Once again the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association (BRHBA) is excited to offer this year’s much anticipated Parade of Homes where local builders put their very best product on display. As always Parade goers will enjoy a close-up look at a variety of home styles, prices and locations and learn about cutting-edge technologies like the latest and best energy saving ideas, the newest floor plans, and the most current color schemes and amenities.
This year’s parade features 38 homes from 18 different builders a nice increase from last year reflecting today’s active new construction market. In addition, Parade goers can check out three neighborhoods on display and visit Southern Development Homes Design Center to see what is new in the way of counter tops, cabinets, floors, fixtures and carpet and get advice from professional designers onsite during the event.
The Parade is free, open to the public and everyone is invited to join in the fun. Even if you are not planning to buy or build anytime soon, come and enjoy the best of the best local craftsmanship and learn what is new. Planning to renovate your current home? The Parade is also a great way to get ideas about creative ways to upgrade your insulation, replace your kitchen cabinets, build an addition, upgrade old inefficient appliances, and much more.
Bring your questions and don’t be shy about engaging both site agents and builders who will be on hand with answers and great advice about what is new and what might work best in your house. If you are ready to build, they can also advise as to which of their homes and communities would be a good fit. Look forward to spending a relaxed couple of weekends visiting homes and neighborhoods with family and friends all at the 53rd Annual Parade of Homes.
The Parade runs from noon to 5 p.m. on two consecutive weekends, Saturday and Sunday, October 1 & 2, 8 & 9. Look for information in the Parade of Homes Magazine in the CAAR Real Estate Weekly prior to the Parade weekends, or online at the BRHBA website and Parade of Homes Facebook page, or find it at C-VILLE Weekly and the Daily Progress.
Make the Most of Your Parade Experience Plan your Parade experience online with a visit to the map located in the centerfold of the Parade of Homes Magazine. The map is divided into four areas with homes identified by number, address and the builder’s name. Each home also has its own page with the name of the builder, the site agent and more information including floor plans. Then enjoy visiting a variety of homes in a range of price points and styles so that you can get an idea of what is available and have the opportunity to talk to different builders and their site agents all in an afternoon or two.
There is a real mixture of people who attend the Parade, and all are welcome. Some, explained Kristin Sorokti, BRHBA’s Executive Director, are people moving to Charlottesville who need a home they can move into right away. Others have plans to renovate their existing home and want ideas to make the most of what they have. Still others have plans to build a custom home and are looking at what different builders have to offer in the way of unique styles and floor plans.
Parade visitors looking for ideas should plan to visit as many homes as possible, and be sure not to miss the highest priced homes. Even if you can’t afford them, they will have the most and best of desirable features all in one place along with knowledgeable agents and builders to answer your questions.
Parade visitors who want help with design ideas can stop at the Southern Development Homes Design Center, a separate Parade entrant noted on the map. “We are exceptionally proud of our 3,000 square foot Sales and Marketing Center,” said Kendra Dunn, Sales and Marketing Administrator. She explained that the Center is unique in having everything you need for a new home all in one location.
“It’s a place where visitors can really see their home come together,” she said adding that visitors can see, touch and compare design features such as cabinets, counter tops and hardware in all their different colors and styles and receive input and suggestions from the on-site designers. She encourages Parade visitors to bring their ideas and their questions.
The Parade also attracts visitors who are shopping for a builder. This group may have questions such as how many years a company has been in the business, what types of homes they build, and their overall approach to the building process.
The Parade offers serious buyers a unique opportunity to talk to several builders all in one afternoon to find one they want to work with. “The Parade of Homes is the best way for purchasers to get out and see many local builders and their quality of work,” advises Susan Stewart with Roy Wheeler Realty Co who represents Dobson Homes’ Parade entry. “I suggest taking notes and pictures,” she continued and “…learn as much as possible about each subdivision and what is going on within the communities, what the standard options are each builder offers,” she said.
Of course building a home is a process that can take four to six months or longer and the complexity almost guarantees some challenges along the way, which is all the more reason to find a builder you can work well with explained Charif Soubra with Southern Development Homes.
Another benefit of visiting the Parade is learning about what is coming on the market in different subdivisions. Three of these communities are being featured as separate entries into the Parade including Bundoran Farms by Natural Retreats south of Charlottesville in North Garden, and Stanley Martin Homes’ Chesterfield Landing in Crozet, and Hollymead Walk on 29 North.
Finally, to make the most of the Parade, have fun. Jodi Mills, Director of Sales and Marketing for Stony Point Design/Build has participated in Parades since 2010. She says a lot of people make a day of it, going first to a wine tasting or some other event and then on to the Parade. It’s kind of like “old home week,” she said where you see a lot of familiar faces.
New Homes Market Going Strong
Builders and agents describe a strong new construction market and expect it is just getting started. All the more reason for new home buyers to jump in now before prices go higher.
“The new homes market has picked up significantly,” said Michael Guthrie, CEO and Managing Broker for Roy Wheeler Realty Co. He added that he expects 2016 and 2017 to be “the years of new construction,” thanks in part to all the new communities that have been approved recently and where the ground is cleared and new homes are going up.
“The new construction market is still excelling,” Stewart said. “I think one of the reasons for that is the resale market inventory is low right now.” She added that people often choose new construction over resale because they want to avoid the work that comes with renovating and updating an existing home to suit their needs.
This belief was confirmed recently when eight different couples walked into a model where she is the site agent, each of them telling the same story. In every case they had been looking at resales for some time, and not having found one they liked, were now considering new construction. She added that two extra incentives for these buyers is that new construction prices are often “about in-line with resales” and new homes come with warranties on many items. Of course new construction buyers can also customize their homes, choosing colors, floor plans and fixtures to suit their personal tastes.
Greg Slater with Nest Realty, representing Bramante Homes’ Parade entry, described the new construction market as “strong,” although the number of new home sales as a percentage of the total market has declined some in recent years. He believes this is due in part to increased numbers of sales in the under $400,000 range which, given the cost of new construction, is primarily resales. Also builders are so busy right now it takes longer for new homes to be built reducing the total number of contracts. However, at the same time, the total value of new home sales contracts has grown substantially since 2014.
“The new construction market is slowly returning to what many would call a ‘healthy’ level,” said Ben Davis, Vice President of Sales for Craig Builders. “We’ve seen gradual improvements in the number of homes sold and closed over the past forty-eight months,” he continued. He believes the new construction market would be even stronger were it not for a both a “shortage of land in the most desirable locations” and an inadequate supply of labor.
