An Uncivil Discourse

I along with two other former members of Charlottesville City Council held a press conference to raise the issue of paying attention to consequences of decisions and specifically to address our concerns about the fiscal implications of reversing the Council position about building the Meadowcreek Parkway. We were greeted by a group opposing the Parkway, several of whom kept interrupting and shouting as I tried to read our statement. I feel very sad about the lack of civil discourse, especially since many of these same people have been friends of mine and have been quite vocal (without interruptions) in speaking their minds on this and other issues. Below I print what I tried to say over their shouts.



As you can see, most of us are former City officials. All of us have been deeply involved in the life of this city over several decades.

We are here -- in advance of the City Council firehouse primary on Saturday -- because we know from experience that City Council members make important decisions that have consequences on our lives and pocketbooks.

Some in the council campaign have raised the issue of reversing the decision on constructing the Meadowcreek parkway.

Regardless of one’s personal stance on the Meadowcreek Parkway, the City Council has made and reaffirmed its decision to build the road. In fact, the County has completed its portion.

Yet City Council candidates who have announced they would reverse this decision have yet to discuss the financial implications of not building the roadway.

Those here today have varying opinions about the wisdom, the alignment and other specifics of the parkway. It is one thing to have a personal opinion. It is another when those opinions get translated into decisions, for decisions – unlike opinions -- have consequences.

What would be the consequences for the citizens of Charlottesville if the decision on building the Parkway were reversed?

A major consequence is $13.4 million.

Thus far, this amount of taxpayer funds -- $13.4 million -- has been spent for preliminary engineering and right of way for the Parkway and the Interchange.

Reversing the city’s stance and removal of the road from the City’s Transportation Plan would result in the city being required, by statute, to repay $13.4 million in taxpayer dollars to the state and federal governments. The VDOT Board may waive this requirement, which seems highly unlikely under today’s shortfalls in transportation dollars. Decisions likely would be reviewed on an individual basis.

The reimbursement requirement is part of VDOT's standard agreement with cities who request urban transportation projects. It is included in Charlottesville's agreement with VDOT about the MCP. The General Assembly placed this mandate in the state code in order to protect state taxpayers from arbitrary decision-making when a project is requested, millions of public dollars are spent on planning and right-of-way, and then it is cancelled. Yes, the project can be cancelled, but not at the expense of other transportation projects that might have been funded with this money. The locality is held responsible for refunding the money. We know of one city Alexandria which repaid $1 million dollars for a cancelled project.

Another consequence is that if the City were to balk at this repayment, the Virginia Department of Transportation could withhold funds from the City in the amount of this reimbursement, thus putting off for years, if not decades, other important City projects such as Hillsdale Drive, Belmont Bridge and Ramp Improvements at 29/250 interchange.

Yes, decisions have consequences.

We here care about our city and we believe the candidates do also. We know from experience that our citizens care about Charlottesville AND her fiscal condition.

Yet, it is clear – when one is elected to Council, individual views, if translated into action, have consequences. We believe the voters would want to know how the candidates would deal with these consequences. Where would they find the money to reimburse the millions in state and federal tax dollars that have been spent at the city's request on planning, engineering and right-of-way for the MCP and the interchange? How could they justify a request for the CTB to waive the requirement to repay $13.4 million

All signs are that, in the present fiscal situation and with the severe shortage of transportation funds, the state would indeed require repayment of these funds, either from the city's general fund or from transportation allocations for future projects.

Thus, we urge all candidates to clarify any statements that they have made reversing the decision on the Meadowcreek Parkway.

Likewise, we urge all citizens voting in Saturday’s primary (or in the absentee voting on Thursday evening) to be aware of and think about the fiscal consequences of reversing previous parkway decisions, and to ask this question of their candidates: "Where will Charlottesville find approximately $13.4 million to reimburse VDOT for cancelling the project?" (That, incidentally, is about $788 per city household.)

Thank you. We are glad to take questions as a group, and we refer you also to the VDOT District office. We do have a handout citing the Virginia statute that deals with repayment.


Project MCINTIRE ROAD EXTENDED- 2 LANES
Scope of Work NEW CONSTRUCTION
Description FROM: ROUTE 250 BYPASS AT MCINTIRE ROAD TO: MELBOURNE ROAD INTERSECTION
Prelim. Eng. (PE) $3,700 Complete
Right of Way (RW) $0 N/A

Project RTE 250 BYPASS - CONSTRUCT INTERCHANGE
Scope of Work RECONSTRUCTION
Description AT MCINTIRE ROAD/MEADOW CREEK PARKWAY (0.5000 MI)
Prelim. Eng. (PE) $3,871 Complete
Right of Way (RW) $5,867 Complete

Total PE and ROW for MRE and Interchange $13.438 million

Charlottesville 2010 census stats 2005-2009 # Charlottesville Households = 17,037. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51540.html
$13,438,000 reimbursement/17,037 households = $788.75 per household

Virginia Festival of the Book 2011

Last week was the wonderful Virginia Festival of the Book, an event I’ve been attending ever since it began in the 1990s. Like Charlottesville’s patron patriot Thomas Jefferson, I could not live without books. As usual far more panels were planned than I could possibly attend. But I did hear two of my favorite journalists – Jim Lehrer of PBS News Hour and Scott Simon of NPR’s Weekend Edition. Next to books, NPR and PBS are my favorite media outlets.

