Esther I. Brown
dynamic, detail-oriented creativeC-VILLE Issue #18.08
Issue #18.09 :: 02/28/2006 – 03/06/2006
SCHILLING LEADS WITH NON-VOTES
The King of Abstentions opts to run for Council again
On Tuesday, February 21, City Councilor Rob Schilling announced his intention to run for a second term in May’s citywide election, casting himself as the guy who’s been standing up against “business as usual.” Though he was referring to Council’s budgeting process, an assertion that was forcefully derided by fellow Councilor Blake Caravati in the next day’s Daily Progress, there’s one area where Schilling, Council’s lone Republican, definitely runs against the pack. By a margin as high as 4-1, Schilling stands out as the Councilor with the greatest number of abstentions.
According to C-VILLE’s search into City records, during Schilling’s first two years, under Mayor Maurice Cox, he abstained on eight of 127 votes. The closest non-vote contender was Caravati, with two abstentions from July 2002 to June 2004. Cox abstained once; Councilors Kevin Lynch and Meredith Richards did not abstain at all.
Since 2004 Council has had 52 major votes (C-VILLE did not tally votes on consent agendas). Schilling abstained seven times, followed by Kendra Hamilton with four abstentions. Caravati and Lynch have one each in this period; Mayor David Brown has not abstained on any vote. All told, Schilling has abstained on more than 8 percent of Council votes in nearly four years.
Explaining his record, Schilling credits his abstentions to poor information. “I’ll never guess at something. That’s what I would consider poor public service,” he says.
But his colleagues see something different at work. “I don’t think that other than Rob there’s been much precedent for people using abstentions,” Richards says.
“You’re put there to be a legislator, a voice for the people,” Caravati says. “When you don’t take positions, especially when you take the excuse that you have no information, you’re not doing your job as a legislator.”
—Cathy Harding, with additional reporting by Esther Brown and Nell Boeschenstein
Noah’s arc
MEET THE NEW CHA DIRECTOR
Noah Schwartz on rehabbing public housing
Noah Schwartz is the newest director of the Charlottesville Housing Authority, the agency that oversees the City’s public housing stock and which has been under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for three years running. Schwartz and his staff have been given just one year to improve CHA’s standing. Schwartz talked recently about what he was doing to get CHA back on its feet—both in the eyes of HUD and city residents.
—Esther Brown
C-VILLE: What is it going to take for the Charlottesville Housing Authority to be successful?
Noah Schwartz: Housing is a big part of the anti-poverty issue. I mean, is our goal just providing housing, or should our goal be broader than that in addressing poverty issues? So that more of the folks that we provide subsidized housing to are able to participate in a wider range of housing options, so that they’ve got the training they need to get the jobs they need so that they have a broader set of choices? Are we working in partnership with the schools so that the 48 percent of our public housing residents who are under the age of 18 are getting the support they need? I think we’ve got to look at all of that if we’re going to be successful.
How do you see yourself accomplishing what past directors haven’t been able to accomplish?
I think we’ve got to have the intent to do things differently than we have in the past. You can’t just be there to punch the clock.
What would you tell public housing residents, for instance residents of Westhaven, who hear rumors of redevelopment in their neighborhood all the time?
I would tell them what I told them [three] weeks ago: Redevelopment is going to happen at some point, and when we’re ready to have serious discussions, you’ll hear it from me. There’s not a whole lot we’re doing with it right now.
Grip and grin
WOMEN FIND SOLACE IN HUSBANDS’ HANDS
UVA prof confirms the wisdom of John Cougar Mellencamp
It was John Cougar Mellencamp who told us that “everyone needs a hand to hold on to,” and now a UVA scientist is telling us why.
According to a recent study conducted by psychologists and neuroscientists at UVA and the University of Wisconsin and published in the journal Psychological Science, happily married women under acute stress experience immediate physical relief upon taking hold of their husbands’ hands.
UVA psychologist and lead study author Dr. James Coan says that while “past studies have found a health-enhancing benefit in couples that are the happiest,” this “is the first study that’s really starting to look at the mechanisms in the brain that are responsible [for those health benefits].”
In order to study how the brain responds to cues of danger, the women participating in the study were given multiple MRI scans, each of them knowing they could be subjected to a mild electric shock at any time during the scanning process.
While both spousal and stranger handholding regulated the married women’s responses to threat cues, only the husbands’ hands decreased activity in the brain for “hyper-vigilance,” or the brain’s overreaction to dangers that aren’t really life-threatening. Coan says the regulatory influence of handholding is the brain’s way of saying, If I were alone, this would be really dangerous.
Coan says that existing research provides evidence that “living together doesn’t seem to correspond with the same kind of [health] benefits as marriage does.” Still, in their ability to help us respond to threat cues, “social networks are very, very important to our health and well-being,” Coan says. “As a society, we’re in danger of emphasizing self-reliance too much, especially when it comes to dealing with stress and adversity,” he says.
Similar studies are in the works with male participants and also with homosexual couples. “We are expecting to see the same kinds of results [in gay and lesbian couples],” Coan says. “A lot of homosexual couples go through a public commitment ceremony—I want to see if the same kinds of differences exist within homosexual couples as do with heterosexual couples.”
—Esther Brown
Get involved
IT’S BUDGET SEASON
Put your 2 cents into the City and County’s guiding documents
If you’re interested in what the hell your local government is doing all day, and how they’re frittering away your hard-earned tax dollars, you better be ready for budget season. In the coming months the City and County will be crafting their budgets that, starting in July, will set the government’s course for another year. If you care about what they’re doing, make sure you attend the meetings below.
—Esther Brown
City of Charlottesville Budget Events
March 6: City Manager proposes budget to City Council
March 20: First public hearing
April 3: Second public hearing
April 5: Final City Council work session
April 11: City Council votes
Albemarle County Budgetary Events
February 28: County Executive’s budget document finalized
March 8: Public hearing on County Executive’s recommended budget
April 5: Public Hearing on Board of Super-visors’ proposed budgets and tax rate
April 12: Board of Supervisors votes
