66% of Albemarle County employees live in Charlottesville or Albemarle. Most of the rest live in Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Waynesboro. #
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
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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It would be interesting to find out how that breaks down by years of service. It seems that county employees who have been employed the longest would be more likely to live here – assuming they bought homes before the relatively recent price escalations. I can’t imagine many new teachers living in or around town – even if they can afford housing, the cost of living in Charlottesville is ridiculous.
Big Al makes an interesting point. I think data specific to teachers/police, etc would be very interesting.
I suspect that more government employees live locally than is commonly recognized because many analysis of this issue assume that people are usually living in one income households. Also, as fuel costs have gone up and housing costs in neighboring counties have increased the financial benefits of living out of town may have decreased. It would also be interesting to know how many people choose to commute for issues other than costs such as choosing to live close to a spouses job or near extended family.
It would be useful to know who among the local government employees can not afford to live locally.
Doesn’t this kind of shoot to hell the agrument that people who feed out of the public trough (government employees) need affordable housing and special help with their housing needs in order to live in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area. I suggest that it does and we get over this affordable housing debate/issue and move on.
Jim Tolbert did an analysis of city staff and school employees living patterns several years ago. There was no analysis based upon salary or marital status and no one was asked why he choose to live where he lived. It was not a formal study, just a situational one. From that, the city staff started talking about the need to increase middle income housing in the city and tied that need in with allowing for higher densities, planned unit developments and mixed-use housing. I never heard any of the employees say they would prefer living in the city but couldn’t afford. Then the so-called housing activists got involved and starting advocating for the local tax payer to help pay the rents and mortgages for those would could not afford market-rate housing. They also have called for more housing for “the homeless” at local tax payer expense. IMPACT is the primary lead in this movement. The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has also done somewhat of a study, not particularly scientific, indicating their is a need for “affordable housing” in the region encompassing a great deal of the area included in Mr. Wheeler’s map. Somehow that has translated into Charlottesville providing the local money for these initiatives. Unfortunately, this problems has been taken over by politics and reason has been side-stepped. Gail, I doubt if you will ever find the answers to your questions because answering those kinds of questions before making decisions to spend money is just not the way we do thinkgs here in Charlottesville.