Will the Charlottesville Downtown Mall get more security cameras?

I am surprised that the Charlottesville downtown business owners are contemplating installing "vast network of security cameras" to keep their customers safe. The Daily Progress ran a Brandon Shulleeta story under the headline "Security cameras for Downtown Mall?" on February 11, 2011 reporting that a group of downtown business owners are hoping to install these cameras in the next few months.

I think of the Downtown Mall as a very safe area to be and don't hesitate to go there just about any time of day or night. I know there are cameras on the mall, but have no idea how many. And in the Shulleeta article, Bob Stroh is quoted saying "I would challenge a customer or anybody who is going out to shop or eat or use any sort of services to find a place where he’s not on camera. I can guarantee you Fashion Square has endless number of cameras, Barracks Road Shopping Center has endless number of cameras — any place you go. If you’re in public, you’re on camera. … To not do that is to open up yourself to liability. You have to provide a safe place to shop and provide services." But if that is the case, what good will additional cameras do? And if the cost of adding this network of cameras is going to be expensive, I would expect that shoppers will be paying more for items on the mall to cover those costs.

Perhaps the downtown business owners will tell us how many so-called security cameras are currently operating on the mall and let us know if in fact we are already on camera throughout the public areas on the mall. Not only am I interested in knowing how the images recorded on the proposed cameras will be used, but I am now curious about how the images of the currently installed cameras are being used.

Any chance the business owners will share this information with us? I asked Bob Stroh if he know how many cameras are on the mall now and he said to me that he didn't know. Perhaps we have to ask each business and property owner individually to even have a chance of knowing what the camera coverage on the mall is now or might be in the near future.

Progress on Mall Fountain slow at best

While on the Charlottesville downtown mall late last week (Thursday I believe) I snapped these photos of the four mall fountains. A crew was working on the fountain by Angelo's Jewelery Store, but I haven't seen any activity at the other three fountains in a while. A brick base was installed at the Central Place fountain about 7-10 days ago, but I haven't seen any work on that fountain since. I will be on the mall later today and will be sure to check out any progress being made.

Will these fountains be working in time to enjoy them for the several week between now and when they would be turned off for the winter? Or will 2009 be the year the fountains were dry?

Will the fountains on the downtown mall soon be working?

Work is in progress on the Charlottesville downtown mall fountains. I saw some plumbing work going on at the fountain by The Nook yesterday and some other work at the fountain at Miller's today. The pace of the project hasn't been very quick. And even though the photo I shot today looks like the action was too fast for my camera, I actually shook my camera as I shot the photo. But I like the "frantic activity" look of the photo and only wish it were true.

This work is part of the mall renovation project touted as being on-time and under-budget weeks ago.

I am looking forward to the fountains operating again. I am sure there is a sizable population of people living in Charlottesville who have never even had an opportunity to see the fountains working. The fountain at Central Place doesn't appear to have been worked on in many weeks. Anyone want to venture a guess when all four of the fountains will be operating? Let me know what date (or month or year if you believe one of those is a better timeframe) when the final fountain goes online. I will post the name of the person who submits the closest estimate to the actual date along with any comment they include with their guess.

People in fives - fountains in fours

I often hear folks talk about things happening in twos or threes, but fives? I had my camera with me on two recent occasions on the Charlottesville Downtown mall and first encountered five 'moms' with their five one-week old babies (all delivered by the same midwife) at Cafe Cubano. Then, I encountered a group of five servers awaiting the start of their dinner shift at Sal's on the mall.

Maybe it is just a coincidence, but I will be looking to see if I keep encountering things in fives.

It is good to see that the five new babies are already users of the downtown mall, although they were not eating off the menu.

I noticed some work going on at the mall fountains. I am looking to the four fountains to be operating soon. One of the workers said that all four fountains should be repaired and refurbished within four weeks. I hope it is sooner than that, but I am ready to enjoy the fountains soon.

Water Features on Downtown Mall Still Dry

Since the downtown mall restoration project was declared 99.9 percent done, some chairs have appeared on the west end of the mall - but none of the fountains have returned to operation. I am hoping that more chairs will be installed on the east end of the mall soon. I miss the chairs that were next to the carousel outside the Discovery Museum. But, both improved mall furniture and restored fountains were part of this virtually "finished" project.

I photographed all four of the dry fountains on the mall on Saturday June 13, 2007 and I don't think any of these fountains will be spewing water anytime soon. This photo of the fountain at the Central Place still shows no bricks on the fountain base, and I haven't noticed any construction activity at this fountain (or the other fountains) of late. Maybe the 99.9 percent complete statement was a major overstatement at the rededication ceremony for the downtown mall about two weeks ago, but the presence of mall furniture and working fountains is much more important to me than the 0.1 percent of the restoration project the contractors have assigned to it.

I walk the length of the downtown mall several times each week and hope each time that the fountains will finally be working. The original proposal for the mall restoration included additional water features on the mall. So, water features are clearly considered valuable - but the existing fountains' appeal is significantly reduced when they - all four of them - are dry. Perhaps they will be restored to life next time I visit the mall. I hope so. I wonder how many folks living in Charlottesville have never seen the fountains in working order. And some wonder why our ranking of small cities has gone from number 1 to number 17.

