Esther I. Brown
dynamic, detail-oriented creativeC-VILLE Issue #18.15
Issue #18.15 :: 04/11/2006 – 04/17/2006
Another lost bypass
SUPES DISMISS PARKWAY
Road backer Van Yahres is bummed
In what seems to be a death knell for the proposed Ruckersville Parkway, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors (BOS) voted unanimously on Wednesday, April 5, to remove it from the transportation options being considered for the Route 29N corridor under the Places29 Master Plan.
Originally proposed by Bern Ewert, the former Deputy City Manager who is now running for the Democratic nomination for the Fifth District Congressional seat, the two-lane, truck-free, 35-mph parkway would begin at the new North Grounds connector on the 250 Bypass and end in Green County, just north of Ruckersville. With a price tag in excess of $150 million, Super-visor Dennis Rooker, who represents Albemarle on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, says “no way” to the proposed road.
“The reality is, it just isn’t going to happen,” Rooker says. “I don’t even think the BOS has ever had a presentation on it. This project would never qualify for federal funds, and the County gets just $3.5 million a year in secondary road funds.”
Mitch Van Yahres, Charlottesville’s former State Delegate and another proponent of the parkway, says he’s disappointed that the Supes aren’t interested. Considering Albemarle’s widespread opposition to a similar road, the now-dead Western Bypass, maybe there are more reasons than just money for the board to steer clear of the road.
—Esther Brown
The walls have eyes
CHS TO GET 40 SECURITY CAMERAS
Cameras catch, but may not deter, bad behavior
Charlottesville High School teachers and administrators will have a set of fresh eyes to help monitor the campus next year; specifically, 40 security cameras. This is the first comprehen-sive camera surveillance system in City schools, but it may not be the last. Nationwide, cameras in schools are the latest attempt to curb violence, although there’s no conclusive evidence they actually deter incidents in school.
About 30 percent of all schools have at least one camera, says Dennis White, a research associate and planning analyst at George Washington University’s Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence. White says that, while he regularly fields questions about cameras’ effectiveness in deterring incidents, there is little far-reaching information available, and it frustrates him. “It would be fairly straightforward for the Education Department to include this [question] as a part of their regular surveying,” White says.
Despite the lack of information, last month the Charlottesville School Board approved Acting Superintendent Bobby Thompson’s request to spend $70,000 on the devices, which will re-cord activity in hallways, courtyards and the cafeteria. The expenditure may prove unnecessary, however, as states can use grant money from the federal No Child Left Behind Act to buy surveillance cameras, as well as to buy and install other security devices, such as metal detectors and electronic locks.
Lou Bograd was the lone dissenting vote on the School Board. The former civil liberties lawyers says he comes at the issue as a “civil libertarian,” and that he’s concerned about the es-calation of security measures, especially since CHS was already subject earlier this year to searches by drug-sniffing dogs. Another important factor, he notes, is the effect on school cul-ture.
“One of the things we all say we want to accomplish in our schools is to create a culture of trust and respect, in order to create an environment in which discipline is significantly less of a problem,” Bograd says. “Security cameras in the high school is inconsistent with that goal.”
Moreover, there’s not much reason to think that security cameras will deter the kinds of aggressive behavior seen in some City schools this year. “What’s confusing to me,” Bograd says, “is that the problems that have gotten the attention this year—which have involved some increase in fighting and disrespectful behavior toward teachers and administrators—are precisely not the sort of things that will be addressed by security cameras. They’re the kind of thing that take place in plain view, right in front of teachers.”
—Esther Brown, with additional reporting by Will Goldsmith
