THE DOWNTOWN MASTER PLAN: STOP GNASHING, START ACTING

After a bit of teeth gnashing on my part earlier this week about my perception that the City of Richmond, Venture Richmond and Florida-based urban design firm Dover Kohl were sucking wind in terms of actively inviting the public to participate in a seven-day design charrette for a new Downtown Master Plan, I decided to stop whining and start doing.

Last night, I discovered that the city's Department of Community Development had finally posted details on the charrette on their website, and used their information to actively get the word out.

• I crafted a brief "citizen's press release" with pertinent information about the charrette and sent it to several dozen Richmond-focused weblogs and websites that focus on community issues.
• I sent that same release out to dozen civic and merchant organizations, asking them to please share the information with their members.
• I posted the release on North Richmond News, a community weblog serving residents of neighborhoods in North Richmond and central Henrico.
• I emailed Brooke Hardin (the city's main contact for the charrette) and the principals of Dover Kohl requesting interviews (which will appear on this website if they happen).

Some additional plans I'm working on include:

• "Live blogging" from the charrette on a daily basis, starting next Friday. I'll do this around my work schedule, but hope to include photos, daily updates and interviews with Richmond residents and members of the charrette team.
• Coordinating coverage with other area webloggers to ensure residents can stay informed about the "hits and misses" of the Downtown Master Plan developments.
• Covering and commenting on other media coverage of the event.

Updated Thursday Morning: Don Harrison at Save Richmond has been keeping me in the loop on a series of emails he's exchanged with Jack Berry of Venture Richmond. Partly as a result of Don's quiet and excellent lobbying, Venture Richmond has suddenly gotten very active in communicating the Downtown Plan event:

• posted the event on the Venture Richmond web site
• sent out a press release
• requested that GRCC post on their web site
• posted on Shockoe Bottom yahoo group site
• River City rapids blog
• Church Hill People's blog
• Carver and Jackson Ward news blog
• Union Hill Civic Association email list
• Union Hill Civic Association email list
• Church Hill Association email list
• Jackson Ward Association email list

Updated Again Thursday Afternoon: Venture Richmond has requested that the following organizations send out the
invite to their members/constituents via email/enews:

• GRCC
• LMR
• GRP
• C3 list and the C3 Yrichmond summer internship participants
• Retail Merchants Association
• Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau
• The Metropolitan Business League
• Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council
• Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Asian American Business Association
• AIA
• Virginia Center for Architecture

Comments

[john m]

... and the New Visions Civic League email list, too.

[Kristen]

Please consider posting opportunities for community input on the Connect Richmond site and over the email list, which has nearly 4,000 participants (civic leaders, volunteers, and community members) who represent 1,100 nonprofit organizations/govt. agencies and businesses.

[Jonah Holland]

Go John. Richmond is lucky to have you. I'll let you know if I get a notice from RMCVB since that is my employer AND I'm on their email list.