Monthly Archive for January, 2008

Downtown Mall Proposals

A couple of proposed Downtown Mall redesigns are available now.  #

Who Wants a Cat?

We’re fostering a six toed cat named Domino. He needs a home in a few days, or else he goes back to the SPCA. Who wants him?  #

Millions to Fix RWSA Stink

The neighborhood around the RSWA sewage plant smells like shit. It’ll cost between $6M-$33M to fix that.  #

20,000 New Residents Since 2000

The population of the Charlottesville area grew by 11.4% since 2000, adding 20,000 residents, the Progress reports. The area included in this is Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene and Nelson. Urban areas in the state have been growing the fastest, while rural areas have seen population declines. (The Progress inexplicably labels Danville and Petersburg as “rural,” despite Danville having a larger population and size than Charlottesville, and Petersburg having nearly the same size population and being twice the size of C’ville.)

County Assessments Hold Steady

Homeowners all over Albemarle are getting a welcome notice in the mail today, informing them that their assessments won’t be undergoing their normal annual ginormous increase. Residential assessments are increasing by just a fraction of a percent, Jeremy Borden writes in the Daily Progress, with the Samuel Miller district faring the best, with an average 1.18% drop.

Not coincidentally, Borden and Barney Breen-Portno also write that the county’s budget is a bad situation, what with the crappy housing market that’s caused the level assessments. The county was planning on a 2.4% increase in housing starts. Now it’s looking more like 1.6%, and it looks like belt-tightening time. (Or we’ll be buying a new, smaller, sleeker belt.)