The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Negotiations: Student Tour Guides vs UVA Admins; UVA Student-Led Tours Could Return In Spring

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Negotiations: Student Tour Guides vs UVA Admins UVA Student-Led Tours Could Return In Spring Jefferson Council Flexes Its Influence At UVA UVA Ranked #1 For Free Speech In Nation N. Williamson: Allow Commercial To Be Housing Duck Donuts Temporarily Closed In Stonefield For Sale: Downtown Office Space $495K Ask UVA At Wake Forest (-1), 7PM, Sat, ESPN2 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 Thursday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville show. It's great to connect with you in our studio in downtown Charlottesville. We are right in the middle of the epicenter of business and policy and politics. In fact, there goes Cliff Fox, the commercial broker walking across the street. He's got a number of listings in downtown Charlottesville, including one that we have our eye on right now. What we try to do is relay content to you that we find compelling personally. Judah Witkower, yours truly, my wife. She contributes quite a bit of content to this show. And we just want to be the water cooler of conversation

for a 300,000 person market that's sophisticated. It's dynamic It's educated. It's nuanced It's searching for its identity. It's in conflict with its history It's uncertain of its future It's asking questions that are at the forefront, not just of the Charlottesville metropolitan area, but at the forefront of metropolitan areas nationally. If you take a look at the screen, we will cover a gambit of news.

Gambit. What, I include a B in there? Yeah. Is that the voice of God or is that the face of Judah Wittgower on screen? We can go with the voice of God. It's Gamut, G-A-M-U-T. Thank you for holding me accountable, Judah B. Wittgower. I'm not holding you accountable. We appreciate you. Everyone loves the... The... Bone apple tea, right? Tomato, tomato. Potato, potato.

Bone apple tea. One storyline that did not make the rundown we should offer 90 seconds of commentary on. Walton Middle School? They're doing the tryout with the cell phone pouches. Yeah, and it could be coming to the rest of the Albemarle County school system, which is probably a good thing. I'm all for getting kids to disconnect from their phones

at least while they're in school. Well, it's got to happen anyway. Young kids ban them. Yeah. But I read something recently that says that kids who are distracted by a phone or something often or usually take at least 10 to 20 minutes to like refocus. Oh, I would say it's even more than that the younger you are. I've seen my kid go down a YouTube rabbit hole. Then we try to go down the reading route or the relax before bed route.

Good luck. Yeah. I know firsthand about that. Not just focusing, but good Lord, like happiness and self-respect and self-esteem. Listening. I think it's the unspoken pandemic. The unspoken pandemic. Yeah. The unspoken pandemic is the drug addiction that is cell phone and screen time with our children. Yeah. The politicized pandemic is a flu-like virus that shut down the world, drove inflation, and pushed drug sales. The unspoken pandemic, perhaps because of the power of those who create the apps and are pushing the screen time usage, is the undeniable addiction of screen time with our youth. I'm convinced, ladies and gentlemen,

that a generation from now, we will reflect and look back on, what's the generation that's in school now? Is that Gen Alpha? I believe they are. Let me see if I've still got the chart. You got the generational chart? I believe I do. Let's see if I can do a quick Gen Alpha search. Here we go. Gen Alpha, those born between 2010 and 2024. Yeah. So Gen Alpha is the one in schools right now. Mm-hmm.

I'm convinced we're going to say Gen Alpha. What's the one before Gen Alpha? Gen Z. They're still in school as well. That ends at 2012. Gen Z and Gen Alpha. We'll look back a generation from now and say, Jesus, we scarred these people.

Walton Middle School gets props. The who, what, when, where, why. They try the cell phone patches. Frankly, the governor has said they're going to be banned from schools. Giddy up and get ready. I am all for that. You do not see the cell phone impact or usage not nearly as significant in the private schools locally.

Probably because they don't allow them in classes, I would imagine. I don't understand how they ever became a part of daily classroom allowance anyways. It seems like the kind of thing it's like allowing kids to do anything that they want in class. You're literally saying you don't have to pay attention in class. You can use social media

or anything on your phone in place of what is happening at the front of the class with the teacher. You don't even have to say it's allowed. All you have to do is say, we're not going to take your phone away, and you're essentially telling kids that you can do whatever you want. There it is. Because they can sit and not pay attention.

