On today’s digest, a current-events discussion, the county judicial system, and more about the campus in our city’s midst: Lucas Gonzalez, on the big issues he’s been covering for WFIU News; Judge Catherine Stafford on how the county’s circuit court works; Judge Stafford from another episode, on how the Eviction Protection Project has improved outcomes in the county; and another excerpt from Steve Volan's Doppelganger Cities, the public talk from last fall, on campuses and their relationship to ...
Jun 10, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 88
Today we explore why evictions are the whole community’s problem (hint: guess how many people currently experiencing homelessness lost their rented apartments?). We talk about it with Judge Catherine Stafford, one of two judges who handle evictions cases locally, and who was on the show yesterday to talk about the county judicial system in general. She talks with Steve Volan about the degree to which those evicted are students in a college town, how the eviction moratorium affected the county du...
Jun 07, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 87
This show started by exploring Bloomington city government. But you're swimming in layers of local government. Recently we've expanded our scope to the other layers of government, like townships and the county council. This episode is our first crack at understanding the local judicial system. Our guest today is Catherine Stafford. She's one of Monroe County's nine circuit court judges. She explains what local judges do and how they go about it. (Hint: a lot of what you see in those TV dramas ar...
Jun 06, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 86
Interviews on this show are typically with decision and policy makers in Bloomington and Monroe County. But some people know a lot about the city and can explain the issues well, who may never have been elected or appointed officials. This is the latest entry in our occasional series that we call The 812 Work Session. Today's Work Session guest is Lucas Gonzalez, the city government reporter for WFIU News. He talks with host Steve Volan about many current local issues, including the convention c...
Jun 05, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 85
This episode is the second excerpt from a public talk Steve Volan gave last fall at the Collins Living-Learning Center in Bloomington, called "Doppelgänger Cities: A History of Campuses." The first excerpt was Episode 29 of The 812, posted February 23. As you may know, Steve was a member of the city council here for the last 20 years, in a district that was almost entirely students at IU. After redistricting, more students than ever were drawn into District 6, and the district is now represented...
Jun 04, 2024•36 min•Season 1Ep. 84
Excerpts from recent interviews include county council at-large member and president Trent Deckard talks about leadership; county councilmember (D-2) Kate Wiltz talks about budgeting and the depth of county services; and Drew Bratton and Steve Versaw, board president and executive director (respectively) of BCT Management, Inc., the non-profit that runs the Buskirk-Chumley, the city's premier theatre. Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved....
Jun 03, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 83
Is a leader born or made? Is it nature... or nurture? This show won't answer that question definitively...but if anyone can answer that question, it's our guest today. Trent Deckard is the second of the three at-large members of the Monroe County Council to appear on the show, and this year is the council's president. He talks about running for office, current issues facing it, and leading the council. But he's not just a study in leadership -- he also studies leadership, which he's pursuing a P...
May 30, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 82
We're plowing through a new landscape on the show: the wonderful world of county governance. Today we meet Kate Wiltz, the District 2 representative on the Monroe County Council. She talks about her district, explains the county budget process, some of her governing priorities, and how she decided to become a councilmember in the first place. Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
May 30, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Shakespeare needed his Globe Theatre; Bloomington needs its Buskirk-Chumley. The former Indiana Theatre is more than a century old, has been a publicly-owned 600-seat venue since the 1990s, and is still an eye-catching downtown landmark. How it got to be that way -- and how it survives -- are our topics today. Our guests are Steve Versaw and Drew Bratton, the executive director and the president of the board of directors, respectively, of BCT Management, Inc., the umbrella organization which run...
May 29, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 80
New to town, maybe? You deserve a gentle intro to the breadth of local governments. Note that we use the plural: this show is beginning to dig deeper into offices other than just within the city of Bloomington. Today's episode is a good cross-section of what different local governments do. Along with a long-sought-after interview with city councilmember Dave Rollo, we venture beyond city limits to interview county councilmember Geoff McKim; the county's chief public defender, Michael Hunt; and P...