Of course, Jim Lehrer was a big hit. Very funny as he gave the Trailways Bus call "Witchita, Kansas City, Albuquerque," etc. demonstrating that no matter how famous a person may become, he never forgets his first job. Lehrer is of course well known for his journalism, interviews and moderation of the presidential debates. But he has also written 20 books during the time of his very high powered career. (He says it just takes sitting in the chair, but when asked later, how he finds the time, given his high powered career, he reported writing every morning for an hour or two at the studio before the rest of the staff arrives.)

Scott Simon was not talking news or politics. He has written a couple of other books, including the novel, Windy City, but his most recent book is about his family’s adoption of two Chinese girls. He was very emotional and broke up several times as he talked about his daughters.

But in addition to these blockbuster appearances, I heard other really good and interesting writers. (I must note that I did promise myself that I would refrain from purchasing books during the Festival since I still have many from last year that I have not read.)

My number one choice of workshops focused on two Americans who played roles in China during the late 19th - mid-20th Century. Lynne Joiner has written Honorable Survivor: Mao's China, McCarthy's America and the Persecution of John S. Service and Lawrence Kaplan, Homer Lea: American Soldier of Fortune.

John Service grew up in China in the 20s and 30s where his father had established a YMCA in the southern area. After college, he returned to China in the diplomatic service and spent his career during the Second World War trying to get cooperation between Mao and the Communists and Chang Kai-Chek and the Nationalists. He entreated the Roosevelt Administration to open communications with the Communists as he forsee their winning the Revolution. After the War, as the cold war began, Senator Joseph McCarthy began to identify Service as one of the Communists in the State Department. After being dismissed, Service sued and eventually prevailed with the U.S. Supreme Court deciding unanimously that there were no valid reasons for his dismissal.

Homer Lea was another interesting character who entered the Chinese scene in the
1890s. He was an American, a hunchback who studied about American military history and offered himself as an expert to the Chinese. It is remarkable that the Chinese believed he had the expertise, but as we can see in the nascent revolutions in the Middle East, often revolutionaries are simply hungry to get any help they can.

Later that day, I attended a panel of three National Book Award Winners that was moderated by another NBA winner, Henry Wiencek (who won for The Hairstons). John Casey talked about Spartina, and he won the award while he was on his own self-financed book tour. Jaimy Gordon won for Lord of Misrule, a story of a racetrack. She had written short stories but was mostly published in academic journals so didn’t expect the book to go far. Kathryn Erskine won for her book, Mockingbird, which was published as a young adult book (largely because the protagonist is a 10 year old), but it appears to tell a gripping story of the girl, who has Asberger's, dealing with the aftermath of a middle school shooting in which her brother is killed.

I went to another panel which was billed as “Reading Group Choices” and in fact some of the authors attend book groups either in person or by Skype or other electronic means. Myla Goldberg, author of Bee Season, talked about The False Friend, which in particular attracted my attention since the story focuses on the memory of the protagonist about her role in an event, and finding that no one else remembers the event that way.

Tatjana Soli talked about her novel of the Vietnam about a group of journalists, including a woman reporter, unusual for the 70s, in The Lotus Eaters. The Nobodies Album tells the story of a novelist mother coping with the twin worlds of her fiction and the grim reality of her son’s accusation as a murderer while William Cobb wrote about the quest of two people to understand their pasts in The Last Queen of the Gypsies.

Regardless of her novel, I want to know more about Ruth Pennebaker, author of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough, because she contributes to a blog named geezersisters.com. She was on a panel on “Novels about Family: Eat, Laugh, Love”, almost all of which seemed to have funny stories, a good thing when you’re talking about family.

The other writers were Kerry Reichs (her mother Kathy is the mystery writer whose fictional forensic investigator became the basis for the Bones series now so popular on TV). Kerry wrote Leaving Unknown, which tells the story of a young woman’s odyssey across America through all sorts of strange landscapes including Unknown, Arizona. Richard Morais, a former writer for Forbes Magazine, wrote The Hundred Foot Journey, the story of an Indian chef from Mumbai who comes to Paris to operate a restaurant and the myriad characters he meets along the way.

Martha in Lattimore

I learned that Martha Mason, who spent over 60 years in an iron lung, died last weekend. Martha was a native of Lattimore, N.C., an author of a memoir entitled simply "Breath" and the subject of a documentary film. Thanks to my friend, Mariel, who knew Martha and who sent me her memoir, I met Martha a few years ago.

I regret I never wrote to tell her how wonderful her book was.

So I'll now tell anyone who wants to know.

