The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Phoenix Association Offers MLS Access W/O Membership; BAR Responds Well To Apts At Violet Crown

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Phoenix Association Offers MLS Access W/O Membership BAR Responds Well To Apartments At Violet Crown Pinkston, “Parking Is A Really, Really Bad Thing” Pinkston Says Oschrin Is Teaching Him On Parking Is Future Of Parking In Jeopardy In City Of CVille? Who’s Influencing Councilor Oschrin On Parking? Phillip Riese On 11/21; Defense & Biz Experience Chief Mike Kochis & CA Joe Platania 12/11 Show 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 Wednesday afternoon, guys. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville show. A pleasure to connect with you on a show today presented by Mexicali Restaurant, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, and Charlottesville Business Brokers. There's a lot we're going to cover on today's show, including the playing of audio from Monday night's city council meeting, where one of five councilors, his name Brian Pinkston, says on the record in front of a

microphone just like mine, sitting on a dais while communicating with citizens and taxpayers in Charlottesville quote parking is really really bad Brian Pinkston's exact words will play that sound for you he also highlights in the sound we're about to play for you that Natalie Orsha and also a city councilor, has educated him on the terrible nature of parking for a city. Brian Pinkston's running for re-election. Michael Payne's in the midst of a second term. Natalie Olshan is about to complete her first year of her first term. Payne, Pinkston, and Ulstrand, probably a lot of commonalities

when it comes to their viewpoint on parking. This leads me to ask a very fair question. Is the future of parking in jeopardy in the city of Charlottesville? We're going to talk about that today. Derek Bond, you're watching the program. This is right up your alley as a restaurant owner. A lot we're going to cover about that today. Derek Bond, you're watching the program. This is right up your alley as a restaurant owner. A lot we're going to cover on today's show,

including the Board of Architectural Review yesterday evening, responding extremely favorably to Big Apple developer Jeff Levine wanting an apartment tower in place of the Violent Crown movie theater. If you're the operators of the Violent Crown movie theater. If you're the operators of the Violent Crown movie theater, what happened yesterday with the Board of Architecture Review

basically saying we're kind of in favor of housing and an apartment tower in the downtown mall, that is a deaf now? Now. Deaf now? I don't want to, is it deaf now? Now. Deaf now? I don't want to call it a deaf now, but it's certainly something that you didn't want to hear if you're the operator of Violent Crown, the movie theater.

Remember, the owners of the movie theater, the real estate itself, are a different party than the actual operators of the movie theater. The folks that are operating the movie theater are basically leasing the space from the, are basically leasing the space from the owners. Who were the former? Who were the former operators?

This is insane. The former operators of the movie theater who own the real estate realized that the business had headwinds and somehow founded a skate valve with a Texas operator, an operator from Texas, who purchased the movie theater.

A lot we're going to cover on today's program. We're going to talk just the craziness that is some of the decision making in Charlottesville today. On tomorrow's program, we have Philip Reese. He's a business owner on the downtown mall. He has also got 16 years of working in the defense sector, including with the Defense Intelligence Agency, and seven of those 16 years spent at Rivanna Station north of town. He's going to offer fantastic perspective. He retired from his career in defense earlier this year

to launch, ladies and gentlemen, a business. And I want to talk to him about the defense sector's impact on this community, pay scales with the defense sector, how the defense sector in a lot of ways is the top driver outside of the University of Virginia when it comes to our economy locally. I want to talk why he retired from the defense sector. I want to talk about tourism. He's got takes on tourism.

This guy, it's going to be a fascinating interview for tomorrow at 12.30 on the I Love Seville show. Remember, on December 11th, Chief Mike Kochess is in the studio and Commonwealth's Attorney Joe Plantania is in the studio to talk all things courts and crime in a city we love dearly. And on Friday's show of this week, Liza Borshus, Sean Ayers,

and Tom Powell to talk all things Charlottesville. You're talking two of the heaviest hitters in the automobile industry with Liza Borges and Sean Ayers, and you got Tom Powell who founded the Toy Lift 34 years ago. That's going to be a fascinating walk in the park when it comes to Charlottesville, Virginia. So much to cover on the show. Judah Wickhower will give some love. First, a Mexicali restaurant. River Hawkins and Johnny Arnalis have created

a street art museum, a cocktail bar, a music venue, and are offering some of the best Latin fusion cuisine you will find in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the old world of beer space on West Main Street. Mexicali restaurant, you've got to try it. I suggest the Spicy Margarita.

It's probably the best Spicy Margarita River Hawkins I've ever had. It packed a punch. It was right on the cusp of, ay, carajo, carajo, coño, arriba, chico. It was damn good. We'll also give some props to Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, 60 consecutive years of business, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, the Vermillion family. 60 years ago, this business started with a husband and a wife and a dream. 60 years later, three generations of family have run Charlottesville Sanitary Supply.

