Stalking dozers late at night

When local photographer Billy Hunt set out to record the strange, temporary landscapes that result from clearing land for development, he at first shot the sites in the daytime. “They were really not interesting to look at,” he says. “Just a lot of dirt.” Seems obvious, until you visit his show (up at Café Cubano […]

Sewage holds back Albemarle Place

Last December, representatives from the Albemarle Place development gathered with staff from the city, county and Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) to discuss the Meadow Creek interceptor, the main hub for sewage all along Route 29N. For Albemarle Place, a mixed-use project planned for 700 residential units and roughly 40 new stores surrounding Sperry […]

Median home price drops 9.2 percent

The housing market pendulum has swung, and sellers are no longer riding high. Sales and prices are down, inventory is up, and it’s the best time to buy a home in the last decade according to the first quarter market report from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors (CAAR). It was during the first quarter […]

RED DIRT ALERT!

Nestled at the corner of Solomon and Berkshire roads off Hydraulic Road in the county’s urban ring is the construction site that soon become the Solomon Road Condominiums. Thirty three bedroom townhomes should spring up by October on the 2.4 acre parcel, built by Southland Homes. Prices will start in the mid-$200,000 range. Southland purchased […]

ASSESS THIS

Here’s the skinny on the final outcome of the tax rate discussion in both city and county: 2007 real estate tax rate, per $100 assessed value 95¢ 68¢ 2006 real estate tax rate, per $100 assessed value 99¢ 74¢ Operating budget increase 11.3% 5.6% Real estate assessment increases 14% 30%* Predicted local revenue increase from […]

Capital campaign

Dear Ace: I’ve heard that Charlottesville was briefly the capital of Virginia, but no one seems to know any details. Was it? —Dom Inion Dom: So you’re not satisfied that this is the best place to live in America? You’re not content living in the place where that woman who claimed to be Anastasia made […]

Justice for Jesus

Proud birthplace of Juice Newton and The Neptunes. Home of famed psychic Edgar Cayce’s freaky Association for Research and Enlightenment. Fun-packed vacation paradise that houses both

Slick Rick, with The Press

music “Inauspicious start” was the first phrase that came to mind when opening act The Press took the stage at the Satellite Ballroom on Thursday night. A bunch of guys hopping around, looking like they’d come straight from “The Late Night With Conan O’Brien” writers’ room and announcing enthusiastically, “We’re from New Hampshire!” was just […]

The Sims: Life Stories

game After years of sandbox-play dominance and a gazillion expansion packs, we know EA’s colossal Sims franchise for what it is: one of the most seminal games ever created and the game most singularly capable of bringing your computer processor to its knees. Nobody ever disputes the fun of caring for (or, if you’re warped, […]

Common, with Lupe Fiasco

If Common was disappointed with the turnout for the first hip-hop show at the John Paul Jones Arena, he did a damn fine job of keeping that to himself. The celebratory