Easy parking
The new automatic payment system for the parking garage in downtown Williamsburg is great. Just enter and exit the garage without any hassle. A picture of your car is taken as you enter and another when you leave. The next day, you are notified via email the amount charged to your credit card account. I wish that the parking lot on the corner of Francis and Henry streets would have the same system. As I am computer challenged, the lovely ladies in the finance office in the municipal building in Williamsburg helped me enroll. Kudos to the ladies and the new system.
Worth a look
I would just like to say that the front page of the Aug. 10 Gazette had one of the most adorable pictures that you have ever printed: two little children and McGruff the crime dog. You did a wonderful job! Thank you.
Colonial Williamsburg
If the Planning Commission does not listen or hear from their affected business owners, and they don’t listen to or hear the shoppers and diners who bring their dollars to Merchants Square, then who in the world are they listening too?
I’m new to Williamsburg (moved here two years ago). My family and I frequently visit the downtown area. From taking a leisurely stroll with our dogs, dining at many of the restaurants, or shopping at some of the stores. We have never once parked in the P3 lot, as it’s always full, so we don’t even check anymore. We’ve had to park near the art museum parking lot on occasion, which is fine with me as we all need to walk more. I’m definitely for redoing the P3 as CW has proposed. CW and downtown need to keep adding reasons to draw both residents and visitors to the area. So glad to see all of the new business moving in, too. Thanks.
Residents of Williamsburg have witnessed a number of changes to CW in recent years that seem incompatible with the charm and culture of the city so many locals and visitors love. Yet another possible change, the proposed Goodwin Square, received an endorsement from the city Planning Commission this week. There is still the possibility of a veto by City Council. If you oppose this project, please express your concerns to City Council.
Converting any of the parking between Blue Talon and Merchants Square into a park is one of the worst and most wasteful ideas in many years. That is one of most important parking spots downtown, particularly for customers who have difficulty walking. Most of the businesses at Merchants Square are opposed, and most of the year a park there would be underutilized. More benches, shade, misters, flowers, water features, etc., out on the Duke of Gloucester Street section of Merchants Square would be better and less expensive. Use common sense, CW and City Council.
Almost all the merchants in Merchants Square are against the proposed Goodwin Plaza. Their concerns are: use of public money for a private project, a decline in customers due to lack of parking, how deliveries to their stores will be made without a loading area, concern of the welfare of the children using the splash area, the sanitation of the area. The Planning Commission forgot the meaning of Merchants Square: a place where merchants gather to sell their merchandise. Merchants Square is not meant to be a romper room.
The trees in the artist’s rendering of Goodwin Square appear to be about 24 feet tall. It will take a while for them to reach maturity. Meanwhile, it will not be nearly as shady as depicted. Maybe they will plant Crepe Myrtles, which will grow faster — but then the blossom droppings will make a mess — and those hard-edged brick planters look dangerous for small children, whom you are encouraging to run around and frolic in the splash fountain nearby.
So why the charade of a public hearing if CW’s real estate guy gets an “aye” on everything, despite the locals who like to shop and dine in Merchants Square being ignored? People said they will opt out of Merchants Square if the parking spaces at P3 are replaced with more green grass. My money will no longer go to CW. Talk about a rug pulled out from under businesses trying to compete. And if there is any tiny city with more beautiful, open, handy green spaces than Williamsburg, we’d like to know where it is. Something weird is going on with the city, and they aren’t helping CW either.
Old white men
I’ve noticed that commenters are constantly complaining about “old white men.” Here are a few facts: old white men aren’t the ones committing the majority of the crimes and aren’t the ones receiving the majority of entitlements, paid by our taxes. Old white men are the ones that are creating the majority of the jobs for all classes of people and pay the most taxes.
Looking for …
I am contemplating buying a hybrid vehicle, but I do not know anyone who drives one. If you do, I would appreciate knowing what vehicle you drive, how long you have driven it and your unbiased opinion. Reply to Last Word or email me at paspr@aol.com. Either way, thank you!
Does anyone know of a place to get my brass polished and sealed in the area? Please reply to Last Word. Thanks in advance.