Props to Walton Middle School. Yeah, props to them. They didn't make it on our rundown, but we wanted to highlight something that we saw was positive for the community. Yeah, and I hope it carries across to the other schools. The lead headline, if you can relay it on screen and put the lower third on screen. I love

you highlighting the headlines. It keeps you engaged with the show. I think the show is at its best when Judah B. Wickhauer is engaged and offering some commentary. What's the lead headline? Are we talking the ranking of the University of Virginia as it pertains to free speech?

Negotiations. Oh, so UVA Guide Service is the lead headline. You want me to set the stage on this one? Sure. UVA Guide, the UVA Guide Service, which is an independent outfit. UVA Guide Service is operated.

I took this tour as a high schooler with my parents and my brother. We took the trip up Interstate 64 from Williamsburg, Virginia. My dad went to UVA. We grew up going to UVA football games, sporting events, and visiting Charlottesville. We took the trip up 64, did a tour guide, a tour led by students on the University of Virginia. The tour we did was pretty much a location-based tour, pointing out names of buildings and what activity

was done in said buildings. It was not politicized. It did not include propaganda. It did not include much ad lib commentary. There was a script. Now those tours have political messaging, historical context, some call it propaganda, and commentary included in the tours with prospective students and their parents. The organization is the University Guide Service. They are an independent organization from the University of Virginia, much like the Honor Committee, UJC, University Judiciary Council, independent from the university. The Jefferson Council, and you can rotate the top three headlines, they're on record.

I've been emailing with this gentleman, Thomas Neal, the Jefferson Council president. He claims the reason UVA suspended the guide service this fall is because the governor, Glenn Youngkin, has 13 new appointees to the Board of Visitors. And these 13 new appointees now have control of the board. And they said, hey. We don't like what we see here. We don't like what we see here and how propaganda and political messaging and the portrayal of Thomas Jefferson

is done in a light that is not reflective of what we think the University of Virginia message should be. Brand should be. He's saying that with the media. He also makes the point that the 13 appointees are not a homogenous block. And some are moderate. And obviously some are conservative. But they all took a look at what was going on and i guess all agreed that it had to change nicholas erpy logan wells claylow welcome to the broadcast like the show if you like the content share the show spread the gospel so here's the updated storyline per the cavalier daily this morning. The University Guide Service is in negotiations with the University of Virginia administration to potentially return tours as early as the spring semester,

the upcoming semester. Now there's catches, there's strings, there's caveats. One of those strings is the UVA Guide Service has to attend 10 training sessions hosted by the Office of Admissions. One of those strings is the University Guide Service has to submit an outline of their plans for tours. And the last string is that the tours can be, air quotes, secret shopped by administrators to make sure or to ensure that the script or the outline is being followed. What do you make of this storyline? Is this, hey, you can go back to doing what you want, but Big Brother is watching you, and we want to understand the commentary you are offering? Or is this, we have a PR disaster on our hands here, and we don't want it to continue. Let's get them back in play, but we're going to control what's happening behind the scenes. And lastly, if you're the Jefferson Council and the 13 appointments on the Board of Visitors that had Glenn Youngkin's blessing. How would you feel

if the guide service returns to action after just a one semester suspension? A lot to unpack on the Thursday edition of the I Love Civo show. Frankly, I'm surprised that UVA with their

multi-billion dollar endowment. 14 billion plus. I'm surprised that they have an independent group doing this in the first place. Why would they not just make an in-house

version of the same group that does exactly what they're wanting this group to do, which is basically have a script or at least not go so far off script that you're making Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the school, look like a monster. And therein lies the rub.

Therein lies the rub there and lies the rub our second storyline is the fact that the foundation for individual rights and expression has named the university of virginia the number one college or university in the nation as it applies to free speech therein lies lies the rub. An independent third party is calling the University of Virginia, and you can find this on news.virginia.edu, the headline, UVA number one in national college free speech rankings. What does the University of Virginia love? Touting itself in rankings. You have an independent third party that is saying... Do they love touting themselves

or do they just often end up in rankings? Oh, they love the rankings. They love touting the rankings. I'm not saying... Love touting the rankings. You have an independent third party that's calling UVA number one for free speech. You then have the University of Virginia

putting criteria in place on free speech during tour guides. And you have the University of Virginia putting criteria in place on free speech during tour guides, and you have the University of Virginia militarizing the state police to disband a protest in early May of this year as it applies to the pro-Palestine push. I'm with you on the second point, less so on the first point. Oh, unpack that for me. Big brother, this is what you can and cannot say. Well, like I said, I'm surprised. I'm baffled that UVA doesn't have their own guide service. And I don't really see a problem with them telling a guide service that's taking people around UVA,

