The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Greer Achenbach Joined Alex Urpí & Xavier Urpí On "Today y Mañana" On The I Love CVille Network!

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Greer Achenbach, Executive Director of Friends of Cville, joined Alex Urpí & Xavier Urpí On “Today y Mañana!” “Today y Mañana” airs every Thursday at 10:15 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Today y Mañana” is presented by Emergent Financial Services, LLC, Craddock Insurance Services Inc and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today y Mañana. I'm Alex. This is Xavier. We're very excited to have you joining us on a beautiful morning here in Charlottesville, Virginia. It is sunny after two days of rain. It's so good this morning. It's warm. You have the energy coming in. Nothing like sunshine, right? It just puts a smile on your face and makes you hop along like the bunnies hopping along. That's right. Well, they're out there, as you would know. You would know.

The bunnies are quite in season. Oh, there they are. They are back, and they are as excited for spring, I think, as a lot of people are. Mr. Irby, what are you planting this year? Yeah, what's new in the supermarket this morning? But we are looking forward to a great show. We're going to be joined shortly in the show by Greer Achenbach.

She's the executive director of Friends of Seville. We'll talk a lot about downtown, all the things we can enjoy, the beautiful, beautiful space that is downtown Charlottesville. So we'll talk about that a lot later in the show. Xavier and I will talk a little finance. We will miss our good friend Matthias Young. He will be back on Monday, May 3rd. Matthias

had an emergency he had to go deal with so we had to just restructure a little bit. But we will have our good friend Matthias back. You will not miss him. You will not miss him. You'll miss him today. He will be back.

He will be back. Just a couple of shout-outs. Bill McChesney already tuned in to the show this morning. Dr. Elizabeth Erby watching the show this morning. Thanks for tuning in, our fantastic viewers. We love them, sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally. So we are looking forward to that. And I'm going to do something special.

So I've been watching, because my beautiful wife, every once in a while she watches these on YouTube things that she enjoys, whether it be cooking or so on, whatever. And they always say, these guys, these people always say, and if you like in the share, if you like this show and want to share, you

can always click on the subscribe button. They always do that. They always have these little fingers. And I'm always looking, because when it's on TV, I don't see it. I say, what are they pointing at? Well, if you watch it on Facebook, there on the subscribe button. But they always do that. They always have these little fingers. And I'm always looking because when it's on TV, I don't see it. So what are they pointing at? Well, if you watch it on Facebook, there is a share button. That's what it is. A little arrow. So you can click the share button.

But I always find it so cute when they say that. They have the little finger there. You're pointing where it is on YouTube. Exactly. And I'm looking and I say, I don't see anything. You push on the TV. On the TV, exactly. Yeah, but if you watch it on a computer,

they're trying to point to where the share button would be. Absolutely. I feel like we're finally getting close to that transition period where your cafe con leche can become a nice cafe con leche if you're really hot. We're getting close. Not yet. I would still say get your nice, warm cafe con leche in the morning.

Sit down. I think it's just, you know, this is a personal thing, but cafe con leche for me has to be warm. It's just the flavor of it. It's just so much better. Once you start throwing some ice, it dilutes the flavor. Especially if you put a little leche condensada in that milk, then it just kind of destroys that whole nice sweetness.

What was that thing we had at Guajiro's recently? What did they call it? The bonbon? Oh, yeah. It was basically... It was a cafe cubano, so it was like what's in your cafe don't let you without the milk. But instead of milk into this little thing, they put condensed milk. And there was a coffee on top.

That was on top? I can't remember. I think the coffee was on top of the condensed milk. They must have put the condensed milk on top of the coffee. Oh, man, that was so good. That was good. I could have two or three of those. I know. Then I'd be worse than the bunnies.

I'd be ginging all over the place. We wouldn't do that before today, manana, because then the desk would be like, he's asking me questions, none of which are... I do that all the time anyway. I do that anyway. But the whole show would be... But I'd be asking the questions like standing up

and my hands would definitely be flurrying exactly you'd be super excited did want to give a quick shout out obviously our past guests one of our past guests recently was Michael Slon and Christine Fairfield from Shorts for Oratorio Society

Virginia they had their Beethoven concert on Friday and Sunday. Beautiful. Beautifully done. Just a wonderful concert. The talent on display of those 90 plus seniors. The orchestra that he

had. The way he conducted it at Old Cabell Hall. Just so amazing. They're fantastic. It was a magical performance. I believe Dr., I mean not Dr., but the other Elizabeth Erpe described it as magical. And you can

see an Elizabeth Erpe's review of it on Facebook I think, using that phrase. It was beautifully done. Just a shout out to the great work that they put on. You can look forward to more classical music because we're going to be featuring over the next couple of months some Charlottesville Opera.

That's right, yeah. They are coming up. So just wanted to give a shout-out to all our amazing partners of today, Manana, Charlottesville Opera, of course, being one of them, Mattia Sion Realty, Tradit, Sirius Insurance, and our great presenter, Emergent Financial Services. So there's much more coming your way, but it was a beautiful concert this past weekend.

And in fact, we, as the good said, where we transited when the concert was over, we went with some friends who had come with us to the concert, drove to downtown, and enjoyed an amazing dinner at Sal's Cafe Italia right at the downtown mall. There you are. So it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon,

beautiful weather, so it was a perfect time to get out there and just enjoy... Yeah, and this is the time of year. The outdoor space, we ate outdoors. So it was beautiful, and that's a great way, I think, to transition to our first guest,

who also loves... I couldn't have done better myself. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. Who also loves the downtown mall just as we do. So we're excited to welcome to the show this morning Greer Ackermack. She is the executive director of Friends of Seville. Greer, thanks so much for coming on this morning. Thanks for having me, Alex. It's a pleasure to have you. And I know it's been a little bit since you were on with NIT. I think it would have been last

November, I think. That's right. So for those who are new to the show, maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and what is Friends of Seville. This is great. So, and actually Friends of Seville has evolved a lot since I was last on the show. So there's, there's lots of exciting things to talk about. So Friends of Seville is the nonprofit that supports not only the downtown mall, but kind of the surrounding area. I will say the focus right now is primarily on the mall, but we long-term envision it being everything from Belmont, um, all the way to the Rotunda and between X Park and over to Dairy Market and everything kind of in that area. So our work tends to focus in four buckets.

