In today’s Progress, Rachana Dixit explores the difficulties of calculating the cost of housing in a college town. Looking at the raw numbers, about half of the city is spending more than a third of their income on housing, which is trouble. Except for students, for whom that’s a reasonable thing to do for a few years. Knowing how much people are paying for housing is important, because it’s a key method of determining the fiscal health of the population and the appropriateness of our housing stock. It’s good that we all see the problem of these data—now we’ve got to solve it.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
Page 133 of 549
The Albemarle Board of Supervisors has asked county staff to prepare a budget with a real estate tax rate of 77 cents, Brandon Shuletta writes in today’s Daily Progress, an increase from the current 71 cents. Declining property values require a tax hike in order to maintain existing services. Ninety cents would keep county revenue level, while 74.5 cents would keep taxpayer payments the same. Every member of the BoS had their own figure in mind, but they ultimately decided on 77 cents, with supervisors Ken Boyd and Lindsay Dorrier (the two conservative members of the board) both dissenting.
UVa has declined to extend Al Groh’s contract, the Post reports, leaving him under contract for just three more years. His record leaves something to be desired among Cavaliers fans, so there’s been support for seeing him replaced with a new football coach.
Synchronicity says that their two employees missing in Mumbai—58-year-old Alan Scherr and 13-year-old Naomi Scherr—are dead. The State Department is not confirming their deaths, so this news is known only from Synchronicity. The say that the two were killed in the attack on the Leopold Café. The restaurant, a watering hole for visiting Westerners, was stormed by terrorists on Wednesday, who fired indiscriminately at the patrons with automatic weapons. The attack went on for ten minutes, leaving a large but as-now uncertain number of people dead and injured. The attack on the Leopold was one of a half dozen such attacks launched against civilians across Mumbai, attacks that are still ongoing now.
Get ready to write checks to a new telco: Embarq has been bought by CenturyTel. The Lousiana-based company, founded in 1930, bought Embarq for $11.6B in cash and debt assumption. CenturyTel is, like Embarq, largely in the business of providing service in small markets and rural areas.
For those of y’all new in these parts, Centel was long our telco here. It was started in 1900, and come 1993 they had 1.5M landline customers in seven states. That was when they were bought by Sprint, which meant that, weirdly for the time, a long distance provider was our local phone company. Sprint spun off Embarq in 2006, which consisted of Centel and their other local phone assets. And now that they’ve gotten their name and logo updated, they’ll be CenturyTel. Let’s all practice cursing a new business name. For those of us who still slip and call the phone company “Centel,” at least the new name is a little closer.
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 #
-
Archive for Sideblog »
Recent Comments