Podcasts about west main

Wendy Weiss of East End Arts and Vishakha Desai join Heart of The East End Gianna Volpe on WLIW-FM ahead of the Saturday, April 5, opening 4-7 p.m. of a solo exhibition “Finding Qi” featuring the late Robert Oxnam's paintings, sculptures and photography at both EEA's 11 West Main and 133 East Main Street galleries.Listen to the playlist on Apple Music

In this episode, Cherise is joined by Ben Lloyd, Vice President and Laura Landon, Associate Principal at Hennebery Eddy Architects with offices in Portland and Bend Oregon as well as Bozeman, Montana. They discuss the Bozeman Community Food Co-op in Bozeman. You can see the project here as you listen along.Bozeman's Community Food Co-op has long been a hub for fresh food and sustainable practices, and with its recent expansion designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects, it has solidified its role as a cornerstone of the community. Nearly doubling in size, the Co-op's West Main facility now spans 39,000 square feet, bringing all operations under one roof for the first time. Acetylated wood on the upper level brings warmth and durability, reinforcing the Co-op's emphasis on natural materials.If you enjoy this episode, visit arcat.com/podcast for more. If you're a frequent listener of Detailed, you might enjoy similar content at Gābl Media.

In this episode, we partnered with Downtown Lexington Partnership to host a live panel discussion at 325 West Main, formerly known as the Festival Marketplace. Joined by visionary Katie Kaufman and the general contractor on the project, David Dean, we discuss the redevelopment of this historic Lexington property. Kaufman, a former U.S. Defense policy expert turned developer, shares her journey of acquiring and reimagining the building with her partner, Jack Matthews. David provides insights into the construction challenges and solutions for bringing the timeless structure back to life. The conversation covers themes of community collaboration, the need to balance modern needs with historic preservation, and the importance of creating spaces that enrich daily experiences. Hosted by Weston Lockhart & Ross BoggessDevelopLex is proud to be supported by:SVN Stone Commercial Real EstateCommunity Trust BankIntro music by SmithTheMister00:00 Introduction and Event Overview00:55 Meet the Hosts and Guests02:09 Katie Kaufman's Acquisition Story06:52 Vision and Development Plans10:08 Construction Challenges and Progress13:52 Community and Surprises21:05 Future Vision and Lessons Learned28:51 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

We began with friends from White Dog Cafe Chester Springs and their Executive Chef, Rob McKee. Chef Rob's culinary career is why he is so versatile in the kitchen, having initially learned on the line, and circled back to the industry via a culinary degree.  Chef Rob earned his marks while working in kitchens across the US, and is now back in his home state working at White Dog Cafe in Chester Springs as their Executive Chef.  He's now gearing up for not only the seasonal changes to their menu, he's also preparing the dishes that will be offered during Fearless Restaurant's Restaurant Week (FRRW) specials, happening this April 7th-13th.  So tune in to find out more about Chef McKee, what to look forward to for their Restaurant Week and other specials coming this Spring!Now it's happenstance that our host has crossed paths so many times with our next guest, who joined us to talk about West and Main's two dining options, Hook and Ladder Skybar & Kitchen, and 1874 Social. After some humorous back and forth between our host and West & Main's Executive Chef, Edward Hancock, they'll jump into how Chef Hancock's career adds to the opulence of both Hook & Ladder and 1874 Social's menus. From options as simple as grabbing a coffee or cocktail & a sandwich from 1874 Social to a Wagyu Beef Board at Hook & Ladder, you'll find your way to any food-lover's heart.  You can even plan a staycation surrounding your night out, or plan ahead for your St. Patrick's Day celebrations so you can enjoy all the festivities, then stay overnight.  Stay tuned during this segment to find out all the ways you can enjoy visiting West & Main in Conshohocken, PA from Executive Chef Edward Hancock!https://www.hotelwestandmain.comhttps://www.hookandladderskybar.comhttps://www.hotelwestandmain.com/restaurants-conshohocken/1874-socialChef Hancock's YouTube Recipe Demo Video: https://youtu.be/Vc5wpftx0NcLastly you'll hear from Katelynn Ennis-Wolf, whose business Kreations by K is a one-stop shop for anything you might need to host a fabulous gathering! You'll hear how she began as a teacher, eventually finding her way to owning and operating Kreations by K, which offers everything from equipment rentals to charcuterie grazing tables.  So if you're looking for a balloon sculpture, grab-n-go charcuterie cups, or places to sit while you eat...listen to Katelynn's full interview and then check out her socials (website to come!) to find out more!https://www.facebook.com/kreationsbykco/

Today - if you’ve ever walked down West Main Street and thought it felt more like a highway than a downtown area, you’re not alone. But change is coming. And later - we’re talking about a church in Montrose facing fire code and zoning violations for sheltering the unhoused.Support the show: https://www.montrosepress.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the From Corner 2 Corner Saturday Show, we're taking a trip down memory lane while looking ahead to the future in Episode 325: "Moving On Up to West Main!" Big changes have transpired over the last week and we're breaking it all down—new beginnings, fresh perspectives, and maybe a few surprises along the way. Tune in as we bring the laughs, the hot takes, and the stories you won't want to miss!   Podcast made for everyone.  Sports, Wrestling, Movies, and much much more.  As the Number One Podcast out of Mount Sterling every Thursday and Saturday mornings that drops at 3 am your missing out if you don't listen.   Hosts - Sean Kiper, Neil Payne, Wes Crouch, Adam Muncy, and Daron Stephens. If you would like to help the show!   Cash App: fromc2cpc    Paypal: corner2cornerpc@gmail.com   Follow and Like us on the following Social Media Platforms. https://www.tiktok.com/@fromcorner2corner?lang=en   https://twitter.com/corner2cornerpc   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ1CVW5JlWWXRJLUWzuJc6g   www.fromcorner2corner.com   From Corner2Corner Online Store:   https://fromcorner2corner.itemorder.com/shop/home/

In this episode, Shannon sits down with Pam Briere, the visionary entrepreneur behind some of Parker's most beloved establishments: West Main Taproom and Grill, Villa Parker, and the highly anticipated Ovest Via Ristorante. Pam shares her journey in the hospitality industry, the inspiration behind her diverse ventures, and her passion for creating unforgettable experiences for the Parker community. We dive into what makes her businesses so unique, discuss the recognition West Main has received for their incredible gluten-free offerings, and get an exclusive look at what's to come with Ovest Via's grand opening. Pam also opens up about how her team reflects her vision and the ways she brings her creativity to life across such a variety of ventures. Don't miss this inspiring conversation with one of Parker's most dynamic business leaders! Presented by the Parker Chamber and Foundation — fostering growth and community in Parker. Learn more at www.parkerchamber.com.

Foodie Friday with Todd Sawrey, of West Main Pizza, explains their family business, their highly popular pizzas AND he reveals a brand new pizza during It Takes 2! (And, the new triple pepperoni ranch was everyone's favorite!) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob talks to Tom Scapalichi of RGE about gas inspection, Bob talks about the death of John Amos, Bob talks to Radio Mike about ear buds, talks about Lonsberry Pie, Bob reads a Monroe County Sherriff's press release, and Bob talks about Walgreens closing on West Main.

In this episode of “This Is Purdue,” we're talking to Bob Mindrum, former director of the Purdue Memorial Union and author of “Purdue Memorial Union, The First 100 Years, 1924 to 2024.”  The Purdue Memorial Union — a longtime centerpiece of Purdue's campus — is celebrating its 100th anniversary on Sept. 9, 2024.   In this episode you will:  Learn about the history of the iconic Purdue Memorial Union from its fundraising efforts in the early 1900s to the newest renovations, like the Purdue Union Club Hotel.  Explore the symbolic architecture by Pond & Pond architects, who also designed the unions at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and the University of Kansas.  Discover why PMU became a memorial for the Boilermaker military community and the ways this military significance is represented throughout the Union.   Get to know how the Union has served students over the decades from socializing at events like Singleton Shuffles and junior proms to gathering for concerts by popular musicians like Frank Sinatra and Sonny & Cher to studying in the East and West Main lounges.  Find out how the PMU will continue to serve future generations of Boilermakers.  If you're interested in history, you're in for a treat with this episode, Boilermakers! Join us in celebrating 100 years of this beloved campus icon. 

Chase Thomas is the Sports Renaissance Man, Atlanta Sports Guy & VFL. On today's program, Chase is joined by fellow University of North Georgia alumni Matt Green to talk about SEC Media Days in Dallas, why college football analysts want it both ways with Tennessee, bust potential for Georgia, Texas and Alabama, SEC West Main Characters, Jackson Arnold at Oklahoma, Harold Perkins at LSU, Walter Nolan at Ole Miss and much more.Host: Chase ThomasGuests: Matt GreenTo learn more about CT and the pod please go visit: https://chasethomaspodcast.comBy the way, this is a free, independent national sports podcast. To keep it that way, I'm going to need some help from you guys. If you're a fan of the pod and you haven't already, take a second right now and leave the show a 5-star rating and a review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It really does help, and it's so quick and easy to do. Thanks, y'all!Keep up with Chase on social media:Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodChaseThomasFollow me on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3kFHPDnFollow me on TikTok: https://bit.ly/3JdZ3RF'Like' me on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3ZmURo4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a Text Message.Intro song: 116 West Main, Durham, NC by Donovan Woods5. Up On You by Mr. Big4. Who I Am by Johnny Blues Skies & Sturgill Simpson3. Houdini by Eminem2. Serotonin by OneRepublic1. Evolve by PhishOutro song: Lost in a Dream by Cassandra Lewis

Update on development projects, and their requests for extensions We publish these project updates at least once a year and sometimes more often if there's enough activity to report. Since our last update in November there's been a lot of activity - but not necessarily building. Half of these projects either appear to have stalled or have requested extensions of their approvals due to delays. 45 Beekman St. Number of units: 64 apartments Status: The Planning Board will continue its review on Tuesday (July 9) of an application to demolish an existing structure and build two four-story, mixed-use buildings at one of Beacon's busiest intersections, the corner of Wolcott Avenue (Route 9D) and Beekman Street. The buildings are proposed to feature exterior covered arcade walkways that would lead to 15,000 square feet of first-floor commercial space. A garage level beneath one of the buildings would include 41 parking spaces while plans call for the second building to have 47 surface spaces. 416-420 Main St. Number of units: 1 apartment Status: The City Council on Monday (July 1) approved a six-month extension of the special-use permit originally approved in 2021 for this four-story Main Street building. Construction is about 80 percent complete on the project, a merger of two lots that will include retail on the ground floor, office space on the second and third and a single apartment on a recessed fourth floor. It is expected to be complete within six months. 364 Main St. Number of units: 20 apartments Status: The Planning Board approved this three-story mixed-use proposal in April 2022. It will replace the former Citizens Bank on Main Street with retail on the ground floor and 20 apartments on the second and third. We reported in November that construction was expected to begin in the spring but it has not. The bank was razed months ago; all that remains inside fencing at the site are support beams and the bank vault. Beacon Commons (16 W. Main St.) Number of units: 62 apartments Status: Approved in November 2022, this project at the corner of West Main and Bank streets received a special-use permit allowing parking on the adjacent residentially zoned parcel. It received six-month extensions of the permit in November and in May. Explaining the delay, the architect told the Planning Board in May that the developer was "working with the construction team and finalizing some logistics." 2 Cross St. Number of units: 18 apartments Status: The Planning Board approved this project, a three-story building at the corner of Main and Cross streets, in 2022. It will include retail on the street level and 18 apartments on the two top floors. Funding delays threatened to upend plans to rent all 18 units at below-market rates, but the project was awarded $2.5 million through a state housing fund in May, keeping it affordable. The developer said at the time that he hoped construction would begin in a matter of weeks. Mirbeau Spa Number of units: N/A Status: Mirbeau plans to restore the 64-acre Tioronda Estate, which includes the former Craig House psychiatric hospital, with a luxury spa and hotel with a restaurant, rental cottages and other amenities. The Planning Board held a public hearing this spring on amendments to the site plan, including the decision to renovate, rather than demolish, a 1978 dining wing because of construction and material costs. Mirbeau also elected not to build seven ground-floor "grotto" rental rooms, among other minor changes. The company hopes to open the new facility in 2025. According to documents submitted to the Planning Board, Mirbeau will improve the left-turn lane entering the site from Route 9D in June 2025. Prophecy Hall Number of units: N/A Status: After more than two years of deliberation, the Planning Board last year approved the conversion of the former Reformed Church of Beacon into a hotel, restaurant and event center. Last month, the board agreed to two six-month extensions of the project's special-...

South West Main Door सही या गलत जाने और उनके उपाए | Dr Puneet Chawla --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecom-live-vaastu/message

Hey everyone. this is Jim Duncan with sweat the details by nest realty. This week, we were joined by a longtime friend, Greg Fischer of West + Main homes, based in Colorado and Oregon. Greg was one of our earliest guests - all the way back in December 2019. Greg is always a great conversation, and Jonathan, Keith and I are thankful for Greg joining us again. Make sure to stick around for Greg's detail that he sweats — it's a great and meaningful one for real estate industry.

We talk to #551 Guillaume St Cyr from Victoriaville, PQ about almost making the 250 West Main at Round 2 of the 2024 Monster Energy AMA Supercross at Oracle Park in a wet and muddy San Francisco. Monday, January 15, 2024.

Mixed-use project proposed for congested intersection Adeveloper has submitted plans to build two four-story, mixed-use buildings at one of Beacon's busiest intersections, the corner of Wolcott Avenue (Route 9D) and Beekman Street. If the project is approved, the developer would demolish a three-story commercial building - the former site of the Beacon Popmart, an art event space - and merge its lot with two vacant parcels. The two buildings would include 14,000 square feet of commercial space and 65 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The project also includes 89 parking spaces, some of which would be located beneath one of the buildings. The site is almost entirely within Beacon's Linkage District, a zone that the 2017 comprehensive plan says should promote residential development that reinforces connections between the Main Street and waterfront areas. Specifically, it instructs mixed-use development to be allowed adjacent to the intersection of Route 9D and Beekman Street to create "a more inviting and active pedestrian gateway between the Linkage District and Main Street." Developments such as the River Ridge townhouses, The View condominiums and the West End Lofts have been added to the area in recent years. A year ago, the Planning Board also approved the Beacon Commons, a 62-unit building that will be constructed at the corner of West Main and Bank streets, and the 246-apartment Edgewater complex is under construction a few blocks away. However, on weekday afternoons the area is also easily Beacon's most congested, as vehicles leaving the Metro-North station routinely back up almost to City Hall waiting to get to Interstate 84. A traffic consultant for the project acknowledged to the Planning Board, which began its review of the application on Tuesday (Dec. 12), that "there's some issues there," and suggested adding a traffic signal at Wolcott (which is known as North Avenue in that area) and Tompkins Avenue. A light would have to be approved by the state Department of Transportation. The consultant also suggested timing modifications for the existing signal at Wolcott and Beekman to better handle the traffic flow. Planning Board members were cautious. Kevin Byrne noted the importance of the intersection as one of the entrances to Beacon. "The city has an opportunity here to repair some of the damage done" decades ago by urban renewal, "which was significant," he said. "There's a real public interest in making this a significant building." One of the proposed buildings will also adjoin High Street, which "has a collection of some of the most stately Victorian homes" in Beacon, said Len Warner. "It's a gem of a street." "So don't mess it up," said John Gunn, the Planning Board chair. Cell tower approved The Planning Board on Tuesday approved an application by Verizon to erect a 120-foot cell tower in the Fairview Cemetery, about 400 feet from residences on Helen Court. Approval was granted despite protests from neighbors, who cited health concerns and its effect on property values. A Verizon attorney, David Brennan, told the board that the structure is necessary because a tower on Mount Beacon that provided coverage in the 1990s, when few people used cellphones, is no longer feasible. "It's too far away, it's too high up and it's too far from the population it's serving," he said. The new tower will have three "sectors," each with an antenna, plus three boxes that include overvoltage protectors and other equipment. Other wireless carriers could install antennas on the tower if there is a need, Brennan said. Verizon's lease on the site is for five years and will automatically renew, unless canceled by the company, for up to 25 years. 409 Fishkill Ave. Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist organization, has submitted plans to repurpose 409 Fishkill Ave., a parcel owned by the Healey Brothers auto dealership, as a worship center that would accommodate up to 200 people. The parcel is one of four being vacated by Healey, whi...

Today is Day 250 of Year 2023, with another 115 to go until we all take a leap into the next year. The relevance of these numbers will depend on the reader or listener's perception of time. Every edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement captures a point in time, though not always in a strictly linear fashion. I'm Sean Tubbs, a person seeking to produce as many of these snapshots as possible.  In this edition:* Greene County has placed restrictions on water use to drought conditions* A plan for Charlottesville to sell a small sliver of city-owned land on West Main is now on hold* Albemarle Supervisors authorize bonds to pave way for purchase of 462 acres of land in the northern part of the county near Rivanna Station  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Two years ago, NAR policy was updated to give brokers and agents attribution rights, meaning they get to decide how they appear in listings.   But Homes.com employs a ‘your listing, your lead' model, displaying the listing agent's contact information.   So, does this comply with NAR's attribution policy? And what else do we need to think about as companies like Zillow and Homes.com switch to IDX?   On this episode of Listing Bits, Michael Wurzer, CEO of real estate software company FBS, Greg Fischer, Owner of indie brokerage West + Main, and Andy Woolley, VP of Industry Development at Homes.com, join us to consider how ‘your listing, your lead' jives with NAR's IDX attribution policy.   Andy explains how ‘your listing, your lead' differs from the referral model used on other sites, and Greg asks what is changing at Homes.com now that it's a participant in the MLS.   Listen in for Michael's insight on the repercussions on policy that come with mixing different use cases for data feeds and find out why it's important for MLSs to develop a standard way for national portals like Homes.com to license data.   What's Discussed:     How NAR IDX policy changed to give brokers and agents attribution rights Whether Homes.com's ‘your listing, your lead' model complies with NAR's attribution policy Why most brokers aren't using the ‘attribution source' field in RESO's data dictionary Homes.com's decision to display the listing agent's contact information Why Homes.com made the switch from its original MLS feeds to IDX What is changing at Homes.com now that it's a participant in the MLS vs. a media publisher The potential repercussions on policy that come with mixing use cases for data feeds What differentiates Homes.com's ‘your listing, your lead' from the referral model used on other sites How Homes.com allows buyer's agents to protect their relationships on the site How showing a listing agent on a lead placard compares to seeing their name on a yard sign The challenge Homes.com faces when it comes to agent responsiveness Why it's crucial for MLSs to create a standard way for national portals to license data   Connect with Michael Wurzer:   Michael at FBS Michael on Twitter   Connect with Greg Fischer:   West + Main Greg on Twitter   Connect with Andy Woolley:   Homes.com Andy on Twitter   Resources:   Greg's Twitter Thread on Your Listing, Your Lead NAR's IDX Policy RESO Data Dictionary Homesnap Pro   Our Sponsor:   Cloud CMA for Brokers

On episode 009 Bro. Jason interviews Dusty Desimone, the lead pastor of West Main Baptist Church in Alexandria, TN.

West + Main hosted a breakout of boot camps for seasoned agents and brand new agents. In this episode, West + Main Managing Broker Greg Fisher focused on the systems of: Performance, Analytics, and Intelligence.

Dr. Puneet Chawla is a Life Guru, guiding and mentoring the followers to solve their life problems and make a easy living. He corrects the reasons of troublesome life by way of Vastu, Mantra and Tantra Mandalas. Being an intuitive personality he senses the negative energies, the reasons of problems and rarely predicts the life decisions too. He is a Shiv and Shakti Sadhak and guides people through Shivpath. ============================== Like, Share,and Subscribe!!! Our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/vaastuwithpuneet========Connect with us======= Android App: https://goo.gl/7yrFjc============================== iOS App for iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/live-vaastu/id1251274555?mt=8============================= Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drpuneetchawlaTwitter: https://twitter.com/PuneetVaastuG+: https://goo.gl/m4CQAuLinkedin: https://goo.gl/yat644============================= Websites: https://www.livevaastu.comProfile Website : http://drpuneetchawla.comEmail us: contact@livevaastu.com Call Us @ 9555666667 | 9873333108 | 9899777806 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecom-live-vaastu/message

#83 Cole Thompson rides for the Solitaire Heartbeat Hot Sauce Yamaha team in the 2023 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series. He just finished 10th in the 250 West Main at "Round 3" in Snapdragon Stadium, so we got in touch with him to talk about how the day and night went for the Canadian out of Brigden. Ontario.

Today - Pedestrian safety and congested traffic in West Montrose dominated discussions as the City rounded out its final public forum for the West Main Revitalization project.Support the show: https://www.montrosepress.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Cherise is joined by Jeff Dreyfus, Principal and Whitney Hudson, Project Architect from Bushman Dreyfus Architects in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jeff and Whitney share their insights into their recent work on Six Hundred West Main, an urban mixed-use project in Charlottesville, VA. The new building has 53 apartments, an art gallery, lobby, courtyard, underground parking and retail space. The building is built next to two renovated historic buildings that house a locally-famous diner and a wine shop with offices and apartments above. Six Hundred consists of various steel textures on the façade, a concrete structure for the parking and ground floor levels, and wood frame construction above. To see project photos and details discussed, visit https://www.arcat.com/podcast (arcat.com/podcast) This project provided unique challenges and opportunities - a Special Use Permit was required for increased density, the historic district and adjacent existing structures prompted a design review process with the local Board of Architectural Review through to project completion, the owners - a married team of developer and artist - pushed for a forward-thinking urban apartment building that contrasted the historic district, and much more. If you enjoy this show, you can find similar content at https://gablmedia.com/ (Gābl Media).

