IN THE NEWS:

• Delegate Don Scott has become the new Speaker of the House--the first Black Speaker in Virginia's history. His election came alongside several new Committee Chairs that could mean big changes in the balance of power in Richmond.

• House Majority Leader Charniele Herring has introduced a constitutional amendment to change the restoration of voting rights for people convicted of felonies--making it automatic rather than dependent on the Governor's will. And it seems there's some bipartisan energy behind the effort.

• Governor Youngkin says he wants to get rid of the car tax--but he didn't put it in his legacy budget proposal. It doesn't seem likely to happen, but the issue may serve as a rhetorical win in upcoming elections.

At the Watercooler:

• Activate Virginia is making a FOIA request to learn more about the high school graduation shooting in Richmond. For some reason, the state is fighting it.

• GA Staffers say the emails they're receiving about the Arena deal are overwhelmingly negative.

Episode Transcript

Michael Pope  

This is Pod Virginia, a podcast coming to you live and in person from the General Assembly building as sirens go down Broad Street in the background. We are joining you from the conference room of Delegate Alfonso Lopez. So, a shout-out to Delegate Lopez and his team for opening their conference room to us. Lauren, welcome to Richmond. Isn't this exciting?

Lauren Burke  

It's very exciting. And shout out to Delegate Lopez; this is much appreciated. And we are in this glorious new General Assembly building, and it's an exciting new session, to say the least.

Michael Pope  

All right, let's get right into it. The first Black Speaker, Delegate Don Scott of Portsmouth, was elected to the House of Delegates in 2019. Since that time, he's moved from backbencher to Speaker of the House in record time. Raising record amounts of money and, oh, yeah, making history as the first Black Speaker. After getting his hands on the gavel, he gave a surprisingly heartfelt speech. Here's part of the speech where he recognized his mother, who was in the chamber to witness the historic moment.

Don Scott  

She was orphaned as a child. She raised six children by herself, as to tell her, don't worry, God is my Father. And he would take care of me. So, I know I'm a little soft right now, but I'm really tough. And I got that toughness from her.

Michael Pope  

If you want to hear the entire speech, you need to check out the Black Virginian News podcast, which has audio of the whole thing. Lauren, that was one hell of a speech.

Lauren Burke  

Yes, it was. And it certainly kept everybody at rapt attention. It was very quiet on the floor. Thanks to Phil Newell and team Don Scott for allowing me to witness that history. As someone who was a history major in college, I'm a real nerd and geek for this. His mother was in the back watching it, and I got to watch her. Another shout out to the great Vivian Watts for allowing me to use her desk as a place to put a little camera; that was very nice. And obviously, it was an emotional speech; he gave us personal history. Which was one of the strongest political stories that you'll ever hear right now, an incredible story of perseverance. And for parts of it, you could hear a pin drop in there. It's also interesting to look at the other side of the aisle and see the Republicans also rapt attention.

Even after everything was over, they were taking pictures with the new Speaker. I think everybody certainly understood the gravity and history that they witnessed. Which, of course, was then followed by the State of the Commonwealth and the Governor there. Then, of course, in the background, our first Black female and first Female lieutenant governor, Winsome Sears, And of course, L. Louise Lucas, and of course, the new Speaker, Don Scott. It was pretty incredible to see a lot of the folks from Portsmouth on the floor of the House. And the gallery was packed; it was a historic day. It was pretty amazing. 

Michael Pope  

Let's talk about Democrats taking power here. Not only do we have a new Speaker of the House, we've got a bunch of new committee chairs. What do you make of all the committee reshuffling and all the new chairs of these committees?

Lauren Burke  

Well, we're gonna see some exciting policies around health care, mental health, taxation, and a discussion about Potomac Yard stadium. I'm sort of watching folks like Delegate Cia Price, who is going to chair a committee that covers voting. That is going to be exciting.

Michael Pope  

The oldest committee. Not just in Virginia, but in the western hemisphere or something. We're talking about a committee that George Washington used to serve on. This is a really big deal.

Lauren Burke  

Exactly in the history of that. And obviously, she had the first organizational meeting last week on Friday. That is going to be really exciting to watch. 

