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Free market

Last fall, Megan Salgado stopped by Reid’s Super-Save Market on Preston Avenue and was gobsmacked. “The shelves were almost completely empty,” she recalls. “I’d seen on Instagram that the store was in trouble, but it was worse than I thought.” In January, she decided to galvanize support for the long-standing neighborhood grocery store and put up a GoFundMe page to raise $10,000 to help it survive.

Reid’s GoFundMe page—which, as of this writing, has raised more than $20,000, twice the original ask—generated local media interest, and stirred up debate: Is the purpose of public fundraising efforts to get a failing business out of trouble? Or is the purpose of a community funding effort to raise all boats in the community, whether they are an individual, a nonprofit, or a store that’s a neighborhood institution?

The market’s supporters and donors clearly feel Reid’s is a special case; many regard it as part of “the old Charlottesville.” The original store downtown, then called the Stop ‘n’ Shop, was bought by Malcolm Reid in 1961 and renamed. When the building burned down in 1982, Reid sold his satellite store on Preston Avenue to employee H. Kennan “Kenny” Brooks. Brooks died in 2016, and his daughters Kim Miller and Sue Clements took over. Sue, who works full-time for the University of Virginia, has gotten more involved in the grocery store’s operation in the last few years. Her husband, Billy, who handles day-to-day operations, has worked there for more than 35 years, while Kim is more involved in running the satellite Reid’s in Dillwyn, which opened in 2015.

The first thing Sue wants to make clear is her commitment to keeping the store open. “My father was the kind of guy who, if you came in and said you didn’t have the money for groceries that week, he’d let you shop and pay him back later—that’s just the kind of man he was. We still have customers who will call and ask us to put an order together for them. We try to help our customers out—we had a community day here the year before COVID hit, and it was a huge success.”

Reid’s still has a large community posting board outside its entrance, with everything from concert ads and lost pet fliers to business cards and event notices.

But times and the neighborhoods have changed. “It used to be that 60 to 70 percent of our customers were from the neighborhoods [Rose Hill/Birdwood, 10th and Page, and Starr Hill],” says Sue. “Now it’s under 50 percent.” As the neighborhood population has aged, customers pass away and families move out; large family homes get sold off. Real estate values have soared as the Preston Avenue corridor has developed, but the people moving into the new upscale homes and apartments have new habits. “People don’t do all their grocery shopping in one place anymore,” Billy Clements notes.

The Clements acknowledge a confluence of factors that they should have noticed earlier. Troubles began well before the pandemic—which actually boosted sales, as people were reluctant to go into large grocery stores and were buying in bulk for fear of shortages. But then, when the shutdown eased, people stopped hoarding. Post-pandemic issues hit the store hard; as sales dropped, they had trouble making the payments to distributors to keep products in stock. By last October, Reid’s had a sign on the door letting customers know that in spite of empty shelves, the store was still open. “We own this building, and it’s valuable real estate,” says Sue. “It would be easy to sell, but our customers were saying, ‘Please don’t leave us.’”

The crisis spurred the Clements to re-examine their operations, realizing that business as usual wouldn’t suffice. (Sue says proudly that although they have lost some employees to attrition, “all our people have continued to get paid, and there haven’t been any layoffs.”) This is when Megan Salgado walked in and mentioned the possibility of a GoFundMe page to one of the store managers. Other customers had brought up the idea, but Sue and Billy said they were reluctant to put up a page asking their own customers for help. They were, however, open to the idea of the community taking charge.

A few weeks later, Salgado decided to go ahead. She had grown up in Charlottesville, and spent her middle school years in the Rose Hill neighborhood. “I would always run into people I knew [at Reid’s],” she says. After moving away from Charlottesville, she recently returned to live in the Woolen Mills neighborhood and would shop at Reid’s a couple times a month. “It’s a really good location for a grocery store, I would stop by on my way to somewhere and pick up things I need. Once it was a bundle of firewood—you can’t get that at a convenience store.”

But her reactions to Reid’s troubles went deeper than convenience and nostalgia. “In Charlottesville, we talk about being a community and keeping things local, but sometimes there’s a disconnect between the talk and what’s happening. How can we be better about that?” To Salgado, Reid’s is even more than a beloved community institution—“it’s a grocery store in the middle of a food desert. If Reid’s shuts down, who are the people who will be hurt by that?”

When Salgado put up the page, she set a goal of $10,000, a figure she picked randomly, “and I thought that would be a reach.” She posted the link to Reid’s Facebook page, and shared it on NextDoor and her Instagram account. “I was surprised at how quickly [the GoFundMe page] caught on—it’s apparent the store has quite a following.”

Of more than 200 donations, the majority range from $10 and $100—but there are many for $200 to $500. Notably, there are two $1,000 donations from fellow businesses: Bodo’s and The Markets of Tiger Fuel, both of which have stores across Preston Avenue from Reid’s.

“I see Reid’s as a community resource, and the well-being of their business is important to the community,” says John Kokola, co-owner of Bodo’s. “And they’re our neighbor, I want to help when I can. They represent the spirit of the neighborhood, and have deep roots in Charlottesville’s history. And then, what would it look like if this business weren’t here any more? I hope that people will vote with their feet, and their pocketbook.”

Gordon Sutton, president of Tiger Fuel, says, “My brother [Taylor Sutton, Tiger Fuel’s COO] and I live downtown; we shop at Reid’s, we love the people there—they’re really service-oriented and friendly—and we want to see them survive.” The Preston Avenue Tiger Market staff have been known to send a tray of sandwiches over to the Reid’s staff for lunch.
Sutton acknowledges the objections that have been voiced about donating to a business when so many community efforts in Charlottesville need support. “I vetted the idea through our management and our marketing director, who oversees our efforts to support local nonprofits, and got their blessing. We all see Reid’s as a community institution.”
In the end, Sutton says, he and his colleagues decided that Reid’s was a special case, and a place worth supporting: “I’m cheering for an old institution that I like.”

So is long-time customer Norman Lamson, who has lived in the Rose Hill area and patronized Reid’s for 30 years. “I’ve always done all my shopping there,” he says. “It’s five minutes away, and they have the best meats in Charlottesville.” Seeing the empty shelves “was sad—I figured they were having difficulties, so I decided to keep going there to support the store. It’s important that it’s a family business.”

While the outpouring of support was welcome, the Clements know that Reid’s has to succeed as a business to survive. The first step, says Sue: “Address what we’re selling. In the past, the grocery business was all about options. But now, we’re going to be stocking fewer products while still offering a range of high-, low-, and midpoint cost items.”

Reid’s has always been known for its meat and produce. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be hard to find in a small mom-and-pop outlet, but Reid’s has an entire wall of produce at prices close to the large supermarkets. One online reviewer may have noted that you can’t find bok choy or papaya, but then there’s plenty of shelf labels noting what foods are eligible for SNAP benefits. “We are trying to serve all the genres of our neighborhood,” Sue says.

But it’s the meat department that gets customers raving—and coming back. Reid’s is one of the few stores around that has its own meat-cutter, a skill that is less and less available as more large outlets stock only pre-cut and pre-wrapped meat. The market carries a wide selection of beef, ready to sell or cut to order. Billy says proudly, “You want your steaks two inches thick, fine. You can even call ahead.” Reid’s selection of pork runs from head to feet—literally. “We sell everything but the squeal” is clearly one of Billy’s favorite lines, and you can always find Kite’s Virginia ham. The offerings of poultry and fish are more basic; fresh fish is delivered once a week.

One innovation that has brought in buyers is the new value aisle. When a distributor has an overage, or a good deal on products the Clements think will suit their customers, they advertise the weekly special on Reid’s Facebook page and website, and in local fliers. These rotating specials can include special-offer meats and produce, as well as staples from canned tomatoes, cereal, and soft drinks to mac-and-cheese, vegetable oil, and Oreos.

