Podcasts about freea

Athletes have never been more visible in the hobby.From Tom Brady and CardVault to Fanatics Fest, athlete-led content, and players publicly sharing their collections, sports cards have become part of the conversation in a way we haven't seen before.Ryan Greene sits at the center of it.As Director of Athlete + Artist Partnerships at PSA, Ryan works directly with athletes who collect, grade cards, participate in signings, and build collections of their own.In this conversation, we discuss: Why PSA created a role dedicated to athletes and artists  How professional athletes are entering the hobby  The types of cards athletes collect  Why authenticity matters more than sponsorships  The impact Fanatics is having on athlete participation  Stories from working with Mike Trout and other athletes behind the scenes  Where athlete involvement in the hobby is headed next If you've noticed athletes becoming a bigger part of collecting culture, this episode offers a look behind the curtain at what's driving it.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jeremy Lee has become one of the most trusted voices in sports card media.But before Sports Cards Live became a Saturday night destination for collectors, Jeremy was balancing a career in finance while building relationships, studying the hobby, and creating content because he loved the cards.In this conversation, Jeremy shares the full story behind Sports Cards Live, the growth of his auction coverage content, and the mindset shift that helped him turn hobby passion into full-time work.We also discuss: Why relationships became the foundation of his business  The pressure and uncertainty of becoming a full-time creator  What consistency has taught him about community  The evolution of hobby media and trust  The creation of Hobby Spectrum  Why Pops and Comps became a 400-page passion project  The role psychology plays in collecting and market behavior This episode is for anyone thinking about building something in the hobby.Collectors. Creators. Operators.Jeremy opens up about all of it.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Karn Rai has been around cards since he was ten years old.What started with hockey cards, Pokémon packs, and trips to the Toronto Expo turned into one of the fastest growing consignment businesses in Canada.In this episode of Passion to Profession, Karn breaks down the evolution of Slab Sharks and why the future of the hobby belongs to operators who think beyond cards on a table.We talk about: Building trust through customer experience  Why storytelling matters in auctions and consignments  The shift from “garage eBay sellers” to real infrastructure businesses  How Canada's hobby market is changing  The role of technology, AI, and reinvestment in scaling a company  Why emotional intelligence matters when handling collections This conversation goes far beyond buying and selling cards.It's about building systems, earning trust, and understanding the emotional connection collectors have with their cards.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What happens when a new generation of collectors, entrepreneurs, and operators begins shaping the future of the hobby?On this episode of Passion to Profession, Brett sits down with Michael Osacky to explore the changing dynamics inside sports cards.From social influence and FOMO to trust, reputation, buyer premiums, startups, and manufactured scarcity, this conversation looks at the forces shaping the hobby in 2026 and beyond.Michael shares stories from decades in the industry and explains why understanding cards and understanding the card market are two different things.They also discuss: Why reputation still matters most  How speed and access are changing collector behavior  The dangers of following hype accounts  What newer collectors need to understand about risk  Why patience is becoming rare in the hobby  The future of grading, marketplaces, and trust This episode is for collectors trying to think long term in a hobby moving faster than ever.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Unwind, reset, and tap into your inner world on this episode of "RareMaven: The Podcast" featuring Camille Smith (@clearlycamille). Camille is a writer, meditation teacher, and creative guide who invites us into a powerful conversation on mindfulness as a tool for artistry, healing, and everyday balance. Camille shares how even one minute of stillness can shift your day and your work because creative work is mindful work.Inside the episode:Why meditation matters for creativesHow to start small even with just one minuteBuilding a daily wellness routine around a full scheduleThe power of stillness through physical and mental awarenessJournaling as meditation uncensored, honest, freeA gentle daily flow for the creative mindTo keep up with the podcast follow us  ⁨@raremavenmedia and visit our website at www.RareMaven.Media

What does it take to go from collector to company builder?In this episode of Passion to Profession, I sit down with Zach Stanley, CEO and Founder of WeTheHobby.Zach didn't stumble into this.He built it from inside the hobby.We talk about: The shift from collecting cards to building a business  Why trust is the foundation of everything in the hobby  The realities of operating in a market driven by hype, speed, and attention  What it looks like to create something that collectors rely on You'll hear how Zach thinks about long-term positioning in a space that often rewards short-term moves.You'll also hear the pressure that comes with it.This is a conversation about building something real in the hobby.Not chasing moments. Building systems.If you've ever thought about turning your passion into your profession, this one will hit.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What does it look like to turn your passion into your profession more than once?In this episode of Passion to Profession, Brett sits down with John Walaszek, Content Strategist at PSA, to unpack the path from music blogs to the sports card industry.John didn't wait for permission. He built.He started a blog when no one replied to his emails.He created content when no role existed for it.He followed what held his attention and turned it into a career.Now he's doing it again. This time in cards.This conversation covers: Why doing the work before the opportunity matters  How building on the internet became his resume  What he learned working inside major media and record labels  Why authenticity still wins, even in crowded markets  The gap between music content and sports card content  Why the hobby still feels early from a content standpoint  What it takes to make the jump into the industry If you've ever thought about building something around what you care about, this one will hit.Because the path isn't linear.It's built through action.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What does it take to build a business that the entire hobby depends on?In this episode of Passion to Profession, Brett sits down with Eric Brownell, CEO and President of BCW Supplies.You've used their products.Top loaders. Sleeves. Storage.But you probably haven't thought about what it takes to keep the hobby stocked when demand explodes.Eric shares the story behind BCW's growth from a small family business into a 100+ person operation that supports collectors, hobby shops, breakers, and distributors across the country. This conversation goes deeper than supplies.It's about: Scaling a business without losing your foundation  Hiring people who push the company forward  Staying disciplined when the market gets hot  Protecting your core customer while still growing Eric also breaks down how BCW thinks about inventory, forecasting, and preparing for moments like the pandemic when demand surged beyond anything the industry had seen.If you care about where the hobby is going, you need to understand the businesses holding it together behind the scenes.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Ryan Johnson didn't set out to build a 35-person company.He wanted to open cards.Share what he was buying.Be the resource he never had.Then the business grew.In this conversation, Ryan walks through the shift from collector and content creator to operator responsible for people, systems, and outcomes.We talk about: The moment decisions started impacting other people  Letting go of control and building a real team  Why communication breaks when you scale  How cash becomes a tool for speed and growth  The hardest lesson he learned about hiring and culture  Balancing being a collector while running a business  Why his “why” for collecting has changed This is a conversation about growth.Not the highlight reel.The real stuff that happens when the hobby turns into a business.If you're building something in this space, this one will hit.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What happens when a single moment turns into a career?Ethan from Tombstone Collectibles joins Passion to Profession to break down how one pull opened the door… and what it actually takes to build a modern hobby business at scale.This is not a conversation about ripping packs.This is about building infrastructure, managing talent, and operating in a market that moves fast.We get into: Why most breakers fail before they ever get started  The importance of relationships in live selling  How Tombstone scaled from one stream to a multi-location operation  What it takes to manage inventory, shipping, and customer experience at volume  Why talent is the hardest problem in the breaking business  The real opportunity in international markets and where growth is heading Ethan shares what's working, what broke along the way, and what collectors don't see behind the scenes.If you've ever thought about turning your passion into a business… this is a conversation you need to hear.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode DescriptionMost of us never got a formal money education — and the statistics show it. In this episode, CFP(r) David Chudyk breaks down exactly how to raise financially intelligent, grounded kids at every age — from toddlers to teenagers. Whether you're still building wealth or you've already made it, this episode is packed with practical, age-by-age strategies to make sure your kids don't become part of the next generation of financial statistics.David also tackles one of the hardest challenges in high-net-worth parenting: how do you raise grateful, hardworking kids when the answer to "can we afford it?" is almost always yes? And for business owners, he shares a legitimate IRS-approved tax strategy that teaches your kids about money and reduces your tax bill at the same time.What You'll Learn in This EpisodeThe alarming state of American household finances in 2025–2026 — and why your kids are at risk of repeating the patternWhy money beliefs form as early as age 3–5 (and what yours are teaching your children right now)How to talk about money in a way that builds an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindsetAn age-by-age framework for teaching kids about money (ages 3–18)What Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Gordon Ramsay, and Shaquille O'Neal all have in common when it comes to their kids and inheritanceWhy 67% of millionaires are afraid to pass their wealth on to their childrenPractical strategies for high-net-worth families to raise grounded, non-entitled kidsA powerful IRS-approved tax strategy for business owners: hiring your kids and potentially funding a Roth IRA tax-freeA real-life college housing strategy David used with his own son that eliminated housing costs and built equityKey Timestamps[00:00] – Hook: Did your parents ever give you a money lesson?[01:30] – Welcome & podcast overview[02:30] – The state of American household finances (2025–2026 stats)[04:30] – Why schools aren't solving the financial literacy problem[05:30] – How to talk about money without creating a scarcity mindset[07:00] – Ages 3–6: The three-jar system, demystifying cards, and keeping it visual[10:00] – Ages 7–12: Allowance tied to contribution, wants vs. needs, savings accounts[12:30] – Ages 13–18: Debit cards with budgets, real household finances, custodial brokerage accounts, the first paycheck conversation[15:30] – The high-net-worth parenting challenge: raising grateful kids when money is no object[18:00] – Research on affluent kids: entitlement, anxiety, and the third-generation wealth wipeout[20:00] – What Buffett, Gates, Ramsay & Shaq say about inheritance[23:00] – 5 strategies for high-net-worth families[28:00] – The business owner tax strategy: hiring your kids legally[33:00] – The college real estate strategy David used with his own son[36:00] – Soul-searching wrap-up: What money mindsets are you passing on?Stats Referenced in This EpisodeU.S. household debt: $18.8 trillion (all-time high; ~$105,000/household)Median emergency savings: $600Nearly 1 in 5 Americans has zero emergency savings37% of Americans can't cover an unexpected $400 expense46% of credit card holders carry a balance at an average rate of 21%Median 401(k) balance for those approaching retirement: $44,115Only 27 states require a personal finance course to graduate high school67% of millionaires worry about leaving too much money to their kidsResources & Links Mentioned

This week on the award-winning Couch to Coached Running Podcast, it's just Rob and Ben as they catch up on training, progress, and the realities of preparing for race day.From long runs and speed sessions to managing those inevitable niggles, the lads share honest updates on where they're at — physically and mentally — as marathon day approaches. Rob reflects on completing a 21.1 mile run with varied pacing, while also discovering a new love for speed work (who saw that coming?!).Ben brings the coaching insight, helping navigate a recent illness wobble and reinforcing the importance of balance, recovery, and staying healthy above all else. Because right now, it's all about one thing — getting to the start line in the best shape possible.

On this episode of Passion to Profession, Brett sits down with Bryan Thiessenhusen, CEO of Black Gold Sports Cards.Bryan didn't start with an advantage. He started with tubs of cards, a full-time accounting job, and a willingness to take risk.What followed was a fast build.He turned grading prep into revenue.Turned live streaming into scale.Turned a side hustle into a 30+ person operation.In this conversation, Bryan breaks down: How he used his accounting background to build systems and track every dollar  Why being early and doing what others avoid created momentum  The role of content in driving growth and attention  What most people get wrong about risk, work ethic, and scaling in the hobby  How culture and trust became the foundation of Black Gold This is a conversation about building something real.If you're collecting, operating, or thinking about turning your passion into a business, this one will make you think.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What happens when you walk away from stability to bet on cards?Michael and Mikaela did it.Both were CPAs. Both were on a clear path. Then COVID hit. Breaking started. Demand showed up fast. And within months, everything changed.They built Rated Rips from late-night breaks into a full-scale consignment business.They hired 15 people in a year.They shifted from taking money out of the hobby to putting money back into collectors' hands.In this conversation, we get into what it really looks like to build a business in the hobby.The risk.The trust.The systems.The people.We also talk about:– Leaving a stable career to bet on yourself– Why most collectors run businesses like hobbies– How process and data drive their decisions– The shift from breaking to consignment– Hiring, delegation, and buying back your time– Building trust with collectors at scaleIf you've ever thought about turning your passion into something more, this one will hit.Brought to you by eBay.Sign up for Hobby Jobs and The Weekly Rip for freeA special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast PatreonFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

LYRICS:Well Edgar is dead there is nothing to sayNothing Mike can do will make it okayThere's nothing to do to return him to formBetter to stay home and hang out with NormMike kills a spider inside of his houseHe carries it with him whenever he's outMichael thinks he'd do better out of the homeSo Mike goes to Texas, down to bluster's groveTex has an idea of what's going onHe sends Mike to Yellowknife to live on a farmThe Yellowknife folks don't like Mike's planSo they break his calculator, no more numbers, manMike escapes back to Bluster's GroveHe's been living as stock with the numbers aloneThe lost year is gone, it's burned in the pastTex pushed mike right into a vatIt's better to let these things goBut mike can't keep well enough aloneThere's talks at the tavern of a rerack todayBut Tex gets dethroned and Mike is set freeA is in charge, he's cracking the whipOutlaw and Bluster are now wanted menMike is retired after such a long tripHe piles up the past to try and get over itBase is continuing correcting the timeMike sleeps through a conference and steps on a spiderMeanwhile Al is the king of the crabsHe puts down a mutiny with a wave of his handsLieutenant swears revenge and you know that he'll get itOperose will be back if Mike will just let itTy visits Mike to make a house callActing like he doesn't want anything at allHe makes Mike promise he won't do something drasticMike tells Ty he can kiss his asscheekIt's better to let these things goBut mike can't keep well enough aloneMike starts to blink when he's at the compoundDestabilized timelines are going aroundAnd Norm gets too close to remain in the foldBradford and Stinky take over his homeStinky plays dumb, Mike blinks outMike is getting desperate for help right nowHe begs Michael for guidance, Michael says yepHe proves Mike will become him, cuts off his fingertipEdgar blinks out inside a correctionHe cannot avoid Operose's detectionEveryone is trying to remember him aliveBut Mike is determined he will never dieLieutenant's set free, he sends Al to TyAl sends Mike to yellowknife and then al's sent to dieLieutenant kills A and frees Tex from the vatsHe sends Edman to Yellowknife where Mike is atIt's better to let these things goBut mike can't keep well enough aloneBradford sends Mike to Norm, he don't remember a thingMike transports in the room and ruins everythingHe meets the cured Edgar and chooses to save himThe iteration storm stars, cue the mayhemBut what about the lost year, that voice that we heard?Is it fated to stay buried in the dirt?Now that Mike initiated the stormWhat will become of the Mikes that are born?Is Operose now a foregone conclusionThat Mike founded it to keep Edgar elusiveAnd maybe the most important question of allWill the Matt Pack get screentime in this season at all?It's better to let these things goBut mike can't keep well enough alone Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Day 2 of the 12 Days of Fit-mas mini-series!Today we're talking about the simplest nutrition shift that makes every holiday meal, party, and treat feel easier to navigate: protein first, treats second.This isn't about restriction. It's about strategy. When you lead with protein, you naturally stabilize hunger, reduce cravings, support muscle, and make it far easier to enjoy holiday treats without overeating or spiraling into the all-or-nothing mindset.In this short episode, Casey breaks down why women over 40 benefit so much from this approach, how to make it practical during a busy season, and how this one tiny rule can help you feel more in control of your choices- without giving up the foods you love.In this episode:Why protein is especially important during the holiday seasonHow protein helps curb cravings and stabilize energyReal-life protein ideas you can use before meals or eventsThe mindset shift that lets you enjoy treats guilt-freeA small shift in the order you eat can create a big shift in how you feel.Tune in for Day 2- and get ready for more simple, doable steps all season long.Join us in the Inspire Fitness program: Use the link here: https://inspirehw.com/ Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fit.nutritionist?igsh=MTJqZXhjODR2ZzduaA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Casey.Young.RD.CPT?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Ever feel stuck in a loop of hypervigilance, constantly on edge and scanning for threats?If so, this episode gives you an exclusive "sneak peek" into the exact kind of coaching that happens every week inside my Healthy Push Coaching & Community!I'm sharing one of my full weekly live teachings on how to break this exhausting cycle and finally start to feel safe again. You'll learn practical tools for experiencing a quieter mind, and get a real taste of my teaching style.This is just a sample of the support my community members get every single Monday, in addition to:A full library of all my past teachingsAll of my mini-courses - for freeA safe, accountability-driven space to healIf this teaching resonates with you, I'd love for you to come join us!CHECK OUT MY AHP COACHING & COMMUNITY: https://www.ahealthypush.com/communityTAKE MY FREE QUIZ AND FIND OUT WHAT'S CAUSING YOU TO STAY STUCK: https://www.ahealthypush.com/blocking-quizA HEALTHY PUSH INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/ahealthypush/GET THIS EPISODE'S SHOW NOTES:

Have you looked in the mirror after a relationship ended and actually didn't recognize yourself anymore?When you've been consumed by someone else's needs, opinions, and control, it's easy to lose sight of who you are. This episode dives into why recovery feels impossible after losing yourself in a narcissistic relationship, and the shift that will help you find your way back.In this episode, you'll discover:The hidden ways identity loss keeps you stuckThe lie keeping you tied to him — and the truth that sets you freeA powerful step to take right now towards finding yourself againPress play now to learn how to stop drifting in the aftermath of a toxic relationship and finally begin reclaiming the self they tried to erase.QUICK LINKS FROM EPISODE:⁠Schedule your free Intro Session: https://tinyurl.com/freeintroseshpodRESOURCES FOR YOUR HEALING:

come with us if you want to live FREEa sovereign, freedom and liberty centered radio show replayuntamed, unedited with news commentary, history, social critique and common sensehosted by the marble mouthed Neoborn Cavemanwith the great music of Sami Chohfi, Inoxidables, The Giraffes, Sun Atoms, The QuarantinedFree speech marinated in comedy.Humanity centered satirical takes on the world & news + music - with a marble mouthed host.Free speech marinated in comedy.Supporting Purple Rabbits. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Weekend Camping Getaway to Hicks Lake, British Columbia – Nature Therapy, Campfires & Lake ViewsStep into the wild with this immersive audio experience as I take you camping to Hicks Lake in beautiful British Columbia. This is my first camping trip of 2025, and it's everything you'd want from a weekend escape: crackling campfires, misty morning lake views, soulful walks through the forest, and moments of deep peace by the water.Recorded on location, this episode puts you right in the heart of the action, from the soft rustle of trees to the warmth of a fireside cup of tea. I sleep in a cosy minicamper van, cook simple meals outdoors, and share reflections on the healing power of nature. You'll hear it all as it happens: the soothing sound of coffee brewing at sunrise, the crunch of gravel underfoot during lake hikes, and the laughter around the fire.Whether you're dreaming about your next BC camping trip, need a mental escape, or love nature's soundtrack, this episode is your ticket to Hicks Lake.In this episode, you'll experience:A cinematic journey through the forests and shores of Hicks LakeWhat it's like sleeping in a converted camper van in chilly spring tempsFireside chats, marshmallow debates, and cosy food ritualsThe peaceful rhythm of a day outdoors — unplugged and tech-freeA local tip to end your weekend at Cypress Mountain with epic Vancouver viewsPerfect for listeners who love:Camping in CanadaSolo or couple vanlife adventuresBritish Columbia nature travelASMR-style immersive travel podcastsSlow travel and mental reset inspiration

