The city will be in charge of the Water Street Parking Garage starting August 1, and Mark Brown will collect rent. Staff photo
Two years ago, before Nazis came to Charlottesville in 2017, the big story was the contretemps between Mark Brown, co-owner of the Water Street Parking Garage, and then-mayor Mike Signer and the city.
The escalating parking wars led to suits and countersuits, panicked meetings of downtown business owners, threats of closing the garage and of eminent domain, challenges to the hiring of a former mayor and whopping legal bills on both sides.
At the July 16 City Council meeting, as the clock approached midnight, councilors approved a settlement that gives them most of what they wanted, but the full cost is not known at the present.
“I wasn’t sure until 11:58 last night this would get approved,” said Charlottesville Parking Center general manager Dave Norris, who has seen seemingly solid deals with the city fall apart before, the day after the meeting.
In the settlement hammered out over the past two years, Charlottesville Parking Center, which Brown owns and which manages the garage, agreed to sell 73 spaces to the city for $413,000. The spaces, previously owned by Wells Fargo, have been a sore point for the city, which sued Brown for buying them from the bank when the city had a right of first refusal should any parties want to unload their spaces.
“We’re selling them at the same price we paid for them,” says Norris, a former Charlottesville mayor whose own hiring was a point of contention when the city, through Chris Engel, director of economic development, questioned Norris’ qualifications to run a parking garage.
Charlottesville Parking Center was founded in 1959 by business owners who feared the emergence of shopping malls with ample parking would be a threat to getting people to shop downtown. The Water Street Parking Garage is a jointly owned public/private entity, and CPC owns the ground underneath the garage, as well as the surface lot across the street.
Although the city had the opportunity to buy Charlottesville Parking Center when it went on the market in 2008, it didn’t. Brown bought CPC in 2014 for $13.8 million and an uneasy alliance with the city began. In March 2016, Brown sued the city, alleging it forced him to offer parking below market rate—and below what was charged at the city-owned Market Street Garage.
In the settlement, the parking center will lease its remaining 317 spaces to the city for $50,000 a month for 16 years—with a 2.5 percent annual increase after the first year. The city believes it will make more than $900,000 in net revenue during the first year of the lease, according to a city document.
“It’s really a good thing for all parties after two years of contentiousness,” says Norris. “As of August 1, they’ll have full control and can set whatever hours and rates they want.”
CPC used to manage the Market Street Garage, but during the heat of battle, the city fired CPC and hired Lanier Parking to manage that garage. Most CPC employees who run the Water Street Garage will go to work for Lanier, which will take over the management of Water Street, city parking manager Rick Siebert told City Council.
When questioned by Mayor Nikuyah Walker, Siebert said none of the Water Street Garage employees will make less than the city’s minimum wage and that they have benefits.
For Charlottesville Parking Center administrators like Norris, it’s time to dust off those resumes. “This is the end of our role as a parking management company,” he says. “I’m exploring my own options.”
Brown continues to own the land underneath the garage. He was traveling in Greece, and in an email says the settlement is a “very slightly modified version” of a proposal CPC made to the city in January 2016 before any litigation was filed, “so we eventually succeeded in achieving our preferred resolution to the problem.”
At one point, Brown tried to buy the city’s portion of the garage—and the city did likewise. He also threatened to close the garage, which totally freaked out downtown business owners. The Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville made clear to the city that it believed the garage should remain publicly owned.
“I think we’ve gained significant efficiencies,” Siebert told City Council, as well as gaining control of the garage’s operation, “which I think is so important to the public.”
At the July 16 council meeting, Signer noted that “Ms. Galvin and I have some scar tissue and war wounds from this.”
Councilor Kathy Galvin recalled “all-day long mediation sessions.”
The city hired Richmond attorney Tom Wolf with LeClairRyan, who charged the city a discounted rate of $425 an hour. At press time, the city had not provided what those legal fees added up to over two years.
“We really decided to stick to our guns and stick up for this being a public good, a public asset,” said Signer. “And it was very difficult and there was a lot of fighting from the other side, a lot of scaremongering from some of the local journalistic outlets.”
He added, “This settlement a couple of years later is a good result for the public on all fronts.”
City Councilor Kathy Galvin (left) gave kudos to longtime Woolen Mills resident Bill Emory (right) for “sound[ing] the alarm” on the sewage stink in 2008, and not letting up. Photo by Martyn Kyle
The stench of sewage wafting throughthe Woolen Mills neighborhood hassickened residents since the early 1900s. But after the completion of a 10-year and $10 million odor reduction project at the local wastewater treatment facility, project pioneers and neighbors came together to celebrate the fact that they can finally breathe easy again.
“I haven’t noticed the smell for a while now,” says longtime Woolen Mills resident and former city planning commissioner Bill Emory. “It’s a big deal.”
Emory got a shout-out from City Councilor Kathy Galvin, who doubles as a member of the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority board, at the May 23 celebratory picnic in the city’s Riverside Park. They were just stepsaway from the wastewater treatment facility when she gave the longtime resident kudos for “sound[ing] the alarm” on the stench in 2008, and refusing to back down.
In a July 2016 interview with C-VILLE, however, Emory said that when residents called the RWSA to complain about the sewagestink in the mid-1970s, “They would tell us smell was subjective.”
Even RWSA’s director of engineering and maintenance, Jennifer Whitaker, admitted that the organization’s initial response to residents 30 and 40 years ago was that living near pollution was a fact of life. She alluded to a former unnamed utility employee who—a “long, long time ago”—famously made light of the stink by saying, “We’re not baking cookies here.”
That wasn’t the only stomach-turning illusion of food during remarks made at the picnic.
Galvin also commented on RWSA board chairman Mike Gaffney’s mention of the treatment facility’s “gravity thickeners” that condense the biosolids into a concentrated solids product.
“Mike, I can’t get the phrase ‘gravity thickeners’ out of my head,” she said. “It sounds like [they’re used to make] a powdermilkshake, but then I think that through and I get really sick.”
The Moores Creek Advanced Water Resource Recovery Facility treats nearly 10 million gallons of wastewater each day, and while there are lots of technical terms to describe what went down during the project to stop the stink, Emory doesn’t mince words: They did it by “covering the cat box.”
Aside from installing those primary clarifier covers that put an end to open-air waste composting, the utility also installed air scrubber and grit removal facilities.
“It really is pretty amazing,” Emory said, while he and his dog waited near the Mouth Wide Open food truck that RWSA provided for their picnic celebration. He commended Gaffney’s leadership of the board during the “long, tortured” process of crushing the odors.
About 40 people ambled over to the truck to claim their buffalo chicken bites and pimento cheeseburgers as Whitaker hung back to exchange words with attendees who continued to approach her.
Surprisingly, her crew hasn’t received too much other feedback on the project, she said.
“It used to be something we spent lots of time responding to,” Whitaker said, and added that she feels as though the community has already accepted this stink-free reality as the new norm.
Laughing, she was sure to put a positive spin on the lack of public reaction: “We’re not hearing from people about how it’s not working.”
Now we’ll never see more than a rendering of West2nd, the $50 million development of luxury condos and retail space that had been proposed at the current site of a Water Street parking lot since 2014. Rendering Keith Woodard
When Mayor Nikuyah Walker chaired her first City Council meeting February 5, citizens got to see how previously out-of-control meetings would be run under a new regime—and learned that the heckling continues both for councilors and for the West2nd developer seeking a special use permit that was rejected for reasons that had little to do with city code.