Michael Pope  

Let's talk about that. So she's Chair of the Privileges and Elections, which is a fancy way of saying they do election law. So Virginia has recently expanded early voting to 45 days, which is the longest in the country. I think, as chair, her real goal would be beating back efforts to change those reforms. Basically, her real goal is the status quo, keeping things the way they are and keeping the 45-day window. Keeping the early voting and beating back Republican efforts to change that. 

Lauren Burke  

Exactly, obviously, to make voting easier. Voting is easy now; I guess they could probably get into a discussion about the 45-day window. We have had things happen within that 45-day window that I think some could argue could change in the election.

Michael Pope  

Talking about news events? 

Lauren Burke  

Right, exactly. Things can happen, maybe 10 days or two weeks before the election. But other than that argument, I do not see why it's been a problem. It's made voting very convenient. So you're right; her mission is going to be to maintain the ease of voting in Virginia. But I'm sure other things will come up if you look at some of the Republican bills that are trying to roll back the hands of time if you will. So we'll see that, but that is, to me, a committee to watch, and Cia Price's work has always been something to watch.

Michael Pope  

Alright, let's move on to our next story. Evicting Jim Crow. So until recently, in Virginia, governors of both parties were in agreement about making it easier to restore the voting rights of people who have been convicted of felonies, but the current governor is reversing that trend. And that's why House Majority Leader Charniele Herring introduced a constitutional amendment to change how that process works.

Charniele Herring  

The governor, with his internal actions, has taken a spat on voting rights and people getting their voting rights. I think now we have bipartisan support. There are traditionally groups that have been very conservative who have been testifying in favor of it and being very supportive; Americans for Prosperity is one of them.

Michael Pope  

Americans for Prosperity is lobbying Republicans to vote in favor of Herring's amendment. Ben Knotts is the legislative director for the conservative-leaning group. 

Ben Knotts  

Some want to vote yes on this. And we're going to work to get them a clear path to do so. So they can do so and good confidence. And this can be a bipartisan victory.

Michael Pope  

Lauren, Americans for Prosperity, working with Charniele Herring on voting rights. Wow, this is a different General Assembly session.

Lauren Burke  

Yes, it is. We have seen a few bipartisan moments already, at least photographically. Last week, you had the new Speaker and Governor Youngkin at two events. And I think this bill is another indication of this bipartisan trend. But as you know, they have really no choice but to work together when you have a divided government. If you want to get something done. And I think, fortunately for us, this is the type of Republican governor, unlike the DeSantis's of the world, who actually does want to get something done. You know, he wants some policy wins and wants to be able to say they did some things. So I do think on a few issues, we will see the Conservatives and the Liberals getting together. And this is kind of an easy one. There are a few, there are a few like that. So it shouldn't be too much of a conflict over something like this. Part of the reason why people think globally that nothing gets done is, of course, the hyper-partisanship. Still, a lot of that is just on the national level. And doesn't really filter down, thankfully, to the state level a lot of times at certain places. But we'll see what happens.

Michael Pope  

I think this setup that Virginia has, where if you're convicted of a felony, you lose your right to vote permanently. The only way you can get your right back is if the governor restores your right to vote. That is a stupid ass system. Nobody today would create the system. This is a system that Virginia inherited from the Jim Crow era, and it's stupid, and everybody knows that. And this is something that needs to go away. You said this would be an easy one, but I don't think Republicans are really on board with this. I mean, Ben Knotts seems to think there are Republicans who want to get to a yes. And he's, you know, hoping to work with them to get them to hit the Yes button. But I think there's probably some Republican resistance to that. The good news for advocates of this is the governor plays no role whatsoever, and he can't veto it. His opinion means nothing, and this is actually a really good way for the Democrats to exert their power and influence by bypassing the governor altogether and getting this amendment passed. So they have to pass it once, and then there has to be an election. So that would be the 2025 election. Then, the General Assembly would have to pass it again in 2026. And then it would go to voters as early as 2026. So there's a lot of process that we still need to get through here. But Democrats are really engaged in this, and this is a top priority for them. 

Lauren Burke  

Yeah. Wow. Maybe Charniele should hand out some photos of former Governor Bob McDonald greeting the new Speaker on the dias because he was the one who restored the Speaker's voting rights. And that made for a very cute picture up there; it was a very nice moment. So you know, we'll see.

