Month: June 2022

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News

In brief: Brackney exposes insurrectionist, tax lawsuit ruling, and more

Freelance writer Corban Addison (middle), pictured here with writer John Hart and their attorney, will receive a tax refund for thousands of dollars he did not have to pay the city. Photo: Eze Amos.

Tax victory 

Last week the Virginia Supreme Court upheld Charlottesville Circuit Court’s decision that said the city cannot require freelance writers to pay its business license tax. As a result of the ruling, local freelance writer Corban Addison, who filed the lawsuit against the City of Charlottesville, will receive a tax refund for the $2,461.23 he did not have to pay.

“If a city wants to tax its citizens, the law must be clear,” said attorney Renée Flaherty of the Institute for Justice, which represented Addison, in a press release. “Writers aren’t running businesses, and Charlottesville can’t tax them like they are.”

Since 2018, the city has subjected writers to its business license tax. In 2019, Addison sued the city after receiving a letter telling him he needed to pay thousands of dollars in taxes dating back to 2015—he claimed the city’s business license tax ordinance did not specifically list authors as a taxable occupation, so freelance writers had no idea the tax applied to them.

The city argued that Addison provided a “service or business” to his publisher, and any “business, employment, or profession located or conducted in the city”—unless specifically exempted—was subject to taxes. Last year, the Charlottesville Circuit Court agreed with Addison that the ordinance did not clearly define a “business service,” and that his business did not fall under the ordinance’s “catchall provision.” The city appealed the decision, taking the matter to the state Supreme Court, which heard the case in April. 

According to IJ Communications Project Manager Conor Beck, the city has until June 19 to file a petition for a rehearing. After that, IJ will move forward with an identical lawsuit filed by local author John Hart against Albemarle County in 2019.

“We will bring the decision to the attention of the Circuit Court judge in John’s case (who conveniently is the very same circuit court judge Corban had). Then it’s just an open and shut case,” said Beck in an email. “There’s no feasible way for the county’s tax to stand when the city’s didn’t.”

Former CPD chief exposes city insurrectionist

After the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection held its first televised hearing last week, former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney claimed that a city employee was among the thousands of Trump-supporting rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol. In Tweets made last Thursday and Friday, Brackney said former assistant police chief Jim Mooney—who retired in October—investigated the employee, who later showed Mooney photos and claimed he was “invited in” to the Capitol. Mooney ultimately determined that “participating in an insurrection was not a ‘crime’ but a ‘personnel’ matter,” and took no action against the employee, alleged the former chief.

Brackney tweeted that she turned the investigative file over to the FBI in Richmond. Before former city manager Chip Boyles fired Brackney in September, the city employee had not been fired or charged, she claimed.

According to information acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request provided to C-VILLE by local resident Sarah Burke, 10 Charlottesville police officers used requested and preapproved annual leave—such as vacation days—from January 5 through 7 in 2021. An additional seven officers used family and medical or sick leave on those days. 

Former Charlottesville police chief Rashall Brackney. Photo: Eze Amos.

In brief

(More) redistricting lawsuits

After a lawsuit seeking to force Virginia to hold House elections this fall under newly redrawn district maps was dismissed by a federal court, Virginia author Jeff Thomas filed a similar federal lawsuit last week. Both Thomas and former Virginia Democrat Party chair Paul Goldman—who filed the first lawsuit last year—claim the 2021 House elections were unconstitutional because they were held under the old maps, due to delayed 2020 census results. Albemarle County Board of Supervisors chair Donna Price and local nurse Kellen Squire are running for the Democratic nomination in the new 55th House District, most of which was once the 58th District that’s been represented by Republican Rob Bell for decades.  

No union bagels

In an 8-5 vote, employees at Bodo’s Bagels’ Corner location rejected unionizing last Thursday. In May, eight of the shop’s 14 employees presented signed union cards to management, in an effort to improve wages, benefits, and overall working conditions.  

Photo: Eze Amos.

Defund JMRL?

