Month: June 2021

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News

Put our heads together

Graph of homeownership and the type of homes in our region
In the Thomas Jefferson Planning District, most people own their homes, and most people live in single-family dwellings. PC: Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership

It’s no secret that Charlottesville has an ongoing affordable housing crisis, in part due to the city’s long racist history of segregation, redlining, and racial covenants. Behind a huge push from local activists, the city has set aside millions of dollars in recent years to build more affordable housing units. And after releasing an affordable housing plan this year, Cville Plans Together—a team of consultants hired to rewrite the city’s zoning code—is now working with the community to create a Future Land Use Map that could further address the issues.

But Charlottesville isn’t the only place in our area struggling with affordable housing. In the Thomas Jefferson Planning District—including the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle, Nelson, Fluvanna, Louisa, and Greene counties—around 10,400 households spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs. Over the past four years, the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership has studied the specific conditions and issues facing each jurisdiction, and developed dozens of recommendations for local government leaders to meet affordable rental and homeownership needs.

Earlier this month, the partnership published a draft of a regional affordable housing plan. 

“Rising rents, increased development pressure and displacement concerns, [and] inequity brought on by a history of segregationist land use policies…have eroded access to wealth-building for many communities of color, and an imbalance of supply and demand have come together to exacerbate the problem,” reads the report.

“Cross collaboration between localities can enable a pooling of resources, increase access, and improve communication to better address the needs of the region as a whole,” the report continues. “A broadened approach also reduces the need for one locality to shoulder the burden of providing affordable housing.”

From 2018 to 2019, the planning district solicited feedback from residents across the region, before working with the RHP to analyze responses last year and this year. The majority of survey takers were from Albemarle County and Charlottesville, and identified higher land density as the best way to provide more affordable housing. Residents say single-family homes and less-expensive apartments are the types of housing most needed in our area.

While the commission’s recommendations differ for each jurisdiction, common threads include updating zoning to allow for more soft density in single-family neighborhoods, investing in building permanent affordable housing communities, and providing incentives for developers to build multiple types of affordable “missing middle” housing, such as two-family dwellings, duplexes and triplexes, and modular homes.

The plan also emphasizes the racial disparity in homeownership in the region. To boost homeownership among residents of color, localities should partner with community nonprofits and large stakeholders, such as the University of Virginia, to provide affordable homeownership education, programs, and opportunities, the partnership suggests.

The planning district will continue to review and revise the draft plan, as well as work with the RHP to present it to individual jurisdictions and gather their feedback in the coming weeks.

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Culture News

PICK: Kendall Street Company

Supplied photo.

Out of this world: Kendall Street Company turns up the heat with a midsummer concert celebrating its newly released “pop-ambient space opera,” The Year the Earth Stood Still: Ninurta. The group’s blend of generous garage band energy and Americana soul meanders through waves of esoteric ambiance, then quickly turns into mind-melting psychedelia backed by a jazzy groove. Prog-metal outfit Seleus opens the show.

Saturday 7/3, $15-20, 5pm. IX Art Park, 522 Second St. SE, ixartpark.org. 

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Dog days

Darron Breeden does his thing. Supplied photo.

Darron Breeden lives a double life. During the week, he teaches business and IT classes to high school students. On the weekend, he stuffs his face. 

Breeden, an Orange, Virginia, native, is the nation’s third-ranked competitive eater, per Major League Eating. On July 4, he’ll be going for gold in the Nathan’s Famous July Fourth July Hot Dog-Eating Contest on Coney Island. When he’s not training and competing, he’s cooking up content for Darron Eats, his YouTube channel where the food challenges attract over 48,000 subscribers. (Recent videos include “40 HOT DOG SPEED RUN” and “PRO EATER VS. WOOD GRILL BUFFET.”)

Some of his students are impressed by his not-so-secret alter ego. Others, not as much. “If it doesn’t have to do with Fortnite, or whatever, it’s irrelevant,” Breeden says. 

Breeden finished second in Nathan’s hot dog competition (the “Super Bowl of competitive eating”) in 2020 and 2019. He’s also a two-time oyster-eating champion, and he holds the record for most cheese curds eaten in six minutes (5 lbs., 2 oz.) and fastest consumption of 48 Oreos and a half gallon of whole milk (two minutes, 28 seconds). 

