The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Why Are Housing Activists Fighting More Housing?; Tonic Restaurant Is Closing Forever On 12/28

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Why Are Housing Activists Fighting More Housing? Tonic Restaurant Is Closing Forever On 12/28 What Is The Best F&B Use For Tonic Space? Dave McNair Analyzes CVille Legacy Media New Parking Garage Tech Draws Ire From CVillians Why Were Public Schools On 2-hr Delay Today? LSU Announces Big Money Deal With Nike If You Need CVille Office Space, Contact Jerry Miller Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome to the I Love Seville Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you for joining us on a chilly afternoon in downtown Charlottesville and across Charlottesville, Elmore County, Central Virginia, wherever you're watching and listening to the show. I'm really surprised with how many viewers and listeners watch and listen to the program that do not live in Charlottesville, Almore County, and Central Virginia. The folks that have an affinity for Charlottesville and Almore County in Central Virginia,

whether through the University of Virginia growing up here or have a reason to move back here, reach out to us at aggressive clips each week. I'm surprised every single week with how many people reach out to us that do not live in the area that routinely watch and listen to our content. And the shows we do across the I Love Seville Network, different silo of shows, whether it's Hispanic-based content, religious-based content, business-based content, content, real estate-based content, politics-based content, food and beverage-based content.

We try to be your newspaper of 2025, 2026. They complement each other and really attract viewers and listeners to the network across the board, and they start watching and listening to other programming we offer because they'll subscribe to one of our Facebook or social media or YouTube channels, podcasting platforms, and get notified that we're going live on air. And that really galvanizes the listener base. I like that.

That kind of was the goal of what we're trying to do. I want to highlight some of the folks that have already liked and shared the show. These are key members of our family. We like to call the viewers and listeners family. Kind of you get a feel for each other through the support and through the communication on the program. For example, Carol Thorpe, who lives in the Jack Jewett district, she's extremely intelligent. Vanessa Parkhill, who lives in Earleysville, super sharp, super intelligent. Olivia Branch, who lives in Keswick, super sharp, super intelligent.

Jenny Hu watching the program, we want you, the viewer and listener, to join us in the discussion and help shape the show. A lot we're going to cover on the program. I want to highlight a project that's happening in Fifeville, which is a historically marginalized community. This Fifeville development project, surprisingly, is not being championing, it's not being championed by housing activists. I'm curious why housing activists, specifically livable Seaville, are not. not going balls to the wall with supporting a project in a historically marginalized community. Why do they support some projects and why do they not support other projects? That's a question I have for you, the viewer and listener.

I want to talk on today's program, the closing of Tonic Restaurant. It's on Market Street. Tonic Restaurant had a very good run. Tonic Restaurant is across from the Charlottesville Police Department. it is, what do you call it? Would you call it? Is that a block off the downtown mall? Yeah. Block off the downtown mall.

And on the 28th of December, it's closing forever. And Alan Kajin is the owner of, is the landlord. He's the man that owns the real estate. The last restaurant that had the most significant run at that location was probably Tin Whistle Irish Pub, owned by Jackie and Joe Dunkel. Our firm, the Miller organization, and VMV brands. came up with the name Tin Whistle Irish Pub when we were hired by restaurateur Jackie Dunkel to launch and name her Irish pub. We did the branding, the social media, came up with the name, helped manage the marketing and the communications and drove market share.

Do you remember what it was going to be? We initially suggested naming the Tin Whistle Irish Pub, the Effin Pub. E-F-F-F-I-N. The effen Pub.com was available at the day. time. Jackie Dunkel very much wanted to call it the effin pub. Her financier, however, had other intentions, and we settled on option number two, tin whistle Irish pub. We now have another vacancy downtown, this one at the tonic space. And I'm going to ask you, the viewers and listeners, what is best suited food and beverage-wise at that tonic location? And rest in peace,

