Month: July 2012

Categories
News

Stonefield developer will keep fighting permit violation from city

A cross-jurisdictional fight over storm-water runoff has pitched one developer against another, and city and county are taking sides as the dispute appears headed for court.

Edens, the developers of Stonefield, a 65-acre shopping center underway at the intersection of Route 29 and Hydraulic Road in Albemarle County, was told by city staff last month that it was in violation of an erosion permit. But at least one county official says the city is holding them over a barrel at the request of another developer.

Edens’ site development plan proposed running a pipe under Route 29 to carry runoff from its site and the land just uphill to an existing channel across the highway that eventually flows into Meadow Creek.

The 72″ pipe, which came out about 30′ from an existing 42″ culvert, ended up within city limits, which meant Edens had to get a city permit to move forward. In late 2009, the company presented its soil erosion plan to the city. Before it unplugged its new pipe, the company would create a channel of loose rock called riprap, designed to slow down the flow of water, to bridge the gap between the pipe and the existing stormwater channel that flows into Meadow Creek.

The city approved the plan, but a property line caused problems in its implementation. The new pipe opened up onto land owned by the U.S. Post Office, which granted permission for the work. But the channel receiving water from both outfall points is on the property of Seminole Square Shopping Center. Seminole owner Great Eastern Management Company refused to grant Edens the easements needed to remove a fence separating the properties and merge the new channel with the old one, saying the rival developer would have to pay extra to safeguard against flooding Seminole’s property downstream.

Edens built to the fence, stopped, and pulled the plug. On June 1, the city notified the company it was in violation of its permit. Edens has appealed to the City Planning Commission and the City Council in turn, both of which have upheld planning staffs’ judgement.

The dispute has come down to language. Does tying in the new riprap mean laying rock to the property line, or to the existing channel itself? Charlottesville Neighborhood Development Services Director Jim Tolbert points to a June memo that shows Edens knew it had to build more than it did.

“If they didn’t think they needed to do something, there would have been no reason for them to plug the pipe in the first place,” he said.

But everybody involved seems to agree on one thing: The riprap may be the sticking point, but the dispute is about more than rocks.

Great Eastern attorney Fredrick Payne said his client has been raising concerns about additional stormwater on its property throughout the development process.

“We don’t care what happens on the west side of 29 as long as it doesn’t impact the east side of 29,” he said. “Our consultants are of the opinion that both the county and the city have an obligation to protect against flooding, and they haven’t done so.” The underlying and more basic issue at hand, he added, is one brought up by Council members: “Does this mean that the owner of a commercial property has a right to put his surface water onto another property owner without the property owner’s permission?”

Tolbert put it more bluntly. “If you own property and someone said, ‘I’m going to build a big development that’s going to compete with you, but I’ve got to flood your property to do it,’ do you not think they’ll want some compensation for that?”

But the threat of flooding is a red herring, said Edens managing director Steve Boyle. His company has spent millions on stormwater management features that will ensure slow release of water through the drainage pipes. His company is more than willing to install additional riprap where the drainage channels meet, he said—they’ve even bonded for it.

All of Edens’ plans and work have met state guidelines, Boyle said, and because Seminole and the city can’t win the war over water, they’re picking a fight over rocks. His company is likely to appeal in Charlottesville Circuit Court, he said.

“We’ve done the right thing,” said Boyle. “We’ve contemplated the impact such a big development would have. We’ve tried to be good stewards and new people in the community, but for whatever reason, this particular neighbor has been resistant in a way where we can’t see eye to eye.”

The neighbor is Charles Rotgin, owner of Great Eastern, and his own public comment record shows he’s not always been a proponent of strict stormwater regulations. In 2009, Rotgin wrote to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation opposing amendments to Virginia’s stormwater permitting rules that would have further restricted developers.

The increased regulation would slow business investment, he said, and he argued for “latitude for local engineering departments to modify or waive certain requirements in instances where they are impractical to implement,” among other modifications.

Rotgin did not return calls requesting comment. But Albemarle County Supervisor Dennis Rooker, whose district is home to the Stonefield development, said he didn’t think Rotgin would insist on the same standards for his own developments.

“There’s not a requirement that I’m aware of anywhere in the state of Virginia when a developer…has to account for all the impacts of a 100-year storm,” Rooker said. “And I would suggest that the development community would never let it get through.”

