Charlottesville Community Engagement

There are now eight days until Leap Day, a 24-hour-period that only happens every four years and for which there do not appear to be any large celebrations. Will there be an edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement on that day? For now, it may be better to simply proceed with the February 21, 2024 edition of the program. I’m Sean Tubbs. On today’s show: * A man is dead after being struck la...

According to data collected by the website eBird and curated by the American Bird Conservancy , there are at least 488 species of our feathered friends in Virginia. Every edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, including this February 20, 2024 edition, is fueled by observations of the activities of winged creatures who are unaware of the existence of journalism. I’m Sean Tubbs, and perhap...

The Wikipedia entry for Writer’s block currently suggests five distinct causes for the phenomenon ranging from “ physiological and neurological basis ” to “ negative self-beliefs and feeling of incompetence .” None seem to apply to the inability for Charlottesville Community Engagement to swiftly write up all of the desired stories in the timeliest of manners. Time is required to sift through all...

Today is a day intended to celebrate one version of love, but there are many forms of devotion. This is the 636th edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement , a newsletter and podcast that seeks to provide as much information as possible about a particular region of the United States of America. I’m Sean Tubbs, and this love is what I got.  On today’s show: * One of Charlottesville’s Deputy C...

We are in an age where perhaps we need new metaphors to describe 21st century life. Sometimes people will say they are “drinking from a firehose” when they’re placed in a new situation, or perhaps “in the deep end” or perhaps “in the weeds.” These may no longer be relevant. Sadly, the research budget for Charlottesville Community Engagement does not include funding for neologisms, but your suggest...

Ordinarily we could say that February 8th marks the beginning of the second quarter for this particularly-shaped month, but we’re in one of those years with an extra day. How are your plans to mark Leap Year shaping up? Would you support an alternate plan to make that extra rotation its own special month, and if so, what would it be called? This assemblage of information is called Charlottesville...

When I was younger, the phrase “News You Can Use” became quite popular in television journalism. I’m not entirely sure what that was intended to convey, but I can state that much of what appears in the editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement can be described as “Information I Want To Know.” I’m Sean Tubbs, and I sincerely hope you can use some of this material.  On today’s program: * No o...

What should the length be for an edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement ? The answer depends on a variety of different factors and the mathematics and algorithms have yet to be worked out. With 631 editions already floating down the river of time, some information is unknown. At a minimum, there must be three segments, unless one of them is ridiculously long. An exact rubric cannot be gua...

I got you babe, as in this is Groundhog Day, and I’m Sean Tubbs here with another edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and whether or not Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, this is another program about the mundane and routine that when added up becomes whatever happens with local government. This edition of the program is dedicated to the late Ken Boyd, an Albemarle County Supervisor wh...

The final day of January 2024 is upon us, and please turn in your rankings on the quality of the month based on a variety of considerations. Have you accomplished what you wanted to do? Did you learn something new? How many editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement did you read or listen to? I’m Sean Tubbs, and for the next 3,000 words or so, none of those questions are relevant.  On today’...

A reader informed me today that I am saying too much about my personal life in these opening segments of Charlottesville Community Engagement. That may or may not be the case and perhaps it’s time to turn all of this over to artificial intelligence and I’ll go back to waiting tables and cooking people food. However, that sounds like more work than simply proceeding with the January 29, 2024 editio...

According to one way of looking at the world, January 2024 is now over 83 percent of the way to its completion. Charlottesville Community Engagement, however, will likely be sorting through meetings that have been held so far with the goal of weaving together narratives of how decisions were made. I’m Sean Tubbs, and it’s in this manner that I’ve come to terms with reality.  On today’s show: * A b...

What should be done about January 23? The one for this year marks 6.8 percent of the way through the orbital cycle. Items in this and every edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement happened at different points and the goal is to capture as much as possible. I’m Sean Tubbs, continuing to try to not look at fake holiday calendars for easy opening copy.  On today’s show: * Charlottesville City...

We are now more than halfway through the first month of the year, and all of the usual markings of the season time are present. This January 19 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement captures at least one of them, including an observation that this is perhaps one of the first installments produced while there is snow on the ground in a week with two storms! I’m Sean Tubbs, wondering if th...

If 2024 were an Olympics, today would be the closing ceremony. Yet, there are 351 days left until this year wraps up and there’s a lot of work to do. It is January 16, 2024, and this is the corresponding edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m Sean Tubbs, already wondering what I will wear the next time the ball drops.  On today’s show: * A quick look at recent building statistics in...

If you’ll forgive an attempt at neologism, today is the dozenth day of 2024. And as I typed that word, there are no squiggly lines to indicate that I have made something up. Does this word already exist? That is definitely not the purpose of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and podcast that exists to describe a little of what’s happening. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I’m very careful to n...

We are now nine days into 2024 and the question is whether I will be able to get through an entire year without resorting to telling you what item or issue or individual is being honored. The goal of the past few weeks has been to avoid that entirely based on the note of one podcast listener of Charlottesville Community Engagement who felt the bit had played out. Has it? Continue listening through...

Anyone wishing to pass judgment or make a ranking on 2024 so far should consider that only 2.2 percent of the year has taken place so far. More evidence should be gathered. Perhaps each edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement will assist you in your evaluation? Either way, I’m Sean Tubbs, here to capture as much as I can.  On today’s show: * Christopher Fairchild is the new chair of the Fl...

There’s nothing like January 5, 2024 to have the 621st installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and podcast that may or may not have had 620 previous installments so far. Anyone who wishes to conduct an audit should contact the management. That’s me, Sean Tubbs, increasingly working to bring more information through the polishing of more mirrors.  On today’s show: * Charlo...

The third day of the year may or may not have a special topic or issue associated with this particular 24-hour period. One way to begin each edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement is to look up these bits of trivia as a way to lull the reader or listener into the narrative constructed for each edition, and this is the one for January 3, 2024. I’m the Sean Tubbs that corresponds with this...

January 2 is the 2nd day of 2024, a year so new that there have not yet been any editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement , a newsletter and podcast that seeks to inform humans in a small section of Central Virginia about local government and other issues. I’m Sean Tubbs, glad to be back to work piecing it all together for a growing audience.  In today’s program: * Charlottesville selects...

This is the second in a series of installments that seeks to take a look back at 2023, a year in which a lot seems to have happened and a year in which I think I did not write nearly enough. This review is intended to help me figure out where to prioritize in 2024 and what I need to follow up on.  This edition also carries the podcast version of the December 22 edition . That’s the one that sought...

In the many years I worked for someone else as a reporter, I always had the idea of creating a podcast version of the stories I was writing because I got my start in radio. I love hearing other people’s voices and trying to capture events in a sonic fashion. The December 19, 2023 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement once again focuses on a single meeting in a fashion approaching my visi...

There are two weeks to go until the end of 2023 and tonight is expected to be the final vote on a new zoning code for the City of Charlottesville. Most editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement seek to cover multiple stories but thankfully the format is flexible enough to have at least one more edition that seeks to document the process by which a generational change has been made. I’m Sean...

There are only 18 days left in 2023, and the December 13, 2023 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement begins with a reminder that there is only about a week to go before the days will begin to have more light. To some this will bring great comfort and to others there may be a lament. Many will not notice either way. I’m Sean Tubbs, capable of imagining multiple points of view.  In this ed...