One City Blog

Eating Organic is (literally) for the Birds

2008-03-31T11:00:00.000-04:00

The NY Times has an an opinion article on how our growing reliance on fresh vegetables from Latin America is killing our songbirds. The culprit is heavy use of pesticides, often ones that are banned here, that are poisoning birds as they winter in Mexico or Central America.

And of course this produce has higher residual pesticides than North American produce, and cannot be very good for us, either...

Carbon Footprint

2008-02-28T21:18:00.002-05:00

The New Yorker had a recent article on carbon footprints - how our consumer choices affect the amount of carbon we put into the environment. It is an interesting and often counterintuitive article. Would you expect that a bottle of wine from Bordeaux cost less in carbon than one from California? (Shipping by ship is very efficient; shipping overland is not) Or that it is way more carbon-efficient, in England, to buy roses from Kenya rather than Holland? (Don't have to heat the greenhouses in Kenya) Or that apples from New Zealand may have a smaller carbon footprint than apples from New York?

A couple of things are very clear. Drinking bottled water, rather than regular water, is ridiculous, carbon-footprint-wise. Insulating our houses, better windows, and efficient furnaces probably matter more than where our food comes from. And the most important thing we can do as a planet is to stop cutting down our rainforests.

CCoES

2008-02-28T21:16:00.002-05:00

In January Dave Norris became Mayor and I took over the Citizen's Committee on Environmental Sustainability (CCoES). I think I got the better end of the deal.

In its first year the Committee - made up of smart, knowledgeable people from the City, County and University - made some solid recommendations. Increase City recycling rate to 50% (ambitious goal!). Establish an anti-idling policy for City vehicles. Give a tax break for energy efficiency improvements. Begin a public education campaign.

But we need to take these ideas - being green and being efficient - from things the City can do to what we all can do. Residents and businesses, rich and poor, young and old, we all need to embrace sustainability.

One idea I would like to pursue is a speakers bureau: creating presentations on recycling, saving energy, stormwater, etc., that could be given to neighborhood associations, church groups, boy and girl scouts, or whoever.

Have skills in powerpoint, and conveying information to various groups? Let me know and we'll put you to work...

Better World Betty

2008-01-11T11:13:00.000-05:00

A cool new website had its coming out party at South Street last night. Better World Betty ("green living made easier") is a local guide to living lightly: reduce, reuse and recycle. Kudos to Teri Kent for this useful and charming website.

Also debuting last night was the City's Green City webpage, full of useful information and resources about sustainability.

Not quite as cool as Betty, though.

Charlottesville Marathon

2007-12-13T09:07:00.000-05:00

The Marathon Guide 2008 in the January Runner's World features the Charlottesville Marathon (April 19) as one of 10 best "up and coming marathons". Our marathon gets kudos for beauty and a warning about the hills. Congrats to Francesca Conte and Russell Gill for this recognition.

I completed the Marine Corps marathon in 1991. One was enough. And that one is flat.

Dennis Kucinich

2007-12-09T17:35:00.000-05:00

This has been a remarkable year as far as presidential politics go. First Clinton, then Obama, and now Kucinich have had Charlottesville events. At the moment I cannot recall that any candidates for President, pre or post nomination, have visited here before. Clinton came here after he was elected, and Edwards and Gore were here for campaign events for Kaine and LF, respectively.

In any event I chose not to attend the Clinton event (sorry but I am not a Hillary fan), was wowed by Obama at the Pavillion, and got to meet Kucinich on Friday. Kucinich was inspiring, articulate and I agreed with him on almost everything he said. Lots of friends in the audience. A great event.

My first choice remains Edwards, though.

Kin Flicks

2007-10-28T12:29:00.000-04:00

The 20th Annual Virginia Film Festival starts Thursday with a focus on family. John Sayles, one of my favorite filmmakers, kicks things off with a screening of his new film Honeydripper. Jean and I saw him (and Maggie Renzi) at the 1989 Festival at the now-defunct University Theater in 1989 and are looking forward to seeing him again. We also plan to see Charles Burnett's My Brothers Wedding, although I hate to miss the Brent Green Animations at Gravity Lounge. John Turturro will be here with a couple of films, there are some documentaries that I'd love to see, and of course there's the Adrenaline Film Project. And The Savages, with director Tamara Jenkins, looks like a film not to be missed.

Too many movies, not enough time.

CTS

2007-10-08T07:18:00.000-04:00

As my fellow councilor Dave Norris has previously blogged, City buses are free this month.

This is a great opportunity to give the buses a try. Charlottesville Transit Service has made a lot of improvements in the last couple of years. The buses are much more reliable (ie, on time!). Two important routes, the trolley and the 7, run on Sundays, and a new route runs to the County office building on 5th Street. Faculty, students and staff at UVa always ride free (thanks to UVa) and City residents can use their fare-free system as well. And our buses are wheel-chair accessible, and have a rack for your bike.

