22 Sides
22 Sides is a podcast that will let you get to know some fascinating people and keep up with many things that are happening in and around the Houston area.
22 Sides
From Activism to Leadership: Jack Valinski's Journey
Jack Valinski shares his four-decade journey as a Houston LGBTQ+ activist, from his role as Near Town Super Neighborhood president to his history with Pride celebrations and political advocacy through the Gay Political Caucus.
• Jack explains his current role as president of Near Town Super Neighborhood and how super neighborhoods function as civic clubs that interface with city government
• The fascinating evolution of Houston Pride celebrations from the early 1980s to today, including Jack's role in creating the night parade and iconic 8-foot disco ball
• How Jack approaches failure and organizational change by looking for "the next thing you can do to help"
• The significance of the GLBT Political Caucus's endorsement process and why its transparency matters for local democracy
• Reflections on Houston's transformation into America's most diverse city while facing current political challenges
• Jack's perspective on what makes Houston special, from its cultural diversity to its food scene and neighborhood character
• Strategies for effective advocacy in challenging political times, focusing on strategic work rather than solely visible protests
We hope you will listen often.
For more information, visit our website 22sides.com
Hi, I'm Alexis and I'm with Robin and Jack Valinski. Jack's one of the more interesting people I know. The real question we had, or I had anyway, was what topic do we bring up? Because I mean, we could talk about Jack's experience and Jack's opinions and Jack's knowledge for days.
Robin:And that's why we call it 22 Sides, because we have more than one side.
Alexis:We have lots of opinions and we've done a lot of things in life and you know, we may have Jack back or we may not. Who knows? Jack may decide not to come back, who knows? So say hi, jack, so that we know who you are.
Jack:Hi, Jack, and you know it all started at a 3,000 watt radio station, Sort of the Ted Knight story. Yes.
Alexis:Well, yeah, I mean Jack is a little bit scary to have on a podcast because Jack's sort of a professional radio person but retired, so that makes it okay, the unfortunate thing is radio's really gone.
Jack:In so many ways it just moved. Well, you know, bookstores are gone, record stores are gone they moved same place radio did.
Robin:They're hiding out somewhere in the mall? Yeah, pretty much. That's why we don't know where to find them. It is sad, it's different it's.
Jack:There are other things that are better. There are things that we miss about the way it was, so I got a question for you.
Alexis:Yes, I think that's what we're supposed to do, and that is you got this new position that's like president of near town super neighborhood.
Jack:So it's sort of an interesting journey Back when I was doing Pride many, many years ago.
Jack:Another one of those topics we'll talk about sometime. I'm sure One of the people there says his partner was getting involved in this organization and it was sort of mentioned that it was a civic club. It was a civic club of civic clubs, basically, and why it meant something to Pride was we were using their land, in a sense their area town, disrupting what they normally do. And I didn't know it until I read the original bylaws. But Pride was one of the stakeholders in Midtown. Now Midtown actually goes back a long time ago.
Jack:But when the city started Super Neighborhoods and that's a whole other topic Neartown Montrose morphed into being one of the 88 Super Neighborhoods, morphed into being one of the 88 super neighborhoods. And what super neighborhoods are and this was done under Mayor Lanier was because the city was so large, land-wise and population-wise it was also very big is that there were probably 400 to 1,000, we don't know civic clubs. Some of them were active, some were inactive and they thought to make it easier for the people to sort of work together and work with the city that they've divided the city up into 88 super name events.
Jack:It makes sense People don't understand how big Houston really is, and so Neartown was a name name, but it's also called montrose and I haven't dug down enough whether near how the actual name near town came in.
Alexis:okay, um both near to town and that makes sense why did they name well montrose?
Jack:besides the boulevard is the whole neighborhood which is basically from 69 up to the bayou, to Shepherd and to where it sort of divides downtown.
Robin:And how long have you lived in near town or Montrose?
Jack:I moved to Houston in 1981 and probably about a year and a half to two years later I moved to the famous 1400 Richmond. Okay, half to two years later I moved to the famous 1400 Richmond Okay and I stayed there for a while and then I found this condo I could afford and I've been there ever since.
Robin:Okay.
Alexis:And, I might add, it's in the process of being remodeled. Slowly, that's fine, it's been in the process of being remodeled, but that's okay. I think it's better to do it that way than try to do it all at once.
Jack:So when I went to work for the city in 2009, I sort of discovered what these super neighborhoods were and I started I was working for Councilmember Jones and I started going to these meetings and learned this whole thing about the super neighborhoods and learned this whole thing about the super neighborhoods and then, when the council member didn't get reelected, I found a job in the mayor's assistance office, which was not a political job, it was a civil service job, and we were the office the mayor's assistance office of about 10 people.
Jack:We all had a number of super neighborhoods that we worked in, you know, called know in our area, and one of them was was near town, and so I've been going to those meetings ever since and the leadership has been in place. You know, many years ago, dave robinson was the president, later became a council member and greg grand took over and he's you know he put in his time. He put in more than his time and did more than his work and was sort of rather disappointed that a lot of the work he did was somewhat being undone by the current mayor. And I had no ambitions to do this, but my name came up because I went to all these meetings and tried to help the best I could. So what this is is that the super neighborhood is made up of about 14 civic clubs and we help facilitate a platform to work with the city or other elected officials to represent our neighborhood.
Robin:Okay, and why is that important for people who don't understand what you're saying?
Jack:Well, I mean, the real thing I want to work on is a non-discrimination ordinance in the city of Houston.
Robin:Right, because we don't have one.
Jack:We don't have one, and with the current climate it doesn't seem that it probably will happen in my lifetime.
Robin:This has been a life goal of yours, right? Yes, yes and.
Jack:I failed at it. Yeah, it doesn't seem that it probably will happen in my lifetime. This has been a life goal of yours right?
Robin:Yes, yes, and I failed at it.
Jack:Yeah, you're failing forward every single time. Jack Joke about it, but you know and I'm not trying to compare myself to some other people, Sure, but you fail, sometimes. You fail. You learn from your failures and you move on.
Robin:Yeah, and how do you deal with failure? That's one of the questions that we like to ask people on this podcast, because if you're up to something, there's potential to fail, and you're somebody who has failed often, as you're saying, and and and you know, and we can laugh at it.
Robin:It's great. But for those that don't know you and I wouldn't say that I know you super personally, but you're somebody who always shows up and that can last a little bit when things are going your way. But when you have failure, how do you deal with failure and keep going?
Jack:you look at the next thing you can do to try to help out. Okay, and it's you know an organization will start and have a lot of you know workings and doing stuff, and then new leadership comes in, maybe a couple of times, and it's harder to keep an organization going than starting it and being involved in pride, being involved in the LGBT political caucus and being involved at KPFT at one time.
Robin:Just to name a few of your resume moments.
Jack:Those are the three things that I've worked pretty hard at.
Robin:And those are huge community-based groups that change all the time, but I think you also did an awful lot in the Department of Neighborhoods.
Alexis:Well, that was my professional job, Well yeah, but the others took as much time.
Jack:Well, and you know, as I got into that position, first of all I'd never imagined working for the city. It just happened. So I needed a job. I asked a bunch of people to sit down and give me some guidance, and one of those people was, at that time, council Member Jolanda Jones.
