2009 February archive at cvillenews.com

Archive for February, 2009

County to Fine Sign Spammers

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February 2, 2009 in Crime and Business.

Albemarle County has gotten permission to enforce the state ban on those horrible signs by the side of the road advertising quasi-scams and fly-by-night operations, Jenn McDaniel reports for NBC 29. County inspectors—who would normally be inspecting buildings, but there’s not much of that going on right now—will be pulling the signs up and fining the advertisers $100/apiece. The new practice goes into effect on February 17, and sign spammers who don’t pull their signs up by then will be fined. It was a mild problem a few years ago, but it’s getting worse every month. Those wretched “Homes from the 300s” signs that litter northern Virginia are starting to appear along 29N, since developers are desperate to sell off their overbuilt subdivisions.

McDaniel called some of the illegal advertisers, who had the balls to gripe about having to find a legal method of advertising. I should spray paint “cvillenews.com” on their front door and then express surprise when they complain. Somebody remind me—on February 17, I need encourage folks to submit photos of signs still illegally posted in the right-of-way. We can save the county a little work and help fill the county’s coffers.

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Council to Experiment with Park-and-Ride

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February 3, 2009 in Transportation and Business.

The whole of Council wants to create a park-and-ride for downtown, Rachana Dixit writes in today’s Daily Progress. The great majority of downtown time-limited parking is in use by commuters, who shuffle their cars around every couple of hours, now that all-day free parking has been largely eliminated from downtown. Council wants to experiment with a commuter-timed bus line that runs from a spacious, free parking lot on the edge of town to downtown, and see if folks prefer that to dealing with the two-hour shuffle.

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Rodney Thomas Running for BoS

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February 5, 2009 in Politics.

Republican Rodney Thomas is running against incumbent Democrat David Slutzky for Board of Supervisors, Brian Wheeler writes for Charlottesville Tomorrow. Thomas is a former chair of the Albemarle Planning Commission, owner Charlottesville Press, and was a 1999 graduate of the Sorensen Institute’s Political Leaders Program.

He’s a good guy for Republicans to be running. He’s a nice guy, thoughtful and capable, rather the opposite of the sort of candidates who Virginia Republicans tend to put forward against incumbent Democrats. David Slutzky may have a fight on his hands.

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Szakos to Seek Dem. Nomination for Council

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February 9, 2009 in Politics.

Community organizer Kristin Szakos is running for the Democratic nomination for City Council, Chiara Canzi reports for C-Ville Weekly. Szakos was the volunteer coordinator for the Obama-Biden campaign in Charlottesville, and plans to formally announce her campaign on Saturday. More information about her is available on her campaign website.

Both Mayor David Norris and Vice Mayor Julian Taliaferro are up for reelection at the end of this, their first term. Neither have publicly stated whether they intend to run for another term. Though the general election is in November, the Democrats’ nomination process isn’t yet clear. The party has long held a nomination convention, requiring hundreds of people to pile into a room and remain there through round after round of voting. When there are few candidates (as with the unchallenged Norris and Taliaferro, two years ago), it goes smoothly. But when there are a bunch of candidates (like in 2002), it’s an hours-long process that might make for interesting sport, but it’s hugely unpleasant and not particularly democratic. There’s debate within the party over changing the process this time around, such as moving to something closer to a traditional primary. Since the Democrats just about always win, how the nominees are chosen basically determines who is going to sit on Council.

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Lowry May Run for BoS

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February 10, 2009 in Politics.

A fellow by the name of John Lowry, of North Garden, is looking to run for Sally Thomas’ seat on the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, Brian Wheeler reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. Lowry is the chair of the Albemarle Economic Development Authority, a William & Mary alumnus, and is retired from a career in finance. Thomas hasn’t stated her intentions for reelection, so it’s a fair guess that Lowry’s decision is contingent on whether or not she’ll be running, too. He’s got a campaign website, and is in the process of collecting signatures to get on the ballot to run as an independent, though he may opt to run with party affiliation. The green color scheme on his website says “Democrat”…but his bowtie says “Republican.”

