An onlooker at the City Council meeting shows their support for Walker. Photo: Eze Amos
Loud and Clear
Nikuyah Walker begins a second two-year term as mayor of Charlottesville, after being re-elected at the January 6 City Council meeting. Councilors Michael Payne and Sena Magill voted for Walker, while Lloyd Snook and Heather Hill (who made her own bid for mayor) abstained.
Hill opened the meeting with an impassioned speech offering her services as mayor. “I really have gained a deep affection for the city, this region, and the people we share it with,” Hill said. During her time on council, she says she’s “developed a new lens from which I now view our community, its diversity, and its disparities in its harmony.”
Lloyd Snook did not mention any candidates specifically, but returned to the theme of civility that he’d emphasized during his campaign, saying “the selection of a mayor should be about how things will be done, not what will be done.”
“Council can start by not displaying open contempt for people coming to speak to us,” Snook said. “We can start by not displaying open contempt for the people on the dais.”
Michael Payne endorsed Walker by name, citing feminist academic theory and Walker’s record of “historic and unprecedented investment in housing.”
“I’ve walked in rooms the past three years where no one really took me seriously,” Walker said. “They didn’t think they had to. They discounted the abilities of black women. It wasn’t until the election that people understood the value I bring to rooms.”
“The individuals who have the least are heard the most when I am in the room,” Walker said.
Sena Magill, who received a $225 donation from Hill during her campaign, did not tip her hand during the initial comment period. “Whatever decision I make on this dais today will disappoint people who voted for me,” Magill said. “That’s inevitable. I have to vote with my heart. Where deep deep down I know I’m fighting for what’s right.”
Magill was elected vice mayor by a 4-1 vote, with Snook casting his vote for Hill.
Mayor Walker. Photo: Eze Amos
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Quote of theWeek
“We got a new council here. We put y’all in those seats. Y’all got something to say? Respond to us.”
—Local resident and activist Mary Carey, speaking at the first meeting of the new City Council.
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In Brief
Cut loose
Supervisors at Charlottesville’s Trump Winery fired at least seven employees for their lack of legal immigration status–but only after the workers completed the annual grape harvest. The firings come nearly a year after The Trump Organization vowed to remove undocumented workers from its properties, which have long relied on low-wage, illegal labor, and after a harvest that included 60-hour weeks and overnight shifts, according to The Washington Post.
More chicken
Soon, you’ll be able to fil’ up without getting out of your car. This week City Council granted a special use permit for Chick-fil-A to open a two-lane drive-through location where the Burger King in Barracks Road currently sits. “It’ll be a great meeting place and community center,” one speaker said during the public comment period. Councilor Michael Payne voted against the permit, citing a hesitancy to approve “car-centric development” given the city’s emissions reduction targets.
Helping hand
Beginning on January 27, Cville Tax Aid—a partnership led by the United Way of Greater Charlottesville—will be offering free tax preparation services for most taxpayers with household incomes of $55,000 or less. The program will be offered at sites in the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson counties until April 15. To schedule an appointment, call the United Way or visit CvilleTaxAid.org.
Scooters be gone
After spending only a year in Charlottesville, Lime will remove all its e-scooters due to new city regulations, including a requirement to provide at least 50 e-bikes. The company says the bikes, which are often vandalized, are not cost-effective. Bird also called it quits in Charlottesville last summer, but newcomer VeoRide is here to stay (for now, at least).
A community group called The People’s Coalition held a rally and press conference outside City Hall to protest City Council’s proposed changes to the CRB bylaws. Photo Credit: Staff Photo
Nearly two years after appointing the initial Police Civilian Review Board, Charlottesville City Council inched closer to making a permanent oversight board a reality at their October 21 meeting, with a first reading of the CRB’s ordinance and bylaws.
But members of the initial CRB were not pleased, saying councilors had severely weakened the proposal they’d spent a year crafting. In a press conference held outside City Hall and during public comment, they and supporters criticized council’s changes, including limiting the board’s authority and removing transparency in the selection process.
“For us to give them the proper bylaws and ordinance but for them to water it down, after so much work…I’m very disappointed,” says board member Rosia Parker.
After the CRB presented its proposal on August 5, City Council members met in small groups with the city attorney and published their own version on October 16. At the October 21 meeting, Mayor Walker noted that it was the first time all the councilors had met together and reviewed the complete proposal.
“It’s a little bit frustrating,” CRB member Guillermo Ubilla told council at the meeting. “All of the questions and things you talked about tonight we spent a year tackling. And we have ideas and suggestions for all of them, and they’re in the packet that we sent you, so I really really hope you guys take a second look at that, maybe a third look, just to kind of see what’s in there.”
Local attorney and longtime CRB supporter Jeff Fogel says the board had created its proposal to accommodate anticipated concerns from the city, as well as state law. “I don’t think the city understands that that document already represents somewhat of a compromise,” he says. “[The council] is now looking for a compromise when it’s built into this proposal.”
City Council created the initial CRB with a resolution on December 18, 2017, in the wake of the Unite the Right rally, in an effort to improve trust between the Charlottesville Police Department and the community.
CRB members met for a year to create bylaws and an ordinance establishing the permanent board’s composition, staff members, and authority. “We did our homework,” says CRB member Gloria Beard, noting the board researched other civilian review boards to inform their work. Its proposal included two staff positions (a police auditor and an executive director), as well as a budget of no less than 1 percent of the police department’s budget. The board would have seven members, four coming from historically disadvantaged communities or public housing.
The initial proposal also allowed the CRB to review any complaint against the Charlottesville Police Department, review the internal investigation into the complaint, and (in certain circumstances) conduct an independent investigation, having access to personnel files, internal investigation files, and other department data.
The board would send any disciplinary recommendations to the police chief and city manager.
City Council’s version differed from the CRB’s initial proposal in multiple ways.
“There was an expectation that we were going to basically take exactly what was given to us,” says Councilor Heather Hill. But she says councilors, who met in small groups “for the sake of efficiency,” had some concerns.
In the new proposal, board members would be appointed by the council in a closed session, rather than the originally proposed public process. Hill says councilors feared a public interview process would deter candidates.
Instead of hiring an auditor right away, the council proposed requiring the board’s executive director to present a report about whether the city should hire a full-time (or part-time) auditor, or contract with an auditing firm instead. And the council’s proposal did not include a budget for the CRB.
Hill says the council understands the auditing role must be filled and a budget created, but that these steps can come later.
“Right now we have to agree on an ordinance and bylaws. That’s going to help them determine our budget,” Hill says.
The council’s ordinance also changed the board’s membership requirements, proposing that it has three members from disadvantaged communities and one from a racial or social justice organization, and eliminating the initial proposal’s requirement that a councilor serve as an additional nonvoting member. And it specifies that the board would only be able to review internal affairs investigations that are ruled as unfounded, exonerated, or not resolved (not those that are sustained). It would also be able to review an investigation if a request is filed with the executive director, and initiate its own review of internal affairs investigations.