When Keith Woodard won a bid in 2014 to build a mixed-use building on a city-owned Water Street parking lot that would house the City Market, parking, retail and residential, he had the blessings of City Council for his innovative design. Four years later, costs soared and he retooled the project, adding 28 luxury units and another floor, which required the special use permit. He also offered to build affordable housing units on Harris Street.
Of all developers in town, Woodard has the best track record on affordable housing. When he bought Dogwood Housing in 2007 from local mixed-income housing icon Eugene Williams, he promised to maintain the affordability of most of the units—and has done so.
So it was odd that Woodard would be the one to be asked to jump through higher hoops by Councilor Wes Bellamy and receive jeers from the Greek chorus in attendance as he sought approval to increase density for West2nd.
That Woodard offered to build affordable units on Harris Street instead of contributing to the Affordable Housing Fund, as most developers do, is unusual. And he said he’d exceed the city’s requirement of 16 units kept below market rate for 4.7 years. When councilors said they wanted a longer term, he said he’d make eight units affordable for 10 years.
Bellamy badgered him to up the number of affordable units. “Why couldn’t all 16 units be affordable for 20 years?” asked Bellamy.
“The project still has to be financially feasible,” explained Woodard, eliciting a big sigh from Bellamy.
Woodard pointed out that he could have put the amount required—$316,000—into the Affordable Housing Fund, “which maybe we should have stuck with that,” and that keeping eight units affordable for 10 years was already challenging at an estimated cost of $474,000.
Bellamy said he was perplexed that Woodard said it wouldn’t be financially feasible “when some would say you’ve made a lot of money in this city and because you’ve already made so much money maybe you can give some back.” That was greeted by whoops from some attendees.
And when Bellamy asked Woodard how much money he was going to make from West2nd, Deputy City Attorney Lisa Robertson advised councilors to “focus on the land use issues” for a zoning application and said that enabling legislation didn’t give council the ability to require more.
“That was a silly question,” says Eugene Williams. “[Bellamy] doesn’t have the facts and he doesn’t know how much [Woodard] had to spend.”
When councilors voted 3-2 to deny the permit, the hecklers applauded. “Those young people know nothing about investing,” says Williams. “That just bothers me to know we had three councilors who wanted to accommodate the audience more than actually trying to make this feasible for both sides.”
Bellamy, Walker and Heather Hill voted against the special use permit. ”It’s not all right to vote against it without explaining specifically what the developer needs to do,” says Williams. He opines that it would have been wiser to say what they wanted and table the vote.
Williams also criticizes Kathy Galvin and Mike Signer’s yes votes and says they seemed more concerned about downtown businesses than low-income residents.
However, Signer spent a fair amount of time during the meeting discussing whether revenue from the project could be directed exclusively to the affordable housing fund. He says he voted for the permit because it would allow the city to increase its current $3.5 million affordable housing annual budget by about 30 percent.
Others have concerns about the Monday night performance, and the word “extortion” has been bandied about.
“If I’m a developer and read those [news] accounts, a red flare has gone up,” says attorney Fred Payne, who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against City Council for its vote to remove Confederate statues. “Why would I want to invest in this town?”
With the vote to deny the permit, “You can see the degree to which City Council is out of control,” says Payne. “I have a feeling if this were litigated, the city would probably lose.”
He adds, “I don’t think this City Council understands there are limits on what they can do.”
Part of the problem Woodard faces is that four councilors were not around when the city bid out the project in 2014. Galvin was, and at the meeting she said—after a five-minute recess to calm the interruptions from the crowd—“The demand was that the City Market be downtown on that city parking lot. It was not affordable housing.” The project has moved along “based on criteria the city gave this developer.”
Galvin also said the special use permit meets the comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance, and the project would add 80 people living on the mall and 100 jobs in the face of increasing competition to downtown businesses, as well as increase city revenue from the parking lot from $6,500 a year to $945,000 a year. “That’s huge,” she said.
For Bellamy, the message to developers is, “This council will prioritize affordable housing.” He says he appreciates Woodard’s efforts and understands that he met city requirements. “We still have discretion,” says Bellamy. “I hope we can still work together.”
Hill was more concerned about the City Market. “I’m not convinced the market will thrive there,” she said.
She says she’s not “anti development” and suggests looking at the project through a “new lens” and “recognize we ultimately may not be able to accommodate the market on this specific site if we are to meet the needs of the vendors while also competing with other community priorities.”
Woodard says he doesn’t think City Council’s vote to deny the permit was about increased density. “I think this project should be part of [affordable housing] but not all of it,” he says.
Litigation is not an option at this point, he says. “We’re looking at alternate paths to go forward.”
He says he does need a decision soon because people have reserved condos in West2nd. And he’s put $2 million into underground utilities, as well as four years of effort.
“We’re trying to work things out,” he says. “I’m trying to be positive.”
Updated 3:53pm to clarify Mike Signer’s reasons for his vote for the special use permit.
Congressman Tom Garrett is in this photo, but you might not be able to see him because of the crowd of angry constituents that's engulfing him. Staff photo
The official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the nearly 30-year-old Hillsdale Drive Extension project was overshadowed by protesters who came to confront a congressman who was scheduled to speak.
Fifth District representative Tom Garrett was swarmed by a crowd of about 25 angry constituents as he arrived at the January 26 ceremony where at least 11 state and local police officers were present.
As City Councilor Kathy Galvin gave her opening remarks about the new roadway, the crowd lambasted Garrett about a bevy of topics, mostly including health care and his alleged refusal to meet with his constituents.
Law enforcement stood between the congressman and the crowd as he took the podium, and warned away protesters who attempted to hold their anti-Garrett signs behind him as he spoke.
Among those signs were “One Term Wonder,” “283 Days Until Midterms” and a blown up photo of the Republican House of Representatives member posing with Jason Kessler, the homegrown white nationalist who organized the summer’s Unite the Right rally that left three dead and dozens injured.
Todd Cone says he’s gone to Congressman Tom Garrett’s office, but he’s never successfully met with him. Staff photo
“You met with him. Why not the rest of us?” said the sign.
At times, Garrett was difficult to hear over the shouts from of protesters, but he commended the cooperative effort of the city and county on the road extension that’s been on the books since the 1990s.
Construction on the two-lane, multi-modal roadway began in June 2016. It runs parallel to Route 29, with dedicated turn lanes from the county’s Rio Road to the city’s Hydraulic Road. It includes 3,600 linear feet of a shared-use path on its east side and 5,800 linear feet of sidewalk on its west side, which is south of Greenbrier Drive. New additions also include the roundabout at Zan Road and Hillsdale Drive and a new traffic signal at Seminole Court and Hillsdale Drive.
Garrett—along with Galvin, city manager Maurice Jones, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors representatives Ann Mallek and Ned Gallaway and VDOT engineer John Lynch—used a giant pair of shears to snip the ribbon near the roundabout. But the congressman didn’t stick around for much longer after that.
The angry mob followed him to his black SUV and circled it as he tried to leave, and most were responsive when the driver laid on the horn.
But detractors weren’t the only attendees—at least five people brought pro-Garrett signs, and even more showed up in support of him.
John Miska, a local veteran who’s often spotted at political events, said Garrett was able to solve a years-long problem for him in a matter of days.
