Our brothers and sisters across the river are having a 5k run on February 13th (that’s 3.1 miles).  They only charge $15 to participate and a long-sleeved shirt is included in the price of registration. If the route takes runners through the beautiful Forest Hill Park, then it’ll be a lovely stroll.  I plan to run/walk/jog/wog(?) and use the event as an excuse to improve my cardio fitness.  Maybe you want to support Forest Hill Park and go for a run as well.

The Forest Hill Neighborhood Association sponsored run made me think: Don’t we also have a picturesque park on our side of the river? Isn’t there a Vita-course associated with our park?  Hmmm…  Anyone wanna coordinate something like this in Byrd Park?

The West End Market at Idlewood and Shields has undergone some renovations. The bars have come off the windows and large and modern tinted glass has been installed.

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The murder of Tyler Binstead in March of 2008 took place on the outskirts of Byrd Park, but most residents of the surrounding neighborhoods felt personally affected and haven’t forgotten.  Linda O’Brian, whose daughter survived the attack, is hoping that people from the community will help her produce a series of community dialogues. She has contacted other blogs who are also posting their perspective along with the notice below:

“Hello friends, I live in Blacksburg but my VCU daughter survived a violent crime in Byrd Park almost 2 years ago. I’m doing a community dialogue theater piece on the event and all the discussion it provoked, to try and bring understanding to matters of crime, violence, history, discrimination, trauma, race, youth, drugs and guns. I also want to include all the vitality of Richmond community life. I need some friendly collaborators from the Richmond area to help out. I want a better world. Anyone interested please contact me.  Lmobrientribe@yahoo.com“

In further correspondence, Ms. O’Brian added:

“The project will be in development for at least a year. When it goes, it will most likely be in Blacksburg with the Tech theater department. Of course, I would hope to have it performed eventually in Richmond. It would be most helpful to have researchers in Richmond who might be willing to do interviews in the blocks where the three convicted teens lived. Also, people willing to get stories of good things happening in Richmond as well as the local music and art scene. That is something of what is needed. I would hope to find places for volunteers according to their interests.”

If you are interested or just curious, Ms. O’Brian welcomes our input. Lmobrientribe@yahoo.com

Look out!  This website now has a Twitter account, @ByrdParkdotnet. Hopefully, with this tool at our disposal, we can increase traffic to the site and build new channels of communication with other neighborhood resources, community blogs, and constituents.

If you are on Twitter, please follow us for news about updates to the site.  If you know of a Twitter account that @ByrdParkdotnet should follow (and share their updates from time to time), please say the word.  Your input and healthy activity on the new Twitter account will keep this site fresh and informative.

The upcoming meeting of the Byrd Park Civic League (BPCL) will feature two guests.  Sherry Williams from The Virginia Home will talk about community garden possibilities and there will also be someone on hand to talk about graffiti removal.  In addition to these topics, there will be updates from those who attended Marty Jewell’s 5th District meeting.  The BPCL meeting will take place at 10am on Saturday, February 13th, at the Roundhouse building in Byrd Park, near Fountain Lake.  Everyone is welcome. Membership is NOT required for attendance.

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An online article in the Richmond Examiner paid high praise to Byrd Park recently, calling the public green spaces “Richmond’s answer to Central Park.”  The Valentine’s installment of their regular feature, “the Richmond Marriage Examiner,” prescribed regular trips to Byrd Park in order to maintain a happy marriage.  Here is an excerpt:

Byrd Park has been a Richmond family favorite for years. Beautifully landscaped gently rolling terrain, the park features tree-shaded lawns, three man-made lakes, tennis courts, and ball fields to enjoy when warm weather arrives. But after our snowy weekend Byrd Park is the ideal place to go sledding down Reservoir Hill with your spouse. Relive those childhood moments and play together.

The internet wants your Byrd Park pictures. Are you familiar with Flickr.com? It’s a free image hosting site. When you upload pictures taken in the park or the surrounding neighborhoods, please tag them “byrd park” or “byrdpark” and they will appear in the photo widget on the right side of ByrdPark.net’s screen. Also, we may use them in our stories to jazz things up around the site.  If there’s a community event, or just a Kodak moment on your block, it’s that easy to share the pictures with the rest of us.

Intrepid ByrdPark.net reporter, John Bourgeois, suggested in a recent comment thread that we ask that the Farm to Family bus make a regular stop in the neighborhood.  The Farm to Family bus brings locally grown produce and other edible items to various parts of the city for retail purchase.  Their inventory of natural foods is not readily available at local grocery stores.  If this is an idea that you would support, please vote in the polls here and speak up with a comment. A Byrd Park stop needs to be worth their while.  If we get enough positive reaction, we just may lure the re-purposed 1987 school bus to our neighborhood bringing their supplies of gourmet goodies. Of course, critical input is welcome too.

Where the Farm to Family bus stops could determine how much business they can generate. Should it be in the middle of the Byrd Park neighborhood, so adults can flock to it like children to the ice cream man? Maybe a visible spot like the tennis courts? Somewhere more central for Maymont and Randolph neighborhoods? Cast your vote and explain your perspective.

Let’s keep the voting going through 2/21 in order to give the Farm to Family folks all the input they might need.

35-40 people attended the most recent Byrd Park Civic League meeting, but only 15 people signed in.  For future notice, membership is not required for attendance and attendees who sign in get added to the BPCL email list (very very low traffic – not an email burden at all). Here are some highlights of the 2/13 Byrd Park Civic League Meeting, provided by BPCL President, Kim Mullooly…

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At just before noon today, two Byrd Park residents happened upon a strange sight as they pushed their baby stroller along the sidewalk to the West of Swan Lake. Next to an open bag of  pet food sat two brown and white hamsters, stuffing their cheeks full of seeds.  One didn’t flinch as the couple picked it up.  The other was more skittish, but went along eventually. Before taking the two evidently abandoned critters home to call the SPCA, the couple also noticed a small painted turtle a couple feet away (the type you see at the pet store).  This one didn’t put up much of a chase. They dropped him off at in the water and watched him swim away.

Here”s a progress report from Leslie Hartman, a Byrd Park neighbor who’s been working with the community to establish a public garden. This is NOT the same effort as the one that is getting off the ground at the Virginia Home with the help of the Byrd Park Civic League.  Leslie does a great job differentiating these two projects – a handy update to help you figure out where you might like to pitch in.  Also, feel free to offer input in the comments section (or to Leslie by email: ltomandlhartman@yahoo.com)

Hello there, gardening aficionados,

I know it’s been awhile since you heard from me. You may have assumed that I or this community garden idea fell off the map. Fortunately, neither one has happened! Here is an update to let you know the status of things and the feedback I would like from you to help us move forward: Since we last met/communicated by email, I have been searching for an appropriate site for our garden, with limited success.

Here are the possible sites I have pursued:

1. Land owned by Sixth Baptist Church, either behind or adjacent to the West End Market. After two phone conversations and many unreturned messages, I think it is fair to say that Pastor Bibbs at 6th Baptist is not interested in a community garden on church property. During our last conversation (7/13/09), she told me the church is planning to build a community gym and recreation center on their property, but they are at least 8-10 months out from this plan. She also said they never incur debt for their building projects, always raising the money first and then paying cash. They had no specific plans for the property and rec center drawn up by an architect at the time of our last conversation, so Dr. Bibbs was understandably unwilling to commit any land to a community garden.

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