Month: April 2009

On April 21 at a forum sponsored by Charlottesville Tomorrow and the Free Enterprise Forum, Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris strengthened his place as the lead candidate for one of the two spots open for this year’s city council election (as well as for the May 9 Democratic primary).

Before a small gathering in Burley Middle School’s auditorium, Norris consistently outlined his agenda for a better Charlottesville, starting with his plan—if he is re-elected—to revitalize the city’s public housing developments by creating a mixed-income, integrated neighborhood system, instead of the current model. “It’s the best opportunity for changing the very dynamics of poverty in our community,” he said, “moving away from … the failed model of segregating people by income which too often means segregating people by race.”

Norris was joined on the stage by Councilor Julian Taliaferro and challenger Kristin Szakos. While the former emphasized his concern over the 13.2 percent dropout rate in the city school system, Szakos said she is running to improve the “city’s responsiveness to its citizens.” As part of that she suggested that City Council meetings be held in neighborhoods and schools to give greater access to the public, even that pizza and childcare be provided. “We have to figure out how to motivate people to participate,” she explained the next day. 

Overall, there was great agreement among the three candidates, with the major difference concerning the embattled Meadowcreek Parkway. On that question, Norris firmly detailed his opposition. “I don’t see what the city gets from this deal,” he said. “We’re putting a huge swath of asphalt through our largest park” that “will clog downtown streets” and “drive a stake through the downtown renaissance.”

Over the course of the evening’s two hours, Norris’s clarity of position left little doubt he will be re-elected, leaving Taliaferro and Szakos in a likely battle for the last spot. “It’s all fair game,” the latter says, but politics dictates that an incumbent always holds an edge in name recognition if nothing else. As a result, it is up to Szakos to separate herself and she seemed to do so based on her advocacy for those with the lowest income in Charlottesville. “Many people who work here in the city cannot afford to live here,” she said during the April 21 forum. As a result, she called for more frequent and efficient bus lines.

“The wonderful experience that I’ve had raising my family in Charlottesville is an experience not shared by every family here,” she expounded in her closing statement. “And I feel I have an obligation … to make sure that that sort of opportunity is available for every family and every child and everyone who lives in the city.”

“I believe in public service,” said Taliaferro. In his closing, he stressed his decades as a public servant in Charlottesville (he was fire chief for more than 30 years before running for council in 2005), reasoning that his experience would help when it came to making tough decisions in hard economic times. Norris also called attention to his past accomplishments while on City Council, but cautioned that more work is necessary, saying, “We have made good progress but we’re not where we need to be.”

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“We need you,” said Jeffrey Sachs to a packed auditorium in Old Cabell Hall. “We should find ways to team up.” Sachs, a leading international economic adviser, outlined the need to merge resources to solve major global problems, such as poverty, at the 2009 Annual Spring Symposium, presented by the UVA McIntire School of Commerce on Friday, April 24. Following Sachs’ keynote address, a panel of four prominent UVA professors discussed what could be done locally to begin crafting a vision for global sustainability.

“Problems don’t come packaged anymore,” said Sachs. Vice Provost for International Programs Gowher Rizvi echoed the sentiment. Just when borders and frontiers are becoming irrelevant, he said, UVA must “produce global citizens,” who can move from one society to another with ease and comfort.

In his speech, Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute and Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University, painted a gloomy picture. According to him, the world is currently witness to at least three crises that are unraveling simultaneously:  “All three crises, I believe, come from the fact that we need a robust and value-based approach” to resource challenges. As a market economist, he believes in capitalism, but “what I don’t believe in … is what’s called the free market economy, because there is no such thing as a market that’s free.”  For that reason, Sachs welcomed the idea of rebuilding and better organizing growth and economic development, for the challenges of this generation are “unparallel” to those of older and even future generations. At this time, the markets are inherently unstable and, more importantly, they do not “ensure a humane distribution of income,” he said. In the U.S., there are at least 50 million people who are uninsured, but the situation in the world is even more dramatic. Global markets work, said Sachs, but, “markets are absolutely capable of also leaving a billion people struggling for survival every day,” and there is nothing in theory or in practice that would guarantee the survival of these individuals. Ultimately, because the markets have been deregulated since the 1980s, and the shadow banking system has helped in the collapse of banks, Sachs stressed the need for more regulation. “I believe in the market economy, but one that is embedded in other institutions.”

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If you’re anything like us (and honestly, our condolences if you are), you probably spend way too much time following the vagaries and vicissitudes of Virginia’s preening political class. And if you’ve been watching closely over the past few weeks — while completely ignoring that insignificant little thing we call real life—you could be excused for thinking that our Commonwealth is absolutely awash in cash.

For starters, just take a look at the eye-popping first quarter fundraising haul for the governor’s race, in which the four candidates raked in nearly eight million smackers, setting a pace that seems sure to make this the most expensive electoral free-for-all in Virginia’s history. And if you’re wondering where all of that sweet, sweet green is going, just head on over to YouTube and take a gander at the massive sign gauntlet (aka “Terry McAuliffe’s Sea of Hubris”) that greeted this year’s Shad Planking attendees.

But even more impressive than the ability to rake in massive amounts of loot (and spend it like Michael Jackson in a Baby Gap) is the devil-may-care insolence it takes to be handed a heaping pile of cashola on a silver platter, and then blithely hand it back because the platter isn’t shiny enough.

Yes, that’s exactly what the swells over at the General Assembly recently did, giving the old “thanks but no thanks” to $125 million in federal stimulus funds because, even though it would fund a nice chunk of current state unemployment benefits, it might just possibly maybe make it necessary to expand unemployment coverage in the future. Now, we’re certainly no experts, but with Virginia’s unemployment rate at 6.7 percent and rising, you’d think these guys would just take the money and concentrate on creating new jobs, thereby solving the problem, instead of assuming that we’re headed for a post-apocalyptic future where everyone is on the dole, and the only available work revolves around the shoe-shining and suit-pressing needs of our god-like legislators. But hey, that’s just us.

Now, there is one way in which Virginia’s pols resemble regular people when it comes to money: They just can’t stop talking about it. In fact, it seemed like the entirety of last week’s gubernatorial debate was dedicated to charges and counter-charges of shady fundraising (for those keeping score at home: Brian Moran took money from defense contractors with business in front of his brother, Creigh Deeds wanted to take money from defense firms but failed, Terry McAuliffe takes money from anything with a pulse, and Bob McDonnell takes money from a Virginia Beach law firm, but claims to be “sort of unemployed”).

Not to be outdone, Governor Tim Kaine (who’s sort of over-employed, if you ask us) has been berating the Assembly non-stop for turning down the Fed’s free dough, and recently promised to take his message to the people to force lawmakers to “do the right thing.”

So what’s the Gov’s first message-spreading stop? Why, an eight-day trip to Israel, Dubai and the Kingdom of Morocco, of course, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $32,000.

Like we said: as long as you ignore everything outside of politics, we’ve got the best economy in the world!