A new page: Longtime 10th and Page residents are seeing a shift in the neighborhood
Sharon Jones’ childhood home no longer exists. It was in an area of Charlottesville called Gospel Hill, which also no longer exists. “My two brothers and I were born there,” says Jones, who was born in 1962. Around that time the rapidly expanding University of Virginia bought the dozen or so houses in the predominantly […]
Proposed court docket would offer treatment programs for incarcerated
Increasingly, jails have become asylums. City and county officials are hoping to change that with a new court docket aimed at diverting people with mental illness from jail by the end of the year. The therapeutic docket follows 18 months of data gathering by the local Evidence-Based Decision-Making Policy Team, which found that 23.1 percent […]
Close to home: The men and women who live in Emancipation Park speak out
In the center of Charlottesville is a park. A park that, lately, has seen its fair share of blood and spit, pepper spray and violence, tears and prayers. It sits in the city’s northeast quadrant and takes up a square block, sandwiched between First and Second streets to the west and east, Jefferson Street to […]
Taking action: Hate rally fuels momentum for new affordable housing coalition
Neo-Nazis and affordable housing may not seem directly connected, but in the wake of the white supremacist rally on August 12, a new coalition of grassroots activists and nonprofit groups is linking the two in a push for more homes for poorer Charlottesville residents. The Charlottesville Coalition for Low-Income Housing, formed earlier this year, has […]
Police Chief Al Thomas is overhauling the department, implementing new ways of policing
The bass from the DJ speakers outside hadn’t quieted yet, but the second annual Memorial Day cookout in Tonsler Park had come to a close. Several dozen people made their way past the turntables and into the nearby community center. Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas was ready to talk. Almost exactly a year ago, Thomas […]
Affordable housing remedies include land purchasing and city-funded rental assistance
City Council is forging ahead with a multi-pronged attempt to stymie the affordable housing crisis in Charlottesville. The moves call for building new affordable housing, while also creating incentives for existing landlords to rent at rates affordable for lower-income families, and developing a city-funded rental assistance program for residents who are most in need. “The […]
A new type of zoning worries residents
A new form of proposed zoning has some in the city on edge, worried that it could be used to force out poorer residents. Nearly 200 people attended an information session last week at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to learn about form-based code, a different type of zoning ordinance that focuses on a […]
Unaffordable housing: Developers pay to not build affordable units
Sharonda Poindexter-Rose is a 24-year-old single mother who works as a server at a local restaurant. She lives in a one-bedroom home, and as she’s looked for a two-bedroom place over the last several months, she’s discovered a harsh reality. “It is so expensive out here, it’s ridiculous,” says Poindexter-Rose. In the last six years, […]
City receives grant to study race in our criminal justice system
Charlottesville City Council moved a step closer last week to launching the most comprehensive study ever undertaken in Virginia on the role race plays in the criminal justice system. The city was recently awarded a $90,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Human Services to begin collecting data on the rate that African-American adults enter […]
Developing their future: Friendship Court residents want more say
A group of Friendship Court residents is pushing back against redevelopment plans, calling for more inclusion as developers move forward with attempts to revamp downtown Charlottesville’s largest subsidized housing neighborhood. The Piedmont Housing Alliance announced last fall that it was purchasing the property with 150 low-income units in 2018 and was transforming it into a large-scale, […]
Searching for solutions: Why are black kids arrested more often than white kids?
