The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Protesters In Court May Lead To Truth; AlbCo Gives Home Depot $750K Tax Break

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: UVA Protesters In Court May Lead To Truth AlbCo Gives Home Depot $750K Tax Break Was $750K Home Depot Tax Break Smart? Can CVille Learn From AlbCo Tax Breaks? Will City Buy 230 Barracks Rd To Prevent Dev? Is 230 Barracks Different Than High St & Carlton? CVille City Losing Quality Jobs To Albemarle Why Job Loss + Economic Influence + Housing Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Thursday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville show. Today's show is loaded with content. This is the fourth day in a row where I've been very pleased with our rundown of headlines because the show is a many-pronged attack. One of the prongs for the show, a successful one, is having good content to discuss, to analyze, and to offer commentary upon. Another key prong of the show, one of the most obvious, is the execution of your co-host, yours truly and the undeniably talented Judah Wickhauer. Can we execute? Can we educate, enlighten, and entertain for an hour without commercial break? Those are the two key items of a successful show. And the last three days of the week, I feel like the content has been extremely compelling. And I think Judah and I have done a

great job of executing on that content. The fourth day in a row, today, Thursday, I think the content is very compelling. And I think Judah, I think the content is very compelling, and I think Judah and I have an opportunity to deliver compelling commentary for you today. Judah, I'm going to ask you in a matter of moments what the most intriguing headline for you is. Before I do, I want to give some props to Pro Renata. If we can get some photos on screen. A partner of the program, Dr. John Shabe and the Pro Renata team. They are expanding the brand into downtown Stanton with development, with a brewery, with a music scene. They are taking their Crozet location and they're transforming it into a sports bar,

televisions, cocktails, beer, stuff for kids, family, and good food by a friend of the program, Dino, who has Dino's in Muthru. And then they bought the assets of the Skipping Rock brewery location that is now no more, including equipment of nearly a million dollars, some of the best beer-making equipment now on the East Coast, this brewery. We have a lot we're going to cover on the program as we give our thanks to Pro Renata. We have a new partner that we're going to introduce on the show in the very near future, maybe as early as next week. The show is growing, and we're grateful for you, the viewer and listener, for watching, for listening, and for commenting.

If you could do one thing for us, I don't ask for anything from you, the viewer and listener. I don't ask for money. I don't ask for commenting. If you could do one thing for us, I don't ask for anything from you, the viewer and listener. I don't ask for money. I don't ask for anything. All I ask for you is to like and share the show. Just help us spread the gospel. A lot we're going to cover on the program. We're going to cover today the intersection of Albemarle County and its government and our taxpayer dollars and how that intersection complements or pertains to a publicly traded company that is 23rd in the Fortune 500 rankings, 23, that has a market capitalization of $367 billion roughly. Albemarle County has offered, and Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum has great coverage of this, $750,000 in tax increment financing over a 10-year period of time

to a big box retailer that is as giant as we have in Albemarle County. And the whole concept of this is to get Home Depot moving efficiently and quickly to taking the Fashion Square Mall, that's a ghost town, their portion of the mall, into realizing it into tax revenue, into new jobs. The supervisors highlighted that this deal is going to create $500,000 annually in tax revenue for Albemarle County and will create more than 100 jobs in Albemarle County. Actually, I should say, I should

stop back on that. The more than 100 jobs this creates, we should push back on that. Not all those people with those 100 plus jobs will live in Albemarle County. In fact, I will venture to say that Albemarle County, with the cost of living associated with the county as it pertains to housing, the 100 plus people that work at Home Depot, a large portion of them, if not a majority of them, will not live in Albemarle County. We're talking floor jobs, we're talking warehouse jobs, cashier jobs, we're talking people working the aisles and stocking shelves in a lot of cases here, unloading hardware goods from trucks.

So I would bet a large majority of these people do not live in Alamaro County. Furthermore, another element the Board of Supervisors highlighted when dishing out $750,000 of your money and my money to Fortune 23 and the Fortune 500, Home Depot, a market

capitalization of $367 billion, ladies and gentlemen, is the improved infrastructure as it pertains to roadways. Home Depot is going to improve the transportation connectivity of the Hillsdale Drive realignment. Neil Williamson, great coverage on that. I'm going to pick this apart like Thanksgiving turkey today, like my dad does on turkey day where he separates the dark meat, the white meat, and the skin. And he breaks them up into neat little piles, and he doesn't want the meat touching his mashed potatoes, his green beans, his stuffing.

