Month: February 2013

Categories
News

Virginia’s senate Republicans play hardball

State Capitol Building, Richmond Virginia
Virginia's Capitol Building in Richmond. File photo.

It says a great deal about the current state of Virginia’s body politic that some idiot with a loaded AR-15 walks into a local Kroger and it barely rates a mention. Indeed, as much as we would like to pen an entire column dedicated to the minuscule size of this particular individual’s brain and manhood, we have bigger fish to fry.

And those fish, if you haven’t been paying attention, all currently reside on the Republican side of the aisle in Virginia’s State Senate.

The latest mishegoss started all the way back on Martin Luther King Day, when Virginia’s Senate Republicans used the absence of Senator (and noted civil rights lawyer) Henry Marsh, who was in Washington, D.C. for President Obama’s inauguration, to ram through a partisan redistricting scheme that cynically used the creation of a new majority black district to tilt the rest of the Commonwealth’s districts even more in the Republicans’ favor.

Now, the last time a state legislature successfully steamrolled the opposition to push through a partisan mid-decade redistricting was in 2003, when Texas Republicans—under the leadership of eventual “Dancing with the Stars” dropout and convicted felon Tom DeLay—redrew the Lone Star state’s districts to heavily favor team red.

But Virginia’s newly frisky Republican senators weren’t content to stop there. Two days after approving the redistricting plan, the elephants advanced a bill that would end Virginia’s winner-take-all electoral voting system and replace it with a scheme that would award one electoral vote for each district won, and then grant the remaining two electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate had carried the most districts.

As many people have noted, this cockamamie plan, combined with the newly drawn district lines, would make it almost impossible for a Democrat to win a majority of Virginia’s 13 electoral votes. In fact, had the proposed system been in place last year, President Obama would have received only four electoral votes despite winning 51 percent of the popular vote. (Incredibly, as pointed out by Paul Bibeau on his blog Goblinbooks, this crazy state of affairs would have resulted in Obama votes being worth approximately 3/5 of their true value. Sound familiar?)

The question is, will any of this extreme legislative action actually make it to Governor McDonnell’s desk? And if it does, will he sign it? As of this writing, things are not looking good for the GOP’s scheming senators. The electoral college reapportionment bill is dead in the water, and the redistricting plan is facing a number of hurdles in the House, where the Republican majority has been continually delaying action as members review the changes.

And even if it does make it out of the House, there’s still no guarantee that McDonnell will sign off on it. He’s already on record calling the shady senate machinations “very troubling,” while his second in command, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, is openly hostile to the legislation.

But the biggest problem may be that Virginia’s legislature doesn’t have a single, larger-than-life figure who can cajole, bully, and threaten his colleagues into passing truly unconscionable bills. Man, where’s Tom DeLay when you need him?

Oh yeah, that’s right: He’s on his way to prison.

Categories
Living

Sticky business: Maple syrup pours onto local menus

Get your syrup fix with the chestnut cheesecake from tavola. Photo: Elli Williams

With days this cold and dark, a little trickle of sweetness goes a long way to cure a mean case of cabin fever. But reserving syrup for breakfast is selling the elixir short. These places around town are seeing the forest through the trees (and they’re not just maple) by treating us to syrup in everything from beginnings to endings.

Belly up to the bar at Glass Haus Kitchen for inventive snacks like “animal crackers”—southern fried chicken skin and crispy pigs’ ears lacquered with a smoky glaze of Virginia hickory syrup, housemade red wine vinegar, and bourbon.

The piggies don’t need a blanket at Brookville Restaurant, where smoked Surry sausages snuggle up to mustard and Virginia maple syrup for a combination that hits every taste bud, and then some.

Local maple syrup goes gourmet at Fleurie Restaurant in a parfait of Polyface Farm chicken liver and foie gras where the hint of sweetness—along with the acidity and crunch of a grape, almond, and celery salad —tempers the dish’s utter (albeit welcome) unctuousness.

