After nearly a decade of silence, The Wallflowers make some noise with Exit Wounds, the band’s 10-song studio offering. The Jakob Dylan-led rock outfit meshes timeless songwriting and storytelling with a hard-hitting and decidedly modern musical attack. Exit Wounds opens with “Maybe Your Heart’s Not in It No More,” a gentle, Americana-inspired song with Shelby Lynne, who provides harmonies on two other tracks: “Darlin’ Hold On” and “Move the River.”
Sunday 4/30. $34–64, 8pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Inez M. Gonzalez will start as executive director of the Police Civilian Oversight Board on May 1. Image courtesy City of Charlottesville.
PCOB gets new director
Charlottesville interim City Manager Michael Rogers announced the appointment of Inez M. Gonzalez as executive director of the Police Civilian Oversight Board on Monday, April 17.
“We are excited to both welcome Inez to the city and to ensure that our Police Civilian Oversight Board has proper staffing to engage in their work as outlined by our City Council,” says Rogers.
Gonzalez has 28 years of experience in law enforcement, 25 of which were spent with the Newark, New Jersey, police department. Her roles included community services officer, sergeant and internal affairs investigator and domestic violence coordinator, lieutenant and integrity control officer, and commander in the Office of Internal Affairs. She was the first female, Hispanic lieutenant and captain of the department. She then became a regulatory enforcement inspector for the Department of State in the Pennsylvania Bureau of Enforcement and Investigations office.
Gonzalez received her B.A. in criminal justice and homeland security from Grantham University, and underwent training and certification in community and problem-oriented policing at Northwestern University.
“I am genuinely excited to start my new role with the PCOB,” Gonzalez said in a press release.“I look forward to working with the board and other stakeholders to make meaningful changes that will positively impact the citizens of Charlottesville.”
The PCOB aims to “provide objective and independent civilian-led oversight of the Charlottesville Police Department in an effort to enhance transparency and trust, to promote fair and effective policing, and to protect the civil and constitutional rights of the people of the City of Charlottesville,” according to City Council’s website.
Gonzalez officially starts on May 1.
Cheney speaks
Liz Cheney, a former U.S. representative and an incoming UVA professor of practice, spoke with Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato at an April 19 event at Alumni Hall. Cheney talked about January 6, ongoing election conspiracies, and the grim future of the Republican Party. Despite losing her bid for reelection, the one-time Wyoming congressperson remains a major figure within conservative politics.
In her first public interview since the announcement of her professorship, Cheney largely focused on her political experience during and following the attack on the U.S. Capitol. She emphasized that the continued promotion of election conspiracies and downplaying of political violence threatens not only the Republican party, but democracy itself.
To prevent another January 6, Cheney said, people must be held accountable for their actions, including Donald Trump. She further called for leaders to be people of character and uphold their oaths of office to ensure this accountability.
Liz Cheney. File photo.
In brief
Ellis in NYT
The New York Times points to UVA Board of Visitors member Bert Ellis as an example of rising “anti-woke” education movements. In an article exploring the sharp tension surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and the deep political divide between education policymakers, writer Stephanie Saul frames America’s larger battle surrounding education policy around Ellis. Ellis has been deeply controversial since his appointment was announced, due to his attempted destruction of a “Fuck UVA” sign on the Lawn and co-founding of the DEI-critical Jefferson Council.
Charity pinball
On April 30, Decades Arcade will open its new location downtown with the second annual John Breen Memorial Charity Pinball Tournament for the local Ronald McDonald House. Following a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2021, avid pinball fan John Breen reached out to Decades to create the charity tournament. Breen died in April of 2021 at the age of 54. Decades’ doors will open at 1:30pm, with the tournament beginning at 4pm.
Funding ends early
Funding for the Pathways Community Resource Helpline has run out months earlier than anticipated for residents of Albemarle County. The Helpline program was created during the COVID-19 pandemic to help Charlottesville and Albemarle residents with rent, mortgage, and utilities. While the funds were expected to end with the start of the new fiscal year in July, there is now an unanticipated gap in support for community members in need. Both Charlottesville and Albemarle continue to experience housing crises due to a lack of affordable housing.
The Jefferson Cup has returned to the area, and will finish this year with a leg-burning climb at Blenheim Vineyards. Photo by Peter Hufnagel.
