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Repost: An Interview with Terry Belanger of the U.Va Rare Book School


Last year, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation selected a Charlottesville man as one of this year’s 25 MacArthur Fellows.

Terry Belanger is the founder and director of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. He was chosen for “raising the profile of the book as one of humankindGuv,!v,,us greatest inventions.”
Shortly afterwards, Sean Tubbs took an elevator ride to the sub-basement of Alderman Library to speak with Belanger about the school.

This podcast concludes with music from Magnatune. The track is Daniel Berkman’s “Folkways” off of the album Calabashmoon.
Soundscape fans may be intrigued by MacArthur’s selection of Emily Thompson, an aural historian.

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Places 29 public meetings to be held this week

Albemarle County’s Places 29 initiative continues this week with an open house on Thursday, May 18 and an all-day workshop on Saturday. Both events will be held at Sutherland Middle School. The project is at a critical phase – three frameworks offering three different alternatives for how to plan land use and transportation infrastructure will be critiqued by attendees. I stopped by the Albemarle County Executive Building on Tuesday to speak with Albemarle County senior planner Judith Wiegand and Harrison Rue of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District to find out more.

I also stopped by and spoke with Brian Wheeler of Charlottesville Tomorrow to get more perspective on Places 29. To learn more about the initiative before you go, visit Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Places 29 page.

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Repost: Will intercity rail come to Charlottesville?

Meredith Richards giving her presentation to potential members of Charlottesville Citizens for Better Rail Alternatives(Michael Testerman)

The group Charlottesville Citizens for Better Rail Alternatives was created last year to create public demand for an extension of the Virginia Railway Express to Charlottesville. The group is spearheaded by Meredith Richards, a former Charlottesville councilwoman and candidate for Congress. Richards is now the public voice of the group, which hopes to convince the Virginia Railway Express to extend its service all the way to Charlottesville.

Last September Richard gave a public presentation to the group, as well as an interview with Mike Thrift, a Charlottesville man who commutes to D.C. at least once every week.

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Students ask: where does Charlottesville get its food?

A unique class in the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture has spent much of this last semester analyzing where Charlottesville residents get their food. Students in PLAC 569, Community Food Systems, presented their results this week in City Council chambers in front of a group of local farmers, grocers and food activists. The basic consensus: most of our food comes here from a long way away. We present an edited portion of their presentation in this podcast.

What do you think? Please leave your comments below and let us know where your food comes from. A follow-up meeting will be held in June to take further action on the findings of the class. Next spring’s section of PLAC 569 will continue the research.

Update from July 6: Waldo Jaquith says the preliminary report of the class “is very much worth your time.” And here is a link to the paper.

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Charlottesville–Right Now: Blogger Lowell Feld of Raising Kaine on Virginia politics

Lowell Feld is the editor and founder of Raising Kaine, a blog that bills itself as the “Voice of Progressive Virginia.” Feld was a guest on the May 8 installment of WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now, and discussed his efforts to get Jim Webb to run for the U.S. Senate, the history of his blog, and U.S. foreign policy.



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The Woolen Mills through the lens of Bill Emory

Courtesy of Bill Emory

Charlottesville is going through a dramatic period of transformation, caused by the region’s quality of life and a general rise in housing prices. This has forced the evolution of the city’s historic neighborhoods, including the Woolen Mills area, just to the east of the downtown mall. In this second in our continuing series on Charlottesville area bloggers, photographer Bill Emory takes us on a tour of the neighborhood. He’s taking a visual inventory of what the area looks like today to make sure it’s still there tomorrow.

You can read more on the Woolen Mills area here. This piece is supported in part by the Charlottesville Daily Progress, our news partner.

Our series of conversations with Charlottesville bloggers began with a talk with Chris and Darlene Bruce, the folks behind Eat Air, a blog about vegan cooking.

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Podcasting for Democracy

Welcome to my exploration of podcasting as a tool for strengthening democracy.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must say that my interest in this topic stems from my
work at C-SPAN, the nationwide media network that provides unfiltered coverage of the U.S. Congress.

This project has three parts. First, my main story – a news piece for which I interviewed Sean Tubbs, Peter Levine, Rob Kennedy and Brian Lockman. Second, an audio montage of podcast excerpts – with the understanding that my use is fair use. And third, a commentary – my thoughts about podcasting.

Click on the play button below to hear the first installment.

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Look Who?s Podcasting

Officials at all levels of government are becoming podcasters. Some of the podcasts are cleaver; others are low-tech. What they have in common is their purpose: to be available for the people when the people want them.