The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - CVille Econ Dev Strategy & Its DEI Focus; An Outline Of City Hall's Econ Dev Strategy

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: CVille Econ Dev Strategy & Its DEI Focus An Outline Of City Hall’s Econ Dev Strategy Private Catholic High School Opening In CVille Free Head Start Child Care Centers Close Does City Need To Do More To Remember A12? Arson At Vocelli Pizza: $30K In Damages Vocelli Owners Opening Cajun Style Roux St. Richmond Times-Dispatch Ditches RVA Building Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday afternoon, guys. Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville show. Great to be with you. Despite the late start, we are on air. We're across all social media channels where we talk content that's focused on Charlottesville, Virginia. We encourage all the viewers and listeners, if you are a fan of the University of Virginia football team or college football in general, the show we did this morning with Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Jerry Hootie-Rackliff, who's been on the beat for 50-plus years.

He invited Sean Moore, arguably the greatest quarterback in Virginia football history. I think he is the greatest quarterback in Virginia football history. He think he is the greatest quarterback in Virginia football history. He led the program to a number one ranking in the country when he was under center. He joined us in studio this morning. We spent 45 minutes with Sean Moore on the Jerry and Jerry show. It was a fantastic interview.

It's going to be archived on jerryracliff.com. It'll be archived on iloveceville.com, wherever you get your podcasting content. We love when folks watch the YouTube channel. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel. That would mean the world to us and watch over there. But that interview was excellent. Sean Moore talked about his recruitment

to the University of Virginia, what it was like to be a quarterback of a number one ranked team in the nation, stories from the Aberdeen Barn, stories about George Welsh and his offensive coordinator, Gary Tranquil, and what it was like to play with some of the best football players in program history, a team that saw 20 plus players go to the NFL during his time. Pretty awesome interview with Sean Moore. A lot I want to cover on the program. I want to highlight a topic from yesterday. Judah's going to highlight the goals for the

Charlottesville Economic Development Authority when it comes to their plan for economic development for the city of Charlottesville. We're going to outline the strategy for you and allow you, the viewer and listener, to interpret the strategy as you see fit, and then we will offer our opinions and commentary on it. I think a couple of compelling storylines that must be covered on this show and through other media outlets is the private school offerings in Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and Central Virginia. We now have a private Catholic high school that's opening in the city. A couple of blocks from where this studio sits, the Queen Charlotte building is where this private Catholic high school is opening I am all for

as many schooling options as possible I think options create power for parents and create potential paths of success for their kids for their students, for our kids the next generation I think an important storyline

to highlight is as the wealth, the population of wealthy folks comes to Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville, and we see with HUD, the family household income is really Charlottesville metro footprint as that family household increases the population of students at private schools is increasing you're seeing the Miller school increasing its student body you're seeing the Blue Ridge school increasing its student body you're seeing a private Catholic high school being built the schools in our area the population at the private schools are upticking. What is the impact that is going to have on the public schools in our area? The Weldon Cooper Center and some of its demographic study has highlighted that public school population

in the next 10 to 15 years is going to drop noticeably. What is that going to do to the demographics of the public schools? Are we going to see a gentrified public school system in Albemarle, the city of Charlottesville, and the other school systems? Are we going to see public school systems change in their ideology? Because if students are being removed from public school classrooms and hallways and placed in private school classrooms and hallways does that is that an indication of public schools

needing to do things differently we'll talk about that on today's show we also need to highlight that the free head start child care centers in the area are closing. Charlottesville Tomorrow, another strong article from Charlottesville Tomorrow. I find myself in back-to-back weeks commending Seville Tomorrow for its reporting. I'm seeing reporting from Seville Tomorrow when it last couple weeks came to the Carlton Mobile Home Park, and now a headline that was published today about major federal deficiency violations forced MACA to shut down its free Head Start child care centers. These are centers that service 200 students,

that offer free child care for 200 students. So, A, I think Charlottesville tomorrow needs to be commended for getting back to the hard news cycle of content this article from tamika jean charles a plus article the mobile home park coverage and habitat and pha buying the carlton mobile home park was authored by Erin O'Hare. When she put this in the news cycle, Erin O'Hare, my hope is that Seville Tomorrow gets back to hard news reporting. I think that's what the community wants, is what's in the day's news cycle that we should know about. That's what I hope they're going to.

We're going to break down today's story from Seville Tomorrow on the major federal deficiency violations forced MACA to shut down its Head Start child care centers. These are the type of violations that would scare the bejeebus out of any parent. There goes Ludwig Kutner with his property manager, the downtown property SIOM. These violations include grabbing students by the wrist and yanking them upward, leaving a student in a classroom during a fire drill covered by a blanket,

a napping student unattended during a fire drill, screaming at students, and just the type of stuff with very young children that scares the hell out of parents. We'll tell that story as Charlottesville Tomorrow reports it and gives some commentary today on the I Love Seville show. Also on the program, I want to dot the I's and cross the T's on a couple of stories we didn't get to yesterday, including the Vicelli pizza family that is at a serious loss of income right now after what appears to be an arson attack on the pizzeria on Route 29. An attack that happened,

a fire that was set on Vicelli's Pizza, mere a few days before the family, the Washington family, was going to open a Cajun New Orleans style restaurant a couple of doors down from their pizzeria. And they said they needed the revenue from the pizzeria to float the New Orleans style, C Cajun-style restaurant as they were bringing it to market. So the timing of this arson, the alleged arson, could not be worse. And then we'll close with this one. I will get to this story today. The Richmond Times dispatches ditching

its downtown building, a building that bears its name, 300 Franklin Street. They're looking for a new location. This got me thinking about Charlottesville's media scene. To put it in perspective how long the Times Dispatch has been there, they moved into this location in 1923, over 100 years ago, when the Richmond News Leader built a building there.

