City Gets $328k for Walking to School

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 20, 2008 in Education, Taxes and Transportation. 20 Comments

VDOT has given $328k in funding to C’ville to get more kids to walk and bike to school, the Daily Progress reports. This is the third year running that the city has gotten a big chunk of change for this ongoing project. For decades we’ve built our transportation infrastructure in support of vehicles, but largely ignored pedestrians. Simultaneously, childhood obesity has become a major problem. That’s no coincidence. It just hasn’t been safe for kids to walk or bike to school, but that’s changed, and it’s continuing to change. The city has been using the money to build bike paths and trails, and this year’s allocation will go for new sidewalks and crosswalks.

I used to bike to school regularly in middle school. I’d show up awake and ready to learn, rather than groggy from a the soporific morning bus ride. This Safe Routes to School is a great way to get kids doing likewise today.

City Energy Savings Mean Spending Cuts

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 17, 2008 in Government and Taxes. 11 Comments

The greening of Charlottesville is saving the city money, Henry Graff recently reported for NBC 29. (Weirdly, they don’t seem to date their stories on their website.) Conservation is fundamentally about reducing the consumption of resources, and consuming resources costs money. The water is reused when washing buses, they’ve replaced drafty windows, installed motion sensors to activate lights in some buildings, and, of course, installed a green roof on city hall. The city has spent $1.3M on energy-saving measures in the past five years, and it’s already recouped $561,000 in energy bills in the last two years alone.

Media General, in an uncredited story, reports today that the county office building’s green roof is actually a tourist destination. Lee Catlin says that hundreds of folks are visiting it each year, including representatives from other municipalities coming to check it out.

Local Housing Market in Rough Shape

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 14, 2008 in Business and Development. 24 Comments

Things are not looking good for the local housing market, Brian McNeill writes in the Progress, but few real estate agents will say that in so many words. Dave Phillips, CEO of the Charlottesville Albemarle Association of Realtors, actually claims that the market is “hot,” with the caveat that that’s in relation to Alaska’s temperatures. Pat Sury of Montague Miller says “we have stabilized,” and that “it’s a great time to buy.” And the president of CAAR, agent Judy Savage, says “we’ve hit bottom.” Real Estate III’s Pam Dent suggests that now is the time to buy a home in Glenmore because, really, who can commute all the way to a barn to see their horse? (It’s dreadfully inconvenient.) All of that tells me that we may have a lot farther down to go. Real estate blogger Jim Duncan is inclined to agree that, at least, there’s no way to tell whether or not we’ve hit bottom: you’ve got to start back up before you can know. Real estate agents are dropping like flies, expensive houses are being rented for a song, and houses are languishing on the market for months and months. True to its mission, the Bubble Blog says the bottom is nowhere in sight, and its proprietor has taken to drinking. So it’s a buyers market…as long as you don’t need a mortgage.

Woodson Pleads Guilty to Route 64 Shootings

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 14, 2008 in Law and Justice. 4 Comments

Slade Woodson19-year-old Slade Woodson has pleaded guilty to the overnight shooting spree on Route 64 in March, Jimmy LaRoue writes for the News Virginian. He’s waived a right to an appeal, and is facing up to 55 years in prison. Sentencing isn’t likely for a few months.

Younger 64 Shooter Sentenced

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 9, 2008 in Law and Justice. 15 Comments

In The Hook, Lisa Provence provides the first description of what happened the night of the 64 shootings. The 16-year-old—the accomplice in the case—was spending the night at 19-year-old Slade Woodson’s house. It was the first time his parents let him stay over at a friend’s house. It was also the first time he ever had alcohol. Woodson split a case of beer with him, and the boy had 8-10 beers in under four hours. The two headed out for a ride, Woodson turned out to have a gun in his vehicle, and that was when they started shooting. The next morning, back at home, the boy realized what he’d done, and immediately set about figuring out how to turn himself in. Prosecutor Darby Lowe praised the boy for his immediate and complete cooperation in the case. He’ll spend six months in the local juvenile detention center, and then be monitored electronically and pay $12k in restitution to his victims.

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