Tag: Atlantic Coast Pipeline

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In brief: Land-use, Madison Hall break-in

City residents turned in thousands of comments on the latest draft of the Future Land Use Map (right). The current zoning map is shown on the left.

City responds to proposed land-use changes 

In May and June, the consulting group hired to rework the city’s land-use policy received more than 2,000 comments, through a variety of mediums, on its most recent draft of the city’s Future Land Use Map, a document that would guide the city’s rezoning process in the coming months and years.   

The submitted responses to the draft map capture a divided community. 

“Most people seem to agree that affordability is an issue, but there are varying opinions on how to best address this issue and what levels of housing development and intensity may be appropriate and where,” says Jennifer Koch, project manager for the Cville Plans Together initiative. 

“I do not like the idea of changing the tenor of neighborhoods,” wrote one Lewis Mountain resident, aged 55-64, who did not support the planners’ vision. “I do not want low-income housing in my neighborhood.”

But one of that person’s younger neighbors did support the idea of increasing residential density, especially in neighborhoods where single-family homes are the dominant housing type. “Charlottesville needs to place a significant focus on not only allowing but encouraging housing density, especially through the construction of more multifamily and affordable housing,” the neighbor wrote. 

The consulting firm, Rhodeside & Harwell, received 498 emails through an organized effort by the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition to encourage adoption of a Comprehensive Plan that encourages development of apartment buildings. Meanwhile, a new group called Citizens for Responsible Planning submitted a petition with 401 signatures asking that the process be delayed for another six months. 

In a report published last week, Rhodeside & Harwell attempted to tease some key themes out of the data. 

According to RHI, 46 percent of respondents called for more residential density in “historically exclusionary, majority-white communities.” Other general themes with high levels of support were 43 percent of commenters who want even more density in “general residential” areas and the 46 percent who want a plan that stops “displacement of Black and low-wealth residents by protecting low-wealth and majority-Black communities.”

Some Charlottesville residents are skeptical of the plan, however. Fifteen percent requested more time, 14 percent had concerns over the effects larger residential densities would have on infrastructure, and 14 percent were suspicious about what developers really want from the plan. 

Cville Plans Together also cataloged 429 responses submitted through a multiple-choice feedback form.

The poll’s fifth question asked, “Do you think this Future Land Use Map can lead to an increase in housing options and housing affordability throughout the city?” A third of respondents answered “Yes Completely” or “Yes Mostly,” whereas 39 percent responded “Mostly Not” or “Not at All.” Another 18 percent responded “Unsure/Maybe” and 11 percent left the response blank. 

An additional 225 people left comments on an interactive version of the map. Many took this opportunity to comment on the placement of medium-intensity residential plots in areas currently set aside for low-intensity development. A section of the Greenbrier neighborhood between Keith Valley Road and Meadowbrook Heights Road is designated as Neighborhood Mixed-Use Node on the new map, which would allow up to five stories with a mixture of uses. 

“This is among the most mean-spirited of your proposals,” reads one of about two dozen comments in this area. 

“Currently, Greenbrier feels very isolated,” reads a different comment. “Can imagine kids in this neighborhood getting to walk to do something in this mixed-use area, or people in the neighborhood getting to grab something easily from the local market.” 

On Tuesday, June 29, the Charlottesville Planning Commission met for a work session to discuss the community’s input. That meeting ended too late for this issue, but watch this space for more coverage of the Comprehensive Plan process.—Sean Tubbs

“Racist!”


—an unidentified speaker, interrupting a congressional hearing as Congressman Bob Good explained why he feels Virginia high schools should not teach critical race theory

In brief

Suspect arrested after Madison Hall break-in

On Thursday morning, a break-in was reported at UVA’s Madison Hall, which houses the Office of the President and the Office of Major Events. Two days later, a Charlottesville resident was arrested and charged in connection with the crime. There have been five other break-ins off Grounds over the past week, according to UVA police. They have occurred on University Circle/Court, Grady Avenue, Virginia Avenue, and Preston Place. UPD has not said whether the break-ins are connected. 

Nelson will celebrate pipeline demise 

You might have July 4 circled on your calendar, but in Nelson County, they’ll be celebrating on July 5, too. Earlier this month, the county’s Board of Supervisors resolved to officially recognize the one-year anniversary of the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 600-mile natural gas pipeline that would have bisected the scenic county. “We should celebrate that we all got together to stand up to something that didn’t make sense,” said Supervisor Skip Barton at the meeting, reports the Nelson County Times. 

Hoos fall in Omaha  

The Cavaliers ended their College World Series run on Thursday, falling 6-2 to the No. 2 Texas Longhorns. The Hoos started the season 4-12 in the ACC, but put together an improbable postseason run that featured a string of  elimination wins, a no-hitter, and a large delivery of Dippin’ Dots, thanks to a viral interview from closer Stephen Schoch. Though it ended in defeat, this baseball season won’t be forgotten by the UVA faithful any time soon.  

