Month: January 2024

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The chart above shows 2024’s average Albemarle County property value increases. Image by Albemarle County.

Albemarle County is reporting another increase in average property values for 2024, but its not as high as in the past two years. 

“This year what we’re looking at is a 4.07 percent overall increase to the tax base based on the reassessment,” says Peter Lynch, Albemarle’s assessor. 

Albemarle switched to annual assessments in 2009, which means 15 years of data to sift through. Average values declined the first five years, with a decrease of 2.3 percent in 2013. Percentage changes have been positive ever since, with highs of 8.4 percent in 2022, and 13.46 percent in 2023. This year’s values are on a par with 2019, when 4 percent was at the time a record-setting increase.

“Luckily this year, at least to me, it makes our job a little easier when those increases aren’t so high as they were the last couple of years,” Lynch says. 

Lynch explained to the Board of Supervisors how his staff audits the sales that are based on valid fair-market transactions. Invalid ones do not contribute to the calculations, such as the county’s $58 million purchase of 462 acres around Rivanna Station. 

An example of a valid transaction is the December 19, 2023, purchase of a four-bedroom house on Shiffletts Mill Road in the White Hall District for $1.3 million. That was 26.58 percent above the 2023 assessment. 

That transaction was one of 1,856 valid market sales in 2023, down from a high of 2,389 in 2021. In all, there are 37,419 taxable properties in Albemarle as of the end of the year. 

Assessments were up highest in the 348 parcels of land in the Town of Scottsville, which had a 10.31 percent average increase. The Scottsville Magisterial District is next with the 7,034 parcels having an average increase of 6.98 percent. The average increases were smaller in Rivanna and White Hall, with figures of 2.64 percent and 2.48 percent, respectively. 

Lynch can also break the data down via land classification. The 23,093 parcels designated in the Comprehensive Plan as Urban Residential increased an average of 4.49 percent and the 17,540 classified as “Other Residential up to 20 acres” increased by 4.28 percent. The 1,387 properties listed as Commercial/Industrial went up 3.09 percent. 

Actual numbers will vary depending on unique circumstances. 

“The majority of the properties are going to experience a negative 5 to a positive 5 percent change,” Lynch says. “An additional 32 percent will increase a 5 percent to 15 percent increase.” 

Six percent are in excess of 15 percent. 

But why the increase? Lynch says one possible explanation is that construction of new homes has not kept up with demand. Data from the county’s Community Development reports the issuance of a total of 408 certificates of occupancy in 2015, a number that climbed to 1,143 in 2020 before dropping back to 779 in 2022. 

Anyone who wishes to dispute their assessment must contact the assessor’s office by February 28. Applications to appeal to the Board of Equalization are due April 1. 

The City of Charlottesville will release their property assessment data on Friday, January 26, with notices being mailed out on January 30. 

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Arts Culture

Connecting points

Phượng-Duyên Hải Nguyễn sews up a big win at SOUP. The fiber artist’s grant will support a new installation opening on Friday May 3 at Welcome Gallery. Photo by Sarah Cramer Photo.

It wasn’t creating the artwork that challenged fiber artist Phượng-Duyên Hải Nguyễn as she prepared for New City Arts’ January 2024 SOUP competition. It was the audience.

“I’m terrified of public speaking,” she says. “I’m terrified of being perceived by others in general, and ideally I’d like to stay in a corner and make things in relative peace and quiet.” 

In the process of competing at SOUP, a semi-annual community dinner series to create a crowdfunded grant for a Charlottesville-area artist, Nguyễn faced her public-speaking fears. With the support of friends and speaking coaches, and lots of practice, she delivered her pitch—for a new installation, her largest yet—and took home $4,235, SOUP’s biggest grant to date. 


“Nowhere” by Phượng-Duyên Hải Nguyễn. Image courtesy of the artist.

The common thread throughout Nguyễn’s fiber constructions is a geometry that lends structure and evokes resilience in the pieces. Some are gauzy, drapey nets of thread and cloth, both fragile and strong, and other collections, like “Constructions,” displayed at the Welcome Gallery in 2020, provoke the mind with fuzzy abstract sculptures that pop with imaginative colors, objects, and textures.

A 2015 UVA graduate, Nguyễn started out pre-med, but left with a B.A. in studio arts and art history. “I walked into my first chem class, eyes glazed over the syllabus, and realized I’d rather go outside and draw,” she says.

Art provided Nguyễn a sense of place and familiarity, something that was sometimes hard to find as an immigrant from Vietnam who arrived in the United States as a teenager. Wanting to fit in, but finding herself stuck between cultures, she says she turned to art to carve out her own space and find comfort. 

