Love the new look!

As an out-of-towner who visits Charlottesvile once or twice every year, I'm excited to see that the city is making an enduring commitment to culture. Although some of the old-school C'villers I know grumble about rapid change, I believe that things like the beautifully designed Coran Capshaw amphitheatre are bound to make Charlottesville an even more stimulating community.

I'm a city dweller who lives near the beach in Los Angeles, but my mother, the late Suzanne York, threw her bouquet off the Farmington balcony, as did her mother before her. Hailing from a Charlottesville clan that includes some UVA professors, athletes, and scholars, and having married a man who grew up here and attended St. Anne's-Belfield, I know that Charlottesville has always prided itself on its intellectual and cultural vigor.

Hell, that tradition goes all the way back to Jefferson's daring and whimsical take on colonial architecture. I may be an outsider, but in my view, the new entertainment venues are an extension of– not a departure from– Charlottesville tradition.

Change is indeed frightening. But it's not the newly emerging entertainment venues on the Downtown Mall that scare me. Unbridled development threatens Charlottesville's other notable endowment­ open spaces and sublime mountain views. This type of unmonitored change will do irrevocable damage to the "old Charlottesville" heritage we all know and love.

Amy Robertson Scripps
Santa Monica, California