Online at charlottesvillesanitarysupply.com, a fantastic brand new e-commerce website for Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. Due to Wickhauer, I'll start with a bit of national news that I'm going to eventually tie to Charlottesville and Albemarle County. If you want to put the first, lower third on screen, giddy up and get ready for this. The real estate industry in Central Virginia, one of the drivers of the economy, 1,100, 1,200 agents in the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors. Then the entire supply chain that is tied to real estate. The local association, the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, certainly has some headwinds. This news broke this morning. After it broke this morning, I forwarded it to Keith Smith.

We had a special edition of Real Talk with Keith Smith, who he said, wow, this is big time news as well. Phoenix, Arizona, the Phoenix Association of Realtors, has done something fairly significant here. They are offering MLS access without Realtor membership. Phoenix Realtors has rolled out a new initiative for

area brokers that allows them to gain access to the MLS and legal forms without joining a realtor association. It's called MLS Choice, and it's aimed specifically at brokers. The program offers just a $249 annual plan, which is less than half the cost of the traditional three-tier option, which includes membership in Phoenix Realtors, the Area Association of Realtors, and the National Association of Realtors. For $249 membership in the Phoenix Realtors, the Area Association of Realtors, and the National Association of Realtors, those who opt for MLS Choice will retain many of the benefits offered by Phoenix Realtors but cannot call themselves Realtors and will lose access to state and national association benefits, the organization notes. all the stock forms, all the contracts, all the legalese for $249 in Phoenix, one of the largest realtor associations, ladies and gentlemen, in the country, Phoenix. $249 and you get MLS access and access to the legal contracts.

Basically, you can perform business and not miss a beat. This is why I bring this up to you. It's the I Love Seville show. I'm going to localize this to Charlottesville. You have one of the largest real estate associations in America, Phoenix, saying, we understand that the industry is radically changing. And we're going to give our agents, if they don't want to call themselves realtors, because that's a registered trademark. Remember, you can buy and sell real estate on behalf of your clients without being a realtor. That's a registered trademark with NAR. You would just be a licensed real estate professional.

You could do all the stuff, including access to multiple listing service, and have access to all the stock documentation for less than $250 a year. I have a sincere question for all the realtors and anyone in real estate, the bankers, the financiers, the investors, the lenders, the inspectors, the appraisers, the photographers, the remodelers, the builders, everyone. If for less than $250 a year in Phoenix, you can have access to the multiple listing service and all the legal documentation, how are these associations going to financially survive and be viable? Their associations are based on membership and the dues of said membership, the contribution of dues, yearly dues.

If you can get access to everything you need to be a practicing real estate professional for less than $250, how will these associations locally, statewide, and nationally survive? I said yesterday, what is the value proposition of the association? I said yesterday, what is the long-term success or viability of the debt that is currently being carried on the Hillsdale Conference Center for the local car association? How will that be able to be paid, that debt, if membership drops and this potential Phoenix model materializes in the Charlottesville footprint? These are legitimate questions. I'm taking a national topic and I'm localizing it to Charlottesville, Virginia.

That's what we do on the I Love Seville show. And this is a topic matter that's going to ruffle feathers of some folks in the real estate profession. But ladies and gentlemen, if you're not reading stories like this and the tea leaves like I am, then you are not in today's reality. You are not in today's reality. There is a time where the selling of real estate is in a lot of ways stuck in quicksand right now. Look at the days on market of a lot of properties that are listed right now. They are long in the tooth.

Interest rates are not dropping like anticipated. And people are golden handcuffed to 2.5%, 3%, 4% rates and loans that they earned or got or secured during COVID in the pandemic. Inventory is not moving. And it's all happening at the same time that the industry is radically changing. And the end result of that is a drop in membership. And if what happens in Phoenix plays out elsewhere, and I bet you it will, I ask how will these associations survive economically? It's a question that must be asked. Studio camera, then we've Judah Wittkauer on a two-shot. If you want to read the story that I

just read, and I encourage every real estate professional in Central Virginia, every broker in Central Virginia to do this. Put in your search engine, Phoenix Association offers MLS access without realtor membership, and do it right now. Like right now. Two-shot, jack of all trades, jack of all wits. John Shabe, welcome to the program. Dean Russell, welcome to the program. Georgia Gilmer, Kevin Yancey, Carrie Rock, Vanessa Parkhill, the talented agent. Danny Hugus, welcome to the program. Juan Sarmiento, Kevin Sullivan, the real estate investor. Joe Reed, the business investor.

