Podcasts about east market street

Host Cara Corridoni discusses the latest in West Chester including two projects aimed at curbing flooding in the borough, a new high school schedule for the WCASD, and a new music venue taking shape on East Market Street.

Public transportation commuters throughout the Philadelphia area have been in a state of limbo for the past week, as SEPTA and its thousands of bus, train, and trolley operators continue contract talks. Why is SEPTA “hopeful” a resolution can be reached without a strike? What should riders do if the mass transit company's multiple unions follow through on their threat of a coordinated walkout? Matt Leon and KYW's reporters give us the rundown of the biggest news in the Philadelphia region this week, including a recap of City Council hearings about the 76ers' proposed East Market Street arena, information about holiday scams, and the ripple effects that historic wildfires are having on South Jersey.  00:00 Intro 02:00 Latest on SEPTA union contract talks 06:41 Just how much support is there for 76ers' new arena in City Council? 12:47 Election unknowns linger in PA 18:38 ‘Tis the season to be scamming 25:04 New Jersey wildfires put residents on alert 30:05 Christmas tree season in a drought Listen to The Week in Philly on KYW Newsradio every Saturday at 5am and 3pm, and Sunday at 3pm. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 76ers' new arena on East Market Street a done deal? Not so fast. Even with Mayor Parker announcing this week her support for the project, and that an agreement between the NBA franchise and the city was in place, challengers to the plan are getting ready to take their fight to Philadelphia City Council.  And while the 2024 presidential race remains front and center in a battleground like Pennsylvania, the state's U.S. Senate race is shaping up to be a competitive one, despite what polling data might suggest.  We also learn more about upgrades to a pair of iconic exhibits at the Franklin Institute, and how to combat mental health stigmas. Host Matt Leon and KYW Newsradio's reporters break down the biggest news in the Philadelphia region this week. 00:00 Intro 02:05 Mayor backs 76ers arena, but opponents not yet ready to give up fight 08:10 Philly International flops in customer satisfaction 13:02 Why the PA Senate race is closer than you think 18:45 Franklin Institute's Giant Heart, Baldwin 60000 steam locomotive get upgrades 24:21 Audacy to air annual I'm Listening mental health special 9/25 30:22 Expert looks at new Instagram “Teen” accounts Listen to The Week In Philly on KYW Newsradio every Saturday at 5am and 3pm, and Sunday at 3pm. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are 32 days left until the summer solstice which will mark the longest time this year that the rays of our star will soak our area of the planet with light and other forms of radiation. However, this is the first day of the year when temperature gauges on the Fahrenheit scale will come very close to triple digits. What will Charlottesville Community Engagement say about the matter in this May 20, 2022 edition of the program? Very little, but the host, Sean Tubbs, is sincere in wishing everyone well in the heat to come. On today’s program:A historical marker is unveiled at the Central Library in downtown Charlottesville to honor the legal battle to admit a Black man to the University of Virginia Law School Charlottesville City Council is briefed on efforts to get a handle on what property the city leases out and whether all of the tenants are paying their fair shareFifth District Republicans will meet tomorrow to select a nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives And work on a Regional Transit Vision will culminate next week in a long presentation to regional officials about what could happen if the area found a new mechanism for more funding for expanded transit Shout-out for an ACHS program on the Fields of Honor This year, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society has been working with a group called the Fields of Honor to identify soldiers who were killed in action in the Second World War. Since February, ACHS researchers have helped locate several photographs of the fallen, including that of Private Clarence Edward McCauley who was tracked down through high school records. There are 18 remaining photographs to be found, and on Thursday, May 26 at 7 p.m. the ACHS will host Debbie Holloman and Sebastian Vonk of the Fields of Honor Foundation to talk about how you can take part in their volunteer efforts honoring the service and sacrifice of US WWII service members buried or memorialized at US war cemeteries in Europe. That’s Thursday, May 26, at 7 p.m. via Zoom or Facebook Live.Historical Marker unveiled at Central Library for crucial desegregation caseA crowd assembled yesterday afternoon at the intersection of East Market Street and 3rd Street NW in downtown Charlottesville to watch the unveiling of a historic marker to commemorate an important moment in the desegregation of education in Virginia. In 1950, Gregory Swanson applied to attend the University of Virginia School of Law, but he was denied a space because he was Black. He sued in federal court citing 14th Amendment rights to equal protection, and a three-panel judge heard arguments on September 5 that year. David Plunkett is the director of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library, and he noted the historic nature of the building that is the library system’s headquarters.“This building is formerly a federal building and home to the courtroom where Gregory Swanson won his legal petition for entry into the University of Virginia law school,” Plunkett said.     Plunkett said Swanson’s case was part of the NAACP’s legal strategy to challenge the system of desegregation. “While the law school had admitted Mr. Swanson on his merit, with the support of staff including Mortimer Caplin, the Board of University Board of Visitors subsequently denied his admittance based on his skin color,” Plunkett said. “The case tried here overturned that ruling and helped lead to the desegregation of higher education in the South.”Risa Goluboff is the current Dean of the UVA Law School, and she said the marker celebrates Swanson’s bravery and persistence. “He did all this for a belief, for a legal and constitutional principle, for his own growth as a lawyer and a person, for his race, and for the nation as a whole,” Goluboff said. Swanson was represented by the law firm of Hill, Martin, & Robinson, with future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall serving as his legal counsel. Goluboff said the denial back in 1950 must be remembered, as well as the University’s condoning of slavery and the continuance of Jim Crow era laws. She said Swanson’s case should be celebrated.“And when he succeeded, he became the first Black student not only at the University of Virginia Law School, not only at the University of Virginia writ large, but at any state in the former Confederacy,” Goluboff said. “Telling his story both forces and enables us to remember those aspects of our history of exclusion and segregation that we must know in order to repudiate them.” Also on hand at the ceremony was M. Rick Turner, a former president of the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP. He said Black students at UVA have always challenged the status quo of an institution founded to perpetuate racial and class inequalities. “It is worth remembering that the [admittance] of Black students at UVA years ago was not a benevolent gesture on the part of the UVA administrators and state officials, but rather the presence of Gregory Swanson paved the way,” Turner said. To hear the event in full, visit the Charlottesville Podcasting Network where the full audio is posted and is available.Fifth District Republican convention tomorrowRepublicans across Virginia’s new Fifth Congressional District will gather tomorrow at Hampden-Sydney College in Prince Edward County to select a candidate for the November 8 election. Over 2,000 attendees are pre-filed for the event, according to the draft program. Incumbent Bob Good of Campbell County faces challenger Dan Moy in the race, and the program states that each will give a speech before the votes are taken. There will also be remarks from outgoing Chair William Pace and incoming Chair Rick Buchannan. The program contains multiple endorsements for Good from Republican leaders across the United States, as well as several Delegates and Senators of the General Assembly. Moy’s sole endorsement is from the group Chasing Freedom Virginia.There are a total of 24 Republican committees in the fifth District. The convention will be called to order at 10 a.m. and will use a weighted voting system. The winner will face Democrat Joshua Throneburg in the November election. Regional Transit Vision updateConsultants hired by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission to craft a vision for how public transportation might work better in the Charlottesville area will present more details next Thursday. The firm AECOM is the lead consultant with Jarrett Walker and Associates serving as a subcontractor. The study may recommend the eventualtransition to a unified regional transit authority. (meeting info)“There will be a 90 minute presentation from the consultants to go over what we’ve done so far, survey the results of the first round of public engagement, and then also what they found for the vision for the community,” said Lucinda Shannon, a transportation planner for the TJPDC. Shannon told a technical committee of the Metropolitan Planning Organization that a three-day workshop was held with the transit providers to imagine new bus routes under a new scenario where there is $30 million in annual funding from a new transportation authority. The consultants modeled that scenario after a new authority in the Richmond area that was created in 2020. “We looked at the Central Virginia [Transportation] Authority’s model of how they collect revenue to kind of calculate how much we could collect if we formed an authority to pay for the vision,” Shannon said.Shannon said that for now, the JWA’s work is more about what the vision will be.  A second round of public engagement will take place soon after next week’s partnership meeting. Shannon said the firm AECOM may also be hired to conduct a governance study to recommend how to actually come up with that hypothetical $30 million. That work is contingent on approval by the Commonwealth Transportation Board at their meeting in June. Shannon said this study will be more about the funding than changing the structure of area transit. “So it’s not going to be looking at how [Charlottesville Area Transit] or any of the service providers are governed or run or anything like that,” Shannon said. “It’s just bringing in money and putting it out for transit.” Funding for these studies come from Albemarle County, Charlottesville, and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation. The budget for the vision plan is $350,000 and the budget for the governance plan is $150,000. See also: Regional Transit Partnership briefed on Regional Transit Vision, looming Charlottesville Area Transit route changes, April 1, 2021Regional Transit Vision may suggest resumption of Regional Transit Authority foundation, December 14, 2021Shout-out to Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards In today’s subscriber-supported Public Service Announcement, the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards continues to offer classes this spring and summer to increase your awareness of our wooden neighbors and to prepare for the future. Coming up on June 7 is a tree identification course taught on Zoom by tree steward Elizabeth Ferguson followed by a separate hike on June 11 at the Department of Forestry’s headquarters near the Fontaine Research Park. That’s followed by a tree identification walk at the University of Virginia on June 12 for the public. On June 14, Rachel Keen will give a lecture on Zoom on the Social Life of Trees. Do trees really communicate with one another? What is a 'mother tree'? Can a tree do anything to repel a pest? Learn more at charlottesvilleareatreestewards.org.City seeking to know more about what property it rents The City of Charlottesville could be pulling in more revenue from tenants who may be leasing city property at rates well below the market rate. That’s one of the takeaways from a report given to Council at their meeting on May 16. As the City of Charlottesville government seeks to rebuild after a recent era of frequent leadership transitions, the current management is looking at aspects of the city administration that have gone unnoticed or unchecked. Until now, there has not been one central source in city government that controls all of the various leases the city has for its properties as well as service agreements. That makes it hard to track who is responsible or where the public can get information.“So what we’re trying to do at this moment is compile that but one of the first things we had to do was identify an individual who would have that as their job,” said Sam Sanders, the Deputy City Manager for operations. That person will be Brenda Kelley, who has been the redevelopment manager for the city for the past several years. Her position has been elevated to the Office of Community Solutions, and she’ll be presenting a full report to Council this summer. In the meantime, she prepared a briefing for Council for their May 16 meeting which began with a basic definition of what she’ll cover. “Leases or agreement-type leases where either the city is a party,” Kelley said. “This is where the city owns the property or the city is a tenant of a property owned by someone else.” The city has about 155,000 square feet of building spaces that bring in about $580,000 a year in revenue for the city. That doesn’t include about 50 acres under ground lease. The oldest lease dates back to 1922 and allows the city’s utilities office to use space at a pump station at the University of Virginia. One of the biggest amounts of space the city leases is at the Water Street Parking Garage. “The city doesn’t own the Water Street Parking Garage but we lease parking spaces,” Kelley said. The city does own the Market Street Parking Garage, as well as the buildings on East Market Street that are currently occupied by the Lucky 7 and a Guadalajara restaurant. The City Council of January 2017 paid $2.85 million for an eventual parking garage at the location, but the City Council of March 2021 opted to go in a different direction. For now, the city gets rent from those businesses. “The Lucky 7 and the Guadalajara and all of the Market Street Parking Garage retail spaces, those rent funds go into the Parking Enterprise Fund,” Kelley said. Revenues from the Charlottesville Pavilion and the building where S&P Global operates go into the Charlottesville Economic Development Authority fund. Kelley said further research needs to be done into intergovernmental leases with the courts, libraries, and other entities. She said that systems need to be in place to track the leases and make sure that any rent increases due to the city are at least known about for Council’s consideration. Councilor Sena Magill said she appreciated being able to see a more complete picture of the city’s property portfolio, and the potential to get more out of its investment. “When we look at a lot of these rents on a lot of these buildings, they are at about half of market rate,” Magill said. Magill said if the city is charging below market, it should be as a way of helping small businesses who are just getting started. She wanted to see a presentation from the Charlottesville Economic Development Authority on the leases they currently manage. Mayor Lloyd Snook said he wanted any lessees to know that the preliminary report is not intended to raise rates, but just to provide information. “Until this report and this information is gathered, we on Council had no idea who we were subsidizing and we have no idea why we’re subsidizing them in some cases and we may want to make some conscious decisions to continue to subsidize in the form of the rent or we may not but at least we will be doing so from the basis of actual knowledge,” Snook said. More to come as the summer heats up. Help Ting help support Town Crier productions!For one year now, Town Crier Productions has had a promotional offering through Ting!Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! 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

