Today’s edition is sponsored by Nola Builds
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.