Author: jayson-whitehead

On a wet and chilly night, last Tuesday, county Republican chair Christian Schoenewald stood just outside the entrance to the main shelter at McIntire Park and beamed. “I’m surprised at the size of the turnout,” he said, while underneath the roof his wife dispensed ballots to those who continued to arrive, joining the throng already accumulated to nominate two candidates for the Board of Supervisors. After eating from a potluck dinner, conservative county residents picked Duane Snow to run in the Samuel Miller District and Rodney Thomas in the Rio District.

The local GOP will run Rodney Thomas for the Rio Supervisor’s seat. Completing the Meadowcreek Parkway is his top priority, he said earlier this week.

In a short address, the latter repeatedly promised to reduce spending if he is elected—Thomas would have to beat incumbent David Slutzky—by lowering taxes. “The taxpayers of Albemarle County should not be solely responsible for making up the shortfalls of the budget,” he said.  

Thomas ran unopposed for the nomination while Snow beat out fellow candidate Phil Melita to try to replace longtime Supervisor Sally Thomas who is retiring after 15 years on the board. “We have county leaders that have no idea of how to run a business,” he said, calling on his 35 years of experience as the owner of Snow’s Garden Center. Democrat Madison Cummings and independent John Lowry will challenge him for the seat.
For the most part, the two echoed each other. Both voiced their support for the Meadowcreek Parkway with Thomas vowing to make its completion his top priority if elected. The two nominees also expressed their disgust with the county’s pattern of overanalyzing possibilities with no real action taken. “When my kids were young and we moved to the county they were babies and we were talking about transportation and water and we have spent millions of dollars in studies and what do we have?” asked Snow. “Nothing,” someone in the crowd shouted, and Snow responded: “We don’t have anything to show for it except higher taxes and higher property values.”

Overall, there was nothing particularly distinct about the nominees’ message—it closely jibed with the general conservative mantra of fiscal responsibility—but the sheer size of the crowd—numbering almost 150 with half voting in the Samuel Miller District—seemed significant. Even though Republicans lost the national election in November, they have coalesced around the issue of government overspending beginning with the AIG bailout that same month. The mid-April Tax Day Tea Party that was held at a packed Pavilion was the first sign of this, the nominating event at McIntire the exclamation point. Conservatives are clearly experiencing a reawakening.

“This is the most active I’ve seen the [local] party,” says Schoenewald, who unsuccessfully ran for the Board in 2004. “It’s exciting to be a part of that…. It really is an honor and a privilege to lead when there’s so much interest.” According to the party chair, there are so many volunteers that he has trouble finding work for them, and for the state nominating convention (which took place the last weekend in May) the county GOP is sending 154 delegates. Last year, they only sent 34. “It’s going to be a fun election cycle,” Schoenewald says. “There’s definitely something in the air.”

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This July, the local Habitat for Humanity will submit to the city an application to rezone the Sunrise Trailer Court. Located off Carlton Avenue, the site is presently home to 17 trailers and a freestanding house, but if Habitat has its way it will begin construction in 2011 on a planned redevelopment of the mobile home park that would transform it into a mixed-income neighborhood and dramatically increase its density.

Instead of fewer than 20 residences, the new Sunrise would have between 40 and 50, including a quadriplex, a structure that would combine four residences (a duplex doubled), as well as basement walk-out apartments underneath.

“Two of those would be enough to house all the Sunrise residents,” says Dan Rosensweig, the local Habitat’s new executive director. Under its operating philosophy, Habitat will do its best not to displace any current residents of the trailer park, and more than half have signed up to remain once the new incarnation is built.

According to Rosensweig, many of the future residences will likely be built as duplexes. “We’ve shown that we can build duplexes and build them well,” he says, referring to a mixed-income development of more than 30 units off of Cherry Avenue that Habitat initiated earlier this decade. While some of those structures are single family residences, others are in fact duplexes, including a row of three on Valley Road Extended that are already occupied, and four more on Paton Street (where only one is completed so far).  

