The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Jak 'n Jill Owner Zannis Damvakaris Has Died; My Favorite Story Of Interacting With Zannis

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Jak ‘n Jill Owner Zannis Damvakaris Has Died My Favorite Story Of Interacting With Zannis Has Too Much Housing Been Built In Crozet, VA? $275K In City/State Funding For Tonsler League Same Lawyer: Police Oversight Board & City Another Restaurant For Sale On UVA Corner College World Series: UVA Baseball Strikes Out UVA Swimmer Qualifies For 2024 Olympics Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Monday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville Show. It's a busy program. Take a look at the screen for today's headlines. We have the passing of a man in Zenise, the owner of Jack and Jill's, that has made an impact on many people's lives here in the Charlottesville area. Zenise was to Jack and Jill's on High Street what Mel Walker was to Mel's Cafe on West Main. And the comparisons and the parallels between the passing of these two restaurant icons, unfortunately, very similar and certainly impactful in this community. I'm going to highlight on today's show one of my favorite stories of interacting with Zanis on the program. It's a story I've shared in the past, but I think it's a story that's very reflective of Zise the man and kind of the friends and the movers and shakers that went in and out of his diner, his greasy spoon on East High Street.

Today's program will also highlight Crozet, Virginia. I had a conversation in the swimming pool yesterday with a mother of two, and she said, you know, perhaps you should start talking about how development continues to come to Crozet and how those of us who own homes that have been in Crozet for a while are getting to the point of thinking about moving away from a community we love so greatly. She talks about the schools being beyond capacity. She talks about infrastructure like roads and water and buses

and getting to the point of log jams and quality of life impacts. So I want to talk about Crozet and when do we say enough is enough already when it comes to housing. And for those of us that live in the Ivy area, this pertains to you as well. In fact, I would say this pertains to anyone that's commuting into Charlottesville along that Ivy Road 250 corridor.

So if you're in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood, if you're in the data science, if you're on that kind of west gateway from Albemarle County into the city, this applies to you, Crozet's density. So listen, participate, and join us in the conversation. We'll talk about the Tonsler Basketball League. Sean Tubbs has got an interesting tidbit in his community sub stack about the Tonsler Basketball League on Cherry Avenue. He writes this. I'm going to unpack it as the show matures.

City Council is going to hear of an additional $10,000 payment to the Tonsler League from the city's vibrant community fund. This is in addition to the $15,000 the city's Vibrant Community Fund. This is in addition to the $15,000 the city's Parks and Recreation Department pays the Tonsler League. And interestingly, the state budget allocates $250,000 to the city of Charlottesville specifically for the purpose of running the Tonsler League. If I'm reading perhaps what sean tubbs is reporting and sean reports facts

does not give a lot of commentary and opinion it looks like the basketball league the tonsler league that plays its um its basketball on cherry avenue is on the cusp potentially 275000 in city and state funding. $275,000 in city and state funding for the Tonsler League. We'll talk about that on today's show. Also on the program, we will talk about a UVA swimmer qualifying for the 2024 Olympics, the unfortunate exit of the Virginia baseball team from the College World Series in Omaha, and yet another restaurant for sale on the UVA corner. Well, we've Judah Wickhauer in on a two-shot. I want to tease the story that you find most compelling before we get back to Zenise, the owner of Jack and Jill's. Why did you find the Police Oversight Board in the city of Charlottesville

interestingly being represented by the same attorney as compelling content for our viewers and listeners? I mean, I would think it was compelling to just about anybody reading about it. It's insane to think that one, you know, a police oversight board that might be requesting, in fact, is requesting information from the city is being represented by the same lawyer as the city. And how do you know which side? I mean, it's just insane. Why would, I mean, the lawyer is there to represent one or the other. While the police civilian oversight board was struggling with the city to regain access to police records, the city hired the board's attorney.

