Richmond Pathways, Public Spaces & Plastic Bags (river access, downtown development, surprise taxes, cone parade etc) — Unscripted #032

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In this episode of Vera House Unscripted, we talk through how people move through Richmond — physically, socially, and culturally — and how the city functions on a day-to-day level for the people who live here.

We discuss public transportation ideas in Richmond, parks and trail access, and how shared spaces like the James River, North Bank Trail, Canal Walk, and downtown Main Street are actually used. We also address ongoing river safety concerns, recent drownings, and what’s missing when it comes to infrastructure, public amenities, and accessibility.

The conversation moves into several recent and uniquely Richmond stories, including the Benedictine College Prep quarterback fire station incident, the Richmond cone parade, and reactions to the plastic bag fee and surprise charges at local grocery stores like Kroger. We also touch on downtown development, older buildings along Main Street, and how small policies and systems quietly shape daily life in the city.

Throughout the episode, we share personal experiences, local observations, and commentary on what works, what doesn’t, and what Richmond still feels like it’s figuring out — blending practical concerns, civic frustration, and the kind of strange, specific stories that make the city what it is.

Quick interjection to invite you to Vera House Studios. If you are a local Richmond business, entrepreneur, brand owner, or service provider—and you know you need to create better content to get your products and services in front of the right people—we can help.

Transcript

0:01

Welcome back to the VeraHouse Podcast, and as you can see, we are in a different studio space today. This is studio number one, but also the second fully built out studio space that we have available in our building here. And we wanted to kick off the year by trying it out for ourselves. We've had a couple of guests in here so far, but we wanted to give it a whirl ourselves. And we talked about a couple of interesting things today, for sure. We talked about what professional sports used to be like in Richmond and should still be like. We talked about a surprise tax on plastic bags, which blows my mind. And we talked about a new hotel coming to downtown Richmond, which is cool. What else we talk about? Yeah. Today's episode, of course, another fun one. We covered this kind of crazy viral story. It kind of breaks away from some of our normal topics, but we couldn't help but cover it. Just about this wild drunk kid that went on a crazy late night escapade. And yeah, you'll have to tune in to find that one because it's a long story. It's kind of crazy. But we also talked about like, what is RVA missing? Like, what are we missing as a city? And we kind of rattle off a bunch of different things, including public infrastructure, 24 hour diners, because we've lost some good ones over the year. RIP Third Street, RIP. And we talked about like late night coffee shops and some other things. So tune in, enjoy the episode. So top of your mind, when you think about Richmond and what it's missing, is there something that like immediately comes to mind? For me, it's always been like a train, like a big public train shuttle, like Midtown, Downtown, West End, connected by a train or tram or metro. Like, I think that's what I would like. That's what I think the city's missing. But also more public trash cans. Yeah, yeah, yes. Yeah. So sort of like a London subway type vibe. Yeah. London Underground Subway. It just goes from like the different parts of Richmond, Shore Pump, Manchester, Churchill, especially taking train to Churchill. How much time would you save? Yeah, I know when I lived there, and now that I live in Scott's Edition, I don't go there because it's separated by 95 South. Yeah, right. It's literally like right through the middle of the city. So if you want to go to Churchill, you have to go through the city or around it. And it's either you take 195 or you take 95. Yeah. I know the GRTC gets a lot of heat because it's basically just like Broad Street. Yeah, I know it does, you know, it definitely does go a lot of other places. But I was reading this thread on Reddit. And that was like one of the big like top complaints was how, let's say you want to go bop around Scott's Edition or something, you know, there is no local like little trolley or something where you can hop on and go from place to place or go from Scott's Edition to the fan like easily, right, you know, there just isn't that well, there's those little like tuk tuks. Yeah. And the I guess it's a tuk tuk. And then there's like the people that like ride the bicycle with you in the back. But that's it. Yeah, like in there. There used to be the bottom and back bus. Remember that? I don't know. Dude, you don't remember the bottom and back bus? I don't know. I don't think so. Oh, man. That was like one of the greatest things to come to the city. In my opinion, at that time, it was it was a nonprofit. I don't remember the organizers, but it was a nonprofit. They bought a school bus. I do remember that. Okay, bought a school bus. And then eventually they bought multiple school buses. And they painted them like blue and green and had murals and things on the side. And it was free. And they accepted donations. And they drove from the bottom to midtown to the near West End, and then back. And you could get on it at any of their stops for free. They had an app, you could check the app to find out where they were. You pull up, you go with your friends, especially this is before Uber. So you couldn't just call a car. You had to wait for a cab or you call one of the three notoriously terrible taxi cab services. Or you could find out where the bottom and back bus was. And no joke, on the weekends, it was a party. You call the bus or you find out where the bus is going to be, you and your boys or your group of friends are out. It pulls up where you are. You get on, they had the music blasting, they had lights, you could bring your drinks on there. And then just ride the bus all the way up to the midtown, like fan area. Dude. Yeah. What the? Yeah, bring it back, man. So did Uber destroy that? Or did COVID destroy that? This is way before COVID, way before Uber. If it was a nonprofit, yeah, they just kind of phased out. From what I remember, they just didn't have enough funding and enough support. And it was free. So they weren't charging fares. And I think eventually they tried to, and then eventually, shortly thereafter, a couple of years after that, Uber started to come into town. And then there was the bird scooters came through. So there started to be other forms of transportation that you could get. But for its time, and even, I mean, I think it's still today, it could be pretty cool. Part of your bus goes back and forth between downtown and the fan. Yeah. And you get local sponsors and stuff to be a part of it. It's great advertising and stuff. Yeah. So if anybody knows of a cheap school bus, we're in the market. Yeah, seriously. Dude, that would be super cool. Yeah, man. You mentioned the public infrastructure, public trash cans and public bathrooms. And I don't think it's that they don't exist. I think it's that they're not maintained very well. You walk through, Carytown's pretty good, but yeah, you walk through other parts of town, like the capital district and the trash cans are just like overflowing. And it seems like they don't get, you know, emptied for weeks on end. And then there's tons of really great public bathroom facilities, but then they lock them and put a porter potty in front of the door. And I feel like, you know, we just briefly mentioned the COVID thing. It pisses me off because I feel like it was the perfect excuse to just stop doing these things and then not bring them back. Yeah, you would think, I mean, I would think, I guess, but you would think that's an opportunity to like redesign it, completely remove it. So it's not even a question. It's not even a question of whether it's there or if it's open or, you know, try and make it better. Obviously there was other priorities around the city to, you know, spend time and energy on, but you got to think like eventually people are going to want to go back out in public. Oftentimes in my, from my experience, like you want to do it more when you were after being cooped up for almost a year. And I was out at Maymont Park or like Bird Park a couple days ago and I hadn't been there in a while. And I was just walking by Dogwood Dell, the amphitheater out there. And there's no public facilities. Like there's nowhere to go to use the bathroom. There is a couple of porter potties and it's like an afterthought. It's like, here's some toilets. Have fun. Yeah. It's like, I understand it's an undertaking to, you know, build a