And in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia
"Coal Dust" Andria
Norfolk's St. Paul Ghetto "Revitalization"
Of course she voted for the Norfolk's next round of de facto gentrification!
Queen Andria McClellan, St. Paul's Revitalization, Norfolk
It's hardly the first time the City of Norfolk has run lower-income African Americans out of a neighborhood with a lick and a promise, all in the name of "progress," right. But Miss "Inclusiveness" City Councilwoman, aren't things supposed to be different now, even supposed to be better?
Bloomberg: A Virginia City's Playbook for Urban Renewal: Move Out the Poor
Virginian-Pilot: St. Pauls Redevelopment Plan Offers False Choices
How rich! Snow White is all about equality in her first TV ad:
A Short-Sighted Mistake
in her own neighborhood
Andria McClellan's church, historic Christ and St. Luke's Episcopal Church in the Ghent Historic District, decided it wanted to build a modernistic glass structure jutting from the rear of its Gothic Revival cathedral, built in 1910. It was only one of her High-Church cathedral's questionable decisions.
Andria McClellan, in favor of Christ and St. Luke's Guild House destruction boondoggle
But neighbors in the Historic District didn't approve of either the disparate architecture nor the serious parking problems caused by the large events the church would likely hold in this huge glass-enclosed space, so they went to the Norfolk Circuit Court, and in 2008 the court stopped it.
But even though old houses in the Historic District should not be demolished willy-nilly, before the final resolution by the court, the church tore down its 100-year-old Guild House to make room for the new structure. The Guild House, by the way, had been a beehive of social outreach activity, and its architecture had fit the architecture of the rest of the neighborhood.
Andria McClellan, all in with Christ and St. Luke's Guild House destruction boondoggle
"Demolition of the century-old Guild House in Ghent began Tuesday, hours before the City Council voted to explore ways to preserve the community's historic offerings" — Andria McClellan
Virginian-Pilot photo, Feb. 27, 2008
The original idea was that the church would build a replica of the historic Guild House across the street from the new glass-and-steel edifice, but just like the ill-conceived new structure, the replica never materialized.
It's unknown, at least outside the church, how involved AndriaMcClellan was in the decision to demolish the Guild House (though she seems to manage to get herself onto all kinds of boards), but here's what she told the local news:
"It [the lawsuit] has cruelly and negatively affected our ability to maintain and restore our buildings"— Andria McClellan
Is tearing down a historic and architecturally appropriate building ever a proper way to "maintain and restore" it?
Andria McClellan, all for destroying the Guild House at Christ and St. Luke's
A Huge Ayn Rand Fan
(progressive voters beware)
It was on the conservative John Fredericks Radio Network that Andria publicly revealed she's a huge Ayn Rand fan, just like Donald, Trump, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, etc. Andria said she's so much into Ayn Rand that she even named one of her sons after Howard Roark, a character in Rand's novel The Fountainhead.
There's just something about a guy who knows how to
sling a jackhammer:
– and sling a woman:
John Oliver's take on Rand:
You gotta wonder why Andria was so attracted to Ayn Rand, who dwelled full-bore in an anti-feminist mindset, though some modern-day self-proclaimed feminists seem to have embraced her "philosophy," Objectivism.
Some prime Ayn Rand quotes:
“I’m a male chauvinist."
"I am profoundly anti-feminist because it’s a phony movement.”
"The essence of femininity is hero worship – the desire to look up to man."
“She [a female president] would become the most unfeminine, sexless, metaphysically inappropriate, and rationally revolting figure of all: a matriarch.”
Andria McClellan even claimed during her first appearance on John Fredericks' Conservative Radio Show that one of the reasons she was moved to run for political office was that she was rudely told by former Mayor Fraim of Norfolk that she could not stand up and speak longer than the alotted three minutes. But this writer happened to have been at that meeting of the City Council and witnessed that the dignified mayor treated her with the same courteousy that he treated all speakers.
Ms. Rand, too, would have surely chafed at such an unnatural constraint on her personal freedoms. Nevertheless, years after Ayn Rand fan Andria McClellan got herself elected to City Council, has that egregious time limit changed?
Mayor Fraim, by the way, was the one who appointed her to the Norfolk Planning Commission. Then she bet the proverbial hand that fed her when she unseated incumbent Councilan Barclay Winn, whom Mayor Fraim had endorsed.