What was remarkable was that Martha, although she lived this extraordinarily unusual life, had a sense of joy and an acceptance that helped her surpass the many limitations.

Her parents - as parents and caretakers - were remarkable, as were other caretakers over the years.

I remember the time when polio was a real threat. I was in second grade in Newport News, Va., and a classmate became infected. My mother commisserated with the girl's mother but also worried about whether or not I would become infected. The schools took precautions. We went to the doctors. But all you could do is hope and pray -- there were no cures, no vaccines against polio at the time. Our recently deceased president had lived his life with it.

Some, like Martha's brother, even died. Martha was not expected to live, but she did. For 60 more years until she was 71.

When Martha went to Wake Forest, her mother went with her, took notes for her in class, wrote assignments dictated by Martha. Martha made a life for herself with her parents, she made friends -- lots of them -- and had callers. Late in life, she went through the trauma of seeing her beloved mother descend into the dementia of Alzheimer's.

Somehow, Martha prevailed to write her story of defying the odds to live and breathe and create. Many of us live in self-imposed prisons. Martha's iron lung was a prison not of her making, but she showed how the human spirit can prevail.

Read Breath by Martha Mason.

Listen to the story about Martha on

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104032600

Beach Floating

On Ocracoke Island, my mind floats.

Anticipating my week long sojourn on the Outer Banks, I think of all the activities I love to do and plan accordingly -- birdwatching, kayaking, fishing, walking on the beach, biking and eating, maybe trying parasailing or horseback riding.

Once I've crossed the sound from Hatteras, these plans quickly are pared down -- I use my bike to get around and I definitely look forward not only to the Crews Inn morning repast but other seafood feasts -- crab beignets at the Back Porch, fresh bluefish at the Atlantic Cafe, shrimp at Howard's Pub.



My type A personality recedes -- I enjoy long walks on the beach until I can see no other people, I read Alan Furst novels of World War II adventure and I nap every afternoon. Even though I arrived not particuarly stressed, my body now reminds me how good it feels to truly release and relax. As I walk or sit on the beach, my mind floats -- on the waves, in the clouds, across the ripples in the sand made by the water receding from the shore.

New definition for myself: reader, napper, sometime birder and beachcomber.

Without newspapers !

An inveterate newspaper reader, NPR and News Hour junkie, I usually incorporate the daily news into my Ocracoke regimen. Whether I was at a hotel, B&B or cottage, in the past, my morning ritual included a walk to one of the two stores or the coffee shop for a Virginian-Pilot, which combined national and Virginia headlines with North Carolina news.

This year, however, I forgot all about the newspapers, although for a moment on my final day, I thought a paper might be good for transition back to "real life. "

But-- nah -- there's still plenty of blue sky, sands and waves to contemplate for another day.

Photos from Ocracoke

Books I've Read

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Snow Day

When I awoke this morning, snow was falling, the streets and sidewalks were covered and from my bed, I could see that the woods and nearby fields were deeply covered. The big flakes turned into smaller ones, and at last the snow stopped and the sky turned bright blue. I, on the other hand, lazed in bed, read magazines I had ignored for months and over the course of an hour slowly arose to greet the "snow day."

A day for several walks: Late morning, I took a spin in the cemetary past the graves marked "Graves," a redundancy my neighbor, Susie, noted, with the tombstones powdered. Despite the sun, it was very chilly with a brisk wind blowing across the largely open field. In one place, some animal had run in a large circle -- who was it and what was it doing? Not a cat, not a bird -- maybe a rabbit or a fox?

Mid-afternoon, I decided to walk beside the River. The path was littered with footprints but I saw few people along the way. Wind gusts blew me, I looked at the birds -- the red of cardinals against the white snow path, the white throated sparrows pecking at berries and skittering across the ground. Overhead, the snow on horizontal branches metamorphized into trunks whose whiteness came not from snow but from the peeling bark of the Sycamores lining the River.

In the distance I hear titmice and chicadees and juncos -- and the distinctive buzzing of a kingfisher looking for dinner. With my binoculars I come upon two bluebirds fluttering in the branches, the blue so velvety that it could break your heart.

But my quarry is in the river. For several days I have seen two mute swans among the Canada Geese that inhabit the Rivanna year round. In the past I've seen single swans on the Rivanna but never two at once. I always thought the swan I saw over the years was the same one, until I learned that they live for only a couple of years. So I must be seeing new swans each time.

Today, I see only one white swan. Aright, the swan with its curving graceful neck floats elegantly. But just as I settle into this notion of the swan, it ducks its head and kicks its butt in the air as it forages for dinner, and I am left with a comical cartoon-like view of the bird.

Still, my walk is quiet. The snow has melted on the some of the asphalt path, and I notice small mounds where the roots of the nearby trees are spreading out and pressing up through the man-made path.

An acquaintance died today. He had been as alive as these birds, as I am now, and then he was gone. He lived for a week as his family said goodbye.

I walk back up the hill. The neighborhood children are sledding down the hill in my yard, laughing and shouting.

It's a snow day.