The owners of the Amtrak parking lot have graded and filled potholes, but have never paved the lot.
FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Although there have been many big plans for the revitalization of West Main Street, including a streetcar, a multi-story mixed use building, and several ambitious UVA expansion projects, a new business group deplores the current state of West Main— particularly the dust that rises daily from the pot-holed parking lot surrounding the Amtrak station.

Calling the lot a “blight on the Midtown landscape” as well as a “health hazard,” and “an environmental travesty,” the newly formed Midtown Association calls on the private owners of the Amtrak parking lot to pave it.

“The history of this situation between the City and the property owners borders on municipal negligence and professional irresponsibility,” reads an Association statement. “Something has to be done.”

In the 1990s, the City pushed Norfolk Southern Corporation to sell the parcel to Gabe Silverman and Allan Cadgene in hopes of fostering a public-private partnership whose (more)

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“I deserve health care.”
SCREEN CAPTURE

One local filmmaker (along with a pack of kids at Riverview Park) might play a key role in the health care debate if a new video keeps advancing in the Obama Health Care Reform Video Challenge. Already, the 30-second spot from Charlottesville has been chosen from over 1,000 submissions to become one of just 20 finalists.

Eric Hurt— who once shot a television show about Spudnuts— wrote, directed, and shot “I Deserve Health Care” with producer Erica Arvold. Voting for the Challenge is now open, and individuals are encouraged to watch the top videos, vote for their favorites, and help select the winning ad that will air on national television.

The whole enterprise, but particularly Hurt’s video and a graffiti video, drew the outrage of FoxNews commentator Sean Hannity, who interviewed a conservative commentator who blasted Hurt for “grooming the next generation of entitlement-seekers.”

–last updated 6:49am Friday
Spelling of Spudnuts corrected 9:20am Friday

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The Local Food Hub has teamed up with the Nelson County Food Pantry to provide locally grown produce for folks in need. The Pantry provides food for more that 240 households every month in Nelson County, and thanks to a recent donation of more than 400 pounds of sweet potatoes and red potatoes from Critzer Family Farms, as well as a walk-in fridge and freezer, the non-profit is now working with the Food Hub to receive and distribute local produce, much of it grown in Nelson County.

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Kay Redfield Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University who is a leading specialist on mood disorders, and author of the An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, which tells of her own struggle with bipolar disorder, will speak on Thursday, October 29 at 1pm at UVA’s Newcomb Hall Theater. She’s just come out with a new memoir called Nothing Was the Same, the love story of her marriage to the late Dr. Richard Wyatt.

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Dr. Peter Heymann, head of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Medicine at the UVA Medical Center, spoke with Rick Moore on Sunday about  food allergies. A very informative discussion if you’re interested.

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Jackson Landers, who teaches a deer hunting course for foodies, says he wants to create a “new breed” of hunter in Virginia.
PHOTO COURTESY JACKSON LANDERS

Back in July, avid hunter Jackson Landers wondered on his blog if anyone would be interested in a semi-formal class on how to deer hunt from a locavore’s perspective. After all, what better way to eat local than to hunt for your own food? Of course, it’s hard to imagine local foodies more accustomed to shouldering a tote bag at the farmers market than a .30-‘06 through the woods in camouflage gear actually shooting and gutting a deer, but Landers says the response was immediate.

Landers, a broker with Landers Underwriting, was bombarded with emails showing interest in the class, from people as far away as San Francisco, which forced him to limit the class size. Today, he says he has about 10 people taking his class, which is in its fourth week.

“The curriculum that I’m teaching is largely a natural sciences approach rather than coming from (more)

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It may be getting chilly, but don’t forget the Charlottesville City Market is still open. In fact, while the Market typically runs from April through October, this year the season has been extended to November 21. Also, the Charlottesville Holiday Market, which begins November 28, has been moved to the Market location in the Water Street parking lot. While current hours are every Saturday from 8am to Noon, November hours will be 8am to 2pm. So get on down there for fresh produce, crafts, herbs, meats, and baked goods before the season ends!

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On Thursday, October 22 there will be a book launch at City Space on the Downtown Mall for Firewalkers: Madness, Beauty, and Mystery.  Firewalkers is an anthology of stories about seven women dealing with mental illness. Firewalkers is also part of a program sponsored by Vocal, a non-profit to redefine mental illness and help people recover.

“When we set out to create Firewalkers, we wanted people to know a mental illness diagnosis is not a death sentence,” says editor Cassandra Nudel. “It is not the end of the line or the last thing that will ever happen in your life. It is a strange and unexpected journey that most of us never asked for or ever wanted. But after walking through the fire, it has brought us somewhere. And for some of us, we could not go back. Even if we could. What is labeled “mental illness” can be a profound, turbulent, soiritual experience that has the power to enrick us, reveal unknown strengths, and transform our lives.”