Robin:I mean just a name drop Jolanda.
Jack:Well, I'm name dropping her because she hired me and you know, let's be honest, it was a little bit tough, but it also was an incredible learning experience.
Robin:As it would be, as it would be, as it would be Well just, I mean the bureaucracy of how the city works is incredible.
Jack:There's like 27 departments, you know, including the airports, and you know I didn't deal much with the airports but people would sometimes ask questions about it. But but more of the road conditions and the trash pickup and stuff like that and there's a lot of topics, but in in our position we had no power to do anything.
Jack:So we would try to help by calling the other departments and sort of nicely talking to them and say can you help us with this? Sometimes the answer was no, sometimes the answer was yes and basically we were sort of and this is the interesting thing when I first took the job in the mayor's assistance office, the person I was was replacing I came in to meet him so that he can show me some things and the first thing he asked me who do you work for? And I said the mayor. He says no, you work for the people in the city. And that was absolutely true. You work for the people in the city. You know, and, as some people say, you know these mayors come and go, but the bureaucracy of the city, good and bad, continues.
Robin:Yes, and how do you deal with that change? Because I think a lot of people, whether they're volunteering because it's a passion or because they feel like they want to make something happen and, like you said, you can start stuff all day long but staying with it over time and as it changes, how do you deal with that?
Jack:uh, there's, I don't know that unraveling that chance transformation isn't always positive it's good and bad, I mean sometimes there's a lot of heartache, you know my heart was in radio because it told a lot of personal stories. You know it entertained. It also was like you get in front of a microphone. You're basically talking to one person many times over, but you're basically, you know, you gold, gold to talk to one person. That's totally changed. And we got other things like podcasts that we never had before and a lot more people can do it than before.
Jack:But like organizations like you know, pride, for example, I was the one who helped put the night parade together and there were people who didn't like the idea. There were people who thought we should move it to the spring or the fall, but eventually we chose that path. What's really interesting and this is sort of missing in this new mayor is that you talk to people. You have community outreach meetings, stakeholder meetings, and not everybody's going to be happy. Oh no, before we started was that like Budweiser was the company that supported Pride and the beer companies the other beer companies Nobody else would support Pride in the early days. Corporate sponsors and you always can do this without having these sponsors, but it costs money to do things.
Robin:Exactly.
Jack:Insurance, city permits, et cetera, et cetera, and now they're dropping out of some of the major prides this year and it's like they're gonna have to figure out how to make this shift that's a big shift you know, and maybe I I don't know this, but maybe prides have to start being more of a march where they started from, so where they became these big productions.
Robin:So just for a little context, what was your first Pride? Like which year?
Jack:1982. Okay, and I really didn't know anything about it, but Lee Harrington and Larry Bonariz were the two people I knew among other people that did it. But I basically the first thing that I did was at the reviewing stand, whispered in Lee Harrington's ear who was coming up next, because the parade was totally out of order and just.
Jack:But it all worked and everybody loved it, as it can be out of order one of the famous things that Ray Hill told me when I was once talking about the pride in the parade and I was going on about, he says 76 trombones and I said, ray, what are you talking about? And Ray says you know, our parades got a lot to do. We need to do them much better. But to the people in our community it's like those kids who played those instruments in that musical, who couldn't play the instruments, but the parents thought they were great Because they were their kids and it sort of made me think it's like yes, and Lee Harrington was also this person who was never formerly part of Pride but was sort of there on the outside edging me on and other people to do things better, and that was fun, it was actually was great me on and other people to do things better, and that was fun, it was, and actually it was great.
Jack:I mean he was really the force that moved us to the night parade but he was never really formally part of it and actually the better part of the story is and he, he got the designs from Sydney, australia, because they were already doing it. He got so many ideas and stuff and then one of the I mean one of the sort of really behind the scenes thing that Lee Harrington did, and every time he'd do something he'd call me up and say I'm going to do this, is this okay?
Robin:And I said, yeah, sure, sure. So he started. I love a behind the scenes guy, I love a cheerleader, I love you. Know, everyone has to have a little personal pep team. Like it's never just done on one person or by one person.
Jack:Well, I used to to watch the tomorrow show, you know tom snyder, because he talked a lot about behind the scenes, yeah, so, like the team that made the team, you know, yeah. And so, uh, lee said we need to have this like thing that sort of signified what the parade was or something like you know awesome thing, and he came up with this idea of a eight and a half foot disco ball I mean that's not a bad idea, it's a great idea.
Jack:But so Lee was like he's like something that says party when was it. So it was at Montrose and Westheimer.
Robin:There we go, our signature, you know, center of the city, yes, center of the community, in the intersection.
Jack:So he got, he found this redneck, you know, designer, handyman, whatever.
Robin:Dude's like I can break glass and glue it.
Jack:And he came up with the plans, but we had no money. So Lee started calling these advertising agencies. Okay, you know, and then once he did a lot, he did a lot. I mean, once he found somebody who was interested, he says I don't know how to do this, and he turned it back over to us.
Robin:That's a brilliant thing to say. Yes, we need to say that more.
Alexis:He said you know, it occurred to me and I had you know. I mean, I know the story and everything, but it just occurred to me. That's the same thing Ray Hill always did.
Jack:Well, and I've done that too, I mean, I didn't know how to do it. What.
Robin:I don't know how to do this, but I'll ask the people who do, or I'll look into it, or, you know, it's not always because a mistake happened. But especially if a mistake happened, don't double down Like it was a bright idea, you know, know, and I think that a lot of people in any field have to be given the space to say I don't know. Like that's a powerful moment where you can call in people that do, you can get creative, like there's nothing wrong with that well, in one year I came when ray was in charge of pride.
Jack:I came to him this is we really need to do like a souvenir booklet uh, you know, pride guide. And I, and he says, go do it. I says I don't know the first thing. Sure, and he points me to this person named Elroy Forbes, and Elroy was sort of a PR person and put these things together and he showed me how to do it. Sure, and not too far from where we are now we spend an entire weekend at a person who had a Macintosh and a laser printer and we put that thing together.
Alexis:At the time it was top technology. It was top technology. That's a big deal.
Robin:Yes, by the time I came along, my first Pride was 2002. And all the people who were there to enjoy Pride would park at Copycom's parking lot. So you know, there was a whole parking lot of printers at that point. Yeah, no, it's great, I just I think that, after going through all of these groups, it's an amazing thing that you didn't burn out. Did you ever have?
Robin:like a season where it was like you had to go restore yourself and then come back. Or is it just something you always do, because you had to do it Like you feel, like that's your part in community?
Jack:It's sort of a mixture. I mean, yes, you get tires and I actually said this to the council about you know, having open meetings and things. I said you know, back then we had public open meetings once a month for Pride at the multipurpose center up there, so it was open to the public and parking and all this Nice. I said the most important meeting to me was not the meeting before the event, when you do all the last minute stuff and everything. It was the meeting after, because that's when you got the feedback from the community.
Jack:The real talk, and you'd get stuff that there's no way you can do, but there was a lot of constructive criticism where we tried to do it. In fact, some of us would, at the end of the parade, when it ended around midnight, would go back to our office and start drinking, but we talked about what happened today and how we're going to make it better. Sure.
