The Democratic Party of Charlottesville certified three City Council nominations for the May 4 general election on Saturday before an overflowing crowd at the Albemarle County Office Building.
With four candidates running for the three available nominations, incumbent City Council member Kevin Lynch, along with Kendra Hamilton and David Brown, received nominations. Current Vice Mayor Meredith Richards failed to win a nomination.
Lynch, who was endorsed by Mayor Maurice Cox, touted a commitment to improve city housing through sustainable development. Lynch also expressed a desire to improve Charlottesville Transit Service, a main topic of discussion during the caucus.
Lynch's CTS plan called for the creation of a "backbone and feeder system."
"We'd have a central backbone where the busses would come every ten minutes, and the feeder systems would pick up people from the neighborhoods and take them to the backbone," Lynch said.
The system also would include provisions so that buses would have the ability to control traffic lights.
"The buses would be the fastest thing moving on that backbone." Lynch said.
Hamilton's platform also emphasized CTS improvements.
"As someone who has tried to use Charlottesville's transportation system, the buses don't come frequently enough," Hamilton said. "If they don't take you where you want to go, the bus system -- it seems to me -- is broken. If you have to be there an hour ahead of time in order to get to the place where you want to go, it's unusable for the average person."
Hamilton added that an analysis of the CTS transportation grid is needed in order to improve the system.
Brown, a local chiropractor and University alumnus, focused on high housing costs in his campaign.
"Too many families struggle to make ends meet," Brown said. "There is a lot of demand for housing in Charlottesville [forcing prices up]. At the same time, median income is actually quite low. Housing is a big issue."
He also pledged a "new civic use" for the Jefferson School, a former African-American segregated high school in Charlottesville.
"There is a long history of Jefferson's school, and a lot of people in this community graduated from there," Brown said. "But it's been in disrepair. There has been a task force studying it -- to look at finding both a renovation for it and a new use. I think we can see it as a centerpiece of our civic landscape that also has a historical connection to the community it represents."
Brown emphasized the importance of a Democratic sweep in the Council's general elections.
"Charlottesville has a number of really important issues, and I think that the Democratic Party in Charlottesville has a tradition of vision, a tradition of leadership and energy, and a tradition of coming up with thoughtful solutions," he said. "I look forward to us prevailing in May."
Charlottesville's Republican City Council nomination will take place tomorrow at the Charlottesville District Courthouse, City Councilman Rob Schilling said. Schilling declined to release any names of potential candidates.
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