Her fiber installations are a road map to solace, and finding it, whether in a physical place or inside ourselves. “My work is ultimately about home—what it takes to build/rebuild a home, to process the loss of and longing for a homeland, to build a life while yearning to belong,” she says. “As much as my work speaks to loss and longing, I want it to also convey hope and healing. And that’s why I sew because I think of sewing as a tender and healing act.”

Categories
News

Fuel for thought

On top of transitioning to alternative-fuel sources, Charlottesville Area Transit plans to expand its bus fleet. Staff photo.

On January 22, Charlottesville City Council reconvened after winter weather postponed its regularly scheduled session. One topic of discussion was alternative fuel sources for Charlottesville Area Transit, which must move away from diesel vehicles in order to meet the city’s goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

A presentation given by consultant group Kimley Horn examined the viability of three alternative fuel options for the city transit system: renewable natural gas buses, battery-electric buses, and hydrogen-fuel cell electric buses. Each presents different challenges and benefits in reaching both the city’s long- and short-term emissions goals.

Councilors dismissed natural gas buses because of limitations on the emissions reductions, but both battery-electric and hydrogen-fuel cell buses appealed to them because they have zero tailpipe emissions.

Battery-electric vehicles seemed to be more appealing, though, thanks to the comparative maturity of the technology and the definitive access to the fuel source. Trade-offs of battery-electric buses could include a need for a large fleet, the cost of implementation, and potential issues with range. While hydrogen-fuel cell electric buses were deemed more resilient by consultants, concerns were raised about the high cost of deployment given the lack of reliable fuel supply.

Costs for the project are anticipated to be high, with battery-electric and hydrogen-fuel cell electric buses both roughly double the cost of diesel vehicles. Grant money could potentially reduce costs for the city, depending on the option pursued, but total costs are hard to predict due to the ever-evolving nature of the alternative fuel technologies and potential changes to grant availability, based on the White House’s future occupant.

At the end of the presentation, consultants recommended the city pursue a pilot program using both battery-electric buses and hydrogen-fuel cell electric buses before selecting a final alternative source for Charlottesville buses. The recommended timeline for the pilot program includes adding two battery-electric buses to the CAT fleet in 2025 and three hydrogen-fuel cell electric buses in 2028, with the potential for a full fleet of zero emission buses by 2040.

While CAT officials seemed enthusiastic about going ahead with a pilot of both battery-electric buses and hydrogen-fuel cell electric buses, councilors were not convinced that moving forward with a technology as new as hydrogen-fuel cells was the best course of action. Both battery-electric and hydrogen-fuel cell buses employ batteries, but are differentiated by how they are charged.

“I have concerns about putting all of our eggs in one basket,” said CAT Director of Transit Garland Williams about his support for a pilot program exploring both alternative fuel types. “Transit works well when it’s fast, frequent, reliable, safe. We’re trying to make sure we do our due diligence.”

Rather than immediately decide on next steps in the pilot program, City Manager Sam Sanders suggested councilors hold a work session next month. “You need time with this in my opinion,” he said. 

Categories
News

In brief

Photo by City of Charlottesville.

The end zone

A group of Charlottesville homeowners filed suit on January 16 to stop implementation of the city’s new zoning ordinance next month. 

In the court filing, local law firm Flora Petit asserts that the zoning ordinance is invalid because it exceeds the powers afforded to the city by the Virginia General Assembly, fails to give “reasonable consideration” to infrastructure impacts, and harms the plaintiffs. The suit also accuses City Council of “misleading” the public about “the scope of the changes” brought by the ordinance.

Several of the complainants assert that they purchased properties due to their locations in “low-density neighborhoods,” and argue they would be harmed by an increase in tax assessments.

The plaintiffs in the suit are nine Charlottesville residents who predominantly live in the Barracks-Rugby neighborhood, all with home assessments over $750,000, according to reporting by The Daily Progress.

The zoning ordinance was passed unanimously by Charlottesville City Council in December as part of the city’s Comprehensive Plan. While proponents of the ordinance argue it would improve access to affordable housing by increasing density, opponents cite concerns including upzoning, potential traffic, and infrastructure impacts.

The suit could put a stop to not only the zoning ordinance, but the entire Comprehensive Plan.

Road work ahead

Supplied photo.

Work will begin January 29 on a Hydraulic Road improvement project slated to last through fall of next year.

