The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Is Council About To Raise Real Estate Tax Rate?; Real Estate Tax Rate vs Meals Tax vs Lodging Tax

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Is Council About To Raise Real Estate Tax Rate? Real Estate Tax Rate vs Meals Tax vs Lodging Tax How Do The Tax Increases Impact CVille Area? Commercial Uses In Residential Neighborhoods UVA 2028 Class Largest Applicant Pool In History Ix Art Park Facing Serious Financial Problems Snap Fitness For Sale ($150K) Hollymead T.C. I Love CVille Viewer & Listener Power Polls 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 and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Wednesday afternoon, guys. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville show, the flagship show on the I Love Seville network. We host this program Monday through Friday from 1230 to 130 PM, where we try to highlight topics that are important to us and important to you. The show is extremely interactive, where we encourage you, the viewer and listener,

to offer your perspective, ask questions, suggest topics, and help us shape and determine what we're going to cover on the show. Excuse me. My wife made some fantastic slow-cooked, shredded taco meat last night with onions and peppers and spices and broth. Slow-cooked for eight hours. Nice.

Have you ever done, we'd be in on a two-shot. Have you ever done the slow-cooked shredded beef with all the fixings, the onions, the peppers, the seasoning, the spices, the broth you pour into it. Excuse me. And then utilize the slow cook meat with scrambled eggs and tacos. So it's almost like a breakfast burrito meets a dinner burrito.

A breakfast taco meets a dinner taco. I've never made the meat that way. I've made breakfast burritos for my family. The slow cooker is amazing. I've got an Instant Pot, not a slow cooker, but it's very similar. The slow cooker and an insta pot, slow cooker, insta pot are slow cooker, slow, insta pot. Right. But the instant pot basically does what the slow cooker does in a shorter amount of time. Instantaneously, not slow cooking.

Not instantaneously. And there are some things that still take quite a while. But the pressure takes the place of at least some of the time involved in a slow cooker. Only on the I Love Sievel show will you hear the slow cooker and the Instapot are basically the same thing. They're very similar. I didn't say they're the same thing, but they help you do a lot of the same things. There are recipes that you can do in both. Why I suggested the scrambled eggs with the deliciousness that

comes from the slow cooker is the scrambled eggs do a fantastic job of absorbing the juices that skedaddle from the slow cooking meat. And they're absorbed quite well by the scrambled eggs, making just a fantastic little taco or breakfast burrito. A dinner taco meets a breakfast taco. You don't cook the eggs in there with the meat, do you? No, of course not. Oh my goodness. You said they suck up the juices of the cooking meat. The scrambled eggs are cooked outside of the slow cooker and then positioned as the foundation on the taco or the burrito. And then the slow cooked meat and all its juices are put on top of the taco. So your taco is less likely to fall apart? Right. It doesn't get as messy with juices spreading out and falling apart. Exactly right.

Nice. Exactly right. Oh, Bob Yarborough, the former reporter. Anything Bob Yarborough sends to me, I read on air. He's the king of Redfields. He was an award-winning reporter, literally a newspaper reporter at one time. Was it Mississippi or Alabama, if memory serves correct, Bob Yarborough, where you reported? He says a little spot news for you. All hell breaking loose on Fifth Street, just across from the Holiday Inn inn and the southbound lane looks like there was a car chase with a couple of cars smashed including a state trooper suv saw some cops blast by me heading

onto i-64 eastbound it must have come up i must have come up a minute after it happened a car chase on fifth street by the Holiday Inn. Smashed up vehicles, including a state trooper SUV. Bob Yarborough, thank you for that news tip. Stay safe, my friend. Any other information you can give to us, we will relay live on air on the water cooler at Charlottesville, Virginia. Take a look at some of the headlines

we're going to cover on the show. We will read them live on air to you. Ginny Hu watching the program says, I love my Instapot, Judah, and I use it once a week. I also love that Jerry says Instapot like I do, but Judah is proper pronouncing the whole thing. Instant pot.

What is it? Instant pot. Oh, it's not insta pot? No. I just used it on Friday. Made some incredible butter chicken. Oh. Delicious. You were going to talk about, and viewers and listeners will get to your comments in a matter of moments. Help me understand this, okay? I want you to help me understand the plight and the position

Charlottesville City Hall is in currently. Okay. Charlottesville City Hall, you're a man of reason. You've been dubbed by Jerry Ratcliffe, the star of the Jerry and Jerry Show, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, 40 plus years on the Virginia Beat.

Mr. Consistency. He says it to you almost every single time he's in here on Tuesday, right? He's a good guy. He's a great guy, right? Yeah. Always comes in Jerry Ratcliffe every Tuesday morning. This is true. I love Jerry Ratcliffe. In his jacket that he's wearing oh yeah he has a napkin every tuesday morning walks in the door unwraps the napkin and there is a piece of bacon in his napkin i would imagine it's from his breakfast that morning you would think i don't think i've ever even seen what he unwraps but it's always bacon okay that's great brings liza theiza, the I Love CMO mascot, every Tuesday morning a piece of bacon, I think, from his breakfast. He lives north of town. Just loves dogs.

