His middle part is nearly as symmetrical as the real Ozzy Osbourne’s—and with the signature circular sunglasses and a feature in Rolling Stone, Lin Doak, the 4’8″ frontman of Little Ozzy (right), is well on his way to inheriting the crown from the original Prince of Darkness. Little Ozzy’s gained the attention of the original by performing Black Sabbath cover shows nationally, and big Ozzy says he “honestly” sounds just like him.
Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno (left) push back against the mainstream with a fiddle roots revivalist twist. The duo has spent years honing their rhythmic craft. From Leva’s folk music-filled upbringing in Appalachia, and being one of Rolling Stone Country’s “10 New Artists You Need to Know,” to Calcagno’s years spent fine-tuning his chops on the banjo with “The Onlies,” the duo’s experience mixes effortlessly during traditional deep cuts and originals.
Faced with a recent decline in enrollment, the city’s first co-operative preschool, which has operated for more than 50 years, is struggling to stay on its feet.
Molly Michie Cooperative Preschool was founded in 1967 as the city’s first integrated preschool, with an emphasis on learning through play. Being a co-op means parents are deeply involved in running the school, serving as classroom assistants to two professional teachers and taking on other tasks. Supporters say this builds community as well as allowing the school to offer more affordable tuition.
Teachers and parents say it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what led to the drop in enrollment.
“There were a lot of changes that came at once,” says Casandra Wendell, who teaches the four- and five-year-old “butterflies.”
She says a former teacher who wasn’t as committed to the co-op model negatively affected parent involvement. And right around the time that teacher left, the school was forced to move from its home of 45 years, the Unitarian Universalist church on Rugby Road.
The school has now lived at the Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church for about five years, but co-op supporters fear it isn’t as recognizable as it once was.
And “the economy has something to do with it,” says Krista McMullen, who teaches a group of “caterpillars,” as the two and three year olds are dubbed. She says there are more working families now, who don’t have the availability to pitch in at school.
“There’s nobody but teachers and parents who keep the school afloat,” says Wendell.
While the school can accept approximately 30 families, and used to have a waitlist at its old location, she says only 15 families are currently enrolled. And though she calls it a “low point” in the preschool’s history, she’s confident they’ll bounce back.
“We’re not at that place anymore,” she adds, referring to the school’s earlier troubles. “Now we have an amazing support system.”
On a cold December day, the playground at Molly Michie is nothing short of chaos for those not used to being surrounded by a dozen small children. A girl in purple leggings whizzes by, making shrill monkey noises that echo throughout the neighborhood. She chases a boy in and out of a miniature wooden cabin as two of her friends attempt to defy gravity by climbing up a bright green slide. Another girl flings herself into fast rotations on a tire swing.
McMullen watches the kids play while chatting with their parents. She recently transferred from the “very traditional” Daylily Preschool in Crozet, and says the difference has been astounding.
“I feel really supported,” she says, adding that parents are able to observe what she’s teaching their kids and take those practices home with them. And since parents take on jobs like cleaning and preparing lunch, she’s able to focus on her lesson plans and time with the kids.
In an effort to grow and increase enrollment, the school hopes to be able to accept six year olds next year who are taking a “kindergarten gap year,” says Wendell. And they also plan to start a summer program in June.
The school, McMullen adds, has a very rich history. “We don’t want to lose that.”—Samantha Baars
A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction December 21 and ordered Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard Holcomb to reinstate the driver’s licenses of three plaintiffs who automatically lost their licenses when they were unable to pay court costs and fines. The judge said they are likely to prevail in their arguments that such automatic suspensions are unconstitutional.
That same week, Governor Ralph Northam called for an end to the practice. And Republican state Senator Bill Stanley has filed a bill that would end the automatic suspensions.
The class-action lawsuit—Stinnie v. Holcomb—challenges the automatic loss of driving privileges regardless of a person’s ability to pay and without notice or a hearing. Brought by the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, the case alleges that approximately 650,000 Virginians have had their licenses suspended for reasons that have nothing to do with driving violations and solely for failure to pay fines.
In his ruling, Judge Norman Moon says, “While the Court recognizes the Commonwealth’s interest in ensuring the collection of court fines and costs, these interests are not furthered by a license suspension scheme that neither considers an individual’s ability to pay nor provides him with an opportunity to be heard on the matter.”
Two of the plaintiffs—Damian Stinnie and Adrianne Johnson—are from Charlottesville, and Moon’s injunction noted how the inability to drive affected their ability to find employment and “created a cycle of debt.”
His ruling only affects the plaintiffs in the case, and the DMV is ordered to reinstate their licenses without charging its $145 reinstatement fee.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for the Constitution and for common sense. The Court stated unequivocally that Virginia’s driver’s license suspension statute likely violates procedural due process rights, says Angela Ciolfi, executive director of Legal Aid Justice Center, in a release.
