Tuesday, February 22
Developer delays Northtown plan
Today developer Wendell Wood asked the County’s planning commission for a deferral on the Northtown Center—a 16-acre project he’s planning on U.S. 29 near Carrsbrook Drive. Wood is perhaps best known as the developer who’s bringing Target to town further north on Route 29. He says he needs about four weeks to give the County’s architectural review board more detailed plans. Many residents in the nearby Carrsbrook and Woodbrook subdivisions oppose the center, a five-year project of Wood. “People forget that the land is zoned ‘highway commercial,’” he says. “We will meet or surpass the criteria in the zoning ordinance.”
Wednesday, February 23
17 “gang” members charged
Today, a federal grand jury indicted 17 people on 19 counts involving racketeering, narcotics trafficking, narcotics conspiracy and multiple violent crimes. The defendants—all allegedly members of a violent Charlottesville street gang called alternately PJC, Project Crud, or Westside Crew—now have to answer for the 100-plus kilograms of cocaine and 250-plus pounds of marijuana the feds say the gang has distributed since 1995. The drugs’ street value exceeds $2.5 million. The Westside Crew is further said to be responsible for 13 local shooting incidents, including two killings. Louis Antonio Bryant, a.k.a. “Tinio,” a.k.a. “Black,” a.k.a. “B Stacks,” is alleged to have been the leader of the gang. As such, he faces additional charges.
Thursday, February 24
City schools budget session put off
Inclement weather postponed tonight’s City School Board work session toward finalizing Superintendent Scottie Griffin’s $58 million 2005-06 budget. The public was to have a one-hour comment period at the start of the four-hour session, now scheduled for Tuesday, March 1. In the meantime, the Board moves ahead with its “360 Assessment,” a personnel tool designed to elicit feedback on managers. The confidential assessment is being ordered, Board Vice-Chair Julie Gronlund says, “to a certain degree” in response to internal criticisms of Griffin’s controversial management style. A consultant will be expected to “assess the division’s managerial effectiveness,” Gronlund said, by talking to “our leadership team—the Superintendent’s office, the School Board, principals, and directors and associate superintendents. The hope is they can identify what’s working now and areas that need improvement.”
Friday, February 25
Snow slows things down
The crummy weather that hit town early yesterday left a wintry mix hovering above the region into the wee hours of today. The two-day accumulation totaled just over 4". The requisite freak-out went into effect, with local schools canceling or delaying sessions, and about three-dozen accidents were reported in the county.
Saturday, February 26
Assembly goes home
With the General Assembly session ending today, longtime Charlottesville Delegate Mitch Van Yahres reflected on the 45 days in his weekly e-newsletter to constituents: “I’m struck by the brilliance of the framers of the Constitution when they created a bicameral legislature. Most of the silly, constitutionally suspect, dangerous, or mean spirited legislation that passed the House was killed by the Senate,” he wrote. “So, what did we do this year? We tried to restore civility by instituting a statewide dress code (the ‘droopy drawers’ bill). We were so worried that Christians are an oppressed majority that we tried to second guess Thomas Jefferson and change the Statute of Religious Freedom. We chose a state bat. In a display of middle school level maturity, members of the Senate banned House members from the Senate floor and to show that we wouldn’t just sit back and take it, we turned around and banned them from our chamber. “
Ex-deputy denies charge
Charlottesville Police yesterday released a statement from Alexandria cops that Steven Wayne Shifflett, a former City deputy, was charged in December in the NoVa town with impersonating a police officer. Shifflett, who was fired in 1996 for repeatedly falling asleep on the job, today tells Olympia Meola of The Daily Progress, “I’m totally innocent…I have never been to Alexandria in my life.”
Sunday, February 27
Zelikow to assist Condi
Philip Zelikow is busting out the moving cartons after the announcement Friday that he will leave his post as executive director of UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, to become a chief advisor to newbie Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a longtime colleague. Six years ago, the two jointly authored a tome on how Europe changed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Zelikow was also the executive director of the 9/11 Commission.
