Three Mayors of Blue Cities in a Polarized America

22:36Yeah, he really does have a lot of charisma, doesn't he? Right. No, I think the idea that we're getting, I get from him in a positive way is, yeah, how do you continue to update your communication strategy? It is easy in these jobs to have some level of frustration that says, why aren't they paying attention? Why aren't people engaging with your content in a way, instead of just being saying, damn it, I've got to just move to where people are. I think that's something that we all adapt from our peers every day. Yeah, walking around the city that time, I was like, that's brilliant. When he walked the whole surrounding the city.

23:07Mike? One of the things I love about this question is this is what mayors talk about when you get together is we are all about what is the solution you're delivering. And so I say there's a moment now in politics where most people look at elected leaders as influencers rather than as entrepreneurs. I think mayors are actually entrepreneurs. We have to identify a hard problem, develop a solution, fix it when it doesn't work. And so I think you find a lot of the best innovation happening from mayors because other electeds are going to share a great idea for a press conference or a social post. That's not an actual outcome.

23:35So for me, it was actually a former mayor, which is the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, who has since passed away. But when I first became mayor, they were really the gold standard for work on homelessness. And so they were the first place I visited to say, what's working for you? And one of the ideas we stole from them is they had the idea of closing homeless encampments by geography and then keeping that place permanently closed to future camping. So in a lot of cities, instead, you just keep a list of people that might be homeless. and six months ago you saw John, you took his name and number.

24:05Six months later when you have an open unit, you now go to try to call John, who's three burner phones and two locations away from where he was the last time, and these units stay empty. We instead went to the regions where there were an encampment of 50 people, closed that encampment, move all those people into housing units that we opened, and then permanently close that block from any future camping. And that as a strategy has really worked for us, and that's how we've been able to now close every large encampment. We haven't had a tent in downtown in more than 18 months, and we won't have them again.

24:34And so that was a great strategy we stole from Houston. Right. That's a great one. Helena? Yeah. So also on the homelessness front, taking a look at what Mayor Lurie's obviously been doing, I actually met with him while in D.C. during the latest Conference of Mayors annual meeting and sat down with them. And one of the things that he talked about was having, you know, the concentration of having social workers out and about, offering services, you know, that real carrot before there ever was a stick. But then also there are kind of needing to be a stick as well. And just the way that he's been able to really transform what's been happening with the homeless situation in San Francisco, we've started to implement some of those things here.

25:14And they so far have proved to be very positive. I will say this. It's so funny that you're asking this question right now, because during my deputy mayor meeting this morning, one of my deputy mayors actually brought up an idea that Mayor Mamdani has. And it is about a strike team that goes out to do kind of minor repairs at different recreational places throughout New York. And she said, it's like, oh my gosh, we have been looking at doing something like this. Let's do something similar to what he just suggested. And I'm like, you know what, let's go ahead and do that. That's actually a great idea because I had recently done on a tour of three of our major parks that we have here in New Orleans.

25:56And it was the minor cosmetic stuff that drove me crazy that wasn't being addressed. And so because of that idea, we're actually moving forward with something very similar. Yeah. And because people feel like you're actually doing something that they can actually physically see. It's actually brilliant. And then he publicizes them, which is important. So one of the things that mayors are having trouble with, and also governors and everyone else is the public backlash to AI data centers. I recently talked to Lansing Mayor Andy Shore, who supported the construction of an environmentally sustainable data center.

26:25It checked all the boxes and he was trying in what would be considered the right way, but it still failed because citizens did not want it, period, even the good one, right? So when it comes to data centers, how are you thinking about the trade-off between potential economic gains and environmental impact? And I know there's a lot going on in Louisiana, but every state has one of these. I interviewed someone from Utah where they got called communists for not wanting them. Today, President Trump is doing the same thing. You're either stupid and poor or you accept data centers, which seems not the way to go on this one.

26:55So Quentin first, then Mike, and then Helena. Data centers, there are probably two political issues that impact cities sometimes, but not always, that have changed more dramatically in the last five years than anything else. Data centers in Israel, to be quite honest, things that before a data center could be approved. You didn't have that much drama. You had a few usually extreme environmental activists. Now it is left and right. They are voting out city councils in connection with it. So prospectively, what we're working on is this. Obviously, you try to come up with some level of balance, which is that you're not looking at high utility usage, particularly impact on water, other environmental standards in connection with it.

27:35But the other thing that I think we need to make an incredible pivot on, and I think the rhetoric politically has not caught up yet in the president's comments today are not helping with that, is to share why it is actually important that we have data centers, the importance of AI long-term. The answer alone of just, hey, citizens, you're going to make a lot of money out of it, they don't really believe us, and they're not really believing that impact. And I think that's fair in some ways because they're not seeing an immediate quality of life change, even if we can pay our bills a little better.

