Category: Urban Planning

Chris

This photo from a class the police provide to allow citizens to better understand what they do, how they operate. The fellow pictured at the center, has since been hired by the City. Chris has made a huge contribution to local quality of life by knitting together and adding to a city-wide trails system.

West to east walk along Route 250

ultimate bliss
Car broken, walking home. Started in the Meadows Neighborhood, Angus Road.
Crossed 9 lanes of Route 29 in 14 seconds, the allowed time. (GPS track from the Meadows to the Woolen Mills, 4.37 miles)
The area around the intersection of Hydraulic and Route 29 is the focus of ongoing Council and Planning Commission discussion, a possible amendment to the 2013 Comp Plan to qualify for VDOT “smart scale” funds… Close your eyes and ears. Ugly.
Beech forest.
East of the Hydraulic/Rt 250 Bypass intersection there is a pedestrian trail through west McIntire Park (thanks to Parks and Recreation and Chris Gensic).  Beautiful… The trail parallels the north edge of the 250 Bypass running through the beech forest behind the fire station.
The trail dead ends into the back of the YMCA. I walked around the front, entered the door. Tried to get a tour. No. They didn’t have anyone available who could show me around.
East of the YMCA Parks and Recreation has begun installation of a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks to connect west and east McIntire Park.
Meanwhile, this is the 250 Bypass sidewalk crossing the railroad tracks.
After crossing the railroad tracks, the Rt 250 north sidewalk disappears.  Made it to Park Street  via the median, then walked North Downtown, Martha Jefferson and Little High neighborhood streets and sidewalks the rest of the way home. The pedestrian connection will be better soon. It is happening.

Boards and Commissions Comp Plan 2018

The City’s Comprehensive Plan is the community’s vision that guides decision making processes for important matters such as: Land Use, Housing, Transportation, and much more.
The Charlottesville Planning Commission invited Board and Commission members to Carver Recreation to provide input on the 2018 Comprehensive Plan at their work session March 7.
Detail from the word cloud. Somewhere in here are the words “Rivanna River”.

Hudson River Greenway

Hudson River Greenway
Walked south on the Hudson River Greenway. The Charlottesville greenbelt is a very different walk. In Charlottesville the intersection of river and the land retains natural function plus native flora and fauna. There is communication going on between river and land. Loved walking the Hudson but the Rivanna has more to say.

Moses, Goldschmid and Brown

interstate 405 and 5
I had heard a shortened story of Portland’s 1970’s freeway kill-off. The beginning of Portland exceptionalism. Saying No to the FHWA.
And so rarely leaving the Chesapeake Bay watershed I imagined a city comprised of narrow tree-lined streets, generous bike and pedestrian provisions, 264 foot city blocks lining the Williamette River.
Yes, well not exactly.
So they did say no, and they did leverage a bunch of public transit money and it is amazing. But it is not the idyll of my imagination.

Interstates
In 1974 Portland killed the Mount Hood Freeway, in 1979 the I-505 connector was taken off the table. But, in contrast to my imagined Portland, interstates were built.

Slow way home

schoolchildren in Okinawa
saw a movie yesterday written by UVA professor Leonard Shoppa,

poster
  In Japan, 98 percent of children walk to school every day, unaccompanied by a parent.  In the United States, just 13 percent of children walk or bike to school, and most are driven to school by a parent.

smart cae
The Slow Way Home explores this divergence, examining how American families have largely given up on keeping our streets and public spaces safe enough for children, while Japanese communities have mobilized to keep their streets safe and walkable, not only for children but for everyone in society.