Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw has purchased the huge 42,000 square foot building on the Downtown Mall that, until recently, was owned and occupied by SNL Financial. The fate of the old Miller & Rhoads building has been up in the air for some months, but prime real estate like that couldn’t stay empty for long. Reportedly, Capshaw is looking to turn the five story, $2.9M building into a mixture of offices and retail, better utilizing the Mallfront space as well as the side on 4th Street. Hawes Spencer has the story in the latest Hook.
Archive for April, 2004
It seems that all is not well at The Prism Coffeehouse. Courteney Stewart’s cover story in this week’s Hook reports on a schism that has developed in the board over the board elections, which has been exacerbated by the frustrations of Fred Boyce, who has long run the Charlottesville musical institution. There is even concern that The Prism may become homeless, should they fall out of the good graces of the church next door, who provides the use of the building. Is this just a bump in a long road, or worse?
As a result of the recent efforts to rename the Charlottesville Performing Arts Center after Martin Luther King Jr., the Charlottesville School Board has approved doing so in a unanimous vote, WINA reports. That vote is just a recommendation, though — the matter will be taken up by City Council on Monday night. 04/06 Update: The Progress reports that Council approved the name change — CPAC is now “Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center of Charlottesville.”
A U.S. magistrate has recommended the dismissal of the lawsuit filed against the city by Henry Weinschenk, owner of Express Car Wash. The business was prohibited from using water during the 2002 drought, and filed suit against the city last June, claiming that the prohibiting on washing cars amounted to a violation of the Fifth Amendment (”private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation”). Weinschenk intends to appeal. John Yellig has the story in today’s Progress.
Free Union’s Georgetown Farm, in operation since 1978, is shutting down. The beef and bison farm is owned by billionaire Edgar Bronfman Sr., and just recently expanded to create the Georgetown Farm Market in Albemarle Square and the Buffalo Hill shop up in Madison. All that’s official for the time being is that the two retail locations are closing down, but the word on the street (and in the paper) is that Bronfman’s financial advisors have recommended axing the whole thing. 25 people will lose their jobs. John Yellig has the story in today’s Progress.
Council has passed the annual budget, totaling $100.4M this year, up from last year’s $93.6M budget. That’s somewhat higher than the proposed $100.3M budget. The four democrats on Council voted in favor, and Council’s lone Republican Rob Schilling voted against it. Council blamed the state budget crisis for the higher budget, citing ever-shrinking state funding of mandates. Last year’s budget approval turned into a battle royale between Schilling and the Democrats, while this year’s wasn’t quite so bad. Reed Williams has the story in today’s Progress.
Ten minutes ago, CNN Headline News ran a story about the serial rapist and the DNA testing of black men, featuring WRIC footage from last night’s community meeting led by Chief Timothy Longo. They entitled the story “Controversial DNA Testing,” and approached the story as a case of racial profiling. CNN turned the story into their “Question of the Day,” asking people to e-mail Kathleen&Renay@CNN.com with their opinions, which they will air a selection of later on this afternoon. It looks like the #1 city is getting some unwanted national attention.
C’ville police have suspended their collection of DNA samples from black men, WINA reports. Chief Timothy Longo intends to meet with leaders in the black community Friday to determine how to go about investigating this case, specifically addressing what will happen to the DNA samples after they’re taken. The story became national news Wednesday, which presumably has had the effect of making the police somewhat more cautious. 04/16 Update: Reed Williams has a story in today’s Progress.
Jim writes: A carjacking at Fashion Square and a drive-by shooting on Prospect Avenue show that C’ville has truly moved into the big-time. (See WINA.com.) Charlottesville Police have a tough road ahead of them in light of their recent track record and media attention. What is the ratio in the City (and County) of violent crimes committed to solved with convictions? Might we be able to have real police officers at Fashion Square, a la Barracks Road? Perhaps an anti-loitering ordinance as well?
Fashion Square seems to have significantly more serious crime than anywhere else in town, but it is private property.
Remember Gregory Allen Moyer? The dirty old man teaching at Fork Union Military Academy, who got caught spanking students, and went on the lam in 2001? (The story is actually a lot weirder than that, but for brevity’s sake…) Well, he’s been nabbed, working as a teacher in Mexico, and it’s thanks to The Hook and Google that he’s been caught. It seems that he had his students google his name, and they found The Hook’s August 2002 story about him. The students got in touch with The Hook, the spanker was arrested, and he’s being sent back to the U.S. to serve his 3.5 year sentence for taking indecent liberties with minors. The Hook has the full story.
