The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - The Good, Bad & Ugly From The City Council Meeting; Neil Williamson Public Comments To City Council

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: The Good, Bad & Ugly From The City Council Meeting Neil Williamson Public Comments To City Council Angela Spathos Public Comments To City Council Masked Activist’s Public Comments To City Council City Council Votes To Approve $6.2M For City Shelter Virginia #16 Ranking Highest Since 11/2007 (Al Groh) City Council Has To Enforce No Camping In Public Places Violet Crown Has Sold, Will Stay A Movie Theater 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 Sevo Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us downtown Charlottesville, our studio, our building, on Market Street, the Macklin Building. A pleasure to connect with you guys on this network. We're going to play some highlights from last night's city council meeting, including clips from three speakers. Tremendous respect for Neil Williamson, who spoke yesterday before council. tremendous respect for Angela Spathos, who spoke before city council yesterday. A number of the hotel years spoke before council yesterday,

and these hotel years and hotel general managers will certainly be impacted by this 6.2 million allocation for a homeless shelter, a homeless campus on holiday drive. I want to offer an opportunity for the speakers last night, Angela Spathos in particular, to have her comments heard because they need to be heard. I respectfully disagree, but I completely understand with her stance. I thought Neil did a good job, and then we had a masked activist speaking before counsel

in support of the houseless shelter, who just struck me as someone, one that was, I got to choose my words carefully here. How would I characterize this? All over the place in her commentary. How's that? I'll leave it as all over the place with her commentary. We'll talk about that and show it to you today. We encourage you, the viewer, and listener to like the show, share the show, subscribe to our YouTube channel, search the I Love Seville Network, subscribe, give it a thumbs up, give it a follow, help us spread the gospel. We want to highlight folks that make the program possible.

You've got the wrong headline in slot 9, Judah. That should be read, viewer, and listener comments live on air. That headline is also cut off. I would like to, on the program, highlight some of the partners that make the show possible. We'd like to highlight Oak Valley Custom Hartscapes. Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes. It's got an office on the downtown mall. They are local to Charlottesville, and they will help you visual.

and strategize and materialize a hardscape at your home that is going to offer quality of life that will offer generational type returns, generational type of returns with your family, with your friends, and enjoyment and quality of life. Oak Valley Custom Heartscapes guys is who you should contact for any hardscape task or project or job. Tim has the contact here in Charlottesville's just an all-around, fantastic guy. Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes. Judah Wickhauer's studio camera, two-shot as we welcome Judah to the show. We got that headline updated? Fantastic.

Your thoughts on what intrigues you from last night's council meeting? Well, like I said, it's good to hear people speaking out. It's good to see that people are more willing to come out and speak, where I think there was a bit of trepidation in the previous council meeting. Unsurprisingly, it was seemingly impossible to speak without getting verbally berated by, what, 200 or so people in the meeting. So I was heartened by the fact that we're hearing some more voices. I went to play clips from the meeting last night, specifically three speakers. speaker number one Neil Williamson

Speaker number two Angela Spathos and speaker number three I didn't catch her name I believe it was ISIS Who? Isis I can try to find Is that what she said?

Yeah Isis I can look for the last name That's what I've got so far We'll talk about that We'll also talk violent crown movie theater news today on the program as well. The first clip I want to play is from Neil Williamson, the president of the Free Enterprise Forum, who spoke before counsel on why

he thought the homeless shelter, the $6.2 million taxpayer allocation on holiday drive, a building that's 27,000 square feet on acreage that you can see from the bypass. Yes, it's next to those hotels there, and yes, it's next to the Aberdeen Barn. Why he thought This was a good idea for Charlottesville and why he also suggested that city council needs to now move forward with the no shelter, no sheltering in public places ordinance that was initially pitched to council or presented to council by chief Mike Kachis on behalf of council earlier this year. Neil Williamson is the president of the Free Enterprise Forum, which you can find online, and he offers very fantastic clarity in his commentary here. Judy, do you have that sound ready to go? I do.

