With a deadline to clear an encampment fast approaching, the City of Charlottesville’s temporary 24/7 shelter is set to open tomorrow. www.vpm.org/news/2026-08...

Preparations for new, temporary shelter ongoing in Charlottesville - VPM

During a recent “Coffee with the Continuum” event organized by the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless, Richard Southee, a senior leader with Central

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The city was going to work with Clutch Consulting Group and Community Solutions to help house people from the Free Bridge encampment, but now, that’s not happening. www.vpm.org/news/2026-08...

Charlottesville's partnership with direct-to-housing providers ended - VPM

The City of Charlottesville is expediting the timeline for a temporary 24/7 emergency shelter at 2000 Holiday Drive ahead of a Sept. 1 deadline set by City

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Charlottesville officials set a September 1st deadline to clear the Free Bridge encampment located near the Rivanna River. Here’s a break down: www.vpm.org/news/2026-08...

Charlottesville sets deadline to clear Free Bridge encampment

The Sept. 1 cutoff accelerates the timeline for a new city shelter.

vpm.org

From @hannahdavisreid.bsky.social: No Kid Hungry Virginia estimates that around 3,000 Charlottesville students are eligible to receive SUN Bucks — that’s around two-thirds of the student body.

Summer meal programs help Charlottesville students stay fed while school’s out

Roughly two-thirds of city students are eligible for the state's SUN Bucks program.

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On the 5th anniversary of the removal of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee monument from Charlottesville's Market Street Park, the JSAAHC announced that MASS Design Group will design a public art project with the melted bronze from the former statue. www.vpm.org/news/2026-07...

MASS Design Group chosen as winner of Swords into Plowshares project

Their proposal repurposes bronze from a Confederate statue into a 27-foot baobab tree.

vpm.org

Charlottesville is celebrating 50 years of its Downtown Mall. It was one of many similar walking malls built during the ‘60s and ‘70s, but it’s only one of a few that still survive today. Historians say its success was far from a given when city planners first envisioned the stretch.

In the 1960s and ’70s, city planners around the nation experimented with pedestrian malls in an attempt to draw people to city centers. But just a few decades later, many of those malls failed. Today, Charlottesville’s mall is one of only a few dozen remaining www.vpm.org/news/2026-07...

Charlottesville celebrates a half-century of the Downtown Mall

A new exhibit explores how the city has changed over the last 50 years.

vpm.org

Man, it's a hot one. It feels like we're seven inches from the midday sun ☀️ A heat dome has hit Central Virginia, bringing high temperatures around 100 degrees Fahrenheit and heat indexes as high as the low 110s to the region for the next few days. Here are local cooling centers+ways to stay cool:

Where are the cooling centers in Central Virginia?

Updated July 27: It's gonna be another set of scorchers this week, y'all.

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Provisions of House Resolution 1, also known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025," are already making it harder for some people to qualify for SNAP and reducing households' monthly benefit amounts — and immigrants have been hit particularly hard by those changes www.vpm.org/news/2026-05...

Federal nutrition benefit cuts hit Charlottesville's immigrant communities hard

Service providers who work with immigrants say many clients have already lost benefits.

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Cville Tulips has, since 2022, helped women and children in Charlottesville’s Afghan and Syrian refugee community, adjust to their new home. It’s supported mostly by government and university grants that have become increasingly competitive due to federal funding freezes www.vpm.org/news/2026-05...

Charlottesville group builds community with resettled Afghan, Syrian women

Cville Tulips all began with a trip to the shoe store.

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Service providers in Charlottesville reported that area housing needs are climbing, driven by rising rents and limited affordable housing. www.vpm.org/news/2026-05...

Charlottesville’s ‘State of Homelessness’ report identifies greater need

“It’s hard for folks to find work, hard for folks to find units that they can afford.”

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A split vote at the Charlottesville City School Board work session on April 16 failed to undo the division’s school resource officer agreement with the Charlottesville Police Department. www.vpm.org/news/2026-04...

Charlottesville School Board splits on ending agreement with CPD

School resource officers are set to return for the 2026–27 academic year.

vpm.org

I talked to voters at Walker Upper Elementary School in Charlottesville bright and early this morning (6 am!) about the special amendment: www.vpm.org/elections/20...

Virginians turn out for redistricting on April Election Day

The polls are open until 7 p.m.

vpm.org

At a brief special meeting on Thursday, the Charlottesville City Council unanimously passed an operating budget of $280 million for fiscal year 2027, which begins on July 1. The city’s real estate tax rate is increasing by 1 cent, to 99 cents per $100 of assessed value. www.vpm.org/news/2026-03...

Charlottesville passes $280M spending plan

Updated: The city's real estate tax is increasing by 1 cent per $100 of assessed value, rather than 2 cents.

vpm.org

a regional note from the washington post article about this (which would have an impact on 95% of the papers published in virginia):

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 5mo ago

"The Associated Press plans dozens of U.S. staff cuts as part of a broader restructuring away from hyper-local print coverage and toward video and national topics"

The Charlottesville City School Board passed a resolution Tuesday affirming that the division wouldn’t voluntarily cooperate with US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or entities that had entered into a Section 287(g) agreement with ICE. www.vpm.org/news/2026-04...

