The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Odds Kevin Cox Stays Out Of Trouble For 90 Days?; Architect: NZO Ruling Could Pause $390M/Projects

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Odds Kevin Cox Stays Out Of Trouble For 90 Days? Architect: NZO Ruling Could Pause $390M In Projects Is Rhoback Coming To Barracks Road North? Remote Workers Weakening Coffee Shop Culture? Real Talk Live Debate: Fred Missel V Scott Smith UVA Faculty Wants To Help Pick Next UVA President 6,000 Fentanyl Pills Recovered In CVille Bust Executive Offices For Rent ($350 – $975), Contact Jerry 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.

Thank you. Good Friday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville show. Last show of the week. Great to be back. Our first week following a couple of week vacation. And goodness gracious, did we come into a storm of media, just a firestorm of various topics in the news cycle. And today's show, I think, is symbolic of that as well. You have faculty at the University of Virginia

who are now on record saying they want to pick who the next president of the University of Virginia is going to be. The University of Virginia has a website right now encouraging Wahoo Nation, the alumni base, to the faculty, anyone frankly, to submit their suggestions for who the interim president should be, but how far should that crowd sourcing for the top position at the University of Virginia go?

It's one thing to crowd source suggestions for an interim president, but for the actual title of president and the next leader of Thomas Jefferson's university, who should make that decision? Is it the Board of Visitors, faculty want to say what's going on? We'll have that topic. We'll talk that topic on today's show. We have an architect on record saying the new zoning ordinance ruling could pause 390 million in projects. Judah's going to set the table on that. And the projects may not come back. You'll set the table on that topic. We're hearing some rumblings about Bericks

Road Shopping Center and Roeback in a storefront retail location for a brand I absolutely love. I'm wearing Roeback right now, a shirt and Roeback shorts as we speak. The rumblings include job postings online as well. That topic on today's show. The interesting wrinkle came up on the Friday show, the Real Talk with Keith Smith. We are now in the midst of setting up a live debate with Fred Missal and Scott Smith. Both candidates are running for the Almore County Board of Supervisors seat in the Samuel Miller district.

Scott Smith, a Republican, Fred Smith, a Democrat, Scott Smith, relatively new to the area, Fred Missal entrenched to the area. Missle works for the UVA Foundation. Scott Smith, a self-employed businessman. A live debate on real talk with Missle and Smith. Ladies and gentlemen, how about the drug bust of 6,000 fentanyl pills recovered?

The thing that scares me the most as a parent is fentanyl ladies and gentlemen and 6,000 pills just got taken off the street. So much to talk about on the Friday edition of the show. We'll give some love to Sir Speedy, Conan Owen, his team at Sir Speedy of Central Virginia. If you have a logo, Sir Speedy can help you decide what to do with that logo from a marketing and graphics standpoint. If you have a logo, they can put it on something. Sir Speedy, Conan Owen, locally owned and operated. They did this step and repeat backdrop directly behind me right now. He also gave me a little

bit of tidbit, Conan Owen, about Natalie dressed, moving, Barracks Road Shopping Center, or excuse me, behind Barracks Road Shopping Center and the Millmont shops. After getting the tidbit from Conan Owen, who I've said many times on the program, is on the cusp of business development locally. I went to the Natalie Dressed Instagram page and the top post on their Instagram page,

Natalie Dressed is currently moving in the shopping center, ladies and gentlemen, the Millmont shops from behind Barricks Road shopping center, moving into a new location in the Millmont shops that is larger for their operation. Then in texting with Conan, he said this, which I thought was very, you know, apropos or very on the pulse of what's going on. The resale market is a booming segment in Charlottesville. Twice as nice as going to a larger location. Agents and style and uptown cheapskate are booming and he says it's going to be interesting to see how the resale market will

impact donations to nonprofits like the SPCA and Goodwill which both run retail locations as fundraisers for their respective nonprofits. And it makes sense, the resale market booming right now, as things are more expensive than ever, credit card debt, groceries, gasoline, just life in general, you're gonna take your things that you have in your house that are often and not utilized and figure out a way how to monetize them.

It also makes sense with this new counter culture, and this could be a perfect segue, Judah, into what's happening with coffee shop culture. Have you been in a coffee shop recently? I certainly have. And when walking in a coffee shop this morning, goodness gracious, every single person wired in into a laptop with earbuds on. I asked the barista and then the manager of the shop. I promised them I wouldn't say which one. And the general manager and head barista and then the manager of the shop, I promised them I wouldn't say which one, and the general manager and head barista of a very established coffee shop in town said, look, we have to figure out what's happening here. Because the customers that come in here

with their laptops and their earbuds and order one cup of coffee and sit in the same seat for hours the entire day are damning our business right now. And they're not sure what to do about it. They're not sure if it's a limitation on hours you can sit in one seat. They're not sure if it's turning off the Wi-Fi or the internet. They're not sure if it's removing the seats altogether. But they have indicated coming out of COVID, one of the collateral damages of hybrid remote work for this very established locally owned coffee shop in this community, in the city of Charlottesville, is their regular customers who are coming in to have human connection over a cup of coffee

