Three Mayors of Blue Cities in a Polarized America

we deal with every type of group you're talking about, and we still balance a budget at the end of every year, we still find a way to address core issues. I do think that in narrative making actually having successes is a big part of what is

essential for a party going forward.

Hi everyone, from New York Magazine in the box media podcast network this is on with carousuisher and on carousuisher. We're heading into an intense political season ahead of the midterms, and as Tip O'Neill once said, all politics is local. So today we're talking with the Democratic mayors of three cities that are dealing with some of the biggest issues facing

“the nation right now, including affordability, housing, and immigration. I think it's”

really important to talk to mayors. I like mayors, and I will talk to a bunch of Republicans mayors too, but it's the most critical part where voters meet their government. And if it's working, they feel good about government. If it's not, they don't. I also have a bone to pick with people that attacks San Francisco a couple of years ago, quite falsely, when people were trying to fix really significant problems, and it's on its way. And so, I do think people

on the ground should understand why government is a good thing. Mike Johnson is the mayor of Denver, Colorado, currently serving his first term in office, a former teacher, school principal in Colorado State Senator Mike is also a vice president of the Democratic Mayors Association. Quentin Lucas is the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, currently in his second term. He's also the youngest person elected to the role since 1855. In attorney and former

“city councilman, Quentin is the president of the Democratic Mayors Association. Helena”

Moreno is the mayor of New Orleans. She began her first term in office this year, previously served on the city council, and as a Louisiana State Legislator, before getting into politics, she worked as a journalist. She's the first Latina mayor of New Orleans, and the city's second woman mayor. Our expert question comes today from another than Pete Buttigieg, Mayor Pete, the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and the former Democratic Mayor

of South Bend, Indiana, so stick around. Support for this show comes from Odo. Running a business shouldn't feel like surviving a software group project. One app for accounting and other for inventory and other for sales and somehow, none of them ever talk to each other. That's where Odo comes in, and it all in one business management software that brings every part of your business together

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Thar. She is the coolest. She recorded the very first rock and roll song, inspired everybody from Elvis, to the Beatles, and absolutely shredded on a electric guitar. She also got married in a baseball stadium in front of a giant crowd and way before Taylor and Travis did. Her story

is incredible. So if you're a music geek like me or even just a casual music fan, check

out this week's episode of the Monday Music Club wherever you listen to podcasts. Say you're an aspiring pop star. How do you know if you're songs a hit? It's getting harder

“to tell. I think that something is going on where the machinery of popularity has changed”

under our feet, and we don't really know why or what it means. This week on Explanage Me, how do I avoid being a flop? By new episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Mike Quentin and Helena, thanks for coming on on. Great to be with you. I love talking to Mayor's. I just say you know, I'm a fan of Mayor's. You tend to have a better discussion with people actually running things, but your governing

cities during a time still have intense political polarization and for Quentin and Missouri, Helena in Louisiana, you're politically at odds with your state government. We're going to cover a lot of issues today, but first I like each of you to talk about the moment when you're able overcome partisan divides at the city or state level or not. And what did you accomplish? Mike, you start and then Helena and then Quentin. Yeah, I think for us, we found there is a lot

of shared priorities. And even when you see very ideological debates in DC, they get quite practical

crisis. You know, when we had migrants that arrived in Denver, we had 40,000 migrants in Denver

more than any city in the country per capita. But I would talk to folks on the far left who'd say, Mike, this is crazy. It is their civil right that everyone in these folks should be able to work. And then I would talk to conservative leaders in the city who would say, this is crazy. Mike, those people should have to work. It's a great. We all actually agree. The fundamental strategy is here is let's get people to opportunity to work pay taxes support the economy.

“That's what we did. It worked very successfully. They're paying taxes in housing units supporting”

themselves. I think that's one where the debate about how folks arrive at the border can be ideological when they're on your doorstep and they don't have food or a place to stay. It gets quite pragmatic. And I think people work together quite well in those moments. All right, Helena. Well, look, I mean,

for us here in the city of New Orleans, I can tell you that one one way that we really came

together with our state was around the most recent Super Bowl that we had here in the city of New Orleans where we worked in a very coordinated way with our state leadership here locally as well to ensure that the finances were right, that the city was prepared and ready to host Super Bowl. So everything from infrastructure improvements to making sure that, you know, we were prepared public safety wise as well, really great coordination with the federal government also. So I would

say that that's a great example of how we can all come together and work well. But there are just so many other examples where we're just at odds and really unnecessarily at odds because even when we have potentially shared goals, there's this kind of way of almost not wanting our city our blue city to succeed in some ways. And so that that has been the challenging piece. You know, we had a very contentious legislative session, this past spring, everything from, of course,

the redistricting that occurred. We lost one black congressional seat in the state of Louisiana. And so that was contentious. At the same time, the state came in and they decided that they wanted to, in their words, right size, the court system here in the city of New Orleans without any input from city leadership or from from city state legislators. And because it got so heated, the governor didn't like that. And so after the legislative session, he also went through and did

a series of vetoes for New Orleans appropriations about $30 million worth. Everything from planning

a design for a new city hall to over a million dollars for a new football field for our state champs football team here in the city of New Orleans. So those types of punitive things have

“been very challenging. What about you, Quentin? You know, I think the place that I will pick. We”

did have good cooperation on the FIFA World Cup. Governor actually White House, others were a key part of it. But interestingly enough, housing. And the reason I say it is interesting because when we talk affordable housing, generally affordability, you would think that there are broader differences. But starting with my senior senator Joshua Holley, there is this interest in going at out of state landlords, nerdy well landlord, slum lords, who are having people live in

squalor. And so we have seen pretty concerted efforts that usually start at the city level, either in Kansas City or St. Louis. And administrative actors, both at the state government level, certainly our federal elected who said, we're going to work with you. The attorney general's going to bring certain claims against them. We're going to try to negotiate actual concession and repairs the sort of thing that suggests that there is this undercurrent of putting some

meat on the bones to what affordability is. And that some of our peers on the right actually care about them. And on the list of things that Josh Holley and I agree on, that is probably like one out of maybe like two total that we have in a list of thousands of other issues that impact us each day. So let's start locally with public safety and economic development. President Trump described America's cities as, quote, rotting and cesspools of blood.