I mean, you can just tell, loves dogs. So here's the plight and the position that City Hall is in. They want to pay city employees' current and future more money. Competitive wages, maybe even wages that surpass what comparables would suggest for government officials. Keep their employees sticky. They want to keep their employees happy and tenured, and they want to fill vacancies. Judah and I are all for paying folks in Charlottesville competitive wages so they can pay their bills. You are, right? Definitely. 100%. Yeah. But the, is it, are we going to call it a catch 22? Are we going to call it the double-edged sword? Or is Judah going to offer another description of what this is? To pay their employees competitive wages to keep them tenured, active, and happy,

city council is already alluding to us that they're going to be raising taxes. They have to advertise it. It's got to stay advertised for a period of time. It came up in the last council meeting. The real estate tax rate is at 96 cents currently per $100, 96 cents per 100. Lloyd Snook straight up said, I'm all for raising it to a buck even per 100. He got the backing of Brian Pinkston and Juan Diego Wade on this as well. In fact, Sean Tubbs, and I want to give Sean Tubbs credit from the Charlottesville Community Substack,

from Town Crier Productions, from InfoSeaVille, Sean Tubbs. He reports this, and then you help me understand if this is a Catch-22 double-edged sword or what else it could be. Councilor Lloyd Snook, Sean Tubbs reports, said the reduction in the rate has led the city to the situation council currently faces. Council, I'll add some color or context here. Council has kept it at 95 cents for an extended period of time. In fact, the tax rate was reduced in years past to 95 cents.

This is a quote directly from Lloyd Snook, friend of the program, the former mayor, literally just saw him walking by the studio, big fan of Lloyd Snook. Quote, I thought that when we dropped our tax rate to 95 cents that we were underfunding our government and that we were not paying for maintenance, that we were not paying our people well, and that we were making fundamental mistakes. End quote, Lloyd Snook said. Sean Tubbs doing this reporting. Lloyd Snook said he would like to see some budget cuts, but he would support an increase in the real estate tax to $1 per $100 of assessed value. Councilor Brian Pinkston and Mayor Juan Diego Wade

both said they would support this as well. That's one, two, three. There's your majority on five. They have to advertise it. It could be some posturing, but they're straight up letting us know that this is going to be coming down the pipe potentially. Is that a catch 22 first, before I pick this apart, like Thanksgiving turkey, you're trying to pay your employees more competitive wages to keep them tenured and happy and active to fill vacancies. But the collateral damage of doing that is you're

decreasing the affordability, increasing the cost of living, and limiting the opportunity for the same employees that you're trying to keep happy, active, and tenured for actually living in the jurisdiction they're going to serve. Yeah, I think that's a pretty good catch-22. What were you going to look at? You said something. I was, I was thinking of a, Oh, Henry's short story. The, uh,

the gift of the Magi were, uh, basically the woman sells her hair to buy her husband a, uh, beautiful gold, uh, key fob. And the husband sells his pocket watch to buy his wife a beautiful silver hairbrush.

Oh, no. So, I don't know if that's quite the same as what we're talking about. But it's kind of a... I think that pertains. Kind of a... Beautiful silver brush, for those that are just listening to. You forgot to add the word brush. I said brush.

You said brush? Yeah. Are you sure you said brush? I'm 100% sure I said brush. Okay, I apologize. I stand corrected. But yeah, it's kind of can't, you know,

you can't make a decision without hurting another part of your, another, you know, another area of your life, so to speak. Another area of your government. What is compounding this or making the situation even more complicated? Assessments on our homes have increased. Yeah. So the amount you're going to be taxed is already going to go up

because of the assessment. And then if they add to the tax rate, that will further increase what we'll be paying. A double tax. A double tax. At the same time, gas and groceries,

credit card debt, cost of living, are at an all-time high. All-time highs. Close to all-time highs. Credit card debt at an all-time high. At the same time, we're about to let you know the University of Virginia, the class of 2028, this data just released, the class of 202828 the largest in University of Virginia history with folks trying to apply to the school 58,970 applicants that's an astronomical amount of applicants

the class of 2028 received the University of Virginia for the class of 2028 this according to news.virginia.edu the media arm of the university received 58,970 applications. That's up 4% from last year, which was the highest ever last year. And how many people live in Seville?

More applicants applied than people actually live in Charlottesville, Virginia. This all is happening at the same time that home values are at American highs. So help me understand this, you. Please help me understand, okay. We have local government. This is the plight and position of local government

who are paid an astronomical amount of money to be city council. $18,000 a year to work 40-plus hours a week, to have half the community dislike you, and the other half not even care about you. And you get a whopping $20,000 if you're the mayor, to have half the community dislike you, and the other half not even know who you are.

Yeah. They are choosing. What a life. What a life. And some seek second terms. Yeah. It's the power. Some lose.

The power goes to their heads. Some lose. I'm joking, of course. Some lose multiple times and run again. Yeah. Is that glutton for punishment? I was just going to say that. What are examples of gluttons for punishment?