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Study: Albemarle Co. is Pretty Efficient

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February 12, 2009 in Government.

A third-party audit has found that Albemarle County is efficiently operated, but can improve, Brandon Shulleeta writes in today’s Daily Progress. The 112-page report (612K PDF) enumerates 140 ways that money can be saved, though a bunch of them require big up-front spending for long-term savings, which can be politically difficult. Interestingly, one recommendation is to hire more staff, since the county is apparently pretty lean in some departments, which sounds good, but actually results in inefficiencies. Shulleeta lists some of the more interesting recommendations, but it’s worth flipping through the report to see more of them. The study was conducted by VCU’s Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute.

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Analog Stations Will Disappear on Monday

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February 14, 2009 in Government, Business and Entertainment.

Four of the five local TV stations will switch to broadcasting digital signals on Tuesday, Brian McNeill writes in the Progress. NBC-29, CBS-19, ABC-16, and FOX-27 will all cease to broadcast in analog, although NBC-29 is compelled by the FCC to broadcast 24/7 instructions on switching to digital for the next couple of months. WHTJ, the local PBS affiliate, will continue their low-power analog broadcast until June, when they’ll shut it off.

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City Democrats Open Caucus

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February 14, 2009 in Politics.

Charlottesville Democrats have agreed to move to a firehouse primary, Rachana Dixit writes in the Daily Progress, which is hoped to result in significantly increased participation in their City Council nomination process. The idea is that there will be a single location on a single day where Democrats can show up, rank the candidates from their most to least favorite, and then go on with their day. Folks who can’t make it can vote absentee. And at the end of the day, the votes are tallied, and the most popular candidates will get the nod. Opponents worry that this process will be more expensive and time-consuming for candidates, while supporters hope that it will increase participation and result in stronger nominees with broader support.

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School Board Member Takes Extended Leave

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February 15, 2009 in Education and Politics.

School Board member Alvin Edwards is taking a two-month sabbatical during the budgeting process, and he won’t say where he’s going, why he’s leaving now, or what he’s up to. Rachana Dixit writes in the Progress that the Democrat and former mayor says he’s staying in touch via e-mail, and that his colleagues don’t see that his absence is problematic. Rev. Edwards will be missing six meetings, two budget sessions, and a town hall meeting. He was elected in 2007 to the position that he was appointed to in 2005.

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What’s Your CSA?

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February 16, 2009 in Agriculture.

Erika Howsare at C-Ville Weekly points out that it’s that time of year to sign up for Community Supported Agriculture programs. So it’s time for that annual discussion topic: Will you be signing for a CSA this year? Which one, and why?

Last year my wife and I decided that we’d skip the CSA and buy directly from farmers, and became regulars at the Farmers Market. Though we were happy with that decision, we were also really happy with Horse and Buggy Produce, who we worked in in 2006 and 2007. I think we’ll go the same route this year. We’re establishing a few new beds this year, and we’ve already gotten seeds sprouted for broccoli, lettuce and basil, and we got the peppers and tomatoes started last weekend. But it’s hard to beat the convenience of a CSA.

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Surviving the Depression

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February 16, 2009 in Business and General News.

Lisa Provence has a series of interviews with survivors of the Great Depression in this week’s Hook, and it actually makes for pretty good reading. Many have advice for how to get by, should this recession become something worse, and a lot of it seems to boil down to the ability to do for yourself. Things seem rough now, but reading the stories of what the 1930s were like, it’s clear that we’ve got it pretty good.

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Construction Begins on Meadowcreek Parkway

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February 17, 2009 in Transportation and Development.

I’m guessing some people just lost some bets: ground has been broken on the Meadowcreek Parkway, Rachana Dixit writes in the Progress. But it’s being done in an awfully strange way. The road is actually three roads, connecting in series, or so it is on paper. Albemarle County is building the 1.4 miles of the two mile road that runs through their municipality. That runs from Rio Road to a spot in the middle of McIntire Park. The next half mile is to be built by Charlottesville, though they don’t yet have the necessary permits to do that, and it’s not a sure thing that they’ll come through. And the last bit is the interchange—where it’ll connect to the bypass and to McIntire Road—which is VDOT’s project. It’s possible that we’ll end up with a 1.4 mile, $11.8M road to nowhere. The two-lane thruway is scheduled for completion in October 2011.