Robin:Sure, that's a wonderful thing. Would you consider yourself a visionary? Because you do show up over and over again and you're not just somebody that shows up to work, you're somebody who shows up that says how you think it can work, and that's a certain type of person, probably in a sense I was thinking about this, larry Bonnerese, who was the president of the caucus.
Jack:Back in the early 80s they came up with this plan to bring tina turner to the summit, which back then was a venue sure not a bad church.
Jack:Yeah, everyone loves a little tina this well, this was sort of when tina broke up with her husband and really wasn't known, okay, and they they, you know brought her to town and actually it was a financial failure. But when they brought her to town, larry said to me you know, we want to buy, we got some money, let's put some ads on the radio stations. And so I figured I asked one of the I worked at a professional radio station back then I asked the announcer if he would do the voicing and I put it together and I sort of knew how to put it on reel-to-reel and we put these ads on Magic and Curly I don't know if Curly's still around, I don't know Two predominantly black music. Magic is, and we didn't run that many commercials, but people said they were driving off the road when they heard this commercial. I mean, it doesn't sound that big now, but back then it was to say the word gay.
Robin:You know, on a mainstream radio station in a big city like Houston. It's a big deal.
Jack:Okay, so you know. And he just told me he says here, do it. So you know. And he just told me he says here, do it. You know, just like when Don Rockabee was the genius who put together the list and figured out how to do it for the caucus way back in the 70s and they were actually on punch cards at one time and he figured it out and unfortunately he was one of the earlier people who passed Right for bates. And so ray was president that year of the caucus and that he ended up having the computers. And he called me this other person named mike stubblefield, who's no longer with us me he says here's the computers, fix it. Yeah, and boy, we had to learn how to do it. We had to learn how to do it, let alone the technology back then I mean, that's another thing to underscore.
Robin:There's a lot of learning when you don't know what to do and you're just going to keep going forward. You better be open to learning because there's a lot to learn. What were you going to say?
Alexis:The other thing about it is, with that kind of learning, there is timing that just comes along and you can't really affect it. It's like it's got to be done by this time, because that's when it has to be done.
Jack:That's exactly true, and it's like many times, if I have some spare time, I'd like to learn something, but there's not that push to say I need to get it done.
Robin:Well, I'm laughing because it's like the show must always go on. But when you're in so many groups that are doing so much, jack, it's like I can only imagine your calendar is always the show is going on. You're somebody who's involved in like voting and pride, and I, you know now this super group.
Jack:I mean, your calendar looks probably full, but I'm not doing some of the stuff I used to do. Okay, and what's also very interesting is to see the other people who help along the way or come up with ideas, and as much as you said you this. Well, you know, I've had people come along and say I'd like to do this project and you know, if it's feasible, go for it. You know, and it's like we put together I didn't, it was a guy, a person named troy christianson put together the 25th anniversary of pride. He put this together, this documentary wow, video documentary of the previous Grand Marshals and it's just a really. And he, because he wanted to do it and we were able to allow you know, not allow, but have the resources for him to do it.
Robin:That's a beautiful thing.
Alexis:Yeah, and Troy's one of these people that'll take over something and make it happen. Yeah. Gotta love those people, and I mean you know some of the things I was thinking about, like with the caucus at one point in yeah, gotta love those people. And finally, I just said I'm just going to do a website. It won't be the best website in the world, but it'll have the functions we need.
Robin:So a group of people got together and said that they needed a political caucus for the LGBT community.
Alexis:That was a long time ago. That was way before this.
Robin:What point did you two come along in that?
Jack:Well, I started in. I moved to Houston in 1981 and I started working in the community in 1982.
Robin:Was the caucus already around?
Jack:The caucus started in 1975, in 1975. It's their 50th anniversary. If they survive this year, okay. I was going to say if they make it yes.
Robin:Just plugging along. Yes.
Jack:And the first thing I sort of learned at the caucus was how to do bulk mailing.
Robin:Okay, I mean that's yeah.
Jack:Yeah, that's very sort of nerdy thing, but we mailed out the cards, the endorsement cards these people and there was a uh, a female couple that knew how to do it and there was, like all these inner sequences that you had to do and not get the bureaucrats at the post office upset with you.
Robin:It's a whole thing.
Jack:Yes, it's a whole thing. And I mean it's not something we do now, because things change, but going downtown to the post office with your bags of mail, yeah big bag and figuring out how to do it. The interesting thing is we found out that you can bring that mail into the post office until 9 pm. Sure, and we figured. We found out that the later we got to the closing time, the sooner the mail got out to the community.
Robin:There you go.
Jack:There's some strange thing about the machines not being busy or something like that. You found the magic yeah, and so we were getting this discount rate because it was bulk mail, because you sort of did some of the sorting, but basically we were getting out like it was first-class mail.
Robin:Oh, that's wonderful. Okay, so for people who don't understand what a political caucus is, the intention is to be able to court and endorse your next representatives.
Jack:And every organization is different. Okay, and the Houston GLBT Plus Political Caucus in Houston, which changed its names like every season.
Alexis:Yes, I was going to say I think it's GLBTQ Plus, but it may not be. I never get it right and at some point wasn't it like just the caucus? It was Gay Political Caucus. It was the Gay Political Caucus.
Jack:Okay, okay, and then we started adding but the unique thing of what the caucus does is the sophistication of how they do the screening and endorsing. For politicians, For politicians, yes, and that it's nonpartisan. A lot of the other sort of groups in different communities that did what we did.
Alexis:We do had either fallen apart or were not effective or were what was called pay for endorsements. And you know, one of the big things about it is that the caucus. You know you can say lots of bad things about it. I can probably say worse things than a lot of people. But with the screenings it's done cleanly. There's no favoritism shown. Sometimes I don't like the results that they come up with, but you have a chance to express that if you want. And that's the big thing, the whole screening and endorsement process is made to provide fairness and openness and give every member a say in what happens. If they don't like what the screening committee decided, no problem, they can certainly voice their displeasure and if a lot of people do it, they can reverse it. And that's something that's very unique. Most of the other groups the board pretty much goes in and decides who's going to be endorsed.
Robin:Well in the local group. I like the fact that anyone can volunteer to actually be on the screening committee as long as you're a member. Okay, as long as you're a member, and that gives people access to actually talking with politicians so they learn what their answers would be in real time. They learn what it's like to talk to somebody of that caliber. They might be surprised that it's really not that high of a caliber because they're not endorsed yet, or they might have been somebody who's been in the seat for years. It depends.
Alexis:And every now and then you'll get somebody who's new or someone who's not new that after going through almost an hour of screening the person and everybody's thinking good person, everything's great They'll ask a question and the answer just won't be OK, and you know, and it just comes out of the blue and you're sort of like oh, I'm really glad you asked that question, because we weren't getting that.
Robin:Well, a lot of times I meet people who want to vote. They've obviously heard about the pressure to vote. They get registered because they know there's a startup process, but as far as like where to start, how to do the research, they get bogged down in it, especially with some of our voting times. They could have over like 20 seats on one voting time.