Veteran John Miska stands next to his camo truck while collecting signatures to get Culpeper resident Nick Freitas, who’s running for Senate, on the ballot. Staff photo
The veteran says he’s taken opiates to manage chronic pain for years, which have caused his teeth to rot. He’s hounded the Department of Veterans Affairs for dental care for two years.
About three weeks ago, Miska filled out some paperwork at Garrett’s office at the congressman’s request, and Miska says he was headed to a dentist to have two necrotic teeth pulled on January 30.
“Something that would have cost a couple hundred dollars to fix if they would have done it in a timely manner is now going to cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars, and Tom is a little ticked off about that,” he says.
Adds Miska, “Tom got involved and I got seen. And so these people complaining about their health care and all, they fail to realize that the whole cascade of problems with health care is because they tried to eat an elephant with one bite.”
Pat Napoleon, founder of Rise Chalottesville, announced in November the group was circulating petitions to oust all five city councilors in office at the time.
Natalie Jacobsen
It’s extraordinarily hard to remove an elected official from office in Virginia, especially if she hasn’t been convicted of smoking pot, sexual battery or a hate crime, the offenses spelled out in state code. Nonetheless, for the second time in a year, petitioners are trying to remove a city councilor—or in this case, three city councilors.
Rise Charlottesville launched its recall last fall of all five councilors then in office. And although Kristin Szakos did not seek re-election and Bob Fenwick lost his seat in the primary, those former councilors are still on the ouster roster along with Mike Signer, Kathy Galvin and Wes Bellamy, the latter of whom whites-righter Jason Kessler unsuccessfully targeted for removal last year because of offensive tweets Bellamy made before he was in office.
Newly elected Mayor Nikuyah Walker and Vice-Mayor Heather Hill are not included in the petitions.
At a November 17 City Council meeting, Rise founder Pat Napoleon, a former teacher, cited “failed leadership, misguided action along with no action that brought this city to its knees, along with a resulting death” for wanting those on the dais gone.
Among council’s misguided actions, she lists hiring commissions and ignoring their findings, changing the name of the former Lee and Jackson parks, and Bellamy’s “hurling insults from the dais” at David Rhodes, whom Bellamy famously admonished to get his hat “and take that compromise with you.”
Says Napoleon, “This was disgusting.”
Napoleon says she’s gotten “hundreds and hundreds” of signatures, and that was before a daylong event to gather more January 19 at Riverside Lunch, where she also raised money for the families of the Virginia State troopers who died in a helicopter crash here August 12.
Pat Napoleon collected recall signatures at Riverside Lunch January 19. Staff photo
County resident Richard Lloyd is helping Napoleon. “When we started, we found a large component of people unhappy with Charlottesville City Council,” he says. When a group got serious about the recall, “all of a sudden people started throwing money at us.”
Lloyd declines to say how much money—other than sums ranging from $5 to $500—nor will he say exactly how many signatures.
State code calls for signatures of 10 percent of the total number of votes cast in the last election for the officeholder a petitioner wants removed. That was the stumbling block for Kessler, who fell short of the 1,580 signatures—10 percent of the 15,798 votes cast in the 2015 election— special prosecutor Mike Doucette said were required.
“We want to blow past all that,” says Lloyd.
Before he was elected Greene County commonwealth’s attorney in November, Matthew Hardin represented Rise and drew up the group’s complaints against the councilors. He urged the petitioners to get more signatures than needed to “show how many people are concerned.”
Hardin thinks Rise has a “very good chance” to prevail by “making the case about malfeasance.” He says, “It is quite clear they were violating state law by voting to remove” the Confederate monuments. “I felt this was government run amok.”
While in private practice, Hardin says he was always a “government accountability lawyer.” And it’s not the first time he’s gone after a local official. In 2015 he sued then-Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney Denise Lunsford because she said it would take $3,200 to respond to a Freedom of Information case.
Jessica Phillips, who represented former Albemarle supervisor Chris Dumler when a Scottsville District constituent petitioned to have him removed from office after he pleaded guilty to sexual battery in 2013, says, “My understanding is mine is the only one that ever went to trial.”
Says Phillips, “It’s not easy” to get rid of an elected official. Petitioners “have to show the person falls into an enumerated category and was convicted of a crime.”
For the broader category called out in the statute of “neglect of duty, misuse of office or incompetence in the performance of duties” that have a “material adverse effect upon the conduct of the office,” Phillips says, “That’s very nebulous. The person determining that is a judge. What qualifies as misuse of office?”
In the Dumler case, witnesses testified about his job performance, but the majority of the evidence, says Phillips, showed “he did his job. There was no evidence he misused his office.”
She says she doesn’t know the substance of the claims Rise Charlottesville is making about City Council, but “I know it’s going to be very difficult.”
Napoleon says she has no time limit for turning in the signatures to petition the court to remove Signer, Galvin and Bellamy. Galvin declined to comment and Bellamy did not return a phone call from C-VILLE.
“This just smells like more politics to me, from some organizers who aren’t even city residents,” says Signer. “Our job is to stay focused on our public’s business, like when we recently created over 200 new units of affordable housing, and when we sued the paramilitary groups who invaded our town to prevent them from ever coming here again.”
“I want things to get better,” says Napoleon. “There’s a whole lot to mend here. I’d like to see them listen better.”
The alleged cases against Signer, Bellamy and Galvin
Rise Charlottesville’s petitions cite alleged misuse of office for each of the councilors. Here’s what the petitioners consider misuse of office.
Mike Signer
• Repeated disrespect for his role and its limited collaborative powers
• Public inability to work with City Manager Maurice Jones and former police chief Al Thomas
• Unilaterally making statements and public declarations without authority from City Council
• Entered into an agreement with council and can’t meet with senior city staff without another councilor present because of unilateral actions
• The agreement diminishes his ability to function effectively and diminishes the office and city
Wes Bellamy
• Repeatedly has shown disrespect to citizens attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights
• Spoke disparagingly to David Rhodes and told him to take his hat “and that compromise with you”
• “Flagrantly” violated rules of order at council meetings and interrupted a meeting with “racially charged salutes”
• Violated the state’s closed meeting law August 2
• Repeatedly voiced support for the destruction and covering of Confederate memorials in violation of state code
Kathy Galvin
• Failed to uphold the City Charter by allowing Signer to overstep his role as mayor
• Because of her inaction, the city was governed by “an elected official who needed to be accompanied by minders” to prevent unlawful activity
• Disregarded state code in supporting removal of Confederate memorials and covering them in tarps
• Formulated her position on the war memorials based on the Beatitudes, not state law
Nikuyah Walker was elected mayor January 2, beating out Kathy Galvin, right, who cast the single "no" vote against Walker.
Photo by Eze Amos
The first meeting of the new City Council January 2 went into uncharted territory with formerly behind-the-scenes decisions—the new mayor and vice mayor—made publicly, and for some on the dais, uncomfortably. New councilors Nikuyah Walker and Heather Hill were elected mayor and vice mayor, respectively, while the airing of the grievances allowed some rebukes and score settling among councilors.
Senior Councilor Kathy Galvin wanted the mayor’s job, and she had several supporters endorse her during public comment, to catcalls from some attendees. Ultimately she didn’t have the votes, and she ended up being the single “no” in Walker’s 4-1 election as mayor.
With City Manager Maurice Jones leading the meeting—and calling disruptive citizens to order—the councilors made statements, nominations and expressed concerns about their fellow officials.
Hill, who nominated Galvin, her North Downtown neighbor, acknowledged that Galvin’s experience on council might not be enough. “We need a new direction,” she said, and pointed to Walker.