Tonic, after five years at that spot, closing its doors, the final day of service on December 28th. A lot we're going to cover on today's program, including asking you the viewer and listener if a two-hour delay was the appropriate measure for public schools in Almoreau County, Charlottesville City, and other surrounding counties. Why were the public schools delayed two hours today? Was that the right move? Private schools were not, including the one our oldest son goes to. McNeer has got a fantastic breakdown of legacy media and some of the headwinds they're facing financially. He releases a substack or publishes a substack newsletter, much like Sean Tubbs. I think Dave McNair is a fantastic journalist. I hope he hears this, Dave McNair. We will highlight

some of the tidbits or aspects of his newsletter that I found noteworthy on the program today. And we'll talk about a big money contract, millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars with the LSU Tigers and publicly traded Nike that is going to help the rich stay richer and clearly something that Lane Kiffin realized was in the works when he left Ole Miss for Baton Rouge. A lot we're going to cover on the broadcast. Charlottesville Sanitary Supply has been in business for 61 years. The business is owned and operated by the Vermilion family, which has lived in Almaro County for five generations.

Charlestful Sanitary Supply is located on East High Street and online at Charlottesfelsanitary Supply.com. They've recently launched a new division called the Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company. John Vermillion and Andrew Vermillion are doing water testing at Charlestville Sanitary Supply. They have all the materials for swimming pools, all the cleaning supplies,

all the pool covers, mechanical covers, non-mechanical covers, They have a mechanic on site to fix your pool robots, the machines that clean your pool. So a very logical next step to launch with Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company, a vertically integrated sister division that utilizes the same labor, intellect, and savvy that was already in place at Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. Support the businesses that make this community great. Charlottesville Sanitary Supply is obviously one.

Studio camera, Judah, Wikar. Which headline most intrigued you and why? Well, I am intrigued by the fact that Tonic is closing. I mean, I'm not intrigued, but I'm saddened that it's coming to an end. But I think it's a great space. I think that one of the best things Tonics did was really utilize that space. I saw I would oftentimes drive or walk by. there and see large groups congregating on the patio.

And I think it's a great space that can be well utilized. Five years in business for Tonic. Might as well put the lower third on screen. We can start there. Food and beverage is near and dear to both our hearts. This firm launched 18 years ago, nearly 18 years ago, and catered to restaurants first. The second client we ever had was Annie McClure.

known for the Biltmore Citizen Burger Bar, known for three Jabberwocky, West Main restaurant, Tavern and Grocery, Los Angeles, Now the Jervy, known for Bell and Belmont. Annie McClure is the epitome of successful restaurateur. The second client we've ever had in this firm was Andy McClure when we revitalized four of his brands, four of his restaurants digitally. The firm launched nearly 18 years ago to service the restaurant industry, and a handful of years later quickly pivoted to, other industries because we saw obvious headwinds for restaurants not to say we don't love working alongside them but it was important to diversify our client portfolio and the services we offered the marketplace by catering to all lines of work across many different service verticals that's a vertically integrated company that can withstand economic difficulty and we've done that for 18 years tonic five years at this location prior to that tin whistle

Irish pub, which our firm named, helped launch on behalf of Jackie and Joe Dunkel. Before that, it was a number of restaurants. Cafe Bacchie, the former mayor of Scottsville owned Cafe Bacchie. Prior to Cafe Bacchie, it was Carlton's restaurant, either before or after it was Carlton's restaurant, very short-lived Carlton's restaurant. A number of restaurant iterations and models there. I'm going to ask you this question. Is the place cursed? The first question I will ask you. Do you believe in curses?

That's two questions. Not sure if I really believe in curses. I don't think that that spot is cursed. It may not be a hundred percent ideal. But I don't think it's a bad spot. viewers and listeners do you believe that spot is cursed is a food and beverage business the best option for the tonic spot secondly are you surprised that tonic closed what led to tonics closing the owners of tonic are very good people and i hope they hear my commentary on today's show

Courtney tyler i've met with a number of times she is also the co-owner of um tillman's Tillman's has got one of the best grilled cheeses on the downtown mall. Tillman's has got one of the best soup selections and some fantastic wine selections that are out there. Courtney Tyler knows how to run a restaurant. The Tonic model and the Tillman's model are two very different models. Tonic is a sit-down restaurant with table service. Tillman's, you can sit down, but you pick your food up from a counter or it's very less labor intensive, okay?