I mean, that pretty much says it all. And where are you reading from? Is that verbatim from somewhere? Yeah, this is from Charlottesville tomorrow. All right, so Judah's going to make a compelling case later in the program of why this is conflict of interest. Be prepared to do that. Market Street camera, if you can go to, you see the former mayor walking by with a fresh haircut, Lloyd Snook, who's watching at the beginning of the program. I want to go to the Zenise story. By now, you know, the owner of Jack and Jill's restaurant has passed away. Perhaps you don't. Late last week, this gained significant traction on social media.

Zanis died late last week in Cyprus, and he impacted a lot of folks in this community. Zanis, a neighbor of ours in the Glenmore neighborhood of Keswick, I would routinely see Zenise, I mean, as early as this year, walking around the neighborhood to get his exercise in. He was the proprietor and the longtime daily operator of Jack and Jill's, the Greasy Spoonoon on High Street. Many of you have interacted in Zenise in one way or another. Perhaps that interaction was over a cup of coffee,

a foot-long hot dog, a chili dog. Maybe it was an interaction over his counter when he was behind the counter while you were sitting at it and you were talking Charlottesville. His broken English had a very likable capacity to it. I had a number of interactions with Zanice and Jack and Jill's, but one stood out to me as a personal favorite. I've told this story previously on the I Love Seville show,

but I'm going to relay it again because I find it a perfect reflection of Zanis. Zanis, the man, his network of friends in this community, and what he was trying to do for someone, me, very young at the time, trying to start building their respective business. So I'm renting in downtown Charlottesville in the Professional Center. This business launched over 16 years ago, 16 years on the 29th of May, so we just celebrated our 16-year anniversary, out of a condominium in Albemarle County, right next to Redfields, right past the Charlottesville City, Albemarle County property jurisdictional line, was a condominium complex called the Villas at Southern Ridge. This condominium complex was previously country green apartments. And at the time, when country green apartments were running, it was an apartment complex that unless you lived there, you try to avoid.

It was riddled with crime, riddled with unsavory individuals, and just one of those sketchy elements that you would find 25 years ago in Charlottesville and Alamaro County. This condominium complex was converted by Bart Fry, a developer out of Virginia Beach, into condos. It went apartments to condos with this Virginia Beach developer purchasing the apartment complex. And over five phases, he converted what was a sketchy neighborhood into a resale condo neighborhood. I purchased my condominium, I don't know, I want to say 18 years ago, roughly. Yeah, about 18 years ago. And phase one of the project. At the time, Real Estate 3 was doing the sales for Bart Fry's condominium complex. The team was led by Jeff Gaffney.

He brought in Rick Spagoni, Amanda Spagoni, Mustache Dan Pennant as his sales office. They took a condo at the Ville's at Southern Ridge on the first floor and converted it into a sales office from a residential office. So I walk in there fresh out of the University of Virginia. I think I was two years out of UVA, 24 years old. Didn't know my mouth from my bottom. Figuring things out. Go into this office and I said, you know what? I'm tired of renting. This condominium is $182,000. It's pretty much the only thing that I can afford as a 24, 25 year old in Charlottesville and Alamaro County. At the time I was renting in Belmont on Little Graves. I had me, my buddy Mike,

my buddy Tom and my buddy Shannon, four of us were renting at 208 Little Grays from Arthur Feiner. He had a two-bedroom house and four of us were renting this house. Tom converted the green room or the greenhouse into a bedroom. Shannon climbed a rope ladder to the attic where he lived in a non-cooled or heated attic. I had a bedroom. Mike had a bedroom. And we were able to afford to live in Charlottesville as 24-year-olds. I lived there for about 12 to 18 months. And I realized, look, I need to start figuring out something of permanence because this is going to be my home. I'm about to launch this business. I need a place to live that doesn't have one of my best friends climbing a rope ladder and living in an attic

directly above my bedroom where I can hear literally every single thing he does directly above me or my other buddy Tom living in a greenhouse at the back of a falling down house. So I buy this condo, phase one, I think it was like 182K. Public record, you can find it online. And I was promised, or I was told, and no one can see into the future, so I don't hold this against anybody, but I was told there would be five phases of built-in equity. And Jerry, if you buy in phase one at $1.82, phase two, we're going to raise it to $1.87, $5,000. Phase three, we're going to raise it another five. Phase four, another five.

