LATTES WITH A LAWYER – MAY 2025 RECAP

LATTES WITH A LAWYER – MAY 2025 RECAP

St. Petersburg, May 9, 2025.

Dialogue. Insight. Action.

About the Series

Lattes with a Lawyer is not your average networking session or legal seminar. Hosted monthly by The Law Firm of Douglas G. Jackson, this unique civic roundtable creates space for deep, open, and strategic discussions about the issues shaping St. Petersburg’s future. Every participant is a panelist. Every voice matters. The mission: build a better community through candid conversation, collaboration, and forward movement. Attendees receive signature mugs, gift bags, and—more importantly—an opportunity to connect with peers who care about creating meaningful change.

Introducing the May 9th Panel

This month’s gathering brought together an insightful group of leaders from across industries—each bringing passion, perspective, and purpose to the table:

• Doug Jackson – Founding Attorney, The Law Firm of Douglas G. Jackson (Host)
• Nicole Waters – CEO, 525 Coaching & Amplify Women Tampa Bay; EDGE District Board Member
• Heide Cornell – Executive Director, Daystar Life Center
• Donayle Whitmore – CEO & Founder, SeaVested and Matrices Foundation
• Gregg Potter – Business Broker, Legacy Business Brokers
• Ryan Phalen – IT Consultant, Tritium Technology Solutions
• Jenean Merkel Perelstein – CEO, Alchemie Academy; Business Anthropologist
• Andre Taylor – Mortgage Lender and Housing Advocate
• Kris Belvis – Account Manager, Applied Innovation
• Alexis Egozcue – Community Relations and Marketing Coordinator, The Law Firm of Douglas G. Jackson

The Biggest Problems Facing Our Community

The first roundtable discussion focused on identifying the most urgent civic and economic issues, including:

• Civic Identity & Values: Jenean questioned whether the city has articulated shared values to guide its decision-making, observing a lack of consensus about “who we want to be as a city.”
• Cultural and Economic Fractures: Gregg highlighted a troubling “us vs. them” mentality between long-time locals and newcomers, particularly regarding gentrification and luxury development.
• Affordability and Access: Alexis and Andre shared personal and professional stories of being priced out of living in St. Petersburg, emphasizing that the affordability crisis is not abstract—it’s personal and persistent.
• Inclusive Economic Development: Donayle called out the narrowing focus on tech-sector innovation while other industries and entrepreneurs—especially in marginalized communities—struggle to gain traction or support.
• Leadership and Transparency: Nicole emphasized a lack of coherent long-term planning and communication among the city’s major institutions, asking, “Do we even know what direction we’re heading?”

These themes—identity, inclusion, and intentionality—resurfaced throughout the event.

Downtown Waterfront Discussion Highlights

The first featured topic explored the newly released redevelopment vision for the Downtown Waterfront District, including proposals to remove Al Lang Stadium. Highlights included:

• Historic Preservation vs. Modernization: Doug Jackson and Gregg Potter argued for retaining iconic sites like Al Lang Stadium to preserve the cultural fabric of the city. Others, like Heide, called for modernization but urged ownership groups to reinvest in the surrounding community.
• Vision Without Consensus: Jenean and Nicole pointed to the need for shared civic values and a guiding vision before advancing large-scale redevelopment. “What are we building? And for whom?”
• Transportation and Connectivity: Andre raised concerns about infrastructure gaps—including the loss of ferry access and limited commuter connectivity. Kris agreed that communication about long-term impact and investments must improve to garner public trust.
• Entrepreneurial Identity: Andre also emphasized that what sets St. Pete apart is its culture of small businesses and entrepreneurs—not large franchises or chains.

This segment closed with broad agreement that the city’s redevelopment strategy must reflect both history and future, balancing inclusivity with innovation.

Affordability Discussion Highlights

In one of the most passionate and solution-oriented conversations to date, attendees tackled housing affordability from multiple angles:

• Multi-Generational and Co-Ownership Models: Andre proposed multi-family development and co-buying arrangements as creative paths toward ownership. Doug supported this and previewed a potential joint venture initiative to educate and empower renters to become co-owners.
• Equity and Displacement: Donayle voiced concern over repeated displacement in South St. Pete—particularly of Black residents—and the symbolic and material harm of continued exclusion from redevelopment benefits.
• Systemic Solutions and Private Sector Role: Nicole questioned whether key institutional leaders—Mayor Welch, the EDC, and Chamber—are communicating a unified vision. Heide noted that “not everyone can or should own a home,” emphasizing the need for affordable rental options and wage growth.
• City Resources, Public Awareness: Alexis shared information on St. Pete’s down payment assistance programs but acknowledged that these tools are underutilized due to poor public awareness and eligibility complexity.

Doug concluded the conversation by underscoring that “small programs are not weeds”—they’re seeds. With the right leadership, even modest efforts can build long-term equity and momentum.

TOP 20 QUOTES of May 9, 2025 Lattes with a Lawyer

*The transcript was made using technology and not fully verified for accuracy, and the quotes were pulled from the transcript using AI technology and may be paraphrased.

1. Doug Jackson

“I do think that things start with one person. The best things start with grassroots efforts.”
Said during the housing affordability discussion to affirm the power of small initiatives.

2. Nicole Waters

“We’re not just here to talk. We’re here to seed the next movement.”
Paraphrased. Nicole emphasized a need for action beyond discussion, stating, “We’ve got to move beyond this…we’ve got to start acting. Otherwise, we’re just having conversations while others are in crisis”.

3. Andre Taylor

“You’ve got kids paying $3,500 for rent to take pictures at the pool—but they could own something instead.”

A striking critique of current rental culture and missed opportunities for wealth-building.

4. Heide Cornell

“There is no magic bullet, and there are always going to be populations who feel left out of conversations.”
A sobering reminder about the difficulty of universal communication and inclusion.

5. Gregg Potter

“I’m here so I can come and sit and talk to smart people and listen and hear really good ideas… and then go sit on a barstool and tell others what I heard.”
An authentic, community-driven approach to civic dialogue and influence.

6. Donayle Whitmore

“I’m tired of talking… Certain people don’t have the luxury of just having conversations—they’re in crisis.”
Delivered passionately to emphasize the urgency of action over perpetual discourse.

7. Jenean Merkel Perelstein

“What values are we using to decide our future? Without them, we have no North Star.”
Part of her recurring theme urging the group to identify shared civic values.

8. Alexis Egozcue

“The house I can afford in Ruskin would cost me a million dollars in St. Pete.”
A personal example that anchored the affordability discussion in real terms.

9. Kris Belvis

“Rent is easy. Ownership sounds scary—especially to someone just starting out.”
Paraphrased. Kris described the psychological barrier to co-ownership among younger people, saying it “sounds scary” and “rent is easy”.

10. Doug Jackson

“Saint Pete is a town of individual desires. And that’s one of the coolest things about it.”
Said while summarizing the unique cultural identity of the city.

11. Nicole Waters

“Do we even know what direction we’re heading?”
A pointed question about the lack of visible civic alignment between key institutions.

12. Andre Taylor

“The answer to affordability is multi-generational.”
Proposed a vision of duplexes and quads as a realistic solution for today’s market.

13. Heide Cornell

“Things fall apart in a heartbeat—but rebuilding takes an army, money, and a lot of patience.”
A sobering reflection on post-COVID urban planning challenges.

14. Gregg Potter

“I find it hilarious that the same people who complained the stadium was falling apart now want to preserve it.”
A sharp observation on shifting public sentiment around Al Lang Stadium.

15. Donayle Whitmore

“Equity has become a dirty word—but the need for it hasn’t gone away.”
Paraphrased. Donayle noted that organizations are erasing “equity” from mission statements, despite rising inequality.

16. Jenean Merkel Perelstein

“We need a process for uncovering our shared values—not just overlaying our own.”
A suggestion for how to build civic cohesion amid differing perspectives.

17. Kris Belvis

“If people knew what they’d get from a ten-year project, they’d support it—but no one’s communicating that.”
Reflected concern about the lack of transparency in long-term development plans.

18. Alexis Egozcue

“There are programs out there—but how do people find them? Who’s telling them they exist?”
Alexis called out the awareness gap surrounding down payment assistance and housing tools.

19. Andre Taylor

“It’s a carrot dangled in front of people… but the math doesn’t work for most of them.”
Describing the city’s purchase assistance program as functionally inaccessible to many who qualify on paper.

20. Doug Jackson

“We used to own things. Now we lease everything—including our lives.”
Doug reflected on the broader implications of a rent-heavy economy during the housing segment.

READ THE FULL MAY 9, 2025 TRANSCRIPT

Disclaimer: The transcript was made using technology and not completely verified for accuracy.

[Doug Jackson]

All right, we’re recording. Let’s get started. Good morning. Everyone I want to personally welcome each of you to lattes with a lawyer. My name is Doug Jackson. I’m the I’m the founding attorney of the law firm, Douglas G, Jackson. We’re excited to have you here. Today, I want to start by saying this isn’t just another networking event or  seminar. This is something unique, and I say this every time. I’m usually not scripted, but this one I try to script because I want people who may eventually when we have this recording live know what we’re doing here.

So lattes with the lawyer spot more than just drinking coffee with a lawyer from the law firm of Douglas G Jackson about. It’s about bringing people together to have real, meaningful conversations about our community Industries and the challenges we face today. You’re not just attendees, you are the panel. This is your platform to share insights, perspectives, and ideas in an open, engaging setting. And so, the last couple times. Really, we kind of talked about uncertainty. We talked about the race development, uh, this time we’re going to talk a little bit more about another Waterfront development and what we want to happen.

This one snuck up on me because we moved this up to not interfere with the coffee chat with the CEO from the chamber. We want to actually not just talk about these ideas, but do things, and so I’m going to probably end up sending a letter to the mayor. Based on some of our discussion last time, saying, hey, you need to be a little bit more open with the communication things are happening, but we’re not hearing about it. And also, who’s your PR person because we would like to talk to them. Also, I’m probably going to send a letter about the Rays development, especially because now Orlando is trying to get involved in this too. We encourage you guys to do that. It’s a sign on to collaborate outside of this group as well.

