The third candidate for Albemarle’s Board of Supervisors is Tom Loach.As I can see it, the news cycle started with a letter to the editor of the Crozet Gazette…. And Democratic Central.A search for “Tom Loach” in Yahoo News and Google News reveals no relevant results (google has none), and none of the local media have picked up the story as far as I can tell…. is Tom Loach also CrozetResident, frequent commenter on cvillenews.com? If so, ought a candidate for public office not post under a nom de plume?
Date Archives May 2007
A new entry in Charlottesville real estate search
Their blog announced their “going live” today.From their site:Curbplaces is a real estate data website, built for Charlottesville, VA. All data is taken from publicly available websites and databases.Curbplaces is a project of Cloudbrain, LLC, a web development firm based in Charlottesville…. We would love to hear any suggestions you may have.As of yet, I haven’t figured out from where they are pulling their data, but they seem to be affiliated with House Values…. More to come …Update 5/8/2007: Having played with it some more, I have yet to find how to zoom in/zoom out.
17 is better than 1
The median house price jumped from $177,000 to $345,000, and the cost of living more than doubled, to the highest in the state, the book says.What does Charlottesville think of the drop?“Good!” said Kathy Uriss, the director of information services for the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.Of course, she appreciated all the people who mentioned the No…. 1 City in America.”“We were proud and honored, but maybe things will come back to the ground,” Ms. Uriss said. “As housing prices have gotten out of hand, we’ve certainly seen a curtailing in the number of calls we’re getting.””For better or worse, the Central Virginia region is a destination for many people and as many reasons – retirement, job relocation, school, grad school, med school …
Reason I despise Realtor.com #378
I have been on hold for 30 minutes trying to find out why a listing I put on the market four days ago is not displaying on Realtor.com. I have to blog about this, otherwise I’ll forget why I called. Who’s the customer?
Community bettered by slowing market
The real estate market came up, as it frequently does, and we agreed that generally, the shift will ultimately be a “good thing.”The past several years have been good years for many buyers and sellers, as they traded up in the housing market, rarely having to put more than a 3% down-payment down….
Homeowners may behave more as homeowners with an investment not only in their “investment vehicle” – their house – but also in their neighborhood. Should this happen, this will be a “good thing,” and will ultimately make those neighborhoods more valuable – both from a resale point of view as well as a quality of life point of view. There are several neighborhoods in the Charlottesville area that have reputations for being close-knit neighborhoods with vibrant home owners’ groups and involved neighbors – for these qualities, these neighborhoods are targeted by many (and certainly avoided by some).Time will tell, but perhaps the Charlottesville area’s slowing market will contribute to a stronger sense of community.
Is this ASAP’s point of view?
In search of Albemarle’s “optimal population,” ASAP believes in part:There are limits to growth locally as well as globally…. Through education, research, advocacy, and policy formulation, ASAP is working to identify our regions (sic) optimal population and build sustainable communities here in Central Virginia…. note: the missing possessive apostrophe is aggravating)How far will they take their quest for an “optimum population”?The paper by the Optimum Population Trust will say that if couples had two children instead of three they could cut their family’s carbon dioxide output by the equivalent of 620 return flights a year between London and New York. …In his latest comments, the academic says that when couples are planning a family they should be encouraged to think about the environmental consequences.”The decision to have children should be seen as a very big one and one that should take the environment into account,” he added.Professor Guillebaud says that, as a general guideline, couples should produce no more than two offspring.
The power to change – Cville leads the way
The recent surge of activity locally and elsewhere towards green building will impact the back-end of the building industry writes Francesco DeParis. I have written before about the power small-towns will have in the future as the alternative energy/efficiency landscape progresses, and we are now starting to see more “townie” initiative. Charlottesville, VA has put the gears in the motion on LEED requirements for new residential construction. The benefits to mandating this at the town level are many: lower heating/cooling costs, less pull on the local-grid, etc…Hat-tip: WSJ blog.