There's much more labor, nuance, and intensity needed at Tonic versus Tillman's. Courtney's partner in both ventures is Derek Mansfield, who does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work. He lives out of market. Courtney is the day-to-day operator. When it comes to Tonic, look at what they've done to revital. the space. Alan Kajin, the landlord. They built one of the most beautiful patios that are in the city of Charlottesville. Yeah, no doubt. Literally, they launched this business during COVID.

I remember having Courtney Tyler on the show via Zoom to talk about her business opening during a pandemic. It was such a fragile time to run a restaurant, let alone to start one from scratch. After putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into it, the worst timing possible launching during COVID. If you think about it, we are now five years in March removed from COVID. Is it six? COVID was March of 2020. So we're coming on six. Six years removed from the start of the pandemic. Okay. So to survive this long is a testament to a business, but it's also an indication that the sit down model, unless it's done in the best possible fashion or has a niche. or has a a and from my standpoint it's this you either have to go white tablecloth or close thereof

extremely high-end dining and justifying price points that are 50 60 70 dollars ahead or you need to figure out a way to do it where the customers basically in some ways picking up their food at a window and bringing it to the table themselves to live limit the labor. There's such little room for air in today's world of food and beverage. And the unfortunate thing is we know of half a dozen additional restaurants that are on the cusp of announcing a closing in the very near future. We've known about this one for some time.

I'm going to ask you, the viewer and listeners, you put the next lower third on screen, Judah. what is best suited for that location? Is it the sports bar? Is it the Irish pub reincarnated Tin Whistle 2.0? It's certainly not a pizza parlor. We're getting another pizza parlor on Water Street. What's best suited for that?

Is it even food and beverage? What are your thoughts, viewers and listeners? What are your thoughts, Judah? I mean, whatever it is, it certainly has to take into account that amazing outdoor space with the covered the covered patio. I mean, yeah, you could do a sports bar.

You could put some TVs outside. You could make it an event space. That might be a good use of it. We don't need an event space. Don't need an event space. Stefan Freeman can't keep Old Metropolitan Hall open. He is the owner of Old Metropolitan Hall bought it from Travis Wilburn. You have the space on Water Street, which is owned and operated by the guys that own BZU and crush pad.

That has vacancy and does not have a full calendar. The Omni has an event space. I don't think we need another event space there. The thing that seems to be missing downtown, if you want to fill a square peg with something square, and that's food and beverage staying in that location is some kind of sports bar. But to Judah's point, it may not be greatly situated for audio and visual.

If you don't utilize the outside, the patio, you really are limited at that space because the interior is extremely small. And how are you going to watch Virginia basketball games when it's 10 degrees outside, 15 degrees outside, 20 degrees outside? So I'm going to ask the viewers and listeners, Again, is that spot cursed?

And then I highlight downtown. You now have Bonnie and Reed closed. Old Metropolitan closed. Draft taproom closed. Tonic closed. Commonwealth Skybar closed. What am I missing? I don't think cold is really the problem in that space.

You don't think outside temperatures and having patio being your primary seating mechanism is a point of concern? No, it doesn't have to be if you're set up for it. Have you been to, I haven't been to Ivy Inn in a long time, but the last time I was there, we ended up getting seated in a tent off one side of the restaurant. Vavachi also has one as well, to your point. There was, there were places in, I mean, you know, Savannah doesn't get as cold as it does here. there was a great pizza place that had the entire side of a block.

And they had a, you know, an eve. And they had plastic tarps, you know, see-through tarps that rolled down. And then they'd put up those tall space heaters. And you couldn't tell. You couldn't tell that you were outside. The difference between Vavachi, the IBN, and whatever replaces that location, and the utilization of heated tents is Vivachi and the IBM are institutions. The IBM, Angelo, and Farrell, they are iconic in food and beverage.

