 Hi everyone, welcome to coast-to-coast. My name is Lillian Corral and I'm joined by my colleague Lily Weinberg. Hi, Lily Hi, how are you Lillian? I'm good. How are you doing? I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. Yeah It's you know, I know we've talked over the past few weeks And I'll just share a few thoughts about Miami and what's happening across the the country Miami's has had largely peaceful demonstrations Over the city over the past couple of weeks Personally, I have been deeply moved by the demonstrations against systemic racism in Miami and across our night cities I have checked in with the cities that I personally work with 18 small to mid-sized markets across the country and Lillian you can name it We have rural urban purple red blue everything in between and every single one Even the smallest Aberdeen, South Dakota Have participated day after day in the demonstrations against these racial injustices and Alberto wrote The response and if we can link to that statement that he wrote the quote roar That we hear is the sound of an engaged community Yeah, so yeah, how is LA? Well, I was gonna say I mean, it's been two weeks since we've since we've done the show and it does feel like The world is completely different Which is which is it's it seems like it's part of this wave that we've been sort of navigating over the last three to four months but LA I think is like Los Angeles feels a lot like what you've described I think like every major city across the country and across the world I think we we battle with our own history of police brutality And so the city has you know, what started out with a very tumultuous Set of protests and manifestations has really sort of subsided into just every day four or five areas across the city Are the focal point of demonstrations and people are asking for reform and change so So this you know, this is a really interesting time for us And in a lot of ways when we thought about developing coast to coast Lily like this is exactly why we Decided to do this show because we wanted to talk about what was happening in our communities. We never imagined that that this was gonna be one of our one of our focal points, but We we wanted to talk about what was happening in our communities and how we could share tools and resources for building more engaged communities So so tell people about coast to coast for those that are new to the show And then let's get into this topic and the conversation with our guests. Absolutely. Sounds great And so for coast to coast we are looking at the future of cities, you know, what Lillian said, especially For building engaged communities in a time of rapid change. I can't really think of a better time to be Looking at this. We started by doing a deep dive on public spaces and really looking at the transformation of parks and streets We'll be moving slowly into mobility and technology But but Lillian and you know this over and over and over again equity and inclusion Keeps on coming up and is really at the forefront And and I just want to I just want to say one more thing I want to iterate what you Said Lillian we aren't just talking We are looking for actionable Tangible ideas and takeaways for our audience of practitioners. Yeah, tell us what we're gonna be talking about today. Yeah So today we have we're joined by Jai Winston our colleague at Knight foundation who leads the St. Paul office and Tony newborn who is the chief equity officer for the city of St. Paul? And so what's great is Jai will bring in Jai has an investment and a finance and a community building background Mixed with politics that I think lends a really strong perspective to this moment And then Tony is leading everything that has to do with equity with the city of St. Paul Who's really been looking at this issue over the last couple years. She leads the city's equity steering committee the equity design team And the department equity change teams To really guide and integrate equity into the city's services engagement policies and practices So thank you Jai and Tony for making time to join us today First just let's get some context for the conversation today and then also Encourage our audience to participate So for for the audience, we just want to make sure you know that we want you we want to hear your questions, too So please look for the Q&A box if you're joining us via zoom and share your questions with us We'll be fielding those questions and and and addressing them later on in the show And then for those of you who may be joining us either through Facebook live or if you want to use Twitter to share some questions on Facebook live Please share your questions. We'll be looking at that as well and then on Twitter If you use the hashtag night live, we'll be looking to field those questions as well So Jai and Tony today We're hoping we go through kind of a little bit of a journey of first just letting us know how is your community doing? How did we get here and and and what's really been leading up to this moment? There's a lot of positive work that's actually been happening in St. Paul. We also want to hear about And then we want to talk about the kinds of efforts and things that you've been doing over the last couple of years to address Some of these issues which are not new and and where do we go from here? How do we rebuild? How do we recover? We're dealing with multitude of things, right? We're dealing with the aftermath of George Floyd's death in the region But we're also dealing with the recovery from this pandemic And so we really want to talk about that too. So so let's get to it Jai Maybe starting with you. Can you tell us a little bit? Just how are you doing? How is the community doing? And and where do you where do you see the community two weeks? Just barely two weeks after the death of George Floyd and the start of all of this great manifestation that's been happening Yeah, so I want to thank you just for the opportunity. So I'll say, you know personally the past two weeks have been pretty challenging feeling a broad range of emotions from being upset angry Disappointed but at the same time there's a sense of hopefulness and optimism and I had the opportunity to go last Tuesday And few guys were in mind sharing that slide To a protest at the state Capitol and it was a really peaceful demonstration And there were a couple thousand folks out there and as I was sitting there as people and making sure everyone's Hydrated making sure people have food, etc. It was really nice to just see the community come out in a stand of solidarity And I think going back to Alberto's statement that you guys might have shown earlier Towards then he said our democracy to pine depends on our willingness to try and really talking around the fact that you saw Community come out in this effort to really