Given the climbing price of food, I’m looking to expand the household vegetable garden this year beyond the seeds that we planted back in February. We’ve looked around, but the few places we’ve checked are devoid of organic labeling. Organic isn’t a particularly big deal to me in the food that I buy, but the stuff that grows in my own garden I like to keep away from the ol’ Miracle Grow. Can anybody suggest a nursery in the area where I could stock on up tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, etc?
Archive for the 'Ask cvillenews.com' Category
Fellow local history buffs, albeit those a bit older than me, might be interested in this note from Sean Kotz:
Where were you on Saturday nights during the witching hour in the 1970s? Well, there is a good chance, like a lot of Virginians, you were watching your local horror host. This summer, Horse Archer Productions is brushing back the cobwebs as we film the new documentary, “Virginia Creepers: The Horror Host Tradition of the Old Dominion.” We will be charting more than 40 years of Virginia’s television history by talking with hosts (former and current) as well as fans to create this just in time for Halloween. In fact, we’re very interested in involving you, and are currently planning a Charlottesville area taping for fans, so if you remember Slime Theatre or Cobweb Theatre or any Virginia host or show, contact us at info@horsearcherproductions.com. And go to the website to learn how your stories, memorabilia, and memories can be part of this movie.
I’m always glad to see efforts to document recent local history. John Hammond Moore’s excellent “Albemarle: Jefferson’s County, 1727-1976″ peters out in the 1950s, Moore presumably figuring then-recent history would interest few. Here’s hoping somebody takes on the task of updating it soon.
It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to picking apples and buying cider. Though a trip to Carter’s Mountain makes for a fine afternoon, their cider is, sadly, pasteurized. Does anybody know of an area orchard that sells unpasteurized cider?
I’ve heard tell about gas prices dropping, but it’s been so little that I haven’t noticed. As it turns out, that’s just Charlottesville. I see on NBC 29’s Gas Price Watch page that fuel is $2.30/gallon in Waynesboro, $2.34/gallon down the street from me in Barboursville, and $2.43/gallon in Ruckersville. Here in C’ville it’s between $2.65 and $2.69 a gallon, which is a bit higher than the national average of $2.61 and significantly higher than the $2.30/gallon average in metropolitan areas across the nation. Our prices are, in fact, the highest in the state.
What’s going on? Did I miss a memo?
09/13 Update: Bryan McKenzie has a lengthy article on this very topic in today’s Daily Progress.
As the trees turn green and my wife and I prepare to transfer our seedlings into the garden, I’ve found myself wanting to sign up for a share in a Community Supported Agriculture program. Having a weekly supply of fruits, vegetables, herbs and meats would be great. I see that Best of What’s Around is full up for the season, so they’re out. Does anybody have any experience with area CSA programs? Any recommendations?
Sometime when I wasn’t looking, these antennae sprouted up on many of the traffic lights around Charlottesville. They look like flat panel directional antennae (here’s an example), though I don’t know what the city would be doing with them, least of all in tandem with traffic lights. I’ve got a picture of one in context, at the corner of JPA and Main, too. Does anybody have an idea of what these are for?
East High Street. Long Street/250. West Main. Ridge/McIntire. From 4:00-5:30 each day, these roads are packed. High Street gets backed up clear past Meade, Long past Locust and sometimes to Park. Navigating Pantops during lunchtime and during evening rush hour is an exercise in patience. As the populations of the surrounding counties boom (Fluvanna, in particular), the number of people commuting to Charlottesville climbs correspondingly.
What are we going to do? It’s not possible to widen most of these roads — we’ve got to work with what we’ve got. The Meadowcreek Parkway and the 29 Bypass Bypass wouldn’t have any effect on this traffic. Public transit to and from population centers in Albemarle and the surrounding counties would be neat, but I don’t see it in the cards. The only solution that I see is a total overhaul of how planning works for the entirety of Central Virginia, creating viable centers of blue- and white-collar commerce all around the area, rather than centering on Charlottesville.
But that’s just one idea. What do you think will keep things from getting worse?
Tired of not getting TV reception on the north slope of the Southwest Mountains, my wife and I recently got DirecTV. We were surprised to discover that the channels that we really wanted — NBC, PBS, and Fox — weren’t provided. Neither were ABC or CBS. Due to crappy federal legislation, we need to pay $1.50/channel to get these stations, though only after being granted permission to get them. Apparently, DirecTV has to ask NBC 29 and Fox 27 if they’ll let me get NBC and Fox out of New York or L.A. The stations have the right to say “no,” and I’m told that there’s nothing that I can do about it. The process takes about 45 days.
