Blood on the tracks Are the CSX tracks the most crime-friendly spot in Charlottesville? Every community has its proverbial “dark alleys,” mysterious places where boogiemen live. One of UVA’s scary spots is a half-mile leg of CSX railroad that arcs northeast from University Avenue to Rugby Road. The tracks form a popular, but potentially dangerous, […]
Tuesday, April 6 – Heckling the ambassador Rich Felker, a UVA grad student, spent a night in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail for his role in a Students for Free Tibet protest of a campus appearance by Yang Jiechi, the Chinese ambassador to the United States. Felker, who was released this morning, was arrested while attempting […]
Tuesday, March 30 We’re No. 61! In addition to scoring big in the much ballyhooed “best places to live” ranking, our area was rated in today’s release of an annual toxic chemical survey from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. First place was definitely not desirable in this list, which tallied the amount of toxic […]
Attention, Giant shoppers Wal-Mart-fueled benefits dispute comes to local groceries Checkout lines might not be the only lines Giant Food shoppers spot during visits to the two Charlottesville stores this week. Workers from the region’s Giant and Safeway grocery stores will vote on a new contract on March 30, and signs are pointing to a […]
The home front Foster parents open their doors while localities search for cash Evelyn and George Riner want more kids. From the prodigious amount of laundry flapping from sagging clotheslines in their backyard, it would seem their household is already overflowing. In fact, 11 people, nine dogs and eight cats live in the Riners’ house […]
Utility infielder When it comes to local baseball, nobody pitches in more than Darrell Gardner Charlottesville enjoyed a taste of spring sunshine on March 6 and 7, and, fittingly, the Lane Babe Ruth baseball league held its preseason tryouts that very weekend on Darrell Gardner Field at Lane Park on McIntire Road. After the tryouts […]
Commons grounded Council tables controversial project, promising change is on the way For now, at least, the stretch of Preston Avenue in front of the Monticello Dairy Building will stay as it is—a triangle-shaped island of grass and empty beer bottles, bordered by the convoluted intersection of Preston, Grady Avenue and 10th Street, along with […]
The South shall rise Downtown goes modern with newest building projects During contemplative moments, John Gibson looks up from his desk on the fourth floor of the City Center for Contemporary Art on the corner of Water and Second streets, and gazes out the window at the bricks of the Jefferson Theater’s fly loft. During […]
“My way or the highway” State pols try to force unwanted Western Bypass on stubborn City Council The first order of business for Council on Tuesday, February 17, was to appropriate about $550,000 that flowed into the City from Commonwealth and Federal coffers. The money was granted for police equipment, walking trails and financial aid […]
Benefits struggle begins again “Insure our families,” say gay UVA staff When Ellen Bass, an assistant professor in the department of systems and information engineering at UVA, came to the University two years ago, she knew she and her lesbian partner would have problems with the school’s stance on domestic partner benefits. “I knew I […]