Today consists of a four and four twos, adding up to April 22, 2022. Far more understandable than Day 112, which is another name this Friday could go by. My name is Sean Tubbs, and this is another installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and podcast that seeks to provide information about all manner of items in local and regional government in and around Charlottesville. Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On today’s program:Charlottesville City Council learns of an even higher surplus than expected for the current fiscal yearVirginia is set to end its rent relief program in mid-MayA Colorado educator will become the next president of Piedmont Virginia community College A series of speakers wants Charlottesville Area Transit’s Route 6 to continue to stop at the doorstep of Crescent HallsAnd former UVA basketball star Sean Singletary enters the development community in Charlottesville First shout-out goes to the Piedmont Master Gardeners for their annual plant saleIn today’s first subscriber-supported shout-out, the Piedmont Master Gardeners are pleased to announce the return of their annual plant sale! That’s happening on Saturday, May 7, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Albemarle Square Shopping Center. The sale will offer thousands of annuals, perennials, shrubs, vegetables, herbs and houseplants, including a large selection of native plants.In addition, shoppers can purchase garden implements, yard ornaments and other “Green Elephants”; have their tools sharpened by an expert; and drop off their surplus plastic nursery pots for recycling. The sale will also feature a Help Desk for gardening questions and information tables on native plants, soil and composting, invasive plants, conservation landscaping and much more.For more information, visit piedmontmastegardeners.org. Before we begin today, a quick program note. This show is a product of the pandemic. For the past two years, I’ve been producing informational podcasts to help people know what’s going on. I became a journalist almost 30 years ago because bringing people information is what I’ve always wanted to do. At no point do I want to tell you what to think. And for the past two years, I’ve more or less  been able to do this all from home. And for a lot of that time, most of you were at home too. Now that Albemarle and Charlottesville have both gone back to in-person meetings, it’s a bit jarring. I’m not used to it yet and I still have one eye on COVID cases to see what’s going on. Tomorrow’s show will contain an update from the UVA Health System.But I know I’m not alone. At Monday’s first in-person meeting in 25 months, Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook had a similar sense of disorientation when a resident of Crescent Halls came up to speak. “You’re Miss Sandridge… I know what you look like without a mask on a Zoom call but I don’t know what you look like face to face,” Snook said. We’ll hear more from Judy Sandridge later in the show, but I wanted to begin today by acknowledging the past two years and how they were very different from any other time in my career. I’ve gotten used to writing from home. Soon I’ll be back out there doing more, but it’s still an end to an era. The writer Addison Del Mastro has a piece on his Substack Deleted Scenes called Final Pandemic Thoughts which I think is worth a read. That’s not really within the scope of Charlottesville Community Engagement, nor is this whole first segment. But I am curious to know what your thoughts are on where we’ve been the last two years, and what you’d like to see going forward. As for me, I hope to continue bringing you this program.Council gets revenue update Even though Council has recently adopted a budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, there is never a time when the city’s finances are not in the public eye. Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers briefed Council this week on the state of revenue collection for the current fiscal year that ends on June 30. “So far this year we have currently collected 66.93 percent of our budgeted revenue and we remain on track to collect more than the adopted revenue budget of $192,212,843,” Rogers said. The next tax bills are due on June 6 and will include the one cent real estate tax increase adopted by Council earlier this month. Tax rates go with the calendar year, not the fiscal year. That means a budget surplus is almost certain. “While we discussed during the budget process that we would end up with $12 million more, what I’m seeing now based on that revision, it’s $13 million,” Rogers said.Final decisions about how to use that funding will be made by Council later this year after the FY22 books are audited. Runyon named as PVCC’s next presidentThe chancellor of Virginia’s Community College System has named a Colorado educator as the next president of Piedmont Virginia Community College. Dr. Jean Runyon is currently the campus vice president at Front Range Community College in Larimer. . “We are excited to welcome Dr. Runyon to PVCC and believe she will be able to build upon the success and great potential that exists here, not just at the College but throughout the community,” said PVCC College Board Chair Lola Richardson in a statement. Runyon will be PVCC’s sixth president since it was founded in 1972. She’ll succeed Frank Friedman in the position he has held since November 1998. The new president has a long history in higher education with positions such as the director of the Innovative Teaching Center at the College of Southern Maryland and eight years in various positions at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland. She’ll take the reins at PVCC in July. Virginia rent relief program is set to end In another sign that the pandemic era is over, the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development is closing an online portal through which people can apply for rent relief. Virginians have until midnight on May 15 to make a new application. Virginia was one of the first states in the nation to put a mortgage and rent relief program in place soon after the federal Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES). The program went live in June 2020 and has provided more than $713 million in relief for 104,990 households across the Commonwealth. To be eligible, households need to have an income less than 50 percent of the area median or have to have had one member out of work for up to 90 days. “DHCD will continue to work with partners and stakeholders across the state to create comprehensive strategies to increase the supply of affordable housing, address and prevent evictions and reduce barriers in housing throughout the Commonwealth,” reads a notice on the agency’s website. For more information, visit the DHCD’s website.Today’s second shout-out goes to WTJUAlgorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. This week is the annual Rock Marathon, so tune in and support freeform community radio on WTJU Consider a donation at wtju.net/donate.Former UVA basketball star part of redevelopment project at 1101 East Market StreetA former University of Virginia basketball player who also played in the National Basketball Association is part of a development team that seeks to build eleven townhouses in downtown Charlottesville. “Just excited to be back in town and on about the progress with this project,” said Sean Singletary, who played for UVA in the mid 2000’s. “Ever since I graduated from school here, I’ve always wanted to move back here and just give back to the community. Charlottesville and UVA have done so much for me.” A preliminary site plan has been filed with the city of Charlottesville to build several townhomes in the Little High subsection of the Martha Jefferson neighborhood at the intersection of East Market and 11th Street. In all, 11th Street Partners seeks to consolidate four lots into one before building ten townhomes. Several existing structures on those properties would be removed, but a house at 1103 East Market Street would remain as it is not part of this project and is owned separately. As part of this plan, the house at 1101 East Market Street would be replaced with a new structure.  “We determined that the most beneficial to the community would be to demolish these existing structures and replace them with very attractive units that we think are going to add a significant benefit to the community at large,” said engineer Eric Woolley.One of these would be a sidewalk on this stretch of East Market where there currently is not one on the northern side of the road. Utilities would be placed underground. Each townhouse would have three bedrooms and three off-street parking spaces. “The way we’ve oriented the units, we think it’s going to be beneficial to the neighborhood by actually providing more parking within the development which alleviates the pressure of overlap parking to other neighbors,” Woolley said. While the application for the Vue at East Market is by-right and would not require a decision by elected officials, a request to close off a public right of way does.“The alley closure piece does have discretionary review by City Council but the other components would not,” said Carrie Rainey, a city planner. One of Singletary’s three partners is Keith Payne, an All-ACC conference running back on the UVA football team. “This is extremely exciting for our team to be able to develop in Charlottesville, especially downtown in a great neighborhood,” Payne said. Payne said he and Singletary graduated together, and have always been looking for an opportunity to develop in Charlottesville. “Being on the corner there, we felt this could be a vibrant site for the city,” Payne said. The team wants to develop other projects in the community. No one spoke at the community meeting on Wednesday. To view the discussion, take a look at the video here. PHAR seeks to keep Crescent Halls bus stop in placeA series of speakers at Monday’s City Council meeting asked the elected officials to weigh in on a decision by Charlottesville Area Transit to relocate the bus stop at Crescent Halls, a public housing site that is currently undergoing renovations. The homes are currently served in both directions by Route 6 and the agency is making the change to help speed up the route. That had not been the plan, according to one resident. “We were told that they would pick up one side and when they come back they would let people off in front of the door,” said Alice Washington. “We need that. Crescent Halls is a senior and disability building.” As such, Washington said many residents use wheelchairs or walkers to get around and need to be able to board the bus. That will be much harder if they have to walk what she said were the 89 steps to the new stop. “If they got to walk from way over here over there and some of these people are almost 80 or 90 years old, it’s impossible,” Washington said. We briefly heard from Judy Sandridge earlier. Let’s hear her again. “If you see me hear with my cart here again, my oxygen, and a thing full with food trying to walk 89 steps?” Sandridge said. “She walked 89 steps. I can’t do that.” Other voices included Brandon Collins, the redevelopment coordinator of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority who said keeping the bus stop where it is has been a high priority during renovation discussions. Another was Shelby Edwards, who succeeded Collins as the main voice of the Public Housing Association of Residents in her capacity as executive director. “PHAR has hosted both private and public conversations with CAT about this topic,” Edwards said. “We don’t understand why this has been such a laborious task. We know that that CAT would like to move to the 30 minute service to increase ridership, but this means little if the people who switch over already have other forms of transportation. Yes, we do want a world where everyone can use mass transit but we first need one where everyone who has no other form of transit can continue to move around freely.”Council also heard directly from CRHA’s Executive Director, John Sales. “We need that bus stop in front of the building,” Sales said. Sales added that a site plan amendment to the Crescent Halls renovation would be required, which could delay the ability for residents to move back in. Sales also pointed out that the route change has not yet been finally approved by City Council. “So I just want to make sure that any other route changes that are going to be impacted by this 30 minute transition gets discussed because not only will Crescent Halls be impacted, but people all over the city are going to be impacted, without anyone knowing,” Sales said.In 2021, Charlottesville Area Transit worked with a consultant to realign the routes, but the changes have not yet been implemented. Under the new changes, Route 6 would no longer travel to the University of Virginia Health System but would stil travel between Willoughby Shopping Center and Downtown. The route would also no longer travel on Ridge Street via Brookwood Drive. No action was taken at the meeting, but this morning Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders and CAT Director Garland Williams offered the following statement:“The City Manager has asked staff to consider options regarding the bus stop service to residents of Crescent Halls, including the Paratransit service administered for the City by JAUNT.  There are multiple conversations in progress and a number of options are being considered but the iterative process of review, feedback, and costing is in full motion.  We will be convening all parties to review and determine workable options to present to Council as soon as possible.”The route changes have not yet been made because of a lack of drivers that would be required to provide the additional service. Support Town Crier Productions through Ting!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! 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

