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PODCAST

The 812

Steve Volan / Plateia Media

The 812 is a daily show about the basic workings of city government in Bloomington, Indiana. Hosted by Steve Volan, a recently-retired five-term member of Bloomington"s City Council, The 812"s primary feature is a half-hour interview with elected and appointed officials in city government, as well as with members of boards, commissions and not-for-profits providing services to the city. Produced by Plateia Media.

government

All Episodes

39:54

178 [S3E25]: The Lake Monroe Water Fund: Raising...

The 812 ·

2025/03/24

Today we're talking specifically about a topic that could take several episodes to discuss: the primary source of drinking water in metropolitan Bloomington. The reservoir commonly known as Lake Monroe is the largest body of water inside the state of Indiana. It was the state's idea to put a university in the middle of nowhere in 1818, and the city that grew up around it was always in danger of losing the university to Indianapolis because of the lack of water. We outgrew Lake Griffy, then La...

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35:28

177 [S3E24]: The 812 Work Session with Herald-Times...

The 812 ·

2025/03/14

We continue our series of Work Sessions — interviews with members of the local media discussing issues involving local government — today with Jill Bond, News Director and Editor of the Bloomington Herald-Times newspaper. We ask about her editing philosophy (which she just gave a TEDxIU talk about). Then we dive into some of the big issues the city's paper of record has been tackling lately, including ambulance service in Monroe County, the Monroe County Community School Corporation's n...

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37:38

176 [S3E23]: Downtown Bloomington Inc. and the...

The 812 ·

2025/03/12

Forty years ago, Bloomington's downtown was all but over. Half of the land had been cleared for parking lots to compete with auto-centric development at College Mall and other places on the outskirts of the city. A coalition of downtown businesses assembled to try to reverse the trend. As a result, Bloomington is one of the few cities in the state that saved its downtown, through the rehabilitation of many historic buildings. And, to give the community civic meeting space, an old car dealersh...

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36:39

175 [S3E22]: Geoff McKim on the Issues of the Moment...

The 812 ·

2025/03/10

When friend of the show Geoff McKim was on the show last May, he was in the final year of his four-term, 16-year career as a member of the Monroe County Council. Now in retirement, he rejoins us to discuss issues of the new term, like the development of the new justice complex, and the impact of the recently discovered $3.8 million shortfall in the county budget. He also looks back on his county council career, and talks about his new role as one of the seven members of the joint city/county ...

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34:15

174 [S3E21]: Sura Gail Tala, on How the Center for...

The 812 ·

2025/03/07

Our topic today is the Center for Sustainable Living, a peculiarly Bloomington institution. Since the 1990s, it has been a kind of not-for-profit co-op, foster projects that help the environment or allow people to live more sustainably. Their projects include Discardia which puts on the annual Trashion/Refashion show at the Buskirk Chumley; the Southern Indiana Renewable Energy Network which advises homeowners on how to solarize their homes; and the Bloomington Community Bike Project. The Cen...

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39:42

173 [S3E20]: Julie Duhon and Erin Loughery of Tandem,...

The 812 ·

2025/03/05

Our guests today are from Tandem, the perinatal and reproductive resource center. Through Jack Hopkins grants, the city of Bloomington helped Tandem launch in Bloomington five years ago, with a certified nurse midwife, who's considered an APRN, an advanced practice registered nurse, in the state of Indiana. They now also offer a postpartum house with overnight rooms and are building a birth center, all at their location on East Third Street near the Bypass. Julie Duhon, the center's executive...

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37:02

172 [S3E19]: WFHB Community Radio and the Key Piece...

The 812 ·

2025/03/03

In 1991 the city of Bloomington sold the rights to its 1915 City Hall building to nonprofit groups. One group made most of it what you know today as the John Waldron Arts Center. Another group acquired the attached old Fire Station No. 1: with the money it raised they made it the home of Bloomington's community radio station, WFHB, which got its call letters because they stand for Fire House Broadcasting. That conveyance of a city building has been a key reason for WFHB's successful operation...

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37:58

171 [S3E18]: Running the County with Commissioner...

The 812 ·

2025/02/28

It's not just a new era nationally, it's a new one locally. We have the other elected county newbie on our show (besides County Council Member David Henry, who appeared late last year), and that's County Commissioner Jody Madeira. She's taking a swing at all the big local issues of the day -- the new jail, the county health department, the county's new development ordinance -- and some of the niceties of how the commissioners collectively do business day to day. Support the show A produ...

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36:25

170 [S3E17]: The Future of Kirkwood with ESD Director...

The 812 ·

2025/02/26

Our topic today is Kirkwood Avenue, specifically the five blocks of East Kirkwood between the Courthouse Square and the Sample Gates, which many people consider to be the heart of Bloomington. Since 2020, the city has closed public rights-of-way to benefit local restaurants. Some establishments, mostly around the Square, have rented adjacent metered parking spaces as outdoor dining space. On Kirkwood, the city closed whole blocks to allow restaurants to host diners while social distancing. It...

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33:51

169 [S3E16]: Growing the Local Arts Landscape with...

