The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Jerry Miller Was Live On "The I Love CVille Show!"

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Jerry Miller was live on The I Love CVille Show! 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 Friday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seaville Show, the Friday edition of the I Love Seaville Show. It's been a good week of content for the network. We just had a fantastic show this morning. Emily Kilroy, director of development for Alamaro County, joined us. J-dubs, make sure you get this panel up. It's still not on. And she was absolutely, I thought, fantastic. A lot, Almaro County, I wanted to cover. We weren't able to get to everything. But you think of some of the storylines in Almaro County of late that have either driven economic development

or have been something we're wondering from an economic development standpoint, I'll rattle that list off for you. Data centers. I learned on real talk this morning that Amazon, which is investing $11 billion, would it be, $11 billion into Louisa County for two data centers, has now reached out to Louisa County for a potential third data center. That would up the interest into Louisa County, the investment into Louisa County even higher than $11 billion. So Louisa County, the investment into Louisa County, even higher than $11 billion. So Louisa is really kind of planting its flag and saying, look, we want to be a data center, epicenter here in central Virginia and we want the tax revenue that comes with it. As many of you know, the Commonwealth of Virginia is the data center capital of the entire world.

If the Commonwealth of Virginia was a country, Virginia would be the most robust home to data centers of anywhere in the entire world. Now, there are some cons that come with data centers of anywhere in the entire world. Now there are some cons that come with data centers. Obviously water and the usage of the public utility water is something that jurisdictions need to follow closely because data centers use a boat load of water. I think the Jack Jewett candidate Dave Shreve said a data center basically has like a big straw in the ground and they suck up as much water as possible.

But that's a piece of news that I found fascinating from the show that Amazon, which already is committed to $11 billion with data centers, is now looking to do a third data center and increase its investment into Louisa County even more. I want to play a sizzle reel from this morning show on Emily Kilroy's take of data centers and their value, which I think is important for taxpayers in the county of Valmoro to hear and to understand. We also learned on real talk this morning that really there hasn't been much progress with development with Ravana Station or Ravana Futures.

That's the nearly 500 acres that Alamara County purchased from Wendell Wood north of town. Not much dirt has been moved, if any. There is a sign up, but development is at a standstill as Alamara County makes its commitment to the defense sector and say, hey, here's nearly 500 acres for you to call home. That's a topic that you should follow. But you think about some of the topics, economic development standpoint, data centers, RIVANA station, biotech and data science, the erosion of middle class and working class jobs in Alamaro. The sales tax collection quarter over quarter, year over year that is flat or down for most of the jurisdictions. I've tried to highlight the impact of sports

and the struggles of marquee sports at the University of Virginia. Guys, it's no secret Scott Stadium is empty for six or seven home football games every year. In fact, UVA, Tony Elliott, Carla Williams and the Virginia athletic department are at the bottom of the Atlantic Coast conference. 13th in the ACC from an attendance standpoint. Very few teams, guys, get more, get less attendance than the University of Virginia. And that's something to follow. If Virginia football comes out of the gates and struggles yet again, what's that do from an economic development standpoint?

How about the cuts that UVA is facing from a federal funding standpoint? How about the fact that UVA is not offering the 3% raises for its staff right now? No performance-based bonuses, no discretionary funding tied to research or expanding lab teams and departments. On ICE at UVA, other headwinds for the region from an economic development standpoint. And of course as UVA expands and continues to purchase property and taking it off to tax rolls, that's another

economic development headwind. A lot I want to cover on the program. I encourage you, the viewer and listener, to offer some perspective. Put it in the feed and I will relay it live on air. I have some programming notes for you. On Thursday, Jerry Cox will join us. He's the Thursday, Jerry Cox will join us. He's the head of the Lewis Mountain Neighborhood Association. And he's going to put into perspective what's happened with Evergreen Builders, Evergreen, the development company that purchased that ranch style home in the Lewis Mountain Neighborhood for $800 and some thousand

dollars. Nothing really has happened development wise as they try to pursue six brownstones, luxury brownstones, each selling for more than a million dollars, each with an asking price of over a million dollars. Nothing has happened with that project. Jerry Cox of the Lewis Mountain Neighborhood Association will join us in studio on the 12th of June. And guys, the ownership team behind Seville Smash, the new indoor pickle ball facility that's opening in the old Marshall's location, friends of the program, they will join us on June 19th on the I Love Seville show. I got a phone conversation from Dino Haksha of Dino's Pizza yesterday and he's highlighted a partnership with the Cumbre guys, Cumbre the

