Charlottesville Community Engagement for August 19, 2020 - a thread experiment!

Today's Charlottesville Community Engagement newscast is posted.

* UVA law begins classes today
* Algae bloom at Lake Anna
* Albemarle EDA has new officers
* @piedmontenviron and LEAP host Solarize Piedmont
* Albemarle rezoning moves forward (bit.ly/3gc0yhp)

Today in the @HealthyTJHD there are another 14 cases reported, and the number of deaths was reduced to 43 from 44. I have a question out about that.

Positive test rate in the district is at 6.4 percent again today.

Classes begin today at @UVALaw and I used bits of a video in today's newscast. You can more information on this here. (at.virginia.edu/34g0Kd8) 

The General Assembly special session is underway. If you want to keep watch any of it, consult this list of meeting times on the legislature's website. (bit.ly/2Q3xnT1) 

The @vdh has also issued Harmful Algae Bloom advisory for tributaries of Lake Anna. Learn more in this release.

I suspect this map may be outdated and I will ask a question. (bit.ly/2FHyAO9)

The Albemarle Economic Development Authority now has new officers following the resignation of the last ones in July.

The Albemarle Planning Commission recommended approval of a rezoning on Old Lynchburg Road. The Albemarle Business Campus goes to Board of Supervisors

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors meets today at 2 p.m. Among items on the agenda is consideration of a roundabout at intersection of John Warner Parkway and Rio Road East.

Full agenda is here. (bit.ly/2El7YBv)

Today's newscast/newsletter continues with a couple of soundbites from a session @piedmontenviron and the Local Energy Alliance Program held yesterday on their Solarize Piedmont program. Take a look at that here. (bit.ly/2Q59bzx) Finally, some corrections.

Today's script contains an error. UVA in-person classes begin the day after Labor Day and not what is in the newscast.

Second, cost share for RMR SFRR pipeline is 80/20 split between Albemarle and Charlottesville. (bit.ly/31aOZ5J) 

I conclude this thread with a link to my Patreon account, which is my initial way of funding this new venture. The goal right now is to get info out every day, grow the audience. There are perks!

I will add merch, but goodness, I'm no graphic designer! (bit.ly/2XbFgtu)

This is the sales pitch

I have been quiet on this site because I've been busy elsewhere.

This is the latest sales pitch. 

* I produce a daily newsletter and podcast on local government and the response to the pandemic. It is called Charlottesville Community Engagement, and I have done a month’s worth of daily shows and have over 250 subscribers. You can listen to it or read it. 

Please subscribe!  The daily newsletter will remain free, but I will add premium content in the form of reports from local government meetings. This will become an important way our community gets information. 

* How to pay for it? Good question. For now, people are supporting my research into local government through Patreon. Patreon is a way for people to contribute money to artists and writers, I have a growing number of supporters. I will be adding Venmo as soon as I get a bank account for the business. I have an LLC called Town Crier Productions. 

* I've done 45 episodes of a podcast on the pandemic response called the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. This is the link. This is going to convert into a weekly show on local government, beginning with a pilot soon. 

I have a lot of other ideas, but am focusing on the above at this time. I’m open to suggestions and feedback. These times require more journalism and more stories, and I’m back in a profession I’ve felt a calling for for my whole life. I’ve always wanted to be a public service journalist, and here I am again. 

Pre-birthday Sonic Youth shout-out and long musings

I celebrate my birthday eve listening to a Sonic Youth show from 2007. I was in a different life then, had just started at Charlottesville Tomorrow, or was about to. As I listen to this, I'm about to begin a new adventure as an independent journalist who wants to try to create a new media outlet from scratch, based on a whole series of visions and plans that are culminating in this moment. 

I have a very different life now. 

We all do. 

I've dealt with doubt and a lack of self-confidence my whole life. I can never feel like I belong anywhere. Or at least, that's been the case for so much of my life. 

I always wanted to be a singer in a rock and roll band, one that changed people's minds, challenged them to think. There are sonic records of my attempts to try such things over the years, but I've mostly kept that to myself. 

When the pandemic hit, I was scared. I knew the world was going to change. I poured my fears into the pandemic podcast, which reminded me of skills and talents I have that I had not been using. Suddenly, I wanted to be spending my time doing what I love best - research and writing about my community. 

I've been doing that for almost twenty years now, off and on. Maybe longer if you count the work I did in computer BBS's back in the late 80's. Tomorrow I'm going to post a picture of the last remaining copy of a parody newspaper I made in high school called the Daily Bean. In elementary school, I wanted to create a comic like the Beano. 

Hands up who knows what the Beano is! 

Anyway, this has been my life. I have always wanted to express myself through writing and sharing with the world the results of pursuing my curiosity. Now I'm betting that enough of the community will decide paying me to pursue my craft is worth it to them. 

The pandemic has made me feel like Charlottesville is where I belong. There is nowhere to go right now. But I have found everything is here. Every day I wake up and explore my world, the real one around me, before I begin my work. I literally feel grounded by this activity. 

I saw Sonic Youth in Charlottesville in November 1990. I just looked it up to confirm. They played on November 15 at Tracks, and I am going to document this now on cvillepedia.  

The night before I went to England in February 2019 to see my son in a play, I went with a lot of people to see Sonic Youth material and drummer Steve Shelley. I met a lot of neat people that night and began friendships. 

Two years ago, that English son took me to see a play in London on my birthday, and it was one of the best times I've had. Our relationship is like the one depicted in Boyhood. This is how things turned out. 

The world is not what it was in 2007. We weren't in a time like now, when everything seems like a struggle. 

And now, Lee Ranaldo sings the end of Hey Joni, the time travel sounding bit, and I conclude this long post which is more suitable in a journal. I recommend this, even if you've never heard Sonic Youth before. It's a great place to start. Now, Kim Gordon is about to sing and I'm going to stop writing.