The concern with Walker for Hill—and for Galvin and former mayor Mike Signer—was Walker’s unwillingness to meet and make nice with her new colleagues on council before the January 2 meeting.
Walker explained that she planned no meetings before the new year, and that she found congratulatory emails sent by Signer, whose resignation she repeatedly called for last year, and Galvin “not authentic.”
Said Walker, “I’m comfortable with making people uncomfortable.”
“I am considering voting for Nikuyah Walker,” said Signer. “It’s awkward to talk critically about your potential colleagues going forward for a two-year or four-year term. That’s the reason this decision is done beforehand.”
He wondered whether Walker would be able to work with him. “You’ve said some very hard things about me personally,” he said.
“While you were talking about removing the personal,” replied Walker, “I don’t think people understand how difficult my campaign was, and you, in particular, made it very difficult.”
Days before the election, the Daily Progress ran an article headlined, “Emails show Walker’s aggressive approach.” Signer admitted sharing emails that demonstrated Walker’s “profane attacks” against staff.
Said Walker, “Talking about official council business is one thing,” but she said she didn’t feel it was necessary “to pretend” the congratulations were sincere. When Signer pressed her about whether she could get past their previous interactions, Walker reminded him that she did speak to him when he entered the room.
“There is no returning back to normal,” said Wes Bellamy, who nominated Walker and defended the unruly City Councils of the past year that have led to the meetings being suspended.
“I haven’t been grandstanding,” said Galvin, nor does she “seek the limelight,” a barb that seemed pointed toward Signer, who was taken to the woodshed by his fellow councilors after the Unite the Right rally for forgetting that the mayor’s role is ceremonial and to lead the meetings, but otherwise is an equal with the other councilors. “The way I’d be as mayor would be the way I’ve been as councilor.”
Signer seemed to have his own ax to grind with Galvin, and said the long emails she sends to city staff were burdensome and caused “friction.”
“I will never stop asking questions,” said Galvin, who suggested her colleagues relied on her detail-oriented efforts. “I will never vote for anything I do not understand.”
Galvin asked Walker whether she could do the job as mayor with all the reading involved, which Walker supporters Dave Norris called “condescending” and Jalane Schmidt said was “patronizing.”
“I would venture to guess that [Walker] knows more about the budget than many people who have served on council,” says Norris, a former mayor. “I thought her response was perfect: ‘There is a learning curve and I’m up for it.’”
And Walker offered her own critique of Galvin’s performance on council: “Kathy, you appear to listen but you don’t hear.”
Once Walker was elected mayor, Bellamy lost the job of vice mayor when fellow incumbents Signer and Galvin threw their votes to Hill, giving her a 3-2 win.
Signer appeared still sore that Bellamy voted December 18 against the plan to give Atlanta developer John Dewberry a tax break to get the derelict Landmark Hotel finally under construction again. “It’s hard to work consistently when assurances are broken,” he said to Bellamy, a characterization Bellamy disputed.
“There was definitely a Festivus feel to it with the airing of the grievances,” says Norris, referring to a “Seinfeld” episode. “Overall it was very positive. You definitely got a sense of councilors’ strengths and weaknesses.”
The public process to elect a mayor was unprecedented, but fit in with Walker’s pledge to bring transparency to how government is run, says Norris. “It’s messy. It’s awkward at times. And to restore trust in government, one way to do that is to bring more decision-making to the public.”
He’s enthusiastic about Walker and Hill being the new faces of City Council. “There was a lot of frustration about the direction of the city,” says Norris. “I think it’s a good move to put fresh faces of people who are unencumbered. The election was anti-incumbent.”
Schmidt applauds the “uncomfortable” public process of choosing a mayor, and notes, as did Walker, that minorities are used to feeling uncomfortable every day. Having Walker front and center on City Council—“That’s going to be uncomfortable for people used to calling the shots,” says Schmidt. ”And people who have been made to feel uncomfortable now have a voice.”
She also says Walker could be a calming effect on the “rambunctious” council meetings.
Walker was blunt about taking the job of mayor and said it would be a challenge. She said she learned a lot from running a campaign, and intends to do that with her new part-time position. “I will figure it out,” she vowed.
City’s first black mayor elected 44 years ago
Charles Barbour, photographed in 2006. Jen Fariello
When Charles Barbour was elected to City Council in 1970, he gave Democrats a 3-2 edge in an era when Republicans were still on council. And in 1974, he was elected the city’s first black mayor.
Barbour was one of two councilors who voted to close Main Street and turn it into a pedestrian mall in 1974. The controversial decision passed 2-0 because the other councilors had to abstain because of conflict-of-interest concerns. His fellow yes-vote, Mitch Van Yahres, called him “the father of the Downtown Mall,” and Barbour dedicated the mall in 1976.
He didn’t always vote with his fellow Dem councilors, though, and saw himself as more of a swing vote.
Then, like today, race was an issue, and Barbour took stands on divisive issues. He got the city to stop having events at Fry’s Spring Beach Club because in the early ’70s, it was segregated, and he pressed to have two black Charlottesville School Board members rather than one.
Tim Heaphy vowed an objective assessment of the city’s handling of white supremacists over the summer, and acknowledged there are doubters of his ability to be unbiased.
Eze Amos
When City Manager Maurice Jones introduced the man hired to investigate the events of Charlottesville’s summer of hate, he listed former U.S. attorney Tim Heaphy’s “critical eye,” his experience with law enforcement and investigations, and then he described the city as “partnering” with Heaphy.
Heaphy immediately took some trouble to distance himself from the perception that he’s a partner working in the city’s pocket to sweep under the rug missteps that led to a fatality and multiple injuries at the August 12 Unite the Right rally.
“I don’t think that’s a fair characterization,” he said. “I think we were hired to look critically at the city.” The investigation, which will include the city’s handling of the July 8 KKK rally and the first assembly of tiki-torch-carrying white nationalists May 12, will not be a “whitewash to affirm decisions that were made or meant to point a finger at any individual,” he said.
Instead, he promised an “arm’s length investigation” that would “objectively assess” what happened. “I don’t really see the city as a partner,” he said.
The decision to hire Heaphy and his $545-an-hour firm, Hunton & Williams, has brought some criticism, including from several speakers during public comment.
“It’s been 51 days since a murder here,” said Don Gathers, who chaired the Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces. “It’s been 51 days since the hounds from hell marched on our city.” If necessary, he said, the people would call on its own review board.
Gathers also urged the city to do away with the Pledge of Allegiance that begins every City Council meeting. “Please no longer ask us to start these proceedings with a Pledge of Allegiance to a flag or a country that shows no allegiance to us.” He ended his comments with a drop to both knees with both fists raised.
Heaphy stressed that he was not the sole investigator, and said he was leading a team of four lawyers, other professionals and a separate group of law enforcement consultants. “It’s not me doing this, it’s me supervising a team,” he said.
The investigation is not just looking at law enforcement and police response, and it will also examine the permitting process, interagency coordination, internal and external communications and the relationship between council and staff, he said.
That became an issue when Mayor Mike Signer was not allowed into the command center August 12, and on Facebook and in a leaked memo, he pointed the finger at Jones and police Chief Al Thomas. Jones responded that Signer threatened to fire both him and Thomas during the height of the crisis. Signer was subsequently reprimanded by his colleagues on City Council, who reminded him in the city’s form of government, the mayor is one among five equals and the city manager is the CEO.
