Commuting and Traffic in Charlottesville

in Albemarle Charlottesville Transportation on

I noted five years ago that Charlottesville’s traffic’s perspective wasn’t that bad, when put into the appropriate perspective.

In the years since I wrote that article, traffic hasn’t gotten any more tolerable and the City and County continue to demonstrate an astonishing capability to do nothing – expensively. (see: Places 29)

That said:

One of the most important things to note to those moving to Charlottesville is that the region is becoming more and more segmented – if you live in the 29 North area, there’s usually little reason to leave 29 North except for work – same with Crozet, Pantops, City of Charlottesville, etc. Urban Cores matter.

But – if you live and work in the City of Charlottesville or the urban ring (or really, any part of) Albemarle County, your commute is likely to be not beyond 25 or 30 minutes. The following infographic* shows some useful data points about the value of a short commute.

For now, I’d like to think that the Charlottesville area offers a reasonably high quality of life, and the commuting isn’t that bad.

Five years from now – we’ll see.

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Daily Progress Sold to Berkshire Hathaway

in Off-topic on

C-Ville links to Media General’s non-pay-walled press release. The Daily Progress’ pay-walled iteration of the press release is here.

We need local news reporting; here’s hoping the Berkshire Hathaway purchase provides better local news writing and reporting by the DP.

For those of you interested in the residential real estate market, today’s interest rates (~4%) look pretty good in comparison, don’t they?

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How is “Local” (Food, Farm, Business) Defined?

in Albemarle Charlottesville General Real Estate on

In case you missed the conversation (150+ comments) last week at cvillenews about the Charlottesville City Market’s first vendor who happens to be a franchise, it’s worth a read. The main question I see is – what does “local” mean to you? ( outside of the context of a City farmers’ market)

Charlottesville has seemingly been a leader in the locavore movement (see: Forbes and Tom Tom’s Locavore Expo for starters) and it’s been interesting and fun to watch and participate in the “I really want to know where my food is coming from and from whom” evolution. See: Buy Fresh Buy Local.

Does local mean: only local money and people? What if you grow and franchise? Are you now less local?

To what other industries does the demand for “local” extend?

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Charlottesville as a Great “Place” – to Live, Be, Grow Business

in Albemarle Charlottesville on

There was a great discussion last night at the Tom Tom Founders Festival’s Social Media Innovation Track. The panelists were fantastic –

– Evan Cooper, Director of Digital Strategy, Red Light Management

– Tobias Dengel, CEO Willow Tree

– Marijean Jaggers, President of Jaggers Communication

– Ryan Derose, founder of VibeThink

The conversation is worth listening to – from their insights about attracting talent to Charlottesville, to the authenticity of Charlottesville to the future of the mobile web (hint:it’s huge)

Charlottesville Tomorrow was kind enough to document, photograph and record the whole thing. If you have 45 minutes, have a listen.

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Rebutting the Realtor Rip-off Argument

in General Real Estate on

“The great realtor rip-off” – what a great attention-grabbing headline from The Economist.

But … the author seems to have had a bad experience with a real estate agent that must have precipitated his rant. (try as I might, I cannot find the author’s name on the post, otherwise, I’d ask)

I almost stopped reading when I read that one of his sources for proof was Glengarry Glen Ross. But where’s the fun in not reading a rant?

I’ll be the first to tell you that there are too many unqualified real estate agents practicing real estate. I’ll also be the first to argue that those professional agents who truly represent their clients’ best interests are often underpaid.

Stepping through some of the author’s arguments:

“Agents routinely tell buyers not to worry about the fat commission because “the seller pays it.””

No. A lot of agents might, but I have no idea; my role is to represent my clients, not know what other agents say to their customers and clients. But … I think assuming the consumer is stupid is the wrong approach. Buyers (and sellers) know that nothing is free.

Read: Who Pays the Buyer Broker Fee? or A Call for an End to Cooperative Compensation. or The Wall Street Journal Gets it Right on commissions.

“In most areas a few big brokers handle most transactions.” Partly true.

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Why Isn’t Bicycling to School More Accepted/Viable/Practiced?

in Politics Transportation on

Accessibility/proximity to schools and parks are two of the most common criteria my buyer clients specify when searching for homes in Charlottesville, and more often, bikeability is a factor in addition to walkability. Walkability increases property values;

This is an excellent article from Bicycling magazine that describes the impediments presented to those who try to ride bikes to school; a few choice quotes –

Childhood obesity rates are soaring, youth participation in sports and other active pursuits is plummeting, and a generation is coming of age with little understanding of the joy and freedom of unsupervised play. There’s a simple solution—but all across the nation our schools earn a failing grade when it comes to letting kids ride their bikes.

…

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