The Cape Charles Planning Commission met on Tuesday, November 3, to continue its work updating the Comprehensive Plan. With the Town still breathless from its latest hiring spree, the Planning Commission made sure to provide ample room in the Comp Plan for them to make further purchases to accommodate the burgeoning staff. On page 54, the Plan notes that obtaining properties at the historic Rosenwald School, as well as the Schlegal property, are listed as options. Expanding 201 Mason for Town offices is also mentioned. In the same section, the Commission made sure to put the final dagger in the heart of a Community Center for underserved members of the Lower Shore, by changing the language from definitively planning for a community center, to “improving the Civic Center for community activities.”
Along those lines, Natali noted that since there had never been any discussion regarding building basketball courts in Cape Charles, they should look at removing that language from page 61, which lists items earmarked as part of the Capital Improvement Plan. Discussion on removing Item 11 on the list, “Basketball Court, including fencing”.
207 Mason Ave
The Commission held a public hearing for an application for Conditional Use Permit for building a set of residential dwelling units above the ground floor at 207 Mason Avenue. The exact number of citizens that appeared for the hearing could not be determined, but it was estimated to be close to 0. This is not 207’s first time at the dance. After being purchased in 2010, the property received a conditional use permit, as well as approved building permits ( The most recent conditional use permit was granted by Town Council on December 9, 2010). However, no construction has ever begun, and the original conditional use permit and all building-related permits have since expired. The applicant is in the process of re-applying through the process from square one. Staff report notes, “Article III Section 3.6.C allows single-family and multi-family residential dwelling units above the first floor as a conditional use in the Commercial-1 district”. The original plans that were submitted during the original permitting process were re-submitted for the latest application.
Town Planner Larry DiRe started, “After reviewing the application, I can’t find any reason not to go ahead and approve this application. That is my recommendation.”
Commissioner Natali asked DiRe, “If I remember correctly, there was a stop work order placed on that property, is that correct?”
“Yes,” said DiRe. “Zoning did put a stop work order due to the fact that they were not building the walls properly.”
“So, that will be taken up again?” asked Natali.
“Oh yes. The permitting process will start over and code enforcement will require that the walls are built, so as to be structurally correct,” DiRe said.
“Usually a structural engineer will be brought in to remedy the walls issue,” Commissioner Bucholz added.
The Commission approved the Special Use Permit.
“Along those lines, Natali noted that since there had never been any discussion regarding building basketball courts in Cape Charles, they should look at removing that language from page 61, which lists items earmarked as part of the Capital Improvement Plan. Discussion on removing Item 11 on the list, “Basketball Court, including fencing”.”
Just another day in Cape Charles…..Town council PROMISED to replace the basketball courts when they GAVE AWAY THE HISTORIC HIGHSCHOOL ! YET ANOTHER LIE !
The fact of the matter still is no basketball courts because the town’s finest want to KEEP THOSE PEOPLE OUT OF CAPE CHARLES !!!
Does the Town want to keep out the athletes, the boys and girls who can and those who try to dunk, the bright students at Northampton schools, at the Cape Charles Christian School, at Broadwater, and at Richmond top schools like Maggie Walker? Why?! If they share their report cards, could they then have a basketball court to play please?
Midnight basketball was a 1990s initiative to curb inner-city crime in the United States by keeping urban youth off the streets and engaging them with alternatives to drugs and crime. It was originally founded by G. Van Standifer in the late 1980s in the United States.
In 1994, Bill Clinton pushed for an anti-crime bill that would lead to 100,000 more police officers as well as a number of programs intended to “deter crime where it starts” by providing “community activities like midnight basketball. The plan was widely lampooned by conservatives such as House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, who cited midnight basketball as an ineffective and wasteful use of federal funds. Some, such as Rush Limbaugh, even called the proposal racist, given the largely African American populations targeted by the program.
That really helped the colored folks…….just look at how they showed their appreciation in Ferguson and Baltimore.
The “colored folks”?!?!? Are we in apartheid South Africa? Who uses this language anymore? Black lives matter in Ferguson and in Cape Charles – freedom, justice, and respect for all black lives!