“We waited a long time for this house,” says Duarte Mireya, a resident of Paton’s sole finished duplex. For the last eight years, she and her husband Nestor (along with their three children) lived in Southwood, the massive mobile home park located at the end of Fifth Street Extended (which is also owned by Habitat and planned for an overhaul, several years down the road). More than three years ago, the Mexican natives’ housing application was accepted by Habitat and after going through the lengthy qualification process, they were placed here, first setting foot in their new home in February of this year.

“It’s good for us,” Duarte says, sitting on a couch in the living room of her split-level home. Out in the big backyard is a small garden where tomatoes and peppers are sprouting. By the time they bear fruit, perhaps the duplex next door will be finished, and by the end of the following year, the entire project should be completed, providing valuable experience for Habitat with their upcoming projects. “We think that’s going to help us when we get to Sunrise and down the road with Southwood,” says Rosensweig.

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An hour before the convening of the county’s Democratic caucus on May 11, the two candidates for the Board of Supervisors from the Samuel Miller District—pharmacist Madison Cummings and architect Lucia Phinney—stood in the foyer of the County Office Building and watched as Albemarle Democratic Committee Chair Fred Hudson fingered a silver dollar he was preparing to flip in the air. Then Phinney called out “heads” as the coin tumbled, and moments later the UVA architecture professor had won the toss. As it turned out, it was her sole victory of the night.

“I think she’s done a yeoman’s work on the board,” says Madison Cummings of retiring County Supervisor Sally Thomas, whom he wants to replace. “She tried to keep growth from being rampant.”

Two hours later, Cummings was declared the winner (by more than 20 votes) in the only contested race of the night (David Slutzky also accepted his party’s nomination for re-election to the Board, and Cynthia Neff will run against state delegate Rob Bell). The candidate, who will turn 66 in June, first moved to Charlottesville in 1970, and then to the county—North Garden, to be precise—in 1978. For much of that time, he has worked as a pharmacist at UVA, retiring in 2004 (he still works part-time). He has also served in a civic role for many years, beginning most notably in 1994 when he was appointed to serve on the school board by Sally Thomas, the supervisor he is now trying to replace.

“I think she’s done a yeoman’s work on the board,” says Cummings, who is also the current Samuel Miller Democratic chair. So perhaps it makes sense for him to fill in for Thomas who is stepping down after 15 years of service. Even though she was elected as an Independent, her anti-growth stance earned her the admiration and acceptance of Democrats, and the ire of developers like Wendell Wood.

Cummings, who resembles a slightly stouter William Faulkner, characterizes Thomas’ position as not necessarily against growth but in favor of reasonable expansion. “[She tried] to keep growth from being rampant by trying to keep [it] in the urban ring, and to maintain the beauty of what I really consider the English countryside out in the county.” If he is elected in November, he vows to continue that legacy. “My greatest motivation is to keep maintaining what she has achieved,” he says, “and also to make it better.”

With the Democratic nomination in hand, Cummings will now face Independent candidate John Lowry (if he is able to gain enough signatures to get on the ballot). If put into office, it is easy to foresee Cummings—with an extremely genial manner—working with the other Supervisors, as well as other political entities in both the county and city, to achieve pragmatic results, as he has vowed to do with the completion of the Meadowcreek Parkway.  “Sometimes you have to come to a compromise,” he says. “You don’t compromise your principles, but you’ve got to get stuff done.”

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On April 21 at a forum sponsored by Charlottesville Tomorrow and the Free Enterprise Forum, Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris strengthened his place as the lead candidate for one of the two spots open for this year’s city council election (as well as for the May 9 Democratic primary).

“The wonderful experience that I’ve had raising my family in Charlottesville is an experience not shared by every family here,” said challenger Kristin Szakos.

Before a small gathering in Burley Middle School’s auditorium, Norris consistently outlined his agenda for a better Charlottesville, starting with his plan—if he is re-elected—to revitalize the city’s public housing developments by creating a mixed-income, integrated neighborhood system, instead of the current model. “It’s the best opportunity for changing the very dynamics of poverty in our community,” he said, “moving away from … the failed model of segregating people by income which too often means segregating people by race.”

Norris was joined on the stage by Councilor Julian Taliaferro and challenger Kristin Szakos. While the former emphasized his concern over the 13.2 percent dropout rate in the city school system, Szakos said she is running to improve the “city’s responsiveness to its citizens.” As part of that she suggested that City Council meetings be held in neighborhoods and schools to give greater access to the public, even that pizza and childcare be provided. “We have to figure out how to motivate people to participate,” she explained the next day. 

