Carbon copies: Nearly $30 million water filtration system in the works

Summer of 2012, Charlottesville was rocked by two events that were ultimately reversed because of intense public opposition: the firing of UVA President Teresa Sullivan and a plan to add chloramines to the water supply. On the latter, in a rare show of unanimity, City Council and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, along with the […]

General Lee wins first court skirmish

At the end of a six-hour hearing May 2, a judge enjoined the City of Charlottesville from removing its statue of General Robert E. Lee for the next six months. More than 150 years after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, the battle over Confederate monuments continues. Protesters in favor of ousting the statue chanted outside Charlottesville […]

Pharmacy farewell: Meadowbrook closes to make way for CVS

For many of its longtime customers, the letter arrived April 24 announcing the demise of Meadowbrook Pharmacy after more than 60 years at the corner of Barracks Road and Emmet Street. And the sadness at the loss of one of Charlottesville’s two independent pharmacies was not assuaged with news that a CVS would be opening […]

Circle theory: Two roundabouts in Crozet’s future

Every few years, the idea to put a roundabout at difficult intersections pops up—and usually disappears. Charlottesville’s former mayor and longtime delegate, the late Mitch Van Yahres, was a big roundabout fan, and he supported the one installed at the airport, one of the few bandied about from the early aughts that actually got built. […]

Eaglets’ landing: Nest could slow preservation development

When David Mitchell bought 120 acres 10 years ago off U.S. 250 in Crozet, he wanted to maintain much of its rural character and planned a subdivision with 13 clustered homes, with his own on a 60-acre preservation tract on the banks of Lickinghole Creek Basin. But he wasn’t the only one who found the […]

Insurance denied: City footing Lee statue, parking garage legal bills

Since 2016, Charlottesville has faced a larger-than-usual number of high-profile lawsuits, and in at least two cases, its insurance carrier won’t be picking up the tab. And while the carrier hasn’t seen the most recent suit, filed by Albemarle County over the Ragged Mountain Natural Area April 20, that litigation could join the Lee statue […]

An ‘insidious’ and ‘invasive’ threat to democracy

It’s the issue former President Barack Obama will focus on, joining people like Arnold Schwarzenegger and HBO’s John Oliver, who consider it the biggest threat to the United States’ representative government. The menace is not one that comes from outside the country, but a homegrown tradition dating back to the earliest days of the republic: […]

Court costs: After winning jury trial, Eramo settles

Nearly two years after filing a more than $7.5 million defamation suit against Rolling Stone, its parent company and “A Rape on Campus” reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely—and five months after a jury awarded her $3 million—former UVA associate dean Nicole Eramo settled her case, likely for much less. The November 19, 2014, Rolling Stone article […]

Daily Progress and Newsplex lay off staff

The same week the Daily Progress won a whopping 42 awards at the April 8 Virginia Press Association banquet, including 13 first-place plaques, the paper, which is owned by a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, laid off three employees. The Progress, like many other former Media General-owned newspapers, thought it had been thrown a […]

Two more independents join City Council race

So far, seven people seem eager to devote their Monday nights to City Council meetings. The race for two open seats now held by Bob Fenwick and Kristin Szakos, who is not seeking another term, has drawn three Democrats—Fenwick, Heather Hill and Amy Laufer—for the June 13 primary. Traditionally the primary winners are shoo-ins for […]