Flashback to March 15, when the Downtown Mall teemed with 200 miniature activists rallying as part of the national Youth Climate Strike. Among them was 11-year-old Gudrun Campbell, who fearlessly gripped a microphone attached by a curly black cord to the bullhorn held by her dad. Drawing the mic half an inch from her mouth, […]
By Shrey Dua Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke was greeted with a rock star welcome at UVA April 16. After being delayed by an hour, the Texas native and Woodberry Forest grad arrived at Nau Hall at 8pm to a mob of excited students. The event, hosted by the University Democrats, was held in a […]
By Bonnie Price Lofton If rainwater doesn’t seep, sponge-like, into the soil around us, it runs away somewhere. In Charlottesville, where much of the ground is covered with impermeable asphalt, it runs into stormwater drainage systems, ditches, and streams that eventually lead into the Rivanna River. That creates two problems: first, without earth to filter […]
A new co-op opportunity in Charlottesville aims to help area home and business owners save money on solar panels and electric vehicle chargers by bulk purchasing the equipment. Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit headquartered in D.C., has developed similar co-ops in multiple states, including Virginia, to help neighbors save on solar while building a community […]
Google “permanent makeup gone wrong” and you’ll see a horror show of angry eyebrows, clown lips, and watery red eyes. After Susan Enos had her brows microbladed and eyeliner applied in a procedure that’s essentially a tattoo, what happened was actually worse than a cosmetic botch. “I had terrible eye pain,” she says. She also […]
In the words of Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being green. Though the Muppet references the color of his amphibian skin, the famous line is a sentiment that also rings true for Charlottesville, where carbon emissions per household are more than a ton above the national average. With 10 tons of carbon emissions per […]
The first Earth Day occurred in 1970, long before anyone started to worry about what was, at first, called “global warming.” So those trying to get Americans to change their behavior for the planet’s sake are fighting a battle against eco-fatigue, born of repeated exposure to environmentalist messages, and their inevitable fadeout. In Charlottesville, one […]
Amazon has been blamed for the demise of bookstores, but that doesn’t seem to deter people from taking up the retail cause on the Downtown Mall. New Dominion got a new owner in November 2017, and last month the former Read it Again, Sam reopened as 2nd Act Books. The name comes from both its […]
Come this fall, Walker Upper Elementary, which serves the city’s fifth and sixth graders, will drop its Spanish language requirement for a focus on math and science instruction. During a January school board meeting, Principal Adam Hastings said the change, which the school board approved in February, was prompted by “a need for students to […]
Approximately 6,000 drivers whiz past stopped school buses in Albemarle County each year, putting students getting on and off the bus in jeopardy. New legislation that allows the installation of stop-arm cameras aims to put an end to this dangerous trend. County school officials say they’ve been advocating for the technology for at least six […]
City Council introduced its pick to be the city’s top executive April 15, and Mayor Nikuyah Walker urged citizens to be open to moving past “the way things have been done.” Tarron Richardson, currently city manager of DeSoto, Texas, a Dallas suburb, was chosen out of 37 candidates in a process that’s taken almost a […]
It looks like bud. It smells like high-grade reefer. Its different strains have names like Frostbite and Pink Panther. And after Darryl Rojas bought some hemp flower at Higher Education on West Main Street, he had the police at his door, just as he might if he were smoking fully loaded cannabis here in Virginia. […]
Charlottesville’s Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, dedicated in 1966, was one of the first memorials to Vietnam veterans in the country. When the John Warner Parkway was built, the memorial was improved and is now visible to those driving by. The problem, say veterans, is getting to it. In an 18-page letter to City Council, former mayor […]
By Charlie Sallwasser It’s 1am on Tuesday, and Virginia basketball has just won the national championship. I can’t believe it. As a 10-year-old, I used to pretend to be Virginia forward Cornel Parker when I was shooting hoops in my driveway, lining up the game-winner in the national championship game. I made countless elbow threes […]
In elections, it often comes down to name recognition, and former Charlottesville police lieutenant Ronnie Roberts has it. The Albemarle native spent most of his 44-year career in law enforcement working for the city police department, where he rose through the ranks and served as a well-known spokesman. Roberts announced his candidacy for Albemarle sheriff […]
By Charlie Burns, Kyri Antholis, Susannah Birle, Connor Jackson, and Anabel Simpson Recently, a racist online comment threatening many of our peers at Charlottesville High School with an “ethnic cleansing” closed all city schools for two days. While some students brushed the threat off as a joke and went back to school on Monday without […]
By Shrey Dua Although long-time blood donor Gary Grant arrived 15 minutes early for his March 7 appointment at the Red Cross, he and other would-be donors were sent home. The facility, a chapter office on Rose Hill Drive, did not have enough equipment. “We got no notice, I drove 10 miles, and they told […]
Buzzer beater UVA heads to the Final Four in Minneapolis April 6 after a heart-stopping 80-75 win over Purdue’s Boilermakers, thanks to a last second bucket by Mamadi Diakite to put the Cavs into overtime. The win marks Virginia’s first appearance in the Final Four since 1984, coach Tony Bennett’s 10th year leading the Hoos, […]
For some, it came as a shock when City Councilor Wes Bellamy announced yesterday that he would not run for re-election, especially considering his public remarks the week before that made it sound otherwise. At his March 20 Virginia Festival of the Book event with former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu, where the two politicians […]
Some victims of the August 12, 2017, car attack are breathing a sigh of relief that they won’t have to endure a second trial, after the white supremacist who murdered Heather Heyer pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes on March 27. In a state trial in December, James Alex Fields, Jr., a 21-year-old from […]
It’s budget season. For four months every year, council and staff hold public meetings about the coming year’s priorities. For four months, I sit through what I am absolutely certain is the exact same PowerPoint at least a dozen times. Much of it remains inscrutable to me. I am growing comfortable with the idea that […]
While renters have it tough, managing an apartment isn’t a walk in the park either, and one local manager has truly seen it all. On the condition of anonymity, the industry professional of nearly two decades agreed to dish the details. “For what it’s worth,” he says, “I could likely fill a large novel with […]
Sylvan and Sheria Kassondwa’s 860-square foot, three-bedroom apartment would be fine, they say, if they had one or two kids. As it happens, they have five. “In my country, time is not money like here, you can spend more time with your family,” says Sylvan, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. “And […]