Driven to Distraction

Not that anybody who actually goes to U.Va. gives a damn about Charlottesville. As far as most of us are concerned, Charlottesville outside of Grounds, the Corner, and maybe Barracks is something to drive through on the way back to northern Virginia. Charlottesville is definitely paying attention to us, though, and there may be a few nasty tricks in the works.

The City Council has been whining about students in one form or another for many moons now. Oh, the traffic, the suburban blight of Route 29. Oh, the plethora of cars on the street. Oh, the students living off-Grounds and their trashy yards and their ramshackle houses. Whatever shall we do?

Well, first of all, most of these problems aren't wholly the fault of students. Route 29 bullshit, for example. Yes, the traffic is terrible. Yes, there are jillions of cars, many of them student-owned. But (and this is a really big but): we wouldn't have such congestion problems if the City Council would allow development elsewhere (which they don't) and if they hadn't put all the grocery stores, pharmacies, quite a few restaurants, and most of the clothing stores on the same damn road. And every last student wouldn't need a car if there were anything besides eateries/bars within walking distance. They're all different pieces of the same ugly Route 29 puzzle.

Back to the student cars: since we need them, where else are we supposed to put them, if not in front of our houses? Charlottesville has been carefully planned to prevent any parking, at any time, for any reason, elsewhere; we need one place safe from the towing company vultures. And Kay (she's the mayor, dope) Slaughter's idea of a vast and remote mystical parking lot far, far away where students leave their cars and then take buses is 1) already operating -- U-Hall, anyone? -- and 2) a little unrealistic -- how much will this cost? Will I have to pay $75 for the privilege of leaving my car there? Who will build it -- the university or the city? Where the hell will they put this lot? I don't see any unused land that isn't consistently under water, including all athletic fields. Besides, it's nice to be able to actually use your car, especially if the buses have stopped or if you're in a hurry. So, for the most part, somewhere near our places of residence is the best option for parking.

Which brings us, sort of, to the nastiest dispute currently on the table. In case you hadn't heard (and you probably haven't), the City Council, according to the C-Ville Weekly, is currently considering "re-zoning ... over 200 properties" to cut down on rental housing. This means finding off-Grounds housing would become an even more unpleasant proposition (the fact that you have to start in November is ridiculous), more so because the university does not seem at all inclined to build enough student housing. Soon it'll be all first-years in any university housing, and where will the rest of us go? Culpeper? Mineral?

It behooves us, as students, to take an interest in Charlottesville affairs. For God's sake, we live here. It's a pretty nice town, actually. I might stay here. But we've got to watch our collective back, lest we be screwed and left to live in a cardboard box.

-- JLP