Tuesday, August 16
Deeds supports bassicide
Today Creigh Deeds, Democratic candidate for Attorney General, launched a gun-rights group called “Sportsmen for Deeds” to play up his support for the right of all Virginians to hunt, fish and purchase weapons. Like fellow Democrat Tim Kaine, the gubernatorial candidate, Deeds apparently feels the need to pander to the Right. Deeds is no centrist-come-lately, however—as a State Senator he received endorsements from the National Rifle Association. Deeds has also sponsored a constitutional amendment that guarantees Virginians’ right to hunt and fish. Which invites the question: Fish? Is there really an anti-fishing lobby?
Wednesday, August 17
NARAL nixes Kaine endorsement
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine was snubbed today when the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) announced its Virginia endorsements today…and denied Kaine their seal of approval. NARAL didn’t endorse Republican Jerry Kilgore or Independent Russ Potts, either. According to NARAL Virginia’s website, “We cannot offer any endorsement in this year’s race for governor…[but] we see more hope for the women of Virginia in Kaine’s candidacy and we are eager and willing to work with him…” NARAL endorsed Democrat Leslie Byrne for Lieutenant Governor, and for Attorney General the group endorsed Democrat Creigh Deeds. NARAL also endorsed Steve Koleszar, who’s running against Republican incumbent Rob Bell to be Albemarle’s delegate in the General Assembly.
MZM’s move to Greene in doubt
Today Veritas Capital announced that it would buy embattled defense contractor MZM, Inc., raising questions about whether the company still plans to move into the former Technicolor building in Ruckersville. Republican Virgil Goode, the region’s U.S. Congressman, recieved major donations from MZM and brokered the deal to bring the company to the Greene County facility owned by Coran Capshaw. MZM was supposed to take over the facility this summer. The company’s future is in doubt, however, in the wake of a scandal involving the company’s former president Mitchell Wade, who purchased the home of California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, and who let the Congressman live on his yacht.
Thursday, August 18
Police nab peeper
Today Charlottesville police detectives arrested 26-year-old David Lee Long and charged him with three counts of breaking and entering, and one count of peeping stemming from a series of incidents that began in May. The most recent incident occurred early this morning, when a 29-year-old UVA graduate student awoke to find a man kneeling beside her bed. She screamed and the man ran away. Police say DNA tests have eliminated Long as a suspect in the ongoing serial rape investigation.
They’re hiding WMDs in the Metro station
Today Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore spoke on local radio station WINA and said that a Northern Virginia street gang is working with Al-Qaeda. The FBI says there is no evidence to support Kilgore’s claim, according to Bob Gibson in The Daily Progress. The Latin American gang MS-13 has been linked to at least one murder in Northern Virginia; the only clear link between the gang and Al-Qaeda is that both are favorite boogeymen for grandstanding politicians.
Friday, August 19
UVA and Al Groh—everybody’s happy
UVA football coach Al Groh signed a new six-year contract that kicks in this season. The deal, which UVA announced today, gives Groh a substantial raise—his annual base salary increases to $240,000 from $200,000, and it increases his total annual compensation (which includes media appearances, fundraising and product endorsements) to $1.46 million from $765,000. With grip like that, maybe Groh can pay ACC champ Virginia Tech to throw their game against UVA…
Saturday, August 20
Crimes of fashion and robbery
Four people emptied the safe at the Student Book Store on the Corner at about 2pm today. Some of the robbers distracted employees while others cleaned out about $2,700. Police described the suspects as “Gypsy-looking,” according to The Daily Progress, and store manager Jeremy Hunt said that one violet-haired burglar had “a really bad die job.” Police suspect the crime was executed by a traveling band of organized thieves.
Sunday, August 21
Mystery of SUV proliferation solved
Charlottesville feels a lot bigger today as about 3,100 freshman Wahoos and about 300 transfer students moved into campus dorms today. There were no reports of public disgruntlement related to the fact that earlier this week UVA dropped a peg in the U.S. News & World Report university rankings to No. 23. Indeed, UVA retained its position as the second-ranked public university behind UC-Berkeley. Meanwhile, upperclassmen also converged on the town this weekend, packing Downtown restaurants for one last dinner on Mom and Dad.