don't they also do school, what do you call it, what you were talking about, going on an initial walk through the school and finding out about it before becoming a student? No idea what you're talking about. Anyways, they've got a group that's giving tours, guided tours, and talking about Thomas Jefferson and the university. Why would, I'm baffled they don't have their own group, but why would you want them bad mouthing either the founder of your college or the college itself or both, why would you allow that to continue? I feel like it's less about free speech and more about,

it's like if I went into Best Buy every day and brought a group of people and pointed out all the things that they do wrong and how horrible a company it is. Like, would anybody be surprised when I got kicked out? Judy Hu, thank you for the retweet. Please rotate those first three lower thirds on screen. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. The same day, the Cavalier Daily breaks the news that the independent UVA tour guide service, dubbed University Guide Service, is in negotiations with the UVA administration about returning tours as early as next semester. The UVA guide service, led by students independent from the university, if they return, must follow potentially some protocols, like submitting an outline of what they're talking about, having their tours secret shopped, and attending 10 sessions where they could be potentially

trained or brainwashed on what they can or cannot say to prospective students and their parents. The same time that story breaks, on the Virginia media platform, news.virginia.edu, they are ranked number one in the national nation as it pertains to free speech on grounds. Therein lies the rub. Orientation, that's the word I was looking for. Therein lies the rub. I don't think the university should have its own pay-to-play guide service. I think it's much more authentic if the guides are students

that do the touring. Because they're in the thick. They know what it's about. Do I think the UVA guide service should be bashing Thomas Jefferson, offering political propaganda or messaging when

it comes to geopolitical events, when it comes to Thomas Jefferson and some of the things he's done in his past? No, I do not. But are these the people that give the, like, that's what I was looking for, orientation. Do they give the actual orientations for incoming students? No, orientation is separate. This is just for people who want to check out the VA? A tour of the university. It's a guide service. They are not orientation. You go through first-year orientation. Everyone does the same. You're meeting in a room with fellow first-years.

It's separated by day. Not all the first-years do it at once. You schedule it in advance. I remember this vividly. They went around the room. There was hundreds of us in attendance. Someone asked us, what do you want to do for your major? Everyone had this idea. I want to be an engineer. I want to be a doctor. I want to be a lawyer. I want to be a banker. Finally came to

me and said, I'm 18 years old. I was almost 19 at the time. In fact, I think I was 19. I have no idea what I want to do. Literally said that. I have no idea what I want to do. And the orientation. No idea. That was my answer. Okay, so anyways. My point is this. My point is this.

I remember my mom so disappointed with that answer. We walked out, all the parents there, she said, why couldn't you just say what you wanted to do? I said, I don't know what I wanted to said, I don't know what I wanted to do. I don't know what I wanted to do. Now I'm doing exactly what I want to do. The guides should not be leading tours with prospective students and their parents

and offering propaganda, political messaging, or historical context on the founder of the university. Okay, so it's not an orientation, but it is for actual prospective students. It's a tour. I know that. It's a tour around Grouts. That's all it is.

I get it. Orientation is separate from this. I know. That's what I just said. Yeah. It's not coupled at all. But it is coupled with students who want to come to UVA. And their parents.

Yeah. Which is, again, seems very strange that you would have an outside... It's not outside. It's students. This happens at every college and university in America. Okay. This is not unique to UVA. You go to other colleges and universities, students are leading these tours. Then yeah, I'm not surprised that UVA wants to set the tone for what they say. This is literally a group that is telling people about your university who are potentially going

to become students. I don't think it's UVA that's making that call. In fact, the Jefferson Council president is on record saying we're the ones that are making this call. Thomas Neal is saying because of our influence with Glenn Youngkin and the 13 appointments Youngkin made to the Board of Visitors, we're using that influence to tell UVA what to do. And I'm saying I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, and I don't think it necessarily falls under the heading of free speech. Yes, the students should be able to say whatever they want about the college.

But now they can't. But when they're giving a tour of the school. For the last 10 or 15 years, they've been able to say whatever they wanted on those tours. So? The last 10 or 15 years, those tour guides have had carte blanche with free speech of what they've said on those tours to prospective students and parents. At the same day a national ranking on free speech was released, the same day another story is released about UVA saying you are not going to be able to have free speech when it applies to tours. Limited speech. There's irony there. There is maybe a little bit of irony, but five months removed from a protest where the military, the state police were used as military

to disband a pro-Palestine protest. And I'm 100% with you on that. But on the fact of the tours, I have no problem. You've said that. I know. And you continue to push back against it, and I'm surprised. And the fact of something being around for five years or ten years or a 100 years, in fact, that goes straight to the point of what's going on with the tour guides. Because the fact that slavery was okay for most of the history of the world doesn't mean that we find it okay today. And the fact that they were able to say whatever they wanted for 15 years doing guides at the school doesn't mean that that's, you know.