Do we talk B-Pinks first or do we go to the Bar, Board of Architectural Review? I mean, where do you want to start here? That's a good question. I mean, we might as well get the Bar response out of the way. It's potentially good news, depending on how you look at things. Board of Architectural Review. Yesterday, Jeff Levine, New York City developer, the man who developed the apartment tower where Blue Moon Diner is located

next to University Tire on West Main Street, the man who is bringing a hotel next to the Omni on the downtown mall, a Marriott brand. The man who is looking to acquire the Violent Crown movie theater for an undisclosed sum with a contract that's contingent on an increase in height of the building. No, excuse me, not an increase in height. An increase in the amount of stories from 13 to 18 stories in the building. 13 stories to 18 stories. He also wants real estate tax breaks from city council. He says, I don't want to pay you a lot of taxes out of the gate as I bring this $180 million plus project to market to help you the city help me help you who said that

help me help you i can't think help me help you jerry mcguire tom cruise maybe the best role he's ever had jerry mcguire that could have been cuba gooding jr's best role jerry mc. You disagree? No, I don't disagree. Have you seen Jerry Maguire? Yeah. Okay. Would you agree Cuba Gooding Jr. was off the chain in that movie? I think I remember him being pretty good in that movie. It was damn good. Cuba was damn good. Help me help you. That's what the Big Apple developer is saying to City Hall. Help me help you. You have this mission. And the mission is you want more housing.

And I'm going to help you. But before I can help you with that more housing, I need you to help me. And for you to help me, I need you to allow me to go from 13 stories to 18 stories because I want 225 apartments. And then I want tax breaks. And he, after having this hit the press last week, went before the Board of Architectural Review yesterday, yesterday evening. And good Lord, goodness gracious, great balls of fire, the Board of Architectural Review, Judah Wickauer, responded...

With an, okay, this might be a decent idea. We like the idea of more housing, and it's worth going forward with it. Extremely favorably. I don't know about extremely favorably, but... Which part was not extremely favorably from what you saw? I mean, it was not unfavorable, but I wouldn't say it was like full bore, like let's get this done. I think one of the

members, and I'll read it directly from the NBC29 reporting. I sent you that story, right? Yeah, I'm looking at it. One of the members of the Board of Architectural Review said, A, bar member Sherry Lewis,

I think we're all in agreement about demolishing the building. Basically saying it's no big deal. Yeah, basically saying we're not going to push back on that. We're not going to push back on demolishing the building. Bar member James, is it Zemer? James the big Z? Jimmy Z? How would you say last name?

Z-E-H-M-E-R. Zemer? Zemer. That's not the first time someone's asked James, Big J, how do you say your last name? He says this. This apartment building could bring vivacity back to downtown in a major way.

But I think this is also a test case of how to do that sensitively with the historic district, arguably our most important historic district. First, big Z, big Z, arguably the most important historic district. Dude, it is clear cut the most important historic district in the entire Central Virginia region. These are the most important historic district in the entire Central Virginia region. These are the most important eight blocks in Central Virginia. Whether people want to admit this or not, these eight blocks are the most important eight in the Central Virginia region, 300,000 people strong. If you have a houseless problem and it's happening in downtown Gordonsville, does it get the traction it's getting now? If you have a homeless issue and it's happening in downtown Crozet by far downers, by Crozet Hardware, does it get the traction it's happening now?

If you have a houseless problem and it's happening in Almar County. What's the downtown? 29, Route 29? Does it get the traction it's happening now? The answer is no. The reason it's getting the traction it's getting right now is it's because it's next to City Hall, it's next to the police department, it's next to the courthouses, and it's on a pedestrian mall. Very few of those exist in America

today. Big Z says this could bring vivacity back to downtown in a major way. Ronald Bailey, Board of Architectural Review member, says this, quote, I like the idea of someone trying to build housing downtown. Jake Dubs, Jack of all trades, Jack of all wits. That's a favorable response. Yeah, I think they still are wanting to know more about this before fully committing. And I agree. I mean, we've heard, you've talked about the fact that, what is this going to do to Water Street?

Oh, I'll tell you what it's going to do to Water Street. It's going to devastate Water Street for three years. It's going to lock down Water Street. It's going to shackle Water Street. It's going to throttle Water Street. It's going to choke Water Street. Handcuff Water Street. We've also heard from one of our viewers

about the shadow this thing is going to cast. Deep Throat says a 184-foot tall building is going to put a shadow when the sun's overhead of significant proportions. Yeah, for a good portion of the day. I also asked the question, for three years of construction in downtown Charlottesville, what's it going to do to that side of the mall and the restaurants and shops that are on that side? Yeah. Remember the last major project built on that side of the mall and the restaurants and shops that are on that side yeah remember the last major

