton made 1,647 biscuits. "So in less than 24 hours I made almost 1,700 biscuits with these two hands," he said.

Laxton wakes at 4:15 am, six days a week, to ready Early Bird for its 7 am opening. "People are usually in the parking lot before we open," he says about those who pep up for the day with a biscuit and a Blanchard's custom coffee brew.² They wait for the rewards of Laxton's hands-on approach to making biscuits.

Other places treat biscuits as a starchy side. But not Early Bird. "I treat a biscuit like a croissant. It's just really good, almost like a pastry," he said. "I tell the folks that work with me here, 'Why would you ruin a good biscuit by putting egg and cheese and all of that on it?"

When it comes down to it, he's a biscuit libertarian. "You can take it home, and what you do with your biscuit is your business," he says with a smile.

A favorite among Laxton's loyal and growing following is the biscuit and gravy using locally sourced sausage and a recipe passed down from Laxton's grandfather. "We can't make enough biscuits and gravy on Saturdays," he remarks. "People love it."

And Laxton loves the people. "I know this sounds very cliché, but they feel a lot like family," Laxton said. "It's an extension of my family because they're the ones that genuinely check in with me...they always ask 'How's business? How was today?'"

While business is good, Early Bird doesn't offer the relaxed pool cleaning schedule Laxton once had. Not only does he wake up before dawn, but Laxton often doesn't leave the store until long after the sun has set. "I've never put in these kind of hours at any job, but I love it. I wouldn't be here if I didn't," he said.

Laxton stressed that if he can put together a business on a "shoestring" (i.e. without debt) anyone can. "It doesn't have to be a huge budget to pull a business like this together," he said. Most of what he owns came secondhand. "[You] can go out and find things to pull a business together."

But a business like Early Bird Biscuit isn't something easily duplicated. It's a place that's both here and there, straddling the past and the present. It's simultaneously something familiar; something new.

"Something that's good, that's really homemade that I made for them," Laxton says about what he wants his biscuits to mean to his customers. "Something that maybe they've never tasted before and never knew how good it could be."

Early Bird Biscuit Co. & Bakery is located at 5411 Lakeside Drive.

"I had a 100-year-old lady sitting in this spot where I'm sitting yesterday, and you could see her gears turning," Laxton remembers. "That's the cool thing about this place: people are transformed when they walk through that door." ↩
Described as a smoky, soft fruit, and dark chocolate flavoring. ↩

Hop RVA running on New Year’s Eve

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:16:56 +0000

Update #1 -- December 31, 2014; 11:12 AM

You've got a relatively new option for your late night travel, Hop RVA will be out and about on New Year's Eve. The previous link will give you all the details (it's free, it's a bus) but this link allows you to track the bus and see if you can squeeze in one more drink.

— ∮∮∮ —

Original -- June 06, 2014

Napoleon Taxi and Nightlife Virginia have partnered to create a free late-night transportation service called The Hop RVA. The bus service debuts tonight--Friday, June 6th--at 6:00 PM and runs between the Carytown Kroger and the 17th Street Farmers Market in Shockoe Bottom.

"It is the sole mission of Napoleon Taxi & Nightlife Virginia to provide a service that is both fun and free, [and] to answer the need for better public transportation after business hours," said a released statement. "This service hopes to promote safe driving, while giving those who might be too inebriated to drive another means of transportation. With VCU so close, it will assist in giving those students, who are out enjoying the nightlife, a safer ride home."

The Hop RVA will run Fridays and Saturdays from 6:00 PM - 3:00 AM, and will offer live GPS tracking on its website.

Much like its predecessor, To the Bottom and Back, The Hop RVA will provide its free service with the help of individual and business donations. Businesses may purchase advertising space on the bus through a sponsorship package.

The new service wants to have three buses by the start of VCU's Fall Semester. Organizers are also planning routes that'll focus on local tourism and Sunday brunch spots.

Looking back on 2014: October, November, December

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 11:00:49 +0000

October began with a glimpse inside the homes of some of the city's best designers, and a look at what the new crop of VCU men's basketball players might bring to the court this season.

We learned a new Starbucks and beer retailer are joining hands. Speaking of beer, we tapped into Triple Crossing for insight into why they're so effing awesome. The Planning Commission OK'd two special permits to try and lure Stone Brewery to town (spoiler: it worked).

Students at Maggie Walker put themselves on the short list for best protest of the year, and the local couple behind the oft-read Young House Love blog tabled their site indefinitely.

We learned Bon Air has a growing indie family dining scene, an Empire fell in the Fan, and Short Pump was voted one of the fastest growing communities in Virginia.

The Altria Theater refinished its basement in a musical way, and we got wind of what just may become a new New Year's Eve tradition. Nesbit shuttered its doors in a way that ruffled feathers (and hair), and we learned the history of Hanover Avenue's kick-ass Halloween festivities.

October ended with news of a new grocery store on a long dormant Ukrop's site, and the recipe for Jason Alley's pimento cheese.

November kicked off with Alton Brown eating his way through RVA, us getting the goods on Foo Dog's ramen Kung Fu, and hearing news of Shoryuken Ramen's temporary pop-up.

One of the most popular installments of our 100 Days to a Better RVA posts was on the green gorilla in the neighborhood. We learned the site of next year's RVA Street Art Festival, the downside to VCU's rapid rise, what Complete Streets look like, and why local regionalism is in order.

We peeked inside a Fan home that sat condemned for 10 years, looked back at previous InLight exhibitions with a pictorial retrospective, and salivated ahead of Southbound's opening.

Willow Lawn continued to thrive, Shyndigz continued to give the city's collective sweet tooth a reason to rejoice, and we looked back at Civil War hospital rats.

December arrived with glad tidings of local Christmas music and a local take on the contrarian Christmas celebration that is Krampusnacht. Food wise, a Short Pump resident won a $1 million Pillsbury bake off prize, and we realized we can...or can we?

VCU med students held a die-in and VCU freshman Antravious Simmons decided to transfer. We looked at volunteer opportunities beyond the soup kitchen, and, speaking of do-goodery, we talked to a local, mega awesome guy with the Midas touch.

We wondered what smelled funky in the Museum District and heard one plea to make Bindford Elementary community-supported once again.

On the food front, Restaurants expanded their footprints, Jerry Seinfeld asked what's the deal with Buzz & Ned's barbecue, we deconstructed RVA menu designs, applauded Saveur's for putting three Fan spots on its "don't miss" list, and geared up after learning growlers "to go" are a go on the Boulevard.

Finally, to top off the year, we learned bike sharing should be rolling into town next year and got caught up on the City's major plans for 2015 and beyond.

That's it for our recap. It's been real, but it's time to bid adieu to 2014.

Now, let's work to make 2015 bring out the best in all of us.

Photo by sandy's dad

Nathan says so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 11:00:43 +0000

I won't bury the lede: today is my last day at RVANews.

Over my three years and seven months as editor and lead reporter, I've written stories about all things Richmond, including many people that are shaping the city for the better. Yet writing about myself makes me uneasy. I don't like being the center of attention; I'm much more interested in learning about other people than in me opening up.

But I'll take advantage of being able to say goodbye publicly and note a few things worth sharing before I pack up my things.

Humble beginnings

I drove my Corolla to Shockoe Bottom in May 2011 on my first reporting assignment. I had no journalism training. I had no journalism experience. Just a notebook and a pen.

Boom Boom Burgers had just closed, and its owner had publicly blamed the Bottom's thriving "... nightclubs and bars catering to the lower class urban population of Richmond"¹ for the business' mere three-month lifespan.

The story was thus: was Shockoe Bottom really a bottomless pit for non-nightclub enterprise? That's what my first story addressed, wherein I spoke to local business owners who seemed to be making things work just fine for themselves. People enjoyed what I wrote.

It was my first writing ever published: words I had written, available for the public to read, with my name attached to it. Man, I can't overstate how thrilling it was. Even today, having published hundreds (thousands?) of pieces, that same thrill still dashes up my spine whenever anything I write gets published.

Stories, I've got 'em

I've been lucky to get a continuous, almost behind-the-scenes look at the people and events that've affected the city. I've profiled a local tattoo artist who tattoos nipples on breast cancer survivors, learned the history of Halloween on Hanover, found where the city's recyclables end up, followed the Occupy Richmond movement,² was at the State Capitol during the 2012 women's right protests, and more. I'm lucky (and proud) to have relayed many important stories to readers.

But by far the most fun I've had on a story was when I wrote about my balls.

In October 2011, I wrote a three-part "Going South" serial about my foray into Brazilian waxing. It's the kind of story you didn't find in the Richmond Times-Dispatch or even Style. I like that. The article was fun, smart, if not a tad gross.³

I wrote stories that varied from the quirky (my Brazilian wax), the serious (profiling a local breast cancer survivor), to the downright silly (like what's up with Captain ARRR VA).

Not many people get the chance to cover such a breadth of topics for a living. I'm one of those people. I'm lucky.

People along the way

I've also met and gotten to know Richmonders who are, without a doubt, worth meeting and getting to know.

Here (in no particular order) are some of the people that have impressed me most:

Tracy Thorne-Begland • I don't like mentioning someone's sexuality--why should it matter? But it matters here. Not only is Tracy Thorne-Begland gay, he was also a Navy pilot who publicly fought the now defunct Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy not once, but twice. I profiled him in 2011 when he was Chief Deputy Commonwealth Attorney. He's now a judge, and the state's judiciary is the better for it.
Helen Rogers & "Nicole" • Helen spoke candidly about the two times she was raped, events that motivated her to bring SlutWalk, an organized protest calling-out the "you were asking for it based on what you wore" mentality, to Richmond. I also spoke to "Nicole" who was raped by two boys when she was 16. I can't imagine what both of them went through, but their courage in talking about it gave me and readers at least some idea of what they endured.
Tim Skirven • There's this idea that creative people are selfish jerks with egos the size of planets. Tim is the polar opposite of that idea. What needed only to be a 60 minute conversation between us for a profile turned into a two-and-a-half-hour chat. He's one of the coolest people in town.
Mark Smith • If all business owners ran their business like Mark Smith runs his, the world would be so much better off. If you need auto work done, think about going to one of his local Midas stores and supporting him.
Jakob Helmboldt • No, not all City officials are corrupt bureaucrats with no interest in the public good. Richmond's first-ever Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Trails Coordinator is someone who truly wants to make this city bicycle friendly and has the long-term vision, patience, and resolve to make it happen. He's also smart and friendly. The city's lucky to have him.
Roseanne Cash • Yeah, I know she's not a Richmonder, and say what you will about her music, but wow, she's arguably the most delightful, divine person I've ever interviewed.
Mickael Broth • Putting aside any bias I may have that results from us having attended high school together, Mickael is a unique guy. You may not like his past work, but he's someone who cares about the city. Richmond's made better by having him around.
Tim Laxton • Owner of Early Bird Biscuits (who you can read about in my upcoming profile next week), Tim's in the running for most charming man in Richmond. Not only that, he makes one hell of a biscuit.