So the first being a thriving economy. We want the businesses downtown to thrive. A lively atmosphere. When you're coming downtown, is there something for you to do? A welcoming environment when we want it to be clean, beautiful, accessible, safe. And then we want to increase our efficiency to solve problems so that we're not, so that we're working together or working with important stakeholders like the city or other community groups to solve some of our biggest challenges. So those are sort of the

four buckets we work in and we have lots of initiatives in all of them um we have a small team um staff but a very involved board um and volunteers for helping us make all this stuff happen wonderful that's fantastic that's fantastic and we yeah it's great work um that you all do at friends of seville so spring's here i mean downtown was in bloom, all of Charlottesville in bloom. What are some things that people can look forward to as it relates to downtown in particular, but just the Charlottesville area, the areas where Friends of Seville is at work? Absolutely. And so we, as this has sort of evolved, we've developed two kind of signature programming series, and I hope that it becomes more. So one you might know is in at the holidays

we call it magic on the mall. That kind of has its own series of initiatives. You might have seen the elves in Seville hunt or the kids the downtown express called the holly trolley in the winter among other things window decorating competitions things like that. In the spring we have downtown and bloom. So downtown and bloom is more focused on arts and flowers and all of the beauty around spring um so the signature things involved there are we have a flower box competition we have over 50 downtown businesses participating so far um so the businesses make flower boxes and put them outside of of their establishments uh last year was qr code this year it's judging the grand prize for that is a thousand dollars000 and a full-page ad in CBOE Weekly.

There's also some smaller prizes, like a prize for most lush or most creative. I love seeing what they come up with. And then to facilitate that, we hold the flower market. So we bring in flower vendors to the pavilion so that everybody can buy their flowers. And it's this great beautification effort for downtown that people can get involved with. You also might have seen kids art in all the windows. So we partner with Charlottesville City Schools. Oh, fantastic.

To get all the student art in the windows, which is so beautiful. And some art flowers. I know I'm going to forget some component of this. And then kind of the programming piece of this. So this Saturday we're having the Flower, Fairy Fairy and Elf Festival downtown in City Hall Plaza. I'm surprised you got through that with the Flower Fairy. That's a nice little tongue twister there. Well, I started calling it Flower Fairy, but we want to be inclusive to everybody because it really is for all kids and families or anyone.

So that's in City Hall Plaza. It's going to be so fun. I'm a little worried about the weather, so I'm hoping the rain holds off. But there will be face paint and glitter tattoos and balloon animals and fairy hair and Alakazam's doing toys and crafts and books and Legos

and fairies will lead kids in a little parade to wake up all the flowers for spring. There will also be some chalk zones so kids can free draw in the mall with chalk. And the Downtown Express, the train will be running. It's running every Saturday in May. Oh, okay. Wonderful. We definitely encourage you guys to come.

So that's at City Hall and Downtown? So the Fiery events are in City Hall Plaza, so kind of right in front of the pavilion. And then the Downtown Express runs every Saturday, starting at Central Place, and runs between 2nd and 4th Street. Oh, nice. That's fantastic. Quite fun. This very weekend, that people can look forward to that. Yes.

And hopefully every weekend for the train. We need some more help running it, but it's so joyful and fun. Yeah, I see. It's a beautiful thing when you have those, I feel like it's something that at least I grew up with where a lot of places had the little train going around.

I know there's, I mean the outdoor mall in Richmond has it a lot. There's an outdoor mall there that has the train going around. So it would be great to kind of keep that up here and bring that up so we'll circle back on ways that people to maybe help make that a reality yeah every weekend for for the kids here in the area that's important and then it's true kids

just love that well the train is like i i i always thought it would be a good idea but it's probably the most popular thing that we do i mean kids go crazy for it there'll be an hour long line we just did implement a ticket system so you could like It's always free to the community, but you could come get a ticket for a certain time and then go buy your coffee or have pizza and shop on the malls, try to support the businesses. So that's really exciting. We have some incredible sponsors. You can see them featured on the train. So we're just excited that that's bringing joy and people downtown.

That's fantastic. So I'm curious about something because, I mean, that you work for the the Friends of Seville one of the things that I always find interesting about the downtown mall is that there is that you know long stretch right where you know you have stores and restaurants etc and and granted I mean sometimes I wonder if there's other ways to improve that whole area right but the one thing I thing that I always consider is, is there any plans to kind of expand that? So in other words, because, I mean, so how do we make the downtown area, you know, a place where tourists come and enjoy it? And tourists come and, you know, that's probably enough for them maybe. But for the community, the idea to expand that, because sometimes you'll go

to other cities and yeah, they'll do the same thing. They have maybe one stretch. But they also have on the outskirts areas where you can continue to walk around and still see some shops and things that people enjoy doing. Because, I mean, this whole area here is, you know, has some history, right? But we seem to just kind of walk up and down that mall when really just two or three blocks away, there are still buildings that are gorgeous, right? The architecture. So is there any way to expand on that mall so that it stretches sideways? I'm so glad you asked me that question because I might have forgotten to talk about this. So, yes, there's so many things to touch on there.

