City Council is looking at implementing some of the ideas for electoral change presented in January’s election task force report, and the discussion is getting a little heated. The four Democrats oppose a ward system — which many believe would benefit Republicans — while lone Republican Rob Schilling favors it. The discussion has gotten a bit heated, and it doesn’t look like it will get any better. Here’s some free advice for Charlottesville Republicans: push for an instant runoff voting system, as recommended in the task force report. It’ll get you 1-2 seats on Council, if you run candidates that aren’t in the habit of stabbing people. John Yellig has the story in today’s Progress.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
Page 337 of 549
Remember November’s news that a Fox affiliate would be coming to town? It’s happening. Gray Television — who opened the ABC and CBS affiliates here last year — has bought local PAX affiliate WADA (ending a five-year marathon of Touched By an Angel and Diagnosis: Murder), and will turn it into Fox affiliate WAHU. Gray is shooting to be on air in April or May, but it could be later. Lisa Provence has the story in this week’s Hook.
Anybody that’s driven at night on Stony Point Road, just outside of town, knows that Pen Park has been lit up like a 60,000 watt Christmas tree since a few months ago. That’s because city officials installed forty 1,500 watt floodlights atop fifty-foot poles to light up the tennis courts at night back in August. The lights have no shielding, nor are they directed only at the tennis courts, making it possible to read a newspaper on a moonless night a half mile away, out in Albemarle County. The director of Parks and Recreation, in response to complaints, intends to install shielding on the lights, but it’s in no way clear that it’s going to make much of a difference. Courteney Stuart has the story in this week’s Hook.
Via a story in today’s Progress, former Charlottesville mayor David Toscano has announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for House of Delegates, now that Del. Mitch Van Yahres has announced his plan to retire. Toscano served on City Council for 12 years, up until 2002, and his basing his run on a desire to “create economic opportunity for the broadest cross-section of the public.” Bob Gibson has the story.
silkyzephyr writes: The Daily Progress reports that at Monday night’s meeting City Council approved the Hillsdale Drive connector. Buried at the end of that story is the news that City Council also agreed to build the Meadowcreek Parkway.
From watching the meeting, it is clear councilors now differ only on whether the city should mandate, or merely suggest, building a grade-separated interchange at the same time.
The problem is money: there isn’t any. Councilors Schilling and Caravatti do not want the bulldozers kept waiting while the City saves up for an interchange. The majority, Councilors Hamilton, Lynch and Mayor Brown, insist that without one the Parkway would dump ruinous traffic at a stoplight, paralyzing Route 250. Delaying the Parkway is better than building it wrong, they say.
The two factions have agreed to work out compromise language by the next meeting.
Both road approvals are only at the first step, the design. But City Council has essentially started a process which once begun, grinds on to its inevitable conclusion. In sum, nearly forty years after it was first proposed, City Council is now united on putting a road through Mcintire Park.
I will note kudos to Councilor Lynch, who held out for a Christmas list of goodies like replacement parkland. He has been promised virtually everything he wanted. If we must pave a park, adding fifty acres of green space does soften the blow.
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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