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In brief: Pipeline protests, tiger trouble, and more

Anti-pipeline activists in western Virginia are monitoring construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. PC: Mountain Valley Watch

Pipeline pushback

In June, environmental activists celebrated as Dominion Energy canceled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have carried natural gas from West Virginia to North Carolina, passing through central Virginia. A little further west, however, the fight continues, as construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline inches along. Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission lifted a stop-work order that had been slowing the 300-mile pipeline project.

FERC also gave the MVP two more years to finish construction of the project, which has been grinding forward for six years, slowed by resistance from landowners and litigation from environmental groups.

The watch team for the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights coalition, an umbrella organization made up of smaller groups pushing back against the pipeline, has carefully monitored the pipeline’s construction, looking out for violations that can be reported to the Department of Environmental Quality. It continues to find new violations (the photos above were taken at various points over the last two years).

“These ground photos of the construction are significant to me,” says Roberta Bondurant, POWHR’s co-chair. “We’ve got pipe that floated 1,000 feet across a floodplain when they built the week before storm Michael. Pipe that’s dated 2016 that’s out now, on the ground, [with] coating that’s over 4 years old.”

Bondurant points out that last week’s permit is not definitive. A key permit from the Forest Service is still missing, and other important permits are currently under consideration by the federal court in Richmond.

The MVP group continues to cut corners in order to continue construction, the activists say. “It’s a real word game they play with FERC to allow themselves to go forward,” Bondurant says.

PC: Mountain Valley Watch

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Quote of the week

“This is the third fatal crash on Fifth Street investigated by CPD in less than three months…In memory of those who have died, CPD is asking motorists to be mindful of their speed. Please drive carefully.”

—Charlottesville Police Department, after two people passed away in an accident this week

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In brief

Tiger trouble

Doc Antle, the sinister zoo owner famous for his role in Netflix’s viral “Tiger King” documentary, could wind up wearing orange himself—he’s been indicted on wildlife trafficking charges by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring. Antle lived in Buckingham County in the early part of his career; the indictment alleges that he has recently worked with a private zoo in Winchester to move tiger cubs and other exotic species back and forth between Virginia and Myrtle Beach.

Back to school

After a period of contentious discussion, the Albemarle County School Board voted 4-3 last week to allow up to 5,000 preschoolers through third-graders to participate in non-virtual, face-to-face classes twice a week, starting November 9. Parents must decide by October 16 if they’ll send their kids into school or continue with virtual learning, while teachers have only until the 15th to request to stay home.

Museum motion

As Charlottesville continues to grapple with its legacy of slavery and oppression, a group of nearly 100 local activists, community leaders, and residents have called for the creation of an enslavement museum in Court Square, “depicting in a more visual manner the injustices, horrors, and truths about enslavement.” They hope the city will acquire the 0 Park Street building, the site of the auction block where enslaved people were sold, to house the museum. In February, Richard Allen, a 74-year-old white man, removed and disposed of the slave auction block marker (pictured below). He is now a member of the coalition calling for the museum.

PC: City of Charlottesville

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Pipeline voices: Activists look back on a historic victory

In 2018, Dominion began cutting down trees to make way for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which has now been canceled. Photo: Pipeline CSI

On July 5, Dominion Energy abruptly canceled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, an $8 billion project that would have carried natural gas 600 miles from West Virginia to North Carolina. Environmental activists of all persuasions spent six years fighting the project before finally prevailing over the gigantic power corporation. As the victory set in, C-VILLE caught up with some of central Virginia’s anti-pipeline activists, giving them a chance to reflect—and look ahead. The following interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

 

John Laury

John Laury is the secretary of Friends of Buckingham. He lives in Union Hill, a historically Black community in rural Buckingham County that would have been disrupted by the pipeline.

C-VILLE: Where were you when you heard the news? What was that moment like?

JL: It was amazing to me. I have been praying about this. We have been in the struggle for—working on our sixth year. Really, I was elated. I felt the load was lifted off of me. But at the same time I wasn’t sure that what I heard was true.

Then my mind began to reflect back, to one of the Board of Supervisors meetings two years back, when our pastor Paul Wilson spoke. Dominion was in control at the time. 

He gave the example of David and Goliath. David, a little shepherd boy, with smooth stones and a slingshot, going against Goliath and all of his weaponry. But David was going in the name of God, and Goliath was going on his strength. 

We were always talked to as if this was a done deal. We were even told, “you’re wasting your time. You can’t go against Dominion.” This is what we were against.

Can you describe your home in Union Hill a little bit? What role do you think Union Hill played in the victory against the pipeline?

From where I live now, I was raised across the road. I would be the third generation raised on that 52 acres. We grew greens, and always a garden every year. Fruit trees. That generation believed in raising their food, preparing in summer for the winter.

I enjoyed the four seasons. I enjoyed the people and the natural earth. Spent a long time in the woods. Ate a lot of fruit off the trees the other generation had planted.

We depend on an underground water source, we have wells, that’s the source of water for our home.

As we spoke on panels in different areas of the state—some out of state—we realized that there were other states dealing with similar issues that were detrimental to them as well. The pattern was in the areas of people of color, and the poor, lower income areas…When we raised awareness as to what was happening here in Union Hill, that made a difference.