The investigation is “not strictly did police do a good job,” said Heaphy. “It’s much broader than that.”
Investigators are poring over thousands of documents, photos and videos, have established a tip line (charlottesvilleindependentreview.com, 877-448-6866) and have conducted 60 interviews so far, said Heaphy. “We’re trying our best to get a comprehensive report.”
He also acknowledged the lack of “universal acceptance” because of his own background and the “skepticism” of city government. “We’ve worked hard to disabuse people of that perception,” he said.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy asked the big questions that remain unanswered at this point: Why was Fourth Street, where Heather Heyer was killed and dozens of other injured when a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, open? Was there a stand-down order for police, and why were protesters allowed to carry shields and weapons?
Those are “not simple answers,” said Heaphy, and he said he preferred to give a full narrative based on verifiable facts, which he anticipates could come by Thanksgiving or December.
He said there would be no legal prohibition preventing the release of the information.
Councilor Kathy Galvin urged a speedy release of the report. “I think the public is so hungry for news, it would be incumbent upon us to share it as quickly as possible,” she said, and not hold it for even “a single day.”
Honor code
photo eze amos
Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer, came to City Council to thank it for the “honor” of naming a portion of Fourth Street between Market and Water streets for her daughter, who died there August 12.
“I also wanted to point out it was my idea not to put a park associated with her name for a number of reasons,” said Bro, “and absolutely no statues.” Bro said she thought that “was a little bit much and Heather, frankly, hated statues for a number of reasons.”
Bro, who is not a Charlottesville resident, urged the city to consider naming more streets for African-American leaders who have made an impact, including Laura Robinson, who taught before and during segregation and who died earlier this year at 103.
Mayor Mike Signer, center, falls on the sword surrounded by fellow councilors Bob Fenwick, Kristin Szakos, Kathy Galvin and Wes Bellamy, who could have voted to remove him from office.
Staff photo
Charlottesville City Council now has a mayor on restriction. Council is made up of five elected equals, with the mayor playing a largely symbolic role, and that was a lesson Mayor Mike Signer appears to have forgotten. On August 30, his fellow councilors held a three-hour closed door meeting to discuss the “performance and discipline of an elected official.”
Afterward, Councilor Kathy Galvin said the elected officials had accepted Signer’s apology and were not requesting his resignation, a signal of the gravity of the confrontation.
It was a humbled Signer who read an apology to reporters and citizens gathered in council chambers. “In the deeply troubling and traumatizing recent weeks, I have taken several actions as mayor, and made several communications, that have been inconsistent with the collaboration required by our system of governance and that overstepped the bounds of my role as mayor, for which I apologize to my colleagues and the people of Charlottesville.”
Jones was called into a closed session with councilors on August 24, and the next day, a copy of a nine-page Signer-written memo demanding explanations from Jones was leaked—a breach that some suspect Signer of, but which he has adamantly denied.
Even the night before facing the jury of his peers, Signer emailed a reporter to denounce Jones for releasing “confidential closed session material in a blame game.”
Jones publicly responded August 26 to the allegations in the leaked memo, and he noted that in the middle of the violent white nationalist crisis, Signer was clamoring to get into the command center and twice threatened to fire Jones and Thomas when his entrance was denied.
The remainder of Signer’s tenure as mayor comes with conditions, which he listed in his apology, flanked by somber fellow councilors. Those include meeting with senior staff only with another councilor present, except for regular check-ins with Jones; being more mindful of the time of the council clerk; allowing fellow councilors to make announcements and comments at council meetings, and not making pronouncements as mayor without working with his colleagues—and having one present if he did so.
“My comment to two former mayors was, ‘Wow,’” says former mayor Blake Caravati. “Unfortunately it’s necessary. It’s also mortifying to me. Not so much the apology, but the four to five will-dos. That’s mortifying.”
Adds Caravati, who supported Signer in his 2015 run for council, “It seems unfortunate to me they had to put a code of conduct in writing.”
Caravati says all of the 13 mayors he knows have said the wrong thing at times. “We all do,” he says. “Unfortunately Mike did that numerous times over the past few weeks.”
Former mayor Virginia Daugherty says there was a feeling Signer had stepped out in front of council when he’s supposed to represent fellow councilors. “I think they were right to do it,” she says of the figurative spanking.
Following the August 12 Unite the Right rally, Signer called for a special session of the General Assembly to allow localities to repeal monuments, which did not come up on the council agenda. Nor did his capital-of-the-resistance rally, for which he had council clerk Paige Rice send out a notice.
On August 17, less than a week after the hate rally that resulted in the deaths of three people and dozens of others injured, Signer posted a photo of himself leaping in front of the Love statue erected in Central Place on the Downtown Mall, with the message, “After a hard week, Cville is back on our feet, and we’ll be stronger than ever. Love conquers hate! @virginiaisforlovers!”
“I was a bit disappointed in that public relations thing,” says Caravati. “It’s not all good. We’re struggling and we’ll get out of it, but it’s not all good.”
For some, like longtime resident Mary Carey, council calling Signer to the principal’s office did not go far enough. “It was a slap on the wrist,” she says. And she’s concerned about Signer’s political aspirations, and says he’s publicly said he was going to become governor and president.
“Mike Signer’s political career is over,” opined activist Jalane Schmidt while waiting for the results of the closed session.
However, Signer is not the only councilor who has eyed higher office, says Caravati, who admits he would have too, had the timing been right.
“In the short term, he’s debilitated,” Caravati says. “He can rehabilitate himself. Right now, it might be difficult, but he’s a stalwart guy.”
The councilors did not announce who called for the closed session, but it was Galvin who read the group’s response that the officials accepted Signer’s apology, and she reiterated council’s “shared responsibility for good governance.”
“That’s a hard thing to do,” observes Caravati, “to call your peers out.”
Signer’s term as mayor ends in January, and the likelihood of him being elected to another term, says Caravati, “at this time doesn’t seem probable.”
Anarchy ruled at the first City Council meeting after the August 12 alt-right rally.
Eze Amos
Barely 30 minutes into its August 21 meeting, City Council was in chaos. Three demonstrators were reportedly arrested, city officials left the chamber and the meeting’s video and audio feeds were cut off as protesters stood on the dais holding a banner that read, “Blood on your hands.”
The rage, frustration and trauma from the August 11-12 events that brought white supremacists and neo-Nazis to town were palpable among the more than 50 people who spoke when councilors came back into council chamber, and they blamed City Council for allowing it to happen.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy took control of the meeting, jettisoned the agenda and turned it into a public comment with speakers allowed to talk for a minute—or as long as they wished—for nearly four hours.
Mayor Mike Signer took the brunt of citizens’ rage. “Mr. Signer, it seems to me we should change your name to Dr. Frankenstein, because you’ve created a monster and the villagers are storming,” said council regular John Heyden.
Mayor Mike Signer struggled—in vain—to bring the meeting to order. Photo Eze Amos
At about that point, Signer said the meeting was canceled and left the chamber, but he was not followed by his fellow councilors. “Signer has shown his true colors,” said Don Gathers, who was chair of the city’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces.
Upon his return about 10minutes later, Signer was derided, particularly by independent council candidate Nikuyah Walker, who demanded that he leave. “You just showed us you’re not a leader.”
“Why did you think you could walk in here with business as usual?”—independent City Council candidate grills officials. Photo Eze Amos
Again and again, speakers said the city had been warned those coming to Unite the Right rally intended violence.