Michael Pope  

To be clear for our listeners, Don Scott served prison time. And after he got out of prison, he turned his life around, and he's now Speaker of the House. Because he was convicted of a felony, he lost his right to vote, and it was Governor Bob McDonnell who restored Don Scott's right to vote. And so the two of them had a moment the day that Don Scott became Speaker of the House. 

Lauren Burke  

Literally minutes after he officially became Speaker, they were sitting there talking for a little bit. It was it was really nice. It was really another nice bipartisan moment we saw last week. 

Michael Pope  

You actually raise a really strong point, which is that the photo of Governor McDonnell and Speaker Don Scott could be used in communications efforts to explain this amendment and its value. 

Lauren Burke  

Exactly right. I think once somebody has paid their debt to society, I'm not sure why we're continuing that. Still, we know what the history is with regard to this particular effort to take people off work to keep people off the voting rolls.

Michael Pope  

All right, let's move on to our next story. Car tax crash: Governor Glenn Youngkin wants to eliminate the car tax, or he says he wants to eliminate the car tax. But that's a suggestion that he's talking about, even though he did not put it in his budget proposal. Now Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell says that idea is dead on arrival.

Scott Surovell  

the personal property tax, at least in Fairfax County, the one place I've done research on. Generates about $3,500 per student. And I haven't heard from the governor how he intends to replace that kind of money. And just to throw something out there as irresponsible. So that ain't happen. 

Michael Pope  

Republican House Leader Todd Gilbert says voters hate the car tax. And he told me that Democrats should be willing to work with the governor on this.

Todd Gilbert  

There's a lot of knee-jerk reaction to anything with Governor Youngkin's name on it. And that they would immediately say that something that's so hated by all Virginians, such as repealing the car tax, is dead on arrival; it shows that maybe where their head is right now on the other side and that they have no intention of working with him whatsoever.

Michael Pope  

So after the State of the Commonwealth address, the governor spoke to reporters in a gaggle in the Capitol building, and I asked him about the car tax. Here's part of that exchange. ----- Governor on eliminating the car tax. This is a major source of revenue for local governments; what would you say to local governments who are worried about a hit to their numbers?

Glenn Youngkin  

So we wouldn't do it if it did. In fact, I said today in my speech that there is a way that we can eliminate the car tax, provide real tax relief to Virginians, and make sure that the localities do not lose a penny. And that is what we presented in our budget proposal to the joint money committees. But we've got to sit around the table and see if we can make this work. It's complicated. It's going to require all of us to work together. But one of the top priorities is to make sure that localities will not lose out here. So, the car tax removal is not in a budget yet because we need to get around a table and really discern how we can do this. We can do it there if there is an increase in sales tax and a broadening of the sales tax base, which facilitates this exact elimination of the personal car tax. That's going to require us to sit around the table and make sure that we are matching resources to those that are given up by eliminating the car tax so that our localities don't suffer. We can do this. It's just going to take like-minded people to get around a table with the will to get it done. 

Michael Pope  

But there's not currently a plan for that, though, right? 

Glenn Youngkin  

We have discussed the basic framework. But again, this is one of these moments where Republicans and Democrats and Senators and House members and the executive branch need to sit around a table with all of the math and show that it can work. There's been great receptivity to that discussion. And that's why we have 60 days to work on this together. And I think there's a real path for us to achieve this. It's just going to require us to work on it together.

Michael Pope  

Lauren, what is the governor getting out here? I mean, we have 60 days to figure this out. Usually, what happens is people figure stuff out before the session starts. In the session, there's not really a time to figure stuff out. 

Lauren Burke  

Yeah, I think it's just very easy to make the argument that he wants to cut taxes and catch the Democrats on defense on taxation. Which is a huge issue for people. And this is such a low-hanging fruit thing to criticize because, in fact, he's correct. People hate the car tax; they absolutely hate the car tax. And I think the government likes to talk a lot about people leaving Virginia or coming into Virginia. People from other places come here, and they're like, what car tax? Because it's not a particularly prevalent tax in other states. It's sort of a unique thing. And people hate it. I think I told you before on the show that I did a little poll of my friends about what they were paying for the car tax, and I was absolutely flabbergasted at how much they were paying for it. This is unbelievable. But again, it becomes very difficult. I do think leader Surovell has really good messaging. And he'll do it well, but it catches you in that position of you're the "tax and spends Democrat," and I'm the person who wants to give folks back money. He already gave back a check. Youngkin is setting it up so that he's trying to put money into your pocket.

