Whirligig-a-Go-Go

Okay so what’s your opinion on the proposal for the new I-95 exit onto Temple Avenue? I know you all have an opinion, I’ve heard the rumors. Oh well, maybe they aren’t just rumors.

I, for one, think the darn thing will work and would be an improvement, but I understand how it is for others. My wife, for instance, assured me that she will be getting off the Interstate at Walthall rather than trip the drive fantastic and attempt even the simplest right hand turn exit onto Temple Ave.

Others who live south of Temple Avenue, I have been assured, will simply take the South Park Mall exit ramp and head back to Temple by the old Holzner house on the corner. You know the Holzner house, where Santa used to hang out with his sleigh and reindeer during the season.

From there, you can go right to the mall or left to the older parts of the city and the middle school. In fact, those driving patterns will be beat into our heads over the next two years while the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) dusts up the exit to make it even better, smarter, modern, sort of like Common Core, right?

But believe me, with my wife at home, I have heard the woes of the BIG CHANGE. And to some extent I can understand the angst. The intersection, when working properly, ought to be a dream. But knowing how people are, and how they tend to drive, it looks more to me like a figure 8 race track.

No matter what VDOT does, making the roundabout work relies totally on the drivers applying a smidgen of common sense. The problem is obvious. Just parse that last statement.

People, oh sorry, I meant drivers come in a number of varieties. There are those who will be overly cautious and sit at the entrance to the circle of death when they ought to be pulling out and there will be the other people, like me, who will be zipping in and out of the circle as if it were the Daytona 500.

I am certain it will fix the accident problem at that nasty intersection, which resulted in more than one accident a week over the past year. But here’s the rub with that, there’s only one spot that an accident can occur and that’s where west bound Temple Avenue traffic attempts to make a left turn onto the Interstate across the east bound Temple Avenue lanes. As witness, in most cases the feat can be accomplished with ease. Again, making it work relies on the skills of the driver trying to get to the other side, ala that famous chicken.

With the roundabout, in order to fix that accident problem, we open up two additional chances for someone to smack someone else due to bad driving skills. The roundabout has three entry points:  off the Interstate, east bound Temple, and west bound Temple. Let’s not look at the merge issues for everyone coming off the Interstate and heading to Soutpark.

That’s the problem that my wife, and numbers of other Colonials, see. To them, I think, the roundabout is nothing more than a grownup, real-time version of the Frogger game: Nissan, Ford, Kia, open space-go… To me, this is merely a problem for timid drivers. And perhaps I am a bad judge, since when I grew up and was learning to drive my dad told me:  “the pedal on the right is the gas and the disc in the middle of the steering wheel is the horn.” I asked, “What’s that fat pedal on the left?” He said, “You don’t need that, just hit the horn real hard and punch the gas pedal.” Such is the driving life in the state of New York.

So, Wednesday night I took a minute to check out the Pardon our Dust tour VDOT was putting on at our wonderful and new Courthouse. I walked in and asked to speak to one of the engineers, because I had an epiphany (good idea) about how to remove two of the potential accident spots. Most of the time when I get these crazy ideas I’m smart enough to ignore them. Don’t believe me, just ask my wife Jackie-yes she’s on FaceBook.

But this one made perfect sense. Instead of creating a roundabout, why not just lift the eastbound Temple Avenue lanes over the Interstate exit, thereby eliminating any interference from Temple avenue traffic.  The only potential accident spot would be where the westbound Temple traffic turned onto I-95 and where the I-95 exit ramp emptied onto westbound Temple.

So when I got to where the display was, I asked to speak to one of the VDOT engineers involved with the roundabout. They put me in touch with a person, who I cannot remember his name. I told him about my idea, and he said, “I can see how that would work, let me introduce you to Darrell Fischer.”

Turns out Mr. Fischer is the design guy for the roundabout. I told him about my idea, and he said, “I wish we would have seen it sooner.” He said he would take an honest look at it, even though he felt it might add $500k to the $13 million project.

Alas, there are some technical issues that may make the Llloyd Goddard overpass impossible. VDOT, it seems, has standards when it comes to building highways and a bridge would have height restrictions, and then other potential problems because of the length of the roadway and entrances and exits. Perhaps this is one of those ideas that die on the planning board, but either way, at least it presents a potential fix for a highway improvement that not everyone is in favor of.