It’s not just a Union Hill issue. It’s a people issue. And as one of the quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King tells us, if people are hurting anywhere in this world, it should be the concern of all of us.

 

Alice Clair

Alice Clair is a local musician who grew up in Nelson County. Her childhood home is less than a mile from where the pipeline would have run.

C-VILLE: What was your reaction to the news?

AC: I was screaming and crying. No exaggeration, I was screaming and crying. Just, ultimate elation—and also relief. I always said it wasn’t going to happen. But for that to come true is a relief.

You’re a musician. You wrote some songs about the pipeline. What role do you think music played in the effort over the last six years?

Robin and Linda [Williams] are songwriters in Augusta County, and they wrote “We Don’t Want Your Pipeline.” And that has become a classic for us in Virginia, and maybe across the U.S., fighting pipelines.

When I was in high school, Dominion would set up information sessions for the public in our gym. We would go in and be protesting in my high school, people would bring their guitars and play that song. 

I think music, it motivates in every kind of way. If you can get a bunch of people together singing a song, that’s a great way to energize people towards a common good.

Can music help translate this victory into something even bigger?

I had friends travel out to fight against the Keystone and the DAPL pipelines. There’s been so much music that’s come out of that. Not only using old folk songs of protest, but making new ones. 

The fight is not over even though I won at home—I’m so lucky that I was one of the few that could win at home. My land out in Nelson is not going to be affected anymore. Time to turn our eyes to the next one. We’re looking at the Mountain Valley Pipeline now. It is not over, but we’re feeling darn good. 

This is how it should work. If our country may turn to a true democracy one day, that’s what it’s all about. The people using their voice. If the majority don’t want it, it shouldn’t be there. 

 

Ben Cunningham

Ben Cunningham is the field director of the Pipeline Compliance Surveillance Initiative, a group that used technology and community volunteers to document the construction violations Dominion committed as they started building the pipeline. 

C-VILLE: Where were you when you heard the news?

BC: I was about to bite into a really killer sandwich at 3:12pm on Sunday when my intern with my Pipeline CSI program, Virginia Paschal, texted me, all capital letters, CONGRATULATIONS!…Then she sent me a link to an article about it. Then I spent the next half hour just crying in joy and disbelief. 

What was the final straw for Dominion? 

We would never claim that this was all one group or all one strategy’s effort. Death by a thousand cuts—we all believe that’s what it took. It’s gone from Supreme Court hearings and all sorts of different legal battles, to people [protesting] in the trees trying to stop this and other pipelines, to science-and-technology-monitoring programs like ours, as well as strategies like political pressure. Really, community organizing is the bottom line.

…The story of environmental work in this country is the project never dies, people get burnt out, and so on. So I’ve just been plugging away at it, as have hundreds and maybe a thousand other people in various different ways.

Can the win against the ACP set an example for activists fighting other projects?

We’ve got, now, an example that we can win, against the largest political contributor to both parties in our state, arguably the most powerful corporation in our state, and one of the most powerful utilities in the country.

There are countless injustices around the world. I believe in starting where we live—it’s what we’re most familiar with, where we can be most powerful, and where we can effect the most change.

 

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In brief: No pipeline, name game, and more

Activists in Buckingham have been fighting the pipeline since 2014. On Sunday, they won. PC: Friends of Buckingham

Pipeline defeated

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is history. In a surprise announcement on Sunday afternoon, Dominion Power called off the 600-mile natural gas pipeline that would have run from West Virginia to North Carolina. “VICTORY!” declared the website of the Southern Environmental Law Center.

The news is a major win for a wide variety of environmental advocacy groups and grassroots activists, who have been fighting the pipeline on all fronts since the project was started in 2014. The pipeline would have required a 50-yard-wide clear-cut path through protected Appalachian forest, and also disrupted a historically black community in rural Buckingham County.

Dominion won a Supreme Court case earlier this month, but that wasn’t enough to outweigh the “increasing legal uncertainty that overhangs large-scale energy and industrial infrastructure development in the United States,” says the energy giant’s press release.

Litigation from the Southern Environmental Law Center dragged the pipeline’s construction to a halt. Gas was supposed to be flowing by 2019, but less than 6 percent of the pipe ever made it in the ground.

The ACP had the backing of the Trump administration, and U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette blamed the “obstructionist environmental lobby” for the pipeline’s demise.

“I felt like it was the best day of my life,” says Ella Rose, a Friends of Buckingham member, in a celebratory email. “I feel that all the hard work that all of us have done was finally for good. I feel like I have my life back. I can now sleep better without the worries that threatened my life for so long.”

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Quote of the week

“It is past time. As the capital city of Virginia, we have needed to turn this page for decades. And today, we will.”

—Richmond mayor Levar Stoney on the city’s removal of its Stonewall Jackson and Matthew Fontaine Maury statues

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In brief

Loan-ly at the top

On Monday, the government released a list of companies that accepted loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, designed to keep workers employed during COVID’s economic slowdown. A variety of Charlottesville businesses accepted loans of $2-5 million, including Red Light Management, St. Anne’s-Belfield, and Tiger Fuel.

