Give Us Back Our Pipeline Trail!

Any decent city is as much a distinct personality as a geographical designation, as much an arrangement of unique spaces as it is a practical urban development. For Richmond, that personality is inextricably tied to the river that runs through it; it defines our orientation to the natural landscape, and physically shapes the streets that surround it. It is the reason for our existence and the name we have given this place. There is nonesuch space so iconic to the personality of Richmond as the Pipeline Trail. 

For decades, Richmonders have climbed down to those sandy slices of beach at the feet of skyscrapers, always able to marvel at the liminal rarity of being simultaneously immersed in nature and surrounded by urban architecture. The intimate proximity of the coal cars overhead. The sense of secrecy, of being unseen in the middle of the city. The meditative indifference of the river below. It constitutes a concentrated snapshot of what makes Richmond special, and worth living in. To be there is to dwell in the beating heart of this place we call home. 

Shuttering access to this distinctly Richmond oasis feels like the end of the city many of us fell in love with. It is clear that with the influx of transplants to the area, priorities have shifted within city government; what was once allowed to the citizens as an integral part of our identity is now seen as a liability. But as these places are lost to us, so too is the personality that is drawing those transplants here in the first place. 

The Pipeline Trail offers not just recreational river access, but a commons for organic community; not just relief from the constant hum of city streets, but an immediate experience of our closeness to the natural resource that makes this city what it is. To put it simply, Richmond is not Richmond without the Pipeline Trail. 

We want this undone.We want our Pipeline Trail back. And we want it now.