The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - What Can AlbCo Learn From CVille Zoning Disaster?; AlbCo Supes Out Of Touch W/ 4-cent Tax Rate Bump?

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: What Can AlbCo Learn From CVille Zoning Disaster? AlbCo Supes Out Of Touch W/ 4-cent Tax Rate Bump? CVille City v. AlbCo: Most Upside For Rest Of 2025? Should Downtown Mall Streets Be Closed To Cars? Tom Tom Shows DORA Could Work On Downtown Mall An Insider’s Look At “The Lawn” At UVA Charlottesville Business Brokers Has Cash Buyers Office For Rent $475 Monthly All Utilities Included 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.

guys welcome to the I love Seville show my name is Jerry Miller good Tuesday afternoon to you we appreciate you watching and listening to the show we work hard on this this program especially our our flagship show the I love Seville show which airs Monday through Friday, 1230 to 130. And the concept of the program, we have a lot of new viewers and listeners. The concept of the show is to be the 2025 version of the newspaper from yesterday or from a generation ago.

And in that newspaper newspaper you had various sections of content the front page your most important stories and and then you had the front page above the fold or below the fold you had the commentary section where where folks were all for their their opinion on on topics that that they thought mattered you had your sports section your lifestyle section your government section your your lifestyle section, your government section, your business section, your real estate section, and so on and so forth. That's kind of what we're trying to do here. As some of you know that watch the program, my background

is old media, traditional media, legacy media, both actually all three, print, radio and television. And we're kind of using a little bit of all that experience with producing this content. Now the game plan with the I Love Seville show when we launched it, goodness gracious, what is it, like ten years ago, nearly ten years ago, I'd have to give you an exact amount, but I can tell you that the amount of videos and the amount of shows that we're producing on the I Love Seville network YouTube pages are approaching 5,000 unique videos. Goodness gracious. And the game plan with launching the show was to, frankly, attract attention to some of

the businesses that you see behind me right now. VMV brands is an advertising agency where we manage the brands of a number of companies in central Virginia and Charlottesville and beyond. And we've kind of branched out into real estate and to deal brokerage and to owning and buying and selling real estate for ourselves and helping our clients in their pursuit of finding deals in Central Virginia. And we're working on a number of those now. And it's exciting. It's an exciting time to be a deal broker.

to be a deal broker. It's exciting time to be someone who's kind of at that crossroads of raising, helping raise venture funding for businesses that need to expand or need a launch or need to grow and we do a lot of that folks just quite a bit of it. And the uncertainty out there on Main Street and on Market Street and on Preston Avenue and the turmoil on Wall Street and the roller coaster ride of our retirement accounts and our Roth IRAs and our 401Ks has created a level of interest with our shop and our firm and the text messages and the phone calls on my phone that frankly I haven't seen in a really long time.

I saw it during COVID, I knew during the pandemic when we launched, goodness gracious, nearly five years ago, Charlottesville Business Brokers, I knew that launching a business brokerage arm or division with our firm was gonna be a good idea because many folks were reaching out to me and they're saying Jerry, I need to sell my business. I don't wanna take a third mortgage against my house

or I don't wanna pull a HELOC against my house or I've already done that and I don't have any more capital to capital tap and I need to exit this business that's been like a child of mine for so long and you know a lot of people help me do it. And as an entrepreneur you get one or two of those phone calls, three of those phone calls, and you're like, you know what? I can do this.

You know, I can help connect people that want to buy stuff with people who want to sell stuff and I can structure the deal with letters of intent and seller finance arrangements and we can create a path for everybody to be somewhat happy. You know that's what we're doing with real estate and business brokerage now and during COVID my phone was ringing off the hook. It was people saying look we need help. We need help. We need help and we need help because we're unsure what's happening. That level of we need help has surpassed the pandemic today. It is a greater level of asking or requesting for help now than at peak COVID, which is startling.

