Tuesday, September 13
Forbes bails on UVA
UVA head basketball coach Dave Leitao’s hopes for a winning debut season took a blow this week, when guard/forward Gary Forbes announced he will transfer to the University of Massa-chusetts. The 6’6" junior averaged 9.4 points for UVA last season, and was a likely starter this season, but he cited academic difficulty and family concerns as reasons for his transfer, according to today’s Daily Progress. Forbes will have two years of eligibility to play with the Min-utemen; his departure leaves Leitao without an experienced swingman who can both handle the ball and score inside.
Wednesday, September 14
UVA law prof dishes on Roberts
Last night PBS’ “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” included UVA law professor Lillian R. BeVier, commenting on the conformation hearings of Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee, John G. Roberts. Roberts has kept mum about many of his views; BeVier, as a professor of constitutional law, specializing in First Amendment issues, seems A-O.K. with Roberts’ choice to limit his own speech. She cited his “umpire analogy,” saying he “doesn’t want to make calls before the ball is pitched.” On Roberts’ refusal to offer a personal opinion on the right to die, BeVier said that “as a human” he is “sympathetic,” but “as a justice of the court he comes from a legal perspective.” Well, that clears things up…
Thursday, September 15
George Allen calls down the wrath of Roberts
Today Virginia Senator George Allen said he couldn’t wait for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to bring some “common sense” to America. Allen, a Republican hinted to be interested in running for higher office, was fuming over the Ninth Circuit U.S. District Court’s ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance should not be recited in California public schools, because of the words “under God.” When Allen makes noise these days, people are listening —the website www.politicalder by.com ranks Allen as the most powerful Republican in the 2008 presidential horse race.
Friday, September 16
Couric’s son opens hit film at UVA
Jeff Wadlow, son of late State Senator Emily Couric, was at a packed Newcomb Hall Theater this evening for the nationwide opening of Cry_ Wolf, his full-length directorial debut. The teen thriller opened this weekend on 1,789 screens nationwide and on Monday, weekend box office receipts placed his film in a respectable fifth place spot, earning a total of $4.6 million. On Friday night, Wadlow brought with him his girlfriend and the star of Cry_Wolf, Lindy Booth, who has also starred in Dawn of the Dead and Wrong Turn. Post-screening, the two fielded questions from the audience, including one query as to why the soundtrack was “so loud.”
Saturday, September 17
Dems divided on elected school board
Should the Charlottesville School Board be elected? Following the Scottie Griffin debacle that earned the appointed City School Board plenty of flack earlier this year, voters will decide on the issue in November. About 40 Democrats gathered for breakfast today to discuss the issue. Discussion on the issue was exhaustive but kept returning to diversity—what impact would elections have on the composition of a seven- member body that currently includes four women and two African-Americans? While Jeffrey Rossman, who was instrumental in the referendum initiative, trusts that African-Americans will run and be elected, City Councilor Kevin Lynch seemed unsure whether election supporters are committed to encouraging minority candidates.
UVA ekes out last-second triumph
UVA quarterback Marques Hagans threw three interceptions but ran for a career-high 112 yards today, and kicker Conner Hughes drilled a last-second, 19-yard field goal to give the Cavaliers a 27-24 win over Syracuse, their second straight before heading into conference play against Duke next Saturday. After the win, UVA ascended to 23 from 25 in the Associated Press poll.
Sunday, September 18
Governor’s race a dead heat
Today the polling company Mason-Dixon released figures showing that the gubernatorial race between Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Jerry Kilgore is a statistical dead heat. Kaine was favored by 40 percent of respondents; 41 percent favored Kilgore. Another 6 percent favored Russ Potts, a Republican who is running as an Independent. Thirteen percent of the 625 registered voters interviewed were undecided, which Mason-Dixon analysts say is the result of distractions like Iraq, gas prices and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Monday, September 19
Still chances to help Katrina victims
Three weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, local charities like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army are still seeking donations for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. This week the Greater Charlottesville Katrina relief partnership has organized a three-day arts and music festival culminating in a daylong concert at the Charlottesville Pavilion on Sunday, September 25.
Written by John Borgmeyer from staff reports and news sources.
Celebrity death match:
history vs. density
Council, Planning Commission defers decision on Corner district
Charlottesville’s long-running conflict between the desire to grow and the desire to preserve history clashed again last week.
