Month: September 2003

Grounds swell
Officials give UVA props for the North Grounds Connector Road

The 1.3 miles of eastbound lanes on the Route 29/250 Bypass between the exits for Route 250 and for Barracks Road are as mundane as roads get around here. Two blue rectangular highway signs indicate food (Taco Bell, Ruby Tuesday’s and Arby’s) and fuel (Amoco and Exxon) ahead. A green airplane symbol points the indirect way to the airport. An occasional deer or jogger attempts to cross the highway (speed limit 55) in a southward direction from the back of the athletic fields at St. Anne’s-Belfield School. And, as is standard in a Commonwealth where merging is apparently a bonus question on the driver’s ed test, sporadically a car will come to a dead stop at the end of the bypass’ on-ramp while drivers whiz by in the slow lane.

Thanks to a green light from the State transportation’s governing board, within the next three years that so-what stretch of road will become a crucial link in UVA’s sports, arts and entertainment scheme. On September 17, the Commonwealth Transportation Board gave UVA permission to build its North Grounds Connector Road. The east-only, grade-level access road will create a new bypass exit in the stretch between the off-ramps for 250 and Barracks Road. It should be completed by 2006.

The proposed connector road, which will feed into Massie Road between Darden and the North Grounds Recreation Center, won’t be a top-drawer complement to the Grade A sports arena and performing arts complex to be constructed in that section of campus, however. To get the best possible traffic option—a full interchange that allows traffic to enter and exit in two directions—UVA would have to increase its budget for the arena project by about 8 percent. UVA has to shoulder the whole tab for the road, because the Virginia Department of Transportation has nothing left in its piggy bank. A full interchange costs about $15 million, according to University Landscape Architect. Mary Hughes. The North Grounds Connector Road will be a comparatively affordable $4 million slice of the arena’s $128 million budget, according to UVA.

The road’s purpose, says UVA spokesperson Carol Wood "is to serve the arena and performing arts centers and to keep traffic moving smoothly and efficiently, especially during event times…because it will pull traffic off congested Emmet Street."

Officials agree that UVA’s willingness to fund the road was an attractor, but the ultimate appeal lay in the fact that the connector road probably won’t make traffic any worse. "What I would like to think made the most difference is UVA’s analysis that if you kept [the connector road] to right-in and right-out that the traffic, though still significant, would also still be at an acceptable level of service," says Kevin Lynch, the City Councilor who last month was named chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, a local authority that sets transportation priorities.

"You need to facilitate that [event-day traffic] to Ivy Road," says Butch Davies, the region’s representative to the CTB. "You need to disperse the traffic. With the present arena, it clogs Emmet Street. I don’t think it will be any different with the new arena, but UVA estimates that 10 percent of the traffic coming out would use [the connector road] route."

Indeed, by design the connector road will leave a portion of North Grounds-bound travelers looking for getaway routes through adjoining neighborhoods and business districts. Those wanting to head west after a game—or maybe after work, for that matter—will need to find access by way of Barracks Road, Route 250 or other roads.

The cloverleaf interchange at Emmet Street by Bodo’s is especially vulnerable to spillover traffic, says Davies. "I think you’ll see traffic backup as you come around the cloverleaf to 29," he says. "If you have people using right-out [from the connector road] to go north, you might see some traffic problem in the future ultimately because of Best Buy." The electronics retailer will soon open a new store on the west side of that busy interchange; it will have its own traffic light.

"We recognize that this is not the ideal configuration," says Hughes, "because it does limit the movement, but it was the best we could do in this interim condition before there is a decision by our metropolitan region about the fate of the 29 Western Bypass."

Uncertainty about the controversial western bypass proposal has been a major factor in the traffic plans for North Grounds, Hughes continues. "Say we triple our budget for the North Grounds Connector [to build a full interchange]—what would we build it to? If we built it to the 29 Bypass and the Western Bypass gets built, then all that investment will be wiped out.

"If, on the other hand we say, ‘Okay, the Western Bypass is going to happen, then we have to move Ivy Road—a $10 million proposition in itself—and then build the $10-15 million interchange. If, as seems to be the case, the community really does reject the bypass once and for all, then we have spent all that money to build to a condition that doesn’t pan out."

Despite the likelihood that some UVA event traffic will drain off the connector road to already-heavily-taxed interchanges, traffic officials are waxing positive about UVA’s role.

"This [road approval] would not have happened without University cooperation," says Davies. "I think the University understands its responsibility when it has such a dramatic impact on the transportation structure."

Lynch is equally supportive. "All things considered, it was a reasonable compromise from the perspective of moving traffic versus cost," he says.

