Hundreds of light bulbs spelled out "No Pipeline" on this sign that made its Nelson County debut February 22.
About 160 people attended a February 22 public comment session at Nelson County High School to voice their opinions to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which will eventually approve or deny plans for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
If approved, construction on the $5 billion and nearly 600-mile natural gas pipeline could begin by the end of the year. Governor Terry McAuliffe has voiced support for the ACP—backed primarily by Dominion Energy and Duke Energy—citing the state’s urgent energy needs and the number of jobs it will create.
It is unclear how many people spoke for or against the pipeline during FERC’s comment session, because one person at a time was called to give comments privately to a court stenographer.
Outside of the high school, Nelson landowner Mike Craig, a member of Friends of Nelson, a group that has been vocal about its opposition to the project, propped one of its signature anti-pipeline signs against the building—but instead of the usual blue square with white letters, this one was longer than a school bus, black and spelled out “No Pipeline” in hundreds of chunky white light bulbs.
Members of No ACP, a Richmond-based opposition group, brought him the sign this week, he said, and he assembled the lights for its Nelson County debut.
Craig lives on Wheeler’s Cove Road, where pavement turns to dirt in the county’s community of Elma. Count 13 mailboxes and you’ll find his 34-acre plot, on which the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s proposed route runs 200 steps from his driveway.
“I didn’t run power lines back to my place because I didn’t want to cut the trees down,” says Craig. “Now they’re going to run that pipeline through there and clear-cut the trees.”
At the end of last year, FERC released a draft environmental impact statement, which said the pipeline will have minimal effects on the environment, but Oil Change International and Bold Alliance, two opposition groups, have released information that says the total annual greenhouse gas emissions from the ACP will be nearly 68 million metric tons, or the equivalent of 20 coal plants or 14 million vehicles. Anti-pipeline groups have often noted that its path crosses water supplies, historically sensitive areas and animal habitats.
Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby notes that his company has made more than 300 route adjustments to the pipeline over the past two years to accommodate for such losses.
He says underground natural gas pipelines are by far the safest method of energy transportation in the country. And because safety is Dominion’s first priority, he says, the ACP will have a control center in West Virginia to remotely monitor the pipes at all times. If any problems are detected on a pipe’s interior sensor, it can be isolated and shut down immediately.
And for those looking for work, he says construction on the pipeline will create about 17,000 jobs over a two-year period in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, with almost 9,000 of those being in the state. The project will generate more than 2,000 jobs in the long term.
“We live and work in these communities,” Ruby says. “Virginia is home for us. The people who are going to build and operate this pipeline live in the same communities where it will be operated.”
The meeting was an attempt to shed light on the city’s recent move to develop a form-based code that could be applied to many of the residential units—and numerous other mixed-use and commercial buildings—within the Strategic Investment Area, such as Friendship Court.
A new form of proposed zoning has some in the city on edge, worried that it could be used to force out poorer residents.
Nearly 200 people attended an information session last week at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to learn about form-based code, a different type of zoning ordinance that focuses on a building’s size and style instead of its use. The new code could accelerate development, while dramatically changing the appearance, function and occupancy of buildings within the Ridge Street, Belmont and Martha Jefferson neighborhoods.
The meeting, entitled Gentrification, Zoning and Form-Based Code, was an attempt to shed light on the city’s recent move to develop a form-based code that could be applied to many of the residential units—and numerous other mixed-use and commercial buildings—within the Strategic Investment Area. It was sponsored by Legal Aid Justice Center, the local NAACP chapter and the Public Housing Association of Residents.
The SIA is a large swath of land south and east of downtown, and “one of the only remaining areas in Charlottesville with significant (re)-developable land available, especially so close to downtown,” according to a 271-page report issued in 2013. In 2012, about 3,000 people were living in the SIA, with a median household income of $28,309. The current median income for the city is $84,100, according to the Virginia Housing Development Authority.
Kim Rolla, an attorney with Legal Aid, told the crowd last week that from 2000 to 2012, African-Americans shifted from making up 51 percent of the population in the SIA to 38 percent. “That means that 180 black residents left that area,” Rolla told the audience, adding that in that same time period, 429 white people moved into the SIA. Rolla suggested that this shift could be the first signs of neighborhood gentrification.
On February 10, the city issued a request for proposal to secure a planning firm to develop a form-based code that it can implement in the SIA. The bidding process closes on March 2, and a form-based code is expected to be complete within 12 months of a contract’s signing.
Within the bid request is a promise to the area’s poorer residents: “It is essential that lower-income residents and people of color understand how zoning issues may impact the development or redevelopment of the Phase I SIA Area, and understand the range of choices that may be available for successful implementation of a Form Based Code.”
Dr. William Harris, a former chairman of the city’s planning commission, spoke alongside Rolla at last week’s event, telling the crowd that form-based codes are a pared down, prescribed version of a city’s traditional Euclidean code, which typically is more complicated and lengthy, and requires more continuous government oversight. A form-based code allows private building companies to move forward more quickly with projects and not ask the city for permission as often, said Harris. “Form-based codes are designed to make it—in a nutshell—easier for developers to do things by-right,” said Harris. “It cuts out the middleman, i.e. the local community, almost exclusively.”
Charlottesville’s current zoning code separates buildings by use—residential or commercial, for example—while also stipulating their density—how many people can live in them or occupy them at any given time.
Form-based code focuses more on the shape and appearance of buildings—how tall or where they are, for example. Many cities that implement such codes first hold public input meetings called charrettes, said Rolla.
Councilor Kathy Galvin said the form-based code would only apply to buildings in the SIA currently zoned “Downtown Extended,” which can be built by-right as high as nine stories tall. The new code would regulate their size “to be more respectful of adjacent existing neighborhoods along the edge of the SIA,” said Galvin in an e-mail, adding that the new code would specifically benefit lower-income residents.
“Form-based codes are absolutely compatible with incentives to promote affordable housing, from allowing more variety in lot sizes and building types to expedited reviews and diminished development fees for projects with affordable housing.” Galvin stressed that community input is essential to this process.
Rolla raised concerns last week that the charrette process of gathering public input might be well-intentioned, but could result in only the desires of developers and planners being represented. “One of the common questions in the literature is: Who is participating in the charrettes and who controls the outcome?” she said. “Basically the idea being that—my apologies to planners—that planners are not sensitive to power dynamics sometimes. That there may be elite groups that are able to control the charrette process, whose reviews are more thoroughly reflected in the outcome, and those tend to be elites with education, money and experience in formal processes.”