coffee shop and is it Argentinian? The Argentinian bakery over here in downtown at the old Seville barbershop location. Cumbre is opening Monday, June 9th and Dairy Market. Dino's got some ties to Cumbre opening Monday, June 9th and Dairy Market as Cumbre is pursuing its second location in Dairy Market. You know, the eye test would suggest that Dairy Market right now is facing some challenges and some headwinds. And I think that's safe to say. I think Dino would say that as well.

So you have a new brand, a new business opening in the former citizen burger bar stall at Dairy Market. Coomberay opening on Monday, ladies and gentlemen. Two shot, Judah Wickauer. You wanted to talk on the show, Crozet and transportation. Set the table briefly for that. We'll highlight Charlottesville sanitary supply and then we'll get to the data set or commentary from the director of development in Almar County, Emily Kilroy from this morning. Transportation Crozet, Judah Wickhour. Well as many of us know, the area of Crozet has had a lot of problems with traffic. They don't have a lot of, how do I put it, roads to avoid.

There's two entry points into Crozet, 64 and the bypass. And so they are asking for bids. They are working on a Crozet master plan that includes a roadway called Eastern Avenue. This would serve as another way for people to travel north and south. A connector? Yeah. That topic is something to follow closely. As Crozet, at least from my standpoint, is beyond density and capacity.

I understand Crozet is a designated growth area. I understand this is where the comprehensive plan suggests development and density and rooftops should materialize and manifest. But goodness gracious, try driving around Crozet when Western Alamore High School and Henley Middle School get let out from school or when students are arriving to school in the morning. And it is an absolute nightmare. And try getting into Crozet when there's an accident on Interstate 64 or the bypass. Ladies and gentlemen, you're at absolute standstill.

Eventually, that concern is going to be more prolific as Grey Star builds what is a tiny town, ladies and gentlemen, on Old Ivy Road. And Grey Star again in the news, Bill McChesney sent us this topic. We talked about this, ladies and gentlemen, months ago. Grey Star facing a class action lawsuit for illegal junk fees. And this is the developer behind the Old IV residences guys on the bypass. Junk fees are basically like hidden fees that they're trying to pass along to tenants, separate

fees as additional profit centers. Some of these junk fees are pest control, trash services that were not revealed to tenants at lease signing. Yeah. And this is this lawsuit is taking place in California where I believe there's a law against having hidden fees like that. And Greystar being one of the largest. I mean, we're talking an international developer here. Yeah. They are one of the largest residential landlords in the United States and this lawsuit claims that they're basically making it almost impossible for people to actually get into one of their apartments at the cost that they advertise. imagine thinking you're getting into a place

for, you know, what, $2,000, $2,500, and then you find out that you're gonna have to pay an extra, you know, $150, $200 a month on top of that after you've signed a lease. And this is the company that's doing the 525 units next to St. Anne's-Belfield Academy on the bypass. So it's kind of a, we use the word connector with what Crozet is pursuing right now or the

consideration. Is it the Eastern Avenue connector? Yeah, Eastern Avenue and it's the problem is that the problem for Crozet or for Albemarle County was that in their plans the estimates increased sharply in a couple summers ago. And so the reason they're asking for bids is they want to, they want a public-private partnership that'll help bring the cost down. Same thing that's happening with the jail renovation. The jail renovation, all the bids from contractors came

in way over expectation, way over estimate. It's happening everywhere. It's happening with clients of ours. It's happening with real estate deals that we're putting together. It's happening with the own real estate that we manage and are now acquiring additional real estate. We got contractors coming in to remodel the work,

get it up to speed for us to lease and get it to occupancy. The bids are all coming in overestimate. And we talk Eastern Avenue Connector and Crozet and geez Louise, if you live in Crozet, eventually you have to tell your supervisors, enough is enough, pump the brakes on development, especially with Grey Star's got 525 units next to St. Anne's Battlefield Academy

on the bypass, where the folks are going to be driving up and down 250 and further congesting Crozet traffic into the epicenter of employment, Charlottesville. And this is the same GreyStar. You're letting the fox in to the hen house, the same GreyStar who's got a class action lawsuit against the company, an international real estate developer, for a legal junk, for hidden junk fees. I mean it's the fox in the hen house here, ladies and gentlemen. A lot we're going to cover on the program today, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, 61

consecutive years in business. Heard from John Vermillion the other day that viewers and listeners watching the program are coming into Charlottesville Sanitary Supply and shopping at a locally owned and operated business and doing it with a smile. They're located on High Street. The Vermilion's at least four generations, maybe five generations here in Amarillo County, online at CharlottesvilleSanitarySupply.com.

