Charlottesville Community Engagement Town Crier Productions

Some time has passed since there was a sonic version of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter that is now only sometimes a podcast, the podcast you are now listening to. That time could be anytime after May 25, 2024 when this edition was updated away from the WTJU Radio Version to something for Substack subscribers who want to hear these stories! I’m Sean Tubbs, and I do, too. 
In this edition:
* Charlottesville transportation planners are seeking to rebuild public trust (learn more)
* Transportation planning manager updates Charlottesville City Council on existing projects (learn more)
* Charlottesville Area Transit seeks input on a new strategic plan intended to make the service more attractive (learn more)
* Regional planners want you to identify unsafe intersections in the region (learn more)
* Virginia Breeze to launch new east-west service through Charlottesville  (learn more)
* UVA is seeking firms who want to partner on building up to 2,000 beds as part of an initiative to require second-year students to live on Grounds (learn more)
First shout out: ReLeaf Cville 
In today’s first subscriber supported public service announcement: ReLeaf Cville exists to reverse a worrying trend. Since 2004, Charlottesville’s Tree Canopy has declined from 50 percent to 38 percent. Two-thirds of the city’s neighborhoods are below 40 percent. ReLeaf Cville aims to change that through a series of tree plantings, preservation efforts, and education campaigns. 
ReLeaf is a public / private partnership between the city tree Commission, the Nature Conservancy, City of Promise, Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards, and the Van Yahres Tree Company.  Their efforts are funded through donations so consider making yours today!
Sponsored message: Buy Local  
Buying locally supports our neighbors and community members and makes a big impact for our local economy. Local businesses are more likely to reinvest in our community and their goods and services contribute to the unique character of our community.
Learn more about how you can support local business at ShowLocalLove.org and on social media:
* Instagram
* Facebook
* The website formerly known as Twitter
Notes on #681A
It’s now been three and a half months since I agreed to do a radio version for WTJU, a decision that forced me to rethink how I do a lot of things. As soon as I agreed to volunteer my time to produce a version for them, I knew I needed to create a way to manage all of the stories.
At the beginning of this newsletter back in July 2020, I wasn’t tracking any of this. I wasn’t even sure what I would be putting together. The first one dates back to July 13, 2020 if you want to hear it.
For the first year or so, all I did was put them together and move on. At some point, I began cross-posting stories to the Information Charlottesville website but until I began using this spreadsheet, I wasn’t really keeping track of my progress.
Up until episode 650 or so, all of these were podcasts. That stopped when I knew I had to better consider the sound quality as some of what I was using sounded awful over the radio. I also realized that sometimes the extra hour of production to create a radio version delayed information I wanted to get out quickly.
I miss that twinned era, but I don’t think it’s going to be coming back anytime soon. I’d like to know what you think of this, though. Please drop me a line, or leave a comment. I want to hear from podcast listeners. There’s at least 300 of you!



This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Saturday is alright for podcasting. Or at least, that’s how I deliberately misremember a song in order to have an opening paragraph for this latest audio version of Charlottesville Community Engagement. For much of this publication’s history, the sonic and print versions were unified. It may take an epic quest for that to be restored. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I seem to have misplaced the map. 
In this edition: 
* Albemarle Supervisors approve $2 million for Piedmont Housing Alliance’s 60-unit Premier Circle project (learn more)
* The regional planning body adopts a new regional economic development strategic plan (learn more)
* Charlottesville City Council gets briefing on how tourism bureau works (learn more) 
* Charlottesville wins the ability to increase Council salaries (learn more)
* JABA director marks Older Americans Month (learn more)

Concluding notes for #676-A
Two podcasts in a week! It might be that I can get into something of a rhythm! In any case, as soon as I hit send, the next work week begins. I do not think I am going to write up a newsletter today. I feel like I should write up some things I have not been able to complete yet.
In any case, thanks to paid subscribers. If you want to become one yourself, Ting will match your initial subscription. I am aware they are not available in all locations, but I am also aware of how their support allows me to continue to feel like I can continue this work into the future.
Ting can help you with your high speed Internet needs. If service is available in your area and you sign up for service, enter the promo code COMMUNITY and you will get:
* Free installation
* A second month for free
* A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall



This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

There is an existential theory that there is no such thing as time and what we experience is nothing more than an elaborate illusion, a construct whose mechanisms we mere mortals cannot understand. For much of the history of Charlottesville Community Engagement, an extra hour or so was taken to turn the written word into something audible. This edition is evidence that something that seems like time has been spent on an audio intrusion. 
In today’s edition:
* UVA President Jim Ryan and UVA Police Chief Tim Longo offer their perspectives on the removal of an encampment on Saturday
* Louisa County Supervisors restore funding to Piedmont Virginia Community College after hearing from officials 
* Albemarle County Supervisors adopt a budget for fiscal year 2025 based on the increase of two tax rates
* A thrift store in Crozet celebrates its 45th anniversary
Notes for #674-A
These four audio segments were in yesterday’s newsletter, which my records indicate is #674. Now that the podcast and the newsletter are disconnected, I’ve been struggling to come up with what to call it for my records. For now, I’m going with #674A.
My hope is to eventually sync the two products back up, but that’s likely not going to happen. I’m enjoying the freedom to get a newsletter out without having to worry about the audio, which means I can get out more stories. That’s the whole point!
You’ll also note there’s no sponsors in the body of this written version announcing this podcast. I used the same public service announcements in the audio as yesterday. If some entity would like to put their name to each podcast, drop me a line!
In the meantime, paid subscribers help cover my time to get work like this done. If you sign up at $5 a month, $50 a year, or $200 a year, Ting will match your initial subscription.
Ting can help you with your high speed Internet needs. If service is available in your area and you sign up for service, enter the promo code COMMUNITY and you will get:
* Free installation
* A second month for free
* A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall




This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Charlottesville Community Engagement for May 4, 2024, a program that unfortunately has nothing to do with the fictional Star Wars universe and is less about a long time ago far far away and more about what’s going on right now in the area in and around Charlottesville, Virginia. I’m Sean Tubbs, a local journalist who operates a fledgling information outlet called Town Crier Productions. What you’re about to hear are some of the stories from just a little while ago. 
In today’s edition:
* Greene County Supervisors approve a two-cent decrease in the real estate tax rate and a three percent increase in the lodging tax rate (learn more)
* Before adopting a budget, Louisa County Supervisors pull funding for Piedmont Virginia Community College due to the screening of a film on Palestinian independence (learn more)
* A rezoning and special use permit that Albemarle County is seeking for its own property will go before the Planning Commission on May 14, less than two months after the application was filed (learn more)
* Half of Charlottesville’s Board of Architectural Review weigh in on a proposal for a hotel at 218 West Market Street in Downtown (learn more)
* The University of Virginia wants to improve child care for its employees and seek a single firm to manage its four facilities plus a fifth that opens later this year (learn more)
Early voting in the June 18 Virginia primary has begun (learn more)
A word about the podcast
This newsletter got its start as a podcast. My career began at WVTF Public Radio back in 1995 as an intern. Back then, the news department produced a 15-minute local newscast with stories from municipalities across the listening area, combined with national stories read by the local announcer.
That’s gone now and has been for years. But back then, I learned how a news department put together enough resources to pull off a regular series of bulletins to inform the audience. I would go on to freelance for WVTF Public Radio and I created the Charlottesville Podcasting Network in 2005 to experiment with long-form audio.
I stopped producing audio pieces around the time I went to work for Charlottesville Tomorrow in April 2007. I instead was directed to write articles about government issues. I still continued to work like a radio reporter, editing my stories in Audition but not actually producing them.
I left Charlottesville Tomorrow in June 2018 when management changed, and I had an opportunity to try something different. I thought I would be able to continue to write at my new job, that didn’t really turn out to the case.
In January 2019, I experimented for a few weeks trying to see if I could pull together a daily newscast. I really wanted to get back to journalism as an independent reporter, but I needed a product. I didn’t want to rely on freelance work, but wanted to create a way to get information out to people.
These are all archived on Information Charlottesville, which had a different name when I initially experimenting. Go back and listen to the first one from January 1, 2019. There’s no soundbites, and it’s not the most interesting. Also notice there’s no text, but I just found the script which ends with this quote:
“I became a journalist to help bring people information about what they need to make their own decisions. That’s a core value, and one that’s helped me build trust with people throughout my career. I hope as you listen to this, you’ll learn a lot more about the world around you. Thanks for listening. “
The podcast has been on hiatus due to a series of factors, the most important of which is that I’m focused on making sure I can get a version to WTJU 91.1 FM for Saturday morning. I also lost confidence in my recording set-up and am still trying to figure out how to engineer that back into the work flow.
I view all of this as an experiment, an experiment funded by those who want to keep it going. I am a one-person information outlet capab

The introductory paragraph of every edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement is intended to be a script for a podcast but recently there was a disturbance in the workflow. Efforts are being made to build a new framework and the arrival of steel beams this week to the construction site for Buford Middle School has prompted me to take the next step. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I miss the podcast, too:
On today’s podcast edition:
* Charlottesville City Council adopts a budget that reflects a move toward unionization of the city’s workforce, higher salaries for city employees, and lower education funding from the state due to increasing property values (read the story)
* There’s a problem with excessive dog waste being left at the city’s newest park (read the story)
* Charlottesville’s parks and recreation officials want your input on the next master plan to guide the future of public spaces in the city (read the story)
* The city has a plan to fix drainage issues in Oakwood Cemetery and will further discuss the issue on April 24 (read the story)
* Albemarle and Charlottesville both need more lifeguards for the summer season (read the story)
* Charlottesville’s Planning Commission gets an update on the new Development Code (read the story) 
* Albemarle Supervisors have comments on recent deployment of the HART team and a bomb threat at Planet Fitness (read the story )
* The Albemarle Department of Social Services helps a lot of people each year and Supervisors get a briefing (read the story) 
* Albemarle Supervisors weigh in on expanded uses in the rural area as part of the Comprehensive Plan process (read the story)




This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

I will state clearly at the outset that this newsletter and podcast comes from Virginia, and not from either Indiana or North Carolina. The celebration of the beginning of the second quarter of the year often comes with merriment and mirth, but this April 1, 2024 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement comes at a time when there’s information to get out. I’m Sean Tubbs, because who else would I be? 

In today’s installment:
* Council will hold first reading tonight on a proposed budget for FY25 based on three tax rate increases, and only a handful of people spoke at public hearings on March 21
* A nonprofit group building a commercial kitchen to assist would-be restaurant entrepreneurs receives additional funding from the City of Charlottesville
* Council will hold second reading tonight on funding for several affordable housing projects and services
* The Charlottesville Jewish Organizing Collective is hopeful City Council will adopt a resolution tonight supporting a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza



This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe