The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Redistricting/Gerrymandering Approved In VA; Trump Effect, Dems' Response, Republicans' Response

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Redistricting/Gerrymandering Approved In Virginia Trump Effect, Dems’ Response, Republicans’ Response VIDEO: City Approves 501 Cherry Ave Purchase PHA Buying 501 Cherry Ave From Woodard Properties PHA Using Taxpayer $; Price Unknown Right Now 501 Cherry: $50M, 71 Apartments, 1 Grocery, 1 MRC Bigger Boondoggle: 2000 Holiday Dr v 501 Cherry Ave? Subscribe To JerryRatcliffe.com For $8 Per Month 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.

Welcome to the I Love Seville Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on a Wednesday afternoon in downtown Charlottesville. There's a lot to cover on the show today. I want to drive more attention to what happened Monday night at Charlottesville City Council. I'm going to play a two or three minute video from City Council. This is completely unreported, and nowhere in the media cycle. locally. I am disappointed and dismayed that this is not being covered, except for us here at the I Love Seville Network. In the clip that we'll show on the show, in the clip that we will

air on the show in about 15 minutes, Sunchon Mathan, the executive director of the Piedmont Housing Alliance, is basically asking Charlottesville City Council to allocate even more taxpayer resources to his nonprofit development organization so Piedmont Housing Alliance can purchase 501 Cherry Avenue from

Woodard Properties I want to be very clear in my commentary here because I know the team at Woodard watches and listens to the show I give props to Woodard properties you are getting out of

a train wreck of a purchase at 501 Cherry Avenue. I give props to wooded properties. As soon as you allowed the Fifeville Neighborhood Association, Piedmont Housing Alliance, and the politics and nightmare of Charlottesville into your $3.5 million purchase at 501 Cherry Avenue, you lost control of this project.

And now you absolutely realize that you need to get this property off your books you need to cut your losses and minimize as much collateral damage as possible because what's happened of late with with the loss of $20,000 a month every month and interest payments alone has cost you nearly a million dollars in just interest payments for a piece of property that everyone has some kind of personal interest in but no one but you has financial interest in so props to answer props to Keith, props to Woodard for basically cutting bait and saying,

Jesus Christ, we want nothing else to do with this. And somehow you were able to persuade Sonshine and PHA to get in front of counsel and do their, you know, basically they're begging, pull the cap off their head and shake it in front of counsel and know that just, Jen Fleischer and Michael Payne and Natalie Olshin and Juan Diego Wade are going to do whatever you want in the name of mental health or housing affordability or folks on the financial margin and do whatever you want at the cost and on the backs of taxpayers. And we saw that and I'm going to show it to you on Monday. Wait till you see this clip. Good God. nearly $4 million was just sent in the ether,

passed along into the ether like it was nothing. We'll talk about that on the show. We're going to talk on the program about redistricting and gerrymandering. Yesterday's show, I set the line. I was trying to get you to jump into a proposition bet with me. I love prop bets. What's going on with markets like, like Polymarket or markets like prediction markets and platforms like polymarket I find fascinating.

Prediction betting and prop bets are an opportunity for someone to use insider knowledge to their advantage to gain something financial, something they want. I've always been good at prop betting. I would have lost this one. I set the line yesterday at 3%. I said this is going to be a 3% margin redistricting and gerrymandering. It ended up being 2.82%, pretty damn close to 3. I took the over on 3%, ladies and gentlemen.

It ended up being 0.18, not even a quarter of a point lower than the line we were set. And right now, in a nutshell, I'm going to put this in a very succinct nutshell. in a nutshell Northern Virginia ladies and gentlemen Nova Fairfax Northern Virginia control

the Commonwealth and you may not want to believe this but that's basically what's going down here you have a highly concentrated area that was able to use its population

to drive redistricting. And this is not to the benefit of the Commonwealth, regardless if you're a Democrat or Republican. This is changing the rules in the middle of the game. I'm going to show you the map of how Virginians voted, and I'm going to put it on screen for you. And when you see this map, you are going to see an overwhelming portion of the Commonwealth

voted no, but that does not matter in a referendum like this where it's up to the popular vote. We'll talk about that on the program today. Yes, the viewers and listeners who are watching the program, I see the news that broke this morning about the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Southern Poverty Law Center indicted on charges that it fraudulently paid informants in extremist groups like the KK The story is insane. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Tuesday yesterday, announced an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, alleging the Civil Rights Organization had engaged in financial crimes. At a news conference, the Justice Department investigation found the organization had been manufacturing the extremist it purports to oppose by pay.

sources to stoke racial hatred and then hiding those payments. An insane story. I want more time to dig into this before I offer my commentary, but what is being alleged is a law center is paying informants to manufacture violence, to race bait, to drive extremists, activism, stoking hatred, so it then could on the back end capture gain on set activity. This is the dirtiest of the dirty, allegedly. We'll talk about that on the program tomorrow. I want to give some attention to Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. John Vermillion and Andrew Vermillion at Charlottesville Sanitary Supply have been in business for 62 years. You can find them online at

Charlottesville Sanitary Supply.com. Their sister company is Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company. We use their sister company, Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company, at the Miller Residence. Anything swimming pool related, whether it's above ground pool,

in-ground pool, pool construction, water testing, pool robots, shade for swimming pools, pool covers, Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company. Ladies and gentlemen. Redistricting, Carol Thorpe, welcome to the show. Stacey Baker-Pattie, welcome to the show.

Jason Hampshire, welcome to the program. Philip Dow, welcome to the program, print radio and television, welcome to the program. I want to go to a studio camera and then welcome you on a two-shot, Judah. I'm going to ask you the same question. I asked to start every program. The most interesting headline for you on today's show, which is it for you, Judah Wickhauer?

I'm definitely interested in this. discussion about redistricting slash gerrymandering. It's certainly brought out the worst in people. And in fact, there's someone who often calls me out in the comments. And his comment on social media has left me disappointed. Who's that? I don't feel like naming names. but I no longer find this person to be, you know, I responded to this person thinking they were honorable and worthy of respect. And I kind of don't feel that way anymore.

And it's disappointing. It's disappointing to think of people that... This is news to me. There's someone in the comments of this show that calls you out. This called me out in the past, yeah. About your stance on? various things and has called you out

in ways that you find antagonistic or attacking no no just you know called me out on on a joke I made and I get called out all the time

you know on the daily I'm not complaining about the calling out I don't mind that at all if I've made a mistake or if I've misrepresented something please call me out what I find disappointing is being called out for for something and then and then finding that the

person is you know it's like it's hypocrisy it's getting called out for something and then the person goes you see them doing the doing the exact same thing or worse okay well leave juda alone no no I don't leave you know if you have problems with what I say let me know I have no problem with being called out my problem is with hypocrisy all day long every day, seven days a week. And we've seen, I mean, in our leaders. Who is it? Just say it. I'm not calling people out on the show.

Why? But we've seen leaders. We've seen people like, what, Obama, Spanberger, who have both said that redistricting was a bad thing. Yeah. They're all full of the do-doo. Yeah. That's no surprise.

Yeah. But I'm just making the point that, the hypocrisy is out in full force on this particular issue, especially. I think Donald Trump has fooled the doo-do. Oh, yeah. I think Donald Trump on how he campaigned in the second term, focus on domestic, affordability for Americans,

no new wars, strengthened in the economy. He's doing the opposite. Spamberger, I think, is fooled the do-do. Affordability for Virginians. Redistricting is bad. I think oftentimes in the case of campaign promises, when your butt hits the seat, you realize that some of those are just impossible to carry through on.

So I don't blame either Trump or Spanberger completely. I absolutely blame them. I know you do. If we don't as Americans or Virginians or Central Virginians or Almore County and Charlottesvillians call a spade a spade, the behavior is just going to continue. Put the map on screen. Put the VPAP map on screen and we can talk over this.

Here's the redistricting map, viewers and listeners. Is it on screen? Yeah. Look at the screen, viewers and listeners. This is the referendum from yesterday. Look at the screen. The purple are people who voted no to redistricting in Virginia. The yellow are people.

people who voted yes to redistricting in Virginia. It passed by nearly three percentage points. What's the total population of Virginia? Total population of Virginia. The total population of Virginia as of early 2026 is 8.88 million. 8.88 million. So let's go 8,8,880,000. And then I'm going to subtract that by the people who voted 1,574 809 minus 1,486

594. You get a pretty decent portion of Virginia that voted in a referendum in a, to call this a non-election cycle is an understatement. It's no governor's race, there's no presidential race, and it's not even during midterms. This is the only thing on

the ballot. Only thing on the ballot. The world was, the, the country was certainly watching this. Is the map still on screen? Yeah. Look at what happened here. Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads in Charlottesville. Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads in Charlottesville, you're talking,

you know, let me highlight the actual counties that voted yes. Are you ready, Juna? There's so few of them in Virginia. I can actually rattle them off. Here are the, here are the jurisdictions in the Commonwealth that voted yes, overwhelmingly. or just voted yes in general. Albar County, Alexandria, Arlington,

Brunswick, Charles City County, Charlottesville, Chesapeake, Chesterfield, Danville, Fairfax City, Fairfax County, Falls Church, Franklin County, Fredericksburg, Greensville, Hampton, Harrisonburg, Henrico, Hopewell, James City County, Lexington, Loudon, Manassas Park, Martinsville, Newport News, Norfolk, Northampton, Petersburg, Portsmouth,

Prince William, Richmond City, Roanoke City, Stanton, Suffolk, Williamsburg, Winchester. They voted yes. Everything else in Virginia voted no. Yeah, and scrolling down through them, I mean, it clearly looks like what? Two for every, two yeses for every, what, maybe five, six knows? It's Commonwealth of Virginia is controlled by Northern Virginia now, even more so. Commonwealth of Virginia is controlled by the pockets in the Commonwealth that are associated with universities and colleges.

Yeah. Even more so now. It's no secret that Northern Virginia voted overwhelmingly yes for this. Northern Virginia despises Donald Trump. That's without question a Donald Trump impact or effect or ripple. The universities in Colorado. and the towns that the universities and colleges encompass in the commonwealth are very liberal and left-leaning, even more so now with Donald Trump in office. It's no surprise that Charlottesville, yes, Harrisonburg, yes, colleges and universities, JMU, UVA, Fredericksburg, yes, Mary Washington, James City County, yes, William and Mary, Williamsburg, yes.

William and Mary. Roanoke City, yes. Richmond City, yes. Colleges and universities. Comments, put them in the feed. We're going to relay them on air. Let's go to Ginny who first. Jenny's photo on screen. She A. goes to bat for Judah Wickhauer. I'm also going to go to Bat for Judah Wickhauer. I'm going to read Jenny's comment first. Ginny Who says Judah is one of the most level-headed people I listen to. I don't always agree with Judah, but I know I can have civil discourse, with Judah something that is dying in our world. That's Ginny Who. I will say this as well. I try to

emphasize this on the program. Judah is the metronome of consistency in my life period. Most of the time. Except for at the beginning of this show today before the show went on air, where we got in a little four-letter words sparring match with those four-letter words coming from Judah and not for me in this particular circumstance. But he is the metronome of consistency, mood and demeanor, and the first to admit when he is wrong. I disagree with Judah on a daily basis. I think that's what makes this program great. And if Judah's going to come on a show and call you out without using your name,

that's a hell of a lot classier than I would do. So it clearly irked Judah whatever this commenter was doing. Who's the commenter? Say their name. I'm not going to say their name. Say call them out. It's a talk show. It's a talk show. My job is not to call them.

people out. My job is not to point the finger at people and that's why we appreciate. Pretend like I'm better. I make just as many mistakes as the next person and respect.