And phase five, an additional $5,000. So you'll have $5,000 of built-in appreciation as soon as we open the second phase. And over the course of the other phases, you're going to have $20,000 of built-in appreciation as soon as we open the second phase. And over the course of the other phases, you're going to have $20,000 in built-in appreciation. I said, that sounds great. $182,000. At this time, any Tom, Dick, and Harry could get a loan. This was before the housing crash. I somehow qualified for a loan.

I got this loan, I moved into this condominium, and I immediately launched what would soon become this company. As I'm living in this house, in this condo on the second floor of the Vills at Southern Ridge, very quickly the housing market went to crap. And 2008, 2009, 2010, we all remembered what happened. There was too much speculation going on and too much easy money on the street. People were getting loans that should not have gotten loans. And that caused a housing market crash that led to a recession. And launching a business during a recession was one of the most difficult things I've ever done but at the same time one of the most perfect times to launch a business.

I learned how to bootstrap in ways that most people do not because there were not a lot of clients out there and for six months I had zero clients. I watched my savings dwindle to nothing. I had to take two of the bedrooms in this three-bedroom condominium, rent them out to friends, give them below-market rent. And if they had not have said yes, if they had not have rented these bedrooms from me, I probably would have defaulted on this mortgage at this condominium. So I'm going to get to Zenise and Jack and Jill's here in a matter of moments. We get some traction with the business, and the business gets one client. And then the second client is Andy McClure, who owns the Virginian restaurant, the Biltmore. He owns West Main at the time. He owns the Greenskeeper, which was three at the time. Had a handful of restaurants,

and we did really well by him, and we helped him launch Citizen Burger Bar, created a logo, built the website, did the marketing. This restaurant exploded in a lot of ways. The success of Citizen Burger Bar, and when it initially launched, the line was like an hour to 90-minute wait on most nights. When that brand and business launched, we got incredible traction. People started realizing that what we were doing at this advertising and branding firm was impactful. We were using social media and digital marketing in Charlottesville and Albemarle County and central Virginia to drive business, to drive new customers to businesses before anyone else. At the time, people were using social media and Facebook to hook up with girls or hook up with guys or to just post photos of what they

were eating online. We were using it for strategic purposes. That got us a lot of traction and a lot of new business. And at that point, I realized that I had to take the business out of the condo because if I was going to take the next step as a legitimate business I had to invite clients to speak to me in a professional setting and this tiny condo where it was two filing cabinets in a and a door laid on top of two filing cabinets as a desk was not professional so the first place we rented was a tiny office above South Street Brewery. Judah Wickauer starts working for the firm about this time. And as we go from the condominium where Judah's desk was legitimately a filing cabinet on the left side,

a filing cabinet on the right side, and a door put on top of it, I said, we're going to move into South Street Brewery. Well, you know what? I was awful at picking offices. I did not anticipate growth trajectory and adding additional team members. When we moved into South Street, Judah and I pretty much could only fit in these tiny offices. They're about 90 square feet. If there was a client that brought a partner or, heaven forbid, two team members with them to a meeting, five people could not meet in these offices. So I signed a six-month lease with Paul Malberg of Silvergate Realty, who was managing the South Street offices. I had to break the lease and said, Paul, we're at capacity. Fortunately,

he let us out. That's when I moved to the Professional Center, the building on the downtown mall that is home to United Bank, right next to the Bank of America ATM on the downtown mall. There's a Thai restaurant in the back of the Professional center. This building was owned by a man that still serves as a mentor to me today. His name is Bill Nitschman. We moved into the third floor of the professional center into an office that was large. I think I was paying like $4.95 a month at the time. Right next to me, Bill Nitschman had his office.

