Columbus Department of Neighborhoods

Tim Fulton 0:08Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, I sat down with the director of the Department of Neighborhoods for the city of Columbus, Carla Williams Scott. Now almost a year into her position at the new department, Ms. Williams Scott and I discuss the various functions of the department, the impetus for it, and what opportunities she sees in the diversity of our city's neighborhoods and the disparity between them. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is now on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, again, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. The Confluence Cast is sponsored by Kepri, a full-service mobile and web development company specializing in design and programming services. Defined through skill and innovation, Kepri works with their clients to create user-centric, technology-based products that innovate. Kepri provides complete technology solutions with a solid strategy to meet your goals and grow your brand. See examples of their work and explore what Kepri can do for your big ideas at kepri.com. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with the director of Department of Neighborhoods in the city of Columbus, Carla Williams Scott. Ms. Williams Scott, how are you?

Carla Williams Scott 1:44I'm great. And how are you today?

Tim Fulton 1:46I'm doing well.

Carla Williams Scott 1:47Good.

Tim Fulton 1:47Thank you for asking. First of all, give us the elevator pitch. What is the dep- the newly formed Department of Neighborhoods?

Carla Williams Scott 1:53Department of Neighborhoods is the best department in the city of Columbus.

Tim Fulton 1:56Mm.

Carla Williams Scott 1:57We are a new department. We've been effective since July of 2016, and, um, it's a combination of areas that were formerly housed in other departments and then one standalone department. So the Department of Neighborhoods comprises the commu- the former Community Relations Commission, which was a standalone department that did diversity training focused on discrimination complaints and other kinds of initiatives around, uh, working with our New Americans program. Um, so that, that's one.

Tim Fulton 2:30And I'm... And we will dial down into each of these later as well because I think the Community Relations Commission specifically, they actually are pretty empowered to make recommendations to council in terms of how the city should be representing itself in actual diversity cases, right?

Carla Williams Scott 2:46To some degree.

Tim Fulton 2:47Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 2:47To some degree. We make recommendation, not necessarily to council-

Tim Fulton 2:51Okay

Carla Williams Scott 2:52... but to the work with the city attorney's office.

Tim Fulton 2:54Got it.

Carla Williams Scott 2:55And then they determine from there kinda where, where those cases go.

Tim Fulton 2:59Gotcha. Up next in the department.

Carla Williams Scott 3:01And then we have the, um, 311 customer service call center, which is now housed in the Department of Neighborhoods. It was formerly housed in public service. And then we have the neighborhood program, which it, it comprises the neighborhood liaisons and the Neighborhood Pride Program. So all of those efforts make up the Department of Neighborhoods.

Tim Fulton 3:20Great. And you guys have some oversight over the actual neighborhood commissions as well. Is that correct?

Carla Williams Scott 3:26Yes, we do. So each of our area, um, our neighborhood liaisons, uh, we're divided up into quadrants of the city.

Tim Fulton 3:33Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 3:33And so each of those neighborhood, um, liaisons are responsible for being, I guess for lack of a better term, the staff liaison-

Tim Fulton 3:41Okay

Carla Williams Scott 3:41... to the area commissions. They're housed in our Neighborhood Pride Centers. Uh, we have a Near East Pride Center, a Far East Pride Center, a West Pride Center, South Pride Center, and a North Pride Center. And so we take the, the city map-

Tim Fulton 3:59Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 3:59... and divide it into quadrants, and then the area commissions, um, are kinda tucked with each of one of those neighborhood liaisons.

Tim Fulton 4:08Gotcha. Talk about the goal for the department in general, why it was formed. What was the impetus for it?

Carla Williams Scott 4:14The impetus, I think as you've heard our mayor has said, his top three priorities of his administration are neighborhoods, neighborhoods, and neighborhoods.

Tim Fulton 4:22Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 4:22Hence, the Department of Neighborhoods. And what we're looking at is some of our neighborhoods have not enjoyed the prosperity, um, in the city as some of, some of our other neighborhoods. And so we want to take this opportunity to kinda, number one, service that liaison between city government and our residents, and then two, to be able to really focus on some of those neighborhoods that again, as like we said, have not enjoyed, um, some of the prosperity as some of our other neighborhoods have.

Tim Fulton 4:55I don't quite know how to answer this question, but I'm gonna ask it. What do you think caused that disparity in what those neighborhoods are experiencing?