Another week begins in a relatively new month and no matter what side of the Atlantic you are on, it is 4/4/22. This is also the 94th day of the year and we are now officially part a quarter of the way through. This is the relevant edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, and I’m the usual host, Sean Tubbs. You do not have to pay to read or listen! Even signing up for free helps this newsletter and podcast for free! On today’s show:A fish kill is reported off Barracks Road in CharlottesvilleCommunity engagement for Albemarle Comprehensive Plan review moves forwaard with new newsletterThe Pantops Community Advisory Committee is briefed on transportation projectsCharlottesville City Council briefed on capital projects and are presented with a potential scenario where a real estate tax will not need to be increased this yearFirst shout-out: JMRL Friends of the Library sale continues through Sunday In today's first Patreon-fueled shout-out! Lovers of used books rejoice! The Friends of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library is back again with their annual Spring Book Sale opening this Saturday through Sunday, April 10! The Friends of the Library sale will once again take place at Albemarle Square Shopping Center from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. Visit jmrlfriends.org to learn more! See you there!Fishkill reported in Meadow Creek The City of Charlottesville has reported the deaths in late March of hundreds of fish and other aquatic life in a section of Meadow Creek. Scientists with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality evaluated the location near Cedars Court and found 842 dead fish, 130 dead salamanders, and 40 dead worms. “Despite further exploration of potential sources by City staff, no source or responsible party has been identified,” reads the announcement that was sent out Friday afternoon. “It is likely that this is a case of illegal dumping of a chemical or toxic product.”According to the report from the DEQ, there is no known source of pollution and the city will continue to monitor the area. The city worked with the Rivanna Conservation Alliance on the day the incident was reported by a community member, and found live creatures both upstream and downstream from the area, which is just to the north of the east wing of the Barracks Road Shopping Center. Over a hundred people apply to be on AC44 working groupAlbemarle County has begun the community engagement process for the Comprehensive Plan review, which is currently in the first of four phases. “Behind the scenes, our project team has continued to gather data on existing conditions and recent trends in the county,” reads the first newsletter for what’s being called AC44. “This data is focused on the ways community members live, work, and travel in Albemarle County and how and where we may have room to grow within our existing Development Areas.”The first phase is called Plan for Growth and is intended to review Albemarle’s Growth Management Policy, which are available for review on the AC44 website. A public survey on this will go live on April 29. Over a hundred people have applied to be part of the working group that will oversee the work and staff are reviewing the applications. Sign up for the newsletter on the Albemarle County website to get more information.Pantops group briefed on transportation projectsIn March, Albemarle’s growth area advisory committees learned about the county’s transportation process, and got updates on area projects. Albemarle keeps a list of projects that have been identified to address congestion issues, improve public safety, increase economic development, and achieve other goals.“The last it was updated was in 2019, but we are embarking on another update and a reprioritization over the next year or two combined with the Comprehensive Plan update,” said Jessica Hersh-Ballering is a principal transportation planner for Albemarle County. A project to make changes at the intersection of U.S. 250 and Virginia Route 20 was funded via Smart Scale in the third round. A sidewalk will be added in front of the McDonalds in the northwest quadrant of the intersection. (read the application)“It would add a two-stage pedestrian crossing of U.S. 250 on the east leg,” Hersh-Ballering said. “Additionally this project will add a right turn lane for westbound vehicles on U.S. 250 that are trying to turn right or north onto Route 20.”Changes to the signalizations and the geometry will be made as well to increase the number of vehicles that can make each signal cycle. However, this project won’t begin until winter of 2025 with a public hearing scheduled in the summer of 2023. “But, still great because the project is fully funded and it will be happening,” Hersh-Ballering said. A second Smart Scale project will see corridor improvements made to the east of that intersection up to Hansen Mountain Road. This access management project will be built around the same time.“VDOT is fast-tracking this project so that it can be on the same schedule as the previous project and also so that both projects can use the same construction contractor and what that will do is allow overall cost efficiencies for bother projects,” Hersh-Ballering said. The center turn lane will be replaced with a concrete median with specific openings for turns. Several projects are currently seeking funding, such as sidewalk improvements on U.S. 250 and a pedestrian crossing at Rolkin Road. Another would make changes at the intersection with Peter Jefferson Parkway that could involve a park and ride lot. Hersh-Ballering also gave an update on the proposed pedestrian bridge across the Rivanna River. Last month, the Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board has selected an alignment that will connect the former State Farm Headquarters with the Woolen Mills at the Wool Factory. The county will also launch a microtransit service in the Pantops area that would be more like a ride-sharing service than fixed-transit. “While it works like Uber, and  you can request a ride, it still functions as a public utility,” Hersh-Ballering said. “The vehicles that pick you up are not going to be anyone’s personal private vehicle. It is a transit vehicle and it will always be ADA accessible.”There will also be no surge pricing. For more details view the video on YouTube. So far it’s had one view. Let’s get that number up seven through the CCE bump! Second shout-out to the ACHS’s Race and Sports Event tomorrow night Today’s second subscriber-fueled shout-out is for an upcoming panel discussion on local history on Tuesday, April 5. The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society continues its Race and Sports project with a discussion with former star athletes and high school and college coaches. Dr. Shelley Murphy will moderate a panel with Wade Tremblay, Garwin DeBerry, and George Foussekis. They’ll share their stories and experiences during the desegregation of local public schools in the 1950s and 60s. The virtual event is available through Zoom registration and on Facebook Live. Eight days until Charlottesville City Council adopts a budgetThere are eight days left until Charlottesville City Council will adopt a budget for the next fiscal year, and many remaining decisions have yet to be made on tax rates.Will there be an increase in the city’s real estate tax increase? Council can increase to as high as $1.05 per $100 of assessed value.Will the city lower the personal property tax rate on vehicles to provide relief in the face of climbing values? The Commissioner of Revenue has recommended doing so, but leaving it at $4.20 per $100 of assessed value would bring in $2 million in additional revenue. Will Council agree to a half percentage point in the meals tax? There’s a public hearing on this tonight.  Charlottesville City Council meets twice this week, and once again on April 12 to formally adopt the budget, which is larger than presented in March due to higher revenue projections. Council met three times last week, including a work session on he capital improvement program on March 31 at which city staff indicated there may be more money available to support Council initiatives. “That’s roughly about $3.7 million that we can add to the FY23 budget,” said Krisy Hammill, the city’s Senior Budget Management Analyst.More on those details in a moment. This is a long one. Capital Improvement Program recapThe March 31 work session was a chance for Hammill to go through the nearly $157.4 million five year plan in detail. (read the presentation)The draft five-year CIP recommends $75 million for school reconfiguration, and the budget recommended by staff anticipates $2.5 million of that being allocated in FY23 and the rest in FY24. It should be noted that Council can only make final decisions about the next fiscal year, and it will be up to their future counterparts to make the next set of choices. Over time, economic conditions will change. The capital improvement plan does have projects that were approved by previous Councils and that budget staff have factored into the overall plan but for which bonds have not yet been sold. Any Council can end those projects and transfer the paper money to another, such as last year when Council directed staff to take $18.6 million from the West Main Streetscape project and put it toward school reconfiguration. The current schedule anticipates the issuance of nearly $16.9 million in bond sales in calendar year 2023. Reviewing Planning Commission recommendationsCouncil was also briefed on recommendations from the Charlottesville Planning Commission on the CIP, including one that sought to overturn a decision made by Council five years ago to purchase property on East Market Street for a future parking structure.  See also: Charlottesville PC recommends adjustments to FY22 Capital Budget, including defunding parking garage, February 10, 2021)Charlottesville PC recommends more funding for affordable housing, new sidewalks, December 16, 2021)“They recommended that existing and requested parking structure funding be reduced to a minimum so we basically removed all of the funding that was originally proposed in 23,” Hammill said. “It was remaining at $1.3 million. We took all of that out so if you look at this current draft there is no additional money for the parking structure.”The city paid $2.85 million for the property and the idea had been to tear down two commercial structures and consolidate the lot with one next door to build a garage to support an expanded courts complex to serve both Albemarle and Charlottesville. Under the terms of an agreement signed in December 2018, the city must provide a certain amount of spaces to Albemarle. “My understanding is that we’re still in discussions with the county on the path forward there, but there are no new dollars,” Hammill said. The city has a balance of $2.8 million for the parking garage, according to economic development director Chris Engel. Again, this funding represents bonds previously authorized by Council but not yet sold. Hammill said staff were able to accomplish some of the Planning Commission’s other requests such as fully funding the city’s efforts to treat and remove Ash Trees at a level of $105,000 a year as well as increasing funding for new sidewalks to $100,000. They also recommended decreasing funds for other categories, such as economic development strategic initiatives, small area plans, and implementation of the Strategic Investment Area. New pathway forward for Stribling sidewalksOther projects that have been discussed since the budget was introduced in early March include $4.9 million to cover the city’s cost to build a sidewalk on Stribling Avenue as well as new section of the Meadowcreek Trail. See also: City Manager Rogers to negotiate with Southern Development on Stribling sidewalk agreement, March 25, 2022Hammill suggested taking the $1.3 million from the parking garage and assigning that to the Stribling Project plus an agreement with Southern Development to pay a $2.9 million loan to city to build the project in order to support a rezoning for 170 units.“And that would actually get you to a point where you could add that project and given the timing from the developer and otherwise, that is more suited for an FY25 add than a FY23,” Hammill said.It must be noted that Fiscal Year 2025 begins on July 1, 2024. Budgets are confusing. The city is still in negotiations with Southern Development with the details and the rezoning will return to Council at a later date. “We are definitely facing well over a year of planning on this sidewalk project,” Sanders said. “It is that complicated.”There are nearly $5 million in requests from the Piedmont Housing Alliance to help subsidize the cost of new units on Park Street. Tax rate scenarios could lead to new real estate tax rate increase this yearToward the end of her presentation, Hammill showed multiple scenarios for school reconfiguration, some of which are built on Council agreeing to a total of $68.8 million for that purpose. This anticipates the use of $7.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds received by the school system as well as the use of $6.7 million from the city’s surplus from Fiscal Year 2021. While Hammill showed two scenarios that include at least a five cent increase in the real estate tax rate, she also suggested the city may have more money than originally suggested. Hammill also discussed increases in revenues for FY23, including an additional $900,000 for sales tax, $500,000 for the lodging tax, and $25,000 for the meals tax.“We’ve bumped those up some based on our current collection rate,” Hammill said. “We continue to see growth in those and we continue to see recovery at a faster rate than we had originally anticipated.” Council could also choose to not lower the personal property tax rate, as Commissioner of Revenue Todd Divers has suggested. All told, the city’s anticipated revenues are higher than presented in early March. “That’s roughly about $3.7 million that we can add to the FY23 budget,” Hammill said. Those higher than anticipated revenues are also affecting the current year  and Hammill said there is currently a projected surplus of $12.4 million in revenues. “If you were to decide to do a tax increase that would also be an impact on FY22 and that number would go up,” Hammill said. That’s because the tax rate applies to the calendar year, not the fiscal year.In addition, the city also has a CIP contingency account that has a balance of around $11.4 million.  Some of this funding could be applied to some of the priorities and Council faces several choices for how to proceed, such as using some of the contingency to cover the Piedmont Housing Alliance requests?“I like the opportunity to have options,” said Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade.Councilor Brian Pinkston sought clarification if Hammill was suggesting that the city could use those funds to avoid an increase in the real estate tax this year. “That is one option,” Hammill said. “The risk here is that something could happen and these two years, this surplus maybe does not materialize.” Surplus funds cannot be used and allocated until they have been independently audited which usually happens in December. Mayor Lloyd Snook said the surplus could be used to cover the costs of future debt services in the future. “What that does is, A, it buys us a year before we have to decide whether to raise the tax rate, which also buys us some time to see if the General Assembly folks can pull some magic out of a hat for a sales tax increase,” Snook said. Snook said he would prefer not to raise the real estate tax rate in a year when assessments are up over ten percent. Councilor Sena Magill repeated her desire for a real estate tax increase this year. “I would feel more comfortable if we had one cent at least that we are putting toward the school fund,” Magill said.Councilor Michael Payne also supported a tax increase this year to ensure the city can increase spending on affordable housing, transit, and collective bargaining. “I would think that a real estate would be less regressive than the meals or the personal property tax and that we should be looking at that,” Payne said. Tonight’s public hearing is on the meals tax and there will be a budget work session on Thursday. “I would hope that meeting would be the meeting where we would finally hash out the details and we would come at the end of the meeting with an agreement,” Snook said. Support Town Crier Productions!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! 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

