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.
What a difference a year makes. Charlottesville underwent a seismic shift shortly after we published last summer’s list of local power brokers, which is always an exercise in subjectivity anyway. Some of them have undergone dramatic reversals, new faces have appeared—and yet, much stays the same. But who wants to read about Coran Capshaw and UVA every year? To change it up, we divided this year’s list into four categories that most impact our day-to-day lives: business and development, culture, government and activism after August 12.
AUGUST 12 ACTIVISM
Photo by Andrew Shurtleff.
Risa Goluboff
UVA’s first female dean of its School of Law already was a legal rock star before President Teresa Sullivan asked her to head the Deans Working Group after a bunch of torch-carrying neo-Nazis and white supremacists marched through Virginia’s flagship university August 11. Goluboff led the mission to assess the university’s response to hate’s romp through Grounds and to maintain academic freedom, inclusion and tolerance—while keeping a safe space for a rattled community.
And in her own law school, Goluboff had to deal with unwelcome visitor Jason Kessler, an arrested Kessler protester and closing the library to outsiders during the end-of-school exam period. C-VILLE put her in the activism category, but in reality, Goluboff is just doing her job.
Photo by Eze Amos.
Jalane Schmidt
The UVA associate professor’s religious studies background gives her the tenure and balance to call out Charlottesville’s self-satisfied image of itself as a liberal, world-class city. Charlottesville has lots of activists, but unlike many, Schmidt brings knowledge and research to her efforts.
A regular at City Council, the Black Lives Matter organizer proposed that March 3—the day the Union Army arrived—should be recognized as Liberation Day in acknowledgment that 52 percent of the population here was enslaved at the time of the Civil War. She’s pushed council to recontextualize the controversial Confederate monuments and challenge the Lost Cause narrative. She brought the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society’s Ku Klux Klan robes out of the closet. And along with Andrea Douglas, she’s organized a pilgrimage to the Equal Justice Initiative’s lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, so that ignorance of the past will no longer be an excuse.
Photo by Eze Amos
Zyahna Bryant
We can think of few local teens who’ve evoked so much change over the past couple of years—and she’s still got her senior year at Charlottesville High to go. Bryant is the young woman who questioned the city’s honoring of Confederate generals who fought to keep her ancestors enslaved, and started a petition for the removal of the Confederate statues in March 2016—when she was a 15-year-old freshman.
She’s been interviewed by Katie Couric, Vice, and she occasionally turns up on CNN. Did we mention she’s still in high school?
Jeff Fogel
Charlottesville’s civil rights legal gadfly has no problem filing a lawsuit when he sees injustice. He’s sued Charlottesville police to release stop-and-frisk narratives (he lost), an Albemarle cop who’s stopped an inordinate number of black motorists (on appeal) and has represented activists Veronica Fitzhugh in her confrontations with Jason Kessler, Morgan Hopkins for pulling off her shirt August 12 and Mayor Nikuyah Walker for a speeding ticket appeal.
Fogel frequently interjects himself into City Council meetings and even the hiring announcement for new city police Chief RaShall Brackney. And if his interactions with city officials aren’t always the most congenial, well, maybe it’s because he’s always suing the city.
Photo by Eze Amos
Rising action
It’s not like there’s ever been a lack of activism here, but since the 2016 election, demonstrations have SURJed, to pardon our pun on Showing Up for Racial Justice. Local activists include antifascists, Black Lives Matter, Indivisible Charlottesville and the Public Housing Association of Residents, to name a few of the many groups that have sprung up. And then there’s the umbrella Cville Solidarity, aka Solidarity Cville. While there’s overlap, the more anarchist elements have disrupted and/or shut down City Council, and when Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler is spotted, they can mobilize on a dime.
GOVERNMENT
Photo by Eze Amos
Nikuyah Walker
Walker became the city’s first independent councilor since 1948. Running on a platform of “unmasking the illusion,” Walker has broken a number of barriers as the city’s first black female mayor—who also is a city parks & rec employee. She doesn’t think it’s necessary to make nice with her fellow councilors, particularly Mike Signer, whom she frequently denounced when she was on the other side of the dais, or to talk to the press or follow council tradition, such as choosing the mayor behind closed doors. She’s taken to Facebook Live to call out city employees, like now retired Deputy Chief Gary “The Gasman Unpleasants.”
