Disqus - Latest Comments for joshcvt

Re: D.C. United Faces Fruious Fans After Supporter Is Slapped With One-Year Ban

JoshC — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 13:35:32 -0000

You know what you're doing, and in the stands even if someone is freaked out they can move away pretty easily. In the tunnel there's no choice. (No one would build a single approach tunnel from parking lot to stadium that long and narrow now. It's a crowd safety problem even when things go well.)

I've got no serious problem with smoke devices in identified supporters sections in the stands -- if I don't want to deal with them that night, I'll sit elsewhere. But keep them out of enclosed spaces.

Re: D.C. United Faces Fruious Fans After Supporter Is Slapped With One-Year Ban

JoshC — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 13:14:13 -0000

Well, my first game was in 1997 against the Dallas Burn, so I probably would know what's going on, thanks. And the folks in the tailgate group I usually go with these days know what to expect when we wind up behind the DUs in the tunnel (though we usually stick with the Barra). But the families behind us just stopped, kids screaming with the unexpected noise and smoke, and tried to turn around and run the opposite direction, smack into the oncoming crowd. And the people leading the Ashburn U8 team 100 feet behind, seeing smoke billowing from the tunnel, are looking to see if there's a way to climb up and maybe lead their group across the highway instead of getting jammed into whatever the hell is going on up front.

Asking the supporters groups to exercise judgment in an enclosed area with lots of newbs is a small, reasonable request. I don't know the rest of what went into the DCU/DU dispute, but setting off smoke devices in a tunnel is stupid and deserves punishment.

Re: D.C. United Faces Fruious Fans After Supporter Is Slapped With One-Year Ban

JoshC — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 12:07:01 -0000

The tunnel to Lot 8 is also an enclosed area and major foot traffic chokepoint. Blocking visibility through a tunnel is a big deal. I'm not unilaterally against smoke bombs or tifo, but that's a jackass place to do it. Save it until you're in open air.

Re: Virginia Beach Official Says Millennials ‘Can Move to Norfolk’ if They Like Transit So Much

JoshC — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 16:29:24 -0000

I have to say I admire your cheek: criticizing an opponent for predictability in one paragraph, then using Portland as your top example for mid-scale metropolitan mass transit in the next. An elevated mind this one indeed is. (You're talking about 84% driving trip share Portland, anyway, even with a single CBD, decades of highly-regulated development, and Multnomah County being far more dominant in its region's decision-making than any of Hampton Roads's seven cities.)

You want practical? Busses. Increased frequency, better maintenance, perhaps more extensive routes. That'll help more car-free Hampton Roads residents every day, right now, than the Tide carries in a week in the densest jurisdiction in the area. It's not keeping up with Springfield and North Haverbrook, and it doesn't boost the value of condos at Virginia Beach Town Center, but I don't think that's what public transit is for.

Re: Virginia Beach Official Says Millennials ‘Can Move to Norfolk’ if They Like Transit So Much

JoshC — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 12:45:13 -0000

The thinking above is that of the first-time London tourist who spends months ahead of the trip staring at Beck's map lovingly. While there, he regularly takes 20-minute, two-transfer Tube rides to travel four physical blocks and never leaves Travelcard Zones 1 and 2 except on the Heathrow Express on his way in and out. Then he comes home talking about how well he understood the city and complains from his SFH on .25 acres that a 250 mi², 500,000-person suburb with 75% of construction <50 years old and largely ADA-compliant doesn't work exactly the same.

Virginia Beach is a city in no way except per the Virginia constitution. It is functionally a suburban county, with a dispersed network of job centers and housing. Several of those job centers are themselves medium-sized low-density quasi-industrial developments enclosed by security barriers. The Tide is cute and there's nothing wrong with its VB route as a tourist attraction (I'll happily use it when I go!), but don't kid yourself that large numbers of suburban residents will regularly choose walk-bus-train-bus commutes over one-seat car rides.

