Brendan Fitzgerald also writes Curtain Calls, C-VILLE’s weekly arts column. Read this week’s column here.
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Month: February 2008
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Local roadblock [February 5]
 According to a new book, Philip Zelikow advocated for his friend Condeleezza Rice as head of the 9/11 Commission. |
On Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2001, White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke sent out an e-mail warning of a great tragedy where “hundreds of Americans lay dead in several countries, including the U.S.,” adding that “that future day could happen at any time.” Less than two years later, Warren Bass, an investigator for the 9/11 Commission, stumbled across this e-mail and many exchanges like it sent to Condoleezza Rice that seemed to confirm that the Bush White House had ignored repeated warnings about Osama bin Laden’s threat. When Bass tried to take these messages to the panel, though, he ran into a roadblock, reports Newsweek in a review of a new book The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation, by New York Times reporter Philip Shenon. According to Shenon that roadblock was Philip Zelikow, a UVA historian and Miller Center fellow hired to be the 9/11 Commission’s executive director. He was also a longtime friend of Rice’s (the two had worked for the first President Bush and had coauthored a book). In commission staff meetings, Zelikow repeatedly went to bat for Rice and the White House, and according to Shenon, Bass was so disturbed by what he saw as Zelikow’s bullying that at one point he threatened to resign. Despite this, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff finds there to be many damning figures with CIA director George Tenet coming off worse. “There was more than enough blame to go around,” he writes.
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Stacking, stepping, selling and shooting
Todd Lucas is a natural public speaker. With his close-cropped hair and nearly perfect sense of timing, he talks with an aggressive brand of humor that isn’t so much of the in-your-face variety as it is a “Get a load of this” inclusiveness. With his arms waving, chin jutting out and his ever-present laser pointer always at the ready, he is nothing if not engaging.
And judging by his rank of detective with the Charlottesville Police Department, Lucas is a pretty good cop to boot.
Lucas is one of a pair of local detectives who gives gang-awareness presentations to local community groups and schools. Detective Jim Hope of the Albemarle County Police Department rounds out the duo, and on Monday, February 4 they were at the Senior Center to run through the presentation for local senior citizens.
 Detective Todd Lucas, shown here at a September gang presentation, had some awkward moments explaining terms like M.O.B. (“Money Over Bitches”) to a group of seniors. |
It was essentially the same presentation that the two detectives gave in September to city and county residents. That night, the mood was heavier, more formal. Both Lucas and Hope wore jackets and ties.
Monday’s presentation was more freewheeling, with moments of levity between troublesome pictures and brow-furrowing information. It was, however, not without its awkward moments. The tasks of explaining the abbreviations M.O.B. (“Money Over Bitches”) and C.M.F. (“Crazy Motherfuckers”) to a roomful of grandparents fell to both Hope and Lucas. Each explanation, where uncustomary words were reluctantly, if clinically, employed, felt weirdly reminiscent of a coming-of-age sex talk, only with the roles reversed.
The audience of roughly 30 people watched a video clip of a man in baggy jeans and a loose t-shirt walk up to a table. His face is out of the frame, but his hands aren’t, and they begin pulling various handguns from his pockets and waistband. There were small gasps from the audience as he set the first five guns on the table. They turned into giggles as the guns kept coming, all 11 of them, until the man in the video came to his coup de grace, pulling a 3′-long rifle from his right pant leg.
Like the presentation in September, this one consisted of various photos of graffiti and tattoos, all of which were gathered from the city and county. When it came time to explain the two sides of the gang world—the People and Folk nations—Lucas played to his crowd.
“Who hasn’t seen West Side Story?” he asked. No one raised a hand. Hope got a similar reaction to the white supremacy section of the presentation, in which he showed a forearm tattoo with the words “April 20.”
“Who knows what April 20 is?” he asked the group, which contained its fair share of World War II veterans. Two voices replied in unison: “Hitler’s birthday.”
Lucas leaped up from his chair. “I told you they would know!”
After the presentation, there were looks of disbelief as people filed out or made their way up front to talk to Lucas and Hope. One woman, who didn’t want her name used, said, “It scared me to death.” She has two grandchildren, ages 9 and 12, and said she’s worried about how everything that she’d seen might affect them. “I’m so overwhelmed.”
Al Highsmith, a jocular World War II veteran who’s lived in the Charlottesville area for 15 years, said he was surprised to see the level of gang activity hidden around the city and county in plain sight.
