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River City Rapidsbroke the news that Arianna’s may be expanding into the closed tattoo parlor next door. The restaurant has received glowing reviews since it opened, and adequate seating is something it has lacked, so it seems to be a good move.

Is Devil’s Triangle losing its edginess?

See that big yellow dot on the Dominion Power outage map? That’s Carytown. From RTD…

A flaming power pole in Carytown tonight left about 2,200 customers without electricity… The pole is at Cary Street and Beaumont Avenue, just east of Cary Court Shopping Center. … expected repairs to be made and power restored to the last 700 customers by tomorrow morning.

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The Bopst Show - new every Monday

The 25th Annual Carytown Watermelon Festival is a Richmond tradition, and it’s quickly approaching. The event takes place Sunday, August 10, 2008, from 10 AM to 6 PM and will be bigger and better than ever.

Organizers are expecting a record crowd of 100,000+ strolling Cary Street and have some new events planned as well as keeping the old favorites…

• A fashion show will take place at the main stage in the Ben & Jerry’s parking lot. Merchants from Carytown will be featuring their clothing in the show
• Shriners will be back serving up watermelon for charity. Make sure to buy from them versus other watermelon vendors
• Parking. Well, that’s still an issue. So get there early.

We’ll continue to update this post with details as they come in. Check back often!

photo by: The Anti-ZIM

Tipster Kristen sent us this plea to keep buses running through WOTB…

I wanted to bring your attention to the GRTC’s current plan to eliminate nine bus routes in the City of Richmond and surrounding counties by September purportedly due to low ridership. While I’m sure cancellation of any of the nine routes will cause hardship on many riders, I personally can speak to the hardship the cancellation of Westhampton 16 and the Main Street/Church Hill 13 will cause, not to mention GRTC’s absurd timing, in light of the pressing need for improved public transportation. The Westhampton/16 travels from University of Richmond, downtown, with most of its route on Grove and Hanover Avenues, and Franklin and Grace Streets. The Main Street/13 travels from Church Hill through downtown, out to River Road on Cary Street, and then back through Carytown on its way downtown. I have been riding both buses to and from work for the past four years and can assure you that ridership is up substantially in the recent months.

There is a public forum on the matter next Tuesday 7/29 at 6 pm. I don’t want this travesty to merely slip through the cracks without attention. I am trying to raise awareness amongst bus riders and local groups that may have interest.

Thank you for your time.
 
Kristen

GRTC’s notice 
RTD article

National Night Out is August 5. WOTB had some rockin’ parties last year. Let us know what’s going on. Email info (at) wotbn (dot) net.

From the Department of Public Utilities…

RICHMOND, VA—Beginning Friday, July 18, 2008 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) will be performing emergency sewer work in the 700 block of N. Boulevard. The project is expected to be complete by Wednesday, July 23, 2008.

During this time, the two northbound lanes of N. Boulevard will be closed between Monument Ave. and Grace St.

Traffic will be detoured east on Monument Ave and directed north on to Davis Ave. to W. Broad St

From Ellwood Thompson’s…

Dragon and Tiger Qigong - July 19, 1 PM. Come learn the Dragon and Tiger form, which boosts energy, increases flexibility and balance, and is good for heart and kidney issues.

Sample a delicious and potent antioxident blend from Nature’s Way on July 25, 4 - 7 PM. This 100% certified organic blend of goji, mangosteen, pomegranate and acai is not only a very potent antioxidant but tastes great as well!

Farmers’ Market - Every Wednesday, 3:30 - 7:30. Ellwood Thompson’s is the original Farmers’ Market, but they’re setting up outside each Wednesday with local farm favorites.

Introduction to Goat Cheese - July 30, 7:30 PM. Think all goat cheese tastes the same?

Speaking with Spokes: On August 1st, 2008, Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market and RVA Magazine team up to create Speaking with Spokes, the first organized, sponsored and safe group bike ride through the city. This ride will benefit Books on Wheels,

Ellwood Thompson’s is located at 4 N. Thompson St.