The Jefferson Cup, a professional and amateur USA Cycling road race that is one of the longest-running races in the United States, returns to the area on Sunday, April 30. The Jeff Cup is a 10-mile loop that takes racers on rolling country roads through estates and vineyards, and “has been a staple of the Charlottesville cycling community for over three decades,” says Sully Beck, race director and former president of UVA Club Cycling. “We want the Jeff Cup to continue to inspire riders, just as it has for countless years.”
The event has evolved since Ruth Stornetta first came up with the idea in 1991.
“She always had a ‘racer first’ mentality, so went out of her way to ensure a great course with proper road closures, wheel cars, results services, even if all of these things meant more work from an organization perspective,” says Andy Guptill, endurance team director for the Miller School of Albemarle. “Participants saw that, and turnout increased each year as word spread about the high-quality road race.”
“As a race director, proper permitting with the police and VDOT is the first major hurdle,” says Beck. “The financial burden and uncertainty were the main reasons that prevented the return of the Jeff Cup in recent years. As a collegiate club, we were willing to invest substantial energy to take on such a risk.”
UVA Club Cycling has done much of the organizing for the event, which is also sponsored by the Charlottesville Racing Club and Blue Ridge Cyclery. Proceeds from the race will go to Community Bikes, a nonprofit local bike shop that seeks to make cycling accessible in Charlottesville by providing free refurbished bicycles to kids and adults in need.
“Hosting the Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Championship [in which the UVA team competes] … and raising funds for Community Bikes all in one weekend promises for a truly great event,” says Madison Gallagher, president of UVA Club Cycling.
This year marks the first year the race will finish with the Blenheim hill climb, a leg-burning ascent that will likely make for an exciting finish (the race begins and ends at Blenheim Vineyards).
“Blenheim is happy to support the event, and is eager to make the finish line as inviting to spectators as possible,” says Tracey Love, marketing and events manager for Blenheim, one of the Jeff Cup’s sponsors (the winery will provide parking for racers and spectators, and an embankment for seating to watch the race).
Former professional road racing champion (and Monticello High School grad) Ben King got his start at the 2008 Jeff Cup, and the race had a major impact on him.
“I was lucky to grow up in a place with such amazing roads for cycling,” says King. “Now, hundreds of thousands of racing miles later, I can say with authority that it has all of the features that make a great course.”
“I still love the sport, but my relationship to it has changed,” adds King, who retired from professional cycling last year. “I love watching the races, but am personally less focused on performance and more focused on the freedom, community, fitness, and feelings I get on a bike.”
The final score of the April 15 Blue-White game was 34-19, with the White team winning. Photo courtesy UVA Athletics.
On April 15, the University of Virginia football team returned to Scott Stadium for the first time since the murders of three players in November.
Memorials to Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler, and D’Sean Perry were present throughout this year’s Blue-White spring game, from the opening remarks to the field itself. The end zone beneath the hillside was emblazoned with the players’ names, numbers, and “UVA STRONG,” written boldly in the university’s iconic blue and orange.
Fans were ecstatic to see Mike Hollins—who was wounded in the same attack that killed his teammates—on the field. Despite pre-game concerns about Hollins’ health, the running back was a force to be reckoned with in the scrimmage: He was instrumental in several plays, running the ball early, and later scoring a touchdown for the Blue team in the UVA Strong endzone.
In an emotional celebration of the touchdown, Hollins hugged his younger brother Deuce and placed the football on Perry’s name.
Hollins’ heartfelt gesture reflects the team’s broader goal of “moving forward, but not moving on” after November’s shooting. Throughout the Blue-White game, the team honored the lives of Davis Jr., Chandler, and Perry, but still had fun on the field.
“Once the whistle blows, they put the ball down, nothing else matters,” said Coach Tony Elliott in a post-game interview. “It’s where you can … find peace, where you can find solace. It’s when you step off the field … that reality comes back into perspective.”
Coming together off the field has been an important part of the team’s recovery process. “We would have board game nights. … We didn’t [want to] be alone,” said running back Jack Griese.
“No one else is going through this, only us,” added Griese, who teared up when he spoke about the team’s unique bond.
The players’ strong connection was apparent throughout the game as the teams cheered and taunted one another.