The 812 ·

2025/02/24

Cicada Cinema is a volunteer-run organization which calls itself a "pop-up movie theatre". Since 2016 they've been showing around Bloomington underrepresented and what they call "underseen" films, pretty much just for the sake of cinema. The city Arts Commission strategically funded their organization with a grant to show movies in local parks, which was co-sponsored by the city Parks and Rec Dept. and promoted in their annual Program Guide, which this show recently featured. Cicada Cin...

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31:26

168 [S3E15]: Stewarding Nature with Sycamore Land...

The 812 ·

2025/02/21

In September we interviewed the director of the Sycamore Land Trust, John Lawrence, about the idea of a land trust -- a nonprofit that preserves land from development and maintains landscape in its natural state. It also runs an environmental program that connects people to that nature. But somebody has to manage those 144 properties, their more than 11,500 acres. That's another story, for which we turn to Sycamore's Lead Stewardship Director, Chris Fox. He talks about how he and his te...

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36:55

167 [S3E14]: Promoting Home Ownership with Wendi...

The 812 ·

2025/02/19

One of the most high-profile developers in the area is Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County, famously builders of affordable housing (and formerly headed by current Mayor Kerry Thomson, who was a guest on this show back in August). We talk with Wendi Goodlett, current President and CEO, and Lindsey Boswell, Development Director, about their process for finding potential residents and training them to qualify for Habitat homes; how many houses are currently have under construction at Osage Pl...

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34:30

166 [S3E13]: The 812 Work Session with Jeremy Hogan...

The 812 ·

2025/02/17

Today's local-media guest is visual journalist Jeremy Hogan, the co-owner and editor of The Bloomingtonian, the local independent hard-news website which he founded five years ago after being laid off from The Herald-Times, where he was a staff photographer for more than 20 years. We talk with him about how he chooses stories, and some of the biggest topics he's covered lately, like the unhoused and the Gaza protests in Dunn Meadow. He also talks about how the business of journalism has chang...

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36:20

165 [S3E12]: Reshading the Tree City with Canopy...

The 812 ·

2025/02/14

Bloomington is rightly proud of its namesake greenery and its long-standing status as a Tree City. But the growth of the city's built environment over the past several decades has cut its tree population by more than half. This was the impetus for the creation in 2021 of Canopy Bloomington, a nonprofit devoted to getting citizens to understand the importance of trees, to getting them to plant new trees, and to getting them to care for the city's tree canopy. Unlike most tree-planting ef...

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36:26

164 [S3E11]: The Panoply of Parks & Rec's Programs...

The 812 ·

2025/02/12

There's a reason that the city's Parks & Recreation Department is a two-time winner of the National Recreation and Park Association's prestigious Gold Medal. Their Program Guide is proof of it: 40 pages listing all the programs, special events, sports, fitness, outdoor, garden, and other opportunities open to little kids, seniors and everyone in between. We go through the Guide with Community Relations Manager Julie Ramey, who highlights coming events like classes, seminars, the 50+ and K...

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34:55

163 [S3E10]: The Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington...

The 812 ·

2025/02/10

Our guests today are from the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington. It serves as sort of an arts chamber of commerce, representing six types of arts genres -- visual, literary, music, dance, theatre/film, and galleries/venues/festivals. Artists or organizations in each genre have very different needs, but all genres are represented on the Arts Alliance's Board of Directors. The organization owns the Arts Alliance Center in College Mall, and has just taken over management of the By Hand ...

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33:22

162 [S3E09]: Council President Hopi Stosberg on...

The 812 ·

2025/02/07

Hopi Stosberg returns to The 812 a year later, as the new president of the council in only her sophomore year. We talk about some of her priorities for her leadership year, including changes to the Unified Development Ordinance initiated by Council late last year, including making affordability incentives more practical, and returning Single Room Occupancy dwellings to legal status in the city. She also talks about the budget process and steps the Council is considering to make it better. (An...

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38:42

161 [S3E08]: Laura Blaker, the Sweet and Sour Sauce...

The 812 ·

2025/02/05

If you mix together your grade school math class, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and life skills into a blender, add lemon, and press "liquefy"...you get Lemonade Day, which encourages kids across the community to set up lemonade stands on a Saturday in June. It's a fun way to learn the basics of business, which can be useful even if a kid doesn't ever start one and becomes just another consumer. Laura Blaker, Events Director at the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington, is our guest toda...

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36:46

160 [S3E07]: CJAM, Helping Resolve All Kinds of Disputes

The 812 ·

2025/02/03

Are you fighting with someone -- a spouse, the city, a landlord, a tenant, even a family member -- and you just can't reconcile with them? At least here in Bloomington, there's a nonprofit devoted exclusively to mediating disputes. It's a nonprofit called the Community Justice and Mediation Center, or CJAM for short. CJAM has helped negotiate restorative justice between victims and offenders; separations and divorces; landlord-tenant disputes; even the custody of pets. And they get results. A...

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37:44

159 [S3E06] City Boards and Commissions with Deputy...

The 812 ·

2025/01/31

Instead of a guest from a city or county board or commission, which we do frequently, today's show is about ALL the city's boards and commissions, and how they get managed. Which, until now, has been haphazardly, by the individual departments that act as their liaisons. The city has created a new position in the Clerk's office just to centrally administer the city's dozens of boards and commissions. Our guest is friend of the show Jennifer Crossley. She was our guest in June, in her capa...

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219 results

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