The only thing that can complement and touch all the different piles of food on his plate is the gravy, which he douses and drowns all the food with, the gravy. I'm getting off track here. I'm sorry. I want to cover on today's program 230 Barracks Road. It came up on yesterday's show. I think this is a fantastic talking point, ladies and gentlemen. 230 Barracks Road is a development that's in the works. Plan submitted on the 19th of August. God, that was just a few days ago. Right behind the Meadowbrook Shopping Center. It's a piece of land in the city that is 0.83 in size, 0.83 acres.

I know this lot extremely well. As I highlighted on yesterday's program, my wife and I had an offer on 2028 Barracks Road, the house right next to 2030. We didn't win this purchase, this home purchase. This lot is a ravine, has a gully, a bubbling brook, has a little bit of meadow, has some butterflies, some little birdies, some tadpoles, and it has some potential. And this potential has been seen by Greenshire Holdings,

as Nicole Skroll highlighted in her thread yesterday. Greenshire Holdings and Jeff Moran have submitted plans to take this piece of dirt from R1 to RB in zoning. The new zoning ordinance allows it. Two lots and 24 units. Judah's going to show you a visualization element that we can put on screen as we get into this topic of what this could become. I'm curious to see if this happens. Will the residents of Tony, Affluent, Posh, Prestigious, Barracksacks Road and the Blue Ridge neighborhood?

Will they galvanize, organize, and strategize much in the same fashion that we saw the residents on High Street and the neighborhoods on either side of East High galvanize, organize, and strategize to Poo Poo and Kai Bosch, Wendell Wood, and Bo Carrington's project that would have created 250 sub-apartments on the banks of the Rivanna River. Furthermore, will the residents of Barracks Road and the Blue Ridge neighborhood organize, strategize, and galvanize, much like we saw citizens do the same around the Carlton Mobile Home Park, kiboshing development in a park that was home to 65 or 66 trailers

and their respective families. The city is in a precarious position. It offered a bridge loan to Piedmont Housing Alliance and Habitat for Humanity to save the mobile home park, no development's going to happen for three years there. Literally taking tax revenue and new housing stock out of the ecosystem we call the city for 36 months. The city's in a precarious position because it took 250, 260 apartments out of the city ecosystem when it purchased the land from Wendell Wood for an exorbitant amount

was it 5.7, 5.8 million dollars? Kaiboshing 250, 260 units from materializing through Bo Carrington's 7th Development Company. Will the folks on Barracks Road say, hey you need to do the same thing for

230 Barracks Road to keep these 24 units from happening because it does not fit what you're trying to do with this bike lane. It does not fit with what you're trying to do with sustainability. It does not fit with what you're trying to do with what's best for the environment. You're going to have heavy machinery, dump trucks, bulldozers, backhoes, Ford F-350s cutting through Barracks Road at the same place that you're trying to build a critical artery bike path to connect the rest of the city. You need to do for us what you did for High Street and what you did in Carlton. And if the city says no, do the neighbors in Barracks Road and the neighbors in the Blue Ridge neighborhood, can they say, why are you saying no to us? Is it because we're affluent and we're deep-pocketed and we're wealthy? If so, that's not fair. The city's backed itself in a corner. We're going

to talk about that today in the show. We're also going to highlight in today's program, God, today's show is effing loaded, ladies and gentlemen. Job loss from the city of Charlottesville. Deep Throat has put compelling data together on, including bar graphs, Judah, right? On how the city is losing jobs, losing jobs to Alamaro County. And the jobs the city is gaining, ladies and gentlemen, are jobs that fit the hospitality model. And I think hospitality, I think any jobs are great. But jobs in the hospitality category are not the best paying. They're not the best paying. So we're going to talk about that on today's program. I want to

welcome Judah Wighower into the program on a two-shot. Judah, today's show I think is absolutely loaded. I'm excited as you can tell. Which Ryan and UVA Police Chief Longo are going to get pulled into a hearing and have to produce evidence that may or may not be counter to the stories they've been telling. So I'm curious if there's some new truth that's going to come out surrounding what's been going on with the insanity at UVA. Set the stage. That could be the first headline. That's your headline that you wanted to talk about on the show. The who, what, when, where, why. As we spoke about yesterday, the charges are being dropped against

the UVA protesters. And I'm interested in the fact that four of the protesters have decided not to take the deal and instead want to go ahead with bringing charges against the university that their First Amendment rights were... What's the word? Trampled upon? Yes. Screwed? There you go. Abused? Taken advantage of? All of the word? Trampled upon? Yes. Screwed? There you go. Abused?