Michael Pope  

And here's those mean Democrats who love taxes, and they're standing in the way of me getting rid of the car tax. That's what the governor is getting out here. So it's more of a political argument, not actually a tax argument. 

Lauren Burke  

I think it's both. I think he genuinely does want to cut it. I think a lot of people want to cut it. I mean, they may not, but I do like the fact that you saw them with leader Surovell, mentioning what is lost if you cut it. That's the that's the road to explaining to people why it's necessary. 

Michael Pope  

And there seems to be no plan to fill that hole. This would create a huge hole for local governments. And there's no plan of what to fill that hole. 

Lauren Burke  

Yeah, I think it's hard to make this huge hole for local governments. We've had a surplus of billion-dollar surpluses year over year in Virginia. And it wasn't just the federal government money. I think if the governor gets really detailed, which is what you could see with your exchange with him, he wasn't very detailed at all. But if he gets more detailed about where the money can come from, he can win this argument. Once you start saying things like, I want to cut this tax, it's annoying you, and that's going to keep money in your pocket. That right there is going to be a big advantage. 

Michael Pope  

But isn't there something a little interesting or noteworthy and worth thinking about that he did not put in his budget proposal? He's got a legacy budget; he could have put it in his budget, but he chose not to do that.

Lauren Burke  

That's a really good question. And who knows why that didn't happen. I think that it's going to be easier for him to argue for this than it will be for the Democrats. The Democrats are going to have to explain why the car tax is necessary, why it's vital, why you're paying it, why your relatives in other states are not paying. So that's a little bit more of a haul. But we have a Generation X Majority Leader in the Virginia House right now. I think he's going to do very well with messaging. And so, and you could see in that example of what he's already said. So we'll see.

Michael Pope  

This is a moment for Generation X. 

Lauren Burke  

Yes, it is. 

Michael Pope  

We've got a Gen X speaker of the House. We've got a Gen X Senate Majority Leader. I mean, the era of baby boomers' rule here in Richmond is over.

Lauren Burke  

Absolutely. I mean, there's a three-decade difference there with the Senate leadership, three decades, so, on top of the history that we saw with regard to Don Scott, coming in, of course, Louise Lucas, coming in as Finance Chair. You do have a bit of history there with the leadership in the Virginia Senate. You have a young majority leader that is not 55 years old yet. I mean, I think Leader Surovell is only 52, I believe. So, that is another very interesting thing about generational shift and leadership right there.

Michael Pope  

All right, let's take a break. When we come back, we'll read your comments and head over to the water cooler. ------ All right, let's play a round of trivia. So last week, we asked you which Democrats are stuck all alone on the Republican side of the House chamber and the Republican side of the Senate chamber. Well, the answer is Delegate Karrie Delaney. She's all alone on the Republican side of the House and Senator Creigh Deeds, who's the lone Democrat on the Republican side of the Senate chamber.

Lauren Burke  

Jamie Lockhart got it half right posting on X that Karrie Delaney was the House Democrat who was on the GOP side of the aisle.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, she didn't get Creigh Deeds being all alone there on the Republican side. But she was the only person who responded with part of a correct answer. So, Jamie Lockhart, you are the winner of our trivia contest.

Lauren Burke  

So, what's our trivia question for next month?

Michael Pope  

This one's for you, Laura. You'll like this one because it's about your old boss, former Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax. His official portrait will be added to the Senate chamber. All of the other portraits get bumped down one, except for the oldest one that gets removed from the chamber. So here is the trivia question: when the official portrait of Justin Fairfax is removed, which portrait will be removed permanently from the Senate chamber?

Lauren Burke  

That's a good question.

Michael Pope  

If you think you know the answer, hit us up on social media. You might even win a prize. All right, let's head over to the water cooler. Lauren, what's the latest you're hearing around the GAB water cooler?