It is a sign of how vulnerable things are nationally and how vulnerable things are locally. And I had a viewer and listener yesterday who was traveling up Interstate 64 and tuned into the program while he was in his vehicle. A man I respect and I look forward to running into in person from time to time. He's watching the program. He knows who he is. A man I respect and I look forward to running into in person from time to time.

He's watching the program. He knows who he is. I'm going to respect his anonymity, which he requested when sending me this message. And he was traveling up and down Interstate 64. And he said, I was listening to your show yesterday. And I wanted to offer some perspective for you and Judah on what you covered on your Monday show. And I'm going to relay it to you the perspective he shared to me and direct message.

It was done very succinctly and four specific points. And we'll use that as a springboard to discuss the headlines you see on screen. And some of those headlines are what can Alamora County learn from Charlottesville City's new zoning ordinance disaster. And it's been an absolute train wreck, folks. And it's a train wreck that's continuing to create collateral damage for a locality in the city

of Charlottesville that is without a city attorney on staff right now. And I'm going to utilize this commentary from this gentleman who listened to the show while traveling up Interstate 64 back home to ask you the question, are Alamora County's Board of Supervisors absolutely completely out of touch right now with a 4-cent real estate tax rate increase,

that's bubbling and percolating on the dais. I mean, goodness gracious, how do you ask people for more at a time where the number one employer in the region is saying we're doing pay freezes and no 3% cost of living bonuses and people might actually get their pay cut. So I'm gonna ask the supervisors, and some of them are friends of mine.

I mean, I would call Ned Galloway a friend. See him maybe once a month or once every five weeks and get to spend an hour and change with him. And I mean no disrespect, but I'm going to ask the question, are these folks out of touch asking for more money at a time where we're seeing cracks in the economy's concrete right now. I want to highlight first Charlottesville Sanitary Supply before I get to what this gentleman sent me after traveling Interstate 64 while listening to our show. Charlottesville Sanitary Supply has been in business for 60 consecutive years.

They're approaching year 61. John and Andrew Vermillion are class acts. They're honest men, men of integrity. And their business, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply on East High Street and online at CharlottesvilleSanitarySupply.com, is a business that has been built on communication and doing the right thing in following through and providing knowledge and value to customers.

So keep these businesses, guys, in operation and Charles Full Sanitary Supply is as good as it gets for locally owned and operated. So Judah Wickhauer, I sent you a copy of this message yesterday at the end of the day. I'm going to read it on air, and I think it's a great diving board into today's pool of headlines on the Tuesday, April 22nd edition of the I Love Seville Show. First the gentleman, and we respect everyone's request for anonymity, said, please use anonymous cover for me on this topic. And he said, you and Judah's show yesterday was an absolutely fantastic program.

Unfortunately, there were lots of material topics. And I was passing through Interstate 64 to Charlottesville as it began. He says this, first, a few negative things on the Cherry Avenue grocery store project. That project he says, and he's in this business, ladies and gentlemen, he's in the business of development. And he says that project is either going to fail after philanthropy stops 30 months into the project as the project is hemorrhaging and in the red, or that Fifeville grocery store is going to morph into a popular

and trendy foods of all nations type grocery store that will further gentrify Cherry Avenue and Fifeville and evolve it into a Belmont 2.0 which will worsen the conditions of folks currently living in Fifeville because it will make the neighborhood considerably more unaffordable. That's the first point he made after yesterday's program. You and I, Judah, had a back-and-forth on that yesterday. I want to talk about the grocery store. This is an angle that we have not talked about, that the grocery store kind of evolving or morphing into this like boutique

or Tony or like a farmers market or foods of all nations type thing and how it could gentrify the neighborhood even more. We'll talk about that. Second, he says Jerry was right on yesterday's show in his discussion with Judah. The rich and the wealthy get richer in down times and down markets, especially in Charlottesville. Wealthy or wise can ride out what's about to happen and real estate in the urban Charlottesville ring will not crash like it did in 2006 because those of us here have so much more equity and wealth than we did in 2006, 2007, 2008 and beyond. He says we will see severe stagflation in our local micro market due to this. Median wages will drop and unemployment will rise,

