Her supporters have gone ballistic on social media over the story.
The article describes dozens of emails Walker has sent city officials as indicative of her style of communication: “particularly outspoken,” “often confrontational” and in the online headline, “unabashedly aggressive.”
Reporter Chris Suarez says in the story a source in City Hall who wishes to remain anonymous “called attention to her emails, voicing concerns about her ability to work collaboratively with city officials.”
Journalist Jordy Yager, who has written for C-VILLE Weekly, on Twitter called the article a “hit piece” and asks why an anonymous source was used. He notes that the Society of Professional Journalists advises, “Always question sources’ motives before promising anonymity.”
Speculation on the anonymous source is centering on Mayor Mike Signer. After the August 12 debacle, a memo written by Signer was leaked to the press from an anonymous email account.
On Facebook, Walker says, “This article is a hit piece initiated by Mike Signer. Chris informed me that the same person who ‘leaked his own memo’ tipped him to my emails.” Walker goes on to say that no one needed to tip Suarez to the “unabashedly aggressive” emails because he had been copied on them in the past.
Suarez says that’s not exactly what he said in an “offhand comment” to Walker. He says he told Walker, “I think it could be the same person who leaked his memo.” He adds that he does not know for sure that Signer was the source of the leaked memo that threw City Manager Maurice Jones and police Chief Al Thomas under the bus for the events of August 12.
“That’s all I can say,” says Suarez.
In an email, Signer provided a statement he plans to make at tonight’s City Council meeting. He says he was approached by an employee of the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program who had concerns about a “vendetta” against AHIP by a council candidate. A number of Walker’s emails expressed frustration with the quality of work done on her home through the program.
Signer says, “I have openly shared with folks my concerns about emails Council received from the Council candidate about AHIP containing profane attacks against our staff and against AHIP.” He denies directing anyone to seek a Freedom of Information Act request for the emails, which are public records, or issuing one.
He points out the use of “coded” words like “aggressive,” which Fortune magazine reports are frequently used to describe women, but almost never men. “I also want to make clear how disappointed and frustrated I was by the paper’s decision to use such language, and by the questionable timing of the article—the day before the paper’s endorsements of two other candidates,” says Signer.
“My reaction is they’re trying to tamper with the election the way the Russians did,” says activist and Walker supporter Walt Heinecke. “I find it unethical both on the part of the Daily Progress and the anonymous source.”
Heinecke notes that the day before the November 4 Progress story, Democratic candidates Amy Laufer and Heather Hill held a press conference in which they said the most important thing they’re expressing is their willingness to collaborate with City Council, city staff and the community.
“It’s beyond the pale to think it’s coincidence,” says Heinecke. Laufer and Hill had not responded to requests for comment at press time.
“I’ve been hearing disgust and disappointment,” says Heinecke. He also says he’s hearing more people say they’re going to single-shot Walker, a voting strategy of using just one of two votes for council to avoid giving more to the Democrats, who hold a sizeable majority in town.
Former mayor Dave Norris, also a Walker supporter, wrote on Facebook that he’d submitted a letter to the editor to the Progress a few days earlier to endorse Walker and it was rejected. He says the response from the newspaper was, “We stop running political letters…three or four days prior to the election so that no one can slip in a last-minute bombshell without time for an opposing view to be submitted.”
“But apparently this rule does not apply to their own news page, or at least not when they’re doing the bidding of their ‘anonymous source’ on City Council,” writes Norris.
Daily Progress editor Wesley Hester did not immediately respond to a call from C-VILLE.
Walker has taken heat for her use of the f-word, particularly at the out-of-control August 21 City Council meeting. She acknowledges she uses curse words, but points out that people died August 12 and questions people being more upset by a curse word.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy says on Facebook he’s been trying to stay out of the election, but he blasts the Progress story and says the “powers that be” are terrified of Walker because of her strength and the fact that she speaks her mind on issues of equity, systemic oppression and racism.
City Council candidates disclose campaign spending.
Show us the money
Getting on City Council can cost a lot more than what the part-time job pays, even after a raise in 2018 boosted the salary to $18,000 annually. So far, no one’s touched Mayor Mike Signer’s all-time high of $51K to get elected, but major cash has been raised this year in some cases. In others, not so much. Above are the City Council candidates’ numbers as of September 30, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Democracy dropouts
Click to enlarge.
