With the Richmond Braves kaput, we’re it for fireworks in the city this year, so expect a lot of people. WRIC.com has the scoop on the city’s plans to keep traffic and people moving on Saturday:

To deal with the expected crowd, parking will be restricted Saturday in and around Dogwood Dell, the Carillon and Byrd Park. Richmond Police will strictly enforce parking signs, and violating vehicles will be towed.

To help, a shuttle has been established between the University of Richmond Stadium and Dogwood Dell beginning at 4 p.m.. The stadium is located at Douglasdale Road and McCloy Street.

Several roads will be closed, and the RMA is waiving the southbound toll on the Nickel Bridge for 30 minutes following the end of the fireworks display.

We have the odd boarded-up house here and there, but nothing like this. Detroit photographer Kevin Bauman has documented the decline and fall of some of the Motor City’s magnificent neighborhoods, and boy, is it a sad sight. Some dwellings are modest, but others quite obviously were castles for the wealthy on the order of what we have on Monument Avenue (one of them even has parapets, for crying out loud). One imagines the most skilled stone and brick masons in the Midwest working on some of these buildings, which were once homes to families but now are left to rot and fall in street.

We spent the better part of the afternoon today glued to this, the Library of Congress’ searchable database of newspapers.

The Richmond Times, Richmond Dispatch and Times-Dispatch (they merged) are represented. In a 1902 issue of the Dispatch, we found a boosterish account of a day spent at Reservoir Park, later to be named Idlewood Amusement Park and written about in the Times-Dispatch in 1907 (see previous post) but nothing about the development of our neighborhood, which would seem to have been news.

It’s all but impossible to link to specific stories, but click here to see what a search for “Byrd Park” in the Times-Dispatch brings up.  And, you take a spin and see what you can find.

We had what looks like a purebred Scottish Terrier wander into our backyard tonight. Still here. No collar, very friendly. Is he yours?

Lt. Capriglione’s crime report for Sector 313 is out. Not great news. There was what police call a drug-related robbery in the 2000 block of Lakeview Ave. and an arrest was made. Otherwise, Byrd Park was quiet in June according to the report.  The Fan, not so.   

6/2009 vs. 6/2008 – eight (8) crimes vs. eleven (11) crimes.

6/2009 vs. 6/2008 – sixty-five (65) crimes vs. fifty-six (56) crimes

6/2009 vs. 6/2008 – seventy-three (73) crimes vs. sixty-seven (67) crimes

Surely you’ve seen this by now. If not, take a look.

A park visitor reported seeing a raccoon wandering around in the daylight last Tuesday near the Children’s Farm. Maymont staffers caught the animal, and it tested positive for rabies last Wednesday, the story says. A neighborhood resident on a morning walk this week spotted another one hanging out near the base of a tree on the edge of the park at Lakeview and reported it to animal control. It’s usually a bad sign when raccoons, being nocturnal, are seen milling about during the day. Be careful out there, especially with your dogs.