but services and housing will not correct in our market, which is different than 2006. And he closes by saying this, Judah, if you want to go studio camera on a two shot. He says, I am an independent and centrist voter. He says, a lot of uneducated and ignorant people are about to get what they voted for. I'm not throwing shade at people, he says, but anyone who voted red in November and anyone who thinks that the current president gives a rat's tail

about the common man is an absolute fool. And he says, thanks again for a fantastic show yesterday. I enjoyed it while driving up Interstate 64 back home to Charlottesville. I appreciated the comment. And I want to unpack the comment and talk a lot of stuff tied to that on today's show. Yesterday's program, Randy O'Neill, thank you for watching the show, and Jeremy Wilson, again, thank you for watching the show. Yesterday's

program I reflected on Judah and there was some doom and gloom in it. And there was some doom and gloom in it because of concerns that we've talked about off air that made their way on the show. And obvious concerns we have are this, this, this, uh, this, uh, terra for that's in its early stages with China. The fact we know that Trump is of this dark triad mindset where he's basically playing a game of chicken with the world's economy and certainly with China. And I think we all are in agreement that Trump is one that generally is not going to back down at a game of chicken.

And I'm concerned that what if China doesn't back down in the game of chicken as well? Does that mean the Chevrolet pickup truck and the Ford pickup truck collide and hit each other head on? And what happens if they do? And in the real life game of chicken, the drivers die. What happens in the proverbial tariff game of chicken? Is it a crash of significant proportions? And I highlighted on yesterday's show that

these housing prices just continue to escalate as we have these influx of people looking to move to the area and claim their white picket fence and their five‑ store ‑‑ their five‑bedroom or four‑bedroom house and their acres of land and as the out of market money comes in, the prices go up. As a second point of concern we have, the cost of living just continues to escalate. Remote work, hybrid work, or retirees coming here by the hundreds. I also highlighted on yesterday's show the impact which we've been very diligent about covering. These new schools, the data science and the Paul Manning Institute, the biotech institute, creating a population increase

of very wealthy people. We talked about mortgage rates upticking. I mean, late last week, close to business last week, mortgage rates were at the high they have been in all of 2025. Many of us, including me, anticipated rates to drop by this time with Donald Trump in office. We expected him to pressure Powell as he's doing and for rates to actually drop. Powell's just ignoring the president. We've highlighted credit card debt and floating debt being at an all-time high and the headwinds with UVA with no cost of living raises and no performance-based bonuses and the word on the street is actual pay cuts at UVA and we've highlighted the return to office with the government sector and many folks locally here work in some kind of supply chain tied to employment chain tied to the government, the federal government in some capacity. And layoffs are happening in the federal government thanks to Musk and Doge, right? We highlighted the front line workers, retail and hospitality and food and

beverage and how they can't afford to live here and how small businesses are looking for folks just to work their jobs. and the $20 an hour to work in retail or to work in a restaurant just does not cut it anymore because folks are driving 45 minutes to those jobs and they just don't want to do it. So we've highlighted all these indicators of why we're concerned. And these indicators got many in our community, or much feedback that I've heard from folks that watch the show worried.