Renaming re-do

An advisory committee recommended last week that recently merged Murray High and Community Charter schools be renamed Rose Hill Community School, but this suggestion immediately raised eyebrows: Rose Hill was the name of a plantation that later became a neighborhood. The committee will reconvene to discuss options for a new moniker.     

City hangs back

Charlottesville is one of a handful of localities that have pushed back against Governor Ralph Northam’s order to move to Phase 3 of reopening. While some of the state has moved forward,  City Manager Tarron Richardson has decided to keep the city government’s facilities operating in accordance with Phase 2 requirements and restrictions. As stated on its website, this decision was made in order to “ensure the health and safety of staff and the public.”

Soldier shut in

Since at least the beginning of July, the gates of UVA’s Confederate cemetery, where a statue of a Confederate soldier stands, have been barricaded, reports the Cavalier Daily. A university spokesman says the school locked the cemetery because protesters elsewhere in the state have been injured by falling statues. Or maybe, as UVA professor Jalane Schmidt suggested on Twitter, “they’re tryna keep the dead from escaping.” 

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In brief: New memorials, kayak commute, gaga for Wawa

The Court Square Historic Resources Subcommittee is considering inscribing enslaved woman Maria Perkins' letter on a new memorial.

Back to the drawing board

Three weeks after the Court Square slave auction plaque was stolen in the middle of the night, the hole left in the sidewalk has been bricked in, leaving little evidence that any memorial ever existed.

The city quickly removed unauthorized replacement plaques by local artist Richard Parks, but discussions are moving forward to install a temporary marker at the site, while a permanent memorial is being planned.  

 

The above plaque was stolen from Court Square on February 6.

The Court Square Markers Historic Resources Subcommittee has been guiding the city’s efforts to install more legible and accurate historic signs on the city-owned buildings around the square. The committee was not initially charged with addressing the slave auction block plaque.

A better memorial there “was on our work plan,” said committee member Genevieve Keller, but the theft of the plaque “has moved it up on the agenda.”

On Monday afternoon, the subcommittee invited local African American leaders and historians to give input on the new marker’s design. 

Everyone in the meeting agreed that the previous marker was woefully insufficient. “Everything else around there is big,” said Eddie Harris, parent educator at ReadyKids. “Just because [the history] is a little uncomfortable, it still has to be shown, in a big way.”

Installing a temporary marker is difficult—the marker has to be substantial enough to communicate serious emotional weight, but some at the meeting expressed concern that if the marker is too well-made, the city will be less likely to install a larger, more elaborate memorial down the road.

Security is a consideration, too. “I would urge this community to implore council that whatever structure is put up there be encased in some sort of glass,” said community activist Don Gathers. “Preferably bulletproof glass.”

The city’s initial suggestion, a waist-high obelisk with a plaque on the side, was rejected by subcommittee members and guests as not impressive enough. An idea that garnered more support was a six-foot-tall metal sign inscribed with the text from an 1852 letter written by Maria Perkins, an enslaved person whose family was splintered by sales in Charlottesville. 

The subcommittee hopes to consult a professional exhibit designer and solicit further community input before presenting a finalized proposal for a temporary memorial to City Council at its regular meeting on March 16.

The subcommittee is considering using the following text from the above letter as an inscription on a temporary replacement memorial:

“Dear Husband, I write you a letter to let you know of my distress. My master has sold Albert to a trader on monday court day and myself and other child for sale also…I want you to tell Dr Hamilton or your master if either will buy me they can attend to it now…I don’t want a trader to get me…A man by the name of Brady bought Albert and is gone I dont know where. They say he lives in Scottsville…Tell I am quite heart sick….I am and ever will be your kind wife, Maria Perkins.”

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Quote of the Week

“Crimes like the Tessa Majors killing test the limits of forgiveness and redemption. But charging adolescents as adults makes the state crueler, not safer.”

—The New York Times Editorial Board, on New York state’s decision to charge 14-year-old Rashaun Weaver as an adult for killing Tessa Majors

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In Brief

Trail trial

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will be allowed to cross the Appalachian Trail. A lower court’s ruling that the pipeline couldn’t pass under the trail was a setback for Dominion, but reports from the hearing in Washington suggest that the court’s five conservative justices, as well as Stephen Breyer, seem sympathetic to Dominion’s case. The court will deliver a final ruling in the summer. 

Sisterly love 

Ahead of its May trip to Winneba, Ghana, one of Charlottesville’s four sister cities, a local delegation is collecting backpacks, pens, pencils, markers, erasers, watercolor paints, notebooks, binders, sanitary pads, flip flops, and disposable diapers for the West African city’s schools. Donation can be left at Church of Our Savior on Rio Road.

F*ck cars

WillowTree is not waiting for Charlottesville Area Transit to expand its bus routes: The rapidly growing local tech company says it will provide its own 20-person buses for employees to get to work at its new headquarters in Woolen Mills, according to a report by the online news site Technical.ly. Employees will also have access to kayaks for those who want to commute via the Rivanna.