Some strange are things going on in the studios off West Main this week. For the first time...possibly ever, Jordan is the one with the positive attitude to start the show. He tries to lift Jim out of his funk with some Hard Knocks audio from the Detroit Lions, more specifically Jamaal Williams. Jordan then shows his normal colors by heeding a warning to Lions fans after being so positive. They also have updates on the Tigers, Deshaun Watson and WMU football. Listen, share and enjoy! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today is the antepenultimate day of Fiscal Year 2022, and we’re counting down the hours to when the metaphorical ball will drop in Richmond marking the beginning of FY2023. Are you prepared? Feel free to review previous installments of Charlottesville Community Engagement to revisit the hundreds of stories written in the tinfopast 12 fiscal months. Or head on over to Information Charlottesville to see I’ve been able to cover at least. The “I” here is Sean Tubbs and thanks for reading. On today’s program: Charlottesville City Council gets details on a water infrastructure project in advance of a vote today by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Many people had an opinion about whether the name of the regional library system but it’s up to elected officials to decide on a change How much trash was processed in Virginia last year? The Department of Environmental Quality has a new report.And about two hundred people attended an open house on the forthcoming update of the city’s zoning codeToday’s first shout-out goes to WTJUIn today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out: Algorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. Tune in and support freeform community radio on WTJU Consider a donation at wtju.net/donate.Around 200 people turn up at Pavilion to get details on the city’s zoning processWhen the Cville Plans Together Initiative began in early 2020, there were plans to engage people at a series of meetings while the work of crafting an affordable housing plan and the Comprehensive Plan update was conducted. However, the pandemic forced all of that public engagement work to go online. Council adopted the Affordable Housing Plan in March 2021 and the Comprehensive Plan last November. Both call for additional residential density across the city and an update of the zoning code is the next step. This time around, people can meet in large numbers, and an open house was held yesterday at the Ting Pavilion where attendees could get a look at the new Diagnostics and Approach Report for the zoning rewrite. People could go through the entire process to date and ask questions of consultants, city staff and each other. I dropped by briefly and spoke with James Freas, the city’s Director of Neighborhood Development Services since last September.  (read the Zoning Diagnostic and Approach report)“We’ve just released the report about two weeks ago and what we’re really looking for is where can we answer clarifying questions, where can we answer questions about what we’ve already shared and what’s in there, and what else should we be considering?” Freas said. Freas said even half an hour into the event, he could see how community engagement will be different for this phase of the Cville Plans Together initiative. “If you look around, people are having conversations,” Freas said. “You can’t do this on a Zoom environment. So it’s really exciting to be back in person talking to people face to face, introducing ourselves, having a conversation, and even if we don’t agree, because we’ve met and talked face to face, we’re able to walk away in a move civil environment.” Freas said the city will collect comments through August, and he will be visiting various neighborhood associations to explain the idea. Then the diagnostics report will be finalized in September for the Planning Commission and Council to review, followed by the actual rewrite. DEQ releases solid waste reportMore than 22.7 million tons of solid waste were sent to processing facilities in Virginia last year, with nearly 5.4 million coming from out of state. That’s according to the annual solid waste report for 2021, released yesterday by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. “The total amount of solid waste received increased by one percent or 225,524.95 tons compared to 2020,” reads the report.However, the amount that came from another jurisdiction dropped by 5.28 percent. About 44 percent of out-of-state came from Maryland, 18.7 percent came from New York State, and 14 percent came from Washington D.C. Around 11.8 percent of the waste was incinerated and 73 percent went into landfills. Another 8.24 percent was recycled. All but one of Virginia’s 204 permitted solid waste facilities submitted reports. Locally, the landfill operated by Louisa County buried 23.1 tons of solid waste and has 10.2 years left of capacity. Two transfer stations included in the reporting are the Ivy Materials Utilization Center in Albemarle County as well as the Nelson County transfer station. Speakers express multiple views on renaming of library system The Board of Trustees of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library met yesterday at the Northside Library on Rio Road for the usual things such as a five year plan and a budget. But the main item throughout the meeting was whether the system’s name should be changed. “I don’t expect that we will have a vote on the issue of the library’s name change today,” said Thomas Unsworth, the chair of the JMRL Board. “In fact the Board would be able to call a public hearing if need be to collect further feedback from commentary on that issue.”The public comment period came at the beginning of the meeting before comments on the topic from JMRL Director David Plunkett. The topic came up at the last trustee meeting in May when Myra Anderson asked for the change because Thomas Jefferson and James Madison owned people as enslaved workers. We’ll hear from Anderson again in a minute.  The first speaker identified himself as Nickolaus Cabrera and said he was a rising senior at the University of Virginia as well as president of the school’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom. “We lose our future when we burn our past,” Cabrerra said. “What you all are considering today is a direct burning of our past. Why is this discussion happening? On what basis?” Cabrerra said the name change would do nothing more than promote a “woke agenda” and this would be an example of censorship. The next several speakers sided with this view. Others did not, including Gloria Beard of Charlottesville. “It’s time for a change for all people and I hope you all consider what we’re trying to bring across to you,”  Beard said. “It’s time to change so all people feel like this community is for everybody.” Others felt Jefferson and Madison’s legacy was too important not to honor. “Without Jefferson we would not have the freedoms we have so that is just so important for people to research, come to libraries that are full of books,” said Ann McLean of Richmond. “Yes, he loved books.” McLean said the Declaration of Independence was more important than the works of Shakespeare, the Magna Carta, and the writings of Cicero.“Without the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, we would have no rights and no liberties and be completely at the mercy of the government,” McLean continued. “Which we do not want to be!”Myra Anderson described herself as the president of the Reclaimed Roots Descendants Alliance and a descendant of enslaved laborers.“Six of my ancestors were sold on the auction block in 1829 at the second estate sale of Thomas Jefferson,” Anderson said. “At the time the Declaration of Independence was written and it was declared that all men are created equal, my sixth great grandfather and grandmother were enslaved at the time at Monticello.” Anderson said libraries should be inclusive spaces and the name should change to reflect the updated values of the system. She said to her, the name Jefferson does not just conjure up greatness. “It represents the trauma, the oppression, the pain, and the part of Jefferson that most white people want to gloss over when they talk about his greatness, but unfortunately that’s the part that put Black people on a trajectory of struggle,” Anderson said. Anderson said the precedent for such a change was set locally when the health district dropped his name last year. Director’s reportAfter the public comment period was over, Plunkett gave his report on how the name is currently codified and how it might be changed. He said state law for regional library boards deal with how trustees are appointed and the rules for spending money.  There’s no mention of who gets to name them. Plunkett said the current name has informally been in place since 1972 when the regional system was created to pool resources across a wider area. “The big reason though that Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson joined forces to create JMRL was because of state aid funding which was amplified in the 70’s,” Plunkett said. “Basically the state incentivized localities to get together and share their resources in order to provide library services.” The original agreement from 1972 did not yet include Greene County, and Plunkett said it was originally called the Thomas Jefferson Regional Library. “The library board heard a comment from a library board member who made a plea to them to change the name from the Thomas Jefferson Regional Library to the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library,” Plunkett said. Plunkett said that board member wanted to recognize the “special friendship” between Madison and Jefferson. He noted Madison did not live in the service area now operated by JMRL. Greene County joined in 1974 and the name was officially changed in an amended agreement. Plunkett said he’s sought legal advice about who gets to change the name. “The legal counsel that the library board has received is that the authority for changing the library name rests with member jurisdictions, with Charlottesville, Albemarle, Louisa, Greene, and Nelson,” Plunkett said. Plunkett said the agreement is overdue for its mandatory five-year review and a five-member committee with one appointed by each jurisdiction should begin that work and consider a new name as part of that process. “If there were changes made to the regional agreement at that point, they would need to take them back to their Boards of Supervisors or City Councils to vote on before that could come back as an amended regional agreement,” Plunkett said. Plunkett said the Blue Ridge Health District did not have to ask for permission to make a change and it was made administratively. He added Albemarle County Public Schools have a policy in place regarding school names (learn more). The University of Virginia has a Namings & Memorials committee. Board discussionDuring the Board discussion, Trustee Lisa Woolfork of Charlottesville noted the library was not named to honor the two former presidents, but their friendship. “It wasn’t about ‘Oh, look what they did for the Bill of Rights and the Declaration and et cetera,” Woolfork said. “It was, ‘these guys are friends!”’Woolfork noted that Charlottesville’s Unitarian church recently dropped Jefferson’s name from its official name. “I really do believe that we are in a moment where our democracy is being challenged in a variety of ways and I feel as though we have the opportunity to make some true progress to reflect some of the growth that Charlottesville has made,” Woolfork said. One of Albemarle’s trustees, Michael Powers, said at issue is that different people view as the primary legacy of Jefferson. “I think it’s clear to me that many people primarily associated Jefferson and Madison with their practice of slavery, but it’s also clear that whatever the origin of the name was at the time, over the last 50 years many people have come also to primarily associate these figures with powerful and fundamental American values, principles and ideals,” Powers said. Powers said the JMRL Board has to take both considerations into account and he spent some time defending how others have sought to defend Jefferson’s legacy. He cited the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as the main legal tool used in the Civil Rights movement. “So we hear in the 14th amendment, equal protection for life, liberty, they are very familiar echoes of Jefferson’s ‘All men are created equal’ and ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Powers continued. JMRL Chair Thomas Unsworth said while the JMRL can’t directly change the name, they can make recommendations or suggestions to local officials as part of the agreement review. Woolfork was clear that she feels the name must change and she resisted framing the issue as one of two equal sides. “It seems to me that that true energy of what a library does and brings and provides should be robust enough and substantial enough that we can serve our services areas and provide the things we continue to provide and not being called Jefferson Madison will not impede our ability to do that,” Woolfork said. The trustee from Louisa County pointed out that two of the five localities have already voted on resolutions opposing a name change. Neither resolution in either Greene or Louisa specified any further action. (Louisa Supervisors unanimously oppose name change, June 9, 2022)The trustee from Nelson County said she was concerned about the resolutions.“They put that out before even hearing what the other people in the area,” said Aleta Childs. The Board had a long discussion of the matter and in the end opted to pick up the conversation at its next meeting in July. By then, Tony Townsend of Albemarle will be the chair. “My agenda here is to make sure that the area’s most inclusive, diverse, and free resource doesn’t get sidetracked or handicapped by this discussion,” Townsend said. “I think it’s a good discussion. I think it needs to happen. I think we can probably come up with a plan that will allow everyone to have at least input.” Townsend said the process is just beginning. Woolfork said she wanted to know if Louisa and Greene would leave the regional system as a result. “Are they that committed to their adulation of Jefferson and Madison that they will just say ‘we don’t want to have a library with you anymore, thanks, and nice knowing you,’” Woolfork asked. The JMRL Board of Trustees next meets on July 25 at 3 p.m. Second shout-out is for LEAP’s new Thermalize Virginia program In today’s second Patreon-fueled shout-out: Have you been thinking of converting your fossil-fuel appliances and furnaces into something that will help the community reduce its greenhouse gas emissions? Your local energy nonprofit, LEAP,  has launched a new program to guide you through the steps toward electrifying your home. Thermalize Virginia will help you understand electrification and connect you with vetted contractors to get the work done and help you find any rebates or discounts. Visit thermalizeva.org to learn more and to sign up!  RWSA to vote today on Central Water Line projectToday the Board of Directors for the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority will meet to select an alignment for a five mile pipeline that the organization says is necessary to help secure drinking water infrastructure. Last week, Charlottesville City Council got a briefing on the project. (view the presentation)“So we call it the Central Water Line project because it was recommended to be located in the central portion of the city to provide the greatest water benefit to our regional water supply system,” said Bill Mawyer, the executive director of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. Mawyer said planning dates back to a drought in 2002 that led to a long discussion about how to expand the community water supply plan. That involved expansion of the Ragged Mountain Reservoir by building a new earthen dam, as well as an upgrade of the Observatory Water Treatment plan. This Central Water Line is to transfer water to a location in Pantops. “We realized later, it was not part of the original Community Water Supply plan, that we needed to have a large pipe coming away from the Observatory Treatment Plant so that we can distribute that water to all parts of the city and the county, the urban water area as we call it,” Mawyer said.The current cost share is a 52 to 48 percent split with the Albemarle County Service Authority picking up the larger share. Various versions of this pipeline have been considered in the past to increase capacity, and a report released last year called the Urban Finished Water Master Plan recommended this central pipe through the city. “If we expand the water treatment plant and we replace the raw waterline to get it to the treatment plant, it has no benefit if we can't put that water out into the system,” Mawyer said. Mawyer said the work would be done in segments of several hundred feet at a time with most of the work underneath city streets. “We expect the schedule to be from 2024 through 2028,” Mawyer said. Mawyer said the RWSA has presented to six neighborhood associations along the route and mailed out information to every parcel on the way. He said that led to another visitation of the five alignments and other alternatives that had been examined. One of the alignments would have used the Route 250 bypass but that would have taken eight years. “Work on the bypass was going to be quite a challenge [and] that likely would have to be completed at night due to the impacts on traffic,” Mawyer said. Other alignments included Preston Avenue, West Main, and along Harris Street and Fifth Street Extended. Mawyer said the latter got further attention during the neighborhood meeting phase. “Now, when we had our neighborhood meetings, they said, well what about going down Harris Street all the way to Fifth Street and come up Fifth Street ,” Mawyer said. “So we took a careful look at that and found that there were two disadvantages. One,  it was going to be about $8 million more expensive because it’s a much longer route.”Mawyer also said Fifth Street carries heavy traffic including emergency vehicles. Another potential alternative was to go underneath Shamrock Road which would have been shorter and cheaper, but other problems were identified.  “But Shamrock is such a narrow street, with no shoulder on one side, with on street parking, very congested, [and] you have the railroad track and the vertical curve,” Mawyer said. The Cherry Avenue alignment was deemed to have the least amount of traffic and to take the least amount of time to complete. “We think this southern Cherry Avenue [alignment] when all things are considered provides the greatest benefit and opportunity for us,” Mawyer said. “We recognize that there will be impacts along the way.” The RWSA’s chief engineer said she ran models on all of the various ways to connect the water line.“The connectivity that we get from the… Central Water Line that ties in all of these mains and provides this main corridor that goes east-west through the city in a relatively straight line really did provide the greatest hydraulic benefits to the system under the most number of conditions,” said Jennifer Whitaker. Councilor Michael Payne acknowledged he is not an engineer but he said he had concerns about the preferred alternative along Cherry Avenue in part because he felt RWSA’s assessment of impact to neighborhoods had been subjective. “Is that really the best route in terms of objective criteria and how much that decision has been made via subjective criteria,” Payne said. Payne said the Northern route would be cheaper with a price tag of $28 million. That alternative would also require moving ahead with an $11 million upgrade of the Emmet Street water main that was not otherwise required until the 2030’s. “It raises my eyebrow that a project that at least on my understanding while adding some redundancy to the whole system is primarily benefiting the Pantops area is being routed through the southern part of the city, particularly public housing and low income communities,” Payne said. Councilor Brian Pinkston has been on the RWSA Board of Directors since January. He supported the Cherry route and said it would have benefits for the southern portion of the city. “One of the extra benefits of doing it this way is that you get larger transmission lines on the southern side of the city,” Pinkston said. “That’s not something that’s been brought up tonight but its an important reason why I think this is the most reasonable route.” Pinkston also noted that much of the opposition is based on an idea somehow this would all be done for the benefit of people in Albemarle’s growth area. “I don’t know why it’s a problem that we would to help people in the county, particularly when they’re paying 52 percent of it,” Pinkston said. Council did not take a vote on how to direct Pinkston and the city’s two other RWSA members. Charlottesville Community Engagement is free to receive, but supported by paid subscriptions. If you subscribe, Ting will match your initial contribution! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

West and Main CTO Greg Fischer joins us once again to speak on what everyone is talking about; the market shift and what he sees across different markets and MLS's. West and Main has recently set up shop in Bend, Oregon, so Greg has valuable insight to what is happening in negotiations and buying/selling trends in the marketplace for many different geographical areas. Be a fly on the wall as Dave and Greg take time to catch up, but then dive into the market shift as categorized in 'waves' as Greg provides insight on whats happening on the ground level as he sees it. What are those waves we should take note of as buyers/sellers/agents? Listen to find out! For more content, subscribe to the podcast or visit www.windermereabode.com Greg also writes for his blog, you can check it out and subscribe here. West + Main Homes (Denver, Colorado) Follow Greg on the socials: Twitter --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/windermereabode/message

Ken is joined by Jacqueline Slaby, Neighborhood Activator, City of Kalamazoo See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's episode we talk with Mark Joeckel about the West Main Arts Festival that is happening this Saturday, May 14th from 12-8pm. 4 Stages of music, art booths, food, drinks, and so much more! We also speak to the CEO of the Pro Bull Riders, Sean Gleason, about the PBR World Finals that kicks off this Friday out in Fort Worth and runs through the 22nd.

The final Friday of March has arrived and it’s also the twelfth such day of the year. One question is how many more are left in 2022? Is it worth the research it would take to bring you that piece of information? Or would it be better to proceed with another installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement? One fact I can say with some confidence is that I’m Sean Tubbs, your stenographic host.Know someone who might want to read or listen to detailed accounts of how decisions are made in local government? Share Charlottesville Community Engagement! On today’s program:Council holds first reading on a rezoning for 170 units in Fry’s Spring but approval will hinge on finding funding for sidewalk improvements Charlottesville City Council weighs in further on tax rates and the budget Today’s first shout-out goes to WTJUAlgorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. Support freeform community radio on WTJU and get ready for the station’s 85th anniversary on April 1! Consider a donation at wtju.net/donate.City Manager Rogers to negotiate with Southern Development on Stribling sidewalk agreement As Charlottesville contemplates a more dense future with more people, how can today’s elected officials ensure the infrastructure is in place before new homes are built? The fate of Southern Development’s request to rezone undeveloped land in the Fry’s Spring neighborhood depends on if Charlottesville Council is satisfied sidewalks will be built on Stribling Avenue. “At 12 acres, this is one of the largest undeveloped properties within the city,” said City Planner Matt Aflele. Southern Development’s plan is to build 170 residential units in a mix of single-family attached, townhomes, and multifamily buildings at a density of 15 dwelling units per acre. The Planning Commission has voted unanimously to recommend a rezoning and a critical slopes waiver, but only if funds were placed in the capital improvement program for a sidewalk on Stribling Avenue. Southern Development had agreed to loan the city $2.9 million to cover the cost. This would be paid back in the form of real estate tax rebates until the amount is paid off. At Council’s first reading of the matter on Monday, Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers said he did not recommend proceeding with the sidewalk for many reasons. For one, the city would need to issue additional bonds and it’s already at capacity. For another, Rogers said if the city is going to enter into public-private partnerships for infrastructure, there need to be rules first. “The city does not have in place a policy infrastructure for these kinds of arrangements,” Rogers said. “So that it’s clear to everyone up front and that’s something that we will work on. But at this time there are too many unknown variables.” However, staff does recommend the rezoning. “After a lot of considerations we do think that 170 new housing units in that location would be a benefit to the city, and the fact that 26 affordable housing units would be added would be beneficial to our affordable housing program as well.” Rogers said the city would have to find a way to pay for the sidewalk if the development was to move forward. “So we would have to go back to the CIP, include this project, find the money for it, and make it happen,” Rogers said. Jason Halbert is co-president of the Fry's Spring Neighborhood Association. They’ve been working on this issue since the idea of the rezoning emerged. "We as a board never said no, NIMBY, we didn't take that position," Halbert said. "We took a position to try to advance what we have always been trying to advance, which is improved safety on Stribling Avenue and the intersection of Stribling and Jefferson Park Avenue.” Halbert said the development should not occur without infrastructure. He thanked interim Michael C. Rogers for his announcement earlier in the meeting that the process for the capital improvement program would be overhauled. "If we want to work with developers to get more density in the city and really do this new  zoning ordinance in a proper way, the city's CIP and the infrastructure has to keep pace," Halbert said. "If it can't keep pace you're going to create serious problems on city streets, city intersections, and you're going to have more and more consternation from neighborhoods."City resident Ben Heller asked for the city to ask for $2.9 million in cash from Southern Development rather than the loan. He pointed out the company paid $2 million for the 11 acres of undeveloped land in June 2021. "With 170 houses there that's only $12,000 per development entitlement," Heller said. "In general you are talking about $120,000 per development entitlement in that neighborhood. You could ask the developer for $3 million and they would still be getting a bargain in terms of the price per development entitlement." Council discussionVice Mayor Juandiego Wade worked for many years as a transportation planner for Albemarle County and is familiar with the road because this area is within in the jurisdictions of a joint planning study known as Southern Area B. “We had some projects on the county end of this and it was a real gnarly, gnarly road there and i think it prevented some of the county projects from getting done in that area,” Wade said. Wade said the city has to find a way to build the sidewalk.Councilor Brian Pinkston said he could not vote for the rezoning until there was a plan in place to guarantee the sidewalks would be built. “I see why the notion of trying to fund this with a loan was a great idea, kind of a hail mary sort of thing, but I can see why it’s very difficult and problematic on the policy side and the debt management side and not having the policies and procedures in place to govern that,” Pinkston said. Another issue is lack of funding to upgrade the intersection of Stribling and Jefferson Park Avenue Extended to handle left-hand turns. That concerned Mayor Lloyd Snook as much if not more than the sidewalk. “That kind of improvement is never going to be made unless we’ve got a project like this,” Snook said. “Now to me the question therefore is how do we end up not having to hold the bag?” Snook said he was skeptical the city would be able to find the money in the capital improvement program. He said it would be his first preference for Rogers to continue to work on the loan to resolve outstanding questions. Charlie Armstrong of Southern Development said his company has looked at many options over the past few years, including developing the property by-right. “And that is 46 or so large single family lots, some of them approaching an acre in size,” Armstrong said. “They would be beautiful but affordable for very view.” A rezoning to R-2 would yield 64 units. Armstrong said the agreement was not so much of a loan but a tax increment financing structure. “It’s another odd version of a loan where we provide the funds and then we provide the funds again to pay ourselves back,” Armstrong said “Those tax revenues from the project don’t exist right now. The project would create them.” Armstrong said he would be willing to work with the city to move forward on the agreement, but needs to know if there is Council support for the rezoning. Rogers said he would set up a conversation with Armstrong but suggested Council hold first reading on the matter. They did so, and the matter will come back to Council at their next meeting on April 4. Second shout-out goes to Camp AlbemarleToday’s second subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study of ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting http://campalbemarleva.org/donate.Council weighs in on budget, real estate tax rateCharlottesville City Council held a community forum last night on the recommended budget for FY23. They had held a public hearing on Monday, but their own conversation at that time was somewhat limited. Staff asked Councilors to offer their perspective. (watch the budget forum)Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers has recommended a two cent increase on the real estate tax rate with the approximately $1.84 million in revenue going to a fund dedicated to paying for renovation of Buford Middle School. Staff also presented Council with three other scenarios for higher tax rates for how to cover the costs of the $75 million the School Board wants for the project. “It seems our decision points are raising taxes by eight to ten cents, real estate taxes,” said City Councilor Michael Payne. “Going quickly in with $75 million for the reconfiguration plan. And I think if we do that we need to acknowledge that the trade-offs that all of those things not in our budget that are not going to get funded unless we have an extremely large unexpected surplus or we raise taxes above even ten cents.”Some of the things not in the budget include a contribution to Piedmont Housing Alliance for their project to build 50 units on the grounds of the Park Street Christian Church. Another is funding for the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to cover their rent. Another is an additional $3 million for Charlottesville Area Transit to increase the system to 30-minute headways. City Councilor Brian Pinkston said he was not sure he could support a steep increase in the real estate tax rate because he thought it may push more people to leave the city. “I get these phone calls from folks whose housing has appreciated by ten, eleven, twelve, fifteen percent, their housing assessments,” Pinkston said. “And it is hard to put on top of that a real estate tax on top of that.” However, Pinkston said he could support a two cent increase in FY23 while an attempt is made to reduce the cost of the Buford renovation. Pinkston said all increases in the real estate tax should go to debt service for school reconfiguration. Krisy Hammill, senior budget analyst for the city of Charlottesville, offered this clarification. “There’s $2.5 million in the CIP in FY23 that is my understanding would complete the design and require no tax increase,” Hammill said. Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade served sixteen years on the School Board, where reconfiguration has been sought for many years. The School Board voted in October 2010 on a plan to build a single middle school to serve 6th through 8th grades, with fifth graders returning to elementary schools. The project has not yet advanced as a capital project. “Each time we have been putting it off so I will definitely be in the camp that we need to start on this now because one of the big issues is the inflation costs,” Wade said. “So I think that we were looking at some of the options and alternatives that we looked at on Monday, we’re in a rock’s throw of working this out and I think that we will as a community and a Council.”Wade said Council will have to make some tough decisions. ‘Many of the emails we receive say they want us to do it all, but we can’t!” Wade said. “We’re going to have to make some difficult decisions and that’s why they place us here.” Councilor Sena Magill said design of Buford would still continue during the next year and that the draft budget doesn’t show floating the bonds for Buford until Fiscal Year 2024. But she understood why some might be skeptical of the fate of dedicated funds in the Capital Improvement Program. “As we found with West Main Street, even if it’s in the CIP doesn’t mean it’s going to stay,”  Magill said. “West Main had been allocated out and we as a new Council took it out.” In all, previous Councils accumulated $18 million in capital funds for West Main that only existed on paper. The bonds are authorized but not yet sold, and the last Council agreed to transfer them to the Buford project. Magill said she would support a higher tax rate than two cents as presented to Council on Monday. Councilor Brian Pinkston said he wanted to consider a drop in the personal property tax to reduce the burden to those who will be hit with higher than expected bills.“My original inclination with that is that this is a windfall for us but [Commissioner of Revenue Todd] Divers has made some good points is that it will be an affordability issue for many people,” Pinkston said. Divers has suggested that continuing to charge $4.20 per $100 of assessed value would yield an additional $2 million and that a rate of $3.22 per $100 would be an equalized rate that would bring in the current year’s revenue. Pinkston suggested somewhere in the $3.75 range. That would yield approximately $1 million. Councilor Snook said that $1 million coupled with $1.2 million from a half-percentage increase in the meals tax would yield additional revenue that could be used to pay for other initiatives.“I think at some point we need to agree on what purposes we’d like to try to fund and then we can try to fit the taxes to meet those expenditures,” Snook said. Wade said he wanted the city to do what it can to keep the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in place.“Whether it’s a combination of working with them for fundraising and the city assisting because I know when I was on the School Board the programs that they provided was invaluable and what they can do no one else can do, the way they bring the community together to have those courageous conversations,” Wade said. “They’re there to do that.” Councilors appeared to be willing to support a request to fully fund the Public Housing Association of Residents’ request of $41,000. The draft budget only recommended $21,035. Rogers said the conversation at the community budget forum was useful. “We will work the budget staff and the departments heads in the city to address what you have identified as priorities of sincere interest,” Rogers said.  However, Rogers reminded the Council to be mindful of what the city could afford. He suggested they review the three scenarios presented by Hammill on Monday. “And there are some hard choices,” Rogers said. “Whether to raise taxes or not, and if so, do it all at once, or have a phased approach?” The next step in the budget process is a work session on the Capital Improvement Program on March 31 beginning at 6 p.m. (meeting info)Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

We've got another fantastic show for you today! Dustin from the Guns N' Radio Podcast stops by the studios to talk about the pod, a local Jeff City woman charged with helping her 14-year-old fight another 14-year old, West Main has a 26" pizza challenge, we talk about smoked chicken wings, Bill Cosby just isn't a nice dude, plus our guest Dustin tells an old tv story, and we show our age by talking about social media in the late '90s.....remember Angel Fire? Plus kangaroo boxing is a real thing. Thanks for hanging out with us, now heard in over 36 countries, this is one and only Old 77! --- BIG UPPS to our Patreon Patrons - JT from Tower Studios and the Paranormal Son, "Sir" Biscuit Strength, and the Jefferson City Paranormal Society - THANK YOU! --- Follow Guns N' Radio on Twitter, Facebook, Spotify, online at gunsnradio.com, or at patreon.com/gunsnradio --- Follow #TheSoulGraffiti on Facebook @WorthyPictures or email: worthypics@gmail.com --- Follow #theOld77Podcast: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and anywhere you get podcasts! Call or text the Old 77 Listener Line at (573) 246-0779

Host Josh Katina sits down for a conversation with Sam KatinaAll music provided by West Main

This week HomeSnap (who is owned by Co-Star) rolled out their anticipated Showing feature on their existing app. While this move may not strike some as a big deal, Greg and Dave talk about the implications and how this can potentially impact agents and local MLS's moving forward. In true Greg and Dave fashion, the conversation weaves in future prop tech ideas, including blockchain tech, digital assets, the metaverse, and the parallels between current apps and how they interact in the future. Greg Fischer is one of the brightest minds in real estate; you don't want to miss this one! Find more content at www.windermereabode.com... go ahead, click and check it out! Follow Greg Fischer online to get more musings on all things real estate on Twitter at @gregofisch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/windermereabode/message

On this episode the bunch brings in special @AceH2O to share some wild child hood stories, talk about setting our kids up properly for their future, Kyrie Irving potentially sitting out this year and much more. Make sure to follow us on all social media platforms @TheNutsoBunchPodcast and @MoneySquad82 @FairTheGod @sm_est83 #InstagramlessBill. Special thank you to @LaunchPizzy007 for the theme music. Be sure to also subscribe to our Youtube page (The Nutso Bunch) and hit the notification bell to be alerted as new episode will be up every Wednesday. Special thank you to Cafe 457, 457 West Main st, Waterbury, CT. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thenutsobunchpodcast/support

