Second Panel Explores Charlottesville Government

(l to r) Bill Pantele served 4 terms on Richmond's City Council from 2001 to 2008; Joan MacCallum served on the Lynchburg City Council from 1978 until 1994; George Gilliam has served on the City Council from 1972 to 1976 and practiced law in Charlottesville; and Rich Schragger is the Perre Bowen Professor of Law at UVa.
/ Picture: League of Women Voters of the Charlottesville Area

What form of government might Charlottesville choose, if citizens could start from scratch?  WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini reports on the second of two public sessions, held Sunday (Feb. 25) and sponsored by the League of Women Voters and Charlottesville Tomorrow.

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One of the themes of yesterday’s discussion, much like two weeks ago, was how local law is often constrained by State law. Bill Pantele, who has served four terms on Richmond's City Council, gives an example of that.

BILL PANTELE: Our authority to actually do things is constrained financially, by law, independent cities and counties - you can be defeated on things. I never understood why Richmond couldn't have regional mass transit; but not all of the surrounding counties are for it, and there's not a doggone thing I can do about it, as an elected official.

As for Charlottesville, issues were brought up regarding the job of the City Councilors. Indeed, their training is very succinct, which means they need to rely on the City Manager’s staff to get up to speed on the many issues they have to deal with, but when the staff is already busy, that makes it difficult.

Also, Councilors are paid $14,000 a year for what is, on paper, a part-time job, when in effect it takes much more time than that. As of next July, Charlottesville City Council members will be paid $18,000 a year, the maximum amount under State law.

This story appeared on WMRA News.

De-Icing Chemicals, the Environment and Your Water

The white lines you may see on the road during winter is what is called brining, which is a mix of salt and water applied
prior to a storm to prevent the snow from bonding with the road. / Creative Commons / Wikipedia

A recent study focused on a water pollutant that we all know very well: salt. In particular, de-icing salts used during the winter. Over the years, the pH level of many streams across Virginia – and the nation – have become more and more basic, endangering aquatic life. WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini reports.

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This is the first study to assess long-term changes in freshwater salinity and pH at the continental scale. And its results show a significant increase in the amount of salt in 232 streams across the country, leading to a basic pH of the water – a phenomenon called alkalinization, which is caused by different factors.

MICHAEL PACE: Road salts, agricultural runoff, municipal land use change, and the presence of more and more paved surfaces and things like that that contribute to runoff. Because, instead of the water infiltrating into the soil, it tends to shoot down on concrete and pathways and get into a ditch or a drain and then out into the stream, so it increases the rate of runoff.

That’s Michael Pace, an aquatic ecologist and a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UVa. He is one of the co-authors of this national study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

PACE: Freshwater life, the organisms that live in streams and rivers, can't withstand really alkaline conditions. If it's really alkaline, some of the chemicals in the water become toxic and organisms just can't survive under those conditions.

And what consequences would that have for us?

PACE: For human health, there are two issues there: one is that, if your fresh water is more salty, it may be problematic for people that have certain dietary restrictions, people that have diseases where they have to regulate their chemistry very carefully, then you don't want to drink water that's really rich in chemical content. And a second context is that if you pull salty alkaline water into your pipes, that can be hard on the plumbing and create a variety of problems either for the individual homeowner who might have a well, or for the water management agency that might be managing large infrastructure pipes.

Flint, Michigan is a notorious example of a city changing its water source, and then discovering that without treatment, the extra alkalinity degraded the pipes and increased the levels of lead in the water. While this is an extreme case, it shows the kind of cascade of issues water management agencies can face with alkaline water. And not just them: it takes a common effort to address this issue. Here’s Will Isenberg, who works on water quality assessment at the Department of Environmental Quality in Richmond.

WILL ISENBERG: We've been trying to engage a number of different stakeholders that we don't normally work with - we're working with public safety officials, we have the State Police involved, we're working with public water supply purveyors because once this stuff makes it downstream, to where they pull water into then deliver drinking water to the public, they have to deal with the issues that come downstream to them as well. We're really trying to balance all the competing - and in many places, complementary - needs of the stakeholders so that we can try and develop the best strategy for Northern Virginia to reduce these salt loads and of course maintain public safety.