According to the Virginia Department of Transportation, the project will make several improvements to traffic flow and safety in the area. Changes include constructing a pedestrian bridge over Route 29, building a signalized pedestrian crossing and reworking traffic patterns at the intersection of Route 29 and Hydraulic Road, and changing the intersection of Hillsdale and Hydraulic Road into a roundabout.

Previous plans to adapt the intersection of Route 29 and Angus Road into a Continuous Green-T configuration were scrapped following a May 2022 public hearing.

Construction will take place overnight between 9pm and 6am and start with median and drainage work. Drivers should look out for workers in and around the roadway during the construction window and potential lane, shoulder, and turn lane closures.

In brief

Crash course

An 82-year-old driver smashed into the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles customer service center on Abbey Road on the morning of January 22, leaving a large hole where some corner windows once stood. Albemarle County Police and Fire Rescue crews responded to the scene and reportedly treated a DMV customer for minor injuries, according to CBS19. Police have charged the driver with reckless driving in a parking lot. The customer service center reopened the following day.

Statue survey

The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center has launched a new Public Parks Survey to gather community feedback as it enters the next phase of its Swords Into Plowshares project. The survey is intended to help JSAAHC gain a better understanding of Charlottesville residents’ knowledge and use of local parks and their history. This, in turn, will guide the selection of potential sites for a new work of public art created from the melted bronze of the Robert E. Lee statue. The survey can be found via jeffschoolheritagecenter.org, under a link titled Take the Swords Into Plowshares Survey.

Reid’s on the rocks

Reid’s Super Save Market may not be going out of business, but it sure seems to look like it. A January 21 report from The Daily Progress claims the decades-old family run grocery store is “in trouble,” citing empty shelves, dwindling staff numbers, and declining traffic. But community members have expressed concern over the state of Reid’s since last October, when several shelves sat unstocked for weeks, prompting the store to put up a sign that reassured customers it was not closing down. A GoFundMe has been created to help keep the store open, raising over $10,000 so far.

Categories
Arts Culture

The Big Picture

Annie Yuan's “Fuzhu,” made of cardboard, paper, wire, foam, and plastic bags. Photo by Erika Phillips.

Plastic bags, candy wrappers, puzzle pieces, and leaves don’t usually top the list of materials used to create the fancy frocks we see on catwalks and red carpets. Except, that is, at the annual St. Anne’s-Belfield Wearable Arts Runway Show, where upper-school students like Annie Yuan (left) repurposed and recycled existing materials to create the one-of-a-kind garments that were on display Saturday, January 20, during two shows. Greek mythology was the theme for this year’s event, which featured the work of more than 20 student-designers, as well as performances from St. Anne’s-Belfield musicians.  

Photo by Erika Phillips.

Categories
Arts Culture

Joseph

Joseph. Publicity image.

Indie-pop trio Joseph, comprised of sisters Natalie, Meegan, and Allison Closner, is stepping into an era of self-realization through sound. Their new record, The Sun, is a 10-song pop journey full of three-part harmonies, moody grandeur, anthemic sing-alongs, and deeply personal storytelling that explores past relationships, gaslighting, and self-celebration. “All of our therapists were a huge influence on this album,” says Meegan.

Tuesday 1/30. $29.50–129.50, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com

Categories
Arts Culture

How Pirates Changed the World

Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard. Photo by Jean Leon Jerome Ferris.

Ever wondered what pirates did with their booty? Or what life at sea was really like? Learn all about the life and legacy of pirates at Profs & Pints: How Pirates Changed the World with speaker Joshua M. White, an associate professor of history at UVA and author of Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean. Arrive early to grab a seat and your bevvie of choice, then listen as White shares stories that will shiver your timbers about notorious corsairs like Hayreddin Barbarossa, John Ward, and Alonso de Contreras.

Monday 1/29. $13.50 (pay in advance), 5:30pm. Graduate Charlottesville, 1309 W. Main St. profsandpints.com

Categories
Arts Culture

Charlottesville Players Guild’s 24/7

Talents unite as playwrights, directors, and actors team up for a series of epic performances at Charlottesville Players Guild’s 24/7 fundraiser. Seven playwrights—Ti Ames, Zaharra Colla, Richelle Claiborne, Derick Williams, David Vaughn Straughn, Edward Warwick White, and Davey White—write a play overnight, then pass it on to seven directors—Ike Anderson, Chris Evans, Mercedes Herrero, Edwina Herring, Marianne Kubik, Denise Stewart, and Miller Susen—who rehearse with their casts all day, before taking the stage at night.

