Today begins the final week of the month as well as the last four days of 2022’s first quarter. There are so many ways to order time and to order our affairs as human beings as we move through a world that may or may not make sense, depending on how you count. I’m Sean Tubbs, I provide information on a regular basis in each installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement to describe a few of the things that have happened so far.
On today’s show:
The area’s transportation decision-making body wants a future pedestrian bridge to connect Pantops with the Broadway Blueprint
The University of Virginia’s School of Architecture hires its first Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
UVA no longer requires masks in classrooms, and an update on the COVID-19 pandemic
Today’s first shout-out goes to WTJU
Algorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. Support freeform community radio on WTJU and get ready for the station’s 65th anniversary this Friday, April 1! Consider a donation at wtju.net/donate
COVID-19 update: Masks now optional in UVA classrooms
Today marks the end of the mask requirements in classrooms at the University of Virginia, but people are still asked to carry one in case they are asked to by someone else.
“As we navigate the shift to most settings being mask-optional, we are encouraging everyone to treat each other with respect and common courtesy,” reads a March 25 email from Provost Ian Baucom and Chief Operating Officer J.J. Davis.
The Centers for Disease Control now regard the COVID-19 Community Level to be low for Albemarle County and Charlottesville.
This morning the Virginia Department of Health reports another 1,340 new cases and the seven-day average for percent positivity is now at 3.3 percent.
There is a subvariant of the Omicron virus that is leading to new surges across the world including Hong Kong. That’s a place where Dr. Costi Sifri of the UVA Health System said has not yet experienced much community spread because of an early zero tolerance policy.
“It is causing significant stress to their health system,” Sifri said. “There is this view that Omicron is less virulent than other COVID variants.”
However, Dr. Sifri said that Hong Kong also has low vaccine rates providing a population base through which the Omicron subvariant can spread.
“Here in the United States we’re seeing an increasing amount of B.A.2, the sister subvariant of the original Omicron strain,” Dr. Sifri said. “It’s growing in proportion nationwide. In our region it’s about 30 to 35 percent or so of all isolates.”
Dr. Sifri said this subvariant is not as virulent, but does appear to be more transmissible and that it will become the dominant strain in a matter of weeks. Dr. Sifri said a local spike could happen as mask requirements are dropped and as more social gatherings.
“I don’t think that’s guaranteed so I think there is also a possibility we could just reach a plateau at least for the near-term,” Dr. Sifri said. “And of course, things may change if there is a new variant that emerges somewhere in the world that is able to essentially escape the protection that boosters and vaccinations have provided.”
As of today, 72.7 percent of Virginians are fully vaccinated, but only 2.9 million booster doses have been administered. There’s still no word yet on whether an additional dose will be needed for the general population or just those who are at higher risk of developing a virulent infection.
There are 76 new cases in the Blue Ridge Health District today. On March 16ths, Last week, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted to end the local COVID emergency, paving the way for in-person meetings beginning next week with the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.
UVA School of Architecture hires Associate Dean for equity and inclusion
The School of Architecture at the University of Virginia has hired its first ever Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. C.L. Bohannon will take the position in late July as he also joins the faculty as an Associate Professor in the Landscape Architecture Department. Bohannon is currently the interim director of the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech, as well as founder and director of the Community Engagement Lab.
“I am enthusiastic to collaborate with faculty, students, staff, and communities across the Commonwealth as we contend with long-standing socio-environmental inequalities,” Bohannon said in a news release on the School of Architecture’s website. “I believe that as creative practitioners, we have the necessary critical and creative tools to redress harms that have come from design and planning and that we can work with congruent integrity and practice.”
The Community Engagement Lab will come with Bohannon to UVA.
Second shout-out goes to a March 29 event happening at Morven
In today’s second subscriber supported shout-out, the Morven Summer Institute at Morven Farm wants you to know about a seminar coming up on March 29. How are UVA students, faculty, and community partners collaborating to tell the stories of Morven? Researcher Scot French has spent over ten years studying Morven’s history and will provide glimpses into a course he’ll be teaching this summer on Recovering the Stories of Morven’s Enslaved and Descendant Communities. The March 29 event is a chance for the public to get a preview of the four week course. If you’re interested, visit morven.virginia.edu to fill out an interest form.
