Tuesday, July 27
Cheap labor in Charlottesville
State Farm Insurance today announced a reorganization that will add 200 to 300 new jobs in its Charlottesville office. The local branch, which currently employs 1,100, had been in the midst of shedding 150 positions—leaving a significant net gain. Frederick, Maryland, was the loser in State Farm’s consolidation, with the local office there expecting cuts of up to 500 positions. A State Farm spokesman told the Baltimore Sun that the company decided to send jobs to Charlottesville from Frederick because labor costs are lower in these parts. The spokesman told the Sun that there is a “significant” wage difference between the two towns. State Farm said it was offering many of its Frederick-based employees the option of relocating, perhaps diminishing the number of local hires.
Wednesday, July 28
Masked robbers hit hotel room
Two armed robbers awakened five people sleeping in a room at the Town and Country Inn on Richmond Road early on Tuesday, The Daily Progress reports today. Three people fled the room, but another two, both young men, were repeatedly pistol-whipped by one of the assailants. Attackers made off with $10, while both victims landed in the hospital, one with serious injuries. Today, one of the suspects, Mark Edward Covington, 22, of Charlottesville, turned himself into police. Police are searching for two other suspects.
Thursday, July 29
Guv fires up Dems
Speaking in a primo slot today, the culminating evening of the Democratic National Convention, Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner told delegates that John Kerry might be the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the Commonwealth since 1964. “Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years. Virginia has been wandering in the Republican desert for 40 years. But this Bush can’t lead us to the promised land. This year, our wandering is over,” Warner said, according to the Associated Press. Warner’s slot at the convention and a high-profile Kerry appearance this week in Norfolk has sparked debate over whether Virginia may be in play during the presidential race. But political sage Larry Sabato of UVA says Virginia will only go Democrat if Kerry wins the whole enchilada in a landslide.
Friday, July 30
UVA to stiff-arm State?
In arguing for a charter system that would give UVA more independence from the State, UVA president John Casteen III said Virginia has failed to kick in its fair share of funds since 1989, The Daily Progress reports. Casteen told the Board of Visitors in a Friday meeting at Monticello that it was time to leave the current “dysfunctional” system behind. The College of William and Mary and Virginia Polytechnic Institute have joined UVA in the push. The DP reports that school officials say the move would help streamline construction and contract procurement, but concerns have been raised about possible salary cuts and tuition rate hikes under a charter system.
Saturday, July 31
Blue Moon hits quarter century
W. Main Street’s Blue Moon Diner today celebrated turning 25 with an evening shindig. The event coincided with an actual blue moon, which the Farmer’s Almanac defines as a second full moon in a month—an event that occurs once every two and a half years or so. The party featured games, free drinks and assorted acoustic strumming and singing. One lucky partygoer scored a whoopee cushion by tossing a ring on a beer bottle.
Sunday, August 1
Vote with your remote
Showtime’s “American Candidate,” which taped in Charlottesville in mid-June, made its debut on the cable channel this evening. The reality show, which leads 10 contestants on a faux presidential campaign that will land the winner $200,000 and a speaking engagement on TV, got a thumbs-down from the influential Hollywood Reporter. The show’s campaign is “as representative of real campaigning as the game of Monopoly is to real business investment,” writes the Reporter.
Monday, August 2
Right skips Jones event
Spending more than $1 million to construct a legally stop-proof facility on Hydraulic Road, Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge today opened the medical center named for longtime local physician Dr. Herbert C. Jones. Though the siting of the building was the target of a fruitless religious protest at a recent meeting of the County Board of Supervisors, the Thursday press conference announcing the start of services at the Jones Center went off without incident. Dr. Jones himself, retired and seeming frail, surprised Planned Parenthood higher-ups by taking the microphone at the end of the prepared comments to address broadcast and some print media: “Too many physicians today have gotten away from total care of the woman. It doesn’t mean we’re pro-abortion, it means we’re pro-choice.”
Altared states
Gay marriage rights debate has both sides apoplectic
As the political season heats up, you may want to stake out your position on what’s sure to be a big issue in November—gay marriage. Take the following quiz to see where you stand:
Which one of these statements is true?
a. Supporters of gay marriage want to destroy civilization.
b. Opponents of gay marriage are justlike racists.
c. The truth is somewhere in between.
If you answered “c,” then you’re probably right. You’re also a little too moderate for either side of the gay rights debate, a new battleground for Virginia’s culture warriors. As the issue of gay marriage becomes more important in state and national politics, both sides are ratcheting up the hyperbole to rally supporters and demonize opponents.
Anti-gay rhetoric has been an effective political tool in Virginia, a longtime stronghold for the Christian right. This year, the General Assembly passed some of the strictest anti-gay legislation in the country, the most controversial of which is House Bill 751, also known as the Defense of Marriage Act. It became law on July 1.
Attorney and UVA alum Joe Price describes the bill’s sponsor, Del. Bob Marshall of Manassas, and his supporters as “exactly like Massive Resistance leaders,” referring to the 1950s-era politicians who closed Virginia’s public schools rather than racially integrate them. “History will treat them the same,” says Price, who also sits on the board of Equality Virginia, a statewide gay rights group.
Casting Marshall and his ilk as oppressors of civil rights has certainly helped Equality Virginia reap a windfall of money and publicity from the controversy surrounding H.B. 751.