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One can, the other cannotBoth are freeA god mask, a demon maskThe failure is wonderful indeed —Mumon's poemIf I reflect back on my life, it is possible to see a series of failures, mistakes, broken dreams and incomplete projects. Relationships that I probably should have left before they ended, others that I probably shouldn't have even pursued, still others that I could have worked harder to repair.One Zen teacher said at the end of their life—one continuous mistake.Ever feel this way?From one perspective failure is the feeling that we most want to avoid….From another, shame can be a kind of addiction, overwhelming us with feelings of self-pity and self-doubt so much so that we feel unable to take the next step.If I zoom out a bit from the failure finding mind, I see that there is another way to view the series of events I call my life. It is possible to see each seeming mishap, embarrassing moment, failed relationship, broken dream, emotional scar as the terrain my soul needed to journey to arrive here.In each of the scenarios my mind calls failures, I can see that I was doing the best I could given the thoughts, perspectives, emotional reactions and insight I had available to me in the moment.Our lives also have a kind of mythos. If we continue to zoom out and see the totality of our lives, we can begin to catch wind of the mythic dimension to our living.I recently encountered the fairytale The Maiden King. In this story, the main character reaches a kind of crisis point, he can no longer abide in the old way of being. He has left behind the false comfort of fractured relationships and beliefs he had about himself and the world. Stumbling around in the dark of the wood, feeling perhaps like a failure, an imposter, not quite up to the task, he comes to the house of Baba Yaga who asks him:Did you come here of your own free will, or by compulsion?I love this question. It rings like a koan.Did you come here of your own free will, or by compulsion?Here right here.In the catastrophe of your life.In the mystery of this embodiment.How did you arrive?What brought you here?The hero responds, I came mostly by free will and twice as much from compulsion.Ah, the truth of it.Where we stand, where we sit, in the heart of our lives—can we really say how we got here? A dream, a desire, a heartbreak, a crisis, a response—is it anyone's fault? What is free will when so much of life, the circumstances we encounter, the people we meet, the thoughts and sensations that arise in our experience are out of our control?Sometimes the inner critic wants to blame us for the circumstances of our lives. In a desperate attempt at clawing at some semblance of certainty in this ever-changing field of existence we call the world—the critic says, it's your fault, you failed, you're not good enough, you did something wrong.But life is often more mysterious than that. Our lives twist and turn and intersect with the lives of hundreds of thousands of millions of beings. Our life is part of this great web of interconnected life.And yet, it seems that we can orient our hearts in a particular direction. As we meet the circumstances, the people, the events, the inner landscape of our living we can orient the heart-mind towards kindness, openness, generosity, understanding.We call this orientation vow.We call this orientation practice.Practicing with failure invites us to feel our lives.To feel our fears.To awaken a compassion that can companion any emotion or feeling.It invites us to take responsibility for our lives—by meeting ourselves right where we are.—in the dynamic non-dual truth of this— mostly free will, twice as much compulsion existence.—in this— the failure is wonderful indeed— embrace.There is no better life.This life is our one life.Could it really be—wonderful indeed?…I'm Amy Kisei. I am a Zen Buddhist Teacher, Spiritual Counselor, Astrologer and Artist. I offer 1:1 Spiritual Counseling sessions using IFS and somatic mindfulness. I also offer astrology readings. Check out my website to learn more. I currently live in Columbus, OH and am a supporting teacher for the Mud Lotus Sangha.Summer Read— The Hidden Lamp: Stories from 25 Centuries of Awakened WomenJoin me starting on the Summer Solstice, Friday June 20th for a summer read of the Hidden Lamp. I hand selected 15 stories from the book that we will explore over the course of the summer.Weekly Online Meditation EventMonday Night Dharma — 6P PT / 9P ET Join weekly for drop-in meditation and dharma talk. We are currently exploring supportive practice forms for engaging the dharma in life outside of retreat.Feel free to join anytime. Event lasts about 1.5 hours. ZOOM LINKZen Practice opportunities through ZCOGrasses, Trees and the Great Earth Sesshin—August 11 - 17, in-person at Great Vow Zen Monastery (this retreat is held outdoors, camping is encouraged but indoor dorm spaces are available)In-Person in Columbus, Ohio through Mud Lotus SanghaInterdependence Sesshin: A Five Day Residential Retreat Wednesday July 2 - Sunday July 6 in Montrose, WV at Saranam Retreat Center (Mud Lotus is hosting its first Sesshin!)Weekly Meditations on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amykisei.substack.com/subscribe

听前提示一、每期提供10个单词，每个单词都会有2-3个例句，方便理解记忆。二、每个单词和句子都会重复5遍，其中第2遍为慢速，有助于识别。三、本材料的整体难度较低，可以用来听力磨耳朵和单词查漏补缺。Day99981.Formera.以前的，在前的pron.前者He's a former student of mine.他以前是我的学生。982.Formulan.公式；规则；分子式；药方The chemical formula of water is H2O.水的化学式为H2O。This has proven to be a winning formula.事实证明，这是一个成功的公式。983.Fortunen.运气；命运；财产；财富They acquired a large fortune.他们获得了一大笔财富。My grandmother left us a great fortune.我的祖母给我们留下了巨大的财富。By investing wisely, she accumulated a fortune.通过明智的投资，她积累了一笔财富。984.Forwardad.向前a.向前的v.转交She took a small step forward.她向前迈出了一小步。I look forward to your comments on the report.我期待着你对这份报告发表评论。Your email will be forwarded to my manager.你的邮件会被转发给我的经理。985.Foundationn.基础，根本，建立，创立；基金，基金会The rumor has no foundation.这个谣言是没有根据的。This house has a solid foundation.这所房子有坚实的基础。They established a foundation to help patients with cancer.他们建立了帮助癌症患者的基金会。986.Framen.框架；骨架v.设计；制定The frame is made of steel.框架由钢制成。This new bike frame is made of steel.这款新的自行车车架由钢制成。987.Freea.自由的；免费的；空闲的 vt.释放It's free of charge.它是免费的。Are you free on Wednesday?你星期三有空吗？What do you do in your free time?你在空闲时间做什么？988.Freedomn.自由，自主，免除，特权We must defend our freedom at all cost.我们必须不惜一切代价捍卫我们的自由。You have the freedom to go wherever you like.你可以自由地去任何你喜欢的地方。Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom.没有什么比独立和自由更珍贵了。989.Freezev.使结冰，使凝固Please freeze the fish as soon as possible.请尽快将鱼冻结。Water is liquid. When it freezes, it becomes solid.水是液体。当它结冰时，它变成固体。990.Frequenta.时常发生的，频繁的The bus makes frequent stops.公交车经常停车。He is one of our most frequent customers.他是我们最常去的客户之一。

Do you feel like you're faking it till you make it? You're not alone! In this episode, we'll uncover how God's grace empowers you beyond your limitations, so you can step into your God-given identity with boldness and confidence.✨ What You'll Learn Today:Why circumstances don't define your worth—God does!How to shift from striving to thriving through graceThe truth behind imposter syndrome—and how to break freeA 3-step process to embrace divine confidence and step into leadership

Welcome to another enriching episode of Mirror Talk: Soulful Conversations! Today, we're diving into the impact of digital overuse on our mental health and relationships. Our guest, Jennie Ketcham Crooks, is a licensed clinical social worker, anxiety specialist, and author of LOOK UP: The 30-Day Path to Digital Minimalism and Real Life Maximalism. As the founder of West Coast Anxiety Clinic and a guest lecturer at Harvard, Jennie brings a wealth of expertise on how our screen time habits affect our well-being.Jennie shares practical insights on:How digital overuse affects our mental health and interpersonal relationshipsThe concept of psychological flexibility and how it shapes our digital habitsThe hidden effects of excessive screen time that often go unnoticedHow digital minimalism sparks creativity and fosters real-world connectionsMyths about technology use and the truths that can set us freeA 30-day challenge to reset digital habits and regain control over our livesSmall, actionable steps to reduce screen time without feeling disconnectedHow parents can model healthy digital habits for childrenChapters00:00 Introduction to Digital Overuse and Mental Health12:02 Personal Reflections on Mistakes and Growth23:57 The Journey from Adult Industry to Therapy36:04 Understanding Digital Overuse and Its Impact48:04 Psychological Flexibility and Digital Habits37:38 The Role of Mindfulness in Mental Health40:51 Creativity and Behavioral Change52:58 Delegating Tasks for Creative Freedom58:00 The 30-Day Digital Minimalism ChallengeJennie's insights will inspire you to create intentional digital boundaries and reclaim joy beyond the screen. If you've ever felt drained, distracted, or disconnected because of your digital habits, this episode is for you!Where to Find Jennie Ketcham Crooks:

In this episode, we continue the harrowing story of Jena from episode five, who escaped the clutches of a cult only to find herself ensnared in another form of darkness. After leaving the cult, Jena thought she had found solace in the arms of Dick, a man who initially seemed like the perfect partner—comforting, strong, and gentle. They swiftly tied the knot after a year of seemingly blissful companionship.However, the facade began to crumble as Dick insidiously tore apart the very fabric of Jena's well-being and used her past against her. This episode explores the complexities of coercive control, examining the subtle ways in which emotional abuse can manifest in seemingly loving relationships. Join us as we unravel the layers of Jena's experience, shedding light on the silent struggles faced by survivors of cults and those ensnared in toxic relationships.Discussions in this episode:Pick back up with JenaWhy being called strong pisses her offMeeting Dick the charmerThe blissful slow burn to the truthThe unraveling of insidious abuseHow she broke freeA peaceful existenceListeners will gain insights into the signs of covert abuse, the psychological toll it takes, and the strength it requires to break free from the chains of manipulation. Jena's story is a testament to resilience and the indomitable spirit that empowers survivors to reclaim their lives. Don't miss this eye-opening episode as we navigate through the shadows to find the strength within.Content Warning: This episode discusses various forms of toxic abuse, narcissistic abuse, spousal abuse, rape, and any topics that may disturb some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. We are not doctors or therapists; you should not take our opinions as medical advice.Have a story you would like to share? Please fill out our form.Would you like to help support the show more? Donate or subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content.Hosts: Behk & LAHFollow us on Instagram + Facebook @ngcompodProduction & Design: LAHardenMusic: No Reason Why by Anchor Help us keep the show going on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I'm answering 5 JUICY money manifestation and money mindset questions sent in by listeners of the show! If you want to learn how to manifest business success, reach your income goals or troubleshoot your money blocks, this is the episode for you!In this episode you'll learn:How to actually manifest becoming rich when you've been struggling for yearsThe massive upgrades you get from purchasing instead of manifesting for freeA simple shift for overcoming self-doubt with making money in your businessWhen to focus on specific money goals and how to do it so they actually manifestHow do stay consistent with money mindset work when life throws curveballsRESOURCES MENTIONED:How to Feel Rich: https://youtu.be/bmaocD3hdQ8How I Manifested Winning Free Tickets: https://youtu.be/cz-lqBA2PBIWant Your Question Answered? Email Us: https://www.houseofbrazen.com/contact

Struggling to fall asleep? Quiet your mind with the continuation of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Published first in 1868, it follows the lives of four sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. In this episode, Meg spends some time with some wealthy friends. Later, we hear the entries in the latest publication from the P.C.

Tough day? Relax with tonight's bedtime story, the continuation of The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum. This story is the sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. All Just Sleep Premium members can access the entire book as part of their membership.

Drift off tonight to over 3 hours of fairytales and myths - The Magic Apples, Pretty Goldilocks, The Golden Touch and more. Interested in more sleepy content or just want to support the show? Join Just Sleep Premium here: https://justsleeppodcast.com/supportAs a Just Sleep Premium member you will receive:The entire audiobook of the Wizard of OzThe latest episodes ad-free and Intro-free episodesThe entire back catalog of the podcast, ad and intro-freeA collection of short fairy tales including Rapunzel and the Frog PrinceThe chance to vote on the next story that you hearThe chance to win readings just for youThanks for your support!Sweet Dreams... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Struggling to fall asleep? Quiet your mind with bedtime stories from The Sandman's Hour. This episode includes the stories The Blue Castle, The Enchanted Boat, and Mother Turkey and her Chicks by Abbie Phillips Walker.Interested in more sleepy content or just want to support the show? Join Just Sleep Premium here: https://justsleeppodcast.com/supportAs a Just Sleep Premium member you will receive:The entire audiobook of the Wizard of OzThe latest episodes ad-free and Intro-free episodesThe entire back catalog of the podcast, ad and intro-freeA collection of short fairy tales including Rapunzel and the Frog PrinceThe chance to vote on the next story that you hearThe chance to win readings just for youThanks for your support!Sweet Dreams...

Fluff up your pillows and settle down to tonight's bedtime story, Washington Square by Henry James. Catherine Sloper is plain, shy, and unremarkable. Dr Sloper, her father, thinks that no man will ever fall in love with her. Enter Morris Townsend. But does he love her or her anticipated fortune?

Struggling to fall asleep? Quiet your mind with the continuation of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Published first in 1868, it follows the lives of four sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. In this episode, Jo and Meg will not let Amy attend a play with them. Offended, Amy promises and exacts revenge.

Tough day? Relax with tonight's bedtime story, The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum. This story is the sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. All Just Sleep Premium members can access the entire book as part of their membership.

Family ties is back my good people this week we have @selfmadet @naggajummah and @frenchie_the_bread in pod house this episode these are the topics of the pod door dashin bad bitches we give all our gifts away for freeA definite situation family attachments  follow @bread_made_media on all social media platforms contact us bread.made.meadia@gmail.com Producer @frenchie_the_bread we strive to be 1% Better Every Day

Episode Highlights With Dr. CassieHer personal story with healing and how she got into the work she doesWhy curiosity is one of the most potent medicines there is and why to approach everything with childlike curiosityA different way to think about labsWhy not to let a diagnosis be part of your identityWhat the placebo affect really shows us about the power of the mindRight and true are not always the same thing… and truth is what sets you freeA truth is something that is undeniable, there is no exception to itHow to learn to ask more beautiful questions to get better answersThe one commonality with everyone she has seen experience a “medical miracle” fo healingResources We MentionGrit Natural MedicineDr. Huckaby - InstagramDavid Whyte: EssentialsThanks to Our Sponsors:LMNT - My go-to electrolyte mix that I use during workouts, while fasting and in the sauna. It's a clean source of all of your electrolyte needs.HigherDOSE - Check out their sauna blanket, PEMF mat, red light face mask and so much more! I use their PEMF mat several times during the week. Use code mama15 for a discount.

    On this episode of the Absolutely Not Podcast- Heather is fresh off her comedy special taping weekend- full of gratitude and adrenaline. She witnessed a fight over a snack break in the back kitchen of a salad joint and was ready to jump in and pop off, if need be. She's back with her weekly dose of unsolicited advice such as- "How to spice things up in the bedroom" to "Is it ok to eat del taco alone in your car to avoid your in laws?"   Sponsors:   Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREEA 1-year supply of immune-boosting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase at AthleticGreens.com/ABSOLUTELY    Right now, you can get 15% off your first order when you visit ThriveCausemetics.com/ABSOLUTELY   With each can only 25 calories and 5g of sugar or less, Poppi can be found on Amazon for 15% off with code “ABSOLUTELY15” and in retailers nationwide   See for yourself why Chime is so loved at Chime.com/ABSOLUTELY   Thanks to our friends at Spritz Society, you can try their iconic sparkling cocktails for 10% off by using code ABSOLUTELY on SpritzSociety.com   Produced by Dear Media   Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.  