The first of two Patreon-fueled shout-outs!WTJU 91.1 FM is a different sort of radio station. It's dedicated to sharing the transcendent experience of music while raising funds from listeners across the world. From October 4th through 10th, WTJU airs its annual Jazz Marathon. Tune in for a deep dive into everything from bebop to blues. WTJU's Volunteer DJs will play the spectrum jazz – from Billie Holiday to Canonball Adderly to Pharoah Sanders. Plus live, local jazz performances throughout the week.  Visit wtju.org to learn more. On today’s show:Charlottesville City Council discusses the costs of reconfiguring Buford Middle School and make a decision on West Main StreetEarly voting in Virginia begins tomorrow, and a look at voting as it stands in Albemarle and Charlottesville in 2021 Rio Hill Shopping Center has asked Charlottesville Area Transit to stop stopping thereAnd a new job for Charlottesville most recent planning director Another day, another large number of new COVID cases. That number is 4,181 and the percent positivity is 10.6. There are another 145 new cases in the Blue Ridge Health District and one more fatality reported. That person lived in Greene County. The COVID-19 model created by the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute currently projects that the Charlottesville area will reach a peak of 2,245 new cases a week in mid-October. “Models can help us understand the potential course of COVID-19, but they are not crystal balls,” reads a statement on the website for the model. “Most models struggle to project policy changes, changes in human behavior, or new and rare events.”With the pandemic raging, many indoor venues are now requiring proof of vaccination before admittance. To make showing that proof more convenient, the Virginia Department of Health announced today they are offering QR codes.“As more and more employers and businesses respond to calls by President Biden and Governor Northam to require that employees and customers be vaccinated,” reads a press release. “QR codes will help improve the consistency and security of vaccination information while protecting individual privacy.”Visit vaccinate.virginia.gov to obtain a QR code. Virginia is the fifth state to adopt protocols developed for SMART Health Cards. *Early voting in Virginia begins tomorrow as acting Charlottesville Registrar Taylor Yowell explains.“Under Virginia election law, voters can vote up to 45 days early in-person or absentee,” Yowell said.  “So with that 45 days in advance of an election, that is 33 actual days that you can come into our office and vote.”Yowell made her comments this past week at a Sunday seminar held by the League of Women Voters of the Charlottesville Area.  Yowell said mail-in ballots will be distributed beginning this week. (listen to the whole event)“In order to receive a mail ballot, you must fill out a mail ballot application and that can be submitted online, in-person to our office, mailed in to us,” Yowell said. “We do have a lot of voters and say ‘hey, I don’t have availability to get online and fill one out’ so we will send them the application with a return envelope so they can be added to the list.” Once registrars across Virginia receive ballots, there is a process known as curing that validates the vote. According to the instructions on voting absentee in Virginia, there’s an A envelope, and a B envelope.   “Whether this is by mail, whether you drop to our dropbox, whether you drop into our office, we take it inside and it will be automatically opened up and we check to make sure every component on your B envelope… this is where your name, your address, your signature, your witness signature, the day you filled out the ballot… this is where we make sure everything is correct. And we have three days after we receive a ballot to notify you if there’s something that needs to be cured, so that way your ballot can be accepted and processed in our office,” Yowell said. In 2020, the state of emergency related to the pandemic temporarily waived the requirement for a witness signature. That will be required again this year. Yowell said voting early in-person is just like voting on Election Day. “No results are pulled until 7 p.m. on Election Day, just like at the precincts, because no one will know and no one can prior to 7 p.m.,” Yowell said.Now, what if someone requested a ballot via mail, and then shows up in person anyway? Yowell said in that case, the person is asked to sign an oath.“It’s just a gold piece of paper saying ‘I have lost or not received my ballot’ and it’s pretty much an affirmation signing that you will not attempt to vote twice,” Yowell said. “If you do, it will be turned over to the Commonwealth’s Attorney.” The last day for in-person voting before Election Day will be October 30. Charlottesville Area Transit Route 5 will no longer serve the Rio Hill Shopping center, according to a release from the bus agency. The release states the property owner has requested the change, and that means two stops within the shopping center will become dormant. The 31 acre property is owned by SCT Rio Hill LLC, a firm associated with the retirement system for employees of the state of Connecticut. The manager of the Rio Hill Shopping Center said in June 7 letter to the city that planned renovation implements a vision that does not involve public transit.“Not only are the buses a safety hazard for the customers crossing the main drive lanes to get to the stores, but the weight of the buses is also causing significant damage to the asphalt resulting in wear and cracking,” wrote Jim Paulus, the center’s manager. The planned route changes that have not yet been fully approved had already taken the request into account. In addition, Route 5 will no longer terminate at the Wal-Mart but instead will stop at Fashion Square Mall. Route 7 will instead travel to Wal-Mart and the plans show the alignment as missing Rio Hill Shopping Center. There is no date for when the transit changes will be made. H   The Regional Transit Partnership meets next Thursday. Previous coverage:February 6, 2021: Catching up with Albemarle's Comprehensive Plan, Entrance Corridors, Rio Hill Shopping Center renovationJuly 4, 2021: Preparing for Charlottesville area's transit future; Water authority gets update on cybersecurity, capital projectsNow that Charlottesville has a new director of Neighborhood Development Services, the person who last held the position now has a city post in a newly created city department. Alex Ikefuna is the interim director of the Office of Community Solutions. “The Office of Community Solutions will reside in CitySpace and the team will concentrate on our housing priorities, commercial redevelopment interests, federal entitlements/investments coordination and management, and neighborhood constituent services,” said city communications director Brian Wheeler in an email. Ikefuna will oversee the Office of Housing, which will report to Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders. “The vision for this office is to expand and deepen the City’s approach to a variety of community-based efforts, especially related to addressing our affordable housing crisis,” Wheeler continued. In today’s second Substack-supported public service announcement: The Charlottesville Jazz Society at cvillejazz.org is dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and perpetuation of all that  jazz, and there’s no time like now to find a time to get out and watch people love to play. The Charlottesville Jazz Society keeps a running list of what’s coming up at cvillejazz.org. Last night, the Charlottesville City Council got the latest details on the plans for reconfiguration of the city’s middle schools. Go back and read/listen to the September 14, 2021 edition of the show for the details. Since that was posted, a Community Design Team that has been shepherding the work of architectural firm VMDO has made their final recommendation. Here’s Wyck Knox of VMDO with the latest information. (presentation from September 14, 2021 CDT meeting)“The unanimous choice by the CDT was Option 3 that builds in the bowl and gives a new look to the school and the most square footage and the most variety of outdoor spaces to the new building,” Knox said. This is also the most expensive option at an estimate of $73 million. The five-year capital improvement program budget has a $50 million placeholder for reconfiguration. If Council agrees to proceed with the project, they’ll need to approve a budget with actual numbers in order to calculate how many millions of dollars in bonds need to be sold to pay for the capital costs. (FY22 adopted CIP)For the Council meeting, the city’s budget office presented funding scenarios all of which include an increase in the property tax rate to cover the cost of the additional debt service to pay the bond proceeds back. These hinge on whether the city proceeds with a long-planned and multi-phased project to upgrade West Main Street that grew out of a $350,000 planning study requested in 2012 by the PLACE Design Task Force. While the currently adopted CIP does not include any additional funding for the $49 million project, Council has previously allocated $20.54 million in local money to match state funding for the first two phases.  That’s according to a slide presented to Council back in February. Council could opt to transfer that to the school project. The tax increases were initially to have been phased in gradually at two cents a year to cover the five-year plan as adopted by Council in April. For the purposes of these scenarios, the tax increases are shown happening next year all at once, and include an additional five cents to cover the additional cost to finance the reconfigured schools.“If you want to start construction in FY23, which is next year, then we have to have the money to sign a contract, so that means all the money all at once,” said Krissy Hamill, the city’s budget performance analyst. Option 1 would cover just the cost of that $50 million placeholder and would include the West Main project. This would result in a 15 cent tax increase next  year to a rate of $1.10 per $100 of assessed value. “Option 2 would decrease the amount of tax increase that would be required if West Main Street were removed,” said City Manager Chip Boyles.That would be a 13 cent tax rate to $1.08 per $100 of assessed value. The next two options raise the reconfiguration cost to $75 million. Option 3 keeps West Main Street with a 18 cent tax rate increase. Option 4 drops West Main and is also a 15 cent tax increase. Those actual rates could be different depending on the results of the 2022 assessment. That’s why you see the phrase “tax rate equivalent” in the options. There will be no room for any additional capital projects for at least two years under these scenarios. “There are a lot of variables in this,” said Boyles. “This is making the assumption that there is no sales referendum and no sales tax increase.” Boyles estimates the one percent increase in the tax would bring in an additional $12 million a year. The current sales tax is 5.3 percent, but Charlottesville only gets one percent of that amount. The budget for the current fiscal year anticipates the city will collect $12 million a year. In Fiscal Year 2020, the city collected $11.4 million according to data compiled by the Auditor of Public Accounts for the Commonwealth of Virginia. That’s up from $9.3 million in 2010. The capital budget for FY22 includes $1 million for a parking structure at Market Street and East High. Earlier this year, Council opted to wait a year on that project and wait until next year to spend the remaining $7 million. So far, the options presented to Council did not factor in what happens if the project is dropped but that project cannot get totally zeroed out. (FY22 adopted CIP)“What we have been looking at is reserving at least a couple of million if we had to create surface parking on the properties that we own,” Boyles said. “I would say definitely $5 million could be transferred if needed.”However, Hammill said that would not affect the projected tax rates because the capital budget already assumes bonds will be sold to cover the cost of paying projects. The housing plan adopted by City Council calls for $10 million a year to be dedicated to affordable projects. The current five-year capital improvement program anticipates $13.5 million on public housing, $925,000 a year on the city’s affordable housing plan, $900,000 a year for housing vouchers, and $11.4 million in city funds for the redevelopment of Friendship Court.  (FY22 adopted CIP)There was no specific decision point on the agenda last night but Knox said he wanted to know what Council is thinking. There will be an information item presented to Council on October 4. A decision on West Main?Mayor Nikuyah Walker wanted to know where Councilors stood on the West Main Street project. The results were pretty clear. “The only way I can see West Main Street surviving is if we get this one [percent] sales tax for the school reconfiguration,” said vice mayor Sena Magill. “That’s it.”“I would definitely fully support reallocating the West Main project to schools,” said Councilor Michael Payne. “I can see West Main continuing as just as Hail Mary of if Congress passes the stimulus bill and there’s no local city money required.”“I would prioritize this ahead of West Main,” said City Councilor Heather Hill. “Projects like West Main had a lot of revenue come in from other sources and I’ve said before that it’s a hard one to swallow but I think we’re at a point where there’s not another option.”“As probably maybe the last defender of the West Main project, I also agree that whatever option we end up taking is going to have to be an option that does not include the West Main project,” said City Councilor Lloyd Snook. Much of the Virginia Department of Transportation funding for West Main Street comes in the form of Smart Scale, which requires projects to be completed within six years. In the current round, the city was awarded $10.4 million for the third phase. None of that funding requires a local match. The University of Virginia committed $5 million to the West Main project as well. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out is for the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign, an initiative that wants you to grow native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. Native plants provide habitat, food sources for wildlife, ecosystem resiliency in the face of climate change, and clean water.  Start at the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page and tell them Lonnie Murray sent you!  On today’s program: An update on COVID numbers in Virginia and masking policies in area schoolsCharlottesville Area Association of Realtors takes a look at the housing marketCity Council considers next year’s budget, approves additional funding for additional study on affordable housing Over the weekend, Virginia added another 3,555 cases and the seven-day daily average is now 1,108 cases a day and the percent positivity is six percent. The average number of vaccinations a day has increased to an average of 12,414 a day from 11,438 a week ago. The percentage of Virginians totally vaccinated has increased to 54.1 percent. If you have questions about what’s happening, you’ll have the chance to ask health officials questions at a town hall that the Blue Ridge Health District will hold on Thursday, August 5, at 1 p.m. You can ask in advance by sending them a message by Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. Panelists will include Dr. Denise Bonds of the health district and pediatricians Dr. Paige Perriello and Dr. Jeffrey Vergales.  Register on Zoom.When Nelson County opens its public schools later this summer, masks will be required for all students, staff, and visitors. That message was included in a letter the school system sent to parents that included a survey about preferences going forward. That also includes students on school buses. (letter)Albemarle County will also require masks indoors when school begins on August 23. “Our mitigation strategies throughout this pandemic have served the health interests of our students, families and staff very well,” said Rosalyn Schmitt, the division’s Chief Operating Officer. “Since March 2020, we have had nearly 200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among students, staff, and on-site contractors. Yet, there are very few instances in which it is suspected that transmission of the virus occurred on school property,” she said. Families in Albemarle can still continue to request a virtual option, and the school division even now has a principal devoted to that option. Some changes have been made. Temperature checks will not be required to enter buildings and school buses will operate at full capacity due to the installation of air purifying HEPA filters. Meanwhile, the Amherst County School Board voted Thursday to make mask-wearing optional. Today’s dashboard from the Blue Ridge Health DistrictThe town administrator of Scottsville declared a state of emergency on Friday retroactive to late Wednesday night, when a powerful thunderstorm raged through the town. “There was significant heavy rain which flooded several buildings,” reads the declaration from Matt Lawless. “Large hail damaged vehicles, buildings, and crops. High winds damaged buildings and were especially damaging to trees and utility poles.”The declaration was made after the fact because Scottsville was without power for most of the day Thursday and parts of Friday. (Virginia code on local emergencies)“In accordance with this Declaration, the Town will participate in the Regional Emergency Operations Plan,” the document continues. “The Town will furnish aid and assistance under the regional plan.”Lawless said the damage to town government is about $5,000, and details on other damages are still coming in. The Scottsville library remains closed today due to damage, though curbside service is available. Scottsville Town Council will need to ratify the Declaration at their meeting on August 16. (Declaration)An Albemarle County company is among eight Virginia firms that have recently graduated from a statewide economic development program intended to boost their international exports. Greenberry’s Franchising Corporation is a growing suite of coffee retailers that went through the Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET) program put on by the Virginia Economic Development partnership. “The success of Virginia businesses both at home and abroad is key to maintaining strong, resilient state and local economies,” said Governor Northam in a release. “The VALET program equips growth-minded companies with the resources they need to stay competitive in today’s global marketplace and expand trade opportunities in a post-pandemic world. I congratulate these eight graduates on their impressive export sales and remain confident that they will continue to contribute to the economic vitality of our Commonwealth in the years to come.”Two other companies that completed the program are AccuTec Blades of Augusta County and Paul’s Fan Company of Buchanan County. The Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors has reviewed sales from the second quarter this year and found that home prices are up, as is volume of transactions. According to the report, there were 1,533 homes sold in their coverage area April through June, a thirty percent increase over the same period in 2020. Median sales prices were 13 percent over last year to $376,000, up from $295,500 in the same period four years ago. CAAR also reports the number of listings were down by 48 percent. In addition to Charlottesville, CAAR covers Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson counties. Sales in Nelson County were up 85 percent over 2020. You can get the report from the CAAR website at caar.com.Download the whole report at caar.com--You’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement and it’s time now for another reader-supported announcement. The nonprofit group Resilient Virginia works to inform decision makers and officials about how to prepare for a changing world. They’re holding their annual event virtually this year, and registration prices go up at the end of this week. The Resilient Recovery Conference will take place the mornings of August 25, August 26, and August 27. Take a look at the details of the event as well as pricing at resilientvirginia.org. Tonight, Charlottesville City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. and the rest of today’s show looks back at recent conversation from a work session last week. Council held the second reading of an appropriation of $165,000 to conduct a review of the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund and to further define how the upcoming rewrite of the city’s zoning ordinance will be “inclusionary” in order to carry out the goals of the affordable housing plan adobe by Council in March. The additional funding will go to broaden the scope of the overall Cville Plans Together initiative. (read the Affordable Housing Plan)Councilor Lloyd Snook said he supported the effort, but sought clarity about what the deliverable product would be for the additional review. “I would hope that before things get too far along, somebody in the city government whether its someone in the city government whether it’s the City Manager’s office, whether it’s in [the Department of Neighborhood Development Services], I’m not sure who, would sit down with Rhodeside & Harwell and figure out what specifically we’re going to get in the way of an evaluation of these incentives,” Snook said. To continue the story, let’s go back to the July 21st meeting of the city’s Housing Advisory Committee, an appointed group that consists of representatives from a wide spectrum of stakeholders. A new member who joined the group at that meeting is also running for City Council. (watch the HAC video)“Thank you, Juandiego Wade with the city of Charlottesville School Board,” Wade said. Two other people new to the HAC and new to Charlottesville city government are two new top deputies to City Manager Chip Boyles. Ashley Marshall has been Deputy City Manager for Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion since May, and Sam Sanders has been Deputy City Manager for Operations for a little over two weeks. Sanders will oversee the Department of Neighborhood Development Services, and will play a lead role in overseeing the rest of the Cville Plans Together initiative. More specifically, Sanders will help implement the affordable housing plan adopted by Council. One of the three main points of the plan is to “adopt progressive and inclusionary zoning reforms.” The HAC’s discussion at their July 21 meeting covered how to implement that affordable housing plan. Phil d’Oronzio is the body’s chair.“Now that we have an agreed-upon in principle affordable housing plan, now what do we do?” d’Oronzio said.Deputy City Manager Sanders had the opportunity to go first. “The number one priority that I was given the day I walked in and honestly I’ll tell you 45 days before I arrived, number one priority is filling the [Director of Neighborhood Development Services] position,”  Sanders said. Sanders said a candidate had been selected, so we could hear soon who that might be. The theme this new person will be charged with implementing is Reimagining NDS. Another key vacancy is the housing coordinator position, who will be charged with tracking the metrics by which the affordable housing plan will be measured. “But I guess the key thing we have to point out as it related to the affordable housing plan is that we don’t have the money yet,” Sanders said. “There’s a $10 million allocation that we’re all excited about being able to say that we’re going to receive it every year, but it has not yet been realized yet but it’s going to take that happening before the real implementation can begin.”The housing coordinator position has been vacant for a year, since John Sales left to become executive director of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Sanders said the city needs staff in the housing office to do the work. The plan itself calls for a culture change.“There is a culture in which City staff can be at odds with the development community and the advocacy community, which limits the effectiveness of housing and development policies,” reads page 70 of the plan. Details from the affordable housing plan about how the city should hire more housing staffSanders said the reason for the $165,000 is to pay consultant HR&A Advisors to go back to work on Charlottesville affordable housing policy. The scope for the adopted plan did not include a review of how the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund has worked to date. That review has not been done in recent years.“It needed to be done because it was one of my questions.” Sanders said. “I said, hey, give me a summary of what we’ve done. And the response was: we can’t.”So now, back to City Council’s meeting from July 28 and a reminder they were talking about whether to approve the $165,000. Here’s Councilor Lloyd Snook again.“I just want to make sure that it gets guided before we get a final product,” Snook said. Sanders explained to Council the two areas of work that the additional scope will cover. Here’s the bit about the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund and the review of the past ten years.“Basically looking at who we gave money to, how much did we give to them, when did we give it to them, and what were the expectations,”  Sanders said. “And then there will be the analysis of what were the deliverables that we were able to track through whatever reporting whether they did or not. In addition to looking through what our internal records are, they will be doing site visits.” The second task is to flesh out the inclusionary zoning aspects of the upcoming rewrite of the zoning ordinance. The topic is currently covered on pages 94 through 96 in the housing plan adopted by Council in March. Now the consultants will turn the ideas into specific code. “The goal of it was to have the consultants help us design what an inclusionary zoning program could look like,” Sanders said. Sanders said the program would be customized for Charlottesville to fit the city’s needs and that Council would have the final say.  Council approved the resolution to move forward with that work and then moved on to a conversation about the strategic plan as well as introductory work into the Fiscal Year 2023 budget development process. As of today, there are 333 days until July 1, 2022, when that budget will begin. It may seem a long way off, but there are some big ticket items that the city is planning on financing in upcoming years. Here’s City Manager Chip Boyles. “The financial items are so large and with that we’ll be talking about the reconfiguration of the school and a couple of capital improvement plan projects that decisions do have to be made on in the very near future,” Boyles said. Council put their strategic planning process on hold at the end of last year shortly before Boyles was hired as City Manager. Boyles said he needs some input about how to prepare the budget for next year, but there is not time this year for a full update of the plan so he asked for an extension of the existing plan in the short-term, while allowing for some amendments such as elevating the role equity will play in the fiscal year 23 budget. There’s strategic planning, and then there’s logistical planning. In the current five-year capital improvement program budget, Council included a placeholder of $50 million to cover the cost of the first step of a reconfiguration of Charlottesville schools. Krissy Hammil is a senior budget management analyst for the city of Charlottesville. Earlier this year, she told Council repeatedly that doing so would be based on an assumption of increases in the city’s property tax rate.  (read my November 2020 story)“One of the things that is kind of a continuing conversation that we started last year is the school reconfiguration project and the need for the tax increase for the debt service that will be associated with that,” Hammil said. Hammil said that level of funding anticipates an eventual ten cent increase in the tax rate to cover the additional debt service. The capital improvement program is at its limit, and the school system now wants $60 million for the first phase of reconfiguration.Hammil said the current capital program also assumes the city will proceed with the West Main Streetscape, a multi-phased project that requires city funds to match state and federal money that’s already been awarded. “West Main is still a decision point that will need to be discussed,” Hammil said. “Currently there is $18 and a quarter million dollars that are programmed in for bonds that have been authorized for that project. If we are now moving the school reconfiguration to $60 million then $10 million of that will need to be reprogrammed from the West Main project and moved to the school project.” Hammil also said that if the school reconfiguration project is moved up to FY2024, the ten cent tax increase will have to happen all at once rather than be phased in over multiple years. Another source of funding for the future is a potential sales tax increase with proceeds dedicated to school improvements. Such a rise would require a referendum, something that not yet been scheduled. There’s a second phase planned in the future to upgrade Walker. In the meantime, Councilor Payne said he would support reducing funds for the West Main Streetscape. “I just don’t see any realistic way to be able to afford school reconfiguration and our other priorities unless we’re cutting that,” Payne said. “The only way I could maybe see it being possible as if there is some sort of an infrastructure bill passed by Congress and there’s some way we’re able to take advantage of that.”Boyles said staff will be meeting with VDOT to determine the last possible time when the city can indicate whether the first phase of West Main will be conducted. To recap, study for the streetscape got underway in September 2013 with work overseen by the firm Rhodeside & Harwell. The project is divided into four geographical phases, three of which have received different levels of funding from VDOT. In June, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved $10.8 million for the third phase of the project and no local match is required. “The time is clicking on the very first funding that we received from Smart Scale and while they initially have agreed to us being able to delay that so we could combine the three phases all together into one contract, they are still limited in to how far they could push that out,” Boyles said. That meeting with VDOT is scheduled for this Friday. Council ended up making no firm decision on West Main, similar to their conversation in February. Read my story from then to learn more. By the end of this meeting, Council asked for more information about how the sales tax referendum might be implemented. Here’s City Councillor Heather Hill.“Part of the beauty of this sales tax is that it is actually is very deliberate and its for capital improvements for schools up to a certain number of years,” Hill said. Stay tuned. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out:With the summer heat in full swing, your local energy nonprofit, LEAP, wants you and yours to keep cool. LEAP offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If you’re age 60 or older, or have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!On today’s show:The executive director of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center talks about the sudden acquisition of a statue A look at upcoming county fairs in the areaAnd a look at upcoming meetings to talk about transit in Albemarle and CharlottesvilleVirginia posts a record surplus for FY2021When the pandemic forced the shutdown of many sectors of the economy in the spring of 2020, many predicted tough times for government budgets. However, the Commonwealth of Virginia closed fiscal year 2021 with a $2.6 billion surplus, the highest in history. Even with the slowdown, budget officials expected revenues to be about 2.7 percent over fiscal year 2020,  but total revenue collections were 14.5 percent over that year. The details will be released on August 18 at a meeting of the General Assembly’s Joint Money Committee, but preliminary information is available in this release. Though slightly outside of our area, the Fauquier County Fair began yesterday in Warrenton. The event is being held for the first time since 2018, having been canceled by the pandemic last year and by construction in 2019. The fair takes place through Sunday on grounds off of Old Auburn Road in Warrenton. There’s a rodeo on Friday night! Learn more in an article on Fauquier Now or take a look at the Fauquier County Fair website. The Madison County Fair also kicked off yesterday through Sunday. We’ve missed the donkey races but the LumberJack show of Champions is on Friday night. The Louisa County Agricultural Fair begins on July 29. The Augusta County Fair begins on July 27.  The Albemarle County Fair is a stripped-down event this year that begins on July 30 at James Monroe’s Highland. “This year the 2021 Albemarle County Fair will focus solely on the exhibition and sale of livestock,” reads a notice on the fair’s website. A group of medical professionals at the University of Virginia’s hospital for youth is opening a food pantry this month at the Battle Building on West Main Street. According to a release from what’s now known as UVA Children’s, the pantry builds on a partnership last November with the Local Food Hub’s Fresh Farmacy program that provided produce to pediatric patients and their families. An internal team put together a program to start the pantry and secured a three-year grant from Molina Healthcare as well as donations from Kroger. Here’s a link to the fundraising site if you want to contribute. The Battle Building will now have a food pantry for qualifying participants. Donate to the cause if you would like to do so. This Friday, riders of Charlottesville Area Transit will get the first of two chances to weigh in on proposed route changes that are intended to help boost ridership. A community meeting begins at noon to hear from representatives of CAT and the consultants Kimley-Horn and the Connectics Group to give public feedback on the new routes, which will extend bus service to Mill Creek. A second meeting will be held next Wednesday (Friday meeting info)But what about people in parts of Albemarle that don’t have bus service? The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has hired consultants to study ways to expand routes into urban sections of Albemarle, particularly on U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville, Pantops, and to Monticello. Two virtual meetings are scheduled later this month to get feedback from people with a focus on U.S. 29 north on July 26 and a focus on Pantops on July 28. These are being held through Microsoft Teams. (July 26 meeting) (July 28 meeting) (Read a StoryMap on the concept)Technically, click here for the above information. On Saturday, July 10, 2021, crews hired by the city of Charlottesville swiftly removed two statues honoring two Confederate generals from two City Parks. A few days before, Council had authorized spending up to $1 million for their removal, but a provision in the resolution cleared the way for some of that money to be used for the removal of the Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea statue that stood at the intersection of West Main Street and Ridge Street since 1919. The expedition west began in 1803 shortly after the Louisiana Purchase by President Thomas Jefferson. Just after 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, the city’s communications office put out a notice that Council would meet in an emergency session at noon. Here’s Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker.“Thank you all for coming on short notice,” Walker said. “We are trying to just maximize the opportunity that we have with the crew being in town and taking care of just the legal issue of being able to move the statue on Main Street.”To do so, Council had to adopt a motion waiving a requirement that at least five hours notice has to be given before an emergency meeting. (read the applicable City Code provision)City Manager Chip Boyles said there had been no plan to remove the Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea statue, but there was “an unforeseen opportunity” to proceed because the Confederate sculptures were removed quicker than anticipated.“The tremendous work by the city staff, the construction crews, and by our community support, has given the city an opportunity to finalize the interest that was provided by Council on November 15 of 2019 and then funded on Council on July 7, 2021,” Boyles said. “Council has been clear in their interest to relocate the Sacagawea, Lewis, and Clark statue to another location that’s either owned or co-owned by the city.”Such a location is at Darden-Towe Park, which is co-owned by Albemarle and Charlottesville. Along the banks of the Rivanna River is the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center, which is run by executive director Alexandria Searls, who was contacted shortly before the emergency meeting. The item on the agenda was simply to relocate the statue, and not to transfer ownership. That will have to happen at a later date. Searls said the center would not take the statue without provisions. “It would be my hope that to eventually if you decided to give us ownership of the statue to actually have provisions agreed to first about the type of interpretation because under my leadership, interpretation agreed with the Native Americans of Virginia and the Shoshone is highly important and I would want to ensure that for the future regardless of whether I’m there or not,” Searls said. Searls said she would want to work with the Native American Student Union at the University of Virginia on interpretation efforts, as well as interpretations from others, particularly from Sacagawea’s own tribe. “The Shoshone, the way that they would like the statue to be interpreted is of paramount importance,” Searls said. “Indigenous women are going missing to an alarming extent. Faces and people are disappearing. So one of the things that the statue in a way interprets is moving beyond sort of the white person fixation on Sacagawea and the way they contextualize her to a larger view of people who are living today and how they are represented.”Rose Abrahamson is the great, great, great-niece of Sacagawea and she offered to Council her support to the statue’s transition to the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center. She had the chance to speak before the vote.“Mayor, Councilors, city, I would like to say that we have come a long way,” Abrahamson said. “We have come a long way to become the human tribe that we should be and come together in unity and come together to educate our young and our future generations.”Abrahamson said the statue’s new location at the Lewis and Clark Center would not be offensive, and a depiction of her ancestor that she personally finds offensive can be used to address a contemporary crisis.“It can educate the public to the missing, murdered Indigenous Women, the plight of women in our society, the Native women,” Abrahamson said. Crews lift bronze representations of Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea into the air with the Lewis and Clark building in the backgroundWithin two hours of the vote, the city shut down the intersection of West Main, Ridge and McIntire by driving public works trucks into strategic positions. That allowed the same crew to come in to remove the bronze sculpture from its granite plinth.At 2:31 p.m. a crane lifted the sculpture into the air eliciting cheers from the assembled crowd. The sculpture was placed on a flatbed trucks and taken straight to Darden Towe Park where Alexandria Searls was waiting to let them the crew in to drop off the sculpture. It has been placed temporarily on a square of wooden beams behind a orange mesh fence. In February, the city had sent out a request for information for groups interested in receiving the statue, and the Lewis and Clark was just one of groups that fulfilled that request. I spoke to Searls inside the Lewis and Clark Center on Monday about the process that got the statue there, and what comes next. Searls:We were founded right before the Bicentennial and we teach the skills of exploration as well as the local and national history of the Lewis and Clark expedition.Tubbs:Can you just describe where we’re sitting?Searls:We are sitting along the banks of the Rivanna River and we are right underneath the Southwest Mountains as well as near the birthplace of George Rogers Clark. The land that we’re on was once very important to the Monacan nation as part of a whole interconnected group of villages along the Rivanna, or what we call the Rivanna. We don’t know their name for the river. Later this was owned by Jonathan Clark who was the grandfather of William Clark. Tubbs: Now it’s been almost a year and a half since the City Council decided to vote to remove the statue. At that time, was there any interest of it coming over here?Searls:There was interest in it coming over but we didn’t want to lobby for a certain outcome because we felt that it was owned by the community and we wanted to value what the community decision was. So we made it clear that we were open to receiving it if that ended up being the decision. I sent a letter to Council at that point saying that if you move it, we are open to receiving it. Tubbs:Well, let’s go back to that because it seems a bit intractable. I think it was last year when the Council said yet again ‘we’d like to see proposals.’ Can you just talk a little about… obviously it’s here now but before it was here, can you give a sense of what are some of the planning things you need to just to anticipate the possibility of it coming here? Searls:That’s an interesting question because it wouldn’t be here right now if I had not done more work than the [Request for Information] asked for. The county of Albemarle has been a wonderful partner to us. And the park people here are amazing. This park is run so well. And when we answered the call for the RFI, I was taking it very seriously. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t promising something that the county wasn’t going to like and I wanted to research and do everything from how we were going to afford somebody to move it to what the site plan requirements are and I got started on this and I was writing a proposal. I talked to the engineer who prepared At the Ready to be moved. I had the figures. Turned out they didn’t even want to know the figures. So when I said I’m getting the permission of the Board of Supervisors to do this, I was told ‘this RFI is not supposed to be detailed. You’re supposed to write a one page proposal and if we like it we’ll ask you to make a long one. I’m really glad I didn’t listen to that because I basically said ‘Albemarle County is my partner and I’m not going to put in an idea for a proposal without them.’ I had before the day of the emergency meeting approached City Hall, not the Councilors, but the City Hall, to be an option for that because with so little money that we have, I knew that this might be the only opportunity to have it here at least for a while. And we used it today in an educational program for the first time so that was exciting.On the other hand, I also started researching the statue and through a genealogist I located the grandchildren of the sculptor.Tubbs:Who was the sculptor?Searls:The sculptor was Charles Keck. He also did the Jackson that was removed. He did both of those. And I was preparing if we were to receive the statue to do a complete evaluation of what the interpretation would be. So I also consulted art historians, I talked to Indigenous historians, I have begun to read books written about Lewis and Clark in the early 1900’s to get an idea of the mindsets of the time when it was created.Tubbs:And when was it created? Was it created for a specific purpose?Searls:That’s an interesting story because it was created as a commission but they only commissioned Lewis and Clark. They did not commission Sacagawea so basically the sculptor decided to add her and that is significant from what I found out from the family because he was a sculptor that took any commission that went his way because he had lost an amazing amount of money in one of the crashes. He owed his best friend who bailed him out about $100,000 and that’s a lot now but it was even more then. So he wasn’t in a position to be discriminate and could no longer do the sculptures that he wanted to do. So basically she was the only sculpture that he did that he wanted to do. And I haven’t sorted that through completely but it was just one aspect of what I wanted to know about the situation.Tubbs:So one of the critiques of the statue for many years has been that Sacagawea is cowering. Others say that she’s searching. I don’t know the statue that well, but isn’t that part of the interpretation process?Searls:Yes, and I’ve got to say here that I’m not finished coming up with my own reactions to this statue. But let me back up by saying that there’s an interesting phenomenon going on and that’s the phenomenon that when something is up, that means its endorsed. And that is not part of my belief at all. I think a statue whose original intent — and I’m not really talking about specifically about Lewis and Clark, I’m talking all statues —  was one thing, like to glorify a hero that might not be deserving of glory or to reveal the power of the ruler, ruling class. Just because you leave it up doesn’t mean you agree with it. For example, when I look at that Lewis and Clark statue, even though its meant to glorify them as heroes, I do not think that they were flawless heroes. In fact, a lot of what we do here is examine their failings actually. What do you think?Tubbs:Well, I’m still just trying to figure it out because its interesting. If you look at the three statues that were taken down on Saturday, two of them are in an undisclosed location and may never ever see the light of day. We don’t know yet. But at least with this one, it will have a new life, potentially here, especially if you can get some funding to do the proper interpretation and to install it in some way that maybe you haven’t figured out yet. But at least there’s a sense of ‘well, at we’re going to melt it down as one of the descendants said on Saturday.Searls: One phrase that I think of a lot, not just on these issues but in general is that: In war, treat your victories like a funeral. And to me that means if you’re in a war, someone is dying and even if you win you shouldn’t rejoice because it’s better not to demonize your opponent. It’s better to look at them with some empathy of their dead or of their situation. It’s better not to immediately assume that someone who wants to melt down a statue resembles the Taliban. Maybe they don’t. Or it’s better not to think that someone who wants the statues to stay in place is a racist because maybe they aren’t. I get reasons and viewpoints. I receive emails, calls. I’ve listened. And I think that it’s dangerous on so many levels to rejoice in the face of the people who are crying, because any victory anybody somebody is crying. So my effort here is to find a way of compromising even if that might not be possible but at least a way to respect different viewpoints and to let people come to new viewpoints.It’s important to realize that when you have your dead that other people have theirs. For example, if somebody looks at that statue and only sees a heroic Lewis and Clark and doesn’t see the Trail of Tears that followed soon afterwards, that’s celebrating something without crying for the other side. You’re reading to Charlottesville Community Engagement and an interview with Alexandria Searls of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center. We’ll be back to that in just a moment. In today’s second Patreon-fueled shout-out: The Rivanna Conservation Alliance is looking for a few good volunteers to help out on Clean Stream Tuesdays, a mile and a half paddle and clean-up to remove trash and debris from popular stretches of the Rivanna River. Trash bags, trash pickers, gloves, and hand sanitizer/wipes will be provided, though volunteers will need to transport themselves to and from the end points. Kayaks for the purpose can be rented from the Rivanna River Company. Visit the Rivanna Conservation Alliance's volunteer page to learn more about upcoming dates.The two male figures continue to look west from their temporary locationThe Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea statue is now on the grounds of the Center inside of Darden Towe Park, which is jointly owned by Albemarle and Charlottesville. Searls said the statue is very different close-up than from where it stood for 102 years and there’s a bit of a mystery. Searls:You know, I still haven’t decided if it’s three people or four people in the statue. I can see the fourth person perhaps now that I can get close to it. When the Shoshone were here, we talked about the terrible plight of missing Indigenous women and since Sacagawea is somewhat missing in terms of when you look at that composition, she’s like down there, and there’s taking up space with their guns. The ultimate sort of disappearing is actually disappearing and never being seen again. And that’s what’s happening to young women today.In terms of white Americans revering Sacagawea at different points because she helped them or she was seen as friendly to white explorers, but really what I would like to see in terms of Indigenous people is really seeing the people of today. And one of the women who came, Dustina Abrahamson, had suggested the statue could be used as some sort of a starting point for people making new art and making people see the people who are disappearing. And I’ve been following her Facebook page since they visited in 2019 and I’ve seen a relative of hers go missing and I’ve seen other challenges that happen in Indigenous communities so I think we need to move beyond these handful of icons that we’ve put up and move into the thousands of native people who are actually here.Tubbs:What can this Center do? Obviously, the whole point is to draw awareness of this past but yet not to say ‘it was this way’ or ‘it was that way.’ People who visit here, what do you want them to takeaway? Do you need the statue to do this?Searls:My staff and I were talking about this today. I don’t think we need anything except the woods, the river, and a place to rest in between. Our programs are very oral. We get all this knowledge and we study and we interpret it and we talk to people basically. You don’t see any signs here telling you what to think about anything. I arrived in Charlottesville on the Greyhound bus or Trailways or whatever it was back then with my duffel bag to be a first year at UVA. I came out of that door with my duffel and there were taxis and there was that statue. I went to high school in New York City and I wasn’t impressed with the statue. All I saw were a bunch of guns and it’s hard for me to imagine that it would become part of my life. And I didn’t even see her. I just saw two men. I didn’t know what it was whatsoever. Let’s go back to what I said about are there three people or four in that sculpture? At first I only thought there were only two when I first arrived in Charlottesville so one of the preeminent art historians, Malcolm Bell from UVA, said that there four people in that sculpture and that she was holding a baby and there’s a cradle-board and the baby’s in there. I didn’t see it. And even though he’s famous with books, I was willing to think he wasn’t right. Then when I encountered the sculpture over there, I saw that he’s very possibly right. And it puts a new spin on it because when you get close you can see that William Clark’s hand and hers are touching along a piece of wood. And they’re both holding it up. You can see a sack in there and you can see more of an extension of something in there in the back. She’s sitting on some rocks and he’s helping her carry that as she’s leaning forward and they’re meant to be on the cliffs looking at the Pacific and so she’s looking down at the ocean and William Clark is looking just ahead and then Meriwether Lewis on top is looking at the far distance and that’s definitely a hierarchy. I mean, it’s Lewis preeminent, William Clark, and then the woman in the way that she is.But it does matter to me whether she’s holding a baby or not and he’s helping her hold whatever it is. So, I haven’t asked Professor Bell what the documentation of this is because I know the sculptor did not take notes of any extent. Now, he did have a collection of books so I think the answer is in what he would have read about Lewis and Clark back then and I read a book written in 1905 about Sacagawea and she never let her baby out of her sight. She was always carrying that baby. So I’m of the opinion now that there are four people in that statue. I’m not 100 percent sure, but I say this to say I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with that statue. I know he wanted to honor her. I know he wasn’t trying to degrade her.And that is important to me. If I felt like he had tried, I would not have wanted that here. And there are people I’m sure who do think that was his goal.Tubbs:So it’s only been here for two days as we’re talking. Now it’s here. You still have the interpretive work. You’re not finished with the work that you thought you were going to have to do to get it here. Suddenly it’s here. How do you feel?Searls: I feel excited. I mean, it is pretty amazing to see these huge faces being pulled up the hill. I was waiting at the gate. I let them in at the gate. It took hours. They told me it would be 20 minutes but I was there for hours. So I opened up the gate and then the cortege comes through.  A flatbed. A trailer. A crane. And about 30 cars with lights. To see them all go up the hill and to see those faces going towards the Center was pretty amazing. I wasn’t at the removal of the Confederate statues but they seemed to be moving backwards with their rears so it was sort of more like they were riding out of town whereas this felt like they were arriving and it was pretty amazing.A close-up of the base of the statueTubbs:You said you were excited about this. What are some of the possibilities now?Searls: I think that some of the possibilities [are] that if you’re showing something that is painful to some other people, it requires some work together. And I do think that out of this will come more partnerships with Native Americans about Indigenous representation and I think that we’ll all be more aware. And the park guy said that a woman this morning came and put up a sign up by the statue briefly that this is Native land and she took a picture of the statue with it and then left. But we teach that this is Native land. We teach about the Monacans. We regularly every two years are invited by to different tribes out west as part of being in a Lewis and Clark group. I think that the focus will be even more on that and I am certainly learning much more. I’m reading Jeff Hantmann’s book Monacan Millennium right now, and I’m reading more about Sacagawea and the attitudes that have been about her throughout the decades. So I think it will make those realities more of the story. Not less. Tubbs:You said that you used it today in the camp. How so?Searls:So, when the kids came, they’re 8 to 11, we all walked over there. And actually I invited their parents too because it is a camp that’s about history and it is about exploration and it is actually historic when a 100-year-old monument moves so I wanted them to be part of that history and the first group.And I basically said: Is there a baby there? This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