Breeden became involved with the competitive eating community in 2015 while teaching English in Japan. He participated in a local restaurant’s challenge to eat a large helping of curry rice in 20 minutes. He beat the record—and kept at it, attempting other food challenges until he qualified for the hot dog contest in 2017. 

“I can’t speak for all competitive eaters, but I think competitive eating came to us, rather than us going to competitive eating,” Breeden says. “I used to be a bigger guy and I lost a good bit of weight. Even though I lost the weight, I didn’t lose the appetite.”

Not many kids dream of growing up and becoming competitive eaters. But for Breeden, competitive eating is more than pushing your body to the limit. “I love the competition. I also love the camaraderie. I’ve met a lot of great people through competitive eating,” he says. “And of course the food is great.”

According to his profile on the Major League Eating website, Breeden is “a six-foot-tall, guitar-playing, motorcycle-riding, weight-lifting crusher of food.” He’s 32 and weighs 165 pounds.

Given his stats, it’s hard to believe Breeden’s capable of putting away as much food as he does. “You’d be surprised. There’s a lot of different folks out there competing: bodybuilders, really small girls that are maybe 100 pounds soaking wet, a guy that formerly played basketball,” he says. “As long as you have an appetite, [competitive eating] is for all people, really.”

Like any athlete, training helps Breeden stay in shape. If he has a big  contest on the horizon, he trains specifically for that event, practicing by eating as much of that event’s food as possible within the allotted time. But for general stomach capacity upkeep, he eats large amounts of low-calorie food and tops it off with soda and water. 

“Two hundred calories of cabbage is still a crap-ton of cabbage,” Breeden says with a laugh.

As for his stomach, he claims he mostly feels okay after training or a competition. “I would say usually under 10 pounds [of food], I’m feeling all right. Over 10 pounds is a little rough,” Breeden says. “It’s kind of like that feeling you get after Thanksgiving dinner where you’re like, ‘Ah, I ate too much.’ It’s that times 10.”

Breeden will take the stage on Coney Island at 12:30pm on Sunday. “A bunch of people eating hot dogs on the Fourth of July,” Breeden says. “How much more American can it get?”

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Culture

Lifting spirits

In the ever-expanding central Virginia beverage industry, distilled-spirits makers are keeping pace. Supplied photo.

Ivar Aass and his wife, Sarah Barrett, moved to Charlottesville from New York in 2012 with a singular purpose: to distill high-quality spirits in a place that, in Aass’ own words, has “heaps of local pride and an understanding and appreciation of all good drink and food.”

In 2015, Aass and Barrett’s Spirit Lab Distilling became the first distillery in the City of Charlottesville. While Aass says his previous experience in the wine and spirits industry was an asset, he faced numerous regulatory challenges at both the city and state level. This led to a “quiet start,” he says, but he feels genuinely moved by the growth and support the business has received in the past six years. “Our local fans really validate why Charlottesville was the perfect spot for us [to start a distillery].” 

Spirit Lab makes a wide range of products sourced from local ingredients, but Aass’ true love is his own version of an American single malt whiskey. With a nod to tradition, along with the goal of a unique and truly local expression, the small batches he produces are a hit with fans and restaurants as far away as Washington, D.C.

Virginia Distillery Company, in nearby Lovingston, recently released its American single malt whiskey, Courage & Conviction, after many years of anticipation. With distilled products such as single malt whiskey, distillation is just the beginning of the process. The spirit must also rest in barrels for extended aging, which adds the color, flavor, and complexity that is so sought after. When Virginia Distillery Company was founded in 2011, it started with whiskey distilled overseas and finished locally. Soon, its popular Virginia-Highland product line featured whiskey that was a blend of local and Scottish distillate.

The new American Single Malt represents the first product in its line that is made from 100 percent North American-sourced malted barley, fulfilling a vision almost a decade in the making. The initial release is a blend that is 50 percent aged in Kentucky bourbon casks, 25 percent aged in sherry casks, and 25 percent aged in repurposed red wine casks. Recently released solo cask offerings may be of even more interest to whiskey aficionados as they showcase bourbon casks, sherry casks, and wine casks as single bottlings without blending. The four new singles also earned several awards from the American Spirits Council of Tasters in June 2021. 