Jefferson-Madison Regional Library could lose nearly $400,000 in funding if it changes its name, according to a resolution unanimously passed by the Louisa County Board of Supervisors last week. The Reclaimed Roots Descendants Alliance has called on JMRL to change its name to one that does not honor enslavors. However, the Louisa supes threatened to withdraw the county’s funding if the library system does not keep its name. The library board of trustees plans to discuss a potential name change at its June 27 meeting.

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Arts Culture

The spaces between

Writer and mixed-media artist Kori Price says a central theme in all of her work is Black womanhood. See her exhibition, “The Current of Legacy,” at Studio Ix through June 26. Photo: Eze Amos.

Kori Price is one of those rare creatures with full control over both sides of her brain. By day, she is an electrical engineer educated at Virginia Tech. In her off hours, she is a writer and mixed-media artist. In January 2022, she put on her first solo exhibition, “You can’t compromise my joy,” at New City Arts. She is a founding member of the Black Artists Collective, a new board member at New City Arts, and the host of Creative Mornings, a breakfast series for local artists. Price’s exhibition, “The Current of Legacy,” is at Studio Ix through June 26. We chatted with Price about the past and future of her creative work.

C-VILLE: It’s unusual to meet someone with a talent for both the scientific and the artistic. How did that come about? Can you tell me about your self-discovery as a creative?

Kori Price: I’ve always loved crafts and arts and that sort of thing, even as a kid. So, even as I found myself pursuing more technical things in school, I was still in band. I played the contra-alto clarinet for four or five years—a really tall, outrageous, low clarinet. I also loved art. My dad had cameras, so I would pick up his cameras and try to take pictures. I’m terrible at sketching, but I would try to sketch. I started writing a book in high school. I would just dabble in all of these different things.

In college, as I pursued my electrical engineering degree, I just stayed around creative people. That’s what helped me journey closer to a life as a creative. I might have had more arts-focused friends in college than I had engineering friends. While my engineering friends were off doing projects with Arduinos, microprocessors, or circuit design, I was writing short stories. I was in the concert band and the marching band. I bought my first DSLR and started taking photos for friends.

So I think because I’ve always had this curiosity about art, as an adult, it just felt right to pursue a career as an artist alongside my career as an electrical engineer. I just want to explore the work that I can do, the things that I can make.

You work in such a diversity of forms as an artist. Is there a central set of themes that holds your work together?

There are a few themes that I really enjoy. One is Black womanhood. That’s a pretty central theme, and it’s something I want to keep exploring and expanding on. I also love making work that creates a liminal space. I love making work that’s ethereal, that sends shivers down your spine, that makes you feel like there’s a presence in the room, so to speak.

A lot of it is rooted in conversations with folks about things as wild as particle physics and quantum mechanics, as well as people’s experiences with their spirituality or their experiences with folks who have passed on, with their ancestors. I take two things that contrast—like hard science vs. spirituality—and try to show that they don’t have to be separate. There are places where they blend and they merge.

You recently had your first solo exhibition, “You can’t compromise my joy,” which we wrote about. Tell me about that experience. What came out of that for you?

The biggest thing for me is just the confidence that I gained. I don’t know who has put this in our minds, but it feels like you have to have a solo show in order to be an artist. I know in my head that’s not right, but this show still gave me that confidence. Look what I did! Look what I accomplished! I planned and executed on an idea that had just been images in my head. I translated those ideas into reality.

But hearing people’s reaction was important, too. In my work, I want people to be part of the show. I want them to be present in it.

I had this twisted hair fringe at the front, which I titled “Did you just touch my hair?” I wanted to make it clear that once you come through those twists—you couldn’t see through the gallery wall or the window, because there was a wall of hair there—you were in a Black woman’s headspace. You kind of intruded in, you parted through the hair. That resonated with people. They felt it. They left notes in the book that brought me to tears, because it had really translated. I think that’s one of the most important things that an artist can do, to get people to feel.

So, it was just good to know that I could do it. Now I’m challenging myself. What else can I do? What more can I do? What’s next?

So what is next?

I’m sort of in an exploratory mode. I’m focusing right now on finishing a book I’ve been writing. I don’t have a title yet, but it’s a fantasy/science fiction series that I’d like to write. I’ve written the first book; I’m in the process of editing it now. It’s a young adult book. I’ve been writing it for a long time and things are finally solidifying, which is great.

