Chimbo stinks 👃😷💩

As an independent newsletter, it is The Lookout’s solemn editorial mission to tell bold truths about Church Hill, even when they’re uncomfortable. Here’s one: Chimborazo Park stinks.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the park itself is wonderful, what with its rolling lawns, sunset views, and centuries of history. But every day or two, I catch a whiff of raw sewage on the breeze blowing over Chimborazo Hill. Do you sniff what I sniff, neighbor? That vague squalid odor, wafting through these streets?

Indelicately: it kinda smells like shit, and not figuratively.

I’m not a fan, but boy, could Church Hill use one. From whence this faint fecal fragrance come? Is the historic battlefield haunted by a Confederate soldier that blew out his breeches?

To my mind/nose, this is a relatively recent development. Then again, my residence in this neighborhood is a relatively recent development, too, considering I only moved here at the end of 2022. I quickly noticed the yeasty, malty bouquet that settles on the neighborhood from Stone Brewing Company’s heavily tax-incentivized plant in Fulton Hill. Personally, I like that aroma, but your mileage may vary. Regardless, its source is obvious, and not particularly nefarious in the grand scheme of things.

But the mysterious malodor of human excrement that stalks Chimbo is another thing entirely. Confusingly, it only seems to have begun after the recent completion of the Chimborazo Drop Shaft and Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project, a two-decade effort to—in the words of the Department of Public Utilities—build a “permanent replacement for the emergency repaired portion of the brick step sewer that was damaged during the 2004 slope failure caused by Tropical Storm Gaston.”

Upgraded infrastructure is always good, yet the park sometimes smells bad. I jog through it all time, and I’m not in good shape, which is to say I’ve spent a lot of time in Chimbo gasping for breath. Only once work crews wrapped construction earlier this year did I start huffing eau de doo-doo. Is that how sewage projects are supposed to work?

Using the powers of investigative journalism, I have sniffed out what I believe to be the source of the Chimbo-roma. The massive black pipe you see in the photo above emits a flow of fetid air that hangs like a cloud over the stretch of sidewalk between the westerly entrance to the park at East Grace and North 32nd Streets and the Powhatan Stone. I know it was installed during the construction project, but I’m no expert on municipal sewer systems, so I have no idea what it does. Well, actually, I know one thing it does: stink up the block.

Longer-term residents of Church Hill, has this been an ongoing thing? Maybe I just happened to arrive during a brief, atypical respite from the rank perfume? I know Richmond has struggled for years under the fiscal burden of upgrading its outdated, overmatched sewer infrastructure, but I haven’t been able to find any specific reports in the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s archives about a foul smell lingering at nose-level above Chimbo. The mind boggles, the schnozz struggles. Neighbors: what do you think about the stink?

📍 More Flocks on the block

The Lookout’s investigative report about those mysterious black poles that started sprouting up around the neighborhood has already become the top-read edition of the publication’s short existence. Very cool. Even cooler: half a dozen tipsters have gotten in touch to flag more locations of Flock Safety’s “Raven” microphones around the neighborhood. The Google Map I created to track the devices has 13 mapped as of yesterday evening. Keep ‘em coming, neighbors.

As I noted in last week’s report, within the core neighborhood, Flock and Richmond Police Department seem to have exclusively deployed the company’s mics, but folks have spotted its traffic cameras in adjacent neighborhoods, too. According to DeFlock.me (an open-source mapping project that tracks the cameras nationwide), one such device has been installed at the intersection of Mosby Street and the Leigh Street Viaduct in Union Hill. RPD’s Chief Rick Edwards told The Lookout last week that another Flock camera had been installed at Kane and Creighton Streets up by Creighton Court, which also appears on the DeFlock map.

📜 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!

🚶‍♀️ Raised crosswalk at Libby Hill

In the week since The Lookout’s report on the speed humps that Richmond’s Department of Public Works dropped on East Franklin and East Grace Streets, the paint crew made it back around to stripe out the new asphalt. I haven’t been able to check on the E. Grace humps, but I can confirm that the one at E. Franklin and N. 28th Sts. is now painted as a raised crosswalk. Am I being greedy in hoping for some curb bump-outs to daylight the intersection and shorten pedestrians’ crossing distance?

🕯️ Church Hill ‘twas lit

The air was cold and the sky was clear last Friday night for the Church Hill Association’s annual Candlelight Walk, and The Lookout can confirm that it was a good one. The Richmond Pipes and Drum Corps led an all-ages procession of what looked like hundreds of people through the neighborhood from Jefferson Park to Libby Hill Park, where we transitioned from festive marching music to crowd-based caroling led by an unnamed acoustic guitar player.

Big thanks to the CHA for putting on another wonderful holiday kickoff—and to all our neighbors who either joined the walk or decorated their houses along the route (or both) for making it such a special night for the community.

📸 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.