And I hate that Patsy Cline song, too!
On the cover of the July 11 issue of
C-VILLE, “Drive yourself crazy” is an unfortunate and dehumanizing choice of words. They are an affront to people who struggle to cope with symptoms of mental illness. Labels like “crazy,” “loony bin,“ funny farm,” etc., are dehumanizing to victims of mental illness. The stigma can deter people from seeking medical help.
Easter Mary Martin, RN
Charlottesville
Parkway politics
Your portrayal of McIntire Park as one of the “Places we’ll lose” [“A good walk, spoiled,” June 13] is inaccurate.
The Meadowcreek Parkway, far from being a done deal, is about done in. Your article ignores Charlottesville’s recent election, the parkway’s legal troubles, and the fact that the City’s conditions for approval (even as espoused by the previous council) have not been met. That’s right—Charlottesville has not approved the parkway, and it cannot be built unless that happens.
Perhaps you assumed otherwise because you’ve been taken in by the steering committee formed to study the interchange, which was selected and charged by the pro-parkway council when “build it now” guys Blake Caravati and Rob Shilling were still members. The rest of council back then said “no way” to a Parkway without a workable interchange (as they all do now) because traffic studies demonstrated its intersection with the 250 Bypass would otherwise immediately fail.
And so the interchange became one of several explicit conditions for the City’s consent to the Parkway, along with adequate replacement park land (nope) and more roads in the county (most notably an eastern connector to carry traffic between north and east of Charlottesville, which would likely cut though Pen Park and is already being protested), which were supposed to lessen the increased traffic burden downtown would experience when the Parkway turned it into a short-cut.
Two weeks ago I attended the steering committee’s “Citizen Informational Meeting.” Though there’s no mention of the parkway in the official title or purpose of the project, every version of the interchange shown to the public thus far includes a parkway. The “No build” pictures displayed, which supposedly show existing conditions of the site, have a Meadowcreek Parkway drawn in as if it were already there.
When I asked one of the consultants about this, I was told the parkway had been approved. This fantasy is necessary because the money Senator John Warner porked over for the interchange comes with federal parkland protection laws which will apply to the parkway if its construction is contingent upon the interchange—hence, the parkway already exists.
Instead of exposing this creepy contortion of logic, you passed it off as truth.
Now is the time for Charlottesville’s Council to keep its word and vote a conservation easement along the path of this lingering nightmare and take the millions left over and build us a transit system to be proud of.
Stratton Salidis
Charlottesville
Call us, we’ll talk
In a recent story headlined “Restructuring arrives July 1” [UVA News, June 27] you called the Higher Education Financial and Administrative Operations Act “as complicated as its name suggests.” Yet, you allotted just 315 words to the topic and relied on only one source, an individual with no connection to the University. I continue to be concerned that your publication relies so heavily on one person’s feelings—not facts—about how the University operates.
Your source says that she is “worried” that a new system might not be as good as the current State system.
For those who have been paying attention, University leaders have been saying all along that the intention is to create a better HR system—one designed to meet the specific needs of higher education institutions. This process, expected to take place over the next two years, will be done with input from our employees.
Sara Wilson, the State’s director of HR, here recently to meet with University employees on this topic, said she believes that restructuring is a good thing for higher ed, and that she will work closely with the University administration as it begins to think through another system that she expects will become the new model.
I should note that no one is encouraging employees “to jump” to a new system once in place. Former Governor Warner, in his wisdom, was intending to create choices for employees by letting them decide whether to remain State classified employees or to become university employees.
The challenge will be ours to create a system so outstanding that the new UVA HR system will become the first choice.
Carol Wood, assistant vice president for university relations
Charlottesville
The editor replies: The article’s author, John Borgmeyer, called UVA for comment while reporting this story. As noted in the original article, the call went unreturned.