 Welcome back folks, Dow. Dow Industries right now, 122, we get the Nasdaq down 15, S&Ps are up 13. Yesterday folks is Gina Diskel. Gina right now is a City Councilor in St. Petersburg, Florida. She is running as a candidate. We have elections in two weeks. Gina has been involved in hospitality business for a long period of time. She has an extensive record of community service, including the Downtown Neighborhood Association, the Downtown Business Association, Central Ave Council. Gina, welcome to TFNN. Hi, Tom. It's good to see you. I hear you today. Absolutely. So tell us why should we elect you back to the City Council? We've made some great progress during my first term. I mean, we've made great strides in working toward creating more affordable housing. We're talking about the environment more than any other time in our city's history, and I've really been pushing environmental issues and just creating a better and more equitable economy for everyone. Great progress, and I want to serve another term so that we can continue that. What do you think are the biggest challenges in St. Pete right now? Right now, the number one challenge that we have is the lack of affordable housing that we have in our city, and that's something that we're seeing nationwide. St. Petersburg is not any different in that regard, but we are really making some bold moves to increase the funding mechanisms, and then also to take a look at our zoning and make sure that our zoning is matching what we need in order to create enough housing at different price points so everyone can live here. You know, I hear this a lot, and right across the country, what has happened, and I think it's a demographic deal, but I'd like to ask you this question, because everyone keeps talking, the aspect of housing, there's no doubt about that, that's there, the zoning's no doubt about that, but the amount of violent crime that we have in St. Pete is pretty big, and you know, is that the secret that's off to the side? What's happening with that? It's really not a secret, it's another top issue that people talk about in our city, and that has gone up. We've made some good progress within our police department, bringing on the call team, which is a group of social workers who respond to a lot of those nonviolent calls that actually sometimes do lead to violence, and they go and they work with the people and connect with the forces that they need, because a lot of the violence I think just stems from these domestic disputes that get out of hand, and often it's not just a police officer that you need, but someone who is in regular clothes who is trained to deal with these kinds of things, and it's quite innovative for a police department like ours to incorporate something like this into their practice, but it is showing some great results so far. So that's just one example of what we're doing as a city to reduce violent crime. Yeah, you know what's interesting? The resources that they need. Yeah, and the reason I bring this up, what happened last night, folks, okay, there was a merrile debate because, and that wasn't brought up, and I totally understand the affordable housing and the zoning issues, which are totally important, but it actually blew my mind that it wasn't brought up because of the aspect where a really small city, and yeah, I understand that, okay, if the police department get involved and it's there, but the last three murders have been like over a pocket space, man, you know, so it seems like there's got to be some type of, you know, whether it's early education, I mean, there's something that's going on here that no one has a grasp on, and I'm not just saying on St. Pete, I happen to think it has to do with just so many kids, because when we were kids growing up, that's when violent crime was really big, then it's subsided, and people think that as it's subsided that all these departments are doing good, well, my take is that all that really meant is that you had more, you have less young kids when the violent crime stopped when I was a kid, and I have more of them because we have more young kids that are between the 14 and 18 age, which, you know, it's tough to get out of. So let's talk about the zoning. I know, I heard, I heard you the other night, it's great, I mean, and it's going to be a battle for all you folks, there's no doubt about it, and what I mean by that specifically folks is that this is going on right across the country. I mean, everyone wants, you know, less, wants more apartments, but if you have more apartments, you can't have a whole city with single family housing taking it up. So let's talk a little bit about that and talk about your ideas. We had a really great discussion on in one of our city council committees last week about missing middle housing, and that's duplexes, triplexes, you know, small rows of townhouses that could be built within neighborhoods where you find a lot of single family homes, and if it's done in the same scale where it blends in with the neighborhood, then, you know, it allows us to create housing for more people because you have more individual units, but those also tend to be smaller and, you know, therefore they'd be more affordable for people. So on a lot where right now you can only build a single family home, if we change this zoning, you would be able to build a duplex. So that gives the developer an opportunity to sell two homes at a lower price, and ultimately, you know, in most cases they would make more money, so then it's a win-win-win, right? Yes. And then, you know, but also someone could buy that and live in one and rent out the other and then they have a source of income as well from that rental income. So it creates some opportunities that we don't have enough of right now, and that's because so much of our city is zoned just for the single family homes. With a city like St. Petersburg where we have a limited amount of land, we really do have to start thinking about taking a different approach like this. There's no doubt, and you guys are doing a great job with that, by the way. I mean, and folks, this is a very tough thing to do in any neighborhood. You know, let me ask you, as you think this is true sometimes, you know, we know that people always talk about affordable housing, and trust me, I've been in St. Petersburg for 27 years now. I was in Boston, in Ante-Boston 25 years before that, and the conversation was still the same. And it always seems that it's very hard, no matter how much you try, the administration tries to get housing going. And I was thinking that, you know what, on some aspects, maybe another way of doing it is that, number one, that the city gets more involved, and what I mean by that is that the city gets more involved, that there is some kind of a stopping point on the amount of excessive value that goes on the house, and the taxes that go on the house. Meaning that, okay, so let's picture that we have a family that they're working their butt off, you know, cops, firemen, whatever that is. You know, they're at a certain level, and the city turns around and says, hey, you know what, instead of going from $7,000 a year in property taxes to $8,000 to $10,000 to $12,000, as the city goes up, they just turn around and say, hey, listen, we're going to stay that at $7,000, and the city pitches in because that's always a cost that never stops, meaning the assessment, as it goes out, you know, so it's just an idea to throw out there, but it gets kind of unique, you know, when we start looking forward. Well, listen, Gina, this was absolutely great. Appreciate your coming on. Good luck to you, and I look forward to having you again. Thank you, Tom. Thank you so much. Have a great one. Have a safe one. Stay right there, folks, who are coming right back. We have the Dow Industries up 119, the Aztec down 16, S&P's up 12. We'll come right back.