Let's play Neil Williamson, and I'm going to plug my earbuds in to re-listen to him again, the president of the Free Enterprise Forum on the I Love Seville Show in three, two, one. My name is Neil Williamson, and I serve as the president of the Free Enterprise Forum, a publicly funded public policy organization focused on Central Virginia. The Free Enterprise Forum believes homelessness, should be rare and short-lived. We are encouraged that the discussions of Holiday Drive Shelter include services to provide a hand-up to the homeless. Charlottesville is clearly a caring and courageous community.

Based on widespread support, including property owners and the business community, which generate the majority of local tax revenue, I come tonight to say yes and to City Council. Yes, the Free Enterprise Forum, agrees with the acquisition of 2000 Holiday Drive. Yes, and we agree with the costs associated with upfitting the facility properly upfitting the facility. Yes, and we recognize and agree with the significant operating costs of such a facility. Yes, and we stand with Greer.

We believe that a properly written camping, city-wide camping ordinance can be a part of the unhoused solution. Previously, the city poorly managed the development and potential of the implementation of a camping ordinance. The entire community should have been engaged. We were not. We pushed back on the concept that such an ordinance is criminalizing the unhoused. Is it criminalizing hunger when we enforced shoplifting laws? No, caring, courageous communities give retailer security and provide food pantries and soup kitchens we heard about tonight.

Isn't criminalizing transportation when carjackers are prosecuted? No, caring and courageous communities protect the public by prosecuting carjackers and help the transportation challenged by eliminating transit fees. This council has recognized the unhoused issue is critically important to those that are a part of the vulnerable community and to those individuals and businesses impacted. We hope you will continue to show compassion and courage as you seek to find ways to make homelessness rare and short-left.

Thank you. That's Neil Williamson, guys, the president of the Free Enterprise Forum. I respect the guy tremendously. He watches the show often. I think you heard the use of hand up the terminology earlier in his presentation, something that we have coined and utilized on this show on a daily basis. I have also been driving home the fact that it's now time for city council to go back to this no sheltering in public places, no sleeping, no camping,

in public places, the ordinance that really garnered the ire of many activists in this community who monikered that policy criminalizing the homeless. It's not. I'll straight up stand up for the policy, for the business community that certainly would like to see it materialize. Having a law or having some kind of policy in place that allows the local law enforcement to police or enforce the fact that you can't camp in public places like the downtown mall, that is not criminalizing the homeless. That's common sense. And now that there is a 27,000 square foot houseless or homeless or shelter or campus with wraparound services, addiction counseling, computer labs, laundry facilities, showers, beds, beds,

get out of the inclement weather, come into HVAC, climate-controlled buildings and environments. Now that that's materialized, thanks to taxpayer dollars, and the $6.2 million is the tip of the iceberg. Millions more will be spent on upfitting and outfitting the business, the building for this campus. Now that council's agreed to do this, council has to do the hard work or the difficult job or the difficult vote of saying, look, this camping in public places is a thing of the past, and now we have to empower local law enforcement with the ability to police or enforce that you can't do that anymore. And Neil put that in perspective last night. Bill McChesney says, well said, Neil Williamson, it's what we've been saying for weeks

on the I Love Seville show here, ladies and gentlemen. The next clip that I'm going to play here on the show is Angela Spathos. owns the Aberdeen Barn. Her family has owned it for some time. It is without question one of the best restaurants ladies and gentlemen in our area. Angela, who may or may not be watching this show, but certainly

we'll watch the show later today or this evening. I would like for her to very much hear what I'm saying. I respect her tremendously. The Aberdeen Barn was one of the first restaurants that I ate at with my family.