for a short period of time cannot find seating in their shop anymore. And the general manager, the owner, the head barista are now on the cusp of figuring out that problem. So you're seeing two elements of human behavior maybe change. The society, the sociology of human behavior, the resale market booming where humans are deciding to take after disregarded items in their closet or not worn items in their closet, their toy chest, their garage and figuring out how they could monetize them and then locally owned coffee

shops struggling with wired in computer focused ear bud wearing customers not leaving their shops. We'll have that conversation on today's show. Judah Wickauer on a two-shot. I ask you the same question every single day to start the program. Goodness, we got a lot of headlines today. First, good afternoon to you. Good afternoon. Which headline most intrigues you?

I'm intrigued by the fact that UVA faculty think that they can shove their way into who's going to be chosen for the next president. Should they, have I say? I mean it's their boss. That's a good question. Perhaps they should, but the fact of the matter is that there's... It's never been done that way. There's no law that says that they can.

No precedent. And despite the fact that a lot of universities have this idea of shared governance, which is great, but it's just an idea. Nowhere is that actually codified to make it possible. Why don't we start with that headline? Put that lower third on screen. UVA faculty now on record, And it's the faculty senate. Am I right on that?

I think it's more than just the faculty senate. They want a piece of the action when it comes to hiring the next president. Now, I want to offer this. If you go to UVA today, and I get to UVA today through news.virginia.edu. And you go into, you check out the latest headlines. UVA outlines the next steps for selecting an interim president.

This was published within the last 48 hours. It's a very short article. They have a new website, the University of Virginia. And the website, the URL is this, Virginia.edu forward slash nominations. And when you go to this website, Virginia.edu forward slash nominations, they are legitimately crowd sourcing

until July 25th at 5 p.m. Who the community thinks should be the next interim president at the University of Virginia. I don't mind the idea of crowd sourcing the interim president because of how this all played out. I also think there's some value to making the community, the alumni base, the community at large, stakeholders in hiring of the interim president. I'm on record saying the interim president should be Ken Elzinga, the esteemed economics professor,

that if you've gone to the University of Virginia and had a taste of business in any capacity from an education or curriculum standpoint, you've probably wandered into Ken Elzinga's lecture hall in some capacity. I've taken two classes of Ken Elzinga's myself. I think he should be the next interim president, Ken Elzinga.

I like how the University of Virginia is crowdsourcing suggestions for the next interim president, Ken Elzinga. I like how the University of Virginia is crowdsourcing suggestions for the next interim president. I, however, do not think crowdsourced solution or the crowdsourced path should be utilized for the permanent president. Furthermore, I do not think that UVA faculty, UVA Senate should have any say with selecting the next president. In the corporate world, and I understand this is not the corporate world, this is public

education, you have a board of directors that hires the CEO of a company. The board of directors in this capacity is the board of visitors. If the board of visitors were to say, yes, UVA faculty, you will have a seat at the table with selecting the next permanent president at the University of Virginia, it castrates the power or marginalizes the power, diminishes the power of the Yonkin appointed board. It is the board members' task or responsibility

to make tough decisions. And that's why the governor has appointed them to one of the most prestigious boards in the Commonwealth. Should they share that responsibility of decision making with faculty or crowdsource it like they're doing the interim spot, it diminishes the value proposition of being a BOV member. Furthermore, I think if you allowed the faculty to have a say in who the next president would be, it'd be the quintessential too many hens in the hen house, too many chefs in the kitchen.

Yeah, my question is, what would the vote be worth? Would there be, you know, would, Would it just be one for the faculty? would there be, you know, would, would, would it just be one for the faculty? Faculty Senate be, yeah, would they count for one board of visitors members vote or would they, you know, would they each get a vote? Obviously that's not gonna work. And you make a good point that their job,

the board of visitors is to make this decision. And furthermore, because UVA is a public school with getting a lot of money from the state and the government, the fact that the matter is that the law says that the governor appoints the Board of Visitors members and the Board of Visitors members and the Board of Visitors members make decisions about the university. Part of it is political which is sad but that's just the way things are today and until somebody changes the law that's the way it works.

the board of visitors have tremendous responsibility on their hand here. No doubt. The criteria they are looking for in the next president, what would be on that short list of criteria? I think the number one criteria is having a president that can maintain the federal funding that is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars from the Trump administration and the federal government. Appointing a president that is in the antithesis ideology or the opposite mindset or a polarizing president that is gonna rankle the federal government and jeopardize funding

from the feds is not a smart move. I think finding someone that's neutral that could basically play this politics game is important. Finding a president that can fundraise is extremely important. Finding a president that can fundraise is extremely important. Finding a president that understands the value of athletics is extremely important, because the athletic department right now

is as vulnerable as I've ever seen it before. Finding a president that is going to hold the athletic department's boss, Carla Williams, and put her in check if things don't head in the right direction with the football program is important. Finding a president at the University of Virginia that is going to take rampant cheating at the Darden School and solve that rampant cheating, alleviate it, is important. Finding a president that's gonna take the politics out of the curriculum is important.