She says this. Here are my thoughts on redistricting. My family has been in Virginia since the 9th, since the 1600s. Ginny Who, my family has been in the Commonwealth since the 1600s. For the first time I'm entertaining thoughts of leaving the Commonwealth. I don't want to abandon the old

dominion. What happened is clearly unconstitutional, but I no longer have faith in the courts to make it right. Yeah, now it's up to what? A Supreme Court? Yeah. I don't have any faith that they're going to make it right either. I did predict yesterday that this was going to pass. I have predicted all year long that this was going to pass. An indicator of this passing to me is no longer. traditional polling. An indicator of this passing to me is the prediction markets. Poly market is a good benchmark moving forward for you, the viewer, and listener. The traditional polls are akin to legacy media, out of touch, outdated, full of spin. You want honest and realistic data points of what's going on in the real world. Look at the prediction markets.

There's a reason Las Vegas continues to build casinos. Look at the prediction markets. Follow polymarket. I'm so intrigued by this emerging marketplace. Deep throats got some comments. His photo on screen. Number one in the family is watching. We heard from Ginny Who, top five in the family.

Now here's number one. Here's some fun data on the referendum. I guess we're all ruled by Northern Virginia suburbs right now. he shares a graph of major cities and how they voted northern virginia overwhelmingly yes as we've indicated charltsville was the second most lopsided jurisdiction in the entire state i'm going to click on vpap dot org the drop down for charlottesville to give you the viewer and listener how the city voted yes or no in what percentage charltsville was 85.4430s. 3% yes.

14.5, 7% no. You want to know why the I Love Sevo show ruffles feathers in Charlottesville City? That is a microcosm right there. 8.5 out of 10 people. 8.5 out of 10 people yes to this gerrymandering. 1.5 in Charlottesville City say no.

And oftentimes on this program, My commentary and analysis is what I believe based in common sense and level-headed reasoning and spares no expense, has no filter, it's unafraid, it's unaffiliated, it's unabash. And oftentimes my commentary and analysis is contradictory to the 8.5 people and their ideology that vote yes. And I'm no Republican. I'm not a MAGA. Right. My commentary is unique to each story and topic line.

I don't vote Republican down the board. I don't vote Democrat down the board. I've casted votes for both parties. How about Al-Morrow County? I'm going to hit the drop-down on Al-Morrell. I call it 65% yes. 35% no. Al-Morrow is a little more centered leaning,

65-to-35. That's an indication Al Morrow County of the town of Scottsville, of the western parts of Almaro County, the Whitehall areas of Almaro County, the Barbersville areas of Almore County, the Almaro Fluvana area around the town of Scottsville, the Keswick areas of Fluvana, of Almoreal County. Those are the ones that are voting, no. Almarl, it's Urban Ring. the urban ring right around Charlottesville, overwhelmingly yes. But then you look at Central Virginia, and I'm just going to run down this with you, okay, J. Dubs?

Let's go to Buckingham County first. Buckingham County, 64% no, 35% yes. Let's go to Culpeper County. 65, no, 35 yes, and Culpepper. Let's go to Fluvana County. 55 no, 45 yes, and Fluvana. Let's go to Goochland County. 63, no, 37 yes, in Goochland.

Let's go to Louisiana County. 66, no, 33 yes in Louisiana. How about Madison? 70, no, 30, yes. in Madison. How about Orange County? Ladies and gentlemen, let's go to Orange.

Orange County was 64-no, 35 yes, in Orange. My point is this, Ginny, moving out of the Commonwealth is not necessary, maybe moving out of Almaro County in your circumstances. But I think to her point, that is that

is that in a vote like this, we're not represented. And that's the big problem with, with, you know, a lot of this hyperbole about the fact that I saw another map that put the whole thing in terms of population centers and showed how much voting was done in, like, you know, northern Virginia was a populated center like this where you got some of these southwestern sections, which are tiny little holes, because they have less people, because it's rural, whatever reason.

The problem is that that's not the issue. The issue is people feeling like they're not represented by anyone now. Yeah. I mean, if we're not. You're not. If we're going to take this to 10 Democrat seats to one Republican seat, then yeah, tell me who you're representing, representatives. Tell me how you're going to go and find out what the people in Southwestern Virginia want

and how you're going to listen to their desires and needs. I also want to highlight this, viewers and listeners. I was following this really closely on VPP yesterday, constantly hitting refresh. Viewers and listeners, did you guys see the impact at the end of voting yesterday of the Northern Virginia early voting or mail-in ballots? This in the 8 o'clock hour last night, the no vote was the frontrunner. As of like 8.15, 8.20 p.m., no was winning. Then the Northern Virginia early votes or mail-in votes started coming in. And then the yes pulled ahead and eventually won by basically three points

where I put the over-under line at yesterday on the record. Ginny Who has a comment. She has a similar comment to what I just said. Now look at the breakdown between early voting, in-person day of voting, and mail-in ballots. If that doesn't make people ask question, nothing will. A new Twitter account called Unplugged, the Beard Bourbon B.B.Q. Has a comment. I guess he's responding to Ginny.

Beard bourbon BVBQ guy. Offer more insight here to what you're talking about. Philip Dow, the mayor of Scottsville. Oh, he says it was all rigged with the Northern Virginia mail-in ballots. Carol Thorpe watching the program. Yesterday was a new low for Democrats and for Virginia. Tyranny by majority is the reason why our founders did not make America a democracy, but instead a representative republic.