One piece you talked about, the history. That's something that's very important to us is wanting to highlight that history and Friends of Seville is actively working on a history walking tour so you might have seen some of the historical markers on buildings downtown but doing like a self-guided you can use QR codes right take you to a little video that would tell you about the building and so that's interactive something you could do for free downtown that teaches you about it um and then your your question about it being kind of more pedestrian friendly and that you're you know extending down main these other areas absolutely

um i think the two parts there one is it's sort of a beautification effort that makes it feel more connect connectivity like exactly so that the mall doesn't feel so like closed in so that you can walk down main or you're walking over to X and it all feels like very designed for pedestrians so one yes beautification is in those sort of connectivity or things we're thinking about the other thing that we're looking at is there's grants available through the state to sort of incentive our curate your economic development a little bit to support small businesses coming down on the mall that might attract people to come down. So right now

it's amazing and there's wonderful things down there, but sometimes you get a couple of the same types of businesses and so we could apply for this grant that could do sort of a pitch competition and the winner of that could be one of the requirements could be that you locate on the downtown mall. Exactly. And then you have some diversity of interests. And Nick and I have talked about this a lot, actually, about what is it that's, like, not just kind of this cultural idea of places you can hang out with your family

and be out and enjoying this public space. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, things to sort of keep people on the mall after they've eaten. Their dinner, yeah. And transform it from a go-eat-dinner-leave place to a go-eat-dinner and now walk around and now sit at this place and enjoy, maybe it's ice cream, maybe it's coffee, maybe it's something other, something else, but more like keep people staying

there for maybe three hours at a time rather than an hour at a time. So that's great that you're working on these great projects. Because you think of the European model, I mean, you know, I'm Cuban-born, but my parents are

spanish right well my mother was cuban my father was spanish so like in spain where my where my father uh grew up um they're they call it the rambla right and so it i mean in their case it goes all the way from the church to the water right but we're talking about probably a good almost mile and a half, two miles, right? And so every single evening, in particular in the summer, you should see everybody walking up and down. And then, you know, the older people will sit down and have, you know, their espresso or a cup of coffee or limonada, you know, lemonade or a cognac, you know, whatever it is that they want at that point in time, right? But the beautiful thing is that people go there to congregate, to basically, it's like you get to see your neighbors,

and people say, oh, hi, how you doing, how are you? And it becomes a place where it's an enjoyable walk. You're willing to go there, spend, you know, a couple of hours, an hour or two hours or as long as you have. And so, I mean, granted, it's not as big as that one is, but the idea that there's places where you can go and say, yeah, you know, we'll go to the so, I mean, granted, it's not as big as that one is, but the idea that there's places where you can go and say, yeah, you know, we'll go to the mall, have dinner, and as I said, then walk around and then, yeah, maybe there's a place where we can stop and, you know, sit outside

and have a cup of coffee or tea or whatever it is that people enjoy after dinner, you know? And it becomes this sort of community meeting spot. Yes, yes. And to your point, and this is something we've been talking about a lot actually this week, is it's sort of two things, right right it's one experience for your tourist and then also for your local um and and for the tourists i know we're going to talk about strategic projects but sort of our branding and talking about all of the different arts organizations we have down here all the different types of international cuisine and then for

your locals really creating a space that is designed for congregation and for community. I do want to say, give credit to the city. I feel like there's some really good synergy right now with Friends of Seville and some of our partners at the city on things like beautification and economic development and really putting a lot of focus into them all because it's such a gem of Charlottesville that we don't want to neglect. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, speaking of those, what are some of the strategic projects that, for instance,

you list is thinking of and implementing? Yeah. So we obviously talked a little bit kind of about the framework that I use. I would say that this year, the four strategic projects that are top of mind are holiday lights is a big one right now. I'm fundraising to do holiday lights on the downtown mall. There have been the merchants were upset that it was, you know know the tree got moved down to the pavilion and then there haven't been a lot of lights throughout the mall um so we're looking at some really interesting

kind of lighting options uh the second is a downtown branding campaign so i just like i just mentioned there's so many arts organizations whether those are arts galleries or performance spaces like the pavilion or ting or Live Arts or the Jefferson, all of these kind of arts and culture things happening downtown that we're not necessarily branding downtown as that when you really kind of can bring all that together or Fridays after five, like there's these amazing cultural things. And then I think there's like 27 different types of international cuisine in the downtown area.

And so really highlighting how amazing is it that we have this asset that offers so much in terms of arts and cultures and food and retail. I mean, all of these experiences. But that's very different than the vineyards. Yes. You know, you can get so much in one place here. So downtown branding campaign. The third one, we're doing some kind of think tank projects. So looking at some of the big challenges in the city.

We're working on a partnership with McIntyre School of Commerce to look at the Dewberry Hotel and what are some options that we could do there. As well as with some professors from the law school to how might we deal with the unhoused and some of the complications that they're causing on the downtown mall. Those are really interesting projects. And then, obviously, the fourth is sanitation and maintenance. We're continuing to work with the city to figure out the right avenue to make sure things are staying clean and safe and up to date. What are some of the ways that the community is kind of making downtown mall safer, maybe more comfortable, more secure for families to walk? Yeah, so safety is one of the things that I'm really excited about. It's something that gets kind of behind the scenes. It's not the fairy festival that we're talking about all the time.

So we have so far installed 16 security cameras along the downtown mall. We have a very generous funder that's helping us put this project together. So businesses can get cameras for free, and then they have access to their security footage, and Friends of Seville has access to all the footage, so we can get a full picture of what's happening on the bricks. So we're continuing to install those cameras. It's very fun and exciting. We can work with the police if something happens, but the police don't have direct access.

So that's to eliminate sort of like a big brother of the police always watching you like it is is we have it accessible but you're not always being monitored and i want to make that clear um we also we have in the past hired some off-duty police officers last summer particularly we were we had police officers every weekend um now we're working closely with the police department and we now have an official mall police officer back who's there from 8 to 4. I just spoke with the chief who said that it looks like we're also going to have a mall police officer added in the evenings. I know sometimes families, people have told me if I have kids, you want to leave before it gets

dark, which i think impacts more the the sadly it impacts more the off seasons rather than the summer because the summer right stays a lot right exactly yeah so but that's already when you have a lot of people more people coming to the mall so i think that might be helpful to sort of get people to be more comfortable coming and walking down the around the mall after dark in those seasons where you might otherwise stay home. Like Christmas season, right? Like Christmas season, you want to go down there, you want to see the lights, et cetera, but by 5 o'clock, it's already dark, right?

And so how do you feel at that point in time? Yeah. So, yes, and the other thing I want to point out, and this is in the downtown, there was a downtown mall committee this past year, and one of the key things is that is lighting. And so I'm hopeful that we can work closely with the city to improve lighting, particularly on the side streets where people might feel unsafe coming and going with the mall. We hear that a lot.

Parking itself isn't really that hard. It's not that hard. There's always space in the garages. It's free for the first hour, but I think people are intimidated, and lighting would probably help that a lot. Yeah, especially I think that that Market Street garage is kind of at the end. And so once, when the teen pavilion is up and running, then you've always got people there.

So you just walk straight into the thing. But I noticed in the winter, when there's nothing going on at teen, you get to the garage and it's kind of dark. Yeah, there is dark. That's right. They don't feel as comfortable. So they'll only park on Water Street comfortable so they'll only park on Water Street side or they'll only park

on the side streets and then they'll be like, okay, yeah, but now I've got to go through this dark side street that's not as well lit as the mall itself. So that would be great I think for people to really feel comfortable and say, hey, you know what, yeah, I can not only be safe on the mall, and not that

you're not safe. It's not that we have high crime to the extent of like, you know, thinking big city, right? But in other words, you can feel secure both on the mall and going to and from it, which I think go a long way. Yeah, and you have to think about it. I mean, so for young folks, you don't think about it as much. You're young, but as you get older in age, right, you're in your, you know, 70s or whatever, it becomes a little different, right, because all of a sudden you're not as much. You're young. But as you get older in age, right, you're in your, you know, 70s or whatever, it becomes a little different, right? Because all of a sudden you're not as vigilant.

You're not as sharp. You're, you know, walking sometimes can be difficult. So those are the people you have to make sure that they come back to the mall because that's perfect for them to be able to come to the mall, have dinner, walk around, enjoy that walk, right? and then, you know, go back to their vehicle and go home, you know? Yeah, I'm so glad you said that because that is certainly one of the target demographics that I think a lot about. We've done a lot in the past couple years for young families and bringing them down, but I think our retiree population obviously is what we want to talk about making it more accessible for them too, people with disposable income

that want to come and enjoy these amenities. Yeah, because, you know, unfortunately, when you get older, sometimes it's like, all right, you know, I just want to go to a restaurant and, you know, park right in front of the restaurant, I'm happy, right? So, but in the downtown mall, there's no such thing. You've got to go to the parking lot, park somewhere there, and then walk, which is good for you, which is what you'd want to do. But if you feel uncomfortable, it's like, eh.

Well, it's just for foot traffic, say if you have more lighting, it would help them. Because obviously your eyesight isn't quite as good as you get older, so to be able to say, okay, yeah, I can still navigate, and it's very recognizable because there's more lighting. That's awesome that these projects are in the works. I'm very excited for them.

What are some other resources for people who want to visit downtown, whether you're local or not from in town? What are resources available for people wanting to visit downtown Charlottesville? So, great question. I was actually just about to bring that up myself. So, we're working on a couple map projects. So, one is in partnership with the Office of Economic Development. We launched a new website and an interactive downtown map. So, you might have been partnership with the Office of Economic Development, we launched a new website and an interactive downtown map. So you might have been familiar with the kind of former wayfinding key arts on the mall that like would show you where businesses were.

The problem was they were constantly out of date because businesses were changing all the time. So now they have a map of downtown, but not like every single business. And they have a QR code that links to an interactive map, which we and Hannah on my team did this amazing project, and it was, we have over 1,000 businesses downtown that are mapped. And you can filter them by what you're looking for. So maybe you're looking for a lawyer,

or maybe you're looking for great Italian dining, but you can go on the website and filter for that, and it'll show you on the map where you're going, and you can get, you know, rush on hours and info. So that's a really cool project that interactive map is such a great resource we're also working on physical maps um these are going out these actually have already gone out to all of the area hotels um it's really cool i don't know if you guys can see it it's like you open it up and that's the

mall yeah i love those at the mall and then that's like the greater downtown so this turned out to be a really this is such an example of a small project that probably is pretty useful so anyone who's been a tourist in like a big city knows that one of the first things you do is you go downstairs in your hotel

you find that map where they give it to you the concierge and you're like okay yeah now I just I looked at this I figure out what restaurant I want to go to in your hotel, you find that map where they give it to you, the concierge. Yeah, exactly. And you're like, okay, yeah. Now I just, I looked at this, I figured out what restaurant I want to go to, I figured out what I want to see, and I know how to walk there. Well, it's perfect because, yeah, I mean, you know, the streets are big, right, on the map, right? And it's like you can, you know, somebody will tell you,

you're here right now, and so now you begin to understand, okay, if I walk this way, and it's just so much, yeah, so much easier. Because I'll tell you, I've used GPS this way and it's just so much yeah so much easier because i'll tell you i've i've used gps sometimes and it's just maybe because i'm an older person it's like i'm walking it's like no this is not right i love maps google maps can be also i think overwhelming in a sense of like you pull that thing up and it shows you like dot dot dot dot and before you know it like you've got especially on a downtown area you have an agglomeration of all these little dots of businesses that are on Google. Yeah.

Right? But you can't, it's so hard to like filter them. Yes. What's nice about something like this is that, okay, it's more clarity. It's like, all right, I can see the area. I can see what's there. And I know that in this area is where I will be able to see the businesses and the restaurants physically with my own eyes and and go and look at their menu exactly rather than being like oh man there's like 50 little little

little like darts on the google maps you have to click each one to figure out what it is yeah it's just so much more user-friendly i think to have a natural map yeah so this is this is a project kind of a small project that I think turned out really cool. This is also Charlottesville City Art, which I was a little on the fence about, but I also think is really cool because it sets it apart from the other hundred maps and under a hundred

brochures in a hotel. That's fantastic. That's great. It's an excellent resource that people can use. Are there any others people should kind of keep in mind or be looking forward to? Yeah, so I would always encourage people to be following us. So our website is friendsofseville.org. I know we'll talk about that a little

bit at the end. Make sure you get on our newsletter list so that you know what we're doing and what's going on. And follow us on social media if you have that, either at the Charlottesville Downtown Mall or on Instagram at friendsofseville. We are just about to hire a UVA marketing intern who I, um,

want to be doing kind of little stories about different businesses downtown so that we're showing you like there's such amazingly cool stuff happening that you and I even are being people that are really involved in the community. Don't know about. Exactly. So make sure you're following along. Cause we'll tell you all of that.

