"Teacher and photographer Alexandria Searls has become the second Democrat for Change to enter Charlottesville's City Council race, running on a platform that stresses education and historic preservation.

In an interview Friday, Searls, 40, said the city's ability to attract tourists and retain its historical character depends on the local government's willingness to protert historic structures. That includes the Jefferson School, a building she said she would do everything in her power as a councilor to preserve.

In recent years, 'I kept seeing houses that I care about being taken down for structures that you can see all across America,' Searls said, referring in part to city decisions that allowed the Marriott and Hampton Inn hotel chains to level buildings on West Main Street. 'As the years go by, I keep seeing loopholes and the unforeseen occurring.'

Though several high-profile developers have been known to complain about the city's approval process, Searls believes builders and preservationists can co-exist. 'The developers who have helped preserve the [Downtown] Mall and help make it a viable place are arm-in-arm with preservationists,' she said.

Things have not always run smoothly. Development partners Lee Danielson and Colin Rolph were integral to the mall's recent success, but in September 2000, the council and the city Board of Architectural Review denied them permission to demolish four buildings on the mall. The developers later charged that the panels had bowed to a small interest group of preservationists.

Searls said city staff and boards should work to channel development into areas that aren't already home to historic buildings. 'Sometimes the BAR, councilors and developers are locked into ... not the most optimal system of communication,' she said.

One of Searls' opponents for the Democratic nomination is review board Chairwoman Joan Fenton, owner of two stores on the mall. The others are Mayor Blake Caravati, business owner Bern Ewert, web site developer Waldo Jaquith and nurse David Simmons. The party is scheduled to nominate candidates for the two contested council seats at a primary Feb. 23.

Like Jaquith, Searls is a member of the Democrats for Change, a group that supported councilors Maurice Cox and Kevin Lynch for the party's nomination in the 2000 election. The group has not yet unveiled its platform for the May 7 contest, but past themes have included open government, alternative transportation and the 'living wage.'

But unlike Jaquith, who said as soon as he announced his candidacy that he would run on the group's platform, Searls said she plans to look it over and work things out for herself.

'I'm not a person who's going to be just one group's councilor,' she said. 'I feel that one of the most beneficial aspects of my candidacy is that it's opened me up to other people's viewpoints that are different from my own.'

For example, though she said she personally opposes construction of the planned Meadowcreek Parkway, she believes the controversial road's future should be 'a community decision.'

'My image of myself as a councilor would be someone balancing the needs of various citizens and making priorities based on what I'm hearing,' she added. 'I don't believe government should micromanage. If you get too caught up in trying to over-control, you lose your role of trying to balance out the needs of the community.'

Searls also touted her organizational skills, honed as an active Democratic Party member. She is party co-chair in the Recreation Precinct, coordinated the party's media efforts in the 2000 council election, worked as Lynch's door-to-door campaign manager and worked with him to organize a candidate forum before last year!s state Senate 25th District special election.

Of late, she has been active in Citizens for Jefferson School, a group in which she is a founding member.

Following a School Board vote last week to move city preschool programs out of the building, the council is set to take control of the property and seek redevelopment proposals. Many city residents oppose the plan because the school is one of the last remnants of the historically black Vinegar Hill neighborhood, leveled in the 1960s in the name of 'urban renewal.'

'After the Vinegar Hill demolition, I feel that the African-American community has to have that building and its legacy intact,' Searls said. She has called for the city to apologize for its handling of Vinegar Hill, but she added: 'An apology is useless if you turn a venerated building into condos without respect for the community.'

The school's future has shown signs in recent weeks that it could become a major campaign issue. At a council budget forum Tuesday, Searls and fellow candidate Ewert both called for the preschool program to remain in the building, and activists have been persistent in their appeals to the council.

On Wednesday, the Democrats for Change and several other groups are sponsoring a forum where candidates will discuss affordable housing, economic development, crime, wages and race relations.

Searls said the Jefferson School issue won't go away, and is poised to attain an even higher profile. 'It's a national issue,' she said. 'I think any place where segregation and desegregation happened, with a continuity from so long ago, is a national issue for African-Americans.' " (Jake Mooney, The Daily Progress, January 28, 2002)