On Tuesday, September 13, the City Planning Commission and City Council considered designating neighborhoods around Rugby Road and the Corner as an Architectural Design Control (ADC) district, which would give the Board of Architectural Review a say over new buildings there. That’s a problem, though, because that area is already zoned to encourage high-density development. Developers and residents still have a chance to weigh in on the issue, since the Commission deferred a decision to a later meeting.
Currently designated as a National Register Historic District, the area includes the neighborhood’s ubiquitous Jefferson and Georgian revivals and such gems as the Mediterranean-style Garden Court Apartment (ca. 1925), and University Court, where the houses face a central walkway. City zoning laws, however, allow developers to build up to 87 units per acre in some areas around the Corner. How can the City protect historic architecture and promote high-density development at the same time?
As the public discussion began Tuesday night, developer Rick Jones objected that the rezoning process took four years to work out and “in a couple of months you intend to change all that without the same process.” University Neighborhood Association member Jim Stoltz reminded the Commission that the neighborhood was designated a growth area that allows students to walk to classes, increases the City’s tax base and serves as a better way to control noise, traffic and design. “Sure there are significant buildings, but the whole district? All development would end,” he said.
Genevieve Keller pointed to the close proximity of the area to a world heritage site, the Rotunda. Daniel Bluestone also supported the complete ADC district, saying, “We should work with the historic fabric of the neighbor-hood without demolition.” Daniel Veliky wanted owners to decide how to utilize each property.
Councilor Blake Caravati questioned the Planning Commission’s suggestion that the proposed Rugby ADC district should protect all buildings older than 60 years. “I’m not even comfortable with the standard being 50 years,” Caravati said, to which commissioners Craig Barton and William Lucy responded that 60 years is a Department of the Interior standard. Lucy added his concern that thousands of buildings could be added for protection if the 50-year standard were continuously applied over time. “The implications are extensive,” Lucy said. Councilor Kendra Hamilton asked, “Are we going to put a glass jar over the city and keep it the way it is?”
Finally, commissioner Kevin O’Halloran confessed to “no small amount of heartburn” when judging if the whole area extending from the Rugby Road to University Circle and the Venable neighborhood should be contained in one district. He acknowledged that the Planning Commission might need to return to the drawing board.
After two hours of consideration, the Rugby ADC District application was deferred to a later date in a 6-1 decision (with commissioner Kathy Johnson Harris dissenting). Included in the decision was Karen Firehock’s suggestion that the owners of all 248 properties within the district be notified by letter with additional information and invited to join the next discussion. That meeting is scheduled for September 27, when the BAR plans a work session with the Planning Commission.—Jay Neelley
Supes approve Old Trail
Developer Beights will bring up to 2,200 new homes
On Wednesday, September 14, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Old Trail Village, the 237-acre project that developer Gaylon Beights says will bring between 1,600 and 2,200 new homes to Crozet.
Some Crozet residents asked that the Board slow down and first build the proper infrastructure by improving the roads, streets, sidewalks and parking before bringing in so many people. Mary Gallo of Crozet warned, “The quality of life in Crozet matters, and for better or for worse it is in your hands.”
Members of the Board assured the assembly that Old Trail Village will improve Crozet and the surrounding area, noting the public amenities that will be provided as a result of the neighborhood, such as a park and pedestrian access to local schools. “No plan is perfect, but it’s probably the best plan I’ve seen,” Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker said. When a citizen addressed the familiar concern that the Crozet area and the 250 Bypass will sprawl and become the next Route 29N or Pantops, Rooker responded, “Houses don’t create people. They’ll come whether or not the houses are here.”—Molly O’Halloran
The delicate DNA train
Who’s messing with your genetics?
DNA testing is often presented in court as infallible, but it’s hardly foolproof.
Thus far in 2005, 237,000 DNA samples have been collected and entered into the statewide database. That’s up almost 6,000 percent from a decade ago. As DNA testing be-comes a bigger part of police work in Virginia, like any technology it has proven to be only as good as the people working the tools.
According to Sgt. Steve Dylan, who directs the Charlottesville Police Department’s forensic unit, you can count on one hand the number of people who handle any given DNA sample. For crime-scene evidence, says Dylan, one officer is supposed to pick up, package and seal the DNA evidence, re-gloving between each bagging. The sample is then taken to the police station. Within five days, the sample is driven to the central laboratory of Virginia’s Department of Forensic Science in Richmond. There, the only person handling the sample, says Dylan, is the technician who examines it.
The lab enters the profile into the State database, where it will stay forever unless the owner of the DNA is found not guilty, the case is dropped, or the charge reduced. The final person to handle a crime-scene sample is the officer who retrieves the sample and returns it to Charlottesville.
The procedure is slightly different for samples from convicted felons or arrestees, says Paul Ferrara, director of Virginia’s Department of Forensic Science. In this case, the samples are kept at the lab, and not returned to a local police department.
This issue hit Virginia when a lawsuit revealed the State’s crime lab had botched DNA tests that could have cleared Earl Wash-ington of guilt for a rape and murder that he didn’t commit, but for which he spent 17 years in prison. In
the wake of Washington’s case, Governor Mark Warner ordered an independent review of 150 cases conducted at the State’s DNA
lab. The outcome of that review is still pending.
Locally, it seems we’re still learning how to deal with the benefits and limitations of DNA technology. Earlier this month, police arrested Christopher Matthew and charged him with a September 3 rape based on eyewitness testimony. He sat in jail without bond for five days before a DNA test exonerated him, but not before some local media floated speculations that Matthew might be not only the perp in the latest rape but the serial rapist who has attacked in the area for the past eight years. Days later, police arrested 37-year-old John Henry Agee of Charlottesville and charged him with the September 3 rape. Because Agee is a previously convicted felon, police were able to match DNA from the crime scene with Agee’s DNA from the State database.—Nell Boeschenstein
I see rich people
Gordon Rainey tapped to raise $3 billion
Hey buddy, can you spare $3 billion? Most people cannot ask their friends this question without a heavy layer of sarcasm. Gordon Rainey, Jr. can—but he runs with a different crowd than you do.
Last week UVA announced that Rainey, a Richmond lawyer and a member of the Board of Visitors, will chair the University’s latest fundraising endeavor. President John Casteen aims to raise a whopping $3 billion by 2012. That may seem like a head-spinning figure to most people, but Rainey has spent his career rubbing shoulders with those who cut million-dollar checks without blinking.
Rainey, 65, earned a degree in English from UVA in 1962 and returned to take a law degree in 1967. For the past 12 years he has been a partner and the executive committee chair at the firm of Hunton and Williams, where Rainey specializes in corporate and banking law, advising Fortune 500 companies on issues of corporate governance, international law, joint ventures and takeover defense. Rainey says he is “approaching retirement” from the firm; with what seems to be characteristic understatement, he says, “I hope my acquaintanceship with business leaders won’t be a detriment” to his fundraising duties.
Rainey’s Rolodex is full of more than just legal clients, however. He also sits on a slew of boards and commissions that put him shoulder-to-shoulder with the Com-monwealth’s well-to-do. He sits on the boards of the Mid-Atlantic Board of SunTrust Bank and the Bon Secours Richmond Health System. As a member of the Colonial Williamsburg Board of Trustees, Rainey has sat alongside heavyweights like Supreme Court justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Conner.
Rainey also has deep connections with UVA supporters. He sits on the executive committee for the John Paul Jones Arena, and he is a past president of the UVA Alumni Association. “I know the alumni base pretty well,” says Rainey. “Not just in Virginia, but nationwide.”
So far, Rainey and his team of about 20 fundraisers have pulled in about $700,000,000 from about 1,000 donors. “Virtually every commitment there is six figures or above,” says Bob Sweeney, UVA’s senior vice president of development and public affairs. “We’re in the nucleus phase, where you focus on raising early large gifts that give the campaign momentum.” On September 30, 2006, Rainey will kick off the nationwide campaign to target big cities with large populations of UVA alums, such as New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
In 2000, Governor Mark Warner appointed Rainey to UVA’s Board of Visitors, and in 2003 Rainey was named the school’s 37th rector—that is, the BOV’s chairman. On his watch, UVA recently pushed through the General Assembly a bill to restructure funding for higher education, better known as the “charter” bill. In June, Rainey finished his term as rector, and his BOV term expires in 2008.
Of course, when you want big money, there’s no better group to cozy up to than Republicans. Rainey is close to them, too.
Since 1996, Rainey has donated $33,075 to Virginia political candidates, with all but $1,500 going to Republicans. His law firm has spread the love across the political spectrum, donating a total of $626,513 to political candidates in the past 10 years, with 53 percent of that total going to Republicans.