The councilors will take into account all of the comments made during the meeting, says Hill. They plan to make revisions to their proposal before next month’s meeting.
“We hope and pray they are going to change their minds,” says Beard. “We need transparency between the police force and the community…to create relationships with the people, so they can have real trust again.”
National Book Award winner Ibram Kendi spoke at the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center Tuesday night. Publicty photo.
The work of antiracism is “fundamentally focused on looking in the mirror” with the goal of transforming society, scholar and National Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi told a packed auditorium in Charlottesville on Tuesday night. And, he added: “Because we live in a racist society, it is extremely hard to be antiracist.”
As Kendi’s conversation with Mayor Nikuyah Walker at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center made clear, there are particular challenges in a city he referred to on Twitter as one of the centers in the American battle between racism and its opponents.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Kendi—author of the newly released “How to be an Antiracist” and of 2017’s award-winning “Stamped from the Beginning,” a history of racist ideas in America—emphasized that torch bearing Unite the Right ralliers and hooded Klansmen are far from the only ones implicated in systems that disadvantage minority groups.
“I’m not concerned with whether someone is consciously recognizing that the policy that they’re supporting is leading to racial inequity,” he said. “I’m not worried about whether they intend to create that racial inequity, as much as the fact that the policy that they’re supporting, or not challenging, is leading to racial inequity.”
At times during the conversation, Walker pushed back on Kendi’s argument that there is no such thing as a non-racist: that all people, of all races, are either racist or anti-racist, either fighting unjust systems or tacitly supporting them.
“As a black woman who has seen people try to survive in this climate, inaction doesn’t necessarily mean that you are upholding or wanting to perpetuate racist ideas,” she said, drawing a contrast between her grandmothers, “who learned to keep their head down, to not make any noise, to just try to get through and survive,” and a figure like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has had an active role in producing policies.
At points in her own life, “I tried to use all the power that I had, which was a lot, but it was also exhausting and it also took moments for me to just kind of retreat to heal from the environment that I was subjected to,” she said. “And I don’t know that everyone has the ability to do that. … How do people survive and do the work? I think if people were more sure of those answers, they would be more willing.”
Kendi argued that different people can play different roles in fighting racism, depending on their circumstances. That includes white people, who also suffer from systems that enforce inequality, he contended.
“What we have now is a massive hoarding of resources and wealth, by extremely wealthy and powerful white people, and they’ve long been using racist ideas to essentially divide and conquer the rest of America,” Kendi said.
In particular, “you have white people now who are worshipping Confederate monuments,” even as those monuments commemorate a war waged in the South largely on behalf of a small land-owning class, he argued. “This is delusional.”
“This racial struggle, this struggle between racists and antiracists, is not a struggle fundamentally over morality, although morality is part of it,” he said. “It’s not fundamentally a struggle over ignorance and hate, although that’s a part of the struggle. What’s fundamental about the struggle is that it’s a power struggle, and it always has been a power struggle.”
In Charlottesville, Walker said, some people are still drawn to a “return to what is normal” two years after Unite the Right – a concept that she said looks like an “escape route” from accountability.
Near the end of the night, an audience member put a finer point on the matter.
“This conversation is happening now because you wrote a book and it’s being presented to us,” she said. “But among ourselves here, this conversation, I have found in Charlottesville, to be impossible. Because white people do not see themselves as a racial group.”
“I think that first and foremost, the heartbeat of racism is denial, and it always has been,” Kendi replied. “I think we have to recognize just how deep-seated the denial is.”
Walker said some people’s reluctance to have uncomfortable discussions presents a challenge in Charlottesville. With a new City Council election approaching in November, “I feel like the community is moving back towards that very comfortable status quo: ‘What I used to have, what I used to be like, and who on this ballot can get me back to that space,'” she said.
“What’s happening here is happening in other places, but at the same time what’s interesting here is, people imagine themselves as liberal and progressive,” Kendi said. In reality, he added, “If you are not part of the movement and the struggle to challenge racism, then you’re being racist.”
Walker said many voters are motivated by a desire to challenge her prominence.
“Not ‘What do we want our city to look like, what is true equity, what is antiracist?'” she said. “But ‘Who can I put in place with my vote that can challenge her, who won’t stop having the conversations, who won’t stop talking about racism, and who won’t stop calling it out when she sees it?'”
“So, they don’t want to be healed?” Kendi said.
“Listen, you have to ask,” Walker replied, laughing.
The Equal Justice Initiative provided the marker for Court Square that details the history of lynching in America on one side and the account of John Henry James on the other. (Photo: Eze Amos)
History of lynching acknowledged
In Court Square, Albemarle County’s seat of justice, a memorial was installed July 12 to commemorate a historic injustice—the lynching of a black man on that date in 1898. A mob of white people pulled John Henry James from a train near what is now Farmington Country Club, and hanged him from a locust tree.
More than 100 people gathered for the installation of the marker from the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, where two busloads of local people journeyed a year ago to deliver soil from the lynching site. EJI’s Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice were created to acknowledge this country’s history of racial terror and its impact today.
Many of those from the pilgrimage, organized by Jefferson School African American Heritage Center director Andrea Douglas and UVA professor and activist Jalane Schmidt, attended, as did city councilors, Albemarle supervisors, and Governor Ralph Northam—who did not speak.
“It wasn’t just about the trip. It was what we did when we got home,” said Douglas. “If you want lasting change, it has to happen on every single level.”
Kiara Boone from the Equal Justice Initiative noted the importance of “truth telling” to acknowledge the pain of racial injustice and begin to repair it and heal from it. “It’s a reflection of our values, what a community chooses to memorialize,” she said.
Memorials and monuments often “tell a very one-sided, watered-down version of history,” she said at the site that holds statues of a Confederate general and a soldier. By unveiling the James marker, “we push back on that.”
Mayor Nikuyah Walker said what happened to James could still happen today. “I want you to think about a community where a man can be lynched with law enforcement present, and the fear that travels through generations as a result…and how that fear lived within the DNA of black people who walk these lands today.”
Installing the memorial is “the easiest part of the work,” she said. In changing the landscape of a community as wealthy as Charlottesville, Walker asked, “Do you do that work with the intention of understanding that there’s a debt that hasn’t been paid?”
The Equal Justice Initiative provided the marker for Court Square that details the history of lynching in America on one side and the account of John Henry James on the other.
Quote of the week
“The soil carries a story, the blood, tears, and sweat of those who were oppressed in the community.” —Kiara Boonewith the Equal Justice Initiative at the installation of a marker commemorating the 1898 lynching of John Henry James
In brief
Sanctuary fine
ICE is threatening to impose a $214,000 fine on Guatemalan refugee Maria Chavalan Sut, who has lived in Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church since October while she fights deportation, the DP reports. The Reverend Isaac Collins says, “The purpose of it is to intimidate Maria and to put pressure on her.”
