What is our optimal regional population?

At the August 6, 2007 city council meeting, council passed a resolution providing $11,000 to ASAP (Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population) to support a first
phase of research by ASAP to define an optimal sustainable population size (or range) for the Albemarle-Charlottesville Community. I believe this is $11,000 well spent by the city. Given our limited natural resources, and city infrastructure currently pushed ever closer to their current capacity, it is essential that both Charlottesville and Albemarle County planners understand the implications of growing in population on the quality of life in our region, and on the ability of community to meet the water, sanitary sewer, education, and all other demands that grow with population. I encourage you to read the letter from Jack Marshall, ASAP president, to city council requesting this funding. It is available on the city at August 6, 2007 council agenda (with background material).

Charlottesville has gotten a variety of high rankings on a variety of lists relating to tourism, retirement places, and quality of life. But, the best list I can think on which we should strive to be number one is a list of sustainable cities. well managed growth is clearly a major element in becoming a sustainable urban area. It appears that Charlottesville-Albemarle may be the first urbanized area to carry out an investigation of this type to determine both a research methodology, and a determination of an optimal population range consistent with becoming a truly sustainable and desirable community.

If this research is successful, I believe that both Charlottesville and Albemarle County can do significantly better planning for our future, and be much more efficient at providing and maintaining basic infrastructure consistent with serving a sustainable population.

I look forward to following the progress on this effort and applaud the efforts of Jack Marshall and others associated with bringing this proposal forward.

I can't recall the exact agency that did a ranking of sustainable urban areas about one year ago (I think it was within the United Nations), but I do recall that no North American urban areas were on the listed rankings. Perhaps Charlottesville-Albemarle can take a major step toward being recognized as a sustainable urban area through this exciting work.

Environmental Objectives from the 2007 Charlottesville Comprehensive Plan

At the August 6, 2007 Charlottesville City Council Meeting, the 2007 Comprehensive Plan was approved by a unanimous vote of city council. Councilor Norris made a special comment about this being the first environmental chapter ever in a Charlottesville Comprehensive Plan, and that it would guide the city's environmental efforts. This chapter is available as Chapter 8 in the plan.

Much to my surprise, Mayor Brown proposed during the 'New Business' item on the agenda the idea of Charlottesville banning sale of water in plastic water bottles - following the lead of other cities in the US. Given that many environmental objectives of significant importance to charlottesville residents are itemized in Chapter 8 of the comprehensive plan awaiting council consideration, I thought the mayor's suggestion of considering something totally outside the plan as a first environmental initiative totally misses the point of the comprehensive planning process.

After well over a year of plan development, I as a concerned citizen (and as a council candidate, too) believe the first order of council business relating to the environment should be to address the plan objectives. There are many key items to choose from including 10 objectives relating to Global Warming; 22 objectives relating to Water Quality, Stormwater, and Watershed; 10 objectives relating to our Urban Forest; and 17 objectives relating to Green Building issues.

It appeared that Mayor Brown was hoping for council to take some action on his plastic bottle ban suggestion during 'new business.' I was happy that other councilors suggested that the idea be transmitted to the city's sustainability committee for consideration. Matters brought up and voted on in the course of the new business agenda item allows absolutely no input from the public on that matter. This council has voted on actions proposed during new business in the past, but I hope that this will not continue in the future. I assure you that if you elect me to council, I will oppose any action on items brought up in new business until ample notice of a proposed action is made available to the staff and the pubic with sufficient time for staff review and for members of the public to provide input on that issue.

How big is too big? County and City see largest projects ever proposed.

Today's article in the Daily Progress by Seth Rosen entitled "Biscuit Run talks' end in sight" points out that Biscuit Run's 3100 residential units will be the largest development in the history of Albemarle County. His article on July 22, 2007 entitled "Coal Tower project nears start" indicated that the Coal Tower project in Charlottesville is "belived to be the largest project in Charlottesville's history" at 315 residential units.

Clearly development proposals are bigger than ever before, but will there be new competition for the dubious title of biggest developments ever?

In our national (and local) recent infrastructure experience, it is not clear that our infrastructure can handle rapid growth. Also, available funding to expand our water, sewer, transit, roadway, and other infrastructure to meet this growth appears not to be available. Not only can't this infrastructure be expanded, but the funding appears unavailable to maintain what is already in place at desired levels of service.

As a candidate for city council, I hope to ensure that our community has a lively discussion of what would be reasonable growth in our community, what our current infrastructure needs are, and how we can maintain existing infrastructure while expanding these facilities to meet this rapid growth reported regularly in our news outlets. Who will pay the costs associated with growth? Will this be paid by developers, or taxpayers who get little if any benefits from rapid growth?

Now that Charlottesville city council has just passed a new comprehensive plan, and a council vision for 2025, I believe we need to examine how our plan and vision can be realized in light of huge infrastructure needs. I suggested to council that our city sustainability committee should get involved in this issue and determine if adjustments to our comprehensive plan need to be made to keep growth within the resources in the city to provide public services at a fair cost to Charlottesville's residents. The county is negotiating proffers from the Biscuit Run developers to partially pay for infrastructure needs, but the Coal Tower is a by-right development and no proffers are being proposed to the best of my knowledge.

I believe a balance growth strategy is needed, and needed now. I hope you will join me in an effort to keep growth within our ability to support, and benefit from it as a community.