So Rainey’s got an interest in politics and a lot of very rich friends—does that mean he might be contemplating a run for office of his own? “No, no,” Rainey says. “Let’s put it this way… I’m on the western slope of my career. I’m doing this because UVA is very important to me. I love the place.”—John Borgmeyer
More than a buzzword
At UVA, “diversity” is now a job
Last week UVA announced that it has created a new high-level administrative position to oversee matters of diversity at the school.
William Harvey, the former vice president of the center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity in Washington, D.C., will now be known as UVA’s vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity.
Harvey’s hire comes as the campus is in another of its uproars over reports of racial slurs, this time yelled from passing cars and written near student housing. (Gays, women and Jesus have also been the targets of the equal-opportunity haters since the beginning of the semester.) But the timing is coincidental; the appointment results from The Commission on Diversity and Equity, a group put together two years ago by UVA President John Casteen.
Harvey’s job description seems vague for now; in the short term, it may be that Harvey replaces UVA’s controversial dean of African-American Affairs, Rick Turner, as the spokesman for campus race issues.
“Our paths will cross, but we don’t have the same duties,” says Turner. “He will be working closely with deans and the academic departments. I work in student affairs, making UVA a more welcoming place for African-Americans. Right now my office is working with students and parents after these unprecedented acts of racial terrorism.”—John Borgmeyer
Red, blue and Sabato, too
Mr. Politics breaks down the 2004 electionIt must be election season—Larry Sabato has a new book.
Last week UVA’s ubiquitous political guru and director of the Center for Politics released Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election. With essays by Sabato and political insiders such as William Saletan of Slate.com and Michael Toner of the Federal Election Commission, the book covers the election that Sabato calls “a harbinger of bigger and even more divisive political storms brewing on the American political horizon.
“We are so divided,” Sabato says, “that one’s view of the hurricane [Katrina] relief program is almost totally determined by whether a person voted for Bush or Kerry in 2004.”
Each of the book’s 14 chapters covers different facets of the contentious campaign, including Howard Dean, campaign finance reform, religious conservatives and Internet activism. According to Publishers Weekly, Sabato (known for making nice with both parties) strives for “balance” to the point that the conclusions of some chapters contradict others. Indeed, both Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly and CNN’s Paul Begala have endorsed the book.
“Sabato’s compilation offers little new to those who closely followed the election,” Publishers Weekly says. “His trove of data may, however, offer politics junkies something.” At press time it ranked as No. 48,201 on Amazon.com’s sales list.—John Borgmeyer
Saving New Orleans
Big Easy architecture expert says all is not lost
Roulhac Toledano knows New Orleans. Born and educated in the Big Easy, she has co-authored seven books on the city’s history and architecture. Last week Toledano, a Downtown property owner, talked with C-VILLE about how to save what she calls “the best the United States has to offer.” An edited transcript of that interview follows.—Will Goldsmith
C-VILLE: Should we think of abandoning New Orleans?
Roulhac Toledano:
The idea of moving New Orleans is ridiculous—the historic city is still there. New Orleans began with total destruction: The early settlers and the French engineers had just laid it out, finished all the services—and it was leveled by a hurricane in 1726. They built it back right on the same spot. Death has always been a fact of life in New Orleans.
All the historic districts are safe?
The core of the eight or nine historic neighborhoods will remain, unless some misadvised people run in with bulldozers.
Are there certain housing designs that better withstand the hurricane and flood damage?
There is a reason New Orleans houses are raised on piers rather than built on slabs—those flood much more easily. Houses built from cypress wood dry out even after flooding; after all, cypress grows underwater. I have renovated 80 houses, some of which were packed with mud up to the eaves.
What should be considered when rebuilding New Orleans?
We shouldn’t rebuild, that implies tearing down. After stabilizing the city, you rehabilitate, renovate. Just because three houses are gone on a block doesn’t mean we tear down the whole block.
Education about New Orleans architectural vernacular is everything. For instance, people in New Orleans don’t like inside hallways—because of the weather, you have a gallery on the outside, with the stairsteps on that gallery.
What’s wrong with using precedent? The danger is no tradition.