Um, but so let’s move on to setting the tone at the firm of Douglas G. Jackson. We believe in the power of community and the importance of conversation. This program was created as a relaxed open Forum to discuss both legal and non-legal issues that affect all of us. The goal is to learn from one another connect on a deeper level and leave with valuable on sites that extend beyond today’s discussion at each of your seats is a gift bag because we’re happy to have you here in front of you. At the table, you’ll also find a notepad and Pens to help you take notes during our discussion, because we hope you’ll take away some good information from today’s lattes with a lawyer, perhaps most certainly, you’ll notice each of you has received your signature lattes with the Larry mug. This is our way of saying thank you for being part of this exclusive event, the only way to get these mugs is to actually come here. And hopefully, I think Nicole will probably and Greg like they. Do you have any room for other mugs besides our lattes, employers? Yeah, yes, good. Uh, and it’s a reminder that dialogue, collaboration, and connection are the way to grow our communities. So, most importantly, this is a discussion, not a lecture. We want this to be interactive, engaging, and relevant to you. Feel free to ask questions, challenge ideas, and contribute your experiences. The more we engage, the more valuable this becomes for everyone in the room. So, let’s first get started. We’re going to introduce ourselves. We’ll go around the room, so I want you to say your name, your profession, uh, and come here with how you heard about lattes with lawyer and just very quickly, one thing you’re hoping to get out of today’s discussion, so we’ll start with you, Heidi.

[Heide Cornell]

Hello, I’m Heidi Cornell. I’m the executive director for Daystar life Incorporated, and I found out about lattes with a lawyer from other networking groups that I’m in with Alexis and you and. Today, I really am passionate about the topics, particularly about the housing and affordable housing here in St Petersburg, because. Daystar is a non-profit that helps people reach Financial stability, so that’s very important for me, all

[Doug Jackson]

Right. And before we move on, uh, I forget that I’m changing up the script a little bit because one of the things that we do believe here is, uh, real. Real communication outside of this as well, and so, because this is an exclusive event. One of the things we try to do is actually give each other our cell phone numbers here. So, we’re going to pass around this. I can’t make anyone do this. But, and last time, I don’t think we ever sent it. So, I apologize. For that, but and everyone who wants to is going to write down their cell phone number. And as we pass this around, we’ll Circle it back around to Alexis when she gets back in. She’ll take us a photo of it and send it to every single person so that everyone has everyone’s cell phone number so we can continue these conversations. So, I tried to do that, usually with the introductions I forgot. So sorry, I caused a bit of a disturbance there, but we’ll go down to you.

[Donayle Whitmore]

I’m Donayle Whitmore. I’m the, uh, thank you, um. Right? So I’m Donayle Whitmore, I’m CEO and founder of sea vested, and Matrices Foundation. We are the Bay’s first social impact accelerator research and data Hub. I’m super excited to be here is all I can say. I was so happy I met Doug yesterday through, Nicole said. Hey, I think you need to connect, and so I’m so excited to be here. I’m working with C4s and c3s all my life. To do anything but? Continue with the crazies that we continue to do, right? We continue to have initiatives. We continue to have challenges and what I would love to be a part of. Is us looking at solutions that actually work? So, I’m so excited to just be here to have these conversations to look at opportunities for us to improve our community. So, yep, and thank you for allowing me this opportunity.

[Nicole Waters]

Great to have you here. I’m Nicole Waters. I’m the CEO of 525 coaching and the founder of Amplify women, Tampa Bay. We Empower business owners and connect them with resources. I also sit on the board of directors of The Edge District here in St Petersburg with Doug, and we have a lot of mutual concerns questions and would like to work towards Solutions, and so I’m really excited to be sitting at this table where that is our Focus.

[Ryan Phelan]

Ryan Phalen Tridium Technology Solutions with the I.T cyber security. Um. I was at the last month’s. A lot of employers, and so I’m grateful for the invitation back. Um, I think what I’m really most excited about with today is, uh, there’s so many familiar faces who I do work with and some new faces. Um, who I I gotten in through different networking groups and? I like our topic, and I like the fact that these familiar faces are going to be more than just a 30 second pitch about their business. Yeah, that we’re actually coming together to collaborate. To lead us towards. Like you said Douglas, some type of a resolution that we can put into motion. And so, really taking our experience, our friendships, and moving them into a collaborative effort. My

[Andre Taylor]

Name is Andre Taylor. I am a motorcycle officer with NRT raid.  I’ve been on SAP for about three years. And then most of the faces in the room. I was by Lexus. So, my goal today is just to mostly observe today and see where I can help out. (Andre actually said he’s a mortgage lender and he’s been doing that for a bout three years, but I liked what the transcript said too much to change it).

[Alexis Egozcue]

And I’m Alexis Egozcue from law firm of Douglas G. Jackson. I am the community relations and marketing coordinator. Thank you all for being here. I’m excited to hear. Everyone’s ideas, and how we can make actionable items to go forward and help out our community. And I’m really excited. I got some information from the city of St Petersburg about down payment, assisted programs, and purchase assistant programs and a bunch of documents that I’m happy to share with you guys today.

[Kris Belvis]

My name is Kris Belvis. I work for Applied Innovation. I’m an account manager. There we do office technology, so anything that really falls on an umbrella, whether it be printers or copiers to. Manage print services to. Name is I.T cyber security. We basically do all that, um, I was. Kind of told about it from, uh, Josh, Norman, and David. Um, I had talked to them a few times over the last month or two, and they told me about this, and they told me, you know, if you were interested, I think you should go. I’m actually coming from being a teacher 15 years prior to this job, so I’ve been in Pinellas County working coaching, so I think getting back in and trying to find another way to kind of help with the community. I think I think that’s what I’m really looking forward to.

[Doug Jackson]

Well, considering that neither Josh nor David have ever come. I’m happy that they give good connectors.

[Gregg Potter]

Good morning! Everybody, uh Greg Potter with Legacy business brokers, business sales, Acquisitions and valuations and? I’ve been a couple times, and I haven’t said anything so offensive that they haven’t brought me back. So, um? I’m here to see if we can, uh, we can say something so offensive that, uh, they don’t invite me back running up your game. Yeah.

[Doug Jackson]

Now that we have the transcript, you got to review your quotes. I, I’m expecting some some real zingers from this one.

[Jenean Merkel Perelstein]

Hi, everyone! I’m Janine Merkel Berlstein, CEO and founder of alchemy Academy. I’m a business Anthropologist, business coach, and Leadership development coach. Um, uh, this is my third time here at this discussion. I’m really pleased to be back. I have have talked privately both with Doug and and Nicole about how I’m very interested in elevating conversation, kind of like what Ryan was saying beyond the 32nd elevator pitch, and uh, and we’ve, we’ve gotten an opportunity to do that in this room thanks to to Doug’s guidance. I’m really grateful for it for the opportunity to have deep, meaningful conversations and Developing plans to do something about it. Thank you.

[Doug Jackson]

You Say my guidance, but really, I just kind of start the topics. And then you guys take it from there, so . . . .

[Jenean Merkel Perelstein]

You brought us here. And that’s, that’s appreciated.

[Doug Jackson]

Well, thank you. Now that we’ve built the connections. It’s time to dive into meaningful discussion about the biggest challenges that face our Industries and community. So, for this first segment, we take 20 minutes, so it’s, uh, how many people do we have today? Uh, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Okay, so we’ve got about a little less than three minutes per person to. For the, the one major issue affecting their industry, the local community, or maybe even the broader National communities. I think about the biggest obstacle you’re facing, uh, Transit concerned you these, aren’t? We’re not necessarily looking for solutions for these today. That’s really about identifying the problems exploring why they matter and understanding their broader impact that we might briefly try to find solutions to some if time permits as we go around the table, I encourage everyone to take notes and consider themes that emerge. These discussions will help us shape future topics for the lattes with the lawyer, as well as our our.

You’re new! Heidi, so you’ve been here before? I’m gonna you knew this was coming. Jenny and I’m getting Circle back around to you, and we’ll go around this way. Okay.

[Jenean Merkel Perelstein]

Something that has Arisen in my mind based off of the trends of the conversations that we’ve had, and we’ve had some very good conversations about true issues and and problems facing Saint Petersburg as a community and, and what’s, uh, keeping us from from developing a sense of unity and and, as I was reading about, what will come today. What I recognize is. That there’s an underlying theme of the fact that that we don’t know how to base our decisions because we don’t know what the underlying value is that. We base our decisions on. You know, we we, as humans, we only behave in accordance with our values, and if we are making a decision of, you know, say, one project versus another project, and not to, you know, jump too far ahead. But I was thinking about like this Waterfront District. Sure, that’s fine. But what if, what if our values are? Equity and unity in our in our town. If that’s the case, then that’s not the right project, because that would exacerbate an existing problem, and so I think we talked last time about communication. I think that that the values aren’t communicated across the board from which decisions are being made on a policy level on a business level, economic level, any kind of level.

And it makes me wonder if there are even identified, so that’s where my brain is right now is what it? What are the values of this community moving forward and the leaders that intend to? Provide sustainability in the next Generations to come.

[Doug Jackson]

All right, great.

[Gregg Potter]

Ah, damn! This is a second time this week I’ve had to speak after you and. That sounds so much smarter than anything I was, gonna say, God, damn it. Set up Jesus.  Speak before you note to self. Okay, I think, um, yeah, I. I knew this was coming, so I, I knew this was going to be the question, so I cheated and I and I switched it up a little bit, so I brought it more back to just local Saint Pete community on my my walk down here, thinking about it. And, um, I’ve got a number of conversations this week, which is, um. Which I kind of get, and I find myself doing it as well, and it’s starting to be in US versus them thing. In Saint Pete and, um, I, you know, I do it myself, you know, I’ll do it myself. I’ll be sitting down at happy hour on Central, and I’ll look across and I’ll say, oh, these rich bastards from New York buying condos and? I’m trying to catch myself from doing it, and I’m really noticing it a lot more in other people because I think that’s it’s a bad Road, and I think it’s a very bad first step to othering people, and I don’t want to be somebody that others people. And, um. All of us! Came to Saint Pete at some point in time. I came here 20 years ago. You might have come here. Some people that were born here. You still came here. You showed up. You weren’t born into this universe into the cosmos, you know, down on Central Avenue. So, um, yeah, I start, you know, I consider myself a, a Saint petonian, because I refuse to say, Burger, and And yeah. So, that’s, that’s my concern.

[Doug Jackson]

So I’m understanding this correctly. How many times have you, uh, been the host of the, uh, good burger Awards?

[Gregg Potter]

Well, technically, only twice. Okay, okay. But to be fair, both times there was a natural disaster. So okay,

[Doug Jackson]

There’s, uh, yeah, apparently. Yeah, Burger doesn’t work for you. Got it all right.

