Tuesday, August 30
Warner won’t challenge Allen
Today Governor Mark Warner announced he will not challenge Republican George Allen for his seat in the U.S. Senate. Recent polls indicated that the popular Warner—a Democrat who won the governor’s seat in 2001 and whose term expires in January—could defeat Allen. Warner is widely rumored to be considering a presidential bid in 2008, and political wonks say a battle with Allen would have been expensive, and perhaps costly to Warner’s image as a moderate Democrat.
Wednesday, August 31
Charlottesville helps Katrina survivors
Today the Charlottesville Fire Department announced it would send a communications inoperability unit to Louisiana and Mississippi to help with the relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina. The unit is self-sustaining and makes everything from telephone service to Internet available from even the most remote places, says fire chief Charles Werner. UVA’s pitching in, too. Today, the University announced it would open its doors to Virginia students enrolled at schools affected by Katrina. The students will be considered visiting students for the fall semester.
Thursday, September 1
Whole lotta shakin’ going on?
Today the website www.cvillenews.com reported that upscale hippie grocer Whole Foods could be relocating. According to its website, Whole Foods has a new 55,000 square-foot store planned for the intersection of Hydraulic and 29N in Char-lottesville. The new store is listed as a “relocation,” leading to speculation that Whole Foods plans to move from the Shoppers World center on Route 29N to the soon-to-be-built Albemarle Place, an 80-acre development that will include nearly 800 dwelling units and 1.9 million square feet of leasable space.
Jobs and poverty on the rise in Charlottesville
The Daily Progress reported today that during the past decade the Charlottesville area workforce grew 19 percent, compared to 16 percent statewide. According to the Chamber of Commerce, the region’s workforce grew to 96,170 jobs from 80,902 jobs between 1995 and 2004. Of those, the areas of “Trade and Transport” and “Leisure and Hospitality” saw the greatest jump, which may explain why yesterday the Progress also reported that over the past decade poverty has been on the rise in Char-lottesville. Just because there are some more jobs at Hardee’s doesn’t mean those people are making bank.
Police nab alleged bank robber
Early this morning Charlottesville and Albemarle police arrested Anthony Troy Williams, 42, and charged him with robbery and other offenses related to three local bank robberies this summer. The first occurred July 7 at First Citizens on Do-minion Drive; the second happened on July 13 at BB&T on Profitt Road; the third robbery was on August 19 at the Wachovia on Emmet Street. Williams is a former Charlottesville resident with no fixed address, and he is a “person of interest” in other robberies around Virginia, according to The Daily Progress.
Friday, September 2
We don’t want your stinkin’ war
On its answering machine this morning, the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice announces it will be taking a bus to Washington, D.C., on September 24 for an antiwar rally that activists hope will draw 100,000 people. According to today’s Washington Post, the National Park Service will probably allow demonstrators to encircle the White House—the first time in more than a decade that a mass protest will be allowed so near to the presidential domicile.
Written by John Borgmeyer from staff reports and news sources.
Attention shoppers, it’s not O.K. to speak your mind
Collins’ case asks, “Are shopping centers the latter-day town squares?”
One of America’s favorite exports is the postcard with a picture of a quaint New England town square complete with white steeple, tidy green and little shops all around.
The town square is a powerful marketing tool. And suburbia—identified by its singular lack of a central gathering place—has long adopted the image for commercial ends. The most obvious local case in point: Hollymead Town Center, which is neither a town nor a town center (nor, it might be added, is there any holly to be seen).
As commercial interests embrace urban-planning lingo for their marketing campaigns, the question arises of whether the constitutional rights to free expression the public enjoys in true town centers transfer to privately owned public gathering places.
“People in this country love the idea of a town-square commons,” says Bill Morrish, an architecture prof at UVA, “but we’ve always been really nervous about the functions that happen in it: disagreement and the unexpected.”
Commercial interests, says Morrish, want to work the “town square” marketing campaign both ways—to promote it as a place where people can congregate and get the things they need, yet also control how those people congregate and to what end.
The issue popped up locally last spring, during the 57th District Democratic primary race. Retired UVA architecture professor and slow-growth advocate Richard Collins was running for the seat soon to be vacated by Del. Mitch Van Yahres. (David Toscano won that primary race.) Because his campaign didn’t have the funds to buy air or TV time, Collins relied heavily on leafleting to get his name out.
At the beginning of May, Collins was leafleting outside Whole Foods in the Shoppers World shopping center on Route 29N. If there’s any place to reach the Democratic base, Whole Foods is it.
However, Frank Lebo, president of Lebo Commercial Properties, which manages the shopping center, differed with Collins’ right to distribute his campaign literature in the parking lot. Lebo had Collins arrested on the grounds that no soliciting is allowed on the property. The same is true, says Lebo, for the other properties he manages in town—Rio Hill, Berkmar Crossing Business Park, Sherman Williams Shopping Center and Glenwood Station.
“If we allow one guy to come on the property,” says Lebo, “then we have to open it up to white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan. We have a blanket policy: No political campaigning. No soliciting.” Lebo adds that insurance liabilities play a role as well and that not even the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts are allowed to fundraise on Lebo-managed properties.