Here’s Mr. Fischer’s response to me:

David,
As requested and promised, I have evaluated the overpass option that you discussed with me on Wednesday evening. There are several geometric issues/concerns that I cannot overlook or overcome. The first is the profile. As we discussed, in order to make the option feasible, it would have to tie down prior to the two entrances on either side of the roundabout - proposed Kroger entrance to the west and Hardees to the east. Every option I looked at took me back prior to the Kroger entrance and honestly too close to Hamilton Avenue for my comfort. Another serious issue would be the required width of the roadway. Once we elevate the roadway we would be required to widen the roadway for shoulders to accommodate accidents and breakdowns. This additional width would be between 12 and 15 feet (including the bridge). The footprint of the current design has no room to get wider as it would impact Ridge Road and/or the Kroger site. A third concern is the sight distance. As the road elevates, retaining walls would need to be constructed which would cause sight distance issues for the Hardees entrance. Finally, I looked at the cost of doing such an option. Between the bridge, the retaining walls, the added roadway width, and the additional impacts to the adjacent properties, the cost would be in well in excess of $2 million. In actuality, it could go significantly higher given the visual impact that it would have on not only the Kroger site but also all of the residents along Ridge Road. Although I suspected the cost was going to be significant, I don't feel that cost alone is enough to deter this option. Unfortunately, there are design/geometric issues that I cannot overcome which make it infeasible without cost even being considered.
All of this being said, I like your innovative spirit which is why I gave it my personal attention to evaluate. Should you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.
Thank you and take care.
Darell L. Fischer, P.E., DBIA

Closed door sessions hide the truth

And when we get behind closed doors…
Oh no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.

                        Thanks to Charlie Rich

 

So, now remind me again, why is City Council is allowed to have closed door sessions?

Oh let me see, personnel actions, land acquisition, hide stuff from the public that they would rather the public not see or know. And of course act like blithering idiots and let their true nature out where the voters can’t really see them. Make decisions, and then come out of a closed door session and announce their results as if by decree.

And while I am certain there are some good reasons to have closed door sessions, I am quickly becoming convinced that how they are being used is not exactly how they were meant to be used. For instance, personnel actions likely should not be addressed in a public forum in order to preserve the sanctity of the person or people being discussed.

Who wants their dirty, or clean for that matter, laundry addressed in public? Not I, for one. While in a way it makes sense, the intent, in my belief is not to protect council but to protect the individual or group being discussed. And yet it is hard for me to believe that council isn’t somehow protecting themselves.

Land acquisition or sale is another one that might have some legitimacy for closed door sessions. If people know you are discussing taking their property they may actually get a lawyer to try to protect themselves. Although, in these days of invoking “eminent domain” for the “greater good of the community” maybe has outlived its usefulness. Eminent domain is its own hobgoblin, it gives the city or other legal body the right to snatch someone’s property with them having no recourse.  In Colonial Heights, you people who live on the Dupuy Road corridor had best beware of eminent domain.

Why on earth do we have Sunshine laws and the Freedom of Information Act anyway? We have them because government entities tend to do things behind everyone’s back. They cobble decisions together via phone or text and then meet and take action. Those meetings via phone and text to discuss city or county business probably are not legal. And yet, we know they happen. We know they happen as surely as we know that teens, and others, have resorted to sexting. We don’t have to see it in person to know that it happens. It’s a human trait or tendency, just as it is a human trait or tendency to work out deals behind closed doors.

And that ladies and gentlemen is essentially what happened when Hopewell City Council held a closed door session to discuss and vote on who would be serving as Mayor and Vice Mayor last year. Really, why would the process to elect or appoint the mayor and vice mayor need to be done behind closed doors? Are we trying to hide something from the public? Is it even remotely possible that the public can’t figure out where the power in council resides?

Power in council resides in the swing vote. If you have seven council folk, often that results in a 4-3 split. The swing vote, the deciding vote, will tell you how council will act even before they act. It’s not rocket science or new math we’re talking about here. It’s all about power; it’s all about who has the votes.  And it’s not going to change anytime soon. If council or any other political body continues to do things that you don’t care for, vote those people out.

Meanwhile, Judge W. Allen Sharrett’s ruling that the city had not met their burden in proving there was a reason to hold the discussion on the appointment in closed session seems legit. And allowing the results of that discussion to stand are also legit. No way is it possible to go back and “fix” what happened. The only thing we can hope for is that council doesn’t take it upon themselves to do the same thing again this year.

