C'VILLE CITIZEN
Editor: Bob Fenwick
BIKES AT THE BRIDGE, VINTAGE BICYCLES BY KEN MARGOLIUS. CLICK HERE
Project Transition, Composting! WORMS? Click here!
TOUR de GUAD! BIKERS ON THE LOOSE! CLICK HERE!
WHAT IS AN ECO FAIR? CLICK HERE!
Diesel Spill into the Rivanna Reservoir, CLICK HERE
As you can see in the video the boom is doing practically nothing. If the water coming from your faucets has a distasteful or different taste notify The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority immediately.
PROJECT TRANSITION TEST VIDEO, Click Here
Believers and Achievers Test Video, Click Here
A community internet news and advocacy outlet dedicated to citizen representation and citizen involvement in Charlottesville, Virginia. Contact Bob Fenwick bfenwick@mindspring.com
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Please click on the following link for an important video on breast cancer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMzxijqzUJk
Re-entry and Family
There are citizens in our community who take social justice issues beyond committees and task forces. One such citizen is Eddie Harris and he works in our community on family matters. I asked Eddie to give me a few words to put in this introduction to let people know what he does for families and he said a few words couldn't begin to describe his job. So let me have Eddie tell you in his own words. My video camera broke just as we started and we will retape this message within a day or two but the message is important enough to put this clip up even if only temporarily. So please bear with the video problems and listen to what Eddie and Pertelle are saying. Click here for short video
Homeless
What to do about homelessness!? For most of us the homeless 'problem' is most visible on the downtown mall. Mostly young and middle aged men with an occasional woman panhandle for spare change or just hang out waiting for the next meal to be served at The Haven or for the bus to take them to a local church for the night. I've heard many comments about 'able bodied' men not working, just being lazy, unfairly burdening us with taking care of them and there is something to that. But however you feel about these men and women taking advantage of 'the system' don't forget that for every one you see panhandling or begging there are dozens of Cville citizens who desperately need help whether it's because of emotional or psychological difficulties, family disintegration, addiction, the national recession, whatever. I know because I have volunteered at The Haven and the staff and volunteers are well aware of what's going on and serve a segment of our community that truly cannot help themselves. They are as dedicated a group working a sometimes thankless task as efficiently as I've seen in our city. They deserve our thanks every day. I've seen young women with children in diapers, old men and women who I feel don't even know where they are. However you feel about the homeless add to the mix that the Downtown Mall is first and foremost a business, shopping and social district. Hundreds of businesses provide services, products and jobs for our city and in this national fiscal crisis time their concerns have to be met. It is hard enough to operate a business during this recession without bearing the burden or the blame for the city's homeless problem. The Downtown Mall is a place where visitors to the city come for Fridays After Five, for the restaurants, for City Market and to socialize while they are down here. Our next step should be better marketing and promotion of all the store front retail businesses.
Whichever side you come down on in the homeless discussion in the community we all should advocate from facts. That's why I interviewed a young homeless man (whom I know) to try and understand what he does, why he does what he does, why he continues to return to life on the streets, are drugs involved and so on even when there are people trying to help. We can blame, punish, control, whatever later but let's start first with facts. Click on the next line for Jim's story.
HOMELESS IN CVILLE - SCAM OR PROBLEM?
Want to save water? How about money? Tons of money! CLICK HERE for repair kit installation instructions.
Goats in Cville? You betcha! Click next link!
Click here for short video on goats in Cville
On May 14 the Festival Of Cultures was held in Lee Park. It was an entertaining and informative display of much of the cultural diversity in Charlottesville. You'll agree when you click on the link following.
Click here for short video of Festival of Cultures
APO ROCKS! ROCK HILL, MARCH 26, CLICK HERE
ALPHA PHI OMEGA REDUX
UPDATE! 12 FEBRUARY, 2011. ROCK HILL GARDENS, CHARLOTTESVILLE.
Once again Alpha Phi Omega turned out to polish the Rock Hill Garden site! On a beautiful Saturday morning the service fraternity swarmed over the gardens, stacking brush, hauling logs, raking out flower beds. One of the largest and most determined groups to reclaim Rock Hill Gardens, APO has been consistent and persistent in the effort. CLICK HERE FOR A SHORT VIDEO OF ALPHA PHI OMEGA!
On Saturday, January 22, 2011, the UVA service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, returned to Rock Hill Gardens for a second helping of clearing out the premier forgotten and neglected botanical garden in C'ville. At the rate they are helping we will have to dedicate a section of the gardens to APO! Local television reporter, Chris Stover, covered the event for Channel 19 and video will be posted on the Newsplex website and can also be seen on their local telecasts. I also video taped the effort but unfortunately the below freeezing temperatures got the best of my Sony video camera. I guess APO will have to make a return trip and I can try again. Thanks to the young men and women of Alpha Phi Omega! A link to their earlier effort can be found below.
Santa's Little Helper, a community fund raiser. Chapters 1 and 2 released as a preview of a serialization over the Christmas holidays.
Click Here for Danny's Song, contributed by local artists
Click Here for Chapters 1 & 2, Santa's Little Helper
Click Here for Chapters 3 & 4, Santa's Little Helper
Click Here for Chapters 5 & 6, Santa's Little Helper
The following retailers will have the latest installment in their stores. Please drop in these stores over the holidays and support this generous effort.
Great Graphics, downtown mall
Utopia Toy Store, east end of downtown mall with laughing cow out front
Tuel Jewelers, Mary, Frieda and Frances are consistent community supporters
Hot Cakes, Barracks Road Shopping Center, no better coffee, snack shop
Cohn's On The Corner, THE place to be on The Corner, terrific attitude
If weather or other events prevent you from obtaining the latest installments you can download them here and then, on the honor system, make a donation online. To do this please click here Santa's Little Helper Fund Raiser. Suggested donation for each installment is $5 but proceeds will go in equal portions to good causes so please be generous. Posting chapters on line will be delayed a few days to encourage drop ins.
For more info on Santa's Little Helper go to www.Santas-Little-Helper.com
UPDATE: 30 October, ALPHA PHI OMEGA, a UVa Community Service Fraternity provided the manpower and womanpower (and Pledge power) to help in the clean up of the Monticello Area Community Action Agency grounds and gardens. CLICK HERE FOR A SHORT VIDEO OF ALPHA PHI OMEGA At the end I identified the area as 'Rock Hill Academy'. Silly me!
On the night of the full moon just before Halloween, Dede Smith and Dan Bieker organized their annual 'Poe Walk', a walk to 'The Chimney' at Ragged Mountain where a member of Live Arts, Bill Niebel, channelled Edgar Allen Poe and some of his short stories and poems. It was a beautiful night and the perfect place to hear Poe. Thanks Dede, Dan and Bill.
CLICK HERE FOR A NIGHT TIME VIDEO OF POE WALK
FOR THE LATEST ON DREDGING THE RIVANNA RESERVOIR, CLICK HERE
HOMELESSNESS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE
Charlottesville has about 45,000 residents living within the city limits. Of this number approximately 300 would be characterized as homeless, a few women, mostly men, who live in public shelters, ‘on the streets’ which would mean behind buildings, in stairwells, under bridges and some live in wooded areas or crawl spaces under houses or in abandoned homes. We have all seen the homeless. Some carry bags, some push shopping carts, some spend the day on public benches in parks or even on the downtown mall, anywhere to kill time. We see them, we help them by paying for the public programs but we don’t know them. But we should know about them – information such as how many mothers and children are homeless, what criminal activity occurs, the number of alcoholics and drug addicts and so on so the social programs we craft are accomplishing the intended goals.
Some homeless people in an earlier age might even be classified as ‘hermits’ or ‘mountain men’, men who prefer solitude and feel no need to fit in. Others might be mentally ill, or psychologically or mentally impaired or they might seem as normal as most of the people we pass on the street every day. And in today’s economy some have lost their homes and have nowhere else to go, no extended family, no money and need a place to gather themselves for what’s down the road.
While working at Hope Community Center I met a homeless man who agreed to let us look briefly into his life. He is neither an alcoholic nor a drug addict. He has a job and you will see some of the details of his life. You will not see a great deal of detail and you might notice he did not answer some of my questions. Living outside societal norms is risky. I did not want to give his real name or show his face or divulge other facts about his possessions which might put him at jeopardy from any of the other street people he sees on a regular basis. I admire his personal strength allowing this. It’s never easy to publicly admit shortcomings.
Personally I learned some important things and some not so important. We have all heard complaints about giving food stamps or monetary assistance to people who then go to McDonald's to eat. For a homeless person they have no choice. They have no way to prepare or cook food so they depend on 'fast food'. Virginia had a computer crash that affected the Department of Motor Vehicles and other statewide agencies. The crash also affected poor people on relief who couldn't get their debit cards recharged so they had to scramble to find food.
So here is ‘Jim’. The locations for the filming were at Hope Community Center on 11th Street and in a wooded area somewhere in Charlottesville, one of a number of places ‘Jim’ spends the night. It is my hope that this short video clip will aid in the public awareness of the homeless situation.
