Month: January 2003

The Lewis and Clark celebration currently showering down on Charlottesville gives a mostly rosy account of the “discovery” of the American West by Thomas Jefferson’s intrepid explorers. But, as they say, history is written by the winners. Corey D. B. Walker’s job is to give a voice to history’s underdogs.

“One thing that I’m interested in following out of this is how native or indigenous cultures impact the stories that are told about Lewis and Clark,” says Walker, director of the Center for the Study of Local Knowledge, a new branch of the Carter G. Woodson Institute at UVA founded in November. “If we take their stories and perspectives seriously, I think we’d have a very different idea of what the West meant. We’d even have to go as far as to question the idea of ‘Jefferson’s West.’ By having that title it’s as if Jefferson has some claim to these areas, as if they don’t mean anything without connecting them to Jefferson, when in actuality there’s a vibrant world pre-existing him.”

Through his center, Walker wants to study similar instances of historical (and contemporary) conflicts over race, gender and other cultural issues. And according to Walker, there’s plenty to explore.

“This is a unique opportunity,” says Walker, who earned a Ph.D. from the College of William and Mary in 2001. “In this area you have a major research university, an area that was home to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe, as well as a large enslaved population and a plethora of indigenous groups.

“So it becomes a cultural site for researching the context of the development of the American nation. That’s crucial when considering who we are as Americans,” Walker says.

Of particular interest to Walker are the contradictions implicit in several of the fathers of American democracy being slave owners. One of the center’s initial projects, “Mapping Monticello’s Diaspora,” has Walker and his associates rethinking Jefferson’s estate by removing it from its familiar historical context. He wants to examine “Monticello as a place, as Jefferson’s retreat, but also as a labor camp, one of the top slave plantations in Central Virginia. Examine it in terms of slavery and the ideas of freedom being born in Central Virginia,” he says. “We need to look at this place as being the home of American democracy, but it is a complicated site.”

Such ethical probing is but part of the mission of the Center for the Study of Local Knowledge. The research institute has already participated with the Albemarle Historical Society on a genealogy seminar. Walker plans to tackle modern-day local issues too, including health and environmental issues, and their implications on race, gender and ethnicity in Central Virginia.

“We’re looking at things through an interdisciplinary lens with regards to our historic projects,” Walker says, “but leveraging that historical knowledge with contemporary issues.” One project, for instance, compares how African-Americans were treated by the health-care industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the way the booming Hispanic population is navigating the system in Central Virginia now, he says.

The center’s 26 faculty fellows and numerous associates range from academics to lay scholars, like Bob Vernon, a local historian specializing in colonial America and early African-American history. “We’re looking for people with great knowledge in and around the area,” Walker says. “We look at these lay scholars as integral parts in our research model, and look for others who have insights into the projects we wish to develop.”

Walker has insights into Central Virginia himself. Born in Norfolk, he lived in Charlottesville from 1993 to 1997, when he worked at State Farm Insurance and served as an assistant minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church and did an internship at First Baptist Church on Park Street. He even briefly considered running for a Delegate’s seat in the 58th District. He hasn’t ruled out running for office in the future.

For now, though, he’s concentrating on his new position at UVA . “The greatest hope we have for the center is it will transform relationships of knowledge and power,” Walker says. “We want to change the concept of scholarship to incorporate new research methods and different questions that include voices not normally included in academia.”

Economic times are tight in Virginia. And when axes start falling on State budgets, funding for the arts is often the first to be slashed. The Charlottesville-based Piedmont Council of the Arts hopes to dodge the blow by proving that, in Director Nancy Brockman’s words, “The arts are a producing segment of the economy.” That is, the arts drive tourism, provide jobs and generate revenue at other businesses.

Two years ago, an economic impact study commissioned by Virginians for the Arts found that Virginia’s arts and culture are, in fact, a $1 billion industry. That impressive figure makes sense if you consider that it includes such tourist magnets as Colonial Williamsburg. Fully three-quarters of the $342 million spent by out-of-state visitors in 1999, for example, landed in the Hampton Roads area, which includes Williamsburg.