The News Leader merged with the Times Dispatch in 1992. Take a look at the Charlottesville media landscape. Seville Weekly does not have a proper headquarters. I think its team members all work remote. The Seville Weekly headquarters on the downtown mall is home to the Robert Kennedy Charlottesville campaign office. The Daily Progress, I do not believe, has a headquarters anymore. That Rio Road location has been shuttered. The two TV stations, NBC 29 still has its location on Market Street. CBS 19 somewhere on Route 29.

I don't know the exact location of it. And I think Seville tomorrow is in the Woolen Mills Office Park. But you are seeing media outlets of the legacy variety no longer have headquarters. And when media outlets of the legacy variety do not have brick-and-mortar locations, they lose a sense of brand identity within a community. One of the reasons we spent the money we did to purchase the storefront in the Macklin building for the I Love Seville studio was to have a home base where our brand would be seen by 10,000 cars that drive by Market Street every day and a boatload of walkers that pass by the studio every day. We strategically wanted the headquarters to be in downtown Charlottesville on the corner of 4th and Market Street because we knew that's where the police chiefs, the fire chiefs, the city managers, the assistant city managers, the city attorneys,

the judges, the commonwealth attorneys, the bankers, the movers and shakers, the landlords. I mean, Ludwig Kutner just walked by the studio. We routinely talk about Brian Hluska and Counselor Lloyd Snook walking by the studio, supervisors walking by the studio. Whether they see it subconsciously or consciously, they're touched by the I Love Seville brand. And as media outlets lose brick and mortar positions, that subconscious or conscious brand connection is lost. And that's how legacy media arose even further. So we'll talk about that today on the program. I want to weave Judah Wickhauer in on a two-shot. I want to thank Pro Renata for being a partner of the show. Pro Renata, Dr. John Shabe and his team are doing amazing things at Pro Renata, expanding into downtown Stanton and the Shenandoah Valley with

the purchase of the assets of Skipping Rock Brewery. They have purchased a brewery system from Skipping Rock that is one of the best in the Commonwealth. And now we're seeing Pro Renata go from being the Disney World of Crozet to having a Commonwealth-wide footprint. John Shabe leading the charge. He opens up the books from a partnership standpoint to Joe Reed, the former Virginia wide receiver, played in the National Football League. Joe Reed did for the Chargers and the Bears, now one of the partners at Pro Renata. It's a brand that's booming, ladies and gentlemen, absolutely booming. Judah Wickhauer on a two-shot, the headline you find most compelling today and why, and then we'll get to our lead story, which is the strategy for economic development in our city, an outline for the viewers and listeners to see? I'm excited about what's going on with the owners of Vicelli. It's a shame what happened to their restaurant. And I think what's really amazing is that they kept Vocelli Pizza open all throughout the pandemic.

And now this, and it's such a shame because they were relying on not just the income from Vocelli Pizza, but also the stable of workers that they had who could easily uh they could easily transfer between the stores um so this is a hit for them um and i and i really hope that they that they managed to to pull off the new restaurant while uh while getting getting the jelly pizza fixed up well said um restaurant made it through covid pizzeria in a saturated pizza category. And the risk profile or appetite for risk to open another restaurant that's Cajun, not tied to pizza, in the same shopping center. Yeah. It's a lot of days, we're talking like 24, 48, 72-hour window prior to opening the Cajun restaurant,

their primary source of revenue that's been their primary source for decades, someone sets fire to it. Yeah. Thankfully, the person was caught. Thankfully, the person was caught. The damage done, nevertheless. Yeah. We'll talk about that later in the program. Outline the Economic Development Authority of Charlottesville,

their strategy for driving the economy in the city. Judah and I both found this compelling. Sean Tubbs has that reporting. I don't think there's really, I mean, most of this is just kind of an outline. I don't know that there's any outline. Let's get to the bullet points. Okay. Bullet points it is. Partner to grow Charlottesville's BIPOC and diverse businesses, LGBTQIA women and veteran owned through technical training, capital access, and networking. Establish a one-stop resource hub, website slash app, for support services, culturally sensitive resources, and how to navigate city processes. Support home-based entrepreneurship and remote work.

Continue the business equity fund loan program, explore the creation of a subsidized shared commercial space on or near the downtown mall, continue to support key partner entrepreneurial support organizations with program funding, and promote and tell the story of Charlottesville's diverse entrepreneurs. This is directly from Sean Tubbs' community sub-stack. Again, Sean Tubbs, you're getting props on the show. Seven strategies for economic development in the city of Charlottesville. The seven strategies are rooted in a diversity, equity, and inclusion effort. I want to talk about, I want to get your opinion on this.