Surely others in the area have dealt with this. There’s no way for me to get local stations? Is there any way that I can accelerate the process of getting these stations from NYC or L.A., or at least be assured that I’ll get my permission slip?
Mike N. asks: “I just noticed an antenna atop a lamp-post on the Belmont Bridge. Does anyone know what this is for? It appears to be about an 10 inch patch antenna aimed over the pavillion to another one mounted atop the building across from it. Sound level monitoring for the pavillion maybe?”
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.
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.
From the northern end of town up through northern Albemarle (and perhaps farther?), I can pick up a radio station that I’ve never heard of before, 101.1FM, WBAG. It is the greatest radio station ever. In a total of perhaps two hours of listening, I’ve heard The Doors, Jem, Dave Matthews, Kid Koala, Dizzy Gillespie, Soul Coughing, Mike Doughty, Lyle Lovett, Loretta Lynn….a bit of everything that is good and right about music. Three out of four songs that they play, I know and love; the rest I’ve never heard and love anyway. There are no commercials, no PSAs, no no breaks for song identification. The only station ID comes at the top of the hour, and says, only, that it’s WBAG. But WBAG is in North Carolina, and it’s a commercial station. The FCC knows nothing of a 101.1FM in the area. Their LPFM (low power FM) database lists only one 101.1FM in the state, and that’s way down in Hillsville. The station’s signal strength drops so sharply — from perfect to gone in the span of a couple of miles — that it’s almost certainly some sort of LPFM, though presumably one not licensed by the FCC. Has anybody else heard this wonderful station? Anybody know who runs this unauthorized station? When it came into being? I’d love the story behind this.
dsewell writes: According to mayor David Brown, lower Blue Book values for used cars translates into lower tax revenues for the city. I don’t get it. “Brown says used cars are flooding the market because people are buying a lot of new cars with all the incentives out there.” So if people are buying new cars, shouldn’t the higher assessments on them offset the lower values on used cars? Or are people buying new cars everywhere but in C’ville?
Perhaps that commercial about cars being cheaper in the country is having its impact? ;)
To follow up on dsewell’s “ask cvillenews.com” question last week, here’s the text of The Daily Progress’ November 5, 2000 endorsement of George Bush. Since folks are so eager to discuss political matters, let’s make it local: has President Bush met the expectations of the Progress’ editorial board? If so (or if not), should the Progress endorse Bush anew, or would Kerry be a better choice for Central Virginia? Discuss amongst yourselves. (Note that the editorial is reprinted without permission, please don’t sue me, educational use, some restrictions may apply, God save the queen, etc.)
Continue reading ‘Follow-Up: Progress’ 2000 Bush Endorsement’
dsewell writes: Recently, Dominion Virginia Power made adjustments to their billing schedule, so the most recent March bills that went out were for an extended period. In my case, the bill was for a 41-day period and based on an estimated read… and the charge was for well over $300, whereas I’ve never had an electric bill over $200 in any month. So I checked the electric meter and found that the bill was based on an estimated reading of about 1000 kW/hr more than my actual usage. I phoned Dominion and they said they’d adjust the bill. Today at work I casually mentioned this, and it turned out that two co-workers living in entirely different parts of the county had the same experience with their last bill. How widespread is this? Did everyone get overcharged?
Man@Work writes: I have been commuting to C’ville for 5 years coming in from Interstate 64 West. Coming off the ramp onto 250 up to Pantops has never been enjoyable during rush hour. Now however, with the new traffic light at Peter Jefferson Place area the traffic is a complete nightmare. This morning I sat for ~20 minutes waiting to get off the exit ramp onto 250. Once on 250 and past the lights at Peter Jefferson’s traffic light the traffic evaporated. I cannot be the only commuter that has witnessed this, nor the only one put out by traffic tie up as a result of this new light. How does one open a dialogue with the county about this traffic nuisance?
When I drive back into town from Blacksburg, that’s how I usually get off of 64, and I have been similarly baffled by the placement of this light.
Indie writes: City Manager Gary O’Connell is headed to Bulgaria, WINA reports, where among other things, he “hopes to set up an exchange where officials from the city of Plevin, Bulgaria will visit Charlottesville.” The city also has a sister relationship with Besancon, France and Poggio a Caiano, Italy. Is there tangible value in these relationships or is it just a waste of time?
BetterLife writes: I was driving down 29 on Saturday and once again saw those people with orange vests standing on the median strip with 5 gallon buckets soliciting money. They display no signs that explain their charity. I was wondering whether these are the “Will work for food” people who have gone into a more aggressive approach to get cash. I understood after 9/11 when the fire/rescue people were doing it, but to have people doing it regularly should be against the law if it isn’t already. Does anyone know anything about this or whether there is a law preventing it?
