Month: August 2017

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News

Taking action: Hate rally fuels momentum for new affordable housing coalition

Friendship Court faces redevelopment, but with pledges to keep its low-income housing. File photo

Neo-Nazis and affordable housing may not seem directly connected, but in the wake of the white supremacist rally on August 12, a new coalition of grassroots activists and nonprofit groups is linking the two in a push for more homes for poorer Charlottesville residents.

The Charlottesville Coalition for Low-Income Housing, formed earlier this year, has gathered significant momentum since the alt-right rally, as key members tie the city’s lack of affordable housing to racism and local white supremacist policies.

“Opposing racism means real action, such as acknowledging that the rapid demographic change in Charlottesville is linked to high rents, inadequate affordable housing stock and limited economic and educational opportunity for low-income communities,” says Mary Bauer, the executive director of the Legal Aid Justice Center in an August 22 letter to City Manager Maurice Jones, Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas and members of City Council.

Bauer wrote the five-page letter on behalf of the Public Housing Association of Residents, which Legal Aid Justice Center represents, and she demanded answers from the city about why it failed to protect its low-income housing residents, citing a group of armed alt-righters who marched near Friendship Court August 12 and left residents shaken.

The new coalition consists of PHAR, Legal Aid Justice Center, Showing Up for Racial Justice and Together C’Ville. Attorney Jeff Fogel, former planning commission chair William Harris and former NAACP chapter president Rick Turner have also attended meetings.

The group is focusing efforts on educating the public about form-based code, a different type of zoning the city is in the process of adopting within the Strategic Investment Area, a large section of land south of downtown. Form-based code focuses on a building’s size and style, rather than its use. Critics fear the new code could accelerate development, while dramatically changing the appearance, function and occupancy of buildings.

The community affected by form-based code is typically given an opportunity to share its ideas and desires through a public input process, called charettes, which then form the backbone and underlying guidelines for the code.

Elaine Poon, the managing attorney at Legal Aid, says the city has scheduled the charettes for the week of September 11-14, and she worries that if low-income residents are not engaged in the charette process, the eventual form-based code may not have key elements in place that would guarantee the construction of more affordable housing.

“This is a boom time for Charlottesville, property values are going through the roof,” says Poon. Unless steps are taken now by community members, the city’s lowest-income residents may no longer be able to afford to live in Charlottesville in the future, she says.

More than 470 people have signed a Change.org coalition letter to councilors, petitioning them to “stop displacement and expand affordable housing for extremely low-income people,” and noting that the population of African-Americans within the SIA from 2000-2012 has decreased 12 percent—a sign of gentrification.

To help energize residents in demanding their voices be heard, the coalition is bringing an experienced voice from Chicago. Willie “J.R” Fleming is the executive director for the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign and the vice president of Black Chicago Development Coalition. For the past eight years, he’s fought against the displacement of Chicago’s low-income communities.

Fleming is coming courtesy of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which coalition member Laura Goldblatt, a post-doctoral fellow at UVA, recently received.

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News

Father’s plea: Details of shooting revealed in court

Donald Short entered an Alford plea Friday to involuntary manslaughter of his son, Matthew, 47. Staff photo

When then 84-year-old Donald Short shot his mentally ill son to death last November, he said he was defending himself and his family.

The former University of Virginia cop entered an Alford plea to involuntary manslaughter in Albemarle Circuit Court on August 25, which is not an admission of guilt, but means he believed the prosecution had a strong enough case against him to convict him of the crime.

“I don’t feel like I’m guilty,” Short told Judge Cheryl Higgins when she asked if he was pleading guilty because he was actually guilty. A row of seven family members and friends sat behind him in the courtroom.

On November 9, 2016, the elder Short shot his 47-year-old son, Matthew, in the leg and abdomen after Matthew started a violent fight with his other son, Edward.

Short told a detective that Matthew, a drug addict, had been acting strange lately, so the former cop had started carrying a handgun with him to protect himself. Matthew had also tried to kill his brother before, Short said, so when the two were fighting and Edward was struggling to wrestle Matthew to the ground, he shot Matthew to immobilize him.

Matthew died three days later, and a medical examiner determined the gunshot wound to the abdomen was the culprit.