The biggest story in land use in Charlottesville this year continues to be generated by the Cville Plans Together Initiative, an effort by a consultant hired by City Council to update the Comprehensive Plan and produce a new zoning ordinance to encourage and implement the creation of additional housing units. Council adopted a new affordable housing plan in March. That was the first item the firm Rhodeside & Harwell was tasked to complete. In this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, the sole item is a rundown of the Charlottesville Planning Commission’s June 29, 2021 work session on the plan. (download the presentation to follow along)*Support for this program comes from the quarter of the audience that has opted to make a financial contribution. My company is called Town Crier Productions, and the idea is to continue making podcasts and newsletters about the community, continuing on my career doing nuts and bolts journalism about how things work. Or don’t work! I do know my work proceeds better if I can pay my bills, so do consider subscribing through Substack or becoming a contributor through Patreon. If you go the Substack route, Ting will match your contribution. And if you have already, or you can’t do so? Please let your friends, family, and co-workers know about the program and let’s grow the audience together!The Cville Plans Together era of the update of Charlottesville’s Comprehensive Plan has been underway now since January 2020. Community engagement plans suffered when the pandemic struck America two months later, forcing public input sessions to be virtual. Despite that, the City Council adopted an affordable housing plan in March, and the initiative held a six-week public input process which concluded on June 13. On June 29, Cville Plans Together held another virtual work session with the Charlottesville Planning Commission to go through what they learned. But that work session began with an introduction from the newest member of the seven-member advisory group. Let’s hear from him.“Hi everyone! My name is Karim Habbab and I’m honored to be part of the Planning Commission. I moved to Charlottesville in 2011 as a UVA student and graduated from the architecture school there in 2015 and started working with BRW Architects in town. It’s been six years with them and I’m excited to join this Commission at an exciting time.”Habbab is the latest Planning Commissioner to join the process while it is underway. Liz Russell joined the Commission last September to replace a vacancy around the time the initiative was in its second round of community engagement. There are only two Commissioners remaining from when the review began in January 2017. Jennifer Koch of the firm Rhodeside & Harwell is the project manager for Cville Plans Together. “This was our third engagement period for Cville Plans Together, but we’re building on earlier work completed by the Planning Commission from 2017 and 2018 with this Comprehensive Plan update process,” Koch said. There were multiple ways to communicate, including an online survey, direct correspondence with the engagement team, and the ability to leave comments on an interactive version of the Future Land Use Map. More on that in a moment.For the first time in the Cville Plans Together era, the receding of the pandemic meant there could be some in-person events in this third period.“We held six pop-up events over two weekends, mostly between May 14 and May 16 and we had a lot of face-to-face conversation at these events,” Koch said. There were also two webinars during the public engagement session. A meeting with interested neighborhoods was held on May 18 and the project’s steering committee met on May 19. (read an article about the latter)More than 400 people responded in an online survey but the majority of comments were made via direct correspondence“We received about 1,130 emails,” Koch said. “This is a lot of email comments and that’s great. It’s a lot more than we received in previous phases.”This is a slide from the June 29 work session. Numbers may change as the consultants continue to go through the information. Koch said the Charlottesville Low Income Housing Coalition led a campaign that generated about 500 of that number through June 13. A new group skeptical of the plan called Citizens for Responsible Planning sent in a petition with about 400 signatures, but that number is not reflected in the count. There were over 700 comments from about 225 individuals on the interactive map, and around 430 responses to the survey. A full engagement summary is coming at a later date, so for now I’ll refer you to the slides for the preliminary breakdown. Another slide from the work session. Did you submit a comment?There were also specific comments on the draft housing chapter of the Comprehensive Plan.  “A lot of the revisions we made in the housing chapter were focused on pulling in those recommendations from the affordable housing plan,” Koch said. “Sort of the main theme we heard about this chapter was a general support for increasing housing density or intensity, but then similar to the land use piece we heard some concerns about what that potential increase in density or intensity might mean, particularly related to community character.”Ron Sessoms of Rhodeside & Harwell went through some of the feedback. He noted some of the feedback from the campaign by the Charlottesville Low Income Housing Coalition.“There were concerns about displacement particularly among Black and low income residents throughout the city,” Sessoms said. “There was a desire for more density in historically exclusionary white communities. We received some comments that this Future Land Use Map wasn’t going far enough.”Sessoms said there was also a push from this campaign to increase the number of units allowed per lot from three as depicted in the current draft to four or five. Critiques of the plan were also received.“There were concerns around transportation and infrastructure, particularly considering the increase in density,” Sessoms said. “There were quite a bit of concerns about developer intentions in implementation. Citizens are very skeptical of developers so there were concerns about whether or not with the increase in density and whether or not developers would take advantage of that and have negative impact to the community.” Sessoms said there are also concerns about height in many of the newly created land use designations. He also said the feedback gives geographic data on areas that are not as sold on the plan.“Neighborhoods that are proposed to be experiencing the most change had the most negative feedback so communities like Barracks/Rugby, Greenbriar, Lewis Mountain, north of downtown, Rugby Hills, those communities did have more negative sentiment around the future land use map,” Sessoms said. Another theme in the survey demonstrates that how one feels about the Future Land Use Map depends on one’s financial relationship to where they live.“Looking at homeowner versus renters, there was a higher degree of support for the Future Land Use Map from renters,” Sessoms said. “And less support from homeowners, again with homeowners citing concerns around property values, community character, and other concerns that directly impact the places that they live and they own. And renters see this as an opportunity to diversify where they can live in the city. Perhaps there are more opportunities to rent in communities and neighborhoods that were traditionally out of reach.” Planning Commission Chair Hosea Mitchell opened it up to public comment before the seven Commissioners were allowed to give their thoughts. Let’s just hear two at the moment before hearing Maddy Green, a new appointee of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners, wanted the Commission to know where comments critical of the draft map came from. “Just noting that they came from a lot of communities that were exclusionarily zoned and had racial covenants in the houses and I think that we can see that residents are still advocating for those same policies and quite frankly they are racist policies in Charlottesville,” Green said. “Saying you don’t want affordable housing in your back yard or any kind of density is effectively saying you don’t want people who make less money in your backyard.”As part of the engagement process, eleven neighborhood associations submitted a petition with over 400 signatures asking for the planning process to be slowed down. One of those associations was Johnson Village, where Kevin Hildebrand lives.“It has gotten very expensive in the last few years as house prices have gone up but most of the single-family houses are still there and they are a vehicle for wealth development for families who have invested there and I think the idea of transitioning most of the city to apartments in multifamily dwellings where people don’t have the ability to improve themselves through home ownership is short-sightedness on the part of the city,” Hildebrand said. Comments went back and forth on this line for a while before it went back to the Commission for questions and comments . They will be asked to recommend or not recommend the plan at a future public hearing. They first had the chance to ask questions. Later on we’ll hear their direct input. Liz Russell went first and she had a question based on what one of the speakers had asked about the relationship between density and affordability. “One thing I heard was questioning, one resident was questioning of upzoning that has occurred in places like Minneapolis and I think Chicago,” Russell said. “My understanding was that it’s sort of too soon to say but it sounds like there’s sine other reports out there and I’m wondering if the consultants could provide any insight.”Jennifer Koch said the results are not yet in. “In several of those locations I think some of those changes were done quite recently which does make it difficult to say as you mention,” Koch said.  Lee Einsweiler of the firm Code Studio will be taking the lead on rewriting the zoning code. He agreed with Koch’s assessment. “I’m afraid that I have to agree with you,” Einsweiler said. “We don’t have a lot of information right now that points to any one given solution being the answer to this question but all of the ideas that are being presented begin to tackle the same problem. If you don’t have to have a car you can save $8,000 a year on average. If you can live in a smaller home, you’re paying less for your total square footage.”On the same, Commissioner Taneia Dowell wanted a direct response to a related question. “It was mentioned tonight during public comment and also as I’ve spoken to all different residents throughout the city is that I’m finding that our residents are feeling that the increased density and intensity that has been proposed is not actually going to solve our affordable housing crisis,” Dowell said. “What is your response for our constituents?”Koch said that land use policy alone will not be the solution.“I think it is great people are recognizing that and flagging that, but we’re trying to use lan d use potentially allowing for increased intensities or some mix of uses that will need to be paired with financial support and initiatives and other support in other ways from the city,” Koch said. The director of the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services agreed with that sentiment. “Land use is just a piece of the pie,” said Alex Ikefuna. “I’m encouraging the public to go out and read the draft affordable housing plan which is on the website. It spells out several recommendations, one of which is land use. Land use is just one of the few recommendations.”  (read the Affordable Housing Plan)The executive summary of the 158-page states that other recommendations are the designation of $10 million in city tax-payer funds to affordable housing projects each year and making the process more inclusive. The third major recommendation is devoted to land use under the name “Adopt Progressive and Inclusionary Zoning Reforms.”Recommendations in the affordable housing plan’s executive summary (read the plan) Representation in responses? One of the reasons a previous Council voted in February 2019 to spend nearly a million on the Cville Plans Together initiative was a lack of involvement with Black residents of Charlottesville. As part of the presentation for the June 29 work session, the consultants broke down previous efforts for the entire Comprehensive Plan review so far since the first public input session in May 2017. At several events that month, 156 people signed in and 65.71 percent identified as white and 34.29 percent identified as Black. In a survey conducted in September and October 2018, there were 1,182 responses. Nearly three quarters identified as white and 15.84 percent identified as Black. The first community engagement phase of the Cville Plans Together initiative continued a trend toward less participation among Black residents. A survey conducted online in May and June 2020 yielded 1,172 responses. Sixty-three percent identified as white, 11 percent identified as Black, six percent preferred not to answer and another 12 percent left the question blank. An online survey conducted in November and December last year had much fewer participants with 274 responses and over a third left the box for race and ethnicity blank. 108 of the respondents said they were white and 44 said they were Black. In the current survey, sixty-six of 430 survey respondents identified themselves as white and 24 percent left the item blank. Only 2.3 percent identified as Black. This raised a question from one Planning Commissioner. “A big concern from 2017 was diverse representations especially for Black and low-income representation,” Solla-Yates said. “What do we do?” LaToya Thomas of sub-contractor Brick and Story said there was a lot of skepticism in the community built up over decades. “I think particularly among the Black residents that we have spoken with, there’s a lot of skepticism around the public process over all,” Thomas said. “There’s a lot of skepticism around the city and obviously a very long time frustration for what many folks feel is a system that’s set up to not serve them adequately.”Thomas said the pandemic made it difficult to do many of the community engagement activities that had been planned.  Demographic information from the latest round of the online surveys put out by the Cville Plans Together initiative When it was his turn, Commissioner Jody Lahendro noted that the Future Land Use Map depicted some areas currently designated as “low intensity residential” to the “medium intensity residential” category which would allow up to eight to 12 units per lot with building heights of up to four stories. In his question, he quoted the provision in Virginia code that requires Planning Commissions to prepare and adopt Comprehensive Plans. (read the code)“For me as a design professional, this seems like a drastic change that’s a conflict,” Lahendro said. “Please help me understand as professional planners how this represents as the code of Virginia says ‘a Comprehensive Plan that’s ‘a coordinated, adjusted, and harmonious development’ based on good land use practices.”Koch said the goal is to increase housing stock based on public input.“We have heard an urge to have additional housing types allowed or available to people in some neighborhoods where they have not been available,” Koch said. “The way we have decided to show it is along corridors because we feel that can help to facilitate transit-oriented growth where we are potentially allowing additional density that could also help to facilitate other infrastructure improvements that may be needed to go with that.” The corridor approach expands on the last major rezoning in 2003 which created specific zoning districts such as West Main Street, Cherry Avenue, High Street, and more. This followed the 2001 Comprehensive Plan, which frequently refers to a 2000 study called the Commercial Corridor Study. (read about this study on cvillepedia)Map from the 2000 Commercial Corridor Study that depicts the areas of study. Some such as West Main became specific zoning districts. Sessoms said the details will come as detailed work on the zoning takes place. “In the future land use map, it’s very general and we have ranges in heights of up to four stories, up to 12 units per lot, and that allows this greater flexibility to define more specific zoning districts in the zoning phase,” Sessoms said. “It certainly would not appropriate to have four stories in every location that we show in medium-intensity residential because it would be out of character, out of scale and just not befitting.” Lahendro also asked what tools were in place to prevent displacement and further development in Black and low-income communities. Koch said there are tools identified in the affordable housing plan.“You know, providing tax abatement, or support for owner-occupied rehabilitation, support for people who may want to add an [affordable dwelling unit],” Koch said. Koch said that allowing density in other sections of the city could assist with the issue as well. Meanwhile, it is instructive to note that many properties in those neighborhoods continue to sell to owners with the ability to pay large amounts of money for the existing single family homes that are currently there. Here are some recent examples. A home in the 300 block of 5th Street SW in Fifeville sold on May 28 for $520,000, which is 32.35 percent over this year’s assessment. A home in the 800 block of Anderson Street in the 10th and Page neighborhood sold for $575,000, which is 75.73 percent over the 2021 assessment of $327,200. In the Rose Hill neighborhood, a home in the 900 block of Henry Avenue sold for $255,000, or 82.8 percent over the 2021 assessment. Commissioners weigh inCommissioner Liz Russell wanted more information on the possibility of an affordable housing overlay district, something that will be discussed at the July 13 meeting of the Planning Commission. “I have concern that density for density’s sake will not result in what we are trying to achieve but that something like an affordable housing overlay could tip the scales in favor of affordable housing,” Russell said. Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg pushed back on comments from the Lewis Mountain neighborhood about additional residential density that would be allowed under the middle intensity residential category.“To me I think that a 12-unit apartment building or a six-plex or an eight-plex is small enough that it doesn’t really have any super appreciable adverse impacts on the neighborhood and an apartment building, a small apartment, is not going to hurt you,” Stolzenberg said. “And as well there are some concerns about physical constraints on lots. We have site plan review processes that will ensure there’s adequate infrastructure, sewer, and water.”Commissioner Dowell returned to the theme of protecting Black neighborhoods from further investment from outsiders. “We do not want them to be gentrified out of the neighborhood and we also know to make sure that we reiterate time and time again that homeownership does create generational wealth,” Dowell said. Commissioner Lyle Solla-Yates brought up a transportation matter.“A major concern that I’m seeing from very high income people is traffic,” said Solla-Yates. “They live in their cars. They think most people live in their cars and for many they’re right. They are skeptical that we are going to make a transition and based on our past, they’ve got a good argument.”A lot of the conversation was influenced by an alternate Future Land Use Map that has been put forward by members of the Housing Advisory Committee outside of the formal public comment period that closed on June 13. The idea was discussed at the June 16 HAC meeting. (watch the meeting)Here’s a brief overview: Much of Fifeville, 10th and Page, and Rose Hill neighborhoods would be designated as a “low intensity residential” category with “a range of housing types scaled in context with the existing single-family character.” The idea would be to preserve homes in the center of the city in neighborhoods historically populated by low-income housing. The proposed medium-intensity residential designation would apply to every single residential district across the city if a certain amount of below-market units are provided by the developer.High-intensity residential would be allowed in more site-specific areas, if a yet-to-be-determined number of below-market units are provided. Commission Chair Hosea Mitchell had positive thoughts about the idea, which will be discussed by the Planning Commission at the end of their meeting on Tuesday, July 13. “The ability to protect the low-income communities but be a little more thoughtful in the way we increase density in places like Greenbrier and Lewis Mountain,” Mitchell said. Mitchell also said he supports efforts to work with other communities in the Planning District. The Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership has a draft plan called Planning for Affordability that is going through the approval process. (read the plan) The meeting concluded with over an hour of additional public comment. To finally get this newsletter out, I’m going to skim through this for now. There will also be more opportunities for public comment as the plan continues to move through the various public hearing processes. If you want to watch the public comment from the June 29 work session, here’s the link to do so. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