At the C&O, an appetizer of poached Maine lobster gets bathed in a vanilla Chardonnay butter before it’s perched atop chive blinis and anointed with Virginia maple syrup.

The authentically Italian-sized portions at tavola are a blessing when you realize you have room for the chestnut cheesecake, with its crushed amaretti crust and drizzle of mugolio —an Italian syrup made from pine cone buds.

When you can’t decide between another beer or dessert, Horse & Hound Gastropub solves the dilemma by pairing a vanilla porter ice cream-topped warm maple bread pudding with Breckenridge Brewery Vanilla Porter.

Barking up a different tree
While the maple syrup industry’s busy harvesting xylem sap from sugar, red, or black maples, Joyce and Travis Miller are foraging for hickory bark in Berryville, Virginia.

About a year and a half ago, the couple discovered that roasting hickory bark, extracting its flavor, and adding it to a turbinado sugar-based reduction would create a syrup that lends itself to both sweet and savory preparations.

Once only at farmers’ markets, now Wildwood’s Hickory Syrup is sold to our area restaurants through the Local Food Hub as well as to retailers like Relay Foods, C’ville Market, Rebecca’s Natural Food, Yoder’s Sugar and Spice, and Greenwood Gourmet.

The original makes a woodsy glaze for salmon, the vanilla bean gracefully gilds a torchon of foie gras, and the brandy-infused vanilla adds a solid swirl of indulgence to your morning bowl of oats.

Frosted flakes
For the neat-nicks who’d rather not deal with sticky bottle tops and fingers, get your maple fix in flake form at The Spice Diva. An ounce costs $5, but just a sprinkle delivers the same 100 percent pure maple punch as a hearty pour of the sticky stuff.

Liquid gold
Why is pure maple syrup so much more expensive than Mrs. Butterworth’s? The maple season is only four to six weeks long and it takes 40 gallons of boiled down sap (from at least four different trees) to make one gallon of the real McCoy. Its grade, A or B, depends on density and translucency. The lightest of the bunch even get to add “fancy” to their title.

Sap happy
Maple trees aren’t tapped until they are at least four years old and 10″ in diameter.
Freezing by night and thawing by day are the ideal conditions for sap flow.
A tablespoon of maple syrup has about the same number of calories as a tablespoon of white cane sugar (50 calories), but also contains potassium, iron, phosphorus, and B-vitamins.
You can freeze an opened container of maple syrup for long-term storage.
Quebec produces about 75 percent of the world’s maple syrup. Vermont? About 5.5 percent.

Categories
Arts

A double debut at the Tea Bazaar for art rock bands with familiar voices

The Great Dads (from left: Scott Ritchie, Steve Snider, Matt Northrup and Adam Smith) give birth to some of the most precocious experimental rock in town.

Charlottesville music fans know Adam Smith as the front man for his namesake band The Invisible Hand, whose ability to knock out punchy, dense art-rock songs filled with hidden pop hooks has made it the best rock band in town. But for as long as he’s led that band, Smith has also indulged in a wide variety of side projects, collaborations, and solo material, revealing the depth of his taste and talent. 

Smith can cover any territory from minimalist synthesizer drones to sludgy art metal. He also has a habit of re-using band names, meaning that even the most dedicated listeners can be surprised when one of Smith’s groups appears on a bill. For several years Great Dads was an all-synthesizer duo, but in 2011 Smith re-imagined the act as a punk group. Playing guitar and singing, Smith was joined by mega-talented drummer Steve Snider. Though they play sporadically, the duo rips through abrasive sets of raw, chaotic punk songs, crackling with furious energy and enlivened by Smith and Snider’s wild, improvisational riffing.

“There’s no direct relation between those bands,” Smith said. “Great Dads has always just been a name I use for the stuff that doesn’t fit under the Invisible Hand moniker. I definitely think of it as a side-project. Which is nice, because you don’t need to invest so much emotional energy into it. It alleviates the burden of worrying about any sort of stress about ‘success.’ I think it would be nice if somebody wanted to put out my album, but I’m not gonna cry if that doesn’t happen.”