Mike, how does the rhetoric shape your ability to govern? Does that make your job harder with

“residents and investors and federal government? Or is it just noise? I think it's noise, but it does”

impact, I think, people's confidence to want to live in cities. I think what we've really worked hard on is showing that the facts in the ground are absolutely the opposite of that, actually. I mean, for us, we were double hit because he both made the narrative of cities that receive migrants will be cesspools of crime. And blue cities are already cesspools of crime. And then in the year that we brought in the most migrants in the country, we also saw the largest drop in the

homicide rate of any city in the country and the largest drop in homelessness of any city in the country. And so our belief is that we can actually show that these problems are solvable. The cities are capable of solving them. And the more we can show these results, the more it actually proves our residents and the rest of the country that it's nothing like what he describes and they're actually places where you're seeing dramatic successes on making the impacts on things people

care the most about. Like, is my city safe? Is it affordable? Does it affect the tourism? Because I know the whole San Francisco thing was insane. Like, there were homeless problems here and no

this is beautiful. I'm like, and the cheese is delicious. Like, I don't know, don't believe what you see. It's a weird thing for someone born and raised in a city to do, to talk about cities. We do have to fight that perception. I'll talk to folks who say, oh, gosh, I hear that it's crime stuff in Denver. I'll say, great. I was the last time you're here. And they'll say, oh, 2021. I say, okay, well, that's that was a different world than that. And so that's true for our own

suburbs where we want to make sure people come downtown and experience how vibrant it is. But it also is being able to tell a different story to people around the country who are looking at where do they want to invest capital or move businesses? We think that's an important part of the story. Or you've been just visit? We're visit. And in New Orleans is one of the six cities where President Trump deployed the National Guards since June of last year. It's worth noting

crime in New Orleans has been trending downward for several years according to local reporting.

I mean, this isn't the first time the National Guard has been to New Orleans, but talk about the

latest deployment. It just ended after eight months with their tensions and what was the ultimate impact on public safety? And I will say where I also live in DC, they're still wandering around. I feel bad for them. I hand them drinks all the time. I'm like, here you go. But they're not doing anything because there's nothing wrong to fix. There's nothing to fix. So in New Orleans, we're a little bit different because we are used to having the National Guard here. The National

Guard comes in and has traditionally come in for many, many years for the major events that we have during Martygrass season. And I want to remind everyone that Martygrass isn't just a day. It is a full season. So they're here for weeks and because of that, obviously, they were here all during Super Bowl, they're here during sugar bowl, they're here during by you classic and all types of

other major events that we have here in New Orleans. They're also always here around storm season.

Anytime that we have a tropical development, come our way, the Guard is here. So they're very much already a part of what we bring in for public safety. They're extended deployment, you know, I think at first it was a little bit worrisome, just like what would that look like? Because we try to

“always be a very welcoming city as well. That's what we're known for. Our hospitality being”

welcoming. And we worry that the perception of, you know, or the look of having those military personnel with the big long arms and everything or firearms, it would be problematic for our tourism industry. We didn't see a decrease in numbers because of that at times, some tourists were a little bit taken aback by that particular look. But I think more importantly, and you just brought up an important issue is that what exactly were they doing, right? So we as a city really had to

work to figure out at times like what would be the best way to really deploy the Guard and to work with the Guard so that they could be valuable to our New Orleans Police Department. And so that we work closely with them so that they wouldn't just be, you know, lack of a better term just sitting around. But I will say this, you know, I think that Mike brought up a really good point about telling the right story. For example, in the city of New Orleans, we are the safest that we have been since the

1960s. For the first year ever, knock on wood, our murder rate may be below 100, which hasn't

happened in recent recorded history. So that's where we are. And it hasn't just been because of our law enforcement deployment or national guard coming in. It's also been because of the amount of money that we have spent on prevention. We are one of the top 10 cities when it comes to spending

“on crime prevention. And so I think that coordinated approach of really investing in prevention”

through our health department and also through our recreation services, you name it and creating opportunities for people and also that right coordination on the law enforcement piece that has brought us to where we are today. So, you know, Clinton, Kansas City was a world cup host this summer. So, you know, you said recently, it proved the city's capable of managing events at that scale. And you're looking to host the women's world cup in 2021. Twin extent do events like

this raising the national profile city and why doesn't matter. And what are the benefits to the city and the downsides? Well, it's something that everyone on this call every mayor thinks about. I know Mike's going to have the 28 democratic national convention. We are just to clean it now, but, you know, part of, you know, yeah, the question of why, and former mayor Rama Manuel and I would have a respectful difference on this. I think we were able to benefit from the fact Chicago

did not put in a bid in for the FIFA World Cup. He contends they were making them build a dome,

“all that sort of stuff. Look, our infrastructure cost wasn't going to be the same. I think”

there were a few things that make these events very good, particularly depending on the city and what the size is. Maybe people find them irrelevant. I think jobs, service industry jobs, a lot of the setup jobs, entertainment jobs, studios and others are a great thing for our community and a huge thing for lots of people in all of our communities. So that's the step one. The step two is often enhancing in terms of cost, your public safety expenses, all of those steps. In many cases,

those times, usually it's overtime, but I don't think you can overestimate the value of brand. As much as I want to think you all are thinking about Kansas City every day, I encourage you to, maybe you're not. And so maybe a case I am for different reasons. Absolutely, because you know, we're good at winning against the team, although not lately. But I think what we are trying to do is say and signify, right? Look, there is global attention on a space. People are coming in an

out there's real energy. You can put on great events. And I think in this big question of what is Americana to? Almost every city that have World Cup games kept talking about Atlanta, 1996. And when you think about that Olympiad, Atlanta before that point, find American cities, some good headquarters, all that sort of stuff. That was kind of the point where they said, you all can't look away from

our culture. We're not just the story of a southern city where this place you're always going to

“consider always think about. That's why cities like mine, many others, I think are competing to”

make sure that we're in those spaces where people are looking, people are paying attention. And on the costs, I'll say this, we're going to spend money on other things. And I would rather have it be the sorts of things that amplify our brand, build us for future events rather than us just doing kind of one-offs and that sort of thing. So it was a success here. I think it was a great thing. That's why we're looking at more ahead. So each of you are leading revitalization initiatives in your cities.

Is there one project you think cold really the most promise or most innovative? I mean, I was just in Chicago was looking at their new quantum computing campus, really interesting that they're creating. Helena, you go first and then Quentin and then Mike. Sure. Well, there's a couple of major things that we're working on that we think would be really transformative. A lot of people don't know this about the city of New Orleans, but we do have a major NASA facility that is here. It's called

the NASA Mishu facility. And it's actually where all of the rockets for every NASA shuttle that's gone up in the air has been built, including most recently with Artemis. So we right now are launching a real effort around aerospace and working with NASA in this secure perimeter that they have in New Orleansies to see what else can potentially be brought there, particularly because of all the excitement around Artemis. At the same time, we as a city are creating this innovation zone around

this area. And not far from this area is also another specific zone where we are preparing for

site development around a major port initiative that is happening. We have about a $300 million

major port expansion that's occurring at this point where we are getting the corridor leading up to this port expansion for the port of New Orleans for additional types of course warehousing and logistics and things like that. But at the same time, we do have some of our higher-ed institutions who are really interested in kind of advancing things when it comes to port operations on how we can now integrate AI into port operations and create an educational pipeline around this. So

this for us and where we are being such a port city is really important to us and we think potentially

“transformational. What about you, Quinn? You know, I think what I would highlight in addition to the”

regular economic development support stadiums, all that sort of stuff, we're working on a

critical materials campus and for those who aren't in the critical materials discourse,

they had to explain it to me from lab made diamonds and that sort of thing. You are seeing more of that. Now, of course, there are more critical materials that we have. We have competition with other countries, namely China and others that have built alliances and Africa around the world extracting more places. America's innovation and our opportunity to compete well is where we can manufacture them ourselves. Along our riverfront, we're looking at a really several billion dollar

investment long-term. We've been lucky enough to be recipients of a large federal grant lately associated with the university, which is something that's not happening broadly with a lot of universities. Now, new grants, new initiatives, alliances with, once again, our senators from Missouri