[Kris Belvis]

All right, um, so not kind of listening to what they said, and I guess I’m just going to add some of that to what I was thinking, but specifically, and, and I guess what we do, my company, uh, the biggest thing that I think affects us in general is? The tariffs alone or the scare of the tariffs, right? Because a lot of the stuff that we sell from overseas, the prices can change what. And then, as she was saying, what’s the value in that? What’s the value for me to go, let it spend this or buy from you. Or why do I need to go to you versus them, right? So, I think the biggest thing we try to do. Because the company that I work for is kind of based, um. They’re really big in the midwest. They just came here to this area, so we have the backing, but no One knows who we are. So, how do I? Add the value to the name for you to kind of. Do that during this time, so that’s what we’re dealing with right now. Um, but in the community, um itself. I think the US versus the mentality I am from New York, by the way. Okay, But I don’t have The money. Um, but, uh, I think that kind of goes across the board, even it’s not in St Pete. It’s just everywhere, right? You know, um, I think the fear that people that are in charge right now may not kind of put policies in place or something that may help me. Right. It may help the other person, so that’s where the Divide is coming in, and it’s spreading a little bit more because of fear of okay, well, they’re there doing that. I, I don’t trust it, and that trust issue, I think, is a big thing.

[Alexis Egozcue]

For me. Uh, one thing I’m really interested to learn about today is is everyone’s take on affordability. I have several people, and I know a lot of you. So, most of you know that I live in Ruskin, so I have to work the Skyway. Um, it’s a long drive to beautiful drive, so I don’t mind coming and seeing all of of Saint Petersburg, uh, but at least four times a week. I have to explain to people why I don’t Understand, and I, I try to explain that the house that I can afford. In Ruskin would cost me a million dollars in Saint Pete, but I love to live here. Yes, I went to high school here, you know, I love being here. I’d love to be able to do things in the evening. However, the affordability’s not there, so that’s I’d love to have a great comeback of I can’t afford it, and I think that’s what a lot of people feel they can’t afford it or they’re getting priced out of it. So, people who are renting right now the rent’s going up, people who you know are are at at Stage in their life, where they were renting or looking to buy, or now going. I can’t afford to live here. I need to move out, and that’s going to cause a lot of issues when it comes to the economy. In St Petersburg, we’re talking about shopping, eating here, playing here, working here. And then, of course, being part of the sustainability for the Saint Pete chamber. It’s how much gas are we doing? How much damage are we doing because of the long commutes that we have for people not affording to live in St Pete and having to To come in so?

[Andre Taylor]

So, the first time I ever heard Chris [Steinocher] talk speak, um, was a one of the things he said was we want people to be able to live work player? And we’re just not in that position. I remember, if you, if you go back 2017 2018, I think, in order to get into your first time house. You’re looking about 200, 000, 250. Me and my wife started looking at moving down here, probably about 19, 20. It was before covet, and we got in our car, like, oh, we’re gonna go buy a house for 500, 000. That was our goal as we’re driving. Looking on Zillow, we go to 550. Uh, and I won’t tell you where we ended up two years later after covet, but it was nowhere near 550 or 600. Um, and so affordability is an issue, but I’m not sure sure if that’s a recolvable issue. We have to put infrastructure in place so we can make sure the people that do want to live, work, eat or live or play in. St Pete have transportation and means to get to downtown Central So they can live or work and Eat Or work and play. Uh, and so I think that’s probably more of a solvable. Issue, then the prices of housing going now, because we’re not going to see the price in the house, right? We’re not going to see interest rates go down, and we’re not going to see the price of housing go down. So, we have to create an infrastructure that allows people to travel cheaper,

[Doug Jackson]

I will point out, And Alexis, you’re actually the one who started this, uh, our topics today are the, uh, downtown Waterfront development, as well as affordable housing. So, even if you think that affordable housing is the biggest issue you can say that, but try to find another issue, Ryan said. That last, uh, time time? Which is why we’re in featured topic on it this time. That said, if commuting from affordable housing, I think that’s a separate issue than today’s topic. And so, I think you guys will know that Waterfront District, all these condos and everything.

[Andre Taylor]

Right?  Because they’re building Stuff that even I, you can’t live in or move in. And so, when you have, you know, condos starting out at eight hundred thousand dollars. And I don’t know what the Waterfront District’s gonna look like, or what’s the other hotels coming up?

[Alexis Egozcue]

The 400 Central. Yeah,

[Andre Taylor]

Yeah, I mean, you’re talking about two point two point five million five million dollars for some of those top tier condos, so that plays into it. You know, because when those come in? They’re going to shoot the prices of houses up. I think my three minutes are out the one of the things we’re seeing right now is a kind of a good thing kind of bad thing with the flooding with. The assessment on condos. We’re starting to see condos. Stay on the market for a long time. We probably have about. Does everyone knows difference between buyer’s market and sales market the property? If you have six months of supplies considered a buyer’s market, you have six months or less. Uh, is considered sales market. We’re starting to transition to a seller’s market. We’re at six to seven months, eight months of Supply. But the problem is that Supply is of? Overly represented by condos and people don’t want to, even though you can get a condo Chi. You don’t want to pay the 800, 900, 000 Of HOA fees.

[Doug Jackson]

That’s all right. You did the exact opposite of what I asked you, but? Greg, you’re going to have some competition here for who’s going to talk tonight. You did you did? Ryan, we know from last time your biggest issue is affordable housing. That’s our topic today. What’s your second biggest issue? All right,

[Ryan Phelan]

I might ruffle feathers on this one, um. I was in Orlando on Monday. I went to Epic Universe. And I was. Blown Away. That’s the second time in robbing the universe. I’ve blown away the fact of how little I can hear English while I was in the park and and whatever I want to celebrate that of that. When people are coming from outside of the United States, or they’re coming to Florida. They flock to Orlando. There’s a million things to do in Orlando. You could do Universal. You could do Disney. You could do Gatorland. You could do a thousand other things. And that’s what’s a drawing people to to Florida, but also to Orlando? And I, I look at what we offer here in Tampa Bay. We offer a beautiful beach. That was almost ravish because it completely destroyed and the storms last year. What is? Our alternative to beaching, that’s going to attract tourism, and I think ultimates are really where to sum this up. How do we stop Being a second-class citizen to Orlando? You know? I, I don’t know. As I’m saying, I, I think I’m looking at when I think of when I think of the Tampa if we do great tourism because of our beaches. But what If somebody doesn’t want to come for a beach? Do they Then still come to our area, and we’re starting to see, you know that the housing market go up? We’re seeing all this. How are we going to continue to justify? Um, these High salaries. Justify living here if we just are offering a beach. When most of us Floridians don’t go to the beach, all that often, you know, I think that’s kind of where I’m just struggling. Like, how do we continue to invest in this area to compete with some of our other cities, um? That are getting billions and billions of dollars every year in tourism, right?

[Doug Jackson]

Have you ever seen a Book of Mormon?

[Ryan Phelan]

No,

[Doug Jackson]

Oh, you gotta see it now, they they, uh, there’s has anyone seen it? Yes, okay, they they think highly of Orlando as well as, uh,

[Gregg Potter]

It’s not a compliment.

[Nicole Waters]

Again, my name is Nicole Waters, and um. I do work with a lot of Executives as a as a coach and a lot of decision makers in town. I’d like to start by saying that we’ve already brought to the table. A lot of big issues that don’t get fixed in one meeting and continue need to be chewed on and percolated and. Um, discuss from a lot of different angles. One of the the concerns I think is, we have a lot of talent in Pinellas County, Tampa Bay, specifically Saint Pete in regards to decision makers, industry leaders. Um, I think we can go back to communication, though in regards to a lack of a master plan, a lack of a bigger picture of what we’re trying to do here in the long term for Saint Pete. Um, for example, in Tampa. Um, I went to their EDC meeting last year, and they shared that they really want to have this Innovation Hub, where they’re combining the Health Care Systems with universities and so they’re pumping resources through the universities into. into the Healthcare Systems, and they’re creating an ecosystem so it keeps students young adults here because they’re guaranteed a job in a Healthcare System. It creates Cutting Edge Healthcare. I’m wondering for St Pete, what are? What is our big master plan? Like, what is our DNA in regards to the bigger sustainability? Picture, and I know that there are some ideas out there, and there are some projects out there, but again, we go back to communication and. Do all of our decision makers, industry leaders, and individuals around this table know that so that we can continue to pump into it. So, intentionality in regards to what our master plan is and then?

I know we’ll get into it, but I think to answer your your concern arts and culture, I mean, we are a very condensed area. We have so many museums and a lot of opportunity for art, um as a point of Interest. As I mentioned, I sit on the board with Doug at The Edge District and being a point of interest through ART And Trying International attention to our town through ART is great because it’s affordable that you can do Street. Our free art, but it is something that. Is an experience that we’ll put us on the map and then get people interested in talking about St Pete and then we can talk to them about our bigger, um, bigger plans. So for me, I I’m going to go back to the fact that I have access to a lot of different CEOs and influencers. And decision makers, and I think there could be a lot more cohesive effort in regards to what we’re trying to do in this region. If we all better understood? The direction that we’re going in.

[Donayle Whitmore]

So, I moved here eight years ago from St Louis, Missouri. I was super excited. Oh my God, Beach, the whole nine. Um, it was. This was a dream for me to move to this community. Post covet. It was an absolute nightmare, um, and it continues to be so, and I don’t think it’s the same P thing. I think it is a country thing. Like, we, we think we can actually take that kind of it and continue as if nothing has a coverage. Um, and a lot has occurred the economy being one of those things right, and so it challenges me that we continue to operate under the same type of energy that we had before is if nothing has occurred. And in addition to that. The way that we, we, so, what I’ve experienced here as a newcomer, and I really don’t feel like I’m new in it after eight years, but it is very hard, uh, to be a part to be invited in to participate in whatever it is that is going on around it. It’s tough if you Introduce Innovation here to the large majority of what I hear other Business Leaders stakeholders. Talking about is a tech Innovation that’s happening here in Saint Pete, and I’m excited. I think it’s great. I’ve had an opportunity to work with a tech company when I first walked in the door here. However, the tech can’t operate by itself. I mean it, it attaches itself to a variety of different cross sectors. So, why are all the other sectors being left out of the conversation. And that’s how it feels. It feels like this is where we’re putting all of our time. This is what we’re putting all of our energy. And this, this very, very specific area and everything else is, is unimportant. So, it’s getting Into The workforce pipeline here is tough for people who come in from other places as well as those of us who entrepreneurally want to grow. It is very tough to get into those doors to have level of conversations where we are intentionally building pipelines to allow people to build business here to do business here. It just it feels like you’re on our side. Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s a very, very, uh. Tough environment. And now and then, this Award all ended, um. The policy shifts that are happening on a federal level are impacting us as well, and you start out your conversation talking about, you know, we should be discussing Equity, really? I mean, it’s almost a dirty word.