And little did I know that Mr. Nitschman was a significant real estate owner, commercial and residential, in Charlottesville and Alamaro County. At the time, Mr. Nitchman owned pretty much a block of real estate, an entire block adjacent to Bodo's Bagels on Preston Avenue. He has holdings all over the city and Alamaro County, prominent holdings. He owned the building we were in. And I was in a nuisance. I was an annoying pest to Bill, but he appreciated it. Routinely knocking on his door saying, hey, Bill, what are you working on? What are those architectural plans over there? Tell me about the real estate you own. How do you keep them full? How do you refinance?

How do you manage debt to equity ratios? What's the trick for success in real estate? And for 18 months, I did everything humanly possible to learn from this man. And one of the aspects of what I learned from him is who you know. And he introduced me to Zenise at Jack and Jill's. He said, Jerry, your business is growing. I see the foot traffic coming in and out of your office. You're right next door to me. It's time you buy something. That's when you realize you have a great mentor. When someone who's willing to say, I don't need your $500 a month rent, and I'm going to encourage you to buy a place that I don't own because I know that is what's best for you and your business. So he introduces me to Zenise.

Zenise owned a commercial condominium right across from Commonwealth Sky Bar. Same side of the mall of Commonwealth Sky Bar. It was the building directly behind the professional center. It was about 1,000 square feet. Zenise owned it with his daughter. He said, Jerry, I'm going to introduce you to Zenise. Follow me to Jack and Jill's on High Street. So I follow him one day in my car. Bill's driving an American-made pickup truck, always American-made for Bill Nitschman, always American-

made. I pull in. I think I had a beat-up Volvo station wagon cross cross country. He would always heckle me for having a Volvo because it wasn't American made. We both walk into Jack and Jill's. Bill's food, as soon as he sat down, Zenise gave him a drink and his food. He knew exactly what Bill was going to order before Bill even opened his mouth. Then he looked at me. He sized me up. I think I'm like 24, 25 at the time. He said, how about for you? How about for you? What would you like to eat? You're with Bill.

It's on me. That's what Zanese said. Because I was with Bill, it was on him. I said, I'll take a hot dog. Take a soda and some fries. He said, okay. Hot dog. He adds some chili and onions. He goes, this is what I think you

should get with hot dog. He says, this looks great. Gives me a styrofoam cup, a styrofoam cup with crushed ice. I think I got a Dr. Pepper, got some French fries. Bill saying, Jerry needs an office space to buy. You got an empty one behind the professional center. You guys should connect. Jerry, you buy it from Zenise. Zenise, you sell it to Jerry. I think you guys could do a deal right here. And Zenise says to me, you know what? We could do a deal here. So he says, come back two days later after we close. I want you to knock three times on the front door I'm like alright I come back two days later nine o'clock at night

knock three times in the front door front door opens and he says come on back here he sits down in the back booth of Jack and Jill's there's a man already sitting in that booth

this man I had no idea who he was at the time of Jack and Jill's. There's a man already sitting in that booth. This man, I had no idea who he was at the time. He has a tie that's unbuttoned, that's a half mask hanging around his neck. He's got a blue blazer, gold buttons on his blue blazer, one button missing. He's got a mustard stain on his tie.

The front of his shirt his button down Oxford shirt the front is untucked his khaki pants, the cuffs are torn on the bottom looks disheveled call him 60, 65 years old he looks at me, he smiles his face cracking as he smiles with wrinkles but it was a kind smile

he says, sit down young man he's sitting at the booth across from me Zanis sits down on the same side of the booth as this man this mysterious man I had no idea and he very quickly I realized is going to be the interpreter for me and Zanis he knows Zanis extremely well Zanis says this man's very experienced in real estate I immediately got my guard up because I was that experienced in real estate. So he says, I hear you want to buy this office condo from Zanese. I said, yes, sir, I do. He goes, what do you want to pay for it? I think I said, I want to pay like $175,000. I think at that point I had $10,000 or $15,000 to my name.