Jack:We have the longest ballot in the country. Part of that is just the way the system is set up, With Harris County being the third largest county in the country, and the fact in Texas you vote for judges has made the ballot the longest in the country.
Robin:Which means you have the most say about who's running your life. I think people underappreciate or under view. They just don't understand the power of Harris County During the last presidential election, I heard so many people say, well, what can Texas do for the president? And I'm like, excuse me, it's not even what could Texas do, it's what could Harris County do.
Jack:So if you actually understood the amount of people, you know, I spent many, many, many hours pushing the caucus card.
Robin:Yes, you did personally.
Jack:And it's. It's interesting. It's sort of sort of called camp West gray. I call it um the people that work. A lot of them are paid to do this work.
Alexis:Long hours, yeah, long hours by the way I consider them paid entertainment.
Jack:It is because of just meeting different types of people, different backgrounds.
Alexis:Exactly.
Jack:The people that work there and then the candidates come by a lot of times, especially when we talk about Absolutely a lot of West Gray. The West Gray location is usually the biggest. The most voters go there for early voting.
Alexis:And the news media is usually there.
Jack:Yeah, the news media, that's the other thing.
Alexis:Yes, so you know, if the news media are there and there's a lot of people there, candidates will show up.
Jack:Oh yes, they will. I was interviewed by somebody from Hong Kong last time.
Robin:Oh, how neat.
Alexis:And there was somebody from the Washington Post writing articles A few years ago we had a large news crew from Germany, yes, and they just picked some place to look at our elections because they've been all this official, how they work and they want to know how they really work.
Robin:Well, it's such an important location to look at our elections, because they've been all this official how they work and they want to know how they really work. Well, it's such an important location. I could see why they would do that, and I get people that are maybe afraid because it's their first time voting, and I always suggest West Gray because there's plenty of parking. There's always allies there. You can't say that about every voting location in Houston because there's a lot, but they get you through the line really quickly. They're always positive and oftentimes you get to maybe meet somebody you're voting for and can talk it out with them right there.
Robin:Yes, In less than 15 minutes. Where else can you get that? And you will not see that on television. Most of the time when someone is showing oh, the horrific view of the voting, you know they'll see. They'll show devastated lines of people that are fainting.
Alexis:It took three or four hours.
Robin:And a lot of people in Houston think that that is what the experience always is and it's like no, that's what news is portraying. That's not what's really going on.
Alexis:You know, and like this group from Germany, I mean, they had a family that they had located that this was their first time voting in the US and it was two kids that were old enough to vote and mother and father. They just got their citizenship and they were sort of following them through the whole voting process and they show up and they're like so what do we do?
Robin:Yeah, I'm glad that they're finally making videos about that, because you know.
Alexis:And then the funniest thing was they were saying well, you know, we've never met a politician. And I'm looking around, we have none of the politicians there other than them. And I'm like, well, would you like to meet some we?
Robin:can go play introduction.
Alexis:And you know they were just amazed that judges would talk to them and, trust me, prejudges, if you will. People running for office really want to talk to them. It's like this is five votes in one place and I get on the news.
Robin:It takes a lot to get people to the voting polls and that's an understatement. But when you're actually there, especially at West Gray, I'll take a lot of my friends there and I'll be their line buddy. But we'll all have our different endorsement cards, whether it's from the caucus or the Houston Chronicle or I don't know all the other ones. In voter, in voter. You know the Women's League. Do they do one?
Alexis:No, they just do information.
Robin:Okay, so they all have their cards and we're kind of evaluating in line, if you will, and when we're evaluating it's not horrible. There's no, you know, judgments. It's what do you think and why is this important? And, by the way, what the heck with this proposition? You know like there's always like proposition misunderstanding or lack of knowledge, because it seems to be the least reported. But I find a lot of times we make friends in line and it's very friendly, which again is a lot, delivered in 15 minutes if the line is going really fast.
Alexis:so yeah, and then you know, I think that's one of the big things and, with the caucus, the thing that I can say that's positive about it is that the screening and endorsement has never had too much scandal. They've had complaints, but this it just hasn't been totally scandalous or anything where it was all fixed, at least not in the last few years. And most people find that they may not have enjoyed their screening experience I'm talking about the candidates but they appreciate the fact that it was done cleanly. It wasn't something where they were attacked or anything, and if they were, then someone came to their defense at the same time.
Robin:I can't even count how many people every election cycle and there's plenty in Houston I mean there's a real reason to have voter fatigue. But I can't count how many people will message me and say I forget where to look, where should I go? Or I know you pay attention to this, like where can I get started? Where can I get started? And they really appreciate just a starting point, because if you were going to do a voters ballot and then find the politicians website and go from there, you're not really getting a real view at them. So I do appreciate the caucuses work, even though there's a lot of politics involved in the politics.
Alexis:Yeah, and some of it's frustrating, to say the least.
Robin:I always say it's a starting point, Like do your own research, but it's a starting point.
Alexis:So Sorry, that'll be cut out, so you know I have a different set of questions. Okay, we have elections. What's wrong with me? I?
Robin:have my opinion of that, that's fine. Jackie just went to the doctor. What's wrong with me? I have my opinion of that, that's fine. You want me to start? Jack, you just went to the doctor.
Jack:What's going on, just so people know. Not physically, there's three of us.
Alexis:Jack Maria and I that have lunch most Sundays.
Robin:Okay, sorry, start that over. What were we not here to hear from you what I was going?
Alexis:to say was that this is nice history, but what do you think's getting ready to happen now? We've got what's gonna happen now we got trump, you know, up in washington it is so not my personal favorite yeah, it's just so.
Jack:So much of what so many of us work for, you know, living through aids. Um, the fact that I'm still here is sort of a scientific miracle.
Robin:And how old are you? For the people who are not watching this, I'm 71 years old.
Jack:I was diagnosed HIV positive in 2000, just as the drugs got to be really good.
Robin:Okay.
Jack:I am absolutely amazed that I have a great doctor and the people in the medical field are just great, that the science, you know, I know unfortunately we lost a lot of people, but that they, you know we haven't cured it right but the fact that there are pills there are pills out there and medication, uh, for people and and part of my drive is that we lost those people and and I do remember, you know, the parade used to be on a Sunday afternoon and it was really hot. It's hotter now, I think, than it was hotter 30 years ago, but it was sort of like somebody being really sick and wanting to go home to Christmas with their family. Well, in our community it was going to see the Pride Parade and it just is just incredible. You know they would see the parade, andade, and it just is just incredible. They would see the parade and then two days later they'd pass. That was their.
Robin:Because people pass very quickly.
Jack:They wanted to see the parade and part of our mission was to make the parade always better, dealing with the fact that a lot of these entries do not have a lot of money Right. Dealing with the fact that a lot of these entries do not have a lot of money Right. Dealing that you know, I always looked at. Being the director of pride or being part of the leadership is that we're sort of the captain but we're steering all these people to, hopefully, a good place. And being a leader doesn't mean you get to make all the decisions. You have to listen to your constituents and do your best to represent them and move forward.