Saturday 1/27. $15–40, 7 and 9:30pm. Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, 233 Fourth St. NW. jeffschoolheritagecenter.org

Categories
Arts Culture

Addiction and identity

Kaveh Akbar will read from and discuss Martyr! with Henry Hoke in a free event at New Dominion Bookshop on January 26. Photo by Beowulf Sheehan.

Poet Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel, Martyr!, explores themes of addiction and sobriety, grief and grace, trauma and love. Rich with Daedalian prose, this semi-autobiographical bildungsroman tells the story of Cyrus Shams, a young Iranian American poet and recovering alcoholic. 

Born in Iran but currently living in an Indiana college town, Cyrus is drifting, purposeless, and largely unattached. A couple of years into sobriety, he is struggling to learn how to live and write again. The high-highs and the low-lows mostly disappeared when he quit drinking, but the poet wrestles with understanding what remains, what meaning his life holds. His days are loosely constructed around a few people. He is removed from the world, mourning his isolation while also nursing it. 

This apartness is rooted in his family history. Akbar weaves his own with Cyrus’ experiences to create an intricate tapestry of a narrative. Cyrus grew up in the U.S., with his father moving from Iran to escape the grief of losing his mother, who died when her flight to Dubai was accidentally shot down. As a novelist, Akbar skillfully fuses fiction with history, modeling this aspect of the story on the real-life tragedy of Iran Air Flight 655, a commercial airliner that was mistakenly attacked by the USS Vincennes in 1988. The book grapples with what it means, politically and personally, that this kind of tragedy can kill hundreds of people, leaving others—like Cyrus—forever traumatized, and yet be largely unremembered by many Americans. 

The fictionalized version of this trauma is at the root of the questions that Cyrus chases through the pages of Martyr!: What makes a death—and, in turn, a life—meaningful and who gets to interpret that meaning. “My mom died for nothing… She had to share her death with three hundred other people,” Cyrus reflects. “My dad died anonymously after spending decades cleaning chicken shit on some corporate farm. I want my life—my death—to matter more than that.” And so Cyrus becomes obsessed with martyrdom, historically but also as a way of indulging his own thanatotic temptations. 

Like the character he crafted in Cyrus, Akbar was born in Tehran and is a writer in recovery. Iranian American identity and addiction are central themes across his two collections of poetry and a chapbook titled Portrait of the Alcoholic. Some of the poems in these collections lay groundwork for Martyr!—anecdotes and phrasings repeated and reworked, the creative process of the writer re-shaping the stories of his life, rethinking the meanings that can be inferred on the page. A more abstracted version of this can also be seen in the zine (available at martyrzine.com) that Akbar made to accompany the novel. 

For Cyrus, the shift in his status quo comes when he decides to write a book about martyrs as a way to pursue his interest and reinvigorate his own creative process. He soon embarks on a journey to meet Orkideh, a dying Persian artist, whose final exhibit is an Abramović-esque installation in which she talks to museumgoers about death. Enmeshed with Cyrus’ pilgrimage are stories told from the points of view of family and friends, as well as sections of Cyrus’ draft manuscript and dream sequences, including one in which Orkideh cuts off fingers to buy Bruegel’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” hinting at the sacrifices made for art, for poetry.

Through these structural elements, Akbar creates a dynamic experience of past and present while also setting up a Socratic dialogue of sorts, as the character’s contributions combine to explore the acts of care that give life meaning when we share and hold each other’s stories as modes of healing and love. There is inquiry into the roles people play, the performances we offer, even to those we care about, protecting them from ourselves—which is also to say, preventing the possibility for true connection.

In a flashback, Cyrus’s AA sponsor Gabe offers the advice, “Quit things in the order they’re killing you.” This is shared to help Cyrus address more serious addictions before attempting to quit smoking, but it also implies less visible dependencies on beliefs that can also kill us from within. Cyrus discovers that sobriety does not heal him but rather uncovers things he spent years dissociating from, mindsets that prove to be as difficult to kick as any substance. Substance use had been his core coping method, and Martyr! explores the ethics of self-pity, the narcissism of addiction, and what comes after. Cyrus begins to reexamine the beliefs he has held about the world and himself, to rebuild trust, and to share his life with others. 

In this nimble debut, Akbar avoids the pitfalls of a hero’s journey in which a character ends up at sobriety, choosing instead to examine the opportunities for grace and transformation within a life of sobriety. He chronicles how Cyrus spends his time, how he finds redemption in his ongoing recovery process, and how he understands himself in the world. In the end, Cyrus’ quest leads him to an increased capacity for self-reflection, accountability, and love. He is no longer able to blame fate or family for his life’s ordeals, while neither wanting to let go of that life so easily nor hold it too close within himself. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing substance use issues, Region Ten offers resources and support services that may be able to help. Learn more at regionten.org.

