Mountain View Elementary. Photo: Albemarle County Schools
Earlier this month, Jennifer McArtor went online to enroll her kids in Mountain View Elementary’s after-school program for the upcoming school year, only to find out she could not register her rising fifth grader. Through another parent, she was surprised to learn that her daughter might be transferred to Walton Middle School, 10 minutes down the road.
Due to overcrowding at the elementary school, around 115 fifth graders could be sent to Walton in the fall. They’d be taught by Mountain View teachers, but would ride buses with middle schoolers and follow a middle school schedule, which is two hours longer than an elementary school day.
Over the past two weeks, many parents in Albemarle County have called out the school district for its lack of communication and transparency, and registered disapproval about the potential transfer to Walton.
“I don’t think 10-year-olds are [mature] enough to be in a school with middle school kids,” says McArtor, who is the president of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization. “Their conversations are going to be vastly different from what a 10-year-old may be talking about.”
At Walton, parents fear their students will not have access to a playground or after-school care. They also may not have elementary-level guidance counselors, librarians, or teachers for electives like music and PE.
“[Families] are going to be forced to decide, ‘Is my child mature enough to get themselves to the bus stop in the morning and get themselves home from the bus stop?’” says McArtor.
The students will also miss out on being “leaders of their school,” says parent Justin Alicea, pointing to the various leadership positions available to fifth graders.
Additionally, some students would have to move again after just a year because they are zoned for Burley Middle School for sixth grade.
According to district spokesman Phil Giaramita, Walton principal Josh Walton is “in discussions” about adding recreational equipment and after-school programming for the young students.
Families have invoked equity concerns as well. Mountain View is the second-largest and among the most diverse schools in the county, serving many low-income Latino students from the Southwood Mobile Home Park.
“Fifth graders, wherever they live in Albemarle County, should be given access to the same resources and experiences,” says parent Karl Shuve. “How is this equitable?”
Parents also accused the school district of intentionally shutting them out of the decision-making process. During a parent meeting with Mountain View’s principal on May 18, a discussion about the fifth graders was the last thing on the agenda. And during last Wednesday’s community meeting about plans for the upcoming school year, parents claim the administration did little to ease their concerns.
“The county put together a propaganda piece,” says one teacher. “There is an absolute pattern of dismissive behavior for the parents here.”
Administrators have emphasized that the move would just be for one year, and a final decision will not be made until at least the end of June, when the district will have a better picture of what enrollment numbers look like for the fall.
“The school now is approaching 100 students over capacity [and] enrollment for the fall will be over projections once again,” explains Giaramita. “The other factor is the number of families that will select in person as opposed to virtual school.”
The district has set aside $6.2 million to add six classrooms to Mountain View, and plans to look into long-term solutions, like redistricting or building another school. Parents say overcrowding has been an issue for a long time at the school as developments have grown across the county, and the district has been slow to act. They urge the school to consider adding trailers to the elementary school or moving the preschool to a different facility.
Parents would like superintendent Dr. Matt Haas and the rest of the administration to take responsibility for their mishandling of the situation too.
“They should at least say this is our mistake, and we’re asking fifth graders to pay for [it],” adds Shuve.
The UVA men’s lacrosse team won its second consecutive national championship on Monday. The Hoos topped Maryland 17-16 in the final match, with a last-second save from goalie Alex Rode making the difference. Redshirt freshman Connor Shellenberger and junior Matt Moore each had four goals and two assists in the title game.
UVA entered the tournament as the country’s fourth-ranked team, and dispatched Georgetown and top-ranked UNC in its run to the final.
It’s the seventh title for the Cavaliers since the first NCAA lacrosse tournament was held in 1971. Only Johns Hopkins and Syracuse have more wins than the Hoos. Coach Lars Tiffany was hired in 2016, and has already picked up two national championships.
The core of the current Cavaliers’ team has been through a lot together, winning the 2019 national championship, sitting through a canceled COVID season, and then going on another run in 2021. “At the end of the day, it just came down to our chemistry,” said star midfielder Jared Conners. “Being able to look at each other and knowing that we could rely on each other.”
“We can see in real time that the more people get vaccinated, the fewer people get COVID. It is very simple math.”
Governor Ralph Northam, speaking alongside Joe Biden at a press conference in an Alexandria climbing gym last week.(Props, Gov, for resisting making a “climbing out of the pandemic” pun. We wouldn’t have had the same restraint.)
News Briefs
Memorial Day cemetery cleanup
A group of Charlottesville volunteers spent Memorial Day in Oakwood Cemetery, reflecting on the service of our veterans through acts of service of their own—the volunteers spent the morning cleaning the gravestones of the roughly 400 veterans buried there. Do Good Cville and The Chris Long Foundation helped coordinate the effort, and Hathaway Paper, Packaging and Janitorial donated the cleaning supplies.
