Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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County Reverses Decision on Land Donation

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 6, 2013 in Government. Closed

Albemarle County has agreed to accept a gift of 410 acres to create a nature preserve, Sean Tubbs reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. Montgomery Bird Woods and Jose V. Lambert tried to donate the land earlier in the year but, surprisingly, the gift was turned down at the recommendation of Albemarle County staff. The rationale for the rejection was that the county isn’t prepared to do anything with it, and they’re not in a position to prevent people from trespassing on parcel. The land is located on Route 29, just south of town, near Arrowhead Valley Road. The couple was frustrated by the decision, and invited county officials to visit, which they did. The solution was to partner with the Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary and the Ivy Creek Foundation, who will act as caretakers, which will leave the county spending just $6,500/year on the land.

Confusingly—or perhaps fittingly—the park will be named “Woods Park,” in honor of Montgomery Bird Woods’s father, William Sharpless Derrick Woods, whose name you might know from “McGuire, Woods, & Battle.”

Carmike Closing Down

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 20, 2013 in Business, Development and Entertainment. Closed

The Carmike six-screen theater on 29N is closing down, Graelyn Brashear reports for C-Ville Weekly. It became a $1.50 second-run theater a year ago, but that only stalled its demise briefly. That leaves Charlottesville an all-Regal town, with their six-screen theater on the Downtown Mall and their fourteen-screen theater in the Stonefield development.

Sen. Deeds Stabbed, Son Killed

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 19, 2013 in Crime. 3 Comments

Senator Creigh Deeds is hospitalized in critical condition with stab wounds, and his son Gus has died from a gunshot wound, police tell the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Creigh is receiving treatment at the UVA Medical Center. Police don’t yet know what happened. Creigh is, of course, the area’s state senator.

Democratic Victories May (Re-)Doom the Western Bypass

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 18, 2013 in Government and Transportation. 9 Comments

Democrats’ sweep of local and statewide elections have them talking about undoing the Western Bypass, Courteney Stuart reports for C-Ville Weekly. A conservative majority on the Board of Supervisors, spurred on by a Republican administration in the governor’s office, held a surprise midnight vote to approve the Western Bypass in 2011. Supervisor Dennis Rooker thinks that there’s both the political will and the mechanisms to halt the plans, with incoming governor Terry McAuliffe appointing a new Secretary of Transportation and the BOS naming two members of the Metropolitan Planning Organization to replace the recently defeated Rodney Thomas and Duane Snow.

Gabe Silverman Has Died

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 10, 2013 in Obituaries. 90 Comments

Charlottesville developer Gabe Silverman has died.

While in New York City a few weeks ago, he was hospitalized with chest pain, and required a lengthy operation to repair what turned out to be a torn aortic artery. He had been recuperating ever since, with family and friends visiting him, and seemed to be on the mend when he passed away yesterday.

With his business partners, he owned real estate throughout downtown Charlottesville (the Ix building, the Main Street Market, the Amtrak station, and dozens more properties), and was the first developer to invest towards a revitalization of downtown, starting with his 1990 purchase of the Old Michie Building. Famously cantankerous and unpretentious, Gabe clashed on ideological matters with city officials, especially when he felt that he was being prevented from serving larger community needs through his work. To his partners’ constant exasperation, Gabe regarded his real estate holdings as venue for improving Charlottesville and righting societal wrongs. In any discussion, his constant refrain was “OK, but how do we use that to—” as he tried to redirect mundane ideas towards addressing problems of poverty, racism, classism, sexism, and other societal ailments.

His wife, artist and teacher Karen Shea Silverman, died of brain cancer in 2004. Gabe is survived by his two daughters and his grandson. He was 73 years old.

The last discussion that I ever had with him, just six weeks ago, began with me telling him that I needed a small office space for a new business, and concluded with him having persuaded me to use that business to anchor an incubator-style coworking space that he’d provide the space and funding for, in order to establish a downtown hub for socially aware tech firms. He had that sort of effect on people. Before we parted, he emphasized that he didn’t just want to make a small change in Charlottesville: “I’m going to die, you’re going to die, so how do we use this to create a lasting change in Charlottesville?”

I thought there was more time.

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