“I told you so,” said one, a woman who described herself as a child of the ’60s. “I’ve seen this movie before,” she said.
“You want to call yourself the capital of the resistance,” said Emily Gorcenski, who videoed white nationalists marching through UVA Grounds August 11. She said the real resistance was from the medics who were there, and added, “Charlottesville is the capital of the antifa.”
Don Gathers said he was “filled with righteous indignation” and “morally outraged.” Phote Eze Amos
And when citizens blamed council for allowing the alt-right rally, Signer pointed out that a federal judge ruled against the city. “We really tried hard to get it out of downtown,” he said.
For hours, there was no placating citizens, who were ready for council to ignore state and federal law and remove the statues that night.
More than 50 citizens lined up to tell City Council how they felt, including former vice-mayor Kevin Lynch (in plaid shorts). Photo Eze Amos
“Will you charge us if we take them down tonight?” asked Jonny Nuckols.
It was around 11:30pm before City Manager Maurice Jones could begin to respond to questions about the event that left Heather Heyer dead and at least 30 injured when a neo-Nazi-driven Dodge Challenger plowed into a crowd on Fourth Street.
The number of those hurt was challenged by a woman whose daughter was injured in the deliberate crash and had two broken legs. The daughter was taken to Sentara Martha Jefferson, which had at least another dozen victims beyond the 19 reported taken to UVA, said the woman.
Jones explained that in Virginia, state law prohibits the removal of war memorials, unlike places such as Maryland and Texas that have removed Confederate monuments in the past week.
He also pointed to a federal judge who did not allow the city to move the rally to McIntire Park and issued his ruling about the same time polo-shirted neo-Nazis were swarming the Lawn. When asked why the city didn’t shut down the event after the tiki-torch march Friday night and the attacks on protesters at the Thomas Jefferson statue, Jones said, “We’d already lost in court.”
Councilors listed actions they wanted to take to prevent such an invasion of hate happening again.
Earlier that day, Councilor Kathy Galvin said at a press conference that she would introduce a resolution to remove the statue of Stonewall Jackson at Justice Park, as well as the statue of Robert E. Lee that she and Signer voted against removing in February. Galvin said the events of August 12 had shown her that keeping the statues in place was “untenable in the long run,” but it would be around 12:30am before she could introduce her resolution.
On August 18, Signer said he was changing his vote and he called upon the General Assembly to hold a special session and allow localities to determine the fates of their Confederate monuments.
At the council meeting, Signer said it was time for the Constitution to change to address “intentional mayhem” that is not covered in the First Amendment, much as courts have ruled it’s not okay to shout “fire” in crowded venues.
Among other questions from citizens, Jones denied that police had been told to not intervene. “There was no stand-down order from anyone in city government. None,” he said.
It was after 11:30pm before City Manager Maurice Jones could start responding to questions raised about the alt-right weekend. Photo Eze Amos
To concerns about the weapons-carrying militias, Jones reminded everyone that Virginia is an open-carry state, but admitted, “It caused great confusion having those gunmen in our parks.” Councilors want legislators to give them leeway to regulate that, as well.
The protection of Congregation Beth Israel on Jefferson Street was another concern, and Jones explained that there were almost 50 officers in the block and a half around the synagogue, including snipers on the roof of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society. “I completely understand people feeling unsafe,” he said. “We had people keeping an eye on it.”
Perhaps one of the biggest questions is why Fourth Street was open in the first place. One woman said it was barricaded when she went by it around 6am August 12, and Jones said that is being investigated.
The other was why UVA police were not visible as torch-carriers terrorized Grounds. A question for the university, responded Jones.
Close to 1am, Councilor Kristin Szakos made a resolution that passed 5-0: to drape the statues of Lee and Jackson in black cloth for a city in mourning.
The meeting is officially out of control—and it had barely gotten started. Photo Eze Amos
It’s the time of year C-VILLE editorial staffers dread most: landing on the final names for our Power Issue, followed by the inevitable complaints that the list contains a bunch of white men. Sure, there are powerful women and people of color in
Charlottesville. But when it comes down to it, it’s still mostly white men who hold the reins—and a lot of them are developers. The good news: that’s changing. (And we welcome feedback about who we missed, sent to editor@c-ville.com.)
If you’re looking for a different take on power, skip over to our Arts section, where local creative-industry leaders share their most powerful moments (grab some Kleenex!) on page 46.
1. Robert E. Lee statue
More than 150 years after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, he continues to be a divisive figure—or at least his statue is. The sculpture has roiled Charlottesville since a March 2016 call (see No. 2 Wes Bellamy and Kristin Szakos) to remove the monument from the eponymously named park.
As a result, in the past year we’ve seen out-of-control City Council meetings, a Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces, a City Council vote to remove the statue, a lawsuit and injunction to prevent the removal and the renaming of
the park to Emancipation.
The issue has turned Charlottesville into a national flashpoint and drawn Virginia
Flaggers, guv hopeful and former Trump campaign state chair Corey Stewart, and Richard Spencer’s tiki-torch-carrying white nationalists. Coming up next: the Loyal White Knights of the KKK July 8 rally and Jason Kessler’s “Unite the Right” March August 12.
You, General Lee, are Charlottesville’s most powerful symbol for evoking America’s unresolved conflict over its national shame of slavery and the racial inequity still present in the 21st century.
Spawn of the Lee statue
Jason Kessler
Before the statue debate—and election of Donald Trump—Charlottesville was blissfully unaware of its own, homegrown whites-righter Jason Kessler, who unearthed Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s offensive tweets from before he took office and launched an unsuccessful petition drive to remove Bellamy from office, calling him a “black supremacist.” Since then, Kessler has slugged a man, filed a false complaint against his victim and aligned himself with almost every white nationalist group in the country, while denying he’s a white nationalist. The blogger formed Unity and Security in America and plans a “march on Charlottesville.” Most recently, we were treated to video of him getting punched while naming cereals in an initiation into the matching-polo-shirt-wearing Proud Boys.
SURJ
The impetus for the local Showing Up for Racial Justice was the seemingly unrelenting shootings of black men by police—and white people wanting to do something about it. But the Lee statue issue has brought SURJ into its own militant niche. Pam and Joe Starsia, who say they can’t speak for the collective, are its most well-known faces. The group showed up at Lee Park with a bullhorn to shout down GOP gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart, interrupted U.S. Representative Tom Garrett’s town hall and surrounded Kessler at outdoor café appearances on the Downtown Mall, shouting, “Nazi go home!” and “Fuck white supremacy!”—perhaps unintentionally making some people actually feel sorry for Kessler.
2.City Council
Not all councilors are equally powerful, but together—or in alliances—they’ve kept the city fixated on issues other than the ones citizens normally care about: keeping traffic moving and good schools.
Mayor Mike Signer. Photo by Eze Amos
Mike Signer
Mayor Signer took office in January 2016 in what is widely seen as a step to higher office. He immediately riled citizens by changing the public comment procedure at City Council meetings. A judge determined part of the new rules were unconstitutional, but some council regulars say the meetings do move along much better—at least when they’re not out of control with irate citizens expressing their feelings on the Lee statue. Signer called a public rally, sans permit, to proclaim Charlottesville the capital of the resistance. And despite his vote against removing the statue, he’s not shied away from denouncing the white nationalists drawn to Charlottesville like bears to honey.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy. Photo by Eze Amos
Wes Bellamy
Most politicians would be undone by the trove of racist, misogynistic and homophobic tweets Bellamy made before he was elected to City Council. As it was, they cost him his job as an Albemarle County teacher (a post from which he resigned after being placed on administrative leave) and a position on the Virginia Board of Education. But he fell on the sword, apologized and acknowledged the “disrespectful and, quite frankly, ignorant” comments he posted on Twitter. Perhaps it helped that Bellamy, at age 30, is a black male leader, has real accomplishments and has dedicated himself to helping young African-Americans. Despite his missteps, he is the voice for a sizable portion of Charlottesville’s population.