“All I was thinking of was that state senator,” Short told police during the interrogation, according to a statement of facts produced by the commonwealth’s attorney’s office. “He tried to get his son a bed in the hospital and there were no beds available over in Augusta or Highland and as soon as he got home, [the son] went and got a rifle out and killed himself.”

Short refers to Bath County state Senator Creigh Deeds, who was stabbed in the face several times by his mentally ill son, Gus, before Gus shot himself to death in 2013.

Short also told police he felt “destroyed and shattered” after shooting Matthew. He declined to comment after his hearing.

Entries in Matthew’s diary from 2015 and 2016 included phrases such as “my brother, I will kill him,” “I long for the taste of combat and blood,” “breaking things, extreme anger, verbal outbursts, constant thoughts of homicide” and “continued loops of murder rage through my mind,” according to the statement of facts.

Police were called to the Short residence three other times because Matthew was being violent, according to the statement, and a fourth time they were called to a health care provider’s office on Route 29 because Matthew had threatened staff and made suicidal statements.

The day of the shooting, residents of an apartment on Burgoyne Road called for police at 5:46pm while hiding in the bathroom after a group of people allegedly attempted to break into their apartment with weapons.

A female resident of the apartment later picked Matthew Short, or “Crazy Matt,” as she called him, out of a lineup during a follow-up investigation. She said he had gotten into an argument with her about drugs on November 7, and threatened her with an ax and said he’d “be back.”

The woman told police she had heard a noise outside her door November 9 and she could see a group of people waiting. She saw Matthew charge at the door and say, “We’re coming in by the hair of my chinny chin chin. I told you we’re coming back,” while holding a yellow and black ax and some rope. She told police she was familiar with Matthew, because he’d been in her apartment before, and they called him Crazy Matt because he “talked about killing people, talked to the lord, could see the devil and would go into a corner of a room, look up and say, ‘Do y’all see that?’ when nothing was there,” according to the statement of facts.

“He always carries weapons around—big hunting knives, axes and hatchets and stuff,” Short told police during the investigation, before Matthew died. “That scares the hell out of me too. I’m always afraid to go near him unless he’s in a real quiet, calm mood. …I worry about him when he starts to act out like that. I got to watch out what he’s got in his back pocket, so to speak, so that’s why I keep the gun in my pocket just in case.”

He also discussed how Matthew’s mental illness and constant violence affected him. “It’s terrible because you love somebody, but you dislike the person they’ve become and you’re afraid of him at the same time.”

Short’s sentencing is scheduled for December 5.

Categories
News

Spin cycle: Leaked memo throws Jones under the bus, council to discipline one of its own

Fall guys? Mayor Mike Signer’s August 23 memo blames Police Chief Al Thomas, left, and City Manager Maurice Jones, who both attended the August 27 Community Recovery Town Hall, for the violence that occurred August 12. Eze Amos

Usually it’s hard to squeeze personnel matters discussed in closed session out of city councilors. That’s why the August 25 leaking of a confidential Mayor Mike Signer-written memo to City Manager Maurice Jones demanding explanations of the events leading up to the August 12 hate rally was such a shocker—as was Jones firing back a response that included the mayor’s threats to fire him.

And in the latest sign of a City Council in turmoil since outraged citizens commandeered its August 21 meeting to voice anger over the violent Unite the Right rally, a closed special meeting has been called for August 30 to “discuss the performance and discipline of an elected official,” according to the notice.

Mayor Mike Signer tries to bring the council meeting to order August 21. Photo Eze Amos

“It’s rather extraordinary,” says former mayor Dave Norris. “I can’t recall another time when the mayor and city manager were going after each other publicly with press releases or memos and trying to throw each other under the bus.”

The nine-page leaked memo calls out Jones for taking vacation before the rally, for not deciding to move the hate fest to McIntire Park until a week before the event, for not having police posted at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue and for “the apparent unwillingness of officers to directly intervene during overt assaults captured in many videos in the time before the unlawful assembly was declared and after it was declared.”

The memo also takes aim at city spokesperson Miriam Dickler, and cites an email from Signer to Jones in which he says her refusal to work with crisis communications firm Powell/Tate “bordered on insubordination” and was “exhausting for me to deal with.”

And the confidential file devotes nearly a page to Signer not being allowed in the command center in the Wells Fargo building, where he came despite Jones and Police Chief Al Thomas asking him not to. And it was there, according to Jones’ rebuttal memo, that Signer threatened to fire him.