Gaga for Wawa

Watch out Sheetz: Convenience store chain Wawa, a cult favorite in Philly and south Jersey, will open its first Charlottesville-area location in September at Proffit Road and Route 29. The company is in the midst of an initiative to open 40 stores in northern Virginia over the next 15 years. 

Updated 2/25 to reflect that the Wawa will not technically be located within Charlottesville city limits, 2/27 to correct Mr. Harris’ job title (he is a parent educator for the Real Dads program at ReadyKids, not the organization’s leader), and 2/27 to clarify that the Court Square Markers Historic Resources Subcommittee only has jurisdiction over city-owned property in Court Square.

 

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In brief: People power, tech takeover, bye-bye bikes, and more

The old Monticello Dairy building will house at least two big tech companies. PC: Skyclad Aerial

People power

Opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline scored a huge victory last week when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals repealed Dominion Energy’s permit to build an invasive compressor station in Buckingham County’s historic Union Hill neighborhood.

“Today we showed that our community, our community’s history, and our community’s future matters more than a pipeline,” said Buckingham activist Chad Oba.

Union Hill became a flashpoint for the pipeline fight when activists began emphasizing the area’s long history. Free black people and former enslaved people founded the neighborhood just after the Civil War. The story of a historic community threatened by an energy monopoly attracted

Al Gore to speak in Buckingham last February. The former vice president called the pipeline a “reckless, racist rip-off.” 

“Environmental justice is not merely a box to be checked,” the court wrote in its decision. “The [Air Pollution Control] Board’s failure to consider the disproportionate impact on those closest to the Compressor Station resulted in a flawed analysis.”

Anti-pipeline groups have sought to slow down Dominion by tying up the project in litigation. The compressor station permit is one of many that pipeline opponents have contested. In the fall, the Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments about whether or not the pipeline could bisect the federally protected Appalachian Trail.

The strategy to slow the project seems to be working—Dominion’s initial estimates said the pipeline would be completed in 2019, but according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, less than 6 percent of the pipe has been laid in the ground so far.

Anti-pipeline protesters gathered in rural Buckingham County last year. PC: Friends of Buckingham County

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Quote of the Week

“This is my life, history. I returned to this area to make sure this story gets told correctly.”

—Calvin Jefferson, archivist and descendant of enslaved people at Monticello, speaking about his family at a panel event this week

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In Brief

You never forget how to ride a scooter

UBike, UVA’s languishing bike-sharing program, has been killed off by the e-scooter boom. The bikes have to be retrieved from and parked in specific docks, making them less convenient than the popular scooters. (Also less convenient: UBikes, unlike e-scooters, don’t have motors.)  

Moving in

PVCC, like other community colleges, is a commuter school—but that could change. As reported in The Daily Progress, plans to sell 17 acres the college owns off Avon Street Extended have been put on hold, as the Virginia Community College System State Board studies whether student housing could be a viable option for some of its community colleges.

Milking it

This town’s tech takeover continues: Two big companies recently signed leases in the Dairy Central office building/retail space currently under construction on Preston Avenue. CoStar, the world’s largest digital real estate company, and Dexcom, which makes diabetes monitoring systems, will together occupy 17,000 feet of office space at the intersection of Rose Hill and 10th and Page, two of Charlottesville’s historically black neighborhoods.

(More) statue drama

With the General Assembly potentially passing a law this year granting localities control over war memorials and monuments on their property, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is seeking public feedback on the future of the county’s Court Square, including its “Johnny Reb” statue. For the next six months, county staff will hold community conversations and “listening sessions” about the space, as well as conduct public tours, reports The Daily Progress. The Office of Equity and Inclusion’s equity working group will draft options for the future of the property, which the BOS will consider in June.

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In brief: Censure-ship, walker-ship, sinking ACP ship, and more

A bus blocks the curb ramp on Water Street. Kevin Cox

Summertime and the sidewalks aren’t easy

Walkability is one of Charlottesville’s small-city charms, but sometimes it’s not so easy to get around, particularly if you’re disabled. On July 27 the city listed a dozen sidewalk projects that limit access. And then there are the blockages that aren’t official closings.

Pedestrian activist Kevin Cox spotted a charter bus July 25 blocking the curb ramp on Water Street, which many residents of Midway Manor, a low-income housing development, use regularly. He says CAT drivers have learned to leave the ramp open, but charter bus drivers are not so receptive to the need to keep the ramp and crosswalk clear. Assistant City Manager Mike Murphy, in an email to Cox, says he alerted Police Chief RaShall Brackney to be aware of these blockages.

A downed tree created a pedestrian detour for almost two months on Market Street. Kevin Cox

The tree that’s blocking the sidewalk on Market Street near Holly’s Deli has been down for six weeks. After multiple citizen requests to clear the sidewalk, city spokesman Brian Wheeler says CenturyLink and public works coordinated its removal Tuesday morning, as C-VILLE was going to press.