And frankly speaking, anything pool, swimming pool related, anything sanitary related, anything landlord sanitary related, personal house related. Vacuums. Vacuums. Whether you're buying them or whether you want your vacuum fixed. Charlestown Sanitary Supply, they have a mechanic on site to fix the appliances tied to your

homes guys, vacuums in particular, pool equipment in particular, millions of good people right there. How about Emily Kilroy this morning on Real Talk at 1015 AM? guys, vacuums in particular, pool equipment in particular, millions of good people right there. How about Emily Kilroy this morning on Real Talk at 1015 AEM? She was great. I mean, if you were, for anybody listening, I'm sure you were wrapped because she is on top of it. She knows she is a very smart lady and listening to her talk, I'm just glad that we have people like

that working to keep our cities and counties running. Director of Development for Alamora County, I'm going to play a clip here in about two minutes of her talking about data centers. And during the show this morning, Neil highlighted that he was just notified that Amazon is looking to expand its investment into Louisa. It's already committed 11 billion with a B, $11 billion to Louisa. Now it's looking to commit even more money to Louisa County with a third data center. I don't know where you stand, viewers and listeners, on data centers, but there's pros and cons on either side

Do you have the cons you can rattle off? I? Mean cons are water strain. Yeah incredible use of water incredible use of electricity Requirements you also have potentially you know like like they mentioned on the show earlier, on the Real Talk show, that sometimes you end up with these places backing onto- To neighborhoods.

There's a famous photo of a cul-de-sac, and behind it is this massive structure. Who would want to be staring at that out their back window? Yeah, data centers do not create a lot of jobs. No. Either ladies and gentlemen. But what they do is they generate a boatload

of incremental tax revenue without a ton of infrastructure strain. Not a lot of children going to schools associated with data centers. The top strain on any jurisdiction is public schools. 60% of Alamaro County's budget roughly is tied to public schools, ladies and gentlemen. And we highlighted in real talk with Keith Smith earlier this morning that for every additional rooftop that's created in Alamaro County or any jurisdiction, ladies

and gentlemen, it creates a dollar of incremental tax revenue, but a dollar and 30 cents in budgetary overhead, jurisdictional overhead. So it's not a net positive incremental rooftops for a jurisdiction. I wanted to talk data centers with Emily Kilroy and get her stance as the head of director of economic development for Alamore County. Do you have that sound ready to go? Emily Kilroy on data centers in Alamore County and where the county stands on this potential tax source.

Three, two, one. Children. Yep, that's right, that's right. Emily, what do we think about data centers? Great segue, gosh, Neil, it's like you've done this before. Listen, so I think there's an important context setting for data centers, especially given that we're in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Some folks are not aware why there are so many data centers in Virginia.

There's a couple... It's the epicenter of data centers for maybe the world? The world. If Virginia was a nation, we would epicenter of data centers for maybe the world? The world. If Virginia was a nation, we would have the most data centers in the world. There's a big undersea cable that goes connecting Europe to the United States, North America, that has its landing point at Virginia Beach. And so proximity to that transatlantic landing point is a huge benefit for these types of

facilities. And that has been in place for quite some time. And that's why that's one of the reasons why AOL was located in northern Virginia when they first started. And you've seen a lot of buildup in that industry, IT communications for that reason. So there's been a lot of development of data centers in Northern Virginia and after several decades of that, they're beginning to kind of run out of space.

Loudon is probably the one that folks are most familiar with. They're running out of space. And they're running out of good compatible space. So I think everyone's probably seen that picture. It's been in the Washington Post. It's circulated on the Internet. It's a meme now. Where you have a cul de sac that has very large houses directly backed onto a data center and a very large building. Which, you know, you see that and you say, oh, my gosh, if that was my property, I would have a lot of feelings about that. They didn't have any restrictions on data centers in Loudoun County for a really long time.

