The City of Charlottesville has set a plan in motion to reduce its carbon footprint—and it’s not messing around. On June 24, City Council unanimously approved a proposal to curtail carbon emissions by 45 percent over the next 11 years and achieve an end goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. It’s an aggressive plan, one […]
During its heyday, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression was known for calling out censorship with its Muzzle awards and for launching the Downtown Mall’s Free Speech Wall in 2006, where luminaries like John Grisham and Dahlia Lithwick turned out to chalk the first messages on the monument. Over the past […]
There’s only one way in and one way out of Wintergreen, where residents and the local fire department have called for a second emergency exit for more than a decade, and where the topography is strikingly similar to that of Gatlinburg, Tennessee—the site of the November 2016 inferno that killed 14 people and injured nearly […]
State police redact—heavily Natalie Jacobsen, a reporter who has written for C-VILLE, has been trying to get the Virginia State Police to release its August 12, 2017, operations plan for almost two years under the Freedom of Information Act. She seemed close May 22, when a Charlottesville judge ordered the state police to produce the […]
DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid. Two chains coiling around one another, a spiral ladder of genetic material we inherit from our parents. It informs, on a biological level, who we are—how our bodies develop, both inside and out—the strength of our heart muscles and the shape of our bones, the color of our eyes, our hair, our […]
It’s the (new) law July 1 not only heralds the start of another hot summer, but it’s also when new laws go into effect. Things you were doing legally on June 30 (ahem, 20-year-old vapers) are now against the law. And sometimes vice versa (hello, happy hour). Nicotine users: Virginia bumps the legal age to […]
Every college student knows it’s coming. Do it right, and you’re securing an enjoyable experience for two semesters of your college career. Mess it up, and you may be looking at a 12-month sentence of living with that guy who never learned how to do the dishes. Signing that first lease, even if it’s only […]
James Alex Fields Jr. sat before the judge, his thick, black hair grown just long enough to touch the collar of his black-and-white striped jumpsuit. The 22-year-old wore glasses, and spent most of Friday morning and early afternoon staring at the wall in front of him as the victims who were harmed when he plowed […]
Paige Rice, the former Charlottesville chief of staff and clerk of council who was indicted on felony embezzlement charges June 7, decided to resign from her post in September because her salary was reduced just two months after she received a raise and expanded role, according to documents obtained by C-VILLE Weekly under the Freedom […]
The family of Dashad, aka Sage, Smith made a moving, at times tearful request for help in finding the man last seen with the teen missing since 2012, while urging the community to not get hung up on pronouns or the name by which Smith is identified. At a June 27 press conference, Charlottesville police […]
Our annual, and always subjective, look at the movers and shakers around town is a mix of stalwarts and surprises. Here’s our take on the people shaping our city and county this year, for better or worse. We hope it gets you talking. Politics Nikuyah Walker Since Mayor Nikuyah Walker was elected in the […]
Funding cut loose Long-on-the-books redevelopment plans for Friendship Court, Southwood Mobile Home Park, and Crozet’s town center got millions in funding last week. Southwood and Crozet Plaza each got a $3.2-million go-ahead from Albemarle’s Board of Supervisors June 19, contingent upon rezoning approval in August. And Friendship Court can start phase one of its redevelopment […]
When the ParkMobile signs went up June 15, the paid parking designation caught Belmonters by surprise. Parking can be a challenge in the neighborhood, and customers at two new restaurants, Belle Coffee & Wine and No Limits Smokehouse, had been using the adjacent lots for free. Now, they’ll have to pay. Belle Coffee & Wine […]
Although President Trump walked back his order to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to conduct mass roundups of migrant families in major U.S. cities over the weekend, the delay did nothing to forestall the anxiety already created in the local immigrant community. The raids were postponed to allow talks between the White House and […]
When Paul Gaston came to the University of Virginia in 1957, it was overwhelmingly white and male, and segregation was the order of the day. And that’s why the young history professor and early civil rights activist chose it for his life’s work. He brought Martin Luther King Jr. to Old Cabell Hall in 1963, […]
Anne Lassere is the very model of a young woman whose career is about to take off. Competent, confident, poised and well-educated, the daughter of a doctor and a lawyer, she’s studied sculpture and anthropology and has lived in France, where she worked as a translator. She’s recently left her job to launch her own […]
‘Odd’ indictment The felony embezzlement charge against former City Council clerk Paige Rice, 37, for an iPhone and Apple Watch valued at more than $500 has many scratching their heads. “It seems very unusual it got to this point without a resolution,” says attorney Scott Goodman. “It seems like something that could have easily been […]
The lights flash and a series of images roll across the screen. A row of matching pictures are lined up around the board and the word “WINNER” greets players, accompanied by a cha-ching sound if they secure the top prize. No, this isn’t a slot machine. In fact, according to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control […]
By Eileen Abbott In the serenity of an early June morning, while mountain mist embraces the treetops, pilot Mandy Baskin’s hot air balloon gently floats above Chris Greene Lake Park, off U.S. 29 North, her favorite scenic launch site. “The water looks so clean and inviting lately. It’s absolutely beautiful,” observes Baskin, owner of Monticello […]
In the end, the 57th District race pitting a millennial and a baby boomer for the open House of Delegates seat wasn’t even close. Thirty-year-old Sally Hudson crushed two-term City Councilor Kathy Galvin with 66 percent of the vote in the June 11 primary. The same dynamic played out in the Democratic primary for City […]
Former Charlottesville mayor Maurice Cox, now Detroit’s director of planning and development, talks about managing growth, recovering from a crisis, and the power of telling the right story. There was a time when Maurice Cox couldn’t escape being recognized in Charlottesville. In August 2012, almost a decade after he served as mayor, he sat with […]
By Ben Hitchcock The roof of the front porch is missing, leaving exposed wood visible from the road. A notice from the Board of Architectural Review approving a window replacement has hung on the front door since 2017. Unused scrap wood sits piled in the side yard. Neighbors report that until last week, the grass […]
Close to 100 of the landed gentry filled Lane Auditorium for an Albemarle Board of Zoning Appeals hearing, a crowd size rarely seen during the usual Board of Supervisors meetings there. Well-heeled rural residents lined up for and against a Free Union Road business, lobbing accusations of “Californian,” “cronyism,” and “sleight of hand” in a […]