Sue is aware the store’s marketing efforts have to expand, and she hopes the attention to its plight will encourage more people to come in the door. “Grocery stores are a penny-making business. But we’re here to serve the community—the people and families that work here, our family, and the families that shop here.”

As for the GoFundMe page, Salgado always saw it as a temporary measure to get Reid’s back from the brink. “The key is to have people patronize the place,” she says. “I hope people know that they ought to be shopping there. I hope they capitalize on this interest.”


Local resources for small businesses

“The challenges facing small local businesses aren’t any different here in Charlottesville,” says Matt Johnson, assistant director of the City of Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development. “Sourcing supplies, slim margins, the cost of real estate whether you own or rent, attracting the right staff—these are universal problems. But because small businesses usually run with much tighter profit margins, they often have less funding available to facilitate change.”

Long-standing small businesses, especially those that are locally owned, have a special character, says Johnson. “People have emotional connections to these places, where they might have gone as children or shopped in their early years. That’s the benefit of having these businesses—they help to shape the community.”

OED strives to be responsive to businesses of all sorts and sizes, says Johnson. “One of our main purposes is to serve as a point of contact. Whether your business has challenges or you want to position your business for future growth, we want to point you to the resources you need, within city government or outside sources and partners.” He notes that OED is adding a staff person who will be specifically focused on supporting entrepreneurs.

Johnson cited other resources in the area which, like OED, are available without fees—and most of them have programs specifically geared to small, women-owned, and minority businesses:

  • Central Virginia Small Business Development Center offers business counseling ranging from start-up advice to financial, marketing, and workforce development for established businesses; access to market and sector research; and a variety of events and training sessions.
  • Community Investment Collaborative supports development and growth of community businesses and entrepreneurs, focusing on early-stage business education and connection to resources including mentoring, microfinancing, education, and networking.
  • Virginia Small Business Financing Authority is the state’s business and economic development program, which provides access to financing programs specifically geared to small businesses.

Johnson also noted that Piedmont Virginia Community College runs a range of programs for business management and workforce development.

Categories
Arts Culture

Peter Bogdanovich: He was the cinema

Peter Bogdanovich and writer Justin Humphreys formed a friendship after the director came to Charlottesville for the Virginia Film Festival in 2010. Supplied photo

Film writer Justin Humphreys remembers Peter Bogdanovich, who passed away on Thursday, January 6, at age 82. His tribute is followed by a re-posting of his 2018 interview with Bogdanovich in preview of that year’s Virginia Film Festival.

Peter Bogdanovich: He was the cinema

Peter Bogdanovich was the cinema—both a brilliant director, and a historian who peerlessly chronicled Hollywood’s golden age. And he was a dear fried.

I first interviewed Peter in 2010 at the Virginia Film Festival (and again in 2018, as posted below). I’d loved his books and films since my teens, and was jazzed to finally meet the grandmaster himself. We hit it off instantly. That afternoon, I kidded him that I sometimes called myself “a poor man’s Peter Bogdanovich.”

“Why ‘poor man’s?’” Peter replied. “You’re just younger.”

We stayed close. I visited him in North Carolina when he taught film there. We hung out in L.A. whenever possible. The last time I saw him was August 2021, at a dinner at director Sam Fuller’s home, which Peter had visited for decades. It was a lovely, convivial evening. We last emailed in December about meeting for lunch.

Peter’s influence on filmmakers and film historians was gigantic. He was our link to so many long-gone greats—I told him he had “The hand that shook the hands.” He profoundly shaped my own life and work.

There’s a stupid old cliché about how you shouldn’t meet your heroes. Peter was absolute proof that you should.

Decades ago, actor/writer/director/film historian Peter Bogdanovich promised his friend and colleague Orson Welles that, if Welles couldn’t finish his work-in-progress, The Other Side of the Wind, he would complete it for him. Now, Bogdanovich, at age 79, has beaten countless setbacks and fulfilled that promise.

Academy Award-winning editor Bob Murawski and co-producer Frank Marshall worked with a team to parse 100 hours of Welles’ unedited footage, shot decades ago by a mostly deceased crew. Marshall describes the process as, “a cross between a jigsaw puzzle and a scavenger hunt.” Together, they assembled a cohesive work respectful of its legendary creator’s vision.

The Other Side of the Wind stars John Huston as Jake Hannaford, a vile, macho director, trying to revive his faltering career with a counterculture movie. Bogdanovich co-stars as director Brooks Otterlake, Hannaford’s protégé. The highly anticipated film will be shown on Sunday at the Paramount Theater.

In addition, Bogdanovich’s new documentary The Great Buster, which chronicles comic genius Buster Keaton’s turbulent life and career, will screen on Saturday.

Ironically, Keaton was one of the few classic Hollywood giants Bogdanovich didn’t interview. “I missed him by about two months,” Bogdanovich says. “I was just trying to find him and he died.” Bogdanovich spoke with C-VILLE’s Justin Humphreys by phone from France.

C-VILLE: After so many failed attempts at finishing The Other Side of the Wind, how did the film finally coalesce?

Peter Bogdanovich: After [producer] Filip [Rymsza] got the two women, Beatrice Welles [Orson’s daughter] and Oja Kodar [co-author/star], to collaborate on the picture, everything else seemed to fall into place. Netflix stepped up to the plate and they’ve been just incredible, I mean extraordinary—better than any studio I’ve worked for. We went over budget and they didn’t even mention it.

You were heavily involved in the editing?

Oh, sure. [The film’s veterans] all were. We all had input. Bob did a very good job. It was a long process. …Everybody worked on it very hard, very diligently, very dedicated, with a lot of love there.

Many of the film’s participants are now gone. How did it feel being one of the last men standing and watching the finished product?

A little strange. I mean, here I am in my 70s, watching myself in my 30s. That was pretty odd. And I hadn’t seen much of the footage with me in it . . . So it was quite an experience, actually. I haven’t quite dealt with it fully.

What was it like being directed by Orson?

That’s interesting. Orson Welles created an atmosphere on the set—not for the crew, but for the actors—where you absolutely felt like you could do anything. You never felt like you shouldn’t do something, or shouldn’t try something, it was a very free atmosphere where you could do anything you wanted. He laughed a lot and made us laugh. He made it a fun set for the actors. [Meanwhile] the crew worked like dogs, like slaves.

They got along famously, [Huston] and Orson. It was great. You know the climactic scene between Huston and me, where I stick my head in the window? Huston wasn’t there for that scene. I played that scene with Orson. That’s why it’s so emotional. And Orson’s only direction to me in that scene was ‘It’s us.’

I sensed throughout the film that it was so much about you two. It was touching.

I haven’t let myself really go with it emotionally. I just watch it and say ‘It’s brilliant and Orson’s brilliant.’ And it’s the best performance I ever gave in a movie, or anywhere.

How did The Great Buster come about?

I had met Charles Cohen before, the producer, I don’t know where. And he asked me if I would like to do a documentary on Buster Keaton, and I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And that was it.

It’s wonderful that Keaton was revered at the end of his life, after several rough decades.

Happily, the Venice Film Festival gave him that tribute, which allowed me, in the plot, to come back to the features at the end, which I thought was the one really good idea I had—to make it a celebration and come back to the features at the end rather than the middle.

What do you think is Keaton’s lasting genius as a filmmaker?

He always knew where to put the camera. He was a brilliant actor of comedy—extraordinary. He knew instinctively what to do.

What’s next for you?

I’m not quite sure. Paramount, out of the blue, asked to option The Killing of the Unicorn, the book I wrote about Dorothy Stratten, and they want to make a 10-hour series out of it. As far as features are concerned, the one I’m planning to do but I don’t know if I’ll do it next, because it’s a bit elaborate, is a comedy-drama-fantasy called Wait For Me, that I’ve been working on for 30 years. I think it’s the best thing I ever wrote.