They were worried after, because they count on us when listening to the show. And then this gentleman who sent me this message highlighted why he's also concerned, which I relayed on the show just to you, the viewer and listener, moments ago. Then you got like kind of these independent variables that could be very direct impacts, Almara County, the 4 cent real estate tax rate increase. Goodness gracious, what a terrible time to do a tax rate increase. Is there ever a good time? Is there a good time to

do it on the brink of a potential recession? I'm not saying it's a good time now, I'm just saying is there ever a good time to raise the taxes? It just seems to me when the assessments went up on houses that you already got your uptick in revenue and maybe now is the time to stockpile some on a rainy day and and not spend more. Like how do you create affordable housing by raising the real estate tax rate? I mean to be fair part of the I don't know how much this includes Admiral County but I believe Charlottesville has spent a fair amount of money on affordable housing and part of that is in tax rebates, I think. I don't know if Albemarle County is doing something similar to help people in lower income brackets

or not, but yeah. There's tax relief across the board in the city and the county. Folks just have to take advantage of it. It's there. It's tied to median income or lack of median income. It's tied to AMI. So we want to take yesterday's show, which was a little doom and gloom and maybe with today's program, kind of try to ‑‑ I don't want to come ‑‑ We have happy news? What's that? We have happy news? I'm generally a person that's glasses half full.

Would you say you're a glasses half full person or a glasses half empty person? I'd say it depends on the situation. Known you for 15 years. And those 15 years, I would say that you're neither a glass is half full or a glass is half empty. You're just a person that says, there's a glass with water in it, right there. That's the Jude I know. Which is what makes you great.

Neither too high or too low in your demeanor. You're just a matter of fact, there's a glass with water in it. Yeah, I need some measuring devices and a little more information. Right, yeah, he's going to unpack it in every capacity possible. And that's what makes Judah Judah. That's why he makes good contributors to the show. Why don't we start with the tax rate, four cent real estate tax rate increase. Put that lower third on screen.

Can you make a compelling argument for the viewers and listeners with all those headwinds that I just outlined? UVA and federal government cutting and federal government spending and UVA not giving people the bonuses they need just to keep up with inflation, I'm not even sure 3% keeps up with inflation, frankly. Oh, I'm sure it probably doesn't.

You know, the floating debt being more expensive, all that stuff that I highlighted here. Can you put a compelling argument together for me why 4 cents on the tax rate is a good idea to increase. I can't give you a good reason but I don't know what it is they're trying to achieve with that. They're trying to create housing affordability and they're also trying to uptick hires and fire and rescue. That's what they're in police fire and rescue. That's it in a nutshell. So the four percent the four cent increase is mostly for services. A very small portion I think it's like a million two. I mean we're talking literally that small is gonna go to housing affordability and the the remainder is fire police and

rescue hires and service and and and enhancing fire police and rescue which I'm all for I back the blue on the program all rescue, which I'm all for. I back the blue on the program all the time. I'm all for it too. What I have to ask when we see something like this is what is there that could have been cut? Is there something that we're spending money on frivolously that could have been taken off the books to make room for whether paying police and firemen or giving them raises. But I don't have that information. But I don't have that information. I'm of the mindset of reading, if you're an elected official, kind of the room.

I've been passing this on to our seven-year-old in some parenting here. And I don't know if your kids are like this, moms and dads that are watching the program. Is your son or daughter, especially your very youthful, young age son or daughter, our oldest is in first grade, he seems to be the most hyper and the most willing to push parental boundaries and rules in that hour

before bedtime. That hour before bedtime is this wild hour of mischief, obviously tied to being tired, right? When you're tired and you're young, you misbehave. I saw it last night with my niece. When you're tired and you're young and you misbehave. And I'll often say to our oldest son, I'm like, son, read the room. Your mother and I are finishing dinner or we're cleaning up from dinner. Your mother and I are just trying to catch our breath after a full day of work or after a full day of raising you and your brother here. Read the room and this 45

or 30 minute window that you have right before bed Where you can not push the boundaries and you not can act a fool and you're not gonna be jumping on the couch or pull The dog's tail and asking us for so many things or if you can go ride your bike unattended in the street read the room It's time to relax same type of mindset with with our electeds here in the county. Read the room, boards of supervisors. Every penny is as important as it's ever been right now. Every penny. And if we want these locally owned businesses to survive that are obviously going to charge a little bit more than what you can find online because they have more overhead