Re: Virginia Beach Official Says Millennials ‘Can Move to Norfolk’ if They Like Transit So Much

JoshC — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 17:17:38 -0000

The road network serves everyone in Virginia Beach, with access points within walking distance of their homes. The Tide extension will serve an insignificant percentage of VB residents within walking distance of their homes, as a premium service to go with the roads that already serve them. (The claim of a huge millennial population share in VB is interesting; the link that was provided to back it says nothing about VB. One should also remember that a _huge_ share of young census residents of south Hampton Roads, including VB, are enlisted military whose workplaces aren't and won't be served by the Tide.)

I object to the treasurer attempting to ramrod another referendum through after the voters supported it, but his position has merit. That said, the extension won definitively and he needs to get out of the way.

Re: Beating The Rap – Not Just for Rappers

JoshC — Wed, 27 May 2015 23:50:46 -0000

Fundamental change in military culture, massive recruitment campaign, enlistee pay somewhat competitive with civilian market, and acceptance of inevitably smaller ROK forces both domestically and by the ROK's US ally (assuming the ROK wants to keep said ally) just for starters.

Many other countries have (of course) made that transition, but it's a massive undertaking, and few of them had an avowed enemy the size of the KPA on their border as they did it.

Re: Call Me ‘Miss’ At Your Peril

JoshC — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:26:33 -0000

Growing up in central Virginia, as a young child "Mrs. _____" was for people we didn't know or serious authority figures -- specifically including parents of other children *our own age*, as much to reinforce parental authority as anything. "Miss _____" (often drawled to Miz) was for respectful but familiar contexts -- the "Miss _____"s that stand out in my mind are Sunday school teachers (young or old, married or not, parents or not) and the widowed neighbor next door who may as well have been a third grandmother to us.

Some of the contexts we used "Miss ______" in would probably drop to a first name now -- it's a less formal society now than in the 1980s.

Re: Report: NHL proposes conference realignment, new playoff format

JoshC — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:48:20 -0000

Hockey's played in the West? That's a good one. Next you'll tell NBC (and NBCSN) (and the league's marketing office) that hockey is played on the East Coast south of Washington. No way anyone would believe something that silly.

I'm still totally unsympathetic to Detroit. If their results in the Western Conference over the past nearly 20 years constitute suffering, give me some of that suffering any year. But since Detroit is an Original 6 team, they have the political pull to get their way. So it goes.

Re: Welcome to the San Francisco Bulls (and good luck)

JoshC — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:42:57 -0000

What was the ticket price differential when the Spiders were in town? It seems that the gap would be much wider now than it was then, plus the Sharks are much more clearly established in the region.

If the Bulls' owners are fortunate, the Sharks will see that, especially at current NHL prices, there's much more room below them in the pecking order now than there was back then.

Re: in the “oh my god, hell just froze over” department…

JoshC — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:56 -0000

Two catches on that:

1) Are Sharks tickets as guaranteed to sell as Yankees tickets?
2) If you don't like spending your expected return in advance of receipt, you can't make extensive advance plans the way Chuq is talking about if you put the whole hockey budget over to the Sharks up-front.

I heartily endorse the Edmonton-Red Deer-Calgary trifecta if the schedulemaker is your friend next year -- I wasn't able to work a WHL stop into my Alberta trip this year, as the only weekend that made sense was the Sharks' back-to-backer in October when only the Oil Kings and Hitmen were at home.

Also, I'd almost suggest doing Ottawa-Montreal and Toronto/Southern Ontario as separate trips if you can get east twice. Quebec City is worth adding to an Ottawa/Montreal itinerary (buy Remparts tickets in advance, though -- I missed my game because I foolishly assumed they wouldn't fill the Colisée), but it's quite the drive if you've started in Toronto. You could conceivably add the Sabres to a Southern Ontario itinerary, too.

Re: GoCHO – Charlottesville Airport Getting More Flights?

JoshC — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:46:55 -0000

I don't think that's what the map says. I think it's just demonstrating what's available now via the combined network, and including RIC as an option for Charlottesville travelers.