Today begins the final week of the month as well as the last four days of 2022’s first quarter. There are so many ways to order time and to order our affairs as human beings as we move through a world that may or may not make sense, depending on how you count. I’m Sean Tubbs, I provide information on a regular basis in each installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement to describe a few of the things that have happened so far. Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On today’s show:The area’s transportation decision-making body wants a future pedestrian bridge to connect Pantops with the Broadway Blueprint The University of Virginia’s School of Architecture hires its first Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and InclusionUVA no longer requires masks in classrooms, and an update on the COVID-19 pandemic Today’s first shout-out goes to WTJUAlgorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. Support freeform community radio on WTJU and get ready for the station’s 65th anniversary this Friday, April 1! Consider a donation at wtju.net/donateCOVID-19 update: Masks now optional in UVA classroomsToday marks the end of the mask requirements in classrooms at the University of Virginia, but people are still asked to carry one in case they are asked to by someone else. “As we navigate the shift to most settings being mask-optional, we are encouraging everyone to treat each other with respect and common courtesy,” reads a March 25 email from Provost Ian Baucom and Chief Operating Officer J.J. Davis. The Centers for Disease Control now regard the COVID-19 Community Level to be low for Albemarle County and Charlottesville. This morning the Virginia Department of Health reports another 1,340 new cases and the seven-day average for percent positivity is now at 3.3 percent. There is a subvariant of the Omicron virus that is leading to new surges across the world including Hong Kong. That’s a place where Dr. Costi Sifri of the UVA Health System said has not yet experienced much community spread because of an early zero tolerance policy.“It is causing significant stress to their health system,” Sifri said. “There is this view that Omicron is less virulent than other COVID variants.”However, Dr. Sifri said that Hong Kong also has low vaccine rates providing a population base through which the Omicron subvariant can spread. “Here in the United States we’re seeing an increasing amount of B.A.2, the sister subvariant of the original Omicron strain,” Dr. Sifri said. “It’s growing in proportion nationwide. In our region it’s about 30 to 35 percent or so of all isolates.”Dr. Sifri said this subvariant is not as virulent, but does appear to be more transmissible and that it will become the dominant strain in a matter of weeks. Dr. Sifri said a local spike could happen as mask requirements are dropped and as more social gatherings.“I don’t think that’s guaranteed so I think there is also a possibility we could just reach a plateau at least for the near-term,”  Dr. Sifri said. “And of course, things may change if there is a new variant that emerges somewhere in the world that is able to essentially escape the protection that boosters and vaccinations have provided.”As of today, 72.7 percent of Virginians are fully vaccinated, but only 2.9 million booster doses have been administered. There’s still no word yet on whether an additional dose will be needed for the general population or just those who are at higher risk of developing a virulent infection.There are 76 new cases in the Blue Ridge Health District today. On March 16ths, Last week, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted to end the local COVID emergency, paving the way for in-person meetings beginning next week with the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.UVA School of Architecture hires Associate Dean for equity and inclusionThe School of Architecture at the University of Virginia has hired its first ever Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. C.L. Bohannon will take the position in late July as he also joins the faculty as an Associate Professor in the Landscape Architecture Department. Bohannon is currently the interim director of the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech, as well as founder and director of the Community Engagement Lab. “I am enthusiastic to collaborate with faculty, students, staff, and communities across the Commonwealth as we contend with long-standing socio-environmental inequalities,” Bohannon said in a news release on the School of Architecture’s website. “I believe that as creative practitioners, we have the necessary critical and creative tools to redress harms that have come from design and planning and that we can work with congruent integrity and practice.”The Community Engagement Lab will come with Bohannon to UVA. Second shout-out goes to a March 29 event happening at MorvenIn today’s second subscriber supported shout-out, the Morven Summer Institute at Morven Farm wants you to know about a seminar coming up on March 29. How are UVA students, faculty, and community partners collaborating to tell the stories of Morven? Researcher Scot French has spent over ten years studying Morven’s history and will provide glimpses into a course he’ll be teaching this summer on Recovering the Stories of Morven’s Enslaved and Descendant Communities.  The March 29 event is a chance for the public to get a preview of the four week course. If you’re interested, visit morven.virginia.edu to fill out an interest form. MPO selects Broadway Avenue / East Market location for pedestrian bridgeIf a bridge to cross the Rivanna River between Albemarle County and the Woolen Mills is ever built, the western end will be connected to East Market Street rather than Riverview Park. “It seems to me that the connection at the East Market Street provides an additional value or return on the investment in that it is connecting two activity centers from Pantops over to what’s being planned in that Broadway corridor,” said Albemarle Supervisor Ned Gallaway, the chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Policy Board.Transportation staff with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission are working on an application for Smart Scale funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation for the project, which would have an eastern landing just to the west of the former State Farm regional headquarters. The MPO Policy Board voted 4-1 on March 24 to choose an alignment that would land at East Market Street. This alternative is more expensive with a preliminary cost estimate of $15.3 million compared to $11.3 million for the Chesapeake Street alignment. They also discussed whether the bridge should be “cable-stayed” or should be built on a “truss.” bridge. A cable-stayed bridge would require more maintenance, and there are questions about who would be responsible for the cost. “When we’re looking at new projects, we generally don’t try to promote or support projects that would provide an increased cost for maintenance when it’s not strictly necessary,” said Sean Nelson, the district engineer for VDOT’s Culpeper District. Nelson said if the cable-stayed bridge was selected, the localities would be asked to cover the additional maintenance. Albemarle Supervisor Ann Mallek wanted to know if that might affect the project’s Smart Scale score.“Getting something approved is my highest priority and I want to make sure that we are thinking about that rather than asking for the beautiful, blue crystal slipper,” Mallek said. “ Are we then not getting something at all then if we applied for the work boot?” The group opted to proceed with a truss bridge. No matter the type of bridge, the East Market / Broadway bridge would have two spans connected with a pier.City Councilor Brian Pinkston was the lone vote in favor of the Chesapeake Street option.“To me, if the least expensive, more likely to occur option is to have it at the park on the northern side,” Pinkston said. A majority of people on a stakeholder committee favored the Chesapeake Street option, as did the MPO-Technical Committee. More information needs to be gathered as part of a necessary environmental review and that will be gathered as the application is finalized. This includes impacts on historic sites well as the impact on the floodway. Nelson said one of the sites would provide more room for flexibility if the design needed to be amended to take into account potential impacts. “The Woolen Mills location there [are] more opportunities to mitigate at that location then at the other location,” Nelson said. Mallek said she supported the Woolen Mills option because of the county’s planning work. “There are things in the Broadway corridor which the county has been planning and working on for several years including more sidewalk connections and improvement of the connector road which would also benefit users of the bridge,” Mallek said. After Mayor Lloyd Snook offered his opinion, one member of the public who was on the call expressed their opinion.“I would vote for the southernmost route, the route that goes down to East Market,” Snook said. “Unbelievable,” said an unidentified voice in what may be one of the last awkward moments of the Zoom era of public meetings. Before the vote, nearby resident Jenny Milulski said she would have supported either option, but wanted the MPO to take Albemarle’s economic development planning efforts into account. “I just wanted to voice my enthusiasm for considering this project in tandem with the Broadway economic development plan,” Milukski said.The Albemarle Board of Supervisors recently received information about the Broadway Blueprint and the Economic Development Authority had a conversation about the document earlier this month (read the final study) Mikulski said the bridge would transform the way she thinks about where she lives.“For example it would only be a 1.5 mile walk from my house to the Kluge-Ruhe Museum,” Mikulski said. Currently that would be a three mile walk. Preliminary Smart Scale applications are due by the end of the month. A final application is due on August 1. The rankings will be released in late January. Support Town Crier Productions!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! 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 much more light in the northern hemisphere today than there was yesterday. This will be the case for 90 more days until the pendulum shifts back the other way, but perhaps now isn’t the time to bring that up. It is time to tell you that this is another edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and I’m the same version of Sean Tubbs. Spring into new information with a paid or free subscription to the newsletter and podcast!On today’s show:Several stories out of last week’s Albemarle Economic Development Authority meeting, including the pursuit of a designated outdoor recreation area for somewhere in urban AlbemarleThe Crozet Community Advisory Committee learns about transportation CouncilMembers of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center talked loan forgiveness with the Albemarle EDA in closed sessionAnd an update on the Broadway Blueprint in Albemarle County First shout-out goes to the Rivanna Conservation AllianceIn today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out, the Rivanna Conservation Alliance wants wildlife and nature photographers to enter their first-ever photography contest! They want high-resolution photos related to the Rivanna watershed and the winning entries will be displayed at the 2022 Riverfest Celebration on May 1. The two categories are 16 and under, and those over the age of 17. You can send in two entries, and the work may be used to supplement Rivanna Conservation Alliance publications. For more information, visit rivannariver.org.Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center officials met in closed session with EDA to talk loan forgivenessThe Albemarle Economic Development Authority met with leaders of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center in closed session last week to share information about the nonprofit’s ability to pay back a loan that dates back to 2013. “The pandemic of course dealt us a hefty blow as I think it did most nonprofits,” said Malou Stark, the president of the center’s Board of Directors. “We were not able to open during most of the pandemic. We began very small last fall with very private small group tours of two or three people at a time.”That’s important as the Center owes just over $125,000 to the EDA for the loan, which was taken out to cover higher-than-expected construction costs to build the Center in Darden Towe Park. The Charlottesville Economic Development Authority also contributed $130,000 for that purpose, and has said it will forgive the loan if the Albemarle EDA follows suit. However, they have consistently indicated they expect repayment. Stark and fellow board member Sarah Gran met with economic development staff before the meeting to speak privately about the issue. “We took away the thoughts and ideas that were addressed a week ago and really wanted to hear what the EDA was saying about repayment about this loan and that we take it seriously,” Gran said. The EDA told the center board members that they want a plan for repayment. Stark said the Center sees an ability to bring in more revenue now that it can open. “We’ve continued renting out our building and we have been very successful during the pandemic in getting grants that we have gone after,” Stark said Stark said the Center will resume holding its summer camp this year and that will be one source of revenue. However, schools are not yet booking the property for field trips. The EDA met with Stark and Gran to discuss the matter in closed session. At the closed session, they also discussed an economic development project with the codename Khaki. There was no action on the matter after the closed session. There will be more from the Albemarle Economic Development Authority later on in this newsletter. Watch the whole thing on the county’s YouTube page. Crozet CAC briefed on transportation infrastructure projectsThis month all of Albemarle’s seven advisory committees have been briefed on transportation projects from the county’s planning staff. In recent years, Albemarle has been successful at securing money for projects, such as the conversion of the Route 151 and U.S. 250 intersection to a roundabout. On March 8, 2022, the Crozet Community Advisory Committee had their turn. Planning Manager Kevin McDermott explained how the process works in Albemarle. “We regularly update a list of transportation priorities and this list basically is every project that’s been identified,” McDermott said. (read the list)Those projects are identified in master plans, small area plans, corridor plans, and so on.“And then we evaluate all of those projects based on a set of metrics which we think kind of capture, really, the needs of a transportation system,” McDermott said. “Those include measuring for safety, congestion, economic development, accessibility, land use, and environmental impact.” That ranking system is similar to the one used by the Virginia Department of Transportation in their Smart Scale process. That’s one of many sources of revenue for transportation projects and McDermott said the priority list is used to help position projects for applications. For the past few years, Albemarle has used a capital fund called “transportation leveraging” that is used to come up with local matches for major projects. Other sources include a revenue sharing program with VDOT and a Transportation Alternatives program for projects for non-motorized users of the public realm. “These projects are things that would cost definitely under a million and it requires a twenty percent local match,” McDermott said. Major projects in the Crozet area include the southern extension of Eastern Avenue (#8). That’s been a plan on paper for many years, but when it came time to apply for funding the cost estimates were out of date. “And so we decided to move forward with an engineering study using local funding and so that engineering study also looked at the potential locations of Eastern Avenue,” McDermott said. The county will find out in April if VDOT will award funds to the Eastern Avenue project, which could have a cost around $25 million. Other projects in the area include conversion of U.S. 250 and Virginia Route 240 to a roundabout and a Smart Scale application for a roundabout at Old Trail Drive and U.S. 250 at Western Albemarle High School. The priorities will be reexamined as part of Albemarle’s ongoing review of the Comprehensive Plan, including new projects suggested in the recent update of the Crozet Master Plan. For more from the meeting, take a look on YouTube:Albemarle EDA releases Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville from Southwood deed The Albemarle Economic Development Authority has adopted a resolution releasing Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville of its obligations related to a ground lease for the Southwood Mobile Home Park. According to Albemarle’s property records, Habitat purchased the land and trailers at Southwood on March 1, 2007. Senior Assistant County Attorney Richard DeLoria said the Albemarle EDA took on the note for some of the debt in 2010. “Long story short is that the EDA assumed a $6 million obligation that was secured by a deed that was presented to the EDA,” DeLoria said. DeLoria said Habitat paid back the funding in the form of rent to the EDA but now Habitat is seeking to refinance. That means they needed to clear up the obligation to the EDA. “Habitat would like a deed of release from the EDA and also a termination agreement for the lease,” DeLoria said. The vote to adopt the resolution was unanimous. As of the March 15, 2022 EDA meeting, Habitat had not completed the refinancing packet. Today’s second shout-out goes to LEAPYou don’t need the “luck of the Irish” to be safe and comfortable in your own home. To see what you can do to get the most out of your home, contact LEAP, your local energy nonprofit, to schedule a home energy assessment this month - just $45 for City and County residents. LEAP also offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If someone in your household is age 60 or older, or you have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!Albemarle making major investment in economic development funding with surplus fundsThe proposed budget for Albemarle County for fiscal year 2023 contains a recommendation from County Executive Jeffrey Richardson that will give the Albemarle Economic Development Authority a large pot of money to use to help close deals. “Our Board has heard the recommendation from Mr. Richardson to put $5 million back into the economic development investment pool,” said Roger Johnson, the county’s economic development director. “That would sort of reestablish our investment pool that we have spending over the last four years or so. It is getting lowered as every project comes along.” The source of the $5 million is funding left over from FY21. These funds are often used to cover the county’s match for grants such as the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP)  and the Agricultural and Forestry Industries Development fund (AFID). The latter was used to help Potters Craft Cider renovate Neve Hall to become its tasting room and production facility and the EDA contributed $50,000. This week, Governor Glenn Youngkin awarded the first AFID grant of his administration to Hidden Pines Meat Processing in Madison County. “The company, which has been operating for more than twenty years, is expanding to year-round operations and adding USDA inspection services to meet surging consumer demand for locally produced meats,” reads the press release. Johnson said having a dedicated pool allows his team to work without getting an appropriation for each development project. Albemarle County seeking to explore DORA Albemarle County is considering taking advantage of new state laws that allow the use of Designated Outdoor Refreshment Areas to help boost tourism and economic development. “It’s a geographic area licensed by the ABC annually that allows the consumption of alcoholic beverages—wine, beer, mixed beverages—within public spaces or inside a business without an ABC license as long as the business owner agrees,” Johnson said.The Town of Scottsville has used its DORA license on two occasions so far. The city of Charlottesville has discussed the idea but has not pursued it since a majority of the last Council did not appear to support it. Under the DORA, a nonprofit group would hold the ABC license. A business improvement district could also hold the license, but there are none in Albemarle County. “What’s allowed is up to 16 events per year,” Johnson said. “Each event can be no longer than three days. You need a letter of support from the locality, and in this case that’s Albemarle County. You have to submit an ABC application and there is a fee associated with that.”Beverages must be in designated containers. Johnson said he’s met with the Police Department to get their feedback on the events. EDA Director Stuart Munson praised the DORA set up for Scottsville for two events so far. “We saw a significant increase in traffic both on the street and in businesses and we had no problems whatsoever,” Munson said. Other potential uses for a DORA in Albemarle are in Crozet and at Stonefield. EDA briefed on Broadway Blueprint studyThe Albemarle Economic Development Office has officially completed a planning study for a portion of the county around the Woolen Mills Factory on the western banks of the Rivanna River. (read the report)“The general idea was to take the 46 and a half acres on the Broadway Corridor and turn that into a place that people, businesses, and activities all occur at the same time and everyone would like to be there,” Johnson said. Recommendations in the plan include creation of an arts and cultural district, creation of a business association for the corridor, increased bike and pedestrian facilities, design of a multimodal streetscape, and enhanced public transit. The report was delayed by COVID and during that time, Albemarle has adopted a new value of “community” which means equity and inclusion. That’s meant a new round of recommendations after the study was looked at through an equity lens. “The new recommendations include connectivity to all outside communities including the city,” Johnson said. “We were talking about this being a county-only type project but there are some surrounding neighborhoods that we believe it makes sense to connect to as well. It also includes targeting programming and the use of public space to serve the broader neighborhoods.” The item was on the consent agenda for the March 16, 2022 meeting of the Board of Supervisors. On Thursday, the MPO Policy Board will select an alignment for a pedestrian and bike bridge to connect the Woolen Mills with Pantops. One would connect to Charlottesville at Chesapeake Street at a cost of $11.3 million. The other would connect at East Market Street and would have a cost of $15.4 million. (alternatives report) (comparison matrix)Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! 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