In any conversation. Now, you definitely cannot utilize it as you are branding anything or having any kind of conversations and that in itself. Is a conversation I’ve had so many. Meetings with organizations who are now shifting. Their entire Mission, changing their entire missions to accommodate this. We were in crises. So when you’re in a crisis, you cannot act. The same way that you’ve been conducting business you. We have to move now ahead, as if we’re in a crisis. All

[Doug Jackson]

Right, and I’m not discounting anything you say. However, I think that you should look at joining the Chamber of Commerce and getting more interactive with that, as well as the edge District, um, on Thursday. Okay, I’m going to, uh, go to Rogers Friday’s insights as well, uh, because that’s really helpful. I think in terms of helping entrepreneurs grow. Oh, and come to our Bend Workshop, uh, of course, so I think I think there are other sectors outside of Technology, but I, I, and I’m not discounting what you’re saying there. But I, I do think that we can improve there as well, including the chamber has a work future Workforce committee that I think probably needs some some more Improvement as well.

[Donayle Whitmore]

I really want to just hit the nail on the head here, the large majority of dollars that are being invested right now in terms of industry in this particular region, not just Saint Pete, but even that’s across the river or the the Bay rather and gone over to Tampa. It’s the same conversation. It’s like, hey. Um, where is Tech? Where are you going to put your Innovation? You’re going to put it in a hospital. You’re gonna, you know, put it in a school. You’re gonna put it somewhere, yeah.

[Doug Jackson]

I will commend you because you’re probably the only person here having conversations with anyone in Tampa. We don’t go across the, uh, bridge

[Donayle Whitmore]

I Do business where everyone, wherever anyone wants to do business, right? So, yeah.

[Heide Cornell]

Hey.  Hi Again, I’m Heidi Cornell from Daystar, the non-profit represented here and these topics. I’m really passionate for us and really important to us, and everyone has really contributed something very poignant and very important to this discussion. I come at it from a very different angle, and you might be surprised as a leader of a non-profit organization by some of the things I’m going to say, I fully support Innovation. I fully support growing our community, and I fully support some of the programs that have been. Proposed. And the reason I do is because I have to ask myself several questions and I have to look at the participants in my program and I have to see how it benefits them because they’re Community residents. They’re people who live here, people who have to stay here. Most people don’t want to travel more than 10 miles from their home if they’re at a low wage position, right? So, I have to look at.

Will it create jobs? And ask our representatives. Will this prog? Will this program will this Innovation? Will this project create jobs? Will it move the needle on wedges because the problem is not affordability? The problem is the stagnation of wages to match the cost. Costs will always go up. That’s Just how Life works. Things become more expensive as they become more sophisticated. And so we have to be able to continuously match those. Uh, those comps. With affordable wages. Will encourage people to come here. Live here. Eat here. Work here. And is the opposition. As you pointed out, the US versus them, or is it create as our as a words that we’re using? Um, kind of, make them the great big thing in the sky, and therefore villainizes the individuals. And so, therefore, now you can’t have a productive conversation and communication gets shut off when someone feels villainized?

Which I feel has happened several times. Um, but? Will is the opposition because of an attachment to Nostalgia. That can be conquered. That can be addressed, and everyone can win if they have a little piece of that Nostalgia that’s still attached to that. So, you know, as you’re looking at topic number one, I don’t know if I’m supposed to do this. But, um, I’m going to, I’m having Instagram, but when you Look at probably the Waterfront and the development of the Waterfront, um owling Stadium needs some help. I’ve been there. I had a season pass for the rowdies for a while. I need some help. So, are we attached to it because it’s a building because they used to play baseball there, and it was like this thing that was just always a part of Saint Pete, or are we? Are we willing to say in 2025 a building that was put there in whatever decade it was put there. It’s not appropriate for the population that needs to access it. Are we just attached to the Nostalgia of it, and that’s my input. All right, perfect.

[Doug Jackson]

And a good segue into our first topic. Sorry, one of the things I did kind of notice. That has emerged, and I’ve thought about this before, and I don’t know why I forgot about it. But, uh, I do think that Saint Pete needs more, uh, more jobs more industry. I mean, where a lot of people commuted to Tampa, you look at our high-rise buildings. They’re all residential. This building 200 Central is actually the largest corporate building, and it’s one of the only corporate buildings that we have. Here you go to other cities and their largest buildings are all incorporate. So, it is. It’s an interesting thing that we’ve kind of emerged from this topic, uh, but now we’re going to jump into our first topic, which. Which, uh, Heidi did a great job of introducing already, uh, and our first topic is usually kind of a current topic, and I, I couldn’t get away from this one because they just. They released some kind of a plan, uh, that I, I think they didn’t explain. Well, uh, for the Waterfront District and the Waterfront District, uh, as Heidi talked about Al laying stadium, is it’s a it’s essentially. In my mind, historical Heidi disagreeze with me, so it’ll be an interesting, uh, Roundtable discussion, um, and the part of that plan was removing outlaying stadium, uh, which, okay, maybe? I also think the timing was really, really bad, considering the whole race development just fell through, and people are going wait, we’re We’re potentially losing one team. What is going to happen? We’re going to now lose our rowdies too, which I, I guess they had some plans in store for this, but no one communicated them going back to the communication problems. But the downtown Waterfront District and that area is. It’s a very, I think, an important development and another thing that I just kind of threw in here as well. Is the Albert Wooded airport because that’s always been a debate? I personally love it. I think that the little planes flying in, give Saint Pete some of its charm. I think if we lost that, we’d lose Some of the culture of Saint Pete, but that’s been something that they’ve been talking a lot about, too. The ferry service, which Andre knows all about that, so you may talk about a little bit in this discussion with that, too. I think the ferry service is extremely valuable, I think again. It gives Saint Peter’s charm, and it may connect us to Tampa so that we can have those conversations that you’re having in none of the rest of us are having? And then the other thing, too, is that they talked about Albert Whitted. They, I guess they’re gonna have to restructure it if they do this, but they’ve got these EV tall vehicles that they were talking about. This electronic, uh, electric vertical takeoff and Landing vehicles that they’re trying to implement in Tampa, uh, the Tampa Airport, and they’re gonna be like Ubers where you can take it to other places. And so, what? What can we do? How can we incorporate that in in the downtown Waterfront District, too, because I think if we want, I mean, the Tampa Airport is? Where people fly into. And so, if we do want to make this a tourist industry, which I think it is, and I don’t think we should get away from that, but I do think we need to bring other jobs as well. We need to make sure that Tampa and Saint Pete are connected. So, I, I just thought this was a really interesting topic. Uh, the downtown Waterfront committee? For the people who’ve been here, you know, we get these little topic handout sheets. We don’t necessarily need to follow them. They’re just to give us ideas and start the conversation. These are chat GPT generated, so don’t trust the the numerical figures in them. Um, but so, who wants to start talking about rematching the downtown Waterfront?

[Jenean Merkel Perelstein]

I want to jump into the the bigger question that that I heard kind of an underlying theme from a lot of us this morning is, um. I wonder if there’s any consensus on who we want to be? Who does Saint Pete want to be, and to whom, you know, we won’t be Orlando to the families who want that kind of thing, but we could be a destination. We are actually for Arts for Tech. Do we want to build things that the young professionals professionals who can’t afford the 2.5 million dollar condo will use to live, work, and play in, or do we Want to build infrastructure for to to break down the Divide between North and Central St Pete with South Saint Pete, you know who, who are we? Who do we want to be and I’m going to go back? To what I was Saying About values. Therefore, what does what values are we basing our decisions off of because that would give us focus on how we can answer any one of these questions, but without that kind of, you know, guiding principle that that North Star were were left to to? Overlay our own individual value system on it, and you’re going to have a million different people saying a million different things. And I don’t think that you get to consensus that way.

[Doug Jackson]

Well Jenean, what do you think that value system should be? I feel like you, I feel like you need to. We do need to have opinions. Yeah, uh, because that’s the only way we’re gonna get to consensus. So, so what? What? What do you think it should be? What should our values be?

[Jenean Merkel Perelstein]

It’s what a great question. I think there’s a process for figuring out where. Um, the the people of influence who care about the sustainability of Saint Pete can talk about that, you know, we’re, and we’re we’re here, but I think there’s a process we could do to to outline our values and come together and see all right. Where are we seeing connection and Synergy? And where are we diverging? Because if we go into the US versus them conversation at all, that’s maybe like the the canary, the indicator species. It says that we’re diverging away from it. But when we find consensus among people of influence and our value systems, I think that’s where we need to. That’s where we need to focus. And so the the answer to your question? I don’t think it’s for me to answer, but I think it could be for us as a group to answer. But there’s a process we would have to. We would have to go through to do that. I

[Andre Taylor]

Think we’re a city driven by entrepreneurs. I Don’t think like you if you look at downtown Central. Maybe go a mile and working the mouse out in a mountain? West, you’re going to see most of the businesses are not franchised. Most of them are Mom and Pop shops. People that have a vision, and they create that vision, and they nurture that Vision. They try to grow that Vision, so I think that’s what drives in my opinion. Uh, that’s I think that’s kind of what drives Saint Pete and, and I know that we’re tours heavy, but a lot of it is just entrepreneurship, creating a dream and trying to develop that dream. And I think that’s what that separates us from the Orlando’s and some the tamas. You don’t see as many McDonald’s or or Taco Bells or major Hotel chains here. When you look at downtown St Pete specific and,

[Doug Jackson]

And some of this is intentional because I I, my understanding, is at downtown St. Pete only allows a small store. On footprint so that the big box can’t really afford to get in there because they’re going to need a bigger footprint. So, I think you’re right. I think that is intentional. I will go so far as to say that I and I, I know, I’m gonna be curious to hear Heidi’s rebuttal, but I think we need to preserve some of the the history of Saint Pete as well, because I think that I, if you there’s a Preserve. The bird has a group I listened to them. Talk about it one time, and I, I don’t necessarily agree with all of their initiatives, but it was interesting because we have very, very low historical designation in our city compared to a lot of other cities. And now, don’t get me wrong. I think that Kenwood around the sunrider bus stop needs to increase its density, which they’re fighting and preserve the Bergs on that. But, but I do think that we need to have historical districts. I think outlaying is a very historical place and. Although it probably does need to be renovated a little bit for the rowdies, I I think getting rid of it, would I mean? St Pete was a baseball town. Originally, we’ve talked about this, and I think it’s kind of iconic to have that. And I think that if we get rid of our history, if we should get our history, we are going to divide more than unite. And I think that Janine, you’re correct. We need to have some structure of the downtown where we’re connecting, whether it’s it’s a ferry, um, and connecting some of those. I heard I heard this statistic that I think only 25 percent of the units in 400 are going to be lived in. So that means the rest of them are just really rich people that are buying them and using it as a vacation home and not even renting it, so they’re not going to be connected. But how do we connect them with Saint Pete so that we can make those things lived in so that we don’t have a city And, and I think the answer is, we need to get some of those higher end. Luxury, maybe businesses at the same so that they’re interconnecting with the the people who want to go to a Rowdies game and, uh, with the the peanuts and the old, um? The old style and can affordability, so we need we need a system and may. And maybe it’s not the downtown Waterfront, although it would be neat if it could be the downtown Waterfront where people are doing those things and they’re connecting together.

