Yearly Archive for 2002

Page 35 of 75

BAR Approves Downtown Demolition

The Board of Architectural Review has approved an application to demolish large portions of the Wachovia block on the Downtown Mall. The buildings were originally approved for partial demolition in September of 2000, but building owners Lee Danielson and Colin Rolph failed to do so within in the one-year time limit. The building is for sale, and not all interested purchasers desire to go through with the demolition. Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Progress.

Downtown Tax District Delayed

The plan to create a special downtown tax district has been delayed. The Downtown Property Owners’ Council had asked City Council to assess a tax of $0.20 per $100 in assessed value for commercial properties in order to fund downtown improvements. However, the draft law that the city drew up had some problems, not the least of which is that it would have taxed residents, not just commercial real estate. Council ended up not discussing the service district, but hopes to take it up again on June 3rd. There’s no word as to whether DPOC believes that the problems can be resolved that quickly. Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Progress.

C-Ville Weekly: News or Navel Gazing?

legal_recruiter writes: I know that it’s hard to write 70 pages of stuff every week (especially with all the other news outlets in town), but C-Ville Weekly has failed to justify its existence over the past few months. Is it news? Is it entertainment? Does it matter? For most stories in the C-Ville Weekly, the answer to all three is a resounding “no.” [This week’s cover article] on whether Charlottesville is “Southern,” is stupid and has what can charitably be described as a mishmash of quotations on our town. Wait a minute: unsophisticated analysis of stale news and Sabato quotes? The C-Ville Weekly has turned into… the Cavalier Daily!

I’m sure that I’m just begging for an angry phone call in the morning by posting this, but I think it’s an interesting question.

Richards Wins Congressional Nomination

At today’s 5th District Democratic nominating convention, City Councilor Meredith Richards was given the Democratic nomination for Congress by an overwhelming majority. Her opponent for the nomination was George Shropshire, of Cambell County. Richards intends to start campaigning immediately in hopes of unseating Democrat-turned-Republican Virgil Goode in November’s election.

Graduation This Weekend

UVa graduation is Sunday, though there’s a full schedule of graduation exercises scheduled for the whole weekend. All of the traffic problems that come with thousands of parents descending on the town are to be expected. On Sunday, CTS will be running buses every 5-10 minutes between downtown and UVa. The graduation ceremony begins Sunday, on the Lawn, at 10am. Gov. Mark Warner will be speaking. Remember to be nice to our visitors. They come here, they give us money, and then they leave. It doesn’t get any better than that.

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