Category Archives: Volunteering

RVA 5×5: Monopoly on Richmond

by Jon Baliles

There has been a lot of chatter this week about Monopoly doing a Richmond version featuring notable places and landmarks to replace the well-known properties like St. James’ Place, Reading Railroad, and Boardwalk.

According to Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the creators of Monopoly want to hear from YOU about what to include in the 22 spaces that make up a Richmond Monopoly board.

“…Hasbro licensee Top Trumps USA, which is tasked with creating the board, will need to hear from Richmonders just what those signature sites are. The company is asking residents to land on chance, draw a card and submit their ideas at richmond@toptrumps.com as to what they would like to see featured on the Richmond Monopoly game before March 20.”

How many jokes can you make using “Stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200,” in reference to Richmond?

Ohhh, the possibilities are endless. I can imagine the snarky replies already submitted and soon to be, and it will probably have the Hasbro people wondering just what they have done.

According to Hasbro executive John Marano, “This is a board game built by Richmond, for Richmond. I want them to be proud and I want them to be involved, because at the end of the day, that’s what makes it successful for us.”

The company has done city-specific boards in other cities like Pittsburgh, Kansas City, San Diego, Philadelphia, Boise, Portland, and Sacramento. J.C. Poma, vice president of community relations for Richmond Region Tourism said, “We’re so excited to see what you come up with for this great board game.”

The selections for that board will be interesting for sure when the game is released this fall, but few maps or boards will ever be as funny as the 2015 Judgmental Map of Richmond — when you could still laugh at stuff like that. Maybe Monopoly will top that (but I doubt it from a humor perspective), so get busy and submit your suggestions to Hasbro before March 20!

Jon Baliles is a former Richmond City Councilman. This is an excerpt from the original article posted on his blog, RVA 5×5. It is posted here with permission.

RVA 5×5: RVA = DIY

by Jon Baliles

Jack Jacobs at Richmond Biz Sense has an update about the ongoing fallout from the collapse of the Enrichmond Foundation last summer. All of the small organizations that used Enrichmond as a fiduciary lost access to their money (which may be gone for good; stay tuned) and other things like insurance coverage.

While there are efforts underway to transfer two historically Black cemeteries formerly under Enrichmond’s purview to the city, there has not been any statement, hint, clue, concern, or any sign of emotion uttered by the Mayor about when or if the city will help restore the funding of these small groups that do a lot of valuable work to help the City and save staff time.

Since no one at City Hall seems to be interested in helping, Richmonders are doing what they do best — they are doing it themselves (aka DIY).

For example, the group RVA Clean Sweep counts nearly 1,500 people who support it by going around the city picking up trash. They lost their insurance coverage and about $3,000 when Enrichmond folded. Have they quit trying to help clean up the city? Nope.

They held fewer cleanups and told volunteers to be extra careful as they were volunteering without insurance, but they still kept cleaning and sweeping. But no insurance means they were not able to apply for grants or hold as many cleanups as they would like, according to RVA Clean Sweep Director Amy Robins.

But they still held cleanups because they wanted their volunteers to stay engaged. “Robins feared that a prolonged hiatus on activity would cause volunteers to drift away from the cause of cleaning up litter in the city,” wrote Jacobs.
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