[Heide Cornell]

Let me respond to this. You call me out tonight. Oh, I will. I come from a small Market Sports town. I’m from originally from Buffalo, New York, and we have two very important sports teams. There, we have the Buffalo Sabers, and we have the bills, our beautiful, wonderful bills. And if anyone ever takes those away from us, um, them. I live here now, and I’m fully immersed. But if anyone ever takes those sports teams away from that area, they’ll be riots in the streets, right? It wasn’t always quite like that. Um, there was a point in time when both stadiums really needed help. In the area around the particularly the downtown hockey arena was not desirable. Um, and the infrastructure was for, and this, the team’s ownership stuff. We, we gotta do something, and we just are landlocked here. We can’t fix this. The difference, I think here. And maybe I’m going to say something really controversial right now. But the difference I feel here from there is the new ownership of both of those teams. They’re the same owner, kind of like the raised rowdies. They turned around. And they reinvested in the community around it. He said, we’re going to do this thing.

But this is also what we’re going to do. We’re going to build up the community, and we’re we’re need your help. When it came to the football stadium, but when they they started with the hockey team and they started building up the Waterfront, they started building up, um, places where people can live, work play. They started building small hockey Arenas they have, like outdoor ice rinks. Little League teams can play. They have competition. It’s just they have curling. I mean, they have all of these things that go along with the hockey crowd, but also encourages businesses. Small businesses started moving in there and boutique hotels, and it just became a really desirable place to go because the ownership saw the value in one, having a really great place for their team. But two, nobody’s gonna, no, nobody’s gonna support the team if they have nowhere to go or nothing to do around it.

Um, and we need to invest in that. Now, I know downtown’s a little different, but um, let’s Flash Forward to. In 2026. That football team is getting a brand new stadium. It’s kind of a questionable location. It’s directly across the street from the old stadium. It’s not downtown, but everyone rallied around it and was okay with allowing the state and taxpayers to help fund it because they knew the ownership is going to really nurture development, growth, and the and consider the community and what the community needs and wants with that development so. Um, that was really important. I don’t see that with the Rays rowdies owners.

[Gregg Potter]

Do they want to buy a baseball team?

[Heide Cornell]

They might, but they won’t win so. They’re great at Building Development.

[Doug Jackson]

I was trying to choose a different topic, this time than our Ray Hines development topic.

[Heide Cornell]

No, I’m I’m pulling off of that because it’s the same owners right for the rowdies and the Al Lang stadium, and I think maybe People wouldn’t have That Nostalgia if they unders, if if the ownership really stood up and said, hey, this is what we’re gonna do for your community. And this is how we’re going to reinvest, and you’re going to be able to have those. Little League soccer teams, and you’re gonna have all of these things going on and look at this great, beautiful brand new location. Brand new stadium. We’re gonna have, um, and you can still preserve some of those other things you can bring some of the seats over, you can have a memory wall. You can have all of that.

[Doug Jackson]

I’m actually happy to bring this back around, because, uh, I feel that this is an important topic. Um, and I know we had a debate on that last time, but I do think and, and you’re right, the the sports teams, I think, are important to St Pete, I really, I. Really do, and I think, and I think we discussed this last time. I think the solution there needs to be if we want the sports teams, especially the raise to stay. We need different owners, so I, I. Don’t disagree with your ownership model, but the the question I get that’s out of our control.

[Andre Taylor]

Stu has no investment in St Pete, right? Where’s he from?

[Doug Jackson]

I don’t know. New York is investment. I think that over the Buffalo Bills,

[Gregg Potter]

Well, Bennington has no interest in Tampa, and he’s done a hell of a job over there. Yeah,

[Heide Cornell]

Well, they came from Pennsylvania. I, I agree

[Kris Belvis]

That I wasn’t here for the last one. So, if I say something, that’s double. Um, but living right outside of St Pete. The biggest thing that it always pops up with white fluffs coming is the Arts, right? So that kind of That’s the Thing that you guys are known for out here, whether it’s the markets or the art or everything that’s going on here. I think the the sports team gives it something else for other people to come to, um, but it does come with an investment, right? You know, uh? And I wanted to touch on the fairy too, but I’ll stay on the sport seats for now, but Uh, the investment side again. I think that goes with your communication from them, right? It could be from the owners. It could be from the city. Okay, if we’re going to invest this money into this. Here’s what comes out of it, and I think if the the, you know, the public knew exactly what was going to come from it down the line, right? They may go okay. Let’s take that chance, because now I see what’s going to happen. So, the communication is really big from all sides, because I think people will be on board if they knew. Okay, this five ten year project is going to do do Is for us. It needs to be out there. I think the City had bought into the Rays. We were just the hurricane posed us, yeah. And Then, Um, after the hurricane hose was then Stu backed out of it.

[Andre Taylor]

I don’t know. Personally, I don’t know why I’m calling him to do, like little buddies, golf buddies, but I think that’s where It feels personal. It feels it feels kind of worse. I don’t want to get on the great Knocks list, or how many better words I say, um. And so, that’s. That’s the problem is that we were there. And then, we have an election after we had the election. We have one of the guys on the commission changes vote, or or. Yeah, he changed his vote, and then Stew was, like, well, if you guys don’t want to do what we want to do, then I’m going to back out. So that’s why we’ve had. Right now, we lost this thing,

[Kris Belvis]

But I think with the soccer too, I mean, and again, I don’t want to keep hopping in Orlando. I went to UCF, by the way, sorry, um? They, they invested in their soccer team downtown. Yes, a lot a lot, And the city in British it after. I mean, because before that. A friend of mine’s a, a friend of mine’s a president for Orlando soccer, yeah, so They invested in after after time it became a staple down there. You know You have the magic, But then now. Oh, the soccer is soccer. They go for that, like the solar city turns purple and the games are going on. Just like I see down here, sometimes with the green and that Lane, but at not to the extent right, but again. Took a while because before that, no one really went to the soccer games, but what they did with the soccer from my understanding is they Made it. The professionals are responsible for soccer all the way down to the little kids, and so it’s it’s generational now. Yeah, versus just a professional sports team, everyone’s in basketball.

[Heide Cornell]

Keep in mind, okay, so let’s talk about the soccer team a minute. Many of the soccer players have jobs they full-time jobs. Okay, so not soccer, um, so there’s a big difference between a big money team, and you know, the type of soccer team we have? It’s not, you know, it’s it’s. It’s, uh, and it’s, I mean, it’s adorable, but when you go there, the stadium’s never full.

[Gregg Potter]

I don’t know how long you’ve been around, but there was a major push about 10 years ago to become a MLS team. Yeah, and the number One thing standing in their way was the crappy Stadium, which I find fucking hilarious. That’s one and right now that people are saying. We can’t. I know some of the same people now saying we can’t tear down Al Lang, who were bitching 10 years ago of build a new stadium. How come, I’m, like,

[Heide Cornell]

Well, and that’s where I say, you can’t compete. Like, there’s there’s. There’s this Nostalgia feeling, and it changes very hard. And you know, a small community, but you have to be able to look at the long-term effects of what’s going to happen. And you know, I don’t. I don’t agree with. With Doug that we’re a sports town. Believe that we’re a beach and arts Community.

[Gregg Potter]

Yes, we’re not though, where’s our beach?

[Donayle Whitmore]

I Agree with her. The brand I bought when coming here was all about. The beaches was all about the murals. It was all about this sort of smaller Market that you know you could actually get around in I. I had really no interest. I could have gone to Tampa if I wanted the big city action, that’s not what this is, but the the challenge that we that we have right now. We look like it is luxury downtown. It’s all these all of a sudden out, looking like Miami, you know, level. You know, infrastructure that we’re building that.

[Donayle Whitmore]

Mirror where we are economically, because this is, that’s not who we are. So, I think we need to figure out what the brand is here in Saint Pete, because I definitely well I enjoy Sports. And that’s, I don’t think most people come here. For that reason, not at all.

[Gregg Potter]

So you would Be surprised.

[Doug Jackson]

I want to say two things. So, first of all, every single sports team that has a really, really, really devoted fan base has been around for you, really at least two generations, because? That’s what it takes. The Rays are a brand new team. The rowdies are pretty new team and and my issue with the Ray is moving, is we are finally getting to the first generation of race fans. And, because it you are, you grow up around people who have been fans. Their parents have been fans. Their grandparents have been fans. That’s why, like the Cubs, even though they they stank for a long time. They, their parents, grew up. I mean, I, I watched a episode of Criminal Minds, and uh. Rossi is a character, and he’s talking about how they’re They’ve gone 100 years without winning a championship. They’ve thought about this, and then they finally did, and this is this is what I think is happening with the Rays and with the rowdies, and it is becoming a presence, and it’s not going to be a presence for everyone, but I do think and we’re gonna have to move on quickly so I may end up getting the last word and taking my, uh, privilege here, is that I think Saint Pete is is a town of of individual desires. That’s what’s one of the. Coolest things to me about Saint Pete. You walk around downtown and you tell me what the the style is because I can’t you. Everyone’s dressed differently on everyone’s acting differently. And you know what everyone’s tolerant of that? And that is, I think the coolest thing about Saint Pete, and I think that if we say Saint Pete is a small town, it’s a Beach town. Well, we’re practicing the same Nostalgia that Heidi you’re you’re talking about. Maybe it’s not anymore because it is growing, and how do we grow with it, and how do we attract the different people because I will tell you that when a lot of Times. Couples move here, too, right. Two people, and so they have to agree on something. And one person might say, well, I like the beaches and the other person might say, well, they got a soccer team, so that’s pretty cool. And I will say, too, to Greg’s point into Heidi’s, I’m not against renovating the outlaying. I think we got to keep pieces of outlaying to keep the historical significance, and I think this is one thing that I’m frustrated with. Saint Pete is, every time we tear down a historical building, we don’t pay any homage to it. We, we It makes it looks totally different. It looks brand new. We’re not keeping the historical thing, but what they were talking about in the plan is getting rid of outlaying entirely and making the rowdies homeless, which going back to the communication issue was really bad timing anyway. So, maybe five years down the road, that’s the discussion. But right after we’re like, we just lost this raised deal. I don’t think it is the discussion. Um, we are out of time. We got to move on, and I I’m upset about that because we didn’t get to talk about the ferry, which I think is a really, really important thing, and I think we need to move that back downtown Unless we do make the Waterfront District cooler and then we can maybe keep . . .

