Main Street Indeed

SARC walkers
Monday January 13 UVA School of Architecture students and faculty walk where angels fear to tread,
a five mile trek north from the Ivy Road “Seminole Trail” intersection to the Rivanna River.

intersection Zan and Trail
The pedestrian infrastructure along Route 29 is 99.9% installed.
Where then are the pedestrians?
During the two hour walk the folk from UVA encountered a handful of indigenous bipeds.
The majority were runners wrapped in spandex, plugged into hydration equipment.
Several were seated at CAT bus-stops, visual and aural hooked to cell phones and iPods.

TV Journalist
The event was covered by the Daily Progress and Channel 29, from automobiles.

under the Fashion Square Oaks
The throng makes its way north at 2.5 mph. While US 29 might appear visually interesting at 45 mph, at walking speed its lack of amenities is notable, there is nothing to see or do other than preserve one’s physical safety.

meatza pizza
The strip is a visual wasteland.

Woodbrooke
One constant along the way were the looks of disbelief that the group of pedestrians received from the rubber tire populace.

Stellar what
Even the newest development along “Main Street” offers slight comfort to bipeds.

fuel
This store featured an inviting, human scale facade.

uva-announcement
Sunday, January 19, students will present their proposals at the Carver Rec Center, 605 E. Main St., Charlottesville, VA 22902.
Charlottesville Tomorrow covers the winners
Color photos of the Route 29 trek by Sanjay Suchak
Charlottesville Tomorrow coverage

Brayton Point

cooling towers

“The Brayton Point coal-fired plant in Bristol County, Mass., will be retired in May 2017, owner Energy Capital Partners LLC said Oct. 7,
a little over a month after the private equity firm closed on the purchase of the plant from previous owner Dominion Resources Inc.”–IEEFA

Bus Stop

1600 block e market
As long as I can remember there has been a bus running east on Woolen Mills Road (aka Market Street).


Sixty or seventy years.
That service stops today.
(Woolen Mill/Park Street bus photo courtesy of the Bobby Taylor Collection)

Road trip

Trailways Bus
Love the logo.

14 degrees blowing snow
Motored 676 miles yesterday from CHO crossing the Rivanna, the Shenandoah, the Rappahannock, the Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Delaware, the Hudson…

providence RI smokestacks
….the Blackstone.

characterized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1990 as “the most polluted river in the country with respect to toxic sediments.–Wikipedia

Braga Bridge
A long tenuous moment involved climbing over the Taunton River on the Braga Bridge. Two wheel drive, barely made it up the grade.

Westport kitchen window
In my sister’s favorite kitchen. Nine degrees outside. Snow has stopped.

City Standards and Design

utility poles in sidewalk
In November I heard that Dominion Power (aka Dom.Com, VEPCO, Dominion) had indicated to a Charlottesville City Councilor that utility poles located in the middle of sidewalks could be addressed. Dominion was interested in a list, an inventory of such poles.
HEY Dominion! Are these two more sidewalk poles in the making? 1000 block of East Market Street.
Decrease the width of the street to 36 feet, keep the sidewalk, move the poles?
Put the lines in an underground utility bus?