Rebricking project “reckless” say citizens, businesses

Several local citizens and businesses are calling on City Council to cancel the Downtown Mall “renovation” (read: rebricking) project in an open petition to city government. Instead, they want the city to perform maintenance work.

Several local citizens and businesses are calling on City Council to cancel the Downtown Mall “renovation” (read: rebricking) project in an open petition to city government. Instead, they want the city to perform maintenance work.

It’s hard to believe that the petition will be able to bring the project to a halt, considering it has already “broken ground” and is slated to start the beginning of January. However, considering next year is an election year, you never know how Council will react.

The petition drive is being led by Brandon Collins. Anyone who wishes to join the petition can e-mail Collins (brandoncollins@comcast.net), or stop by Miller’s, Rapture or Sal’s, all on the (soon to be torn up) Downtown Mall.

Rapture already has five pages of signatures. “It’s nice to get support,” says Michael Rodi, Rapture’s owner, who has taken issue recently with the city’s policies on cafe space during the rebricking. “I honestly think that [if the renovation goes forward], by the time this is over, a good percentage of restaurants will shut down.”

Read the full petition after the image.

Last month, the city tore up a test section outside City Space on Fifth Street NE.

Open Letter to Charlottesville City Council and
City Manager Gary O’Connell

Honorable members of Charlottesville City Council
and City Manager Gary O’Connell,

We concerned citizens, taxpayers, and working people of Charlottesville call on you to cancel or alter the planned re-bricking and renovation of the Downtown Mall. It is our belief that maintenance and repair, rather than complete replacement, of the mall bricks can be done with less impact on business and workers, at a lesser cost to taxpayers.

Furthermore, we call for the 7.5 million dollars made available for the re-bricking project to be diverted, along with the attentions of city council and city manager, to an effort to seriously address the cost of housing in our city.

The estimated 7.5 million dollar cost of replacing the bricks will put an undue burden on taxpayers at a time when city government anticipates a budget crunch – perhaps even a shortfall – for next year, is reckless, and hard to fathom.

We add that there is no guarantee of use of a local workforce in the contract with developer Barton Malow. This, too, necessitates cancellation of the contract.
City Council and the Downtown Business Association have made little attempt to consult, or notify downtown businesses concerning the unfair patio space and have paid scant attention to the protestations and concerns of Mall business owners and workers, as evidenced at the meeting held Nov. 14 to discuss the matter.

Not allowing business to use their patio space until construction is complete is a backwards attempt to create fairness. The overall effect of this policy is to keep large amounts of money from being spent anywhere downtown, for a long period of time.

If businesses cannot operate fully, shoppers and diners will go elsewhere, since no one wants to shop or dine in a construction zone. This will effect employers’ ability to hire and retain employees already struggling under the weight of a high cost of living in Charlottesville. It will hurt tourism, and stifle tax revenue.

The proposed policy of equalizing patio space for restaurants is another backwards attempt to create "fairness." But this penalizes older restaurants that risked opening on the mall early on. Restaurants with smaller clientele have no need for more space, as those with larger clientele cannot afford smaller patio space.

Moving patio space from their original spots outside of restaurants is another mistake that will create stress, confusion, and a few accidents.
This massive renovation project will stifle business downtown for the winter, and into spring. If the project lasts longer, the effects will be staggering. These businesses and their employees are already suffering the effects of continuous construction downtown. Slow business will hurt employers and employees and will lead to unemployment, underemployment, and lost wages for downtown workers. Ultimately, less tax revenue can be collected in the event of a massive business slow down on the mall.
Unemployment and lower tips for restaurant workers are likely outcomes of the current proposal for re-bricking. This worsens our economy, exacerbates the housing problem, and hurts the working people of Charlottesville.

Respected Charlottesville developers, suggest that the damage on the mall could be addressed by repairing the bricks in a continuous effort of maintenance. This could be done at a much smaller cost, estimated around $200,000 a year, with much less impact on downtown business and employment.

We call on Charlottesville City Council to divert it’s attentions and funds from the 7.5 million dollar re-bricking disaster to addressing the problem of housing costs in Charlottesville. As we continuously hear that council is concerned with low income housing, why is it that 7.5 million dollars is going to be spent on an over-priced maintenance issue while little is accomplished on the issues of affordable housing and homelessness? It is our view that council could spend money in a constructive way on addressing this issue rather than spending money for a project devastating to working people in Charlottesville already struggling to pay ever increasing rents.

Charlottesville City Council’s actions on re-bricking, and similar policies that support abstract notions of how our city should look, and which elites we are trying to attract and satisfy, contribute to the ever growing problems of poverty, housing, joblessness, homelessness, crime and gun violence. A belief that our community leaders are more concerned with spending large sums of money on cosmetic changes to attract tourists, corporate business, and wealthy newcomers has a direct effect on the psyche of low income citizens. When council says it needs to do something about these issues, and fails to do anything, people lose hope and lose sense of community. This is amplified when the one thing our leaders are doing is spending unimaginable sums of money on a project that has little support from the community.

While we see the need for infrastructure repair, we call on Charlottesville City Council to halt the total re-bricking of the Downtown Mall in favor of gradual repair and maintenance of the mall bricks for a lesser cost, and devotion of the massive amounts of money required for re-bricking to a serious and meaningful attempt to address the housing crises. We call on the citizens of Charlottesville to attend Charlottesville City Council meetings on the Mondays of December 1st and 15th to voice their concerns on the proposed re-bricking of the Downtown Mall.

Sincerely,
Miller’s Downtown…Rapture…Gravity Lounge…Alakazam Toys & Gifts…Oyster House Antiques…Twisted Branch Tea Bazaare…Brandon Collins…Jennifer Tidwell…Stephen Barling…Jesse Breeden…Reagan Greenfield…Morgan Moran…Angel Krasnegor…Joia Sellam…Becky Robinson…Jerry Simmons…Jenny Bass…Laura Covert…Louis Schultz…Daniel Overstreet…Alexandra Cheff…Dawne Garrett…Andrew Groner…Dawn Story
 

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