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looking at tonight's charlottesville city council meeting agenda and trying to keep scrolling to find the rest of it... is that really it?! they're really taking that 10:30pm cutoff seriously. 
wes is reading a proclamation honoring the charlottesville 12, the 12 african american students who desegregated charlottesville schools 60 years ago this week.
mr alex-zan receives the proclamation. he is 67 years old, having been just 7 years old when he entered the previously all white venable elementary.
“i have to constantly remind people i am not a hero. i was seven years old.” he says ”the real heroes are the courageous parents.” his own mother is the only surviving parent of any of the charlottesville 12 students.
shantell bingham, chair of the human rights commission & a food justice activist who works with students in their school gardens is up now with two students to talk about the sculpture the students have designed honoring the charlottesville 12
shit i can’t even link to my own tweets if i’m locked. so much for this plan.
shantell says students spent a lot of time reflecting on the history of the charlottesville 12 this year, particularly in the wake of the shooting threat this year against black and brown students.
john hall is up speaking on several consent agenda items. his comments aren’t particularly coherent in a way that makes them hard to summarize.
several people who signed up to speak indicated they wanted to speak about the leaf bagging issue, which is on the consent agenda. they’re being asked to speak now instead of general public comment as that item is on the consent agenda.
the first of the leaf commenters says the decision whether or not to bag one’s leaves should be left to the homeowner.
the second speaker says she and her organization are “ultimately neutral” on the issue of leaf bags.
the third speaker on the issue of bagged leaf collection has file folders full of pictures of leaves for the council members. she says she begs them not to do away with bagged leaf collection.
the fourth person with strong feelings about leaf collection says maybe we should get containers like we use for trash to put the leaves in instead of plastic bags.
he says he thinks his proposal would allow leaves to be collected much faster. “they could do three blocks in the time it takes the sucking machine to do one!”
THIS is the kind of city council content i crave.
THIS is the kind of city council content i crave.
oh i thought the leaf content was over but there are some staff members who want to address the concerns about LEAVES.
after nearly half an hour of Leaf Talk, @jake_gold says it’s a little cavalier to put a $4mil allocation toward the west main street streetscape project on the consent agenda.
galvin seems personally offended by that comment. she says the west main street project has been in the works for years and lists its virtues.
signer keeps referring to west main street as “the city’s living room.” didn’t he cut his teeth in local politics trying to get the liquor store removed from that neighborhood?
the two items related to the west main street streetscape were pulled out and voted on separately. the main consent agenda passed unanimously and the 2 streetscape items passed 4-1 with mayor walker dissenting.
dr richardson says the city is getting many inquiries about the second and fourth street mall crossings. he is still reviewing the downtown safety study and will discuss it with council in the future.
on to public comment. the first speaker says he is in contact with someone who wants to purchase the lee and jackson statues 👀
“this is a serious offer. he has expressed this interest for quite a while.” he says this interested buyer wants to set up a call to discuss this. (the statues are currently protected by an injunction in a lawsuit that goes to trial next week)
“my wife has told me i can’t bring home any more lawsuits so i can’t say a word about this,” wes says.
city attorney john blair says council can’t take any action on the statues right now.
city attorney john blair says council can’t take any action on the statues right now.
the next speaker says that every time an event is being held at the pavilion, 15 handicap parking spaces are taken away from the disabled community. he proposes a zero tolerance policy on handicap parking & says they should not allow officer discretion in enforcement.
interesting. he says accessible spaces should be 4 hours (most downtown spots are 2 hour time limited). but at the last parking advisory panel meeting the city’s parking director said accessible spaces downtown aren’t time limited AT ALL.
john hall just introduced himself as “johnny hall.” is that new?
he’s holding up a large framed drawing he’s made of what he thinks should be done with the landmark hotel property.
he’s holding up a large framed drawing he’s made of what he thinks should be done with the landmark hotel property.
hall says he doesn’t think we should be building any more public housing until we’ve taken care of all the issues in the existing affordable housing. he holds up a large box for a dehumidifier & one for a fan, which he recommends by brand name.
he’s also got a small cardboard model of a bus he holds up when recommending that bus routes extend to the airport.
tanesha hudson is up now talking about the proclamation council made about the importance of respect. she asks them if they remember a december 2016 meeting when jason kessler told wes bellamy his days were numbered. where was their demand for respect then?
“when it’s black people, you don’t care. you really don’t care,” hudson says about council’s sudden interest in protecting the feelings of council members.
she cites several notable examples of intense disrespect & even threats toward black members of council (including signer’s own leak to the press on the eve of the 2017 council election attempting to sabotage nikuyah walker)
the lady who thinks that fluoride in the water turned black people into criminals is giving a public comment asking council to disband the civilian review board
she says criminal justice reform allows “dangerous criminals to be out in the community.” according to emerald young, LAWLESSNESS is being promoted by media narratives of BLACK VICTIMIZATION and SOROS FUNDED DISTRICT ATTORNEYS.
this is some live action alex jones brain rot
“the fact is black people commit more crimes than other races,” she says after her time ends. the crowd was quiet during her entire comment but there was some upset at this.
mayor walker tells her that the address she entered when signing up to comment is an albemarle county address.
harold folley from the people’s coalition gives a quick comment in support of a strong police civilian review board.
reverend don gathers thanks the police chief for going out to the community of 7th & Dice street to meet with the community affected by the JADE task force raid that tore a family’s home apart. apparently the city police had no involvement in or knowledge of the operation.
it was seriously fucked up. a no knock warrant, flash bangs, house totally torn apart, whole neighborhood terrified... all apparently without any involvement from the city police department.
nbc29.com/story/40975839…
nbc29.com/story/40975839…
there are only THREE ITEMS on tonight’s agenda. and no takers for the public hearing on the first one.
john hall tried to make a comment about the last agenda item, but now isn’t the time. the gas line easement item will go on a future consent agenda.
john hall has a comment on our second easement public hearing. it isn’t actually relevant to this or any agenda item.
the issue of the easements on valley road, monroe ave, and JPA will go on a future consent agenda (although mayor walker has said she’ll have it removed from the consent agenda, i assume to vote against it)
the last agenda item is a zoning text amendment that proposes removing the requirement that developments of 50 or more units have at least two vehicular points of entry. staff and the planning commission have recommended approving the change.
missy creasy clarifies that in situations where multiple vehicle access points would be more appropriate, that can still be worked out. this just removes an arbitrary requirement from the zoning code.
there is no public hearing on this item and it will go on a future consent agenda. (john hall will still have the opportunity to speak to the issue when it comes back on the agenda, don’t worry about him)
a lot of hand wringing, mostly from signer and galvin, about an off cycle budget request. interesting they had no such qualms about the $75k they gave the downtown business association to buy TV & newspaper ads about shopping at their stores.
meeting adjourned. before 9pm?! absolutely unheard of.
