Month: November 2005

Tuesday, November 22
Breedens sell land, get rich overnight

Two months after C-VILLE reported the rumor, The Daily Progress today confirmed that the Breeden family has officially sold their 1,353 acres of prime property just south of town to Forest Lodge LLC. Price tag? An eye-popping $46.2 million. The man behind the LLC is developer Hunter Craig, who has filed plans with Albemarle County showing he intends 4,790 units for the acreage under the name Fox Ridge. C-VILLE reported last week that McMansion developers Toll Brothers, a powerhouse in the concretization of Northern Virginia, is rumored to be backing Craig. The Breedens, local artists known for their communal suppers and the Art in Place program, have been connected to the land since the mid-1970s when David Breeden’s father bought the property. Papa Breeden was well aware its value would skyrocket, and always planned to sell the parcel and divide the profit among his heirs. Warning: At a buying price of more than $34,000 per acre, that’s a lot of Art in Place.

Lime Kiln closes doors

The Theater at Lime Kiln announced yesterday that the outdoor venue in Lexington—home to a popular summer music and stage series—will suspend operations as of December 31 due to insufficient funds unless $175,000 can somehow be raised before then. In an interview with The Roanoke Times, Board Chair Mary Sayre explained that the theater is currently $190,000 in the red. Thirty percent of that was accrued in the last year alone.

Wednesday, November 23
Allen visits unknown Indian city

Senator George Allen won’t sit idly by as potential 2008 presidential competitor Mark Warner hogs all the empty press release glory. Today the conservative Republican and former Virginia governor made media outlets aware of his recent visit to India, part of his “Security, Innovation & Freedom mission” in Asia. According to the press release, Allen “visited the cities of New Dehli [sic] and Bangalore…to learn more about opportunities to strengthen America’s relationship with the world’s largest democracy.” Allen met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and “held several technology-based meetings,” which we can only hope included proposals to introduce spell-check software to the Senator’s system.

Thursday, November 24
1,300 runners earn their gravy

Just as stuffing must back up turkey and whipped cream must join pumpkin pie, so must the Turkey Trot, a 5K fundraiser run, precede the annual feast. This morning 1,300 runners and walkers got their virtue on, but only one man and one woman can say they ran it the fastest of all. Hari Mix led the men with a finishing time of 15:34 and Eliza O’Connell led the women with a time of 19:52. No word on whether they later cleaned up the kitchen in record time.

Friday, November 25
Southern consumers take the lead

National retail sales reporting for today’s mondo shopping day calculates the value of receipts at $8 billion, according to ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate. While that’s off by less than 1 percent from last year’s figure, retailers reportedly aren’t panicked as this year’s calendar packs an extra Saturday into the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas season. Local shoppers, who hit the big boxes as early as 5 this morning, have something to show for their merchandise muscle: According to ShopperTrak, the South leads other U.S. regions in shopping.

Saturday, November 26
Oh, did UVA play today?

Miami handed the Cavaliers another defeat—their second consecutive after last week’s humiliating loss at home to Virginia Tech—and Al Groh’s squad ended its season in the losers column for only the second time in 19 years. Some news reports looked for the silver lining, pointing out that at least the Hoos gave the Hurricanes a game, but The Washington Post got to the heart of things: “[The Cavs] are expected, in the coming days, to get an invitation to a largely unrecognizable bowl that will mean little except to the most diehard of fans.” Maybe with his recent five-year, $1.7 million-per-year contract, Groh can ease some of the pain and fly the faithful to East Jehovah, Arkanssippi, or wherever the hell the “bowl” game will be played.

Sunday, November 27
More locals to take a shot at health

The Thomas Jefferson Health District has expanded eligibility for flu shots, and that’s good news to anyone 50 or older who can get immunized at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Health Department on Rose Hill Drive starting tomorrow. Others who already qualify for the $28 shot include pregnant women, babies and toddlers, and anyone with a chronic medical condition.

Monday, November 28
Signed, sealed, delivered

The Virginia State Board of Elections certified the election results from the November 8 statewide elections in which Democrat Tim Kaine won the governor’s seat over Republican Jerry Kilgore, and Republican Bill Bolling won the lieutenant governor’s seat over Democrat Leslie Byrne. And if that alone doesn’t show that the voters had a hard time deciding which party they favor in the executive branch, consider the race for attorney general, the closest in Virginia’s history. At press time, Republican Bob McDonnell still held a .01 percent victory over Democrat Creigh Deeds, though Deeds has yet to concede and already plans to request a recount. Deeds has set up a team to spearhead the request, and both Deeds and McDonnell have established transition committees in Richmond.

Written by Cathy Harding from staff reports and news sources.

 

Good nukes?
Friends of Lake Anna make nice with Dominion

A bid by Virginia Dominion Power to build two new nuclear reactors on the shores of Lake Anna in Louisa County has prompted backlash from environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists. Recently, however, a nuclear-friendly group of Lake Anna homeowners persuaded Dominion to change its design for the reactors in a way that may help minimize the reactors’ effect on water temperature.

   Dominion currently operates two nuclear reactors at Lake Anna. They are cooled by a “once-through” system, which means water is pumped from the lake to absorb heat from the reactors; afterward, the water is dumped back into the lake. The problem is that it comes back 25 degrees warmer, prompting environmentalists to complain that the warmer water could negatively impact the health of fish and other animals.

   During a public meeting with Dominion, Lake Anna resident Harry Ruth learned that a third cooling tower using the “once-through” system could raise water temperatures by 7 to 8 degrees throughout the 13,000-acre lake, with water temperatures hitting 113 degrees in some areas.

   “That caused an awful lot of concern with a lot of folks,” says Ruth. “You’re
not supposed to go in a hot tub if it’s over 104 degrees.”

   So in August Ruth formed a group called Friends of Lake Anna that he says represents 2,650 people in Louisa County. They lobbied Dominion as well as State and local public officials, and alerted the press. In September, State Health Commissioner Robert Stroube released a letter warning that heated water could pose health risks to people with heart conditions, cardiovascular problems and young children.

   On October 25, Dominion agreed to design the proposed third reactor with a “wet cooling” design, which takes in water from the lake, cools the reactor, then allows the water to evaporate instead of returning to the lake.

   Brendan Hoffman, an organizer for the anti-nuke group Public Citizen, applauds Dominion’s redesign but says the wet cooling method “still has substantial impacts.”

   “It will still cause lake levels to go down, and it’s more expensive,” says Hoffman.

   Still, Ruth is encouraged by the results. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” he says, noting that Dominion has not yet finalized its wet cooling design. While Dominion has ignored anti-nuke protests, Ruth says that his groups’ friendlier approach helped them get quick results from the behemoth energy company. “My experience in dealing with people is that if you try to treat people in a nice way, they’ll respond. If you attack them, they’ll just get their defenses up.”—John Borgmeyer

 

Work stops on Little High
Neighbors gain ground with Region Ten

After weeks of wrangling, residents of Little High Street have won some concessions from Region Ten, a local nonprofit that helps people with mental illness and substanceabuse problems. This fall, they started renovating an apartment complex at 1111-1113 Little High St. to house about 40 low-income people with mental disabilities.

   As previously reported in
C-VILLE, members of the Little High Area Neighborhood Asso-ciation protested Region Ten’s development. LHANA spokes-man Mark Haskins says the neighborhood was expecting high-end apartments on the site, and that Region Ten stonewalled their requests for information about
the project.

   Councilor Blake Caravati, who lives on Little High, told C-VILLE that Region Ten director Phil Cambell was not used to “the Charlottesville way” of getting things done. Around here, neighborhood residents want to control development in their part of town. Little High residents say they want the Region Ten apartments to look upscale and to include programs that could keep the handicapped residents from disturbing the neighbors.

   Campbell might be coming around to the Charlottesville way.

   On Monday, November 14, Region Ten officials emerged from a closed meeting and “came up to us and said we’re going to see a real change now,” says Haskins.

   That week, Region Ten stopped construction on new apartment buildings. Re-gion Ten will continue renovating the existing apartments on the site, but will not build anything new “until we get things ironed out,” says Region Ten Board Chair Barbara Barrett.

   “This was a big step for them, and we see the fact that they stopped work as a positive sign,” says Haskins. “The fact that we’re talking doesn’t mean we’ve resolved the issues, but it does mean there’s a possibility a solution will be reached.”—John Borgmeyer

 

Simmer down
The local housing market takes off its sprinting shoes

While the local housing market is hardly freezing, it’s also no longer boiling as it has for the past six years, according to statistics from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors. Instead, it looks like the market is settling to a simmer.