And Vivachi's been around for 30 years. The concept or the idea of coming downtown in the winter, downtown in the winter. And we're about to have a parking headline that we're going to put on screen. To sit in a tent and a tarp is a more challenging. challenging cell than to do it at a spot like Vivachi or the IVN that have been around for a generation or longer. Everything's got to start somewhere. I'll give you that.

I'll give you that. John Blair watching the program, his photo on screen. It's a fascinating question about the tonic spot. Is it Curse for Food and Beverage? I would offer this. The advantage of the downtown mall is supposed to be a draw, people walking in the mall, looking for a spot to eat. Tonic does not get that advantage.

What about a teaky bar at the tonic spot? like the idea of a tiki bar with the outside. The problem with emphasizing outside too much is you get it for nine months, eight months a year unless you're prepared for it. I'm also

curious what the rules and regulations are on tenting and tarping an outside spot. Because Commonwealth Skybar, when Alex George was running it and when Hunter Smith was running it as Passi Flora, they caught a lot of heat from the city for

tarping and tenting off that open skybar area on the second floor on the downtown mall. That's odd. A ton of heat from the city. So I'm very curious if you can do it literally across from City Hall in the police station there. Now, this is a perfect segue into the next lower third about parking. Do you want to set the stage as you put the lower third on screen? There's no new technology that's managing, that is, I guess managing is the right word. The parking garages in Charleston, lower third on screen.

and the who, what, when, where, why, Judah Wickhauer of the new technology that's going to be employed for managing the parking downtown. Then I will get to Curtis Shaver's comments. He's a retired executive chef from Hamilton's. Curtis Shaver, the co-founder at Peloton Station. I take his perspective as if it was gold when it comes to food and beverage. Georgia Gilmer, James Watson's comments are also on deck. Parking, and then we can put a bow on this, Judah.

Well, the parking garages, both of them, the Water Street Garage and the Market Street Garage are, for anyone who's been in them, a little bit on the old side, at least technology-wise. So the people running the parking garage, the city, want to upgrade their systems. No more, take the ticket, take the ticket. now it is all going to be digitized so that and here's where the problem comes in for a lot of people before you visit the parking garage either one of them for the first time you would have to go onto a I'm assuming a website perhaps it will even be an app and set up an account what this means is that when you go in, you won't have, you won't have any arms stopping you. You won't have any, I don't think you'd have any people sitting in booths, and you would essentially

just go in, get scanned, and leave, and pay through the app or through the website, and a lot of people have a problem with that. Or some people, I won't say a lot. I don't know how many. Here's my issue. Look, the technology may be the greatest thing. since sliced bread. But every time that parking and downtown Charlestville is in the news, it's bad news. We're trying to revitalize downtown, certainly since post-COVID. The city of Charlottesville, if it wants to drive economic vitality and if it wants to drive incremental tax revenue, it should figure out a way to make the parking garage is free for an extended period of time. I'm talking months, if not most of 2026, if not longer. Does that require a joint venture

with the folks running the parking garages? Perhaps. Does it require some kind of JV with Mark Brown? The parking czar? Perhaps. But if you want to drive tax revenue, and the city is looking to drive tax revenue every day, and if you're Chris Engel and Sam Sanders and you want to drive economic vitality, low-hanging fruit is making parking-free downtown and marketing, and promoting it. Dairy Market did a really good job of this. Chris Henry and Stony Point, when Dairy Market had a boatload of empty stalls,

they did a marketing blitz, utilizing our show as well, to announce that parking was free for Dairy Market. And that drove Fannie's into the food hall. I was at the food hall on Sunday to pick up pizza for my family, either Saturday or Sunday from Dino's. He's got fantastic pizza. And there was fantastic vitality there.

The stalls were full again. There were students there. There were locals there. It was buzzing. It would have palpable buzz. Now, it makes sense because it was freezing cold and being inside in a food hall coexists or coincides with cold temperatures.

Charlottesville, Sam Sanders, city council, Chris Engel, you want to drive economic vitality, keep parking out of the new cycle, except for parking is free at these garages. That will help these businesses down here. Comments are coming in. Curtis Shaver, his photo on screen. He says with tonic, the frontage is so small, it's extremely easy to miss.

