Up Against the Cookie Cutter

Government over-regulation is certainly in the eye of the beholder. I remember a few years ago when a fast-food joint tried to make a constitutional case (even holding "Pro-Freedom" rallies!) out of the fact that Albemarle County told them they had to replace their large advertising banner with a smaller one. I tried my best to muster some sympathy for the business owner in question, but the regulations in that case made a lot of sense to me (can anyone truly claim that what suburbia needs is BIGGER and LOUDER roadside advertising?) and the fast-food place was clearly in violation of those regulations. I suppose the Libertarians would say that the reason we need to rally for the rights of national fast-food chains is that emboldened government regulators will come after the rest of us next. And when you hear about cases like the Henrico County couple who are facing a big fine for having a bathtub planter in their backyard (as featured in today's Daily Progress), you do have wonder if there's some logic to their argument. (I loved the wife's quote from that article: "Why do you have to have a cookie-cutter backyard? We're not cookie-cutter people." Classic.) In my mind, however, there's a big difference between issuing a notice of violations to a roast beef chain over unauthorized signage and, say, conducting an armed raid on a small family farm for incorrect labeling of products. Few of us know all the facts behind the situation with Double H Farm, but they are well-regarded vendors at our City Market and the apparent heavy-handedness with which they were treated this past week is troubling. And when you compare it to the way that national food producers are treated for much graver lapses (as Harry Landers has pointed out), it does bring up some serious questions about the scales of justice in our country. For info. on donating to a defense fund for the owners of Double H Farm, click here.

Manufacturing Woes

It may be hard to believe now, but for the better part of a century, our community was known far and wide for its manufacturing prowess.

THEN: "Manufacturing plays an increasingly critical role in the economy of both [Charlottesville] city and [Albemarle] county. Manufacturing employment doubled during the decade of the '50s and increased by 50 percent during the '60s. It is still growing....Among the largest of these [local manufacturing firms], in terms of employment, are Acme Visible Records, Inc.; Frank Ix & Sons, Inc.; Morton Frozen Foods Division of ITT Continental Baking Company, Inc.; Murray Manufacturing Division of Arrow Hart, Inc.; Sperry Rand Corporation Marine Systems; and Stromberg-Carlson subsidiary of General Dynamics Corporation. Annual manufacturing payroll is approximately $75 million." Chamber of Commerce Guide to Charlottesville, Virginia, 1976


Charlottesville Silk Mill, 1914 (on Harris St., behind where the Preston Ave. Bodo's now stands)

NOW: "The loss of the Badger Fire Protection facility is only the latest in a long string of manufacturing plants in the Charlottesville area to shut its doors. 'We're moving into a global economy and that means manufacturing jobs get lost,' said Bob De Mauri, executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development. 'Corporately owned international companies don't care about the jobs, they just care about the bottom line.'...[F]rom 1997 to 2004, Albemarle County lost between 26 percent and 50 percent of its manufacturing jobs. Charlottesville lost one out of every two manufacturing jobs. A Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce study in August found that the region lost 2,520 manufacturing jobs from 1995 to 2005." "Region Lacks Manufacturing," Daily Progress, 12/3/06 [emphasis added]


Charlottesville Woolen Mills, 1913

When you see how many manufacturing jobs we've lost in recent years, contrasted with our rapid gain in retail and service sector jobs and despite a low overall unemployment rate, you quickly begin to grasp why it is that working-class wages have remained relatively stagnant in these parts.

I want my local economy back.