   In 2004, sales in the Charlottesville area rose 15 percent. CAAR predicted earlier this year that the market was primed for another record year of “high demand and low supply.” Unfortunately, local suppliers and demanders haven’t been working together the way CAAR and CEO Dave Phillips may have anticipated.

   In the past two quarters, the housing market has been flooded with new merchandise. In April there were 1,092 homes on the market; two and a half months later, there were 1,368 homes on the market—as Phillips put it in his report, “the highest number we have seen in several years.” Two and a half months after that, there were 1,681 homes listed for sale—500 more than at the start of 2005.

   “We’re starting to see the pendulum starting to swing back the other way,” says Phillips. “Instead of a significant seller’s market…this could mean that buyers and sellers will be on more equal footing.”

   Moreover, as previously reported in C-VILLE, the luxury housing market is also slowing. In the third quarter of 2004, 50 homes in the area were sold for more than $1 million; in the third quarter of 2005, only 33.

   Phillips anticipates in his latest report that the growing supply will level out prices—which have been going up in Charlottesville at double-digit rates for four years—and increase the average number of days a house stays on the market.—Nell Boeschenstein

 

“Politics of fear” 101
“Peacemaker” Hamilton lashes out over race comments

When 73 percent of Charlottesvil-lians who voted cast their ballot for an elected school board on November 8, supporters of the referendum declared it a bipartisan victory. Last week, however, an unusually contentious row between two City Councilors suggested that the issue of an elected school board remains fraught with political tension.

   On Monday, November 21, Council took up the issue during its regular meeting, three weeks after the overwhelming vote to change Charlottesville’s school board from an appointed to an elected body. Now the City must decide whether those elections should be conducted by wards, at-large or some combination of the two. Council held a public hearing on the issue during last week’s meeting.

   Both Democrats and Republicans had a hand in fueling partisan rivalries.

   On Sunday, Sherry Kraft, co-chair of the City Democratic Party, circulated an e-mail to Charlottesville Democrats bearing the title “Rallying The Troops.” Kraft wrote, “There is concern that Republicans may be organizing a large turnout to advocate for a ward system, with the ultimate goal of changing to a ward system for City Council elections.” Many Dems suspect that the local GOP wants to hold Council elections by ward so that a Republican-friendly ward could be carved out to help break the Democratic dominance on City Council. A school board elected by wards is the first step in that plan, some Dems allege.

   The next day, however, Kraft sent another message: “We certainly do not intend to disparage people of either political party who, in good faith, hold varying opinions on this issue.”

   Councilor Rob Schilling, first elected in 2000 as the Council’s lone Republican, made an elected school board one of his campaign promises then. Last year, in the wake of widespread discontent over the school board’s handling of controversial superintendent Scottie Griffin, UVA history prof Jeffery Rossman joined forces with Schilling to get a referendum for an elected school board on the November ballot.

   Throughout the campaign for an elected school board, both Rossman and Schilling dismissed conspiracy theories about a Republican agenda, and suggested that the school board issue was one of “the public” versus “the elite.” Going even further, both Rossman and Schilling have insinuated that Charlottesville’s appointed school board was tied to Virginia’s Jim Crow history. Schilling has been quoted as saying that appointed school boards have a “sordid and shameful history,” while Rossman has been quoted saying the recent referendum “is the last nail in the coffin of traditional southern Democratic Party paternalism here in Charlottesville.”

   While there was no organized opposition to Rossman and Schilling, Council Democrats were heard throughout the campaign to say that Charlottesville’s appointed school board helps ensure racial diversity. Currently two African-Amer-icans sit on the board.

   Interviewed by C-VILLE, Rossman now says he “wasn’t trying to associate our appointed school board with school boards 80 years ago.” Schilling, meanwhile, said during Monday’s meeting that “it is important to be aware of the shameful history of appointed school boards, in general, in Virginia.”

   On Monday, self-described “peacemaker” Kendra Hamilton, a rookie Councilor, took off the gloves. Accusing Schilling of playing “the politics of fear” and attempting to “defame Council,” Hamilton said, “When [Schilling] casts himself as the only Councilor who cares about the black community, I have to question his purposes. I never thought that I, as a black woman, would be reduced to explaining to a bunch of white people that I know what I’m talking about.”

   An argument between Schilling and Hamilton ensued as Mayor David Brown banged his gavel and vainly shouted
for order. After all the fireworks, Coun-
cil voted 4-1 to hold at-large school board elections in May, and continue seeking public comment on whether to carve Char-lottesville into wards.—John Borgmeyer

 

Literary history
Lewis and Clark fans use poetic license

in search of historic designationFor several years, a group of local bigwigs have been trying to build a monument to Lewis and Clark and their “Corps of Discovery” in Darden Towe Park near the Rivanna River. Dubbed the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center, the building would be “an interpretive facility geared to children of all ages” and include a historic-looking observation tower, according to the group’s president, Francis McQ. Lawrence.

      Because Darden Towe Park is in the county’s rural area, the Lewis and Clark center requires a zoning classification that is allowed in rural areas (buildings zoned “industrial,” for example, are not allowed in rural areas).

      The Lewis and Clark group is seeking a “historic center” zoning for the Explor-atory Center, which would allow them to pursue a special-use permit to build in Darden Towe Park. Lawrence, a lawyer, put his argumentative skills to work in a recent letter to the County making his case that the Center should receive a “historic center” zoning designation. Lawrence’s November 8 letter to County planner Rebecca Ragsdale is excerpted here.

      On Tuesday, November 22, Lawrence admitted to the County Planning Commis-sion that some of the arguments were “a stretch.” Still, the Center did receive “historic center” designation, and the commission voted 5-2 to approve the Center. It now must be approved by the Board of Supervisors.—John Borgmeyer

“The site is on and includes the Rivanna River, a site with archeological and
cultural remains which is both connected to and adjacent to Monticello
and Shadwell.”

“The Rivanna River was at the center of the Monasukapanough Village… There are numerous sites along the Rivanna from Albemarle to Fluvanna County that show this early pattern of usage by the Monocan Nation.”

“Tower signage and interpretive programs will underline the relation between the known and unknown experience of mountains, then and now.”

“Eighty percent of the Corps 8,000-mile trip was on water and more than 25 boats were used. A major theme of the center has been and will be boats, boat building and boatmanship.”

 

Degree of separation
“I mean to push Darden up the ranks,” says new dean

High touch, high tone, high octane. Those are the buzz words Robert Bruner, newly confirmed Darden School of Business dean, uses to distinguish UVA’s business school from the rest. Bruner’s one-year interim term was recently extended to five years, and he is excited to have the helm at what he terms “an inflection point in the life of the school.” C-VILLE met with Dean Bruner to discuss his plans for Darden and the business of teaching business.—Will Goldsmith

C-VILLE: What are some of the upcoming shifts here at Darden?

Robert Bruner: We are launching a major five- or six-year capital campaign, which will fundamentally change the game of the school, giving us the resources to dramatically increase our scholarships, our research infrastructure, and programs that will enhance the life of students at the school. It’s a people and programs capital campaign, not one of bricks and mortar. We’re also launching our new MBA for Executives Program, aimed at business practitioners in their late 30s who obviously want to continue to work yet get the degree necessary to prepare for the next phase in their career.

I read that you have an upcoming trip to Asia as part of your outreach. Where are you going and what are you looking to do?

My trip will take me to a variety of places, roughly in the order of Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Bangalore, Bombay and New Delhi. The itinerary recognizes that we have a strong franchise in every one of those countries, and every country has a different message and a different contribution. We look for ways in which students and business practitioners can contribute to us and our way of thinking and also ways in which we can reach out to those countries and provide a perspective and set of skills that will have a beneficial impact on business life there.

Concerning women in business school, is there a push to attract more candidates?

We know from academic studies that business decisions are better made when the group is diverse—it’s an element of best practice and we seek to model that to our own students. No strong business school can merely be content with waiting for good applicants to apply, and we need to reach out and recruit women more actively. I’ve been on several trips already to speak to special consortiums, interest groups and companies that are often sources of highly talented applicants.

How much do rankings, such as U.S. News & World Report, affect the school?

I think the rankings are important—they affect the applicants to business school as well as our ability both to recruit faculty and to attract donors and corporate partners. I mean to push Darden up the ranks. That said, what matters is what is happening at Darden to suggest strength and growth, whether our school is teaching people to work with integrity, whether our school is an exemplar of diversity and fair dealing. If we can say yes to all those things, I will always be proud of Darden.

Do you think business school has grown in popularity since we elected our first MBA president?