And I said to him, I want to do a seller finance deal. I want to put a percentage up front. I want you to carry the paper, and I want you to give me, I asked for 10 years, I was willing to go to five. I want you to give me 10 years to pay off the entire balance. And this man sitting across from me says, write it down on a napkin. He pulls a napkin from the dispenser,

puts the napkin on the table, pulls out a permanent marker from inside his jacket. He says, write it down on his napkin. I write down on a price on the napkin. I slide it across the table. The mysterious man sitting next to Zanice talks to Zanice, whispers in his ear. Zanese whispers back. This is all a dog and pony show for them. The mysterious man was Dr. Charles

Hurt, one of the most prominent landowners in Charlottesville and Almaral County. A man who once told me that you cannot drive into Almaral County or leave Almaral County without seeing one of my properties with your own two eyes. So they're passing this napkin back and forth. I don't know if it was intimidation. I don't know if it was enjoyment. I don't know if it was for torment. Maybe it was for negotiation purposes. But we negotiated a deal on an office condominium right off the downtown mall in the back of Jack and Jill's on a napkin. On a napkin. Dr. Hurt, me, and Zenise. When the deal was eventually negotiated and we agreed on the terms, they gave me seven

years to pay the debt. They gave me an interest rate that was extremely fair. It was a point above market. He agreed to carry the paper. He let me put 10 grand down so I would have five or $7,000 in savings. And we did a deal. And then he stood up as an East did. He clapped his hands together like this. And he said, we have a deal. And now we celebrate. He walks off from the booth and he comes back with a bottle of Uzo and three Dixie cups. And roughly 9.45 in the middle of the week on a summer night on High Street, in Jack and Jill's with barely a light on in the dining room, Dr. Charles Hurt, one of the most prominent landowners,

the owner of Virginia Land Company, Virginia Land Company, the man who shows Frank Bailiff, now the owner of Southern Development, the ropes when it comes to real estate. Zenise, the owner of Jack and Jill's, the restaurant. He also owns the land on High Street. He owns the restaurant Milan, the land on Milan, the Indian restaurant as well,

and a number of other properties. And little old me, who owned a $182,000 phase one condominium in what used to be the ghetto. Literally. We're sitting there in the back of Jack and Jill's drinking Uzo out of Dixie Cups. After Dr. Hurt leaves, Zanice says, come with me. And we go to the kitchen next to the vent above the stovetop. He turns on the vent. He pulls out a Greek cigarette, smokes the Greek cigarette. As the smoke starts getting pulled up by the vent, offers me one. I'm like, I guess I'll smoke a Greek cigarette. I end up smoking the Greek cigarette, having a little bit more ouzo with Zenise. And he said, you come by two days from now and we'll sign the paperwork.

I'll have my attorney draw it up. It'll be a couple of pages. Unfortunately, that deal fell through. And that deal fell through because at the time, I didn't know this, his daughter, who runs Jack and Jill's now, was also an owner in this commercial condominium. And she saw more upside in the commercial condominium on the downtown mall than he did. And she kiboshed the deal. And he looked at me when I came back two days later, and he was incredibly apologetic. Because he was a man of his word, and he realized that we made a deal and this deal was not going to materialize. And he was deeply apologetic.

Deeply apologetic. But this story is a reflection of Zanis in a number of ways. It was a reflection of Zanis because this guy knew everyone. He knew folks that worked on asphalt for the city of Charlottesville that eat lunch at his greasy spoon to the Bill Nitschmans and the Dr. Charles Hurts of the world, the power players of Charlottesville and Albemarle County for multi-generations. It didn't matter. He treated a 24, 25-year-old kid, me,

with the same respect that he treated a Dr. Hurt and a Bill Nitschman. Same respect. In this particular interaction with Zanice, I saw how connected it was, but I saw a man who did not allow his success and power and influence to cloud or alter his kindness and how he treated others. I saw a guy who tried to negotiate a deal in fair terms.

