Controversial calculations: Alderman renovation moves forward

Governor Ralph Northam approved the University of Virginia’s proposal to renovate Alderman Library on March 24, sending the $160 million project into development. The renovation, which has been planned since 2016, involves removing a significant percentage of the library’s books and turning its cramped 10-floor layout into a more spacious five floors to meet modern […]

Unequal justice: City and county seek feedback on criminal justice disparities

To the list of racial disparities in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, we can add arrest rates: According to a new study, African Americans are booked at significantly higher rates than whites at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, and the greatest disproportionality occurs during felony arrests. This is a national problem—black adults are 5.9 times more likely […]

Four-way confusion: Stop signs at Rugby Avenue create some chaos

A plan to make the Rugby Avenue and Rose Hill Drive intersection safer for now has some drivers in fear for their lives. Four-way stop signs went up at the end of March, and the traffic signal was bagged in plastic. Neighborhood website Nextdoor is full of people talking about nearly getting creamed by motorists […]

Bad lights: Glaring illumination mars night sky

On a night with a full moon, Rick Barnett can see pretty clearly outside his Belmont house. The problem is, he can also see clearly on moonless nights—thanks to an array of lighting, mostly commercial, blazing up into the sky behind his house. On a recent drive around the neighborhood, he points out a shielded […]

Water works

By Bonnie Price Lofton If rainwater doesn’t seep, sponge-like, into the soil around us, it runs away somewhere. In Charlottesville, where much of the ground is covered with impermeable asphalt, it runs into stormwater drainage systems, ditches, and streams that eventually lead into the Rivanna River. That creates two problems: first, without earth to filter […]