Saturday’s all right for writing! That is, writing information about land use, transportation, economic development, elections, and more! This is Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and podcast intended to let you know about a few things you didn’t know before, and intended to keep an eye on a great deal of things. I’m your host Sean Tubbs, exploring and exploiting my curiosity hopefully for your benefit. But please: No fighting! In today’s newsletter:The first campaign finance report is in for the race of the 55th House District, even if it’s still unclear when the election will be held Charlottesville Planning Commissioners seek action on safer streets in advance of the school A former Charlottesville school superintendent becomes Governor Youngkin’s permanent chief diversity officerThere’s one day left to fill out the latest questionnaire on Albemarle County’s growth management policy The head of the area’s aging services agency is elected to lead a statewide group First shout-out: Join me for a Cvillepedia training session - Brand styleIn today’s house-fueled public service announcement, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society wants you to know about an upcoming exhibit at the Center at Belvedere featuring portraits of several historical figures active in the Charlottesville area in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Frances Brand was a folk artist who painted nearly 150 portraits of what she considered “firsts” including first Black Charlottesville Mayor Charles Barbour and Nancy O’Brien, the first woman to be Charlottesville Mayor. Brand’s work will be on display from July 5 to August 31 in the first public exhibit since 2004. And, if you’d like to help conduct community research into who some of the portraits are, cvillepedia is looking for volunteers! I will be leading three more Cvillepedia 101 training sessions at the Center July 18 at 2 p.m. Sign up at the Center’s website.Laufer outraises fellow Democrats in 55th District There is still a possibility that Virginia will have an election this year for the 100 seat House of Delegates. A second federal lawsuit arguing that legislators elected last November are in unconstitutional seats still awaits a final ruling and November 8 is 115 days away from today. That makes yesterday’s deadline for active candidates for the House of Delegates that much more compelling. There are currently three people seeking the Democratic nomination in the new 55th District, which includes most of Albemarle’s geography, as well as northeast Nelson County and western Louisa County. The Virginia Public Access Project has pulled together all of the filings, and former Charlottesville School Board member Amy Laufer outraised her opponents with a total of $61,731 raised in June. Fifty-seven donors contributed more than $100, requiring their identification. That includes a transfer of $7,327 from Laufer’s previous campaign for the Virginia Senate in 2019. There is one $10,000 gift from Hunter Bourne, and a pair of $5,000 gifts from Clean VA and the Morrill Family Investment. There were 68 contributions below the $100 limit. Emergency room nurse Kellen Squire raised $41,531 from March 8 to June 30. Thirty-four contributions were in excess of $100 with 406 below that threshold. There is one $20,000 contribution from Kay Ferguson.Albemarle County Supervisor Donna Price raised $11,798 with ten contributions above the $100 threshold and thirty below. Republican Rob Bell is the presumptive incumbent, currently representing the former 58th District. Bell began the year with a balance of $76,253 and has raised $5,250 so far this year. More on the status of the lawsuit in the next installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement. One days left to fill out Albemarle’s growth management surveyAs mentioned in the last program, a survey is about to close for Albemarle County’s growth management survey. The county is in the midst of updating their Comprehensive Plan, and this is the second questionnaire. Here’s more from a video produced by the office of Communications and Public Engagement (CAPE). “New development proposals that require a change in zoning or a rezoning are evaluated by recommendations in the Comprehensive Plan, including the growth management policy,” states the narrator. “As part of growth management, the Albemarle County Service Authority establishes a jurisdictional area where public water and sewer will be provided. This jurisdictional area mainly corresponds with the development area.” If  you’re interested in hearing more, the Albemarle CAPE has posted the latest episode of their Let’s Talk Albemarle podcast. The guest is Rachel Falkenstein, a manager in the Community Development department who oversees long-range planning.“Usually we look out 20 years and that number comes from the state of Virginia,” Falkenstein said. “They require localities to have a Comprehensive Plan that plans for 20 years out into the future so we use that for most of our planning documents.” As of Friday afternoon, 270 people had taken the survey, according to CAPE director Emily Kilroy. The Albemarle Planning Commission will have a work session on the Comprehensive Plan on July 26. To catch up on previous stories on land use issues in Albemarle, check out Information Charlottesville through this link. And if you’re in the mood to fill in another survey, the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission wants your input on the Regional Transit Vision Plan.. To catch up on all kinds of transit related stories, check out Information Charlottesville through this link. Youngkin appoints Atkins as chief diversity officerGovernor Glenn Youngkin has appointed former Charlottesville Superintendent Rosa Atkins to serve as Virginia’s Chief Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion Officer. Atkins has been serving in the position on an interim basis following the departure of his first appointee, Angela Sailor. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sailor left in April for a family matter. Atkins served as Charlottesville’s superintendent for 15 years before retiring. Earlier this year, former Governor Ralph Northam appointed her to serve as the acting superintendent of public instruction for the Virginia Department of Education. In the Northam administration, Atkins’ position was known as the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, but Youngkin changed the name in Executive Order #10 when he appointed Sailor. “We must strengthen and focus the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) by including in its mission the promotion of entrepreneurship and economic opportunity for all Virginians — including Virginians with disabilities — as well as the promotion of free speech and civil discourse,” reads that order.Sailor’s name is still on the website for the office. In other appointments of note, a University of Virginia official has been named to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Pace Lochte is the assistant vice president for economic development. Youngkin also appointed Rob Rutherford of Nelson County to the Virginia Manufactured Housing Board. Rutherford is a manager with Pro Tech Builder, a maker of modular homes.JABA leader elected to Virginia aging services associationThe chief executive officer of the area’s aging services association has been elected as president of the state entity that represents all 24 such agencies across the Commonwealth. Marta Keane of JABA will begin a two-year term as president of the Virginia Association of Area Agencies on Aging (V4A).Keane has been CEO of JABA since 2013. According to a release, during that time she helped form the Charlottesville Area Alliance as an umbrella organization for various entities that work with senior services in the community. “With this comes challenges to meet their increasing and changing needs, and opportunities to identify and maximize the strengths that seniors bring to our communities,” Keane is quoted in the release. “During the next two years, I hope to continue our efforts with demographic services to better identify areas that have unmet needs, work with networks to identify new ways to meet the needs, and identify new funding sources to allow us to grow and sustain critical services."JABA was formed in 1975 as the Jefferson Area Board for Aging. In today’s other two shout-outs: Local media and Code for CvilleCode for Charlottesville is seeking volunteers with tech, data, design, and research skills to work on community service projects. Founded in September 2019, Code for Charlottesville has worked on projects with the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Charlottesville Fire Department, and the Charlottesville Office of Human Rights. Visit codeforcville.org to learn about those projects. The final comes from another Patreon supporter who wants you to go out and read a local news story written by a local journalist. Whether it be the Daily Progress, Charlottesville Tomorrow, C-Ville Weekly, NBC29, CBS19, WINA, or some other place I’ve not mentioned - the community depends on a network of people writing about the community. Go learn about this place today!Charlottesville Planning Commissioners seek Council action on safer streets on school routesAs of today, there are 39 days left until the first day of school in the City of Charlottesville. Yesterday, the school system held a Transportation Talk and Walk Session to discuss a recent alert from Superintendent Royal Gurley that the bus driver shortage has worsened and walk zones will be expanded. This past Tuesday, the city Planning Commission was briefed on a request from one of its members that city government take steps to make routes to school. They got an update from Missy Creasy, Charlottesville’s assistant director of the Neighborhood Development Services office (NDS). “The city has a pretty robust program that they’re putting together to address how they are addressing the shortage at this point in time and some pretty innovative things on there,” Creasy said. These include encouraging older students to take Charlottesville Area Transit routes, hiring more crossing guards or finding more volunteers, and buying smaller buses that don’t require drivers to have commercial licenses. NDS director James Freas said the shortage provides an opportunity to apply goals of the recently adopted Comprehensive Plan to a real life problem. “Wrapped up in this challenge is an opportunity to explore those options,” Freas said. “The flip side of that is that it’s a little early for us right now in that we are in the process of building out a transportation planning program.” In May, Council was briefed by Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders on a series of problems with how the city has run its transportation planning program. For instance, transportation planners have had too high of a workload, and the city has been unable to move some projects forward. There’s also a vacancy in the position of bike pedestrian coordinator after the last person left the job at the end of 2021 to work for a consultant. “We expect that position to post very soon and see that position as really being able to take a lead role in doing exactly this type of work and that is coming up with innovative, innovative, and low-cost ways of improving pedestrians, particularly children’s safety, in the neighborhoods around our schools,” Freas said. Creasy said that the traffic engineer and the Safe Routes to School coordinator no longer work in NDS. Instead they work for the Public Works department, a decision made by former City Manager Tarron Richardson. Creasy said NDS does coordinate with public works, but more people are needed to implement what’s in the Comprehensive Plan. “We do have really good support for continuing to move forward in this direction,” Creasy said. “We have tools in place but we just need to fill them with humans so that we can keep the work going.” Creasy said she is aware of grassroots efforts to make things better, but coordination with the city is needed. Freas said that one remedy would be to paint bump-outs at curbs to provide more space for people. “It’s a significant safety improvement and you can do that with paint and potentially flex-posts, but even to do just that, you do have to do some engineering design, you do need to coordinate with public works street folks,” Freas said. Freas said that there’s a possibility of maybe having something done within six weeks, but he cautioned that it will be hard to do in that time frame. “I think, A, the school department’s plans are really good, I think they have some good solutions in place, and B, I think we can build towards that and start contributing the safety improvements we need to make as we go forward,” Freas said. Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg said he supported the idea of an official letter to City Council, but also said funding needed to be in place to implement the solutions.  “Is it safe to assume there is not within the currently allocated budget enough money to really address the things that staff would potentially want to address?” Stolzenberg asked. “Or potentially to hire outside traffic engineers to take some of the load of our in-house resources?” Freas said he would need to have a scope of work before answering that question. “We don’t have an identified line item for that right now so we would be cobbling together money from other sources,” Freas said. Stolzenberg said he would like the Planning Commission to recommend identifying money in the current fiscal year so incremental improvements can be made throughout the school year. He pointed out that Council voted in late June to purchase property for parking.“Council just spent $1.65 million on a parking lot with 40 spaces,” Stolzenberg said. “It seems to me that we can find money within the currently allocated [Capital Improvement Program] that could be reallocated to make sure that kids don’t get run over by cars on their way to school.” Stolzenberg also asked if the city has explored the ability to install cameras in school zones to capture people who speed. Freas and Creasy said they did not know if the city has done that research. The Commission agreed to send a letter to Council seeking support for the work. Stolzenberg said he would draft that document. The discussion took place just before the Commission’s joint public hearing with City Council. Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade said he heard the message.“It doesn’t have to be a war and peace type of document,” Wade said. “We understand the issues and we’re hearing a lot of from the citizens now.” Two more Talk and Walk sessions are scheduled this month. Do you have a specific concern? Drop me a line and I’d like to hear about it. Housekeeping notes for the conclusion of today’s newsletter:Thanks for reading! Today’s show is a rare Saturday show. Coming up next is the Week Ahead for July 18, as well as the Government Glance at the Fifth Congressional District. That’s a separate Substack. Music in the podcast version is composed by an entity currently going by the name Wraki. You can purchase the latest tracks on Bandcamp in an album called regret everything.  I certainly hope you will check it out! Finally, I can’t say enough positive things about Ting’s generous sponsorship. If you sign-up for Ting service, 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!Charlottesville Community Engagement is free to receive, but supported by paid subscriptions. If you subscribe, Ting will match your initial contribution! 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