Yeah. Because if all you need is 51% to make anything happen, then you basically have mob rule. I just, this is why Ginny Who says the need to move out of the Commonwealth now. Yeah. comments put them in the feed and I will relay them live on air to you, the viewer and listener

on what is the water cooler of content and conversation. You saw the Trump impact on Virginia. There's a lot of MAGA that watches the program. There's a lot of MAGA and Trumpers that are alienated or angry with me on my commentary on Trump with the war I ran and how he's being disingenuous with how he's campaign. there's a lot of alienation

and a lot of anger to me with my comments on Trump there are a lot of people that will defend Trump to the death my problem is that there's so much there's so much coming out so much being said on both sides

that it's almost impossible to sort through what's honest and what's disingenuous My point is to the MAGA that's watching this program, the Trumpers that are watching this program. This is the Trump effect here. This referendum and redistricting is the Trump effect.

It's one of the many Trump effects. If you're angry with this, wait until you see what's going to happen with midterms. Some MAGA chalks up midterms to already being a lost cause because midterms go the way of the opposite party in the president in the White House. Yeah. I'll give you that. I'll take it a step further. Watch what this does into 2027. Watch what this does into 2027.

In regards to redistricting, it's a Democratic Republic our founders pursued. A Democratic Republic. Not a straight democracy. This is tyranny of the majority. We live in a Democratic Republic. and not a popular vote system. That's mob rule.

The reason we live in a Democratic Republic is because the ambitions and the needs and the wants of the gentleman farmer in Nelson County or the gentleman farmer in Barbersville is very different than the needs. and the wants of the urbanite in Fairfax City. The expectations for governance and leadership and policy for the the farmette owner in Guchland and in Fluvanna and Buckingham

is the opposite of the expectation and the needs and wants for the ship builder and in Newport News. And now that we are in a tyranny of the majority, democratic popular vote state of mind, the new marginalized is the small guy in the suburban wilderness. And that's sad. That is not a Democratic Republic. Put the map back on screen.

Comments put them in the feed, Maria Marshall Barnes watching the program. And then I'm going to go to the city council meeting. I've got a lot of real estate people watching the program right now. A lot of developers watching the program. Don Gathers. This shows you I'm an equal opportunity employer. Don Gathers watching the program.

And I mean that by my commentary here. Don Gathers' commentary is often the exact opposite of mine, but I have tremendous respect for Don Gathers and his commentary. I will relay commentary from both sides of the aisle all the time. Don Gathers is a passionate man. He loves Charlottesville. Fantastic referee would have made a hell of a city counselor. I sincerely mean that, Mr. Gathers.

Hope you come back on the show right one day. I will roll out the red carpet. We will agree to disagree in a lot of ways. And then I'll pour you a bourbon, sir. And we'll drink a bourbon together after the show. He says, thank God for the yes vote. Thank God. for the yes vote.

Frankie Bourne watching the program. I don't think Frankie Bourne's ever commented on the show. He says, I love the fact that Democrats say it's only temporary. Conan Owen watching the program. They also said the income tax was temporary. It would only affect the richest Americans. That is tongue-in-cheek from Conan Owen saying

that this is not only going to be temporary. Once one party gains control, they try to monopolize that control for as long as possible. Yeah. You were looking at a Virginia that is going to be a completely different Virginia. Folks are saying there's a super lag on Facebook. Has the video caught up? Are we good on the execution now?

Curtis and Stacey Baker-Paddy and Ginny Who? Is the video good, Jay Dobbs? Everything is fine here. Jason Noble is watching the program. He said it was like a three to four point shift, the Northern Virginia mail-in votes. 100%. I saw the same thing, Jason Noble.

Jason Noble, who is a diehard Trumper, is that fair to say, Jason? You have his back 100% through this Iranian war, Jason. His photo on screen. He says, I agree this is a Trump effect. There's no doubt about it. The difference in opinion lies in whether you think the response is appropriate or not. I think the left's reaction is the problem, not the administration. I think both of them are a problem.

I agree with his comment that folks that vote, yes, this is going to be problematic for Virginia. 100%. You change the rules in the middle of the game. But Trump and how he goes about things alienates and polarizes so many people that it galvanizes people to extreme measures. If the leader of the free world, the most powerful man in the world was not so full of, of bravado and swagger and dark triad tendencies, he would not collaterally damage so much of civilization. And one aspect of that collaterally damaged civilization is galvanizing and strategizing and organizing men and women of both left and right-leaning ideology to change the

rules in the middle of a game, something they would never otherwise consider doing, but they rationalize in their head, this is the best of two evils. That's what's being rationalized here, that this is the best of two evils. We must

do this because the alternative evil is much more damning than this little evil. See if John Blair has a comment. This guy is always on point with his commentary. I always find John Blair's commentary, especially politics and siphon.

All right. I need to go to the next topic at the 115 marker on the show with a boatload of elected officials in our real estate community watching. I'm going to play a video clip from Saturdays, excuse me, from Monday evening city council meeting. What I'm about to show you, the viewer, and listener is effing unreported. Judah, what I'm about, what you and I are about to show the viewer and listener is the opposite of what we want this show to be.

I have previously worked in an industry where my responsibility was news reporting and breaking news. My first job at a UVA was as a staff writer, newspaper editor, one of the youngest editors in the history of the daily progress. I parlayed that newspaper job

into a syndicated radio show called the Jerry Miller show that aired in three states and 15 affiliates and two TV shows that bared my name on NBC29 on Saturday and Sunday morning. We did hard-breaking news. It is challenging work. The type of content I want to be in is commentary and analysis on news that's already reported.

