A matter of crime
“We’re safer than Charlottesville.”
Okay, we made up that quote. The crime rate for both Albemarle and Charlottesville is low, but according to the county police’s most recent report, Albemarle’s went down last year, while the city’s went up.
Albemarle arrests by race
The county is facing a lawsuit that claims an officer targeted blacks. While the majority of arrests—like the majority of the population—are white, you’re still more likely to get arrested if you’re black. Charlottesville’s similar annual report offers no data on arrests by race.
—Albemarle County Police, Albemarle County
Desegregation plaintiff
Julia Martin, a member of one of the 12 local families that sued the Charlottesville School Board to admit black children to white schools, died June 24 at 93. A judge’s ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor led to massive resistance in 1958, when the city shut down Venable Elementary and Lane High School rather than integrate. Her sons were two of the first three black students to attend Lane in 1959.
Murder-suicide
Jordan Cavanaugh-Jackson, 26, was found fatally shot around 4am June 25 on Creels Road in Barboursville. Police pursued his brother, 21-year-old Christian Cavanaugh, on Stony Point Road, where he crashed. Police say he died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
96th Klanniversary
June 28 marks the inaugural cross burning by the local Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1921 at Jefferson’s tomb at Monticello, a part of local history not usually celebrated. The event was reported by the Daily Progress, which noted that “hundreds of Charlottesville’s leading business and professional men” attended the midnight rites. That same year, the Knights also donated $1,000 to UVA.
“Armageddon begins the day Anthony Kennedy steps down. It’ll be biblical. My sources: Two Corinthians.”—UVA Center for Politics’ Larry Sabato
Potential trainwreck
If the current proposed federal budget is approved, two-thirds of the trains that currently serve the local Amtrak station could be cut, according to protesters with CvilleRail, who gathered at the station June 23. They say the Cardinal and Crescent trains, which run from New York City to Chicago and New York City to New Orleans, respectively, will no longer run through Charlottesville.
Blue balls
A heavyset and bearded white man between the ages of 40 and 60 was allegedly seen watching young girls at an Orange County camp near Route 20 and Zoar Road June 22. Authorities, who are asking for help identifying him, said he drives a dark-blue SUV with blue letters across the back window that spell out “BLUE BALLS.”
Make room
Projections recently released by UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service show that Virginia is expected to become the 10th largest state by 2040. (It’s currently ranked at No. 12, according to 2010 census data.) Albemarle’s population will rise from the 2015 U.S. Census estimation of 103,108 to 141,221 in that time, and while the county is projected to remain as white as ever, you may be surprised to learn the second-largest ethnic group by then could be Hispanic.
Total population
2040: 141,221
2015 (estimate U.S. Census): 103,108
White
2015: 87,007
2040: 72,231
Percent change:
-17%
Hispanic
2015: 5,851
2040: 39,454
Percent change:
574%
Asian
2015: 6,110
2040: 17,802
Percent change:
191%
Black
2015: 11,097
2040: 8,016
Percent change:
-28%
Other
2015: 2,404
2040: 3,718
Percent change: