On September 1, the City of Charlottesville is expected to begin clearing out people who have been living in encampments along the Rivanna River and charging anyone who tries to stay with trespassing. September 1 is also the same day that Central Arizona Shelter Services is contractually obligated to begin operating an emergency low-barrier facility at 2000 Holiday Drive.

In this edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, you’ll hear some of the story of how we got to this point from prior stories that appeared in the newsletter and podcast since September 2023 concluding with an update of where things are before what the city calls a “transition” is expected to occur.

If you’ve never heard one of these podcasts before, this is a good one that includes three years of coverage on this one topic. The goal of this newsletter is to help remind people of recent conversations in an attempt to expand our collective attention span. We as a species face so many complex issues and stories like this are intended to capture some of the details.

At the very least, take a look at all of the stories some of which are sampled in this sonic edition.

Previous coverage over the years:

* Chief Kochis refutes charges of police brutality in Market Street Park, October 3, 2023

* Sanders outlines work plan, homeless intervention strategy, October 9, 2023

* City Manager Sanders provides update on Charlottesville’s efforts to assist the unhoused, September 12, 2024

* Charlottesville City Manager Sanders announces upcoming “community interventions” including $5 million for the Salvation Army, October 23, 2024

* Charlottesville City Manager Sanders announces upcoming “community interventions” including $5 million for the Salvation Army, October 23, 2024

* Sanders briefs Council on other community interventions such as purchase of portable restrooms, November 1, 2024

* Sanders addresses low-barrier shelter before Council approves $3 million for other Salvation Army project, December 20, 2024

* City Council ends consideration of anti-camping ordinance after pushback from homeless advocates, September 5, 2025

* Sanders provides an update on efforts to address homeless population of Charlottesville, September 19, 2025

* Council holds first reading on use of $7.95 million in surplus funds, October 10, 2025

* Council agrees to reallocate funding intended to run low-barrier shelter, February 10, 2025

* Charlottesville City Council briefed on low-barrier shelter by groups that provide the programming, March 27, 2026

* City Council presented with The State of Homelessness 2026 by four nonprofit groups working on the issue, May 12, 2026

* Salvation Army launches fundraising campaign for Center for Hope, May 15, 2026

* Many details remain to be worked out for how three groups will work together at Charlottesville’s future low-barrier shelter, May 15, 2026

* Sanders gives first progress report on operations plan for 2000 Holiday Drive, May 22, 2026

* Albemarle Supervisor Pruitt provides short briefing on low-barrier shelter plan, May 29, 2026

* Work continues to develop operations plan for low-barrier shelter and service center for unhoused, July 10, 2026

* Charlottesville Mayor Wade announces steps to be taken at Free Bridge encampment, July 12, 2026

* Charlottesville speakers provide multiple perspectives on how to help those without a home, July 24, 2026

* Charlottesville to pay outside groups up to $4 million to manage emergency shelter and help to clear encampments, August 4, 2026

* Sanders: 2000 Holiday Drive is just part of the city’s response to homelessness, August 7, 2026

* Council allocates $3 million more to Salvation Army’s Center for Hope, August 19, 2026

* Charlottesville continues to prepare to move people from Rivanna River encampment while some residents call for a halt, August 21, 2026

* Webinar participants introduced to Central Arizona Shelter Services, August 25, 2026

* Sanders says no to McGuire’s request to delay opening of 2000 Holiday Drive, August 25, 2026

* Charlottesville formally awards contract for 2000 Holiday Drive to Central Arizona Shelter Services, August 29, 2026

Thoughts on CCE-1115A:

The idea for an archive edition began Wednesday when I realized I did not have enough fresh audio for a new show. This week has been spent outside the usual study with more family obligation than usual.

Somehow, though, this edition took more work than producing four or five segments! I think it was worth it to have gone through all of this, but now I need to get on to a day’s worth of travel.

Please let me know if you heard it all the way through or if you heard an error. I’m not sure I’ll be able to correct it because there’s a lot of work to get to this upcoming week.

Please also share the link with others.

In any given year, leap or otherwise, August 22 is almost but not quite two-thirds of the way through the year. For this year, the exact tally is 64.1 percent. In 2028 that number will dip slightly to 63.9 percent. One unwritten style note of Charlottesville Community Engagement is that the percentage sign is to be avoided.

A perhaps gaudy style note is to use these podcast editions to inform newer readers (and listeners) of previous editions from this day. The archive is free for all to review because the point of this entire endeavor is to connect people to things they may want to know.

* August 22, 2023: Piedmont Housing Alliance selected to develop Piedmont site at UVA; SELC files suit to keep Virginia in RGGI (CCE-568, a podcast version as well!)

* August 22, 2024: Two-thirds of the Albemarle Electoral Board express concerns about ranked choice voting (CCE-722, after the decision was made to not make a podcast every time)

These podcast editions also serve as a way to put out a “week in review” with links to the stories covered. This time around, two of the stories debut in audio form first before their publication in print. This audio version also went over the radio airwaves on WTJU at 6 a.m. If you weren’t up then, take a listen and see what you can learn if you open up your ears a bit.

In this edition:

* Charlottesville continues to prepare to move people from Rivanna River encampment while some residents call for a halt (read the story)

* Council allocates $3 million more to Salvation Army’s Center for Hope (read the story)

* A representative of the Central Arizona Shelter Services gives more details about the organization (print story coming on Monday)

* Albemarle County Supervisors review planning department’s work plan (read the story)

* Charlottesville City Council agrees to hand over a narrow stretch of land to a local developer (print story coming on Wednesday)

* A very brief preview of the Week Ahead that comes out tomorrow (self-explanatory)

A sponsored message: Panorama Natural Burial

At Panorama Natural Burial, we believe caring for the deceased can be simple, meaningful, and deeply connected to the natural world. As a natural burial ground just outside Charlottesville, we offer families an alternative to traditional burial that honors both the people we love and the land that will carry them forward.

Whether you are planning ahead, navigating a recent loss, or are just curious about natural burial, we welcome the conversation. We host regular tours and community events throughout the year. At Panorama we are building new ways of understanding death, land, ecology, ritual, memory, and community. We believe that building community around death care helps us all to live fuller lives. We are open to the public daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Come visit!

Notes on CCE-1111A

Now that title sounds like a Federation starship’s designation. The numbers are part of a structure I’ve put in place over time to help me know what I wrote when. I looked back at the two previous August 22 editions and my only thought is whether there may be a WAN version from August 22.

Thanks to a spreadsheet I keep, there is!

* Week Ahead for July 4, 2022: Fluvanna to ponder new name for Palmyra district; Louisa to further discuss library name-change, how to celebrate America’s 250th in four years

I really want to keep doing this. I seldom stop and look back, but this new habit of tying podcasts to earlier versions of the newsletter helps me do so. Can the editors of other information outlets do the same thing? I’m here to document and hundreds of you are paying me to do so.

To what end? For me, I want to keep writing these stories. For one story today, I did about two hours of research into City Council minutes and my own reporting to try to fill in context. All of this material is out there for people to review, but how can anyone figure it out?

That’s where Charlottesville Community Engagement hopes to come in. I encourage everyone reading to click on source materials yourself and see what I’m reporting from.

Photo gallery of flood pictures

Today’s sponsor: Panorama Natural Burial is reimagining death care through natural burial, land conservation, and community

The opening of the Beijing Olympics, a president announces a resignation, and a certain incident took place on a Chicago bridge. These are just some of the things that have happened on other editions of August 8 throughout recent time. There has only been one regular edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement in the six years since publication began so when you’re done here go back and time travel.

In this edition:

* Charlottesville to hire outside groups to manage emergency shelter and encampment clearance (read the story)

* Voices speak out against upcoming ending of Rivanna River encampments (read the story)

* Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders explains how 2000 Holiday Drive is just part of the city’s response to homelessness (read the story)

* Albemarle EDA to support classes to assist wine industry learn new techniques after difficult spring (read the story)

* More people using Ivy Solid Waste and Recycling Center (read the story)

Behind the scenes of #1104-A

Once again, the time it takes to put together the audio podcast ends up being much longer than it should be. Throughout the week as I am writing stories, I keep track of them in a spreadsheet. One of the columns indicates whether the story has a sound element to it. Not all stories come from meetings, but those that do are fodder for both the WTJU radio show as well as this podcast version.

