Tag: Emmet Street

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On the rise: Police chief calls on community to take action against gun violence

In light of a recent increase in local shootings, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney held a press conference to call for the community to help prevent future acts of violence. PC: City of Charlottesville

Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney held a press conference Thursday afternoon to address what the department is calling an “unprecedented” rise in gun violence in the city. There have been eight incidents since November 5, a period that caps off a year in which police responded to 122 reports of shots being fired.

There were four gun homicides in 2020, a notable rise from the two homicides in 2019 and one in 2018.

“I’m calling on community advocates, influencers, organizers to go beyond Twitter or Instagram, Facebook, your news interviews, podcasts, or social media mediums to leverage your collective resources,” said Brackney at the press conference. “This cannot be laid solely as a burden at the police department’s feet…We cannot arrest our way out of this.”

The rise in gun violence has continued into 2021—last week, two shootings occurred near apartment buildings on Sixth Street SE and Prospect Avenue, in addition to a shooting in the middle of Emmet Street near Hydraulic Road.

“In one of those apartments, a woman lay in her bed and a bullet traveled right through her mattress and another woman was struck in the forehead,” said Assistant Police Chief Jim Mooney. “These are innocent victims that have nothing to do with whatever is causing this, and it has to end.”

Some people involved in the recent shootings lived outside of Charlottesville, but still had connections to the city, explained Brackney. The violence cannot be called an “outside” problem, or tied to a specific group or person.

While the department has made arrests for three of the four homicides from last year, as well as other shootings, Brackney emphasized the limits of policing.

“We understand the drivers of long-term systemic violence…to include poverty [and] exclusion from education and living wage opportunities. We understand institutional supremacy and racism, and its effects,” said Brackney. “We’re trying to stop the next act before it occurs. That takes more than just proactive police work, that takes community involvement.”

Brackney also pointed to the “breakdown in systems” caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as a potential reason behind the uptick in gun violence.

Though Brackney acknowledged that some community leaders may be working behind the scenes, she also claimed they have been “completely silent on these issues” and needed to get involved publicly, such as by offering jobs, tutoring, mentorship, health care, therapy, and other critical needs.

“Get in contact with me,” she said. “We will coordinate the resources with you.”

Since the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement last year, community activists have been calling for budget adjustments to police funding. On Thursday, Brackney also suggested the city use its budget—which currently allocates $18 million a year to the police department—to take meaningful action.

“We’re going into budget season. What does our budget look like to address community drivers of violence?” she said. “The city has a responsibility to consider the budget allocations of every department to address community and social priorities as we provide social safety services.”

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Tunnel vision: Emmet renovations include bike lanes, pedestrian underpass

The illustration above shows the planned railroad tunnel underpass. Courtesy Emmet Streetscape project

A central stretch of Emmet Street, from Arlington Boulevard to Ivy Road, may see some improvements thanks to the state-funded Emmet Street-scape project. Plans for the renovations were on display at a public design hearing last week.

New bike lanes, an expanded sidewalk, handicapped-accessible crosswalks, and better landscaping are all in the future of this chunk of currently nondescript roadway. The speed limit will be lowered from 35 miles per hour to 25. 

The project aims to improve access for bikes and pedestrians—“make it safer, more efficient, and more inviting,” project manager John Stuart says.

The flashiest new feature is a pedestrian tunnel that will run underneath the railroad line. “If you’ve ever been to a basketball game at JPJ, when it lets out and people are trying to walk down, it’s like a big bottleneck here,” says Bill Wuensch, a traffic engineer whose firm, EPRPC, is assisting with the project. “This’ll be really nice, to be able to go through a nice tunnel.” 

UVA owns 95 percent of the land along the strip of road under development. The University’s construction plans for the land that once held the Cavalier Inn, at the corner of Ivy and Emmet, are not connected to this project.

The state will pay the $12 million bill for the renovations. Virginia evaluates transportation infrastructure projects using a system called SMART SCALE. Wuensch says the renovation scored points on the SMART SCALE system for increasing walking and biking safety and decreasing traffic congestion. “This is part of the Route 29 system, so it’s a corridor of state significance, even though it’s a business route,” Wuensch says.

