Dude, where’s my bike?
Yellow bike program returns—with a fee
Last year’s ill-fated “yellow bike” program has been resurrected in the form of a community bike library that’s trying to share refurbished two-wheelers without getting robbed.
Last year, the City of Charlottesville and Dave Matthews Band funded a project to fix up old bikes, paint them yellow and distribute them around town. Within days all the bikes disappeared. This time, the new bike library, which opened October 1 at 860 W. Main St., isn’t just giving away rides.
“Anyone who wants a bike is asked to put their name on a volunteer registration form,” says coordinator Alexis Zeigler. “They are then asked to help repair the bikes for at least an hour, and to put down a deposit of $10 to $20, depending on the quality of the bike.”
The deposit will be returned when patrons return the bike. “If you don’t know how to repair bikes, that’s fine,” says Zeigler. “The volunteers at the shop will help you learn.”
For now the shop, tucked behind the Hampton Inn in a warehouse owned by DMB manager and über-philanthropist Coran Capshaw, is open on Saturdays from 2pm to 5pm. Zeigler says there’s “a couple hundred” bikes on hand, and “a few” have been checked out so far. The hours of operation will expand, says Zeigler, as the volunteer base grows.
Preston Plaza, Part 2
Last winter, Preston Avenue business owners got all worked up when the City announced plans to redevelop the intersection of Preston and Grady avenues, near the Monticello Dairy building. The project, known as Preston Plaza, went on the shelf a few months later, however, because nobody wanted to build it.
Now City Council is reviving Preston Plaza, citing new interest from developers. This time the Mayor is cranking up the City’s public relations machine, trying to head off another round of controversy.
On October 30, Mayor Maurice Cox called a meeting at the New Covenant Pentecostal Church on the corner of 10th Street and Grady to tell owners of such businesses as Integral Yoga, the Firehouse Bar and Grill, Central Battery and Crystalphonic Recording that Preston Plaza was back on deck.
“We’ve set aside the development plans from a year ago, and we’re starting fresh,” said Cox.
The original plan called for a mixed-use project––50,000 square feet of housing, 2,800 square feet of office space and a partially underground parking deck for 70 cars. Cox says developers were initially skittish about the amount of housing, and expensive ideas like underground parking. The outcry from business owners also turned off some developers, Cox says.
The Mayor wouldn’t name names, only revealing that “a critical mass” of developers showed renewed interest when the City agreed to rethink project specifications. When the City first announced the proposed development, local businesses said they were blindsided by the news. At the meeting, the business owners didn’t seem any less opposed to the plan, even with all the advance word on it.
Cox, however, claimed the City and the local Chamber of Commerce would do all it could to ensure that businesses were not hurt by construction, which Cox said could start in two years. Referencing the new shopping centers going up in Albemarle County’s urban ring, Cox said City Council has to push for infill development to help Charlottesville compete.
“We have to leverage every single square inch of this city,” said Cox. “We have to inspire developers to a higher and better use of this property.”
Rising Starr
In a sign of evolution––or, some would say, gentrification––the Starr Hill neighborhood has been removed from the City’s list of funding sites eligible for Federal low-income assistance. Starr Hill is no longer a candidate for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which pay for improvements to poor areas.
The Starr Hill neighborhood, which lies north of W. Main Street, bounded by Ridge/McIntire, Preston Avenue and the railroad tracks, has been on the City’s list of CDBG sites since Charlottesville started receiving the grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1974.
Charlottesville gets about $700,000 a year in CDBG grants, and it has wide flexibility in how that money is used, says Claudette Grant, a City neighborhood planner. Some grants can go directly to low-income individuals for things like home improvements, or they can be spent on projects like sidewalks or parks for the City’s target neighborhoods––Belmont, Fifeville, 10th and Page, Ridge Street and Rose Hill.
Households can qualify for CDBG funds if total household income for a family of four is below $50,880, which is equal to 80 percent of the City’s median income of $63,600, a figure determined by HUD.
Starr Hill was removed after 2000 Census data revealed that 47.3 percent of that neighborhood’s population is considered “low or moderate income.” According to HUD regulations, a neighborhood must be more than 51 percent low or moderate income to qualify.
In the mid- to late-1990s, Starr Hill was targeted by the Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA), which built subsidized houses to sell to low-income residents. Ironically, this effort to help low-income residents is putting Starr Hill housing out of reach for the poor.
“The big project that changed Starr Hill was the PHA,” says Missy Creasy, a City neighborhood planner. “The houses sold at low levels to the original owners, but they’ve turned over since then and sold for significantly more.”
In 1998, for example, the City and PHA repaired a dilapidated house at 210 Sixth St. NW and sold it to a first-time homebuyer for $82,500. Four years later, the same house sold for $225,000.––John Borgmeyer
Industrial strength
New concert promoters have a ga-Gillian ideas for bringing new acts to town
Even before they met in high school in Williamsburg, where they played in rock bands and penned such originals as “(What in the) Sam Hill?” Hank Wells and Michael Allenby had identified music as “a big pursuit.” It was just a question of finding the best outlet for their passion. A dozen years later, the bass guitar and drums have taken a back seat to booking the music for everything from weddings and fraternity bashes to festivals and corporate affairs through Sam Hill Entertainment, the agency they started eight years ago. November 19 marks their first venture as concert promoters, when Sam Hill Presents brings Gillian Welch to the Charlottesville Performing Arts Center (CPAC) for a sold-out show.
