Category: Charlottesville

Ford Chevy Cats Dogs Dems Reps

old trucks
A few years back, City Council established that cats (domestic) were Democrats. In Charlottesville cats are allowed to roam free. Dogs are licensed and shut inside. Are Ford trucks D’s and Chevys R’s? In a one-party town these questions need answering.

unengaged

precinct with few citizens
It’s an off off year.
There are 2098 registered voters in the reconfigured Venable precinct. One-hundred and thirty-one of them showed to vote.
Visiting the polling place was like visiting a museum after hours.
If we had a referendum on the legality of party-porches, open containers and free BMW’s, traffic would pick up.
The University of Virginia makes little effort to house its students. And so, you end up with a precinct of students that don’t vote and a neighborhood that has largely abandoned civic participation.

— Virginia State Board of Elections unofficial results

non-responsive

I asked the Charlottesville Council candidates…

If your land-use and zoning preferences are followed into the future, in twenty years Charlottesville will look like ___________ (fill in the blank).

a. Charlottesville (1.3x density increase)
b. Alexandria VA (2x density increase)
c. Philadelphia PA (3x density increase)
d. Brooklyn NY (8x density increase)

None of the candidates answered the question in the format desired.
In fairness, this was the last part of a three part question and responses were cramped by a time limit.
Hoping the candidates will share their thoughts now.

cuanto es?

photo from meeting 6 years ago
(editor’s note: my hearing is impaired. Should anyone find errors in the text below please send corrections to me. Audio is available at the Charlottesville Tomorrow website. The below is a partial transcript of RWSA Board Meeting, 10/25/2011. Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones asks a question, Rivanna Water and Sewer Executive Director Tom Frederick gives an answer. The photo above was taken February 17, 2005)

MJ– A part of my question goes back to what the Mayor asked for at the last City Council meeting, he was asking for a fifteen year projection. The concerns that you have about that are we’re not sure what the costs will be fifteen years from now, you are uncomfortable with doing a fifteen year projection… is that is pretty much what it boils down to?
TF– With respect to the pipeline I’ll say this. Based on more recent discussion, first of all, this board is not given the staff any direction as to when you want to build the pipeline. It would be very challenging, if not possible really, to do a financial analysis without a decision on what to base, at least what assumptions to base it on which I think is a decision that the board needs to make. In your prioritization of projects, more recently you have moved dredging up which suggests to me from a financial perspective that you’re not considering the pipeline as an important priority perhaps as it was considered a few years ago, that is just an assumption on my part because you are moving other projects ahead of it.
The report that was done on the pipeline a couple of years ago had some Rivanna s taff input that was done by Wiley-Wilson identified some strategies that ought to be looked at that could help reduce costs. There is still the question in 2006 when we had public meetings on the water supply there was a lot of interest in providing pre-treatment facilities, the question is, do you still want to do that or are you more interested in financial goals or are you more interested in providing those facilities? I think there is a host of questions the Board would need to ask if you are looking for what is the impact to a ratepayer. I think it is also important to understand that, I know ACSA has done this and I think that the City has done this to some extent, set up availability fees or system development charges or whatever you want to call them that help to let to have growth pay for itself. And while our wholesale rate has to be based on what is in the Four Party Agreement … right now the Four Party Agreement says we pass… we have to convert that to a rate per thousand gallons even though at the retail level you guys may be paying for it out of money contributed by system development charges and not passing those on to the retail customer. That is not an analysis that Ronnie and I can do because we don’t have your data.
MJ– Sure.
TF–I think if your interest is to try to give the public some real idea rather than just throw a quick analysis on paper and throw it out there and not have done the thinking and the hard work behind it. It’s meaningful to people who really want to know the answer to the question of what the impact is going to be I think you need to do all those analyses and I think the Board will need to make some decisions up front about what we are going to base our assumptions on.

MJ–All right, thank you.

dies caniculares (dog days)

press conference, downtown transit center
When the ancients first observed Sirius emerging as it were from the sun, so as to become visible to the naked eye, they usually sacrificed a Brown Dog to appease its rage, considering that this Star was the cause of the hot sultry weather usually experienced at its appearance; and they would seem to have believed its power of heat, conjoined with that of the sun, to have been so excessive, that on the morning of its first rising the Sea boiled, the Wine turned sour, Dogs grew mad, and all other creatures became languid ; causing to man, among other diseases, burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies.
That the weather in July and August is generally more sultry than at any other period of the year, and that some particular diseases are
consequently at that time more to be dreaded, both to man and beast, is past dispute. The exaggerated effects of the rising of Sirius are now, however, known to be groundless; and the superior heat usually felt during the dog-days, has been more philosophically accounted for. The sun at this period of the year, not only darts his rays almost perpendicularly upon us, and of course with greater power; but has also continued to exert his influence through the spring and summer seasons, whereby the atmosphere and earth have received a warmth, proportioned to the continuity of its action; and moisture, in itself naturally cold, has been dissipated:–Clavis Calendaria: or, A Compendious Analysis Of the Calendar Volume 2–John Henry Brady

in the bunker


For a hundred years the Woolen Mills had greenspace at its northwestern entrance. The greenspace was agricultural land, then a golf course, and finally (for 70 years) a ball field and open green.
Two years ago the commons was fenced and turned into a “regional aquatic facility”, it was at capacity yesterday.


I wish we’d invested a bit more time “in the bunker” designing this local amenity.
The part I don’t remember, in the run-up to the construction of water-world was the part where Parks and Rec officials said “it’s going to be a hummock of ugly and we are going to plant our flag on the top.”