Taken advantage of? All of the above? Exactly. Keep going. And there's been so much questionable content that's come out of this story, from Police Chief Longo claiming that he was threatened by protesters, which by all accounts, he was not. There's the fact that we were told there were four men in black wearing masks who were known to be dangerous, but for some reason they were not among the people arrested.

There's just so much to unravel here, and I feel that we've been given a lot of lies. So the fact that there are four people who are willing to stand up and take this to court, I can't wait to find out what's going to happen. The motion is asking for a hearing to determine whether the Commonwealth violated the First Amendment. If granted the hearing, the defendant's counsel would enter evidence intending to prove that they were forbidden from remaining on public property because of their political views, not because of anything else. And while I may not agree with their political views, I think if they're being targeted simply because of their political views, I've got a

problem with that. Because tomorrow it could be you or me for our political views. And because the defense is arguing that the Commonwealth violated their First Amendment rights, a hearing would require UVA to produce evidence regarding how it reached its decision to break up the encampment. That would likely mean Longo and UVA President Jim Ryan would be brought to the witness stand to testify. Okay, so I'll jump in here. So we're not just reading from the Daily Progress article. Four people want to go balls to the wall to say their civil liberties were trampled upon when the Virginia State Police was called in as a militia to break up a pro-Palestine protest. And these four are going to push the limits, legal limits, as far as they can. have to answer very straightforward questions from their attorney on what was the true reason for breaking up the pro-Palestine

purchase in Charlottesville on the grounds of the University of Virginia. That's what it is right there. Very succinctly. That's it, succinctly. I think this is fantastic. Finding out the truth,

and it looks like you need to reconnect the group over there. Finding out the truth on one of the darkest days in UVA history is important for all of us. And I think Judah said something really important. We may not all agree with the student protesters from early in May who protested in favor of Palestine. But what we should all agree as Americans

is we have certain civil liberties that make this country the best in the world. And when our rights to protest and our rights to freedom of speech, when conducted in a way that is within the letter of the law, conducted in a way that does not elicit violence or destruction, when we go about our rights in the framework of the law, and if our rights become trampled or eroded by government, by the governor, by the state police, by the chief of police at UVA, by whoever made this call, the president of the University of Virginia, we should all as a community, as a city, as a county, as a region, as a country, be concerned. And why Judah wanted to make this the lead headline of today's show is you have four individuals that are courageous. And we've seen individuals be courageous like this Thomas Jefferson George Washington John Adams

Paul Revere folks that were willing to take risk including incarceration or death for the pursuit of civil liberty freedom for the pursuit of civil liberty freedom,

for the pursuit of taxation without representation. I'm very curious to see what happens here. Against taxation without representation. If you're the University of Virginia, you should be extremely nervous that key personnel at the school may be called into a courtroom where they have to answer very pointed questions. That's why that was the lead of today's show,

and that's why we probably should have covered it a little bit better on yesterday's program. Yeah, I mean, it's fairly, I think anyone can see that there have been lies told surrounding this whole event. And I, for one, would like to know the truth. I'd like to know the truth as well. Let's get some lower thirds on screen so we can let the folks know what's going on. The next headline, please. What is it due to be, Wickower? Albemarle gives Home Depot a $750,000 tax break.

All right. This one's a doozy. And you can find this on the Free Enterprise Forum. I've shared the link across the board. Neil Williamson, great coverage. The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved, as he reports, a public-private partnership providing Home Depot a $750,000 tax increment over 10 years is that Home Depot is going to generate $500,000 a year in tax revenue for the county, will create 100-plus new jobs, and will improve transportation connectivity, specifically the Hillsdale Drive realignment. I want to have a friendly, slightly combative discussion with Judah Wickauer on this for the sake of a talk

show, for the sake of compelling content. I'm going to ask you this question as you rotate the lower thirds, and I'll be quiet to listen. Did Albemarle County make the right move offering a company with a $366 billion market capitalization, number 23 in the Fortune 500? Do they make the right move offering them a $750,000 tax break? Show us your words, Judah Wicker. Show us mine. I mean, I think you said it yourself, the fact that their market capitalization is so large, the fact that, I mean, my question is why was this given?