“It almost makes me want to stay home at night,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about it for a few years, then BANG, here it is. I remember seeing the side of Circuit City painted up. I thought if there were going to be gangs, they’d be down at Garret Square, but boy, that’s scary.”
He paused a second and looked up at Lucas and Hope, two men in their late 20s or early 30s, breaking down the laptop projector and winding up cords. “It’s just downright scary.”
Behind closed doors
Cleanin’ out the closet is more than a now-sort-of-passé Eminem song. The yearly act of actually purging one’s closet hasn’t gone anywhere, and now—with outdoor tasks at a minimum—is the time to do it.
 Wouldn’t it be nice to see some empty hangers in the closet? |
Daunted? If you begin with a clean room and divide your closet into separate sections, the process will become almost effortless. (Almost.) Start by labeling boxes or plastic containers as “Garbage,” “Charity,” “Keep,” and so on. That way, after examining each garment you can place it in a designated box.
Then attack your closet section by section. When you are deciding what stays and what goes, look for items that are too small, stained and just plain old. Also, remember the 12-month rule: If you haven’t worn it in the past year, it must leave the premises.
Charities like Goodwill and the Salvation Army are always looking for donations. During the winter months, they naturally need jackets, hats, gloves, and other warm things, said Timothy Burke, thrift store manager for the Salvation Army. “We never have a problem of too much. We take most all of the clothes that come in.”
As for the best music to accompany your closet shuffle? See above.—Shayna Strang
White on
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February seemed like a good month to track down a trend we’d heard about: white. Yep, good old white is in for furniture, accessories and walls. Sharon Manering, owner of Downtown boutique Quince, tells us that even parents of young kids are asking about white—slipcovers, that is, which can be bleached clean. She also showed us paint and fabric samples to illustrate the surprising variety of shades that qualify as “white,” from subtle taupes to the palest blue tints. The good news? Various whites can work together for a minimal look. We were especially fond of this slatted photo frame in a characterful finish, white on white.—Erika Howsare
House in a frame
Doubtless your house has subtle characteristics that only emerge—maybe from an ordinary façade—after you’ve looked at it, and lived in it, for a while. A group of Susan Patrick’s artworks showing at Angelo have that quality, too—appropriate since they are themselves images of houses.
 Susan Patrick’s house images memorialize old homes in a subtly emotional way. |
Patrick’s “Houses and Neighborhoods” look iconic at first glance, like the simple shapes we all drew as kids. A house is a box with a triangle on top, and a neighborhood is four such houses in a grid. But look longer and you’ll begin to appreciate the individuality contained in each frame. One house leaps toward you with bold lines and stark shadows; its door seems to jump off the hinges. Another house is serene, balanced, with a flat roof like the stucco structures of the Southwest.
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Patrick conceived the works as “memorials to abandoned and demolished houses,” inspired by one she saw destroyed in Nelson County. The show is on view through February 28.—E.H.
What’s on your browser?: Mix to match
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This month’s surfer: Kelly Howard, designer at local interiors firm Alana’s
What’s on her browser: kravet.com
What it is: The homepage of an 88-year-old New York-based business dealing in fabrics, furniture, trimmings and carpet. The main attraction is an extensive search function leading to everything from the Cosgrove Oval cocktail table to black Joseph Abboud tassel fringe.
Why she likes it: “It’s good for those customers who like to do their homework. You can search for fabrics or search for trims; if you were searching for a red toile fabric, you could go through and highlight the things you’re looking for and it will pull those up.” Bookmark the winners and start building a look for your parlor redo.
Quote
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”—William Morris, British designer and originator of the Arts and Crafts movement
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February 08: Your kitchen
Out on a limb
Apples are an edible expression of regional climate and adaptability, and there are thousands of varieties to taste! Thanks to cider-loving colonists, Mr. Jefferson’s enthusiasm, and modern day Central Virginia fruit growers, we can enjoy distinctive heritage varieties such as Gold Rush, Razor Russet, Stayman Winesap, Virginia Gold, and Ashmead’s Kernel.
Generally, tart apples like Grimes Golden and Summer Rambo mature first in mid-summer, and are ideal in refreshing summer salads with creamy fresh cheeses. Sweeter apples—Mutsu/Crispin, Lady Apple—arrive in the early fall, and complement fragrant and bleu cheeses and salads with nuts and assertive lettuces. Late season and storage apples like Gold Rush and Winesap can be cooked into rich desserts and stewed or baked into applesauce as counterpoint to filling winter dishes. Served fresh cider cold or hot or spiked with spiced rum as an antidote to whimsical autumn weather; it is also a wonderful addition to soups, cabbage, and leafy winter greens.
