For the City Council, the statement “there’s no silver bullet” could not be more spot-on than when trying to figure out how to tackle Charlottesville’s poverty levels.

City departments will soon be put under the efficiency microscope, but Charlottesville councilors have varying opinions on how far the examination should go.

Charlottesville is expediting and consolidating the construction timeline for the Downtown Mall renovations in hopes of avoiding a prolonged overhaul that disrupts businesses and inconveniences shoppers.

Builders and developers — and ultimately homebuyers — will be shouldering a significantly heavier burden to pay for Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s water and sewer projects in the coming fiscal year.

Charlottesville’s City Council is considering allocating funds to Virginia Supportive Housing to establish efficiency apartments that could help the city fight homelessness.

Although Charlottesville city councilors unanimously approved a $141 million fiscal 2009 budget Tuesday afternoon, their work on the budget is far from over.