“On two separate occasions during the height of the crisis, the Mayor threatened my job and that of the police chief because of our concerns about allowing him to be part of the command center,” he wrote. “He said, ‘You work for me’ and I replied that ‘I worked for the City Council.’”    

“Typically during emergencies, it’s the city manager and police chief who have the lead roles,” says Norris. In the past, “the mayor and councilors didn’t try to micromanage.” 

Because Charlottesville uses a council-manager type of government, the mayor does not have the CEO job like the mayor of Houston does, says Norris. “In a crisis, the mayor and City Council need to be in the loop, but we have professionals and they don’t need a part-time politician to be in the room.”

The councilors who responded to C-VILLE Weekly were not pleased with the leakage. “I didn’t like it,” says Fenwick. “I didn’t do it. And it’s not moving us forward.” Fenwick declined to say who he thought leaked the memo, but he says the memo itself appears to blame Jones and Thomas for the violent encounters August 12 that left Heather Heyer dead and dozens injured.

And he notes that Signer was on vacation the same time he was accusing Jones of being on holiday.

Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy declined to comment on the leakage, and Councilor Kathy Galvin did not respond to an email. Councilor Kristin Szakos calls the breach “appalling,” and says it “erodes trust and makes it difficult to work together.”

Szakos says the memo was a compilation of councilors’ concerns, but did not reflect the concerns of City Council as a whole. “It was not something we had gotten together on,” she says. In the memo with its 17 issues that ask Jones to “please provide an explanation,” two are from other councilors: Szakos with an email asking where the police were during accounts of violence, and one from Galvin conveying concerns about the vulnerability of Friendship Court residents.

Jones’ public response to the Signer memo was justified, says Szakos, because the memo was “one-sided” and did not include answers he had given to councilors in the August 24 closed-door meeting. And some of the memo points, she says, “turned out to not be factual.”

“I think it was Mike Signer,” says independent council candidate Nikuyah Walker. “I haven’t talked to anyone who doesn’t think he did this.”

Signer did not respond to a call from C-VILLE about the perception by many that he’s the leaker.

Signer was a fixture in the national spotlight the week after the rally, and was called a “hero” by the Jewish newspaper Forward. But at the August 21 council meeting, Charlottesville again made national news for the chaos and the mayor’s total loss of control over the meeting. Protesters mounted the dais holding a sign that said, “Blood on your hands.”

City councilors faced demands that they resign. Signer declared the meeting canceled, and left for about 10 minutes.

In an August 24 Facebook post, Signer explained his absence: “I needed to talk and meet with and reassure my very worried wife, which I felt I had no option but to do.”

Walker doesn’t buy that explanation. “He had become upset because he couldn’t handle [the meeting],” she says. “He thought the rest would follow him. That’s not what happened. That was just his excuse for not being able to handle the criticism.”

“I don’t think that was a shining moment on the City Council, when the mayor abandoned ship and left four councilors,” says Norris. “I’ve got to commend [Vice-Mayor] Wes Bellamy for stepping up and throwing the rules out the window, and running it as a town hall.”

Norris declined to say who he thinks spilled the memo, but offers this: “Anytime there is a leak of information, there’s a strategic reason for it being leaked. These don’t happen accidentally. Clearly someone had a motivation for releasing that memo that tries to put the city staff and police in a bad light and put council and the mayor in a good one.”

cityCouncilLeaked memo

Categories
Arts

Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes looks ahead at Lockn’

Gov't Mule performs at Lockn' on Friday night with Ann Wilson of Heart. Image: Jacob Blickenstaff

Warren Haynes is one of the most prolific guitarists and songwriters of our time. After joining The Allman Brothers Band in 1989 at the request of Dickey Betts, Haynes formed Gov’t Mule with bassist Allen Woody and drummer Matt Abts as a side project in 1994. Over 20 years later, Mule is an enduring rock ’n’ roll powerhouse with a dedicated fanbase, propelled ever forward by Haynes’ fiery playing, soulful vocal and down-home lyricism. With Matt Abts on drums, Danny Louis on keys, and Jorgen Carlsson on bass, Mule released its 10th studio album earlier this summer, Revolution Come…Revolution Go. It’s worth noting that the band began recording this disc on election day.

