4-DAY Holiday Edition
Tuesday, June 28
Housing Authority drafts new director
The beleaguered Charlottesville Housing and Redevelopment Authority could breathe a little easier today, since Noah Schwartz has announced he will take over the Authority on July 25th. Schwartz has led the Monticello Area Community Action Agency since 2001. He replaces New York attorney Paul Chedda, whom the CHRA fired in May. “I will certainly bring stability in terms of management,” Schwartz tells C-VILLE, adding that he will emphasize “team-building and organizational development.” Whatever that means, it must sound sweet to the CHRA, which earlier this month was named a “troubled agency” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to The Daily Progress.
Planning Commission says, “No way, Stoner”
Tonight the Albemarle County Planning Commission rejected plans for a major subdivision off Rio Road. Since 2003, Frank Stoner and his company, Stonehaus Development, have been trying to rezone more than 200 acres off Rio Road so they could build a subdivision to be called Belvedere. In rejecting the zoning by a 3-2 vote, commissioners said Stonehaus had failed to include enough affordable housing and to build a road, according to local news reports. Another stumbling block for Stonehaus—70-year-old Phillip Brown, who has so far refused to sell the eight acres he owns in the middle of the proposed subdivision site.
Wednesday, June 29
UVA Credit Union customers hacked off
Today the UVA Community Credit Union announced that “a very small percentage” of their customers were among the thousands of victims of a “security incident,” according to a message on the credit union’s website. On June 17, Tucson-based CardSystems Solutions, Inc. announced that hackers had stolen 40 million credit cards because the company, which processes banking transactions, failed to secure its network. Some of those stolen credit cards belonged to a “handful” of UVA Credit Union customers, according to Marketing Veep Janine Williams. “Those cards were blocked and reissued,” says Williams, reminding customers that the fault lies with CardSystems and that “there was no breach in any security at the Credit Union whatsoever.”
Thursday, June 30
Pavilion takes shape
Today workers installed most of an 80-foot metal arch that will span the Charlottesville Pavilion, slated to open at the end of July. “It’s really coming along now,” said Pavilion General Manager Kirby Hutto. “This is going to be another landmark for Charlottesville.”
Friday, July 1
“The Simpsons,” “O.C.” come to Charlottesville
Fans of Homer Simpson and Simon Cowell let out a big “Woo-hoo!” as today marks the official debut of Charlot-tesville’s Fox television affiliate, WAHU. Cable users can now also catch UVA grad Benjamin McKenzie and the rest of the “O.C.” crew on Channel 19; non-cable viewers on Channel 27. It’s the third station owned by Gray Television, which last year brought ABC and CBS affiliates to town. While WAHU Vice President/ General Manager Roger Burchett says that the debut was glitch-free on the technical side, there was a programming snafu: Daytime hours were supposed to be filled with programming from Christian-leaning network PAX, but it turns out the network unexpectedly halted broadcasting today. That left Burchett scrambling to fill WAHU’s summer daytime schedule with syndicated programs that “might be considered court- and judge-show heavy,” he concedes. Come September 1, the daytime programming will change again. Burchett says local Fox news at 10pm should start by October 1.
Local smokers blow off “sin tax”
Effective today, Virginians can expect to pay less for groceries, but more for smokes. As part of the sweeping bipartisan budget and tax reforms passed by the 2004 General Assembly, the State food tax is scheduled to decrease to 2.5 percent from 4 percent, while the cigarette tax will rise to 30 cents from 20 cents per pack. Revenue generated by the new “sin tax” will provide health care for Virginia’s children, low-income families, and elderly. But local smoker Joshua Garrett thinks he has found a tax code loophole. “Ten cents is not going to stop me,” he says. “I’ll just buy cheaper cigarettes.” Scheme and bellyache all you want, dear smokers, but puff on this—Virginia still has one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the nation.
Written by John Borgmeyer from staff reports and news sources.
He’s got game
Tom McCrystal takes the field against Toscano for the 57th District seat
In 2002, Tom McCrystal flew to Aus-tralia to play goalie in a world lacrosse tournament. “I had some shaky practices with the team, and a pretty bad warm-up the day of the first game,” recalls the 44-year-old Charlottesville businessman. But on the first play of the game, McCrystal saved a goal, the first of 93 saves over seven games. “People in the bar were asking for my autograph,” he says. “It was great.”
