The Virginia Supreme Court has struck down a lawsuit brought by two local gyms challenging the deal struck between the Piedmont YMCA and the city and county to build a new facility in McIntire Park. YMCA CEO Denny Blank said he was in Richmond for the Thursday ruling. “We’re ecstatic,” he said. “This is the best […]
When the Piedmont Environmental Council kicked off a contest to seek out and recognize the best community gardens in central Virginia last spring, its members weren’t quite sure what to expect. By year’s end, they were holding 22 applications: big plots, small plots, old ones, new ones. The diversity and strong showing, especially from Charlottesville […]
Delegate David Toscano left Charlottesville for Richmond and the 2013 legislative session last week, his campaign coffers well padded with the checks of more than 100 supporters who turned out for a fundraising sendoff dinner at Escafé last Thursday. And he carried plenty of requests with him, too. For local government, the asks have ranged […]
Matt Rosefsky was on a Washington mountaintop on a 70-mile stretch of trail last September when everything went wrong. One of the group of four he was leading on an excursion with the local Outdoor Adventure Social Club injured his knee and had to slow to a hobble. Another hiker started to get hypothermic as […]
Despite a last-minute flap over cost, Charlottesville and Albemarle are sending staff and elected officials to Austin next month for talks and tours they hope will help city and county replicate some of the Texas city’s economic successes here. But even as details of the trip take shape, some are still concerned it’s a waste of money. […]
Congress has yet to defuse the time bomb it created last year with the passage of the Budget Control Act, a package of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that will propel the country off the so-called fiscal cliff if lawmakers can’t agree on budget reduction measures before the end of the year. With the […]
Live music has returned to the corner of Market and Meade, and yet another battle over zoning might be brewing at the Black Market Moto Saloon. Two months ago, City Council denied Moto Saloon owner Matteus Frankovich a special use permit that would have given his bar and restaurant music hall status and allowed him […]
After more than nine months of study and debate, Charlottesville’s Human Rights Task Force decided in a divided vote to recommend the city create a Human Rights Commission with the power to investigate and resolve complaints, but the issue is far from decided. The 10-member Task Force was established earlier this year to investigate whether […]
Sarah Francisco first came face to face with the aftermath of clear cutting when she was a kid at a summer camp in the George Washington National Forest. On a hike, she came across a swath of what had once been woods. “The forest was gone, and there was just this tumbled array of logs […]
As the Albemarle County Public School District works to find a short-term fix to overcrowding at two local elementary schools, parents and officials are eyeing a capacity crunch down the line. The writing is on the wall: When the ever-growing classes of school kids across the county hit ninth grade, the county will face costly […]