“and Kansas and looking at this part of the country to be key to that research area. I think it is”

kind of the evolution of where, you know, your town gown relations need to be. It isn't just having a university president. It's how does that research actually pay dividends other than just employment, but also really how you're actually building out infrastructure long-term? Because a lot of academics are leaving for other countries, too. Right. Might? Yeah, we have a big linked set of projects we call the Mile High Line, which is seven major projects that we're building at the

same time. Those include new stadiums for the Broncos, new stadium for our women soccer franchise, the summit, a new public park, a new redevelopment of our stock show complex, but what's important about these is their economic development strategy, their climate strategy, their housing strategy, and they're also a transit strategy. It'll grow 100,000 jobs, it's a $30 billion investment, so huge economic opportunity for us. But linked to that, we're building all of these sites

along light rail existing light rail capacity, both in the north and the west side of the city,

along these seven sites, and so with transit lines, with housing there, and they are in traditionally under-invested parts of the city. North Denver has been historically African-American, West Denver has been historically Latino, both that under-invested, so these investments will come disproportionately to places that we haven't invested in before, but what they'll create is not just seven new

amazing places where Denverites gather and jobs for the future. They'll create a capacity where

you could live in one of these locations with housing that's close to light rail, and you could easily get to the other six locations to work, to fund, to friends, without having known a car, and so it's the way you take a lot of our mid-sized cities that weren't built like a DC or New York with thousands of miles of underground subways and say you move our cities in that direction by building these hubs. These neighborhoods where folks can live work and play and you connect them,

“and that's what helps us grow into the future. So every episode we get a question from”

outside expert, here's yours. I'm Pete Buttigieg, better known as Mayor P, and when I was Mayor of South Bend, I noticed that lots of mayors generated a lot of wonderful ideas worth stealing. So my question is, what is something where you're maybe quietly copying another Mayor's home word to benefit your own city? Good question from another mayor, so taking any of us from Mayor Mamdonir, or whatever, when did you go first and then Mike and then Helena? Man, that's that is a good

question. Good to see our friend Mayor Pete, probably on ideas that I'm stealing. I'll go to Mayor Wu in Boston, and I think that our community share an investment, and I know Mayor Johnson just mentioned it, an investment in women's sports and improvement in women's sports. My city's already built women's sports stadium and Boston, they're building an entire campus kind of around in WSL, their women's soccer league team, really trying to say, how can we make it so this sport that's

more accessible, and many ways more affordable, has more links to arenas, frankly, that are built and more people can use for my schools to others, and frankly, brands your city is a place that's

“looking to the expansion of sports, not just the traditional major events, how do we do that?”

Well, so stealing a big chunk of that, the other thing that I think I will always note that we're

stealing, you know, the Mayor Mamdonir conversations interesting for mayors, particularly those of us who have been doing it for a while, because all of us probably get tagged every day and they're saying, why don't you be more like him? Oh my god, he jumps in a pool and I say, he had Mayorial Baxter been doing that for a decade. Come on. That's right. But, you know, I think that Holy Flood, that's fully clothed. It's the way to be that's right. That means secure. Yeah, he really

does have a lot of charisma. Right. No, I think the idea that we're getting, I get from him, and a positive way is, yeah, how do you continue to update your communication strategy? It is easy in these jobs to have some level of frustration that says, why aren't they paying attention, why aren't people engaging with your content in a way instead of just being saying, dammit, I got to just move to where people are. I think that's something that we all

adapt from our peers every day. Yeah, walking around the city that time, I was like, that's brilliant. When you walk the whole, surrounded the city, uh, Mike, one of the things I love about this question is, this is what mayors talk about when you get together is, yeah, we are all about what is the solution you're delivering? And so I say, there's a moment now in politics where most people look at elected leaders as influencers, rather than as entrepreneurs. I think mayors

are actually entrepreneurs. We have to identify a hard problem, develop a solution, fix it when it doesn't work. And so I think you find a lot of the best innovation happening from mayors, because other elected's are going to share a great idea for a press conference or a social post. That's not an actual outcome. So for me, it was actually a former mayor, which is

the mayor of Houston, so that's your turner, since past the way, but when I first became mayor,

they were really the gold standard for work on homelessness. And so they were the first place I visited to say, what's working for you, and one of the ideas we stole from them is, they had the idea of closing homeless encampments by geography, and then keeping that place permanently closed to future camping. So in a lot of cities instead, you just keep a list of people that might be homeless. And six months ago, you saw John, you took his name a number,

six months later, when you have an open unit, you now go to try to call John, who's three burner phones, and two locations away from where he was the last time in these units stay empty. We instead went to the regions where there were an encampment of 50 people, closed out encampment, moved all those people into housing units that we opened, and then permanently closed that block from any future camping. And that is a strategy has really worked for us,

“and that's how we've been able to now close every large encampment. We haven't had a tent”

in downtown, and more than 18 months, and we won't have them again. And so that was a great strategy we stole from Houston. Right, that's a great one. Kind of. Yeah, so also on the homeless does front, taking a look at what Mayor Lourry's obviously been doing. I actually met with him while in DC during the latest conference of Mayors annual meeting, and sat down with them, and one of the things that he talked about was having, you know, the concentration of having

social workers out and about offering services, you know, that real carrot before there ever was a

been able to really transform what's been happening with the homeless situation in San Francisco.

We've started to implement some of those things here, and they so far have proved to be very positive. I will say this. It's so funny that you're asking this question right now, because during my deputy mayor meeting this morning, one of my deputy mayors actually brought up an idea that Mayor Moundani has, and it is about a strike team that goes out to do kind of minor repairs at different recreational places throughout New York. And she said it's like, oh my gosh,

we have been looking at doing something like this. Let's do something similar to what he just suggested, and I'm like, you know what, let's go ahead and do that. That's actually a great idea because I had recently done a tour of three of our major parks that we have here in New Orleans, and it was the minor cosmetic stuff that drove me crazy that wasn't being addressed. And so because of that idea, we're actually moving forward with something very similar,

we're bumping, and because people feel like you're actually doing something that they can actually physically see. It's actually brilliant, and then he publicizes them, which is important. So one of the things that Mayor is having a trouble with, and also governors, and everyone else is the public backlash to AI data centers. I recently talked to Lansing Mayor Andy Shore, who supported the construction of an environmentally sustainable data center, it checked all the boxes, and he was

trying in what would be considered the right way, but it still failed because citizens did not want it period, even the good one, right? So when it comes to data centers, how are you thinking about the trade-off between potential economic gains and environmental impact? And I know there's a lot going on in Louisiana, but every state has one of these, I interviewed some from Utah, where they got called Communists for not wanting them. Today, President Trump is doing the same thing. You're either

stupid and poor. You accept data centers, which seems not the way to go on this one. So Quentin first then Mike and then Helena. Data centers, they're probably two political issues that impact cities

sometimes, but not always, that have changed more dramatically in the last five years than anything else.