If you’re looking for a single apple to suit all your needs, try our local hero, the Albemarle Pippin, which is usually available in stores until mid-winter. Local apple growers include Carter Mountain (977-1833), Chile’s Orchard (823-1583), Henley’s Orchard (823-4037), Vintage Virginia Apples (297-2326), and Wayland Orchard (823-7323).—Lisa Reeder
Apple, Pear and Pecan Gratin with Warm Gorgonzola Sauce
Here’s a fruity, cheesy dessert—and we mean that in the nicest way possible. The recipe comes from local chef Christian Trendel, who created it for a wine-tasting dinner.
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1 cup and 3 Tbs. sugar
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup Japanese (Panko) bread crumbs
6 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 lb. Granny Smith apples
1 lb. firm ripe Bosc pears
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese
1 tsp. real vanilla extract
Gratin:
Heat oven to 400°. Butter the bottom and sides of a 1 1/2-quart shallow baking pan. In food processor, coarsely chop pecans. Add bread crumbs and 1/2 cup of sugar. Pulse to combine. Add butter cubes and pulse until mixture is evenly mixed. It should be somewhat chunky and crumbly. Keeping them separate, core, peel and thinly slice apples and pears. Layer half the apples in the pan and sprinkle sugar over them. Repeat with the remaining apples and pears, except do not sprinkle sugar on the top layer. Spread pecan-butter mixture evenly over top. Bake until top is browned and juices are bubbling (about 45 minutes). The apples and pears should be intact but tender when pierced with a fork. Let cool about 15 minutes, top with Gorgonzola Sauce and serve. Serves six.
Gorgonzola Sauce:
Heat cream in a small pot or pan until it begins to bubble. Add gorgonzola, vanilla extract and sugar and whisk until there are just a few gorgonzola crumbles.
Pare of aces
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When it comes to peeling any ripe, round fruit (apples, pears, peaches, plums) a sharp paring knife is the best tool as it won’t bruise the fruit. For your other peeling needs, the inexpensive Y-shaped peeler is the most economical and versatile tool. If you plan on massive mashed potatoes on a daily basis, a long-handled peeler might be more comfortable and, er, ergonomic.
Some options from The Happy Cook, 977-2665: left to right, Kuhn Rikon plastic Y-peeler ($3.50), OXO Good Grips peeler ($11), Wusthof 3 1/2" inch paring knife (promo $35 from $59).—L.R.
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February 08: Your garden
Winter work
February begins the quest for that hopeful time of year memorialized on innumerable seed packets: “when the ground can be worked.” A shovel full of rich Virginia clay faithfully amended with leaf mold and compost will crumble like cake when the moisture’s just right, but wet soil with meager organic matter renders mud more suitable for bricks. If there’s a patch out there where you grew tomatoes last summer, it needs just a bit of digging and amending on a fine winter day to be ready to receive a few handfuls of seeds the first week of March.
 This unusual mature variegated English holly graces the entrance of a home on Blenheim Avenue. At this time of year, don’t shear holly; instead, clip. |
You say you don’t have a double-dug garden bed raked smooth, high in organic matter and the best of humus? Use potting soil instead in a 12" diameter container. Scatter the seeds, sift 1/4" more of soil over them, tamp down lightly with your knuckles and soak with a fine spray.
Keep it moist in a cool room until the seeds germinate. In a week or two, after the plants are up, they will need bright light, even moisture and occasional feeding with a high nitrogen liquid fertilizer. Sea kelp is a good organic. Once the seeds have sprouted, you can put the pot outside, bringing it in overnight when temps drop below the mid-20s.
Classic French mesclun produces a variety of greens all at once: a pre-mixed packet of leaf and head lettuces, arugula, kale, chervil, radicchio and the like. Sow heavily and as the little plants begin to grow all jumbled up together, harvest the outside leaves and thinnings for the most delicate, succulent salads you will ever eat. You’ll know where they came from and how they’ve been grown.
Along with planning for edibles, February is the time to get the hollies in shape. Valentine’s Day is the traditional starting point. Wait for temps above 40 and take the hand shears and loppers to any shrubs that have gotten out of hand. Cut branch by branch, thin out the middles for air circulation and reduce for height, thinking in terms of one-third.
