"Web site developer Waldo Jaquith, 23, on Sunday became the fourth candidate to enter the race for Charlottesville's City Council, embracing the still-developing platform of the 'progressive' Democrats for Change interest group.

Jaquith's relative youth sets him apart from the other declared candidates - Mayor Blake Caravati is 51, business owner Joan Fenton is 50 and development consultant Bern Ewert is 59 - but it is not without precedent. Republican J. Michael Crafaik made the first of his two unsuccessful City Council runs in 1996, at age 24.

Age notwithstanding, Jaquith noted in an interview Sunday that he has been a public figure of sorts in the city for years, with a resume that includes working on several political campaigns, owning a company, running the nationally recognized Dave Matthews Band web site nancies.org and working as an activist against youth curfews, among other causes.

Most recently, he designed an online version of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression's planned downtown free speech chalkboard. The center is set to formally announce the Internet chalkboard's creation within weeks, and Jaquith is a member of a panel that will oversee the real-world chalkboard's operations.

Still, Jaquith lacks any experience in government. He believes, though, that a little inexperience can be a good thing.

'Some people are going to want a city councilor that.has a lot of experience running a city, and some people are going to want someone whose ideas and methods haven't been set in place,' Jaquith said. 'I think that it helps in some regard that I don't know what can't be done. So I go ahead and do it.'

'And,' he added, 'you've got to start somewhere. It's City Council. It's where you start. Heck, our governor's never held office. I think I can handle City Council.'

The Democrats for Change, which supported successful council candidates Kevin Lynch and Maurice Cox in the party nominating process before the 2000 election, expect to finalize their platform at a meeting Jan. 23.

'I'll be able to say so much more when the DFC platform is done, because the DFC platform is really going to be my starting point,' Jaquith said, holding a copy of the group's platform from the 2000 election.

The party as a whole is scheduled to choose nominees for the two contested seats Feb. 23, and the nomination is significant: No Democratic nominee has lost a council election in more than a decade.

Touching on several key Democrats for Change issues, Jaquith stressed the importance of open government, safe neighborhoods, non-discrimination clauses, social equity, improved race relations and quality of life. 'Isn't that what we want, to have a happy populace?' he said. 'With quality of life as a primary concern, a lot of other things fall into place.'

He opposes construction of new roads, including the controversial Meadowcreek Parkway, without a better regional plan. But he left open the possibility of putting the road's future to a voter referendum.

Jaquith, who was born David Landers Jaquith but legally changed his name years ago, is the son of Janis Jaquith, a columnist whose work appears in The Daily Progress. He also runs the web site cvillenews.com, which compiles news reports from a variety of local sources - including the Progress - and holds discussions of local issues.

As of 9 p.m. Sunday, 17 people had participated in a poll on the site about the council election. Six called it 'very interesting,' while seven checked the box for 'I suppose I'll pay attention' and four responded that they 'couldn't care less.'

The site will continue to cover the election, Jaquith said, though there may be some changes now that he's a candidate. 'I will either recuse myself from covering council related issues, or I will try to cover it as blandly as possible. But it's not in the character of cvillenews.com, to be bland,' he said with a chuckle.

Some issues tend to be overlooked in local politics, Jaquith said. It's a situation he intends to change.

'I haven't heard anything about poverty. I haven't heard that in years,' he said. 'We have a very poor African-American community, and I don't know why nobody talks about it. ... It's this unacknowledged problem, that we really have an 'other side of the tracks.' There's just no getting around it.'

Jaquith admitted solutions will be difficult, but as a first step mentioned such programs as the Music Resource Center and Computers4Kids - he worked for the latter as a volunteer - that provide training and opportunity to children from low-income neighborhoods.

'Beyond that - I know that I don't know anything when it comes to the black community in Charlottesville - and I don't intend to solve all the problems myself,' Jaquith said. 'I'm a white kid from North First Street, I can't speak for the African-American community unless they let me, but I hope I can.'

The idea, he said, is to get a more diverse group of people involved in city government.

'Historically, city councilors in general tend to be people that are active in politics,' Jaquith said. 'What about the people that just love their city? ... Poor people don't get on City Council, but we have a lot of low-income people in the city.' Who's representing them?'

'People under 40 don't get on City Council,' he added. 'Yet.' " (Jake Mooney, The Daily Progress, January 14, 2002).