The downtown mall renovations are no stranger to any of us. We all knew we would go through some annoying times with construction and all, but for the most part, the downtown mall is a PITA to walk through at the moment. Streets are blocked off, construction detours on the actual walking part of the mall make a 5 min walk 10 minutes. When will the madness end?
I spoke with a couple business owners and for the most part things are slower. Speaking about this with some friends we wonder if the city compensates its tax paying businesses in any way, shape or form for the downturn in business caused by this construction. I know, the economy also is in the pooper right now, but I am sure the construction doesn’t make it any better. What about class action lawsuits against the city for being the cause of a loss of business?
[pic from PatHayes on flickr]
Related posts:
- Downtown Renovation
- Movie Filming on Downtown Mall?
- Letter from Disgruntled Downtown Mall Businesses
Oh, come on – you don’t think that Winter and the recession have anything to do with this? Have you taken the time to compare this year’s sales/numbers with those from the same time last year? Or are you just bitching because it’s cold and rainy and you got your skirt all dirty?
And is it that hard to walk around the cordoned-off areas?
Class action lawsuits? Give me a break.
Apparently they’re having a block party instead.
http://c-ville.com/index.php?cat=1990501093576227&act=post&pid=12281702093161435
i’m wondering if there will be a class action lawsuit against the city. that would be the day.
@1 Scitt – we are not scientific survey conductors. sorry.
It they had just brought in 7.5 million dollars worth of rentable segways like I suggested, this would not be an issue.
Class action lawsuits? Sure, make the city even more broke. Great plan, stan.
Just walk around the barriers you lazy bastids. Cripes.
wait.. @5 i detect a failed logic.
segways = solve problems and lazy = not walk around barriers
segways = lazy
lazy = solve problems?
@1 I totally agree
You can’t sue the city for doing public works project as long as a reasonable accommodations are made. You could never prove that it would have been much better without the construction because of the economy. The amount of empty storefronts also contribute to the downturn as well. The attorney who would take this case would only do it because they don’t have any work to do either.
That’s not to say this won’t charge people up and makes this an entertaining thread that will be turned into a sexual thread right after lunch- who knows maybe sooner.
Thor you fail at math, again.
If lazy=solve problems then walk around barriers=solve problems, because you hypothesized that Segway=lazy. Since it does not, the failure is yours
Those bricks look like chocolates. Mmmm chocolate.
and chocolate reminds me of sex.
@7 i thought we would jump the gun on post lunchtime sex chat
I dunno – I think it’s kinda cool. I like seeing them working on the bricks – ripping out the old crappy ones and putting in nice new even ones. It’s kinda fun seeing the changes as the project progresses. Yeah, it’s costing a bucketload of money, but I do think it’s gonna be really nice looking when they’re done.
Stuff happens. In a couple of years no one will remember the inconvenience.
my neighbor has two segways. one for off road and one for on road. cooler than a moped.
Stuff happens. In a couple of years no one will remember the inconvenience.
Precisely.
And really nice blog btw, Andrew. Big ups. I now have blog envy.
@11 Regarding @13: Really. I love it. Especially the January 18th entry.
Are we seriously STILL whining about this? They are moving along quickly and on schedule. The re-bricking is being done in the winter to minimize the effect it has on Downtown businesses and all you special little snowflakes. Everyone had plenty of time to voice their concerns before the project was approved. What do you want them to do, stop in the middle of construction because we had three days of warm “patio” weather two weeks ago? Please.
So Andrews is a secret Blog? I think the re-bricking is going better than expected. I’m a DTM business owner and I was against the re-bricking from the onset.
Is it harder to get around the Mall? I hadn’t noticed. I’m always too busy trying to make sure Kevin Cox doesn’t jump out in front of my car.
Shenanigans,
You’d better watch out, ‘cuz if you hit me my blood will stain your upholstery and I’ll dent your fenders with my solid bone head.
The work on the Mall is going amazingly fast and it looks great. The new surface is much flatter and safer than most of what was there. The cost is another issue but the work itself is pretty impressive. Navigating the maze is a small inconvenience but it does give people who need to complain something to whine about.
Cordially,
Kevin Cox
@17: I AM watching out. That’s what I said. Besides I have rubber bumpers.
@18 – Well, they look real.
@13, 14: TY.
@15: Agreed. This wouldn’t be Charlottesville if people had nothing to whine about.
I’m pretty impressed with how smoothly it all seems to be going.
My one complaint: Please tell me they’re not keeping the “cut out people” things. Those things looked stupid and dated when I moved here in ‘91 – they look worse now. Can’t they leave with the bricks?
@8 – when did i fail at math before? ps i’m right.
@16 Click the nicks.
@ 16 Red names (linked) have something to share. Black names (unlinked) can’t be bothered.
Except for Thor, as his recursive link is as boring as it could possibly be. Are you even trying anymore?
I think it’s super nifty to perch somewhere out-of-the-way, smoke a cigarette and watch drunk people try to figure out how to get back to their cars after staggering out of Escafe and navigating the fenced-off areas.
at the risk of being considered one of those folks who need something to complain about-
workers downtown restaurants aren’t making enough money due to many things, but the re-bricking ain’t helping any. Paying bills and increasing rents is extremely tough in the winter already, the project on top of general slowdown for winter and a faltering economy (yes, here too) make for disaster for working people downtown, sure the businesses will survive, but is that all anyone cares about?
The project remains a huge waste of resources that could be better dedicated to dealing with housing, homelessness, and now education.
That said, despite the new bricks being slightly underwhelming, hope it works out for the better!