Not take advantage of somebody, but negotiate it in fair terms. I saw a guy that utilized food to build human connection, just like Mel Walker did with Mel's Cafe. Food was utilized to build connection with others. I saw a guy who was generous with his time, generous with his spirits, proverbially and figuratively. And I saw a guy that was willing to give someone he saw potential and promise in a leg up by striking a seller finance deal where a lot of others would not. And today, we've lost Zenise at Jack and Jill's on High Street. He's in heaven. We've lost Mel Walker of Mel's Cafe.

He's in heaven. We've lost two community stewards. Stewards that have impacted very different portions of Charlottesville, but at the same time, very similar portions of Charlottesville. Power players ate at Mel's. Power players ate at Jack and Jill's. The average Joe and the average Sally ate at Mel's. And the average Joe and average Sally ate at Jack and Jill's. When communities like ours lose brands and businesses like Mel's, Lumpkins, I don't know what's going to happen with Jack and Jill's. I hope his daughter continues it. It's to the loss of community charm and community history. And the fear I see is the community becoming Main Street USA everywhere and anywhere,

as opposed to Main Street, Charlottesville, Virginia. And that's why we live here. It's the charm. It's the quaintness. It's the ability to go into Jack and Jill's and have a footlong hot dog with chili and onions and mustard, a Dr. Pepper with crushed ice, and some French fries in front of you, and you shoot the proverbial you-know-what with somebody

where you structured a deal on a napkin while drinking ouzo out of Dixie cups while sitting across from Dr. Charles Hurt with his tie hanging at half mask, a mustard stain on it. Zenise, rest in power, my friend. Let's weave Judah Wickauer in on a two- shot. As we go to the first lower third, has too much housing been built in Crozet, Virginia. I'm in the swimming pool yesterday. A mother of two stops me and says, Jerry, the housing in Crozet has got to stop. The schools are at capacity. It takes us 35 to 45 minutes now to get anywhere around Crozet when before it would take us 5 to 10 minutes.

And she said, if there's any kind of accident on the bypass or on 64, 3x that time, triple that time. When is enough enough? And she says, you've got this show and this platform and the folks that listen to it and the influence you have. Why don't you start talking about the fact that Riverbend Development continues to build housing in this community? And I said, you know what? I'm going to have this conversation. And when you start saying things like, maybe we should slow housing down

and consider the infrastructure prior to the housing, like roads and schools and transportation and traffic congestion. People quickly label you, and they say you're nothing but a NIMBY, nothing but a knot in my backyard. And, Jerry, you have the house with the picket fence and the kids and the playground. Why don't you let others have it, too? And I'll take the heat for that. I'm not opposed to housing, but I'm opposed to strategic and intelligent housing built in communities that can accommodate the density and what comes with it. So I'm going to ask the community and say, it's about time we start pushing back on the density that's coming to Crozet. Old Trail is beyond

capacity. The schools are beyond capacity. We have learning trailers or these educational huts. Call them whatever the hell you want. Educational hunts, learning villages, learning kiosks, whatever you want to call it. They are trailers. Our children are learning in trailers. They are trailers, people. Call them what you want. And for those that live in Ivy, we're moving to Ivy. For those that live in Lewis Mountain, for those that work at the data science school,

for those that work at Salvage Brewery, for those that work in UVA on that western part of town, for those that like going to the tennis shop or the Papa John's or the old Tokyo Rose that's now a Hispanic grocery and restaurant, this applies to you too. Because anyone who's ever been on Ivy Road and beyond coming into town, you're sitting in the traffic for half an hour to 45 minutes because the congestion is so bad.

So before I get off this topic, pass you an opportunity to talk about anything you want. The housing on the west side of town, and I know it's a designated growth area, we've hit that capacity point and it's time for all of us to push back and say, guess what? Our kids learning in trailers?

Not anymore. And sitting in traffic for 50 minutes to go across from Western Elmira County into town, not anymore. I think the traffic is particularly egregious. I mean, I just see very little in the way of planning anywhere around this city. It seems like there's a lot of just reacting to things. Something needs to change.

