Drought Watch 2007

With area streams running 25 percent below normal (as indicated by the glass above), the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) was expected to declare a drought watch, the first of three phases of drought conditions. It means that we all should "voluntarily conserve water at every opportunity." RSWA reports that as of July 18, […]

Federman rocks VT panel

Of those presenting to the Virginia Tech Incident Review Panel at Darden School of Business on July 18, none topped Russ Federman, director of UVA's Center for Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), whose candor garnered the full attention of the panelists and audience.

Big ideas from commission on the future

It’s hard to imagine too many of us working stiffs mucking through the entire draft report of recommendations from the [da da dum!] Commission on the Future. So to save us all some hassle, C-VILLE sifted through the river of verbiage to extract what golden proposals are buried in its depths. As a bit of […]

Huge divide in area mortgage lending

Sure, Charlottesville has seen the top of plenty of best-of lists. But recently the area ranked No. 1 in a study [A PDF version of the study is available here] that’s one ugly black eye for the community. According to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), African Americans in Charlottesville received high-cost loans 3.9 times […]

CVS out of proposed W. Main building

A 101′-tall building was to come to the rescue of plans for a CVS on the corner of W. Main and McIntire, but a pharmacy at the current location of RSC Equipment Rental is no longer likely. "We’re working under the premise that it’s out," says site developer Bob Englander. "We think it makes for […]

Area home sales down 17 percent

After smacking bottom at the end of 2006, the Charlottesville-area real estate market has leveled off, despite a 17 percent drop in sales from this time last year. That’s according to the Mid-Year Market Report [PDF version of the report available here] from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors (CAAR), which says now that we’ve […]

Red dirt alert!

Soil on Route 29N always seems to be in a state of upheaval, though not always with concrete plans in the works. When we reported last year on this 35-acre Albemarle County site, north of Airport Road, we were told the earth movements were simply to keep active a site plan for an 80,000-square-foot building, […]

Thinning the herd

Dear Ace: I remember going to Ash Lawn when I was younger and seeing a whole colony of peacocks wandering the grounds. I went recently and there were just a few. Where’d they all go?—Courteney P. Cox Courteney: Monticello gets all the love, but Ace has always been partial to James Monroe’s Ash Lawn-Highland. The […]

Super Taranta

cd “If we are here not to do/ what you and I wanna do/ and go forever crazy with it,/ why the hell we are even here?” asks Eugene Hutz at the opening of Super Taranta. Then, with a guttural cry, he summons the rest of the band into the mix, and immediately you want […]