Vote FOR JOE District C + Bring your pals like it's a party for democracy

We sit down with Houston City Council District C candidate Joe Panzarella and campaign communicator Christos Patelis to talk about why they stepped into local politics and what they are hearing from neighbors across the district. We focus on safer streets, affordability, transparency, and the small-turnout reality that makes local elections a fast way to change daily life in Houston. 

• Why first-time candidates move from organizing to running for office 
• What Houston District C includes and why its boundaries matter 
• How neighborhood culture shifts in Montrose and beyond 
• What “urbanism” means as a practical quality-of-life goal 
• Why traffic deaths drive the safer-streets agenda 
• How the high injury network can guide smarter street redesign 
• What traffic calming looks like on Houston roads 
• How “eyes on the street” can reduce fear and build trust 

Please, please go vote April 29th through May 12th. Election day is May 16th. 
You can find our social media for Joe at Joe for Houston. 

 Joeforhouston.com

Transcript

Welcome And Runoff Stakes

Robin Mack 0:01

Thank you for listening to 22 Sides. This is Robin Mack, and today I'm here with Alexis Melvin and some guests.

Christos Patelis 0:08

Hi everyone. My name is Christos Pitalis. I'm on the Joe for Houston City Council campaign. I am uh Joe Panzerella's comms director.

Joe Panzarella 0:18

Welcome. Thanks for having me. My name is Joe Panzerella. I am running for Houston City Council District C, and I'm super excited to be here today.

Robin Mack 0:25

Yes, I have goosebumps. You're like in round two, right? Or is this your first time for this?

Joe Panzarella 0:32

This is round two. This is round two. We have a general election on April 4th. There were seven candidates, all really amazing folks. I got to get to know them throughout the process. And now we're down to two. And election day will be on May 16th.

Robin Mack 0:45

And is this your first time running ever for anything?

Joe Panzarella 0:48

This is my first time running ever for anything. And you know, I'm so happy to have Christos here and just the rest of our broader team because I could not have done it but myself.

Robin Mack 0:55

And Chris says, have you done anything for campaigns before?

Christos Patelis 0:57

No, prior to this I was an organizer. Um this is my first campaign, and I'm I'm thrilled to be supporting Joe.

Why First-Time Candidates Run

Robin Mack 1:04

So you pals are fresh, fresh. You're like, we are changing it up, and we're throwing our hat in the ring. What the heck made you do that? Like, some people are just so I'll let politics do whatever politics are gonna do, and I'll live my life. But I want to acknowledge people who actually get in the game and and and look at the hurdles first and say, I want to be a part of that. Like, what had you both say, I'm gonna use my lifetime to do this?

Joe Panzarella 1:33

Well, thank you for that. Um I I will say, while we're new to the electoral side of politics, I think as grassroots organizers, we were very aware and you know, plugged in to the political process at large. And so myself, you know, speaking from my side, going to city council meetings, going to TURS meetings, going to county commissioners' court to advocate for safer streets, more multimodal access, bike lanes, sidewalks, those kinds of things, being told no, time and time again was frustrating. And I saw that our now outgoing council member, council member Kayman was term-limited in 27. And it just seemed like a really good opportunity to get to take our advocacy to the next level.

Speaker 4 2:14

Wow.

Robin Mack 2:14

And do you live in District C?

Joe Panzarella 2:16

Aaron Powell, I live in District C. Uh I live in Freemanstown. So, you know, that's like uh uh Freemanstown Fourth Ward area. It's West Dallas, West Gray, Taft, those are kind of the boundaries.

Robin Mack 2:25

And for people who don't know what District C covers, can you name some of the areas? Because it's it all of the districts are a little wonky in the design, but they do cover a lot of ground.

Joe Panzarella 2:36

Aaron Powell No, for sure. You know, I think uh gerrymandering is a big thing right now, especially just going through the redistricting from from the federal level. But at the city level, it's the same way, and district C is this like really odd shape. You've got Mareland down in the south, going up through Brazewood, and then you've got Montrose, Christ Military, the Heights, and Oak Forest. So it's a fairly lot of different neighborhoods.

Robin Mack 2:57

Yeah. Yeah, a lot of different demands. And Alexis lives in District C, so she's been here for like what is it, 30 years?

Alexis Melvin 3:03

Yeah.

Robin Mack 3:04

And you've seen it change a lot, right?

Alexis Melvin 3:06

It it's changed a lot. Um a lot of people say it's changed, you know, way too much. But if I really look at it, the character hasn't changed as much as people say it has. Um I mean, you know, buildings have been torn down that everybody loved. They were falling down anyway, usually. And, you know, it it's like you either have to spend 10 times as much money or you have to tear it down. And most of it is that I've noticed that if people move into District C or into the Montrose area, which is where I am, they they may not be sort of the kind of people that were there before. But if they they either change to be pretty much like the Montrose crowd or they leave.

Speaker 7 3:48

Yeah.

Robin Mack 3:48

Well, you watch them over time. Yeah, you watch them over time. Yeah, yeah.

Alexis Melvin 3:52

You know, and and like on the street that I live on, there's a bunch of us who have been here for a good while and we're like, eh, they won't be here very long. And they never are. I mean, there there's people who you know, they they don't believe in uh equality and that sort of stuff, and they move in and they're like, Well, I don't want, and it's just like you can just stop there, you might as well sell your house, you're gonna be leaving.

