On the Charlottesville Podcasting Network, Sean Tubbs interviews Diana Foster about the Rivanna Trail. Foster used to be the president of the Rivanna Trails Foundation, and she does a thru-hike of the 20-mile trail every November. The interview is useful for anybody who — like me — has heard about the trail, maybe hiked some of the trail, but doesn’t know much about it.
Archive for November, 2005
WTOP reports that throughout the northern half of Virginia, people spotted a bright pair of fireballs in the sky on Halloween night. The first raced across the sky around 6:30, the second 9:15. They were described as being as bright as the full moon, and were spotted as far south as Charlottesville. Did any of y’all see ‘em?
I was out with my telescope that night, admiring the dust storms on Mars, but that was around 11:00, so I missed the fun.
A new study by Albemarle County’s Places29 has demonstrated what should have been clear to anybody paying attention: installing a 29 bypass won’t reduce traffic. Why? Because it’s us causing the traffic jams, not hordes of people commuting from Culpeper to Danville or long-haul truckers slaloming through Nelson. 67% of all the traffic on 29 N both begins and ends between the 250 bypass and WalMart. Presumably if that stretch were expanded from UVa to Ruckersville, we’d find that something closer to 90% of traffic is local, and thus wouldn’t take the bypass. We have met the enemy, and he is us.
Jessica Kitchin has the story in today’s Daily Progress.
White supremacy group National Vanguard, newly headquartered in Our Fair City, likes to distribute copies of their publication, The Aryan Alternative, on people’s doorsteps. It gets them attention. So they did it yesterday morning in Rose Hill, Kate Andrews reports in today’s Progress. And now I’ve written about it here. We suck.
Richard Wingfield, the owner and operator of Spudnuts, died this week at the age of 75, John Yellig reports in today’s Daily Progress. Wingfield has run the shop since he and his wife opened the Belmont landmark in 1969. His daughter and son-in-law have taken it over, but they’re not sure if they’ll be able to keep the doughnut store open.
An oft-asked question about town for the past six months has been “What’s the deal with that house getting buried by Target”? Jessica Kitchin provides the answer in today’s Daily Progress.
I’ve never created a story just for for the purpose of discussion, but it was suggested, and I think it’s a good idea.
So, tomorrow’s elections. We’ve got several BoS seats, constitutional officers, several HoD seats, several school board seats, and the statewide races. Any predictions as to who is going to win, and by how much? What issues will decide the race? Who will pull ahead in the Rio race and why?
Democratic Lt. Governor Tim Kaine won big, defeating Republican Jerry Kilgore. Republican Bill Bolling squeaked out a victory against Democrat Leslie Byrne for Lt. Governor. And, as of this writing, the attorney general’s race is up in the air, too close to call, but it’s trending towards a very narrow victory for Republican Bob McDonnell over Charlottesville Senator Creigh Deeds.
Local House of Delegates races put Democrat David Toscano over Republican Tom McCrystal by a landslide and Republican Del. Rob Bell kept his seat with 56% against challenger Steve Koleszar.
On the Board of Supervisors, Dennis Rooker easily fended off Republican Christian Schoenwald, besting him by a 3:1 margin. David Slutzky pulled off a shockingly strong victory over Republican Gary Grant and independent Tom “Dr. J.” Jakubowski (seriously, that’s how he’s listed on the ballot) in the Rio District with 58% of the vote in what can only be described as a rallying endorsement of growth restrictions in the county.
Finally, the elected school board referendum passed in Charlottesville easily, by nearly a 3:1 margin.
When Republican Jim Gilmore won his 1997 race against Democrat Don Beyer, he did so with 54% of Albemarle’s votes. But in 2001, when Democrat Mark Warner won his race against Republican Mark Earley, Albemarle had switched to supporting the Democrat by a 56% majority. The trend continued with Tuesday’s election, with Democratic Governor Elect Tim Kaine garnering a surprising 61% of the vote, significantly more than his 52% victory statewide.
Part of this can be attributed to population growth, though part of this can also be attributed to the leadership of the Albemarle Republican Party, which is one of the more far right in the state, something that has got to impact involvement.
Surprisingly, the results in Greene County didn’t change at all from 2001. I’d assumed that, with more Charlottesville and Albemarle residents moving to the surrounding counties (where property is affordable), we’d see a spike in support for Democratic candidates, but there was no such effect.
In today’s Daily Progress, Bob Gibson writes about this trend in Albemarle and in counties around the state.
Robert Greenwald has produced a critical documentary about Wal-Mart which is being shown in various places around the nation this week. On November 17, one can see it locally at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian Universalist and the Friends Quaker Meeting House. Wal-Mart has responded to some aspects of the documentary that differ from the facts. Hopefully events like these raise dialog about the intersection of global commerce and society.
11/17 Update by Waldo: Charlottesville Podcasting has an MP3 of last night’s town meeting about Wal-Mart.
Two and a half years ago, I address City Council, proposing that they have a podcast of Council meetings. Of course, we didn’t have the word “podcast” then, so I settled for describing it as a web-based archive of MP3s of each Council session. Nothing happened, of course, but a fella gets used to that.