Can anyone recommend a contractor or carpenter to repair wood rot? I’d like to find someone who has proven experience with replacement of water-related wood damage around windows and doors. Thanks!
For the person looking for a new stylist/hairdresser: I 100% recommend Alexis Ries at Southern Roots in New Town. Call 757-946-9000. Thanks.
Piano accompanist needed by small, fun, volunteer singing group for rehearsals and performances for approximately one hour per week on Tuesday afternoons. Performances are given at assisted living homes in the Williamsburg area. Please send name and contact information to JoyNotesVA@gmail.com.
In response to the person requesting recommendations for a reputable plumber and electrician, here are the ones we have found to be excellent: Aaron Rodgers of James City Heating, Plumbing, and Air Conditioning, 757-566-3123 and Kevin O’Connell of K&K Electric, 757-903-2565.
To the person looking for a reputable plumber, I highly recommend Rich at MerriMac Services, phone 804-557-3655. He has provided excellent service to many of my neighbors and to me. His company also provides equally good heating/air conditioning service. Thank you.
Experienced bow hunter looking for private land in James City County, York County or Williamsburg to bow hunt for the fall season. Please call 757-645-8196. Thank you.
I had a new, $3,500 transmission put in my car in Daytona Beach while I was visiting my 96-year-old father. It worked for a year and a half. The only way they will repair it is if I take it back to them, but there’s no way the car will ever get that far. I live on Social Security and don’t have a lot of money. I need someone who can fix my transmission for a reasonable price. I need a working car to get me to the doctor, do errands and get my granddaughters to school. Suggestions? My number is 784-1699. Thank you.
Recycling
Is there somewhere in James City/York County that will take the plastic containers that the new recycling rules reject? Whole Foods is a trek!
If you have a problem with the new recycling situation, why not team up with neighbors to share a bin and the monthly cost? The new restrictions on what can be recycled means most smaller families could share bins.
Security systems
For those who may be thinking about buying the video security products and doorbells being offered just about everywhere, be aware they don’t work if you don’t have high speed internet. DSL is too slow for these products to work at all. Check the requirements on the box before you buy it. If you are thinking about Christmas gifts already, you might want to find out what type of internet the person has before you spend the money. These products aren’t cheap, so they really need to work.
New stores
There were several announcements last year pertaining to a new Thai restaurant locating in the old Candy Land Space and the Brand Taps opening in two spaces. What is going on with them? They were both slated to be open by now; in fact, they were to open months ago. The construction has just stopped at the beer bar, and the Thai location has never even started. They seem to announce a lot of leases at New Town, but nothing ever materializes.
Noisy restaurants
If you want a noisy environment, it should be in a nightclub or a bar with loud music, not a restaurant. Loud music isn’t good for digestion and it gives you a headache.
Minimum wage
To the commenter so concerned about the minimum wage: $15/hour is pretty much the going rate for everything that you listed, and I would gladly pay that and more if I actually used those services. As I’ve said before in the Last Word, the service economy has been around and is here to stay. It’s up to you to actually use the service, but for God’s sake if you use it, pay your people fairly.
Guns
America’s cases of mental illness per capita are not significantly greater than most other countries, but gun deaths and gun availability are many times higher. It is impossible to believe that a reduction in guns and types of these weapons would not also result in a significant reduction in gun deaths. Even conservative Supreme Court Justice Scalia proclaimed that the 2nd Amendment does not mean unlimited gun ownership. Federal and state legislators who are ruled by the NRA on this issue must be replaced so America can mitigate or eliminate this horrific epidemic.
Epstein’s suicide
Trump’s Attorney General Barr won’t investigate why children accused of no crime weren’t given clean diapers while being held in detention, but he’s going to launch a full investigation into how an alleged sex trafficker of minors was given a clean sheet to hang himself.
Trump never found Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate, the 4 million people who voted illegally or the wiretaps, but his supporters are convinced Hillary was dropped by helicopter on a prison, went down the elevator shaft and killed Epstein.