You make the change. I don't know that I've ever seen a whole lot of vision for how to make this place work better. I mean, we should be constantly wanting to better our city and our surrounding area. But I just see, you know, a lot of reaction and very little in the way of, you know, obviously planning for the type of population boom

that you've got in Crozet and not having enough in the way of roads to get out of there. And yeah, of course, we do need more housing, but that should come as a result of planning and not as a reaction to, well, we've got to expand because there's not enough housing. We had a meeting this morning, a board of directors meeting about a building that I'm one of the owners in. And we have a property management company that manages it. And we are looking for a service that is less reactionary and more preventative. Perhaps that same mindset, preventative, not reactionary,

should be applied to density. All four housing and people getting a taste of the American dream. But if that taste of the American dream comes at the short-sighted expense of our children and where they go to school and how they learn, then that's doing a disservice to the next generation of learners, the same people that are going to call Charlottesville, Albemarle, and Central Virginia their homes as they grow up. Our kids shouldn't learn in trailers. And it shouldn't take us 50 minutes to go from

Crozet to the city line. Let's get some comments on screen. This is from Deep Throat, number one in the family. His photo on screen. With the Crozet thing, he says, don't worry, we will deal with the infrastructure when we need it.

Now we see how dumb that is. That's a catchphrase promoted by a lot of people in this community. Don't worry, we will deal with the infrastructure when we need it. Now we see how dumb that is. That's a catchphrase promoted by a lot of people in this community. Don't worry, we will deal with the infrastructure when we need it. He said he lived in Irvin. Irvin is dense, but Irvin worked. Why? Because they had a 50-year master plan. Crozet could have been dense, even denser than today, if there had been a master plan.

But we have a bumpkin second-rate developers. There ain't no Donald Bren of Irvin Ranch Company, a master plan, but we have a bumpkin second-rate developers. There ain't no Donald Bren of Urban Ranch Company, a true visionary, and bumpkin third-rate planners out there. He says, so much harder and more expensive to backfit infrastructure to willy-nilly development than to at least have a plan for it first, even if you don't build it first.

Deep throat, good comment right there. Stephanie Wells Rhodes' photo on screen, please. She's of the Interstate Service Company family. She's a fantastic human being. Her family, multi-generations in this community. Her grandfather, Granddaddy Wells, better known as Bob Wells, every time he went into Jack and Jill's in an interstate uniform, they called him Bob. They knew his name. Now her dad, brother, and any of the technicians, when they go into Jack and Jill's, they do the same. That's the charm you get with a locally owned business. When people would call Mel for an order, he recognized their voice and said,

I know what you want. When you'd go into Jack and Jill's, the food would be on the table before you can open your mouth because he saw you park your car and as you were walking into the restaurant he had it ready to go. You don't get that kind of service with businesses not local to the community. Philip Dow, King of

Scottsville, watching the program. He says guys, the Lumpkins building is now for sale. $795,000. That's a little bit of breaking news. I did not know that. Mark that for tomorrow's program. It'll be the lead of the show. $795,000 asking price. Philip Dow says he lives in Scottsville for the Lumpkins building, the restaurant and motel. You're seeing the eradication and the evaporation of history before our eyes with an $800,000 transaction. And where the hell is Rodney the rooster? Does anybody know where Rodney the rooster is?

How the hell do you steal a seven-foot rooster? Randy O'Neill watching the program. He says Bart Fry is the man man and he thinks he passed away recently he was the developer of the Bill's Southern Ridge apartments to condos complex Mr. Fry a visionary in some expense some terms

oh man life is short and Dave Matthews said this. Life is short, but sweet for certain. I want to highlight a couple items out of the notebook. We have a shorter show today. Sean Tubbs put the next headline on screen. I found this. What's the word I'm looking for? $275,000 for the Tonsler League. Sean Tubbs says, there's a second reading for the city council meeting tonight of a $10,000 payment to the Tonsler League from the city's Vibrate Community Fund. This is in addition to the $15,000 the city's Parks and Recreation Department

pays to the entity. The staff report also does not mention that the recently approved state budget allocates $250,000 to the city of Charlottesville specifically for the purpose of running the Tonsler League. $275,000 for the Tonsler League. I'm going to leave it at that and allow you, the viewer and listener,

to make your own conclusion. $10,000, a second payment coming from the city, potentially today at a city council meeting. Already $15,000 from the city's Parks and Recreation Department. $250,000 approved from the state budget. A total potentially of $275,000 approved from the state budget. A total potentially of $275,000 for a basketball league that operates out of a park. Where is the $275,000 going, ladies and gentlemen?