Some 25 years ago when I first arrived at the University of Virginia as a student. My dad grew up going to the Aberdeen Barn when he was a student at UVA. Aberdeen Barn is a place you go for special moments. It's a place you go for date night, for family night. It's a place you go for great prime rib, for great service, great ambiance. It is an institution. We're fortunate to have it. I hope Angela also hears this. I understand her position and I understand the position of the hotel years and and the general managers of the hotels that spoke last night.

We're not playing the hotel year's commentary, but it's very similar. They're public comments to what Angela is about to offer here on the show, would she present it to counsel yesterday. I get the plight of a high-end steakhouse owner being extremely concerned, bristling about a homeless shelter opening next to her steakhouse. I understand it completely.

The reality is with a homeless, shelter, there's going to be no neighborhood, no business corridor, no area in Charlottesville that is going to want a homeless shelter as their neighbor. No one is going to say, I don't care what your politics are, I don't care the double talk, what you say on one side of your mouth and what comes out the other side of your mouth. No one is going to say, I want a homeless shelter as my neighbor. Okay? No one is going to say that. Matthew Gilliken's not going to say that. Don Gathers is not going to say that. Nikaya Walker is not going to say that. Libel Seaville's not going to say that. Ziona Bryant's not going to say that. Michael Payne's not going to say that.

There's no perfect place for this. So when you hear Angela Spathos, the owner of the Aberdeen Barn offering these comments, please appreciate her empathy and her willingness to come up with a solution for the houseless, but also the fact that she doesn't want it to be next to her family-owned Steakhouse, which is completely reasonable. The reason I'm playing this clip is for you, the viewer, and listener, to hear the other side of this. This is the other side of it, someone who's had an institutional family-owned business that still wants to offer the hand up for the houseless, but not necessarily next to their family business. And I get what you're saying and very much appreciate it. Judea play Angela Spathos in three, two, one.

Three minutes. Yes, sir. Hi, my name is Angela Spathis. I am the owner, operator of Aberdeen Barne Stakehouse on Holiday Drive. Our family business has been proudly serving this community for over 60 years. After meeting with Sam, I have a much better understanding of the challenges the city faces and finding a suitable location for a low barrier homeless shelter. I fully support the goal of helping those in need and addressing homelessness in our community.

However, I truly believe Holiday Drive is not the right location for this facility. Our street is comprised of entirely hospitality businesses, two restaurants, four hotels, and a barbershop. By placing a shelter at the end of our dead-in street, you would be directing shelter residents directly past our entrances and through our parking areas. This raises serious concerns about loitering, safety, especially at the dark, and the comfort of our guests and employees. depends on creating an environment where guests feel welcome and safe.

If that sense of safety is compromised, it will inevitably impact our ability to attract, retain customers, and sustain our businesses. The ripple effects could be devastating. Not only for our establishments, but to many staff and suppliers who rely on us for their livelihoods. We've all seen how the increase in homeless population has affected other hospitality districts in the city. Knowing this, it's difficult to understand why a site surrounded by long-standing, tax-generating businesses would be chosen for a low-barrier shelter. Many of us on Holiday Drive have operated for 50 to 70 years, contributing significant revenue to the city through meals, lodging, and real estate taxes. We ask that this contribution and our continual viability be carefully considered.

There are also safety concerns for the people you're trying to help. The proposed location would bring an additional 200 pedestrians into an area bordered by some of the city's busiest and most dangerous streets and intersections, Emmett Street and the 250 hydraulic corridor. Increased foot traffic and potential increase in panhandling at these crossings would make them even more hazardous. I recognize the urgency of helping the homelessness, but that urgency should not outweigh the need to find a location that balances compassion with community. community safety, and economic stability. I respectfully ask City Council to continue to search for a more suitable site, one that does not jeopardize the businesses and employees that have long supported this city. I thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. I respect this comment and the courage it takes to offer Angela's commentary on the record before counsel significantly. I encourage anyone watching and listening to this program to further patronize and go out of your way to support the Aberdeen Barn. And I would challenge City Council and City Hall, Sam Sanders and City Council, to figure out a solution for this shelter that is much needed. And I am extremely in favor. I want you to hear this. I'm very much in favor for this houseless, this homeless shelter, to be at this holiday drive location. This 27,000 square foot building, this acreage, the proximity to public.