On the other hand, why not just conduct city business, other than personnel actions, in the open? How novel that would be; how above board; how honest.

At long last, a glimmer of common sense

Finally, finally, a tiny bit of common sense shows up on city council. And of course, city council voted right over the top of it. Still it’s an indication that someone appears to understand the city’s favorite method of operating, or MO for you sleuth story buffs. How do they operate? Well, it’s like this:  when they don’t like something they simply pummel it with laws and restrictions. That’s the ticket now isn’t it?  Let’s get tough on all these outlaws and hoodlums. Or is it just modern day tough love?

Recently-elected councilman Betsy Luck nailed the problem. Within the city of Colonial Heights, there really isn’t much for the kids to do. But the city clamp-down on the curfew isn’t really a problem solver. All it will do is move the conflicts/problems back an hour earlier, sort of the way daylight savings time works.

Kids don’t drive here from Chesterfield because the mall closes an hour later. It would take too long to drive here just to ruffle feathers for a few minutes. This really is a local problem, and perhaps pushing the curfew back an hour would save a bit of OT for the police department, since now the problems would happen an hour earlier.

It would be nice to see some supporting evidence about who these problem children are and where they come from.  Teen curfew doesn’t just affect high-school aged children, just like teen pregnancy doesn’t mean every girl in high school is getting knocked up. Some pregnant teens are actually married, but God forbid we look that close at the statistics. Besides it’s much more fun to lambaste a whole class of kids, right?

Back to the point, if we have made so many arrests, why not chart them by home address? How many, for instance, involve Colonial Heights teens, or Fort Lee, or Chesterfield, or Prince George, Hopewell, Petersburg, or even Dinwiddie? More to Ms. Luck’s point, shouldn’t we be allowing parents to take care of their own children? Whatever happened to the phone call to the parents “come get your kid, he’s at the police station?’ Doesn’t stuff like that work anymore?

Yes, yes, yes, I have seen a bunch of younger people, teens possibly, hanging out in the parking lots of some of the restaurants late at night.  But by 11 o’clock or even midnight, you’re not talking about the busy dinner hour.  It’s actually closer to the closing hour, except for the hard-core guests siphoning down that last pint or shot before attempting the DUI gauntlet on Temple Avenue, which by the way is a much better use of our police department than herding teens is.

Ms. Luck says she thinks it amounts to overreach. Hooray! It is overreach. Some argue that it would bring us in line with the curfews in other localities, and yet I have seen the same argument used in the other direction when it serves the purpose. You know the one, “we don’t want to be like the other localities.” Why do we want to be like other localities? And what other locality is truly like Colonial Heights, or wants to be? Not many, I assure you.

And none around here:  not by population, not by commercial tax base, and not by much of anything else, really. Don’t get me wrong, despite my complaints, I have lived in good ole CH for 27 years and while not a “native” it has stood me well over the years.

It seems to me, looking from the outside no doubt, that lowering the curfew merely treats the symptom. It doesn’t address the real problem. And the real problem is that, with all of this magnificent business growth, we haven’t done anything to address the needs of our “teens.” They truly have nowhere to go, except for those places where a small congregation can gather. And, no doubt, that will lead to confrontations and issues. Kids are not well known for always behaving well in public. Yes, I too have winced at the performance of my kids from time to time, who hasn’t?  Be honest.  In general, they are pretty well behaved. But there is always that one or two who are not. And, it seems, that those one or two are always the ones that create the problems. You remember them from school; I am certain you can name them.

Some city residents have battled for a long time to find a place that would be a suitable “hangout” for our teens. At one point, it appeared we nearly had it figured out, when the former Circuit City building was viewed as a potential Teen Center. That failed due to contract issues, but not because it wasn’t a good idea. It was in fact a great idea. It put a place for teenagers to hang out right where they appear to be having problems now, the mall area.

Since the curfew action is already a done deal, one of the things council ought to request is some empirical data showing how well the new curfew has worked/is working. Let’s collect a little up front data supporting the “need” for the new curfew, and then in six months or so let’s pull the corresponding data and see if the curfew really helped.  I know, it is statistics and by gosh statistics never directly addressed any problem on earth.  But statistics can help support a case, and with this one I would love to see how it works out.  On the other, other-hand, isn’t crowd control something the police department is supposed to do?