Opinion: is the City Yard really under-used? And was it really a former neighborhood?

C-Ville Weekly claims the City Yard is an under-used parking lot, which could be true, but where is the evidence of this in this article? There's a throw-away line about it being a place for "parking dump trucks" and Charlottesville City Councilor Kathy Galvin calling it “a big asphalt parking lot where we store our brine for de-icing streets,” but that's pretty much it. However, according to City spokesperson Brian Wheeler, the City Yard is home to the following local government activity: Utilities (gas, water, wastewater, stormwater), Facilities Maintenance (for 50 City-owned public buildings and 9 City School buildings), Public Service (streets, signals), Fleet maintenance (there is a fueling station there, too), Facilities development (handles planning, design and construction of projects in the City), Environment (handling a wide range of Environmental Sustainability projects), Police logistics, Warehousing, Risk Management & Procurement, Public Works and Utilities administration…