Beyond bush league on Jefferson Ave.

Sometimes in journalism, a story is going one direction, then new information surfaces that forces you to pivot. Two steps forward, one step back. I found myself in just such a predicament earlier this week on Jefferson Avenue, when I spotted a crew with Richmond’s Department of Public Works (DPW) planting a series of saplings in the new planters created by the nearly-complete Phase II redesign work.

• Two steps forward for the neighborhood: Trees! On Tuesday, I counted around a half dozen with new-looking mulch along the street’s northerly edge between North 23rd and 24th Streets. A worker told The Lookout that they’d planted four species of saplings, but wasn’t able to name them off the top of his head.

• One step back for me personally: I’d been prepping a column on the sad little rows of bushes that DPW had initially planted earlier this month, which fell well short of the taller, greener landscaping vision put forth by the Coalition for A Safer Jefferson Avenue.

So it goes. I snapped a couple photos of the saplings and texted them to Ryan Kolb, president of the Union Hill Civic Association and a coalition member. “That is a sigh of relief,” he responded. Prior to that, Phase II had been shaping up… well, pretty bush league.

A representative for the department told The Lookout suggesting everybody should’ve expected this (positive) outcome. “The plan sets were shared with the Task Force before we assigned the contract,” wrote project officer Yongping Wang in a brief email this morning, apparently referring to the coalition. “Their planting plans are considered with the trees they proposed.”

I haven’t been able to independently verify whether Jefferson Ave.’s new saplings match up with the counterproposal that coalition members had presented to DPW late last year. Wang’s email came after deadline, and he did not respond to my request for the finalized planting schematic and more information on the trees now in the ground before publication. If/when he does, I’ll update this column.

But the contention that the department had kept community members in the loop on its Phase II tree-planting plans contradicts the story I’d heard from Kolb, whose relief at the arrival of the saplings earlier this week came after mounting frustration with the city’s communication on the project.

“The last message I saw was back on January 21st,” he told The Lookout in a phone interview last Thursday, before DPW put in the new trees but after it’d planted the squat rows of bushes along the artery. That message, from Wang, had indicated the coalition’s plan was under review. “And then the next thing you know, within the next week or so, was when they planted” the bushes. DPW also appeared to have planted handful of cherry trees in the area during that early-February work, which did not fulfill the coalition’s pitch for taller trees to provide more shade for pedestrians walking the newly brick-laid stretch between Pizza Bones and Union Market.

Kolb forwarded The Lookout an email chain between coalition members and DPW for review. Wang has not responded to a request for any additional correspondence. Cynthia Newbille, the 7th District’s longtime representative on City Council, did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this column.

From the UHCA president’s perspective, it felt like radio silence. “They just ghosted us,” he said. “They just disappeared.” When DPW planted the bushes during the first week of February, he figured it’d decided to unilaterally move forward with its own Phase II landscaping plan—the one the coalition had been pushing it to improve with more and taller trees.

Obviously, that turned out not to be true. Trees are good for the community for all sorts of reasons, and it’s good DPW eventually added them—regardless of how it communicated those plans to the community in advance. (Or didn’t.) “Those don’t look like cherry trees, so maybe they are onto something,” he texted me on Tuesday. Maybe. We’ll see what new information surfaces next.

📜 Possum Poetry

Possum Poetry is original verse written exclusively for The Lookout by Penelope Poubelle, the Lookout’s litter critter-at-large. If you spot roadside trash you’d like her to immortalize in doggerel, email a photo to [email protected]. All submissions anonymous!

☃️ Shovel shoutout

We may not have gotten the blizzard some of the wonky weather apps were projecting last week, but here in the neighborhood it looked like ~2” to your humble Lookout editor. I’m on the record in support of a municipal solution for clearing sidewalks, because it’s public infrastructure and should be maintained as such. While we work towards that halcyon future, city ordinance dictates it’s on residents and business owners to shovel their stretches of sidewalk. It’s the right thing to do!

Unfortunately, plenty of folks around Church Hill still hadn’t done their civic duty by Friday morning, leaving their neighbors to navigate treacherous conditions block-by-block. But shoutout to this Lookout, who let me know via Bluesky they’re not letting things slide (literally or figuratively):

Hell yeah, neighbor. Thanks to everybody who’s picking up the slack/shovel to keep Church Hill’s sidewalks navigable after the snowstorm.

📢 Happenings on The Hill

• Survey says: The Church Hill Central Civic Association and VCU Urban Design students are looking for feedback about the neighborhood to inform the org’s advocacy in the future. Fill out the form.

• Don’t get hosed: This fraud-prevention workshop by Central Virginia Legal Aid Society & SouthState Bank on Tuesday (2/25) at 11am-12pm at the East End Library can help you remain sucker-free. The details.

• Not to be morbid, but: Dead People’s Stuff Vintage Market is bringing 20+ vendors to a joint estate sale at Triple Crossing Fulton this Sunday (2/23) from 12-6pm. More info here.

• Stick ‘em up: The Lookout’s initial run of custom stickers is going fast! Venmo me one dollar with your address in the comment and I’ll send you two stickers in the mail. Venmo here.

Happenings on The Hill is a digital bulletin board for events, causes, and other items of interest to East Enders that don’t necessarily merit full editorial treatment. Got something for a future edition? Email the relevant details, links, etc. to [email protected] for consideration!

📸 A Very CHill Photo

Want to share your Very CHill Photo from the neighborhood? Email it to [email protected] with your name as you’d like it to appear for publication, and the camera you shot it on.