Szakos could have abstained on the parkway naming vote, and the resulting tie might have opened the issue to knee-jerk opinion, er ... the careful consideration and creativity of the citizenry.

When Albemarle Supervisors needed a name for the highway running by the Morton Frozen Food factory, they never came up with Rubber Chicken Turnpike. That was citizen input.

Meadowcreek could have been treated similarly.

It would have been edifying to see the names proposed by people who, for example, champion putting an important pedestrian and vehicle corridor under a busy railroad line rather than over it, creating a massive rainwater catchment obstructing Avon Street with flooding.

On a similar note, the selfish prevention of improvements to Rt. 29 at Rio Road we're seeing this season minds me of the battle over building the Bypass between Free Bridge and US 29.

All the traffic the bypass carries would be crawling along Main Street instead if the town merchants and C of C won their fight to block building the bypass. Their argument was succinctly stated by the clothing store owner at 222 East Main St. who emphatically told councilors, "I want every car that goes through the city to pass my store!"

His side lost, but that's not the reason Kaufman's Clothing faded into history after 100 years.

Rey Barry (Electronic mail, January 9, 2015)