And there’s more good news: With the first tip-off at the new arena some 36 months away, there should be plenty of time for bypass drivers to learn the fine art of merging.—Cathryn Harding

Isabel, we knew you well
Charlottsville’s biggest storm, by the numbers

Number of 40-ounce bottles of Hurricane beer distributed by J.W. Sieg and Company in a typical week: 3,600

Number of bottles Hurricane sold on Thursday, September 18, the day Isabel hit Charlottesville: 6,000

Number of calls for service received by Albemarle County Police on Thursday night/Friday morning, September 18: 578

Number of days after the storm had passed before Charlottesville’s City Council confirmed a declaration of local emergency: 12

Number of commercial turkeys killed by the effects of weather in Louisa: 8,000

Number of utility poles snapped in Virginia Dominion Power’s service area, including Charlottesville, much of Virginia and a portion of North Carolina: 2,300

Number of consecutive hours worked by two UVA Facilities employees to provide emergency power during and after the hurricane: 36 each

Estimated age of UVA’s oldest tree, a massive white oak near Brooks Hall, felled by Isabel on September 18: 256 years

Number of noteworthy trees on UVA grounds lost to the storm, according to the Grounds Department: between 12 and 20

Estimated number of hours some Central Virginians went without power after Isabel: 324

Estimated value of insured property lost during Isabel, statewide: $1,000,000,000

Subterranean homesick blues
Post-Isabel, some area residents might have preferred underground utility lines

On Friday, September 19, after Isabel stopped blowing, sections of Jefferson Park Avenue looked like disaster areas: massive trees toppled across cars, utility poles snapped in half, power lines lying across the road like dead snakes. Some residents of JPA were still sitting in the dark five days later on Wednesday, September 24.

In Ivy’s Lewis Hills subdivision, however, Mark Graham was enjoying hot showers and cold beverages by Saturday, just two days after the storm. Graham, Albemarle County’s director of engineering, says underground utility lines may have helped bring juice to his house more easily.

"Underground lines made it a whole lot better for a lot of these subdivisions, in my opinion," Graham says. "When all the lines are above ground, it takes the power company longer to get around to fix them all."

After Isabel knocked out power for nearly 2 million Virginians, places with underground power lines––County subdivisions, for instance, and most of UVA––generally had power restored faster than places with overhead lines, such as Charlottesville and Richmond.

Underground lines may be better at weathering intense storms, but don’t expect to see overhead lines disappear en masse.

About 90 percent of UVA’s utilities run below ground, and power lines to all new buildings on Grounds are buried as a matter of policy, says Cheryl Gomez, UVA’s director of utilities. The University lost electricity during Isabel because the two power lines feeding UVA’s sub-system failed. Once Dominion Virginia Power repaired those lines, all of UVA’s lights came back on.

"Our system experienced no problems with the storm. It was the lines coming into our system that caused the outage," says Gomez.

In Charlottesville, however, Dominion Virginia Power crews had to repair dozens of individual overhead lines before some neighborhoods could turn their lights back on, meaning some people sat in the dark for nearly a week.

Sure, underground power lines are safe from wind, says Dan Genest, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power. But buried lines have their own problems. Floods or careless backhoe operators can damage them, and when an underground line isn’t working, it’s much harder to locate and fix the problem, Genest says. Although it may seem counterintuitive, overhead lines have a longer life expectancy––50 years or more—than underground lines, which last only about 30 years.

The biggest problem with underground lines, though, is cost. Virginia Dominion Power can string a mile of overhead lines for about $120,000, while it costs between $300,000 and $500,000 to cover the same distance with underground lines. The underground equipment is more expensive, the design is more complex and installation is longer and more disruptive than overhead lines, Genest says.

While UVA enjoys a State-and-donor funding stream that makes it easy for the school to pay for luxuries like underground utilities, Charlottesville and Albemarle aren’t so lucky. Although the County undergrounds the lines to its own buildings, including schools, Graham says, individual developers carried the cost of undergrounding utilities in most of the County’s subdivisions to make them more aesthetically pleasing to potential buyers (presumably that cost is passed on to the homebuyer).

The City too lets aesthetics and tourism dictate its limited undergrounding projects. Charlottesville plans to bury power lines around Court Square as well as the Downtown Mall and its side streets, to make them look more "historic," says City Engineer Tony Edwards. "It has problems, but on the positive side you remove all those overhead poles and lines, and make the area more aesthetically pleasing," he says.

Other City undergrounding coincides with new development. When the Terraces project was underway, for example, the City undergounded the lines along First Street, and Second Street’s lines were buried as the new City Center for Contemporary Arts went up on Water Street. The next undergrounding will happen around the Paramount Theater, says Edwards.

Edwards estimates it costs the City between $800 and $1,000 per linear foot to bury Downtown’s power lines. "There’s a lot of stuff in the ground already, so a lot of effort goes into planning and design," he says.

On large road-improvement projects, such as the transformations the City wants to make on Fontaine Avenue, the Virginia Department of Transportation will pay half the undergrounding costs, but even then it will likely be too expensive for the City to pick up the rest of the tab to underground the lines on Fontaine.

"West Main is another desirable area for us to underground," says Edwards. "Cost will dictate whether it gets done or not. Right now, it’s not in the plan."––John Borgmeyer

Tuesday, September 21
Water, water everywhere

About 75 residents gathered tonight at Monticello High School to hear new RWSA director Thomas Frederick outline five different options for expanding the region’s water supply, including projects to expand local reservoirs, dredge sediment from the South Fork Rivanna reservoir, and pipe water from the James River. This winter, the RWSA will decide how to meet the City and County’s water needs through 2055, when projected demand is expected to exceed the available supply by 9.9 million gallons per day. Last week, the conservation group Citizens for Albemarle released a statement criticizing the RWSA, saying the meeting’s format would not “allow adequate discussion on the water supply planning issues.” Any plan from RWSA faces obstacles in getting approved, requiring sign-off from 10 Federal and State agencies, as well as from the City and County.

