Browsing Category Politics

Charlottesville and Albemarle’s Places 29 – Same Old, Same Old

I stand by what I said in June of this year : Places 29 , Albemarle County’s plan for the 29 North Corridor is in its fifth year (at least) and public outreach meetings continue. Candidly, i suspect that this plan will continue to be yet another exercise is the County and county business leaders publicly demonstrating that their best interests are served by continuing the planning process while those citizens to actually drive 29 continue to lament the interminable planning and delays of the aforementioned “leaders.”

…What I mean by this is that some parts of the city and county are becoming relatively ignorant of each other, as the residents don’t need to leave their respective worlds. As each neighborhood develops continues to evolve and develop and re-develop its own identity, residents may become more involved hyper-locally but less-so in the greater Charlottesville area.

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Charlottesville MSA Electon Results

* Virginia’s 5th Congressional District & Map (VA-5) - GovTrack.us.jpg Virginia’s 5th District is huge, and this election is not fully representative of all of the Charlottesville MSA, but it’s a “good enough” snapshot. (at least for these purposes). Sure, the results are unofficial, but thanks to Virginia’s State Board of Elections, we can see tonight’s election results. … You couldn’t even muster 50% turnout. City of Charlottesville - Heavily Democratic Albemarle County – More Balanced than Charlottesville City Albemarle County 5th District Election results - Perriello versus Hurt Greene County – More Republican than Charlottesville City or Albemarle County. Greene County - More Republican than Charlottesville City Fluvanna County  Results indicate race results specifically for FLUVANNA COUNTY.

 Results indicate race results specifically for FLUVANNA COUNTY.

Virginia's 5th District results for Fluvanna County Nelson County – the best percentage turnout!  Results indicate race results specifically for FLUVANNA COUNTY.

Virginia's 5th District Results - Nelson County * I made a long, insightful comment on Facebook months ago, and, because of the Facebook way, can’t find the comment for the life of me.

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C-Ville and The HooK Investigate Biscuit Run

But the Biscuit Run acquisition process, from start to finish, was a hasty affair that involved no public input and a network of businessmen and politicians with close ties. No one who negotiated the deal could control how much taxpayers paid—the decision is left to a few unelected bureaucrats in the state tax department.

…It is about something far more prosaic, and possibly more disturbing—how influential people align their interests and justify their actions by saying they did it for you and me. For background on Biscuit Run, do as I do and turn to the RealCentralVA.com archives and, better yet, Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Biscuit Run archives .

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Charlottesville and Albemarle Need to Stabilize Population?

ASAP says their research at this point is still insufficient to identify a specific optimal population for the community. However, faced with a limited supply of natural resources, Marshall said housing is the key piece of community infrastructure that needs to be limited to reduce demand.

I’m sure that Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson, Louisa and the other surrounding counties would love to have Charlottesville/Albemarle place caps on housing starts. … CharlAlbemarle would then have traffic coming into the urban ring without the benefit of property taxes (which don’t cover the cost of housing). – How does one define “optimum population” and what are the consequences for exceeding said optimum population ? – Maybe we could also institute congestion pricing as they have in London (really not a bad idea) instead of a moat. – Would we restrict services to residents if they weren’t in the urban ring and didn’t pay a fire or rescue fee ?

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