Lauren Burke  

Okay, the GAB water cooler. Actually, it's a little bit down the street from the General Assembly Building in circuit court in Richmond. I went to watch the FOIA case bought by one Josh Stanfield, who is in charge of the group Activate Virginia. This is about the shooting that happened at a high school graduation in Richmond, Huguenot High School. It was a big tragedy, with two people killed at a high school graduation. And several journalistic organizations in Richmond asked to see the report after that tragedy happened. For whatever reason, the city of Richmond, the school board, etc., would not give the media the full, unredacted report from that incident. So, I went to court last Friday and watched it in person. Tyler Lane, who was a reporter with CBS 6 in Richmond, takes the stand to explain his FOIA request. The bottom line is that this is insane to me. I was watching this and could not believe it. A reporter on the stand explaining a FOIA request for a high school shooting in the capital of the Commonwealth and the government of Richmond fighting that FOIA request. Something that I may not have paid that much attention to. Now, it has me asking, what are they hiding? Why is this redacted? Why are we having a full-blown trial over a FOIA request? And it points back to something that you brought up many times on the show, Michael, which is that the Commonwealth of Virginia has some of the worst FOIA laws in this country. 

Michael Pope  

Terrible. 

Lauren Burke  

Yes. And anybody who's done any sort of FOIA requests. Of course, I, and many others in other states, know that this is ridiculous. And I get it's a tradition that goes back a long way. But wow.

Michael Pope  

Well, just because it's a tradition that goes back a long way doesn't mean that it's worth keeping around. I mean, we've got lots of Jim Crow traditions that are still around; we don't know it. So, I find access to public documents about police to be maddening, maddeningly nontransparent. I started my journalism career in Florida, which actually is the opposite end of the spectrum; things are way too available. I mean, I shouldn't say to that, well, there, it's great, I love it. The Sunshine Law, as it's called in Florida. Everything is available. In fact, in one of my very first jobs in journalism, I was driving to the police station to pick up a stack of all of the incident reports from that day and then driving back to the newsroom. I would type them up for the crime blog. So, it was the narrative of the officer who was responding and what he or she did at the scene. So I took those documents, drove them to the newspaper, and typed them up for the newspaper. And then so, when I moved out of Florida, I called the police department; I said, Where can I pick up the incident reports? And they said, What are you talking about? And I said, the incident reports, how do I get my hands on them? They said We're not giving them to you. Okay, so this is a problem. You cannot get an incident report about anything that happened on your block. So, if there was a house break-in on your block, you don't have access to the incident report that happened in your neighborhood. And that is true of every kind of case. I actually tested this one year; I decided, Okay, I'm going to try different kinds of cases low-level case, a high-level case, a violent case, a comically non-violent case; I tried everything that I could possibly think of, and the police responded by blocking access to everything, regardless of what the crime was about. This was shocking to me, regardless of whether the crime was open or closed. If you're talking about closed cases that happened 20 years ago, they still won't give you the incident report. So you're pushing my buttons here. This is a topic that I've spent many years fighting against, banging my head against the wall, trying to get the people in this building to care about it, but they don't. The availability of police documents is horribly nontransparent in Virginia, and somebody should do something about it. 

Lauren Burke  

I'll tell you it gets even worse because of this particular FOIA request as it related to the shooting at the high school graduation in Richmond; they danced around that. They purposefully said we do not want police records. We do not need records with regard to the victims or any sort of investigation related to the police. We want the report and the court recommendations related to what was requested that had nothing to do with that. So basically, what it looks like is happening in that courtroom, or at least the part that I saw, was that the city is trying to put everything behind attorney-client privilege to avoid the public seeing. Like, what is this, a private company? This is taxpayer money that you're operating with. So it is amazing to me that the arguments that are being made about something are a tragedy that we should know more about. What about you, Michael? What's the latest you've heard around the water cooler?