In the photography realm, I’m working with a couple of ideas. I’ll post them on my website soon.

I’m also going back to the theme of Black womanhood. I want to experiment with mixing weaving and photography to create personas of different Black women, and celebrating particular African-American names—your Keisha, your LaQuanda, your LaToya, those names that are so unique to African American culture. I want to find a way to bring those women to life.

Price’s new exhibition, “The Current of Legacy,” is on display at Studio Ix through June 26. Image courtesy of the gallery.

What’s your legacy? 

Part of our legacy and history began on the innocuous, sandy shores of Point Comfort in Hampton, Virginia, where the first enslaved Africans were brought to the English colonies in 1619—the beginning of slavery in the United States. 
Price visited Point Comfort two years ago to take photographs of the now-calm shoreline. The experience inspired her new exhibition, “The Current of Legacy,” a community portrait project that considers what legacy really is. 
Subjects stand, cast in shadows, in front of a black-and-white shot of Point Comfort, considering their connections to those first enslaved Africans, and pondering how their current actions impact the history we are in the process of creating together. These are questions Price invites you to consider too. 
You can see Price’s portraits at The Gallery at Studio Ix as part of the Prolyfyck Exhibition Series, and in a printed chapbook. Chapbook sales benefit The Foundation Fund, which provides low-interest loans and financial coaching to formerly incarcerated people. 
“The Currency of Legacy” is on display through June 26, with an artist talk and chapbook launch on June 21 at 5pm.
Categories
Arts Culture

Country creeper

Jessie Buckley stars as a recovering widow in the gripping, folk-horror film Men. Photo: A24.

Director Alex Garland’s tersely titled new horror film, Men, is the kind of movie we need more of: unpredictable, relatively inexpensive, and risky. Garland (Ex Machina) builds a genuine sense of mystery, then pulls off a rare move when he allows the audience to parse the story on its own. Some may argue that his deliberate obscurity goes too far, but Men is a fascinating, gripping, and memorable experience.

Recent widow Harper Marlowe (Jessie Buckley) retreats to a plush rental house in rural England to heal from her husband James’ (Paapa Essiedu) apparent suicide. Initially enraptured by the estate’s sartorial splendor and the idyllic countryside, things shift quickly toward the bizarre. The locals, all men (all played by Rory Kinnear), are nearly identical—and almost unanimously hostile toward Harper. During a walk in the woods, she is followed by a silent, naked man, and her rustic retreat begins to unravel.

Men is infused with religious symbolism and pagan iconography, beginning with the apple Harper eats upon arriving in this seemingly Edenic setting. (“Forbidden fruit,” her landlord, Geoffrey, jokes.) Her visit to a local church reveals that the cross from its steeple has been cast aside and an altar, adorned with a mythological Green Man and birth imagery, is standing in place of a pulpit. And the film hints at the identical males as expressions of some kind of heathen demigod.

These details position Men firmly in the British tradition of folk horror, where stories involve city people confronted with strange and deadly pagan doings in rustic settings—it is a grandchild of The Wicker Man (1973) and a more obscure gem like Robin Redbreast (1970). The bittersweet song brilliantly bookending Men, Lesley Duncan’s “Love Song,” is the most eerily effective cinematic use of vintage music in ages, and could easily have appeared on The Wicker Man’s unforgettable soundtrack. 

Men’s otherworldly plot is grounded by Buckley and Kinnear’s performances. Buckley beautifully conveys Harper’s mercurial emotions, all underpinned by her grief. Kinnear wryly differentiates his many characters—vicar, cop, publican, et al.—imbuing them with a darkly comic edge. This sinister sense of humor is one of Men’s major assets.

Rob Hardy’s excellent cinematography has long phenomenological stretches where the verdant landscape seems like a single, unified organism. Hardy vividly captures the sense of an underlying primeval threat constantly lurking outdoors, treating the scenery as a character unto itself.

People will leave the theater talking about Men. But it loses something in its last act, as it gets  loopy, cartoonishly gory, and, at times, nearly indecipherable. When done just right, ambiguous endings are fantastic, but more clues would have helped this one. Men’s murky commentary on misogyny and patriarchal attitudes could also do with clarification. Still, it’s a film that deserves to be seen. One intriguing, imperfect movie is worth a hundred tedious, neatly packaged blockbusters.

