Monolith on West Main
What wasn’t quite clear from renderings of The Standard, the deluxe student apartments now under construction across from The Flats on West Main Street, was just how massive and Soviet Bloc-looking the 499-space parking garage is.
Good news: It’s going to be covered by the building and won’t be a stand-alone monstrosity.
According to Chris Engel, the city’s director of economic development, the “parking being built is solely to support the building,” which has 189 units and commercial and retail on the first of its six floors.
Developer Landmark Properties, based in Athens, Georgia, is “redefining the college living experience,” according to its website. The complex is shooting for a fall 2018 move-in.
“It’s kind of an eyesore,” says Flats resident William Rule. The construction noise, too, has been a problem, he says.
Mel Walker, owner of Mel’s Cafe, is not perturbed about the construction down the street or the upcoming influx of students. “They’ve got to eat somewhere,” he says.
CPD’s August 12 bill
Charlottesville police spent nearly $70,000 for the Unite the Right rally, including almost $44K on overtime and a $565 pizza tab from Papa John’s. The bill includes $3,300 for Albemarle sheriff’s deputies, $2,400 for jailers and $750 for the services of clinical psychologist Jeffrey Fracher. The city spent $33,000 for the July 8 KKK rally.
“Solidarity Cville rebukes the ‘Concert for Charlottesville’ as a show of false unity.”—Statement dropped about the same time the Dave Matthews-led concert was beginning September 24.
Art installation erased
A group of residents worked through the wee hours September 24 to transform the Free Speech Wall to the Solidarity Wall. Little more than an hour later, a man erased their efforts.
Where’s the gas?
Charlottesville’s first Sheetz opens September 28 on the Corner. The petroleum-less convenience store is a new concept for Sheetz and the fourth it’s opened in the middle of a college town. It features USB phone charger ports every three feet, and is open 24/7, which means rush hour around 2am on weekends.
Historical Society under fire
For years the tenure of Steven Meeks as president of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society has brought grumblings from former board members and a loss of half its dues-paying membership. Now the city is citing leadership and transparency issues in its proposal to up the rent for the McIntire Building, where the nonprofit is housed, from $182 a month to $750, according to Chris Suarez in the Daily Progress.
Accused murderer arrested
Huissuan Stinnie, the 18-year-old on the lam since being accused of the September 11 murder of New York man Shawn Evan Davis on South First Street, was arrested in Fluvanna September 25. He faces charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.
Store it in style
Lifelong mountain biker and Charlottesville resident Eric Pearson was frustrated by the hassle of having to back his car out of his garage each time he pedaled home and needed to hang his bicycle back on the hook over his workbench, so he committed to buying an outdoor storage container for his two-wheeler.
“I quickly discovered that no elegant product existed,” he says, and decided to build a device for those who also wanted an aesthetically pleasing way to keep their bikes from becoming one of the 1.5 million stolen in the country each year. Thus, the Alpen Bike Capsule was born.
Each slim silver cylinder uses an integrated Bluetooth lock to provide secure access, is waterproof, lightweight, durable and bolts to any surface. While Pearson says his capsules look great outside any home or apartment, or on the back of an RV, we think it looks like it came straight off a Star Wars set—and we’re okay with that.
The product should hit the market by mid-2018, he says. And though it’ll set customers back about $1,000, Pearson says early orderers can expect significant discounts.