28:07One has to actually be at the forefront of explaining these are a reality. They are a type of business that is less polluting than probably your industrial factories that people still often look for. I think a discussion as to the jobs is interesting, right? So you do need to emphasize the construction jobs, how a cluster can be additive to your community long term, even if each data center obviously isn't employing 3 ,000 people a day. And I think that frankly, having that real conversation rather than it's big, it's here, you must love this global firm and just deal with it, people of rural Nebraska.

28:41That is having huge backlash now. I think it only gets worse into the 2026 cycle. Absolutely. Mike? Yeah, we put a moratorium on any data centers in Denver about five months ago before this got as hot as it is now. And I think it was the right decision for a number of reasons. One is there are real concerns about water usage. We're in a drought state. And so we can't spend a quarter of a million gallons of water a day on one data center. There are concerns about cost of electricity in a place where that's the second or third biggest bill that people pay each month on affordability that matters.

29:12And the third was on noise impact. And so what we found, they didn't exist in our zoning code. So people could just buy a plot of land and suddenly build a data center next to your house the way they could build a single family home. And so for all those reasons, it was right to stop. I think there are good solutions out here to both solving the impact on electricity rates that Quentin mentioned, the impact on water. But normally what you're going to want to do to make that work is you're going to want to have significant geographic space where you can build self-contained systems. You want to have solar panels that you can use to power these.

29:41You want to have closed loop water systems. And these data centers do not have to be in the middle of city centers to serve city centers. And so there are a lot of rural communities that would benefit tremendously from this infrastructure build out. I think what we'd love to do, I think, at the Conference of Mayors with Q and Helena is think about how can we make this an urban-rural partnership where we You can say a lot of rural communities would love to have these. Urban communities commit to being consumers and buying a lot of the capacity that's generated. But I think it's not going to make sense to cite a lot of these in the middle of dense residential neighborhoods in major American cities.

30:11And I think that's not the path forward. I would agree with you. Helena? Yeah, we've got a temporary ban here in the city of New Orleans until the City Planning Commission finishes a study on data centers. But I do think that more than likely, the city council will move toward a moratorium. And one of the main reasons for that is that we have a pretty fragile grid in the city of New Orleans already. Obviously, that's been proven over the last few years based on what's happened with major hurricanes here in the city of New Orleans. And we're making major upgrades to our grid, but it's still pretty fragile.

30:43We're also the very end of the line as well. So I think because of that, there'll likely be a moratorium. But if you take a look at outside of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana, the governor is pushing to be like, I think, the data center capital. And as you know, in Richland Parish, there's a new$50 billion data center that's being built. New York Times reported that apparently it received potentially up to$10 billion worth of incentives. I can't tell you whether that's true or not due to the fact that there were so many NDAs and lack of transparency around this project. And I think that level of lack of transparency is what's also creating even more fear and more doubt with the public, that they don't really know what's going on.

31:26And they don't feel like they're being told the whole story. And they worry about what could be the real consequences coming. When you're not transparent and you don't explain the full story, somebody else is going to tell the story for you. And so I think that's what's been really happening. And so here in Louisiana, it is becoming a very heated issue, a very divisive issue. And while we're a little bit more behind that maybe some of the other states as far as like the big opposition, but I do feel it building and building and building. It is. It's a proxy for other things about AI. You know, it's a bigger billionaire behavior or, you know, Elon Musk dancing with a chainsaw.

32:06It's all wrapped up in so much of the same thing. It's this whole, you know, this is what's going to be here and it's going to be, and we're not going to tell you about it until after the fact, and this is coming to your community and whether you like it or not, it's that kind of approach that's really causing people to be very fearful and skeptical about data centers. We'll be back in a minute.

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36:12Let's actually shift to housing a little bit. Quinton, you sponsored the Kansas City's first housing trust fund as a councilman back in 2018 and later ran as the housing mayor. You know, because there's been questions about its effectiveness. It's very difficult to do housing in cities right now. And we're starting to see a real estate downturn for much of the country, not here in San Francisco, but other places. So is it actually increasing the stock of affordable housing? Because that's really the point. It is. It is. So it was a whole suite of policies I passed as a city councilman that had absolutely no money behind them.

36:46And so what I've been able to do in the near seven years I've been in this position is get real investment with it. You know, the first step was to change what housing policy was, not just in my city, but in America. If you knew municipal housing agencies before that point, you basically knew that they were HUD pass-through agencies. They would take a smaller and smaller amount of a community development block grant, give it to usually the same exact same organizations every year, then wake up like Mike mentioned and say, oh, my God, we have a homeless problem. We don't have enough resources. The step one goal was to say housing itself is economic development, not just in suburban greenfields, not just in rehabs in places where there is the market set for it, but also with real density in the American city.

37:27And importantly, it doesn't have to just be housing that's incredibly high end, incredibly expensive. So for us, the goal all along has been how do we Gapville in terms of delivering more units, putting them at an affordable level, but not a ridiculously affordable level. I'm very sensitive to the fact the American city can't just be the home of the uber rich and then those who are incredibly destitute. So continuing to try to build that same sort of middle class idea that you've seen in the American suburban communities for some time was key to what our trust fund is doing. attracting private investment being another part of it, getting contributions in connection with it.