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Bell Votes to Cut Funding for the Drug Court

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February 17, 2009 in Government, Taxes and Law and Justice.

In an effort to balance the state’s budget, Del. Rob Bell voted in favor of eliminating the funding for the Charlottesville/Albemarle Drug Court, Tasha Kates writes in the Daily Progress. Drug courts exist to help drug addicts kick the habit, rather than tossing them in prison, which is both ineffective and a lot more expensive. They’re a big money saver, which is why Sheriff Chip Harding (a Republican, like Del. Bell) is an ardent supporter of them. Since the budget amendment passed with 61% of the vote, this isn’t likely to change.

Cutting the funding for drug courts to save money reminds me of when Governor Mark Warner closed down the liquor stores one day a week to save money; since they’re profitable, that didn’t make much sense.

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Furloughs at Area Businesses

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February 18, 2009 in Meta News and Business.

GE Fanuc and The Daily Progress are both furloughing employees to save money. The Progress reports on their own furloughs, writing that employees will have to take ten days off without pay in the coming months, with the paper’s offices closing on those days, but “the paper will continue to be produced and delivered each morning without interruption.” It’s tough to see how the staff is supposed to put out a decent paper the following day but, then, Media General’s cost-savings efforts have generally involved doing things that will make their product worse. GE Fanuc is furloughing their employees for two weeks, Brian McNeill writes in the Daily Progress, leaving 300 employees—half of their workforce—on unemployment for a couple of weeks. They will, however, continue to receive benefits.

There’s word of layoffs at LexisNexis, though unconfirmed, with an anonymous commenter (anonymous to you, not me) explaining that it’s of “temps”, though some of those temps have been working there for many years in the manner of full-time employees, so presumably LexisNexis doesn’t have to call them “layoffs.” The company has been gradually laying people off for months, rather than canning a bunch of people at the same time. That’s got to make it a grim place to work.

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Efficiency Study Makes C’ville Recommendations

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February 18, 2009 in Government.

UVa’s Weldon Cooper Center has released the results of their efficiency study of the city government, Rachana Dixit writes in the Progress, and has recommended a series of ways that Charlottesville can save money without reducing the quality of government. One recommendation is to take another look at school funding, which has increased substantially per pupil in the past decade. Interestingly, the study found that Charlottesville’s staffing levels are pretty lean—save for the police and social services, which are at appropriate levels—which is the same conclusion drawn in the efficiency study of Albemarle, which was done by a totally different organization. It’s also recommended that some taxes and fees be increased slightly, including taking the personal property tax rate from 4.2% to 4.28%, which would match Albemarle’s rate.

You can read the study itself (2.5MB PDF) for the full details.

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Volunteer Farm to Help Stock Food Bank

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February 20, 2009 in Agriculture.

The World Foundation for Children is setting up a volunteer-run farm in Culpeper County to provide meat and vegetables to the Charlottesville branch of the Blue Ridge Food Bank, Nate Delesline III writes in the Culpeper Star-Exponent. The organization has leased 100 acres for the next decade. They plan to start small, growing ten acres of potatoes, and move up from there. A couple of similar projects have been underway in the Shenandoah Valley for a while now, run by the same organization, reputedly with great success.

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On the Importance of Double-Checking Graphs

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February 23, 2009 in Meta News.

The Daily Progress has twice used extremely misleading charts in the past few weeks, and this seems like a good opportunity to highlight the importance of being a critical reader of charts and graphs. In both instance they employed bubble charts, a type of chart that is often avoided because people have an awfully hard time understanding them. At right is the chart that the paper employed on Sunday in Ranchana Dixit and Brandon Shulleeta’s “Can we afford our future?,” which tracked expensive capital improvement projects being planned in Charlottesville and Albemarle. As you can see, a minuscule amount is being spent on water and sewer improvements in comparison to Places29—in fact, more is being spent on Places29 than the other three combined. But the dollar values don’t add up. What’s going on?