The Piedmont Council is now at work on a similar study, this one focused on central Virginia. It too will include landmarks that aren’t specifically arts-related: Think Monticello. If the new study looks anything like the old one, it will show “arts organizations” as a poor cousin to “museums”: 3,600 arts jobs in Virginia overshadowed by 8,900 positions in museums, for example. (Which category an “art museum” falls into isn’t clear, but more than half the total jobs are in Hampton Roads.)

In some ways, arts organizations (McGuffey Art Center, say) and cultural organizations (Michie Tavern) have about as much in common as football and hunting. They’re related, but do they belong in one big category? Jill Hartz, director of the University of Virginia Art Museum, says that functionally, arts and culture are intertwined. She points out that, in a January 12 New York Times piece about Monticello’s Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration, the UVA museum garnered a mention for its related exhibit of Native American art. “By having over half-a-million visitors every year at Monticello, we hope that they come to the University and find us,” she says.

Additionally, Brockman points out, there’s overlap in the content of arts and culture. “When you go to Colonial Williamsburg, what are you learning?” she says. “Architecture, artifacts inside the houses—those are designed articles, the work of someone’s artistry.”

Though there are plenty of aspects of Williamsburg that are more strictly historical, she adds, “I don’t know how you would sort that out—how when you buy a ticket you would say a portion of this is arts related and a portion is not.”

Fair enough. But is economic impact the right yardstick for the arts in the first place? According to Hartz, “You can’t look at the arts as a business. They’re not self-supporting. They depend on the patronage of people throughout our society.”

John Gibson, artistic director of Live Arts, says his organization “measures our impact in the number of children we educate every year, the number of people who participate in our productions as performers or audience members, the impact we make on the quality of life.”

Brockman says a discussion of economics doesn’t disparage these intangible rewards. Indeed, it paves the way for budget-minded bureaucrats to lay down the dough.

“We all know that art for art’s sake is very wonderful, and that should be enough,” she says. “But it’s not an ideal world, and there are many choices that have to be made.”

With Monticello raking in the tourists and making funding seem worthwhile, she says, less glamorous educational and therapeutic arts programs can continue to do their good work. “A rising tide raises all ships,” she says.

Gibson is keeping his eyes on the aesthetic prize. “While I welcome any good news about the arts and our impact on a community,” he says, “I don’t wait for the news to witness that positive impact.”—Erika Howsare

 

Look, it’s Snook

The City Democratic machine keeps its driver

As an evening snow flurry began on Thursday, January 16, City Democrats filed into the auditorium at Buford Middle School for a bi-annual meeting to elect new party officers. Donna Goings greeted people at the door, handing out blank slips of paper stamped with a donkey emblem.

“It’s my party platform,” she explained to the confused Dems, who turned the sheet of paper over in their hands, or tried in vain to open it. When they looked at her helplessly, she said, “Think about it.”

Goings hoped the last-minute stunt would give her the votes she needed to defeat Lloyd Snook in the evening’s featured contest, the election of a new Democratic party chair.

“It should be interesting tonight,” said Josh Chernilla, a young Dem who worked the crowd for support in his bid for the party’s vice-chairman seat.

Chernilla and other Democrats were abuzz because the January 16 meeting featured an actual contest for party chair––the lucky winner would be responsible for fundraising, organizing meetings, spearheading election campaigns and possibly accepting the blame for Democratic losses.

An effective chair, Dems say, has two qualities: the skills and the desire to do a good job. In the past, they say, it’s been rare that more than one person at a time possessed both qualities.

“Some people called me and asked me to run for chair,” said Goings. “I don’t think many people actually want to do it.”

Two years ago, Russ Perry and Lloyd Snook sought the office, but instead of running against each other they decided to serve as co-chairs. After Republican Rob Schilling defeated Alexandria Searls to win a seat on City Council last May, many Democrats blamed Snook and Perry for taking the election for granted and bungling her campaign. The Daily Progress quoted Mayor Maurice Cox as all but calling for Snook’s ouster, and the paper quoted Snook himself saying that anyone who wanted “the headaches” of the party leadership could have them.

“I was frustrated when I made that statement,” Snook said during the meeting. “I was depressed over the way the party was in schism.”

Although Perry declined to seek re-election, Snook says after taking “a longer view and a deeper breath,” he changed his mind about giving up control of the party.