Jack:I remember one of the first times I went to a Pride conference and it happened to be in San Francisco, like in 86, I think it was. It was me, larry Bonariz and Ray Hill, and we're going to the open plenary meeting and Larry and Ray were arguing about where they were going to sit in that room and I'm like I don't know why they're doing this and I said to Ray, why are you doing this?
Jack:And he says where you sit in the room, you can control the meeting.
Robin:Okay, so Ray Hill knew a lot of tips.
Jack:There were so many things. It's like when you go to a meeting you read a room, Like last week I went to a Metro board meeting and I was there watching the room of how they deal with matters and every time it's different. I mean, every organization is different, Just like when I was working for the city. Every super neighborhood was different of how they run their meetings, of how the interest they want, the dynamics of the meeting. So that's really serious, Very different yeah.
Robin:Yeah, no, it's a really good tip for people who are trying to make a change and evaluate things.
Alexis:Yeah, all the organizations have a pattern. I mean, my view is there's a place with, like, the caucus endorsement meeting, there's a place to sit with the caucus regular meeting. There's a place to sit with the caucus regular meeting, there's a place to sit in the super neighborhood meeting, and those don't seem to change.
Jack:Well and.
Alexis:Unless you change where they're located.
Robin:Jack and working the room, unless the AC is going like really high powered and it's already cold outside. You know just making jokes, but you know logistic wise it's, it's been an issue but, I don't mean to interrupt.
Jack:Well, and it's also working the room. You know if you're trying to get something passed or done. It's like you talk to people and you know it's also that you know you may not like the person, but they may want the same thing you want Exactly, or the openness of the process.
Alexis:Or you just can't stand the other one at all.
Robin:I mean, there are times that you vote against rather than for. Exactly, you never know where you're going to make alliances.
Alexis:You know, and I think you know, that's one of the big things. But we've got sort of a pause in elections here for a little while. I mean, it seems like we normally have elections every month of some sort.
Jack:Yes, we do, and the governor just announced that the congressional district 18 election will be in November.
Alexis:Right.
Jack:And I don't think a lot of people realize that means there will probably be a runoff in December. Exactly so that's a long time for 800,000 people not to be represented in Congress.
Alexis:Well, but that's the plan.
Jack:Yeah, that's the plan Exactly.
Alexis:I mean, the plan is to have them not represented, because their representative wouldn't represent what the governor likes and what the president likes.
Robin:Yes, and to your point you were looking at where are we going as a society? Where are we going with the current leadership?
Alexis:Well, I mean you know, one of the things is and a lot of people don't realize this one of the reasons we have so many elections is that we have national elections, federal elections, we have state elections, we have county election, we have various and sundry school board elections and tax district elections. I mean, we have elections on top of elections on top of elections. And then we have the one that I find fun because it seems to be a total free-for-all, and that is the city elections. I mean, city elections is non-partisan theoretically, and what that really means is that it just seems to be a big mess, you know I.
Jack:I think the thing I'm more concerned about is in the current environment.
Jack:It's like we seem to be going backwards okay in so many ways and, and I don't know, I mean I should probably be sitting in a rocking chair somewhere and just watching the parade go by, but and I don't quite understand why more of us are not out there, you know, protesting or trying to do something. The fact that marriage equality may go away, the fact that the you know Lawrence v Texas ruling about the sodomy law that may go away, the fact that our sisters and brothers who are transgendered are just losing everything, and some of us not me are sitting quite happily working for a corporation that had a diversity wing of it and that's probably going to go away.
Alexis:If you're teaching at a university and it's a Texas State University, that goes away A lot of that diversity.
Robin:So you say you don't understand, and I mean as lived. Both of you have passed 70 years old. You've lived through a lot of movement work, a lot of volunteering, a lot of organizations that cared about human rights. Do you think it's because the momentum stopped? I mean, the need is still there. In fact, it's really there, and I hear this a lot like why aren't there more people doing something? But actually from people who were in this movement at different sectors and different angles, what do you think it really is?
Jack:I'm not. I certainly don't know the answer. It could be that some of the younger people do not know where we came from and they've got. Things seem to be okay for them right now. You know they have a job or they have medical coverage or they can get married, and I just don't know what does it take? And the women's movement, who has been attacked much more recently? It's just totally scary about what we have the freedom of the press that we have. You know there's major newspapers are owned by billionaires and they don't. You know those newspapers aren't as open as they used to be. But then again there's a Wall Street Journal who starts to say, hey, what's going on? It's totally crazy.
Alexis:Well, yeah, but I think the other thing about it is that, you know, to begin with, I think the election was fair. Donald Trump was elected. I haven't seen anything that says there was all sorts of weird stuff other than buying votes, but that happens every time. That's not anything unusual. And the real question I guess I have is when people talk about doing things, I mean, I don't like to do things that just show up on television or, you know, they make the news or something like that. I like to do things that will actually have a chance of changing something. Sure, right now, things are still unstable enough that I don't know exactly what that is, because normally the best way to approach this is to figure out who is doing things and who can do things, and start working on strategies that will get what we need, and I've done that for a long long long time.
Alexis:I mean, I rarely go to Austin and you know, raise flags or testify. I've testified a few times. But you know the fact is going to the Texas Senate and testifying at 2 in the morning, yeah, it gets, you know, some news coverage. It doesn't do anything. They've made up their mind, they don't care. They actually, you know, find it humorous that they can cause you to show up and spend your entire nights and week doing nothing. That's going to make any difference.
Robin:Exactly that's going to make any difference Exactly. I've seen a lot of resources spent on that from families over the years and the politicians are in their seat doing their job, but the families are wasting their resources or using their resources.
Alexis:And not only that. The politicians that are not our friends, shall we say, use that to raise more money.
Robin:Exactly. So the question is I kind of thought, if people could share their story just one more time, you know that whole like just show me your human being and then they'll change their mind. It's like actually there's been a lot of people who have done that.
Alexis:If that worked, you'd think it would be done by now. Yeah, and there's no facts about this that they don't understand, they don't care. Yeah, exactly, and you know I mean.
Robin:And a lot of their jobs is to make sure it doesn't get done.
Alexis:Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Robin:Caring or not caring, they have a job as well.
Alexis:Well, and you know, a few years ago, I was like, yeah, okay, so we talked to all sorts of liberal and Democrat politicians. That's great. Why don't we go talk to the Republicans? Because they're the ones that we have trouble with they're available as well, and fortunately, at that particular time I had the ability to get people to set me up with meetings, and so I went and talked to 34 of the top Republicans in the Texas House. That was interesting.
Robin:That's a good number.
Alexis:You know, and they were carefully selected to be people that know stuff, not people who are nice, and I made that really clear, and a couple of local politician here and the Speaker of the House set it up, and so I went to Austin and allowed people to berate me and call me names, which?
Robin:nobody do. We're in Texas.
Alexis:Three of them told me how we get equality legislation in Texas. Okay, they told me very specifically.
Robin:Okay.
Alexis:And we've started doing that.
Alexis:Okay, and you know it being done quietly, because if people figure out what you're doing, then there may be a bigger problem.