Dr. A’Lelia Henry served on the SIA Steering Committee in 2013. She lives in public housing and says that although the SIA process heard from many public housing residents, the eventual SIA plan does not reflect many of their requests. She fears a similar process could result from the implementation of form-based code.
“When you do these things, why do you always have to have permanent losers?” asks Henry. “We’re the only ones really being asked to give up something. We’re being asked to give up our land. We’re being asked to give up public housing to live in a mixed-income area, where we’re surrounded by a bunch of white folks.”
Pete Armetta, president of the Ridge Street Neighborhood Association, says several other neighborhood associations, along with the IX Art Park and the city, will host an educational workshop on form-based code for area residents and the public the third week of March.
Affordable housing effect
Under a local ordinance, developers who request a special-use permit to increase the number of people who live on a property either have to make a percentage of those new units available to lower-income residents or pay into the city’s Affordable Housing Fund. Critics say with form-based code, developers may not have to ask for as many special-use permits and could skip paying into the fund or building affordable units.
• Since its creation in 2007, every developer has paid into the fund.
• The city also pays an annual average of $1.3 million into the fund.
• The city has set a goal to have 15 percent of all housing be affordable by 2025.
• Over the last six years, affordable housing in the city has decreased slightly from 10.5 percent to 10.06 percent, largely because of the influx in market rate units along West Main Street.
The heavenly scent of handcrafted donuts, fritters and cinnamon rolls will soon waft up and down West Main Street: Charlottesville is getting a Sugar Shack Donuts, directly across the street from the Uncommon Building, this summer.
Sugar Shack owner and self-proclaimed “donut nostalgia nerd” Ian Kelley opened his first shop in a small building in Richmond’s Carver neighborhood in 2013 and has been searching for the right place to open a Charlottesville spot for a while; this will be Sugar Shack’s 11th location.
“Charlottesville is the town we always wished we were part of, and now finally get the opportunity to join. The people, businesses and university have created an incredible environment for community-driven businesses like ours, and we are proud to bring our handmade donuts to a new home,” Kelley says in a press release.
Per Sugar Shack tradition, customers can earn a free house donut if they participate in the almost-daily, usually quirky challenge posted on the shop’s Facebook page. So, Charlottesville: What will you do for a free donut? Will you break out the air guitar and riff along to the chorus of Warrant’s “Cherry Pie”? Wear your clothes backwards (a la ’90s hip-hop duo Kris Kross)? Bust an M.C. Hammer move? Do the “Single Ladies” dance? Oh, this is gonna be good.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy promised to keep a smile on his face despite the attempt to oust him from office.
Staff photo
It was no secret that today’s hearing on a petition to remove Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy from office was going to be continued, but that didn’t prevent more than four dozen people from showing up in Charlottesville Circuit Court, most of them Bellamy supporters.
The petition with 527 signatures gathered by right-wing activist Jason Kessler was filed February 16, and Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Rick Moore said state statute required a hearing within five days.
Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Doucette, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case February 18, filed a motion to continue, and Bellamy’s attorney, Pam Starsia, filed a demurrer to toss the case February 21.
Removing elected officials from office in Virginia is difficult—and rare. “Quite frankly, it’s a legal matter that doesn’t come up often,” said Moore.
The judge also warned those in the courtroom that the case was one where “emotions run high,” and he was going to demand respectful and calm conduct.
Doucette said in his 33 years of practicing law, this is the third recall he’s handled, and that’s probably two more than any other attorney in the state. Most notably, he was appointed special prosecutor in the 2013 unsuccessful effort to remove former Albemarle supervisor Chris Dumler after he was convicted of sexual battery.
“I’m not representing a party,” said Doucette. “I’m representing the law.” He said he was happy to talk to anyone who had facts about the case, and he intended to interview petitioner Kessler after the hearing.
Kessler, who unearthed controversial and offensive tweets Bellamy made before he took office on City Council in 2016, contends Bellamy misused his office when he changed his Twitter account to ViceMayorWesB and the old tweets showed up under that name.
He also takes issue with Bellamy’s call to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee, which Kessler said “is of ethnic significance to Southern white people” at a press conference last week. And he cited Bellamy taking part in a boycott of UVA lecturer Doug Muir’s Bella restaurant after Muir compared Black Lives Matter to the KKK as another misuse of office.
Starsia argues in the demurrer that Kessler’s petition does not cite facts supporting his allegation of misuse of office under the law, and that it has not been signed by the required number of registered voters who cast ballots in the 2015 election in which Bellamy was elected.
Virginia Code says the petition must be signed by 10 percent of those who voted in that election, which, according to the city registrar, were 15,798. Starsia maintains he needs 10 percent of the total votes cast. Kessler says he’s been advised he needs 527 signatures.
Doucette arrived in town early to speak with the registrar, he said. “This is going to be a priority item.”
The parties will provide a status to the judge as early as tomorrow or by next week.
Outside the courthouse, Bellamy said, “I want to make sure they handle this properly.” He acknowledged that Kessler had a right to seek his removal because that’s “the democratic process,” and stressed he bore no ill will toward Kessler.
Kessler has complained that some of the opposition, including Showing Up for Racial Justice, a group to which Starsia belongs, have labeled him a “white nationalist.”
When asked about that characterization, Bellamy said, “That’s up to them. I don’t get into the name calling.”
He added, “I can promise I’m going to continue to have a smile on my face.”
Pam Starsia questions the number of signatures on the petition to remove her client. Staff photo
Starsia was less sanguine, and said, “I am not as amicable as Mr. Bellamy.” She noted that conduct before taking office cannot be used as a reason to remove an elected official, and called Kessler’s claim “specious.”
Said Starsia, “We believe the law is on Mr. Bellamy’s side.”
A truck festooned with Trump banners drove by the courthouse after the Bellamy hearing. Staff photo
Brian Calhoun created Chickapig after a night spent playing a board game so boring he can’t even remember its name. He refers to Chickapig as “farmer’s chess.” Photo by Eze Amos
One night last February, Charlottesville luthier Brian Calhoun and his good friend, musician Dave Matthews, walked into Kardinal Hall with a massive handmade Chickapig board. Calhoun had measured the back of his car and made the board as big as he could while still fitting it into his trunk.They played a few games over beers, and decided to go back the following week, which started a tradition: Chickapig Tuesdays at Kardinal Hall have been a thing ever since. In the early days, as many as 100 people would show up to play in a night, and Calhoun used the evenings as an opportunity to crowdsource the idea he’d come up with in 2014.
