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Plant trees, grow foot traffic
Plus: Historic/humongous real-estate update!
After The Lookout published a report last month on the road redesign project currently underway on Jefferson Avenue, I got an email from Ed Fendley. He’s a coordinator for the Coalition for a Safer Jefferson Avenue, which is… well, you’re smart, you can probably figure out what it is. Crews have completed much of the hardscaping for the second of the project’s four phases on the major east-west artery, but Fendley flagged the neighborhood org’s concern that the city may not put proper trees in the newly available planters that line the street.
“Adding street trees will make the Phase I and Phase II areas even better,” he said via email. This is Fendley’s opinion, but it’s also mine, and it comports with the science on urban design. Not only do trees make streets more pleasant than low bushes or grass might, but they also tend to make non-car users safer and increase the number of those users, and can even improve retail business.
To that end, the Coalition for a Safer Jefferson Avenue proposed an alternative landscaping plan to the city (above) that would line the street’s northerly border between Pizza Bones and Union Market with little-leaf lindens, and put a variety of species on the surrounding corners.
Together, Fendley said, these additions to the city’s existing plan would comport with the original vision for the project, and “increase shade and habitat, capture stormwater, and create places where people want to be.” The group is awaiting a response to their pitch from city officials, after a meeting on the matter last year.
Looking to the future, Phase III is fully funded at $2.2 million, and slated for summer 2026; the $1.2 million for Phase IV is partially secured, with $690,000 to go. Fendley believes those chunks of Jefferson Ave. are in desperate need of reconfiguration. “The traffic circles at Jefferson & 23rd St. and at Jefferson & Clay St. are […] hostile to people walking and cycling,” he told The Lookout.
Anecdotally, can confirm: the stretch west of Union Market is damn dangerous, to the point that I can hardly get through a beer on the patio there without witnessing a near-crash of some kind. Just 18 months ago, a reckless driver crashed into the Jefferson Ave. Community Garden adjacent to Pizza Bones, causing $2,000 worth of damage and illustrating just how dangerous that stretch of the road was prior to the redesign.
I suspect that the fact that the widest-open portion of Jefferson Ave. is situated at the westerly entrance to the neighborhood (over by Alamo BBQ) sets the tone for drivers arriving from downtown that they carry with them as they push deeper into the neighborhood. Maybe that’s just my imagination. Regardless, Fendley believes tightening down those intersections means “[d]rivers will no longer be able to tear through at high speed, and that’s the point.” Indeed it is.
🏦 Historic/humongous real-estate update
Recent action inside Billups Funeral Home. | Dave Infante
The Lookout is hearing some chatter about potential incoming tenancies at not one but two of Church Hill’s biggest, most storied commercial properties. A recent stroll by the old Billups Funeral Home on E. Marshall St. showed signs of a clean-up crew prepping for a potential renovation of the building—which, by the way, was designed by the same architect that built the Altria Theater (née Acca Temple.) Your editor saw no such activity on recent snooping sortie to the stately, shuttered Church Hill Bank, but the “FOR LEASE” sign that had been displayed prominently in its window is gone.
Also of potential note: both properties’ listings have been removed from LoopNet, a sort of Zillow-for-commercial property operated by hometown software conglomerate Costar. (See here and here.) Not so for the old Masonic lodge a few blocks further west on N. 25th St.—the would-be outpost of Petersburg’s popular Trapezium Brewing Co. is instead being offered for lease as office space, and is still up for grabs.
Who’s got the scuttle on what’s afoot at Billups and the bank? Inquiring minds (me) would like to know! Hit the comments below, or email me: [email protected].
📜 Possum Poetry
Spotted in the alley between E. Broad and E. Grace | Penelope Poubelle
The thing about Fireball is that it’s barely real whiskey,
But hot damn, it still makes this ol’ gal’s whiskers frisky.
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!
The Lookout’s comments section is now open for business. All logged-in readers should be able to comment under any article. Let me know if you have any trouble with that: [email protected].
As a point of order, please don’t be a dick in the comments, to me or anybody else. This includes, but is not limited to, posting stuff that’s:
discriminatory;
threatening;
unduly personal;
…or objectionable in ways I haven’t even yet conceived of. I’m not going to bother spelling out prohibited behavior beyond that; like Potter Stewart in a porn shop, I’ve been on the internet for long enough to know it when I see it. If you’re a dick in The Lookout’s comments, I’ll bring down the banhammer with the quickness. Everybody be nice to each other, and don’t make this weird.
📢 Happenings on The Hill
Help a hairdresser: Thanks to the Lookout who tipped off The Lookout that Luminary Hair Co. is also raising money and selling merch to help make staff whole after last week’s water mess. Donate and/or shop.
Skyline shakeup?: Gov. Doug Funny Glenn Youngkin finally greenlit a new state building downtown, which means the James Monroe Building, the dominant feature of the E. Grace St. Overlook view, could be demolished. More info.
Quoth the raven, “happy birthday”: Celebrate the birth of Edgar Allan Poe on Sunday (1/19) with a “lyrical tour” around St. John’s graveyard, where his mother is interred. Details here.
Meet your neighbors: The Church Hill Association’s monthly confab is next Tuesday (1/21) at 6:30pm, also at St. John’s (in the parish hall, not the graveyard.) Put it on your calendar.
Stick ‘em up: The Lookout’s initial run of custom stickers is going fast! Send me one dollar 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.
🗣️ Comments are now open