Categories
Culture Food & Drink

Consummate host

Justin Ross elevated the Charlottesville fine-dining scene with his dedication to the guest experience. Image: Martyn Kyle

The Charlottesville food scene lost a bright and passionate figure when Justin Ross passed away unexpectedly on March 26, at the age of 40. Those who knew the talented restaurateur and wine connoisseur remember him for his beaming smile and commitment to hospitality.

Ross moved to Charlottesville in 2013 to launch modern Mediterranean restaurant Parallel 38 in The Shops at Stonefield, but it was love that brought him here. 

Jackie Bright worked with Ross at José Andrés’ Zaytinya in Washington, D.C., where Ross was the beverage director and general manager. 

“He was probably one of the most exceptional hospitality leaders I had met,” remembers Bright. “He just had this passion for creating an experience for guests, and also brought so much joy to the team.”

Bright left Zaytinya in 2008 to return to her hometown of Charlottesville. She and Ross kept in touch, and reconnected when Bright returned to visit her former restaurant crew. The pair had dinner and fell in love. While trying to decide where to live, one of the employees on Andrés’ team suggested that Ross lead a new concept in Charlottesville, making the couple’s decision easy.

Born in Maryland in 1980, Ross began working in kitchens as a teenager, and spent his whole career in hospitality. “He loved being with people, serving people wine, food—all of the energy around hospitality,” says Bright. He was adamant that his staff use the word guest instead of customer.

Warm, kind, and food savvy, Ross befriended guests and employees alike. They tell stories about his mischievousness—becoming a Red Sox fan in a Yankees family—and whimsy—leading a dinner party into a soaking summer rainstorm.

Former Parallel 38 manager Jesse Fellows met Ross a little less than a decade ago. 

“We became fast friends, and it very quickly felt like he had been in my life forever,” says Fellows. “There are too many stories to pick one, but a common theme among them was Justin’s brilliance, fierce loyalty, and very personal brand of kindness. He always remembered the smallest details and took time out of his busy schedule to make people feel special.”

A wine fanatic who held an Advanced Sommelier certification, Ross frequently delved into his own collection to further a guest’s experience. “When you wanted an excellent bottle of wine and conversation to match, you went to see Justin,” says Tavola’s Michael Keaveny. “And that pork belly dish in the early days of Parallel 38 set the bar for everyone else in town.”

Nothing was more important to Ross than sharing his passions with loved ones. In 2013, he told the Charlottesville 29 food blog: “I’m not sure what’s better about our regular C&O date night, a much-needed break with my lovely lady or the sweetbreads.”

“We had dinner together every single night,” says Bright. “Even when he was working in the restaurant I would wait for him to come home. We always waited for each other.”

He and Bright welcomed a son in 2018, and Ross was thrilled to have a new partner at his side to pursue life’s adventures. An outdoor enthusiast, he took his toddler on hikes at Monticello and Walnut Creek, and kept maps of the trails, marking their progress each time out. When cooking his much-loved Sunday gravy recipe, he’d hold Dash in his arms, teaching him the gifts of his Italian heritage.

“I’ve never seen someone so devoted to a child,” says Bright. “He would refer to Dash as his best friend.”

As Bright reflects on the span of culinary experiences she shared with Ross, sausage and peppers is the dish she will always remember, and she’s especially grateful for their trip to explore the Champagne houses of France, where Ross was playing with dogs, drinking Champagne, and the couple revelled in the extraordinary hospitality of their hosts. In that happy moment Ross was a guest.

At the time of his passing, Ross had recently been hired as the general manager for Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new fine-dining restaurant at Keswick Hall. He was ready to pour his heart and soul into the high-profile project. “He wanted to create something really special for people,” says Bright.

A celebration of Justin Ross’ life will take place at King Family Vineyards on April 23, his 41st birthday. For information on how to contribute to a college fund for Dash Ross, contact Meredith Coe at coemeredith@gmail.com.

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News

Legalize it right

Nationwide, Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates. In Virginia, Black people make up about 20 percent of the population—but 52 percent of citations for marijuana possession in the last year were given to Black people, says Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, a Richmond-based group fighting for the enactment of equitable legalization policies. 

This month, both houses of the Virginia legislature passed bills that will allow legal, adult-only, recreational marijuana purchase and use beginning in 2024. In the next few days, a small conference of legislators from both houses will meet to reconcile the two bills. Governor Ralph Northam is expected to sign the final version into law, making Virginia the first Southern state to legalize the drug.

Decades of racial discrimination in enforcement means marijuana legalization is a consequential criminal justice issue. And for many supporters of legalization, Virginia’s proposed bills fail to provide adequate redress for the harms caused by the decades-long war on drugs, specifically within Black and brown communities.

“As of right now, I’m terrified,” says Higgs Wise. “The bills now are really bad. I would not want them to pass as they are right now.”

In response to the proposed legislation, Marijuana Justice—joined by RISE for Youth, ACLU of Virginia, and 21 other advocacy groups—sent a letter to Northam and the General Assembly, urging them to meet specific criteria that center on racial equity.

A central  point of contention is the legalization timeline. While the state Senate bill would permit simple possession of marijuana for adults as early as July 1, 2021, the House version would not do so until 2024, when the sale of marijuana is also legal.

Many activists also do not think it’s necessary to wait until 2024 to permit the sale or possession of the drug, pointing to the marijuana-friendly states Virginia could look to for guidance. 

“It’s going to take time to establish a new agency and go through a new licensing process, but does it need to take that long? Probably not,” says Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML. “Such a delayed implementation really only serves the illicit market.”

Pedini suggests that legal access be quickly expanded through existing medical marijuana providers, as many other states have done.

Another key criminal justice component of legalization is the expungement of marijuana-related offenses from criminal records. Both bills would automatically expunge misdemeanors and allow those convicted of felonies to petition for expungement. Certain expungements may also require people to pay off court fees.

Automatic expungement of misdemeanors is crucial, but not a conclusive step. “Prior to 2020, anything over half an ounce was a felony,” explains Higgs Wise. “The people who have been most impacted by these unfair laws are the people with the felonies,” which impact career, housing, and education opportunities.

For those currently incarcerated, the new laws aren’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. People who are currently in jail or prison for marijuana-related offenses would be resentenced, but it remains unclear which offenses would be eligible for reevaluation, and when the resentencing process would begin.

The legislation would also make it illegal to have marijuana inside a vehicle, even if it’s not being used. Activists fear this will only worsen traffic stops—a huge driver of marijuana cases.

“Last year, we fought really hard and got the odor of marijuana to no longer be a reason to search or seize in your car,” says Higgs Wise. “In order to continue to criminalize us in the car, now all a cop has to do is say they see a green leafy substance in your car anywhere, and they have a reason to search.”

If a container of marijuana that’s been opened is found inside the car, the driver could be charged with driving under the influence.

Meanwhile, minors caught with marijuana would continue to face harsh penalties under the proposed laws, including fines, drug tests, probation, school expulsion, and the denial of a driver’s license. 

Such punitive measures have proven to have a disproportionate impact on Black youth. While Black and white youth are arrested at similar rates, Black youth are significantly more likely to be incarcerated instead of put into diversion programs.

“There’s actually data that shows us that there’s no increase in youth use because of marijuana legalization,” says Higgs Wise. “Why in the world create more penalties for young people, when we know which young people are going to be the most impacted?”

Categories
News

In brief

Photo of Heather Heyer Way
Heather Heyer Way is an example of an existing honorary street. PC: Staff photo

Sign of the times

After months of debate over Charlottesville’s honorary street name policies, City Council unanimously approved two requests last week recommended by the Historic Resources Committee: Black History Pathway and Byers-Snookie Way.

Black History Pathway, located on Fourth Street NW between West Main Street and Preston Avenue, pays homage to the city’s rich Black history. It will cut through a former Black neighborhood known as The Hill, which was razed—alongside Vinegar Hill—during urban renewal in the 1960s.

Meanwhile, Byers-Snookie Way, located on 10th Street NW between Preston and Henry avenues, will honor Black community leaders, William “Billy” Byers and Elizabeth “Mrs. Snookie” Harrison. After becoming Charlottesville’s first Black aquatics director in the 1980s, Byers helped create the school division’s swim program, teaching many low-income Black children how to swim. Harrison worked alongside Byers and managed the Washington Park pool for decades.

Out of the dozen proposals sent to the HRC last fall, the committee also recommended that council approve street names honoring Black activist Gregory Swanson, enslaved laborer Henry Martin, and Charlottes­ville’s sister city Via Poggio a Caiano, Italy. 

The committee turned down requests for Tony Bennett Way (and Drive), largely due to the UVA men’s basketball coach’s “previous substantial national and community recognition.”

However, council decided to hold off on approving additional proposals until March. The HRC is also still ironing out the details of the honorary street names policy.

The committee recommends waiving the application fee, substituting the application’s essay section with simple short questions, allowing applicants to choose between a temporary or permanent street marker, requiring two to three letters of support per nomination, and providing historical context on honorary street signs and a website. 

To better handle future honorary street name proposals, the committee advises City Council to create a special naming commission that includes members from related committees.

__________________

Quote of the week

“We’ve come to a strong compromise that reimagines our criminal justice system…to provide a clean slate for Virginians who have paid their debt to society.”

—Virginia House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D-Alexandria) on the passing of legislation automatically sealing the criminal records of people convicted of certain misdemeanors

_________________

In brief

City offers rent relief 

The City of Charlottesville has distributed $181,000 in rent relief funds in recent weeks, according to City Councilor Michael Payne. The program, initiated to combat the effects of the pandemic, was put together in a short period of time and has already helped 467 local households. 

Credit where it’s due 

Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania has confirmed that Mayor Nikuyah Walker is not under criminal investigation for her use of city credit cards. Speculation about a possible investigation arose in recent weeks after acting City Attorney Lisa Robertson sent a memo to City Council reminding the mayor that “Even a small unauthorized purchase can have serious legal consequences.” However, Platania wrote in a February 22 letter that he has long been “extremely concerned about the lack of consistency and clarity surrounding the city’s credit card policy,” and that he won’t prosecute any cases of potential violations until the policy is rewritten. The credit card policy is just another thing on the already long to-do list of new City Manager Chip Boyles.

Joe Platania PC: Supplied photo

Picture this

Earlier this month, the Virginia House of Delegates voted 99-0 to make the “dissemination of unsolicited obscene images of self to another” a misdemeanor—in other words, they made it illegal to send dick pics without consent. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Well, not to the Virginia Senate, where eight male senators in a 14-person subcommittee killed the legislation, citing constitutional and enforcement concerns. 

Categories
News

Deja vu: Local activists and leaders on how to move forward after chaos

Thousands of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. PC: Starmax/Newscom Via ZUMAPress

Two weeks ago, the far-right riot at the U.S. Capitol—fueled by President Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the election—shocked people across the world. But for many, it was a familiar scene. As the country looks ahead to a new administration and beyond, Charlottesville’s leaders and activists have hard-won advice for President Joe Biden.

“[The January 6 siege] is the same horrific play we’ve seen over and over again in this country,” says community activist Don Gathers, who was at the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally. “So much of the opening act of that play looked just like Charlottesville, where the police stood by and did nothing.”

For weeks, watchdog groups and activists repeatedly warned law enforcement that Trump supporters’ plans to violently storm the Capitol—and assault, kidnap, and even kill members of Congress—were posted across social media.

Despite these warnings, the Capitol Police anticipated a crowd in only the “low thousands,” and prepared for “small, disparate violent events,” according to Representative Jason Crow.

So, like in Charlottesville, police on the scene were massively unprepared for the thousands of people who showed up to Trump’s rally. Insurgents later overpowered the police and stormed the building, resulting in dozens of injuries and five deaths.

“It’s not like they were secretive…It was all over the internet,” says community activist Ang Conn, who was also at the Unite the Right rally.

Before August 11 and 12, 2017, members of the far-right also openly discussed their plans to incite violence and threatened local residents online, as well as held a few smaller “test” rallies in Charlottesville, says Conn. Local activists continuously alerted law enforcement and urged the city to stop the event from happening, but were not taken seriously.

“The people who were supposed to be keeping the peace had all of this information given to them and they ignored it,” says Tyler Magill, who was hit on the neck with a tiki torch during the Unite the Right rally, later causing him to have a stroke.

Video evidence also shows several Capitol officers moving barricades to allow rioters to get closer to the building, as well as one taking a selfie with a member of the far-right mob. Some rioters were members of law enforcement themselves, including two off-duty Virginia police officers.

The scene at the Capitol serves as a stark contrast to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests last year, during which police deployed tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and other types of force against thousands of people, and made over 10,000 arrests.

“If Black and brown folks were to do that exact same thing [at the Capitol], we would be dead,” says Conn.

Now, those who were present for the Unite the Right rally say a key to moving forward is to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Since January 6, federal authorities have arrested around 100 people, and say they could arrest hundreds more.

“This cannot be seen as anything other than armed insurrection,” says City Councilor Sena Magill, speaking solely for herself. “It needs to be very clear that people who participated in this need to be prosecuted, and not lightly. …Representatives who instigated this also need to be held accountable.”

Tyler Magill says it’s crucial to expand our definition of white supremacy. “We as a society just don’t take far right extremists seriously,” he says. “We think of it as rednecks [and] trailer park people when it’s not—it’s everybody. The people at the Capitol riot tended to be middle class and above, and the same happened in Charlottesville.”

Other activists have warned that arrests or the threat of arrests will not be enough to deter far-right extremism on—and after—Inauguration Day, pointing to white supremacist calls for violence online.

“We know that they’re not finished,” says Gathers. “I’m fearful for what may happen on the 20th of January, not only in D.C. but really all across the county.”

And though Biden’s inauguration, and the end of Trump’s term, will be a cathartic moment for many, Conn emphasizes that it won’t solve our problems overnight. After the inauguration, she anticipates more white supremacist violence across the country, and says she doesn’t expect President Biden to handle the situation in the best possible manner. Instead, she fears the new administration will ramp up its counterterrorism programs, which are “typically anti-Muslim and anti-Black,” she says.

“The change of the administration doesn’t change the fact that the system of white supremacy is embedded in the fabric of what we call America,” she explains. “We cannot expect [anything from] an administration that condemns uprisings stemming from state violence against Black and brown folks but calls for unity without resolve.”

Gathers also does not agree with the calls for unity made after the riot. “You can’t and shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists, and that’s who we seem to be dealing with,” he says.

However, both activists hope that now more people will not only see white supremacy as a serious threat, but actively work to dismantle it.

“We’ve got to figure out how to change not only laws, but hearts and minds,” says Gathers. “If what we saw [at the Capitol]…and in Charlottesville in 2017 wasn’t enough to turn people around, I’m not sure what it’s going to take.”

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News Real Estate

Two boutique hotels under new management, with 200 South Street Inn under renovation

Renovations are underway to modernize the rooms at 200 South Street Inn while retaining the historic charm. Supplied photo.

A company that specializes in managing accommodations for area visitors is now overseeing two additional downtown properties. 

Stay Charlottesville now operates a six-room inn at 400 W. High St. as well as the 200 South Street Inn. 

“What’s happening is these really great properties need updating and they had huge amounts of cost associated with them over the last couple of years that drove them to be not successful, so the model needed to change,” says M. Travis Wilburn, one of Stay Charlottesville’s founders. 

Wilburn started the company in 2010 when he built a guesthouse on his property that was originally intended for an aging relative. He began renting it out on a short-term basis and created the business to help others manage rental properties to earn extra income. Since then he’s created the Charlottesville Insider website to promote the area as a destination. 

