- The Church Hill Lookout
- Posts
- The CHillest scenes in the neighborhood
I’ve included a photo of the neighborhood at the bottom of each edition of The Lookout since its launch this past November. The feature, “A Very CHill Photo,” is an opportunity to highlight scenes that I love from around the neighborhood. And there’s a lot to love: in nearly two dozen newsletters, I’ve never struggled to find a picture in my camera roll that captures Church Hill’s many good sides.
Scroll down and you’ll find today’s Very CHill Photo. It was submitted by Lookout Vanessa Chambers, who writes “From Libby Hill park, sunrise hitting downtown buildings while everything else is still dark.” It’s really pretty, Vanessa, thanks for sharing.
As for the rest of youse: please submit your Very CHill Photos for publication! The Lookout may be my newsletter, but it’s our neighborhood, and I have no doubt you’ve got some stunning shots of it, just waiting to be shared with the world. Eventually, I’d like to grow the newsletter to include other ways to feature readers’ editorial submissions (like the letters to the editor you see in The Richmond Times-Dispatch, but ideally more coherent), but for now, the Very CHill Photo section is how you can contribute. I hope you will.
Submitting your Very CHill Photo is as easy as sending it to me via email ([email protected]) with your name and the camera you took it on. You don’t need to be a professional photographer or even a hobbyist to submit, though it’s fine if you are. The same goes for equipment: my wife, for example, shoots on an Olympus OM-D E-M10, while I have a basic iPhone 13 Mini. Hande Cakar, who you may know from her work slinging lattes at Riverbend Roastery, has submitted Very CHill photos taken on her Sony 7A and her iPhone. It’s all good.
As for subject matter, parameters are pretty loose. Send photos of views, buildings, flora and fauna, and the like from around Church Hill. (And of course, if you see interesting trash, please send photos of that, too, to provoke the poetic faculties of The Lookout’s litter critter-at-large, Penelope Poubelle.) No crazy Instagram-style filters or portraits of people, please, but pretty much everything else is fair game. Send ‘em early, and send ‘em often, folks.
To celebrate Earth Day this past Tuesday (and, candidly, to have something to publish today while I wrap up some reporting for future editions), here are a few of my favorite Very CHill Photos from The Lookout’s first months in publication:
 Hande Cakar, iPhone 14 |  Katie Amrhein, iPhone 14 |  Windsor Bisbee, iPhone 16 Pro |
Not to be corny, but between the grind of trying to make a living iN tHiS eConOmY and the deeply ugly stuff that dominates local and national news, I’m certainly guilty of taking the beauty of this neighborhood for granted from time to time. But I shouldn’t—and neither should anybody else. So send me your Very CHill Photos, neighbors, to remind everyone of Church Hill’s many good sides.
📜 Possum Poetry
Spotted on Jefferson Ave. | Penelope Poubelle
I’m not complaining — I’d eat ice cream off a rotted log,
But who the hell ditches half-eaten Spotty Dog?!
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!
⚖️ Keeping ICE out of Richmond’s courthouses
Earlier in this week in a Charlottesville courthouse, masked men in plain clothes purporting to be federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained two men without explanation to observers, who filmed the event. You can read the Daily Progress’ report on the incident here.
I bring this up because just last week I published The Lookout Interview with Church Hill resident Tom Barbour, a Democratic challenger for Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney (CA), in which I asked how he would handle this sort of situation if elected. Here was his answer:
With regards to ICE, I am committed to not cooperating with ICE, specifically in two ways that the Commonwealth’s Attorney's office can control. The Commonwealth’s Attorney effectively controls who is in the jail and who isn't, and who is in the courthouse and who isn't. Here's what I mean by that. I will require our prosecutors to incorporate into their advocacy on bail, like detention at the very start of the criminal case, the collateral consequences of extreme immigration enforcement. We cannot have even undocumented persons who are accused of crimes that don't require incarceration to manage violent risk, to be held pre-trial and then have them be deported for what might otherwise be a minor or manageable offense. In those cases, we will also incorporate that same thinking into advocacy for what outcomes should be. If someone can be managed successfully in the community, then they don't need to be at a jail where they can be subject to an ICE detainer.
The next way is to control who's coming to the courthouse. The Commonwealth's Attorney’s office has the ability to advocate for and waive the appearance of accused persons in the disposition of their cases. That matters a lot, because ICE is effectively slow to react. Right? If someone's coming in on an arraignment, [ICE agents] probably won't be there, but they definitely will be at the trial date set in three to six months. If we know there's going to be in a disposition in the case that doesn't require that person to be incarcerated, then, frankly, it doesn't require that person to be present. We can actually enter that disposition without them being at the courthouse, so long as they agree with that. Those are two tools that exist within the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s power to fight back about against extreme immigration enforcement that I would use on that issue.
Keep an eye out for The Lookout Interview with Barbour’s primary opponent, incumbent Richmond CA Colette McEachin, to run in early May, in advance of the June 17th Democratic primary. In the meantime, check the full ballot here, and find your polling place here.
📚 Pulp fiction addiction
I’m on the record with my contention that the Free Little Library on N. 28th St. at Riverbend Roastery is the best one in Church Hill. Am I wrong? You know what to do:
Anyway, I rolled by on Thursday morning, and somebody had dropped off a concerning number of Dean Koontz novels. Not one, not two, but eight (!!!) volumes from the master of the mass-press thriller. Listen, it’s The Lookout’s considered editorial position that book bans are anti-constitutional wimp shit; people should read whatever they want. But I think this might be too much Koontz for one bookshelf. Like, medically.
Then again, the guy has pumped out over 100 novels, so it’s entirely possible that whichever suspense/sci-fi superfan in the neighborhood dropped these off still has plenty more where that came from. That’s a strong dose of Dean, man.
📢 Happenings on The Hill
Mulch or die: Just kidding. But the Church Hill Association’s annual Libby Hill Park Mulch Day is tomorrow (Saturday 4/26) from 9am-3pm, and they hope you’ll look alive and help them mulch! Sign up here.
Clean or die: Man, this joke is dumb. But the Chimborazo Park Conservancy and the Friends of Chimborazo Park are hosting a spring clean-up at that park at 9am tomorrow. Details, right this way.
Shop or die: What am I even doing here? Anyway, Pizza Bones is holding a Spring Market Sunday (4/27) from 12-5pm.1 No word on vendors, but their last market was… wait for it… killer. Feast your eyes on the flyer.
Work or die: Alright this one is unfortunately fairly accurate. But Triple Crossing is hiring a restaurant manager for its Fulton location, which includes an employee discount on pizza. So, y’know, could be worse. Here’s the listing.
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
Sunrise on the skyline. | Vanessa Chambers, Samsung Galaxy S23
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.
1 Correction 4/25/25: A previous version of this newsletter incorrectly listed the day of the Pizza Bones Market. It is Sunday (4/27). The Lookout regrets the error.
Reply