Author’s note: With race at the heart of this story, an editorial decision was made to identify every person’s race in this piece. This may appear jarring or unnecessary to readers, but the aim is to be fair in our descriptions of people and, more so, to draw attention to racial conceptions and how they […]
Westhaven story : Cops step up foot-patrols while kids learn their rights
Residents of Westhaven, which has one of the highest violent crime rates in the city, have started to see a more constant police presence in their neighborhood over the last month—at the same time a nonprofit is teaching kids their rights in police encounters. Charlottesville Police officers assigned to the housing project have gotten new […]
City’s job training program eyes expansion after early successes
Last year, George Davis was struggling to make ends meet. The 47-year-old was working as much as possible as a private home care attendant, landscaper and maintenance man. But the work wasn’t steady, and he didn’t always get his paychecks on time. “The money wasn’t what I needed to sustain my rent or food costs,” […]
Off the streets: Spring has sprung for homeless housing in the city
This month Charlottesville will move one step closer to eliminating homelessness as a coalition of service providers begins to house at least 33 of the most critically homeless people in the area. The initiative is being funded in part by $255,000 from the city and has three main components that complement a bevy of new […]
The median men: Loyalty, tough times mark lives of Charlottesville panhandlers
I find Floyd sitting with his 26-year-old son, Robert, under a tree near the intersection of Hydraulic Road and the 250 Bypass. He’s wearing a dark blue Earlysville Fire Station sweatshirt, but Floyd’s not a firefighter. He’s been homeless and panhandling in the area for more than five years. You’ve probably seen him. He’s 60 […]
Banking on change: Nonprofit offers alternative to predatory lending
In May 2012, Barbara Fitch had no savings account, a battered credit score, and a lavish shoe buying habit. She had racked up hefty debt and was trapped in a high-rate loan for a used car, even though she was bringing in a steady paycheck as the catering sales manager at the Inn at Darden, […]
Charlottesville takes aim at unemployment with new job center
Charlottesville’s fight against unemployment has a new crusader in town. Seated in the city’s new Downtown Job Center, Cory Demchak can be found busily at work in his underground lair in the basement of the public library on Market Street. Demchak mans the just-opened one-stop shop for residents looking for a new job, a better […]
Got students? Why The Flats at West Village is the canary in the coal mine for Charlottesville’s midtown
Charlottesville is holding its breath as the eight-story brick behemoth of an apartment building known as The Flats at West Village prepares to open in five weeks along West Main Street. City officials, business owners, and developers are worried that the 622-bedroom apartment building has not been leasing as quickly as owners predicted, causing some […]
Task force on racial inequity in the justice system has community members calling for action
Members of a large task force formed by the city to look into unequal rates of arrest and incarceration among black and white kids in Charlottesville are clamoring for more action. The outcry comes in the wake of a recently completed study presented to City Council by the same task force, which found that black […]
The full Montpelier: Madison’s mansion gets its day in the sun
It’s 4pm on a Friday, and Matt Reeves hasn’t eaten lunch yet. But the salt-and-pepper-haired director of Montpelier’s archaeology department is bouncing off the walls of his rustic office on the southeast side of the 2,650 acre estate nestled in the rolling fields of Orange County. Reeves is ecstatic because his team of 11 full-time […]
Plaza pain eases: City steps up to help businesses affected by McIntire Road construction
The nearly 50 small businesses that call McIntire Plaza home have made their voices heard above the din of incessant construction that stretches from their front yard at the intersection of McIntire Road and Harris Street down to the U.S. 250 Bypass. Responding to steady complaints from commuters and customers, City Manager Maurice Jones met […]
Stuck inside of Nelson: Local firm Starchive scores big with Bob Dylan archive
It took two years to get Bob Dylan organized, but a small software company nestled in Nelson County has finally done it. Bluewall Media recently helped Dylan and his staff archive and digitalize more than 60 years worth of his iconic music, photographs, written documents, video, and film footage. In the years to come, Dylan […]
Deadlock in Richmond leaves local drug court judgeless
The General Assembly’s political dogfight over the state’s budget is threatening to neuter Charlottesville’s drug court. The Medicaid expansion stalemate in Richmond has left Charlottesville’s 16th Circuit Court without a designated judge to oversee the city’s drug court for the first time since it was created 16 years ago. “The longer it goes on, the […]
McIntire Plaza businesses cut off by 250 Bypass construction feel the pinch
Anybody who’s inched a car past the exhaust-spewing dump trucks and giant yellow backhoes lining the intersection of McIntire Road and the U.S. 250 Bypass knows what a traffic headache it can be. But for the nearly 50 small businesses in McIntire Plaza, the enormous construction site in their front yard has worsened from headache […]
Health issue 2014: UVA studies impact of concussions in young athletes
This story is part of our 2014 health issue, which also includes articles on mammography, rhabdomyolysis, and gluten intolerance. Helmet? Check. Shoulder pads? Check. Tiny biometric brain injury sensor? Check. You won’t see the quarter-sized computerized devices tucked behind their ears, but more than 100 local high school and college athletes are donning the sensors […]
The next food fight: Local church focuses on education instead of can drive
Canned ravioli, instant cups of soup, and microwaveable chicken dinners are a fixture in the kitchens of people who can’t afford to buy food. They’re free from food banks and charity distribution programs, because they’re easy to prepare and don’t go bad. But they’re not the most nutritious meals, and their sugar content and preservatives […]
Amahl and the Night Visitors sets the course for local opera careers
At 11 years old, Kate Tamarkin sat in a dark Laguna Beach, California theater, her mouth gaping, flabbergasted at the boisterous sounds produced by the singers in a performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors. “I had not ever heard opera before,” said Tamarkin, who 40 years later is now the director of the Charlottesville & […]