So that's how that happened. They were a by right use in industrial zoning. They didn't have any special set back, buffering, landscaping, all the things that Neil Williamson loves. To help sort of mitigate those neighbor conflicts that can arise. And so they're going back and doing a lot of policy work right now to be able to address that. But the need for data centers at the same time continues to grow because of the nature of the world. We are streaming right now. Most people take advantage of cloud storage and cloud services.

And so the need for data centers is as strong as ever. AI has a huge data need associated with it. And so it continues to grow. And Virginia has proximity because of that cable and also at the state level some pretty big incentives around locating data centers here. So that's sort of Virginia. Now that northern Virginia has many fewer large properties left to do these, data center developers are looking elsewhere in the commonwealth. And so we're seeing a shift now sort of down from Northern Virginia, down from Fredericksburg and out west for folks looking for localities that are interested in having data centers in their community.

Economic developers, you said economic developers don't ‑‑ I forget what you said. You said something about economic developers and data centers. But they talk about them a lot. When you think about more rural counties, it can be seen as a way to increase revenue coming into the locality to pay for services without adding population pressure. Does Almore County roll out the red carpet for data centers? Not today, no.

Okay. So the board has ‑‑ there was ‑‑ there was no specific language about data centers in the county zoning ordinance up until early this calendar year. The board of supervisors then asked staff to put together an ordinance for their consideration that would restrict data centers in the industrial zoning classes. And that was sort of a phase one. Phase two actually is kicking off this month. So there's if you go to engage.albumroll.org there's a web page that has some background

information on data centers. There's also another virtual lunch and learn which Neil Williamson loves. Enjoy that virtual hot dog. On June 16 there's an information session in person on June 30 to talk more about what would it look like if there was an ordinance that allowed some data centers with restrictions in certain areas. So if a data center came in and we had whatever bushes that you need for the setbacks, et cetera, would that be a positive or negative impact on Jerry's tax costs?

Well, so data centers generate a substantial amount of revenue. If you look at sort of a per square foot basis, a data center versus any other cat land use. And really what that is is the buildings are not anything all that exciting. They're tilt up concrete buildings. So they look much like Costco. They're similar size to Costco. But inside, instead of mangoes and sheets, there are just racks filled with servers. And it's not the real estate tax revenues, it's actually the business personal property tax revenues that are generated by just a very high density of high value equipment that is really part and parcel to a data center.

So that's Emily Kilroy, guys, Almarra County Economic Development Director on data centers from Realtalk this morning. If you're following Almarra County closely, which we all do, it's the sixth largest county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I encourage you to watch that interview. It's an hour interview from start to finish. Compelling, compelling commentary. I learned quite a bit from there. And as Janice Boyce Trevillion has said, Louisiana County residents are fighting this The AS Voice Travillion has said, Louisa County residents are fighting this third data center that Amazon's going for

in Louisa County. This is, listen to this information here. Amazon Web Services, AWS, is requesting permission and has applied to build a third data center campus in Louisa. They want to construct 7,200,000 square feet of data science center buildings. 7,200,000 square feet of buildings on 1,370 acres just north of the northeast creek reservoir in central Louisa. Okay? I'm

learning about this from Tammy Purcell's substack. Listen to this. The sprawling agriculturally zoned tract, which is zone A2, is currently used for timber production and stretches from just south of Davis Highway route 22 to just north of the Jefferson Highway route 33. The property is owned by a former Louisa County supervisor, Eric Purcell, his sister Virginia Purcell and their father, Charles Purcell, his sister Virginia Purcell, and their father Charles Purcell. 7,200,000 square feet of data centers in Louisa. Upping their investment into Louisa County even more potentially than the $11 billion they're committed to right now.

