The 812
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.
Episodes
190 episodes
189 [S3E36]: About the Bloomington Fire Department, with Prevention Officer Tom Figolah
It's The 812's first look at one of the most basic local services, the fire department. Our guest, Tom Figolah, is the Department's Fire Prevention Officer, and his title reflects a trend that may not be self-evident to people who are used to f...
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Season 3
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Episode 189
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36:03
188 [S3E35]: MDWST FABLE and the Power of a Grant from the Arts Commission
Today's show is a case study in Bloomington's arts economy. Our guests are the founders of MDWST FABLE, a series of performing-arts shows that involve other artists in the Bloomington area, largely centered around storytelling. Tristra Newyear ...
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Season 3
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Episode 188
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35:56
187 [S3E34]: GIS Coordinator John Baeten, on the Mapping of Monroe County
John Baeten came to town as a visiting assistant professor in IU's geography department, where he spent time doing, among other things, a reconstruction of maps of Bloomington from the past. That led to his current post as the GIS Coordinator f...
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Season 3
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Episode 187
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36:14
186 [S3E33] Getting to Know Bloomington's Sibling City with Vicki Veenker, Vice Mayor of Palo Alto
So you may know that Bloomington has been a sister city to Posoltega, Nicaragua since 1988, and to Santa Clara, Cuba since 1999. Sister Cities International has been pairing cities across national borders for many years now.But Vicki Vee...
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Season 3
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Episode 186
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37:53
185 ]S3E31]: Understanding Ellettsville with Its Town Council President Scott Oldham
In the incorporated place that is Bloomington's primary official suburb, there's no mayor. The part-time town council in Ellettsville is the legislative and executive body -- sort of like the board of commissioners that runs the county...
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Season 3
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Episode 185
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36:39
184 [S3E31]: "Big Mike" Glab Makes Big Talk about Bloomington (and Chicagoland)
Today is a Work Session, an interview with a member of local media where we talk about the city and local issues of the day. Michael "Big Mike" Glab is a former reporter for the Chicago Reader who's covered every kind of news, hard and soft. Af...
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Season 3
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Episode 184
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39:01
183 [S3E30]: Tackling Problemas with the City Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs
The 812 converts to "El Ocho Doce" for the day, to welcome representatives from the Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs, which "works to identify and research the issues which impact those populations in Bloomington, especially in the are...
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39:57
182 [S3E29] All About the Trashion Refashion Runway Show, with Devta Kidd and Stephen Hale
One person's trash is another's treasure...or so the Trashion Refashion Runway Show tries to demonstrate. The 16th annual event will be presented by Plato's Closet at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre April 13. The virtually all-volunteer event prese...
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Season 3
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Episode 182
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36:37
181 [S3E28]: The Taste of Bloomington Returns, Says Jordan Davis of the Chocolate Moose
Even before they make the formal announcement later this morning, we have details on the official revival of the Taste of Bloomington, the summer celebration of this city's bustling local restaurant scene that happened for 35 years before the p...
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Season 3
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Episode 181
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37:28
180 [S3E27]: Andrea "De" de la Rosa on Managing the Bloomington Urban Enterprize Zone
We talk about the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association. It's run by a city board of directors appointed by mayor and council. The BUEA oversees the city's Urban Enterprise Zone. Businesses and residents of the Zone can benefit tax-wise from...
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Season 3
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Episode 180
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34:43
179 [S3E26]: How Court-Appointed Special Advocates Go to Bat for Children in Need
A person who advocates in court for those who can't for themselves is known as a guardian ad litem. But there's an even greater need for children who have suffered abuse and/or neglect and find themselves lost in the justice system. Every state...
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Season 3
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Episode 179
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37:46
178 [S3E25]: The Lake Monroe Water Fund: Raising Money to Protect Bloomington's Watershed
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 st...
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Season 3
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Episode 178
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39:54
177 [S3E24]: The 812 Work Session with Herald-Times News Director Jill Bond
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. W...
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Season 3
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Episode 177
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35:28
176 [S3E23]: Downtown Bloomington Inc. and the 40-Year Revitalization of the City Core
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 busines...
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Season 3
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Episode 176
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37:38
175 [S3E22]: Geoff McKim on the Issues of the Moment in Monroe County
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 devel...
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Season 3
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Episode 175
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36:39
174 [S3E21]: Sura Gail Tala, on How the Center for Sustainable Living Fosters and Incubates Nonprofits
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 peop...
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Season 3
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Episode 174
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34:15
173 [S3E20]: Julie Duhon and Erin Loughery of Tandem, on the Birth of a Midwifery Service Provider
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,...
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Season 3
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Episode 173
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39:42
172 [S3E19]: WFHB Community Radio and the Key Piece of City Real Estate That Created an Institution
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 172
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37:02
171 [S3E18]: Running the County with Commissioner Jody Madeira (D.3)
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 171
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37:58
170 [S3E17]: The Future of Kirkwood with ESD Director Jane Kupersmith
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...
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Season 3
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Episode 170
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36:25
169 [S3E16]: Growing the Local Arts Landscape with Cicada Cinema
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 ci...
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Season 3
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Episode 169
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33:51
168 [S3E15]: Stewarding Nature with Sycamore Land Trust's Chris Fox
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 p...
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Season 3
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Episode 168
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31:26
167 [S3E14]: Promoting Home Ownership with Wendi Goodlett and Lindsey Boswell of Habitat for Humanity
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 wit...
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Season 3
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Episode 167
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36:55
166 [S3E13]: The 812 Work Session with Jeremy Hogan of The Bloomingtonian
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 lai...
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Season 3
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Episode 166
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34:30
165 [S3E12]: Reshading the Tree City with Canopy Bloomington's Ava Hartman and Jon Vickers
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 165
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36:20