Northam lifts restrictions
All of Virginia’s social distancing and indoor capacity restrictions were lifted by Governor Ralph Northam on Friday. “With #COVID19 vaccines now widely available, it is time to begin our new normal,” Northam tweeted. The state government continues to urge people to wear masks, especially in schools where most young students have not yet been vaccinated.
Let’s talk about land use, baby
Charlottesville has extended the public comment period on the Future Land Use Map to June 13. The map, a non-binding, advisory document, lays out which neighborhoods in the city could be considered for increased housing density when the city rewrites the zoning code in the coming months. To learn more about it, read our cover story from last week, and to submit a comment, email engage@cvilleplanstogether.com.
They’re doing whatwith the cicadas?
Central Virginia has been spared of this year’s cicada swarm, and it’s a good thing, too—northern Virginia has cicada fever. One Leesburg chef started serving cicada tacos in his restaurant, reports the Loudoun Times-Mirror…until the health department put the kibosh on it. Apparently, you’re only allowed to serve cicadas if they’re sourced from an inspected and certified farm.
TV station apologizes
A Richmond TV station formally apologized to Delegate Sam Rasoul for asking an Islamophobic question during a lieutenant governor forum last week. A moderator asked Rasoul if he could “represent all Virginians regardless of faith or beliefs” after having received significant campaign contributions from Muslim groups. The question was widely condemned by VA politicos. After the debate, Rasoul tweeted a photo of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which hangs in the House of Delegates.
Joe Platania and Ray Szwabowski are running for Charlottesville commonwealth’s attorney. Photo: File
Here’s one number to cut right to the heart of Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Charlottesville commonwealth’s attorney: 19. That’s how many times Joe Platania’s office says it has prosecuted felony simple possession of hard drugs as a standalone charge in the last two years.
Platania says that the statistic proves his office isn’t punishing people who break the law too harshly. “In the 19 cases that I had pulled, almost all resulted in treatment and dismissal,” he says. “Very few ended up serving active jail sentences.” He also notes that those cases represent a tiny fraction of the thousands that come across his desk.
Ray Szwabowski, a public defender running to unseat Platania, sees things differently. “I’m not okay with 10 extra, unnecessary, racist felonies every year, and I won’t be if I’m elected prosecutor,” Szwabowski said at a candidate forum hosted by The People’s Coalition last week. He’s challenging Platania from the left, and the key plank in his platform is a promise not to hand out any felonies for drug possession.
The race between Szwabowski and Platania, who himself worked as a public defender early in his career, offers a peek at the path forward for reforming the groaning, serpentine American criminal justice system.
The United States incarcerates more of its own citizens than any other country in the world, by a comfortable margin. Both Szwabowski and Platania agree that one driver of that over-incarceration is overly aggressive prosecutors, who seek harsh punitive sentences for crimes that could be handled more gently—in particular, progressive prosecutors argue that drug infractions should result in treatment rather than jail time. That argument has recently won elections for reform-minded prosecutors in places like Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Platania says he’s proud of his progressive bona fides: The jail population decreased 12 percent in his first year in office, and has continued to decrease as many people have been transferred to house arrest as a COVID precaution. “We don’t use cash bail, we don’t charge mandatory minimum [sentences] without supervisor approval, and we reduce all nonviolent first-time felonies to misdemeanors,” Platania says. He’s also a founding member of Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, a statewide group made of up 12 of Virginia’s 120 elected prosecutors that has advocated for reforms like marijuana decriminalization.
“Our philosophy is diversion and treatment over incarceration and prosecution, and jail as a last resort not a first option,” the prosecutor says. “But at the same time, we’ve tried to keep an eye on prosecuting violent offenses. It’s a complicated tension that we navigate through.”
Szwabowski, however, says the way Platania’s office operates allows individual prosecutors too much discretion, and that cases have slipped through his fingers as a result.
“I’ve heard Joe brag that culture eats [strategy] for breakfast,” Szwabowski says. “The idea is if you create the right office culture, then people who work for you will make the right decisions in the cases.”
“Having lived through that on the defense side, I don’t think it works,” the public defender says.
Szwabowski wants to bring a more policy-focused approach, and says that his office would have rules in place that would guarantee fewer people are put on probation, probation terms are shorter, and drug possession felony charges would be downgraded to misdemeanors.
At the candidate forum, Szwabowski put his frustration in straightforward terms. “Charlottesville has no systemic approach to criminal justice reform,” he said.
Giving out fewer felonies is a key tenet of progressive prosecution, as a felony charge can derail a person’s life, making it harder to rent housing, take out loans, and find work. And drug felonies in particular are handed out to Black people at heartbreakingly disproportionate rates. Around the country, “African Americans and whites use drugs at similar rates, but the imprisonment rate of African Americans for drug charges is almost six times that of whites,” reports the NAACP.
“Generally speaking, a prosecutor should always be thinking, ‘I am wielding a very powerful sword. I should be careful swinging it,’” Szwabowski says.
