CHARLOTTESVILLE voters will go to the polls on May 2 in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. As housing prices rise, one in four Charlottesville residents live below the federal poverty line, which grossly underestimates the cost of living. Economic stress on working class citizens makes the May 2 City Council elections particularly important. On May 2, Charlottesville voters should elect Democrats Dave Norris and Julian Taliaferro. Because only two percent of University students turned out in the last City Council election, a boost in turnout this year could catapult Norris and Taliaferro to power.
Taliaferro and Norris, if victorious, would take the seats of retiring councilman Blake Caravati and incumbent Republican Rob Schilling. Caravati has done a fine job as councilman, and deserves to have a competent public servant succeed him. While he is an outstanding pontificator and an admirable obstructionist, Schilling has failed to serve the public during his past term and should be thrown out of office.
Currently Dave Norris is director of an interfaith ministry that feeds and shelters the homeless during the winter. He has also served as associate director of Madison House. He has extensive experience working to expand access to affordable housing. As an interim director of the Public Housing Association of Residents, Norris helped empower public housing residents. He has also served on the board of directors with the Piedmont Housing Alliance.
As a public housing advocate, Norris has grappled with the affordable housing crisis firsthand. When he visited Grounds last Monday, he discussed some ways to expand affordable housing availability in Charlottesville. Based on models in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax, Norris supports dedicating five cents on every dollar of property taxes to establishing a Charlottesville Affordable Housing Investment Fund. Dedicating those funds could lead to additional federal and state monies, the sum of which could connect many low income families with decent housing.
Norris also supports reducing the property tax burden on working class families, both by establishing a property tax rebate and by ensuring that assessments do not overvalue properties of working class families. The University can also play a role. If elected, Norris would work with the University to build more student housing and ease the demand for private stock in Charlottesville.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has constructed convenient, affordable housing for employees. Norris would encourage the administration of the University to do the same so that low wage workers at the University don't have to commute from as far away as Greene and Fluvanna Counties. Norris has extensive experience in the public and non-profit sector, and is well equipped to make sound policy decisions to expand the stock of affordable housing.
Julian Taliaferro, who is also running on the Democratic ticket, recently retired as the chief of the Charlottesville Fire Department. Having served for three decades in emergency response, Taliaferro is attuned to the needs of residents all over the city. He is intimately acquainted with the needs of emergency services and knows how to make a department run efficiently. His skills and expertise complement Norris'.
Both Taliaferro and Norris are strong supporters of the public schools. Unlike their Republican counterpart Rob Schilling, they do not make reckless promises to make apparently limitless tax cuts. Taliaferro and Norris understand that tax cuts, while occasionally acceptable if assessments are rising, can undermine the quality of public education. Localities in Virginia are the principal source of funds for our public schools. Charlottesville citizens deserve council members who will prioritize public schools and other critical public services over reckless ideological crusades to cut taxes.
I sent Rob Schilling a brief questionnaire with questions about affordable housing and other local issues. He did not respond. His Web site does not contain information on how to deal with the affordable housing crisis, so one might assume he does not perceive any problem. On his Web site, he does promise to cut taxes and cut them some more.
As students, we experience the housing crisis every month when we pay rent. If we want a sophist for a councilor -- someone who will make grandiloquent speeches about taxes while doing nothing to solve the housing problem -- we should elect Schilling. Students who support experienced public servants with practical plans to bring down housing prices should support the Democratic ticket. Parents with children in the public schools should also vote for the more thoughtful candidates who will not starve the schools in order to achieve narrow ideological ends. Both Dave Norris and Julian Taliaferro have extensive experience working with the Charlottesville community. If elected to City Council, they will have the opportunity to use that experience to address the city's most pressing challenges.
Zack Fields' column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at zfields@cavalierdaily.com.
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