“Three years ago, the group was on its last legs,” says Price. “There was less than $5,000 in the bank, and there was one part-time staff person.” Indeed, Guidestar.org, a website that details the financial health of nonprofit organizations, lists the group’s total assets at the end of FY 2003 as $7,663.
“Today,” says Price, “we have 25 board members, three full-time staff, and several hundred thousand dollars. We went from 400 members in our database to 3,500. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Equality Virginia could get an even bigger boost if it sues to fight the law, which it likely will do later this year in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union.
“This is one of the worst pieces of legislation the House of Delegates has passed in 50 years,” says Price, who is advising the groups on the potential suit. “It’s a lawyer’s dream.”
Victoria Cobb, director of legislative affairs for the Family Foundation of Virginia, a Richmond lobby group for the religious right, says Price should “tread very lightly when comparing the rights of homosexuals with black people,” and that doing so is simply a way to draw attention to their cause.
H.B. 751, says Cobb, is not designed to harass gays. The bill only protects Virginia from “activist courts” that might legalize gay marriage or civil unions (unlikely, given the conservative bent of Virginia’s judiciary), and makes a statement that gay marriage “is simply too extreme for the citizens of Virginia,” which, loving gay couples should take note, is not somehow an expression of harassment.
Now for another quiz: Identify which side of the gay rights debate uttered the following quote: “It’s very sad that extreme organizations are willing to frighten their supporters.”
Answer: That quote came from Cobb of the Family Foundation of Virginia, shortly after she explained that legalized gay marriage would encourage divorce, infidelity, and the fall of heterosexual unions.—John Borgmeyer
C-VILLE instructs George Loper to Kerry on
An epic Democrat shindig in Beantown? Dude, we had to be there!
Alas, we’ve got a paper to make. Since C-VILLE couldn’t attend the Democratic National Convention ourselves, we sent George Loper—local political partyhopper and blogger extraordinaire—to Boston as our correspondent.
Armed with his digital camera, Loper hit the Fleet Center in pursuit of Dem scene-makers. In this photo essay, Loper brings you face-to-face with the familiar mugs of Hillary Clinton and Al Sharpton, and he gets up close and personal with rising stars Barack Obama and our own Governor Mark Warner.
Loper was there for a Janet Reno dance party, a midriff flash from John Edwards’ groupiesand a protest scene that gives new meaning to the term “crotch rockets.” Here are just a few ofhis best party pics—you can check out Loper’s weblog from the convention on his website, www.loper.org/~george/.
The right side of the tracks?
ACAC & Capshaw break ground at old Ivy Industries building
Downtown isn’t Phil Wendel’s preferred stomping ground. “I’m a 29 North kind of guy,” says Wendel, owner and founder of ACAC.
So two years ago, when he was considering a new site for his Water Street health club, Wendel needed some convincing about the potential of south Downtown.
To help get up to speed, Wendel went for a drive with one of his new buddies, developer extraordinaire Coran Capshaw.
“He showed me where projects were beginning to happen,” Wendel says, noting that Capshaw pointed out the soon-to-be swanky Norcross Station condos, Oliver Kuttner’s Cavalier Beverage Building (the so-called Glass Building) and the swelling real estate values in Belmont.
But the kicker for Wendel was when he and Capshaw took a look at the “vacuum” of the Ivy Industries building, which had been vacated in the messy aftermath of a check-kiting scheme that closed the former frame-manufacturing business.
“I knew this was a great location for ACAC,” Capshaw says, with Wendel adding that “it was almost love at first sight” when he spotted the building.
At a groundbreaking last Friday, Capshaw and Wendel unveiled the plans for the new ACAC site, which will fill approximately 50 percent of the renovated Ivy Industries building, occupying the equivalent of an acre of square footage. Also planned for the development are a mix of condos and as yet undetermined commercial tenants.
The new “wellness center,” at 35,000 square feet, will be slightly more than half the size of ACAC’s Albemarle Square site. The project’s manager, Grant Gamble of the Legacy Management Group, Inc., says the new ACAC gym should be up and running by October 2005. A two-storey parking garage could be operational before that time, Gamble says.
Steve Musulin currently works in the Downtown gym and has been with ACAC since 1984, the year Wendel opened his first location. Musulin says he likes the new location, particularly in light of the development boom on the south side of the railroad tracks.
“We’re trying to get a piece of the big picture,” Musulin says.
Musulin says the design for the lavish club, which includes a rooftop pool with a solar heating system, was aided by two years of planning.
“They didn’t have to rush it,” Musulin says.
The new ACAC location will entail a walk of a few extra blocks for Downtown Mall denizens than does the current fitness center. But Gamble and City Councilor Blake Caravati say the City is in the early stages of planning to make that walk feel like less like a wrong-side-of-the-tracks stroll. Caravati says he’s looking at a pedestrian walkway that would include trees, shrubs and lighting, calling the connector one of his top three priorities in the next two years. He also said that the City is considering moving the City Market, which is currently held in the parking lot at Water and Second streets, to a covered area on the south side of the tracks.
Capshaw says he envisions a “synergistic” mix of tenants in the new complex, such as a high-end grocer, medical spa and physical therapy offices.
Caravati was clearly down with Capshaw’s vision, yelling, “Nice work, Coran!” on his way out of the chummy groundbreaking shindig. —Paul Fain