whole functioning public bathroom system, but if the rest stops on highway 64 can do it, I think we can throw up a couple in the public parks. I think so too. You know, and that's my hood over there. And there are bathrooms. There's one by, there's one by Fountain Lake, but again, that's the only one that's like regularly opened and cleaned and it's not bad. Yeah. But it was closed for a long time. Now there's another one in the field across from, it's basically a park, but it's in the field across from the tennis courts on Boulevard. You know, it's a little bit of a walk from Dogwood Dell, but yeah, but they're closed. That's a perfect example of like they locked them and then they just put these porter potties in front of them. Yeah. I thought it was just, I thought it was closed or like broken down. I was over there like last week. Yeah. It doesn't look like it's open because there's like a caution tape over the bathroom door. Yeah. And there's like what seems to be like a unhoused person's belongings like outside. So definitely don't want to want to go there. If that's where you want to, you know, meetings going on right now about that whole space and turning it into an indoor tennis facility, um, like indoor tennis and pickleball, that whole lot. So basically that, that entire like fielded area behind the elementary school there would become like an indoor public tennis and pickleball facility. Yeah. And I don't think it's like, I don't think it would be a private organization. I think it would be publicly funded and open to the public. That'd be pretty cool, man. Yeah. I think we can handle it. Yeah. You know, that's a, that neighborhood is mostly like young, new families or young families and then like generational families, I think. Yep. And then, you know, people like you, like relatively like within the last, last five, six years, homeowners, and then you have people that come from other parts of town to use the park. Yeah. So I think it'd be great. I think it's a good area. Like it would be well taken care of. It'd be like maintained well over there. Yeah. But I agree. There aren't a lot of bathrooms. There is a bathroom at Dogwood Dell, I think. Um, but yeah, it's not, it's not open or maybe there isn't. Maybe that's actually the, maybe that's actually like the AV building for the amphitheater. That building at the top. Yeah. The little cobblestone building. It's not open. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. But, um, there's a lot of work being done on the pump house. Yeah. So down there, you know, there's hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been poured into that building over the past couple of years and they're making it handicap accessible and cleaning it up, you know, starting to do events there and tours. And I love that building. It's one of my favorite buildings in the city. They've done a really great job of cleaning up that area. There's tons of bike trails, hiking trails, walking trails. There's technically river access right there. Um, I think it's frowned upon, but you know, you can get to the river right there. Really, really cool area. And I think naturally the next step is going to be where's the bathrooms. Yeah. I also think they're going to have to expand the North bank trail parking lot because it just is small and it gets filled. So it's coming in that area. There's going to have to be like some facilities there. Well, yeah. I mean, along with all the things they have planned for like Browns Island and everything, I would assume that the park system as a whole is always of top of mind or on the list of things to take care of. Like you said, the North bank trail, is that where like we went on our bike ride? We like went through there. That's a good question. I don't really remember exactly where we went. I don't think I would have taken you on North bank. So what was the trail on North bank? We went down Riverside drive and we went like tucked in to this parking lot and then we went down a path that is next to a set of train tracks that goes to like Belle Isle. Yeah. We might, we might've gotten on North bank for a little bit. Cause like I'd never been down there as someone who doesn't ride bikes. Yeah. And it's, it's a big parking lot. That's where a lot of people will post up or park and get their canoes out and like get into the river right there. Oh, that was, that was Reedy Creek. Yeah. Like, and it's a cool example of like the park system has like these facilities are kind of tucked away, but they definitely need some love. Yeah. And there is some cool stuff over there by Reedy Creek. Have you ever been in that little like tourism building? No, I never knew it was there. Yeah. So there are bathrooms there. It's open every day and there's a bunch of cool stuff in there. You know, it's, it's, um, it's, I think that building has been there a long time, but I think it's kind of humble beginnings for what that space could be. And I do think that that is meant to be sort of like a James river park systems, tourism center really to try to make it more welcoming, you know, just the park system in general is improving. Um, but that is a cool little area you go in there and it shows y'all like the different types of local rattlesnakes and all the stuff to look out for and give me flashbacks to, to being a kid because we do like, you know, class field trips to some of these facilities and those were cool back in the day. Yeah. And I remember like the park system in, in like Richmond and surrounding counties has this aesthetic of like green and Brown and wood and like old construction that it just, it's very specific. I can't really pinpoint it. It's very smoky, the bear, very smoky, the bear. Yeah. And like all the buildings look the same. They all have that Brown sign with the title of the place. And then they have those placards that are covered in plexiglass that have like the type of ducks and the type of fish that are in the pond. Yeah. So when you go there, like, Oh yeah, here's a little fun fact about the place. I think that's cool. Could definitely use with a refresh. Yeah. But uh, just a lot of childhood memories, like just walking down into those buildings and be like, this is the coolest shit I've ever seen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, for sure. Um, there was a bunch of stuff on this list on this Reddit list. So I think the ones that we mentioned are definitely good. I think the obvious one that we actually spoke about on the new year's episode is a pro sports team and a lot of people were talking, like you mentioned how we had the Braves and now they're the flying squirrels and everything. I think in like the big sports, like football, basketball, baseball, for whatever reason, it's just hard for us to like compete, you know, and we have DC as like our neighbor and they've got, you know, big baseball team and stuff. But a lot of people brought up the renegades and the pro sport in this thread that actually seemed to stand out was pro hockey and people were like, dude, bring pro hockey back to Richmond. Yeah, man. Did you, do you ever, do you remember the renegades? Yeah. Oh yeah. I love, like I actually, dude, I loved hockey as a kid. Like I loved the mighty ducks movies. Oh yeah. Like as every holiday, every Christmas I would ask for hockey stuff, but hockey is an expensive sport to get into. And uh, my parents were like, no, why don't you just stick to like T-ball, you know? And so I never played hockey, but I loved hockey as a kid. I always wanted to play. And so yes, my parents would take me to the renegades games. Yeah, man. I remember renegades games. I didn't go to a lot of them, but I've been, I went to a few and you know, young kid from the County, it was a big deal because you go to this big arena. I think it was over there by the diamond. I don't really remember where it was, but you go to this big arena. They had like the big renegade sign and like stands were packed full of people at the Coliseum. No, I don't think it was at the Coliseum. I don't know where it was. It was an experience, like professional legit legit experience. And you know, I had the same, like the same sentiment, the same memories from going to flying squirrels games or going to Braves games back then because it was larger than life. And that's what professional sports is supposed to be in a big city. You know, the, the brave stadium used to have a brave native American statue that was like climbing out one of the parts of the, they moved it. Is that the one they moved to the bottom? They moved on top of that building. It's on top of the lucky strike building downtown. But I remember seeing that for the first time and being like, Whoa, this is like a hundred feet tall. Like, what is this? It's incredible. Yeah. And I just think that there was, there was a time during that period in Richmond's history where those were the things that were important to the community, to