and they got to pay their team members to live in this expensive environment, median family household income 125,800. If we want them to keep seeing the purchases from the folks in the community, every dollar is going to count and we got to be able to keep it in their pocket at this time where retirement accounts are in flux, where assessments on houses have already uptick

to all-time highs, and where every other, what's it called, robbing Peter to pay Paul? I mean, folks right now are robbing the grocery budget to pay the electric bill. Folks right now are robbing the cable company to pay the cell phone bill, right? We're all trying to figure out this household budget of how we can keep the ship afloat. And any extra is going to be tough to swallow. So I'm hoping Alamaro County can learn from Charlottesville's misguided ways in a lot

of examples. And the City of Charlottesville, goodnessguided ways in a lot of examples. And the city of Charlottesville, goodness gracious, do I love it. I name one of our businesses, I love Seaville because I love it so much. I love it because of the eclectic nature of its citizens. I love it because you got the food and you got the smart people and you got the music and you got the outside stuff and the college sports and this pedestrian downtown mall and you got opportunity. I mean, goodness gracious do we have opportunity here if you choose to pursue it. But goodness gracious do I see

a lot of stuff that the city of Charlottesville has done horribly. I mean, absolutely horribly. New zoning ordinance, it's been a year and a half, ladies and gentlemen, and nothing is materialized from it. Taxes over the last handful of years, and Sam Sanders will say, look, we're not doing any tax increases this year. I understand that, City Manager Sanders, but everyone's assessments went through the roof. You may not be tinkering with the tax rates, but the assessments went through the roof. And still getting more money for the coffers. What's

the county going to do to learn from Charlottesville's mistakes? And the last time I looked around the city of Charlottesville, seemed to me it looks pretty homogenous with its demographic. Pretty, pretty wealthy in vanilla out there in city of Charlottesville. I mean people drive by our I Love Seaville studio every day. I counted the other day in a 60 second period of time in the middle of a day on a work day. You know how many cars I saw drive by both lanes on Market Street in a 60 second period of time? I do know. 53. Almost one per second.

Because you got both lanes going. How many people walk by our studio and this storefront on Market Street? 20, 30? Especially around lunchtime as they had in and out of that grocery store and look for food on the downtown mall. I would challenge you one day and we could do it with the studio camera on the show. We can put that studio camera, put that studio camera on Market Street. And one day we could just do an experiment almost like the person holding the counter at a sporting event and they're

counting the people that go through the turnstile with that hand counter. We could do a can counter and just take a look at what we see with folks walking by the studio. And we can categorize them based on demographic, I do stuff like this, kind of like the study of human behavior, like a social voyeur in a lot of ways. Just watching and learning from human behavior. That's what a good negotiator does. People talk about in business,

how do you become a good negotiator? How do you become a good negotiator? How do you become a good deal maker? You know what the best deal makers do when putting a deal together? They figure out what both sides really want, and they figure out what both sides kind of want, and what both sides don't really care about. And they try to get the really wants that both sides want in the deal

and some of the kind of wants in the deal. And how you figure that out is by being super in touch with human behavior. I want to figure out if Alamaro County is super in touch with human behavior in the six largest county of the Commonwealth. What does the human behavior indicate to the Board of Supervisors it should do with its budget because every

department or every entity has their hat in hand looking for more money. Fire more money, rescue more money, police more money, schools more money, nonprofit more money, affordable housing more money. You got the activists from Charlottesville, the livable Charlottesville organization, realizing that they have made such a clown show and disaster of zoning and the new zoning ordinance in the city. Do they realize? Goodness gracious.

Aren't they pushing it on Elmoral County? It's been 18 months and we have nothing Do they realize? Goodness gracious. Aren't they pushing it on Admiral County? It's been 18 months and we have nothing with the new zoning ordinance of merit from development in the city. I'm not disputing any of that. I'm just asking do they really realize? We got a lawsuit that's still moving forward, a lawsuit that is now defended by an outside law firm.

