Tag: Tanesha Hudson

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

Photo: Skyclad Aerial

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Quote of the Week

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

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In Brief

Courtesy Nic McCarthy

Re-re-contextualized

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

Sticking to their guns

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

Stepping it up

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

Common scents

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

 

 

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Arts

ARTS Pick: A Legacy Unbroken: The Story of Black Charlottesville

Tanesha Hudson's documentary A Legacy Unbroken: The Story of Black Charlottesville, premieres on Saturday at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. Publicity image.

Truth focused: In promoting the premiere of her documentary A Legacy Unbroken: The Story of Black Charlottesville, filmmaker Tanesha Hudson includes a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “I’m gonna tell the truth,” before she makes her own statement: “Hard work pays off eventually, even if it takes a lifetime.” Hudson has been active in the fight for justice and equity in Charlottesville for years, and her film furthers that work by focusing on the rich history of Charlottesville’s African American community.

Saturday 11/23. $20, 6pm. Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, 233 Fourth St. NW. 260-8720.

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In brief: Surviving the anniversary, unfinished A12 legal business, another contender, and more

First Baptist Church was the scene for August 12 reflection and moving forward—as it was two years ago. Amy Jackson

Forward together

It was a full house at First Baptist Church on West Main Street on August 12, as a diverse crowd gathered for an interfaith service. “It fills my heart to see the pews filled like this,” said deacon Don Gathers. “We’ve come together not because of what happened, but in spite of it.”

A promised appearance by several presidential candidates fell through, after Cory Booker returned to New Jersey to deal with a water crisis, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had asked to speak at the service but been denied, canceled at the last minute.

The service, which echoed similar gatherings held at the church after the violence in 2017 and on the first anniversary last year, was full of music, prayers, and reflection. It also featured testimony from August 12, 2017, survivors and faith leaders.

Activist Tanesha Hudson, a Charlottesville native, said activists of color had sometimes been left behind, and urged everyone to put action behind their conversations. “The world is watching Charlottesville, so how we recover is going to lay down the blueprint for how the world recovers.”

Marisa Blair and Courtney Commander, who were with their friend Heather Heyer when she died, said the anniversary had been harder than expected, but Blair said she wanted to talk about love. “Be kind. Be gentle. You don’t know what anyone else is facing.”

Presbyterian leader Jill Duffield spoke about living in Charleston, South Carolina, when a white supremacist gunman murdered nine people at the Emanuel AME church, but said it had taken the events in Charlottesville to make her understand the prevalence of white supremacist violence.

And Rabbi Tom Gutherz, of Congregation Beth Israel, addressed the long history of anti-Semitism, calling it “the glue that holds white supremacy together.” The son of a Holocaust survivor, he acknowledged that Jewish people in America have also been privileged. “I may have been surprised,” he said of the violence in Charlottesville, “but African Americans have always known it.”

He exhorted the audience to “be a resister, and not a bystander,” and said, “I believe that we will find a way forward together.” 

Clockwise from top left: Don Gathers, Sarah Kelley and Michael Cheuk, Tanesha Hudson, Tom Gutherz, Marissa Blair and Courtney Commander, and Jill Duffield were among those who spoke at First Baptist Church August 12. Amy Jackson

Quote of the week

“You literally have to love the hell out of people.”—Marissa Blair, survivor of the August 12, 2017, car attack

In brief

Kessler refiles

Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler took to the federal courts—again—on the second anniversary of the deadly rally in Charlottesville to sue the city and its officials for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights in August 2017. Kessler and co-plaintiff David Parrott claim police allowed a heckler’s veto to suppress their exercise of free speech by not stopping the fights that led to an unlawful assembly.

Hudson sues, too

Another civil suit was filed August 12, this one by local activist Tanesha Hudson. The lawsuit claims Hudson was denied her First, Fifth, and 14th Amendment rights when she joined Jehovah’s Witnesses counterprotesting at the Unite the Right rally. She’s seeking $400,000 in damages.

Fourth Street petition

City resident Aileen Bartels wants the mall crossing at Fourth Street closed and is circulating a petition to do so, a move unpopular with many downtown businesses, NBC29 reports. Bartels, whose petition had 325 signatures at press time, contends the crossing is a “serious safety hazard” for pedestrians on the mall, and notes the notoriety of the place where James Fields drove his car into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens.

Another challenger

A UVA doctor will run against Denver Riggleman for the 5th District congressional seat. Cameron Webb, who practices and teaches at UVA, lives in Albemarle. He says he’s going to focus on improving access to affordable health care. He joins R.D. Huffstetler and Fauquier lawyer Kim Daugherty in seeking the Dem nomination.

Screwdriver killing

A jury found Gerald Francis Jackson, 61, guilty August 7 of voluntary manslaughter in the slaying of his neighbor, Richard Wayne Edwards, 55, in his Cherry Street apartment. A jury recommended a sentence of 10 years in prison.