But it was the atmosphere that was most important for them during Saturday’s contest. “We have a chance to change the world today,” Elliott explained, “because a lot of people are tuning in to see … how are the Cavaliers [going to] respond.”
Although some fans fled for cover from mid-game rain, the team continued playing and celebrating, to the delight of the orange-clad faithful who remained in the stands.
From snow angels to land-swimming to elaborate handshakes, there was no shortage of happiness from the UVA football team. Beyond good football, this was exactly what Elliott wanted to bring to Scott Stadium.
“I feel like [the team] did a really good job letting everyone see … their spirit, and their joy, and their fun, and their passion for playing the game, and their appreciation,” Elliott said.
Vice Mayor of Charlottesville Juandiego Wade. Photo by Melody Robbins.
Does the Tom Tom Founders Festival, now in its 11th year, really need an introduction? The fest’s aged a lifetime in a decade, from its quixotic first years—“like, what even is Tom Tom?”—to its formative middle years, and its wizened old age.
The 2023 version’s vision, “Future Forward,” is appropriately expansive, with ample breadth to explore what founder Paul Beyer calls its three “wings”: 1) The second annual Downtown Mall Block Party; 2) an eclectic community partner program of sports, dance, and tours; and 3) the festival’s central pillar, a three-day conference for discussing big ideas.
The festival’s foundation since its 2012 beginnings, the conference portion will feature more than 100 speakers this year, organized around three themes: health and wellness, technology, and justice. C-VILLE Weekly recently spoke with five featured presenters about the topics they’ll tackle and the role of festivals like Tom Tom in building community.
Dr. Kwasi Adusei
Researcher, Center for Psychedelic Therapy & Research
Conference Section: Conscious City
Kwasi Adusei. Supplied photo.
C-VILLE Weekly: You’re an expert on plant-based medicines. What can people expect from the Conscious City portion of the Tom Tom conference?
Kwasi Adusei: We’ll address consciousness, psychedelics, and community. How does heightened consciousness through psychedelics relate to community and the mainstream? We’ll talk about how psychedelics have affected individual lives, but also our sense of connection to community and nature.
What is your own background in medicinal psychedelics?
I work with psychedelic medicine in a clinical capacity, trying to provide access by working with therapists. We primarily focus on access to ketamine as an alternative to anti-depression drugs. I started as a community organizer, trying to integrate people’s own psychedelic experiences through community service and working toward psychedelic harm reduction. But I also wanted to have a foot in the medicalized sphere and bridge those things together.
When most people hear “plant-based medicine,” they think cannabis. Is that not part of your work?
Right now, I am working primarily with ketamine, but also MDMA and psilocybin. People are mostly using these medicines in the community, outside the medical context. As a provider and being informed around the modalities of access to plant medicine, I see them as a conduit to spiritual growth. Even before psychedelics were medicalized, people were seeing their ability to reduce depression and anxiety. They are medicines that can connect us to others, that can open us to ourselves and to our relationships.
What are the legal and practical hurdles for your work?
Ketamine is a Schedule 3 drug, MDMA is going through phase three clinical trials, and psilocybin will likely follow MDMA at the federal level. At the state level, we’re seeing a lot of decriminalization, the basics being that the cops aren’t coming after you. That opens up places for developing communities. So, if the majority of psychedelic use is already happening at the community level, what we need now is education to reduce the risk of harm and maximize the benefits of these tools. There are hundreds of psychedelic societies—community-driven organizations—popping up all over the world. The question is, how do we integrate all these experiences in a meaningful way?
What do you want folks to take away from Conscious City?
One of the risks we run is that many people may have a psychedelic experience and not get better right away. It is even possible that they will first get worse, because the experience gives them access to the root of their problems. So it is necessary that folks have places where they can progress through the experience. The destination is not psychedelics themselves, but rather the path to community.
Tony Wilkins
Investor and Executive Coach, Standing Oaks Venture Partners
Conference Section: Technology for Good
Tony Wilkins. Supplied photo.
C-VILLE Weekly: You’re a startup investor. What’s the secret to your success?