This is not the time to shear. Save the electric trimmers for summer when you can cut active growth and thicken up the shrubs. Many hollies—the Chinese Burfords, the blue-green Meserve hybrids like Blue Prince and Blue Princess, and the Japanese Helleris—take well to hedging or clipping, along with periodic thinning, but an attack of geometry now will leave you ugly stubs to live with until new growth starts in the spring.
Do not starve the hollies. They do not thrive on barren ground. Apply compost, leaf mold and slow-release organic fertilizers like Holly Tone each fall or in very early spring to keep a lively soil. There is nothing like sunlight glinting off a mass of glossy holly leaves to brighten a winter day. If you don’t have any, get some.
Check out piedmont-landscape.org for an annual day-long seminar, February 14 at the County Office Building on Preston Avenue. Plantspeople, master gardeners, landscapers, designers and sundry others congregate to hear the best in their fields. This year features Rick Darke on “Grasses and the Design of Mid-Atlantic Livable Landscapes.”
It’s also time to bring branches inside for forcing. Forsythia, witch hazel, honeysuckle bush (sweet-breath-of-spring), quince, pussy willow and red maples unfurl their flowers in the warmth of indoors. Mash their stems and change the water every week. It’s a treat to have them close to the eye while it’s still bare outside and they make an instructive project for children, illustrating the magic of dormancy and the intricate beauties of nature’s designs.—Cathy Clary
Garden questions? Ask Cathy Clary at garden@c-ville.com.
Raincatcher
Part of the pineapple family, the funky bromeliad hails from South America and makes an excellent indoor plant. There are a multitude of varieties, all of which share vibrant hues and waxy bowl-shaped leaves intended for catching rainwater. The larger varieties hold several gallons of water and, in the wild, support mini-ecosystems for small frogs, snails and amphibians.
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All bromeliads have fairly shallow roots so smaller pots are adequate, but the key is that they need to be well stabilized. Otherwise bromeliads are quite reasonable in their demands; no extreme temperatures, consistent moisture, good drainage, not too much soil, and no sudden movements from light to shade. Their only trick is that they reproduce consistently and rapidly, so over-fertilize (especially in winter) and you’ll have an outbreak on your hands. Each bromeliad will bloom once in its lifetime, then will create a “pup” growing out from the base. Cultivate this for a year, and it in turn will bloom.—Lily Robertson
February in the garden
-Work the ground
-Sow greens indoors in a salad bowl
-Tend the hollies
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February 08: Your living space
Off the table
Question for Gordon Latter at Kane’s Furniture: How can I protect my wooden dining room table when my kids use it for arts and crafts?
Answer: Latter tells us there are two main tactics for keeping glues, paints, inks and all manner of liquids from marring the centerpiece of your dining room. First, there’s the table pad, custom-made to fit your furniture. “The table pads are about 3/8" thick,” he explains; “underneath is felt and on top is vinyl. It protects and absorbs heat” and won’t let liquids through. Table pads aren’t long on good looks, though, so you’ll want to pair it with a tablecloth—“When kids are using it, [use] a cheesecloth tablecloth,” says Latter; it’ll wipe up easily. For entertaining, replace cheesecloth with linen or just remove the pad altogether and let the wood be itself. Pads fold up for storage and cost in the neighborhood of $240.
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The other option: polyurethane, the shiny coating painted on with a brush. “If it’s an old farm table, that would protect it against the elements and if anything drops on it, it blends into the character of the wood,” says Latter. However, he calls this option “less desirable aesthetically,” explaining, “When you put a layer of polyurethane on top of wood, it takes you one step further from the natural surface and gives it a more commercial look.”
If you do find a puddle of some art supply or other on your tabletop, assess the situation. “Some things can blot up,” says Latter, “and if you apply a furniture polish it’ll take care of the problem.” More serious cases will require a trip to a refinisher.—Erika Howsare
Piece work
Everyone can appreciate a quilt; they’re fun to look at and they’re also an art form in their own right. That’s why we like Anita Zaleski Weinraub’s volume, Georgia Quilts: Piecing Together a History, which concentrates on the rich quilting tradition in that state. Here you can glimpse detailed information on centuries of quilters between long gazes at some truly amazing quilts.
