Norris, Fenwick would save park

I’m voting for Bob Fenwick and Dave Norris for Charlottesville City Council, and I urge everyone who cares about the quality of life in Charlottesville to do the same.

Bob will work to shelve the Meadowcreek Parkway for good and preserve McIntire Park in its entirety. I’m basing my vote on this issue because the Meadowcreek Parkway is a disaster for Charlottesville. People have been fighting it for decades for good reason. It will increase traffic downtown and seriously compromise a beautiful, valuable park. Its interchange with U.S. 250, regardless of design, will be monstrous in size and will forever change the character of that area. 
Kristin Szakos, a third candidate, acknowledges that the parkway is bad for the city, but denies her ability to solve the problem as a councilor. She says that since past councilors agreed to the parkway, future councilors’ hands are tied. However, the fact that the county has not upheld its end of the bargain makes this argument nonsense.

Just on Oct. 9, county supervisors again declared their opposition to the eastern bypass. It is clear in the language of key documents that the city considered the bypass as one of the necessary prerequisites to its cooperation.
The eastern bypass is likely to bisect one or two county parks and county citizens seem to have a problem with that (sound familiar ?). But with no bypass, the Meadowcreek Parkway routes traffic from the county through the heart of Charlottesville instead of around it. 

A second deal between the city and the Virginia Department of Transportation is also not being honored. The city only agreed to the parkway pending an acceptable grade-separated interchange at U.S. 250. The latest plan submitted in August from VDOT to the Army Corps of Engineers for approval shows a 17-lane at-grade intersection (without an interchange). This plan would be a disaster for traffic flow. 
We need people on council who will protect the people of Char-lottesville, not passively accept this broken “agreement.” Vote for Bob Fenwick and Dave Norris.