To this end, some practices have changed already. The Virginia Department of Transportation is constantly trying to improve their de-icing strategies: staff training, weather monitoring and now pre-treatment are all part of the equation. They are also testing blue salt – salt died in blue which makes it is easier to spot which zones have been treated and to avoid over-salting. Another thing is a liquid form of deicing salt, called brining.

BRANCO VLACICH: Salt only works when it's in basically liquid form, that's when it's most effective, that's why the brining is so effective.

That’s Branco Vlacich, the State maintenance division administrator at VDOT.

VLACICH: Prior to 2008, we didn't do a lot of brining. But after that, we have found that before every event - plus, brining is only 23% salt so we really get a big bang for the buck.  The other thing that we're doing, and this has been significant too: we're installing speed controls on our spreaders. Right now, if you don't have speed controls on your spreaders, it means that you're going to put the same amount of salt on the road whether you're traveling at 5 mph or 50. What this does, basically, if you're at a stop light, it stops: the driver doesn't have to do anything. 5 mph, it puts a little salt, if you're going 50, it's going to put a little more. This makes sure that we're putting the appropriate amount whether we're traveling 5 mph or 35mph, so that we're not over-salting.

VDOT is not the only player though: a lot of deicing salt runoff comes from big shopping centers and airports, for instance, which are more concerned about liability issues from customers slipping on the ice or other related hazards, and so they will tend to over-apply salt. The main issue remains that of communication and awareness to all parties involved, public and private.

ISENBERG: So, beyond just identifying what best practices can allow us to more efficiently, effectively apply salts, there's also a huge education outreach component we're going to need to consider, so we can get the word out on better practices for homeowners to use as well as acknowledgement of what VDOT recommends, and things like that.

This story appeared on WMRA News.

Memories Matter

Lillie Williams showcases her family treasures: the portraits of her grand-uncles and her grandparents,
and a large hollow dish and quilt from her grandmother. / Picture: Marguerite Gallorini

In an effort to preserve local African-American history, Monticello and the Jefferson School’s African American Heritage Center, and more than a dozen other partners, organized the second annual community history fair in Charlottesville called “Memories Matter.”  WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini has the story.

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The auditorium of the African-American Heritage Center was full of life: present, and past, including an iron toy boat on wheels.

RUBY BOSTON: This was a toy that has been handed down from my family. They say that this is well over a hundred years old. I can remember having a string there and it used to scrape up the hardwood floors at the house, so Mom put it away for years, and I finally found it again. [laughs]

This is Ruby Boston, who’s more than happy to talk about her family’s history.

BOSTON: This was a crimping iron; you’d get it nice and hot and it would put waves in your hair. Oh, what a gruesome task it was! Because the hair had to be straightened back then: it was not acceptable for us to have our hair as it is now. So on Saturday nights, in the kitchen, traditionally, we would have our hair done. And with hot utensils, we would have burned ears and neck - oh, I'm so glad we're here now! [laughs]

‘Memories Matter’ is a local history fair organized by Monticello. Niya Bates, public historian of slavery and African-American life, is the driving force behind this event.

NIYA BATES: I put together this event in partnership with my colleagues at Monticello, in an effort to showcase local African-American History, but also to show the ways that we preserve our own history. But it's important that we come see the community here and that they get to interact with us in a way that isn't all about Monticello giving information: in this instance it is about how we work with other people in the community to accomplish the same goal.

It is a way of letting people know about current projects at Monticello; but it’s also about giving expert advice to the community, says editor Jeff Looney.

JEFF LOONEY: We're here representing the Papers of Thomas Jefferson Retirement Series, which is hosted by Monticello, and our job is to produce the definitive edition of Jefferson's letters and papers from his retirement from the Presidency in 1809 until his death. We want to be a resource if somebody has a family letter, paper, or document, because we know something about transcribing documents, and we can advise them on how to take care of it, but above all what to do with it, how to transcribe it accurately and that sort of thing.

Memories Matter also featured a set of short films. Among them: Fifeville, by UVa’s Kevin Jerome Everson, which documents the Fifeville neighborhood in Charlottesville.