In the future, both CTS and UTS will will use have a GPS system that will tell riders how long until the next bus arrives. There is discussion of making the system always fare-free (but I wonder why a 75-cent fare would make a difference, but I'm told it does), and the City and County are looking at creating a Regional Transit Authority, with the goal of a significantly expanded system.

So give the bus a try this month, and let us know what you think.

Drought Warning

2007-09-05T07:39:00.001-04:00

Last night at City Council we received an update on the drought from Tom Frederick, the Executive Director of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. News was not good. By the end of this week our reservoir levels will be below the levels when we declared the warning on August 21 (the thunderstorms the end of August gave us a temporary respite). We need some rain! So far the hurricane season storms have taken a very southern course, and Tom expressed concern that forecasts indicated the possibility of a drier than usual winter.

So for now:

• No car washing, except at car washes (which recycle their water)
• No watering in the yard, except using containers 3 gallons or less
• Restaurants to serve water only upon request
• No filling of pools or fountains
• No washing of buildings, pavement, etc except through businesses established for that purpose

Tom also gave us the current timetable on expanding our water supply. RWSA hopes that state and federal regulators will give preliminary approval to the plan by the end of the month, and seek public input, with final approval of our plan by the end of the year. Preliminary engineering has already begun on expanding the Ragged Mountain Dam.

Recycling

2007-08-30T16:37:00.000-04:00

Curbside recycling in the City has expanded again (wasn't too long ago that we started picking up plastic bottles and cardboard). We now accept all types of paper that can be recycled - phone books, office paper, junk mail). A brochure outlining how to properly recycle (ie, junk mail and office paper in a paper bag in the recycling bin; avoid putting paper out on rainy days; cardboard in bundles, etc.) will be in the next City notes with the utility bills (and is on the website). Great news!

The City's Population

2007-08-20T08:25:00.000-04:00

One issue that seems to arise every year is a population estimate from the Weldon Cooper Center, or the US Census Bureau, showing that people are leaving Charlottesville. In 2005 the US Census thought we had lost 4000 people since 2000;we appealed this and won. This year the Weldon Cooper Center thought we had lost 140 people since the year before. This position seems at odds with almost everyone's intuitive sense of the City - not to mention things like building permits, car registrations and the like - so I recently met with some Weldon Cooper folks to see why they think we are shrinking, and to tell them why we think they are wrong.

This is what I learned. Basically the Weldon Cooper Center looks at the increase in state population, and estimates what portion of the increase goes to each locality by looking at changes in a locality's housing stock, school enrollment, births, tax return exemptions and driver's licenses. And also takes into consideration "group-quartered population" - military, prisons, jails, dorms, etc.

The problem (assuming that I am right, of course) lies mostly in the peculiarities of being a college town - of UVa's 18,000 or so students a significant portion live in the City, although I should note that the dorms are technically in Albemarle County. Some issues may lie with students not having their fair share of babies, not to mention school-age kids, or not getting a local driver's license, or not claiming any exemptions. But the bigger issue may be that the density for much of our housing, and hence our population, is higher than our housing stock would lead you to believe. In other words, a significant amount of new housing in the City is near the University (our 2003 zoning ordinance allowed much denser buildings adjacent to UVa) where the number of bedrooms, and shared bedrooms, is likely higher than the state average. The WC Center assumes a certain number of persons per household, and we discussed that a way to get at this would be a survey of households to determine a more accurate assumption for the City.

I also learned that one problem with the way the U.S. Census Bureau conducts their estimates is that they look at how many people have moved into a locality vs. how many have moved away. This information is gathered, at least in part, by looking at where you live each year when you file a tax return. So UVa undergrads move here, often not filing a tax return - so we don't get credit for the inflow. But when they move elsewhere, and file a tax return, it is counted against us. According to this model we had a net loss in population, from coming and going, of almost 6000 people from 2000 until now.

Is it worth doing a survey (at our expense) to help the Weldon Cooper Center conduct a more accurate estimate? The financial implications of a small discrepancy in population are not large, and not consequential if we are talking about a couple of hundred (couple of thousand might be a different matter).

But I just hate to leave any impression that people are choosing to leave the City, when the reality is, I think, just the opposite.

Best of C-Ville 2007

2007-08-16T17:25:00.000-04:00

Even though I never get around to sending in a ballot for the Best of C-ville (not even the year I got Best Chiropractor, honest!) I always like to see how my favorites stack up.

Glad to see that my dentist (David Dalley) and doctor (Greg Gelburd) got the nod. Blue Wheel Bikes and Gravity Lounge - both of which I have previously singled out in this blog - also made the Best Of list.

My Pilates instructor, Robin Truxel of TruPilates, was voted runnerup. Pilates is great stuff - a very good complement to chiropractic for back pain patients - and Robin, a physical therapist by training, is fabulous.

And my current favorite restaurant - Aqui es Mexico - was also a runnerup. If you haven't tried this authentic, inexpensive Mexican - Salvadoran restaurant, on Carlton Road, be sure to.

Plastic Water Bottles

2007-08-12T11:01:00.000-04:00

Recently the Mayors of Salt Lake City and San Francisco banned the purchasing of the ubiquitous plastic water bottles by their cities, as a green measure to save energy. Not only does the production of these bottles consume a lot of energy – enough in this country to fuel 100000 cars for a year – but only a small percentage of these bottles are recycled. And water is heavy – not exactly a great thing to move all over the place.

So at last week’s Council meeting I brought up to Council the idea that we look into following the lead of Salt Lake and SF. Not a great reception – Kevin Lynch in particular was skeptical. We decided to have the Sustainability Committee take a look at it.

In the large scheme of things the City doesn’t use that much bottled water; more important is to get everyone in the entire City to avoid buying plastic bottles of water. I think that City action would just be a way of calling this to everyone’s attention.

We signed the Mayor’s agreement on Climate change a year ago, joining hundreds of other cities in agreeing to dramatically decrease energy use – and the only way this will work is to get the entire community, not just the government, to use less energy.

Like drinking our own water.

Monticello Community

2007-07-18T19:01:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I had the privilege of welcoming to Charlottesville a truly fascinating group - the Monticello Community Gathering. This was a meeting of the descendants of the large community that made Monticello a successful plantation and supported Jefferson in his genius: artisans, enslaved people, family, workmen. Over 200 descendants of this community got together to learn about the lives and history their ancestors were part of. It was truly moving to hear one of Sally Hemmings descendants - and elderly african-american woman (from the Thomas Woodson Family)telling of learning that one of her great grandfathers was a President...

Center for Nonprofit Excellence

2007-06-15T15:11:00.000-04:00

Tuesday saw the opening of The Center for Nonprofit Excellence in the former Downtown Visitors Center, on the Mall side of the Market Street Garage. This organization, run by Wendy Brown, is a tremendous resource for all of the non-profits that our community depends on - there are over 700 non-profits in the region, of which more than 100 have already joined the CNE. The kick-off reception was well-attended and gave a chance to learn not only about the resources of the CNE - courses, a comprehensive online databank, a community conference room and much more - but to see the wide range of non-profits and the benefits they bring to Charlottesville.

Festival of the Photograph

2007-06-04T15:15:00.000-04:00

Although the Festival of the Photograph officially runs from Thursday June 7 through Sat June 9, it really started the end of last week, with numerous top quality gallery shows opening Friday - Jean and I saw Bill Emory's show at the C & O Gallery, and William Allard's at Les Yeux Du Monde - and with the arrival of Festival organizer Nick Nichol's banner photos hanging from downtown mall trees. The shows we saw on Friday were fabulous, and we've yet to see Sally Mann at 2nd Street and Eugene Richards at McGuffey. There are events this week at the Paramount, the Pavillion and the Ix Warehouse. An event that apparently is unique in the country and certainly a great thing for the City. Don't miss this!

Dahlia Lithwick

2007-05-14T15:24:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of fine writers in and around Charlottesville. Always have been. I have read a lot of them - John Casey, Henry Wiencek, Jennifer Ackerman, George Garrett, John Grisham, Maude Casey - the list goes on and on.

But my current favorite may be Dahlia Lithwick, who is a columnist for Slate. Normally she covers the Supreme Court and other legal issues. Lately she has done a great job skewering Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

And yesterday she penned a hilarious Mother's Day column, on the absurd selection of Mother's Day gifts at Barnes and Noble.

Happy Mother's Day, Dahlia.

Number 17

2007-05-07T06:51:00.000-04:00

Charlottesville has dropped from Number 1 to Number 17 in Cities Ranked and Rated. Gainesville, Florida is the new Number 1.

The culprit? Cost of housing and cost of living.

Gainesville better watch out.

More on Eating Local

2007-04-27T16:24:00.000-04:00

Wednesday's NY Times food section had an article on folks who are only eating foods produced within 100 miles. Can be a challenge. One woman boiled seawater for the salt. Also articles on Prince Charles the organic farmer (who knew?) and on some organic wines - not just ecological but perhaps a way to make better wines.

And next week there will be a presentation in council chambers, on Tuesday, May 1, at 6pm by members of UVa Professors Tim Beatley and Tanya Cobb's class on "Planning for a Sustainable and Secure Community Food System". This class identified specific issues that could foster better linkages between local farms and community schools, food stores, restaurants, and residents. Beatley and Cobb's students will present a range of options that might be pursued by the community - from developing farm-to-school programs to address public health concerns with obesity and diabetes, to creation of more farmers markets throughout the region, creating easier access to food in some of Charlottesville's neighborhoods, and even assisting the creation of urban farms and gardens as well as new part-time farmers.

Should be interesting. Council passed an Eat Local resolution a couple of weeks ago, and this should help us find ways to promote this idea.

To Fight Global Warming, Some Hang a Clothesline

2007-04-13T09:30:00.000-04:00

An article in yesterday's NY Times on the trials and tribulations of hanging clothes outside to save energy caught my attention. Interesting because while Jean and I have always hung laundry outside (or in the basement, next to the furnace, in the winter), I don't think that any of my immediate neighbors do (ie, the ones whose backyards I can see).

The challenges noted in the article begin with the author's sub-division rules, which prohibit clothelines, but also include the time it takes to hang laundry vs the dryer, and that dryers result in softer towels and clothes.

But the advantages are simple - saving energy and money. Of course, there is a website devoted to the advantages of clotheslines, and next Thursday, April 19, is National Hanging Out Day.

Achieving the goals of the Mayor's Agreement on Climate Change will require all of us to make changes in our lifestyles to use less energy. Driving less. Switching to compact flourescents. Putting TVs and other appliances on power strips.

And hanging out the laundry.

Linda Peacock Memorial Garden

2007-04-13T08:40:00.000-04:00

In a moving tribute from her friends, a memorial garden in Jackson Park - adjacent to the Albemarle County Courthouse in Court Square - was dedicated this week to the memory of long-time City employee Linda Peacock Okerlund.

Linda, who died last spring of cancer, had served the City in a variety of capacities since 1976, most recently as Assistant City Manager. She was very active in the community, serving on the Board of Directors and in different volunteer capacities of numerous organizations, including the McGuffy Arts Center, Camp Holiday Trails, JAUNT, and the Commission on Children and Families. She received the 2006 John L. Snook Child Advocate Award by Children, Youth and Family Services.

This new garden - entirely funded by donations from friends - is a great way to remember Linda Peacock.

CHS Orchestra

2007-04-09T10:13:00.000-04:00

The CHS Orchestra swept the awards at the Heritage Music Festival in London last week. The String Ensemble won the First Place Award for Orchestras and the Adjudicators Award for Best Orchestra; the Concert Orchestra won the Second Place Award for Orchestras. Concertmaster Shankar Srinivasan earned the Maestro Award for best solo performer of the entire festival. And to top it off, the Orchestra earned the Sweepstakes Award as Grand Champions of the festival.

Congrats, not only to Director Laura Thomas, but to all the kids and parents, and to the school programs at Walker, Buford, and Clark and Jackson-Via. And thanks to everyone who worked so hard and contributed to the fundraising - $300,000!

And thanks to Boyd Tinsley (a CHSO alum) for sponsoring a program to make private lessons available to kids from lower-income homes.

Check out the blogspot and Progress blogs for photos and commentary.

Blue Wheel Bikes

2007-03-28T09:17:00.000-04:00

I've been a customer at Blue Wheel Bicycles since the around 1974, when I bought a Torpado from a hole-in-the-wall location near what is now Coupe DeVille's on Elliewood. For years the Blue Wheel was in the blue house at the end of Elliewood, and last year moved downtown to the Ix Building. A friendly, knowlegeable, low-key, high-quality shop.

So Tuesday I decided to buy some lights for my bike - if I want to bike commute more than one or two days a week, I need to be able to safely ride after dark, since much of my council time is in the evenings. I was planning to get just a flashing red light, but Scott told me that City law required a headlight as well (guess I should have known that...).

And we (city council) just decided to invest a lot more next year in bike lanes (and sidewalks and trails) so hopefully bike commuting will become a bit easier and more common.

Signals For Health

2007-03-09T15:49:00.000-05:00

This week the UVa Hospital opened an innovative new program at the Wahoo West Cafe (the cafeteria in the old hospital), designed to promote healthy eating by making it readily apparent which food choices are good ones and which are not. The Signals For Health program colorcodes all items in the cafeteria with green, yellow or red labels, based on calories, fat and sodium. Green indicates healthiest, red means eat sparingly or avoid, and yellow means eat in moderation. This follows an earlier plan with vending machines, with similar labels, that resulted in fewer red items sold, and more green and yellow.

I think this is a great idea - not only does it make it easier to make good choices, but the learning about good nutrition should extend beyond the cafeteria - and is the brainchild of Medical School Dean Tim Garson.

CNN was in town to do a story yesterday (and asked me for my thoughts!). This is a good idea that should spread.

Cville Dave

2006-12-12T11:20:00.000-05:00

If you haven't already, be sure to check out my fellow councilor Dave Norris's new blog. He shares his collection of vintage postcards as a way to shed light on city issues and city history. Great blog!