Builders and Associates Partner to Sponsor the Parade
The Parade is an annual cooperative effort between builders and associates active in new construction and the BRHBA. This year’s main or Presenting Sponsor is once again Roy Wheeler Realty Co. However there are many other sponsors including Specialized Insurance Services, the Gala Presenting Sponsor for the kickoff event at King Family Vineyards, and First Heritage Mortgage, which is the Wine Sponsor for the Gala. “We couldn’t do this without our sponsors,” Sorokti said.
Guthrie is proud that his company has chosen to be Presenting Sponsor of the Parade for the fifth year in a row. He emphasized the importance of the partnership between the builders and the local real estate community stating that over the last several years this partnership has become stronger. He described the Parade as “lots of builders putting their best foot forward, and when you only give one party a year, you want everything to be in the best possible shape. We like having our name associated with a first class event like this.”
He is particularly happy to see the increased number of homes in this year’s Parade, compared to a few years ago when the inventory was small. Given the option he believes most buyers prefer a new home over resale because they can customize it to meet their needs.
Guthrie is also appreciative of the cooperation that goes into making for a successful Parade. One tradition from years past was to judge Parade entries and award prizes at the Gala. When the Parade committee decided to eliminate the contest the result was what Guthrie called a much more cooperative effort. “As we market together, the activity increases and there is a ripple effect that benefits everyone,” he said. And that kind of camaraderie and cooperation extends beyond the Parade. He was at a tailgating party prior to a UVA football game recently and was happy to see a group of REALTOR® friends from competing companies enjoying a similar gathering nearby.
The Parade, is a once a year chance to ask questions and enjoy the best new construction our area has to offer. Don’t miss it!
Celeste Smucker is a writer, blogger and author who lives near Charlottesville.
Aimee Atteberry and Anna Harrison, C-VILLE Weekly's publisher and marketing director, present a $9,076 check to the 2016 Best Of C-VILLE party's benefactor, the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program. Pictured from left to right, back to front: Ravi Respeto with AHIP, Dave Frye with sponsor Lockn' Festival, Carrie Slaughter with sponsor Ting, Thomas Roper with sponsor Ting, Aimee Atteberry with C-VILLE, Jennifer Jacobs with AHIP and Anna Harrison with C-VILLE. Staff photo
On September 28, C-VILLE Weekly awarded a $9,076 check to the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program, the beneficiary of the 20th annual Best of C-VILLE party and fundraiser.
“We are blown away,” says the nonprofit’s Executive Director Jennifer Jacobs. “Not only was the event really fun, but this is incredible.”
AHIP helps low-income families in need make critical home improvements, such as, plumbing, roofing, siding and electrical repairs. It is celebrating its 40th year in existence.
The money raised by C-VILLE, with the help of sponsors, will go toward the 514 families currently on AHIP’s waiting list for repairs.
Though Dominion Virginia Power announced last week the hiring of a contractor to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, efforts to halt its construction, and that of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, have not ceased.
A new survey released September 21 by two anti-pipeline groups, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Virginia Organizing, shows that 55 percent of Virginians do not back Governor Terry McAuliffe’s support of the two pipelines, despite his belief they will create jobs, lower bills and help the environment.
The Cromer Group, a public opinion research group, interviewed 732 of the state’s registered voters for the survey.
The environmental groups note that 60 percent of female Republicans and 52 percent of female Democrats say McAuliffe has missed the mark.
Caroline Bray, a 20-year-old third-year student at UVA and the president of the university’s Climate Action Society, falls on the far left of that spectrum, she says. But she’s not sure it matters in this case.
Caroline Bray, a 20-year-old third-year student at UVA and the president of the university’s Climate Action Society, says the fight against the pipeline isn’t a partisan issue. Courtesy Caroline Bray
“One thing I’ve learned from traveling through the counties that the pipelines are supposed to cut across is that pipelines are not a partisan issue,” she says, adding that those bearing the brunt of the proposed pipelines live in rural, historically conservative areas. “They fight against them as hard as, if not more than, many liberals.”
A typical conservative pipeline opposer, she says, takes the stance that the proposed pipelines would infringe on their property rights, while liberals worry more about environmental concerns.
And one of those most recent concerns is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s newly released Mountain Valley Pipeline environmental impact statement, which determines that any negative ecological effects associated with it are “limited.”
“Having crossed through the countryside that the Mountain Valley Pipeline is supposed to traverse,” Bray says, “I find it shocking.”
This spring, she hit the road with the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition to travel the MVP’s proposed path from Wetzel County, West Virginia, to Blacksburg, stopping along the way to speak with people who would be impacted by its presence.
“This land is unprecedented for a 42-inch pipeline,” she says. Much of the area’s mountainous topography has a karst landscape that is conducive to sinkholes and erosion, and West Virginia’s Monroe County has more than 100 natural water springs, she says. “If the rocks below these springs are shifted by the pipeline, the source of drinking water for an entire community and wildlife down the watershed could be permanently threatened.”
She also mentions a Monroe family she met that has lived on their property for more than eight generations, since before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
“Their land is sacred to them, and altering it with this pipeline is unjust in every way,” Bray says.
Also making headlines in the realm of Virginia pipelines has been McAuliffe’s insistence that governance over those entities is strictly a federal issue and the state has no authority.
“He seems both confused and forgetful,” says the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition’s Rick Webb, who notes that McAuliffe has said the state will grant the natural gas pipelines their water permits, which are required, under the Clean Water Act if the companies backing them meet the statutory requirements.
On McAuliffe’s September 22 visit to Charlottesville, he was greeted outside Democratic campaign headquarters on the Downtown Mall by a group of sign-waving pipeline protesters who demanded he take action.
He told a Newsplex reporter that he has no say in the matter, but he supports the group’s right to protest.
“This is democracy, this is what America is all about,” he said. “You’ve got 10, 15 folks protesting, but remember, I’m the governor of 8.5 million people.”
In other news, the results of a study commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates released September 12 say the anticipated natural gas supply will meet the maximum demand from next year until 2030 without building a new pipeline.
“It’s an issue of competitive advantage rather than public need,” Webb says. “It’s mostly about Dominion seeking to displace Williams Transco as the major natural gas supply for the Southeast, while passing the cost of doing so along to its captive ratepayers.”
Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby says the report is full of flawed assumptions and misleading data.
“It’s an anti-pipeline report paid for by anti-pipeline groups, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone what it says,” he says. “The fact is, demand for natural gas in Virginia and North Carolina is growing significantly.”
Demand will grow by 165 percent over the next 20 years, he says, because coal is being replaced with cleaner-burning natural gas. And not only are new industries increasingly relying on natural gas, but the population itself is growing.
“There is no way existing pipelines or gas storage can meet that huge growth in demand,” Ruby says. “Existing pipelines in the region are constrained and operating at full capacity. Even planned expansions of those pipelines are fully subscribed.”