[Donayle Whitmore]

They’re in negotiation. From what I was reading last night that they’re going to buy two. I think

[Gregg Potter]

Let’s dive into the ferry,

[Donayle Whitmore]

Yeah, not the location Of the ferry. Oh Yeah, I don’t know about the location. So, the first time,

[Alexis Egozcue]

Yeah, this is an Andre question

[Alexis Egozcue]

Changing the doc. Yeah, it has to be rebuilt the way that it was.

[Donayle Whitmore]

I Want to add one thing.

[Andre Taylor]

Say, again, who owns the ferry,

[Gregg Potter]

The the boat itself?

[Heide Cornell]

The the pro, the whole fairy system who owns that? Well,

[Gregg Potter]

That’s a complicated question for. Probably another day.

[Andre Taylor]

So the ferry is  out of Boston, the company that leased us. The fairy is went bankrupt, so they had to move the ferry back up to Boston, so we don’t have any Ferry right now. I think that the boat itself, the boat itself. Okay, so the other part about it is it used to be in the vinoy base and he got moved because we didn’t have the right permits. We sold our dock or whatever we did with our dog, and so we got approval from them to. To have the doc doc’s gone, so we have to rebuild a dock that matches those exact.

Specifications, and it’s going to cost somewhere between 2 million or three million dollars. So, the dock alone is two, two to three million dollars, and then we have to go and buy boats, so that’s. Guess we’re a ways away from that.

[Alexis Egozcue]

Two seconds. So who owns the ferry? So, it’s a private and public partnership. It involves Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, the city of Saint Pete and Tampa, and HMS Ferries. The operator HMS Ferries had defaulted on their agreement with Hillsborough County, and that led to the service ending. So now, St Pete is exploring new options, but it’s Managed through Hillsborough County.

[Donayle Whitmore]

They Just was willing to give 4.8 million Grant dollars to Pinellas County to take over the responsibility, so

[Andre Taylor]

That was a they just approved. Yeah, that was a grand that was granted to Hillsborough County. They weren’t using that. So we, the city of Saint Pete, requested it for that Grant to be transferred to us, and so it was just in a holding pattern. It’s an escrow account somewhere, and then we have to. Just, we have to decide or determine how those funds are going to be used. This, believe me, if I hear anything more about the figure, I’m going to grow another way here.

[Doug Jackson]

Okay, well, that perfect because we need to move on to the next topic anyway, which is the feature topic, which which? Is the housing affordability issue because, as we’ve kind of already addressed with our greatest problems, can’t get away from this one either. We have a housing affordability issue here, uh, and I’m I’m a big. I’ve talked about this a lot, I, and and going to the entrepreneur Town. I think this is really important, too. We have become a society, not just Saint Pete, all of America, where we don’t own anything anymore. We used to own things. Now, we rent everything we rent jobs. Entrepreneurs, don’t they own their jobs, but we rent. I really realize this when I was watching a Movie on Netflix, and I’m going. I don’t even own a movie anymore. Granted vhs’s and DVDs are worthless now, but I used to own something I used to be able to sell it. I used to, we had value. We built assets, and now we are so. So, so trained to lease everything to rent everything. And with housing becoming more affordable. What we’re doing is, we are not allowing people to build an asset that they can use that leverage. They can use that Equity to create other other Ventures. Other wealth down the road, generational wealth, and we’re having this This divide in inequality. I mean, if you look at Ginny coefficients, it’s it’s getting worse. So, this is a I think a very important topic for Saint Petersburg, too, because as we addressed the wages don’t necessarily correlate with the the housing market, and we’re having people big money come in and buy something they’re not living here. They’re not really giving a lot of money back, except for maybe the six weeks they’re here. So, how do we address this? And I will say this to me is probably the most exciting topic we’ve had because. Believe there’s Private Solutions here, and I actually believe that we can come together. Do things maybe generate joint ventures off of this and and really do something to help the community. I don’t think that because we’re not in government, we can. We can try to influence the government, but I think this has a real opportunity for private Private Solutions. Private collaborations and private joint ventures, so I know we’ve got a lot of people who came just for this topic. So, who wants to start us off?

[Andre Taylor]

I’ll start it. I have to go to Rotary in about 30 minutes or 20 minutes. So, the answer to affordability is multi-generational. Uh, we have to become a society once again. I don’t think the prices of houses are going to go down here in Saint Pete. It’s just not going to happen, so we have to look at a multi-generational solution, where instead of us kicking our kids out of the house when they’re 18, 19, 20. What we do is we build a multi-family units. We build triplexes, we build duplexes. So, what you can do is, you can buy a quad.

A quad, and you can live in that quad. And let’s say that quad is a million dollars, or you can get financing with five percent down. As long as you let me use another number. So, the Fannie Mae guideline is, I have to look, yeah. A million dollars will work. So you can get financing from five percent on a quad, and then you have your kids stay in each one of those units. Rent out those units, so that’s one way we can get around. We’ll, uh, we can get around. Affordability is looking at. Building multi-families versus building single families because the land is going to be the cost of the land. Once you do with that structure, how you develop that structure.

It’s up to you, and then you just gotta figure out how you can that. That’s going to make it a little bit more affordable.

[Jenean Merkel Perelstein]

And the City needs to meet the needs with, uh, permitting for multiple structures. ADUs things like that, and really, really, um? Carry along with the needs of the community.

[Doug Jackson]

If that’s the case, and they are Trying to with the 80 ADUs they’re trying to, and they’ve added 80 ADUs but the problem, because I was looking at this. The problem is, it’s expensive to build an ADU

[Andre Taylor]

$250 Minimum

[Doug Jackson]

250 minimum. So, I mean, that’s how, how is there a way to bring down those costs? Why is it so high. To build an Adu, I feel like, what’s that?

[Gregg Potter]

Talk to Cassie.

[Kris Belvis]

They’re the ones building most of them,

[Nicole Waters]

Can I make comment because I’m sitting here, and I’m thinking, I’m seeing like this major? Gap in conversation. I feel like we are talking about the weeds. We’re trying to figure out the weeds, And as I’m Sitting here, and as I’m reflecting on the comment I made earlier about a master plan or a bigger picture right, then it got me thinking, like, what don’t we know, which then immediately led me to? Has Chris Steinocher? Mayor Welch and Mike from the EDC ever been sitting on a panel and demonstrating that they? Know what’s going on that they are on the same page because they’re the ones driving the future of the city and of these communities, and I think they have a lot of answers to the things that we’re talking about, and we’re trying to piecemail piecemeal the answers together, then I can give you a perfect example. And I think I talked about this last time if anyone’s looking at major industries like education Hospital Systems, and I’m going to use the Tampa Airport as a perfect example. If you look up the Tampa Airport, they have Your plan. They have renderings of exactly what the airport’s going to be looking like they’re already planning for 2030. They know how many passengers are going to be coming through the airport in 2030. They’ve got a plan. They know what’s coming well. They only know what’s coming because they are a piece of a bigger pie. So, who else knows what’s coming? And then, okay, let’s talk about housing. Well, if the airport’s growing and the hospital systems are growing and education is growing, then those people need housing. So, who Is holding the keys to the housing answer, you know, and it’s multiple people I understand that? And what are those people know that we clearly don’t at this table?

[Gregg Potter]

If I may Answer your question, this is a very complicated answer, so I’ll try to keep it in five minutes, because, um, the answer you asked, are any of these people getting together on panels and discussing this the complicated ant? No, it’s simple, yes. It’s very simple, and I’m going to say not to sound Kurt. But yeah, this is happening. I mean, I will. I’ve been there next time when this happens, I’ll invite you.

[Nicole Waters]

That’d be great. Yeah,

[Heide Cornell]

There’s been a road show where all of those individuals are traveling and having those conversations.

[Alexis Egozcue]

So you Don’t know that this is happening. And that’s part of the bigger conversation that we’re having previously, it’s communicative. And, like, you said, knowing where to go when to go and how to go. And if we don’t have that information, how? How can we then disseminate what you’re finding out to everyone else?

[Donayle Whitmore]

And then hen, where does it translate into action, right? Because the other biggest, yeah, the other bigger challenge that I see here in St Pete, because if I lived here, I would All my Life I would be angry, and I see the anger of people who’ve lived here, their entire lives, and now they can’t afford to live in their own freaking home. It’s It’s insane, right? And then there’s a history here, as I’ll bring the big elephant in the room that I’m not hurt. Anyone bring it up as of yet? But I’ve heard from particularly from the black community where they’ve been displaced multiple times. And then we continue to put multi-million dollar infrastructure in the areas in which these people have been displaced, they keep screaming and hollering about. Hey, when do we get to participate and it continues. It just keeps going on and on. What are you

[Gregg Potter]

Doing on Monday? I’m gonna answer all everybody’s questions here. Okay, right, what are you doing Monday? At 2. It is Two, maybe

[Nicole Waters]

It’s a whole day.

[Gregg Potter]

Yeah, it’s longer Than I thought. I’m gonna I’m gonna answer It. What are you doing Monday At 2, 30.

[Donayle Whitmore]

I’ll check it. I’ll check it out.

