Month: January 2007

Albemarle Police (www.albemarle.org/police) announced December 21 that over a dozen burglaries that occurred this year in two county neighborhoods constitute a burglary string. Sixteen burglaries in the Hessian Hills and Canterbury Hills neighborhoods and two on nearby Georgetown Road have led police to think one or several people are responsible for the spike in thefts.

Burglars have found this Albemarle neighborhood to be a good target lately—Hessian Hills and neighboring Canterbury Hills have seen 16 burglaries since this summer.

The crimes all reflect a similar modus operandi, says Sgt. Peter Mainzer with the Neighborhood Services Unit of the Albemarle Police Department. The burglar(s) typically enter through unlocked doors and windows at the rear and steal small items like cash and electronics. A few people have found drawers rifled through, but little property has been damaged in the break-ins. The last robbery occurred December 17.

These robbers are opportunists, Mainzer says. Police are advising people to take normal household safety precautions, like locking doors, leaving exterior lights on and not letting mail pile up during vacations.

Hessian Hills and Canterbury Hills are located off Barracks Road. The area doesn’t usually see much crime, says Mainzer. “Generally speaking, we have very little criminal activity… This is certainly out of the norm.”

Bob Garland, Jr., Canterbury Hills resident and former president of the neighborhood association, says citizens have been more vigilant since the break-ins started. “I think people are feeling careful,” says Garland.

While the burglaries are out of the ordinary, Mainzer says the holidays usually see a rise in crime. “Within the last three months we’ve seen an overall increase in property crime that tends to occur the closer we get to the holidays. But…having 18 burglaries that all appear to be connected, that’s a pretty significant concern for us. I’d say for the year, this is probably one of our more significant burglary cases that we’re working.”

A survey released by the UVA Center for Survey Research (www.virginia.edu/surveys) asked a pool of Charlottesville residents to rate how safe they feel in city neighborhoods. Police Chief Timothy J. Longo says he’s “not at all surprised” by the survey’s results.

People feel less safe in all areas of the city at night. And, when a neighborhood isn’t safe, people rate their sense of security lower at all times of the day. Longo confirmed that the areas where people feel they are the most in danger are areas that have had crime problems where police are focusing efforts.

People feel safest in the northern and eastern sectors at all times of the day, with 99 to 100 percent saying they feel at least “somewhat safe” during the daytime. People feel least safe in south-central neighborhoods, with 65 percent feeling at least “somewhat safe” at night.

But, Longo says, the crime table overall has declined since 2000, and police are building trust in neighborhoods, such as lower Fifeville and 10th and Page, that have been crime-ridden in the past. “I think we’ve seen a change in the crime patterns,” Longo says.

Citizens were also surveyed about safety as a neighborhood issue. Overall, they rated safety as their fifth most important neighborhood goal, a figure that worries Longo, who fears complacency about safety. “Meth markets and gang activity—we’re seeing some of those same trends around us. It’s dangerous to sit back on your laurels,” Longo says. “It has to be the most important thing all the time.”

According to the survey, African-American respondents were significantly more likely than whites to rate crime as an important problem in their neighborhood.

Perceptions of Neighborhood Safety

The recent survey conducted for the City divided Charlottesville into sectors: The east sector encompasses Locust Grove, Martha Jefferson, North Downtown, Starr Hill and Woolen Mills; the north sector, Barracks/Rugby/Kellytown/Greenleaf, Greenbrier, Meadows and Rose Hill; the south sector, Belmont; the south-central sector, Fifeville, Johnson Village and Ridge Street; and the west sector, Fry’s Spring, Jefferson Park Avenue, Lewis Mountain, Venable and 10th and Page/WCEH. Percentages are based on respondents who said they felt “very safe” or “somewhat safe.”

Source: UVA Center for Survey Research

Robert W. Haigh, a Harvard Business School (www.hbs.edu) graduate, successful executive and former Darden School of Business (www.darden.edu) dean was found dead December 26.

Former Darden Dean Robert W. Haigh was found dead in a field on Pantops. This photo of Haigh was taken around the time he was dean of Darden, from 1980 to 1982.

Haigh, 80, lived in assisted living at Westminster-Canterbury Retirement Village (www.westminstercanterbury.org) off Route 250 at Pantops. According to the facility’s staff, Haigh told friends he wanted to go shopping and left the community on foot on Saturday afternoon. He was reported missing that night—staff worried that Haigh would not have access to medicine prescribed for his Parkinson’s disease. Police were notified and family members searched over the holiday weekend until Haigh’s body was found in a field off Route 250, just across from Westminster-Canterbury. Haigh’s remains have been sent to Richmond for an autopsy; no foul play is suspected in the death, police say.