Yeah, no doubt. 100% right. Georgia Gilmer. Didn't, doesn't the tonic space have an issue with lawyers leaving some fairly gross trash on that patio? Yes, it does. In fact, all of them, not just tonic, but all the restaurants, downtown have this issue. You should see some of the nastiness that I've picked up in this courtyard out here or on Market Street. And I'm going to leave it at that because it gets into the

rated R, if not NC17 category. And I'll leave it at that. James Watson watching the program, it's definitely a very nice space, he says. I remember when there was a rendition of Club 216 nearby years ago. I think the challenge is it's not necessarily on them all and readily readily in the average person's mind. Also, some people feel uncomfortable drinking and then walking right by the police station, which really shouldn't be a problem, but it is what it is.

I think that adds to the category or to the perception, is it curse? Can any viewer and listener that's watching this program think of one restaurant location over the last 20 years that's had more iterations than that space? Curtis, James, and Georgia,

Help me on this. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following. Tonic, Tin Whistle, Cafe Bocci, Carlton's. I know I'm missing some. That's four in the last what? 20 years? Four in the last 15 years? What am I missing Georgia, Curtis, and James?

Janice Boyce Trevillian watching. Tonic, they did a tremendous job with Christmas Eve several years ago with heaters. outside. It was a truly magical space. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, that's what you're talking about. But outside heaters are different than tarped and tended areas. But they already have a roof. They do

not. They have a pergola. That outside area, I believe it's a pergola. In fact, why don't we check? Does that include a, does a pergola include a roof? A pergola is not a... I just sworn there was a roof out there. Let's see. You may be right. I'm going to

I'm going to their Facebook page right now. You know what? You are correct. I stand corrected, Judah. I stand corrected. It is roofed like alfresco dining. Part of it is cover with a roof. I stand corrected. I apologize. Not the entire deck roof, but a large portion of it, the bar area outside is. I'm looking at the Facebook page in its photos right now. I stand corrected. Well, good addition right there. What other iterations can you think of in that tonic space? James Watson says the glass building is up there with revolving businesses as well. The glass building was what? It's the Argentinian Steakhouse now. The glass building also was the X lounge. Yeah. It used to be Ian Bowden's, Ian Bowden's glasshouse kitchen. It was Bebidero. The Bevedero. Yeah. James Watson, 100% right. Tom Powell, the founder of Toy Lift watching the program. Revitalizing downtown will not happen until you get

city leaders that have a problem and actually support the business owners who are trying to make the city downtown a safer and better place for everyone, 100%. We will know a lot more about City Hall and City Council in 2026 and whether or not they have the balls to enact a no camping, no sheltering in place on the downtown mall policy because they have a shelter on holiday drive. If they do not do that, then Charlottesville is telling the world they are not a pro-business community. You mark that down. You marked that down. Barbara Becker Tilly said they did have clear walls in a white-tended roof. Clear walls in a white. It was beautiful. Janice Boyce Chavillian, a solid roof with heaters on the roof. Thank you ladies for making the program

better over there. All right. It's the 102 mark and we have other topics we got to cover. Viewers and listeners, if you can think of any other brands that were there, James Watson says there was a brewery in there too for a while. I can't remember the name. Do you remember a brewery in the cafe botchy space? I don't. Oh, no. He's talking about

the glass house. It was Wild Wolf Brewery, James Watson, was in the glass house. Oliver Kootenor owns the glass house, and he's 100% right. James Watson's smart man

because my wife and I would go to the farmer's market and then go get beers at Wild Wolf. So on the glasshouse building, there's the Argentinian Steakhouse which is there now,

which I think has artwork up by Beatrix Ox. Which is Oliver Oliver Cootner, the landlord's mother, Bevadero, X Lounge, Glasshouse Kitchen, and Wild Wolf, all right there.

Yeah, that's a lot. So maybe that's the spot with the most turnover in the last 20 years at one location. James Watson, very well done. Made the program better. In fact, that probably beats Carlton's Cafabachi, tonic, and tin whistle, which is what I can think of now.

