Tonight sees a couple of potentially important gatherings for city residents. At the Southside Community Center, there’s the aforementioned forum for mayoral candidates. At roughly the same time, a meeting at City Hall addresses changes in FEMA floodplains within the city.

Today’s Style talks up the South of the James Market, specifically the offerings from Simply Southern Pies.

According to today’s T-D, a domestic warrant and a brief standoff led to Richmond SWAT entering that apartment building on W. 47th in the middle of the night.

Tomorrow sees the 8th instance of the Westover Hills children’s parade. The parade begins 10AM.at Peterborough & Sylvan and lasts for just over an hour. The WH neighborhood site has the details.

Also from the WH folks, Riverside drive will be blocked off on a couple of spots- between Prince Arthur & Evelyn Byrd and New Kent & Breckenridge – to view Dogwood Dell fireworks.

Car patrols are much heavier than usual, and there’s a police plane spotlighting somewhere just south of Jahnke/railroad tracks. If anyone knows the story…

Forest Hill Park sees lots of activity on Sunday July 20th. From noon-4PM is the return of Sunday in the Park, followed immediately by the summer monthly Music in the Park Series, which runs until 6PM. All the details are below the fold.

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What could be the country’s first conservation easement for an urban park could be coming soon to both banks of the James River Park system.

A student is looking for assistance with a project on the history of Stratford Hills. If any experts on the subject would be willing to help out, let us know and we’ll pass along your contact information.

If you lost a brooch pin on New Kent Road between Riverside and Dorchester while watching July 4th fireworks, a reader may have found it. Shoot a description our way, and we’ll make sure the finder gets your info.

It’s pothole repair time again, which means the Huguenot Bridge is closed this Sunday, 6AM-6PM.

From today’s Style, a new chef is in at Positive Vibe Cafe. The Cafe will also be hosting Christmas in July on the 26th. Live music and seasonal decor accompany a food drive for the Central Virginia Food Bank.

The T-D is reporting on a carjacking early this morning at Southside Plaza.

The car was described as a black Nissan Sentra four-door sedan with chrome wheels and Virginia license tags KJS 7726.

The suspect was described as a young black man with a thin build and wearing a yellow T-shirt and black shorts.

At tomorrow’s rendition of the South of the James Market, 4th District Council representative Kathy Graziano and her culinary-minded sons will compete against a team of chefs from Positive Vibe Cafe in the MarketVibe Chefs Challenge. Like something straight out of Top Chef, the teams will purchase all items from the market offerings and prepare a variety of dishes using small appliances, grills and the like. Graziano told the T-D:

We originally thought of this as a way to get people to come to the park, and it’s also a good way to show people what they can do with fresh stuff…It should be fun. We should raise a lot of money for a good cause and get even more people to come to the market.”

The GRTC is holding 2 public meetings to discuss routes recently announced as being up for elimination. Two affected routes- The 65 Stony Point-MCV Express and the 61 Broad Rock Shuttle- service our immediate areas. The meetings are 3PM tomorrow, July 22 and 6PM July 28, both in Council Chambers on the 2nd floor or City Hall.

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A reader asks:

I’m new to Forest Hill and was wondering about veterinarians on this side of town. I love my old vet, but it’s so far away now. Can anyone recommend a good vet (the one right in Stratford Hills maybe?) in this part of town?

Anyone?

The Valentine Richmond History Center is offering a walking tour of Forest Hill this coming Sunday from 2-4PM. The tour will center around the history of Forest Hill Park and current restoration work at the lake, as well as the immediate neighborhood surroundings.

And dog lovers should keep in mind that a similar tour is offered as part of Valentine’s History Hounds series in October.

To those on the Tuesday “blue” week recycling schedule: did yours get picked up this today? Forest View seems to have been left high & dry, which was good news for the can-collector dude, but a bit frustrating for the rest of us.

George Wythe High School is the recipient of a $5,000 Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant. The grant will be used to renovate/update a kitchen space that will serve as a classroom to teach daily living skills to approximately 30 exceptional education students.

A missive from Carol Wolf posted at North Richmond News has sparked an interesting discussion regarding RPS and open-enrollment. Wolf and Kim Bridges have each offered further thoughts on the issue.

I’d be curious to hear where our local school board candidates weigh in on the subject.

The latest edition of Richmond.com’s Meet Your District column features the 4th District. The heavy focus on the school board race (including quotes from all 4 candidates) suggests that we’re not the only ones afflicted with the All Education All The Time theme…