I'll put this succinctly for the viewers and listeners. Very succinctly. Okay. The tour guides should not be able to bash Thomas Jefferson. The tour guides should not be able to offer political commentary. The tour guides should not be able to offer political commentary. The tour guide should not be able to offer geopolitical propaganda or commentary. The tour guide should not be able to contextualize history. Asking 19, 20, and 21-year-olds to offer color on a university that's

been around for centuries is absurd. Having rules and regulations for what is often the first representation of the university, the tours, makes perfect sense. The irony is this. Cavalier Daily reports that the tour guides are going to have limitations with what they can say or present. Their speech, their freedom of speech on these tours. And that story breaks on the very same day an independent third party has ranked the University of Virginia number one in the nation

when it comes to free speech, five months removed when the state police was called in by the president of the university in military fashion to break up a pro-Palestine protest. That is the story. That is the irony.

That is the irony. And all this is happening while the Jefferson Council, its president, who we're emailing with, Thomas Neal, has said, it's us, my fellow co-founder, Bert Ellis, who in the email with Mr. Neal has taken exception to the moniker Razorblade

that we've offered Mr. Ellis. I'm hardly surprised. Mr. Ellis, the co-founder of the Jefferson Council, on the Board of Visitors, along with 12 other Yunkin appointees, who are flexing their muscle. I'm going to ask this question of the 13 appointees of the Jefferson Council

and of you, Judah Wickauer. If the UVA Guide Service returns to action in the spring, does that make the 13 appointees look bad in the influence that they have? If it's less a suspension and more of a sit in the corner, you're on timeout for five minutes for misbehavior. Not if they elicit changes. The whole point of the suspension was that...

We're going to radicalize or revolutionize or completely change what's happening here? No, I think it was just, hey, look, we don't appreciate what you're saying about our school on our school grounds while you're giving tours for our school. You may be unaffiliated. You may be students. But it's going to stop. Here's the follow-up question. What accountability measures will be put in play? What ramifications will result if towing the company line

and communicating the company message is no longer enforced. Is no longer actualized. You're saying if the tour guides start breaking script? Yeah. What are they going to do?

I'd say they'd probably say, okay, well I guess we'll put you back on suspension and we'll do this ourselves for a while. That would be my guess. Janice Boyce Trevelyan, her photo on screen, she says this, ourselves halfway through the tour, it was also historically inaccurate. Vanessa Parkhill of Earleysville. It's great when the tours are conducted by students, but these guys should be people who ooze

pride in the university, not crapping on their founder and feeding into an apologist mindset. I agree with both those comments. As do I. I agree with both those comments. And that's my point. It's just odd that they would leave this in the hands of an outside... All of Amar.

Yeah, yeah. They're all of Amar. What, are you going to pay some adults to do it? Yeah. Why not? What is this, Colonial Williamsburg? I didn't suggest... If you're a 17-year-old,

if you're a 17-year-old and you have essentially an actor or a representative that's in their 50s or 60s, a boomer, giving the tour of the university as opposed to a student that's a few years removed from you, it lacks authenticity. I'm not sure why it has to be a 50- or 60-year-old that you're hiring, just because is that your is that adult?

I mean why not hire why not hire students? Why not do exactly what they're doing except they're paid and they have a little more control over what's being said. Well you're adding fat to the payroll. Okay.

We just talked about the university being bloated in positions and admins and staff we've talked about that in previous shows i i don't know that this would bloat it would be a nominal additional cost i agree with you there wouldn't that be a reflection of free speech being throttled? I still disagree with you on that. You're talking about a company. Technically a non-profit. But yes, a massive organization. I would imagine that any company, any brand, any business, any school. Would want a trained brand ambassador.

Yeah. 100%. 100%. Exactly. I get that it's been done this way for millennia, ever since God invented universities. But come on. Did God invented universities. But, come on. Did God invent universities? I'm obviously being facetious.