I want to get the viewers' and listeners' opinion on this. I want to ask the question of creating a subsidized shared commercial space on or near the downtown mall. Thoughts on that? Isn't that already here? Thank you for bringing that up. The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority purchased the building on the downtown mall and the dead center of the downtown mall, the former home to Vita Nova's Pizza,

the former home to Henry's Restaurant. It's an elevator building. In that building, they're going to use the retail storefront space, the restaurant space, as subsidized below-market rent type of offering, type of space for entrepreneurs that want to bring a business to market. I need to ask the question about vacancy rates again. The same organization, the Economic Development Authority, the folks that are hired with taxpayer resources to help push the economy forward, they are touting the vacancy rate being a couple of percentage points. I pushed back on that

vacancy rate saying before COVID, it was basically a zero vacancy rate. And I pushed back even further by saying, if you're filling the storefronts on the downtown mall with the Housing Redevelopment Authority, and you're filling the storefronts on the downtown mall with the Parks and Recreation Department, and you're filling the storefronts on the downtown mall with the Operation Hope organization

that helps former incarcerated individuals assimilate back into the local ecosystem. I'm not trying to diminish the value of these type of organizations because I think they have significant value for people and for our community. But I question whether these type of organizations should have footprints on them all, especially when it comes to taxpayer resources being utilized. A lot of folks don't realize that the Market Street Parking Garage, owned by the city, and the Market Street Parking Garage has storefronts on the back end of it that are on the downtown mall. And the Market Street parking garage

owned by the city, taxpayer resources, they're having city, what do you call them, groups, outfits, call their headquarters on the downtown mall. Yeah. These same... One of them's taken over Bashir's.

The old Bashir's. These same storefronts were run by businesses that drove the economy with taxpayer resource, with tax dollars, and drove the economy by creating foot traffic. Yeah, drove people to the mall. Drove people to the mall. The businesses that are filling the storefronts downtown,

I rattled off four of them right there, are closing at 5 o'clock, not open on the weekend, and aren't driving traffic to the mall. Okay, so I want to highlight the seven strategies according to the Substack Sean Tubbs has published today. These are direct quotes. One of the strategies to grow the economy is to partner to grow Charlottesville's BIPOC and diverse LGBTQIA community through technical

training and capital access. Create a one-stop resource hub. Support home-based entrepreneurship and remote work. That one I question. The home-based entrepreneurship and remote work. That one I question. The home-based entrepreneurship and remote work. Continue the business equity fund. Explore the creation of subsidized shared commercial space on the mall. I question that one. The subsidized commercial space on the mall. Continue to support key partner entrepreneurial support organizations. That would mean like,

what's the one that Stephen Davis is the head of, the executive director? Stephen Davis, executive director, Charlottesville. I'm Googling that. Community investment collaborative. Huge fan of the community investment collaborative. I think that's a great one. And promote and tell Charlottesville's

diverse entrepreneurs' stories. Judy, you can go first on this. What's your take on these seven strategies that were pulled from the economic development authority and its plan to grow the economy locally? Overall, I don't really have a problem with it. I think it's – for me, it's the language, especially in the first one. Is this – like I have no problem with the city helping businesses grow. I think that's great. I'm not sure I really believe that that's what they want to do. This city has not been completely small business friendly at all times. We saw a lot of that during the pandemic where small businesses were forced to close while larger businesses were not. And with the language here, again, I don't have a problem with the city.

What's the take you had before the show started that was succinct and right on? What's your take on this? I wonder about discrimination. It's great to talk about supporting, you know, BIPOC and LGBTQIA and women and veterans, but is that at the exclusion of others? If you don't fall into a group of people that the city believes needs their help, do they leave you to do it on your own?

That's discrimination. It doesn't matter that it's discriminating against possibly a white male it's still discrimination and I think that's what I'm worried about the most Carly Wagner, I'll get to your comments on the public schools Ginny Hu, I will get to your comments on the public schools anything else you want to offer on this?

this is important, and this is a tough topic to cover. This is a difficult topic to cover, but it's a topic that needs to be covered. The Jefferson Council, Bert Ellis, who's on the Board of Visitors, he co-founded the Jefferson Council in large part because he thought the University of Virginia was unrecognizable from when he attended the University of Virginia, a school very much rooted now in costly tuition and prioritizing DEI efforts that have left many alumni polarized or alienated. The same efforts we're seeing manifest in the Economic Development Authority's office and their economic development strategy for driving local business forward. Yeah.

From our standpoint, and this is just my opinion here, I'd like to see an economic development office prioritize small business across the board, regardless of race, regardless of sexuality, regardless of man or woman. It's an effort that should be prioritized with resources that could be tied to funding, resources that could be tied to marketing promotion on a city-run website. Resources that could be tied to networking. Resources that could be tied to grants and counsel. But done in a way where everyone is welcome. Done in a way where we encourage you to become entrepreneurs and business people. Whether you're black, white, Puerto Rican or Haitian, whether you're heterosexual,

bisexual, homosexual, and whether you are... A woman or a man. A woman or a man. A veteran or not a veteran. I mean, I appreciate that they're adding all these inclusions, but does that mean

that there are exclusions? Or does that mean that there are exclusions? Or does that mean that some small businesses won't get the same resources because they don't fall in certain checkmarked categories? Exactly. And when you start giving the perception of priority tied to race or sexuality, then you start creating a...