“Our group is able to oversee these hotels and be able to drive more direct traffic,” Wilburn says.

While reservations are being taken now at 400 West High, 200 South Street Inn is closed until the spring for renovations. 

“Our revitalized vision will keep everything you love about 200 South Street Inn while enhancing it with modern amenities and fresh experiences, like an outdoor pool,” reads the website. 

Charlottesville’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services staff are currently processing the application to build that pool. 

An LLC called Renaissance Investment purchased the two properties that make up the South Street Inn for $3.46 million in December. A separate entity called 400 West High Street LLC bought the property with that address in June for $1.41 million. 

The Inn at 400 West High was established in 2011, but closed last year. The South Street Inn has been in business since 1986 and had been operated by Brendan Clancy since 1991. 

Area occupancy rates remain steady, according to data compiled by the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau. October of 2024 was the busiest in recent history, with nearly 80 percent of area rooms booked. 

Wilburn says there’s been an increase in the volume of area lodging, and both of these inns will be marketed to groups that can take over the entire property for special events.  

“I think they are one-of–a-kind unique opportunities to be able to stay as a family or as a group in these really awesome properties close to downtown and have it just be your own private party,” Wilburn says. “That is not an opportunity that is easy to find.” 

The city collected $8.12 million from the lodging tax in FY2023, a rebound from the $3.8 million collected during the pandemic-constrained FY2021. Last spring, council raised the lodging tax rate from 8 percent to 9 percent and budget staff anticipate bringing in $9.56 million in the current fiscal year. 

Wilburn says this is paid by people from outside the community, providing valuable revenue for the city. 

Later this year, the Virginia Guesthouse will open in the University of Virginia’s Emmet-Ivy Corridor with 214 rooms and nine suites. Developer Jeffrey Levien continues work on building a Marriott hotel at 218 W. Market St. There’s still no sign of movement on what will happen with the skeleton of the unfinished Dewberry Hotel.

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Arts Culture

An author’s experiment to see what grows

Paula Whyman will discuss "Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop" at New Dominion Bookshop on January 11. Supplied photo.

In Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop, Paula Whyman recounts her attempts to restore the ecosystem of a mountain that she and her husband bought. “I’ve been working on the mountain restoration for nearly four years now, since we bought the land in early 2021,” says Whyman. “I started work on the book several months after I started the meadow project.” 

Situated near the Rappahannock River at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the land will feel familiar to local readers through Whyman’s descriptions of towering white oaks, black cherry trees, Albemarle pippins, and blackberries, as well as kudzu, autumn olive, and trees of heaven. It’s a place full of butterflies and bumblebees but also ticks and wasps. 

But, how does one buy a mountain? After decades in the D.C. suburbs, Whyman and her husband decided to retire to the country. So they shopped around and bought the mountain much as anyone would buy any real estate. Their 200-plus acres of land encompass a roughly 1,400-foot mountain, full of neglected farmland and pastures, overgrown meadows, and forests along its slopes. 

A different book might have interrogated the privilege of being able to buy a mountain or the potentially colonial impulse to do so, but Whyman eschews this in favor of meditating on what it means to own the land at all. “It still feels to me like a ridiculous and foreign concept, to own something like a mountaintop,” writes Whyman. “Where does such ownership begin and end? Do I own the soil and the rocks and the mosses? The toads by the pond, and the dung beetles, too?” These are questions she continues to chew on throughout the book.  

Laying the groundwork for her land conservation and restoration project, Whyman writes, “I was driven by the particular goal of establishing a native meadow wherever we ended up—a neat, organized, narrowly defined project.” However, she is quickly disabused of the idea that this is a simple undertaking or one that she will have control over—or indeed one that will even involve planting a meadow. 

Indeed, Whyman recruits a laundry list of experts, from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Smithsonian’s Virginia Working Landscapes program, and the Virginia Department of Forestry, to independent arborists and restoration contractors as well as a wildlife biologist and a forester. She hopes that these professionals will help her select the “correct” way to rehabilitate the land she has purchased. Along the way, Whyman gains valuable perspectives and ultimately discovers that there is not one right way to proceed, but countless considerations and perspectives to weave together. She also learns about the risks of disturbing an ecosystem, the hard way—unintentionally creating opportunities for chaos to flourish as she attempts to fix a variety of aspects of the land, from erosion to invasive plants. As she gains this firsthand experience, the tone of the book changes, from at times inelegant self-deprecating humor to a more thoughtful approach, reflecting on lessons learned. 

Supplied photo.

As much as Bad Naturalist is a tale of Whyman’s efforts to improve the land, it is also a personal chronicle that brings attention to, and vocabulary for, her new surroundings. She invites the reader to join her in learning the names of unfamiliar native flora and fauna throughout the book, from broomsedge and spotted knapweed to purple panic grass and grasshopper sparrows. “The more I paid attention to what was right around me, the more interested and curious I became, and the more I could see how every creature and plant are connected,” recalls Whyman. “There are so many of these interconnections, I’ll never run out of new ones to discover, and that to me is inspiring.” She also digs into invasive plant legislation in Virginia: Indigenous practices of intentional burning to support healthy ecosystems, carbon sequestration, and habitat fragmentation, among other research topics to build her knowledge as a budding conservationist.  

“My advice to aspiring conservationists or naturalists would be to start by looking closely at the natural world wherever you find yourself, and see what you’re drawn to, where your passion lies,” says Whyman. “If it’s birds, start watching them, and you’ll notice things you might not have noticed before. Maybe try to find out what one thing you could do, one thing you could plant, to attract more birds where you live. Maybe there’s a park where you live that could use some TLC, and volunteers for such an effort might be welcome.”

As for her own mountain and the TLC needed there, Whyman reflects, “I wanted the book to read like a well-shaped story, and that required some discipline [but] … nature doesn’t stop, of course; the mountain keeps changing.” Indeed, she has two new conservation and land stewardship projects underway. “I now have two American kestrel nest boxes in the meadow, thanks to the folks at the Grassland Bird Initiative,” says Whyman. “They are studying kestrels to try and increase the population and to find out what’s behind their decline in this area. So, this winter, I’m keeping an eye out for kestrels that might be scoping out those boxes for nesting in the spring. I’m also waiting for a prescribed burn on two large fields that I have not burned before. It will be a big experiment to see what grows there afterwards.”

Categories
Arts Culture

Blue Ridge Irish Music School Movie Night

Supplied image.

The Blue Ridge Irish Music School presents a double-feature screening of Absolutely Irish and The Tunnel from local filmmakers Paul and Ellen Wagner. The first film brings together standout stars of the traditional Irish music scene for a concert held in the intimate Irish Arts Center of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The latter explores the history of the Blue Ridge Railroad Tunnel at Rockfish Gap, built by Irish immigrants in the 1850s. The evening includes a discussion of the Blue Ridge Tunnel project by Kevin Donleavy.

Friday 1/10. Free, 7pm. Albemarle CiderWorks, 2545 Rural Ridge Ln., North Garden. blueridgeirishmusic.org

Categories
Arts Culture

Charlottesville High School musical theater ensemble

Supplied photo.

The Charlottesville High School musical theater ensemble brings a student-directed production of A Chorus Line to area audiences. Spotlighting an array of Broadway dancers auditioning for roles in the eponymous chorus line, the action builds across a bare stage. The personalities of potential performers are on full view as the cast of would-be stars describe life events that drew them to dance. Directed by CHS senior Murray Susen, these January performances precede a trip to Charlottesville sister city Besançon, France, where the troupe will mount additional shows this spring.

Friday 1/10–Sunday 1/12. $15, times vary. Charlottesville High School’s Black Box Theater, 1400 Melbourne Rd. theatrechs.weebly.com

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News

Two delegates gear up for reelection campaigns, Riggleman considers run

Denver Riggleman. Supplied photo.

