Not black and white: Lee statue evokes deep feelings on racial history

In its first listening session July 28, the City Council-appointed Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces heard from well over 100 citizens, who packed the African American Heritage Center at the Jefferson School to talk about Charlottesville’s painful history. Their responses weren’t always clear-cut as far as the statue of Robert E. Lee was […]

Laufer live from the Democratic National Convention

Ever wonder how delegates at the conventions all seem to spontaneously raise their “Make America First Again” or “Change Maker” signs at the same time? Well, Charlottesville School Board Chair Amy Laufer is attending the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and she clues us in: They get texts telling them what to chant and when […]

VP candidate and convicted murderer in spotlight again

Former UVA student Jens Soering has spent more than 30 years in prison while protesting his innocence. And Tim Kaine, shortly before he left the Governor’s Mansion in 2010, agreed to repatriate Soering to Germany, a move that was immediately overturned by his successor, Bob McDonnell. Now Kaine has been tapped to be the Democratic […]

Political season: Locals head to conventions

  While most of us followed last week’s Republican shindig in Cleveland on TV, several locals were there on the ground. And Charlottesville sent four people to Philadelphia as delegates for the Democratic convention this week. UVA had a major presence in Cleveland with political pundit Larry Sabato and his Crystal Ball team from the Center […]

Parking garage ‘soap opera’ leads city to reject Brown’s offer

Mayor Mike Signer and City Councilor Kathy Galvin insist there is nothing personal in the city’s dispute with Mark Brown over control of the Water Street Parking Garage. In meetings with reporters July 6 after the city rejected Charlottesville Parking Center’s June 24 proposed settlement of the escalating controversy over the fate of the garage the city co-owns with Brown, […]

Flurry of filings in Rolling Stone lawsuits

Last week saw one lawsuit against Rolling Stone dismissed, while Sabrina Rubin Erdely filed an 86-page statement about how she reported the UVA-rocking article “A Rape on Campus,” and plaintiff Nicole Eramo asked for several issues to be determined in advance of her October defamation trial against the magazine and Erdely. On June 29 a […]

Fire started at Ike’s Underground under investigation

It was nearing lunchtime on the Downtown Mall when smoke began pouring out of the building that houses Ike’s Underground Vintage Clothing and Strange Cargo, Miso Sweet and Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. Next door at OpenQ, CEO Otavio Freire was in his office, which “filled up very quickly with smoke,” he says. “The smoke was […]

Elevated space: Inside Oliver’s Treehouse

Oliver Kuttner doesn’t do bland. And he doesn’t like building the same thing over and over. His  latest project, the Treehouse on the corner of Garrett and Second SE streets, is testament to that. “I wanted to do a small building,” he says. “I wanted to make that corner interesting.” The result, beside his Glass […]