actively participate in our democratic process So I will say the community is also still deeply grieving but at the same time You know to see everyone coming together to really move the needle forward, you know have a more equitable and just society But particularly community. It's been a really heartwarming Yeah, I think I think we all feel that as Lily mentioned to it's like it's amazing to see how much This issue is really just cut across all communities and people are just standing up Together Tony. Is there something that surprised you? Please first welcome and And is there something that surprised you the most about the reaction to George Floyd's death? Not just in the US But even globally First of all, thank you so much for having me What I think what surprised me the most you said globally is that it became a global issue and Seeing folks in London And protesting seeing people Even in Greater Minnesota, you know, which you know from a stereotypical standpoint folks think are you know wouldn't be involved in a protest like this wouldn't be involved in and You know fighting for justice the impact that this this midwestern city of Minnesota and and the largest city in in Minnesota to have on the rest of the world I think that surprised me the most we've seen so much. Unfortunately, we've seen so much death and killings of the African-American our African-American black men and you know, people usually rally around you may have a few protests here and there Maybe a few more states across the country and cities across the country before to be global. That was I think that's been the most surprising aspect of this response. Yeah, I mean, it definitely right Reminds us that this is not a unique situation and it's not unfortunately unique to the area to the city to the time Jai, can you give us a little bit of framing about St. Paul and how we got to this point? I know that you shared a lot with us about how The city's been changing You know and so can you can you sort of give us a little bit of that context for folks? We're not as familiar with with the region Yeah, absolutely And there's a slide to that I think you guys can point to just that shows a little bit of the population the demographic shift But I think it's important to understand the history kind of a simple so roughly in the 1930s You had the Rondo neighborhood, which is a very affluent driving black community and around the 1950s 60s Similarly that we've seen happen in many other cities across the country particularly around communities of color when they were building out the interstate They went through the black community where they had other options that they chose to go through that black community And so we still see those long-standing ramifications today particularly around them not being able to have generational wealth and in addition to that I think that it created an underpinning of a lot of racial tension And so that compounded with all of these other injustices over the years at this community's experience particularly with the demographic shift where we have a very large Somali and Mongol population and From our state demographers office the most recent ethnographic study shows that St. Paul is now a majority minority city So the challenge and the tension that's always been there, but I think getting a Bigger and bigger has been that they are not represented local city government doesn't necessarily reflect the demographic shift And so I think all of these things have kind of brought it to a boil And I think you know when I moved in to when I moved to St. Paul in 2016 It was on the heels of the Blando Castile shooting So that was something that was a very deep wound for this community in St. Paul and I think recently what we've seen with George Boyd I think that was really you know the expression the straw that broke the cow was back I think you saw a community really pushing back and saying you know enough is enough Tony I don't know if you want to add any more context or history to what Jai's shared Yes, I mean I think Jai was spied on about the the history of Rondo I mean you've seen that happen in our Black community, you know if we go go go back, you know a hundred or so years with our American Indian native community We've seen you know the the you know from possibly from their perspective, you know the removal of Land and it's understanding of who of land ownership You know when we talk about you know, I'm originally from the south and from Birmingham, Alabama and You know a lot of times folks think oh all of those bad things around racism and discrimination and bias happened and In in the south only but you know, Minnesota and the Midwest and all over the country there are incidences of happening And it may not have been ratified or enacted by law but it was a it was a practice of These areas in which there was a separation and segregation of you know whites and People of color and specifically black. I think about the the most recent Documentary around the Jim Crow north and you know, while it's a focus on on Minneapolis, there's some work that is being done here in St. Paul to look at those Covenants those racial covenants for around housing and you know a lot of we think about like oh why are our cities so segregated why you know Why is it that a lot a large or a significant number of African Americans live in Rondo or live in North? Minneapolis or you know live in on the east side of St. Paul. Well, it was it was designed that way and You know, there was the these covenants that were in place that Directed and and there was an agreement contractual agreement that said only whites would live in this area only blacks or at that time Negroes would live in certain areas and Jews were permitted in certain areas are allowed to purchase homes so we have a we have a strong in a long history of Discrimination and anti-blackness or anti-bill in the blank non-white In in the state of Minnesota and of course across the country and it's not just just it wasn't just happening in the cell Yeah, no, definitely. So I think I mean it sounds like we have at least some some some context here for for how We got to this moment and what's been Happening Let's Lily. Why don't you take over and let's talk a little bit about like How you know how you actually been trying to address these issues because the great thing in St. Paul is that you have been actually working on this Change has been slow, but it's been coming right and and In the city of St. Paul the the new administration of Mayor Carter has done some really interesting work Around diversity equity inclusion. So we'll we'll dive into that Because we have a lot of of course practitioners in our in our audience. So Tony, I'll start with you This administration has put in a lot of measures to date to address diversity equity inclusion