However, Louisa County residents are now fighting back on this one. JBT, you're 100% correct on that. Conan Owen, do you want to highlight something on this? No, go ahead. The data center concern you have here is what's happened to Northern Virginia where data centers have become so dominant and prolific in northern Virginia that it's impacted water infrastructure considerably and some would say quality of life. Electricity as well and yeah, they're eye source. I mean, can you ‑‑ 7 million plus square feet of building. Can you imagine getting rid of all that timber for what? Just a sprawling mega structure filled with stack upon stack upon stack of servers? I mean,

imagine if you could just build them underground and then put giant playgrounds on top of them or something. Something. But instead you just get this, you know, like Emily mentioned, they are essentially like giant Costco's. Just, you know, square box buildings. Yeah. Follow it. Follow that one really closely. We, let's go to comments. Conan Owen watching the program, the owner of the local Sir Speedy franchise. He highlights that Cumbre is also opening a cafe and gallery in the

glass building and an Argentine steakhouse is going in as well. So the Cumbre guys are very much expanding along with what they're doing bakery-wise in the dairy market with front of the program Dino who is nudging me via text message to get the Cumbre guys on the I Love Seaville show. I love me a good empanada. Empanada's good. Where do you find a good empanada now? Kubre. Anywhere else are you getting your empanadas?

Man, it's been a while since I had one. I know, who was it? I think Guajeros has empanadas. But it's been a minute since I've popped over there. Best empanadas. That would be a good I Love Seaville segment due to Wichower. If there's enough places. Janice Boyce-Shervillion and then don't forget the light pollution alone. The light pollution for these data centers is absolutely prolific and concerning. That seems odd to me. Why would, why would you need lights on the exterior of one of these megastructures? Seven million, seven million plus square feet of building space, you need lights around the 7 million square

feet at night for building security. Lights keep buildings safe just from shining a spotlight around entry points and the perimeter of a building just like we do at houses, at our homes at night. If you had that much building space, 7 million square feet, that would be light that you could see from significantly afar. It still seems odd that you would need that much light. JVT, offer more perspective on that in the comment section on the lights for Judah Wichower. I thought I did a pretty good job of that here, but maybe she'll offer some more perspective into this.

I mean, I get it, but you don't need, you know, you don't need. Yeah, she says, Judith, security. Seven million square feet. You know, seven million square feet. I mean, you can't even fathom how big that building is. No, I get it. But does the entire thing need to be lit up? How many square feet is a typical Costco? A typical Costco warehouse in the United States is around

146,000 square feet. So we're talking like, I have to do some quick math here, like 600 Costco's here. 650 Costco's. Some back of the napkin math right there. And you need to like the perimeter. And she also says there's reports that say water pressures decrease as well. That we know of. I mean, Dave Shreve straight up highlighted that in the interview we did, the Jack Jewett district supervisor candidate.

I've seen video of people who were just getting a trickle out of their faucets and the water was coming out. Snail's pace. Well, worse than that, it was coming out a lovely tan color. Yeah, discolored. It's gross. Be careful what you ask what you wish for here. Vanessa Parkhill says, Earliesville, her photo on screen, are environmental groups opposing these data centers? How does a data center impact on environment compared to the pipeline impact that was so strongly opposed in our area? Great questions from Vanessa Parkhill.

It seems right now, Albemarle County is not aggressively, is lukewarm, cold temperature, not pursuing data centers in any capacity, but Louisa County certainly is. And I keep mentioning Shreve, the Jack Jewett candidate for Almore County Board of Supervisors. He's being stigmatized and scarlet lettered by indivisible Charlottesville, by livable Charlottesville, and livable Charlottesville, and by activists in the city. And they're stigmatizing him based

on a population control list. How are they alleging that? I mean, he's done some white papers, white papers linked to his byline and commentary and analysis that he's published published where you could potentially interpret subtleties, if you may, of population control. And they're using that as venom against Dave Shreve, much like the same group of people used the same playbook

and strategy in venom to go after Meg Bryce in the at-large school board race in Almaro County last year. They do tend to have an MO. The venom that's happening for Almaro County candidates is not venom from snakes in Almaro County, it's venom from snakes in the city of Charlottesville. It's very intriguing. And I'm very curious to see how the same population of people respond to Tesla and Elon Musk

now that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are in a very visible brouhaha. Yesterday, if you didn't see, and I'm sure you have, Epstein was utilized by Musk, and Musk docks Trump, and now he was rumored ties to Epstein and the Epstein files for some time. But Musk utilizes Twitter saying that the reason the Epstein files are not out is because Trump is in the Epstein files, the president. And then Donald Trump threatens to cut federal contracts with Elon Musk and his various companies.

