Podcast for February 8, 2025: Two briefings from Charlottesville's police chief, Black History Month, a new Albemarle department head, and a request for a property tax rate increase

With the writing of this sentence, I advance my desire to be more familiar with Democracy in America. In the fourth decade of the 19th century, a French national named Alexis de Tocqueville wrote two volumes of an examination of the system of government in the relatively new United States of America. I have vague memories of reading it over thirty years ago in a political science class at Virginia Tech and I’ve been meaning to take a look back in order to get a fresh perspective of where we are on February 8, 2025.

This is the audio edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement for that particular today and the I in this sentence is me, Sean Tubbs. I’ve made my career writing about municipal government, giving me a unique perspective into American government for the first three decades of the 21st century. If you decide to take a listen, you’re about to hear the audio versions of recent stories.

The following links go to Information Charlottesville, the companion website for this newsletter.

• Charlottesville City Council briefed on Project Safe Neighborhoods (learn more)

• Charlottesville Police Chief Kochis gives an update on FLOCK license plate readers (learn more)

• Albemarle County Supervisors and the Charlottesville City Council both acknowledge Black History Month (learn more)

• Albemarle County appoints a new director of Facilities and Environmental Services (learn more)

• Supervisor Pruitt sounds alarm on economic threat of federal cuts, executive orders (learn more)

• Coalition wants Albemarle County to pay $10 million a year toward housing costs (learn more)

One idea is to visit as many cities that begin with “CH” and find out what their culture is like for local government. This is the sort of thing you fund if you pay for a subscription!

First shout-out: Celebrating the community’s other information organizations!

In today’s first shout-out in the form of a house ad, I want to make sure everyone knows that every edition of the regular newsletter (not the podcast ones) ends with a section called Reading Material. Charlottesville Community Engagement is just one offering in a landscape that includes the Charlottesville Daily Progress, C-Ville Weekly, Charlottesville Tomorrow, and Cville Right Now, I curate links from these sources because I believe a truly informed community needs multiple perspectives.

There’s also the Cavalier Daily, Vinegar Hill Magazine, the Fluvanna Review, the Crozet Gazette, NBC29, CBS19, and other sources. But if you look every day, you’ll find links to articles in national publications, all linked to give you more perspectives on some of the issues of our times.

I’ve written over two dozen stories this week. Strange things happen when you devote your entire life to your calling. Today’s podcast took about ten hours to make but now that it is done I can get on to the next set of stories!

Second shout-out:

What you are reading or listening to at Charlottesville Community Engagement is part of a business-venture that’s based on a pretty simple idea. I will spend my time researching and reporting and will provide ways for people who want to pay for the material to be produced!

bI’ve been a journalist for a long while now, and this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Charlottesville Podcasting Network. While that website doesn’t have new content, it’s part of how I demonstrate my dedication to this community. In 2025 I’m seeking ways to solidify the business, and here are some ways you can support the work.

• Sign up for a paid subscription through Substack. There is not much premium content because my primary aim is to get information out to as many people as possible.

• Contribute through Patreon. A major goal this year is to replace this with a way to make a tax-deductible donation, but that’s not set up yet. If I had more time, I’d make more audio programs through Patreon.

• Send in a check made out to Town Crier Productions at PO Box 1754, Charlottesville, Virginia, 22902. This will be used as a replacement for Substack.

• Buy an ad on InfoCville.com! I do not have a rate sheet yet, but if you respond to this email with the promo code #experimental-ad I can do a really very low price until the end of February! How low? Send me the email!

• Tell friends about the work and use the stories to start conversations. Post articles on social media, for instance.

• Volunteer to design some logos because I’m very bad at graphics! Someone did the one for me a few years ago and I probably should give her credit. I’ll reach out!