Carla Williams Scott 5:04You know, I think, I think, Tim, I think it's a lot of things. I think part of it might have been just the actual boundaries of what actually created neighborhoods. Um, there's the economic development component to when you create a neighborhood, are there actually jobs in the vicinity to help the neighborhood thrive and prosper?

Tim Fulton 5:25Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 5:25And not being, I'm not a Columbus native, but, um, I've talked to many folks who are Columbus natives, and in particular, f- one of the things people have said is the, um, the expansion of the, of the freeway.

Tim Fulton 5:40Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 5:41That I-70 Came right through the Near East Neighborhood and really kinda divided the neighborhood. So I think those kinds of things over time have kinda led to kinda that, I don't wanna say breakdown-

Tim Fulton 5:56Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 5:56... but what we've seen where some neighborhoods have not really enjoyed in that prosperity. Because if you do, if you have that cutoff, then there's no economic development, there's no major employer, and all of those things you need to have a neighborhood to be able to thrive and prosper.

Tim Fulton 6:12Well, and not to put words in your mouth, but I think it's not necessarily that you're ignoring it, but you're not focusing on what the impact of those things have been. I've certainly, having lived for a short period of time in the Milo Grogan neighborhood, that's certainly, you know, that's I-71 did that there.

Carla Williams Scott 6:28Exactly. Exactly. So I think those are the kinds of things, um, that we've seen. And so again, along with prosperity comes new opportunities. I don't like to say challenges. I say new opportunities.

Tim Fulton 6:40Well, and certainly one of the things I have written down is what are the challenges and the opportunities that you see for the department? Talk about your background a little bit and how you got here.

Carla Williams Scott 6:50I have so, um... I was with the city for 12 years-

Tim Fulton 6:53Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 6:54... um, under the former administration, and I started out, I came to the city, um, as the deputy director in the Community Relations Commission. So I worked very closely with the Community Relations Commission, with our, um, doing the diversity training, working with our discrimination complaints, and all of the kinds of programs that were then housed under the Community Relations Commission. Um, from that time, um, I spent four years in community relations.

Tim Fulton 7:21Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 7:21Then I spent two years in the mayor's office under former Mayor Coleman-

Tim Fulton 7:25Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 7:26... um, as a, a community affairs outreach.

Tim Fulton 7:29Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 7:29And so had the opportunity to really see the city from kinda, I call it, the bird's-eye view. It's, it's different being in a department than being in the mayor's office. Then you're working with all of the departments.

Tim Fulton 7:39You're seeing it all, right.

Carla Williams Scott 7:41So I had that opportunity, then, um, left the mayor's office and went to the Department of Development. In Development, I was actually, um, an assistant director there and was responsible for legislation, contracts, and neighborhood services.

Tim Fulton 7:57Hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 7:58So-

Tim Fulton 7:58Sounds, sounds like you kinda lined everything up for this, this role.

Carla Williams Scott 8:02I didn't do it, but it kinda happened that way.

Tim Fulton 8:04Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 8:05And, and I say to, um, my, my current boss, um, Mayor Ginther, that this is my dream job.

Tim Fulton 8:12Excellent.

Carla Williams Scott 8:12Everything that I've done up until this point has actually, like you said, kinda led me here. Um, I didn't plan it that way, but that's so, that's kinda how it happened. So all of the areas that are now in the Department of Neighborhoods-

Tim Fulton 8:25Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 8:25... I have currently either worked in and/or supervised, um, in, with the exception of the 311 customer service call center. So-

Tim Fulton 8:33Well, and that wasn't around, 'cause you spent some time at the county after the city, right?

Carla Williams Scott 8:37I did. I spent some time at the county. 311's been around, but it was just kinda getting started-

Tim Fulton 8:42Okay

Carla Williams Scott 8:42... when I was here before. And so it started out, um, I don't know if you remember the former, it was the Mayor's Action Center, and there was, like, kind of a, a hotline for people, you know, residents to call if they had issues or concerns.

Tim Fulton 8:55Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 8:55And so the 311 customer service call center is an outgrowth of the former-

Tim Fulton 9:01Right

Carla Williams Scott 9:01... Mayor's Action Center. And so it started out really kind of focusing on trash pickup, potholes, my streetlights are out.

Tim Fulton 9:09Right.