No European nation has attacked another for decades but as I write this, Russian forces have spent much of the past 18 hours been advancing on multiple sites across Ukraine, a country on the Black Sea just to the south of Russia. In the days to come, the shockwaves will reach every part of the globe in ways we do not yet know. This is a pivotal day and it will affect the region covered by Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m your host Sean Tubbs. On today’s program:Responses to the invasion from Virginia’s elected officials as well as President BidenJefferson Madison Regional Library and the Charlottesville Albemarle NAACP are teaming up with a paid internship program, and the Community Read kicks off this weekUnemployment claims are down sharply since this time last year The Center for Politics to hold a panel discussion on Ukraine tomorrowShout-out to supporters of Town Crier ProductionsIn today’s shout-out, a shout-out to the shouters-of out! I want to thank all of the individuals and entities that have supported this newsletter and podcast through a $25 a month Patreon contribution or through some other combination of support. Thanks to the Charlottesville Jazz Society, Code for Charlottesville, LEAP, the Rivanna Conservation Alliance, Lonnie Murray and his penchant for native plants, WTJU, the Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society, James Madison Regional Library, the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards, Cville 350, Piedmont Master Gardeners, and of course, the Valley Research Center. Learn more at Information Charlottesville.Invasion updateLocal and regional government continues today with several meetings about land use and transportation. I’m recording all of them, as decisions made at the local level are crucial. But I’ve spent today trying to learn more about what is happening in Ukraine, where Russian forces have attacked multiple places. President Joe Biden addressed the nation this afternoon. (watch the briefing)“The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine without provocation, without justification, without necessity,” Biden said. “This is a premeditated attack.” Biden said in the day and weeks and months leading up to last night, over 175,000 troops were mobilized on Ukraine’s border based on propaganda and mistruths.“And at the very moment that the United Nations Security Council was meeting to stand up for Ukrainian sovereignty to stave off invasion, Putin declared his war,” Biden said. “Within moments, moments, missile strikes began to fall on historic cities across Ukraine.”At his briefing, Biden announced new sanctions separate from ones being considered by member states of the European Union, but that the United States is not acting alone. “For months we’ve been building a coalition of partners representing well more than half of the global economy,” Biden said. “Twenty-seven members of the European Union including France, Germany, Italy as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and many others, to amplify the joint impact of our response.” To follow that response, there are many other sources. Here are some that I’ve been following today:The Guardian has been providing live updates since the beginning at this locationThe Kyiv Independent is a Ukraine-based media outlet providing on-the-ground updatesI have created a list on Twitter of journalists and others writing about what’s happeningThis is a newsletter about the Charlottesville region as well as Virginia. Governor Glenn Youngkin issued a statement via Twitter condemning the invasion “Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is an assault on a sovereign nation and will have devastating consequences for Ukrainian citizens,” Youngkin wrote. “This senseless, unprovoked attack undermines democracy worldwide and we must hold Russia accountable. And we pray for the Ukrainian people and for peace.”In January, Senator Tim Kaine was one of many co-sponsors of the Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022 which is intended to place sanctions on Russian financial assets. “America’s commitment to Ukraine is absolute and has the steadfast, bipartisan support of Congress,” Kaine wrote in a release today. “Make no mistake: Russia’s aggression will continue to have significant consequences, including through additional crippling economic sanctions.”Senator Mark Warner is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Chair and he told Axios that he’s concerned about the role cyberattacks may play in the coming days. Fifth District Congressman Bob Good also condemned the invasion, but also took aim at President Biden. “We have a president who claimed with great bravado on the campaign trail that Putin feared a Biden presidency,” Good wrote in a subtweet. “Now it is clear to everyone, perhaps even to the President Biden, that Putin does not fear or respond to him.” Seventh District Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger has called for unity in fighting what she called Putin’s war.“In the hours and days ahead, he must feel the sting of unprecedented sanctions from the United States and our partners around the world,” Spanberger said. In his comments, Biden pointed out that world markets have turned against Russia in these early days of an uncertain war. “We’ve already seen the impact of our actions on Russia’s currency, the rouble, which earlier today hit its weakest level ever, ever in history,” Biden said. “The Russian stock market plunged today.” The next installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement will get back to the usual topics. Center for Politics to hold panel discussion on invasion Tomorrow at 3 p.m., The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia will convene a panel discussion of experts on Eastern Europe to provide background for what’s happening in Ukraine.  (register)The program will be conducted in partnership with the UVA Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and the UVA European Studies Program. The title is “Crisis in Europe: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine.” Here are some of the questions the program seeks to cover:“What does Putin want? Are Russia’s grievances with NATO and the U.S. legitimate? How should Ukraine respond? How does this affect the United States and the rest of the world? How should President Biden react?”The program is free but you must register with EventBrite to gain access. The moderator is Chris Krebs, a Resident Scholar at Center for Politics who is the former director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Panelists are: Dr. Alina Polyakova, President and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA)Professor Jeff Rossman, Director of the UVA Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Unemployment filings at pre-pandemic levels in VirginiaIt’s been nearly two years since the early days of the pandemic shut many sectors of the economy down completely. Today the Virginia Employment Commission released data for the week ending February 19 and 1,610 people filed new claims, a decrease of 363 over the previous week. “Over half of initial claims that had a self-reported industry were in administrative and waste services, health care and social assistance, retail trade, professional and technical services, and manufacturing,” reads the press release. The total number of claims was 7,258, and included a category called “continued claims” which refers to people who have continued to file for unemployment insurance during the pandemic. A year ago, the number of continued claims was 64,575, making this an 89 percent decrease over last year. JMRL and NAACP team up to offer paid internshipThe Jefferson Madison Regional Library and the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP are teaming up to offer a paid internship for local Black students to encourage them to consider library work as a profession. Students are asked to write a 300-word essay on literacy and education as well as academic information. The deadline to apply is April 15, 2022. “The program offers 200 annual hours of library work experience and a stipend of $3,000,” reads a press release. “In addition, Interns are eligible for an annual scholarship of $2,000 to be used toward completion of an Associate’s, Bachelor’s, or Master’s degree.”Electronic copies must include the subject “NAACP/JMRL Program” and be submitted to director@jmrl.org. Paper copies may be submitted to Library Director, Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, 201 East Market Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902. The funding comes from a grant from the Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.On Sunday between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library will kick off the Community Read on the steps of the Central Library’s front porch. This year’s book is We Are Not Free by Traci Chee, and free copies will be available at that time. “A National Book Award finalist for young people's literature, We Are Not Free (2020) is the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II,” reads a listing on JMRL’s Same Page website. There will be take-and-make craft activities, BINGO with prizes from the One Small Step program uput on by StoryCorps and the UVA Democracy Initiative. For more information, visit https://jmrl.org/samepage 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