But, yeah, you're putting, you're just going to leave your image in the hands of impressionable college students who may or may not have a good grasp on history and the fact that it's not like Jefferson was the lone American who did things that today we have a different view of. Bill McChesney

watching the program. There was a group of people from an automotive club that came to the area for a convention. They were aggravated by the content of the tour guide's speech. They also toured Montpelier and Monticello. They said some of the Monticello tour was Jefferson negative as well. Massive changes that are happening at Monticello, which we've covered on the I Love Seville show

and the foundation. It's a come to Jesus moment in the Charlottesville area as it applies to Thomas Jefferson. There are those on one side of the aisle that want the history to be portrayed as it is. And there are those on the other side of the aisle that says, this is the history. We need to damn him today. To close this topic, here's the news. A, the University Guide Service and independent organization is in negotiations with the UVA administration to return to

giving student tours as early as this coming spring. They will need to take 10 training seminars. They will need to provide an outline or a script to the university, and they will agree to be secret shopped on their tours to make sure they're maintaining the company line. This all happened at the same time

that a third-party organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, named UVA, the number one college or university in the nation as it applies to free speech. It's a non-profit. It's known as FIRE. They partner with analytics company College Pulse to survey more than 58,000 students in 257 schools for its 2025 college free speech rankings. UVA climbed from number six last year to number one in the nation this year or in 2025. And the irony of all this is it happens five months after the president of the university militarized the state police to pepper spray students at a pro-Palestine push. That's what I'm more surprised about. Everything here reeks of irony.

Stephanie Wells Rhodes on YouTube, they should be trying to sell the university, not bash it. I'm also in agreement with that as well. The next headline from Judah B. Wickauer. Where are we going with the next one? Let's see. We've got Neil Williamson. Oh, Neil Williamson. This is from Deep Throat on the last one.

And then we'll get to Neil Williamson. They can hire students for actual money and fire them if they don't follow the script. Fire one DEI dean and you can pay 50 tour guides. Kids can stand around grounds and talk as much smack as they want. The official tour, though, can have a script and tour guides can be required to follow it. That's from Deep Throat. Neil Williamson has some commentary on the Free Enterprise Forum.

Neil, I'll break some comments on the program already. John Blair, thank you for watching. Local media watching the program. If you can get that lower third on screen. Mr. Williamson is the president of the Free Enterprise Forum. profit that is a lobbying group that is pro-housing, pro-business, and pro-efficiency of local government. One of his key platform points, Mr. Williamson, and you can read his commentary on the Free Enterprise Forum, is the red tape surrounding vacant commercial real estate and the fact that that red tape should be cut or diminished so commercial real estate owners that have vacancies can quickly pivot

their vacancies to housing or homes or apartments. Because it is his theory, if the vacancies in commercial real estate are converted to homes, housing, apartments, condos is his theory, if the vacancies in commercial real estate are converted to homes, housing, apartments, condos, townhouses, whatever you want to call them, that they will fill quickly and they will add additional inventory to the ecosystem that is strapped already with said inventory.

He said government is moving entirely too slow on this. Hasn't that always been the case in this area? Always the case. I'm sure my dad would have something to say on that issue. And you've highlighted that. Led to the bankruptcy of the company. Yeah, given up. Yeah.

I'll say this. I think Mr. Williamson is very good at what he does. I think you should donate to the Free Enterprise Forum. I think his idea of allowing landlords and property owners more rights is good. I think adding an additional or cutting the red tape is good. I think the likelihood of many of these units,

he quantifies it as 100 units, 100, and he highlights that 100 is a minuscule amount. But he also highlights 100 is better than nothing, which I agree with him. And I think he makes a great point when he says that it's important to note that this is another avenue to the mixed-use future your AC44 comprehensive plan is envisioning. I mean, I've always thought that, you know, I bring up Savannah, Georgia a lot, and they did a great job of having a mix of housing and retail, and it just made the downtown area extremely walkable.

And I think Charlottesville could benefit from something like that. And I see this as, you know, I think a lot of people would push back. The NIMBYs would push back on, you know, having any type of, you know, any type of retail built in their neighborhood. I see less. Well, I don't think the NIMBYs would push back as much on this. Oh, exactly. Well, that's my point. It's one thing to say I'm going to build a restaurant or a gas station or whatever in this neighborhood and less

annoying to people that you're saying, okay, I've got this shopping center and we're going to devote a portion of this to building apartments or housing. Here's what it is, folks. The vacant commercial, the landlords that own vacant commercial real estate, it's in the growth area. It's on bus lines. It's on major corridors like Route 29. You're adding density in the corridors that has the infrastructure to support it. You're not adding additional density in areas that are unwelcoming to support it. You're not adding additional density

in areas that are unwelcoming to said density. You don't have to navigate the political appetite for new development because the development already exists. All you're doing is giving the owner of the real estate a chance to convert their model from commercial to residential. It's not building, it's remodeling.