MPO selects Broadway Avenue / East Market location for pedestrian bridge
If a bridge to cross the Rivanna River between Albemarle County and the Woolen Mills is ever built, the western end will be connected to East Market Street rather than Riverview Park.
“It seems to me that the connection at the East Market Street provides an additional value or return on the investment in that it is connecting two activity centers from Pantops over to what’s being planned in that Broadway corridor,” said Albemarle Supervisor Ned Gallaway, the chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Policy Board.
Transportation staff with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission are working on an application for Smart Scale funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation for the project, which would have an eastern landing just to the west of the former State Farm regional headquarters.
The MPO Policy Board voted 4-1 on March 24 to choose an alignment that would land at East Market Street. This alternative is more expensive with a preliminary cost estimate of $15.3 million compared to $11.3 million for the Chesapeake Street alignment.
They also discussed whether the bridge should be “cable-stayed” or should be built on a “truss.” bridge. A cable-stayed bridge would require more maintenance, and there are questions about who would be responsible for the cost.
“When we’re looking at new projects, we generally don’t try to promote or support projects that would provide an increased cost for maintenance when it’s not strictly necessary,” said Sean Nelson, the district engineer for VDOT’s Culpeper District.
Nelson said if the cable-stayed bridge was selected, the localities would be asked to cover the additional maintenance.
Albemarle Supervisor Ann Mallek wanted to know if that might affect the project’s Smart Scale score.
“Getting something approved is my highest priority and I want to make sure that we are thinking about that rather than asking for the beautiful, blue crystal slipper,” Mallek said. “ Are we then not getting something at all then if we applied for the work boot?”
The group opted to proceed with a truss bridge.
No matter the type of bridge, the East Market / Broadway bridge would have two spans connected with a pier.
City Councilor Brian Pinkston was the lone vote in favor of the Chesapeake Street option.
“To me, if the least expensive, more likely to occur option is to have it at the park on the northern side,” Pinkston said.
A majority of people on a stakeholder committee favored the Chesapeake Street option, as did the MPO-Technical Committee.
More information needs to be gathered as part of a necessary environmental review and that will be gathered as the application is finalized. This includes impacts on historic sites well as the impact on the floodway.
Nelson said one of the sites would provide more room for flexibility if the design needed to be amended to take into account potential impacts.
“The Woolen Mills location there [are] more opportunities to mitigate at that location then at the other location,” Nelson said.
Mallek said she supported the Woolen Mills option because of the county’s planning work.
“There are things in the Broadway corridor which the county has been planning and working on for several years including more sidewalk connections and improvement of the connector road which would also benefit users of the bridge,” Mallek said.
After Mayor Lloyd Snook offered his opinion, one member of the public who was on the call expressed their opinion.
“I would vote for the southernmost route, the route that goes down to East Market,” Snook said.
“Unbelievable,” said an unidentified voice in what may be one of the last awkward moments of the Zoom era of public meetings.
Before the vote, nearby resident Jenny Milulski said she would have supported either option, but wanted the MPO to take Albemarle’s economic development planning efforts into account.
“I just wanted to voice my enthusiasm for considering this project in tandem with the Broadway economic development plan,” Milukski said.
The Albemarle Board of Supervisors recently received information about the Broadway Blueprint and the Economic Development Authority had a conversation about the document earlier this month (read the final study)
Mikulski said the bridge would transform the way she thinks about where she lives.
“For example it would only be a 1.5 mile walk from my house to the Kluge-Ruhe Museum,” Mikulski said.
Currently that would be a three mile walk.
Preliminary Smart Scale applications are due by the end of the month. A final application is due on August 1. The rankings will be released in late January.
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March 28, 2022: MPO selects East Market / Broadway alignment for Rivanna pedestrian bridge