UVa has announced a new plan to guarantee on-grounds housing for all first and second year students, beginning with this fall’s incoming class. The school has provided insufficient levels of housing in the past, which has left 2nd year students living off campus that would rather live on-campus. This isn’t just a problem for the students, but it works to drive up rental prices throughout Charlottesville. UVa doesn’t expect any major changes to result from this guarantee, but it is a step towards reducing the upward pressure that the school places on the housing market. Kathleen Meyers has the story in today’s Progress.
A transportation survey commissioned by area business group the Free Enterprise Forum shows that 55% of those polled believe that traffic is a major problem on Rt. 29, 70% support the 29 bypass, and 70% support building the Meadowcreek Parkway. The survey was conducted by Mason-Dixon, a well-known polling firm, and was based on telephone interviews with 625 registered voters in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, and Fluvanna. While these results seem to support the results of an early March survey commissioned by WINA, Councilor Kevin Lynch (who responded to questions about the Meadowcreek Parkway on cvillenews.com in December) has dismissed it as a “push poll,” citing the interests of the business group that funded it. David Dadurka has the story in today’s Progress.
In the second interesting moment in the City Council race since the nominations (the first being the revelations about Kenneth Jackson’s penchant for stabbing people) , Republican candidate Ann Reinike said at a Wednesday candidate forum that she supports teaching creationism in Charlottesville schools. Apparently by way of explanation, Reineke said that she does not believe that creationism is a religious topic. Bob Hodous, chairman of the Charlottesville Republicans, defended Reineke, saying that not everybody believes in evolution. It is noteworthy that city councilors have no role in the school system, other than selecting school board members. Liz Nelson had the story in yesterday’s Progress.
In January, City Council voted to get Attorney General Jerry Kilgore’s opinion as to whether a supermajority is necessary to sell 9.2 acres of McIntire Park to the state to create the Meadowcreek Parkway. Kilgore has returned his opinion, which holds that the supermajority is not necessary, because, he writes, “public highways belong entirely to the public at large.” His opinion seems at odds with the relevant section of the Virginia constitution, article VII, section 9, which states, simply: “No rights of a city…to its…parks…shall be sold except by an ordinance or resolution passed by a recorded affirmative vote of three-fourths of all members elected to the governing body.” With the council race in progress and up to three new councilors taking office on June 30, it’s not clear if Council will act on this now, or wait until after elections. Bob Gibson had the story in yesterday’s Progress.
Joining WVIR and the summer-slated CBS affiliate is yet another television station, Channel 9, a broadcast station. This one is billed as all C’ville, all the time — city news, city music, segments based on print media features, and a rebroadcast of WINA’s morning show. They hope to sign a lease on the old WINA space, in the Market Street parking garage, but still have the small issue of raising $3M to get things going. September 1 is the slated launch date. Liz Nelson has the story in today’s Progress.
In an ongoing series, Elizabeth Nelson is profiling each of the six candidates for City Council. In the past three days, she has written about Democrat David Brown (love the headline headline: “Chiropractor wants to give back”), Democrat Kendra Hamilton, and independent Vance High. Still to come, of course, are Democrat Kevin Lynch and Republicans Ann Reineke and Kenneth Jackson. Doing her best to make this election interesting, Nelson has been covering each of the candidate forums, most recently the NAACP forum, the highlight of which was a woman calling Kevin Lynch an “airbag” with a personality problem who is “full of crap,” leading to Lynch’s rejoinder that he wasn’t the one with the need to defend his personality. Ah, those wacky forums.
Bruce writes: Former UVa football player Jamaine Winborne was shot by another student outside Hench dormitory on the UVa grounds early Wednesday, apparently as part of an altercation at a large gathering of students celebrating the end of spring classes. Winborne, who was wounded in the leg, is listed in fair condition at UVa Hospital and according to police his injury is not life threatening. Police have issued an arrest warrant for 23-year-old undergraduate student Aaron Joshua Robinson in connection with the shooting. According to the Progress and UVa police Capt. Michael A. Coleman, this is the first shooting on the Grounds in over a decade, not counting suicides. However this has been a bad year for violent crime at or around the University with the serial rapist still at large and with another student charged with murder in the stabbing of a volunteer firefighter only six months ago. Three other UVa football players have also been charged with disorderly conduct or vandalism for incidents following the shooting on Wednesday morning as the police tried to clear the crowd. The Daily Progress and WINA are carrying the story.
A small movement has developed to write-in incumbent Meredith Richards for next week’s City Council election, WINA reports. Signs have appeared in town to this effect, as well. Richards, who failed to secure the Democratic nomination, has made clear that she has no desire to run as an independent or have people write in her name. In the previous election, small contingents supported writing in Republican Jon Bright and yours truly, but what with neither of us running, we got just 56 votes between the two of us, not enough to affect the outcome of the close election. Whether Richards can get enough votes to affect the outcome of the election remains to be seen.
Recent Comments