First they were Negroes, then they were Colored, the they were Black, then they were African-American………What will they want to be called next? They may do well to concentrate on being just Americans, I don’t think any other country would have them. All Lives Matter….to someone.
The gentrification of Cape Charles will soon be complete 🙁
So…Stuart, I found this on Wikipedia, you know…that Encyclopedic website that colleges and high schools forbid students from using because of its known inaccuracies and random editing practices. Does this look familiar to you?
“In 1994, Bill Clinton pushed for an anti-crime bill that would lead to 100,000 more police officers as well as a number of programs intended to “deter crime where it starts” by providing “community activities like midnight basketball.”[1] The plan was widely lampooned by conservatives such as House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, who cited midnight basketball as an ineffective and wasteful use of federal funds.[2] Some, such as Rush Limbaugh, even called the proposal racist, given the largely African American populations targeted by the program.”
You failed to include the following from the rest of the definition….
[3] Midnight basketball was not a proposal unique to the Democrats as it was one of George H. W. Bush’s “Thousand points of light.”[4]
At the time of its inception, despite being racially coded, it was a relatively unknown and uncontroversial piece of policy innovation.[5] However, once President Clinton’s anti-crime bill was being debated about five years after the creation of Midnight Basketball, it became a highly contentious part of the bill. This was striking because the initiative only made up $50 million of the original $33 billion bill.[6] Midnight Basketball’s initiative was already racially coded, so when lawmakers were discussing whether it was a positive or negative part of this massive bill, it was part of a covert racial dialogue. When Midnight Basketball was discussed in the media in relation to the anti-crime bill, 98.2 percent of the time it was being shown negatively was when it was coming from an identifiable conservative-Republican. On the other hand, when a liberal-Democratic source discussed it, it was shown in a positive light 97.9 percent of the time.[7] Midnight Basketball became the symbol of the overall anti-crime bill struggle. Specifically, it allowed racial issues to be explicitly talked about, and because Midnight Basketball was almost completely for crime prevention in minorities, it helped make young African-American men the face of crime.[8]”
Furthermore, I found this article on G. Van Standifer stating this on Midnight Basketball.
“Former Glenarden Town Manager G. Van Standifer developed the idea of Midnight Basketball, an innovative program that offered young men the opportunity to play organized sports during summer evening when they were most likely to get into trouble.
Players were required to attend weekly practice, education workshops and vocational counseling. Within a few years, other municipalities throughout the nation formed their own leagues. MBL has been launched and recognized locally as well as nationally for its unique approach and success in improving communities. 60 Minutes, World News Tonight and CNN have aired features on the MBL. Today the MBL has chapters in over 20 US cities, the United Kingdom and Australia. The program was extremely successful at crime prevention in Prince George’s County, Maryland where it originated. The Standifer family plans are underway to mobilize the program to full operations in the summer of 2013.”
So, once again, through the miracle of copy and paste, information has been disseminated. Whether you want to take that information as fact or truth is totally up to you. But, the next time you decide to post a note stated as fact, please include the entire message. Until then, even if it’s a truth, it is only a half-truth. And by the way, most African Americans that I personally know, would rather just be referred to as “American”. But, you knew that already, right? You were just letting your-Ahem-“Age” show.
Mr. Bell, you got it wrong, first we were Coloreds, than Negroes, than Blacks, now Afro-Americans or African-Americans, bottom line is that we can be any d… thing we want to be. No other country has to want us because America is our home, our original roots – – Africa.
95% of your people could not point to the place in Africa that their ancestors came from if given $5,000.00 and 5 minutes to try.
Do you really think that statement was in the least bit helpful? I dare say, that you Mr. Harmon could point to the place of your ancestral departure for this side of the world. That is unless you had some genealogist prepare a family tree beforehand. Unfortunately, many American citizens of African descent have only a meager hint of their ancestral beginnings because of one historical fact. That being of their captivity, wholesale enslavement and entrapment on slavers ships and transported in darkness to their new home. Once here, they were forced to forget any semblance of their former lives. Unlike your (and my) ancestors, they were forced to be something totally foreign to their very being. While Europeans reveled and grew in their cultural heritage, the African Americans’ cultural heritage dimmed away to nothing after a generation or two. It is a minor miracle of the modern age that many Americans of African lineage can now trace back to their homeland villages and former families. Many have done it. I know this for a fact. Now, how does your statement look?