[CLIP - RESIDENT: There’s a gray building right here. It used to be a store, black-owned.]

Besides Monticello, other booths were sharing pieces of local history. For instance, historian Alice Cannon from the Ivy Creek Foundation talks about how Ivy Creek Park once was a farm, River View Farm, owned by a freed slave called Hugh Carr.

ALICE CANNON: What we're trying to show is that Ivy Creek was not an isolated little farm. Ivy Creek was a farm - one of the most prosperous farms - but within this whole area of African-American land ownership. So it was a community that was connected. Churches in the rural areas [around Ivy Creek] had services alternate weeks. So even if you went to this church one Sunday, you went to this church the next Sunday: you would get to know the people in that community. The presence of these strong interconnected communities is something that lies just beneath the surface.

And here’s another piece of local history: one of Hugh Carr’s daughters, Mary Carr Greer, became the principal of Albemarle Training School which was the African-American high school; and Greer Elementary School was named after her in 1979.

LILLIE WILLIAMS: I've learned so much today about a school I went to, and I didn't know the history of that.

That’s Lillie Williams, member of the local West African dance company Chihamba.

WILLIAMS: Even though I'm from this area, so many things that I learned today I just did not know. It's just a big History lesson for me. It's so important to keep these memories alive. You know, make people proud of where they come from.

This story appeared on WMRA News.

Chris Christie Visits the Miller Center

Former NJ Governor Chris Christie spoke as part of the Miller Center's American Forum to talk about his bid for the presidency, the current administration, and his role as chair of the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction &
the Opioid Crisis. / Photo: The Miller Center

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential candidate, visited the Miller Center Monday to discuss his bid for the Republican nomination, and what he thinks of the first year of the Trump presidency. WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini has this report.

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The Miller Center in Charlottesville does not often receive guests who are sympathetic to President Trump. This time, former Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie gave his take on the Trump presidency.

CHRIS CHRISTIE: The race of he [sic] against Hillary Clinton was the ultimate insider vs. the ultimate outsider. And I think people chose an outsider; but, once you get there, you need people around you who know how to play the inside game. And I think he's been ill-served by a number of the people around him who have not known how to pull that off.

As a former federal prosecutor, Chris Christie also discussed the possibility of special counsel Robert Mueller questioning Donald Trump.

CHRISTIE: That's a drastic step to ask the President of the United States to submit themselves to interview by the FBI. I don't think that should be done lightly. My guess is that Bob Mueller hasn't even asked yet. He's doing this in a very methodical way. But we're not there. Part of it: the instant gratification society we live in now is "everybody wants the answer now," "what's the end of the book," we don't know. I do think that process matters. We not only need to get to the right place, but we got to get to the right place in the right way. So we got to wait until the end of the book, we can't skip to the back.

How Does Charlottesville Government Work?

(L to R) Tom Walls, Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership; Bitsy Waters, former Charlottesville mayor; Charles Barbour, Charlottesville's first African-American mayor; Rich Schragger, UVA Law School professor; discussion facilitator Andrea Douglas. / Photo: The League of Women Voters of the Charlottesville Area

After the events in Charlottesville last August, many citizens wanted to be informed on how local government works, and how it might be structured differently in the future. The local League of Women Voters and Charlottesville Tomorrow teamed up to provide an educational discussion on the matter, divided in two events this month. WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini attended the first one yesterday afternoon.

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The McIntire room at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library was packed. The events of last August certainly prompted a renewed interest – or concern – in understanding how Charlottesville is governed. So a varied panel provided their views and expertise, including Rich Schragger, a UVA Law School professor.

RICH SCHRAGGER: There’s some confusion about authority: a frustration, I would think, with not quite understanding the lines of authority, first of all; and then second of all, some of the limitations on authority, the capacity to do certain things.

One of the big frustrations brought up by the audience was the inability to regulate on guns locally, following the failed recent attempt at changing legislation in the General Assembly in Richmond.

SCHRAGGER: In terms of the specific gun laws, there’s not a ton you can do except operate through the political processes down there: elections matter, as they say. One thing you can’t do is demand that the City Council do something different with guns, because they, in fact, can’t.