The current line-up finds Smith and Snider joined by Scott Ritchie and Matt Northrup. Smith claims to take inspiration from free jazz, in addition to a number of rock sub-genres, but I pointed out that his simple, raw bursts of punk noise energy are miles apart from the modal and melodic complexities of jazz music.

“We’re improvising based on timbre, texture, and dynamics,” Smith explained. “It doesn’t have to be terribly melodically complex for it to be a catchy tune. Part of what I take from jazz is the idea that you can capture a certain feeling in a saxophone part —the texture and sound can express a concept like ‘I love you’ without having to spell it out in words. Or it can be ‘I hate you,’ or whatever idea you want to express.”

The Great Dads full line-up will debut this week at the Tea Bazaar along with another mercurial act, Mingsley & Mulshine.

In just under two years, Dylan Mulshine left a huge mark on Charlottesville music. A tiny, bespectacled teenager with boundless energy who emerged seemingly out of nowhere, Mulshine was suddenly an unavoidable presence. Calling himself the Rhythm Bandit, Mulshine played solo percussion and drums through an array of loops and samplers, improvising every show and performing on a semi-weekly basis because he lacked a practice space. Mulshine somehow talked his way into opening act slots for many respectable and well-established musicians, in addition to booking dozens of poorly organized house shows himself, often performing in collaborations or under a relentless array of pseudonyms, including Raw Moans, Krull, Teen Dreams, and Babygirl Pussycat. While his talent was undeniable, his sets often veered into immature provocation, and when he departed Charlottesville last winter, he left behind a legacy that included many brilliant performances, a few broken promises, and a lot of broken furniture.

Mulshine spent the past year in New York, playing warehouse shows of dubious pedigree and living with indie-
underground superstar Dustin Wong, while recording a full-length album for a French tape label under the name Nü Depth. He recently returned to Charlottesville, and has (somewhat inevitably) begun collaborating with John Mingsley.

Mingsley is a more recent transplant, a Roanoke native who came to Charlottesville after attending the Berklee College of Music, where he majored in cello performance. Mingsley shares Mulshine’s endless enthusiasm and scatterbrained energy, balanced by an impressively encyclopedic knowledge of film and music. Friday’s concert will be their live debut as a duo.

“It’s me sampling John, basically,” Mulshine explained. “His scholastic background helps out on that angle—he’s formally trained, so he can play these really complicated parts that I can’t play. I have a different sense of rhythm, since I’m self-taught. It’s a weird dichotomy, we’re still trying to find a groove.”

Mulshine said the duo’s original point of inspiration (for their name as well as their aesthetic) was Fripp & Eno, the pair of early ’70s albums by Brian Eno and King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. “That’s what we’ve agreed on, when we’re talking about music we like,” Mulshine says. “It’s our middle ground. So we’re trying to be the new age of Frippertronics. Frippertronics for the 21st century.”

According to Mingsley, the band’s sound is “Almost orchestra—very cinematic kind of stuff, like Vangelis. It’s also pretty Steve Reich-y, like his early tape experiments, but sort of mixed in with his more melodic stuff. I’m approaching it from a pure melodic standpoint, while [Mulshine] is almost entirely approaching it from an avant-
garde standpoint.”

Mingsley & Mulshine and the full quartet line-up of Great Dads play at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar on Thursday, Feburary 7, along with Brooklyn-based PC Worship. Doors at 8pm and the tickets are $5.

 

Categories
The Editor's Desk

Editor’s Note: A word on the American dream

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” So go the familiar lines of “The New Colossus,” a parochial sonnet that found its way inside the Statue of Liberty, redefining her mission. They were written by Emma Lazarus, a Sephardic Jew of Portuguese descent, who was a pen-pal of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s and a poetic proponent of the Zionist movement before it caught fire.

There are the words and then there is the context. The words live forever the way they were written, while the context is rewritten over and over on the unmarking surface of memory.

