Month: June 2011

Local developer Paul Beyer plans to formally announce his candidacy for Charlottesville City Council on Wednesday, June 8, at the Downtown Transit Center. Beyer’s campaign priorities, according to an e-mail obtained by C-VILLE, include job creation with attention to small businesses. The candidate confirmed with C-VILLE that he will seek the Democratic Party’s nomination at an August 20 firehouse primary.

Beyer, the son of developer Rick Beyer, has worked for his family’s 39-year-old business for the past six years. "Our 20 full-time employees have been with us an average of 19 years," writes Beyer. "We have also employed hundreds of subcontractors and other small business people—carpenters, electricians, plumbers, roofers, surveyors, excavators, engineers, bankers, accountants, architects, and graphic designers."

So far, the race has attracted more than a half-dozen candidates for the three council seats to be vacated later this year. Retired lawyer Peter McIntosh, Charlottesville School Board member Kathy Galvin, James Halfaday and incumbent Satyendra Huja will also seek the Democratic Party’s nomination, with more candidates likely to join the race. The race has also attracted three independent candidates: Socialist Party representative Brandon Collins, Scott Bandy and Bob Fenwick.

Beyer, 29, is the youngest candidate to declare, a characteristic he wears on his sleeve and links with some of the recent cultural movements in Charlottesville. "I will also run as a young person who is engaged in the arts and creative life of the City," writes Beyer. "Council needs to be proactive in fostering the music scene, biking community, gardening movement, creative classes, and any other endeavors which make us unique and vital." Beyer’s June 8 announcement is scheduled for noon.

Yesterday, Charlottesville’s Local Food Hub formally announced a 15-month grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Resources Conservation Service. The Local Food Hub, which functions as a regional link between family-owned farms and nearby markets and restaurants, received one of six grants awarded in the Commonwealth.

"These funds will enable us to provide more resources and educational opportunities for our partnering farms," says Director Marisa Vrooman. In turn, she adds, the funds "mean a healthier environment for Virginia and more delicious, locally grown food available for our community." Farm services manager Adrianna Vargo says that the grant will help the Hub launch "personalized farm consulting, a mobile resource library, and a free sustainable agriculture workshop series."

Among other local efforts, the Hub recently rolled up its sleeves to spruce up Southwood Mobile Home Park’s community garden. For previous C-VILLE coverage of the Local Food Hub, click here.

We live a car-centered life these days, and it feels somewhat impossible to change that, unless we give up our rural home. I was intrigued by a feature in the May/June issue of Orion about folks in another supposedly car-bound place–Los Angeles–who manage to get around by foot, bike, and/or public transportation. It’s inspiring and a little daunting; I picture facing those vast concrete distances without a car and feel a bit overwhelmed. But then, to walk from my house to the Downtown Mall would take, oh, three days.

It wasn’t always this way. I didn’t have a car for the first three years of college, and didn’t miss it. I rode my bike all around campus and occasionally borrowed a pickup truck belonging to my dining co-op when I needed to leave town. In grad school, I went everywhere by bike (including, for two memorable summer weeks, to my temp job in a town 10 miles away). When my husband and I lived in Oakland, California, I took the bus to work and found it very civilized–instead of dealing with traffic on my commute, I read books.

While walking to Charlottesville might be out of the question for me, I do know that several people in our Nelson community routinely walk several miles to get where they need to go. We often see them on the roadsides, marching along. It looks a little risky on certain roads, but there they are.

I’d love to hear from Charlottesvillians–or even better, county-dwellers–who live without cars. How do you get around? Are there places you just can’t go? How does having no car impact your budget, your sanity, your options on a Friday night?

C-VILLE contributor John Ruscher mentioned the new edition of the UVA alumni magazine in a recent review, and that magazine’s print edition came in the mail earlier this week. 

