WINA reports this morning that two more assaults have taken place in the downtown area, this time on the 400 and 800 blocks of West Main Street. Both took place around 3 AM, and both attacks involved a group of 4-6 young, black white t-shirt-wearing males attacking a couple, not inflicting serious injury and not for the purpose of robbery. Joy assaults, basically. These sound precisely like the random assaults that have been taking place for the past few weeks, though took place many blocks away from the downtown area where business owners want cameras, ostensibly to stop the crimes.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Monthly Archive for July, 2007
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City Council wants bids to have security cameras all around the Downtown Mall, after a spate of assaults have have occurred just about everywhere downtown but the Downtown Mall, the Progress reports. Police Chief Longo has proposed 30 cameras for $300k, though it remains to be seen what the bids determine is feasible. I’m fond of Tim McCormack’s proposal that, fine, we put up the cameras, but that all the video be streamed real-time to the internet.
I’m assigning reading to City Council: Jeremy Bentham‘s “The Panopticon Writings” or Michel Foucault‘s “Discipline & Punish,” which explores modern applications of Bentham’s theories on surveillance. We really can’t have a proper discussion of the merits of becoming a surveillance society without getting the decision makers up to speed.
10:30pm Update: Jennifer McKeever attended last night’s Council meeting, and provides each councilor’s stated position. Apparently Dave Norris cited Tim’s suggestion of putting the video online, and Chief Longo supports it. Wonderful.
How walkable is your neighborhood? My prior home, downtown, gets a 92/100. My current home gets a big, fat 0, but that’s country living for you.
In this week’s C-Ville, Jayson Whitehead provides a lengthy piece about poverty in the Charlottesville area (20% live below the federal poverty line) for which he spent a day working as a day laborer, doing the sort of basic investigative journalism that we don’t see much around here. He also grabs dinner at Holy Comforter, visits with Holly Edwards at Westhaven Clinic, and checks out the Tom Shadyac-funded conversion of First Christian Church to a multipurpose facility for the homeless and poor.
The Jefferson Madison Regional Library is asking for $21M to restore the Central Library, Seth Rosen reports in today’s Daily Progress, as the building’s infrastructure crumbles around them. It’s housed in a beautiful 104-year-old building (the old post office) and while the structure is fine, some of its components (plumbing, wiring, HVAC, carpeting, etc.) are badly in need of replacement. The hope is to expand the area that’s used to serve the public, better suiting the interests of modern library visitors. The county has earmarked $10.5M in its 2013 capital improvement budget, though that’s not finalized, but apparently the city hasn’t moved on the need just yet. The work isn’t due to start until 2014.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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