Party leaders are chosen by 100 members of the Democratic City committee, which comprises party faithful from each of the eight voting districts in Charlottesville, plus ex officio committee members, such as former mayors.

Critics often call the local Democratic party a machine run by a few elders, while Dems counter that the party is actually controlled by “whoever is in the room” when decisions are made. Both descriptions fit Thursday’s election. The aging Boomer set dominates the Dem City committee (except for a few up-and-comers like Chernilla, who took the vice-chair seat uncontested), and this cast of characters is almost always “in the room” for most Democratic functions.

Before the final vote, both Goings and Snook addressed the committee. Goings spoke of her love for grassroots campaign legwork and distaste for George Bush. She explained the blank sheets she handed out by saying, “I want you to shape the vision for the party. I’ll be here to listen.”

Snook criticized the party for its recent laziness, apologizing to Searls for disorganization.

“In the 2002 election, we didn’t have the records from 2000,” Snook said. “We didn’t know that 250 yard signs wouldn’t be enough.”

Apparently, the committee accepted Snook’s apology. He was re-elected to chair the Dems for another two years.––John Borgmeyer

 

 

An excise exercise

Tax autonomy is on Albemarle’s agenda

Anyone walking into Room 241 of the County Office Building on January 15 would have been forgiven for thinking she was in the wrong place. After all, not only was the regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of County Supervisors whipping along at a breakneck pace (it was completed inside a half-hour), but the subject under discussion was how to raise more taxes. Yes, you read that right. How to raise more taxes.

During the uncharacteristically brisk meeting, the six-member Board unanimously passed a resolution to support a tax-change bill now under consideration in the General Assembly. If approved in Richmond, the bill will allow counties in the Commonwealth to levy taxes on cigarettes, meals and admissions without first gaining the Assembly’s permission or winning approval through a voter referendum. Such a move could help put Albemarle on a par with Charlottesville.

Currently State law favors cities when it comes to raising revenues. Charlottesville City Council, for instance, can raise taxes without Richmond’s approval—a holdover urban privilege from the time when counties, practically by definition, were rural and therefore offered fewer services to their residents. Coping with that outdated system, Albemarle, which in these days of “urban ring” development is hardly “rural” anymore, has long struggled to find additional revenue. The County’s budget for 2002 was $208,618,535. Most of that was derived from real estate taxes. Unwilling to increase that levy, the County wants the Assembly to give it power to dip into other purses.

“Owning property in the County does not go hand-in-hand with the ability to pay the actual property tax,” says Supervisor Dennis Rooker, who represents the Jack Jouett District. “Unfortunately, when the County needs money, it’s forced to look to real estate taxes.

“This bill is a way for us to present alternatives,” says Rooker.

Supes Chairman Lindsay Dorrier from the Scottsville District concurs: “We need to reduce our reliance on property taxes,” he says. “We need this option.”

Rooker says that Albemarle County, which is practically a textbook example of sprawl, simply cannot be categorized as “rural” anymore.

“Our counties are much more urban,” he says. “They require the services people in cities have.” Those include sidewalks and other amenities that make so-called mixed-use development possible. These days, the Supes are stressing that kind of urban-style development model over the rolling subdivisions of a previous era.

But despite the Supes’ high hopes for levy changes in the County, not everyone is willing to even give this bill a second thought. Larry J. Sabato, director of the UVA Center for Politics, says the chances of this bill passing are comparable to swearing in an all-Republican City Council—real slim.

“You have to understand that this bill is seen as a hidden tax increase by all the people who don’t want their taxes increased,” says Sabato.

“Although this bill has many advocates in Richmond from the more urban areas, it is an extremely tough road to get it passed,” he further says. “I would be shocked if it did.”

While the mere mention of “raising taxes” might make County dwellers uneasy, the Supes insist that no one wants to raise taxes. “This is simply a way for us to look at other areas,” says Dorrier, although it’s unclear why Albemarle leaders would push for the change in law if they were not interested in applying it.

For now, until the bill is approved in Richmond and the new fiscal year begins in July, Albemarle remains highly dependent on the real estate tax, which this year is 76 cents per every $100 of assessed value.