Americans like to extol our exceptionalism for living in a free country, while conveniently skipping over the foundation of democracy: showing up at the polls and voting.
In that category, American citizens are lazy slobs.
Oh sure, we turn out in presidential election years, which nationally is a lackluster 50 percent. Locally, we do somewhat better, yet only mustering around 70 percent—barely a passing grade. And in a year where it’s merely local and House of Delegate races, which some argue are the most important, and fewer than one-third of the city and county’s 100,000-plus registered voters can be bothered to go to the polls.
Supposedly the 2016 election galvanized the country. Will that call for action be evident in the polls? We’ll find out November 7.
Officer-involved shooting
City police killed J.C. Hawkins Jr. October 13, after Hawkins allegedly sexually assaulted and robbed a 72-year-old woman in the 300 block of Riverside Avenue. Three officers found him on the Rivanna Trail, and say he pointed a handgun at them. Officers shot at Hawkins, he fell into the Rivanna River and “succumbed to his injuries,” police say. The officers are on administrative leave as Virginia State Police investigate.
Coach indicted
An Orange County grand jury indicted former volunteer softball coach Cathy S. Rothgeb, 57, of Stanley, on 34 counts related to sexual assault of children October 16. Rothgeb coached from the 1980s to early 2000s.
NBC29 boycott
Henry Graff’s interview with white nationalist Richard Spencer on the heels of “Charlottesville 3.0”—the October 7 tiki torch flash mob here—has irate viewers forming a Boycott NBC29 Facebook group with 122 members vowing to tell the TV station’s advertisers they don’t approve. Others simply changed the channel.
Gateway or gridlock?
Belmont Bridge photo by Jack Looney
City Council voted 4-1 October 16 to pass the conceptual design for the Belmont Bridge two-lane replacement project, with Bob Fenwick being the lone dissenter.
Borrowed & Blue shutdown
The Charlottesville-based tech startup that connected hundreds of couples to wedding vendors since 2011 abruptly announced October 16 that it would shut down all business operations, effective immediately.
Quote of the Week
Don Gathers. Photo by Eze Amos
“Someone set up a report card for city government. I believe this puts you on academic probation.” —Don Gathers at the October 16 City Council meeting
The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection lawsuit hopes to keep "unlawful paramilitary activity," like that seen on August 12, out of Charlottesville. Photo by Eze Amos
Exactly two months after the summer’s Unite the Right white nationalist rally that left three dead and many injured, a legal group has filed an unprecedented complaint on behalf of Charlottesville, local businesses and neighborhood associations that could prohibit “unlawful paramilitary activity” in the city.
Lawyers with the University of Georgetown Law School’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection claim the independent militiamen and women, many carrying “60 to 80 pounds of combat gear,” such as semi-automatic assault rifles slung over their shoulders, made tensions boil at what some have called the largest gathering of white supremacists in recent history.
“Regardless of ideology, the presence of these private armies, whether armed with assault rifles or bats, batons or clubs, significantly heightens the possibility of violence, as we saw on August 12,” said Mary McCord, an attorney with Georgetown Law’s ICAP, who filed the complaint which is, as she says, “seeking to ensure that the streets do not become battlefields for those who organize and engage in paramilitary activity.”
According to the complaint, rally organizers, including homegrown Jason Kessler, solicited private militias to attend the rally, held group-wide planning calls and circulated an instructional document called “General Orders.”
“All the while, attendees encouraged one another to ‘prepare for war,’” according to ICAP.
Named defendants in the lawsuit include Kessler and Identity Evropa CEO Eli Mosley, white nationalist groups Traditionalist Worker Party, Vanguard America, League of the South, and the National Socialist Movement, and private militia groups Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia, New York LIght Foot Militia, Virginia Minutemen Militia, American Freedom Keepers, American Warrior Revolution, Redneck Revolt and the Socialist Rifle Association.
Kessler and the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia did not immediately respond to interview requests.
“It’s a unique lawsuit,” says Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead, who has represented far-right and far-left defendants for 40 years. “There are some real complications.”
According to Virginia law, “the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power,” but Whitehead points to the 2008 Supreme Court decision of District of Columbia v. Heller, in which justices voted 5-4 that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to carry weapons unconnected with service in a militia. He says the definition of “militia” under Virginia law is vague, and several groups named in the suit do not identify as militia groups.