Finding a president that's gonna protect students of all religious backgrounds is important. Finding a president that is going to help the University of Virginia Maintain its ivy league status or its new ivy league status while also not cock blocking Financially marginalized students from attending the university is important We cannot become a public university. There's just a student body of one percenters Yeah, because that's not what the Commonwealth public university that is just a student body of one percenters. Because that's not what the Commonwealth's public university is about.

I'm fine with pursuing the new Ivy League moniker, but the new Ivy League moniker cannot supersede the student body being diverse in all income levels. Finding a president that can solve or stabilize the organization that is UVA health is important. Craig Kent's gone, Melina Kibbe's gone, Wendy Horton is gone. This all happened under Jim Ryan's watch. Finding a president that can build trust with the greater UVA community and the Charlottesville, Almar County, and Central Virginia community is important. While still appeasing the Board of Visitors.

While still appeasing the Board of Visitors. Because that trust has been eroded. Interim President, crowdsource it. That's fine. The deadline is July 25 at 5 PM, and you could submit your nomination at virgin Virginia.edu forward slash nominations Crowd source it I my vote is Ken Elzinga the economics professor. There's nobody that embodies UVA more Than Ken Elzinga find me somebody that embodies the University of Virginia right now more than Ken Elzinga make him the interim president

the permanent president you're talking a unicorn here, ladies and gentlemen. And I don't think the feeder pattern, the feeder pattern of hiring a provost or a upper level dean from the Ivy League school is the right feeder pattern anymore. The Ivy Leagues, the universities in the Ivy Leagues, they're as embattled as any university or college in America right now. That's not the feeder pattern anymore. Maybe the path for the Board of Visitors for naming the next president is someone from corporate America, C-suite corporate America, someone who graduated from UVA that's in corporate America that understands the nuance of what this job is about. July 25th at 5 p.m. nominations. That's

seven days from now. The nomination opportunity for the interim president will be closed. Very interesting time to follow the University of Virginia. Next headline, Judah Wichauer. Comments are coming in. Conan Owen, his photo on screen. Faculty should stay in their lane. University presidents should be better administrators, managers, leaders than academics.

He's a Darden graduate. He has that comment. Georgia Gilmer wants to talk about the coffee shop topic. Bill McChesney says Kevin Cox for UVA interim president. Bill McChesney, what are the odds that Kevin Cox stays out of trouble for the next 90 days? Randy O'Neill, we'll get to your comments in a minute. In fact, we'll get to Randy's now. This is like the public school,

he says the faculty naming the president is like the public school rep, the union rep threatening UVA about the school of education not being allowed in the classroom for their student teaching. He makes a link to Shannon Gilligan and the Charlottesville Teacher Union, threatening to not welcome UVA students into city public school classrooms

because they wanted the Federal Institute site. Nothing materialized out of that, Shannon Gilligan. Literally nothing materialized out of that threat. Next headline, Judah Wichara. Let's go to the Kevin Cox one, put that one on screen. If you were a betting man from time to time you are, and the judge has said you have to stay at a trouble for 90 days, does Kevin Cox

stay at a trouble in that 90 day period of time? And the comments he said coming out of the courtroom yesterday, where he's now on the hook for paying what, like 600 and some bucks to the city? Six hundred and eight dollars. Six hundred and eight dollars to the city for their repair work with the crosswalk, right? Or six hundred and six, depending on who you're reading.

His comments coming out of the courtroom and what he posted on social media. What do you make of that? Brazen comments. I mean, he's got a point. He didn't deface the street. And from everything we've heard, it sounds like there wasn't a whole lot of due diligence to actually test if the chalk was easily removed before painting over it, which I mean. The guy straight up says in the courtroom, coming out of the courtroom on the record,

I can't promise you I'm going to stay out of trouble. Yeah. Straight up says that. I can't promise you I'm going to stay out of trouble. I kind of think that was a little bit of hyperbole. You think knowing the cocks that you know that that was hyperbole? I mean, yeah. I doubt he's going to go back on the same, back on Elliot and re-chalk the cross on.

That would be insane if that happened. Of course it would. That would be utterly insane. And he knows that just like we all know that. That would be insane if that happened. Of course it would. That would be utterly insane. And he knows that just like we all know that. That would be insane if that happened. And I don't think this would have meant. Is there a prop bet that we can do here? Knowing I have absolutely no insight into what a pedestrian activist will do here.

90 days, does he stay out of trouble for 90 days? Or does he come in the crossfire of the law again? Because I can assure you, if he does something activist-wise with another street, another crosswalk, another traffic signal of any capacity, the Charlottesville Police Department, Sam Sanders City Hall will be quick to respond. Because he's made, Kevin Cox has made the police department look bad. He's made City Hall look bad. Everybody looks bad in this. Everyone looks bad in this.

