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104 Photos of Cemetery at University of Virginia.

Charlottesville City Council TV10 LIVE & ARCHIVED + other public meetings.

19th Annual Reading of the Bill of Rights.

On the coldest day so far this winter, a small group of Charlottesville activists read aloud the Bill of Rights on its 226th anniversary.

At the rally, Joe Thomas of Cville 107.5 WCHV 1260 said he read on the air this morning Blair Hawkins' short essay about Due Process. Thank you, Joe.

Half the Bill of Rights is Due Process. Amendments #4 #5 #6 #7 #8. How & how much Life, Liberty, or Property to seize when you're found guilty of a crime or breach of contract. It's the only right with an exception... Eminent Domain. It defines Capitalism and Equal Justice. Social justice and double standards are illegal in America, although we see them everywhere. We see selective prosecution of a small group of racists from the August 12 riot. The much larger group of racists are defying the Grand Jury based on 5th Amendment self-incrimination. In our system you're supposed to have 2 juries...the Grand to bring charges and the Petit 12-member jury to decide the final verdict. The latest attack on Due Process is Charlottesville's Human Rights Commission, designed to go around the court system, dividing the public along 13 arbitrary traits (race, sex, age, etc.) for official unequal treatment. Every part of the Constitution was chosen for 2 purposes... More Prosperous and More Peaceful Union. Straying from these hard learned lessons of history creates the violence and blight we see today. That's why the government violating a civil right is a greater crime than any offense the citizen might commit. Skipping Due Process to eliminate blight created more blight than ever. We must preach the Constitution. (Comment on Facebook.)

Two years ago there was a larger turnout and milder weather.

The Bill of Rights. Commissioned Mar. 4, 1789. Ratified Dec. 15, 1791.

John Munchmeyer of Jefferson Area Libertarians.

Dave Johnson.

Jim Lark.

Downtown Transit Center 2008.

Three Notch'd Road. US 250 Highway. Main Street original 50 acres of 1762 town. Pedestrian mall after controversial 1974 City Council vote. 2 Yes – 3 Abstain.

Downtown Pavilion opened 2005. Original Fridays After Five on foundation of 1828 Midway Hotel when torn down 1973, Charlottesville High 1893–1940.

Community Chalkboard and Podium. 54 by 7.5 feet. Proposed 1997. Dedication 4-20-2006. (Cvillepedia)

East-west Louisa Railroad came through 1849. North-south 1863.

Blight Monument Landmark Hotel looms over downtown for a decade.

First speech on Eminent Domain to a packed chamber receives thunderous applause. How Urban Renewal violates Due Process. June 5, 2000.

Land Bank Is Latest Urban Renewal Real Estate Scheme. Monday November 20, 2017. (Share/Post)

12 years ago almost to the day, City Council passed 4 to 1 the Charter Amendment Section 50.7 Housing and Community Development. 7 new powers to seize and sell real estate. 4 new powers to fund the felonies. Va. Senate stripped out the Eminent Domain powers, leaving the low-income homeowner subsidy program, which usually has a surplus because qualified owners choose not to apply.

The Land Bank deals with a specific problem. How to entice a developer to purchase Housing Authority (urban renewal) property seized and for sale since the '60s and '70s, which has many strings attached. They won't sell at auction. The hope is a developer will buy the urban renewal land from a Land Bank but not from the urban renewal agency.

Sort of like when the City donated "surplus public land" to Habitat. Because that was illegal at the time, the transfer went through Piedmont Housing Alliance. Land Trusts also have come up as possible solutions to the shortage of affordable housing caused by the Housing Authority urban renewal agency and other housing charities. A land trust creates a bureaucracy to own the land, where tenants have lifetime rights but not full Due Process of ownership.

The Land Bank appears to serve as a middle-man for real estate transfers. The public is more sophisticated today than 12 years ago. 11 citizens expressed concerns. The City Treasurer warned the ordinance would set a precedent of ear-marking general tax funds to a particular non-profit agency. 50% of property tax would funnel back to the Land Bank program.