“I think the main message, which is somewhat tongue-in-cheek in the title track, ‘Revolution Come…Revolution Go,’ is really talking about nothing getting done, you know,” Haynes says. “You get one administration that comes in and does as much as they can and then the next administration comes in and tries to negate everything that the previous administration did and it just, for people, sometimes, it feels like we’re just spinning our wheels.”

The follow-up to 2013’s Shout is at once a continuation and a departure for the band.

“We try to make each record different from the one before and we like to keep one foot in the past as far as, you know, never losing sight of our roots, but we also like for each record to explore new directions,” explains Haynes. “I think we were lucky when we were making this record that we had a lot of time apart and it really helped us know what kind of record we wanted to make and allows a lot of time in other situations that would kind of lend fresh energy to Gov’t Mule.”

Touring behind Revolution Come…Revolution Go, Haynes and crew are stopping at LOCKN’ Music Festival and will share the stage with special guest Ann Wilson of Heart. Haynes says the idea to incorporate Wilson grew out of the inherent spirit of LOCKN’.

“At LOCKN’, there’s always encouragement to kind of merge two worlds together that have never performed together before,” he says. “And so we were kicking around ideas and Ann’s name came up and I said, ‘Yeah, that would be cool,’ and so we found ourselves on the phone talking together and it seemed like a lot of fun.”

Categories
News

Groundswell: The university community stands together at the dawn of a new school year

Photo by Eze Amos

People in Charlottesville like to talk about the UVA bubble. We can’t argue with that—between classes and clubs and activities and jobs, not all university students get off Grounds and out into the city. Some do, though, and plenty of faculty and staff are active members of the Charlottesville community, too.

But after Friday, August 11, when white supremacists, neo-Nazis and KKK members marched on UVA Grounds the night before they marched through the city, threatening students just as they did locals, that bubble started leaking some air.

From those who stood their ground near the Rotunda, looking out for each other and distracting torch-wielding white supremacists from marching on a nearby church, to a young journalist who spent a week covering the events at UVA so her fellow students could stay informed, UVA students, faculty and staff are lending their voices to the conversation in a major way.

Although UVA and Charlottesville are different, in many ways—particularly in the challenges both communities face going forward as they confront the past and rebuild together—they have an awful lot in common.

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News

Statues shrouded: Black plastic covers Lee and Jackson

In fewer than 48 hours after City Council unanimously passed a resolution to cover statues of generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, the black tarps went up over the monuments this afternoon to commemorate the city’s mourning over the deaths following a hate-filled rally August 12.

The draping went up without public notice from the city, with the bucket trucks in Emancipation Park, formerly known as Lee Park, signaling the swathing of the Confederate monuments.

Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, who in the same park a year and a half ago called for the removal of the statues, initially was silent as Lee was swaddled in black plastic. “I’ve learned it’s best.” he says, when pressed for comment.

After the city turned the lights out on Stonewall Jackson in Justice Park, he told reporters that shrouding the statues isn’t a be all, end all, but a step in the right direction of eventually removing them and placing them in a museum with historical context. And other localities that have recently toppled their Confederate statues used similar language to Charlottesville’s in their order, but didn’t face a lawsuit.

Musician/activist Jamie Dyer says, “Symbolically, it’s a good start,” but he’d still like to see the statues gone.

“What’s going to change?” asked Roshi Hill, who filmed the Lee shrouding with her black cell phone. “It’s a statue. It’s been here forever and to take it down changes nothing.”

Instead, she suggests City Council stop granting permits for the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups to assemble in the town’s parks. She also supports renaming Emancipation Park after Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old activist who died during the August 12 Unite the Right rally.

“She lost her life over this statue,” Hill says.

Before alt-right and neo-Nazi groups dubbed Charlottesville their battleground, the African American woman says she knew she could smile at anyone she crossed and they’d smile back. Now, she says minorities have to stop and think before interacting with white people. And when one is walking behind her, she says she stops to let him pass in front of her.

“I don’t like having to feel uneasy,” Hill says. “Do they still love us?”

Others were dismayed by the draping. Brian Lambert was walking by when he saw the cherry pickers. “It’s disappointing,” he says. “It’s just disappointing.”

He nodded toward Bellamy. “To see that man gloating,” he says. “It’s sickening.”

There have been threats that the black plastic shroud will be removed, and Lambert thinks that’s likely to happen before Friday. “This will not stand,” he says. “This tarp will be taken down. It’s illegal.”