Now McCrystal, a Republican, is stepping on the political field against Democratic champion David Toscano, who won the primary election last month. So far Toscano has raised nearly $80,000 in his bid for the 57th District seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates, and most observers assume his victory is sealed. (McCrystal says he hasn’t yet totaled up his campaign donations.)
As chief technology officer for Creative Perspectives, McCrystal has been a winner in the games of both lacrosse and capitalism. He has some experience in Richmond, advising the General Assembly on technology issues and helping craft bills; he has a blog (www.virginiasfuture.org). But is he ready for the political popularity contest? That’s what C-VILLE wanted to know when we sat down with him last week. An edited transcript of the interview follows.—John Borgmeyer
John Borgmeyer: Most people expect that a Republican has no chance in this race. Why did you decide to run?
Tom McCrystal: I’ve been working with the General Assembly on technology issues, getting to know how things happen down there. The real work happens inside the caucus, and right now the Democrats are on the outside looking in. To get anything done Charlottesville needs to have a voice in the Republican caucus.
There’s a lot of conflict right now between moderates and conservatives within the Virginia Republican party. How would you negotiate that?
I’m not going to Richmond to fight the culture wars. I had an interesting conversation with [conservative Delegate] Bob Marshall in January. I said, “You know, I’ll be on the other side of some issues that are important to you.” He laughed at me and said, “You’re from Charlottesville. Of course you will.” But he had a really great voice-over IP [Internet Protocol] bill that we talked about. Rather than talk about where I differ, I’d rather talk about where I can work with people.
Does that mean you would vote against
a constitutional amendment to ban gay civil unions?
I have to say I don’t know how I would vote on that. One of the problems with being in the middle is that you recognize that everything is not black and white. It’s easy if you’re on the margins. When you’re in the middle, you actually have to consider things carefully. Stepping back from the issue, I wonder if the Constitution of Virginia is the right place for that. I’d rather not spend too much time on that.
What is the Tom McCrystal platform in this race?
Transportation is obviously more of a problem. When my family moved here in 1973, K-Mart was the edge of civilization. Woodbrook was out in the freakin’ boonies. Now, we’re not near as bad as Fairfax, but if we don’t fix things early it’s going to cost us more later. The City and County have done a pretty good job making the General Assembly unsympathetic to our needs. If you think Lynchburg is hacked off at the Char-lottesville bottleneck right now, just wait 10 years.
That sounds like a plug for the Western Bypass.
We’re talking about roads that have been designed 40 or 50 years ago. We need some roads, but I’m not convinced we’ve come up with the right road, and I’m not sure VDOT is designing these roads with the needs of this community in mind. I think we need an eastern connector, as opposed to a western bypass.
You’re also involved in privacy issues.
Privacy is not a Democrat or Republican issue. It used to be privacy was the neighborhood kid going through your mailbox. Now it’s a kid from Bulgaria going through your bank account, or your grandmother’s bank account. I think we need to create safe harbor for companies who do the right thing. If you’re sending unencrypted tapes in an unsecured fashion to another contractor, and it gets lost, you know what? You deserve to be slapped.
What’s your strategy in the campaign?
There’s no getting around the fact that David’s going to have more money to throw around than we will. He has a fundraising organization in place. I think we’re going to be smarter about how we spend our money. Legislature works very differently than City Council. I’ve got more experience at the state level than David does.
Reasonable doubts
Questions taint Virginia’s DNA convictions
The egregious case of Earl Washing-ton, Jr. continues to reverberate through Virginia’s criminal justice system. Forensic scientists are currently reviewing at least 160 DNA cases at the State crime lab in Richmond, and the investigation is casting doubt on the reliability of DNA testing itself, especially as a cog in Virginia’s execution machine.
Washington, who is from Fauquier County, spent 17 years in prison—nine on death row—for a rape and murder he did not commit. A lawsuit pending in Charlottesville’s U.S. District Court alleges that investigators coerced a confession from Washington (he is mildly retarded and functions on the level of a 10-year-old) then ignored evidence that might have proven Washington’s innocence. So far, the Commonwealth has neither compensated Washington for his ordeal, nor offered so much as an official apology.
Filed last year, the lawsuit revealed that the State’s crime lab in Richmond botched DNA tests that would have cleared Washington and pointed the way to the real killer. Revelations about incompetence at the lab prompted Governor Mark Warner to order an independent audit of the lab last fall. The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors reviewed the lab and released their findings in May.
