mclawsdrive

New $20 million (+/-) plan for Center in the Square unveiled yesterday. Building would not expand beyond it's current footprint, but would expand exhibit space by shuffling some things around a bit. The historic facade of the building would be restored. story

Good call, VaGuy. I'd like to see it in either the Elliston Area or maybe Franklin County near the proposed I73. Although closer to Martinsville would certainly help the economy there.

Live Search Maps now has Bird's Eye views of the entire city of Roanoke and many nearby areas. Go to this link and zoom in on an area of interest . Then click on Bird's eye. live search - roanoke

Hillary will be at my alma mater, Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Sunday and then Obama will be somewhere in Roanoke Monday (probably the Roanoke Civic Center). I've also heard about a Clinton appearance in Manassas and Richmond, and an Obama rally in VA Beach. I'm sure both candidates will be appearing at least once in Hampton Roads. I wouldn't be suprised if both of them made at least 7 appearances each in VA over the next 3 days.

Burt, I sincerely hope that you will continue posting here as much as possible. You are extremely prolific in both the quantity and quality of news, insight and discussion you bring to Urban Planet. Some recent news: My father and I recently had lunch with Chip Jones, who worked with my father for years at the Roanoke Times. Chip left the Times Dispatch a few months ago and is now editor-in-chief of new media at the Bergman Group. He is also writing what will surely be a fascinating book about Iraq, based largely on the months he spent there with U.S military and Sunni sheiks. Be sure to check out "Red, White or Yellow? The military and media at war in Iraq", due out in September by Stackpole books.

The Camel was a mixed bag. It

This wouldn't be funny if it was anyone else. Maybe you could sell them for a slight discount at work or on craiglist. I'm sure plenty of people would be interested in some gift cards at 10% less than face value.

Chesterfield still doesn't have its GIS online. In the county's defense, they got on GIS, like many large localities, before many smaller counties and cities did. That meant that they had a whole lot of money and effort invested before it was practical to have an online GIS. Smaller localities found it easier to start from scratch with a GIS that would be available on the internet. Also in Chesterfield, there are still server and security issues being worked out. On a completely different topic, I went to Delux Saturday night and it was unpleasantly slammed at midnight. While waiting in line for the bathroom, a girl (probably from the West End, ) told her friend over her cell phone that she was at Delux in Carytown. When did Carytown annex eastward 5 blocks?

The larger the footprint for the garage, the more spaces you can get as a ratio of square footage. For example, the new Carilion Clinic parking garage in Roanoke will have 1500 spaces in a 450,000 sf building. It pushes the density to 3.33 spaces per 1k sqfeet. This is because the floors are larger, so a higher ratio of each floor is dedicated to parking instead of ramps. Each floor of the Carilion Clinic garage is 64,000 ft including ramps. My point is that garages with bigger footprints are more economical, and thats what Centenial's developers should be aiming for, if possible. BTW - What is the largest parking garage in the Richmond area?

Roanoke's murder rate lowest in at least 4 decades! Only 4 homicides in 2007. Just thought Richmond shouldn't get all the glory for their total of 55. Roanoke would have to have over 25 murders to have the same 'low' rate Richmonders are celebrating. So how bad is violent crime in Roanoke? Not bad at all, I'd say. story One thing to ponder, the total doesn't reflect death by cop. I'm pretty sure 3 people were killed this year by Roanoke city police.

Seaboard Coast Line is simply the name on the deed, so I'm assuming that these are original deeds and that CSX now owns them. I would guess that the segments owned by Chesterfield and Colonial Heights were obtained for creating buffers or possibly for future road use in Chesterfield's case. I definitely think it could be (relatively) easy to convince Chesterfield county to expand the Chester Linear park as far as the county owns the line. Beyond that would require some more initiative. A multi-jurisdictional trail connecting Chester to Colonial Heights and VSU would be a very nice amenity. Maybe a chat with someone at Chesterfield Parks and Rec would help, because whoever established the Chester Linear Park should have a pretty good grasp on what would be needed to create this trail.

Did you once travel on that stretch of NS track, Burt? High railroad trestles are impressive. The Virginia Creeper Trail between Whitetop Station and Abingdon is an old rail line with some very high trestles. I wonder why we don't just call them bridges?

I

Decor: There were several very large colorful (oil?) paintings spanning the entire right wall. Recessed hallogen lights and other directional lights accented the attractive elements of the space. There were booths and free tables, I seem to remember seeing a bit of red upholstry (red is usually a good color in a dining area). It was a mixture of cozy and intimate but yet still open and glamourous. I'd call the place swanky, not overwhelmingly so, but the place definitely stands out in the fan. I didn't get to go upstairs, but it sure looked interesting up there, with a colorful ceiling fixture others have mentioned. By the way, I finally went to Can Can last Sunday for brunch and absolutly loved it.