The issue’s cover story, "Rockin’ the Grounds," provides a nice primer on a host of local bands that were, at one time another, the biggest thing going in Charlottesville, from Johnny Sportcoat and the Casuals, to The Deal (who recorded with the late, great Alex Chilton), to modern day bands like Sons of Bill and Parachute. Can you guess who is on the magazine’s cover? (Check out a jukebox feature at the bottom of an interactive website that lets you listen to almost every one of the groups here.)

The magazine shares some photos in common with a new book about the history of Charlottesville, appropriately titled Charlottesville, by Eryn Brennan and Margaret Maliszewski (the book is part of the "Images of America" series—there’s probably one about your hometown.) One in particular caught my eye: It’s of a contorted Chuck Berry playing a big red Gibson to a huge crowd of clean-cut guys in suits. On the opposite page is an image of Joan Baez, who visited UVA in 1965 on the same night as Harry S. Truman. The crowd in that picture is sitting quietly before her—she’s not even holding a guitar.

Other incredible images from the book: One of The Supremes playing Mem Gym in 1966, Duke Ellington at UVA in 1961, and, earlier, Fats Domino playing in 1959. It’s enough to make a modern local music lover pine for a more "authentic" time. 

What we don’t see in the UVA magazine and in the book is a clear picture of what was happening in the non-UVA community around that time. What were some legendary shows at the Paramount? When the C&O used to host more music? Was there a great band from the past, loved by all, that today has been forgotten?

Chuck Berry at Memorial Gym in 1965, by Ed Roseberry. 

John W. Kluge, the Metromedia mogul and one-time richest man on the planet who died last year at age 95, gave handsomely to UVA in both money and real estate. He did the same at his alma mater, Columbia University, where his $60 million gift for student aid in 1993 was the largest received by the school at the time. Kluge blew that gift out of the water in 2007, when he singlehandedly covered one-tenth of Columbia’s $4 billion capital campaign.

Now, Columbia has decided to cash in a portion of Kluge’s 2007 gift: Casa Sin Nombre ("house without name"), a 76-year-old mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, recently went on the market for $59 million. Proceeds from the sale are earmarked for scholarships.

Kluge, a longtime Albemarle County resident, donated 7,000-plus-acres to UVA in 2001, a gift that doubled UVA’s real estate holdings. For coverage of Kluge, click here.

In tangentially related news, Washington, D.C.-based Potomack Company plans to auction a few objets d’art from Albemarle House, Patricia Kluge’s foreclosed 45-room mansion. Those items include a half-dozen lifesize fiberglass statues, Chinese urns, and this oil portrait of John and Patricia Kluge, painted by Gregorio Sciltian. The painting’s value is estimated at $1,000 to $1,500.
 

We were at the farmer’s market last weekend and spied a whole table full of strawberries. We know the guy selling them, and it was very tempting to buy three quarts or more for freezing or jam-making. (All the other berries that have come our way this season have gotten gobbled up fresh.)

But, unfortunately, we don’t know whether he grows organically. We have to assume he doesn’t. And while I might let that slide in the case of some other crops, I’ve seen strawberries top several lists of "produce most sprayed with pesticides." I guess they’re harder to grow without chemicals, though it’s certainly possible. So I’m wary of eating them unless I know how they’re grown.

It makes me wonder about all the folks taking their kids to U-pick strawberry farms these last few weeks. I’m sure it’s a grand time and makes for cute photos (all those red-smeared cheeks and fingers!), but is it safe? Don’t you want to at least rinse those things off before the tykes ingest them?

I’m hopeful that perhaps small local growers aren’t spraying as heavily as big ol’ agribiz strawberry farms. Anyone have the scoop? Do you eat strawberries right out of local fields?

The City of Charlottesville announced today that it will open the Key Recreation Center as a cooling center to combat the heat.

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory until 8pm with predicted temperatures in the high 90s and heat index values of up to 105 degrees. Today’s high is expected to be 96.

The Key Recreation Center is located on Market Street, at the end of the Downtown Mall. It will be open from 10am to 9pm for those residents without air conditioning.

The city will notify the public of additional shelters if they are needed.