The facts are that the entire MBA education field has contracted somewhat since 2000. This is, I believe, the result of the recent recession, the business scandals and the demographic shift in the United States—the Baby Boom has finally moved through graduate school, the echo boom is about to arrive, and here we are in the trough. But I believe there is a huge need for what business schools do and what they teach. John F. Kennedy said a rising tide lifts all boats. Economic prosperity depends on the discovery and dissemination of best practice to all corners of the market. I’m highly confident that whatever variations over the past few years, we’ll see a buoyant need for MBAs for the foreseeable future.

 

Money talks
Casteen grows the endowment, and his piggy bank gets fatter, too

UVA has made no secret of its ambitions to secure its perch among top public universities. On the endowment front alone, by its own calculations the University, at $2.8 billion, now ranks fifth among publics. Even more impressive, the endowment has grown 381 percent since 1989-90, when funds held by UVA and its foundations to-taled only $567 million.

   Spearheading the gargantuan growth is President John T. Casteen III, who came on board in 1990. While the pride of a job well done might be enough to satisfy the prez, he hasn’t exactly been denied other fruits for his labor. In 1990 Casteen was hired at a starting salary of $147,769. By 2003-04, according to a report in The Washington Post last week, Casteen was earning a base of $385,000, representing a 161 percent in-crease in his standard of living across 13 years. Additional compensation, such as bonus-es, deferred compensation and benefits, brought Casteen to $526,490 in 2003-04—and that’s not even counting the housing, car allowance and cook that UVA provides for him.

   That puts Casteen well ahead of public peers in the region, lifting him to a level akin to presidents at private universities, such as George-town. To which we can only say, How’s the air up there, John?—Cathy Harding

 

Neighborhood watch
A large portion of Charlottesville’s sex offenders live in Belmont and Woolen Mills

The Virginia Sex Offender Registry, http://sex-offender.vsp.state.va. us, maintained by the Virginia State Police, updates local precincts when sex offenders change address. And that’s the extent of the monitoring of sex offenders who have served their time, according to Det. Sgt. Paul Davis at the Charlottesville Police Department. Anything more would violate their legal rights.

   According to the Registry, currently 79 sex offenders live in the Charlottesville-Albe-marle area. Of those, 13 are in jail, 34 live in the county and 32 live in the city. Of the 32 living within city limits, the greatest single concentration is the 13 who live roughly in the Belmont and Woolen Mills neighborhoods.

   While this concentration hasn’t seemed to affect housing prices in the neighborhoods, a standard clause in real estate contracts addresses Megan’s Law and encourages buyers to visit the sex offender registry.

   It should be noted that “sex offender”
is a broad category. Det. Davis points out that the Registry can be misleading because, for example, two people may
be having consensual sex, yet if one is under 18, then her partner could be convicted of statutory rape and forever be listed in the Sex Registry.

   The map printed below approximately locates where in Belmont and Woolen Mills the sex offenders live according
to the State Registry. Keep in mind that the map is an approximation—the indicators on the map are more to identify a street than a specific address.—Nell Boeschenstein

 

Beer or deer?
Sportsmen, take our quiz before heading out with your rifle

Virginia law allows deer hunting in most parts of the Commonwealth from late November to early January. In honor of hunting season, beer companies such as Anheuser-Busch are printing cases of beer with bright orange labels, designed to stand out among the leaves. Hunters can carry these visible beer boxes into the woods without worrying that a fellow sportsman will mistake their beer for deer. At
C-VILLE, we’re serious about beer safety. Before you and your beer head off on that hunting trip, take the following quiz to make sure you can tell the difference between beer and deer. It’s not as easy as you might think.—John Borgmeyer

1.   Walks on four legs.

2.   Comes in an aluminum can.

3.   Tastes best ice cold.

4.   Looks good mounted above your fireplace.

5.   It’s illegal to drive with one in
your hand.

6.   Makes your wife or girlfriend seem more attractive.

7.   Smells like urine, tastes like fur.

Answers: 1. deer; 2. beer; 3. beer; 4. deer; 5. beer; 6. beer or deer; 7. deer or Milwaukee’s Best.

Tuesday, November 15
VFF gets a shot in the arm

Today, the Virginia Film Festival announced that it was to receive a $15,000 grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—its second. VFF is in good company, as the Academy awarded a total of $300,000 to 19 separate film festivals, including New York, Chicago and Nashville. “This grant is supposed to be applied to create more community-outreach events,” Festival Director Richard Herskowitz says. “We’re considering doing a workshop with high school students at Light House Studios, as well as hoping to do more [programming] at The Paramount Theater.” The 2005 festival, themed In/Justice, boasted the highest attendance in the festival’s 18-year history, selling 13,087 tickets.

 

Wednesday, November 16
Charlottesville—a D.C. suburb?

The local Chamber of Commerce released a report today indicating that a majority of their members do business in Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., and that they say they would use a commuter train to do business in that area. Out of 231 respondents to the survey, 63 percent do business in NOVA several times a month; 66 percent said they would ride a train there. The Chamber is behind an effort to build such a commuter rail to NOVA/D.C., and suggests that a rail would stimulate the local economy. Others say a commuter train to D.C. would foster unwanted growth in Charlottesville.

 

Thursday, November 17
UVA student found dead

Shortly after 10am this morning, Char-lottesville Police found 20-year-old Michelle Elizabeth Collier of Hackensack, New Jersey, dead at 3 University Ct. A housemate discovered her body, and investigators say there is no evidence of trauma, assault or foul play. Police declined any further comment until they see results of an autopsy to be conducted by the chief medical examiner in Richmond.

 
DMB serves up more Thanksgiving turkey

In case the Thanksgiving turkey coma isn’t enough to put you to sleep, you can digest some of DMB’s adult contemporary pop on Thanksgiving night. Today WVPT, Virginia Public Television, announced they would broadcast a DMB performance from Red Rocks amphitheater in Colorado at 10pm on Thursday, November 24. Former Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio is also scheduled to perform on the show. Watching Dave on television can’t compete with seeing the boys themselves on a desert island, so die-hard fans can also pay between $1,000 and $2,400 to take a luxury cruise to the Bahamas for a combination DMB concert/Super Bowl Party in early February.

 

Friday, November 18
Court Square now officially tourist-friendly

“The vision of some is now the pleasure of many,” Charlottesville Mayor David Brown intoned early this evening as a small crowd of top-coated dignitaries huddled on the southeast corner of Court Square for the historic site’s official dedication, some two years after the groundbreaking for the federally funded renovation project. Brown, former Vice Mayor Meredith Richards, County Supervisor Ken Boyd and others were joined by actors in pantaloons, tricorner hats and hoop skirts as the ceremony also kicked off the annual Jefferson Thanksgiving Festival. The weekend-long re-enactments included a parade of soldiers and statesmen and a red-coat attack on Charlottesville.
 

New shopping center headed for Pantops

Today the Albemarle Planning Com-mission gave developer Richard Spurzem approval to build a new shopping center on 37 acres near the intersection of U.S. 250 and I-64. Last year, Spurzem sued the County after the Commission denied his proposal for the center to be known as Gazebo Plaza. The Commission’s denial had been based on concerns from the State about road access to the site, but Spurzem and the County worked out an agreement while the case was pending in Albemarle Circuit Court. According to The Daily Progress, Spurzem originally declared that today’s hearing was not valid, but apparently changed his mind after the planners approved Gazebo Plaza after all.

 

Saturday, November 19
Local athletes publicly spanked

Virginia Tech rolled into Scott Sta-dium today and destroyed the Cavaliers 52-14 in their final home game. UVA fans had high hopes for the game against the 7th-ranked Hokies, but instead Tech handed UVA its first loss at home this season. Some of the notoriously boisterous Tech fans snuck into Scott Stadium before the game and painted a huge letter “T” next to the orange-and-white “V” at midfield, but the prank was covered with green paint.

 

Sunday, November 20
Crappy governor now aims at Senate

Today Daily Progress political columnist Bob Gibson reported that former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, the Republican who plunged the Commonwealth into fiscal crisis by cutting the State car tax, would like to either run for John Warner’s seat in the U.S. Senate, or perhaps make another run for governor. A strident no-taxer, Gilmore’s announcement comes as Virginia Repub-licans squabble about whether GOP gubernatorial candidate and right-winger Jerry Kilgore lost because he wasn’t conservative enough. Former Albemarle Delegate Paul Harris is also aiming at Warner’s seat, as the moderate Republican is said to be contemplating retirement.

 

Monday, November 21
Council set for marathon meeting

Tonight’s City Council meeting promises to be lengthy. Council is set to discuss the new elected school board initiative, affordable housing, and changes to vendor fees for Downtown Mall merchants. Also slated for the meeting is a discussion of financial trends by City Manager Gary O’Connell, who has recently learned how to add a techno soundtrack to his PowerPoint presentations.
 