A pickup encroaches on a Water Street walkway. Erin O’Hare

Wheeler also reminds residents and trash pickup crews that trash cans should not block curb ramps when out on the street.

 

 

 

 

 

Quote of the week

“I want to make sure the voices of enslaved Africans are represented at all of the special 400-year commemorations this year. Our collective journeys in Virginia are of larger importance than any one person.” —Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax on his decision to attend Jamestown events other legislators are boycotting because
President Trump will be there

In brief

Censure thwarted

Anti-gay-marriage members of the 5th Congressional District Republican Committee tried to censure their own party member, Congressman Denver Riggleman, for marrying two men in Crozet July 14. The Washington Post first reported the nuptials of the conservative Republicans who were Riggleman volunteers and who asked him to officiate their wedding at King Family Vineyard. The reprimand failed after a closed session at a July 27 committee meeting.

Idea stations out

Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation is rebranding its Community Idea Stations, including WVPT and WHTJ, to VPM, as in Virginia Public Media, effective August 5. According to Commonwealth, national and local programming will be unchanged.

Mission fail

Rusty patched bumble bee. File photo

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out an Atlantic Coast Pipeline permit, and said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had apparently “lost sight of its mandate” when it approved the permit and failed to protect the rusty patched bumble bee, the clubshell mussel, the Indiana bat, and the crustacean Madison Cave isopod, the AP reports.

Tax-free holiday

Time to stock up on backpacks and batteries this weekend during Virginia’s sales tax holiday on school supplies and emergency-preparedness items. Or it might be a good time to buy a new Energy Star washer and dryer, which are also exempt. Tax-free shopping begins at 12:01am August 2 through 11:59pm August 4.

False report

UVA police say a July 20 call to 180 Copeley Road from an alleged victim of an attempted abduction and forcible fondling was false. The claim alleged a dark blue Honda Civic with multiple people fled toward Emmet Street. Police are discussing criminal charges with the Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney.

Charge it

City officials spend $480,000 on credit card purchases during the first half of 2019, according to the Progress’ Nolan Stout. Parks & Rec had the highest bill at $154K, including $27 to Regal Cinemas and a  premium version of Spotify. City Manager Tarron Richardson charged a new $136 phone case and the communications department picked up a $25.50 meal for Councilor Wes Bellamy before a budget work session in March.

Monacan voice

photo Jessica Elmendorf

Karenne Wood, a poet, member of the Monacan Indian Nation, and longtime director of Virginia Indian Programs at Virginia Humanities, died July 21 at age 59. She devoted her life to telling the stories of Native peoples and ensuring those stories are heard.

Wood, who was also a linguistic anthropologist, published two collections of poetry, Markings on Earth and Weaving the Boundary, and edited The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail guidebook.

The mother of two daughters, Wood was an integral voice in the city’s choice to observe Indigenous Peoples Day, and her decades of archival work led to government recognition of a number of Virginia Indian tribes, including her own.

A memorial service will be held at 1pm July 31 at UVA Chapel.

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One way: Wintergreen wants an emergency exit

The lack of an alternate entrance to Wintergreen could spell disaster during an emergency, say fire officials. Congressman Dennis Riggleman has met with the National Park Service about securing a route through the Blue Ridge Parkway. (File Photo)

There’s only one way in and one way out of Wintergreen, where residents and the local fire department have called for a second emergency exit for more than a decade, and where the topography is strikingly similar to that of Gatlinburg, Tennessee—the site of the November 2016 inferno that killed 14 people and injured nearly 200 more.

“Looking at the history of fires in other resort areas with one egress route, I found it striking that it wasn’t done yet,” says Congressman Denver Riggleman, who thought approving a 450-foot second route would be fairly simple. But because the emergency exit would lead to the federally protected Blue Ridge Parkway, approving it has been a challenge.

In March, Riggleman met with the National Park Service, which will need to sign off on an easement before anyone can enter or exit from the desired point.

“The national park is very heavily regulated, as it should be,” says Wintergreen Fire and Rescue Chief Curtis Sheets. “They’re trying to preserve it in its natural state for perpetuity. We get that.”

But, says Sheets, “We want to do this in a way that has the absolute least impact to the environment as possible,” and the best place to put it would be the relatively level corridor between the northwestern corner of the Wintergreen property and the parkway.

It’s crucial to have an emergency way out of the community, which can host as many as 10,000 people on a holiday weekend, because “if something were to happen, then we could get people out of harm’s way. We just want to do all we can,” the chief says.

The best time to have dealt with it would have been in the ’70s, when Wintergreen was built, he adds.

“We admit that it was a mistake,” says Sheets. “Nobody should have ever built a community as large as Wintergreen with only one entry and exit point, but now we’re trying to fix that.”

While some folks who live at the resort worry that a second exit would be abused as a shortcut, Sheets says the fire department could drive two steel beams into the ground with a cable stretched across them, “and we could just cut the cable if we have a catastrophe.”

Another thing worrying some Wintergreen residents is the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which is drafted to cross the sole entrance to the community.

