The inside headline for last week’s cover story, “City missteps,” is inadvertently misleading, as it implies that the story contains more criticisms than questions about the city’s Downtown Mall rebricking project. The inside headline should have been the same one that appeared on the cover, “City misstep?”
“I think we are all attuned to the fact that people from different racial backgrounds experience Charlottesville differently,” says Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris.
Racial tension has surfaced in the city time and time again. “There is a lot of social segregation in our community, and that’s on all sides. It’s incumbent upon all of us to try to open our eyes a little,” says Norris.
In the past, there have been failed attempts to carve a plan to address discrimination and racism in the city. This time around, City Council has put race relations at the top of its priorities for the new year.
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“We are thinking of engaging the entire community in an ongoing discussion,” says Assistant City Manager Maurice Jones, who has been charged by City Council with putting together a plan to tackle racism and racial misunderstanding. |
Assistant City Manager Maurice Jones was appointed to develop a concrete and detailed plan for a city-wide, sustainable dialogue on race and racism. “We are still in the early stages,” says Jones. “What we are thinking of doing is engaging the entire community in an ongoing discussion to first better understand each other, our backgrounds, our history, our perceptions.” City staff is assessing what other localities, such as Dayton, Ohio, and Little Rock, Arkansas, for example, as well as Richmond and Lynchburg have done to improve racial harmony among residents. (More on Lynchburg presently.)
Key to the success of this plan, says Councilor Holly Edwards, is to understand the value of being a diverse community. “It means recognizing the history of racism that has existed within the African-American community for a number of years,” she says.
“It manifests itself in the achievement gap,” as well as health care, education, housing and the economy. “It may not be blatant segregation that we see in terms of we no longer have to get on the bus and sit in the back, but we still have to get on the bus because we don’t have access to transportation,” she says.
Edwards says that ever since Vinegar Hill was demolished in the 1960s, “the economic power of the African-American community hasn’t been quite the same.”
As for communities that are doing a good job addressing racial discrimination, Edwards heard that Lynchburg, some 60 miles to the south, was forging ahead with its study circle model.
Study circles bring groups of residents from different backgrounds together to discuss the most effective ways to help their own community solve problems and create plans of action. With the help of Everyday Democracy, a New England organization that helps communities deal with issues and find solutions, Lynchburg has engaged more than 1,000 people in the two-year process. Action committees meet regularly throughout the year, and national speakers come to town to address and train community leaders. The “Many Voices, One Community” initiative “has a vision that says that Lynchburg is a community where race or ethnicity is not the most powerful predictor of how one fares socially, economically, and educationally,” says Lynchburg City Manager Kimball Payne.
But is Charlottesville ready to have uncomfortable conversations? “I don’t think there is any question that we are,” says Jones.
City staff will prepare a memorandum of recommendations and will present it to the Council on January 20.
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
The simple reason some of us spend many liver-destroying hours obsessing over wine is that it’s endlessly multifaceted. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that nothing endures but change, and in the wine world this is especially true. Wine is in constant flux, from its time on the vine, through fermentation and bottling, even as it sits in your glass. One of the most fundamental truths in wine is that it is never, ever, the same, and it is this intrinsic sense of difference that winemakers and collectors and drinkers are forever chasing.
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And yet many people seek consistency in wine, finding one brand or region or style that they like and going no further, revisiting that choice night after night. It’s easy to see why. America has long held consistency to be a source of pride; from Henry Ford to McDonald’s, we want our material goods to be unwaveringly the same and we choose familiarity over something riskier. If there is one thing I would urge you to do this New Year, it would be to try something new.
I rarely buy the same wine twice. Although there is much pleasure to be found in checking in on old friends, the world is filled with far too many wines for such timidity. Don’t be afraid to experiment, be it with places, grapes, or styles. There is more to wine than California or Bordeaux, Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. There are thousands of grape varieties being grown in 69 different countries. That’s a lifetime of exploring. Start now.
Discover regions away from the mainstream. Try wines from France’s Loire Valley instead of Burgundy and Bordeaux. The Loire has a massive variety of styles—bone dry whites, amazing desert wines, soft, minerally reds, and everything in between—most of which are reasonably priced and naturally made. Or experiment with new varietals. In Italy, skip the Pinot Grigio in favor of Greco di Tufo or Falanghena. Try the food-friendly, white pepper-flavored Grüner Veltliner, the fragrant acidity of Albãrino, or the rich variety of Chenin Blanc. Try deep, dark Aglianico, velvet and fruity Zweigelt, or the spicy complexity of Sagrantino. Drink wines precisely because you’ve never heard of them. The rustic reds of Portugal’s Douro and Dão regions, the unpronounceable grapes of Greece (xinomavro, anyone?), and the war-torn wines of Lebanon. Try anything and everything. Think of wine as an adventure, not as a sure thing. You will be the richer for it.