Ryan’s No. 2
UVA prez Jim Ryan has the second-highest salary of state employees in Virginia, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch list of salaries. Ryan clocks in at $963,000 for his first 11 months, and follows Michael Rao, VCU president.
Another Long honor
Former Wahoo and Super Bowl champ Chris Long received the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award for his philanthropic work and leadership. Long’s First Quarter for Literacy program promotes early literacy in Charlottesville and other communities, and his Water Boys initiative has built more than 60 wells in East Africa.
Harding’s return
Attorney Elliott Harding’s first stab at getting on the ballot to challenge longtime Democratic state Senator Creigh Deeds in the 25th District was rebuffed by the Charlottesville registrar, who challenged some of the signatures Harding submitted. He appealed to the State Board of Elections, which gave him a thumbs up to be on the ballot November 5 as an independent, the Daily Progress reports. Harding is the nephew of Albemarle Sheriff Chip Harding.
Huguely motion denied
Judge Rick Moore ruled that an expert who testified in a Maryland case that George Huguely V did not intend to murder Yeardley Love in 2010 cannot be deposed by the defense in Sharon Love’s wrongful death lawsuit against Huguely, because he’s Love’s expert and Love does not intend to call him as a witness in the Charlottesville case.
Hindu sanctuary at UVA
The president of the Universal Society of Hinduism urged UVA July 13 to provide Hindu students with a “designated prayer-meditation hall for rituals, quiet reflection, festivals and spiritual exercise.” Rajan Zed, who resides in Nevada, asks that the prayer room include ceremonial Hindu objects such as an altar and statues. According to the Cav Daily, Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh communities do not have a designated place of worship on Grounds.
Huguely motion denied
Judge Rick Moore ruled that an expert who testified in a Maryland insurance case that George Huguely V did not intend to murder Yeardley Love in 2010 cannot be deposed by the defense in Sharon Love’s wrongful death lawsuit against Huguely because he’s Love’s expert and Love does not intend to call him as a witness in the Charlottesville case.
The real power struggle in Charlottesville, as a reporter for The New York Times astutely observed in a story about Mayor Nikuyah Walker last year, is not between left and right. It’s “between those who want Charlottesville to go back to the way it was before the rally, when a Google search brought up “happiest city in America”…and those like Ms. Walker who say that the city must make sweeping changes to address deep-seated racial and economic disparities.”
Of course, the pull between progressive change and the status quo is one that existed long before the summer of 2017 here, in a liberal college town that’s nonetheless conservative in the “small c” sense.
Lately, the will for change seems to have some momentum. Following a ProPublica storythat brought national attention to longstanding racial inequities in city schools, the school system hired its first supervisor of equity and inclusion and has announced it will overhaul its gifted program.
On June 11, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of a church rezoning in Belmont that would bring affordable apartments for the disabled, over neighborhood concerns about traffic and noise.
And in the recent primary election, progressive candidates Sally Hudson and Michael Payne, both of whom described themselves as community activists, beat establishment candidates Kathy Galvin and Lloyd Snook.
On the other hand, only 19 percent of registered voters cast a ballot for City Council. The statues are still up, a reminder, as Maurice Cox told us, of “unfinished business.”
The power list we’ve compiled this week aims to be an interesting, even entertaining read, our best take on who’s shaped the city this year. But the bigger story—of whether power is really shifting in this town—is still being written.
Our annual, and always subjective, look at the movers and shakers around town is a mix of stalwarts and surprises. Here’s our take on the people shaping our city and county this year, for better or worse. We hope it gets you talking.
Politics
Nikuyah Walker
Since Mayor Nikuyah Walker was elected in the wake of the horrifying violence of Unite the Right, she’s made good on her campaign slogan: “Unmasking the Illusion.”
Unlike many previous mayors and city councilors, Walker — the city’s first black woman mayor and the first independent to win a council seat since 1948—was born and raised in Charlottesville and attended city schools. And while some wish she’d stop trash-talking the town in national media outlets (meanwhile refusing multiple interview requests from C-VILLE), Walker is keen to point out the ugly history and lingering inequities that exist beneath Charlottesville’s lovely façade.
When not arguing with constituents on Facebook or throwing shade at Baggby’s sandwich shop, she’s making forthright calls to change the status quo—from replacing Jefferson’s birthday, as a city holiday, with Liberation and Freedom Day, to taking a closer look at how nonprofits use their city funding.
Walker’s confrontational style hasn’t gone over well in this conflict-averse city. As she told The Guardian in August: “I feel like the majority of the City Council, when I walk in the room the conversation shifts…I’m kept out of a lot of discussions.”
But it’s still worth it, she says. “They are no longer in control of the narrative. Whether they exclude me or not, I’m in the story.”
Michael Bills and Sonjia Smith
Michael Bills (A photo of Smith was not available).
Hedge fund manager Bills and attorney Smith have plowed millions into political campaigns, usually for Dems, with an eye lately to younger, more progressive candidates. The couple met at Hampton High and went to UVA before heading to New York, where Bills worked for Goldman Sachs. Later, back in Charlottesville, he managed investments at UVA and co-founded Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Last year, Bills started Clean Virginia to encourage candidates to eschew Dominion Energy donations with funds from his PAC instead, and in this year’s election, with all 140 seats in the General Assembly on the ballot, he’s gotten 76 candidates to swear off Dominion donations. In 2017, Bills put $500,000 into Ralph Northam’s campaign for governor, while Smith favored Tom Perriello with $650,000 for his run.
In a Roanoke Times piece, Smith said reproductive rights are a top issue for her because two aunts had to drop out of high school because of unplanned pregnancies. She has contributed over $2 million to candidates, and in the past year, favored UVA professor Sally Hudson with a $100,000 check over incumbent Delegate David Toscano (before he decided against running for re-election). She’s shared the wealth with 22 other legislative candidates so far in 2019, according to Virginia Public Access Project. And Smith made an eye-popping $50,000 donation to Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney candidate Jim Hingeley, and supported City Council candidate Sena Magill and Albemarle sheriff’s candidate Chan Bryant, both of whom won their primaries.
Hate-Free Schools Coalition and Matt Haas
Members of the Hate-Free Schools Coalition protested at Albermarle County School Board meetings for over a year, advocating for a ban on Confederate and other hate symbols. Photo: Eze Amos.
It took six arrests, more than a year of steady, determined protest, and one decisive action to ban Confederate imagery from Albemarle County schools. The Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County, a grassroots group of local parents and activists, refused to be ignored, even after several citizens were arrested and one father was knocked to the ground by a cop. (That parent, who was taken to the emergency room with a sprained wrist and other injuries, was later charged with a felony for assaulting a police officer.)