It’s not unusual for our best ideas to occur when we’re running, driving or showering. In fact, it’s a phenomenon so universal that psychologists coined a term to describe it: incubation. Research shows that when you’re performing a mindless task, your brain switches to autopilot mode, freeing up your subconscious to work on something else. This was the case for Calhoun.
Brian Calhoun, owner of Rockbridge Guitar Company, launched Chickapig with a Kickstarter campaign, and has produced 2,500 first edition games. Photo by Eze Amos
After a night spent playing a board game so boring he can’t even remember its name, the owner of Rockbridge Guitar Company decided to try his hand at creating something other than guitars—a board game for him and his friends to enjoy. Enter Chickapig, a strategic game in which four players move their red, yellow, green or blue hybrid animal pieces across the board into their designated goal, bouncing off of hay bales and avoiding obstacles like cow poop. Calhoun came up with the rules and premise of what he has dubbed “farmer’s chess” during states of meditative distraction.
“When I was driving or when I was going to sleep, I’d think about how pieces could work together to do something: to get across a board or escape through a goal,” Calhoun says. “Then one day it just sort of literally popped into my head how the two pieces, which ended up being the chickapigs and the hay bales, could work together.”
After that creative epiphany, he went home and made little cardboard pieces and placed them on a chess board.
“Quickly it was too many pieces, not enough squares. And then I made a cardboard board and it was too many squares, not enough pieces,” he says. “It was a day of that before I narrowed it down to the number of squares and the number of pieces, and then it was about a week of just kind of messing around with those parts before I had what ended up being 90 percent of what Chickapig is today.”
After he figured out the game’s basic premise, he made a handful of wooden boards and chickapig tokens out of a Play-Doh-like mold called Model Magic.
“I gave them to 10 of my friends and I thought that was going to be all that Chickapig ever was,” he says. “And then I would realize that they were playing when I wasn’t there and I was always so surprised. And then I would find out that their kids were playing on their own or with their friends. And my friends were playing with their friends that I didn’t know. And more and more I would have people be like, ‘Hey, I played that game.’”
At that point, Calhoun knew he was onto something. He began studying board game design and started tweaking details.
“There are essentially dials that you can turn to make [the game] tilt more toward a game of luck or a game of skill. Like what the cards say has a big impact on the outcome of the game and what the different rolls of the dice do and that type of thing,” Calhoun says. “What I wanted was a game where you could learn it pretty quickly but you could also get really good at it.”
Rules of the game
Four players select their color of six chickapigs, and sit opposite one another. The aim is to move your entire flock through the goal on the opposite end of the board, but your opponents do their best to stop you by putting their hay bales, chickapigs or the cow in your path. A chickapig moves in a straight line—forward, backward or sideways—
until it encounters a stationary object: another pig, the cow, the perimeter of the board, etc., which counts as one move.
When a player rolls a 1 for the first time in the game, he has the option of freeing the cow from its fence in the middle of the board and putting it on any space. When the next player rolls a 1, she can move the cow to another space, but a piece of poop is left behind. When a chickapig slides through a poop square, that player must pick up a poop card (“all of the poop cards are bad because no one wants to step on poop” the Chickapig website states). Alternatively, when a 2 is rolled, that player picks up a daisy card (all are good). The first player with all six pigs through their goal wins.
Chickapig nights at Kardinal Hall have become so popular that they’ve even added a Chickapig sandwich to the menu, and Kardinal Hall staffers still receive Chickapig orders from people living as far away as Seattle (the Preston Avenue restaurant was the main seller of Calhoun’s prototypes).
“It gave me a chance to go talk to people—that’s when I had Chickapig 95 percent figured out—but I talked to people about everything: What do you think of this card? What do you think about the dice? What do you think about this piece?” he says. “I just asked questions to strangers, which was great because your friends are either too nice or too mean, and I just got a tremendous amount of feedback. And also, we were able to see, ‘Oh in this situation, such and such doesn’t work, so I need to change this role.’ After doing that for six months or so, which is a lot of games of Chickapig, it got to the point of confidently saying, ‘There’s no scenario that can happen that I don’t have an answer for, which was a cool place to be.’”
One of the attendees of Chickapig Tuesdays was board game publisher and Charlottesville resident Pete Fenlon. He’s published games for more than 35 years, and his credits include the popular German board game Settlers of Catan. He’s now the CEO of Catan Studios, and he says that he and his chief development partner, Coleman Charlton, were charmed by Chickapig.
“We really liked the game, which is rare, because you know we run into a lot of games and a lot of people who think they have a good game, but in reality have something less than a great experience,” Fenlon says. “And you know, something that might be fun for them but really is not something that is ready for others, much less ready for commercial development.”
Fenlon thought Calhoun was ready, and he and Charlton offered to help him with any development questions he had. Calhoun even incorporated one of their suggestions into his current design, changing one last rule in the final hour before launching.
“A great game often is a game where there isn’t an age limit, it’s just a matter of having rules that are easy to learn and difficult to master,” Fenlon says. “Chickapig has all the elements of a great game. …It’s fun and it’s got great replay value. In other words, it’s something you want to continue to play even after you’ve played it once or a few times. …So we thought it had legs and we still do.”
But launching a game and navigating all the nuances of design, development and marketing isn’t easy—1,000 new games will be released this year.
“Gaming as a whole is no longer considered just a nerdy niche thing. If anything, it’s becoming more and more part of the mainstream storytelling and social entertainment culture,” says Fenlon. “That’s all great and that’s positive and makes it easier to market games. But at the same time, just the sheer volume of the content coming out makes it harder to find your way through the white noise, and this is a big challenge for Brian and Chickapig. And he’s got a good weapon because he’s got good content and I think he’s got the nucleus of a great community. So we’re thinking he’s gonna make it.”