Today is a day of twos but who is counting? And who wants to know that this is also the 33rd day of the new year? Many of our systems of measuring time are fairly arbitrary, but I can also tell you there are now 45 days until the equinox. What else can I tell you on this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement? First, I’m Sean Tubbs. Second, you’ll just have to stick around for a bit.Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On today’s program:A status update on planning for the Rivanna River Bike and Pedestrian BridgeA new group forms in Charlottesville to advocate for spending on public educationThe Senate Privileges and Elections Committee fails to recommend approval of Andrew Wheeler to be Virginia’s Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources Shout-out to the Charlottesville Jazz SocietyIn today’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement: The Charlottesville Jazz Society at cvillejazz.org is dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and perpetuation of all that  jazz, and while this might not be the time to go out and listen people who love to play it’s a great time to learn about musicians in our area and get ready for the tunes of the future through their events calendar. The Charlottesville Jazz Society web site and a regular newsletter are both dedicated to enriching your experience of jazz within the Charlottesville community and beyond. Go visit cvillejazz.org to learn more! Bridgewater shootingThe website of Bridgewater College in Rockingham County contains a somber message today after two campus police officers were shot and killed yesterday afternoon. “Two members of the Bridgewater College family were senselessly and violently taken from us,” reads a message from President David Bushman. “The sadness is palpable. Words are not adequate, not nearly so, to express the grief, sadness, fear and—justifiably—the anger we all feel.”According to WHSV, Officer John Painter and Officer J.J. Jefferson were shot in the line of duty when they responded to a report of a suspicious individual on campus who shot them after a brief encounter. The 27-year-old suspect fled on foot and was apprehended and charged with two felony counts of murder. In his message, Bushman wrote that Painter and Jefferson were close friends and that grief counseling would be available. Bridgewater College is a private liberal arts college with an enrollment of about 1,800 students. Group wants support for education A new group has formed to promote public investment in Charlottesville City Schools. The launch of Charlottesville United for Public Education comes on the same day School Superintendent Royal Gurley Jr. will present the operating budget for city schools to the City Council. “The organization views the city’s budget planning season as an opportunity to rally behind much-needed investments for public schools,” reads the press release that went out this morning. According to the Virginia Department of Education, 46 percent of Charlottesville’s 4,265 students in 2020 were economically disadvantaged, and the organization says the city can do more to support public education.“Students in low-income families bear the hardship of decades-long disinvestment and need greater instructional, housing, health, and social supports to thrive,” the release continues.Visit the organization’s website at charlottesvilleunited.org to learn more. City Council’s joint work session begins at 5 p.m. today. (meeting info)Senate panel strips Youngkin’s environment pick from list of nominations for approvalThe General Assembly confirms gubernatorial appointments through the passage of resolutions. For instance, Senate Joint Resolution 83 covers agency heads and ranges from new Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow to Phil Wittmer, the new chief information officer for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. SJ84 covers Cabinet -level position, from new Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs Craig Crenshaw through Andrew Wheeler, Governor Youngkin’s pick for Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources. The 15-member Senate Privileges and Elections Committee took up those two resolutions and a third on Tuesday. Because the Democratic Party has a slight majority in the Senate, they control the Committees. Wheeler’s nomination has been opposed by Democrats and an amendment was made to SJ84 to eliminate his name from approval. Senator Creigh Deeds (D-25) made this motion as soon as the committee took up the resolution yesterday. “Mr. Chairman, I move that we amend Senate Joint Resolution 84 to remove lines 42 and 43,” Deeds said. That would end the resolution to approve the late up to George Slater, Youngkin’s pick for Secretary of Labor. Republican members of the Committee wanted to debate the amendment. Here’s an exchange between Senator Ryan McDougle (R-4) and Deeds.McDougle:“It’s clear that the Committee is stacked 9 to 6 and in a non-partisan way what’s going to happen we should at least have a conversation about it.”Deeds:“We’ve received a letter from 150 former [Environmental Protection Agency] employees who suggested that Mr. Wheeler had undermined the work of the EPA and worked against the environmental interests of this country. We think that members of the Governor’s Cabinet ought to be people that unite us as Virginians and certainly the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources ought to be one one that we have confidence in in terms of working for the preservation and conservation of our natural and historic resources and on this side of the aisle we don’t have that level of confidence with this nominee.”Senator Bryce Reeves read from Wheeler’s resume.Reeves: “He completed his law degree at Washington University and when he served as the administration’s EPA principal, all the things that he’s done, he gave $225 million in funding for water reuse projects to protect the [Chesapeake Bay], provided $200 million for wastewater infrastructure to prevent runoff and sewage from reaching the Bay,  provided funding to Pennsylvania agencies to address agricultural runoff. In 2020 the Bay attained the lowest dead zone in 30 years and underwater seagrasses have increased 34,000 to 100,000 acres. Air emissions decreased seven percent during the last administration and these reductions were pre-COVID. I could just go on and on and on.”However, Senator Deeds said the Republicans failed to approve an appointment by Governor Tim Kaine in 2006. According to Virginia Memory, Kaine had nominated Daniel LeBlanc to serve as Secretary of Commonwealth, but the House of Delegates blocked used the same procedure to remove LeBlanc in a vote taken on March 7, 2006. (SJ186 from 2006)“The precedent has been set,” Deeds said. This is not the end of Wheeler’s nomination. There are many scenarios in which confirmation could still occur. Stay tuned! In other General Assembly information, let’s talk about some bills that won’t be moving forward this year but have been continued to next year:SB255 would have removed the ability of localities to regulate cell towersSB132 would have allowed localities to designate smoking areas in their parks, playgrounds, and recreation centersHB898 would have reduced penalties for possession of hallucinogenic substancesSeveral Constitutional amendments have been passed on for the year, including term  limits for General Assembly members (SJ7) and one that would require a Governor to call a special session in order to extend a state of emergency (SJ36). More to come. Shout-out to a February 8 talk on Jackson P. Burley High You’re listening to Charlottesville Community Engagement and it’s time now for another subscriber supported shout-out. On February 8, the author of a book about the history and legacy of Jackson P. Burley High School will give a talk at the Center at Belvedere. Lucille Smith has written Unforgettable: Jackson P. Burley High School 1951-1967, which tells the story of the school that was built for Black students across the region when schools were required by law to be racially segregated. But the book also tells the stories of the students and families who have sought to keep alive the memories. The event begins at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, February 8 at the Center at Belvedere. Learn more at thecentercville.org. Decision point looming for Rivanna Bike and Pedestrian Bridge At any given point there are dozens of candidates for transportation projects in the community. In recent years, Charlottesville has been successful in seeking funding for streetscape projects to add bike lanes, sidewalks, and other urban amenities. The next deadline for Smart Scale funding process through the Virginia Department of Transportation is coming up later this year and one of the projects under consideration is a bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists that would cross the Rivanna River. (most recent presentation)Dick Ruffin is a member of the Pantops Community Advisory Committee and serves on a stakeholder committee that is overseeing planning efforts for the Rivanna bridge. “It’s good for Albemarle County, it’s good for the city, and most especially I think it’s good for connectivity,” Ruffin said.Ruffin said the project would put a focus on the Rivanna River and will build off of a technical document created by the firm VHB in July 2020. “We’ve tried to sort of the pros and cons of the different alignments of the bridge and we are supposed to provide some guidance to the Charlottesville-Albemarle planning office,” Ruffin said. That office is technically the Thomas Jefferson Planning District, which is overseeing the planning and will make the Smart Scale submission to VDOT. “It does have to be [Americans with Disabilities Act] accessible,” Ruffin said. “We want connectivity to the trails on both sides of the river. There are utility impacts, floodplain considerations, right of way impacts. We’re quite focused also on the aesthetics. We want it to look nice and really be attractive. Of course, cost is a primary thing.” Ruffin said the group has not yet made a recommendation on which alignment would be made, but that will come in the near future. They are down to two alternatives.“Technical considerations have ruled out a number of options so when we say there are two left that’s after a lot of work,” Ruffin said. Both options would have an approach on the Albemarle side at the property formerly used by State Farm as their regional headquarters. The exact location for each depends on where it would land on the other side of the river. “One is quite near Riverview Park and would actually land on Chesapeake, the road you come down to get into the park,” Ruffin said. “The other would land at the Wool Factory just outside the tunnel that goes under the railway at the bottom of East Market Street.” The Chesapeake Street option has a preliminary cost estimate of $11. 3million. The Wool Factory option is more expensive with a $4 million differential. Ruffin said parking considerations are also a factor at both locations.“I think the Riverview Park folk who live near there are quite worried that the park will become so busy and so  many people coming down that it will be destructive of their neighborhood,” Ruffin said. “So one consideration that we on the Pantops side should have in mind is that the State Farm takeoff point on Pantops has got a lot of space.”Ruffin said the project could score well on economic development, one of several criteria looked at in the Smart Scale process. The preliminary deadline is March 31 with a final one later in the year. A survey will be posted in the near future to get public opinion. Sandy Shackleford, the planning director for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District, said the Policy Board of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization will need to select an alignment in March, which is their next regularly scheduled meeting. Albemarle Supervisor Ann Mallek took part in a recent site visit of the area.“The walkabout in the Woolen Mills was very informative because its really important to see at ground level,” Mallek said. Mallek said several ideas came up during the site visit, including ways to control traffic on East Market Street and how to alter the Riverview Park alignment to address a grade differential between the two sides. “I just want to make sure that that idea doesn’t get lost along the way,” Mallek said. Mallek suggested the MPO should have a meeting in February in order to be able to make an informed decision about the alignment. MPO Chair Ned Gallaway agreed.“There’s different options and a lot of people’s eyes on it that we want to make sure we’re as informed as we can be going into the meeting that we plan to make the vote on,” Gallaway said. For more information, visit the TJPDC’s Smart Scale page to learn about the bridge as well as other potential submissions. Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! 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

Hey how you doing I have live in domestic terrorism government corruption for many of years police brutality racial profiling hate discrimination because I'm black because my son have a disability disability discrimination all kinds of issues racial profiling me because I'm black stopping me for tickets Stockton police in California years CHP involved guns pointed at me traffic stops for years I've been tormented human rights violation civil rights violation amendment rights violation hate racial profiling black men black women in Stockton California I see a lot of that murder allowing your cops to kill innocent people protecting them when they kill folks protecting them when they beat the disabled putting Fake charges on my disabled son James. fake charges on innocent citizen here in Stockton California like they did my son disabled son James five police officer beating my disabled son he didn't understand he couldn't comprehend and you put fake charges on it a fake child resisting arrest charge that I later beat it in court then my neighbor she also got ate up by the dog the police dog stop the police dog you telling me that you go to church and feed the homeless you come home and your son was attacked by five Stockton California cops it don't look right to me and I go down to the stock in California police office 22 East Market Street and the CHP stop me and pointed guns on me and everybody in the car search my car looking in the trunk searching it but they towed my car I want another car CHP took my car I had license insurance