Mind your language

As Baltimore Sun editor John McIntyre writes in his book, The Old Editor Says: "People glory in catching mistakes, and the little ones are particularly easy to feel superior to." I can testify to that. I've been on the receiving end of public excoriation in the comments section.

Grammar martinets (who I doubt are professional writers themselves, because professional writers know it's a rough job and wouldn't dare publicly besmear a comrade) love feeling superior to us scribes when they can. Bottom line: writers should strive to make their work error-free. But as with all human endeavors, we will sometimes fall short of perfection. Simply point out our errors without lording them over us, OK?

Here are a few language faux pas I learned the hard way, as well as a mishmash of thoughts on language.

RVA is not an acronym • It's an initialism, as is the PGA and NFL. An acronym is an abbreviation you sound out: NASA, FIFA, POTUS, etc.
Don't pour over • When reading something intently, you pore over it. But you can still brew coffee with one of the pour over methods.⁴
Free reign? • Equestrians know a rein as the strap that controls their horse. Hence the phrase rein in means to control and the phrase free rein means uncontrolled. Reign refers to royal office, and so "free reign" doesn't make much sense.
You don't end sentences in a preposition • This idea came in the 17th Century when people like poet John Dryden fawned over the resplendent sensibilities of Latin. Since Latin is built in such a way that you can't grammatically end a sentence with a preposition, it therefore became improper to do so in English, even though English allows for prepositions to end sentences. English also allows us to split infinitives ("to boldly go") whereas Latin's structure does not ("to go boldly"). In summary: freely end sentences in prepositions, and split infinitives with impunity.
Where's the apostrophe in Farmers Market? • My recommendation: avoid the apostrophe all together. We use 's to convey possession and ownership (Mary's lamb, Peter's ball). But, these days, farmers markets are seldom owned or run by the farmers themselves, ergo it's not their market. That makes the apostrophe unnecessary (whether its farmer's market (singular) or farmers' market (plural). Of course, the reader is probably going to understand what you mean no matter what you use, so don't get your undies in a knot over this.

That's a wrap

Although today is my last day, look out for two profiles coming soon. One is on the man behind Early Bird Biscuits and the other about the Nonprofit Learning Point, a great resource for local nonprofits with a cool story.

Alas, I have no wise words to leave you with. I'll only say that over these last few years I've delighted in telling some of Richmond's stories. I hope you enjoyed reading them.

Photo by woodleywonderworks

I don't think I need to suss out who the owner meant by that ill-considered statement. ↩
I still remember the chant: "All night, all day, occupy R-V-A!" ↩
Admirable qualities in both writing and people. ↩
More here. ↩

Looking back on 2014: July, August, September

Nathan Cushing — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 11:00:24 +0000

July kicked off with the only kind of war worth fighting...doughnut wars. There was a bizarre attack at a local Starbucks, and the City approved a conceptual design for the Bike-Walk Street running down Floyd Avenue.

We looked at the next generation of barbershops, a guy who loves mushrooms, and the person who'd ultimately lose to Dave Brat in November's congressional election.

Sugar Shack voiced their displeasure with that football team we shan't name. People got super stoked about Southern Season opening, and we got acquainted with some of the city's hidden parks.

Then there was a deadly truck accident on Monument and the police unveiled a new website for crime data. In food news, we spoke with a former Top Chef about his future Willow Lawn restaurant and the new-to-Carytown restaurant, Pomegranate.

August brought heat and controversy as we learned a mini Walmart store is coming to VCU. Something that wasn't controversial (just downright awesome) was the announcement of an art hotel on Broad Street.

VCU Police debuted their noise suppression van to...mixed reviews. We learned why these parents are sticking with City schools, we got a report on local SOL scores, and heard about one parent's issues with fast food. Oh, and this VCU art professor received a $25,000 grant from...anonymous?

Food wise, people loved this picture of Tom Hanks at Mama Zu, folks protested Whole Food's selling rabbit meat, and a zoning issue forced Belmont Pizza to close earlier than it'd like to. Mouths salivated over Perly's menu, and we raised our pints to celebrate local breweries bringing home much-deserved medals.

One of our most popular posts in August was this pic of a steering-wheeled bicycle. Oh, Richmond.

September started with a preview of the Wizard World Richmond Comic Con and news that a much ballyhooed Carytown sign was nixed. We got cozy with restaurateur Hilda Staples and mourned the loss of Ian Graham.

We said goodbye and showed some love to Young House Love, got giddy about a bus rapid transit system, and decided to clean house with our comments policy.

Closing out September, we read an open (and important) letter to Richmond Public Schools, celebrated the birth of cheetah cubs, hit the deck after a live Civil War cannonball was unearthed, and learned how Netflix affects one local family.

We're almost there, people; just hold out a little longer. Let's finish up our 2014 retrospective tomorrow when we look back at October, November, and December.

Photo by Alex Schloe

Looking back on 2014: April, May, June

Nathan Cushing — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 11:00:16 +0000

April put music on the brain when we learned that The Broadberry would bring live music to The Fan. We spoke with the host of Hoarders about all the shit he's seen, and we were thankful no one was killed when a State Trooper car crashed into a van with three kids.

On a happier note, we spoke with seven cooks reshaping #rvadine. We got a glimpse of what 2015 has in store when we saw the road closures for a major collegiate cycling race (those routes will be used for the 2015 UCI Road World Championship). We learned why one guy decided to Release the Hounds, and why hugs are so important at Max's on Broad.

In what was arguably the biggest news story of the year for some people, Wegmans announced it's bringing two stores to the region. Someone suggested on Twitter we renovate the Church Hill Tunnel (and a VCU professor wholeheartedly agreed). Finally, April ended with a clear sign of the times: Tobacco Co. went tobacco-free.

May began with a new player in the city's never-ending baseball stadium debate and people bidding adieu to Strawberry Street Vineyard after 30 years.Tragedy occurred at the Mid-Atlantic Balloon Festival when three passengers in a hot-air balloon died after their balloon collided with a power line.

Still riding high on the Wegmans announcement, we learned that Whole Foods is opening a store near Pleasants Hardware. Life wasn't so smooth along the Buttermilk Trail, Garden Grove Brewing settled on Carytown, and we learned about efforts to bring the 17th Street Market back to life.

We got wind that Uber was eyeing Richmond as a new market, we chatted with the people distilling the next generation of moonshine, and saw big things start to happen at Reynolds Crossing.

Food lovers (i.e. everyone) got giddy about Graffiato, looked ahead to the GWARbar, and uttered a collective_Duh!_ upon learning Esquire named The Roosevelt one of America's best bars.

June kicked off with Flaggers flaggin'. After our eyes rolled back into place, we looked to the people making archeology a city priority, and went all Home Simpson after learning Sugar Shack was expanding.

We were as shocked as Eric Cantor to learn he lost his primary to Dave Brat. We learned why this couple doesn't do date nights--although they may make an exception for the new Roosevelt/Heritage joint--and got to see what a Better Block looks like.

Short Pump kept pumping out new stores, the RVA Mural Project kicked off, Urban Set Bride created a new generation of bridal boutiques, and a Chinese paper company announced it would bring 2,000 jobs to the area.

The month ended with us poring over these fascinating maps and graphs, kicking off 100 Days to a Better RVA, and learning Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were heading to town.

2014 ain't over yet. Come back tomorrow to reminisce about July, August, and September.

Photo by: sandy's dad

Holiday events and festivals

Nathan Cushing — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 13:58:26 +0000

Original -- December 01, 2014

RVA on ice

Richmond's best (only?) outdoor ice rink is BACK. Head over and partake in one of winter's most graceful, yet occasionally comically disastrous, activities.

Through January 4th (various hours)
Broad and 6th streets
Tickets range from free to $5 (season passes are $20)

Bizarre Market

Walk (nay, sashay) into Chop Suey Books and pick up some snuggly, sparkly, repurposed crafts that'll make your gift stand out (in a good way).

Through Dec. 24th • 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Chop Suey Books • 2913 W. Cary Street
FREE admission

Legendary Santa

Kris Kringle treks down from the North Pole to say hello to all the good girls and boys after descending the Children Museum's Chimney. This is one of Richmond's marquee holiday events. Here's a nice little video about its making.

Through Dec. 24th (various hours)
Children's Museum of Richmond • 2626 W. Broad Street
FREE

DOMINION GARDENFEST OF LIGHTS

Over 500,000 lights will illuminate Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden at one of the most impressive sights you'll see this holiday season. Maybe even all year.

Through Jan. 12th
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden • 1800 Lakeside Avenue
Tickets are free to $12

CARYTOWN HOLIDAY CARRIAGE RIDES

Stroll through the shopping district like you're in an old-timey dream with free carriage rides (we're pretty sure the horses aren't Uber drivers).

Nov. 29th • Dec. 13th • Dec. 20th
Carytown
FREE

MUSIC AT MIDDAY AT THE JEFFERSON

Head to the hotel's Palm Court and Rotunda for several concerts featuring the region's best musical ensembles.

Dec. 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 19th, 22nd, 23rd, 29th, 30th
The Jefferson Hotel • 101 W. Franklin Street
FREE but make reservations ASAP by calling 804.649.4672

THE BIZARRE BAZAAR

This thing has been going on for 39 years. We can safely say there is no -- I repeat NO -- event with as many gifts and Holiday crafts as this one.

Dec. 4th - 7th • 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Richmond Raceway Complex • 600 E. Laburnum Avenue
$7

Celebrate the Peace

Back in December 1914, German and British soldier laid down their rifles and came together for an unofficial cease fire prior to Christmas Eve, singing carols and even exchanging gifts. Come celebrate that brief moment of peace in the Shrine of Memory.

Friday, Dec. 5th • 5:00 - 7:00 PM
Virginia War Memorial • 621 S. Belvidere Street
FREE

MAIN STREET STATION HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE

The train station opens its doors to visitors and will screen The Polar Express on a 40' inflatable screen across the street. Snacks, children train rides, and more free fun will be available.

Friday, Dec. 5th • 5:00 - 9:00 PM
Main Street Station • 1500 E. Main Street
FREE

Grand Illumination

The free family event officially welcomes the holidays to town when the buildings at the James Center light up. Music, toy donations, and more make this a great way to spend a Friday evening.

Friday, Dec. 5th • 5:45 - 7:00 PM
James Center • between 9th - 12th & Cary streets
FREE

Fugly Sweater Party

Dust off your "so tacky it's awesome" sweater, put it on, and drink some brewskies while helping out the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team. Best sweater contests, silent auction, live music, food trucks, and beer will make this a Grade A event.

Saturday, Dec. 6th • 4:00 - 8:00 PM
Center of the Universe Brewery • 11293 Air Park Road in Ashland
FREE

RVA KRAMPUSNACHT

Krampus, the demon creature that came to life in the imaginations of Europeans centuries ago, visits Richmond to lead a fiendish walk that counters the holiday cheer (in the name of fun).

