September 04, 2009
37,000 Residents To Be Displaced In Historic Road Re-engineering
Richmond’s historic Fan District – named for its protruding hand fan shape from Belvidere Street to the Boulevard – will be re-engineered during the next four years into the appearance of a more circular, electric fan, city officials said today.
“When you look at the history of circles in the design of world’s greatest cities – New York, L.A., Cleveland – what you find is that circles are pretty cool for city design and stuff. So that’s what we’re going with,” said Rachel Flynn, the city’s director of community development. “Plus, nobody uses those hand fans anymore, so think of this as an upgrade to an electric fan.”
To create the newly-shaped Fan, Cary Street – which borders the Fan and connects Belvidere to Boulevard – will be rounded into a 180-degree half-circle, as will Broad Street, which serves as the northern edge of the district.
Belvidere and Boulevard will be eliminated completely in the Fan reshaping, forcing nearly 37,000 Richmond residents out of their homes.
“We hope to find new places for them to live, but for now our No. 1 priority is overhauling this important part of town into a circle instead of a box,” Flynn said, referring to the historic neighborhood first plotted in 1817 by William Byrd II.
Still, residents were concerned with the drastic changes to the Fan, which are expected to begin next month and cost upwards of $3.2 billion.
“I don’t understand why the city feels the need to change streets solely because this area is called the Fan and they want it in a different fan shape, albeit still a fan,” said Melanie Reale, a 46-year-old resident of the popular residential district. “Though when I think about it, I haven’t used a hand fan in years, and [our family] owns at least three of the electric ones, so I guess this does make sense.”
The move comes on the heels of a poorly-planned decision by the city to erect a 400-ton, 200-foot high stainless steel deli meat carver in Richmond’s historic Carver neighborhood.
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Guy Who Lives Above 3 Monkeys Tired Of Asking Everyone To Keep It Down
Nick Cavalieri, who has lived in the apartment directly above 3 Monkeys Bar and Grill since November, is getting "more than fed up" with having to continuously tell his neighbors to be quiet, the 30-year-old said today.
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Charlie is not gonna like this…
What, no mention of a new ballpark as a centerpiece? What are they thinking???? The team would have a built in fan base…
Perhaps they could simple relocate the displaced 37,000 folks to assigned seats… Wow, this could gain some traction, quick, someone call Doug Wilder.