December 11, 2024: Negotiations continue with Veo to improve scooter parking and other issues
Plus: Senator John McGuire has formally resigned from the Senate setting up a special election on January 7
If there was a quiz show solely devoted to the life and times of George Mason, the author of Charlottesville Community Engagement would not do very well. At some point, the Virginia General Assembly declared this day in his honor, given that he was born on December 11, 1725, in Fairfax County. This may be the first and the last time this person is directly mentioned in this newsletter, but references to the higher education institution will not count. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I know more now than I did a few minutes ago.
In today’s installment:
Senator John McGuire has formally resigned, clearing the way for a January 7 special election between Democrat Jack Trammel and whoever the Republican Party selects this Friday
Inflation increased slightly in November according to the latest edition of the Consumer Price Index
The Regional Transit Partnership will take up rural transit needs on Thursday
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will hold a work session on the federally-mandated annual plan on Thursday
Charlottesville City Council gets an update on negotiations with Veo for an updated permit allowing them to provide to provide scooters and e-bikes
First shout-out: Plant Virginia Natives
We are now close to winter but the world keeps turning and spring isn’t too far ahead of us. It’s time to think ahead to next spring and what I need to do to get my yard ready to plant something new.
One resource that may help me develop a landscape more suitable to this area is Plant Virginia Natives! Plant Virginia Natives is part of a partnership with ten regional campaigns for ten different ecosystems across Virginia, from the Northern Piedmont to the Eastern Shore. Take a look at the full map below for the campaign for native species where you are in the Commonwealth. For the Charlottesville area, download a free copy of the handbook: Piedmont Native Plants: A Guide for Landscapes and Gardens.
McGuire finally resigns Senate District 10 seat to prepare to enter Congress
The 2024 election was over a month ago, and it took until today for Senator John McGuire (R-10) to resign his seat to prepare for a special election.
“It has been an honor working together with many new friends and talented professionals in the House of Delegates and State Senate to solve problems for we the people,” McGuire said in a letter to supporters this morning. “What they taught me about working with others to help constituents will transfer to the House of Representatives.”
McGuire served in the House of Delegates from 2018 to 2024 before being elected to the Senate to represent District 10 in the 2023 election. He announced his bid for Congress eight days later and narrowly defeated incumbent Bob Good in a Republican primary this summer.
According to the legacy Legislative Information System, McGuire was the chief patron of 16 bills, most of which died in committee such as SB720 which would have prevented localities adopting ordinances to restrict federal immigration laws and SB223 which would have made it illegal to protest picketing at the homes of judges.
Three bills became law including SB222 related to information security, SB603 which directs the Department of Criminal Justice Services to make give priority treatment to pregnant women in Virginia prisons, and SB630 which would make police dispatchers eligible for the Commonwealth Public Safety Medal of Valor.
The 2025 General Assembly will take up on of McGuire’s bills that was continued to the next session. SB612 would prevent localities from reducing budgets for law enforcement authors unless there is a unanimous vote.
McGuire was the sole vote in the Virginia Senate against a bill that would raise the legal age for marriage to 18. HB994 was signed into law by Governor Glenn Youngkin on April 8. The measure passed the House of Delegates on a 57 to 40 vote.
To read the full text of McGuire’s letter to supporters, go take a look at the Virginia Political Newsletter.
To exit the Senate, McGuire wrote to Senate Majority Leader Louise Lucas and his resignation will be effective “just before I get sworn into Congress the morning of January 3rd.” The special election will be held on January 7 according to the order.
There are seven Republicans seeking the party’s nomination in a mass meeting expected to be held this Friday. They are:
Duane Adams, the current chair of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors
Former State Senator Amanda Chase
The Democratic Party has nominated Jack Trammel. Trammel was the Democratic candidate in the 7th Congressional District in the 2014 election.
For more details, check out the Virginia Political Newsletter!
Inflationary measure up slightly in November
The federal metric that is used to measure changes in the cost of goods and services increased slightly from October to November. The Consumer Price Index went up 0.3 percent after increasing 0.2 percent in the previous four months.
“Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment,” reads the news release from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The index represents spending in about 90 percent of the United States and includes the broad categories of food, clothing, shelter, fuels, transportation, medical services, and other items purchased by people living in the country.
