Vinegar Hill reimagined
The winners of a Bushman Dreyfus Architects and Tom Tom Founders Festival competition to use public spaces to create constructive dialogue and to reimagine Vinegar Hill, the city’s historic and predominantly African-American neighborhood, proposed an 80-foot wall made of layers of metal maps of the lost neighborhood on the west side of the Downtown Mall.
The wall, similar in size to the Freedom of Speech Wall on the opposite side of the mall, would be surrounded by rolling benches. Winning team members Lauren McQuistion, a UVA School of Architecture grad now based in Detroit, A.J. Artemel, director of communications at Yale School of Architecture, and Tyler Whitney, a former junior designer at local VMDO Architects who is also now in Detroit, received a grand prize of $5,000. All three are 2011 UVA graduates.
Thanks to urban renewal, Vinegar Hill was razed in 1964, and the city is currently considering how to memorialize it, independently from the competition, which garnered submissions from 80 applicants across 20 countries.
Quote of the Week: “One of the saddest outcomes of Ryan Kelly’s Pulitzer-winning Charlottesville #photo is he’s leaving #journalism altogether & not returning. He now works for a brewery.” —K. Matthew Dames, an associate librarian for scholarly resources and services at Georgetown University, on Twitter. Kelly had already planned to leave the Daily Progress, and August 12 was his last day.
Crozet triangle
A twin-engine Cessna crashed off Saddle Hollow Road April 15, killing the pilot, not far from where Piedmont Airlines Flight 349 slammed into Bucks Elbow Mountain in 1959 with one of the 27 people onboard surviving. Crozet also was the scene of a GOP congressional delegation-carrying Amtrak crash into a Time Disposal truck that killed one person January 31.
Rain tax quenched
Albemarle Board of Supervisors decided April 11 to use its general fund to pay for the stormwater utility fee because of massive farmer outrage. Next issue to get riled about: property taxes going up.
Park entry fees upped again
It’s going to cost five bucks more to visit Shenandoah National Park this summer. Starting June 1, vehicle entrance fees will be $30, motorcycles $25, per person is $15 and an annual pass is $55. Good news for seniors and frequent parkers: The annual pass to all parks and the senior lifetime pass remains $80.
Call to condemn
Activist groups Black Lives Matter and Showing Up for Racial Justice want City Council and the Albemarle supes to approve a resolution written by Frank Dukes that condemns the Confederate battle flag that’s been erected in Louisa near I-64.
Cullop walloped
Things are not looking good for 5th District Democratic candidate Ben Cullop, who scored zero delegates at the April 16 overflow Albemarle Democratic caucus in his home county. Leslie Cockburn received 18 delegates, Andrew Sneathern 13 and R.D. Huffstetler will take eight to the Dem convention May 5 to choose a challenger to U.S. Congressman Tom Garrett.
Court referendum
The General Assembly passed a law that means if Albemarle wants to move its courts from downtown, voters will have a say.
Power of the press
During the 2017 Virginia Press Association awards ceremony on April 14, C-VILLE nabbed accolades in 10 categories in the specialty publication division, along with two best in show awards for design and presentation (Bill LeSueur and Max March) and artwork (Barry Bruner).
First place
Design and presentation: Bill LeSueur, Max March
Food writing: Caite White, Samantha Baars, Tami Keaveny, Erin O’Hare, Lisa Provence, Jessica Luck, Erin Scala, Eric Wallace
Illustrations: Barry Bruner
Front page or cover design: Bill LeSueur, Max March, Eze Amos, Jeff Drew
Combination picture and story: Eze Amos, Natalie Krovetz, Lisa Provence, Samantha Baars, Erin O’Hare, Susan Sorensen, Jessica Luck, Jackson Landers, Bill LeSueur
Pictorial photo: Jackson Smith
Second place
In-depth or investigative reporting: Samantha Baars
News portfolio writing: Lisa Provence
Third place
Feature story writing: Erin O’Hare
Public affairs writing: Lisa Provence