Um, and then just that you're kind of coming out and getting to see it all for yourself. Fantastic. A couple more shout-outs. Justin Mutchler, thanks for watching the show this morning. Kate Lynn, thanks for watching the show. Monica Miller, thanks for watching the show. She's one of our great viewers from Montana.

Although she's going to be visiting soon. That's right. Very soon. So maybe she'll get to see some downtown mall when she comes to visit. So thanks, everyone, for tuning in uh this morning um one of the things you tend to be kind of touched upon was obviously to to make some of this happen the beautiful flower patch the the train running we need people to kind of step up and and volunteer what are ways for people to get involved and help out yes that's such a great question and it might

be a fault of mine for not kind of figuring out the organization of this yet, because I think people are really enthusiastic about it and taking that enthusiasm and kind of organizing it into like meaningful engagement, both for them and for downtown. So a couple of ways, if you're a downtown business, it's really, really important that you join as a member of Friends of Seville. We want to have a high percentage of businesses participating in this. It's something that we all need to be in together. It's going to benefit everyone. So if you're a business out there, look for these little pamphlets or go on our website and make sure you remember it's only $200.

And you can get lots of advertising opportunities and things that are good for your business as well. So that's one piece for the businesses. Also for the businesses, we're kind of organizing now into block teams and block captains. So I've got different businesses leading their block, and so they're helping me spread the word about different initiatives, but also reporting back if there's challenges on that block that we need to be made aware of and can help. And then if you're a community member that just wants to get involved in Friends of Seville, we always need volunteers. We are sending those out in our weekly newsletter.

It goes out on Fridays. Make sure you're checking that. We pretty much always need help running the train on Saturdays. So like, if you want to help us drive the train, or if you want to pass out tickets or just kind of manage something working with kids, I would love help there or other events like this, you know, flower fairy festival happening this weekend, we're going to need some help. So we need those for one-off events. And then from there, I'd really like to kind of build out some committees so that people have a regular, more meaningful interaction for them. And maybe it's a fundraising committee or an events committee or these other things that we can really get people having their voice heard and participating and making downtown great. Absolutely. That's important.

I mean, that's the thing about communities, right? If you want to make your community thrive, you also have volunteer, right? And that's important. And it doesn't mean you have to volunteer every single Saturday or every single Sunday, but if you have a free time on any given day, it's like, yeah, I'd love to do that. And that's important. And if we have, we're building out kind of a database of volunteers, but I think if we had more, we could also build out some beautification projects.

Exactly, yeah. Maybe we'd be helping plant flowers or we'd be cleaning graffiti or doing, I didn't even really talk about that that much. We also do things like public art, I mean murals. We did the, helped restore the Coca-Cola mural in September on the downtown mall. So there's lots of fun ways that you can use your talents to get involved.

So we're looking for both kind of non-skilled volunteer roles as well as people that are willing to apply their skills, whether maybe you're marketing or design professional or some other skill set. Non-skilled volunteer roles as well as people that are willing to apply their skills, whether maybe you're a marketing or design professional or some other skill set. Non-skill over here. Or manpower, manpower. You can probably drive the little train. Oh, yeah, I love that.

I'm sure that's in your skill set. I love that, yeah. It's fun. It's really fun. Even in danger, could you get one? I meant in the art sense, you know, art and things like that. It's like you don't want me touching that. Right, you don't want to paint the mural. No, no, no the art sense you don't want me touching that you don't want to paint the mural

the community doesn't want me to paint it they don't want me to paint it either it's okay so Greer, this has been fantastic where can people learn more find out more and keep in touch in particular, where can they sign up for the newsletter

yes, thank you so much. So, friendsofseville.org. Make sure you go there. Sign up for our newsletter. It's at the bottom. Join our newsletter. Make sure you're getting that every week. And then just be sure you're following us on social media

so you don't miss anything exciting. Wonderful. Fantastic. Well, this has been an absolute pleasure. I've learned so much. Yeah, me too. I'm so happy. I am so happy.

It's funny, I watched the show when you have been on before because those days I wasn't hosting. I was like, oh, man, I've learned so much. Yeah, me too. I'm so happy. I am so happy. I watched the show when you have been on before after those days I wasn't hosting. Oh man, I always learn so much. And it's been a pleasure to actually be hosting when you're on. I just feel like I learned so much about all the things that are going on behind the scenes, which is so important because I know sometimes

it can be daunting to see the downtime. Oh man, I wish this was fixed. I wish that was better. But to know that it's a lot of efforts on the works and maybe to change the perception that it's not that it's declining. It's that effort is underway to improve it. It's going in a positive direction, not a negative direction. It's just those things take time and they take effort and they take community members volunteering. And so the more can get involved the faster we might we might see some of those initiatives happen yeah there's also a link on our website to sign up as a volunteer and thank you all so much for giving us this platform i think sometimes we're doing we're so busy doing

that we're not telling the story um and it's i want to make sure that people have a positive impression it's really easy to be gloom and doom when you see one problem, but there's so much good happening. Absolutely. And that's what's important. Yeah, exactly. You know, the thought that, yeah, this work is being done or thought about is what makes you excited, right? Yeah. Because, I mean, like I said, this is a great area here.

I mean, I remember the first time I came, and I don't remember if the mall already had the bricks or not. I can't remember when those bricks – maybe it was. I think so. I think you did. I think it was still – the first time we came, it was pedestrian. Yeah, so I guess that was 2000 – No, it was sort of in 2000. Yeah, it was already 2000.

Oh, yeah. 2005. It's been pedestrian since the 70s. Yeah, okay. It had the bricks. It definitely was 2005. It's been pedestrian since the 70s. Yeah. Okay. So it had the brakes. Definitely was there. It had the brakes. But the point was, we walked around this whole area, and like I said, the architecture and the whole history of here, you know, was amazing.

And so, you know, for me, this is like a great place to come and just walk around and, you know, just enjoy what you're seeing. Plus then have the ability to, like I said, you know, go out to dinner and, you know, just enjoy what you're seeing, plus then have the ability to, like, you know, go out to dinner and, you know, walk up and down that mall. So I'm glad that all what you're doing is helping all of that. Thank you. Yeah, we're really excited about it. And, you know, there's been so many, obviously it's the effort of many, many people. Sure, of course.