Carla Williams Scott 9:09Those kinds of things, which then made sense for it to be housed in public service-

Tim Fulton 9:13Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 9:13... which then is the, um, the department that, you know, does refuse pickup, street repair, and those kinds of things. But over time, as people, um, find out about 311, it has grown, and so we get all kinds of calls in, not just related to city services, but other city issues and concerns.

Tim Fulton 9:34Well, let's delve into that a little bit. What are the other things that people can do with 311?

Carla Williams Scott 9:39Um, just for example, I mean, um, fairly recently, um, in the last, um, 10 days or so-

Tim Fulton 9:46Okay

Carla Williams Scott 9:46... we've gotten a lot of calls, um, in relation to the president's executive orders and then the city's, um, executive order that, uh, Mayor Ginther signed.

Tim Fulton 9:57Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 9:58And so, you know, people call in and/or email, a lot of it. So with 311, you can either call and talk to an operator or you can, um, go online-

Tim Fulton 10:08Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 10:08... and send your comments in. And so we've received a lot of comments around the executive order, what is the city's stance on, um, supporting or working with immigrants and, um, and refugees, and so those kinds of things. Those are some of the things that can come through 311. Give you an example. Last summer, right after I started, I'd been in my job for maybe about a month.

Tim Fulton 10:32Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 10:32And there was, I don't know if you remember, there was a huge warehouse fire out on the west, west side of Columbus.

Tim Fulton 10:37Yes.

Carla Williams Scott 10:38And housed in that warehouse were a lot of, um, hams that were to go to different-

Tim Fulton 10:44Yes

Carla Williams Scott 10:44... I guess, stores or whatnot. Well, when the warehouse caught on fire, they lost their refrigeration, which then, and it-

Tim Fulton 10:49It smelled a little bit over there.

Carla Williams Scott 10:50It, it smelled quite a bit. And so it, it all happened right down the time when we had several 90-degree days.

Tim Fulton 10:57Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 10:57And so, you know, we were getting emails at 311 like, "Oh, my gosh, what's that, what's that odor on the west side?"

Tim Fulton 11:04Right.

Carla Williams Scott 11:04And so those kinds of things come in, and then we, that gives us an opportunity to prepare communication to, um, outreach to residents so that we can respond to them.

Tim Fulton 11:15Well, and so for something like that, though, you guys can't really solve the smell. Right. You can certainly direct refuse services to act quicker, put more resources, but that's much more a, "Hey, guys, yes, we're, you know, we're aware that there's a terrible smell-

Carla Williams Scott 11:30Right

Tim Fulton 11:30... and we are doing our best to solve it."

Carla Williams Scott 11:32Right. We couldn't solve the smell, but what we can do is provide updates-

Tim Fulton 11:36Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 11:36... to residents. And so there were a lot of things involved in that cleanup. There were some code enforcement issues.

Tim Fulton 11:42Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 11:43There were, you know, getting things to the landfill and being able, the company being able to get things to the landfill.

Tim Fulton 11:49Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 11:49So our city workers were able to kinda serve as that bridge to kinda help speed the process up, and then we were able to give updates when residents did call in, and we can say, "We understand. We are aware of what's going on."

Tim Fulton 12:03Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 12:03"Here's how we're working with the company to get that cleaned up."

Tim Fulton 12:06And certainly not a, "Please stop calling," but you, you-

Carla Williams Scott 12:09Oh, never. No, never

Tim Fulton 12:10... but you do wanna make sure that, you know, if you're hearing a concern over and over, you wanna make sure you address it at least from a communication standpoint.

Carla Williams Scott 12:17Exactly.

Tim Fulton 12:18Now, I wanna go back a little bit to something you said about, you know, people are calling into 311 in regards to Mayor Ginther's executive order in regards to Donald Trump's, uh, refugee and, uh, please do not email me, Muslim ban. So the website says that you guys are the gateway to government services.

Carla Williams Scott 12:38Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 12:39Do you view 311 and other methods that people are able to get ahold of the city, is it also the gateway to government? Because that to me seems like something that somebody would call city hall, somebody would call a council member, call the mayor's office. But do you think that people see 311 as their gateway to those elected officials, and should they?

Carla Williams Scott 13:00Um, I think, um, they should on... So first of all, in city government you have two sides-

Tim Fulton 13:06Okay

Carla Williams Scott 13:06... administration and council.

Tim Fulton 13:07Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 13:08And so while 311 services all of the city, it's housed in a department on the administration side.