project built on that side of the ball ice park to code building jeffrey woodruff's was done during the pandemic and it was done when there was lockdown orders and we were quarantining so that construction timing was probably as perfect as it gets no doubt for charlesville's economy and the downtown's health and sustainability this one one would not be the case. I'm also a little worried about what this is going to look like. Because it's one thing to have the code building at the end of the mall, pretty much off the mall. But are we going to start modernizing the look of the downtown mall? Is that the right thing to do? I mean, I'm not saying it's necessarily horrible,

but once you start replacing downtown mall buildings with new architecture, let's put up as many like he wants to do. Let's get as many units as possible in here. I just feel like that's, I don't know. I'm worried about the look. Okay. That's their job, the Board of Architecture Review. Historic District, they're about the look.

Yeah. These are the people that care about the look. Let's hope they don't get too enamored. These people who care about the look. These are the people that care about the look. Let's hope they don't get too enamored. These people who care about the look are saying, dudes, we want this. So far. These are the people that care about the look. It's not the city council.

It's the Board of Architectural Review. We'll get this topic behind us with the following if you're the operator of violent crown and it's not an in-market operator it's an operator that purchased the movie business not the real estate but the movie business they lease from the owners of the theater and of the dirt. And the people who own the theater and own the dirt previously operated the movie theater. And these people realized,

Jesus, we can't make this work. We're at best in third place in a tiny market. And first and second place have advantages over us that we cannot come close to matching. Specifically, parking availability. Stonefield and Fifth Street Station are moviegoers can park 100 feet in front of our theater. They're theater and walk.

If you get lucky. Can't do that downtown. So the initial operators of the theater, who own the real estate in the dirt, said, get us out of here. And they found an escape route, a lifeline, the fire escape on the back of the building, the stairs that are clunky and crickety, and you hope they hold your weight as you jump out of the window during a burning fire and try to make it to the ground level. And that escape valve, that fire route, that lifeline was an operator out of Texas who said, we'll give it a whirl. Was it Elevate? I believe so. The Elevate group? And Elevate's

going to come in here and save the movie business in a tiny market by running a downtown mall theater at a time when people are choosing to live stream the Tyson-Jake Paul fight while watching at their home on their big screen with surround sound as opposed to paying for pay-per-view. At a time where people choose to watch movies now on the couch with Prime or Max or Peacock or Netflix instead of paying for tickets.

Dudes, there's not a chance in H-E double hockey sticks that you are going to invest more money into this theater, especially after what you saw from Barr last night. The Board of Architectural Review basically did this. We will do what it takes to bring housing here. And now the next thing the Big Apple developer, Jeff Levine, needs is whether or not he can get the tax breaks and the 18 stories he wants instead of the 13 that's allowed. And those are big ifs, Judah. Those are really big ifs. No doubt. Time will tell,

my friends. Now, the next storyline, as we rotate lower thirds on screen, is a piece of sound that was sent to me by someone who asked to remain nameless. No, it was not Deep Throat. It was another extremely connected individual. Extremely connected. He said, please don't use my name. So I won't. And he said, here's a piece of sound. He even chopped it up and edited it for us, the viewer and listener, the host and the star of our show, Judah Wickauer. And he took this sound and said, your viewer should hear this. Said, you are the news that we listen to.

Please show this to the viewers and listeners. It was Brian Pinkston on Monday night, on the dais, behind a microphone, on the record, talking about parking in Charlottesville, Virginia. We're going to do our best to give you some kind of production value here. Are you ready for this production value? I encourage the viewers and listeners to take a look at the screen here. Brian Pinkston, I will set the table talking about the importance of parking or lack thereof and how he has come to this point of his ideology as it applies to parking. And I'll give you two words. Natalie Oshren, Judah, give us that sound in three, two, one. Struggling with this one.

When I was reading it, I mean, Counselor Oshren is beginning to help me see the light on parking being a really, really bad thing. Sorry. I'm not trying to tease you. No, I love to hear that it's working. You're helping me. I just...

Good Lord. Did we just hear a Charlottesville City Councilor, Brian Pinkston, call parking really, really, really bad? I must have misheard. Brian Pinkston call parking really, really, really bad? I must have misheard. I must have misheard Brian Pinkston say this during a city council meeting on the record. I must have misheard it.

Please, please, dear God, play that sound again. Please put the photos on screen. What is happening in today's world? Please, Judah, please, in three, in two, in one. Struggling with this one when I was reading it. Counselor Oshren is beginning to help me see the light on parking being a really, really bad thing. Sorry, I'm not trying to tease you. No, I love to hear that it's working.