No, I'm sure. I'm sure, yeah. This is not a one-person task. But thank you all so much, and I hope we'll see you downtown. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thanks so much for coming on. Just another shout-out here, Alberto Ojeda.

Thanks for watching the show this morning as we go ahead and transition. Always, always love learning more about the great effort. Because Nick sometimes will come back and tell us what's going on. No, exactly. I love those conversations. Yeah, it's important to not see things as, because I think you look around so much of like great American cities and you get this sense of decline.

Yes. But to know that there were actually people who were working to... And it's not just great American cities. Sometimes, you know, how many times when we drove cross country, right? We went to a town or city and, you know, there was this like, you know, like you know malls after malls after malls and and then you went to downtown and it was like it wasn't kept up and you thought about it you looked around and you saw the buildings and you saw the the lighting and you

said this must have been like a beautiful cute town and but everybody just kind of stepped away and that's what you don't want to happen because, again, this is where the history is. It's not on the 29, the history. It's right here. So you want to make sure that stays alive. And to me, what they're doing is great. Absolutely. So great work there.

And, yeah, be sure to visit friendsofseville.org for more information. And then just a little bit, I know, a little bit finance. We can talk today. I mean, some news coming up. I think maybe we can, I was thinking we can cover perhaps just kind of what people have seen. I think we've had some, we've had a lot of people, I think, coming through the office and I think in general conversation that are becoming very confused about what to look forward to as far as interest rates are concerned. Because the messages, I think, have become a little bit more conflicting.

And I think even in real estate, we've definitely had a little bit of a shift from, oh, yeah, we could definitely be seeing 5.5% mortgage rates to, and we might not be seeing 5. Yeah, I'm not sure. definitely be seeing 5.5% mortgage rates too, and we might not be seeing 5%. So what would you kind of convey to the average person who's saying, all right, I'm getting pretty confused here. What is going on that's impacting these changing messages, and where do you think we are right now? So that's actually a great question, right? And I always, when you think about interest rates and then apply it to real estate, one thing we already know is that real estate is a local phenomena, is not a national phenomena, right?

Because if you look at the numbers that have come out, and I think they came out today, you know, housing starts have dropped, permits dropped. Why? Because, yeah, interest rates are higher, and so it's a lot harder, you know, it's a lot more expensive to borrow, right, in order to even just build a house and then hopefully then sell it. So that is impacting, right? But is that impacting necessarily Charlottesville?

Probably not because the demand is still so much higher than the supply. But, you know, having said that, you know, the interest rate situation is kind of in flux, right? Because there's two things that I think the Fed looks at is, you know, how is the economy doing? Do I need to help it to continue to move along? And then how is inflation looking? You know, is it under control? And I think we have two things that are really fighting against each other.

I mean, because I'm thinking if you start looking at the numbers, there's no doubt that the economy, because of the consumer mostly, is beginning to slow down. All right? So if that's happening, then the Fed's sitting there saying, we'd like to lower rates because we don't want this economy just, boom, dropping out of the cliff, right? But at the same time, you look at the inflation numbers and you sit there and you go, I mean, everybody was so excited yesterday because we had inflation at 3.4, 3.6 from an annual perspective. Well, that's still pretty high. I mean, 3.4. Well, and the month-over-month for PPI was higher than expected. Exactly.

The only reason the annual number didn't change is because they had an adjustment from the previous month-over-month. It's just the last three months have been much higher than expected. This month, it came, listen, it came a touch below what the expectation was, right? And so you said there's like, and then everybody was euphoria yesterday on a little bit just a touch below. I mean, and the numbers. And again, only on the headline number because of the previous, the month-to-month.

Yes, exactly. It's not a positive number. Exactly. So, I mean, it's still month-to-month. It's still running, like I said, about, you know, 3.6%. I mean, that's nothing to, you know, if you said, hey, you're running at 2%, I'd say, okay, are we going in the right direction? Maybe, right?

But taking a step back, like I said, there's so much that goes on in the economy. And from an inflation perspective, you've got to think about the following, right? We certainly are moving towards, quote,unquote, a green economy, right? I mean, that is the goal of the whole world, right? It's not something that I think can happen overnight, but it's the goal. It is an expensive goal.

I mean, in other words, a green economy is expensive. Oil is still the cheapest, and gas is still the cheapest. Anytime you move away from that, you are going to be paying more for whatever it is that you're growing you know creating making or using as energy that's inflationary right you also have think about re-militarization i mean we've already used and gave given away a lot of our, et cetera, and there's always the change of we have new things. That's going to be more expensive, like it or not, right? Infrastructure. I mean, you drive around this whole country,

and bridges are challenges, roads have challenges, so there needs to be money put into that to really get that infrastructure back and going, right? That's, I mean, who's going to pay for that? That's inflationary. That's inflationary, right? Trade deficit, the trade deficit and the trade disputes. I mean, we have now trade disputes with quite a few number of countries,

sometimes, in my opinion, for good reason, right? But it's inflationary, right? So if you import less from countries that have cheap labor, right, and you reduce that import, you have to make it here. The chances are it's going to be more expensive. And then basically the, you know, our deficits are such that we can't sustain the amount of trillions and millions and billions of money that we just throw out the window, right? We can't sustain that as a country anymore, right? And I think we are beginning to see, we did it for so many years without seeing inflation, right?

That we kind of came to the belief in theory, right? That, oh, well, maybe you can just keep printing trillions of dollars and you'll never get inflation. And I think we're beginning to realize, yeah, no, you probably cannot do that. So you look at that whole picture and inflation is here and I think it's here to stay in the sense inflation.

Do I mean 9% inflation? No, right? But are we going to see between 3% and 4% inflation? I think so. I really do. And that is a drain on everybody's pocketbook. That is not an E. 3% or 4% inflation is big, right?

That means every single year, your value of your dollar drops by 3% to 4%. Is your salary keeping up with that? And, I mean, if it does, you're not growing. You're not saving more. You're just surviving day to day to day, right? So the economy is not going to boom under that scenario, right? So I think there's two things that the Fed is looking at. And without any doubt, I think they'd love to lower interest rates, even just from perspective of the U.S. Treasury borrowing.