Wednesday, September 22
From the Omni to Austin

Questerra, a Charlottesville company based in a suite at the Omni, was indicted this week for making an illegal $25,000 political contribution in 2002 that was funneled to Republican candidates for the Texas legislature, The Washington Post today reports. The indictment was part of money laundering allegations slapped on three aids to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Questerra, a subsidiary of MeadWestvaco, develops Web-based “business intelligence” mapping services for homeland security-related agencies. For example, Questerra can help Federal agents “track offenders across jurisdictions, time, country of origin, or any metric assigned,” according to the company’s website.

Thursday, September 23
Rolling in it

UVA’s Curry School of Education today announced that it had received a $22 million donation from Boston businessman Daniel M. Meyers. The money will go to a new building, according to a release from the Curry School. Also today, Gov. Mark R. Warner announced that the Curry School would get $3 million from Microsoft for a program that trains school principals.

Friday, September 24
Getting our medicine

Al Weed, the democratic challenger for the Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, today hosted a roundtable discussion about health care policy, at C’ville Coffee. Giving short presentations were Carolyn Engelhard, a health policy expert from the UVA School of Medicine and Dr. Fouad Michael, a physician who has written on healthcare reform. According to Engelhard and Michael, though healthcare spending in the U.S. is a whopping $5,500 per person, per year, our medical care system is ranked 37th in the world in quality of care. Canada and Japan, which have annual per person rates of $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, have better healthcare standards than the U.S., Michael says. The root problem, both speakers say, is waste caused by a fragmented system. For example, they cited the huge overheads charged by the 2,000 health insurance companies in the U.S. “We have to rethink many aspects of our health care system to make it more efficient,” Michael says.

Saturday, September 25
UVA keeps rolling

About 60,000 fans today watched UVA’s football team light up Syracuse in a 31-10 victory. Though the game was undefeated UVA’s closest so far this year, the media’s billing of the game being their first real “test” might be a stretch. UVA rushed for 225 yards in the three-touchdown victory over Syracuse, a team which had beaten two creampuffs after getting shellacked 51-0 by Purdue. Even Clemson, which brings a struggling 1-3 record to town next Thursday, might not have enough juice to push the 12th ranked Cavs. But it’s safe to say that UVA fans will learn if their football team is for real when it travels to Tallahassee on Oct. 16 to play the always dangerous Florida State Seminoles.

Sunday, September 26
Wrong way on I-64

An Albemarle County man died early this morning in fiery crash on 250 East, WINA reports. The man had apparently been driving the wrong way on I-64 before turning onto an on-ramp and crashing into a light pole and a guardrail.

Monday, September 27
Council election emergency!

City residents can weigh in on a proposal to change City Council elections to a ward system at a forum held today at the Wesley Foundation. The forum, one of two such remaining public discussions, got some added publicity last week when Ann Reinicke, a recent Republican candidate for City Council, used the City’s emergency notification system to telephone 3,000 residents about the meetings and the proposal, which is championed by City Republicans. George Loper, who runs a Democratic-themed website, received one of the emergency calls. In a posting on Loper’s Web page, City officials say Reinicke probably did not receive the proper authority before using the system for a non-emergency notification. However, it appears that the rules for how to use the new phone system have yet to be fully hashed out.

—Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports

Rather knot
Local company turns up heat on CBS News anchor

The Dan Rather imbroglio, sparked by revelations that CBS’ “60 Minutes II” trumpeted forged documents about President Bush’s National Guard duty, has been billed as a victory for the “new media”—specifically Web logs, or blogs. Among prominent blogs that have drawn attention to the phony documents and heaped criticism on Rather for how he’s handled the controversy is www.rathergate.com, a website that gets its muscle from a local company.

 Right Internet Inc., a Web application developer based on the Downtown Mall, was crucial in getting rathergate.com up and running, says Mike Krempasky, 29, the blog’s author and a Northern Virginia resident. Rathergate.com’s key feature is that it allows visitors to use their credit cards to pay a small fee for a blast fax or e-mail to CBS affiliates, a process enabled by GrassWave, one of Right Internet’s Web products.

 “The whole Rathergate thing is really the coming out party for GrassWave,” Krempasky says. “GrassWave lets us literally, in a couple minutes, set up a website.”

 In his day job, Krempasky works for American Target Advertising, a direct mail company specializing in conservative causes. Krempasky’s boss, Richard A. Viguerie, has been called the “funding father of the Right.”

 Krempasky says he conceived of rathergate.com on his way home from work on Friday, September 10. Through his employer, Krempasky had collaborated with Right Internet Inc. for about a year, and Krempasky says he’s known Chris Tyrrell, one of two partners in Right Internet and a UVA law student, for even longer.

 Working with Tyrrell and co., Krempasky’s rathergate.com was live by the following Monday. Within days Krempasky was cited in the Chicago Tribune, USA Today and in an article by Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz headlined, “The Bloggers’ Moment.”