38:04We don't have a mile high line, but with our new baseball stadium, there are huge contributions coming from the Kansas City Royals, for example, to housing development and infrastructure near the stadium itself. And so housing has become almost like a core departmental effort, like public works, like police and others. It's going to be around to stay. And the responsible cities are figuring out how to generate housing, Importantly, on the private side, by removing barriers to housing, making sure your regulation is smart and reasonable. And on the public side, not building huge housing projects.

38:37I'm not there yet on social housing, which some activists want, but also really making sure how do we fill gaps that for too long have kept new housing from being constructed. Which is bureaucratic. So, Mike, housing in Denver has been the focus of your administration, too. You said there's been a record 45 % reduction in unsheltered homelessness since you took office. Some experts caution the survey data cited as variables, so it may not be the whole picture. That's according to reporting in the Denverite. First, explain the scope of the homeless issue there. And when you talk about 45 % reduction, and where do people go once they're moved off the street?

39:11You did note this, moving people immediately from encampments into nearby housing. Yeah, I mean, our federally documented number is now a 64 % drop in street homelessness. And so we did this through a couple of avenues, as you said. The first is you have to bring on a large scale of transitional housing units that you can build quickly and cheaply. So we brought on about 1 ,000 units of transitional housing. That looks like buying hotels, building tiny home villages, doing them from$25 ,000 to$100 ,000 a door, and doing them quickly. We brought them on in less than six months, 1 ,000 units. Then it's going to where the encampments are, closing those encampments and keeping them closed, and then geographically spreading the parts of the city that have no camping.

39:54So think of the concentric circles that start in the middle of the city. Each time we close an encampment, we move you to housing. That block becomes closed, you out farther and farther until the whole city no longer has encampments. And the third is decentralizing services so they're available at each of these transitional housing sites. So we have mental health support, addiction support, workforce training, long-term housing. Because often what you do is you concentrate all of the services for folks that are homeless in your downtown, and then you're surprised that your downtown is full of folks who are homeless.

40:23What we've done is actually deconcentrated those so they can get access to these services anywhere. And that's helped us move 9 ,000 people off the street into transitional housing. But more importantly, it has moved 8 ,000 of those folks into permanent housing. And so I think that's been the key. But it took that combination of those strategies and taking the political risk to say, yes, we are going to open eight new transitional housing sites. I did 60 town halls around the city. Folks weren't always happy about the idea of opening sites next to them. But once we opened them, we're able to close encampments, make historic drops in homelessness and crime, and then make sure the folks in their neighborhood had access to services.

40:59And those neighborhoods actually saw reductions in crime, not expansions. That was the key for delivering something that was a win for the folks that were experiencing homelessness and a win for the neighbors who want to have sidewalks and streets they can walk their daughter on and still feel safe. So the New York Times recently reported how billionaire venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, whom I happen to know, and his Cicero Institute are shaping federal housing policy away from housing first approach and towards a more forced treatment of substance abuse or mental illness. At least 21 states have considered Cicero-backed homelessness policies, including Missouri, and 16 states have passed them.

41:31Helena, what do you make of this approach and how does this federal policy actually shape what you're able to do in your own cities? Because, you know, drug use is a big part of this and mental health issues are a big part of this. as anyone who lives in a big city with a homeless problem knows very intimately. Yeah, the forced piece. And we also just had a Louisiana law pass this past legislative session where beginning in 2027, if essentially you don't accept this kind of forced piece, that it's like jail time. You're now in jail. So look, overall, I mean, for us, our main approach, and maybe part of it, I guess maybe I'm stealing from Mike, is that, one, we want to get you, of course, off the street.

42:11And if you need a shelter space, we do have a low barrier shelter. But to Mike's point, many of our services are centralized around downtown. And I'm currently working on this whole new transformation of downtown with kind of expansion to our Smoothie King Center area, which is right next to our Superdome, a new city hall. The old charity hospital is going to be redone by Tulane University. So this whole transformation is coming. Yet all of our homeless services are right there, right in the middle of downtown, which to Mike's point, of course, then why are we wondering why all of the homeless folks are all downtown?

42:46So really finding another location for our low barrier shelter. But then at the same time, it's the housing piece. It seems that we've gotten a lot better at finding people housing, but not doing a great job in the providing people services once they are housed. And so you can have someone who is homeless now get into housing, but if you're not providing them with the right level of support when it comes to potentially drug treatment or when it comes to, you know, helping and assistance in transportation and jobs and job training or potentially mental health services, well, then more than likely, those who you have now put into housing will likely end up back out on the streets.