Collins filed suit against Lebo Com-mercial Properties in retaliation, arguing that his free speech rights had been violated. His argument? That shopping centers are latter-day town squares and thus fair game for free expression.
As a result of a 1980 Supreme Court case, Prune Yard Shopping Center v. Robins, states are left to make their own decisions about whether free speech extends to privately owned shopping centers. At least six states—New Jersey, California, Colorado, Oregon, Massachusetts and Washington—have since addressed the issue, arriving at varying degrees of free speech allowances.
The Collins case is the first of its kind in Virginia, according to Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and one of Collins’ attorneys. The ACLU has teamed up with the neolibertarian, Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute, to defend Collins. While the two organizations may not agree on much else, they agree on free speech.
“No one is claiming that [property owners] are entirely without rights,” says Glenberg, pointing out that even the government can place time and location restrictions on free speech, as they did for the 2004 Democratic and Republican national conventions. What the ACLU and Rutherford Institute are opposed to, says Glenberg, is a blanket restriction on free speech in shopping malls.
Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead echoes Glenberg, adding that, “As the corporations grow and replace towns and cities, unless you have free speech [at shopping centers], you won’t have free speech anywhere. The guys with the money will not go stand out and leaflet; they will buy airtime, and [this] helps the little guy.”
So if not in shopping centers and parking lots, where else is there to get access to the car-bound suburban public? William Lucy, a UVA professor of urban and environmental planning, offers this suggestion: “Candidates could sit in the back seat of anyone’s motor vehicle and talk to them. And that’s probably not a good idea, right?”—Nell Boeschenstein
Cool aide
Meet Connie Jorgensen, political sidekick extraordinaire
Campaign slogans we’d like to see: “A vote for Mitch is a vote for Connie,” or, lately, “A vote for David is a vote for Connie.” Mitch, of course, is Mitch Van Yahres, for 24 years Charlottesville’s Dem-ocratic delegate to the General Assembly. Da-vid is David Toscano, the former mayor who wants Van Yahres’ job now that he’s facing retirement. But Connie…who’s Connie?
Just the power behind the throne, that’s all.
Actually, Connie Jorgensen is the straight-shooting legislative assistant who’s worked with Van Yahres since 1999, and who is now Toscano’s campaign coordinator. Should he win on November 8, as is widely expected, Jorgensen will become his legislative assistant.
“I always figured that whoever got the job would hire me if for no other reason than that I know where the bathrooms are in the General Assembly,” she says.
No doubt, being able to find the loo in Richmond qualifies her for the job, but just in case navigational skills alone are not enough, Jorgensen has a few other abilities.
“We have good discussions about issues,” says Van Yahres. “That’s one of the main characteristics I like in my aides—someone who is not a ‘Yes’ person. I count giving me an argument as extremely important. And Connie is extremely knowledgeable about most issues.”
Indeed, though her job encompasses constituent services and, as she puts it, “to keep stuff off of Mitch’s desk,” Jorgensen says her favorite part is working on policy. And Van Yahres, she says, made it easy for her to love her work.
Of a typical work day, she says, “Quite frankly, we’d spend some time solving the world’s problems.
“There is always a great give and take between the two of us. There are 140 different legislative aides and probably 140 different jobs,” she says. “Mitch always treated me as part of the team.”
Jorgensen came to Van Yahres after two years of fundraising with Planned Parenthood (her husband, Ben Greenberg, is director of government relations for the statewide organization). In the years prior to that she was a member of the Air Force (straight out of high school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota) and a graduate student in Soviet politics (oops!). Jorgensen also teaches government at Piedmont Virginia Community College.
Politics, she has learned, is really the fine art of compromise, Jorgensen says, something that she saw less and less in the General Assembly as the years wore on and a die-hard liberal like Van Yahres became marginalized. And though she admits to being “a little spoiled” at home, at work, she says, “sometimes you have to take half a loaf.”
Toscano echoes Van Yahres on the question of Jorgensen’s abilities. “She’s very detailed and knows where to look. She’s thorough and feels passionate about the issues,” he says. “At the same time, she’s very personable.”
With all her policy background, would Jorgensen herself ever consider a bid for office? No way, she says with a chuckle. “I’d be a crummy candidate.
“The truth is I’m a homebody. I like being at home in my jammies with my cat. Can’t you just see the campaign poster? Me and my cat and my pink bathrobe.” (Just to double-check this assertion, we inquired about Jorgensen’s schedule the previous evening: massage, Lean Cuisine, “Law & Order,” bed by 9pm. Yup, that spells “homebody.”)
But it’s clear that once the pj’s come off and Jorgensen dons her trademark stilettos, she’s all business. Recently, she helped Toscano draft the educational policy he hopes to push in the Assembly.
“I’m happier now than I was when I worked for a Fortune 500 company in the ’80s,” she says, noting that the only aspect of her job she dislikes is her $32,000 annual salary.
