Tag: Guadalajara

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News

In brief: Garage rage, statue spray-paint, second-amendment sanctuaries, and more

Photo: Skyclad Aerial

Making space: City Council approves land purchase for downtown parking lot

Late Monday evening, City Council voted unanimously to purchase Albemarle County’s portion of the 701 E. Market St. lot, where it plans to build a new, 300-car parking garage.

The $1.28 million purchase—half of the land’s appraised value—is part of an agreement between the city and county to keep the county courts downtown and construct a new General District Court. The Albemarle Board of Supervisors threatened to move its courts to the county if council did not create more parking spaces for county employees.

Stretching from Seventh to Ninth streets, the proposed structure would include roughly 12,000 square feet of retail space, and 90 parking spaces would be set aside for county use. 

The city estimates the structure will cost $8.5 million. Almost $5 million is included in the proposed capital improvement budget for fiscal year 2021.

To build the garage, the city plans to combine the land with another property it owns at 801 E. Market St., currently home to Guadalajara restaurant and Lucky 7 convenience store—the only 24-hour food spot downtown.

At Monday’s meeting, several community members urged council to rethink its plans. 

Estimating that the costs of construction would be approximately $51,000 per parking space, Rory Stolzenberg said the garage would be “a poor use of this city’s scarce funds” and that the 300-space structure is not necessary to fulfill the city’s agreement with the county. He also noted that the garage would result in the tearing down of two local businesses, including “one of the most affordable places to eat downtown.” 

Josh Carpe echoed Stolzenberg’s concerns, asking council to look for other ways to manage the parking demand downtown before “we build parking we don’t need.” He also criticized the city’s capital improvement budget for cutting funding for affordable housing in order to pay for the garage, and encouraged council to give the Planning Commission and incoming councilors a chance to weigh in on the proposal.

The conversation surrounding the garage is expected to continue into next month, when the new councilors will be sworn in.

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Quote of the Week

“That tree just ain’t a hit. You could have gotten an artificial tree that looks better than that tree. The tree ain’t gotta look like the state of the city!” —Tanesha Hudson, county resident, on the Downtown Mall Christmas tree 

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In Brief

Courtesy Nic McCarthy

Re-re-contextualized

Over the weekend, an anonymous commenter spray painted “This is racist” across the base of Charlottesville’s much-maligned Robert E. Lee statue. Someone hoping to cover up that recontextualization then hung a tarp over the paint. Undeterred, the vandal returned, and spray painted “Still racist” across the tarp. 

Sticking to their guns

Louisa County is the latest to join more than a dozen Virginia counties in declaring itself a gun rights “sanctuary.” The growing movement comes on the heels of the November 5 election, which secured a Democratic majority in both chambers of the General Assembly for the first time since 1995. Anticipating imminent gun-control legislation, the self-proclaimed sanctuaries have passed informal, extra-legal resolutions expressing intent to honor gun rights.

Stepping it up

UVA announced that it plans to partner with the College of William & Mary, in a joint goal to be carbon neutral by 2030. This is a significantly more ambitious benchmark than was set by the city and county, which are aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. The partnership will help both schools meet their pledge through information sharing and the creation of a new climate research institute. 

Common scents

In Dinwiddie, residents are in high dudgeon about the smell of a local hemp farm, reports the Petersburg Progress-Index. The smell has permeated clothes and air-conditioning units, leaving residents feeling skunked. The plant is legal to grow and doesn’t contain THC, but it looks and smells just like marijuana. 

 

 

Categories
Living

Fajita heaven: Guadalajara celebrates 30 years of thriving business

Although upwards of 25 new Mexican places have pushed their way into the area since Guadalajara’s founding 30 years ago, the Mexican eatery has managed to hold on to its place in the city’s heart. File photo

By Caroline Hockenbury

When Gilbert Lopez and his family opened the original downtown Guadalajara, named after Lopez’s hometown in Mexico, he had only 20 years of life under his belt and a pooled savings of $18,000 in his back pocket. The early years were synonymous with sacrifice, meaning 14-plus-hour shifts and tight circumstances. “My son, my wife—we all lived in one one-bedroom apartment for probably three or four years until we got the restaurant going and could afford…a better [place],” he says.

The Guadalajara founding fathers—Lopez, his wife’s cousin, Juan Ornelas, and his father-in-law, Jesús Arellano—banded together to establish one of only a handful of Mexican eateries in the Charlottesville area on October 10, 1988. The landlord before them had recently folded a restaurant of the same kind. “I don’t think he thought I was going to make it,” Lopez recalls. “He probably saw me as a young kid who didn’t know what he was doing.” Ornelas, in a phone interview, remembers telling his 20-something self to hang tight and keep the faith—to “wait and see what happens.”

Now, nearly 30 years later, Guadalajara is a local chain and a Charlottesville institution. On a mild early autumn afternoon, Lopez is back in the original location off East Market Street, excitedly relaying the details of the restaurant’s forthcoming three-decade celebration.

A cluster of framed awards are arrayed above the hostess station, each a testament to the joint’s influence. A crowd of lunchgoers pressing nearer to their chips and salsa, colorful fajitas, and cheese-sprinkled beans serves as further confirmation that Guad is the place to be.

It didn’t take long for Guadalajara’s name to gain ground, and in the early ’90s a Greenbrier Drive location was added to the map. Branches on Fontaine Avenue and Pantops soon followed. Although upwards of 25 new Mexican places have pushed their way into the area since Guadalajara’s founding, the Mexican eatery has managed to hold on to its place in the city’s heart. “[Increased competition] eats up on the market for everybody,” Lopez acknowledges, “but I feel if I have good service, good food, and a clean restaurant, it won’t bother me.” Lopez says Guadalajara stands out for its authentic dishes, like traditional Mexican mole and enchiladas. His sugar-rimmed jumbo margaritas, too, are a crowd favorite.

The welcoming atmosphere Lopez describes is so pervasive it can actually be anticipated from the parking lot, where mariachi music spills out onto the asphalt. Inside, gleeful guitar riffs pepper the space like piñata confetti.

What’s the best part of this gig? Lopez, time and again, underscores the joy he gleans from serving people. Every so often, he pauses politely in the interview to toss a sincere, “How are you?” to a familiar customer. “They take care of me,” he says, “so I take care of them.”

Ornelas, a frequent presence in the dining room all these years later, agrees. “[I like to] actually serve the customers,” he says.

But for all its warmth and history, the future of the downtown Guadalajara is not clear. “The only sad part about this restaurant is that I never bought the building,” Lopez says. “My mistake.”

In 2016, the city acquired the site of the original Market Street branch and the neighboring Lucky 7 convenience store. When their leases expire, in roughly three years, both businesses may be demolished to make way for a parking garage.

Still, former City Manager Maurice Jones, who stepped down in July, left open the possibility of bringing the businesses back as tenants in a future mixed-use development.

“I’m hoping for that,” says Lopez. We bet the Guad’s downtown regulars are, too.

Guadalajara will celebrate its 30-year anniversary on October 10. The fiesta will span three days, including the Tuesday before and Thursday after the anniversary, and will feature meal discounts and giveaways at each of its four locations.