Being a Washington Commanders fan? You're not a sports guy. Sorry. That's the first thing that came to my mind. Yeah, something like that. Deciding that you want to run the, my sister runs the tough mutter. Oh, that's definition of glutton for punishment. Yeah. Let's brutalize our body, get filthy in the process, borderline humiliated, and pay to do it. Yeah. There you go. So that's what she's doing. Yeah. You're on point today. Thank you. They have to determine whether they're going to increase the tax rate per $100 of assessed value from $0.96 to potentially an even buck. Councilor Snook, Mayor Wade, and Councilor Pinkston voiced in the last meeting their support of raising it. They're doing this to potentially pay their City Hall employees more money, a competitive wage to keep them tenured and active and happy,

and to potentially help fill the vacancies that they have at City Hall, which are still many. We're all for people getting paid more money. This is not about the team members. Don't allow it to be about the team members. They deserve more money. But the collateral damage or the flip side, the catch-22, the gold pocket watch to the silver hairbrush, as Judith so beautifully and poetically put it earlier in the program, is the cost of living is going to go through the roof. At the same time, assessments increase in the city. At the same time, gas, credit card debt, and groceries that are at an all-time high.

At the same time, 58,970 applications came in for the University of Virginia, an all-time high. At the same time, 58,970 applications came in for the University of Virginia, an all-time high for the school. They're going to need somewhere to sleep, cannibalizing real estate in beds and doorways, keeping them from locals. What's going to give? Where's the breaking

point? Who comes out ahead? Who loses? Does nobody come out ahead? Does no one come out ahead? I mean... Who are the winners and losers? I don't know who the winners would be. You might call the city a winner, but...

I don't think the city employees are going to be a winner because the city employees are going to get more money but they're not going to be able to afford to live here so they're going to be pushed out so that additional money they get is going to be spent on commuting and the opportunity cost of a longer commute

is time away from your kids and your family and kicking your feet up on the Lazy Boy and watching Netflix? Not to mention spending more of the money that they gave you, the raise, so that you, you know, spending more of that money in travel time and wear and tear on your vehicle and whatever else. Possibly eating out if you're not as close to home.

Can't make it back for lunch. For the Insta pot. Instant pot. Love the instant pot. Sean has got excellent reporting on this. I also found this fascinating.

I'm going to read from Sean's fantastic reporting. If you raise the following taxes, the tax rate, if the tax rate is increased by one penny for meals tax, property tax, personal property tax, and lodging taxes, this is what it'll yield. Sean Tubbs, great job. Great reporting.

I'm making sure to source Sean Tubbs and highlight Sean. Oh, yeah. He does an incredible job. He's doing an incredible job. Reporting for our city. Each additional penny on the real property tax rate would bring in an additional $1.1 million for the city.

That's real estate. Each one cent increase in the tax rate will bring in $1.1 million for the city per one cent. Mm-hmm. the tax rate will bring in $1.1 million for the city per one cent. A 1% increase in the meals tax rate would yield just over $3 million. I am vehemently opposed to increasing the meals tax rate. Are you in favor of the meals tax rate increase? Not particularly. The meals tax rate increase is a tax rate that's directly felt by citizens.

It gentrifies dining out. Yeah. And it keeps families from being able to take their kids, families that are on financial margin, elderly, fixed-rate families, families that may not be seeing much salary or financial increase year over year from eating out. That's what, has someone looked at their receipt? Have you looked at your receipt lately when you've gone out to eat? Not closely.

Next time, where's the last time you went out for breakfast? Went out for a meal. Was it Desayuno Gomez? Is that what it's called? On Pantops? That may have been it, yeah. I want you to promise me you'll do this. Ask for a printed receipt.

Look at how much you pay in taxes compared to what you paid for the food. Vehemently opposed to an increase in the meals tax. I think our restaurants are hurting enough already. Our restaurateurs are vehemently opposed to the meals tax. I think our restaurants are hurting enough already. I mean, our restaurateurs are vehemently opposed to the meals tax increase. Peter Castiglione, friend of the program, owner of Meyer Restaurant, has gone to bat for this many, many, many times. Lodging tax, are you in favor of a lodging tax increase? Every additional penny on the lodging tax would bring in just over $1 million.

Michael Payne said, let's look at the lodging tax, because that's a tax on the lodging tax would bring in just over $1 million. Michael Payne said, let's look at the lodging tax, because that's a tax on the wealthy with means that are visiting the community, leaving the community, and not necessarily straining our infrastructure, like our roads, our water, our schools, and our transportation systems, because they come and they go. Yeah. They're also kind of, what's the word I'm looking for? They're also kind of, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? They're kind of,

they can't, you know, if you, if you're coming here for a wedding, you, it's not like you're going to not get a hotel. Yeah. You're stuck. Captive audiences. That's the word I was, the word, the words I was looking for. Captive and engaged audience. Philip Dow watching the program. Get his photo on screen. Key member of the family. He says, tax the cigarettes. Continue to tax the cigarettes. Judah's not going to like that.