It's getting gross out there. I'm curious to see how Indivisible Charlottesville and the protesters outside Stonefield and the Tesla gallery, do they now change their tune that Musk is going after Trump and that Musk is no longer a part of Doge? Are they now going to change their tune and go back to championing and evangelizing Elon Musk like they did before the election? I would have to give them, I'd probably give them a few months before they... Are you following what's happening? Yeah, yeah. It's getting catty at best. Like, vicious at worst.

Enormous egos and childish impulses. The richest man in the world and the most powerful man in the world are fighting. Think about that folks. The richest man in the world and the most powerful man in the world are going toe-to-toe in a visual brouhaha of worldly proportions. How does that impact this Tesla Stonefield protest that seems to be happening every other weekend? We'll go to LinkedIn here. Comments are coming in pretty quickly here. John Blair, environmental groups do oppose data centers.

The Piedmont Environmental Council is the chief Virginia opponent. Peter Krebs of the Piedmont Environmental Council has tried to come on the ILOBS evil show a few times. We should probably try to secure an interview with Peter Krebs. Curious to see what Peter Krebs thinks of what's happening with the new zoning ordinance and speaking at the new zoning ordinance on the 12th of February, excuse me, the 12th of June, it will be the one-year anniversary of Evergreen buying the rancher in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood. That will be the one year anniversary.

And Jerry Cox, who's the head of the Lewis Mountain Neighborhood Association now, he's an attorney, is going to join us on the one year anniversary of Evergreen acquiring a rancher in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood to talk about what has happened, what has not happened, and the future of six luxury brownstones on the site of an old brick rancher in a Tony and prestigious Lewis Mountain neighborhood. Bill McChesney says Elon Musk cut SpaceX support for the International Space Station. Bill, we always appreciate him watching the program on McIntyre Road. I did ask Emily Kilroy the impact of struggles or sub performance for football and lately basketball for Alamo County's economic development. She didn't directly answer that question

nor did she want to handle that question. I looked into average attendance for, and you can find this too, guys, average attendance for Scott Stadium in 2024. It is not good. 13th of 17 teams, Scott Stadium and the ACC from an attendance standpoint. That means only four worse than Scott Stadium from an average attendance standpoint. The listed average attendance for Scott Stadium in 2024 was 38,284 people. 38,284. And remember, the listed attendance is always higher than the actual attendance. Scott Stadium seats north of 61,000 people. I'm being told by people in the know that average attendance for Scott Stadium last year was below half, less than half in attendance for home football games.

Meaning basically 30,000 seats were empty at Scott Stadium. Six or seven home football games, 30,000 empty seats, and the folks that sit in those seats commit to two night stays in hotels for six or seven days a year. That's a significant impact for economic development in Amarillo County. That's something that is not being highlighted. It's not just about wins and losses. And I've been holding Carla Williams, the athletic director of the University of Virginia accountable for some

of the struggles over the last 12 months for the University of Virginia and commentary that has gone as viral as any commentary that I've ever done. But it's not just about trophies and wins and losses and bowl invitations. This is about small businesses staying alive and staying open, folks. When you have seven weekends a year, there's 52 weekends in a year, the seven tied to the University of Virginia's home football schedule, as important as any,

save maybe graduation weekend and move in weekend for UVA students. Graduation weekend number one, move-in weekend number two. After that it's the home football games where hotels require you to commit to two-night stays, okay? And that means people going out to dinner as well. 100%. And lunch and... Dinner, bars, shopping, and they're doing that when they're visiting local at brick-and-mortar Mom and Pops. It, shopping and they're doing that when they're visiting local at

brick and mortar mom and pops. It's not like they're ordering on Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, third party delivery for their food. They're patronizing businesses. To have half the stadium empty for home football games is damning. It's absolutely damning. And we all would want the community, especially the locally owned businesses to do well as well as possible. I mean, that's one of the reasons with city council and city hall. What is the ‑‑ is it the bicentennial that's coming up for the downtown mall? Is that what it is? Did I read that correctly? Did you read that? I did not see anything about that. The downtown mall is celebrating a major milestone. The 50th anniversary of the downtown mall,

ladies and gentlemen. And so the 50th anniversary of the downtown mall, city of Charlottesville and its capital improvement program contingency fund are thinking about allocating a million dollars to the mall one million dollars and Council and Sam Sanders and City Hall with that million dollars are Think about listen to these costs new bathrooms a new bathroom project would carry a price tag of $280,000. The cost to repair the bricks on the downtown mall, many of the damaged bricks are on the cross sections where the cars are crossing and rolling over bricks and cracking them. There's other parts of the mall where the bricks are