Charlottesville school board affirms stance against ICE cooperation

Agents will need judicial warrants to access non-public parts of campuses.

vpm.org

In Charlottesville, plans are underway on a low-barrier shelter, as well as a mixed-use development and affordable housing project. www.vpm.org/news/2026-03...

Charlottesville works to tackle both angles of local housing need

“It was never going to be easy.”

vpm.org

UVA's provost search has been put on hold. “This is a difficult decision, but I believe it will help us achieve a better outcome in the long term, ensure institutional stability, and continue building trust in our community,” University President Scott C. Beardsley said.

University pauses provost search, Gertler to remain as interim

Brie Gertler will continue to serve as interim provost as the University prepares to relaunch the search for a new chief academic officer early in the next academic year.

news.virginia.edu

About a decade after Zyahna Bryant, then a 15-year-old, led the push to remove Confederate imagery from Charlottesville, the JSAAHC presented 3 proposals for Swords into Plowshares, a project created to repurpose the bronze from the melted-down statue of Robert E. Lee. www.vpm.org/news/2026-03...

Jefferson School announces Swords into Plowshares finalists

Voting on the community art proposals is open through May 30.

vpm.org

We worked hard at the @jsaahccville.bsky.social on this new Storymap, and are really excited to share it with the world. It frames the history of the statues in Charlottesville through the lens of our City Parks—many of which are on former plantations. storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/696e...

Landscapes of Power

Race, Memory, and Charlottesville’s Public Parks

storymaps.arcgis.com

Per Facebook, looks like ACPS is on an early dismissal schedule tomorrow.

No device was found at UVA per the latest UVA Alert. "BOMB THREAT cleared. No device found. Shannon and Clemons Libraries are returning to normal operations. You may resume normal activity. No further update."

At least three colleges in Virginia are investigating ongoing bomb threats at on-campus libraries Friday. As of 1:15 p.m., the University of Virginia, George Mason University and Bridgewater College had all received bomb threats, according to their respective schools. www.vpm.org/news/2026-03...

Multiple bomb threats at Virginia colleges following ODU shooting

This story is developing.

vpm.org

Charlottesville’s school board unanimously approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the Charlottesville Education Association for support staff at its meeting last Thursday. www.vpm.org/news/2026-03...

Charlottesville school board greenlights union contract for support staff

School nutrition workers, custodians and more are set for a 10.5% raise.

vpm.org

Charlottesville City Council heard fiscal year 2027 budget presentations from both the city administration and Charlottesville City Schools at Monday’s meeting. www.vpm.org/news/2026-03...

Charlottesville considers $279M spending plan

The school division is asking for a $2.5M increase for fiscal 2027.

vpm.org

The Charlottesville City Council adopted minor amendments to the zoning code in a 4–1 vote on Tuesday, but some residents said the changes didn’t go far enough. www.vpm.org/news/2026-02...

Charlottesville City Council tweaks zoning ordinance

Many residents say the changes, which are mostly technical, aren’t enough.

vpm.org

Virginia Democrats came into the 2026 session with a budget squeezed by increasing health care costs+federal funding cuts, after a historic election defined by the theme of affordability. Gov. Abigail Spanberger also threw her support behind a few dozen bills, dubbed the Affordable Virginia Agenda.

Virginia Democrats zero in on final affordability package

Budget realities and a reluctance to raise taxes have narrowed the field.

vpm.org

The University of Virginia submitted its first quarterly report to the US Department of Justice as part of an agreement to halt federal investigations into the school’s DEI practices in late December. But some School of Nursing faculty say part of what the public university reported isn’t accurate.

UVA School of Nursing faculty say new federal report has an error

They say diversity hasn’t been a factor in promotion, tenure decisions.

vpm.org

Two bills aimed at establishing a "right to repair" — one for devices with digital components, the other for farm equipment — failed without a hearing this year. They were proposed in response to increasingly difficult equipment repairs, as software and complicated circuitry have become commonplace

'Right to repair' bills die in Virginia House subcommittee

Del. Jackie Glass said she hoped her bill would foster a culture of DIY repairs.

vpm.org

ICYMI live wamu.org/story/26/02/...

The Politics Hour: Redistricting update in Virginia and Maryland plus D.C.'s budget chaos

Ward 5 D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker on a U.S. Senate move that could cause major budget and tax season headaches. Plus, MD Rep. April McClain Delaney and VPM's Jahd Khalil on the redistricting de...

wamu.org

Jahd Khalil@jahd.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Tune in shortly! I'm the first guest up on The Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi and Tom Sherwood | @wamu.org @vpm.org wamu.org/show/the-pol...