Date Archives August 2005

Housing Fund and Bruce Hornsby

Want to support the CAAR Workforce Housing Fund that supports teachers, police officers, nurses and firefighters? Stop by or call CAAR at 434-817-2227.Tickets are just $27 and half of the proceeds go directly to the CAAR Work Force Housing Fund. These are good seats under the canopy and are the same price you could buy them from the Pavilion. The Workforce Housing Fund is, simply put, a great thing for which CAAR won a national award recently.If you do happen to buy tickets because you saw it here, please email me and let me know.

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“The Uglification of Virginia”

Sprawl is eroding the Commonwealth’s exceptional rural landscapes. Anyone concerned about Virginia’s quality of life and economic competitiveness should be worried.I can’t say that I disagree with his sentiments…. The idealist in me continues to firmly believe that smart growth can be accomplished – preserving natural resources, both below and above the surface, preserving the marketable views and landscapes, et…. I just haven’t yet figured out how to accomplish all this.

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VA Blogging Summit

I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I am really excited about the upcoming Summit on Blogging and Democracy in the Commonwealth. You can read more about this and some of the attendees here, here and here. Blogs have become quite a force, as evidenced in part by the momentum that the eminent domain issue has been able to maintain and to influence. I look forward to seeing how blogs evolve and continue to exert their growing influence.

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Water may be coming soon

The RWSA is currently acting on plans to build a pipeline from the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, just north of Charlottesville, to the Ragged Mountain Reservoir southwest of the city…. The plan also seems to be a middle path between environmental and business groups that have squared off over how to expand the supply.The idea has also united two groups that have been at odds throughout the planning process —the Piedmont Environmental Council and the developer-friendly Free Enterprise Forum. Environmentalists didn’t want the RWSA to pull water from outside the local area, while developers wanted a plan that satisfied those 50-year demand projections.Why should the Free Enterprise Forum (calling it pro-developer is a much too narrow description of this local think tank) be the only ones calling for sufficient planning?… Maybe I am reading too much into it.The best part of the story in this week’s C-Ville – Gilges chuckles at the idea that the solution came from the public instead of big-bucks consultants.

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