Rooker said he understands Rotgin is just protecting his interests. But he also said he believes the city has been doing the bidding of the Seminole owner in putting its foot down over the erosion permit. Rotgin might have legitimate concerns about future flooding, Rooker said, but Edens shouldn’t necessarily be on the hook.

“Whether that should be a concern that’s compensable from the other property owner—that to me is a question of private property law,” he said.

Categories
News

Is Coursera the key to online learning at UVA?

Last week, UVA announced it was the latest university to partner with Coursera, an online learning company started last fall by a pair of Stanford professors. The deal is being presented as a win-win: since no money is exchanging hands, it’s a way for UVA to expand its brand for free, administrators said. But the timing has raised eyebrows, and some faculty want to make sure the University isn’t limiting its options when it comes to online learning.

Coursera made headlines in April, when it announced partnerships with four top-tier universities and a $16 million round of venture capital funding from investors. The news caught the attention of a group of Darden professors already planning a visit to Silicon Valley.

The faculty members decided to drop in at Coursera’s Mountain View headquarters to chat with its Stanford professor founder, Daphne Koller.

They liked what they heard, said Peter Rodriguez, an associate dean and professor of business administration at Darden, including the fact that they were making everything free—University’s didn’t have to pay, and neither did online students.

“They had a positive goal to get as much good knowledge out into the world as possible,” Rodriguez said. And some Darden courses could lend themselves well to Web-based learning, his colleagues thought—the school already offers non-resident programs and courses for current managers that could potentially be taught online. They left the meeting planning to do more research and follow up.

That was June 7. Three days later, UVA announced the sudden departure of President Teresa Sullivan, and online learning quickly became a hot button issue in the debate over the ousted president’s leadership. Both on the record and in private e-mails released under the Freedom of Information Act, Rector Helen Dragas claimed UVA lagged behind its peers when it came to embracing web-based learning, and laid the blame at Sullivan’s feet.

Based on those e-mails and recent comments, it appears neither Dragas nor Sullivan knew faculty were already exploring the option of partnering with Coursera on their own. And, as it turned out, the Darden leaders weren’t alone. Professors from the College of the Arts and Sciences were also calling the company with questions.

Odd coincidence? That’s precisely what Rodriguez says it was. “There was this massive interest in online education which was legitimized when Stanford and Princeton got into it,” he said. Now everybody wants in.

If there was a buzz around online options before Sullivan was forced out, it only got louder once she returned. The faculty already interested in Coursera pooled their efforts and took their findings to central administration. Vice Provost for Academic Programs J. Milton Adams said there was likely pressure to sign on the dotted line last week, because Coursera was preparing to announce its next batch of partner universities.

Now, four faculty members are preparing web-based classes for 2013 on business management, history, philosophy, and physics that they hope will appeal to a broad population.

“This is the way it’s supposed to work,” Adams said. “Faculty members were asking questions and exploring possibilities, and the administration was saying ‘Our job is to help

you, and make this work.’”
William Guildford wants to see that kind of ground-up input continue. Guildford chaired the Faculty Senate’s task force on online education, one of a number of groups assembled last month to examine the financial and leadership concerns cited by Dragas as justification for the ouster. The group released a report the day after the Coursera announcement showing that the use of the Web as an instructional tool is widespread at UVA, with everything from video lectures to full graduate courses offered online.

The new partnership could be a good way to test out one form of Web-based learning, Guilford said, but he doesn’t want to see things end there.

“Focusing down on one model of a set of models is fine if you have evidence it works,” he said. “But online learning is very far from that.”

What UVA needs, he said, is somebody to keep an eye on everybody’s efforts to teach online and track what works best.

“We’re really just looking at a grand experiment,” Guildford said. “You don’t figure these things out without trying them.”

Categories
Arts

The Dark Knight Rises; PG-13, 164 minutes; Regal Seminole Square 4

Christian Bale stars in The Dark Night Rises, the final installation in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. (Warner Bros.)