Artist's conception of Norfolk's
someday memorial to Mayor Fraim:
City Councilwoman Andria McClellan (think the seagull)
and Mayor Paul Fraim, Norfolk
Remember how Andria McClellan tried to establish her "Mr Too" creds by dissing Mayor Fraim for allegedly trying to shut her up when she was speaking to the City Council during the after-meeting public comments? That's when citizens get to express themselves for up to three minutes. As I recall (I was at that meeting), she was going on about the schoiol board when her time was up. Mayor Fraim, who was always a gentleman, and was then too, simply told her her time was up. But to hear her tell it later, the chauvinist man had shut the feminist cause célèbre incarnate down.
Coverup
Abuse of power, cronyism, and record keeping shenannigans,
or how they do things in Norfolk's City Hall
Andria McClellan, bad hair day
Another Story from Her Neighborhood
A retired married couple, both long-time citizens of Norfolk, bought a vacant lot in her neighborhood in Norfolk's "Historic Ghent District" in order to build a house for themselves on it. They even chose to build the house in an architectural style that would blend with the old neighborhood's original 1890s houses. But two nearby neighbors got very ugly about the new house being built near them, and one of these "neighbors" was Andria McClellan.
During the building of the new house, Andria McClellan got herself appointed to the City Planning Commission. When the couple building the house had to appeal to that commission for an exception to locate a corner of their front steps about one foot closer to the sidewalk than current City regulations allowed (even though the majority of older houses in the historic neighborhood violate this modern-day aesthetic rule), brand-new planning commissioner Andria McClellan, at her very first appearance at a public meeting of the commission, launched into a disparaging, whopper-filled diatribe against the house under construction. Besides dissing the architecture of the house under construction, she told her fellow commissioners that she knew the neighborhood well, and there would be "another neighborhood uprising" if the requested change to the house were allowed. She also claimed that the lot the house was being built on had previously been a "neighborhood gathering place." But it was all lies. There had been no prior "neighborhood uprising" (unless Andria McClellan herself and the one other disgruntled neighbor could be labeled such) and the lot had never been an kind of "neighborhood gathering place."
After one of the home builders stood up and rebutted all that Commissioner Andria McClellan had said, the Planning Commission decided to continue its considerations of the construction exception to its next month's meeting, in other words, costing the home builders a month's delay in construction time. Neighborhood rumor had it that the main reason Andria McClellan was miffed was that the new house would obstruct her view of downtown fireworks shows from her house.
The retired couple then requested that the Norfolk City Council recuse this obviously prejudiced planning commissioner from any further consideration of the house under construction, since she appeared to be abusing her nowfound powers to her personal ends. They also requested a copy of the minutes of the Planning Commission meeting under the provisions of Virginia's exceptions-laden Freedom of Information Act. Curiously, when the copy of the official minutes of that City Planning Commission meeting arrived, all mention of Andria McClellan's disparaging whoppers and the rebutals made to them were missing from it, even though the comments made by all the other commissioners and witnesses were summarized in considerable detail.
The credulity-strained verdict of the hogtied Virginia FOIA Council
The Norfolk City Council cavalierly did not respond to the couple's recusal request, even though they were long-time, tax-paying citizens of Norfolk. Neither was there an announcement of findings of any investigation. Also, neither the Norfolk City Council nor the chairman of the City Planning Commission responded to inquiries about how the minutes of the meeting could include detailed summaries of what everyone who spoke said, yet be devoid of the slightest mention of all that Planning Commissioner Andria McClellan said.
Nevertheless, and possibly because the home builders made noises about taking legal action over how the City's questionable rules were being applied to their house, the conscientious new planning commissioner Andria McClellan failed to appear at the next scheduled meeting of the Planning Commission (the second meeting in her planning commission career), where the couple's request for the minor exception was granted. Maybe someone advised her not to make more trouble by showing her face.
But this was not the end of it. As we shall see later, Andria McClellan would then use Facebook to brand the new neighbors she had persecuted "haters."
Character Matters
Her infamous Facebook spitefulness
Embarrassing, yes, but we can't ignore her infamous social-media mean-girl antics. For example, one that really took the cake, the time she bashed kids from a school dedicated to educating children who learn differently. According to her, those loser kids ("those little shits," she called them) horribly abused her privileged son's sixth-grade team on the basketball court. Gee, where were the referee and coaches?
YouTube: Bashing Learning-Different Children
Andria McClellan, infamous Facebook troll, politically incorrect
Her and Her BFFs' FACEBOOK Thread
So who talks like that? It's like noblesse oblige gone horribly wrong. "Screw those peasants. They will never prosper."
By the time she started her election campaign, she was claiming she sent her kids to public schools, which sounded all populist and egalitarian, right, but oops, before she started running, they'd all gone to a private school:
Andria McClellan, The Williams School, private school, public school
"Don't Mess with Meanness!"