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out: Help support Black-owned business in the Charlottesville area. Check out the Charlottesville Black Business Directory at cvilleblackbiz.com and choose between a variety of goods and services, ranging from beauty supplies, professional services, and e-commerce. Visit cvilleblackbiz.com as soon as you can to get started. On today’s installment:The slate is known for election day in Albemarle and CharlottesvilleThe University of Virginia’s board of visitors is briefed on the future of Ivy GardensA quick review of transit in the area, including a call for a new approachElection returns are in for the Democratic primary in Virginia, and in Charlottesville, Juandiego Wade obtained the most votes with 4,910 in the unofficial count, with Brian Pinkston getting 3,601 votes. Carl Brown came in third with 1,797 votes, Wade and Pinkston raised a lot more money than Brown, with Pinkston reporting a total amount of $69,676 through May 27 and Wade reporting $68,670 for the same period. In contrast, Brown raised $1,675 according to data put together by the Virginia Public Access Project. The two Democrats now go on to face two independents in the general election. Yas Washington had run as a Democrat but failed to qualify. She’s raised $315 so far this year. Incumbent Nikuyah Walker will also be running for a second term. She was the first independent to win since 1948. In the primary for the Commonwealth’s Attorney race, incumbent Joe Platania fended off a challenge from Ray Szwabowski with 58.7 percent of the votes. There were no contested primaries for local races in Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa or Nelson counties. In Albemarle, no Republicans or independents emerged to face three Democrats on the ballot. That means Jim Andrews, Ned Gallaway, and Diantha McKeel will all likely be elected for four-year terms without any opposition. Source: Virginia Department of ElectionsOn Monday night, Charlottesville City Council officially adopted a resolution canceling a project to build a 300-space parking garage at the corner of East Market Street and 9th Street. Part of the decision hinged on a notion of whether the city was doing enough to get people out of their cars and into other modes of transportation. In 2015, the firm Nelson Nygaard conducted a study of parking downtown, and one of the recommendations was to maintain existing supply through something called “transportation demand management.” “Strong promotion of TDM efforts and continued enhancement of alternative travel options will serve Charlottesville well in maintaining its reputation and charm as an attractive, livable and sustainable city,” reads page 8 of the study, which was the most recent official review of parking downtown. Specifically, the plan recommended creation of a “Transportation Management Association” to help encourage alternative modes of travel. In early 2008, local community member Randy Salzman brought the idea up to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). That’s the local body that makes decisions on regional transportation projects. Salzman arranged for them to hear from a professor of sustainability from Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Here’s Peter Newman, who co-authored a book with UVA professor Tim Beatley called Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change. “Now we’ve had all of our cities do regional plans in the last five years and they have all concluded the need for more sustainable future based on less car-dependence with transit prioritized with corridors and centers to make sure the structure of the city changes,” Newman said. The idea at the time didn’t get much traction. At the May 27 meeting of the Regional Transit Partnership — a sub-group of the MPO — Salzman once again appeared to promote the idea. “We need to understand why people take the bus or don’t take the bus, why people bicycle or don’t bicycle, why people drive or don’t drive,” Salzman said. “There is another car culture that has done this exceptionally well and that culture is Australia where they have just as much of a car ownership culture as we have in the United States.” Salzman mentioned a program called TravelSmart, which has now transformed into a program called Your Move. People who register are assisted in getting used to different forms of transportation. Salzman wants this community to take on the same approach, perhaps by expanding the existing RideShare program. “Right now because of the stars aligning at the federal level, this area could go after a grant that would be the leadership for helping America,” Salzman said. “Understand the individuals and how we can help them change as opposed to building the change, building all the transit and then not using it.” The Regional Transit Partnership consists of the University Transit Service, Charlottesville Area Transit, Jaunt, and other agencies. A non-voting member of the body is Sara Pennington, who runs the RideShare program as part of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District. “Transportation doesn’t just work in a silo,” Pennington said. “There are so many moving parts and moving pieces and the more that we can work together and band together to help each other out, the better.” Much of Pennington’s work this past year has focused on telework, which was crucial for many during the pandemic. The TJPDC will soon hire a consultant to create a regional transit vision plan at a cost of $350,000, with half of that amount coming from a grant from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. A selection firm is reviewing three proposals for the project and an announcement on who will do the work may be made later this month. The TJPDC is also working on a $106,215 study about expanded transit in Albemarle County, above and beyond a second study that Charlottesville Area Transit is conducting to add service to U.S. 29 north of its current terminus at the Wal-Mart. Jessica Hersh-Ballering is a transportation planner and said the firm Michael Baker International has been hired to do the work.“We are planning our first public engagement session for that project in late July or early August,” Hersh-Ballering said. Karen Davis, the interim CEO of Jaunt, said her planning manager’s recent appearance at a Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership panel discussion may lead to the resumption of a discontinued service between the North Fork Research Park and points south. Stephen Johnson talked about the possibility of on-demand transit at the May 20 event. (watch)“I got a call from UVA Foundation talking about a service we had done for them that is right now discontinued, Park Connect, he was so well-spoken that they called me and said ‘hey, on-demand could actually meet our needs better than the model we were using,” Davis said. Later this summer, Charlottesville Area Transit will begin a public period for proposed route changes. There’s a story about that on my archive site, Information Charlottesville. A section from the NN planYou’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement and it’s time for another subscriber-supported public service announcement. It’s becoming more and more safe to go out and check out live music. If you’re interested in going out and hearing people who have been waiting to get out and play, check out the Charlottesville Jazz Society and their running list of events! The Charlottesville Jazz Society is dedicated to the promotion, preservation and perpetuation of all jazz, and that the best thing you can do now is to go check out some music.Source: University of Virginia Office of the ArchitectLast week, the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors met, as did their Buildings and Grounds Committee. One of the items on the agenda was approval of a master plan for the redevelopment of Ivy Gardens, an apartment complex between Old Ivy Road and Leonard Sandridge Road that was built in the late 1960’s. University Architect Alice Raucher explained the purpose of creating a master plan. “It is in general always good to have a plan and physical master planning helps to set priorities to inform future plans,” Raucher said. “It often aligns limited physical resources with often equally limited financial resources and provides the opportunity for broad University and community engagement to create a shared vision.” Ivy Gardens is made up of 17 acres and has 440 residential units close to North Grounds, Darden, the School of Law, and the Miller Center for Public Affairs, and the Center for Politics. “In 2016, at the direction of the University, the Foundation purchased Ivy Gardens and although its structures are aging, the property is currently income producing with units that primarily house our graduate students in a low-density, automobile-oriented development,” Raucher said. The proposed redevelopment plan would increase the number of units to 718 and would add about 46,000 square feet of academic space and 69,500 square feet for commercial uses. The latter would be clustered in a new Town Square that would front onto Old Ivy Road. To the immediate north would be a Residential Commons with different kinds of housing types. In the middle would be a Central Green. A pedestrian bridge would cross Leonard Sandridge Drive, allowing safe passage to Darden and the Law School. Source: University of Virginia Office of the ArchitectThe project would be phased.“The success of this proposal does not depend on wholesale redevelopment,” Raucher said. For more on the timing, let’s hear a question from Robert Hardie, the chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee.“From a density standpoint are you satisfied that, obviously greenspaces are wonderful and we need those, but we also need to provide enough housing for this area, for what’s going to a growing law school and a growing Darden School and other programs around that area,” Hardie said. “And secondly, can you give us a little about the time frame and how long this will take to come to fruition? Obviously it will be done in phases, but when we might see this start and when it might be complete?” “Yes, Mr. Hardie, the density on this site is improved by 150 percent so we have not only the 440 units that currently are there but there’s an additional 250 or thereabouts,” Raucher said. The Architect added that what was before the committee was a master plan, and not a schematic design for imminent building construction. She also said there’s no capital project yet associated with the area. President Jim Ryan said the University has many projects it would like to work on.“Increasing the supply of housing for second-year students remains a top priority,” Ryan said. The committee voted on a resolution to approve the master plan.  Afterwards, the group was given an update on plans to remove the George Rogers Clark statue on West Main Street.“We are ready to move in to phase one of that work which is the removal of the statue,” said Colette Sheehy, senior vice president for operations and state government relations at UVA. “We’re prepared to an issue a [request for proposals] this month to a firm that would remove the statue and relocate it and store it.” Sheehy said the cost to do the work will be around $400,000 and the work should be complete this summer. The second phase will be to  engage with the indigenous community about what should be featured at the site in the future.  (download the B&G presentation)Before you go, thank you so much for reading. This is a free newsletter designed to spread information about this community. But, it’s also my full-time job! If you’re able to contribute financially, it will help me keep going well into the future. To do so:Take a look at my Patreon page, which needs a bit of a refresh. But, in general, this is the best way to support my overall research, which includes a lot of things that aren’t this newsletter. Subscribe through Substack, which will compel Ting to make a matching contribution. I am grateful for their support of their community service, and I’d be grateful for yours, too.You can send me cash through Venmo, which will also get you a benefit or two. What are they? Drop me a line and ask!If you cannot support me financially at this time, send this on to people you think would be interested. The more I grow, the more content there will be. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon fueled shout-out: The Local Energy Alliance Program, your local energy nonprofit, wants to help you lower your energy bills, make your home more comfortable, and save energy. Schedule your Home Energy Check-Up to get started - now only $45 for City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents. You’ll receive energy-saving products and expert advice customized to your needs. Sign up today!On today’s program:Charlottesville Planning Commission makes recommendations to trim city’s capital budget Charlottesville seeks information on entities who want to take the Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea StatueAnother candidate enters the race for Charlottesville City Council *You may have noticed I’ve not been reporting the COVID numbers each installment of this newsletter. There’s been so much to get to, and I often report the numbers on Twitter. Every now and then I think it’s important to take stock and track where we are in this ongoing pandemic. Today the Virginia Department of Health reports another 3,203 cases of COVID, and another 34 deaths. The total number of fatalities since last March is now 6,932. The seven-day average for positive PCR tests is now 10.1 percent. That number was 11.3 percent a week ago. Source: Virginia Department of HealthIn the Blue Ridge Health District, there are another 107 cases today, with 30 of those from Albemarle and 47 from Charlottesville. The death count in the district is now 116 people since the pandemic began. The University of Virginia returned to in-person instruction on February 1, and their COVID tracker now lists 178 active cases with 161 of them being students. The dashboard has been updated recently. As of today, 1,156,117 vaccine doses have been administered and almost one of ten Virginians has received at least one shot. The seven-day average for doses given each day is at 33,520, still below Governor Northam’s goal of 50,000 a day. *The Charlottesville Planning Commission has weighed in on cuts and other amendments they would like to see made to the city’s proposed capital improvement program. Hosea Mitchell is the chair of the body. “There are at least four hot potatoes,” Mitchell said.One of these hot potatoes is an additional $8 million in funding in FY22 for a parking structure on land purchased by the city in January 2017 at 9th and Market Street to support the joint courts complex with Albemarle County. Others are $50 million as a placeholder for middle school reconfiguration and the of previously-approved millions in city funding for the West Main Street.  All told, the draft five-year plan totals $160 million, or about double what the CIP was ten years ago. (draft CIP)“What is outlined in the documents we’ve got is not sustainable,” Mitchell said. “The budget cannot be achieved without significant revenue enhancements. Tax and fee increases.”There have been many words written about the West Main Streetscape, a project whose cost estimate has increased to as much as $52 million to build out the full scope of a design put together by Rhodeside & Harwell. Staff has recommended not proceeding with funding for two of the phases for which Council has already authorized the sale of municipal bonds. Krissy Hammill is a senior budget management analyst with the city. “West Main Street, there was $4 million that was removed,” Hammill said. “The $18 million that was previously approved in prior CIP’s remains intact and would be available.”To pay for this draft CIP, Hammill said the tax rate would need to be annually increased by two cents for five years beginning next year. If Council proceeds with this version, they would be using up all of the city’s debt capacity for years to come. “That would mean that future Councils or Commissions would also be limited in what could be recommended or added to future CIP budgets,” Hammill said. After a public hearing, Commissioners began their discussion. Many questions had to do with the status of state funding for the West Main Streetscape, a project that was broken into multiple phases in order to secure funding. Phase 1 has a cost estimate of $16.7 million, of which $3.275 million comes from VDOT’s transportation revenue sharing program.  Jeanette Janiczek is the manager of the city’s Urban Construction Initiative. “When the city submits a grant application, we have to identify what we’re going to do with the funds,” Janiczek. “With revenue-sharing it’s a little bit more open ended. That would be on phase 1 only. There are no Smart Scale funds on it.”Screenshot from recent value engineering reportSmart Scale is a process where VDOT funds projects based on how they would accomplish different criteria such as public safety. The city received just over $2 million in Smart Scale funding for Phase 2, as well as another $2 million in revenue-sharing. The rest of the $11.15 million would come from the sale of municipal bonds, which ultimately would be paid by city taxpayers. VDOT staff have recommended the city receive $10.8 million for the third phase of Smart Scale, which is a standalone project that would not require a city match. Much of the city funding would cover the cost of undergrounding overhead utility lines, which VDOT will not cover. Another big ticket item in recent CIPs has been funding for affordable housing. Previous Councils have approved line items for specific projects as well as general contributions to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund. One of these calls for $13.5 million in funding for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to redevelop various sites. That includes $1.5 million for fiscal year 2022. Commissioner Liz Russell asked why that figure is lower for next year, but increases to $3 million in future years. The city’s redevelopment manager, Brenda Kelley, explained.“The housing authority, CRHA, is not planning on making a [Low Income Housing Tax Credit] application this coming March,” Kelley said. “I don’t know if they have any proposals for March 2022 yet.”The CRHA has received tax credits for the redevelopment of Crescent Halls as well as the first phase of South First Street. Construction of the latter is expected to break ground later this month. Kelley said the specifics of how city funding would be used for future projects has not been worked out, but including the overall figures in the CIP tells the CRHA of the city’s commitment. “South First Street Phase 2 will probably start construction about this time next year and right now there aren’t any proposed projects in the future planned, but they are looking at all of their other sites,” Kelley said. “There’s just nothing definite on board right now.”Russell and Mitchell both said they would like to see some way to salvage the West Main Streetscape. Mitchell suggested reducing the amount for the parking garage, and using that to help cover some of the costs for West Main. So did Commissioner Gary Heaton who said he would support paying to place the utility lines underground. “I think [there is] not a lot to be gained by just completely wiping off improvements that need to be made that have residual benefits to the community long into the future,” Heaton said. “If you’re spending that kind of money and you’re doing that kind of renovation work, you underground while you’ve torn up the street.” Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg asked his colleagues if they had read through the value engineering study which reviewed the Rhodeside & Harwell design to find cost savings. “It is appalling,” Stolzenberg said. “You’ve got half a million dollars in there for rocks. Literally just a boulder that is sliced into pieces for decorative purposes. You’ve got half a million dollars for custom concrete benches that look incredibly comfortable where you could have bought regular benches for like $20,000. I think with the streetscape project, we really have to get back to what’s important.”Stolzenberg agreed with a decision to close the slip lane that allows vehicles to turn right from eastbound West Main to southbound Ridge Street but said the city did not need to invest in a pocket park at that location at this time. Commissioner Lyle Solla-Yates also weighed in. “I’d like to see increases in funding for the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund, increased funding for tree planting, and providing more funding for essential parts of West Main for best use, matching funds for health, safety, and cost and risk prevention,” Solla-Yates said. Solla-Yates suggested delaying funding for more small area plans, implementation of the Strategic Investment Area, and delaying spending on the parking garage for at least one more year. He also suggested deferring $6 million on the General District court anticipated for next year until at least FY23. An agreement between Albemarle and Charlottesville for the courts complex includes a section on how the county “shall” begin construction of the parking garage by May 1, 2022 and deliver 90 spaces for use by the county by November 30, 2023. If they do not, then the city must either provide 100 spaces in the Market Street Parking garage to the county or sell back a share of land on East Market Street.  (correction has been made to this paragraph post publication. See comments) After the commission’s discussion, Vice Mayor Sena Magill asked a question.“I keep hearing everyone talking about how we [might] move forward with the garage but it just being the absolutely least necessary and I just think that needs to have some definition for what is considered to be the least necessary,” Magill said. City economic development director Chris Engel said he did not have a good question but the total $10 million figure was derived from a preliminary study of a 300 space garage with 10,000 square feet of commercial space. Mitchell said he would support spending an amount to satisfy the terms of the agreement to provide 100 spaces. “I do think that there are creative ways to meet out commitment without spending [$10] million bucks,” Mitchell said. Stolzenberg said he envisioned a one or two story building with parking on the bottom with enough structural support to eventually build housing units on top. He also suggested asking the county if they would consider amending the agreement to delay the project. After a discussion, Mitchell suggested a recommendation to make a motion to make amendments. The motion they voted upon calls for:Prioritize local West Main Street funding to match state funding for transportation for health and safety while not spending money on aesthetics Delay funding for small area plans until the Cville Plans Together initiative is completedDelay further funding on SIA improvements until the Cville Plans Together initiative is completedDelay some funding for garage, courts complex, and $1 million for East High SignalizationReduce overall funding for the garage and study ways to otherwise fulfil commitment to Albemarle County Delay $150,000 in additional funding for economic development strategic initiativesIncrease funding for the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund from the $800,000 a year proposed Increase funding for tree planting and pursue donation program for this purposeIncrease funding for sidewalks The commission voted unanimously to approve the motion. Their recommendations are purely advisory. Council will be presented with a budget later this month. On Monday, they will further discuss what to do with the West Main Streetscape. *Want a statue? Check out the Request for InformationSpeaking of West Main Street, the city is requesting information from entities and organizations that might be interested in removing the Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea statue at the intersection with Ridge Street and McIntire Street. “The assumption by the City of Charlottesville is that any prospective recipient would be responsible for the safe removal and relocation of the statue, including all of the associated planning and logistical work required,” reads a press release. “The recipient would also bear all of the associated financial costs related to this work. In return for this service, the City of Charlottesville would transfer full ownership of the statue to the recipient at no cost to the recipient.”Council directed staff to proceed with plans to remove the statue at a work session in November 2019. Responses to this request for information are due by March 12. *There are now two challengers seeking two Democratic nominations for Charlottesville City Council. Brian Pinkston is a facilities manager at the University of Virginia who previously ran in 2019 but failed to secure the nomination. City School Board member Juandiego Wade announced his candidacy in January. City Councilor Heather Hill has not announced whether she will seek a second term, which would require getting one of the two nominations in the June primary. Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker announced last year that she would seek another term. As an independent, Walker only has to qualify for the ballot by submitting the correct number of signatures to the city’s registrar. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

