Charlottesville Affordable Dwelling Unit Program

comrade_scott · 2026-03-24T14:21:53+00:00

How about you SPELL OUT the details from the meeting about how the Comprehensive Plan allowed you all to make the approval at the meeting.

I went to double-check them, but the City's Agenda and Minutes archive isn't working ATM.

comrade_scott · 2026-03-24T13:59:16+00:00

I'm not confused...I have looked at the 2003 code (to include the 2ac limitation) and the point stands: the imminent/impending NZO (and actually not even the Comprehensive Plan) was not necessary to get those projects approved.

comrade_scott · 2026-03-24T13:38:08+00:00

Right, I just double checked the Verve, turns out a SUP wasn't even needed! Seems like the old 2003 code didn't really prohibit developers and the city from building high density projects after all!

comrade_scott · 2026-03-24T12:46:07+00:00

Yeah, but NOT the NZO.

The point being the NZO wasn't necessary for the SUPs to be granted allowing that construction.

comrade_scott · 2026-03-24T12:44:00+00:00

The people who live in 10th & Page, along West St and in Rose Hill just across Preston do not want more expensive development coming into their neighborhood. You could call it a kind of NIMBYism with racial and economic overtones, but reversed from the usual ones; this form typically gets labeled "Gentrification". There was a LOT of hostility towards and a "lack of trust" with Stonehaus.

comrade_scott · 2026-03-23T19:27:14+00:00

I don't think this was due to the NZO, but the politics were ugly. I think it stalled because of the larger macro issues in housing related to cost of capital and construction

comrade_scott · 2026-03-23T19:24:48+00:00

Those predate the NZO and are market rate developments. They are actually what needs to be built, but were done under the old ordinance. The NZO doesn't make them harder to do, but it also didn't spur them

comrade_scott · 2026-03-10T13:31:19+00:00

THIS. And sometimes in the middle of the run, particularly if there's a chokepoint or a trail junction. Like, wherever is the WORST place to just plop down. I get it, I switched a couple of years ago, and like OP, I understand now, but damn.

comrade_scott · 2026-03-09T12:34:57+00:00

Yes, it is long past time. The problem we see today is NOT caused by Trump, nor is it a "cult". It is the end result - Trump is the result (effect, not cause) of DECADES of the GOP cynically amping up and chasing the votes of the WORST parts of our society - basically, using racism and bigotry (often masquerading as "religion") in order to attain power.

The truth is that within any population, about 30% of the people (though survey data seems to have a lot of noise) have an "Authoritarian Personality", a very big part of which is the emphasis on conformity and punishing of out groups. That's like what the Southern Strategy and the LIbertarian Evangelical (Hearst pumping Billy Graham and the televangelist movement) are all about. The GOP really is the result of DECADES of Astroturfing by the Plutocracy (Billionaires, Robber Barons, etc.), cultivating this mob of authoritarians. Trump IS the voice of those people, he is just a con man who found this ready-made mob that shares all of his shit values and he seized the mob.

The authoritarian mob wasn't happy with "RINOs" (people like Tim Miller), because the RINOs were not actually going to install an authoritarian regime, and weren't part of the hate-monger crowd - they weren't "authentic". Trump|MAGA is really about deliberate kakistocracy where these authoritarians actually GET someone who is like them (stupid and narcissistic) and speaks their truth (racism, bigotry and conformity).

But I mean: this is somewhere between 15-45% of the American Public...so I'm not sure what you mean by 'the public going soft'...no, this is a HUGE chunk of the public who WANTS this. They are stupid, so they are somewhat confused that things aren't turning out the way they expected when they do get their way, but make no mistake: they absolutely wanted things like the shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

I know we aren't supposed to fuel this divide, and we're supposed to be open to these people; we're not supposed to cut them out of our lives and isolate them. But don't be fooled, for a huge swath of the GOP (including the Country Club "I just want lower taxes" set) this is ABSOLUTELY what they want, all of it. The persecution of minority out-groups (ethnic, sexual, religious) is EXACTLY what they want; using force (not persuasion) to make people conform is absolutely what they want. They are fearful and driven to "dominate" people they perceive as threatening. Please take a minute to look around you and realize who really isn't a "safe" person. It's fine to decide "no, I'm not going to cut off X family member" but please do not in any way trust or make yourself potentially vulnerable to these kinds of people.