 Rather and CBS are under fire for allegedly allowing their zealous pursuit of Bush to trump journalistic standards. In a similar vein, is it fair for Krempasky—a paid political operative specializing in the mass dissemination of Right Wing material—to pose as an outraged member of the blogosphere?

 Krempasky insists that he is indeed an authentic blogger, and that his boss did not even learn of rathergate.com’s existence until it was up and running.

 “I’ve been blogging for three years now,” Krempasky says. “I’ve probably built seven different blogs.”

 Indeed, Krempasky runs a personal blog with deep archives and varied subject matter, including mentions of Tyrrell and Right Internet. Tyrrell, for his part, purchased the domain for pavefrance.com at the request of Krempasky, who runs the French-bashing blog.

 Chris Broomall, 28, Tyrrell’s partner at Right Internet, describes the Web development firm as a small shop that deals in open-source software to help 15 to 20 clients with “grassroots mobilization.” Right Internet runs out of an office above the restaurant Zocalo.

 “We cater to conservative clients,” Broomall says, a business niche and a personal commitment that he says “makes it easier to go to work in the morning.”

 Krempasky, no neophyte when it comes to grassroots activism or Web design, raves about Right Internet’s market potential. He says the company’s software “tracks everything” for clients, including which people on an e-mail distribution list—the voluntary type, not spam—actually open messages and to whom they make online donations.

 “It’s the most comprehensive software I’ve ever seen,” Krempasky says. “I haven’t seen anybody else doing this kind of stuff.”

 Local computer pros haven’t seen Right Internet doing their thing either. Debra Weiss, who heads the Neon Guild, Charlottesville’s informal techie worker’s association, says she’s never heard of Tyrrell, Bloomall or their company. Neither have local liberal Web mavens George Loper and Waldo Jacquith.

 Jacquith thinks the media might be overstating “Rathergate” as a watershed moment for blogs, claiming the blogosphere’s grand entrance as a player in the political world came in December 2002 with the blog-fueled frenzy over Sen. Trent Lott’s birthday tribute to Strom Thurmond. But Jacquith admits that the incident proves that “Right Wing bloggers can hold their own.”

 Krempasky, however, thinks Rathergate has launched a new era for blogs.

 “It took 12 hours to destroy five months of research,” Krempasky says of bloggers’ assault on the CBS story. “The mainstream media has no idea what they’re up against.”—Paul Fain

Happy together
Developers and do-gooders partner up in Woolen Mills. – City throws in parkland to boot

Two years ago, Habitat for Humanity and a group of high-concept architects called the Rivanna Collaborative were each eyeing the same leafy swath of undeveloped land along the northeast corner of Riverside Avenue and Chesapeake Street in Woolen Mills.

 Both groups approached the owner, an individual named T.E. Wood, but instead of fighting each other for the bid, the nonprofit Habitat and the for-profit Rivanna Collaborative decided to collaborate in what the developers and City officials say could set a precedent for mixed-income developments in Charlottesville.

 “You will see Habitat homes next to homes that people paid $300,000 for,” said Habitat for Humanity director Overton McGehee at a City Council meeting last week. “That’s an example that we need to show to developers.”

 On Monday, September 20, Council mostly lauded the project as they agreed to a land swap with the Rivanna Collaborative. The group comprises five architects—four of whom have worked for A-list eco-designer and former UVA architecture school dean William McDonough. They are Chris Hays, Allison Ewing, Richard Price, Kennon Williams and Lance Hosey.

 The Collaborative bought the 1.5-acre property in March 2003 for $150,000, according to City real estate records. They plan to sell a pair of lots measuring 1,000 to 1,200 square feet each to Habitat for Humanity for $13,000 apiece. When the Collaborative starts building there next spring, Habitat volunteers will commence work on two houses, each with a maximum construction cost of $150,000 and an initial sale price of $120,000.

 The upscale homes will be sold for “in the $350,000 range,” says Hays, adding that the Collaborative will donate 1 percent of the profit from the sale of the first three houses to Habitat for Humanity.

 “That’s an example we hope to hold up,” says McGehee, “so maybe folks who build even more expensive houses will start doing it.”

 On Monday, Council agreed to give the Collaborative 10,726 square feet of what Neighborhood Development Director Jim Tolbert calls “unusable” land in Riverview Park, which happens to be in the architects’ plans. In exchange, the Collaborative will give the City 3,898 square feet of adjacent property, on which the City plans to build a new playground for the park.

 “We’re sacrificing an unusable property and gaining a useable property,” Tolbert told Council.

 Because the Collaborative will deploy environmentally friendly construction techniques that it would like to extend to all the new homes, Hays says, it could take three years for all the houses, Habitat’s included, to get finished. That prompted Councilor Rob Schilling to argue that the Collaborative should give the two lots to Habitat for the nonprofit to build independently.

 “The sooner we can get affordable housing to the market, the better,” said Schilling. “They could get be done in six months.” He cast the lone vote against the land swap, which required four of five votes to pass.

 Hays, however, said the development could be a prototype for low-cost, eco-friendly homes. “We’re committed to creating an integrated whole,” said Hayes. “That takes more time.”