And that is a much easier pill to swallow for taxpayers because it can be positioned like this. We're actually alleviating the burden of you, the homeowner, or you, the person that lives in Alamaro County, because we're filling vacancies with potentially housing that's going to offer more money to the jurisdiction, which means burden on you becomes less. I agree. That's how it should be positioned. It's in so much of life. I'll rephrase.

So much of successful business and so much of deal-making, this is the primary way I spend my day, is meetings and deal-making. And the deals that get done, it's taken me, I've learned this over 20 years of doing this. The deals that get done are the deals that are positioned the right way. Some dealmakers can present a deal and present the deal in a way that's not advantageous for it on the other side, despite wanting to make the deal. I was in the meeting this morning with an individual

who's buying a business, an extremely established one, extremely established, can't wait for this business to close so we can have the new owner on and we can tout what's happening. And across from us, I'm his representative here, across from us is the owner of the building where the business he's buying currently exists. And then the owner's admin is across from us. And we're sitting there for 45 minutes negotiating what is basically the foundation of what is going to be

potentially anywhere from a 5 to 50 year lease depending on how many renewals are engaged and the entire meeting that we're in for 45 minutes was about presentation was about how we're going to have success in the location, the changes we're going to make to the established business that's been around forever, what

we're going to do to breed confidence in you, the real estate owner that controls the keys to the building, what we're going to do to breed confidence in you that we can fulfill the first term and continue there for many terms thereafter. It was about presentation as much as it is about operational execution. The meeting went extremely well. And now we head to the closing table with an end-of-the-month closing, we hope. if you're the board of supervisors of almarol county you must realize that the housing is the the structure is already there it's remodel it's not development it's on infrastructure like bus routes it has major roads already next to it you You're not going to knock down trees

and you're not going to interrupt people's quality of life. And you're going to create more tax revenue because the places are vacant. This is a slam dunk. I agree with Williamson on a lot of stuff. Some of the stuff I disagree with, Neil's watching right now. I'm an infrastructure over development guy.

He's a development over infrastructure guy. And by development, we're talking housing specifically. I don't mind housing, but I want the housing to be positioned after the infrastructure justifies the housing. I don't want kids learning in trailers. I don't want kids not having a bus. I mean, Jesus, Sean Tubbs has got a content in the Charlottesville Substack.

This is the lead of Sean Tubbs, his Town Crier Productions. Listen to this headline. You ready for this one? From Shawnee Tubbs? Where's that Scottish dude? Where's that little Scottish guy walking around? This is a headline from September 4th. Crozet may run out of water to support population growth after 2045.

Jesus. Crozet may run out of water to support population growth after 2045. Don't you think we should pump the brakes on the development if they're going may run out of water to support population growth after 2045. Don't you think we should pump the brakes on the development if they're going to run out of water? Do you need water to live? I mean, how long does it take to... How'd you feel if you were Orange County? And Orange County, what, a couple of weeks ago? They couldn't even bathe in their water. It wasn't don't just drink the water.

It's don't let that water touch your skin. Avoid all contact with the water. It wasn't don't just drink the water. It's don't let that water touch your skin. Avoid all contact with the water. Don't wipe your baby's butt that has doo-doo and pee on it after he did his business in his diaper. We're going through that right now. Don't bathe your six-year-old right before bedtime. Don't run in the sprinkler or use the slip and slide. Don't let that water touch your epidermis. That's what Orange County dealt with weeks ago. Thank God the ban's been lifted. That same ban has happened in Greene County.

Don't drink the water. Crozet, they're going to run out of water potentially, Shawnee Tubbs reports, after 2045. Don't prioritize development if you don't have water. Pump the brakes. You want to drive around Crozet, come drive-in time or drive-home time? You better allow yourself 30 or 45 minutes. You want to learn what was the Western feeder pattern,

where it was some of the best schools out there? Your kid may learn in a trailer in a modular home. You okay with that? I'm not okay with that. I am okay with converting vacant storefronts to housing though. That makes sense. And it should be presented the right way. You manage the presentation, you get influence. If you want to read the link, it's on the Free Enterprise Forum. He shared it in the comment section of my personal Facebook page. I thought he did a bang-up job with this. As always, he leads the commentary with a pop culture reference. This one from

the late, great rocker Tom Petty, who once penned the line, the waiting is the hardest part. I thought it was great. Not to mention a great gif with Mickey Mouse. And a Mickey Mouse gif. Jif? Gif? Gif.