Appointed the third dean of Darden in 1980, Haigh is credited with raising the school’s international profile, expanding doctoral programs and stepping up fundraising. He also appointed the committee that would eventually plan Darden’s current campus. Haigh’s term as dean was cut short in 1982 due to his Parkinson’s symptoms.

Prior to serving as dean, Haigh was a professor of business administration at Darden, and prior to that, he was director of the Wharton Applied Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (www.opimweb.wharton.upenn.edu/ideas/researchcenter.cfm). He had a successful career as a business executive at some of the United States’ most prominent companies, including serving as a vice president at Standard Oil Company and as a board member at Xerox. Haigh was a Baker scholar at Harvard Business School, where he received his M.B.A. in 1950.

Staff at Westminster-Canter-bury said Haigh, who lived there for three years, remained capable in his retirement years and was a great mind. Kristina Pare, marketing director at the facility, says, “This is not something that we’ve ever experienced here at Westminster-Canterbury…Our hearts go out to his family, his friends and all of us here who have lost a great person and a great resident.”

Timing is everything. Students on track for a May graduation date from UVA are treated to a ceremonial smorgasbord of festive “Final Exercises,” while those slated for a January graduation get what could be called the collegiate shaft. Simply put, they don’t get a commencement ceremony at all. And because of tradition, the University would like to keep it that way.

UVA grads get all the pomp and circumstance they can stomach in May, but those who opt for midterm graduation get no official sendoff beyond a diploma in the mail.

This year, UVA records show 544 “degree candidates,” mean-ing students eligible for grad-uation, are set for a January 4 degree confirmation, though those December exams and papers could end up knocking that number down. New graduates can either pick up diplomas or have them mailed home, but will leave town with nary a balloon or confetti dropped.

“We really encourage the students to graduate in four years, to get the whole undergraduate college experience,” says Carol Wood, UVA spokesperson. Because no one should be faulted for graduating early (or even a semester late), Wood says University officials urge the students to come back for the May commencement ceremonies, when thousands of students walk the Lawn for graduation.

Of course, not all schools snub mid-year ceremonies. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduated 1,266 December grads. Despite a lower number than in May, the university holds a commencement ceremony for all mid-year graduates, and individual schools often do as well.

But, at least this year, UVA’s mid-year grads have one thing going for them: jobs. According to the National Association of College and Employers’ (www.naceweb.org) Job Outlook 2007 survey, employers expect to hire 17.4 percent more new college graduates than they hired last year—and the early graduates are lining up first.

It ain’t easy keeping a good thing going. As UVA administrators undertake ambitious fundraising, diversity initiatives and construction projects, there is a downside for the University: Those accomplished folks can get snatched up by other universities.

California bound: Gene Block, provost at UVA, is leaving to take a job as chancellor at UCLA.

Gene Block, biology professor and UVA’s provost since 2001, has announced he’ll become UCLA’s (www.ucla.edu) new chancellor by August 1. His offer includes $416,000 yearly salary, $30,000 relocation allowance, university-provided housing, an auto allowance of $8,916 per year and an official entertaining budget.
An eminent biologist who has taught at UVA since 1978, Block, 58, is an expert on biological clocks. He sits on many scientific and academic panels and has patented numerous inventions in the medical field.

But UVA isn’t bitter. “The chancellorship at UCLA is just the kind of academic leadership position for which Gene has spent the last decade pre-paring,” said UVA President John T. Casteen III through the office of University Relations.

“When you have such desirable leaders, people will look to recruit them,” says Carol Wood, UVA spokesperson. Block was recruited to UCLA after the school conducted a search of over 100 candidates.

Block is the second UVA higher-up in two months to announce he’ll leave to lead another academic institution: Arts & Sciences Dean Ed Ayers announced in November he will become president of the University of Richmond starting July 1.

UVA is now looking for candidates from an international applicant pool, though it will also consider successors from within its own ranks. Such searches “put stress on our system, especially in light of our current [$3 billion capital] campaign,” Casteen said in a press release.

President Casteen’s office is spearheading recruitment efforts, and they’ve made progress finding an Arts & Sciences dean, according to Wood.

While few of us can draw the imaginary lines separating Charlottesville from Albemarle, recent surveys underscore the differences. When all is said and done, county living ranks just a cut above city living, according to two surveys from the UVA Center for Survey Research. Overall, they indicate that both city and county residents are extremely pleased with their quality of life in Central Virginia.