When Brian Calhoun was in the early developmental stages of Chickapig, he and his friend, Dave Matthews, took the prototype to Kardinal Hall to play on a Tuesday night. They brought the game back the following week, and interest quickly spread: Chickapig Night at Kardinal Hall was born. Photo by Tom McGovern
In the wake of feedback he received at Kardinal Hall, Calhoun churned out 1,000 games with the help of jigs he made at his guitar studio. Word spread fairly quickly once he began selling the sets at events like FleaVILLE, and he started researching what it would take to manufacture Chickapig on a larger scale. At that point, Matthews came on board officially, along with friends Fenton Williams and Mark Rebein as business partners to help promote Chickapig. They launched a presale of the game on Kickstarter, which has a large gaming community.
“The games were the exact same prices then as they are now…it was just a ‘buy it ahead of time’ and it was to reach this community of people that we weren’t associated with,” Calhoun says.
Going the Kickstarter route also allowed him to retain financial control of the endeavor.
“Just because my friends might be successful in the other things they do, they wanted me to control this company and to own this. I don’t want a hand out,” he says. “We’re doing this the right way and so that let me keep the equity by raising the money to make the next round, which was, ‘Let’s buy 5,000 of these things.’”
The strategy paid off: Chickapig passed its Kickstarter goal of $30,000 within 12 hours, with a final tally of $86,414.
By the numbers
1,500 Chickapig prototypes
$86,414amount raised by the Kickstarter campaign
55Chickapig Tuesdays at Kardinal Hall to date
2,500 first edition games
4 versions of Chickapig
1 pooping cow per game
There are four different types of Chickapig sets, and local business Cardboard Safari manufactures the standard version. For the version with 3-D tokens, Calhoun’s mom makes the cows and friend Kelly Falk helps make the chickapigs out of Model Magic.
“There’s four different colors and six of each color for each game,” Falk says. “I usually make the chickapigs and then they sit for about 24 hours before I use a fine-point marker to draw on the wings and the legs. And then after that, they go in little baggies with the cows for each game.”
When Calhoun first showed Falk how to make the chicken/pig hybrids, he emphasized that they didn’t have to be perfect.
“He was like, different sizes are fine, you know, the ears, the eyes, the noses, they’re all going to be a little bit different and that’s what makes it really special is that they’re handmade and each game is going to be unique,” Falk recalls. “And I just thought that was really cool and I was excited to be a part of the process.”
Chicka-what?
Chickapig creator Brian Calhoun was destined to be the mastermind behind “farmer’s chess.” Growing up on a farm in Lexington, Virginia, Calhoun loved cows and was always out in the pasture chasing them around. So when it came time to create characters for his game, incorporating cows into the mix was a no-brainer.
As for the chickapig game pieces—a hybrid chicken/pig animal—that’s just where his mind wanders when he starts doodling. “If I get stuck on a long phone call and I have a pencil and a piece of paper in front of me and I’m mindlessly listening to somebody talk, I will often end up with all kinds of animal hybrids,” he says.
Calhoun’s approach to designing and promoting Chickapig stems from the same homegrown entrepreneurial spirit that helped make Rockbridge Guitar Company a success. Calhoun grew up playing guitar and started building instruments in high school, taking after his guitar teacher.
“He was in a neighborhood of white picket fences, and he lived in the house with bamboo and glass orbs hanging and concrete sculptures that he made, and he [would be] in his yard with long hair and blue pants with moons on them,” Calhoun says. “He built all these weird instruments as a hobby and I just thought it was awesome.”
Calhoun built a mandolin to fulfill an independent study requirement in high school, and his interest took off from there.
“I was lucky enough in Rockbridge County, where I grew up, to have an unofficial apprenticeship with a mandolin builder and a violin builder and that’s where I sort of honed woodworking skills and developed an understanding of how wood could be manipulated to make sound,” Calhoun says.
After building a few instruments with fellow luthier Randall Ray, he suggested they form a business together.
“[Randall] always says I was too young and stupid to know that nobody could do that. But I believed we could,” Calhoun says. “I had this great guitar that my parents had given me as a high school graduation present and when Randall and I made a guitar, I was like, ‘I like this more than my other guitar, and I think other people will too.’”
He began taking his guitars to music festivals and steadily building a clientele—he’s doing the same with Chickapig.
“We’re building people that believe in it one person at a time,” Calhoun says. “Sort of the way you grow a band organically.”
Bars, breweries and tailgates were all fair game for marketing, too. Because he was already well-connected in the music industry, the game took off with artists (the table in Matthews’ tour bus is a Chickapig board), and he even threw in a Chickapig freebie with custom guitar orders. But when an unexpectedly large crowd showed up at the Chickapig tent at Nelson County music festival The Festy Experience, Calhoun shifted focus.
“Where I thought people would come in and drink, by the end of the first day, there were like 60 kids in there playing, just packed,” he says. “And then the second and third day the same thing, just filled with kids. …Around that time, I was getting more and more people telling me that they were playing at home with their kids. I was thinking back to the early days when my friends’ kids were playing it and I was like, ‘What are we doing? We should be seeing how this goes with kids.’”
Calhoun turned to Michael Riley, principal of Charlottesville Catholic School and a frequent attendee of Chickapig Tuesdays, and the two brainstormed ways to introduce Chickapig into local schools. Riley invited Calhoun to come to CCS to demo the game for faculty and students. He also coordinated with a committee of Charlottesville independent schools to institute Chickapig clubs.
“Each of the other private schools in town, we’re all creating our own little Chickapig leagues at our schools,” Riley says. He and another teacher sponsor an after-school club that will host small tournaments over the next few weeks. The best players will advance to an intra-school tournament in April.
“Brian wants to create a Chickapig trophy that’ll travel from school to school, whoever wins the tournament,” Riley says. “So I think he’s going to put an actual giant chickapig on top of a trophy. …The idea of tying the schools together in town was something that I talked with Brian about and he’s very passionate about getting this in the hands of kids.”
Another school participating in the league is Mountaintop Montessori. Teacher Judah Brownstein is a close friend of Calhoun’s. A former U.S. Chess champion, Brownstein plays Chickapig regularly and is also helping Calhoun develop a two-player version of the game. He says it’s a great game for children because it teaches chess-like concepts in a fun, interactive way.
“The advantage of Chickapig is that the four-person dynamic adds the social element, which requires people to interact with one another, lobby for placement of certain pieces, try to convince people to do certain things and work together in some sense,” Brownstein says. “It ends up creating this fun game—four people interacting and strategizing but also having to work together through certain issues.”