Robin Mack 4:16

I lived in District C for years over off of Marshall Street, and I always feared when they had kids riding their bikes. I'm like, oh, we're still in the city. Like, you know, people take quick turns, people are walking the streets at all hours, like, uh I don't know, I don't know, like that's not your suburban street, you know. But at the same time, they have to work close to work as well. So, you know, and there's a lot of people who walk back and forth from St. Thomas. So, like you can literally age and go to college and maybe never even move over two streets, you know.

Joe Panzarella 4:46

That that has been such a core part of this campaign is how can we build a district C that is safe for all ages to walk, to bike, to roll, and to drive. Um, and and I that's what I think has really resonated with this campaign is that we're we're we're we're pitching a quality of life type of campaign where you're safe and you're comfortable and all of District C is accessible. And I think that's what that's what people want to see. That's awesome.

Christos Patelis 5:11

Simply put, it's it's about making life easier for Houstonians, uh specifically those, you know, because Joe's running for district C in District C. But that's how I got involved with the campaign, and that's actually how we met Joe.

Speaker 3 5:23

Bringing you in District C? Yeah.

Mapping District C And Its Culture

Christos Patelis 5:24

So I live, I live, you know, in ever since I was a kid. I, you know, as a queer kid growing up, I was like, I want to live in a neighborhood with people who are like me, you know? Because I grew up in the suburbs. I grew up in the League City Dickinson area, and it was I was hard pressed to find good representation as a young queer kid.

Robin Mack 5:42

I was always told the minute you can drive, get your ass to Montros.

Speaker 7 5:46

That's exactly what I did.

Robin Mack 5:48

And it was funny because I was like one of the last I'm 43 now, but like I I moved here when I was 18, and I was like one of the last people that actually like could afford to live there. And I had multiple roommates for years, and you know, my even my sister lives up on 1960, she's just well, it must be like really different with all those gay men just walking in the streets with their their their chaps and everything. I was like, they left before I even got here. Like, what are you talking about?

Alexis Melvin 6:15

We are the same age, you know, but the rumors are so high, you know, and uh and at the same time it's like but but you know, there are certain places like Barnaby's where Friday night you can go and have a show.

Robin Mack 6:29

Absolutely.

Alexis Melvin 6:30

You don't know what kind of show.

Robin Mack 6:31

Absolutely, you really can't.

Alexis Melvin 6:33

People will show up.

Robin Mack 6:34

Yeah, it's still around. It's still around. But would you say what would you say like how the demographics are breaking off now? Because when I was watching the first round of your district C race, it's like, well, Audrey Nath, like, she was on school board, she was running a family, you know, uh like talking about family issues and stuff. And then Patrick was talking more about LGBT issues, and and I and I we can all get a little uh squared off in our nation and our demographic to the point where we could think, oh well, maybe maybe there does need to be a gay vote, or maybe there does need to be a family vote. Like, but what's the current demographics of district C? Have you looked at like what are the people? Like, I wouldn't necessarily blanketly say it's family oriented, or I wouldn't necessarily say it's family oriented, you know, like these queens are not walking the block with you. I know that. So but they might rock a mic for you.

Joe Panzarella 7:33

Sure. Yeah. Well, you know, I'll say the um there's a lot to this. Our our our campaign is, I think, good for all Houstonians. Safer streets, affordable housing, transparency. That's good for anyone from zero to 80. If you're gay, if you're straight, you name it. Um to your question about what is District C, District C is generally a little bit more white, um, it's a little bit more affluent, um, it's a little bit more educated generally. I think high carnival readership is, you know, kind of like a trademark of District C. But it's also incredibly diverse. I live in Freemanstown, which is a historically black neighborhood. Meerland and Brazewood is a more Jewish neighborhood. Um, and so it, you know, and then Montras obviously is like the historically and culturally gay neighborhood. So I think there's so much representation all across District C. But what has made our campaign stand out um is that, like I said, our policy is good for everyone. So when we build safe streets, it's not just for families, right? It's for working professionals, it's for uh grandparents that want to take their kids to the park. Um and then when we talk about affordability, the LGBTQ community is one of the communities most impacted by homelessness. And so changing our forb codes, building more affordable housing, that's gonna really help that community specifically.

Robin Mack 8:51

Is that what got you into this? Or what what what drew you to the politics? I mean, I'm sure you're a type of person that gets around and maybe could have put your hat in any sort of industry.

Christos Patelis 9:02

That's very kind. Um I so I think like going back to being like a queer kid, I think every queer person understands their existence to be inherently political, right? Because people so frequently want to legislate what we can do. And um, you know, from a very young age, I was very like in line and um tuned into politics, right? Because you have to be, right? Um, because when I was a kid growing up, I was like, oh, I'm never gonna be able to get married. Right.

Speaker 5 9:32

Um and so these are just things that you're missing out on like a thousand rights that people just go down and get that they don't even know if they have it. Yeah, yeah.

Christos Patelis 9:41

Um so I would say I'm always like I've always been attuned politically, um, but I've never been involved with like capital P politics until this campaign. Um, like I said, I was an organizer. So I met Joe doing urbanist organization. And are you familiar with like urbanism as a concept? No.

Urbanism Explained In Plain Language

Robin Mack 9:57

Why don't you say what it is for you because our listeners may not be.

Christos Patelis 10:00

Yeah, absolutely. So it's this idea. Uh well, Joe, actually, do you want to define it?

Joe Panzarella 10:04

Yeah, you know, urbanism. Okay, we've passed it around to everybody except me, and I'm not gonna urbanism is, you know, not to call it density or anything like that, but urbanism is the concept of building a comprehensive and sustainable city environment where you have access to schools, jobs, grocery stores, parks, all of those things in a close environment that you can access by walking, biking, driving, you name it. And I'm sure there's all kinds of different definitions of urbanism. But that's kind of just one way of it.