“If the pipeline crosses that entrance and explodes, it could be a catastrophe with up to 10,000 people trapped on the mountain and no way to get out,” says resident David Schwiesow, who notes that the 42-inch high pressure natural gas pipe would be difficult to control if it blows, because the cut-off valves will be between 12 and 15 miles apart.

If the emergency route is approved, the issue then becomes figuring out what to do with the folks who are ushered to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is closed by the park service during big storms, instances of downed trees, and ice or snow, says Schwiesow.

There’s been some discussion of having Nelson County school buses come to the rescue, he says.

“But they don’t have to, and there aren’t enough of them to transport 10,000 people,” Schwiesow says. “Not to be negative, but there are a whole lot of practical issues to be resolved.”

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Still active: Students work to change culture from the periphery

On the anniversary of the August 11, 2017, tiki-torch march through UVA Grounds, students refused to be corralled into a university-sanctioned demonstration area. Photo by Eze Amos

By Ben Hitchcock

At 10:30pm on May 4, 1970, approximately 1,500 UVA students gathered on the Lawn to protest the murder of four student activists at Kent State University earlier that day. On April 28, 1983, a group of 100 students marched up to the office of Student Affairs Vice President Ernest Ern and presented a list of demands, including the admission of more black students, the hiring of more black faculty, and an increase in the amount of financial aid for black students. In 1991, a Cavalier Daily opinion columnist wrote: “The world around us is buzzing with black political activism.”

The University of Virginia has a reputation as a hidebound and conservative place, where seersucker reigns supreme and change comes slowly. But progressive political activism has always been present on Grounds. For decades, UVA students have banded together to protest against all manner of injustices.

Today’s students are building on the activism of their forebears.

“Some of my friends were at the big bicentennial celebration on the Lawn, with a big banner that just says ‘200 years of white supremacy,’” says UVA student Corey Runkel, a member of the Living Wage Campaign at UVA. “We found an image from 1970, when they were trying to do co-education… They had a sign that said ‘150 years of white supremacy.’ It was interesting to see that history.”

Runkel, a third-year, has been a part of the Living Wage Campaign since shortly after his arrival at the school. Founded in the late ‘90s, the group has advocated for the rights of workers around Grounds, lobbying the administration to raise the minimum wage for the university’s employees. In 2006, 17 students occupied Madison Hall for four days before President John Casteen had them arrested.

The campaign scored a significant victory earlier this year, when President Jim Ryan announced that 1,400 full-time employees would receive $15 an hour by January 2020.

“When I was a first-year, people that didn’t know about Living Wage directly would never talk about it,” Runkel says. The group kept pushing, though, and managed to force the university into action.

Other students fight for different issues. The Virginia Student Environmental Coalition “engages in political advocacy, education, and direct action around environmental and social justice,” says leader Joyce Cheng. Recently, VSEC organized to slow down the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Before that, the group lobbied the university administration to divest from fossil fuels.

“When the Atlantic Coast Pipeline opposition was really heightened, a couple semesters ago, we were really close with the people in Buckingham County,” Cheng says. “We have tried to strengthen the bonds between the university and the community.”

Many of UVA’s activist groups focus on issues beyond the university’s walls. Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society concentrates on “having really close ties with the community,” says Diana Tinta, one of the group’s members. That could mean anything from hosting an open mic night to organizing dinners and donating profits to refugees in Charlottesville.

Recently, PLUMAS painted Beta Bridge to protest the Albermarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail’s relationship with ICE. Activities like painting the bridge can galvanize students, and “that’s given us a lot of momentum,” Tinta says.

The Living Wage Campaign, VSEC, and PLUMAS represent just a small sample of activist organizations at the university. UVA Students United has organized around a variety of social justice issues; the Queer Student Union advocates for UVA’s LGBTQ+ population; the Black Student Alliance has been a catalyst for political activism since its founding in the 1960s. The list of activist organizations at UVA goes on and on. The school is chock full of passionate and innovative students.

Nevertheless, UVA’s activists themselves remain generally pessimistic about the role of political activism in the university’s culture. Despite the long history of action and the proliferation of progressive groups, some organizers still feel like the stereotypes about UVA’s apathetic political climate hold more than a little truth.

“I think it’s probably apt to say that this is not a place that is known for political activism,” Runkel says. “We’ve found it a very difficult place to organize.”

Runkel ascribed this difficulty to the less-than-revolutionary politics of many UVA students. “Part of it is a sort of self-separation from the rest of UVA life. We’re fairly radical, relative to other groups.”

Cheng echoes Runkel’s lament. “[Mobilizing students] is something, to be honest, I think we struggle with, just because UVA students are so busy and so involved in all their different commitments,” she says. “UVA is very closed off to student activism.”

Tinta, too, believes most UVA students are insufficiently engaged. “I don’t think that students are active enough in advocating for issues, especially when it comes to advocating for the Charlottesville community,” she says. “There are a bunch of groups that do great work, but I think that all these works need more collaboration and more support, which I don’t think that UVA students really give.”

So while many groups are working hard for a wide variety of progressive causes, student activism continues to exist on the periphery of the school’s consciousness, and that relationship shows little sign of changing. As long as that remains true, UVA’s activists know they have more work to do.

