Gary O’Connell: Person of the Year

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 22, 2008 in Government. 10 Comments

The Hook has decided to start naming a “Person of the Year” annually, and for this first year, they’ve named City Manager Gary O’Connell. Lindsay Barnes writes:

He’s the CEO of one of Central Virginia’s biggest companies, administering a $162 million annual budget and supervising over 900 employees. Like any CEO, he has a board that stakes out policy positions, but he’s the one who makes things happen. Those facts in and of themselves are enough to make Gary O’Connell a contender for “Person of the Year” any year.

However, this year, perhaps more than any other in his 14-year tenure as Charlottesville City Manager, has found O’Connell at the center of several larger-than-usual controversies.

Much of the piece is turned over to O’Connell “to let him talk about issues, respond to critics, and make the case that he’s consistently given City Council the best possible advice.” The runners-up, incidentally, were Congressman-elect Tom Perriello, Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford, businessman James Murray, Bill Crutchfield, and Olympian Lindsay Shoop.

Santa in Hollymead

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 22, 2008 in General News. 4 Comments

Lisa writes:

Two firetrucks just came down our road—and I was freaking out since that means there is a fire, an injury or something that means bad news. Turns out it was one truck followed by second carrying Santa Clause! I can tell you that my 9 year old will never get over it. In a cynical day and age, I can tell you that I probably won’t either. Thanks so much to the people that came up with this idea and the people that pulled it off. Merry Christmas!

Holsinger’s Photos of Charlottesville

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 21, 2008 in History. 8 Comments

Black and white photo of a parade through downtown Charlottesville

The above is a photo of a parade through downtown held in 1917, featuring the Monticello Guard, taken by Rufus Holsinger. UVa’s Special Collections Library has 9,500 photos taken by Holsinger in the first decades of the last century, mostly portraits, but many depicting the goings-on around town during his time. Just under 3,000 of these photos are available on the website, including 800 of Charlottesville and 1,100 of UVa. Most of the Charlottesville ones from the the nineteen-teens.

Some of my favorites are Albemarle Grocery Co. (the pink warehouse), Brown Milling Company, (Beck Cohen), Chancellor’s Drug Store (Qdoba), the Charlottesville Dam, downtown, the Gleason Hotel, McGuffey under construction, Midway (West Main and Ridge/McIntire), a drawing of the National Bank (Wachovia), the post office (the JMRL central branch), the Southern Railroad Depot (Union Station), Temple Beth Israel, Timberlake Drugs, Monticello mountain as viewed from Pantops, and a Charlottesville & Albemarle Railway Company trolley car.

If you’re at all interested in local history, you’d best plan to set aside an hour or two to troll through this list. I’d love to see somebody do a then-and-now series of pairings of some of these images. Maybe one day UVa will provide coordinates and direction data for each of these photos. It would be great to map these.

The Original Downtown Mall Debate

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 20, 2008 in Development and Politics. 24 Comments

Steve Ashby writes:

Until it shuts down in 6 days, my podcast site will be hosting a series of excerpts from a 1975 Jefferson Cable production “Overview: Downtown Renewal.” With the re-bricking of the Mall, it seems like a good time to look back at just how much controversy the whole idea caused. Despite Hook article article to the contrary, many merchants supported building a pedestrian mall.

I’ve put those excerpts together into a single video, which you can watch here:

Note that it opens with credits, but don’t skip through them—you’ll love the b-roll footage of downtown that’s playing in the background. As a Charlottesville history buff, this stuff is like catnip to me.

12/22 Update: Steve has put an even longer version of the video online in two chunks: Part 1 and Part 2. Thanks, Steve!

It’s Official: Perriello Wins

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 17, 2008 in Politics. 25 Comments

A three-judge panel has concluded, after a recount, that Democrat Tom Perriello is now Congressman-elect Perriello, replacing six-term Republican incumbent Rep. Virgil Goode. Perrillo won by 727 votes. He’ll be sworn into the 111th Congress on January 6.

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