Heart and soul

Thoughts of Valentine’s Day conjure up certain stock images: boxes of candy and cards with sweet messages lining store shelves and racks, someone making a frantic, last-minute phone call to a florist, total cynics (or just plain victims of a corporate holiday) sticking their fingers in their open mouths and fake-retching. But, come on, there […]

Construction criticism

Dear Ace: If there are any more construction projects along Water Street that gobble up the street behind fences for their own use, we won’t be able to drive on it anymore. How do those private operations get to claim public roadways for their own use? Do they pay anything to the city for inconveniencing […]

Cringe-inducing Cantor, Connolly and Moran

Look, we know that Thomas Jefferson set a pretty high bar, oratory-wise, for Virginia’s vote-chasers. And so we certainly don’t expect every single utterance from our elected officials to reach the prosaic level of the Declaration of Independence (or even “A Summary View of the Rights of British America”). But come on, people! Whatever proud […]

Charlottesville looks for its slice of Obama’s $820B stimulus package

President Obama’s $820 billion economic stimulus package, including its green infrastructure component, cleared the House January 28 and headed to the Senate for debate. Obama’s plan attempts to create jobs quickly through a mix of tax cuts and spending on health care, education and construction on the one hand and, on the other hand, to […]

Twenty years of local news and arts in the spotlight

We’re now into the second month of our highly selective tour through the past two decades of local news and arts in C-VILLE. Already, we’ve touted our early jump on the Obama bandwagon (remember, this is the paper that projected DMB’s rise to the top), and revisited Market Street Wineshop’s Robert Harllee’s secret to staying […]

The halls (and roofs and floors) of learning

ecoMOD1: the OUTin house, 2005 Partner: Piedmont Housing Authority •    Two-unit condo built from eight small modules in Charlottesville’s Fifeville neighborhood •    Designed to merge outdoor and indoor spaces •    Includes first potable rainwater collection system in the city ecoMOD2: the preHAB house, 2006 Partner: Habitat for Humanity •    Built in post-Katrina southern Mississippi •    […]

Live Arts Dance Festival clarifies where the form must go from here

The Live Arts Dance Festival, which took place over the past two weekends in downtown Charlottesville, presented a rather thorough view of what’s working in the local dance scene—and what is not. The good news: There are performers out there who can command the audience’s attention. In addition, some choreographers are making dance moves that […]

UVA Foundation uses pseudonym to buy Econo Lodge

The UVA Foundation, the real estate holding wing of the University, bought the 60-room Econo Lodge at 400 Emmet St. for $6 million. That news is unsurprising—the acquisition is a logical connector, right in between the sports facilities and the heart of Grounds. What is surprising is that, rather than register the purchase under its […]

Big men on campus

UVA made three notable hires last week, including naming (finally) Harry Harding the first dean of the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.