damaged as well. The cost to repair the bricks is $350,000. So just the new bathrooms and the $250,000. So just the new bathrooms and the repair of bricks, those projects alone are $630,000 of the $1 million that local government wants to allocate to downtown Charlottesville. What would you do with the remaining $370,000? I've said the number one priority before you add bathrooms to the downtown mall or repair the bricks is clean up the houseless on the mall. Number one priority. But how do you throw money at that? How does Seaville throw money at that? I mean the way you fix that is the joint venture with Almaro County with a campus elsewhere. Or the way you fix

that is the is the is army thing. What the hell has happened to that? Nothing has happened with that. You had Van Meter who said we can do it here and then he realized you can't do it here. Now they're trying to figure out how to do it here. They would need somebody else to administrate it. To operate it. Five fills neighborhood association as opposed to it. Everybody says they want to epicenter for the houseless, but not next to them. You're seeing that with the Fifeville neighborhood association.

I don't have an answer to that, but your first path to driving engagement to the mall is that. Your second path to driving engagement to the mall is a marketing campaign that drives families to the mall. And part of that has to do with freeing up the parking. We talked on yesterday's show, one of the biggest crippling factors of downtown Charlottesville right now is these small parking lot owners, not the Water Street or Market Street parking lots, but the other very important lots that are better positioned for downtown accessibility, the ones on market street and water street, are now they're locally owned

but they're being managed by essentially parking Nazis. And these parking gatekeepers are charging exorbitant fees to park in these lots that are very well positioned downtown. These fees are ‑‑ Not to mention the open water street parking lot has had a lot of complaints with unnecessary charges. People getting charged insane amounts by accident supposedly and having to spend a lot of time on the phone trying to get those charges reversed. Conan Owen, this is a tug-and-cheek comment from the Sir Speedy owner. Give the $375,000 to Downtown Mall businesses for moving expenses to move to vacant spots on 29 North.

Obviously, he's being facetious and tug-and-cheek because down 29 North is Almaro County and not the city of Charlottesville. If you want Juan Sarmo, welcome to the broadcast. Sandra McDowell, welcome to the broadcast. TV radio, Pritt, welcome to the broadcast. Spencer Pusher, that's a ton of money for something that isn't used. The one million won't bring more people to the mall. That's what I say, Spencer. The $1 million, which is not that much money in 2025 terms. A million dollars is peanuts if you wanna do something. That, those peanuts should not be allocated, ladies and gentlemen, to bathrooms and brick repair.

Bathrooms and brick repair are not gonna drive family engagement. They're great once we have that engagement, but until we get it it's a band aid on a sinking ship. A 50th year celebration. You want the mall to shine on the, the, it's best version possible. And it's best version possible aren't people sleeping in the vestibules in store fronts of the mall. That's your first step. Your second step is a marketing campaign attracting families. And your third step is figuring out a way to subsidize or make

parking around downtown Charlottesville more affordable. Why not go to these parking lot owners like the Woodard family or some of these other parking lot owners and say we will allocate a portion of this money for you on certain days of the week to make parking free. And then we will create a marketing campaign to direct people to park here. I mean, that's how you get people to come downtown for the 50-year anniversary. Ideas. We got a lot of them, obviously. All right.

And then the last element that we talked about or one of the last elements we talked about on this morning show is the absolute erosion of working class and middle class jobs here. And the erosion of working class and middle class jobs here. And the erosion of working class and middle class jobs not only just gentrifies our communities, but it basically creates businesses tied to that customer base to fold. And Tubby's is a very good example. Closing on the 27th of June. Jack and Jill's closing for summer break. I mean, Mooses, Blue Moon Diner. Those two were a little bit different in terms of ‑‑ Mooses, if ‑‑ I understand Mooses went to Shadwell and they opened the Shadwell Deli. But the Shadwell Deli and Mooses are two

different concepts. And I understand mooses got out of their location in the city because of transitionary concerns tied to real estate or tied to their landlord. I get it. I get it. Because otherwise they would have stayed. And they are consistently filled with people. Consistently filled. But you could have done a Moose's elsewhere potentially. You could have done a Moose's at a different location. But the Moose's concept versus the Shadow Well Deli concept, you have a lot less labor at Shadow Well Deli than you did at Moose's.

