Shop talk
The article concerning the proposed North Pointe Community [“Talking Pointe,” The Week, May 18] and the opportunity for people to discuss the project with developers offered a ray of hope. Could it be possible that developers are actually going to listen to the people who will be most impacted by a new project? Will it matter that most of the people who live on or near 29N are extremely opposed to such projects? Don’t we have enough shopping centers and apartment complexes already? Isn’t there even the slightest concern about the impact on traffic or water or schools or police and fire protection? Has this project really been approved?
I believe there are people in this community who look at an open field, a hillside, a stand of trees, or even a vacant lot and see nothing but concrete, buildings and dollar signs. Unfortunately, it’s not the newcomers—who want to close the gate the minute they move here—but the old-timers who are determined to “get theirs” before the glut of growth reduces this “world class community” to a total disaster. Albemarle County and Loudoun County are beginning to look amazingly the same.
Lu Bolen
Charlottesville
Spilled milk
Your statement that “about a dozen mothers and their babies” rallied in support of breastfeeding on June 4 was misleading [“Breastfeeders say back off,” 7 Days, The Week, June 8]. Apparently, your reporter mistakenly assumed that only women holding nursing babies were part of the rally, and that everyone else there was a random passerby. I knew most of the people there, and saw at least 40 to 50 adult participants, including mothers, fathers, expectant parents, and women and men without children who came out to support us and help educate the public about our legal right to nurse our children anywhere without harassment.
Mara Rockliff
Charlottesville
CORRECTION
The sidebar accompanying last week’s affordable housing story [“The price is right,” June 8] incorrectly stated that two-thirds of area residents earn $50,960 or less for a family of four. It should have read that two-thirds of Charlottesville’s population earn this amount or less.