the infrastructure of the city. It was important for Richmond to have them priority shifted. They're not as important anymore. Like we're getting a new baseball stadium and we're updating it to be more on that level with like stadiums of the time now, which is great, but it's been, you know, 20, 30 years since we've had anything like that. Yeah. You know, a couple of years ago I went to the Fredericksburg nationals stadium and when it was brand new, because I was speaking at like a real estate conference there and they invited me up there and I went up there and I was like, damn, this is really nice. And I would, I would think that that's maybe what the update for the whole Richmond squirrels thing is going to be like, I'll be honest, like it was nice. It was pretty cool. And I did read an article about how the whole new setup at, um, I guess it's, is it Carmax park or like, I could be all there. I don't know what the new like stadium is going to be, but, um, maybe I just made that up. I'm not sure. But, um, it's also very much focused on like events and stuff like that. So I think that that will bring like a new dynamic to what we're used to as the diamond and hopefully we'll start to see it as more of like an events park maybe, which would be pretty cool. That would be pretty cool. I'd like to see what they could potentially do with it. It's in a really good location. And from what I've seen, like they're kind of what's coming next type of look, it looks like they have a lot of plans for that entire side of that area of downtown. Cause if you think about it, there's a line in between, like there is an actual, like a, a line of people that need to take under that road. But we were talking about maybe they're just not going to do that anymore. Maybe they're going to go straight through that line and then there'll be directly communicating and directly reporting to people on this side of town to make it all kind of collect and cohesion and work together, which would be a first. Yeah. It'd be a, they've already built out that entire area. There's like all these restaurants, there's the gas stations, there's the park. They're cleaning up that baseball field. They're cleaning up all the banks that are back there next to the highway 95 entrance. Well, they're building a whole roundabout over there. There you go. Is it going to be, so when you like where the Wawa is and the highway entrance and then yeah, go into those banks, um, there's gonna be a huge roundabout there. Okay. So there, they are trying to tie. Cause right now I looked at it as 95 is across the bridge, right? So you have to get past this side of downtown to get to 95 across the bridge used to be the, the buck, the, uh, the, what is the, not the train station, but the, the bus station, the Greyhound, the Greyhound bus station, and then a storage facility and then the diamond. And that was it. And like kitchen 64. Right there. Yeah. You know, that was the only things that are over there. Now there are other reasons to go to that part of town. So removing the, that train station or removing the bridge, removing all those barriers and connecting those two parts of town makes sense to me. Yeah, definitely agree. So we'll speed run through these other items that were on here, right? So it's basically, what is our VA missing? The thing that was actually at the top of the list was primary care physicians. It was like the most voted thing. Yeah. Um, you know, and, uh, for whatever reason, health insurance and like health providers, we continue to revisit this topic, but that was a big one. Yeah. Um, 24 hour diners. So if you remember like third street diner, yeah, I definitely do. Yeah. I had been there plenty of times in my twenties. Yeah. Uh, you know, well, 4am pancake sandwich or whatever. Nothing could beat it. Yeah. Yeah. So 24 hour diners in that same vein, people mentioned, which I was kind of surprised to see this like late night coffee shops. I saw that on there and it's interesting because I just saw someone talking about why aren't there more late night coffee shops. Yeah. I didn't even really understand what a late night coffee shop was. Yeah. And I think I, I want like where just all the pervs kind of get together like after six and like, I mean, maybe, I don't know what it is. I mean, I think, well, so the description that I read was similar or something to the effect of, you can go there, you can get a cup of coffee, you can get a non-caffeinated drink, you can mellow out to music and just kind of kick it after things are closed. Like maybe there's some snacks, maybe there's some other drinks. It's not a club. It's not higher energy. It's just a place where you can go after other places are closed, which in theory sounds pretty cool. It definitely sounds like it would be a good idea in a bigger city, but I don't see it as something that is an immediate draw here. And maybe I'm not even describing all of the little bits and bobs that go with it, but it's just like, all right, coffee shop. I know what a coffee shop is. I know why I go there. I know why other people go there, but if you flipped it on its head and made it a coffee lounge, I think we even talked about this as like, what if you can make it cooler to be at the coffee shop? Like after the bars are closed, you go there. It's a vibe. Music's a little louder. It's like non-alcoholic beverages, maybe a little caffeine drinks, maybe mostly non-caffeinated drinks, but it's just a place with like some snacks that you can hang out. Like if you're not ready to go home, it's not an after hours club. It's something in between. Yeah. Well, you know, fuel pump comes close. I think they normally close around seven, eight, nine. Yeah. You know, so they do stay open later. I don't know that I don't really know exactly what the schedule is, but okay. I can get with it. Maybe I'll take back my perv comments. Sorry to all the pervs out there. I think you're just, you're right to call out the pervs. Anything after one o'clock, there is going to be a perv. Yeah. Yeah. That's just how the world works. I think it's like nothing good happens after midnight. Right. Is that the, that's the saying? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess, you know, it's hard to relate to because there are people have like totally opposite schedules of us, right? People who maybe work, you know, super late at night or even really early in the morning. Um, then they sleep in the middle of the day. Yeah. You know, they're, you know, they're sleeping during the day and yeah, maybe they wake up at 6 PM and that's kind of their day is like from 6 PM to 2 AM or something. You know, I don't know. And you got to imagine like I've, I've spent a lot of time in the nightlife scene in Richmond. If there was a late night coffee shop, it would be flooded with drunken idiots at 2 AM. Yeah. Because it's the only place that's open and it's a lounge and you know, if you didn't have a place to go or you didn't want to go home, you can go there. So it's like the late night pizza spot almost. Exactly. Yeah. So there would have to be a way for you to encourage that type of late night vibe. Yeah. Like to properly inform, if you're going to come here, this is not a party. If you're going to be drunk and loud, you can't come in. If you're not going to just sit and listen to music, this isn't for you. Yeah. Like that's got to be a little, a little distinguishing factor. Then I think it could work. Yeah. And I guess that brings us full circle back to the third street diner thing. Yeah. Third street diner was the shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, people loved it. I loved it. You know, especially cause I used to work on that side of town. So yeah, I, you know, I used to be a bartender for a long time and when I get off work, yeah, you just go to third street diner and hang out, you know, you know, all the people there. So, you know, good place to get into a little mischief or maybe a little scuffle outside on the sidewalk or something. Keep things exciting. If you're a real sketch ball, you hang out there until 6 AM and you get, you get your first drink of the next day. Yeah. It's just, I'll have to dig this out of the archives, but I actually have a picture of me and some random dude like dressed up in a purple suit and we're standing outside of third street diner and he has a sign that says kick me in the nuts for $20 and um, yeah, uh, I paid 20 bucks and I kicked him in the nuts. It's incredible. It's a real story. Oh man. All you can see, that's the thing. Like that, that saying nothing good happens after midnight. Complete BS. Everything good happens after midnight. Yeah. Especially if you push it past the time where normal people would go to bed or go home. That's when all the cool shit happens. Yeah. Cause all the crazy people come out and life gets real interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Big fan of that man. Uh, the last thing that was on the list, which I also raised my hand and vote for is access to the pipeline. Bring the pipeline back. Yeah. And um, do you pipeline downtown? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So bring the pipeline back and um, do something with our canal walk, like to make it like specifically people said we need a real canal walk. I ride my bike through the canal walk all the time and I've done the little canal cruise thing and it's interesting, but is it, I mean, I don't know. I, I haven't written a bike through there. I've driven through there numerous times and I've walked down there a bunch. I can see the attempt is not quite enough. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like I remember going to like the hat factory and stuff and like, you know, you'd have the line on the canal walk and it seemed more interesting then. Um, but yeah, as an adult and the little bit that I interact with the canal walk, yeah, it's like kind of pointless in a way it would be cool if there was either Mark, you know, doing markets there on the canal walk, like do weekend, a weekend market, right? They do a market every weekend at the carry town city stadium. Once you do a weekend market at the canal walk, they use the farmer's market down there, the 17th street farmer's market for that type of stuff. Canal walk market would be cool. Yeah. Maybe it's a safety hazard. I don't know. Um, you know, you don't want kids and dogs falling in the canal, I guess, but I mean, yeah, I mean that's their fault. It happens. Yeah. You know, whatever. So, um, yeah, it like needs to be a little bit more interesting, you know, something going on down there. I mean, that's kind of the theme. I think I've said it more than once at this point, the 80% problem, we have great ideas. The city planners, city council, they have great ideas and we can see the intention initially is like, let's improve, let's expand, let's update. And then when the final product is delivered, you're like, you couldn't put any more thought into this. Like we thought the made the overarching consensus with that was that it was going to be at least 10% better. Like you just, you're just shy of it being perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and with the pipeline, you know, I don't know where people's hopes are at in regard to the pipeline coming back and what's going on with all that. It reminds me of the Texas bridge situation because it took, it feels like a decade that it took to like figure out the Texas bridge and it's still not done. You know, it's still not done and people are going to find a way around it always, you know? Um, and the same thing's probably going to happen with the pipeline. So it's like bring the pipeline back, you know, I guess what, is it a safety concern? Like it's not the safest part of the river, that's for sure. But that was kind of the allure though, because it doesn't, one, you have to work to get there and if you don't know where it is, you're not going to find it. You have to go with somebody who's been there before, which is kind of the, the whole attraction, the attraction part to it. It's like, this is like a hidden gem of the city. And once you find it, you're like, Oh yeah, I know where pipeline is. It's cool. It is very cool. But if they keep it locked down and they're trying to discourage people from going there by not fixing it, that's not going to work. Richmond's inherently, Richmonders are inherently like the kid being told no, but does it anyway? Yeah. You tell me we can't go there, bull, I will find a way. Yeah. Yeah. We got a rebellious streak. Yeah. But we definitely need the, uh, we need the pipeline back, man. We do bring it back. Spring's going to be here before we know it. And we're going to want to go and sit on the tiniest beach in Richmond. And that's probably why people like it is because it's easily accessible. It's got a little beach vibe. It's got a cool like big rock you can jump off of. Yeah, man. Yeah. I still haven't found that freaking rock. Years and years have gone by and people are like, yeah, big rock rocket pipeline. You can dive because it's deep enough there. I'm like, what, where? I don't have no idea. So it's because it's like across the way. So you'd almost look at it and be like, surely you can't be talking about that. But yes, that's exactly what they're talking about. When you go into pipeline, you go down, like, you know, call it like three sections. Um, we should get paid for giving away this secret. Um, so you get like, you go down like three sections and you go out onto the beach and you literally look across. So it's not like all the way across the river, but it's literally a huge rock, like in the middle of the river. And it's like 10 to 15 feet out of the water. So you have to swim over to it and then climb up it and jump off. That explains why I've never done it. It's a little, it's a little sketchy. Yeah. Fun stuff. I'm good, man. I prefer to go to the river and sit on the rocks, get a little bit of like the waiting in the water vibe because when I was a kid, I was traumatized by almost being swept away by a current. I was there with my dad and my, I believe my younger sister, maybe my younger brother, but I was like young kid and it was a bunch of people out there. Families, kids were all just kind of like doing the rock thing. I think it was like near 42nd Street and the river was pretty low so you could get on all of most of the rocks. But just like, you know, occasionally there's like a really rough patch of water with like a slip stream you just don't see. And I'm a young kid, I'm like bopping around, like going out further and further and further. And I hit a slippery rock and I slip and I'm in the water, like being rushed down the river without being able to touch anything. And I'm swimming or like going against the current like this trying to catch myself and I can't. And I'm trying to get my feet to touch on something and nothing is happening. It's terrifying. And I went like 50 yards down the river and like my foot finally caught like a divot in the rock and the water's like up to here. And I'm like, oh, my dad didn't even see me. Like he was off talking to some other people. So when you talk about going to diving off a rock in the river at Pipeline, I'm good. Yeah, dude, I also had a pretty sketchy moment like that, too. I was probably in my 20s, though. And I was with my crazy friend, Jonathan, and just followed suit. He jumped off and, you know, seemed like he did pretty well and kind of went through and I just followed after him and had a very similar moment to that, where you're just getting pulled under and bouncing off rocks. And you're like, oh, this is it. And yeah, you get lucky and you catch like one little thing and you're like holding on to this rock for dear life. Yeah, I also had a moment like that. The river's dangerous, man. You know, there are professional kayakers, even people that are the trainers at some of the local facilities and stuff, the local groups and that have died like kayaking. And it's like these are the professionals that know what they're doing, that are teaching other, you know, training other kayakers and stuff. And especially with me, I live right next to the river. I hear helicopters every single week. Yeah, every single week and airlifted. Yes, they're often on rescue missions and a lot of them are training missions. But I mean, yeah, the river is no joke, dude. And especially like if you're not somebody who spends a lot of time on the river, maybe you live in Chesterfield or Hanover or Shore Pump or something. A lot of people, you know, many people do, but a lot of people underestimate the danger of the river. Yeah. If you're not from the city, just go to Pony Pasture. It's like four feet deep. Even Pony Pasture, though, you know, there's a sign at Pony Pasture that says like, you know, X amount of people have died at this site because again, they're trying to help people understand that yes, it looks calm here, but there are those little, I don't know if they're called aqueducts or whatever those are, but those man-made structures where the water falls over like perfectly. Yeah. And people walk on those and they're like, do not walk on this because as soon as you step off of it, the power, the power of the suction of that water right there will pull you under. And it doesn't seem like it would because you're like, oh, cute little waterfall. Yeah. Um, do people die at Pony Pasture? That's nuts. It's insane. So regardless of where you go, it's dangerous, man. It's super dangerous. Yeah. And that's kind of like what I liked about Richmond growing up was like, there's a little edge here. You can have a very comfy, cozy, chill life with no problems, but you do live in a city and the river is in the city limits. So city people with city mentalities go to do city things at the river. And when you go there, you get, you