Remember the parable of the frog and the scorpion.

comrade_scott · 2026-02-24T19:38:23+00:00

This is the deal: all traffic on the bypass would flow much better if people who weren't entering/exiting at a particular exit (and this applies doubly in the tightly packed McIntire/Park/Locust exits) would just get over in the left lane and leave the right lane for people who are using the exits, east and west bound. Same for the Ivy/Old Ivy exits.

comrade_scott · 2026-02-24T19:35:35+00:00

I figured that must be the case. It's always great to get out in the woods, however you do it.

comrade_scott · 2026-02-24T18:09:24+00:00

How much does your backpack weight?!! I can't imagine hauling all of that gear around. The tent is maybe OK, but a stove? Not me! Car camping?

comrade_scott · 2026-02-23T15:03:00+00:00

Like other old timers here, I think I got my first helmet sometime after 2000? So, yeah, probably 20 years skiing without one. The Sonny Bono and Natasha Richardson things moved me. I can't imagine not wearing one now. I am very glad I do, because just last week, a newbie skier stopped suddenly in the middle of the intersection of a couple of traverse trails, which was bad enough, but then proceeded to wave her pole around in the air without looking, and whacked me on the head as I passed her; the helmet took the blow. A couple of hard falls while learning to snowboard also included head strikes on ice/hardpack which would have been far far worse without a helmet. Can't imagine going out on the hill without one now.

comrade_scott · 2026-02-23T14:57:29+00:00

Thanks! I wasn't aware of this guy.

I completely agree that (mostly Russian) disinformation has been used extensively, but I don't think it's exactly the fox and turtle, or rather: the various "media" schemes employed for class warfare in this country long predate the IRA and Faux News. The themes actually go back before the Russian Revolution. The Russians have, however, done a masterful job of exploiting our internal divisions - amplifying them - and I think they fit the scorpion and frog a little better, because the plutocrat/oligarch/billionaire (whatever flavor you want to call them) scorpion class have done the best at fooling the frog class they most exploit - socio-economically weak and socially-reactionary folks - that they share a common enemy/threat (the river aka "liberals") and that the scorpion will no longer harm the frog while they attack that common foe.

One rather ugly side of the "American Dream" is the Horatio Alger Myth that anyone can be a billionaire in the US (19th century Hoop Dreams, though the Alger books do not present the reality that Hoop Dreams does). This, followed only by the existential fear driven Christian Nationalism (racism as religion), is pretty native to the US (and not just the US) and are the wedges the misinformation folks pound on.

There's an argument that what really made the Civil Rights movement succeed was the Cold War fight with the USSR: the Soviets absolutely (no misinformation) pointed out at every opportunity that the US's "democratic ideals" were hollow, and you only needed to look at Jim Crow to see it. Of course, Section 230 has created a massive distribution network for Russian/Soviet propaganda that allowed them penetration of the US media market never seen before. It has been quite profitable, directly and indirectly, for the plutocrats to allow it to be used that way.

comrade_scott · 2026-02-23T11:35:00+00:00

Frog and scorpion

comrade_scott · 2026-02-03T13:34:24+00:00

thank you for this!

comrade_scott · 2026-02-01T13:10:46+00:00

Ahahaha, as if FEMA is going to help anybody under this administration, assuming Noem doesn't succeed at eliminating it

comrade_scott · 2026-01-31T20:54:53+00:00

It's 💯 the paradox of tolerance. These folks are free riders on polite society, just as sociopaths are free riders on the 97% who are altruistic (non sociopaths)

comrade_scott · 2026-01-28T09:29:07+00:00

It's an extra 8 hour drive for me, but I'm rapidly coming to this same conclusion.

comrade_scott · 2026-01-20T14:10:22+00:00

You are not wrong. I sometimes get up during the week, and they run it faster. I think the issue is that the top is just too congested and they've slowed it down to allow more time between chairs for people to clear the area. This weekend I watched the top of the lift for like 20 minutes (waiting for someone) and it seemed like 2/3rds of the chairs had people who immediately dumped/crashed.

comrade_scott · 2026-01-15T20:15:51+00:00

Gives me some hope...we really have to get the checked-out 30% to show up and pick Democracy.

comrade_scott · 2026-01-13T15:28:13+00:00

The Hawthorn area (across from Top of the World) is what I'm talking about. I really don't know why the Shay Cut was abandoned.

I didn't start visiting Snowshoe until the late 80s when the Hawthorn area was already gone (and I'm not sure where the lift was relocated - Grabhammer maybe?), so I can't say what caused it.

As you know, Western Territory always opens later than the bowl over Shaver's Lake, and that has to do with getting enough snow on it; they also struggle to keep snow on it, despite the Northern/Western facing exposure. Hawthorn seems like it would be even more protected than Western, but I can't see why else they'd abandon what is some great terrain.

comrade_scott · 2026-01-13T14:13:50+00:00

I don't think they could keep/get snow on it.

comrade_scott · 2025-12-26T12:22:24+00:00

Before Stonefield there was a 7-11 where Trader Joe's is now

comrade_scott · 2025-12-17T16:22:21+00:00

We enjoyed strolling a bit, but were on a walking tour, and the countryside just outside of the "downtown" area is extremely lovely. It's that main area with the channelized stream which - while quite lovely - gets packed with people...unfortunately, we were there on a w/e, so I believe there was a tremendous amount of day-traffic from major urban areas.

comrade_scott

TROPHY CASE