Categories
News

Looking Good?

Political ads targeting Rep. Bob Good, who’s facing a primary challenge this year, have hit the airwaves. Image by Virginians for Conservative Leadership Pac.

Election season is in full swing for Rep. Bob Good, who’s faced barbs from his challenger, substantial intra-party criticism, and an all-but-declaration-of-war from the Trump campaign. But despite these hurdles, Good says he is confident the constituents of Virginia’s 5th District will “get it right” in the June primary.

The two-term incumbent faces a primary challenge from state Sen. John McGuire, who has criticized Good for his endorsement of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over former president Donald Trump. Though Good endorsed Trump following DeSantis’ decision to drop out of the race, McGuire remains critical.

“Bob Good has come groveling back to Trump in order to save his own hide—friends, don’t trust him,” wrote McGuire in a January 21 post on Twitter/X. “He’ll stab Trump in the back again the first chance he gets. Never Trumper Bob Good is only good for Joe Biden, not for the patriots of Virginia’s 5th Congressional District.”

McGuire has also called Good a RINO (Republican in Name Only) on several occasions, regardless of the congressman’s position as chair of the Freedom Caucus.

In an interview with C-VILLE, Good denied McGuire’s characterizations. “He is lying for political purposes, he thinks it gives him some kind of advantage to say that, but I think everybody sees through what he’s doing,” Good says. “Everybody knows that I’m one of the most, if not the most, conservative member of Congress. There’s a reason why the most conservative caucus in the House of Representatives elected me as their chairman, and I have consistently fought for our conservative principles.”

“I trust the folks in the 5th District to get it right,” he says. “I expect that they will re-nominate me and elect me again in November.”

Despite Good’s confidence in his conservatism, the congressman has recently come under fire from both moderate and far-right Republicans.

Republican critics of Good include Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Trump Campaign Manager Chris LaCivita.

In a text message published by Cardinal News, LaCivita said, “Bob Good won’t be electable when we get done with him.”

When asked for a response to LaCivita’s comment, Good told C-VILLE he “never met that gentleman” and would not directly respond to questions about his communications with the Trump campaign.

Antagonism from the Trump campaign may spell major trouble for Good this primary season, according to Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the University of Virginia Center for Politics’ newsletter.

Though Good has now endorsed the former president, his earlier backing of DeSantis may continue to incite criticisms from the Trump campaign. “Trump and his allies are not exactly known for burying the hatchet,” says Kondik.

Trump endorsed Good in 2022, and while the former president has not come out in favor of a candidate in the 2024 contest for Virginia’s 5th District, Good’s campaign website claims a Trump endorsement. 

“Most primary challengers have no shot,” Kondik says. “McGuire is a real challenger with real support, and Good has made some enemies within his party.”

While Trump has not formally endorsed McGuire, LaCivita’s comment is an indicator to Kondik that “there will be an aggressive campaign waged on McGuire’s behalf against Good.”

Political ads targeting Good are already rolling out, including one from the Virginians for Conservative Leadership Political Action Committee. The group questions Good’s loyalty to Trump in its video, and further criticizes the congressman for focusing on “political theater” over the needs of constituents on its website nogoodbob.com.

“That PAC is neither conservative, or … from Virginia,” says Good. “If you’re trying to be deceptive and dishonest and try to smear someone, then you use a name for yourself that might convey a different impression than what the truth really is.”

Virginians for Conservative Leadership has a mailing address in Hudson, Wisconsin, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. C-VILLE could not independently confirm the PAC’s political leanings.

For all of the animosity between McGuire and Good, the two Republicans have overlapping political platforms. Both candidates oppose abortion and gun control laws, and support Christian principles on their campaign websites. The most notable distinction between the candidates’ campaign websites is the level of detail on policy issues. McGuire is more vague, referencing a support for “conservative values” and “Christian conservative values,” while Good outlines his views on immigration and the economy, among other issues.

Regardless of who wins the nomination, Kondik says Republicans will most likely win the 5th District seat in the general election. “Virginia’s 5th District is not overwhelmingly Republican,” he says, “but it is Republican enough that any GOP nominee should be fine in November.”

Early in-person voting in Virginia’s congressional primaries will begin on May 3 at local registrars’ offices, with Primary Election Day on June 18.