The event runs from 6pm to 8pm. Contact Malaina Proore for more information at 434-243-7878, ext. 22 or malaina@vocalvirginia.org

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A controlled burn may include back fires.
PHOTO COURTESY VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY

Coming exactly a week before the start of fall’s wildland fire season, when state officials fear fire outbreaks among dried branches and fallen leaves, an October 8 open burn had several local citizens calling Albemarle Fire and Rescue after smoke wafted over Charlottesville.

It turns out, however, it was simply a controlled burn on 60 acres in North Garden, one that was pre-approved by the Virginia Department of Forestry.

“There ought to be some public service announcement,” says Elizabeth Tyler. “This could put an asthmatic in the hospital, or affect older people.”

“We’re not required to notify anyone other than the local fire departments,” says Forestry (more)

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The look favored by one woman when she fled Mexico in the spring will soon become de rigueur among unvaccinated UVA hospital staffers.
FILE PHOTO BY LAURA BURNS

As the flu season draws closer, UVA Medical Center is providing an added impetus to its employees who can’t or won’t get a flu shot: Mandatory masks.

Chief Medical Officer Jonathon Truwit informs his colleagues of the unusual new requirement in a September 14 email: “Staff or faculty who are unable to or choose not to receive the seasonal flu vaccine will be required to wear masks throughout the work day/shift when the flu season arrives.”

So much for frequent hand-washing.

Those who do get the flu shot not only get to show their face in the hospital, they also get a blue sticker stamped “2009″ to sport on their name badge.

The reason for the heavy pressure to get a shot (more)

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Dr. James Bennett now heads up Parkinson’s research at VCU.
FILE PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Five years after a small group of terminally ill patients pleaded with UVA for continued access to an experimental compound they believed could extend their lives, the UVA doctor who discovered the compound has left the university as mounting evidence suggests the drug is safe and, more importantly, that it may be effective against Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, the deadly neurodegenerative disease also known Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The latest good news about the compound (more)

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ACAC Day Camp alerted parents in June that a camper had a likely case of swine flu.
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

In the months since it dominated headlines in April and May, swine flu has been quietly traveling the globe– and one of its recent destinations is right here in Charlottesville. In fact, according to doctors, it’s quite likely someone you know has had it– even if they didn’t realize it.

In addition to seven confirmed cases of swine flu in the Thomas Jefferson Health District, the five-county jurisdiction that includes Charlottesville and Albemarle.

“We’ve seen 15 cases,” says Dr. Carlos Armengol, a pediatrician who works downtown at Pediatric Associates on 10th Street.

Armengol says the Centers for Disease Control is no longer confirming the virus unless an individual is sick enough to require hospitalization. In milder cases, an in-office flu test is conducted. Positive results for type A influenza are enough to assume swine flu, says Armengol.

That was the case at both UVA, where at least seven campers have reportedly been diagnosed, and at ACAC’s summer camp on Four Seasons Drive, where in mid-June, a sign warned parents that a camper there had been diagnosed.

In a prepared statement, ACAC spokesperson Teppi LoSciuto says the camper didn’t show symptoms while attending the camp, and that the alert the camp posted for parents was in accordance with advice from the Health Department. Directors of two other local camps, Triple C Camp and Field Camp, weren’t aware of any cases among their campers. But even if that changes, Armengol says, parents shouldn’t be overly alarmed.

“All the kids we’ve seen have had very mild symptoms,” he says, “no sicker than with seasonal flu.”

That’s what some parents of ACAC campers say they’re hoping for.

“In the absence of any information suggesting that the virus has evolved into a form more dangerous than has been reported over the last few months,” Robert Nichols, father of an ACAC camper, said soon after the sign was posted. “I’m not overly concerned at this point.”

Thomas Jefferson Health District epidemiologist Elizabeth Davies says that’s the reaction she hopes others will share.

“I hate how this whole situation has people in such a panic,” she says of swine flu in general. Davies says “basic daily measures” including frequent hand washing and avoiding others who are ill can offer protection.

“It is a new situation,” she says, “but the prevention is so easy.”

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Rapture gets ahead of the smoke-free curve.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Even before the General Assembly banned smoking in restaurants and bars effective December 1, longtime smokers’ paradise Rapture decided to pull the plug on puffing.

“We had made the decision before we heard about the legislation,” says co-owner Mike Rodi.

Last August, the restaurant went smoke-free at lunch. “We were losing business,” says Rodi. “We’d have maybe one smoking table, and people waiting for non-smoking. And we had a lot of smoke drift.”

In January, smoking in the bar and Club R2 was limited to between 11pm and 2am, and on June 15, smoking was fini at Rapture.

The restaurant has a new chef, new items on the menu, and the owners are ready to freshen up the decor, paint and upholstery. It seemed pointless to do that in a smoky environment, says Rodi.

He points out (more)

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