Says Lambert, “If people are offended, there’s plenty of free therapy available.”

A lawsuit filed against the city for ordering the removal of the statues will be heard again in court September 1, and Lambert thinks the violent rally of white supremacists and neo-Nazis will affect the judge. “I think they would have been successful with the lawsuit except for recent events,” he says.

Local attorney Lewis Martin says he believes, according to Virginia code, covering the statues could also be illegal.

“It shall be unlawful to disturb or interfere with any monuments or memorials,” the code says. Adds Martin, “Clearly, if you cover it up so people can’t see it, it’s interfering.”—Samantha Baars and Lisa Provence

Categories
Real Estate

Commercial Real Estate Continues to Flourish

By Celeste M. Smucker–

National Association of REALTORS® Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun predicts continued growth in commercial real estate thanks to an improving national economy characterized by declining unemployment and increased consumer confidence.

Local REALTORS® agree describing an active commercial market with significant opportunities for business owners and investors. 

The Power of Our Local Economy
The many reasons Charlottesville is a popular choice for top ten lists—Best College Towns, Best Places to Retire, Best Cities for Entrepreneurs—are also why it enjoys a robust commercial market. Much the same is true of the Shenandoah Valley, where Staunton often receives recognition for its beautiful Main Street, and—for the last 21 years running—has been a regular recipient of the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA in recognition of its focus on planting and caring for trees.

Regardless of whether you are in Charlottesville or the Valley, unparalleled natural beauty and a lifestyle with something for everyone, from Millennials to Boomers and from cultural enthusiasts to sports fans, are big draws for both company owners and their employees. 

The strength of area residential real estate markets also supports increasing expansion of the commercial market. CAAR’s recent Second Quarter Market Report showed a 3.9 percent year over year increase in home sales, accompanied by an impressive eight day decrease in the median number of days that homes stay on the market and a 29.7 percent decrease in the inventory of  homes for sale. Sales are also strong in both Waynesboro and Staunton where, as in Charlottesville, one of the biggest challenges is lack of inventory.

Of course the insulating impact of UVA and the Medical Center adds stability to our residential market and makes our area attractive to investors contributing to the growth of Charlottesville’s commercial market explained Reid Murphy, partner at BMC, Building Management Company in Charlottesville.

Keith May, Broker and owner of Cottonwood Commercial and Kline May Realty echoed that sentiment citing the importance of the colleges and universities in the Valley, which contribute to a market there that he called “very stable.”

Local Commercial Markets Strong
“Overall the market is great, busy,” said John Pritzlaff  with Thalhimer.  He indicated that while business is slow for some big box retailers, small shop retail space is “doing well.” 

“All the markets are in a “very active cycle right now,” said Peter Wray with Triangle Realtors in Staunton.  He added that, nationally, consumer confidence is the highest it’s been in 17 years. 

Wray also noted changes in the retail market as reflected in closings of big box stores.  He attributes that in part to a failure of these companies to interact with customers via their phones, citing studies that show Millennials prefer physical stores but only if there is also a digital connection.  He added that e-commerce, while very significant, is still less than 10 percent of retail sales.

Income producing properties are showing a good return now explained Bill Gentry, Principal Broker and owner of Jefferson Land & Realty in Madison County, adding that they are attracting a lot of interest.  He is also happy about an uptick in residential development in Greene County, which, he said is starting to “take off” and will eventually lead to more commercial activity as people relocate there.  “Good things are happening and I am optimistic every day,” Gentry said.

With no building going on, “the market continues to tighten up,” said Benton Downer with Downer & Associates.   

One sector where the Charlottesville market has seen considerable tightening is warehouse and light industrial space, which Downer says is “very in demand.”  There has never been a lot of this kind of property available, he added, but recent shifts in the market have reduced that inventory even more.  He cited instances of warehouse space being converted to the sale of wine and beer products as well as the IX Building where over 60 percent of the project is leased by non-industrial type businesses.

Other agents are in agreement on this issue.  Wray offered that the lack of well-located light industrial space “continues to be a problem,” in the Charlottesville market.  He recently listed a 10,000 square foot  property and had 20 people look at it in the first five days.  On the other hand, he said that for businesses wanting to locate in the Valley, the supply of this kind of property is ample.