And the businesses in Charlottesville that are tied to managing frontline workers and a lot of frontline workers are the ones that are struggling right now. Because there's not a lot of frontline worker labor pool. So they basically said we're going from a business that has a lot of labor to a business that has a lot less labor. And they're going from a business that has a lot of overhead tied to a landlord, a landlord that's unpredictable, to a business that's tied to affordable rent and a landlord that's unpredictable to a business that's tied to affordable rent and a landlord that's stable. They're smart businesswomen.

They assess the climate of Charlottesville. They got out of the city, they went to Alamaro County, that shouldn't be discounted. They got out of the city of Charlottesville where it's insanity from a taxes standpoint, a politics standpoint, uncertain, unpredictable. They went to Alamora County in Keswick, captive audience, a lot less competition in Shadwell and Keswick. Said, boy tavern, I'm calling the shower deli. Boy tavern deli, correcting myself, I apologize for the confusion there. And they went from a sit down restaurant that's high in labor to a quick serve restaurant that's in and out.

Intelligent. It's understanding where F&B is going. But don't tell me if the business is clicking and crushing it on all cylinders that you wouldn't just try to recreate that concept in a different location, because you would. Because that happens all the time. That happens all the time. Domino's on Stewart Street, off of High Street. Domino's gets out of the city and goes to Pantops in the old Christians Lilo's Pizza spot and the giant shopping center on Pantops. I'm seeing an exodus from the city, ladies and gentlemen,

into neighboring jurisdictions. That's what I'm seeing. Conan says, unlike ParkMobile, the new operator of the parking lots requires you to check out of a parking session. If you forget or do not check out, you get charged the max $30. That's bogus.

And that is unfair. No doubt. To parkers. Thank you, Conan, for that parking intel. That's one of the first things that I would do. Homeless cleanup, marketing campaign to get families here, and a campaign centered around subsidized parking for the 50 year anniversary. All right.

Other items out of your notebook that you want to get to on a Friday? Anything else on your list over there? Let's see. There's a developer who is working on this is the woolen mills project. And the floodplain. And they recently had their request to fill Yeah. And the floodplain? Yeah. And they recently had their request to fill a portion of the floodplain denied. You know what? It went a 3-3 vote, and a 3-3 vote in the Almore County Board of Supervisors means something

doesn't get passed. I give props to the Woolen Mills neighborhood, who organized, galvanized, and strategized, spoke before the Almore County Board of Supervisors significant outreach from the Woolen Mills neighborhood saying do not fill this floodplain for the development. And they said it's gonna create a boatload of heavy industrial equipment, machinery and vehicles coming through our neighborhoods and our streets to do this project.

Don't do it. And props to them for doing that. There should be more pushback of some of this insanity that's happening. And anyone that tells you livable Charlottesville and divisible Charlottesville and housing activists, anyone who tells you that new housing is good for the community, give them the Weldon Cooper statistic

that for every new house or rooftop that's created locally, one dollar in taxes is generated, but $1.30 in overhead or infrastructure strain is also generated. So it's a loser for the jurisdiction. All right. Last items out of the notebook. Jerry Cox from the Lewis Mountain neighborhood on Wednesday. And the following Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen, is the team from Smash Pickleball, the indoor pickleball

business that's opening in the Marshall's location, the old Marshall spot. They're going to be on the 19th of June. I promised Dino I would mention that the Coomberay guys have their grand opening in Dairy Market on Monday. I believe Dino is a part of that as well in the old Citizen Burger Bar location in Dairy Market and support Dairy Market, man. The market needs some support for you guys. Watch the Friday morning show we did with Emily Kilroy or listen to it from start to finish. It was compelling.

She said it's the longest interview she has ever done, ladies and gentlemen, as the Director of Economic Development, the longest one she's ever done. And she was really good. She was very good. As you got a taste of in our video clip. She was very good. A couple of topics, you know,

I would have liked to have been more direct, but I understand there's only so much direct you can do when you're in this position. It's as much about economic development as it is kind of a politician as well. Alright, Judah Wickhauer, Jerry Miller, the I Love Seville Show on a Friday. Enjoy your weekend. Thank you..