I don't know if there were any other ones in that spot. Curtis, that's right up your alley, right there. Next headlight, Judah Wickcarrow, what do you got? Next up, we have... Livable Seville? Let's go with that one, number one. Let's see, okay. Put that one on screen if you could, please, sir.

Look, I'm going to spend a couple of minutes on this. Okay? Fifeville is a historically marginalized neighborhood. Okay? There is a project in Fifeville. and I want to open up your comments there. A project plan for FIFIL that is going to be student housing.

Sean Tubbs has got great reporting on this. It's called what? The Mark? Okay? This project, they want to rent, when finished, $1,500 a month rooms to students. The project is getting significant resistance from housing activists.

And shockingly, Livable Seaville, the pro-housing urban lobbying group, is quiet and crickets with this housing project. Why is Livable Seaville not trying to push housing in Fifeville? Is it because the co-founder

lives in Fifeville? is it because they fear backlash? If you're a housing advocacy group, you should be championing housing everywhere for everyone. But they are not doing that. They are being quiet. And I find it curious at best, hypocritical, more likely,

that livable Seaville is not going balls to the wall for this 7th Street Southwest, 200 blocks, 17 Southwest, Fifeville Neighborhood, Student Project, 7-story building that's going to completely remake and reimagine and gentrify a historically black community when it's finished. I'm shocked that livable Seaville is not using its megaphone to say we need this.

Did you just say it was going to gentrify the neighborhood? Hell yeah. When this is finished, When a seven-story student housing project is built in the absolute heart of Fifeville, it will reimagine this neighborhood and gentrify it. But Livable Seville is not saying, build more housing. We want more housing. It's just another example of these housing activists, Yimbis,

that are saying, we want housing, but only housing in certain pockets of the city. and that's that's hypocrisy there's other words I can use for that and I won't use them but we all know what they are okay if you're going to say you want housing across the board that housing across the board has to be everywhere

it can't just be in white wealthy areas my wife is watching the program she says chickadee was also in that glass building the sandwich spot the breakfast joint oh yeah yeah so glasshouse kitchen that's the most but i don't but were they the same oh are we talking about the entire thing does it matter okay yeah yeah any blue moon diner i mean yeah you have blue moon wait no you you mean uh bluegrass grill bluegrass grill sorry bluegrass grill

paradox pastry i mean but but that's also like two or three spaces okay so you want to only use the glass house spot fine i'm just saying we have to we have to be caveat it all right I'll give you that. I'll give you that. Glasshouse kitchen. No, first, the X lounge was a nightclub. I mean, geez, you could get in a lot of trouble if you wanted to with the X lounge. Trust me, I did firsthand. The X lounge, Glasshouse Kitchen. Francois did the X lounge. François and J.F. LaGault did Glasshouse Kitchen. Ian Bowden was the executive chef. Ian Bowden is now running a much Ballyhooed restaurant in Stanton. then what? The Bevedero?

Wild Wolf Brewery the Argentinian Steakhouse all in the last 20 years Deep throat watching the program his photo on screen. Livable Seville does not support the project in Fifeville because they aren't really a pro-housing

organization much in the way that they never challenged Brennan Duncan's anti-pedestrian acts because they aren't really a pro-pedestrian organization. They are, this is This is Deep Throat's comments here. Livable Seville Deep Throat says are anti-white and anti-capitalists. On the housing side of things, they convince themselves that zoning reform would lead to the destruction of wealthy white exclusionary neighborhoods.

303 Alderman Road may have a word or two to say about how realistic that view was. 1,200 units of new rental housing would also have a word. Student housing and luxury housing on low-value land in a word gentrification. that's what's going to happen, but frankly, I'm okay with it. I prefer for her, I prefer a Charlottesville that has more wealthy, productive people with taste like mine. Gentrification is going to be awesome, and I look forward to the day that folks like the founder of Louisville, Matthew Gilligan, will not be able to afford to live here. Those are deep throats minds right there, words right there.