In Hampton Roads, he says pipelines are so constrained that the natural gas service is “curtailed” for large industrial customers during high-demand periods in the winter. In North Carolina, he adds, one pipeline serves the entire state, and because it’s located in the western half, entire communities in eastern North Carolina have limited to no access to the supply.
“The region’s existing pipelines cannot address these challenges,” says Ruby. “New infrastructure is required. That’s why we’re proposing to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.”
And here in the 5th District, which many thought to be a lock for the elephants,
there are increasingly strong signs that Jane Dittmar has a real shot at reclaiming the seat for the donkeys.
Photo by Eze Amos
Here’s one case study showing just how difficult it’s becoming for Virginia Republicans running local races: A recent internal poll conducted for the campaign of Democrat LuAnn Bennett, who is running to unseat Republican Barbara Comstock in Virginia’s 10th congressional district, showed Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump in the race for president by a dizzying 14 percent.
Yes, this is an internal poll, and as such is inherently biased toward Bennett, but with Clinton’s substantial lead in Virginia (the two most recent polls, by CBS News and Christopher Newport University, have her up 8 and 10 points statewide, respectively), this sort of margin is not outside the realm of possibility. So, even though Comstock still has a narrow lead in the polls, she will almost certainly have to outperform Trump in the district by double digits in order to win.
And while Trump was surely hoping to make up ground with a knockout performance in the first presidential debate, the gale force winds created by his wild swings and missed punches only made things worse. While his pugilistic browbeating of Clinton on trade was effective (if migraine-inducing) early on, by night’s end it was Clinton who stood smiling, not a hair out of place, as Trump dug himself deeper and deeper on a raft of issues, including his unreleased taxes, his shady business practice, his promise that Iranian sailors who taunt U.S. warships “will be shot out of the water” and the blatant racism of his years-long claim that President Obama was not born in the U.S.
Of course, gerrymandering at the state level means that certain Republicans have absolutely nothing to worry about, no matter how ridiculous and extreme they may be. Take the case of Dave Brat, the bespectacled first-term congressman who unexpectedly knocked off House Minority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014. Although he boasts zero accomplishments as a U.S Representative, and has made a cottage industry of issuing crackpot statements (just last week, for instance, he told conservative talk radio host John Fredericks that the Black Lives Matter protesters in Charlotte were “radical groups that are funded out of George Soros’ pot of money,” while also insisting that the real “institutional racism” is perpetuated by Democrats who refuse to “get the Bible back in the classroom and religion back in the classroom”), Brat will almost certainly win his reelection race handily.
Still, there’s no telling what havoc the lead weight of Trump’s campaign might wreak across the commonwealth. Which is why endangered incumbents like Comstock (who supported Marco Rubio in the Republican primary) are running as far from him as they can. When asked by the Washington Post if she was planning on endorsing Trump, she replied, “If I change my mind, I’ll let you know,” and when pressed on whether she would even vote for him, she answered, cryptically, “I’m watching.”
And here in the 5th District, which many thought to be a lock for the elephants, there are increasingly strong signs that Jane Dittmar has a real shot at reclaiming the seat for the donkeys. Her fundraising has been unexpectedly robust (at last count, she had raised more than triple the amount of her opponent Tom Garrett), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee designated her race “Red-to-Blue” September 23 and, while UVA professor Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball website still rates the race “Likely Republican,” one of the site’s editors recently conceded to the Daily Progress that “problems at the top of the ticket could hurt down-ballot Republicans such as Tom Garrett.”
Ah, Donald Trump—you truly are the gift that keeps on giving.
Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.
UVA prof Siva Vaidhyanathan calls Starving the Beast a “blow against the ideologues against higher education.”
Courtesy Starving the Beast
Ever wonder why Virginia’s vaunted flagship university gets such paltry state funding? To the filmmakers of Starving the Beast, that’s an ideological decision.
The documentary, produced by Violet Crown owner Bill Banowsky, connects the dots between a movement to cut funding in public universities that started around Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
The Texas-based filmmakers—University of Texas adjunct professor Steve Mims wrote and directed the film—say it started in the Lone Star State, but when they looked around, they saw the same defunding of public education all over the country.
“All these great research universities are under attack,” says Banowsky, listing UT, Texas A&M, Louisiana State University, University of North Carolina, University of Wisconsin and UVA, all of which are featured in the film.
“The common threads all pointed back to conservative think tanks trying to change higher public education,” says Banowsky, whose father was president of two universities. That has been going on for 35 years, starting with the “trickle down” philosophy of Reagan, he says. What was once an average of 60 percent of funding that a state put into its public universities has dropped to an average of 12 percent, he says.
UVA gets 5.5 percent from the state for its $1.6 billion academic budget, and if the medical center is added in, state support makes up 4.8 percent of the operating budget.
What did trickle down was the defunding of public education by conservative legislatures and governors who considered elite state research universities “liberal bastions,” says Banowsky. “People involved in higher education are aware of this,” he says, “but most people are not.”
The ideological battle led to higher education being treated as a commodity and students as consumers, according to Starving. And learning for learning’s sake and the betterment of the citizenry and society? Unless poetry can demonstrate a return on investment, forget about it.
Banowsky quotes James Carville in the film, who says, “What is happening is immoral. We are stealing the future of the next generation.”
Those slicing public schools’ budgets want to restrict what universities teach and research, says UVA media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan, who appears in the documentary. They’re focusing on short-term rewards, he says, “teaching skill-training rather than fuller education.”
And when public research universities are forced to seek out private donations, that can lead to “pandering,” says Vaidhyanathan. “Most alumni want to defer to the judgment of faculty, but some of the higher-end donors result in the fact [that] we have a Center for Contemplative Sciences because of the whims of a billionaire rather than other research priorities.”
He’s referring to Paul Tudor Jones, who was a Helen Dragas ally in the failed ouster of Teresa Sullivan in 2012, an “effort to get rid of a president who is a distinguished academic and replace her with someone from the business world,” says Vaidhyanathan. “We’re seeing the anti-academic forces.”
The scene at UVA isn’t quite as dire as it is in other states. “Since the debacle of 2012, UVA has been able to make its case,” he says. “It has wide public support. Dragas’ biggest blunder was not realizing the broad public support from alumni, faculty and students. The legislature since that time has been quite the supporter.”
Starving the Beast opens September 30 at Violet Crown.
General Robert E. Lee’s horse, Traveler, was gaily festooned at the Cville Pride Festival, until someone called police and accused the festival of defacing the statue. Guillermo Ubilla; SCHMIDT: Courtesy subject
As Charlottesville continues to grapple with its Civil War history and the statue of General Robert E. Lee on his trusty steed, for a while at the Cville Pride Festival September 17 in Lee Park, Traveler sported a multicolored boa in a bit of ironic subversion.