public transportation, the proximity to the Rivana Trail, the proximity to the bypass, the proximity to downtown, the proximity to Almaro County, the fact that there's room to grow is a perfect spot for the shelter. But I get Angela's position as a next door neighbor business owner of the shelter. So now it's up to council, Sam Sanders, and City Hall to do this, to upfit and outfit the shelter in a way that offers safety and security for the businesses around it that are hotels and restaurants that drive a lot of taxpayer dollars if council and city hall do not do this correctly if they ramrod the shelter and campus in a way that does not also uplift the businesses around it then it's an absolute travesty what they've done to locally owned and operated businesses

and there's few that have the legacy, the notoriety of the Aberdeen barn. And that's just absolute fact. So city council's got to figure out a path. City Hall's got to figure out a solution of building this campus in a shelter where maybe it's improved landscaping, maybe it's fencing around the property, maybe it's those what is it, those green giant trees that grow that offer tremendous visibility, sound, protection, that limit visibility and sound from coming in and out of it, whatever the solution may be, okay, it cannot just smack a shelter and a campus of this significance and magnitude

without considering its neighbors. And I think that's what she's emphasizing right there. Okay, this, she is not opposed to offering a hand up to people. She's concerned about her family-owned business, and I respect that position. I mean, she's got the same concerns that every business person on the downtown mall has. She's got the same concern of every person in Fifeville that fought the shelter at the Salvation Army site. Yeah. The entire Fifeville neighborhood association, some of the most significant activists in our community live in this neighborhood Fifeville. and they fought a homeless shelter at the Salvation Army spot.

And that Salvation Army shelter in Fifeville was an even better location than this Holiday Drive one. And the Fifeville neighborhood fought it and has kept it from materializing. And the only reason that Angela and the hotels around Holiday Drive were not successful is because this deal was done swiftly, quietly, and very much under the radar. If this deal had the same pomp and circumstance and leadway that the Salvation Army one had,

where Juan Diego Wade and Sam Sanders were speaking before the Fifeville Neighborhood Association in a fireside chat type of format, where Juan Diego Wade said he took verbal arrows to the chest from the Fifeville. Neighborhood Association about this shelter on Cherry Avenue? Literally, that's what he said. Juan Wade, Sam Sanders, never did a fireside chat for a shelter on holiday drive. It was kept on the QT, on the hush-hush, and the deal very quickly materialized. And because of that, the neighboring businesses did not have a chance to create outcry or outrage or galvanize against it. or even provide their voices.

Okay. I understand Angela's position. I hope you hear what I'm saying here, Angela. I understand her position. You will struggle to find anyone that's going to raise their hand and say, put the shelter next to my business or my house. Struggle. I think...

It's to call the needle and a haystack as an understatement. It's never going to happen. Exactly. Now, I'm going to play a third clip by some kind of, I'm choosing my words carefully here. I'm going to say an activist that was not prepared to speak, and very nice terminology. That's going to be the third clip that I play here. An activist who was not prepared to speak, but chose to speak anyway. I saw a very interesting little sociology or anthropology study happened.