Paying taxes
Does anyone know the status or where one can find any information on our state government 2018 income tax “windfall refund” and tax reform to equalize the changes caused by the federal tax deduction restructuring? Before tax filing time ’18, this was a big story, but it seems to have disappeared from any state government legislative news. We need to make sure our state legislators know we have not forgotten how proud some of them were about getting this “windfall” at our expense.
Texas shooting
When the white suspect who is accused of massacring 22 people in a Walmart surrendered to the police, he was treated quite kindly. Can anyone imagine the same outcome if the shooter had been brown or black?
Free to you
I have free egg cartons for anyone that wishes for them. Please call 757-564-3336 after 6 p.m. Thank you.
Immigration raids
I would like to offer my personal congratulations to ICE for arresting 680 illegal immigrants in a single day. Need to kick it up to 30,000 a day though to make a significant dent in the illegal immigrant population in our country. Let’s set an objective of all of them removed or in jail pending deportation within five years.
Boy Scout woes
The writer of “Boy Scout woes” in a recent Last Word speaks of a long-ago experience in a Scout unit. To be fair, your readers should be apprised of current procedures to protect youths in Scouting. The article at the following link is the latest information available from the National Office of the Boy Scouts of America: bit.ly/2MjDGCf
School lunches
When Trump became president, the Republican House Freedom Caucus gave him a list of more than 300 rules and regulations they wanted revoked and Trump has been complying. Obama’s healthier school lunches was one of the first to be cancelled. Despite schools across the country reporting they are able to bear the cost and that most children were getting used to the meals with more fruit, vegetables, whole grains and nutritional value, Trump’s agriculture secretary has ordered the meals to be returned to the cheaper, but less nutritional. How is this making America great?
Into every life
It’s a shame that, with all the time and expense it took to remodel all the area at McDonald’s, that no one thought to put awnings in the drive-through lanes so that the customers would not get wet when placing or picking up an order.
Cigarette butts
Since cigarette smokers don’t seem to care for their own health, how can we expect them to care about the plight of the planet? Tossing cigarette butts is a usual act for many, with smokers not knowing or caring the damage they do to land and water, and other creatures.
Road worries
To joggers and bicyclists who take the chance of being on the roads in the dark with no lights, no reflectors and dark clothing: Somebody is going to get hurt.
I have submitted a suggestion to the Virginia Department of Transportation in the past without ever receiving a reply. It would be nice if a pedestrian crossing were placed at the light on Bypass/Commons Way. Motels are on one side of the street and families trying to run across five lanes of 45 MPH traffic to get to Cracker Barrel or Golden Corral — it’s dangerous. There is a light at the intersection and no pedestrian crossing anywhere close by. Since the intersection controlled by light, why not put a Ped Xing at this intersection?
Given that every weekend in the summer, Interstate 64 turns into a parking lot, VDOT should advise all of the beach bunnies that when they’re going to and returning from Virginia Beach, they should use Route 460 to get to Interstate 95.
It’s Tuesday. It’s raining. The police and fire departments are attending to a car in a ditch on Route 199 because Virginia drivers have no concept of the coefficient of friction and don’t realize that a wet road is a slick road and you can’t drive on it the same way you do when it’s dry.
I would urge whoever owns the Courthouse Commons shopping area to keep the greenery in the middle of the entrance road well-trimmed. I frequently drive from the Starbucks side to the Fresh Market side, and it has become very difficult to see if there are any cars turning in from Monticello Avenue as I cross. It is an accident waiting to happen.
Back to school
As our children and grandchildren go back to school now, it might be important for us to look at their classrooms and see whether there are any hazards besides the evil ones, unfortunately, such as asbestos in the ceiling tile or lead in the water or even mold in the classroom. It’s important to know, so be sure you check on it in case your child comes home with allergies, coughing or runny eyes. It might not just be a cold.
Recommended
I strongly recommend to all car owners to pursue the best car detailing business right here in Williamsburg, at 5691 Mooretown Road. Email info@ishineforyouautodetailing.com. Call 757-378-2844. He is the consummate professional, using the finest materials in crafting your car back to like-new condition. Fall/winter is coming! Protect your asset — and he offers gift cards!
