Local filmmaker Eric Hurt has won Organizing for America’s competition to create short films about the paucity of affordable family health care, Brian McNeill writes in today’s Daily Progress. A thousand films were submitted, with a blue-ribbon panel naming this one the best. It was shot at Riverview Park.
Angry protesters are driving away customers to businesses next door to Rep. Perriello’s office, and they’re demanding that Perriello relocate his office to a place where they can more easily picket him. #
The Victory Shoes façade has been illegally demolished, Dave McNair wrote in The Hook a few days ago. (Here’s how it looked when the shoe store was still in business.) One of the few remaining examples of art deco architecture in town, the building—just to the left of Mudhouse, the recent location of Oh Suzannah—was built in 1921 by sisters, Tillie and Faye, who named the shoe store in honor of the recently-won Great War. It was in business for over 70 years, with those sweet old ladies running it until the end. McNair writes that the owner is one Joe H. Gieck, while Liz Palka reports for CBS-19 that property manager Bill Rice was in charge of it. Rice says that it’s “an innocent mistake,” that he didn’t know that he needed permission to destroy the building entryway. The work was being done without a permit (period), and the city has halted construction on what is intended to be a frozen yogurt shop.
The worry with this sort of thing is that Gieck and Rice knew exactly what they were doing, but figured that it was easier to just do it illegally and pay a little fine than to ask permission and likely be denied. I don’t know what the appropriate punishment is for this sort of a thing, but like any punishment, it’s got to be worse than the benefit that was gained from committing the offense in question. It’s up to the city to figure out what that’ll be.
Adopt a needy family for Christmas. I’ve done this—it’s guaranteed elevation. #
West Main business owns are pushing for a charrette on the history of the corridor, Rachana Dixit writes in today’s Daily Progress. (For those who aren’t familiar with the process, Wikipedia provides a good definition. It’s basically when a bunch of stakeholders get together and try to collaboratively solve a design problem.) The West Main of today is vastly improved from the West Main of just fifteen years ago, but it’s got a long way to go if it’s to be as vibrant as the Corner to the west of it and the Downtown Mall to the east of it. Real estate owner Bill Atwood and Maya owner Peter Castiglione are pushing for a city-facilitated charrette, in the style of the 1989 charette that preceded the downtown renaissance, in hopes of moving things along.
I note that Dixit has used a term new to me in the second-to-last paragraph: “midtowner,” apparently referring to those who live or work on West Main Street.
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