Category: Harrisonburg Issues
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Co-op’s roots grow deeper as the store gets bigger
What started as a two-aisle “little natural food store” has grown into the now decade-old Friendly City Food Co-op — which just keeps growing. The store spent much of the last year gradually phasing in its 2,000 square foot expansion. And as the store celebrated its 10-year anniversary last week with a series of in-person and online activities, store leaders are dreaming of opening a second location over the next decade.
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Blue flags and Denim Day raise awareness of sexual violence
Exactly 6,581 little blue flags flapped in the wind as they lined James Madison University’s Quad last Thursday. Each flag represented a JMU student who has or will be sexually assaulted in their lives, based on the student population and the national sexual assault rate.
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City prepares to shift to more short-term and permit parking downtown
Those who work and live in downtown Harrisonburg may soon need to find creative places to park or might need to buy a permit because most of the city’s 10-hour parking spots are slated to disappear by mid-August.
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Transferring prisoners from MRRJ ‘alleviates pressure’ — for the moment
With an abrupt transfer of 180 inmates to Virginia Department of Corrections facilities last week, the Middle River Regional Jail reached its lowest population in seven years.
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Despite light at the end of the tunnel, JMU continues enforcing COVID-19 guidelines
Even as guidelines have adjusted to recommend three feet of distance between students in K-12 schools and a growing number of students receive vaccines, JMU continues to enforce on- and off-campus COVID-19 rules that were part of a “Stop the Spread” contract all students had to sign before returning to campus last fall.
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Lucy Simms historic marker is part of an effort to reflect more of Virginia’s past
A historical marker will go up in front of the Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center later this year as one of 16 new historical markers approved for 2021 — signs meant to show more about Virginia’s history than battlefields and presidential birthplaces.
School board addresses inclusivity, racial issues and oppression
Hours after a jury in Minnesota found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on three charges in the killing of George Floyd, the Harrisonburg City School Board acknowledged the verdict at its meeting.
How the pandemic has affected the area’s criminal justice system
People reported fewer crimes overall in Harrisonburg over the last year. And fewer defendants stayed in jail as they awaited trial. At the same time, though, many of those trials have been delayed, forcing the courts to put in overtime in order to catch up on the backlog of cases. Harrisonburg and Rockingham County’s criminal justice system — like many facets of life — has operated a little differently since the pandemic began, in some cases prompting prosecutors and judges to adapt and make exceptions they wouldn’t normally do.