No wonder Bruce Wayne retired from being Batman. Everybody wants to psychoanalyze the guy: His butler, his burglar, his nemesis, his police commissioner, and practically anyone with a hand in managing his assets. Among other things, he is accused of pretense and, perhaps worse, of “practiced apathy.” Well, it was a double identity, and a dubious one, after all.
Of course it’s only a temporary retirement (at least until it becomes permanent), and at the outset of The Dark Knight Rises, it’s more or less mandatory; the caped crusader’s city, historically rather weird with mask-wearers and turncoats, no longer trusts him. All the more grist for director and psychoanalyst-in-chief Christopher Nolan’s mill: Two films in the rebooted Batman franchise already behind him, and still with so much more head-shrinking to do. In Nolan’s estimation, this grand trilogy-capper finale still requires two hours and 44 more minutes of duking and talking things out.

For the casual viewer, familiarity with the vicissitudes of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight is not required. Scripting again with his brother Jonathan, Nolan seems glad to summarize: It’s about power, justice, virtue, and philosophical challenges thereto, not to mention the considered aesthetics of the summer blockbuster set piece. It takes so long because the Nolans think it strategic not just to delve into backstory, but also to revise it while we wait. Although often self-nullifying, this is showmanship, of a sort: They understand that sometimes it’s fun being inside a movie for so long. Even, maybe especially, one so tense, huge, noisy, dark and unswervingly glum as this.

Helpful signposts abound, some in human form: the butler played by Michael Caine, the burglar played by Anne Hathaway, the commissioner played by Gary Oldman. They’re all fine, and comfortably familiar—even franchise-newcomer Hathaway (who only hits a few false notes). The nemesis is a respirator-faced hulk called Bane (Tom Hardy), who resembles Darth Vader without his helmet, or an uppity BDSM man-slave with vengefully revolutionary ambitions. Backed up by a squad of glowering thugs, he’s the Tea Party multiplied by Occupy.
Bane and Batman have a certain personal trainer in common, and it shows when they get to fighting. The fighting is like the dialogue: labored, with most natural movement restricted by so much preliminary suiting up, and a lot of people—extras, the audience—waiting around for the blows to land. They do land, at least, sounding like bombs.

Speaking of stuff blowing up, Bane’s agenda includes a lot of that, not the least of which is a 4-megaton time bomb. Also, there are hostages at the stock exchange, rough kangaroo-court justice, and most of the city’s police force trapped underground. Heavy stuff. One surfacer is a clever beat cop played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, looking good and growing into the movie as it grooms him—but for what? Let’s reflect on how everything that rises must converge, and how well, over these last few films, Christian Bale has grown into those dubious double-identity heroics. When he finally does retire for real, doesn’t somebody have to take over?

Categories
Arts

Billy Hunt’s scream portraits are all the rage (and joy)

Photographer Billy Hunt has been snapping up national press with his Screamotron3000. (Photo by Billy Hunt)

Billy Hunt is a Charlottesville-based photographer who pairs fun, accessible concepts with high-quality image-making. He’s probably best known for his extensive photography of the Collective of Lady’s Arm Wrestling (CLAW) project, as well as a client list that includes Dave Matthews Band, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post. His photos are bright and inviting without looking overly sleek or commercial. He’s at his best when capturing attractive documents of wild, impromptu spectacle—either found, or created. And his most recent project has brought more attention than anything he’s done before.

Scream portraits is just what the name says: a series of portraits in which each of the subjects is screaming. It’s a simple idea that is instantly understandable and immediately engaging. The shots are framed like traditional portraiture—a head-and-shoulders medium shot against a cloth backdrop—but the scream allows us to see a side that’s often hidden. Hunt takes the pictures with a camera connected to a karaoke boombox, dubbed the Screamotron3000. The box is wired so that the mic input levels trigger the shutter. Screaming allows the subjects to cut loose, and the results are wild. Subjects shriek, holler, and even tear at their clothes, frozen into still and silent moments of expression. Some look joyous, while others seem to be expelling pent-up rage. Local chef Rick Easton looks legitimately furious. My immediate response was to wonder what each of them was screaming.

“I’ve had people curse a blue streak at me,” Hunt said. “I’ve had people tell me they never loved me. I’m really open to all of it.” The results mainly fall into three categories: joy, anger, and sadness. “Mostly it’s joy mixed with a bit of anger, or joy mixed with a bit of sadness. But never anger and sadness at the same time,” said Hunt. “Some people pretty much go fetal when they’re getting ready for it. Some people look down. Some people naturally look up while they’re screaming. Some of them are consciously looking to God. A few people end up crossing their eyes in the photos, which looks really insane. They’re all beautiful little snowflakes.”

