Road warrior
In my 18-and-a-half years of voting and helping elect our City Council, I usually voted for and as a Democrat, like all good minorities have done since the late John F. Kennedy’s years. I am so pleased that the last election I changed my ways and took the “road less traveled” by voting for the individual and not the party, and this truly made a difference.
Rob Schilling is the only Republican and minority member of Council who offers pertinent comments and scrutiny of Council’s spending of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars and the haphazard spending of these valuable and sensitive funds on poorly thought-out programs and projects (the four-way and three-way stop signs and other “traffic calming ventures,” which have been proven to be ineffective, even by new studies), which usually gets drowned out or downplayed by the other majority-ruling Council members. He is the only elected official in many years who has put the concerns of the citizens, businesses and taxpayers first.
As a native of Charlottesville, and as a citizen who has felt the past and present fallout from poorly made decisions (usually made without the input of citizens) of this City’s elected officials, it is a pleasure to see someone on Council who will listen and bring to the citizens of this City attention of the decisions being made in closed sessions or special meetings of Council. These are usually items and appropriations that are usually pushed through for a first or second reading, which would likely be scrutinized by the citizens.
In the past Schilling’s actions have been criticized, for either voting against or abstaining from voting on issues and proposals brought before Council. And he has been called a new and inexperienced Council member by his fellow Councilors and other friends of the majority ruling party. Yet if one views his performance and reasons for his decisions (which can only be done at an open Council meeting), one would find his actions to be insightful and intelligently thought out. I found that he is not one to act in haste or on sketchy information nor is he one to spend taxpayers’ dollars without discretion.
In short, if this is what makes for the idea of a bad Councilor, than I must be a lousy citizen. Yet when I think of the tax increases, the trash fee increases and now another water rate hike [Fishbowl, “Chemical reactions,” May 27], I wonder who was there to scrutinize these things in the past, so we would not be facing these situations now. And I am glad that we finally have an official who will look before he leaps, and one who understands that when they fall so do we all.
Kenneth W. Jackson
Charlottesville
Stale ’crackers
Why can’t Charlottesville have a peaceful Independence Day for a change? Seems like there’s enough shooting going on in this country without using explosives for recreational purposes! It’s nice that interested citizens have raised $15,000 for the entertainment [“Return of the red glare,” Fishbowl, May 27]. But has anyone thought what good they could do for the community by using that money to help people that are hungry or who don’t have anywhere to live?
Pattie Boden
Ruckersville
Auto focus
I read with interest your article on the large planned development near Hollymead, and the fears about its effect on local traffic [“Unexpected developments,” Fishbowl, May 20]. I couldn’t agree more with this sentence: “The notion of pedestrian-friendly mixed-use development is not going to dissuade traditional auto dependence.” The devil is in the details, as they say. Applying a PC label to business-as-usual with some modern design elements will not alleviate the serious problems associated with auto-enslavement, including hours wasted in traffic, air pollution and land loss.
Hollymead Town Center and North Pointe are obviously designed for people to get there in their cars. Furthermore, their distance from population and business centers guarantees increased time in the car for individuals, and increased traffic for all. Oddly, the question of “How will people get there?” seems to be left behind in local discussions of planned “pedestrian-friendly” developments. The County, for example, could empower its neighborhood model by specifying that new development must be on bus lines and by getting serious about the quality of community transportation in this region. If it were convenient enough, and there weren’t acres of parking waiting, people would take buses or light rail and enjoy it.
Location is a second crucial concept that is usually left out of discussions of “pedestrian-friendly” developments. A development that is near where people already go is more pedestrian-friendly than one that is in the middle of nowhere. When development occurs from the inside out it capitalizes on travel routes, increases convenience and saves rural land. The City’s plans to redevelop sections of Preston and, ultimately, other commercial corridors illustrate this kind of infill development.
The planned Albemarle Place development in the County also has a much better location than either North Pointe or Hollymead Town Center. If the citizens of this region want our county to look like Northern Virginia in 10 years, they can rest assured we are well on our way. Otherwise, they should come to the public hearing on June 11.
Joanna Salidis
Charlottesville