Flag Day. National Bourbon Day. World Blood Donor Day. Monkey Around Day? These are some of the potential ways to mark June 14, the 165th day of 2022. What you choose today is up to you, but I do hope you’ll take a look or a listen at this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a program that also wants you to make sure you know that some consider this is also National Pop Goes The Weasel Day. Now, where can I find some tupenny rice and some treacle?Know people interested in transit issues? Send them this particular edition of the newsletter so they can find out about the Regional Transit Vision plansOn today’s program:Details on the next steps for a second lawsuit to force a House of Delegates election this yearAlbemarle and Charlottesville’s elected bodies each take a look at the Regional Transit Vision plansGovernor Youngkin announces a series of grants to help increase capacity fo small agricultural producers, such as a water-powered mill in Nelson CountyAnd Albemarle County releases a report on climate vulnerability and risksToday’s first shout-out: ACHS to provide update on Race and Sports projectIn today’s first subscriber supported public service announcement, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society continues work gathering stories for their project Race and Sports: Athletics and Desegregation in Central Virginia. Tonight at 7 p.m. they will provide an update on Facebook Live and Zoom with two people who lived through the era. Garwin DeBerry graduated from Burley High School in 1965 and Steve Runkle graduated from Lane High School in 1960. They will be sharing how the families, neighborhoods, and communities in which they grew up shaped their experiences and of school desegregation. Tune in to the ACHS event on Race and Sports tonight at 7 p.m. (Zoom registration)Status hearing held for new lawsuit seeking House of Delegates election this NovemberThe state of Virginia has until June 24 to file a motion to dismiss a new lawsuit that seeks the Commonwealth to hold an election for the House of Delegates this year. Richmond resident Jeffrey Thomas Jr. filed a federal suit in the Eastern District of Virginia last week that picks up similar arguments made by Richmond attorney Paul Goldman for why some think the House districts currently in place are unconstitutional. Goldman’s suit was dismissed for lack of standing nearly a year after he filed. Thomas and representatives from the Virginia Attorney General’s office were in court yesterday for a status update in the case. Judge David Novak issued an order requiring both parties to file a joint stipulation of facts by June 17. Thomas will have eight days to respond to whatever the state of Virginia files. The state will have five days to respond. No date has been set for another hearing. For more information, read coverage in the Virginia Mercury. Albemarle County releases climate vulnerability assessmentOne item on tomorrow’s agenda for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors is a 176-page document that identifies how the county and its residents will be affected by shifting weather patterns. The Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment looks ahead to how extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and flooding may affect the area. There’s also the threat a changing climate will bring new pests that will affect crops. (read the document)The assessment is a step toward developing a climate resilience plan.“Some of the changes are unavoidable and even while we try to mitigate and reduce the severity of climate change, we also need to prepare for some of those impacts,” said Gabe Dayley, Albemarle’s climate protection coordinator. Dayley said the climate action plan is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet regional goals to be carbon neutral and fossil free by 2050. He made his comments on the Let’s Talk podcast produced by Albemarle’s communications and public engagement department. “Our vulnerability and risk assessment looks at the kinds of specific local weather changes that we can expect,” Dayley said. “Things like increasingly intense and long heat waves or sudden and more severe rainstorms that lead to flash flooding.” Visit the county’s website to hear more. The report was put together with support and work from the Piedmont Environmental Council. In disclosure, that group is a sponsor of the Week Ahead newsletter. Water-powered grain mill in Nelson gets support from AFID grantThis is Ag Week in Virginia, and Governor Glenn Youngkin has announced the latest recipients of the state Agriculture and Forestry Industry Development grant program. The program provides matching grants to small agricultural producers such as Potter’s Craft Cider which used a $50,000 grant as part of a package to move operations into Neve Hall off of U.S. 29 in 2019. This time around the grants focus on infrastructure. Nelson County requested financial assistance for Deep Roots Milling to upgrade a water-powered grain mill built in the late 18th century. According to the press release, the $22,500 in state funds will help pay for a new sifting room and new bagging equipment. Other recipients include $25,000 for Piedmont Processing of Gordonsville in Orange County to add more cooling space for its slaughterhouse, $25,000 for barge to serve a collective of oyster farms in Northampton County, and $9,000 for a commercial kitchen expansion in Bedford County. Read the press release for more information.  Today’s second goes to WTJU and the Radio Relics project In today’s second Patreon-fueled shout-out:  This year, WTJU 91.1 FM turns 65 and to mark the occasion, there’s a new micro-museum exhibition this summer! Radio Relics traces WTJU’s storied history of broadcasting for our community. As part of our 65th anniversary celebrations, WTJU has curated photos, artifacts, and t-shirts – so many t-shirts! – spanning more than six decades.The exhibition is free and will be open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from June 3 through July 29. The museum space is a renovated, vintage camper parked behind WTJU’s studios at 2244 Ivy Road in Charlottesville. WTJU’s Radio Relics exhibition shows off some of the artifacts collected over the years, many contributed by former WTJU General Manager Chuck Taylor.  In fact, there’s even a new initiative to raise money through the Chuck Taylor Fund for WTJU History. Contact General Manager Nathan Moore to learn more. Or donate today!Albemarle and Charlottesville officials weigh in on Regional Transit Vision Consultants hired by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission are moving into the second phase of a community engagement effort for a $350,000 plan to create a regional transit vision to make public transportation a more attractive option. They have developed both a constrained plan that would anticipate around $26 million funds that might be generated through becoming a regional transportation authority with taxation power, as well as one that assumed funding would be found to increase the frequency of service. That has an estimated $70 million price tag. The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors had their review on June 1. “These concepts are here to help you imagine and understand what kind of outcomes are available at two different levels of investment,” said Scudder Wagg of Jarret Walker + Associates. This work will be completed before a second study will begin on how transit operations should be governed in the future.“So this transit vision study really is identifying the potential improvements to the regional transit system and establishing that long term goal and plan vision and the governance study is really what are the steps to get to that vision that we’ve defined,” said Tim Brulle of AECOM. He’s the project manager for the vision plan. The idea in both visions is to increase how often buses move through the community. “Frequency means freedom effectively,” Wagg said. “The more frequent service is, the much shorter the wait is, the much likelier you are to get somewhere soon.”Wagg said at the moment, around 60 percent of residents of urban Albemarle and Charlottesville are close to some transit service, but only about 15 percent are close to frequent service. Both visions expand the number of areas covered by on-demand service where people can call for service on the same day. Currently, a ride on Jaunt has to be booked a day in advance. But in general, the plan without identified funding would increase service. The unconstrained vision would seek to increase fixed-route service to seven days a week from morning into the evening. “One of the key things that is likely to significantly improve access to opportunity, particularly for people who work in retail, service, and hospital jobs where many people have to work evenings and many people have to work Sundays,” Wagg said. “Those types of jobs where if you aren’t there for them on Sunday, they have to have a car and therefore have to incur the high costs of owning a car.” Supervisor Ann Mallek is the sole elected official left from an effort in the late 2000’s to create a regional transit authority. She wanted to make clear the community tried once before for a sales tax to fund increased transit, but a referendum did not make it out of the General Assembly. “Money doesn’t just appear when we don’t have the authority to raise it,” Mallek said. Supervisor Ned Gallaway said service along urban corridors in his district needs to be frequent to accommodate the new units that have been approved during his tenure, such as the Rio Point project that got the okay last December. He pointed out proponents argued transit could help mitigate traffic congestion.“Over a thousand units, 1,300, 1,400 units that are going to build out there, and if they’re sitting on a sixty-minute transit line, that’s not going to work,” Gallaway said. Gallaway said the on-demand transit pilot that Albemarle will begin next year will go a long way to helping determine what the county needs.Supervisors Bea LaPisto-Kirtley and Diantha McKeel had already seen the presentation because the Jefferson Area Regional Transit Partnership got a briefing in late May. McKeel wanted clarification on the role the University of Virginia Transit System would play in the vision. “We tend to think about UVA as doing their own thing,” McKeel said. “That’s what they’ve done for years with their students and faculty and staff. Having said that, I know they are working really hard with us at the regional transit partnership about coming together on transit in this community.” Wagg said that the unconstrained vision anticipates more involvement by UVA. “There is an obvious and enormous transit demand within and around a university and the Grounds at UVA needs really a high frequency service within a pretty limited space so it is understandable they run their own service,” Wagg said. Wagg said an idea in the unconstrained vision is to trade resources with UVA. For instance, a  Bus Rapid Transit system similar to the Pulse in Richmond could travel down U.S. 29 and terminate somewhere on Emmet Street. “And then the University could run a more community service that serves the Grounds as a primary focus but also serves the community at large,” Wagg said. Charlottesville City Council had their review on June 6. The presentation was much the same as what Albemarle and the Regional Transit Partnership saw, but Wagg repeated why having to wait on a bus that comes once an hour is an obstacle.“Relying on service every 60 minutes is extremely hard,” Wagg said. “You can think about relying on a 60 minute route is a little bit like if there was a gate at the end of your driveway that only opened once an hour. You had best be in your car with your coffee ready to go at 7 a.m. if you need to get out at 7 a.m. to get to work. And if you miss it, then you are not leaving until 8 a.m.” Wagg reminded Council that many of the current CAT routes do not operate on Sunday. City Councilor Brian Pinkston said the unconstrained vision is compelling and certainly appeared to be more attractive. But he expressed some skepticism. “This would be a great system to enact but how do we change behavior such that people would use it?” PInkston said. Wagg said if people have choices about how to get around, they’ll take transit. “A major reason people don’t take transit today is because it’s very unlikely to be useful to the trip they want to make,” Wagg said. For instance, Wagg said a trip from Pantops to the Piedmont Virginia Community College would take a very long time with multiple transfers. “Changing that dynamic of ‘will someone choose to ride’ is making it far more likely that the trip that they look up will be reasonably competitive to take transit,” Wagg said. Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade said he was concerned that outreach efforts have not been robust.“I’m just afraid that you may get input from the same people and we kind of know what it is,” Wade said. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting input. I can tell you if this is all you’re going to do, I can assure you of what we’re going to get.” Extra service will mean extra drivers, and Councilor Michael Payne said their needs must be taken into consideration up front. “We can drop any plans or changes we want but if we don’t have sufficient drivers to run those routes, it won’t work,” Payne said. “I know we’re already seeing significant problems in being able to maintain frequency of our current routes because of a shortage of bus drivers.” Payne is another member of the Regional Transit Partnership. He said the unconstrained vision should be a goal, but a realistic approach needs to be taken. “How do we, once this is finalized, bring it back down to earth and figure out what are the level of investments we need to specifically plan for here in the city and what are the specific steps needed to start to get Jaunt, [Charlottesville Area Transit], and the University Transit Service working together to move to that Regional Transit Authority?” Payne said. And that’s where the governance study would come in. If there was to be a regional authority, that could also include surrounding counties. The Greene County Board of Supervisors gets their review of the plan tonight, and its the Fluvanna Board’s turn on Wednesday. The next step is a virtual meeting on June 23 in which the consultants will present both the constrained and unconstrained visions. There’s also a community survey that seeks to gather input on the unconstrained and constrained visions. What do you think? No use telling me. Fill out that survey!Support the show by checking out Ting!For over a year 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. Your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCPThe 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 the year turns 161 days old, but don’t get too used to that number, for it will be replaced quite soon with another, and another, and so on. But 2022 is still not yet at the halfway point, and you’ve got three weeks left until that not-quite-august occasion on July 1. The occasion right now is this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, and this person writing is Sean Tubbs.  There’s lot of information in every installment of this newsletter and podcast. Send it on to more people to help grow the audience!On today’s program:The University of Virginia is asking developers to send in qualifications to build two mixed-use communities as part of an affordable housing initiativeTwo redevelopment projects being undertaken by the city’s public housing agency may not get financing through low-income housing tax credits this yearCharlottesville City Council officially kills the West Main Streetscape Louisa County Supervisors discuss a referendum for a sports complex and whether it should include turf fields on existing athletic fieldsAnd Charlottesville will only one outdoor pool at a time for the time being First shout–out: JMRL to kick off the Summer Reading ChallengeIn today’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement, the Jefferson Madison Regional Library wants you to read as much as you can this summer, and for encouragement and incentives, they’re holding another Summer Reading Challenge. There’s an Ocean of Possibilities this year and the Central Library will kick off the challenge this Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Central Library. It will be a party with music, food, and fun! The Friends of the Library will pop up a mini-book sale and a Books on Bikes parade! You can learn more about the Summer Challenge and how you or your family members can win awards and receive prizes. Visit jmrl.org to learn more about the kickoff event, this Saturday! University of Virginia issues first request for qualifications for affordable housing developerThe University of Virginia is moving forward with an initiative to use property owned by its real estate foundation to create units that will be reserved for people whose incomes are below the area median income. The UVA Foundation issued a request this morning for qualifications from firms to develop two separate projects, including a two-acre site on Wertland Street. The other is a 12-acre site on Mimosa Drive known currently as Piedmont. “UVA/UVAF intends to enter into a ground lease with one or more development team(s) best suited to satisfy UVA/UVAF’s requirements and desired features,” reads the request for proposals. UVA announced a goal of building between 1,000 and 1,500 affordable housing units in March 2020, but momentum was stalled by the pandemic. These two sites as well as the North Fork Research Park were identified in December after initial work for the project was conducted by the firm Northern Urban Real Estate Ventures. A similar request for qualifications for a firm for North Fork will be made at a later date. Under the arrangement, the UVA Foundation would continue to own both sites and the developer would own the structures and other improvements. “UVA/UVAF seeks to maximize the amount of affordable and workforce housing at each site and as such, will provide the land as a part of the Project,” the request continues. “UVA/UVAF will not otherwise contribute funding to the Project.” The developer will be responsible for preparing the plans and getting all of the necessary approvals, including archaeological studies. They’ll also have to have experience getting financing through Virginia Housing. Other development requirements include:Deliver a moderate to high-density mixed income housing communityOffer a maximum number of affordable housing units, with an emphasis on creating mixed-income communities that include, but are not limited to, units in the 30 percent to 60 percent area median income rangeCoordinate with UVA/UVAF and local jurisdictions on the utilities and infrastructure that will serve the development, and coordinate on the design aesthetic that interacts with the surrounding community.Demolish the existing improvements as needed to accommodate the Project, with the exception of historic structures (applicable only at Piedmont).City officially cancels West Main Streetscape projectCharlottesville City Council has voted to officially cancel the $55 million West Main Streetscape project as well as other projects in an effort to get the city’s transportation house in order. The Virginia Department of Transportation will now administer a project to extend a turn lane at Route 250 and Hydraulic Road. A project to coordinate traffic signals on Emmet Street has also been canceled, as has a Smart Scale funded project at the intersection of Preston and Grady. The details were discussed at a work session with the Planning Commission on May 24. (read my story)“While this is called cancellation of those projects, that’s in regards to the funding with VDOT, so as discussed, especially some of the safety projects, these are not going away forever, they’re just going away as Smart Scale projects,” said City Engineer Jack Dawson. The West Main Streetscape began with a $350,000 study authorized by Council in February 2013 which also led to a rezoning for the street. Over the years, Council authorized more and more funding as a local match for VDOT funds to build the project which was to be split into four phases.  The project lost support as a plan to renovate and expand Buford Middle School became a priority for the current City Council. Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook said the project has been on life support for at least a year. “In a sense, this is almost a formality for us to recognize that which has already been made clear to us and decisions we have made ourselves over the last few years,” Snook said. “This is just finally pulling the plug on it.” The Commonwealth Transportation Board next meets on June 21 and may take up the official resolution to defund the project. Virginia Housing does not recommend funding for two CRHA projectsThe Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority has appeared to have fallen short in its attempt to get financing for two planned redevelopment projects in a current funding cycle. Virginia Housing, the entity that authorizes low-income housing tax credits in Virginia, has issued its final rankings for this year pending approval by their Board of Commissioners later this month.  Credits for 47 units in the Sixth Street Phase One project have not been recommended to be funded through what’s known as the Housing Authority pool. An application for additional credits for 113 units for the second phase of the redevelopment of South First Street also did not rank high enough to move forward. Virginia Housing granted credits for the second phase in 2020 and this second application was to fill in a funding gap caused by higher construction costs. South First Street Phase One is currently under construction and is expected to be occupied earlier this year. That 62-unit project did receive low-income housing tax credits in 2021. The only application recommended for funding from the Housing Authority pool this year is for new construction of 68 units in Norfolk by a company called Brinshore. In that project, 47 of the units would be supported through the credits. CRHA executive director John Sales said is hopeful the Virginia Housing Board of Commissioners will reconsider the rankings at their next meeting in Richmond coming up later this month on June 21 and June 22.“The Board in the past has fully funded Public Housing redevelopment efforts,” Sales said. “We are hoping the Board does the same thing this year when making final allocations.”Sales said if Sixth Street’s request is not funded, CRHA will pursue another financing opportunity later this year or reapply in 2023. He said the South Street Phase Two project will move forward if another source can be found to fill in the funding gap.   You can download the full list of rankings from the Virginia Housing website.Lifeguard shortage causes Charlottesville to limit outdoor pool hoursWith summer just getting under way, the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department has made the decision to restrict hours at both Onesty Pool and Washington Pool so that only one of them will be open each day. “The Department is actively recruiting lifeguards and if the staffing levels increase and are able to operate both pools concurrently, we will update the operating hours,” reads a press release that was sent out this morning. For now, Onesty will be open Thursday through Saturday between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Washington Park Pool will be open those hours from Sunday to Wednesday. The indoor Smith Aquatic Center is now open every day after being closed for a couple of years. Outdoor spray grounds are also open. Visit the city’s website for more information. Second shout-out: The Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign It’s getting close to the end of springtime, and one Patreon subscriber wants you to know the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign is a grassroots initiative of motivated citizens, volunteers, partner organizations, and local governments who want to promote the use of native plants. Did you know that National Pollinator Week is June 20th-26th this year? There are many ways to celebrate and learn more about our native pollinators, and here's a great one to start with:Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is hosting an in-person/virtual Pollinator Power Symposium on June 23rd, and there is an excellent line up of speakers scheduled for the day! There are plenty of resources on the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page, so sign up to be notified of lectures, plant sales, and more! Louisa County may seek a referendum for a sports complexDiscussion of a sports complex with new athletic fields in Albemarle County stalled at the end of the budget cycle, but Louisa County is considering a referendum on the issuance of $16.5 million in bonds for that purpose. The Louisa County Board of Supervisors discusses a draft petition for the referendum at their meeting this past Monday. For a referendum to get on the ballot, a Circuit Court judge has to sign an order by August 18. “This is for a bond issue of up to $16.5 million and it lists four baseball fields, four rectangular fields for sports, concessions, lighting, parking and related facilities, a field house at the high school football field and renovation of existing sports facilities,” said Louisa County Attorney Helen Phillips. Phillips said the language in the ballot question has to be in plain English and not in legalese.Supervisors discussed the proper wording, and whether the suggested wording was too broad. There is a possibility of two different ballot questions. One would be for the complex, and one would be for the field house and other renovations. “In the discussions we’ve had about going to referendum, I don’t recall anything other than just going to referendum to see if people would get behind building a sports complex,” said Mountain Road District Supervisor Tommy Barlow. Supervisor Fitzgerald Barnes said he sees the need for a complex that would expand the county’s offerings, but that the existing school fields also need to be addressed. “What we don’t have in this county is synthetic surfaces for girls’ softball where they could play in the rain,” Barnes said. “These fields would allow, number one, not having to water them, not having to fertilize them, not having to cut them. They would be maintenance free fields.” Barnes said this could help the county increase revenue from lodging taxes. Supervisor Toni Williams of the Jackson District said the ballot question as suggested appeared to assume that the county has already decided to proceed with the project. “It appears that the cake is baked in this that the decision has been made to build them,” Williams said. “Maybe the real special election should ask, first of all, do you want these facilities in the county, and if you want them, do you authorize the Board to pay for them by bond?” Supervisors gave direction to divide the referendum into separate questions. Final language will be discussed and approved at future meetings. The location for a future sports complex has also not yet been selected. For more information on this and anything else happening in Louisa County, visit Engage Louisa by Tammy Purcell. Town Crier Productions has a sponsorship thing with Ting!For over a year 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

Hello and welcome to another episode of Charlottesville Community Engagement for June 9, 2022. While I increasingly wonder if I am a cartoon character, I am certain I am not the subject of National Donald Duck Day and if you listened to the beginning of the podcast version, you would have proof. Additionally, my name is not Earl and I am not sure an entire day needs to be devoted to strawberry rhubarb pie. I am certain I’m Sean Tubbs, and that the show really begins now. This ongoing compendium of information is supported by paid subscriptions, but you can get it for free. If you do pay, Ting will match your initial payment! Please support the work! On today’s program: Another federal lawsuit is filed to seek a House of Delegates race this yearThe Louisa County Board of Supervisors goes on record unanimously opposing a change to the regional library system The head of the area’s tourism bureau briefs Council on hotel occupancy and efforts to promote Black-owned destinationsVirginia to receive $76.4 million from the latest carbon allowance auction brokered by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative First shout-out is for LEAP’s new Thermalize Virginia program In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out: Have you been thinking of converting your fossil-fuel appliances and furnaces into something that will help the community reduce its greenhouse gas emissions? Your local energy nonprofit, LEAP,  has launched a new program to guide you through the steps toward electrifying your home. Thermalize Virginia will help you understand electrification and connect you with vetted contractors to get the work done and help you find any rebates or discounts. Visit thermalizeva.org to learn more and to sign up! Another lawsuit filed to force House of Delegates race this NovemberAnother Richmond area resident has filed a federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia claiming that the House of Delegates boundaries in place for the November 2021 election are unconstitutional. The action comes two days after a three-judge panel ruled that Paul Goldman did not have the legal standing to make the claim that the Board of Elections erred in certifying elections for outdated legislative boundaries. Jeffrey Thomas Jr. had filed to be added to a suit filed by Paul Goldman last October, but Monday’s opinion rendered that request to intervene moot. Yesterday Thomas filed a “petition of mandamus” that asks the court to consider his claim that he has suffered a legal injury because the 71st House District where he resides has a 2020 Census Count that contains more people than it should. “Plaintiff and all other voters and residents in [House District] 71-2011 have had their voting strength and political representation unconstitutionally diluted or weakened by their failure of Defendants to conduct, enact, or oversee decennial constitutional reapportionment, redistricting, or elections,” reads paragraph 10 of the petition.Paragraph 17 of the petition states that the smallest House District has a population of 71,122 and the largest has a population of 130,082 according to the 2020 Census.  Thomas states his own district is ten percent over the ideal size and that the Virginia Constitution doesn’t permit a deviation above five percent. Paragraph 29 and 30 point out that Thomas is now within the new 78th House District, which has a population of 87,774 people. Thomas seeks a repeat of 1982 when a federal court ordered elections for the House of Delegates for similar reasons in the Cosner v. Dalton case.“Conducting House of Delegates elections in 2022 under constitutional lines is a proper remedy under the Cosner precedent,” reads paragraph 58.  Thomas is requesting that attorneys for the Commonwealth of Virginia make a reply or file a motion to dismiss within 48 hours of their receipt of the petition. Louisa Supervisors unanimously oppose name change for regional libraryAt their meeting this past Monday, the seven-member Board of Supervisors for Louisa County voted on a resolution to formally oppose any change of the name of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library system. A group requested that action at the most recent meeting of the JMRL’s Board of Trustees.Supervisor Chair Duane Adams of the Mineral District asked for the resolution to be put on the agenda. “I think about $392,000 of our tax money goes to funding the Jefferson Madison Regional Library [and] we have a right to say how our money is spent,” Adams said. Adams said this resolution did not withhold the funding but simply stated opposition to a potential name change. “If the library board changes their name I will put a motion and resolution on the [Louisa] Board’s agenda to withhold our $392,000 and bring it back to the county,” Adams said. “What that would mean is we would withdraw from the regional library system.”Adams said the library would not close and service would continue. For comparison, the Fluvanna public library is independent of JMRL and that county’s budget is $457,442 for fiscal year 2023. Adams also noted there is no outcry against the name of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission or that there is a tobacco leaf on the Louisa County seal. “I think at some point we have to recognize that history and people is both good and bad,” Adams said. “Yes, the institution of slavery was evil, it was awful, it was despictable and I don’t think anyone would ever try to justify it.” Cuckoo District Supervisor Willie Gentry said he wanted to know more information about what the new name might be. “It’s kind of hard to say you oppose something when you don’t know what it’s going to,” Gentry said. “The second thing is, the name on the building is the Louisa County library.” Gentry, Adams, and the rest of the board voted to oppose the name change. The next meeting of the JMRL Board of Trustees will be held on June 27 at the Northside Library beginning at 3 p.m.Virginia receives $76.4 million in June’s cap-and-trade auctionVirginia has now participated in six auctions brokered by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an interstate compact that seeks to incentivize investment in new sources of power generation that produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions. The Commonwealth joined the program in 2020 and legacy generators of electricity must purchase credits to exceed caps authorized by the General Assembly that year. The latest auction was held earlier this month, and Virginia will receive $76,418,182.90. By the terms of the state code, Virginia will direct 45 percent to the Community Flood Preparedness Fund and 50 percent to support energy efficiency programs for low-income households. Read more about the auction in this press release.Governor Glenn Youngkin has pledged to withdraw Virginia from RGGI out of a concern that energy companies such as Dominion pass on the costs to consumers. Earlier this year he signed an executive order seeking that outcome, but that action would require action by the General Assembly. Legislation to withdraw did not pass but the issue is likely to come back. At the local level, the city of Charlottesville will hold a virtual workshop tonight on the Climate Vulnerability Assessment, which the city will use to create a climate action plan. Top hazards identified are an increase in violent storms and periods of extreme heat. If you want to attend, you’ll have to register in advance. (register in advance)Watch a tutorial on RGGI auctions:Second shout-out is for a Charlottesville Jazz Society concert this Saturday:In today’s second subscriber-supported shout-out. On Saturday June 11, the Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU present Michael Bisio in a solo acoustic bass performance. Bisio is touring in support of his new solo bass recording "Inimitable". Opening for Michael Bisio will be Richmond violinist/electronics artist Zakaria Kronemer. The concert at Visible Records on Broadway Avenue will begin at 8 pm. A suggested donation of $10 at the door is requested.  For more information visit cvillejazz.org or call (434) 249-6191.Council briefed on tourism group’s efforts to bring in more visitorsHotel occupancy in Albemarle and Charlottesville continues to rebound with overnight stats in April of this year slightly above the previous year, but still below pre-pandemic levels.“We’re recovering a bit,” said Courtney Cacatian, the executive director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Our hotel occupancy is still limited by our workforce here.” Cacatian provided that information to City Council at a work session Monday that served as an introduction to the agency, which was created in 1979 to promote tourism in the area. She said the entity never stopped advertising during the pandemic, so there is pent-up demand reflected in the average daily rates. This April that figure was over $170 a day compared to around $100 in April 2021. (view the presentation) “The mission is really to enhance the economy, specifically in the tourism industry, and to generate tax revenue for the city and the county,” Cacatian said. “And we reinvest that funding back into the tourism economy to start that funnel again.” Cacatian has been in the position since August 2019, several months before the pandemic hit. The agency’s main source of funding is through the transient occupancy tax levied by Albemarle and Charlottesville, in addition to grants. The CACVB’s budget lags two year behind collection, which explains why the FY23 budget of $1.72 million is lower than the FY22 budget of $2.053 million Much of the funding goes into marketing. “And that marketing includes advertising, public relations, and sales efforts,” Cacatian said. “We’re the storytellers for Charlottesville and Albemarle and we get to tell people who don’t live here what we want them to know about us so that they come to visit.” CACVB also served as a pass-through agent for $680,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding that originated from the Virginia Tourism Council, as well as $750,000 in ARPA funding from Albemarle County. One of the marketing initiatives targeted to a national audience is called Discover Black Cville which went live on March 27. That began in August 2020 with listening sessions with Black businesses and attractions. “It was really important to me that we were making sure that our community had buy in before we launched nationally and you could tell on launch day how much community buy in and positivity had been created by this effort,” Cacatian said. The initial launch weekend led to several articles:My Trip To Charlottesville, Virginia Taught Me The Importance Of Black Ownership In America, Marsha BadgerCharlottesville, VA, To Highlight Black-Owned Businesses Through Community-Led Initiative, Brunno BragaCharlottesville Celebrates National Launch of Discover Black Cville, Mary MelnickVice Mayor Juandiego Wade was on hand for the event.“It was a room full of writers from different newspapers and I love meeting new people so it didn’t take much for me to get there and talk to them,” Wade said. “It was great. It was just a perfect weekend as far as the weather, the activity. It was smelling great outside with the different food so I hope they enjoyed it.”Councilor Sena Magill said she really liked what CACVB is doing with Discover Black Cville, but she said she was concerned about any funds being used to pay for short-term rentals that may not be properly registered with the city.“If the city is paying a large chunk of money and then we are providing advertising space for companies who are breaking our zoning laws and impinging on our affordable housing stock…” Magill said.“And then typically not paying the taxes either,” said Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook.“Yeah!” Magill said. “I have some issues with that.” Cacatian said she would look into the matter. The Board of Directors for the CACVB next meet on July 11. Check the public notices section of their website for more information. Town Crier Productions has a sponsorship thing with Ting!For over a year 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