Hunt’s project has brought him no shortage of subjects willing to let loose for the camera, as well as attention from Wired magazine, “The Today Show,” NPR and the Huffington Post. “It’s blowing up. This thing is huge,” he said. “I would never have guessed that it would have such resonance with people. They love to do it. They almost like doing it more than looking at the pictures. It’s a way for them to interact with the arts.”

The idea for the project came out of frustration with contemporary portraiture. We’re an increasingly image-savvy culture, and it’s made us increasingly self-conscious about how we appear. “I saw how people—myself included—sabotage ourselves when we’re being photographed,” Hunt said. “My friends are thoughtful, considerate people, but we end up taking the worst pictures ever. I wanted to break people out of that, to get pictures where they’re not overthinking it. People don’t really care about looking seriously at photography anymore,” he said. “Image-making is so ubiquitous now. I practically have to put my photos in a Crackerjack box to get people to look at them. So I wanted something that would also have value as an experience.”

So did asking the subjects to scream remove their inhbitions? “It totally didn’t work,” Hunt said. “As it turns out, people are still really self-conscious while they’re screaming. And the reality of it is so much more interesting: You can see a war between the different parts of the brain. They’re all still thinking ‘How do I look?,’ but screaming is inherently unglamorous.” Hunt points out that people looking at photos of themselves will still see totally different things than what other people see while looking at those same photos.
The process led Hunt to start shooting slow-motion video of the screams as well. “There’s an arc to it. Some people just make one little peep, and some of them go on forever. A lot of people start to get self-conscious partway through the scream: ‘Is this a trick? Am I getting Punk’d?’ But once the steam blows off, you do get to see a little bit of what’s really under there. At this point, the fact that they’re screaming has become the least interesting thing about it, to me,” he says. “What’s really interesting is the way we expect ourselves to look, and the way we end up sabotaging that.”

As for the future of the project, Hunt says that he’s “looking for a travel trailer. I’d love to take this on tour, to county fairs and things like that. I’d love to shoot some celebs, too. Get Justin Beiber screaming.”

Categories
The Editor's Desk

A one year-anniversary and the rule of three

I have been in Charlottesville at my editor’s desk for a year now. In this line of work—which is, in a way, about keeping time—it means that I have turned a shift. I’ve always thought of three month-, one year-, and three year-anniversaries as important moments in a job. When you start something new, it takes about three months to come up for air, to start to see what you’re doing and to stop merely trying to learn people’s names, where the files go, what the deadline for this or that may be. A year is a measure of accomplishment, a complete set of work, and for that reason an indication of how far you can push something. Three years is a benchmark of mastery. You understand the parts and the whole, the personalities and the place, the urgency and the boredom of a type of work. By dint of repetition, your effort begins to diminish even as the quality of your work improves.

I trust rules of three. Omne trium perfectum.  I realize that this editor’s note isn’t always particularly timely. I rarely react to local news cuts or deliver manifestos on national issues. I don’t even always provide a lens on what we’ve written. Instead, I’ve tried to offer some insight into the job of an editor, to the rhythms and thought patterns, in the hopes of establishing some trust with you, the reader, so you can begin to understand why we put the paper together the way we do. One reader called it “an exercise in pedantry,” which I presume wasn’t a compliment, and while I’d admit to being preachy at times, I’d maintain that I’m trying to lay groundwork for a conversation, not peddle pithy proverbs from the news perch.

Three wishes then, from this editor, for the next year. If you ever read this note and think about it, write me. If you’ve never written a letter to an editor before, write me. If you believe there aren’t enough voices shaping the media conversation, write me.—Giles Morris

Categories
Living

Roller Grrrrls: Derby Dames find sisterhood in flat track revival

B-One Bomber, aka Bone, breaks loose from the pack during a Charlottesville Derby Dames bout against the Capitol Offenders at Main Street Arena, July 7, 2012. Photo: Dan Addison.

Miami Beat Box is wearing the elastic beanie cap with the big star on it stretched over her helmet to indicate that she is her team’s jammer, the only skater eligible to score points in a scoring round, or jam. She has already made the requisite first pass through the pack and is coming around the flat, oval track in an attempt to lap the other skaters. She’ll score a point for every one of the opponents she can pass before being knocked silly by one or more of the other team’s blockers, some half-again her size, who are waiting for her with locked elbows and clenched teeth.

