Charlottesville : The Cityscape of Change

Overshadowed by urban growth is this restaurant on the tracks that has this big green monolith beside it. The restaurant is a popular one. Many of our towns folks frequent it. The new monster next to it has an overwhelming presence when anyone passes by this area. The city wants and can use the new blood of this structure but it is a dramatic change none the less to the city skyline. But what goes on in our land is growth and sometimes it covers the quaint that was beloved and cherished by many for the newness of expansion of our economic engine. This happened with this situation and has happened in the American cityscape over the last hundred and fifty years. Nothing new under the sun, just more of the same...change happens and one must become adjusted to its manifestation. In this case, its huge swallowing up the quaint and small.

A bright morning on the streets of Charlottesville one will find many people walking on its main avenues' sidewalks to downtown. West Main street connects the downtown city (where most of the private businesses and government offices are located) and the rest of the city. But many people choose to live in other sections of the city like the black area of 'Page Street Corridor' or the Fifeville area or JPA (Jefferson Park Ave) or in the student apartment area of 14th St. Wherever it is west of the downtown has two main streets that reach the downtown area. The choice many make is to 'bus it' or 'walk it' via W. Main Street and/or Preston Ave. If one chooses W. Main Street it is lined by many small businesses and bars/ restaurants where this city gets its charm from, or so it seems to me. I have been spending my time during the last couple of years photographing many of its buildings in order to make an effort to paint them. It seemed to me …