You're helping me. I just... How do we characterize a city councilor during a city council meeting on the record called parking really, really bad and then say how he's gotten to this point

with his view on parking is through the influence of a person sitting right next to him on the dais and Natalie Osharan, who literally gets in a automobile. She lives in the city, gets in an automobile and drives 25 minutes, not to the urban ring in Albemarle County, but to North Garden, to Pippin Hill, where she sells weddings that can be north of $500,000 for one day. How are we at this point in governance

where a man who is up for re-election, who has announced he's running again next year, who is completing his first term, is saying, I am being influenced by another counselor that is roughly the same age of my oldest kid, this other counselor who's roughly the same age of my oldest kid who goes from the city in an automobile

to North Garden to Pippin Hill to sell quarter million dollar weddings driving and parking and then on the record telling everyone that's willing to listen that parking is really, really bad you're the voice of sensibility. You're the metronome of consistency. You are the lighthouse of unemotional commentary.

Judah Wickhauer. The lighthouse of unemotional commentary. You talked about this. When I get you laughing like that. So this is how I see it I think it's akin to the idea of dressing for the job you want not the job you have

if you want to take that metaphor basically what I'm saying is that and obviously I'm guessing because all I have to go on is this you know this one this one short clip. But I think what the idea behind it is if we keep expanding parking, if we keep all the parking that we've got, then people are going to use it. And if the ideal is to get less people using cars, more people using public transportation, bikes, scooters, whatever,

then we need to dress for the job that we want. In other words, we need to start cutting back on the parking that's available so that people get fed up with trying to drive their cars into Charlottesville and start using more public transportation. Whether or not that's a good idea, I'm not going to make any statement signs. Can I just ask you very pointed questions? And the viewers and listeners of our Fine and Fair talk show, can I ask you some very pointed questions? Is Charlottesville, Virginia, in the year that is about to be 2025,

capable of sustaining itself, its economy, or as the Board of Architectural Review member, was it Big Z, the vivacity of downtown Charlottesville? Was it Big Z who said that? Without parking. Without parking.

Without parking. I agree. Is the urbanist lobbying group Livable Charlottesville, the Gilligan gang, Professor Stephen Johnson, in the ear of Natalie Olshan, who literally gets in a car and drives from the city to Pippin Hill,

parks her car to make her professional living, selling quarter million dollar a year weddings, quarter million dollar a day weddings. Is that what's happening here? Is that happening at the same time that just weeks ago, B. Pinks announced his re-election intentions? Can you make this make sense for me, please? Well, I think the fact that Natalie has to use a car to drive to Pippin Hill-

It has merit. Don't discount that. That's what he's about to do. That has merit. Why are you saying that doesn't have merit? Just because somebody has to fly on the regs for business doesn't mean that they can't hold a view that people should be flying less to bring down the carbon footprint of whatever. I'm not saying I... You don't think that's hypocrisy? There's a little bit of hypocrisy in there, but what...

Look, if there are no other solutions... I'm flabbergasted. If there are no other solutions, what are you going to do? Are you suggesting that she quit her job so that she doesn't need to drive a car out to Pippin Hills? Are you suggesting that she, I don't know, somehow create a bus route that's going to get her there every day? The fact of the matter is that some of the things that I think that she wants to accomplish are not currently possible to accomplish.

That doesn't mean it's a good thing to think forward. In fact, one of the problems I often have, not necessarily with our current council, but with Charlottesville in general, is that there doesn't seem to have been a whole lot of thought that went into how things are going to be 10, 15, 20 years from now. The way the streets are – this is an insane city. Insane city. How about the fact that – go ahead. is potentially looking forward and having not just best intentions but ideas for how to make those intentions come to fruition is not necessarily a bad thing, even if you want to call her a hypocrite for driving her car to Pippin Hill? It's a conflict of interest. It's hypocrisy. The same councillor that's talking about a road diet of shrinking the roads.

The same councillors that are pushing electric buses for the Charlottesville area transit system. Electric buses. Let's use electric buses for the Charlottesville area transit system, electric buses. Let's use electric buses because it's not bad for the environment. These effing electric buses malfunction and break down and have a driving radius or driving geographical footprint that pales in comparison of gasoline buses. It doesn't matter that we can't get people to and from where they're going on time with the public transportation system.

It doesn't matter that the buses are late. It doesn't matter that they break down all the time. We don't care about reliability with the transportation system. At least our buses are good for the environment. The same individuals that are pushing road diets and electric buses, despite being horribly unreliable, are the same people that are saying parking is really, really bad

at a time when our transportation system stinks, at a time when our walkability stinks, at a time when our walkability stinks, at a time when our bicycle lane stinks. Do you disagree with any of that? No, I agree that walkability is horrendous. Horrendous! Like, this is a tiny city, but I would never want to walk anywhere, really.

