The city of Charlottesville wasn’t incorporated until 1888, but people are recorded as living in the region as far back as 1612, when English explorer John Smith encountered a Monacan village and documented it on the very first map of Virginia. The Native Americans gradually left as European immigrants moved in, relying on the Three […]
On a chilly Thursday evening last week, several dozen people gathered at the Central Library for a talk on “the risks and rewards of public engagement” by someone who knows them all too well. Jalane Schmidt, a community activist and professor of religious studies at UVA, was recently sued for a comment she made in […]
“Finally.” That was the first word tweeted on a Twitter account for Jens Soering November 25, the day he learned he and former girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom had been granted parole, 34 years after the savage murders of her parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom. Upon their release, Soering, 53, and Haysom, 55, will be turned over […]
Untold stories “There’s a whole story of black Charlottesville that no one knows about,” Tanesha Hudson narrates over the opening sequence of her film A Legacy Unbroken: The Story of Black Charlottesville. The documentary premiered in front of a sold-out crowd at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center on Saturday. Hudson has been working […]
The Charlottesville Department of Social Services oversees a broad array of programs; everything from Child Protective Services to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, and more. In its November 18 annual report to City Council, the department’s advisory board highlighted some of the complicated challenges CDSS faces, along with its dedication to internal improvement. Medicaid […]
Rain check Planning Commission delays form-based code proposal After much debate, the City Planning Commission has decided to table its plans to introduce an alternative kind of zoning, called form-based code, to the city’s Strategic Investment Area south of downtown. Unlike conventional zoning, form-based code focuses on the physical form and scale of buildings in […]
By Spencer Philps Spend enough time on the Downtown Mall late at night and you’re bound to see it happen: someone hunched over against a wall “relieving” himself. Downtown business operators are acutely aware of this issue: One says he’s seen people urinating late at night, by the bus station and beside the unfinished Landmark […]
Rose Ann Abrahamson has seen nearly every depiction of her ancestor Sacajawea in the United States. “This statue in Charlottesville is the worst we have ever seen,” she told City Council at a meeting on November 15, referring to the statue of Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea on West Main Street. The imposing monument depicts the […]
On their own terms “If you have a dream, and you focus on it, and you work hard, your dream will come true one day,” Bushiri Salumu told a small crowd assembled at Piedmont Virginia Community College on Thursday, November 7. He spoke from experience: Salumu lost family members to the civil war in his […]
Before Bradley Shaun Dorman left his Charlottesville home the morning of October 25, he told his mother he was going to look for a job. He would be back in a few hours, in time to bathe their dog Gater. Several hours later, his mother, Annette Simmons, heard a knock at her door. She opened […]
By Alexis Gravely All of the nearly 50 students at the Renaissance School have their own mailbox in the front office. But as the teens walk into the Charlottesville private school every day, they’re not dropping papers into them—they’re dropping their cell phones. The students can check their phones between classes and have them at […]
A new plan for Starr Hill Since last spring, the New Hill Development Corporation has been working on a Small Area Plan to guide development in the Starr Hill area, which runs from Preston Avenue to the CSX Railroad along West Main Street. On November 4, the African American-led nonprofit, which was awarded $500,000 to […]
Community leaders gathered at the University of Virginia October 28 for the first meeting of the Commission on African American History Education. Charlottesville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins is among those appointed to the commission, which was established by Governor Ralph Northam. The purpose, says Atkins, is “to recognize that the African American experience […]
By Ben Hitchcock “I feel like I’ve been training for this one job for 30 years,” said Coy Barefoot when he took over as executive director of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society in April of 2018. In an interview with ilovecville.com, the local author and media personality expressed his desire to rebrand the organization and […]
Tamera Mason, an EMT working at Augusta Health’s emergency room in Staunton, lives with a life-threatening medical condition: In July 2015, a yellow jacket’s sting set off an extreme autoimmune reaction that devastated her hormonal systems and caused Addison’s disease, which affects the adrenal glands’ ability to produce cortisol. When Mason’s body goes into Addisonian […]
By Spencer Philps The opening of the Dairy Central apartment, retail, and office complex, slated for May 2020, is likely to bring more traffic to one of Charlottesville’s most confusing and dangerous intersections. According to development materials on the Dairy Central website, Preston Avenue, a primary link between US 29 and downtown, sees about 39,000 […]
Case dismissed Judge throws out defamation lawsuit against C-VILLE and UVA prof On October 28, the Albemarle Circuit Court ruled in favor of C-VILLE Weekly and former news editor Lisa Provence, concluding that a defamation claim brought by Edward Tayloe II lacked the legal basis to proceed. Judge Claude Worrell also ruled in favor of […]
By Ali Sullivan The story is all too familiar: Media corporation buys local newspaper, budget cuts ensue, and seasoned journalists lose their jobs. The staff at the Daily Progress doesn’t want to be next. Murmurs of unionizing began in January, and the formal announcement came on October 14. The Progress staff has formed a union—the […]
There are three open spots on Charlottesville City Council this year and three candidates who’ve won the Democratic nomination, usually a virtual guarantee of being elected. But three independents are still in the race, and as Nikuyah Walker proved with her victory in 2017, they can’t be discounted. We asked each of the candidates the […]
Follow the money Breaking down campaign finance reports With election day less than two weeks away, candidates will submit their final campaign fundraising reports on October 28. Using data provided by the Virginia Public Access Project, here are how things stand in two races with significant local ties, as of the last reports submitted September […]
Editor Judy Le and realtor and former educator Juliana Ko Arsali are vying for the Rivanna District school board seat being vacated by Jason Buyaki. The two women share a passion for equity and accessibility, and both want to expand school resources and support services, as well as tackle the county’s racial achievement gap. “In […]
Last month, corporate radio giant Saga Communications petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to deny license renewal to five small, nonprofit Charlottesville stations. It’s a move one station owner calls “a blatant attempt at economic bullying through litigation” that if successful, would shut down the area’s only progressive talk radio and programming geared toward African American […]
Nearly two years after plowing his car into a group of counterprotesters at the Unite the Right rally—killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others—self-proclaimed neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr. was convicted on 29 federal hate crime charges. Yet Heyer’s death was one of the thousands of hate crimes not included in official FBI hate crime […]