Or just more petty Facebook trolling
City Councilwoman Andria McClellan, intolerant of "haters"
#HYPOCRISY #hate-R-us #mean-girls-RULE!
Ouch, a "hater" dropped a dime on her "no hate" sign!
Andria McClellan, Norfolk City Council, Facebook troll, hate, yard sign
What kind of person loves to brand other people as "haters"? As she pointed out herself, the alleged "hater" waited a five months before dropping a dime on her "no hate" sign. Are genuine haters usually so patient? Don't the serious haters pounce on their victims post haste, for example, on Facebook?
Whining about "a very, very small street with very little traffic"? So why would she bunch her signs there?
NOTE: Any City official (especially a City Council member) should know the laws of her own City, and should understand her City's confidentiality policy, which is to encourage citizens to report signage and other violations to the City without having to dread recriminations from the neighborhood mean girl who happens to be on the city council?
YouTube: Vindictiveness and Cyberbullying
Petty Spitefulness
Never a good trait, especially in a politician
Andria McClellan, Norfolk City Council, "no hate", voodoo goddess
Suggestion for her next yard sign:
Andria McClellan, Norfolk City Council, cyber bully
But Try Tweeting about Her...
Oh, no, no, no! Can't take the truth.
"Engage Norfolk," Really?
Remember her famous campaign, Engage Norfolk, to get citizens of Norfolk engaged in addressing the problems of their city — and to get her lots of exposure? So when a rash of unsightly, rusting "love" locks showed up on the historic Hague bridge in her own neighborhood in the Ghent Historic District, naturally concerned citizens wanted these eyesores removed and the defacing of the serene old bridge stopped. But Andria McClellan championed the mess of locks on the bridge, since she probably figured that would be a popular position (as it was with the vandals who locked their locks there):
The shabby look she chose to champion
Andria McClellan just loved those unsightly love locks ever so much!
More Social-Media Nastiness
Here's how Andria dissed neighbors trying to do something about the locks. You guessed it, on Facebook again:
Andria McClellan, AltDaily, loves those locks!
Andria McClellan and her Norfolk City Council cronies refused to do anything about the love locks, despite a petition signed by 300 people from her neighborhood requesting that the locks be removed. Remember her (bogus?) claim that "all my neighbors with whom I've talked like the locks." Neighbors on her own street, her own block, signed the petition to have the locks removed:
Andria McClellan simply must have her love locks!
The Norfolk Circuit Court Decides
NO MORE LOCKS!
Citizens had to go to court to force Andria McClellan and her Norfolk City Council cronies to simply uphold the City's own laws.
The judge pointed out that locking padlocks to a public bridge IS INDEED ILLEGAL, City Code Sec. 42-10(b), plus IT IS PERFECTLY LEGAL for citizens to remove such locks (and citizens did indeed removed the mass majority of them).
The judge threatened to seat a grand jury to consider the matter, but Andria McClellan and her Norfolk City Council politician cronies preferred not to have to explain under oath why they refused to uphold the law or even answer citizens' questions and complaints. So they went ahead and had the remaining locks removed, thereby also removing any need for them to face questions in court.
A sensible good-bye to the locks:
After the locks were removed from the bridge, Andria McClellan got a "brilliant idea." She would provide an alternative sculpture near the bridge for lock lovers to lock their locks to, since such are her all-important priorities. She even dubbed the area she selected for her sculpture the "Love Grove," but the name never took. She even got someone to pony up $1,000 to pay an artist for a design for the sculpture, even got the Norfolk's Public Arts Commission to endorse it, with an estimated price tag of $25-30,000! But after a year of trying to drum up interest and raise money, the whole project miserably flopped. Apparently there wasn't nearly as much love for the locks as Andria McClellan had claimed. And so much for her idea of an important priority.
Fit to be the Governor in waiting?
A leader or a temperamentally flawed poser?
Just cuz someone's good at getting herself appointed or elected to things (aka padding her political résumé), doesn't mean she has what's needed for the job — or doesn't have what sure as hell is not needed.
One sharp cookie, but:
Remember, Virginia's lieutenant governor is the second highest elected official in the Commonwealth, also the president of the state senate. She would work with the governor and cabinet to enact and implement policies. She would play a crucial role in setting the tone of the administration and the general assembly. She would become the new governor if anything happened to the governor. Is SHE the one for this?
Andria McClellan, Marie Antoinette impersonator on the Norfolk City Council, to become Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.
Andria McClellan wants your vote for lieutenant governor of Virginia, and you better not say no!