The 75-page complaint is a culmination of investigations, including interviews with residents and bystanders, hours of footage, hundreds of photos and thousands of social media posts, McCord said outside Charlottesville Circuit Court after her group and members of City Council filed the suit.
“The investigation uncovered overwhelming evidence, much of which has only become available after August 12, of planning by alt-right groups to engage in the very type of militaristic violence that resulted,” McCord says. “They have vowed to come back, as have the self-professed militia purporting to be peacekeepers.”
Michie Hamlett attorneys Lee Livingston and Kyle NcNew will serve as the local counsel for the suit. Livingston reminded those outside the courthouse of the terror the city faced that day.
“August 12 is a tragic story now—a part of the lives of all Charlottesvillians,” he says. “A street we walk to restaurants, where we enjoy life with our neighbors, on that street, our neighbors were plowed over by a car. The images of bodies being smashed by that car will never leave us. A park where we celebrate festivals became a scene of medieval squad maneuvers, people struck down, people bleeding. We fear that a dark chapter was opened in our nation’s history on our doorstep, a chapter many had thought was closed in the 20th century.”
He said he hopes the suit will provide public servants “who protect the peace” a tool to prevent private armies from returning to the area, protect those who use Emancipation Park and the surrounding area from the “intimidating, unregulated soldiers,” and allow the community to come together, “in at least a small step, to reduce what feels like a dark turn of our story.”
Added Mayor Mike Signer, “I support [the lawsuit] as a stand against the disintegration of our democracy, and as a call for us to put a firm close to this horrible chapter in our democracy where people think it’s okay to parade in military outfits in public, to openly threaten violence against other people, to fire weapons into crowds, to beat people in public and to use a car as a weapon.”
White nationalists held another tiki torch rally in Emancipation Park on October 7. Photo by Jalane Schmidt
“The so called ‘alt-right’ believes intimidation and intolerance will stop us from our work,” says Mayor Mike Signer in an October 8 press release after about 40 white supremacists held another torch-lit rally in Emancipation Park. “They could not be more wrong. We must marshal all our resources, legal and otherwise, to protect our public and support our values of inclusion and diversity in the future.”
Richard Spencer. Photo: Jalane Schmidt
Police say the rally, led by UVA alumni Richard Spencer, started around 7:40pm October 7, lasted approximately 5 to 10 minutes and consisted of about 40 to 50 people—most wearing what’s become the uniform of white nationalists, khakis and white polos.
Witnesses identified the Right Stuff host Mike Enoch and Identity Evropa CEO Eli Mosley among the mix.
The white nationalists chanted the same refrain from their May 13 rally, “You will not replace us,” “Jews will not replace us,” and “Russia is our friend,” and they made it clear they’d be back to give the speeches they weren’t allowed to give August 12, says activist Jalane Schmidt. Then they hopped into vans and police say they followed them to make sure they left the city.
Schmidt was walking downtown when she saw the torches and called for backup. The UVA associate professor, who snapped photos of what she calls the “goons,” was one of about 20 activists who then gathered at Congregation Beth Israel in case any alt-right stragglers decided to target the synagogue while its congregation was outside celebrating Sukkot.
“As a city, it’s important that we stand up to and reject every notion of white supremacy, the kind that is both overt and covert,” said Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy in the city’s press release. “As a city council, I firmly believe that my colleagues and I are committed to addressing these issues and showing the community that we hear them.”
Bellamy said he looks forward to hearing from the city’s commonwealth’s attorney’s office about different ways to enforce current laws and ordinances, and how to create “new parameters to stop hate groups from feeling so welcome here.” They’ve also been working with outside counsel on new procedures that would give the city additional authority to control the conditions under which a group can hold a rally or demonstration. Council is scheduled to receive this report October 16.
According to the press release, the city is also discussing how to better equip the police department with the ability to gather intelligence, and the department’s public information officer and the city’s communications director are working to create unified communication protocols.
“This is not business as usual or a classroom exercise where every threatening public utterance or assembly is met with ‘freedom of speech,” says Councilor Bob Fenwick, who calls the alt-right rally “a clear and present danger to the community.”
