Greetings and are you ready to alight your bonfire? For it is Guy Fawkes Day, and today we remember remember the fifth of November! Oh wait. What’s that? I’m being told that this is America, and it’s a different kind of November 5th, with the presidential election still not quite resolved. What will happen today? Who knows? But, we’re in history, and this is the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter and newscast for today.
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Seventh District Representative Abigail Spanberger will most likely return to Congress having been re-elected in a close race against Republican Nick Freitas. With all precincts in and at least 89 percent of mail-in and early voting ballots in, Spanberger got just over 5,000 more votes, or 50.5 percent of the vote. However, Freitas is not ready to concede.
“Our campaign will be waiting until the canvass officially concludes on Friday, at which we will be making an appropriate statement,” Frietas wrote on Twitter.
Spanberger declared victory last night.
“It has been the honor of my life to serve our community in Congress, to represent the people of our ten counties and I thank you all for putting your trust in me again and re-electing me for another two years,” Spanberger said. “As we celebrate tonight I know there are many who cast a different vote and who volunteered for a different candidate and I know they are disappointed. I hope over time I will earn your trust as a representative even as we disagree.”
As of this recording, neither of the candidates for the presidency have won the required number of electoral votes.
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There are another 1,366 cases of COVID-19 reported today by the Virginia Department of Health. The seven-day average for new daily cases is now at 1,288. The seven-day rate for positive cases has increased to 5.8 percent for all of Virginia.
In the Blue Ridge Health District, there are another 19 cases today with seven from Charlottesville, five from Louisa, four from Albemarle, two in Fluvanna and one from Greene. It has been two weeks since a new fatality has been reported in the district. The seven-day average for positive PCR tests has decreased to 1.9 percent in the district.
All of Virginia’s health districts are considered to be at moderate or substantial community transmission, with higher burdens reported in the Central, Southwest and Near Southwest regions.
The director of the Roanoke and Alleghany Health Districts has called for high schools in those communities to halt contact sports due to increasing numbers of COVID cases. Dr. Cynthia Morrow cited “core indicators” from the Centers for Disease Control that are in the red zone. As of yesterday, Alleghany had 462.8 cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 days. The positivity percentage over 14 days was at 15.7 percent. The Roanoke district’s numbers were 497.5 and 10.8 percent respectively.
“We are for the second week in a row in high burden, increasing trends of substantial transmission,” Morrow said during a press briefing yesterday. “In addition, the contiguous regions to us are also in high burden, increasing trends of substantial transmission. We are about as high risk right now and with these metrics we really should be operating at phase 1, phase 2 practice.”
Morrow said she talked to school superintendents in the area on Tuesday.
“They asked us how we felt about close contact sports such as wrestling and even basketball and we have to say that we would applaud any effort that they have to reduce transmission by not having those sporting events,” Morrow said.
For the city of Charlottesville, the metrics are currently much lower, with 201.6 cases per 100,000 and the positive percentage over the past 14 days is at 1.1 percent. For Albemarle County, those numbers are at 112.2 and 2.1 percent.
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A subcommittee of the city’s Housing Advisory Committee gave an initial review Wednesday of a draft affordable housing plan put together by consultants as part of the overall Comprehensive Plan update known as Cville Plans Together. City Council and the Planning Commission will hold a work session on the 133-page draft plan on November 10.
Subcommittee members were asked to give initial impressions. Christopher Murray represents the development community and he said the plan didn’t seem to address economic issues.
“The supply and demand element that is not acknowledged is the cost of land itself, the availability of land,” Murray said, adding it calls for a land bank but doesn’t contain enough information about land trusts.
Ridge Schuyler, dean of community self-sufficiency programs at Piedmont Virginia Community College, said the plan should also acknowledge ways for households to create more wealth.
“It’s not just the cost of housing but its the amount of income you have to afford that housing and besides one throwaway sentence there was no focus on economic opportunity and helping people earn more income,” Schuyler said.
Among other things, the plan calls for a dedicated $10 million a year in capital funds for affordable housing projects. Last month, the city gave the final approval of $3 million in funds for public housing renovation and redevelopment as well a final approval for a $5.5 million forgivable loan to the Piedmont Housing Alliance for the first phase of the redevelopment of Friendship Court. In all there are to be four phases
“The document does a good job of highlighting [Charlottesville Housing and Redevelopment Authority] and public housing redevelopment but does not once mention Friendship Court redevelopment and I think that’s a gap,” said Piedmont Housing director Sunshine Mathon. “I would like to get into a little bit about the proposed $10 million a year because I think there are some nuances to that number that we should flesh out and make sure we are all clear on.”
Realtor S. Lisa Herndon wanted more emphasis in the plan on pathways to home ownership.
“I definitely believe 100 percent believe that there are multiple ways to create home ownership especially looking at subsidies and I truly am against simply just having a great focus on redeveloping public housing,” Herndon said. “I think that is a model that truly needs to be rethought of.”
Chris Meyer said he was concerned about a call in the plan for seeking state legislation to allow for rent control.
“I was a little concerned when I saw a lot of new suggestions on regulations of landlords and rental properties including a cap on home rentals or regulated rental prices and other things,” Meyer said. “I did like though that they started talking about helping tenants engage in those processes.”
City Councilor Michael Payne said he wanted to see more information in the plan about land banks and land trusts.
“I think the funding is also a really important question especially in light of our budget challenges and given the election results in the Senate I also think that the likelihood of additional money from the federal government is also a lot lower,” Payne said.
You can watch all of the HAC Policy Subcommittee meeting here.
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The city has hired a community development director from Georgia to serve as its next Director of Neighborhood Development Services. Parag Agrawal currently works in Milton, a city of about 40,000 people in Fulton County. Before that he served in similar positions in Rhode Island and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
“Parag is a experienced development professional who has a breadth of experience that’s very needed in the Neighborhood Development Services department,” said interim city manager John Blair.
Agrawal said he looks forward to beginning work on November 30.
“The Department has an excellent team of staff members who are very committed, dedicated, and knowledgable and are working on some very important projects that will make our city more sustainable and more affordable,” Agrawal said. “I will say that the city of Charlottesville is such a great city because the residents of Charlottesville are so actively engaged.”
Agrawal replaces Alexander Ikefuna who was demoted in February but will remain with the city.
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There are two meetings today. The Natural Heritage Committee will see a presentation on wildlife corridors from the Virginia Transportation Research Council from one of the state’s leading experts on reducing vehicle collisions. Earlier this year, the General Assembly passed legislatio n to create a Wildlife Corridor Action Plan to identify locations where steps can be taken. (meeting info)
The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission will meet at 7 p.m. They will be introduced to a new search tool that’s designed to help people find affordable housing. That’s a project of the TJPDC’s Regional Housing Partnership. According to the executive director’s report, there will be a discussion on altering the name of the TJPDC. The Thomas Jefferson Health District will become the Blue Ridge Health District on January 1. The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library system could also soon get a new name.
“We have in the past considered both a change from Thomas Jefferson as well as change from Planning District Commission to either Regional Commission or Regional Council,” Boyles wrote. “Should you desire staff to pursue options, we could report back to you in February.”
And while not strictly a government meeting, the Center will have a virtual presentation from the owners of the Ragged Mountain Running Shop on their walk last year across England. That begins at 4 and is open to all. (info)
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November 5, 2020: Spanberger declares victory; Roanoke area health director calls for halt to contact sports; HAC reviews affordable housing plan