The second event will look at how Charlottesville might be governed differently in the future. It will take place on Sunday, February 25 at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center at 2 p.m.

This story appeared on WMRA News.

I'm Not Racist... Am I?

A month-long community conversation about racism is going to take place in Charlottesville. And it starts Friday, February 9, with the screening of the documentary, I’m Not Racist… Am I?, a 2014 movie following twelve NYC teens on their journey to understand structural racism. The screening is happening, with the filmmakers present, at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville. Some local schools, universities and libraries are also hosting the film, followed by public conversations about racism with the help of trained facilitators. WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini has this report.

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[Background music from the movie]

“I’m Not Racist… Am I?”

[CLIP- TEENAGER: That is really hard.]

That’s the name of a movie that follows twelve New York City teenagers taking part in several workshops on structural racism over the course of one year, all the while witnessing their resulting internal struggles. Here’s Elizabeth Shillue, from the grassroots organization Beloved Community Cville.

ELIZABETH SHILLUE: Somehow it struck a deep cord within me; I thought about it for two weeks straight. It wasn’t just the topic that interest me - I’ve been exposed to a lot about racism, as many of us have - it was more the way in which the students in the film interacted with one another and their family members. They were willing to be vulnerable and take risks, and trust, and it resonated with me. They leaned into the discomfort of the conversations and grow as a result. And I immediately wanted to share it with other people in my hometown.

So she organized a first screening at the Paramount in 2015; and now, a second screening will take place there on Friday – which already sold out. Catherine Wigginton Greene, from Point Made Films, directed this movie. The making of the film, she says, also changed her.

CATHERINE GREENE: It really helped me clarify some things in terms of thinking about aspects to power, and the difference in thinking about - just because I have nice feelings about people of other races does not mean that I am doing the work required to dismantle a racist system.

That is one of the aspects addressed in the film.

[CLIP - FACILITATOR: People often connect being guilty with being in action and it’s not. Guilt is a feeling that we have. So, people I heard earlier like “Oh I feel guilty, I didn’t want to say something because I’d feel guilty about making someone cry, I feel guilty for saying this word…” Move past it people. Guilt is a feeling. I was feeling hungry at noon: I fixed it. I don’t think deconstructing racism is a feeling: it calls you to take some action.]

The film features a workshop called ‘Undoing Racism,’ by The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. André Robert Lee, the producer of the film, had attended one before doing the movie.

ANDRE ROBERT LEE: I walked out of that room transformed, and I also became more curious about what it means to look at race from a structural point of view. For so long, as a lower income African-American male, I had internalized a lot of blame for my family's circumstances. Then I also felt a sense of dread, "Wow, this is a much bigger problem that I even imagined. If it is a structural problem, what should we begin to do about it?"

Well, starting an actual conversation is a first step – and that’s the goal of this screening. One will also take place at the Curry School of Education later this month. Here’s Martin Block, the Chair of the School’s Diversity Action Committee.

MARTIN BLOCK: We've been doing a year-long dialogue and community building on race and racial issues after what happened in August 11 and 12 in Charlottesville. As part of that theme, when this movie became available we said "this would be a perfect match for us, talking about racial issues." It's difficult to talk about these things so we wanted to have as many opportunities to talk about it as possible.

Joanna Williams, the Chair-elect of the same committee, has even in mind to do a survey to assess the film’s impact on the audience.

JOANNA WILLIAMS: There have been several recent scales that have been developed for use with young people in particular to assess: do they have awareness of structural inequalities that exist, and do they have a sense of agency in terms of being able to engage in them? So I, right now, have a relatively brief survey about 10 to 15 minutes proposed to give to people before they view the film. A couple of weeks after we'll give them the same survey and then we'll wait a couple of months and give them the survey one more time. It doesn’t get at the hows and whys, but we’ll assess whether or not there’s any change.

Change does not happen overnight, of course; it’s a process, says producer André Robert Lee.

ROBERT LEE: We're not going to fix it after one screening; but we are doing the work by engaging in difficult dialogue.

After Friday, the movie will be screened twenty more times in a dozen more venues around Charlottesville and Albemarle county. You can check the list of local screenings on belovedcommunity-cville.com.

This story appeared on WMRA News.