43:26And so that's our real focus right now on what can we do to ensure that once we house someone that they stay housed. And so that's what we're focusing on now. With us, it's a little bit of a tricky situation because the state has decided to be the ones to submit to carry out homeless services essentially for our region, which is really a four parish. We don't have counties here, but parishes, four parish region here in our area. And so, you know, that'll be an interesting development for sure. Quentin and Mike, very briefly, how do you feel about this forced idea? Yeah, I mean, I think a few things that I would say first.

44:03I mean, the hardest part of housing, which we never start on, it's the same challenge with crime, is that you're actually dealing with human beings. If these were widgets, it would be great, right? And if we could just say, we'll develop this, we'll put in the different spaces, it's all going to work out well. And frankly, what we have to do and deliver is actually coming up with curated solutions that really relate and align with the people that we're dealing with each day. So forcing folks, look, it has its merits. And I don't pretend to speak to everything in the California situation. I think at certain times you need a little bit of a hammer to suggest to someone, no, you need to go to services, you need to do some steps and work.

44:42But if it is too much of that, you go back to what I think were incredibly unworkable solutions of the past that are really just streaming people from place to place. The real solution for the places that are working, and frankly, it's violent crime, it's nuisance crime, and it's a homelessness policy now. the cities that are doing the best are those that have been investing the most in broad-based wraparound services. The softer touches, usually used in a pejorative sense, are the ones that are delivering better. And when you look at whether it's San Francisco or, frankly, small-town Kansas, the folks that are actually telling people, here are the services, here's a long-term path, this is what you can get if you actually align with us, I think are going to continue to see better results rather than simply saying, we're clearing everybody out, things will just be perfect tomorrow, something that I think Texas continues to try to compel that doesn't work in all of its cities in the same way that Houston's program worked in lifting folks.

45:35Mike? Yeah, I have strong feelings about this because I think this is not just an ideological debate that you're entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts on this one. And what we know is it factually does not work as well to try to force folks to get treatment before housing. While we know that mental health and addiction can cause homelessness, we know that homelessness profoundly causes mental health and addiction, which is you can literally, you know, I've talked to doctors who will say, if I were to design a perfect drug to help you survive homelessness, you need something who helps you stay up all night and be alert in case you're going to get jumped, that helps you be immune to cold and helps you go long stretches without eating.

46:08That is essentially what fentanyl does. It is a homelessness survival drug. And so the reason why you want to get them into housing first is you stabilize and then allow you to focus on that addiction. It is like asking someone to start physical therapy before you've closed the open wound on the side of their leg, right? Like You have to first be able to triage it. And by the way, for taxpayers, it's vastly more expensive because to try to go and get to someone on a street corner where they're still living in a tent and talk about job training, our social workers used to spend 75 % of their time just trying to find the person to deliver the service because you couldn't find them day to day.

46:41Once you have them housed, we can now bring in job training, bring in addiction support, bring in mental health services in a stable environment where they're open to receive them. It's going to be poorly spent taxpayer money if you do it the other way. Yeah. Yeah, homelessness does cause mental illness for many people. You can see it in San Francisco. I always say, if you don't think it's the case, let me know whether or not your drinking habits increased during COVID or not. It turns out minor stresses add huge mental health and addiction changes in behavior. Now try living outdoors in January in Denver and see if that adds to your stress.

47:10Right, right. So let's talk, it's not related, but immigration, because it does bring more people into the cities. New York Times reported last week that immigration arrests rose to record highs this summer, and ICE is increasingly targeting people with no criminal records. The Department of Homeland Security launched an enforcement operation in New Orleans last December, and state Republicans have criticized the city's sanctuary policies. Helena, you signed an executive order barring city agencies from entering into new partnerships with ICE. What are the challenges of pushing back as a city when your state government is largely aligned with the federal approach?

47:42And what form of immigration enforcement does it make sense for New Orleans? Well, I'll say this. This was really about doing the right thing. Also, just a little bit of my background. I was born in Mexico. My father is from Mexico. And we came to this country because we wanted better opportunities. We came to this country legally. But I certainly understand why people come to this country to have better lives for themselves and for their families. And so overall, what we started to see here in the city of New Orleans and why I very quickly had to have a news conference and take action is because what was happening in our city was that people, particularly people with brown skin, were being targeted.

48:27Some of them were even American citizens chased down in streets, maybe not in New Orleans, but right in our region and neighboring parishes, and nobody was saying anything. And so that's why it's like here in the city of New Orleans, we're speaking up. Not to mention that here in the city of New Orleans, it also very much impacted us economically. You had our very wonderful restaurants here in the city of New Orleans who couldn't get workers. Our hotels couldn't get workers. And that was happening really across our city. So we pushed back. And ultimately, we pushed back in a way, and I guess our messaging was where it needed to be, that eventually this Operation Catahoula Crunch, as they called it, went away and went to other areas.