The auditors found flaws in the lab’s internal review process, and suggested that lab workers could have been subject to political pressure in the Washington case. Governor Warner accepted the audit’s recommendation that the work of Jeffery Ban, the lab’s chief DNA scientist, be restricted. Warner also ordered a review of 40 recent DNA cases and a sample of 110 other DNA cases to see whether other convictions might be in doubt. According to The Washington Post, the review will include about two-dozen death penalty convictions—the first time any state has voluntarily re-examined the cases of executed felons.
“We hope this audit is the beginning of a turning point in Virginia justice,” says Debi Cornwall, one of Washington’s lawyers. Virginia is both a pioneer in DNA technology and fervently devoted to capital punishment (since the death penalty was revived in 1974 the Commonwealth has killed 94 people, more than any state except Texas). “DNA testing is an incredibly powerful tool,” says Cornwall, “but it’s only as reliable as the people who are doing the testing.”
Local defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana says DNA tests from the crime lab have figured into some of her recent cases. “They have evidence, and you rely on them to be truthful about what the evidence means,” Quagliana says. “What’s really scary is that it’s not clear the lab is doing what it should, which is be a neutral examiner of the evidence.”
With so much emphasis on DNA as a means to convict, rather than exonerate, defendants, Quagliana says sometimes witnesses from the crime lab seem to perceive themselves as advocates for the prosecution.
“When they get into court, I think sometimes they feel they have a duty to the Commonwealth, instead of a neutral standpoint of scientific findings,” Quagliana says.
As a cutting-edge science, DNA tests carry great weight in a culture that endows technology with almost mythic infallibility. Given that power, advocates for death penalty reform are calling for a thorough review of how the science is actually used in the courtroom. Depending on what the audit finds, the strange case of Earl Washington could reverberate all the way to the foundations of Virginia’s notorious death row.
“We have qualms as to whether this review will be sufficient,” says Jack-Payden Travers, director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He wants the lab to compile a public list of all the cases for which it still has DNA evidence on file, and to re-test any DNA evidence related to people awaiting execution.
“There’s a possibility that their DNA evidence has been mishandled. It’s happened before,” says Payden-Travers. “If you’re going to take their life, it seems you’d want to know for sure.”—John Borgmeyer
Grounds for renewal
Downtownies take park renovation into their own hands
In one corner of McGuffey Park, 20 preschoolers from Congregation Beth Israel scamper over the jungle gym and around the merry-go-round. Their supervisors look on, applying sunscreen and offering juice boxes.
Among the kids, 4-year-old Jess Snelling. She likes this park.
“It’s fun,” she says shyly, then ventures that she likes “the slide ’cause it’s fun.”
Across the half-acre lot, a small group of middle school kids hunches over drawing boards as part of a summer drawing class.
McGuffey Park pulls more than double duty serving the needs of Downtown folk. But since it was built in conjunction with the McGuffey Hill Condos in the early 1970s, the park has never been renovated, according to Mike Svetz, director of parks and recreation for the City.
The park, in Svetz’s opinion, needs some help.
“It has the opportunity to be the children’s park Downtown,” he says. But out-of-date play equipment and safety issues mean it’s not quite making the grade.
In the hands of the North Downtown Neighborhood Association, that’s about to change. A year ago, the North Downtown community, led by the Community Design Center’s Katie Swenson and residents Elvira Hoskins and Kristen Suokko, called a meeting to discuss the park’s deteriorating state. Residents were concerned about safety issues, specifically that one street entrance to the park does not have a sidewalk, and that a drop-off over a stone wall poses a potential danger.
“The overall sense [at the meeting],” recalls Swenson, “was that the park has potential to be a little gem of a park, and it wasn’t living up to its potential.”
As part of the annual budget, each city neighborhood is allotted $60,000 towards neighborhood improvement projects of their choice. North Downtown decided to devote its entire $60,000 budget to the park. While the City will help secure funds for the project and guide it through the Board of Architectural Review (on which Swenson has a seat) and Planning Commission, it’s the neighborhood’s baby.
Fundraising and more design back-and-forth will probably continue for another year at least, says Hoskins. They hope to start construction in two years.