Be less concerned with perfection. Constantly trying new wines means getting some you don’t like. This is O.K. It is wine’s nature, as it is humanity’s, to be, at times, flawed. But with a change of mindset, you may find fewer duds than you imagine. Instead of approaching every bottle with the hope that it matches what you like, be open to learning to like what it gives you. Too many people seek only one type of taste. Let that go. I am not advocating that you drink wine that you don’t enjoy, just that you learn to enjoy wine for the ways in which it tastes utterly unlike anything you’ve every had before. There is much more to wine than jammy fruit and oak.
So this coming year I urge you to drink differently. Heraclitus also said that you can never step in the same river twice. Well, I say that you cannot drink the same wine twice, for every year, every bottle, every glass is different.
Cheers!
Dear Ace: The Shoppes of Clover Lawn is a shop-ping center on Rockfish Gap in Crozet. Why do the businesses in that area, including Blue Ridge Builders Supply across the street, have Charlottesville addresses and not Crozet ones? —Biff Clavin
Biff: Bear with Ace, because the answer to this question may be slow going. But first, to lighten the mood, let Ace provide you with a joke: Knock knock! (Who’s there?) Juno! (Juno who?) Juno why the turkey crossed the road? It was the chicken’s day off! (Ace’ll have you notice, that was a two-for-one special.)
And now back to the task at hand. Ace thought, as you did, that the address conundrum was very peculiar. Especially since, on one map Ace found of the Shoppes, it looked as though they were located in a veritable no man’s land (postally speaking, of course) somewhere between the city and Crozet. So he called Mason Graham, a Real Estate Agent for Downer & Associates, which leases the Clover Lawn properties, and she told Ace that even they weren’t aware the properties had Charlottesville addresses until they needed one for the first tenant. “But,” she said, “that’s just the postal standards!”
The addresses all have 22903 zip codes, despite their Crozet location. Ace thought about calling the post office to get more answers, but he knew better—waiting to talk to a postal worker would eat into his holiday party time (like a post office, Ace has his priorities). And so, being the sly, creative investigator he is, he approached the question from a different angle. He “addressed” the source you mention.
The helpful man on the other end of the horn from Blue Ridge Builders Supply had this to say: “We’re in the Charlottesville delivery area; we’re not under Crozet.” Hoping to get more out of him, Ace prodded further: Does this confuse your customers? “Yeah,” the man said. Ace appreciates his brevity. After all, he’s got those parties to go to.
You can ask Ace yourself. Intrepid investigative reporter Ace Atkins has been chasing readers’ leads for 19 years. If you have a question for Ace, e-mail it to ace@c-ville.com.
Franz Nicolay sticks out among The Hold Steady‘s members like a Yankees fan at a Red Sox game. He downs bottles of red onstage while his bandmates opt for cases of Budweiser. He mans the accordion and organ for songs more akin to ’80s punk and ’90s alt-rock. His moustache has finer handlebars than a Schwinn 12-speed.
But for all my committed love of The Hold Steady and their secret ‘stache, I never imagined that Nicolay would open his January U.S. tour for his new solo album, Major General, in Virginia. In Charlottesville. At Boylan Heights. Hey, the man knows how to stick out.
I spoke with Nicolay during a break from a recording session in Brooklyn, and he spoke a bit about his upcoming solo album, due on January 13. Interview highlights after the picture.
Franz Nicolay: The very model of a modern Major General?
Another year over for Restaurantarama and never a dull moment. In addition to the typically tumultuous attrition around here, there were a few closings that really surprised the stockings off us: Ludwig’s Schnitzelhouse, Boheme and OXO among them. The loss of Casella’s Italian to Richmond-based chain, Tara Thai, the loss of just about everything in Scottsville and the uprooting of Just Curry to make room for CVS left us lamenting this global economic mess that has local restaurateurs on the edge and landlords selling out to new tenants too big to fail.
But other stuff made us cheer for this year: Aroma’s Cafe moving to a prime spot at Barracks; The Box opening to much fanfare and chugging along despite the on-again, off-again construction of the Landmark Hotel in its face; Belmont getting the The Local and Bel Rio; and the Ix Building becoming a food destination in its own right thanks to the efforts of Al Dente and Al Hamraa owner Karim Sellam.