Michael Pope  

Well, you know, what topic has people buzzing is the arena proposal for Alexandria. I mean, this is a major topic of conversation in and around this building. And I am hearing from staffers that the email that members are receiving is overwhelmingly against the idea of giving huge tax breaks to billionaires. So, keep in mind that this property in Potomac Yard is currently private. And there are property taxes that are paid on that. The proposal that we're now considering creates a new authority, and the authority will be a municipal authority. So, the property will be taken off of the tax rolls, which is a huge tax break for millionaires who stand to make a lot of money on this. And that's an issue. Of course, then there's transportation and roads. And what I'm hearing from staffers is that the incoming email the members are receiving is overwhelmingly negative. Now, you may have heard on our recent podcast, buy, sell, or Hold, Sarah Taylor talking about this issue. And there is a strain of thought here that this is economic development; it's going to bring a lot of money. It's going to be a catalyst for small businesses; a rising tide lifts all boats. I mean, clearly, there is an argument in favor of this. And it's really unclear to me where the members are going to end up on this. This is a local issue for Alexandria. But here at the General Assembly Building, they've all got to vote. And so if you're from Portsmouth, or Virginia Beach, or Southside, or Southwest, you also have to be sold on this idea. I don't know how this shakes out.

Lauren Burke  

Well, I know one person who's not sold on the idea. That would be that would be Senator L. Louise Lucas. And that's going to be something that I think is going to make it relatively difficult for it to ever really get going. She's too big of a power player to get around for this proposal to go forward. And also, when you're dealing with somebody who Ted Leonsis, who, of course, is worth almost 3 billion dollars, what is the argument? What is the argument for the taxpayer? And if you look at these proposals and other cities where everybody was promised all this stuff, it didn't quite happen that way. That's a problem. 

Michael Pope  

As a follow-up to our previous conversation on this, there's often this idea that economic development incentives or economic development projects have job creation numbers associated with them. Okay, so here, we're talking about 30,000 jobs. This is the number that a consultant came up with 30,000 jobs and $12 billion in economic impact. So, a consultant came up with that number. And the governor actually put it in the State of the Commonwealth address; those two numbers 30,000 jobs, $12 billion economic impact. Here's the problem with that, Lauren: We need more details than that. Those are the top-line numbers; what kind of jobs are we talking about here? Are these service sector jobs? Are they executive jobs? What's the median salary of these jobs? We need more detail on these 30,000 jobs and then the $12 billion economic impact. Okay, are we talking about direct impact or indirect impact? Well, the Alexandria economic development folks still have yet to provide any detail about the 30,000 jobs, what the median salary is, and what the indirect impact is, visa vie the indirect, we still don't know.

Lauren Burke  

Absolutely, and I think part of it. It is, you know, you saw what happened. Who made the big announcement? We're having a big announcement. There's gonna be this thing. And then, of course, when people do and ask what exactly you just asked, which is, where's the detail? How is this exactly going to work? There's not a whole lot going on there. And when you have a governor who worked in high finance, you're expecting there to be some details, particularly around the money. I guess this sort of goes back to the car tax thing as well, in terms of not knowing what the details are. I'm sure that they will be, at some point, in fairness, forthcoming with the details. Then, the question becomes, will that community be satisfied with those details?

Michael Pope  

Shouldn't we already have those details? I mean, we are currently recording this podcast on day three of a 60-day General Assembly session, and we're three days deep, and we don't have numbers.

Lauren Burke  

That would be correct, that's right. I don't know why they didn't come out with a little bit more for everyone to go through on that first round. We've seen this with other projects a million times. Something's announced in the local community, and there's always a group in the local community that's not so hot on the idea. And they get out there and protest, which is exactly what happened in this case. So, I would have thought that they would have thought out that part. It's so funny on one of my first trips into the General Assembly building of a friend colleague of mine who lives right in that area. The first thing she said was, yeah, this is going to be a huge problem. 

Michael Pope  

I was talking to a staffer for a Northern Virginia member who is not an Alexandria delegation. So a Fairfax, member of the House of Delegates. The incoming email to this Northern Virginia House District was overwhelmingly negative about the arena proposal. And there was way more email about this issue than all the other issues. So, this was the top issue in terms of incoming mail. Then, I think there was another topic about broadband access, which was number two. And then, like, abortion was number three. But there were more negative emails about the arena proposal than any other. And these are not even Alexandria people that we're talking about. These are Northern Virginia people who wrote into their local House of Delegates member. That is something advocates for this are going to have to figure out. Because there is a line of thought among supporters of this that if you're talking about the opponents, it's the same 15 people writing the same 15 emails. And I think there probably is something to that. But this is a Northern Virginia House District, and these aren't even Alexandria people that we're talking about. These are Fairfax County people who lived in that district who do not like this proposal. So, I would imagine members are hearing from their constituents, and a lot of their constituents don't like this plan right now. So there's got to be some sort of communications strategy to bring everybody on board here. 