For 650 editions or so, the newsletter and the podcast for one and the same. The reason there’s an anecdote at the moment is to serve as something the listener would hear to get used to my voice. It’s a way I personalize the newsletter and try to offer something more than just the information.

I learn so much in the course of doing that research and I’ve kept writing them because doing so wakes up my brain and gets me ready for the work of finishing the newsletter.

There are currently no plans to reunify the newsletter and the podcast because the audience interested in the sonic product is much smaller. I can imagine a time when there’s a partnership with a radio station or other production company to produce this work. Right now I’m very to be working with WTJU and glad the radio version was named Best News Program this year by the Alliance for Community Media.

If you’ve never heard one of these before, this is a good place to start. The segments are much longer than you’re going to hear anywhere else, and I think that’s incredibly important to have an alternative. This particular edition is a 30 minute summary of one of the most difficult issues of our time. It hits differently when you hear people’s voices.

Now, time to produce it so I can get on with the rest of the week. Thank you for reading or listening.

And now the cut-and-paste bit intended to get your help in getting more eyes on the stories:

* I post stories over at BlueSky but don’t really do much else than that at this point. Here’s the account for Information Charlottesville.

* You can also subscribe to get Information Charlottesville postings via email Wordpress. This is where I confess I don’t entirely know the link for this. Might be a pop-up?

* Town Crier Productions has a Facebook page but I’m really not sure if it’s worth keeping as the site doesn’t really seem to like Substack material. Or Wordpress material. In six years of doing this, I’ve never had a post “go viral” and I think it’s all throttled. I don’t pay them any money anymore

* And then there’s Instagram which gets a couple of likes every now and then though I am really bad at images!

For some reason, there has only been one other August 1 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and that was back in 2024 with a recount underway in the Fifth District Republican Primary. This is a podcast edition that provides audio versions of stories and thus does not count toward a total number of produced newsletters. That number is 1,374 which comes from 375 Week Ahead versions and 1,099 general ones. There have been 2,210 days since #1. Somewhere here in may be a relevant statistic, but the best I can come up with is 0.62.

But what does it mean?

In this edition:

* Charlottesville City Council votes to move forward with a sales tax referendum this November (read the story)

* Charlottesville City Council allocates funding from speed cameras to cover the cost of providing the service (read the story)

* Albemarle Supervisors approve policy to streamline installation of solar roofs (read the story)

* Albemarle supervisors seek tighter regulation of concentrated agricultural feed operations (read the story on C-Ville Weekly)

* Charlottesville City Council briefed on efforts to lower speed limits, prepare new mobility plan (read the story)

A sponsored message: Panorama Natural Burial

At Panorama Natural Burial, we believe caring for the deceased can be simple, meaningful, and deeply connected to the natural world. As a natural burial ground just outside Charlottesville, we offer families an alternative to traditional burial that honors both the people we love and the land that will carry them forward.

Whether you are planning ahead, navigating a recent loss, or are just curious about natural burial, we welcome the conversation. We host regular tours and community events throughout the year. At Panorama we are building new ways of understanding death, land, ecology, ritual, memory, and community. We believe that building community around death care helps us all to live fuller lives. We are open to the public daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Come visit!

A shout-out for Town Crier Productions: Not entirely cut and paste from last week!

It is Saturday and the final thing for me to do to end one week and begin another is to post this edition. The right move would be to produce the podcast version as soon as the WTJU version is completed, but that usually happens at a time when I want to stop working on a Friday.

After six years, I have found ways to directly cover the cost of producing the written newsletter and the Information Charlottesville. I have absolutely no direct revenue from producing the audio version as the work for WTJU is free. I do the work because it’s enjoyable. And I could just put the radio version in the podcast feed.

I choose not to because of the sponsor above. In the last few months I’ve been experimenting with charging for advertising across multiple products. I’m happy to send the media kit to anyone upon request so you can see the details.