Since the case was filed in 2016, the issue, which advocates call a “modern-day debtors prison,” has gained national attention. Lawsuits have been filed in six other states and a federal judge in Tennessee recently issued a similar injunction there.
Quote of the week
“We cannot ignore the role of firearms in mass school shootings, nor should we avoid our responsibility as legislators to act.”—Democratic minority report to a House of Delegates committee report on school safety that does not address gun violence
In brief
The Central Virginia Training Center outside Lynchburg, where 4,000 Virginians were sterilized, often without their knowledge, will close in 2020. Charlottesvillian Carrie Buck was sent there in 1924, because she was pregnant and accused of promiscuity and “feeble-mindedness.” In Buck v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court famously ruled that “three generations of imbeciles are enough,” and okayed her later sterilization. The institution stopped performing sterilizations in 1952 but continued to care for the intellectually disabled.
Brown’s Cleaners abruptly shuttered its four stores Christmas Eve, leaving employees without paychecks—and customers wondering how to retrieve their dry cleaning. A sign said to check legal notices in the Daily Progress about how to pick up orders, but as of December 28, the Progress said it had received no info from the 71-year-old business, which took its website down and left phones unanswered. NBC29 reports the company declared bankruptcy.
A new ACLU poll shows 71 percent of registered voters favor dropping criminal penalties for small amounts of marijuana, and 63 percent say it should be legal and regulated like alcohol. The poll also shows a majority believe that race or economic status influence how one is treated in the criminal justice system, and 62 percent say fewer people should be sent to prison because it costs taxpayers too darn much.
In his last days as 5th District representative, Tom Garrett saw President Donald Trump sign his bill renaming the Barracks Road Shopping Center post office in honor of Captain Humayun Khan, a UVA grad who died in Iraq in 2004. The Republican also delivered a bipartisan letter to Trump opposing the president’s decision to remove U.S. troops from Syria, calling it a threat to national security.
The office of UVA Vice Rector Jim Murray got a visit from one of “Santa’s elves,” who delivered a piece of coal and said the venture capitalist had been naughty this year for opposing a living wage and calling its proponents “intellectually lazy,” according to a video circulated by Virginia Organizing.
Ivy resident Lauren Thompson, 30, became the second Democrat to seek the nomination to run against 12-termer Republican Delegate Steve Landes, 59, whose 25th District, mainly in Augusta and Rockingham counties, includes a swipe of western Albemarle. Thompson, a Navy veteran, faces Augusta activist Jenni Kitchen, 37, for the Dem nod.
By the numbers
The folks at the Virginia Public Access Project are always crunching the numbers, and last week they published how much of your take-home pay goes to housing, depending on where you live.
While Charlottesville may seem like one of the most expensive markets in the state, in Emporia City, 32.7 percent of median household income goes for housing, compared to nearly 25 percent in Charlottesville and 20.14 percent in Albemarle County. Highland County is the cheapest place to live, taking only an 11.6 percent bite out of paychecks, according to VPAP.
By Jonathan Haynes
Despite the controversy over the University of Virginia’s revisions to its right-to-assemble policies, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has awarded the university its highest free speech rating.
FIRE, a group that defends the constitutional rights of students and faculty in higher ed, ranked UVA as a “green-light” university, along with with 42 other universities out of the 466 it monitors around the country, ahead of “yellow light” James Madison University and “red light” Virginia State University.
“We classify schools as red, yellow, green light based on how well the First Amendment is upheld at public schools and how well any school follows its own policies,” says Robert Shibley, the executive director of FIRE. “UVA has generally done a pretty good job.”
UVA alum Bruce Kothmann stirred debate over UVA’s campus speech policies last May, after an officer removed him from grounds for reading a Bible on the steps of the Rotunda without the university’s permission.
A viral video of the stunt shows an officer calmly listing newly prohibited activities to Kothmann, who asks if “reading the Bible aloud” is included. After pausing and flailing his left arm, the officer says, “Apparently.”
The revised “time, place, and manner” policy was written by the Dean’s Working Group, a steering committee established by UVA’s then-president Teresa Sullivan after a crowd of torch-bearing neo-Nazis set upon a small group of protestors surrounding the Jefferson statue on August 11, 2017.
The policy restricts people who wish to exercise their First Amendment rights and are not UVA students, staff, or faculty to one of nine designated areas, among them Nameless Field and the McIntire Amphitheater, where they may assemble with a maximum of 25 to 50 people for no more than two hours. Non-affiliated persons must request permission between one and four weeks in advance. Violators may be banned, but are typically just removed.
Shibley doesn’t foresee any legal challenges because the policy is content-neutral and justified by a safety interest. The policy “passes constitutional muster,” he says. “But I think it’s very disappointing that the university adopted it.” Nonetheless, that didn’t prevent FIRE from giving UVA the green light because its policies don’t interfere with student expression.