Monday, February 28
Dance, I say!
XM radio listeners could shake off their Monday blues this afternoon with an hour of breakbeats from Charlottesville’s DJ Stroud. The techno-meister was to be featured on the Fuel Radio show, hosted by prominent Chicago DJ Andre Solaris. Stroud’s set on satellite channel XM80 was scheduled to include cuts from his upcoming “progressive house” record, Soululi. “It’s got kind of a tribal thing going on,” he says.
In/Justice next for Virginia Film Festival
“Book ’im,” takes on a new meaning today as Virginia Film Festival Director Richard Herskowitz prepares to announce the theme for the 2005 festival: In/Justice. “We plan to showcase films that expose the tension between legal justice and human injustice,” Herskowitz said in a news release. The Festival, set for October 27-30, promises to screen a dozen premieres and classics such as Inherit the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Written by Cathy Harding from news sources and staff reports.
Holmes on the range
Neighbors fret that low-income housing hits property values
In the 26 years he’s lived on Holmes Avenue, Thomas Norford tried several times to buy the vacant lots across the street from his house. He wanted to build a pair of homes for his two children, he says, but the City always refused to sell.
“We were told the lots were unbuildable, we were told there was going to be a road there,” says Norford. “We assumed they were dead lots.”
Then Norford learned the City planned to donate the Woodhayven lots, as the neighborhood east of Park Street is known. Currently the lots serve as a parking space for two boats and a giant four-wheel-drive truck, but the City wants to donate them to affordable-housing advocates and builders Habitat for Humanity.
“I was concerned because people from the neighborhood weren’t given the opportunity to buy these lots,” says Norford. He recently circulated a petition around the neighborhood and collected 69 signatures protesting the City’s decision to give the land away rather than sell it to the highest bidder.
According to the City, the two lots are assessed at $32,000 apiece; City Planning Manager Ron Higgins, however, says the City could probably get much more. “Vacant lots in the City have been selling for as much as $60,000,” says Higgins. Habitat for Humanity director Overton McGehee says he’s willing to pay $15,000 apiece for the lots. Norford and his wife, Debra, are listed as owners for two Holmes properties; their residence is assessed at $184,200 and their other property is listed on the City Assessor’s webpage at $170,500.
Holmes neighbors have other concerns about Habitat moving in. At a January 12 meeting with Habitat for Humanity and the City, other Holmes residents worried that a Habitat house would be too small. “The primary concern in the neighborhood is property values,” says McGehee. “We tried to respond to that with our house design.”
On Tuesday, February 22, McGehee presented new designs to City Council as the body considered the land donation. Norford acknowledges Habitat’s two-storey brick house will fit in with the other residences on Holmes Avenue, but he still spoke against the donation, reiterating his point that the lots belong on the market.
Another Holmes resident, Sharon Bishop, also opposed Habitat for Humanity in her neighborhood. She wondered how, in a part of town where at least one house is on the market for $257,900, the “working poor” could afford to pay the ever-increasing property taxes. (Bishop is listed as owner of a duplex on Holmes, assessed in total at $245,600.) Bishop was also worried because the lots in question slope down to a creek, so the houses will have no backyard. “Socialization will be in the front yard, which is not consistent with the character of the neighborhood,” Bishop said.
McGehee says Habitat for Humanity offers loans with low monthly payments, and the group screens candidates to make sure they can afford the taxes and fees that come with owning a home. McGehee further says that once built, each Habitat house will be assessed at $170,000. Moreover, if occupants don’t keep the property clean, McGehee says Habitat can foreclose on the home.