get quickly acquainted with that side of the city. Like if you live in the West End and you live in a neighborhood in a cul-de-sac with your family and your friends and you go to school there and you go to the mall there and you go shopping there and you travel and then you come back and you go back home and then you go to 42nd street. Yeah. There are completely different worlds, completely different types of people go there. It's a whole vibe, but it might not be for you, which I like that. Yeah, yeah. I agree. Like, I mean, the river in general is one of my favorite parts of living in the city. I absolutely love it. I'm, I may not be on the water in the river every week, but I am often and just being around the river, the trails, being down on the rocks, like it's definitely one, I would have a very hard time living somewhere that doesn't have that element to it. Yeah. I think that's part of being spoiled here. You know, we talk about that from time to time is kind of got it all. You know, we have a dose of just about everything that other cities have minus, you know, the major sports team and a couple of other specific things. But as a whole, we have a little bit of everything, which makes it very comfortable. You know, like the, the, the curse of Richmond, the, the native American curse, like we talked about that, where if you leave, you're inevitably going to find your way back here unless you go down this one particular street in downtown. You gotta do like three somersaults backwards on Fushi street. You gotta moonwalk down gray street and then leave out of town going that way. Exactly. But that's because this place kind of has it all. It's, it's not the shiniest, it's not the fanciest, it's not the most modern, but it has a little bit of everything. And that's what I think is the attractive part about it. Totally agree. Totally agree. You know, when I was young, I was like, you know, in my early twenties, I always thought like, man, I can't wait to get out of here. And, um, now I feel the total opposite. Like, I think that this is always like headquarters home base. I'll always own property here. Uh, my businesses are here. My friends are here. Like, yeah. And it does, it has, it has a little bit of everything, you know? Yeah, man. I totally agree. Definitely going to be home base. And I had to go through that whole, I hate Richmond because it's here and I'm, I'm from here and I've been here too long. I went through that phase. And, uh, I went to a bunch of other places looking for, I don't know, I don't know what I was looking for, but I was like looking for this thing. I was like, Richmond doesn't have this, this thing. And then I went to New York and then I went to Atlanta and then I went to Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and the Midwest. And then I went to California and I went to Texas and it's like, well, those places are different. Some of them are worse. Some of them are better, but Richmond kind of has a little bit of all of those things. It totally does. So it's like, why would I go there to get a little bit of this one thing when I can have a little bit of that in addition to all the other stuff? Yeah, totally agree. And I think it's why we're both excited about the development of the city. Yeah. I'm cautiously optimistic of course, of course, a lot of good things in the, in the pipeline. Well, speaking of development, there is a new hotel coming to downtown Richmond. Like downtown where? Downtown on main street. Okay. There is an old Dominion building that is being remodeled and turned into a hotel and apartments on main street. Whoa. It's right across from the Hampton Inn that has what used to be Cabana on the rooftop. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it's the old Dominion. It's the actual old Dominion building. It's the old Dominion energy building. I think it's 703 East main street. And it used to be a Dominion office building. Yup. And actually they were going to tear that down. I'm familiar. But they decided to tear down the office building further down on Cary street instead, and then put a new building next in the next lot next door. So the one that is on main street, they're going to turn that into an AC hotel by Marriott. Mm. Nice. That'll be happening. Yeah. Nice little fresh modern hotel. It's going to be a hotel with, I think like 200, 300 rooms and then like 600 apartments. Yeah. So it's a hotel and apartments. The first floor is going to be a restaurant and a lounge. So you can go in as, you know, a public visitor, kind of like the Moxie where you can just go into the Moxie and hang out. Yeah. And, but it'll also be an apartment complex. Kind of reminds me of like when we went up to DC for the Red Bull run thing, that place that we stayed in because, um, it was kind of both. It's like people live there, but it was also a hotel. Yeah. So yeah, you have a little concierge in the front for both the hotel and the condos and stuff. And then also like the people that are in the condos there, I feel like a lot of people purchase them specifically to turn them into Airbnb though. Yeah, definitely. I mean, this is going to be a, I think it's a good opportunity for both. Yeah. And you know, a hybrid. Yeah, man. And I know me personally, I used to live down in that area on 12th street and there's not a lot going on. Yeah. Downtown, midtown or like actual downtown area. If you're on main street or on Cary street or on like gray street, even there's like, there's some things, there's not a lot though. Right. There's mostly apartment buildings and high rises and then office buildings. The banks are down there. So like the financial district is down there, a handful of restaurants, that kind of smattering of restaurants down there. Not a lot of activity. There's not a lot of like stuff to do. There's no markets. There's nowhere to get like lots of groceries or lots of things all at once. You kind of have to pop into these tiny little markets. And then there's a handful of like small businesses, which is great. I mean, in my opinion in like a drastic need of an update similar to like that area of broad street. So with another new hotel, but that also happens to be apartments that brings in more people, which also can facilitate the need for more storefronts and more businesses and all of that. So hopefully those things go hand in hand. Yeah. Hopefully. Yeah. You know, and it's interesting because I think in years past, we probably anticipated and hoped that that area would become kind of what Scott's edition is becoming. Yeah. You know, and it's really interesting to think about it because it's like, oh wow, Scott's edition out of left field, you know? Yeah. And it is, it's becoming like a little mini Brooklyn almost, you know? Yeah. There's going to be nowhere to park. It's just going to be crazy town over there with like everything packed into like this tiny little district, all these big apartment buildings that are getting put up. But all the cool stuff is over there, you know, or some of the cool stuff is over there. I was at Black Lodge the other day and great spot. Great spot. And I was just coming back and driving through Scott's edition and I, it always like pops up on me when I pass by Paper Moon, the strip club. Yeah. Because there used to be nothing around it. It was just, it used to be parking lots, industrial buildings or like warehouses and then Paper Moon, which also kind of looks like a warehouse. Yeah. But now it's right across the street from like luxury apartments. Yeah. And there's a window that is eye to eye with the Paper Moon sign. Yeah. And the garage entrance is right there at street level across from Paper Moon, which I think is hilarious. It is. It's just sign of the times, man. You got a $2,000, well, let's be real. If it's a one bedroom, you got like a $2,500 lease on it. Yeah. And you probably got a parking spot in your nice apartment building, which is down the street from Lost Letter and Lillian and Brooklyn and Pinkies and Taza and all these really cool spots. And you're across the street from the strip club. Yeah. Dude, I'm sure Paper Moon is pumped that they hung in there though. Yeah, man. They're like one of the only standing like OG businesses. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, cause there was the dairy bar and like that was kind of it. Um, dude, I need this beverage. All right. What you got there? This is moment, sparkling mocktail. This is Lychee Mojito. Lychee. Lychee. Yeah. Thanks dude. It's like a fruit. Yeah. It's Asian, right? Yeah. You would know you've been to Japan, right? I have. That's cool. Yeah. I've never been to any, I've never been to Asia, any Asian. You should check it out, man. I'm down dude. Well, maybe I'm about to go there as I pop this drink. There you go. So Jody from .5 told me that this was like one of her favorites. Oh yeah. So today's episode is sponsored by .5, which is Richmond's first standalone alcohol-free beverage shop right here in Carytown. .5 is not just for those who are sober and sober curious. It's for all of us who just want something different to sip on. They carry everything from non-alcoholic beers and wines to nootropic drinks built for focus and creativity, along with functional beverages like THC, CBD, Kava, and other plant-based options for mood, relaxation, and energy. They also offer gluten-free and dairy-free options, including NA beers, wines, and functional spirits that work for a variety of dietary preferences. Visit verahouse.co slash .5 for a 10% off voucher and be sure to visit them right here in Carytown. That's verahouse.co slash P-O-I-N-T and the number 5. Simply screenshot the voucher and use it at your next visit. Very nice. So yeah, this is a great addition to people that are doing Dry January, you know, not drinking for January. So cheers to all those people. And if you are one of those people, be sure to go get the voucher, use it. And yeah. If you are one of those people, good luck. I know that Dry January or a lot of the New Year's resolutions can be tough to get through. I'm speaking from personal experience. I've tried, I tried Dry January like years back when I was, you know, still drinking on a regular basis. I tried the like healthy diet first month of the year. I tried to get into like a fitness routine the first month of the year. I don't, it's not impossible, but for me, it was way harder than it seemed. You're thinking, yeah, I'm going to set this time period. I'm going to set aside this month to get some things in order to start fresh, to come into this new year with a bang. And then three or four days later, you're like, I can't do this. It's like, screw this. This is too hard. I'm too tired. I'm too hungry. I need a drink. No one's going to judge me if I don't tell anybody. Yeah. And you're just, you're back, you slowly get back into your routine a few, just a few days ago. Yeah. And it's, there's something to that, man. I don't know what it is, but starting a new routine because it's new year, I think may be counterintuitive because it's not something that you planned. I feel like you start to make your resolution as the new year approaches. And maybe that, that the difference between having that intention and then using an opportunity that presents itself may be the difference. Yeah. You know, I have two thoughts. One is, you know, if it was easy to be consistent, everybody would do it. So it's insanely hard to like build new habits and be super consistent. Yeah. It's the hardest thing you'll ever do. Yeah. Um, my second thought is that I personally think people don't spend enough time thinking about who they become on the other side of that new habit. So even if it's not drinking, right, but if it is drinking or I want to get better sleep or I want to lose weight or eat healthier or make new friends or like whatever that goal is, I think people, they just think about the want and desire to do it and they're like, oh, I need to do this. I want to do this really bad and I just need to do it. And the new year is just an excuse to take a stab at it. Yeah. I don't think people spend enough time really thinking about the identity of who they want to become on the other side of that habit. You know, if I think for anybody who's setting goals or setting new habits personally, what I do and what I think everyone should do is sit down and actually like journal about the identity they're trying to step into by, by participating in that, in building that habit. And that way, when you have those days, when you're thinking, oh, I'm just going to have a drink, nobody will know. You're not really thinking about, oh, well, I'm just doing this habit because I said I would do it. Yeah. And I'm just going to take this little shortcut when you're faced with that moment of, oh, I'm going to have a drink or, oh, I'm just going to, you know, just eat a hamburger or like whatever. Right. Not that hamburgers aren't healthy, but, um, like they, yeah, when you're faced with that decision, you're forced to think about the identity that you spent so much time curating and that's the thing that you're letting down. Yeah. Um, those are my two thoughts on that. I mean, I agree with you. I think that's, that's probably part of the problem is that's not a, that thought process isn't a part of the equation. Yeah. It's not even like advertised is what the equation should be or that part of the equation didn't even exist. The advertisement or the thing that I think, I mean, I would say me and some, you know, a lot of people that attached to their selves too was the resolution, the plan. Let me make this plan and let me commit to a plan and let me say that I'm committing to a plan. And then that's kind of where it stops. It's like, well, I said I was going to do it and I tried it and that's, that's as far as I got. But to your point, you're talking about going all the way to the end and thinking about the person that you could potentially be and like, you know, visualize visual, visualizing that doing a little bit of manifestation in some, some self work with writing down the parts about what that could potentially mean for you. So when you do have that cheat day, you're like me in three months is going to be pissed off that I had this cheat day because that's the goal. I mean, the resolution is great, but what are you striving for? You say you want to eat better. You're like your new year's resolution is I want to eat more healthy. Why? What's, what's the point? What's the end goal? What are you trying to get at? And I think identifying that is super helpful. You can do it a couple of ways. You can have a goal that you're striving towards or you can have a goal and then you can work backwards from your goal. It's like, all right, if the goal is to be in better shape, how do I get in better shape? I need to eat better and then I need to work out and I probably need to get a little bit better sleep. Those are three easy things you can check off your list. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It makes it real. You know, like when you truly kind of like envision what it is you're trying to accomplish, it makes it real. Well, speaking of consistency, we've changed our set. So we're in a new, a new surrounding environment. We are. This is this is it's studio number one, but it's the second studio for our viewers that they're seeing. They're used to seeing the smaller room with the green backdrop, a little bit of a different vibe. And yeah, it's 2026 and we're inside of our studio. Yeah. We figured we'd mix it up a little bit. Try something different. Yeah. This is the the bigger room out of the two that we have that are set up and functioning. And it's a different vibe. It's a little bit more of a cozy vibe. You can accommodate more people in this room. There's more options for what the set can look like. And we wanted to kind of come in here and, you know, have our have our own show. We've had a couple of guests in here. Actually, we had conditions. We had our buddies from conditions in here for an episode. We had our friends from the Richmond experience in here for an episode. So we wanted to kick off the beginning of the year with our own episode and the new addition to the studios. Yeah, I love it. And for anybody who's curious to see like what that looks like, because these are studio spaces that you can use, they are available for rent. And we are a podcast studio. Yeah, those are episodes number 23 with the Richmond experience with Paige and Kelsey, and episode 25 with Alex and Brandon from the band conditions, which is a great local band. Yeah. Yeah, this is a fun like set, right? This is probably at least twice the size of the other room has a lot of different setup functionality. Yeah, different look, different feel. We got some brick in here, you know, more options with the lighting and obviously bigger capacity for more people. So we can get six, potentially even eight people in this room, which is pretty cool. Yeah, man, if you if you have a an idea for a podcast, you've thought about starting a podcast and you don't know how to do it. If you have a podcast and you need somewhere to do it, any number of things, you know, we can accommodate all sorts of aspects when it comes to that, which I think is super cool, man. Like I was thinking about how we started and where we are now and how things have evolved and having the opportunity to have this space and to be able to offer it to people is super cool. It is. And I think from the moment we got the key to this building, we were pretty excited about this room in particular. Yeah, we were. This was at the top of the list is like, all right, really like the green room. We really like that vibe. That's where we got our start. That's our humble beginning, the genesis of Vera House. But this is the room that we really had our hearts set on. And it's come