Bye, bye land. Bye, bye emptiness…
3,500 units rumored for Breeden property
For 25 years hippie artists David and Elizabeth Breeden have been sitting on 1,000 acres of prime property just five minutes south of town. But last spring the Breedens put much of Forest Lodge, as their property is known, on the market. Speculation as to who would grab the hefty parcel ran rampant—but lately, a duo has emerged as the likely buyers: local mega-developers Hunter Craig and Coran Capshaw.
Craig, or his building company, Craig Builders, have been involved with, among other projects, Mill Creek South, the Highlands at Mechums River, Western Ridge in Crozet and Norcross Station just off the Downtown Mall. Craig has also worked with Capshaw on projects such as an Ivy neighborhood at the end of Broomley Road.
Elizabeth Breeden would not comment on the rumored buyer and by press time neither Craig nor Capshaw returned calls.
Breeden did, however, express admiration for the design of Mill Creek South and a desire for the buyer to be a locally based developer.
“I always thought that [Mill Creek South] was very nicely done,” says Breeden. “If the person who gets the property is a local developer I feel like they will have a sense of what’s come before and I hope they have imaginative partners who keep things green and pedestrian.”
Jeff Werner of the Piedmont Environmental Council has heard talk of 3,500 planned units on the Breeden property. Add to that what Werner says are 7,600 dwelling units currently in various stages of approval and review in the county’s growth area, and “we will literally outpace the population projections. Why are we getting so many [units] ready to go?”
That’s 11,100 units right there, a stark contrast to what Werner says were 12,000 building permits issued between 1983 and 2004.
But back to Forest Lodge. With the current two-lane road leading to it, the parcel hardly seems ready for thousands of new dwellings.—Nell Boeschenstein
Talkin’ ’bout their Revolution
Handmade cards spread the love
They’re crudely drawn, hand-lettered and not much bigger than business cards. But “love cards,” unexpectedly handed to you by random strangers, can turn a rotten day into a not-so-bad one.
Or so those random strangers, Eliza Evans, Virginia Rieley and Katy Cleveland, hope.
The cards are the brainchild of Evans and Rieley, who five years ago began adorning odd scraps of paper with goofy characters and witticisms such as “Once I was shy and plain/I was filled with fear and hurt/but that was before the day/I bought this frilly shirt.” They began as a way for the women to relax and amuse themselves before going out at night.
“We’d make 50 or 100 at a time and hand them out to anyone we saw,” says Rieley, whose captions and thought bubbles are inspired by Evans’ whimsical drawings. “Or we’d tape them to store doors, lightposts and bathroom stalls. Everywhere we went, we’d leave one behind.”
People’s reactions are one reason they’ve kept at it for so long, says Evans, adding that they range from thrilled to enlightened. (“So you’re the ones who’ve been hanging these up all over the place…”)
The pair, who have been best friends since age 5 and are now 24, tried to broaden their reach by starting a club, The Love Revolution, when Evans was a UVA student. “We intended to do good deeds, but the only thing we really did was have parties and make love cards,” Evans says.
It was at one of those parties that Katy Cleveland received her first love card. “I liked it so much that about three years ago I started making love cards and handing them out too,” she says.
Evans, however, had no idea the Revolution had grown until her boyfriend, “who used to make fun of me all the time about the cards,” got a card from Cleveland.
“It was funny that after putting up with me giving them to him for so long, [my boyfriend] also got one from a stranger,” she says. “As if passing out love cards is just a normal thing that lots of people do, not some wacko thing his girlfriend and her best friend do to entertain themselves.”
There are no rules when it comes to making the cards, says Evans, who, like Rieley, works at Dave Matthews’ Best of What’s Around Farm near Scottsville. “They can be huge or small, but we prefer smaller ones because they’re easier to carry around and they fit in people’s wallets.”
But when it comes to distributing the cards, a few guidelines apply. Cleveland says she is always on the lookout for someone who looks miserable or mean. “It’s the people who are unhappy or not nice who deserve a love card the most.” When you give people something to improve their day, “you hope the love will come back to you in some way,” she says.
When they’re not inspired to hand-draw the cards, Evans and Rieley have been known to clip images from old books, newspapers and yearbooks, including their own from middle and high school. The thought of the meanest girl in seventh grade seeing her class photo on a card in a public restroom with something sweet coming out of her mouth cracks the two women up.
“There are probably tons of funny coincidences involving people’s pictures that we have no idea about,” Rieley says.—Susan Sorensen