49:12And I also believe that they weren't able to get the numbers that they thought they would. I can't even remember what the numbers were, but they claimed that they were going to get thousands and thousands of people in just our little area, which was impossible to begin with. I really didn't think too much on this one about the political ramifications or what were the consequences. This was really about what I personally believe was the right thing to do to protect my city. So, Quentin, you were also vocal about your opposition to a proposed ICE detention center in Kansas City earlier this year.

49:41The city passed a five-year moratorium on non-city run detention centers. Have there been legal challenges to the ban? And how do you think about approaching immigration enforcement more broadly? You know, so first of all, no, we did not sustain legal challenges. We anticipated it. But let's just remember what ICE was trying to do. Basically, they were trying to build gigantic concentration camps. Any space that had a ton of area. They were suggesting 10 ,000 people being in basically airplane hangars. We looked up the studies. There were going to be like eight restroom facilities within it, i.e.

50:14eight toilets for all of those people. It was going to be grossly inhumane. We looked to use classic planning laws and ordinances in the city to stand in the way. And I think that was an important fight. It was an important fight that other cities waged. I would like to hope it contributed to the demise of Kristi Noem, which I think has been a positive for our country. In terms of immigration policy, I think we need to make a few things clear. One, yes, good, structured, ordered immigration policy is important for any type of country. Two, the Trump administration is not in any way trying to actually do that.

50:47Instead, it is strikingly the politics of fear. And in some ways, the greatest harm itself are the schoolchildren in my city and probably Mike and Elena's. who were scared of going to school, the people being scared to be picked up, the politics of fear, right, the living with fear that so many people were dealing with. And I think that it is okay for us, if you're a progressive, if you're a Democrat, hell, if you're a Republican, to say, yeah, I'm not trying to scare the living daylights out of everyone. I'm trying to make sure that laws are followed. We'll do it in an orderly way. but mass shipments of people, mass shipments of people based on look, based on aesthetic, based on phenotype, accent, or language they're speaking is fundamentally anti-American.

51:27That's why we stood against it. That's why if we're tasked with doing it again, I would do all the exact steps again. And I'll make this final point, right? There's this link to public safety in immigrants. You know who I'm scared of the most in Kansas City? Others, Kansas Cityans. They are a lot more likely to shoot me, to rot me, to do all types of bad stuff to me and my family. I mean, As our city's crime is going down, this farce, this farcical thought that immigrants are creating a greater threat in our communities is totally disproven. That's why I think you've seen all of us be active with it.

51:58So in Colorado, a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration's sanctuary city lawsuit against Denver and Colorado. The DOJ is appealing, of course, because they work for President Trump. As of 2024, Denver has welcomed over 40 ,000 migrants, reportedly most per capita. Mike, you have called it a solvable crisis. So talk about the DOJ lawsuit. And I will note Colorado has a history of during World War II, Ralph Carr, who's a hero in Colorado and should be across the country, defended the rights of American citizens of Japanese descent and allowed their voluntary relocation of Colorado, but resisted mass incarceration.

52:34And he was he lost because of this. But what a hero. Talk a little bit about that, the situation you have there. Yeah, the way I approach this, Cari, is I always say, like, name for me the five great American cities who have built their brand on being anti-immigrant. You can't name one because those cities are forgotten now. Every great American city has built their brand on being pro-immigrant and pro-growth. And so we are unabashedly pro-immigrant, whether they are coming from Cleveland or California or Caracas or Mexico City. We want folks that are going to come and help build the city. And that's how we've approached it.

53:09the second thing that's also true is there is a real role for partnership with federal agencies around enforcement on what we've always said should be the priority, which is violent criminals, right? Where there are violent criminals, we also don't care where they come from. We will hunt them down, we will arrest them, and we will charge them. And so very early on, when we had any concerns about gang activity, we had a multi-jurisdictional task force that we operated with to identify any potential gang or cartel members. We arrested them, we charged them, we deported them. And that's what Americans want.

53:38Americans want a hardworking construction worker or third grade teacher or barista to be able to live next door to them and pay taxes. And they also want to make sure there aren't violent criminals living next door to them. And I think the answer is for cities and states to do both of those. That's what Denver has done. And that's why we've both been able to be a welcoming city and see huge drops in crime. And we think that is what disproves the lie that immigrants drive crime. Immigrants can drive economic growth if you do the regular good work that cities should do to enforce the laws on crime.

54:11We'll be back in a minute.

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55:08Plus, surprise flash deals you can't miss. Whether it's one room or the whole house, Wayfair has pieces for every style and budget. Shop Wayfair's Labor Day clearance now through September 7th at Wayfair.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Well, now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required.

55:48$15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. So I'm going to finish up by shifting to elections and gerrymandering and the elections coming up and voting rights. A landmark Supreme Court ruling this spring struck down Louisiana's second, as you noted, majority black congressional district and decided it was unconstitutional racial gerrymander. This was seen by some legal experts as the latest blow in the series of efforts to weaken the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Helena, the affected district doesn't include New Orleans, but talk about the impact of voters and representation in Louisiana going forward to the midterms.