May 28, 2024•36 min•Season 1Ep. 79
Townships are subdivisions of counties. Townships aren't much of a deal in most of the rest of the country, but it turns out that, in Indiana, they're still kind of a big deal. Monroe County is divided into 11 townships. Except for a couple of thousand people in Van Buren Township, and a couple of dozen in Richland Township, the 80,000-plus residents of the city of Bloomington are split almost evenly between Bloomington and Perry Townships. Our guest today is Dan Combs, who's been the trustee of...
May 24, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 78
The 812 has finally landed its interview with the elusive Dave Rollo, the senior member of the Bloomington city council. In this wide-ranging interview we discuss the carrying capacity of the city in light of the approval of the enormous new Summit District, as well as greenways, urban deer, and more. Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
May 23, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 77
We're starting to invite guests beyond the humble municipality of Bloomington; we're expanding to the humble county of Monroe, to meet some of the people who make the county tick. The Sixth and 14th Amendments to the Constitution guarantee the fundamental right of the accused to counsel regardless of their ability to pay. Today we meet the embodiment of that right in Monroe County. Our guest, Michael Hunt, has been for the past 50 years the county's first and only chief public defender. We learn...
May 22, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 76
The 812 is slowly expanding its horizons to include governments beyond the city of Bloomington. There are many people whom we’ve interviewed on this program for their knowledge and experience, yet no one is in a better situation to explain Monroe County than our guest today, Geoff McKim, who’s been a member of the county council since 2009 and is in his last year as a councilmember before retiring. (You may also recognize Geoff as one of the co-hosts of Plateia Media’s first experimental podcast...
May 21, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 75
We look back at recent interviews, whose unifying theme seems to be money and how it flows throughout government. Excerpts from last week include: The mechanics of how the legislative process in the Statehouse works, with Indiana’s Own Dana Black, host of the Turn Left podcast the advent of a new organization that tries to pair up worthy projects with mission-based lenders, with the leader of that organization, John Zody, executive director of CDFI-Friendly Bloomington; new City Controller Jessi...
May 20, 2024•36 min•Season 1Ep. 74
How do city road projects get funded? Oftentimes, they're a mix of local, state and (a lot of) federal dollars/ If you've ever wondered why road projects take a long time to come to fruition, today we explore the filter through which those federal dollars flow. Bloomington is the center of a metropolitan area. Metropolitan areas, especially ones that cross state lines, get special consideration from the federal government for highway, road, public transit and other federal transportation money. ...
May 17, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 73
On this show about local government, we're thinking today about the state, and how it affects local government. Dana Black is host of the Turn Left podcast and an inveterate watcher of the Indiana General Assembly. We discuss topics like home rule, annexation, the regulation of rentals, and other legislation that has impacted cities like Bloomington. Dissecting bills and engaging directly with representatives and their aides, particularly during the summer sessions when legislators are more avai...
May 16, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Jessica McClellan recently left her job as the elected Monroe County Treasurer to join the new Thomson administration as the City of Bloomington's new Controller. In short, no one has followed more money than her. She explains the byzantine process of municipal budgeting and compares it with her previous experience. Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
May 15, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 71
[EPISODE CORRECTED. Enjoy this episode as it was meant to sound!] Our guest today is John Zody. He's the executive director of CDFI-Friendly Bloomington. Community deveopment financial institutions, or CDFIs, are lenders with missions. CFB connects the dots between mission-based lenders and projects that need special kinds of non-standard funding, that may not be able to get funding through regular commercial banks. We also talk with him about his role as the most recent director of the City of ...
May 14, 2024•36 min•Season 1Ep. 70
The812 is back from its hiatus! To get you reacclimated, it's a Monday-digest addition of the week of interviews from before our mid-April hiatus. We'll hear excerpts from interviews with: Noah Sandweiss, the city's Historic Preservation Program Manager Shatoyia Moss, the city's Safe and Civil City Director and Mat Alano-Martin, stand-up comedian and co-founder of the Limestone Comedy Festival, about how it started and how the city helped Improvements coming to the show, starting tomorrow...be s...
