Housing hero: Community mourns loss of Richard Shackelford

Beloved public housing advocate Richard Shackelford passed away in his Crescent Halls apartment on the morning of May 21, after a heart attack. He was 66 years old. Shackelford—known as “Shack” to his friends—grew up in Charlottesville, on the corner of Fifth and Harris streets. For many years, he worked as a gym instructor for […]

Put a ring on it (later): postponed weddings take a toll on vendors

With its array of elegant wineries and historic inns, nestled in between the picturesque Blue Ridge mountains, Charlottesville has become one of the country’s top wedding destinations. Last year, over 1,500 couples said “I do” in the area, according to The Wedding Report. And in January, brides.com named Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards one of […]

Call for help: Human Rights Commission asks for more city support

Charlottesville’s Office of Human Rights and Human Rights Commission have an intimidatingly broad mission: to reduce discrimination in the city.   So perhaps it’s not surprising that the office and its volunteer commission, which are tasked with both investigating individual complaints of discrimination and reviewing city polices for systemic discrimination, have received their fair share of […]

Low pay, little power: Charlottesville mayors have limited authority

Mayor Nikuyah Walker was re-elected on January 6, after a short but intense discussion at a City Council meeting that left part of the new council feeling put out. Two councilors, Heather Hill (who made her own bid for mayor) and Lloyd Snook, abstained from the vote rather than cast their support for Walker. Just […]

New venture: Riverbend dips into public housing

Music and real estate mogul Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development, known for 5th Street Station, the Flats, and City Walk, among many other projects, is now aligning itself in a different direction: a partnership with Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to build new public housing for residents of the crumbling Crescent Halls. Riverbend and the nonprofit […]

Truce: City and Mark Brown settle parking garage dispute

Two years ago, before Nazis came to Charlottesville in 2017, the big story was the contretemps between Mark Brown, co-owner of the Water Street Parking Garage, and then-mayor Mike Signer and the city. The escalating parking wars led to suits and countersuits, panicked meetings of downtown business owners, threats of closing the garage and of […]

In brief: Soviet-era propaganda, a landmark vote and a grisly death

Dollars and sense A story published December 7 in UVA Today boasted that minimum wage for the school’s new hires has increased by more than 16 percent since 2011, and President Teresa Sullivan and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Hogan presented this milestone to the Board of Visitors earlier this month. The current minimum wage for […]

Anonymous source: Progress story on Nikuyah Walker called a ‘hit piece’

Three days before the November 7 election, the Daily Progress ran a story on independent candidate Nikuyah Walker with the headline, “Emails show Walker’s aggressive approach.” Her supporters have gone ballistic on social media over the story. The article describes dozens of emails Walker has sent city officials as indicative of her style of communication: […]

Power players: the ones making the biggest impact

It’s the time of year C-VILLE editorial staffers dread most: landing on the final names for our Power Issue, followed by the inevitable complaints that the list contains a bunch of white men. Sure, there are powerful women and people of color in Charlottesville. But when it comes down to it, it’s still mostly white […]