Tim Fulton 13:14Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 13:15And so if people want to... So we do get calls, um, some of the emails that come in to 311 will say, "Dear Mayor Ginther,"

Tim Fulton 13:22Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 13:22... and it's their way to reach to the mayor.

Tim Fulton 13:24Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 13:24If you've, if you think about it, the mayor's office has one receptionist and a scheduler and a couple of other people-

Tim Fulton 13:31Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 13:31... that are taking phone calls.

Tim Fulton 13:32Right.

Carla Williams Scott 13:33The 311 call center has 20 some odd people that are taking phone calls and responding to the emails. And so we do view that as the gateway into government, and calling... I mean, certainly if someone sends something in to 311, we forward it to the mayor's office through the communication chain and try to respond appropriately. Um, and people actually do call their council members.

Tim Fulton 13:59Right.

Carla Williams Scott 13:59So they would call the council office. Very seldom, I don't think, have I seen 311 calls that come in that are responding to, that want to talk to a council member. If they do, certainly we-

Tim Fulton 14:09Dear Shannon Hardin.

Carla Williams Scott 14:10I know, right. Then we would forward it to Council Member Hardin's office. Um, but mainly it's around questions or concerns regarding the mayor, the administration-

Tim Fulton 14:20Gotcha

Carla Williams Scott 14:21... and those kinds of things.

Tim Fulton 14:22Gotcha. Great.

Carla Williams Scott 14:22Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 14:23Talk about the purpose of the Community Relations Commission.

Carla Williams Scott 14:26So the Community Relations Commission was established to bring civic leaders, business leaders, citizens, and elected officials together to focus around issues of ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity.

Tim Fulton 14:37Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 14:38The Community Relation Commission was also able to handle discrimination complaints that would come into the office or that came into the city, and it was mainly around, um, for residents. So if you felt you had been discriminated against either by your employer, by a business, um, then you could come in and file a complaint with us. If then moving forward, then it would go to the full commission for review.

Tim Fulton 15:04Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 15:04Then it could also go to w- we'd work with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. So there's Community Relations Commission and Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

Tim Fulton 15:11And that sort of depends on the level and the extreme of, of the case.

Carla Williams Scott 15:16Exactly.

Tim Fulton 15:16Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 15:17Exactly. And, you know, and whether, you know, sometimes a c- discrimination complaints would come in, and certainly not to minimize them, but sometimes once we delve through and talk to both parties-

Tim Fulton 15:30Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 15:30... it's more of a personality-

Tim Fulton 15:33Right

Carla Williams Scott 15:33... you know, um, issue-

Tim Fulton 15:35Okay

Carla Williams Scott 15:35... or a personal issue, not so much a discrimination complaint.

Tim Fulton 15:40Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 15:40Because you could certainly take any-

Tim Fulton 15:42Well, and then-

Carla Williams Scott 15:42... any disagreement and turn it around

Tim Fulton 15:45So let's, like any private business that, you know, opens its door to the public also reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. You can't do it based on racial, gender, age grounds, but sometimes, you know, there are neighborhood squabbles.

Carla Williams Scott 16:00Exactly. Sometimes there are squabbles, and with the Community Relations Commission, we, those, we focused on discrimination complaints for those protected classes.

Tim Fulton 16:08Okay. Talk about Neighborhood Pride and Neighborhood Liaison and, and what the function of that unit is.

Carla Williams Scott 16:14So Neighborhood Pride and the Neighborhood Liaison program is really a team of advocates that work out in the community.

Tim Fulton 16:21Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 16:21So we'll start with the liaisons. Like I said, mentioned, we have the Neighborhood Pride Centers. Those are actually physically located Throughout communities within the city.

Tim Fulton 16:31Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 16:31And so we want people to be able to have access to city government without having to come downtown.

Tim Fulton 16:37Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 16:38And so thus the reason for the Neighborhood Pride Centers.

Tim Fulton 16:41So what are the resources specifically available there?

Carla Williams Scott 16:44So within each Neighborhood Pride Center, you have the neighborhood liaison. There are, um, oftentimes, and this is during the course of a day.

Tim Fulton 16:52Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 16:52And so their community, um, liaison police officers will work out of the Neighborhood Pride Center.

Tim Fulton 16:59Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 16:59Um, code enforcement for that particular area or region works out of the Neighborhood Pride Center.