Data centers and Israel, to be quite honest, things that before a data center could be approved, you didn't have that much drama, you had a few usually extreme environmental activists. Now, it is left and right. They are voting out city councils in connection with it. So prospectively, what we're working on is this. Obviously, you know, you try to come up with some level of balance, which is that you're not looking at high utility usage, particularly impact on water,

“other environmental standards, in connection with it. But the other thing that I think we need to”

make an incredible pivot on, and I think the rhetoric politically has not caught up yet in the president's comments today, are not helping with that, is to share why it is actually important that we have data centers, the importance of AI long term. The answer alone of just hey citizen, you're going to make a lot of money out of it. They don't really believe us, and they're not really believing that impact. And I think that's fair in some ways, because they're not seen

an immediate quality of life change, even if we can pay our bills a little bit better. One has to actually be the forefront of explaining these are reality. They are a type of business that is less polluting than probably your industrial factories that people still often look for. I think a discussion as to the jobs is interesting, right? So you do need to emphasize the construction jobs. How a cluster can be additive to your community long term, even if each data center

obviously is an employing 3,000 people a day. And I think that frankly, having that real conversation

“rather than it's big, it's here you must love this global firm and just deal with it people”

of rural Nebraska. That is having a huge backlash now. I think it only gets worse into the 2026 cycle. Absolutely, Mike. Yeah, we put a moratorium on any data centers in Denver about five months ago before this got as hot as it is now. And I think it was the right decision for a number of reasons. One is their real concerns about water usage. You know, we're in a drought state,

and so we can't spend a quarter of a million gallons of water a day on one data center.

There are concerns about cost of electricity in a place where that's the second or third biggest bill that people pay each month on affordability that matters. And the third was an annoying impact. And so what we found, they didn't exist in our zoning code. So people could just buy a plot of land and suddenly build the data center next to your house the way they could build a single-family home. And so for all those reasons, it was right to stop. I think there are good

solutions out here to both solving the impact on electricity rates. The Quentin mentioned the impact on water. But normally what you're going to want to do to make that work is you're going to want to have significant geographic space where you can build self-contained systems. You want to have solar panels that you can use to power these. You want to have close loop water systems. And these days, there's do not have to be in the middle of city centers,

to serve city centers. And so there are a lot of rural communities that would benefit tremendously

“from this infrastructure build out. I think what we'd love to do, I think at the conference”

of Mayors with Q and Helena is think about how can we make this an urban rural partnership. Or we can say a lot of rural communities would love to have these. Irving communities could

going to make sense to cite a lot of these in the middle of dense residential neighborhoods in

“major American cities. And I think that's not the path forward. I would agree with you, Helena.”

Yeah, we've got a temporary ban here in the city of New Orleans until the city planning commission finishes a study on data centers. But I do think that more than likely the city council will move toward a moratorium. And one of the main reasons for that is that we have a pretty fragile grid in the city of New Orleans already. Obviously, that's been proven over the last few years based on what's happened with major hurricanes here in the city of New Orleans. And we're making major

upgrades to our grid, but it's still pretty fragile. We're also the very end of the line as well. So I think because of that, they'll likely be a moratorium. But if you take a look at outside of New Orleans in the state of Louisiana, the governor is pushing to be like I think the

data center capital. And as you know, the in Richland parish, there's a new $50 billion data center

that's being built. New York Times reported that apparently it received potentially up to $10 billion worth of incentives. I can't tell you whether that's true or not due to the fact that there were so many NDAs and lack of transparency around this project. And I think that level of lack of transparency is what's also creating even more fear and more doubt with the public that they don't really know what's going on. And they don't feel like they're being told the whole story. And they worry

about what could be the real consequences coming. When you're not transparent and you don't explain

“the full story, somebody else is going to tell the story for you. And so I think that's what's been”

really happening. And so here in Louisiana, it is becoming a very heated issue, a very divisive issue, and while we're a little bit more behind that maybe some of the other states as far as like the big opposition, but I do feel it building and building and building. It's it's a proxy for other things about AI. You know, it's a bigger of our billionaire behavior or, you know, Elon Musk dancing with a, with a chain saw. It has, it's all wrapped up and so much of the same, of the same thing.

Yeah. It's this whole, you know, this is what's going to be here and it's going to be, and we're not going to tell you about it until after the fact, and this is coming to your community and whether you like it or not, it's that kind of approach that's really causing people to be very fearful and skeptical about data centers. We'll be back in a minute. Support for the show comes from hers. If you've been looking for the right time to get

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Let's actually ship the housing a little bit. Quentin, you dispenser the Kansas City's first housing

trust fund as a councilman back in 2018 and later ran as the housing mayor. You know, because there have been questions about its effectiveness, it's very difficult to do housing cities right now. And when it's starting to see a real estate downturn from much of the country, not here in San Francisco, but other places. So is it actually increasing the stock of affordable housing? Is that's really the point? It is. It is. So it was a whole suite of policies I passed

as a city councilman that had absolutely no money behind them. And so what I've been able to do in the near seven years I've been in this position is get real investment with it. You know, the first step was to change what housing policy was not just in my city, but in America.

If you knew municipal housing agencies before that point, you basically knew that they were

HUD passed through agencies. They would take a smaller and smaller amount of the community development block grant, give it to usually the same exact same organizations every year, then wake up like Mike mentioned and say, oh my God, we have a homeless problem. We don't have enough resources. The step one goal was to say housing itself is economic development, not just in suburban green fields, not just in rehabs and places where there is the market set for it, but also

it with real density in the American city. And importantly, it doesn't have to just be housing that's incredibly high and incredibly expensive. So for us, the goal all along has been how do we gap, though, in terms of, you know, delivering more units, putting them at an affordable level, but not every ridiculously affordable level. I'm very sensitive to the fact that the American city can't just be the home of the Uber rich and then those who are incredibly

destitute. So continuing to try to build that same sort of middle class idea that you've seen

“in the American suburban communities for some time was key to what our trust fund is doing,”

attracting private investment, being another part of it, getting contributions, in connection with it. We don't have a mile high line, but with our new baseball stadium, there are huge contributions coming from the Kansas City Royals. For example, two housing development and infrastructure near the stadium itself. And so housing has become almost like a core departmental effort, like public works, like police and others. It's going to be around

to stay. And the responsible cities are figuring out how to generate housing, importantly, on the private side by removing barriers to housing, making sure your regulation is smart and reasonable. And on the public side, not building huge housing projects. I'm not there yet on social housing, which some activists want, but also, but really making sure how do we fill gaps that for too long have kept new housing from being constructed? Which is bureaucratic. So like housing

in Denver has been the focus of your administration, too. You said, there's been a record 45 percent reduction in shelter in homelessness since you took office. Some excerpts caution the survey data cited as variable, so it may not be the whole picture that's according to reporting in the Denverite. First, explain the scope of the homeless issue there. And when you talk about 45 percent reduction, and where do people go once they're moved off the street? You did note this

moving people immediately from encampments into nearby housing. Yeah, I mean, our federally

document number is now a 64 percent drop in street homelessness. And so we did this through a couple