 Albemarle County requires housing developments in its growth areas to include 15 percent affordable stock. The City has no such requirement.

Water ordinance: Mostly gas?

Also on Monday, Council approved a water protection ordinance for Moore’s Creek, Meadow Creek and the Rivanna River. Developers will have to file conservation plans and maintain a 100-foot “buffer” of plants between construction and the water. The fine for violation is $100.

 Councilor Kevin Lynch praised the ordinance, drafted by a streams task force, but said, “This will hopefully be just a first step.”

 The ordinance could affect two developments already underway, said Tolbert—one in Barracks Road and one on Hydraulic Road. Schilling and Councilor Blake Caravati proposed an amendment that would exempt projects already underway, but it failed. The ordinance passed 4-1, with Schilling dissenting.

 Questions remain as to how the ordinance will be enforced. The task will fall to Tolbert’s neighborhood development services department, but he says his staff is already shorthanded. “We don’t currently have enough people to do this,” Tolbert said.—John Borgmeyer

B-ball and chain?
UVA’s new stadium will rock, but fans worry the team might be a heartbreaker

UVA’s new basketball stadium is starting to rise from the dirt pile. Can their hoops team do the same?

 “We’ve been told: ‘Get it world-class,’” says Richard Laurance, project director for the $130 million John Paul Jones Arena going up on Massie Road.

 UVA’s new basketball stadium is named not for Led Zeppelin’s bass player, but for the father of Paul Tudor Jones, the UVA grad and Wall Street trader who donated $20 million to the project. An anonymous donor chipped in another $20 million.

 So far, UVA has secured $90 million in commitments, says Barry Parkhill, the associate athletic director for development. But he can’t pinpoint how much money UVA has actually collected, saying only, “We’re not even close.”

 UVA gets no State money for the arena, and there’s no contingency fund to pay for the building if private donors don’t come through. To say that Parkhill is feeling pressure to deliver the cash flow “is a major understatement,” he says.

 Uncertainties about money certainly aren’t putting a damper on official hype about the arena.

 “It will be the largest indoor venue in the state of Virginia,” says Laurance. “We’ll have state-of-the-art acoustics, video boards, television sets, all kinds of electronic things.”

 It remains to be seen, however, whether all those screens will be showing ‘Hoo highlights or lowlights. Last year, UVA finished with 18 wins and 13 losses, including a 6-10 record in the ACC. They tied for seventh in the conference, which hoops enthusiasts recognize as the toughest conference in college basketball.

 A late-season winning streak in 2004 earned the Cavaliers a spot in the National Invitational Tournament, or NIT (also known as the Not Intived to the Tournament, because the NIT is reserved for schools that don’t get the coveted invitation to the 64-team NCAA Tournament). Still, just making it to the NIT probably saved coach Pete Gillen his job, says John Galinsky, general manager for Thesabre.com, an independent UVA sports website.

 “The fans are definitely not satisfied,” says Galinsky, who keeps close tabs on the hoops chat that traffics on his site. “The majority of fans would have been happy if he had been let go. The vibes were so bad when they were on a losing skid.”

 Galinsky says this year’s team could be one of the best for Gillen, who in November begins his seventh season as UVA’s head coach. Senior forward Elton Brown could be a star if he gets more aggressive on the glass. Senior small forward Devin Smith showed a good shot and lots of hustle last year, Galinsky says, and he could be a great player this year if his oft-injured back is healthy.

 Laurance says the construction is right on schedule, and the John Paul Jones Arena should be open for the 2006 season. He says the 15,000 seats will be pulled much tighter around the court than they are in the extant U-Hall, where the team has played since 1965. By then, Galinsky predicts incoming freshman Sean Singletary could be a star point guard, which has been a weak position for UVA in recent years.

 Galinsky says he’s been on a tour of the new stadium, where an average of 150 workers per day—most of them from Central Virginia, Laurance says—are currently placing the pre-cast concrete structures that will form the upper-level seating bowl, and installing mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

 “It’s going to be a state-of-the-art stadium,” says Galinsky, repeating the theme. “It could be a good recruiting tool. It will definitely be exciting for the fans.”

 Even if the Cavalier cagers don’t deliver, Parkhill is confident that he and his fundraising crew will. “This will get done, period,” he says.

 If so, the new arena will feature high-end audio equipment and a stage setup that will better suit loud rock concerts, something that will make at least one John Paul Jones proud.—John Borgmeyer

But wait, there’s more!
Constitutional amendments make Virginia voting tricky

Most voters will presumably make up their minds on Bush vs. Kerry before stepping into the booth. Only the most conflicted of undecided voters could possibly procrastinate that long. Many civic-minded citizens will even have made the call on voting for Republican incumbent Virgil Goode Jr. or for Democrat Al Weed for the Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. But even if you’ve made your choice for President and Congressman, don’t relax: Other decisions loom. Jackie Harris, Albemarle County’s Registrar, says this year’s ballot includes two proposed amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Furthermore, the two yea-or-nay ballot questions on the amendments are phrased in language that is at best murky to a non-lawyer.

 Harris says that when people try to make sense of the amendments in the booth, “it tends to slow down the voting process.” By understanding the two questions beforehand, voters will make a more informed decision and also “keep the lines moving,” she says.