Men

R, 140 minutes
Regal Stonefield IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Categories
Arts Culture

Pick: Tim O’Brien

Tim O'Brien performs at The Front Porch on June 8 and June 9. Supplied photo.

Carrying a tune: Tim O’Brien went from singing in church and school in West Virginia, to being a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of country and bluegrass music. His latest release, He Walked On, explores what it means to be American with intimate histories and stories told through eight new original songs and five carefully curated covers. On his song “Can You See Me, Sister?,” O’Brien speaks and sings about Sally Hemings and her children with Thomas Jefferson. In addition to his evening performances, O’Brien is teaching a two-hour workshop for songwriters, guitar players, and mandolin players.

Wednesday 6/8 & Thursday 6/9. $40-50, various times. The Front Porch, 221 E. Water St. frontporchcville.org

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Arts Culture

Pick: Michael Bisio

Michael Bisio gives a solo bass performance at Visible Records on June 11. Photo: Marek Lazarski.

Can’t touch this: Michael Bisio is one of the most prolific bassists working today—he’s composed over 100 works, appears on more than 100 CDs, and can jump from classical poise to jazzy fervor in a heartbeat. His 2022 release, Inimitable, is an album of solo bass improvisations that showcases the range of the bass, from the plucky 15-minute opener “Quintessence,” to the short, bold “Hear Now.” Richmond-based violinist and electronics artist Zakaria Kronemer opens for Bisio’s solo performance.

Saturday 6/11. $10 suggested donation, 8pm. Visible Records, 1740 Broadway St. cvillejazz.org

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Arts Culture

Pick: Radio Relics

Radio Relics: A WTJU History Exhibition is on display through July 29. Supplied photo.

Radio gaga: Whether you’re a morning commuter listening to the soothing sounds of “Classical Sunrise,” a night owl working along to “Virginia Overnights,” or an early riser enjoying “With Good Reason,” you’ve probably tuned in to WTJU during the last 65 years. In celebration of its six-plus decades of community broadcasting, a new micro-museum, Radio Relics: A WTJU History Exhibition, has been created to commemorate the stories, photos, voices, and sounds of the station. Assembled inside a vintage camper, the exhibition features photographs, artifacts, and a closet full of T-shirts.

Through 7/29. Free, 10am-5pm. WTJU, 2244 Ivy Rd. wtju.net

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News

Slow progress

Rachel’s Haven, a 15-unit Belmont apartment complex that’s slated for construction in 2024, will house low-income individuals, adults with developmental disabilities, and people at risk of homelessness. Photo: City of Charlottesville.

After Charlottesville City Council voted to rezone Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church—the future site of Rachel’s Haven, a 15-unit apartment complex for low-income individuals, adults with developmental disabilities, and people at risk of homelessness—from residential to neighborhood commercial corridor in 2019, nearly three-dozen disgruntled residents filed a petition against the city, demanding a judge overturn the decision. The petitioners feared the property would eventually be sold and turned into a business, but they dropped the case in 2020, citing expensive legal costs and pandemic complications.

Since then, the project—named after the former church pastor’s wife Rachel Lewis, who died in 2016 from breast cancer—has been slowly moving forward. The church has partnered with the Piedmont Housing Alliance, which submitted a preliminary site plan to the city this spring, and hopes to secure funding from the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. However, some neighbors continue to voice concerns about the future affordable housing complex.

During a virtual site plan conference last week, Belmont resident Kimber Hawkey, one of the petition leaders, questioned the affordability of the units and on-site services available to disabled residents. 

“Is the anticipation that people with certain difficulties would be having live-in help or living with families?” asked Hawkey. “Just someone who wants cheap rent could move in as a roommate and perhaps not act in a way that would be beneficial to this person.”

PHA Real Estate Development Director Andy Miller explained that all of the units, a mix of one and two bedrooms, will be affordable for households making between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income, but those who make below that should have access to housing vouchers that cover the rent. Four units will be set aside for adults with developmental disabilities and people at risk of homelessness.