“of avenues, as you said. The first is you have to bring on a large scale of transitional housing units”

that you can build quickly and cheaply. So we brought about a thousand units of transitional housing. That looks like buying hotels, building tiny home villages, doing them from 25,000 to 100,000 dollars a door, and doing them quickly. We brought them on in less than six months, a thousand units. Then it's going to where the encampments are, closing those encampments, and keeping them closed, and then geographically spreading this parts of the city that have

no camping. So I think other like concentric circles that start in the middle of the city, each time we close encampment, we move you to housing, that block becomes closed, you out farther and farther until the whole city is no longer has encampments. And the third is decentralizing

support, addiction support, workforce training, long-term housing, because often what you do is you concentrate all of the services for folks that are homeless in your downtown, and then your surprise that your downtown is full of folks who are homeless. What we've done is actually de-concentrated those, so they can get access to these services anywhere, and that's helped us move 9,000 people off the street into transitional housing. But more importantly, has moved 8,000

“of those folks into permanent housing. And so I think that's been the key, but it took that”

combination of those strategies when taking the political risk to say, yes, we are going to open

eight new transitional housing sites. I did 60 town halls around the city folks. We're not always

happy about the idea of opening sites next to them. But once we opened them, we're able to close encampments, make historic drops, and homeless this in crime, and then make sure the folks in their neighborhood had access to services, and those neighborhoods actually saw reductions in crime, not expansions. That was the key for delivering something that was a win for the folks that were experiencing homelessness, and a win for the neighbors who want to have sidewalks and streets,

they can walk their daughter on, and still feel safe. So the New York Times recently reported how billionaire venture capitalist Joe Longdale, whom I happen to know, and his sister-ro institute or shaping federal housing policy away from housing first approach, and towards a more forced treatment of substance abuse or mental illness, at least 21 states have considered sister-ro-backed homelessness

policies, including Missouri, and 16 states have passed them. I mean, we make of this approach,

and how does this federal policy actually shape what you're able to do in your own cities, because drug use is a big part of this, and mental health issues are a big part of this, is anyone who lives in a big city with a homeless problem knows, very indian. Yeah, the forced piece, and we also just had a Louisiana law pass this past legislative session where beginning in 2027, if essentially you don't accept this kind of forced piece that it's like jail time,

you're now in jail. So look, overall, I mean for us, our main approach, and maybe part of it, I guess maybe I'm stealing from Mike, is that one, we want to get you, of course, off the street, and if you need a shelter space, we do have a low bearer, your shelter, but to Mike's point, many of our services are centralized around downtown. And I'm currently working on this whole new transformation of downtown with kind of expansion to our smoothie king center area,

which is right next to our super dome, a new city hall, the old charity hospital is going to be re-done by two lane universities, so this whole transformation is coming. Yet all of our homeless services are right there, right in the middle of downtown, which to Mike's point, of course, then why are we wondering why all of the homeless folks are all downtown? So really finding another location for our low bearer, your shelter, but then at the same time it's the housing piece.

It seems that we've gotten a lot better at finding people housing, but not doing a great job and the providing people services once they are housed. And so you can have someone who is homeless now get into housing, but if you're not providing them with the right level of support when it comes to potentially drug treatment or when it comes to helping an assistance and transportation and jobs and job training or potentially mental health services, more than likely those who

you have now put into housing will likely end up back out on the streets. And so that's our real focus right now on what can we do to ensure that once we house someone, that they stay housed.

“And so that's what we're focusing on now with us. It's a little bit of a tricky situation.”

Because the state has decided to be the ones to submit to carry out homeless services essentially for our region, which is really a four parish. We don't have counties here, but perishes, four parish region here in our area. And so, you know, that'll be an interesting development for sure. Quick and in my very briefly, how do you feel about this forced idea? Yeah, I mean, I think a few things that I would say first, I mean, the hardest part of housing

which we never start on, it's the same challenge with crime, is that you're actually dealing

with human beings. If these were widgets, it would be great, right? And if we could just say, we'll develop this, we'll put in the different spaces, it's all going to work out well. And frankly, what we have to do in deliver is actually coming up with curated solutions that really relate and align with the people that we're dealing with each day. So, forced scene, folks, it has its merits and I don't pretend to speak to everything in the California situation. I think at certain times

“you need a little bit of a hammer to suggest to someone, no, you need to go to services, you”

need to do some steps and work. But if it is too much of that, you go back to what I think were incredibly unworkable solutions of the past that are really just streaming people from place to place. The real solution for the places that are working and frankly, it's violent crime, it's nuisance crime, and it's in homelessness policy now. The cities that are doing the best are those that have been investing the most in broad-based, wraparound services. The softer

touches used in a pejorative sense are the ones that are delivering better. And when you look

telling people, here are the services, here's a long-term path, this is what you can get if you

“actually align with us. I think you're going to continue to see better results rather than simply”

saying we're clearing everybody up, things will just be perfect tomorrow, something that I think Texas continues to try to compel that doesn't work at all of its cities in the same way that Houston's program worked in lifting folks. Mike? Yeah, I have strong feelings about this, because I think this is not just an ideological debate that you're entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts on this one, and what we know is it actually does not work as well

to try to force folks to get treatment before housing. While we know that mental health and addiction can cause homelessness, we know that homelessness profoundly causes mental health and addiction, which is you can literally, you know, I've talked to doctors who will say, if I were to design a perfect drug to help you survive homelessness, you need something who helps you stay up all night and be alert, in case you're going to get jumped, that helps you be immune to cold,

and helps you go long stretches without eating. That is essentially what Fentnell does. It is a

homeless survival drug, and so the reason why you want to get them into housing first is you stabilize

and then allow you to focus on that addiction. It is like asking someone to start physical therapy

“before you've closed the open wound on the side of their leg, like you have to first be able to”

triage it, and by the way, for taxpayers, it's vastly more expensive. Because to try to go and get to someone on a street corner where they're still living and tent and talk about job training, our social workers use to spend 75% of their time just trying to find the person to deliver the service, because you couldn't find them day to day. Once you have them housed, we can now bring in job training, bring in addiction support, bring in mental health services in a stable

environment where they're open to receive them. It's going to be poorly spent taxpayer money if you do it the other way. Homelessness does cause mental illness for many people. You can see it in

circumstances go. I always say if you don't think it's the case, let me know whether or not you're

drinking habits increased during COVID or not. It turns out minor stresses as huge mental health and addiction changes in behavior, now try living outdoors in January and Denver, and see if that adds to your stress. Right. So let's talk, it's not related, but immigration because it does bring more people into the cities. New York Times reported last week that immigration arrests rose to record highs this summer, and ice is increasingly targeting people with no criminal records.