I am not sure what the purpose was in your statement, but it reeked of malice and prejudice in my way of thinking. Something this world could use a little bit less off in these ghastly times. Personally, I think you owe Ms. Mitchell an apology.
What are you people going to do when the political correctness well runs dry? The majority of the population is exhausted.
Right On!…….Give me five on the white-hand side….
Mr. Bell…..CLEARLY YOU ARE A RACIST !
Just so you KNOW……you have been called the Archie Bunker of the Eastern Shore”.
YOU SHOULD BE SO PROUD !
Now go crawl back under that rock.
‘Watch Your Dress!……Your Slip is Showing!!!’
Ms. Bender, ad hominem attacks are always the easiest to make. Just attach a popular and overused epithet (“racist”), and to the hoi polloi, you have won the argument by cutting it off. There’s no room for free speech in your (rather drab) universe!
EXCUSE ME ??? You don’t even know me ! I doubt you know much about the basketball situation so I suggest you shut the ____ up !
This is a high-five to total ignorance. Since you know absolutely nothing about Africa and the slave trade, maybe white guys like you should be sent on a little educational trip there.
For almost 150 years the United States has been conducting an interesting experiment. The subjects of the experiment: black people and working-class whites.
The hypothesis to be tested: Can a people taken from the jungles of Africa and forced into slavery be fully integrated as citizens in a majority white population?
The whites were descendants of Europeans who had created a majestic civilization. The former slaves had been tribal peoples with no written language and virtually no intellectual achievements. Acting on a policy that was not fair to either group, the government released newly freed black people into a white society that saw them as inferiors. America has struggled with racial discord ever since.
Decade after decade the problems persisted but the experimenters never gave up. They insisted that if they could find the right formula the experiment would work, and concocted program after program to get the result they wanted. They created the Freedman’s Bureau, passed civil rights laws, tried to build the Great Society, declared War on Poverty, ordered race preferences, built housing projects, and tried midnight basketball.
Their new laws intruded into people’s lives in ways that would have been otherwise unthinkable. They called in National Guard troops to enforce school integration. They outlawed freedom of association. Over the protests of parents, they put white children on buses and sent them to black schools and vice versa. They tried with money, special programs, relaxed standards, and endless handwringing to close the “achievement gap.” To keep white backlash in check they began punishing public and even private statements on race. They hung up Orwellian public banners that commanded whites to “Celebrate Diversity!” and “Say No to Racism.” Nothing was off limits if it might salvage the experiment.
Some thought that what W.E.B. Du Bois called the Talented Tenth would lead the way for black people. A group of elite, educated blacks would knock down doors of opportunity and show the world what blacks were capable of. There is a Talented Tenth. They are the black Americans who have become entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors and scientists. But ten percent is not enough. For the experiment to work, the ten percent has to be followed by a critical mass of people who can hold middle-class jobs and promote social stability. That is what is missing.
Through the years, too many black people continue to show an inability to function and prosper in a culture unsuited to them. Detroit is bankrupt, the south side of Chicago is a war zone, and the vast majority of black cities all over America are beset by degeneracy and violence. And blacks never take responsibility for their failures. Instead, they lash out in anger and resentment.
Across the generations and across the country, as we have seen in Detroit, Watts, Newark, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and now Ferguson, rioting and looting are just one racial incident away. The white elite would tell us that this doesn’t mean the experiment has failed. We just have to try harder. We need more money, more time, more understanding, more programs, and more opportunities.
But nothing changes no matter how much money is spent, no matter how many laws are passed, no matter how many black geniuses are portrayed on TV, and no matter who is president. Some argue it’s a problem of “culture,” as if culture creates people’s behavior instead of the other way around. Others blame “white privilege.”
But since 1965, when the elites opened America’s doors to the Third World, immigrants from Asia and India–people who are not white, not rich, and not “connected”–have quietly succeeded. While the children of these people are winning spelling bees and getting top scores on the SAT, black “youths” are committing half the country’s violent crime–crime, which includes viciously punching random white people on the street for the thrill of it that has nothing to do with poverty.