After months of waffling by the school board, Superintendent Matt Haas announced that imagery associated with white supremacy, racial hatred, or violence is disruptive to learning, and that Confederate and other hate symbols would be banned from county schools. The policy, presented as a reinterpretation of the dress code, didn’t require a vote. “You’ve already given me the authority by hiring me,” Haas told board members.
While the board can still enact a formal ban, the announcement was a hard-won victory for activists and a clear example that sometimes, actions speak louder than words.
Roger Johnson
Photo courtesy subject.
There was a time when Albemarle County was seen as unfriendly to business: Its first economic director departed shortly after being thwarted in an attempt to add land to the growth area for Oregon-based Deschutes Brewery in 2015.
Things are looking much more promising for new hire Johnson, who came to the county from Greenville, North Carolina, and has been busy pushing the Board of Supervisors to codify policies and tools to make a more nimble economic development office. He’s showing up everywhere: at Governor Ralph Northam’s announcement for Castle Hill Gaming’s 106 new jobs earlier in June, helping Potter’s Craft Cider expand in January, and at WillowTree’s figurative groundbreaking at Woolen Mills last August.
In December, the supervisors adopted Project ENABLE, the county’s economic development plan, which Johnson says will increase the county’s tax base and the number of quality jobs.
We predict we’ll be seeing a lot more of Johnson as business booms in Albemarle.
Counties, Cities and Towns Subcommittee No. 1, Virginia General Assembly
Though Charlottesville’s City Council voted unanimously, more than a year ago, to remove our Confederate statues from the heart of downtown, the fact that they’re still standing is thanks in part to six state legislators you’ve probably never heard of.
For two years running, Charlottesville Delegate David Toscano has introduced a bill to allow localities to decide for themselves what to do with controversial Confederate statues, currently protected by Virginia law forbidding the removal of war memorials. And for two years running, Subcommittee No. 1 of the Counties, Cities and Towns Committee—eight white men, five of whom are Republicans, and none of whom are from this area—has killed the bill before it could even reach the floor for a vote.
Subcommittee members, led by Chair Charles Poindexter, from Franklin County, were unswayed by testimony this January from Charlottesville residents who want the statues gone after they became a rallying point for white nationalists and neo-Nazis in 2017. One Democrat joined the Republicans for a 6-2 vote to kill the bill.
The majority party speaker makes subcommittee appointments, even if that majority is literally the result of pulling a name out of a bowl, as happened with Republicans in the last election. So while Charlotttesville voters may have elected millennial Sally Hudson in hopes of progressive change, what Hudson will be able to accomplish will depend largely on whether Democrats can tip the House this November.
Charlottesville Twitter
It’s mortifying, in the year 2019, to talk earnestly about social media’s power to unite people and bridge gaps between communities. But there is at least one place where the big tech companies’ self-serving rhetoric has moments of ringing true: local Twitter.
Twitter is a sprawling and amorphous thing, but nodes of conversation tend to form within the chaos, and the day-to-day discourse around Charlottesville can be revealing, educational, and even exciting—if you can say that about a scene with a heavy dose of government-meeting content.
It’s important to distinguish Charlottesville Twitter from #Charlottesville Twitter, which is focused on the events of Aug. 11 and 12, 2017. Management at Twitter, the company, tends to be roughly as interested in controlling Nazis as Charlottesville’s government was before Unite the Right, so that particular conversation can be a disaster: Some well-loved Charlottesville Twitter personalities routinely receive credible death threats for their efforts.
Still, (and, yes, that is a very big caveat), it can be genuinely heartwarming to see a loose-knit collection of our neighbors—appointed and elected officials, local government staffers, socialists, anarchists, internet capitalists, lawyers, musicians, professors, restaurateurs, librarians, desk jockeys, teachers, hospital workers, filmmakers, and so on—hashing out the problems and pleasures of the town in real time.
And, since there’s always a chance of people running into each other on the street, things usually don’t get too rude. It almost looks like a form of that justifiably dreaded concept, civility. The real thing, not the marketing pitch.
Photo: Eze Amos
Business and Development
John Dewberry
The last we heard of the guy who holds the Downtown Mall hostage with the skeletal remains of his unfinished hotel was in a New York Times story earlier this year, about Dewberry and his bride refurbishing a 1920s condo in Atlanta. Dewberry, developer of what was once—more than 10 years ago—going to be the deluxe Landmark Hotel, has pretty much cold-shouldered Charlottesville since December 2017, when City Council voted against giving him a $1.1 million tax break that it had previously favored.
But hark. Daily Progress reporter Nolan Stout discovered that renderings of the Dewberry Hotel on the Dewberry Group website have moved from its hospitality section to the living section and the project is now dubbed the Laramore, “poised to become the city’s premier luxury multi-use property.”
Of course, city staff haven’t heard anything from Dewberry, so hold off on ordering wallpaper for your luxury condo.
Photo by Amy and Jackson Smith
Jeff Levien and Ivy Naté
Want to become the least popular couple in Charlottesville? Try tearing down the Blue Moon Diner. Fortunately for developer Jeff Levien and his wife, artist and designer Ivy Naté, the city’s Board of Architectural Review rejected that idea.
Their resulting consolation prize is the six-story, 53-unit apartment building hurtling toward completion at 600 W. Main Street, wrapped around the Blue Moon by Bushman Dreyfus Architects. Moreover, Levien is awaiting approval to build up to 55 more units next door, at the less-beloved site of University Tire.
Levien and Naté, who split their time between Charlottesville and the Upper West Side of Manhattan, are working together on the 600 W. Main project, and have bought up much of the property on West Main between Fifth and Seventh streets, plus the Market Street Promenade downtown, the building that houses The Artful Lodger.
Levien’s firm, Heirloom, has not announced its intentions for redeveloping the Market Street Promenade. But if its aesthetic follows suit with Six Hundred West Main, Levein and Naté’s contribution to Charlottesville’s urban future will not be clad in red brick.
Jim Ryan
Photo: UVA
The president of the University of Virginia will always be on a local power list, but Jim Ryan is likely to rise above the pro forma nomination. He started last August and has already put his stamp on the job, beginning with an apology for UVA’s handling of the white supremacist march through Grounds in 2017.
He raised the university’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, a goal activists have sought for years (though their most recent calls were for $16.84 an hour). And in May, he debuted his “great and good” strategic plan, notable for its emphasis on values and responsibility to employees, the community, and society in general.
Ryan’s sense of humor and approachability set him apart from his recent predecessors—he’s a lively presence on social media and throngs of students regularly join him for early morning runs through Grounds.
Perhaps that schoolboy charm will help smooth the way for difficult negotiations over UVA’s role in housing, transportation, and other contentious issues. Keep watching.