“This is not something we’ll be acting on this year,” says Rooker, “but there may be a time in the future.” —Kathryn E. Goodson

Just over the crest of the hill, you see a plume of smoke escape. Instead of the low, familiar, chugging sound, however, you hear infectious music, a sound you haven’t heard before. Slowly Old School Freight Train comes into view—and begins to pick up steam.

The band, which is based in Charlottesville, has recently enjoyed some significant recognition. It’s self-titled debut CD, released in February by Courthouse Records, a division of Richmond’s Fieldcrest Music, was listed with 32 others as a potential nominee for Best Bluegrass Album by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. Unfortunately, when Grammy nominations were announced earlier this month, the band was left out.

In any case, “bluegrass” is far too limiting a label for Old School’s distinct sound. The band’s name implies a certain weight and steadiness, along with ties to the past, but with the exception of a few straightforward numbers, the music mostly breaks free of traditional bluegrass licks to encompass many influences, with jazz the most obvious. Several songs also have a distinctly Latin flavor, which adds a tinge of the exotic to familiar lyrics about far-away horizons and balls and chains.

Old School’s five members—Ann Marie Calhoun (fiddle/vocals), Peter Frostic (mandolin), Jesse Harper (guitar/vocals), Ben Krakauer (banjo) and Darrell Muller (bass/lead vocals)—got together in the fall of 2000. Each brings different interests and influences to the table.

“Pete and I were doing bluegrass before the band, and Darrell and Jesse were doing more jazz and funk, and Ann was doing classical stuff,” Krakauer, a UVA music major, says. “So each of us was coming from a different place, and then we all listened to each other’s stuff.”

The group paid their dues playing numerous live shows, mainly in the Richmond area, and soon opportunities began to open up. The group earned second place in the 2001 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Competition, and in 2002 they opened for well-known bluegrass artists like Lynn Morris and the Lonesome River Band. Before long, they decided to take their sound to the studio.

The album is not perfect—Muller’s vocals are serviceable, but his voice is not particularly strong or distinctive, and some of the instrumentals go on too long—but it is a rewarding and interesting first effort.

Krakauer admits that the band feels “really good” about only half of the songs on the first album, saying that in some ways Old School Freight Train was still finding its identity as a band.

“We might like the other ones, but you listen to some of the stuff and we hadn’t totally realized where we were going,” he says. “I think on the next project we want every single song to be totally representative of what we’re trying to do.”

Krakauer says the group already has six or seven new songs for the next release, with seven or eight more to go. He described a songwriting process that is wholly collaborative.

“Any of us can write tunes,” he says. “If you write a tune, you have it and arrange it, and maybe you write parts for other people and maybe not, and then you bring it in and everybody else takes it apart. So it’s like a rough draft, and once we get it into the group it’s like a democratic process.”

Although they missed out on a Grammy this time, the band feels motivated to ride this train much farther. Krakauer says the band has an audition for a record label in Nashville in March (a label he declined to mention, for fear of jinxing it), and is looking forward to taking their show on the road.

“If anything, it’s motivated us that we can make it work,” he says. “I’m graduating this year, and we’re all hoping to be able to travel around and play a lot. It’s a lot more fun to play when people are coming out to hear you than at some bar where you’re just part of the scene, you know? That’s really exciting.”

Old School Freight Train will perform as part of the Mid-Winter New Grass Festival at The Prism on Saturday, January 18. See our music listings for details.

This little light of mine/I’m gonna let it shine.“ The rehearsal hadn’t officially started yet, but the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Mass Choir was already singing. On a frigid Monday night, January 6, a jumble of people filled the black box theater at Charlottesville High School. Tight clumps of fidgety teenagers waited in line to collect folders of sheet music. Church ladies in brimmed hats put on reading glasses to make out the notes. Out of the chaos of piano chords and excited chatter, Jonathan Spivey, choir director, launched into a spontaneous rendition of a gospel song everyone seemed to know, complete with improvised lyrics: “When I have to sing a high note/I’m gonna let it shine.”

People still in line for music started clapping and stomping, and the room filled with more than 80 voices.

Spivey, who teaches at CHS and frequently travels as a guest conductor, says the MLK choir is one of the highlights of his year. “There’s something about this group that just energizes me,” he says.