I mean, like, we talk about why certain areas of West Main Street don't get a lot of business or a lot of walking. That happened earlier this week, right? We were talking about that. And I agree. It's like, there's just,

I honestly don't really, I can't put my finger on it. I used to love, love walking around Savannah. It's a gorgeous city to walk around. There are parks every few blocks. There are trees. There's green.

There's Spanish moss. There are shops mixed in with the housing downtown. It's a wonderful place to just meander. I don't get that from Charlottesville. Like, in Charlottesville, I want to get where I'm going. There was a person that was walking on it. Was it Cherry or Elliot? That got killed. Yeah, that was tragic. Tragic! I don't know that that's attributable to any specific... I would say it's attributable to

this not being very walking-centric or walking safe. And you, did you use the word irresponsible for Pinkston's comments on parking? I think you used that at the top of the show. I said, how do you characterize these comments on parking?

I think you said, do you, okay, I'll follow up. Do you think the comments were irresponsible? I need more context. I think they're odd. I think without more context, it's hard to say. Potentially irresponsible. But again, if they have a plan for how to make the city more walkable and to make public transportation more attractive, then that's perhaps not such an irresponsible statement. And the irony here is, last week, I had an interaction with Counselor Lloyd Snook on Facebook.

I have tremendous respect for Counselor Lloyd Snook. And he responds to me on Tuesday, November 12th, eight days ago. Lloyd Snook says, we, the city of Charlottesville, were conscious of the Arlington litigation as we were passing what we did. Two days later, Judge Worrell... Where was that suit in process at the time, though? Active and going on. That would have been a long time ago. Active and going on. Snooks spoke confidently on Facebook.

New zoning ordinance. We're confident we made the right decision. We're confident we did our due diligence. We're confident we considered all the things that came up in the Arlington suit. And then 48 hours later, Worrell releases

his opinion that two of the four counts can move forward to the evidence gathering stage. And now the plaintiffs want their day in court. Today I read the Seville Weekly, Sean Tubbs' fantastic reporting. The headline, judges ready to rule in Charlottesville zoning case but opens the door to more evidence. Listen to the last few paragraphs of this from Sean Tubbs in the Seville Weekly. In late September, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge David Schell ruled against a provision added to Arlington County's land use regulations

that had the same intent as Charlottesville's development code to increase the number of places people can live. Shell, a retired judge, was assigned to the case after Arlington judges recused themselves because they are homeowners in Arlington. Worrell, a property owner in Charlottesville, did not recuse himself. Okay, now it's me talking. Who has been saying that the whole time? Yeah, you. Right? Yeah. Okay, now it's me talking. Who has been saying that the whole time? Yeah, you.

Right? Yeah. Okay, next paragraph. Part of Shell's ruling against Arlington's expanded housing option, basically the new zoning ordinance, hinges on the same section of the state code that has kept Charlottesville case alive. Arlington County has indicated it will appeal the ruling. And here's where it gets really juicy.

Listen to this, viewers and listeners. According to the website arlnow.com, Shell's ruling will permit several dozen units being built under the new zoning program to proceed forward. But he warned that one day those units that are being built may need to be torn down depending on how the appeals process works out. Then Sean Tubbs concludes by writing this, a handful of major development plans have been filed with the city of Charlottesville,

including the conversion of 303 Alderman Road from a single family house to six townhomes and a buy-write request to 24 units at 230 Barracks Road behind the CVS. I take a screenshot of what Sean writes. I send an indirect message to a man I trust. Deep throat. Very intelligent individual. He asked me first, where did you find that?

I sent him the article. He says this. Here's the question you should ask yourself. How confident are banks or lenders about this? Because they tend to be the most skittish about every kind of risk. Some lenders or banks might hesitate to fund projects that are in this zoning purgatory or uncertainty. Would you give somebody millions of dollars if you were a lender?

If they're pursuing a project that may end up being illegal depending on a court's ruling down the road. I write in my commentary on iloveceville.com, my level of caution exponentially increased in September after Judge David Schell ruled in favor of Arlington County, who pursued a plan, Arlington, that was less radical than Charlottesville's. The point I'm making here,

you have decision-making, evidence of decision-making, over this year alone, that is shaky at best. Yeah. Multiple examples. The bridge loan for the trailer park on Carlton Avenue. Buying the effing dirt by the river on High Street

and turning it into a park instead of letting housing being built. Right? The electric buses that break down and are not reliable as opposed to gasoline buses that may be bad for the environment, but at least they get the folks that need public transportation to and from where they need to go on time. The commentary about parking being bad. Sandersville, the homeless in a park, pop your tents up, start some bonfires, roast some marshmallows. Eat your s'mores. And make sure you have all the Narcan you need. And do it right in the most noticeable park

in downtown effing Seville that everyone sees. At a time when downtown's struggling for its, as Big Z said in the bar meeting yesterday, its vivacity. Judah. Let's shrink the roads and cut the parking. Let's hope they don't realize I get in my car and drive from the city to North Garden to sell quarter million dollar a day weddings. And park my car there. And then park my car back at the house. Come on.

