New passenger rail: 2010 at the earliest

When one ventures up Route 29 on the way to D.C., one seriously considers the thought of abandoning this worldly existence and becoming a hermit. Traffic and pollution (and, well, distance) make it impossible to enjoy a nice stroll to Washington. So what about the train? Currently, the service offered by Amtrak between Charlottesville and […]

Your tax dollars, at work

Worked for city transit for: 11 yearsResides in: Albemarle CountyJob title: Customer service rep. Camacho assists in directing people to where they need to go and in handling complaints from users. Best of times: Helping others. “When things happen to peoples’ cars, you want to help them find a proper route to get them to […]

Ark de Triumph

Dear Ace: Where can I go in Charlottesville to buy a boa constrictor/talking parrot/ferret/alligator/elephant/etc.?—Zoe KeeperZoe: Let Ace first address the issue of putting the words “exotic” and “ferret” in the same sentence. Ferrets, faithful reader, are not exotic. They sleep 14-18 hours a day and, according to Ace’s trusty source (thanks, Wikipedia!), include raisins among […]

Point/Cantor-point

Sure, most of the swing-state chitter-chatter in recent weeks has focused on Barack Obama’s mighty push to swing Virginia into his electoral column

Is this the new face of evil?

Gentle Reader, It’s time we had a talk. Things haven’t been the best between us for some time, I think we’ll both admit. While some of you are holding this page in your hand, trying to keep our relationship alive, the Old Media Writer and the 21st Century Reader, I know some of you are […]

Property owners disgruntled by “protection”

The list of individual protected properties (IPP) in the City of Charlottesville could get longer if City Council follows the recommendation August 12 of the city Planning Commission. The decision, however, came after much discussion on the significance of what can be considered a historic landmark and whether all of the five properties on the […]

Planners endorse Atwood’s latest creation

Bill Atwood, the architect and developer behind the nine-story Waterhouse tower that’s expected to break ground soon, still has water on his mind for his latest project on West Main Street. Rainwater, to be exact. As he presented a revised design for a building on the site of the former Under the Roof building to […]

TDR plan faces uphill battle

Stakeholder talks concerning transferable development rights (TDR) got truly underway last week, but the opening round of comments on county Supervisor David Slutzky’s “strawman” proposal didn’t augur much of a future. It will be hard to find consensus among the two dozen or so participants representing developers, realtors, businessmen, property owners, farmers, environmentalists, smart-growthers, slow-growthers […]

Salvation Army set to lease property for fast food

A Seafood Express fast food restaurant is preparing to open at 600 Cherry Ave. The city Planning Commission approved on Tuesday a special permit to operate a drive-through window facility and a petition to rezone the site for mixed use that includes both residential and commercial enterprises. New owner Mike Brown told the Commission that […]

End-of-summer construction round-up

At the beginning of the season, we gave you the rundown on the $590 million worth of construction underway at the University over the summer. With the herd of students converging back on the town and the start of classes only a week away, we couldn’t resist checking back in to see how many of […]