Mean streets
City Council vs. cussing, racism—and taxes
This summer, the City will flex more police muscle to keep the Downtown Mall a pleasant place to spend money.
During City Council’s regular meeting on Monday, April 7, Park Street resident Stan Tatum described eating dinner outside on the Mall recently. He said a group of young people—some 8 or 9 years old, some teenagers—shouted obscenities as they walked along the Mall, with no police officers in sight.
“I’m no prude, and I’ve used some of those words myself,” Tatum told Council. “But there’s a reasonable standard of public conduct, and we should expect it to be the norm.”
Councilor Meredith Richards said she recently witnessed a serious fight on the Mall. “There were no police officers near,” she said. Downtown disorder “is a problem that has developed this year. I’m very concerned about the effect this has on visitors,” said Richards.
City Manager Gary O’Connell told Council he had already talked with Tatum and taken his concerns to Police Chief Tim Longo, whose department is currently five officers short of capacity. “I don’t think you will see a lack of police presence on the Mall this summer,” O’Connell said.
Currently, one officer patrols the Mall. This week, Longo will add two officers on Thursday and Saturday, and four officers plus one sergeant on Fridays. He says no officers will be pulled from other duties; instead, officers will work overtime on the new Mall patrols.
Charlottesville has laws against loud profanity, and on Monday Council passed a panhandling ordinance that prohibits “aggressive” soliciting.
Also on Monday, folk singer John McCutcheon and former Mayor Nancy O’Brien asked Council for $1,000 for their group Citizens for a United Community, which formed last year after 10 black CHS students were arrested for assaulting white UVA students. The group has already received money from UVA, local churches, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Foundation and individual donors.
On Saturday, April 12, the group met to decide on a series of specific actions to address Charlottesville’s racial divide. “A lot of us who have been around for more than 10 years have seen this concern arise and groups appear,” said O’Brien. “The commitment we have in this group makes it different.”
Mayor Maurice Cox, who has attended some of the group’s meetings, said “I think it’s the beginning of a very big success.” At the end of the meeting, Council appropriated $1,000 for the group.
By the time Council got around to the business of crafting the City’s 2003-‘04 budget, most of the spectators had departed. A few lingered, however, to say that Council should reduce the City’s $94 million budget instead of raising fees.
One man said high real estate taxes had forced him to sell his car, give up his health insurance and may force him to sell his Druid Avenue house. “Can I give the City my house and get a place in public housing?” he asked. Tatum returned to the podium to note that while Charlottesville’s population has remained fixed, the City staff has increased by 17 percent since 1990.
Council is proposing to lower the real estate tax to $1.09 from $1.11 per $100 of assessed value. On Monday, Councilor Rob Schilling pointed out that real estate assessments had risen so much last year that Council could cut property taxes to $0.99 per $100 and still reap the same taxes it did in 2002-‘03. “In my opinion, this is still a tax increase,” he said.
Council performed a first reading of its proposal to raise the meals tax to 4 percent from 3 percent; to increase vehicle decal fees to $28.50 from $20 for cars and to $33.50 from $25 for trucks; also, Council proposed roughly doubling existing trash and dumpster fees. The hikes will likely be approved on Tuesday, April 15—appropriately enough, tax day.––John Borgmeyer
Gimme shelter
“Fair” rating leads to SHE’s reduced funding
The April 9 Board of County Supervisors’ final proposed budget public hearing was calm, productive and sparsely attended. With nary a screaming teacher frothing at the mouth for higher salaries to be found, the Supes could attend to more pressing money matters—like funding for the Shelter for Help in Emergency.
Within the newly revised 2003-‘04 budget, the funds now available to the Board total $1,395,721. Revenue changes such as increased sales tax projections ($350,000), increased business license tax ($200,000), availability of one-time funds ($668,491) and the increased motor vehicle tax ($3.50 more per vehicle amounting to $227,500) add to the County’s coffers this time around. But not all programs made out as well as the school division, which will receive an additional $466,500. One of the social programs taking the biggest hit to its funding request is SHE.
The Supes reduced SHE’s appeal for an operating budget of $77,723 by 3 percent—a loss of $2,259. SHE’s education and training component took the brunt of the funding cuts.