Cecil writes: I heard on the radio this morning (2/20) that Albemarle County and Charlottesville City schools (among others) are closed today. I don’t have a problem with that; I don’t even have a child in the school system. But I am curious - -it seems to me that the streets are pretty much clear, at least in the city. Why do they remain closed? Does anyone have any experience with these kinds of school-closing decisions, someone who could shed light on what factors go into consideration? This layperson wonders.
silkyzephyr writes: The police blocked off I-64 westbound (Friday 2:30pm). The resulting detoured traffic backed up Route 250 for six miles. I know this because I drove that far east looking for an alternative route back into C’ville, after shopping at Giant on Pantops. Ended up almost at Zion Xroads, turning south and then coming back past Monticello. What happened today on I-64?
ColinC writes: After recent snowfall, I and many others have noticed a black, sootlike substance settling on the snow, cars, and dogs around town. It’s thick and hard to get off. There is a possibility that this may stem from the UVA power plant recently found to have an effect on air quality. Anyone have an insight into this mystery?
Semi writes: Okay, not what you normally think of as UFOs, but a strange apparition. I work at UVA Hospital, and the sound of Pegasus coming in caused me to look up, and I saw the most remarkable thing (about 2:45 pm on 11/25 as I write this). A rainbow! But not your typical Hollywood horizon-to-horizon rainbow. This one was almost straight up in the sky and I could see both ends of it, like a big C. It was nearly 180 degrees, somewhere between 120 and 150. It was not a corona (or whatever you call those dark hued rings that appear round the sun); this was a full-fledged prismatic rainbow, bending away from the sun. Unfortunately, in the ten minutes it took me to walk back to desk and get to my computer, it was practically gone. To see it, go outside and look almost straight up, just a little south and east in the general direction of the sun. Did anyone else see this? Any meteorologists on this site who can explain it? Am I just flashing back to the sixties? Curious minds want to know..
Hoo2LA writes: Charlottesville is certainly a town of conflicted identity - rural backwater, bustling university town, the usual middle-class place, home of the idle rich. To help marketers sort through the mess, claritas.com has given us exact breakdowns of who lives where and what sorts of people they are. Do you think they’ve got us nailed?
For example, here is what pops up for 22901:
Charlottesville 22901’s most common PRIZM Clusters are:
The Boomtown Singles like to paint, draw, sculpt and watch the X-Files. They have school loans and make about $35 grand.
So, which one are you? Keep reading to see claritas.com’s data on Our Fair City.
Hoo2LA writes: I found myself in a conversation with several other ex-Charlottesvillians just the other day and we discovered that one of the things we all really miss, surprisingly, was the food. It was suggested that someone should get together a Charlottesville recipes book. So, supposing that someone did travel about Charlottesville soliciting recipes, what would you all think has to make it in there?
We let our decisions be guided by the taste of the food, theoretical ease of preparation (hence, no Crozet pizza, given lack of pizza ovens in regular kitchens) and nostalgic value.
To get you started:
(I apologize for the UVA focus, but we were students. Of course, feel free to expand our horizons.)
Indie writes: If you were to read Jeff Peyton’s editorial in this week’s Observer, you might think the most pressing issue of the day is the “trash-talking” that goes on behind-the-scenes in the local print advertising world. Doesn’t his editorial do the same thing he accuses the others of doing ie. badmouthing the competition? In a related item, what of the recent exodus of staff from the Observer? It also appears that the Observer’s recent expansion to several sections has imploded. Once there were only two weeklies, The C-Ville Weekly and The Observer. Will The Hook replace The Observer as the second weekly, leaving The Observer to die out?
Every time we run a meta-news story about a weekly, things tend to get ugly. Please, folks, let’s keep this civil.
On George Loper’s website, he’s currently featuring a short piece, complete with photos, about the Farmers’ Market. This 30-year-old Saturday morning gathering of local farmers has floated around town, homeless, for many years now, though it’s been in a parking lot on Water Street for the past few years. Much lip service has been paid to finding a permanent location, but nothing has been done. What say you, cvillenewsers? Should it be given a permanent location or at least a better one? Is this an institution that requires better quarters, or does its impromptu feeling help make it what it is? If not in its current location, where should it be?
Paul writes: Are there a lot of telephones in C’ville out after that storm last night? I called Sprint from work this morning and someone said their computers were out, so she’d write my info on a scrap of paper and they “were telling everyone that hopefully someone will be out to check on it by end of business tomorrow.” The “service representative” said that she had no way of knowing if a lot of phones were out because the computer was down. She wasn’t local because she didn’t know there had been a storm.