 County voters will see brochures and a poster with 750 words of explanation on the two amendments at polling centers. But in an effort to further streamline the democratic process for voters and election officials alike, C-VILLE Weekly has also attempted to explain the two amendments. For more detailed descriptions, see the State Board of Election’s website (www.sbe.state.va.us/Election/) or contact the County Registrar’s office.

Amendment No. 1:
Redistricting

The U.S. Census is conducted every 10 years, most recently in 2000. In the year after the Census, when the results have been tallied, the General Assembly is required to redraw the districts for the State Senate, House of Delegates and congressional districts—using the new statistics to draw the lines. Therefore, 2011, 2021 and so on will be “redistricting” years.

 Currently, elected officials who are in office during these redistricting years are required to represent the district from which they were elected until the end of their terms. But what happens when an official resigns or dies while in office? After the 2001 redistricting, there was confusion about whether the old or new district should be used when filling such a vacancy. That’s where this amendment comes in, proposing that “any vacancy during such term shall be filled from the same district that elected the member whose vacancy is being filled.”

 Got it? A yes vote means a legislative district remains unchanged, even after redistricting, in the event that a lawmaker cannot finish his term and must be replaced.

Amendment No. 2:
The Guv’s successor

In the event of a “an emergency or enemy attack” in which Virginia’s governor dies, resigns or cannot serve, there is currently an ordered list of three State government officials who will fill in until the House of Delegates can meet to elect a new governor. This amendment proposes adding three new officials to the tail end of the list, and also includes certain eligibility requirements.—Paul Fain

Wheels keep on turning
The City tackles traffic from signals to bikes to gnarly street crossings

Mixed signals

Whenever City and County officials talk about traffic, the message is always an ode to regional cooperation. The traffic problem is bigger than any one jurisdiction, they say, so Charlottesville and Albemarle have to work together for everyone’s benefit. Isn’t that sweet?

So why is it that when officials actually do something about traffic, minor decisions turn into melodramatic turf battles?

When the City started building a traffic light at the entrance to the new Best Buy store on 29N, Albemarle flipped its lid. Recent City-County studies indicate the highway needs fewer stoplights, not more, and the County claims City Council didn’t give it a heads-up that Best Buy was moving in and that the store would require a stoplight.

"They knew damn well about it," counters Jim Tolbert, the City’s planning director. "We communicated with County staff about the light. It wasn’t a secret."

Tolbert says Best Buy started asking for a light in January. About that time, the City’s traffic engineer resigned, so the City hired consultants Kimley Horn to do a study. In April, Kimley Horn apparently found that Best Buy indeed needed a light, and Tolbert says he talked to the County’s planning department about it back then.

On April 14, County planning director Wayne Cillemberg sent Tolbert a letter thanking him for the Best Buy site plan and asking the City not to build a median break and signal for the store, claiming it would have "detrimental impacts" on traffic.

"The City never responded to the letter," says County Supervisor Dennis Rooker.

Albemarle wasn’t alone in the dark, however. Kevin Lynch, City Council’s representative to the Metropolitan Planning Organization, a regional transportation planning body, says he didn’t know about the light either. Lynch says that as recently as August, City staff told him there wasn’t going to be a new signal at Best Buy.

According to Tolbert, the Best Buy light isn’t really a new signal. It’s simply a "modification" to the existing signal at the 250 ramp, and the Best Buy light will run in synch with the 250 signal and the one at 29N and Angus Road.

"Technically they’re correct, but that’s a bit of a semantic leap," says Lynch. "I was surprised it went through without my knowledge, and I can see why the County was, too."

After all this, Butch Davies, the local liaison to the Virginia Department of Transporation, sent Mayor Maurice Cox a letter chastising the City for building the light without local dialogue. The County got a copy of the letter, and they made sure to send a copy to the Daily Progress––the official version of "Nanynany booboo, you got in trouble."

This is your bureaucracy at work, people. If our leaders can’t build a simple signal without a Clintonian debate about what a "light" is, or rounds of playground finger-pointing, how can we expect them to solve the real traffic problems that will come when the County builds Albemarle Place, projected to spit out almost 40,000 cars per day into the Hydraulic Road intersection? Almost makes us yearn for the old days when VDOT would just stomp into town with plans for some monstrous interchange nobody wanted. Almost.

A yellow bike comeback?

Last year, the City unveiled its Dave Matthews Band-funded "yellow bike" program to great fanfare. The City built yellow bike racks around town and filled them with refurbished yellow cycles, which were promptly stolen and gone forever. Burned, local bike enthusiasts plan to reinvent the program as a "bike library."

Developer and DMB manager Coran Capshaw donated warehouse space at a former car dealership near West Main’s Hampton Inn to the new yellow bike program. The space is filled with donated bikes that still need to be repaired. "It looks like endless bikes in there," says program coordinator Stephen Bach.

Bach is trying to recruit volunteers to fix up the bikes for the bike library. Instead of painting the bikes yellow and placing them around town, people who need a bike will come to the warehouse and borrow a bike for a deposit of $20. "If they bring the bike back

in useable condition, they get the $20 back," Bach says.