I would like to recommend Roy Richardson with Powhatan Plumbing for anyone needing a plumber. My family has used Roy for the last 10 years. We couldn’t be any happier or any more pleased with the work and service he has provided us with over that time! Thanks, Roy. He can be reached at 757-342-1380.
Mental health care
With all the “oh, it was OK for him to buy a gun, he was mentally ill” statements floating, it seems time for a diagnosis of mental illness to be accompanied by an automatic legal guardianship. If mental Illness is a pass for murder, among other deadly acts, it’s past time to establish a sensible and sensitive way to provide a network of safety, for both the sick and the public. Let’s see mental care experts and jurisdictional experts pull together a useful package for our sick and our well.
President’s visit
A previous writer stated that demonstrators outnumbered Trump supporters 10:1 at the Jamestown Commemoration event. Trump supporters were inside the event listening to the president’s speech and easily outnumbered demonstrators several hundred to one. Great turn out for the president, not so much for demonstrators.
Up in Washington
In response to the recent submission stating that since Trump plays at his own golf courses it doesn’t cost taxpayers: You’re wrong and it’s even worse. Since the POTUS must travel with a huge entourage, many federal employees must stay at Trump’s resorts. They are charged for staying there and since Trump hasn’t divested himself from his businesses, it stands to reason that he is profiting from the taxpayers.
The difference between the cost of President Trump playing golf and Obama doing it is that President Trump works many more hours per day than Obama ever did. Also, President Trump actually gets something done; Obama, not so much.
The reason that Trump has lost substantial support among non-college educated white men and women is that he promised health care for everyone at a fraction of the cost and a $4,000 savings on their taxes. You don’t need a college degree to know when you’ve been had.
Frankly, I believe President Trump could care less about polls. We can all remember all of the poll predictions of a landslide victory in 2016 — how did that turn out? Pollsters like to ignore the fact that many of those choosing not to vote for Trump in 2016 will vote for him in 2020, myself included. President Trump will do just fine in 2020.
The world markets are responding to the reappearance of a market factor called an “inverted yield curve.” An inverted yield curve is defined when long-term market yields have fallen below short-time market yields. This is an important market indicator because in the past century, every recession has been preceded by a period in which this has occurred. If the world economy falls into recession during the third year of the Trump presidency, he will own it and will not be able to blame it on the Clintons, President Obama, the Fed chairman, or any other of his favorite bogeymen. This will sit squarely on his shoulders, planting the last nail into the coffin of the myth that he is a smart businessman.
Is Trump oblivious to the fact that every time North Korea tests a ballistic missile in violation of U.N. resolutions, they are learning how to build one to hit any city in America with pinpoint accuracy?
It’s awfully decent of the president to hold off some Chinese tariffs until after the Christmas shopping season. I guess he wants his followers who go to Walmart to feel happy this Christmas.
A lot of Last Word writers feel free to disrespect the current president of the United States. It doesn’t make any difference if the current president is a Democrat or Republican. Please remember that if you disrespect my president, I will view it as proper to disrespect your president to a higher degree. After a while, there will be no civility left when discussing the office of the president of the United States. We need to step back and respect it regardless of who is the occupant. If we don’t respect our president, how much negotiation strength will he or she have when dealing with other governments?
Trump says he postponed 30 billion in tariffs to save Christmas. Why doesn’t he collect the money and send every man, woman and child $100 for Christmas, other than the fact that despite what he’s been saying for more than a year, he hasn’t collected any money from the Chinese. It’s all from importers, from consumers.
Thank you
On Friday, I fell on my back outside the CVS on Jamestown Road. Three very kind women assisted me and escorted me into the store where the pharmacist also helped me. The manager helped me to my car. Thanks to all. On Sunday in the drive through, the same pharmacist inquired about my condition. Only in a small town!
Kudos to Mellow Mushroom in Merchants Square! Not only do they serve the best pizza and beer, but they’re also environmentally cool! Drinks are served in glasses, not plastic cups, and utensils are stainless steel. And the takeout box was cardboard, not Styrofoam. Also, Food for Thought, a restaurant on Richmond Road, has vegan and vegetarian choices. Yay! Congratulations to both restaurants for serving the environment.