56:23Yeah. Well, it didn't impact New Orleans, but it almost did. Because at the time when we knew we were losing one, we didn't know which one. And just a reminder, New Orleans has always been kind of the stronghold democratic place here in the state of Louisiana. And it was because of a really heart-fought effort by our delegation in Baton Rouge that at least we were able to keep that stronghold here. But unfortunately, the state did lose that second congressional seat. And this very much, I mean, was such a blow to the entire state. We had huge crowds show up at the Capitol begging legislators to figure out that path to draw to, which they could have.

57:10And unfortunately, you know, that didn't happen. My concern is that because of steps like this, that people feel so disenfranchised that it actually makes them think, why should I even go vote? Obviously, my voice doesn't even matter. Look at all these people who went to the Capitol. Nobody ever listens to them. Why do I even want to be engaged in this process? And I always turn that around and say, no, this is exactly why you need to speak up. because ultimately it was members of the legislature who made this decision and made the decision as to how they were going to draw the districts. Your vote matters on who is elected to the legislature.

57:45Your vote matters in every single one of the elections, but we can only make a difference if we actually show up. And so I just keep pushing that message that I get it that you're upset. You may feel disenfranchised because of what happened, but this actually shouldn't be something that makes you feel diminished. It should be something that now lights a fire within you to really get out there and vote and bring others out there to vote as well. Yeah, absolutely. In Missouri last fall, Republicans in the legislature also passed new House districts backed by President Trump that weakened Democratic voting power.

58:16Quinton, you said that redistributing efforts like this are ultimately unpopular with voters. And as Helena was just saying, will backfire against Republicans. What do you make of this citizen led efforts to challenge a new congressional map in Missouri? I think there are a few things that we're seeing as a trend, but one of which is probably the worst of all, which is people don't want to even have to have contests anymore at all. This isn't about protecting incumbents. This is about actually just taking all potential competition off the map. And I do think that that anchors people. They want representation.

58:49A lot of the people who are now in the congressional district I'm sitting in right now, who are rural Missourians who may not love this mayor, sadly, are people who are saying, we don't want to be overburdened with your resources in the city. We don't want even a Republican who's spending their time thinking about how we build up your community alone. And so this is something, poll after poll, even in this part of the country, you're seeing people say, no, I don't subscribe to it. I actually did not think at least this part of the system itself was broken previously. and I don't want more Washington control of my politics.

59:23These are maps that were drawn by allies of the president. They were sent to largely weak-kneed governors around the country. They had these faux hearings at state legislatures, and then they are obliterating seniority for particularly black members throughout the country. And then the final dumb thing is this. We have a congressman, you can have your beefs with people being around too long, but has seniority of 26 six years built up in the U.S. House. He will be replaced, you know, by like a TV guy or another guy who I barely even know. But nonetheless, right, is it, are we trying to get resources for our states?

59:55Or are we just trying to play political games? That's why I think people understand it. They understand it's not good for Missouri. It may be good for partisan politics, but it's not about our communities long term. Well, speaking of that, Mike, at a time when the president has threatened to nationalize elections, which I think is the goal here, instead of localize them and made false claims about election security. And as of when we're taping this money has attempted to restrict mail-in voting. Is there a role for a mayor like you in Denver? Are any local officials helping prepare your cities for November?

1:00:25Oh, we are doing that. And first of all, you know, vote by mail, I helped pass it when I was in the state Senate, has been a tremendous win for Colorado, where one of the highest turnout vote state in the country, because people can vote easily. They can mail it in, they can turn it in. And so that ought to be the idea is to make it easier to vote. And so in Denver, yeah, we'll work with our clerk and recorder together. And we've done tabletop exercise to prepare for what happens if they try to deploy ICE troops in predominantly Latino areas of the city, as Helena was talking about in New Orleans.

1:00:53We've there said we won't allow them to do it. We'll intervene. We'll stop it. What will happen if they try to be able to cast doubt? I think what they want to do is cast out of the election either way, because if they win the election, they can claim that it was fair. And if they lose the election, they can claim that it was rigged. The challenge is they are doing all the things that would try to make you distrust an election, things that local cities and states had never done before. And so we think there's a lot of trust in cities and states to run these elections, and that's hard-earned trust.

1:01:21The federal government has tried to destroy that, and I think the goal is to sow fear and get people to stay home. But we actually in Colorado created, you know, independent administration of the designing of congressional districts that's nonpartisan, and we have designed them to create competitive seats. Now, that wasn't popular for some folks in the Democratic Party at a time where we could have gerrymandered and taken almost all the seats in the state. All we've done is created competitive seats. And I think you'll see Democrats win two of those seats back this cycle, because as the public moves, those seats will move with them.

