Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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BoS Approves Old Trail Village

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 15, 2005 in Development. 13 Comments

Last night, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the construction of a huge new development in Crozet, Jessica Kitchin reports in today’s Progress. Developer Gaylon Beights plans 2,000 houses and 250,000 square feet of retail. Just about everybody who spoke up about the development was opposed to it, noting that 250 isn’t designed for the traffic, the schools can’t take the students, and Crozet’s infrastructure can’t support it.

Prior to the vote, during a work session about the Rural Area Comprehensive Plan:

[Dennis] Rooker…challenged the group to make some difficult decisions.

“What do we have the guts to do to preserve rural areas?”

Apparently, not much.

White Powder at County Court

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2005 in Crime and Law and Justice. Closed

That most deadly of all weapons — some white powdery stuff — was found in an envelope received at the Albemarle General District Court this morning. Government panic ensued, complete with hazmat units, a decontamination tent, quarantine, and closure of the courthouse until tomorrow afternoon. The media have been assured that no symptoms have been displayed by those affected, though when asked symptoms of what, no answer was forthcoming. There’s no word yet on whether it’s flour or laundry detergent, or something really exotic, like baking soda. WINA has the story.

7:45pm Update: Kate Andrews has filed a story for the Progress:

The powder tested negative for anthrax and is a “food-based particle,” officials said. They declined to elaborate further.

[…]

Members of the Charlottesville-Albemarle hazardous material team entered the courthouse wearing white suits, bright green gloves and orange boots as six quarantined clerks were decontaminated in a shower tent set up in front of the building.

[…]

Court will be open Thursday.

On Pearlington and a Sister City

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2005 in General News. Closed

Bob Gibson was the first to call for a sister city in the hurricane-affected portion of the Gulf Coast, in addition to our existing three: Long Beach, Washington; Poggio a Caiano, Italy; and Besançon, France. David New and Oliver Kuttner, who recently took supplies down to the town of Pearlington, Mississippi, have suggested that would be the place to pick. In an editorial yesterday, the Daily Progress scolded City Council for their lack of action, and heartily endorsed the idea of establishing a relationship with some city, so that we could all direct our efforts there.

So, what’s up with Pearlington?

As of the 2000, the Hancock County town had a population of 1,684 and 648 households. It has a total area of 9.6 mi2, about the same size as Charlottesville. It’s 77% white, 20% black, and 1.4% Hispanic — again, similar to Charlottesville. The median household income is $31,000, nearly identical to Charlottesville, with 17.6% of the population under the poverty line, or 8% less than here.

A map shows that it’s right along the east-west Highway 90, nearly as far south in Alabama as you can go, smack on the Mississippi-Louisiana border. It’s about an hour’s drive from downtown New Orleans. The whole of Hancock County has a population of 43,000 people, about the population of Charlottesville.

Perhaps the only other thing to be said of Pearlington — and this does seem important — is that it was adopted by Carbondale, Colorado a couple of days ago, according to the Aspen Times (BugMeNot). Carbondale isn’t much larger than Pearlington. They’re looking to send down an RV with an emergency response team that will assess the situation and figure out what Carbondale needs to do for Pearlington.

Pearlington or otherwise, I’ll say right now that if Charlottesville adopts a Gulf town — and does so pronto — I’ll head down there myself and spend at least a week or so doing whatever needs doing.

Nelson Byrd Woltz Caught in Controversy

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2005 in Business and Politics. Closed

Charlottesville’s Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects has done work for Washington & Lee University, the North Carolina Arboretum, Nike’s European headquarters, and the city of Portland, but it’s their latest project that’s gaining them notoriety. They submitted a design for the Flight 93 National Memorial, the site that will honor those who died in that Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001. Their entry, “Crescent of Embrace,” was selected from over 1,000 submissions by a panel including architects and families of the deceased. That design was announced last week. Rendering of crescentThe major feature of the memorial is a ginormous swath of red maple trees, describing an arc across the landscape, around the field in which the bulk of the debris was found.

Anti-Islamic bloggers have jumped all over the design. Blogs like Captain’s Quarters, Michelle Malkin, and Little Green Footballs write that they are “stunned, outraged, and sickened” by the design, which they argue honors terrorists by echoing the crescent moon that is some Muslims have adopted as a symbol of Islam. The blowback is spilling over to the media, and may well derail the proposal.

It’s presumably not the sort of exposure that Nelson Byrd Woltz was going for, but if their design gets built, it’ll be a real feather in their cap.

UVA Names Diversity Chief

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 13, 2005 in UVa. 1 Comment

UVa has created a “Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity” position, and named Dr. William Harvey as the man to fill it, the AP reports. Harvey’s most noteworthy experience in this realm is his recent work as the vice president of the American Council on Education’s Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity and, prior to that, the Vice President and Director of the organization’s Office of Minorities in Higher Education. Harvey is, it must be noted, African-American.

UVa has a history of racial tension, though perhaps an even stronger history of talking about talking about racism. Presumably, Dr. Harvey will take the position that has long been assumed by UVa Dean of African Affairs (aka “Dean of All Things Black”), M. Rick Turner, and hopefully handle matters somewhat more delicately than the notoriously heavy-handed Turner.

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