Judah's not going to like that. What's the pack of cigarettes cost, Judah? You're a Camel Lights guy or a Parliament Lights guy? Camel Lights. Camel Lights? He's a Camel Lights guy. a Parliament Lights guy? Camel Lights. Camel Lights? He's a Camel Lights guy. 14 in the polls, Philip Dow. What's a pack of Camel Lights run in Virginia, in Charlottesville?

I think they're up around maybe $7 now. $7? Possibly. $7 a pack? Depends where you go. Yeah. It's $7 a pack? Something like that.

Is a glutton for punishment? You bring up tough mutter. How about someone who spends $7 for a pack of cigarettes to kill themselves? There you go. Is that the definition of a glutton for punishment? Possibly. Okay. I come at this to you because we we've worked alongside each other for 13 years and I want to see 13 more years of Judah Wickhauer. 26 more years of Judah Wickh 26 more years of Judah Wickauer. That could be Judah Wickauer being a glutton for punishment. You utilize that against me.

26 years of working alongside Jerry Miller. Do I really want that? That's a glutton for punishment. Yeah, that's definitely gluttony for punishment. Seven bucks a pack to kill yourself. Philip Dow says tax the cigarettes. Marlene Jones watching the program.

She says, what do we need to do to advocate for lower taxes? Are there other party candidates that we should consider? Oh. It's a little late. And it doesn't happen. Yeah. She also says, Judah, Foods of All Nations, Charlottesville for your soups.

Oh. She said you missed them. You need to add Foods of All Nations, Charlottesville. Can you, do they just, can you like get a bowl and go sit down? Oh yeah. They have like a self-serve soup model. Okay. Yeah.

She just wants you to make note of that. We don't have to do that now, though. Yeah. Because we're in the sticky. Which tax would you increase? I mean, of all those, I think lodging is the least painful to those of us that actually live here. Let me read the meals tax when I guess meals tax he says a 1% increase in the meals tax would yield just over 3 million yeah I read that wrong Thank You deep throat I want to clarify what Sean reported. A 1% increase in the meals tax would yield just over $3 million.

Every additional penny on personal property tax rate would yield $30,238. That's nothing. That's your cars, your automobiles, your boats. Every additional penny on the lodging tax would bring in just over a million. When do you make the lodging tax, when does the lodging tax start to impact tourism business and does it? When will we start seeing advocacy from from tourism groups against the lodging tax increase? And will we? Yeah.

And do you think it would have an impact on driving engagement? I don't think it would. I don't think it would. I think considering the prices of hotels, I don't think it would either. One of the insiders in our family watching the program just sent me this text. This is a City Hall insider. He says, check out Senate Bill SB14.

Sales tax will be increased by 1% by this time next year. That's not from me, of course, Jerry. Here's Billy Hunt, one of the best photographers in town, outside our studio. Holly Foster in Henrico says, Judah needs to stop smoking. We need him to live longer. As a frequent visitor to Charlottesville that stays in hotels,

I would not object to a 1% or 2% increase in the lodging tax. That's the price for traveling. Holly Foster is a woman of tremendous reason. Let's get her photo on screen. She's the Queen of Henrico. She's routinely staying at Keswick or the Borset. I've seen her many times at the Borset. Your star is rising in this family, Holly Foster. In fact,

Holly Foster needs to climb the power poles to the 17th slot. She is currently 20 in the poles. Interchange her with 17, please. iloveseville.com forward slash viewer rankings. Those poles will be updated later today. Holly, I can say this, though.

You said 17? To 17. You are a woman of means, so an increase of the lodging tax would not necessarily impact you as much as, say, someone more on the financial margin. I think that's very safe to say. You would think the tourism advocates would advocate against doing that. Not a good position to be in. Vanessa Parkhill sends me this. Crazy stuff going on over here at 5th busted up state police vehicle

in a hotel parking lot significant police presence it was tricky to get a slice of pizza today that's what Bob Yarborough just sent us Vanessa Parkhill Key and the family what the hell happened on 5th street a car chase in a busted up police vehicle Donessa Parke, Elkia, and the family What the hell happened on 5th street No kidding A car chase and a busted up police vehicle

Deep throat Let's get his photo on screen Number one in the polls He says Obviously even Charlottesville is not stupid enough Stupid enough No let me get to today's comments. Sorry, deep throat. Here's today's comment. Some context for the need to raise the property tax rate. Local tax revenue over the past decade is

up 85%. CPI plus population growth in Charlottesville in that time is 43%. And average teacher salaries are up more like 15%. So where the heck does the money go? Not to where most of us would feel comfortable paying more, keeping teacher and frontline employee salaries competitive. He's got a commentary on commercial and residential that we'll get to in a matter of moments. But he does say this deep throat, that out of 126 taxing jurisdictions in Virginia, only 10 have rates at or above 1%. And most of these places have much larger burdens of public school students per household when compared to Charllottesville and he says judah of those 126 if we look at raw median property tax bill per residential property only seven have higher

levels than charlottesville he says that means it's fat stupid inefficient local government that's driving this. Yeah, he makes this point as well, and I'll paraphrase this point. Talk to us the position that Natalie Ostrand is in, where she may have to vote on raising the lodging tax when she is... Yeah. She's, what, a wedding coordinator?