The commonwealth’s attorney race might not jump off the page when you eye your ballot. Four years ago, Platania swept past local criminal justice lawyer and advocate Jeffrey Fogel, winning 62 percent of the vote in an election where less than 8,000 votes were cast. In 2011, Dave Chapman won re-election for his sixth term in a primary with just 2,500 votes. The results have real and immediate differences in the city, however.
In a small race, in a small city, in a small legal community, personal relationships loom large. Platania and Szwabowski have been on opposite sides of plenty of cases in the last few years. “There’s a collegiality in the court system that I think is appropriate—we all are professional and try to treat each other with professional respect,” Szwabowski says. “And that’s why I think it was maybe a little surprising to Joe [that I ran]…There’s a way to advocate for change that is polite and professional but forceful.”
Was Platania surprised? “I’m not politically sophisticated enough to predict or know,” he says. “I knew that I thought we had done a good job and I feel like our team should be rehired.”
“For me, these issues are so important that you have to push past the awkwardness,” says Szwabowski. “He says his piece, I say mine, and the voters can decide.”
From left to right: Carl Brown, Brian Pinkston, Juandiego Wade. Photo: File photos
By Geremia di Maro
Charlottesville’s government faces a wide array of big issues: A housing crisis. Ongoing criminal justice system inequities. A bureaucracy that’s had difficulty getting on the same page.
This summer, three candidates are competing in the Democratic primary in hopes of securing the party’s nominations to run for two contested seats on the Charlottesville City Council in the November general election. Juandiego Wade is a member of the Charlottesville School Board and chair of the Board of Directors for United Way of Greater Charlottesville; Carl Brown is a lifelong city native with a background in youth mentorship, consulting, and nonprofit work, and Brian Pinkston is a UVA project manager with a Ph.D. in philosophy.
In the fall, the two winners will run against independents Mayor Nikuyah Walker and entrepreneur Yasmine Washington.
Juandiego Wade
How would you address Charlottesville’s housing crisis and the rising cost of living in the city?
My position on affordable housing is that you have to take a multi-pronged approach. You have to continue to support nonprofits, like Habitat for Humanity and AHIP [Albemarle Home Improvement Program], which are out there building homes or fixing up homes to allow people to stay.
One of the things that I would do is to get the localities to collaborate more. Charlottesville is doing most of the pulling, and we can’t do it alone. Additionally, the University of Virginia needs to have a role in this, and I think that they have, with the announcement that they’re going to be building some affordable housing I think over the next 10 years or so.
What is the role of UVA in ensuring affordable living conditions in the city?
Transportation is vital. I did transportation planning for [Albemarle] County for 20 years. Housing is so expensive here that many of the lower-wage workers have to commute in. But all that causes congestion on the roads. You need to provide more alternative transportation, whether it’s free bikes, preferential parking if you carpool, incentives if someone walks to work. And you also need to work with VDOT, the county, and the city.
What changes would you make to the city’s criminal justice system and system of law enforcement?
I am for accountability, not for micromanagement. I think that there is definitely a need to bridge the gap between the police department and particularly for communities of color that I believe was widened after the Unite the Right rally.
The police can do more things like community policing, and getting to know the residents outside of emergencies. And I think that the community realizes this is a very difficult job that police officers have. One of the things that I would do if I’m elected is just to have some real, honest conversations and say, “It’s okay to disagree.”
What role do you think the city’s Police Civilian Review Board should play in ensuring accountability for law enforcement?
I think that we need to have the Civilian Review Board. I think that they need to have the power to review complaints, and that they need to have a diverse and wide range of representatives on that committee. I just don’t want the CRB to be telling the officer or the police chief, “We need to do A, B, and C.”
If elected to council, what would be your top priority upon assuming office?
Criminal justice reform, affordable housing, continuous support, public education, economic development, and climate justice are what I would focus on if I’m elected. We, as councilpersons, would have to be rowing in the same direction, and I think it is vital to get to know them.
What are your thoughts on the function of City Council in recent years?
I understand that people are very passionate about whatever issues that they’re talking about, and I don’t want to quell that in any form or fashion. All that I ask of everyone is that we respect everyone’s opinion. I think that that will go a long way. I think that we all love and care for the city and want what’s best for it, and with that foundation, we can move forward.
Carl Brown
How would you address Charlottesville’s housing crisis and the rising cost of living in the city?
I’ve been working in the [city’s] public housing, and I think, more than anything, we need to be able to provide them with resources and support within their community. Hubs where youth are able to excel in the classroom, or have that opportunity within their community. Zoning is going to play a major part, but I think that’s another conversation.
What is the role of UVA in ensuring affordable living conditions in the city?
I see UVA as a major player in this. I think creating incentives for our public schools and things of that nature to connect with UVA—those kinds of things haven’t been done before. I currently have UVA students from Charlottesville that I support and work with, and so I know that there are different things that can be done in this community.