But we're in such an effing news desert. We're in such an effing desert for news that often this program is originating the content and other platforms that are watching us like every single one of them right now follow suit. So there's responsibility with driving the cycle. And what I saw on Monday night was disheartening. What I saw on Monday night was like the fourth cousin of collusion. The fourth cousin. of collusion. What I saw on Monday night was financial and governance

of the malpractice variety. And I'm going to set the stage. 501 Cherry Avenue is the home of the former IGA and Kibbs Market. It is one of the most important pieces of property in Charlottesville. It is the gateway to Fifeville. It is a hop skip and a jump from City Hall in the downtown mall.

It has sat empty and dilapidated for years, if not longer. And a local developer and significant real estate owner named Woodard Properties purchased it for $3.5 million in August of 2022. Woodard went on a buying spree during COVID, and a lot of that buying spree targeted Cherry Avenue. genius buying spree for Woodard. They bought property on the cheap during a pandemic where property had headwinds and had dropped in value by 15, 20, 25% or more. And Woodard is super smart. They understand that Cherry Avenue is a critical gateway in the city, connects the hospital to downtown, and is parallel to West Main Street, a critically important corridor of future development.

They bought a lot of land on Cherry during COVID. made a mistake and a huge error with Cherry Avenue. When they purchased it for $3.5 million in August of 2022, somehow they allowed the Fife Field Neighborhood Association to have a seat at the decision-making table. And when you allow a historically marginalized community to have a seat at your $3.5 million table in a politically charged, racially charged Charlottesville, Virginia, that seat at the dining room table quickly goes from a guest seat to the head of the table. And once at the head of the table, the asks and the expectations for the neighborhood association became grocery store, low-income apartments, the freshest fruit, and the best meat,

and the best groceries possible, at the lowest price as possible, and a small, its grocery store possible. And Woodard lost control of this project. They haven't moved any dirt. There's in a shovel that's in the ground. It's literally as of Monday night financing was in peril.

They had been paying, they had tremendous debt on this property and according to Sunshine Maython had been paying $20,000 a month and interest payments alone on this purchase. And it's happen at the very same time that a number of their very established holdings had gone vacant. Many of those holdings tied to the collapsed Stefan Freeman Empire.

Some of those other holdings, a very popular brewery on South Street that's now empty, including the building next to it as well. There's a number of vacancies. So in the clip I'm going to show you, I'm going to show you executive director of Sunshine Maython going before city council, asking, council to green light basically more money and to authorize a loan to Piedmont Housing Alliance to support the redevelopment of 501 Cherry Avenue site for the purpose of producing new housing for low and moderate income people 71 apartments low income apartments one grocery store and one home for the nonprofit the music resource center a 50 million dollar price tag 50. 50,

million. Piedmont Housing Alliance wants a $3,850,000 loan at a fixed 3% interest rate with a 42-year term from taxpayers. And wait till you see what city government did in this clip. How long is this, Judah? I think it's about five minutes. This is a five-minute clip. I'm going to put my earbuds in as well. I have the entire local real estate community watching this program right now, as are three city counselors and Almore County supervisor as well. Get ready, giddy up. This is unreported

anywhere else. Are you ready for this, Judah? Yep. Watch this entire clip. Sunshine Maython before Charlottesville City Council. Three, two, one. The Alliance related to the 501 Cherry Project.

This item before you represents essentially a modification to that authorization. It's a ordinance that would authorize the city manager to provide, for that loan agreement to allow PHA to use some of those funds for acquisition of property. So as noted in the staff report has been city's typical policy that we only provide funds towards construction costs

on a reimbursement basis or to essentially buy down the affordability level of a unit. in this case because being able to use these funds towards the acquisition of the property would result in a substantial overall project savings

staff is offering and recommending that the city manager be authorized to allow some of these funds to be used for property acquisition. Again, Executive Director of PHA, Sunshine Mathon is available to answer any questions

that you may have for him and I am here as well. I'll start down here. Michael, do you have any questions on this? So I know we've discussed this before, but just for the public's benefit, is this change just for this specific policy, or is it kind of citywide allowing it as a potential activity? No, only for this project. Okay. And that's something could be... We could have, there certainly could be future discussions around the policy itself and how it might apply to other projects. I think we're open to looking at that, but for right now. now this evening we're looking at this project alone sure got it I think it's worth

thinking about you know but citywide but I know we're just here tonight so for the public's benefit just what is the reason for making this change I'm gonna go and defer to PHA good evening Sunshine Aethon executive director housing lines so the original purchase of the site and the current owner of the site was done by watered properties they purchased it with a line of credit so every day month year that passes they pay interest rate payments on that acquisition original acquisition financing recently we've had a delay in the start of the construction of the project we've the equity investor has pushed us to the

the next bond round, which will be more towards the September-October time frame, unfortunately. It's incredibly frustrating for us and every person and organization on the partnership, but it's outside of our control because that's another four months of potential, four to five months of potential accrual of interest payments on the acquisition cost that Woodard originally made with using debt. By closing on the land now, we would then allow him to repay the

loan and there would be no further interest payments. So it reduces an increase in cost that we would otherwise see because of the delay over the next four to five months. And just at ballpark, it's about $20,000 a month in interest payments and other related expenses.

So it's not insignificant. So we're going to end up saving $500,000 plus or minus, yeah. Other questions, Michael? Thank you. No, I think, yeah, that kind of covers it. I would just say long terms, I think it would be worth thinking about the policy citywide because more and more localities I've seen are using acquisition of land to either pair

vouchers with existing older units or preserve naturally affordable housing, and it's way cheaper per unit the new construction so just interesting I know that's separate from tonight but I am in support of the ordinance in front of us tonight Natalie haven't any um no I'm not okay okay I'm good good so with this we we can take action on this one is there a motion to approve so moved I move the ordinance on modification of the terms of the 501 Cherry limited agreement. Second.