Wedding coordinator selling quarter-million-dollar-and-up packages at Pippin Hill. She's on the dais determining whether or not to tax tourists more when she sells packages to tourists for her professional living. Is that a conflict of interest? What is more of a conflict of interest?

Sincere question for you. Do you know what comparison I'm going to ask and question I'm going to ask here? You know me well. Yeah, what was it? I'll be so impressed if you get this. I sincerely will be so impressed. You're talking about Brian Pinkston working for UVA

and having to vote on whether or not to follow their suggestion to quash the building of the, what was it called? Whatever they're calling that building in the apartments going up and then the other apartments that were possibly a test. Just so I can give you some props here, please say no more because you got it right. Can we go to the studio camera? I'm giving you a flying chest bump

live on the I Love Seville Network. Are we on the studio camera? Yeah, yeah. Flying chest bump, flying chest bump. Flying chest bump. You're going to break it. Oh. Jeez.

What is more of a conflict of interest? Judah fell down. That's a tough one. Brian Pinkston voting on an apartment tower in the old Truist, on the current Truist Bankside on Ivy Road across from the Lewis Mountain neighborhood when his employer, the University of Virginia,

is vehemently against the apartment tower. Yeah. Or Natalie Oshren voting yes or no to a lodging tax increase when her employer makes money and pays their bills on taxing tourists? What's more of a conflict of interest? And would most likely be vehemently opposed.

And would be most likely vehemently opposed to a lodging tax increase. And a meals tax. Pippin Hill sells food. Pippin Hill sells food and is tied to lodging and tourism. And raising food taxes and lodging taxes would work and be a headwind against Pippin's model. What's more of a catch-22? I don't know that either of them is more or less than the other, but I think Natalie is in the more precarious position

because her vote may actually affect the bottom line of the company that she works for, whereas Brian Pinkston's vote may have, you know, may have ticked some people off. But we're talking about UVA. I mean, they've got, what, billions in... Endowment. Yeah, endowment. That's the word you were looking for.

14, I think, is the number. And they're going to, you know, they're going to keep going no matter what happens. You're doing a great job today. I 1,000% agree with that. Not only significantly more of a conflict of interest. Yeah. UVA didn't have that under contract. Right.

UVA just said it didn't look good with their Ivy corridor and the plan for Academic Village 2.0 down Ivy Road. Right. Does UVA want the property? Probably. Yeah. But they don't have it now. Pippin straight up drives revenue from

taxing tourists. Go ahead. I was just going to say that, yeah, I'm sure they would love to have the property, but nobody's going to be crying tears that they don't have it or that somebody may or may not be building apartment housing in those areas. Ginny Hu said, I'm glad we didn't lose a microphone during that chest. I'm surprised we didn't.

Philip Dow says, invest the $7 per cigarette pack that you're buying into the stock market, please. Deep Throw says it's much worse for NatGBT. He calls her NatGBT. He's got Judah laughing his ass off.

Says it's much worse for NatGBT because she has direct exposure via commissions. Pinkston, I think he would have to really anger UVA before there were consequences. 1,000% agree with that. You agree with that? Yeah. 1,000% agree with that? Yeah. Is that enough to recuse?

Or does she make the argument that it's Albemarle County where Pippin Hill is and not the city of Charlottesville, so it's fine for me to vote on? That's a pretty good argument, though they, I'm sure she and they have friends and allies in Charlottesville City that would make that a little awkward.

100%. And they stay in Charlottesville even if they go to Pippin Hill and hotels. Yeah. If you're coming for a wedding and a soiree and a bachelorette party or a throwdown, you're going to probably want to say where the bars are, where the entertainment is. That's a catch-22. All right.

Commercial uses in residential neighborhoods. I can't wait to hear what Judah has to say about this. For some reason, he's going to... Ginny Hu thinks the Nat GBT reference is hilarious, by the way, Deep Throat. I think Judah's going to make an allusion to his time in Savannah. His time in Savannah. I mean, the first thing I'll bring up is that in some ways, we already see a little of it. I mean, look at the tail end of the houses on, what, Mead and High Street. We've got some haircuttery places. We've got, what else?

It's basically residential that slowly peters out into... I love how you go to the haircut spots on High Street. Keep going, keep going, I'm sorry. You've also got... Belmont Barbershop, interestingly, is on High Street. Belmont Barbershop on High Street. I don't even think High Street is Belmont. Belmont Barbershop is right next to Hogwaller Brewing. And neither Belmont

Barbershop or Hogwaller Brewing are in Hogwaller or Belmont. Someone explain that to me. Hogwaller Brewing. I love Hogwaller Brewing. The beer is fantastic. And Belmont Barbershop, I used to get my hair cut there when it was in the old location, by where Quality Pie was located. It's now, I think, a Seamstress by close to Fox's Cafe. That's where Belmont Barbershop used to be. Now they're both on High Street, and neither is in Hogwaller nor Belmont. But go ahead. Keep going. I apologize for interrupting. We've also got Riverside.