Ahead of the 2025 state legislative session, Dels. Katrina Callsen and Amy Laufer launched their respective reelection campaigns. Both Charlottesville-area delegates have been endorsed by state Democratic party leaders, including Speaker of the House of Delegates Don Scott and state Sen. Creigh Deeds.

Callsen gathered supporters at the Virginia Discovery Museum on December 29 to kick off her bid for reelection. In her freshman term, Callsen worked on bipartisan legislation, including a bill to formalize kinship care in Virginia. If reelected to represent the 54th District, she said health care, affordable housing, the environment, and education would be her top priorities.

Del. Amy Laufer formally announced her bid for reelection in a January 2 press release. The 55th District—which includes parts of Albemarle, Louisa, Nelson, and Fluvanna counties—is one of the only rural areas represented by a Democrat in the state legislature.

“We’ve got so much work to do in strengthening and investing in our public schools, finding ways to make health care more affordable and accessible, protecting our environment, creating more affordable housing, defending women’s rights, as well as the rights of our most vulnerable community members,” said Laufer in her campaign announcement.

The Virginia General Assembly convenes for its first session of the year on January 8.

Meanwhile, former Charlottesville-area congressman Denver Riggleman is considering a run for governor, according to a January 1 interview with The Washington Post. The one-time Republican representative said he would run as an independent and has begun putting together an exploratory committee.

If Riggleman enters the gubernatorial race, he will likely face expected-Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, who he endorsed in her 2022 bid for reelection to Congress. Both the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial races currently have only one candidate—Spanberger and John Curran, respectively—but there’s still time for others to make a run at either party’s primary.

Racing ahead

Dashad Cooper formally announced his candidacy on January 3 for the Charlottesville City School Board. He previously ran for City Council, coming in fourth in the three-seat race in 2023.

Three board seats are on the ballot this November, with the terms of Emily Dooley, Vice Chair Dom Morse, and Chair Lisa Larson-Torres all expiring at the end of 2025. In a joint statement released January 4, Dooley and Larson-Torres confirmed their intent to run for reelection.

At press time, Morse had not indicated whether he would seek another term.

Categories
Arts Culture

The Elovaters

Supplied photo.

When it’s cold outside, you need extra motivation to get the blood pumping. Boston’s reggae-rock outfit The Elovaters do just that with uplifting tropical sounds that warm your soul and get you moving. Fans of acts like Slightly Stoopid and Sublime find plenty to love from this East Coast group channeling the island culture. Expect
dub-inspired echo effects, an emphasis on the upbeat, and a lot of references to herbal refreshments.

Thursday 1/9. $32, 7pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com

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Arts Culture

Ten artists share repetition across mediums at Second Street Gallery

Elvira Clayton’s “Knotted History” is featured in “That Feels Good! Labor as Pleasure” at Second Street Gallery through January 24. Supplied photo.

“That Feels Good! Labor as Pleasure” at Second Street Gallery brings together 10 artists working in a variety of media and styles whose work shares a labor-intensive, often repetitive, approach. For curator Francisco Donoso, the repetitions and effort yield not just interesting artwork, but also pleasure for the artist creating it. 

Donoso cites as inspiration adrienne maree brown’s [sic] philosophy laid out in her book Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. Fiber artists in particular are known for this, and several are represented at Second Street. 

John Fifield-Perez’s striking weavings, “Shift/Phase 02,” woven with double weave blocks, and “Pink/Pinch 01,” woven with the lampas technique, present markedly different styles. Resembling traditional weaving, “Shift/Phase 02” is unmistakably contemporary with its almost day-glo colors, bold geometric design, and the numerous yarn ends left dangling. A form of brocade, lampas weaving features two layers that are woven simultaneously. The artist’s interest in the lampas technique derives from its association with Los Angeles artist Diedrick Brackens, whose work explores queer identity. “I first saw modern lampas weave in Brackens’ tapestries,” says Fifield-Perez. “So it holds a connotation of contemporary queer weaving traditions for me.”

Elvira Clayton addresses the legacies of enslavement in her ongoing “Cotton and Rice Project,” which centers on an 1859 Savannah, Georgia, slave auction, one of the largest in history, in which 436 men, women, and children were sold. Her sculptures “Black People” and “Knotted History” feature bits of cloth tangled up with twigs, rice, cotton bolls, sequins, and wire—the fragmentary traces of the enslaved—and convey with their snarls the chaos and heartache endured.

A multimedia piece featuring crochet, a vintage clock radio, and sound, Kathleen Granados’ “Distant (B Sides)” explores familial history, memory, and identity. Granados augments cassette tapes her late father made as a young man with music she chose, cobbling together an intergalactic oldies radio show that resonates outward into space. The clock radio and cabinet reference a domestic setting. Clad in hand-crocheted black yarn, the cabinet both emerges from and recedes back into the surrounding crocheted cosmos. Different stitches arranged in a vortex shape suggests the universe expanding beyond the cabinet. The amorphous shape and the way the bottom part drapes onto the floor underscores this feeling of expansion. Granados dots this inky swathe with a smattering of reflective appliqués to suggest distant stars.

“I like this idea of memory enduring throughout space,” says Granados. “I think of how radio waves, once they’re broadcast, continue to travel through the cosmos. There’s no sound in space, but I like to imagine that if that sound ever reached a distant place that it could be heard. It plays into this idea that these moments we share with our loved ones endure. That’s the impetus behind making the piece talk.”

Joyful and eye-popping, Max Colby’s maximalist creations reference the glittery excess of drag and celebrate nonconformity. Erect, yet soft, the sculptures incorporate both masculine and feminine attributes. “As she engages in this laborious time-consuming process of stitching and making and stuffing, Colby, who is a trans woman, is thinking about the way gender is binaried and the way that nature is perceived and understood and filtered through,” Donoso says.

Nicole Yi Messier and Victoria Manganiello’s art collective, Craftwork, combines traditional craft with state-of-the-art technologies to produce sumptuous textiles that, though machine-made, are based on algorithms derived from plants. So while the weaving is high tech, the patterns are natural and the dyes, which come from organic and inorganic materials including plants, minerals, and fungi, are both synthetic and natural. 

There’s no question that Fidencio Fifield-Perez’s woven paper strips rolled over with lithography ink—“Salmon Colored Kid 1” and “Salmon Colored Kid 2”—are made through a painstakingly laborious process. The elegant restraint and stillness created by Fidencio, John Fifield-Perez’s husband, are emblematic of classic minimalism, but here, the weaving also references the handwoven mats of the artist’s native Mexico.

“Vessel Aflame” and “Wild Urn” reveal much about Sarah Boyts Yoder’s oeuvre. Both monotypes, the works compositionally resemble each other thanks to the outline of a vase—one of Yoder’s recurring symbols—that appears in both. These recognizable shapes also disrupt the abstraction, creating an interesting tension between nonobjective and representational. 

With its staccato brushstrokes, Richard Yu-Tang Lee’s series “Rain in a Burning Garden” conveys the visual and auditory effects of rain. The allover repetitive nature of the brushstrokes suggests the unrelentingness of a downpour. Glitter adds a rain-slicked quality to the paint, while the title inserts a sense of trepidation.

Laura Josephine Snyder’s nonobjective work appears infused with symbolism. This quality together with its natural pigments, curious forms, and repeated lines recalls Hilma af Klint’s curious paintings and also the cartological quality of Aboriginal artwork. “The diver’s legs (to the sea)” is a mysterious and intense piece, thanks to the two “eyes” that stare out at the viewer.

In the Dové Gallery, Richmond-based Hannah Diomataris shows us another level of labor-intensive repetition with her “Sticker Work.” Using recycled bar codes from stores and libraries, which she cuts into tiny, uniform pieces, Diomataris creates complex arrangements of patterns that awe us with their beauty even as they rattle us with their obsessive attention to detail.