Robin Mack 10:40

We you know, we do our own editing for this podcast. Nobody, which is casual. Like the idea is we want people to be able to play and be at a table because they may not make it out to any of your events, they may not be able to afford platforms that have news or interviews with you, to be honest, if you're even gonna get on them at this point, right? And uh we want them to know that their vote matters, and if they're gonna take their time to get out there and be there for you, what are you gonna do for them?

Joe Panzarella 11:08

It's is important. Yeah. I want to get back to Christos's thing, but I'd also just say to that, um, what is so important about this election and and the vision we're trying to put forward and you know, this term urbanism about you know how do you want your city to look, your vote can make a big difference in how city and and how Houston will be in the next 10 years. And that's what we're trying to pitch here.

Alexis Melvin 11:29

And I think one of the things is that we've got to be a little bit careful because if I look at it being the probably oldest person looking around real quick at the table.

Robin Mack 11:38

Yes, you're not ages, not exactly.

Alexis Melvin 11:41

Um, my view of what how the city should look is way different than a lot of the oh guys, you know, here's what I'd like. I'd like my the world to be perfect.

Speaker 7 11:52

Right.

Alexis Melvin 11:53

Because it's not gonna be perfect. And pretty much everything you try is going to have failures and and that whole bit. Um you know, my view is that you sort of sneak stuff in slowly, you don't like not a revolution, but an evolution. And and that's how it actually works. And you know, a lot of the stuff that has been tried, for instance, Woodhead was completely redone under the Safer Street um initiative. It is much more dangerous now than it was before. And the reason is that everybody sees it as a drag strip. They go real fast, they don't care about the stop signs, and they're just going through. And you know, I've I've checked it on my security camera. Speeds average have gone up about 50%. Oh my gosh.

Robin Mack 12:43

Yeah, which is not safe for the cyclists or the people using it for the reason it's designed for.

Alexis Melvin 12:47

And then they decided for some strange reason to put bike lanes in on one end and not the other end, and then make it anybody can go any place. And I mean, honestly, I I think they spend a lot of money, and the sidewalks are real nice now.

Christos Patelis 13:04

But no one uses them because it feels unpleasant. But and that actually brings me back to Robin's question. Um, and talking about urbanism, my politics are for grounded in accessibility and inclusivity. And I feel like the best cities are those that really make those two kind of concepts elemental to the built environment. So these kind of things, accessibility, inclusivity, when I'm able to feel welcome, uh, feel like I'm able to flourish in my neighborhood, that helps me build community, right? I'm more likely to meet my neighbors, strong communities make me as a as a resident, you know, love where I live more, I'm more likely to contribute, I'm more likely to stay somewhere. Um, so this idea of urbanism for me is how do we work towards a Houston that is more accessible and more inclusive for everyone? We're not just talking about like, you know, middle class, upper middle class white people who might want to ride their bike to publicload buyers.

Alexis Melvin 13:56

So I'm gonna go back to Joe. So, what's the one thing, if you had to pick one thing out of that to accomplish some of that? Yeah. What would yours be?

Safe Streets And High-Injury Network

Joe Panzarella 14:04

Man, that's a that's a great question. I always try and bring it back to data. You know, last year cars killed more Houstonians than homicides. So we recognize that our streets are in a really dangerous form. And you just mentioned it with Woodhead and um how cars going faster, we know that's gonna have a negative impact on Houstonians' lives. Um I'd like to see a lot of streets redesigned, frankly. There is a concept in Houston called the high injury network, and I think it was 2021. They studied all of Houston streets and they found that 10% of our roads accounted for 60% of our uh deadly crashes. Wow. It's only 10%, you know. And as we know, we have a big budget issue right now. So if we can uh uh use our resources in the best way, it'd be to focus on those high injury network streets. That's West Dallas, it's Richmond, it's West Grade. And it's not the entire street, but there are sections of those, you know, uh major thoroughfares that could use some redesigning. It usually includes high visibility crosswalks, it includes nice wide sidewalks, things that we inherently enjoy when you're out and about walking, uh, but they also make the street safer.

Protest Politics And LGBTQ Visibility

Christos Patelis 15:09

So traffic calming features is what some of these are called, right? So you might have like a median, right, with a nice tree in it, uh, so that gives you shade, it reduces heat, it also reduces the speed at which drivers drive. And I think one of the big issues um presently with the current administration at City Hall is we want wider lanes. And I think in a bubble that sounds really good, right? Wider lanes, I have more room to like make mistakes if I'm a driver. But psychologically, what that does is I have more room and I can go quicker, right? So you see people, and this is probably what happened with Woodhead that you've seen. You see people now that they have these clean lanes, they're a little bit wider, they want to go quicker. And so they speed, they might blow through stop signs because when you're going quicker, you're less likely to notice these traffic um, you know, signs. Um, and so the idea is how do we build roadways, built environment that's more conducive to you know safe driving, of course, because we're always gonna be a car-centric city, but also make it easier for people who maybe not be able to afford a car, who may need to rely on a bicycle to get to their job, um, who want to walk with their kids to school, right? It's all about that. That's that's kind of what got me involved. That's what I was organizing with Joe about before he decided to run. Um, and also the rainbow crosswalk. We we uh co-organized a protest um when uh Abbott unfortunately had it removed. We were out there at 2 a.m. and uh man, I get I get emotional thinking about that. Again, no big surprise there. Yeah, no gosh. But so disappointing.