UVA modeled its revisions after the University of Maryland’s time, place, and manner restrictions, which were upheld by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kothmann, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania was visiting his alma mater last May to see his daughter, who had just completed her second year at UVA. He had read about the policy in the UVA alumni newsletter and, unable to shake it from his mind, decided to test campus enforcement.
The revisions proved controversial before their release, drawing criticism from members of the Faculty Senate Policy Committee Council. And some activists, students, and faculty had been pressuring UVA to ban specific organizations, since alt-right marchers were the perpetrators of on-campus violence August 11.
UVA banned 10 individuals involved in the torch march, but maintained that it is constitutionally forbidden from banning people or groups for ideological reasons.
“Times are changing, context is changing,” says Curry School professor Walt Heinecke. “Maybe it’s time for UVA to start legally pushing to see how far it can move that discussion.”
Critics lament the policy’s chilling effects on protest. Both Heinecke and William Keene, a professor of environmental science at UVA, point out that past on-campus protests against racial injustice, the invasion of Cambodia, and the ouster of Teresa Sullivan would not be permissible under the revised policy.
Shibley agrees that the policy could have negative consequences: “During the civil rights movement, non-students were coming on campus to engage in discussion and protests,” he says, adding that fewer interactions with the community will limit students’ exposure to different perspectives.
The policy has stirred little reaction from students, however, who are still free to protest. Student groups that are officially registered with student council may also invite an unlimited number of non-affiliated persons to grounds, but groups that are not registered, such as UVA Students United and the Living Wage Campaign, could be affected.
When the on-campus protests for the anniversary of August 11 and 12 presented an opportunity to test the policy’s enforceability, UVA ended up enacting security measures that far superseded the policy’s parameters, such as requiring clear bags, installing metal detectors and fencing around campus, and vastly restricting the plaza around the Jefferson statue, where UVA Students United and other activists had planned a protest.
But besides Kothmann, there are few known instances of people being removed for violating the policy.
And Kothmann has violated the policy several times without incident since his removal. In July, he waved a gay pride flag on the Rotunda steps and reported himself to the university counsel. After an hour without a response, he reported himself to a receptionist inside the Rotunda. “I saw you,” she said. “Do you need a drink of water?”
Outside of UVA President Jim Ryan’s inauguration on October 19, Kothmann and his daughter handed out flyers about the restrictions to several administrative officials. Many of them took one, including Ryan. On November 2, Kothmann reported himself for juggling pomegranates in the McIntire Amphitheater. Nobody responded.
Correction January 3: Robert Shibley’s name was misspelled in the original story.
At a time when more people are pedaling, our area will kick off the new year with one fewer bike shop. Customers were told that longtime fixture Performance Bicycle in Seminole Square will close by the end of January, following the bankruptcy of Philadelphia-based parent company Advanced Sports Enterprises.
“It’s sad to see it close, sad for the people who work there,” says Andrew Sterling, an amateur bike builder and casual rider in Charlottesville. “The number of bicycle stores is shrinking. I’m surprised.”
Sterling points out that in addition to Performance, Cville Bike and Tri closed within the past four or so years. At the same time, other local bike experts say ridership is still growing.
The apparent disparity traces to overcrowding in the local market. Scott Paisley, co-owner of Blue Wheel Bikes, which was established in 1973, says industry norms suggest a city like Charlottesville can sustain about three bike shops.
Today, aside from chain store Performance, the city has Blue Wheel, two Blue Ridge Cyclery locations, the Bike Factory, Endeavour Bicycles, and Community Bikes, plus outlying businesses like Crozet Bicycle Shop.
No one at the local Performance store would speak with the media, and store manager Tim Gathright, who has been with the company 22 years, referred us to ASE, which had not responded at press time.
Performance was doing poorly two years ago. In August 2016, Advanced Sports International merged with Performance Bicycle and ASE became the parent company to both. Sales and profit growth lagged on the retail side, an ASE media release noted.
Performance has been known for its “head-scratchingly low prices,” and the low margins made profits difficult, according to Bicycling magazine.
Its closing could leave a sizeable amount of business available to other local stores. Shawn Tevendale, owner of Blue Ridge Cyclery, says that information he has puts Charlottesville as a $5 million to $6 million market for retail bicycles. Of that total, Performance has a 15 percent to 20 percent share, in the annual range from about $750,000 to $1.2 million.
Paisley says the pending departure of Performance may or may not significantly lift his business. “It’s always been hard to keep our nose above water,” he says. He credits the store’s 45-year longevity to co-owner Roger Friend’s attention to the bottom line and their ability to make financial sacrifices in the face of both brick-and-mortar and internet competition.
Tevendale is more optimistic. “Every retailer in Charlottesville stands to benefit from this and it will allow some other businesses to succeed.” He says he may be able to expand his team of 13.
“Cycling in Charlottesville is tricky,” says Paisley, “ but doable.”
Updated January 7 to add the Bike Factory among remaining bike shops.