Lauren Burke  

It's so funny that you say it's the same 15 people. Well, why aren't there 15 people begging for an arena with those House of Delegates members? People, you know, choose a place to live because they want that sort of quaint, easy-going hometown feel, and at one point in that area, things were fairly quiet. Now you can see the big buildup, you can see the buildings going up, you can see the development. And I think people are just getting a little tired of that globally. You do want the convenience, you know, the ability to go and shop right down the street and all that. But you also want a certain level of quiet, and everyone understands a stadium is not going to give you that. A stadium is going to give you a lot of traffic and a lot of activity. Everyone understands that. 

Michael Pope  

Well, that is kind of the selling point: this would be an exciting area where stuff was going on. In fact, it's not just an arena; it's an arts district as well, so you can have Performing Arts at the arena. But there's also a separate building that will be a performance venue for smaller-scale things that will be owned by the city of Alexandria. So you could have a book reading, for example, or a recital, not Taylor Swift size, but something smaller, like a jazz combo or something like that. So that's a vibe I think you can sell to people. This is going to be an exciting, fun arts district that people all over the region will want to come to and have a good time. 

Lauren Burke  

Yeah, that's a vibe you can sell. You're not wrong. It's just, I think, that anyone who goes to sporting events anywhere in that area. And I'm sure we both have been to the National Stadium. We've probably both been to FedEx Field. I mean, you really have to put aside some time to do that. That's like a day-long investment of time. And I can understand the unease. I'll just say that, but you make a good point. Maybe there'll be some quiet jazz and quiet book-reading time as well. And maybe they'll sell him on that, but right now, they've got some work to do. The pro-stadium side definitely has some work to do. 

Michael Pope  

All right, let's head over to that Pod Virginia mailbag. Lauren, what are our listeners talking about? 

Lauren Burke  

People love the Pod Virginia game show, buy, sell, and hold. 

Michael Pope  

Yeah, we had lots of feedback on that, including Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg, who heard the episode right when it went live at 6 AM. By 6:45 AM, He was already texting Marcus Simon to have a laugh about Simon's joke about the municipally owned pizza oven. So Marcus Simon made a joke about the State owning the means of production there, and they all had a laugh about that. We also got some feedback about the governor's habit of referring to Virginia as a she.

Lauren Burke  

E.B. Webster, MD, posted this on X, "just listen to the buy, sell and hold Pod, shout out to Marcus Simon. And they were all wrong. Virginia, is we anything else means you are not part of the Commonwealth. What is the governor telling us"?

Michael Pope  

What is the governor telling us? Lauren, did you notice that the governor constantly refers to Virginia as a she? In the State of the Commonwealth address, he talked about so one of the quotes: the State of our Commonwealth is strong, stronger than she has been in a very long time. And then later on in the speech, this was weird. He said, "Yet, well, Virginia is stronger than ever. She and we have major challenges". This was perplexing to me, so if you're going to refer to Virginia as she, that's a little weird, I think, but okay. But then, you get to, she and we have major challenges. So if Virginia is a she, in this scenario, who are we? She's an entity that is divorced from us,? Like, I don't get this?

Lauren Burke  

That's wild; I did not really take umbrage. I didn't really notice this that much. I do think Dr. Webster is right; Virginia is a we. It's interesting the things that we sometimes get wrapped around the axle about, but, interestingly, he does that. And I can't think of anyone else who does it. So that's what's funny.

Michael Pope  

All right. Let's celebrate some birthdays. Friday, January 19. is the birthday of Senator Mark Peake. Saturday, January 20, is the birthday of Delegate Danny Marshall of Danville.

Lauren Burke  

That's it for this episode of Pod Virginia.