Key Voting Dates And Turnout Reality

Robin Mack 16:41

Well, they knew that they were coming for us, and I think that if people wanted to rainbow up Montrose, there are plenty of business owners that can do that in every parking spot, you know. I mean, just because he came for that doesn't mean that we need to erase all of us, right? But I'm I'm glad that you're pushing back where you need to and where you want to, and it does inspire the people because there's so much rhetoric right now that with the day-to-day pressures and then seeing in the news, it's really wonderful to see a representation that actually speaks for you and is willing to push back, however, a little bit and or speak to like, okay, this is unacceptable, period. Like I keep reminding people like, look, the reality that we're in right now does not need to happen. Does not need to happen. And that gives you a little sanity check. That's very important right now. You know, we do not need to be in any of this position no matter what level of politics you're actually talking about. And I do want to bring it back to the voting date for you because you're kind of on a click a ticking clock of you need to make um the rounds with as much people as possible and they need to turn out for you by by when for the voting date.

Joe Panzarella 17:48

Yeah. So early voting will be April 29th through May 12th, and then election day will be May 16th. And then generally uh polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. throughout early voting and on election day. Um and I'll say we finished first in the general with 33% of the vote. We finished above uh our opponent by 11 points. So, you know, we have ran a really good campaign to date, and we're gonna keep, you know, keep the work up until May 16th.

Robin Mack 18:20

And how do you feel like you're going to get people to show up for you again? Because I mean, hey, one time after the primary, it was a little confusing. We got to interview Audrey and we got to interview Patrick, and then we had to take a break because Alexis had an ankle surgery or we would have interviewed you, but but it was a little confusing in the first round because most voters thought primary and you would be on the ballot. But it was like, no, you had to do primary and then district C. And so now how are you gonna get people past that voter fatigue to like come back out again? Because because like you're not you haven't won yet. I always laugh.

Alexis Melvin 18:55

No, someone says, Are you gonna go vote? I'm like, which election? Yeah, which ones? And it's they're like next Tuesday, and I'm like, sure, what am I voting for? Which one? We have elections, it seems like every two days. Oh my gosh, it really does.

Robin Mack 19:08

And since this one will, I think, just be for district C, right? So they might miss some voting signs that they they might usually look forward to vote.

Joe Panzarella 19:15

What's even crazier is you're gonna have the March primary runoff the week after ours. Right. So yeah. So I mean it's every week.

Alexis Melvin 19:24

That's what I mean. You know, people are like, well, we've got this kind of I'm like, wait, wait, what election are we talking about?

Robin Mack 19:29

I just tell people it's it's a it's a muscle. You just keep but you just keep like developing it. They're like, I'm fatigued. I'm like, I know, but I'm a massage therapist, so get back out there. You know, like you just gotta keep going. It all makes it better for November. So but it also gets you in the seat, right? So how do you get people off of the couches, out of the daily grind, through the barriers to vote for you? They have to just get there to click that button.

Joe Panzarella 19:52

That's it. You know, and it it it truly does take two seconds because one, when you go to vote, there's there's no line. And then buying a pizza hard.

Alexis Melvin 20:01

Wait, wait, wait, I'll be clear. For this election, there's no line.

Robin Mack 20:04

Yeah, yeah.

Alexis Melvin 20:06

Because we can have the lines and the lines and the lines.

Robin Mack 20:08

Which is good because like first-time voters, they always they picture what they see on television, like, oh, if it's there's gonna be it's gonna be sweaty, like you know, everyone's gonna be out there for like an hour. It's like not for this one.

Christos Patelis 20:19

How long did it take you to vote when you vote in the um in general?

Joe Panzarella 20:22

I think it took me like 30 seconds, yeah. And it took me a little bit longer because I was like high fiving folks in the area, but uh no, like it you it it'll take you two seconds.

Christos Patelis 20:30

Well, and the the the people, the poll workers, um they treat you so well because they're really nice because they're bored. They're so bored. And so you have uh you know typically older uh folks who are just so excited that you're there. I I usually go in and say, okay, who gets me? Yeah, they're wonderful and they're so excited.

Beating Voter Fatigue With Simple Habits

Robin Mack 20:49

Well, and I do want to say uh Tanisha, who's overseeing the voting regulation, she's she is trying to get more uh volunteers from high school and they can get uh uh some support in that. And so there the idea is that you know you get an internship or you get paid and you get into democracy like sooner, which is great if people do want a paycheck and they need people, they need poll workers, and so and it's kind of seasonal. So if you only have like some time at some point, then you get on the schedule. Otherwise, you go back to what you're doing. But what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do to get them out there for you, Joe?

Joe Panzarella 21:21

Uh so you know what we did the first time to finish first was we we did mailers, which I know those are a little controversial. Some people love getting mailers, some people hate getting them.

Robin Mack 21:31

They're like, dang, Joe must hate trees. I'm bored. No, just kidding.

Joe Panzarella 21:35

Everyone's sending all kinds of mailers. It's just kind of like what you gotta do. Yeah. Um but but it I mean, we did find people at the doors that would say, we got your mailer, and it really spoke to me, and we're excited to go vote for you. But really, the other two things that we have been super successful at is one, I'm gonna let Christmas talk to it. Sure. We've had over a million views across five social media platforms. And so I'll let Christmas get to that in a second. The other thing is door knocking. We hit over 15,000 doors before election. Day. And again, so many people told us, you were the only candidate that I personally got to meet. Yep. I'm going to go vote for you.