The folks that spoke last night that were wearing the COVID masks were without question in the activist category. And the folks that spoke last night that were wearing the COVID mask were without question overwhelmingly supportive of the houseless and homeless population. the folks that spoke last night that were not wearing the COVID masks that were unmasked were proponents of the pro-business community and also the shelter but certainly the pro-business community here's one of a handful of activists that spoke last night that I'll let you determine how she performed and this public comment portion of last night's council meeting cue that sound up in three two one hi my name is isis newman i live in the belmont area before i dive into the bulk of what i have to say i just want to express my support

for the residents of west haven and tenth and page along with my lack of support of more housing for the college kids with the wealthiest parents i also want to say i don't support sri's in our school and i do support my unhoused neighbors and believe they are deserving of more respect than they're being treated and I also believe I should not be able to mask. Now the big thing I want to talk about today is flock. For starters, right now Virginia is the last state in the south of abortion access. That leaves us with a lot of responsibility to be a safe place for women and for all people who are able to get pregnant. We have seen as women have been tracked using the flock system across multiple states' lines to be prosecuted for having abortions. While I understand that our data

isn't currently open access for other departments to search, that can change. The only way to make sure that flock data in Charlottesville is never used in this way is to stop collecting that data. We have seen jurisdictions in the Commonwealth use this data to collaborate with ICE and kidnap people who are supposedly undocumented. These are jurisdictions we have shared data with before and we could share data with at some point in the future. Do not set the people of Charlottesville up like that. At the flock meeting I attended, I was told by the chief of police that while Charlottesville holds data for seven days, we have no idea how long flock holds our data or what they do. with it call me paranoid but I don't want an evil mega corporation to know where that is helping kidnap people to know there to play on the show there was a another speaker that spoke before

council that was talking about the houseless shelter and last night's meeting that was perhaps not prepared to speak but that was the wrong clip that was cut to play for the show I want to conclude the comments on last night's council meeting by offering my thoughts on what's going to happen next. I think the hardest policy and leadership decision for council is still ahead. And that's council determining whether or not it's going to ban public camping and sheltering. And now that they're going to spend north of $10 million, because when this project is all said and done, soup to nine, nuts. It's going to be north of $10 million. Council is going to have to make the hard-line decision of do we ban public sheltering and commenting and then say, look, you can't do this here

anymore, but you can go to this shelter. That's what they're going to have to do. And when that decision is made, and it looks like it's going to be done under the Jen Fleischer regime with Brian Pickston coming off a council, Fleischer coming on, Juan Diego Wade's going to be there, Michael Payne, Natalie Arshort and Lloyd-Sinuck, they're going to get ripped apart, picked apart like Thanksgiving Turkey. And leadership is making decisions that are the right decisions despite outcry from a large portion of people and the large portion of people will reflect the minority of the population. I truly believe the majority of Charlottesvillians of city taxpayers, of tourists, of students, Elmore County, and Central Virginians are of the

mindset, we don't want public camping anymore. The majority wants that. The minority, however, will be extremely vocal. And council's going to have to determine if it has the courage and the fortitude, the thick skittiness, the foresight, the vision to hardline, to offer a hardline policy where public camping is not allowed. Otherwise, they're potentially continuing with the problems on the downtown mall and also creating them for businesses along a holiday drive. And if they don't make this decision and the counselors watch the show, I hear from them. Counselors that watch the show, if you don't make this decision, you will continue to see all your tax revenue levers flatline or continue to run in the red. your real estate valuations, your sales tax collections, your meals tax collections, your tourism, your tourism traffic, all of them will continue to run in the red.

And that's what's happening right now. All right. Other headlines that we need to get to on the Tuesday edition of the I Love Seville Show, Judah, other headlines that we need to cover, the violent crown one is a big one. If you are not aware, there is a, as of this morning, a group of three people, their names Rachel Baker, Annie Galvin, and Lindsay Meck. Annie Galvin is a UVA Ph.D. and audio producer. Lindsay Meck is a theater and events producer, and Rachel Baker, Rachel Baker is a writer and an editor. They have come together to purchase Violent Crown, the movie theater, and they are committed to Violet Crown staying a movie theater in downtown Charlottesville. If you remember, Violent Crown was under the microscope of Jeff Levine, the Manhattan developer who has a second