He didn't mince words, okay? I said from the beginning, John Blair said from the beginning, deep throat said from the the beginning, a number of said from the beginning that if you, this zoning thing was going to have no impact. It was going to make the dirt more opportunistic. It's going to make it more opportunistic and more valuable, which is going to yield a housing type, a product type that's going to have to drive return on investment for the people that are financing the project and building the project. Everywhere you look, what's being built is luxury or student housing. That luxury or student housing is only going to cater to a UVA student body,

that's increasing in size through data centers, data schools, through biotechnology schools, and through the peripheral businesses that ride the ecosystems of the talent these schools matriculate in birth and produce. Okay? This is, this is,

this was predicted a decade ago that this was going to happen. And speaking of 303 Alderman Road in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood, have some insight. intel on that the California company that purchased 303 Alderman Road has some plans for that project time's gonna tell the team at Evergreen got out because they just didn't want the headache no doubt and there's some really good guys

over there Nate and Tom are some really good guys over there all right next headline what do you got next up is Dave McNair oh James Watson is exactly right at that glass house spot there was the Caribbean Seoul restaurant Pearl Island was Pearl Island there I don't remember that was it Pearl Island James Ginny Who watching the program I think you hit the nail on the head

the spot isn't cursed it's the city government killing innovative ideas Ginny Who I've seen several businesses doing team outings to the new duck pin bowling at dairy market Dairy Market, I was there on Saturday night to pick a pizza from my family. It was buzzing. It was buzzing.

Nice. The lower third, what is it? Lord and Ivy highlights the yummy breakfast spot that used to be there. Thank you, Lord and Ivy. And what do you got? Next one. Dave McNair analyzes Seville Legacy Media. I may have this topic on tomorrow's show as well.

Dave McNair is the Charlottesville DTM. He used to be one of the talented award-winning writers for The Hook. And he's still wetting his beak with journalism through a substack. He calls the Charlottesville DTM. And he releases a newsletter that comes out often. And this newsletter, which I subscribe to, actually I think he signed me up for. I had a newsletter that came out today. And it basically analyzes legacy media.

And it highlights the success of Seville right now, the news platform for Charlottesville Radio Group, for Charlottesville Media Group, but then it talks about some of the struggles of legacy media. For example, Lee Enterprises, which is looking for a new newsroom right now. Lee Enterprises is reported a net loss of $36 million this year. They're a publicly traded company,

including $4 million for restoration services after a cyber attack ransom in February that kept the newspaper from printing. We cover that on the show. Lee agreed to pay 9.5 million to subscribers after a privacy leak. Their personal data was exposed to Russian hackers. Then you have, ladies and gentlemen, oh, and by the way, Lee Enterprises owns owes, owes, $455 million to Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, his media group used to own all these newspapers, and they basically gave them to Lee, but $455 million in debt exposure. Lee Enterprises has with the Oracle of Omaha. Listen to this. The television stations, 29 News, is owned by Gray Television. Gray Television announced last month that third quarter revenues

were down 21% from the same quarter last year. And the LA Times reported this year, the annual National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas was a grim affair as streaming video now accounts for 53.5% of all TV viewing. The fact that we have two broadcast television stations in this market is absolute insanity. These two entities are killing themselves by competing against each other. The fact that we have two labor-intensive radio groups, Monticello Media and Charlottesville Media Group, is insanity.

They are killing each other, a death by a thousand cuts. Charlottesville tomorrow kind of has it figured out by going to this nonprofit model. And this nonprofit model, Charlottesville Tomorrow, is basically being funded by major gifts and heavy grants. In 2023, $1 million in revenue from grants, but only $47,000 of that came from small gifts and subscribers. So they basically are going to these big entities and begging them for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. With strings attached, these big entities get a say in what their news cycle. their content, their editorial mission is. That's why Charlottesville tomorrow,

you read this nonprofit news site, and it's very much skewed with its content on diversity, equity, and inclusion. And it's not hard news like it used to be. The people that are doing it right, Sean Tubbs, but he's one man. He's one man. And I'm very curious to see what happens with that model,

the subscriber model, as the economic vitality of Main Street and Market Street and Preston, just mom and pop, just everyday life, dude, it's effing tough sledding out there. No doubt. Okay? People are going to be cutting left and right overhead. Here's a perfect example. We just made a switch my wife and I to Xfinity Mobile from Verizon.