Until someone called the police.
“Confederate fabulous is not an option—they de-campified it,” says UVA professor Jalane Schmidt. “I saw Pride as prioritizing queer respectability politics over being an ally with everyone offended by white supremacy.”
Pride did not decorate the statue, but board member Matthew Brown climbed up and removed the boa, and festival organizer Lisa Green says she takes full responsibility for the decision.
“Even though we live in Charlottesville under a bubble, every year someone complains,” says Green. “If someone is going to complain, it’s not going to be because we’re not following the rules. It’s going to be because it’s an LGBT event.”
Green says the decision to remove the boa was difficult and there was a long discussion before it came down. “I made the call because the complainant kept calling,” she says, and she did not want the festival accused of “defacing public property.”
Schmidt notes that at other events, such as the Tom Tom Founders Festival, Traveler was decorated with legwarmers, and no one complained about that.
Tom Tom organizer Paul Beyer says that was done by a “guerrilla” knitting group, and not sanctioned by the festival.
“When groups use that park and they don’t say anything about the name, I see that as acquiescence to white supremacy,” says Schmidt. She cites “intersectionality politics,” and says, “I don’t stop being black when I talk about being gay.”
Schmidt teaches monuments and memory in UVA’s religion department, and she’s been vocal at City Council and Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces meetings.
She refers to Lee Park as “change-the-name park,” and says statues such as Lee and General Stonewall Jackson at Court Square should be removed and relocated, much as Hungary did with sculptures from its Soviet past that have been placed in Monument Park as part of the country’s history that isn’t lauded, but should be remembered “as a cautionary tale. I don’t want to airbrush history like the Kremlin used to do,” when those out of favor with the Communist Party were removed from photos.
At the time of the Civil War, 52 percent of Albemarle and Charlottesville’s population was enslaved, says Schmidt. “If anything, there should be monuments to the enslaved majority and to the Union troops who came to set them free. Over half were slaves. That’s what I think we should remember.”
Many have spoken in favor of keeping the statues and reframing them with plaques to provide more context. “That’s not enough,” says Schmidt. Nor does she subscribe to the idea of building more monuments to honor African-American leaders without removing the Confederate ones. “That’s not acceptable because these central places have already been taken by white folks,” she says. “Any monument to black people will already be peripheral.”
And for those who argue the statues were a gift, she reminds us of grandma’s ugly sweater, disposed of with hilarity at white elephant parties, or wedding rings after divorce. “They were a gift, but they represent an earlier self with which we no longer identify,” she says. “We’ve moved on, and it’s simply not appropriate any longer to wear this gift.”
For Pride organizers, there were no easy answers. Its president, Amy Sarah Marshall, was a speaker at the March rally in support of removing the Lee statue.
“We have had major discussions” on the issue of holding the Pride Festival in Lee Park, says Green. “A lot of people believe being in the middle of town, that’s also making a statement.”
And she says the decision to remove the boa did not reflect her personal views. “It was for the greater good of a nonprofit and we work very hard to be good citizens and community members.”
Both Green and Brown praise the police officers who worked the festival. “The officers were showing solidarity with the festival,” says Brown, who has family members in law enforcement.
He offered to take the boa down because he didn’t like the optics of “an African-American officer on a ladder photographed taking it down.” Personally, he hopes the “statue finds a new home,” he says. “Taking [the boa] down in no way represents approval of the statue and what it represents.”
Schmidt is unlikely to be convinced. She compares groups that use the park like Cville Pride and Tom Tom to “the nice white people during segregation who continued to patronize segregated establishments and didn’t say anything publicly if they objected to it. Your private regrets, expressed sotto voce, do not make you an ally or promote change. It’s time to stand up and be counted, because silence equals consent.”
Clarification September 29: The 54 percent enslaved population at the time of the Civil War includes both Charlottesville and Albemarle County. And Schmidt does favor statues of African American luminaries in place of the Confederate monuments.
Correction September 30: According to the 1860 census, 54 percent of the Charlottesville-Albemarle population was black, 52 percent was enslaved.
Firefly staff and customers are encouraged to don their dirndls and lederhosen for the stein-hoisting competition Thursday, September 29. Photo by Martyn Kyle
It’s Oktoberfest season, and breweries, restaurants and bars all over town are celebrating one of the world’s largest festivals, which has its origins in an 1810 mid-October royal marriage in Munich. So dust off your dirndls and lederhosen, Charlottesville, and get thee to a bierhaus.
Kardinal Hall
Oktoberfest “is in the nature and history of this place, of getting everyone together to celebrate,” says Chris Cornelius, general manager at Kardinal Hall, where they’re rotating many German beers through the taps during an ongoing celebration. You’ll find the approachable Bitburger German lager, Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest-Märzen, Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier and Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen, a classic German hefe that Cornelius says is the best he’s ever tasted. “It has beautiful balance, not too banana, not too clove.”
Kardinal Hall will hold a stein-hoisting contest Saturday, October 1, before wrapping up its Oktoberfest on Tuesday, October 4, with a $30 per plate all-you-can-eat dinner of bratwurst, sauerkraut, spaetzel, pretzels and gingerbread (read more about Kardinal Hall’s German food on page 49).
Starr Hill Brewery
Starr Hill offers German-style brews all year round—The Love Hefeweizen and Jomo Vienna-Style Lager—but this year’s Oktoberfest afforded brewmaster Robbie O’Cain the chance to develop two new ones, a tart Berliner Weisse and the Basketcase American Helles Lager. Those beers, plus The Festie Oktoberfest Lager, Helles Bock and Warehouse Pils, will be on tap for the brewery’s Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday, October 1, from noon to 7pm.
For the beer nerds, Starr Hill’s brewers will conduct a “bier session” on the history of German brewing techniques and beer styles. And if German food is your thing, check out the audience-decided bratwurst battle, where three local chefs will go knife-to-knife in hopes of being crowned brat king of the Blue Ridge.
Tickets are $17 and include three tokens, each redeemable for one beer or food serving.
Firefly
Firefly’s 12-day Oktoberfest celebration ends Oct. 2, but there’s still time to taste some official Munich Oktoberfest beers—such as the Hacker-Pschorr Hacker-Festzelt and Pschorr-Bräurosl and the Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier. General Manager Brett Cassis says they’ve also got some märzens on tap from Seven Arrows, Devils Backbone, Left Hand, DuClaw and others, and will have schnitzel, sausages, cabbage and pretzels on the menu, plus a stein-hosting contest on Thursday, September 29.