Monday, August 22
16,500 kids bummed but parents feel better
Today about 4,200 city school students and about 12,300 county school students returned to class. As the joys of summer fade away, the heat seemed to be doing the same, with temperatures maxing in the mid-80s.
Written by John Borgmeyer from staff reports and news sources.
Portrait of a Fed
UVA art grad goes national with her portraits of Alan Greenspan
Erin had called me the night before to tell me the story was running, but when I picked up The Wash-ington Post on August 11, I had no idea it would be that big. Turning to the business section, there it was, front and center: a huge article, complete with a quartet of color images of Erin’s Alan Greenspan paintings. I did a little dance. Erin Crowe had made The Big Time, baby.
That week Alan Greenspan raised interest rates for the 10th consecutive time, and the timing was perfect for Erin. Concur-rently, Erin, who’s a 24-year-old graduate of UVA’s art department and still lives here, had an art show in Sag Harbor, New York. It was all portraits of the Fed chairman. Sag Harbor is popular with Wall Street types and lucky for Erin, one of those types saw an ad for her show in the local paper, took a shine to the idea and alerted the news media.
The next day Erin was featured on the financial news channel CNBC three times talking about her “Alans,” as she calls them. Within minutes of the last CNBC piece airing, all 18 Alans, priced between $1,000 and $4,000, had sold. The next day the Post piece came out. Last Sunday’s New York Times even got on the Erin Crowe bandwagon.
It’s been two weeks now since the CNBC and Post coverage, and I’m still getting “Charlottesville” Google alerts about Erin and her Alans that random news services from Oregon to Florida have picked up. I have to resist the urge to forward her every alert.
“It’s been very overwhelming,” she says. “It was what I always wanted but never expected.”
Though all the Alans at the gallery have sold, she’s taken a few commissions. She also kept two—one she’s giving to her brother and the other to the gallery. Her parents bought one for posterity.
The first time I heard about Erin’s Alans I was working on C-VILLE’s art listings. I came across a show at Hot Cakes called “Alan As Art.” All the paintings, the press release said, were portraits of Alan Greenspan. “Alan Greenspan!” I thought to myself. “I love Alan Greenspan!”
Every so often I develop a random crush on some high profile, white-dude politico. Mike McCurry (Clinton’s first press secretary) was my first love; Warren Christopher was next, but he was more of a fascination than a crush. When Erin’s show appeared on the radar, Alan Greenspan was my man of the hour. I insisted we feature the show in our listings.
Fast forward a couple weeks later to when I met Erin through a mutual friend at a Christmas party we had all three crashed for the free vino. As soon as she found out where I worked, the first thing she did was thank me profusely, and smile her ear-to-ear smile, for putting the Alans in the paper.
“I’m so flattered anyone would be interested in them,” she said, shaking her head.
Girlfriend, do you believe me now when I tell you that was one smart idea?
The Alans began when Erin asked herself, “What embodies the dollar sign?” She could come up with no better answer than the inimitable Mr. Greenspan. Before she knew it, she had painted four portraits of the Fed chairman.
“Alan Greenspan’s face is good for portraiture because he has features that are challenging to paint and interesting to look at,” she says. “For example, when he purses his lips in either enthusiasm or anger he gets these dimples near his chin.”
She’s sent Greenspan an e-mail offering to paint him a portrait in appreciation. She hasn’t heard from the man himself, but Greenspan’s wife, TV reporter Andrea Mitchell, has contacted Erin and the two are playing phone tag.
Erin is an artist without an “e” on the end. What she likes about painting isn’t esoteric theory about postmodern negative space with a pop sensibility, but the process of putting paint to the canvas.
“I keep coming back to the fact that I like to paint,” she says. “And I like it when it pleases other people.”
She’s leaving for grad school in London in one month, destined for fame and fortune like Damien Hirst or Rachel Whiteread, I’m sure. Aside from the commissions, she doesn’t see any more Alans in her future, but she’s open to other pop icons. Maybe Oprah, maybe Warren Buffett.
Why leave now? I ask her.
