Mayor Mike Signer had a quorum of councilors today outside City Hall, but it wasn’t for a City Council meeting. A band played Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” as hundreds of Charlottesvillians assembled at noon below the statues of three presidents, along with a handful of vocal protesters, and Signer declared Charlottesville the “capital of […]
Mayor Mike Signer had a quorum of councilors today outside City Hall, but it wasn’t for a City Council meeting. A band played Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” as hundreds of Charlottesvillians assembled at noon below the statues of three presidents, along with a handful of vocal protesters, and Signer declared Charlottesville the “capital of […]
Payne, Ross closing When politicians need flack assistance stat, there’s one number they call: Payne, Ross and Associates. And around the beginning of the new year, Charlottesville’s public relations institution will close its doors after almost 35 years. “It’s a new vision,” says principal Susan Payne. Partner Lisa Ross Moorefield says the closing is a […]
When Bank of America closes its branch doors downtown in February, it leaves a grand 1916 building in its wake that will house a steakhouse, according to building owner Hunter Craig. And while he declined to identify the grilled meat purveyor, he did say it would be locally owned, not a national chain. Also inhabiting […]
Even before Mark Brown listed the Main Street Arena for sale for $6.5 million in September, the rumor mill was working overtime about possible buyers for the prime Downtown Mall location, including speculation back in the spring that a Japanese developer wanted to turn it into a hotel. The current buzz? That Jaffray Woodriff, founder […]
Throughout the month of September, an audio-visual exhibition called “Landscapes of Slavery and Segregation” provides historical context to Charlottesville in three different locations: the Downtown Mall, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and UVA Grounds. Curated by Encyclopedia Virginia, a branch of The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, each site is paired with multimedia components of […]
In a progressive town like Charlottesville, the owner of a 31-year-old business on the Downtown Mall says it’s time that equivalent rules and regulations are imposed on downtown storefronts and street vendors alike. His request comes in the form of a petition. “We’re a fast city, man,” says Tony LaBua, the owner of Chaps Ice […]
It was nearing lunchtime on the Downtown Mall when smoke began pouring out of the building that houses Ike’s Underground Vintage Clothing and Strange Cargo, Miso Sweet and Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. Next door at OpenQ, CEO Otavio Freire was in his office, which “filled up very quickly with smoke,” he says. “The smoke was […]
Discussions for this year’s list of the most powerful in Charlottesville turned not toward one particular person but an entity that truly affects Charlottesvillians’ daily lives—the Virginia Department of Transportation. Don’t worry, you’ll still see some familiar faces (last year’s power-topper Mark Brown remains embroiled in a battle with the city over the Water Street Parking Garage), […]
The LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph takes place June 13-19 at various city locations, and includes free community events, exhibitions and outdoor projections, talks by professional photographers and opportunities for aspiring photographers to share their work not only with each other but with the pros as well. We highlight some of this year’s featured photographers, followed […]
Philippe Garrel’s In the Shadow of Women, the Virginia Film Festival’s third installment of its year-round series, portrays work, home and love lives colliding. The veteran French new wave film director uses stark black-and-white cinematography to contrast a male versus female perspective on the dissolution of a marriage wrecked by mutual infidelity. Exploring the gray […]