With the other squad’s jammer well behind her, Beat Box approaches the tight group of blockers, slicing back and forth on eight wheels, searching for an opening. She starred for the Charlottesville Derby Dames in their June 9 victory over Richmond’s Mother State Roller Derby, a bout in which she scored 19 points in one second-half jam, lapping the pack five times during the daring and reckless two-minute tear.

That was then. This is now. As the pack rounds a turn, two of the blockers drift far enough apart to open a gap that Beat Box shoots for. Just as she hits the hole, the blockers lock arms and clothesline her across the chest, sending her head backwards as her be-skated feet shoot out in a flying karate kick. Her body is utterly parallel to the concrete floor 3′ beneath her, and she plummets to the ground with nothing to soften the blow but her own flesh. “FLUMP!” her butt crushes down on the rock-hard surface, and I can feel my own hip socket ramming against the head of my femur. There’s a gut-tugging body thud just before her elbow pads and skates slap down on the grim surface. I’m thinking she’s down for the count.
But Beat Box is back up on her skates inside of two seconds, chasing the pack again. It was her own teammates who had just sent her flying, and I was just watching a practice scrimmage, which the Dames do as often as three nights a week.

There are about 80 women in the Derby Dames operation, half of whom participate as skaters while others contribute in various support roles. A handful of men serve as coaches and referees and that’s the whole world of women’s flat track roller derby in Charlottesville. The first thing that hit me about derby is that it’s a far cry from a softball team or league night at the bowling alley. Softball: You collect your dues, screen-print some jerseys, stop by Dick’s for cleats, maybe even your own bat. Once you shag some fly balls, take batting practice…

Well, hold on right there, the fact that there is a place for a softball team to take a few cuts and toss the ball around is what distinguishes derby from other recreational sports. When derby started here, there was no league to join. There wasn’t even any place to skate. The next thing that hit me, once I got my head around the operation, was that derby isn’t a sport really, it’s a whole world these women created for themselves out of spare parts and loose hardware.

Something out of nothing
SparKills, one of the original Derby Dames, was inspired to do derby after watching a team from Austin, Texas at a bout in 2005. She figured her dream was out of reach since she couldn’t roller skate much and the hotshot Texans were already at an intimidatingly high skill level. A couple years later, she happened to rent a room in a Charlottesville house from Mad Mountin’ Mama, another of the Dames’ eventual founders, who, herself, first got geeked on derby after seeing the same team skate in Austin. Mama came across a handbill announcing a meeting of women trying to get the derby going in Charlottesville, and it was on.

“The meetings were in our house,” SparKills said. “The very organizational ‘can we do this?’ meetings were there. None of us had ever done derby. There were clips of it on YouTube. So Mama [who worked as a personal trainer] was training us, doing drills but not really knowing how they fit in with actual play. We were the blind leading the blind. It was a lot of jazz hands. It was, ‘Hey we’re doing roller derby,’ but we weren’t, really.”

“It took a year to find anywhere where we could skate,” Mama remembered. “We were going over to Staunton once a week, paying our money and skating in circles at the rink with everybody else. We couldn’t get them, for liability reasons, to host us.”

A couple of the other women kept poking around for a more private place to skate and came upon the National Guard Armory on Avon Street.

“We had it once a week for three hours,” Mama said. “So, it was kind of building from nothing. It was the passion that one or two girls had to keep it going.”

These days recruiting and workouts for fresh meat (the several-week introductory training and weeding out that all Dames go through) are held Downtown at the Key Recreation Center, but, for now, the team conducts its official practices in an isolated and decaying warehouse on the outskirts of town. Girls are fresh meat until they attain a certain skill level. Some girls do it in a month, others take a bit longer.

Puddles of water are scattered across the massive expanse of the warehouse’s concrete and dirt floor. The practice track is marked out on the smoothest section of concrete, and plastic sheeting hangs under the holes in the dilapidated ceiling where the rain comes in, deftly angled to keep the track dry. The I-beam stanchions in the infield area, which hold up the roof, are snuggly wrapped with mattresses, bound in place by duct tape. A ’60-something Ford Mustang collects grime in a far corner. Next to a pair of crutches against the wall hangs a white bed sheet that serves as a backdrop for photo sessions for the team’s website. From a laundry line dangle what at first blush appear to be ladies’ unmentionables, but turn out to be only similarly-sized jammer caps. Stand in the wrong corner too long in this cavernous sprawl and mosquitoes will suck you bloodless.