After noticing that children were especially interested in playing Chickapig, creator Brian Calhoun decided to partner with local private schools to bring boards into classrooms. He recently surprised the Southwood Boys & Girls Club (above) with boards designed with a custom logo. Photo by Eze Amos
Calhoun continues to stay involved in the community, demonstrating Chickapig to students and teachers around town with the hope of increasing child engagement. He recently surprised each independent school with a custom Chickapig board complete with their logos, and he did the same for the Southwood Boys & Girls Club and the Virginia Institute of Autism.
“Brian and Fenton came to our classroom back in December to introduce the game and strategies to our students. After watching an introductory video and no more than 20 minutes of supervised play, the students had started moving cow poop and collecting chickapigs as if they had created the game themselves,” says Jake Frazier of the Virginia Institute of Autism. “The game has become an instant favorite in the classroom; they choose it over our Nintendo Wii U for breaks. When’s the last time you saw preteens choose a board game over electronics?”
Frazier says Chickapig has reinforced a variety of crucial social skills, from teamwork to problem-solving to sportsmanship. The Virginia Institute of Autism even has Calhoun booked to discuss being an inventor for a career-oriented social skills class.
“The fact that this thing that I came up with that was just supposed to be fun for me and my friends might actually be this helpful tool within teaching and with kids. It makes me feel way more proud of it,” Calhoun says.
Local REALTORS® and national economic forecasts predict a healthy 2017 real estate market. Senior Economist Joe Kirchner at Realtor.com predicts the 2017 market will be characterized by increases in both homes sales and prices, though at slower rates than experienced in the last two years.
A possible damper on sales is interest rates that have increased since the election and “are expected to reach 4.5 percent due to higher expectations for inflationary pressure in the year ahead.” On the other hand, the rate increases will be fueled, Kirchner said, by an expected increase in GDP and a decrease in unemployment both of which can help buyers feel more secure about making such a big purchase. In other words, overall the news is positive.
For example, Kirchner says, “new home sales are expected to grow 10 percent, while new home starts are expected to increase 3 percent.”Locally we saw similar growth in 2016 when new home sales increased by 9 percent, equivalent to 15 percent of total sales in our area, according to a year-end report by Michael Guthrie, CEO and Principal Broker of Roy Wheeler Realty Co.
The biggest players in the market (in 2017 and for at least the next 10 years) are expected to be the Millennials (33 percent) and the Boomers (30 percent), Kirchner continued.Most of the former will be looking for their first homes, while the latter are down-sizing, often preferring one-level living spaces with upgrades, but less overhead.The Millennials will be the most impacted by interest rate changes as many Boomers can pay cash or make larger down payments.
In our area, local agents predict an active spring market and look forward to March, typically the time when more listings become available, and when they expect at least some easing of current inventory shortages.Nevertheless, in the popular, close-in urban areas low inventories, even with these anticipated additional listings, are expected to continue and the potential for multiple offers is strong.
All of this means buyers, especially those who want to live close-in, are advised to do their homework, get pre-approved by a lender and be prepared to make a quick decision if they want to secure a home in this fast-paced market.And if you are a home owner who has been thinking about selling, now is a great time to call your agent about putting your house on the market.It’s definitely a great time to sell your home.
2017 Market Looks Strong Jim Duncan with Nest Realty Group described Charlottesville/Albemarle as “significantly active,” especially in the city and urban areas of the county.Like many agents he expressed concern about a lack of inventory of lower priced homes in a market that is accompanied by “significant demand across all demographics.” He added that “most good homes go under contract within weeks if not days.”
Duncan’s belief is that serious buyers are keeping informed about the competitiveness of the market and track the activity in areas where they have an interest.They know there will be what he called a “flurry of activity” when the good homes come available in these areas and are prepared to act. He is hopeful that the spring market will bring increased inventory allowing buyers a more reasonable time line when viewing, considering and purchasing a home.
There are a combination of factors at work that are promising for this year’s spring market explained Bill May, with ERA Bill May Realty Co.Part of this is what he described as post-election “euphoria” in that people can now get back to thinking about real estate and its value for building their net worth.In addition, he suggests that Millennials, who had hesitated to buy in the past because of job security, now have more faith in their long-term employment and are willing to move from being renters or living with their parents to home ownership.
“The good weather is also a plus,” May continued, “since it allows people to get out and around.”Finally he noted that interest rates, though a bit higher than they were, are still favorable allowing buyers to purchase their home at historically low rates.
Guthrie compared the real estate market of recent years to a shallow salad bowl that lost momentum in 2006-2007, and bottomed out in 2011-2012.Since 2012 the momentum has shifted to climbing out of the other side of the bowl. A year ago he predicted a gradual increase in sales during 2016, perhaps a 6 to 7 percent increase compared to 2015.In fact this was an underestimate as the actual year over year increase was 8 percent, accompanied by 4 percent increases in both average and median sales prices.
The urban markets in our areas are “substantially under-supplied,” said Rives Bailey, President and Managing Broker of Montague, Miller & Co.He expects multiple offers and rising prices for homes priced under $1 million. On the other hand, in price points over $1 million, inventory is “substantially higher” and, therefore, it is more of a buyers’ market.
Guthrie also addressed the high-end market stating that while sales increased some in 2016, “the wet blanket in those numbers is that sellers have had to reduce their prices to entice buyers to purchase.”
At the same time, Bailey continued, the competition for close-in homes pushes first timers and other buyers looking for more affordable houses into outlying areas, which may in part explain recent increases in sales in surrounding counties.
A good example of this process at work is a Millennial and first timer who works in Charlottesville and asked Maggie Gunnels with BHG Real Estate III to help her find a home.While her first choice was something close-in and move-in-ready, she soon discovered that the options in her price range would have required substantial renovations to make them right. As an alternative, she headed to Spring Creek in Louisa County where she now enjoys a brand new house. The deluxe gym, available to all home owners there, is an extra bonus as is the golf course in the event that becomes one of her hobbies.
In this competitive market, if spring buyers see a house they like, they shouldn’t wait to make an offer, and this is especially true of first-timers who may already be forced out of the close-in neighborhoods.Bailey explained that there is traditionally a burst of new listings in January, a trend that trails off some in February.Come March, however, the inventory should increase, removing some of the pressure.