Bach says he needs about 10 volunteers working a regular basis before he can open the library, which he insists will not merely be an opportunity for dishonest people to "buy" a bike for $20. "We’ll want the bikes back," he says.

Look both ways

When the Music Resource Center moves into the former Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Ridge Street, the children who use the MRC will have to brave one of Charlottesville’s gnarliest intersections.

Even for able-bodied adults, the intersection of Ridge/ McIntire, West Main, Water and South streets is like a game of Frogger, especially between 3pm and 5:30pm, when kids will likely be heading in and out of the MRC. The lack of bike lanes around the busy intersection make it even more hostile to youngsters.

MRC director and 25-year City resident Sibley Johns says she remembers when you could "shoot through" that intersection. "Now it’s quite a tangle," she says. "At that location, we think we’re going to attract a lot more kids, and most of our kids come on foot," says Johns. She says the MRC may establish a buddy system for kids walking home at night. "To be honest, we haven’t gotten that far, but it is something we’ll be sensitive to."

No matter how you cross the intersection, you always seem to end up scampering away from oncoming cars, and running that pedestrian gauntlet has become a joke for the employees of Category 4, an Internet company next door to Mt. Zion.

"We always say there needs to be a bridge. It’s a pain in the ass to cross," says Category 4’s Robin Stevens. "It’s especially hard for businesses on West Main, because there’s no link to Downtown. Also, I think there needs to be a tree at the corner of South Street and Ridge. That’s the hottest intersection in Charlottesville, because you’re standing there for freakin’ ever."

Edgard and Maj-Gun Mansoor, who run Mansoor’s Oriental art and gift shop at the corner of Ridge and West Main, however, say the intersection is no big deal. "Not for us, anyway," says Maj-Gun. Edgard says crossing Ridge before the intersection is easier than navigating the crosswalks near the Lewis and Clark statue. "I guess I’m breaking the law," he confesses.

The City plans to address the intersection as part of its plans to remake West Main Street and link it with Downtown. The work of Philadelphia architects WRT on that project is on hold, though, pending the recommendations of a "transit forum" the City plans to hold in October. So far, WRT has only recommended closing South Street to traffic, but the intersection will need a more extensive treatment if the City wants people—including young musicians—to walk between West Main and Downtown.––John Borgmeyer

Clothes to you
If threads make the man, this guy could be Dean Martin

The Downtown Mall is many things, including a catwalk of sorts. A casual stroll there affords you the spectrum of men’s fashions, from the stiff Burberry-wearing corporatista to the ratty skater punk in Fourstar cargo shorts. By the time you get to the east end of the pedestrian walkway, however, you’ll notice something distinctive and unexpected. Outside one of the City’s few remaining haberdasheries is likely to be relaxing a young man of slick hair and princely posture who wouldn’t look out of place with Frank, Dean, Joey and the rest of the Rat Pack. Wearing an impeccably tailored shirt and slacks, it’s clear this man is thoroughly comfortable in what he wears, even as his attire stands out like a Vivaldi rose in a cornfield. That comfort, Joseph Falvella will tell you, is the mark of a truly fashionable man.

"To each his own is the way I see it. I don’t fault anybody for what they wear," he says. A salesman at The Men & Boy’s Shop and a veritable poster board for a kind of custom-made fashion that seems to have faded away, the distinctive Falvella is hesitant to pinpoint his style. On a recent Monday afternoon, the reluctant fashionista wore his traditional garb of gray cotton shirt with a straight collar, tan suspenders, patterned tie—both of woven silk—brown worsted wool trousers, and two-tone leather spectators.

"When I was growing up, I always used to see my grandfather—he was a car salesman—always have on a nice shirt and a tie and pair of slacks. And it was always a nice clean-cut look," the New Jersey-born Falvella says. "Used to be, pretty much everybody wore a nice shirt and slacks. Nobody left the house without a hat."

That attention to detail in men’s clothing is something that Falvella, 28, feels is lost.

"I think people settle for going to your big box department stores, rooting around for stuff by themselves, not getting waited on. Thinking they know what size they wear. And most people just accept that that’s the way its supposed to be," he says.

Most men aren’t interested in shopping, so they don’t mind getting their fashions like their fast food—in a hurry. And while there are plenty of stores that cater to that "get it and throw it on" mentality, Falvella, a loyal employee who has worked at owner Michael Kidd’s store for 10 years, says, not surprisingly, that fellas can still find attentive service at The Men & Boy’s Shop.

"I’ve got guys who bought suits 10 years ago and they come back and they say ‘Hey, I need the waist taken in or the pants adjusted.’ No problem," Falvella says. "I think that’s where we’ve got most places beat."

But even a Dapper Dan like Falvella will allow himself a little fashion break on the weekend.

"I don’t own sweats. I don’t own tennis shoes. I’m comfortable in dress slacks and a shirt. Granted, I don’t walk around mowing the grass in a necktie. I’ll take that off, " he says.

Pressed to describe his style, Falvella says he likes to wear clothes with natural fibers that are "classic and traditional, but in a stylish, sporty sense." But he still resists offering any advice for the fashion-impaired.

