writer, editor
The Hook, the paper I work for, took home the Virginia Press Association’s highest award this year at the annual ceremony in Norfolk on March 24, of which I’m very proud. In addition, we won 20-something other awards…including two for yours truely. I’m also proud of the fact that our gag staff photo idea made it on to Wonkette!
Photo: art guru Mitchel Jarrett, editor Hawes Spencer, reporter Lindsay Barnes
Coy Barefoot had me on his WINA radio program “Charlottesville Right Now” to talk about the way our Mall fountains are no longer interactive. Take a listen, courtesy of Charlottesville Podcasting Network…
Photo at left is the Central Place fountain in January 2007. Photo right is the Central Place fountain in the summer some time in the late 1980’s.
Wrote an article for the Hook about the disuse of the “interactive” water fountains on the Mall. It was unusual for me in that I wasn’t just writing about something happening, I was writing about something that I thought ought to happen.
Fountainblue: Who’ll revive our Mall fountains?
Can you place the four interactive water fountains on the Downtown Mall? Don’t feel bad if you can’t place them all. Three are usually hidden, surrounded by the outdoor seating at Miller’s, Sal’s and The Nook restaurants, and all four have strayed so far from their designer’s original intention that one local architect says the biggest one– at Central Place– has become “a kind of dead zone.”
According to several local architects, that’s not what renowned landscape architect Lawrence Halprin had in mind when he designed the Downtown Mall in the 1970s. Indeed, Halprin– now 90 and living in San Francisco– is famous for the integration of interactive fountains in his public space projects, most notably his Auditorium Forecourt Fountain in Portland, Oregon, a complex of falls and water shoots that invite people in to splash around. Here on the Mall, Halprin’s invite has been thwarted by restaurants co-opting the space around the fountains and general disuse, not to mention a thick “keep out” chain that was installed around the Central Place fountain.
Although Halprin couldn’t be reached before press time, UVA landscape architecture professor Beth Meyer agrees that his original idea for the fountains has been derailed.
Halprin, says Meyer–a specialist in 20th Century public landscapes–designed several significant American urban spaces, such as San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square, Portland, Oregon’s Auditorium Forecourt and Lovejoy Plaza, Seattle’s Freeway Park, and, of course, our Downtown Mall. “All of these spaces had fountains and pools that invited participation,” says Meyer. “From sitting on or stepping into a basin to jumping from stone to stone across a pool and immersing oneself in a waterfall.” In addition, Meyer says the Downtown Mall is one of Halprin’s finest works. “It is one of a few places in the United States where a pedestrian street has worked economically and socially,” she says. ” Granted, it has benefited from a populace that has valued it and cared for it even when it was not yet economically vital.”
Meyer, who spoke to Halprin about his Charlottesville work some years ago, says he did have plans for a large participatory fountain plaza at the east end of the Mall where the amphitheater went up, but the scheme was too costly for the City.
“But they did include the small fountain at Central Place,” she says. ” I first saw the Mall in the mid 1970s. The fountain was on, the basin full, and there were families gathered around it. When I moved here to teach in 1993, the fountain was not chained. The water was not always on, but when it was, it attracted people.” More
On October 20, 2006 Charlottesville Police shot and wounded Elvis Gene Shifflett after a three-hour manhunt involving over 60 officers, two helicopters, police dogs, and ATVs. Here’s my coverage of events so far…
11/30/2006
Riddled: What happens after police shootings? (2nd part of two-part story)
While the fallout from the Robert Lee Cooke shooting continues after two years, the fallout from a more recent police shooting is just beginning.
As widely reported, two Charlottesville police officers shot and wounded Elvis Shifflett, 38, of Esmont, after a three-hour manhunt October 20 that involved over 60 officers, several ATVs, search dogs, and two helicopters.
Although such events happen in a matter of seconds, as the Cooke shooting proves, the investigations, lawsuits, and public debate often continue for years.
Indeed, as Charlottesville police captain Bryant A. Bibb told the Daily Progress recently, “It’s a traumatic thing to have to do, and a lot of times the frustration of what comes after is tough too.” Bibb speaks from experience. In 1988, he shot and killed a suspected thief outside the Terrace Theater.
“We came out with police gear and challenged him to put the gun [a sawed-off shotgun] down,” says Bibb. “Instead, he raised the gun up and pointed it at us.”
Of course, devastating actions like this are equally traumatic for the shooting victim and families involved.
Elvis Shifflett’s family members say that, except for a short visit three days after the shooting, they’ve been prevented from seeing Shifflett, whom they fear may have been permanently disabled in the incident. Local police officials, meanwhile, decline to answer specific questions about the shooting because results of a State Police investigation are pending. More
12/12/2006
Shifflett moved from rehab to jail
Elvis Gene Shifflett, who was shot by Charlottesville police following a manhunt on October 20, has been transfered from UVA’s HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital to the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, according to family members. More
12/13/2006
Camblos: “There will be no criminal charges filed
According to a late afternoon news release, Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos has decided not to file criminal charges against the two Charlottesville police officers involved in the October 20 shooting of Elvis Gene Shifflett, and he has officially closed the investigation. Camblos, who received the results of the Virginia State Police investigation into the shooting only yesterday, said that no charges would be filed against Sgt. M. G. Davis, the Charlottesville officer who shot Shifflett, or against Charlottesville officer J. Morris, who “shot one of the tires of the truck Mr. Shifflett was driving at the time he was shot.”
12/15/2006
Shifflett charged; cops cleared
On the same day that Albemarle Police announced three new felony charges against Elvis Gene Shifflett, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo held a press conference to announce an investigation by State Police has exonerated the officers who shot Shifflett.
“These are split second decisions,” said Longo, adding that Sergeant Melvin G. Davis and Officer James Morris believed their lives or lives of others were in imminent danger when they shot at Shifflett as he tried to make his escape from Brookhill Avenue on October 20. Charlottesville Police will now conduct thier own investigation of the officer’s conduct, to ensure officer’s followed the department’s protocol for use of deadly force. More
Well, as you can see, I moved my blog over to WordPress, by far a more superior blogging setup. You’ll also notice there’s nothing here. You’ll just have to click on the link to my old blogger blog to access my archives over the last few years. Eventually, I’ll move things over. Anyway, here’s to WordPress!