“We are asking for the funding for training and educating the volunteers,” one woman told the Supes, breaking down the number of hours required to complete training at SHE. “How can we educate others without this money?”
The Shelter, which provides temporary refuge for victims of domestic violence, as well as a 24-hour hotline, counseling, court advocacy, information and a children’s program, serves an average of 750 residents per year. But due to only a “fair” rating by the County’s Budget Review Team and further concerns about the efficacy of the community education program, requests for SHE funding may not be fulfilled.
“I came here tonight prepared with a speech,” said another audience member speaking on SHE’s behalf, “but as I was watching TV this afternoon, seeing the Iraqi people tearing down a statue of this terrible tyrant, I began crying tears of pure joy for those people.
“I myself was liberated by the education I received at the Shelter for Help in Emergency to end the cycle of violence I was trapped in. Without the shelter, my two children also may have never broken out of the cycle of abuse,” she said. Another woman stood and referred to herself and her children as refugees.
“But I never would have left my violently abusive husband without the shelter to go to,” she said. Still, the pleas from more than nine speakers before the Board couldn’t overcome the effect of a less-than-stellar rating.
“The shelter is important, it’s helping people re-work their lives,” said Supervisor Sally Thomas, “but I want to make sure we don’t break down a system of rating we’ve developed.” Fortunately for SHE, not all Board members agreed.
“I don’t understand why we cannot fund the Shelter’s [training and education] program this year,” said Supervisor Dennis Rooker, “then have the review committee follow it closely.”
But even if SHE obtains its increase in funding later this week, it still has the “fair” rating weighing on its shoulders.
“If they shape up and then we give them the money, this then could result in an important change,” said Thomas.
“But this is a public safety organization,” said Rooker. “I don’t know that if we pull the program out, that it won’t absolutely affect other programs there.” The Board will make a decision at its April 16 meeting.—Kathryn E. Goodson
Rocking on
MRC finds a home, loses a leader
The Music Resource Center keeps hanging on. Contrary to popular belief, the non-profit recording studio for local young people isn’t feasting at Dave Matthew’s table.
“Everybody thinks we’re DMB’s pet project. We’re really not,” says Rafael Oliver. He’s acting as interm director of the Center, overseeing its search for new money and new leadership.
Back in October, UVA evicted the Music Resource Center from its original home above the music club Trax on 11th Street, which the school demolished to make room for a parking garage. After frantic searching, the Center found a new pad at the former Pace’s Transfer and Storage buildings on Forest Street. At 9,000 square feet, the Forest Street location is more than three times larger than the old Trax space. But it’s also more expensive, and much of the space is in disrepair.
Oliver says DMB paid for two sound booths and a baby grand piano for the new location, but the band isn’t funneling money into the Center. “We’re not really getting help from them at all.” He says it will cost about $25,000 to repair a decrepit stairwell, and even more to renovate and equip the rest of the building, which is now dominated by exposed particle board.
In late March, director Ivan Orr quit his position after seven months. Oliver says Orr quit amicably to “get on with his life.” But now the Center is without a permanent leader in perhaps the most critical phase of its seven-year history, as it struggles to grow into its new space.
Oliver says he and the board of directors are “looking at several people” to take over. The new leader will be expected to continue where Orr left off, transforming the Center from a hang-out spot to an educational resource.
“We want to turn this place from a drop-in into a place where kids could actually learn,” says Oliver.
He says the Center has been trying to implement an orientation workshop in which students must pass a test before earning the right to use the equipment. Students who pass a series of advanced tests would be allowed to use the Center after hours, and to earn money recording for local bands. The increased formality and emphasis on process met with some resistance from long-time Center users, says Oliver, and so for now the workshops are optional.
While Center attendance is down about 50 percent from its heyday on 11th Street, when it was serving about 500 teens per year, the group is optimistic about its change in location and philosophy.
Ashley Walker, a 17-year-old senior at Covenant School, credits the center as integral to her musical development as she prepares to go off to Bluefield College as a voice major, possibly on scholarship. She feels that the new attitude at the MRC has been positive, cutting out the “riff-raff” and says of the Center, “I don’t know what I’d have done without it.”––Josh Russcol and John Borgmeyer