So so first let's start with Learning more about your your position Chief equity officer, what does that mean and and what do you do and and and may I ask to please link to more details about about the position to So Tony Sorry, sorry taking myself off of me. Yes chief equity officer. I've been in this position Going on now three years. I started with Mayor Carter in 2018 As a chief equity officer in the first chief equity officer for the city of St. Paul At that time that my position was created. There were more equity officer positions starting to pop up across the country in government and that's a key It's a distinction key distinction because there there are a lot of positions in corporations large corporations or cheap diversity or cheap inclusion officers In the corporate sector or private sector, but not as much in government And so starting to see at that time in 2018 starting to see those positions pop up the Pillars of our administration for the city of St. Paul is lifelong learning or education Economic justice and public safety and the values of the city of St. Paul our equity Resiliency and innovation and the mayor and deputy mayor Mayor Carter and deputy mayor tension decided That they wanted positioned in their administration to reflect the values of the city and so we have a chief equity officer position We achieve innovation officer position and a chief resiliency officer you know, I was fortunate when I Started in this role that the city already had an equity diversity and inclusion framework and I inherited that framework and was able to centralize it to making an office of one And I apologize my clock is in the background here, but so an office or position of one and my job is to Ensure and this is very basic response at least for it for right now But to ensure that our policies practices and procedures are viewed through an equity lens And I work with our permanent internal standpoint with our departments. They're 14 operating departments across the city and I work with those departments in our what we call our equity change teams to ensure that we have a work plan which has goals and I work with those departments to help them to achieve those goals around equity diversity and inclusion and provide space for us to whether from a training standpoint Providing training or working with consultants across the city and state for for training But to ensure that we're viewing all of our work and they truly mean all of our work to that equity lens We ensure that we're engaging with the community And we're centering the community and our residents of St. Paul and our business owners at the center of this work and we The work that we are leading and the plans that we're executing are community driven And so there's an in an authentic equitable engagement component to to the job And then, you know, then I would just do throwing the kitchen sink That is everything else from the internal aspect of working with our staff in our city departments but right now I'm on our One of our largest development projects right now in the city is with the board project for development site in which we are Most folks would say we're building a small city within St. Paul and it's a huge redevelopment So we have a team comprised of directors and myself to ensure that we have a broad perspective And how we are executing that work. So my work looks encompasses a lot of things and and then some things but it's it's it's broad But it's overall I would say Serving as a resource and an advisor and a thought partner both internally with staff and also externally with our community That's fantastic. It sounds like you're very busy. First of all You're doing a lot. I just want to unpack a few things that you said. So one was I loved how St. Paul very clearly puts forward its values and then has officers lined up to those values So equity is one of the values and you're the officer leading equity And then I heard that you know, there's it's really two parts. So it's looking internally and then it's also looking externally So internally you're literally you have the lens of equity for every single department Which which is a huge task and then externally it sounds like you're you're doing a lot of the engagement work So so that's that's that's really interesting again We did link if you want to learn more about the equity role in the chat box So Jai, I want to ask you. I mean you you've now been at night for for many years And you know, you know all the night cities Your perspective, why is it so important to have a role like this chief equity officer? Yes, I think Tony summed up quite a lot in terms of you know The policies and practices and procedures that in our role She has the opportunity to review You know making sure that is a reflective of the needs and wants of the residents and their constituents so to speak And so I think similarly for night as a value that we you know care about equitable participatory and inclusive communities I think you know, we are able to support some of that work in a way But ultimately I think we have to have those partnerships with local city government I'm in order to achieve that goal So residents had the opportunity to reach their full potential and so I think you know I'm extremely grateful to see St. Paul have that role And my hope is that other cities across the U. S. Also are able to you know, adopt some of those things Yeah, yeah, I think that I think that the overlap between philanthropy and then also business for this role is also really critical So so Tony, I would love for you to to kind of ground this even more You talked about the strategy, but I would love for you to ground it in the sense of Can you can you walk us through some of the programs? You know that you've developed to date With the with the current administration and and please link to An article about the current administration too Great So I feel like in in almost three years. We've just been we've been running. There's so many things so many programs so many So much work that this team has has done Under mayor Carter's leadership You know, we started out with I'll start out with our hiring process actually You know mayor Carter Really wanted to make sure that when we by selecting his his team his administration that The community was involved in that and So I helped to run a community hiring process for our our executives at our top level our directors and as as a results of that that work and engage in the community we were able to diversify our leadership and This was we we now have the most diverse and I mean racially diverse ethnic gender diverse team that the city has Arguably ever had and so we started out our administration with from an engagement standpoint We were able to raise the minimum wage We Created the office of financial empowerment And