Nobody got away without egg on their face. Even the Cox looks bad here. The only person that does not look bad on this is friend of the program, Peter Frazier, Kevin Cox's defense attorney who is collecting a payday for representing Kevin Cox. I'd say the judge doesn't look too bad. Judge, I agree with you. The judge doesn't look bad. He's like, why the hell is this in my courtroom?

We're talking about chalk on a street. Everybody else looks bad. Yeah. chalk on a street. Everybody else looks bad. Is there a prop that we can place on this? It would be whether or not ‑‑ It's obviously tied to the 90 days. And whether or not he arrested again? I think that would have to be it. I think it would have to be it. And you would say no, he will not be in that 90-day period.

I'd say he's not going to do something to get arrested in the next 90 days. I'm not going to take that bet. I'm not going to take that bet, but I want to take that bet. What do you think, viewers and listeners? Does Cox get arrested again in the next 90 days? He's straight upset leaving the courtroom yesterday. I cannot promise you I'm going to stay out of trouble. That's petulant. Also when 29 News asked him if the community can expect 90 days of good behavior from him. He said no. And

if he could do it again, he said he would with a slight change, which is that he got caught. No, he says he would absolutely do it again, although I try to hold the spray wand a little steadier so the lines were straight. I mean, he's got he's got Moxie. You gotta give him that. He's showing literally zero remorse here. I mean, but he makes the point in discussing it that he didn't deface anything. I thought you and I were in agreement that you cannot create your own traffic patterns on city roads.

I'm 100% in agreement with that. Jeff Leonard, friend of the program, see Jeff all the time, reasonable guy, was one of the key witnesses in this court case. Did you read Hall Spencer's coverage on this in the Daily Progress? Jeff Leonard, his testimony that the crosswalk stayed permanent longer than anyone anticipated, visible longer than anyone

anticipated, was one of the reasons, one of the key testimonies in this case. And after Leonard offered that testimony, the judge was gonna get ready to rule, potentially slapping him with a misdemeanor. And then that's when Peter Frazier, friend of the program, multiple guys in this case, friends of the program, Peter Frazier, the defense attorney, said, hold up, hold up, hold up,

we're asking for a little grace from the courtroom, we're not gonna fight this case anymore. Because they read the tea leaves that he was gonna to get hit with the misdemeanor and had to go deep or out of pocket. But one of the sharpest dressed attorneys in Charlottesville, by the way, is Peter Frazier. But the fact that it lasted so long was... You're going to say the city's fault? Come on.

Because how they painted over it, that's what you're going to say? 100%. Instead of using water to wash it off and a brush? Yeah. That's what you're going to say. Yeah. Come on. You don't agree with that? They essentially immortalized the chalk on the street by painting over it. the chalk on the street by painting over it. Look. That's like my son running out of the house and running into the street and saying it's your fault that I ran into the street by leaving the door unlocked. No. That is not equivalent.

How is that not equivalent? Blaming it on the city for keeping the crosswalk permanent because they used the wrong cleanup method? I'm saying that citing as a fact that the chalk stayed on much longer than what was the statistic? Like 72 hours. Whatever. Very short time.

I think it was longer. Oh, so you're saying longer than 72 hours. Whatever. Very short time. I think it was longer. Oh, so you're saying longer than 72 hours. The problem is that there's not really any proof that that was at, that would actually be the case if they hadn't painted over it. We'll see. My instinct says this guy finds himself in trouble right away. And why he finds himself in trouble right away is because he basically got no punishment here.

His GoFundMe crowd source campaign raised over $2,000. He's got to pay the city 600 and some dollars. His legal fees were probably $1,500. This guy literally is taking no money out of pocket here. Heck, he probably made money on this. And he got a boatload of global and national attention. Definitely got the attention. Okay. But he didn't get an ounce of accountability here. Not an ounce of accountability or punishment

here. Are you suggesting that he should have? I'm suggesting that... Should he have gotten some jail time? I don't think... I never said jail time. I'm suggesting that... Should he have gotten some jail time? I never said jail time. I said that he should have paid court costs, he should have paid all the city fees,

he should have been stung in some capacity. Give an inch, someone takes a mile. This guy got an inch and he's taken multiple miles, and the next mile that he's gonna take is gonna put him in the court's crossfire in a much more less forgiving capacity. Yeah, I agree with that. If this happens again with him, it's not going to be this outcome.

The judge isn't going to take a couple days to deliberate. Right. Comments coming in. John Blair's photo on screen of my Ken Elzinga call. John Blair says, I like Ken Elzinga a lot as a person and professor, however, given the situation that the institution finds itself in, I would suggest the interim, not full time president, should just be a competent administrator.