“I’m really torn,” says Erin. “But I feel like I have to move on.”—Nell Boeschenstein
“Name’s Bond, Bail Bond”
On July 1, the number of Virginia bail bondsmen got slashed overnight
Bail-bonding isn’t for blue-chip men: Bailing people out of jail is a gamble, for sure. It used to be that any gambler could play the game, but that all changed on June 30, when Virginia’s Department of Criminal Justice Services took over the regulation of the state’s bail-bonding industry. Overnight, the number of bail bondsmen in the Commonwealth went to 400 from 1,300.
The bail bonds-man is the guy you call when you land in jail after getting pulled over for drunk driving and you don’t have the cash to bail yourself out (or you simply don’t want to pony up your own dough). The bail bondsman comes and writes a check to the magistrate. That check is collateral to ensure you show up to all of your court dates. Once the entire court process is over the check is voided, and the bail bondsman collects his interest from you. The going bail bond interest rate in Virginia is 10 percent. On a $20,000 bond the bail bondsman collects $2,000.
Kent Mills, a real estate agent and owner of Central Virginia Bonding, Inc. on Northfield Road, attributes the high interest rate to the fact that it’s “an extremely risky loan. If [the accused] doesn’t come to court, then the money is gone,” he says.
In such cases, bail bondsmen either hire bounty hunters to track down their man or do it themselves.
“I can kick a door open if I want to and say, ‘I’m Kent Mills and I’m coming in,’” he says.
Luckily, it’s never come to that for Mills. He’s always gotten his money back with interest.
The June 30 development that cut the bail bondsmen population by two-thirds was just the latest in the ongoing process of increasing government control over bail-bonding, which began in October 2003. That month the State changed the law that allowed anyone to pay slightly more than $300 to become a bail bondsman. Instead, the new law required all bail bondsmen to get an insurance license (the same as if they were selling homeowners or car insurance), which means passing a State test.
In January 2005, regulation was upped again when oversight was handed to DCJS. In turn, that department re-jiggered the requirements and those took effect midnight on June 30.
“At that time [the bail bonding industry] wasn’t well regulated,” explains Eileen Guertler, planning and policy coordinator for DCJS. “We just want to make sure these individuals are trained.”
Under DCJS, all bail bondsmen now need to be at least 18 years old, have a
high school education, be a U.S. citizen, have passed a DCJS course on bail-bonding and pay a $900 fee every 24 months.
Mills blames the sudden drop in qualified bail bondsmen on the number of former bail bondsmen with felony records. Guertler agrees.
“That’s probably true,” she says simply. “We weeded out those that were not acceptable, and a felon is not acceptable.”
“DCJS has cleaned up the industry,” says Mills. “The bail bondsman you see today show up in a coat and tie. You don’t see anymore of these ponytails, earrings and gold chains with diamond pinkie rings. That’s the image of the bail bondsman.”
According to Mills, the bulk of his calls—12 or 13 a week—come on the weekends; he’s rarely called to duty during the workweek, he says. While logic says that with fewer bail bondsmen around business would have picked up in the past two months, according to Mills it’s a seasonal business and the dog days of August are usually slow. During the holiday months, however, he says, “you can’t keep up.”
Not that the job is as simple as putting up the money and tracking it back down.
There are times when posting bond is a moral question, too. For example, Mills says, he recently refused to bail out a crack addict with 10-month old twins, and whom he had bailed out three times since March.
“I told him that night,” says Mills, “‘You can throw my phone number away and I’m going to recommend that your wife leave you.’”
Mills admits, though, that refusing to bail out people isn’t the norm.
“There are some people out there that would do anything for the money. As in any other business, you’re going to have people who say, ‘You got the money? Then, yeah.’”—Nell Boeschenstein
Sharing the wealth
At last, the City treats public housing like a neighborhood
On August 1, City Council voted to declare Charlottesville’s eight public housing sites a “target neighborhood,” making the Charlottesville Housing and Redevelopment Authority that manages them eligible for federal grant money.
As a target neighborhood, next year the City’s Housing Authority will receive a $200,000 Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal government earmarks CDBG funds for infrastructure improvements such as sidewalks, parks and landscaping for low-income urban neighborhoods.