[Gregg Potter]

Watching a movie You go, go see the raised r-a-z-e-d movie, and it’s down at, uh, at USF, St Pete and it’s that question, which goes back into a lot of other questions, which. Back into your question, too. But we’ll say that for another day, but For for the This Congress, the conversations are being had or that be had enough? No, but that’s why we’re here. And we’re here to. I mean to me, personally, I’m here. I can’t speak for you. I’m here so I can come and sit and talk to smart people and listen and hear really good ideas. And go, Damn. I like That, you know, what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna take that, and I’m gonna sit. This is absolutely truth. I’m gonna sit on a bar stool at Central at four o’clock with my dog and my buddies and their dogs. And I’m Gonna say You know what I heard today? I’m gonna tell you what I heard today, and they’re gonna go. Yep. And then they’re going to go. Take it to where they go, right? And that’s, that’s what you know. We can’t solve all the world’s problems here, but we can come up with some good ideas, And then we can take it. And then we can go, and we can make that little bit of change, and then that can go down. And you can show up at Rays on on Monday at 2, 30, and you can show up at race and then the next Economic Development meeting.

[Andre Taylor]

Oh quick Before everyone, pull out your phone and download the Saint Pete chamber app that I told. You guys about me, Greg, and Doug and Alexis probably see each other four or five times a week. The conversations are being had. Are they being executed? I don’t know. Like, I sit in the policy planning meeting, and we talk about things that are going to occur in 2031. I don’t know if I’m going to be around in 2031. Hopefully, we’re willing the creek, don’t rise. Oh, that’s from Oklahoma, um, the the conversations are being had, uh, are they? Are they being dispersed? And that’s the question. And so, we’re in an investor meeting, probably about two months ago, three months ago. And there’s 20 people that are ambassadors for the chamber. And here he goes because they’re going know that we have an app. And out of those 20 people in that room. People were, like, no two, two people, who, And so, if you want to stay Connected to the community or what’s going on in our conversations. They’re on that app, and you share them with your friends. You share them with your friends you share with your friends. And we can get more people in the conversation. But yes, there is a there is. Go back to your original point. There’s a huge disparity between the black community and Saint P and the North Side.

[Donayle Whitmore]

I don’t think It’s just the black community, though. I think if you have, yes, a social, there’s a, there’s a challenge a gap with just the black community and people who originally are are have lived here for Generations. Yeah, because I’m hearing it across the board that people who have been here all their lives are complet. About the same type of challenges. While there’s a different situation, I believe in the black community, there’s an overall challenge that I’m hearing over and over again from people who have lived and grown here, their entire lives to have the same opinions. But and I’m invising, and it’s the last thing I would say. I invite the opportunity to be at the table to hear and listen about all these conversations, but I’m just gonna keep it real with you. I, I’m tired of talking, um, and I part of why I came today, and I expressed this to you was, hey, I love the fact that you you’re having all these different opinions coming to a room and have a chance to really be authentic about how you feel and what you think, but we got to move Beyond this, uh, because there are certain people people Who don’t have the luxury of sitting here and just having a conversation because they’re right now. Getting their butts kicked because they’re not able to participate. They don’t even know where to participate. They’re not even being invited to participate, but us having these conversations. The stakeholders are taking their, you know, sweet, old time, conversating about things that other people are in serious crises about.

[Doug Jackson]

I think after we give Heidi a chance to respond, I’ll respond to you and okay.

[Donayle Whitmore]

Then, actually, segue back. The only reason I came? Literally what I do?

[Heide Cornell]

So, um? Okay. Let’s start with. There is no magic bullet. Have to start there. There is no magic bullet, and there are always in a city going to be populations of people that feel left out of conversations. It’s just how it is in every Community, even in my small little eight person Department. I have someone that says, well, I didn’t know anything about that.

So, we have to always remember that there’s always going to be noise and clatter, and there’s no Magic Bullet in communication is never. Equal ever. It just isn’t. So, starting with that, the second thing there are communicate, there are programs out there. There are Communications going out. There are panels there are the mayor has spent a lot of time actually at, um, in South Side, St Petersburg, particularly. But even you know, he goes out to the north areas, but in Southside City, he has spent a lot of time over there having, um, Community open houses on his tour But even spontaneous. He’s been working with Community associations, and he sits in the community center, and they give him information about what is the need? There’s no doubt in my mind that he is passionate about this city and absolutely wants it to succeed. I, I have to put that out there, um? Part two of what I’m about to say. Because there is no Magic Bullet. It’s going to take time. Things can fall apart in a heartbeat, but to rebuild takes an army, and it takes money, and it takes a lot of patience. When covid happened prior to covet. So, to answer your question, I bought property here. In 2009, it became our vacation property for a while, my parents, they retired, and they snowbirded here, and we always thought we’d sell it, and we just couldn’t get rid of Saint Petersburg. It just was part of who we are. It’s in my DNA. So when coven happened and we had an opportunity to actually live here full time.

Um. It was just an opportunity I couldn’t let go of, so we we came here. Um, but? That incident the entire country suffers because of that because it changed everything. People by the millions dispersed all over the place. Everywhere. And a lot of people came here. And started to live here, because let’s just face it when you’re up in the north and you’re isolated at home, and it is snowing in May. You don’t want to be there. There’s nowhere to go. There’s nothing to do so. They came here. And it caused a lot of disruption because suddenly this area became desirable and it happened overnight. And no one saw that coming, because for years and years and years, and I can say that with certainty because I bought here in 2009, and I got to tell you, this city looked completely different. In 2009 t looked completely different. In 2010, all of a sudden in like 12, 14, 15 people started building their businesses, and now there’s things happening. And, like, when I bought my condo, there was one restaurant. That was open and near me. And then there was one downtown. And you know, I mean, there really wasn’t anywhere to go so? It took time to get to that and then Kobe kind of hit. And now, people are living here, and people want to stay. So it’s going to take time to rebuild, but the issue we have right now, and it’s Across the Nation, but it’s hit St Pete. So much harder because of the fact that we weren’t prepared for that, because it it just it was a sleepy little destination unknown, you know, the best known secret in Florida, right?

The right now. The data came out like two weeks ago, um, and I tried to pull it up and I couldn’t find it. But um? And I, I think that this is very important. The Ami is the Ami.

Affordability. And the cost of living. Um and housing, particularly. In comparison with the Ami is listed in the top 10 most expensive cities in the nation. Now, in comparison with the Ami. So, if there is a solution, it has to be in wages. It has to be.

[Donayle Whitmore]

Yea, I agree,

[Doug Jackson]

I disagree. I think I think I think wages have to be apart. But and, and here, I’m gonna very, very strongly disagree with Nicole, she said, I think we’re in the weeds. I 100% disagree with that, because the fact of the matter is that small things add up, and when we say we need a big plan, we need everyone to come together. I’m not the person to do it. Guess what? Things don’t get done. Things start in little Grassroots efforts. They start with one little individual thing. I mean, I don’t tell a little bit of a story here, even though I think we’re a little short on time. Uh, I, I went to Maggie’s Delta training, uh, graduation, and they they had this video. I don’t know why they made a video, but this kid’s picking up these starfish on the beach, these little sand dollars, and throwing them back in and the old man’s like, there’s a hundred of them. Why? Why do you care? You can’t save them all, he said. Well, it matters to this one, and I do think that things start with one person. The best thing start with Grassroots efforts. So, can we build ADus and get? someone else housing? Yeah, and what if we can do something? What if we can have a program that matters? Because guess what, I’m not going to design the master plan for the city. No one at this table is, can we have input on it? Yes, especially, especially if we do what Greg says, because the best way to persuade a board is not make a presentation to the the table. It’s to go out and have drinks with Janine and persuade her, and then go out and have drinks with with Andre and persuade him. And then we come back, and now there’s Three of us that are presenting a unified message, so I absolutely disagree that we’re in the weeds, and I’m actually going to move to one of these small programs, not, not weeds. Small programs because I think there’s a lot and Nicole, you and I have talked about this. My St Pete is a transplant town, and there’s a lot of young professionals here. Andre, you’re right. Can we build multi-generational wealth or multi-generational housing that that is fantastic, but we got to start today. We got to start. So, how do we do that? And I think one of the ways here is that young professionals? They, they’re probably already okay, having roommates. They’re probably living with roommates, and so, how can we educate them? How can we train them to create some kind of joint venture program where they go, and they go the three of them collectively get a loan so that they can have a house, and maybe we help them create a JV, a joint venture with three years. They can extend it. They can buy each other out. They can do whatever, um, assuming it doesn’t trigger the acceleration Clause on the loan. And then, at the end of three years, they sell it and guess what, they’re gonna have equity in their pocket that they’re not going to have from renting because I think there’s a lot of and maybe not just young professionals. Maybe maybe people that are more socio economically. Yeah, Um, in trouble right now, why? They’re going to be able to buy, right, because if we can get if we can get them buying? That’s, that’s how we keep and preserve Saint Pete versus having the out of town money come in. And that’s one of the reasons I really wanted Andre here for this because you know, loans. So how can this work if if we . . . .

[Andre Taylor]

it’s such a simple concept, but it’s hard to articulate. The people to make them where they understand. If you got kids living in what’s that stupid place where I’m paying three thousand thirty five hundred dollars a month rent next to tweets The icon, or whatever, Cassidy, or no.

So, you got kids that are are paying three thousand thirty five hundred dollars a month rent so they can go down to the pool and take pictures so they can be on Facebook and Tick Tock and generate funds there. But if they were to take that money? First, you’re going to need down payment. You have one person staying, and it’s the same thing I said earlier about the multi-family. Or multi-generational. You can do the exact same concept if you can get two or three people to say, hey, let’s look at a long-term Vision. We don’t want to pay some Corporation for us to live in these Partners. Let’s go find a house. Let’s pull our money together. Buy the house. We all go on their 1003 individually. We buy the house together. We sign a contract together. We make it legal, and then We Understand that we’re going to split the proceeds of the equity 3 years, 5 years whenever, after hours. All our separate ways. This is so doable, uh, and there’s so many different programs out there, and there’s so many different ways to obtain wealth. Oh, you gotta have a little bit of seed money. Don’t get me wrong, but um. Is is extremely doable. And it’s just a conversation that people don’t want to have, like You’re okay with paying rent, too, is it is it that people aren’t having it, or that it’s just that they don’t want to have it, or that this conversation is

[Kris Belvis]

Not being, I think, are being coming from the teaching side and young and getting into college. They don’t have That medicine. Hey, hey, They don’t have the the capital for that, but B that sounds scary. Yeah, I’m young. That’s scary to learn, so rent is easy. Yeah, I just boom. I got a place, but if I move in, and now I’m paying money, and I’m signing a contract with two or three others, so that comes with the Education

[Andre Taylor]

Yeah, so the the? You have a first time home buyer that makes a certain amount of money, then you have. You can either do a. You can do a non-occupying cobar, or you can do whatever they’re only required to put 3% down so you can buy your first house with 3% down. You pull your money together, you create gift letters, and then you’re in a situation where you can buy with understanding that, hey, we’re going to stay here the same amount of time. We’re going to clean the Camden together.