Tony Wilkins: If anyone says they have a 100 percent batting average in investing, they are either lying or they’ve made one investment. I expect to lose a lot, but I don’t lose the lesson. I focus on why people are doing what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. When you hear about startups, you hear about the companies that went from $1 to $100 million. You don’t hear about the hundreds of thousands of companies that failed. Investing is a long-term activity, and you can get better over many years. Then one day you wake up, and you realize you’re kind of good at it. As an executive coach, I try to shorten the learning curve and help people avoid avoidable mistakes. Like I say on LinkedIn, “I help people make better decisions.”
What’s trending in the world of startup investing?
This is a space that has been unavailable to the masses for a long time. The legal structure was set up to where only wealthy people, by being accredited investors, could invest in companies that want to build the American dream. But Obama’s Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act made it so anyone could invest in startups.
Is there a success story from your past that illustrates your strategy?
The first big success I had in early-stage investing, I met a woman at a conference. In 20 seconds, she told me enough to make me think, “I will invest in your company.” She lived in New York, and I lived in Chicago, but it was a business that just made sense to me. She tried to make it work on her own dime, and it took a long time for us to come to an agreement, but I wound up being the only investor for eight years. We made a lot of mistakes, but we solved a lot of problems, and we found some clients who loved us. It was all about her determination and timing. We went from wondering if we were going to be able to make payroll to having enough money in the bank to change the trajectory of both our lives.
New York and Chicago are big markets. How does your experience relate to a city like Charlottesville?
I know Charlottesville through my work with the CFA Institute, where I’ve been a charter holder for 32 years. The thing that C’ville doesn’t know about itself is that it is the perfect environment for startups. First, success in early stage investing is incredibly dependent on collaboration, people talking to one another and not holding information close to the vest. In places like San Francisco, people keep information to themselves. The second thing is the great big University of Virginia. The most successful startup companies are those anchored by a large university—an environment or spirit where people are curious and innovative and interested in solving problems. And the third thing is capital, which has become more democratized. Let me say it a different way: capital, collaborations, and colleges. Charlottesville has all three.
How can startup investing contribute to better communities?
The important thing in startup collaboration is talking to people that don’t look or sound or hang out with you. If you talk to the same people all the time, your ability to come up with new ideas will be limited. I try to force people to take ideas from folks they wouldn’t normally talk to. That’s why we need to talk about diversity in this space.
Marty Weiner
Founding Engineer, Pinterest, and Former CTO, Reddit
Conference Section: Technology for Good
Marty Weiner. Supplied photo.
C-VILLE Weekly: What’s good in the world of tech these days?
Marty Weiner: You’ve probably seen that artificial intelligence is having a bit of a revolution. But six months ago, most of it wasn’t even there. It is evolving by the second. So, how can we build a better community with AI? There are a million topics we could discuss, but I think what is most interesting to techies and general folks is what’s going on with ChatGPT and stable diffusion.
And what is going on with ChatGPT exactly?
Right now we think of it as being about text, but with stable diffusion, it can do things like take in text and give you an image. What are artists going to do? Another area is radiology. It looks like radiology as a profession might be on the chopping block, because AI is doing it better than humans. There are other models that might be able to detect certain types of cancer years in advance.
Why is this wave of AI so revolutionary?
In the ’60s and ’70s, we first started thinking about AI being a “thing that thinks.” But up until the last six months or so, that was really just sci-fi. For example, when Furbies came out in 1997, people thought the toys were able to learn language. But they weren’t really learning; they were simple computers with simple source code. Still, people perceived these things as being smart. The Pentagon even disallowed Furbies in the building. ChatGPT, on the other hand, is an intelligent thing, a thing that reasons. When you talk about artificial general intelligence, AGI, we move into some interesting areas. We don’t even understand consciousness as a species, and I don’t know what this all means for sure, but AGI offers reasoning and awareness and maybe even needs and wants.
What does this all mean for our communities?
I am fascinated with equity in AI. I come from Reddit, so I’m always thinking about how you build giant communities at scale. How do you allow them to grow while stopping abuse? AI can help people identify at massive scale how to build the community they want. AI data is also a fascinating area. With data, you can do some great things, but you can also do some awful things.
Should people be concerned that AI is going to take their job?
A wild difference between this and, say, the industrial revolution, is that areas like coding are more at risk than craftsmen like plumbers. I’m a coder, and while I don’t see my job going away just yet, AI is making us more efficient, and now maybe you don’t need six engineers, you need five.