Amici has closed its doors until September 2 to remodel. The northern Italian eatery picked an interesting time to do this - right in the middle of the summer when their front patio is one of the most popular places to eat in Carytown.

Amici is located at 3343 W. Cary Street.

Infuzion Lounge is expanding it’s offering to lunch, opening its doors Tuesday-Friday. A jazz pianist will be on hand, as well as fare including salads, skewers, wraps, sandwiches, and desserts.

Infuzion is located at 1401 Roseneath Road.

A new website documenting the history and architecture of Devil’s Triangle hit the Internet recently. So far it has featured historic pictures and reviews of local businesses. It’s an interesting addition to our neighborhood’s web presence.

You may see a for lease sign popping up soon, but Heidi Story is not closing. It’s moving next to Moshi Moshi at 3319 W. Cary, and should be complete by August. The new store will feature more classes and more items for sale.

Chop Suey in Carytown has been slowly increasing its inventory of comic books and now has a complete section devoted to them. The store teamed up with Velocity comics, and features a wide variety of graphic novels.

The Valentine Richmond History Center is leading a walking tour through the Museum District this Saturday from 2-4 PM. It will meet at the Confederate Chapel behind the VMFA, and is $10.

Ruth & Ollie, the furniture and interior design store formerly at Libbie and Grove, picked up shop and moved to Carytown. They’re set to open this week.

From their website:

• We’ve leased part of the former “Martha’s Mixture” building located at 3445 West Cary in Carytown.
• We’ll have nearly 3,000 square feet of retail space. That’s over 4 times the space we have now and we’ll have 4 times the selection!
• We plan to expand our offerings with upholstered headboards, dining tables & chairs, desks and an even more sumptuous and fuller selection of sofas, chairs and tables, mirrors and lighting.

John over at CHPN.net passed along some interesting agenda items on tap at the 6pm council meeting tonight…

Ord. No. 2008-160 (Patron: President Pantele, By Request) - To authorize the special use of *** 3031 Norfolk Street for the purpose of converting the existing building for use as up to 90 multi-family dwelling units ***.

Ord. No. 2008-162 (Patron: President Pantele, By Request) - To authorize the special use of *** 1700 Summit Avenue for the purpose of converting the existing building for use as up to 89 multi-family dwelling units ***.

I’m no expert when it comes to zoning, council meetings, etc, but it seems like these proposals need a good review before getting Wilder & Pantele’s old rubber stamp.

The proposals are pretty similar, so I checked out the Summit property in more detail (Full PDF of the proposal here)…

• The Summit property is an old vehicle repair building and is zoned as M-1 Industrial. Most of the surrounding property is zoned Industrial as well. Plopping hundreds of people in an Industrial zone isn’t too appealing.
• They’re only constructing 89 parking spots. Call me crazy, but if you’re building 89 units with 149 bedrooms, you’re going to need more than 89 parking spots.
• The plans call for lots of really small apartments. Some of the 2 bedroom units are as small as 612 square feet. Do we really want a lot more tiny apartments in this city? I realize the market will sort all these types of things out, but some city planning could help.
• The owner is looking to cash in on a lot of Federal, State, and Local tax credits. Before doling these out, let’s double check that this is what we want to spend taxpayer money on.

Those are my thoughts. What about you?

Carytown Merchants Association reported the following…

There has been a robbery at the Tokoyo (sic) Market at 3 - 3:15 pm today, Wed. July 9th.  the person to be on the look out for is a tall & skinny black man with a heavy accent of unknown origin.  He was dressed in dirty clothes with light colored pants.  He had a silver hand gun. PLEASE CALL POLICE IF YOU SEE THIS MAN

Bonus points for a monkey.

Remember that monkey in Carytown? It’s back, only this time it bit a child in Byrd Park during the July 4th festivities. Health officials are looking for the monkey’s owner and want to examine the monkey’s general health. If you know anything about the monkey, call the Richmond Health Dept - 382-4363.

h/t - my favorite blog, 10southboulevard