Please take a listen if you’d like a different way to experience these stories for my quest for financing the stage show seems to have stalled.

In this edition:

• Buckingham commuter bus operated by Jaunt tops initial prioritization list (read the story)
• Charlottesville Area Transit preparing for electric buses (read the story)
• The Albemarle Planning Commission endorses an effort to make it easier to build rooftop solar on entrance corridors (read the story)
• Albemarle Planning Commission recommends denial of rezoning for 18-unit development (read the story on C-Ville Weekly)
• One June 9, the Albemarle Planning Commission will learn about five work products to implement the Comprehensive plan. The Board of Supervisors had their review in May and this is an archive story.

Once a week there’s an audio version and this is a chance to catch up on what’s been said:

• Charlottesville’s budget for fiscal year 2026 is on track for surplus (read the story)
• City Manager Sam Sanders given an update on development of a plan to make 2000 Holiday Drive a functioning support center for homeless (read the story)
• Work to build a sidewalk to support additional development in the Fry’s Spring neighborhood is on pause due to higher than expected right of ways costs (read the story)
• Bike Month continues and one Charlottesville City Councilor implores people to log rides with a government agency to beat Richmond (read the story)
• Charlottesville will commemorate the late Mel Walker on May 30 with the unveiling of Mel’s Walk (read the story)
• Supervisor Sally Duncan wants Albemarle to consider creating rental inspection program (read the story)

In this edition:

• Salvation Army launches fundraising campaign for Center for Hope (read the story)
• Many details remain to be worked out for how three groups will work together at Charlottesville’s future low-barrier shelter (read the story)
• Albemarle staff working on five projects to implement new Comprehensive Plan (read the story)
• Albemarle Supervisors leave Comprehensive Plan amendment process as is (read the story)
• Charlottesville to form committee of developers to encourage more Missing Middle housing (read the story)
• Council holds first reading on how to use Community Development Block Grants CDBG funds in 2026 (read the story)
• Tree Commission presents recommendations for how City Council can help improve tree canopy (read the story)
• In a divided vote, MPO Policy Board moves forward with two Smart Scale projects without city support (read the story)
• Albemarle and Charlottesville both mark Older Americans Month (read the story)

Five times five is not 125, but May 5 is the 125th day of the year and goes by 5/5 no matter what side of the Atlantic you are on. Charlottesville Community Engagement has so far been produced on the Western side but one potential future would be for at least some editions to be created in other parts of the world. After all, it has now been three years since the World Health Organization declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic global health emergency. This opening paragraph was written while listening to an Italian radio station.

In this edition:

• Four nonprofit groups that provide support for unhoused people present the annual State of Homelessness report to Charlottesville City Council
• There’s no new public information about how three of those groups will operate a low-barrier shelter at 2000 Holiday Drive
• More support has been requested for those in encampments along the Rivanna River but at least one Councilor said another plan is needed

Some thoughts about what this is

This website has been around for over 21 years, but none of it ever really came together as a cohesive information. The Charlottesville Podcasting Network was an experiment, one that resulted in me being hired at Charlottesville Tomorrow where I worked for eleven years.

During that time, I had no room for experimentation. I was told what to do, and I benefited from that discipline. I became the best reporter I could be with a good editor. After eleven years, I’d written so much about this community.

I lost the ability to be independent and experiment. In the summer of 2020, I created Charlottesville Community Engagement as a way of getting back to journalism and experimenting with form.

For the first three and a half years, all of the newsletters were podcasts. That changed in February 2024 when I began doing a radio version for WTJU Public Radio. Since then I’ve been upping my game, and today I was able to get a combination podcast / newsletter out on a very important topic in the community.

I hope this matters. I don’t really know anymore. I feel a calling to do the work, but I have a sense that the public has moved on and doesn’t want what I offer. If this was a purely capitalistic enterprise, I’d have shuttered ages ago.

But I feel we live in an age where no one really knows what to do anymore. There’s a lack of hope about what can be done, and somewhere in all of this is a need for better communication.

Is this it? That’s up to you. And if you want me to have the chance to keep trying, please consider a charitable contribution to Town Crier Productions. If you have questions, let me know. In the meantime, I’ll be working seven days a week to try to get this right.

That gum you like will come back in style.

