Category: Charlottesville

the road not taken

James Halfaday 2011 council candidate
In 2011 the announced candidates for Charlottesville City Council were Scott Bandy (I); Paul Beyer (D); Colette E. Blount (D); Brevy Cannon (D); Brandon Collins (I); Bob Fenwick (I); Kathleen M. Galvin (D); James Halfaday (D); Satyendra Huja (D); Paul Long (I); Dede Smith (D); and Andrew Williams (I). (pictured above James Halfaday)

One wonders about the roads not taken. Had the electorate made different choices in the 2011 councilmanic race would Charlottesville have avoided subsequent train wrecks?

Policies, people and leadership matter?

Valor and Faith

executed by Lloyd Brothers Memorials
Keck portrayed Jackson, riding into battle on Little Sorrel, in bronze, led by the allegorical figures of Faith and Valor carved on the front of the pink granite pedestal. The bronze figures were cast at the Roman Bronze Works, of Brooklyn, New York, and the pedestal was executed by Lloyd Brothers Memorials, of Washington, D. C. When the art work was completed in 1921, it was considered by many to be among the finest equestrian sculptures in the nation.–NRHP Registration Form

Ozymandias

remains
The monument’s trapezoidal base is made of rectangular-shaped blocks of polished pink granite set on top of each other. The stone is coarse grained with striations and imperfections that give it a rustic appearance in character with the frontier scene above. The base is unornamented, carrying only the inscription:
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK
CONQUEROR OF THE NORTHWEST
on the north facade facing University Avenue. -National Park Service

Crew at the remains of monument, July 12, 2021.

Cville Plans Together

west view Carlton Avenue 2003
March 1 City Council endorsed the affordable housing plan, the lead piece of the three part Cville Plans Together effort. The three easy pieces, the housing plan, a rewritten “Comprehensive” plan and a rewritten zoning ordinance. Who will make the money from this effort? Who will loose?
Carlton Views III under construction
The 4.86 acre H.T.Ferron plant, once zoned for manufacturing, is now zoned for PUD. No one agrees what PUD is. That is what is so wonderful about PUD. You see what you want to see. Possibly we’ll rezone the entire city PUD?

uneasy marriage

CA stack CO tracks
It struck me this morning that the park I walk through owes much of its existence to successive technologies. The streetcar technology (smokestack above) has been abandoned. The other technologies that undergird this public space are sewage collection and high voltage electrical transmission.
dog running in snow woods
Rivanna trail, winter weather.
Geology and topography have graced the park with a river. So far, in our political wisdom, we have discouraged building in the river’s channel.
The industrial and the natural features maintain an uneasy balance, remarkably it feels like a park.