“I want to be clear, for all who believe that bigotry, racism, hate and any other form of oppression [are] welcome in our city, you are wrong,” Bellamy said. “The Charlottesville that I love is not defined by white supremacy. Our new Charlottesville stands together for each other.”
Members of the clergy link arms with counterprotesters in front of Emancipation Park Saturday, August 12, as alt-right groups of white nationalists arrive in waves. Photo by Natalie Krovetz
It was the day that kept getting worse. The weekend from hell. Like many of you, C-VILLE Weekly is still processing Saturday’s violation from ill-intentioned visitors with antiquated notions who now believe it’s okay to say in broad daylight what they’ve only uttered in the nether regions of the internet.
The Unite the Right rally left three people dead and countless injured, both physically and psychologically. We, too, share the sorrow, despair and disgust from being slimed by hate.
But here’s one thing we know: Despite the murder, the assaults and the terror inflicted upon this community, Charlottesville said no to hate. And the world, it turns out, has our back.
We sent six reporters and two photographers out to document the August 12 rally at Emancipation Park, the community events taking place around it and the weekend of infamy. Here’s a timeline of what we saw and what we felt. Because this? This is our town.
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.
On the heels of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement Accord, Mayor Mike Signer announced today that he has joined the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and identify their sources. Staff photo
On the heels of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement Accord, Mayor Mike Signer announced today that he has joined the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and identify their sources.
This is an effort, he says, to continue resisting.
“Resistance has come to mean many things to many different people in this community,” said Signer at the press conference he called. In the wake of Trump’s first week in office, the mayor held a rally to declare Charlottesville a “Capital of the Resistance.” But in the realm of environmental sustainability, Signer says it means the city “can and will take matters into our own hands.”
Rising sea levels are a key indicator of climate change. Though Charlottesville is landlocked, (and Signer noted that the Fry’s Spring Beach Club is likely the closest thing the city has to an ocean), he says City Council will soon adopt a resolution to continue combating the effects of global warming.
“Today, we reaffirm our commitment to taking actions to reduce climate pollution and we will continue to stand with cities and other leaders throughout the nation and the world to advance action in accordance with the Paris Agreement,” he says. “We know that climate change is a real and significant threat that requires local and global action, and we are prepared to demonstrate that action in Charlottesville.”
At the press conference, Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy said climate change is “not only affecting the low of the low, but the high of high.” He chose not to refer to the president by name, and said “Number 45” is trying his darndest to limit “equity and access,” which Bellamy said he will continue “to fight for…on this issue and the rest of our issues moving forward.”
Kristel Riddervold, the city’s environmental sustainability manager since 2002, noted that Charlottesville has an official climate protection program. She rattled off a list of achievements, including publishing the first community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Report in 2008, installing eight solar panel systems on municipal buildings, and establishing a goal of 30 percent reduction of those greenhouse gases by 2050 in the comprehensive plan.
Councilor Kathy Galvin honed in on the three main emitters of greenhouse gases in the city, which are cars, coal and buildings, and noted that Council will be increasing the tree canopy along West Main Street by 400 percent to reverse some of the damage. “The details are where you find the good lord or the devil,” she said.
More than 1,100 Virginians died in 2016 from the state’s opioid epidemic, with fentanyl, the drug that killed Prince, now racking up the most fatalities. And while the state hasn’t had much luck so far in slowing addiction, which often occurs after people are prescribed opioid-based meds for pain, it is a leader in fighting overdoses.
Virginia broke new ground by allowing anyone to obtain naloxone, the generic name for drugs like Narcan that are used for overdoses, without a prescription. On April 1, regulations went into effect that require opioid prescriptions above a certain dosage to include a script for naloxone.
Adapt Pharma, the manufacturer of nasal-spray Narcan, wants the drug easily available at an affordable price. “We’re never going to turn the death rate down until naloxone is available everywhere,” says spokesperson Thom Duddy. Since April 1, for every 45 opioid prescriptions in Virginia, 1 naloxone script is written. Nationally, 570 opioid prescriptions are written for every 1 naloxone script
Conflicting advice in case of an overdose
According to the Virginia Board of Medicine:
Call 911
Then administer naloxone
According to Adapt Pharma:
Administer naloxone
Then call 911
By the numbers
By Alpha Pharma, Virginia Department of Health
7: Fatal opioid overdoses in Charlottesville/Albemarle in 2016
$75: Cost of two bottles of Narcan
Around $10: Cost with typical insurance
Free (for those insured under the ACA or Medicaid)
Early checkout
High Meadows Inn, the baby-blue B&B with green shutters in Scottsville, is headed to the auction block May 24 after current owner Cynthia Bruce defaulted on its $737,000 mortgage. Selling, crowdfunding and even trying to give the inn away in an ill-fated essay contest couldn’t save it.
