Charlottesville

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Charlottesville is an independent city in the state of Virginia with a population of 40,745[1]. It is home to the University of Virginia which provides another 9,000 part-time residents. Charlottesville is located on 10.4 square miles of land and is completely surrounded by Albemarle County. Charlottesville is also the County seat, though it is an independent city with a separate government.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the two jurisdictions as one of 363 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the nation. Its 2005 population of 188,016 ranked 212th in the nation[2]. The MSA also includes Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene and Nelson Counties.

Charlottesville Tomorrow provides coverage of the City Council and the City Planning Commission, as well as infrastructure projects overseen by the City's Department of Neighborhood Development Services and the Department of Public Works.

Government

Charlottesville's city government is run by a City Manager who is supervised by a five member City Council.

City Council

Main article: City Council

Councilors are elected every other November to four-year terms. The next election is scheduled for November 3, 2009. The seats currently held by Councilors Dave Norris and Julian Taliaferro will be on the ballot. The Democratic candidates for those two seats will be Norris, seeking re-election, and Kristin Szakos who defeated Taliaferro in the party's primary caucus this spring. There are also two independent candidates who will appear on the ballot: Bob Fenwick and Paul Long. In addition, Independent Andrew Williams will be running as a write-in candidate after he failed to gather enough signatures to be listed on the ballot.[3]

Staff

The current City Manager is Gary O'Connell, who oversees a city staff with over 931 full-time equivalents[4] spread across several departments.

Other staff include:

Neighborhoods

Charlottesville is home to several neighborhoods.

Infrastructure

The City buys water from the RWSA and charges residents directly.

The City builds it own roads.

The City voted to approve the lease-purchase of two ambulances so that it can begin providing its own ambulance service in 2008. Previously, emergency medical service (EMS) was provided by the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad.

Legal Agreements

Any locality enters into numerous legal agreements. These agreements are of particular interest to Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Awards

Charlottesville is repeatedly listed among "best places to live" rankings in many publications.

Authors Bert Sperling and Peter Sander selected Charlottesville as the best place to live in the United States for the year 2004.

Economy

Jobs

The City has an Online Jobs Board.

Tourist attractions

Tourism is a significant part of the area economy[citation needed]. Major attractions include:

Memberships

External links

Notes