that office is leading and in that office is equity is infused in that office As with all of our other ones But the the premise and purpose of that that team was to ensure that our community members Had an opportunity we could meet them at where they're at from a financial standpoint and provide resources to to our community to whether For those who are unbanked. We started a college savings account in which Every child born in st. Paul received and a savings account with $50 and had to go towards tourist college You know, we have started the mayor has started and and asked received a budget from city council on our community diverse public safety work and you know this we were ahead of the game on On that work before george void Now more than ever it's important that we put the frame the kind of foundation built the foundation in that work because The the way that policing is viewed now and how we're seeing policing and law enforcement is will be different in the future And so having a community first public safety strategy is going to be important Find our libraries. We went find free and Surprisingly enough that was controversial and we didn't we didn't really think that that would be one of the most controversial topics Of the city, especially when you're talking about the library, but we now do not You know impose fines on our community members for late late books And there was a lot of data and and resources put into that work to see that the folks who were Um had the most fines were folks of color and people who needed to actually have Access to the library, but because they had this five dollar ten dollar fine They were staying away from the the resource That that they actually needed and so we've seen over the last year year and a half and increase in Participation and coming into the library And folks are now we are being so to speak their library cards and coming in and utilizing the resources So that's just a brief, uh, you know overview of some of the work that that we've done I want to thank you and I want to focus on that on the on the fines and fees because I know that you You said you got a lot of resistance on that And many cities that I've worked with because I I love that st. Paul got rid of the the library fines And I think other cities, you know, um should really look at at your model, but but there's also a practical piece of of you know, um, how do you offset that revenue? Um, and and you know, um, Can you just talk talk practically because I know there's a lot of practitioners that are that are saying, you know How is this even possible to to to get rid of fines? Sure, um, you know, I think the misconception is that, you know, the city City's goal is not to be a revenue generating piece, especially from a library standpoint, right? So we shouldn't be positioning ourselves to generate revenue off of our community not paying fines Especially from the library and when we did an assessment and these are very, um, approximate numbers But you know, it was the equivalent of a little bit over 200,000 Right. And so for the city, that's that's a couple of salary, you know, that's a couple of positions that we have so it wasn't it's not a ton of money And uh, so the library department, um with, uh, you know, from a budget standpoint and also just their connections and relationships and grants They were able to offset that Um fun because the city didn't want to position itself to be a place where where we're reliant on Fees from our our residents and from our community. Absolutely. Absolutely And and for audience members if you want to learn more about st. Paul's Fine and fees work, um eliminating fines and fees. Um, we just linked in the chat box About that but it's it's Tony. It's as you said, it's really about it's about the community It's not about about just generating revenue. Um, so so I'll I'll close this this about what's happening in st Paul, I do want to ask, um, jai If you can comment a little bit and we talked about this a little bit earlier, but um, what do you see as as the role of philanthropy and and business, um As as we as we ground this work in st. Paul Yeah, I think really underscoring the importance of cross sector collaboration Realizing that, you know, local city government has its limitations And that philanthropy and business also I think has the opportunity to play the role in being a catalyst on trying innovative new creative ways to solve some of the Pressing challenging issues that they've been experiencing for years And so I think an opportunity particularly when I think about night's role and some of the work that we've been able to Do is piloting some things and demonstrating and shining a spotlight on and saying, hey This works. This is a really new Approach that we could do something a new way to get something done And then I think being able to put it front and center in front of the city to say, hey You know, I think you guys should think about reallocating a budget line item towards this initiative, etc And so I think that's something that we've been able to do well And I think that's worked really well in the same with business business has that same flexibility Where I think local city government has a bit more constraints around it. Yeah. Yeah, so testing out new ideas Lillian you want to take us into the recovery? Yeah, I mean, I think this point about this shifting of the mindset that the city's not a revenue generator is a big one um, but you know, tony you were dealing with the the pandemic recovery even before the george floyd death and so um I guess what i'm wondering is how do we actually do this? How do we how do we you have any advice or for how do we actually start to do that shift in thinking because For the most part in most cities these fines and fees as an example are really critical to Keeping services going and when we were already looking. I mean cities were already looking because of covet to a very reduced tax base and And and and pretty bad budget outlooks for the next year or two at least So how do you have advice for how do we actually start to create that shift? Is it in roles like yourself or what other things has the leadership of the city really done to make sure that At the departmental level people understand we need to think about city services in a different way well, I think you know having a chief equity officer or a Equity diversity and inclusion office in itself is important And having someone to kind of leave that work and be that thought that thought partner At the table at the leadership table is important because The the bottom line of this and this happens throughout all of our work If you don't have someone leading it if you don't have someone talking about it, right the table It's not going to get done. Um, you know, uh, there wasn't a chief equity officer