Why can't it be GIF? Because the G stands for graphic, not traffic. Tomato, tomato. Gambit, gambit. Tarn it, damn it. They are very similar, but... John Blair's got great commentary. We love John Blair.

His photo on screen, please. Jerry, I'm going to offer some facts for the viewers and listeners, John Blair says. Love John Blair. Good man. I'm going to offer some facts for the viewers and listeners. The Wall Street Journal just released its new university rankings. Virginia Tech ranks 18 in the nation in the Wall Street Journal rankings. The University of Virginia is 33rd in the nation in the Wall Street Journal rankings. The University of Virginia is 33rd in the nation.

This past year, UVA got 58,000 applications. Virginia Tech got 52,000 applications. UVA has an acceptance rate of 32% for in-state students. Tech has an acceptance rate of 47% rate for in-state students. Virginia Tech is closing the gap with UVA at a rapid pace in so many metrics. In the end, UVA is a business. If your competitor's first impression for kids is a rah-rah pep rally tour about how great the school is, which is what Virginia Tech does, versus what UVA is doing, don't you have to at least pay attention?

And he concludes by saying, Jerry, you and Judah Wickauer do such a great job every day offering up topical show content. Thank you, John. Thank you. Facts from John Blair, from arguably... And that's exactly what I was saying. Why would you want a tour group giving someone's first impression of your school a bad impression? That's a great comment by you. And I would say the answer to that is because they pride themselves in being number one nationally in a free speech ranking. And they probably are more punch drunk with free speech and diversity, equity, and inclusion rankings than any other university in the

Commonwealth of Virginia. They are punch drunk. Would you call it executive leadership? I wouldn't call it C-suite leadership. I'd say C-suite leadership is probably your BOV. The leadership team right below the C-suite leadership, the BOV, now Youngkin's appointees, 13 on the board from Youngkin, they ain't punch drunk with free speech and they ain't punch drunk with DEI. The folks right below them are punch drunk with free speech and DEI. And because of that punch drunkness, they would rather be ranked in the free speech ranking number one and in the DEI rankings number one than they would want to maintain engagement and acceptance and popularity when it comes to applicants in the Commonwealth.

And that right there is called what? Piss poor management. Not seeing the forest through the trees. I'm not going to disagree. What do you call that? What else would you call that? I like your terminology. I would love, let's run my company here.

Let's run the Miller organization. We're not going to be concerned with the bottom line. We're not going to be concerned with customers. We're concerned with our charitable donations, though. And let's invite people into the office to badmouth us, to people who don't know anything about us. Thank you. We're not concerned about giving judo raises.

We're not concerned about the bottom line and keeping the lights on and keeping our customers happy. But let's invite people into the office to talk smack. And let's be very concerned where our charitable donations are going in the public eye. It's the same thing. It's the next headline, Judah B. Wicow.

You're doing a hell of a job today. Thank you. Next we have duck donuts. We'll spend, what, two or three minutes on this? Yeah. It's a sad situation. Yeah.

Especially for Stonefield. Right? They don't need empty storefronts. Stonefield, resident or tenant. We don't know that this is necessarily going to become an empty storefront. Right. We have to caveat that. Yeah. We don't think that storefront. Right. We have to caveat that. Yeah. We don't know that. We don't think that they're actually closing. We hope not. Yeah.

Temporary closing for Duck Donuts signage in their window saying we don't have enough labor. Yeah. We have to close. Think about that. We don't have enough labor we have to close some people will say oh you don't have enough labor because you're not paying them enough money you don't have enough labor because you're depressing wages

ladies and gentlemen they sell donuts in a high rent district maybe the highest rent district in the region. The margin is not great. They're not going to operate the business in the red and stay in business for long. You can pay everyone a boatload of money, but if the profits and the revenue don't sustain the overhead, then what you're paying the people is short-lived.

You can't sell an individual donut for $10 to justify paying somebody a $20 wage to work the cash register at the donut shop. No customer is going to spend that kind of money on a donut. How much do you spend for a donut?

How much would I personally spend? And these are Kraft donuts with Kraft toppings on them. How much would you spend for a donut? A buck or two. There it is. I haven't had a donut in... There it is. A buck or two.

How many $1 or $2 donuts do they have to sell to pay four people $20 an hour to work a 10-hour daily shift? And I'm just talking what they're paying the customer, just paying the employee. Maybe it's time to expand their business so they can do that. I'm joking.