The public questioned why we need a new committee to duplicate the work of HAC - Housing Advisory Committee. Because status quo housing charities are eliminating affordable housing in a specific way, mentioned by 2 speakers. Affordable for 50% of Area Median Income means your current home affordable at 25% AMI just doubled in price. No housing cost is being REDUCED to 50% AMI.

The most disappointing was to see Brandon Collins' fall from respectability. Collins was arrested earlier this year in connection to local Antifa. Collins started out advocating for residents of public housing. When the landlord began to fund PHAR, the neighborhood association began to work in the interest of the landlord (City Council Housing Authority).

So Collins is now part of the corruption where affordable housing charities are eliminating affordable housing. In 2013 City Council raided the public housing redevelopment fund.

The links below tell the story. This post is based on the video. I haven't looked at the Agenda yet.

Land Bank 11-20-2017. 56 min includes 15 min recess. Action is deferred. From City's TV10 Archive.

• Nov. 21, 2005 City Charter Amendment — Page 1 | Page 2
• Jan. 5, 2006 Letter to General Assembly — Page 1 | Page 2
• Daily Progress blacks out the story from Nov. 21, 2005 until Jan. 18, 2006.
• Official Correspondence over the years.
• The Amendment & Letter debut Blair's Blog.
• Update on Illegal Habitat Houses. Dec. 18, 2006.
• Previous Reports on City Council.
• Blair Hawkins debates Land Trust with Urban Renewal veteran Richard C. Collins from the 1977 record drought.

Blair Hawkins for House of Delegates 2003. Private Property for the Common Good

Cville Native to Oppose Mitch Van Yahres: Mr. Sterling Goes to Richmond. Mon Apr 7, 2003.

A white man who grew up in poor black neighborhoods and public housing of Charlottesville, two-time winner of the Clark School spelling bee, Blair Hawkins announces he will seek the Republican nomination to represent Charlottesville and Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Delegates.

— By not allowing property assessments to decline, the Office of the Assessor is protecting us from the Housing Authority. —

• 2003 Retrospective.
• Charlottesville's urban renewal is much more than Vinegar Hill.
• Vinegar Hill exhibit + Garrett photo essay.
• Urban Renewal in the national spotlight.

1885 Upper Ragged Mountain Reservoir. City tax rate jumps from 60 to 90 cents.

1885 Pump House.

2007: Year Of The Non-Drought. Jan. 3, 2008.

For the third time since the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority was created in 1972, Charlottesville and Albemarle enacted mandatory water restrictions in August 2007. Just yesterday (Jan. 2, 2008) RWSA executive director since 2004 Tom Frederick downgraded the agency’s Drought Warning to a Drought Watch, clearing the way for the city and county to lift restrictions.

In 1977 the severity of the water shortage was measured in days of supply remaining. In 2002 the water shortage was measured in percent of total capacity. Because the 2007 drought was still milder, the new metric is level of reservoirs below full. But the height of the dam and area of the reservoir are never given, making it a meaningless metric. Today The Daily Progress, WCHV and WINA filled up space and air time with the meaningless measurements.

Questions from the Start.

1908 Lower Ragged Mountain concrete coupled with earthen when dam integrity and bedrock were questioned. (43 Days supply combined.)

The numbers keep changing in order to avoid historical comparisons. In 2000 the trigger for mandatory restrictions was 60% of capacity, in 2001 65%, in 2002 70%. In Nov.-Dec. 2001, reserves fell to 68% before reservoirs filled without any rain. In 2007 the water shortage was 93% of full. In 2006 the metric was in-stream flow, removing the water supply itself as a factor in determining whether water restrictions are warranted.

