Monthly Archive for June, 2009

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Meade to Create Parking Problems…Briefly

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 19, 2009 in Transportation. 31 Comments

Neighbors of the new public pool on Meade Park aren’t thrilled about its lack of parking, Gordon Block writes for The Hook. The pool complex can accommodate 225 people, but the parking lot—which appears to basically use all of the available land—can only fit 36 cars. There’s plenty of on-street parking, but folks who live in houses on and around Meade Avenue use those spaces to park their own cars. No problemo, though—City Council intends to limit some spaces to residents, and provide permits to folks who live nearby, once they’ve observed how much strain the pool places on existing parking. But some residents are angry that the pool will open this weekend without the permitting program already being in place.

Given that Council already has plans to solve the problem, it’s not clear that there’s anything to be done here. It’ll be interesting to see if this is actually a problem tomorrow.

Independent Joins Sheriff Race

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 19, 2009 in Law and Justice and Politics. 51 Comments

An independent candidate is running for city sheriff, Christine Mora reports for NBC-29. Charlottesville Police Department detective Paul Best works on the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force, and says that if elected he’d implement the Gang Reduction and Intervention Program in Charlottesville. The only other candidate in the race is Democrat James Brown.

Sacajawea Acknowledged on Lewis & Clark Statue

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 19, 2009 in General News. 2 Comments
The statue, viewed against the sky
The Lewis and Clark statue, photographed by Alexander Kurashev / CC

A plaque was dedicated to Sacajawea at a ceremony at the Lewis and Clark statue today, Dave McNair writes for The Hook. The statue has been the subject of protest for its depiction of an apparently cowering Sacajawea—in fact, the Shoshone teenager served as a translator and, at times, a guide—which is what motivated the city to commission the plaque honoring her.

Anybody interested in the context of how this statute came to be will appreciate Michie Company-printed 1919 booklet detailing the unveiling exercises. Mayor W.M. Forrest spoke—thanking Paul Goodloe McIntire for providing the sculpture—UVA President Edwin Alderman presented the statue, Miss Virginia McIntire unveiled it, Judge R.T.W. Duke accepted it on behalf of the city, and Armistead Churchhill Gordon gave a rather lengthy historical discourse on the honored explorers.

Gerry Mitchell Sues City, County for Wheelchair Collision

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 17, 2009 in Law and Justice and Transportation. 7 Comments
Video of the accident, as filmed from the police cruiser. Courtesy of The Hook.

Gerry Mitchell has filed a lawsuit against the city and two police officers for $850,000, Courteney Stuart reports for The Hook. In 2007 Mitchell was struck by a county police officer’s patrol vehicle while Mitchell was crossing the street in his wheelchair, and then city police had the gall to go to the hospital—where the victim had been taken by ambulance—and ticket him for jaywalking. The charges against him were dropped a couple of weeks later, on a technicality, though one that city police may have been happy to identify. Mitchell says his health problems have worsened because of the accident, and that his attempts to settle with the city and the county have all been rebuffed.

Dominion Beta Testing Smart Meters Here

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 16, 2009 in Business. 20 Comments

In a press conference downtown today, Governor Kaine announced that Dominion Virginia Power will be beta testing 46,500 smart power meters in Charlottesville and Albemarle, CBS-19 reports. The devices can communicate with Dominion in real-time, wirelessly, allowing both Dominion and customers to know at any time how much energy that they’re consuming. Not only does that make it easier for customers to conserve, but it will allow demand-based pricing, basically selling all energy via a real-time, automated auction, a sort of a never-ending conversation between our appliances and power stations about how much we need electricity right now and how much we’re willing to pay for it. More details about this are available on Dominion’s blog.

I’m so geeked about this that I will pay to use this service, if I have to. (I’m a big energy grid geek.) Here’s hoping that they’ll partner with Google PowerMeter for that extra touch of awesome.

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