WillowTree
Photo: WillowTree
With 246 employees in several offices on the mall (another 110 are in Durham), mobile app company WillowTree has become a powerful presence downtown—and now they’re moving.
In a coup for Albemarle County, WillowTree ditched the city with plans to move its headquarters across the county line. There, the historic Woolen Mills building will be redeveloped with around $4 million in funding from the county and state, with WillowTree plowing in more than $20 million.
The new HQ will “attract the best and brightest from around the country to come here and to work,” says CEO Tobias Dengel. He’s said that he plans to hire an additional 200 people—good news for those who hope to make our area an innovation hub.
Rich guys*
Let’s face it, money is power. Just look at hedge-fund manager Jaffray Woodriff, who is literally reshaping the Downtown Mall, replacing quirky and unique spaces like The Ante Room and the ice rink with a 170,000-square foot office building geared toward tech startups, perhaps one day to be filled with graduates from the School of Data Science he funded at UVA with $120 million.
As Joe Nocera wrote in Bloomberg last year, “What Woodriff really wants to do with his wealth is transform Charlottesville into a place that will attract more people like, well, him.” (It’s worth noting that Woodriff and his wife also gave $13.5 million to build a new home for the Boys and Girls Club on the campus of Albemarle High School.)
One of the richest guys in town is surely Ted Weschler, one of two investment managers (and likely inheritors) of billionare Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which owns The Daily Progress. Weschler—who got his job after paying a total of $5.2 million in charity auctions for two private lunches with Buffett—is also an investor in C-VILLE’s parent company.
He keeps a low profile, so his local impact is hard to determine, but he has reportedly been a longtime supporter of the Free Clinic and many other area nonprofits, and served on the boards of St. Anne’s-Belfield School and prominent businesses like Virginia National Bank. Earlier this year, according to VPAP, Weschler donated $10,000 to the campaign of Republican Delegate Rob Bell, who has an “A” rating from the NRA and recently voted to repeal the “one gun a month” law.
If we could, we’d devote a year and multiple staff members to deciphering the real net worth of our local million- and billionaires (like Forbes does) and where their money goes, or, at the very least, pay a research firm to do it for us (like Washington Monthly did this spring). But the fact is, we don’t have the resources for that.
*Employing “guys” in the general (sexist) way here, to mean people. Rich women can reshape the city, too—see: Sonjia Smith.
Food and Drink
Will and Priscilla Martin Curley
Photo by Stephen Barling
In a region crowded with vineyards, the most knowledgeable oenophiles have a leg up. Or in this case, four—two each for Will Curley and wife Priscilla Martin Curley, new owners of The Charlottesville Wine Guild, a wine club and store in Belmont.
Will earned his wine chops in Chicago, where he worked at The Purple Pig, a Michelin-recognized restaurant. In Charlottesville, he served as general manager and wine director of Brasserie Saison. Priscilla, a certified sommelier, is the wine director at Tavola, which has held a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence since 2016.
Charlottesville is crowded with wine experts, including Erin Scala, formerly of Fleurie and now proprietor of In Vino Veritas; Gabriele Rausse, the local “king” of wine; and influentials including star winemaker Michael Shaps and Joy Ting of the Virginia Winemakers Research Exchange. But with Will and Priscilla’s recent purchase of the Wine Guild—and the upgrades they’ve put in place—they have landed firmly in the designated driver’s seat of local wine.
Simon Davidson
Photo: Eze Amos
In a food-obsessed town, the foodiest foodie of them all might be Simon Davidson, a lawyer who runs the Charlottesville 29 food blog and each year bestows black and white “29” road sign stickers upon the 29 restaurants he deems the best. Davidson, who used to write the “At the Table” column for C-VILLE, is cozy with a number of local chefs, and clearly has his favorites (a generous portion of his Instagram is dedicated to pricey steakhouse Prime 109 and its sister restaurant, Lampo Neapolitan Pizzeria). But he posts only positive write-ups to his site, on principle. With a few thousand followers on each of his social media accounts, plenty of folks look to Davidson for info on what’s cooking around town.
The Smith family
Elizabeth, Hunter, and Tony Smith. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
It’s well known that Hunter Smith is a player in the local craft beer industry: The 33-year-old mogul-in-the-making opened Charlottesville’s Champion Brewing Company taproom in the fall of 2012. Since then, Smith has parlayed the success of his popular Missile IPA (and more recently, Shower Beer pilsner, which The Beer Connoisseur calls “a gem”) into a 15,000-barrel-a-year business, with
a second brewpub in Richmond as well as retail distribution in nine states, including the recent additions of Michigan and Kentucky.
But for Smith, beverage industry success is a family affair. His parents are Tony and Elizabeth Smith, owners for 10 years of the small but increasingly influential Afton Mountain Vineyards. Larger wineries may tend to dominate the conversation, but after a decade of methodical growth, sustainable winemaking practices by French import Damien Blanchon, and the addition of an events pavilion and four wedding-party-ready cabins, Afton Mountain is poised for wider recognition.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Hunter Smith is also making a move. He recently took sole ownership of Brasserie Saison on the Downtown Mall, announced a spinoff brand and gastropub, Selvedge, which will debut soon at The Wool Factory complex, and began consulting for the new micro-distiller Waterbird Spirits, at Water and Second streets.
Elizabeth Smith confirmed that she and her husband had acquired additional acreage adjoining their vineyards—but demurred when asked about a possible joint venture with her son. In any case, Hunter Smith recently told C-VILLE Weekly that he and Brasserie chef Tres Pittard had visited Afton Mountain Vineyards, surveying the site for culinary events. Is it too soon to add Afton Mountain to the list of marquee Central Virginia wineries? Perhaps. Does the Smith family appear to be moving into fresh territory? Yup.
Culture
Kristen Chiacchia
Although Second Street Gallery already had a claim to fame as Central Virginia’s oldest nonprofit contemporary artspace, their bragging rights grew further in 2016, when Kristen Chiacchia became the gallery’s executive director and chief curator. Coming from years of experience in New York galleries, she’s used her big-city expertise to compile memorable and diverse exhibitions—from a Joan Mitchell–inspired collection (featuring paintings by Mitchell herself!) to a selection of Aboriginal Australian works. Since arriving in Virginia, Chiacchia has also established herself as an activist for the arts, joining organizations such as the Americans for the Arts Action Fund and Washington, D.C.’s chapter of ArtTable.
DIY Music
House shows give Charlottesville music fans choices beyond the mainstream. Photo: Tristan Williams
Charlottesville’s corporate-sponsored music spots get all the attention (and the big names), but if we’re being honest, big venue crowds kinda suck.There are a few too many people paying good money to sip rosé or a local IPA and catch up with friends (or gather content for their Instas) while the same rotation of touring acts provide the backing track.
For a welcome alternative, there’s the DIY music scene, fueled by a small but committed group of local musicians, their friends and fans.