On Sep. 13, 2007, Frederick held a forum at Lane Auditorium in the Albemarle County Office Building at the foot of Vinegar Hill. He kicked off the forum on how to finance the $142 million Ragged Mountain reservoir expansion by saying he wanted to focus on the future. The city and county approved the plan in 2006. Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has approved the plan. The State Water Control Board is expected to approve the plan in March (“Localities set to lift limits on water use” by Jeremy Borden, Jan. 3, 2008, The Daily Progress).

2006 Water Supply Plan. Blue(I64) Yellow(Bypass) Green(29North) Red=Cancelled bypass right-of-way. Pipeline from Rivanna W(Walmart) U(University Hall) B(Birdwood)

2012 Ragged Mountain earthen dam 2006 water plan 45-foot additional height.

But members of the public complained that RWSA was editing its website to keep the public uninformed, to remove historical information so that documents posted only a year previously had already been removed. The website did not contain basic information such as when the dams were built, how much water they hold, or how tall the dams are (reference for water measurements below top of dam).

Ragged Mountain’s upper reservoir was built 1885 and expanded 1908. Combined Ragged Mountain contains 460 million gallons when full, or 43 days of supply at average daily demand of 10.6 million gallons per day.

Sugar Hollow was built 1924 and holds 360 million gallons or 33 days. A pipeline connects Sugar Hollow to Ragged Mountain. When expanded, a pipeline would bring water from South Rivanna to Ragged Mountain. Water from Sugar Hollow would return normal flow to the Moorman’s river.

The South Rivanna reservoir began operation in 1966, and now contains 750 million gallons or 70 days of water, a third less than 1966 because of sedimentation.

Director Tom Frederick Sep. 13, 2007 meets growing opposition.

1924 Sugar Hollow with pipeline to Ragged. (33 Days supply.)

When reservoirs are full, we have 146 days or 20 weeks of supply at normal demand. In 2007 supply fell to 135 days (93%). Until a member of the public demanded this information on Sep. 13, no one was able to quantify the non-severity of the current “drought.”

The city of Charlottesville acquired land for South Rivanna in 1962. The reservoir flooded Hydraulic Mills, the commercial center of the African American community of Union Ridge dating to the early 1800s. John Perry built the mill 1818 which supplied much of the lumber used to build the University of Virginia.

The mill complex included “a grist and merchant mill, a miller’s house, a cooper’s house, a storehouse, a blacksmith’s shop, a country store, and, briefly, a silkworm industry.” Hydraulic Mills became the head of navigation for bateaux commerce on the Rivanna until an 1870 flood “ended river navigation in Albemarle County forever.” (“The Life & Legacy of Hugh Carr: River View Farm” brochure at Ivy Creek Natural Area. Ivy Creek Foundation )

1966 South Rivanna the day after Hurricane Isabel Sep. 19, 2003. (70 Days supply.) The 2006 water plan features a pipeline from Rivanna to Ragged. Sugar Hollow pipeline to be decommissioned.

Following the drought of 1977, RWSA acquired 1,300 acres in 1983 near Free Union for Buck Mountain Creek reservoir on a tributary of South Rivanna. But the dam was never built because the endangered James River Spiny Mussel was found. RWSA never returned the land to its owners. In Feb. 2004, RWSA chairman Mike Gaffney said at a City Council meeting that the reservoir might not be built for a hundred years, but the agency is keeping the land as an “insurance policy” against future water demands.

In late 2006, the agency unveiled a plan to use Buck Mountain land in the mitigation plan to replace inundated wetlands and to quadruple the size of the Ragged Mountain reservoir from 460 million gallons to 1,590 million gallons. The pool elevation would be 45 feet higher than today and extend under Interstate 64. Because of the small drainage basin, a pipeline from South Rivanna will fill the mega Ragged Mountain reservoir.

In 2007 RWSA floated the idea to abandon the South Rivanna and allow the reservoir to completely siltate rather than dredge. Today Rivanna holds about half the water supply. When Ragged Mountain is expanded, Rivanna will hold a quarter of the supply and shrinking over time due to siltation.