It's a super-sized episode this week: * Rahway finished second in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice poll for Best Small Town Arts Scene, beating out 19 other nominees to be among the top 10 winners. * The reader poll for May is open: What's your favorite sandwich in Rahway? There's quite a bit to choose from in this month's poll, with classic deli sub joints, any number of assorted Latin American choices, and some Middle Eastern fare too. Best sandwich has no definition, it could be a burger, wrap, a panini, falafel, whatever your preference. Voting remains open for a few more weeks. Results will be posted ahead of the Memorial Day weekend. As for the last poll, What's your favorite coffee in Rahway? It was a bit of a runaway with Melao Coffee & Creamery getting a deluge of votes the day after the poll opened to grab a commanding lead while The Coffee Box finished 2nd. * The second round of Rahway CARES grants distributed more than $255,000 in COVID relief to 115 businesses, ranging from $750 to $2,720, with an average total of $2,220. Patrons of RahwayRising.com can access exclusive details on the grants via the Patreon. * The Planning Board approved tweaks to the second phase of The Mint. The north building, at Poplar and Main streets, will increase from 92 to 108 units and will be 6 stories instead of 5 because of the elimination of underground parking. During hours of testimony and comments at the April 27 meeting, the city's parking plan came up during the hours of testimony and comments at the April 27 meeting. Learn more about the city's parking plan in this post from 2019. * The Redevelopment Agency heard a concept plan that proposed a 20-unit building on a vacant West Main lot that backs up to the Rahway River. The proposed wood-frame building would break down as 16 two-bedrooms and 4 one-bedrooms with 20 parking spaces across two levels. * Finally, the Zoning Board of Adjustment approved variances to allow a 14-unit townhouse complex to be built off Barnett Street near Flannagan Field. Looking ahead, the Zoning Board is scheduled to meet May 17. The Planning Board is scheduled to meet May 25 (listen to the tail end of this episode for some exclusive info on that agenda). --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rahwayrising/message

Today’s show is brought to you by the quarter of the audience who has stepped up to make a financial contribution to the show in the form of a Substack subscription, a monthly Patreon amount to help support general research, Venmo, PayPal, or simply by sending in a check to Town Crier Productions. In the past eight months, we’ve begun to build together something intended to engage the community with information about local decision-points about the future. I’m grateful to each of you, and I will soon have an announcement about another way this project will be made sustainable. Until then let’s get on with the information. On today’s show:Governor Northam finalizes a $3.7 billion investment in rail in VirginiaAn update on the Regional Transit Partnership including news that fare-free will continue for area systemsCharlottesville City Council agrees to wait a year to make a final decision on West Main StreetscapeHow do our localities fare in a new rankings for health metrics? The Virginia Supreme Court rules that the Confederate statues can come downSome breaking news came in just as I was finalizing the script. The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that Charlottesville can remove two Confederate statues in city parks that were erected in the early 1920’s. In February  2017, Council voted to remove statues of two Confederate generals and were soon sued by a group who argued the statues were protected war memorials under a law that passed the General Assembly in 1997. A Charlottesville Circuit Court judge backed them up the plaintiffs in an October 2019 ruling. However, the opinion written by Justice Bernard Goodwyn found that the Circuit Court Judge “It has long been the law of the Commonwealth that retroactive application of statutes disfavored,” reads the opinion. We’ll have more on this in tomorrow’s program. Four assignments of error in the opinion written by Justice Bernard Goodwyn (download)On Tuesday, a ceremony was held at the Alexandria train station that is the culmination of an announcement in December 2019 from Governor Ralph Northam about a $3.7 billion investment in Virginia rail. That includes:A $1.9 billion bridge over the Potomac River dedicated to passenger railPublic purchase of 223 miles of track and 386 miles of right of way from CSX$1 billion in related infrastructure improvements in VirginiaShannon Valentine is Virginia’s Secretary of Transportation. “From the moment that this agreement in principle, the concept, was negotiated with CSX and announced in December 2019, with our partners Amtrak and [Virginia Railway Express], we have been working deliberately and sequentially over these past 15 months,” Valentine said.The expansion of Long Bridge has cleared at many environmental hurdles. An authority to expand passenger rail has been created. Congress has given approval to transfer some parkland to the project. (read press release)The ceremony was held at the train station in Alexandria (watch the ceremony)The ceremony was held at the Alexandria train station to sign the agreements governing how CSX, Amtrak and VRE will work together.“Through an extraordinary year, often with great uncertainty, there has been steadfast commitment to reaching this destination,” Valentine said. The initiative includes purchase of a freight corridor between Charlottesville and Doswell north of Richmond for eventual passenger rail service. Also included is funding to extend rail service to Christiansburg and planning to hear further west to Bristol. “This transformative plan will make travel faster and safer,” Northam said. “It will make it easier to move up and down our east coast and it will connect urban and rural Virginia.” Also in attendance was U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who said the recently signed American Rescue Plan will help ensure public transit makes it through the pandemic.“The rescue plan has more than $30 billion in funding for public transit agencies helping them to avoid layoffs and service cuts,” Buttigieg said. “We know that the cuts these agencies were facing disproportionately harm workers who depend on public transportation including so many of the workers we have belatedly come to call essential workers.”  The statewide rail network will make it more possible for people to choose not to own an automobile. But how will the regional public transportation be improved to provide alternatives to driving? Since October 2017, the Regional Transit Partnership has met as a program of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC). The group consists of Charlottesville and Albemarle officials, and the University of Virginia joined the partnership by the end of 2019. The idea is to share information with an eye to having the city-owned Charlottesville Area Transit, the public service corporation Jaunt, and the University Transit System work better together. Last week, regional leaders got an update on the creation of a regional transit vision that the TJPDC is working on that will serve as a blueprint for a more efficient system. The next milestone is for a committee to select a firm to work on the project. Jessica Hersh-Ballering is a transportation planner with the TJPDC who spoke at March 25 RTP meeting. “The regional transit vision plan requires technical assistance from a consulting team and the role of the selection committee is to review proposals from those firms to the vision plan [request for proposals] and then to recommend to the Regional Transit Partnership a preferred firm to complete the vision plan,” said Hersh-Ballering. The committee will review the proposals in May. Charlottesville Area Transit Director Garland Williams gave an update on the forthcoming revision to bus routes after presenting an overview at the February RTP meeting. There will be a change to the route that travels between downtown and U.S. 29 in Albemarle County’s designated growth area.  (FY22 CAT service proposals)“We’re doing some extensions, we’re trading some of the components of the 7 and extending it out to Wal-Mart so it will be seven days a week,” Williams said. “It looks like we’ll be able to have final iterations that we will be able to share with the public probably in a couple of weeks.” These are the guiding principles for the proposed service modifications (download)Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act requires two rounds of public input before the routes can be approved. One effect of the pandemic has been a reduction in demand for parking at the UVA Health System. UVA parking and transportation director Becca White said that’s coming to an end.“We’re back up to about 90 percent of the pre-COVID demand at the hospital,” White said. “Of course, as you know we transport all those people that last mile. We intercept them in a big parking area and shuttle them to their final destination.” White said parking demand in the academic campus is at about 55 percent of pre-COVID levels. “So many of the classes are still not in person or are hybrid such that that whole class change thing isn’t really, still isn’t happening,” White said.The last day of classes is May 6 and the last day of exams is on May 15. Graduation is on May 20, and UVA is expected to make an announcement this Friday about how what they call Final Exercises will proceed. Jaunt is also seeing a small return to pre-COVID traffic. Karen Davis is the interim director.“Our ridership is starting to tick up and we’re putting more drivers out on the road,” Davis said. “More of them are able to have a full schedule although we are at reduced capacity and we’re actively keeping an eye on how COVID rules will change transit, and also reopening our main office.”  Davis said Jaunt will soon survey riders of the Crozet Connect route which began in the summer of 2019. The service has changed due to the pandemic.“Up until this point, we have pretty much changed our service structure to demand and so we’ll do the same in Crozet,” Davis said. “It’s such a shame because it was flourishing and growing so strong and then COVID hit and it’s just like, oh gosh!” After Davis’s update, Williams dropped this information.“Karen and I, I believe, are still contemplating in our FY22 budgets operating fare-free,” Williams said. He added the idea is to use a portion of COVID relief funds to cover the cost of fares, which makes up about ten percent of the CAT budget.“We have it in our numbers for three years,” Williams said.Williams added study will soon get under way to see if CAT can permanently remove the farebox. The system will also soon add automated passenger counters to buses to track ridership. Jaunt can’t quite make that commitment, but will be fare-free in fiscal year 2022, which begins on July 1.“Especially going fare-free in this next year will really enable us to get out ridership back, up and running,” Davis said. “When you take that barrier away for passengers, the risk of trying to use transit is so low and people, why not get on the bus and see where it goes? I think it’s really exciting if we can make this work.” One item called for in the Regional Transit Partnership’s strategic plan is a visit to a community similar to Charlottesville to see how transit works. A possible trip to Blacksburg was put on hold a year ago when the pandemic began. Here’s Albemarle County Supervisor Diantha McKeel. “I just think it’s always good if we can take a look at what other communities are doing,” McKeel said. However, Williams said CAT is planning to work with the firm Kimley Horn on a peer review of its own. “That’s a necessary component for us as we start to build out and ask for more for our alternative fuel vehicles and facilities,” Williams said. “We need to see how we match up as we are starting to ask for more capital projects.” Williams said as part of that work, they are looking for a location for a park and ride lot on U.S. 29. Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley asked for more information.“Garland, are you looking for your park and ride up in the area around… North Pointe?” LaPisto-Kirtley asked. “They’re really building out up there.” “I will just say that what we don’t want to do is give the developers a chance to grab the pieces of property from us that we are looking at,” Williams said. Williams said he has had conversations with Albemarle officials about the idea. And that’s where the Regional Transit Vision plan and a separate Albemarle transit plan are intended to come in. The TJPDC is also studying the North 29 Corridor in both Albemarle and Greene counties. In today’s subscriber-supported public service announcement:There are many fewer monarch butterflies than there were in the past and efforts are underway to study and implement solutions. On April 19, Wild Virginia welcomes Virginia Master Naturalist Michelle Prysby for a virtual talk where she will describe several programs underway, ranging from the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project to Project Monarch Heath. Sign up now at Wild Virginia for this talk on the Biology, Ecology, and Conservation of Monarch Butterflies.Charlottesville City Council will have a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year on Monday, April 5. On March 25 they held a work session on the proposed capital improvement program as well as what to do with some additional revenue that budget staff now anticipates receiving during the year that begins on July 1. For months, budget staff have been telling Council that the city is close to its capacity to raise additional debt. (link to presentation) (watch on city website)“With the proposed CIP we are projecting a five year debt financing of roughly $121 million,” said senior budget management analyst Krissy Hammill. “WIth the bonds that we’ve previously committed but not issued, and the CIP before you, we are committing to a debt capacity of about $195 million.” To cover that amount, budget staff are anticipating increasing the property tax rate for a total of ten cents over five years to cover the additional debt service. The actual vote to do so will be made by Council next year, including any new Councilors that are elected this November. That $195 million Hammill mentioned includes about $18 million in bonds that have not yet been sold for the West Main Streetscape, which was split into four phases in order to obtain funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation. David Brown is the city’s public works director.“The funding that’s being proposed right now covers Phase 1 but there is  $6.5 million that is needed to complete Phase 2,” Brown said. A third phase is recommended to be fully funded by VDOT with no match of local tax dollars, unlike in phase 1 and 2. Phase 4 is currently unfunded. City Manager Chip Boyles said VDOT is willing to delay the projects another year in order for them to be done at the same time, if the city comes up with the $6.5 million or scales back the project. One of the biggest costs of the program is to place utility lines underground. This has a $4.3 million cost in Phase 1 and a $5 million cost in Phase 2 according to a budget presented to Council last September. This image was shown to Council during their September 30, 2020 work session on West Main (preview story) (review story)Another decision point was how to use some additional revenues freed up by other budget reductions and higher estimates for business licenses. About $1.3 million was found. A million is proposed for a two percent cost of living increase for city employees and another $60,000 would go to fully fund a deputy city manager position. Staff had recommended using the rest for personnel to support a climate action plan when one is drafted. Kristel Riddervold is the city’s environmental administrator.“The anticipation is that when we have a climate action plan adopted, there will be a range of initiatives be it on the municipal side or the community support side that actually exceed the capacity staff has to deliver. A majority of Council supported the climate position, but Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker favored a “measurement and solutions” position intended to track how the city is achieving its goals. A committee had been expected to produce a report last summer but the work was delayed by the pandemic. City Manager Boyles said he would try to find a way to fund the measurement position as well. The public hearing for the budget will be held at Council’s meeting on Monday night. A wrap-up work session is scheduled for April 8 and the budget is expected to be adopted at a special meeting on April 13. *A community health research firm at the University of Wisconsin has recently updated its rankings for how Virginia counties measure up in health. The Population Health Institute has ranked Albemarle as the 7th healthiest locality in the Commonwealth, based on several metrics including life expectancy. Life expectancy in 82.7 years according to the data. Charlottesville is ranked 23rd (79.8 years), Fluvanna County is ranked 26th (80.1 years), Greene County is ranked 33rd (79.5 years), Louisa is ranked 60th (78 years) and Nelson is ranked 58th (78.3 years). Arlington is ranked first (85.9 years) and the city of Petersburg is ranked last at 133 (67.4 years). The data is worth exploring and in this year where community health has become so important, this is an invaluable resource that I’ve only just begun to explore. This link will take you to a comparison among all of the localities in the TJPDC. Included on that list is a metric that relates to the segment earlier on transit. Seventy-seven percent of working Virginians drive alone to work. In Charlottesville, the figure is 59 percent according to the database. That number is higher in the other communities.Take a look and let me know what you see in the data. Source: University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute* This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Substack-fueled shout-out, Code for Charlottesville is seeking volunteers with tech, data, design, and research skills to work on community service projects. Founded in September 2019, Code for Charlottesville has worked on projects with the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Charlottesville Fire Department, and the Charlottesville Office of Human Rights. Visit the Code for Charlottesville website to learn more, including details on three projects that are underway. In today’s show:Charlottesville City Council talks pools, next steps on a controversial West Main statue, and agree to no property tax rate this year while acknowledging one for next year is possibleAlbemarle Architectural Review Board takes a look at the Fontaine Avenue and the Ivy Road corridorAt any given City Council meeting, a lot happens. This is a set of highlights from March 15, 2021. Let’s start with an update on one lingering issue. In February, the city sent out a request for information for entities who might be interested in taking over ownership of the Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea statue. Here’s City Manager Chip Boyles. “And we do have nine informational responses that we received,” Boyles said. “Staff will take these informational responses, do a review, and come back to Council with a recommendation with how to move forward with the removal of that statue.” The statue is within the boundary of the first phase of the West Main Streetscape project. Council voted to remove the statue in November 2019 and directed staff last October to pursue that outcome separately from the transportation project. (previous story)Ridge Street traffic projectsOne item on the consent agenda were the recommendations of a task force for how a small pool of federal funding should be spent in the Ridge Street Neighborhood. The group is suggesting that $25,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money be spent on traffic calming and another $220,000 be spent on three sidewalk projects. As part of the traffic calming, speed limit signs would be installed on the old section of Ridge Street. Council gave their approval as part of the consent agenda vote. Before the vote, Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker asked a question.“How was it determined that there was excessive speeding?” she asked. City traffic engineer Brennen Duncan responded. “There have been a few traffic studies, speed studies, that were done on that section over the last five to ten years and all of them showed that there is a speeding issue on old Ridge Street,” Duncan said. The recommendations from the Ridge Street CDBG Task ForceThe Reopening of City Pools Last week, the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Advisory Board sent a letter requesting a plan to safely reopen facilities and pools. City Manager Chip Boyles gave an update.“Parks and Recreation has a schedule and a plan for beginning to open up facilities and activities for the summer,” Boyles said. “Baseball fields are already receiving some league play and with two weekends of activity we are reporting 100 percent compliance review for the safety measures by both among the participants, the players and spectators.” Other facilities will open on a staggered schedule to accommodate the need to hire staff to run them. These include outdoor pools.“Washington Park is the first to be scheduled with a proposed opening date of May 29,” Boyles said. ”What we can’t begin to open until the state regulations change are the aquatic center at Onesty and the water spray grounds at our parks. Those are because of the phase that we’re in with the state.” That could change if there is further loosening of the state restrictions. Mayor Walker said that anyone hired to staff facilities must receive a vaccine and get health benefits given the risks involved. “And so that should be a top priority just as we are phasing in the operations part of it, the people who are running those operations, we need to make sure that they are safe,” Walker said. Boyles said he heard that message loud and clear. At the public comment period, several speakers asked for the pools to open faster. Beth Carta has swum laps in city indoor pools for decades.“And as a nurse, I’m well-versed in the importance of COVID precautions and airborne precautions,” Carta said. “I also know we need a balance. At this point of the pandemic, it’s very important to have accessible and affordable community health options. People need access to exercise to stay healthy and improve immunity.” Carta said Governor Ralph Northam has loosened restrictions for indoor pools to open, and those run by the YMCA and ACAC are already in operation. However, those facilities are more expensive than those run by the city parks and rec department. Walker, who formerly worked at the Smith Aquatic Center, said the pandemic is not over and there are concerns about increased community spread through the UK and South African variants. “What I’m hearing every speaker fail to understand...is that it takes bodies to run these programs so people in jobs and those people have been fired from their jobs and I don’t think it will be an issue rehiring people because they need their jobs but we need to make sure that safety is a first priority especially for staff,” Walker said. I took the opportunity to relay the question to officials at the UVA Health System at their briefing on Friday, March 19. Dr. Costi Sifri is the director of hospital epidemiology for the system. He said planning for a gradual opening is okay, as long as the most vulnerable are being vaccinated and as long as mitigation measures like masking are still in place. He said the variants are a wild card. “Really what we’ll need to do is just monitor and see what’s happening with case rates and what proportion of those cases are due to the variants,” Dr. Sifri said. “That remains a bit unknown right now. Those efforts to understand that are ramping up. I think we’ll learn more in the upcoming weeks.” I’ll have more from that briefing in the next installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement. No property tax rate increase this year, likely one next yearCouncil also held its first public hearing on City Manager Chip Boyles’ recommended $190.7 million budget for Fiscal Year 22. Before that, Boyles said revenue projections for next year are up slightly.“This amount is being recommended to increase by $1,260,307 to a total of $191,950,146, still less than a one percent change,” Boyles said. As of Monday, Boyles did not have a final amount for how much funding the city will receive through the American Rescue Plan, but that the city expected over $10 million and did not yet know what restrictions would be on those. When this information is known, staff will present an amended recommended budget. There were actually two opportunities for the public to comment on the budget, but first, a public hearing on the tax rate, which is recommended to remain at 95 cents per $100 of assessed value. Only one person spoke. Jeff Fogel called for a steep increase in the tax rate and increases in tax relief programs for those who can’t afford the higher payments. “We need this money to provide the services to make this a real, decent community which it isn’t for so much of the population, and you know that!” Fogel said. “I’m not talking about two percent, five percent, ten percent. We’re talking about some substantial amount. You have more people moving down here from the northeast who are paying extraordinary taxes who see this as a gift to them when they’re only paying 95 cents on a dollar.” Based on current economics, every penny increase on the tax rate would bring in an additional $845,000 in revenue for the city and the current formula allocated 40 percent of new revenues to the school system. That amount also does not include whatever would need to be paid out through the Charlottesville Housing Affordability Program in the form of rebate checks. The proposed budget for FY22 includes $965,000 for that purpose, as well as various tax relief programs. Details on page 124 of the budget PDF, or H-19In his comments, Boyles said there would likely be a need for a tax increase next year. Vice Mayor Sena Magill understood. “I am expecting that taxes will need to be raised next year and it’s good that we’re already bringing this up now so that it doesn’t take people by surprise next year,” Magill said.Councilor Michael Payne also addressed the issue.  “Over the next budget cycle as we look at our commitments, there’s no way around the need for revenue increases,” Payne said. Mayor Walker said before the city increases taxes, Council must determine whether money is being spent efficiently. “It’s also key for people to trust the process when we say the only alternative is increases,” Walker said. The public hearing for the final budget will be held on April 5. At this one, for the first public hearing, go and review the video from the Council meeting. After this was recorded, there was a community budget forum on Wednesday. Council will have a budget work session on March 25 at which time the capital budget will be discussed.   That’s when we might learn more about the West Main Streetscape.     In today’s public service announcement, we get help from Vice Mayor Sena Magill who at Monday’s Council meeting, told us all about a new essay contest from Alex-Zan.“The 7th area student contest, ‘focus on helping others!”, Magill said. Students in kindergarten to 12th grade are asked to enter the “My Help List” contest by writing in 150 words or less why it’s important to help people, and to write down five things they’ve done to assist someone, or could do.“The contest is an extension of Mr. Alex Zan’s Yes You Matter Initiative,” Magill said. Winners could get up a $100 cash prize and have their names announced on NBC29. Visit the website of Alex-Zan to learn more. The next time you walk, bike, or drive along Fontaine Avenue in Albemarle County, think about possible futures. Much of the land is owned by the University of Virginia or its real estate foundation. The road itself is one of Albemarle’s Entrance Corridors, and as such is under design guidelines of the Architectural Review Board. “The majority of the land is either owned or controlled by the University,” said Fred Missel, director of design and development at the University of Virginia Foundation. “Some land, primarily Foxhaven Farm, Morey Creek, Observatory Hill, are all being held for long-term needs of the University. The Albemarle Architectural Review Board reviewed the corridor at its meeting on March 15. (watch this meeting on YouTube)Fontaine Avenue is sign-posted as U.S. 29 Business and runs through the county for a brief stretch before hitting the city line. Physical context of the Fontaine Research Park in relation to the rest of the UVA Health System. Source: UVA Architect, Fontaine Master Plan, Page 5The University of Virginia adopted a master plan for the Fontaine Avenue Research Park in September 2018 as a “flexible road map for future development.” This plan ultimately envisions up to 1.4 million gross square feet of building space. “We developed that over the span of about 25 years,” Missel said. “We started in the mid-90’s and we sold the Fontaine Research Park to the University back in I think it was 2018 so that is now considered Grounds, University Grounds.”Other undeveloped properties include a 12 acre site to the west of Buckingham Circle which the UVA Foundation purchased from the UVA Physicians Group in 2016. The latter secured a rezoning for the Morey Creek property in July 2011 but never built the proposed office building. Missel described this as a “long-term hold for the University.” Proffers associated with both the Fontaine Research Park and the Morey Creek involve making the area more pedestrian friendly. The Fontaine property serves as gameday parking for UVA football. Another property that could have future buildings scrutinized is the 69-acre “Granger tract” which is undeveloped and currently zoned R-1. The land is currently owned by Stribling Holdings LLC. “Access is a real bear because you do have to go under the railroad tracks, but that would not, I don’t believe any of the Fontaine viewsheds but probably would I-64 and potentially U.S. 29.Another UVA-owned property in the area is the Piedmont Apartments complex run by University Housing for faculty. “There has been discussion about whether or not what’s at Piedmont is still the highest and best of the property or if there is some other alternative use that might could be considered longer term and I can tell you that that’s been a question that has been around as long as I’ve been at the Foundation and that’s been 20 years.” At the city line begins a Smart Scale funded streetscape project for which a public hearing is expected in “early 2021” according to the initiative’s website.  Page 29 of a presentation on the Fontaine Avenue Streetscape given to Council in January 2020Coordination of land use planning in this area used to the purview of a public body called the Planning and Coordination Council. PACC consisted of officials from Albemarle, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia and meetings were open to the public. However, that ended in late 2019 when both the city and the county agreed to convert the body to one not subject to open meetings rules. “PACC was formed out of the Three Party Agreement that was established by the UVA, the city and the county back in the 80’s and PACC was dissolved about a year and a half ago,” Missel said.In its place is the Land Use, Environmental and Planning Committee, which is not open to the public. However, the meeting notes are posted on a public website. Missel is a member of LUEPC in his capacity at the UVA Foundation. And this newsletter is intended to shine as much light as I can on what’s happening. In tomorrow’s newsletter, a look at the Ivy Road corridor also from the March 15, 2021 ARB meeting. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Two months down, ten more to go. The days are getting longer and soon we’ll pass through the Ides of March and then the equinox on our way to a complete year. The calendar reads March 1, 2021, and this is the first installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement of this 31-day period. This first installment of the month is supported by the two hundred people who have now made a financial contribution to allow me to keep doing this work each and every day. I’m almost a year into this experiment in independent journalism, and I’m grateful. If you’re interested in helping me make this endeavor sustainable, contact me and I can suggest some options. On today’s show:Louisa County announces $15 million investment to bring about universal broadband (watch the announcement)Charlottesville City Council will be asked to endorse Cherry Avenue Small Area Plan,  six week after the Planning Commission took a lookThe city’s proposed capital budget allocates a smaller amount for proposed 7th Street Parking GarageTonight, Charlottesville City Council will take action on whether to add the Cherry Avenue Small Area Plan to the city’s Comprehensive Plan. Council’s public hearing was held on January 12, 2021 during the Planning Commission and they wanted some revisions. City planner Matt Alfele said at that meeting that this plan has been a long time in the making. (read the draft plan)“I know one of the driving principles of our community is engagement and letting the neighborhood drive the planning process,” Alfele said. “This is very true with the plan in front of you tonight.” In 2015, the Fifeville Neighborhood Association created a visioning document to position their location to be the next area chosen to receive the master planning treatment. The Thomas Jefferson Planning District was hired to develop the plan, which Alfele said will fit into the overall city planning process in Charlottesville including the Comprehensive Plan.“The Cherry Avenue Small Area Plan if adopted is a high-level policy document that will help with the completion of these other documents, most notable the zoning rewrite,” Alfele said. Some background on the small area plan process in the draft Cherry Avenue Plan TJPDC planner Nick Morrison explained why Fifeville residents wanted this plan.“Residents of Fifeville had noted the specter of displacement specifically of long-time residents and the need for additional affordable housing,” Morrison said. “Stresses on the neighborhood from traffic, particularly along the commercial corridor of Cherry Avenue.” The neighborhood came up with a series of goals they wanted from the plan. Morrison stated one of them.“To lift up and preserve Fifeville’s legacy of African-American leadership and highlight its unique sense of place as a culturally diverse neighborhood,” Morrison said. A chart in the plan states that residents do not want to see large apartment buildings such as the ones on West Main Street, but do want to see preservation of existing housing and creation of new subsidized housing. There are several undeveloped parcels on Cherry Avenue and Roosevelt Brown Boulevard within a mixed-use district. A medium-density residential district runs along 5th Street Extended which would allow some multifamily apartment buildings by-right. A special use permit would be needed for projects between 22 and 43 dwelling units per acre. Councilor Lloyd Snook noted a tension between the desire of the neighborhood to remain at a low residential density on the one hand, and a push for the city to build more units to increase supply on the other.“I’m just conscious of the fact that in the next year when we’re going to be having an affordable housing plan, a Comprehensive Plan, and a zoning code, we’re going to have to confront sort of the second order issue here and focusing only on information and opinion on only the first order issue may not help us in the long run in our analysis,” Snook said. Before recommending approval, commissioners asked for more information on renovations and teardowns that have taken place between 2010 and 2020. One of the transportation recommendations is already funded. T-3 calls for the widening of a turn lane from Cherry Avenue onto Ridge Street. Charlottesville was awarded a $6.1 million Smart Scale grant for a project called 5th Street SW Corridor Improvements. Council will also be presented with a $190.7 million operating and capital budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. During a press briefing today, City Manager Chip Boyles said preparing a budget during a time of economic uncertainty has been a challenge for staff.“Known decreased revenues in the current year and unknown revenue and expense projections for fiscal year 2022 make this a difficult task at best,” Boyles said. “Staff has taken a very conservative approach to go into FY22 and is hoping for the best.”Meals tax and lodging tax revenues have been down sharply since the pandemic with restrictions in place on gathering spaces. Staff expect the trend to continue into the fiscal year. Ryan Davidson is a senior budget management analyst with Charlottesville.“For lodging and meals, neither of those do we see getting back to 100 percent of pre-COVID collection rates before the end of the next fiscal year,” Davidson said. “Hopefully we’ll be wrong and things will rebound.” One change made during the development of the capital budget is that there is only one million in funding in the next fiscal year for the proposed 7th Street Parking garage, with $7 million expected to be spent in fiscal year 23. Krissy Hammill is the other senior budget management analyst. She said the city can still meet its obligations to provide parking for Albemarle County per a 2018 agreement to build a joint General District Court downtown. “The dollar amount that’s put in here now gives us enough time and gives staff the flexibility to continue doing that research with some funding available,” Hammill said. The recommended budget also includes no additional city taxpayer funds for the West Main Streetscape and Council is expected to further discuss its future in the coming budget work sessions. “As part of the staff recommendation, just from an affordability standpoint, we’ve taken out any additional funding for West Main and added the [$50 million] school reconfiguration project,” Hammill said. “Absent some real solid direction from Council, we have not made any changes in the CIP and have not changed our position there in the hope that once we get to these work sessions as part of the budget there will be some decisions made.” The first budget work session is Thursday at 4 p.m.  (meeting info)*This afternoon, Louisa officials pledged to make broadband Internet available to every home and business in the county within the next four years. Christian Goodwin is the county administrator who spoke on a live YouTube feed that he acknowledged could not currently be accessed by all who live in Louisa. “Today I am pleased to announce that we are unveiling plans to change that here in Louisa County and that we are developing a blueprint that other localities and providers can follow,” Goodwin said. Louisa will invest $15 million in a partnership with Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, Firefly Fiber Broadband, and Dominion Energy Virginia. Firefly is a subsidiary of the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative. The funding will help cover constructions costs, and end consumers would pay between $50 and $80 a month for service depending on speed. The first step in the partnership will be an engineering study that will result in a request to the State Corporation Commission for regulatory approval for the service. The goal is to connect half the county by 2023 and full coverage by 2025. Duane Adams is the vice chair of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors. “Today more than ever the digital divide between rural and suburban America has been brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Adams said. “The inability to access reliable high-speed Internet has impacted our citizens in nearly every area of their life, from education to tele-medicine to the ability to conduct business affairs in a secure environment.”Adams said this would bring about a “generational change” for the county and will also be an economic development tool. Read more in the press release. *Finally today, this week Virginia is set to receive 69,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine for COVID. According to a release sent out Saturday night, the Virginia Department of Health will prioritize this third vaccine to mass vaccination clinics across the Commonwealth. Only one dose is required for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Today the VDH reports another 1,124 new cases based on abou 13,000 tests processed. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