What changes would you make to the city’s criminal justice system and system of law enforcement?
[I hope to have] programming in the jails that’s going to be more catered to less incarceration, which is what we’ve been working on by providing more technical and vocational training and by being more supportive.
De-escalation training has been something that’s been major. So when I see the budget breakdown, that’s what I’m really looking for. And if you don’t have that, that’s something that should be incorporated. I am totally for looking at [the police budget] and reallocating money to those areas in need.
What role do you think the city’s Police Civilian Review Board should play in ensuring accountability for law enforcement misconduct?
I think it needs to be a little more representative and a little more balanced. I think they’re going in the right direction. There are a lot of people in this community who have been working in that entity for a long time. I think it’s a work in progress, but I think it’s going in the right direction.
What would be your top priority upon assuming office?
The most important aspects from my standpoint are leadership, trust, respect, creativity, and excellence. I’m going to bring that to the table. This is not a situation where my aspirations are to be a politician. The direction the city needs to go in is one where we have stability, accountability, and transparency. Individuals from the community suggested that I do this for the good of the community. So I’m not doing it for me—this is much bigger than me.
What are your thoughts on the function of City Council in recent years?
My personality as a whole, I can be very straightforward. But my objective is to make City Council meetings boring when you come in, because we’re doing the work. You have to have that commitment. Coming from coaching sports teams, I understand what that brings. I’m not coming in to dominate, I’m coming in to be a part of it.
Brian Pinkston
If elected to council, how would you address Charlottesville’s housing crisis and the rising cost of living in the city?
It’s affordability up and down the scale. The super rich don’t have to worry about finding a place to live, but the rest of us do—even folks who make a good salary like myself. We’ve considered moving, for various reasons, but it’s a fraught proposition, particularly if you want to stay in the city.
Then when you include the factor of equity, and the glaring inequities of the past like redlining, how the zoning that we have reflects specifically racist covenants, and then the lack of investment over decades—now we’re faced with a really significant crisis. Then you add to the fact that you’ve got a world-class institution here that’s going to continue to be this magnetic pole for folks from all over the world, and the university can pay people enough to live here, so it’s a very complicated problem.
Now we’re getting into the [Comprehensive Plan] land-use map and zoning changes, and that’s where the rubber meets the road. We should start seeing these things like the land-use map and Comprehensive Plan as living documents as much as possible.
What changes would you make to the city’s criminal justice system and system of law enforcement?
I’m for reforming the police, or transforming, or whatever verb we want to use…I think that the high level feedback that we got last summer, with the protests after Mr. George Floyd died, really needs to be taken on board. Particularly in a Southern city like this with a history of racism in general.
I support the Police Civilian Review Board—I think it should have teeth—understanding that the General Assembly has [expanded its possible powers] due to laws that were recently changed.
I want to err on the side of transparency. I want to err on the side of us being really clear about what’s in the police budget. I think that knowing what the police are tasked to do is very much within our rights as citizens. I would love to see some of the services that police are paid for put over to community services for Region Ten.
And it’s important that we listen to actual persons of color that live in Tonsler precinct or live in some of these housing projects. I have a young Black man on my campaign helping me, and I asked him what he thinks, and he said, “Well, we need the police. We want police in certain places, and at certain times.” I think it’s important that we listen to the people actually affected, and not just do progressive wish fulfillment.
What would be your top priority upon assuming office?
The main thing I want to do is inject—people don’t like the word civility—but a level of collegiality into the council. I’m grateful to the current mayor for shining a strong light on our city’s past, and ways in which we thought we were so great but really weren’t. I think that she’s done an admirable job in that. I do think she’s struggled, for whatever reason, to create the positive change that she’s wanted, and I’m hopeful that the next council can do that.
What are your thoughts on the function of City Council in recent years?
The City Council needs to function well. This turmoil we have on council spills over to social media, which has been really disruptive. It affects actual operations, because people may or may not want to work for a city that has that level of instability at the top. I want to [build] strong working relationships on council, so that people who work for the city know that we’re a credible body, that we’re going to make decisions to stick with them, that we care for them and care for their careers.
On the money
In May, The New York Times asked each candidate for mayor of New York City to tell it, from memory, the median sales price for a home in Brooklyn. The guesses ranged widely, and some candidates wound up with egg on their face. Investment banker Ray McGuire said “It’s got to be somewhere in the $80,000 to $90,000 range.” Maya Wiley, a former aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said $1.8 million. The correct answer is $900,000.
With rising real estate prices an important topic in town, we put the same question to our council candidates. No googling allowed: What is the median home price in Charlottesville?
Juandiego Wade: “I would say it’s about $300,000 or $400,000. A couple of weeks ago there was only one house on the market under $250,000.”
Carl Brown: “Probably around $360,000.”
Brian Pinkston: “The median home price in Charlottesville is about $375,000. I know that because my home is worth about that much.”