He cautions, though, that he does not expect a “balanced market,” but rather one which continues to be under-supplied favoring sellers.
Mortgage Rates Still Low While rates have crept up since the election, they remain historically low and expected to remain under 5 percent for some time, which means mortgage money is still more affordable than at most times in history.
Bailey explained that while the higher rates may “put the brakes on a few buyers,” forcing them to settle for a less expensive home, he does not expect them to have a “major dampening effect” on the market.Rather he predicts the market will be “very solid and very brisk,” especially in the urban areas.
Guthrie agrees adding that “borrowing now is still a bargain and will remain so for this next year,”as does Duncan who explained that as long as rates remain less than 7 or 8 percent, “we are fine.”
If you are a first time buyer, be sure to ask your lender about what is available in the way of low down payment loans, some of which allow seller assistance and even 100 percent financing.
One of these, the USDA Rural Housing Services Loans, is for first-timers so long as they are not purchasing a city home, explained Jay Domenic with Movement Mortgage.Qualifying geographic areas include many south of Interstate 64 and east of Pantops.Loans that don’t require Private Mortgage Insurance—which can mean significant savings on a monthly mortgage payment—are also available said Julia Morris with Fulton Mortgage.
New Construction and the Resale Market New construction will continue to be an important part of the market this spring and beyond.
The new construction market is doing “very well overall,”Duncan said and buyers looking forward to all the benefits of a new home can “make it happen,” if that is what they want.
Guthriealso expresses enthusiasm about the new construction market stating, “as we move ahead in 2017, we can expect new construction throughout Charlottesville and the surrounding Central Virginia area to be strong.” He added that buyers can “expect higher prices: 1) because of the demand and 2) because of higher construction costs both in materials and in labor.”
At the same time that builders are happy about increased sales, competition from new homes is putting pressure on the resale market as buyers opt for energy savings and floor plans not always available in older homes. This is especially so at higher price points where buyers have more money and more options to choose from than at the lower end of the market.
All of this means resale listings will need to be well priced and in great condition in order to compete effectively against new homes which, Bailey said, now offer “a quantum shift in technology,” with regards to energy efficiency and design. Today’s new homes are more open with less formal floor plans. “Their function and functionality are different,” he continued.
While the new technology can make new homes more expensive, many buyers also recognize they will be able to live there longer without replacing major systems like the roof or the HVAC.In addition energy savings associated with a well-built new home can save the owner as much as $300 a month on their utility bill, equivalent to nearly $60,000 more mortgage, Bailey added.
“New construction will continue to be a significant part of the urban Charlottesville market,” Bailey said, though cautioning it will not be sufficient to close the gap between home supply and demand.To do so he estimates that builders would need to produce at least 800 homes per year, whereas last year that figure was closer to 550.And while new subdivisions are coming online, there is a long gap between when they are approved and when construction can begin.For example, the new Brookhill development at Polo Grounds Road is working its way through the approval process but don’t expect to move in for at least another four years.
All indications are that this year’s spring market will be very active. Home owners should not hesitate to call their agents for advice about preparing their house for sale, and if you are a buyer, take advantage now of the opportunity to lock in low rates and purchase a home before prices and interest rates rise even further.
Celeste Smucker is a writer, blogger and author who lives near Charlottesville.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy says he’s being targeted because he’s causing too much trouble by trying to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee.
Photo Ézé Amos
In the latest twist of the saga of Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s controversial and racially charged statements on Twitter unearthed by Jason Kessler, a right-wing activist, Bellamy’s attorney has filed a response to the petition calling for his removal from office.
In a press conference February 16, Kessler and his supporters presented their petition with 527 signatures calling for Bellamy’s removal from City Council. The petition cited Bellamy’s old tweets as evidence of abuse of office. Bellamy’s controversial tweets were published before his election to City Council, but after assuming office Bellamy changed his Twitter handle to reflect his status as vice mayor.
If the signatures are verified by Charlottesville’s registrar of voters and the number of signatures are approved by a judge, then a special prosecutor could make a case before a judge for Bellamy’s removal from office. According to Pam Starsia, Wes Bellamy’s attorney, Michael Doucette, Lynchburg commonwealth’s attorney, was appointed on Saturday as special prosecutor, a position Doucette also served in a 2013 unsuccessful attempt to remove former Albemarle supe Chris Dumler from office after he was convicted of sexual battery.
Starsia filed a motion February 21 stating Kessler’s petition did not allege grounds for removing Bellamy from office under Virginia Code, nor did it cite facts in support of allegations of misuse of office.
The motion also says that as a matter of law the petition has not been signed by the required number of voters.
Kessler’s petition was signed by 527 people. Virginia law says,“The petition must be signed by a number of registered voters who reside within the jurisdiction of the officer equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast at the last election for the office that the officer holds.”
According to an abstract of votes from the city registrar’s office, a total of 15,798 votes were cast for city council candidates in the 2015 election in which Bellamy was elected. Because Charlottesville’s seats on council are at-large, voters could cast up to three votes for each of the three seats that were up for election.
Rick Sincere, an economist, former chair of the Virginia Libertarian Party and former member of the Charlottesville Electoral Board from 2004 to 2016, believes Bellamy’s demurrer is likely to succeed.
“The law says the signatures on the petition should equal or exceed 10 percent of the votes cast for that office in the previous election,” Sincere says. “If there were three candidates for three seats, and each candidate received 1,000 votes, that means 1,000 people voted but they cast 3,000 votes. The percentage should be based on 3,000 votes cast ‘for the office,’ not on the number of votes received per candidate.”
Sincere’s interpretation of the law suggests that Kessler may need 1,579 signatures rather than the 527 that he has collected.
Bellamy has also requested that in addition to dismissing petition, the court should award him “reasonable attorney fees and costs expended.”
A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, February 23, at 11am.
Portrait Of Couple Running Coffee Shop Behind Counter
By Marilyn Pribus
“Charlottesville is a unique place,” declares Payam Pourtaheri, a co-founder of AgroSpheres, one of the many new businesses born right here where he says the entrepreneurial spirit is very strong. “There’s the feeling we’re all in this together. Everyone is supportive—you reach for help and it’s there. There are so many successful entrepreneurs.”
Pourtaheri is absolutely right. In fact, just last summer Entrepreneur magazine placed Charlottesville at #4 on its list of 50 top cities for entrepreneurs. Included in the calculations were cost of living, business tax rates, percentage of college grads in the community, the growth of well-paying jobs, and other factors such as the number of venture capital deals over the past decade.
