RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — One Richmond community is rallying the troops to find and report areas of their Richmond neighborhood they feel need the most infrastructural help.
Walking around the Museum District is a simple pleasure for five-year resident Robin Gordon.
“I can’t imagine living anywhere else,” Gordon said. “I absolutely love it.”
Gordan said she loves the beauty and sense of community — but those peaks have been met with a few literal pits.
Uneven sidewalks and bothersome potholes pop up around every few corners. Chipped curbs and sharp, cut-off sidewalks can make walking around the scenic community hazardous.
“It’s important to get these things taken care of,” Gordon said. “Some things like a pothole could actually cause damage.”
That’s why, instead of waiting for public utility crews to find and pinpoint the problems, Gordon and 52 residents are spearheading change themselves.
Gordan said the safety of herself and her community is the most important thing to her.
“If we see a sidewalk or manhole that perhaps a child or dog could fall into, that’s something that we want to report and we’re going to follow up on it,” Gordon said.
Through an “infrastructure walk” hosted by the Museum District Association, two teams will scan about 1.5 miles worth of land across seven sections of the district. They directly report issues through RVA 311’s app.
It’s something anyone can do on their own, but Gordon explained it can be tricky for some.
“[Some neighbors] don’t know about the app,” Gordon said. “They don’t understand it. They’re not comfortable with it.”
The Museum District Association hopes this infrastructure walk can “walk” people through the process, so they’re prepared for future findings.
According to RVA 311, its repair crews filled 1,400 pothole requests in Richmond last year and City of Richmond road crews filled an additional 8,728. There have been 598 potholes reported so far in 2024, but Gordon expects a different type of issue to take precedence.
“A lot of what we’ll be reporting will be the sidewalks,” Gordon said. “We do have a number of blind people in our area and it’s difficult for them to walk on an uneven sidewalk.”
She said she’s noticed and appreciated the City of Richmond construction and resources allocated towards bike lanes and roads that needed re-paving.
She hopes efforts like the walk held on Monday, March 18, will help remind the community not to overlook things like illegible sides, unkempt gardens, or any space that might not get as much attention as others.
“We want to feel a sense of pride in our neighborhood,” Gordon said. “We want to feel that it’s safe for our residents to move around and get out and walk around.”
8News is still waiting on data from Monday night’s walk, but Gordon said she went out herself for about an hour recently and found 17 things to report, so she expects the findings will be substantial.
For more information about the Museum District Association, visit its website. For details about RVA 311 and how to report ordinance violations or concerns, see its website.