I’ve also had at least one paid subscriber ask me if I could put all the shout-outs at the end. I cannot do that. If I’m to continue this newsletter I must diversify my revenue. I want to provide an affordable way for entities to reach an audience that I am still trying to understand myself.

In any case, thank you for reading! And now the cut-and-paste bit intended to get your help in getting more eyes on the stories:

* I post stories over at BlueSky but don’t really do much else than that at this point. Here’s the account for Information Charlottesville.

* You can also subscribe to get Information Charlottesville postings via email Wordpress. This is where I confess I don’t entirely know the link for this. Might be a pop-up?

* Town Crier Productions has a Facebook page but I’m really not sure if it’s worth keeping as the site doesn’t really seem to like Substack material. Or Wordpress material. In six years of doing this, I’ve never had a post “go viral” and I think it’s all throttled. I don’t pay them any money anymore

* And then there’s Instagram which gets a couple of likes every now and then though I am really bad at images!

Thanks for reading Charlottesville Community Engagement ! This post is public so feel free to share it.

On July 25, 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, a fact we know because the composer kept intricate records. I can tell you that so far there have only been two other July 25 editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement and they were in 2023 and 2024. What were you doing on any of those three days?

In this week’s stories:

* Charlottesville City Council will not take another vote on design review of The Mark (read the story)

* Charlottesville speakers provide multiple perspectives on how to help those without a home (learn more)

* City of Charlottesville develops brochure in advance of encampment “transition” (read the story)

* Albemarle County Supervisors learn about human services needs in the community (story posting Monday!)

* Albemarle Supervisors get update on transportation projects (learn more)

A sponsored message: Panorama Natural Burial

At Panorama Natural Burial, we believe caring for the deceased can be simple, meaningful, and deeply connected to the natural world. As a natural burial ground just outside Charlottesville, we offer families an alternative to traditional burial that honors both the people we love and the land that will carry them forward.

Whether you are planning ahead, navigating a recent loss, or are just curious about natural burial, we welcome the conversation. We host regular tours and community events throughout the year. At Panorama we are building new ways of understanding death, land, ecology, ritual, memory, and community. We believe that building community around death care helps us all to live fuller lives. We are open to the public daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Come visit!

A house shout-out for Town Crier Productions at the end of 1096-A

The posting of the podcast marks the end of one week and the beginning of another. These days it takes me a lot longer to do the very simple task of restripping the WTJU version with fresh audio. Fridays are usually very intense production days and it is my true hope to eventually have someone to assist with putting it all together.

All of this work is the result of one person with a vision for how to put it all together. When I look back in my archives, I see that this is what I wanted to do with the Charlottesville Podcasting Network back in 2005 but all of the tools were not in place yet to make it work.

We’re now six years into the experiment of Town Crier Productions which has allowed me to document a lot of events and decisions and details in this newsletter. This week we crossed the threshold of 5,000 subscribers in Substack, with about 820 of them paying into this newsletter. I’m going to write more notes to those paying because I need help thinking through some of the next steps of the business plan.

An issue with being on Substack is that most people who find this newsletter through the algorithm don’t have a connection to the area so they disappear fairly quickly. Aside from a few Facebook boosts, I’ve never done any targeted marketing to attract new people since the beginning when I emailed as many people as possible an update of what I was doing.

So this shout-out concludes with me once again giving you the opportunity to sign-up through various social media platforms.

* I post stories over at BlueSky but don’t really do much else than that at this point. Here’s the account for Information Charlottesville.

* You can also subscribe to get Information Charlottesville postings via email Wordpress. This is where I confess I don’t entirely know the link for this. Might be a pop-up?

* Town Crier Productions has a Facebook page but I’m really not sure if it’s worth keeping as the site doesn’t really seem to like Substack material. Or Wordpress material. In six years of doing this, I’ve never had a post “go viral” and I think it’s all throttled. I don’t pay them any money anymore

* And then there’s Instagram which gets a couple of likes. I’d like to have better images but that is another skill set I don’t have.

Okay. I have procrastinated a lot by writing this.

Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The rhythm of being an independent journalist who strives to cover a lot of ground sometimes is affected by alternate beats. The last two Saturdays have not been favorable to produce a new audio edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement so archive editions went out. But now it is time for the July 18, 2026 edition. I’m Sean Tubbs. This week’s return to the usual studio means more ability to focus so there are stories from all six localities on the same topic. Then there are some two stories from the week before I am only just getting around to completing.

This work is made possible by paid subscribers and the ratio is just below one in five at the moment. I’m grateful for those with means to support the time and research that goes into this public service.

In this edition:

* Fluvanna Supervisors are the first in the region to initiate a process for a ballot question(read the story)

* Louisa County Supervisors pull sales tax referendum resolution from agenda (read the story)

* Greene Supervisors support sales tax referendum requested by Greene School Board (read the story)

* Nelson Supervisors also vote to proceed with the referendum for school construction (read the story)

* Albemarle County Supervisors vote to move forward and this story won’t be printed until Monday so hear it here first!

* Charlottesville City Council discusses the finer points of how to use revenue from a sales tax increase to finance school construction (read the story)

* Albemarle Supervisors make brief announcements on Biscuit Run Trail, drought watch, and federal housing bill (read the story)

* Albemarle and Charlottesville transportation planners identify next locations for further study (read the story)

* Charlottesville City Council reviews process for funding nonprofit agencies (read the story)

New here? Go ahead and sign if you want to learn more about what’s happening in local and regional government around Charlottesville

First sponsored message: Panorama Natural Burial

At Panorama Natural Burial, we believe caring for the deceased can be simple, meaningful, and deeply connected to the natural world. As a natural burial ground just outside Charlottesville, we offer families an alternative to traditional burial that honors both the people we love and the land that will carry them forward.

Whether you are planning ahead, navigating a recent loss, or are just curious about natural burial, we welcome the conversation. We host regular tours and community events throughout the year. At Panorama we are building new ways of understanding death, land, ecology, ritual, memory, and community. We believe that building community around death care helps us all to live fuller lives. We are open to the public daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Come visit!

Second message: An improvised bit about the state of shout-outs and the like

Will the words written here match what I say in the audio version? I don’t know. I’ve not done the narration yet. In addition to paid subscriptions, I diversify revenue coming in through a lot of different forms of advertising, underwriting, sponsorship and so on. The Piedmont Environmental Council has been sponsoring the Week Ahead since the beginning, for instance.

In the early days, some people opted for a $25 month tier or more on Patreon which got them a shout-out. Many of the shout-outs you see come from just that, though that’s no longer being offered. Others came through combinations like having a paid Substack subscription and Patreon member. That worked for a while but I’ve simplified.

Several have taken me up on an advertising package that offers placements at the top of the newsletter, in the two “shout-out” slots, and in visual ads on Information Charlottesville. I only send this out on request at this point because I’m at a point where I am trying to figure out things like inventory and scheduling and trying to ascertain audience. Are people really reading?

In any case, yes, they are, and that makes me work harder to keep it going and that includes offering additional ways to support.

* Charitable gifts can be made to the Tiny News Collective and those are being directed to hiring additional people to assist me in the near future.

* Patreon still exists as a way to contribute to the business, but this may in the future become something more artistic if I get up the courage to try to make music for an audience. It will be weird all the same.

* Share stories on social media! Add a comment and share your thoughts as you do! The whole point of this is to spread information and discussion.

Thank you to all of the advertisers and sponsors and readers and more!

An experimental to read only paid subscriptions

I’m toying with the idea of making the epilogue something only paid subscribers can read. Or a portion of it each time. Perhaps “behind the scenes” stuff should be for those who have decided to take a stake in it by paying?

I’m not sure. Substack only started offering this up this time. And I’m not sure if I have any real “bonus” content here except to say that sometimes the soundbites in the audio version have extra phrases in them. This is because I try to not run quotes run too long.

I can also say I am so glad to finally get this edition done. Two weeks ago I had to turn in the WTJU version a day early and I didn’t have time to record new stories. I also figured July 4 was a good day for an archive.

The next week I was out of town and not in a place where it was easy to record audio. I’m grateful to be back in a place where all of my stuff is and where I can fix issues as they come up.