1983 Buck Mountain land seized but reservoir never built for 1977 record drought 35 days mandatory water conservation. 2004 RWSA is keeping land as "insurance policy."

The expanded Ragged Mountain will flood hiking trails surrounding the existing lakes. Councilor Kevin Lynch and others have asked that this “park land” be replaced with park land elsewhere. But RWSA explained the trails will be relocated to higher ground and expanded, and the financing of that relocation is a point of discussion.

Director Frederick said the trails are on reservoir land acquired in the 1880s for the purpose of future expansion. In December Mayor David Brown made the same argument, explaining we must sometimes invest in the future as past generations have done.

Despite the rare consensus and almost unanimous support to centralize the water supply back to the first reservoir, opposition from the City began to arise and would become bitter and personal. "If you disagree, you're dumber than a 4th grader" became the low-point in the logic.

The opposition could be seen Sep. 13, 2007 when City residents wanted to shift costs to the County and to future users. The audience at old Lane High wanted to know why documents and resources were disappearing from the agency's website. When a few metrics were pried out of staff, Blair's Blog was able to compute the 2007 drought at 93% capacity. Just 5 years earlier the drought trigger was 70%.

Dave Norris & Holly Edwards 13-foot compromise is outvoted Jan. 18, 2011 for 30-foot addition, which became earthen 30 feet on Feb. 23, 2011.

Perhaps there was frustration left over from the 2006 attempt to ouster Virginia climatologist Patrick Michaels. City Councilor Kevin Lynch and Blogger Waldo Jaquith led a McCarthy-style crusade to fire Michaels for not being alarmist. Michaels agreed on every other point of global warming. A year later Michaels resigned anyway.

City Council approved the current water plan June 2006 and again June 2008. Yet the opposition grew as former city councilors claimed they had been duped. The climax was 2011 when City Council threatened to take over the Rivanna agency.

Let's Re-Start the Timeline at 2001.

Blair Hawkins' Aug. 20, 2001 Speech on Dredging.

Analysis of RWSA Presentation. Most of 23 pages talk water supply.

All About 1977 Lost Drought. How front page didn't know after several years of false alarms. Sep. 3, 2002.

In 2002 drought, high-profile leaders in 1977 don't tell the media about 1977 record drought.

Analysis confirms 2002 drought is mild, 1930 drier, 1977 the driest on record. Sep. 18, 2002.

Timeline South Rivanna.

• Council approves Ragged Mountain option: Water for another 50 years. Jun. 5, 2006. Includes Rivanna report Feb. 7, 2005.

  In an unusual show of active listening, the director summarized some themes of public input for these 4 concepts:

  • interest from the public on how the decision will be made locally and by the regulators
  • watershed management
  • growth and development
  • instream flow
  • maintaining existing resources
  • water conservation
• Rivanna Uncomfortable Using Buck Mountain Land For Ragged Mountain Plan. Nov. 2, 2006.
• 50-year Water Plan for 76% more population: Ragged at same phase as Buck Mountain. Sep. 18, 2007.
• The Emperor Has No Water Hoax. Mar. 16, 2008. Pie Charts. 1972 News articles show Rivanna born out of secrecy.
• Dredging Alternative at Citizens Forum. May 5, 2008.
• Rivanna Four Party Agreement 1972 to 2012. For federal grant subsidies, the City & County consolidated to bring sewage from Crozet and from Forest Lakes to the Woolen Mills Advanced Water Treatment Plant down-river from the Rivanna reservoir.
• Crying Drought Fatigue. Mar. 9, 2009.
• Historic day for water supply plan; City, County officials give final approval. Jan 24, 2012. Charlottesville Tomorrow.
• Annexation History Drives Water Agreement. Jan. 29, 2012. Another timeline. Connection to annexation and revenue sharing.

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