• City Council allows CRHA to form a nonprofit for fundraising purposes (read the story)
• Charlottesville Area Transit director briefs CARTA (read the story)
• Emily Couric Leadership Forum awards $250,000 in scholarships (read the story)
• Regional cigarette tax board turns five this October (read the story)
• UVA Finance Committee briefed on need for tuition increase (read the story)

In this edition:

• Albemarle County Supervisors adopt a budget for FY2027 that includes $7 million for affordable housing and $386,000 for the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial Foundation (read the story)
• Albemarle Supervisors thank staff for turning meeting minutes around faster (read the story)
• Council briefed on use of just under $4.5 million in surplus funds including $1.1 million for Angus Road crosswalk improvements (read the story)
• City Council poised to reallocate $1.8M to cover cost overruns for Meadow Creek Trail, Pollocks Branch bridge (read the story)
• Charlottesville City Manager Sanders provides update on work plan (read the story)
• Charlottesville seeks applicants for boards and commissions (learn more)

• Albemarle Supervisors will not move forward with a personal property tax rate increase in 2026 (read the story)
• However, Supervisors do find an additional $2 million for the Affordable Housing Investment Fund (story forthcoming at C-Ville Weekly)
• Area planners hear from VDOT about a desire to coordinate transportation projects (read the story)
• UVA representative to city PC reports on various projects including new access for Center for Politics (read the story)
• Charlottesville’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services announces changes to the city’s Development Code (read the story)

This time around there is a big focus on municipal budgeting because the purpose of Town Crier Productions is to focus on the details of revenues and expenditures with a hope toward greater community understanding. At least, that’s the way this version of Sean Tubbs is programmed.

In this edition:

• Charlottesville City Council has adopted a budget for the next fiscal year that increased the real property tax rate by a penny, one fewer cent than had been proposed (full story here!)
• Albemarle Supervisors have a few remaining decisions to make for the county’s FY2027 budget (read the story)
• Albemarle and Charlottesville commemorate Dark Sky Week (read the story)
• A preview of the Week Ahead

Most people read the material while others look forward to every installment of the podcast edition which offers a chance to hear what people sound like. I’m Sean Tubbs and here are five stories you may have missed:

• Charlottesville City Council briefed on low-barrier shelter might work groups that provide the programming (read the story)
• City Council agrees to hire consultant to develop public arts commission for Charlottesville (read the story)
• One of Albemarle County’s community advisory committees weighs in on what they’d like to discuss at this year’s meetings (read the story)
• Albemarle County Executive Jeffrey Richardson shares data points on Albemarle services with Supervisors (read the story)
• The director of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority gives an update on Long Bridge and expansion of service to Christiansburg (read the story)

Here are links to stories as they appear on Information Charlottesville.

In this edition:

• No major comments at Charlottesville City Council’s first public hearing on two-cent tax rate increase for FY2027 budget (read the story)
• Albemarle County Supervisors make adjustments to their proposed budget for FY27 and opt to advertise an increase in the personal property tax rate to dedicate additional revenue to an affordable housing fund (read the story)

This is a cross-post. For more information on the original, head over to Substack.

In this edition:

• Greene Supervisors appoint former member to fill vacancy (learn more)
• Albemarle Planning Commission wants to see another design for Windy Knoll (read the story)
• Albemarle Supervisors take action on Boulders Road project (need to produce)
• Charlottesville PC looks ahead to next set of zoning changes (need to produce)
• No tax rate increases included in proposed $724M Albemarle budget for FY2027 (read the story)

In this edition:

• Charlottesville Planning Commission seeks some changes to city’s five year CIP (read the story)
• Charlottesville ends use of Flock system (read the story)
• Charlottesville transitions parking garages to AI-powered access management (read the story)
• The Albemarle Planning Commission takes a look at a new tool to be used to measure how the county’s growth area land is being used (read the story)

Not quite in this edition but recently written all the same:

• Board of Visitors names Darden Dean as next UVA president
• Charlottesville City Council makes appointments (link to Substack)
• Rezoning sought for between 22 and 110 more units in Hollymead in Albemarle

Charlottesville Community Enagement is an extension of what this website was intended to do. It is a product of Town Crier Productions and I’m cross-posting it here as a way of trying to rethink what this website could do.