Ginny who on Twitter, I finally started visiting the downtown area, not the mall, but around it about eight months ago. No way in H-E double hockey sticks, she says, I would be spending money down there if I couldn't drive and park somewhere very close by. Let's go to number one in the family. Deep throat. The problem with Judah's analysis is that we are a tiny jurisdiction without workable public transit or good bike pedestrian infrastructure. I agree. Cut parking in the city, people will drive up 29 and shop in the county. Bingo. I didn't say there weren't problems with it. My goal is just to point out where I think

they stand. He says she's a massive hypocrite. Forget about driving to work. She's all about CO2 mania and she promotes destination weddings. What is a more useless source of CO2 emissions? That's a good point. What does he mean by that? Explain it to the viewers and listeners. He means that everybody's flying into Charlottesville to have a wedding, and that's a lot of people flying.

Or that's encouraging people to fly, potentially, unless they're going to take a... He says, does she carpool with any Pippin Hill employees? Has she looked for housing in North Garden? Has anybody in our useless press of minimum wage F-nuts asked any of these questions besides you guys? I was going to mention carpooling, but I don't know anything about her situation.

It's insanity. It's insanity. What it is, is what is like the coolest, most in vogue, most like hip, green, earthy, talked about thing to do today. We're going to do it. And it's now all about environmental standards. It's now all about road diets and no parking and less cars.

The road diet is more about the dangerous nature of Charlottesville drivers. Right? I don't think the road diet has anything to do with buses or anything else. It's just about people being dangerous in this town. Right? That's supposed to slow people down. I was at an HOA meeting. An HOA meeting done this month.

And one of the prominent members of this HOA, I'm not going to utilize his name, I've dubbed him. I like to give people nicknames if you haven't realized. I have. I've dubbed him the godfather of the neighborhood because of his tenure and time in this particular neighborhood that we're in.

Okay. In the particular neighborhood that we're in, the roads are narrow. And they're dark. And there's not much lighting. And they weave almost like a snake slithering on the Albemarle County dirt in the dog days of summer. Like half the roads in this area. Curvy, bendy, slippery, slithery, dark. Okay, okay, we get it. Narrow.

And members of the HOA, and I'm new, I'm a couple months in, it's difficult for me to be quiet, imagine that, and not voice my opinion. Imagine that. But I'm trying, because I'm the newest one. And while I want to get on the board and while I want to start dictating pace and tempo, like every other association I'm a part of with all my other holdings, I choose to take a back seat here because most of the folks are 20 years older than me and have been there for a very long time and set in their ways. And one of the influential members who's a friend of mine. He said, we don't want the roads to be lit.

We don't want the roads to include improved visibility by cutting bushes and trees down on certain blind turns. And we don't want the roads to necessarily be expanded. We instead want them to be narrow and tight and precarious to drive. And someone said, what do you mean? Why would we want that?

And he said, well, if you keep them narrow and dark and dangerous to drive, people will go slower and they'll actually be safer. It's best for us in the neighborhood to have them dark and narrow and dangerous to drive, as opposed to lighting them up, as opposed to having signage for caution, and as opposed to cutting the bushes down around the blind turns. And at that point in this Zoom HOA meeting, I sit back. I have a scotch on the rocks in my hand. I take a big gulp. I put it down, and I look into the camera, and I say, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

As someone who has two young children that would eventually like to walk along and ride their bicycle and scoot along these roads, please can we cut the bushes down on the blind turn and have caution signs to encourage people to speed less and slow down. But the OG who's got the influence said, no, we want them dangerous and dark and the turns blind. Does that make sense to you? Does narrowing the roads in the city of Charlottesville make sense to you to get people to slow down? Does spending taxpayer money in the city of Charlottesville to narrow and shrink roads, basically for months if not longer, causing

congestion from improvements, air quotes, improvements, make sense to you. Is that the best use of taxpayer resources? If you found yourself in a log jam of vehicle traffic because one counselor wants to shrink the width of roads, how would you respond? I'm not sure how shrinking the roads would create a log jam, but you don't see how spending taxpayer resources to shrink the roads with construction projects will cause a logjam of traffic for a period of time? What do you mean shrinking the roads with construction projects? The roads aren't going to shrink by themselves.

You're going to shrink the roads by narrowing the lines. That's... Oh, something that you could do with a flip of a light switch? From Sam's office? Let's shrink Barracks Road in width. Okay.

