Lightning fast: Ting’s grand plans to expand

Just five months after Ting launched its high-speed Internet network in Charlottesville, the company has given almost half the city access to the gigabit. Ting describes the gigabit as “lightning fast” (gigabit refers to a speed of one gigabit per second, and one gigabit equals 1,000 megabits), and its network requires not just stringing cables up […]

Up and over: Why some are begging for a bridge

Route 250, deemed a traffic nightmare by drivers of the 32,000 cars that travel it daily, virtually splits residential neighborhoods on one side and businesses on the other. Some think the next step for Albemarle should be building a walkway across the busy highway—because most pedestrians fear crossing the street on foot, but would prefer […]

Construction crews prepare for the Blade

Signs and sandwich boards on the historic Downtown Mall may soon be outshone by the reinstallation of a much anticipated, 33-foot sign at the Paramount Theater. As the theater celebrates its 10th anniversary of reopening, construction crews prepare to bring back the Blade—a $175,000 project to put the Paramount’s iconic blade sign back in its […]

Gubernatorial invite: Will McAuliffe visit pipeline foes?

While many out-of-towners plan tours of Nelson County to learn the land by way of winery and brewery, Governor Terry McAuliffe has been extended a much more somber, or rather, sober, invitation. Over 1,200 Virginia residents signed Friends of Nelson’s request for McAuliffe to join locals and business owners on a tour of the Atlantic […]

Signer fed up with ‘eyesore’ called the Landmark

City Council candidate Mike Signer stood before the skeletal Landmark Hotel, an unwelcome landmark on the Downtown Mall since 2009, and quoted the graffiti scrawled on its boarded up side: “We’re fed up.” And he promised to explore all legal actions for resolving the situation, including eminent domain. Flanked by fellow Dem candidates Kathy Galvin […]

Know your water: Recent rainstorm boosts levels

As part of a national campaign called Imagine a Day Without Water, members from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, Albemarle County Service Authority and City of Charlottesville set up booths last week on the Downtown Mall and asked passersby to describe the many ways they use water. Making tea, brushing teeth, filling water balloons […]

Electric feel: City powers ahead with charging stations (updated)

General contractor Martin Horn has been generating its own energy for months with an array of rooftop solar panels, and the company just gave passersby a new energy-saver to ogle. Martin Horn had already installed 82 grid-tied solar panels that produce 260 watts each, enough to run the office most of the time. In September, […]

‘Baby step’ boundary adjustment could deter brewery

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors snatched victory from the jaws of a 223-acre growth area expansion and approved the addition of only 35 acres south of the Interstate 64/U.S. 29 interchange to the comprehensive plan’s development area at a September 23 special meeting. When the supes last met September 9, it looked like they were […]

UPDATED: City Council sides with YMCA

The Brooks Family YMCA has been in the works since 2006 and secured a ground lease from the city to build in McIntire Park in 2008. Seven years later, the still-unbuilt facility faces continued opposition from members of the Charlottesville City Council as amendments to the ground lease were introduced earlier this month. In a […]

Supes not swayed: Board poised to expand southern growth area boundary

Story updated September 16 More than 30 citizens voiced their opposition to a change to the county’s comprehensive plan that would expand its southern growth area at the Interstate 64/U.S. 29 interchange, with a couple quoting the lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel (“People hearing without listening”)  and Grandmaster Flash (“Don’t push me ’cause I’m close […]