Saturday, Dec. 6th • 5:30 PM
Portrait House • 2907 W. Cary Street
FREE

RICHMOND CRAFT MAFIA HANDMADE HOLIDAY CRAFT SHOW

50 of the best local, regional, and national indie artists and crafters convene at Hardywood to sell jewelry, art, chocolate, clothing, and a whole lot more.

Saturday, Dec. 6th • 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery • 2408 Ownby Lane
FREE to attend

Dominion Christmas Parade

More than 100,000 people will line up along Broad Street as the city's annual Christmas cavalcade brings massive helium balloons, floats, marching bands, and more.

Saturday, Dec. 6th • 10:00 AM
Stretches from the Science Museum to 7th Street
FREE

OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS AT MAYMONT

Hop into The DeLorean and travel back to the Victorian Era and meet the Dooleys and see how they celebrated Christmas in 1893.

Sunday, Dec. 7th • 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Maymont • 2201 Shields Lake Drive
$4 - $5 for tours and carriage rides

Church Hill Candlelight Walk and Caroling

Stroll down historic streets whilst caroling and holding candles as bagpipes and drummers lead the way.

Friday, Dec. 12th • 7:00 PM
St. John's Church • 2401 E. Broad Street
FREE (donations accepted)

CHRISTMAS ON MACARTHUR

Over 2,400 toys were collected last year for Toys for Tots, and organizers hope to collect even more this year. Bring an unwrapped toy with you and enjoy vendors and a special appearance from some dude named Santa.

Saturday, Dec. 13th • 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
4000 Block of MacArthur Avenue
FREE

CarMax Tacky Light Run

Why take in the region's tacky lights in the comfort of your climate-controlled car when you can be outside in the cold...running! The 6k course shows off dozens of Midlothian homes that take tacky lights up a notch and give you an excuse to gorge on holiday sweets.

Saturday, Dec. 13th
Midlothian
$35 - $50

James River Parade of Lights

Why should land dwellers get all the holiday fun? Boaters decorate their vessels and, come dusk, make the James twinkle. The parade begins in Richmond, just below the fall line, with boats cruising through Henrico and Chesterfield counties to the Varina-Enon Bridge.

Saturday, Dec. 13th • 4:00 - 8:00 PM
Along the James River
FREE

Fan Holiday House Tour

The 52nd annual holiday house tour gives you a peek inside 19th and 20th Century homes, representing one of the largest concentrations of Victorian townhouses in the country.

Dec. 13th & 14th • 1:00 - 6:00 PM
Across The Fan
$25

28TH ANNUAL COURT END CHRISTMAS

10 historic downtown sites open their days for a day of free admission and holiday fun, including carriage rides, carolers, live music, kid crafts, gift shops, and more.

Sunday, Dec. 14th • 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Various historic sites downtown
FREE

YULETIDES AT AGECROFT HALL

Ever wonder what Christmas was like in 1640 England, 1860 London, and 1942 Richmond? Agecroft Hall's open house will give you characters and entertainment from various times in its past.

Sunday, Dec. 14 • 12:30 - 5:00 PM
Agecroft Hall • 4305 Sulgrave Road
FREE

CHURCH HILL HOLIDAY HOUSE TOUR

The 50th anniversary event showcases the oldest community in Richmond with homes built as far back as the 1700s. Featuring Federal, Greek revival, and Victorian homes, the event is a great way to see Church Hill in a new light.

Sunday, Dec. 14th • 12:00 - 5:00 PM
Church Hill
$20 advance/$25 day of

The Nutcracker

Called "perfect" by the New York Times, The Nutcracker returns with the glory that is Tchaikovsky's musical masterpiece. It's a popular holiday classic, so get tickets ASAP.

Dec. 19th - 28th
Carpenter Theatre • 600 E. Grace Street
Tickets start at $30

JAMES RIVER CELLARS Holiday Open House

Celebrate the holidays with friends, family, and wine. The local winery will have seasonal wines for sales, special craft vendors, and more.

Dec. 20th & 21st
James River Cellars • 11008 Washington Highway in Glen Allen
FREE

Miracle of Christmas

The Metro Richmond Zoo hosts a live re-enactment of the Christmas story and features animals from the zoo.

Dec. 21st, 22nd, and 23rd (7:00, 7:45, and 8:30 PM shows) and December 24th (9:00 PM)
Metro Richmond Zoo • 8300 Beaver Bridge Road
FREE (attendees encouraged to bring canned goods for FeedMore)

RICHMOND NATIVITY PAGEANT

Now in its 83rd year (!) the nativity pageant is performed annually at the Carillon in Byrd Park. With a cast of roughly 200, the interdenominational and inter-racial pageant is performed to about 3,000 people each year.

Tuesday, Dec. 23rd • 7:00 PM
The Carillon in Byrd Park
FREE

HOLIDAY GLITTER: MONUMENT AVENUE AFTER DARK

One of the city's most popular walking tours, Monument Avenue After Dark takes history and combines it with holiday glitz. Good stuff.

Dec. 26th - 27th • 6:00 - 7:30 PM
1801 Monument Avenue
$5 - $15

CAPITAL CITY KWANZAA FESTIVAL

Boasting an African market, cuisine, dancers, drummers, masquerades and more, this year's festival shows why it's one of the largest Kwanzaa events on the East Coast.

Saturday, Dec. 28th • 1:00 - 9:00 PM
Hippodrome Theater • 528 N. 2nd Street
Tickets range from free - $7

RVA NYE 2014

Organizers of the first NYE ball drop in Carytown have taken things to Brown's Island in what they hope will become a Richmond staple. Join 10,000 other Richmonders for a great way to end 2014 and welcome 2015.

Wednesday, Dec. 31st • starts at 7:00 PM
Brown's Island
FREE

Photo by Will Fisher

Looking back on 2014: January, February, March

Nathan Cushing — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 11:00:43 +0000

We started the year by looking at this mouth-watering list of new restaurants in 2013. While sipping coffee from one of RVA's best indie coffeehouses, we read one dad's single goal for the new year (one many parents can relate to).

Speaking of parenting, caretakers of tiny humans had Norovirus to worry about (Yipee!). We also got a bit queasy after learning Richmond has one of the nation's highest levels of income inequality. Adding to those depressing data points was learning that the city's HIV rate is among the nation's highest.

Shifting gears, we heard from the city's top chefs as they talked about community, family, and Cook-Out milkshakes. We also learned how VCU will grow in coming years (spoiler: a lot).

One of our most popular profiles of the year was of Bryce Lyle, who's working to keep parents in the city when their kids become school aged. We also learned about boutique fitness centers working to keep RVA in shape.

Restaurants put on a happy face when it became legal for them to advertise their happy hours. We got wind of VCU's $50 million refurbishing project for its James Branch Cabell Library, and we caught up with Venture Richmond's plans for its outdoor natural amphitheater as it hit a snag, putting the Folk Festival in jeopardy. We closed out January by taping into Original Gravity to discuss the growth of home brewing.

February started with reports of a stolen firetruck. We found out the culprit once stole an ambulance, meaning the dude has one hell of a bucket list. In food news, tongues salivated after learning Mike Isabella was brining Graffiato to town. RVANews also launched a new morning ritual: Good Morning, RVA.

Valentine's Day was extra sweet this year as Virginia's ban on gay marriage was ruled unconstitutional. We stayed in the spirit of love by profiling the owner of Richmond's premier adult store.

Despite the city becoming more and more bike friendly, there was a frightening collision between a car and a cyclist on Monument Avenue (the cyclist is still recovering).

We learned things at Stony Point aren't necessarily set in stone, VCU Basketball said goodbye to Terrance Shannon, and we discussed the history and reasoning behind Virginia's food-to-alcohol ratio.

Speaking of food, we found out the beloved Pho 1 was for sale...until it wasn't. We got a glimpse of the future when officials released the courses for the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, and we got to know the next generation of Richmond grocers.

March rolled in with a new look for the VCU Rams, a viral video launched a police probe, and a story about a Maymont camp out brought some...interesting comments.

Ahead of St. Patrick's Day, we looked at the new Rare Old Times and got insight into Shamrock the Block's new digs. We got a case of the sads after saying goodbye to the VMFA's Blue Ridge Chandelier but then we got a case of the AW, YEAHs when we gleaned the A10 bracket.

We all read an odd story featuring my favorite headline of the year, and learned that this local ne'er-do-well couldn't let another St. Patrick's Day pass without clashing with police. An accident involving a GRTC bus on Broad sent eight people to the hospital (all turned out OK).

One of Richmond's most creative souls passed away when GWAR frontman Dave Brockie was found dead in his apartment from an accidental heroin overdose. Something Brockie would have loved was how these two guys counter-protested the Flaggers.

There was a big-time police bust on Broad, and we ended March profiling the most positive restaurant in Richmond.

2014 had plenty more to offer, and we'll continue our stroll down memory lane on Monday when we look back on April, May, and June.

Photo by Kevin Lewis

Riverfront, Bicycles, Main Street Station: What’s up with City development plans?

Nathan Cushing — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 14:31:46 +0000

Rendering of future 17th Street Market courtesy of Baskervill

A map of Richmond stretches floor-to-ceiling in the library of the Department of Planning and Development Review, located on City Hall's fifth floor. The aerial depiction gives Mark Olinger, the department's director, a bird's eye view of the city's roughly 62.5 square miles along with its roads, bridges, and parcels.

He sees potential.

"We have the ability to be one of the absolutely great mid-size cities in America," Olinger said one recent afternoon. "And I think there's an energy here that can help us get there over time."

Olinger is often the point man for major city projects: the City's master plan, Riverfront Plan, and even down to specific neighborhoods. He and other officials pore over these plans--which touch on zoning, infrastructure, development, etc.--on an almost daily basis.

But while City officials engage with these plans regularly, it's easy for residents, who don't get behind-the-scenes access, to wonder: "Hey, wasn't the City supposed to be working on this_?" or "Hey, whatever happened to that?"

So here's a recap of major plans and projects: where they are, where they're going, and what they might mean for the city's future.

— ∮∮∮ —

Master Plan

Perhaps the most important plan the city has at any given time is its master plan, which typically guides policy for 20 years.

"Occassionally, you need to take a step back and think about the city as a whole and...think about some of the larger trends that are happening," Olinger said.

It's been nearly 15 years since the city's master plan has been fully updated. "Richmond is a very different city now than it was in 2001," Olinger said. "For the first time in a very long time, we're actually growing in population."

According to Olinger, there were roughly 250,000 residents in the city in 1970. In 2000, that number dropped to 197,000 (roughly 53,000 people).

But in 2010, the Census put Richmond's population at just over the 200,000 (Olinger said he's heard estimates around the 212,000 mark).

"So the question is, if we continue to grow and if people continue to find Richmond an interesting and desirable place to live, how and where do we accommodate that growth? How do we plan for things like new infrastructure...new facilities?" he said.

The city's population boom and growing cultural identity means people are thinking about what Richmond looks like and what it should look like. "It's an important time to have that conversation," Olinger said. "A master plan update will help determine how we look" at things like zoning, capital improvement projects, schools, etc..

