Financial hardships hinder city's growth
By Emily Rockwood | April 12, 2000Charlottesville tourists often are impressed by the bustling Route 29 retail district and the University's fine architecture, but upon closer inspection, the city of Charlottesville is not all "red bricks and white columns," said Ryan Harvey, director of the Madison House Boosters program, a program that sends volunteers to help at Charlottesville public schools. While Charlottesville boasts a booming economy, spurred by an influx of small technology firms and a small 1.4 percent unemployment rate compared to the already-low national average of 4 percent, many Charlottesville residents still are underemployed and living in poverty. "The [economic] growth has escaped these pockets.