Robin Amato with R.E. III Commercial Properties described the light industrial/warehouse sector as “very active, both sales and leasing.”  She added that commercial sales have increased as buyers find it easier to get loans so long as they have 15-20 percent to put down.  Often in those instances it is cheaper to buy than to lease, she continued,

The grocery market is another active part of the local economy.  Gentry cited groceries along with restaurants and services as examples of commercial properties that are “holding their own,” currently. 

Wray referred to the grocery market as “amazing” noting all of the activity there.  A big player, he said, is the German chain Lidl, the sixth largest retailer in Europe that is planning to open 100 stores in the mid-Atlantic over the next 18 months.  These include stores in the Valley as well as two in Charlottesville.

While these are general trends, the following are highlights by geographic area.

Pantops
Wray spoke glowingly of the Pantops area calling it one of the best growth locations in Central Virginia.  His strip center there is all but leased.  Mattress Firm, first with 4,000 square feet, was recently joined by Marco’s Pizza and T-Mobile. 

Other agents also expressed excitement about this area. “We’ve seen an increase in activity in the Pantops area in the last two months,” Amato said.

Virginia Land Company’s project at 1415 Rolkin Court is a five-year old building that features a variety of medical offices and other businesses including a mortgage company. Today Broker and Property Manager, Steve Melton, is happy to report only one remaining vacancy there. 

The Monscane Center—from a native American term describing an area occupied by a local Monacan tribe—located behind CarMax at the site of the old White House Motel is another Virginia Land Company project. Melton reports they are now “squared away with the County” on this development and ready to start grading the site.  When complete the project will offer three buildings and 45,000 square feet of  much-needed Pantops-area office space, available for either purchase or lease.

Other changes in the works for Pantops include the proposed move of Malloy Ford to the Better Living building on 29 North, and the possibility of a Lidl grocery store opening on Richmond Road.

Route 29 North
Activity in this busy corridor continues Wray said describing the intersection of Hydraulic and 29 North as “non-stop activity.” 

Pritzlaff described “lots of activity” at the recently closed Kmart store that opened up many square feet of space. The vacancy is attracting attention from potential occupants as the owners look for the correct mix of new businesses there. “We are talking to a ton of people about the space,” he said. 

In a big change for that area, Kroger announced it would not, after all, be making a move from its Hydraulic Road location to Seminole Square.  This also means a change in plans for Hobby Lobby, the arts and craft store that had intended to renovate and occupy what would have been Kroger’s former location.

South of there a new project is under construction at the intersection of Barracks Road and Emmet Street, Pritzlaff said.  The retail site will accommodate four to five tenants and at the moment they have at least three actively considering space there.

5th Street Station
5th Street Station continues to be a busy area, which is seeing “lots of attention and change,” Wray said.   Warmly welcomed by south side residents who appreciate staying close to home when they shop for groceries and a host of other goods and services, the center is also bringing more residents to the area who previously had concerns about it being too far from their favorite stores.

The success of 5th Street Station is attracting other commercial activity to the area such as one of Wray’s projects located just north of the Holiday Inn. The site plan for the four usable acres is almost finalized he reports and will include three buildings with a front strip that features a drive-through for a national tenant.  Stay tuned for updates as leases are finalized.

In other 5th Street Station news, Alamo Draft House theater with a full service restaurant is now open for business. Pritzlaff explained there is a push for new restaurants to locate nearby and that the center’s next phase will be more “entertainment focused.”

Downtown
“Downtown is still the strongest area,” Downer said, adding it is still the place where businesses like to be.  It has a “different vibe,” than other parts of town and continues to have a “strong degree of attraction.”

One big change there is the departure of Bank of America from its location on the Mall that opens  up space for a steak house restaurant, Pritzlaff said, as well as Vault Virginia, a proposed shared office space for entrepreneurs and others developed by James Barton and based on the success of his Studio IX.

South of downtown, the IX Project is now all leased, Pritzlaff said.  Once a busy textile factory, this development is a seventeen-acre, mixed-use business center with space for office, retail, restaurants, and arts and crafts featuring green spaces, free parking and community events. 

Waynesboro and Staunton
Retail is strong in the Valley, May explained, and has been the “main part of his business for the last three years.”  He attributes the area’s popularity to a variety of factors including a “very diversified economy with a stable agrarian base.”  He added that manufacturing is very strong there featuring a work force known for being “reliable and highly productive with a strong work ethic.” All of this plus several universities, beautiful scenery and a convenient location make the area very attractive.

