Democratic Council Nomination on Saturday

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 7, 2009 in Politics. 26 Comments

If you are a Charlottesville Democrat, please remember to vote on Saturday. Dave Norris, Julian Taliaferro and Kristin Szakos are all running for the nomination for two available Council seats, while Mike Baird, James Brown III, and Phillip U. Brown are all running for the nomination for Sheriff. Those nominees will go on to run in the general election against whatever Republicans or independents decide to run. Charlottesville Tomorrow has a recording of last night’s Council candidate forum for those who need more information to make up their minds in that race.

At any time between 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM on Saturday, any registered Charlottesville voter can go to Burley Middle School (on Rose Hill), sign a pledge not to support anybody running against the Democratic nominees, and cast a ballot for their choice for Council. Details are available on the Charlottesville Democrats’ website.

For all y’all Democrats who are supporting specific candidates here, this is your chance to make a pitch for your guy. I know that a lot of people are undecided, and I know that cvillenewsers are an engaged bunch. Who do you support, and why should others back your candidate of choice?

Non-Democrat Gearing Up for Council Run

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 7, 2009 in Politics. 4 Comments

One Bob Fenwick appears to be preparing to run for City Council, Rachana Dixit writes in the Daily Progress today. It’s not clear (to me) whether he’s a Republican, independent, or unaffiliated Democrat, but he’s doing the sorts of things that one does before running for office. Just in the past month he’s made increasingly public statements on behalf of the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park, he’s promoted the eyeball-burning SaveMcIntire.com, and most recently has demanded that Mayor Dave Norris increase spending drastically, eliminating the city’s savings to hire “41 men and women” for capital improvements and maintenance work. When asked by Dixit if he intends to run for Council, he said that he’d make “a political announcement” soon and, cryptically, that “there is an action [he] will take first.” In an undated note on one of his websites he writes that “in a week or two I’ll announce what I, personally, will do.”

Running to the left of Charlottesville Democrats is certainly a bold political gambit.

Slutzky Seeking Reelection to BoS

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 6, 2009 in Politics. 4 Comments

David Slutzky is running for reelection to the Board of Supervisors, he announced in a press release this evening. Slutzky was elected to represent the Rio District in 2005 with a surprising 58% of the vote over Republican nominee Gary Grant. He’s facing a challenge in the form of Republican Rodney Thomas, who sought the Republican nomination for the same seat in 2005, though lost to Grant that time around. This could shape up to be an interesting race, because many Republicans throughout the county have such a deep antipathy for Slutzky—currently the chair of the BoS—which may result in some decent funding for Thomas from folks who believe that the Democrat’s positions on taxation and property rights are outside of the county mainstream. Though Slutzky’s 2005 margin of victory was surprising, 58% is by no means an overwhelming majority. I expect this to be the most competitive race in the county, and if the issues in this race are taxation and property rights, I think the outcome can be seen as a small referendum on what people think of the BoS’s recent lurch to the left.

The full press release follows.

Continue reading ‘Slutzky Seeking Reelection to BoS’

Regal vs. Hillsdale Drive Extension

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 5, 2009 in Business, Development and Transportation. 13 Comments

The news of the Regal Seminole 4 expanding presents some problems for the planned Hillsdale Drive extension. The planned road will go right along the edge of the theater, and Regal’s expansion will push the theater right out into the proposed route. Brian Wheeler, with Charlottesville Tomorrow, broke that story a few days ago, and today Rachana Dixit and Brian McNeill provide the city’s response to all of this, which seems to boil down to annoyance. It’s Regal’s land to do with as they see fit, and there’s certainly nothing stopping them from expanding their theater into the path of the road.

The trick here is that there’s just not room for both uses. Either the theater can expand, or Hillsdale Drive can be extended clear down to Hydraulic, creating the first of what the city and the county intend to a series of roads paralleling 29 North, to take traffic off of the main drag. The two are headed towards an eminent domain showdown, and I’d bet that Regal will lose that particular game of chicken.

Planning Commission Members Explore Metered Parking

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 3, 2009 in Government and Transportation. 22 Comments

Some members of the Charlottesville Planning Commission think the city should examine metered on-street parking, Rachana Dixit writes in the Daily Progress today. Cheri Lewis, Mike Osteen, and Mike Farruggio all think that it’s worth looking into moving away from providing free on-street parking in the core of downtown, and switching to using meters. City Council, on the other hand, is opposed to the idea, with the exception of David Brown. At this point there’s no planned path forward to making this happen, just interest expressed by planning commission members.

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