The experiment has failed. Not because of culture, or white privilege, or racism. The fundamental problem is that white people and black people are different. They differ intellectually and temperamentally. These differences result in permanent social incompatibility.
Our rulers don’t seem to understand just how tired their white subjects are with this experiment. They don’t understand that white people aren’t out to get black people; they are just exhausted with them. They are exhausted by the social pathologies, the violence, the endless complaints, and the blind racial solidarity, the bottomless pit of grievances, the excuses, and the reflexive animosity.
The elites explain everything with “racism,” and refuse to believe that white frustration could soon reach the boiling point.
Editor’s Note: Tom, it is our policy not to ban or restrict anyone’s speech or point of view.
I believe Mr Bell has reached troll status and call on the publisher to ban him. Mr Bell, look what was found here – http://www.amren.com/news/2014/09/ten-percent-is-not-enough/
You provide no discourse, no enlightenment, no real point of view.
That diatribe was gifted to me in an email with a request to pass it along. To me the words have the same meaning no matter who wrote it. Thank you for helping me to pass it along with a link, so that others may read the whole thing as it was written. It was most kind of you to do the research.
Now as far as the rest, I thank you for the kind words. If you would like to discuss it further please include your phone number in a reply. If not I will pass on some wisdom, to you, that a wise man once told me……You may do well to look over that log before you leap…..You never know what is on the other side.
Good Day To You Sir!
Me. Kenny, you want to ban the expression of a very well-reasoned point of view. Your statement exemplifies political correctness ad absurdum. You may be happier (at least temporarily) in the Democratic Republic of North Korea.
Thank you, Mr. Kenny, for providing the white-supremacist source of the retrograde garbage I just read. At least there is some relief that nobody on the Eastern Shore came up with it.
Plagiarism without attributing the real author should earn a ban on commenting.
Mr. Kenny, as incorrectly sad Mr. Bell’s last statement may be, he still has the right to say what’s on his mind. I am not sure what sways him to believe the things he does, but you and I can see eye to eye on this one fact. Some folks see further than others. Some folks embrace technology and change. Some folks have moved on from the ancient southern heritage of white supremacy and white man’s burden. I think one of the most offensive bumper stickers I’ve seen lately (and there are a lot today to choose from) is this one: “If I’d known there would have been all this trouble, I’d pick my own cotton”. Well, the truth is, no you wouldn’t have. You would have barely managed to survive in a one room log cabin with the heat and the disease bearing down on you. It was the captive black slave that enabled a largely uninhabitable area to be cultivated and grown into a mega-agricultural state based upon two main sources of income, sugar cane and cotton. Both crops required large numbers of man power and both crops thrived in dense humid heat. This atmospherically driven condition was not favorable to the genteel whites cultivating the large farms they inhabited. It was the African that could not only survive, but somehow managed to work twelve – fourteen hours of manual labor under these conditions. Unfortunately for many of African men and women, the greed of money coupled with the lure of unpaid labor combined to create the slave trade from which southern culture thrived for some two hundred and fifty years.
Mr. Bell’s assertions that only ten percent of this populace is capable of contributing to American society is not only an absurdity and a lie, it would truly be laughable if only it were not believed by so many within our American fabric today. There are many levels of stupid and ignorance. There are many levels of misinformation. There are many levels of belief and many levels of education. I do not know Mr. Bell and I truly cannot say where he places in any of these levels. But I do know this, at some point in his life, he must of experienced a major disconnect with all people not within his cultural radar. He is well within his rights to believe what he wants. Well within his rights to love or to hate who he wants. And well within his rights to disparage whomever he wants. But to put it out there in a public forum…well, folks like me do not like half-truths, lies, blind hatred and false witness against any man…black, white, brown, red or purple for that matter. Do I have the corner on all the truth? I do not. But, I am educated. I am mature enough to have experienced many diverse and culturally enlightening moments. I have sat with, eaten with, prayed with, cried with, laughed with, held their babies and hugged their wives and shook their hands and the ones that invited me in, have hugged them as well. I know the black man. Do I know all of them? Again, no. But the people I do know and know me, well, I am proud to call my friends. I love them like I love all of my friends. And I am not sure which blacks Mr. Bell refers to, but, personally, I’ve never met them. If Mr. Bell chooses to live in his hermetically sealed cultural bubble, he is welcome. Sadly, he will never grow spiritually or understand that embracing all people and cultures really is the point. I imagine he is of the same mind that rants against the mid-eastern mentality and their backward religion. But how closely does his thinking mirror some poor dirt farmer’s, from Yemen, belief system who falls on his knees five times a day facing east and asks God to eradicate the infidel from the face of the earth.