Anyway, I’m grateful you’re paying into this. I hope you’ll keep doing so. If you do have concerns about the subscription or what to switch to a different form of support, drop me a line.

Hooray! This edition is done!

This post has a very small amount of bonus content for paid subscribers. Behind the scenes stuff. Upgrade to get full access and to support the work.

This edition and its copy comes straight from the radio version that aired on WTJU this morning

Good morning and welcome to Charlottesville Community Engagement for July 11, 2026. I’m Sean Tubbs, a writer and producer who covers local and regional government in the area in and around the University of Virginia. That includes Albemarle and Charlottesville, two communities in a nation wrestling with how to solve problems that often seem intractable.

I’m traveling this week and so this is an archive edition that captures two recent discussions about trying to get a low barrier shelter for the unhoused built at 2000 Holiday Drive. This is a document of a process still in motion created to remind people that solutions can take a long time in a complicated world. This kind of journalism is intended to remind people of who said what and when.

Source material:

* Charlottesville City Council briefed on low-barrier shelter by groups that provide the programming, March 27, 2026

* City Council presented with The State of Homelessness 2026 by four nonprofit groups working on the issue, May 12, 2026

* Many details remain to be worked out for how three groups will work together at Charlottesville’s future low-barrier shelter, May 15, 2026

* Work continues to develop operations plan for low-barrier shelter and service center for unhoused, July 10, 2026

New here? Sign up for the free newsletter, but please know that paid subscriptions keep it going!

First public service announcement: The Good Foundation event today

The GOOD Foundation invites community members to a FREE Urban Farming Workshop, Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Carver Recreation Center, 233 4th Street NW, Charlottesville. Master Gardener Sheila Jackson will teach you how to grow container vegetables and herbs in small spaces, and everyone receives a starter plant to take home. The workshop is part of The GOOD Foundation’s Black Farmers Initiative. For more information, contact Jackie Martin at [email protected] or 434-202-8034.

Second public service announcement: Piedmont Master Gardeners

The Piedmont Master Gardeners will present “More Trees, PLEASE!”, a free Garden Basics class open to all, on Saturday, July 18th at 2 pm at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1118 Preston Avenue. It will focus on suitable trees for home landscapes, emphasizing appropriate placement of native species, and highlights the benefits of trees to our environment and well-being. Register at Piedmont Master Gardeners dot ORG to reserve your place in the class.

For the second week in a row, I’m reusing the same production file that was used on WTJU. If I was awake and alert, it would maybe take 15 minutes to record new audio. However, this June 27 feels like the kind of day where such a direct task would take about two hours. I’m ready to get ready for the next set of stories.

If you are a new reader, I got my professional start at WVTF Public Radio in Roanoke, Virginia, as an intern. I was in my final year at Virginia Tech and I wanted to keep going with journalism. At some point not too long after, I made a deliberate choice to focus at the local level.

Every edition of this newsletter was a podcast for the first 650 editions or so. That changes in the spring of 2024 when I agreed to do a version of the podcast for WTJU. This airs Saturdays on WTJU at 6 a.m.

In any case, take a listen! And I’ve included the text of the WTJU public service announcements.

In this edition:

* Most of Virginia continues to be under drought warning (read the story)

* Charlottesville Planning Commission hears calls for reform at listening session on next round of zoning changes (read the story)

* Council agrees to another extension of agreement with CRHA for additional housing vouchers (read the story)

* Albemarle County prepares for new legislation including new biosolids testing requirements (read the story)

* Albemarle Amateur Radio Club holding Field Day this weekend (read the story)

* One archive story: Councilors push back on proposal to replace trash stickers with monthly trash fee charge more for trash collection (read the story from March 2025)

Public Service Announcement #1

C4K is now recruiting mentors for its Fall 2026 Cohort starting in late August. Be the trusted guide who helps a young person turn curiosity into capability. Work side-by-side with youth members on STEM projects of their choosing, like coding, robotics, design, or digital storytelling. No experience is necessary to collaborate, encourage, and expand possibilities for youth in our community. Visit the C4K website to learn more!