position before My position, but the city of st. Paul had a framework, but there were people leading that work and making sure that Someone was talking about equity. Someone was put a Plan together Or did some goal setting or tracking data, etc. It's it's important to have people in those in those spaces and You know intention It's important to to make sure that you have someone who's that person raising their hand and being intentional around Around this work So it's going to require some level of strategy Yeah, um, no that those are three really good points. It's about, you know, both having someone in that leadership focus Role to really make sure that everybody You know walks the talk It seems like there's a bit of measurement. Um, and then it's also I like the point about intention You know Again, we've had a lot of conversations around equity. There was a conversation a really interesting one around public spaces and And we talked about how do we build more equitable public spaces And a lot of the discussion and to ended up certain centering on like trying to make a case for economic development Like, you know, the more equitable public spaces is actually You know that there's a there's a revenue Component to it How do we do you have advice and and jive from your perspective too as a funder? Like how can we measure more equitable recoveries or more equitable? Programming is it is it a matter of use? I mean Is it a matter of how the kinds of is it a matter of the benefit and who benefits? Across the city. Are there other ways that we can measure ourselves because sometimes It feels like folks have a hard time. It seems to me like folks are having a hard time really Doing that final walking of the talk We talk a lot of that equity but like to really get at that outcome and to know that we're there How do we know that we're there? Do you guys have advice from your different perspective? From your different perspectives on how um, how do we know we've actually done it, right? Or and and and how Do we not perpetuate this conversation and keep talking about it? But actually get there I'll jump and I think part of it is absolutely applying metrics and using data to kind of tell the story But I think the other component of what we see is community will tell you if you're not hitting those marks And so I think the intentionality about making sure that we're listening to community and getting their feedback and quite often I don't think that happens enough. I completely agree with that community century community at With your goals and initiatives and work Is important because you'll often find when you ask community that they'll say I know I don't want that or I don't need that I need this and you know as a government official or In these organizations, we have this thought in our mind and have this framework and it looks pretty We think we're doing good, but we have to ask the community what What is it? What are their needs and and that's the the kind of Working definition of equity is meeting people where they're at asking folks for what they what their needs are and developing those policies practices and procedures to address the Both individual and collective needs of of the community So tracking is good but but we got we have to ask those hard questions and be prepared for that those Criticisms and critiques from community about what what we need to be doing in the direction that we need to be moving into and that will help Help us to develop what that impact looks like and what those goals and targets and measures are That's a great point about the community feedback. I was actually in a conversation yesterday where someone made the point that Or shared the the this quote that someone had shared that someone had said to her which is community He's been saying this for like hundreds of years. Like we're tired of talking. We're tired of saying it so So maybe starting with tony. I mean Again because of coven you were already going to have to do a lot of community engagement and the recovery and the rebuild But now especially in light of all the Of all the kind of enough is enough Feedback that we've gotten from the community about the use of force by police and And frankly the need to transform the way policing is happening in this community is what are your plans for engaging the community? How are you thinking about doing that differently because in a lot of ways? I feel like what i'm seeing across the country is people say we've been saying this for a long time enough is enough Like now we're just not leaving the streets until you do something about it So how do you think about engaging people in light of in light of how the community is responding? Oh did we lose tony? Jay I don't know if you want to jump in and maybe um if if she unfreezes or Yeah, so I think you know in light of how communities are responding. I think how do you go about it doing the right way? I don't know in particular that I have a Perfect answer for the right way, but I think particularly if we just seen the demonstrations and protesting community organized itself You know exceptionally well to be able to lift their voice and advocate for you know changes within the minneapolis police department And also in st. Paul and I think being able to continue that momentum because we've never really put community at the center I think really giving the the captains who've organized their neighborhoods to co-op and collectively protest to start writing some of their elected officials You know to gather at the state capitol, etc They you know they're resourceful they're very strategic and being able to work with them and also Blend that skill set into you know, what are some of the other changes that we want to address within our community? It's I think that is one way that we can begin thinking about how we're going to engage them Great, tony. Um, we lost you right when you're going to answer about how do you engage people in this moment? I swear technology here. Uh, it's just so tricky. Yeah so What we do I'll tell you what we've done and this is the in line with what the mayor how the mayor started his administration and um Since covet, uh, we've held these what we call these digital round tables And we divided them out into four Uh different groups based off of uh demographics. So we we had one with the black and african-american Uh community we had one with the american um Asian-american and pacific islander community We had a third one with uh our latinx hispanic community and this thursday Actually, we'll have one with our american indian native community And we invited community leaders to come into this space and tell us What's what's going on? What's happening? post-covid um and knowing that these What's happening now with our various communities was already happening before they