Having assembled the annual choir for the past 15 years, Spivey enthuses about the way it keeps growing. Originally a joint effort of several area black churches, including Mount Zion First African Baptist Church (where Spivey is choir director), the MLK choir expanded by word of mouth and soon began to look like a cross-section of the community. Anyone who wanted to participate was—and still is—welcome.

“The Unitarians joined in, the Episcopalians, the Jewish temple, the Quaker meeting house…” Spivey remembers. “High school and middle school kids started coming, and last year I added a children’s choir” organized through Cale Elementary School. Altogether, Spivey hopes for 150 members to participate in this year’s performance at the Charlottesville Performing Arts Center on Sunday, January 19 at 6pm.

The racially mixed choir also draws singers from surrounding counties. “What I was most impressed about is that people come from all ends of the community, and it really represents what Martin Luther King was all about,” Spivey says. “It’s not a black choir, it’s not a white choir.”

Spivey has assembled a musically diverse program to reflect the diverse group of singers. “I try to pick something for everybody,” he says. “There’s such a hodge-podge of music there.” The choir has only a few short weeks between the new year and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to prepare—no easy task—but Spivey and his musicians seem up to the challenge. The performance will be part of a program featuring Rev. L. Tyrone Crider, a Chicago-based pastor and activist, as the keynote speaker.

As befits academia, the annual King Celebration at UVA on Monday, January 27 at 7pm at the Newcomb Hall Ballroom, will take a somewhat more critical approach. Diane Nash, a civil rights activist and a founding member nearly 40 years ago of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, will give the keynote speech, “Beyond Charisma.” Nash questions whether charismatic leadership is the answer to African-Americans’ struggles.

Still, the event will include celebratory elements, too: a performance by the Mahogany Dance Troupe, poetry readings, and a presentation by the South Asian Leadership Society about the influence of Gandhi on King.—Erika Howsare

 

Journey to Ben & Jerry-land

No rocky road between here and Burlington 

City Council has seen the future of Charlottesville, and it is…Burlington, Vermont.

In October, a delegation of City and County leaders traveled to Burlington for a “journey of learning,” and last week they delivered a report on their trip to City Council. The trip seemed to reinforce for the delegation a great deal of what they already knew.

Burlington and Charlottesville have much in common. Each has similar populations in the city and surrounding county. Each city is home to a large university and a pedestrian shopping district. The cities even have complementary hometown heroes on the national jam band circuit––Phish, from Burlington, and our own Dave Matthews Band.

The two cities have similar ideas emanating from their executive branches, too. Charlottesville Planning Director Satyendra Huja lauded Burlington for its spending on public art, bike trails and traffic calming, not to mention Burlington’s tax on downtown merchants, which goes toward the cost of colorful signs directing tourists to the shopping district. Sound familiar? According to the slide show the delegation delivered at Council’s regular meeting on Monday, January 6, there was no shortage of mutual congratulation and admiration among leaders in the two cities.

Burlington and Charlottesville share problems, too, and the local delegates took special interest in how the New England city provides affordable housing and how it cooperates with the University of Vermont. On this point, however, the delegates returned with the lesson that Vermont is friendlier to progressive ideas than Virginia.

For example, Burlington’s municipal government can review and approve––or disapprove––construction plans at the University of Vermont. Using this power, the city council was able to persuade the school to build more student housing by refusing to approve other projects unless UV cooperated. Here in the Commonwealth, however, State universities are not required to abide by local zoning rules, and the result is controversial projects like UVA’s Emmet Street parking garage.

Vermont also gives city governments more power over land use. For example, a Burlington ordinance requires developers there to incorporate a percentage of “affordable” units into new projects. Such a law would not stand up in a Virginia courtroom. Upon hearing that, Councilors did not miss the opportunity to slam Richmond.

“There are tools available in Vermont that are not available in Virginia,” said Meredith Richards. “Virginia gives our cities very little leverage in dealing with universities, developers and property owners.”

Here, City Council hopes to emulate Burlington in dealing with Charlottesville’s housing crisis. Andy Montroll, president of the Burlington city council, says his city is suffering a major housing crisis at all income levels. “It’s hard to say for sure,” he says, “but without a lot of the city’s efforts, it would be far worse.”