Public Service Announcement #2

Head to UVA’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library on Saturday, July 4th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Revolutionary Printing, a family-friendly UVA250 celebration of the materials, crafts, and stories of the founding era. Print a copy of the Declaration of Independence, view paper- and ink-making demonstrations, or add your “John Hancock” to a giant copy of the Declaration. Hear music of the American Revolution, make a printer’s hat, screen print a keepsake, view special exhibitions, or create a custom silhouette, beadwork, or sewing sampler. Event parking is free in UVA’s Central Grounds Garage. For more information, visit this website.

Some nonsensical thoughts at the end of CCE-1079A

Technically this one is W26-23 and not CCE-1079A because I did not produce a separate version. That’s twice in a row. I would prefer to do an original version as well, but I must admit I appreciate the illusion of a break.

I assure any reader who made it to this part that I do not spend all of my hours working on this newsletter. I take a lot of breaks throughout the day, though almost none of that time is spent doing yardwork. Now that my eldest cat is no longer with us, the house is slowly being reclaimed from all of the spots damaged by incontinence.

On this Saturday, what will I do? I do not know the answer though I am going to try to get the March 2026 property transactions out of the way. I’m very slow on those now and as a result I can’t put them behind a paywall. Or at least, it wouldn’t feel right.

I do work seven days a week because I enjoy the research that goes into this newsletter. I see stories everywhere and the challenge is continuing to create an engine that allows me to produce as many as possible. It is my hope to find others willing to put in the work.

There are almost two weeks until the 6 year anniversary of the newsletter. I am soul-searching a bit at the moment to determine the future. Should I try to see more of the world while I am still relatively young? What would it be like to live somewhere else?

Yet, even thinking that thought triggers alarm as I really do want to continue trying to describe the minutiae of this community as it stumbles its way into the future. I’m so looking forward to hitting send and allowing myself to go into free association for the rest of the day.

One of the ways I sharpen my research skills when they’ll dulled by morning fog is to go to cvillepedia and make some edits at random. I do not own the website but I have been associated with it since its public unveiling in 2009. The Jefferson Madison Regional Library is now the owner, but they do not program it.

Who will program it in the future?

Who will tell the stories of our community?

I don’t have a way to look into the future except for continuing to do my part to document what I can. I hope to inspire others to do so and hopeful that in the future I’ll be better able to articulate what it is I’m doing.

Astute listeners will realize that the audio for this version is the same as the version that ran on WTJU this morning at 6 a.m. I’ve done this one or twice before and today I want to use my morning to get on to the next set of stories rather than record a new version.

The switch to morning publication means there is a clock ticking the moment I wake up and motivation this morning has taken me in different directions and I want to get this finished and done.

The vast majority of people who consume Charlottesville Community Engagement do so via the written version, but I encourage people to listen to the audio version so you can hear people’s voices.

This time I’m putting the copy from the public service announcements than ran on the WTJU version. Did you know we won an award?

In this edition:

* Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders provided an update on Monday on the encampment at Free Bridge as well as efforts to open a low-barrier emergency shelter (read the story)

* Charlottesville appoints a member to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board but one vacancy remains (read the story)

* Charlottesville City Council favors Early Learning Center option that would build new gym (read the story)

* Albemarle County Supervisors select an in-house candidate to lead the Community Development Department (read the story)

* Local projects to receive revenue-sharing funds after Commonwealth Transportation Board vote (read the story)

* VDOT installing mini-roundabout at Greenbrier / Hydraulic intersection (read the story)

* The CEO of Jaunt talks to the Albemarle Supervisors about the future (read the story)

* An archive story about regional transit priorities (read the story)

PSA #1

A coalition of five local nonprofits and community groups has formed The Grocery Card Campaign to help alleviate the food insecurity many immigrants are facing as a result of federal immigration enforcement activities. The Grocery Card Campaign puts grocery store gift cards immediately into the hands of our immigrant neighbors, and is an opportunity for community members to show their support by helping ensure that basic food needs are met. For more information, email [email protected].