So, naturally, Brian Wheeler has picked up the ball and run with it. As a one-shot effort, working with Sean Tubbs, he’s created a podcast of the October 27 Albemarle School Board meeting. Brian writes:
I do not plan to create additional Podcasts of the meetings I am participating in, but I hope this will serve as an example that might motivate others in the community to help us get our public meetings available on the Internet. While the City of Charlottesville is able to broadcast their School Board meetings on local cable TV, the County of Albemarle has no similar capability. Podcasting, whether done officially by the School Board or by interested citizens or students, would be a great public service project.
Some business whose customers consist of adults with school-aged children would do well to sponsor an ongoing podcast of Albemarle School Board meetings, putting a brief promotional message for their business at the beginning of each podcast.
Municipal podcasts are useful for a great many reasons, but the two that really stand out are that meetings become more accessible, and a permanent archive of past meetings is created. Both of these are really valuable, certainly more valuable than the cost of putting together such podcasts.
Since City Council isn’t likely to do this anytime soon, it would be great if somebody could TiVo each Charlottesville City Council meeting, MP3 the audio, and turn that into a podcast. I bet Charlottesville Podcasting would even host the audio.
I’ll be speaking at a Virginia Piedmont Technology Council panel on Thursday (tomorrow). The 90-minute lunch, “‘Casting for Customers,” is all about blogging and business. Sean Tubbs, Edward Cossette, Michael Prichard and I will talk about how businesses can embrace blogs, take part in the Charlottesville blogging community, and use it for the betterment of their business and of the blogosphere. (I wrote a little about this topic last month.)
The event runs from 11:30am - 1:00pm, is held at the Omni, and costs $30 for VPTC members and $40 for non-members. I encourage you to attend.
Brian Wheeler points out that Albemarle High School principal Matt Hass has established a podcast. It’s not clear to me if this will be a series, or just a one-off MP3 posting, but making the “state of the school” address available for download has got to be useful for the parents of AHS students.
In their first issue about last week’s elections, The Hook has provided a clever cover this week. Instead of having their usual one featured story, there are four potential covers pictured: one featuring Governor Elect Tim Kaine, one featuring Supervisor Elect David Slutzky, one featuring the elected school board, and one featuring Sen. Creigh Deeds. It had never really crossed my mind that they have to settle on one their one cover story will be, or that they might mock up multiple candidates each time. This approach provides a great look both at how the media can shape the news and how they do what they do.
Last year, the Albemarle County Planning Commission voted unanimously to deny a permit to Richard Spurzem to build a new development on Pantops. On Friday, the county and Spurzem wrangled out an agreement in court, and “Gazebo Plaza” will go forward, at the intersection of 64 and 250. David Hendrick had the story in Saturday’s Daily Progress.
The total lack of planning on Pantops is astounding. Traffic can get pretty backed up at the intersection of the two highways there — it’s crazy to install a shopping center at that spot. Development along 250 East has been going nuts, particularly since Martha Jefferson began their move there. Will 250 East become the new 29 North, now that 29 is all but overrun?
Twenty-year-old UVa student Michelle Elizabeth Collier was found dead in her apartment on Friday afternoon, but, beyond that, nothing is particularly clear. Her cause of death is unknown, the results of an autopsy won’t be released for weeks, and the inspection is apparently being conducted by officials other than local police. WCAV reporter Venton Blandin spotted “unknown officials” removing bags of items from Collier’s apartment and loading them into an SUV registered in New York.
The last high-profile death of a UVa student was the April 2001 murder of Alison Meloy.
There were fireworks at last night’s City Council meeting on the matter of whether the elected school board should be based on wards or at large. Republican Rob Schilling claimed that only a ward-based system would provide racial diversity, which led to a strong rebuttal from Democrat Kendra Hamilton, the only member of council that is neither white nor male. John Yellig described the exchange in the Progress:
“I have allowed members of the public and a certain member of council to distort and misrepresent all sorts of things - the history of desegregation, my politics, my actions, my words,” she said. “But enough is enough. It’s time to set the record straight.”
Referencing an e-mail Schilling sent to some voters Monday, Hamilton ridiculed his assertion that he’s “the only councilor who cares about the African-American community.”
“I never thought that I, as a black woman, would be reduced to explaining to a bunch of white people…that I know what I’m talking about,” she said.
Schilling angrily responded to Hamilton’s comments, saying, “I’m not going to let that stand,” and, over calls for order from Mayor David Brown, added, “I’m going to stand by every word I wrote in the e-mail today.”
So…who’s gonna provide a copy of that e-mail?
Anyhow, Council voted not to petition the General Assembly to permit the city to have ward-based elections, so at least the first elections, this May, will be at large.
7:15pm Update: God bless Sean Tubbs. He’s posted the relevant portion of the audio from last night’s Council meeting. You can hear Schilling for the first 13:50, and then Hamilton for the rest of the clip.
8:55pm Update: Somebody has posted what is said to be Schilling’s e-mail.
