Got a complaint? The city has an app for that.
MyCville. Ever heard of it? We hadn’t, either, until the city encouraged residents to digitally report their delinquent neighbors who hadn’t shoveled sidewalks following the recent dumping of about a foot of snow on Charlottesville.
There’s nothing like a (mostly) unexpected snowstorm to put the town into a tizzy. Last week, city residents entered 47 snow-related requests on the app, according to city spokesperson Brian Wheeler.
MyCville is an online and smartphone program that allows users to request services, “identify quality of life and environmental issues,” and report them, according to the city’s website.
Nearly 1,000 requests have been entered since MyCville launched in April, and 96 percent of all requests made since November 30 are complete, according to Wheeler. They were submitted by 231 users, who were able to track the status of their requests from the app.
The majority of requests, or 183 of them, have been for overgrown landscapes, according to Wheeler. Trailing closely behind at 136? Dead animals. And litter comes in third with 119.
Quote of the week
“We trust the United States Forest Service to ‘speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.’” —The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals quoted the Lorax in a ruling that blocks the Atlantic Coast Pipeline from crossing the Appalachian Trail and two national forests.
In brief
Casey quits
National Book Award winner and longtime UVA English professor John Casey resigned after a disciplinary review panel found evidence that he inappropriately touched undergrad student Lisa Schievelbein in 2001, called his behavior “reprehensible,” and recommended he be fired. The panel did not find evidence that the pair’s repeated sexual liaisons were without her consent, as Schievelbein claimed. Casey, 79, insisted the affair was consensual, but “regrettable,” the Washington Post reports.
Darden settles
Research associate Carla Manno claims she was asked about her sex life and marriage history in a 2016 job interview with an adjunct professor at the Darden School of Business, and that the school retaliated against her when she filed a Title IX complaint. The school settled with her for $26,000, and she’s leaving her position December 31.
Exit Chinn
S&P wunderkind Mike Chinn, president of S&P Global Market Intelligence, says he’s out effective January 2. Chinn started at SNL when he was fresh out of UVA, in 1994, and was CEO when S&P acquired the company in 2015. According to S&P, Chinn, who pulled down nearly $3 million last year, has no immediate plans. More than 400 people work for S&P in Charlottesville.
Bus on fire
A Blue Ridge School bus went up in flames December 16 on Seminole Trail. The driver was taking more than 30 students to do some Christmas shopping when he noticed smoke coming out of the vents. All students were safely evacuated, as they were in other recent bus fires: A Fluvanna school bus caught fire August 9, and the bus carrying the Monticello High swim team ignited on I-64 in January 2017.
Bird is the word
About 200 rentable Lime bikes and electric scooters have just found their way onto Charlottesville sidewalks, and now the city has approved another 100 to join them in January. The new dockless mobility devices will be owned by a company called Bird.