D_C

Wow! That's a blast from the past! I can remember having many a dinner and mind-eraser at the Mirror. Chris was a magician. A good friend of mine and I would have the blackened NY strip and frog legs. Chris always seemed to nail it every time. I would like to know what he is up to as well.

I was just reading that story and almost blew coffee out of my nose when I hit paragraph 4. That is an extremely high vacancy rate! It couldn't come at a worse time, just as I am about to put my house in the city up for rent this summer. I have been watching the rental rates in Richmond and they seem extremely high. I had initially planned on renting my 5 bdrm on Brook Road for a little over a thousand, but when I saw what other houses, similar to mine and in the same area, were renting for, I decided to ask for a little more. I wonder if the rental vacancy percentage is jacked-up here because the number of foreclosures might be lower than the national average. If the job losses here are not as bad as the rest of the country, then you would expect that there would be less foreclosures and a smaller number of people looking for rental property. Also, I wonder if the new condos are adding to this huge number.

I think the time has come to have smoking and non-smoking states. Virginia is a smoking state by default. Case closed. Now, I am off to the garage to fire up a juicy Camel Light!

I did see that a vast majority passed a bill that would make it illegal to smoke in a vehicle when a minor is also in the vehicle. Even legislators that opposed the restaurant bill. Although I oppose any legislation that would keep a business owner from running his/her own business, I do think that the no-smoking in vehicles with kids bill, warrants support.

I watched Nevada host New Mexico State the other night and I think VCU can take them!

At least a decade away. A lot of new things to retrofit old buildings can be developed in 10 years. This opens the door for brainstorming and brigh ideas to develop. I wouldn't call it a "goner" just yet. That's a pretty good stay of execution there.

If this is the same car I think it is, they might cost a little more than 12k. Mercedes is putting these little buggers out. From what I was told a couple of years ago, they can take a side impact and roll like a ball, while protecting driver and passenger. Think hampster in a plastic ball. They are all over Canada.

City of Richmond's new Chief of Police: http://ci.bridgeport.ct.us/newdepartments/...iefsoffice.aspx

From the sounds of that article, the possibility of the Nat's AAA team coming to Richmond is more real than I thought. I knew that Columbus had one more year on their contract but never figured that we would actually have a shot with the bad press and all. I believe we should hold out on AA ball in town, unless it is somewhere in the burbs, and sharpen our ability to land the Nat's AAA team here.

The Style article mentions the current tennants but does not mention the Virginia Credit Union. Isn't VACU located in the ground floor of that building?

Ahhh. the week just wouldn't be complete without the racist rants from Michael Paul Williams.

Or an amusement park. As for the final games at the Diamond, I would like to go and hurl my R-Braves butt-cushion onto the field like a giant frisbee. Although I live a few blocks from the Diamond, I haven't been since they announced they were leaving, and I don't see myself breaking the boycott now. Funny. I have actually seen television advertising these last few days, in an attempt to bring folks into these last games. What a great idea!!! Advertising on television to get fans to come!! Why didn't someone think of this like 15 years ago?

Pigeons have been poorly represented throughout the course of sports and mascots. Pigeons are a very popular bird yet are not in the sporting world today. We need to step outside of the box and recognize the Pigeon. The Richomond Pigeons ~ or, just ~ The Pigeons! Why shouldn't the flying rats be a good mascot? We have Spiders. When I lived in Oregon back in 1989, and U of R made it into the final 4, my friends always found it amusing that the University of Richmond had picked a creepy insect as their mascot. Think about it, a Spider. Sure, the Purple Martins are popular, today. But what about tomorrow? Pigeons are timeless! When the clique-ish crowd stops gawking at the Purple Martins, the Pigeons will still be there, poorly represented and unrecognized. Such is the life of a Pigeon.

Daniel Neman, like a lot of us older Deadheads, has been complaining about the sound at the Coliseum since 1985. There is nothing like seeing an excellent band perform a stellar concert, only to be minimized by piss-poor sound quality. I have seen all kinds of different types of music at the coliseum and one thing always remains the same; the sound sucks in that place! It would be a shame to see it go though, in a way. My parents dragged me to see Elvis there in the 1970's. In my opinion, the coliseum carries too much bass and the vocals are always muddied by the distorted mid-range and highs that are cranked to counter the oppressive bass.

Elliott Yamin may have had a little something to do with it but I believe that the surge in attendance was to see World Series pitcher Dontrelle Willis. Willis used to pitch for the Marlins in their heyday and was traded to the Detroit Tigers. He has been working his way back up through the minors and started Friday with Toledo against the Braves. (see story) http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...RTS02/808130422

Sounds like someone needs a vacation. Going away for ten days or so always makes me re-appreciate my homestead.

This past Fridays after sunset series featured Jill Scott and was at Hovey Field on the campus of Virginia Union University. The crowd was quite large and completely surprised the entire neighborhood. Nothing but good things to report on this concert. The crowd was friendly and nice, the sound system was fantastic, the performers were top-notch. All in all, I believe this event at this location, went off without a hitch. What made it even better was that it was the same night as the first Fridays.

Nah, I am pretty sure that they will kill both. The A.D. Williams clinic building is just like saying, "Just the tip". It won't be long and the whole half-block will be new.

The Pole Green produce stand is now a full-on grocery. It has lost its rural appeal in my opinion. There is another farmers market in Lakeside, behind the old Standard Drug building. We joined a co-op there and for about $25 a week, we get a huge batch of Virginia produce that takes my family of 5 through the week. We have also gotten goat cheese there and it was the absolute best I have ever had. The variety of veggies we get every week is outstanding and we never get tired or bored with our produce that is consumed nightly. And the taste is far superior to regular grocery produce. Maybe that is just psychological. http://www.localharvest.org/ This link will take you to local produce sharing spots all around the country.

I think that between Beschler and Black, they pretty much have it covered. The post should be eliminated in my opinion. A lot of folks around the office are talking about how she is resigning because she cannot handle being in the Wilder administration. I tend to believe that in the next couple of days, Obama will announce that Tim Kaine is his running mate and I believe that Hill-Christian will be joining the campaign.

No objections here so long as the city taxpayers are not on the hook for any replacement costs when flood waters cause damage. The new flood maps to be released in February of 2009, depict that entire Shockoe Valley from Hospital Street to the floodwall, within the 100-year flood plain. If you build in the flood plain, city taxpayers should NOT be liable to pay for your replacement costs! With that being said, I believe the opposition to a ballpark in the bottom would be much less now than years ago.

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-co...07-23-0143.html GRTC looks to trim the fat a bit.

Here is another interesting article that everyone on this board is probably aware of anyway. This may serve as an extreme wake-up call for the suburbanites. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1216428663...=googlenews_wsj Get your property, hold onto it and get ready for the wave of county-dwellers to find their way back home. Once it becomes "trendy" or starts to be pushed by the Wall Street Journal, you can bet that it will snowball.

A malicious spyware was installed to my computer last night as I accessed the RCW site. It took me an hour to rid my machine of this bugger. Then, like an idiot who didn't believe how hot the stove was the first time, I went back to RCW and had to repeat the entire process again. I got everything cleaned-up by midnight. Clean your cookies, temporary internet files and run your virus scan from your security software if you have been in contact with RCW. It seems to have come from the ad block at the top of the RCW page.

If you are like me, and you kick-it around downtown at night when it's quiet and you can park anywhere, you will notice that the Berry Burk sign on the roof needs some love. It is flickering and there are lights out and it is making a God-awful buzzing sound that is a little scary.