Hip-hop, hardcore punk, experimental noise made on homemade synthesizers, electric cello, no-nonsense garage rock…there’s plenty of great music under the radar, and these folks make sure you can hear it, likely in a dim room with a bunch of attentive strangers (some of whom will probably become your friends). Finding out about it isn’t impossible, either: to start, ask a local record store clerk, or keep your eyes peeled for show flyers on cork boards and telephone poles.
Alan Goffinski
The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative has a simple mission statement: “To bridge diverse communities through the arts.” In his tenure as its executive director, Alan Goffinski has realized this goal in impressively creative ways, using the small but mighty space to host everything from improv comedy events to community concerts to a “Gallery of Curiosities” last Halloween. He’s also bridged Charlottesville’s two largest and most separate communities—the student body and the townies—through the innovative Telemetry, a music series co-founded with Travis Thatcher, the technical director of UVA’s music department. The monthly program features both student and local performers and, like the vast majority of The Bridge’s events, it’s free.
Emily Morrison
Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
The Front Porch, a music venue and roots music school, is still in its infancy. But executive director Emily Morrison, who founded it in 2015, hasn’t dawdled in those three years. The organization has already moved twice—from her own home to Mountaintop Montessori to its current location on Water Street East, a roomier venue which allows for larger class sizes and better jams. The events and classes offered at Morrison’s nonprofit bring together diverse cultures and celebrate their differences, all through the power of music.
Leslie Scott-Jones
This actor, director, producer, singer, radio host, poet, and playwright has been working for years to make space for artists and audiences of color in Charlottes-ville. Scott-Jones shares her skills and knowledge with other theater artists, giving roles to actors who’ve never been on a stage, guiding new directors through their first productions, and effectively broadening the scope and the reach of local theater.
Leslie Scott-Jones. Photo by Sanjay Suchak
She recently directed a powerful production of The Royale at Live Arts, and among her current projects is the revival of the Charlottesville Players Guild, an all-black theatre troupe first active in town in the mid-20th century. The company is now in the midst of staging all 10 of August Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle” plays, and last summer it presented the very spectacular Black Mac, a telling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a black aesthetic. We hear there’s another CPG-does-Shakespeare coming this summer, too.
Brad Stoller
Brad Stoller
Among such a rich selection of arts-related venues, the Piedmont Virginia Community College might not seem like the obvious destination for theatre, but Brad Stoller is working to change that. As assistant professor of theatre arts at PVCC, he’s made a name for himself and the college by organizing fresh, creative reinterpretations of Shakespeare plays like As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet. Stoller also explores the ideas of the theatre of the oppressed and theatrical improvisation, hosting workshops locally and around the globe on both concepts.
Brian Wimer
Where to begin with Brian Wimer? He has many accolades to his name—he once provided the voice for the Taco Bell chihuahua and is the “primary instigator” of production company Amoeba Films—but locally, he’s known as the co-creator, executive director, and self-proclaimed “wizard” of IX Art Park. The open-air event space is home to weekly yoga and salsa classes, music festivals, the upcoming LARPfaire (which promises to be fun), and such iconic Charlottesville sculptures as the Bumper Buddha and Love Butt. Basically, it’s just as eclectic, fun, and endlessly creative as the man himself.
Arts Powerhouses
These folks appear on our list almost every year, but they still have an outsize impact on the city’s arts scene.
Paul Beyer Love it or hate it, Tom Tom is the festival that just keeps growing, and Beyer, its creater, is the reason why. Founders Fest, with its overwhelming array of talks, panels, parties, and performances, celebrated its eighth year this April, and is seeking to grow beyond its tech-focused roots into something more inclusive of the community at large.
Coran Capshaw This media and real estate mogul, whose name is attached to everything from the 5th Street Station shopping center to The Jefferson Theater, is the OG of our power list, and perhaps of Charlotteville itself.
Andrea Douglas The executive director of The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center for almost ten years, Douglas is a formidable force who shows no signs of slowing down. This year, her projects included co-founding the civil rights pilgrimage and hosting Jamelle Bouie’s first-ever photo exhibition.
Jody Kielbasa It’s easy to forget—or rather, hard to believe—that Jody Kielbasa is both the director of the Virginia Film Festival and UVA’s vice provost for the arts. Between the two roles, he facilitates a head-spinning amount of humanities-related events, and is often the man who brings Hollywood to Charlottesville.
Levien blurb updated 6/27 to correct an error regarding the proposed development on the site of University Tire, which is still awaiting approval for a Special Use Permit, and 6/28 for word choice.
Paige Rice at a City Council meeting following the KKK rally in July 2017.
eze amos
‘Odd’ indictment
The felony embezzlement charge against former City Council clerk Paige Rice, 37, for an iPhone and Apple Watch valued at more than $500 has many scratching their heads.
“It seems very unusual it got to this point without a resolution,” says attorney Scott Goodman. “It seems like something that could have easily been resolved without a felony indictment.”
A former city employee who spoke only on the condition of anonymity says, “It seems kind of odd to me someone didn’t call her and say, you need to return the phone, rather than sneak around and charge her with a felony. Particularly with her husband working there. It’s very odd.”
Rice is married to Joe Rice, deputy director of communications for the city. Neither responded to C-VILLE’s phone calls.
Rice was a fixture at council meetings for eight years. Last July she was named chief of staff to manage two new employees at the disposal of councilors. The job came with a salary bump from almost $73,000 to $98,000. The larger council staff had been touted by then-mayor Mike Signer, but was criticized by Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who call for a guest audit of the position and its pay.
Attorney Dave Heilberg says embezzlement is a crime of taking property with which one has been entrusted, but Rice’s case “is not as clear cut” as that of an accountant who writes herself a check. What Rice was told about the equipment could be a factor in her defense, and he points out that “technology goes out of date really fast” when assessing its value.
A grand jury from both Albemarle County and Charlottesville—which is also unusual, says Heilberg—indicted Rice June 7. And court records show the date of the offense as October 5, Rice’s official last day.
Goodman says the indictment could have consequences that “could be ugly,” particularly if Rice has information about other people in the city in similar circumstances who didn’t get indicted.
A city release announcing Rice’s resignation said, “The City Council appreciates the service of Ms. Rice over the last eight years and wishes her the best as she moves on to the next exciting phase in her professional life.”
Her next court appearance is August 19.
Quote of the week
“The House [of Delegates] has no prerogative to select its own members.”—Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upholds a lower court ruling that Virginia’s legislative districts were racially gerrymandered
In brief
B’day non grata
At its June 17 meeting, City Council took steps to remove the birthday of local icon Thomas Jefferson, April 13, as a paid city holiday and to replace it with Liberation and Freedom Day, March 3, which commemorates the arrival of Union forces and the emancipation of the area’s 14,0000 enslaved people. Albemarle will discuss ditching Jefferson’s birthday at its June 19 meeting.