We've also got Fabio's. I wouldn't say that's necessarily a great example of commercial and residential, because High Street's a commercial corridor. Okay, but if you turn the corner from either one of those places, you're looking at houses. Turn onto the road where the parking lot to Riverside starts. The very house or two down is residential. Definitely. I mean, right, if you take a left on Riverside, 100 yards past the Riverside entrance are homes. You've got Browns in the middle of all kinds of residential. Fried chicken?

Avon extended? This would crush existing businesses. For example, Reeds. I saw this on Reddit. Reeds still hasn't rebounded. No, they're looking pretty scary. Have you been in Reeds recently? I've never been in Reeds.

That's got to be on the list. The Judah list. The Judah list that included that he had never been in Chick-fil-A. What's on the Judah list right now? Never had a photo with Santa Claus. Has been in Charlottesville for two decades. Has never been to Reeds. Even my wife's been to Reeds.

I can take never eaten at Chick-fil-A. What was on the list? No, leave them on there and we can always just take them off as we're talking about. What's on the list that Judah's never done? I mean, all I've got on here right now are photos. He's never had a photo clause taken with Santa Claus in his entire life. And he's never eaten at Chick-fil-A, but he recently had a Chick-fil-A spicy chicken sandwich or fried chicken sandwich? Just a fried chicken sandwich and some nuggets. And the Chick-fil-A kind window drive-thru attendant gave him a pup in a cup. Was that your first ever pup in a cup?

I don't know if Liza's ever gotten a pup cup anywhere else, no. That may have been a first for her. Liza. Get that dog out. All right, put on the list who's never been to Reed's. Grocery stores or bodegas and neighborhoods would crush a business like that, by the way. Grocery stores and bodegas would crush? You're talking about retail business in a commercial quarter.

Yeah. If you had just a little coffee shop in your residential neighborhood, it's going to splinter the customer base. Oh, man. Maybe it did take down the microphone, Ginny-who. Maybe it did take. Dthroat said solder that microphone. And this is where you correct me.

I set it up for you. I set it up perfectly for you. I know you well. You've got to be able to kid it yourself to make good content. This is good commentary from Deep Throat. And this is how I feel, okay? This is how I feel. He says, on the commercial and residential controversy, Judah,

let's leave aside the question of whether it is a good idea or not. Let's focus on the process. The council debated this. They took a straw poll and they decided against commercial and residential and then voted on an ordinance reading that did not include it. Then the geniuses in city administration managed to publish in the official newspaper the wrong text. How ridiculous is that? I will tell you that I've seen crucial legislation derailed in two big Latin American countries because of the inconsistencies

between the text and the reading in Congress and what was published in the Latin American newspaper. He's using the name of the actual newspaper. He says they don't even know what the heck they are voting on. They don't know what they have voted on. It's the definition of lunacy. So they're using the opportunity, the fact that this was not published correctly in the newspaper,

as a way to bring it back up, commercial and residential. And that's why if you read the Sean Tubbs reporting or you watch the council meeting, Snook got irked. Did you notice that? He was irked. Even Sean highlighted in his reporting that Snook got irked.

Nora Gaffney watching the program she says commercial on a corner lot as on a high street is not the same as commercial in the middle of a street of houses I concur that's why I highlighted that I think she's offering that to you my friend yeah that's true we need to get Nora's photo on screen too

a lot of my experience in this comes from my memories of Savannah. God, you love Savannah. Constantly reference Savannah. Savannah must be amazing. Is Nora Gaffney not in the polls? Doesn't look like it.

She's not? All right, Nora Gaffney, you're now in the power ranking. She's coming in at the 35 slot. Let's get Nora Gaffney up there, please. And Marlene Jones at 36. Hold's get Nora Gaffney up there, please. And Marlene Jones at 36. Hold on. Nora Gaffney at 35. Nora Allie Gaffney

is in the iloveseville.com power polls right now. iloveseville.com forward slash viewer ranking. She's 35. You got her name there? I'm throwing a lot at you. Tell me when you're ready for 36. Marlene Jones, 36. M-A-R-L-E-N-E Jones, 36 in the PowerPoles.

Kevin Higgins watching the program. He says, gentlemen, it's not going to be long before grocery stores are set up to offer a tip to the cashiers. Um, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised about that either. Is that how we're going to keep small grocery stores like reads alive where the burden of payroll is offset or it's passed on to the consumer? Even more? I mean, it's already passed on to the consumer.

It's called selling inventory. But even more passed on to the consumer asking for tip at checkout. And are you tipping 20% on checkout? That would be ridiculous. You could tip. We're spending 300 bucks a week. What is it? 200, 300 bucks a week on groceries?

