Pliable. Stretchable. Bendabe. Malleable. Whippy.
These are all synonyms for flexible, a word that describes the production nature of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and occasional podcast that for most of the past four years was both at the same time. Over time, though, it was necessary to become more limber, plastic, elastic, and workable.
For this August 3, 2024 podcast edition, audio versions of several stories from the last three print editions. I’m Sean Tubbs, glad to be able to still be doing the sonic version.
In this edition:
Charlottesville City Council to vote Monday on salary increase (learn more)
Albemarle moving ahead with update of economic development strategic plan (learn more)
City of Charlottesville updates retail vacancy report (learn more)
Six townhouses planned for single-family house on Alderman Road (learn more)
State Senator John McGuire will be the Republican nominee for the Fifth District Congressional Race this fall after a recount affirmed his victory in the primary
The Albemarle Board of Supervisors gets a briefing from Albemarle staff on changes to the structure of the next Comprehensive Plan (learn more)
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An explanation of shout-outs
In a typical edition, I use this space to provide a “shout-out” to subscribers and Patreon supporters who have qualified for a particular perk. Most of these editions are written as scripts for a podcast as my early journalistic dream was to be a public radio producer. I love the way that public service announcements sound and I love that in three years I’ve been able to use this space to promote items that I think most of you would be interested in.
In this shout-out, I want to salute anyone who has learned something new from these shout-outs. I also want to thank those individuals and organizations that have supported me in the past.
(image) Town Crier Productions
Thoughts on 713A and the ending of the work week
At 5:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon I am so happy to stop working and to pick it all up again tomorrow. So I will just say that if you have not listened to one of these before, this would be a good one to start. The secret has always been that this was intended to be an audio product as that’s what I’ve always wanted to do. January will mark the 30th anniversary of an internship I had at a public radio station.
The AC44 version aired on WTJU this morning, as I have an obligation to fill 30 minutes a week. Knowing I had to make a new deadline every week, I restructured a lot of my internal processes to be able to make sure I could do it.
This is not that version. I could have just posted that here and taken a day off, but I felt I owe the hundreds of people who do listen to the podcast. I really enjoyed doing this work today while I watched the Olympics in Paris, something I did not expect I would be doing nine days ago.
Watching people compete and be their best is inspirational to me. I’ve worked hard to get good at writing about this stuff, and the podcasts sound pretty good, too. Take a listen, though this one is not soundbite-heavy. I run audio of myself quoting from reports through a filter, which is a very cheap way to try to make it sound interesting. I much prefer people hearing to the voices of people I quote, and that is in the final segment which has already aired on the radio first.
What would me from 1984 think about being able to produce this information and grow an audience? I’m not sure, but I know I’m glad I put this together today. Producing audio is my favorite thing to do. If you listen, thank you!
One more thing to do before going offline for the night. I want to post the WTJU version to the because I put the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisor discussions on the Comprehensive Plan in one podcast. Just another way to document things that may slip past without being published somewhere.
Podcast for August 3, 2024: Stories on Albemarle’s Comprehensive Plan, development on Alderman Road, Monday's public hearing for Council salary increase, and more!