Written by John Borgmeyer from staff and news reports

 

Staph retreat
UVA lab beats back disease with sea critters

Staphylococcus Aureus, better known as “Staph,” is a bacteria that is normally on human skin but can be fatal when it enters the bloodstream. Common forms of Staph infections are usually treatable with penicillin. However, there is one particular form of Staph called Meth-acillin-resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA) that is resistant to all antibiotics except for one drug called Vancomycin. The danger in this situation is if the bacteria become resistant to Vancomycin also, there is no known alternative treatment for MRSA.

   But that may soon change. A group of five UVA scientists, headed by chemistry professor and President of Pinnacle Pharmaceuticals, Sydney Hecht, are working at a furious pace to develop new antibiotics to treat MRSA, among other things. In order to develop these antibiotics, the group works with natural products extracted from marine plants and animals.

   The research is part of UVA’s investment in medicine and biotechnology. In the past two years, UVA faculty have disclosed 311 inventions to the school’s Patent Foundation, and most of those aim to reap profits in the market for biomedical and pharmaceutical products. In 2003 and 2004, UVA patents brought in a total of $11.6 million in license fees and royalties to the school.

   Currently the Pinnacle team is working with eight to 10 strains of bacteria. Besides MRSA, they are also trying to develop antibiotics to treat pseudo-monas—a common infection in im-muno-compromising diseases such as AIDS and cancer.

   “The national impact we are hoping for is that we [could] be the next Penicillin or a nice antimicrobial soap,” says research scientist Brad Day, who has been with the company for more than three years.

   Pinnacle is barely in the preclinical trial stage, but that’s no impediment to a broad vision.

   According to Day, Pinnacle has obtained provisional patents for their discoveries that will in part belong to the UVA Foundation, which has provided the equipment and office space in their Northfork Research Park. Although the initial research was done at UVA and all members of the team are affiliated with the University, Pinnacle is an independent company.

   The company is being funded mainly by small-business initiative research grants from National Institutes of Health.—Priya Mahadevan

 

Plan this
C-VILLE solves some UVA problems. No big whoop.

It seems UVA’s got some traffic problems, and the Office of the Architect wants to get some undergrads on the case. Last week architecture profs inquired whether their students could put in some time helping with the road projects listed below. What’s C-VILLE, chopped liver? Who knows more about traffic engineering than alternative newspaper writers? No harm, no foul. We’re going to share some of our brilliance with UVA, anyway. Watch and learn, eggheads.—John Borgmeyer

UVA’s Problem: Critical nonfunctioning intersections such as Stadium Road/JPA/ Emmet Street; Emmet Street/University Avenue; JPA/University Avenue; JPA through the hospital to Main.

C-VILLE’s solution: If we’ve learned nothing else from Bush (and we haven’t) it’s that problems can be erased with a little Orwellian wordplay. “Nonfunctioning” is such an unpatriotic way of thinking about traffic jams. After all, every minute you spend in stop-and-go traffic is another donation to Exxon’s record-setting profits. That’s good for America. It’s not a traffic jam. It’s a “freedom line.”

 

UVA’s Problem: University Avenue as it passes through the Corner.

C-VILLE’s solution: The majority of traffic slowdowns on the Corner are caused by frat boys slowing down to check out girls. Our solution is a no-brainer—UVA should stop admitting so many hot chicks.

 

UVA’s Problem: Larger context issues of traffic flow through Grounds.

C-VILLE’s solution: UVA needs to think outside the box—or, in this case, outside the road. Put that Lawn to good use and allow all those Wahoo SUVs to go off-road on campus. It’s what Jefferson would have wanted.

 

Oppression, Aisle 9
Wal-Mart Watch lays it on thick in Charlottesville

Wal-Mart Watch was in Charlottes-ville last week, hoping to incite our town to cast off the shackles of the nation’s largest retailer.

   A “town hall” gathering held in the cafeteria of Burley Middle School (and directly under a thundering basketball practice) on Wednesday night, November 16, attracted about 30 Charlottesville residents concerned about the business practices of uber-mega-retailer Wal-Mart. The gathering drew far fewer people than the 300-plus who packed the Jefferson Theater on Monday night for a free screening of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices.

   The film is yet another example of the new genre of propaganda documentaries that are created with the obvious intention of producing a specific public reaction, increasingly popular since Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine. Wal-Mart is the second such film directed by Robert Greenwald, who also directed Outfoxed, a similarly styled documentary that was critical of Fox News.

   A new activist group, Wal-Mart Watch, which seeks to unite the myriad anti-Wal-Mart movements across the country, sponsored the free screening and “town hall” meeting as part of their nationwide “Higher Expectations Week.”

   The movie’s broad arguments focused on the irresponsible corporate behavior behind Wal-Mart’s commitment to low prices—from discrimination, workers’ rights and the devastation of local economies, to the incredible cost to the public. According to Wal-Mart Watch, Wal-Mart’s “evil” practices cost the American taxpayers $1.5 billion annually, just at the federal level (state and local subsidies given to Wal-Mart substantially add to the cost).

   The panel, comprising local representatives all supportive of the Wal-Mart Watch effort, focused on the wage issues related to Wal-Mart. In Virginia, the average wage of a Wal-Mart employee is $9.40/hour—given that Wal-Mart defines “full-time” as just 28 hours a week, this is far below a sustainable living wage. Panelist Joe Szakos from the Virginia Organizing Project urged residents to push for legislation that ensured full-time workers were paid above the poverty level.

   Local Assembly Delegate Mitch Van Yahres and former Vice Mayor Meredith Richards, also panelists at the meeting, supported Szakos’ arguments from another angle. Although educated workers are in high demand in the market, the same cannot be said for unskilled workers, often without a high school diploma. By increasing educational standards and resources, communities like Charlottesville can reduce the number of people who have no other option but to work—and shop—at Wal-Mart.—Dan Pabst

 

 

Crossing the Mall
Business owners, Mall denizens debate car crossing

At the Charlottesville City Council and Planning Commission joint public hearing on Tuesday, No-vember 15, a rousing debate about adding a vehicular crossing to the east end of the Downtown Mall took the stage. The Planning Commission unanimously de-ferred the decision after hearing residents and business owners fight it out.

   Since last winter’s closing of the Seventh Street crossing, east end Mall merchants have claimed a loss of customers and revenue. The City touts new crossings at Fourth or Fifth streets as an option to remedy the problem, with City staff favoring Fifth Street because it would be situated farthest from the current vehicular crossing next to the Regal Cinema on the west end of the Mall. The engineering costs of upgrading surfaces on the Mall itself and sidewalk improvements to the cross street would put the price tag for the project at $900,000.

   Peter Kleeman, a transportation activist who also happens to play his melodeon on the Mall, pointed out that a City-sponsored study has examined the peak times during the day for automobiles, but not for people, on what is rated one of the best pedestrian malls in the country. “There’s been very little consideration of pedestrian safety,” he said at the meeting. Afterward, Kleeman pointed out that the study was conducted by RK&K Engineers, the firm that is also performing a $1.5 million study of the Meadowcreek Parkway interchange, a fact confirmed on the City’s website.

   Bob Stroh, co-chair of the Downtown Business Associa-tion, pointed out the widespread support of local storeowners for what is basically a replacement crossing. “Cars circle the Mall and never see what is a significant destination,” he said. Rod Gentry of Guaranty Bank added, “Pe-destrians are not the issue. Economic vitality is.”

   David Repass pointed out that the busier west end of the mall is the result of a movie theater, ice rink and hotel. “What’s at the east end? Rock concerts at night? Why not study the real issues and concentrate on parking at the east end?” he said.

   As City Councilors weighed in, Kevin Lynch expressed his concern. “When we start [re]construction of the Avon Street bridge, whether we keep a couple of lanes open or just close it, we would not want a Mall street crossing to serve as an alternative,” he said. Lynch suggested that investing $100,000 in signs pointing visitors to the Mall might be just as beneficial as an added crossing.

   Planning Commissioner William Lucy questioned statements that the west end is busier than the east by reporting on his own counts taken the day before the hearing. The winner was clearly the east end with 1,080 pedestrians per hour versus the Second Street total of 720 per hour. “What we have here is a pedestrian-free zone, more like a European city,” Lucy said. “Clearly, signage is the next step,” he said.

   Commission Chair Cheri Lewis took very seriously the safety factor and the Mall’s increasing popularity. “I would favor a crossing, but we should move with caution and see it not as a quick fix for businesses but for connectivity,” she said. Lewis pressed the need for more professional analysis and asked, “Can we look at how Colonial Williamsburg works? Stanchions with ropes or pots might provide safety without spending a million dollars.”

