Good Morning George,

I am feeling good about things in Charlottesville. We have a majority on City Council that will work together for the good of all of citizens of Charlottesville. It was heartening to hear Kendra Hamilton say on TV that Albemarle County needs to build some support roads too. In the past, three members of City Council were trying to give away the Meadowcreek Parkway without getting anything in return. This would benefit Albemarle but not Charlottesville. As Albemarle has approximately twice the population of Charlottesville most of which is just outside the City's limits, they should take twice the responsibility for solving the area's traffic problems rather than trying to dump their responsibilities on the City. Though I am very happy about the outcome of the election Kendra was absolutely right in her eloquent speech at the nominating convention that we can't sit back and be satisfied with ourselves. I am afraid that the County is up to it's old tricks of trying to pull a fast one on us.

Quoting from yesterday's Daily Progress:

"Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd said it was important to point out that the county could go forward and build its portion of the parkway without the city's cooperation.

However, he added that it is unclear whether VDOT has the authority to connect the county's portion with Melbourne Road in the city."

Here is what I think they are up to: They will try to get permission to cross Meadow Creek and hook their portion of the Parkway to Melbourne. They will say "Why don't you let us do this? It won't affect the Park." Letting the County hook up their portion of the Parkway to Melbourne would be even worse than building the Parkway through the Park. Where is all that traffic going to go? Past Charlottesville High School with all their young, inexperienced drivers. On to Park Street past all the houses sprouting red yard signs. On to other residential streets. Who would benefit? The County residents between CATECH and Meadow Creek. Also this would allow the county and developers to build hundreds of new homes in the area. I wish the Parkway would never be built but realistically I think it needs to be built under the right conditions. For me one of those conditions has to be no intersect of the Meadowcreek Parkway and Melbourne for the same reasons as not letting the County hook their portion to Melbourne: danger to student drivers, decrease in the quality of Charlottesville High School, and not taking traffic off of residential streets.

However we do need to do something for the people on Park Street. The traffic they experience is the only reason they vote republican and you can't blame them. When the Locust Avenue bridge was closed it was delightful on Locust. When the Park Street bridge was closed it was awful: traffic was backed all the way up to the Martha Jefferson Hospital. There are ways to discourage through traffic. When Rio Road was closed, traffic measures were put in place to keep people from cutting through Greenbrier and they worked. It was a pain to cut through Greenbrier so people opted for Route 29. I am sure the folks down at City Hall could come up with something similar for Park Street.

Have a nice day,

Downing Smith (electronic mail, May 7, 2004)