Disabled residents will have support services delivered through a contracted third party, like Region Ten, in addition to help from church members. They will also be assigned a case manager, who would ensure any live-in caretakers—who would be “circumstance dependent” but “aren’t’ typical” for these types of projects, said Miller—meet compliance requirements. 

Since 2019, the project’s design has undergone multiple changes in order to comply with LIHTC program requirements and cost constraints. Instead of renovating some of the church to build the units, the current design demolishes a part of it to make space for a three-story separate apartment building—one story higher than the first proposal—and a 28-space parking lot. 

Belmont resident Julia Williams expressed concern about church members using a lot of the neighborhood’s on-street parking, since the parking lot would be largely used by apartment residents. The developers responded that they identified around 82 on-street parking spots in the surrounding area—at full capacity, the church would potentially use 44. 

“Those 44 are definitely not available…so I’m seeing some pressure on the neighborhood streets,” said Williams. “I know what happens—it will eventually become permit parking if this really increases.”

“Most of us support the idea of this housing, but have concerns about its impact visually and architecturally, and also on pedestrian, bike, and traffic flow,” she added.

Rachel’s Haven vision team member Fred Schneider addressed residents’ concern that the church is shutting down, following Pastor Robert Lewis’ recent medical leave. Starting next month, the church congregation will worship with First United Methodist Church, while a transitional team explores next steps. 

Regardless of the church’s future, PHA, which owns the project, must make the units affordable for at least 30 years under the LIHTC program—and wants to permanently keep them that way. “We would have no intention of selling this project,” said Miller. 

While the exact timeline for Rachel’s Haven remains up in the air, PHA plans to apply for the LIHTC program next year. If the nonprofit is awarded the credits, it hopes to begin construction in 2024.

Within the next few weeks, Neighborhood Development Services will send a comment letter to PHA, which will then revise the preliminary site plan and submit a final one for approval. Community members can send comments to be included in the letter to principal city planner Brian Haluska at haluska@charlottesville.org.

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News

New conversations

The first Descendants Day at Highland happens June 11 from 1-4pm. It is free and open to the public. Photo: Rebel At.

Weeks after a power-sharing dispute between descendants of enslaved workers and previous leadership was resolved at James Madison’s Montpelier, descendants at another former president’s home will formally gather for the first time. Organized by the Highland Council of Descendant Advisors, Descendants Day at James Monroe’s Highland will happen on June 11 from 1-4pm. The event is free and open to the public.

“It’s something that we’ve been talking about doing since Highland started collaborating with a group of descendants in recent years,” says Sara Bon-Harper, executive director at Highland, the former home of the fifth U.S. president. 

The council formed in 2019, a few years after a major discovery at Highland: The home long assumed to have been a remnant of Monroe’s residence was actually a guest cottage built by two enslaved men named Peter Mallory and George Williams. At the time of that discovery in 2016, Bon-Harper says, researchers identified the archaeological remains of the foundation of the actual main house. That structure had been built in 1799, but was completely destroyed by fire just a few years after Monroe sold it. 

It was the headline-grabbing nature of that discovery that prompted the formation of the council, says Bon-Harper, who attended a summit at Montpelier in 2018 with Highland descendant George Monroe, Jr. The summit, she says, “examined how we should share authority and how we should consider the perspectives of descendant communities in our work of research, public teaching or education, interpretation and governance.”

The Highland council has not yet formally incorporated, but Jennifer Stacy, one of the council’s 11 members, says the relationship with Highland’s leadership has been positive and includes frequent Zoom meetings during which the descendants give feedback on projects and offer oral histories passed down through their families.

“It’s our way of kind of giving a voice to the voiceless,” says Stacy. “I say that a lot because…it’s true, and because I think it perfectly captures exactly what we’re doing here, which is giving a voice to the voiceless and making sure that the descendants are not forgotten.” 

Stacy watched the recent dispute at Montpelier unfold with a mix of worry and hope.

“In the end, the descendants were heard, they were respected, and now they’re in a position of authority that I think is what descendants deserve,” she says. 

The first Descendants Day, Stacy says, is an opportunity to let the community see the work that’s being done at Highland, and facilitate new conversations.