“Prices are collected each month in 75 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 22,000 retail establishments (department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, filling stations, and other types of stores and service establishments),” the release continues.
The index for food went up 0.4 percent in November after increasing 0.2 percent in October. The price for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs increased 1.7 percent and the index for beef increased 3.1 percent. The index for eggs rose 8.2 percent. The index for dairy decreased 0.1 percent and the index for cereals and bakery products dropped 1.1 percent.
Overall, the cost of food rose 2.4 percent from November 2023 to November 2024.
The cost of energy has decreased 3.2 percent over the past 12 months with the gasoline index dropping 8.1 percent. However the cost of electricity increased 3.1 percent and the index for natural gas increased 1.8 percent.
From October to November, the energy index went up 0.2 percent after being unchanged in October.
Other items of note:
The medical care index increased 0.3 percent from October to November.
The used cars and trucks index increase 2 percent in November after a 2.7 percent increase in October.
The index for shelter increased 0.3 percent and lodging away from home increase 3.2 percent.
Jaunt to take center stage at Regional Transit Partnership meeting Thursday
Today the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors were expected slated to take a vote on joining the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Transit Authority, an entity that has been allowed to form for 15 years but has far not been created.
On Thursday, a precursor group that has been in place since 2017 will meet for the final time of 2024. The Regional Transit Partnership meets at 4 p.m. at 407 Water Street in the headquarters of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.
On the agenda will be a presentation of three studies from Jaunt, a provider of paratransit and commuter services in the TJPDC region plus one additional county.
These include a needs assessment for rural areas prepared by the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University. (read the report) (view the presentation)
“Jaunt is interested in learning more about the need for transportation services that allow for optimum personal mobility within its service area, including the city of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson,” reads the introduction to the study.
The report notes that Jaunt’s ridership has rebounded since the pandemic, increasing from just under 150,000 in 2021 to around 240,000 in 2023. Demand-response trips make up the majority of ridership. Commuter buses provides 46,391 trips in FY23 with the Crozet CONNECT providing 16,238 of that number.
CRHA to adopt annual plan at work session
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development has many rules when it comes to the management of public housing agencies. This includes the creation of both a five-year plan as well as an annual plan.
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will take up a resolution to approve the annual plan at a work session in City Council Chambers that begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday. (review the plan)
According to the information in the plan, there are currently 293 units of public housing and 641 housing choice vouchers for a total of 934 HUD-recognized units under the auspices of the CRHA.
The plan also states that the CRHA intends to continue with mixed finance modernization of existing units, dispose of some of the older units, and pursue other capital grant programs.
Second shout-out: Alliance Française de Charlottesville
The Alliance Française de Charlottesville promotes the French language and francophone culture through educational and cultural programs. Visit the Alliance Française website to learn more about group classes, private lessons, cultural events, and social activities for both kids and adults.
Council briefed on status of negotiations with VEO for scooter/e-bike permit
In a time when almost every single issue is divisive, there’s a special place for scooters and e-bikes that are allowed to operate in Charlottesville through a dockless mobility permit. The companies Lime and Bird have come and gone, but now there are hundreds of rentable vehicles provided by the firm Veo.
Ben Chambers, the city’s transportation planning manager, gave an unannounced presentation to Council at their meeting on December 2. He said the permit with Veo was revised in 2023 to address issues.
“Our biggest issue was and still is, the parking of the scooters within public right of way in places where it makes it difficult for some of our users to get around,” Chambers said. “New regulations included in that permit update included the ability for Veo to find their own users who are parking improperly.”
Chambers said there are about a quarter of million rides a year and survey research from Veo has found that about a third of them do not have a car and many are students at the University of Virginia.
“We're actually pretty glad that they are not bringing their cars from out of town and parking them on our streets,” Chambers said.
However, the survey also found that close to half of users do violate the rules Chambers said are clearly printed on each bike.
“All of the scooters say, don't ride on the sidewalk, and yet 42 percent of their users are saying, yeah, I do it anyway,” Chambers said.
Chambers said many said they would use bike lanes, pointing to another benefit of installing them across the city.
But the biggest issue is when the vehicles are parked on sidewalks. The reporting system has been streamlined and if someone makes a complaint through the MyCville app, that complaint goes straight to the local VEO office. VEO levies fines on those who don’t park the vehicle properly and now have dedicated staff who look for violations.