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News

How Jimmy Carter shaped decades of work at UVA

In 1986, former president Jimmy Carter (right) visited UVA to speak to an Introduction to American Politics class taught by Larry Sabato. Photo via UVA Communications.

As the nation mourns the passing of former president Jimmy Carter at the age of 100, the University of Virginia Miller Center is commemorating and celebrating his impact on its flagship initiative: the Presidential Oral History Program.

Founded in 1975, the Miller Center is a nonpartisan organization focused on studying the presidency and its accompanying history and policy. After the National Archives stopped conducting its outgoing presidential interviews, the Miller Center started its own oral history project. The Carter administration was the first participant.

In a comment via email, Miller Center Professor and Co-Chair of the Presidential Oral History Program Russell Riley shared the impact of Carter and his administration on the growth of the program.

“The main actor in the development of the oral history program at the Miller Center was Professor James Sterling Young, then head of the center’s program on the presidency,” said Riley. “[Young] began consulting with staffers from the Carter White House to secure their cooperation with a project once they left office in January 1981. Carter himself was also consulted and agreed to endorse these efforts, which was instrumental in getting his senior officials to cooperate.”

At Carter’s suggestion, Young and the team first interviewed members of the administration before speaking with the former president himself.

The Carter administration interviews “were absolutely indispensable for the emergence of an ongoing program in presidential oral history,” said Riley. “The Miller Center demonstrated that a privately funded research institution could actually get the work done. But it also demonstrated to scholars, journalists, practitioners, and students the tremendous value of hearing from those in the arena about their experiences and collective wisdom.” He noted that the Carter administration interviews helped reshape public perception of the presidency, shifting away from an overwhelmingly critical lens.

More than 20 members of the Carter administration participated in the oral history program, including Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy David Rubenstein, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs Stuart Eizenstat, White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan, and advisor and friend Charles Kirbo.

“I’m eager to cooperate as much as possible today. I don’t have any restraints at all to express to you,” said Carter at the beginning of his interview, and then he offered to help connect the center with any outstanding interviewees. “I still have some influence, and I’ll be glad to help these procrastinators expedite any decisions.”

After his day-long interview on November 29, 1982, Carter continued his involvement with the Miller Center over many decades. He returned to Charlottesville for a 1987 public forum, the dedication of the Scripps Library wing of the center, and worked with the Miller Center to lead an election reform effort following the 2000 election.

The Carter interviews inspired the reinvigoration of the presidential oral history project in 1999. To date, the Miller Center has published oral history projects covering former presidents Carter, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

In addition to his own oral history project, Carter participated in a currently unreleased interview about his relationship with Clinton.

Almost 44 years after the conclusion of his single term, Carter’s presidency continues to shape elements of the U.S. presidency and the Miller Center’s work.

“Domestically, Carter led a major effort in favor of deregulation, which in many ways was a precursor to what happened more vigorously under President Reagan,” said Riley. “In foreign policy, he was both a major peacemaker—including a masterful effort to bring peace between Egypt and Israel, and negotiating a return of the Panama Canal to Panama—and was responsible for helping to put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign affairs.”

Scholarship covering the Carter administration, and all of the published oral histories, continues at the Miller Center by drawing on the extensive archives of interviews. The center is currently working on interviews with the Obama administration, the first Trump administration, and soon, the Biden administration.

Beyond the presidency, Riley believes that Carter’s humanitarian work after leaving office set a precedent for his successors. “Former presidents today may well decide to cash in on their status, or just to play golf, but in so doing they defy public expectations, created by Carter, that public service is a continuing role for former presidents,” said Riley.

While the Carter administration’s public perception has shifted over the decades, the former president has long been celebrated for his volunteer and advocacy work post-presidency. Carter and wife, Rosalynn, worked with Habitat for Humanity for more than 30 years, with over 4,447 homes built, renovated, or repaired.

Carter, the longest-lived president, died on December 29, 2024. At press time, his remains are being transported to Washington, D.C., to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

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News

Reid Super-Save Market to close by end of January

Reid's co-owner Sue Clements says increased costs and theft as well as a change in shoppers' habits contributed to the decision to close. Photo by Eze Amos.

Despite community outcry and fundraising efforts, longtime Charlottesville grocery store Reid Super-Save Market will close on January 25. Neighboring nonprofit Twice is Nice has purchased the Reid’s space, and plans to move in in early 2026, according to a January 6 press release.

Reid’s co-owner Sue Clements says many factors contributed to the decision to close the family-owned business; namely, “the cost of goods and services going up, increased theft, [and a] change in shopping habits.”

Multiple parties reportedly wanted to purchase the Reid’s property. In addition to a mutual interest in quickly closing an agreement, Clements says it “felt right” to sell to Twice is Nice, which will now have a more permanent home in the Preston-Cherry corridor.

With its two leases expiring at the end of 2025, Twice is Nice has been looking for a new location in the area of its existing stores. Finding a space has been difficult with the rapid development of the area, according to Twice is Nice Operations Manager Lori Woolworth.

“The entire Twice is Nice team feels that it’s a real loss for Charlottesville to have Reid’s close its doors,” says Woolworth. “I just feel like this is a great opportunity for [Twice is Nice] to stay within the city, to consolidate, to be able to continue to grow.”

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News

Navigating the affordable housing landscape in 2025

In 2024, Charlottesville City Council agreed to contribute $8.74 million to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and the Piedmont Housing Alliance for the purchase of Carlton Mobile Home Park. Photo by Eze Amos.

One of the toughest issues facing the greater Charlottesville region is the ever-increasing cost of housing, a barrier to financial stability for many. The problem has been getting worse over the past few years due to rising property assessments, increasing income disparity, and a shortage of housing. 

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a household’s rent or mortgage is considered affordable if the cost of shelter is no more than 30 percent of its income. 

“For a family of three at 30 percent of [area median income] (roughly $20,700), affordable rent would be $520 per month, including utilities,” reads the summary of a housing needs assessment conducted for the City of Charlottesville in 2018. “At 50 percent of AMI (roughly $34,500), the family could afford $860 per month.”

Under HUD guidelines, households that routinely spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs are considered stressed. This assessment was seven years ago and since then, the area median income had increased with both inflation and the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

By 2021, the AMI for a family of three at 30 percent had increased to $25,300 and $42,200 for a family at 50 percent of AMI. By 2024, those figures had jumped to $33,000 and $54,900 respectively. In other words, more people are now eligible for subsidized places to live. 

Since the pandemic, the cost to buy a house has increased. The latest figures from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors show that the median sales price in the region increased from $326,900 in the third quarter of 2020 to $455,000 in July through September of 2024.

The City of Charlottesville used its housing needs assessment to create an Affordable Housing Plan, which called for a series of reforms and a moral commitment from the city to spend $10 million a year on building, preserving, and maintaining units whose rents are within reach of those with lower incomes. 

“To date, over $35 million has been identified,” said Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders in a briefing to council in early December, adding that the draft five-year capital improvement program has another $52 million for projects. 

“If you add all that up, that’s $99 million in less than 10 years,” Sanders said. 

The first phase of development at the Southwood Mobile Home Park will have 350 homes. Photo by Stephen Barling.

The City of Charlottesville in recent years has used some of its share of federal COVID funds (as well as its own cash) to buy existing units. This includes the $5 million given to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to purchase the 74 units known as Dogwood Housing from Woodard Properties. In late summer 2024, council agreed to contribute $8.74 million to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and the Piedmont Housing Alliance for the purchase of 6.5-acre Carlton Mobile Home Park.

The city has also provided millions in matching funds for projects being pursued by the Piedmont Housing Alliance, including the ongoing redevelopment of Friendship Court into Kindlewood. 

The Affordable Housing Plan also led to a new zoning code intended to make it easier to build new units by mostly eliminating single-family code. Areas that had been zoned for one unit per lot now allow for more units, depending on the district. 