You’re new to Charlottesville. What are your thoughts on the local tech community?
I’m an engineer, and my wife is an engineer. We wanted to move away from the Bay Area, and we put all the features of various cities in a spreadsheet. It landed us between Connecticut and Virginia, and Charlottesville seemed like such a nice place. I actually didn’t investigate the tech community before we came. But I started meeting all the tech folks in the area—that’s how I got involved in Tom Tom—and there are some cool startups. I think there are a couple challenges for the local startup community, like a lack of venture capital at certain sizes, but I’d like to help work on them.
Martize Tolbert
Director of Client and Community Engagement, The Fountain Fund
Conference Section: Society & Justice
Martize Tolbert. Supplied photo.
C-VILLE Weekly: What’s the key to a more just society?
Martize Tolbert: Oh wow. Well, I focus on financial access, financial empowerment, credit building, and coaching, specifically for formerly incarcerated individuals. I want to let stakeholders and community partners know what’s out there. I want people to partner with each other and advocate for each other. In this Tom Tom forum, basically we’re just getting the word out, letting people understand that we all face challenges and struggles, and we can come together and partner because of it.
How did you get involved with The Fountain Fund?
I was formerly incarcerated myself. I was born and raised in Detroit and destined to the struggle. I thought that was the everyday lifestyle. It wasn’t until I got to Virginia, got in trouble, did six years—and a couple more stints after that—that I realized I needed to make things I wanted to happen happen. I had to ask for help, because it was bigger than just me. There weren’t many resources available at that time. That’s when The Fountain Fund came along. I was the first loan recipient; now I’m the national director.
What are some of the barriers formerly incarcerated individuals face in accessing loans?
A theme for me and my loan officers is GSD. We get shit done. Not only with our client partners with lending, but also with hope and opportunity. It is more than just money. People also need access to childcare and employment. If they don’t have these things, they can’t come back and be a part of our community. That’s why I signed on as a Tom Tom board member. I always thought it was more about bringing outside people to Charlottesville, but I talked to Paul [Beyer], and we’re trying to change that.
What’s the local environment for the formerly incarcerated?
If you look at Charlottesville now and 20 years ago, it is completely different. We still have a long way to go, but I was here, so I know how hard it was. There are better chances to get home and get on your feet than when I got out of prison. What’s important is that we help the formerly incarcerated get the tools they need, give them hope and opportunity, and empower people. We want folks to come home and stay home and build their community.
Juandiego Wade
Vice Mayor, Charlottesville
Conference Section: Society & Justice
Juandiego Wade. Supplied photo.
C-VILLE Weekly: What’s your vision for Tom Tom’s Society & Justice section?
Juandiego Wade: We really think it is going to be special, because the topic is pressing and pertinent for what’s going on in Charlottesville and around the country—do you feel comfortable and included in your community? … Fifteen to 20 years ago, “inclusive culture” wasn’t something people talked about.
How do we become a more inclusive culture?
Some of the things I can do now with my hat on as a city councilor is help make decisions on our public spaces. We need to make sure those spaces are as inclusive and open as possible. Community events have to be inclusive and be held at times when people can attend them. For the council, we are here for our 50,000 residents. We are here to serve everyone, not just those selected, those privileged. There are still some folks who resist inclusivity because “we never used to do it that way.” But if you want to be successful, you have to have input from different voices. We have changed. The nation has changed, and we are a diverse community.
How will your panel address inclusivity?
The title of this year’s festival is Future Forward, and the way I see that is taking ideas that we are going to be talking about in the years to come straight into action; and, getting more people involved. Future Forward is about the future of not only our community, but also our nation.
How do you answer critics who say Charlottesville is not inclusive?
I definitely can see where many might have that perception, particularly after what we’ve been through. But inclusiveness is what this community is all about. I am not originally from Charlottesville. I came here for grad school, and I just couldn’t leave. I loved it and decided to raise my family here. I know that a few instances do not define this community. I know the good it has in it.
Who should attend the Society & Justice Tom Tom sessions?
I would like to see two groups there. One is people similar to me and my level of involvement, where they can talk about what they’ve done and seen in terms of making community connections. Then I want to see those in the community that say, “I am personally or involved in a group that needs to be more inclusive.”