The Dames change from street clothes to practice gear sitting on the floor or on the hodgepodge of cushions and lawn furniture strewn about trackside. There are no showers, no lounge area near comfortable enough for the average adult to sit around for an extended, post-practice bullshit session.

Somehow, the Dames are at ease in this dank place, made homey by the smattering of discarded furniture they imported and by the easy way they catch up while they’re lacing their skates. Alas, they will soon lose their lease, as the property on which the warehouse sits will be reassigned to a more lucrative use.

Categories
News Uncategorized

Non-profit awards housing grants to police officers

If it weren’t for the Charlottesville Police Foundation, Charlottesville police officers Cory Culbreath and Robbie Oberholzer wouldn’t be living in the city they serve. Relatively low salaries and today’s harsh lending environment are making home ownership increasingly difficult for police officers and other public servants, forcing many to live in surrounding, less expensive counties. But with the help of $20,000 each from the CPF’s housing program, both officers recently made down payments on Charlottesville houses.

“Without the grant, I’d be in another county, definitely,” said Oberholzer, who recently used his $20,000 from the CPF to cover the down payment on a $225,000 home in the northern part of Charlottesville.

The CPF is a nonprofit made up of local citizens who help police officers acquire information and resources the city cannot provide. Since its inception in 2004, the foundation has provided supplemental training for officers, outreach to promote positive community relationships with police, an end-of-the-year awards banquet, various grants, and housing assistance. Initially, housing assistance consisted of banks and realtors providing financial and legal guidance to help officers purchase homes, but the program now includes a housing grant.

In 2009, the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation awarded the CPF a competitive grant of $75,000, which, in addition to funding other programs, catalyzed the first housing grants for police officers. Since receiving the initial check, the CPF has collected enough donations from residents and local businesses to fund housing grants for three officers whom otherwise would be forced to live outside the city.

According to the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, the median sale price for ahome within city limits is $257,000. With starting salaries on the force at $35,256, many Charlottesville officers can’t afford the sizable down payment required to get a mortgage in the city.

“Police officers get paid well, but if you don’t have a spouse who’s getting paid equally well or better, it’s tough to afford housing in Charlottesville,” said Oberholzer.

He said he hopes his presence, even while off-duty, will provide a sense of safety for his neighbors. Living close by not only offers security in the neighborhood, he said, but it allows him to build relationships that help him do his job more effectively.

According to CPF Executive Director Mindy Goodall, officers must meet certain prerequisites in order to apply for a housing grant. Qualifying applicants must be full-time, sworn-in officers recommended by each of their supervisors, and must have an income below 150 percent of the area median income.

Once approved, officers can choose any home in Charlottesville or within two miles of city limits—a freedom that Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo said is unusual for programs of this type.

Longo said federal programs provide similar funding for public servants, but often limit their scope to specific neighborhoods.

“We’re not trying to get cops in particular neighborhoods,” Longo said. “We’re just trying to connect them with the city they work in.”

Officer Culbreath has been with the Charlottesville Police Department for 13 years, and recently moved into a new home with his wife and their four children. After crowding into a townhouse for years, Culbreath and his family refer to their new house as a castle, and he said the whole process has been “amazing.”

“It gives you that much more appreciation for where you work, and makes you leave home smiling every day,” he said.

Categories
Arts

T.V.: “Project Runway,” “Bachelor Pad,” “Alphas”

“Project Runway” 
Thursday 9pm, Lifetime
It wasn’t long ago that I was bemoaning the state of this once-great fashion design show, but the charming “All Stars” spin-off did a lot to cleanse my Gretchen-and-Anya-stained palate (a second “All Stars” season is reportedly in the pipeline, by the way). Season 10 will feature 16 wannabe fashionistas vying to become the next great American fashion designer, and will feature the now-familiar team of Heidi Klum, Michael Kors, Nina Garcia, and Tim Gunn. One of the new designers is named Gunnar Deatherage. I can’t wait to hear how Tim and Heidi pronounce that one.