I lived in New York City for a couple of years just out of college. I don’t know whether it was the waiting and catering gigs, the soccer game in the Sheep’s Meadow, or the simple fact of the city, but I collected compatriots from all over the world whom my prep school friends from down I-95 somewhat pejoratively called “the sentimental foreigners.”

As a map-gazing child, I was more fascinated by the parti-color, puzzle-pieced shapes of West Africa or Central Asia than any lesson. Like x’s on a treasure map, each outline screamed, “Here be stories.” The sentimental foreigners had all come to the U.S. for the hustle and opportunity our country affords, and they all missed home. Towards the end of the night, the stories poured out in honey-colored nostalgia, which is why my erudite friends teased me… and also why I listened so closely.

This week’s cover story on Charlottesville’s refugee community barely scratches the surface of its collective experience. It’s a partial story, just like the ones I used to listen to with rapt attention. In a funny way, it was those stories that sent me into the heart of America, searching for its soul. Our country is cursed in this way: Our culture, our dream, our identity is so fractured that it relies on words to define it. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So we live with a truth Ken Kesey wrote down before his inkwell dried up: “I have to offer more than I can deliver, To be able to deliver what I do.”

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Patricia Barber Quartet

Hailing from the Chicago jazz scene and boasting over three decades of work, Patricia Barber is quite possibly a legend in the making. Photo credit: Jimmy Katz.

Be bop not doo wop

Jazz is a genre for individualists, so to be considered a maverick in the community requires a rarefied virtue. The Patricia Barber Quartet’s titular namesake lives up to that impressive reputation. As a vocalist, she is instantly recognizable; as a pianist and composer, she is widely hailed as one of the most imaginative on the scene today; and as a poet, her lyrics have a reputation for stirring up vibrant imagery and bold, haunting concepts.

Tuesday 2/5 $15-20, 8pm. Old Cabell Hall, UVA. 249-6191.

Categories
News

Site prep for future Wegmans shopping center scrutinized

Fifth Street Station
Developers hope to start construction of the Fifth Street Station shopping center—which will include a Wegmans grocery store—as early as the end of this year. Image courtesy of River Bend Management.

Plans for a shopping center with a Wegmans grocery store just south of Charlottesville are marching forward, despite recommendations of caution from staff and the qualms of some neighbors.

Last week, the Albemarle County Planning Commission gave its stamp of approval to a special use permit allowing developers to fill in parts of the site that lie close to Moore’s Creek. As County Engineer Glenn Brooks explained it, the developers—a team headed by Coran Capshaw’s River Bend Management, Inc.—wanted local approval to add fill dirt to areas in the floodplain and floodway of Moore’s Creek, which surrounds the property on three sides.

Putting fill in the floodway is prohibited by zoning regulations, said Brooks. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a stake in making sure it doesn’t happen, because the agency is in charge of the National Flood Insurance Program, and is on the hook for damage caused by poorly managed waterways. Those making a case to put dirt in the danger zone must convince FEMA, which determines where floodway lines lie, to amend its maps.

That’s what the developers plan to do, said Valerie Long, a Williams-Mullen attorney representing the 5th Street Station team.

“These maps are based on aerial topography,” Long said. “They give you a rough idea,” but they’re often imprecise or out of date, and FEMA knows it, so it’s typical to see developers petitioning the agency to update its definition of this floodway or that one.

The argument convinced the Commission to give the O.K., pending FEMA approval, and the fate of the plan is now in the hands of the Board of Supervisors. Developers must go through several more stages of project review before breaking ground in late 2013—a date Brooks called ambitious but not impossible. But those who live next door to the future shopping center want to let developers and officials alike know they’re watching closely.

Joan Albiston, a landscape architect whose home in the Willoughby neighborhood off 5th Street Extended backs up to the development site, said locals’ feelings on the new center are mixed. Some are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the promised high-end grocery store, and Albiston said the developers’ promise to line 5th Street to Avon Extended with a cut-through road—the Bent Creek Parkway—was welcome news for residents tired of having no direct route to Belmont.