What does a festival like Tom Tom mean for a city like Charlottesville?
Last year at about this time, I was still in the glow of being on the council, and there was a lot on our plate. But I went to the Tom Tom event on Friday night … I thought, this is what Charlottesville is about. It was diverse: young people, old people, visitors, people in for weddings the next day, people of color, different races. The entire community was out there, just enjoying themselves.
The Charlottesville climbing community is, like so many parts of this city, unexpectedly awesome. Photo by Tristan Williams.
Exercise, for the mind and body, is easy to find in Charlottesville. With fast access to trails, pools, sports for all ages, lectures, book talks, and trivia nights, the options are endless, and welcoming communities like De La Roll skating and the Prolyfyck Run Creww make stepping outside your comfort zone a breeze.
Perhaps less visible than the runners, bikers, and rollers—but equally avid—is our area’s climbing community. An inclusive and enthusiastic bunch, many of Charlottesville’s climbers can be found practicing their craft at Rocky Top Climbing.
The tiny gym tucked inside McIntire Plaza has remained at the heart of the local climbing scene since 1993. Rocky Top originally opened as a top roping facility, and over the years transitioned into only offering bouldering. Top roping is when the climber is securely attached to a rope anchored at the top of the climbing route and held by a belayer at the bottom. Bouldering is rope-free, but much closer to the ground, and always with cushy pads below.
“This is a really nice town to have something like [Rocky Top],” says Dan Shoupe, the gym’s manager. “There’s definitely gyms I’ve been to in big cities where there’s much less of that community vibe.”
The gym’s longevity and growth is owed in large part to Rocky Top’s small team of passionate staff members who’ve kept climbers engaged.
Shoupe, who’s been at Rocky Top for 10 years, says his journey with climbing began as a child. “It’s kind of corny,” he says. “I was a Boy Scout growing up, and they say tons of Boy Scouts find their life passion through Scouting, and I was like, ‘Yeah, whatever dude.’ But we went to a climbing gym in Richmond in sixth grade, and we had an absolute blast.”
It’s the participation in problem solving that’s made Shoupe a long-standing member of the climbing culture. “We get a lot of folks here who are big chess nerds, me being one of them,” he says. “It’s about laying out your plan of attack. It’s very interesting trying to suss out how exactly to interface with the rocks on the wall. It’s not just being strong, it’s about technique—it’s a physical puzzle to solve. From there you get involved with the community, and you make friends doing it too, and it just becomes a whole part of this lifestyle.”
Climbing is unique because it requires equal amounts of strength and brainpower. Peek inside Rocky Top any day of the week and you’ll find the 13-foot walls crowded with strategists, clinging for purchase, mapping out the next best place to move a hand or foot. Children just learning to walk scoot along the traverse wall, while seasoned climbers well into their 80s make their way up the aptly named Steep Room. Experts stand alongside novices as they wait their turn.
Chloë Ester Cook. Photo by Tristan Williams.
“There’s so much technique and skill that goes into climbing,” says Rocky Top member Chloë Ester Cook. “It’s very equalizing. The work you put into it pays off in both the skill and the strength that you gain. My favorite thing about it is how it makes you feel—sexy, powerful, strong, capable, smart—and the community.”
“Climbing is one of the most welcoming communities to newcomers,” Cook continues. “There are so many people at Rocky Top who will cheer you on and encourage you. That feeling of working on something and achieving it is so infectious.”
Successfully solving a bouldering problem can sometimes take weeks, and once a climber has it mapped out, only a minute or two to execute. To keep things fresh and exciting, Shoupe works with head route setter Calvin Biesecker to reset one wall a week.
Calvin Biesecker. Photos by Tristan Williams.
Mapping out climbing routes is an art in itself. Some holds might be impossible due to the angle of the wall, so it takes a lot of planning to ensure the setup is fun, functional, and fair.
“A lot of gyms in the industry don’t pay people to take the time to figure out how to make interesting paths,” says Shoupe. “A big part of keeping people engaged here is knowing they need something interesting to do week after week. We keep it novel.”
Biesecker’s biggest project of the year is The Rumble, Rocky Top’s annual spring bouldering competition.