The decision marks a shift in Council’s approach to CDBG funding. Over the past 14 years, Council has thrown CDBG money at neighborhoods destined for gentrification. The Rose Hill neighborhood received a total of $600,000 between 2002 and 2004. Ridge Street received the same amount between 1999 and 2001; Belmont got $600,000 between 1996 and 1998. In recent years those neighborhoods have seen double-digit assessment increases, and have become fashionable boroughs for prospective homebuyers. This is the first time the CHRA has been declared a target neighborhood.
While Council has been busy helping inflate the real estate market, public housing has been all but ignored. The CHRA estimates it could take $20 million to fix up all of Charlottesville’s 376 public housing units; the city’s largest and oldest site, Westhaven, needs as much as $10 million to fix up the 126 apartments on Hardy Drive.
After so many years of deferred maintenance, $200,000 won’t fix all public housing’s problems, says Kendra Hamilton, a City Councilor and chair of the CHRA board. As a target neighborhood, the CHRA is actually eligible for $600,000, but Hamilton says Council wants to start slow. “Given the Housing Authority’s issues and problems, we didn’t want to dump all that money on them at once,” Hamilton says.
Perhaps the biggest problem for the Housing Authority has been lack of solid leadership. Five executive directors have come and gone since the mid-1980s; most recently, the CHRA board fired New York attorney Paul Chedda after just nine months on the job.
One of Chedda’s final frustrations was Council’s refusal to grant the Authority any CDBG funds. “He was asking for the entire pot of money, around a half a million dollars. It just wasn’t going to happen,” Hamilton says.
Each year the City gets about $600,000 for CDBG funds. Typically, one-third of that sum goes to target neighborhoods. A committee that considers neighborhood requests for specific projects distributes the rest.
Now that Noah Schwartz, former director of the Monticello Area Community Action Agency, has taken over the CHRA, Hamilton says Council feels more confident about cutting checks to the Authority. Schwartz and the CHRA board will meet in the coming year to decide exactly how to spend the CDBG grant.
Westhaven resident and public housing activist Harold Foley says the money should be used to renovate the projects’ playgrounds. At Westhaven, for example, one of the two playgrounds has exposed concrete, pipes and metal that could be dangerous; the other playground is padlocked. “Maintenance has really improved in the past six months,” says Foley. “The lighting situation is much better, but I would like to see the playgrounds redone.”
Also, the CHRA is finally trying to use Charlottesville’s real estate market to help public housing. Last week, the CHRA collected several bids from developers interested in building market-rate and public housing on an Authority-owned Levy Avenue parking lot. The goal, says board member and local apartment magnate Rick Jones, is to have market-rate housing that subsidizes low-income housing. If it works on Levy, the Authority has tentative plans to redevelop Westhaven along a similar model.—John Borgmeyer
Fields of dreams
Developers dim City hopes for a new park in North Albemarle
The 33 acres of bucolic hills owned by the Wetsel family, just yards from the sprawl-encrusted landscape of Route 29N, is one of the last vestiges of rural Albemarle in the county’s fast-growing urban ring around Charlottesville. But not for long.
The Wetsel farm is up for sale. According to the listing agent, Gloria Welch of Real Estate III, a New York developer has expressed interest in the $15-million property. “I would expect that an offer will be made very soon,” says Welch.
This is bad news for City environmentalists who had hoped Albemarle County would purchase the Wetsel farm and turn it into a park. City Councilor Kevin Lynch has been the most vocal proponent of using the Wetsel farm to replace city parkland that will be lost to the Meadowcreek Parkway.
Last month, Virginia Senator John Warner earmarked $25 million in federal highway funds to pay for an interchange connecting the Meadowcreek Parkway to the 250 Bypass at McIntire Road. City Council had said they wouldn’t approve the Parkway unless it came with an interchange, a roadblock Warner’s pork finally erased.
The question of lost parkland had also been a sticking point. The Meadowcreek Parkway will claim about nine acres of McIntire Park, following Meadow Creek along the park’s eastern border. The Parkway will snake north to Rio Road—Albemarle County and the Virginia Department of Transportation have agreed that VDOT will purchase about 50 acres of land on either side of the road. That land will be a “linear park” with trails for hiking and biking.