Blue Mountain Brewery
Over the next couple of weeks, pair Blue Mountain’s 13.Five Ofest lagerbier with some schnitzel, gulasch or a pretzel. If you’re lucky enough to snag a seat on Saturday, October 1 or 8, you can devour your Bavarian-inspired fare to the tune of a traditional oompah band. Dying to add to your Oktoberfest memorabilia collection? Blue Mountain’s Steal the Stein Night is Thursday, October 6.
Michael’s Bistro & Tap House
Michael’s keeps things a bit more traditional, with lederhosen- and dirndl-clad servers dishing out dinner specials such as wild boar and elk sausage alongside official Munich Oktoberfest beer offerings. “When you drink a märzen or a wiesn [this week], you know you are sharing that experience at that moment with people all over the world,” says owner Laura Spetz.
Construction on the Berkmar Drive extension and the Berkmar Bridge is well underway, with VDOT’s goal of substantially finishing both by the end of the year and officially completing them next summer, months before the
October 2017 deadline. A team of VDOT employees and representatives from a project delivery advisory panel suited up September 22 to check out the progress. Here’s what they learned:
60,000 cubic tons of dirt excavated
from the Rio Road interchange on
Route 29 were used as fill for the
2.2-mile road extension, which will
have a mixed-use path and sidewalk
on either side.
The next and final steps for the road
will be installing drain pipes, piling seven inches of stone, compacting and paving three layers of asphalt that
will add another seven inches.
A 35mph speed limit will be imposed.
VDOT workers were placing the bridge’s final girders last week. Next, the forms that will support the
concrete deck while the concrete
cures will be installed on top of
the girders.
The overall Berkmar project cost is
$38.2 million.
Hard hats and reflective vests are
quite warm.
Follow us on Twitter @cvillenews_desk for more photos and videos of the tour.
Guv goes shopping
Terry McAuliffe had a tough choice to make September 22 at Mincer’s—which striped polo shirt to buy. He was in town to talk at the Center for Politics, do lunch with Larry Sabato and Teresa Sullivan and rally the troops at Dem headquarters on the Downtown Mall.
Male contraceptive researcher dies
UVA reproductive biologist John Herr, 68, died September 17 of a heart attack shortly after running a 10K. He was a prolific inventor, filing scores of patents. Among them were SpermCheck, a home male fertility test, and a reversible male implant that blocks sperm.
Habeas hearing
Convicted murderer George Huguely’s attorney, Jon Sheldon, was in court September 26, and said an improper jury instruction resulted in Huguely being unlawfully imprisoned. The judge will rule on motions in the former UVA lacrosse player’s writ of habeas corpus.
Korte hospitalized
Former UVA film studies professor Walter Korte, who is charged with two counts of possessing child pornography, did not appear in court September 26. NBC 29 reports that Korte was granted bond September 9 and attempted suicide two days later. On September 15, he was listed as being in serious condition at UVA Medical Center. His next court appearance is October 24.
Rob Bell’s seat in play
With Bell running for attorney general in 2017, candidates are already lining up for his 58th District seat. Greene resident Mike Allers, a fourth-grade teacher, announced September 21 he’ll seek the Republican nomination.
The downside of winning Saturday’s game
Ten 18- and 19-year-olds were arrested around UVA for underage possession of alcohol, along with one fake ID charge, according to Charlottesville police reports.
DIP triple play
Kevin Anthony Glover, 26, was arrested for being drunk in public September 23 on Sixth Street SE, September 24 on 14th Street NW and September 25 on Wertland Street, according to city police reports.
$25,000 victory
From left to right, Sepehr Zomorodi, Zachery Davis, Payam Pourtaheri, Ameer Shakeel, Joseph Frank and Dr. Mark Kester are current members of the AgroSpheres team. Courtesy of Payam Pourtaheri
AgroSpheres, a local bioremediation startup reported on in C-VILLE’s September 21 issue, was the winner of Virginia Velocity Tour’s business pitch competition in Charlottesville September 23 and gets $25k in grant money.
Best press release goes to…
An e-mail titled “26th Annual Garlic Festival Promises a Stinkin’ Good Time” graced C-VILLE inboxes this week to advertise an event that must truly reek. The two-day October 8-9 festival at Rebec Vineyards in Amherst attracts winos and garlic fanatics from far and wide.
Quote of the Week: “We need people who can get things done. I’m tired of partisanship. We need someone who can work with the new president—Hillary.”—Governor Terry McAuliffe weighs in on the 5th District congressional race.
Local comedian Chris Alan takes top billing at the LYAO Showcase January 20 at The Southern. Publicity photo
In May, Ruckersville-based comic Chris Alan found himself backstage at Amy Schumer’s stand-up comedy show at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York.
Alan, a Rochester native, was there supporting his pal Mark Normand, Schumer’s opening act that night.
The three comics chatted a bit in the green room, but Alan says he was too nervous to say much to Schumer (she’s the biggest active comic he’s met, after all). Alan, who has been in the Air Force for 18 years, says, “The military came out of me. I popped out of my chair and was standing there all tall, calling her ‘Ms. Schumer.’ She told me to stop it and just talk to her like a comedian.”
Right before the show started, Alan saw Schumer whisper something to Normand, then she looked at Alan and asked, “So, do you wanna do five minutes?”
“Fuck yeah!” Alan told her, and moments later he was on stage in front of a sea of people. He had no prep. No warning. Nothing but his jokes.
In those moments, Alan says he thought of all the shows where there were more empty seats than filled ones, the nights when he and his fellow comics made no money.
But this time, he killed it. “All the jokes hit: boom, boom, boom,” Alan says, snapping his fingers. He told his hummus joke, his black man driving a Prius joke (helps save money on gas for all those drive-by shootings). He gave some love to his high school and trashed its longtime rival.
Five minutes goes quickly and, before he knew it, he was backstage again, shaking like a leaf, calling his mom, fending off tears, getting Twitter and Instagram notifications from new fans in the audience. He recalls Schumer’s people telling him he looked “amazingly too comfortable” on stage—and he was. “I was just ready,” he says.
Chris Alan
The Ante Room
September 29
For the past year and a half, Alan has worked the L.Y.A.O. comedy showcase in Charlottesville—opening for national comedians such as Kyle Kinane and Sasheer Zamata—and is growing the local comedy scene with monthly open mic nights at the Southern, Holly’s Deli and, most recently, The Ante Room. Usually they’re “show up and go up” events, where budding comics sign up and Alan creates a roster based on what he knows they’re capable of. There are a few up-and-comers in town, he says, like Winston Hodges, Ken Edwards and T.J. Ferguson.