There are two weeks left before the next solstice, with fourteen more days of the sun springing above the horizon just a little bit higher each sunrise before the march to fall begins once more. I will not mention that other season for I know that may trouble some readers and listeners. It is June 7, 2022, and this is the matching installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m Sean Tubbs, planning for a summer of content.  Sign up for free, but if you opt to help support the work with a paid subscription, Ting will match your initial payment! On today’s program:A panel of federal judges has dismissed a lawsuit seeking an election for the House of Delegates this yearThe Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority turns 50 today, and both Albemarle and Charlottesville have agreed to extend its existenceVarious updates from Charlottesville City Manager Rogers, as well as an update on why consideration of a seven-story building on Jefferson Park Avenue has been delayedFirst shout-out to Camp AlbemarleToday’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study of ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting campalbemarleva.org/donate. Federal judges dismiss Goldman’s lawsuit seeking 2022 House of Delegates electionThere are 518 days until the next time voters will decide on who will sit in the Virginia House of Delegates. That’s a year later than the 154 days that Richmond attorney Paul Goldman had wanted, but a panel of three federal judges have ruled that he did not have standing to bring the lawsuit either as a voter or a potential candidate. (read the opinion)In his original complaint filed June 28 of last year, Goldman alleged that the legislative boundaries at the time of the 2021 House of Delegates elections scheduled for that November would be in violation of the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He argued the population of some districts were much larger than others due to the outdated districts.The case made its way up to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals before being sent back to the lower court this past March. Attorneys for the state filed a motion to dismiss the case on April 1, 2022, and yesterday’s opinion granted their request.“The current Motion to Dismiss follows a convoluted, months-long procedural history involving multiple complaints, motions to dismiss, motions to intervene, various hearings, as well as the appointment of a three-judge court and an interlocutory appeal to the Fourth Circuit of Appeals on sovereign immunity,” reads the introduction to the opinion. The opinion is also a history of the delays experienced by the U.S. Census Bureau in delivering data from the 2020 count due to pandemic-related issues as well as the failure of the bipartisan Virginia Redistricting Commission to reach consensus last October. The opinion notes that Goldman opted to not file paperwork to actually run in 2021, and notes Goldman resisted proving that he even voted that year. That means he could not prove he personally suffered an “injury” that would grant him the right to sue. “Plaintiff bears the burden of proving that he has standing, but he has not properly supported his assertion that he voted in November 2021,” the opinion continues. “If Plaintiff did not vote in November 2021, he lacks standing, as he cannot claim injury to a right that he voluntarily failed to exercise.” Goldman later did file an affidavit stating he did vote, but the opinion notes this was filed improperly. Still, the ruling goes on to state Goldman had not sufficiently explained why he was personally disadvantaged by voting in 2021 in the older district. “Virginia has 100 House of Delegates districts, making the ideal district population 86,314,” Judge Novak writes in the opinion. “Plaintiff’s House of Delegates District, District 68, had an adjusted population of 85,344.” The case is now closed, according to the order, with no possibility of appeal. City Manager report: Utility disconnections, city leases, building permits, and more One innovation to come with the tenure of interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers is a written report that is produced once a month to address items that come up at City Council.  He also read from the report at the beginning of last night’s meeting and provided an update on the city’s current pause on issuing new building permits. No new inspections or permits will take place through June 13. (read the report)“We have made multiple offers for a new building official and have to restart the process again with the most recent candidate changing their mind about relocating here at the last minute after we thought they accepted the position,” Rogers said. “We had previously contracted with a firm to help us with the inspections to offset our shortage. The two employees signed by that firm also left us recently so we are scrambling to catch up.”In his written report, Rogers said the city is working with the University of Virginia on a solution. Rogers also said an award should be made soon for a firm to help the city write a collective bargaining ordinance and that should be before Council in September with a draft ready in August. The interim city manager also reported that the city has been once again awarded a AAA bond rating from both S&P and Moody’s. A $26 million sale of bonds to fund capital projects is expected to be made today. Council also got an update on the city’s resumption in April of disconnecting utility customers for non-payment. A moratorium was in place for nearly two years due to the pandemic. “The utility billing office notified 282 accounts of pending disconnections by hanging cards on their doors,” said Deputy City Manager Ashley Marshall. “To date, 246 of those accounts have made payment arrangements.” The written report contains several other pieces of information that touch on previous stories:The June 21 Council work session will resume the discussion of city-owned properties and whether the city is getting the most out of current arrangementsA request for proposals for $178,394 in remaining Community Development Block Grants will be released this week Final design of a parking and pedestrian access for the Dogwood Memorial in McIntire Park has been reviewed and a budget and scope of work is being drafted, as well as a fundraising plan Rogers’ employment by the city is through a contract with the Robert Bobb Group, and Council extended that contract until the end of this year. Council action on seven-story building on Jefferson Park Avenue delayedCharlottesville City Council had been expected to consider a special use permit for a seven-story building on Jefferson Park Avenue  at their meeting last night, but the item was delayed until a further meeting. The Planning Commission voted 4-3 on May 10 to recommend approval, with some members expressing concerns about the massing and scale of the project. Mayor Lloyd Snook addressed the delay. “There were a number of issues raised at the Planning Commission and the approval that the Planning Commission gave was in some ways was conditioned upon ‘you all go figure ways to moderate this, to mitigate some of the harmful effects of the way it was appearing to be so massive and so on,” Snook said. Snook said the Department of Neighborhood Development Services requested more time to work on the proposal before it gets to City Council. The item will be rescheduled. Second shout-out goes to a Livable Cville eventIn today’s first subscriber supported shout-out, Livable Cville wants you to know about an online presentation coming up on June 7. The Community Climate Collaborative and Livable Cville are presenting a talk on what they consider Climate-Smart Zoning. Executive Director Susan Kruse and Director of Climate Policy Caetano de Campos Lopes will be the presenters. This is happening on Tuesday, June 7, from 5:30 p.m to 6:30 p.m. Sign up for the free event on EventBrite. Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority will get to turn 100Fifty years ago today, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority was incorporated as a public body, pursuant to what was known as the Virginia Water and Sewer Authorities Act. The body was created at the request of both Charlottesville and Albemarle County. “That was for the purpose of managing our reservoirs and dams, our public drinking water, treating that and distributing it, and also treating our sewage,” said Lance Stewart, the director of Facilities and Environmental Services for Albemarle County. Under the terms of the incorporation, a term limit of 50 years was imposed but extension could be granted if its member bodies pass resolutions to allow it to continue. Bill Mawyer has been the RWSA’s executive director for the past five years and he appeared before both bodies in the past week to make the case for continued existence.“Our staff works very hard to diligently, professionally, and economically provide water for the greater region of the city and the county, including Crozet, Scottsville, in Red Hill we have a small system,” Mawyer said. “We operate and manage six water supply reservoirs, five water treatment plants, and four wastewater plants.” No one spoke at the public hearing in Albemarle and the resolution passed. Last night, it was City Council’s turn, but before that public hearing, City Council Clerk Kyna Thomas read the consent agenda which included this item:“Approving the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority northern area projects allocation agreement, one reading,” Thomas said. Consent agenda items are resolutions that are not controversial for which a public conversation isn’t deemed necessary. Capital projects are paid for by ratepayers and each locality pays a share. In this case, the agreement lays out that the Albemarle County Service Authority will pay the full costs of new service to increase capacity in the area north of Hollymead Town Center, with the exception of a future storage tank that will hold one million gallons. By the terms of the agreement, the city will pay ten percent of that project because it adds to the system’s overall capacity. The city will pay 48 percent of the $2.425 million cost to decommission a water treatment plant on the North Fork of the Rivanna River. After holding a public hearing on rates for water, wastewater, and natural gas, it was time for Council to adopt their resolution extending the existence of the RWSA. “It’s been 50 years, it expires tomorrow, and so this action is placed here for renewal,” Rogers said. No one spoke at City Council’s public hearing, either, and Council concurred with Supervisors to keep the RWSA in business. The RWSA next meets on June 28. Did you learn something new? I learned something new writing it. Share this post with others to keep the learning going! Town Crier Productions has a sponsorship thing with Ting!For over a year 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

The first Saturday in June has arrived, just as it did 364 days ago. This particular day goes by the name June 4, 2022, but it may also answer to Day 155. This particular episode of Charlottesville Community Engagement may be referred to as number 391, a fact whose significance is suspect. If this show were a mystery, I, Sean Tubbs, would be the suspect for host. This newsletter and podcast is free, but Ting will match your initial payment to help keep this brand of community journalist in style! On today’s show:A third Democrat is seeking the nomination for the new 55th House of Delegates The General Assembly takes the next step towards adoption of a Virginia budget for the next two fiscal years The spring 2022 COVID surge continues The University of Virginia’s land use committee reviews the $2.8 billion capital plan, including a 1,000 space parking garage and 440 units of student housing at DardenFirst shout-out goes to a Livable Cville eventIn today’s first subscriber supported shout-out, Livable Cville wants you to know about an online presentation coming up on June 7. The Community Climate Collaborative and Livable Cville are presenting a talk on what they consider Climate-Smart Zoning. Executive Director Susan Kruse and Director of Climate Policy Caetano de Campos Lopes will be the presenters. This is happening on Tuesday, June 7, from 5:30 p.m to 6:30 p.m. Sign up for the free event on EventBrite. Laufer seeking Democratic nomination for 55th District A third Democrat has filed paperwork with the Virginia Department of Elections to be a candidate in the new 55th House District in the next election cycle, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Amy Laufer is the current chair of the Albemarle County Democratic Committee and was twice elected to the Charlottesville School Board in 2011 and 2015.In 2017, Laufer was one of two Democrats on the ballot for Charlottesville City Council and placed a close third behind Independent Nikuyah Walker and Democrat Heather Hill.  In 2019, she resigned from the School Board when she moved to Albemarle County. Soon after, she ran in the 17th Virginia Senate District against Republican Bryce Reeves. Reeves won with 51.6 percent of the vote with Laufer receiving 48.1 percent.Laufer joins Albemarle Supervisor Donna Price and emergency room nurse Kellen Squire in the nomination race, which could still take place this year pending a federal lawsuit. No new orders have been issued in the Goldman V. Brink case since May 5. The incumbent, Republican Rob Bell, has not announced whether he will seek a new term in the new district, which now includes most of Albemarle County and parts of Nelson and Louisa Counties. General Assembly moves forward with state budgetBoth Houses of the General Assembly have adopted the conference reports that represent compromises in the state budget. It’s now up to Governor Glenn Youngkin to determine whether to sign the bills as presented or make further amendments. He has up until the end of the month to take action. Delegate Barry Knight (R-81) served on the House Conference Committee for both HB29 and HB30, the bills that technically carried the budgets for the current biennium and for the next two years. “It’s been a long haul but I believe the result is a fiscally sound, bi-partisan budget we can all be proud of,” Knight said. Knight said a record growth in state revenue has enabled the General Assembly to invest in core government services.“At the same time, the extraordinary revenue situation has enabled us to protect for the future by using one-time revenues to address long-lingering, one-time investment needs, prepay upcoming commitments, fund capital projects with cash and not bond, and remove the account gimmicks we used to balance our budget during the Great Recession,” Knight said. Those investments include $400 million for public school system capital projects already constructed with each locality getting at least a million, as well as another $450 million for new school construction. Knight said that includes a $750 million payment into the Virginia Retirement Services as well as an additional $250 million if the state hits a certain revenue target. Additional funds will go into the “rainy day fund” to have that balance hit what Knight said was a record-setting $3.4 billion. There’s another $2.5 billion from surpluses that will go to previously committed projects. “In addition, the conference report reflects $4 billion in tax relief for Virginia’s families including an increase in the standard deduction including from $4,500 to $8,000 for individuals, double that for joint filers [and] the full elimination of the state’s sales tax on food,” Knight said. There’s also to be a $250 tax rebate for individuals and $500 for households. HB29 passed the House of Delegates on a 93 to 2 vote and the Senate on a 35 to 1 vote. There was no comment about HB29 in the House, but several Democrats had concerns about some of what was in HB30. Delegate Dawn Adams (D-68) had three reasons why she voted no, but one was a lack of transparency during the conference process. “I haven’t seen this lack of transparency in the process since I’ve been here and there’s a fair amount of policy being written through the budget that I think is really, really concerning and has not involved legislators which is so important in making good laws,” Adams said. Delegate Danica Roem (D-13) said she was concerned that revenue cuts to transportation will take away dozens of millions that she said are required to maintain Virginia’s crumbling system. Others were concerned about changes made to marijuana possession that were made in the budget. Others said there was not enough money being put toward affordable housing, with one Delegate citing a 2020 study by the Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee (JLARC). “We have got billions in surplus revenue,” said Delegate Alfonso Lopez. “Now is the time for Virginia to be forward thinking, to invest in housing. Housing trust dollars are the critical layers of debt and equity needed to develop quality affordable housing.” The vote on HB30 was 88 to 7, with dissenters coming from both parties. Republican Delegates Nick Freitas (R-30) and Phil Scott (R-88) joined Adams and four other Democrats in voting against. The Virginia Senate approved HB30 on a 32 to 4 vote. After the votes, Delegate Terry Kilgore explained the next steps. “The Speaker [of the House Todd Gilbert] and the Lieutenant Governor [Winsome Earle-Sears] have three days to sign and enroll the bill or get it to the Governor,” Kilgore said. “The Governor then has seven days to act on any amendments and then we would need to come back prior to July 1 to act on those amendments so what we can make sure we have a budget for Virginians.” Spring 2022 COVID surge continuesOn Friday, the Virginia Department of Health reported 4,057 new cases as detected through PCR tests, the highest one day total in several weeks but consistent with a growing trend. The seven day average is 2,841, though the actual number of cases is likely much higher due to the number of home tests. The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reports 87 patients in intensive care units with 30 COVID patients on ventilators. The proliferation of the second Omicron strain has led to many people contracting COVID for a second time. “We are seeing second infections occurring particularly in people that had infections in December and January and in early February and now we’re three months out from that and because of the strain differences and that time lag and difference, we are seeing breakthrough infections,” said Dr. Costi Sifri, director of hospital epidemiology for the University of Virginia Health System. Dr. Sifri said at least some patients do have lingering symptoms associated with long COVID such as fatigue and brain fog. This is still an active area of investigation. “There is still much to be understood about long COVID, what its pathophysiology is, what are the biologic mechanisms that lead to it,” Dr. Sifri said. “That’s still being an active area of investigation trying to understand that and perhaps at some point better be able to predict who may be more susceptible to it.” Dr. Sifri said it can be expected that additional variants will emerge, but that the outlook is not bleak.“What we’re also seeing is that as this occurs, the relative proportion of people that are needing medical care, that are coming into the hospital because of severe COVID, coming into our intensive care units, and importantly, the proportion of people that are dying of COVID, those are going down,” Dr. Sifri said.However, Dr. Sifri said the public should be mindful of the potential for a more deadly strain to emerge. On Thursday, the White House announced that authorization for vaccines for children under the age of five may come sometime this month. The Blue Ridge Health District said in their weekly newsletter they would be ready to distribute and administer the vaccines when the time comes. Today’s second shout-also goes to WTJUIn today’s second Patreon-fueled shout-out:  This year, WTJU 91.1 FM turns 65 and to mark the occasion, there’s a new micro-museum exhibition this summer! Radio Relics traces WTJU’s storied history of broadcasting for our community. As part of our 65th anniversary celebrations, WTJU has curated photos, artifacts, and t-shirts – so many t-shirts! – spanning more than six decades.The exhibition is free and will be open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from June 3 through July 29. The museum space is a renovated, vintage camper parked behind WTJU’s studios at 2244 Ivy Road in Charlottesville. WTJU’s Radio Relics exhibition shows off some of the artifacts collected over the years, many contributed by former WTJU General Manager Chuck Taylor.  In fact, there’s even a new initiative to raise money through the Chuck Taylor Fund for WTJU History. Contact General Manager Nathan Moore to learn more. Or donate today!UVA committee briefed on new capital projects The Buildings and Grounds Committee of the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors met on Thursday and got an update on capital projects and the next master plan. Colette Sheehy is the executive vice president and chief operating officer at UVA. “So this is the time of year when we ask for approval of the newly revised Major Capital Plan,” Sheehy said. “You’ll recall that we reviewed it with you in March.” The last Major Capital Plan adopted last year was for $3.1 billion worth of projects and several of those have been completed since then such as the University Hospital Expansion, the orthopedic center on Ivy Road, and the student health and wellness center on Brandon Avenue. “We have a lot going on,” Sheehy said. “Thirty-one percent of the value of the entire capital program represents projects under construction and we are going to have a very busy 24 months coming up as many of these projects reach conclusion.” The landscaping and the infrastructure for the Emmet-Ivy Corridor should be completed by next spring. Renovations of Alderman Library and construction of the Contemplative Commons should be completed in the fall of 2023.“The School of Data Science will follow on the heels in December of 2023 and then the following spring, late spring, early summer, the Brandon Avenue undergraduate residence hall,” Sheehy said. Sheehy said the next plan will include several design studies as well as eight new projects, four of which were not on the list in March. One of them would be for student housing at the Darden School of Business. “They are proposing to build about 440 beds that would house two-thirds of their residential MBA students,” Sheehy said. “It is something that competitor business schools do.” There is no cost estimate for that project, which would offer a range of options for students and their families. (read a fact sheet) Sheehy said another project is to construct a 1,000 space parking garage, but she did not elaborate on its location. A fact sheet states the cost estimate is $54 million and would replace parking in the existing Emmet Ivy Parking Garage that will be dedicated to uses such as the future hotel, the Karsh Institute of Democracy, and the School of Data Science. “The current parking inventory displaced by the Ivy Corridor redevelopment must be met in a location that serves multiple constituencies and links effectively to transit,” reads the fact sheet. Other new projects are renovations to the physics building as well as Pinn Hall. After that presentation, UVA Architect Alice Raucher updated the committee on the creation of the 2030 Grounds Framework Plan, which updates a master plan adopted in 2008. The pandemic delayed the work slightly and the end of this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement will delay my reporting on it. I’ll cover that in a future edition. Sound permitting. Town Crier Productions has a sponsorship thing with Ting!For over a year 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