The Department of Homeland Security launched an enforcement operation in New Orleans last December and State Republic to criticize the city's sanctuary policies. How many of you signed executive order, barring city agencies from entering into new partnerships with ice? What is it challenges of pushing back as a city-winter state government's largely aligned with the federal approach and what form of immigration enforcement does it make sense for New Orleans? I'll say this,

this was really about doing the right thing. Also, just a little bit of my background. I was born in Mexico. My father is from Mexico, and we came to this country because we wanted, you know, better opportunities. We came to this country legally, but I certainly understand why people come to this country to have better lives for themselves and for their families. And so overall, what we started to see here in the city of New Orleans and why I very quickly had to have a

news conference and take action is because what was happening in our city was that people, particularly people with brown skin were being targeted. Some of them were even American citizens chased down and streets, maybe not in New Orleans, but right in our region and neighboring parishes. And nobody

“was saying anything. And so that's why it's like here in the city of New Orleans we're speaking up.”

Not to mention that here in the city of New Orleans, it also very much impacted us economically. You had our very wonderful restaurants here in the city of New Orleans who couldn't get workers, our hotels couldn't get workers. And that was happening really across our city. So we push back

and ultimately we push back in a way, and I guess our messaging was where it needed to be,

that eventually this operation, Catahua Crunch as they called it, went away and went to other areas. And I also believe that they weren't able to get the numbers that they thought they would. I can't even remember what the numbers were, but they claimed that they were going to get thousands and thousands of people in just our little area, which was impossible to begin with. I really didn't think too much on this one about like the political ramifications or what were the consequences.

This was really about what I personally believe was the right thing to do to protect my city. So Quentin, you were also welcome about your opposition to proposed ice detention center in Kansas City, early this year. The city passed a five year moratorium on non-city run detention centers. Have there been legal challenges to the ban and how do you think about approaching immigration enforcement more broadly? You know, so first of all, no, we did not sustain legal challenges.

We anticipated it, but let's just remember what ice was trying to do. Basically, they were trying to build gigantic concentration camps. Any space that had a ton of area. They were suggesting 10,000 people being in basically airplane hangers. We looked up the studies that were going to be like

grossly inhumane. We looked to use classic planning laws and ordinances in the city to stand

“in the way. And I think that was an important fight. It was an important fight that other cities”

wage. I would like to hope it contributed to the demise of Christy Nome, which I think has been a positive for our country. In terms of immigration policy, I think we need to make a few things clear. One, yes, good, structured, ordered immigration policies important for any type of country. Two, the Trump administration is not in any way trying to actually do that. Instead, it is strikingly the politics of fear. And in some ways, the greatest harm itself are the school

children in my city and probably Mike and Alainas who were scared of going to school. The people being scared to be picked up. The politics of fear, right? The living with fear that so many people were dealing with. And I think that it is okay for us, if you're progressive, if you're Democrat, hell, if you're Republican, to say, yeah, I'm not trying to scare the living daylights out of everyone. I'm trying to make sure that laws are followed will do it in an orderly way. But mass shipments

of people, mass shipments of people based on look, based on aesthetic, based on phenotype, accent, or language they're speaking, is fundamentally anti-American. That's why we stood against it. That's why we're tasked with doing it again. We, I would do all the exact steps again. And I'll make this final point, right? There's this link to public safety and immigrants. You know, I'm scared of the most in Kansas City. Others, Kansas Cityans. They are a lot more

likely to shoot me to rot me to do all types of bad stuff to me and my family. I mean, as our city's crime is going down this this farce. This farcical thought that immigrants are creating a

“greater threat in our communities is totally disproven. That's why I think you've seen all of us”

be active with it. So in Colorado, a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration's sanctuary city lawsuit against Denver and Colorado. The DOJ is appealing, of course, because they work from President Trump. As of 2024, Denver and welcome over 40,000 migrants are probably the most per capita. Mike, you have called it a solvable crisis. So talk about the DOJ lawsuit and I will note, Colorado has a history of doing more or two Ralph Carr, who's a hero in Colorado and should

be across the country, defended the rights of American citizens of Japanese descent and allowed their voluntary relocation of Colorado, but resisted mass incarceration. And he was lost because of this, but what a hero. Talk a little bit about that, the situation you have there. Yeah, the way I

approach this car is, I always say, like, named for me the five great American cities who have built

their brand on being anti-immigrant. You can't name one because those cities are forgotten now. Every great American city has built their brand on being pro-immigrant and pro-growth. And so we are unabashedly pro-immigrant, whether they are coming from Cleveland or California or Caracas or Mexico City, we want folks that are going to come and help build the city. And that's how we've approached it. The second thing that's also true is there is a real role for partnership with

federal agencies around enforcement on what we've always said should be the priority, which is violent criminals, right? Where there are violent criminals, we also don't care where they come from. We will hunt them down, we will arrest them, and we will charge them. And so very early on, we had any concerns about gang activity. We had a multi-jouristictional task force that we operated with to identify any protectional gang or cartel members. We arrested them, we charged

them, we deported them. And that's what Americans want. Americans want a hard-working construction worker or third-grade teacher or barista to be able to live next door to them in pay taxes. And they also want to make sure they aren't violent criminals living next door to them.

“And I think the answer is for cities and states to do both of those. That's what Denver has”

done, and that's why we've both been able to be a welcoming city and see huge drops in crime. And we think that is what disproves the lie that immigrants drive crime. Immigrants can drive economic growth if you do the regular good work that cities should do to enforce the laws on crime. We'll be back in a minute.

Dear Mr. President, I want things to always be right between us. I also know I've been

distracted all week, forgetting to eat throughout the days and even forgetting to sleep. I never want to bring you anything but joy. I'm sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don't ever want to let you down. Thank you for being my guardian and protector in this life. I have learned so much about myself on this trip. For the first time in, I don't know how long you forced me to unplug. I didn't have to be human printer. Thank you for always being there for me.

To modify a classic, I could not have parted with you to anyone less worth him. And I will add, it is I who is unworthy with all my heart, Natalie.

Have you ever wondered who invented rock and roll or why Fleetwood Mac fell apart or what it was like at Motown in the early years? Well, do I have a podcast for you? My name is Will Anderson. I'm a songwriter, a musician, and a huge music history book. And I'm so excited to announce my new podcast the Monday Music Club. I teamed up to make this podcast with a Vox media podcast

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recording sessions in music history. And I wanted to have a place to be able to take what I've learned and share some of those favorites with you. Every Monday, I'll be releasing a new episode and deep diving into a new story with experts and special guests and it's going to be a blast. So if you're a music history geek like me or even just a casual music pin jump in because I promise my name is a club is going to be the podcast for you.

So like any good millennial, I have a love hate relationship with Gen Z. It's the phenomenon rattling millennials. They just look at you. They want something bigger themselves, lifestyle's a priority. Motivation is being inspired. But regardless of how you feel about Gen Z, it's undeniable that they're changing national politics. Generation Z is increasingly showing less loyalty to traditional political parties, many now more likely to identify as independent.