The correct answer: In the first quarter of 2021, the median home sale price in the City of Charlottesville was $397,000, according to the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors. Congrats, all—that’s a much better showing than the New Yorkers.
Exterior of the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond, Virginia. Photo: File photo
By Eva Surovell and Ben Hitchcock
On June 8, Democrats will decide who will represent their party in three key November statewide elections. Get to know the candidates below.
Governor
From left to right: Terry McAuliffe, Jennifer Carroll Foy, Jennifer McClellan, Lee Carter, Justin Fairfax
Terry McAuliffe
Previous experience: Governor of Virginia, 2014-2018
Key endorsement: Hillary Clinton
McAuliffe has thrown his hat in the ring for a second non-consecutive term as governor, and the former executive’s name recognition and piles of money have made him the front-runner in the race.
McAuliffe spent most of his first term vetoing bills from the Republican-controlled legislature. This time around, the Macker is running on a more proactive platform, with his stated goals including increasing teacher pay, investing in broadband internet, raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2024, and declining any campaign contributions from Dominion Energy. In his first term, McAuliffe allowed three executions to take place, but now says he supports the state legislature’s recent decision to repeal the death penalty.
Virginia has shifted blue over the last few years, but the state hasn’t really embraced progressive candidates, with moderates Ralph Northam and Joe Biden easily dispatching challengers from the left in past statewide races. McAuliffe and his backers hope to keep that trend going.
Jennifer Carroll Foy
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Prince William County, 2018-2020
Key endorsement: Gloria Steinem
Carroll Foy is a VMI graduate and former public defender who has positioned herself as a progressive challenger to candidates like McAuliffe and Jennifer McClellan, who have more legislative experience. She flipped a Republican House district in 2017 while pregnant, and then sponsored Virginia’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment during her second term, before resigning in 2020 to devote herself to the governor’s race.
Carroll Foy wants to end qualified immunity for police officers, lower health insurance premiums, and create a permanent vote-by-mail system. She’s a gifted public speaker who won the endorsement (and the $500,000 campaign contribution) of Charlottesville-based Democratic megadonor Michael Bills and his anti-corruption advocacy group Clean Virginia.
Jennifer McClellan
Previous experience: Virginia House and Senate member from Richmond, 2006-present
Key endorsement: Former U.S. Representative Leslie Byrne
McClellan has more legislative experience than any candidate in the race, having worked in the state government for a decade and a half. She passed the Clean Economy Act, the Reproductive Health Protection Act, the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, and more. As governor, she would work to eliminate open carry gun laws, end felony disenfranchisement, and strengthen Virginia’s hate crime penalties.
Self-proclaimed outsiders are in vogue in politics these days—meanwhile, Tim Kaine officiated McClellan’s wedding. By day, she’s a corporate lawyer with Verizon. Also of note around here: McClellan picked up her law degree at UVA, making her the only Hoo in the governor’s race.
Lee Carter
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Manassas, 2018-present
Key endorsement: Marianne Williamson
Carter has carved out a niche for himself as the Virginia legislature’s garrulous socialist. The former Marine, electronics repairman, and Lyft driver was a Virginia co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign. He made headlines last year when he spearheaded a bill to cap insulin prices at $50 per month, and he’s introduced bills to ban corporate campaign contributions and repeal the right to work law, which limits union activity. He plans to lobby for universal health care, and says in the meantime he’ll create a state office to directly reimburse some out-of-pocket medical expenses. Carter faces an uphill battle in a state with a fondness for moderate Democrats.
Key endorsement: Fairfax has not picked up any endorsements from American elected officials, but he has been endorsed by conservative British politician Nicholas Fairfax, the 14th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. The two became acquainted after genealogical research revealed that Nicholas’ ancestor enslaved and subsequently freed Justin’s great-great-great grandfather.
Fairfax was seen as a rising star in Virginia politics after running a close attorney general primary against Mark Herring in 2013 and winning the LG race in 2017. In 2019, however, two women accused him of sexual assault. Fairfax denies the accusations and has not bowed to pressure to resign, though he did part ways with the law firm he worked for, and he left his post on the board of Duke University’s public policy school. His gubernatorial campaign has failed to gain any real steam.
Lieutenant Governor
Clockwise from top left: Sam Rasoul, Hala Ayala, Mark Levine, Andria McClellan, Sean Perryman, Xavier Waren
Sam Rasoul
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Roanoke, 2014-present
Key endorsement: Senator Elizabeth Warren
Focused on the three core values of “truth, love and grit,” Rasoul’s People’s Platform emphasizes his desire to give constituents the power to advocate for their needs, as well as clear up misconceptions and confusion about the legislative process. Specifically, Rasoul aims to identify and mentor potential Democratic candidates early and streamline the party’s resources. Rasoul also supports early childhood education, uplifting working families, and expanding voting rights, among other priorities. If he wins the primary, he would become the first Muslim candidate to run statewide in the South.