If anything changes ex-CHO after the merger, maybe we get a flight or two to EWR. First, no matter what UA/CO say pre-federal approval about maintaining all their hubs, CLE is going to get downgraded just like Delta did to Cincinnati after the Northwest merger. ORD is at full capacity; UA could have given us a flight there a long time ago if they wanted. And while IAH would give us a ton of new one-stop destinations, and is the new flight I'd like to see most, I doubt we'll be a top priority for them among current UA-only markets in the Southeast.

Re: FAU to play a home game... in Detroit?

JoshC — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:17:16 -0000

This is a pretty old trend, actually -- in 1991, Virginia Tech played a "home" matchup with Florida State in Orlando. Mid-majors gotta pay the bills somehow, and that's what VT was at the time.

Re: 1st and Five: Things I Wish Would Make a Comeback in CFB

JoshC — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:27:02 -0000

Same case with the ACC, save Randy Shannon

Huh? Frank Beamer, Al Groh, and Ralph Friedgen are all alumni of their respective employers.

Re: Does anyone still wonder why no free agents want to play in Montreal?

JoshC — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:45:45 -0000

You'd be surprised how many California kids are starting to get NCAA scholarships or play in the WHL -- the NHLers will come. Same thing with Virginia and Texas, though players from those states tend to go strictly college. (Hell, the LA Kings have the NHL's first native North Carolinian playing for them.) The problem with your position is that its logical conclusion is that the NHL should never have exposed these kids to hockey, and instead should have left those slots to the kids from traditional hockey hotbeds who, in the real world, weren't good enough to compete.

It's amazing how people who claim to be protecting the game really want it to be populated by lesser athletes and offered to fewer spectators, as long as they all look and act the same. What is it that you really like -- hockey the sport, or hockey the quasi-homogenous culture?

Re: Does anyone still wonder why no free agents want to play in Montreal?

JoshC — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:56:59 -0000

During the Montreal press's ritual denunciation of Danny Briere for signing with someone other than the Habs in summer 2007, it occurred to me to do some similar research.

In the last ten years (1999-2008), the Habs have had eleven first-round picks. Six of those players, including the last three in a row, were American; three were European (including Andrei Kostitsyn) and just two were Canadian. Even Lou Lamoriello in New Jersey only took two Americans (out of his eight picks) in that time span. I don't think it's happenstance that the Habs take a high percentage of players who, by nationality, might seem less immediately susceptible to the media lunacy surrounding the team -- if only because they're less likely to have studied the language and their friends back home don't get RDS or TSN.

Re: Leach, Texas Tech agree on new contract extension

JoshC — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:02:27 -0000

Myers could remain in office, but it definitely signifies Leach drinking Myers' milkshake.

Back in late November 2000, UNC nearly hired Frank Beamer away from Virginia Tech after a subtle power struggle between him and recently-hired AD Jim Weaver went bad. As the story goes, after the UNC deal broke, *previous* VT president Paul Torgersen (who had retired that January and remained very well-respected in Blacksburg) was called by high-dollar *academic* donors to negotiate directly with Beamer, on the grounds that this power struggle was embarrassing the university. Once the two of them had reached a deal, the new president (a former Torgersen underling) was called in to formalize things. Weaver was the last guy let in on the deal, and his position in the hierarchy was pretty well-established from then on.

Re: Comcast, Embarq or Verizon?

JoshC — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:03:09 -0000

Argh, SO much FUD about HD here.

Of the local channels, only WVIR (NBC29) and WHTJ (PBS -- 41) broadcast over-the-air (OTA) in HD. The Gray stations (WCAV CBS19, WVAW ABC16, and WAHU Fox 27) don't have the OTA bandwidth yet. After the OTA digital transition, they'll have the bandwidth, but Gray still has to decide to actually transmit HD, and I've seen no indication either way yet from them. Comcast receives a private HD feed from the Gray stations, which is how they're able to distribute them in HD.

Dish and DirecTV choose for themselves (a) which local stations they're going to distribute and (b) whether they'll take them in HD. Dish has chosen to take them all in SD, DTV isn't doing any at present. Don't expect Charlottesville locals in HD from either for a while if at all -- our market is not big enough to be a priority.