The problem here is that people are really bad at comparing area. We do well with comparing colors, lengths, shapes, etc., but our brains are not well-equipped to figure out bubble charts. Doubly problematic is that this math behind the visuals in this chart is flat-out wrong. The area represented by the bottom bubble is $45.5M so, proportionally, the top bubble should represent $1,300M, not $312M. It’s 320% too big. Likewise, the middle two bubbles are significantly too large. The effect is to significantly exaggerate the disparity of the area’s spending priorities. Though having that big “$312 million” graphic above the fold on the front page of the paper is eye-catching, it’s misleading.

Here’s a side-by-side of the chart as it was presented in the Progress and how it should have looked:

As you can see, the effect isn’t nearly as striking. But it does have the benefit of being correct.

Stats-geek blog Junk Charts has a whole category to keep track of misleading bubble charts, because they’re so commonly misused. Understand, though, they’re not being misused maliciously by newspapers; they’re just easy to get wrong. In this case, the paper used an area-based chart with math that applies only to diameter leading to a geometric exaggeration of the data. The solution for the Progress is to use a simpler chart. (I’ve mocked it up as a bar chart, which is a much better format for this data.) This is certainly a minor sin, but it’s the sort of thing that (quite wrongly) leads readers to cry “bias!” when “mistake!” is a more appropriate response. And if you read this story in the paper yesterday, and didn’t think something was funny about that graph, the solution for you is to be a critical reader of charts and graphs. Look at the numbers, do a quick comparison and see if you’ve been given a false impression by the visuals.

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Legislature Approves Regional Transit Authority

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February 25, 2009 in Government, Transportation and Development.

The General Assembly has authorized a Charlottesville/Albemarle transit authority, the Progress reports, and there’s no reason to think that the governor won’t sign that bill into law. Del. David Toscano’s HB2159 cleared both chambers with near-unanimous votes. But it’s not clear that it’ll do any good, what with the failure of HB2161—Del. Toscano’s bill to permit the city and the county to hold a referendum on creating a special tax to fund the authority. The bill was killed in a subcommittee on an unrecorded vote. With no funding, there’s really no purpose in establishing such an authority.

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Group Sues to Halt Meadowcreek Parkway

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February 25, 2009 in Transportation and Law and Justice.

A citizen group has filed a lawsuit against the city and requested an injunction to prevent construction of the Meadowcreek Parkway, Henry Graff reports for NBC-29. They contend that Council’s 3-2 vote to give the land for the road to VDOT fell short of the Virginia Constitution’s 75% bar. (Article VII, Section 9 states: “No rights of a city or town in and to its…parks…shall be sold except by an ordinance or resolution passed by a recorded affirmative vote of three-fourths of all members elected to the governing body.”) Will Goldsmith wrote about the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park’s plans to halt the construction via legal means in C-Ville Weekly last month. Group members include Rich Collins, Dan Bluestone, Peter Kleeman and Colette Hall. Kleeman has been writing about the matter on his own blog, which provides a sense of the basis for the group’s opposition. Those more legally-inclined can see the text of the lawsuit and the request for an injunction courtesy of Hawes Spencer at The Hook.

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Minor Sues Danielson Over Landmark Hotel

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February 27, 2009 in Development and Law and Justice.

Halsey Minor has filed a lawsuit against Lee Danielson over the Landmark Hotel project, Will Goldsmith writes for C-Ville Weekly. Danielson was running the project for Minor, and now Minor alleges that Danielson has committed fraud and breach of contract, apparently blaming the faltering project on his former business associate. Danielson says that he’ll be suing Minor, too. Given that each guy has a history of business deals going sour, it may well take a court to figure this out. The squabble between the two has gone on for months, so this isn’t a particularly surprising outcome.

The bigger question is what’s to become of the enormous building shell, since construction stopped weeks ago, with no sign that it’ll be continuing. It has the potential to be downtown eyesore for years to come. In the meantime, though, maybe that barricade could be moved off of Water Street, opening it up to three lanes again, and that man-made pothole could be filled in with an asphalt patch?

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