In focusing on all aspects of the Charlottesville market, Allenby and Wells see themselves augmenting the work of talent buyers who book one room, such as Starr Hill Music Hall, and local promoters who concentrate on one type of music, such as acoustic or reggae.
Writer Phoebe Frosch caught up with the dynamic entrepreneurs in their Water Street offices recently to discuss their vision for bringing diverse musical acts to Charlottesville.
C-VILLE: Which Charlottesville stages would you especially like to book?
Hank Wells: In addition to CPAC, the Jefferson Theater—a great room sitting there waiting for shows to happen—the Paramount when it’s finished, and Old Cabell Hall.
Michael Allenby: Outerspace is a cool space in a fantastic location [attached to Plan 9 on the UVA Corner], that’s about the size of Trax. It probably holds 600-800 people. It’s mostly an unused room—they’ve had some in-store parties and WNRN’s Station Break release party there but not much else.
Name some artists you’d like to bring to town.
Allenby: They range from someone who’s up and coming, like Ben Kweller, to Wilco or Ben Folds, all the way to legendary acts like Willie Nelson.
Wells: Emmylou Harris would be great at the Paramount. Charlottesville has these beautiful theaters that could entice big names to come here.
Ideally, where would you put Willie Nelson?
Allenby: Ideally, the Jefferson Theater, but the tickets might have to be $500! But if Willie Nelson decides to do a small theater tour, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t play Charlottesville. A promoter just has to be poised to do it, and have a reputation in the industry as someone who can pull it off.
If you could add one new room for music to this town, what would it be?
Wells: An authentic, no-frills rock club.
Allenby: Absolutely. A place where people want to hang out, even before they know who’s playing there that night.
As promoters, do you see any gaping holes in the local music scene?
Wells: World music doesn’t get represented enough here. Jazz is under-serviced, too. You can hear first-rate jazz up the street on Thursday nights, but Miller’s holds 50 people. Branford Marsalis or Chick Corea could play here, artists you ordinarily have to go to D.C. to hear.
Allenby: When we see musicians who should be coming to town but aren’t, in our little world, that’s a tragedy. Even though Charlottesville is small compared to Richmond or D.C., it’s home to a lot of forward-thinking people, which makes it fertile ground for music. The fan base exists to bring in a high-caliber and level of talent. If people buy tickets, we can build something.
Head of the class
After a botched job last time, the City School Board starts a new super search
At the end of this school year, departing seniors won’t be the only ones graduating from the Charlottesville City Schools. Superintendent Ron Hutchinson, after 30 years of work in the Charlottesville system, including two years as superintendent, will retire at the end of June.
“Life looks good,” Hutchinson says of his post-superintendent plans. But the future is far murkier for the Charlottesville School Board as it begins the search for a new superintendent.
Prior to the retirement of previous super William Symons, Jr. in July 2002, the board had lined up three candidates for the job. In fairly rapid succession, all three nixed the gig.
The rejections (the three top candidates took superintendent jobs in Martha’s Vineyard, Charlotte and Stafford, Virginia) were particularly embarrassing because the school board had conducted an open search and vetting of candidates. Though Linda Bowen, chairperson of the school board, says she was pleased with the public input during the last search, she says that the school board will make changes to avoid another visible jilting. Most notably, Bowen says the board will ask candidates the question: “If you are offered this job, will you come to Charlottesville?”
The salary range for the position, though not finalized, will be $90,000 to $130,000, which Bowen says should be competitive with the national average.
Bekah Saxon, a teacher at Buford Middle School and president of the Charlottesville Education Association, expects the board will be more cautious during this search. “The board learned some real lessons about what to say and what not to say,” she says.
However, Saxon isn’t worried that the board kibosh will be too severe. “We’ve all been assured that teachers and parents will be involved from the get go,” she says.
In typical bureaucratic fashion, the hunt for Hutchinson’s successor has been kicked off with a search for a search firm. A subcommittee comprising two school board members and two City government officials will settle on the headhunter, and Bowen wants to have the firm on the job on or near December 1. The board had 31 applicants for the job last time, and Bowen hopes the search firm will bring in more applicants this time around—the best of whom will have experience with diverse school populations.
This year alone, the Charlottesville superintendent oversees 4,422 students in nine schools and a budget of more than $51 million, making Bowen liken the job to that of City Manager.
“The problem anymore is that it’s hard to find superintendents. It’s a thankless job if you stop to think about it,” Bowen says. “You’re under so much criticism.”
One notable critic of the school board itself is Republican City Councilor Rob Schilling, who says that an elected rather than an appointed board would be more accountable for its actions, including its failed search for a boss last year. Albemarle County, which does have an elected school board, voted in three new members on November 4.
“I think that certainly, we could have had some different results last time around,” Schilling says, adding, however, that he trusts the board is doing a good job in the early phases of its new hunt for a super.
After the search firm narrows its sights on a few top candidates, Bowen says, the board will likely want to step in and begin interviews. In addition to finding a person who will accept Charlottesville’s offer to the big dance, Bowen says, the board is looking for someone who can handle the highly politicized job, without alienating members of the City government or the general public. Bowen’s target date for locking in the new superintendent is March 1, 2004.
What if the board fails to fill the position by that deadline? “It could be a problem,” Bowen acknowledges.—Paul Fain