Monthly Archive for August, 2007

Page 3 of 6

Land Use Discussion

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 21, 2007 in In Brief. 1 Comment

Check out the great discussion about land use, zoning, and rural preservation going on.  #

C-Ville Weekly Reviews Rapist Arrest Coverage

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 21, 2007 in Meta News. 10 Comments

I always like to point out when local media outlets manage to write about other media outlets in a way that’s both useful and even-handed. C-Ville Weekly has done so this week. Scott Weaver writes about how local media outlets covered the arrest of of Nathan Antonio Washington, the suspect in two of the serial rapes and the presumed suspect in all of them. It was a tough story to report on, due to the tension between wanting to say “the serial rapist has been caught” and the need for the restraint of sticking to the facts. As Weaver explains, some media outlets did a better job than others, with TV news taking a particularly “aggressive if not hysterical tone.” (cVillain is taking their mention rather badly. Hey, guys, you got a mention — be happy.) Weaver managed to write an informative article about other media outlets — even their direct competition in the former of The Hook — without resorting to snark or bomb-throwing. That’s great to see.

County Migration Map

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 17, 2007 in In Brief. 8 Comments

Texas’ Star-Telegram has put together a map of county-to-county migration from 2000-2005. Here’s Albemarle and here’s Charlottesville. Their lousy URLs make it impossible to link directly to a specific spot. We’re being invaded by Fairfax, it seems. It also shows that people moving away from C’ville are going to NYC, while Albemarleians are moving…right back to Fairfax.  #

Time Lapse Video of the Chalkboard

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 16, 2007 in General News. 9 Comments

The Thomas Jefferson Center has posted to their website a two minute time-lapse film of people writing on the chalkboard, made by recent AHS graduate Sasha Solodukhina. It’s pretty clever:

County Declares Drought

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 16, 2007 in Weather. 71 Comments

Following the recommendation of the RWSA, Albemarle County today issued a drought warning declaration, the county has announced in a press release this afternoon. The county cites “especially dry conditions in the last 6 out of 7 months causing dangerously low water levels.” With this comes restrictions, including washing cars at home, washing outdoor surfaces, watering outside vegetation with anything other than a watering can, running an ornamental fountain, filling swimming pools and, bizarrely, serving water to restaurant patrons unless they request it.

Let’s hope we don’t end up going down the same absurd path we went down in 2002, with drinking fountains and bathroom sinks being turned off. Drinking and hygiene are the two essential functions for which water is conserved at times like this. There’s no sense in restricting those.