Overall, there was great agreement among the three candidates, with the major difference concerning the embattled Meadowcreek Parkway. On that question, Norris firmly detailed his opposition. “I don’t see what the city gets from this deal,” he said. “We’re putting a huge swath of asphalt through our largest park” that “will clog downtown streets” and “drive a stake through the downtown renaissance.”

Over the course of the evening’s two hours, Norris’s clarity of position left little doubt he will be re-elected, leaving Taliaferro and Szakos in a likely battle for the last spot. “It’s all fair game,” the latter says, but politics dictates that an incumbent always holds an edge in name recognition if nothing else. As a result, it is up to Szakos to separate herself and she seemed to do so based on her advocacy for those with the lowest income in Charlottesville. “Many people who work here in the city cannot afford to live here,” she said during the April 21 forum. As a result, she called for more frequent and efficient bus lines.

“The wonderful experience that I’ve had raising my family in Charlottesville is an experience not shared by every family here,” she expounded in her closing statement. “And I feel I have an obligation … to make sure that that sort of opportunity is available for every family and every child and everyone who lives in the city.”

“I believe in public service,” said Taliaferro. In his closing, he stressed his decades as a public servant in Charlottesville (he was fire chief for more than 30 years before running for council in 2005), reasoning that his experience would help when it came to making tough decisions in hard economic times. Norris also called attention to his past accomplishments while on City Council, but cautioned that more work is necessary, saying, “We have made good progress but we’re not where we need to be.”

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First there was George W. Bush’s Wall Street bailout back in November. Then came Barack Obama and his $787 billion stimulus package, followed by a massive pork-filled omnibus spending package, and now a projected $3.55 trillion for the 2010 budget. The amount being spent is dizzying, and to a core segment of mostly conservative Americans it is also infuriating, to the point that many of them participated in the hundreds of so-called Tax Day Tea Parties taking place around the country, including one in Downtown Charlottesville on Wednesday, April 15.

Insert your own tea bag joke here. For the hundreds gathered on April 15, government spending was no laughing matter.

“I don’t know what to expect,” organizer Bill Hay said just two days prior to April 15, guessing that maybe only 50 people would show up, but 30 minutes into the actual tea party, the Greene County coffee supplier stood before 1,000 or more vocal supporters. Some wore tea bags tied from their hats. Others held posters bearing slogans like “Your mortgage is not my problem,” “Capitalism rocks, socialism sucks,” or “What are you going to tax next … my coondog??” A few “Don’t Tread on Me” yellow flags also waved while one man held a dead tree to which he had tied four dollar bills.

“I want to thank everyone who came, thank you, thank you,” Hay said, and then outlined one of the main themes of the night, that America has drifted further and further away from its roots and has to return to the beliefs of the founders of this country and its original documents. “There are multiple problems that need to be addressed by ‘We the People.’”

Out in front of the Pavilion, a local pediatrician named John Hunt scanned those going in and out. “Freedom is an amazing thing,” he said, and then offered a passerby a free copy of the Constitution, one of the 400 he brought along. “It has no meaning anymore apparently,” he joked.

“This little thing came along and everything changed,” he said a moment later, waving around one of the pocket Constitutions. “You find a lot of the answers in here, what went wrong and how to solve some of the issues.”

Nearby, a woman stood behind a fold-up table where she sold a t-shirt with a cartoon showing Obama ecstatically throwing dollar bills in the air while a young couple with a baby carriage watched. “Look, he’s giving us all money, just like he promised,” the male of the couple stated. “He has your wallet,” the female deadpanned. 
 
“I’ve sold almost all of them,” said Debbie Chappell Benz. The owner of a graphics business made 50 of these shirts—selling for $8 apiece—but that did not account for her presence at the rally. “As a Christian and the mother of a 13-year-old I’m concerned about the direction this country is headed in,” she said.