City Councilor Kristen Szakos. Photo by Elli Williams
Kristin Szakos
Szakos raised the topic of removing the city’s Confederate monuments several years before she teamed up with Bellamy, and she was soundly harassed for her trouble. When she ran for office, she called for town halls in the community and bringing council to the people, and she’s always demonstrated a concern for those who can’t afford to live in the world-class city they call home. She announced in January she won’t be seeking a third term in the fall.
City Councilor Kathy Galvin. Photo by Christian Hommel
Kathy Galvin
Galvin, an architect, envisions a strategic investment area south of the Downtown Mall, and her job will be to convince residents it’s a good deal for them. Council’s moderate voice, she, along with Signer, were the two votes against removing the Lee statue.
City Councilor Bob Fenwick. Photo by Chiara Canzi
Bob Fenwick
Even before losing the Democratic nomination June 13 with a dismal 20 percent of the vote, Fenwick was always the odd man out on council. His moment in the sun came earlier this year when he abstained from a split vote on removing the Lee statue, lobbied for pet causes among his fellow councilors and then cast his vote in the “aye” side, joining Bellamy and Szakos. That vote did not yield the groundswell of support he might have imagined from the black community. And although he leaves council at the end of the year as a one-termer, there are those who have appreciated Fenwick’s refusal to join in lockstep with the rest of council, and his willingness to call out its penchant for hiring consultants without taking action.
Coran Capshaw. Photo by Ashley Twiggs
3. Coran Capshaw
Every year we try to figure out how to do the power list without including Capshaw. But with his fingers in pies like Red Light Management (Dave Matthews, Sam Hunt); venues (the Pavilion, Jefferson, Southern and, most recently, the Brooklyn Bowl); Starr Hill Presents concert promotion and festivals such as Bonnaroo; merchandise—earlier this year, he reacquired Musictoday, which he founded in 2000; restaurants (Mas, Five Guys, Mono Loco, Ten) and of course development, with Riverbend Management, we have to acknowledge this guy’s a mogul. There’s just no escaping it.
In local real estate alone, Capshaw is a major force. Here are just a few Riverbend projects: City Walk, 5th Street Station, C&O Row, the rehabbed Coca-Cola building on Preston and Brookhill.
True, he fell from No. 7 to 11 on this year’s Billboard Power 100, but in Charlottesville, his influence is undiminished. And now he’s getting awards for his philanthropy, including Billboard’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2011, and this year, Nashville’s City of Hope medical center’s Spirit of Life Award.
UVA’s Rotunda. Photo by Karen Blaha
4. UVA
In January, UVA President Teresa Sullivan announced her summer 2018 retirement, and directed the Board of Visitors to begin the search for a new leader to rule Thomas Jefferson’s roost, the top employer in Virginia with its state-of-the-art medical center, a near-Ivy League education system and a couple of research parks teeming with innovative spirit.
Charlottesville native venture capitalist James B. Murray Jr., a former Columbia Capital partner of Senator Mark Warner, was elected vice rector of the Board of Visitors, and will take the rector-in-waiting position July 1, when Frank M. “Rusty” Connor III begins a two-year term as rector.
And lest we forget, the UVA Foundation recently purchased the university a $9 million 2015 Cessna Citation XLS—an eight-seat, multi-engine jet—to haul around its highest rollers.
Jaffray Woodriff. Photo by Eze Amos
5. Jaffray Woodriff
As the founder of Quantitative Investment Management, a futures contract and stock trading firm with experience in plataforma trading, Woodriff has landed at No. 28 on Forbes’ list of the 40 highest-earning hedge fund managers in the nation, with total earnings of $90 million. His troupe of about 35 employees manage approximately $3.5 billion in assets through a data science approach to investing.
Woodriff, an angel investor who has funded more than 30 local startups, made headlines this year when he bought the Downtown Mall’s beloved ice skating rink and announced plans to turn Main Street Arena into the Charlottesville Technology Center, which, according to a press release, “will foster talented developers and energized entrepreneurs by creating office space conducive of collaboration, mentorship and the scalability of startups.”
Demolition of the ice rink is scheduled for 2018, so there’s time yet to lace up your skates before you trade them in for a thinking cap.
Keith Woodard. Photo by Amy Jackson
6. Keith Woodard
Some might argue that Woodard’s power stems from the unrelenting complaints of people who are towed from his two downtown parking lots. But it’s the real estate those lots sit on—and more. The owner of Woodard Properties has rentals for all needs, whether residential or commercial. The latter includes part of a Downtown Mall block and McIntire Plaza. He was already rich enough to invest in a Tesla, but Woodard is about to embark on the biggest project of his life—the $50 million West2nd, the former and future site of City Market. Ground will break any time now, and by 2019, the L-shaped, 10-story building with 65 condos, office and retail space (including a restaurant and bakery/café) and a plaza will dominate Water Street.
Will Richey. Photo by Amy Jackson
7. Will Richey
When you talk about Charlottesville’s ever-growing restaurant scene, one name that seems to be on everyone’s tongue is Will Richey. The restaurateur-turned-farmer (his Red Row Farm supplies much of the produce in the summer for the two Revolutionary Soup locations) owns a fair chunk of where you eat and drink in this town: Rev Soup, The Bebedero, The Whiskey Jar, The Alley Light, The Pie Chest and the newest addition, Brasserie Saison, which he opened in March with Hunter Smith (owner of Champion Brewery, which is also on the expansion train, see. No. 9). Richey’s restaurant empire seems to know no bounds, and we’re excited to see what else he’ll add to his plate—and ours—in the coming years.
Rosa Atkins. Photo by Eze Amos
8. Rosa Atkins/Pam Moran
The superintendents for city and county schools have a long list of achievements to their names, with each division winning a number of awards under their tenures.
This month, Atkins—the city school system’s leader since 2006—was named to the State Council of Higher Education, but she’s perhaps most notably the School Superintendents Association’s 2017 runner-up for national female superintendent of the year.
Pam Moran. Photo by Amy Jackson
Moran, who has ruled county schools since 2005, held a similar title in late 2015, when the Virginia Association of School Superintendents named her State Superintendent of the Year, which placed her in the running for the American Association of School Administrators’ National Superintendent of the Year award, for which she was one of four finalists. This year, she requested the School Board continue to fund enrollment increases for at-risk students, making closing learning opportunity gaps a high priority.
Hunter Smith. Photo by Amy Jackson
9. Local beer
Throw a rock in this area and you’ll hit a brewery. For one thing, the Brew Ridge Trail is continually dotted with more stops. And new breweries in the city just keep popping up: Reason Brewery, founded by Charlottesville natives and set to open next month on Route 29 near Costco, is the latest. Other local additions include Random Row Brewery, which opened last fall on Preston Avenue, and Hardywood, based out of Richmond, which opened a pilot brewery and taproom on West Main Street in April.