Not a Hollywood ending
Confiscated movie money. Courtesy Albemarle County Police Department
County police say 19-year-old Yahmil Deyshon Payne and two juveniles have been arrested for using fake money, which clearly says “For Motion Picture Use Only,” in local businesses and in exchange for electronics. Keep your eyes peeled—police think some of the debunked dollars are still circulating.
Media moves
Nelson native and Newsplex GM Jay Barton is departing for new Gray Television purchase, WCAX in Burlington, Vermont. Former sales manager Eric Krebs is the new GM. And over at the Daily Progress, features writer David Maurer has retired after nearly 30 years.
Quote of the Week:
Another profile in courage here—anonymous trolls lecturing elected officials about cowardice. Yawn. —Mayor Mike Signer responds on Twitter after denouncing torch-carying white nationalists in Lee Park
Rescheduled—again
For the third time, Frayser White IV’s pre-trial motions hearing has been continued. White is charged with possession of heroin, cocaine and alprazolam, and reckless driving in the first county traffic fatality of 2016, when he allegedly collided head-on on Ivy Road with 81-year-old Carolyn Wayne, who died at the scene. A new date for his trial, originally scheduled for last Halloween, has not been set.
Don’t drink the water
Chris Greene Lake, Albemarle’s most popular recreational park and once a supplemental water supply, was officially designated not a public water reservoir.
More than 2,000 turned out for Charlottesville’s rally to support the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., January 21. Photo by Ryan Jones
Charlottesville is no stranger to protests. The city’s Free Speech Wall is a testament to the First Amendment and a frequent gathering spot for citizens exercising their right to assemble.
That said, we’ve never seen anything like this.
Since the election of Donald Trump as president, at least seven new groups have sprung up, and a couple of more were formed during 2016. Mayor Mike Signer declared Charlottesville the “capital of the resistance” at a January 31 rally, and it’s hard to keep up with the ongoing protests.
“I see resistance as a broad spectrum, ranging from making donations to organizations that stand for American values to joining a protest to calling a congressman to changing a friend’s mind to supporting a lawsuit to embracing a member of a vulnerable and victimized population,” says Signer.“What’s happening in Charlottesville at this very moment encompasses this whole spectrum,” he says.
From women’s rights to immigrant rights to racial justice to health care, there’s one or more groups focusing on the issue and they’ve all come to a boil since Trump’s inauguration. And that’s on top of longstanding, local re-energized groups like Charlottesville NOW, Virginia Organizing and Legal Aid Justice Center.
The left has the bulk of the new groups, but there’s also resistance from the far, so-called “alt-right,” which many local activists call white nationalists.
“Of course this is unprecedented,” says the Center for Politics’ Larry Sabato. “But, then again, we’ve never had a president like Trump.”
Sabato says it usually takes years for opposition to build to a significant level, as it did for President Herbert Hoover once America had suffered through years of the Great Depression, or LBJ because of the Vietnam War. President Richard Nixon, who took office in January 1969, didn’t see a big anti-war rally until October of that year.
“The largest demonstrations were for civil rights in the 1960s,” says Sabato, and were not directed against any president. Also huge were the anti-war demonstrations following Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia in May 1970, he says.
“I expect that these activities will evolve as the threats evolve,” says Signer. “I’m incredibly proud to be a member of a community with so much resistance happening on so many levels.”
Who’s protesting what? Here’s C-VILLE Weekly’s guide to the resistance.—with additional reporting by Samantha Baars
Together Cville has weekly potlucks at IX Art Park. Photo by Eze Amos
Together Cville
Issue: Make sure the vulnerable in our community are safe with access to resources
Motto: Keep strong and fight together
Event: Weekly potluck on Sundays from 5:30-7pm at IX Art Park
Supporters: 670 on e-mail list; 60 to 100 at potlucks
Info: togethercville.net
Quote:“Our goal is to resist the current regime’s agenda. The promise of America is the freedom to pursue flourishing lives.”—Nathan Moore
Together Cville started the day after the election as a way of “channeling the anger and disappointment into something useful,” says Moore. The group takes a multipronged approach, he says, and is in touch with other groups. It also has produced a calendar of local activist events. And the Sunday potlucks, he says, are “rejuvenating.”