Still, she said, “there are a fair number of us that like living here, and don’t complain about the lack of shopping. People have bought here because it’s close to town, and yet it’s got a lot of woodland around it, a lot of protection.”

The coming development promises to eliminate a lot of that tree buffer, she said, and some of the peace and quiet of the neighborhood, too. Many are concerned a much-used footpath owned by the Willoughby Neighborhood Association that follows the horseshoe bend of the creek all the way to what is destined to become Biscuit Run State Park will be more exposed, and may end up getting unwanted extra traffic.

“I do think that we’re going to get more light back there, more noise back there,” Albiston said. But she said she knew the land across the creek was destined for development when she bought her house four years ago, and she understands that progress is progress.
“I know if developers don’t make it work, then they’re not making a living,” she said. “I know that their intent is to do well. I just want them to constantly be aware that this is important to us—the well-being of Moores Creek and the well-being of our backyard.”

Some are pushing harder. Mike Meintzschel, a 20-year Willoughby resident, has posted a series of videos to YouTube with footage of the creek flowing through proposed fill areas. He pointed out one fill area includes a small, flowing tributary, and contends the development will negatively impact an already eroded and compromised Moores Creek. He’s passed along links to all his documentation to the Board of Supervisors, and hopes they’ll spark further discussion.

“The process needs to become totally transparent, so the Board can ask the right questions,” he said.

Brooks said county officials are in ongoing conversations with residents. But for now, the focus is squarely on FEMA and the floodplain. The project planning is, by nature, a piecemeal process, he said, “but certainly the environmental considerations will come into play.”

Categories
News

Martha Jefferson site to welcome new tenant: C’ville biotech firm HemoShear

HemoShear at old Martha Jefferson Hospital site
Renovations of the former Martha Jefferson hospital are in full swing, and the most recently announced tenant, biotech firm HemoShear, says it plans to beat initial site partner CFA Institute to its ribbon cutting. Photo by Elli Williams.

The former Martha Jefferson Hospital campus stands to get another shot in the arm in the coming weeks.

HemoShear, a Charlottesville biotech company that helps drug manufacturers more accurately simulate human environments, said January 22 it plans to become the site’s next tenant. The announcement comes on the heels of the CFA Institute beginning construction on the former hospital’s South Wing last November.

HemoShear said it has reached an agreement with property owner Octagon Partners to lease 14,800 square feet for its laboratory and commercial offices on the top floor of the Cardwell Center, located on the northeast side of the four-square-block lot. The company is eyeing a mid-2013 move-in, pending the outcome of a February 12 city council hearing on its special use permit for a 4,000-plus square foot medical laboratory. If it meets the deadline, HemoShear will beat CFA to the neighborhood by several months.

“We would like to [begin construction] as quickly as possible,” said Nicole Hastings, HemoShear’s vice president of operations. “We’re actively working to get in there.”

HemoShear is actively working on a lot of things. Currently headquartered in the Fry’s Spring area, the company was founded in 2008 to bring to market an invention by University of Virginia professors Brett Blackman and Brian Wamhoff: a man-made vascular system that recreates conditions in the human body, offering a proving ground for drugs and other medical technologies.

“A lot of testing that is being done by pharmaceutical companies uses animal models or very naïve cell-based systems,” Hastings said. “They are not recreating what’s going on in a human. We are as close to a human as you can be.”

While Hastings said HemoShear has some competition for recreating certain organ systems, the company has grown quickly and become a leader in the field of human mimicry. Its efforts were rewarded last December when three of its executives were named winners of the Center for Innovative Technology’s GAP 50 Entrepreneur Awards, given to individuals in Virginia-based companies with high growth and job creation potential. Hence the need for a new home.

“Our primary goal in moving into this space was that it would allow us to continue to grow down the line,” Hastings said. “It’s not predictable, but every year we have just about doubled in size.”

On the other side of the lot from Hemo-Shear’s future offices, CFA’s renovation of the former Martha Jefferson South Wing is in full swing. The top three floors of the property’s tallest structure, the Patterson building, have been gutted, and the sounds of heavy construction can be heard in the surrounding neighborhood from dawn to dusk —the zip of a power saw at 7:30 a.m., the crunch of full-scale demolition at 3:15 p.m.

