Feelin’ the squeeze: Hundreds appeal new commercial tax assessments

No one likes paying taxes. And Charlottesville property owners who saw their commercial assessments go up 65 percent, 90 percent or 100 percent really don’t like it—and they’re letting the city know with a record number of appeals. “Totally outrageous,” says Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville president Joan Fenton, who owns a “little bitty” parcel […]

Spaced out: Low-wage earners will feel parking pain

  The already difficult downtown parking landscape is about to become more challenging in the next couple of years. Major construction projects like West2nd, the Dewberry Hotel and Belmont Bridge promise to further clog streets and decimate an already dwindling parking supply. And then there’s the pilot meter program coming in August. Hardest hit will […]

Rob Vaughan puts the ‘human’ in humanities

In a parallel universe, Rob Vaughan would probably have been an assistant English professor somewhere—“not here, because no one gets to stay,” he says. Instead, when then-UVA President Edgar Shannon gave him a call in 1974, Vaughan ended up launching the largest state humanities organization in the country, and a five-month gig stretched decades. After […]

‘Life-changing’: Medical marijuana inches toward desperate families

Within the next few years, three Charlottesville families will be able to legally obtain the cannabis oil extract that eases the seizures of their children with debilitating intractable epilepsy, thanks to unanimous approval in the General Assembly in February, passing even the usually marijuana-averse House of Delegates 99-0. Good news, right? Yet none of those […]

The unmasker: Nikuyah Walker makes independent bid for City Council

In her run to sit on the other side of the City Council dais she’s often stood before, Nikuyah Walker won’t be touting Charlottesville as a world-class city. Instead, her theme of “unmasking the reality” acknowledges the duality of a town that draws the wealthy and well-educated, yet is unaffordable for many of its citizens, […]

Legal front: Lawsuit filed to halt removal of General Lee statue

Nearly a dozen citizens filed a not-unexpected lawsuit and an injunction today in Charlottesville Circuit Court to stop the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee and any further tampering with Lee and Jackson parks, both donated by Paul Goodloe McIntire. The plaintiffs include descendants from the park donor and the sculptor, as […]

Where’s Tom? The case of the missing congressman

Craig DuBose made his appointment February 1 to meet with Congressman Tom Garrett in the congressman’s Charlottesville office March 6. Heather Rowland made hers February 10. Both constituents called to confirm their appointments before showing up at Garrett’s Berkmar Crossing office, and both were dismayed to learn Garrett wasn’t there. “I was disappointed,” says DuBose, […]

Lynn challenges Landes—again

White Hall resident Angela Lynn is tossing her hat into the 25th District ring, most of which lies in Augusta County, so it’s no surprise that gerrymandering was the first issue she talked about during her announcement in front of the Albemarle County Office Building March 7. Democrat Lynn, who challenged incumbent Steve Landes, R-Weyers […]

John Lowry is doing things differently in second supes run

This is not John Lowry’s first Albemarle Board of Supervisors rodeo. He ran for the Samuel Miller District seat in 2009, and lost to one-term Republican Duane Snow. Lowry, 69, is doing a few things differently this time around. For one, he’s seeking the GOP nomination at the party’s mass meeting in May rather than […]

‘Insufficient’: Kessler petition to oust Bellamy thrown out

  Jason Kessler chastised reporters on his way into court today and spoke disrespectfully to the special prosecutor who requested that Kessler’s petition to remove Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy from office be dismissed because it lacked enough signatures. Kessler, who burst into the local spotlight after he discovered unsavory tweets Bellamy made before taking office in […]