Robin Mack 22:07

That makes a huge difference. When we were having a major November election, I met a lot of people that were millennials that said, Well, I've been registered. I just didn't vote because no one came to my door. And I said, Were you waiting for them to take you there? Were you waiting for them to shake your hand? What was the actual scenario of that in your mind? And they're like, Well, I just I I see it on television. They go to the door and I thought they could come to my door. I was like, I don't even go to your door without making an appointment. Like, what are the odds of someone actually getting to the door, number one, being there when you're addressed, number two, and you know, and like actually having a conversation with you. And they're like, Yeah, you're right. I don't really open the door. And I'm like, okay, so just like let that go. But what have you seen when people actually talk with you though? Because maybe people are afraid and they don't want to answer the door.

Joe Panzarella 22:58

Yeah. Well, I mean, it it's a mixed bad. I I would say 50% of the time no one's answering it, and you're leaving our, you know, our literature that has the election dates and our website and all that stuff. But a lot of times, too, they'll say, Man, I really wish my trash was getting picked up. Or they'd say, I'm really scared that ICE is in my community and I don't support that.

Speaker 4 23:17

They're really scared.

Ground Game With Mailers Doors Social

Joe Panzarella 23:18

And and and generally, for the most part, what these Houstonians are asking for is what our uh platform is about. It's about transparency and understanding how how is HPD interacting with ICE. It's about investing in the infrastructure that we all want to see walkability, bikeability, those kinds of things. And then affordability. We've talked about how much Montros has changed. We need to be able to develop Montros in a way where those that have been in Montros and have you know maintained the culture through all these years can afford to stay. But also that we're building a Montros for the next generation to come move here. And I think people really resonate with that at the doors.

Robin Mack 23:53

That's awesome. Yeah. The one thing that I know about you through word of mouth is that Joe shows up. Joe is a person of the people that shows up. And I thought that was just a really great reputation to start off with. So thank you. I appreciate it. And then as far as social media reach goes, how are you getting to people's algos? Because that's that's like that's like a secret nut to crack. That's like what? Like it is hard for a lot of people to to keep up with what's going on, or for people who want to get a message out to get to the people. Um, have you seen some tips or tricks in that?

Christos Patelis 24:32

Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing is I think a lot of a lot of content on like TikTok, Instagram, that's political, is it just feels so sad. Everything feels very like I have to do this action or else like I'm gonna like die or the world's gonna happen or something like that, but like that's how it feels.

Speaker 3 24:51

No, that's Tullia Villes. That's why the Lagos videos are like, yes, so refreshing.

Robin Mack 24:55

Oh wait, they're still talking about it. Dang, they got me, but I'm gonna watch the end.

Alexis Melvin 24:59

Well, and then the other the other ones I like are the ones, and I haven't seen that with just the runoff, but uh with the other part of people running for C, and they're talking about Trump. And I'm like, Right, could we tie him out for half a second? Right. He's he's way over there, and you aren't running for one of those. Right. People running for positions that yeah, that's inappropriate, but it's like, come on, talk to me about that street in front of my house. Yeah, and and I think you know that that's one of the interesting things. It's like, do you know what you're running for? Right.

Robin Mack 25:31

So you stay on topic, you make it positive.

Christos Patelis 25:34

Yeah, you make it it's okay to be a little silly. It's social media, y'all. You know, or not. It's refreshing academic papers over here. We're making like thankfully we're making videos that on average people watch five seconds of. If we're lucky. Yeah, you know, so you you have fun, you be silly. I'm I like you know, joking around, Joe also enjoys like the happy time. Yeah, we need the key is for them to see your name and picture.

Alexis Melvin 25:57

Exactly.

Robin Mack 25:58

We need some release.

Alexis Melvin 25:59

After that, it honestly doesn't matter.

Robin Mack 26:01

And the voting date, because that's a people too. The voting date, the voting date.

Alexis Melvin 26:07

But you think about it for this election, which is a very small election at this point. I mean, it started out being much bigger, but it's a very small election. We have a lot of voting days. Two weeks. It is a lot, it is a lot of voting. How much early voting is there?

Joe Panzarella 26:21

It's two weeks, which is crazy for any type of election. You know, you brought up like how do you get folks out? 9,400 voted in the general, which is I want to say like close to six percent of district C. I think we might have 5,000. And so that's what's what we're telling people at the doors, too, is that this is your chance to have a major impact on your city because yeah, no one's voting in this thing. So yeah.

Robin Mack 26:42

I live in District H and Isabel Longoria lost by 16 votes. Wow. And I it's it's just so absurd to me. Yeah. Because we could fart and have like 16 people at a pizza party. Yeah. But the point, you know, especially when you think like my district is near Northside and they have a history of strong voting. And then the hyped has a history of strong voting. So what happened? But again, there's a lot of things that get in the way. So I would say, you know, go to early voting, don't leave it for like a rainy day that you might, you know, have a snag or a flat tire or whatever. And also take friends because they need someone to get on their radar too. And there I promise there's almost somebody you know that lives in District C.

Joe Panzarella 27:27

No question.

Robin Mack 27:27

Because it covers so much area. So if this is not your race, if this is not your district, if this is not your time to vote, I promise you you can make a difference with somebody who is it is, but they just maybe don't know that they could go vote. And the cool thing about District C is it bumps into so many other districts. That's one thing that Abby uh made apparent to us when she was getting uh in the race to even take on District C was like the bios touch so many different districts. You have to make friends with the surrounding areas. It's not just, well, it's great that Montrose is gonna be affordable, my house isn't. You know, it's like no, no, no. When you're the back to the budget, these uh city council members have to work together. Yeah. Do you have any existing relationships with any of the city council members if you wanted to get like one of those special trio? I'm gonna tell the mayor what I want to talk about the dishes.