The city of Charlestown does not have an attorney on staff. And the plaintiffs are digging their heels in the sand and saying, let's go, we're gonna keep this lawsuit active. And even if we lose, we're gonna appeal because the judge should have been presiding over this case in the first place because of conflict of interest. It's gonna be probably another God knows how long presiding over this case in the first place because of conflict of interest.

It's going to be probably another God knows how long until there's any clarity. So these activists that pushed this forward have shifted their attention and like Judah said are wanting the same thing for Al Morrow. Is the county smart enough to learn from what the city screwed up? I genuinely have that question for you. We'll have to wait and see, I think. Is the county smart enough to learn how the city has screwed up? Listening to some folks that are loud and organized that are small in number but appear

large in number because they organize on social media and attend ghost town in person events for speaking, do they learn that that's not the masses of people? I'm sincerely asking you that question viewers and listeners. Martha Freeman, thank you for watching the program. We appreciate you. I'm curious of your take on that too, Judah. I mean, make it make sense where you're gonna want a 4 cent tax rate increase when assessments across the county year over year are flirting with double digit upticks.

When the top employer in the community is very visibly waving signs of distress. Signs of distress where the Board of Visitors wants to cut the operating budget and whittle it down from 5.8 billion a year to a much lower number at the same time that federal funding in 2023, 384 million, is in absolute peril, right? At the same time, the driver of revenue for the University of the Health System has morale at what could be at an all-time low

and has community or patient trust synonymously at maybe an all-time low and has community or patient trust synonymously at maybe an all-time low. We got a helm system that is absolutely mired in distrust and perceived dysfunction and perceived credibility issues at a time where the staff is going to get potentially a pay cut when they're hating to go to work right now. So I ask you this question as you put that lower third on screen. Which of the two, the city of Charlottesville or Albemarle County, do you think has the most upside for the remainder of 2025 and into 2026? Albemarle County or the city of Charlottesville, if you had to hitch your wagon to something, which has more upside in 2025 or 2026?

And you can think about that for a second. If you could put John Blair's photo on screen. He says, Jerry, he says this on LinkedIn. In the end, where's the Republican Party in Amarillo County? Sean Tubbs is reporting that there is only one Republican running for the Board of Supervisors this year. I have never heard of the gentleman. I have already had a Democrat door knock in that district. I don't think anything changes in the county until there's a viable GOP. Explain this to me. This isn't about our politics.

This is just about human behavior observation. Take the Commonwealth of Virginia, right? the governor's mansion. For the presidential race, Harris beats Trump, but in a much more narrow margin and then pass presidential runs. Why was the momentum from Youngkin's win and a more narrow Harris Trump race in the Commonwealth, why was that not utilized as a momentum builder for more diversity in this year's election cycle. More diversity from ideology standpoint. I mean if I had to guess I would say that this area is just too saturated towards the left. anybody who's seen past board elections, it's probably just maybe a little fatalistic about the fact that this is going to remain a left-leaning area.

Is it just complete fear that we're seeing folks take action at Stonefield because Musk may open a Tesla gallery there and folks are that fearful that that's gonna happen if they put an R next to their name in Almarra? The chairman of the Republican Party, John Lowry, resigned in the middle of his term. Resigned in the middle of his term, right before Donald Trump took office and right in the middle of Glenn Yonkin's governor term. The interim chairperson, Nancy Buhr, is doing her best job to right the ship. But if you go to the Alamaro County Republican Party and you look at the key members in the party,

who would you say is the one that you most... Let me ask you this question for the viewers and listeners. Who would you say right now in Alamaro County in 2025 has the most visibility or is the face of the Alamaro County Republican Party? I'll ask you that question, Judah. Viewers and listeners, in 2025, on April 22nd of 2025, who would you say right now is the face

