Thumbs! (12/16 edition)

It’s time to debut a new occasional feature at SouthsideCentral…. “Thumbs!” We’ll look at things that have happened recently and give a “Thumbs UP!” or a “Thumbs DOWN!“. Let’s get started with today’s edition of “Thumbs!”

Let’s start it off…

• Thumbs UP! to the Danville Tourism Department and the Riverview Rotary Club for organizing the 2009 Riverview Rotary Christmas Parade. A large crowd turned out despite the cold weather for a parade that had well over 100 entries. We’re also giving a Thumbs UP! to WGSR‘s TV coverage on the parade. Jessica Griffith and Laurie Moran did a good job covering the event. Howver, it’s not all kudos…
• Thumbs DOWN! to the Danville Tourism Department for not providing a list of parade entries so that we could publish them. It wasn’t on their website, either.
• A giant Thumbs DOWN! to the “DOA Riders” motorcycle group in the parade. One of the members was doing a burnout in front of the TV cameras and lost control of his motorcycle. Luckily, the motorcycle went down about 5 feet from the spectators but there was a high risk for significant injuries if the motorcycle had gone into the crowd.

Enough about the parade for now.

• Thumbs UP! to the City of Danville for turning the Worsham St. bridge landing into a beautiful gateway to the south side of the Riverwalk Trail. They’re still working on it, but it’s already looking nice.
• Speaking of the Riverwalk Trail, let’s give a Thumbs DOWN! to whoever is slowly cleaning up the Long Mill destruction site. Slowly is the operative work as it still looks like a bomb went off there (which it technically did, but we digress…). Is anything really being cleaned up there?

So, that’s our first edition of “Thumbs!”. Agree? Disagree? Post your comments here. Got something for our next edition of “Thumbs!” ? Use the link up at the top for the SouthsideCentral TipLine and send them in!