Monthly Archive for September, 2005

Page 5 of 8

Media General to Cut Costs

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 15, 2005 in Business and Meta News. Closed

Media General reported some bad financial news today — they’ve cut their projections for their publishing division’s Q3 earnings in half based on terrible earnings for the month of August. They chalk it up to a soft advertising market, a drop in ad spending by auto makers, and the ubiquitous “higher energy costs.”

This means, of course, spending cuts at newspapers, including the Daily Progress. That means reducing the staff’s already-pathetic pay (sorry, guys) or reducing the number of employees, probably through leaving positions unfilled. That, in turn, means shallower coverage. For the publication that’s at the top of the area’s information ecosystem, that’s bad news for all of us.

(Via Bacon’s Rebellion)

Charlottesville Tomorrow Launches

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 15, 2005 in Development and Transportation. 9 Comments

There’s a new organization devoted to the future of the region, Charlottesville Tomorrow, which describes themselves as:

[A] new non-partisan organization dedicated to informing public opinion and policy on land use, transportation, and community design issues to ensure sensible growth and to realize the best possible future for the Charlottesville-Albemarle area.

The group was announced at a press conference held today. They’ve got an all-star Board of Directors, a paid executive director, a pretty extensive website, and a blog, so they’ve certainly gotten a good start. Oddly, they’ve declared themselves to be neutral on the topic of growth, which is clearly the biggest issue facing the region — it’ll be interesting to watch them try to dance around the issue.

BoS Approves Old Trail Village

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 15, 2005 in Development. 13 Comments

Last night, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the construction of a huge new development in Crozet, Jessica Kitchin reports in today’s Progress. Developer Gaylon Beights plans 2,000 houses and 250,000 square feet of retail. Just about everybody who spoke up about the development was opposed to it, noting that 250 isn’t designed for the traffic, the schools can’t take the students, and Crozet’s infrastructure can’t support it.

Prior to the vote, during a work session about the Rural Area Comprehensive Plan:

[Dennis] Rooker…challenged the group to make some difficult decisions.

“What do we have the guts to do to preserve rural areas?”

Apparently, not much.

White Powder at County Court

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2005 in Crime and Law and Justice. Closed

That most deadly of all weapons — some white powdery stuff — was found in an envelope received at the Albemarle General District Court this morning. Government panic ensued, complete with hazmat units, a decontamination tent, quarantine, and closure of the courthouse until tomorrow afternoon. The media have been assured that no symptoms have been displayed by those affected, though when asked symptoms of what, no answer was forthcoming. There’s no word yet on whether it’s flour or laundry detergent, or something really exotic, like baking soda. WINA has the story.

7:45pm Update: Kate Andrews has filed a story for the Progress:

The powder tested negative for anthrax and is a “food-based particle,” officials said. They declined to elaborate further.

[…]

Members of the Charlottesville-Albemarle hazardous material team entered the courthouse wearing white suits, bright green gloves and orange boots as six quarantined clerks were decontaminated in a shower tent set up in front of the building.

[…]

Court will be open Thursday.

On Pearlington and a Sister City

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2005 in General News. Closed

Bob Gibson was the first to call for a sister city in the hurricane-affected portion of the Gulf Coast, in addition to our existing three: Long Beach, Washington; Poggio a Caiano, Italy; and Besançon, France. David New and Oliver Kuttner, who recently took supplies down to the town of Pearlington, Mississippi, have suggested that would be the place to pick. In an editorial yesterday, the Daily Progress scolded City Council for their lack of action, and heartily endorsed the idea of establishing a relationship with some city, so that we could all direct our efforts there.

So, what’s up with Pearlington?

As of the 2000, the Hancock County town had a population of 1,684 and 648 households. It has a total area of 9.6 mi2, about the same size as Charlottesville. It’s 77% white, 20% black, and 1.4% Hispanic — again, similar to Charlottesville. The median household income is $31,000, nearly identical to Charlottesville, with 17.6% of the population under the poverty line, or 8% less than here.

A map shows that it’s right along the east-west Highway 90, nearly as far south in Alabama as you can go, smack on the Mississippi-Louisiana border. It’s about an hour’s drive from downtown New Orleans. The whole of Hancock County has a population of 43,000 people, about the population of Charlottesville.

Perhaps the only other thing to be said of Pearlington — and this does seem important — is that it was adopted by Carbondale, Colorado a couple of days ago, according to the Aspen Times (BugMeNot). Carbondale isn’t much larger than Pearlington. They’re looking to send down an RV with an emergency response team that will assess the situation and figure out what Carbondale needs to do for Pearlington.

Pearlington or otherwise, I’ll say right now that if Charlottesville adopts a Gulf town — and does so pronto — I’ll head down there myself and spend at least a week or so doing whatever needs doing.

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