The fifth annual Rumble takes place on April 22, and the day-long event includes new bouldering challenges for all skill levels, plus a big cash prize. The Rumble, like Rocky Top, is open to beginners.
“There’s a pretty low barrier of entry,” says Shoupe. “All that it takes is for it to be fun and fascinating to you.”
The city could cut parking minimums down to zero in an effort to encourage walking, biking, and public transit use. Staff photo.
Our spring of zoning continues this month with more rollout of new rules that will determine what Charlottesville’s future looks like.
“At this point, we are proposing no minimum parking requirement in order to support reuse and redevelopment of sites within the city,” said James Freas, Charlottesville’s director of Neighborhood Development Services. “We fully anticipate there will be a great deal of conversation on this topic.”
Currently about 8 percent of the city, or 524 acres, is used for parking, according to the Comprehensive Plan adopted in November 2021. That doesn’t include residential driveways. The document also states that 59 percent of city residents drive to work, 14 percent walk, 7 percent take public transportation, and 3 percent ride a bike.
The new zoning takes goals of the Comprehensive Plan, such as encouraging parking behind buildings, and turns them into reality. There are several references to reducing parking requirements that will be put in motion if the zoning goes through as is.
This is a trend happening nationally, according to Andrew Mondschein, a UVA School of Architecture professor.
“Eliminating parking requirements directly reduces the cost of development, making housing and other uses more affordable,” Mondschein says. “Eliminating requirements also reduces one of the main ways we subsidize driving in the country, addressing the impacts of automobility on safety and our environment.”
But these proposed changes are also part of an ongoing trend in the city, according to Leonard Schoppa, president of the Kellytown Neighborhood Association. Schoppa says that under Mayor Maurice Cox in the early 2000s, the Comprehensive Plan also encouraged parking requirements be reduced.
“The city dropped parking minimums to zero in the 14th Street and JPA corridors near the university, hoping to encourage private developers to build student housing that was denser in these close-to-Grounds areas, and allowing students to get around without driving or even bringing their cars to Charlottesville,” Schoppa says.
However, Schoppa says that many of the buildings constructed since then do include some parking, in part because banks want to see business models that work for large apartment complexes.
“If a developer of a 20-unit apartment building wants to build without off-street parking, the builder will not be able to get financing if they cannot convince the bank that sufficient numbers of renters will want to pay the planned level of rent for a place that has no parking,” Schoppa says.
That said, he does predict that new single-family homes may begin to be built without driveways. The new zoning will require a permit for every single curb cut, and that may put more parking on the street.
“I expect that some developers who want to build the six- and eight-unit apartment projects allowed in Residential-B and Residential-C areas will be able to build such projects without parking,” says Schoppa.
For this to really work, Schoppa says Charlottesville Area Transit needs to run buses more frequently to make that option more realistic.
UVA’s Mondschein thinks Charlottesville is ready to eliminate parking requirements, but says people should not fear that will result in an immediate change.
“Other changes, like improving our walking and bicycling infrastructure are moving forward too slowly, but this again is incremental change, and this can happen,” he says. “Ultimately, Charlottesville is a small city with an existing urban center and the potential to establish great neighborhoods that are not car dependent.”
Natalie Merchant’s ninth studio album, Keep Your Courage, is a lush and beguiling examination of love in all its guises. In her first record of new material in nine years, Merchant mentions love 26 times across songs including the delicate “The Feast of Saint Valentine,” the horn-filled “Tower of Babel,” and “Eye of the Storm,” a Celtic ballad tune with contributions from folk group Lúnasa. In addition to ruminating on love, the former 10,000 Maniacs lead singer has been busier than ever, raising her daughter, rearranging her songs for string quintet and acoustic instruments, and directing SHELTER: A Concert Film to Benefit Victims of Domestic Violence.
Wednesday 4/19. $49-99, 8pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Learn about the art of music album cover design at the latest installation of the Art in Life lecture series. Supplied image.
Try as we might to not judge a record by its cover, good art makes the music sound even better, and impacts our perception of the artist and their work. Three experts discuss Music Album Cover Design in the latest installment of the Art in Life lecture series. Ernie Cefalu has designed for rock legends, including the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, and Aerosmith; Gerard Huerta’s cover work includes AC/DC, Bob Dylan, and Chicago; and Joe Perez has made covers for pop and rap icons like Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, and Janelle Monáe. The Art in Life series is a joint program from the University of Virginia’s Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection and The Fralin Museum of Art.