There's obviously going to be a lot of issues with the board of visitors, especially if Spanberger wins and tries to change it, the interim president should be an apolitical administrator. Is that what we have though, John, with J.J. Wagner? Isn't J.J. Wagner an apolitical administrator? Just, you know, I'm spitball in here. She's the university's executive vice president and chief operating officer. Jennifer J.J.

Wagner is serving as the acting president while the process for selecting an interim president takes place. We have an acting president who's waiting for an interim president to be hired, and the interim president is waiting for the permanent president to be an interim interim. We have an interim interim president. This is almost like the Charlottesville city manager position and the turnstile that was Charlottesville city manager, including the guy from Pennsylvania who quit the day before his job was supposed to start.

We have an interim interim city interim interim UVA president right now. JJ Wagger. Next headline. What do you got? Put it on screen, Judi Wichera. We've got an architect who is saying that the NCO ruling could pause around 390 million in projects. We'll spend 90 seconds on this. Maybe 120 seconds.

Set the table on this, Judah Wicca. We all know the NZO has been voided. However, I don't believe the judge has entered the sentence yet. So the city is kind of in a... Zoning purgatory? Yeah. Deserting limbo? Where they can't be sure what exactly to do. The friend zone of zoning? When you have a crush on a girl and she's got you locked in

on the friend zone and won't advance you to the sex zone? What's the architect saying? He's saying that that the action by the court, due to the error of the attorneys, threatens to put approximately 60% of our work. So I believe this number is not like the total amount of money that's getting put on hold in Charlottesville in terms of construction projects. But he says that nearly 390 million in construction projects could be paused and never resumed. That's insane.

Yeah. That's a lot of money. And I'm sure the developers are feeling the pinch, the worry. I had one of the heaviest of heavy hitters tell me earlier in this week, after all this debacle, there's not a chance in hell that he would put his dollars on the street in any development in Charlottesville City. I mentioned this on real talk this morning. The new zoning ordinance,

the submissive filing deadline with Gentry Lock is as much about the Xs and Os, the tangible housing production that's in jeopardy, for-profit and non-profit housing production that's in jeopardy, damming that pipeline. But perhaps the biggest damming of them all is the perceived dysfunction, inefficiency, the perceived erosion of trust with government and development. After seeing this cricket, Jack, Victor Newman,

Young and the Restless, soap opera play out with zoning in Charlottesville City, how can you have any confidence with your money, your time and energy, and putting it on the line to bring housing to Charlottesville. Yeah. We have clients that say they won't even do remodeling in the city anymore. Wow.

Now the heaviest of heavy hitters are saying they won't even consider a dollar of their cartel of money on development in the city. That is the biggest dam of them all. under a dollar of their cartel of money on development in the city. That is the biggest dam of them all, the perceived dysfunction and how it's gonna impact long-term business.

Yeah. Mark, it down. Next headline, what do you got? Next up is about Roeback. So rumblings and grumblings, and I love Roeback. It's pretty much the only thing I wear here. I know. Whether it's the golf shirt, the quarter zip,

I literally have on their shorts right now. Am I on studio camera? Can they see this? These are Roeback shorts, the athletic wear shorts. I'm pretty much wearing them all the time during the summer. I love this brand. I love this is a Roback shorts, the athletic wear shorts. I'm pretty much wearing them all the time during the summer. I love this brand. I love this brand. I hope Roback, the owners, the team sees this.

I texted one of their key personnel before the show that works in e-commerce. Okay. It's an active wear brand that is penetrating the lifestyle category and how they've deployed this brand and the execution of their clothing is a textbook. A textbook should be written, a roadmap. This is a roadmap of how to launch a clothing brand.

This brand was birthed at the Darden School. They were absolute geniuses to use country clubs and golf shops and pro shops and tennis shops to launch their brand because they immediately tied the Roeback brand to luxury and performance. Performance golf, luxury golf, performance racket sports, luxury racket sports. It was genius. They are genius at content creation. Genius on social media. Genius on IG. Genius on Instagram. Absolute genius. They are genius and direct to consumer. DTC is the best margin possible. They utilize social media to create a direct to consumer pipeline, a DTC pipeline, where they're selling, via e-commerce fashion, their active wear, their lifestyle wear to men and women alike.

They were genius with how they transitioned Roeback from men's wear to now men and women's wear. When it initially launched, it was focused on men, golfing and tennis men. Now it's transition, it's unisex and it's fan base and customer base. Genius on how they did it. They're genius on how they used the influencer model, getting stakeholders and influencers to rep them. Absolutely genius. The plan of using stakeholders in college athletics to create this Roeback U model was genius. The one cog that was missing in their org chart and their hierarchy of deployment was the retail outlet. Now, they got the warehouse and they do the warehouse sale on 29 North