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Controlling the narrative: Panel looks at black Charlottesville’s stories

Claudrena Harold, Tanesha Hudson, and  Zyahna Bryant discuss how white supremacy was in Charlottesville long before August 12 at a UVA panel moderated by UVA vice-provost Louis Nelson. staff photo

Why Charlottesville was targeted by a white supremacist rally, ostensibly to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, has led to several theories. That was the starting point for a panel sponsored by the UVA library August 12, two years after the Unite the Right rally.

“Beyond the statues: The invisibility of black Charlottesville” began in the Harrison/Small auditorium with a moment of silence—then a discussion on whether Charlottesville became a target for white supremacists because of the absence of a counternarrative of truth telling on white supremacy and black activism.

It was a premise moderator Louis Nelson, a UVA vice-provost, admitted he didn’t necessarily buy. But he also questioned the “prevailing mythology” that white supremacy came from outside, and Charlottesville really wasn’t like that..

Charlottesville native and soon-to-be UVA first-year Zyahna Bryant challenged the out-of-towners narrative of August 12 and reminded that the man who organized the Unite the Right rally was a graduate of UVA. “Really, people just came out of their houses and came out from their basements into the street and started displaying their ideology,” she said.

In Charlottesville, black people have always had stories about building community, she said. “They just haven’t had those same platforms as white people.”

Activist Tanesha Hudson said, “When narratives are controlled by masses that have the power and the resources, you’re never going to get the truth. You can’t tell our truths if we’re not in the room.”

She’s making a documentary on black Charlottesville, “mainly because the story hadn’t really been told from a black perspective.”

Negative stories about black people perpetuate a system of racism, she said. “You never see the people rising up against white supremacy.” For instance, the story of Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion, was one she did not learn in Charlottesville schools, she said.

“One thing I loved about separate but equal,” said Hudson, were the black newspapers like the Reflector and the Tribune, which did provide news about what was going on in the black community.

Bryant pointed out how African Americans like Toni Morrison have contributed to American culture. “She was writing to and for black women,” said Bryant. “We created our own culture. I’m fascinated with how we can be so oppressed and so great at the same time. It fills me up.”

Claudrena Harold is a UVA history professor who co-edited Charlottesville 2017: The Legacy of Race and Inequity with Nelson and has made films on the history of black student activism at UVA. “I wanted to capture the beauty and texture of everyday life,” and how black students in the ‘60s and ‘70s created a culture, she said. “I wanted to visually tell that.”

Nelson asked the panelists about the most pressing systems and structures that need to be addressed.

A living wage and union representation, said Harold. “When people talk about the university as a plantation, they’re not talking about its architectural design.”

Hudson listed health care and justice, while Bryant said public education. She described how her guidance counselor tried to steer her away from applying to UVA and she realized she was the only one of 30 black students at Charlottesville High who applied. 

“UVA is not actually accessible to black students in Charlottesville,” said Bryant. “Most of their parents have worked for the university.” 

Bryant also warned about “the dangers of free speech,” which shut down city schools for two days when a teenager made a threat on social media. In school during conversations about history, she said, “Young white boys feel emboldened to be like, ‘I don’t like black people,’ and feel the classroom is a safe space to say that, and then we wonder who’s doing the mass shootings in school. Do we not see any level of connectedness there?”

 

 

 

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In brief: #counciloutofcontrol, billionaire’s arrearage, Wegmans trail hub and more

Photo Eze Amos

Out of order

Everyone was ordered out of City Council chambers when the April 2 meeting spiraled out of control following public comments from Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler and Confederate statue shroud-rippers Brian Lambert and Chris Wayne. In a closed session, councilors sought legal advice on dealing with disruptive attendees, such as Tanesha Hudson, who is beside the police officer (above) and who continued to interrupt councilors during a discussion about West2nd. “Tanesha, we’re going to have to move you out,” threatened Mayor Nikuyah Walker.

“While it has been better, it has been very difficult to conduct the meetings and have business take place.”—Mayor Nikuyah Walker after clearing the chamber during the April 2 out-of-control City Council meeting

Adoption nightmare

Virginia Media Relations

The abrupt March 20 resignation of former UVA women’s basketball coach Joanne Boyle, 54, for a family matter was because she has to take her 6-year-old daughter, Ngoty, back to Senegal to finalize her adoption, a process that could take months—or years, the Washington Post reports.

Eyes in the sky

Charlottesville will install seven security cameras in a four-block area near City Hall and the Market Street Garage for $54,000. The cameras will not be monitored in real time and images will be stored for 30 days. Former police chief Tim Longo first called for 30 cameras on the mall in 2007, but cost and privacy concerns stymied them.

Scofflaw governor

Billionaire West Virginia Governor Jim Justice is in arrears on property taxes he owes in Albemarle County to the tune of $148,000. Justice bought 4,500 acres in southeastern Albemarle in 2010 from MeadWestvaco for $23.75 million. Justice reportedly has stiffed West Virginia and Kentucky on taxes as well.