“We refer to this as a volunteer job with a clothing allowance,” Jorgensen says.—Cathy Harding
Outside the box
County rebuffs Wendell Wood’s big-box bid—for now
Developer Wendell Wood stood before the Albemarle Planning Commission on Tuesday, August 30, looking befuddled. Wood, president of United Land Corporation, wants the County to rezone 230 acres in Northern Albemarle to accommodate his plans to bring yet another big-box retailer to the 29N corridor.
Unfortunately for Wood—who brought to Albemarle Wal-Mart and, more recently, Target—the County is spending big money on a plan for 29N, and the Commission told the developer he would just have to wait.
Wood, however, brought a bargaining chip. He said an unnamed retailer would fund the extension of Berkmar Drive in that area, a road project the County also wants to see.
“I have clients who are offering to build a road you say you want,” Wood said. “But they’re not going to spend the money if you’re going to tell us ‘no’ at the end of the day.”
Wood claimed that unless the County acted fast to approve the rezoning, the offer might be rescinded. “I’ve been told this offer won’t be on the table six months from now,” says Wood.
The Commissioners didn’t say “no,” but, much to Wood’s dismay, they didn’t say “yes,” either.
The area Wood wants rezoned comprises 230 acres on the west side of Route 29N and south of the Hollymead Town Center (most of which was also developed by Wood). He wants the zoning changed from industrial service to mixed use, allowing development that Wood said would be similar to the Hollymead Town Center, including a big box “larger than 65,000 square feet.” The land is currently home to a mobile home park and a business.
The Commissioners balked, however, because the County has sunk $650,000 into a pair of studies looking at land use and trans-portation on the 29N corridor. Two consulting firms—Community Design+Architec-ture and Meyer, Mohaddes Associates—are pulling down a total of $1.25 million from the County and the Virginia Department of Transportation. The County expects a rough draft of the land use and transportation plans in a year.
With those studies in progress, the Commission declined to comment on Wood’s proposal.
“For us to just jump over their heads now would be foolish on our part,” said Commissioner Marcia Joseph. “And verbal agreements from businesses don’t always become a reality.”
The Development Initiative Steering Committee, which crafted many of the County’s current planning guidelines, recommends integrating industrial and mixed-use developments, but Commis-sioner Jo Higgins said Wood’s proposal didn’t “have enough meat” to warrant a specific response.
The Commission said they would inform the consultants of Wood’s proposal, and it would be considered alongside the planning process—similar to the way the County handled Gaylon Beights’ Old Trail project proposed during the Crozet master planning process last year.
That’s not what Wood wanted to hear.
“When you have a real player who has the pockets, to ignore that would not be doing justice to the county,” said Wood, sounding a bit like a teenager who just can’t believe Mom and Dad won’t let him take the car.
Commissioner Bill Edgerton said the Commission had broader concerns about additional big-box development. For one thing, the County doesn’t want to lose any more industrial space. Also, with Wood’s Hollymead Town Center recently opened for business, and more shopping centers approved for the North Pointe development on 29N, Edgerton said he’s afraid an overzealous County could invite too many huge shopping centers. The County could be stuck with vacant big-box wastelands. “I hope my fears are never realized, but these are big issues that we have to think through,” Edgerton said.—John Borgmeyer
Blues clues
The Prism becomes a UVA classroom
A lot has changed in the 39 years since The Prism opened its doors on Gordon Avenue, near UVA Grounds, as a respite for cigarette-smoking, music-loving counter-culturists who found the straight-laced mores of their peers too much to bear. Women, for one thing, are now welcome at UVA with each incoming class. And The Prism is now firmly ensconced among Charlottesville’s institutions—the “must play” venue for any folk or traditional musician who ambles through town.
But one thing hasn’t chang-ed: The blues remain a living musical bridge to the Missis-sippi Delta. And The Prism, in conjunction with UVA, will offer continuing ed students a walk across that bridge starting later this month. “From the Piedmont to the Delta: An Acoustic Blues Journey” takes place Thursday evenings beginning September 22.
Fred Boyce, who directs The Prism and is a widely respected banjo player, leads the course. He promises a “three-dimensional experience,” and he’ll provide it by bringing a guest lecturer to class each week, to be followed by a brief concert. Performers on Boyce’s lineup include local star Corey Harris, National Heritage Fellow and master blues guitarist John Cephas, and West Virginia blues artist Nat Reese, who performs styles typical of Appalachi-an coalfields.
The diversity of musicians aptly reflects the many directions the blues has taken. Born of African-American frustration and disappointment in the Mississippi Delta, the blues was the sound from a South “redeemed” in the quasi-slavery of sharecropping and lynching. To be a bluesman originally meant to be free of the nickel-and-diming South-ern labor system, refusing work from whites in order to entertain African-Americans. Black bluesmen buttered bread from the community rather than the field.
The blues came to belong to everybody, and many regions—from Chicago to Appalachia—brought their own touches to the sound. Though nominally the course is all about the blues, Boyce acknowledges that another of its aims will be to offer a view of the South as “a melting pot of cultural identities.”
So far, registration for the course is at about 60 people. Get in early (www.scps. virginia.edu) if you don’t want to be caught singing the I-missed-the-boat-at-The-Prism blues.—Milton L. Welch