You start creating systematic problems. We've been here before and done this before. We've been here before and done this before. We've been here before and done this before with redlining, with changing of zoning, with destroying and raising neighborhoods. When we learn from history, the history that we learn from should say, we want a path of

equity or equality that's based on actual equity and equality. Yeah. It's based on a chance for everyone to have the same chances.

I need to highlight this, and this conversation needs to be had. You have eight blocks, which are the downtown mall, that are clearly suffering. Even those that are incredible champions of the houseless population, they are now even admitting that the houseless population is impacting the downtown mall.

When the eight blocks are suffering, the idea of filling storefronts with an organization that helps re-assimilate folks that have spent time in jail and having their headquarters on the mall, or a housing and redevelopment authority having its headquarters on the mall, or a parks and rec having its headquarters on the mall, or a Housing and Redevelopment Authority having its headquarters on the mall, or a Parks and Rec having its headquarters on the mall, or a transit center that used to be a tourism center that's now a boarded-up center having its headquarters on the mall,

or the top breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot for the houseless population having its headquarters on the mall? You know, I'm surprised they haven't done anything with the transit station, with the top floor of that. Gorgeous building. Yeah, you could put multiple businesses in there. Or you could make that a place that people could go inside to get drinks and stuff when they've got bands playing. I cannot believe that that entire space has just gone to waste since they took out the welcome seats. Lisa Kustalo pushes back on your comments of discriminating against straight white males, Judah.

Okay. Your response to Lisa Kustalo there? I don't know. What did she say? She asked, discriminating against straight white males? Question mark, question mark, Judah Wachauer. Okay. I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to respond. Make your position on the statement, on the comment. That's what she's asking you to do, to clarify your position.

I thought I had. I mean, the fact that they're including all of these specific diverse types of people, does that mean that there are exclusions with the types of people that they didn't mention? more succinctly, is the Economic Development Authority of Charlottesville is funded with taxpayer dollars. And taxpayer dollars do not know race, sexuality, male or female. They just know green. And they're provided by all of us that spend money or do business. So those resources should be allocated in an even playing field. That's as succinct as you

can get. It's a questionable look. Like I said, overall, I don't have a problem with most of this. The space that I was talking about, I think there's one here on Market Street next to the PB&J fund. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Oh, yeah. It's a commissary kitchen that can be utilized and rented by a number of people. We often see Troy Razor Robinson and his mobile food business working in and out of there. Okay. food business working in and out of there. You have two commissary open to the public kitchens that offer reduced rates for aspiring entrepreneurs in food and beverage. You have what is going to be what CRHA does on the downtown mall, and you have this location over here. I'll make another convincing argument here. Here's another convincing argument.

Food and beverage businesses, restaurants and bars, on the mall, talk to any of the owners. Many of them, my friend, they are struggling to pay their bills and their overhead right now. Is it a good idea to create more competition for them in their actual backyard by using taxpayer resources to create subsidized opportunities for them to compete directly with the restaurants

that have withstood the test of time and have generated the revenue for the city from a tax standpoint, a meals tax standpoint? You have Rapture. I went to Rapture Restaurant as a first year at the University of Virginia when I was doing my pledging of Phi Kappa Psi. During rush week, they took us to Rapture Restaurant for steak and mashed potato dinner. That's one of the first things I experienced in downtown Charlottesville. I went to the first thing I ever experienced, and I tell this story all the time. Me and my buddies took the trolley from the UVA Chapel with our fake New Jersey IDs, which we made in Dabney 101 by buying laminated paper

and a printer and some gold paint on eBay, made some fake New Jersey IDs, took the trolley to Miller's to watch Agents of Good Roots. I've seen Miller's, I've seen Hamilton's at First and Main, I've seen Rapture Restaurant, just to name a few, been in operation for the entire 24 years I've been in this city. And I would bet you if you asked the owner of Miller's, the roadie Mike and Cecilia at Rapture, if you asked the Hamiltons at First and Main about the mall right now

in sustaining their business, generating revenue, they would say it's extremely tough, the toughest it's ever been. I bet you they would say that. And right now we have the city creating subsidized competition using the meals tax revenue in part to do that subsidized competition to go head-to-head with the restaurants that are saying we're barely making it right now.

But is that really competition? How is it not competition? Is that really head-to-head? I tell the story about Hollywood Shades, the sunglass business that I invested in on Old Ivy Road. This is business 101, dude. I learned this in 11th grade. McDonald's,

Wendy's, Burger King, The Dumpling Place, Jack Brown's, they compete with white tablecloth. Everyone's in, there's only a certain amount of diners. They compete with white tablecloth. There's only a certain amount of diners. Are you saying that we should limit the number of restaurants on the downtown mall, though? I'm saying creating subsidized restaurant opportunities on the downtown mall

when the businesses are struggling to survive on the downtown mall is unfair competition. It's another headwind for a business that's withstood the test of time, that's proven its worth to the city and the meals tax revenue it generates. It's pissing in the wind. It's disrespectful. I still don't know that I agree

that it's a head-to-head type situation here. I mean, we're also talking about Vicelli Pizza, which if the arsonists hadn't destroyed the business, they would be opening their own competition in the same shopping center, as you mentioned earlier. Vicelli's Pizza isn't opening its own competition. It's improving its economies of scale. When Vicelli's Pizza opens another restaurant in the same shopping center, it has more purchasing power with

the performance foods of the world. The food companies that it's buying its ingredients at wholesale level. That's why you see restaurant owners in this area opening locations two, three, and four, because they're saving on margin on the goods that they're buying. That's fair, but they may also be diluting their customer base. They're creating an economy in that shopping center.