What’s in a day? According to one source, it’s National Bubba Day but I’m not sure what all the hubbub is about. More realistically, it’s American Indian Citizenship Day, which marks the 98th anniversary of an act of Congress where the people who had lived here for millennia before colonization finally received some rights, if not universal recognition. Somehow it’s also National Rocky Road Day. Coincidence or something else? This episode of Charlottesville Community Engagement cannot provide the answers. But this and all of the nearly 400 installments to date are intended to encourage you to think. If you’re not ready for a paid subscription, please send this on to people you think might be interested! The newsletter is made available for free thanks to the hundreds so far who are paying! On today’s program:The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that Albemarle County was wrong to charge a developer for transit service that stops at the Hollymead Town CenterAn update on one way how area transit agencies may address driver shortagesJABA gets some funding due to one hospital’s employee surveyAnd the Albemarle Planning Commission reviews a study that seeks to help the Rio Road corridor become more of a human-scale First shout-out goes to a RoadDucks concert at Groovin’ in Greene In today’s first subscriber supported shout-out, this Saturday in Stanardsville, Virginia’s house band, the RoadDucks, will take the stage at Greene Commons to headline an evening of music. The event kicks off at 4 p.m. with local music from Keith Samuels, Todd Sansom, Chad Aylor & Jon Kougher. That’s followed by singer-songwriter Jenny Marie McAdams. Then, the RoadDucks will draw upon their 46 years to perform all kinds of music. Various members of the Greene Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring the event, with proceeds from beverage and drink sales going to Artistic Remedies for Creative Hearts. For more information on this latest in the Groovin’ in Greene series, visit their Facebook page. Virginia Supreme Court rules against Albemarle in Jaunt proffer caseAlbemarle County acted unconstitutionally when it demanded the developer of the Hollymead Town Center begin making $50,000 annual payments for a transit route operated by Jaunt. That’s according to a Virginia Supreme Court opinion issued this morning by Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn. (read the opinion)“While a state, under its police power, may regulate land use to further legitimate state interests, it may not use this power as a cudgel to coerce concessions from a land-use applicant who seeks to repurpose her property,” reads the opinion. The Board of Supervisors approved the Hollymead Town Center development in September 2007 and under one of the proffered conditions, a company called Octagon Partners agreed to pay $50,000 a year “within thirty days after demand by the County after public transportation service is provided to the Project.” In November 2015, the Board voted 4-1 to work with Jaunt to develop a commuter route called Route 29 Express to serve the area with a stop at the Kohl’s. By that point, the property had transferred to United Land through a subsidiary known as Route 29 LLC. Developer Wendell Wood had previously sought to change the proffer but was unsuccessful. He argued that the triggering of the proffer as presented was unreasonable, but he offered to pay a smaller amount. At the time, Rio District Supervisor Brad Sheffield was executive director of Jaunt but he recused himself from the vote. He did not seek re-election to the Board in 2017. In late 2020, Jaunt’s Board of Directors asked him to resign for financial matters not related to this lawsuit. Soon after the Route 29 Express service began in May 2016, the county sent two bills to Route 29 LLC demanding payment, and issued a zoning violation in the summer of 2018. Wood refused to pay. Wood sued in January 2019 challenging that violation and both parties agreed to a certain set of facts. In May of that year, the county sought dismissal based on a claim that those facts admitted Wood’s acceptance that he needed to pay for the transit service. Albemarle Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Higgins denied that dismissal request and the case went to trial. During the trial, the county also sought to dismiss testimony and evidence introduced by the plaintiff to support their argument that the commuter route did not have any benefits of reducing traffic on U.S. 29. Higgins did not grant a motion to strike and then ruled in favor of Route 29 LLC. The county appealed, and now the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed Higgins was correct in not granting the county’s request to dismiss and to strike the evidence. The Court sided with Route29 LLC about the unreasonability of the proffer. “In essence, the County contends that when a municipality conditions the grant of a land use permit on acceptance of a conditional proffer, voluntarily entered into, the payment required by the proffer need not possess an essential nexus, nor be roughly proportional, to the impact of the development allowed by the permit in order for the proffer to be legally enforceable,” reads the analysis on page 9 of the opinion.“We disagree,” the opinion continues. The ruling does not dismiss the transit proffer completely. “The Owner acknowledges, and we agree, that a different public transportation service may trigger Transit Proffer payments that are enforceable at law,” the opinion continues. “However, the Commuter Route, as it is presently designed, does not.”A spokeswoman for Jaunt said the organization had no comment on the ruling, but did say that the North 29 Express is still operating and led to several other commuter buses such as one that serves Crozet. Albemarle County did not have a comment on the ruling. See also:Supervisors agree to use proffer to fund daily Hollymead commuter route, November 7, 2015Hollymead developer seeks changes to transit proffer, April 23, 2016Developer Wendell Wood keeping tabs on proffer-funded JAUNT route, July 5, 2016County says developer Wendell Wood owes $150,000 for bus service, December 6, 2018If you are interested in all of these stories about transportation, do consider a paid subscription to this newsletter. Every initial payment through Substack is matched by Ting to help ensure the continuance of this community journalism resourceAlbemarle Schools working on way to use public transportation for pupil transportIn April, transit officials from Vermont briefed the Regional Transit Partnership on efforts in the Green Mountain State to use public transportation to get students to their schools. (read the story)That has led to further discussion on the matter in Albemarle County. Charmane White is the new director of the transportation division for Albemarle schools and she spoke at the partnership’s meeting on May 26. “I am having conversations now with our my supervisors and the Superintendent to look at how we would roll this out and of course we would have to get our community ready for this and parents and the administrators because this is just a different approach to what we have taken,” White said. White said the division continues to try to recruit new drivers with a series of job fairs. One possible way to alleviate the shortage is to purchase vehicles that don’t require a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Garland Williams, director of Charlottesville Area Transit, said city schools are also looking at this approach. “They are looking at the type A bus model themselves,” Williams said. “Fourteen [passengers] or less. They’re going to do to two at this point of time and see how the model works and then just scale up from there.” The University Transit System also has issues with a driver shortage.“One of the approaches we’re taking a looking at is that CDL license barrier and how can we sort of attack that in creative ways,” said Kendall Howell of UTS. Howell said he would return to the partnership with some of those ideas later this summer. Sentara employee survey leads to $65,000 grant for JABAAn organization that provides services and assistance to older community members will receive $65,000 from Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital. According to a press release, the funding for JABA is the result of an employee satisfaction survey which had a question that asked respondents to name an organization that embodies the company’s values. “JABA got one of the highest vote totals in the survey," says Johnsa Morris, Vice President of Patient Care & Chief Nurse Executive at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital.JABA was created in 1975 as the Jefferson Area Board for Aging to serve as a “gateway” for resources for seniors and adults with disabilities. The $65,000 gift is unrestricted and can be used for any purpose by the organization. If you or someone you know is interested in applying for a grant from Sentara, the window runs from June 15 to July 15. Second Shout-out is for the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards In today’s second 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.Albemarle Planning Commission gets look at Rio Road Corridor On Wednesday, the Board of Supervisors appointed Lonnie Murray to represent the White Hall District on the Planning Commission. Murray has been elected three times to serve as one of Albemarle’s representatives on the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District. He’s also a member of the Natural Heritage Committee. At their most recent meeting, the Planning Commission minus Murray reviewed a transportation study intended to turn one of Albemarle’s major roadways into something with more of a human scale. The county hired Line + Grade to conduct a review of Rio Road from city limits at Melbourne Road up to near the intersection with U.S. 29. (read the draft plan)“The goal of this project was to develop a community vision and plan that will guide the future design and improvements to the Rio Road Corridor,” said David Benish, development process manager for Albemarle. Benish said the concepts in the plan are not intended to be final, but will be used in the future for candidates for funding through the Virginia Department of Transportation. A list of priorities will be reviewed during the Comprehensive Plan review that’s underway. Dan Hyer of Line + Grade lists some of the intentions of the plan, which is split into two geographic phases.  “How to make it a safe corridor, how to improve environmental and public spaces along the corridor, keep traffic moving effectively and optimally,” Hyer said. “And try to make access equitable for all those who live and use the corridor.” Hyer said to balance all of those goals, his team took both a qualitative and quantitative approach to craft a roadway for the county’s 21st century needs. “At some point in the past, roadways were not just designed for their quantitative aspects but the quality of the experience was also important,” Hyer said. “And so we devised our own metrics on how to analyze both of these corridors from a qualitative standpoint. What’s it like to walk on the sidewalk? Is it hot? Are there trees? Are there crosswalks? Are their lights? Can you see the bus stops?” Hyer said traffic growth is expected as the area builds out with more housing. New intersection approaches are suggested to avoid the backups that come with the four-way signals of the 20th century.  Two traffic signals at the Hillsdale / Old Brook / Northfield intersections would be replaced with a peanut-shaped roundabout to eliminate left-hand turn movements. The Belvedere intersection would be converted into a continuous “Green T” intersection that would close off left-hand movements from the side road. Hyer said this would not preclude a future traffic signal. Line + Grade has offered several different alternatives for the roundabout at John Warner Parkway, but he acknowledged VDOT’s selection will be the one that goes forward. In the second phase, the Rio Road Corridor Study offers fewer specific intersection improvements but provides guidance such as lowering speed limits and laying out a way forward for creation of a shared-use path. “What you have currently is you have a bunch of land widths that are inconsistent,” Hyer said. “You’ve got some that are 14 feet, some that are ten feet. You have a bus stop where you don’t need one. There’s a bunch of infrastructure that can be reallocated and that’s what you see here in our proposed plan.” Hyer said one difficulty identified in the study was trying to figure out how to find a way to make it safe to walk on Rio Road between Stonehenge Road and the city limits. He said that might need a plan of its own.“Very complicated there,” Hyer said. “The creek is eroding. It’s coming closer to eroding the roadbed. It’s just an entirely different conversation and not worth trying to build a sidewalk there right now. There’s other low-hanging fruit for us to pursue.” Commission Chair Karen Firehock urged the inclusion of bioswales and other innovative ways to build in drainage that supports the ecology. She said the roundabouts might be a good place.“Because there’s going to be a lot of grading going along to put in a roundabout in the first place and a lot of times in some lazy places they are just boring lawns and they’ve done nothing with that space,” Firehock said. “It’s an opportunity besides just having more turf grass which is the number one crop in the Chesapeake Bay drainage.”The Board of Supervisors will be briefed on the plan at a later date, possibly in August. Watch the presentation on YouTube:Town Crier Productions has a sponsorship thing with Ting!For over a year 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