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These are special creations; they go beyond familiar patterns (forget Log Cabin; ever heard of Circular Saw?) and display stunning variety, from the stylized to the expressive. There are quilts made from feed sacks, quilts pieced for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and quilts that illustrate connections to the histories of slavery and the railroad. Pure Southern Americana.—E.H.
Tea is for tall
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Local potter Jan Crowther, who calls her business Frog Moon Pottery, wowed us with her teapot’s daring stretch and delicate ornamentation. We spotted the Palmyra-based artist’s work at Downtown artists’ co-op C’ville Arts; Crowther can be reached at 589-4295.
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February 08: Home style
We see hundreds of them every day. Houses are everywhere, just like cars. Yet most of us are better at identifying Subarus and Chevys than we are at figuring out whether that place on the corner is a bungalow or a Cape. Which is ironic, since it’s the houses we live in, not the cars.
Well, just like your older brother who schooled you in the finer points of Camaro identification, UVA professor of architectural history Richard Guy Wilson is here to help. ABODE took a spin through several Charlottesville neighborhoods, with Wilson as our guide, and got educated on five of the house styles that are most common around here. Which one looks like home to you?
Style me this
Houses, like the people who live in them, are tough to categorize. “The idea of a purity of style” rarely shows up in the real world, says Wilson. The definition of a “colonial” house, for one, has changed over the years and is now an umbrella term that covers various styles characteristic of the early American years. (Cape Cods, which have their own place in our story, are actually a subset of colonials.) That’s technical talk, though. In common usage, a “colonial” house has a fairly recognizable look—and one that’s widely copied in houses being built right now.
 Richard Guy Wilson |
Meanwhile, the lines routinely blur as styles borrow from each other and the origins of certain architectural elements are lost over time. For example, Wilson explained to us the difference between various classical orders of columns–Doric, Ionic, Corinthian—before acknowledging that, to most people nowadays, classical columns are more for “decoration and pretense” than about signaling the qualities of strength, beauty and wisdom those orders originally represented. Classical columns might show up flanking the entrance of a ranch house built in the 1960s, functioning purely as ornament.
Another example: Wilson teaches his students that “Victorian” refers to an era, not a style. Yet most Americans, when they say “Victorian house,” mean the type of Queen Anne confections that line the streets of San Francisco.
Identifying a house style means asking many different questions. What are the proportions of a house’s façade and how do its windows and doors relate to each other? Is it symmetrical? How many stories does it have? What’s the shape of the roof? Does it have elements like porches, dormers, chimneys? Is it oriented more toward the front yard or the back yard? Is the kitchen in the front or back? What is the layout of the rooms inside? Does it feel formal or casual? Are the details more classical or contemporary?
Colonial
“Most Virginians are more comfortable with traditional buildings,” says Wilson. If you doubt that statement, just notice the number of colonial-style houses around town. Traditionally, colonial houses were laid out with rooms opening off a central hall; those built more recently might have less formal plans. In Charlottesville, look for colonials in nearly every neighborhood, from traditional examples in the University area to contemporary takes on the style found in the newest developments.
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• Symmetrical and orderly façade, with windows arranged around the central front door
• Often, ornamentation has classical origins, as in columns and pilasters
• In Virginia, very often made of red brick with white trim
Foursquare
This American form, says Wilson, “began to appear very early” in the country’s history. “It has carried many names,” he says, but is “ubiquitous” in Virginia and elsewhere. It’s a solid, familiar, basic-looking form. North Downtown and Belmont include lots of examples of foursquares, often built from brick.
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• Square footprint
• Two stories
• Hipped roof sloping down to eaves on all sides
• Often, full-width front porches
Cape Cod
Technically a subset of the larger “colonial” umbrella category, Capes are simple, humble, appealing homes with (as their name suggests) New England roots. In their most traditional form, Capes have very little ornamentation on the exterior, but—as with most styles—they’ve been adorned in various ways since they began to be mass-produced around the United States. Both prewar and postwar Charlottesville neighborhoods include Capes, as they were built for middle-class homeowners through much of the 20th century.
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• One or one and a half stories
• Strongly pitched roof with little overhang, sometimes with dormer windows
• Often, symmetrical façade
• Large chimney
Ranch
“If there’s a revolution in American housing since World War II, it’s the ranch house,” says Wilson. The now-ubiquitous ranch was innovative for its indoor/outdoor connection, its orientation toward the back rather than the front yard, and its informal interior layout where dining and living spaces often merged, and the eat-in kitchen became common for the first time. It’s the iconic house of the American suburbs. Charlottesville’s outer neighborhoods, built in the 1950s and ‘60s—think Greenbrier Heights—are the place to find ranches.
