Last big day of adoption for south bank of the James

Since I knew I would be starting a new job in downtown Richmond, I’ve been lamenting the change away from my easy access to some areas of the James River Park System on the Southside. Huguenot Flatwater, Pony Pasture, The Wetlands, Main Area, Main Area West and even Forest Hill Park — I’ve been to […]

October 7, 2011; 8:40 AM • by Phil Riggan

Since I knew I would be starting a new job in downtown Richmond, I’ve been lamenting the change away from my easy access to some areas of the James River Park System on the Southside.

Huguenot Flatwater, Pony Pasture, The Wetlands, Main Area, Main Area West and even Forest Hill Park — I’ve been to those parks dozens of times on lunch breaks to relax, exercise, take some pictures and clean trash. Of all those cleanups, the only one that really got me down was the week after July 4th when I found Pony Pasture trashed.

Oh I’ll still clean those areas, just not on my lunch break. Of all of them, I’m mostly going to miss Main Area West — the tiny park below Riverside Drive near the Atlantic Coast Line Bridge. That has been my adopted spot and I’ve tried to go every week down there with my trash bucket. It is so beautiful and scenic. It is also so abused and neglected.  Too frequently people take plenty of bottles and cans down there and so rarely it seems do they choose to be good stewards and truck out their trash.

I went back for one more big cleaning Thursday and said goodbye to some of my favorite spots. Of course, the same notorious signs of poor stewardship were evident, like the return of Whippet Guy.

Now I’m going to need a new place to adopt downtown. All the years I worked downtown before, I hadn’t adopted this attitude of cleaning trash when I would go for walks, but I will now.  I’m thinking that Pipeline Rapids and Brown’s Island will be the easiest for me to get to from 3rd and Franklin streets, but I’m looking for suggestions on where I should concentrate my efforts — which area of the James should I adopt?

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Phil Riggan

October 7, 2011 8:40 AM 0

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