Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

Page 167 of 549

Not Yet Historic Structures

In this week’s C-Ville Weekly, Will Goldsmith surveys Charlottesville’s not-yet-historic buildings from around town. It’s prompted by the city’s plan to track down individual historic properties around town and designate them as such. The list includes Kmart, Fry’s Spring Service Station, the old JNB at Barracks Road and the old Coke bottling plant, along with a mess of others. Bonus: great pictures by local photoblogger Eric Kelley.

Violent Crime Drops Sharply

Assembling data for the Uniform Crime Reports, the city has found that there was a 12% drop in crime rates between 2006 and 2007, Rob Seal writes in the Daily Progress. There was an 18% drop in violent crime, an 11% drop in property crimes, a 30% drop in aggravated assaults, and a 15% drop in burglaries. It remains to be seen whether this correlates with a nationwide drop or whether this is the result of the city’s own efforts. For comparison, Albemarle had a 2.3% crime decrease, and crimes against individuals actually increased.

Snow Day

Snow Day We’ve got about four inches out there, and somewhere between another 0″ and 4″ is supposed to fall. If it turns into freezing rain or sleet, the rest may just be a very unpleasant 1/4″ of ice. The kids have been sent home from school, and the dogs — or at least my dogs — are frolicking in the snow. It’s our first decent snow, three weeks into winter. Enjoy it while it’s pleasant.

Marshall vs. Gilmore for U.S. Senate.

A lot of folks here like the occasional outlet to talk about politics on a larger scale. To that end, Valerie writes in regarding the race among Republicans to select somebody to challenger former governor Mark Warner for Sen. John Warner’s U.S. Senate seat:

The would-be-amusing-if-he-wasn’t-so-damn-successful right-wing nut–uhm delegate from Prince William, Bob Marshall, has decided to run for the Republican nomination for the US Senate, in opposition to former repub Gov. Jim Gilmore–because Gilmore apparently is not right-wing enough. The repubs won’t choose him, because he’d never win a state-wide election, but it will likely be amusing to watch, and maybe distract him from his agenda in the Commonwealth? Just what we need–Bob Marshall not just peering into the bedroom windows of Virginia citizens, but those of the entire nation!

Marshall has what I’d describe as an obsession with sex, and has sought for years to outlaw sex for any purpose other than makin’ babies. It’ll be interesting to see what he decides to make the centerpiece of his campaign.

A&N Going Out of Business

One hundred and forty years after its founding, A&N is closing. The Richmond-based chain has 48 locations throughout the state, and is run by Mark Sternheimer, the great-something-grandson of founders Mark and Lena Rose Sternheimer. The place has a great history. They had 53 locations just a few years ago, with our downtown location being one of the five that were shut down recently. The company just can’t make enough money to stay in business. I’ve made an effort to shop there in the two years since I discovered it was local, but apparently not many other people did.

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