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• Low-slung, horizontal profile
• Picture windows
• Usually, one story (though split-level ranches and raised ranches are common, too)
• Often, a side door or garage functioning as main entrance, with the front door more for show
• Often, flanked by carports (which in turn have sometimes been converted to indoor rooms since the houses were first built)
Bungalow
The term bungalow, Wilson explains, has changed considerably in meaning since 18th- and 19th-century British colonialists used it to describe the single-story structures with huge verandahs which housed them in India. When the term arrived in the U.S. in the late 1800s, it was applied to seaside cottages and connoted resort homes; it caught on as a style of inexpensive primary residence—a chance to enjoy “summertime delight,” as Wilson says, year round—in the early 20th century. Designer Gustav Stickley’s patterns, published in his magazine The Craftsman, established many of the details we now think of as typical of bungalows—banks of windows, flared porch columns, shingled exteriors.
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There’s no Charlottesville neighborhood primarily made of bungalows, but they are sprinkled throughout town in areas like Belmont and Woolen Mills.
• One and a half stories
• Low-rise roof, often with a prominent central dormer window
• Often, a large front porch
• Unassuming and casual
• Interior plans often feature a tight foyer and an open flow between living and dining rooms
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February 08: Value shuffle
The new year is here, and with it comes the arrival of certain yearly items for which we each give a shout of joy. Usually, real estate assessments aren’t of this particular group. But for those of us wishing, hoping, trying (and, depending on your faith and/or desperation, praying) to sell our houses in this unpredictable market, annual assessments might just offer some guidance in finding the perfect price to move your home.
Right?
Well, if Realtor Charles McDonald’s two tales of assessments offer any indication, not really.
McDonald, a Realtor for Remax Assured Properties, tells the story of recently receiving an e-mail flyer for a property. This particular house was listed over $100,000 below the assessed value.
“On a personal note,” says McDonald, “if somebody were to offer me the assessed value for my personal residence today, I’d have a contract in their hand in 15 minutes. It is so far out of whack right now. [Assessments] are riding way too high.”
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But with the market aggressively softening in the last six to nine months, expect this year’s assessments (which, for Charlottesville and Albemarle, come out at the beginning of February) to reflect the market’s downturn. And with the market as shifty as it is, just how much should you and your agent rely on the newest assessments when tackling the most important step in selling your home—pricing it correctly?
First, it’s important to know the difference between an assessment and an appraisal. An assessment is the price the city or county uses to figure your real estate taxes. They are done yearly by assessors working for each locality. An appraisal is a different monster. Independent contractors do appraisals at the request of real estate agents, usually just before a sale is closed.
City and county assessors both try to determine the fair market value of a property—the land and any structural improvements. They use many of the same market-analysis data that agents use, such as recent sales of comparable houses. An appraiser, though, is able to do a more thorough job. He or she has full access to the property and house and detailed knowledge of any improvements. Assessors don’t.
County Assessor Bruce Woodzell says that each assessor is assigned a certain number of properties, and goes out to each during the day. But many times they don’t have the opportunity to go inside each house and have to make an educated guess at what they are pricing.
“It’s the first thing they teach you when you sit in the classroom,” says Woodzell. “Day one: It is not an exact science; it’s an opinion of value based on some good techniques.”
So does it make sense to use your new assessment in setting a listing price?
“It used to play more of a role, but I look at it now and it does not seem to make sense,” says McDonald. “Honestly, I can’t use [assessments] right now.”
What McDonald suggests, though, is to jump ahead in the process a bit and have your house appraised before setting a price.
“Normally I would just do a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) on a new listing. Recently I have been advising my clients to also get a professional appraisal from a (licensed) appraisal company. This gives the homeowner a true picture of their home’s current market value when determining list price.”
So while your home’s assessed value is a best guess, you may want to get a second opinion before listing it, especially as yearly assessments struggle to keep up with this rapidly changing market.
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February 08: Fraternal twins
Jackson-Via Elementary School was the last of the city’s elementary schools to be built. Named after two eminent educators, Nannie Cox Jackson and Betty Davis Via, the school off Harris Street in southern Charlottesville opened in 1970. Like most of the city’s elementary schools, it is the centerpiece of its small neighborhood—in this case, one bordered by Fifth Street on the east, and Moore’s Creek on the south. A shopping center with a Food Lion and CVS is nearby. And though the neighborhood is one of the city’s smallest, it still embodies contrasts—clearly seen when one focuses on two developments within it.