“So what is going on with the kids? I think the biggest misconception about Gen Z's politics right”

now is that all of a sudden they're all socialist. That is just not the case. They are embracing candidates who are offering new bold ideas in the absence of those ideas from establishment Democrats. This week on America, actually, Gen Z researcher Rachel, Jim Faso joins us to separate Gen Z fact versus fiction. It's not rocket science. And this is, you know, I keep saying, like, young voters aren't that complicated after all. It's pretty simple. Catch us every Saturday

on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. So I'm a finish up by shifting to elections and Jerry Mandarin and the elections coming up and voting rights. Landmark Supreme Court ruling this spring struck down Louisiana's second, as you noted, majority black congressional district and decided it was on constitutional racial Jerry Mandarin. This was seen by some legal experts as the latest blow in the series of efforts to weaken the 1965 voting rights act.

I'll later the affected district doesn't include New Orleans, but talk about the impact voters and representation of Louisiana going forward to the midterms. Yeah. Well, it didn't impact New Orleans, but it almost did because at the time when we knew we were losing one, we didn't know

which one. And, you know, just a reminder, New Orleans has always been kind of the strong,

whole democratic place here in the state of Louisiana. And it was because of a really heart thought effort by our delegation in Baton Rouge that at least we were able to keep that strong hold here. But unfortunately, the state did lose that second congressional seat. And this very much, I mean, was such a blow to the entire state. We had huge crowds show up at the capital begging legislators to figure out that path to draw to which they could have. And unfortunately, you know,

that didn't happen. My concern is that because of steps like this, that people feel so disenfranchised, that it actually makes some think, why should I even go vote? Obviously, my voice doesn't even matter. Look at all these people who went to the capital, nobody ever listens to them. Why do I even

want to be engaged in this process? And I always turn that around and say, "No, this is exactly

“why you need to speak up." Because ultimately, it was members of the legislature who made this decision”

and made the decision as to how they were going to draw the districts. Your vote matters on who is elected to the legislature. Your vote matters in every single one of the elections. But we can only make a difference if we actually show up. And so I just keep pushing that message that I get it that Europe set. You may feel disenfranchised because of what happened. But this actually shouldn't be something that makes you feel diminished. It should be something that now likes a

fire within you to really get out there and vote and bring others out there to vote as well. Yeah, absolutely. In Missouri last fall, Republicans in the legislature also passed new house just to expect by President Trump to weaken Democratic voting power. Quentin, you said that Registring efforts like this are ultimately unpopular with voters. And as Helena was just saying, "Well, backfire against Republicans, what do you make of this citizen-led efforts to challenge

“a new congressional map in Missouri?" I think there are a few things that we're seeing as a trend,”

but one of which is probably the worst of all, which is people don't want to even have to have contests anymore at all. This isn't about protecting incumbents. This is about actually just taking all potential competition off the map. And I do think that that anchors people. They want representation. A lot of the people who are now in the congressional district, I'm sitting in right now who are rural, Missourians who may not love this mayor or sadly, are people who are saying,

Republican who's spending their time thinking about how we build up your community alone." And so this is something poll after poll, even in this part of the country, you're seeing people say, "No, I don't subscribe to it. I actually did not think at least this part of the system itself was broken previously." And I don't want more Washington control of my politics. These are maps that were drawn by allies of the president. They were sent to largely weak-made

governors around the country. They had these faux hearings and state legislatures. And then they are obliterating seniority for particularly black members throughout the country. And then the final dumb thing is this, we have a congressman. You can have your base with people being around too long, but has seniority of 26 years built up in the U.S. House. He will be replaced, you know, by like a TV guy or another guy who I'd barely even know. But nonetheless, right? Is it

are we trying to get resources for our states? Or are we just trying to play political games?

“That's why I think people understand it. They understand it. It's not good for Missouri.”

Maybe good for partisan politics, but it's not about our community's long term. Well, speaking of that, Mike, at the time when the president is threatened to nationalize elections, which I think is the goal here instead of localize them and make false claims about election security. And as of when we're taping this money as attempted to restrict male and voting, is there a role for a mayor like you in Denver or any local officials helping prepare your

cities for November? Oh, we are doing that. And first of all, you know, vote by male, I helped pass it when I was in the state Senate has been a tremendous win for Colorado. We're one of the highest turnout vote state in the country because people can vote easily. They can mail it in, they can turn it in. And so that ought to be the ideas to make it easier to vote. And so in Denver, yeah, we'll work with our clerk and recorder together. And we've done

table time exercise to prepare for what happens if they try to deploy ice troops in predominantly Latino areas of the city. As Alana was talking about in New Orleans, we've there said we won't allow them to do it. We'll intervene. We'll stop it. What will happen if they try to be able to cast doubt? I think what they want to do is cast out of the election either way. Because if they win the election, they can claim that it was fair. And if they lose the election,

they can claim that it was rigged. The challenges, they are doing all the things that would

try to make you distrust an election, things that local cities and states had never done before.

And so we think there's a lot of trust in cities and states to run these elections. And that's harder and trust. The federal government has tried to destroy that. And I think the goal is to so fear and get people to stay home. But we actually in Colorado created independent administration of the design of congressional districts that's nonpartisan. And we have designed them to create competitive seats. Now that wasn't popular from some folks in the Democratic Party at a time where

we could have jury-mandered and taken almost all the seats in the state. What we've done is created competitive seats. And I think you'll see Democrats win two of those seats back to this cycle

“because as the public moves, those seats will move with them. I think that's how it should work.”

So both the other mayor's Helena and Quinton, you will deploy forces against if they come to the polls. I mean, that could be correct. Look, I mean, we don't know what could potentially be coming. I mean, I think we need to like plan out for all different types of scenarios. But I will say this on the kind of the confusion piece that's being put out there. That happened here in Louisiana.

You know, we've gone from always having open primaries to all of a sudden a close primary.

And it seems like what's been happening is that based on who potentially could have the advantage, they'll decide whether they're going to be open primaries or close primaries, which led to significant confusion among voters. They'd show up at the polls and they couldn't understand why they couldn't vote for the candidate who they wanted to vote for. And then they were giving these random forms about voting for whether at the Democratic side or

Democratic side or Republican side, but you had to declare, but you weren't really switching parties. You were just having, oh my god, like it was crazy. And people were freaked out. They had no idea what was happening. They thought like every polling location had gone crazy. And, you know, people feel like maybe the results would have been different if there would have been either more information or kept it open primary. But this level of confusion

that's being created is being done so that's certain candidates win. And so that to me is one of the most problematic things that we're seeing that we're seeing on the national level,

“and we're also seeing in certain states as well. And Quentin, are you preparing?”

Well, we have people at the polls. The answer is yes. Now, it's not necessarily different

armed forces fighting each other. But to the point raised before, yes, can we provide information? Absolutely. That's within our rights. Can we let people know what they're voting on? Can we let people know they don't need a different form of identification at this election? Absolutely, right? And can we file every damn lawsuit possible as the governor in our state or other forces look to try to find ways to make it harder to get to the ballot? Absolutely. Look, the goal is

It's what mayors do every day and say, no, I'm going to be your leader for it. We're going

to make sure you can go vote. We'll stand there for you. And the full force of the city with whatever it can do can make sure you can get your vote cast. So there's also issues within the Democratic Party happening. The other things happening in Colorado Democratic Socialists Melott Kiros won the primary this summer. Earlier this year, Lisa Calderon, a progressive Democrat announced she'll be running for Denver mayor in April, 2027, election against

do Mike and Democratic Social America just announced her endorsement of city council member Chantelle Lewis is also running against you. How are you thinking about the tensions within the party in your own city and state? Well, I think a lot of what you saw in our primary here is what you're seeing around the country is people are deeply frustrated and furious with Washington. They feel like it all day here from Washington is like dysfunction or disaster,

either you're cutting some sort of core benefits or you're getting us into wars that are driving up our cost of gas or you're suing the city to drop our assault weapons ban. It's just constant chaos. And so I think people want dramatic change in Washington and I understand that and I agree with that. I think running a city is a very different thing. People expect to result to be delivered here on the ground in Denver. I think people feel like Denver is delivering on that.

