CAAR Blog

Today I saw a car in Charlottesville with the license plate LUVN4GV.  I’m pretty sure that plate means “love and forgive.�  I got a great laugh when I notice the Impeach Bush bumper sticker on the same car.  I’m guessing that the license plate was a religious (probably Christian) reference.  I’m also guessing that the car owner must believe in the separation of church and state in that they obviously don’t feel the need to apply their love and forgiveness to a politician. 

We could use a little love and forgiveness in politics.  Our last two presidents have been the objects of unfair and unreasonable hatred from members of the opposite party.  That brings up another point… why do we call it a “party� if the people in the group are so angry.  Parties are supposed to be fun.  Maybe we should call them something more appropriate like “mobs� or “gangs.� 

I learned last night that we have finally gotten approval from the feds to build the new water source our community wanted to buy.  The process of gaining approval was handled very well by our local leaders and we should all thank Mike Gaffney and Tom Frederick for their leadership.  They succeeded against bad odds by getting the feds to agree to what we wanted (as opposed to what they wanted).

A year ago, our local leaders sat in a room with all the federal agencies that needed to approve what we as a community had decided was best.  Ken Boyd asked the feds -who had two options to choose from - if our local preference for a solution mattered in their decision.  They simply told him no.  What we wanted made no difference in their decision.

I had predicted all along that the feds would make us build the pipeline from the James instead of the Ragged Mt reservoir.   You see the feds do not like reservoirs for some reason.  The pipeline was the lease environmentally damaging option even if very few in the community supported it.  I was wrong and I’m glad for us.  Part of me had hoped they would pick the pipeline because this would have drawn attention to the silly federal process that is choking off our drinking water supply.  I do not know how we pulled it off, but we must have had a few insiders working for us.  Otherwise, we’d be sucking pipe water for the next 50 years.

I am confused by the commercials running on our local radio stations urging us to conserve water. The commercials always start off by saying that “water is not a renewable resource.” Isn’t that called rain? It seems that water is the ultimate renewable resource, but maybe I do not understand what they mean. I’m all for conserving water, but let’s not overstate our case.

I always tell my children “life’s not fair.”  Many folks seem to want it to be fair, so I thought it would be interesting to apply “fair” priciples to the growth debate in Charlottesville. 

Clearly, it is NOT fair to take away the property rights of a landowner by down-zoning their property or phasing their development rights.  It could also be argued that it is not fair for current residents of the area to have to put up with the issues and changes caused by growth.  It is also not fair to prevent folks from moving into this community - after all, most of us moved here at one point.  Then again, first come first serve seems fair - those who came here first have a right to expect some preferential treatment.  So, to be “fair” to both sides of the growth issue (locals vs newbies), I have devised the Comprehensive Fair Growth Plan:

(Note: to be fair, this plan must be implemented in both Charlottesville and Albemarle.  I’m sure it will be no problem for them to cooperate.) 

1.  Limit new residents to 200 new families per year (not sure that is the right number, but I’m making all this up anyway.  I fuigure 200 should off-set the death rate and natural outward migration.)

2.  Except for those who were born here AND lived here their entire life, make everyone move out after 10 years.  It is just not fair to others who can’t move in.  Everyone should get a chance to live in this great place.

3.  Put a toll booth up on EVERY road at the county line.  This will help us offset the tax revenue that will be lost when businesses move out or go under when growth stops.

4.  Charge a new resident fee to the 200 families that are allowed to move in each year.  They should have to pay a fair portion of what we have already invested to make this a great place to live.

Hey, maybe life is fair after all!