Since Walker has been mayor, there have been fewer shutdowns of council, but she’s had to balance giving voice to her supporters, who tend to disregard Robert’s Rules of Order, and run a public meeting and conduct city business. And she’s found herself on the losing end of 4-1 votes, such as West2nd’s special use permit.
Walker says she’s comfortable making people uncomfortable, and at least for many citizens attending City Council meetings, that’s something she’s accomplished.
Photo by Tristan Williams
Judges Bob Downer and Rick Moore
City court dockets have seemed even busier in the past year, and pretty much every charge stemming from the KKK rally July 8 and Unite the Right rally August 12 has gone through Judge Bob Downer’s Charlottesville General District Court, while every lawsuit filed about statues and every August 12 felony certified by the grand jury ends up in Judge Rick Moore’s Charlottesville Circuit Court.
Downer has presided over general district court since around 2001, and everyone from speeders to murderers appear before him. Assorted activists have shown up outside his courtroom since August 12, but he tolerates no protest inside. And it’s not like the latest batch is his first rodeo. Remember Code Pink? Downer convicts lawbreakers whether they’re white nationalists or anti-racists with a courtroom demeanor that’s both concerned and stern.
Moore is the guy who will decide whether City Council overstepped its authority with its vote to remove Confederate statues, as well as the lawsuits filed to keep violent interlopers from returning to a Unite the Right anniversary. He’s also presided over two jury trials of out-of-state men who were convicted of beating DeAndre Harris. In the courtroom, Moore is genial and thorough, typically pondering his decisions post-hearing rather than ruling from the bench.
Photo by Elli Williams
Delegate David Toscano
Toscano briefly retired as House minority leader in 2015, only to be wooed back within 24 hours by his caucus, in time to see 2017’s blue wave that nearly made him House speaker. Toscano has represented Charlottesville and parts of Albemarle since the venerated Mitch van Yahres did not seek re-election to his 57th District seat in 2005. Most of the time, Toscano has been in a crushing 66-34 minority, but now that the Dems are 49-51, he’s using the title House Democratic leader and 2019 will determine whether he becomes the most powerful man in the House of Delegates.
albemarle.org
Rick Randolph
The Albemarle Board of Supervisors usually is a more staid group than Charlottesville City Council, aside from the occasional sexual batterer like Chris Dumler. Following his election in 2015 as the Scottsville District’s supervisor, Randolph led the charge to study moving the county’s courts from the city to the county, and dared try to leverage the county’s worst deal ever—the 1982 revenue sharing agreement—to keep the courts downtown. For his trouble, Delegate Rob Bell got a bill passed that forbids moving courts without a referendum.
BUSINESS & DEVELOPMENT
Photo by Ashley Twigos
Coran Capshaw
It wouldn’t be the Power Issue without mention of the man who built it all—or at least a whole lot of it. As co-owner of Riverbend Development, Capshaw’s also behind several recently proposed projects, including building the Belmont Apartments and the new Apex Clean Energy headquarters on Garrett Street. He also recently built 5th Street Station, the massive shopping center anchored by Wegmans. A frequenter of Billboard’s Power 100, the founder of Musictoday and Red Light Management moved up two spots this year, from 11th place in 2017 to number nine. Since he made our list last summer, we’ve seen several of his acts in town, including Dave Matthews Band, Chris Stapleton, Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, Luke Bryan and Odesza, the first three of which performed at the Concert for Charlottesville, a free unity show Capshaw helped organize in the wake of August 12.
Photo by Jackson Smith
Jaffray Woodriff
The man with the plan, Woodriff bought the .99-acre space that used to house the Main Street Arena, Escafé, the Ante Room and Carytown Tobacco, with plans to transform it into a tech incubator—aptly named CODE, aka the Center of Developing Entrepreneurs—for people who are a lot smarter than we are. Woodriff, the co-founder of financial planning firm Quantitative Investment Management and an angel investor, has also doled out dollars for at least 40 local startups over the past decade. He’s scheduled to begin construction on CODE this summer.
Photo by Jackson Smith
Apex Clean Energy
They’re in the business of renewable energy, and business is booming. What started as a company with fewer than 10 employees has grown to employ 220 in nine years, with 170 local staffers currently spread out among three offices in town. The company, headed by CEO and founder Sandy Reisky, has created $4 billion in clean energy opportunities and is now building a new seven-story, 130,000-square-foot headquarters on Garrett Street so its Charlottesville staff can all be under the same roof as they continue to clock hours replacing old, dirty energy practices with new wind and solar ones across the continent. And that office they’re building? It’ll be powered by the sun, of course.