With the COVID pandemic still affecting our lives, today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out from an anonymous contributor is once again to state clearly: "We keep each other safe. Wear a mask, wash your hands, and keep your distance."If you’d like to help support this program and get a message out there, a $25 monthly contribution through Patreon gets you four such shout-outs. Some restrictions apply. Contact me if you have any questions or have interest. Now, on with the show! On today’s show:Another Democrat has entered the race for Charlottesville City Council A pedestrian is struck on West Main Street during a protestVirginia State Police explode a suspicious device this morning on the Downtown Mall An update on vaccines and the pandemicWe’ll begin today with a pandemic update. Statewide trends continue to head down with percent positivity statewide at 7.4 percent today. Numbers in the Blue Ridge Health District have also been declining a week after a sudden surge related to the return of University of Virginia students. Yesterday, UVA eased restrictions on in-person gatherings according to a news release sent out yesterday. Students are now allowed to leave their residences for non-academic or non-dining purposes, and people can meet in groups up to six. “Out of concern for spreading the virus into the surrounding Charlottesville community, the University will continue to limit community volunteering activity until further notice, with one exception,” the release continues. That exception is UVA students who volunteer on public safety crews who have also been vaccinated. The fatality count statewide continues to rise as death certificates continue to be entered into the system used by the Virginia Department of Health to track the disease. Nearly 1,200 deaths have been recorded this week for a statewide total now of 8,382. Most of these deaths actually occured in January. In the Blue Ridge Health District, there are now a total of 148 deaths including 57 in Albemarle and 43 in Charlottesville. Over 98 percent of these were people over the age of 50, with 81.1 percent over the age of 70. Source: Virginia Department of HealthIn an email update that went out last night, the Blue Ridge Health District announced it will receive the largest shipment of vaccine doses next week. That will allow them to expand vaccinations to people over the age of 65. “BRHD will receive 4,170 first dose vaccines (both Pfizer and Moderna). Nearly half of these will be distributed to UVA Health to assist with vaccinating Phase 1A and 1B individuals at the Seminole Square location and Community Sites. Additionally, 300 doses will go to the Blue Ridge Medical Center in Nelson and 300 doses will go to Walmart Pharmacies in Greene and Louisa for vaccinating individuals 65+.”Source: Virginia Department of HealthThis week, the University of Virginia passed a milestone of administering more than 50,000 doses since December 15. They’re also moving all of their vaccination operations to the temporary facility in the Seminole Square Shopping Center which has been informally dubbed by some as “Big Shots.” Dr. Costi Sifri is leading up the Health System’s community health efforts. “It is challenging to get here into the medical center,” Dr. Sifri said. “There are a lot of traffic and some challenges with that.” Yesterday, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel approved emergency authorization for a vaccine from Johnson and Johnson. The time will soon come when anyone who wants a dose can get one. There is some reluctance among many in the population about the safety of a new type of vaccine. Dr. Sifri said hesitancy among some may be waning. “The vaccine is showing really important efficacy results as were seen in the clinical trials,” Sifri said. “That’s been demonstrated really around the world where they have been rolled out. But in addition they are very well tolerated. People can have some of these side effects but for the most part they’re reasonable and it is too difficult to manage.”Dr. Sifri said there are some who are reluctant to receive a vaccine and public health professionals need to continue discussions with those who are hesitant in order to allay their fears.“Vaccination is going to be our best tool to get over this pandemic,” Dr. Sifri said. Dr. Sifri said UVA would follow the Blue Ridge Health District’s lead on how to continue to support the response to this community health crisis by providing vaccinations. Another source of information is a Q&A with Dr. Eric Houpt on vaccinations and how the world around us may be slowly changing. Stay informed. The University of Virginia Health System will begin to allow visitation at some in-patient units beginning on March 2. For a full list, read the update on their website. Finally in this segment, a friend of mine on social media yesterday posed the question of whether it was a good idea for people to post pictures of themselves getting a vaccine on social media. To hear that conversation, take a listen to the podcast version of this newsletter. Subscribe through Apple MusicSubscribe through SpotifyListen through AmazonA pedestrian was struck yesterday afternoon at rush hour in the intersection of West Main Street and Roosevelt Brown Boulevard. A press release issued by the city of Charlottesville Police Department later in the evening said the person suffered “minor injuries.”“As vehicles swerved to avoid confrontations, an uninvolved pedestrian was struck by another vehicle as she attempted to cross the street,” reads the release. Video footage of the incident released on Twitter by Arianna Coghill is more complicated. As the 45 second video begins, a crowd of people are standing within the intersection as part of a Black Lives Matters protest organized by the group BLM757 that had been moving within the city since 230 p.m. The traffic light controlling vehicles traveling on to Roosevelt Brown Boulevard is green but the group is standing directly in the line of traffic. At four seconds, the light turns yellow. A person holding a blue sign blocks vehicles seeking to northbound travel from Roosevelt Brown Boulevard onto 10th Street NW. At almost seven seconds, the light is still yellow. A person in a white jacket can be seen waiting to cross Roosevelt Brown heading west toward the University of Virginia. As soon as the light changes, this person begins crossing the road at a jogging pace. A dark gray pick-up truck crosses the perimeter of the intersection despite the traffic signal being red. This vehicle can be heard revving its engines to accelerate. At ten seconds, the vehicle strikes the person crossing the street and they fall to the ground. The crowd of people move to assist them. The driver stops and the videographer films the rest of the incident. The driver gets out of his vehicle, and others race to the person to help. The video ends. The first paragraph of the Police Department’s press release mentions the name of the protest organizer and the fourth states that the Commonwealth’s Attorney office will assist in the investigation. A question is out for more information about whether the driver will be charged. This morning, another press release from the Charlottesville Police Department announced a suspicious device was found this morning on 4th Street SE near the Downtown Mall Crossing. The Virginia State Police were called in and the device was detonated. “CPD’s forensic investigators are processing the scene and have collected relevant evidence, which will be sent to the Virginia Division of Forensic Science for analysis,” reads the release. (Note - I did not link to the tweet pending identification of the person who took it. I want to make sure they get credit and that I have permission to use it. I can provide the link upon email and will update this newsletter once I have permission)*There are now three Democrats seeking two nominations for two seats on the Charlottesville City Council. Charlottesville Tomorrow reports that Albemarle High School graduate Yasmine Washington is running and Charlotte Rene Woods has a profile on her published Friday. Washington joins school board member Juandiego Wade and 2019 candidate Brian Pinkston in the race. Keep track of campaign finance on the Virginia Public Access Project. There’s an open seat in a House of Delegates district in the Fredericksburg area. Delegate Mark Cole will not seek reelection to a seat he has held since 2002 according to the Virginia Public Access Project. On his website, Cole announced this would be his last term. For more on this story, read an article in the Fauquier Times. Thank you for reading. Please drop me a line if you have any questions. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

What is 10 times 15? What about 1,200 divided by eight? 75 plus 75? The answer is 150, which is also the correct response to how many times now has there been an episode of Charlottesville Community Engagement. It is February 22, 2021 and I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think. On today’s show:Events could return to the Charlottesville Pavilion this summer if the pandemic recedes Charlottesville City Council will wait to make final decisions on proposed capital improvement program projects, keeping West Main Streetscape project alive City Council hires local law firm to represent its interest in upcoming legal hearing on recreational uses at the Ragged Mountain Natural Area To begin today’s show, some news that came in as we got closer to production. Charlottesville’s Commonwealth Attorney has opted to not begin a criminal investigation into whether Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker’s use of a city-issued credit card to purchase gift cards for people who attended various meetings. In a letter to City Manager Chip Boyles, Joe Platania wrote that an investigation will not happen until after the city updates a policy that governs use of the cards. Read more about the story on NBC29, which first reported the letter. Council will discuss the policy at a future work session. (read the letter)---The prospect of the West Main Streetscape being implemented is still alive as City Council still wants more information about how the project could be salvaged. The project was split into four phases in order to secure funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation, but staff has recommended not fully funding the project. Council has not made several final decisions about the proposed $160 million Capital Improvement Program for the next fiscal year and the four years that come after it. That amount also includes $8 million for a 300-space parking deck as well as a $50 million placeholder for reconfiguration of the city’s middle schools. “There certainly is a lot of unknowns when we think about going into the future of the CIP especially when we think about schools and not knowing the scope of what they’re going to be [doing],” said City Councilor Heather Hill. “And also thinking about the parking deck situation and what options we may have.” Councilor Lloyd Snook said he felt the city was at a point where it should proceed with West Main Street in a fashion similar to Council voting to proceed with the pedestrianization of East Main Street in 1974. “The more I have thought about it, the more I have thought the future of the city is going to be along the axis between downtown and the University and we ought to be spending our time, our energy, and our resources on that area,” Snook said. Snook said he was less inclined to support the parking garage. Mayor Walker said budget staff have been clear that the city is running into its debt capacity and the city should proceed cautiously. “I just don’t know how we are rating West Main Street and still thinking that is a must and that it must continue at this time when we’re talking about things like housing and schools,” Walker said. Snook said he has been persuaded by arguments that at least $3 million in maintenance improvements are needed on West Main Street. Councilor Hill said believed the city has made an investment in West Main and should see the project through. “The biggest thing is just the other dollars coming from other sources that are not the city, and there’s not a lot of projects where we find those opportunities,” Hill said. Those external sources include $5 million from the University of Virginia and the potential $10.8 million in VDOT Smart Scale funds for Phase 3 of the West Main Streetscape. Phases 1 and 2 require a local match in order for the city to draw down Smart Scale Funds and revenue-sharing funds already approved.“I’m really struggling with just closing the door on this,” Hill said. The draft CIP contains a placeholder of $50 million in FY24 for the school reconfiguration.Walker said would prefer to keep some of the debt capacity available for future needs. “If we okay West Main at this point, we are limiting schools to an amount because we are boxing ourselves in,” Walker said. “And then everything else that comes up as a result of this pandemic and how long we’re in it, then we are also restricting ourselves there.” Councilor Michael Payne said he supported the vision of the West Main project, but could not support prioritizing that over schools or affordable housing. He said he would support the city paying for the bare minimum and losing some of the Smart Scale funding due to the debt capacity issue. “We’re in the same situation where we could eliminate our city funding of West Main Street, and the parking garage, and we still even then wouldn’t be that close to getting our CIP budget on a sustainable level,” Payne said. He also said he would like to continue conversations with the School Board about the reconfiguration project due the large amount of money required to pay for the capital costs. A firm is working with the school board to further refine the cost estimates for school reconfiguration. There was also interest in getting more information about various scenarios for West Main, including incorporating some of the results of a recent value engineering study.  Councilor Snook had this idea.“One of my thoughts is that we have a brand new city manager, and let’s let him put his creative thoughts to work and see if he’s got some ideas for us,” Snook said. City Manager Chip Boyles said he would have a conversation with VDOT about when Phase 1 and Phase 2 need to get underway to stay within the six-year deadline required of Smart Scale. Jack Dawson, the city engineer, said the right of way phase is expected to begin this July to keep the project on VDOT’s schedule. “There is some urgency about what direction we think we may need to go in, sooner or later, for sure,” Dawson said. Vice Mayor Sena Magill said she would support reducing the scope of the project.“What can we do with just the revenue-sharing match?” Magill asked. “There’s a lot extra that is on top of what we need for our revenue-sharing match.”Council agreed to wait on a final decision on West Main until they have more information on options. David Brown is the city’s public works director.“We do have some time to where we can look and evaluate to make a determination,” Brown said. “For the project, we can evaluate and make an assessment, rescope the project that still meets the requirements of the funding sources so we still have that opportunity.” Boyles said he would prepare options for Council to consider. “We can get enough information to come back to you with some concepts and maybe even some recommendations and staff can continue to keep working forward,” Boyles said. “It won’t be that much wasted effort based on whatever your decision is in later March or April.”The FY22 operating and capital budget will be presented to Council on March 1. The first public hearing is scheduled for March 15. Budget adoption will be roughly a month later. *Council had also discussed the future of capital funding for a 300-space parking structure, but took no action on whether $8 million in funding should be included for the project. The topic also came up at a meeting earlier on February 16 of the Charlottesville Parking Advisory Panel that featured an update on the city's Parking Action Plan. Rick Siebert was hired as the city's first parking manager in the fall of 2016 to implement a plan.  "This was originally a five-year plan that expired in 2020 and we've been talking about how we might change some of the objectives for the next five years," Siebert said.This plan was intended to "optimize existing resources," "enhance access alternatives", and "maintain and grow supply."  The plan called for a pilot program for parking meters on streets close to the Downtown Mall, but the project did not last for the initial six-month testing period. There wasn’t a lot of back and forth at this meeting about the plan, or what a future plan might look like. Kirby Hutto, general manager of the Charlottesville Pavilion and parking panel member, said tourism is a major part of economic development for downtown. “I can tell you that the majority of our patrons are not residents of Charlottesville,” Hutto said. “They’re coming in from the outlying counties and sometimes coming in from a hundred miles away. They’re going to drive. I’m sorry. There is nothing that is going to put them on public transportation but if we want their revenue, if we want those tax dollars, we have to be able to accommodate them.” Siebert said parking levels are beginning to rebound and are at about fifty percent of pre-COVID levels. The majority are people with monthly passes, but about a fifth are hourly parkers. “Events were major drivers in our transient revenue and the lack of events has been felt,” Siebert said. The Charlottesville Pavilion canceled its entire season last year, and planning is underway to at least think about scheduling something in the near future as community health targets are met. The idea would be to open up gradually with a percentage of total capacity. “We’re starting to see glimmers of light,” Hutto said. “There’s a group of venue managers from around the state including a lot of the big boys like Kings Dominion, Richmond Raceway, and Hampton Coliseum, JPJ, that have put together what I think is a really well-thought out reopening plan that is tied to milestones that you can actually track and see. You know, vaccination percentage of the general public. New infections reported. Those two numbers. As the first one climbs and the second one declines, they’ve got a proposal and my understanding this in front of the Governor’s task force right now. Hutto said that might mean events at the Pavilion as early as June, but agents with nationally touring acts are not planning until returning to tours until the fall. “No one is asking for dates in June and July,” Hutto said. “Everyone is asking for dates in September and October.” In a conversation I had with Siebert today, he said a draft of the Parking Action Plan will be ready by the end of the week for future discussion by the panel and other stakeholders slated for after that time. Take a closer look at the Parking Action Plan here ---Also at their meeting on February 16, Council was briefed on a plan to remedy the city’s noncompliance with a mandate from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to spend previously funding on a timely basis. Erin Atak is the city’s grants coordinator. “City staff had identified an immediate program for funding to solve the city’s timeliness concerns by May 2,” Atak said. “The city has unexpended 2019 [Community Development Block Grant] entitlement funds totaling $244,950.82 from the delayed Belmont /Franklin sidewalk activity.”That project came about when Belmont was the city’s Priority Neighborhood but has not moved forward due to COVID as well as difficulty securing space for the project.“Right now we’re having a lot of issues achieving right of way,” Atak said. “We have reached out ot the Belmont-Carlton Neighborhood Association and the Belmont CDBG Task Force with help on this and they are pretty motivated to help.”Atak has recommended that the money instead be used for COVID-relief programs and the sidewalk project would be financed by the federal government again in the future.  A previously approved rental relief program for public housing residents will now get the additional funds in the short-term. This item will be included on the consent agenda for the March 1 Council meeting. *Finally today, at the end of Council’s meeting on February 16, Councilor Heather Hill read from a motion to hire outside legal counsel to represent the city in an upcoming trial.“I move to authorize the acting city attorney to authorize the law firm of Zunka, Milnor, and Carter to represent the city in connection with the courts hearing of all the pending motions scheduled for March 1, 2021 in the litigation with Albemarle County over recreational uses at Ragged Mountain Reservoir,” Hill said. For background, after the expansion of the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, the city’s parks and recreation assumed management of the trails from the Ivy Creek Foundation and moved forward with a plan to allow to bike trails. Albemarle County officials objected and cited a provision in the county’s ordinance that allowed them to block that use. The matter resulted in a lawsuit that will go to trial after previous attempts at mediation failed.(2/28/2021) - Some follow up reporting discovered that there had been a hearing date scheduled for March 8, not March 1. That hearing has since been delayed. For more information on this lawsuit, visit this link on cvillepedia. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon fueled shout-out: The Local Energy Alliance Program, your local energy nonprofit, wants to help you lower your energy bills, make your home more comfortable, and save energy. Schedule your Home Energy Check-Up to get started - now only $45 for City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents. You’ll receive energy-saving products and expert advice customized to your needs. Sign up today!On today’s program:Charlottesville Planning Commission makes recommendations to trim city’s capital budget Charlottesville seeks information on entities who want to take the Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea StatueAnother candidate enters the race for Charlottesville City Council *You may have noticed I’ve not been reporting the COVID numbers each installment of this newsletter. There’s been so much to get to, and I often report the numbers on Twitter. Every now and then I think it’s important to take stock and track where we are in this ongoing pandemic. Today the Virginia Department of Health reports another 3,203 cases of COVID, and another 34 deaths. The total number of fatalities since last March is now 6,932. The seven-day average for positive PCR tests is now 10.1 percent. That number was 11.3 percent a week ago. Source: Virginia Department of HealthIn the Blue Ridge Health District, there are another 107 cases today, with 30 of those from Albemarle and 47 from Charlottesville. The death count in the district is now 116 people since the pandemic began. The University of Virginia returned to in-person instruction on February 1, and their COVID tracker now lists 178 active cases with 161 of them being students. The dashboard has been updated recently. As of today, 1,156,117 vaccine doses have been administered and almost one of ten Virginians has received at least one shot. The seven-day average for doses given each day is at 33,520, still below Governor Northam’s goal of 50,000 a day. *The Charlottesville Planning Commission has weighed in on cuts and other amendments they would like to see made to the city’s proposed capital improvement program. Hosea Mitchell is the chair of the body. “There are at least four hot potatoes,” Mitchell said.One of these hot potatoes is an additional $8 million in funding in FY22 for a parking structure on land purchased by the city in January 2017 at 9th and Market Street to support the joint courts complex with Albemarle County. Others are $50 million as a placeholder for middle school reconfiguration and the of previously-approved millions in city funding for the West Main Street.  All told, the draft five-year plan totals $160 million, or about double what the CIP was ten years ago. (draft CIP)“What is outlined in the documents we’ve got is not sustainable,” Mitchell said. “The budget cannot be achieved without significant revenue enhancements. Tax and fee increases.”There have been many words written about the West Main Streetscape, a project whose cost estimate has increased to as much as $52 million to build out the full scope of a design put together by Rhodeside & Harwell. Staff has recommended not proceeding with funding for two of the phases for which Council has already authorized the sale of municipal bonds. Krissy Hammill is a senior budget management analyst with the city. “West Main Street, there was $4 million that was removed,” Hammill said. “The $18 million that was previously approved in prior CIP’s remains intact and would be available.”To pay for this draft CIP, Hammill said the tax rate would need to be annually increased by two cents for five years beginning next year. If Council proceeds with this version, they would be using up all of the city’s debt capacity for years to come. “That would mean that future Councils or Commissions would also be limited in what could be recommended or added to future CIP budgets,” Hammill said. After a public hearing, Commissioners began their discussion. Many questions had to do with the status of state funding for the West Main Streetscape, a project that was broken into multiple phases in order to secure funding. Phase 1 has a cost estimate of $16.7 million, of which $3.275 million comes from VDOT’s transportation revenue sharing program.  Jeanette Janiczek is the manager of the city’s Urban Construction Initiative. “When the city submits a grant application, we have to identify what we’re going to do with the funds,” Janiczek. “With revenue-sharing it’s a little bit more open ended. That would be on phase 1 only. There are no Smart Scale funds on it.”Screenshot from recent value engineering reportSmart Scale is a process where VDOT funds projects based on how they would accomplish different criteria such as public safety. The city received just over $2 million in Smart Scale funding for Phase 2, as well as another $2 million in revenue-sharing. The rest of the $11.15 million would come from the sale of municipal bonds, which ultimately would be paid by city taxpayers. VDOT staff have recommended the city receive $10.8 million for the third phase of Smart Scale, which is a standalone project that would not require a city match. Much of the city funding would cover the cost of undergrounding overhead utility lines, which VDOT will not cover. Another big ticket item in recent CIPs has been funding for affordable housing. Previous Councils have approved line items for specific projects as well as general contributions to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund. One of these calls for $13.5 million in funding for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to redevelop various sites. That includes $1.5 million for fiscal year 2022. Commissioner Liz Russell asked why that figure is lower for next year, but increases to $3 million in future years. The city’s redevelopment manager, Brenda Kelley, explained.“The housing authority, CRHA, is not planning on making a [Low Income Housing Tax Credit] application this coming March,” Kelley said. “I don’t know if they have any proposals for March 2022 yet.”The CRHA has received tax credits for the redevelopment of Crescent Halls as well as the first phase of South First Street. Construction of the latter is expected to break ground later this month. Kelley said the specifics of how city funding would be used for future projects has not been worked out, but including the overall figures in the CIP tells the CRHA of the city’s commitment. “South First Street Phase 2 will probably start construction about this time next year and right now there aren’t any proposed projects in the future planned, but they are looking at all of their other sites,” Kelley said. “There’s just nothing definite on board right now.”Russell and Mitchell both said they would like to see some way to salvage the West Main Streetscape. Mitchell suggested reducing the amount for the parking garage, and using that to help cover some of the costs for West Main. So did Commissioner Gary Heaton who said he would support paying to place the utility lines underground. “I think [there is] not a lot to be gained by just completely wiping off improvements that need to be made that have residual benefits to the community long into the future,” Heaton said. “If you’re spending that kind of money and you’re doing that kind of renovation work, you underground while you’ve torn up the street.” Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg asked his colleagues if they had read through the value engineering study which reviewed the Rhodeside & Harwell design to find cost savings. “It is appalling,” Stolzenberg said. “You’ve got half a million dollars in there for rocks. Literally just a boulder that is sliced into pieces for decorative purposes. You’ve got half a million dollars for custom concrete benches that look incredibly comfortable where you could have bought regular benches for like $20,000. I think with the streetscape project, we really have to get back to what’s important.”Stolzenberg agreed with a decision to close the slip lane that allows vehicles to turn right from eastbound West Main to southbound Ridge Street but said the city did not need to invest in a pocket park at that location at this time. Commissioner Lyle Solla-Yates also weighed in. “I’d like to see increases in funding for the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund, increased funding for tree planting, and providing more funding for essential parts of West Main for best use, matching funds for health, safety, and cost and risk prevention,” Solla-Yates said. Solla-Yates suggested delaying funding for more small area plans, implementation of the Strategic Investment Area, and delaying spending on the parking garage for at least one more year. He also suggested deferring $6 million on the General District court anticipated for next year until at least FY23. An agreement between Albemarle and Charlottesville for the courts complex includes a section on how the county “shall” begin construction of the parking garage by May 1, 2022 and deliver 90 spaces for use by the county by November 30, 2023. If they do not, then the city must either provide 100 spaces in the Market Street Parking garage to the county or sell back a share of land on East Market Street.  (correction has been made to this paragraph post publication. See comments) After the commission’s discussion, Vice Mayor Sena Magill asked a question.“I keep hearing everyone talking about how we [might] move forward with the garage but it just being the absolutely least necessary and I just think that needs to have some definition for what is considered to be the least necessary,” Magill said. City economic development director Chris Engel said he did not have a good question but the total $10 million figure was derived from a preliminary study of a 300 space garage with 10,000 square feet of commercial space. Mitchell said he would support spending an amount to satisfy the terms of the agreement to provide 100 spaces. “I do think that there are creative ways to meet out commitment without spending [$10] million bucks,” Mitchell said. Stolzenberg said he envisioned a one or two story building with parking on the bottom with enough structural support to eventually build housing units on top. He also suggested asking the county if they would consider amending the agreement to delay the project. After a discussion, Mitchell suggested a recommendation to make a motion to make amendments. The motion they voted upon calls for:Prioritize local West Main Street funding to match state funding for transportation for health and safety while not spending money on aesthetics Delay funding for small area plans until the Cville Plans Together initiative is completedDelay further funding on SIA improvements until the Cville Plans Together initiative is completedDelay some funding for garage, courts complex, and $1 million for East High SignalizationReduce overall funding for the garage and study ways to otherwise fulfil commitment to Albemarle County Delay $150,000 in additional funding for economic development strategic initiativesIncrease funding for the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund from the $800,000 a year proposed Increase funding for tree planting and pursue donation program for this purposeIncrease funding for sidewalks The commission voted unanimously to approve the motion. Their recommendations are purely advisory. Council will be presented with a budget later this month. On Monday, they will further discuss what to do with the West Main Streetscape. *Want a statue? Check out the Request for InformationSpeaking of West Main Street, the city is requesting information from entities and organizations that might be interested in removing the Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea statue at the intersection with Ridge Street and McIntire Street. “The assumption by the City of Charlottesville is that any prospective recipient would be responsible for the safe removal and relocation of the statue, including all of the associated planning and logistical work required,” reads a press release. “The recipient would also bear all of the associated financial costs related to this work. In return for this service, the City of Charlottesville would transfer full ownership of the statue to the recipient at no cost to the recipient.”Council directed staff to proceed with plans to remove the statue at a work session in November 2019. Responses to this request for information are due by March 12. *There are now two challengers seeking two Democratic nominations for Charlottesville City Council. Brian Pinkston is a facilities manager at the University of Virginia who previously ran in 2019 but failed to secure the nomination. City School Board member Juandiego Wade announced his candidacy in January. City Councilor Heather Hill has not announced whether she will seek a second term, which would require getting one of the two nominations in the June primary. Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker announced last year that she would seek another term. As an independent, Walker only has to qualify for the ballot by submitting the correct number of signatures to the city’s registrar. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Today's Patreon-fueled shout-out is for the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign, an initiative that wants you to grow native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. Native plants provide habitat, food sources for wildlife, ecosystem resiliency in the face of climate change, and clean water.  Start at the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page and tell them Lonnie Murray sent you! On today’s show:The population of the Charlottesville area has grown by over ten percent in the past ten yearsThe Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission says goodbye to Chip BoylesCharlottesville City Council discusses the capital improvement budgetIn six days, Chip Boyles will officially become Charlottesville’s City Manager. Last Thursday, the Board of Commissioners of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission said goodbye to Boyles in his capacity as their executive director. He has been there since April 2014.  Greene County Supervisor Dale Herring is Chair of the TJPDC Board and he read from a proclamation.“Whereas the influence and reputation of the TJPDC and the quality of programs and services during Chip’s tenure has been greatly enhanced by the vision, skills, and passion he brought to TJPDC’s mission, therefore be it resolved that the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission expresses enduring gratitude and appreciation for the generous and faithful service provided to the TJPDC and this region by Chip Boyles.” Dale HerringCommissioner Keith Smith of Fluvanna County said Boyles took over at a time when the TJPDC had opted to not renew the contract of a previous director. “We were in a bad way and just to do a 180, it was purely upon his skill, his leadership, and that funny accent of his, people apparently trust him,” Smith said. “Who knew?”Charlottesville City Councilor Michael Payne said he appreciated the comments from other TJPDC Commissioners. “I’m just incredibly excited to work with Chip going forward and I think there are really bright days ahead for the region as a whole,” Payne said. Nelson County Supervisor Jesse Rutherford praised Boyles’ optimism but also made a threat in jest. “Michael and you all, I’m just saying,” Rutherford said. “My threat out there of saying that if this doesn’t go well, we will ban all fruit products and beverages from going into Charlottesville from Nelson County. That’s a serious one and whoever the reporter is in here, write that down!” Rutherford also sounded a more positive tone. “We look forward to the success of Charlottesville,” Rutherford said. “That is not only important to Nelson County but the region. I can’t say this enough, but we have sent you our best, alright?” One of TJPDC’s achievements with Boyles in charge is the creation of the Regional Transit Partnership, a gathering of various agencies that has spent the last few years laying out the foundation for a more integrated system. Recently the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) awarded TJPDC a grant to help build more of the framework.“This award is $175,000 for the development of a regional plan as recommended by the Regional Transit Partnership,” Jacobs said. “There is a match for this of $175,000 to be provided both by Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville over two fiscal years.” This plan will involve coordination between Charlottesville Area Transit, the University Transit Service, JAUNT and Albemarle County. The DRPT also awarded a $106,500 grant to TJPDC to study expansion of transit in Albemarle. The county will have to pay half of that as a match. “This study is to develop the financial feasibility of new transit services in three different areas,” Jacobs said. “Route 29 north, Monticello, and Pantops.”The TJPDC also coordinates regional priorities for Community Development Block Grants. Applications to the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development from non-urban localities are due on March 26. “As of the end of January, we’ve already been notified of one project in Louisa County for a planning and infrastructure grant for affordable housing,” Jacobs said. “We know of a Nelson County potential grant for downtown revitalization of Lovingston. We have Albemarle County acquisition and redevelopment for an affordable housing project. And Scottsville has a redevelopment project going on.” The Virginia DHCD is now directly administering a rent and mortgage relief program to assist households during the pandemic, but the TJPDC was in charge of the program in the second half of calendar year 2020. “We were awarded a total grant of $1.8 million dollars for the region [and] $1.624 million of that went directly to pay for rent and mortgage relief for qualifying families,” Jacobs said. “That was 570 families in this region who were served with an average of $2,000 rent per household.”The state program is not covering additional mortgage payments at this time, but are still accepting applications for rent relief. Visit their website if you or someone you know needs assistance. Locally, the TJPDC has launched an online portal called Porch Light that allows people to find affordable housing opportunities. “If you know people who have rental properties, direct them to our website and they can go directly to the site,” Boyles said. “We need landlords to list their properties. It’s free. It’s easy.”Chip Boyles (lower right) presided over his final TJPDC meeting Nelson County Supervisor Rutherford said the COVID pandemic has brought a real sense of urgency about housing. “We’re going to be doing some hard soul-searching in Nelson County and what it is we can do to get some economies of scale and some more dense housing,” Rutherford said. Rutherford said he is aware that some newcomers to the area are choosing Nelson due to the provision of more broadband Internet. He said he has a tenant who works in Crystal City and commutes twice a week. “We’re going to see some major culture changes in our workforce and in how we operate on a business level,” Rutherford said. (watch the whole TJPDC meeting here)Population estimates publishedThe Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia has released its annual population estimates for localities across the Commonwealth. Albemarle County has grown by 11.7 percent since the 2010 Census, with an estimated population of 110,545 as of July 1, 2020. The population of the City of Charlottesville increased by 13.8 percent to a population of 49,477. There are also increases in most other localities in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District. Fluvanna County jumped 5.9 percent to 27,202. Greene County is estimated to be at 20,323, or an increase of 10.4 percent. Louisa County increased by 11.6 percent to a population of 37,011 people. Only Nelson County is estimated to have declined over the past ten years, losing just over a hundred people to 14,904 people. When added all together, the planning district as a whole increased 10.5 percent to a total population of 259,432. Other planning districts that experienced that level of growth include Northern Virginia with 13.5 percent growth, the Rappahannock-Rapidan with 8.7 percent, the Richmond Regional at 10.6 percent, the Crater District at 7.7 percent and the George Washington Regional Commission at 14.9 percent. The U.S. Census Bureau, however, organizes localities into Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The Charlottesville MSA is similar to the Planning District, with the exception that Louisa County is replaced with Buckingham County. When viewed that way, the MSA grew by 10.4 percent. Buckingham County remained flat in the Weldon Cooper estimate with an increase of just 16 people. The U.S. Census results are expected to be posted later in the year, later than the usual release date of April 1. Charlottesville Council discusses capital budget at Feb. 3 work sessionDownload the presentation from the February 3, 2021 meeting here Later on today, the Charlottesville Planning Commission will meet with the Charlottesville Planning Commission to discuss the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for the next fiscal year which begins on July 1, 2021. Last week, Council discussed the proposed $160 million CIP for the next five years. When they adopt a budget in April, Council will only approve actual funding for FY22 but looking ahead to the full five-year period helps give budget planners perspective about what capacity the city has incur more debt to cover capital projects. “If you look at sort of a ten year history, you will see that in 2012 our CIP was at $80 million,” said Krissy Hammill, a senior budget analyst with the city. “It ebbed and flowed until about 2017 but we still hovered around the $80 million mark. Since 2018, the CIP from 2017 to now, this draft, our five-year CIP has basically doubled.” Hammill said Council increased the amounts for affordable housing from $8 million in the 2012 five-year plan to $38 million in the current draft. Additional spending was allocated for education and transportation. “Of those three priority areas, we’ve essentially added $94 million of funding to a plan, of course the big chunk being the $50 million for the school reconfiguration,” Hammill said. “But I think it shows that in some respects with regard to the CIP plan, we’ve put the money where our priorities were, but we’ve also done that without taking anything away.” A $6 million city contribution for a joint General District Court with Albemarle is in the plan as is $10 million for a parking garage at 9th and Market Street to support the expanded courts complex.   The draft CIP contemplates issuing $121 million in bonds over the next five years to fund some of the projects, including about $74 million in projects already authorized by previous Councils. Hammil said that will come close to maxing out the city’s debt capacity for the foreseeable future. It will also cost the city more. “If we get to a point where we’re issuing $185 million or $195 million worth of debt, the debt service doubles,” Hammill said. “So you’re going to go from a debt service payment of roughly $11 million of $22 million.”That will likely require a tax increase to cover that additional payment, or the equivalent reduction in spending. There is currently no tax increase anticipated for the next year, but Hammil said they would need to plan for one soon should they decide to proceed with the full capital improvement plan. Council made no major decisions at the work session last week but did offer glimpses of their thoughts in a discussion. Councilor Payne said he would support deferring or canceling the $10 million for the parking garage and working to find another solution to guarantee parking for the courts complex. “I think we really need to at least initiate conversations on are there ways to meet that courts agreement outside of a new parking garage of that size and cost,” Payne said. “Not abandon that agreement. Meet it. Honor it. Honor our relationships and commitments with the county but see what we can do reduce that cost there.”  Councilor Lloyd Snook said he was also willing to rethink the garage.“I’ve been a real passionate defender of this parking garage but as someone who uses the parking garage that we have now, I’m looking around and seeing we don’t have a demand for parking right now,” Snook said. “Admittedly things are slow because of COVID, but we don’t know when that will end.” Payne said the city also needs to have a conversation about the full cost of middle school reconfiguration. Mayor Nikuyah Walker said she and Councilor Heather Hill sit on a committee with two school board members who are working on the issue while a cost estimate is developed. Walker said whatever the conversation, the focus must be on equity. She also said the city’s spending on housing must be tracked. The city is currently without a housing coordinator. “I don’t know where we are on replacing [John] Sales’ position,” Walker said. “I think it was Jeff Levien last time he was before us said there was still a vacant unit sitting in [Six Hundred West Main] because he could not find anyone to rent it.” Walker said she is also concerned about the future of the city’s investment in Piedmont Housing Alliance’s redevelopment of Friendship Court.“We make decisions based on relationships and not based on what people would do,” Walker said. “We are taking taxpayer money and investing those dollars and we should have some strings attached.”Staff has recommended not proceeding with additional funding for the West Main Streetscape, which has a roughly $52 million cost estimate to implement a design plan that cost $2.85 million in city funds to create. One Councilor was ready to de-prioritize local funds being use to move forward. “I do see the value and vision,” Payne said. “I just can’t justify it as being a bigger priority than these other things,” Payne said. The West Main project was split into four phases in order to secure funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation. Local funding is required for Phase 1 and Phase 2, but a third phase is being recommended for nearly $10.9 million in funding in the next Smart Scale round. I asked the Virginia Department of Transportation plan what would happen if Council decides to cancel the first two phases. Phase 3 covers the area between the Drewary Brown Bridge and Roosevelt Brown Boulevard. “The Phase 3 application would not be automatically removed,” said VDOT spokesman Lou Hatter. “It is a standalone project. From the process perspective the City would need to pass a resolution requesting that its Phase 3 application be withdrawn from consideration for funding.”Hatter said if the city does drop Phase 3, the funding would go to the next highest scoring project in Smart Scale, which is a roundabout at the intersection of Route 522 and Route 20 in Orange. Councilor Snook said he did not want to make a decision at the work session, and consensus was reached to do so at Council’s upcoming meeting next Monday. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