Alexis:But their whole thing was look, I need equality legislation because I want to bring businesses to Texas and I need that to bring businesses to Texas and I need that to bring businesses to Texas, right, in fact, one person said I don't really give a shit about your community or your quote people, but I need equality legislation. So right now we're on the same side of this. Here's how you do it, and we got that started with the help of several people in the Texas legislature. Some of them I don't even know. I haven't met and I have to look up their name each time to see who submitted the bills, and so you know it's proceeding along slowly and my biggest thing is that's a lot harder to do than driving up to Austin for two days, and you know partying and that's what people need to understand is you need to do the hard work as well as the easy work, and I'm all for people who feel that they've got to go out there and protest.
Jack:Oh sure, that's great, that's absolutely great. Sure, especially peacefully. We had a big event downtown Houston this past weekend.
Robin:Yeah, the hands off our democracy.
Jack:I didn't go. I should have went, you know, and sometimes I just like to be working on the computer stuff and learning stuff or using that, and I'm not talking about Facebook, but like I'm building a website now.
Robin:I don't know how to build a website. Okay, it takes a while. It takes a while.
Jack:Yeah, yes, yes, and so we all do different things. As long as you know, we work together and it's great to see these people out there. Every week there's a John Corden protest. How many weeks is it? They're close to 500.
Alexis:Yeah that's what I was thinking. It's 400 and something. Yes, yes, every week.
Robin:I mean, I know there's a lot of people that check in with Ted Cruz's dog. I mean, there's different ways to show how you feel about things, but after seeing so many years of movement, what would you like to see? Because I think a lot of times people say similar to what Alexis was getting to is, when things are so unstable, it's like, well, what is there to do. I think people get a little frozen.
Alexis:Well, and Trump. Abbott was doing a little bit of this, but Trump's doing the same thing, and that is he's putting out so much stuff that has to be responded to that you simply can't respond because you're playing by the rule. He's not.
Robin:Right and in fairness, like, okay, right, our politicians, some of our politicians, started this hate rhetoric and this hate policy that has affected the nation. So, in, in fairness, talking to our politicians, don't always go that far and let's say, you get even super precise where, like, their hate policy put you in a hard way, you're suing them and you're publicly going as far as you can to call them out, like the white, blonde, blue-eyed women who were forced to be in a medical position for abortion or ectopic pregnancies, and Cruz and Cornyn don't even bother to show up.
Jack:Well, and who would have thought we'd be dealing with measles?
Alexis:The anti-vaxxers didn't know that.
Robin:I mean the vaxxers.
Alexis:Kennedy thought we would deal with it. You know I mean measles. People don't understand how bad measles really is. Well, they're getting a dose of it, that's for sure, yeah and you know it's also funny that in the western part of texas there are lines for measles vaccine every day. That's good to hear. Thankfully and it's sort of like oh good, they figured out that being vaccinated is better than dying.
Robin:And sometimes it comes at a really hard cost and I wish those families well. And I think that's a little bit about what the answer is that there is to do, because with every new generation or people who never learned what there was to learn, whatever the topic is, we have to re-educate. You know, there was a time where Alexis thought people didn't need to know what safe sex education was, because everybody did know how you could catch AIDS.
Alexis:We were going to stop pushing that from TFA Transgender Foundation of America and then I got a phone call from somebody who's been around the community forever and they're like how do you get AIDS? And they were serious.
Robin:And I had a friend that called me and I was like, oh shit, I was wrong. Yeah, sometimes you're in something so much you think everyone is educated or the people know what they need to know. But even during the pandemic, people said, well, do you think masks even work? And I'm like, yeah, barriers are a thing. And then I'm like, oh, oh, you don't use any.
Jack:Oh Well, Okay well, where do we start with this conversation we can have a few Years ago in the parade when the cameras came out and interviewed people watching the parade and they would say, oh, the politicians are going to realize how big we are and how all this stuff and we'll get our rights, like the next day. That's not how that works.
Robin:No, that's not how it works.
Jack:But part of it is in going back to Harvey Milk is give people hope, right, and you know we don't. I mean, our community has evolved so much since that and it's much larger and it's great that some of us are part of PTOs and management districts or whatever. We're involved in all aspects of that. That is really good that we moved on there and the fact that in part of my area that I worked in the city was Spring Branch and I remember going out there one day and this person says, oh, I saw you on Channel 8 talking about the Paul Bazaar murders and she said you were really good and I thought, well, this is really neat murders. And she said you were really good and I thought, well, this is really neat. You know, yeah, sometimes you get those, you you make those connections that that you didn't think you could or understand it all. But part of it is being yourself.
Robin:You know, hopefully you can be yourself sometimes it's hard sometimes, especially when you can't get employed to be yourself these days exactly exactly. I mean, someone said to me the other day they said, robin, I don't understand why more people, uh, are not sharing their story coming out and now's the time to fight. And I said, well, are they employable after that? And they said, well, I don't know. And I said, well, they're making it really clear that they don't want to employ people like that.
Jack:So that's a hefty protest and you know it comes at a cost, as their individual story, you know, and because what families they grow up with, where they grow up and they're dealing with different things, or what religion they're part of. So everybody has their own barrier and the coming out story is still a story, you know, for every.
Robin:Yeah, sometimes multiple coming out as it turns out.
Alexis:Out the end out.
Robin:Yeah, I wonder, what did you ever think? Living as long as you have seen what you have seen, what did you ever think a win was, you know, like, where were people willing to get to? I mean, medicine, where you can live as long as you have, is one win for sure. And I do think that some of the younger generation to some degree depending on what topic we're talking about does feel more comfortable, does feel more privileged with some things that they haven't had to have certain hardships on, so they may not see what there is to do, but isn't that also a win to some degree, like, wouldn't it? It's not like we can completely cure aids or hate and all this other stuff in one lifetime, but I guess it was a win giving those people their own power, okay to be able to deal with it, sort of like.
Jack:That makes sense in a different dimension. Back in the 70s, 60s and 70s in britain they didn't have pop radio stations over there because bbc that makes controlled it okay, and so what they did was there was radio luxembourg that would do some stuff, but there was ships that they put transmitters on and they were called pirate radio stations. Wow, the parallel here is that they had the flamethrowers they called it in mexico across the border, although those were more religious stations, but wolfman jack worked at one of them and it's like and then they had the same thing on the northern border too, in canada yes, not so much, but one of them was called radio caroline because somebody saw a picture of Caroline Kennedy in a newspaper and thought the freedom she had when she was there.
Jack:We all sort of got to figure out how the best we can and in many ways the internet has helped us a lot to be able to find that way. It's also hurt us a lot because the untruths and the lies are also in there and people just believe this and in some ways it's worse because we're all in our little bubble right.
Robin:It's hard to critically think, it's hard to say things and hear people nicely say wait a minute. That's not how that works, you know and and oh, you didn't check your thinking on that one, you know.
Jack:Like, let's catch you in your thoughts before there's problems on the other hand, sometimes younger people don't know the barriers and just go forward.
Alexis:They go charging in and you're sort of like, okay, that's the other word and that's that's great so I want to take us back to something that I accidentally cut jack off sure, because he got passionate like melalani, like about the, about the media.
Robin:I love.
Alexis:No, like I said, I accidentally cut it off and then we went a different direction, and that is so. What do you think we should be doing?
Jack:I really don't know, and what.