This is the first in a series of newsletters and newscasts about community engagement in the area around Charlottesville. I’ve spent the last thirteen years very close to many different processes, and my goal with this newsletter is to bring you information every single day about what’s going on. *Over the weekend, there were three consecutive days where more than 800 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Virginia, That brings the cumulative number of cases to 70,670, with a reported 1,966 deaths. The 7-day percent positive metric for all testing encounters has risen from 5.9 percent on July 5 to 6.6 percent on Sunday. Meanwhile the Thomas Jefferson Health District reported 35 new cases on Sunday and 29 new cases on Saturday for a cumulative total of 1,208. There were also reports of outbreaks at two area long-term care facilities. Nationwide, there were 62,918 new cases reported in Virginia, for a total of 3.2 million. (Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 page) A forecast model produced by the University of Virginia estimates that 495,799 cases of COVID-19 have been avoided since May 15 due to physical distancing and other measures. That comes from the July 10 update produced by the UVA Biocomplexity Institute, which also states that the novel coronavirus now has a reproduction rate of 1.124. That’s an indicator of how the disease spreads, and numbers above 1 raise concern. (July 10 update)*The community of Forest Lakes opted to close their outdoor pools on Friday, July 10 "out of an abundance of caution, due to an indirect exposure of the COVID virus." That's according to an email sent out by the Forest Lakes Community Association. They said the pools would reopen after being sanitized. Charlottesville City Hall will reopen on a limited basis beginning on July 10 for in-person transactions with either the Commissioner of Revenue's office or Treasurer's office. However, you'll need to make an appointment to do so. (press release) *Moving on to Community Engagement news, Albemarle County has hired a Washington D.C. firm to help conduct a new round of analysis of the future of the area around the Rio Road and U.S. 29 intersection. Smart Growth America will "review and provide comments on a draft, form-based code for the Rio29 area and/or provide hypothetical design scenarios for properties in the study area." Supervisors adopted a master plan for the Rio-29 area in December 2018, and that included a recommendation to update the zoning ordinance to allow for creation of a "vibrant and diverse mixed-use community with interesting character and a human-scale built environment." Supervisors heard an update on the plan earlier this month.  *A child care center that failed to get approval from Albemarle Supervisors for a new home on Pantops has purchased land on East Market Street in downtown  Charlottesville. An LLC associated with Our Neighborhood Child Development Center has purchased the site of the former ABC Preschool on East Market Street for $1.325 million. That's about 20 percent below the 2020 assessment. ABC Preschool closed its doors last October five years after opening in a new building. In May, Supervisors deadlocked 3-3 on a request to build in the flood plain to allow for the Our Neighborhood center to move to a location on Stony Point Road. *And that’s it for the July 13 edition of the Community Engagement newscast, picking up from our last such event from late January 2019. The world has changed a lot since then, and I’m putting myself in a position to help bring you information to help get you through these times. Please consider supporting my Patreon account with a modest monthly donation so I can keep going and get my eye back on the world around us. I’m Sean Tubbs, and thanks for listening. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Hidden Door Festival is a hugely successful, volunteer-run, multi-arts festival in Edinburgh, that reclaims unused spaces and turns them into venues and exhibition spaces. Two integral members of the HD team, Hazel & Sarah, take you around some of the seminal Old Town sites. Start: Corner of East Market Street & Jeffrey Street, EH1 Map: https://tinyurl.com/hiddendooroldtown

Our coffee aficionado explores the Southside's best espresso and shows you some hidden caffeine gems! Start: Baba Budan, East Market Street, EH1. Map: https://tinyurl.com/southsidecoffeetour

Nearly a year after the white supremacist "Unite the Right" rally drew national headlines, Charlottesville, VA activists are still dealing with the fallout. The death of Heather Heyer at the vehicle of James Alex Fields, Jr. wasn't the only incident of violence last summer, and activists are still preparing for trials of both white supremacists and local Black Lives Matter activists, struggling to institute proactive reforms, and bracing for the potential of another white supremacist rally in their town. I spoke with Molly, one of those local activists, on what's happened and why the eyes of the nation should still be on Charlottesville.  On Friday, after Corey was convicted the judge sentenced him to 360 days active confinement with 340 suspended. That is a 20 day sentence that you actually have to serve. Typically, around here, you serve half of a misdemeanor sentence. You serve 10 days. He has the option of serving it on weekends. So, he could serve five consecutive weekends. Again, the prosecutor requested during sentencing that there be no active incarceration and the judge chose to sentence him to that anyways. Typically, if both the prosecutor and the defense agree on what the sentence should be, the judge just goes with that. He was choosing to send a message here. We have heard a lot of that “both sides” narrative from both of the judges we hear from mostly are general district judge, Judge Downer, and our circuit court judge, Judge Moore. They both do a little bit of moralizing and sermonizing during sentencing and he said, you know, “bad behavior on both sides.” Like I said, I didn’t take a lot of detailed verbatim notes. It is the same speech every time. I have it written down maybe twenty times across six notebooks. “The whole day was very chaotic, very unfortunate. It cost the city its reputation. We went from a world class city to the city where this happened. This behavior is very serious. We have limited resources for keeping people incarcerated.” And yet, you still chose to sentence Corey to active incarceration. And the fact that he chose that moment to say that, “What really was damaged here was our city’s reputation.” Not that this young man’s life was in danger. Not that someone died. Three people died. At least people in the upper thirties were treated in hospitals. But, “This city’s reputation was damaged and it is important to send a message.” This young man who defended himself against a known imperial wizard in the Ku Klux Klan was sentenced to serve jail time and 100 hours of community service and two years of good behavior and up to one year of active supervision by offender aid and restoration. He already served this community. He serviced this community by protecting himself and protecting us on August 12th. So, Friday night, we gathered in Justice Park, that is the park with the Jackson statue by the Albemarle Courthouse, and we marched down the downtown mall chanting and just… It is surreal living in this town because there is such a disconnect. There are so many people for whom this is so real and so present and this is our whole life now. Then, there are people who, when we’re outside the courthouse chanting and holding signs. They come up and they say, “What is this about? What is happening?” We were marching down the downtown mall on Friday night and there was I think a wedding after-party at one of the fancier bars and there is a women in a wedding dress drinking champagne and forty of us marching down the mall chanting for Corey. As we came back around on the other side of the mall on East Market Street by Emancipation Park, the place where the disorderly conduct allegedly occurred, we took the street. We were marching in the street and I have heard from activists around town that the police used to let us do that. They used to let us take the street because it was easier to just let us quickly move through the street like we were going to do and everyone can move on with their lives than it would be to arrest eight people, like they did on Friday. All eight people were served…they were getting summonses for traffic violations. They are not criminal charges. It is pretty unusual to take people to jail for a traffic violation. Interviews for Resistance is a syndicated series of interviews with organizers, agitators and troublemakers, available twice weekly as text and podcast. You can now subscribe on iTunes! Previous interviews here.

What would happen to the administration of justice if the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors chose to relocate their general district and circuit courts outside of downtown Charlottesville? That was the subject of a panel discussion held at the February 17 breakfast of the city and county Democrats. "We came up with this topic a couple of months ago as we were kicking around ideas and really felt like what was getting lost in all this discussion was the impact moving the courts might have on on access to the courts, specifically for our most-marginalized residents," said Bekah Saxon, vice chair of the Charlottesville Democratic Committee. The panelists were: Albemarle County Supervisor Liz Palmer; Charlottesville City Councilor Kathy Galvin; Mary Bauer, director of the Legal Aid Justice Center; and Palma Pustilnik of the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society.  Palmer and her colleague Norman Dill have voiced their opposition to moving the courts in the past. However, in her remarks, Palmer sought to explain the motives of those on her board who have voted to study the idea. "I think I can do this pretty clearly because I share some of the same concerns," Palmer said. "I weigh them differently." Palmer said many city residents may not realize that each supervisor represents a specific district in the county. Charlottesville's five city councilors are all elected in one big district. Palmer's Samuel Miller District covers the southwest part of Albemarle including both urban and rural areas. "The courts were one of the very first things on our plate when I got on four years ago," Palmer said. "We got a presentation from our then-county executive [Tom Foley] who presented a plan for moving the courts somewhere out in the county." Palmer said one reason at the time included the possibility of lower capital costs, but a recent study has shown that not to be the case. Another reason would be to locate the courts in the county's population center. "Also given was the idea that if you're going to put $35 million of taxpayer money, is it appropriate to spend that $35 million in the city?" Palmer asked. "Or is it appropriate to spend that money in the county? That is something that supervisors were really wrestling with." In December, Council sent a letter to the Supervisors reiterating what the city is willing to do to keep Albemarle courts downtown. In response, supervisors agreed to place their process on hold until early March to allow for negotiations. "The city has already committed $6.5 million in its capital budget to make the courts reality," Galvin said. The funding would go toward building a joint General District Court on the site of the former Levy Opera house. Both localities jointly acquired the property in April 2005. Galvin said the city has also committed $10 million in its capital budget to build a new parking garage to serve the courts. In November 2016, Council agreed to spend $2.85 million on a lot at 9th Street and Market Street for this purpose. The same transaction for the Levy Opera House site also included the surface parking lot next door. "It is not typical you will see a parking garage associated with a social justice issue, but in this case it really is," Galvin said. "We're committing 100 spaces -- and the county doesn't have to pay for it -- to build that parking garage to enable their project to occur." Palmer said parking is critical for the county's ultimate decision. "We feel we have to have some ownership over how that is used," Palmer said, adding that Albemarle officials want to ensure disabled have access to the courts. The two other panelists focused on how a courts move would affect low-income individuals. "We have met no one in the city or the county who is poor who thinks moving the courts is a good idea," Bauer said, adding having the two jurisdictions' facilities in the same place reduces the burden for those who are in court. "I think any lawyer that practices regularly in the General District courts in either the city and the county has sat through a docket in which somebody arrives five minutes late saying they went to the wrong court. The difference between 606 East Market Street where the city's general district court and 501 East Jefferson Street where the county court is is about two minutes." Bauer said if the courts were not close together, many people would be late and would be penalized as a result. Pustilnik said she was glad the city and county have previously decided to co-locate their Juvenile and Domestic Relations courts in the same building. "Our court system in Virginia is designed in districts and in circuits and not in city and county," Pustilnik said. "Our judges are named to a district or to a circuit so they can serve in either a city or county court." Pustilnik said separating the courts would harm her clients by forcing her to be spread geographically across the two jurisdictions. *** Albemarle County has been operating under the assumption that a referendum is not required to move its Circuit Court. That's based on legislation that passed the General Assembly in 2017 that added this provision to state code: "In the case of the removal of a county courthouse that is not located in a city or town, and that is not being relocated to a city or town, such removal shall not require a petition or approval by the voters." A bill from Delegate Rob Bell (R-Charlottesville) would update state law to add this language immediately after the above section. "However, this subsection shall not apply to the removal or relocation of any county courthouse, whether located on county or city property, that is entirely surrounded by a city, and any such courthouse shall be removed or relocated only in accordance with the provisions of [other] subsections," reads Bell's bill. HB1546 passed the House with a 100-0 vote on Feb. 13. The item is now before the Senate Committee on Local Government.  TIMELINE FOR PODCAST: 01:00 - Introduction from Bekah Saxon 02:30 - Remarks from Supervisor Liz Palmer  10:00 - Remarks from Councilor Kathy Galvin 22:00 - Remarks from Mary Bauer 22:45 - Question from the crowd from Bruce Williamson of the Charlottesville Area Bar Association 25:30 - Bauer resumes her remarks 32:00 - Remarks from Palma Pustilnik 38:00 - Question and answer period Download

Jackie Green, write-in candidate for mayor of Louisville, focuses on the local economy, central neighborhoods, education, energy, quality affordable housing, local food, safety, health, downtown, and transportation. Green originally moved to Louisville in 1975, and has lived in several places around the U.S. and world. He bought and renovated four historic buildings on East Market Street (now the heart of NULU). His entrepreneurial experience includes business consulting, import/export management, and farming. He co-founded Louisville’s only bicycle courier service, as well as manages bike shops and property in Louisville’s neighborhoods.

Chris and Liz visited Day One of the Middlebury Better Block, which runs July 30 and 31 and features pop-up shops, live music, food vendors, a BMX bicycle course, community pool, newly painted crosswalks and other amenities at the corner of East Market Street and South Arlington Road. We spoke with an all star lineup, including Jason Roberts, cofounder of the national Better Block Foundation, Kyle Kutuchief from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Marissa Blewitt from Neighborhood Network of University Park, Kelly McHood from Rooted Akron, City Councilman Jeff Fusco and a host of others.

Artistry - artistryindy.com - is the new redevelopment of the former Bank One Operations Center at 451 East Market Street, artist Barbara Magnus Hopkins Indiana State Library's Talking Book and Braille library campaign and Rob Becker's Defending the Caveman at Theatre on the Square.