Alan, who also hosts the “Negro Please” podcast, says there’s been great support for the scene, from small but dedicated audiences and booking agents such as Danny Shea at the Southern and Jeyon Falsini at The Ante Room. He’d like to see more people come out to perform and watch…and, let’s face it, Charlottesville could stand to loosen up a bit.
Alan’s been prepping for that Schumer moment since he was a kid. “I grew up in the inner city,” he says. “I was fortunate enough to have both my parents, and that was very rare, to see an entire black family in the city, so I got picked on a lot.” On top of that, he went to private school. “In my neighborhood, I was the rich kid, but when I got to school, I was the poor black kid. I wasn’t black enough for [my neighborhood], but I was too black for the rich white kids,” he says. (This disparity extends to current struggles in the comedy scene, where he often feels “not black enough for the black shows” and “too black for the white shows.”)
Alan learned to use humor as a social inroad. “I would lash out and talk a lot of shit, just hurtful stuff,” he says. “I had bad teeth and glasses, I didn’t have the cool clothes. I was the worst fighter, the most unathletic dude, so that’s how I learned to be funny—it was a defense thing.” By high school, Alan realized that if he lightened it up, his sharpness could actually make people laugh.
He cracked up his Air Force bunkmates by mimicking drill sergeants, and by the time he got into comedy, in Las Vegas in 2010, he knew he’d found his people, his place.
“I want to be funny because I want people to listen…I want to make them think,” Alan says. Parenting jokes, marriage jokes, jokes about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, feminism and bigotry, Black Lives Matter and more—he’s not drawing any lines in the sand. (He won’t insult his wife or her family, though.) He wants his audiences to consider experiences different from their own—it’s why he jokes about race, gender, politics and things that, for all of our many differences, are shared human experiences.
Like bathroom farts, the thing that Alan finds most hilarious of all. “That’s such a vulnerable moment for anybody,” he says, giggling. “You could be the most powerful person in the world or the poorest person in the world.”
Alan believes that good comedians develop huge followings because “people want to hear what comics have to say. I think that comics are the voice of the people. It’s not your politicians, it’s not your state representatives. It’s frickin’ comedians,” Alan says. Comedy gives performers a license to say what others cannot say—or are afraid to say—and in a public space, no less. “We need comedy,” he says.
But “if you wanna see some seriously funny shit,” he tells me while peering over the rims of his thick-framed glasses, “come to the Waffle House with us after a show. We’re there until like, 2 o’clock in the morning, just comic-on-comic. That’s the real show.”
Parvin Jamalraza and her husband, Yadollah. Photo by Eze Amos
The Charlottesville area has always been shaped by immigrants, and we have a long tradition of recognizing them for it. French-born Claudius Crozet, who served as an engineer in Napoleon’s army, constructed the first railroad from Charlottesville to Richmond in 1851. He then blasted a railway tunnel straight through Rockfish Gap, missing perfect alignment from the Nelson to Augusta sides by only four inches. Today, the town of Crozet is named in his honor.
More recently, Dave Matthews is well-known for having immigrated to the U.S. from his native South Africa. In 1994, then-mayor David Toscano officially declared September 27 to be Dave Matthews Band Day.
At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, local attorney Khizr Khan and his wife, Ghazala, famously reframed the presidential campaign by explaining how one of the sons of this immigrant family, Humayun, died a hero’s death in an American Army uniform. A surviving son, Shaharyar, owns a biotech firm in Charlottesville and has published important medical research.
But what about some of the unsung immigrants who help make Charlottesville the city that it is? We patronize their businesses, listen to their music and greet them on the street, but it is easy to miss out on their personal stories. From a downtown tailor to a UVA cancer researcher, here’s a look at some of the immigrants who continue to make Charlottesville a great place to live and work.
Parvin Jamalraza and her husband, Yadollah. Photo by Eze Amos
Parvin and Yadollah Jamalraza
Parvin Jamalraza’s downtown tailoring shop, Yady’s Alterations, looks like a mash-up of two centuries. An antique sewing machine stands beside the counter, powered by a foot treadle rather than electricity. This isn’t here to provide atmosphere. It is loaded with a bobbin of thread and ready for action. More modern electric machines stand behind it.
“Here we repair or [make] alternations. Back home, we were making clothes,” says Jamalraza. In her native Iran she grew up with the sewing skills that have become rare among most Americans. With our disposable consumer culture and SOL requirements that have pushed out home economics, Jamalraza and her husband, Yadollah, provide services to the public that few Americans are now able to.
“It was not life easy there [Iran],” says Jamalraza. “My kids growing up, they don’t have much opportunity to go to school, to get knowledge. That was why we decided to leave home.”
Twelve years ago, the family was granted refugee status and arrived in America, where the International Rescue Committee helped them settle in Charlottesville.
“When we got off the airplane at the airport there was a lady who knew us, waving, from the IRC,” says Jamalraza. “They helped us and got a home for us. …it was not easy to talk because we didn’t know a word of English. They helped with many things. Talking English a little bit. We knew alphabet English because we went to school, but speaking it is different!”
The IRC was instrumental in helping the Jamalrazas navigate life in Charlottesville.
“They helped us get anything that we needed,” Jamalraza says. “They tried to find a job for my husband. …I got two good teachers to help me with my English.
After two years of working for other businesses, the couple decided to open their own alteration and tailoring shop. The permits, taxes and other paperwork at first seemed too much to deal with. But Charlottesville City officials made it easy for them.
“At first, we thought, ‘We can’t do that,’” says Jamalraza. “And my husband went to the City Hall and they help us.”
In the beginning they did a lot of advertising. But they have long since stopped.
“People like my work and they tell each other, that’s why I don’t need any advertising [now],” says Jamalraza. “I’m really happy about that. People trust me. My husband is very good with the leather and I am good with the clothes.”
The couple both believe that disposable consumerism is becoming a problem around the world. Objects that could be repaired are thrown away and entirely replaced, wasting resources.
“Right now technology is getting a little bit lazy for people,” says Jamalraza. “That’s why young people don’t go to learn how to make things. …Still I see people and I try to tell people, ‘Yeah, you can fix that!’ We don’t like to say no. …When I see a face happy, it makes my day like that.”
WTJU DJ Robin Tomlin first came to America from England 30 years ago to follow an indigenous style of music heard only in Washington, D.C.—go-go music. He hosts “The Soulful Situation” every Monday, which features soul and funk musicians and producers. Photo by Eze Amos
Robin Tomlin
Anyone who listens to Robin Tomlin’s radio show, “The Soulful Situation,” on WTJU every Monday at noon knows that he is deeply knowledgeable and passionate about soul and funk music. What you probably don’t know is that he crossed an ocean because of American music and never went back.
