Jim Buck and Andrew Stuhl sit down with Taylor and occasional guest host Reagan in late June and discuss recreation and local politics. Jim Buck is a former reporter and EBT supervisor. Andrew Stuhl is an EBT resident and a professor at Bucknell. Both have been at the forefront of following the twists and turns of EBT’s approach to recreation and specifically it’s policy of supporting or not Buffalo Valley Recreation Authority (BVRA). Jim and Andrew have done amazing work documenting the unfolding of this process both at the Parks and Rec for EBT group on Facebook and also at the site Public Parks and Rec. The Public Parks and Rec site has excellent coverage of the issue including Jim’s reporting as well as coverage from local papers and other resources.
While this may seem hyper-local, the BVRA story is also about public engagement, what a politics of “common goods” looks like, how conservatives struggle with opposing and supporting common goods, and how EBT is a microcosm of issues of development, community, and ideology in middle and upper class America. Check the average income statistics for EBT if you don’t believe us!
Fun fact: all of the people on this podcast are or were residents of EBT.