UVA Health System/UVA
At the hospital that saw about 975,000 patients last fiscal year, beds won’t line the halls of the emergency department for much longer. In the biggest facelift the health system has ever undergone, the $400 million, 520,000-square-foot expansion and renovation of the emergency department and operating rooms on West Main Street, among other projects, is underway and scheduled for completion in 2020. Since our last Power Issue, we’ve said hello to President Jim Ryan as incoming president at the university, and we’re looking forward to seeing how he fares after the tumultuous tenure of Teresa Sullivan. If one thing’s for sure, without the university and its hospital, Charlottesville wouldn’t be nearly as smart, healthy, employed or populated.
Photo by Sanjay Suchak
Martin Horn
“We build stuff” is its motto—a modest take on what the $40 million construction company has been up to for nearly 40 years. With President Jack Horn at the helm since 2001, Martin Horn has had a hand in projects pretty much everywhere you look, and the ones we’re most interested in right now include the long-awaited skate park at McIntire Park, the C&O Row brownstones on Water Street that look more at home in a big city and Prime 109, the new steakhouse where the guys who brought us Lampo will be flipping filets in the old Bank of America building a couple doors down from C-VILLE’s Downtown Mall office. Another sweet spot? Horn works closely with the Building Goodness Foundation, a local nonprofit that connects people from the design and construction industries with vulnerable communities.
CULTURE
Photo by Eze Amos
Andrea Douglas
Douglas spends long hours at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, where the mission—“to honor and preserve the rich heritage and legacy of the African American community of Charlottesville-Albemarle, Virginia, and to promote a greater appreciation for, and understand of, the contributions of African Americans and peoples of the diaspora locally, nationally and globally”—is never far from her mind. As executive director of the center, she fulfills these goals in many ways: opening the school’s auditorium to high school rap competitions and talks on race in America, reviving the Charlottesville Players Guild black theater troupe, curating gallery shows that feature the work of contemporary African American artists, and much more. And by doing this, Douglas, one of the city’s most socially conscious arts advocates, makes certain the center—and its mission—remain an integral part of the community.
Courtesy of Subject
Jody Kielbasa
There’s more to Kielbasa than being the director of the Virginia Film Festival, although he gets top billing for that for good reason. The festival’s 2017 lineup brought the already prestigious event to new heights with special guests Spike Lee, William H. Macy and Margot Lee Shetterly, plus the ever-relevant film series “Race in America.” Kielbasa is also UVA’s vice provost for the arts, a year-round job that entails planning and fundraising. Not only was he instrumental in bringing Tina Fey and Bryan Cranston to town, he and his staff put together the historic interactive stage celebration that launched UVA’s bicentennial with appearances by Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. and R&B powerhouse Andra Day.
Photo by Jackson Smith
Paul Beyer
The Tom Tom Founders Festival gets larger every year, and Beyer, its creator, is the one to thank for it. Since TTFF’s first run in spring 2012, he has cultivated and transformed the event into a twice-a-year occasion, adding the Tomtoberfest music festival in the fall while still assembling an impressive collection of diverse events and keynote speakers in the spring (and the numbers keep climbing: 43,165 people attended this year’s spring event). Beyer has also gained a reputation for taking Tom Tom in unexpected directions—for example, special guest John Cleese of Monty Python fame recently infused his dry wit into a serious panel titled “Is There Life After Death?”—and with a new Art Ecosystem track added for 2019, Beyer doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Three Notch’d Brewing Company
Charlottesville loves its craft beer, and Three Notch’d Brewing Company is a local favorite. Boasting locations in Harrisonburg, Richmond and, most recently, opening the largest restaurant in the city, this brewing facility hasn’t forgotten its humble Grady Avenue roots (a spot now focused on sour beers) or its original mission statement—to respect the “inalienable rights of man,” presumably referring to humankind’s right to kick back after a long day with a pint of locally crafted beer. And thanks to its new 15,000-square-foot, 30,000-barrel-per-year flagship location at IX Art Park, the Three Notch’d team is giving Charlottesville brew-lovers the perfect place to do it.
