On a roll: Health department begins vaccinating non-hospital health care workers

The local vaccine rollout process continues. About a month after the first coronavirus vaccines were shipped to hospitals across the country, Charlottesville’s frontline health care employees who work outside of hospitals are now getting vaccinated. On Monday, the Blue Ridge Health District (formerly known as the Thomas Jefferson Health District) began offering the first dose […]

In brief: Carter joins race, Dewberry gets sued, and more

Jump in The 2021 race for the governor’s mansion in Virginia got a little more complicated last week, when northern Virginia Delegate Lee Carter declared his candidacy for the office. In his campaign announcement, Carter emphasized economic stratification as the driving force of discontent in the commonwealth. “[Virginia] is not divided between red and blue. […]

In brief: Hope for the holidays

Holiday hope COVID-19, like the Grinch, has threatened to stop Christmas. But Dr. Alvin Edwards, senior pastor at Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, says, “We decided early on we weren’t going to let this crisis drive us, we were going to make it work.” Jonathan Spivey, Mt. Zion’s minister of music worship, agreed. Back […]

A shot in the arm: Vaccine distribution begins for local hospital workers

Last Tuesday, UVA hospital’s ICU director Taison Bell became one of the first people in Charlottesville to receive the newly approved coronavirus vaccine. It was a moment of “mixed emotions,” says Bell, who has worked with COVID patients throughout the crisis. “It was definitely a good feeling to finally have something that can potentially protect […]

If you build it: Despite pandemic, land use projects moved forward in 2020

In a year where many of us followed guidelines to stay at home, the skies of downtown Charlottesville were marked by cranes building new spaces for the 21st century. In their shadow, projects to provide more affordable units moved through the bureaucratic process required to keep them below-market. Before the clock strikes 2021, let’s look […]

Not over: Activists reflect on Black Lives Matter protests, next steps in 2021

While the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color this year, Black people have been dealing with “a pandemic of racism” in the United States for centuries, as Black mental health advocate Myra Anderson told C-VILLE over the summer. When Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes […]

True believer: We read Denver Riggleman’s Bigfoot book so you don’t have to

Congressman Denver Riggleman’s new book, Bigfoot…It’s Complicated, begins with a chapter called “A Discussion on Simian Genitalia.” In other words, Riggleman, who was accused of enjoying “Bigfoot erotica” during his 2018 congressional campaign, is leaning in. Riggleman defeated Democrat Leslie Cockburn in 2018 despite the Bigfoot story, but will leave Washington having served just one […]