Re: The Return of "Tough Love"

JoshC — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:09:39 -0000

The main problem with a media ban is that it's not a targeted weapon: it punishes the other team playing and its fans as well as the team it's meant for.

Re: What are the Chances the Charlottesville Airport would Close?

JoshC — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:55:48 -0000

CHO will have no problem keeping commercial service for the same reason that most of us drive to Richmond or Dulles: the high fares airlines are capable of charging here, between the amount of wealth in this region and UVa traffic that doesn't really have a choice.

According to their website, "In 1996, the Business Travel Coalition (BTC) was formed as an advocacy organization to represent the interests of corporate buyers of business travel services." My read is that they're deathly concerned with the legacy "major" airlines that have proven themselves almost completely incapable of running profitable businesses, but that give frequent (usually business) travelers minor perks and feed their egos with status recognition.

I'd rather see the legacies fail as they should have done years ago in a free market, clearing room for competent carriers like Southwest and JetBlue to expand within the existing infrastructure.

Re: What if the Meadowcreek Parkway didn’t exist?

JoshC — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:49:57 -0000

Not if a real Eastern Connector was in the cards. But since it's not, we're stuck with half measures.

Re: Would you buy a house with this HOA restriction?

JoshC — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:25:52 -0000

Well, I sure wouldn't move there if I had kids -- which may be their aim.

Re: Charlottesville’s Town Centers

JoshC — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:14:11 -0000

Of course Pentagon Row is superior in the new-urbanist genre to RTC. It exists in a high-density subregion where people can truly live without cars (and could do so, though not as easily, before PR came along), and can access many other parts of the larger region through convenient, high-frequency mass transit. I lived within a mile of Reston Town Center for about three years, and Neil's 80%-drivers estimate is conservative. And here's why: you can't go without a car in western Fairfax County, even if you do live in the nonexistent perfect new-urbanist development, because you can't get to anywhere else easily without one. Going without a car there turns you into a resident of an over-retailed small town with a sky-high cost of living. That's not why people move to Fairfax County.

It's great that people are thinking about smart growth in Charlottesville, but this is not a large metropolis, and no matter how great our bus system becomes, a huge portion of the region's population will remain unserved/underserved by it. This is not Arlington or Alexandria. We have no Metro, nor is one coming. Our population density is not that high, nor are we that rich, nor (thankfully) are we that eminent-domain-happy. No "town center" development that discourages drive-in traffic could survive here outside of very close proximity to the UVa campus and downtown (i.e. close enough for students to walk) -- there's just not enough money that can/will walk onto a property on the fringe. Let's be realistic about the need to serve vehicular traffic and we'll all be better off.

Re: Should be on your radar

JoshC — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:22:17 -0000

I'm sure contractors in particular will make some effort to hire locally -- nobody wants to pay relocation money. But understand that obtaining a new clearance, probably higher than TS, for most of the professional jobs at NGIC will be a long process (12 to 18 months), and site security policy may not allow personnel into the building until a clearance is finally granted.

In that case, two issues apply. #1, even if it takes 2-4 months and several thousand dollars to relocate, a pre-cleared person from DC or straight out of the uniformed services can come on much faster than Sara's fresh, uncleared UVa graduate. #2, assuming that fresh, uncleared Hoo gets hired, what's s/he going to do for the next 12-18 months while awaiting clearance? In the DC area, there are other government jobs where that kind of movement is expected, and the large contractors sometimes have other assignments in which to "stash" their personnel awaiting clearance. That infrastructure isn't present here.

Re: We donâ€™t need studies. We need action. We need a plan.

JoshC — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:53:39 -0000

Virginia Postrel has a quite interesting article in the November issue of the Atlantic Monthly on how trends in land use planning, and the associated movement in real estate prices, are creating cultural self-segregation across regions.

The focus of the article is national, but the actions of individual municipal and state government planning commissions build these national trends, so I think it's quite relevant to take this into account when we consider our local plans. It's not only what kind of infrastructure and buildings we will build; it's what kind of cost structure this will create, and thus what kind of population this future region will attract.