Of course, if people’s phones are down, they can’t dial out to the Internet to post to cvillenews.com…
Indie writes: There are two articles this week in the C-Ville Weekly that take a look at local nightlife. Many times I hear, “There’s nothing to do in Charlottesville.” So what’s missing (in terms of nightlife)? Do we need swankier restaurants? A couple of clubs? An expanded downtown scene? Or do we really have it all?
writes: I went out to the Giant grocery store on Pantops and watched the fireworks from there. It was a great view — in fact, it seemed as though we could see fireworks over in Waynesboro or Staunton (you could see the mountain with the fireworks behind it). Looking at the paper and the list of fireworks, it also appeared that we could see the fireworks at Graves Mountain Lodge from there. There were some fireworks that might have been at Earlysville but I wasn’t sure and maybe some at Crozet (you could tell the difference between the Crozet area fireworks and those over the mountains). If anyone else has any suggestions on where I was seeing fireworks, I’d appreciate hearing about it. For a while I thought I was even seeing some faint ones from Harrisonburg. The crowd at the Giant was really nice and it was a fun way to see the fireworks.
I, too, enjoyed the view of Charlottesville, Crozet, and a few other mystery displays from just outside of town. Can anybody ID the various celebrations visible around town?
writes: So I’ve passed by the Marriot on West Main the last few fridays, and guess what? No protesters encouraging motorists to operate their warning sounders! Has the living wage crowd simply given up, or has there perhaps been some progress getting Mariott to pay up?
I’ve never thought of myself as a water snob. I’ve drunk from some pretty fetid water sources all along the Appalachian Trail. I eschew bottled water, and I’d never met tap water that I didn’t like…until I moved into Charlottesville from Free Union a few years ago. Our water is disgusting. Every now and again, some foolhardy guest will help themselves to a glass of tap water, and they’re invariably disgusted. I’ve discussed this with fellow Charlottesvillians, and people nearly always agree that it’s gross. Do cvillenewsers have the same take on it? Why is our water so awful?
betterlife writes: I was curious as to what happened to the following anchors, etc from WVIR: Pedro Echevaria, Carey McCuone (sp), Stacey Horst,
Lonnie Quinn. Now there is some new lady doing the 6:00 news who is doing the job like she is a news [veteran]. Does anyone know anything about her or where she is from?
writes: Is there any location in town that is showing the World Cup matches? US/Costa Rica/Portugal/Mexico? Cville is such a big soccer town, I would expect that some bar/restaurant is showing the matches, especially with our large Hispanic population. Anyone?
Anonymous writes “So cvillenews.com has been up a while and seems to have a pretty decent crowd of regulars. But how about some numbers on the visitors the site sees? How much traffic does cvillenews get?” Keep reading for the answer.
The server that I host cvillenews.com on is in a bad way, and lacks anything in the way of decent logging tools and such. As a matter of fact, the drive that records logs ran out of space a few weeks ago, so I’m missing a few weeks of logs. So I’ve written a few shell scripts to extract some data from the log files, and I hope that this will suffice.
We’ll start off with the most useless of all statistics: hits. cvillenews.com gets between 1,000 - 9,000 hits per day. An average weekday sees about 4,000 hits.
We’ll take yesterday as an example to look more closely at a regular day. There were 6,900 hits from 263 unique users. About half of those users are from known-local addresses: intelos.net, cstone.net, cfw.com, virginia.edu, mediageneral.com, monticello.org, bnsi.net, charlottesville.org, ceva.net, rlc.net, cruchfield.com, snl.com, etc. etc. About a quarter come from possibly-local users connecting via aol.com, earthlink.net, va.sprint-hsd.net, starband.net, etc. And the remaining quarter came from interesting places like keck.hawaii.edu and c-span.org and unresolvable IP addresses. Some of our most regular users here come from that last bunch, mostly C’ville expatriates, from what I’ve gathered on the boards.
Taking a step back to the last week we see 1,033 unique users. (Due to dial-up modem users with ever-changing Internet addresses, that’s probably more like 800 or so.) The population increases to just over 2,000 if you look at a month. The conclusion that I draw from this is that we have a core group of a few hundred users that visit “obsessively” (see the recent poll on the topic), a thousand or so that visit regularly, and folks that discover the site and promptly forget it. (Or run screaming to the relatively safety of the streets after reading the discussions.)