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‘Reckless, racist ripoff:’ Former vice president opposes pipeline in Union Hill

Former vice president Al Gore said the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a reckless, racist ripoff at a February 19 event in Buckingham County, where Dominion wants to run the pipeline and build one of three compressor stations. Photo by John Robinson

It’s long been clear that the folks of the small, predominately black Union Hill community in bucolic Buckingham County don’t want the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and its compressor station on their soil. And now two well-known voices who condemn environmental racism are joining the fight against it.

Former vice president Al Gore and Reverend William Barber, known across the country for his ministry and political activism, came to Buckingham February 19 and told a crowd of hundreds of community members and allies they oppose what they believe is a risky, expensive, and unnecessary natural gas pipeline that Dominion has intentionally chosen to run through a poor, black neighborhood.

“This is what change looks like,” Gore said to the folks who had spent the night dancing, singing and chanting, holding hands, and pumping fists in solidarity with Union Hill. He added, “I think Dominion is messing with the wrong part of Virginia.”

The former vice president, who also serves as founder and chairman of Climate Reality Project, said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision never should have given Dominion permission to start building the ACP in the first place, and that current gas pipelines in the country have almost twice as much capacity as the amount of gas flowing through them. Demand for natural gas has decreased as people switch to renewable energy sources and use newer energy-saving technology such as LED lighting, he added.

“This proposed pipeline is a reckless, racist ripoff,” said Gore loudly and passionately into his microphone, bringing most of the crowd to its feet.

Big utility companies like Dominion don’t really make their money by selling electricity or gas, he said, but by building new capacity and adding the cost into their rate base. “If the pipeline is not needed, they have a powerful economic incentive to build it anyway,” he said, echoing what ACP opponents have contended since it was proposed half a decade ago.

The Union Hill story sparked Gore’s interest when he read about a historically significant, low-income community of color being “insulted and abused” by Dominion, which is trying to wreak havoc on a community it thought couldn’t defend itself, he said.

“We’re here to say to Union Hill, you are not standing alone,” said Gore. “We are standing with you.”

ACP spokesperson Karl Neddenien says Dominion has “profound respect” for the Union Hill community, and it plans to invest $5 million to build a community center and upgrade the county’s rescue squad.

Dominion says it chose Union Hill for one of three of the pipeline’s compressor stations because it intersects with an existing pipeline, and because the for-sale property was large enough to also allow for trees and vegetation on-site, with the nearest home a quarter-mile away. The other two, one at the beginning of the pipeline’s route in Lewis County, West Virginia, and the other near the Virginia-North Carolina State line, have also prompted pushback.

Part of Dominion’s justification was also its calculation of approximately 29.6 people per square mile in the surrounding area. Residents say that number is off by about 500 percent, and during their own door-to-door survey of the Union Hill area, they determined that approximately 85 percent of those people are African American.

A third of the county’s residents are descendants of the freedmen community that was established there by former slaves. Dominion is planning to build the compressor station atop freedmen cemeteries and unmarked slave burials, according to Yogaville resident and cultural anthropologist Lakshmi Fjord, who spoke briefly at the event.

Attendees also heard from Mary Finley-Brook, a University of Richmond professor of geography and the environment who served on Governor Ralph Northam’s Advisory Council on Environmental Justice, which recommended against the pipeline last summer. She said her council exposed disproportionate risks for minority communities if the pipeline is built.

“Historic Union Hill is the wrong place to build a compressor station,” said Finley-Brook, who pointed out that poor internet and phone access in Buckingham could mean residents won’t be properly notified of scheduled blowdowns at the station, when gas and toxic air pollutants are released to relieve pressure in the pipe. She also noted the daily safety risk of fires or explosions due to highly pressurized gas equipment and flammable contents.

Reverend Barber touched on how environmental racism is systemic, and how pipelines like the ACP don’t usually run through affluent areas, though politicians and other people of power will encourage poorer communities to accept them.

“Everybody that tells you to be alright with it coming through your community—ask them why it isn’t coming through theirs,” said Barber.

Dominion’s Neddenien says safety standards at the compressor station, if built, will be the strictest of any compressor station in the country, and emissions will be 50 to 80 percent lower than any other station in Virginia.

Barber counters if Northam truly believes that, “request it to be in your backyard.”

Barber also said the power to protest the pipeline lies in the hands of the community, and clarified that he and Gore came to Buckingham by invitation.

“We didn’t come here to lead the fight, we just came here to say, ‘Y’all fight like you never fought before.’”

Irene Ellis Leach is one of those Union Hill community members. Her family has operated a farm four miles away from the proposed site of the compressor station for 117 years, where original buildings built in 1804 are still standing. She says Dominion insists on crossing through the middle of the cattle fields she uses most.

Now she’s one of many landowners in the incineration zone, or the potential impact radius, of 1,100 feet on either side of the pipeline. If it blows, that’s how far the flames will reach.

“If something goes wrong, the resulting fire can’t be put out. It has to burn out,” she says. “We could lose everything, including our lives.”