He's been a pretty good Mayor. So he has my vote. Water: how about requiring all new construction to include cisterns--as all the houses and office buildings in Bermuda do? We get plenty rainfall, it all just runs off without storage capacity. Lots of little reservoirs instead of one big one may be an answer.

Did you see his proposal for the $65 million stimulus to Charlottesville? Seven of the nine items made up over $63 million of it and were simply labeled "Repair Aging Infrastructure." Do we want that sort of obscurity to return? He's just another tax and spend liberal - it's time for a real change.

Someone please tell him thanks but no thanks. Please find someone who will bring fiscal responsibility to council. Someone who will not raise property taxes in a depression, someone who will cut costs and cut programs and cut spending. Give us a grown-up please!!!!!!!!!

Big Dog that's an ignorant comment. Charlottesville is one of the best fiscally managed cities in the country and most taxpayers this year are getting a tax CUT or at worst no increase. Learn your facts!

Doph, if you look carefully at the Wish List, you'll see tabs at the bottom of the page that detail the "Repair Aging Infrastructure" items.

Go here:
http://wvir.images.worldnow.com/images/incoming/assets/Economic_Stimulus_Package-Priorities.htm

Then click on the tabs at the bottom of the page.

I missed the detail at first look too, but yeah, it's there, read carefully....

Hey Bark,
You are the ignorant one. Who do you work for? The city, would be my guess.

Thanks Read Carefully- good observation. The mayor has seemed to build a convincing list of multi-million dollar projects that look important. However, what do you think we would have done were it not for the $65 million stimulus? Fall apart? Anyone can make an excuse to spend money. Let's see someone figure out a way to conserve in this time of crisis.

Had high hopes to start, but nothing much has changed in Cville. Big money still has the power - which to my mind sounds more Republican than Democratic, so I don't know about his liberal bent. As per usual, money, money, money rules.

In the four years that we have lived here, our house has gone from being assessed at 239,000 to 391,000 by the city. Bizarrely enough, we are told that it's current market value (according to an independent appraiser) is $365,000. When we have tried to contest the city's assessment as stipulated, we are merely told that that's the way it is. To boot, the city and Corin Capshaw are making money on our backs by forcing us to deal with all of the noise, traffic, and drunk people that the Pavillon brings in to our once quiet neighborhood.

There's justice for you. Maybe Norris would feel that we were more thankful if people stopped pissing in the rain and telling us that it's raining!

Speaking of rain and water, it is all of the new construction that has put such extreme pressure on our resources. ALL new construction should be either made to pay higher taxes/ water usage costs to take on the burden of constructing a new dam or be forced to build those cisterns in their basements to sustain themselves. There has always been drought issues here and the city has been short-sighted in allowing people to build so much. Find something and build all of the beauty out of it! I'm tired of people talking about "bold measures"...how about just standing up and saying "stop!" to the build up?

Two perfect examples of WASTE: 1. rebricking the Downtown Mall - which was totally unnecessary unless you were walking around in stiletto heels, and 2. the tearing up the field in the park on Carlton Rd. to build what looks like a new swim park. A much better use of funds would be to make Cville more accessible by foot, by bike, and with more public transit routes. Damn, there's not even a legal way for a pedestrian to cross the road at the Pantops Shopping Center (intersection Rt. 20 and 250)! How about bike routes to prevent some of the injuries and even deaths of bikers over the past year in town?

These, and many more, are some of the reasons that Cville could no longer be voted number one in the USA.