He expects that within the next few years, City officials and residents will look over updates to the master plan -- which must be approved by both the Planning Commission and City Council -- with keen interest.

Riverfront Plan (PDF)

Adopted in late 2012, the Riverfront Plan sought to reimagine Richmond's relationship with the James River. Next year, construction will begin on the most visual component of the plan to date: the Brown's Island Dam Walk, known as the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge.¹

"That's a big project. It's putting the bridge back in across from Brown's Island to the Southbank," Olinger said. The bridge will rise roughly 17-feet above the water, have bike lanes, and will be accessible 24 hours a day, Olinger said. "The idea of how people will be able to use that will be transformative."

Rendering of the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge

Nearly $10 million has been procured over the last two budget rounds to help fund Riverfront Plan projects. That money is a relative drop in the bucket compared to the estimated $70 million it would cause to implement all aspects of the Riverfront Plan. But Olinger preaches patience. "It doesn't have to happen all at once."

Avoiding a construction blitz that would see the entire plan realized at once has benefits. "The plan may morph and be amended occasionally as people experience the water differently," Olinger said. If that happens, he said, the plan should be flexible. "As more people begin to use [the James River or any property]...things may become apparent that we hadn't thought about. And I think we should have the ability to make changes when they become apparent," he said.

To that point, there's the possibility of Vauxhall Island getting a new owner in the near future, and Mayo Island is once again for sale. Their fates may change how people feel (or want to feel) about the River, which could motivate updates to the Riverfront Plan.

But no matter what shakes out, Olinger said the Riverfront Plan will remain a vital part in shaping the city's identity. "The value of the riverfront to the city in bringing more people back to the water will spell huge benefits for the city long term," he said.

Two projects to look forward to

Brown's Island river terraces²
Manchester river terraces³

Main Street Station

Main Street Station train shed rendering (via SMBW)

Jeanne Welliver doesn't mince words about it.

"It is the grandest piece of architecture from here to Miami along I-95 and it's pretty much the last urban market along I-95 until you get to Jacksonville, FL" Welliver, project director of the Shockoe Economic Revitalization Strategy (PDF), said about Main Street Station. "If you take the Eiffel Tower out of Paris, what would it do to Paris?" she said.

"This our Eiffel Tower and we want to capitalize on it."

Having refurbished the clock tower rising next to I-95 traffic (Phase 1 - 2003) and acquired and redeveloped the land across the station's Main Street entrance (Phase 2 - 2007), Phase 3 is now underway inside the station's train shed. "We are going to turn it into a welcome center unlike anything in Virginia," Welliver said.

Train shed interior rendering (via SMBW)

Roughly $46 million of the total $86 million in public funds raised to redevelop the historic train station will go to dramatically reimagining the train shed and surrounding area in a project designed by local firm SMBW.

Workers have already removed the six freight car rail lines from the 80,000-square-foot second floor shed built in 1901.⁴ "We're keeping the building incased in its corrugated metal, so you can't really tell that anything's is going on," Welliver said. "But that second floor has been totally removed...[but] the historic black riveted steel⁵ remains. That's the only thing that will remain because that's the only thing original to 1901."

In Spring 2015, workers are scheduled to remove the corrugated metal and roof. "That's when the dramatic transformation will be seen," Welliver said. Workers will then install a new roof and glass walls (making the interior visible to motorists on I-95), which allow for commercial tenants, as well as an indoor market. Welliver said the City has been speaking with potential commercial tenants. "We've been working on that for many years with the Mayor's Office. We just don't have a concrete rollout yet planned," she said.

Train shed exterior rendering (via SMBW)

When the train shed project opens (the goal is Summer 2016), the venue will incorporate surrounding bicycle⁶ and pedestrian trails, Amtrak trains, and busses for a multi-modal transportation hub and visitor center. "We want this to be a daily supported, weekly supported place by the region and local community. We also want it to serve as a tourism welcome center. So it plays two roles," Welliver said.

The project also involves resetting the nearby roads. "We want to restore the grid pattern to connect Shockoe Bottom and Church Hill back to the central business district and Capital Square like it originally was," Welliver said. In addition, parts of Franklin Street near the train station will be redone for pedestrian-only traffic in time for train shed's opening in late 2016.

17th Street Market

It was the public square in the late-1700s and 1800s for both the city and the region. Soon the 17th Street Street Market will also get a dramatic face lift.

When discussing Shockoe redevelopment with residents in 2010, Welliver said the City heard from locals a call to remove the outdoor structures within the square, open it up, and return it to its public square origins. "And that's exactly what we're working on," Welliver said.

17th Street Market rendering (via Baskervill)

The City has tapped local firm Baskervill to design an open, dynamic 17th Street Market. Welliver said she has a cost estimate for the plans, and will soon go before the City Planning Commission to present plans for the market's redesign and future maintenance. On Monday at 5:30 PM, the City will join the Shockoe Bottom Neighborhood Association at a meeting updating nearby businesses and residents of current plans.

Both the 17th Street Market construction, as well as construction on land adjacent to the train shed, won't begin until after next September's 2015 UCI Road World Championships. "We don't want to tear up the surfaces when we have guests coming from around the world," Welliver said. "After the bike race, we will also tear up the Main Street Station site to allow for an improved site layout to accommodate multi-modal transportation, the visitors center, guest parking...and things like that."

Anticipating both the 17th Street Market and train shed redevelopment projects to finsish in late 2016, Welliver imagines they'll become the "welcome mat for the city."

Bicycle Master Plan

With its official adoption expected sometime next year, the Bicycle Master Plan will "certainly fit in how we think areas grow and develop," Mark Olinger said. The City and consulting firm Alta are now scrutinizing the final draft of the plan.

Max Hepp-Buchanan, director of Bike Walk RVA, is one of the few people outside City Hall that's been following the plan throughout its drafting stages.

"It's a good blueprint for us going forward to figure out how and where we make the city most bike friendly," Hepp-Buchanan said. "There are a lot of different facility types,⁷ some of which offer more protection for cyclists than others. So there are plans for protected bike lanes downtown on Main and Franklin, and I believe on 8th and 9th, which will be the first in Richmond and definitely the type of infrastructure that we need to get people feeling safe and comfortable through downtown."

The plan also highlights bike-walk streets, the first of which is now being planned to run along parts of Floyd Avenue. "I think these are really important because they are low speed, low volume neighborhood streets that give people that feeling of confidence and comfort..." Hepp-Buchanan said. "Our job from here is to really define what a bike-walk street is so that there's consistent elements as they're implemented."

Just like Mark Olinger, Hepp-Buchanan said city plans (like Bicycle Master Plan) should be a living document that can adapt and change when needed. "There are lines on a map in the Bicycle Master Plan that provide us with that blueprint, but that's not to say those lines can't be moved one street over or a couple streets over or be a change in facility type based on the needs of the residents in that area," he said.

Finalizing and adopting the Bicycle Master Plan doesn't mean the contents of plan magically appear. "The key piece that we need once the plan is adopted is funding to implement the plan," Max-Buchanan said, adding that funding shouldn't be hard to come by "once decision makers at the city understand this is a 10-plus year plan, and we're really only into year one of implementation."

The upcoming UCI bike race puts a large gust of wind in the sails of bicycle advocates. But the plan will need support long after international eyes turn away from Richmond. "It's important to fund the plan so we can build out more and more of it each year," Hepp-Buchanan said.

VUU/Chamberlayne Neighborhood (PDF)

About two years ago, officials at Virginia Union University were finishing up work on the university's own master plan. Olinger recalls those officials approaching the City and asking: "What's the interaction between us and the surrounding industrial area? What happens with Lombardy and Chamberlayne?"

They were great questions, Olinger said, and ones that need to be considered.

Lombardy and Chamberlayne, the main roads near VUU campus, are primarily designated B-3, a type of commercial zoning. "The zoning tends to lend itself to these auto-oriented uses in an area where you'd really want to be driving pedestrians and bicycle enhancements," Olinger said.

Intersection of Lombardy Street and Brook Road

Rendering of intersection at Lombardy Street and Brook Road

The VUU/Chamberlayne plan aims to make the area less industrial and more of a livable neighborhood with shops, restaurants, housing, green spaces, and bicycle lanes.

"There are very positive things happening over there," Olinger said. "It's just how [do you] get people thinking about what that area could become?

After several public meetings and internal City discussions in recent months, the VUU/Chamberlayne Neighborhood Plan could go before the Planning Commission and City Council for approval as soon as early 2015. Once approved, specific projects could start to come to life.

Hull Street Corridor (PDF)

Finalized in early 2013, in partnership between the City and Chesterfield County, the revitalization plan for a 4.7-mile stretch of Hull Street reimagines the corridor's place and personality in the region.

Olinger said that before the Interstate System arrived in cities, roads like Hull Street connected city residents to the suburbs. These roads were perfect for commercial development in a culture becoming more and more car centric. Planners of that era thought: "Stores want lots of parking, so we've got to figure out places where we can put places with lots of parking," Olinger said. "I think you see that in a lot of those areas" like Hull Street.

Rendering of revitalized intersection of Hull Street and Warwick Road

As such, there aren't many inherent options for pedestrians and bicyclists. "The plan says there's potential, but there's a lot of infrastructure work that needs to be done," Olinger said. The City's Public Works department is developing specific projects to bolster the area's sidewalks, curbs, streets, etc.

Olinger said the corridor has select "nodes" (i.e. intersections) of activity that could inspire future growth: Belt-Hull, Chippenham-Hull, Warwick-Hull.

Much of Hull Street's revitalization depends on new zoning. The current zoning, as described in the plan, fosters "low-intensity, land inefficient, auto dominated uses and building forms that will not create synergy and promote growth."⁸

Olinger: "The idea is: how do we create opportunities for, perhaps, more mixed use? Maybe some of those areas become more housing than commercial." He said provisions for affordable housing have been discussed, as have incentives for home ownership in the area.

But improved infrastructure and better housing opportunities may not be enough. At least right away. "Sometimes you can get the infrastructure done sooner, but getting people to think differently about an area sometimes takes a longer time horizon," Olinger said.

Rendering of Goodes Bridge Square

See page 25 (PDF). ↩
See page 37 (PDF). ↩
See page 48 (PDF). ↩
Builders elevated the train shed when it was built in 1901 to withstand flooding. ↩
"It's one of the first examples of riveted steel connections in the United States," Welliver said. ↩
For instance, the Capital Trail will connect with the station. One idea is to provide shower stalls and parking to accommodate bicyclists. ↩
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has a good breakdown of what "facility types" can be. ↩
See page 133 (PDF) ↩

Altria Theater hosts Downton Abbey Season 5 premiere

Nathan Cushing — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 11:00:58 +0000

The Community Idea Stations will host a free screening of Downton Abbey's fifth season premiere at the Altria Theater on Friday, January 2nd at 8:00 PM, two days before the television premiere.