Longwood Park
A few years after the school opened, a development was christened within spitting distance to its west. Known as Longwood Park, it is a series of duplexes that stretch back on both sides of Longwood Drive and ends in a cul de sac. Now over 30 years old, the development is spotted with different looks and styles, the result of numerous overhauls over the years. Some units are brick, some have different types of siding. Most are rentals.
 Longwood Place is the old face of Jackson-Via: Built in the ‘70s, the units are getting updated as renters leave and are replaced. |
“We continue to refurbish them when they turn over,” says Richard Spurzem, whose Neighborhood Properties owns 55 of the 70 units. One afternoon, his property manager, Hunter Huber, stands in the living area of one of the properties. The three-bedroom townhouse was recently vacated and for some reason there is rice scattered in the crevices and corners. “They must have had a wedding in here before they left,” he says.
A new tenant has already been lined up for the unit, and renovations will start soon. The hardwood floors will likely be redone and the ceilings have already been painted. At $1,050 a month, the two-story townhome also has a full basement, and a back deck that looks out onto a yard and the section of woods that slices between the community and the elementary school. Spurzem says he is looking into retrofitting townhomes like this one with firewalls so that they can be sold as single units.
 Lyndon Estes, one of a minority of Willoughby Townes residents who owns the townhouse he lives in, hopes that ratio will someday tip the other way. |
A few units away, at the end of the cul de sac, four or five kids play, riding bikes and generally cavorting about in front of a set of townhomes whose fronts are worn with time and the elements. If Spurzem has his way, their current homes will be torn down and replaced with “high end” townhouses, like those nearby at Willoughby Townes, a new development that crowds the corner of Harris and Fifth streets and is only two-tenths of a mile from Longwood.
Willoughby Townes
Lyndon Estes purchased his place in Willoughby in April 2006, at a time when some of the units were still being finished. The UVA grad student is one of 10 occupying owners that live in the 46-unit Willoughby Townes, which perch tentatively on their site in the way that new buildings often do. As an early resident, Estes has been intimately involved with the organization of the development’s homeowners’ association (HOA). He currently occupies the role of treasurer.
 Freshly built in 2006, Willoughby Townes still has a newly-minted look that contrasts with its neighbor, Longwood Place. |
“We had to get the parking sorted out,” he says. A small street makes a roundabout through the compact development. The HOA received permission from city planners to put extra parking in, adding parallel spots. Due to the parking crunch, a permit system was introduced with one allotted per household. “Before it looked like a used car lot and now it’s a lot better,” Estes says. The HOA also adopted a uniform garbage can and made landscape upgrades of $19,000.
“That will hopefully tip it back to owner-occupied over the long run,” Estes says. His cream-colored townhouse is two levels and has three bedrooms, as well as one in the fully finished basement. Right now, his daughter’s baby toys are all over the den rug. The extra bedroom doubles as his office. Up above that room is the kitchen, opening onto a small deck that overlooks a steep slope, a creek and a tall lush bamboo forest. Beyond that is a good deal of construction, a development of detached homes called Village Place that’s still unfinished. Muddy red clay surrounds their ornate structures.
According to Estes, Willoughby Townes was built on an old city dumpsite (which explains the terrain’s steep slopes), but for him the location is one of the development’s main attractions. “There’s quite a trail network around here, which I like,” he says. “I like to run, and you can hop across the street there, go down the trail and you can do a two mile loop of the Rivanna Trail.”
 Jackson-Via Elementary School anchors its neighborhood, along with the nearby Food Lion. |
The location is significant in another way, too—it’s just over two miles from both UVA and Downtown. That kind of proximity to Charlottesville’s center explains the density of Willoughby Townes and the way it seems to illustrate the idea of “infill.” And it suggests that the Townes, compared with timeworn Longwood Place, may be a clearer indication of Jackson-Via’s future.
At a glance
Distance from Downtown: 2.18 miles (from the corner of Harris and Fifth streets), a 20-minute walk
Distance from UVA: 2.1 miles
Elementary School: Jackson-Via
Middle School: Walker & Buford
High School: Charlottesville
Number of units in Willoughby Townes: 46
Average sale price in Willoughby Townes: $300,000
Number of units in Longwood Place: 70