and people are legitimately camping out for the Roback warehouse sale. I am hearing, I got a text about this, did a little digging, found it online, a screen ‑‑ I found online that they're hiring a retail sales associate for their Barracks Road shopping center location. Conan and I, Owen of Sir Speedy, texting back and forth, and there's some chitter chatter that Roback is going to replace what was the brand that closed yesterday that we announced yesterday? Start to nutrition and Barricks North. Start to finish nutrition and Barricks North. So the chatter is Roeback taking over this location and Barricks North and I think that is a genius move. I'll give you a little insight, okay? So I spent ‑‑ we spent nearly three weeks in Southampton, New York. That's why we were gone the end of June and the first half of July. This is our first week back from vacation. Our family loves it there. My wife's family

is from there. We ‑‑ Christmas there, summer there, another time during the year there, there often if not in Charlottesville. And in the village of Southampton, New York, that's basically their downtown mall. The Southampton village, the village is akin to the downtown mall in Charlottesville. I was walking around, had some time to kill after doing some work. I had always working. My wife sometimes frustrates my wife. It's the nature of being self-employed. I literally had, thank God my wife gives me the grace to do this. I said, look, I have to get some work done. I'm working on this deal right now. You know the deal we're working on. My clients are buying an established restaurant in town.

I had to negotiate the mechanics of the asset purchase agreement with the restaurant. We had to negotiate the terms of a five‑year lease with five‑year options. And tenant improvement, the free rent period, the mechanicals, the HVAC unit, and it was extremely time consuming. And I said to my wife while we were in Southampton, I need to leave for three or four hours to figure this deal out and get some time away from the kids. I ended up going to the library in the village of Southampton, New York, and I spent time literally working four or five hours in one day on vacation. And then I decided to walk around the village.

I walked into the Chamber of Commerce in Southampton, New York. And I had a conversation with the representative of the Chamber of Commerce in Southampton. She told me that in the village of Southampton, more than 80% of the leases in their downtown area, more than 80% of the leases, the retail storefronts in Southampton,

were on leases that were less than a year's time. Or that 80% of the businesses in Southampton Village are on a lease that's 12 months or less. I said, Jesus, how does that work? She said they're using these storefronts as a marketing mechanism during the season, the summer season, when people visit the Hamptons. They know that when they have this pop-up business in the village and they sign a lease that's 12 months or less, more than 80% or 12 months or less, that it's as much about selling the inventory, the art, the skews on the shelf in the village as it is having their brand on a sign, having a Windows storefront that they can use for their social media channels or to have luxury visitors, people that are

enjoying a vacation in this zip code, walking by the village and seeing their brand. They're basically riding the coattails of luxury, the Hamptons, co- branding. So it was as much for these businesses being in this category, in this market, in this vacation destination for the social media content for the co-branding of luxury as it was selling the actual inventory in their store. And I relay this back to Roback. And this is how I'm going to do that. If there's a luxury part of Charlottesville, it's going to be Barracks Road. I relay it back to Roback in that having that storefront and Barracks Road, even if it's the north wing, not as good as

the primary area, the north wing, an afterthought compared to Barracks primary, still the north wing is very legitimate. Having that store front is going to be a content cog for their social verticals. It's going to co-brand luxury even more in Charlottesville and allow them to capture the average consumer that has not been touched by their brand yet. Roebeck and Barricks, if this materializes, is another extremely smart move for this organization. Another extremely smart move from this organization. I hope their executive team and their middle management team hears what I just said right there.

I applaud them for what they're doing. Now if they then try to scale this brand by having storefronts in every Tom, Dick and Harry municipality, city or jurisdiction, I would say, what the hell are you doing here? That makes no sense. I think you're seeing that with some of the breweries now. A lot of these breweries that have scaled tasting rooms all over jurisdictions everywhere,

they're feeling the pinch right now. Because these tasting rooms are not performing at the levels that they were performing at pre-COVID. They got punch drunk with the revenue that was coming from scaling of tasting rooms and kitchens everywhere. And that business is reeled back because the young millennial and the Gen Z-er ain't boozing like older millennials or are you Gen, what are you? Gen X. Gen X and old millennials booze at a much greater proclivity than young millennials and Gen Zers. So those who scale their models with tasting rooms everywhere are like, dude,

what are we doing here? If Roebuck does something like that, I'm going to push back on it. But if they did something like that, did you know that there's multiple Charlottesville brands that have storefronts in the Hamptons? Multiple ones. Charlottesville brands have storefronts in the Hamptons. I applaud Roback. Berksh shopping center, Berks Road North. Heard it from Conan, did a little reconnaissance and see a job opening for the position. Exciting times. Great brand. UVA brand. Next headline, what do you got? Are remote workers weakening coffee shop culture? I mean, you talk about, we just talked about the change in human behavior with COVID. Look at how much has changed since COVID.

We have COVID and the pandemic changed where people could live. COVID and the pandemic changed how people could live. COVID in the pandemic changed how people shopped. COVID in the pandemic changed how people ordered their food and where they chose to eat it. COVID in the pandemic absolutely changed office space. COVID in the pandemic made people more sedentary, reclusive, less about human connection, more about digital connection. COVID and the pandemic undoubtedly drove up the cost of living in the greater Charlottesville area, specifically the city of Amarillo County, as a number of COVID transplants have migrated to Charlottesville and Amarillo County to live.