High Heel Shoe Wearers Must Still be Vigilant in Downtown Charlottesville

One of the many arguments for re-bricking the Historic Downtown Mall in Charlottesville was the problem of high heel shoe wearers having their heels break or at least get caught in the many areas of missing mortar between bricks. But, even if the entire mall is redone and no heel-sized openings remain, heel hazards will still exist in the downtown area. The photo here was taken on Fifth Street N.E. just off the mall. The metal grates allow drainage of water from the walkway and cover where a downspout from an adjacent building crosses the walkway and discharges into the street. Unfortunately, these grates are neither fixed in place nor are they restrained from moving in the channel. And, these grates seem to move under normal use. Several of these drainage grate locations are in the sidewalks on my normal path from home to the downtown mall and I routinely find gaps like the one shown in the photo. I can simply kick the grates back into place, but a few days later gaps appear.

On occasion the grates will be totally out of the channel. My guess is that an automobile tire pushes the end grate out of the channel when someone parallel parks and their tire hits the grate. Again, it is easy to put the grate back in place, a small separation between grates is clearly a problem for high heel shoe wearers, but a flipped grate is a hazard for pedestrians in general.

What can be done? Some of the grates are cast with openings for bolts that would fasten the grate to the channel in which it sits - but the channels do not have appropriate threading to hold a bolt. But, I am sure this can easily be remedied. I believe spending millions of dollars to re-brick the mall will solve part of this pedestrian problem, but I suggest the city put a few more dollars into making the side streets safer for pedestrians too.

The Pedestrian Zone - not without its hazards.

I happened to bring my camera with me to the downtown mall this week to download a few photos at the library for my last blog entry and decided to walk on Sixth Street NE from East Market Street to the mall. A welding contractor (for the city I suppose) removed the bollards so that he could drive onto the mall and work near the Discovery Museum. The bollards were placed on the only sidewalk on that block creating the first major pedestrian obstacle I encountered as I was just entering the mall next to City Hall. If this is our pedestrian zone this is not an acceptable practice for contractors to use. What are these contractors thinking? Maybe they need a reminder that pedestrian spaces need to be clear of obstacles. Perhaps some notice needs to be included in permits to work on the mall so pedestrians don't have to contend with lazy and dangerous behavior on the part of contractors.

As I walked just two blocks further down the mall I encountered the Fourth Street East mall crossing being used as a loading/unloading zone. There are such zones available on the side streets and when I took this photo there were open loading zones. Again, this delivery person decided that there is no problem blocking the entire length of the crossing with the truck, trailer and ramp making pedestrian traffic have to avoid this fifty foot or so obstacle on the pedestrian mall.

So, in about three minutes I encountered two major pedestrian obstacles as I walked from Sixth Street East to Fourth Street East. Is this a rare occasion? I think not. As a frequent pedestrian on the downtown mall I find obstacles like these on a regular basis. This is not the only truck that uses the mall crossing as a loading zone. I routinely encounter Brinks trucks making money deliveries at local banks, building supply trucks unloading construction materials, and JAUNT buses, taxicabs, even private vehicles idling in the crossing for extended periods. I find it is more likely than not that there will be unnecessary obstacles to pedestrian traffic on the mall and the number of obstacles seems to be increasing. Perhaps there are occasional interactions between the police and flagrant violators, but I haven't seen any. If contractors and delivery vehicle drivers believe this is a reasonable and risk free behavior I believe pedestrians will find obstacles at an increasing rate.

Council has been alerted to these sorts of behaviors, but I believe some identifiable action may be necessary to encourage better behavior from pedestrian area violators. Perhaps more interaction with violators (warnings or tickets) are needed to get the message to those who ignore the pedestrian area regulations. Without any action by city officials, I believe the downtown area being a safe pedestrian area is in jeopardy.

Next time you walk on the mall, count how many unsafe and unnecessary obstacles you encounter. Perhaps with the rebricking of the mall, the city can actively work to make the mall a better and safer pedestrian zone.

Is the Pavilion sensitive to Charlottesville's visitors

In my last Squeaky Wheel column in the May 24, 2007 HooK entitled "Pavilion creep: Speak up about Mall takeover' addressed the issue of the Pavilion claiming an increased area of public space for its events over that specified in the Pavilion agreement with the City. But it appears that there is a continuing effort by the Pavilion to expand even further into the public space.

I was walking toward the Pavilion on the downtown mall at 4:00 pm on Saturday July 5, 2008 and was blocked at the Pavilion fence that blocked the entire east end of the mall to pedestrian traffic. I was not even able to access the Charlottesville Visitor's Center - which was open for business at the time. I saw the several groups of visitors being instructed that they could enter through the Water Street entrance. But, that requires walking down 30 steps, then back up those steps again to the Visitor's Center desk, then down and up again to get information that shouldn't require the 120 step trip.

I did the hike and chatted with several visitors at the desk who also did the detour demanded by the Pavilion staff. I also learned from the Visitor's Center staff that they knew nothing about the blocking of their entrance but that this was the first time their doors had been blocked. I chatted with the person operating the Pavilion ticket table who told me that if I had any problem with the fencing, I should talk to City Council. Never being shy about bringing my concerns, ideas, suggestions, etc. to City Council I presented my concerns last night during 'Matters from the Public' at beginning of the council meeting. I am counting on councilors, our city manager, and our city attorney to review this in light of the Pavilion agreement and ensure that visitors to the mall have access to the information they need when they visit Charlottesville in a convenient manner.



What I find most disconcerting about this blocking of mall level access to the Visitor's Center is that the Pavilion management is claiming their need to post a permanent information sign for mall visitors. How odd to believe that access to Pavilion event information on the east end of the mall is important, but access to visitor information is not.

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding about where the Pavilion event area has been set, and I hope this is a matter that will not happen again, but I look forward to a clear statement from the city or the Pavilion management once our city leaders work out a solution. I do believe that access to the Visitor's Center must be available to our visitors whenever the Center is open to the public. Simply placing the plastic fences in a slightly different location would solve the access problem.