A cursory look at the traffic count for the only other Sunday edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement so far reveals that the audience for this one may be quite low. A cursory look at the backlog of stories indicate that there’s no time like the present for this May 29, 2022 edition of the program, packed with transportation information to avoid future frustration. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. Ting will generously match your initial payment if you sign up for a paid subscription! Free works, too. I just want you to know things. On today’s program: The city of Charlottesville warns of a slowdown in issuing new building permits due to staff shortageA Charlottesville man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in a May 15 crash on U.S. 29 that killed the driver of a second vehicle Governor Youngkin vetoes several bills for which the General Assembly opted not take up his recommendationsCharlottesville City Council and the Planning Commission have been presented with recommendations to reboot transportation planning in the city after a series of long delays and cost over-runsThe debut of the audio-only Sunday Comic Today’s first shout-out goes to WTJUIn today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out: Algorithms 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. Tune in and support freeform community radio on WTJU Consider a donation at wtju.net/donate.Driver charged in May 15 fatal crash on U.S. 29 near Greenbrier DriveThe Albemarle County Police Department has charged a Charlottesville on several counts related to a two-vehicle crash that killed one on the evening of May 15. Twenty-two-year-old Cristian Alexandro Salinas-Perez faces charges of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and driving after losing his license after previous convictions on driving while intoxicated.The crash near the intersection of U.S. 29 and Greenbrier Drive killed 35-year old Justin Tilghman of Charlottesville. The ACPD’s Crash Reconstruction Team concluded that the vehicle driven by Salinas-Perez allegedly was being operated at an excessive speed when it collided with the one driven by Tilghman. Salinas-Perez was arrested Friday and is being held without bond at Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Charlottesville warns of slower turnaround time for building permitsStaff shortages are causing the city of Charlottesville’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services to put a pause on building and trade inspections between May 31 and June 13. “The department acknowledges the inconvenience this may cause and appreciates everyone's patience and cooperation during this time,” reads a press release that went out Friday afternoon. That means “major delays” in the issuance of new building permits and new inspections. The release points to the Department of Neighborhood Development Service’s website for information about the city’s policy on third party inspections. “The 3rd party inspection policy/program allows substitute inspectorsto perform the daily inspections normally completed by Charlottesville Building Inspectors after our approval,” reads that form.There are several open positions on the city’s jobs board, including Building Code Official, which pays between $73,474 and $96,096 a year.  In the meantime, the release states that NDS will continue to process permits and inspections as quickly as possible. Governor Youngkin signs 23 bills, vetoes seven others Governor Glenn Youngkin has completed action on legislation that cleared both Houses of the General Assembly in this year’s regular session. Youngkin signed 23 bills to which his amendments had been reviewed by the legislature and vetoed seven others in which his recommendations were rejected in the House of the bill’s origin. The vetoed bills are:SB182 and HB339 would have allowed the City of Falls Church to allow anyone over the age of 18 to sit on a board or commission rather than a registered voter. Youngkin suggested adding a requirement the person be “legally present” in the United States. The Senate rejected that requirement and another more or less on party lines.  SB474 and HB 614 would have dropped a requirement that indigent parties post a bond to appeal on an unlawful detainer. Youngkin would have allowed a payment plan to pay off the bond over time. The Senate rejected that on party lines and the House of Delegates voted that recommendation down on a 35 to 65 vote. SB508 would have moved the administration of the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund from the Department of Conservation and Recreation to the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board. Youngkin’s recommendations related to membership and what would constitute a quorum. “This legislation will have the unintended consequence of fragmenting our coastal resiliency efforts,” he stated in his veto explanation. HB384 would have protected state and local employees from being penalized for speaking on policy matters at public hearings. The bill is related to the firing of a teacher in Loudoun County, and Youngkin said in his explanation that he supports the idea in theory. “Despite the positive intentions, the legislation has practical implications for the effective management of state government that may lead to significant confusion when state employees comment during legislative or regulatory public comment periods,” he wrote.HB891 would have removed the term “alien” from Virginia Code as it related to non-citizens. For the full list of bills signed by the Governor, read the press release that went out Friday afternoon. For the full rules of how this works, consult Article V, Section 6 of the Virginia Constitution.  No ruling yet in federal case seeking Virginia House of Delegates race in 2022Sometimes, no news is still worth copy. It’s been over three weeks since the last motion was filed in the case of Goldman v. Brink. Richmond attorney Paul Goldman filed suit in federal court last year against the State Board of Elections arguing that House elections held last November would not be constitutional because they were based on the 2010 Census.Flash forward to now, when we’re just over five months away from when a House of Delegates election would be held if this case went the same way as a similar case in 1981 that led to Delegate races in 1981, 1982, and 1983. Goldman has argued the same principle applies, but first he still has had to convince the court that he has the legal standing to bring the case. On May 5, Judge David J. Novak warned Goldman to stop filing new motions after a request for the court to allow consideration of the leaked draft of a Supreme Court ruling that overturned constitutional protections for abortion was rejected. Earlier this week there were rumors Goldman would file a motion to withdraw the suit. Since then, there has been no action. As of this recording, the most recent document in the docket was Novak’s warning. Today’s second shout-also goes to WTJU for the Radio Relics projectIn today’s second Patreon-fueled shout-out:  This year, WTJU 91.1 FM turns 65 and to mark the occasion, there’s a new micro-museum exhibition this summer! Radio Relics traces WTJU’s storied history of broadcasting for our community. As part of our 65th anniversary celebrations, WTJU has curated photos, artifacts, and t-shirts – so many t-shirts! – spanning more than six decades.The exhibition is free and will be open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from June 3 through July 29. The museum space is a renovated, vintage camper parked behind WTJU’s studios at 2244 Ivy Road in Charlottesville. WTJU’s Radio Relics exhibition shows off some of the artifacts collected over the years, many contributed by former WTJU General Manager Chuck Taylor.  In fact, there’s even a new initiative to raise money through the Chuck Taylor Fund for WTJU History. Contact General Manager Nathan Moore to learn more. Or donate today!Special note: Today’s podcast version has a Sunday Comic. What is this? You’ll have to listen in to find out at about this spot! Charlottesville City Council told of problems with implementing transportation projectsThe city of Charlottesville has planned and built most of the transportation infrastructure projects within city limits since 2005. Soon after Deputy City Manager for Operations Sam Sanders took on the role last summer, he noticed there were some performance issues that require a total reboot of the way the city undertakes this work.  “Some initial assessments when I first arrived here was that the development review process within [the Department of Neighborhood Development Services] needed some attention,” Sanders said. “And in doing that work since I’ve been here I’ve discovered it was more than just that. It was also looking closely as the Public Works / Engineering side of the house.” At a meeting of the Charlottesville City Council and the Planning Commission on May 24, Sanders said there was not a lot of institutional knowledge, and that there was a lot of work that needed to be done. First is to improve the city’s relationship with the Virginia Department of Transportation. (view the presentation) “The second being evaluating our financial management of projects with our project managers as well as our budget and finance team, and as well as assessing project management capacity,” Sanders said. The city has over $185 million in funds from VDOT that it has been awarded but not yet spent. These include four streetscape projects funded in the first two rounds of the Smart Scale process, five other projects funded in the second two, as well as projects funded through the VDOT revenue-sharing program. That figure also includes the $35.4 million Belmont Bridge project which is now under construction after over a decade of planning. The other projects still face delays.Sanders said the recommendations would seek a “right-sizing” of what the city can handle. He said Charlottesville could lose projects and make it harder to receive additional funding in the future. “A hatchet-approach would have been just to attempt to kill a projects and then try to go forward,” Sanders said. “Tonight’s approach is really a more surgical approach so we can not only get our arms around our challenges and reset budgets and timelines, we’re also attempting to position ourselves for a share of the massive pipeline of infrastructure dollars that are coming in the near future.” City Engineer Jack Dawson detailed all the improvements included in that $185 million, and some of that money came from sources that no longer exist or can’t adequately be traced.“Lots of our projects have been around for a long time and have sort of outlasted old grant programs, so very specifically the Belmont Bridge,” Dawson said. “That has a little bit of everything thrown in there. So some of the accounting does get trickier.” Dawson described the division’s responsibilities, and I’ll briefly mention two of them. Transportation planning involves making new designs comply with documents auch as the Streets That Work Plan, the Standards and Design Manual, and the Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan. Another overarching responsibility is for project management, and the list of duties for the Urban Construction Initiative process is extensive. “Request for Proposal and selection of consultants and contractors, accounting, grant management, reimbursement processes, consultant oversight, right of way coordination and negotiations and construction management,” Dawson said. “All UCI on those projects.” This paragraph corrected after further information: The city currently has four project managers, and each of them has 8.25 projects under their belt. Seven projects are currently unassigned. A transportation planner has been created in the Department of Neighborhood Development Services and that and other positions in public works are being advertised. The goal is to get the average number of project to 3.3 per manager. Institutional knowledge at the top level isn’t great which is perhaps understandable in a city with a lot of recent turnover at the executive level. For example, Dawson pointed to a project that has the name “Cville Signals” which is currently classified as a revenue-sharing program with funds that came from a previous project. This project has a $3.375 million estimate, but there’s a shortfall of nearly $2.2 million.“How do we get in such situations?” Dawson said. “That was used to conceive to use money from the leftover Solutions 29 money which, I, I don’t even know what that is, but that’s what they tell me.” Route 29 Solutions refers to a series of $230 million in projects that were planned and constructed after the Commonwealth Transportation Board canceled a 6.2 mile western bypass of U.S. 29 that had been a priority of the administration of Governor Bob McDonnell. An unfavorable ruling from the federal government as well as a change on the Albemarle Board of Supervisors effectively killed the project in early 2014 and all of the funding was planned through a process known as Route 29 Solutions. This resulted in the completion of:Construction of a grade separated intersection at Rio Road and U.S. 29The widening of U.S. 29 to six lanes between Polo Grounds Road and Ashwood BoulevardConstruction of Berkmar Drive Extended to Hollymead Town Center Leftover funds were recommended for future projects, including one that originally had the title “adaptive traffic signal technology.” The funding was authorized for that purpose by the Commonwealth Transportation Board in June 2014, but Dawson said there’s not a recent analysis of what the project is intended to do. Since the Route 29 Solutions planning work done in 2014, the city has been through five city managers. None of the City Councilors serving today were elected before 2019. And then there’s West Main Street, which started off as a $350,000 study authorized by Council in February 2013 that somehow grew into a $55 million project that has been defunded but still exists. Dawson said the current cost of construction is making it more likely that all of these projects will have cost overruns. “Now is a horrible time to price these things because there [are] just some construction materials that cannot be found,” Dawson said. As part of the right-sizing, Dawson recommends several projects be shelved and put on hold and used for future applications. These are:All four phases of the West Main StreetscapeThe aforementioned signals project Monticello and Ridge improvements Harris Road improvementsElliot Street improvements Preston / Grady project awarded $6.1 million in Smart Scale Round 4“We took the tack that we want to demonstrate to VDOT that we can complete projects,” Dawson said. Dawson said the purpose of the projects would continue to be evaluate The Monticello / Ridge project, for example, would be addressed during the Smart Scale project for Ridge Street.  He said the Department of Neighborhood Development Services will conduct a small area plan for the area of Preston and Grady before reapplying for more funding.See also: Council moves forward with application for Preston / Grady intersection, July 22, 2022In all, Dawson said the city will return about $12 million in Smart Scale projects that would be redistributed to other projects in VDOT’s Culpeper District. Dawson said he hopes this funding will be returned back to the city to deal with about $10 million in cost overruns for existing Smart Scale projects.  That decision is ultimately up to the Commonwealth Transportation Board. The city will also turn over to VDOT administration of a turn lane on U.S. 250 that will be related to improvements for the interseection at Hydraulic Road and U.S. 29.“We do as a city like to control our own projects so we can have input on the destiny on those projects and I do think this is a good one to ease the administrative burden on our staff,” Dawson said. Keeping the pieces movingDawson is also suggesting combining the two existing Smart Scale projects on the Ridge / Fifth Street corridor into one, and adding the project that comes out the ongoing efforts to reformat the four-lane highway that is Fifth Street. “While those have three different funding sources, we’re going to hope to combine them into one project and have a project manager that deals with those as one while we manage the finances in triplet to try and minimize overhead from a project management standpoint and maybe bid them all to one consultant,” Dawson said.That’s the approach VDOT took with both the Route 29 solutions projects as well as a suite of Smart Scale projects that Albemarle County was awarded in the second round. On Thursday, the city awarded bids for construction of two related projects on Rose Hill Drive and Rugby Avenue. Vess Excavating of Charlottesville bid $464,823 for the Rose Hill sidewalk project (UPC#108757) and Linco of Waynesboro will build intersection improvements at Rose Hill Drive and Rugby Avenue (UPC#108755). Linco bid $621,691.59. Dawson’s boss is Stacy Smalls, the relatively new director of the Public Works Department. He said there needs to be more transparency from the city.“We would like to present on VDOT project status to Council and the Planning Commission on a yearly basis,” Smalls said. “This incorporates accountability and transparency about our workload [and] the types of projects we are undertaking in what areas of the city we are improving with these particular projects.”  Smalls said the city will also move to create web pages for each project. In the meantime, if you’re interested in volunteering for cvillepedia on that aspect, I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and get you moving. I’ve tried to keep track of these things for fifteen years now, and I hope that others will get involved so that more community members know how this process works. Council will consider each of these steps officially at future meetings. “VDOT is expecting us to move quickly,” Sanders said. “This is very coordinated with them to be able to get action taken by Council to be put in front of the leadership at VDOT so that we can move forward.” The pieces will stay in motion, and continue reading and listening to Charlottesville Community Engagement to try to keep track of all the moving parts. Town Crier Productions has a sponsorship thing with Ting! For over a year 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

How should we get around in the future? What should our transportation network look like? Those are some of the questions that feature heavily in today’s installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, and this will be a focus in future versions as well. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs, and I’ve been writing about transportation planning for nearly thirty years. Even if you don’t think you’re interested, you probably might be if you have access to stories about these issues. That’s the point of Charlottesville Community Engagement, and I’m grateful to the hundreds of supporters who are helping me track all the pieces in motion. Help this newsletter grow by signing up for a paid subscription. Ting will match your initial payment! Sign-up is free, but I need a roof over my head to keep paying attention to all of the things! On today’s program:Charlottesville officials weigh in on potential plans to address safety concerns on Fifth Street The nation’s top court paves the way for the federal government to calculate the “social costs” of greenhouse gas emissions An American Elm has been honored by a local non profit that does such things faceFirst shout-out: The Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign It’s springtime, and one Patreon subscriber wants you to know the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign is a grassroots initiative of motivated citizens, volunteers, partner organizations, and local governments who want to promote the use of native plants. This spring the group is working with retailers across the region to encourage purchase of plants that belong here and are part of an ecosystem that depends on pollination. There are plenty of resources on the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page, so sign up to be notified of lectures, plant sales, and more!U.S. Supreme Court clears way for federal study of greenhouse gas emissionsIn a one-sentence order issued last night, the United States Supreme Court has cleared the way for the federal government to study the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions. “It is essential that agencies capture the full costs of greenhouse gas emissions as accurately as possible, including by taking global damages into account,” reads Section 5 of an executive order issued by President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.That order set up an interagency working group to resume the work of calculating those costs, work that had been stopped by the previous administration. Ten states led by Republicans sued to stop the Biden administration from moving forward, and Judge James Cain  of the Western District of Louisiana agreed with them in a February ruling granting an injunction. (read that ruling)In March, the Fifth Circuit allowed the study to proceed and the matter was appealed to the high court. According to Courthouse News, the one-sentence concurrence allows the study to proceed pending further executive action. Locally, work continues on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also to prepare for the effects of climate change. The city of Charlottesville will hold a community workshop on June 9 on the Climate Vulnerability Assessment. More info on the city’s website.Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards honor their 15th landmark treeAt the corner of Elliot Avenue and Monticello Avenue stands an American Elm that a nonprofit group honored in late April as part of Arbor Day. Now, a plaque has been installed marking the Elm as the 15th Landmark tree. The Charlottesville Tree Stewards were on hand at Sojourner’s Church on Arbor Day this past April 29 to mark the occasion.City transportation planners present ideas on Fifth Street ExtendedIn the next few installments of this program, there’s going to be a heavy focus on transportation. Today we look at one specific project in the heart of Charlottesville. On Tuesday, Charlottesville’s elected officials met with the appointed Charlottesville Planning Commission to give feedback on a set of proposals to slow down traffic on Fifth Street Extended. Several groups have called upon to Council to take action to increase safety conditions on the roadway following a string of fatal crashes in 2020. “Our consultant team and staff have been working for the last couple of months to expedite a design plan to improve transportation safety,” said James Freas, the city’s director of Neighborhood Development Services. The city is working toward an August 1 deadline to submit the projects to the Virginia Department of Transportation for funding through something called the Smart Scale program. Candidate projects from all across Virginia are scored according to how well they will achieve certain outcomes, such as increasing safety and reducing congestion.For many years, Amanda Poncy was the city’s bike and pedestrian coordinator. She left that position last year to work for EPR PC.  “EPR was hired by the city in February to help with the development of that grant application which is due on August 1,” Poncy said. “The segment that we’re looking at is between old Ridge Street and Harris Road. Our scope of work really involved looking at the crash data, conducting a speed study, developing concepts for public review and ultimately arriving at a final feedback that we can really flesh out with cost estimates and better understanding of some of the engineering issues and things like that for the Smart Scale submittal.” The roadway has been studied before, including a 2018 study conducted by EPR that resulted in two successful Smart Scale applications. These are for a turn lane on Cherry Avenue as well as multimodal improvements on Ridge Street. (read the 2018 study)“A third project that involved pedestrian improvements at the Cherry / Ridge intersection was also funded by VDOT outside of that project study but is being lumped into these other two because there is some overlap there,” Poncy said. Since that study, there have been a series of fatal crashes and EPR’s work concludes that many of those are related to intersections. All of the fatalities were related to speeding. Poncy said a survey was conducted this spring which yielded over 700 responses. “Really the top thing we heard was concern about people’s driving behavior whether it is reckless driving or redlight running,” Poncy said. There are several potential solutions, such as a roundabout, a restricted crossing U-turn, and guardrails to prevent people from hitting trees. Another option would be to remove the trees, which Poncy said would go against the spirit of the Streets that Work plan. Restricted crossing U-turns have been used in Virginia. Poncy explains how one would work on Fifth Street. “People coming from the side streets, so for example Bailey Road or Old Ridge, they would first make a right turn,” Poncy said. “The median openings that are currently there would be closed for through traffic and people coming out of the side streets would have to make a right hand turn and then go up to the next median opening to go in the direction they wanted to travel.”Another potential solution is a roundabout at Bailey Road which is the entrance to the Orangedale section of the Fifeville neighborhood. That would likely mean the taking of some property to accommodate the geographic scope.Another overarching concept is to put Fifth Street on a road diet, which would mean reducing travel lanee and giving that space over to wider sidewalks or shared-use paths. Bike lanes could be protected with a physical barrier, but those details have not yet been worked out. In one of the scenarios, the road diet would include a dedicated bus-lane in each direction. Second Shout-out: RCA working on restoration of Riverview ParkThe first Patreon-fueled shout-out today is for the Rivanna Conservation Alliance and their work with the City of Charlottesville on the restoration of Riverview Park. The RCA aims to restore a 600-foot section of the Rivanna riverbank in an area that’s designated for public access to the waterway as well as a 200-foot section of a dangerously eroding stormwater channel nearby. Another community meeting will be held in the near future to get your feedback on the work should be prioritized. Visit rivannariver.org to learn more about the project, which seeks to help Riverview Park continue to be a welcoming place to exercise, cool off, paddle, fish, play, explore, observe nature, and escape from the day-to-day stresses of life.  Skepticism of bus lanes, support for roundabout, more data needed on road diet detailsAfter the overview, Commissioners and Councilors had the chance to provide feedback. During their discussion, they appeared to want more detail about what a road diet would entail, expressed support for the single-lane roundabout, and stated concerns about dedicated bus lanes. Let’s begin with the Planning Commission’s non-voting representative from the University of Virginia wanted to know if the needs of the emergency health system had been taken into account.“From the UVA perspective, this is a pretty major corridor for emergency vehicles coming to the hospital,” said Bill Palmer with the Office of the Architect. Bill Wuensch of EPR said if the bus lanes were dedicated, they would be available for use by emergency vehicles. “Whether it’s an ambulance, fire truck, police, whatever, they would still be able to use and access that bus lane in that single lane option,” Wuencsch said. Palmer asked what the Future Land Use map designations were for the roadway and said whatever alternative is selected should anticipate future development. Much of the corridor is designated now as Medium Intensity Residential with other portions as Higher Intensity Residential. During the conversation, at least three Councilors were skeptical about reducing capacity by eliminating travel lanes. “In plumbing, you’ve got to be careful of going from big to little,” said City Councilor Sena Magill said. Magill added she would support some form of a dedicated bus lane, but said she would be concerned it might be difficult for those vehicles to merge back into traffic on either end. “Refining some of those details about the transitions is kind of the next step,” said Jeannie Alexander, another EPR employee who used to work for the city. “Getting into those design details. Yes, you’re right, it’s very important and will be the make or break for many things.”Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook said he was skeptical about the bus lane concept. The Route 2, Route 3, and Route 6 operated by Charlottesville Area Transit regularly use the corridor. “And we’re devoting the largest share of asphalt to something that only takes… 30 vehicles a day,” Snook said. “That strikes me as being a very difficult thing to justify.”  Snook said he was concerned that constricting Fifth Street would route more vehicles through Bailey Road up to Prospect Avenue, or onto Harris Street through the Fry’s Spring neighborhood. Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade used to work as a transportation planner for Albemarle County. He echoed Snook’s concern.“I know what’s going to happen,” Wade said. “They’re going to filter through the neighborhoods and then we’re going to get calls about complaints of cars speeding in front of Jackson-Via [Elementary School] and in front of Buford [Middle] School because that’s where they’re going to go if they get off of I-64 and see the traffic.” Planning Commissioner Jody Lahendro said he was skeptical of many of the options.“The conclusion I’m coming to is that this is very difficult to come up with one static solution for a road that has various issues,” said Commissioner Jody Lahendro. Commissioner Hosea Mitchell was also concerned about the road diet and the potential for congestion. “I’m not too geeked out about the two-lane roundabout either,” Mitchell said. “I’ve worked and lived in lots of big cities and those two-lane roundabouts can be confusing. Mitchell said he could support a single-lane roundabout but wanted to know more information. He also said he supported the pursuit of low-cost measures such as guardrails and photo enforcement. Planning Commissioner Karim Habbab said he would support some form of a road diet but only if it didn’t lead to too much congestion. He also said he could support a roundabout.“I know those are great at reducing crashes or the severity of crashes at those intersections and I’m for a roundabout,” Habbab said.  Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg supported the road diet because he said a change in design would stop the conditions that lead to the three fatal crashes in 2020. “In off-hours, Fifth Street becomes a drag strip and it’s just a wide open road, a total straightaway, and people can speed recklessly,” Stolzenberg said. “Yes it’s a small minority of people but road design is how we stop that.” Stolzenberg said the road concept needed to be fleshed out further. City Councilor Brian Pinkston said he supported studying the road diet and doing a study. That would likely mean a delay in applying for the Smart Scale funds. The next round will be in 2024. Magill said she wanted to know more about a road diet would work, and that she could support a single-lane roundabout but not a double one. She also said people need to understand Charlottesville’s geographic role. “We cannot get away from the fact that we are the urban center for a large rural community and that’s something we have to plan with,” Magill said. Councilor Michael Payne said he supported the roundabout at Bailey Road to break up the speed. “You know I think I would lean toward the road diet but I do have concern of us doing with the level of information that we have now,” Payne said. “It does seem that more study and information is needed.” Planning Commission Chair Lyle Solla-Yates said he wanted the city to pursue all of the options.“In general we need to be thinking bigger and more systematically so we can get at these connections about these issues,” Solla-Yates said. City traffic engineer Brennan Duncan said he heard the concern about a two-lane roundabout but said unless the number of lanes was reduced through a road diet, that would have to be the case.“Just for a roundabout, in order to build one for the road we have today, it would have to be a two-lane roundabout,” Duncan said. Council will return to this matter at their meeting on June 21.There are other projects nearby. Albemarle County and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission are working on a Smart Scale application for an area south of Harris Road (read those application details)A TJPDC application for something called the Fifth Street Trail hub was successful in the last Smart Scale round and received nearly $10 million in funds (read the application)The city was awarded $8.74 million in Smart Scale Round 4 for Ridge Street improvements (read the application)The city was awarded $6.1 million for the Cherry Avenue turn lane improvements in Smart Scale Round 3 (read the application)More transportation-related items in the next Charlottesville Community Engagement. Always in motion, we are! Sign up for Ting - Support Town Crier productions!For over a year 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