We have a right to ask questions like this. Where is $275,000 going? This is in Sean Tubbs' community substack, the Charlottesville substack. Next headline is a Judah Wickauer headline. 30 to 45 seconds. Show is yours, Judah Wickauer. Put the lower third on screen, please. uh the whole the this whole issue of having the same lawyer for the uh the pcob and the city is just crazy and some of the uh some of the information on this is even crazier uh the board reached out to the company that the attorney comes from, the lawyer comes from,

is named Sands Anderson. They're a company out of Richmond. And when they reached out to this company asking them to reconsider if it needed to give them a different attorney. The firm's ethics officer told them that they should consider hiring a new firm instead, which seems insane when I believe the firm and attorney were hired by the PCOB first. It's just nuts. And so in what may end up being a lengthy process, the PCOB is now looking for new counsel. Ladies and gentlemen, that kind of

story right there should concern all of us. Yeah. It's the type of small town, backroom wheeling and dealing. Nepotism. Cronyism. Sketchiness. That should concern all of us. When they reached out to ask about the conflict of interest, apparently the responses from the from the firm were

dismissive I mean I think that would be the first red one of the first red flags for me if a firm was dismissive of that type of question I would immediately start thinking maybe it's time for a new firm. As Deep Throat highlights, law firms immediately should run conflict of interest backgrounds, background checks. I reached out to an extremely prominent attorney that helps get zoning and projects greenlit. I reached out to her via email. The first thing she said to me, this is perhaps the most prominent one,

the first thing she said to me is said, Jerry, who's your client in this project? I need to run a conflicts background check. First thing she said to me. Yeah. Why is a similar check not happening with the city of Charlottesville? And I mean, you would think that you would think that a check would almost be a, uh, a secondary. This is the type of, how do you not know that there's a con?

This is not like two different lawyers in two different parts of the same, this is the same lawyer. Ask the right questions, ladies and gentlemen. Ginny Hu's photo on screen, she said you all should run one of those running clocks on the bottom of the screen to keep track of how long Rodney the rooster has been missing. And she agrees they need to slow down housing in Crozet

and work on infrastructure. You're at the point of Crozet, a community that I find absolutely fantastic. I've been here 24 years in August. Was it Uncle Charlie's, the bar that used to be in Crozet, that we all used to patronize? You're at the point where Crozet is so dense with housing, people, and traffic that it's getting beyond unsustainable. It's becoming close to unlivable.

And I'm not trying to hyperbolize, but we're almost getting to that point. And folks that live in Crozet can understand what I'm saying. We need to save a couple of topics for tomorrow's show, including another restaurant for sale on the UVA corner. I do not have this listing. I'm a business broker. I sell a lot of businesses in this community. This particular business is represented by one of the out-of-market brokers.

And it's a UVA corner restaurant with an asking price of $149,000. A Mediterranean restaurant. We'll talk about the Mediterranean restaurant on the UVA corner that has an asking price of $149,000. There are more restaurants on the brink of coming to the market. Restaurants that you know.

This topic on tomorrow's show. Save that on the headlines for tomorrow along with the Lumpkins asking price. We'll also talk Virginia baseball and the Jerry and Jerry show tomorrow with Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe and a Virginia swimmer who has now qualified for the 2024 Olympics.

That's the I Love Seville show on a Monday afternoon, about 50 minutes today, because I have a meeting that I just cannot miss. For Judah Wickauer and yours truly, Jerry Miller, thank you kindly for joining us. So long, everybody. Thank you.