“The problem with the land,” says Lynch, “is that we’re getting quantity, but not quality.” The 50 acres is mostly lowlands around Meadow Creek, compared with the open hills the road will take from McIntire Park. “In terms of recreational use, it’s tough to argue that we’re replacing what we’re losing,” says Lynch. He says that because so many county residents use city parks and playing fields, the County should buy the Wetsel farm and build softball diamonds and soccer fields.
Not gonna happen, says Dennis Rooker, who chairs the Albemarle County Board
of Supervisors. The City, County and VDOT agreed on the current parkland trade-off, and according to the County’s Comprehensive Plan, the County wants to see mixed-use development on the Wetsel property. According to Welch of Real Estate III, that’s exactly what the Yankee developers would like to do, too.
Lynch says that City Council—which has endured years of internal battles over the Parkway—doesn’t have the will to argue over replacement parkland any further. “As City Councilors, we’ve done about as much as we can,” says Lynch. “There’s enough county residents in the northern area that would benefit from new fields,” says Lynch. “It would be great to see them advocate for more recreation up there, but it would have to come from county voters at this point.”
John Gallagher, president of the Woodbrook Neighborhood Association, says county residents have asked for more parkland in the past. He doubts, however, that anyone is going to mount a grassroots political campaign to push the Supervisors to change their plans on the Wetsel farm.
“I don’t think it will happen,” says Gallagher, “unless maybe Kevin Lynch wants to spearhead the movement.”—John Borgmeyer
What goes around comes around
Exploring Charlottesville’s past at UVA
If you consult the oldest map of Charlottesville, circa 1818, in the archives at The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at UVA, you will see that Second Street has not always been called Second Street. In the 19th century, the road that bisects the western side of Main Street, now the Downtown Mall, was actually called Hill Street. (Oddly, no one can explain why Charlottesville went from useful street names to confusing, sounds-the-same numbers, but that is another article entirely!)
The 58,000-square-foot Small Special Collections Library is full of such tidbits of local history. It includes a reserve of some 300,000 rare books, 12 million manuscripts and 4,000 maps, located in the basement of the new Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature and Culture. The Small Special Collections Library is open to all Virginia residents over the age of 16, but bring a photo I.D. if you want to get in.
Because the City of Charlottesville does not employ an official archivist, UVA’s Special Collections has been the primary preserve for local history since the 1930s, and it’s as much an asset to the University as it is to the City. Associate Director Edward Gaynor says, “Thomas Jefferson lived here, so Charlottesville has always been interesting to scholars.”
Due to the efforts of Special Collections Director Michael Plunkett, who has encouraged local topics amongst the research community, scholars studying urban planning, city development and political history frequently utilize the Charlottesville archive.
Most of the materials in the library are gifts from personal collections. From original planning maps to official City Council documents to videocassettes of election commercials, the collection chronicles Charlottesville from its humble roots in 1761 to today. In addition to official City documents the library also collects unofficial materials such as photographs, maps and personal papers. Gaynor says the library is currently pursuing the personal papers of State Delegate Mitch Van Yahres, Mayor David Brown and former mayors Maurice Cox and Francis Fife.
Last year, Special Collections acquired the personal papers of former mayor turned state candidate David Toscano. From Toscano, the Small Special Collections Library received more than a dozen volumes of material including personal correspondence on the major issues during his tenure as mayor. Toscano says, “I hope the gift will provide insight into why certain things happened the way that they did, for people who are considering decisions in the future.” (Does Mayor David Brown consult the Toscano Oracle before every Council meeting? Only the librarian knows for sure!)
In Gaynor’s opinion, one of the most exciting aspects of the local archive is The Holsinger Studio Collection. Rufus W. Holsinger was Charlottesville’s premier photographer from 1880 to 1920. Following his death, Holsinger’s son, Ralph W. Holsinger, Jr., donated some 10,000 negatives that chronicled all aspects of life in Charlottesville. To Gaynor, The Holsinger Collection is unique because “in the era of Jim Crow laws, Holsinger photographed everyone in Charlottesville, including African-Americans.” Holsinger chronicled many of Charlottesville’s most important historical moments—his images include photographs of the Monticello Guard marching off to fight in World War I, as well as three snapshots of the infamous Rotunda fire. The majority of the negatives are now available online at the Small Special Collections Library website, www.lib.virginia.edu/small/collections/ holsinger.—Anne Metz