What Voters Say At The Door

Joe Panzarella 28:23

You know, I'll say uh I wanna I want to give a shout out to to Audrey Nath, who, you know, ran as well in this. She used to say in all these forums that uh floodwaters don't care about district lines, you know. And so that's it's gonna be really important whoever wins this race to be able to work with different council members, but also the city of Bel Air and the city of Westieu, because you know, to her point, flooding hits everyone. Yeah. Um we are super proud to be endorsed by councilmember Salinas. I have been, you know, I I helped work on her campaign when she was running back in November. Um, and she is, you know, has been just super awesome on council for the for the few months she's been on already. Um I know Councilmember Castillo well. He's also just an amazing council member, and and I look forward to being his neighbor there. Um I know council member Tiffany Thomas, she has been a real leader on housing and making sure we're getting federal funds for housing. So there's uh there's a lot of folks on on city council that I think we share values with.

Christos Patelis 29:15

Good well, and council member Kamen too.

Joe Panzarella 29:17

Oh, yeah, Councilmember Kamen.

Christos Patelis 29:18

We worked extensively at Win.

Robin Mack 29:19

Wait a minute, who? Like Miss I come and I'm about the people and communicating, and now I go to a different seat. And I'm and then we have to vote for her to go to a different seat. I know. We're gonna go to the book. But also I want her to I want her to win that seat. So yeah. And it opens up for you to come in this seat. So I feel like it's a win-win.

Joe Panzarella 29:37

Well, and and you know, we talk a lot about uh building the pipeline of young progressive leaders, not just in Harris County, but in Texas. And I think we've learned a lot from State Senator Molly Cook. I helped a lot on her campaign as like just a general door knocker, you know. And I was I was really awesome from the outside looking in to see what a young progressive candidate can accomplish.

Robin Mack 29:57

She kept going.

Joe Panzarella 29:58

She kept going, and and she has supported us a bunch in this race. And what you're seeing is Minifee going to Congress, Kamen going to the county attorney's office, and then a grassroots organizer going into city council.

Christos Patelis 30:11

Speaking of votes, do you know how many votes Molly Cook won her election by?

Robin Mack 30:16

Ooh, it was tight, wasn't it?

Christos Patelis 30:18

It was about 60.

Robin Mack 30:19

Wow. 6D.

Christos Patelis 30:21

Six zero. Okay. Wow.

Robin Mack 30:23

Wow. This is what always gets. She didn't win the first time. She kept going. She kept going.

Alexis Melvin 30:30

I'm like, you know, every year with the elections, there's somebody who won by one vote. Yeah. And I'm like, someplace in this country, there's someone who won by one vote, which means there's someone who lost by one vote.

Christos Patelis 30:45

I think Jane Goodall, she before she passed, um, she was talking about how hard it feels to make an impact at like an international or national level. So you have to focus on the local. That's where it matters the most right now, and that's where we're able to affect the most change.

Endorsements Coalition Building Local Power

Robin Mack 31:00

That makes sense. And I loved Molly's social media game. I knew her as a yoga instructor. I appreciated her as a nurse. And when I watched her say, I'm tired, I'm like, girl, if you're tired, I don't know how we're gonna make it. You know, but the thing is, is like she helped a lot of people while running her campaign. She also did a lot of advocacy while running her campaign. She also did her job while running her campaign. So that's really fresh air to me in the sense of um, in contrast to these politicians that don't even show up to listen to their people, you know. Like we're hard pressed to get some of these people in their office, let alone on the phone. You know, so I'm glad that people you're starting off with a connection to the people because that's important, especially for district C. So I have a question that I ask anyone who gets into politics because it is such a marathon. What do you do to stay well? Even if it's even if it's like actually not a lot. Um, you know, like how do you prepare yourself and stay in the marathon? How do you take care of yourself?

Christos Patelis 32:02

We were talking about the things. How do we do that?

Robin Mack 32:05

Well, I mean, there's no perfect answer, but I feel like we could have asked Sheila that. I feel like we could have asked Turner that. And then because we didn't hold them to account, or Trump, like we have some we have we took a while to get someone back in that seat. So I actually think that when we talk politics, we need to talk wellness because it's not an easy thing to do. You're not like going to get in the suntan and then phoning it in.

Joe Panzarella 32:28

No, it's a great question. And it's something that we as a team are trying to build into our culture, which is giving each other the time and space to go do healthy activities like going for a run, going to the gym, whatever it is. Our campaign manager just went to San Francisco recently to go to like a dance retreat out in out in the woods. And we were happy to you know let her go for the night.

Christos Patelis 32:49

She deserves the time.

Joe Panzarella 32:50

Yeah.

Christos Patelis 32:50

Um and yesterday, like I I said, Joe, I need I need a day. Yeah. And you did not bother me, and it was wonderful.

Speaker 7 32:58

I missed him, but you know, I had a little gun. I missed the campaign.

Speaker 3 33:02

Sometimes they have to leave for you to miss them. It's fine.

Alexis Melvin 33:04

No just kidding.

Speaker 3 33:05

But and you got to do what you needed to do.

Alexis Melvin 33:07

And we know that eating, you know, um what can I say? The political events do totally balanced meals.

Joe Panzarella 33:15

Oh, yeah, sorry, sure. Yeah, cannot be.

Alexis Melvin 33:18

Yeah, sure.