1:01:51I think that's how it should work. So both the other mayors, Helena and Quinton, you will deploy forces against if they come to the polls? I mean, that could be ugly, correct? Look, I mean, we don't know what could potentially be coming. I mean, I think we need to plan out for all different types of scenarios. But I will say this, on the confusion piece that's being put out there, that happened here in Louisiana. We've gone from always having open primaries to all of a sudden a closed primary. And it seems like what's been happening is that based on who potentially could have the advantage, they'll decide whether they're going to be open primaries or closed primaries, which led to significant confusion among voters.

1:02:40They'd show up at the polls and they couldn't understand why they couldn't vote for the candidate who they wanted to vote for. And then they were giving these random forms about voting for whether the Democratic side or Republican side, but you had to declare, but you weren't really switching parties. You were just having, oh my God, like it was crazy. And people were freaked out. They had no idea what was happening. They thought like every polling location had gone crazy. And, you know, people feel like maybe the results would have been different if there would have been either more information or kept it open primary.

1:03:14But this level of confusion that's being created is being done so that certain candidates win. And so that, to me, is one of the most problematic things that we're seeing, that we're seeing on the national level, and we're also seeing in certain states as well. And Quentin, are you prepared? Well, we have people at the polls. The answer is yes. Now, it's not necessarily different armed forces fighting each other. But to the point raised before, yes. Can we provide information? Absolutely. That's within our rights. Can we let people know what they're voting on? Can we let people know they don't need a different form of identification at this election?

1:03:50Absolutely right. And can we file every damn lawsuit possible as the governor in our state or other forces look to try to find ways to make it harder to get to the ballot? Absolutely. Look, the goal is to scare people from coming there. It is to sow confusion before. Our goal is to stand there. It's what mayors do every day and say, nope, I'm going to be your leader for it. We're going to make sure you can go vote. We'll stand there for you. and the full force of the city with whatever it can do can make sure you can get your vote cast. So there's also issues within the Democratic Party happening.

1:04:21There are things happening in Colorado. Democratic Socialists, Milat Kuros, won the primary this summer. Earlier this year, Lisa Calderon, a progressive Democrat, announced she'll be running for Denver mayor in April 2027. Election against you, Mike. And Democratic Socialists of America just announced their endorsement of city council member Chantel Lewis, who's also running against you. How are you thinking about the tensions within the party in your own city and state? Well, I think a lot of what you saw in our primary here is what you're seeing around the country is people are deeply frustrated and furious with Washington.

1:04:52They feel like all they hear from Washington is like dysfunction or disaster. Either you're cutting some sort of core benefits or you're getting us into wars that are driving up our cost of gas or you're suing the city to drop our assault weapons ban. It's just constant chaos. And so I think people want dramatic change in Washington, and I understand that, and I agree with that. I think running a city is a very different thing. People expect results to be delivered here on the ground in Denver. I think people feel like Denver is delivering on that. They feel confident that the city is heading in the right direction, that we're seeing big drops in homelessness and crime.

1:05:23But I think that's what you see acting out now, and I think what we want is both. We want a city where we can have free markets that drive innovation and create jobs and also a place where we can have strong safety nets that support all the gaps in those markets to make sure people are cared for. And so I think we've come out with a plan to do child care for all. We're focusing on a plan to add 20 ,000 units of housing. So I think we're going to find that Denver residents believe we can do both. We can fight for change in Washington, and we can make sure we deliver results here at home in Denver.

1:05:51All right. Quentin, when you were appointed president of the Democratic Mayors Association, you said you want Democratic mayors to lead the party's national message. heading into 2026 and the next presidential election. How can you do that with the strife within the Democratic Party itself? What did you learn from 2024 that informs how you think about Democratic messaging at a state and local level? It whiffs far too often. And I'm not doing this to be a party pessimist, but I ended up being a surrogate. I was like surrogate number 1200. So if Gavin Newsom would cancel, they'd send me to New Hampshire.

1:06:21And they're like, who the hell is this guy? And we ended up having a great chat because, I mean, look, And I don't want to be the cliched mayor's get stuff done guy. But really, we deal with every type of group you're talking about. We have a police union, by and large, in every one of our cities. So we're dealing with like MAGA right-wing people. We're dealing with very active left-wing socialist folks and all the causes in between. And we still balance a budget at the end of every year. We still find a way to address core issues. I do think that in narrative making, actually having successes is a big part of what is essential for a party going forward.

1:06:55President Trump, good, bad, or indifferent, acts like things that shouldn't even be successes, are. He's taking credit for the violent crime drop in cities around America, which is astonishing for those of us who run cities. He's taking credit any time that there's an actual positive economic indicator, which isn't enough lately. But I do think that in the same way that if you go back 25, 30 years, Democratic governors are really central to messaging of how good common sense governing can happen. I think you have strong leaders in every state, including every swing state. I look at my friend Cavalier Johnson in Wisconsin, right?

1:07:28You're looking at Mary Sheffield in Detroit, the types of mayors and people they can cut through messaging in all of those spaces and say, no, Democrats aren't scary. We are getting things done. Cities on the whole are rising. They're safer than they were a decade ago. They are going better. And I think that is why we need to be central, at least to some sort of message crafting. The other thing that we don't have the fortune of doing is the navel-gazing that Washington Democrats spend their time on. There are issues, sometimes I'll go to a meeting I don't even know about, right? I'm like, what the hell are you guys talking about?