On today’s show: Charlottesville City Council is poised make a go or no go decision on the West Main Streetscape projectCity agrees to transfer land at the Amtrak stationA quick COVID update In today’s Patreon fueled shout-out: The Local Energy Alliance Program, your local energy nonprofit, wants to help you lower your energy bills, make your home more comfortable, and save energy. Schedule your Home Energy Check-Up to get started - now only $45 for City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents. You’ll receive energy-saving products and expert advice customized to your needs. Sign up today!Many statewide metrics measuring COVID-19 in Virginia are trending downwards, but are still higher than at most points of 2020. Today the Virginia Department of Health reports 2,959 new cases and the seven-day average is 3,541. On January 3, the number reported had been 5,010. In this community, the University of Virginia resumed in-person instruction this week and the first day of the spring semester was held on Monday. One thing different this year is that fraternities and sororities are now able to gather in-person as long as they follow state and local guidelines to stop the spread of COVID. Sierra Martin has a story about this today in the Cavalier Daily. Yesterday, Maryann Xue reported that many people associated with the University of Virginia were able to sign up for vaccine appointments at UVA Health that they were not eligible to receive. The Virginia Department of Health reports today that 1.38 million vaccine doses have been administered in the Commonwealth. The average is now up to 39,658 a day. Compare that to a total of 513,339 cases of COVID since the pandemic began. This morning, the VDH also reported the transmission of another COVID variant in northwest Virginia. “The B.1.1.7 variant, which first emerged in the United Kingdom in late 2020, is associated with increased person-to-person transmission of COVID-19,” reads the press release. The release goes on to say this information stressed the need to keep wearing a mask and following social distancing guidelines, even if you have received the vaccine. Source: Virginia Department of HealthAt a budget work session later today, City Council is expected to take a final decision on the fate of the West Main Streetscape.  This event begins at 3:30 p.m. Staff has recommended not putting additional dollars into the second phase,  which would call into question the future of state funding awarded to that portion of the project, which has a multimillion dollar cost estimate for all four phases. On Monday, Council discussed a study intended to cut the costs of the project which has been under development since 2013. Unlike Albemarle County, city staff plans and manages the city’s road construction projects. Jeanette Janiczek is manager of the city’s Urban Construction Initiative. (read the study)“The idea is not to rescope the project,” Janiczek said. “The idea is with a value engineering process is to have an independent firm review the work that’s been done and see ways we can improve the project while still maintaining the benefits that we were envisioning.” Source: City of CharlottesvilleThe city has secured millions in funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation for the project, which was originally envisioned to add bike lanes, new sidewalks, and new street trees for a roadway that had been anticipated to have several hundred more residents as new construction was built.  The project was broken into four phases in order to help secure funding. Two have received funding and both require a local match.Last month, VDOT staff recommended over $10 million for Phase Three of the project, which includes the area where hundreds of apartment units have been built at the Standard, the Flats at West Village, and the Lark on West Main. These have all been built and occupied since the West Main Study got underway in 2013. Janiczek said staff recommended approval of ten recommendations in the value engineering study from RK&K to reduce cost. One of them is not to move forward with planting trees in a proprietary product called a Silva Cell that would also retain stormwater. “We don’t have any Silva Cells anywhere in the city,” Janiczek said. “So this is a new product. It’s proprietary. It’s kind of expensive because it does so many wonderful things. It can complicate utility relocation because these are plastic tubes that are sorted on a plastic platform and are separating the sidewalk, or the pavers in this instance.”All of these intricacies are called for by the West Main Streetscape design put together by the firm Rhodeside & Harwell. As of last year, they’ve been paid $2.85 million by the city so far to create construction documents created as part of the process. A previous City Council approved the schematics in May 2017. No members of that Council are still in office. (May 2017 story)A slide from a previous presentation on the project that was before the Board of Architectural Review in April 2018. (full presentation)City Councilor Michael Payne said he appreciated how the Silva Cells could help the city achieve some of its climate action goals. He also said that the value engineering study did not really do enough to bring down costs of a project that has had an estimate as high as $49 million. That prompted a long conversation about whether the project should just be killed. “We’re really just going to need to be honest about, we’re not going to be able to fundamentally change the impact of this project with value engineering, and if we cut blanket amounts from the CIP for this project, we’re probably going to sacrifice the actual vision and intent that guided creating this, which was to create a very different kind of pedestrian-oriented corridor that’s almost an extension of the Downtown Mall,” Payne said. Payne said he thought housing and school reconfiguration were more important to spend capital improvement dollars on. Mayor Nikuyah Walker wanted clarity Monday about whether Council even wanted to move forward with West Main to avoid having that dominate the budget conversation later on today. “Is this something that we can place on the shelf and be okay with that?” Walker asked. Councilor Heather Hill said she still wanted to know what improvements need to happen on West Main just to keep it maintained. “I still believe that this corridor is vitally important and its not working for pedestrian and bicyclists, so just getting staff’s perspective on what an alternative would be,” Hill said.  VDOT funding for Phase 1 and Phase 2 both require the city to match funds and the city’s portion would come from bonds that Council has theoretically authorized but that have not yet been sold.  Councilor Lloyd Snook asked if the city could save money by never selling bonds for that purpose.  “And so, in theory, we could reclaim $16 million minus the $3 million to do the bare minimum, we could reclaim say $13 million by saying ‘sorry, we’re not doing phase 1 or phase 2, we’re just going to do the bare minimum?’”“Correct,” Janiczek said. Snook said he wanted two more days to review before saying whether he would approve ending the project. One question I have out to the Virginia Department of Transportation on whether the $10 million recommended for Smart Scale funding for Phase 4 has to be spent on the Rhodeside & Harwell design, or if a new public process could be opened up to decide how to use that funding to address the same purpose and need. This round of funding requires no local match, but it is possible the project would not have scored as high under an alternate design. The city currently has several other streetscape projects in development that were funded by Smart Scale. None of them had a preconceived plan in place when they were awarded the funding. If the Commonwealth Transportation Board approves the funding in June, the actual money will not be distributed to the localities for several years. No funding has been designated for the project’s fourth phase, which spans between Jefferson Park Avenue and Roosevelt Brown Boulevard. Last November, the University of Virginia reaffirmed their commitment to spend $5 million on West Main Street. "The University remains committed to its funding pledge for the West Main Streetscape project,” wrote UVA spokesman Brian Coy. “Per discussions with the City, our intent is to focus on safety and security improvements towards the western end of Main Street, supporting both students and the broader community.”Regardless of whether the West Main Streetscape project moves forward, the city has been awarded funding for other projects nearby. Additionally, VDOT is recommending $5 million in funding for multimodal improvements to Ridge Street, which is immediately adjacent to Phase 1 of the project. In the third Smart Scale round, the city was awarded $6.1 million in funding for a project at the intersection of Ridge Street, Elliot Avenue and Cherry Avenue. The preparation for all of these Smart Scale projects have been overseen by Chip Boyles in his capacity as the executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. He becomes City Manager on February 15. *Earlier in the meeting, Council agreed to convey city-owned property back to developer Allan Cadgene operating under his Union Station Partners LLC. Chris Engel is the city’s economic development director. (staff report)“This item in summary deals with a loose end from a development agreement that was entered into between Union Station Partners and the city of Charlottesville back in the late 1990’s,” Engel said.At that time, the Downtown Transit Station had not yet been built, and there was a possibility it might be located at the Amtrak station on West Main.  The city entered into a development agreement to secure a federal grant which required a match from the city.“In lieu of providing cash, the parties agreed to transfer a parcel of land so that that could serve as a local match,” Engel said. The 0.8 acre property has continued to be used as a parking lot ever since. The grant did result in an upgrade of the train station but a second phase did not materialize. No one spoke at the public hearing required by city code. It should also be noted that the fourth round of Smart Scale also recommends $50 million in funds to increase passenger rail services through Charlottesville to expand frequency to Roanoke and points west. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Meet Stephanie Williams, owner of Space on West Main, the newest event venue in historic downtown Allen. Host Rick Rawson talks with Stephanie about why she chose the downtown location and chose to move forward during a time many have struggled to stay in business. The Space on West Main was opened November 1st, 2020, and is opened for corporate parties, local events, and micro weddings, and her calendar is already booking up!An intimate, upscale event location is the perfect answer to smaller group attendance. Stephanie is a wedding photographer by trade, and realized there was a huge need to create a venue that focused on the bride. Larger weddings tend to cater to guests, and while we all want our guests to feel included and valuable, Stephanie wants the bride to thoroughly enjoy her special day. Go to SpaceOnWestMain.com to learn more about this fabulous historic building in the downtown area, and talk to Stephanie about how this location can support your great ideas! Call 214-440-6265 and schedule your tour today. Find them on Facebook and Instagram. Rick Rawson is the founder of Expanse LLC, creating Power Groups for networking across DFW. Discover his Power Group Networking Concept at Historic Downtown Allen Businesses, and his main Facebook page. Enjoy the OBBM Network business talk show format on 24/7 OBBM Radio, or subscribe to the OBBM Network Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Google Podcasts and more. Power Group Allen Podcast is sponsored by:Worksuites Allen, 469-310-6268WeStandForFreedom.comdabowpay.com, 972-542-1297IVHookUp.comSupport the show (https://offbeatbusiness.com/sign-up/#join)