It seems, however, that Burlington’s most effective strategies will never fly in the Commonwealth, so it’s unclear what direction Charlottesville’s housing strategy will take. Even with somewhat more freedom than Charlottesville to control development within its limits, Burlington’s housing costs are still heading into the stratosphere while strip malls and McMansions continue springing up in the surrounding county, Montroll says.

It seems the two cities do have a lot in common.––John Borgmeyer

 

Holding pattern

Supes hear the case against helicopters and rear entry

Another meeting of the Albemarle Board of County Supervisors, another round of delayed approvals, parking battles and residents’ ever-present resistance to change. From the County’s proposed neighborhood model to a landowner’s request to build a heliport, the Supes heard many complaints about unwanted change when they met on Wednesday, January 8.

More than a dozen locals (practically a convention by Supes’ standards) protested against the off-street parking and loading requirements the County has put in place in conjunction with the neighborhood model it hopes to approve before the turn of the decade. The ordinance, as it stands, states that parking for developed or redeveloped sites must be located on the side or rear of the building. Business owners pronounced the ordinance as the death of retail, and residents expressed fears for their safety.

“I certainly don’t want to walk behind the store I just came out of in the dark,” one woman said.

Although Supervisor Sally Thomas reiterated the point of the new neighborhood model—to encourage pedestrian-friendly retail development—she did not speak for the entire board.

“The point of a convenience store to me,” said Supervisor Charles Martin, “is that I can pull up in front of the building, and run in.”

Using the new neighborhood model, County Supervisors plan to coerce, cajole and command developers into building smaller-scale residential and commercial communities. Tree-lined streets and sidewalks with a town center feel, they are hoping, will replace the strip-mall debacle called 29N.

But while the Supes professed agreement that parking should not be deemed unsafe for residents and shoppers, they seemed to be in a sharp disagreement about the true definition of “convenience.”

Ultimately, time constraints forced the Supes to abandon the topic. Perhaps they were tuckered out by the other spirited discussion that had ensued during the afternoon—a public debate about choppers. Not motorcycles, mind you, but helicopters.

Seemingly all of White Hall was on hand to oppose construction of a heliport by John Griffin, a part-time Albemarle resident. Griffin, who also lives in New York, appeared surprised at the neighborly turn-out concerning his 1,330-acre property.

“I am, in every way, against all types of pollution,” said Griffin, “including noise pollution. I just think it’s a little much for all these people to come down here over 72 minutes a year.”

The hour and 12 minutes in question is the amount of time that Griffin calculates his heliport would be in use annually, with six trips to and from White Hall. While that comes to nearly the running time of a Guns ‘n Roses double CD, neighbors made no such comparison. It was the precedent that had them bothered.

“There is really no necessity for your own heliport,” said one resident of Millington Road, where Griffin’s property is located. “This just says to all the wealthy in Albemarle ‘Why drive?’”

One Free Union resident said with the noise of chain saws, SUVs, hunters and airplanes, the peacefulness of her property has been destroyed. Enough would have to be enough. “I believe people who move to and buy land in Free Union,” she said, “do it for the peace and quiet.”

One brave Millington Road neighbor came out in support of Griffin, whose request had been denied by the County Planning Commission three months ago. “Pegasus flies overhead all the time,” she said, “but we would deny this man a few modern conveniences due to the precedent it’s setting?”

The Planning Commission, in a staff recommendation to the Supervisors, suggested a few stipulations for Griffin and his heliport. Griffin may not have helicopter maintenance, other than emergency maintenance, on the property. No other airborne vehicle may use the property and absolutely no lighting for the helicopter landing site will be permitted.

“I could easily not approve this,” said Martin, striking an ambivalent pose as it came time to vote on Griffin’s case, “but since it’s in Walter’s district, I’ll go with his decision.” Supervisors Walter Perkins and Dennis Rooker supported the heliport, but with a few restrictions.

“If you could agree not to subdivide your acreage,” said Rooker, “and control conditions on the flight plan, I think we could approve this.”

Griffin agreed.

What the County Planning Commission rejected, the Board of County Supervisors approved 5-1. Thomas was alone in rejecting Griffin’s request.—Kathryn E. Goodson