Despite the opposition, 51-year-old Larry Scott is still determined to move his family to Holmes Avenue. At Christmas, Scott says, he took his 6-year-old daughter Marybeth driving down Holmes to look at the lights. Now, Scott says he might one day be able to walk outside his house and see the lights from the sidewalk thanks to the Habitat program. “This is something I can do for my wife and daughter,” says Scott. “They can be in a neighborhood where they can walk outside and be safe.”
Scott says he got “mixed feelings” from the meeting with Holmes residents. Some welcomed him, others asked him to not “take it personally” as they fretted for their property values. “Some people think Habitat for Humanity is a great thing, as long as the houses are somewhere else,” says Scott, who works as an assistant manager at the Salvation Army. “But I understand—they worked hard for what they have, and they want the area to be clean. It’s natural.
“Sometimes you think of poor people as people who don’t care, but my family is not like that,” says Scott. “When my landlord shows people the houses he owns, he shows them our house as the role model.”
On Tuesday, Council moved and seconded a motion to convey three City-owned lots (two on Holmes and one on 5th and Berring streets) to the Piedmont Housing Alliance, which would donate the land to Habitat. Some Councilors said they would investigate neighborhood concerns about the steep slopes on the Holmes lot and the danger of low-income homeowners being overwhelmed by rising property taxes. They will take a vote on the land gift at the next meeting on March 7.
Scott says that whatever happens, he’ll try to be an example for his daughter. “Things may be tough, but you keep on going,” he says. “If they close one door, God opens another door.”—John Borgmeyer
To your health
Free Clinic gets first paid nurse
With a Master’s in public health and experience with Indian health care and rural medicine in Nelson County, nurse practitioner Barrie Gleason Carveth is primed to start at the Charlottesville Free Clinic on March 7. After eight years in private practice, Carveth is returning to community care. The Charlottesville native will be the Free Clinic’s first paid medical staff member, thanks to a grant from the Virginia Health Care Foundation, and she will help the clinic’s 450 medical and lay volunteers expand education programs and jumpstart daytime hours. [C-VILLE originally reported on the clinic in the January 13, 2004 story “Operation: Health care.”]
By adding Carveth, clinic director Erika Viccellio says, the facility will be able to see 500 additional patients and take 2,000 additional appointments. C-VILLE talked to Carveth on the cusp of her new role. An edited transcript of the interview follows.—Jocelyn Guest
C-VILLE: What role will you play at the clinic?
Carveth: Helping people take more control over their health. When you don’t have a lot of income it’s hard to do things [like afford healthy food and exercise]. In community health care, it’s a challenge to meet people where they are… I’m also particularly interested in preventive care. There are people without health insurance who don’t go to the doctor when they’re feeling good and it’s a challenge to get people into that kind of mindset. That’s the sort of thing you can do for people at the free clinic. But it’ll take a lot of education to get people there.
How will the clinic environment affect the care you provide?
From working in a private practice, at a satellite clinic for Martha Jefferson, where all the resources are available, it will be different. There you write a prescription and they go off to get their medicine, you need a consult and you set that up—it’s all very smooth. That’ll definitely be different here in terms of getting people hooked into the resources they need for follow-up and long-term medicine. It always takes some creativity to work with what you’ve got.
What kind of creative techniques do you plan to use?
It’s always a struggle to find what works in a particular population… I don’t have any magic bullets… Something done in a group setting is often more effective because you get people together with similar situations and problems. But getting people to come out to this kind of group thing isn’t always easy.
Are regular patient visits one of your goals?
Seeing the same provider and building up an attachment has benefits for your health. It’s really important to establish a relationship like that. With just the evening hours and with all volunteers, it’s hard for the patients to see the same doctors all the time… [Daytime hours] are going to provide that continuity and accessibility.
Is the free clinic a long-term job for you?
Absolutely… Between local hospitals and private donations, they’re committed to making this a permanent position. I plan on being here for the duration! It’s a great service in the community and I’m excited to see it reach out to more people. It’s so important for people to be getting health care services, so whatever you can do to make it happen I’m happy to be a part of.