“Last year we had 700 reports and they gave violations to about half of them,” Chamber said. “They had 360 violations in 2023. Just in October alone this year they had 240 violations that they gave out to their users. Through all of 2024 to date, they're at about 1800 violations that they've given out.”
Chambers said there are still issues. One has been that specially painted areas where they’re supposed to be parked are often used as parking spots by delivery drivers. The city will be moving to “virtual” hubs similar to how UVA handles their drop-off points.
Chambers added that Veo is interested in getting a permit for multiple years as opposed to having to update the document every year. He said negotiations are still underway and the existing permit will be extended six months in order to keep the transportation alternative moving.
“This is a part of our ecosystem of travel, so investing in that for the long term and we're hoping to make these changes to our regulations,” Chambers said. “We're working through this with Veo and with the UVA staff because we want to make sure that all of these work with them.”
One of the new innovations will be a feature on the Veo app intended to direct users to appropriate parking locations. He added the city wants more information from Veo on their staffing especially on the personnel who are hired to pick up the vehicles, and they want Veo to be more transparent with their data.
Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston said he initially was not a supporter of the scooters until seeing statistics on how many vehicles they can take off city streets, but he understands those who are not fans.
“Managing where people leave these scooters, obviously, has been, I think, the hardest thing in terms of at least the feedback that we've gotten from folks,” Pinkston said.
Mayor Juandiego Wade said he often has to move scooters to get past them on city sidewalks and said that could be considered an Americans with Disability Act compliance issue. He said he was skeptical of moving away from year to year permitting until pedestrian conflicts are reduced.
“We need to do more to incentives incentivize or disincentive them to put it where it should be,” Wade said. “We have citizens that send us pictures all the time of bikes and these things left in inappropriate places.”
City Manager Sam Sanders said he scheduled the discussion during his report so that he could get the sense of Council of whether they wanted to continue the program at all.
“Some people have asked for the removal of scooters,” Sanders said. “And you all are indicating that you continue to support scooters. So we're going to move forward to ensure that an agreement gets signed for a six month extension with the possibility that it could be a longer term within that six month period.”
Chambers also said the city receives about $45,000 in administrative fees from Veo that are used to pay for bike and pedestrian infrastructure.
Reading material for #778
Charlottesville food tour business lands statewide tourism grant, Kate Nuechterlein, WVIR NBC29, December 9, 2024
7th District Rep. Spanberger gives final speech on House floor, Sarah Allen, CBS19, December 9, 2024
With Trump presidency looming, state, federal leaders renew commitment to Bay cleanup, Josh Kurtz, Virginia Mercury, December 10, 2024
UVA unveils preliminary design for new Center for the Arts, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, December 11, 2024
And just like that #778 washes away
I grew up in Virginia and I lived in Northern Virginia for a year and a bit in the late 90’s. Today is the first time I’ve really known who George Mason was in terms of history. I write the opening paragraph as an exercise each day to get me thinking about the newsletter as a whole consisting of multiple parts. Newer readers may not know that each edition was a podcast until about sometime in the 650’s.
The latest change is now to attempt to get one of these out each day, knowing full well that the volume may be off-putting to some readers. I’ll remind everyone this is an experiment in journalism at a time in my career where I see stories everywhere and there’s a tremendous challenge to get as many of them out as possible.
As 2025 winds down, I will be looking back at 2024 and will begin writing the Look Back editions that will run between Christmas and New Year’s. The thing is, the world doesn’t stop because there’s a holiday. Anything can happen at any moment and people need to know things.
I also need people to know while most of the content is free to consume, it costs money to produce. I need to eat and pay for living space, and I need to pay for various services to help me get the work done today. I’ve got a limited liability company called Town Crier Productions set up to take payment. I am not a nonprofit organization, though I am exploring the option of people being to make a tax-deductible contribution. Maybe that appeals to you?
For just over three weeks, Ting will match your initial payment through Substack. I’ve been very grateful for this sponsorship as it has helped me get all the way up to #778. I’m very grateful for their support.
If you sign up for service and you are within Ting’s service area, enter the promo code COMMUNITY you’re going to get:
Free installation
A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
