County backs Taxes for transportation

Two weeks ago the Charlottesville City Council called out Albemarle County on what it perceived as the county’s unwillingness to move forward on transportation projects supporting the Meadowcreek Parkway (MCP). County officials answered with the bureaucratic equivalent of turning their pockets inside out: pointing to a budget stretched thin by a decrease in state funding. […]

UVA's Creative Writing program in top 10

Imagine the pressure to write a story about a top 10 creative writing program. It better be good! Well, C-VILLE succumbed, so we'll just tell you this: The Atlantic Magazine ranked UVA's Master of Fine Arts (MFA) creative writing program among the best in the nation.

Police use video in investigations

How much do we want to be watched? With the city putting out a request for proposals for video surveillance cameras on the Downtown Mall and working on red-light cameras at intersections, the question of how far Charlottesville is willing to go in the name of public safety grows larger. We’re watched everyday, at ATMs, […]

Two teens arrested for beating

Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo was clearly upbeat just before a news conference July 27. He had reason to be. The night before, police had arrested two 15-year-old males in connection with an assault near the Grove Street area of the Roosevelt Brown Boulevard that had the markings of other assaults that have occurred Downtown. […]

Can Friendship Court be redeveloped?

Surrounded by boutique shops and restaurants to the north, condos to the south, and the new Downtown ACAC just across the street to its west, Friendship Court anchors a rapidly changing neighborhood. Charles Martin is the executive director of Urban Vision, which provides residential services at low-income housing complexes. He knows Friendship Court sits on […]

City Calls out county over MCP

Charlottesville City Councilor Kevin Lynch admits that building a road is, in his words, "like getting your teeth drilled." As the Meadowcreek Parkway (MCP) moves nearer to a construction date, he’s wondering why the city is the only one with dentist appointments. When deciding whether to grant easements for the Meadowcreek Parkway, City Council has […]

Turn it around

The country is about to be awash in retired Baby Boomers, and don’t think folks in the financial industry haven’t taken notice. The first wave of Boomers turned 60 this year, at a rate of nearly 8,000 per day, and as all 76 million of them approach retirement, banks are beginning to cozy up to […]

Huge divide in area mortgage lending

Sure, Charlottesville has seen the top of plenty of best-of lists. But recently the area ranked No. 1 in a study [A PDF version of the study is available here] that’s one ugly black eye for the community. According to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), African Americans in Charlottesville received high-cost loans 3.9 times […]

Area home sales down 17 percent

After smacking bottom at the end of 2006, the Charlottesville-area real estate market has leveled off, despite a 17 percent drop in sales from this time last year. That’s according to the Mid-Year Market Report [PDF version of the report available here] from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors (CAAR), which says now that we’ve […]