“Bachelor Pad” 
Monday 8pm, ABC
ABC’s “Bachelor” and its two spin-offs, “The Bachelorette” and this show, have emerged as the unlikely warhorse of the reality-TV mainstays. There have been a whopping 27 seasons between the three programs and they continue to pull in substantial viewership, especially for a decade-old franchise. It’s especially impressive when you consider that almost none of the relationships followed by the show have panned out, although a look through the various cast bios show an incredibly incestuous little world where former suitors from various seasons have since paired up in real life. Hence “Bachelor Pad,” a game show that gives these chiseled white folks another shot at “love,” but which also admits that these people mostly just want fame and money. In a twist this time around, among the 20 contestants will be five super fans who will join the largely awful former “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” contestants.

“Alphas” 
Monday 10pm, Syfy
If you’re a fan of the X-Men comics and movies, or still raw over how horribly bungled NBC’s “Heroes” turned out after that excellent first season, this Syfy drama might be up your alley. David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) plays a scientist/psychiatrist who becomes aware of the existence of people with extraordinary abilities. Much like Professor Xavier, he gathers these folks—one can heighten her senses at will, one has super reflexes, etc.—to help track down other so-called “alphas,” and to work with the government on covert cases. Season 2 is stocked with nerd-baiting guest stars like Sean Astin (Sam from Lord of the Rings, but always Mikey from Goonies to me), C. Thomas Howell (currently on the big screen in The Amazing Spider-Man), Lauren Holly, and Summer Glau, beloved by dorks but a certified showkiller (“Firefly,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” “Dollhouse,” “The Cape”).

Categories
News

Green Dot to tackle income inequality with job hub

On a recent sweltering July morning, Toan Nguyen and Fabian Kuttner stood in a vast basement in the IX complex on Second Street Southeast. As forklifts rumbled across the warehouse floor above them, they explained how the raw space could be a catalyst for change.

Despite its relative affluence, Charlottesville has an income gap problem, Nguyen said, and the way to close it is with jobs. The city needs a light industrial hub, a central spot where people can find meaningful work. Nguyen, an entrepreneur, and Kuttner, part owner and manager of IX, are among a number business-minded residents ready to make it happen with the Green Dot Cooperative, a partner-owned corporation that will steer jobs and wealth to where they’re needed most.

The effort is in its infancy, but it’s gaining key supporters. Kuttner is offering the IX warehouse at a low rent, and Charlottesville City Councilor Kathy Galvin brought a group of young architects onboard who are volunteering their time to design the space. Supporters feel like they’ve hit on a winning formula.

“It’s a deeper understanding of poverty, and a deeper understanding of how to end it,” Kuttner said.

The challenge was laid out last September in a report created by former Tom Perriello aide Ridge Schuyler and colleague Meg Hannan. Dubbed the Orange Dot Project, it tracked income disparities revealed by the newest census data. Among the city’s wealthier green-colored neighborhoods were pockets where the household incomes fell well below the city’s median—concentrations of poverty delineated by orange dots.

The cure, according to Schuyler and Hannan’s report, was employment. They envisioned a job hub that could act as both a bridge and a buffer by rallying lower-income entrepreneurs and workers around small businesses capable of winning big contracts with UVA and the City, while absorbing some of the risk inherent in doing business with small startups.

Toan Nguyen wasn’t willing to leave things there. The C’ville Coffee owner and Darden grad has already poured time and energy into finding ways to solve Charlottesville’s income inequality problem. This spring, he and partners kick-started the Community Investment Collaborative, a nonprofit that offers education and loans to low-income entrepreneurs. But organizing businesses is one problem. Winning major contracts is another.

Nguyen said local and state governments and UVA set aside big chunks of their budget for contracts with minority-owned businesses, and a cooperative corporation could capture a lot of those contracts and give the work to Charlottesville’s unemployed—many of them poor minorities.

The setup could solve a lot of the problems that often stymie startups, and create more jobs at the same time. “You have to scale it up,” he said. “But it’s doable.”

A brand new catering company would have a hard time getting hired by UVA, for instance, Nguyen said. But if people pooled their capital, built a shared commercial kitchen, and brought on a team of job-seekers, they could land big contracts and help their neighbors in the process.

