SWAT-Invaded House Unlivable

About a week ago, as you might recall, Charlottesville’s SWAT team had a seven-hour stand off with some poodles on Nassau Street. (They thought there was a fugitive inside the house.) They ended up storming the house, complete with tear gas, kicking-down-of-doors…the whole nine yards. Well, the house is a shambles now, and the city is putting up the owners in a hotel. In the meantime, the city hasn’t cleaned the house, and ServiceMaster is having trouble cleaning it, because of the danger of gas residue. The Progress has the story, but, of course, they delete their news after 24 hours. So, what gives? Why are we treating city residents like this?

UVA Journalists Like Food….

cyberville writes: A pretty cool, and at times hysterical, portrait of the surrounding cville community is featured in today’s cav daily. Encompassing Charlottesville is hyped up and made out to sound like these four teams of UVA reporters set off in four different directons and in the face of adversity managed to bring back the “killer” story. But all I see that ties these stories together is the craving for off-highway food. Though, I will admit, I did enjoy the colorful portraits of the people it depicted. But what was so hard about reporting these stories? It looks like these four teams chose the easiest, smarmiest, and fastest way out they could find.

It’s good to see UVA folks leaving grounds, especially with cameras.

Redistricting Plan

Yesterday, Virginia Republicans revealed their redistricting plan, which carves Albemarle County into no less than four House of Delegates districts. Southern Albemarle County ends up, bizarrely, in the district of Delegate Watkins Abbitt, from Appomattox. (I couldn’t pick out Appomattox on a map.) Crozet, equally strangely, is in the district of Steve Landes, from Weyers Cave. The Progress quotes the never-shy Mitch Van Yahres as saying of the plan, “It is idiotic. It is just ridiculous.” Emily Couric asks, “Does that mean Steve Landes is going to come to Albemarle Board of Supervisors meetings and become active in Albemarle County?” I’m guessing that he’s not.

Take the Pavement Tour

cyberville writes: C-ville Weekly has a great story on the Death of Pavement and UVA alum Stephen Malkmus’ latest musical offering. Who else has a great local ancedote about these guys? They have truly been the darlings of inde rock for the past decade. I’ve run into Malkmus a few times when he played with Silkworm in Portland and Seattle (as the Crust Bros.) and he always speaks fondly of his days spent here…especially at WTJU.

Capshaw to Buy ConAgra Property

Today, the Progress is reporting that Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw is in the process of purchasing the former ConAgra plant out in Crozet. That plant closed six months ago, leaving six hundred people without employment. Though there’s no shortage of white-collar jobs in Central Virginia, people who had worked at the plant for years had little choice of employment, based on their training. Thankfully, Coran is hoping to rent the space to another frozen food manufacturer. Coran has also purchased land behind Pantops, seven acres in Fifeville, and the old Bon Ton Café on the Mall.

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About

This is a community news blog about Charlottesville, VA, started in March 2001. It's run by Waldo Jaquith. It has nothing to do with C-Ville Weekly, the newspaper. Feel free to submit a story.