No way you could tip 20% at checkout. Would it be a point? Would it be two points? What if they do like restaurants and say that on any check over a certain amount, or if you're clearly shopping for more than four people, an automatic 18 uh, an automatic 18% gratuity will be added to your check. That would be pretty scary. Yes. Or how about the ones that have the line written in their, uh, credit card processing fee? How do you feel about the credit card processing fee line? You would think, I mean, I know that probably a lot of smaller businesses using, you know, point of sale technology probably do have to at least figure that into their monthly costs. but I would think that larger grocery stores would have some way of defraying that cost.

And I would be highly suspect if somebody like Kroger or Wegmans was asking for that. Can I offer a suggestion? Instead of having a credit card processing fee line item, just raise your prices on the menu and weave it into higher prices on the menu.

Yeah. Then allocate part of the higher price on the menu to credit card processing fee. Yeah. I think that's the better choice for a lot of things. I know a lot of people complain about restaurants that will put up a sign saying, adding this blah, blah, blah helps us pay for such and such, helps us pay for our dishwashers or our servers or whatever. And as if it's some kind of plea, but I think that most of us are willing to pay a little bit more on a menu item

rather than have this kind of guilt trip. It's guilt trip. And I'm trying to... Stuck in your face every time you go to pay for your meal. Guilt trip. It's guilt trip. Stuck in your face every time you go to pay for your meal. It's either that or pulling at heartstrings. Just raise the price. Some say that's what READS needs to do. Then the flip side of raising your price is at READS, the other argument is then it's going to price out the neighborhood, which is their base of who they feed.

Yeah. Is that a Catch-22? Double-edged sword? A pocket watch and a silver hairbrush world? Is that what it is? Yeah, that's definitely a tough decision for me. Reed's has got to raise its prices, but if it raises its Yeah, that's definitely a tough decision. Reeds has got to raise its prices, but if it raises its prices, it's going to price out the neighborhood that keeps Reeds alive. Explain that to me.

I mean, I don't know if there's a good solution for Reeds. Kevin Higgins in Greenwood, Virginia. Janice Boyce-Trevillian, I'll get to your comments. Marlene Jones, I'll get to your suggestion here. Kevin Higgins says the best tax is the plastic bag tax.

The best tax of all is paying five cents per plastic bag to put our purchased grocery products that in many cases are already in plastic. But if you put the plastic that in many cases are already in plastic. But if you put the plastic product in a paper bag, it's free. And then Sherry Wilcombe says, Kroger charges you for paper bags. And then Kevin says, wow, the craziest part is the business loses money because they have to buy the bags and pass the five cents on. They are taking a double hit. And that's why Kevin said it's not going to be long before we're getting asked to tip cashiers at grocery stores.

And that's why Janice Boyce Trevelyan says she uses self-checkout and she tips herself. What do you tip yourself with, Janice? Is it something you purchase or just the savings of the money? And Marlene Jones suggests that Reeds becomes a not-for-profit food co-op. The reality is the family owns the real estate. And eventually they're going to say, I'm exiting with the sale of the real estate and close the store.

And when that happens, someone's going to come in and buy it and convert it into probably expensive studio apartments. Because that's a fantastic location. Would you not say so? Right next to a brewery? Right next to the downtown mall? It's not bad. It's a fantastic spot.

Marlene Jones says the old Barber Beauty building in Johnson Village would be a great coffee store or bodega. 509 Shamrock Road. All right, we've got some other items that we need to get to out of the notebook, and it's 123. My issue with the commercial uses in the residential neighborhoods is we already put this to bed, and the only reason it's coming up

is because they didn't follow the right process to put it to bed. It's the definition of idiocy. I've highlighted on this program already, if you want to go to a one-shot, then we'll weave you back in on the XR Park Facing Serious Financial Problems. The UVA 2028 class is the largest applicant pool in history. This is obscene. This is crazy. This shows you how competitive it is to get into UVA. The 2028 UVA class received 58,970 applications, this according to news.virginia.edu.

Of the 58,000 due to 970 applications, 3,970 students get in. Did you say 3,000 out of the... Oh, yeah. That 50? 58,970. 3,970. The school's first-year enrolling class target is 3,970. Wow.

The 58,970 applications is a 4% increase over the previous year, which was then the all-time high. More people want to go to UVA than ever before. Yeah. More people want to go to UVA than ever before. It's worth repeating. All right. This was in the CVO Weekly.

XR Park is facing serious financial problems. Serious financial problems. They now have one employee. They previously had a handful of employees. XR Park highlights the fact that X Park and X Art Park are two different things. Okay, I was curious about that.x Art Park is a tenant of Ix Park. Ix Park is privately owned by Ludwig Kutner and Alan Kajin. And Ix Art Park is a non-profit

that rents from Ix Park. They really wanted to highlight this in the story. And why they want to highlight this in the story is for what reason? To separate them in people's minds And why they want to highlight this in the story is for what reason? To separate them in people's minds so that

they better understand the discussion. Perception management. They want the community to understand that X Art Park Foundation non-profit is not tied to Not tied to renting out space to

Wealthy developers. It's its own entity. That's called brand and perception management. That's what they're doing right there. We are not tied to, and they listen and watch the show, Alan Kajin and Lew Wood Kutner. Both have done a lot of good things for this community.