After today, 80 percent of May’s Tuesdays will have happened, leaving one more to go. While this one is with us, there are plenty of fake holidays to ponder including National Escargot Day, National Caterers Appreciation Day, Aviation Maintenance Technician Day, and National Scavenger Hunt Day. Can you find the clues in the May 24, 2022 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement? If so, please let me know so I can also try to figure it all out. I’ll reveal who I am at the end of the program. Send this newsletter and podcast on to someone else so we can grow the audience!On today’s program:Charlottesville City Council holds first of two readings on new mechanism to provide tax relief for city property ownersA public hearing is held for a segment of an east-west commuter trail The candidates are in place for the 5th District Congressional race this November The General Assembly will head back to Richmond on June 1 Details on a planned condominium complex in downtown Belmont Shout-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.Republicans nominate Good for re-election to Fifth District We are now three days into the general election stage for Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District now that both major parties have selected their nominees for the November 8 ballot. On Saturday, Republicans who attended a convention at Hampden-Sydney College in Prince Edward Category overwhelmingly selected incumbent Bob Good of Campbell County to seek a second term. According to a raw vote count, incumbent Bob Good received 1,115 of the 1,303 votes cast. Of the 24 localities with Republican committees, challenger Dan Moy of Charlottesville performed best in Albemarle County where he got votes from 43 of 128 convention delegates and in Charlottesville where he received 15 out of 28 votes. However, the convention used a weighted system which gave Good 1,488 votes to Moy’s 271. (view the vote tally)Democrat Josh Throneburg got straight to work with a press release pointing out that the number of votes cast in the convention were less than 0.02 percent of the population of the Fifth District.  Throneburg became the nominee by default when all other candidates failed to qualify for the primary ballot. Other resources: 5th District Republicans nominate Good to represent party in November, Lynchburg News & AdvanceGood defeats challenger at convention, will be on November ballot, Chatham Star-Tribune NewsRep. Bob Good wins GOP nomination for 5th District, NBC29Virginia Public Access ProjectVirginia legislators to return to General Assembly on June 1A date has been set for the Virginia Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates to return to Richmond to complete the special session that convened on April 4. The two Chambers will convene at 10 a.m. according to the Legislative Information System.One of the major pieces of business left to complete is the state budget and a slate of legislators from both Houses have been seeking to work out a compromise to reconcile both versions.  There are also several bills that passed both Houses but also have to be reconciled before it can be sent to Governor Glenn Youngkin for action. These include a sales tax exemption for food and personal hygiene products, changes to the make-up of the State Board of Elections, and the establishment of a Virginia Football Stadium Authority.  City Council holds public hearing on trail connectionA new partnership has formed between the City of Charlottesville and an entity that secures open space easements in Virginia, and that will slightly increase the cost of land transactions. “We have a property owner that we’ve been negotiating with and we have a granting agency in the Virginia Outdoors Foundation that’s providing the funding which has already been appropriated,” said Chris Gensic, a planner in the Parks and Recreation Department. When complete, the transaction will trigger a $3 fee for recordation of most deeds to go toward a pool of money to allow the Virginia Outdoors Foundation to purchase more land. Gensic said most localities of Virginia already have this arrangement but the city has yet to record an open space easement within its borders. The property in question would allow for the 250 Bypass Trail to continue on an already paved trail in the woods to the south of Charlottesville High School toward the Piedmont Family YMCA to the east“The parks department has been working diligently over the past few decades to acquire pieces of property to stitch together a trail network per the Comprehensive Plan,” “We’ve been discussing this particular acquisition that’s on the western end of McIntire Park.” The public hearing was held to move the transaction forward, but Council took no action. That will come when the deal is nearing completion. Rex Linville of the Piedmont Environmental Council said the parcel in question was significant. “It is a crucial link in the multiyear effort to create a shared-use path that will connect McIntire Park, the YMCA, and Charlottesville High School to Hydraulic Road,” Linville said. “This parcel is also a vital part of a larger four-mile loop that will connect these public resources to Michie Drive, the Greenbrier neighborhood, and the John Warner Parkway.” No city funds will be directly used in the transaction, according to Linville. Council approves action plan for federal HOME and CDBG fundsCity Council has approved an action plan for federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the next fiscal year. Staff had suggested making some changes to the process in order to meet HUD’s guidelines, but some groups pushed back on some of those proposals. (read the staff report)“Staff will no longer request that the task force be changed to staff advisory,” said Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders. “Instead we’re going to focus on identifying income eligible participants to ensure that the diverse voice is always available.” Sanders said the city cannot use federal funds to pay participants to sit on that task force, but local funding can be found for that purpose should Council want to ensure participation by low income individuals. Charlottesville will also stop the process of designating a neighborhood to receive funds for three-year periods at a time. In recent years, projects in Belmont received those funds despite an influx of wealth. “Instead we will continue to work to identify projects that prioritize investment in those areas for the targeted low-income population to benefit from,” Sanders said. A project that had been recommended by the task force was $186,376.16  in funds for sidewalk improvements in the Ridge Street neighborhood, the current priority neighborhood. That will no longer be part of the action plan due to a concern that the project would not be completed in time to meet HUD’s deadline. Instead funds for project will be returned to the pool to allow for other proposals from the community to be funded for the Ridge Street neighborhood.  A second reading and vote on this year’s spending will be on Council’s agenda on June 6. City changing mechanism for property tax relief City Council will hold a work session with the Planning Commission this afternoon but before the joint session on transportation matters gets underway, there will be a second reading of an appropriation of $1.5 million in city funds to be used as grants to low- and middle-income property owners. This would replace the long-running program Charlottesville Housing Affordability Program (CHAP) that the city had been using to provide tax relief. Todd Divers is Charlottesville’s Commissioner of Revenue. “We’ve kind of scrambled to put together a program that I think is going to get us close to what we were doing,” Divers said. Divers said the previous tax relief program had been justified by the City Charter, but now a second avenue to justify the program will be used instead. “The Director of Social Services as the local Social Services board will be the official administrator of this program though I will be working in a cooperative agreement with her and we’ll still be effectively managing the program the way we always have,” Divers said. The move also allows the city to increase the threshold for eligibility for participation to a home value of $420,000, which is the average assessed value of a residential parcel in the city. The income threshold will be increased to $60,000. “This a grant program,” Divers said. “This is a grant for needy folks and the way that we are defining that is folks who make less than $60,000 a year and who own a home in the city of Charlottesville.”Divers said he estimates an additional 100 people will be eligible. The second reading is being held today to speed up the process to allow the process moving forward for this year. 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.Site plan meeting held for Belmont Condominiums projectOfficials with Riverbend Development have offered details on a proposal to build dozens of condominiums on undeveloped land in Charlotteville’s Belmont neighborhood. “I know on this site in particular I have been working with the neighborhood off and on for at least five years regarding this site and we’ve owned it for well over a decade now I believe,” said Ashley Davies with Riverbend Development.A previous submission that looked more like neighboring City Walk Apartments had gone to a site plan review conference in 2018 but that version did not move forward. “A lot of the feedback that we got from the neighborhood from that time is just that it felt like these two buildings were too big compared to what you see in the rest of the neighborhood,” Davies said. This development would include 130 total units and it needs city approval on three applications. Both a major subdivision and a site plan can be approved by staff, but a third requires endorsement by elected officials.“A critical slope waiver due to impacts to critical slopes requires a City Council action,” said city planner Matt Alfele said. “This means that application will go to the Planning Commission for a recommendation and then City Council for a final decision.” No date has been set for that Planning Commission meeting and a public hearing is not required. The six acres of property span many parcels which would be combined in the major subdivision. Since 2003, the zoning has been for Neighborhood Commercial Corridor which allows for mixed-use. Most of the buildings would be constructed in a form known as a two-over-two. “It looks like a townhouse style unit on the outside but once you go into the unit it actually has two units each two floors tall and there’s garages on the backside that have parking internal to those units,” Davies said. Davies said Riverbend has built these types of units at Brookhill in Albemarle County and they have proven to be popular. Eight of the units would be designated as being sale to households and individuals at a certain income level. The property is currently being used for automotive repair. One neighbor asked if the site needed to be remediated due to potential contaminants in the soil. Scott Collins is an engineer working on the project “As far as contaminants, they’ll be testing the soil as well when the asphalt and concrete is removed and checking the consistency of the soils and making sure it’s not contaminated and if it is, there are remediative measures that have to be in place,” Collins said. The site plan must be approved by staff if it meets all of the technical requirements. Staff has not yet completed the comment letter that will go to Riverbend. People still have until June 15 to make a comment about the site plan or to ask a question. But Council will have to approve a critical slopes waiver and one Councilor who attended the May 18 site plan conference did not like what he saw in the current project, taking his cues from a speaker from the Piedmont Environmental Council. Michael Payne said he preferred the previous approach Riverbend had taken. “I just would say that I’m pretty disappointed at where this has ended up,” said Michael Payne. “I feel like where this ended up is the worst of all worlds in terms of as Peter Krebs [of PEC] said the most impervious surfaces, the least compact and clustered development. And also the least affordable development. It seems like its the most sprawled version which will have the most expensive units and I think this project just would have been much better off to be more clustered and have more apartments similar to the Belmont Lofts project or City Walk for that matter.”  One neighbor suggested the city make a swap with the developer.“Wouldn’t it be lovely if the city could do an exchange with the owners of Belmont Holdings and give them the existing Clark School which is a gorgeous building with high ceilings and let them turn that into condominiums and turn this site into either a school or a park?” commented Deb Jackson. This is not likely to occur. 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

This 141st day of 2022 also has the distinction of being National Waitstaff Day, and in this time of college and university graduations, my thoughts are with those people who bring food and drink to celebrations all over the globe. For most of my career in journalism, I supplemented that work by being attentive, detail-oriented, and as accurate as possible as I served customers and clients. That experience really wasn’t that much different from any of the work that goes into every single installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, and I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. This is episode 383, and to help us all eventually get to episode 838, consider becoming a paying subscriber! On today’s program:Time is running out to tell Albemarle County your thoughts on the growth management policy that some would say has limited sprawl, and others would say has limited development Another land use lawsuit has been filed against the city of CharlottesvilleCharlottesville seeks a firm to help hire a new police chief And the spring COVID-19 surge continues with cases rising in Virginia and beyond Shout-out to Town Crier ProductionsIn today’s writer-and-publisher supported shout-out, Town Crier Productions, is the umbrella organization responsible for this Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter. I founded the company two years ago to support my interest in bringing the community as much information as possible about local government, land use, the environment, economic development, and so much more. The company is still just getting started, and if you’d like to help, consider a subscription through Substsck, or support Town Crier Productions through Patreon. There are also other sponsorship opportunities available as the number of offerings increases. To learn more, visit the Information Charlottesville archive and click on the Support the Info button. My sincere thank you to the hundreds of subscribers who have signed on so far! COVID-19 updateOn Friday, the Virginia Department of Health reported another 3,847 cases bringing the seven-day average of new cases to 3,157. The seven-day percent positivity increased to 15.6 percent, up from 9.1 percent three weeks ago. Nationwide, the trend is toward more cases and more hospitalizations according to the Centers for Disease Control’s COVID dashboard. That tool also shows a trend toward fewer deaths per day with 242 a day reported on Thursday night. That could change as death is a lagging indicator as explained by Dr. Costi Sifri, the director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System. “As we see the summer surge start to move out of the northeast which is a highly vaccinated and COVID-experienced population to other parts of the country, we have concerns in the public health community that maybe what we’ve seen so far may not hold as true as the surge moves to the southeast,” Dr. Sifri said. This week, the Blue Ridge Health District discontinued its local dashboard for COVID data from within its boundaries. This follows the Virginia Department of Heath’s retirement of four dashboards. “The CDC dashboard is considered the standard when it comes to cases by vaccination status, as the definition of vaccination status is rapidly changing nationwide,” reads a newsletter from the Blue Ridge Health District. You can find local data on the VDH dashboard by selecting the appropriate geographic region on the cases tab. Children between the age of 5 and 11 are now eligible for boosters of the Pfizer vaccine. Appointments in the Blue Ridge Health District can be made online. Read the release on the Centers for Disease Control website for more information. There will be a community remembrance on Tuesday, May 24, at 7 p.m. at the outdoor ampitheater at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital for those who died from COVID-19 hosted by area health care providers. (Facebook event page)Charlottesville opening up search for new police chiefNearly ten months since former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney was fired by former City Manager Chip Boyles, the city is seeking a permanent replacement. On Friday, the city issued a request for proposals for a firm to conduct an executive search. “The City is seeking a consultant to assist the City Manager through the process of hiring a new Chief of Police who embodies the principles of 21st Century Policing and has an anti-racist focus,” reads the request for proposals. As part of the work, the selected firm will also seek community input on what the “desired characteristics and qualifications” for such a person would be. The solicitation states this will include a survey and in-person meetings. The firm will also be responsible for conducting background checks on all of the finalists. “The Chief of Police is hired by and reports to the City Manager, but upon hire will be officially confirmed by the City Council,” the request continues. The department is currently being led by Acting Police Chief Latroy Durette.The city is being run by interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers.  The closing date for the executive search firm is June 15. Lawsuit filed against City of Charlottesville for rezoning of 240 Stribling A person who lives on property on Stribling Avenue has filed suit against the Charlottesville City Council seeking declaratory judgment that the rezoning of 240 Stribling Avenue in April was illegal. (read the complaint)“During the Planning Commission and Council meetings, the large amount of tax revenue to be gained from increasing the density was discussed as the primary reason for backing this ordinance,” reads paragraph eight of the suit, which was filed on May 18 and served to the city a day later. Charlottesville City Council approved the rezoning on April 18, which will allow up to 170 units on about 12 acres in the Fry’s Spring neighborhood. (read a story)The plaintiff is Cabell Marshall, who is representing herself in the matter. The suit states that Marshall “occupies a house” across from 240 Stribling, but does not specify which one until the signature at the end of the document. Much of the complaint repeats testimony made by opponents of the project, such as increased exhaust fumes and additional traffic. The suit filed on May 18 also argues that an agreement between the city and Southern Development to pay for the upfront costs of upgrading Stribling Avenue is also invalid. “Many neighbors on Stribling Avenue felt overwhelmed by [Charlie Armstrong]’s seemingly unfair advantage in getting advance encouragement directly from the city,” reads paragraph 13. “Virginia Code Section 2.3-3103 prohibits a city employee or someone in an advisory agency from using for his own benefit or that another party confidential information that he has acquired by reason of his public position and which is not available to the public.” The complaint also argues that the public hearing was invalid because it was held while Council meetings were still remote. There’s also an argument the city has not done enough to upgrade city streets, such as the intersection of Stribling Avenue and Jefferson Park Avenue.One of the first legal questions will be whether Marshall has legal standing to bring the suit forward. The owner of the house where she lives is John C. Marshall, who is not named as a part in the suit. He owns two other properties on Stribling Avenue as well as three other throughout city limits. In today’s other two shout-outs Code for Charlottesville is seeking volunteers with tech, data, design, and research skills to work on community service projects. Founded in September 2019, Code for Charlottesville has worked on projects with the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Charlottesville Fire Department, and the Charlottesville Office of Human Rights. Visit codeforcville.org to learn about those projects. The final comes from another Patreon supporter who wants you to go out and read a local news story written by a local journalist. Whether it be the Daily Progress, Charlottesville Tomorrow, C-Ville Weekly, NBC29, CBS19, WINA, Charlottesville Inclusive Media, or some other place I’ve not mentioned - the community depends on a network of people writing about the community. Go learn about this place today!Albemarle closing survey on growth management policy Like many localities across Virginia’s Fifth District including Nelson County and Danville, Albemarle County is currently reviewing its Comprehensive Plan. State law requires localities to prepare such plans and update them on a periodic basis. Albemarle is reviewing its plan in a four-phase process and the first phase will take a look at the county’s growth management policy. A survey for input closes on Sunday at midnight. “The current Comp Plan directs new residential, commercial, retail, office, and industrial development into the Development Areas,” reads the first part of a StoryMap that seeks to explain the history of the growth management policy. “The Rural Area is intended to be used for agriculture, natural resource protection, and some residential homes.”That’s roughly five percent of the county’s 726 square miles. Albemarle’s first Comprehensive Plan in 1971, and originally envisioned a much larger development area.  This was at a time when Charlottesville still had the ability to annex county land if it could prove to a judge that the city would be able to provide urban services more efficiently. However, subsequent plans reduced that area due to concerns such as siltation at the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, which opened in 1967 and soon began to fill in. Another issue was the high cost to build water and sewer infrastructure to remote areas. Several villages have been removed since, such as the ones in Earlysville, Ivy, North Garden, and Stony Point. In the early 90’s, four areas were added including the Village of Rivanna, the North Fork Research Park, and what is now being developed as North Pointe. For the full history, read part two of the StoryMap. It’s well worth a read as the county considers changes. “With an evaluation of the County’s Growth Management Policy, perhaps one of the most important factors to consider is how the policy is impacting the well-being of County residents and whether the policy is leading to equitable outcomes across different geographies within the County, such as residents in the Rural Area compared to residents in Development Area, or across different demographic groups such as age and race,” reads another portion of part 2.The survey closes Sunday night. (fill out the survey)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

Have you ever wanted something so bad that not getting it created a lot of tension and anxiety? How can we shift out of that needy, anxious, forcing and pushing energy into one of calm, flow and ease? Show Notes: What happens when we are in anxious energy when we want or need something, vs when we are in calm and easeWhat to do when you're not getting what you want/needHow to shift from anxious energy into flow and ease when what you want and need isn't coming/happeningWhat's really happening when you feel trapped in somethingWhat you actually need to be freeA question you can ask yourself that can totally shift your realityA strategic tool to use to shift you into flow and ease Resources and Workshops Mentioned in the Episode: Trigger-Free Workshop- Break free from any trigger and shift into flow and ease - ENROLL HERE Host Links: Follow Stephanie on IG @stephaniezellerspeaksTo learn more about 1:1 coaching and mentorship opportunities with host Dr. Stephanie Zeller - CLICK HERETo learn about Online Workshops offered by host Dr. Stephanie Zeller - CLICK HERE Have a question or topic for an episode? CLICK HERE to share your ideas Share some love by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts HERE