together super cool and like could not be more stoked that it's, you know, functional and usable and available for people to use now. Yeah, totally. You know, and don't let the word podcast scare you off because the the real truth is that you don't have to be a podcaster. You don't have to launch your own show. You don't have to be intimidated by the word podcast. There's a lot of other things that we can use this space for, whether it's an audio only podcast, even potentially at some point, let's say that you want to record your audio book. You know, we'll have those types of functionalities. And a lot of how people know us is through our content. And I think most local brands and businesses probably recognize that content creates visibility, which helps grow your business and grow your brand. So let's say that you want that result without having to like launch an entire podcast. That is possible. And we have a set here where you can come in and you can hang out. And there's a lot of different options on how you can create content without having to worry about the hassle of like distributing a podcast every single week and doing it on a, you know, a weekly basis. You can come in as needed. And there are a lot of different options, you know, so we'll get into that another time. But if that's interesting to you, please reach out to us. Let us know. We'd be happy to tell you about all the different options and things that you can do in the space. Yeah, man, definitely. So did you hear about this? It's kind of a crazy story. There's this quarterback that goes to Benedictine High School. And, you know, by no means are we a crime and mystery podcast, but did I was like pulled into this story because I'm like, this is crazy. So the this kid, he's a quarterback at Benedictine High School. He was in Richmond at a bar, apparently had a fake I.D., was drinking underage. I don't know what bar it was and got into a scuffle or a fight or something, then left the bar drunk, drove all the way to Chesterfield, parked outside of a fire station, started laying on the horn. And when nobody came out, he just rammed into the front doors of the Chesterfield fire station, backed up, ran into it again and then got arrested. OK, so he gets arrested. This kid had potential scholarships for college football, basically just imploded his life in one night and then was not released on bond because upon further inspection, this kid, when he was in juvie or had to go to like juvenile detention or whatever, you know, as a minor because he was involved in a street racing incident where the car he was racing against lost control of their car, crashed. Several kids died in the car crash and he was all tangled up in that. And just this like insane story about this kid. And of course, like everybody's talking about it now because people are anticipating that since he goes to a private school and he's got wealthy parents, that he's going to get bailed out of this whole thing and it's not going to be a big deal. It's going to get brushed under the rug. But I would imagine that his scholarships will get pulled because like this, I mean, we're sitting here talking about it now on a podcast, right? And I just, I see it everywhere. Like it's everywhere I scroll. And every time I open Reddit, it's like the top story for whatever reason. But yeah, pretty weird and wild and interesting. And it just goes to show like one decision can just like screw up your entire life, man. That's wild. Yeah. Yeah. Drive all the way to Chester. And then to what end? Like you driving into a fire, like a fire department. Yeah. So the bay doors were like valued at over $60,000, like destroyed the glass, destroyed the doors. And I think people are probably guessing that he's going to like in court probably claim that he's mentally unstable, which maybe is, I don't know. Yeah. Who is? I am. Yeah. I mean, let's be, let's be real. We're all a little, we're all, we all got a couple of soft spots, but yeah, man, I, that's, it's another story that, I mean, I don't hear that that often anymore, but people, you know, getting a little under the influence driving as far as he did probably was like feeling angry or aggressive or upset about whatever and didn't have zero, like the inhibitions were completely removed. So he is bold and emboldened to do whatever he felt he wanted to do or could do. Yeah. And he's, I don't know what circumstance now, but I like to not like to think, but I remember I had a couple of friends that fit that, that kind of fit that demographic of like rich parents, they went to a good school. Their life was pretty much laid out for them. And when they did get in trouble, they did just get a smack on the wrist. Like they didn't do any jail time. If they did, it was minimal. And if they got a DUI, it didn't ruin their life. And then, you know, they were able to kind of rebound numerous, numerous times. And it's in my experience, those are the types of people that do stuff like this because they know back of their mind, like I shouldn't, but what's the worst that's going to happen. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, we had to get in trouble the old fashioned way. Yeah. Pay the consequences, pay the consequences. Yeah, man. That's why I didn't, I didn't run from the cops when I, when I was street racing myself. Yeah. Yeah. I have a feeling this kid is going to pay the consequences. Yeah. Um, so yeah, quarterback at Benedictine, there's a video of it. I don't think it's public, but authorities say that he intentionally rammed a vehicle into the garage doors of the fire station on whole street road around 3am on Sunday after being at a Richmond bar earlier in the evening, he told officers that he was getting jumped at the bar. So he ran away from the scene. Oh, that's the other thing. He stole a car, so he wasn't even in his car. So he got into a random car and drove it 30 minutes to Chesterfield. What? Wait, what? Yes. All right. That's, that's a whole another thing. Yes. He said he wanted help from the firefighters. So after honking the horn, he drove into the fire station to quote, wake up the firefighters. He ran into the building once backed out and ran into it again. He told the officers he had three shots at the bar around 8pm, but this happened at 3am. Like, come on. Yeah. Yeah. Um, in the report, his father said that he was upset about getting into a fight and got out of the car and ran into the woods on the way home. So I guess his dad picked him up from the bar. He got out of his dad's car, ran off into the woods, stole a car, drove to Chesterfield. Um, yeah, I don't know, dude. He's charged with felony vandalism, driving under the influence refusal to provide a breath sample, unauthorized entry into the fire station and possession of a false operator's license. What's a false operator's license? I think it's like a polite way of saying he had a fake ID. He's cooked, man. Yeah. He's cooked. Yeah. I think so too. The, you ever heard of like the term crashing out? That's a crash. That's great. My man's crashing out. He's cooked. Yeah. Oh, that's crazy. Yeah. Like that's like one, the, that's like your one buddy that you thought you knew that has a nervous breakdown or like crashes out and you, you're like, I thought I knew that guy. And now he's in jail for 30 years for stealing a car, driving into a fire station, driving under the influence, not having a good ID. That's crazy. I actually know somebody like that. I can't think of his name off the top of my head, but it was like this guy that I was friends with me and my buddy, Alec. We were friends with him like around like 2014. Yeah. And this dude just went off the rails and like robbed a bank and just like imploded his own. He's just totally normal dude. And just in like in the time span of four hours, just destroy your entire life. That's insane. Yeah. Um, dude, I would love to see like a toxicology report from this kid because it's like, were you really just drunk or were you like on mushrooms? I mean, it does sound like that, right? It sounds like you probably mixed a little, a couple of little bit of sauce here, a little bit of powder there, a little bit of mushrooms there maybe got to be. And then 3am that's two hours after the bar is closed. Right. Would you do in that two hours? And how did you get so messed up that at 3am you were still cool with stealing a car and driving into a fire station? Yeah. And it's seven hours after he claims he had his last drink, which is like crazy. It doesn't track. Yeah. It doesn't track at all. It does track with like crack. It's like maybe he thought he was doing some Molly and he got a little crack cocaine or something like that. I mean, totally possible. You know, and obviously the not funny part is, yeah, there are, you know, drugs are laced with stuff these days and it's like, yeah, you don't know, you don't know what you're ingesting. You don't know what you're getting