Now look at what it's doing to coffee shop culture. As folks can work from ISPs and work remotely or hybridly, they're choosing to park their laptops, their earbuds, their iPhones, and work wherever they can tether into an Internet service provider. And of course you want to get out of your house. Of course you want some separation of church and state from your partner, your children, or where you're eating and sleeping. And you're going to executive offices.

We have the most of them in the city. If you need executive office space, we have them from $350 all the way to $1,200 a month. Furnished, unfurnished, I cover the utilities, DM me, Charlottesville Business Brokers, if you need executive office space, we're your guy. We just leased two of them yesterday. You met with Shelly, great tenant.

You're gonna love her. But COVID and the pandemic, goodness gracious, look tenant. You're going to love her. But COVID and the pandemic, goodness gracious, look at what they're doing to coffee shops. I'm in a coffee shop this morning, one I patronize often. The barista, general manager, or a friend, straight up said to me, Jerry, we have a serious problem. You can talk about this on the show, just not use our, don't use the coffee shop's name. And the serious problem we have is all these people, and he said look around, do not leave for hours before COVID. They would stay for a cup of coffee and a little time extra and then they would leave. Now these people are buying a cup of coffee and staying in their chair and staying at their table for half the day. So the average consumer

who's coming in not tethered into the Internet that wants to go to the coffee shop to have a conversation with their friend over a latte no longer has the seat to do it. And when they don't have the seat to do it, they're not buying the coffee. So you see revenues the whether it was the Great Recession, whether it was the Great Depression, you look at any life cycle of the American economy over the last 150 years. Since the Civil War, everyone has said recession-proof business, alcohol. You had speakeasies, you had bootleggers, you had moonshiners during a time when the federal government said you can't drink. It was still happening. But since COVID, you've seen alcohol sales plummet. And since COVID, you are literally hearing coffee sales now plummet. That was another recession.

You're selling a drug, a legal drug, and the sales are plummeting on coffee. And in large part, they're plummeting at shops because people are not getting up and leaving the table. They're working because of COVID. So now this particular shop, a known brand, ladies and gentlemen in the city, has said, we don't know what to do. We're considering taking away internet from our shop. No internet at a shop, a coffee shop, that used to be blasphemy. That was blasphemy. And now that I used to work, our business is 18 years old, and May of 2026, May 29th, 2026, the Miller organization turned 18, 18 years old of being self-employed.

When I initially launched the business 17 years and change ago, I launched it out of Panera Bread and Barracks Road Shopping Center. I would literally go to Panera Bread and I did exactly what folks are doing now. I would get like a broccoli and cheese bowl or a cup of coffee or a Danish and just sit there on my laptop and work. And Panera Bread, 17 years and change ago, always from 1130 in the morning until like 2 p.m. during the lunch rush, the modem or the Internet would mysteriously go down. And I would always say, what the hell is happening here? Why can't I work? This was before hotspots on your phone. They're like, oh, sorry, we're having some Internet difficulties. But it was

every single day, Monday through Friday. And then eventually I noticed something as a voyeur of human behavior, as a man who is voyeuristic when it comes to human behavior. I always watch at 1130 a.m. when the internet went down, the digital nomads, the digital tethered in professionals would pack up their computer, put it in a bag, and leave, and then the lunch crowd would come in and have a place to stay. It's ravaging borderline raping coffee shops, though, at a completely different clip because

they're coming in the morning and not leaving until the afternoon. And coffee shop culture is completely changed because of it. The coffee shop was the watering hole for conversation. Yeah. And now it's the epicenter of earbuds, laptops, Zoom calls, Teams meetings,

and inbox clearing. And that's sad. Yeah. And that's impacting locally owned and operated businesses at a level that they don't know what to do about it. Next headline at the 125 marker. Six thousand fentanyl pills recovered in a Seville bust.

This is terrifying. Can you just give them the who, when, where, why on this? This is the thing that most scares me as a parent. I mean, the scary thing is that fentanyl is, I believe, fairly cheap to produce, which is why it keeps popping up everywhere. Because if you're going to cut something, if you're going to take a drug and try to make more money off

of it, you want something cheap to spread out what you've got. And then we've got. 6,000 Fentanyl pills in Charlottesville. Fentanyl is not, Fentanyl doesn't know race, Fentanyl doesn't know money. Fentanyl doesn't know black, brown, Puerto Rican or Haitian. White, Asian, Latino. It doesn't know upper class, middle class, lower class, no class. It doesn't know employed or unemployed, all it does is kill and devastate. To be fair, it's also a legal drug that hospitals use in extreme cases of pain.