“I came to America 30 years ago because I was really obsessed with an indigenous style of music heard only in Washington, D.C.,” says the local disc jockey in his middle-class London accent. “This was go-go music.”
The English-born Tomlin quickly became immersed in the music of D.C., Virginia and the American South. He never went home again. Today he hosts his long-running radio show on WTJU under an alias, The Rum Cove.
Tomlin grew up in Surrey, about 30 miles outside of London, and was born at just the right time to experience British punk rock at its peak.
“I come from a classically trained background,” Tomlin says. “My father made oboes, bassoons and clarinets in the Baroque style. My mother was a fine viola player, [and a] violinist and cellist. I played French horn and piano growing up…by the time I turned 15 the punk explosion had just happened. Soon after my 15th birthday I saw my first show, which was the Dead Boys and The Damned in late ’77. …I became obsessed with rebellion and live punk-rock music and new wave and I saw so many bands. Two or three nights a week I was climbing out of the bedroom—I was just desperate to see live music.”
As the punk scene died down, Tomlin went to his first James Brown concert in 1980 in Brighton, England. “I’ve loved rhythm and blues ever since,” he says.
“I saw [go-go band] Trouble Funk in London two weeks before I came to America,” says Tomlin. “And as soon as I got to America I made it my business to see as many go-go acts as I possibly could. Also rap. Run DMC, LL Cool J and Public Enemy.”
Go-go is notorious for not translating well to recordings. Like a skillful dancehall DJ, go-go bands move seamlessly from one song into the next without any breaks between. Bands play nonstop into the wee hours of the morning. To keep listening to go-go, Tomlin had to be in the actual nightclubs with the bands right in front of him.
“Seeing the shows in D.C. was hairy,” he says. “Those were violent shows. …I was so fresh off of the banana boat that I didn’t know you couldn’t go there. I was the only white guy there. But I made a sort of deal to myself that when I went to these go-go shows I’d go to the DJ before the show and say, ‘Give a shout-out to the alien Englishman in the house!’ So people would see me and know I wasn’t American so they wouldn’t dislike me so much because white Americans were not welcome. But an Englishman, that was different.”
Tomlin would later marry an American woman whose Ph.D. program brought the couple to Charlottesville, where they had two children (they have since divorced).
“The Soulful Situation” started airing on WTJU in 2000. Tomlin’s show goes beyond just playing old soul and funk records. He tracks down obscure singers, musicians and producers from the history of black music for interviews. Often he drives far and wide across the South to find these people in person. In some cases, his interviews are the only record of their personal histories. There was nothing else on the radio that came close to doing this when Tomlin started.
“I call it vintage rhythm and blues,” he says. “I try to expand people’s view of how wide the world of rhythm and blues, soul and funk is. I’ve interviewed a lot of artists, and it’s a pleasure and an honor to do it.”
Tomlin has now seen and tasted more of America than some Americans have.
“The English have a certain way we like to eat, but really I love Southern cuisine,” he says. “Country ham and two eggs over medium. …I love Virginia cuisine and Gulf Coast cuisine like jambalaya…barbecue, I’m addicted to. I’m in love with the South. The South is the heart and soul of America. There’s something about the South that just grabs you and won’t let go, even though in some places it’s ruined. The poverty in Alabama is just unbelievable to me, but I still love it. …to understand the blues and gospel and rhythm and blues; the landscape and the culture and the food, it’s all part of it. You’re missing out if you don’t get the whole thing.”
Caterer Tony Polanco, originally from the Dominican Republic, currently employs more than 40 people. In January he was awarded the Chuck Lewis Passion Award from the Forward/Adelante Business Alliance. Photo by Eze Amos
Tony Polanco
Tony Polanco might have lived Charlottesville’s most quintessentially American immigrant journey: from Little League pitcher, to starting over after 9/11 and now being the owner of a successful business that employs more than 40 people.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Polanco grew up playing the national pastime shared between the United States and much of the Latino world: baseball.
“We played a lot of baseball outside,” Polanco says. “Our toy was, ‘Play outside in the neighborhood,’ in a colony of ruins. We had equipment, we had bats, we had gloves, in the small stadium we had by the Catholic church.”
As a child, Polanco experienced what Dominicans refer to as “The 12 Years” between 1966 and 1978, when they were ruled by a dictator, Joaquín Balaguer, whose reign was marked by the jailing of political opponents and the shuttering of critical newspapers. Balaguer lost power for eight years but returned to the presidency in 1986, later losing power again for a time but then returning until 1996. The threat of falling back into authoritarianism pushed many Dominicans to leave for the U.S., Polanco says.
“I came because of the political situation,” he says. “My family decided, my brothers and sisters, [we] moved to the United States to be safe. I came with a visa on a plane to New York. …always you need to have some privileges to get a visa. To show some economic promise.”
Polanco’s psychology degree from Universidad Interamericana (a major university in the Dominican Republic) seemed like it would be an asset in his new home. In addition, he had 10 years of experience as a practicing psychologist. But it didn’t work out that way.
“When I come to the United States, that was the first thing I tried to do,” says Polanco. “My certification doesn’t have any value in the United States so I started working in family businesses, bakeries and restaurants.”
The experienced psychologist started all over again at the bottom in New York City, building a new career in food service. But that didn’t last after 9/11.
“After 2001 I was working [in food service] at a big company that declared bankruptcy in January 2002,” says Polanco. “…The center of finance for the company was in the Twin Towers. We lost the financial support for the company and the company closed.”
In the wake of 9/11, Polanco wanted to get out of New York.
“I decided I needed to find some place with less pressure to live and to grow,” he says. “I had friends here who I had visited for two, three years on vacation in Charlottesville. And I think that was a great decision for me to come to Charlottesville.”
After working in food service and hotel management for years in Charlottesville, Polanco bought a restaurant on 29 North in 2005 and renamed it the Caribbean Malecon. That didn’t work out as well as he had hoped, but his catering business that went full-time in 2012 has fared much better.
“I have around 47 people working for me,” Polanco says. “I have African-American people working for me. Hispanic people from Mexico, Colombia, Salvador, Argentina. And I have white American guys working for me, too. I think my business is a beautiful representation of the United Nations.”
In January, the Forward/Adelante Business Alliance presented Polanco with the Chuck Lewis Passion Award (named after local entrepreneur Chuck Lewis, who built the Downtown Mall’s York Place, among other businesses).
Polanco has been a leader since his 2002 arrival with the Charlottesville Salsa Club, which brings together people from many of the area’s ethnic communities (including white Americans) for weekly dance events.
Moving to Charlottesville from New York brought some major changes for the Dominican-American.