The meeting was sparsely attended. Peter Krebs, community outreach coordinator at the Piedmont Environmental Council, says he’s noticed that the community has not been vocal about this project, despite the fact that it’s one of the “top three bike-ped projects” currently underway in the area. “My theory is that it doesn’t go by anybody’s house,” Krebs says.

However, the construction will pass the Lambeth Field Residence Area, which holds 174 university-owned student apartments.

At the meeting last week, Gay Perez, the executive director of housing and residence life at UVA, worried that the project would leave those students in the lurch. 

“There is no real safe way that I see the Lambeth folks being able to cross the road to the beautiful tunnel,” Perez said.

“Students take the most direct route that they possibly can,” Perez said, suggesting that students would forsake the proposed crosswalk at Massie Road and instead cut through the parking lot and jaywalk across the street.

“With the constraints we have, we’re doing our best,” Stuart replied. 

The planning commission and City Council will still have to review and vote on the project. 

“I’d love to predict it’ll go smooth as ever, but you know, I wouldn’t bet the house on it,” Stuart says of the approval process.

Wuensch says the project has “enjoyed pretty wide support,” and Krebs praised it as a good example of collaboration between the community and the university. “It’s important that the city and the county and the university work together on transportation,” he says. “That makes me happy.”

According to Stuart, the project’s design phase is 60 percent complete. Construction is projected to begin in 2021. 

“I love this project,” Krebs says. “The only thing that doesn’t make me happy is that it’s not already done.”

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Gallery Court Hotel rises out of Excel Inn’s ashes

Plans for the new Gallery Court Hotel bear no resemblance to the historic motor court style of the 1950s that the structure replaces. Submitted image

By Natalie Jacobsen

On May 4 of last year, Charlottesville was rocked by the images and news that the long-standing Excel Inn & Suites was ablaze. The Emmet Street landmark was deemed unsalvageable, and the owners, Vipul and Manisha Patel, closed the hotel immediately and indefinitely following the devastating fire.

Now the Patel family has a new proposal, which they brought to the City Planning Commission March 14. They are seeking a special permit to build a seven-story, 72-room, 75,000-square-foot replacement: “a boutique hotel aptly named the Gallery Court Hotel,” says Vipul Patel.

The name recalls Excel Inn’s original name, Gallery Court Motor Hotel, which was erected in 1951. A special permit is required for any building proposal that exceeds 60 feet within Charlottesville city limits. The Patels want an 80-foot ceiling cap.

The Gallery Court Hotel is just one of several proposed projects along the Emmet corridor. The University of Virginia’s Cavalier Inn and The Villa Diner across the street will be razed as part of the area’s makeover.

Patel acknowledged the evolving area, stating in the proposal that the building would be aligned with the exterior vision of surrounding UVA structures.

“The hotel is consistent with the city’s architectural character,” says Patel, and will include expanded pedestrian areas to accommodate students and the growing number
of visitors.

Christine French, an architectural historian and graduate of UVA, says the design “looks just like anything else anymore these days. Monolithic, beige and not following any historical architecture precedents.” Charlottesville removed many older buildings of historical importance in the late ’90s to make way for these modern designs, she says.

Excel Inn’s claim to fame was housing Martin Luther King Jr. during his stay in Charlottesville in 1963 after he was invited to lecture at UVA, when the motel was one of the few places that would accommodate African-Americans in segregated Charlottesville. It is not yet known how, or if, the Patels will acknowledge his visit in
the new design.

Says French, “Excel Inn has never been acknowledged as a landmark for hosting Dr. King. Maybe now the impact of his stay will be taken seriously in a historical context.” She floated ideas of an exhibit or profound commemoration, though without the original building, she says, history is being erased. “Charlottesville is not just about Thomas Jefferson—a lot of movement happened in the ’50s and ’60s. That’s important, too.”

The Patel family acquired the hotel fewer than 20 years after King’s stay, in 1981, from former owners Herbert Monte Jr. and George and Nell Eby, while passing through Charlottesville on a trip.

Despite the 10-month setback from the fire, they are looking at this optimistically. “We find comfort in knowing that this is not the end, but the opportunity for a new beginning,” says Patel.

“The ownership and operation of this family business was our real-life American Dream…owning [it] gave us a purpose and vision for the future,” he says.

For the time being, the Patels will have to wait for their special permit to be granted before they can move forward with the demolition and subsequent construction. No timeline for voting or construction has been announced.