Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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Cummings, Lowry and Snow Debate

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 3, 2009 in Politics. 2 Comments

The three candidates vying for the Samuel Miller BoS seat held a debate last night, Brandon Shulleeta writes in today’s Progress. (Or, at least, I assume that it was a debate and it was last night. Due to what I assume is some unfortunate editing, the articles makes no mention of how these three candidates came to be interacting or when they did so. So I’m going with a debate, last night.) Republican Duane Snow, Democrat Madison Cummings, and independent John Lowry are all looking to replace Democrat Sally Thomas, who is retiring. Lowry argued that millions of dollars could be added to county coffers not by raising taxes, but by encouraging new businesses to start in the area. Boldly defeating a strawman, Lowry disagreed with “the no-growth people don’t want to have business in the growth area.” (Who are these people? I want names.) He also criticized Snow for supporting keeping open the three elementary schools in the county facing consolidation, saying it was “entirely inappropriate” for Snow to state his opinion prior to the superintendent’s recommendation that they be kept open. Snow advocated zero-based budgeting—a popular proposal among state and local candidates of all political stripes—and said that education is his highest priority. Cummings, a two-term school board veteran, wants to increase school funding, wants to reemphasize physical fitness in the schools, and thinks the county needs a rainy day fund.

This race has been incredibly scattered, and it’s tough to know how it’ll turn out. Lowry has proved to be far and away the best fundraiser, taking in $14.5k without benefit of a party to back him. Cummings has the second-largest total, $10k, but that includes the $5k that he’s donated to himself. Snow has taken in $8k, including $2,500 from the Virginia Association of Realtors. Cummings has $7.5k cash on hand, or about half again as much as his opponents. No issue has come to the fore as one that will dominate the race, and Lowry is running a strong enough race that one can’t simply assume that Cummings will win by virtue of being a Democrat.

Slutzsky and Thomas’ Comparative Views on Leadership

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 2, 2009 in Politics. 16 Comments

The candidates for the Rio BoS seat held a debate last night, Bryan McKenzie writes in today’s Progress, with the two candidates highlighting a sharp difference in their philosophies of leadership. On the question of how a supervisor should figure out what side to support in dealing with hot-button issues, incumbent Democrat David Slutzky says that public wishes should be considered along with the supervisor’s own knowledge of the facts, recommendations of staff, and the results of research. The challenger, Republican Rodney Thomas, says that the best decision for the people is the one that most people want—majority rules—and he views it as his job to vote based on their wishes. The two also discussed additional taxes, what to do abut the reservoirs, Places29, and land use planning.

For my money, this is the most interesting local race this year, with two sharply contrasting candidates campaigning on opposites sides of some of the most important and interesting topics facing the county today. The outcome of this race will be fodder for weeks of analysis in an effort to divine the wishes of county residents on the topics of growth, planning, water supply, and transportation.

Divining Paul Goodloe McIntire’s Intent

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 30, 2009 in Government, History and Transportation. 37 Comments

Rachana Dixit had a commendable story in the Daily Progress a couple of weeks ago that I was remiss in not mentioning at the time, “What did McIntire really want?” There have been a lot of efforts to divine the intent of Paul Goodloe McIntire in donating land and money to establish McIntire Park, but Dixit pulled the deed for a chunk of the land and checked it out. It says:

Said property shall be held and used in perpetuity by the said City for a public park and play ground for the white people of the City of Charlottesville but the authorities of the said City shall at all times have the right and power to control, regulate and restrict the use of said property.

“White people”? Awk-ward. That makes it a bit tough to adhere to McIntire’s (apparent) intent. That particular parcel of land is at the Rugby interchange. (The land that makes up the park is a patchwork of land acquired at different times.) One of the parcels where the parkway is going was condemned by Council “for use by white people as a park and playground.” Park opponents tell Dixit that McIntire surely didn’t have different intents for different chunks of the park—that in specifying that the land was to be “held and used in perpetuity…for a public park” he meant the whole shebang, and not a particular few acres. The city, obviously, disagrees.

VDOT Proposes Two New Connecting Roads

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 29, 2009 in Development and Transportation. 10 Comments

VDOT is recommending a couple of new connecting roads, Sean Tubbs writes for Charlottesville Tomorrow.

The first is a chunk of the western bypass, extending “Leonard Sandridge Drive” (the exit to the bypass that UVA built recently, near the law school) on the other side of the bypass, running across Barracks Road and connecting to the far side of Hydraulic, towards Albemarle High School. That could hug the developed area pretty closely, connecting to and expanding Georgetown Road, or it could loop farther out, still connecting to Hydraulic where Georgetown does. There’s a third option of running clear up to Earlysville Road. (See the Daily Progress’ map.) The idea is to formalize what many people already do—drive clear up 29 from Barracks Road without ever driving on 29—but starting back at UVA. The folks in Canterbury Hills are about to bust a vein over these proposals—this road would run right through the back of many people’s property there, or through the middle of the neighborhood if the Georgetown option is chosen. VDOT emphasizes that this isn’t a bypass—it’s just a new road, meant to be used for local traffic. Presumably that means that there will be connecting roads, traffic lights, etc., so this new road would be opening up a whole new corridor for development. Part of VDOT’s interest has to be that the clock is ticking on the land that they acquired for the western bypass—if they don’t put it to use within the next few years, they’re going to have to sell it back.

The second proposal is an exit for 29N from the bypass at Best Buy. “We already have one,” you say? That’s true. (Though I figure we have two—one via Hydraulic and one that’s direct.) But VDOT wants us to have another one, so they’re proposing an elevated roadway that would run north from that stretch between Hydraulic and 29—going towards Barracks Road, it’s on your right where you can see a stream and a pedestrian footbridge—between Kroger and Dominion Power, over Hydraulic and the used car dealer owned by that guy who shot his neighbor’s cat, and then merge into 29 in front of Seminole Square. (See VDOT’s rendering.) If Albemarle Place ever happens, that merge point would seem to prevent access to it.

Given the state of Virginia’s transportation budget, this all seems academic. Though VDOT wants to see Charlottesville help fund it with local property tax increases along the corridor, it’s tough to see how that could possibly add up to being enough money. (Though it would send local business groups into fits, simultaneously favoring new roads and opposing having to actually spend any money to build them.) VDOT’s study group is going to take these recommendations to the Commonwealth Transportation Board in a couple of months, who will presumably decide whether it’s a high enough priority for the state that they’re prepared to spend however much it’ll cost.

No Yard Sale Regulation

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 24, 2009 in Business and Government. 9 Comments

The city planning commission isn’t going to regulate yard sales after all, Sean Tubbs writes for Charlottesville Tomorrow. They were considering requiring permits in response to homeowners holding never-ending “yard sales” that really amount to unlicensed businesses selling quasi-junk in an area not zoned for businesses, and also because of the illegal posting of signs to promote legitimate yard sales. (Two examples provided are the produce stand somebody set up on the corner of Long and High recently and the sketchy sales of rugs and shoes in an empty parking lot on Preston). The commission figures that there are enough existing laws that make these sorts of things illegal that there’s no need to require that everybody else go through an onerous process to hold a simple yard sale.

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