Was this the only way to draw them in? Was this the only option for what to do with the with the mall no it probably wasn't the right decision but was there any is there any other plan I mean there was there's something else mentioned in in that the, in that article about the fact that there is a, I believe it's a, an equipment rental, um, business coming to the area next to the library, which was not part of the, um, what is it? Rio 29 small area plan yeah and so are they just fishing right now is do they not know what's going on and just trying to get businesses wherever they can find them the rio 29 small area plan is a critical component of almaral county it's a gateway to almaral county

and fashion square Mall is an absolute disaster. And no Home Depot will not take the entire Fashion Square Mall. But they will take a large portion that's very public facing. And Home Depot is going to generate $500,000 annually in tax revenue. Very few businesses generate that kind of money. And Home Depot is going to create 100 plus jobs. Very few businesses have that many employees on their payroll. And Home Depot is going to create 100-plus jobs. Very few businesses have that many employees on their payroll. And Home Depot is going to improve transportation connectivity, as Neil Williamson reports, the Hillsdale Drive realignment. Did Albemarle County make the right move?

$750,000 in tax breaks over 10 years to a publicly traded company that my folks have invested in and currently hold stock positions within, that many of you have stock positions with Home Depot, that have a market capitalization that is equivalent to the GDP of many small countries? My answer to that question is absolutely. Albemarle County made the right move. Really? Absolutely.

Because they needed that? You take an area of Albemarle County that is an effing ghost town and you put an anchor tenant that could revitalize this area and create business that's associated, that is looking for foot traffic tied to Home Depot and they'll set up shop next to it.

You take an area of Alamaro County that's generating very little tax revenue and you set up a behemoth that's going to be here probably past the death points of you, me, and many of the viewers and listeners. You get 100 plus new jobs. I want to caveat the jobs. Not all those 100 are going to be tied to Alamaro County. But if they're working at Home Depot, those 100 plus people that are working at Home Depot very well could have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, coffee, fill up their gas, and get groceries within Alamaro County, which is additional tax revenue streams for Alamaro. Okay? Aren't they also in charge? Didn't they also put Home Depot in didn't they also put home depot in charge of uh of basically advertising the the old red lobster spot home depot is now responsible for revitalizing

one of the most important restaurants from a visibility standpoint on route 29 and it's the red lobster location bill mcchesney just put that in the feed. They are involved with revitalizing the Red Lobster spot as well. This is a brilliant move by Albemarle County. I continue to be impressed by Albemarle County as it pertains to economic development. Albemarle County did a phenomenal job with Rivanna Futures,

$58 million of taxpayer dollars to keep the spies, the government contractors, and a $1.3 billion economic impact in our county. They took taxpayer money, bought land from Wendell Wood, and have the spies now staying here for a long period of time after they were rumored all these government contractors and a $1.3 billion yearly economic impact to be quartered by St. Louis with free land. Alamaro County understands the concept of economic development. Alamaro County understands the concept of economic development as it pertains to today and the future. And you're going to hear this from folks.

Can you believe they gave Home Depot, a publicly traded company, 23 in the Fortune 500 power ranking, a tax break of this magnitude? And my response to that is, how many businesses generate $500,000 a year in tax revenue? Home Depot does. And we should take it a step further.

The city of Charlottesville, who I would say is struggling with his economic development strategy. The city of Charlottesville, ladies and gentlemen, is offered tax breaks to John Dewberry with the Dewberry Hotel. And Michael Payne and Nakia Walker came in and kiboshed those tax breaks. And now the Dewberry Hotel is a skeleton. When you don't see the forest through the trees like the city of Charlottesville has, then you get the Dewberry Hotel sitting around vacant for extended periods of time. I think this was an absolute brilliant move.

Your thoughts, Judah Wickhauer? I think that's a good take. I think that you're right. You've got some good points, and by your argument, I would say that the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has probably more vision for the future of the county than Seville has for the future of the city. Albemarle County may have more vision

as it pertains to economic development. The city of Charlottesville's leadership, their vision may be tied to other things like diversity, equity, and inclusion, like housing affordability. Albemarle County's vision is tied to economic development. It's very clear. It's very clear.

As a result, the county is in position to do projects with revenue tied to taxes that maybe the city doesn't have. I think this was a great move. If you want more coverage, check out Neil Williamson on the Free Enterprise Forum. His coverage on have. I think this was a great move. And if you want more coverage,

check out Neil Williamson on the Free Enterprise Forum. His coverage on it, I think it was absolutely fantastic. Other topics on today's program. Judah Wacara, what do you have? Next, we've got, will the city buy

230 Barracks Road to prevent... 2030. Yeah. 2030 Barracks Road to prevent... 2030. Yeah. 2030 Barracks Road is the address, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. We learned this yesterday, courtesy of DeColscro.

24 units planned for 0.83 acres in the city of Charlottesville at 2030 Barracks Road behind the CVS, Meadowbrook Shopping Center. Does the city get involved in making a purchase of 2030 Barracks Row? I doubt it. Make the case. they get involved is that they feel that the disruption to the disruption to hydraulic coming down from hydraulic barracks coming down from this direction is going to be too much of an issue.

