Interview with Gabe Silverman by Dave Sagarin

March 5, 2002

On the Democratic nominating convention

There's got to be a better way to do this - the first time through, actually, everything was hunky dory. But then they counted … for a long time. After each round of voting, it took so long counting, that people left - it was on a Saturday, and maybe that's not such a good idea, either - people have a lot of other things to do - maybe it should be on a Thursday evening - and with all that time, people are making deals, forming coalitions - this is not the time to start educating people [about candidate's positions] - maybe if somebody has to leave, at that point they could hand in a preferential list [of the remaining candidates] that would count as votes.

Blake Caravati has a big advantage in a situation like this, he's formed his coalitions already - an advantage of incumbency. And he fears new coalitions - here you have Waldo Jaquith, who represents all this new technology, and the Democrats are using pencils and paper and counting everything by hand - they've bombed us back into the stone age. We really ought to think about how to use computers and the Internet to do this - I'm sure it will come, we just have to decide to do it.

Waldo started out with a lot of strength, but lost out because a lot of his people left - I'm convinced the fourth vote would have gone to Waldo [if not for that].* Waldo Jaquith has set a precedent - he's shown he can mobilize his generation - his youth [and ideas] is where I'm hoping this town will go.

Waldo represents the future of leadership in this town - maybe he should run as a write-in candidate. It's really pretty stupid of the Democrats - that age group will be taking over, and we ought to be involving them now … And about Joan Fenton, she has maturity and she has some ideas that are where I'm hoping this town will go.

* Waldo came in second [after Blake Caravati] in the number of weighted convention votes he received in rounds one through three. He lost out to Alexandria Searls on the fourth round.

On direct election of a mayor

We need a strong, elected mayor. We're heading toward atrophy [with the present council]. If a mayor was elected directly, people could mobilize and put [their] candidate in, and take power away from the establishment.

I've tried backing David [Toscano] and Maurice [Cox] and then Blake [Caravati] in part with the hope that when they got in, they'd go for the direct election of a mayor - it just takes three members of council and you'd have it.

Right now, you don't really have a mayor, just a member of the council - if you had a real mayor your wouldn't need a city manager - he's just appointed by the council anyway - with the stagnant thinking of this council, you could have someone accountable, and you might get some decisions made.

On dealing with the council

The council and commissioners bring in these consultants, and then if a consultant makes a recommendation and they do it, if it's a bad decision there's no one to change it. There was a cross walk on Ridge Street, near the firehouse, and the old people there used it all the time. And then one day I found this new traffic pattern and new paving and the cross walk was gone. I spoke with Jim Tolbert and he said that the consultant said it [the crosswalk] wasn't needed. I told him it was, and he said that it couldn't be changed now. There's a lack of a mode of communication for the public [to protest things like this].

I'd like to see a more representative council anyway, with all age groups and power groups represented, and with more access from the public - when you wind up with just those five people [the current council] in a room, deals get made - you know they're not just altruistic - they don't just have the best interest of the future of the city in mind.

And all the people they've hired to run [the programs] - there's not one of them that I would hire to work for me.

David Toscano had the good grace to step aside, but you know he'll continue to be a power - a 'shadow councilor' - how will that affect the council? I always thought he had higher ambitions - maybe he still does. I told Mitch (van Yahres) a few years ago, "Watch out - he's just waiting for you to die." And Mitch said, "I'm not dying soon." And after David announced that he was stepping aside, I was talking to Mitch, and he said, "OK, I can die now." *

I've always found Maurice Cox to be the most adept and the brightest of them - the most reasonable person to go to.

Meredith Richards has been disenfranchised [by the power structure] - she doesn't realize that she has them by the balls [if she wanted to use her power].

I'm disheartened - I've stopped talking to the council - they're not adult enough to work together, and we [developers] are not childish enough to play the game with them.

* Connie Jorgensen, Legislative Assistant to Delegate Van Yahres, responds: "As a former chair of the Charlottesville Democratic Party once said, 'if Mitch dies, we won't tell anybody, we'll just have him stuffed and put him behind his desk.'"

On present development of West Main Street

New businesses are coming in to the restaurant and marketplace at the Amtrak Station [developed by Silverman], and the people are all from someplace else - they've chosen to come here, or to move back here, to make their lives here - they're the kernel, they're younger - thirties, maybe forty.

I have said to the city, what can you do to help us [make these people succeed]? If you continue to deal with [West Main Street] the way it is, you're going to have a deserted area, back to the bad old days. The city [should] come and say to us, what can we do to [help] make this successful?

You've got Monticello Avenue, a broad avenue, dead-ending at Ridge Street, and West Main Street with this terrible intersection [at Ridge-McIntire] - maybe what should be done is to extend the broad corridor from Monticello Avenue clear through to the University, and add more public transportation [across that corridor].

[With any ideas like this] the city always says * , "It's a good idea, but …" The council, the commissioners, there's always a "But."

* This is Silverman's variation on the old Texas saying, "If all you ever do is all you've ever done, then all you'll get is all you've ever got."

On the future development of West Main Street

Me and Coran Capshaw - between us we own everything [that will be developed] along the West Main Street corridor - we have the ability to make things happen without [really] needing to talk to the University or the City.

He [Capshaw] has the potential to have [a tremendous] impact on the city - he's 40 years old, and he's in the position I was in 20 years ago. And he has the desire to be a real citizen for this community. And he talks [effectively] to the Waldos - he's used music to gain entrée [to acceptance by younger people].

There's a real town and gown [division in Charlottesville] and they each have their interests and maybe keeping West Main Street [from being developed] suits them [both]. They have their own agendas, and I'm afraid they're going to try to rip [Capshaw] off.

West Main Street could become a real meeting place, [a link] between town and gown. People around here are always quoting Thomas Jefferson, and he wanted the University to let students and faculty live together, but at a distance from the town so you wouldn't have things like this recent ... kids beating up college people - which has been going on for a very long time, anyway.

The bottom end of the lawn was closed off [in 1895] by Cabell Hall, to block the view of the shanty town that was there - Jefferson wanted to have that open, probably to keep the view of Monticello. Maybe keeping West Main Street a no-man's land is kind of a way to close off the view.

The University is about baby-sitting kids and maybe educating them. All they care about is their $1.4 billion endowment, and making it grow. And they have the potential to be a great influence [on the development of the West Main Street area]. I'd like to be able - along with Coran - to involve the city and the university to recognize what [they] need to do to build a community. Once we build, it's either good or bad - forever.

On the Thomas Jefferson Foundation's proposed visitor center

We are destroying open land around here as fast as we can, and I'd like to know where the Foundation gets off putting their own visitor's center on a pristine piece of land like that - it's just to capture dollars that ought to go downtown. I guess it's [in keeping with] that Jeffersonian idea of distance, like putting the University at a distance from the town - and that's how the Foundation is. Maybe the next generation [of local leaders] will be able to coordinate planning better.

On ArtInPlace as a paradigm for effective action

ArtInPlace is a terrific idea - sure there are some problems, some art that isn't so good, or in places that aren't right, but they're working on it. And [these] decisions aren't being made by the council, they're just [providing] the spaces. It shows the importance of having a small group of people who really care and who can get something done.