“It’s step by step that this reinterpretation leads to a dialogue with someone who may have totally different ideas about this world than I have or any of the descendants have, but can stop this one moment in time and read the exhibit, see the difference, understand that it means something in this world,” she says.

Courteney Stuart is host of “Charlottesville Right Now” on WINA. You can hear her interview with Sara Bon-Harper and Jennifer Stacy at wina.com.

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News

Returning to service

Dhanya Babu delayed graduate school to become one of the first Peace Corps volunteers to return to service. Photo: Courtesy Peace Corps.

Charlottesville resident Dhanya Babu moved to the city from India when she was 8 years old. Unable to speak English well, she enrolled in the ESOL program at Albemarle County Public Schools—and came full circle last year when she returned to work for the school division. Now, she is headed to West Africa to teach English to students in Benin, as one of the first Peace Corps volunteers to resume service overseas in over two years. 

“It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I feel like I’m in a good place in my life to go and explore that,” says Babu. “I believe in the mission of the Peace Corps to go and do something, to serve internationally, and I feel like I can truly make a difference.”

The Peace Corps, a federal program that sends volunteers around the world to provide humanitarian aid, evacuated nearly 7,000 volunteers from over 60 countries at the start of the pandemic. Both first-time and evacuated volunteers are part of the cohorts going into service. The first group of volunteers to return to service since 2020 arrived in Zambia on March 15. Babu left for Benin, a country in West Africa, this week.

Babu studied human development and communication at Virginia Tech and applied for the Peace Corps one month after graduating in May 2021. 

“I just wanted to broaden my horizons and see if I really want to do social work and what kind of social work I wanted to do,” says Babu. “I’ve always wanted to do the Peace Corps, so I figured I should just apply.” 

After not hearing back for a while, she decided to apply to graduate school—but in February, she finally received notification of her acceptance into the Peace Corps. She rejected all of her graduate school acceptances, and will reapply after returning from service.

Peace Corps volunteers can apply for a specific position in a specific country related to one of the organization’s six sectors—agriculture, community economic development, education, environment, health, and youth in development. Babu, however, chose to go wherever volunteers are most needed, and was assigned to Benin to teach English as a foreign language. 

Volunteers will undergo a 10-week training before beginning a two-year period of service, in which they will be trained in the culture and language of the host country. Prior to the pandemic, volunteers would stay with host families in order to integrate into the local culture, but now, as a safety precaution, volunteers will live together during the training period. 

“I feel like I can get to know the community that I’m working with and get to know their needs, not just go in with my mission and what I want to achieve, but it’s about what they want to achieve,” says Babu. 

The national language of Benin is French, so Babu will undertake extensive French-language training, while volunteers who already speak it will learn one of the local languages. One of the things Babu is most nervous about is not being able to speak French well enough to hold a good conversation. 

“I think I’m just nervous about that hindering that relationship-making process,” she says. “But I think with time that will be something that I can overcome, and it will be a good learning process. If I’m teaching English, then I think the process of me learning French and that being hard for me can be a good common point between me and my students.” 

Beyond their individual local projects, all volunteers will assist community members with COVID-19 recovery and development efforts.

“The largest global vaccination effort in history is underway while other widespread health, social, political, and environmental issues continue to erode the foundation of our global society,” says Peace Corps CEO Carol Spahn. “Actions taken in the next few years have the potential to fundamentally impact development trajectories for decades to come.”

In addition to teaching, Babu can pursue a secondary project. She wants to really get to know the community she is working with and find out what their needs are in order to best provide help. 

“I’m just really curious to learn all the things that made the people who they are,” Babu says. “I know my culture and my schooling and being an immigrant, all those things impacted who I am.”

“Getting to know all the things that influenced the people in Benin—or the students in Benin—I feel like that’ll give me a really good perspective,” she adds. 

Categories
News

In brief: Gun violence memorial, weed crimes, and more

Herb Dickerson, executive director of the B.U.C.K. Squad, wants to put a violence interruption team in each of the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods. Photo: Eze Amos.