One of the biggest trends we witnessed this year was the growing popularity of the small
plate. After three years as runner-up, Spanish-themed tapas shop Mas bested Zocalo as favorite restaurant in our annual C-VILLE readers’ poll; Richmond-based Si Tapas opened a location in the old Starr Hill Brewery space; Zinc revamped its menu to cater to small plates and Michael Fitzgerald opened small plate/fancy drink Mexican venue Ventana in the old Kiki spot.
In addition to what’s already on Restaurantarama’s radar—Chuck Adcock’s new place in the old Northern Exposure spot; something taking over
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OXO’s space—we have a few predictions just based on our own prescience. Our crystal ball bets for the next food year:
(1) Taking the small plate sensation one step further, a budding entrepreneur will open an amuse bouche restaurant where the entire menu consists of one-bite meals. It will be called “morsel.” (that’s lower case “m” with a period) and will be vaguely French in flavor. Drinks will be fancy and full of expensive exotic fruit juices to make up for the lack of food-based revenue.
(2) The city will give up on the Mall rebricking project and declare the entire space a free-for-all patio and café zone to completely even out the score among the eateries. Whoever sets up their tables and condiments first gets the crowd. If there’s nowhere to walk, there’s nowhere to trip.
(3) Reporters from The Washington Post and The New York Times will continue to hack out monthly stories about food tours of quaint little Charlottesville. Jinx Kern will relocate his barbeque shack to the sprawling, long vacant Asian Buffet space on Route 29N to accommodate the growing throngs of tour buses.
(4) Based on the success of the upcoming International Food and Wine Experience, Charlottesville will succeed Las Vegas as the new “it” place for celebrity chef outposts. Wolfgang Puck will open an eatery in the old Hardware Store spot (if Urban Outfitters bails), but he’ll joust with the Board of Architectural Review over his use of too much mosaic tile on the façade.
(5) Local food will become standard at Charlottesville restaurants; Sysco will be run out of town; and Tomas Rahal will begin raising and slaughtering his own heirloom pigs in the parking lot behind Mas until Belmont neighbors complain about the painfully loud oinks and the Virginia Department of Agriculture shuts him down. Rahal and Richard Bean will begin campaigning for the Libertarian presidential ticket in 2012. Their platform: “You should be able to put lipstick on a pig and do whatever else you want with him as long as it’s all done within 100 miles of your house.”
Until then, Happy New Year foodies!
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Age: 21
Year: Sophomore
Hometown: Nan Jing, China
Major: Math
What’s in your backpack? Pepperidge Farm butter cookies, wallet, beef flavor Nissin Cup Noodles, empty plastic UVA Bookstore bag, pens, Getting Started with MATLAB 7: A Quick Introduction for Scientists and Engineers.
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
New Year’s Eve is an extrovert’s dream holiday. You party all night long in Time Square or some other overly crowded place and kiss strangers at midnight. As an introverted single, I would never do these things unless I had a lot of alcohol. Result: New Year’s was always a mixed bag. Going to a bar to try to generate relationships with complete strangers takes a
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lot of energy, and did I mention alcohol? Luckily, only once did I spend way too much money on a crappy club party, watered down drinks, and a midnight breakfast with the hope of meeting someone special. I would rather have spent the time dancing and dining with a small group of friends.
Why didn’t I do what I really wanted? I blame it on a whole list of “shoulds.” The two biggies were: “I should get out and try to meet someone,” and “I don’t feel like I have a lot of options, so I should take whatever plans I can get.” My social life was in flux and any plan was better than no plan at all.
I’m an advocate for doing what you really want on New Year’s, but if you can’t let yourself off the big party hook, be kind to yourself. Many a party I berated myself for not being a social butterfly, bouncing from person to person. Try not to compare yourself to the extroverts. They need a high level of face time to feel energetic. They can stand in a group throwing out jokes, quips and one-liners at the speed of lightning and get more and more energized by it. Extroverts use their short-term memory, so when they think something it pops out of their mouth simultaneously. Introverts tend to wilt in this situation. Our one-liners come from our long-term memory, and by the time we come up with our witty reply, the conversation has moved on.
Engaging in a deeper conversation with one person is a comfy situation for an introvert. Learn to spot other introverts to chat with. They’ll be relieved to be exempt from working the room, too. Also, try to find yourself a chair—you’ll feel more content and grounded if you can sit down.
If you run into someone worth meeting, it’s golden if you can get introduced. If not, consider taking the initiative. Being an introvert doesn’t mean you can’t be assertive. You’ll just want to break the interaction into small chunks. Make eye contact and smile when you’re one on one at the food table. A little later, say hello and smile. Think of a few easy comments to make, initiate chit-chat again, and introduce yourself. Move away to regroup and breathe. After some time, say hello again and have a longer conversation. You’ll feel like old friends by the end of the night.