COMPASS Day Shelter will benefit our city

I submitted a letter to the Daily Progress editor in response to Seth Rosen's July 30, 2007 article entitled "Businesses fret over site of shelter - Fear impact of homeless." I believe that the COMPASS Day Shelter will be a great asset to our community and be a major step in working with homeless members of our community. COMPASS will provide a variety of services to improve opportunities for our homeless population. Rather than fearing the impact of homeless people in our downtown, I encourage the downtown business community to join with COMPASS in addressing problems of housing and jobs facing many in our community. I hope you will take the time to read my letter that was published in the August 8, 2007 issue of the Daily Progress under the title "Shelter would have positive impact."

Like the famous Bridge to Nowhere

Our own Meadow Creek Parkway project (also using names such as Meadowcreek Parkway, McIntire Road Extended, Route 250 Interchange at McIntire Road) seems to have some similarities to the now famous 'Bridge to Nowhere' federal ear-marked project in Alaska. It is more than the confusion about what to call the project (or if it is one project or three projects) that keeps my head spinning.

Scott Weaver adds some interesting news to the parkway story in his story "County Backs Taxes for Transportation" in the August 7, 2007 issue of C-ville Weekly. Construction of an eastern connector road between northern and eastern albemarle is one of the conditions city council has on constructing the city portion of the parkway through McIntire Park and officially known as McIntire Road Extended. Weaver quotes Albemarle Supervisor Dennis Rooker as saying "We have an interest in pursuing transportation projects in the interest of the county and the city." Rooker adds "That project [the eastern connector] is being pursued largely at the request of the city."

Interesingly, in other recent actions relating to an eastern connector project, the city and county have each committed $250,000. toward hiring a consultant to do preliminary engineering of a possible eastern connector. Both city and county have jointly established a steering committee to guide this project. I have always been surprised that the city is funding this roadway at all in that the entire eastern connector would be in the county. Clearly the city has interest in pursuing a connector, but without the county support this project will likely not move forward anytime soon.

I have been involved in the parkway discussion for about ten years now, and am convinced that an eastern connector shouldn't be constructed as a condition for building a parkway through McIntire Park, but as an alternative. I have suggested, and would explore as a member of council, that McIntire Road and the Route 250 Interchange projects be combined into one project and that this combined project, and eastern connector, and other transit or roadway alternatives be considered as alternative solutions to meeting the regional traffic demands among northern Albemarle, eastern Albemarle, and downtown Charlottesille. I believe the approximately $30 million in funds available for the interchange could be programmed toward whatever the optimal solution would be - even if the current interchange was not part of the solution. Just as in the "Bridge to Nowhere" case where the ear-marked money was reprogrammed to use on other projects in Alaska, these funds could likely be reprogrammed as well.

The parkway project that was originally conceived in the 1960's has not moved forward and I believe for good reason. It is not a very good solution to our regional transportation needs in the future. I believe it is long past time to explore some new alternatives and use the resources available to our region on our future needs as viewed from 2007, not from th 1960's.

The Art of Politics or perhaps Art in Politics

I may not yet be expert in the 'art of politics,' but I am not shy about learning that art - while enjoying 'art in politics' as well. Here is a photo of my just completed and mounted mosaic 'dish sign.' Using ideas and skills from mosaic tile workshops I participated in taught by Isaiah Zagar, a mural artist living in Philadelphia (that resulted in the mosaic on Fifth Street SW) and Beryl Solla, local artist and current chair of the art program at PVCC (that resulted in a wall mural in the Ix building). I used a salvaged Direct TV satelite dish and broken ceramic tile and mirror from a variety of sources to create this prototype campaign sign. This sign currently hangs on my house on Hedge Street.

I hung painted satelite dish signs with "Vote for Dave" and "Al Weed for Congress" in recent elections that were adaptations of Dave Norris' and Al Weed's campaign logos. So this is the third satelite dish sign in the series. Dave won. Al lost. I am hoping my satelite sign series will have a 2/3 success rate with a Kleeman victory in the city council election on November 6, 2007.

If you want to put your artistic talents to work and make one (or more) prototype 'Kleeman for Council' signs, banners, flags, whatever, I encourage you to do so - and to send me a photo I can post on this blog. I will create a gallery of all photos submitted (that can legally be posted) to inspire others to join in the campaing art fun.

Encouraging public participation in issues important to our community is one of the major themes in my council campaign. If you can draw, paint, sculpt, sew, weave, or have other talents and want to participate - send a digital photo of your sign to kleemanforcouncil@earthlink.net and let me know where the sign is located. Help me put Art back into the Art of Politics.

Gettin' the Spirit

I had the great pleasure of attending the African-American Cultural Arts Festival at Booker T. Washington Park on Saturday July 28, 2007. I have been to this festival several times in its 18-year history and enjoyed running into some of my friends at the park, meeting some new people, perusing the information and craft booths, and enjoying the entertainers. I especially enjoyed Baba Jamal Koram -The Storyman, the spirit walkers, and the Chihamba dancers. If you missed this year's festival I recommend you make a point of attending next year.

I am especially thankful to Brother Ishmail Conway, the festival master of ceremony, for letting me have a minute or two at the festival microphone to introduce myself to those at the festival as an independent candidate for election to city council. He also encouraged people at the festival to be sure to register and vote in the upcoming election wherever they live.

As I was headed off to the festival site, I hoped that the spirit walker I saw at last year's festival would be there again this year. In fact there were two spirit walkers this year. Double the fun! Above are my spirit walker photos. It was a challenge photographing with the bright sky behind them, but with their black facemasks the problem of not getting enough light on their faces to recognize them was not a problem. With two spirit walkers, the evil spirits they chase from the community didn't stand much of a chance. Everyone I met seemed to have a great time.