I get it. If you can't go to the Cajun restaurant, you may buy the pizza. If you go to the pizza place for takeout, then you see the Cajun restaurant, and you try the Cajun restaurant next. Opening next door to the pizza place, the Cajun restaurant, is called vertically integrating the food empire. You can have employees go from one location to the other when working on the clock, and you get improved purchasing power with your wholesale providers. I get it. It's improving your margin. It's what Dino's has done at Dairy Market.

Dino's has got the wood-fire pizza, the rotisserie chicken, basta pasta, and move-through. Dino has his employees go across all four stalls. Oh, you want more hours? I don't have any more hours for you at Dino's but you can go work at Muthru I can go to my food providers

that I buy my goods from and say I got four places that I need to buy give me a better rate and he improves his margin it's called vertical integration I'm not sure how well that works for ice cream and pizza and he improves his margin. It's called vertical integration. I'm not sure how well that works for ice cream and pizza, but I know what you're talking about.

Labor. He's got the same labor working at all four stalls. Does he? I've never seen them cross-pollinate. You literally see me doing business with Dino when we're not doing the show on other things to expand his empire. I'm actively talking with him every day, which you are helping put together the contracts for these deals

we're doing. Yeah, I'm explaining to you, I'm speaking to him on a daily basis, which you're helping me service the business to help service him. I know that's what he's doing because he's

told me that's what he's doing. Okay. But it's different when the city is doing it as competition where you're choosing to create another restaurant to complement your current restaurant. Yeah, I get it. But I've never heard of any of these other restaurants. Are they really pulling a lot of the customer base from places like Rapture? I understand

what you're getting at. Troy Robinson has got a food truck called Order Up. Troy is a smart business person. His Order Up. Okay. Troy is a smart business person. His Order Up mobile food cart is fantastic. Hell of a job. You see it parked on Jefferson Park Avenue next to the old Anna's Pizza location

by the laundromat. You used to see his food cart parked on the downtown mall. He'd use the commissary kitchen by the PB&J fund on Market Street, and then he would be out and about in downtown Charlottesville. I'm all for that.

What I bristle about, or bristle on, is taxpayer dollars for subsidized restaurants below market rents. We'll cover your electricity and your water. We'll use taxpayer resources to market your restaurant. And we're going to put it on the mall to compete against the restaurants that have been here for 25 plus years that generated the revenue through the meals tax to subsidize or fund this program.

That is ass-backwards thinking. What should be done instead is Economic Development Authority creating a marketing campaign to strengthen the businesses that have withstood the test of time in the pandemic. Economic Development Authority of Alamaro County figuring out a way to help the Washington family at Vicelli's Pizza with this arson situation. You guys made it through COVID. You guys have been in operation for 18 years. Because of that success, you're opening another restaurant.

You're creating more meals taxed for the county. Let us help you get back on your feet. That would be great. As opposed to creating a competitor and putting them right next to you, which is what the city is doing. I'm so passionate about this. Carly Wagner offering the program CWAGS.

She says, I assume and hope they are not excluding white men, but there is at least anecdotal evidence and likely hard data that white men are the most aware of grants, et cetera, and how to navigate the system than BIPOC, et cetera, so allowing the less well-versed in the system

of seeking grant funding a leg up isn't necessarily unfair, I guess, she says. Public funds should be distributed on needs basis, not based on identity politics in general, though. Thousand percent agree with that. She also says, are these subsidies open to existing struggling businesses?

Did these existing businesses not also benefit from all kinds of federal COVID subsidies? Great question. I would love to know if the subsidies are opening to existing struggling businesses. It would seem to me it would make sense to help the ones that have been around forever instead of helping launch competitors to compete directly with the struggling ones, slicing and dicing market share to the eventual demise of both. Jason Howard on Rio Road, if the state subsidizes

some restaurants but not others, doesn't this favor some businesses over others? I'm in favor of things like KTAC training that is somewhat state funded to help people get started. But helping to fund an active business puts different private entities on different playing fields. Feel the same way. No doubt. Feel the same way, Jason. Lisa Custolo on Cherry Avenue. How much should the city intervene in the free market economy trying to level the playing field? Are they really leveling it or giving favor to certain city program participants? Excellent question, Ms. Custolo.