Back under the tent, the keynote speaker—Lawrence Eagleburger—addressed the boisterous crowd. “Do you people have any idea what you’re doing out there?” he said to their cheers. As a government official in four different administrations, including a brief stint as the first Bush’s Secretary of State, he had seen tyranny around the world. Now, retired and leaning on a cane, he apprised the crowd of one right still protected under the Constitution they should all be thankful for, the right to assemble. “I’ve seen people put in jail for this,” he declared, “I’ve seen people shot for this.”

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Since first convening in 2006, the social change advocacy group IMPACT (Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together) has held its so-called Nehemiah Action every March. While the meeting is conducted under the auspices of requiring social justice from local government leaders, the gathering always has a festive feel.

This year, the mood was perfectly captured at the March 30 mass meeting at U-Hall when City Councilor Holly Edwards strode to the microphone and recited the hymn, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it.” The crowd of 1,700, made up of people from local congregations, roared in support.

About 1,700 people, seated by religious congregation, showed up to the March 30 IMPACT meeting at University Hall.

At the same time, the action is largely called to demand social change from local government leaders, and for those who respond in a less celebratory fashion, the atmosphere can be daunting. Last year, former mayor and current councilor David Brown followed his fellow councilors who had all agreed to pledge city funds to affordable housing with a qualified response.

He would agree, yes, but only if the county were also asked to contribute fiscally. It was not, and Brown’s response was ruled a no. Unlike the applause and cheers that greeted the others, the silence was conspicuous.

This year, David Brown did not participate. While his fellow councilors were seated in a filled University Hall, Brown was satisfying a prior commitment. Regardless, he says, “I’m not sure I would have gone anyway.” In a March 26 e-mail he sent to IMPACT, Brown explained why, outlining objections to the group’s Nehemiah Action.

“First, I believe that IMPACT is missing a great opportunity by limiting its activism to lobbying public officials to spend money,” he wrote. “It would be much better if IMPACT also challenged the congregations to roll up their sleeves and open their wallets on these important issues.”

Father Dennis McAuliffe, IMPACT’s co-president and pastor of Holy Comforter Catholic Church, objects to this line of thinking, pointing out that his church alone fed 9,000 people last year through their work with the food bank. Holy Comforter also runs a soup kitchen and puts up the homeless in partnership with PACEM.

“Find out what we’re doing before you make a statement like that,” he says. In his e-mail, Brown acknowledged the work of some congregations with local issues, but concludes: “I still believe a great chance to make a tremendous difference in our community is being missed.”

Brown continued: “Second, I think some of the tactics used by IMPACT are, to me, distasteful, such as the theatrics of the meeting.” IMPACT’s Nehemiah Action is structured so that both city councilors and county Board of Supervisors are asked a series of questions.

As in years past, this year’s focus was on issues of affordable housing for those families in our region earning 0-30 percent of the area median family income (the group has also worked on transportation and dental issues, with education on the way). A 2007 housing report estimates that there are at least 1,000 more low income houses than affordable rental units for them to live in.

The format of IMPACT’s meeting only allows for unqualified answers—a simple “yes” or “no.”

“That irks me to no end,” Brown says. “To ask a nuanced question and reduce it [like that]. If I follow their rules, I can’t give a truthful answer.”

“That’s putting up a smoke screen,” says McAuliffe, sweeping away the criticisms. “That’s the ploy of the politicians. At some point in time, you have to say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”

On March 30, neither Brown’s objections nor his absence dampened the event. Last year, the county supervisors largely declined to support IMPACT’s requests. This time around, however, they were nearly unanimous in their acquiescence.

Even so, Supervisor Sally Thomas sympathizes with Brown, at least in part. “They ought to act more directly on these issues than simply pressuring their elected officials,” she says of IMPACT. “What if each of the churches picked up a family or two to help?”

Still, she mitigates her commentary with praise for the group. “I think IMPACT is doing a very admirable job of getting [their members] to look outside of their own congregations.”
When the Supervisors finished their responses, they were followed by the four city councilors present who ecstatically threw their support behind IMPACT’s requests on affordable housing. “Your enthusiasm is contagious,” Julian Taliaferro said, and then thanked the applauding crowd for keeping the issue on the front burner.

Despite his objections, Brown acknowledges the group’s efforts. “I do feel like they’re having a positive impact,” he says. “That many people gathered together is a remarkable event in itself, and to make their member churches pause about important issues is significant.”

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