The downtown Verizon building lost a 300 pound marble slab, which came crashing down onto the ground. full story

I took a date to DeLux last night. The menu varies quite a bit. There are a wide variety of sandwiches and burgers for about $6, while entrees start around $11 and go up to $25 or so. There are some 'blue plate' specials that are $2 off if ordered before 6pm. I think all those items are 10.99 regular price. My date and I both ordered off the blue-plate section, although we missed the 6pm cutoff. She had turkey tenderloin with gravy and cranberries and mashed potatoes and asparagus as the two sides included. I thought the cranberries complimented the turkey very well, didn't get a taste of the mashed potatoes. She said they were good but nothing special. I also ordered asparagus as one of my sides. It is cooked in some sort of sauce or oil that gives it a slight smoky taste, almost as if some fatback is thrown in. It was just a little bit crispy. I ate every last bite. My other side was braised greens. Cooked simply with no distinguishing added flavors, just high quality greens - tasty and moist without sogginess or that overcooked slimy texture you sometimes get with greens. My main dish was meatloaf, which I found every bit as delicious as Comfort's. The best part of the meatloaf was the 'crust', which had a slightly caramelized glaze. My plate was completely clean when our server took it away. I special ordered a pomegranate mojito because I found out they had actual pomegranate juice. It seemed a bit weak on the mint at first, but after a few stirs and a few sips, the drink tasted perfect. She ordered a pomegranate martini (called the DeLux Martini). It was very strong and very good. The banana cr

I heard that it is to be built near the intersection of 460 and 295.

In my case, my most fun years were probably 22 through 26, so maybe Joey has a few fun years to look forward to. 27 was a little worse and 28 has been a pretty big drag. I am not looking forward to 29. Maybe it's time to run away and join the circus.

The old train station at the corner of Williamson and Jefferson may be restored sooner than I thought. A group has raised over $500,000 toward a project to restore the building to its original grandeur, and incorporate facitities for bikers/hikers traveling along the greenway between downtown and the river. full story

deleted a potentially offensive comment.

My favorite is Maury Povich. A young 'lady' sits next to Maury, crying because she hasn't found her babydaddy. Maury calls in the first guest, who gets viciously booed by the crowd for denying the child is his. An argument ensues, in which the 'lady' insists to the former suiter that, "you know dis yo baby, step up and be a man". The results of the paternity tests are revealed, and low and behold, he's not the father. He jumps out of his seat in a victory dance, says "yeah, thats right!" in the woman's face and then struts off victoriously. More former beaus are carted out onstage with the same result, sometimes several dozen of them spanning several episodes, before finally the father is found. Its quite tragic, but I just can't help laughing when I think about how many men the woman slept with without any form of birth control in a two week period. I mean in some cases it has to be at least 2 per day on average, not including repeats. I'm sure some of these situations are fabricated, right?

Last I heard, the fire marshall was shutting the building down. I fail to see how an assisted living facility for seniors makes any sense for this building. I will list my concerns: 1: In a fire, the elevators shut down. Can you envision senior citizens, who are physically and/or mentally impaired evacuating from the 3rd floor, let alone the 10th floor. 2: Location. The building is in a busy urban area, where sounds such as sirens and honking will be heard throughout the day. There are no quiet green spaces to go sit, unless one pushes one's walker across a busy Jefferson Street to Elmwood Park. There are few places to park near the building, and it hardly seems handicap friendly. 3: Advantages? Why would a senior requiring living assistance want to live in this location? Would these people take advantage of downtown's amenities? Would they shop at downtown boutiques? Dine at the bustling restaurants? Barhop? I seriously doubt there would be significant venturing outside of the confines of the building, and I doubt many people requiring living assistance would want to live here. Chalk this one up for sprawl, but I think these kinds of facilities belong on the suburban fringe, where there is room to foster the appropriate environment. Don't get me wrong, I think downtowns are an ideal place for ACTIVE seniors. But for those who need to reside in an assisted living environment, downtown makes no sense. Here's my proposal. Restaurant/Bar/Retail on the first floor. Lobby/ offices on the second floor. Offices/Hotel rooms 3rd-6th. Apartments - 7th-8th. Condos 9th-10th. Lets pool some money together and buy this building from the bankrupt owners.

I suppose an LSD screen would be a drug screen for LSD , which would be incredibly expensive. The method I've heard of involves a spinal tap - not really worth the effort, considering LSD isn't physically addictive. Sorry Cam, I know you meant LCD screen. Just playin

I think its safe to say the environmental discussion can be dropped at this point, but I want to add that I enjoyed the heated debate. Sometimes, when people get angry, it makes the reading much more interesting. Kinda like Springer.