City Council has told Occupy Charlottesville that they’ve got to move out of Lee Park tomorrow, Henry Graff reports for NBC-29, but it’s not at all clear that they’re leaving. City Council is no longer willing to extend the special use permit that’s allowed the protesters to camp out in Lee Park for the past six weeks, and they’re increasingly sympathetic with neighbors who would like to regain normalcy in the park. The city has suggested a series of potential alternate sites, with McIntire Park at the top of the list. Occupy Charlottesville’s reaction is mixed. It’s by no means a monolithic group, as can be seen in the minutes from yesterday’s general assembly of members. While some or even most members might move to a new location, there are some members of the Charlottesville group who won’t leave unless it’s in handcuffs, a confrontation that the city is clearly eager to avoid.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
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Things just keep getting worse for the beleaguered Crozet library. The Board of Supervisors decided to build a replacement for the shoebox-sized library back in 2006, delayed it over and over again, and the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library finally threatened to close it entirely if they didn’t receive enough funding to keep it open. (JMRL won that political battle, getting the bit of funding that they needed from the BOS, allowing them to remain open, albeit for rather limited hours.) All this despite serving an area that has ballooned in population—they have over 10,000 visits monthly in the summer. Now comes word that the fire marshal has had to limit the building’s occupancy to fifty people, Ted Strong writes in the Progress today, and has ordered the removal of a bunch of stored materials. They’re not allowed to add more storage in the parking lot, so they’re going to have to haul things to and from the old Crozet Elementary School.
With a Board of Supervisors that’s been openly hostile to library funding, it’s tough to see when and how things will get better for the patrons of the Crozet library.
City Council is looking at creating a Charlottesville Commission on Human Rights, Diversity and Race Relations, Graham Moomaw wrote in yesterday’s Progress, with the power to investigate discrimination claims and penalize those discriminate unlawfully. Council would appoint seven people to three-year terms, and the group would have a staff of three. It would cost $200,000/year to operate. They’d have oversight over private employment and housing discrimination. Council is likely to consider the proposal at next Monday’s meeting.
An audit of the new mail sorting facility has found that they’re slowing our mail down significantly, Megan Davis writes for the Daily Progress. It was two years ago when the USPS announced that they were moving the Charlottesville mail processing facility’s services to Sandston, east of Richmond. There was a lot of concern at the time that the move would negatively impact mail delivery in the area, and that turns out to have been well-founded. The USPS Office of the Inspector General has issued a report (which I can’t find on their website you can read it here) finding a 100% increase in delayed mail passing through the Sandston facility between the last quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2011. In the former period, our mail was still being processed locally; in the latter, it had moved to Sandston. In fact, the facility has the worst record in the country, with 12% of all their mail delayed. Those delays were rarely reported; a single day audit found 350,000 delayed letters, none of which were recorded.
Today I got my hair cut at Staples’, picked up some carpentry supplies at Martin, and had lunch at Riverside, and that set me to wondering about which local business is the oldest.
Martin Hardware seemed like a good place to start. They were founded in 1893. But Timberlake’s, as their sign informs all who pass by, was established in 1890. Keller & George promotes their 1875 founding in radio ads. My insurance agent, Hanckel-Citizens, was founded a few years earlier, in 1872. After half an hour of thinking about this and googling around, I can’t come up with any older local business that’s still running, without interruption, and hasn’t been bought up by a larger business.
Now, of course, my curiosity is piqued, and I have to imagine that I’m overlooking something. Do you know of a business that’s older than Hanckel-Citizens?
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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