It’s been a constant dialogue among North Downtown residents to share their design ideas with the project architect. Peter O’Shea with Belmont-based firm Siteworks, (also responsible for the Free Speech Mon-ument) is their man. Residents placed a suggestion box in the park for a few months last fall before switching to an e-mail address, mcguffeypark@earth link.net, to take suggestions. The ideas poured in, says Hoskins, including calls for everything from a large-scale chess and checkers board to a place to show outdoor movies to a multipurpose basketball court.
In his preliminary designs, O’Shea has taken the idea of “creative play,” a term coined by neighborhood residents, as his inspiration. To him, the planned park is as much sculpture garden and “realm of looking” as it is a park.
The designs thus far include a landscaped footprint of the original mansion on the site, new playground equipment, community garden spots, increased seating, a path around the entire perimeter and a sunken basketball court that could double as a performance space.
Many of planned renovations serve such dual purposes, says O’Shea.
“What a 5-year-old might think of as a balance beam, someone else might think of as a bench and another person may think of as an archeological remnant,” he explains.—Nell Boeschenstein
UVA’s next act
A new arts center is finally in the works
Are you handy with a drafting pencil? Can you bandy about phrases like “planar trabeation” with convincing aplomb? If the answer is yes, then UVA wants you.
UVA is holding an architecture competition to design a $98 million “center for the arts,” which will eventually be built at the corner of Ivy Road and Emmet Street. One lucky firm will win a contract to build the much-hyped arts center only after impressing a selection committee comprising UVA president John Casteen, faculty, alumni and members of the Board of Visitors.
A request for qualifications—published in The Daily Progress on Sunday, June 26 and available on the Web at www.virginia.edu/architectoffice—outlines UVA’s ambitions for the 127,000-square-foot arts center that will include a 1,600-seat theater as well as two smaller “black box” theaters, an expanded art museum, a visitor’s center and—of course—a coffee shop.
After firms submit their qualifications by July 29, the selection committee will narrow the field to three or four by August. As they interview prospective firms through the fall, the committee will no doubt be awash in high-falutin’ presentations about “anchoring” and “Jefferson-ian echoes” as they move toward a final selection by November.
The last time UVA built anything at Ivy and Emmet, they got not archispeak but candlelight vigils and passionate speeches from nearby Lewis Mountain neighbors decrying a “monster” parking garage.
This time, however, UVA seems to be on top of their public relations game.
“I’ve been very pleased with the effort on the part of UVA in giving us pertinent and timely updates as to UVA’s developing master plan, particularly the arts complex,” says Art Lichtenberger, president of the Lewis Mountain Neighborhood Association. In a meeting on May 25, neighbors raised concerns about pedestrian safety, and UVA will likely do several traffic and pedestrian studies as they design the arts center, says UVA spokeswoman Ida Lee Wootten.
Lichtenberger’s wife, architect Elisabeth Sloan, is actually looking forward to the new building. “The design will cover up the ugly parking garage,” she says. “We’re thrilled about that. In a way, [the arts center] justifies the parking garage being there. Now it won’t seem so incredibly stupid.”
The arts center is not scheduled to be finished until 2010, depending on fundraising. UVA has so far reaped a $22 million gift from über-donors Carl and Hunter Smith, as well as three $1 million contributions.
When it does finally open, the arts center will include 50,000 square feet of museum space that Jill Hartz, director of UVA’s Art Museum, says the school sorely needs. “We’re bursting at the seams,” she says. “We have collections here that can’t be shown. We have people working in trailers.”
The arts center will also add to Charlottesville’s ever-growing list of performance venues [see sidebar].
At 1,600 seats, the concert hall will be slightly bigger than The Paramount Theater, the renovation of which raised questions about a glut of stage space in Charlottesville. Para-mount’s Executive Director, Chad Hershner, says he’s excited that UVA is dropping big bucks on the arts. “I think it will fill another niche,” he says. “One of the challenges for the managers of all these facilities is to have open communication so we don’t double book.” Indeed, there are only so many Jeff Foxworthy shows one town can support.
The performance hall will also offer opportunities for what those architects might call “layering,” as it seems music magnate Coran Capshaw already has his eye on the new stage. Charlottesville Pavilion General Manger Kirby Hutto says, “You can pretty much bet that Starr Hill Presents would be doing shows there as the time is right.”—John Borgmeyer, with additional reporting by Cathy Harding