I can’t believe that the City is spending 7.5 million of our tax dollars to replace bricks with, well bricks on the downtown mall, particularly during this economy. Obviously, the bricks that are being removed are good, quality bricks because they are selling them for 5 bucks a piece! It far surpasses the articifical Christmas tree from several years ago, the Freedom of Speech wall, the new transit building, heck, even the Omni. The downtown mall business are for the most part suffering, even if the construction, or destruction wasn’t going on. Seriously, this money could be used to stimulate area businesses, provide better salaries for teachers and police officers, or to simply squirrel away for a more worthy cause at a later date.
@24 – i love cvillain, so i will link to it like a lover.
@27 – the funny thing about the bricks is it still seems to me like the ladies will get heals stuck still. WASTE!
Nothing is worse than moving the full-sized swimming pool on Meade Ave. Surprisingly, they did take the water out first!
The new bricks are at least somewhat better. The new swimming poll is just a hole in the ground where a very large, flat unstructured playing field used to be.
The city wants a downtown mall that looks good in a brochure. Digging up sections of bricks every few years to cement them back together was too uncouth.
Anyway, it’s a good time for gov’t to spend money if the projects are reasonably good investments.
@28 – Yes if a woman is wearing thin high heels they can potentially get their heel stuck in the new bricks.
$7,500,000.00…..
@29 – Not only that, but they replaced the pool with a ginormous and expensive Aquatic Fun Center… wheeee! Because swimming’s not fun… oh no, you must have an AQUATIC EXPERIENCE!
People who want to have a “park experience” can hunker down in the lil’ grass bowl where the pool used to be. But don’t dip your toes in the creek– it runs out of a junkyard. Happy Parkin’!
@29, 32The old pool at Meade Park shouldn’t have been built where it was in the first place. It was built on unstable ground above underground springs. The pool leaked constantly and was costing a lot to maintain and fill. It was doomed.
The original plan was to eliminate the pool and just replace it with sprinklers for kids to run through and nothing else. There are good reasons to put a pool back and Mike Svetz listened. The new pool will include a diving well and lap lanes. It’s not just an aquatic playground. Plenty of people will use the pool and it will keep a lot of kids occupied and out of trouble during the summer. I can’t wait to jump in.
Cordially,
Kevin Cox
I live right next to Meade Park, that pool was messed up, my daughter and I are both looking forward to the new pool, maybe I can play marco polo with kevin, then perhaps discuss why a public pool is better for working poor folks than the brix are….
@33 and 34 – Nobody’s said that the old pool didn’t have problems, nor have they said that it should have been built on top of a creek. The bone of contention is that the great majority of people didn’t want the pool rebuilt in the front of the park, when it could have stayed in the back, but been moved away from the creek. The engineers said this would be fine. A slightly more modestly scaled, and thus less expensive, project would have been sufficient.
The issue is that, as the years went on, every time the people involved were presented with plans, they were getting bigger, more grandiose, and more costly. When people initially said that they hoped that Parks & Rec would replace the existing pool, they didn’t mean move it to the front and replace it with a much larger water park. Oh and by the way, ruin the farmer’s market too while you’re at it.
Nobody’s trying to spoil anyone’s game of Marco Polo. This isn’t JUST about you and your children. It’s about the process, gross miscommunication, and what went wrong along the way. As someone who has followed the rebricking debacle as closely as you have, I’m surprised you don’t seem to understand this. I’m sure there are people saying “Brandon wants me to break my high heels on the bad Mall. Brandon’s a killjoy.” The pool and the bricks are basically the same issue when it comes down to process, and how City departments operate. Good intentions gone wrong. But because you happen to enjoy swimming, and not strolling the Mall in heels, you’re willing to give this a pass. The question is, how do we avoid repeating the same wasteful scenario over and over again on these huge multi-million dollar projects?
amen, lulu. i worry, as our economic situation grows worse and opportunities for other major civic projects come down the pike, will charlottesville’s leaders choose more wisely what they spend our tax dollars on? i am all for strong, aesthetically pleasing infrastructure, and i love the idea that the meade park pool is a place for kids to stay out of trouble during the largely unsupervised months of summer, but it still would have been so if more modestly approached. question – what is planned for the place where the pool had been – any hope for green space or is it strictly parking?
The Wednesday Farmers market has not been ruined. There’s space at the park and it will be there.
where the old pool was there is a playing field, room for farmer’s market, soccer etc.
I agree that the overall lack of community input in these things is lacking, but the park project did have hearings. (yeah, yeah, so did the mall)
The pool project isn’t causing workers to lose money, bottom line, if it were, or had some other negative effects I might oppose the idea, the bricks are hurting poor workers in Charlottesville, for very little community benefit, the pool benefits all of Charlottesville with little negative impact on our community.
I agree. The City needs quality parks and community pools. Meade Park was in pretty bad shape. We’ve gotten off the topic though of the “Downtown Destruction” as this thread is titled. People travel to Rome to see the ruins and walk across cobblestone streets and walkways that have been there for hundreds of years. The Downtown Mall evolved in the 1970’s. There is/was nothing wrong with the bricks that are now being replaced. Sure, there were some places where the bricks were uneven, or where the mortar had deteriorated, but not to the extent that they needed to be replaced. Much less costly repairs could have taken care of it. They certainly didn’t pose a health risk nor did they detract from the beauty of the Mall. Even if the project only cost a couple hundred thousand it doesn’t warrant the spending of tax payer dollars, while at the same time negatively impacting the small businesses on the Mall. Spending $7,500,000.00 during these tough economic times on yet another City government “vision” is absurd.
what halfshell said.
i’m a woman who often walks on the downtown mall, but rarely in high heels. and when i did i knew what i was getting into, and walked accordingly with careful steps. it’s kinda like wearing them to a fancy party on someone’s lawn – you know what you and your shoes are in for. so you usually choose flats.
So who wants to run for city council? Let’s just replace everybody who thought this was a good idea. Woo democracy.
/Demo-crazy?