Monthly Archive for August, 2011

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Thomas Informally Agrees to Limit 29N Access

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 10, 2011 in Transportation. 10 Comments

Supervisor Rodney Thomas has informally agreed to limit access to 29N in exchange for VDOT funding the Western Bypass, Jim Bacon writes on Bacon’s Rebellion. A major problem with the bypass bypass is that it doesn’t really bypass very much at all—there’s plenty of sprawl to the north of it, and the county has shown no willingness to reduce the rate of expansion of that sprawl. Every new road that connects to 29N, every new business entrance, every new stoplight makes the bypass that much more useless. (Recall that the 29 Bypass actually bypassed 29, once upon a time. But the urban ring sprawled out past it.) Now Thomas has committed the Board of Supervisors and Albemarle County to not just limiting new access, but also potentially to eliminating private roads that connect to 29N and getting rid of some median-strip crossovers that currently allow traffic entering 29N to turn either right or left.

Of course, that’s just Albemarle County. Greene County isn’t about to make any such agreement, and at the rate they’ve been growing in the past decade, our wise willingness to limit access to 29N may be made irrelevant as Greene and points north keep clogging up 29 with new gas stations, shopping centers, and connecting roads.

The Awkward Topic of Huja’s Accent

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 10, 2011 in Government and Politics. 36 Comments

In The Hook this week, Lisa Provence writes about the socially difficult topic of City Councilor Satyendra Huja’s strong Indian accent, and the difficulty that some people have understanding him. A few weeks ago, a woman addressing the council said that she’d had trouble following his remarks, saying that “it is the right of citizens to hear and comprehend what is going on during official meetings,” and proposing that Huja should pay for a translator so that citizens can understand him. It was that last bit that seemed to rile up some other councilors and members of the audience—Huja has a perfect command of English, and mention of a translator smacked of xenophobia, muddying an otherwise straightforward point. Council then did something extraordinary in response to the implication that their fellow councilor was not fit to hold office: they held a vote of confidence, which passed unanimously.

Culturally, we tend to regard it as our failing if we have a hard time comprehending somebody with a thick accent. The single-term Democrat is seeking reelection, which makes the topic more ticklish still. Assuming that this is actually a problem that merits addressing (I rarely have difficulty understanding him, but I don’t doubt that others do), it remains an open question what an appropriate response is, on either a governmental or social level.

Time Capsule Burial Captured on Film

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 8, 2011 in Entertainment, General News and History. 4 Comments

Any question of where the city’s 1962 time capsule was buried can be put to rest, thanks to this film from Tom Hartsell:

The 8mm film was made by his father at the time of the capsule’s burial. The capsule’s location has been unclear, and the city has been eager to find out, so that it can be unearthed next year, for the city’s 250th anniversary.

Parents Concerned about Bypass’ Proximity to Schools

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 2, 2011 in Education and Transportation. 17 Comments

Some opponents of the Western Bypass are concerned about its impact on students in nearby schools, Sean Tubbs writes for Charlottesville Tomorrow. The road winds surprisingly close to Albemarle, Jack Jouett, Greer, Agnor-Hurt, and St. Anne’s Belfield. A 1993 environmental impact study and a 2002 follow-up said that the bypass “would not directly impact any of these schools,” which seems odd, given the road’s proximity to the schools. VDOT anticipates another Federal Highway Administration-mandated reevaluation of the impact of the road on kids nearby, looking at both noise pollution and air pollution and how they’ll affect the thousands of nearby students.

Some parents of kids in the affected schools are sending e-mails around to their fellow parents, highlighting studies on these topics. For instance, EPA has published preliminary, draft guidelines about where to site schools relative to highways, finding that recent research has found adverse effects on the health of children in schools near large roadways. But that research is unrefined, and no mandatory guidelines are yet in place, so this research will presumably play no role in the location of the bypass bypass. That, of course, is not making those parents feel any better.

Galvin Holds Press Conference About Tone of Election

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 2, 2011 in Politics. 45 Comments

City Council candidate Kathy Galvin is lamenting the tone of this year’s council election, Lisa Provence writes for The Hook. She held a press conference on the topic yesterday, flanked by a pair of former mayors (Kay Slaughter and Blake Caravati). Provence quotes Galvin as saying:

I fear we’ve come to a low point in our local discourse that sadly mirrors the rancorous rhetoric and paralysis evident at the federal level in DC. Some have unfortunately adopted a bunker mentality about a particular issue or issues, and espouse a ‘my way or the highway’ approach to politics and decision-making. This isn’t good for the Democratic Party and it isn’t good for Charlottesville. We must change.

Galvin specifically cited opposition to building a new dam and opponents of building Meadowcreek Parkway, saying that “[w]e’ve already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies.”

Maybe I’m just not paying attention to this race closely enough, but I don’t actually understand what the problem is. On the federal level, things are atrocious—I’m not seeing anything like that in the council race. On the contrary, I think this just looks like a competitive race, rather than some Alphonse-and-Gaston routine where Democrats take turns running for office. Am I missing something?

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