just have been exacerbated the disparities and inequities That were in place before covet are now exacerbated because our community still has doesn't have access doesn't have access to public So to health health care, uh, it doesn't have access to you know From an economic standpoint and economic justice standpoint there's opportunities for us to do better around engagement and We need to to advocate and and um include our elected officials. So we framed out The engagement the digital round tables within these four areas public health economic justice legislative advocacy And uh community engagement and then we're we've invited the community to come And join us in creating these subcommittees or sub work groups under our racial equity work group to Develop a plan that's community driven to help Recover from from covet and i would add now recover From the the civil unrest and the slide that's up here Shows, you know, a few of the things that we were doing pre-covid and civil unrest You know, I talked about minimum wage and the college savings account And our community first public safety Framework but post-covid and civil unrest because a lot of the issues are Similar and the same We created the st paul's bridge fund was was a fund to that Families and also businesses could apply it to and receive Some form of financial donation to help help the family We also initially from the from the start of of coven and when businesses were starting to shut down We the water department is the part of the city enterprise And so we asked the director of our water department to not offer not shut off any water And especially, you know, you have a virus going on when you need to wash your hands of the One There's been a lot of work with randy county as well as the St paul public schools and the city on food insecurity those issues were already in place before but we needed to do that Pulled together an effort post coven yeah Childcare for our central workers. We've been collecting me You know, we've been collecting based cloth masks and You know hand sanitizers for our community organizations and been distributing those out We've created a site around neighbors helping neighbors. So how can you know the city can't do everything? Sometimes we think we can and sometimes people expect that we should be doing But it's helpful that you know, the mayor Part of our tagline of the city is building the st paul that works for all of us And in order for us to do that all of us have to get to work And the mayor often says that so neighbors helping neighbors is a part of that that effort of all of us Building the city that we want to to thrive in and then lastly, you know pay it forward is an initiative that was developed with st paul area chamber of commerce as well as as well as the randy county and city of st paul coming together to provide mentorship to our businesses Entrepreneurs on how to recover and rebuild their business So right those are just a few things that we've done and that we will continue to do With the help of the community and then and hopefully develop more initiatives that come out of the engagement efforts Yeah, I just a great point to end on A great set of points to end on and and it's a great reminder that coved Was disproportionately and is continues to disproportionately affect communities of color much in the same ways that a lot of the The civil unrest and the and the manifestations have really been asking for for communities to be To be Addressed, you know for us to really rethink community policies. So Let's move to the q&a lily. I know we have a tons of questions around what's been said. So yeah Yeah, so Thanks, and and I just want to start with A first a comment that someone made when you guys were talking about engagement One of the audience members said engagement with community is not just feedback. It should be collaborative co-creation Which I thought was was really powerful and it really seems tony like like you are doing that So so tony, I want to start with you. There is a question from a from a city Asking about saying that they were pretty green to Diversity equity and inclusion for their for their community. And so they're basically asking, you know, where do we Start with this work. How do we even begin to to? To focus on diversity equity inclusion within the within the city Yes, it has to start with leadership It has to start with your mayor your city coordinator the city council You know, whoever the the The designated cheerleader is for your organization. It has to start there It I couldn't I would not be successful in my job and in the work If if the buck were the mayor the mayor is is going to be the first to talk about equity diversity inclusion The mayor is, you know, the way that he set up his administration, you know reflects the reflecting the values of the city It has to be infused in your budget process But I would say starting with the with your electeds and starting with your your leadership And they have to be sometimes ahead of you in the position of the chief equity or diversity officer Talking about equity diversity and inclusion and without that I haven't seen organizations be successful in this work and standing up an office because if you have this person, you know Not at the leadership table, you know, just off the side and a little special office It's not going to work. It's not going to work the people, you know, where my position is You know, I'm a part of the mayor's cabinet. I'm at the table when we're making decisions I'm at the table with the directors And and can be that thought partner with them. And so it's important You know for the mayor city council city coordinator To or deputy mayor to be in those spaces as those active cheerleaders And then it's also important if you want to create a position or an office That it needs to be you need to have the positional authority and lose this right power And not from an abuse standpoint, but power to be able to Drive this work Forward and you need a budget. So yeah, this stuff takes money And then that's why I'm looking At jack it's helpful to from a philanthropic standpoint And in our in our corporations and in private sector In the city, we can only do so much. We only have a certain budget and you know, and it only goes so far But it's important to have those relationships to where you know, I can stretch a little bit further than I would Because I have those relationships with our community partners. Yeah, so so I heard two things So it needs to start from the top and then there needs to be money put put into it You know, there needs to be teeth put into it. So So that's that's that's great. I'm gonna I'm gonna pivot a little bit. There is a question around public spaces And how we think about equity and in the intersection of race with public spaces, of