All in favor, please say yes. Yes. All opposed, please say no. Great. I was going to lie. All right. There you just... I mean, I'm just going to call

a spade of spade here. You just saw what I'm going to be very straightforward is the definition of malpractice with governance. One counselor, Lloyd snuck said, oh, so this saves about $100,000. Because it's $20,000 a month in interest that Woodard's paying on this property. They're making an interest-only payment.

Sunshine set it on the record there. He was the second guy that spoke to counsel, to counsel. And Lloyd goes, oh, this is $100,000 in savings. And Sunshine goes plus or minus. Yeah. Okay. That's not what this is. this is allowing Woodard to take a piece of property that they acquired for $3.5 million in 2022

that is now getting extremely expensive for them because they got in bed their call with the Fifeville Neighborhood Association in Piedmont Housing Alliance. And when you have too many chefs in the kitchen, nothing gets done. especially in a politically charged, racially charged Charlottesville ecosystem. Nothing has happened. I'm sure it's infuriated a developer that otherwise goes at... Mach speed. Great speed.

Because they know every day that something doesn't happen, they lose money. So this is infuriating one of Charlottesville's most established developers. Almar County's most established developers. they then see an exit persuade Piedmont Housing Alliance in Sunshine, who's a very smart guy, to use their political equity to go before counsel and get more money to buy them out. This gets them out of the $20,000 interest-only payment and even more significantly removes them from this disastrous menager-toe. That is the Fifeville Neighborhood Association, Piedmont Housing Alliance, and their firm Woodard properties.

This is the nastiest of Menagerie, where two of the parties are more tied to the third party, Woodard, and those two stay in bed and rendezvous on other occasions where Woodard is not invited. So Woodard realizes I'm in a terrible Menagerie Troire right here. Get me away from this. sells to gets Piedmont Housing Alliance to go before council and says

get some extra money, I'll sell this to you. Sunshine, who's politically connected, professionally ambitious, pitches to counsel, I don't know how many times he's pitched to counsel about this. In February of this year, February of 2026, he went before counsel and basically had in hand,

if you don't give a 700,000, thousand dollars this entire wooded property this entire grocery store 71 unit apartment complex goes in the crapper they green lit the money for them even lloyd in that february council meeting said i'm really concerned about giving you more money but at that point jen flesher won deago wade and michael pain and and natalie o're gonna bend over backwards for anyone that's tied to mental health and housing affordability and lloyd snook is outnumbered he's got no power he's been castrated of power now, a voting block of four to one opposing snook. Already, Sunshine in February said, I need an extra

$700K. Now he goes before him and says, I want to buy him out. Yeah. Woodard, props to Woodard, I hope he hears this. I hope they hear this. Props to you. You got out of an awful situation here. Yeah. You were out of an awful situation. This hasn't been recorded yet, obviously. It happened on Monday night. I'm going to follow the GIS as closely as anyone. and see what 501 Cherry Avenue two parcels sells for. Very curious to see what the exit price is. Regardless, you now have Piedmont Housing Alliance, who is notoriously inefficient with maintaining budgets

and keeping development in check. If you want to do a development project and you want overruns and missed benchmarks, you do a development project with Piedmont Housing Alliance, Can't be more straightforward. You want to miss budget, have overruns, and missed deadlines, you do it with PHA. And for Lloyd Snook to say it's $100,000 that's going to save us, no, dude, you have now gotten into a $50 million project with a developer called PHA that's going to bring 71

moderately priced apartments to market, a stupid grocery store, and a home for the Music Resource Center. a nonprofit. This is a boondoggle. $50 million. How much are we going to call the grocery store and the music resource center?

Deep Throat says, let's call it $10 million. The price of the grocery store and the music resource center of the 50 to construct. This is $50 million. That leaves $40 million left. I'm going to take $40 million and divide it by 71 low-income apartments.

That is $563,380 a unit. $50 million total project cost estimated. That was last year's number. That's not going to be the actual number. I'll take $10 million out for the grocery store and the Music Resource Center. That leaves $40 million. Then I take $40 million and I divide it by 71 apartments. $563,380 for low-income apartments.

An estimate from 2025, that's not going to be the actual estimate because this isn't going to come to market until 2027 at the absolute earliest. Prices will rise. This is burning money. And for city council to say on the dais, oh, we should green light this because it's going to save us 100 grand, Oh my God. I vomited in my mouth and had to swallow it back down my trachea.

Now I'm going to ask you, the viewer, and listener, which boondoggle is most damning? The 2000 holiday drive that was a $6.2 million purchased by City Hall, and it's going to need another, call it, 14 million, so we have even numbers, Judah. I need you to write these down. Let's say 2000 Holiday Drive whenever it's built is $20 million soup to nuts. And it gives you, when it's done being built, 80 Coleman sleeping bags, a nightstand,

and a Yeti tumbler atop the nightstand for the 80 homeless that are never going to use it because they have to be sober, drug-free, drug-free, and... I don't know if they have to be drug-free. Unwilling. Okay, it's a low barrier. So you can shoot your heroin and pound your coal 45 and sleep in the Coleman sleeping bag and drink out of the Yeti Tumblr and the new $20 million Ritz Carlton next to the Aberdeen Barn. So $20 million, I'll divide that by 80 Coleman sleeping bags.