Together Cville Women’s Group
Origin: Pantsuit Nation
Issue: Meeting place to gather volunteers,
learn about protests
Event: Monthly first Saturday meeting from 4-6pm at the Friends Quaker Meeting House, 1104 Forest St.
Supporters: 200 followers on Facebook; works with other groups such as Together Cville
Quote: “I think a lot of us got to the point it was overwhelming, there were so many issues, so now we help find your passion.”—Dianne Bearinger
Bearinger, who grew up in the ’60s and has been an activist all her life, says, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” Activism “hasn’t felt like a choice to me because so much I care about is threatened.” She lists the environment and seeing rising sea levels where she grew up in New Jersey, friends in the Islamic community who feel threatened, friends
raising black sons and feeling vulnerable, and the Affordable Care Act, which Bearinger depends on for health care.
Indivisible Charlottesville members are weekly regulars at the Berkmar Crossing office of Congressman Tom Garrett. Photo by Eze Amos
Indivisible Charlottesville
Origin: Indivisible Guide written by former congressional staffers
Issue: Get Congress to listen to a vocal minority
Strategy: Protest style borrows from the
Tea Party playbook
Event: Weekly Tuesday protests from noon-1:30pm at U.S. Representative Tom Garrett’s office at Berkmar Crossing, and the group held a town hall meeting February 26 without Garrett, who was in Germany
Supporters: 3,500 on Facebook; 1,600 on e-mail list; 200-250 people at weekly protests
Info: facebook.com/indivisiblecharlottesville
Quote: “We had a lot of people at the beginning who can organize and people who can volunteer 10 hours a week. We’re figuring out how to channel that volunteer energy.”—David Singerman
Indivisible Charlottesville reserved a room at the Central Library January 28, expecting 100 people might show up, says Singerman. Instead, about 500 showed up, the event moved to The Haven and “the roller coaster began,” he says. While Garrett has been a vocal Trump supporter, he isn’t the only one in Congress the group is pressuring. Virginia’s two Democratic senators have also heard from Indivisible, says Singerman. “Trump has thrown unexpected curveballs,” he says. “There won’t be any shortage of issues.”
Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America
Inspired by: The Bern
Issues: Living wage, affordable housing,
universal health care
Strategy: Going to public meetings and
voicing opinions
Supporters: 30 to 40 at the group’s first public meeting February 15
Info: facebook.com/CvilleDSA
Quote: “It’s a political ideology focusing on the importance of social and economic equities,
collective decision-making and ownership.”—Lewis Savarese
The national Democratic Socialists of America organization started in 1982, but the socialist tradition in the U.S. goes back to the early 20th century, when Eugene Debs ran for president five times. More recently, Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign reignited interest in democratic socialism and the local group hopes to tap into that energy. “Currently the system panders to certain interest groups, like corporations,” says Savarese. “We believe we can bring more people into the political process.”
A demonstration got loud February 11 when candidate for governor Corey Stewart showed up to denounce City Council’s vote to remove the state of General Robert E. Lee from Lee Park, and members of SURJ showed up in counterprotest. Photo by Eze Amos
Showing Up for Racial Justice
Inspired by: Last July’s police shootings of unarmed black men Philando Castile and Alton Sterling
Issue: Getting more white people to focus on racial justice
Strategy: Mobilize quickly and use a diversity of tactics to show zero-tolerance for white supremacists
Event: SURJ members were in former Trump campaign Virginia chair/GOP gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart’s face when he came to Charlottesville February 11 to denounce City Council’s vote to remove the General Robert E. Lee statue.