Ian Glomski started Vitae Spirits Distillery in Charlottesville after “what could possibly be called a midlife crisis.” Glomski had previous experience in beer and wine, and, like Aass, found the regulatory hurdles difficult. “Virginia ABC implements a convoluted set of statutes and regulations that are a spaghetti-mess of layers that have built up ever since the end of prohibition,” he says. 

At Vitae, which was founded in 2015, the spirits are distilled from sugar cane, in the tradition of rum making. This base spirit is the foundation of such products as gin, coffee and orange liqueurs, and barrel-aged products. With all of these, Vitae focuses on local ingredients and features several collaborations with other area producers.

Both Glomski and Aass hope for a day when the regulatory landscape is friendlier to growth and sales. Glomski bemoans the “current set of laws that is specifically designed to throttle growth and success” of the industry. He would like a relaxation of regulations controlling what can be served in tasting rooms, an extension of wholesale pricing (distilleries must pay retail price to buy their own product from the state), and more attention given by ABC stores to local distilleries as compared to large international corporations. 

Aass explains that Virginia takes a “massive” amount of the bottle price that would otherwise go to the producer. Supporting local makers is in many ways synonymous with looking for high quality,” he says, and the very high cost of doing business threatens the quality of the product. His hope is that legislators will begin to see Virginia craft distilleries less as a small source of tax revenue and more as a source of quality and local pride. “There are plenty of mediocre spirits being made by the huge distilleries, why add to that?” says Aass.

Sip and savor

Charlottesville-area consumers now have access to a wide range of well-crafted spirits, the result of many years of vision, planning, hard work, and persistence.

Virginia Distillery Company
(vadistillery.com)

Courage & Conviction now available as single bottlings of bourbon, sherry, and cuvée cask (each $84.99). The Cuvée is recommended, but true whiskey lovers will want a bottle of each.

Spirit Lab Distilling
(spiritlabdistilling.com)

Batch #9 of single malt whiskey is sold out. Look out for Batch #10 ($74.99). Everything is made in small production, so get on the email list to receive release notifications.

Vitae Spirits Distilling
vitaespirits.com)

Two that stand out are Distiller’s Reserve Smoked Rum ($49.99) and Orange Liqueur ($38.99), which is made from locally grown Hardy oranges.

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News

Let’s be blunt

It’s legal to possess and use weed in Virginia (if you’re 21 and older), but selling marijuana flower, seeds, clones, or any other part of the plant remains illegal until January 1, 2024. Photo: Olena Ruban.

Get your bongs, blunts, and bowls ready—starting July 1, everyone 21 and over can legally possess and use marijuana recreationally in Virginia. Adults will be able to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to four marijuana plants at home, as long as they keep them out of public view and away from children. However, the new law is full of caveats, and may not be so easy to follow. 

Here, Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, a Richmond-based group fighting for equitable legalization, walks us through the dos and don’ts of Virginia marijuana use.

Can I buy marijuana legally? 

Not yet. Until January 1, 2024, it will remain illegal to sell marijuana seeds, clones, flower, or any other part of the plant in Virginia, outside of the state’s medical marijuana program. And it is against federal law to bring home marijuana from other states where it is legally sold.

Adults may share up to an ounce of marijuana with each other, but not in exchange for money, goods, or services. They also cannot provide free “gifts” of weed with legal items, like the gifting market in Washington, D.C. The immediate effect of this law isn’t to create a legal marijuana market, but rather to decrease the amount of marijuana arrests by eliminating possession as a crime. 

Where am I allowed to smoke?

Consumption of marijuana in public spaces, moving vehicles, and on school grounds will remain illegal. Those traveling with marijuana are urged to keep it in a sealed container inside their trunk or glove compartment. While police are no longer able to use the smell of marijuana as a reason to search a vehicle, “[they] are able to now say they see a green leafy substance in your car and are able to search it,” says Higgs Wise. “Don’t give them a reason to search your car.” 

If you’re a renter, you might not be allowed to smoke in your apartment, either. “Please review your leases,” says Higgs Wise. “A lot of private landlords are able to say you cannot consume drugs, because they are outlawed at a federal level.”