May 13, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 69
How does a building get declared "historic"? Who decides what should be saved or not? We find out some of the answers today, from the guy who sets up the questions. Noah Sandweiss is the new program manager for historic preservation for the city. In our interview, he unpacks the portfolio he's charged with, which includes working with federal and stage agencies, reviewing and preparing for presentation cases to be considered by the local Historic Preservation Commission, and his background that ...
Apr 19, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 68
How does a community deal with issues that aren't obviously the business of a city government? Cultural issues can overwhelm even the most well-intentioned administration. What does it take to keep a city peaceful beyond law or code enforcement? Our guest is Shatoyia Moss, the Safe and Civil City Director for the City of Bloomington, who works in the Community and Family Resources Department. She talks today about her job helping the city and its residents navigate issues that don't have ready s...
Apr 18, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 67
Mat Alano-Martin is a professional stand-up comedian who got his start at the city's first comedy club, the Comedy Attic. In 2013, he and the owner of the club, Jared Thompson, created the Limestone Comedy Festival, which is now entering its eleventh year. We learn from Mat what it takes to launch a comedy festival, and how Bloomington helped nurture it through advice from the city and the convention and visitors' bureau. Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserve...
Apr 17, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Our planned guest fell through for today (it wasn't Dave Rollo...but it could've been you, Dave). We're presenting the Lineup of public meetings happening in City Hall today on its own. Full episodes coming the rest of this week. Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
Apr 16, 2024•3 min•Season 1Ep. 65
After the eclipse hubbub died down, we interviewed several interesting people. On today's highlights from last week's interviews, clips from: Emily Pike, director of New Hope, the only shelter in the county for families experiencing homelessness; lex Crowley, the city's former director of ESD; and Hank Duncan, the city's bike and ped coordinator. (Dave Rollo Watch: 64 Days and Counting) Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved....
Apr 15, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Today's episode is not just one, but two doses of The 812 Overtime, extra segments recorded for us by recent guests who just had too many interesting insights for us to fit into our regular half-hour interviews. It's a couple of good, deep dives into local government. Our first Overtime interview we made back in March with John Connell about Bloomington Transit, where he's the general manager. In this segment, he tells us about the Bus Rapid Transit line coming to Bloomington and how it'll be di...
Apr 12, 2024•36 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Hank Duncan, who works in the city's Planning and Transportation Department, is the city's Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator. He explains his role in how pedestrians, cyclists, scooter users, wheelchair users, stroller-pushers and more get around town. We discuss protected bike lanes, sidepaths, sidewalks, greenways, curb cuts and more. Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
Apr 11, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 62
From 2016 to 2023, Alex Crowley served in the Hamilton administration as Bloomington's director of Economic and Sustainable Development. Since last summer, his new role is as executive director of the new Indiana Energy Independence Fund. In the second half of the show, he'll explain what a "green bank" is and his new job running one. In the first half, though, he talks about his time with the city. Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved....
Apr 10, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 61
How much do you really know about the typical homeless person? Are you sure, or are you just making assumptions? Homelessness among children, for example, is a significant thing. Our guest today is Emily Pike, the executive director of New Hope for Families, the only shelter in Monroe County dedicated to helping children under the age of 18 experiencing homelessness, and the parents or guardians who come with them. Support the show A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved....
Apr 09, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 60
To everyone visiting Bloomington, and about to make Monday the largest tourism event in the city's history, this episode is for you. The 812 podcast is all about explaining how the city of Bloomington works. In the first half of today's episode, we talk with Michael Large from the Public Works Department John Connell, general manager of Bloomington Transit, and Tim Street, the city's new Parks and Recreation Director. Each of them shares what they and their departments are doing about, or for, t...
Apr 05, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 59