PSA #2

The 4th Annual Women’s Empowerment Day is happening Saturday, June 27th from 8 AM to 1 PM at the Jefferson School City Center in Charlottesville. This free, family-friendly event - “She Leads. She Builds. She Thrives” - brings together women entrepreneurs, community leaders, wellness advocates, and local organizations for a morning of inspiration, educational breakout sessions, fitness activities, and community connections. Proceeds support the TQ Evans Young Women Entrepreneur Scholarship. Check out “Beyond Fitness with Sabrina” on Facebook for details.

On June 13, 1895, a two-seat vehicle driven by Émile Levassor crossed the finish line in Paris 48 hours and 48 minutes after leaving that city in the world’s first automobile race. The journey took contestants on a 1,178 kilometer course to Bordeaux and back and Levassor arrived six hours before the runner-up. However, the rules called for a four-seater and both were ineligible for victory. What sort of race is Charlottesville Community Engagement documenting? I’m Sean Tubbs, and we can only know through the stories.

In this edition:

* Kellie Brown is stepping down as Charlottesville’s director of Neighborhood Development Services (read the story)

* Area officials report from recent Chamber trip to Chapel Hill (read the story)

* Albemarle Supervisors presented with first transportation priority list in a few years (read the story)

* Albemarle Supervisors allow building to remain within stream buffer (read the story on C-Ville Weekly)

* UVA Provost: Record number of applications for Class of 2030 (read the story)

* Only two buildings left to be programmed at UVA’s Emmet-Ivy Corridor (read the story)

* Buildings and Grounds Committee gets details on UVA’s next heat plant (read the story)

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First shout-out: Plant Virginia Natives

Summertime means that the invasive vines are winning the battle at my house but one day I will attain the skills to make my garden something more palatable and less like it’s an exterior shot in the Walking Dead.

I often look longingly at the Plant Virginia Natives to inspire my dreams of a tidy yard. Plant Virginia Natives is part of a partnership with ten regional campaigns for ten different ecosystems across Virginia, from the Northern Piedmont to the Eastern Shore.

Take a look at the full map below for the campaign for native species where you are in the Commonwealth. For the Charlottesville area, download a free copy of the handbook: Piedmont Native Plants: A Guide for Landscapes and Garden

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

There are a lot of stories each week that go out through this newsletter, but no one information outlet can put together the entire picture. That’s why each regular edition ends with a section called Reading Material.

Charlottesville is fortunate to have a media 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.

Now more than ever, journalism is needed. To be a citizen of a democracy, you must seek information from multiple sources. Consume only one and you are at risk of becoming a zombie!

#1069-A ends with a Town Crier Productions backstory

Saturday podcast editions mark the end of one work week and the beginning of another. As soon as “publish” is hit I’ll get to work on the next set of stories. Paid subscribers and other contributors have been keeping this newsletter afloat for nearly six years now.

The first edition on July 13, 2026 is a lot different from where the newsletter is now. The original idea was for the newsletter to be a five to ten minute podcast each day. My career began as an intern for WVTF Public Radio back in January 1995. That’s where I learned to write copy for broadcast, and learned to write quickly.

But there weren’t really a lot of jobs in public radio and unsettling experiences in New Hampshire in 1996 caused me to lose interest. It took living outside the country for a year to want to come back and want to get back to this career.

I’ve been in Charlottesville now for nearly 24 years moving here for a job in public radio but I was not a good fit for the organization that hired me. I went back to freelancing but that wasn’t enough to make a living so I worked at Court Square Tavern and created a business to try to figure out if I could make money off of podcasting.

I couldn’t, but the Charlottesville Podcasting Network was an experiment in trying to use audio to get information out in different ways. By 2007 I had to take a steady job and for eleven years I learned about this community in my time at Charlottesville Tomorrow.

And now I’ve just concluded a week in which I published five morning newsletters each day. I don’t think I could go back to afternoon publication anymore because the benefits of the switch become more clear each day.

For now, though, I really want to hit send so I can get on with the day. There are a lot of stories to dig into today. I’m grateful for paid subscribers, sponsors, and donors for their belief in the work I’m doing. In so many ways, I’m still that 21-year-old kid in Roanoke in awe that I got to write stories about local government. I believe in what I do and appreciate you reading to the last line.