Yeah. Same question, Ms. Custolo, I have. Let's go to Deep Throat. Got some comments we got to get to here. I wanted to highlight this nugget from the economic development document executive summary. Charlottesville's largest cluster is tourism with 4,300 workers. Although it has the highest share of female employment, 54%, overall employment has decreased in the last five years and the cluster offers the lowest average earnings. He says, deep throat does, this is what I've been banging my drum about. Tourism is a doo-doo industry. It's highly disruptive to locals, pays very poorly to those that work within it, and you end up bringing in poorly

paid people who can't afford the housing in the community he says no more hotels in the area he says much more sophisticated jurisdictions than ours are talking about the pathologies of over tourism the bumpkins though embrace embraced the strategy 20 years ago. And he also says, why do we pay for this generic word salad and economic development strategy? We have 2% unemployment. We don't need government-led economic development.

Total waste of money. On the tourism piece, most of the staff in the tourism space are hourly employees. A lot of the staff in the tourism space are seasonal employees. Hourly and seasonal employees. If they're attracted to an area that's the second highest cost of living in the Commonwealth, and they're hourly and seasonal employees, the struggle will be very real with managing the cost of living and housing affordability. That's the point he's making here. I would love to see economic development do this. We are going to take our taxpayer resources and we're going to offer anyone who wants it an educational seminar on artificial intelligence, on computer coding, on utilizing semiconductors, on chips semiconductors is what I mean here, not trains. We're going to educate our up-and-coming population or our middle-aged population or our older population on the paths of profession of tomorrow and hope that they can be hired from within the community by the many businesses coming to the community.

That's an economic development plan. Take folks on the financial margin, show them a path to getting off the financial margin through education that could be subsidized regardless of sex, regardless of sexuality, regardless of race, and say, you want to put the effort in to learn AI, to learn coding, technology, engineering, math, whatever the hell it may be, app development, then you're going to be even more qualified to get jobs at these key employers who are coming to this area

to set up headquarters. And then you can offer the key employers that are coming to this area to set up headquarters, and then you can offer the key employers that are coming to this area to set up headquarters a tax subsidy, a build-out subsidy, some grace on their runway with build-out, with the caveat that they have to hire X amount of people within the community, and then you show them these people that are within the community can actually fit the profile of worker you're looking for because we coached them and taught them and educated them at this Charlottesville school, the KTAC school for God's sake. Charlottesville just took over KTAC. Used to be a joint venture with Alamaro County. It's now

Charlottesville's. Why don't we take the Economic Development Authority and take those resources and make KTEC better? There's not enough teachers at KTEC. There's certainly not enough students. Improve KTEC. Allocate the resources there. And then when you recruit the businesses to come to the area, have them hire a portion from KTEC.

There's an effing plan. Frustrating. The politics and the... The word salad has gotten out of control. Anything else you want to offer here? I mean, some of this seems like such common sense. Having two or three restaurants open up on the downtown mall

that are paying extremely below market rent because taxpayers are covering the difference of what their actual market rent is. Or not having an electric bill or a water bill to pay. And saying, go compete with the ones that have been around for a quarter of a century. And take their customers away. Is just going to cause market share to be so divided that no one's going to win. We don't need any taxpayer subsidy

to create more food and beverage businesses in one of the most saturated categories of work in the metro area. Depending on who you talk to, we're top 15 in the nation with restaurants per capita. Some say top 10. Why would it make sense

to subsidize more in that category? All right. We need to go to the next topic. What is the next topic? I got to call it 130. What's the next headline? I got to call it 1.30. What's the next headline? This seems like so... Next headline is

a private Catholic high school is opening in Seville. I love this. Yeah. I love the model. I think... They got 12 students in the coming school year yeah but uh i think they said that's mostly by design yeah i'm not throwing shade on it at all i know i know you're not i didn't say you were um the classroom is centered around a different

style of teaching where the teacher sits basically in a round table. I don't know that the table is actually circular. than just learning by rote or learning by taking notes for an hour or two and then getting tested on their memory, basically. I think more high schools would benefit from using a method like this that engages students' minds and intellects to create a discourse where all the students are learning and talking rather than just sitting there and being force-fed whatever the school is teaching. Well said. Here are storylines that we should understand that are happening. Private schools in Charlottesville and Albemarle County and in Central Virginia are expanding their student bodies.

The Miller School, expanding. Blue Ridge School, expanding. Free Union Day School, expanding. Blue Ridge School, expanding. Free Union Day School, expanding. New Private Catholic High School. There's talk at the Charlottesville Catholic School, which is elementary and middle. They, for years, have tried fundraising to do a high school on their own.

The private schools are expanding. I think they should. on their own. The private schools are expanding. I think they should. You have a population that's getting wealthier that are choosing the private school for their kids. Yeah, why wouldn't they? You have the Weldon Cooper Center

that has done statistical study that shows the public school population is on a significant decline. These are the storylines that should be covered. Homeschooling getting more robust with their student bodies. Private school more robust. Public school population is falling. Are we seeing before our very eyes the impact of politics in public schools and what it does to a dropping public school population?

I think it's more than just politics. I think it's the school bus issue, the transportation issue. It clearly compelled voters to push Youngkin into the governor's mansion and to beat Terry McAuliffe. I think it's the book banning issue. The sexuality issue. The role of parents and teachers in schools. DEI in schools. All these elements. The wealth moving to the area.

