outskirts: life and times in charlottesville

In recent months the ‘Kill Whitey’ graffiti artist has been enjoying their freedom of expression (I bet TJ would love to do a bottle of wine with him/her). Village elders used to take weeks to eradicate the paintings, but that improved with the most recent sketch.

Although I’m not a graffiti artist expert (although I have played one on TV), I think he/she may have been back at work during our recent snowstorm. This lovely art is now up on a building near the Avon Street Bridge where the historic buildings were bulldozed.

Zooming in a bit gives a great sense of the importance of the art.

Is the image trying to show sadness and despair for the destruction of history, or is the artist feeling suicidal due to the fact that his/her work continues to be erased from the planet? I guess that doesn’t really matter. All that matters is how long will it take the village to eradicate this latest artwork?

No, I’m not talking about response time to dealing with snow (although we may find out tonight when up to one inch may fall) – I’m talking about dealing with the ‘Kill Whitey’ graffiti artist here in C-Ville.

This one was first spotted on Tuesday morning, and at some point during the day of Thursday it was eradicated. It is now just a lovely gray rectangle.

Not only is a 48 hour turnaround impressive, it is even more amazing since it is cold as hell outside. How on Earth did the artist and the cover-up crew manage to paint with these extreme temperatures?

I wonder when the artist will strike once again. If anyone knows, feel free to pass it along. I’ll keep my frozen eyes peeled.

As we know, C-Ville is a place of friendliness and peace, especially during the holidays. That is why I’m wondering what exactly this graffiti means. It has been up on the lovely Garrett Road wall since the day before Thanksgiving. Hundreds of commuters see this every single day.

Here are my best guesses.

Kill Whitey is a new band in the area. We know how musical this place is (or should I say “think” they are..since DBM is really not music..it is crap). So, has anyone heard of Kill Whitey?

Whitey is in the kitchen with Mrs. Plumb playing with a candlestick, if you know what I mean. Someone is about to get killed.

Someone meant to write Bill Whitey, but they smoked a lot, so didn’t know how to spell their own first name.

Anyone else have a guess? I’m just wondering why it has taken so long to paint over this one. Probably everyone is so busy with the holidays that no one really cares who gets killed around here.

A look back at the wall: Frenchy, French Fried, Hoof Hearted, This Way is Better, and Smiley Face Gang.

In the past year the number of pedestrians that have been attacked by careless drivers in automobiles have skyrocketed here in Charlottesville. Comparing the data^* (obtained from the Charlottesville Police Department) of first four months of 2008 to the equivalent data in 2009 one can see that the number of times a driver of a car was ticketed for failure to give the right-of-way to a pedestrian has gone up by 500%.

Have automobile drivers become more aggressive? Have too many watched Death Race 2000 (or the remake)? Or is the local police department just writing more tickets than in the past?

I’d be willing to be it is the former since I actually walk on our streets and on a daily basis you can tell that locals really don’t understand the concept of a pedestrian (or driving in general). Since drivers are clueless (and have already killed two pedestrians this year) the local authorities are stepping up their efforts. We’ve gotten at least a dozen new LED flashing crosswalks installed during the past two months, as well as signs that indicate pedestrian crossings.

Next time you go to cross the road just remember what Nero the Hero said as he ran down the pedestrians, “Bye-bye Baby! Hello 70 points!”

^*Thanks to Tipster K who obtained the data on number of pedestrian incidents from the Charlottesville Police Department.

There must have been at least a dozen police cars. Turns out there was a standoff with a person that was threatening others. I saw a ton of things getting thrown out of a second story window and a lot of officers swarming around the house. I would have gotten more photos, but the area got closed to the public and it was suggested I don’t take any pictures…if you know what I mean. So I didn’t.

Perhaps someone had heard enough stories about how perfect life is here in C-Ville. Or not. Maybe their stimulus package wasn’t large enough.

If you voted in the village your personal information has been stolen. Please contact credit authorities as soon as you can.

As is always the case, they claim our SSN were not included in the stolen info, but do you really believe anything said by the authorities in the village?

The village is all atither (what word am I looking for?) about a shooting on the UVA corner this morning. C-(I used to be a)Villain has all the scoop. Looks like the shooter is still on the loose.

This goes hand in hand with the report about crime in the area that came out just two days ago. Crime down, murders up.

Same o, same o. Nothing new here. Keep moving.

Interested in seeing the upside of the village and seeing the “can’t miss” parts of town?

From a tipster I got this info:

Just started mapping crime in C-ville. Thought you would find it interesting. Incidentally, C’ville PD has refused to share data even though they are going to do their own map sometime soon. I did this without any taxpayer money in three hours.

Not sharing data. Hmm….why doesn’t that surprise me.

Map of crime in C-Ville
Map of crime at UVA (other than the football team in general)

Thanks for the maps!

Seems as if C-Ville is debating if they want a 4th sister city. Would you really want to be associated with a city that has been debating what to do about its water supply for decades, and has now decided to do nothing since we are bankrupt? We sure will be thirsty. I hope the other city accepts our refugees.

One of our other sisters is Bulgarian. Seems as if C-Ville wants to be a “democratic liberator” for that town. I can’t wait to see what happens when we teach them how to piss off all the locals by getting rid of their softball fields.

I could go on about how civilized this village is, but that would force me to ignore the fun things that happen such as stabbings in front of the basket supply store in our fancy mall, or multiple shootings at the U Heights (is that a new TV series?). I’d continue with the jump in moped thefts, the reduction in quarterbacks, and the confessions of the Sex-shuns (I think that was a band), but I’ve lost all my energy.

In an effort to make C-Ville a more pedestrian-friendly village 58 people were in court the other day that had been ticketed for trespassing on the railroad tracks behind the Corner.

A tipster reports that in 2007 the city police wrote 8 tickets to drivers for failing to yield to pedestrians and 12 so far in 2008.

I know I was sprinting as fast as I could the other night to get across the tracks to X-Lounge. Was I breaking the law just to get a drink? I recall a lot of cars hitting bicyclists over the past few years, and the drivers never get tickets. Why should pedestrians have to fight with the low quality drivers around here. A train seems like a vastly better risk.

I’m still peeved that the village won’t let people walk across the tracks under the Belmont bridge. When one is trying to catch a bus you have to walk through the musical marshmallow, and the crapshawvian rules force you to walk all the way around it during pointless performances. I was late for my bus the other day. If the city would just add a pedestrian walkway under the bridge life would be so much better. But I keep forgetting the goal of the village is to destroy the quality of existence.

No one gets hurt. Let pedestrians walk across tracks. How else could that Stephen King movie get made? Does the village want to stifle Hollywood?