mclawsdrive

Good to know. I drove by the site on Monday and became frustrated. The same little piece of wall is still there with no change on the site since the last time I visited.

I don't know about that. Some of these model airplane glues are pretty intense. I wonder sometimes if that hobby is popular because of the process and not the finished product.

I have returned from Mt. Rogers. Yes it is the highest mountain in VA. I will discuss it in the outdoors thread of the Roanoke forum. I guess we didn't quite get to 3000 yet, but I have faith we'll be there very soon.

Well, we're not going to make it to 3000 by this afternoon, but I'm confident that when I log on Tuesday morning, after a wonderful weekend in Roanoke and at Mt Rogers, we'll have reached the magic number. Only 24 more to go. I should have some pics to post on Tuesday or Wednesday.

As of this post, we only need 17 (oops I mean 27) more posts to reach 3000. We've been making great progress toward reaching that goal by tomorrow afternoon. In fact, most of the activity has been legitimate discussion on other threads.

Lets just say you inspired others to follow your example

We only need 41 more posts to reach 3000 for the Roanoke Forum, so lets hurry it up. I bet we could get there by Friday afternoon if we really tried.

Si sounds like my kind of place. I can't wait to check it out. Burt, to be fair, I wonder what percentage of posts are just you updating the number of posts.

Journiyin, I share your sentiments about LED's. There is a skyscraper in Sweden that only uses LEDs for all interior lighting. I forgot the name of the city, but I'll find out. In the near future, look for LED television screens. These things will be thinner than plasmas but will cost a pretty penny.

The new SS building (if it were 5-6 stories) could be placed toward the back of the parcel, taking up almost the entire 160 ft width, and extending about 85 feet toward Jefferson St. This would leave the first 230 feet (x 125 ft) of the parcel open and available for a future building. The very end (last 85 ft) of Bullitt Ave could be closed for security reasons, but Bullitt would still provide access and parking to the building. This would allow for a 75,000 sf SS building, while the remaining land would allow a future building footprint, after leaving a buffer of around 25,000 sf per floor. Put up a 20 story building and we have half a million sf of taxable real estate AND still get to keep the SS office downtown. Of course, even if the SS building were only 3 stories, if it were place toward the back of the lot it would still leave substantial room along Jefferson, just not as much.

Countryside's contract with the city has been extended for another year. Additionally, council is giving approval to a swap of several acres with the airport, and a possible sale of some land to Newbern-Trane. full story

I just tried it out last night and was generally pleased. I found the menu somewhat similar to Bank's, especially the wasabi mashed potatoes. I ordered a special, Swordfish w/ pesto on pasta (can't remember which kind) and zucchini. Quality was excellent. My friend/date had a salmon appetizer (portion was plenty for an entree) with herb butter and asparagus. It was delicious. Dessert was a strawberries and vanilla gelato concoction with a bit of chocolate on a delicious homemade crust (can't remember what it was called). Tasted much like a high quality sundae. It was perfect with our slightly drier than expected Austrian Pinot Noir. That

A 4 mile stretch of the future Powhite parkway has become dedicated right of way. Starting a few hundred feet north of Hull street, about a quarter mile east of its intersection with Beaver Bridge Rd, it continues about halfway back towards Powhite's current terminus. The right of way does not reach all the way to Hull street, there is still about 400 feet remaining in private ownership. The Magnolia Green development is directly adjacent to much of the land that has been dedicated. There will be an interchange just south of Duval road, and the land for this interchange has been dedicated as well. More info later.

The Jefferson Motor Lodge is reemerging as a likely site for the new Social Security Building. Roanoke College owns the property, which it leases to National College of Business and Technology, which runs the motel and in turn leases the commercial space to Thai Orchid. Apparently there are about 200 jobs at the current Social Sec. Building, and 2 years ago there was a proposal for a $15 million building to house the new Soc Sec offices at the JML site. Putting 200 decent paying federal jobs in the middle of downtown sounds very positive. At the same time, as Wishneff commented, the site could house a much larger building. I think I would support the location behind the Poff building over the JML site, but if it comes down to JML vs a more suburban location, I'll support downtown. story If the JML site is chosen, the building should be tall and narrow. I'd hate to see some 2 story piece of crap take up 2/3 of the lot. Make it a 5-6 story building with a width of 40-50 feet.

I know its a little bit late to mention this, but my boss volunteered as a guide/greeter at the convention and she showed me the restaurant list she was provided to give to convention-goers. The list had all the good spots in the west end, southside, northside, midlothian, carytown/museum district, fan, and downtown. Oddly, according to this list, which included a map, there are no decent restaurants east of 11th street. I was dumbfounded! Not a single establishment in the Slip, the Bottom, Church Hill, or the east end was included. I would guess that at least a third of Richmond's finest establishments were omitted. I certainly hope a supplemental list was added, because visitors from all of the country could have gotten the wrong impression of the city's dining scene.

The city has rejected the current proposal for developing countryside. This is after the developers tweaked the plan to address concerns voiced by both citizens and city leaders. Wonder if it will end up being a municipal golf course run by parks and rec? story

They worked fine for me. Maybe my computer has more RAM.

John Edwards and Ralph Stanley visited Roanoke on Wednedsday, a detour on Edwards' "poverty tour". full story

Ok. now the post is gone. Guess a moderator or administrator deleted it.

Yeah, he just joined today and posted this same link all over the place... probably all of his posts are this same link.

You know - as many times as I've been there - I have yet to play Bocce. They also sometimes have olive oil there, really good stuff from Italy I guess. Olives groves don't do to well in Virginia, especially in the mountains.

The rankings were of up and coming destinations, not including already recognized wine destinations such as Burgundy, Tuscany and Napa Valley. Other regions included Parts of Italy, Chile, Spain and New Zealand. There are now about 130 Virginia wineries, producing the full spectrum in quality from 'Boone's Farmesque' to shining examples of syrah, cabernet, merlot, muscat, chardonnay, viognier etc. Pinot Noir and Zinfendel are rare and unimpressive in VA - the climate is too wet for those grapes. The magazine visited only vineyards around Charlottesville and Nova -a mistake in my opinion, because the terroir of the plateau southwest of Roanoke is unique and in my opinion superior, due to the lower humidity and higher elevations (highest in the state) and therefore, cooler temperatures. My three favorites from this region are Amhrien's, Villa Appalacia and Valhalla. Better known Chateau Morrisette is also in the region but is much more commercial and less impressive IMO. Although they've produced a high percentage of lower quality sweeter blends, some of their reserves are pretty good, and their facilities provide a great scenic destination.

While I am not endorsing the recent Supreme Court decision, I do not think it will affect school district boundaries. Kennedy, (the swing vote) stated that overtly using race in individual admission decisions, (as was done in Seattle and Louisville) was unacceptable. But other means of encouraging diversity were still desireable. After all, boundaries that take race into account do not assign an individual to a school based on his or her race, they only make predictions about what race that child might be, and attempt to create a more racially balanced school district. Completely eliminating race as a factor in designing school districts would create de-facto segregation, and would imho effectively nullify Brown Vs Board of Education. Of course one could make an argument that because Virginia cities' school disctricts are completely separate from other counties and cities, certain localities in VA have already found a loop-hole around Brown v. BOE (most notably Colonial Heights).