Photo by Eze Amos
Kirby Hutto
With Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management and Starr Hill Presents responsible for so many locally unifying gatherings—from Fridays After Five to A Concert for Charlottesville—it’s natural to wonder who makes the gears turn behind the scenes. Hutto, general manager of the Sprint Pavilion, is a vital member of the RLM/Starr Hill Presents team. Since the Pavilion opened in 2005, he has been involved with nearly every aspect of the venue, from improving the sound quality and updating security to ensuring the happiness of audience members and performers alike. Hutto received the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau’s 2018 Tourism Achievement Award this May, in recognition of his effort to shape the Pavilion into a premier performance space.
PREVIOUS POWER LISTS
2017
Robert E. Lee Statue
City Council
Mike Signer
Wes Bellamy
Kristen Szakos
Kathy Galvin
Bob Fenwick
Coran Capshaw
UVa
Jaffray Woodriff
Keith Woodard
Will Richey
Rosa Atkins/Pam Moran
Local beer
Amy Laufer
Khizr Khan
John Dewberry
Andrea Douglas
Paul Beyer
Easton Porter Group
EPIC
Neal Kassell
Jody Kielbasa
2016
VDOT
Alan Taylor
Richard Shannon
Mark Brown
Wes Bellamy
Keith Woodard
Rob Bell
Red Light Management/Starr Hill Presents
John Dewberry
Craig Littlepage
Mike Signer
Dave Frey
Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company
Jody Kielbasa
Paul Beyer
Will Richey
Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell
Adam Frazier, Matthew Hart, and Melissa Close-Hart
Easton Porter Group
Lyn Bolen Warren
2015
Mark Brown
Phil Dulaney
Teresa Sullivan
Coran Capshaw
Ketti Davison
Maurice Jones
Woodriff, Weschler, Bills, et al.
Keith Woodard
Denise Lunsford and Richard Brewer
Jeff Fogel
Susan Payne
Cheryl Higgins
Larry Kochard
Dave Frey
David Martel
Liza Borches
Paul Beyer
Lynn Easton and Dean Andrews
Eric Trump
Loring Woodriff
2014
Corbin Hargraves
Jason Vandever
Christine Mahoney
Margeret Gould
Stephen Davis
Matt Joslyn
Mark Brown
Frank Ballif, Charlie Armstrong
Zach Buckner
Dean Maupin
Joel Slezak, Erica Hellen
Collean Laney
Brennan Gould
Pam Moran
Dave Chapman
David Heilberg
Jeyon Falsini
Kristen Szakos
Dan Rosenweig
2013
UVA
Teresa Sullivan
William Goodwin
Patrick Hogan
Developers
Coran Capshaw
Gabe Silverman
UVA
Dan Rosenweig
Wendell Wood
Politicians
Ken Boyd
David Toscano
Kristin Szakos
Rob Bell
City Republicans
Arts
Jody Kielbasa
Jon Parrish Peede
Matt Joslyn
Erica Arvold
Maureen Lovett
Entrepreneurs
Baron Schwartz and Kyle Redinger, Vivid Cortex
Dr. Crystal Icenhour, Phthisis Diagnostics
ChartIQ, Dan Schleifer
InSpark technologies, Erik and Karl Otto
LoveThatFit, Gina Mancuso
Pete Myers, Environmental Health Sciences
Toam Nguyen, C’ville Central
Kristen Suokko, Local Food Hub
Neal Kassell, Focused Ultrasound Foundation
Brian Wheeler, Charlottesville Tomorrow
2012
UVA
Teresa Sullivan
Helen Dragas
George Cohen
Edward Howell
Carl Zeithaml
Politicians
David Toscano
Richard Baxter Gilliam
Ken Boyd
Sonjia Smith
Chris Dumier
Landlords
Coran Capshaw
Michael Strine
Gabe Silverman and Allan Cadgens
Jim Justice
John Dewberry
Investors
Ted Weschler
Hunter Craig
Jaffray Woodriff and Michael Geismar
Robert Hardie
Mark Giles
Entrepreneurs
Tom Skalak
Martin Chapman
Michael Prichard and Tobias Dengel
Dr. Neal Kassell
Zach Buckner
Arts
Maggie Guggenheimer
Jody Kielbasa
Matt Joslyn
Steve and Russell Willis Taylor
Andrew Owen
Youth Movement
Tony Bennett
Collean Laney
Michael Allenby
Wes Bellamy
Hebah Fisher
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.
