Lucy Goode Brooks, the former slave who founded the Friends Asylum for Colored Orphans in 1871 will be honored tomorrow with a new historical marker at Charity and St. Paul Streets. [via]

The regular meeting of the Public Safety Committee of City Council will be moved to the Renaissance Conference Center (107 West Broad Street) on Monday, 3/17 @ 3PM. On the agenda for the meeting are: 1) the need for greater police presence along Broad Street, 2) the need to remove prostitutes, panhandlers, and drug dealers from the area, and 3) the need to improve trash pick-up and interrupted street lighting. This meeting is open to the public; anyone who has an interest in effective and on-going downtown Richmond revitalization is encouraged to attend. [via]

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Does it have a bright green “gator” bag like this one attached to it? If so, please fill it once a week — and maybe even talk with your neighbors about helping you. (The fill-up slot is underneath the label at the top of the bag.) These bags are important to the survival of the small trees — over 50% of new trees fail because of lack of water, and rainfall is short this winter. [via]

The City of Richmond Planning Commission invites interested members of the public to participate in a seminar on Form-Based Code on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 @6PM at City Council Chambers at City Hall. Form-Based Code is a type of zoning that regulates patterns of development by focusing on the relationship of buildings to each other and the street. The seminar will include presentations on the legal and practical aspects of this type of zoning. The presenters include Dan Slone with McGuire Woods LLP and Geoffrey Ferrell with Ferrell Madden Lewis LLC.

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The 4th of 6 scheduled neighborhood-specific meetings on the Downtown Plan took place tonight at The Jackson Center Building (501 North 2nd Street). The 2-hour meeting included an overview of the process so far, the plan as it pertains to Broad Street and Jackson Ward, and a lively Q&A session.

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The fourth of the recently announced neighborhood-level Downtown Plan meetings is scheduled for Tuesday for Broad Street and Jackson Ward. The meeting will be at The Jackson Center Building/DHCD Board Room (501 North 2nd Street) from 6-8PM.

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The second of the recently announced neighborhood-level Downtown Plan meetings is scheduled for Monday for the VCU, Monroe Ward, Oregon Hill, and Carver areas. The meeting will be at the William Byrd Community House (224 South Cherry Street) tonight from 6-8PM.

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Ever wonder why your neighbors, colleagues or family members seem to view the Richmond region differently than you? If so, apply to the Greater Richmond Challenge taking place May 8-9 and see the region through the eyes of a fellow resident.

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The current issue of the radical Richmond Defender (PDF) takes a look at RRHA’s intentions to redevelop Gilpin Court, Richmond’s largest public housing community, and asks “Where will they go?”. From the article: 2,109 people live in Gilpin Court, average annual household income is $9,128, average monthly rent is $185.

Commonwealth Construction will give away more than 1,000 gallons of left over paint beginning today at 11AM at 521 N. Adams St. Some of the paint has been partially used, some is unopened 1- and 5-gallon containers. [via]

1,235 cars were reported stolen in Richmond last year. Of Richmond’s more than 120 neighborhoods, Carver was #6 with 33 cars being reported stolen in 2007. The top 7 were: Jahnke Road (53), Midlothian Business Corridor (48), The Fan (43), Jeff Davis (37), Northrup (34), Carver (33), and Ginter Park (32). [via]

The RRHA announced yesterday that it has ended talks with Trammell Crow Residential on Jackson Place, a mixed-use, mixed-income community development, 13 months after the project was announced. Housing authority officials said that they will seek new development proposals early in 2008. [via]

The revelation that no contract was completed for the project came as the latest in a long series of disappointments for Charles W. Finley, president of the Historic Jackson Ward Association.

“We’ve been waiting for a long time,” Finley said yesterday. “It has been sitting there as vacant land for a long time. A lot of people are tired of seeing concepts come and concepts go, and nothing ever happens.”