Making space: City Council approves land purchase for downtown parking lot Late Monday evening, City Council voted unanimously to purchase Albemarle County’s portion of the 701 E. Market St. lot, where it plans to build a new, 300-car parking garage. The $1.28 million purchase—half of the land’s appraised value—is part of an agreement between the city […]
Making space: City Council approves land purchase for downtown parking lot Late Monday evening, City Council voted unanimously to purchase Albemarle County’s portion of the 701 E. Market St. lot, where it plans to build a new, 300-car parking garage. The $1.28 million purchase—half of the land’s appraised value—is part of an agreement between the city […]
On November 19, 2014, Rolling Stone magazine dropped a bombshell called “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” Written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the article alleged that a UVA student named Jackie was gang raped at a party by members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in 2012, and […]
Today, the day after Thanksgiving, I am praying for Gladys the emu. A lapsed Catholic, I haven’t been a churchgoer for years. But praying to St. Francis for the safe return of Gladys, for her reunion with her brother Floyd and sister Mabel at their home 10 miles south of Charlottesville, and for the peace […]
The city of Charlottesville wasn’t incorporated until 1888, but people are recorded as living in the region as far back as 1612, when English explorer John Smith encountered a Monacan village and documented it on the very first map of Virginia. The Native Americans gradually left as European immigrants moved in, relying on the Three […]
On a chilly Thursday evening last week, several dozen people gathered at the Central Library for a talk on “the risks and rewards of public engagement” by someone who knows them all too well. Jalane Schmidt, a community activist and professor of religious studies at UVA, was recently sued for a comment she made in […]
“Finally.” That was the first word tweeted on a Twitter account for Jens Soering November 25, the day he learned he and former girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom had been granted parole, 34 years after the savage murders of her parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom. Upon their release, Soering, 53, and Haysom, 55, will be turned over […]
Untold stories “There’s a whole story of black Charlottesville that no one knows about,” Tanesha Hudson narrates over the opening sequence of her film A Legacy Unbroken: The Story of Black Charlottesville. The documentary premiered in front of a sold-out crowd at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center on Saturday. Hudson has been working […]
The Charlottesville Department of Social Services oversees a broad array of programs; everything from Child Protective Services to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, and more. In its November 18 annual report to City Council, the department’s advisory board highlighted some of the complicated challenges CDSS faces, along with its dedication to internal improvement. Medicaid […]
Rain check Planning Commission delays form-based code proposal After much debate, the City Planning Commission has decided to table its plans to introduce an alternative kind of zoning, called form-based code, to the city’s Strategic Investment Area south of downtown. Unlike conventional zoning, form-based code focuses on the physical form and scale of buildings in […]
By Spencer Philps Spend enough time on the Downtown Mall late at night and you’re bound to see it happen: someone hunched over against a wall “relieving” himself. Downtown business operators are acutely aware of this issue: One says he’s seen people urinating late at night, by the bus station and beside the unfinished Landmark […]