Guns down

Sporting an array of orange attire, several dozen community members gathered in the Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church parking lot on Friday afternoon to honor and remember the thousands of lives lost to gun violence nationwide each year. The National Gun Violence Awareness Day event—hosted by the B.U.C.K. Squad, Moms Demand Action Virginia, and the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention—featured free food, as well as activities for kids, including a bounce house, poster making, and games.

Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook read a city proclamation, declaring June 3 as Gun Violence Awareness Day in Charlottesville. Vice-Mayor Juandiego Wade, Councilor Brian Pinkston, and Democratic 5th District candidate Josh Throneburg were also in attendance.

“Hardly a week goes by in this country without news of another mass shooting, whether in a church, a synagogue, or an elementary school,” said Snook, encouraging local residents to advocate for gun control legislation and support gun violence prevention efforts. “In recent years, Virginia has had more than 1,000 gun deaths [a year and] approximately one gun homicide a day.”

B.U.C.K. Squad Executive Director Herb Dickerson explained that the group wants to put a violence interruption team in each of the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods to handle the spike in gun violence over the summer, but needs additional funding and support. 

“These folks put their lives on the line,” said Dickerson. “We’ll be out at 12, 1, 2, 3 in the morning. While y’all sleep in peace, we’re out here struggling, trying to find out who’s going to get at who.”

However, gun violence is not confined to Black neighborhoods, stressed Dickerson—this year, there have been shootings in other neighborhoods like Fry’s Spring.

“Everybody plays a part in getting this kind of work done, and then we get to save lives,” he added.

New weed crimes

Last week, the Virginia General Assembly passed a proposed budget creating new marijuana crimes. Starting July 1, it would become a Class 3 misdemeanor to possess more than four ounces—but less than a pound—of marijuana in public, punishable by an up to $500 fine. Any subsequent offense would become a Class 2 misdemeanor, accompanied by a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail. Possessing more than a pound would remain a felony. 

The possession limits—which were added to the budget during private negotiations—would not apply to marijuana plants stored at home. It is currently legal to grow up to four plants. 

Last month, the Democratic-controlled Senate sent a bill—amended by Governor Glenn Youngkin—that would have created new marijuana possession misdemeanors to a committee, taking them off the table until next year. 

Under current laws, adults 21 and over can possess up to one ounce of marijuana. Those found guilty of possessing between an ounce and a pound are subject to a $25 civil fine.

Racial justice groups and advocates have condemned the new crimes, citing the disproportionate impact they will have on Black residents. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Black people are nearly four times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, even though both use the drug at about the same rate.

“This is an untraditional move to add crimes through the budget,” said Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, in a press release, “and is an implication of how far criminalization advocates will go to continue the reinvestment to law enforcement rather than repealing crimes and reinvesting in communities hurt by the war on drugs.”

Governor Youngkin is expected to approve or veto the budget—or amend it—by the end of next week. 

In brief

New Dem leadership

Democratic Delegate Don Scott of Portsmouth was elected as the new House Minority Leader last week, after leading the campaign to remove Eileen Filler-Corn of Fairfax, the state’s first female House speaker—and nominating himself to take her place. Scott, an attorney and former Navy officer, is the first Black man to serve as the leader of Virginia House Democrats. 

Delegate Don Scott. File photo.

Pay raise

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted to give themselves a 10 percent pay raise last week, citing the rising cost of living. Starting next month, the supervisors’ pay will increase from $17,311 to $19,042 a year, reports The Daily Progress. Board Chair Donna Price will receive an extra $1,800 annual stipend, while Vice-Chair Bea LaPisto-Kirtley will receive $35 for every meeting she leads.

Racist threats

Two works of graffiti threatening violence against Black students were found in a student bathroom at Buford Middle School last week. Charlottesville City Schools is currently investigating the threats, in collaboration with the Charlottesville Police Department. Officers were also present at Buford last Friday. 

Still manager-less

Charlottesville may not get a new city manager until next year—during its Monday meeting, City Council voted to extend the city’s contract with The Robert Bobb Group through December 31, allowing interim City Manager Michael Rogers to lead the process of finding a new Charlottesville police chief. Once a new chief is hired, the search for a permanent city manager will begin. Rogers, recommended by the Robert Bobb Group, was appointed in January, and the original plan was to  hire a permanent manager by this month.