home in North Garden, who built the apartment tower where Blue Moon Diner currently sits on West Main Street next to University Tire. He's also involved in the hotel project that's going to replace delivery stable in the Artful Lodger Shopping Center and the Shadows of the Omni. He was pursuing what would have been the tallest building in the city of Charlottesville, 18 floors of apartments and some retail on ground level, and he was doing it under the mission of creating additional multifamily in downtown Charlottesville and a for-profit venture. that would have given the city the supply that it was desperately seeking. He caught tremendous resistance from cinema lovers,

from folks in Charlottesville that didn't want to see the movie theater vanish. He caught resistance from a lot of people. A lot of people that were scared, not scared, but concerned about the shadow that such a building would cast on the downtown mall. Yeah, it was just, it was a debacle. Now, these three ladies, you have to ask questions like, where's the funding coming from? Who's backing the three ladies? Why is one of the three ladies possibly using an alias?

One of them is her name in the statement. Rachel Baker, is that who she is? Where's the money coming from? It's Rachel Baker, Annie Galvin, and Lindsay Meck. You could look into Lisa Dell LLC. I believe that's the company they created to buy it up. Yes, that was in the statement. I was clear in the statement.

Alias was not the right word to use, but who is behind this group is what I'd like to say. That's what I'd like to know. Who is behind the group that is buying Violent Crown? Are these three ladies that are buying Violent Crown funding the purchase themselves? Who is helping fund this purchase? But this is a type of purchase that is, you know, significantly impactful in downtown Charlottesville

because it seems to me that this is going to be a movie theater for some time. And if it's a movie theater for some time, I question the viability of this business model moving forward. Not sure the movie theater business model is one that's successful moving forward. forward. But regardless, a pretty significant move here with three ladies purchasing a movie theater and continuing a mission to maintain it, movies and cinema and art. And it's being done the announcement right before the Virginia Film Festival, which is a

crown duel for downtown Charlottesville. No doubt. Other headlines, Judah Wickhauer, what do you got? Let's see. after that we've got Virginia number 16 the final headline is you put the lower third on screen here

on a short and Tuesday edition of the I Love Seville Show we covered this on the Jerry and Jerry show this morning I find absolutely startling ladies and gentlemen the Virginia football team the last time that they were ranked 16 in the nation like they are right now the last time was

November of 2007, 18 years ago. So it's been a generation since Virginia football has been ranked this high, and they're 16 in both polls. They traveled in North Carolina Saturday to face Bill Belichick, the Hall of Fame football coach, and the UNC Tar Heels. They are favored heavily to win this ballgame, and they have a clear path to the ACC championship. The conversation is now, will Tony Elliott get an extension, and will any other football programs pursue Tony Elliott as their head football coach? And the beginning of the season is, when is Tony Elliott going to get fired? It shows the fickle nature of college football and how quickly things can change. 16th, the highest ranking for Virginia in 18 years. Ladies and gentlemen,

A couple of comments I want to get to before we sign off ahead of a meeting we have this afternoon at 115. Deep Throat says, to me, the right answer is to partner with Lighthouse Studio and dedicate some of the space to Lighthouse. And Lighthouse Studio can pay rent to the Violet Crown new owners. Lighthouse Studios over here on Market Street, also an institution. You see a lot of youth in and out, film-loving youth in and out of Lighthouse Studio. That would seem like a fantastic idea, deep throat. A joint venture that would be positive for both parties as Lighthouse is literally going to be next to a significant development project,

a hotel being built pretty much in spitting distance of their studio, where audio visual certainly needs quiet, and quiet's not going to happen when construction is going to happen for an extended period of time with a hotel built. So that seems like a really good idea. you have a lot of moving parts in downtown charlottesville common house is for sale browns lock and safe is for sale violent crown just sold a lot of moving parts on that side of the mall we'll follow it and continue we'll follow it on the i love seville show uh that's today's program back in the saddle tomorrow at

1230. For Judah Wickhauer, my name is Jerry Miller. Thank you.