Jack:I'm doing may not be the way to do it. You know, I mean, I think part of the thing that we've heard over the years is that if you talk to your neighbors, you talk to the people you know. And you know, like I said, in a bubble, living in Montrose is sort of living in a bubble. We're nodding our heads. Yeah, I walked down the street the other day and there's this person on a corner lot with all these Trump signs. So you know, it's all over there. The fact that my home city, scranton, pennsylvania, has pride celebrations, that is really neat.
Robin:And here in.
Jack:Texas. We've got the Woodlands and Galveston and Fort Bend doing these celebrations. It's great.
Alexis:And Bastrop, don't forget, and Midland.
Robin:What does it take to have a pride in a small town of Texas? Oh, it's really simple, I mean.
Alexis:Bastroff pride is quite, quite, quite simple Barbecue beer and a drag queen.
Robin:And why is that important? Because people want to ban it. They want to ban it, but like why is that important?
Alexis:They like beer and barbecue.
Robin:But why is pride important? Because a lot of people say why do you even need pride?
Jack:Because we still have these limitations of what we can do. And I think actually sort of parallel is a transgender dinner. My understanding it's one of the most unique things that's done in the country, yes. Done in in the country, yes. Um the fact that you have a safe place for transgender people and their friends and their friends and their friends to be there.
Jack:And I don't go to very many banquets because I, you know they're expensive, sure, and I don't need to be there to be seen, sure, but I love going to transgender dinner, even, even sometimes when those speeches go on, oh God, they're very long, but it's there to see this event that is so unique and is part of you know, I consider it part of my community that people can express themselves and Pride is, in a way, a bigger thing. And, you know, when we the numbers they say are now 850,000, which I totally don't believe, but when the parade was back in Montrose and we believe that we hit 150,000, that was just, you know, incredible.
Jack:Yes, and you know, when you talk about the disco ball that was out there, I will never forget the year, the first year we're out there and Mary Benton was working for Channel 2. And she's doing a live report at 10 o'clock for the news and she's standing in the street there in front of the Grand Marshal stand and the pavement was a reflection of the light.
Robin:Wow.
Jack:And it's just like wow.
Robin:One big disco city that going to a pride parade and going to the transgender unity banquet has a lot of similarities for me specifically. But a lot of people that you get refueled, you get replenished, you get yes new, a new sense of like you're saying, it busts up all those bubbles and you actually get to see who your community is, you. You get to feel celebration, like those are life-giving, life-saving things.
Jack:And sort of a parallel. I started in the 80s to go to the Pride conferences and they'd be in different cities, big and small, and they were mostly United States, and then they moved on to be more worldwide and the stories that you would hear, especially from the smaller pride committees, of what they did and I believe it was Topeka that they they had a banner district so they were able to put up their banners and then somebody tore them all down. Also, some, some of them from outside of the United States, were basically saying their, their GLBT. They could be put in jail.
Alexis:And that they do these events. Oh yeah, we're getting there. Oh, absolutely yeah, that's the scary part here.
Robin:Absolutely I mean to be expressed as yourself whether it's for identity or sexuality or fetish. Play like it can cost you your life still in this world and a lot of people lose sight of that or they just really don't even know. And I appreciate you coming in sharing everything with us and I want to ask it in a different way. So if you weren't doing something like, if you were in the rocking chair of your life, enjoying your days that you have worked really hard for and you still have, what would the communal we be doing? Like, what is it that you would hope to see for the community or the world that you don't necessarily have to shoulder? But in a vision like Harvey Milk, of like leaving people with hope, like what would that future look like at this point?
Jack:Well, the hope is that somebody could identify as themselves, come out and be able to live their lives, and I know it's different in many different ways. We live in a city that was basically run by good old boys, especially with the oil industry and how that was so closeted, closeted. Actually, one of the hardest things to deal with back in those days was when you did a press release and you would call the station or the newspaper and the worst thing you can have is the person who answers the phone, who's like the gatekeeper, would happen to be GLBT but closeted, and you wouldn't be able to get through to sell that story. That has changed, okay, I mean, you know.
Alexis:You know, personally I mean, I work a lot for the oil industry and those sorts of things and the one thing that I found interesting is that oil industry and to some degree the medical industry and we have a big medical industry in Houston and that includes doctors and research and everything else cares about whether or not you make the money and do what they need done. They don't care about the rest of it. And you know people talk about how cutthroat and you know purely money-driven, like oil industry is's a good thing for us, because if you make the money, they don't care how you identify, and if you don't make a money, they don't care how you identify either but they're also in texas and probably everywhere else.
Jack:There's these stories where some of these people just say I don't care, I'm gonna be who I am exactly you know they are the, the, you know, like a ray hill and and ray, just you know he would just. I mean, I remember the day that we walked into mayor whitmer's office kathy whitmer's office and ray just wanted to show off that he was smoking a cigarette in her office this is before like smoking days yeah okay, back in the smoking days and actually there's another story we were on a retreat for the caucus on Boulevard Island and we all of a sudden say, hey, it's time to go find something to eat.
Jack:And we drive down the street, we find this place. It was about ready to close and we go in there. The guy who was sort of a good old boy owner slash maitre d. He wasn't the maitre d, but he's sort of. He's walking around all these tables talking to people and pretty much everybody leaves. But we're left there. And then he comes over to our table and sees we're all talking. He says you know who you with? And Ray just turns to him and says we're with the gay political caucus and that guy's face just dropped. But did you get food? Oh, we got food.
Alexis:Exactly See, that's the thing.
Robin:Yes, well, in your time here in Houston, we went from being good old boy and gatekeepers, even with our own community members, to being the most diverse city in the world. What does that feel like?
Jack:It's great, it's really great, and when I first moved here I did not like Houston. I figured I'm going to stay here three years and go somewhere else, that's a common feeling, yeah yeah, and when I moved here it was like boom time and so it was hard to find a place to live and stuff like that. I found a brand new apartment complex and Houston's a place you've got to discover because there is all this diversity?
Robin:but you've got to go find it.
Jack:It's very spread out. Yeah, it's very spread out. Back then it was like legal to drink and drive. You know, be in your pickup truck and have a gun in the back and do that. And there's also this freedom streak that you can also do, you know, as long as you're not bothering other people. But to see how houston has transformed and at a time I had a job where I traveled to almost every major city and spent time there and I come back to say, to use and say why can't we be like them? But in a ways we're. You know, we've got our own stuff and and some of the things that happened over the years the fact that we have great city parks, that we have great neighborhoods.
Robin:We actually have one of the largest city parks right in the city, like a large number of city parks.
Jack:Memorial Park is bigger than Central Park. It's interesting, and we have this incredible food scene. Oh yes, and not just the expensive side, but the mom and pop restaurants.
Alexis:It got really better after Katrina.
Jack:We brought all these people over from New Orleans.
Alexis:That really know how to do good food.
Jack:Yes, and Houston has these celebrations and different events, which makes it a great city. I just hope we can continue on being that way, because we don't know what the future is going to be.
Robin:That's true. Thank you for elaborating on that. That means a lot, and there's a little special treat that I hear that you have and it may be a secret, so I might be dropping it right here. I don't know if we're outing you, but you have a knack for finding the best hole in the wall restaurant. I don't think I'm that good at it.
