Much of the Downtown Mall redevelopment work is being done by out-of-town firm, Dave McNair writes in this week’s Hook. Local firms bid on the work, but they were beat out by companies in Norfolk, Maryland, and Michigan. Only two of the seven contracts went to local businesses. One of the owners of those local businesses complains that while they pay reasonable wages, the out of town companies are trucking in guys for $8/hour. The city seems to be in an awkward position here, not least of which is that state procurement laws (which the city has to function under) only allow them to prefer local firms when there’s a tie between two bidders. But more than that, the city’s got to get this job done as inexpensively as possible…but they’ve also got to keep local businesses happy. And those two things are, as we can see here, often at odds.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
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The Board of Supervisors has selected Rio District representative David Slutzky as its new chair, replacing Ken Boyd, of the Rivanna District, the county has announced via press release. But the shift is more than geographic—Slutzky is probably the most liberal member of the board, while Boyd is surely the most conservative. With the election of White Hall District’s Anne Mallek in 2007, the BoS became majority-Democratic. (Mallek was named the BoS’ vice chair today.) Slutzky can drive conservative Republicans to distraction, so expect today’s change to lead to some anger and hand-wringing in some quarters of the county.
Downtown tarot card reader Ed Rowe passed away on NYE; a memorial service will be held Wed. 01/07 from 5-8PM at Twisted Branch. #
- Bricks on 5th St. NE get pulled up, back in November, as a demo of the work to come.
The Downtown Mall rebricking has begun, Rachana Dixit writes in today’s Daily Progress. Beginning at Central Place, the $7.5M project will work outward from there, continuing six days a week for the next four months. The city did a legendarily terrible job working with merchants when the Downtown Mall was initially constructed, and did little better when bricking over 3rd St. last year. This time around they’re working closely with merchants, timing the work to avoid disruption, even skipping work on Saturdays, at the request of businesses. But lots of downtown merchants remain dubious of the whole project, fearful that it will be more expensive, more disruptive, and lengthier than the city has promised.
Want to follow obsessively each day’s progress? You’ve got a couple of options. There’s C-Ville Weekly’s “Brick Watch!” And there’s also, impressively, the city’s own blog dedicated to the project, complete with a Flickrstream. (Though all their photos are copyrighted, rather than being released into the Creative Commons, so I’ve had to illustrate this with an old photo of my own. That’s my sole quibble in an otherwise great effort.)
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