Unlike HemoShear, CFA now owns its chunk of the property outright and is helping fund the renovations with a 50 percent property tax break granted by the city in exchange for bringing 400 jobs with a minimum average salary of $75,000 into Charlottesville. CFA spokesperson Sarah Jane Purvis said the company had no updates on the timeline it announced last November, when it said construction would be completed in the fall of 2013, and declined to comment on the arrival of a new tenant. The institute has delayed its projected move-in date by about six months since it purchased the property in June 2011.

Others involved in the renovation confirmed construction is moving forward as planned. Living Machine, a Charlottesville-based company tapped to develop a green wastewater treatment system for CFA’s new LEED-certified structure, said it had no reason to believe the project was anything other than on track to meet the new timeline. The company is “just waiting for the right stage of construction” before installing its system, according to Will Kirksey, Living Machine’s global development officer.

Mark Mascotte, a commercial real estate broker for MFM Partners LLC who administered the agreement between HemoShear and Octagon, agreed CFA’s renovation appeared to be “ripping along and right on schedule.”

“They are completely retrofitting that entire [space], so it will take some time,” Mascotte said. “It is going to be a beautiful building and a spectacular headquarters. They are a perfect user for that site.”

For HemoShear’s part, Hastings said CFA’s progress was of little concern—the two renovations are completely different projects on different timelines.

“We look forward to seeing the entire space,” Hastings said. “But we are not worried about other groups.”

If all goes well for HemoShear on February 12, the company’s move into the old Cardwell Center will effectively end the debate about how the center, which had been rumored to be earmarked for a hotel, will be used going forward.

“The [former] Cardwell Center will be a multi-tenant commercial office,” Mascotte said.

The only remaining variables for Martha Jefferson’s repurposing appear to be related to the Rucker building, which Mascotte said most likely will be used for rental apartments, and any additional residents of the Cardwell Center.

“We have two or three tenants interested,” Mascotte said. “We’re hoping to have continued success and build on the Hemo-
Shear lease to get good people in there.”

Mascotte would not disclose the names of the prospective tenants but called them “large square foot users.” The available square footage could be limited by the growth of HemoShear though, as the company will have first right of refusal on additional space in the building before other businesses move in.

For now, walking north on Locust Avenue from High Street is a bit like going from the emergency room to the morgue, as the busy sounds of construction give way to the faded lettering of “Cardwell Center” on the entrance of the north-side building.

The one sign of life is a bill advertising the upcoming hearing on HemoShear’s special use permit.

“We are still awaiting approval,” Hastings said. “But we do not [expect] it will hold us back from moving forward with construction.”—Shea Gibbs

Categories
News

Immigrant story

Dilyara Asanova and her husband Ilkholm Muzzafarov, with their children (left to right) Muzaffar, Elef, and Ilyas. Photo: Christian Hommel

Charlottesville is home to one of 22 offices of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a nonprofit that works with agencies overseas to resettle individuals and families fleeing conflict in their home countries. Of the roughly 14 million people around the world classified as refugees, only about 1 percent get the opportunity to start their lives over in a new country.

The IRC resettled close to 7,500 of last year’s federal government immigration quota of 60,000, and it aims to resettle 200 per year in Charlottesville. Groups like the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration work directly with families in refugee camps and help them begin the long process of interviews, medical screenings, background and security checks, and connect them with the IRC to begin their new lives.

Tin Tin Nyo missed out on two years of her kids’ lives for standing up to the Burmese government. While her husband traveled to and from Singapore as a merchant and welder and her three children fended for themselves, Tin Tin was starved, beaten, and threatened in prison.

“They tortured me mentally and physically, and it got harder each time,” said Nyo, whose son Aung Kaing translated. “Those were the worst moments of my life.”