Hala Ayala
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Prince William, 2018-present
Key endorsement: Governor Ralph Northam
As the House Democratic Whip, Ayala has helped spearhead some of the Democratic Party’s recent successes, such as abolishing the death penalty and expanding Medicaid access. If elected, Ayala would build bridges between the commonwealth’s government and its constituents. More specifically, her campaign centers on stopping gun violence, affordable health care, criminal justice reform, the environment, and the economy. Ayala—who already made history as the first Afro-Latina elected to the Virginia state legislature—would become the first woman of color elected to a statewide office.
Mark Levine
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Alexandria, 2018-present
Key endorsement: Falls Church News-Press
Propelled into policymaking by the murder of his sister in 1996, Levine has been passionate about fighting on behalf of survivors of domestic and sexual violence throughout his political career. An early advocate for marriage equality in the United States (he co-founded Marriage Equality California and wrote the bill that became D.C.’s marriage law for same-sex couples), Levine would also ensure reproductive rights and promote transparency within the state government. He would be the first full-time lieutenant governor in Virginia’s history, as well as the first Jewish and openly gay candidate elected statewide.
Andria McClellan
Previous experience: Norfolk City Council member
Key endorsement: Representative Elaine Luria
McClellan—who has characterized herself as a “pragmatic progressive”—served as the vice chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia from 2014 to 2015. She has also advocated to improve Norfolk’s flood mitigation, public transit, and civic engagement, among other initiatives. Her campaign prioritizes addressing the climate crisis, expanding access to high-speed internet, and supporting small business owners.
Sean Perryman
Previous experience: President of the Fairfax County NAACP
Key endorsement: Democrats Work for America
The youngest-ever president of the Fairfax County NAACP, Perryman has led the charge to address issues of racism within public schools—including renaming Fairfax’s Robert E. Lee High School. His campaign reimagines policing and criminal justice through defelonizing all drugs and ending mandatory minimum sentences. He also backs a Virginia Green New Deal, which would decarbonize the state’s economy and create green jobs. In addition, Perryman proposes ending all cooperation between the commonwealth and ICE, eliminating state taxes for feminine hygiene products and diapers, and banning private prisons.
Xavier Warren
Previous experience: Sports agent
Key endorsement: Arlington Circuit Court Clerk Paul Ferguson
Warren has spent much of his life working as a businessman, so it comes as no surprise that his top priority is jobs. (His website declares that his “focus is JOBS!”) He promises to create a livable wage for everyone in the state, as well as invest in early childhood education and strengthen relationships with career and technical centers, community colleges, and HBCUs.
Attorney General
From left: Mark Herring, Jay Jones
Mark Herring
Previous experience: Attorney General, 2014-present
Key endorsement: The Washington Post Editorial Board
If reelected for a third term, Herring promises to continue to promote economic development, defend women’s rights, and reduce gun violence. The incumbent attorney general has garnered support from many Democratic leaders across the commonwealth, including Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn and Democratic Majority Leader Charniele Herring, and the Post editorial board writes that “No Virginia attorney general in recent memory has made such a positive difference in the lives of ordinary people.” Herring’s tenure in Richmond has not been without controversy, though—less than a week after Virginia’s Democratic Party was thrown into turmoil following the discovery of a racist photograph on Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page, Herring admitted that he had worn blackface as an undergraduate student.
Jay Jones
Previous experience: House of Delegates member from Norfolk, 2018-present
Key endorsement: Governor Ralph Northam
Jones has characterized himself as a “voice to progressive energy.” Throughout his time in the House of Delegates, he has worked to deconcentrate poverty in urban areas and create an earned income tax credit for Virginians. As attorney general, Jones would end inequalities within the commonwealth’s judicial system and work to improve policing and end police brutality. Additionally, he has called on Herring to support a repeal of qualified immunity, and worked to abolish the death penalty earlier this year. Notably, Jones has gained the support of Governor Northam, a fellow resident of Norfolk. If elected, Jones would become Virginia’s first Black attorney general.
In the plays collected in his new book, Peter Coy includes a range of extreme human behavior, from fears most dreaded to murders most foul, from rank dishonor to impish perversity. He also infuses characters with love, hope, forbearance, and sometimes forgiveness. A House in the Country and Other Plays gives its audience a shot of redemption in the five works, and also gives theater-goers and readers an opportunity to thoughtfully contemplate pressing issues.
Meeting Coy, a genteel, seemingly easygoing man, it’s difficult to square his soft-spoken words with the imagined scenes he asks an audience to take on, the visceral images that materialize from dialogue, from characters’ memories and admissions.
Coy has lived in Nelson County for 30 years, but says he can’t claim it, “because your grandparents have to be born there.” An all-American lacrosse player at UVA, he also trained as a director in the drama department before departing for a life of camaraderie in the theaters of New York and Washington, D.C. He’s a founding member of several theater troupes; the Earl Hamner Theater in Afton is his most recent company. He’s also won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play.