   Commissioner Craig Barton thought they were going about the problem the wrong way. He thinks the solution is to provide more bulk and convenience parking, and stressed a design factor that would ensure drivers know that any crossing is a meeting of two modes, pedestrian and vehicular. “We owe it to the community to make the right decision,” he said.—Jay Neelley

 

 

Press releases we love
Building the Warner legacy, one official statement at a time

As if being rich, handsome and one of Time Magazine’s Top Five Governors in America were not enough, in the twilight of his administration, Democrat Mark Warner has been busy securing a few extra feathers in his cap with a series of fairly self-congratulatory press releases.

   Take his November 14 state-ment that announced, “Governor Warner Helps Construct a Water Line in Giles County to Bring Water to 80 More People.” Water- line construction, eh? Color us skeptical, but we seriously doubt that
our high-tech tycoon governor can tell his Ray-Bans from his welding goggles.

   But then again, who can blame Warner for wanting to embellish his legacy—if anybody is entitled to a little horn tooting it’s the guy who turn-ed Virginia into the No. 1 best- managed state in America. So keep sending them down the pipeline, Mark. We want to have a hefty reserve of fond memories of you once the 2008 presidential election rolls around.—Anne Metz

 

Murder was the case
Inside the interrogation of convicted killer Rocky Fugett

On Tuesday, November 15, Albe-marle County Circuit Judge Paul Peatross sentenced William Rocklin “Rocky” Fugett, Jr., 22, to 75 years in prison for the murder of 41-year-old Nora Annette Charles and her 3-year-old son, Thomas. In February 2003, Charles was found dead in her Crozet home. The killers duct-taped her to a bed, stabbed her, beat her and slit her throat, then burned the house in an apparent attempt to destroy the evidence.

   In 2004, Robert Paul Davis, 21, was sentenced to 23 years in prison after entering an Alford plea in Charles’ murder, acknowledging that the court had enough information to prosecute him while not admitting guilt. Davis pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges in the death of the 3-year-old, who died of smoke inhalation.

   On Thursday, November 10, Rocky’s 18-year-old sister, Jessica Fugett, was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder. She will be sentenced on February 7. Charges against another suspect, Tygue Herrmann, were dropped for lack of evidence.

   Among the evidence entered in the trial was a transcript of Rocky Fugett’s 2003 interrogation by an unidentified Albemarle County Police de-tective. It gives no indication of the presence of Fugett’s attorney during the interview, though Fugett was apprised of his legal rights. The excerpt below provides a rare glimpse into how real-life cops lean on a suspect when they’re certain they have the goods on him.—John Borgmeyer

 

Detective 1: We talked a little bit earlier. Do you remember what we said?

Fugett: Yeah.

Detective 1: We talked to the other people and whatnot. There are some issues that have come up, O.K.? We’re not being told the whole truth. You’ve been through this before… There are some things you left out, and that’s because you’re scared.

Fugett: I know.

Detective 1: And you’re nervous, and I can understand that. But some of the… it’s not going to get any better for you. We can keep you. You’re going downtown.

Fugett: I ain’t going home?

Detective 1: No.

Fugett: O.K.…

Detective 1: So there’s nothing else to hide. I’m telling you that now because with what we got, and what we’ve come up with in the preliminary tests we’ve run, it puts you in certain places. And I know exactly where it puts you. Right now I’m waiting for you to stand up and be a man and speak the truth… I want to hear the planning, and I want to hear exactly what took place Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Fugett: As far as the planning goes, I didn’t have much to do with that. It was Jessica and Robert and Tygue. He was brought in later. As far as the actual planning, it was supposed to be the three of us at first… me and Robert and Jessie. We were only supposed to go in, take money and leave. The first thing that happened, Robert and my sister, Jessica, went upstairs. They said that if Anne was up there, they would tie her up, which wasn’t no part of the plan. They went upstairs. Jessica gave me the details. Jessica put the knife to her face and told her to be quiet or she would kill her.

Detective 1: I want you to stop right there. Do you take me serious?

Fugett: Yeah.

Detective 1: Son, you must not be…

Fugett: This is honestly what happened. I swear to you.

Detective 1: Your first mistake is saying that you had no idea that we were going to tie this woman up.

Fugett: It wasn’t supposed to be that way. Jessie…

Detective 1: But yet, you take a roll of duct tape with you.

Fugett: Jessica had the tape.

Detective 1: Yet you bring a knife with you.

Fugett: Jessica had the knife.

Detective 1: Come on Rocky, it ain’t going to work. You know that tape you put on her legs and around her? On the inside it has sticky residue. The fire didn’t do the damage it was supposed to do. The inside, that sticky part, when you put tape on, it leaves fingerprints. It grasps fingerprints better than anything else in the whole world. All right? So we’re going to back up and you’re going to try this again. Stop the BS. I’m getting tired of all this shit…. Stand up and admit your mistakes and stop putting it all on everybody else. Do I make myself clear?

Fugett: Yeah.

 

Count on me
Lawyers square off in Deeds/McDonnell recount

A recount is imminent in the Common-wealth’s attorney general race, with the margin dwindling to less than 400 votes. The initial election tally on November 8 favored Republican State Delegate Bob McDonnell over Democratic State Senator Creigh Deeds by 2,023 of more than 1.9 million votes, but the ongoing tally of absentee and provisional ballots has closed the gap. While neither campaign can petition for a recount before the official vote count is announced on November 28, both sides are gearing up for a contest.

   The recount will pit two lawyers who fought over Virginia’s last recount, in 1989, when Democrat Douglas Wilder won the governor’s race over Republican Marshall Coleman by 7,000 votes.

   Joseph Kearfott and Larry Framme will handle the ensuing recount for Deeds. Framme is the former Virginia Chair of John Kerry’s presidential campaign. McDonnell’s recount team is being led by former State Solicitor General William Hurd, who represented Coleman in the 1989 recount.

   Matt Smyth, director of communications at the UVA Center for Politics, notes the similarities between the two state-wide recounts, but makes the distinction that “[the 1989] race was decided by about 7,000 votes out of approximately 1.8 million votes cast, making this race much tighter.”

   This razor-thin divide is likely to go under intense legal scrutiny, with the candidates taking a back seat. The recount process can take weeks, but with both candidates preparing to become the next attorney general, they are hopeful for a speedy decision. “There are a lot of unknowns” says Janet Polarek, McDonnell’s campaign manager, but “we expect the recount to be completely over by year’s end based on previous timelines.”

   Another consideration for the candidates is their incumbencies in the General Assembly. Depending on how the recount turns out, either Deeds or McDonnell will vacate their General Assembly seat. There’s been much local buzz about who would succeed Deeds in his 25th District Senate seat. If he wins the recount, local Dems will hold a special firehouse primary to quickly fill his seat prior to the Assembly’s January 11 commencement.—Doug Black

Tuesday, November 8
Four men narrowly escape death

Westbound traffic on Interstate 64 came to a standstill today due to an accident involving a Saturn sedan and a semi truck. The crash occurred when the Saturn, carrying three men, suddenly swerved in front of the Freightliner truck while trying to make a U-turn in an authorized-vehicles-only lane. Following the collision, the car became lodged in a drainage ditch beneath the truck’s trailer along the median of I-64 near the 29N interchange. According to County Police reports, when emergency personnel arrived at the scene, the three passengers were trapped in a space 12" high inside the crushed car. Luckily, the high banks of the median drainage ditch prevented the trailer from completely flattening the automobile. All four men, including the truck driver, survived the crash.

 

Wednesday, November 9
Crozet teen convicted of murdering neighbor and neighbor’s child

After a two-day trial, Albe-marle County Circuit Court Judge Paul Peatross convicted 18-year-old Jessica Gale Fugett on two counts of first-degree murder, arson, and breaking and entering. Accord-ing to reports from The Daily Progress, on February 19, 2003, Fugett, her brother, Rocky, and William Davis broke into Nola Annette Charles’ house on Cling Lane in the county, tied her to the bed, stabbed her, slit her throat and then set the house on fire. Charles’ young son, William, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Fugett’s sentencing date was set for February 7. Rocky Fugett pleaded guilty and will be sentenced later this month. As part of a plea agreement, Davis received 23 years in prison.

 

Thursday, November 10
George Washington shares stage with Dolly Parton 

UVA fell under the national spotlight today when one of its pet projects, The Papers of George Washington, received a National Humanities Medal from President Bush in an Oval Office ceremony. Established nearly 40 years ago, The Papers of George Washington is responsible for publishing 135,000 letters and documents written by and to one of the nation’s founding fathers. Eleven other recipients took home the prestigious award and 10 took home the National Medal of Arts, including famous faces like actor Robert Duvall and country singer Dolly Parton. Dr. Theodore Crackel, editor in chief for The Papers of George Washington, accepted the award on behalf of the project.