Is my previous marijuana arrest gone? 

Maybe. On July 1, Virginia will automatically seal all records of misdemeanor possession with intent to distribute marijuana, including arrests, charges, and convictions. (All records of misdemeanor simple possession were sealed when Virginia decriminalized marijuana last year.) 

By 2025, the state plans to have all records of simple possession or misdemeanor possession with the intent to distribute sealed as well. People with other marijuana-related misdemeanors or (most) felonies will be able to petition for their records to be sealed.

What are the next steps for marijuana reform in Virginia?

In the near future, Marijuana Justice hopes to see many improvements made to legalization laws. The advocates are particularly worried about how new laws will impact youth under 21, public housing residents, and unhoused people, who could face a list of fines, misdemeanors, and other penalties for using marijuana. 

“We’ve seen an uptick in youth enforcement as states have legalized…though there is no evidence there is an increase in youth consumption of marijuana because a state has legalized,” says Higgs Wise. “We would love to have a bill for state [college] campuses to remove any zero tolerance policies around marijuana,” which fuel the school-to-prison pipeline.

Additionally, since there currently is no legal way to purchase recreational weed, advocates are concerned about what law enforcement will consider an “open container” of marijuana in public places and during traffic stops. In places where weed is legal, a “closed container” is typically a sealed manufacturer’s container, which Virginians do not yet have access to. 

“This is why our main demand to legislators is to repeal the criminal enforcement…and look into how to create more of a legal and health system around the plant,” says Higgs Wise.  “There’s no way to equitably or fairly enforce any of these laws, when we have seen marijuana enforcement disproportionately impact Black people.”

“If we want to commit to not repeating our past harms, we need to not put money towards continued enforcement,” adds Higgs Wise, pointing to the extra funding given to police for traffic enforcement within the new laws.

And more must be done to repair the harm caused by the decades-long war on drugs, specifically within Black and brown communities, Higgs Wise emphasizes.

“What we have to decide next is where the millions of dollars in tax revenue that Virginia will earn go,” she adds. “Will Virginia be the first state to make direct payments to people that have arrests and charges [due] to marijuana?”

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Culture

PICK: Celebrate Us

Realistic Colorful firework with smoke for celebrate happy new year 2021 countdown festival anniversary birthday party

Mountain high: There may be no better way to reconnect with our friends and neighbors this summer than watching the Celebrate Us fireworks display from Carter Mountain. Take the gorgeous view of the Blue Ridge mountains, add local ciders, craft beers, barbecue, ice cream, and donuts. Top it off with live music, dancing, and a sunset followed by fireworks, and give a salute to all the things that make America beautiful. A portion of the event’s proceeds will benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Charlottesville.

Sunday 7/4, $10-20, 5:30pm. Carter Mountain Orchard, 1435 Carter Mountain Trail. chilesfamilyorchards.com. 

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Culture

PICK: Reds, Whites, and Bluegrass

Uncork the celebration: Celebrate the Fourth of July with fine Virginia wines and original mountain Americana provided by the Tara Mills Band at Reds, Whites, and Bluegrass. The group’s blend of folk, bluegrass, and old-time country draws inspiration from the hills and hollows of the Blue Ridge, as well as the rich musical traditions that dwell within.

Sunday 7/4, free, noon. Keswick Vineyards, 1574 Keswick Winery Dr. keswickvineyards.com.

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Culture

PICK: Historic Tree Walk

See the trees: Monticello may get all the hype, but James Monroe’s Highland is a hidden gem nestled in the rolling hills just outside of town. Get familiar with the lore of the woods in Monroe’s old stomping grounds during a 45-minute Historic Tree Walk. A Highland guide takes you through the fields and forests where some of the attractions include a hemlock and white oak that date back to the fifth U.S. president’s time. You’ll also learn how these trees have contributed to historical interpretation. Registration is required, as attendance is capped at eight participants.

Saturday 7/3, $10, 9am. James Monroe’s Highland, 2050 James Monroe Pkwy. highland.org.

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News

Swimming to Tokyo

By Claudia Gohn

As the 2020 NCAA swimming season neared its end, UVA swimmer Kate Douglass found herself eyeing the summer’s Olympic trials. She’d finished the season strong, and she kept working hard, dreaming of the competition in Tokyo.

