C'VILLE CITIZEN
A community internet news and advocacy outlet dedicated to citizen representation in Charlottesville, Virginia. bfenwick@mindspring.com
We are organizing an ongoing clean up of the botanical gardens on Rock Hill. The property belongs to MACAA and anything we can do to improve the gardens area will be beneficial to MACAA and their efforts to serve our community. To help please email Bob Fenwick, bfenwick@mindspring.com.
Here is what Rock Hill looked like not too long ago.
Here is what it looks like today.
Sunday, August 15, the Rock Hill Gardens got a lift from an energetic group of UVa law students. They did a terrific job in a light rain. Thanks. With help like this it won't be too long until we have returned this wilderness into a botanical garden. Click on link. UVa Law students cleaning up the gardens.
NOISE IN BELMONT
UPDATE, CLICK HERE
Belmont has several very good restaurants that blend in quite nicely with the neighborhood. Unfortunately Belmont also has several restaurants that are not such good neighbors. For years the residents have been complaining about the situation and it has gotten them nowhere. Their complaints have been ignored or dismissed. Charlottesville is now considering a noise ordinance to begin to address the problem. What follows is a letter and pictures of the situation. PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE PICTURES ARE PORNOGRAPHIC. They have already been published on the internet and as such are already in the public domain.
Please click on these links to see what goes on.
Click here for written complaint about the situation
Several weeks ago a number of citizens spoke before city council on the problem of late noise disturbance at their residences into the early morning hours caused by several restaurants in the Hinton Avenue area of Belmont. Since there is a limit of 12 speakers during the opening public comment period none of the residents were able to speak at the beginning....the first ten speakers were all restaurant owners, musicians or patrons who seemed to be perplexed that anybody would complain about loud bands or drunken revelry at 1AM outside their residences. Several spoke to the point about the local music industry and what it adds to the city - a point that is not at issue here. Unfortunately several others painted the residents who protested as whiners and complainers and apparently took the issue to be a big joke. One speaker even mockingly offered to take up a collection to buy the citizen protesters ear muffs to wear when they went to bed so the noise couldn't be heard. A sound meter was held up and the speaker instructed the assembled citizens to be quiet so he could get a reading of the sound level. He seemed to think he had made his point about the level of noise as the city council chambers quieted down. The time when he did this was 7:15 in the evening. I have not met one person who has objected to the intrusive noise coming into their house that has ever mentioned unreasonable noise at 7:15 in the evening! It's noise after 11PM that they have been trying to limit so they could sleep. Wouldn't it be great if the residents in the vicinity of the troublesome restaurants, as they prepare to retire for the evening, could open their windows at 11PM and ask the noise makers to please turn down the volume so they could sleep? For over 4 years they have not had this option. Another attendee at the city council meeting was accosted in the hall outside the city council chamber and asked 'why don't you just move to Harrisonburg?' I couldn't help but think of the trouble the US Army caused when sleep deprivation of enemy combatants who were being held at Abu Ghraib in Iraq was characterized as 'torture'. I can't think of any single action that will make somebody crazier, quicker than sleep deprivation.....for years! And not in a prison camp but in their own homes. The residents of Belmont, WHO WERE THERE LONG BEFORE THE NOISE MAKERS WERE, and who changed Belmont into a neighborhood that would support a profitable business, have been more than patient.
I have watched the character of the Belmont neighborhood improve and thrive as young families, retired people and singles have moved into Belmont houses many of which have been improved or entirely renovated. I know the neighborhood. Almost 20 years ago I stripped out an 80 year old house on Avon St. right down from the area around Fitzgerald Tire and completely renovated it. This work was at the beginning of a wave of property improvements that has transformed Belmont. Belmont today is a much better place than 20 years ago but it has reached a tipping point. One or two businesses who are not making the effort to be good neighbors will have a huge, negative impact on the area unless conditions change. This is an older, historic part of the city into which on a 'good for business' evening 400 people pour into half a dozen restaurants....a large number of people with very little parking. Most of the restaurants are just what the city needs, and what the residential / commercial zoning is meant to encourage.....businesses that respect the character of the neighborhood. A few are not.
The residents who are having their quality of life ruined by a noisy restaurant have been characterized as 'a vocal minority of trouble makers.' Click on the names below and make your own decision.
What follows is a letter written by a lady who faced a similar situation in another town.
Is the Belmont neighborhood heading in the right direction?
FORT BELMONT. Click here for short video.
To let the city councilors know your opinion click on links below.
Mayor Dave Norris, Send Dave an email
Vice Mayor Holly Edwards, Send Holly an email
David Brown, Send David an email
Satyendra Huja, Send an email to Huja
Kristin Szakos, Send Kristin an email