Students take on 29N

A pedestrian crossing Route 29N may seem like a fish out of water, but 10 UVA students have cooked up some intersection designs to make the trek more palatable. “Crossing eight lanes of traffic is daunting to say the least,” says Matt Dreher, one of the student designers. Does the future hold foot traffic on […]

Valley Road closure pending

It’s a pretty fancy cul-de-sac, but UVA might just have to wait to begin its construction on Valley Road. A part of the University’s South Lawn Project that would close 438′ of Valley Road to build an elaborately landscaped cul-de-sac ran into unexpected trouble at the June 12 meeting of the city Planning Commission. The […]

Correction from past issue

Due to an unfortunate case of journalistic hyperbole, the legal case at the heart of the most recent “The Odd Dominion” (“Felony cat hoarding,” May 29) was incorrectly identified. Although animal cruelty is a Class 6 felony in Virginia (VA ST 3.1-796.122), the charge in the reported case was actually felony destruction of property. We […]

Mind your own business

Dear Ace, Who’s watching the store? No, I mean literally. Is there a consumer protection officer in the city or county?—Connie Summer Rapport  Connie: Let Ace guess: The dry cleaners couldn’t get mustard out of a silk shirt. Or maybe the cashier laughed at you for accidentally ordering a Big Mac at Burger King? Thrift […]

Beware the Cyclops

I’m struggling to take a charitable view of Neil Williamson’s Opinionated [May 29, 2007]. But I will try, because the participation of business interests is vital to exploring the information and public involvement preliminary to adopting an optimum population element in the county’s comprehensive plan. But I must observe that The Free Enterprise Forum, described […]

Jerry’s kids

Though we may be a few weeks late to the party, it just wouldn’t feel right if we didn’t take a moment to reflect on the man who did more than any other single individual to make

Sordid boon

It is probably no coincidence that Charlottesville High School’s Freshman Academy got more love from administrators after the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001. Arguably the most influential—and maligned—federal education act since the 1964 Civil Rights Act pushed public school integration, NCLB uses test scores to measure “school accountability” and sets annual […]

A good number is hard to find

This year’s graduating class of 261 had 451 students in ninth grade—which means the dropout rate should be huge, right? Try 3 percent. That’s the official number for the Charlottesville City Schools division from 2005-06, a number derived by the number of students who drop out in a year divided by the total number of […]