"Whatever makes that person happy. It’s their hard-earned money that they’re spending on something for themselves. If they’re happy in it and they’re comfortable in it, that’s the bottom line."—Jennifer Pullinger

Charge of the light brigade
LED leaders Inova to brighten Water Street

At 11pm, the corner at Water and Second streets is dark. The only light emits from the buzzing fixtures on the side of the Water Street parking garage, the dull yellow of four lamps in the adjacent parking lot, and a smattering of streetlights. But this fall, the corner will look a little more like Times Square, bathed in moving light as the new City Center for Contemporary Arts—housing Live Arts, Second Street Gallery and LightHouse—will open, sporting 40-foot-plus signs not unlike those seen outside the studios of "Good Morning America." The urban décor comes courtesy of a big player on the computerized-signage market—one that just happens to live down the street. Introducing Inova, the biggest company in Charlottesville you’ve never heard of.

Reflecting the past
New African-American newspaper dusts off a 70-year mission

When Thomas J. Sellers founded the Reflector, a weekly newspaper for African-Americans published in Charlottesville between 1931 and 1935, he wrote that his aim was not to cover all the news but to "reflect the progress of our community and Race."

Seventy years later, a pair of local entrepreneurs have dusted off the Reflector nameplate, but with a slightly different mission statement. In March, Corey Carter and Waki Wynn jumped into the crowded Charlottesville publishing market with the first issue of the new African American Reflector.

"We thought the name would be a great tribute to Thomas Sellers," says Carter, the Reflector’s 31-year-old editor. By reviving the Reflector name, the bi-monthly paper intentionally highlights the contrast between Charlottesville’s black community in the Jim Crow ’30s and its black community today.

Back then, Charlottesville incubated one of the most progressive centers of black culture anywhere in the South. The most popular columns from old issues of the Reflector are society pages full of the comings and goings of black elites, focusing on names that are still familiar today: Coles, Bell, Tonsler, Inge and Jackson. Now, however, Carter laments the decline of the city’s black culture––sealed with the destruction of Vinegar Hill in the ’60s, Carter believes—and the current paucity of black-owned businesses and nightspots.

"Charlottesville has a hard time keeping black professionals," says Carter. "I have successful friends who say ‘I love Charlottesville, but what am I going to do here?’ They’ve gone off to D.C. or Richmond or Atlanta."

Carter and Wynn have stayed, remaining here after growing up together in Charlottesville. Carter left briefly to teach English in Baltimore public schools, dreaming of owning a newspaper before returning home. Meanwhile Wynn went through a succession of home-based businesses like Amway, Primerica and Quixtar. He also started a lawn-care business and tried selling vending machines and printing t-shirts before working for the ill-fated Internet company Value America. He started Wacky Entertainment, through which he has put on jazz and r’n’b shows around town.

It was at one of those shows that Carter and Wynn decided to start a newspaper.

"We saw the issue about the lack of entertainment venues as hand-in-hand with the issue of a newspaper," says Carter. "We need more culture."

The Reflector staff includes just Carter, Wynn and his wife, Traci, the paper’s staff writer. The free paper claims a circulation of about 6,000 and distributes in about 70 sites in Charlottesville, Albemarle and surrounding counties. Like the old Reflector, the new paper counts on an audience of liberal white readers as well as blacks.

"The boxes in Forest Lakes are always empty," says Carter. "About half our e-mails are from white readers saying ‘Thank you.’"

The content includes "From the Editor" comments on local events and calls for black activism, and "Reflections," a section that reprints articles from the old Reflector as well as writings from black scholars such as David Walker and W.E.B. DuBois. The paper has taken an aggressive stand on the achievement gap issue in City and County schools, asking: "Are the futures of black students being gambled away the minute black parents send their children to public schools? The numbers suggest yes."

Even as the upstart Reflector stumps for more local black culture, they face competition from the 50-year-old Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune. That paper is currently wrapped up in a legal drama in which former ad rep Rosanna Harris sued publisher Agnes Cross-White for $1 million, alleging Cross-White lied about the Tribune’s circulation. Cross-White contends the lawsuit is frivolous and claims Harris forged checks and stole her car.

About the time the old Reflector made its debut, the Daily Progress published two newspapers, one with white society news and the other with black society news. In an editorial, Sellers challenged anyone offended by segregation to support the Reflector. "So, unless those protestors cooperate with this, their own weekly paper," he wrote, "I shall be forced to believe that they are only jokers."

Carter and Wynn don’t make such explicit challenges, but the subtext of the new Reflector is an appeal to the city’s older, middle-class black population to come out and rebuild a culture in Charlottesville.

"That’s a big issue," says Wynn. "If we just wanted to make money, we wouldn’t have started a newspaper."––John Borgmeyer

Queer eye
for the frat guy
Stylish advice from the family to the brothers

With the recent announcement that campus group Out on Rugby plans to form a gay fraternity at UVA, C-VILLE put in a call to local homosexual Pierce Atkins. Since every man of the gay persuasion is an arbiter of good taste, Ace’s "that way" brother gave the non-gay frat boys tips on how to live more fabulously on Rugby Road so as to welcome their prospective gay brothers. After a few cosmos at Escafé he opened right up. An edited transcript follows.

The barber of C’ville
Ken Staples turns heads, cutting hair fromLong to short