of the Alamaro County Republican Party? I think you know who I'm thinking of. Who would you say? I would have to guess Hamilton. Philip Andrew Hamilton, right? Maybe a close second Steve Harvey who owns the first free coffee shop in the Holly Mead town center, right? Wouldn't you say it's one of those two with Philip Andrew Hamilton the clear-cut top one as the face of the Republican Party? Yeah, most likely. How would you describe Philip Andrew Hamilton as the face of the Republican Party,

his personality and his actions? I would say that he's very ebullient, outgoing. That's a tough one. I need some more time to think about it. He's polarizing? I'd have to hear what his platform would be before I'd. He hosted a, he led a protest at Stonefield, a pro-Musk protest at Stonefield. And did you see how the messaging changed on that pro-Musk protest? Initially when he was interviewed by traditional and legacy media, he was described as the secretary of the Alamaro County Republican Party. And then in future messaging or future marketing for future protests at Stonefield

for the pro-Musk endeavor, I bet you because the messaging changed, he was told by the local party, look, you can do this, it's your right to do this, but don't do this under the guise of being the secretary of the Alamaro County Republican Party. Do this under a different guise, and then the messaging changed, and the group and his moniker,

and the effort changed to more group and his moniker and the effort changed to more of a musk based group as opposed to an Almaro County Republican Party based group. Can you explain this to me? Why in 2025 where there is a Republican in the governor's mansion, right? There's a Republican in the governor's mansion, right? There's a Republican in the White House, right? There's the fifth district representative is, and some people would say, more right and more wackadoo than even Bob Good. And that's saying something.

Why are we going to say that the Elmora County Republican Party is as splintered? You're saying locally here? Feeble? I mean how would you? Because it's still lacking momentum. It's still a small group in a sea of Democrats. But the other factors would indicate that the tide was shifting and you could capitalize on it.

Potentially, but that's, I don't think there's a guarantee of something like that. Business side, you capitalize on momentum. I didn't see that momentum capitalize. That's the point Mr. Blair's making there. I didn't see that momentum capitalize. That's the point Mr. Blair is making there. William McChesney makes the comment. There's a lot of complaints that Hamilton hasn't been doing at town hall. Screaming memes want to come to that and disrupt it.

I think he's talking about John McGuire. Yeah, McGuire. I think he's talking about McGuire and not Hamilton there. I think you mean McGuire is what he's talking about McGuire and not Hamilton there. I think you mean McGuire. Is what he's talking about. Vanessa Parkhill, Trump rubs many traditional church going country club Republicans the wrong way. Especially in the kinder gentler southern bush type Republicans. 100%. Definitely rubs a lot of people the wrong way. 100%.

100%. Deep throat. Lessons for Albemarle County from Charlottesville for zoning. One, Albemarle County and your elected officials, do some scientific surveys to find out what people really prefer. Not the nonsense Charlottesville did.

Two, deep throat. Do the predicate studies first, traffic, infrastructure, economics. Three, don't hire goofs like HRNA and RHI to do these studies. Four, slowness and incompetence of administration of zoning and permitting process is a bigger barrier than the actual written rules. Address this directly and decisively before making dramatic changes to rules.

Amen to that last one. 100% to all that. And I can tell you this. percent to all that. And I can tell you this, if Alamaro County does not think a poop storm is coming from its residents with lawsuits, if it makes some of these sweeping changes like the city did, they are absolutely bananas because there's a deeper population of people in the city that is even more affluent in the money it has to launch a campaign against something. Alamaro County be very, very careful listening to these activists that are chomping at the bit to push someone into the Jack Jewett seat. If you guys don't read the tea leaves correctly, you got the

activists from Charlottesville that are trying to find two additional people to get elected to the Board of Supervisors that will partner up with Mike Pruitt, giving them three on a board to try to make the same movement and noise they did in Charlottesville City. Talk to me how in the last three or four years with what we've had elected in Charlottesville City that the city's in a better spot. I want you to seriously have that question for you. Over the last, say, three years, okay, let's go 36 months coming out of COVID, okay? Are we better off in the city? I wouldn't say we're better off.