Start-up Money The availability of start-up money is a biggie, of course, and the National Venture Capital Association recently ranked Charlottesville as the nation’s fastest-growing venture capital community with start-up funding for local companies leaping from $250,000 to more than $27 million in just five years between 2010 and 2015.Start-up companies benefit from some of the programs offering substantial financial recognition such as UVA’s Entrepreneurship Cup and Galant Challenge.
Last April, for example, the AgroSpheres team received more than $20,000 in the Entrepreneurship Cup competition. The team has won other awards and grants as well, garnering enough seed money to grow their company here in central Virginia. Beginning as “a few science geeks working on a cool summer research project,” AgroSpheres seeks to revolutionize the agriculture industry by developing non-toxic, environmentally friendly sprays that can degrade insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. This has clear benefits for the environment as well as people working with agricultural products and is now being tested in local vineyards and orchards.
UVA Is a Major Influence UVA is another major factor in this entrepreneurial equation. Various companies have worked directly with the university to bring its research to the commercial market, especially through the Darden School of Business. (The Financial Times, an international financial publication, named Darden as the #3 MBA program for entrepreneurship in the world.)
“The university is so important,” emphasizes Pourtaheri, himself a recent graduate with a BS in Nanomedicine. He cites various UVA schools including Commerce, Engineering, and Medicine as contributing to successful entrepreneurs.
“There’s a summer incubator program,” he says, “and WIP [Work in Progress] that’s through the engineering school.”UVA also offers a specific undergraduate program in entrepreneurship and sponsors i.Lab, a University-wide entrepreneurship initiative with cross-collaboration among eleven UVA schools.
Pourtaheri gives particular credit to interaction with UVA faculty member Dr. Mark Kester whose own research focusses on nanotechnologies. “He’s an AgroSpheres co-founder and our Chief Scientific Officer and a main reason we got going,” Pourtaheri explains. “He pushed us to look outside of the lab and see the potential impact we could have on the world.”
And there’s more. Student-powered programs such as Hack Cville—a sort of incubator providing space and resources for UVA students involved in innovation and entrepreneurship—also add to the climate of support for new firms.
Individual Entrepreneurs What about individuals who aren’t connected with UVA, yet seek to create their own small businesses?Just ask Charlottesville native Andrea Copeland-Whitsett who is active with the Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce as well as many other local associations including the Community Investment Collaborative (CIC).
Positive Community Support “Charlottesville is a culturally progressive community that supports businesses who seek to create a positive social impact,” says Cynthia Adams, CEO of Pearl Home Certification. Adams was the past Executive Director of the Charlottesville-based nonprofit Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP), and her experience running that company gave rise to Pearl, an organization that verifies the value of environmental upgrades such as solar panels and energy efficient components.
“Our main investors live right in the area,” says Adams, “and several local REALTORS® were involved during our pilot phases as services were developed. The certification of upgrades ensures they are included in appraisals so homeowners can recoup the value of their ‘green’ improvements for refi [refinancing] or resale.”
Charlottesville’s entrepreneurial spirit clearly attracts ambitious and motivated people to our community to work and live. For example, we asked whether AgroSpheres will stay in Charlottesville. “Definitely,” says Pourtaheri. “We’ve had the chance to move elsewhere, but it wouldn’t be right to leave. We love the support we have here. We’re excited to wake up each day.”
Marilyn Pribus and her husband live near Charlottesville.
Western Albemarle High School graduate Ruth De Jong spent several months exploring the New England coast for her production design work on Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea. Courtesy subject
While on a scouting excursion for Kenneth Lonergan’s film Manchester by the Sea, Ruth De Jong walked into a coastal Massachusetts shop selling GPS systems for boats.
“I’ve been here for 45 years!” the shop owner exclaimed, showing De Jong his office. The room was packed from floor to ceiling with papers—stacks of receipts, notes, manuals and who knows what else covered every surface, including the well-used desk and parts of the floor—and De Jong knew immediately it was the perfect location for a short scene in which stoic apartment building handyman and main character Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is reprimanded by his boss for having a bad attitude.
“You can’t recreate that,” says De Jong. “Well, you can, but it was so perfect, what this human had created.”
As a production designer, De Jong leads a film’s design team in creating the environment that actors step into to perform—taking a script and bringing it to life through sets, props and costumes. She came into the craft after her family moved to Virginia, where her parents still live, in her teens, and she met Schuyler Fisk. Their friendship led to an introduction to Jack Fisk, Schuyler’s dad and one of the film industry’s most sought-after production designers and art directors.
De Jong thought she might pursue a life as a painter before Fisk brought her onto his team for Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood in 2005. She worked directly with Fisk for about 10 years on films like Anderson’s The Master and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, Knight of Cups and the forthcoming Song to Song, before striking out on her own.
Oscar noms
Manchester by the Sea has been nominated for six Academy Awards:
• Best Picture
• Writing (Original Screenplay)
• Directing
• Actor in a Leading Role (Casey Affleck)
• Actress in a Supporting Role (Michelle Williams)
• Actor in a Supporting Role (Lucas Hedges)
In Manchester by the Sea, Lee returns home in the wake of his brother’s death to care for his grieving teenage nephew, Patrick. Lee, still consumed by a tragedy from his past, must settle his fisherman brother’s estate and decide what’s next for Patrick. It’s an extraordinary look at ordinary people.
For months, De Jong roamed Cape Ann, the rocky coastal promontory about 30 miles northeast of Boston where the film is set. She visited libraries and museums, she struck up conversations with shop owners and customers who, in turn, introduced her to their neighbors, to local fishermen, hockey coaches and funeral home directors.
She visited more than a dozen wharfs, noting where the sun rose and set; she rode boats, visited schools and police stations. Through all of this, “you learn who these people are,” De Jong says, and these real people informed every moment of Manchester by the Sea, from how the characters talked, to the cars they drove, the clothes they wore, the pictures on their dressers and the placemats on their kitchen tables.