No, no. I seriously want to... It's not like they're ripping out the... It's not like they're ripping out sidewalks and moving them three feet to the left or right. Just changing a line. Repainting a line. You're really saying that that's going to cause months of

construction congestion? Yes, absolutely. Repainting roads is not going to cause construction congestion? For however long it takes to do a block. I mean, look, I'm not pro-road diet. takes to do a block. I mean, look, I'm not pro road diet. They narrowed Park Street with those bumpers.

Oh, you're talking about the... Yeah. Let them know what she's talking about. I mean, I didn't know that that's how they did it. I just have seen those as long as I can think. But yeah, Park Street between High Street and 250 has these curbs that come out and go back in and come out and go back in and come out and go back in

which is exacerbated by the fact that the road is not straight. I'm not a fan of those. And yes, that would be construction if they were to build those out. That is correct. Vanessa Parkhill, the Park Street Project. She knows plenty of people that don't go downtown because of the Park Street cluster.

Park Street at the bypass with those back-to-back lights is a cluster. Carly Wagner, CWAGS. Whoever you are speaking about wants to be an expert, but he's not. There's such things as traffic calming measures that will slow drivers down. However, there are legal standards for sight distances and such as well as markings and signs. There's actually quite a liability of sight distances are not maintained. That's what I thought. If you have a blind turn and you have big bushes on the side of the road on common ground in a neighborhood

and those big bushes aren't cut back to improve visibility, that seems to be a safety hazard. I'm more concerned with safety. Maybe you call me an old man, but because I have two little boys, there was a point in my life where I didn't care about safety. I thought I was invincible. I'd go 110 miles an hour in a 1989 Volvo four-door. The car would shake uncontrollably. Now I don't do that because I've got a lot more to lose. Lonnie Murray watching the program.

There's also a catch-22 with walkability. If you design primarily for cars and parking, then it can be hard to make a city like Charlottesville walkable. There are cities where one can reasonably forego the need for a car, and it'd be great to see Charlottesville get there eventually. That said, I think there needs to be a reasonable transition plan to get to where that is feasible. Plus you still need convenient places for people outside Charlottesville to park so they can shop since that's a vital source of tax revenue and economic vitality. Lonnie Murray. And ladies and gentlemen,

I don't know if you've realized this, the tax collection at this point is down for the city. Did you see that story? Maybe. I don't remember. This be a Facebook messenger. Oh, to be elite and entitled enough to live in this community without needing to be placed as quickly to work 60 plus hours to survive or to own real estate near the mall. People who don't need parking either don't have tight time constraints due to being wealthy and not working regular jobs, or people who are poor and don't have cars for that reason, and they won't be spending money downtown. He continues, why have we lost a sense

of community in Seville? Maybe because policies and decisions are not made with the middle class person and family in mind. No car is cute until your kid is puking on your senior parent needs. Say that again. No car is, no car is cute until your kid is puking or your senior parent needs help. No car is cute. Ditching your car is cute.

Oh, I thought you said no until your kid is sick and he needs to go to the hospital because he's puking, or your elderly parents, your grandparents, are in an emergency health situation. Yeah, 100%. I'm going to tell my wife, sweetheart, you don't need the family Ford Explorer. I want you to go grocery shopping for a week at Wegmans.

Bring it back to our house in Ivy on public transportation and do all this while you have our two-year-old in tow. I thought you guys had all your shopping delivered. Well, we're making the push. You told me to make the push to do it in person now. And it was a hypothetical situation. It was a hypothetical situation. Okay. You know what would happen if I went to my wife and said, no online grocery delivery, and we're going to save some money on gas. You're not going to drive the Ford Explorer. We're going to save some money on online grocery delivery.

I want you to take a bus from Ivy to Wegmans, buy all our groceries for a week, and make sure you bring our two-year-old with you. And then come back on the bus. You know what she would say to me? Get bent. Go duck yourself. Quack, quack, quack. That's the Wednesday edition of the I Love Seville show. Tomorrow on the show, we have Philip Reese. He spent, this is going to be a fantastic interview.

He spent 16 years in the defense industry, the defense sector, including seven of those years at Rivanna Station. He resigned earlier this year. Now, Philip owns the Unlocked History Escape Rooms. I previously said they were on the downtown mall. They're actually on Allied Lane. He's an entrepreneur. And he said he can pontificate on working a business as a business owner, working in the defense sector as it applies to salary and the economic impact in tourism. And we got a significant interview on the 11th of December when Chief Mike Kachis and Commonwealth's Attorney Joe Pantania are in studio

to talk about courts and crime on the I Love Seville show. Ladies and gentlemen, I thought Judah Wickower was absolutely on point today. Thank you kindly for joining us. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you.