1:07:57Your whole time is spent on it. We actually have to make decisions fairly quickly. I think that there is that. And my final point on this is we get a lot of reps. And maybe it's not national press, but I'll tell you, gumshoe local reporters that have every reason to try to make their big career story like bringing you down actually train you pretty well. And so I think that we are used to answering questions. We are used to actually explaining issues and building a city brand long term. Okay. I had Ben Wickler on, political organizer and former Wisconsin Democratic chair. And he talked about strengthening local organizing, prioritizing down-ballot races as essential to winning national elections.

1:08:33So in the same vein, how do you do that as a mayor? What concrete thing could be done to strengthen the party at the local level? Very similar to the question I asked, Quentin. I mean, I think it's about mobilizing people for things that they want to fight for as opposed to things they need to fight against. And I think that the things closest to their home are the things they're going to be most excited about. I think the most powerful change we can bring in cities is what you fundamentally see happening with Trump is if people expect something to get fixed and it doesn't get fixed. After a while, you can either believe it doesn't get fixed because your neighbors are the problem and they're what's screwing it up or democracy is the problem and that's what's screwing it up.

1:09:10Trump has tried to convince Americans to believe both of those arguments. The way you win that argument is not by fighting back on the ideology. It's by actually proving his hypothesis wrong, that actually we can fix things. You can solve the things that Quentin's talking about. And when you do that, you see residents show up fundamentally differently because now their instinct is actually to turn to each other and not to turn on each other. He fundamentally wants us to turn on each other. When people see that working together works, they're more inclined to do it. They want to knock more doors, partner with more neighbors, get things done.

1:09:40Our belief is if we can be that proof point in cities to show you get things done, people are more excited to raise their hand and say, count me in. I want to help on this civic event or this party event or this opportunity for my town. That's what gets people to believe again and then to want to engage again. All right, Helena, you get the last word. Look, it's about talking about the issues that Q, Mike, and I deal with every single day. That's what's been missing, that you have all these other side issues. But overall, you know, people, when they drive to work, they want to make sure that they're driving on smooth streets.

1:10:12They want to make sure that, you know, overall that they've got the right infrastructure so there's the right drainage, at least here in the city of New Orleans. They want to make sure that they can afford a place to live. They want to make sure that their children are going to good schools. Like, these are the things that we deal with every single day, things that are right in front of people, right in front of people's faces. if we are talking about those issues and we're messaging those issues correctly, that's how things change. And Q and I talk about this all the time. We talked about this when he was in New Orleans, that the messaging has to be about what people live with every day and what are the problems that they're facing every single day, not random things that are so out there that it's like, well, that's not really what, that's not really speaking to me because how is that going to make my life better?

1:10:57You know, here in our city, I can tell you that infrastructure and infrastructure investment is actually an affordability issue for us. So having federal dollars come in to help us with infrastructure, to help us with drainage, well, guess what? If you help us with drainage and help us build bioswells and significant investment, well, that means that somebody's house or car isn't going to flood when there's a storm. Once again, on infrastructure, you help us with our streets, you help us with our drinking water, help us with our streets right there, that means that your car doesn't get messed up when you go over a significant pothole.

1:11:29Like, those are the things that speak to voters. That level of investment speaks is relatable. And so far, it just hasn't been relatable, the message. All right. Thank you guys so much. I know it's long. We do long interviews because we want them to be substantive. And I really appreciate all three of you. And I'll let you get back to your mayoring. Awesome. Thank you, Cara. Thank you so much. Thank you, Cara. We'll see you. All right. Thanks. Have a good one. Thank you, all of you. Thank you.

1:11:57today's show was produced by nishat kurwa michelle eloi katherine milsop megan bernie madeline laplante dubie and kaylin lynch special thanks to lissa soop julia sharp levine amon whalen and mara davis our engineers are fernando aruda and rick kwan and our theme music is by trackademics if you're already following the show your mayor is stealing ideas from zoran Mamdani. If not, your mayor is stealing ideas from Erica Adams. Go wherever you listen to podcasts, search for On with Kara Swisher and hit follow. Thanks for listening to On with Kara Swisher from Podium Media, New York Magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network, and us.

1:12:37We'll be back on Monday with more. Cozy season is ahead and you'll be spending way more time inside. Is your home ready? Don't worry. With Wayfair, you can upgrade your space without breaking the bank. Score up to 70 % off during their Labor Day clearance on furniture, area rugs, mattresses, and more. Plus, surprise flash deals you can't miss. Whether it's one room or the whole house, Wayfair has pieces for every style and budget. Shop Wayfair's Labor Day clearance now through September 7th at Wayfair.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back.

1:13:19So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater 150 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need.

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