The Manchester Urban Farm will be closed on Saturday:

In remembrance of 9/11, and so we can all attend The Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, the farm will be closed Saturday, September 11th.

The 2010 RVANews Richmond Folk Festival guide is up and running:

Scheduled for October 8, 9, and 10 on Browns Island, the Richmond Folk Festival will feature local, national, and international performers, kids activities, crafts — oh just all kinds of folksy goodness. So much, in fact, that we though it only appropriate to organize the details for you in one easy-to-use spot.

Manchester Alliance meeting tonight @ 6pm @ Legend’s on West 7th Street:

The Manchester Alliance is a community of homeowners, residents, business owners and developers promoting the balanced growth of Old Manchester. We are passionate about the possbilities of Old Manchester and what impact we create to the growth of the greater Richmond area.

The September Shockoe Wide Open, the new “second Friday” art walks celebrating the area’s visual and culinary arts, is this Friday and events are starting to come in! FRAME NATION is opening “Study in Euphoria” by Shockoe artist Stephen Lewis from 6-9PM and Halligan Bar & Grill will be welcoming guests from FDNY for a special 9/11 tribute:

Firefighters from New York will be visiting Richmond for the race and chose the Halligan Bar as there spot to party. The Halligan Bar will be creating a special tribute in the Farmer’s Market. A special chalk drawing “postcard” to the victims and families of victims of the September 11 attacks will be created in the Farmer’s Market. We hope that all our fans and friends will come down and participate in this wonderful memorial.

The one and only Tortoise plays TONIGHT at the Canal Club. 7PM, $18

Forget Flavor Flav the reality tv clown and hold in your mind just how perfect Nation of Millions was and is: Public Enemy is at The Hat Factory this Saturday, September 10. $30 adv/$35 day-of.

Read more >

Chanterell’s Pizza is coming to 1124 Hull Street. No word on how close they are to being open, though they did apply for an ABC license (wine/beer/mixed ON) on 7/19/2010.

Style Weekly has word of a shake-up at LuLu’s:

Millie’s Diner owner Paul Keevil has taken over operations at the Shockoe Bottom spin-off LuLu’s; former partner Steve Jurina is no longer involved at the restaurant.

Writing for richmond.com, Alix Bryan reports on last week’s working meeting on the future of the canal:

It was clear that a strong majority want to interact with the Canal, not just observe it. There was a demand for fewer restrictions and for biking, pet walking, and even kayaking through the Canal. While Venture Richmond said ticket sales have increased for the Canal boat cruises that run on evenings and weekends, many want more use from the Canal. Also mentioned was an observation deck for the rapids.

Rumor has it that the Lifetime movie getting ready set filming in Richmond was scouting locations in Shockoe and Tobacco Row today…

The film will be shot in Richmond beginning Sept. 13 through the first week of October, according to Darilyn Mason, the extras casting director on the production. Mason couldn’t give too many details on the plot or the budget of the film.

It’s been 6 years since Gaston flooded Main Street and Shockoe Bottom:

Then, at about 6pm at night as we all stood in the main entrance way to our street level offices the front doors opened….. it was a wall of water about 12 inches high. It swept through the office. Everyone ran to get stuff off of the floor and into the cars in our parking deck behind our office. Within a minute or two the water had risen to about 3 feet deep. It was time for us to leave. [...] We ran up stairs and spent the next 5 hours on the second floor of the building watching in amazement as we looked out the windows onto what was East Main Street. It was now a 9 foot deep river.

Read more >

Richard Florida’s Creative Class projects Richmond being the #2 gainer in creative class employment in the country over the next 8 years:

More than 35 million people are currently employed in creative class work in fields like science, technology, and engineering; business, finance, and management; law, health care, and education; and arts, culture, media, and entertainment. The creative class makes up roughly a third of total employment and accounts for more than half of all wages and salaries in America. Creative class employment has seen relatively low rates of unemployment during the course of the economic crisis. Creative class jobs will make up roughly half of all projected U.S. employment growth – adding 6.8 million new jobs by 2018. [...] Gainesville, FL – home to the University of Florida – is the biggest projected gainer, with a projected 17.7 percent increase in creative class jobs, followed by Richmond, VA (17.5 percent) [...]

Karri Peifer has details and photos from the new Fish Bowl Bistro & Bar coming to the old Relish spot on 15th Street:

Owner Ross Renfrow is planning a soft opening for Friday, Sept. 5 where diners can come and sample the seafood-inspired entrees in the $15 – $25 range or sandwich and salad fare for $8 – $12. Fishbowl will also offer daily happy hour specials (4 to 7 p.m.) which will be served inside or on the patio from their open-air bar.

FYI – East 17th Street between Stockton Street and Decatur Street will be closed on Saturday, August 28, 6AM-10PM for a Neighborhood Watch block party.

Jeff Ruggles guest-posts over at The Shockoe Examiner on the origin of the Shockoe in Shockoe Slip and Shockoe Bottom:

It is plausible that the Powhatan called such dams “stone-things” or shacquohocan. In time, what began as a word for stone dams could have comeinto use as a place name for the part of the river the dams occupied, and then for the banks adjacent, where the Indians might have had a temporary encampment. [...] It was there that the English, when they journeyed up the river in their boats, could proceed no farther, and so it became a place significant to the English as well. The same place on the river was known to the Powhatan and the English for different reasons—the English as the head of navigation, and the Powhatan as a place for fishing. The English heard the Powhatan name for this place and adopted it. They abbreviated it, attached it to a nearby creek, and eventually it became the name for their settlement on the north bank of the river.

Read more >