I don't see any other, I'm fairly certain they're not going to get involved just because a neighborhood feels like this is disrupting their neighborhood. How is it any different than High Street? It's different in almost every way. Explain. High Street was about the floodplain. It was about, like I said, disruption of High Street. It's a two-lane road on High Street.

It's a two-lane road on Barracks Road. And I just said the only way I could see the city getting involved is if they felt like it was too disruptive to Barracks Road, as some argued that it would be on High Street. Other than that, I don't see any connection. Barracks Road, new bike path. I still don't see how, yes, it's, any construction anywhere is going to be driving across a bike path. Barracks Road, new bike path, 24 units. Vehicles associated with 24 units. Bike path dangerous.

So you're saying that because people drive like you know what in Charlottesville, we shouldn't build more property? We shouldn't build more property? We shouldn't build more housing? If you put 24 units, I'm just playing devil's advocate with you. If you put 24 units and the construction of 24 units on top of a bike path, isn't that going to make things difficult for the bike path? Are they really putting it on top of the bike path, though? It's only 0.83 acres.

It's not even an acre of land. Okay. The bike path is right up. They're taking owner property to build the bike path. Okay. So if they're taking owner property to build the bike path, that shows you there's not much width on Barracks Road for the construction of the bike path.

Yeah. It is a... very narrow road. Without sidewalks. I think there's sidewalks there. Really? Yeah, there's sidewalks there. Going all the way up that hill? Yeah, there's sidewalks there. Okay. There's sidewalks there. My point is this. My point is this.

Do the owners at Barracks Road have an argument to make that's similar to the argument at High Street or Carlton? I think they will try to make that argument. How does the city respond? And if the city says no, will the owners push back and say, is it because we're a wealthy community? I mean, that is a fair argument, but what are you going to do? I don't think the city is getting involved.

Rocking a hard place. Yeah. Rocking a hard place. Would the city make the argument, would the city get involved if it was at 10th and Page with Chris Henry's Phase 3? That's a tough one. I think they might have enough people complain that they would. But I also think that the complaints were largely unfounded, so I'd like to think they'd be wise enough to weigh the arguments. going to go ahead with the project and the neighborhood was still complaining I like to think that the that they would take a look at it and say look we don't

see the problems that you're that you're complaining you see the predicament the city's put itself in yeah now you've got to choose between now everybody's going to want special treatment now everyone's going to want special treatment. Now everyone's going to want special treatment. You offered special treatment on High Street and special treatment on Carlton. Yeah. Now everyone's going to want the same special treatment. And when the city says no,

then they're going to show favoritism to children, which child they like the best. A little metaphor there. As parents, you never pick which child they like the best. A little metaphor there. As parents, you never pick one child ahead of the other because that creates a dynamic with the children that no one wants to deal with. But what the city has done is created a preferred or favored child situation here.

This is a mess waiting to happen, ladies and gentlemen. And I hope the Barracks Road community and neighborhood organizes and pushes back on this. And I hope they use the narrative I just wove. Because that is going to be a strong foundational argument. And I agree with you, the city's going to say no. And when the city says no, they have a perception or PR problem on their hands. Mark it down. Mark it down, ladies and gentlemen. A lot we're going to cover on today's program. Some folks are saying we're having some

connectivity issues here. Are you noticing that? Well, the group keeps dropping. I can't get it to stay up. I'm also seeing that on my personal Facebook page as well. For the sake of content that's quality, do we save the last topic of the city losing jobs for tomorrow? Good, if you want. Okay. Some connectivity issues multiple people are saying to us here on the program. I want to take the last three, is it two or three headlines that we have over there on the city losing jobs?

That's a couple. I want to save those two headlines for tomorrow's show. We'll see if we can get to the bottom of the connectivity issues. We're at the mercy of an ISP like all of us. city of Charlottesville losing jobs to Albemarle County and how it pertains to policing, how it pertains to crime, how it pertains to economic development, how it pertains to government action, and how it pertains to housing. Many of the jobs the city is gaining are jobs in the hospitality sector that are not necessarily the highest paying jobs. If the jobs that are gained in the city or in the hospitality sector, you are only increasing a base of people that are going to be housing deficit, housing strapped,

furthering a problem that we have in Charlottesville that we talk about every day. It's like if you build the resources for the houseless around the downtown mall and make those resources more robust, what's going to happen? The houseless population is going to increase around the downtown mall.

Those topics on tomorrow's show, the Friday edition of the I Love Seville show. So long, everybody. Thank you.