Another week is upon us with the prospect of many more stories about all of the usual topics covered by Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m Sean Tubbs, the president and publisher of Town Crier Productions, an entity created in the summer of 2020 to help me try to bring in revenue so I can share my research into what happens in local, regional and Virginia government. This is an audio version that is largely based on what aired on WTJU on Saturday morning. This podcast edition adds a few other stories, and even contains one that has not yet been in print form.

In this edition:

* Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders details the need for a two cent increase on the real property tax rate (read the story

* Sanders also announces that Charlottesville’s pre-K center will be at Walker Upper Elementary School, not Oak Lawn (read the story)

* Charlottesville has installed equipment at garages to allow customers to pay without a phone (read the story)

* The city’s Board of Architectural Review takes a preliminary look at two development projects (read the story)

* The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors met this week and the Buildings and Grounds committee learned of a new building on Ivy Road as well as a future road connection between Millmont and Copely Road. (stories not printed yet)

A word about shout-outs and the podcast in general

The sixth anniversary of the lockdown declared due to the COVID-19 pandemic is this week. That’s also the sixth anniversary of my return to journalism when I decided on March 15 to just put out a podcast covering local and state response.

What would become the Charlottesville Quarantine Report began because I had audio production skills that had atrophied, as well as journalistic ones that had nowhere to go. The audience was miniscule for the dozens of episodes I produced, but I knew that research and reporting was how I wanted to spend my time.

So I left a job to take a leap of faith to create this newsletter, experiment with Information Charlottesville, and create a business called Town Crier Productions to try to raise enough revenue to cover my bills.

Since then I’ve sent out well over a thousand newsletters and written hundreds of stories. For the first four years, all of the newsletters were also podcasts. About two years ago, I stopped that practice when I began producing a radio version for WTJU as a volunteer. I quickly learned I needed to increase attention to detail in the audio.

The audience for the podcast is much, much smaller than the print editions. As a result, I’ve tapered back audio production. Beginning in late January, I’ve begun to have equipment failure and these setbacks have made me less interested in producing the audio. Time spent away from the house was also less than ideal.

Yet, I do love producing the audio and I love the challenge of trying to balance stories across the newsletter, the website, C-Ville Weekly, the radio version, and the podcast. It will likely always be an experiment and my hopes to get it out at a regular time have been dashed.

In any case, this edition includes the public service announcements that aired on WTJU. I’m not going to report the print versions because in 2026 I am trying to transition the shout-outs to something more like formal underwriting. What you see now is a hodge-podge of a lot of different approaches and I have been moving to clean all of that up.

I’m also exploring the possibility of a different platform for this newsletter and will be experimenting first with Fifth District Community Engagement. That’s an experiment that has been on hiatus but I’m going to play around with it a little more.

There is also a new way for people to contribute. I’ve entered into a contract with the Tiny News Collective to allow people to make a charitable gift. Contact me if interested or visit this page.

And now, on to the next set of stories! But first, the obligatory picture posted here so there’s a good picture when it goes out to subscribers.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Podcast for March 9, 2026: A look at Charlottesville’s FY27 budget and two future development projects