[Heide Cornell]

No, it’s not gonna solve the problem that I’m sorry your first team, because Danielle brought up the community I serve, um, they have very bad credit. They’re not going to get a loan, no matter what. Um, in my mind, if? Can address predatory lending in this state that would solve a lot of problems, because where I come from, yeah, those the

[Andre Taylor]

No predatory.

[Heide Cornell]

Okay, please take it. Take a little drive down to um, and count the number of the oh, when

[Andre Taylor]

You say Blue and yellow signs

[Doug Jackson]

But yeah, mortgage, she’s talking, like, yeah,

[Heide Cornell]

And if if we can, that’s one of the things that I try to that. I’ve been trying to advocate for, and that’s got to take it to Tallahassee because. That will help the individuals them. Very large number of individuals that I’m I’m addressing certain things for right now. At Daystar, it’s the predatory lending.

[Donayle Whitmore]

There’s a, there’s a long product. Excuse me, no, you’re okay about this. This, um? Bank of America started, and I think there was some federal dollars that were pulled into it, and it didn’t matter about credit. Um, because they’ll walk you through credit. I just can’t think of the name of it, but there’s there’s a long product. Anyway, you walk through this. They, they, they. They look at your credit. They, they build all of it, but they want. They are your partner. They become what you’re saying that people, um, can do if they collectively buy, um, property together. But with this long product, if you agree to get this specific, uh, loan they, they’re your backer, their payer down payment. They do all of these different things, and it seems to me the city of Saint Pete could do something very similar in terms of.

[Doug Jackson]

St. Pete actually has A lot of down systems assistance programs

[Donayle Whitmore]

Down. Payment assistance is more than that, because let’s say you hypothetically, you don’t earn enough money right to be able to afford 250 000 property, and

[Doug Jackson]

That’s why I’m saying you could go in with like roommate roommate situations, but

[Donayle Whitmore]

They got a loan product that the the guarantor of the loan is actually acting in that same capacity as what I’m trying to say to you.

[Gregg Potter]

I think that Alexis is going to answer your question as well.

[Alexis Egozcue]

Okay, so real quick, and I got this from the Housing and Community Development with the city of Saint Pete. So there’s a purchase assistance program, and it provides an interest-free loan to first-time home buyers of new or existing single house family homes in St Pete. So, how it helps and I’ll make it real quick because I know we’re running out of time, but home buyers purchasing a new existing single family resident and housing unit, condominium townhome or Cooperative or Co-operative apartment located within St Pete may receive F. Assistance for the down payment eligibility. So, the applicants for the purchases program must not exceed 140 Ami, and the loan features are it provides interest-free loans up to 75, 000 to assist with the down payment and closing costs for applicants with household incomes at or below 80 Ami. The loan will be 100 forgiven after 10 years of continued occupancy.

[Andre Taylor]

This is a nightmare in my world. I’m sorry

[Alexis Egozcue]

It is, but real quick. So, uh, with that information, I know that there’s there’s a lot of issues regarding this as well, right? So what if you leap? There’s, there’s a lot of of. Quote unquote problems with this, but it at least is something that people can look further into. I have the information I printed it out. I can give you guys more information about it, but there are programs. How do we know about these programs, who’s disseminating the information to people who need these programs. And I think that’s a big issue as well, but there are things out there that we can discuss that can help. Um, so if you want a copy, I will provide you with one, but uh, there.

[Heide Cornell]

A reason, though not everybody. Not everybody want can or should own a home. Absolutely. Not everybody, so affordability or whatever you call. I hate. I hate calling it. Everything’s affordable. If you’ve got the money to pay for it Workforce housing, I hate that term, too, because everybody’s working so everybody should be housed. I just whatever you want to call it. Um, it has to be based on, you know, what the economy of the area is driving, but? Not everyone should be owning a house, so we have to address how much it costs to live in some of these apartments as well when the when the average apartment one bedroom apartment in St Petersburg now costs between sixteen hundred and eighteen hundred dollars a month, and that’s just your base rate. That doesn’t include all those other expenses. That’s a concern, so we need to address that with the now, not native property owners who are not in touch with the local economy.

[Doug Jackson]

Andre, I think had something to say.  I think you had something to say that he’ll conclude us on.

[Andre Taylor]

Um, the down payment assistant, the Saint Pete down payment assistant program is problematic. It’s a great offering, but when you talk about the am the, the seventy five thousand dollar disbursement is scaled, and so in order for you to get the 75 000, you have to at least be a 80 Ami or less. If You’re at 80 Ami, I think, uh? Ami and Saint Pete is 72, 73, 000 is on that piece of paper you had. I don’t know off the top of my head, you take that divided by 12. That’s six thousand dollars a month. You take fifty percent of that. That’s three thousand dollars a month right now to get into a property in Saint P. You probably that that number just does look through the world typically. And so that’s the problem with running into those programs is when we look at 80% of 72, 000, or fifty six thousand dollars. Fifty six, divided by twelve, is four thousand five hundred somewhere around there. It’s like 50 of your twenty four hundred dollars, so it’s, it’s a it’s a carat dangled in front of people. It’s a great program. Who’s just, um, without, and we can’t control that. I was actually at a meeting with the um. When I was an LSP asking if we could create our own Ami, we can’t because I was controlled by that.

[Doug Jackson]

All Right. Well, great topic. Um, I will say we, we had an incredible discussion. I do believe that we are moving forward with things. I mean, some of this is the third time we’ve had this. That’s revamped, and we do have to start talking about things before we can move forward, um. I, I do like talking about the small things, the things that we can change, and things we can control, because that’s the way that we don’t just talk about it in this meeting, but we can effectuate change too. By talking to Greg’s point, is that the things that we learn about here instead of, because most the time you go to a panel, you sit on. You hear the panel, they talk, and nobody talks about it. But we can talk about the things we learned here. We can talk about the down payment assistance program so we can talk about about, uh, the the movie on Monday. We Can talk about Rays. We can talk Greg’s going to invite everyone now the next time they have a housing panel so people can sit. We can talk about these things and what I’m going to do is I’m going to start trying to put together a program for kind of a joint venture thing. I have connections with the young professionals through the Chamber of Commerce, and and I agree, maybe the 18 year olds are too early, but I think some of these guys have got out of college. They realized I want to get a house, and it’s unaffordable, and it’s getting more and more unaffordable because and Heidi, yesx okay, that’s a problem. But the more people that we can have here that are buying homes, the more they’re going to be able to influence what’s happening versus the outside money. So, while this was this was the first time we’ve talked about this topic, um, and so there’s not a lot of action, but again, going back to Saint Pete. I think that we do have an a city of individuals, and so I implore each of you to take some action. We’re gonna like I said, I’m gonna create a JV, a joint venture program. Try to educate this. Try to get in touch. Anyone who wants to work work. With me on this more than welcome. But, so let’s see

[Nicole Waters]

I apologize.  I just want to clarify my statement that you strongly disagreed with.  I do think it’s important that we get in the weeds once we understand what we do know, and I guess my point was saying, like, what are the starting points if we already, can we already know what things are happening in the future?

[Doug Jackson]

All right. Take a picture.

[Alexis Egozcue]

Your time. I’m gonna ruin in. If you want to hold your mugs up one two? If I want to get in the picture, it’ll be.  It hit me, not happy.

[Nicole Waters]

All right.  I guess my point is, if we start from what we do know, and by asking the question, what do we don’t know what? Don’t we know? Okay, let’s go gather that information. Okay, well, we already know that there’s money and power and influence, and plans to go in this direction. Okay, well, what are the little things that aren’t being thought of, or what are some of the quick wins that we can initiate by getting in the coattails of what already is happening?  So it’s not that I oppose getting in the weeds. I do think that that’s where real change happens is when we exec. Things that are small. That could be the the fire, the spark that gets things going. I just want to sit here at the table and say, all right, well, let’s move in the direction of the tide. And what direction is that? So that was my only point, so I don’t disagree with you. And with this work? Or, I don’t mind that you disagree with me, but I just wanted to clarify that point.

[Doug Jackson]

Okay, well, I appreciate it, and no apology necessary. That’s one of the reasons we have this because I want to hear opposing views, um. But, yeah, that that being said, uh, we, I have found that and, and for, for the sake of time, here we do have limited time. And so that’s why sometimes I say, hey, let’s move it forward. Let’s get out and see where the tide takes us because some, I’ve I’ve seen too many times, and I think that it happens here, too, not not here in this room, but Here in St Pete, where everyone’s talking about something and no one’s doing anything. And I think sometimes, yeah, you’re going to go out there, and you’re going to realize I calculated this all wrong, but you’re not going to know that until you get out there. Um, so next month’s latte is with the lawyer will be just as exciting. I’m bouncing around two topics I one is, maybe, uh, sustainability type thing, especially getting into hurricane, uh, season, the other is Dei, because June’s, uh, pride month. So, both of these are topics that have come up, and I don’t know what we’re going to go with yet, um. Let’s see so, uh? You guys know we’ve got, I’m we’re over already. So we’ve got three signature Events every month, uh lattes with the lawyer, which is now, I have it on. Here is every four Thursday, every second Friday at 10, 15, 10, 15. Um, where we have other Roundtable discussions and you guys know it’s. It’s actually our most exclusive event. It fills up, so make sure you get on there early. We also have a beach cleanup, which is every first Saturday of the month and pass a grill so that you can get your month started off right and do the little things that, uh, help the community, uh. Just like this theme, I’m going to carry this theme on as the little things add up, uh. And then, finally, we have our business education Ben Workshop that allows us to network present, learn, collaborate, and grow. That takes place every third Thursday, except for November and December, from 11 30 to 2, so you can check all of these things out on our events page www.getyourlegalaction.com events.

We hope to see you all at another lattes with a laywer. Hope you enjoyed this. I hope you get something out of it and hope. Like, I said, we can move forward with these things collectively or independent ind. Or even if we just talk about the things that we learned today with others, it helps.

There’s a Tipping Point in everything. So, don’t forget your thank you gifts and signature lattes with the lawyer mug. And I look forward to seeing everyone at the next lattes with a lawyer. Thank you.