But it's a challenge. It's a challenge to say, yeah, inflation is done and we're going to lower rates. Will they do it? Like I said, I think for political reasons, truly, I think they're going to lower rates this year, whether it be by a quarter or half or 1% is the question mark, but I think they're going to be lower rates. I just don't see if they lower rates by half a percent, what is that doing to the mortgage rate? Not a hell of a lot.

So I think there are areas in the market where there's going to be some struggles, right? Yeah, I mean, I think what you're trying to see is that for a place like Charlottesville, what's going to happen is, yeah, we might be insulated in terms of price, right? But what will happen is it will be harder to find a place to live in Charlottesville. What will happen, though, is that you will not see a plummeting of demand that really makes up for it. In other words, if you go from four people per four buyers per one house to two buyers per one house, that tells you two out of the four people were unable to make it work and be able to afford to

live here but the price is not going down there's still two buyers exactly exactly yeah exactly there's still two people looking to buy that one house yeah and and you know it's it's a matter of who outbids the other to get that home right um so so those are you know so i think those are the challenges you know how does that translate to basically market returns and markets of, like I said, look at yesterday. I mean, the inflation number, which wasn't great, was lower than expectations. So bond market rallied, stock market rallied, right? And so you sit there and go, that can't happen forever either. In other words, yeah, the stock market has its ups and its downs.

If we have a situation also where you have stagflation, where you have, in other words, some inflation but the economy begins to slow down, any company that's leveraged, any product that's leveraged, like private credit, for example, home ownership. I mean, the thing about real estate is that you are borrowing to purchase something. That's a leverage, right? So any leveraged product is going to be challenged in that scenario because interest rates are not going to drop dramatically because you still have inflation and the economy is not booming. So those sectors of the market are the ones that you have to be vigilant about from an investing point of view and say, do I want to now invest in those or is it better to sit back and say, I can wait? You know, there's other areas, there's other areas in the marketplace, whether it be fixed income, stocks, et cetera,

that are much, you know, can still provide a very healthy return and a safer return over the next 12, 24 months. So that's what you look at. I would say times like this, I think, is when it becomes more and more important what sectors you are actually in. In other words, when things are booming and they're going to be booming for the next two years, then you should literally be sitting in a S&P 500 index fund and an aggregate bond market fund.

You should basically own all 500 biggest stocks and the entire bond market. And it's probably not going to matter. You'll do fine. When things are iffy, now it matters where you are i mean as we saw in 2022 right it mattered where you were in the bond market you couldn't just own all bonds and be like okay i'm hunky dory because if you owned all bonds if you own the average what were you down at minus 14 14 yeah right so going these are the times where it actually matters

what sectors of the stock market are you in right what sectors of the stock market are you in, right? What sectors of the bond market are you in? What alternative investments are you in? Because times like this is when it actually matters. You can't just buy – you can't just own the most basic thing and ride it up forever because we're not in that period where everything is going to be done. And I'm glad you mentioned alternatives because, I mean, if you look at the news, it just seems like, you know, everybody is selling alternatives, alternatives, alternatives, right?

And, you know, some of them are good quality funds. You've got to do your research and say, what's alternative about this? What's different about this particular fund? What is it that they're doing in order to make it either yield more or have a greater potential return? So you've got to do your homework because you may be buying something that's extremely risky and it's like, oh, yeah, look at these guys. They had a 40% return last year.

It's an alternative fund. And before you know it, next year they're down 50%, 60%, right? So that's the area where I truly warn people in saying, just don't blindly buy an alternative fund. Do your research. Make sure you understand it. If you don't understand something, don't buy it. It doesn't matter how good it looks.

Just don't buy it because you don't matter how good it looks, just don't buy it because you don't know what you're getting into. If you understand it and you agree with it, then that's fine. I mean, as to whether it's going to do well or not, it's still up in the air. However, you have a grasp. Describe what it does. Exactly. If you don't know what it does, it's like, what does this fund do?

I don't know, but it's good. But it was up 50% last year. That's not a... In fact, that is the way to get the... Basically, they've done studies where the worst possible return, worse than buy and hold

blindly, is chasing returns. In other words, you're better off buying, let's say you buy an S&P 500, and you blindly like i have no idea what you just leave that thing like you just forget that it ever existed you never switch back and forth right that is better than the person that each year buys the top performing oh yes fund from the previous year absolutely you always end up, you buy them when they had a great year

and then they have a bad year. Then you're like, all right, well, let me switch to this guy. Well, now that I went a bad year last year that you sold now had a good year and the guy who just bought it had a good year last year. Literally, when they've done the studies,

chasing return, constantly picking whoever did best last year is worse than the guy who knows absolutely nothing of what he's doing and just leaves it in the same thing no matter what it does. Yeah, no, and I agree.

And I think part of that is, let's be honest, every portfolio manager has their bias. They may be very aggressive or very conservative, right? And so you may be in a situation where it's like, yeah, I mean, gee, the market was down 36%. This guy was only down 12%. That's the guy I want yeah, I mean, gee, the market was down 36%. This guy was only down 12%. That's the guy I want, right? Yeah, but then the market's up 24%.

He's only up 12%. So you did the wrong thing. You sold something that was down a lot. You bought something that was down little. But then the next year, so you really have to be careful about, like you said, what you do. And that's why I always tell people, it's like, if you have no clue, there's two places to go, in my opinion. One is, yeah, the S&P 500, everybody knows what that is. Typically, that does really well.

Or you just buy, you know, the Russell 3000 and find an ETF that tracks that because that's all the stocks in the U.S. pretty much. And so you're in the stock market. You're good to go. You have some small caps, some growth, some value, and you're in there. And you don't know what's going on, but that's fine. You're in it. If you're in it for the long run, it'll be fine, right? You and I know asset allocation makes a huge difference over time.