 

Friday, November 11
Why didn’t they do this before?

City Hall will finally get around to improving traffic flow on W. Main Street. Today the City announced that “over the next several weeks” it will synchronize traffic signals on the congested road between Ridge Street and the University. Also, the City will re-stripe the intersection of W. Main Street, Ridge/McIntire streets and Water Street to create two southbound lanes and an exclusive northbound turn lane. The signal sequence at the intersection of Preston Avenue and McIntire Road will also be changed—with green arrows added for left-hand turns—in an effort to reduce backups.

 

Saturday, November 12
UVA triumphs despite benched players

The Cavaliers pulled out an exciting 27-17 win over ACC rival Georgia Tech, which was ranked 24th in the nation going into today’s game. UVA needed a win to keep hopes of a bowl game alive. If that wasn’t enough pressure, the Cavs were also missing four players—including two defensive starters—suspended for what the UVA athletic department called a “violation of team policy.”

 

Sunday, November 13
Paramount wins preservation award

The Thomas Jefferson Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities awarded the 2005 Annual Preservation Project of the Year Award to The Paramount Theater at a ceremony today. Founded in 1889, the APVA is the oldest preservation organization of its type in the nation. Part of the association’s mission is to annually recognize outstanding preservation achievements in the district that includes Charlottesville, Albemarle and the surrounding counties. Citing the high quality of attention given to the process of restoration, the APVA praised the Paramount for not only revitalizing the historic space, but also for adding to the cultural life of Char-lottesville and Central Virginia.

 

Monday, November 14
Cox telling other cities what to do for a change

Former Charlottesville Mayor Maurice Cox was in Biloxi, Mississippi, today as a member of the Mayor’s Institute on City Design. The Institute is holding a two-day conference for mayors of Gulf Coast cities ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, and Cox will be giving advice on design strategies as those mayors begin the long task of rebuilding their cities.

 Written by John Borgmeyer from staff reports and news sources.

 

 

Kaine is able
Cleaning up after a downright dirty election season

With Election Day over, the candidates can pick themselves up, wipe the sweat from their brows, straighten their ties, put their shirts back on, shake hands and let the dust settle.

   On Tuesday, November 8, Democrat Tim Kaine rode popular outgoing Governor Mark Warner’s coattails into the Governor’s mansion, winning by almost 6 percent over Republican Jerry Kilgore. Forty-four percent of Virginia’s registered voters turned out for the statewide race, which garnered Kaine 51.7 percent of the vote to Kilgore’s 46 percent. Pundits predicted that independent candidate Russ Potts could influence the race, but he barely made a blip with only 2 percent.

   Republican Bill Bolling narrowly won the lieutenant governor’s seat over Democrat Leslie Byrne; the race for attorney general was even closer. On November 10, according to the Virginia State Board of Elections, Republican Bob McDonnell had 968,817 votes, while Democrat Creigh Deeds had 967,508 votes. That’s a difference of only 1,311 votes—less than one vote per precinct. By Sunday, November 13, McDonnell’s lead shrank to a mere 410 votes as provisional and absentee ballots trickled in. Deeds’ campaign announced plans to seek a recount, but that process can’t even begin until the State Board of Elections certifies the results on November 28. At press time, Deeds was planning to make an announcement regarding the results on Monday, November 14.

   Virginia’s statewide races were notable for their ugliness. Ads from Republicans Bolling and McDonnell exploited racism toward Hispanic im-migrants and accus-ed their opponents of coddling child molesters. (By far the most hilarious/disturbing was Mc-Donnell’s ad showing happy prisoners filing lawsuits.) In the gubernatorial campaign, both Kaine and Kilgore were fined $100 by the State Board of Elections for sending out mailings disguised as coming from their opponents’ party. Kilgore took the cake with an ad alleging that Kaine, a devout Catholic morally opposed to the death penalty, would not have executed Hitler.

   Neither gubernatorial candidate touted a specific issue that resounded with voters. Kaine’s strategy was to trump his connection to the enormously popular Warner, says Matt Smyth, director of communications at UVA’s Center for Politics, calling Warner “a big factor in Kaine’s victory.”

   Kilgore’s team attempted to counter Kaine’s coattail strategy by painting Kaine as more liberal than Warner. After Kilgore’s defeat, analysts suggested his death penalty ads may have backfired, too.

   Lately, President George W. Bush has been taking an approval-rating beating. Pundits speculated in the national press as to whether the national political climate colored this election blue, when Virginia usually goes red. Indeed, some wondered if Bush’s 11th hour campaign stop in Richmond on election eve to stump for Kilgore, and his prerecorded phone messages, hurt rather than helped the would-be guv. Smyth, however, characterizes the jockeying as perhaps less Warner vs. Bush, and more Warner vs. George Allen, both of whom are rumored to be throwing their hats into the 2008 presidential race.

   “For two politicians that are talked about as potential presidential candidates, this was sort of a preview,” says Smyth. “And this [election] gives momentum to Warner.”

   Locally, it was no big surprise that Democratic crown prince David Toscano won in a landslide over Republican Tom McCrystal for outgoing Delegate Mitch Van Yahres’ seat representing the 57th District in the General Assembly.

   The city also gave the go-ahead for an elected school board by 7,106 votes to 2,597. Critics said that an elected board would lack racial diversity, and they pointed to the uncontested races in Albemarle as a harbinger of what the city could expect. Opponents failed to mount an organized campaign, however, while proponents papered the town with posters and declared that an elected school board would reflect the “voice of the people.”

   The election indicates that times are a-changin’ in the historically conservative Albemarle County. Last year, Kerry carried Albemarle by a mere 2 percent; last week, Kaine beat Kilgore there by 25 percent. Kaine’s dramatic victory suggests that Albemarle might no longer be the Republican stronghold it once was.

   Delegate Rob Bell, of the 58th District, says he’s not worried, but maybe he should be. Bell, a Republican, won a third term in the General Assembly with 62 percent of the vote across the district. In Albemarle, though, Democrat Steve Koleszar made a strong showing with 43 percent of the vote against an incumbent with strong political skills, lots of money, and a record of prosecuting popular public enemies such as bullies and drunk drivers.

   Growth was the big issue in Albemarle’s three Board of Supervisors races. Victories by incumbent Dennis Rooker in the Jack Jouett District and newcomer David Slutzky in the Rio District showed that despite the controversy over Albemarle’s growth management, residents strongly support existing policies like the Neighborhood Model and “master plans” for the county’s designated growth areas. Advocating public transit and rural land protection, Slutzky defeated Republican Gary Grant, a strong advocate of developers’ rights.

   Take a breather from politics while you can, dear voter—both parties are already arming themselves for the 2006 Congres-sional campaigns.—Nell Boeschenstein

 

Winners circle
An inside look at those who came out on top

STATE

Timothy Kaine

Office: Governor

Party: Democratic

Number of votes: 1,022,679

Big donors: Sheila Johnson (co-founder of BET), Service Employees International Union, Virginia Auto Dealers Association, United Food and Commercial Workers

What it means: With traditionally conservative areas such as Loudoun County and southwest Virginia voting Kaine, Dems have renewed hopes for the future. It was also good news for outgoing governor and rumored presidential hopeful Mark Warner.

 

William “Bill” Bolling

Office: Lieutenant Governor

Party: Republican

Number of votes: 976,067

Big donors: Virginia Auto Dealers Association, Dominion Power, Verizon, Anthem

What it means: It wasn’t all good news for the Dems. By painting opponent Leslie Byrne as an ultraliberal, it’s clear some voters still bought the GOP scare tactics.

 

David Toscano

Office: House of Delegates, 57th District

Party: Democratic

Number of votes: 14,113

Big donors: 250 West Holdings LLC, Mall Property LLC, MGR Development Corp., Virginia Association of Realtors, Virginia Dental Association

What it means: Yep, Charlottesville is still a Democratic stronghold. And yep, Char-lottesville loved outgoing Delegate Mitch Van Yahres. And yep, Charlottesville enthusiastically passed its Van Yahres love on to Toscano like a torch.

Rob Bell III

Office: House of Delegates, 58th District

Party: Republican

Number of votes: 15,868

Big donors: Ted Weschler, Allied Concrete, Phil Wendel (owns ACAC), Virginia Association of Realtors, Equity Group LLC

What it means: Rumor has it Bell wants to be attorney general. He’s been using this seat to go after drunk drivers and bullies. Next year’s easy target? Child molesters.

 

Watkins Abbitt, Jr.

Office: House of Delegates, 59th District

Party: Independent

Number of votes: 16,398

Big donors: Alpha Natural Resources, Georgia-Pacific Corp., Management Services Corp, Virginia Association of Realtors

What it means: Unopposed candidates don’t lose.

 

Note: Because the attorney general’s race is headed for a recount, C-VILLE decided not to include an AG “winner” for this article.

 

CITY

Warner D. “Dave” Chapman

Office: Commonwealth’s Attorney

Party: Democratic

Number of votes: 7,879

Biggest donors: N/A

What it means: Everyone must like Chapman’s work—he ran unopposed.

Cornelia Johnson

Office: Sheriff

Party: Democratic

Number of votes: 8,294

Biggest donors: N/A

What it means: We got to see Johnson bust some smooth moves on the dance floor at the Dem’s victory party. Cornelia Johnson for president!

Raymond Lee Richards

Office: Commissioner of Revenue

Party: Democratic

Number of votes: 7,901

Biggest donors: N/A

What it means: Richards’ uncontested re-election means no one else wants to be the City’s tax collector. Go figure…

Jennifer Brown

Office: Treasurer

Party: Democratic

Number of votes: 8,235

Biggest donors: N/A

What it means: You’ll be mailing your parking fines to Brown’s office for another two years.

Referendum on Elected School Board

Outcome: Yes

Number of votes: 7,106

Biggest donors: Jeffrey Rossman, Rob Schilling

What it means: City Council will no longer appoint members to the School Board. If the U.S. Department of Justice approves the change, Charlottesville will elect its first School Board members in May 2006. How’s that going to work? See below for the outcome of Albemarle County’s School Board race.

 

COUNTY

Dennis Rooker

Office: Board of Supervisors, Jack Jouett District

Party: Independent

Number of votes: 2,423

Biggest donors: Management Services Corp., Phil Wendel, Ted Weschler, Dharma Group LLC, Carter McNeely, Wilson McNeely, John Grisham, SNL Inc.

What it means: Another four years of trying to make 29N more “pedestrian friendly.” Hope springs eternal…

 

Sally Thomas

Office: Board of Supervisors, Samuel Miller District

Party: Independent

Number of votes: 4,021

Biggest donors: David van Roijen, Richard Hewitt, Eric Strucko

What it means: More talk of transportation and growth management as Albemarle continues to sprawl outwards into the countryside.

 

David Slutzky

Office: Board of Supervisors, Rio District

Party: Democratic

Number of votes: 2,082

Biggest donors: CAAR, Oakwood Farm, Benjamin Brewster, Terence Seig, Ted Weschler

What it means: He’ll rally against the West-ern Bypass and for alternative transportation.

 

 

Diantha McKeel

Office: School Board, Jack Jouett District

Party: Independent

Number of votes: 2,771

Biggest donors: F&S Properties LLC

What it means: McKeel ran unopposed.

 

 

Pamela Moynihan

Office: School Board, Rio District

Party: Independent

Number of votes: 3,680

Biggest donors: N/A

What it means: Like Diantha McKeel, Moynihan ran unopposed.

 

 

Jon Stokes

Office: School Board, Samuel Miller District

Party: Independent

Number of votes: 3,729

Biggest donors: James Barkley, Victor Dandridge III, Eric Strucko

What it means: Like Diantha McKeel and Pamela Moynihan, Stokes ran unopposed. This is what the city has to look forward to.

 

Charlottesville’s heavy hitters
The local donors who made it happen (or not) in the statewide elections

GOVERNOR 

Tim Kaine, Democrat*

Patricia Kluge: $102,500

John Grisham: $100,000

Robert D. Hardie: $58,850

Sonjia Smith: $46,000

Michael D. Bills: $40,0000

Sheets Group LLC: $40,000

Jeffrey Rossman: $25,100

Brass Inc: $25,000

David E. Fife: $19,300

 

Jerry Kilgore, Republican

Phil Wendel: $243,500

Richard Gilliam: $80,000

Wilson McNeely III: $71,761

PBM Products LLC: $60,000

Ted Weschler: $23,500

Eagle Corp: $20,000

Daley Craig: $15,000

 

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Leslie Byrne, Democrat

Mark Fried: $5,000

Roberta Williamson: $5,000

Cornelia Johnson: $2,500

Meredith Richards: $1,863

Pamela Gale: $1,100

Jeffrey Rossman: $1,100

 

Bill Bolling, Republican*

Terrence Daniels: $56,808

Ted Weschler: $25,000

Charles Rotgin, Jr.: $4,000

Douglas Caton: $3,500

Wilson McNeely III: $3,500

PBM Products LLC: $3,500

Daley Craig: $2,500

Stacy Harrell: $1,832

Brenda Cox: $1,600

Joseph Teague: $1,500

Richard Hewitt: $1,250

 

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Creigh Deeds, Democrat**

John Grisham: $52,000

Shelia Davis: $20,000

Sonjia Smith: $20,000

Bruce Williamson: $12,500

Jeffrey Rossman: $11,000

Robert Capon: $10,500

Robert Hardie: $10,000

James Murray: $8,000

 

Bob McDonnell, Republican**

Wilson McNeely: $10,000

Ted Weschler: $10,000

James Rose: $7,000

Richard Hewitt: $2,500

Carter Myers & Associates: $2,250

 

HOUSE OF DELEGATES, 57th DISTRICT

David Toscano, Democrat*

250 West Holdings LLC: $5,000

Bruce Williamson: $5,000

Mall Property LLC: $4,000

Boyd Tinsley: $3,952

Richard Hewitt: $3,000

MGR Development Corp: $3,000

Berkmar 29 JL Inc: $2,000

William Kehoe: $1,750

 

Tom McCrystal, Republican

Creative Perspectives Inc: $4,954

Tribune: $1,220

Canvasback Land Trust: $1,000

Mary Lee Vance: $500

Friends of Rob Bell: $250

 

HOUSE OF DELEGATES, 58th DISTRICT

Steve Koleszar, Democrat

Stephen Koleszar: $10,000

Lucia Phinney: $1,000

Robin Dripps: $900

Jean Wyantt: $876

 

Rob Bell, Republican*

Ted Weschler: $10,000

Douglas Caton: $6,000

Allied Concrete Co: $5,500

Terrence Daniels: $5,000

Equity Group LLC: $5,000

Fort Hill Ltd. Partnership: $5,000

Richard Gilliam: $5,000

Happy Valley LLC: $5,000

PBM Products LLC: $5,000

PDX Inc: $5,000

Arthur Watson, Jr: $5,000

Phil Wendel: $5,000

 

HOUSE OF DELEGATES, 59th

DISTRICT

Watkins Abbitt, Jr., Independent*

Management Services Corp.: $2,000

Old Dominion Highway Contractors

Assn: $500

 

*Denotes winner

**Winner to be

determined

Source: Virginia Public Access Project, www.vpap.org

 

Take charter back

 

Local NAACP wants General Assembly to throw out “classist” law

The Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP will ask the General Assembly to eliminate Virginia’s new higher education restructuring, a controversial new law known as “charter.”

   Last year, the General Assembly passed a bill that allows Virginia colleges to gain autonomy from State oversight. UVA’s top administrators were major proponents of charter, arguing that the State’s layers of bureaucracy and paltry funding hurt Virginia colleges. Last April, Governor Mark Warner signed the bill, giving colleges the freedom to write their own “management agreements” that establish the school’s relationship to the State.

   UVA is currently writing a management agreement that will allow the school to, among other things, set its own human resources policy. Before charter, UVA’s 11,217 employees enjoyed the same protections and benefits as other State employees. Charter opponents, however, fear that UVA’s management agreement—which must be made public by November 16—will make Central Virginia’s largest employer less worker-friendly.

   Especially at risk, according to the NAACP, are the 40,000 low-wage and working-class employees at UVA, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and The College of William and Mary—the three schools that will have the most freedom from State oversight. “The NAACP believes the perceived arrogance and elitism of this classist plan may encourage increases in crime, hatred and lasting racial resentment,” the NAACP said in a statement.

   The NAACP’s proposal, crafted a year ago, compares charter to the decentralization of UVA’s Medical Center in 1996, a move that prompted employee complaints about degraded job security, compensation benefits and working conditions. In addition, the NAACP’s proposal says “these proposed chartered universities still want the freedom from regulation by and zoning ordinances of local government, freedoms that they currently enjoy because they are state institutions.” The NAACP also alleges that UVA has deliberately kept details about charter under wraps to avoid public discussion of the issue. Repeated phone calls to local NAACP heads Rick Turner and John Gaines were not returned.

   The General Assembly session begins January 11. It will be difficult to derail charter, given the colleges’ political clout. Further, charter seems like a good deal for the State, because it means that legislators have to spend less money on education.