So that's the first piece I want you to take from here. The second piece is they previously had a director of programming, a director of curation, a director of operations, and an executive director. Four different positions. Now all those four positions are held by one person. I always get her first name wrong. Eva. Eva Haar. Yeah. Eva. Yeah. Eva Haar. IVA IVAHAR four positions down to one they highlight the fact that they were hammered by COVID the pandemic shuttered the art park

in particular the looking glass where 24% came from of their revenue came from the looking glass so now they're basically saying to the community, we're in serious financial difficulty here. They're no longer going to offer some of the free stuff

like they were doing, including the art summer camps for kids and families on the financial margin. They're going to prioritize booking private events, ticketing, using admissions to drive revenue, and finding sponsors and bigger donations. Eva Haar has that responsibility. She's the only employee left. I also found this interesting. Are you ready for this? Last year, more than 200,000 people came or attended the Ix Art Park by attending some kind of programming at the park. This according to their 2023 impact report. Over 200,000 people.

More than 200,000 people. That's a lot. Yeah, no doubt. Much like the future of Reed's Grocery, the future of X Art Park is not art or groceries. It is development and luxury condos and apartments. And that's a bitter pill to swallow. Because luxury apartments and condos are commonplace in any town or city in America. Where quirky businesses and quirky outings like Ix Art Park and Reed's offer character and charm that we love in Charlottesville.

Yeah. Is that fair? Yeah, definitely. Two other items out of the notebook. Many of you know this. We're business brokers. We broker a lot of business deals. We do a handful of them every year.

We're working on one now. I hope to God we can push through this finish line. I've been working on this business broker deal for an extended period of time. Snap Fitness in Hollymead Town Center is for sale. If you're interested, the owner is an absentee owner. The asking price is $150,000. Furniture, fixtures, and equipment of $200,000. It's 100% absentee owner, as we speak, for Snap Fitness in Hollymead Town Center.

It offers a good investment opportunity for an absentee owner, or if someone wants to get on site and own and operate and manage the Snap Fitness location, they could potentially expand margin. Last topic on the talk show is a celebration and salute

of two different groups of people. Well, one group of people and one person. I give Judah Wickhauer some props. The man's done a fantastic job on the I Love Seville show. We don't always see eye to eye, but I know for a fact that he makes the program better. Thank you. And whether I'm giving him some grief

or giving him flying chest bumps live on air, I want you to realize that I very much appreciate him. Even though he does not have a Netflix subscription, has never been to Reeds, just went to Chick-fil-A for the first time last week, found out about Pup Cup for the first time last week, has never had a photo with Santa Claus, and spends $7

on a pack of cigarettes instead of investing into the stock market. I still have nothing but love for you. The second group, or the other group that I want to highlight, is you, the viewer and listener, who I think Judah and I would both say make the program better. Definitely. We just want to be the conductors for your commentary, the viewer and listener. You, the viewer and listener, are the star of the I Love Seville show. No doubt. Any closing thoughts?

I wish we could have some of our viewers give closing thoughts because a large proportion of them are far smarter than I am. Okay. Thank you. They do tune in to hear your closing thoughts. All right. I mean, I could talk about Savannah. No, you don't want to hear that. I did like hearing about your Instapot recipes, though. Oh, yeah. I mean... You need to get a slow cooker.

And you need to get an Instant Pot. I will put that on the radar. It makes the best hard-boiled eggs. I kid you not. Is Judah not a bachelor where he... Shells come off in seconds. A hard-boiled egg only takes seconds to cook in the Insta pot? No, it takes five or six minutes.

Five or six minutes is the time to boil the egg. But when the hard-boiled egg has come out of the Instant Pot, the shells come off like that. The shells come off like that when I boil them. Not when I'm, not when I'm opening them. That's because it's been, I, a lot of people, can I let the viewers and listeners know this? One day or two days a week, I boil, I love hard-boiled eggs. They stick with you. They offer great protein. They're healthy. I usually bring one for lunch or a snack of some capacity during the day. And one or two days during the week,

I'll boil an extra egg and bring them to Judah because the man does not pack a lunch. And I routinely take the hard boiled egg and throw it across the studio and say, heads up Judah, and throw it across the studio. He always catches them. He has yet to drop one. And he enjoys them as a snack here at the I Love Seville studio. The reason the shells are not coming off immediately after I throw them to you is because they're not fresh out of the boiled water. I've made them both

ways. Trust me when I say that making them in the Instant Pot is night and day difference. I will take you on your word. Instant Pot on my list. That's the I Love Civo show. Jerry Miller,

Judah Wickauer on a Wednesday. Thank you kindly for joining us. Take care, everybody. We really love this Instapot. What is the brand that you recommend? I don't know if there's a brand.

It's just Instant Pot. I couldn't tell you. I can look it up. I think it's to sell this. I'm looking it up right now. Yeah, it's Instant Pot. That's the brand. That's the brand?

Yeah. Are you sure? Yes. Thank you. I'm turning the sound off now. Okay. I'm turning the sound off now.