Residents report slightly higher opinions of the quality of life in the county over the city, but that doesn’t worry Charlottesville Mayor David Brown. "How could we not be pleased?" Brown says of the survey, where residents rate the city 7.7 on a 10 point scale as a place to live.

Commissioned separately earlier this year by the County Board of Supervisors and the City Neighborhood Development Services, the surveys covered everything from development and education to urbanization and public services. Charlottesville nabbed a mean rating of 7.72 out of 10 for quality of life, slightly down from a 7.89 rating in a similar 2000 survey. County living, however, ranked 8.04 out of 10.

Despite the city’s second-place finish, Charlottesville Mayor David Brown says he was thrilled with many of the results. “How could we not be pleased?” Brown says. “But we know where the problem areas are. Affordable housing is one of the bigger issues for people, so it was no big surprise that it was on the top of the list.” Some 90 percent of city respondents reported the cost of buying a home in Charlottesville is too high. Similarly, the percentage of respondents who reported a concern with providing affordable housing for lower-income people increased significantly to 84 percent this year, up from 74 percent of those surveyed in 2000.

While housing stood out as a top-rated concern, the survey also showed city and county residents being extremely satisfied with public services such as fire fighting and police, with 90.6 percent satisfied in the county and 87.3 percent satisfied in the city. The survey also showed what’s pretty well known: City life appeals to the young. While county respondents were mostly 50 to 64, the city respondents were mostly 26 to 37.

The least favorable rating for the county? Managing growth—only 55.6 percent approved. But Supervisor Dennis Rooker says that while growth is always an issue, people are pleased with the general idea of growth areas. “The survey did show that people favored restrictions of growth to certain development areas, which is what we’ve been doing,” Rooker says.

“We’re a little overdue for a pandemic,” says Marge Sidebottom, emergency planner for the UVA Health System. Three influenza pandemics have struck the U.S., most notably in 1918, but also in 1957 and 1968—the 1918 pandemic alone killed at least 50 million people worldwide. The potent avian flu hasn’t yet spread to the United States, but local authorities from the City, County, State and UVA are working to create an emergency plan in the event of pandemic flu—or any other debilitating disaster, like a terrorist attack or a natural disaster. Based on conversations with planners at the County, UVA, Martha Jefferson, and the Thomas Jefferson Health District (www.healthspace.ca), here’s a glimpse at what might happen if an influenza pandemic struck locally:

At least 50 million died in the 1918 influenza pandemic—local health officials are trying to pin down how to respond in the event of the next pandemic. Best way to prepare? Stockpile food, water and supplies, say emergency planners.

It starts with a phone call. A doctor in Charlottesville encounters a patient who she thinks might have the flu; she calls Lilian Peake, director at the Thomas Jefferson Health District. Immediately, Peake dispatches an emergency courier from the State laboratory in Richmond to confirm the case in a matter of hours.

Once confirmed, the Health District blast-faxes area doctors, asking them to look out for suspicious cases and contact the Health District if they find any. The sick are asked (and could be legally required) to remain isolated. The Health District calculates their period of contagion and asks those who have come into contact with them during that period to remain quarantined.

But, by definition, a pandemic flu is easily spread, and when it gets beyond the Health District’s manpower to contact all the sick and exposed, it’s time for a huge public education campaign. Media outlets, doctor’s offices and any other local information sources start shouting the news and recommendations for prevention. As soon as a vaccine is available, it’s distributed to those most affected by this particular strain of flu. (Seasonal flu usually hits the very young and very old, but part of why the 1918 strain was so deadly was that it was most damaging to those with strong immune systems, which over-responded and stripped the lungs.)

Still the disease spreads. UVA opts to cancel classes, housing those who can’t go home in certain dorms on campus. Public gatherings, like basketball games and concerts, are cancelled and people are expected to remain home. As it continues, local governments trim back to essential services, like fire and police or financial duties like payroll and welfare. Public schools are cancelled.

For the six to eight weeks from the beginning to the end of the flu wave, the graph charting the number of infections resembles a bell curve. During that peak, 40-50 percent of workers fall ill and must stay home. Beds fill at Martha Jefferson and the UVA Hospital, though the real trick is keeping enough staff on hand. To plug the staffing gaps, administrators call on the UVA Medical Reserve Corps, composed of health workers of all stripes, from the recently retired to medical students.

There will likely be a second, and possible a third, wave to weather. When it’s all told, up to 6,300 are dead in Virginia—and up to 207,000 in the U.S.