I live in Charlottesville now, on Jefferson Park Avenue. It's a decent place to live. The bus is convenient and you can walk to class from there. It's not the safest neighbourhood. There was a rape nearby not too long ago and there have been some armed robberies lately. Downtown is probably too far away to walk from and I've heard it's expensive. Near 14th Street is also supposed to be good. http://www.brac.com is definitely the best place to look. That's how I found my current apartment.