I'm getting $250,000 for one Coleman sleeping bag in a Yeti tumbler. $250,000. Write that down. Please, sir. Then I'm going to take and compare and contrast the Holiday Drive, the Yee O'Me the holiday drive yield to the Cherry Avenue yield. A $50 million project, and with that $50 million project, remember that's a 2025 number, a $50 million project,

it's going to yield a grocery store that's going to be run by the Fifeville Neighborhood Association and co-op capacity. The likelihood of this grocery store surviving any kind of length is hysterical and laughable. Show me somebody that's never won a grocery store that has no experience running a grocery store, getting into the grocery store business, one of the most difficult businesses of them all

with the slimmest and tightest margins of them all. Let's just give them the benefit of the doubt. The Fifell HOA Neighborhood Association is going to know how to run their grocery store better than the Wegman's family. All right? I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. The folks that live off of Cleveland Avenue

and prospect and around Tonsler Park are going to know how to run the grocery store better than the Wegman's family. it's going to have success. $50 million, I'm going to say $7.5 million of that is going to go to the grocery store. $2.5 million is going to go to the new home of the Music Resource Center. The only aspect of this project that I am completely in favor of is the $2.5 million allocation for the Music Resource Center, the nonprofit.

Fantastic work done by the Music Resource Center. That leaves $40 million, due to Wickhauer, for 71 low-income apartments. $40 million divided by $71. $563,380 per unit, a 2025 number. Just write $563,000 down. So I ask you the viewer and listener, which is the most significant boondoggle? Holiday Drive 2000, Cherry Avenue 501.

On Holiday Drive, you get 80 Coleman sleeping bags in a Yeti Tumblr for $250,000. On Cherry Avenue, you get... 71 low-income apartments for $563,000. At least you get better than COTS. And the Cherry Avenue development has no chance of staying within budget, within timeline, and will be the definition of overruns, and will require City Hall to float more debt at basically no interest rate or what's most likely going to happen,

create a forgivable loan environment where it's just going to be written off and taxpayers are going to be expected to cover the costs through real estate taxes or personal property taxes or meals taxes or sales taxes. Welcome to

2026 in Charlottesville, Virginia. And the scary, scary, scary thing of all this is there is not a single platform in this community that's reported anything on this. There's a reason why all this happens in Charlottesville. Because it happens with three people in attendance in council chambers

and 46 people watching on YouTube. It just so happens that Judah Wickhauer and I were one of the 46 people that were watching on YouTube. And you know what's happening here, Judah? You know what's happening here? You want to know what's happening here? Is Piedmont Housing Alliance is trading

is leveraging equity that's been accrued through a politically and racially charged Charlottesville. Because when you're a nonprofit and you tie your mission and you set up your 501C3, its mission, around air quotes, developing housing for the disenfranchised and the marginalized, then you're giving latitude, and leash that no for-profit deliver, no for-profit developer would ever see.

But because your air quotes non-profit and you've got your 401C3 set around with branding and perception and copywriting in some t-shirts, in some brochures around what's good for the disenfranchised and the marginalized, then you get. get the Jen Fleischer's and Michael Payne's and the Natalie O'Sherens and the Juan Diego Wades of the world who have the combined business acumen and IQ of perhaps a second semester first year at the University of Virginia that's trying to get into the McIntyre School of Commerce to believe your mission statement and to just lap up like lap up your business model its presentation.

And no one's talking about it, except for us. Not a single person, except for us. And I'll conclude with this. I'll conclude with this. Big time props. Big time props

to wooded properties. Yeah. Big time props to water properties. You played the game. probably law i'm curious to see what this sells for i'm very curious to see what this sells for very curious to see what this sells for but even if this trades for somewhere around four million dollars and they lose money on the project they had enough common sense to cut their losses and get the hell out of dodge and not throw good money after bad oh yeah they did not throw good money after

bat. They threw good money after bad when they welcomed the Fifell Neighborhood Association and told him to have a seat at the table. And that little like Anthony's a good guy. That good that's in his heart right there where he's trying to make a difference

as a second generation owner that got exploited and snowballed into disaster. And that exploited good that was manipulated by the Neighborhood Association. in a politically and racially charged environment,

that has been whittled down some more like a number two pencil after the SAT and is not as pure as it once was. I'm going to say this as a first-generation business owner, me who had to take a company over the last 18 years with his own money, my own money, my life savings, and build it into just a small potatoes business, let's call it $9 million in total value,

I never would have done that because I remember what it was like 18 years to launch it where you took your life savings and you didn't have any clients for six months I remember it was like five years into building the company where I had a hustle

to meet payroll and I remember what it was like when I started acquiring real estate and I had a grind to put tenants into my holdings to cover the monthly dot and if I didn't do it the house of cards would have crumbled the first-gen owners never do stuff like this never do stuff like this

the first-gen owners because every dollar is sacred and no one's talking about it Judah why is no one talking about it Judah take a look at the last vote it was pretty recent I think it was just yesterday what did we find in Charlottesville

was it 85% Yes, to 15% knows. I think the 85% are perfectly happy giving that money away, especially if it's someone else's money. But it's not somebody else's money. It's the 85%'s money. That's the problem, though. It is everybody else's money.

It's the 85% and the 15%'s money. Yeah, I know that. They're just going to go back to us and say, we need more money on the real estate tax rate. They raised it one cent this year. They're just going to keep doing that. And the 85% that said yes, hey, the 85% that voted yes, what happened here with 501 Cherry Avenue?

I'm telling you, am I on this camera, 85% of you that voted yes on redistricting that live in Charlottesville City. What just happened on 501 Cherry Avenue? You, some of you, are going to lose your homes. some of you are going to lose your homes because you're not going to be able to afford the taxes associated with your houses and get ready to start moving to Lake Monticello or to BFE, Buckingham County, and driving your family Ford Explorer into the epicenter of employment in the city, a 45 minute one way. You can go and be all altruistic and philanthropic and full of grace and empathy and full of generosity, but all that's going to come is your. house you're going to lose. Mark it down. Mark it down. John Blair's comment, I would point out Jerry that New York City is opening a city-owned grocery store at a cost of $30 million, and the city itself projects the grocery store will lose $30,000 a year in perpetuity.