into, but that's just reminds me of, uh, you ever listened to or heard of Joey Diaz? Like the comedian, the comedian, he's got a bit. Um, it's a clip of his from an, a podcast that he's been on and he, he's notoriously known as someone who had a crazy history with like being in jail and drug problems and gambling and losing all his money and bouncing back and having a couple of illegitimate kids. And he talks publicly about all this. It's, it's hilarious if you've never listened to his stuff, but he's got a bit on there. He's like, I want people that do exciting stuff. Like I want those people in my life. If you don't do anything, I don't want to hang out with you. And it sounds like he's talking about a guy like this is like, if you, if you don't play games, if you don't, you don't, you don't gamble, you don't do drugs. I don't want to hang out with you. I need people that are exciting and dangerous. He wants to hang out with this guy. Definitely. Yeah. Joey Diaz is like our modern day Genghis Khan. Yes, he really is. I love his stuff, man. He's very funny. Yeah. He's super funny. Well, in other news, plastic bags, aren't free anymore. You know, I saw that because, um, I went to Kroger the other night to pick something up. And as I was checking out on the self checkout, I was like, how many bags do you want? Yeah. And I was like, pardon me. What do you mean? How many bags do I want? Yeah. I don't know how I feel about it. I mean, the way I feel about it is I'm like, whatever, I don't care, but, um, I'll tell you how I feel about it. Yeah. Tell me what's up. How many plastic bags do I want? As many as I choose. Yeah. But I'm just going to press zero and take the bags. So that's actually what I did. It happened twice. Cause I've been to the grocery store since the beginning of the year, a couple of times and it called me off guard. And I was like, wait, what is this zero? And then I went back and it's there and it's like, so you're asking me to pay however many there since they're charging for the bag. I'm like, well, I'm not paying for that. I don't know. I'm already buying the food. I don't want to pay for the bag. And then I looked into it. I'm like, okay, this is a whole thing. It started at the beginning of the year that Kroger along with some other big, big retailers are now charging for plastic bags in an attempt to curb waste. Oh, totally. It's to curb waste, right? Yeah. It's crazy. It's called for Kroger is called Kroger zero hunger, zero waste plant. Yeah. Codename for maximizing profit margins and recouping cost of goods sold. Yeah, man. It's a, it's a crazy thing to just spring on people. I don't think there was any sort of public announcement or public rollout, but the goal is to encourage people to buy less plastic bags, buy less than them, waste less of course. And then to use your own reusable plastic bag at the grocery store. So similar to like Aldi or Lidl where they don't provide you with your own bags to take your groceries home, they could have done it better. Cause like springing it up to, you know, as a price charge on people is not the way you get them to, you know, adopt, adopt into your plan. And I get it to a degree, like you want to be economical and you want to try and reduce waste, but there's a better way to do that. Yeah. Well, an Aldi provides like decent bags, you know, like you get what you're paying for. Um, you know, that little security module that's in the Kroger parking lot, like the little security cart thing. So I'm guessing that's going to become like the new plastic bag enforcer, right? Like when you don't pay for your bags and you walk out, it's going to like release drones that like shoot paint bullets at your car so that you can't drive off, you know? Yeah, man. I mean, now we're talking about the future stuff. That's the future. Sounds like RoboCop. The plastic bag enforcement agent. So it's a call, it's called the city's plastic bag tax, and it's a quote here. The city anticipates the plastic bag tax will generate about $400,000 annually, which would be used for environmental cleanups, recycling education programs, and providing reusable bags for recipients of SNAP and the WISE benefits. So welfare. Hmm. Sure. Interesting. Yeah. Interesting for sure. Yeah. Siri, remind me in one year from today to check back and make sure that Kroger has spent at least $400,000 on environmental cleanup and improvements. I mean, it's, that's the thing, man. It's another example of a tax that just kind of popped up without an explanation, unless you look into it and then you find out there's like this master plan where Kroger is trying to zero waste, zero whatever. And then the city is also using the extra money that the city is charging Kroger for these extra bags to benefit people in need. And it all sounds a little fishy. Like it doesn't, the math doesn't math at all. Yeah. In that scenario. And it's just like, all right, man, just be straight up. You're using the money to like build another larger Kroger set up somewhere or whatever you're using the money for. Just be straight up with us. Be transparent. Dude, that parking lot is crazy. It's gotten so bad over the past, like several months. And now, you know, they're opening up a gas station where the baker's crust is. Is it another, like, um, do you know what kind of gas station it is? No, but that whole parking lot, they're, they're adding a gas station there. So it's like the baker's crust and where the old Starbucks was like, that's going to become a convenience store and there's going to be a gas station there. So now you're gonna have all this traffic coming in to get gas right there. Yeah. It's going to be a madhouse over there. It's going to be crazy, dude. Damn, man. Like just when I thought carry town was starting to like settle in a little bit, they fixed the sign after it broke a week after they put it up. I mean, nothing breaks every like month. Yeah, it does. I think they've hopefully got it sorted out now, but yeah, it was a thing. I don't know. A gas station on, on, I mean, the only gas station is right there at the seven 11 and to get there, if you're coming from the West end or if you get off the highway, you have to take that left and get, you know, to the gas station. Not impossible, but you know, convenience wise, I can, I can see it, but there's just going to be way more traffic. It's a tight fit. That seven 11 is hard to get into. That's the main gas station I go to because it's closest to my house and uh, it's a bit of a pain. Yeah. And if you want to get in there, you have to like, you have to be, you have to cut someone off on that left turn. Cause if not, they just keep coming. Yeah. It's like impossible dude. It's just going to get worse. Yeah. You know, we got more people that live in this part of town now, all these new businesses at the top of carry town, it's slowed down. I mean, even with the addition of those businesses at this point in character, the very top of carry town because Baker's crust is gone because the Starbucks has gone because that bank on the corner doesn't exist and there's really just the Montana gold bakery. So this is just, there's big, this big empty parking lot where like the broad street bullies just meets. That's the only thing that happens there. Yeah, man. We'll, we'll see what happens with, you know, gas station at the top of carry town. You know, I like convenience. So having another gas station sounds convenient, but I also know it's going to be kind of a mess because people can't drive bro. Like people can't drive. It drives me nuts because I like driving and I like to think of my, I'm a good driver. So in addition to people not being able to drive, there's going to be more people that can't drive. There's going to be more people that can't park. There's going to be more people that just sit there or park and look at their phones and don't move when they need to be moving at this. I'm not yet. We'll see how it plays out, but I kind of have an idea how it's going to play out. Yeah. The cone parade's going to have a hard time getting through. Yeah, dude. I don't even know what the cone parade is, but I saw that and it just makes me remember, well, yeah, Richmond is, it's like such a weird, like weird spot for stuff like that. It's a very towny, like a very small town vibes at times like that, where it's just like moms and kids and families dressing up like cones for whatever reason. I have no idea what the reason is, but I'm just like, oh yeah, Richmond is still like a, still a little townie. Yeah. It's quirky. It's weird. And we don't get to choose, right? Our mascots are Francine the cat and the drunk raccoon. And we got the cone parade and it's like, look, just don't ask questions. Yeah. We can't explain it. Just ride with it. Just go with it, bro. Like it's, it's fine. It's harmless. This podcast was recorded at Vera House Studios in Richmond, Virginia and produced by Perry Young and Mike Metzger.