There are plenty of resources out there for introverts to help you succeed in social situations. The trick is to look for strategies that take advantage of your strengths, which may be very different from an extrovert’s social strengths. While they might meet more people, you probably can get to a deeper level of interaction very quickly. For more on this, I frequently recommend The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World, by Marti Laney, to my clients.
New Year’s Eve TV
Wednesday, multiple channels
My fellow shut-ins and social pariahs: Let’s all vow to close out 2008 the way we spent most of it, with our asses glued to the couch and our peepers set squarely on the tube. Who needs to interact with actual people anyway, right? New Year’s Eve offers multiple viewing options, from the traditional countdowns (Ryan Seacrest and the now-terrifying Dick Clark on ABC, 10pm; the even more terrifying Carson Daly on NBC, 10pm; queen dream team Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper on CNN, 11pm) to TV show marathons (“Dog the Bounty Hunter” on A&E, 8am-4am; “CSI” on Spike, 9am-midnight; “South Park” on Comedy Central, 9pm-1am; “Twilight Zone” on Sci-Fi, 8am-5:30am on Friday). The lovelorn among us may want to catch screenings of Pride & Prejudice (Oxygen, 6pm and 9pm) or Maid in Manhattan (FX, 8pm and 10pm) and wonder why we don’t have boyfriends like Mr. Darcy or Ralph Fiennes. Or you could ponder what the hell USA is thinking with back-to-back screenings of Elf (6am-4am) on December 31.
“Superstars of Dance”
Sunday 9pm, Monday 8pm, NBC
Dance shows are rivaling police procedurals in the ubiquitous programming department lately. You’ve got “Dancing with the Stars,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” “America’s Best Dance Crew,” “Step It Up and Dance,” “Your Mama Don’t Dance”—it goes on like this. This new talent show puts an exotic twist on the proceedings by featuring professional dancers from eight countries—Argentina, Australia, China, India, Ireland, Russia, South Africa and the USA—competing via solo dance, duos, and group numbers. (The real question: Why were we robbed of the rich cultural movements sure to spring from the Canada contingent?) “Lord of the Dance” Michael Flatley bravely hosts the proceedings despite his crippling shirt allergy.
“Game Show in my Head”
Saturday 8pm, CBS
This new game show, masterminded by modern-day Puck Ashton Kutcher, mixes elements of “Candid Camera,” “Punk’d,” and “Jackass,” with the additional motivating factor of cold, hard cash. Participants are fitted with an earpiece from which host/professional tormentor Joe Rogan (formerly of “Fear Factor,” and now seemingly devoid of any sense of shame) instructs them to perform various humiliating tasks in public. How much money they make depends on how willing they are to debase themselves. Will the young jock scamper about on the street in nothing but his Underoos, begging passers-by to clothe him? Will the fat guy stuck in a Port-a-Potty be able to harangue people into doing his bidding? Or will Kutcher have to hit up Demi to pay next month’s mortgage if this goes the way of “Opportunity Knocks”?
After a 2008 season that gave new meaning to the word “uneven,” not to mention “maddening,” UVA football Head Coach Al Groh is adding some new blood to his staff.
A University press release the day before Christmas Eve officially announced that Gregg Brandon has replaced Groh’s son Mike as offensive coordinator, and that Latrell Scott will be the new wide receivers coach. The clear implication is that the team had a difficult time
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What did Santa give the Cavalier football team for Christmas? Gregg Brandon, pictured, and Latrell Scott. |
competing at the highest level in the ACC when their offense sputtered as many times as it shone, choking at home against Miami, for instance, on the heels of pulling out a shocker at Georgia Tech.
Brandon is the former head coach of Bowling Green, a job he graduated to after coordinating a Falcons offense that averaged 500 yards and 40 points a game. While he had mixed success as a head coach, a poor offense was never the problem. On the wings of his signature spread offense, the Falcons averaged over 400 yards of offense per game four out of his six seasons at the helm.
Scott has strong Virginia ties. He was a wide receivers coach at Virginia Military Institute, and then the University of Richmond, before doing the same job for The University of Tennessee during the 2008 season.
If the message board of the UVA sports fan website, The Sabre, is any indication, reaction is clearly positive. One message gave a shout out to UVA Athletic Director Craig Littlepage for “showing signs” that he’s adaptable (no doubt referring to the tough decision to oust one Groh while sticking with his father), and another treated the new hires as great gifts: “Merry Christmas Hoos!!! Welcome Coach Scott and Brandon!”
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
Thomas Rahal at Mas
The Box
Al Hamraa