That's the head scratcher here. If a city like New York City cannot figure out a way to run a city-owned grocery store without a loss, the Charlottesville think that such a store, store is going to work. 100%. 100%. It's absolutely laughable what's happening here. And you know what? For the 85% that said yes, am I still on this camera? For the 85% that said yes. The 85% that said yes.

When the taxes get so high and you lose your home, it's going to be folks that have dried powder and investors that look like me, the 15% that voted no, that go up and start buying your houses and turning into rental properties and make the rent 5,000 a month.

And we're going to put 10 to 15 to 20% down on the homes that you lost. We're going to buy them up. I'm going to put 20% down on whatever the acquisition price is. And then I'm going to rent them back to you for 2x your mortgage. And I'm going to buy your house for 20% down and you're going to rent it back for me. And you're going to cover my debt. That's what's going to happen. As it means.

And you know I'm right. Somebody is going to. You know I'm right. Yeah. Because your rationale is Jesus. I want to live in Charlestville because I don't want a 50-minute one-way commute. I work at the hospital. I work at UVA.

I work downtown. I work for the courthouses. And I got an email from Jim Hingley, the Commonwealth Attorney about the tax rules, the Piedmont Housing Alliance project. I looked into it. Here it is. The 501 Cherry Avenue, because the project is intended for residents with lower incomes, Piedmont Housing Alliance will not necessarily rely on rent payments as the loan way to pay back its debt on this project.

One of the tools that Piedmont Housing Alliance uses to keep rents low is tax increment financing performance agreements. Piedmont Housing Alliance previously asked the city of Charlottesville to forgive 50% of the development's property, taxes over a 30-year period of time, meaning that Piedmont Housing Alliance can instead use that money to pay off its debt instead of giving the money to the city for real estate tax. Now, Sunshine Maython has asked the city of Charlottesville to cover 100% of the taxes associated this project over a 30-year period of time, which means Piedmont Housing Alliance would not have to pay taxes on the city for 30 years. Instead, it can take that money to pay off debt associated with the project, that works out to be about $8 million or 266 annually for 30 years.

Chris Engel confirmed the director of economic development. Do you see the freaking craziness that's happening here? That's less money that the city is going to bring in, so they're going to want more money from the rest of us. Jesus Christ, it's so obvious. Do you see it? Why does no one see this? You know what?

I'm at the point where I don't care if. they see it or not. Because I'm just going to capitalize on it. Some people see it. And remember what I said on Monday, there's like 24 to 36 people that are running the city? That's why. Okay. I see it. I know other people see it. Just a few of them. I certainly see it. And I'm just going to corner it and do it. Sunshine Mathan Executive Director, we don't want to pay taxes on this because we want to use the tax money to pay off the debt that we're going to accrue on it. And remember, you know what happens when you take a crappy parking lot that's full of crack, rock, and dirty needles and potholes in a warehouse that has rainwater

and mold and destruction and turn it into 71 apartments, a grocery store, and a nonprofit headquarters, you drive value for the real estate. So that tax rate, that number Chris Engel is talking about, that $8 million, that $266 annually, is the risk. real estate in its current state. It's not the real estate after 71 apartments have been built, after a grocery store has been built, and after a home of a nonprofit's been built, where it's going to get

significantly more value effing crazy. Keep doing it, Charlesville. Don't we all wish we could ignore our property assessments? Keep doing it, Charlesville. Keep doing it. Judah Wickhauer, Jerry Miller, I encourage you to support Jerry Rackcliffe.com.

$8 a month get you the best you've UVA sports content possible. $8 a month gets you the best UVA sports content possible at jerry rackliff.com. 815 subscribers at jerryorackliff.com in let's see a month and a half 815 subscribers $8 a month a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer gives you two stories per day on anything and everything UVA sports at a time where there's a news desert for UVA sports. This is the only place for UVA sports. is Jerry Rackleaf.com.

Queen of Jack Jewett has this comment. Carol Thorpe. The 501 Cherry highlights the ineptitude and ludicrousness of Charlottesville's one-party democratic stranglehold. No pushback and no checks and balances, no diversity of opinion. The current counsel shouldn't be allowed to run a lemonade stand.

There's a common theme running today, folks. Thank you, Carol. That was. Handsome Hank Martin. As we're forced to navigate a tsunami of new tax initiatives, emanating from Richmond, the consequences of the Iranian war consuming much more at the pump, the slow-motion disaster of Halle-Drive. We are observing the most cavalier, feckless, and reckless

monetary decision-making process ever. The Charlottesville City Council acts as if they're simply short-changed at the counter of McDonald's. Great for Woodard, but shame on the Charlottesville City Council. Props to Woodard. Props to Woodard. Props to Woodard for getting out of this. Props to Wooder. Ginny Who. Now look at the timeline for what. that New York City grocery store will supposedly open and apply that to Charlottesville, which I'm sure would take even longer. 100%, Jenny Who, 100%. Made the show better today, Ginny Who?

100%. Holly Foster and Henrico. Charlottesville City Hall is 100% is about driving people out of their homes with this kind of decision making. That's really sad. We know that the yes vote will not be temporary. We are all screwed here in the commonwealth from Holly Foster. I'll close with Stanley Martin Holmes. Stanley Martin Holmes is building homes all over Charlottesville all over Almar County and all over central Virginia

Stanley Martin homes does home building the right way the honest way the communicative way Convenient locations all over central Virginia and start Stanley Martin homes single-family detached homes condos and town homes design and constructive with innovative techniques that ensure exceptional efficiency and aesthetic appeal This is Judah Wickhauer and Jerry Miller. That's who's hosting the show we are unaffiliated unafraid, unabash, and unwilling to tow the company line. And that's what makes the show great. That's a Wednesday. We're out.