After two years in a refugee camp in Thailand, Tin Tin Nyo now lives a quiet life with her family in Charlottesville. She and her husband speak minimal English and often find themselves living paycheck to paycheck. But they’re no longer in constant fear of persecution, and they’re watching their youngest son work through college and chase the American dream.

The process of getting to the U.S. takes years for many refugees, according to IRC Charlottesville’s Lucy Carrigan.

“There has to be a real willingness and determination on the part of the refugee to make that transition,” Carrigan said.

Once they’re here, the relocated refugees immediately face a new battle: finding jobs to support their families as non-native English speakers who don’t know the area. The minute they arrive, the clock is ticking, because they only get six months of financial help from the IRC.

Harriet Kuhr, executive director of the IRC in Charlottesville, said refugees tend to come to the U.S. in waves. When the office first opened in the late 1990s, most families came from the Balkans. The early 2000s brought large groups of Meskhetian Turks from Russia. These days, the bulk of the IRC’s refugees arrive from Iraq and central Asian countries like Bhutan and Burma.
Refugees come to the U.S. with different kinds of American dreams, but the IRC’s immediate goal for them is financial independence. With limited federal and state funding to provide ongoing support, the organization focuses first and foremost on helping resettled adults find work.

“The resettlement program is very much based on the refugees becoming self-sufficient in a very short period of time,” Carrigan said. “So the real first priority is to help find them that first job, which can be tough. Even if you come to this country with English and an education, it’s hard to find a job.”

Ilkhom Muzzafarov, an Uzbeki by birth who spent 17 years in the war-torn Russian region of Chechnya before coming to Charlottesville, is thrilled to work at Whole Foods as a department supervisor—a job many Americans wouldn’t consider very glamorous. He hopes to eventually go back to school, but working and supporting his family in a safe country is enough for now.
For Muzzafarov, the challenges he’s faced and sacrifices he’s made are well worth the life he’s been able to make for himself and his family in the U.S., and everything he’s encountered here seems inconsequential compared to what he dealt with back home.

“Here, problems are not the same as Russian problems,” he said.

Categories
News

Boyd calls on Dumler to step down in wake of plea deal

Chris Dumler. Photo: John Robinson

Albemarle County Supervisor Chris Dumler pled guilty to misdemeanor sexual battery last Thursday, in a bargain with prosecutors that lessened his felony charge to a misdemeanor.

After his October arrest for forcible sodomy—a felony punishable by five years to life in prison—the 27-year-old Democrat promised to offer a “vigorous defense.” Albemarle County voters looking forward to obtaining a measure of clarity about Dumler’s conduct will be disappointed by the outcome, but the Scottsville supervisor claims he took the deal so he could resume his work on their behalf.

“One of the reasons I took this plea was so I could get right back to work for the people of the Scottsville District,” he said. “This plea in no way precludes me from continuing to serve, and I look forward to getting back to the work of the Board and the citizens who elected me to represent their interests.”

Last week’s speedy hearing in Albemarle County Circuit Court resulted in a 30-day jail sentence. Three witnesses were subpoenaed for the hearing, but nobody took the stand, and Judge William Barkley made his decision within minutes. If the regional jail accepts Dumler’s request, he will serve his jail time on weekends beginning March 8.

Reactions to the decision varied. Fellow Board member, Rivanna district Republican Ken Boyd, called on Dumler to resign from the position he’s held only since January of last year.

“Quite honestly, I think the honorable thing to do would be to step down from his position,” said Boyd.

Boyd said he can’t get past the fact that his co-worker, a public official, hurt people with his actions.

“We’ve got to remember that there are victims in this case. I’m having trouble just sort of ignoring that,” he said. “The victim is not Mr. Dumler. It’s the people who brought these accusations.”

The deal left many questions unanswered. While special prosecutor Jeff Haislip said it’s common for defendants to plead guilty to a misdemeanor to avoid a felony trial, public servants are normally held to a higher standard of moral disclosure.

“[H]ow can he possibly think the people of Scottsville STILL WANT him representing them?” a commenter wrote on
C-VILLE’s most recent story about Dumler.