Robin Mack 33:19

Yeah. No, it's good. It's good. I'm glad. I'm glad. And and it helps people understand that their person's going to maybe make it through a little bit longer, like maybe stay in the seat. Do you have plans to stay if you win, or do you have plans to keep going in your vision?

Joe Panzarella 33:38

We need to win on May 16th. Sure. And you know, this is just filling a term. So in theory, we'd be up for re-election November of 2027. We gotta do it again. We've been doing within 18 months. Here we go. Yeah. Okay.

Alexis Melvin 33:51

I shouldn't laugh so hard, but once we're elected, well, we're up for re-election. Exactly.

Joe Panzarella 33:59

I don't think we have any vision beyond district C yet. I think we we want to accomplish the things that we're running on. And so I won't I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving the seat until we had some semblance of safer streets and affordable housing and transparency.

Christos Patelis 34:12

So well, and you love this district so much. And you've told me many times like it's it's a 10-year term limit, and you really want to fill those 10 years with just helping the neighborhoods evolve and making you know good on your promises. That is your focus, and that's why I support you. Yeah.

Robin Mack 34:29

It's important to remind people about term limits because Abbott doesn't have any. And so you you don't just time out, you have to show up and vote them out. So get to the polls um and thank you for taking care. Thank you for listening. If you want to find out more information and hit those fun social media videos, where can they find you?

Christos Patelis 34:48

You can find uh our our Jocial Media, our social media for Joe.

Speaker 7 34:53

Nice.

Christos Patelis 34:53

Uh at Joe for Houston. Uh that's the handle. We're on uh Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, all the things. Awesome. Um if you want to send Joe a question, you can email us at campaign at joeforuston at gmail.com. Um and uh Oh no, I'm sorry. That's that's incorrect.

Joe Panzarella 35:13

Campaign at Joeforhouston.com.

Christos Patelis 35:15

Yes, campaign at joeforeston.com. All right.

Robin Mack 35:19

Um yeah, and if you need a write to the polls, campaign at joeforehouston.com.

Christos Patelis 35:24

Yeah, and you have a great voice for it.

Robin Mack 35:26

Yeah. Oh, they'll get it, they'll get it. Campaign at joeforehouston.com. You know, politicians don't say their name enough, like Joe What? Joe What?

Joe Panzarella 35:35

Joe Panzerella. Okay. But to your point, we always knew that Joe was enough.

Robin Mack 35:40

Like it's like it's Joe so is it? Vote Joe. Joe is enough. That is good.

Joe Panzarella 35:44

As long as they can remember Joe, then that's true.

Robin Mack 35:46

That's true.

Joe Panzarella 35:46

We'll find out.

Wellness And Campaign Culture

Robin Mack 35:47

That is true. Well, any last things to say to our listeners while they're clicking on and clicking play?

Alexis Melvin 35:53

Uh of course. There's a whole bunch of things.

Robin Mack 35:55

What do you think?

Alexis Melvin 35:56

Let's listen to everything we have, go vote. And and you know, if you miss this election, vote in the next one.

Speaker 3 36:03

Yeah. Please keep going. If there's one tomorrow you can probably go. Just keep going. Just keep going.

Alexis Melvin 36:09

And you know, the hint can be if there's a whole bunch of signs up at your voting place, just go vote. You're probably good.

Robin Mack 36:15

Just keep going. Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 36:16

But uh, and the other side of it is I think that it takes a lot of people and a lot of time. And the the one thing that I would hope you would take away from my comments are don't assume that everything's bad because it's out of style, according to the younger people. And and I mean that seriously. It it as I said, uh it didn't work with the things that are going on with Woodhead. Um, I think there's some things that could be done that are as important and would free up a lot of money. Um, you know, for instance, one one of my big gripes is they redid uh one of the streets down here uh in Vermont, and it was very nice. Two days later they came and dug it all up because they had to put sewers in. It was scheduled. They just didn't pay any attention to any schedules or anything.

Robin Mack 37:12

And had they talked to each other, we might have money.

Alexis Melvin 37:15

Yeah, and the digging it back up and putting it back in costs, I think they said five million somewhere around there. And we're sitting there complaining that we're broke. Well, of course we're broke if we're throwing money away that way.

Speaker 5 37:28

While being inconvenienced, while you know getting all that noise pollution and error.

Alexis Melvin 37:33

And by the way, redoing the street, they didn't completely redo it, they just patched everything afterwards, so the streets pretty much the way it was before they did the initial redo. Well, that sucks. And my view is that says the city failed.

Speaker 7 37:47

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 37:48

And you can walk around and look at different things and drive around, and you'll see those all over the place. And and you know, one of the things that I said was, you know, maybe we need like a a street czar that's responsible for all the streets and said, you know, you can't cut the street without getting an okay. And if it's an emergency, you can get the okay the next day, but you still have to get the okay and you have to fix it back right because they're torn up so much. I mean, if you've been around Montrose and this area very much, y it's hard to find a route sometimes to get to where you want to get to. Because they have so much street construction.

Robin Mack 38:23

And that does affect the highway construction, it affects a lot. So it's it's important.

City Projects Waste And Street Coordination

Alexis Melvin 38:28

And that also, like if I've been sitting in construction for 15 or 20 minutes and I'm running late, guess what I'm gonna do when I get to a clear street area? It's not gonna be going slow and careful and watching everything. It'll be like, nope, I'm gonna floor it, here we go. And that happens a lot. You see people come out of that, you're like, whoa, how'd they get that far down the street?

Robin Mack 38:49

What's one thing that you want to see in District C?

Alexis Melvin 38:52

That I would like to see.