   Jan Cornell, president of the 425-member Staff Union at UVA (SUUVA), has been a longtime critic of charter. “We’re always on their side,” Cornell says of the NAACP. In the coming weeks, SUUVA, along with the Communication Workers of America and the AFL-CIO, will meet with Governor Mark Warner’s cabinet, pushing for more worker protection requirements in charter. “I think it’s good that there’s two organizations speaking out against charter.”—John Borgmeyer

 

Sour grapes
Would-be Wahoos fire their parting shots

If you could go to UVA, why would you go anywhere else? Last summer, UVA’s Office of Admissions and Student Finan-cial Services posed that question to nearly 3,000 students who turned down an offer of admission for the 2005-06 academic year. About 1,700 students, including transfer students, responded to the survey.

   The survey provided a list of 17 reasons for not attending, ranging from “Did not receive scholarship” to “Too conservative,” “Too liberal,” “Too Southern,” and “Reputation as a party school.” More than 40 percent of the respondents said that their main reason for not attending UVA was that “the school I chose has a better academic reputation,” making it the most common response. About 31 percent said they “felt UVA did not want me as much as the school I chose,” while about 25 percent listed cost as a major obstacle. About 8 percent listed “racial climate” as a deterrent.

   The survey gave students room to write in additional responses, and the list below includes quotes from those write-ins.—John Borgmeyer

 

•   “Everyone seemed to preach about Jefferson. All the tour guides seemed to be extremely arrogant.”

 

•   “Did not like my peers from my high school who were going to UVA.”

•   “Your football team is not as good as the university I chose.”

 

•   “Dearth of low-income students on campus.”

 

•   “Rich and preppy environment.”

 

•   “I like UNC basketball.”

 

•   “I really don’t like anything colonial.”

 

•   “I flipped a coin to choose between UVA and William and Mary.”

 

•   “Hailey Harris, who is the most beautiful and intelligent person that I know, was not accepted. This left a bad taste in my mouth about the UVA experience.”

 

•   “I love UVA, but the family felt that Wellesley was, in the long run, better for me.”

 

•   “It has a reputation as being a racial school.”

 

Justice is curved
Innocence Project aims to clear good names

One mark of an open society is the ability to admit mistakes. Plane crash? A federal investigation ferrets out the causes and tries to prevent similar accidents in the future. A president sleeps with his intern? Congress—and the public—learns every sordid detail. But when the wrong person is convicted of a crime, there’s no government agency to address the error. Instead, there’s the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic that puts law students to work researching the cases of inmates who say they shouldn’t be in jail.

   Founded in 1992 by two professors at New York’s Car-dozo School of Law, the Innocence Project has helped exonerate 163 people nationwide and spawned chapters at law schools around the country. As of last year, UVA School of Law numbers among them.

   Co-chair Mary Schmid says that the Virginia Innocence Project students currently are busy with five cases, all involving Virginia inmates.

   “If someone’s in jail and shouldn’t be there, our first goal is to get those people out,” says Schmid. In Virginia, this is made more difficult by the 21-day rule, which bars introduction of new evidence a mere 21 days after sentencing. The only exception is for new DNA evidence. (In one of the UVA cases, an inmate serving a life sentence for first-degree murder says there was DNA evidence at the crime scene that has never been tested.) In other circumstances—such as the victim or witness who recants testimony—the only hope is a pardon directly from the governor.

   How do innocent people end up in prison? According to the Innocence Project, such mishaps are all too routine, with prosecutorial and police misconduct being some of the most common explanations for wrongful convictions. Students track down leads that may have been missed by overworked public defenders during original trials, and they look for DNA evidence that could exonerate an inmate. “It really demonstrates a lot of the shortcomings of the criminal justice system,” says Schmid. “It makes legislators and others more willing to make some reforms.”

   “It’s unusual that in our system you need law students volunteering their time to investigate some of these issues for the first time,” says Brandon Garrett, a professor at UVA School of Law and an advisor to the group. “The government should be trying to do that and learn from what’s happened.”—Erika Howsare

Ballot boxing
Is there voter fraud afoot in Virginia?

The election results may be in, but not without potential scandal. Since Monday, November 7, local and State registrars have been dealing with an unspecified number of voters trying to figure out just where exactly they were supposed to cast their ballots. The puzzled voters said they received telephone calls directing them to different, and often in-correct, locations.

   According to Charlottesville Deputy Registrar Evan Smith, the misleading telephone calls “weren’t a huge deal in Charlottesville and were more prevalent throughout other areas of the state.” The Charlottesville Registrar received about a dozen calls from voters in need of a confirmed polling location. “We boiled the confusion down to old lists and bad data,” says General Registrar Sheri Iachetta. “Somebody probably didn’t have updated precincts or information.”

   Registrars from other areas of the state, however, particularly those in southwest Virginia, flooded the Charlottesville registrar’s office with e-mails reporting significant polling confusion within their area. The larger issue in Charlottesville, says Smith, was The Cavalier Daily’s report that led students to Alumni Hall, an incorrect polling location, to vote. “They did us a great disservice,” says Iachetta. “I don’t know where they got their information from.”

   Iachetta notes that “to willingly or knowledgably deceive voters is a Class 3 misdemeanor.”—Robbie Saville

 

All aboard?
Streetcar backers make their pitch

Will Charlottesville really try to build a streetcar on W. Main Street?

   A group of key decision-makers met on Saturday, November 12, to hash it out. In a private meeting at the Charlottesville Community Design Center, about 20 people—including developers, landowners, City and UVA representatives, transit advocates and streetcar experts—discussed what it would mean to build a modern streetcar running nearly two miles along W. Main, between Downtown and UVA.

   After the meeting, attendees said they were optimistic that some type of high-tech mass transit vehicle is in the near future for W. Main. The vehicle would accompany the construction of condominiums and apartment buildings along the transit route, in an effort to lure upscale suburban refugees into Char-lottesville. Participants say they’re waiting for the City to take the first step.

   “The consensus was the belief that we need to better tie Downtown to UVA with some type of better transportation system,” said Wade Tremblay. He owns and manages about 330 housing units in the city, most of them housing students near UVA. Tremblay came to the meeting interested in how gee-whiz transit—whether it is a streetcar or a new type of ultramodern bus known as “bus rapid transit”—could make his apartments more attractive to students and UVA employees. “They want neat experiences,” Tremblay said.

   Frank Stoner of Stonehaus Development said he thinks it could happen on W. Main. “My kids don’t want to ride on the bus, but they love to ride the train,” he says. Stoner owns the Albemarle Hotel at 611-619 W. Main St., a site ripe for redevelopment. Last year, Stoner was one of 20 members of a local delegation that traveled to Portland, Oregon, to see how a modern streetcar is a key selling point for billions of dollars worth of development. [C-VILLE was there, too. See “Track meet,” October 19, 2004.]

   Developers, however, don’t want to invest in condos unless they see public dollars at work first. “The development community wants a commitment from the City,” Stoner said.

   “It’s an uncertain market,” said Rick Gustafson, who at-tended the meeting as CEO of Portland Streetcar Inc., a public-private company that oversaw that city’s simultaneous development of a streetcar and private real estate. “There has to be confidence from the investor before he’ll put 200 units on an acre.”

   The City seems ready to oblige. Councilor Kevin Lynch said the City will start with parking, which developers want the government to provide. The City will try to get federal and State transportation grants to build parking garages along W. Main, saving developers the cost of providing parking while preserving the most possible acres for residential and commercial space.

   In the more immediate future, the City plans to redevelop the intersection of Ridge/McIntire streets, W. Main Street and South Street into a pedestrian enclave by moving the Lewis and Clark statue, closing the entrance to South Street and adding Mall-style bricks to the intersection. That should happen “as soon as possible,” said Lynch. It will be another piece of the City’s plans for the Mall and W. Main. (The Mall’s east end redevelopment is the most recent part of the City’s master plan to fill central Charlottesville with upscale hipsters and families known by planning types as “suburban refugees.”)

   Another step will be the formation of a public-private company similar to Portland Streetcar, Inc. The idea behind such a company is to take advantage of public money without making City Council and its shifting membership responsible for the project. Former Mayor Maurice Cox is one likely member of that company. On Saturday he said that two local people have committed as well, but he would not say who they were.

   “The biggest obstacle is accumulating a high degree of cooperation,” Cox said on Saturday. “We’re not as coordinated as we need to be to ensure that this will succeed, but there is a willingness.”

   Cox has been the biggest catalyst behind this project. As Mayor he pushed for zoning changes that allow taller buildings and higher density in Charlottesville. Along with Gary Okerlund of the local planning group of Okerlund and Associates, and the Alliance for Community Choice in Trans-portation, Cox organized last year’s trip to Portland and Saturday’s private meeting. “I’m the big-picture guy,” says Cox. “You have to have a vision that will hold people’s interests for years.”—John Borgmeyer