The Altria Theater free screening will preview just the first 60 minutes of the 120-minute Season 5 premiere.

http://youtu.be/iHZhf5UvJ3o

In previous years, Richmond's local PBS affiliate hosted season premieres at the 1,400-seat Byrd Theatre. Organizers believe the expanded capacity of the Altria Theater (3,600 seats) will double attendance over previous years.

"We're excited to bring this year's celebration to this stunning new and flexible space," said Katherine Godin of Community Idea Stations. "Each year, we have hosted this event, the community response and attendance has continued to grow. We are expecting this year's preview to be one of the best ever."

New this year will be a 1920s jazz-style reception (5:30 - 7:30 PM) before the screening featuring themed beverages, English fare, and music. Tickets are $50 and available online.

As in previous years, attendees are encouraged to dress up in attire inspired by the show, which takes place in post-Edwardian era England.

The television premiere of Downton Abbey Season 5 airs on Sunday, January 4th at 9:00 PM on WCVE.

City pedaling toward first bike-share program

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:37:39 +0000

City Council's Land Use, Housing, and Transportation Committee unanimously voted yesterday on a proposed funding agreement between the City and the Virginia Department of Transportation that would establish Richmond's first bike-share program, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

The city is considering a $1.34 million agreement to use mostly federal funding to deploy an initial wave of 300 bikes to 30 docking stations throughout the city. Pending City Council approval, the system is expected to be in place by the time the UCI Road World Championships come to town next September.

With the unanimous approval of the council committee, the full council is expected to vote on the plan next month.

While no details exists for what the bike-share program would look like for riders, the RTD discussed pricing with a City official:

Though the city has not finalized a fee structure, typical prices are around $75 for an annual membership, a one-day pass could cost around $6, and a three-day pass could cost about $15, said Jakob Helmboldt, the city's bicycle, pedestrian and trail coordinator.
There would be no additional fees for trips of 30 minutes or less, but riders would be charged extra for longer trips, the goal being to encourage turnover and bike availability.

Should Council approve the plan next month, the body would also have to approve a contract with a vendor that would deploy and manage the bicycles.

Photo of a DC bike-share dock by Teresa Grau Ros

Vote for name of new GRTC bus rapid transit line

Nathan Cushing — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 11:00:53 +0000

GRTC expects to open the city's first bus rapid transit (BRT) line stretching 7.6 miles from Rocketts Landing to Willow Lawn in October 2017. The 14 stations along the line will mean fewer stops than traditional bus routes, making the service faster than existing GRTC bus lines.

Regional partners and GRTC have selected five possible names for the BRT line and are asking the public to vote for the winner:

RVA CONNEX
THE PULSE
THE CURRENT
THE RAPID
BLYNX

The online survey runs December 15, 2014 through January 1, 2015. GRTC will unveil the name of the BRT line, its logo, and vehicle designs in Spring 2015.

Take the survey here.

Photo of Cleveland's BRT line by John Greenfield

VCU medical students holding ‘die-in’ this afternoon

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:52:27 +0000

Update #1 -- December 10, 2014; 11:22 AM

VCU's die-in event will actually be held at 12:00 PM today.

— ∮∮∮ —

Original -- December 10, 2014

VCU School of Medicine students will gather in front of the McGlothlin Medical Education Center at 1201 E. Marshall Street at 12:00 PM today to take part in a national "white coat die-in" to protest recent decisions in Ferguson, MO and New York City that resulted in non-indictments against white police officers who killed unarmed black men.

"Racial bias and violence are not exclusively a problem of the criminal justice system," read a press release attributed to several students at VCU and other universities nationwide. "As we have seen in Ferguson, MO., New York, and countless other places, bias kills, sickens, and provides inadequate care. As medical students, we must take a stand against the oppression of our black and brown patients, colleagues, friends, and family."

Organizers claim over 1,000 students at over 50 medical schools will participate today. Follow the die-ins using #WhiteCoats4BlackLives.

Samuels abandons bid for second term as Council president

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:13:00 +0000

Charles Samuels (Councilman - 2nd District) announced this morning that he won't seek a second term as City Council president, which means it's all but certain Councilwoman Michelle Mosby (9th District) will be elected president early next year.

Here's the statement from Samuels:

"Yesterday I informed my colleagues on Richmond City Council that I am withdrawing my name for consideration as Richmond City Council President. I have also spoken with Councilwoman Mosby on her expected nomination and installation as Council President in January and congratulated her.
"It has been a privilege and honor to serve as the chair of the governing body of the City of Richmond these past two years. I appreciate all the support from my colleagues on Council and in the greater Richmond community. As we move forward, I am confident we will continue to provide the necessary checks and balances our form of government requires."

Mark Smith has the Midas touch

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 11:00:13 +0000

Mark Smith can say something no other Midas franchise owner can: "We represent 2.5 percent of the blood supply for Central Virginia."

Sitting at his desk inside his Short Pump location¹ with two Golden Retrievers -- Dudley and Jumbo -- next to him, Smith recalls the first blood drive his Midas held back in 2001. "[It] was a knee jerk reaction to 9/11," he said. He called the CEO of Virginia Blood Services (VBS), Bob Carden, and asked if VBS was willing to do a blood drive at Midas. Every donor would get a free oil change. "Bob said it was a pretty stupid idea," Smith recalled. "I said it might be. But what if?"

It proved successful, bringing out 26 people. At the time, the average VBS drive drew 18 blood donors.

"Now we have 500 people show up,"² Smith said about the last Midas blood drive. That's why nearly 3 percent of the region's blood supply comes from Midas. "I give away 2,500 free oil changes through VBS a year," Smith said. With oil changes at $40.99 a piece, Smith does over $100,000 in free oil changes annually.

But those aren't the numbers Smith dwells on. He said 60 percent of blood donors donate blood just once a year (you can donate up to 5 times annually). "If that population donated twice--just that one group donated one more time--we'd have a blood over supply," he said.

Smith's stores don't only pump out blood. They also work with FeedMore (Smith sits on its board), and freely distribute coupons for free oil changes to local nonprofits and schools that, in turn, sell them to raise money.

Not only are Smith's four Midas stores pumping out blood and money to community groups, they're routinely setting Midas revenue records. Between the roughly 1,400 Midas stores in North America, the average brings in $703,000 each year. "We'll break $3 million this year," Smith said about his Short Pump store. "We're the largest volume Midas store in the world."

This success attracts corporate honchos to Richmond each year to figure out just what Smith does that makes him so successful. "I can't answer that question," Smith said. "I don't know."

But in listening to Smith talk about his life, his failures, and his success, you can boil it down to a single question.

What if?

"The only person I compete with is me"

Smith was flying to Los Angeles to interview with Toyota (the company his father worked for) shortly after finishing college in 1986 when a snow storm stranded him in Chicago at O'Hare Airport. He used his time to answer a Midas job post.

"Guy from Midas called me a couple of weeks later and said, what do I know about Midas," Smith recalled. "Respectfully, not a lot," he answered.

That didn't matter. Smith got the job. "The more I got into it, the more I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the operations, I enjoyed the aftermarket, got to know something about it, got to know a lot of franchisees, many of whom are still very good friends today."

After serving in several field positions with Midas, Smith eventually did its franchising real estate for the US and Western Europe. The job required travel roughly 200 nights a year. "I got tired of that," and so in 1998 he sat down with the Midas CEO and said he wanted his own market to franchise. He had four options: Las Vegas, Baton Rouge, Sacramento, or Richmond.

Richmond's proximity to beaches, mountains, DC, along with its business infrastructure, pulled him in. "It just made sense, everything about it."

Like other top brass at Midas who become franchisees, Smith thought his corporate experience meant he'd have a leg up. "I kind of came into this thinking I knew what I was doing," he said.

He didn't.

"The first couple of years were bumpy. There were a lot of mistakes, a lot of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, a lot of bad choices," he said. Some of that was because he fretted over competitors. "I'm going up against Firestone and Goodyear and the dealer's OEMs,³ and your independents down the street," he said. So he instinctively agonized over the traditional issues: costs, price matching, etc.

"I had done all the right things; was competing in all the right ways. Wasn't getting any real traction," he said. "The stores weren't really evolving."

He realized he put too much thought on what others were doing. "I competed with everybody, and ultimately I just decided this is silly, and I just started ignoring everybody," he said. "So now the only person I compete with is me."

The new mantra for himself and his employees: "Let's worry about execution. Let's worry about experience...and let's just make the rest of this take care of itself."

Smith says there's a difference between simple and easy.

"What we do is simple: we change oil. I put new brake pads in your Accura. I do very simple things. It's not easy, but it's simple," he said. "So let's focus on execution. Let's figure out what we can do to demonstrably separate ourselves in little ways."

Midas touch

Smith said you only have to look around to see other people and their businesses separate themselves: Gary Glover at Puritan Cleaners, Gary Weiner at Saxon, Andy Thornton and Sarah Paxton at LaDiff. Puritan cleans clothes, Saxon sells shoes, and LaDiff sells furniture. "But they're a little bit more than that," Smith said.

It was around the time Smith shifted gears with his Midas stores that he organized the first VBS blood drive by asking, what if offering free oil changes could bring people to donate blood?

Smith still asks himself and his employees what if? "Every week Julie, my office manager...and the rest of my team gets a 'what if?' from me. And some of them are just acutely stupid ideas," he said. "And every once in a while a blind squirrel finds a nut: you come up with something that works. It's just a constant work in progress."

Not only does Smith provide for the community, but he does so not at the expense of his employees' compensation. He said that between Midas, Goodyear, and Firestone, turnover amounts to between 150 - 200 percent. "I don't have turnover," he said. "I want my techs to be able to afford a house."

Giving aways hundreds of thousands of dollars in free service, paying his employees very well, and not compromising on price should be a business disaster. But Smith is a nontraditional guy. Take his Colonial Heights store: he retrofitted a garage bay with a large walk-in refrigerator for Meals on Wheels to use. "It's nontraditional stuff, but it works," Smith said about his success.

About five years ago, the company's top brass took notice and began flying out to reverse engineer what Smith does. "The COO and CMO will be out here on the 6th and 7th of January for that very reason," he said. "A Midas shop had never done $2 million. Well, we did it so that's old news. A Midas shop has never done $3 million. Well now that's old news. So now we're plotting a course to $4 million." Remember: the average franchise does about $703,000 annually.

Midas would love if Smith took over more stores, and have offered him markets in Virginia and North Carolina. But Smith has no interest in moving. "I want to keep growing," he said.

But the metric he uses to gauge that growth isn't in oil changes or revenue. He talks about growth in the currency of good. "This year we're going to give $130,000 - $140,000 to FeedMore," he said. "I'd like that to be $200,000." He doesn't want 500 blood donors to come out for the next drive. He wants 600 donors, 700 donors. Even 1,000.

Speaking recently to students in VCU's ASPiRE program, Smith told them about six times 18. That gets you 108. "What happens when you multiply the 6" between your ears by the 18" from your heart to your head?" he asked them. "It's a whole different number."