Robin Mack 38:54

Well, I mean, they have their campaign that they obviously care about, but that's someone who lives here. What do what do you want to see?

Alexis Melvin 38:59

I'd well, number one, I would like to see the sanitizing of the neighborhoods stopped.

Joe Panzarella 39:06

Yeah. Uh yeah.

Alexis Melvin 39:08

And that comes in some very weird ways that I don't think a lot of people understand. You know, like the constables have their you can hire a deputy type thing. And that seems like a really good thing, except what happens is you get some people in the homeowners' associations, even though they aren't the homeowners' associations, because it's just part of the my the people around there that call and complain about people, well, there's a suspicious person walking down the street. Yeah, he's walking back from his job to his apartment. I know. And they're like, Well, how do you know that? I'm like, I say hi. He says hi.

Christos Patelis 39:42

We're so scared of our neighbors. Exactly.

Alexis Melvin 39:44

And yeah, and that's the thing that since that happened in this area, crime rates have gone way up because there were always people on the streets. And so it felt perfectly good to walk at night or whatever because you weren't alone. But you know, when you start running them off and you know, you start hassling people like that, and they're like, Well, we didn't arrest them. No, no, but you stopped them.

Robin Mack 40:05

Right.

Alexis Melvin 40:06

And and I mean, I'm like, that's just not okay.

Robin Mack 40:09

It's kind of like what Chris has said. If people felt safe enough to come out and talk to their neighbors, they could have asked, Are you okay? You you shared a story about some cyclists that were resting in the lawn, and it's like they weren't, you know, doing anything wrong. They just maybe needed some water. They don't need the cops called on them.

Alexis Melvin 40:25

I mean, basically it was somebody a couple streets over that was calling the police because there were two cyclists laying in the grass and not answering when they said something. This was July. I'm like, everybody. They may need help. Yeah. Did you ask a neighbor? Yeah, no, I just call the police. And it's like, you know, you could go say, Are you okay? And if they don't say anything, don't call the police, call an ambulance.

Joe Panzarella 40:49

They're in trouble.

Alexis Melvin 40:50

Right.

Joe Panzarella 40:51

There's a there's a famous urbanist, Jane Jacobs, and and she describes it as eyes on the street. And and what I think Houston lacks a lot of times is that there aren't just regular old folks walking, biking around. So uh we're kind of scared. And and you know, just we're we we don't have enough folks that are out and about. Exactly.

Neighborhood Trust And Eyes On Street

Robin Mack 41:08

And it is hot and we need more trees. So I'm glad we're we're focusing on the development that can help with that.

Alexis Melvin 41:14

But but again, that that was the thing that changed here once the homeowners association started hiring a deputy and complaining. And and you know, like I was out walking, I prefer to walk late at night. I was out walking and I noticed a car, you know, following me. And I was getting ready to call 911. And then I saw them in a um street light, they came around a corner, and they'd been following me for probably four blocks with lights out. And it was a constable car. So I sort of waved and waved them up, and I'm like, so why are you following me? He said, Well, I need to find out if you belong here. If you belong here. That's a quote.

Joe Panzarella 41:51

That's funky.

Alexis Melvin 41:52

See, that really is roughly the wrong way.

Joe Panzarella 41:55

Yeah. Oh, that missed me somehow.

Alexis Melvin 41:57

I had an appointment with Alan Rose the next morning. And and it was not nice, shall we say.

Speaker 4 42:03

And that was a paid for a paid for after hours, yeah, yeah, coffee.

Alexis Melvin 42:08

And and you know, and I'm like, no, this isn't okay. Let's come in. It's it's a public sidewalk. Anyone belongs on that sidewalk. And and you know, and it's like if someone's standing out front looking in my front door and they're on the front sidewalk, I'm sorry, I may not like it. Yeah, but you know, but it's it's a public sidewalk.

Speaker 7 42:27

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 42:28

More than anything else? You know, and that sort of stuff. So I think we have to work on getting back to that and not make those sorts of things worse. Which is sort of like you were saying, we need more people on the street.

Robin Mack 42:37

Oh yeah.

Alexis Melvin 42:40

I don't think so. Do you have anything you'd just like to say?

Robin Mack 42:42

Yeah, any final words?

Joe Panzarella 42:44

Um, I want to say thank you so much. Thank you for having us. It's been a real pleasure. We're super excited to continue the jumentum of this campaign. A lot of Joe Finals. Good, good. Please, please go vote April 29th through May 12th. Election day is May 16th. We're gonna we're gonna keep fighting for a safer, more affordable, and transparent city.

Christos Patelis 43:02

Yeah, and I I want to highlight, you know, we're a grassroots campaign. Um, there is one member of our staff that uh is paid. Uh, everyone else is 100% volunteer. Um and so if you wanna come join us, I welcome you. You know, we need people on the streets helping us knock on doors. I need people helping me, you know, with videos. Um, feel free to you know, DM us on social, shoot us an email. Um everyone is welcome in this campaign because it is a campaign for everyone.

Final Reminders And How To Connect

Robin Mack 43:31

Wonderful. And share, share, share, because if we're on your radar, we may not be on anyone in District C's radar. So it really is gonna be up to the people to spread the word and get people out, especially for this one topic. And if you take anything away from this podcast, please understand that the quality of your life is directly affected by your representation, by your voting. So if you don't like it, then we need to vote for things that we like. We need to vote for things that we need, but most importantly, we need to take care. So So take care and add a little fun like Joe.

Joe Panzarella 44:04

Thank you. I appreciate that. Bye. Bye. Ciao ragazzi.