Nelson County playwright Peter Coy published A House In The Country and Other Plays through Hamner Press in April. Photo: Courtesy of the playwright
“From the adaptation of a classic story, to the highly imaginative use of an oversized doll, to the use of music, and inventive uses of time, Coy explores the possibilities inherent and unique to the stage,” says the Charter Theatre’s Richard Washer of Coy’s five plays, which seem to spring from a quest to understand what makes a typical person despair enough to pursue the terrible.
A House in the Country is based on a slightly toned-down version of a gruesome crime in Pennsylvania. It was inspired by a brief item in a newspaper, and it explores how Coy answered his own questions about such a traumatic event.
The believability in his plays comes from deep study, particularly around brain trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. He researches areas of psychology and neuropsychology to learn about what might trigger certain types of behavior.
“Making characters means creating behavior that is transparent to an inner psychology,” he says. “As a director, you try to find activities that keep things interesting on stage, and can morph, change, or reveal something about the character.” Imagination allows you to see things that are not present or obvious, Coy says. He was delighted, for instance, when he handed an actor a beer bottle, and in no time, the actor began peeling the label off.
As tragic as his plays may seem, Coy carefully deploys comedy to keep things balanced.
“Physical comedy is the most difficult acting of all,” he says. “In drama, actors can change timing in their scenes and still have the same impact. In physical comedy, scenes are much tighter.” If a character falls while managing to throw a hat onto a hook, it has to happen the same way each time.
In some of his plays, he introduces the buffoon, who instead of playing the fool, ends up mocking the audience. The playwright is also versed in commedia dell’arte, an Italian form of comedy with character types that have lasted for centuries.
In the 50 plays that Coy has written, there is complicated, lyrical, and antiquated language. Sometimes he makes it even more challenging. In Poe & All That Jazz, his Edgar Allan Poe—part clown, part doomsayer—speaks aloud the rhythmic, escalating verses of “The Raven.” At the same time, the actress who portrays his mother (and also embodies all of his ill-fated loved ones) cuts in by singing Cole Porter’s “In the Still of the Night,” as she taps like the wretched raven at his door. Music is an important component in many of Coy’s plays, including one about Mozart (not in the book), and he clearly enjoys playing with lyrics, love letters, poetry, invented words, and uneasy stutterings.
In two of the plays, Shadow of Honor and Will’s Bach, male protagonists suffer and speak as they do because of post-traumatic stress and to seemingly taunt a spouse, although the latter lines are eventually shown to burst from a dark source.
Suspense is served liberally. In a re-imagined The Gift of the Magi, based on the O. Henry story, the writer casts the characters into a gritty 1907 New York. The audience is treated to two new sets of decisions that are as heart-wrenching as they are dangerous. Both the early 20th-century community tragedy and contemporary anguish in A Shadow of Honor yield cliff hangers, as do the shame and secrets of A House in the Country.
When not writing or directing, Coy helps shape plays with Nelson County High School students, assisting them in conquering Shakespeare, Molière, and others. During his 13 years at NCHS, his students have won five first places and four second places in the Virginia High School League’s annual One-Act Play Festival.
For more information about A House in the Country and Other Plays, as well as the upcoming audiobook, go to petercoyplay wright.com.
The Columnist stars Katja Herbers in a wild psycho-thriller about a writer pushed too far by online trolls. Photo: Amazon
Satire feeds on the contemporary. As new social issues and interests arise, satire helps us inspect them and make sense of their value in our changing world. Satire can disarm or emasculate through humor, but it can also be twisted into horror and used to heighten danger. The Columnist does both. First, the film makes us laugh at the preposterous nature of online trolls and the emotional weight we give them—and then, with a violent escalation of events, it shows us that words have meaning and they can be weaponized.
The Columnist takes an amplified look at trolls through the experiences of Femke Boot (Katja Herbers), a newspaper columnist and author in the Netherlands who is suffering from writer’s block. Her next book is due, and her publisher is waiting impatiently. But social media and construction near her home, where she writes, distract her to the point of inactivity. When threats on Twitter seem a little too real, she discovers that the police won’t help. She could take her protection into her own hands, but first she needs to write.
That is precisely when a slew of trolls target her in the comments section of her online column. Femke knows she shouldn’t read them, but she can’t peel herself away from the hateful messages spouting from the safety of internet anonymity.
With an easy search, Femke locates one particularly active troll. His address, personal photos, and life events are there, and she follows these breadcrumbs to confront him. The man looks like the basement-dweller she suspects him to be, and in a moment of unbridled anger, she kills him—violently and joyously.
She does not stop there. Femke keeps going, and her attacks against these vile armchair commenters escalate until she no longer resembles herself. As the bodies pile up, the tone of the film subtly shifts from a playful revenge fantasy to that of a woman who is no longer in control of her actions or words. Femke is aware enough to know that what she’s doing is wrong, but she has no intention of stopping.
