Choo-choo-choose wisely
I was seeing red as I read your piece about Meredith Richards’ ill-conceived plans to extend the VRE, a Northern Virginia commuter rail service, all the way to Charlottesville [“Local motion,” The Week, June 28]. Why on earth would anyone want to accelerate the manifestation of Charlottesville as but another bedroom community of D.C.?
As one who fled the wretched excesses of Northern Virginia (too many people, too many strip malls, too much traffic, too many townhouses) for the sanctity of Albemarle County, I am greatly frightened to see that there are those within our wonderful community who are working hard to destroy this place in the name of progress, or under the dubious umbrella of pollution emissions controls.
One only need look at the bastardization of Gainesville, that beleaguered segue into Northern Virginia, to see what happens when a quaint little town with lovely farmland becomes a “bedroom community” of Washington, D.C.
Yeah, there may be plenty of people commuting into D.C. on the train from nearby Manassas, and by default, not using their automobiles to drive to work. But there are also that many more people now living in a once little-populated area, clogging every ill-equipped artery in that community, morning, noon and night.
One look at the directional signposts on Route 29 in Gainesville, pointing the way to 40-plus new townhome developments, should be enough of a red flag to those who have lived through this type of development frenzy to warn our government leaders to keep the hell out. Alas, it seems our leaders are often incapable of learning from past mistakes, and tend to repeat them again and again. Unfortunately, once the horse is out of the barn, she will most likely never get put back in again.
Bringing the VRE to Charlottesville might provide a somewhat beneficial service on the one hand, but it will without a doubt destroy what most of us love about this town, by bringing down an onslaught of overdevelopment in an area whose infrastructure can barely accommodate the volume of expansion currently underway.
I don’t blame the Dems for dumping Richards if this idea is reflective of her notions of what is good for Charlottesville. How about instead of bringing Washington, D.C., here, let’s just send Richards there?
Jenny Gardiner
Keswick
Wooden it be nice?
Is the city of Charlottesville tree-hugger heaven? Recent C-VILLE readers must think so. First there was “Special tree-ment” [The Week, June 14], a piece quivering with concern at the possibility of losing even one of “our beloved Mall trees.” Then, a few weeks later in The Rant [June 28] there was that heartfelt holler prompted by the removal from the Corner of a massive, old (and, it must be noted, dead) ash: “You cut down the big, beautiful tree…Leave the trees alone….” Crikey, C-VILLE even spent considerable ink saying fond farewell to a Mall-edge art gallery [“Nature’s new calling,” The Week, June 21] where the eclectic inventory included both art depicting trees and art made of trees.
The traumatic truth, however, is in what hasn’t been reported: That is, how very many trees—indeed, how very many acres of trees—the city has lost forever in the last few years. Magnificent individual specimens, stately groves and mini-forests of mature native hardwoods all have been pushed aside as so much construction debris, and many more are already marked for clear-cutting. Look at what was a thickly wooded, park-sized preserve between Stribling Avenue and Sunset Avenue. Look at what was a cool, green-domed cathedral on Raymond Road. And look quickly at the last remnant of true upland Piedmont woods inside Char-lottesville’s urban most core—the multi-acre, multi-species (oak, ash, poplar, locust, maple, black walnut, Kentucky coffee, et al) ravine at Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue. If a current “townhome” plan succeeds, it’ll be stripped of all but a few stressed stragglers.
But if a tree falls where a Downtown Mall or University Corner sophisticate can’t see or hear, does its loss really matter? Yes. Every tree in town contributes to quality of life here—in fact, to basic livability itself. Trees clean air via “that whole oxygen production thing” Ace acknowledged in your June 14 issue [“When push comes to shrub,” Ask Ace]. And just like the Mall’s willow oaks, all trees provide what you called “blessed shade”—shade that makes possible the walking we want everyone to do more of, shade that lessens energy consumption and expense, shade that aids the groundwater retention crucial to surviving drought. Then there’s the role of trees in rainmaking. Without them to invite condensation, the combined up-rush of city heat and pollution actually hands water-bearing clouds over the city to bestow their bounty elsewhere. But because of the density that the city’s latest zoning ordinance not only allows but almost dictates, few owners of new-built houses have room enough to plant even one token replacement for the hundreds of trees lost.
Mind you, I don’t begrudge Mall and Corner trees their fans. I just wish a few of those avowed arborophiles—C-VILLE included—would branch out a bit. To have any chance against the bulldozers in what’s no less than an environmental emergency, we huggers in the city’s hinterlands (in my case, that’s three blocks from Main Street) need all the help we can get.
Antoinette W. Roades
Charlottesville
How the pest is won
While I agree with most of your June article on pest management [“Buzz kill,” ABODE, June] there were a few points on which I disagree that are worth noting. The mosquito traps that lure with carbon dioxide are effective in that they attract mosquitoes. What is not shown is whether they reduce the mosquito population in an area. Pheromone traps for Japanese beetles are very effective as well, so much so that they can draw beetles to your landscape that would otherwise be dining at your neighbor’s plants. On the other hand, milky spore (a bacteria—not a weed) has not been proven to be effective in reducing Japanese beetle populations. Most of all I agree with your last statement, “do a little research.” We base all of our pest management advice on scientific research. Drop me a line if you ever want to fact check information on this topic. Thanks for your article.
Peter L. Warren
Horticulture Extension Agent
Virginia Cooperative Extension
Charlottesville