All these elements are changing what public school populations look like. You've got to ask yourself, are we seeing the real-time gentrification of public schools? And if we don't wake up and get hip to it, what is that going to do with teacher staff, support staff, administrative staff that can't hire drivers? They may go the way of MACA. Teachers have been talking about pass the MACA story on. I mean, it's essentially a smaller version of what we see going on in schools. I think it's a larger problem than just politics.

What happened with MACA appears to be that they just didn't have the money to survive. Reading the article, it all points to the fact that they couldn't hire enough people. They kept having problems. I mean, what's going to happen anywhere when you have less people doing more work, covering more jobs, covering more hours, and trying to continue on in a place that just doesn't have the money or the, I don't know, the will. I think it's mostly money-based. They didn't have the money to hire the people they needed. And so less people were taking on more responsibility. That led to problems. And while it may sound horrible, I don't think any of this involved beating children. No, I don't think it did either. This was, I think, the type of discipline issues that every parent, I'm sure, is aware of. When a child is having a tantrum, when they're not listening, and you grab them

by the arm, that, in this case, I think is considered a deficiency. They get a deficiency for that. And I don't think the issue was as bad as we think, but they just didn't have the people to, uh, to continue. And they had a choice, which was drop the funding. And I, I don't know how some of this doesn't really make sense to me, but, uh, maybe it does to someone else. It sounds like, uh, um, I mean, they talk about, um, the agency decided to surrender the grants in hopes of resolving its issues in the next couple of years. Okay. Failure to prove they had corrected the problem would likely lead OHS to terminate their grant. MACA officially surrendered its grants to OHS the day before it alerted its staff it would close.

I thought they were trying to prevent closing or prevent losing the grants, but it sounds like they did both. OHS is the official head start. So I'm a little bit confused about what the plan was here. But they left people, you know, they left parents fairly high and dry and it sounded like it was the actual workers who were trying to let parents know that they were going to have to start looking for something else soon. MACA, the Monaco Area Community Action Agency.

OHS, the official head start. 200 students served at no cost. Do you see what's happening here? The 200 students that were served at free or no cost impacted. The public schools impacted with teacher shortages, driver shortages, students arriving to school late, getting home late. We're seeing, before our eyes, we're seeing an educational landscape completely reimagined. It's reimagined because of population influx.

Said influx is wealthy. It's reimagined because of politics in schools. It's reimagined because of screen time in schools. I told a story late last week. Maybe it was yesterday's program. I think it might have been Friday's program of a friend, an advisor to our company. Financial advisor to our company, financial advisor to our company.

Pull his students from public schools and put his kids from public schools and put them into private. Because his youngest at Cale, Mountain View, was being educated in multiple classrooms through YouTube educational videos, being instructed by teachers to sit in a classroom period, sit on screen, and watch YouTube educational videos for class happening every day. That's horrendous. I mean, I would 100% pull a kid out of a school that was doing that as well. Wagner Carly C. Wag says, safety issues too. John Blair says, our son attends public school, but you would be shocked, and I mean shocked, at the amount and type of parents who look at my wife and I as if we have two heads when we say our son is in private school.

When we say our son is in public school. Let me reread that. Our son attends public school, but you would be shocked that I mean shocked the amount and type of parents who look at my wife and I as if we have two heads when we say our son is in public school. I'm talking extraordinarily liberal people who ask questions like, do you all pay for tutors? Is he learning anything? I don't think people understand just how few kids from middle and upper middle class families attend public schools in Albemarle or Charlottesville any longer. Interesting. Ray Cadell is watching the program, and it's not just wealthy families, he says,

that are choosing the private school path. The Cadells were a perfect example of that when we didn't care for some things that were happening and sent our daughter to the Covenant School. I want you to consider this. I want you to consider this. Let's just use the number 20 grand for tuition. That number's low when you include additional auxiliary costs that come with attendance.

But let's just use the number 20 grand. Let's say you start, let's not even say you start in kindergarten. Let's say you start in fourth grade. Fourth grade. Four, five, six, seven, eight, 9, 10, 11, 12, nine years. And let's just use 20 grand. We all know that tuition every year goes up. If you just used a fat 20K on nine years,

that's 180 grand for someone starting in the fourth grade. That's not going to factor in books. That's not going to factor in field trips. That's not going to factor in uniforms. That's not going to factor in tutoring. And I'm telling you, tutoring happens outside the classroom. That's not going to factor in sports. That's not going to factor in tuition raises.

You start at fourth grade, you graduate from it, you're going to be well when you factor in all those other elements. I bet you you're flirting with a quarter million dollars. Some can make the argument that when they get to college, they're saving money if they're in state. That's what we're going to say. Son, if you want to go to college, they're saving money if they're in state. That's what we're going to say. Son, if you want to go to college, I'm not even sure what college is going to look like.

We have a rising first grader. I'm not even sure what college is going to look like. It could be just completely digital where he's learning with a headset on or a digital teacher in the living room while he's in his Spiderman tighty-whities. Captain America tighty-whities. Captain America tighty-whities. Let's hope at 18 or 19

he's not wearing Captain America tighty-whities. Or we've got another problem. Long story short, stay in state, you might be looking at in-state tuition less than private school tuition. You might be saving money. Or he says to me,

I don't want to even do that. I'd be like, you do what you want. We're here to support you. I don't think the millennial parent is as razor focused on our children have to go to a four-year

prestigious U.S. News and World Report top-ranked college anymore. I think the millennial parent has realized that the U.S. News and World Report top-ranked university. I had this conversation with the same financial advisor that taking the valedictorian that graduates from Virginia Commonwealth University versus the graduate that finished in the middle to the bottom of his class from an Ivy League university, he said to me he would all day, every day, and twice on Sunday hire the valedictorian from VCU instead of the middle of the pack to lower the pack Ivy League graduate. Exact words.