Lastly, as long as I can think, type and post…I will rebut not only Mr. Bell’s statements (when they are false) but anyone else’s I find offensive or tainted with the acid of hatred and lies. As far as I know…that too, is my right. Mr. Kenny, I can appreciate your sentiments and Wayne thank you for your stance on free speech, no matter how abhorrent.
Every mammal on God’s Green Earth uses color and shades of color to warn it of danger. Human Beings are Mammals. Any Human Being that says they do not see the color of another Mammal’s skin/hair/fur is not only fooling themselves but insulting the intelligence of those they tell that Liberal BS to. Political Correctness has just about ruined the greatest country on the face of the planet and rotted the minds of those that follow it’s mantra.
Mr. Holden, I am not sure what exactly you are inferring here, but I think I can buy a clue. So, you say animals see color and differentiate between those colors to warn of danger. And from what I am reading you are still at that stage of evolution. Well, good for you. I just pray you don’t open carry. As for me, I am no longer an animal (although I still retain my mammal card just in case I am stopped by bears and the like) for identification. So, I no longer see skin color as a means to warn me of eminent danger. I have evolved to recognize my fellow human beings for who they are, (character/spirit/humor/talent – in that order) not what they look like.
As far as political correctness is concerned, what has ruined this country are folks who are too lazy to read, study and ponder our existence as presented by educated and well intentioned people. Folks like, umm…I don’t know, say…Jesus of Nazareth. Pretty smart guy. Start with him. Graduate on up to folks, like Buddha, Dr. Martin Luther King, Confucius, Carl Sagan, Plato, Socrates, Thomas Jefferson, Descartes, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and John Locke for a list. Just read…one of the few things the other Mammals, besides Homo sapiens, can’t do.
Still the facts of the matter remain the same.
The town gave away the basketball court when they GAVE AWAY OUR HISTORIC HIGH SCHOOL .
They promised to build another basketball court somewhere within the town.
THEY LIED THROUGH THEIR TEETH !
They do nothing for the citizens and they never will. All they are worried about is dragging in tourists to spend money in the stores and hit the DANGEROUS FREE PUBLIC BEACH. If anyone thinks that puny little rope line is going to save lives they are sadly mistaken.
‘Deborah Bender says
December 1, 2015 at 12:50 pm
EXCUSE ME ??? You don’t even know me ! I doubt you know much about the basketball situation so I suggest you shut the ____ up !’
You really have a foul mouth for a ‘Lady’……but then again, ‘Ladies’ don’t talk that way.
Your slip is showing.
I might say the word hell sometimes but at least I am not stupid and a RACIST like you are Stuart. I worry about my little town and what will become of it in the future, I worry about a safe beach, good drinking water, a basketball court for my grandchildren, etc.
Have a good day ARCHIE 😉
EXCUSE ME ??? You don’t even know me ! I doubt you know much about the basketball situation so I suggest you shut the ____ up !’
Biggot/racist, homophobe, and sexist;TRIFECTA!
Thanks Janet !
You both know there is less time in front of the horse than there was riding in the cart……touching how you support each other.
I learned all that from older men in the community like John Eddie Sturgis.
Two (2) things here: What you hear, you need not learn. What you learn, you need not use. Just goes to prove what I’ve always known. One is not born with hate and prejudice in their heart…it is a learned concept. And finally, Mr. Bell, one is responsible for one’s actions/words. Do not shift blame on others, especially the older generations. Times were much, much different then.