Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s a-VA gubernatorial primary voting we do go

Mmmm, can you smell that? Yes, dear readers, that delightful effluvia of half-punched chads and grease-smeared touchscreens can mean one thing and one thing only: It’s election day! And not just any election day, either — we’re talking about the sort of seismic, epoch-defining, life-changing face-off that comes along but once in a generation. Yes, […]

Twenty years of local news and arts in the spotlight

In covering this town for 20 years, we’ve seen a lot of people go through changes. Friendships are made or restored. Folks change jobs or political persuasion. They get famous overnight. They throw surprise weddings. They die without warning. This week marks our 23rd visit to the archives, and we’re inspired by life’s markers: the […]

The rank file

Dear Ace,What’s up with the ranking of Charlottesville as the #4 best city in America? Is that number completely arbitrary or have we been doing something wrong since we were ranked #1 in 2004?—Sly Down Dear Sly, Part of the superlative discrepancy has to do with the different parties crunching the numbers. This year Kiplinger’s […]

Virginia Quarterly Review; Spring 2009

There’s no question that the title of the latest Virginia Quarterly Review, “The End of Ice,” is meant to be taken literally. In travelogues that chronicle experiences as divergent as ice hunters blasting away at errant icebergs in Newfoundland’s White Bay to adolescents following the chaddar, or frozen river-highway, out of a village in the […]

Richard Spurzem lawsuit spurs 'em

Last October, developer Richard Spurzem of Neighborhood Properties decided that going through Albemarle County’s approval process for preliminary site plans was no longer an attractive plan. Having had his plans for 187 townhouse units (part of the North Pointe megadevelopment on 29N) rejected twice by county planners, and facing the prospect of a third review, […]