Six thousand fentanyl pills is not a legal drug. Oh no, I'm not saying that these pills are. I'm saying that the problem is that fentanyl is a drug that's used and useful in the right place. There was a time where you could go and smoke some weed or there was a time where you would go and you'd buy a bag of blow and you would not worry about anything at all. Now there's a time where depending on what you're buying and who you're doing it with, even if it's smoke and weed,

you're wondering what's on there. And that's terrifying. I'm gonna tell you right now, with talking with parents and folks that listen to the show, high school kids in our community, and yes, this is Western Alamaro High School, yes, this is the private schools, yes, this is the schools that are otherwise known as wealthy.

They're setting up PO boxes at places like Mailbox Express. These PO box mills in 5th Street Station or in the Food Lion Shopping Center on Pantops. They're securing addresses and they're buying what they think is Percocet, what they think is some kind of mainstream painkiller online and what they're getting instead is Fentanyl and they're taking it. And that scares the bejee-mus out of me. Yeah, it should.

The absolute hell out of me. 6,000 pills in Charlestown, ladies and gentlemen. Taken out of Fifeville neighborhood. Insane. Yeah. Philip Dow in Scottsville, his photo on screen. He leaves this comment in the comments section of my personal Facebook page. Jerry, this is off topic, but you might be interested in this.

The tavern on the James has been sold. I hear it from a reliable source. I understand there will be changes made. Philip Dow, who we've dubbed the mayor of Scottsville, from Scottsville right now, says the tavern on the James has been sold. That's not my words, those are his words. Philip Dowell, I'll look into that. I appreciate that, heads up. Comments are coming in.

We'll get some photos on screen here as I call for them. James Watson watching the program. I don't know, James Watson says, I don't know how people can take Teams meetings and Zoom meetings in a coffee shop. My voice is too loud and then I can't hear. Not to mention I will be talking to everybody in there and getting distracted. Everyone's different though. Yeah, I would find that very distracting if somebody was sitting near me on a Zoom call. But how is it any different than the person that's walking through a public setting like a store, like Lowe's, talking to somebody on their phone on speaker phone? I see it all the time. Someone's walking through the store on speaker phone,

just having a conversation. How is that any different? Conan Owen says why are these people that are working remote workers in coffee shops not renting at code, at the code building? Georgia Gilmer responds to Conan Owen because coffee shops only cost a cup of coffee. Bingo. And code is not cheap to rent. You're talking like $300, $350 for a seat at a desk and an open office. Vanessa Parkill's photo on screen. Once I asked if I could stop by to pick up an order since I'm local, they said we don't have a retail location. She's talking Roeback. I was ordering online, just wanted to save the shipping costs.

I love the idea of a spot for Roeback and Barracks Road. Just hope it doesn't boost the price point. Great comment from Vanessa Parkhill. I will say this, while Roeback, I hope the Roeback folks are still watching, I know they were watching earlier. While Roeback is not cheap, in fact, you could say it's expensive, the quality is fantastic. I will pay for something if the quality is there. I am not opposed to paying for a premium price if the quality is premium, especially when

it's clothing where you can wear it over and over and over again. Anything you want to add to the program, Judah Wickhauer. Friday edition of the show is pretty good. It's been a crazy news week. It's been a crazy news month. John Blair on LinkedIn says fair point on J.J. Davis. J.J. Wagner Davis. She is apolitical. I just feel like some true chaos could come if Spamburger wins and we have even more born of visitors turnover in January which is only five months away. I'll start making this call.

The Democrats are going to sweep the slate in November. And it only five months away. I'll start making this call, okay. The Democrats are going to sweep the slate in November. And it's not just Governor, it's not just Attorney General, it's not just Lieutenant Governor. You're going to see a lot of seats turn over that were otherwise Republican and Richmond. They are going to sweep November the Democrats. And I had this conversation this week on the racket courts. If Glenn Yonkin can fire Burt Ellis, who he appointed, Yonkin appointed Ellis to the board, and if he can fire Yonkin, someone he appointed to the board for malfeasance, then what would keep Spamburger when she wins from making similar moves with the Board of Visitors, knowing she doesn't even have

any ties to them. Yonkin fired Ellis and he appointed Ellis to be a bull in a china shop and that's what Ellis did. And then Yonkin fired him after Yonkin got what he wanted, DEI eradicated from UVA. Then he fired Ellis. Spamberger, what's going to keep her from doing that to the board right now? Another example is Yonkin appointed Cuccinelli. Richmond is not even green lighting Cuccinelli's appointment. Didn't green light him or seven others. Right. I think we're seeing a lot of precedents laid down. You're seeing the University of Virginia being a political war zone.

That's what the University of Virginia has become, political warfare. It's happened at the federal level, it's happened with the governor, it's happened with Richmond, it's happened with faculty, it's happening with students, it's happening with faculty. It's happening with students. It's happening in the athletic department. It's happening in courtrooms. It's happening in dean's offices. It's happening at the Greek fraternity and sorority level. It's happening with the admissions process. It's happening with branding and monikers with this new Ivy League.

It's happening with the medical system. It's happening with billing. It is political warfare. Unbelievable. That's the Friday edition of the I Love Seville show. Enjoy your weekend. Thank you..