Today's Patreon-fueled shout-out is for the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign, an initiative that wants you to plant native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. Native plants provide habitat, food sources for wildlife, ecosystem resiliency in the face of climate change, and clean water.  Start at the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page and tell them Lonnie Murray sent you! *Virginia has set another one-day total for new COVID-19 cases today with 2,544 new cases bringing the total since March to 213,331. The seven-day average for new cases is now at 2,010. The seven-day average for positive tests has declined slightly to seven percent statewide. The total number of new cases per 100,000 population statewide is now 288.4. That number was 230.4 a week ago and 205.3 two weeks ago. In the Blue Ridge Health District there are another 36 cases today, with 12 from Albemarle, eight from Charlottesville, seven from Louisa, four from Nelson, three from Fluvanna, and two from Greene. An additional COVID-19 fatality has been recorded in Nelson, bringing the total for the Blue Ridge Health District to 81. Statewide the death toll is 3,912. Sometime today the nation will cross the quarter-million mark for COVID deaths. Different parts of Virginia continue to have different experiences with the pandemic this month. While not reliable as a sole indicator of community spread, percent positivity can give a glimpse into what’s happening. Central - 5.2% Eastern - 6%Far Southwest - 15.2%Near Southwest - 10.8% Northern - 8.2%Northwest - 5.5%The Charlottesville School Board last night cautiously directed staff to continue planning to begin hybrid in-person education in January, though some members stated they would continue to watch the COVID numbers. (presentation from meeting)“I also want to say that the Board at our January 4, or at our next meeting after the December 19 meeting looks at the data and says the data is going in the wrong direction, which I fully anticipate it doing, that we have to pull back,” said Chair Jennifer McKeever. Under the current plan, pre-K through 6th grade would begin phasing back to class on January 11 and 7th through 12th would return on February 1. Sherry Kraft is another member of the School Board.“I’m comfortable with the idea of affirming or voting to continue working on these preparations with the understanding that we are not locking ourselves that we’re not locking ourselves into what the model says right now,” Kraft said. Two-thirds of Charlottesville households with students want their students to return in-person according to materials presented to the School Board. Overall, 83 percent of households with students returned the survey. White families had a 92 percent return rate and households identified as People of Color had a 76 percent return rate. Teachers were also asked to give their preference on returning and were given four options and could only choose one. Of 275 elementary teachers surveyed, 97 said they wanted to be in-person, 77 said online, 26 said both in-person and online, and 75 said they would go wherever they were needed. McKeever said she was concerned there might not be enough teachers to move forward.“I want elementary schools to start and to the extent that we have enough teachers, I don’t want us to get into a situation where [human resources] has to tell a teacher that ‘I need you back in the class’ or I need you to resign’,” McKeever said. Superintendent Rosa Atkins said the school system will do what it can to stay intact. “COVID will not last forever,” Atkins said. “We are going to get through this. It’s a difficult time for everyone and there are a lot of adjustments we’re all having to make. But we want to make this as clear and transparent as possible. We don’t want to lose any of our teachers. We want them to stay. We want to work with our staff. Keep them on board.”The School Board will make a final decision at their meeting on December 16. They directed staff to find a way to reduce asynchronous learning in 7th graders and up. The Board also agreed to hire a firm that can provide temporary bus drivers to provide extra trips to get students to school. COVID restrictions limit capacity to 20 students and assistant director for pupil transit Sherry Eubanks said the additional drivers are required to make sure everyone can get to school. “We currently are using every driver we have to drive the students that we are transporting right now, so without extra help, even getting the 383 students to school is going to be a struggle,” Eubanks said. The Board approved a process through which a contract will be worked out for the temporary drivers. *A volunteer group of computer programmers and technical experts will hold an information session tomorrow to find out more about what projects it can work on to benefit the greater Charlottesville community. Jonathan Kropko is the volunteer lead with Code for Charlottesville.“Code for Charlottesville is a local chapter of Code for America which is a national network of groups that begin volunteers with tech or data or code or design or research skills to work on a project for a community partner,” Kropko said. So far, Code for Charlottesville has worked on projects for the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Charlottesville Fire Department and the Charlottesville Office of Human Rights. To find new partners and volunteers, they are holding a work session tomorrow at 4 p.m for people who want to be part of the leadership team. Kropko said the goal of the session is to listen to what the community wants. “There’s a huge movement in the tech industry, the phrase they use is social good and I want to put that in quotes,” Kropko said. “Because a lot of time when they talk about the tech for the social good, it’s not really doing anything good for society. A lot of time these projects fizzle out without doing anything useful.”Kropko said the goal of the information session is to try to come up with useful projects. He said that starts by recruiting volunteers. “You have to do a good job with organizing so that people know what they are working on and what the goals are,” Kropko said. “And you have to do a really good job communicating with your partner in the community. The Code for Charlottesville MeetUp begins tomorrow at 4 p.m. for people interested in civic tech. Register here. *The Virginia Festival of the Book has announced it will hold next year’s literary celebration in a virtual capacity. The 27th annual festival will take place virtually from March 13 to March 26. “All virtual events are free and purchasing participating authors’ books is encouraged but not required,” reads the announcement on the Virginia Humanities website.Since April, the Virginia Festival of the Book has been holding online events called Shelf Life and they say they have had more than 22,000 viewers. *Today in meetings, the Charlottesville City Council will hold a budget work session at 1 p.m. and are expected to make some decisions on the capital improvement program. Last week they were asked to either make cuts or give consent to a plan to fully utilize all of the city’s borrowing capacity. The draft affordable housing plan calls for $10 million in spending every year for ten years. There’s a multimillion dollar project to create a new streetscape for West Main. There’s a long-running request from the schools to reconfigure the middle schools. And on Monday, they were told they’d need to spend up to $4 million to build a roundabout to calm down traffic on 5th Street.  I’ll be producing a story on that to let you know what happens. *Tonight at 7 pm, Live Arts will hold another Coffeehouse. These are a series of musical acts from local artists. There are musical performances by Rob Craighurst, Courtney Jacobs, Tanya Kae, Joshua Tucker and more. This is available for free on their YouTube channel, but they are asking people consider paying what they can. Learn more on the Live Arts website. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Today's Patreon-fueled shout-out is for the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign, an initiative that wants you to plant native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. Native plants provide habitat, food sources for wildlife, ecosystem resiliency in the face of climate change, and clean water.  Start at the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page and tell them Lonnie Murray sent you! -Virginia Governor Ralph Northam will hold a press conference this afternoon at 2 p.m. One thing you will hear during his appearance is that there are another 2,071 cases of COVID-19 in Virginia today, and the statewide percent positivity rating dropped to 7.1 percent from 7.4 yesterday. One question that may come up at the meeting is what that metric is actually telling us. Today’s new numbers bring the statewide seven-day average for new daily cases to 2,071. In the Blue Ridge Health District, the statewide seven-day average for new daily cases is 26. There are no new fatalities. While we’re on the subject, Dr. Anthony Fauci will speak at noon as a regular installment of the University of Virginia’s Medical Center Hour. Dr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. His lecture will cover the latest developments related to COVID-19, including how to prevent transmission, caring for patients with the virus, medical treatments for COVID-19 and vaccine research. (register)*A volunteer group created to help shape policy about parking and transportations issues in downtown Charlottesville has endorsed a proposal from staff to hire a private contractor to enforce parking tickets. Charlottesville Parking Director Rick Siebert reminded the Parking Advisory Panel yesterday that there are many on-street parking spots that stop being free to the driver after the posted time limit expires. “I believe if we had more consistent parking enforcement that people would only stay for two hours or less in the two hour spaces,” Siebert said. Siebert was originally hired to implement a parking action plan that included installing parking meters that would raise revenue for the city to pay for downtown improvements, but a six month pilot in 2017 and 2018 was not completed. Siebert said the city can still collect some of those revenues through more consistent enforcement. “I think it’s difficult with the police being solely responsible for this function for them to focus on that as a matter of importance given the number of issues that they realistically face every single day,” Siebert said. Siebert said a private contractor would be solely focused on this function and could also expand enforcement elsewhere in the city, including permit parking in residential areas. The idea has the support of Kirby Hutto, the panel’s chair.“Without consistent enforcement, people learn to take advantage and to just ignore the signs and that’s bad for downtown because then those spaces are not in rotation,” Hutto said.However, Charlottesville Economic Development Director Chris Engel said not everyone in local government supports the idea.“There is some reluctance on the part of the police department,” Engel said. “The concern is that what  happens when an enforcement officer gives a ticket erroneously and that needs to be appealed. The citizen is naturally going to knock on the police department’s door because they expect that’s where it came from and it creates a situation where people are going to the wrong place, complaining to the wrong person. There could be some confusion there.” However, the panel unanimously recommended a resolution in support of the idea. Joan Fenton is another member. “Personally, I think politically its a good time to present this again as people are asking to rethink how the police are, what jobs the police are needed to do and not to do,” Fenton said. Siebert said that if Council supports the idea, it would likely take six months from issuing a request for proposals for the switch to be made. *The Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review has indicated at a preliminary review that it would support a mural on the side of 1001 West Main where Starbucks wants to open a new pick-up only franchise.   “It’s one of our latest new formats of a store that we’ve been rolling out,” said Ena Yang, a designer with Starbucks. “We have three stores that are open. Two in New York City and one in Toronto, Canada. This particular store we do not have any seating. Our lobby space is only 300 square foot where the customers are encouraged to pick up their order and be on the go.” At issue before the BAR was whether the east-facing wall that slopes down 10th Street should be adorned with a colorful mural. The building in question is a former auto repair shop that is a contributing structure in the West Main Architectural Design Control District. Historic preservation planner Jeff Werner said there were some restrictions “Anything within a mural that is interpreted as a Starbucks related or coffee related could be interpreted as a sign so be very careful with the artwork so that it doesn’t come across as ‘come in here and buy coffee,” Werner said. Yang said there would be no images to promote coffee. Chair Carl Schwarz said he supported the preliminary design of the mural. “This is an interesting part of town where you can have a lot of color and excitement and it’s not going to distract from anything historic,” Schwarz said. Werner encouraged representatives from Starbucks to reach out to the community and to be ready for comment. Yang said they would do so. “I understand it is a very prominent location and it’s a very busy intersection,” Yang said. “We don’t want to offend anyone. We are Starbucks. We are a global company. We want to make sure that what we put on a building of this size and at such a prominent location could be messaging that represents Starbucks. As to getting some of the community involvement, I would love your advice and guidance on what are some of the steps we can take to ensure this mural really speaks true to the community.”Yang said the next step is to continue working with the artist in a way that will not cover up any of the existing windows.  Credit: Concepts Studio at Starbucks*The Albemarle Economic Development Authority got an update yesterday on how the pandemic has affected local from the director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. Courtney Cacatian said the area had a brief upsurge in October when local hotels had a 70 percent occupancy rate. “That is 20 occupancy points higher than the state average for October,” Cacatian said. She added that number includes rooms booked by the University of Virginia for quarantine and isolation purposes, as well as those currently being used to help serve homeless individuals. However, forecasts of consumer desire to travel indicate levels have dropped to that of earlier this spring. “The way I read this is that we can still talk about Charlottesville and Albemarle about being a destination because people are receptive to that message, but they are not willing to travel here right now,” Cacatian said. The CACVB will be pivoting to put out a message for people to buy local in order to help promote small business at this time so venues and establishments can still be open when the pandemic is over. In 2019, about 3,500 people were employed in the tourism sector in Albemarle County. “The elements about our destination that our visitors enjoy are very similar to the elements that our residents enjoy as well,” Cacatian said. Cacatian said sharp declines are still projected for November and beyond into the spring. Credit: Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau*Today in meetings, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors meets at 1 p.m. for a meeting that begins with a proclamation in support of front-line workers that reaffirms the county’s commitment to partnerships to help increase the well-being of those who continue to provide services during the pandemic. (resolution)There is also a work session on the strategic plan and the capital improvement plan. Then the county’s zoning code enforcement officer will make a presentation on how that process works. In the evening there is an update from Dr. Denise Bonds of the Blue Ridge Health District.  One of the things she is expected to talk about is how the seven-day average for positive COVID tests is not necessarily a metric to gauge community spread. (agenda)The Nelson County Planning Commission meets at 7 p.m. in the General District Courtroom in the county courthouse in Lovingston. On the agenda is a review of a major site plan amendment to allow Camp Blue Ridge to build a multi-purpose facility to replace their recently condemned cafeteria and a long-demolished gymnasium.  (agenda)The Ridge Street Priority Neighborhood Task Force will meet at 4 p.m. It will be interesting to hear their thoughts on Council’s discussion regarding the 5th Street roundabout (meeting info)Later on in the evening, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society will hold a town hall and virtual conversation on the State of the Society. This year the ACHS hired a new executive director, Tom Chapman, and he wants to lead a community discussion on the organization’s vision, mission and values. Some of the questions: (zoom link) (facebook live link) What does the future hold for the ACHS?What role does history play in shaping our community, and vice versa?What are the silver linings to the dark clouds of a world-wide pandemic and a national reckoning with racial inequality?Tomorrow in meetings, the Albemarle County Service Authority meets at 9 a.m. The ACSA is the organization that provides water and sewer to residents of Albemarle County and is governed by a six-person citizen advisory board. There is no equivalent in the City of Charlottesville. (meeting info) This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In this special edition of AbodeLive!, Dave chats with Greg Fischer, CTO of West + Main Homes. West + Main Homes is based out of Denver, Colorado, and has expanded to four offices in short time in Colorado. Greg has a wealth of experience that includes both the vendor side and brokerage side; he has developed technology products for brokers, owned a brokerage, and is currently helping brokers and the West + Main brokerage create a unique experience for brokers and their clients alike. For more content, subscribe to the podcast or visit www.windermereabode.com Greg also writes for his blog, you can check it out and subscribe here. West + Main Homes (Denver, Colorado) Follow Greg on the socials: Twitter --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/windermereabode/message

Keith Smith of The YES Team Realtors joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show headlines (Monday, October 19) 1. 2019 Charlottesville City employee salaries. Show excel file with Charlottesville City employee salaries. 2. Greenhouses have been installed at a Pittsburgh restaurant so diners can eat inside during the winter months. https://www.wtae.com/article/north-park-lounge-installs-greenhouses-for-outdoor-dining/34389022?fbclid=IwAR1F5jqdxvSPQev1dfYsBR_n_m2WUqyz0xb7PijbCA0er_fgNRJD7Dsv8NU# 3. Setting up tables outside in Downtown Staunton is saving the restaurants. https://www.nbc29.com/2020/10/18/staunton-restaurants-need-keep-customers-warm-dine-out-downtown-initiative-extends-into-winter-months/ 4. Show Guajiros instagram picture. Their Woodbrook location is now closed. They hope to open their West Main location in early November. 5. A local walking food tour company has acquired a brewery-focused competitor and its first set of wheels. River City Food Tours announced last week its acquisition of Richmond Brewery Tours. https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/10/19/new-pairing-river-city-food-tours-buys-richmond-brewery-tours/ 6. Virginia Tech is committed to in-person classes this coming Spring semester. https://roanoke.com/townnews/university/virginia-tech-vows-effort-toward-in-person-classes-with-spring-semester-plans/article_742a47f6-120b-11eb-9dd6-5315b4fedc2e.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1 7. A church coalition is vehemently against a proposed casino for Bristol, Virginia https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/coalition-of-churches-pays-for-billboards-against-proposed-bristol-casino/article_da091503-dce4-5cad-b483-87a21710fe97.html#tracking-source=home-the-latest 8. The nation's homebuilders are seeing no fall chill in demand from buyers, and that has the industry more confident than ever. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/19/homebuilder-sentiment-sets-another-record-high-in-october.html 9. Wake Forest 40; UVA 23. Virginia travels to #11 Miami on Saturday (8 pm, ACC Network). https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401234616 10. VA Tech 40; Boston College 14. #19 Virginia Tech travels to Wake Forest (330 pm, ESPN3) https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401234609 11. ACC Standings Update: 6 teams ranked in Top 25 from the ACC https://www.espn.com/college-football/standings/_/group/1 The I Love CVille Show airs live before a worldwide audience Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. The I Love CVille Show is powered by four generation strong Intrastate Inc., trusted limo company Camryn Limousine, the talented Dr. Scott Wagner of Scott Wagner Chiropractic and Sports Medicine, custom home builder John Kerber of Dominion Custom Homes and entrepreneur Patricia Boden Zeller's Animal Connection – All Natural Store for Healthy Pets.

The crew from W&R Studios jumped on to share an update about the new interactive digital presentation that is included as part of the Cloud CMA package. Don't miss your chance to talk directly to real estate tech product designers who make the tools you use every day! Greg Fischer | Technology @ West + Main Homes Damien Huze | Chief Design Officer @ W+R Studios Sky Winston | Design Engineer @ W+R Studios westandmain.co cloudagentsuite.com Link to full video here: vimeo.com/421203586

Host Dan Barker interviews evangelist, Benjamin Lee from Lewisville, TX. Benjamin shares how he and the congregation at West Main evangelize in the local area.

Robin Wilt is a Brighton Town Board Member and a Democratic candidate for US Congress. WXIR's Darien Lamen speaks with her about her recent article on 540 West Main's blog, her reactions to the Monroe County Democratic Committee's Designating Convention, and her decision not to participate in that process. The article is available at: https://540westmain.org/2020/02/01/what-to-black-women-is-the-100th-anniversary-of-womens-suffrage-by-robin-reynolds-wilt-29-days-of-little-known-facts-about-black-american-history-i/ Original air date: 2/7/20

Greg Fischer, Chief Technology Office at West + Main in Colorado, joined us and we had a great discussion ranging from tech to relationships, the role of the realtor, and community, and he gave one our favorite “what detail do you sweat” answers we’ve had so far.- The role of technology in real estate in 2020- Community and relationship marketing and tech- Overrated and underrated tech- What tech we’d like to see in real estate- Collecting and sharing data to benefit Realtors, clients, and the consumers- That time when we had access to lockbox data- Grubhub’s use of data- Indie brokerages and big box brokerages- Building and facilitating culture- Showing up- Being selective in who you hire, and having standards- Indie brokerages in the next five years; the need for access to capital- Touched on Curbio- How do you come up with new ideas?- What detail do you sweat?

I talk to Yak about weed, life, beef and everything in between. Search for Yak Let It Bang on all platforms to find his music. Find Waxxed By Jackie on Facebook, follow her on Instagram @waxxed_byjackie or simply visit her at Beauty Mark Salon 110 West Main st. Moore, Oklahoma. You can listen Ketsuban VS The World on: Youtube, Facebook, Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, and of course at www.Ketsuban.org. Stitcher is THE Podcast app. Listen to your favorite podcasts ad-free 24/7 and even download them to listen offline.Get one month of Stitcher Premium FREE by using promo code KETSUBAN during checkout at https://www.stitcher.com/premium Support KVTW and even become a producer of the show. Learn more at https://www.patreon.com/KetsubanVSTheWorld  

Steve Dykstra, office manager for at West Main, stops by to talk about the demolition and construction of your brand new building. Built in 1971, the building was in serious need of a refresh. The new office will open 49 years later than the first - in 2020! Listen today on Money, I'm Home!

Stacie Staub was destined to be an entrepreneur. Her love for creating things has been a driving factor for her entire life. Tune in to learn why she decided to take the leap and start her own Denver-based brokerage and how she's bringing her whole self to the business. We asked Stacie how we can be intentional about supporting her business. Our call for action is to help raise money and awareness for one of her agents, Bethany, who was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of stage 4 breast cancer. Together, we can be intentional about showering her with love and support. Here's the link to help now. Bethany's Fight Club. Intentionaliteas is putting our money where our mouth is. We will donate 10% profit from all annual client nurture campaigns purchased in the month of August to this cause that is weighing heavy on Stacie's heart.

Episode 53 – Being Defeated by CrossFit w/Steve Wrobel Shout out to Steve and West Main Kitchen & Bar for letting us infiltrate their restaurant with all of our equipment and curse words. If you haven’t been to West Main you MUST get there. They have amazing food and delicious drinks and I’m not just saying that because we interviewed the owner. Also shout out to the CF845 community for supported our members who own local businesses. We start off with some crafted cocktails at West Main What it’s like owning a restaurant The Regimen update Overtraining. Bullshit or nah? Setbacks What does it all mean to you? Do the weights matter? You can’t rest. You must move when injured. Managing injury -- mentally Announcement for West Main Follow Steve and his restaurant @loswrobes @westmainkitchenbar www.crossfit845.com

The "Race and Place in Charlottesville" tour leaves UVA Grounds to head toward the Downtown Mall. On the way there, stop at the base of the George R. Clark Monument, now standing at the intersection of West Main and Jefferson Park Ave. Discover the history of this statue, its unveiling, and the implications it continues to have for Charlottesville's African-American community. Support the show (http://studycenter.net/support-study-center)

Whatever your taste in the arts, visual or musical, theatrical or literary, mainstream or alternative, Spartanburg has something for you. Today on the podcast, we're exploring a relatively new piece of the local arts puzzle, the . Based at the West Main Artists Co-op, the group is preparing to launch its second season with The Boys in the Band ​on Friday, October 26 at 8 p.m.   Today on the podcast, we're talking with Sandy Staggs, Proud Mary's Artistic Director, about the upcoming season and about the organization's place in Spartanburg's arts scene. Listen below for more.

Episode 105 - Stacie Staub at Inman NYC It's time for Inman—it's Inman time! The moment we saw Stacie Staub, we knew she would be our new best friend. And now she is! She even gave us presents when she dropped by the Boom table at Inman. Stacie also gave lots of KILLER nuggets on branding, recruiting, team culture and leadership. Don't miss the fun!   SHOW NOTES Todd wants to be tasered [0:00] Story of West + Main's beginnings [4:47] Turning points in life [6:18] Strategic approach to starting the brokerage [7:24] Making your branding beautiful [8:00] Using marketing and branding as recruiting [8:15] Megan loves the idea of Stacie's bingo card for new agents [11:20]  Farming using Facebook and Instagram [13:00] Story of Genuine Hustle [16:00] Working from a place of abundance [18:40]   SHOW LINKS Inman Connect NYC: https://www.inman.com/event/inman-connect-new-york-2018/ Marriott Marquis Hotel Times Square: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/nycmq-new-york-marriott-marquis/ Stacie Staub: https://www.westandmainhomes.com/agents/stacie-staub/ West and Main Homes: https://www.westandmainhomes.com/ “Having a Heat Wave”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57qy7MCzLXA Genuine Hustle: https://www.facebook.com/therealgenuinehustle/ My Buddy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j2xEwEHbrE Seth Price: http://boomrealestatepodcast.com/episode-101-seth-price-at-inman-nyc/ Valerie Garcia: http://boomrealestatepodcast.com/2017-12-13-boom-podcast-valerie-garcia/ Alyssa Hellman: http://boomrealestatepodcast.com/episode-102-alyssa-hellman-at-inman-nyc/   BOOM LINKS Email: info@boomrealestatepodcast.com Web: www.boomrealestatepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boomrealestatepodcast 30-Day Jumpstart: www.Boom30.com  

"You have to learn from your mistakes. But don't dwell on your mistakes." Reimagining Work. With Labneh. And Wine. Welcome to Episode 83 of Edacious and a conversation with a restaurateur who has a chance many folks don't get. A second chance to open his restaurant in a new space. What does this mean for his staff? His customers? His bottom line? Meet Justin Ross of Parallel 38, a gentleman and scholar who had the courage to get vulnerable and real about the effects a closing, then a reopening has on the hearts, minds, and spirits of everyone involved. Recorded on August 1st when only a few regulatory papers lay between him and a grand opening. Anyone who's ever opened a restaurant can certainly commiserate with this sense of anticipation. I spoke with Justin early on in Edacious history so it was intriguing to converse at this stage of the restaurant's development. Parallel didn't close due to lack of business, in fact, the last two weeks of service there wasn't an empty seat in the place. Because now, as then, Justin's primary focus is on the customer, making sure each one is treated not as a commodity but as a guest. Giving them the best dining experience possible. On guests: "We're there for them. Whether you're front of house or back of house. If they don't come to the building, there's no reason to be there. We need to make sure we take care of them even before they walk through the door. Anticipating their needs." "There are going to be people you cannot please. And maybe noone pleases those people. But I think part of what we are here to do is to find out how...Every single one of those customers should be a learning experience." The old spot in Stonefield presented challenges. The new spot, in the old L'Etoile space on West Main, presents new ones. We talk about the delicate navigation involved in overcoming obstacles with regard to the customer base, parking, kitchen size, square footage. As in real estate, location is key. The new space is much smaller. How do you go from airy to cozy? What do you have to change? We talk about it. "We never want to force our concept into a space. We want to find a space that fits whatever concept we have in mind. We saw that space and we fell in love with it. We thought it was the perfect spot for Parallel...The building has a lot of charm to it...It's an old building. It's really amazing to go into a space that has been a restaurant for 35, 40 years...and put our mark on it. I think people are going to be wowed by all the differences inside." I've seen the new space and it's terrific. The outside patio has been doubled and somehow, the interior seems bigger! There's a gorgeous wall-sized wine rack at the top of the stairs, clever lighting, judicious use of barrels, and the bar downstairs promotes lingering. I haven't even mentioned the gorgeous walls, stripped to bare brick, covered in graffiti-style murals. Pair that with all of your favorites some old, some new, those amazing cocktails and that great wine selection, and the new Parallel 38 looks to be a great addition to the West Main Street restaurant corridor. One thing that hasn't changed? The concept. Food and drink served mezze style, tapas, small plates, originating from countries that lie along the 38th parallel. Sourcing? Most of it locally, like pork from Autumn Olive Farms, a past podcast guest. What about the menu? Johnny Garver heads up the kitchen once again and yes, all of your old favorites are here, including some new ones. During Friends and Family Night, we inhaled ALL of the spreads (I love you, labneh!) and enjoyed grilled octopus, fried sardines (YUM!), and lamb skewers sous-vided to perfection. The flatbread is now made to order and while some menu items have disappeared I spied the same blistered shishitos, charcuterie, salads, and that awesome pork belly Parallel. The sauce on it is new and I like it even better! On the menu: "You'll probably see less pizzas. You'll probably see some pastas but not to the extent we had to there...We're going to balance our menu based on who's coming to the restaurant but we just think we have the opportunity to be a little more adventurous in our menu now...Our menu will probably we a bit more rustic, a bit more approachable, but with some really fun things." What role did the Stonefield folks play in his grand reopening? What lessons did Justin learn? What perfect storm had to happen for him to reopen so quickly? Why does it say, "No finished products!" in his hiring ads? Why does it say "Busboy" on his business card? Will Parallel have the same great barrel-aged cocktails and wine? How will all of the Main Street development affect Parallel? What is Justin's favorite unsung hero wine region? Can we please bring back the Main Street Festival? And what piece of advice does he give new business owners? What must you be willing to do and not do? "Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. Surround yourself with people smarter than you." If it's one thing I took away from this conversation it's how important it is to thank your host, your server, your bartender if you've had a tremendous eating experience. Because you never know. The next time you go to make a reservation your favorite spot might be closed. You'll be left reminiscing about all the good times you had. This is a tough business and restaurants "fail" (note the quotes) because of a myriad of reasons. I absolutely loved Parallel 38 in its old incarnation. When I learned of its closing I wrote a heartfelt thank you post and paid my respects, thinking his place had met the fate of so many other beloved establishments in Charlottesville. Whether its the location, the challenges, or the persnickety nature of the customer base, many restaurants just don't make it. When I discovered it would reopen? After finishing my Happy Dance I contacted Justin. Welcome to a very special episode and one I know I will remember and return to time and again. Get your tissues. You'll need them. SHOW NOTES – Links to resources talked about during the podcast: Thank You Parallel 38 - Remember to appreciate your favorite restaurants while they're still open. Justin was on the podcast in its infancy! This is Charlottesville - Sarah Cramer Shields has created something wonderful here! Lovefest! Between Parallel 38 and L'Etoile on Facebook Just Showing Up - Episode 25. Dirtwoman was on NPR - Dirt's dirt and dirt don't hurt. RIP Donnie Corker. Virginia Distillery Company - On October 21st, VDC will release it's Cider Cask Finished Highland Malt Whisky! Caromont Farm Dinner - This October! Ian Boden from The Shack is the chef this go round. I'll be recording. It will sell out. Get your tickets now. Help Scotty Recover - My best friend has Stage 3B colon cancer. Bills are piling up. He can't work. Can you help? Share! Donate! No amount is too small. Thank you and BIG LOVE to everyone who donated and shared the Big Love Bake Sale and Big Love Birthday! Next up? Tee shirts! Look for them soon. Subscribe to This Podcast. Stay Edacious! - Come on, after this episode? You know you want to. Subscribers get new episodes instantly, while non-subscribers have to wait a few hours or days depending on the iTunes gods. Never miss a chance to be edacious! Subscribe to Edacious News - Never miss a food event in our area! Learn about regional and national food stories so you can stay edacious! Leave a review about Edacious! - Click the link, then "View in iTunes" then "Ratings and Reviews". Whether you think it's great, or not so great, I want to hear from you. I might just read your review on the air! Whoa! #famousforahotminute This episode is sponsored by Teej.fm and listeners like you who donated their support at Patreon, who wants every creator in the world to achieve a sustainable income. Thank you.

Sustainable Work. How does a newly transplanted chef ingratiate himself in what can be a challenging and certainly competitive market? How do you promote a fairly new restaurant when folks are still missing the one that was there before? Meet Chef Jeff Deloff of Threepenny Café who finds himself in this position. Threepenny has been open two years. So why don't more people know about it? What are the special challenges Charlottesville restaurants encounter when they open and how do they stay open? Further, how do you compete with the behemoth The Downtown Mall has become? West Main has its own special charms, but the fact remains when people visit they go to The Mall. Never fear, Jeff loves a challenge and has the stamina, passion, and dedication to overcome these obstacles quickly becoming a resounding refrain in a region like Charlottesville with its ever-growing development and parking difficulties. Threepenny has free parking but what about the rest? One solution is to participate in community events which Threepenny does on a regular basis. The other is to have a strong mission, in this case local, fresh, organic, and sustainable food sourcing. Where other restaurants talk the talk but secretly pass items from big corporations through the back door, Jeff uses local producers and purveyors. But he's not a hard-line party activist either. There are some items you just can't get. When your mission is to serve the very best, simplest ingredients possible, you have to strike a balance. For your ideals and the restaurant's bottom line. That's the reality. We discuss this balance at length. And dig down the rabbit hole of what exactly makes a food sustainable. Threepenny was just awarded the highest honor from Foodwaze, an app rating restaurants based on their level of responsible product sourcing. Foodwaze modeled itself after Chef Nora Pouillon's restaurant, who I interviewed for this very podcast. How hard is that level of environmental consciousness to sustain while still making a profit? We talk about the realities particularly in the area of distribution. How do misconceptions about seasonal produce fit into it all? We discuss that as well. Threepenny sources its seafood using Seafood Watch and the Marine Stewardship Council, a rarity in the restaurant world where the bottom line is king. Did you know seafood is seasonal? Available in limited quantities? Animals are a renewable resource. You raise cattle and pigs. But you can't do that on a similar scale with seafood. Once they're gone, they're gone. Our seas are overfished and we're doing very little about it. Why are "trash fish" like mackerel, sardines, and wahoo underutilized? Pro tip: if you see mackerel on the menu, order it. It's a fragile fish that doesn't last. So if they've got it, it must be fresh. ThreePenny has it. In season of course. Jeff's food history is long. He grew up in Hannibal, New York where his uncle worked at Aunt Sarah's Pancake House. Watching him operate the flattop, often making 10 omelets at once, ignited a passion for cooking. He began at 16 as a dishwasher, arriving for his interview in a tie. The boss hired him on the spot and became a mentor. After earning a degree from the Culinary Institute of America you'd think he'd trot off to become a celebrity in New York. But Jeff's goals are more meaningful: creating the best food using the freshest ingredients, not overworking them so they sing beautiful solos all by themselves. After tasting his lemon goat cheese gnocchi at this year's Iron Chef competition? He does that and much more. "Salt enhances flavors, pepper changes it." Jeff and owner Merope Pavlides work well together, seeing eye to eye on their vision for the restaurant. She gives him freedom in the kitchen to design menus and together they make sure the bottom line is met. Another important factor and potential obstacle to a restaurant's success, one this pair has overcome. What is the hierarchy in the restaurant world? What can we do about the absurd amount of food waste occurring in restaurants all over the country? Does writing a blog for the restaurant provide as much satisfaction as cooking? How do his partnerships with local producers provide much more than ingredients? And how exactly did he prepare that delicious gnocchi in only 30 minutes? What was his game plan? We cover it all. My favorite episodes are those where I feel the earnestness and dedication coming off the guest in waves. Ones where I leave knowing more than when I sat down. This was one of those. It was also the last time I recorded at In a Flash Laser Engraving. Thank you Sara Gould for your continuous support. Need a gorgeous office space? Contact her before someone else grabs it! Then enjoy this thoughtful episode. Cheers. SHOW NOTES – Links to resources talked about during the podcast: The Unwanted Job - Chef Chris Hill talks about the importance of the dishwasher. The Mind of a Chef - Chef Gabrielle Hamilton discusses food waste in restaurants. Global Fishing Watch - An environmental group working tirelessly to eradicate overfishing in our oceans. Nothing in the House - Blogger Emily Hilliard profiles "Desperation Pies" and provides me with a winning pie recipe. Thanks Emily! This episode is sponsored by In a Flash Laser Engraving.