TJ Klune celebrates the release of In the Lives of Puppets during a ticketed event with Elle Cosimano at Pro Re Nata Brewery on April 24. The evening is hosted by Bluebird & Co. Publicity photo.
The latest book by novelist TJ Klune features a cast of robots who love to garden, make sex jokes, listen to Miles Davis, and watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. From more familiar robots, like a loyal vacuum cleaner named Rambo and a sadistic robot health professional named Nurse Ratched, to extremely futuristic robotic killing machines and ethereal artificially intelligent entities, In the Lives of Puppets’ non-human characters explore what it means to have agency (perhaps even personhood), to grieve, and to love in this heartfelt fantasy adventure.
Led by the novel’s protagonist—an asexual human named Vic—the merry band of explorers embark on a very personal quest, which leads them outside the boundaries of their home and into the wilds. There, they encounter robot brothels, electrified roads, and floating museums, among other wonders, but also authoritarianism and genocide. In short, they discover a world where robot society is, in many ways, as human as our own, for better and worse. “We know we’re making machines and artificial intelligence that will one day surpass the need for human intervention,” says Klune. “But they will still be us, just imperfectly perfect.”
In this exploration of what it means to be human and to care for those we love, Klune builds a dazzling and detailed future world, which is a joy to inhabit as a reader, and also serves as fertile ground for expanding on the metaphorical and narrative work achieved in Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio. “Speaking strictly as an American, I think most people from my country have only engaged with the character of Pinocchio from the Disney version. … Collodi’s original text doesn’t have the happy sheen the animated version does,” explains Klune. “I love the darkness fairy tales and fables have, even when teaching us lessons.”
If you haven’t read Collodi’s work, Klune’s homage to the mischievous marionette’s exploits might inspire you to do so—if for no other reason than to better understand the references to the older text embedded throughout this novel, and to appreciate the way Klune’s characters also help us, as readers, recall some fundamental lessons about being alive and living in a community. There is a wild hope infused in the book through acts of caretaking, love, and free will, and Klune is masterful at ensuring that his stories are fully human but never overly serious.
“Comedy has always come easy for me,” he says. “But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more and more interested in what makes people tick. Why do we do the things we do? Why are some people good, some people bad? There are kind, empathetic people and people who only know greed and malice. You turn on the news and you see people wanting the LGBTQ+ community to burn simply for existing. You go on Instagram and see people filming their dogs being absolute dorks and everyone is laughing and laughing. … Humanity is cruel, destructive and selfish. And yet, there is so much stardust inside us that it boggles the mind. I want to know why.”
A Lambda Literary Award winner and author of numerous series as well as standalone novels including The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Extraordinaries, Klune is best known for contemporary fantasy novels with nuanced queer characters who grapple with messy human emotions such as grief and anger.
“As an asexual man myself, I know how important it is to have representation that comes from a place of knowledge,” he says. “I don’t speak for every ace person; instead, it comes from my own experiences. Vic’s asexuality is but one part of his humanity, but seeing it on page, discussed, and having boundaries acknowledged and respected means the world to me. I’m not ignorant of the reach I have, and if I can use that to show people that love comes in all forms, then I’m all for it. Queer people deserve to see themselves as the heroes (and the villains!) of a story.”
In addition to providing this representation, In the Lives of Puppets revisits themes from some of Klune’s previous books, including the strength of chosen family and explorations of flaws, forgiveness, and the roles of sadness and mortality in meaning-making. Further, his writing is imbued with a strong sense of self-awareness and symbolism, encouraging the reader to inhabit the world of his characters but also to hold themselves accountable as they do so. As Vic’s father says at one point, “No civilization can survive indifference.”
“For anyone who wants my books to be just a story, they can. There’s nothing wrong with reading it that way,” says Klune. “But if people read my books and walk away thinking just a little bit differently with how they react to the people and the world around them, then that’s all right with me too. … I don’t have all the answers, but I do know this: We are more than we show ourselves to be, and if you’re not fighting for the best possible world for everyone, then what are you even doing?”