For instance, developer Nicole Scro filed plans in December that would replace a single-family house on St. Clair Avenue in the Locust Grove neighborhood with six units. To get that level of density, three of the units have to be rented at 60 percent of AMI. 

For larger projects, the zoning code requires one out of every 10 units to be made available to households below 60 percent of AMI. So far, only one project has been submitted that would satisfy that requirement but the 180 units at 1000 Wertland St. will also be designated at some affordability level. One new apartment complex proposed at 1609 Gordon Ave. capped the number of units at nine to evade the affordability rules. 

In response, the city is working on a tax abatement program to provide millions in incentives to developers who provide the units. Sanders told council that it will be expensive but he did not provide an estimate. Further details will be revealed this year. 

Trump’s shadow as the new year begins

The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump will set the tone for a different four years than those under the nation’s 46th president. A key feature of the Biden administration was investment in infrastructure in order to stimulate the economy. 

For instance, HUD recently awarded Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville $29.1 million to assist with redevelopment of the Southwood Mobile Home Park. The funding will pay for infrastructure during the second phase of work. 

Dan Rosensweig, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, expects big changes in the housing world this year, but “we just don’t quite know what those changes will be.” Supplied photo.

Sunshine Mathon, executive director of the Piedmont Housing Alliance, said he is watching for the impact of new administration policies locally as the federal government moves away from climate justice. 

“[There is] a potential for huge cuts and/or a ‘burn it down and rebuild it’ strategy that could completely disrupt thousands of peoples’ lives locally and millions of lives nationally,” Mathon said in an email. 

No one knows what Trump will do until it happens, but his nomination of Scott Turner to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development would shake up the way public housing operates across the nation. Turner is a former NFL player who operated the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council in the first Trump term. 

“2025 will likely bring big changes in the housing world,” said Dan Rosensweig, Habitat’s executive director. “We just don’t quite know what those changes will be.”

Rosensweig said one aspect to watch is whether Trumpian policies such as tariffs and mass deportation of immigrants could increase the cost of construction. Full Republican control of the federal government will have implications.

“We will also likely see a federal budget that eliminates or reduces reliable subsidies for affordable housing programs and construction,” Rosensweig said. 

Housing advocates will likely press local and state officials to make up some of the difference by expanding programs and devoting more money. 

Local projects in 2025

Regardless of dark clouds on the federal horizon, the Piedmont Housing Alliance is charging ahead with existing plans. The second phase of Kindlewood construction is expected to start soon, with 104 units in five residential buildings. Of these, 54 will be created for existing Friendship Court residents and four will be reserved for home ownership. 

When Kindlewood was Friendship Court, all 150 units were reserved for households making less than 30 percent of the area median income. 

“With redevelopment, there will be new homes at two additional tiers of affordability, providing more options for current and future residents,” reads a detailed profile of this second phase on PHA’s website.  

PHA’s Financial Opportunity Center and Housing Hub will be located on the ground floor of a multifamily building. The other four buildings will be townhouses with some units reserved for households making 80 percent of the area median income. 

Mathon said he is also hopeful construction can move forward on a 71-unit project at 501 Cherry Ave. that is being developed with Woodard Properties. Council has committed at least $3 million in capital funds. The city’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services wants to see a new site plan after going through three iterations so far. 

Mathon is also hoping a partnership project with Habitat at the former Monticello Area Community Action Agency site on Park Street will break ground. The city’s capital budget for this year includes $1.86 million for that project. The city has approved a site plan with the Planning Commission signing off in mid-November of 2024. 

Rosensweig said Habitat will finish the first phase of development at the Southwood Mobile Home Park with 350 homes, about two-third of which will be affordable. The second phase will get underway as well with 52 Habitat homes. 

“This year, we were once again confirmed by Habitat International as the single most productive Habitat affiliate for our service area size in the U.S. and Canada,” said Rosensweig. 

Habitat will also begin work on construction of 16 homes in Charlottesville’s Flint Hill development. In addition, planning will get underway with residents of the Carlton Mobile Home Park. 

The city has also provided millions in matching funds for projects such as the redevelopment of Friendship Court into Kindlewood. Photo by Stephen Barling.

Looking ahead to policy changes

One of the biggest forces in affordable housing in the community is the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition. During the Cville Plans Together initiative, advocates pushed for a new zoning code that would allow for density in areas of the city that had previously been reserved for single-family homes. Now one of them wants Albemarle County to follow suit. 

“I hope Albemarle County passes a Comprehensive Plan that ambitiously addresses zoning reforms to allow more affordable housing,” said Emily Dreyfus, an organizer with the Legal Aid Justice Center. Albemarle has been reviewing its Comprehensive Plan for more than three years and the draft chapter on housing is not yet available for review. Supervisors adopted a plan called Housing Albemarle in July 2021 that identified housing production as the No. 1 goal. 

Dreyfus also wants Albemarle County to commit to $10 million a year and CLICH will be making a big push in that direction as the year gets underway. 

There are several apartment complexes in the area that have rents subsidized through low-income housing tax credits and some of these are set to expire in the future. The National Housing Preservation Database notes that the affordability requirement for 200 units at Hearthwood Apartments ends on January 1, 2027, and mandatory income restrictions at Mallside Forest expire two years later. In late November, Dreyfus notified the Planning Commission of the looming Hearthwood expiration.

“One thing that does worry me a little bit, gives me a little bit of heartburn, is in fact Hearthwood,” said Planning Commission Chair Hosea Mitchell at a November 26 work session. “It looms large and I just want us to be certain that we’re thinking about that because we don’t want to revisit the [Carlton] mobile home crisis that we faced a few months back.” 

Dreyfus said CLICH also wants governments and nonprofits to be able to intervene in other situations. Last year, an investment firm called Bonaventure purchased the Cavalier Crossing apartment complex on Fifth Street Extended with an eye toward increasing revenue. While that property never had a rent subsidy, its relative age translated into affordability. That will change as units are renovated.

“Cavalier Crossing will undergo a comprehensive renovation to upgrade unit interiors, amenities, and curb appeal,” reads an announcement of the purchase. “Bonaventure will enhance the existing amenity package which already includes a swimming pool, fitness center, basketball court, and volleyball court, to deliver an upscale community in a market where demand significantly outpaces supply.”

In 2024, Dreyfus helped organizers to get enough residents of the Carlton Mobile Home Park to support an effort by Habitat and PHA to purchase the site. They relied on a requirement that the owner issue a public notice when a legitimate offer is made. Dreyfus and others want that sort of notice extended to other types of properties. 

Regional and state efforts 

The high cost of housing is felt across the entire commonwealth, and policy outcomes are influenced by what comes out of the General Assembly each year. 

Supplied photo.

Isabel McLain, the director of policy and advocacy with the Virginia Housing Alliance, said one of the group’s legislative campaigns in 2025 will be to increase the Virginia Housing Trust Fund, a program created in 2013. 

“Currently it is funded at $87.5 million, which is the highest it’s ever been funded,” McLain recently told the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership. “We have been asking for the past couple years to reach $150 million a year.” 

The trust fund contributes to many projects across the state, including the first phase of Kindlewood. McLain said another legislative request will be to extend the life of Virginia’s Housing Opportunity Tax Credit Act. The program is currently scheduled to end on December 31. 

There’s also an effort to establish a Virginia-based rental assistance program to fill in gaps not covered by the federal housing voucher program. 

“We’re seeing increased housing cost burden as rents continue to increase, so there’s all the more reason and all the more urgency for the state to take responsibility and try to do more to fill that gap,” McLain said. 

Regionally, the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission is working on gathering data on the current housing needs in the area. They will work with the Virginia Center for Housing Research at Virginia Tech to update information with a hope of providing better real-time metrics about housing needs. 

For anyone looking for more information on the overall topic, mark your calendar for March 12 and March 13. That’s when the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership will hold its next affordable housing summit.