To add to the intensity, The Columnist carries the torch of free speech. Femke believes that people can, and should, have differing opinions and live in peace with one another. We see her writing about this and talking on television in support of the coexistence of multiple viewpoints. She argues for the rights of her commenters, and the irony of her hunting her dissidents is never lost in The Columnist.
The film clearly understands that killing is wrong and that threatening people for their opinions is wrong too. But it gets thematically messy when it comes to the notion of silencing voices, and who has the right to hold the symbolic microphone. Femke is a likable, but her actions make us question her belief in her causes. And when her daughter takes up that same free-speech torch at school, Femke is forced to face her hypocrisy more directly than she anticipated.
None of this tonal tightrope or free-speech scrutiny would be possible without Herbers’ determined performance. Her ability to translate the satirical victim turned monster into a person who looks like she’d be fun at a cocktail party is the work of a graceful actress.
The Columnist is not subtle. It takes the fantasy of exposing the cowards who hide behind keyboards, and turns the vengeance up to 11. Bloody fun turns swiftly into an examination of the power of voice and the line between good guys and bad guys.
The delicious smell of fresh-baked croissants will soon waft from Cou Cou Rachou bakery at Preston Plaza. Photo: Staff photo
Hello to Cou Cou
Charlottesville croissant connoisseurs and Danish devotees are buzzing about the debut of Cou Cou Rachou, the new bakery from Rachel De Jong. After receiving her pastry chef certification from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, De Jong spent the last 12 years refining her skills in expert kitchens, including Gearharts Fine Chocolates and the three-Michelin star-rated The Inn at Little Washington. After her 2020 bakery launch was thwarted by pandemic restrictions, De Jong began working as the executive pastry chef at The Wool Factory’s The Workshop, where she will continue to proffer her pastries at the boutique wine and coffee shop after her flagship location opens in early summer. We are particularly excited to try the French onion croissant and sourdough boule when Cou Cou Rachou opens at 917 Preston Ave., next to Sticks and Mona Lisa Pasta.
Dairy Market adds some sizzle
Dairy Market’s dining options continue to grow with the addition of South and Central from Ten Course Hospitality Group. The new upscale restaurant opened on May 20, and offers locally sourced, flame-grilled delights with thoughtful wine pairings and Latin-inspired entrées. Also new at Dairy Market is Manila Street, where you can get your fill of Filipino fare—and keep your eyes peeled for soon-to-open Citizen BurgerStand, the all-vegetarian GRN Burger, and Asian eats from Mashu Festival.
Old concepts in a new way
In 2018, chef Antwon Brinson founded his mission-based company Culinary Concepts AB, which develops passions by teaching real-world skills through the language of cooking. Over the years, Brinson has established several culinary training programs, including one in the local jail. After being forced to adapt to the pandemic environment, Brinson discovered that he enjoys teaching online: Joining aspiring cooks through virtual lessons has allowed the Culinary Concepts team to help people rediscover the limitless possibilities available to them in their own homes. As a result, Brinson will continue his cooking school virtually for the foreseeable future.
The classes are designed for all skill levels, and come with an hour of live training, a shopping list, a recipe, and a recording of the lesson. The best part? You can learn to make a dish like steak au poivre with as many people as you can squeeze into your kitchen.
Get out of the office again
Ready to get out of your makeshift home office? Devils Backbone Brewing Company is offering nature lovers the opportunity to win a full month’s stay in a vintage Airstream at its Basecamp Brewpub and Meadows. Along with spending September away from everyday life, the winner will receive a $1,000 DB gift certificate, four passes to the DB campground, and weekly Slow by Nature experiences. These include tours of the property, a chef-curated picnic and hike, horseback riding, and an “elevated” dining experience at DB’s Arbor & Sheath restaurant, all surrounded by the beautiful scenery of the Blue Ridge Mountains. More details at dbbrewingcompany.com.—Will Ham
Ramblin’ Man: Having called Colorado and Georgia home, Todd Murray of Sincerely Iris is now based in Richmond, Virginia. He’s spent a fair share of time on the road, and his songs, which he describes as “road trip music,” evoke dusty drives down Southern backroads, hand tapping on the wheel, heading toward a distant horizon. Murray’s traveling companion is a handmade guitar, built around his old Colorado license plate. See if you can spot it as you kick back and join him on his musical ride.
Hold your horses: Get off your high horse and grab a pool noodle pony at the Hobby Horse Derby. All ages are welcome to saddle up and try their luck in racing or dressage. Winners will have a chance to compete in a stick horse race at the Foxfield racetrack in the fall. Spectators can partake in mint juleps, or head over to the craft stand to create a show-stopping, Kentucky Derby-worthy hat.
Saturday 6/5, $5, 10am. IX Art Park, 522 Second St. SE, 207-2355.