"You find the intersection of your intellect and your emotional curiosity. And some really cool things can happen." Some of those things, like the things Smith does through his Midas stores, may be untested, risky, nontraditional. Smith proves that the world could use some more of that. "There are so many nontraditional solutions out there," he said.

"We just got to say, what if?"

Photo courtesy of Midas

One of four in the area he owns. ↩
Here's perspective: VBS drives currently average just 26 people. ↩
Original Equipment Manufacturer. ↩

Get to know your city government with RVAGOV

Nathan Cushing — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 11:00:14 +0000

Officially launched last month, RVAGOV is already flying high.

"We got a shout-out at the last Richmond City Council meeting," said Ben Panko, a journalism student at the University of Richmond and co-editor of RVAGOV. Two council members even offered their own suggestions. "Charles Samuels [District 2] and Parker Agelasto [District 5]...met with us and offered advice on the website."

Billing itself as a "hub for engagement in Richmond City government", RVAGOV explains how City government works,¹ as well as previewing and recapping Council meetings (and soon School Board meetings).

"We realized that a lot of people want to be involved in the democratic process, but they may not have the time to go and dig through ordinances and codes to try and figure out what exactly what is going on, or what is being debated at tonight's [City Council] meeting," Panko said. "We're not trying to dumb it down for people, or tell them what they should think about 'this', we just want to make it as easy as possible for any citizen who wants to participate to be able to participate."

RVAGOV is the idea of UR student Peter CampoBasso. He was in a class taught by Thad Williamson called Research Workshop on Contemporary Richmond Politics. Students were required to attend City Council meetings.

"When I went to the first one, I found it quite difficult to follow, and I had no idea of what was even being discussed," said CampoBasso. "The next day, I...decided to start working on a City Council guide."

"I at first envisioned it to just be a simple guide to City Council to outline for students things like the meeting procedure, basic powers and duties of the Council, the difference between an ordinance and a resolution, etc," he said. Eventually he got the idea for a website that went beyond a Council explainer.

He spent this past summer developing the website with fellow UR student Andrew Talbot. "At first, we viewed it as just being for students; we thought that it would be a useful tool for professors who were sending classes to City Council meetings, and for students who were interested more broadly in government to more easily get engaged," CampoBaso said. "Then we started to think that it could be used by the greater community as a whole once we started adding certain sections."

Ben Panko said a hallmark of the website² is its minimal aesthetic. "We definitely strived from the beginning to keep it as clean and simple looking as possible," he said. "We wanted you to be able to click around the website in as few clicks as possible and be able to get to everything important really easily."

Panko said the site's easy navigability shouldn't shame the City's official website. "I don't think that they would be able to have the same kind of website that we do," he said. "They have a lot more stuff that they have to include. And we have the luxury on focusing on, very narrowly, a few things."

RVAGOV will eventually expand those things now that the site's wrinkles are nearly ironed out. "We've been focusing on the content of the website and just the mechanics of it. And now we've gotten those mostly figured out, starting next semester is when we're going to be able to work on fine-tuning stuff and adding features," Panko said. RVAGOV staff have discussed including maps and graphics.

But new features aside, what happens when Panko and the other editors and contributors graduate next year, and possibly leave Richmond for good? "We have a good team of correspondents working with us right now, and any of them could definitely run the website well," Panko said. While there's no transition plan in place, he's confident the site will endure.

"We're going to try and keep working on it, improving it," Panko said. "I hope that citizens and students, and anybody who's interested in it, will be able to get good use out of this website."

City Council, School Board, Mayoral office, and City budget. ↩
Created with Wix. ↩

Dominion Christmas Parade: What you need to know

Nathan Cushing — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 11:00:12 +0000

Broad Street becomes a one-way road for all things Yuletide (and Star Wars) with this weekend's 31st annual Dominion Christmas Parade.

Click to enlarge

— ∮∮∮ —

When does the parade happen?

Saturday, December 6th from 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Stake out a spot by at least 9:30 AM if you want a good view. You can also watch the parade live on CBS 6 in your pajamas and in your climate-controlled living room. Just sayin'.

Where should I go?

As in years past, the parade departs the Science Museum on W. Broad and heads east to 7th Street (roughly three miles).

Good places to watch the parade are in front of the DMV and near 6th Street.

Who will be in the parade?

Nearly 90 unique pieces, including a vintage WWII vehicle, an Irish dance troupe, Shriners, Rebel Legion of Star Wars, Santa Clause, and way more floats and balloons.

Food and merch vendors will also be around.

Where should I park?

There's no designated parking, so you'll need to park on side streets near the parade. You can also park in the Virginia Alcohol and Beverage Control lot next to the Science Museum.

What about street closures?

Broad Street eastbound will be closed from Strawberry Street to Davis Avenue from 6:00 AM - 2:00 PM on Saturday.
Broad Street westbound will be closed from 7th Street to Davis Avenue from 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM on Saturday.

What's the weather going to be?

There's a roughly 40 percent chance of rain during the parade with a temperature near 50 °F.

What can I do afterward?

It's going to be chilly (and maybe wet) so head to one of these restaurants for a warm lunch:

Garnett's • 2001 Park Avenue
Strawberry Street Cafe • 421 N. Strawberry Hotel
The Betty on Davis • 805 N. Davis Avenue
Kuba Kuba • 1601 Park Avenue
Sidewalk Cafe • 2101 W. Main Street
Joe's Inn • 205 N. Shields Avenue
3 Monkey's • 2525 W. Main Street
Boka Tako Bar • 304 N. Robinson Street
Starlite • 2600 W. Main Street
Bellytimber • 1501 W. Main Street
Balliceaux • 203 N. Lombardy
Sticky Rice • 2232 W. Main Street
Metro • 301 N. Robinson Street
Sugar Shack Donuts • 1001 N. Lombardy Street

Photo courtesy of Dominion Christmas Parade

UR president joins Obama at today’s White House summit

Nathan Cushing — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 14:52:54 +0000

University of Richmond president Ed Ayers today joins President Obama, the First Lady, Vice President Biden, and other college presidents at the White House College Opportunity Summit.

Today's summit builds on the first summit held earlier this year, and according to the White House website will encourage colleges to:

...improve degree completion, sustain community collaborations that encourage college-going, train high school counselors as part of the First Lady's Reach Higher initiative, and produce more STEM graduates with diverse backgrounds.

UR announced it's committed to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who declare STEM¹ majors and graduate with STEM degrees.

"A central principle of the University's strategic plan, The Richmond Promise, is to expand educational opportunity to students of all means and backgrounds," Ayers said in a statement. "Increasing the number of Richmond graduates from groups traditionally underrepresented in science and math disciplines is a key component of that effort. Providing these students with opportunities not only contributes to their success but also that of the economy and our nation."

The White House is streaming the day-long summit. Here's the feed for the morning portion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcsIq92XZqw

Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. ↩

Official White House photo by Pete Souza

RVA Fitness GIVE turns workouts into funds for charity

Nathan Cushing — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:29:34 +0000

Visitors to any of 16 local fitness boutiques will raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Richmond as part of the first annual RVA Fitness GIVE that takes place Saturday, December 13th - Sunday, December 14th.

Participating fitness centers (see below) will donate $2 to the local charity for every person who works out at their location that weekend.

RVA Fitness GIVE was inspired by Richmond Restaurant Week.

Participating locations

Christmas album brings together over 50 RVA musicians

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 11:00:41 +0000

Update #1 -- December 3, 2014; 9:15 AM

WCVE informed Samson Trinh that music videos, filmed during recording of the crowdfunded Christmas album (see below), will air during the holiday season on the local PBS affiliate. Specific date/time should be announced soon.

— ∮∮∮ —

Original -- December 03, 2014

Listen to one of the album's tracks while you read--to get you in the Christmas mood!

All I want for Christmas is You

http://media.rvanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/01-All-I-Want-For-Christmas-Is-You-mastered.mp3

Christmas Time is Here

http://media.rvanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/04-Christmas-Time-Is-Here-mastered.mp3

— ∮∮∮ —

"The past few Christmas albums from modern artists have just been kind of lazy, don't you think?" asked Samson Trinh, local musician, composer, and producer.

Take Rod Stewart's Merry Christmas, Baby, or Michael Bublé Christmas. They each recorded songs already cemented in the public's Christmas conscious. So what makes their renditions so different aside from their voices? Typically it's the song's arranger. "He would reinvent that original song and make it his own," Trinh said.

But the songs recorded by Stewart and others just rehashed existing arrangements. "They would take the same Sinatra arrangement or the same Bing Crosby arrangement" and do those,¹ Trinh said. And while those arrangements may be timeless, Trinh said that "at the same time, the originality isn't there."

So Trinh marshaled over 50 local musicians to record a 10-track Christmas album unlike any other. "Not really reinventing the wheel, but just have a fresher take on Christmas music, where it's not insanely commercialized and all Pro Tools'd up and crystal clean perfect," he said.

It's an album Trinh envisioned eight years ago, but which only came together in recent months. As leader of the Upper East Side Big Band--which at any given gig has between 10 and 22 members--Trinh has several years of coordinating a large band.

But he needed financial support to make his Christmas album real, money that'd pay for song rights, CD duplication, recording,² and to compensate over 50 musicians involved. So Trinh launched a Kickstarter fund that brought in nearly $12,000, surpassing its $10,000 goal. "I was a bit overwhelmed," he said, by how so many believed the album was a project worth backing.

He needn't look far for musicians to bring his "modern take on Christmas music" to life, as he enlisted local musicians like lead vocalist Laura Ann Singh (Quatro na Bossa), Terri Simpson (Butterbean Jazz Quartet), Allyson Mills-Steele (Mills Family Band), and more. "The RVA community has a wealth of talent," he said.

Trinh was inspired by the Wall of Sound formula pioneered by producer Phil Spector (and heavily used by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys) wherein musicians perform in unison inside a studio.³ "I really think it's just using every instrument," Trinh said.

In a time crunch to complete the album on time, Trinh sometimes had only two days to arrange songs to bring to a recording session. "[The musicians] were sight reading on the spot" while being recorded, he said. "They're good musicians."

Todd Raviotta of Natural Science Productions and Ashly Covington of Covington Imagery filmed the recording process, segments of which have been uploaded to YouTube. Trinh said a mini-documentary of the recording process is also planned for release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mcS8zIKNXo&list=UUpCy-DU2EovNPEPOR1Sy0SQ

But why do a Christmas album, especially one you've had in mind for eight years? "The melodies are awesome," he said. "Christmas melodies are just solid." They're also perennial. "You always go back to it."

The album is now available digitally, and will soon be available at Plan 9 and on iTunes.

The Upper East Side Big Band will perform at Friday's sold-out Late Night with Beau Cribbs at the Coalition Theater, at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery on December 11th from 5:00 - 7:00 PM, and will hold a CD release party at Ashland Coffee & Tea on December 19th.

Trinh is also persuading WCVE to broadcast an ensemble performance in time for the holidays. But even if the musicians don't make it to TV, Trinh is still happy with the contribution he and the musicians have made to the Christmas music catalogue. "It was always a goal to make a solid Christmas album," he said.

