Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

There are now 75 local blogs listed on Charlottesville Blogs, with a few more being added every week. (I’m really hoping to break 100 by the end of the year.) In fact, there’s so many posts every day that Joe isn’t so overwhelming anymore. ;) I subscribe to the Charlottesville Blogs RSS feed, and I read it every day — I can’t tell you how much I enjoy it. The topics are as varied as the perspective and while I can’t say that the bloggers are entirely representative of the overall spectrum of the population, it’s definitely getting there.

I’ve noticed a big gap in the offerings, though, and I think it’s something that smart local business owners would do well to take advantage of.

Jim Duncan provides a great example of how a blog can be beneficial to its author and to the community. Until he’d started blogging, I’d never heard his name. Now, if you asked me to name three real estate agents in the area, I don’t doubt that I’d name him. The few hundred subscribers to the Charlottesville Blogs RSS feed may well do the same, as would whatever number of people read his site regularly. The benefit to me is that I now have a sense of area real estate — I understand what the trends are, how we’re impacted by national market changes, and I think I get how real estate fits into the large picture in Charlottesville.

More professionals should be taking advantage of this. I want a Plan 9 blog, where employees tell me what they’re listening to and, while they’re at it, what sales are on at Plan 9. I want a Market Street Wine Shop blog — reading Clinton Johnston’s blog (which I love — it’s the most personal and, I daresay, funniest local blog) is half of it, but I also want wine recommendations, I want to know what great port they just got in and how it was with dinner last night. I want a Cary’s Camera blog, which would feature photos by some of their customers, advice on techniques, explanations of some of the work they do and technical tips on photography. And so on.

Experts gain a lot, I believe, by giving away bits of their expertise in this format. It creates a new customer base, it gives something of value to the community, and it is bound to help forge ties between unlikely groups of people, which is always great. If you have some expertise that would be interesting to share in occasional bite-sized chunks, it’s time to hop on the blogging bandwagon.

There’s a strong correlation between chronic homelessness and substance abuse problems. This presents itself as cruel irony to some homeless citizens in the area — of which there are approximately 175 in Central VA, in total — who find that they can gain access to the Salvation Army shelter if they’ve been drinking, but aren’t eligible to stay at the Mohr Center unless they’re drunk. It is to help those who fall between the two that People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry (PACEM) was founded by local activist Dave Norris last year. They were open last year from November 15 through March 18, working with 36 congregations in the area to provide shelter in a season when sleeping outside could lead to serious illness or death.

PACEM opened a month early this year, thanks to increased support, and opened for service on the 15th, John Yellig reports in today’s Daily Progress. They’ve also gotten a pair of grants, one that is letting them expand into providing emergency shelter for women and children, and a second that will let them hire a caseworker.

The program seems to be working. A Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission survey taken last January reported a 40% drop in people who said that they couldn’t find any shelter, and a 61% drop in people who had difficulty finding shelter.

10/24 Update: Be sure to check out Dave Norris’ great comment explaining PACEM’s mission.