Are luxury condos in the Dewberry’s future? Skyclad Aerial
Dewberry condos?
Not much activity has been seen on the ground at the site of the alleged Dewberry Hotel, now celebrating its 10th anniversary as a wraith towering over the Downtown Mall. But the Progress reports some movement on the Dewberry Group website, and renderings of the hotel have migrated from its hospitality to its living section, with a new name: the Laramore.
Deadbeat guv pays up
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice finally paid the$311,000 in back taxes his company owed to Albemarle County, plus the current tax bill, reports the DP’s Allison Wrabel. The county had started the process to sell 52 of Justice’s 55 parcels because of the large arrearage.
AG okays THC
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring spoke out in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana in an op-ed published in both the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot on Sunday. The General Assembly has yet to pass any measures on the issue, but decriminalization has been an issue generally shot down by Republicans in past sessions.
Rural broadband access
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative’s subsidiary, doing business as Firefly Fiber Broadband, will receive $28.6 million of FCC funds to provide 1 gigabit internet speeds for over 11,000 homes and businesses in central Virginia over the next 10 years.
Election turnout: Not great
Off-year elections traditionally have lower turnout, and this year’s June 11 primary was no exception. With no presidential or gubernatorial candidates at the top of the ballot, many voters chose to sit out the primary, despite several local General Assembly races.
The 57th District, which includes Charlottesville and the Albemarle urban ring, had the highest turnout—15.7 percent—in state General Assembly elections, according to Virginia Public Access Project.
The 17th Senate District, which had both a Democratic and Republican primary, brought in a much lower 5 percent of the electorate in each race.
Total Charlottesville turnout (including City Council primaries) was 19 percent, compared to 27 percent in 2017.
Total Albemarle County turnout (including races for sheriff and Rivanna supervisor) was 10 percent.
In 2017, county turnout was 19 percent for the Democratic primary for governor and .05 percent for the Republican primary.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker likely benefited from her supporters’ embrace of single-shot voting in 2017, finishing first at the end of an independent run for council. Photo by Eze Amos
By Jake Mooney
Seventeen years ago, when I was a reporter for The Daily Progress and Lloyd Snook was the chairman of Charlottesville’s Democratic Party, he accused me of writing an instruction manual for voters to elect Republican Rob Schilling.
I was not perfect as a reporter, but I thought this was unfair because I never would have tried to get any particular candidate elected, certainly not Rob Schilling. But what also rankled, then and now, was the underlying idea that there was something wrong with voters casting informed and intentional votes for the candidates they want to win, whoever those candidates may be.
Snook was angry, specifically, that I wrote about a strategy called “single-shotting,” which Schilling’s supporters were planning to use and eventually did use successfully. This approach likely also helped Mayor Nikuyah Walker win her council seat as an independent in 2017, and it’s one that some politically minded people are starting to talk about again as the Democratic primary approaches.
In short, single-shotting is when you vote for just one candidate, even when you’re allowed to vote for more because there are multiple open seats. If you think that sounds incredibly simple, or like something that barely deserves a proper name, then I agree with you. But I’d like to spend a few more words here on the general idea: An instruction manual, if you will, for casting your smartest possible vote(s).
The first thing to remember is that, even if there are multiple seats open, you don’t have to cast all of the votes you’re entitled to. You may be allowed to vote for three candidates, but you can choose to only vote for two, or one. For some reason, people have a hard time with this: They think you’re wasting one of your votes if you decide not to cast it. I would frame it differently, and say that by voting for candidates you aren’t really excited about along with your favorites, you’re actually diluting the power of each of your votes.
The guiding principle, basically, is to vote for the person or people you most want to see win. Unsure about whether a candidate is worth one of your votes? Just close your eyes and picture that person beating your top choice, and decide if you like the way that feels. The point here is not just to vote for the people you like, but to avoid voting for people who might beat them.
Here’s how it worked for Walker in the last election: She knew a lot of people would be voting for the two Democratic nominees, Heather Hill and Amy Laufer. If some of her supporters had voted for Walker and Hill, and some for Walker and Laufer, then those votes, combined with votes for a Hill-Laufer ticket, would have buried Walker in third. In order to beat at least one of them, Walker needed to get a lot of votes, but also to minimize the number of votes Hill and Laufer each got.
In short, Walker needed her supporters to vote just for her, and not for either of the others. Just like Schilling needed his supporters to vote just for him, and not for either of the Democrats. In both of their cases, thinking about the race this way seemed to work. (It’s hard to know because the city doesn’t track single-shotting, but records show there were 5,877 votes that could have been cast and weren’t.)
This election—which is actually the Democratic primary, but will go a very long way towards deciding who gets elected in November in this heavily Democratic city—is even more complicated because it’s got three open seats, not two. In practice, I think that means it will be hard for supporters of any one candidate to shut out any one other candidate altogether; there are just too many open spots. But you can still try to make sure your top choice or choices get elected while giving the candidates you don’t like as few allies as possible.
So: Do you really like candidate A, and think your top priority is to make sure that person gets on the council? Then just vote for candidate A and leave the other spots blank. Are you really sold on candidates A and B, but not so sure about candidate C, even though C seems like a nice enough person? Well, how will you feel if C gets enough votes to finish ahead of A or B?Personally, I’d skip the vote for C—unless, of course, I was positive C wasn’t going to get that many votes, and I wanted to support that person as a symbolic gesture.
True, by casting fewer than three votes, you’re giving up your theoretical right to choose all three winners. But in practice, your top three choices likely won’t all get elected, and you want to avoid helping your third choice beat your first choice.
Back in the real, non-hypothetical world, I don’t know exactly who I’m going to vote for in the upcoming City Council primary, although I confess I have a decent idea of who I’m not voting for. (I’m part Sicilian, and don’t let go of grievances very easily.)
What I am sure about is that people deserve to elect the candidates they want, and no one else. If they need instructions to make that happen, then so be it.
CRB member Rosia Parker wondered why police Chief RaShall Brackney couldn’t find time on her reportedly empty calendar to meet.
Truth in scheduling: Progress joins City v. Civilian Review Board fray
A Daily Progress reporter was a topic of discussion during public comment at the May 6 City Council meeting, following Nolan Stout’s story earlier that day that police Chief RaShall Brackney’s calendar seemed to contradict claims that she was unavailable to meet with the Police Civilian Review Board.
CRB member Rosia Parker thanked Stout for his reporting, while Mayor Nikuyah Walker blamed Stout for the escalating tension between the chief and the review board. Councilor Wes Bellamy said he had “personal issues” with the article, and defended Brackney and her calendar. Police gadfly Jeff Fogel yelled at Bellamy to “not punk out,” and Bellamy replied, “You’re the last one to tell me to punk out.”