Purchase the Upper East Side Band Christmas album online.

Trinh said that Bublé used arrangements by The Drifters and Bing Crosby, among others, on his album. ↩
Done by No BS! Brass Band drummer Lance Koehler at his studio Minimum Wage Recording. ↩
The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" is considered a quintessential Wall of Sound production. ↩

Photo courtesy of Ashly Covington

Monument 10k registration opens

Nathan Cushing — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 14:44:54 +0000

Registration for the 2015 Monument 10k -- which runs on Saturday, March 28th -- is now open.

The $30 registration price is the lowest it will be leading up to next year's 10k. The price jumps to $35 on January 1st, and will increase $5 each month thereafter.

Kids aged between 5 - 12 can also register for the Virginia 529 Kids Run.

USA Today ranked the Monument 10k among its list of spring races all runners should try. Over 36,000 runners are expected at next year's 10k.

The 2015 Monument 10k runs Saturday, March 28th.

Photo by Johnny Hugel

Local Christmas tree lots and farms

Nathan Cushing — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 11:00:57 +0000

Make sure you call ahead to ensure trees are available before heading out, and let us know in the comments if you come across additional locations we should add to our list.

— ∮∮∮ —

Caroline County

Willow Oak Christmas Tree Farm

Choose and cut your tree from a selection of White Pines, Scotch Pines, and Spruces, as well as roping and wreaths.

Through Dec. 22nd
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
14412 Farmer Drive • Woodford, VA 22580
804.633.6192

Chesterfield County

Chesterfield Berry Farm & Market

Fresh-cut Fraser Firs along with homemade wreaths either pre-made and made to order.

Through Dec. 24th
Daily 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
4800 Market Square Lane • Midlothian, VA 23112
804.739.2404

Boulevard Flower Gardens

Fresh trees, wreaths, and poinsettias. They also offer their indoor Winter Farmers Markets, which run Saturdays 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM.

Through December
Mon - Thurs. 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM; Fri. - Sat. 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM; Sunday 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
2100 Ruffin Mill Road • South Chesterfield, VA 23834
804.526.4000

Francisco Farms Retail Lots

Although based in Staunton, Francisco Farms once again offers two local sites for buying their trees, wreaths, and roping.

Robious Hall Shopping Center at Robious road and Rt. 60

While trees last
Mon. - Fri. 12:00 - 8:00; Sat. - Sun. 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM
Location: Robious Hall Shopping Center at Robious road and Rt. 60.
540.885.3008

1211 Alverser Drive

While trees last
Mon. - Fri. 12:00 - 8:00 PM; Sat. - Sun. 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM
1211 Alverser Drive (behind the Goodwill Store)
540.885.3008

Heritage Hill Farm

Fraser Firs, White Pines, along with fresh wreaths and garland. Their full service includes free shaking, fresh cutting, baling, and securing your tree to your car.

Starts Nov. 29th; while trees last
Mon. - Fri. 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM; Sat. - Sun. 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM
1115 Huguenot Road • Midlothian, VA 23113
336.372.2992

Richmond

Strange's

Voted best florist and garden center by Style Weekly and Virginia Living, Strange's has four area locations to satisfy your holiday decoration needs.

12111 W. Broad Street

While trees last
Mon. - Sat. 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM; Sun. 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
804.360.2800

3313 Mechanicsville Pike

While trees last
Mon. - Sat. 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM; Sun. 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
804.321.2200

6710 Hull Street

While trees last
Mon. - Sat. 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM; closed Sundays
804.321.0470

8010 Midlothian Pike

While trees last
Mon. - Sat. 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM; closed Sundays
804.321.0460

Hanover County

Lloyd Family Farms

Pony rides and petting zoo, coffee, cocoa, hot cider, make this a great family event to pick out a fresh cut tree.

Through Dec. 21st
Fri. - Sun. 10:00 AM - Dusk
12204 Pinhook Drive • Rockville, Virginia 23015
804.387.0068

Hanover Pines

Grab a saw and pick your tree (and get it wrapped for the ride home). There are also hay rides and a gift shop on site.

November 29th through December
Fri. - Sun. 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
18216 Teman Road • Beaverdam, Virginia 23015
804.475.4094

Ashland Berry Farm

Offers a selection of fresh-cut trees.

Starts Nov. 29th; while trees last
Mon. - Wed. 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM; Thur. - Sun. 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM
12607 Old Ridge Road • Beaverdam, Virginia 23015
804.227.3601

Windy Knoll Farm

White Pines and Scotch Pines, each cut to retain its conical shape.

Starts Nov. 29th; while trees last
Fridays 1:00 - 5:00 PM, Saturdays 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Sundays closed
Windy Knoll Drive • Hanover, Virginia
804.730.8733

Photo by Ted Eytan

Welcoming Walls giving RVA gateways a new coat of paint

Nathan Cushing — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 11:00:10 +0000

Mickael Broth thinks Richmond's got a lot going for it.

"We've got an incredible public art scene. We've got one of the best art schools in the country. We've got thriving cultural institutions. It's a great place with tons of creativity," he said. "But you really wouldn't get that impression driving along the highway, or the first time that somebody enters the city at pretty much any of the major exits."

For example, he proposed a family from out-of-town visits VCU with their high-school son or daughter to scope the school. They're first impression of Richmond may be the Belividere exit off I-95. "It's not...a glowing example of what our city has to offer," said Broth, a local artist who, among other things, has participated in past RVA Street Art Festivals. "There's room for improvement."

While VDOT has plans to improve highway landscapes around the city (PDF), Broth thinks local artists can go a long way to showing off Richmond's creative juices. For about a year, he's envisioned murals greeting motorists as they pass through the city's gateways, finally launching Welcoming Walls earlier this month.

"Being involved in the Street Art Festivals over the past few years, it seemed like this is very possible," he said. "In a city that's already embraced murals and public art so completely, it seemed like this is a way we can make big changes and really put a welcoming face on the city without major price tags."

Broth said Welcoming Walls will get various artists to complete 10 large murals by September 2015, ahead of the UCI Road World Championships. "That seemed like a logical goal post."

Murals will go up along stretches of I-95 and I-64, along at the Boulevard and Belvidere exits. "But there's definitely room for this project at most of the exits from the highway into the city," Broth said.

Convincing artists to participate hasn't been difficult. "So far the response from other artists has been just overwhelmingly positive," he said. "People who live here have pride in our city. We live in a great place, and we want to be part of developing its reputation and growing it."

Local artists Andre Shank and Chris Milk recently completed the first mural at the Boulevard exit from I-95 North. "Chris actually grew up just about three blocks away from where the mural is...and his parents still live there," Broth said. "This is his neighborhood. Literally."

Even before completing the first mural, Welcoming Walls has already proven its worth.

While Shank, Milk, and Broth were working earlier this month, a car pulled up. "This young guy gets out, probably in his mid-to-late 20s and starts asking us about other murals around town, saying he had heard that Richmond had a reputation for murals," Broth said. "In talking to him, we found out that he's actually from the west coast of Canada and he's been traveling around the US for the past couple of months."

After directing the traveling Canadian to some of the best murals around town, Broth realized the project was already working. "It was immediate confirmation: OK, this project does have merit...and it's already having the positive effect it's supposed to have," he said.

Welcoming Walls will announce future sites in due time, and while Broth couldn't comment on specific artists who'll participate, he said they'll be "primarily drawn from local artists."

"We've got a lot of really talented people here who just haven't had the chance to shine yet, and this project is also about the people who live here getting their chance to put their artistic stamp on the city," he said. "These are Richmonders. They should be able to have a voice and be able to put their mark on the city in a way that I think anyone here can appreciate."

Broth said the public can help Welcoming Walls efforts by finding locations. "If people know of or have a property that falls into the realm of a gateway, or along the highway, we'd love to talk to them," he said. Welcoming Walls will also create a crowd funding campaign in the near future to fund additional murals.

Broth said he's particularly excited that Welcoming Walls has struck a cultural partnership with The Valentine. Broth said artists will get a "behind the scenes tour of the archive of The Valentine in the hopes that the work they create for this project will somehow be inspired by the things that they see, by Richmond's history."

Broth said Welcoming Walls will also partner with nonprofit Hands On Greater Richmond to have people in the community aid artists as they paint murals. "This is about developing the community, and we want the community to be involved," Broth said.

"We want this to be the best project it can be."

Local artist, Mickael Broth, discusses jail and graffiti in his new book; RVANews

Photos by Mickael Broth

Junk mail becomes art through upcycling

Nathan Cushing — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:34:52 +0000

Sandi Schimmel Gold regularly bicycles, composts, and recycles.

"I'm one of those people, an old hippie, that's still doing all of those green things," she said. Someone whose weekly recyclables outweigh their trash output. "I've always been one of those rabid recyclers."

A longtime painter, Gold's artistic proclivities changed about 14 years ago when she was gifted a paper guillotine. Wanting to do a mosaic without using glass or tile, Gold diced up pieces of old greeting cards and pasted them onto one of her paintings. "I started gluing paper onto everything: lamp shades, light fixtures in the hallway, picture frames," she said.

"This is it," she told herself. "This is my thing, and I haven't looked back."

Gold creates her work by first drawing and painting every piece. "Then I find all the paper and I cut it up and I glue it onto the painting," she said. "I have a room full of paper that's going to get reused or recycled, so nothing is going into the landfill--because that bugs me."

Recently, a couple recently commissioned Gold to do a 16" x 20" mosaic portrait resembling one of their 1964 wedding photos. Gold estimates it took 80 - 120 hours to complete the painting. "It's really tedious," she said. "I can't do more [commissions] than a few a month because they're too time consuming."

Chasen Galleries in Carytown has Gold's work on continuous display. Next month, Gold will occupy space at The Ward Center for Contemporary Art, where she'll also teach classes.

Gold's asking that people donate their junk mail and unneeded "season's greetings" cards to her,¹ which she'll upcycle into one of her pieces, or recycle.

Gold knows her work can't be classified, and she's glad about it. "I don't want to be categorized. I'm kind of like an outsider. I'm not part of an academic art world," she said. "I'm just doing my own thing in my own way."

— ∮∮∮ —

You can leave donations for her at Chasen Galleries, Frame Nation, or The Ward Center for Contemporary Art. ↩

RVA’s sweet tooth takes big bite into Shyndigz

Nathan Cushing — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 13:47:59 +0000

Who: Nicole and Bryon Jessee.
What: Richmond's first and only dessert cafe.
When: Opened in 2010. Moved to new location in early 2014.
Where: 1903 W. Cary Street.
Why: To give desserts their own place.
Dishes: Salted Chocolate Caramel Cake ($7.49); Fresh Fruit Cake ($7.49); Creme Brulee ($6.59).

— ∮∮∮ —

Nicole Jessee had no qualms about baking a 3D toilet cake that read Life goes to shit after 40.

"But I'm not putting anything in the actual toilet," she said, referring to the customer's idea of fitting the doughy bowl with a Tootsie Roll. "Every cake that I did, I had to think: do I want this on my website?"