Two square miles of undeveloped land just south of town, Biscuit Run, have been bought by Hunter Craig for an astounding $46.2M. The land will be turned into yet another development with a name apparently generated by computer for maximum irony value, “Fox Ridge.” It will include somewhere between 900 and 5,000 residences, which would bring about a significant increase in the Albemarle County population. The Breeden family, who has lived at Biscuit Run for many years now, have kept a chunk of land for themselves to continue to live on. David Hendrick has the story in today’s Progress.
In other news, my old buddy Eric Breeden is now my bestest friend in the whole wide world.
This Sunday’s Washington Post will feature an article about the Charlottesville music scene. Author Ben Brazil visited and reviewed the music communities of Athens, Chapel Hill, and Our Fair City. He spent time at Twisted Branch, Bang!, Starr Hill Gravity Lounge, writing specifically about Bella Morte, Lauren Hoffman, This Means You, and John D’earth. The author also turns to Mike Friend and Jeff Reynolds, of WNRN, for advice on good local music.
All in all, it amounts to some great exposure for some of the town’s best musicians and venues.
Outspoken UVa charter critic Dena Bowers has been abruptly fired from her position as a recruiter in their HR department. She says she was fired on Tuesday after sending a private e-mail containing an NAACP analysis of the charter’s effect on medical center employees. The e-mail was forwarded around by others, leading to it being mistakenly sent to the all classified staff at within the College of Arts & Sciences. UVa does not, as a matter of policy, publicly address personnel matters. As a seventeen-year employee of UVa, Bowers is surprised and angered by her firing, and believes that it is retaliation for her opposition to the charter. Liesel Nowak has the story in today’s Daily Progress.
The simmering dispute between Republican Rob Schilling and Democrats on City Council is continuing in the wake of Monday’s meltdown, John Yellig writes in today’s Progress. Check out this MP3 for the abridged, one and a half minute version of the dispute, which features Schilling speaking out of turn, Kendra Hamilton disagreeing with him, and Mayor David Brown trying to get control of the meeting.
The disagreement is partially over whether the school board should be elected by ward, partially partisan, and partially race-based — essentially a continuation of everything that made the Scottie Griffin saga so sordid, apparently unresolved by the removal of Griffin.
L’affair Ward started with Schilling’s e-mail to supporters accusing Democrats of holding a forum on whether to move to a ward-based election while having already sent a letter to the Department of Justice seeking permission to move to an at-large election system. Hamilton is upset that Schilling didn’t point out that the letter mentioned that the city would provide a post-hearing addendum, though she seems even more upset at Schilling’s portrayal of himself as a champion of the black community. Hamilton, as the only black member of council (and whose academic studies and career have been devoted to African-American history and culture), sees herself as the representative of what she terms “my people.”
The ward discussion may well continue at the next Council meeting. This is going to end in tears.
cvillenewser asks: “What’s the best cell phone carrier for the Central
Virginia/Charlottesville area in terms of reception and value (minutes/cost)? I’m currently with Nextel, and while I haven’t had any problems, I’m wondering if I’m missing out on a better deal out there.”
By my math, there’s no beating Ntelos, which has the bonus of being local, but I’m sure others will weigh in.
Charlottesville’s own Hackensaw Boys were featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition yesterday morning in an extended interview. They performed a pair of songs and talked about how they first started, their bluegrass style, and their new album, Love What You Do. Charlottesville bluegrass is making a name for itself, in the form of the Hacks and King Wilkie, both of whom are rapidly becoming darlings of different segments of the bluegrass cognoscenti.
In today’s Daily Progress, Melanie Mayhew has a lengthy piece about UVa and racism, looking at the racial incidents at UVa in early September and the effects of the widespread media coverage of those events. Mayhew looks at the history of integration at the university, the recent incidents, and what their short- and long-term impacts might be on UVa.
A year ago, with Albemarle First’s stock price on the decline and the local bank hurting from losing millions in a 2003 check-kiting scam, their largest shareholder declared that it was time for them to sell out to a bigger bank. Washington D.C. financial holding company Millennium Bankshares obliged, buying Albemarle First last June. Or so it seemed.
Today comes the news that Millennium Bankshares shareholders voted down the acquisition, ending the transaction. Millennium’s shares climbed 6% on the news; Albemarle First’s dropped 23%.
Presumably, Albemarle First shareholders are as eager as ever to see the bank bought out. It will be curious to see if they can round up any new suitors.
11:47pm Update: A reader points out that The Hook saw this coming two months ago.
WINA reports that the instrument landing system at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport is broken, so landing isn’t happening. Presumably, visual approaches can happen, but with the nasty, foggy weather we’re having, that probably means no landings. The FAA-owned system is under repair. There’s no ETA on the fix but, until then, the airport is closed for landings.
11/30 Update: Bryan McKenzie has the story in today’s Daily Progress.
Thirty-four year old Billy Wagner owns a pair of farms just outside of town, on which he raises a few dozen alpacas. Wagner’s had to pick up a second job, though: pitcher. The Mets signed him yesterday in a four-year, $43M deal, the Asbury Park Press reports. The Virginia native was with the Phillies, but the hotshot pitcher became interesting to a number of teams recently, with the Mets winning the bidding war. I don’t have any love for the Mets, but if the enemy of my enemy is my friend, they’re cool by me.
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