Robin:There's some rumors, but I need to do that better we were joking we might get Jack's hot takes on the podcast, like go see Billy over in the complex because he's doing these, like I don't know, really tasty grilled cheeses. I have no idea.
Jack:And when I worked for the city it sort of forced me to go to places that I didn't think about going to and seeing the different parts of the city, and we had this great map I hope it's still there of how we're going to build more parks and be more of a city focused on people. I don't know if that's going to continue, but hopefully it will. The different neighborhoods we have is really a unique thing. I remember watching when I was living up north. They had just started Austin City Limits. Oh wonderful. The opening part of that thing is showing somebody playing in a park throwing a Frisbee, and then they pull it out and you see the skyline.
Robin:Nice.
Jack:You know, and we have a great skyline to look at at Buffalo by yes. It's also interesting to see, like when there's a national story and they're in Houston and they're on the Sabine Street Bridge. You know that's a good skyline. Yes, with the skyline back there. So, and who knows how the city is going to? Is it's going to continue to grow if we're going to continue to be diverse? But that really brings an interesting part of who we are.
Robin:Absolutely. I have people who travel here and they say, well, what's so good about this place? And I said, well, you got to look. Yes, you know they make you work for it.
Jack:Yes.
Robin:But you can have Ethiopian food on Monday, you could have Indian food on Tuesday, a different type of Indian food on Wednesday, and we haven't even gotten to half of the different foods that are offered here, and then all the Chinese food, all the Hispanic food, all of the various versions of Hispanic food, italian, french, yeah, there's just so much, there's so much.
Alexis:And then you can do expensive stuff.
Robin:I was in a meeting with somebody and they said, before you move from Houston, eat all the queso you can, because it is hell trying to bribe a stewardess to bring some back. You don't know what you're missing when you leave here. And I was like, wow, sounds like somebody who went through it. Queso withdrawals are serious guys, they are.
Alexis:Well, I'll put it this way I lived in Ann Arbor, michigan, for a few years, but what's interesting, it was horrible.
Jack:I don't see Houston as being like a 24-hour city.
Robin:It's not.
Alexis:It was starting to be, and then it backed off during COVID. A lot of people are kind of down about that. I am too, because I like all night type stuff.
Robin:And some of the few places that we did have are still very select hours. I don't think we're supporting it as much or something, or maybe they cut on the staff, I don't know.
Jack:And the other thing is like we have such great museums. I don't go to museums, but I love the fact that we have these museums in the city, that we have this diversity of different cultures and, as Malik said, their building just up the street here is going to be really interesting to see when they finish it, but that we have that and we have these different celebrations, like there's probably a parade every weekend Different cultural festivals or a festival or whatever Art festivals.
Robin:We're getting gaming spaces. I haven't had a chance to check out Meow Wolf yet, but I thought that was a great addition. We'll see different ways that we can B Corp support artists and even the match. Honestly, there's still a lot with modern technology and not holes in the wall where artists had to go find their own art spaces to perform. They're all performing in this one central spot and I still meet people that do not know what that is and that is a failure of marketing. You know, I mean we could be supporting artists more, but Houston does a lot to support artists at more than some places.
Jack:I would suggest people get on the train on the red line and just ride it from one end to the other and just look. There's a whole different perspective because we're such a car-centric city of driving on the freeway versus walking or biking. Absolutely.
Jack:Different points of view Right and to be able to see the neighborhoods. Last year we did some block walking up in the Heights area and just to walk the neighborhoods and to see the differences. I mean some parts are good because it's not zoned that people can build what they want. Might see a horse. Yes, see a horse. Yes.
Robin:I mean, it's just like what ray said where you are in the room shows you the perspective of the meeting. It's like how you travel in this city will be very different perspective per car, per walking, per neighborhood, and and I mean, some people move here and they don't even know what the word ward means, you know they don't know the history in that right yes, and I knew a lady that was developing the art along the Metro rail line and one of the times that they put in an art piece over off of MLK and Griggs there was also a new library there and I saw.
Robin:I teach yoga for a living and two of my elder students were close to their eighties looking out the window at the art piece that had just been unwrapped, if you will, and they could see it across the street. It was a big statue and I heard one say, see, I told you, people care about us. And the other one said I guess you were right. You know there must have been a lot of them. And I went and I knew who developed that statue and I told her and she said, oh, there must've been a lot of them.
Robin:And I went and I knew who developed that statue and I told her and she said, oh, there's a lot of days out there. There's a lot of people who care about people. They just never really get the mic. And that's what I love about this podcast is we want to share the things that it really takes to make something happen, but we also want to share the people that don't always seek a mic or get a mic well, you know, if you go to work and come back home and don't do much, you're not going to experience the city.
Jack:It's any city sure but last week I sort of had a mission to walk along texas avenue because metro decided to pave it and I wanted to see if there was actually any buses running along that texas avenue.
Jack:No, there wasn't, so that's a whole other story, but I ended up walking in East Edo or East Houston and the guy who does the president's head it was the same type of stuff but it was like a band In a parking lot building this sort of statues on the van Nice, and it's just like who would see, I love stuff like that. Where I live there's a little bookstore. It used to be a Spex warehouse but now it's a little bookstore and on top of it it's this giant telephone statue.
Jack:Love it and you know somebody points it out, he says yeah, I'd just be glad you don't live here, because when it rings it's pretty loud.
Robin:Yeah, absolutely Well, you know, thank you for coming. There's a lot of things to check out that we uncovered, and whoever's working on the construction in our city, I think maybe needs a lot of help or something. I don't. I don't think the teams are talking to each other right now so we might have an opportunity to walk and metro and drive just to get to one place at this next part of our chapter. We'll see it's. It's kind of a mess, but we'll do what we can, you know. Is there anything else we can talk about while you're here?
Jack:I could talk for hours, but we all could talk for hours.
Alexis:I would go ahead and say we all could. And we have and we'll probably have you back? I can't imagine we won't, because being an interesting person is sort of your curse.
Robin:Okay, Throw in shady compliments. I love it. I do that most sundays it seems.
Alexis:So you know, we didn't get to the thing that I was trying to sort of steer you into oh, what was that? Sorry, I missed the steering well, you know, we have elections coming up, and so what's going to happen with the county elections? And if you don't want to say I'll just turn the recording off.
Jack:I don't. Well, we certainly don't know. You're talking about 2026.
Jack:Yes, I am, you know, because there's so many offices available. It's also some statewide offices, we don't know. I mean it is interesting because a lot of the speakers on the national level are like what happened last year, you know? And it's a complex answer because, yes, it's the price of stuff, it's the things they heard on certain networks that they believed. You know, we don't know. It's going to be really interesting to see and the money is crazy that they put into these elections. Oh, it is, you know, from the county judge all the way down to the judges. I mean, we lost a lot of the appellate court judges, which is really, really sad because we worked so hard on the 14th and the first court of appeals to get those people elected. Can we, you know, get new people in there? Or I don't know if some of them want to run again, we don't know. I guess it depends on the turnout. Uh, what they want to do, um, and state of where we are in a in a year and a half.
Alexis:Okay, thank you.