Xfinity Mobile utilizes the same cell towers as Verizon. And we were able to cut our cell phone bill from 230, dollars a month to $80 a month, and then they gave us two free iPhone 17s, and our service has improved. Literally. Verizon was 220 a month to 80 a month, and they gave us two free iPhone 17s, and our services improved. And then we weaved it in with our internet service provider at home, and we saved on the

ISP. The overall save was like 140 on the plan. plus the free iPhone 19th, 17s, plus $10 on the ISP, $150 a month. $150 a month is $1,800 a year. $1,800 a year. Consumers are going to start looking for ways to do stuff like that. No doubt. So, Legacy Media, the analysis that he's put together,

is pretty damn good. So props to Dave McNair. If you don't get the Charlottesville DTM, I would check out what he published today. It's Charlottesville DTM. You can find it online. All right. Next headline, what do you got? Let's see. All we've got left are LSU and

that might be it. And public schools on two-hour delay today, which does sound very strange. Yeah, deep throat's 100% right. He goes, can you imagine if one of these foundations gave even a tenth of that money to Sean Tubbs?

That would be amazing. Sean Tubbs and Sean Tubbs of his substack, what's his substack? It's Charlottesville substack? Info Seville. I mean, he's got a couple of different brands. I keep saying this to him and I don't mean to offend him. I've heard this offends him. I don't mean to offend him. He needs one brand.

He's got Info Seville, Charlottesville, Charlottesville substack, Charlottesville podcast, one brand, one media brand and then market it with Facebook boosted post, Instagram boosted posts, Google ads, YouTube ads, spend 50, 100 bucks a month. I could take that business, I swear to God, I could take that business, and 150X the top line revenue in a year. I sincerely mean that, Sean, if you ever wanted to do a JV rev share of some kind, I could take what you're doing. All you would have to do is the same damn thing that you're doing as content creation.

Let me just take that business. I will, we can even put a cap on it if I don't get to that number, there is no REF share. And we'll come to an agreeable cap. You have literally nothing to lose. But he's making the point deep throat, if you just allocate a portion of that to him, can you imagine what he could do? Last headline is LSU.

LSU and Nike announced on Thursday. They've extended a partnership that dates back five decades and the partnership extension is through 2036. It's a first of its kind partnership. LSU and Nike, this is insane. They are doing a collaboration that is going to take LSU athletes from gymnastics, baseball, softball, football, basketball, volleyball,

and make them premier athletes and essentially drive NIL compensation to these athletes. So if you perform well at LSU, you get paid more and you get to wear the Nike swoosh on your chest off the field and off the field. This is one of the sexiest companies in the world, Nike, that is opening the brink's truck, backing up a brink's truck or two to Baton Rouge, opening the door, and there's no armed guards. They're saying athletic department in Baton Rouge, take the gold bars and give them to your athletes. And we're going to do this through 2036. Your best athletes get the most gold bars.

And you can use the gold bars as enticement and the transfer portal and recruiting to get more athletes to come to Baton Rouge. What this is going to do, we were talking about this with Dr. Fry earlier today. This is going to take Adidas, Reebok, what, who are the other shoebrain, Under Armour, Roeback, Lulu Lemon, they're going to back up their own versions

of the Brinks truck, not as big as Nike's, and partner up and cozy up with schools. This is going to take compensating college players to a completely different level. There's a reason Chandler Morris

wants to come back and quarterback UVA next year. It's not just because he loves throwing a pigskin. And James Watson is right. It wasn't Pearl Island that was there. Pearl Island is in the Jefferson School, some kind of Kirby and Soul restaurant,

he said, in that glass building. All right, that's today's talk show. I want to highlight Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes. If you need a custom hardscape, built at your house. Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes is who you contact Oak Valley Custom Hardscapes. Any hardscape you need at your residence

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