Bob Fenwick
Click here for 10 Oct clean up update with 350.org
DAY OF CARING clean up of Rock Hill Gardens at MACAA, Sept. 22, 2010.
Wildlife at Rock Hill Garden? Who would have guessed? Click here for a buck.
Click here for video review of Day of Caring work in Rock Hill Gardens
We are organizing an ongoing clean up of the botanical gardens on Rock Hill. The property belongs to MACAA and anything we can do to improve the gardens area will be beneficial to MACAA and their efforts to serve our community. To help please email Bob Fenwick, bfenwick@mindspring.com. We need a chipper and a small dozer or bucket loader for several hours. Please help!
Here is what Rock Hill looked like not too long ago.
Here is what it looks like today, JULY,
2010
CLICK HERE FOR UPDATE AS OF 19 SEPTEMBER
Sunday, August 15, the Rock Hill Gardens got a lift from an energetic group of UVa law students. They did a terrific job in a light rain. Thanks. With help like this it won't be too long until we have returned this wilderness to a botanical garden. Click on link. UVa Law students cleaning up the gardens.
NOISE IN BELMONT
BELMONT ONCE AGAIN A QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD WITH FAMILY FRIENDLY RESTAURANTS!
UPDATE, CLICK HERE
Belmont has several very good restaurants that blend in quite nicely with the neighborhood. Unfortunately Belmont also has several restaurants that are not such good neighbors. For years the residents have been complaining about the situation and it has gotten them nowhere. Their complaints have been ignored or dismissed. Charlottesville is now considering a noise ordinance to begin to address the problem. What follows is a letter about the situation.
Please click on these links to see what goes on.
Click here for written complaint about the situation
Several weeks ago a number of citizens spoke before city council on the problem of late noise disturbance at their residences into the early morning hours caused by several restaurants in the Hinton Avenue area of Belmont. Since there is a limit of 12 speakers during the opening public comment period none of the residents were able to speak at the beginning....the first ten speakers were all restaurant owners, musicians or patrons who seemed to be perplexed that anybody would complain about loud bands or drunken revelry at 1AM outside their residences. Several spoke to the point about the local music industry and what it adds to the city - a point that is not at issue here. Unfortunately several others painted the residents who protested as whiners and complainers and apparently took the issue to be a big joke. One speaker even mockingly offered to take up a collection to buy the citizen protesters ear muffs to wear when they went to bed so the noise couldn't be heard. A sound meter was held up and the speaker instructed the assembled citizens to be quiet so he could get a reading of the sound level. He seemed to think he had made his point about the level of noise as the city council chambers quieted down. The time when he did this was 7:15 in the evening. I have not met one person who has objected to the intrusive noise coming into their house that has ever mentioned unreasonable noise at 7:15 in the evening! It's noise after 11PM that they have been trying to limit so they could sleep. Wouldn't it be great if the residents in the vicinity of the troublesome restaurants, as they prepare to retire for the evening, could open their windows at 11PM and ask the noise makers to please turn down the volume so they could sleep? For over 4 years they have not had this option. Another attendee at the city council meeting was accosted in the hall outside the city council chamber and asked 'why don't you just move to Harrisonburg?' I couldn't help but think of the trouble the US Army caused when sleep deprivation of enemy combatants who were being held at Abu Ghraib in Iraq was characterized as 'torture'. I can't think of any single action that will make somebody crazier, quicker than sleep deprivation.....for years! And not in a prison camp but in their own homes. The residents of Belmont, WHO WERE THERE LONG BEFORE THE NOISE MAKERS WERE, and who changed Belmont into a neighborhood that would support a profitable business, have been more than patient.
I have watched the character of the Belmont neighborhood improve and thrive as young families, retired people and singles have moved into Belmont houses many of which have been improved or entirely renovated. I know the neighborhood. Almost 20 years ago I stripped out an 80 year old house on Avon St. right down from the area around Fitzgerald Tire and completely renovated it. This work was at the beginning of a wave of property improvements that has transformed Belmont. Belmont today is a much better place than 20 years ago but it has reached a tipping point. One or two businesses who are not making the effort to be good neighbors will have a huge, negative impact on the area unless conditions change. This is an older, historic part of the city into which on a 'good for business' evening 400 people pour into half a dozen restaurants....a large number of people with very little parking. Most of the restaurants are just what the city needs, and what the residential / commercial zoning is meant to encourage.....businesses that respect the character of the neighborhood. A few are not.
To let the city councilors know your opinion click on links below.
Mayor Dave Norris, Send Dave an email
Vice Mayor Holly Edwards, Send Holly an email
David Brown, Send David an email
Satyendra Huja, Send an email to Huja
Kristin Szakos, Send Kristin an email