City and county registrars have released the final voter registration numbers, John Robinson writes for C-Ville Weekly, and they’re impressive. An admirable 80% of the city’s eligible population is registered, and a really stunning 95% of Albemarle’s eligible population has gotten signed up to vote. That’s an 11% increase for C’ville and a 7% increase for Albemarle in 2008. I know that a lot of people have been working really hard to get more people registered.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Monthly Archive for October, 2008
Page 3 of 3
The results from the county’s annual citizen satisfaction survey are in, Brandon Shulleeta wrote in yesterday’s Progress, and the surprising news is that 70% of those surveyed “somewhat” or “strongly” support spending more on roads, with 49% saying they’d pay more taxes to make that possible. In past years, this survey asked people what they’d like to see the county do more of, but didn’t also ask if they were willing to pay for those services, so this new approach marks an improvement. Other notable numbers include that 93% of citizens are satisfied with services and that 58% believe that real estate assessments are done fairly. The complete report won’t come out for another couple of months.
WINA notes that we’ve got the most expensive gasoline in the state, with an average of $3.61, compared to a state average of $3.42. The cheapest fuel is in Richmond, at a $3.33 average. Not explained by WINA is why that’s so. I returned from week-long back-to-back trips today, and driving through Curricuck County, NC (just south of the VA border) I paid $2.99/gallon to fill up, which was a common price throughout the area. When I saw the price, I actually did a double-take, followed by a cartoon-style wwaaahhhh?
Twenty year old Joshua Lee Gibson was stabbed to death at the entrance to Friendship Court yesterday afternoon, Tasha Kates reports for the Daily Progress. Lamont Jermaine Blakey, aged 26, has confessed to the killing, and is in custody. Gibson was stabbed in the chest with what’s said to have been a foot-long knife. Also injured was 44-year-old James Edward Brown, though he’s in good condition with a knife wound to the thigh. It’s thought that the murder was sparked by an argument over a woman.
This is the second murder in the neighborhood in just over two months—19-year-old Joshua Anthony Magruder was shot to death two blocks away in July.
Unemployment in the region is at a six-year high, Brian McNeill writes in the Progress, but it’s still not bad. We’re at 4.1%, compared to 4.6% statewide and 6.1% nationally. That’s a 55% increase over August of last year. (And it was just January of last year that the city had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation.) It’s well worth noting that unemployment numbers are based on the number of people still seeking employment; anybody who gives up to wait for the job market to improve is dropped from the rolls. Broadly speaking, a rate of 5% unemployment is considered normal and healthy, since there is always going to be a certain number of people between jobs.
We had a nasty drop off of employment, both in raw unemployment numbers but also in underemployment, back when Ix, Comdial, and Technicolor folded, laid off their local workforce, and moved operations to Mexico, respectively. That put a lot of career blue collar workers out of work or left them delivering pizza (making them technically employed). That 1998-2002 period was followed by the unsurprising discovery that area income was dropping.
If the global economic woes are a hurricane, and Charlottesville is a beach town, the good news is that we’ve got the coastal wetlands of the university to buffet the waves. (Admit it—that metaphor was awesome.) Though UVa is making it tough to hire new employees now, and a hiring freeze is rumored, there’s just no reason to expect layoffs now, as there virtually never has been there.
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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