Oh, man. Ginny Hu watching the program. She says, homeschooling numbers have increased as well, and this is just a personal observation, but I've seen an increase in families with multiple children who have kids in public, private, and homeschool working hard to meet the needs of the individual child. She says, I love this. Sounds very similar to the class I'm teaching at our co-op this year. It's not just wealthy area families. There is a decline in public school enrollment in less affluent areas as well. When I went to UVA, my dad said he saved money from what he paid for my private school. Of course, this was a few years ago. And she was at Norfolk Academy or Nansman Suffolk. Ginny who? She was in the TCIS, the Tidewater. What was the TCIS? I was Walsingham Academy, TCIS. I should know what that acronym stands for. Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools. Nanceman Suffolk, NSA. She's Gen X, went through a doctoral program, and I'm completely fine with

my kids not going to college. Of course, the oldest wanted to go. the middle isn't sure. We're millennial and I think she just highlighted Gen X. I know Gen X and millennial have become jaded because of the generations. You got the generation graph? Perfect. Look at the screen, everybody. Gen Xer

and millennial parents have been jaded because of college debt. No doubt. When it comes to their kids attending universities. All right, I got a 145 call, not 130. 145 call, I just got the calendar notification. I want to close on a couple of items. What are the last few headlines that we have to get to?

Oh, we got a lot. That was number three. What were the other ones? We need a clock. Sometimes I get going. Is it the A12? Should it be remembered by the city? Free Head Start child care centers closed. We covered that. Community responding to homeless.

Does city need to do more to remember A12, Vicelli, and Richmond Times Dispatch? All right, let me get the Richmond Times Dispatch news out first. The Richmond Times Dispatch, some would say which is the paper of record of the Commonwealth of Virginia, is moving out of its downtown building next year.

The Richmond Times Dispatch literally has its name on this building, Richmond Times-Dispatch. It's been in this building since 1923, when the paper was the Richmond News Leader. In 1992, the Richmond News Leader merged with the Times-Dispatch to create one power paper. I worked for the owner of this newspaper. It was Media General.

When I came out of UVA, worked at Media General. Media General quickly went into the crapper. Media General was purchased by Warren Buffett's media group. Warren Buffett's media group made these purchases and said, good God, I want to get out of the legacy business and sold to Lee Enterprise. Deep Throat's highlighted in previous shows how Lee Enterprise, their market capitalization

is horrendous. You're talking a business that's barely surviving. You are seeing Lee Enterprises, now the owner of the Richmond Times Dispatch, the Daily Progress, and most of the newspapers in the Commonwealth, shed leases from its overhead. They no longer want to be in long-term leases or expensive leases. Here's the problem. When legacy media brands do not have fiscal locations, they become less of a part of the community. They become forgotten even more. When I worked at the Daily Progress,

our headquarters on Rio Road, we would have readers all the time enter the newspaper headquarters. They'd talk to editors. They'd talk to writers. They'd ask about their subscriptions, their missing newspapers, advertising placement. Now you talk with the Daily Progress on the phone and you're talking with someone, customer support, that's not even in the United States of America. You're getting people from a call center overseas. They are deteriorating the brand by cutting these costs. They've been in the building for over 100 years.

And they're ditching it headline other headline that we need to cover I got three minutes here Senor Wickauer thank you Jini Hu, Tidewater Conference of Intimate Schools deep throat

Lee market cap even lower than when we last spoke about to go below 50 million. A newspaper, a company that owns as many newspapers that as Lee does, Lee Enterprises, with a market cap below 50 million, this business is about to go bankrupt, belly up. I'm serious.

It owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Daily Progress. I think it owns the Roanoke Times. You're looking at a business that owns much of the reporting in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the lion's share, about to be bankrupt.

All right. Vicelli's Pizza, you've got to support. Office of Economic Development, I know this is Alamaro County and not the city of Charlottesville. How about you consider a grant on a taxpayer dime to help Vicelli's recover from an arson investigation, a business that's been in operation for 18 years, that's generated a boatload of money of meals tax, that's opening a restaurant right next to its pizzeria. That's a good use of economic development stimulus. Support this family. They've done a tremendous job of supporting events by providing pizza, pro bono pizza pies. And the last topic, maybe we cover this tomorrow. The last topic would be, has the city of Charlottesville done enough to remember or commemorate August 12th, August 11th, and August 12th, 2017?

Or is the city of Charlottesville and its stakeholders looking to forget a 11 and a 12 because if it can forget a 11 and a 12 it can get to a path of perception that is better for the region in the city as a whole when it comes to tourism and economic vitality that's a heavy question to answer it's the Tuesday edition of the I Love Seville show. Judah Wichauer and Jerry Miller, so long.