The YMCA is on hold while the VA Supreme Court considers an appeal in the ACAC/Gold’s lawsuit. That won’t be until spring. #
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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Not being a local resident anymore, I don’t really have a say, but I hate to see the only remaining original elements of McIntire Park destroyed to build a YMCA. If the Y can afford 14 to 16 million dollars to build a facility like the one they’re apparently planning, why can’t they afford a piece of land to put it on, rather than leasing what has been, and could continue to be, a park?
This is a serious question — is it true that the YMCA would destroy the “only remaining original elements of McIntire Park”? I saw some early drawings/maps of where it was going to go, and I thought it wasn’t taking up ALL of McIntire Park. Did the plan change?
Will ACAC and Gold’s be paying the difference in construction costs?
Not a big fan of the location; actually I think it’s a terrible location. But I don’t think there was anything wrong in supporting the YMCA over a ACAC or Gold’s.
Why build the YMCA in a terrible location instead of finding a good location? It isn’t like one doesn’t exist.
There is far too much spin suggesting that there is some entrenched opposition to helping poor people. The opposition is to taking even more of Paul McIntire’s gift to the city as a whole and giving it to a special interest coupled with the fact that the special interest is one with a religious affiliation.
I don’t care how tenuous that affiliation is, I don’t want it in a public park and I particularly don’t want a poorly sited building determining the future of what could be a grand central park for this city.
The Y failed to attract a sustainable clientele when it was located across the 250-Bypass in Covenant School and the same can be said when it was located down the road at MACAA on the corner of the Bypass and Park Street. It will also fail to attract people especially if it is intended to cater to the poor. It will just turn into another welfare program.