“It provides stability; it provides insurance,” he said. “No matter what happens, you’ll fulfill that contract.”

Nguyen and his partners and supporters—Kuttner, Galvin, the businesses involved in CIC, and members of Charlottesville’s growning start-up community, including Darden School leaders—have named the corporation the Green Dot Cooperative, because it aims to turn the orange parts of Schuyler and Hannan’s map green. It doesn’t yet have a board or a CEO. But thanks to Kuttner, it has a home, and there’s a talented team working to give it shape.
The Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects’ Emerging Leaders in Architecture program, which each year gives up-and-comers the chance to work on a design challenge somewhere in the Commonwealth, is focusing on turning part of the IX space into the kitchen Nguyen said will be a key first step in launching Green Dot.

Eventually, the warehouse could also house textile production, woodworking, and computer repair enterprises. Before that, there needs to be a business plan, and that’s going to require time and money.

But Nguyen is working to build interest in the idea among public officials, UVA leaders, and members of the business community, from potential big investors to the entrepreneurs who might soon be co-op members.

Bernard Whitsett II, a financial consultant, chair of the local Minority Business Council, and a Green Dot supporter, said getting the people who will benefit most to buy in will be a challenge—but a winnable one.

Whitsett grew up in the 10th and Page community, one of the city’s historically black neighborhoods and a spot that remains stubbornly orange on the income gap map. He said it can be hard to convince people that building wealth isn’t a zero sum game.

“We have to bring this before a lot of different folks,” he said. “You have to allow people to see the vision.”

Nguyen has vision in abundance. He sees potential, he said—in the dusty warehouse, and in the neighborhoods Green Dot wants to empower.

“I’m so excited about what this can be,” he said.

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Charlottesville chef to spotlight saving salmon habitat

More than 4,000 miles away in Bristol Bay, Alaska, a Canadian mining company has been seeking the go-ahead to create North America’s biggest open-pit mine in a search for gold and copper. But the bay is also the site of the world’s largest sockeye salmon harvest. Forty million of the fish come home to the bay in the crook of the Alaskan Peninsula each year to spawn in their native rivers. The area supplies half the sockeye salmon consumed worldwide and supports 12,000 fishing-related jobs.

That’s why Bryan Szeliga, chef at Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar Restaurant on West Main Street, is working with more than 50 other restaurants nationwide in a “Savor Bristol Bay” event, in which restaurants serve dishes featuring Bristol Bay salmon in order to open up the conversation and raise awareness about the issue of conservation on the far-off coast.
“Copper affects the way salmon smells, and they smell to get back to their breeding ground,” Szeliga said. Mine wastewater containing traces of copper could end up in the bay, many worry, and threaten the sustainability of the salmon population.

The Environmental Protection Agency is currently working on a Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment to analyze how future mining would affect the area, and a final assessment is set to be released in November.

So why should it matter to Virginians? For starters, the salmon coming out of Bristol Bay is the best nature has to offer, Szeliga said—better tasting and better for you than farmed Atlantic fish. And while eating Bristol Bay sockeye salmon in order to save the fish may seem counterintuitive, the argument has merit, Szeliga said.

“In this case, I believe the expression ‘voting with your fork’ really applies,” Szeliga said. “If people eat Bristol Bay salmon, it’s going to raise awareness. People will be eating a domestic, sustainable, wild product.”

It’s already happening with some seafood products, he said.

“If chefs in Alaska, Portland, and San Francisco are buying soft-shell crab to support the ecosystem in the Chesapeake Bay, we can support our West Coast counterparts,” Szeliga said. “People forget about the effects things have so far away, but it affects so many people and livelihoods.”

Szeliga said if Bristol Bay is mined and the sockeye fish are not available to chefs and consumers anymore, Americans will have to get their wild salmon from even further away—Russia, home to the next largest wild salmon fishery. Importing from overseas would raise more issues about cost and transportation.

Much of the discussion of sustainability in our food systems focuses on eating local. But Szeliga and others are asking people to take a step back, and cast a wider net.

“What is ‘sustainable’ and ‘local?’” he asked. “Is it a state line? One hundred miles? What makes something local, and does that outweigh a livelihood and anthropology?”
Join the movement. Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar will be serving lunch specials with Bristol Bay salmon from Monday, June 23 through Saturday, June 28.—Ana Mir