Okay, thank God. You dry-faced it that people thought you were serious. Yeah, but think about it. Think about a company like Dunkin' Donuts or some of these other donut companies who have essentially shopped out their brand to gas stations and grocery stores. You're talking franchising. Yeah. That's what you're talking, franchising.

It's unfair to compare Duck Donuts to Dunkin' Donuts. Oh, I'm not saying they could do the same thing to scale. Dunkin' Donuts has... Okay, finish your commentary, please. I'm not suggesting they do it to scale and try to sell Duck Donuts across the United States, but it would be one way to bring in more revenue.

You know why Dunkin' Donuts is winning? Because it's a corporation? Dunkin' Donuts is winning because they diversify their revenue streams. Dunkin' Donuts is not even Dunkin' Donuts anymore.

It's Dunkin'. And Dunkin' has a B not even Dunkin' Donuts anymore. It's Dunkin'. And Dunkin' has a Baskin-Robbins tie to it. Yeah, I know. It's a coffee donut breakfast sandwich ice cream shop with a drive-thru and the best technology possible. Duck Donuts is a donut shop that sells Kraft donuts that was founded in Duck, North Carolina. You've got to start somewhere.

I mean, what is it supposed to do? Pay them $20 an hour. Let's get four people. Let's pay them $20 an hour. Let's have $80 an hour in overhead. Let's be open 10 hours a day. $800 in payroll, not including the payroll taxes 800 just what we're going to pay people in wages not including rent not including electricity not including cost of goods not including insurance not including marketing

we got 800 we're going to sell a three dollar donut 800 divided by three we're going to sell a $3 donut. $800 divided by 3. We're going to have to sell 267 donuts a day just to pay the $800 to the people. It ain't mathin'. That ain't mathin'. And we want to live in a world where everyone's making $20 an hour to work frontline jobs? Well, get ready to pay $7 or $8 for your donut. It ain't mathin'.

Next headline, please. Judah Wickauer. For sale. All right. I found this, and if you're interested in this opportunity, please let me know. There's an office condo in the Holsinger building, a building developed by my mentor, Bill Nichman.

It's on Water Street. The office condo has an asking price of $495,000. It is a beautiful space. It's 15 years old. It has an updated HVAC unit. It's a little over 1,000 square feet. $460 price per square foot. You could do retail there. You're across from the Water Street parking garage.

It has upside, so much potential. and I clearly can help you actualize the potential of this downtown 1,000 square foot piece of property that has a parking space included. I see the potential here and I want to help someone actualize the potential. So if you're interested, direct message me, reach out,

and we'll make it happen. In a lot of ways, Kevin Higgins, I'm going to get to your comments. They're a good one. In a lot of ways, the opportunity in downtown Charlottesville now is as significant as I've ever seen it. I've been in the city for 24 years, first arrived as a mischievous and precocious 19-year-old first year in Dabney 101, Old Dorms, right off of Bonny Castle Circle. I'm now a father of two, a husband of a fantastic person, and an owner of a couple of businesses. And I see the eight blocks that are downtown Charlottesville as being distressed.

And in the words of Warren Buffett, you'd be greedy when people are fearful, and you'd be scared when people are greedy. People are fearful with downtown Charlottesville right now. It's distressed. It has headwinds. Now's the time to capitalize because those headwinds will be navigated and the distressed nature of downtown will be fixed. Opportunity is knocking. I'm taking advantage of it and let me help you do the same.

The final piece of content we want to relay to you is the fact that the line is moving. If you want to put me on a one. Wake Forest now a one point favorite against the University of Virginia ESPN2 Saturday night seven o'clock kick in Winston-Salem. There goes Kyle Irvin, the fantastic communications director

from the Charlottesville Police Department. We have made the comment on this show and on the Jerry and Jerry show, arguably the most important game on the schedule is this Wake Forest matchup. You win this one, you could potentially start the season 4-1 or 5-0, and then you get into the meat and potatoes of your schedule at the back end.

A one-point Vegas line, you get three points for playing at home, means Vegas sees the Wahoos as really a two-point favorite. Let's see what this football team is about. They looked good against Richmond in front of a half-empty stadium. You beat Wake Forest. You got Maryland under the lights the following week at Scott Stadium. I'd love to see a packed house for a chance to start 3-0.

That's the Thursday edition of the I Love Seville show. Judah Wittkower was on point today. Thank you. Thank you kindly for joining us. My name is Jerry Miller. My DMs are always open. So long, everybody. Thank you.