The Rivanna Trail loops around Charlottesville and Albemarle county, almost exclusively along privately-owned land. Hikers trek across pathways cared for by a couple hundred volunteers. The rustic trail is the best place to get away from it all without leaving the city, a fact that is increasingly recognized by developers, landowners, and government officials.

That’s a far cry from the early days of the trail, according to Diana Foster. She’s the past president of the Rivanna Trail Foundation, which runs the 20-mile pathway. Currently about 18 miles of the loop have been built, with another five miles of companion trails.

Every November, Foster leads a one-day trek around the trail to draw attention to the natural beauty of the urban wilderness. I recently took a much smaller trip with Foster through a small section of the Rivanna trail from Jordan park in southeast Charlottesville, to Fifth Street near the Willoughby section of town. I asked Foster to tell me about the ultimate goals of the Rivanna Trail Foundation.

Who lives and works here in Charlottesville? Answering that question is one of the goals of the work we post here to the site. To that end, we bring you essays from people like Deepak Singh, and podcast community radio programs like the Sunday Morning Wakeup Call. The idea, we think, is to help expand the public square by giving people a forum to be heard.

With that in mind, we thought we’d start by attending a party thrown by a group that was created in 1999 to help people in their twenties and thirties find a reason to stay in town. Ever since, the Charlottesville Young Professionals has held hundreds of social events to give people the chance to meet each other. On a recent evening in late August, I drove to McIntire Park where the group was holding its annual membership party, and first spoke with the group’s outgoing president.

This podcast is sponsored by Jim Duncan of Jim Duncan Real Estate. Get insights on the Charlottesville housing market by reading Jim’s blog on Central Virginia real estate.

It’s been a week now since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, but the mass exodus of people from New Orleans and other afflicted areas continues, and will continue for months to come as many in Louisiana are told to stay away from their homes for at least a month. Ralph Chester is one of this new diaspora, on the road since Sunday with his wife and two teenage boys. The family’s home is three miles outside of New Orleans in an area called River Ridge, in Jefferson Parish, but they’re not going to be back any time soon. So, they’re settling in as temporary residents of Charlottesville, along with 87 special status students at the University of Virginia, as well as other families and individuals with a connection to Central Virginia. I spoke with Ralph on September 5 in the CPN studio. He says this isn’t the first time he’s had to evacuate his family in the face of what he describes as “a bowling ball thrown by God.”

Now, how can you help?

The Starlight Express luxury bus will be taking at least one of its buses to a refugee staging area in Mississippi on Tuesday, September 6. If you hear this before then, call Starlight at 295-0782, 434-295-0782. They’re looking for donations of all kinds of things, and also might be looking for places for people to stay. Call 295-0782 when you hear this to find out how you can help.