Then COVID happened. The Olympics got postponed and the trials got called off. Douglass was undeterred, though. “It’s just more motivation to work hard,” the New York native told C-VILLE last year. 

That attitude paid off for Douglass and her teammates. Now she’s one of five  swimmers on the UVA women’s team heading to Tokyo this summer after qualifying at a national trial earlier this month. Douglass will swim the 200 meter individual medley, and will be joined by fellow Cavaliers  Catie DeLoof (4×100 freestyle relay), Paige Madden (400 freestyle and 4×200 freestyle relay), Alex Walsh (200 individual medley), and Emma Weyant (400 individual medley). UVA’s head swim coach Todd DeSorbo is also joining the team as an assistant coach. 

The U.S. Olympic swim team will send 26 women to the competition in total, meaning almost 20 percent of the national team comes from UVA. 

“It’s really a dream come true,” says DeSorbo. 

The qualifying triumphs come after a roller coaster of a year.

The team had to adapt its practice regimen to pandemic regulations, such as allowing fewer swimmers in the pool at once during workouts. Additionally, because of ongoing maintenance at the UVA pool, the team had to travel to different pools to train. With all of these changes, DeSorbo says, “the team’s performances this year—in the collegiate season and then beyond to their performances at the Olympic trials—are really even more extraordinary because of the circumstances and challenges that we had all year.” 

Douglass and DeSorbo were also excited about what the Olympians mean for the future of the UVA swim program. “I don’t think a year ago anyone thought that the UVA swim team would put five Olympians on the team,” Douglass  says. “It’s just pretty crazy that now UVA can be thought of as a school that will put people on the Olympic team, and I think that’s going to draw a lot more attention than UVA has previously for swimming recruits.” 

And ACC competitors should watch out next year, too: UVA’s swimmers will have an extra summer’s worth of experience working together, which could be beneficial heading into the regular season.

Douglass recalls the feeling when her fingertips touched the side of the pool at the end of the 200-meter individual medley qualifying race. She took second and Walsh, her teammate, finished first, meaning both would compete in the Olympics. 

“When I touched the wall on the 200 IM and saw that I had gotten second place and Alex had gotten first place, we just looked at each other and like, I can’t even describe the feeling,” Douglass says. “Alex goes, ‘We’re going to Tokyo.’ It was just, I mean, it was an amazing feeling, knowing that you both just made the Olympic team next to each other.” 

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News

New look

Can you feel it? The city is coming back to life. Music venues are booking shows. Restaurants have more customers than they know what to do with. Popcorn is popping at the movie theaters and kids are whizzing down the waterslide at the pool. Hugs are back in vogue.

COVID isn’t gone, but locally, the last few weeks have seen cases plummet and stay low. Charlottesville and Albemarle recorded less than 50 COVID cases in the entire month of June. (At our peak in February, the area saw 250 new cases in a single day.) The local vaccination rate is among the highest in the state.

The last year has changed us all, casting our society’s weaknesses and inequities into a new and harsher light. Celebrating a “return to normal” would mean squandering an opportunity to turn the hard lessons of the pandemic into meaningful change.

We can celebrate each other, though, and we can celebrate the chance to be together. The photos that follow offer a glimpse at the city’s joyful return to togetherness this spring.


You’re never too old to boogie: Seniors cut a rug at The Center at Belvedere. Photo: Tristan Williams.

Foodies flock to the bustling farmers’ market at IX Art Park. Photo: Tristan Williams.

Chamomile and Whiskey perform in front of a packed house at Fridays After Five. Photo: Cole Fischer.

A group raises a glass—or, rather, a can—while enjoying The Fitzroy’s bubbly atmosphere. Photo: Tristan Williams.
Diners at The White Spot chow down on the intimate hole-in-the-wall’s famous burgers. Photo: John Robinson.
At-home haircuts are a thing of the past for the customers sharpening up at Ederra Salon. Photo: Tristan Williams.
In the Heights lights up the big screen at Violet Crown. Photo: Tristan Williams.
Splash! Much to the delight of local kids—and their parents—the city pools have reopened at last. Photo: Tristan Williams.