But even cakes she didn't post to the web wound up on there. A local divorce attorney threw a 100-person divorce party and asked Nicole to build a cake of a heart split down the middle. "Her side had her with her kids with her house, and the other had him with his business."

Party attendees snapped photos of the cake and shared them on Facebook. Before long a national publication (Nicole doesn't recall which one) ran one of the photos and producers of Montel Williams' day-time talk show even contacted her asking if she'd bake a similar cake for a show about divorce.

There were also the bachelor and bachelorette party cakes. "I would get calls about these, and I would literally think people were trying to prank us," she said. They weren't. "I'm not even comfortable saying what they wanted."

But in those days outré cakes were Nicole's speciality. "I didn't want to do the three-tier white wedding cakes," she said about the early days of Shyndigz. "I really wanted to push it as much as I could and do the more artsy cakes."

Nicole has since hung up her apron when it comes to toilet cakes, but she hasn't bid adieu to desserts overall. She and her husband, Bryon, have given Richmond its first dessert cafe and given the city its sweet tooth.

The lines that regularly stretch outside and down the block from Shyndigz seem like icing on the cake. But Nicole and Bryon haven't forgotten how they got here. From running two businesses at once, a nursery that specialized in quiches, to having good things happen out of the blue, Shyndigz had a long road getting here.

Too many pies

Nicole and Bryon had two businesses on opposite ends of the block. On end was All Art Gallery. On the other was Java Moon, a coffee shop with light fare.

"Between the two places we had one employee," Bryon said about their time in Charleston, South Carolina circa 2000. "And so we would get busy at one of the locations and put a sign on the door [of the other] saying 'Back in 10 minutes.'"

Nicole nodded. "We would close one to keep the other one open," she said.

Not only did the couple spread themselves too thin over two businesses, they spent more than they should've on print, radio, and TV ads. "We spent so much money--money we didn't even have," Bryon said.

Bryon a third of the total number of employees running two businesses simultaneously, and he was also in culinary school. On top of that, he and Nicole had a wedding to plan.

Their fingers in too many pies, the couple realized the only way to ensure marital success was to step away from it all. To get a fresh start, they decided to move somewhere new.

Ceramics and plants...with a side of quiche

Shortly after arriving in Richmond in 2004, Bryon found work at Ukrop's and Nicole at Sneed's Nursery.

Not one who easily hides her artistic side, Nicole eventually bought her own greenhouse and started Art to Grown, a business combining homemade ceramic crafts with plants.

Food came into the equation a while after she and Bryon had been vending local farmers markets. "We kept seeing all these food vendors there, and restaurants, and bakers and we thought, 'Hmmmm,'" Nicole said.

Soon after, Art to Grown was selling ceramics, plants, and Bryon's quiche.¹ "People liked his quiche and they kept coming for it every week," Nicole said. "And from that we started catering."

They began by bringing the youth of their local church into the kitchen to help them cook Wednesday night dinners. Word traveled beyond the congregation. Richmond Times-Dispatch even wrote an article about the dinners. "People started calling our church asking for our number for catering," Nicole said.

One call came from organizers of a Baptist conference that hired the duo to cater the three-day event in Richmond, Nicole said. "We took that money and opened Shyndigz debt free."

Shyndigz

Photo by Joey Wharton

In the months before Shyndigz opened in 2010, Nicole created her own side job baking cakes. It was back when TV shows like Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes dominated ratings. Nicole realized no one in Richmond did these eccentric cakes, so she cut out a slice all her own. "I couldn't keep the ingredients in the kitchen, I was so busy," she said.

In June 2010, she and Bryon opened Shyndigz at 5716 Patterson Avenue. It was there that she did the toilet cake, divorce cake, Escalade cakes, and cakes for pretty much everything else. She worked the delicious line between art and food..at least for a while.

"We would do a cake for a one or two-year-old that would be $800 or $1,000," she said. "And the pressure of getting that right, and getting it from point A to point B,² took the joy out of it."

While Shyndigz's cake business boomed, Nicole and Bryon decided to maximize the Patterson Avenue space with a dessert cafe. Kaminsky's, a Charleston dessert cafe the two loved, inspired the idea. "Richmond's never seen a dessert cafe," Nicole said. Whereas a restaurant devotes just a section of its menu to desserts, Shyndigz makes desserts the entire menu.

It was an ingenious idea, albeit ahead of its time. "We didn't have anyone in there for two years," Nicole said. People would leave Yelp reviews wondering why a bakery was open so late. "They must be laundering money," was one of the comments, Nicole said.

But as with their church dinners, Nicole and Bryon eventually got the media's attention. In 2012, Richmond Magazine named Shyndigz Best Dessert in Richmond. "And we got really busy. People were lined up out the door," Nicole said. When the magazine bestowed the distinction again in 2013 and 2014, Nicole and Bryon realized their 40-seat spot wasn't big enough.

Earlier this year, the couple moved to 1903 W. Cary Street. But just because you're successful at one spot, Bryon said, doesn't mean it'll move with you to another. The two risked their money and time on the hope Shydigz would thrive. "We put everything on the line," Bryon said. "And then, opening night, we had a line."

"I had a tear that rolled down my cheek," he said. "I looked at Nicole and said, 'I think we're going to make it.'"

A little relief

At roughly 150 seats, ³ the new space was over three times as large as Shyndigz's previous location. "We've been here for five months and we need more space," Nicole said. "That is our biggest problem."

One reason the lines outside the business have followed Shyndigz is the food. The couple said they use top-shelf ingredients and never cut corners. When plates come out, the dessert on it clocks in at over 5" tall.

"Our desserts are huge," Bryon said. "Often times, people can split them between two or three people. But the problem is, no one can agree on what to get. So we go through a lot of to-go containers."

When newcomers ask Bryon want he recommends they eat he says, "The Fresh Fruit Cake put us in business,⁴ but the Salted Chocolate Caramel Cake keeps us in business."

The Chocolate Carmel is Nicole's favorite. "And it's Richmond's favorite for sure," she said.

Making the city's favorite desserts is time-consuming. One Chocolate Carmel takes about three hours to make. The reason Shyndigz is open four days a week isn't for the ample free time. "It literally takes six days to get ready for four days of business with 40 employees," he said.

The busiest nights are often on Saturday. "We have a line down the block," Nicole said. Shyndigz can serve up to 1,000 customer on Saturday nights alone.

In addition to its dessert staples, Sthyndigz offers rotating cakes du jour. "You'll have groups of people waiting on the Oreo Cake," Bryon said. "They'll put it on their Google calendar."

But the desserts themselves isn't the only pull Shyndigz has. "The reason we created this is that we wanted people to have an experience," Bryon said. "To sit and maybe have a glass of wine or a local beer⁵ and just catch up with friends."

Nicole agrees. "This whole place has been built with love. I know that's so cheesy, but it's so true," she said. "I do want people to come here and have an experience. If they've had a bad day, this is just a little relief that they can get.

Shyndigz will get some relief when it expands operations to property just down the street. They'll move customer pick ups to that site, as well as give those in a line a comfortable place to wait before they're seated. Nicole said the couple is also working on "another niche concept."

Even now, Shyndigz has the appeal to franchise beyond the city. But neither Bryon nor Nicole have any interest in shipping Shyndigz across the state, region, or country--the city's first dessert cafe will stay in the city.

"I want Shyndigz to be in Richmond for a long time," Nicole said.

Shyndigz is located at 1903 W. Cary Street.

Photos by Harry Tiffany V, unless noted

In Charelston they had an art studio and a coffee house. In Richmond they had a business in ceramics, plants, and quiche. "We've always confused people," Bryon said, laughing. ↩
"You never really realize how bad the roads are until you put a wedding cake in the back of a car," Bryon said. ↩
With roughly one-third outside. ↩
After former Richmond Magazine food editor Brandon Fox told Nicole it was "some of the best cake I've ever put in my mouth." Fox later published the recipe. ↩
Which they can do thanks to the Carytown Cupcake law. ↩

PHOTOS: InLight over the years

Nathan Cushing — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 13:38:31 +0000

InLight illuminates Monroe Park later this week as the free public art exhibition returns for its seventh year. The one-night only event runs Friday 7:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Created in 2008 to celebrate 1708 Gallery's 30th anniversary, InLight collects light-based exhibitions done by national artists and centralizes them in a specific city area.

Ahead of this year's InLight, here's a look back at past events.

— ∮∮∮ —

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

1708 Gallery wins $20,000 grant from National Endowment for the Arts; RVANews

Credits

InLight 2013

Image credits

Medeology Collective: Alessandro Imperato, Jim Gladman, and Kelly McClung,  Bridge Of Signs, photo by Terry Brown
Julie Hinzmann and Shawn Saharko, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Winner of both People's Choice Award and Most Environmentally Conscious Award, photo by Terry Brown
Rachel Cohn, Laurids Sonne, and Michael Ashley, Nonesuch Tales of Ardea Herodias, Winner of Best in Show Award, photo by Terry Brown
Ross Fish, Lilli Fayaz, and Sean Ludwig, A Breath of Fresh Air, photo by Terry Brown

InLight 2012

Image credits

Devon Johnson, Noms de Pays, Winner of Best in Show Award, photo by Jon Sheridan
Jason Peters, Meandering Dynamics, Winner of Best in Green Award, photo by Terry Brown
InLight Richmond 2012 Community Lantern Parade, photo by Terry Brown
Nelly Kate and Dave Watkins, Interstitial Transduction, Winner of People's Choice Award, photo by Terry Brown

InLight 2011

Image credits

Riley Harmon, Trace, Winner of Best in Show Award, photo courtesy of the artist
Brian Davis, Sightline (2011), photo by Terry Brown
Annica Cuppetelli and Cristobal Mendoza, Nervous Structure, photo by Terry Brown
InLight Richmond 2011 Community Lantern Parade, photo by Terry Brown
Peter Fraser (with support from Richmond Cycling Corps and Pedal Power), Inspiration Generation, Winner of People's Choice Award, photo courtesy of the artist

InLight 2010

Image credits

Jacob Stanley, Spanning Systems (a partial rewire), photo by Terry Brown
Patrick Gregory and Lincoln Mitchell, Enlightened Abandonment, photo by Terry Brown
The Medeology Collective: Alessandro Imperato, Jim Gladman, Kelly McClung, and Matt Haddock, Illumi-Nation Narcosis, photo by Terry Brown

InLight 2009

Image credits

Ed Purver, Show of Hands, photo courtesy of the artist
Joshua Poteat and Roberto Ventura, For Gabriel, Winner of Best in Show Award, photo by Heidi Hess

InLight 2008

Image credits

Peter Culley, Eleni Savvidou, Adam Frantzis, Andrew Montgomery, Lighthouse_1_Jackson Ward, winner of both the Best in Show award and the People's Choice award, photo by Andrew Montgomery

Photos courtesy of 1708 Gallery

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PHOTOS: InLight over the years

2013