The first victim, a woman Dumler knew and admitted to being sexually involved with, accused him of forcing unwanted anal sex on her. According to legal documents, two more women came forward days before the hearing, accusing Dumler of repeated sexual abuse. Neither he nor defense attorney Andrew Sneathern confirmed whether the new accusations expedited the process, but as part of the plea bargain prosecutors will not press charges against Dumler in those two cases.

“The Commonwealth agrees not to bring criminal charges in cases involving the two additional complainants now known to the Commonwealth,” the agreement states. “The Commonwealth will not use any evidence or information obtained in the course of this investigation to prosecute Defendant further, nor bring any additional criminal charges regarding any other known potential victim.”

The agreement also states that Dumler must exhibit “good behavior” for the next two years and avoid contact with the victims named in the case. In addition, he is to undergo a psychosexual evaluation by Dr. Jeffrey Fracher to determine future counseling or medication, and perhaps most interesting, was required to issue a public apology for his actions.

Dumler’s apology came hours after the hearing:

“While I am pleased to have this matter completed, it is very important that I apologize to the complainant in this case,” he said. “I am profoundly sorry for any hurt that my actions caused her. Additionally, to the others who were hurt or disappointed by my behavior, to them I humbly apologize.”

Despite concern from some residents and Board members, at least one of his colleagues said he respected Dumler’s decision to remain on the Board.

Fellow Democrat and attorney Dennis Rooker said he saw no difference in Dumler’s effectiveness as a Board member since the arrest, and he hopes everyone can move forward.

“When the charges were brought against him, I was concerned with how it might affect his performance,” Rooker said. “I have watched him very carefully for the past several months, and I haven’t seen his performance diminish. And I would expect that having this behind him now would help.”

As for Dumler’s future as a politician—in Albemarle or otherwise—Rooker said he’s young and has time to be forgiven. Politicians have had legal run-ins for years, he said, and still managed to prove themselves worthy leaders.

“The longer you have to prove that, the more chance that ultimately the public will judge you based on what is happening today, not what you did in the past,” Rooker said. “Having this resolved is good for Chris, and it’s good for the Board.”

Whether or not Rooker’s explanation is good enough for Albemarle voters remains to be seen, and Dumler has just under three years left in his term as Supervisor.

Categories
Living

Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day: This week’s restaurant news

File photo.

What do you do when you’re faced with Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day in a single week? And how will your liver and stomach react after dueling back-to-back Restaurant Weeks? Here are your choices:

a) Stay home and cook.
b) Order take-out and keep it simple.
c) Dress up in costume to go out and eat and drink some more.

The answer? For a true Southerner, it’s obviously C. Here are a few ways to celebrate.

Devils Backbone Brewery is hosting a Mardi Gras-themed costume party on Tuesday, February 12, for those who aren’t feeling especially romantic. It’s also the perfect opportunity for those choosing to beat the Valentine’s Day crowds while satisfying their craft beer craving. If you’re confident enough to don a costume, the brewery will reward you with a gift. Plus, you’ll find a just-added cigar and whiskey lounge. What could be more (less?) romantic than that?

For those seeking quality bubbles on February 13 beginning at 7pm, head down the road to Blue Mountain Brewery, where you can enjoy a civilized and mouthwatering Valentine’s Day beer dinner led by brewmaster Taylor Smack. Each of the five courses will be paired with a thoughtfully chosen specialty beer.

If you and your beloved prefer a casual pizza dinner, you can have that too. The brewery will serve up heart-shaped pizza pies on Valentine’s Day. For more information, e-mail events@bluemountainbrewery.com.

For a truly special Valentine’s dinner, we recommend visiting Chef James Harris at Zynodoa in Staunton. He’s created an innovative farm-sourced tasting menu with wine pairing options not to be overlooked. His distinctive menu spans from raw oysters to smoked trout to skewered lamb kebobs. The restaurant has also created a unique cocktail, aptly named eat.drink.love, to commemorate the evening. Dinner is $65 per person, plus $32 with wine pairings. Make reservations by calling (540) 885-7775.