course we saw We've seen over and over examples of this but the the example around Amy Cooper And we've personally in in Miami. We've observed an increasing police policing in public spaces And so Jai, I'll I'll hand that to you, you know Tell us a bit about about, you know, the intersection of equity and public spaces Yes, I'll kind of start reiterating when I said earlier in terms of the cross-sector collaboration So in St. Paul, we have what's called our great river passage and this is a big project. That's a huge public space project. It's Revitalizing older infrastructure, which is our riverfront And with that we've been able to convene our business community, our civic community And with that we're also making sure that the community we want to utilize the public space is also reflected in these conversations And so it's been a very diverse group and I mentioned earlier the demographic shift of having a big, you know Influx in our Somali community and our Hmong community They're the ones leading a lot of these conversations And I think the role that knight has been able to play is being the convener to make sure that These individuals are at the table and and quite honestly, you know, I think We're all figuring out the best ways to be able to move forward and be more intentional about being inclusive And I think one of the things that we've been able to do at night I was being able to make sure that The individuals who look and reflect the community are at the table helping to shape these conversations And so I will say, you know in that aspect That's one of the ways that we've been thinking about our public space work because You know public space hasn't been a main strategy in St. Paul But we've been able to glean and learn a lot from our other cities like Akron And Philadelphia we've been doing some really great stuff there And part of the things that we want to just making sure that everybody is at the table So as we continue to do that work in St. Paul We're able to ask those questions to say, you know Is the community at the table and when we look around saying, okay If they're not making sure they're intentional about making sure those folks are there Great. Um, so there's a couple questions in the q&a around this issue of defunding police. Um Tony from the city's perspective How are you addressing that community demand and the question also Focuses on if you if there's an opportunity to rebalance the budget How what are the other social services that that funding could be could be put towards So what's the dialogue in the administration about about that? So I want to be careful in not jumping in front of our mayor because he's done a lot of You know interviews on on this But it have been a part of the conversation around it and and and with him and the administration You know, we Short answer is that we're we're figuring out our long longer term strategy, especially from a budget, you know a budget standpoint And the budget for us is the annual budget. And so we're always in budget season I feel like it's only probably a couple months where we're not talking about the budget But especially during this time We are what I what I would reflect on is is what we what I talked about a little bit earlier Which is our community first public safety Work and that work actually started pre covid pre george boy and the civil unrest The mayor in the fall of 2019 And in response to the uptick of shooting deaths that were taking place in st. Paul as proposed to the council for a budget amendment to To further support from a financial standpoint our community first public safety Framework and that includes More than just law enforcement. How do we build a safe community from palatine? How do we build a safe community by making sure that our folks are employed and in youth employment? We now have a community first public safety Um a director in our parks department because parks is one of our most public-facing Departments and interact quite a bit with our youth and as we were looking at the data of who who is committing these crimes And who was involved in shooting deaths. It was our young people Um, and and so we wanted to engage Our staff that has that lens of our youth so to speak and having that that insight with our youth To help lead the work We have what we've developed and a part of this this funding would go towards our community ambassadors We have community folks who have been doing this work, you know for 20 something years on the streets in st. Paul connecting with our black youth black black men who are on the streets and uh, you know They serve as our kind of liaisons or our initial touch point to what's going on in the community could help Um divert and maybe advise or mentor our youth on You know other ways that they can engage and and to participate in activities such as our parks and our libraries So we've uh, you know part of this community first public safety Strategy is to further and fund our community ambassadors I mentioned housing before there's some work going on that and that that group has been stood up You know pre george buoy But also it was post-covid. You know, how do we utilize that group because you know, this is a public health concern Especially for our youth who are used to going to basketball court or as an outlet and how do we engage with them to talk about The importance of social distancing and wearing a mask and maybe you can't play basketball in the way that you did before but how do we How do you still gain that that that outlet? Without and and managing and maintaining social distancing and physical distancing So and those are just a few of the strategies around our community first public safety framework Which we again we started before but now We'll continue to to be bolstered up given the What the murder of george buoy? Yeah, I I definitely think it's interesting to me that you guys have I mean that this administration has been Really on on the forefront of trying creative ways to really address a lot of these issues Even before George floyd's death You know one point that I know just from jai The reason I mean it's definitely been this administration But what was so critical jai can you tell us a little bit? I mean this is kind of like rewinding a bit to the context But what was so critical about or what was the the big Difference about this administration that I think really sort of catalyzed a lot of this change Yeah, so I will you know be quite honest when I came into this role It was at the end of a previous administration ending. So, you know, I think one of the unique Opportunities that presented itself with this administration is one is the first african-american mayor So as you talk about the demographic shift, you know He's able to resonate a bit more with some of the challenges that our communities