Recently, Whole Foods announced that they have ditched its option at the still-unbuilt Albemarle Place and will instead move into a new 50,000-square-foot store on the site of the old Terrace Theater. Dormant since the late ’90s, the theater and its brown façade had remained as it always had since it first opened. Unappealing and […]
On October 24, the House of Representatives passed the "Celebrating America’s Heritage Act," creating six new national heritage areas, one of which would be the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG), a 175-mile stretch that connects Monticello in Charlottesville to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, and travels mostly along Route 15. Under the legislation, the JTHG partnership, a […]
University of Virginia English professor Mark Edmundson was in his late teens when he stumbled across a copy of The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud while at a friend's house, and began to read an excerpt from The Interpretation of Dreams.
At an October 23 work session on Places29, the Planning Commission had before it two land-use requests from landowner Wendell Wood.
As Ann Andrus of the Department of Historical Resources began a public information meeting on the Martha Jefferson neighborhood, a raucous yell came from a child in the back of the Burnley-Moran Elementary auditorium. Andrus didn’t flinch, but mothers—there were many there—turned to look and smile. It was all part of the informality of the […]
This summer, Rydell Payne—executive director of Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries—approached Johnson Elementary Principal Vernon Bock with a proposal. For almost three years, Abundant Life had been working out of their office on Grove Street and in the Blue Ridge Commons area with Johnson’s most needy students as part of an after school program. Twice a […]
One morning almost three years ago, Forest Lakes resident Jim Grace woke up and walked out to look at his stunning view of Hollymead Lake. Stunned he was. "It was suddenly the view of a 20-acre mud puddle," he says. "It just kind of went from there." The "moonscape" land clearing at Hollymead Town Center […]
Built in 1967, the Crozet Shopping Center is now the drab home of a less than pristine Great Valu grocery store. Located in the heart of downtown, it is also an ideal candidate for redevelopment. On October 16, architect Bill Atwood appeared before the Albemarle Planning Commission with just such a request, asking for a […]
Two weeks ago, I spent an hour riding around with Albemarle County Police Sergeant Jim Larkin and Denny King, a Scottsville candidate for the Board of Supervisors. As part of their discourse, King asked the sergeant about the housing issues his officers face. For the next few minutes, Larkin relayed the travails incoming police encounter […]
In February 2006, Mitchell J. Wade pleaded guilty to influencing congressmen—most famously Randy "Duke" Cunningham—in order to procure contracts for his defense contracting firm MZM, Inc. As part of the plea, Wade also admitted to bribing Department of Defense (DoD) officials, including an employee of the local National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC). On October 9 […]