Other exciting commercial activity includes warehouses, which May described as “the biggest boom sector,” along with hotels and multi-family.  While new office buildings are not going up at the moment, there has been absorption of existing space, also good news.

Wray also referenced hotels as an active sector citing the 26 acre project in Staunton called Staunton Crossing Center, featuring a Marriott and a Hilton.  He is happy to report he is seeing as much construction activity as has been seen in the last 30 years and attributes this to an improving economy and the freeing up of land appropriate for development.

Waynesboro is also a happening place. Wray reports that the Ladd Elementary project on Route 340 across from Wal-Mart is back on track and looks to be a “grocery-anchored” retail center. 

Commercial real estate is prospering in our area and the outlook is good for its continued success.  Look forward to changes in the landscape as well as more and varied places to shop.

Celeste Smucker is a writer and blogger who lives near Charlottesville.

Categories
Real Estate

Taste of the Mountains: Celebrating Madison County

By Ken Wilson –

Pretty country town, warm and friendly people.  If you think that’s a Chamber of Commerce cliché, a Hollywood screenwriter’s daydream, come to Madison on Saturday, September 2 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for the 25th annual Taste of the Mountains street festival, and talk to Steve Grant, owner of Blue Ridge Barrels.

Grant came down from upstate New York three years ago to work on his brother’s house and never left: “I liked the area and I really liked Madison, so I stayed and I never went back,” he says. “I like the country feel of a small town. There are cattle farms all up and down my road.” And the natives? Is old-fashioned Southern hospitality still a thing? “Everybody that I’ve met has been extremely friendly, very welcoming. I just think it’s a great place to live.”

Grant doesn’t have to argue his case. Sure there may be fewer than 300 residents in Madison, but the free party they throw each year, the “heritage festival of 18th and 19th century Blue Ridge Mountain culture” in its inventive 21st century variety, makes plain their hometown pride and passion—and folks have noticed. About ten thousand are expected again this year for the crafts and the country-cured ham, the bluegrass, Southern rock, and marching band show tunes, the kids games and the living history.

“Taste of the Mountains is unique in the fact that we only have Madison County businesses and food vendors participate,” says Madison County Economic Development & Tourism Director Tracey Gardner,  “and that we encourage vendors to bring handmade crafts. We’ve gone from a handful of vendors to over 180. We’ve gone from local attention to national when the Festival was named one of the top 20 festivals by the Southeast Tourism Society in 1999, and was highlighted by Willard Scott on the Today Show in 2001.”

History
Chartered in 1792 and largely settled by families of German, English and Scots-Irish descent, Madison County was named for a family that owned land along the Rapidan River. In 1809 that same family would give the country its fourth president. Today the little town of Madison (0.2 square miles; population 229 in the 2010 census) is the county seat and boasts six structures on the National Register of Historic Places, including the county courthouse dating to 1828. The Greek Revival-style Kemper Residence (circa 1852) was built by Confederate Major General James Lawson Kemper, Virginia Governor from 1874 to 1877. Restored and furnished in period style, it is now home to the Madison County Historical Society and will be open to Festival visitors. Civil War re-enactors will set up a living history camp on the mansion’s lawn, portraying the 1st Maryland Regiment CSA, whose members fought for the Confederacy despite Maryland’s decision to remain in the Union.

Eat, Shop, Play
In addition to dozens of crafts booths, festival goers will find homegrown fruits and vegetables and homemade crafts  along with the Madison County Farmer’s Market, which will be in full swing in nearby Hoover Ridge Park from 8 a.m. to noon.  Also, the Fredericksburg Antique Auto Club of America will bring its cool cars.

New businesses taking part in their first festival include antiques dealer Four Calling Birds, named “for four beautiful little grandchildren,” and Steve Grant’s Blue Ridge Barrels. “We make a huge variety of wine barrel furniture and accessories,” Grant says, along with accessories including custom bars, fountains and wine racks, made mostly out of barrel staves.

While Grant is one of the newest proprietors in town, E. A. Clore Sons, Inc. is a Madison institution, a family-owned business that has been making handcrafted furniture for more than 180 years. “E.A. Clore has been the comeback story this year,” Gardner notes. “They were planning to close, but once they made the announcement, the public from all over quickly realized what they would be missing and they are now open and plan to stay that way. They will be back on the Library Lawn this year for the 25th!”

Ask E.A. Clore president Troy Coppage how Madison has changed over the years since the first Festival and you’ll stump him momentarily: “It would be easier to talk about how we’ve stayed the same, I guess. My wife frequently comments on how much she enjoys living here. She’s lived in four or five different places in her life but has never lived anywhere like Madison, that still has the small town atmosphere where most people still know one another and care about one another and look out for each another. I think that makes Madison somewhat unique, that it has retained its small town atmosphere to a large extent. She calls that to my attention on a regular basis, that nowhere else do people care about each other and look out for each other like we do in Madison.”

Madison standbys like Kite’s Hams, Pig ‘N Steak, and The Little Country Store, along with churches and civic groups, will be serving all day and Willow Hill Pet Salon will offer treats for pets. Two new restaurants now occupy the corner of Washington and Main: Bonanno’s Madison Inn, headed by Chef Tony, Madison’s newest U.S. citizen as of July 27, and MAD Local, named for its reliance on locally sourced beef, cheese and produce, and its 16 Virginia beers. North Cove Mushrooms, another newcomer, will park its food truck beside the Library Lawn.

Madison’s first brewery, Bald Top Brewing Company—“wildly successful,” Gardner says—will serve their beers, stout and ales in the Beer and Wine Tasting Tent on the Library Lawn. DuCard, Early Mountain, and Prince Michel vineyards will serve wine. Sampler tastings, souvenir glass included, are $10 (cash/check). Further pourings may be purchased individually.

Up on the Main Stage, this year’s headliners, Outlaw Whiskey, will play classic and contemporary country, classic and southern rock, and “whatever else feels right.” Leon Rector, The Bennie Dodd Band, David Leckie Gilmore, Dark Hollow Blue Grass Band and Madison’s own Jessica Weaver and the Silver Linings Band will entertain as well. Ruckersville children’s magician Wes Iseli will do tricks in the Madison Drug Company parking lot and the Virginia Tourism Corporation’s LOVEWORK sign on the Library Lawn in Kemper Circle will be selfie center.

Parking
Beginning at 9:00 a.m. free festival parking will be available at Madison County High School, where shuttle buses, including a handicapped accessible bus, will run to Main Street and back. Handicapped parking may be found on the old General Store lot on Washington Street, for the price of a donation to the Madison Free Clinic. 

Categories
News

President Sullivan’s candid reply

UVA President Teresa Sullivan says students should have alerted the university that white supremacists were going to march on Grounds. UVA Students United

In a Facebook Live video posted to the UVA Students United Facebook page Sunday evening, a student who was present at the Rotunda on Friday, August 11, approaches President Sullivan to ask a few questions about administrative inaction the night of the white supremacists’ torchlight march.

“Where were you Friday night? And why were you not standing with your students?” the student asks.

Sullivan says that she was “across the street, trying to get police help here” (her residence, Carr’s Hill, is across the street from the Rotunda).

When the student asks where the administration was during the torchlight rally, Sullivan points out that Dean of Students Allen Groves was present and that most administration isn’t around on a Friday night when classes aren’t in session. “We didn’t know they were coming,” says Sullivan.

“I guess I’m just curious how a group of anonymous students knew they were coming,” the student says.

“Did you tell us? Did you tell us they were coming?” Sullivan replies. “No, you didn’t. Nobody elevated it to us. Don’t expect us to be reading the alt-right websites. We don’t do that. You know, you’ve got some responsibility here too. Tell us what you know.”

“So we should have brought this information to you?” the student asks.

“Anybody who knew could have told us,” Sullivan replies, ending the conversation.

https://www.facebook.com/UVAstudentsUNITED/videos/841442509364121/

[See related story about faculty that was there.]

 

Categories
Arts

ARTS Pick: Buddy Guy

Publicity photo.

Blues legend Buddy Guy released his debut album, I Left My Blues in San Francisco, in 1967. Seven Grammys, 23 blues music awards and a National Medal of the Arts later, the 81-year-old icon is as electric as ever, with his wild, fearless guitar licks and a fall tour spanning the U.S.

Wednesday, August 23. $45.50-97.50, 8pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 979-1333.