The latest outburst follows a bizarre April 26 city press release that accused a CRB member of lying about Brackney refusing to meet with the board. That was followed by an even weirder April 30 retraction of the falsehood allegation, which instead pointed the finger at the Progress’ reporting. The paper stands by its story.
And in the latest deepening of trenches in the war of words, city spokesman Brian Wheeler told Stout his Freedom of Information Act request for emails between Brackney or her secretary and City Council or CRB members, and emails between councilors and CRB members, would cost $3,000 and require a $700 deposit. Wheeler refused to break down the costs, which are unprecedented in C-VILLE Weekly’s experience with FOIA.
Megan Rhyne with Virginia Coalition for Open Government says this is only the second time she’s seen a local government refuse to detail its alleged costs, and tells the DP, “I don’t think it’s very transparent.”
Quote of the week
“I believe we have more than enough mandatory minimum sentences—more than 200—in Virginia state code.” Governor Ralph Northam on why he won’t sign any more such bills, which he calls punitive, discriminatory, and expensive
In brief
Carbon friendlier
Charlottesville’s carbon emissions per household—11.2 tons annually—are a ton above the national average. City Council voted unanimously at its May 6 meeting to approve a climate action plan that includes a goal of 45 percent carbon emissions reduction by 2030, and total carbon neutrality by 2050.
Wine pioneer dies
David King. file photo
David King, patriarch of King Family Vineyards, died May 2 after what the family calls a “hard-fought” battle with cancer. The 64-year-old was a past chair of the Virginia Wine Board, a polo player, pilot, and reserve deputy with the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue division. The family will host a celebration of life on June 14 at their Crozet family farm from 7:30-9:30pm.
Rioters plead
The last two members of the now-defunct California white supremacist group Rise Above Movement, who traveled to Charlottesville for the August 2017 Unite the Right rally to brawl with counterprotesters, pleaded guilty May 3 in U.S. District Court. RAM founder Benjamin Drake Daley, 26, from Redondo Beach, and Michael Paul Miselis, 30, from Lawndale, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to riot. Fellow RAMmers Cole White and Thomas Gillen previously pleaded guilty.
The Guys
Unrelated Bridget Guy and Kyle Guy got top UVA athletics honors at the Hoos Choice Awards May 1. Bridget, from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is an all-American pole vaulter who was undefeated this season. Indianapolis-native Kyle was named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Final Four, in part for his sangfroid in firing off three free throws in a row to beat Auburn 63-62.
Flaggers appeal
Confederate battle flag-loving Virginia Flaggers were in circuit court May 2 to appeal a Louisa Board of Zoning Appeals decision that the 120-foot pole they raised on I-64 in March 2018 to fly the “Charlottesville I-64 Spirit of Defiance Battle Flag” exceeded the county’s maximum of 60 feet. The judge has not yet issued a ruling.
Cruel and unusual
The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Virginia’s death row inmates, who spend years alone in a small cell for 23 to 24 hours a day. The justices said the inmates face a “substantial risk” of serious psychological and emotional harm in violation of the Eighth Amendment in the case filed by local attorney Steve Rosenfield.
UVA student sentenced
When former UVA student Cayden Jacob Dalton drunkenly abducted and strangled his ex-girlfriend in August 2018, she told the judge “there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to die.” Now, he’ll serve one and a half years for the crime, with the rest of his 15-year sentence suspended.
Show us the money
With the first campaign finance reports filed March 31, we learned who’s pulling in the bucks ahead of the June 11City Council Democratic primary, as well as the funds raised by independents Paul Long and Bellamy Brown.
Boylan Heights goes nuts March 30 as UVA takes down Purdue to advance to its first Final Four since 1984.
Martyn Kyle
Buzzer beater
UVA heads to the Final Four in Minneapolis April 6 after a heart-stopping 80-75 win over Purdue’s Boilermakers, thanks to a last second bucket by Mamadi Diakite to put the Cavs into overtime. The win marks Virginia’s first appearance in the Final Four since 1984, coach Tony Bennett’s 10th year leading the Hoos, and redemption for last year’s first-round loss to a No. 16 seed.
Guilty plea in CHS threat
Albemarle High senior Joao Pedro Souza Ribeiro, 17, pleaded guilty March 27 to making a racist threat online that shut down Charlottesville city schools for two days last month. The Daily Progress reports Ribeiro told a juvenile court judge that he was “bored” in study hall and posted the threat as a joke. He’ll be sentenced April 24. Another Albemarle teen was charged with a felony for a shooting threat to Albemarle High, but police have not released his name.
Suing Alex Jones
Federal Judge Norman Moon ruled that Clean Virginia exec Brennan Gilmore’s defamation lawsuit against Infowars, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and others of his ilk can proceed. Gilmore videoed James Fields plowing into protesters August 12, 2017, and he alleges the defendants spread false information about him, resulting in death threats against him and his family. Jones is also being sued by Sandy Hook parents for claiming the mass murder of children was staged.
One train, two deaths
A Buckingham Branch train struck Sebastian Herrera, 39, of Waynesboro, around noon March 31 in Crozet, and then hours later killed an unidentified man in Waynesboro. Herrera, the third person to die on the train tracks in Crozet since 2015, was killed near Lanetown Road, close to where a Time-Disposal employee died last year.
Orange hotbed
The gated community Lake of the Woods has been the scene of alleged criminal activity recently. Ryan Chamblin, 36, was indicted on 161 counts of possession of child porn March 25. He’d previously been charged with five counts and two of failure to register as a sex offender. That same day, Stafford resident Roy C. Mayberry, 46, was indicted for embezzling more than $450,000 from the Lake of the Woods Association.
Quote of the week
“It’s clear that you would lynch me if you could so I’m never concerned with your thoughts.” —Mayor Nikuyah Walkerin a Facebook comment to Justin Beights, who sarcastically said her negativity is inspiring.
Crime pays—a little into government coffers
Cash-strapped localities have been known to use speed traps to plug their budget holes (ahem, Greene County), and after the Department of Justice found that law enforcement in Ferguson, Missouri, had effectively been acting as tax collectors (bringing 23 percent of the town’s revenue in fines and fees), a 2017 report said that a number of other municipalities were doing the same thing. But it’s not the case in Charlottesville and Albemarle.
“CPD does not use ‘speed traps,’” says Charlottesville police spokesperson Tyler Hawn. “We use traffic enforcement to ensure drivers are following the posted speed limits and rules of the road for everyone’s safety.”
As City Council finalizes its 2020 budget, it voted April 1 to up the local meals and lodging taxes (and seems likely to not raise the real estate tax, after “finding” another $850,000). With all that cash, citizen criminal activities make a small revenue contribution to the proposed $188 million budget. Albemarle County also gets revenue from convictions, a .1% pittance in its $487 million budget.
Here’s how some of the numbers stack up in the proposed fiscal year 2020 budget.