“One difference from New York is a community so integrated here,” says Polanco. “You don’t have neighborhoods for white people, black people or Hispanic people. …You live in the place you can pay and that’s it. …In New York, you live in the community you are part of. You live in a Hispanic neighborhood and that’s it. …I lived in New York in the Dominican neighborhood. In Charlottesville, you can live whatever place you can pay. This is like the best picture of America you can find.”
“We are a great community in Charlottesville,” says Polanco, “and I think we, the Latino people in Charlottesville, make this community better and make this community look like America, like the new America. The immigrants come here not just to build houses and be maids in houses, but to make America better. There is no one color that is America. Charlottesville is a great representation.”
Third-year UVA graduate student Mouadh Benamar has always been drawn to translational research, in which basic science discoveries are applied to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. The Algerian-born Benamar became a U.S. citizen in 2013, at the July 4 naturalization ceremony at Monticello. Photo by Eze Amos
Mouadh Benamar
Mouadh Benamar, a third-year graduate student at UVA, just published his first important research paper as co-author of a study that investigated how a new anti-melanoma drug fights cancer by knocking out a protein that the cancer cells need to reproduce.
“For the paper, when I first started the program at UVA we were told not to use the words ‘cure’ and ‘cancer’ in the same sentence,” says Benamar. “Yet we kept getting funding to pursue exactly that. I don’t see [this study] as a significant contribution, but it’s an investigation into how this drug works.”
Benamar speaks nearly perfect English, which is surprising for someone who didn’t move to the U.S. from his native Algeria until he was 17.
His mother is a doctor and his father is an agricultural researcher.
“I grew up in a science kind of a family,” says Benamar. “One of my hobbies as a child that may actually have influenced my future choices is that I used to collect biographies of random scientists and researchers. The idea of actually coming up with something new, indulging in the unknown and making it your known is something I was always fascinated by as a child.”
One of Benamar’s favorite biographies was of Avicenna, the 10th century Persian philosopher and scientist. Avicenna was arguably the greatest mind of the Islamic golden age, and his medical texts were used for teaching well into the 1600s.
“What is fascinating about him is that since he was a child, he was a prodigy,” says Benamar. “There were so many barriers but he moved forward. And his book was a big part of the world for centuries. …These are the kinds of things that tell you that you can truly aspire to be the person whom the world will need in 100 years. That definitely had an effect on me as a researcher.”
Benamar has been working in the area of medicine known as translational research. Translational researchers take the more basic science done by other scientists and look for ways to apply it to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.
“Research has always been my goal,” says Benamar. “Especially translational research where my work had direct implications and benefits to patients. …A big breakthrough in cancer is always a big goal for anyone in the field. In cancer you are competing against cells that are part of your own body.”
Benamar became a U.S. citizen in 2013 at the annual July 4 naturalization ceremony at Monticello. Charlottesville’s favorite immigrant, Dave Matthews, delivered the keynote address.
As a Muslim immigrant working to save lives in America, Benamar has been protected in Charlottesville from the discrimination that many immigrants and Muslims experience elsewhere in the U.S.
“I would say that the whole community, students, faculty, friends, made me feel like [Charlottesville] is my home,” Benamar says. “I totally forgot the word ‘immigrant’ until you called to ask for this interview! The entire community has been very welcoming and very accepting. Even before I was naturalized.
“Even though I’ve personally never faced a single act of personal discrimination, looking at the political climate, it’s hard not to notice when a leading presidential candidate sees you as a potential threat,” Benamar says. “When you see a number of leading political figures [saying that you are a threat], when an irrational fear of you is seen as commonsense. I originally saw this as a form of dark entertainment. But I don’t see it like that any longer. …that’s why I’m proud to live in a city that truly lives up to its founding fathers.”
Immigration reform
More than 3,000 refugees have been resettled in the Charlottesville area since the International Rescue Committee opened a local office here in 1998. The nationalities of the refugees have changed, but the mission hasn’t. Bosnians in the 1990s and early 2000s. Meskhetian Turks from Russia. Then Afghans, Iraqis, Bhutanese. Iranians, Congolese, Colombians and a few Ethiopians. More recently, Syrians.
According to the United Nations, a refugee is someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
Charlottesville is a particularly hospitable place for IRC resettlement, according to Harriet Kuhr, executive director of the Charlottesville office of the IRC.
“It’s a welcoming community,” says Kuhr. “There’s available rental housing. The employment situation is very good. Charlottesville has an unemployment rate that is lower than the state average, which is lower than the national average. Good schools, good access to health care. The most important thing is a welcoming community.”
Most of the refugees who arrive in Charlottesville have, at best, a suitcase full of belongings. They
are starting their lives completely over. IRC is tasked with setting them up for success in an economy
and language that is all new.
“In our resettlement program as people initially come we’re providing case management, employment assistance. Helping people find jobs,” says Kuhr. “Accessing medical care. Making sure the kids get into school properly. We have on-site ESL classes for people when they first come. That gets people right on their feet at the beginning.”
IRC also provides interpreters for schools, social services, courts and UVA’s Medical Center.
Other services include an agriculture and gardening program. “We have a lot of families, more than 50, who have their own garden plots,” says Kuhr.
Success stories include graduates of UVA and an Afghan woman who recently graduated from the University of Richmond. Many of Charlottesville’s former IRC clients have not only mastered English but have started successful local businesses employing both native-born Americans and other immigrants. A number of Bosnians and Afghans have started restaurants. Many of the Meskhetian Turks from Russia gravitated toward auto repair.
IRC has depended on donations and volunteers throughout its history in Charlottesville.
“We get a lot of support but obviously money’s always nice,” says Kuhr. “We have a lot of donated items that people bring to us. We have a lot of volunteers; interns that work in our office but
also volunteers who work directly with families. Among the things that people give us are cars,
which we really like.”
The American IRC traces its origins to the 1930s when a group of European intellectuals, including Albert Einstein, formed a committee to help European refugees who were fleeing the Nazi government and had become trapped in Vichy, France. Once the United States entered World War II, the IRC began receiving federal funding. In 1945 it began to transform into a sophisticated organization providing health care, children’s centers and resettlement assistance for refugees from around the world.
In today’s politically charged atmosphere surrounding refugees in America, Kuhr has seen some misunderstandings.
“The misconception I’ve seen floating around recently is that everyone is a Syrian,” Kuhr says. “People that know us know that this isn’t true.
Or that we are only resettling Muslims. And that we only help people for a few months. We only help people financially for a few months, but we’re able to work with families on services for three to five years, depending on what they need. We’re very focused
on that initial settlement but we’re there as needed for advice and counseling for a couple years after
they come.”
This story was updated at 9am September 29 to reflect the correct name of the organization that resettled the Jamalrazas.