Supporters: 980 Facebook followers; 350 on e-mail list
Info: facebook.com/surjcville
Quote: “It’s white people’s job to undermine white supremacists.”—Pam Starsia
Protests are not SURJ’s only way of combating racism. The group co-sponsored a February 21 workshop on gentrification, zoning and form-based code with the local NAACP, Legal Aid Justice Center and Public Housing Association of Residents. And SURJ admonished the local media not to normalize fringe racist groups who call themselves “alt-right” without defining them as white supremacists or white nationalists.
heARTful Action
Issue: How to do the activism thing and do it in a healthy way
Event: Monthly workshops on aspects of activism and self-care on the last Saturday of the month from 3-5pm at Friends Quaker Meeting House
Supporters: 200 on Facebook; connected to Together Cville, Together Cville Women’s Group and Indivisible Charlottesville
Info: focuspocusnow.com/category/heartful-action
Quote: “It feels like this time we can’t think our way out of it. We need to feel in our bones what we want to create and that requires integration of body and mind.”—Susan McCulley
McCulley and two friends were already thinking about small workshops on art and mindfulness. “Then the election happened,” she says. HeARTful Action wants to help people navigate the new landscape in a way that is creative and mindful.
Charlottesville Gathers
Issue: Active bystander intervention
Event: Rally to support the Women’s March on Washington January 21 at IX Art Park
Supporters: The rally brought more than 2,000 pussy cap-wearing attendees
Info: facebook.com/CharlottesvilleGathers
Quote: “We intend to be a convener of training and inspirational events to equip Charlottesville and its citizens to be the capital of the resistance.”—Gail Hyder Wiley
Wiley joined up with teacher Jill Williams to organize the rally. At this point, she says it’s pretty much just her, but she’s ready to provide support to other groups.
Cville Rising
Issue: Clean energy implementation, pipelines
Current action: Working closely with Buckingham County’s Union Hill community and activist group Friends of Buckingham to prevent the construction of a noisy compressor station, which is being proposed in tandem with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Allies: Friends of Nelson, Friends
of Buckingham, Friends of
Augusta, EPIC, Together Cville
Supporters: 30 frequent volunteers; 300-person e-mail list
Info: cvillerising.com
Though the group didn’t officially form until the end of last year—after the
presidential election of a man who
supports the construction of major fracked gas pipelines, though a spokesperson says it was unrelated—Cville Rising has been operating under the radar for a year and a half. Its mission is to bring awareness and connect Charlottesville to the environmental woes in surrounding counties.
Equity and Progress in Charlottesville
Inspired by: Again, Bernie
Issue: Elect local candidates to make bold changes to eliminate racial and economic
disparities
Event: Held second meeting February 27 to find and support candidates to run for office
Supporters: About 150 showed up at first meeting
Info: epiccville.org
Quote: “We aimed exclusively at local issues and changing the power relationship.”—Jeff Fogel
EPIC was already in the works before the election, but “I think the response we’ve gotten is in large part a function of the election,” says Fogel, who is the group’s first candidate and is running for commonwealth’s attorney. EPIC boasts former city officials, including former mayor Dave Norris and former councilor Dede Smith, who are ready to support candidates who traditionally haven’t been part of the political process.
Mayor Mike Signer held a rally January 31 and declared Charlottesville the capital of the resistance. Unity and Security for America’s Jason Kessler held his own vocal counter-demonstration at the same event. Photo by Eze Amos
Unity and Security for America
Issue: Defending Western civilization while dismantling cultural Marxism
Events: Meetings every Wednesday at 7pm at the Central Library
Supporters:At least two [Its president, Jason Kessler, did not respond to requests for information.]
Mascot: Pepe the frog
Info: usactionpac.org
Quote: “[Wes Bellamy] then proceeded to attack the Robert E. Lee monument, which is of ethnic significance to Southern white people.”—Jason Kessler
Kessler, whose claim to fame is unearthing Bellamy’s vulgar tweets and petitioning to have him removed from office because of the tweets and his call to relocate Confederate statues, has attracted statewide white heritage protectors, including former Trump state campaign manager and candidate for governor Corey Stewart.
Khizr Khan speaks out against the "dark chapter that is being written" at Mayor Mike Signer's capital of the resistance rally.
Staff photo
Mayor Mike Signer had a quorum of councilors today outside City Hall, but it wasn’t for a City Council meeting. A band played Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” as hundreds of Charlottesvillians assembled at noon below the statues of three presidents, along with a handful of vocal protesters, and Signer declared Charlottesville the “capital of the resistance.”
President Donald Trump’s January 27 executive order barring refuges from seven predominantly Muslim countries was the catalyst for this and other protests both here and throughout the country.