Latest U.S. attorney

Thomas T. Cullen, 40, of Roanoke was sworn in March 30 as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, a position that’s been open since John Fishwick resigned in early 2017.

Unhappy hour

Chef Geoff Tracy sues the Virginia ABC for restrictions that prohibit publicizing the price of drink specials at his Tysons Corner restaurants—although he can do so at his Maryland and D.C. restaurants.

Friendly with the feds

“Crying Nazi” Christopher Cantwell, who faces charges from the summer’s tiki torch march on Grounds, has written recent blog posts titled “I Am A Federal Informant” and “Why I’m Talking to the Feds,” detailing his quest for revenge on anti-fascist groups. Adds Cantwell, “Maybe the feds fuck me over. It’s a distinct possibility. But I’m DEFINITELY getting fucked by Charlottesville.”

Pound o’ meth

When Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement officers arrested Ersy Alejandro Hernandez on March 23 on an outstanding warrant for sexual battery, they found 458 grams of meth and 28 grams of coke on him, valued at $15,275 and $1,250, respectively. He was charged with possession with intent to distribute more than 10 grams of meth.

Feeling connected

Albemarle County officials have long preached a doctrine of interconnectivity, but a vision of trail biking and walking is more than just a prayer.

The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, which won nearly $500,000 for the project from VDOT in 2016, has revealed its first look at a “trail hub” that would connect multiple current and future pathways near 5th Street Station—the county’s newest shopping center anchored by Wegmans.

The trail system will be located to the east of Fifth Street Extended and north of Interstate 64, with the newly acquired Biscuit Run Park to the south. The Rivanna Trail to the city’s Azalea Park will border the west.

Local architecture firm Land Planning & Design Associates Inc. has had a heavy hand in designing the project.

“LPDA is enthusiastic about this project, which combines pedestrian connectivity, placemaking, amenity design and recreation planning,” says manager Jessica Mauzy. “[It’s] a key building block in the alternative transportation network in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.”

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Militia men: American patriot groups say they don’t condone violence

George Curbelo (right), commanding officer of the New York Light Foot Militia, says his group wanted to come back to Charlottesville to check in with community members after August 12 and explain their presence. Photo by Eze Amos

On Saturday afternoon, Tanesha Hudson set up a lunch buffet in a conference room on the top floor of the Central Library on Market Street. A few dozen people spooned mac ’n’ cheese and other dishes onto disposable plates and sat at folding tables to eat.

Hudson planned the meeting, a sort of citizens committee, she says, for the Charlottesville community to discuss how to “start holding the city more accountable for the way things turned out” the weekend of August 12. But only a handful of community members were in attendance—they were outnumbered by members of independent militia and other Three Percent and American patriot movement groups, who drove in from out of town to attend the meeting.

Hudson began by talking about her gratitude for the militia’s presence on August 12, noting that at one point, when white supremacists were beating counterprotesters with flag poles, it was the militia, not the police, who stepped in to help. She said she was skeptical of the militia at first, cussed them out, even, but since that weekend, she’s been in touch with George Curbelo, commanding officer of the New York Light Foot Militia, and better understands his group’s intentions. When Curbelo heard about this meeting, Hudson says, he asked if he and other militia members could attend.

One community member stood to echo Hudson’s gratitude for protection on that day. A second community member voiced his skepticism over the militia groups’ defense of free speech and said he figured that they were here to defend Richard Spencer’s right to speak, too. A third community member asked the militia groups to understand why Charlottesville is frightened by them and their presence in town.

Curbelo’s New York Light Foot Militia is one of the private military groups named in a lawsuit filed on October 12 by the University of Georgetown law school’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection on behalf of the city, several downtown businesses and neighborhood associations. The lawsuit asserts, among other things, that the presence of private armies significantly heightens the possibility of violence; that the rally organizers solicited private militias to attend the rally, held group-wide planning calls and circulated an instructional document called General Orders.

Because of the lawsuit, Curbelo and others are not allowed to discuss the details of the pre-planning or their own experiences of the day. But on Saturday, they sought to explain what the militias and American patriot groups stand for.

In a prepared statement, Anthony Hitchcock of the Virginia Minutemen Militia said free speech stops at violence. “We worked to keep the peace between the right and the left. We did everything within the parameters of the law to keep it peaceful…our only regret is not better keeping the peace,” he said, adding that members of his group are not white supremacists and do not condone racism or white supremacy.

In a phone interview Monday, Curbelo explained that his group and others are part of the American patriot movement, which seeks to uphold citizens’ Constitutional rights, including the right to assemble, the right to free speech and the right to bear arms. Militia groups, Curbelo says, are a subcategory of that movement.

Curbelo says his group’s intention is to facilitate conversations within communities, and sometimes that means creating a physical buffer between two opposing groups until initial friction dissipates and people start talking. That’s what these militia groups were in Charlottesville to do on August 12, but “it became so overwhelming that the only thing we could do was pick people up off the floor,” Curbelo says.