Coming from getting out of COVID till now, are we better off in the city? We're better off than when COVID was now, are we better off in the city? We're better off than when COVID was ongoing, but taking... Are we better off from 2019? I wouldn't think so. I wouldn't think so. Houselessness, all time high. Vacancy, vulnerability, downtown mall, all-time high.

Development projects next to nothing. Affordability, way worse. Local business strength, where is it at? Hiring sector, where is it at? Having UVA do its part, that never happened. Never happened. Protecting the pockets in our community that have been historically marginalized and preventing gentrification

from happening, that didn't happen. See what's happening in 10th and Page and Fifeville? Good night, goodness gracious. Keeping spending from the government in check, did that happen? That didn't happen. Does it ever? Are we better off?

Serious question. I don't know that we are. I don't know that we are. And what can the county learn from that? Because it seems like the county is like a cycle of ideology behind Charlottesville. Charlottesville's progressive. It's your market leader in the region. It's your market leader on ideology, on thinking.

It's your market leader on these new food concepts that are popping up, these new ideas, these creative foodies. It's your market leader on the music scene, the city and the region. Clearly market leader in the music scene. It's just progressive with its thought. And the county, Albemarle, is about an election cycle about a four to five year period kind of behind Charlottesville

in the rear view watching what Charlottesville is doing. County is bigger in size, it's bigger in population. It's got deeper pockets as a result. But in a lot of ways, it's the little brother to the city's big brother. And the county's always watching what big brother's doing right and wrong. What's that little brother going to look at big brother and see what it did right and see what it's done wrong coming out of COVID. Very, I just hope that your electeds understand where we're at. I think UVA is making it pretty clear with these letters to staff that's getting leaked

all over the place. And now we're getting message left and right by UVA that those pay cuts are coming. So we'll talk about that on future editions of the Isle of Seville show. We didn't talk about this yesterday, but I want to dot the I's and cross the T's on it. This cross street on the downtown mall and the limitation on cars on the cross streets, probably about time that's done. And there's some merchants downtown that are going to hate me for saying that, because they're saying their staff, especially late at night, they wait for their Uber rides when they're leaving their server positions or their back of the house positions after 2 a.m. and they need a ride to get home. They wait for their Ubers on the cross streets

because they're lit or the delivery drivers are dropping off food at these various restaurants by parking on the cross street. I mean, heck, you see Scotty, the UPS guy, he's always parking his truck on the cross street and then taking the cart delivering the packages. That's one of the main reasons they highlight for keeping the cross streets open, along with not changing something else with the mall. What if they put in lights?

What if you just eliminate the cross street traffic altogether? And just made it completely pedestrian? What you would do if you did that, you'd take those merchants on 4th Street and those merchants on, what's the other cross street? Is it 2nd?

I think it's, yeah, it's probably 2nd. 2nd? The Fellini's. You'd take those streets and you'd make them even more, those storefronts even more valuable. Because then maybe you could get like the Fellini's that's on that side street, right? You're saying you could maybe put in an outdoor seating area? Yeah, Fellini's, the pie chest, tastings, the wine bar. I don't ever see that.

You can do the parklets, the outdoor seating, where you're where you're having the seating expand into the road there like the alfresco dining is happening on the mall. Something's got to happen folks downtown to have some life into it. And again, I'll just wave my hand in the air about the designated outdoor refreshment area. The TomTom Festival this past weekend was fantastically done. And there were tens of thousands of people downtown that aren't normally there. And did you see how many of them were walking up and down the mall with a beer or wine or cocktail in their hand? Large, large, large amount of them.

It's time to do something. Make some kind of change happen. All right. It's the Tuesday edition of the show. Judah Wickauer and yours truly, Jerry Miller. Thank you.