Stress center: Abrupt resignation further dismays dispatchers

When the executive director of the city, county, and university’s troubled Emergency Communications Center abruptly resigned last week, questions and concerns started circulating among the center’s employees. “Barry [Neulen] was doing so many good things for us, and we were singing his praises to anybody and everybody,” says one employee. “I wholeheartedly believe Barry did […]

Monument motions: Another stall for the statues

It was the same old, same old in Charlottesville Circuit Court on March 13, when attorneys involved in a lawsuit to keep the town’s Confederate monuments in place hashed out all-too-familiar arguments. It’s been two years since the Monument Fund and a dozen other plaintiffs filed suit in response to City Council’s vote to remove […]

Takeout equity: Meals tax impact on low-income diners

Affordable housing is a priority for Charlottesville, and to pay for that in its $188 million budget, the city proposes raising the meals tax, an idea restaurant owners traditionally hate. The 1 percent increase on the current 5 percent meals tax adds 10 cents to a $10 meal and would raise $2.4 million, according to […]

The (multi-) million dollar parking lot

The City Yard is large, central, under-used, and under government control–so why hasn’t it been developed? To attempt a walk west from Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, through the former site of Vinegar Hill and towards Preston Avenue, is to feel the full weight of city leaders’ historic disregard for the people and places at the center […]

Meet the (possible) city manager

By Shrey Dua Three finalists, out of a field of 37, are vying for the job of Charlottesville city manager, and roughly 100 people showed up to see them at an open-to-the-public interview. City councilors questioned the candidates at a Jefferson School African American Heritage Center event on March 6, which was followed by a […]