And local breweries are not just opening but they’re expanding: Three Notch’d and Champion both opened Richmond satellite locations within the last year (that marks Three Notch’d’s third location, with another in Harrisonburg). And what pairs better with good drinks than good eats? Champion is adding food to its Charlottesville menu, and its brewers are enjoying a Belgian-focused playground at the joint restaurant venture Brasserie Saison.
Another sure sign that craft beer is thriving is the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild’s annual beer competition, the Virginia Craft Beer Cup Awards, which is the largest state competition of its kind; this year, 356 beers in 24 categories were entered. And Charlottesville is the new home of the organization’s annual beer showcase, the Virginia Craft Brewers Fest, which is moving from Devils Backbone Brewing Company to the IX Art Park in August. Host of the event, featuring more than 100 Virginia breweries, will be Three Notch’d Brewing Company, which is expanding its brewing operations from Grady Avenue into a space at IX, set to open in 2018.
Amy Laufer. Publicity photo
10. Amy Laufer
With 46 percent of the vote in this month’s City Council Democratic primary and nearly $20,000 in donations, Laufer also had a lengthy list of endorsements, including governor hopeful Tom Perriello and former 5th District congressman L.F. Payne.
Laufer, a current school board member and former chair and vice chair of the board, is also the founder of Virginia’s List, a PAC that supports Democratic women running for state office. If she takes a seat on City Council, keep an eye out for the progress she makes on her top issues: workforce development, affordable housing and the environment.
Khizr Khan. Photo by Eze Amos
11. Khizr Khan
Khan launched the city into the international spotlight when he, accompanied by his wife, Ghazala, took the stage on the final day of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and harshly criticized several of then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s policies, including his proposed ban on Muslim immigration.
“Donald Trump, you’re asking Americans to trust you with their future,” Khan said. “Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of the law.’”
Khan could be seen shaking a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution at the camera—his face splayed across every major news network for days thereafter. At the convention, he discussed the death of his son, Humayun, a UVA graduate and former U.S. Army captain during the Iraq War, who died in an explosion in Baqubah, Iraq.
Khan also spoke before hundreds at Mayor Mike Signer’s January rally to declare Charlottesville a “capital of the resistance,” and Khan and his wife recently announced a Bicentennial Scholarship in memory of their son, which will award $10,000 annually to a student enrolled in ROTC or majoring in a field that studies the U.S. Constitution.
John Dewberry. Photo by Eze Amos
12. John Dewberry
Even though he doesn’t live around here, he’s from around here, if you stretch here to include Waynesboro. Dewberry continues to hold downtown hostage with the Landmark Hotel, although we have seen some movement since he was on last year’s power list. After buying the property in 2012, he said he’d get to work on the Landmark, the city’s most prominent eyesore since 2009, once he finished his luxury hotel in Charleston, South Carolina. That took a few years longer than anticipated—these things always do—but earlier this year Dewberry wrangled some tax incentives from City Council, which has threatened to condemn the structure, and on June 20, the Board of Architectural Review took a look at his new and improved plans. One of these days, Dewberry promises, Charlottesville will have a five-star hotel on the Downtown Mall.
13. Andrea Douglas
The Ph.D. in art history, who formerly worked at what’s now UVA’s Fralin Museum of Art, always seemed like the only real choice to head the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, and since it opened in 2012, she’s made it an integral part of the community. The heritage center is far from self-sustaining, but a $950,000 city grant, a fundraising campaign and Douglas’ steely determination keep the historic school—and its place in the city’s history—firmly in the heart of Charlottesville. And Douglas can get a seat at Bizou anytime she wants—she’s married to co-owner Vincent Derquenne.
Paul Beyer. Photo by Ryan Jones
14. Paul Beyer
Innovation wunderkind Beyer ups the stakes on his Tom Tom Founders Festival every year. The event began six years ago as a music-only festival, but has morphed into a twice-a-year celebration of creativity and entrepreneurism. The fall is dedicated to locals who have founded successful businesses/organizations, while the week-long spring event continues to draw some of the world’s biggest names in the fields of technology, art, music and more. This year’s spring fest, which added a featured Hometown Summit that drew hundreds of civic leaders and innovators from around the country to share their successes and brainstorm solutions to struggles, was the biggest yet: 44,925 program attendees, 334 speakers and 110 events.
Lynn Easton and Dean Porter Andrews. Photo by Jen Fariello
15. Easton Porter Group
We know them as local leaders in the weddings and hospitality industry (Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards is often the site of well-to-do weddings, with some totaling in
the $200,000s, we hear), but now the Easton Porter Group has its sights set on a much bigger portfolio: Its goal is to secure 15 luxury properties in high-end destinations in the next 10 years. In 2016, the group, owned by husband-and-wife team Dean Porter Andrews and Lynn Easton, landed on Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the nation.
Their latest project is to our north, with the renovation of the Blackthorne Inn outside of Washington, D.C., in Upperville, Virginia. The historic hunt-country estate, which is being transformed into a boutique inn featuring luxury-rustic accommodations, fine dining and wine, is projected to open in spring 2018.
The Easton Porter Group’s other businesses include Red Pump Kitchen on the Downtown Mall, as well as Cannon Green restaurant and the Zero George Hotel Restaurant + Bar in Charleston, South Carolina.
16. EPIC
Equity and Progress in Charlottesville made a poignant debut earlier this year, shortly after the death of former vice-mayor Holly Edwards, who was one of the founders of the group dedicated to involving those who usually aren’t part of the political process. It includes a few Democrats no longer satisfied with the party’s stranglehold on City Council, like former mayor Dave Norris and former councilor Dede Smith. The group has drawn a lot of interest in the post-Trump-election activist era, but its first two endorsements in the June 13 primary, Fenwick and commonwealth’s attorney candidate Jeff Fogel, did not fare well. The group still holds high hopes for Nikuyah Walker as an independent City Council candidate, and despite the primary setback, says Norris, “We may not have won this election, but we certainly influenced the debate.”
Dr. Neal Kassell. Courtesy photo
17. Dr. Neal Kassell
UVA’s Focused Ultrasound Center, the flagship center of its kind in the U.S., has had a banner year. The use of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound technology to treat tremors has moved from the research stage to becoming more commercialized for patient treatment. And we can thank Kassell, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, for placing our city in the neurological pioneering sphere.
Two months ago, the Clinical Research Forum named the center’s use of focused sound waves to treat essential tremor (the most common movement disorder) instead of requiring invasive incisions, as one of the top 10 clinical research achievements of 2016. And it can’t hurt to have someone as well-known as John Grisham in your corner. He wrote The Tumor, and the foundation, which works as a trusted third party between donors, doctors and research, distributed 800,000 copies.
Kassell is the author of more than 500 scientific papers and book chapters, and his research has been supported by more than $30 million in National Institutes of Health grants. In April 2016, he was named to the Blue Ribbon Panel of former vice president Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
18. Jody Kielbasa
Since Kielbasa came to town in 2009, he has continued to steer the Virginia Film Festival toward an ever-expanding arts presence in not only our community, but statewide as well. Last year’s festival featured more than 120 films and attracted big-name stars, including director Werner Herzog and Virginia’s own Shirley MacLaine. And Kielbasa expanded his own presence locally, as he was appointed UVA’s second vice provost for the arts in 2013, which places him squarely in the university’s arts fundraising initiatives. Last year there was talk of a group of arts sector powerhouses forming to lobby the city in an official capacity to gain more funding for local arts initiatives—no surprise that Kielbasa was among those mentioned.
