Open source, procurement, and gov tech.
Continuing my occasional series on urban planning, I’d like to turn my attention to the topic shopping center planning. Charlottesville is currently ramping up an enormous glut of shopping centers. We’re soon to have just over fifty square feet of retail space for every Charlottesville/Albemarle resident, if memory serves. This will inevitably result in the …
Continue reading “Bad urban planning: Shopping center setbacks.”
I was sixteen years old in the late summer of 1994. I’d left public high school that spring and spent the entire summer splitting my time between hanging out on in UVa’s empty computer labs (what better a place to play Doom?) and on the Downtown Mall some twenty blocks away. Each morning I’d get …
When my wife and I stumbled across a fawn yesterday evening, I felt a familiar pang. Oh, Christ. This thing is still going to be sitting here tomorrow. And we’re going to have to take it in and bottle feed it and find a home for it. How do you house a fawn? How much …
Continue reading “Two Jack Russells need a home. Take them? Pretty please? With sugar on top?”
It’s late. Here’s a quick round-up. Many, many people — about 90 folks, or thereabouts. AG Bob McDonnell opened things up with a highly-tailored speech — he’d clearly done his homework. He was followed by Dr. Bob Holsworth, who provided some really remarkable perspective on the recent history of Virginia politics and some enjoyable speculation …
The results are still coming in across the state for today’s primary, and it’s too early to draw any conclusions. But here in Charlottesville and Albemarle, the results are clear: this is Jim Webb country. Webb carried every precinct in Charlottesville, winning by a margin of more than 15%. The closest that Miller came was …
Continue reading “Webb carries Charlottesville and Albemarle.”
It seems most every county in this area has some sort of a secret government facility. Generally they’re understated — a chunk of land in the woods with a suspiciously unguarded entrance. Something that may or may not be a camera is mounted in a tree. A sign says “No Trespassing” in polite lettering. There …
Amber and I went to see the 9:30 of Ghostbusters at The Jefferson Theater last night, on this, their final week. (Our other three options were Close Encounters of The Third Kind, Fargo, and Groundhog Day. Good movies all, but, really, how could I have seen anything else?) I’m too young to have seen Ghostbusters …
We’re in our second week of being supplied with fresh fruits and vegetables, having signed up with Horse and Buggy Produce, a local community supported agriculture (CSA) program. (Courtesy cvillenews.com readers.) From now through fall we’ll receive a bounty of produce, which we pick up in town each Friday. Last week we got a phenomenal …
I’ve been watching, a bit slack-jawed, as a thunderstorm has rolled across the valley to overtake us…from the northeast. My entire life, thunderstorms have moved in from the west. Did I miss a memo?
Walking past Escafé on the Downtown Mall about an hour ago, I did a triple-take when I saw The Daily Show’s Ed Helms. Turns out he’s in “Evan Almighty,” the sequel to “Bruce Almighty” that’s filming here in town. Jim Duncan took some great photos of the huge ark they’re building out in Crozet for …