Settle in “Our message today is very clear: That is to stay home,” said Governor Ralph Northam at the beginning of a March 30 press conference. On March 27, the governor issued Executive Order 53, which shut down schools for the rest of the year, closed all “non-essential” businesses, and asked everyone to social distance, […]
By Dan Goff “Remember when I said I doubted the university would move classes online because it would be a logistical nightmare? Well, I was only half right. UVA will and has moved classes online. And it’s a logistical nightmare.” This quote, from an email sent by one of my professors, nicely sums up the […]
You can’t stop coughing and are running a fever. It’s becoming harder for you to breathe, and you can barely muster the energy to get out of bed. A glance at the CDC’s website confirms your greatest fear: You may have the coronavirus. What happens from there? We spoke with Ta’Kindra Westbrook, a disease intervention […]
Entrepreneur and inventor Oliver Kuttner has been known to step up in a crisis. In 2005, he loaded the Starlight Express, a Charlottesville-New York luxury bus service he co-founded, and headed south with supplies to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi. Now Kuttner has a plan to house those who are infected with COVID-19 […]
Charlottesville has an affordable housing crisis: that’s not exactly breaking news. Local activists have been working for years to elevate the issue, and the city government has become more and more responsive. The most recent city budget devotes $31.2 million over five years to various affordable housing initiatives. (The city has announced it will […]
In just a matter of days, the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the Thomas Jefferson Health District has jumped from one to 16, including four in the City of Charlottesville and six in Albemarle County. While the first case was initially thought to be travel-related, it’s now unclear how the individual, […]
Suddenly, a new normal Just two weeks ago—two weeks ago!—our schools were open, our basketball team was eyeing a tournament run, and our restaurants were dusting off the patio furniture for long evenings of springtime outdoor dining. But thanks to the spread of the infectious and dangerous novel coronavirus, Charlottesville has had to quickly adjust […]
As mayor of Charlottesville during the violent white supremacist invasion in 2017 that killed Heather Heyer and injured dozens, Mike Signer earned a place in the city’s history, and in the national spotlight. Now, Signer has turned his leadership during the Summer of Hate into a book—one that, like the Charlottesville book written by former […]
Imagine you’re a young person in Africa. Your community is strong and supportive. You have everything that you need—until one day you’re kidnapped, put in chains, and packed tight into a ship with hundreds of other people who look like you, but whom you don’t know or understand. You see others die on the ship […]
Back in 2013, Julie (who asked that we not use her last name) bought a house in Rose Hill, a small, historically African American neighborhood roughly bordered by Preston Avenue, Madison Avenue, and Harris Street. The house had gone into foreclosure during the housing market crash, and had been neglected for a while. After determining […]
Making an IMPACT “It has been almost four years since the father of my kids was deported to Mexico due to his stay in the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail,” said Fanny Smedlie, reading a statement from her friend Karla Lopez. Smedlie, a member of the Executive Committee of the Church of the Incarnation, addressed a […]
Down at the narrow end of East Market street, past the eclectic, slanting houses of the Woolen Mills neighborhood, there’s a little white chapel. It’s been there since Christmas of 1887, perched on the bank of the Rivanna River at the very edge of the City of Charlottesville. The history shows: the white paint […]
Since last week, when health officials warned that Americans should prepare for the inevitable spread of the coronavirus here in the U.S., at least 12 Americans have died and new cases have been emerging almost daily. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that Americans should be prepared for the spread of the […]
On February 10, local conservative radio host Rob Schilling posted a photo of a Black History Month poster from Cale Elementary School on his blog, with the headline “Fomenting dissension at Cale Elementary.” Three days later, Albemarle County Public Schools Superintendent Matt Haas left a comment agreeing that the poster was causing dissension among students, […]
Money talks City Manager Tarron Richardson presented his proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 at the City Council meeting on March 2. If that sentence made you yawn, we understand—but the tail end of the hours-long council meeting represents the beginning of the end of the budget cycle, some of the more important city business […]
Last August, Chinikqua Joseph’s Buckingham County home burned down. Thankfully, no one was injured or killed by the fire, but she, along with her mother and godmother, lost everything. They were homeless. While looking for housing, Joseph stayed with friends, and later with a boyfriend. When that relationship became abusive, she had to find a […]
Mike Bloomberg’s Charlottesville campaign office is cavernous—and, on a Wednesday afternoon with the Virginia primary less than two weeks away, totally empty. The ninth-richest man in the world set up shop across the street from Friendship Court, one of Charlottesville’s largest low-income housing neighborhoods, but it doesn’t seem to have led to any foot traffic. […]
Charlottesville’s Office of Human Rights and Human Rights Commission have an intimidatingly broad mission: to reduce discrimination in the city. So perhaps it’s not surprising that the office and its volunteer commission, which are tasked with both investigating individual complaints of discrimination and reviewing city polices for systemic discrimination, have received their fair share of […]
For most of her life, Margaret O’Bryant has called the library home. After receiving a master’s degree in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she worked in libraries at Ferrum College, Lenoir-Rhyne College, and UVA, later moving to the reference department at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. While at the public […]
Keeping our waterways swimmable, fishable, and drinkable seems like an uncontroversial goal—but the Trump administration apparently disagrees. Since assuming control, the administration has made a series of efforts to weaken long-standing protections for America’s waterways. Local environmental groups have grave concerns about the potential effects of these suggested laws in Virginia and across the country. […]
Barracks Road Shopping Center’s go-to location for bird feeders, peacock wind spinners, and outdoor furniture is nearly empty now. Plow & Hearth will end its 30-year-plus run at Barracks Road March 1, and increased rent was a factor in the decision to shutter the store. “Our lease was coming to term and it had some […]
Get serious: Talking reparations, monuments, and more What does it mean to confront the truth? To not be complacent in an unjust system? To seek justice for those who’ve been oppressed by that system for over 400 years? Acclaimed New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones grappled with these questions—and more—during a discussion with Times […]
Gwen Cassady has lived a lot more life than could fit into a half-page newspaper profile. She’s been homeless four times, and spent a period living out of an office on the Downtown Mall. She’s been to 64 countries, as well as a royal Saudi compound, earned two degrees from UVA, and is currently enrolled […]