They feel confident that the city is heading in the right direction. They were seeing big

“drops and homelessness in crime. But I think that's what you see acting out now and I think what”

we want is both. We want a city where we can have free markets that drive innovation and create jobs and also place where we can have strong safety nets that support all the gaps in those markets to make sure people are cared for. And so I think we've come out with a plan to do childcare for all. We're focusing on a plan to add 20,000 units of housing. So I think we're going to find that Denver residents believe we can do both. We can fight for change in Washington and we can

make sure we deliver results here at home in Denver. All right. When you were appointed President of the Democratic Mayor's Association, you said you want Democratic Mayor to lead the party's National Message heading into 2026 and the next presidential election. How can you do that with the strife within the Democratic Party itself? What did you learn from 2024 that informs how you think about Democratic messaging at a state and local level? It whiffs far too often and I'm not

doing this to be a party pessimist, but I ended up being a surrogate. I was like surrogate number 1200. So if Gavin Newsom would cancel, they'd send me to New Hampshire and I'd like who the hell is this guy? And we ended up having a great chat because I mean, look, and I don't want to be the cliched mayor's get stuff done guy. But really, we deal with every type of group you're talking about. We have a police union by and large in every one of our cities. So we're dealing with like

mega right-wing people. We're dealing with very active left-wing socialist folks and all the causes in between and we still balance a budget at the end of every year. We still find a way to address core issues. I do think that in narrative making actually having successes is a big part of what

is essential for a party going forward. President Trump, good batter and different acts like

things that shouldn't even be successes are. It's taking credit for the violent crime drop in cities around America, which is astonishing for those of those who run cities. He's taking credit anytime that there's actual positive economic indicator, which is it enough lately. But I do think that in the same way that if you go back 25, 30 years, Democratic governors are really central to messaging

“of how good common sense governing can happen. I think you have strong leaders in every state”

including every swing state. I look at my friend Cavalier Johnson and Wisconsin, right? You're looking at Mary Sheffield in Detroit. The types of mayors and people they can cut through messaging in all of those spaces and say no Democrats aren't scary. We are getting things done. Cities on the whole are rising. They're safer than they were a decade ago. They are going better. And I think that is why we need to be central. At least to some sort of message crafting. The other thing

that we don't have the fortune of doing is the naval gazing that Washington Democrats spend their time on. There are issues sometimes I go to a meeting. I don't even know about, right? I'm like, what the hell are you guys talking about? Your whole time has spent on it. We actually have to make decisions fairly quickly. I think that there is that. And my final point on this is we get a lot of reps. And maybe it's not national press. But I'll tell you, gum shoe, local reporters,

that have every reason to try to make their big career story like bringing you down. Actually, train you pretty well. And so I think that we are used to answering questions. We are used to actually explaining issues and building a city brand long term. Okay. I had been Whitler on political organizer and former Wisconsin Democratic chair. He talked about strengthening local organizing priorities for his and down ballot races as central the winning national elections.

So in the same vein, how do you do that as a mayor? What concrete thing could be done to strengthen

“the party at the local level? Very similar to the question I asked Quinn. I mean, I think it's about”

mobilizing people for things that they want to fight for as opposed to things they need to fight against. And I think that the things closest to their home with the things they're going to be

most excited about. I think the most powerful change we can bring in cities is what you

fundamentally see happening with Trump as if people expect something to get fixed and it doesn't get fixed. After a while, you can either believe it doesn't get fixed because your neighbors

screwing it up. Trump has tried to convince Americans to believe both of those arguments.

The way you win that argument is not by fighting back on the ideology. It's by actually proving his hypothesis wrong that actually we can fix things. You can solve the things that Quinn is talking about. And when you do that, you see resident show up fundamentally differently because now their instinct is actually to turn to each other and not to turn on each other. He fundamentally wants us to turn on each other. When people see that working together works, they're more inclined to do

it. They want to knock more doors, partner with more neighbors, get things done.

Our belief is if we can be that proof point in cities to show you get things done, people are more

excited to raise their hand and say, "Count me in. I want to help on this civic event or this party event or this opportunity for my town." That sort of gets people to believe again and then do want to engage again. All right, Helena, get the last word. Look, it's about talking about the

“issues that you mic and I deal with every single day. That's what's been missing. That you have”

all these other side issues. But overall, people when they drive to work, they want to make sure that they're driving on smooth streets. They want to make sure that overall that they've got the

right infrastructure, so those are the right drainage, at least here in the city of New Orleans.

They want to make sure that they can afford a place to live. They want to make sure that their children are going to good schools. These are the things that we deal with every single day, things that are right in front of people, right in front of people's faces. If we are talking about those issues and we're messaging those issues correctly, that's how things change. And Q and I talked about this all the time. We talked about this when he was in New Orleans,

that the messaging has to be about what people live with every day. And what are the problems that they're facing every single day? Not random things that are so out there that it's like,

“well, that's not really speaking to me because how is that going to make my life better?”

You know, here in our city, I can tell you that infrastructure and infrastructure investment is actually an affordability issue for us. So having federal dollars come in to help us with infrastructure to help us with drainage. Well, guess what? If you help us with drainage and help us build bio swells and significant investment, well, that means that somebody's house or car isn't going to flood when there is a storm. If once again on infrastructure, you help us with our streets,

you help us with our drinking water, help us with our streets right there. That means that your car doesn't get messed up when you go over a significant hot hole. Like those are the things that's speak to voters. That level of investment speaks is relatable. And so far, it just hasn't been relatable the message. Oh, right. Thank you guys so much. I know it's long. We do long hit your ears because we want them to be substantive. And I really appreciate all three of you.

And I'll let you get back to your Mayoring. Awesome. Thank you, Cara. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Have a good one. Thank you. Today's show was produced by Nishat Kerwa, Michelle Aloy, Catherine Millsop, Meghan Burnie, Madeline Leplant, Dubi, NK and Lynch. Special thanks to Lisa Sewup, Julia Sharplevine, Aemon Whalen, and Mara Davis. Our engineers are Fernando Ruda and Rikwan and our theme music is

by Tracodemics. If you're already following the show, your mayor is stealing ideas from Zoran Mombani. If not, your mayor is stealing ideas from Erica Adams. Go wherever you listen to podcasts search for on with Cara Swisher and hit follow. Thanks for listening to on with Cara Swisher from podium media in New York Magazine. The box media podcast network and us will be back on Monday with more.

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