are facing Particularly our communities of color and then for me, you know His intentionality around really making it a community oriented process when it comes to electing the individual leaders of his apartments, etc And so it also created the opportunity for us to have more open dialogue around Things that night sees working really well in some of our other cities and you know opportunities that we can help You know connect some thought leaders who are doing some great work in akron or in charlotte Or in philadelphia with some of our leadership here in multiple city governments. I'll say I think that quite honestly has been one of the Bigger successes of this administration is its intentionality to say we don't know everything But we want to learn as much as we can and we want to invite as many people to the table to be able to shape The way that we're moving this community forward That's a great point and lily you've got another question from the q&a the one thing I will say is some of the questions we've gotten around the de di and the leadership point to your to your Advice, tony has been How do you do this when you don't have of african-american mayor and I think the fact that he's also really young and also kind of like in the Like I feel like he knows this community and he knows this audience really well But but how do you do it when you don't have that level of leadership and when frankly you don't have people of color in your leadership team? That's been a question, but lily you So i'll leave that out there to answer, but lily you've got a great question from the from the q&a Sure, um, and so and we're running uh, we're running out of time. So just quickly tony I thought a really important question is is how do you structure consistent accurate city communications that Equitably reach all citizens especially during this this long time of sheltering in place Um, is there a frequency that that seems critical? Sorry taking myself out of mute. Um You know what we have done, uh, most cities have especially larger cities has a um emergency management emergency operation department and we have stood up at our emergency operation center And that is comprised of our stack and our leadership team And a part of that has been a communication team And we've set up our our cobit. We have a cobit 19 site on our website As well as we're sending out a newsletter for those who want to subscribe to So what's going on in the city of st. Paul in general will receive this, but it's also on it's on our website It's a in the format of a newsletter and we utilize social media quite heavily You will see our mayor on facebook. You'll see our mayor posting on twitter twitter or instagram And then we are copying pasting all of those links and linking those uh sites onto our Facebook page as well. And so the frequency is I would say it's weekly But as things come up and change we know that we have a platform to be able to to make additions or changes to it If if needed on a daily basis Great. Thanks Uh, so jai and tony thank you so much for joining us. It's really mentioned. Unfortunately, we've run out of time The hour has passed by really quickly. Um, we'd love to end it with having each of you just give us like one big sort of sort of outrageous goal to think about or or or As we leave this conversation. So maybe starting with jai I'm I mean what you think is a big takeaway that you're hoping the audience gets from this um discussion I think just given everything that we've seen happening across our country. You know the last two weeks I think this is really a defining moment in history for our generation and I you know Quite honestly as it resonates a bit more deeply to me personally being an african-american male as I listened to stories from my grandfather about You know what he did to show up and you know lend a hand during the civil rights movement I can't help but think about what is it that i'm doing and so as I think about my role in my platform with philanthropy I think it's to be able to elevate these conversations elevate the voices that don't have an opportunity to be heard And really aggressively move that needle forward. So for me, that's one thing that I also encourage folks who are listening is In your respective capacity, you know, what can you double down on? You know, whose voice can you give an opportunity to be lifted? Thank you. Jai and tony um so much You know, I think that I totally agree with jai, you know if Yesterday wasn't the time for you to act now is the time We it's a it's a global movement These issues are not new especially to to folks like jai and I who have Personal experiences and also have families who and grandparents and aunts and uncles who've had experiences in the state So being treated differently because of what they look like and having negative Interactions with our law enforcement and so the time is now to act and I think If it wasn't before if you were acting the the time is now and Be intentional around the work. So you may not have that chief equity officer. You may not have a the first black mayor Or the first latin answer native Mayor or elected official in your respective jurisdiction Human resources is a space where you can effectuate change internally your chief of police, um, your you know, it's starting a A a smaller group engaging your community Is it's the space let the communities tell the electives who may not be down or woke or whatever the terminology is empower your community to to to raise up and and and Request and demand for change to happen. So but but don't let this be another short social media posts That that that fades away This needs to be some this has been a global effort and movement and it needs to continue And we need everyone to be kind of on the ground working Well, tony, I I don't know that there's any other Better way to end it than on that and on that note. I know that For lily and I it's been such a great pleasure to have you both. Um, jai is our Is is one of our partners in in in this work here at night foundation And it's so great to connect with you, tony To really see what's happening in the community and and to learn about all these very concrete ways in which you guys have already started to To do the work of um of transforming st. Paul. Um, so, uh, lily, thank you. Um, thank you for your questions and and and building the questions from the audience and For everybody on thank you for joining us. Um, we stay tuned for next week's episode Information and please keep the discussion going. We encourage you to give us feedback This is a dialogue. This is a journey that we're all on and as tony said, let's not just stop Today, but let's keep doing the work Tomorrow, so please. Um, thank you very much and stay safe and we will See you all next Tuesday at 1 p.m. Thank you. Thank you