Ruth De Jong built storyboards and put together sample houses, half a dozen or so per character, per location, and they’d whittle the options down before arriving at the final iteration. Courtesy Roadside Attractions
De Jong built storyboards and put together sample houses, half a dozen or so per character, per location, and they’d whittle the options down before arriving at the final iteration of Lee’s sparse basement apartment; or before deciding that Joe’s kitchen would be stuck in the 1970s, with brown wood cabinets, floral wallpaper, faux stone vinyl flooring and a pale yellow salt and pepper shaker set sitting on a simple, worn wooden table.
“You don’t always think about your everyday surroundings” and what they bring to bear on your daily life, says De Jong. But when you do, “it makes you realize that we all have subtleties, nuances to how we live in any given day. We’re all characters in a sense.”
De Jong borrowed everything from cars, boats, furniture and lamps to knickknacks and personal belongings. They painted and put wallpaper in houses when necessary, then “either leave it if the owner likes it or put it back to whatever they want,” says De Jong.
Making the scene
You can also see Ruth De Jong’s work in Inherent Vice, The Master, Knight of Cups, The Tree of Life, There Will Be Blood, Dead Man’s Burden, Swedish Auto, Terrence Malick’s upcoming film, Song to Song, and the return of the TV show “Twin Peaks” for a limited series in May.
The police station is a former schoolhouse and the actual home of the Beverly Police Department. The hospital nurses’ station required a full dressing; it’s only visible for a couple of seconds, but none of the paperwork-stuffed manila folders, stethoscopes or computers were there. Small details—like baby clothes and nursing pillows strewn about a bedroom or a dirty dish left in the kitchen sink—make sets feel real.
De Jong and Lonergan designed not to the sad tone of the script but to the reality of everyday life, “meaning, there’s death, there’s pain…but certain things (like the weather) don’t change given grief or happiness.”
“That scene where Lee and Patrick have left the funeral home and get into an argument over finding the car, and it’s really sunny out—it was great, because it was just another day, but they’re dealing with all of this drama and grief and frustration and pain,” De Jong points out.
Manchester by the Sea is closely shot, and much of what De Jong put together isn’t visible in the final cut. But shooting on location lent an unmatched authenticity and true texture. “It really gave the truest sense of this place. You were able to fall into this world because you didn’t think twice about it—it’s like you’re there,” she says, because, quite simply, you are there.
English muffin pizzas started Ian Boden on his culinary path. He says he loves what he does and doesn’t “know how to do anything else.” Photo by Norm Shafer
The James Beard Foundation just released its list of 2017 Restaurant and Chef Award semifinalists, and Staunton chef Ian Boden landed one of the coveted spots. He’s in the running for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic; winners will be announced May 1.
Boden, who cooks new American cuisine inspired by rural Virginia at The Shack—named one of the best 100 restaurants in the South by Southern Living magazine—answered a few questions for us about his eating and cooking habits past and present. (Who doesn’t love a good English muffin pizza?)
C-VILLE Weekly: What did you have for breakfast?
Ian Boden: A few cups of coffee and a croissant from Newtown Baking.
What was the first thing you ever cooked?
I can’t say for sure, but I’m going to guess it was English muffin pizzas in the toaster oven.
You have 15 minutes to cook something for dinner. What do you make?
Pasta, most likely.
When you were a kid, what was your favorite school lunch?
I was never a fan of school lunch, really. In high school I ate fries out of the vending machines…that was pretty much it.
Why are you a chef?
I love what I do and I don’t know how to do anything else, really (not that it makes a difference).
Who’s the person you’d most like to cook for, and what would you make?
Edna Lewis and Grandma Tissy; whatever is on hand. I love that Ms. Lewis finally got some due, even if it was from “Top Chef.” It’s unfortunate that so many cooks, and Southern cooks at that, previously had no idea who she was and what she meant to so many. [Editor’s note: Chef and cookbook author Edna Lewis put Southern cooking on the culinary map and was hailed as “the South’s answer to Julia Child.”]
Grandma Tissy is my wife’s grandma; she passed away before my wife and I met. She was the matriarch of her family and raised five kids in a shack in Swoope, Virginia—that shack is our restaurant logo.
Raise a glass
Last month, several local vineyards and wineries earned medals at the 2017 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the world’s largest American wines contest:
Afton Mountain Vineyards took home double gold for its 2012 Petit Verdot, while the 2012 Festa di Bacco red blend and the 2014 Cabernet Sauvigon each took home a silver medal.
Barboursville Vineyards earned gold for its 2013 and 2014 Octagon wines and 2014 Cabernet Franc and silver for its 2015 Vermentino and 2015 Vigonier.
DuCard Vineyards in Etlan took home silver for its 2014 Petit Verdot and bronze for its 2014 Cabernet Franc.
Glass House Winery in Free Union won silver for its 2014 Twenty-First (a Bordeaux blend) and its 2014 Chambourcin, and bronze for its 2015 Viognier.
Jefferson Vineyards netted double gold for its 2015 Viognier and gold for its 2014 Petit Verdot.
Stinson Vineyards in Crozet earned silver for its 2015 Sauvignon Blanc and bronze for its 2013 Tannat.
Trump Winery nabbed double gold for its 2009 Brut Reserve, gold for its 2010 Blanc de Blanc and bronze for its 2015 Meritage.
Whitehall Vineyards in Crozet took silver for its 2015 Chardonnay.
Veritas Vineyards and Winery in Afton collected four medals—double gold for its 2014 Petit Verdot; gold for its 2015 Sauvignon Blanc; and two silvers, one for its 2014 Veritas (a Bordeaux blend) and one for its 2015 Sauvingon Blanc.*
Tasty Tidbits
According to a sign posted in the restaurant’s window, Downtown Thai is for sale.
Texas Roadhouse steakhouse will open in Albemarle Square on Route 29 by the fourth week in February.
Feelin’ Saucy Pizzeria will open on 14th Street on the UVA Corner—its menu touts “buy one pizza, get one free (of equal or lesser value).”
Uncle Maddio’s Pizza will open soon in The Shops at Stonefield; according to signs in the window and posts on the restaurant’s Facebook page, they’re still in the hiring phase.
Monsoon Siam Togogo has opened in Main Street Market. Call in your favorite Thai dish from Monsoon’s menu for pick-up (284-7117).
Former Northern Exposure chef Tony Bonanno is the new owner and chef of the Madison Inn Restaurant at 217 N. Main St. in Madison, where he’s cooking Italian and continental infusion food.
*This article was updated at 12:43pm February 27 to include all local wineries that won medals at the 2017 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