But if you sit there and go, I don't want to deal with that, that's the way to do it, right? But I agree. It's just that to chase return or to buy something because it looks really spicy and good, you've got to be careful. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's the key. One little tidbit I wanted to just kind of leave people with. You talked about how some of these changes in the economy may not necessarily be for the worst, in other words, but they're more expensive. In other words, buying more things made in the USA,

making more things here rather than importing them from China or from places where they have sweatshops and so forth. It's more expensive, but people may be willing to do that. An interesting thing that I was listening to a podcast involving, it was not a mystery podcast, but the person in question took place in 1948. And a key to this mystery was the guy had taken all the tags with his name off his clothing. And the person presenting it said, you have to keep in mind, in 1948, almost all personal clothing t-shirts shirts uh suits jackets pants had in had a tad with your name on it

in addition to the manufacturer's label they would put embroider or something your name right because it was very important not to lose it and the reason for that is in 1948 clothing was 10 times more expensive than it is today. Wow. The average clothing. So people used to spend a lot more, because of course, this clothing was probably not made in 1948. It's not made in a sweatshop, right? And it's not made in China.

Exactly. Right? China has not yet become what it is today, right? And clothing was 10 times more expensive so people when you bought a shirt you expected to wear that shirt for years yeah for a long time so a change in the economy of this nature may require us to rethink how we do certain things and how we treat certain parts of our budget in other words maybe the clothing

budget has to become a lot smaller and you just need we need to learn to wear because how many of us especially in the world of graphic t-shirts how many of us have your t-shirt with some kind of symbol on it and we've got like five different ones

but of course you don't have to wear the same one every day, right? Do we change our behavior back to, well, you know what? If food is taking up a larger part of my budget, and that is beyond my control, do I now, and clothing is more expensive, do I forego a t-shirt with some kind of obvious thing on it for something more basic? Because I wear that three times a week. It's funny.

I have a story for you. So as you may know, my father was a pattern maker. So the pattern maker is the person that makes the very first pattern to a, let's call it a suit or a pair of pants or a jacket, whatever, right? So this was in the summer, and he said, hey, come with me. I've got to go visit one of our factories, right, that is going to produce what we made. So what they usually do is they hand make the first one, right, wherever he worked, right? He would make the pattern, and people would sew it one, right, wherever he worked, right?

He would make the pattern and people would sew it together. So here's the model, right? And we get there and the gentleman says, you know, this section here, we've done here and our factor here. This section here, we've sent away, right? And it's so funny. My father takes out that jacket and he said, what is this? He says, this is a piece of crap. Now, he was very meticulous.

Things have been sewn. But it's just so funny how the mentality was, you know, this is the suit we make. I mean, this is like a beautiful suit. And now you send it away, and you make different sizes. It's not the same suit at all, right? But like you said, I mean, it was half the price of having it made at this place here in the U.S. where they made it the way he liked it.

But over there, it was like, that's not the same thing. But it's half the price. So, you know, unfortunately, you know, it just allowed people to, you know, whoever owned the company says, yeah, but I can sell twice as many, you know? So it's just one of those things where, you know, things owned the company says, yeah, but I can sell twice as many. You know? So, it's just one of those things where, you know, things change.

How behavior has changed. Exactly, but like you said, I mean, I have... There's a famous movie called The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Yes. Why is he called that? Because the guy wore the same suit every day, but you didn't bat an eye back then. You didn't think, oh man, he wore that color yesterday.

Yeah, and as you know, I have some of my father's custom-made jackets. And they're, you know, they're, like, beautiful. I mean, it's like you can see the workmanship. And like you said, you bought a suit back then that was customized for you. All right? It cost you an arm and a leg, but unless you gained a lot of weight over time, if you stayed more or less the same weight, that suit today still is a beautiful suit. And I have a couple of those. They're just stunning.

It's behavior. There are going to be some things that are going to change as the budgets. I mean, look, just food has become now like 11% of people's budgets, right? Yeah. And so you have no choice. Groceries, as groceries are more expensive, they eat more of your budget. And unfortunately, as much as we talk about it's a shame that it has happened and it's not the consumer's fault, right?

Whatever news may tell you, you are not to blame for inflation. It's not like, oh, man, you keep buying food. You eat too much. Why don't you eat less? You buy too many apples. In other words, you may not be to blame but we're going to have to change our behavior. And we may see that in saying, I'm going to have to

change how I view other parts of my budget because I cannot change. You can't change gas, you can't change rent and you can't change food. Food, yeah. Exactly. Interesting what we'll see. When I heard that, I'm like,

man, people behave so differently then. Yeah, they do. You're absolutely right. Behavioral minds. No one would think to put, like, you would not buy a t-shirt and stick, and write your name on it anymore. But if you intended to wear that for 10 years and you don't want anybody to steal it, you wrote your name on it. Anymore. But if you intended to wear that for 10 years and you don't want anybody to steal it, you wrote your name on it.

Yeah, interesting. So just interesting how it used to be. Oh, this has been a great show. Really appreciate it. Shout out to our great viewer, Ricardo Cruz Duran. He says, nice to see you all, Ricardo. Es un placer.

We should have him back. Yeah, I was just saying, Ricardo. Es un placer. Ricardo just had his, we should have him back. Yeah, I was just saying, we should reach out to him. Ricardo is with Total Mortgage. Congratulations to him. I think he just had his ribbon cutting at his office in Harrisonburg. So congratulations to Ricardo. Great, great community member. Yeah, we should have him back and have him talk to us a little bit about his new place.

Absolutely. So it's always a pleasure to see what you're talking about. Nip's is scheduling it now. Excellent work, Nick. Excellent work. So just always appreciate all our great viewers who tune in and send us their questions and comments.

Of course, appreciate our presenter, Emergent Financial Services, our great partners, Matias Yon Realty, Charlottesville Opera, Credit Series Insurance, Forward Adelante. Thank you. Of course, it's always good to spend a little bit. It has been. It has been. You've been at it, Michael, two times. And last week, it was you and Michael. That's right, yeah. So it was good to be back on with you. I haven't had the privilege to be with you for a long time. Right back at you. And of course, we love all of you who watched Judah Wittkower behind the camera, making us all good.

I love Seville Network. We look forward to seeing you all next week. But until that time, as we like to close it out, hasta mañana. Thank you.