Weekends are the slowest for traffic (and posts, consequently), as a sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy: why should I add news to the site, since nobody looks at the site on the weekends? So, of course, nobody looks at the site on weekends because there’s nothing new. Oh, well.
As long as I’m spouting statistics, I may as well point out how most people get here. The vast majority of visitors (well over 75%) simply type in the address or use a bookmark. This is good, because it means that random people aren’t finding the site due to crazy search terms in Google and wasting my bandwidth. Which leads me to search engines. None of them lead here except for Google. We get some pretty crazy results. Here are some recent terms that brought up cvilenews.com in Google and led people here:
Meadowcreek Parkway
meredith richards
ClearChannel monopoly
D&R Development
Gaylon Beights
Lee Danielson
aolian islands
bike box portland maine airport
curfew law scenario
Charlottesville local news
STEPHEN MALKMUS IS A SNOB
charlottesville recycling
david allen coe cum stains
domestic terrorism charlottesville
hook charlottesville
ice-cream environment vermont
ron martin appliances charlottesville
ludicrous mike tyson quote
cville weekly paper
Colin Rolph
oxymoron sculptures
why northerners suck
labor action group Charlottesville
Maurice Jones Virginia Charlottesville
michael spicer tortola
Charlottesville local news
Gaylon Beights
Judah Friedlander everyday video
Reid Nagle SNL Securities
cville waldo
george loper
kevin armstrong
law professor abraham student
malicious wounding law
progress on the budget with city council 2003
martin luther king plagerism thesis
Weird.
Anyhow, that’s pretty much the basic data that I can easily extract from these log files. I hope to get the site moved to a new server at my apartment in the next week or two, and I should be able to get some more useful data from that.
BetterLife writes: I haven’t been around here very long, but as I walk across the Belmont bridge occassionally, I notice what appears to be the remnants of a bridge. Does anyone know the history of this? Whether is was a bridge or not, or how long ago it was torn down? I know, dumb question, but it has always interested me.
betterlife writes: I am someone agitated by the renovations that are nearing completion on the mall side of the Market Street parking garage. Do other people agree that the steel beams and cables actually are out of character and somewhat of an eyesore?
betterlife is talking about the recent expansion of the garage that has added four new storefronts and metal-and-cable awnings on top of them. The expansion started several months ago, and appears to only have one storefront remaining to be finished before the project is completed.
writes: Recent media reports have indicated an impasse between VDOT and the local Metropolitan Planning Organization over the building of the Route 29 Western bypass versus construction of interchanges at Rio, Greenbrier, and Hydraulic. Given that the estimated cost of the bypass is $30 million dollars per mile, is there any information available about how much the three interchanges would cost to compare with the cost of the road? Or their proposed size and scale? How will this proposed new mall at the Sperry Marine property impact MPO and VDOT discussions on the interchanges, given the traffic [it] will contribute to 29?
writes: Being new to Charlottesville, I attended my first parade here Saturday. I was impressed by the floats and many other sights, but was extremely bothered by the vendors patrolling up and down the streets with overloaded (and probably stolen!) shopping carts. Is this a common practice for the City to allow these vendors to “interfere” with citizens being able to enjoy a parade without dangling flashy “toys” in front of childrens faces to get them all wound up to have us produce the almighty dollar? This is a poor practice that I certainly hope City management will take into consideration for the next parade. Is the money the City gets for the temporary vendor permits really worth pissing off the citizens that are already agitated by not being able to find a place to park? Advice, comments, please!
Anonymous writes: I had been a great admirer of WINA news. However, I’m curious about the support that WINA has for their afternoon programming. Clark Howard is interesting and educational. But the rest of the afternoon programming is really one long hateful outpour (I’m thinking particularly of Neal Boortz). I keep accidentally having to hear him when all I want is the weather. So what’s up with the afternoon programming? I’m told that this is what people want. How do they know this? The station manager says it’s ratings and that’s why advertisers sign on. But do they listen to this stuff and how hateful it is? Is there any way to talk to advertisers and say that contrary to rating books, the programming stinks and makes me want to send a note to the advertisers?
Cecil writes: This is not news, but rather a question: what is _up_ with some of the graffiti appearing just north of town? Read on for the terrifying details…
I’ve seen graffiti-style references to Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (I am not making this up) in the following places: on a parked trailer near the intersection of Greenbrier and East Rio and on the side of that small strip mall just north of Kmart on 29 (the mall with the Mailboxes etc. in it).
I have also seen spray-painted renditions of Charles Bronson’s face (I am not making this up) on the backs of street signs that can be seen as you drive southbound past Albemarle High School.
I have to think that these phenomena are related. Please, for the love of God, can anyone enlighten?
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