Signer assembled a dozen speakers, including Gold Star father Khizr Khan and Pam Northam, wife of Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam.
The mayor said he’d met with a dozen local refugees over the weekend and listened to “the fear, the confusion, the anxiety” caused by the president’s order. “They are hearing the message America doesn’t want them,” said Signer.
Mayor Mike Signer calls President Trump a “demagogue” and says the nation is being tested. Photo Eze Amos
He invoked poet Emma Lazarus and said, “We are a place that embraces your huddled masses yearning to be free.”
And he listed four actions he’d be taking, including working with senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine’s staffs to get specific help for local immigrants and refuges, providing volunteer legal assistance, discussing with the commonwealth’s attorney how to protect residents, particularly if federal enforcement “becomes more draconian” in the coming weeks, and asking the city’s Human Rights Office to address xenophobia and harassment on the streets.
The latter issue became an immediate clash of constitutional freedoms, with at least one protester talking loudly as Signer and other speakers addressed the crowd, and frequent council speaker Joe Draego spotted packing heat. When another attendee shouted, “He has a gun!” Draego noted it was his Second Amendment right.
Charlottesville police spokesman Steve Upman says no arrests were made from the crowd he estimates at 500.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy snaps a selfie while blogger Jason Kessler, right, points a finger. Photo Eze Amos
At the beginning of the rally, Signer urged, “If anyone tried to disrupt these proceedings with messages of hate, drown them out with messages of love.” He suggested protesters make use of the nearby Free Speech Wall.
That didn’t deter blogger Jason Kessler, whose commentary inflamed many of those standing near him, and who drew a shout of “Shut up, Jason!” when Khan began to talk.
Gold Star parent Khizr Khan addresses the crowd under the three presidents. Photo Eze Amos
Khan, whose UVA alum son, Captain Humayun Khan, was killed serving the U.S. Army in Iraq in 2004, said, “We will continue to speak against the darkness, the dark chapter that is being written in our country. We will not let that happen.”
“The people united will not be defeated,” said Karim Ginena, who studies at Darden. Photo Eze Amos
Karim Ginena with the Islamic Society of Central Virginia, pointed out, “Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian immigrant.” He drew a laugh when he said, “Two-thirds of President Trump’s wives are recent immigrants.”
Harriet Kuhr. Photo Eze Amos
Harriet Kuhr, the director of the local branch of International Rescue Committee, said, “The refugees coming here are the victims of terrorism and are desperate to find safety.” A Syrian family arrived here two weeks ago, she said, and family members who were supposed to join them are blocked by the new restrictions.
“Is this the America we stand for?” she asked, and received a resounding “no” from the crowd.
Pam Northam’s husband, Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, is running for governor. Photo Eze Amos
Northam acknowledged the continuing drone of hecklers, and said, “I’m a teacher and I’m real used to talking over people.”
Jeff Legro remembers coming to UVA when it was much less diverse. Photo Eze Amos
UVA Vice Provost Jeff Legro lamented “the exceptional talent from around the world that cannot get here,” and Rabbi Tom Gutherz, the child of refugees, expressed his dismay with the “shameful” executive order.
“I am very tired of Christianity being hijacked by the voices of hate,” said the Reverend Elaine Ellis Thomas from St. Paul’s Memorial Episcopal Church.
Pastor Hodari Hamilton, of First Baptist Church, speaks and prays at the January 31 rally. Photo Eze Amos
Following a final prayer, Signer returned to the mic: “This is not an end, this is a beginning.”
He said the event was not a partisan one. “This is an American thing. This is a Virginia thing.” And he ended the capital of the resistance rally with shouts of “USA! USA!”
Signer drew some criticism from the Charlottesville chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, which in a statement questioned the timing of the rally as “politically expedient” for the mayor amid the wave of national protests, while taking place just hours before the first public meeting of Equity and Progress in Charlottesville, a new group political group that seeks to involve more marginalized members of the community.
SURJ also objected to Signer “co-opting the language of ‘resistance'” while not acknowledging the many other activists that have stood up against white supremacy and racial injustice.
Updated 5:05pm with SURJ statement.
Updated 2/1/17 with additional photos.
Correction 2/1/17: The Islamic Society of Central Virginia was misidentified in the original version.
