Around 100 of Charlottesville’s Democratic establishment packed Bashir’s January 15 for defense attorney Lloyd Snook’s launch into the race for City Council. Snook cited “dysfunction at the top” of city government as the impetus for joining the race. “There are things that are going on in the city that I want to be a part […]
Nothing puts a spring in the step of legislators heading to Richmond to do the people’s business like the fact that it’s an election year, and all 140 members of the General Assembly are up for reelection. Oh, and it’s the 400th year since the colonies’ first legislative body, the House of Burgesses, met in […]
By Jonathan Haynes City Councilor Wes Bellamy sat down for a revelatory interview at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center January 10 to promote his new book, Monumental: It Was Never About a Statue. The title alludes to the former vice-mayor’s push to remove Confederate monuments from Charlottesville parks, and the racist backlash it […]
New birds on the block A red-breasted nuthatch in central Virginia? You gotta be kidding! Turns out that an unusually large number of irruptive bird species—or species that normally breed in northern boreal forests and sometimes migrate south when their food supply runs out—are wintering in our neck of the woods this year, according to […]
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That seemed to be the overall consensus of community members who spoke up at a crowded January 8 roundtable to discuss potential “homestay” (read: Airbnb) regulations in Albemarle before they go before the planning commission in February. County staff members say many local homestays aren’t following existing regulations, […]
It wasn’t your typical launch party. Supporters of local activists Don Gathers and Michael Payne gathered at Kardinal Hall January 8 for the official tossing of the hats into this year’s City Council races. But Gathers made a different kind of announcement: A doctor’s visit three hours earlier had convinced him to postpone his campaign […]
Charlottesville resident Jordan McNeish knows the perils of opioid addiction first-hand. Three years ago, he was on an East Coast road trip with his ex-girlfriend, and the plan was to end up in Maine. But their first stop was Baltimore, to buy heroin. McNeish, 29, says he had gone from using heroin once or twice […]
A lawsuit to help prevent those unable to pay court fines from spiraling into further debt and prosecution got a significant boost last week. Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania announced January 4 that he will no longer prosecute people charged with driving on a license that was suspended solely for failure to pay court costs […]
All is quiet along the proposed path of the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, now that five federal permits have either been thrown out or put on hold. A vote on a permit that would allow a 54,000-horsepower pipeline compressor station to be built in Buckingham’s historic African American community of Union Hill, on a former […]
Knock, knock. Who’s [not] there? Sears. Sweethaus. Performance Bicycle. And Brown’s Cleaners, just to name a few recent local closings that left community members shocked, and in at least one case, without their clothes. The closing of Sears at Fashion Square Mall heralds the demise of one of America’s most iconic retailers, known for its mail-order […]
He wore a construction helmet that said “commie killer” as he joined in on a brutal beating in a downtown parking garage, striking the already downed DeAndre Harris with a stick until it broke as Harris struggled to pick himself up off the ground. And though two out-of-town men already found guilty of malicious wounding […]
Faced with a recent decline in enrollment, the city’s first co-operative preschool, which has operated for more than 50 years, is struggling to stay on its feet. Molly Michie Cooperative Preschool was founded in 1967 as the city’s first integrated preschool, with an emphasis on learning through play. Being a co-op means parents are deeply […]
Driver’s license suspensions under siege A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction December 21 and ordered Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard Holcomb to reinstate the driver’s licenses of three plaintiffs who automatically lost their licenses when they were unable to pay court costs and fines. The judge said they are likely to prevail in […]
By Jonathan Haynes Despite the controversy over the University of Virginia’s revisions to its right-to-assemble policies, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has awarded the university its highest free speech rating. FIRE, a group that defends the constitutional rights of students and faculty in higher ed, ranked UVA as a “green-light” university, along with […]
At a time when more people are pedaling, our area will kick off the new year with one fewer bike shop. Customers were told that longtime fixture Performance Bicycle in Seminole Square will close by the end of January, following the bankruptcy of Philadelphia-based parent company Advanced Sports Enterprises. “It’s sad to see it close, […]
By Lisa Provence and Samantha Baars Most of the biggest stories we followed this year were fallout from 2017: both the direct effects of the Unite the Right rally, with its continuing arrests and trials, and the continued furor over monuments, free speech, and present-day inequities as our city grapples with its full history. Martial […]
When you buy a house or a car, you know how much it’s going to cost. That’s not necessarily the case when you go see a doctor, especially if you don’t have insurance, a local woman discovered on recent visits to a UVA clinic. Sara Ensey is a self-pay patient, and when she went to […]
Many Charlottesvillians spent the last few weeks enjoying a festive holiday season on the Downtown Mall. But have we been strolling, shopping, and dining in the company of species Rattus? No question the mall has rats—the place is packed with restaurants, which means food waste, which means rat heaven. And just so you know, the […]
Early this month, a caravan of more than a dozen local lawyers, clergy, and other advocates set out to assist migrants seeking asylum at the Tijuana border, where the mayor has declared a humanitarian crisis, and where thousands of camping refugees wake up every morning hoping they’ll get their turn to present their cases to […]
When Maria Chavalan-Sut talks about her life, she smiles. She laughs. Sometimes she cries. The Guatemalan refugee came to America in 2015 and passed a credible fear interview at the border, meaning ICE believed that she would face persecution or torture if she was sent back to her country. But her attorney says that, like […]
The 17-year-old boy who escaped his private security guards at the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport on November 30 was “scared,” “cold,” and “hungry” by the time he reached several homes six miles from CHO, according to one of those residents. An Earlysville woman who spoke with him in Spanish, and who talked to C-VILLE on the […]
When Hurricane Camille dumped 10 inches of rain on Charlottesville in August 1969, folks were spotted rowing their boats up and down Nassau Street. Now, developer Justin Shimp has proposed to build an urban farm and residential complex on the same floodplain. The project, called Hogwaller Farm, is in compliance with the city’s safety and […]
Got a complaint? The city has an app for that. MyCville. Ever heard of it? We hadn’t, either, until the city encouraged residents to digitally report their delinquent neighbors who hadn’t shoveled sidewalks following the recent dumping of about a foot of snow on Charlottesville. There’s nothing like a (mostly) unexpected snowstorm to put the […]