Tim Fulton 17:06Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 17:06And then the health department may have a social worker or a health worker that works in and out of the Pride Center as needed.

Tim Fulton 17:13Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 17:13And so that group of city services is right there. You know, if people have concerns or issues, they can go to the Pride Center and then be directed to where they need to go instead of saying, "Oh my gosh, do I need to come downtown? Do I need to go to this department or that department?" We try to help them in one spot and then get them... So say if you came to the Pride Center and you wanna, you have questions about, I don't know, vaccinations-

Tim Fulton 17:38Okay

Carla Williams Scott 17:38... from the health department, you could work with the social workers and the folks from the health department to kinda let you know what the schedules are, when you need to go, what the da- hours of operation are, that sort of thing.

Tim Fulton 17:49And sometimes direct services are available in those Pride Centers.

Carla Williams Scott 17:53Exactly, sometimes if they, if, if warranted. So in some Pride Centers, like early on, we might do something like flu shots or, you know, we might offer information. And I'm thinking back when there were a couple of outbreaks, you know-

Tim Fulton 18:06Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 18:06... when people were concerned about, you know, we would always have information there, information sessions, and you could do it within the, in the Pride Centers.

Tim Fulton 18:14Okay. And is it broken down on the map of like this Pride Center services this area, or is it basically they're located f- like a rec center, they're located for convenience, and you can sort of make a choice about where you would go?

Carla Williams Scott 18:25They're located, you can go to any Pride Center.

Tim Fulton 18:28Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 18:28But there are, um, in terms of the breakouts, that's how they service the area commissions. So if you have specific concerns or issues around where you live-

Tim Fulton 18:38Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 18:38... in a particular area, it's probably best to, you know, talk with the folks in that Pride Center who then can put you in touch with the appropriate area commission. So if I lived east, I wouldn't go to the west Pride. I could go to the west Pride Center.

Tim Fulton 18:51Right.

Carla Williams Scott 18:51But the west Pride Center doesn't work with the east area, east side area commissions and so forth.

Tim Fulton 18:56Talk to me about area commissions.

Carla Williams Scott 18:58Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 18:58They are laid out in city code as having a specific purpose. What, what does an area commission do?

Carla Williams Scott 19:03Area commissions are kinda like a, first of all, they're, we see them as kind of an arm of government.

Tim Fulton 19:08Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 19:08But they are not government.

Tim Fulton 19:10Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 19:11They're not a city office. They're not, you know, governed by city rules and guidelines. These are all volunteers.

Tim Fulton 19:19Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 19:20They're elected. They have their own bylaws and charters. It's almost like being its own little agency without being a nonprofit or, or whatnot.

Tim Fulton 19:29Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 19:29They do get some funding from the city. So, um, each year we fund area commissions. I think it's approximately about $2,500. And that's for things to help with like postage and getting information out. Um, some use it for website design and maintenance.

Tim Fulton 19:45Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 19:45Um, those kinds of things. The area commissions really are the ears and eyes and boots on the ground in their community and kinda that liaison, that contact to City Hall. I think one of the most powerful things that the area commissions can do, and most of them do very well-

Tim Fulton 20:04Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 20:04... is, um, have a zoning committee.

Tim Fulton 20:07Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 20:07And what zoning does is help to determine how, what your community looks like.

Tim Fulton 20:13Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 20:14Determine what your co- you know, how your community is zoned. Um, when bus- when new businesses wanna come to the community, if there's a z- if they require a zoning variance, they have to go before the area commission.

Tim Fulton 20:25Okay. And that's new businesses, new developers that may be putting in residential.

Carla Williams Scott 20:29Everything.

Tim Fulton 20:30I remember just passively a planner bringing up, they were looking at plans for Wyland Park, and developers would bring in these apartment buildings with entrances on both sides, and I think it was the area commission who said to them, "We have porches here. That's important to us." And that's, you know, they recognized very specifically what defined their neighborhood.

Carla Williams Scott 20:50Exactly. And that's, that's one of the m- the key roles of the area commission is to help developers, to help business owners that, you know, that wanna come in to define what that neighborhood is. I mean, we want to spur development and economic development and growth, but we also want to make sure that, especially in s- in some cases, these individuals are not from the, from the area.

Tim Fulton 21:14Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 21:15And so we want them to understand, you're coming into a neighborhood even though you're, you know, what you're doing, you're bringing in something great, new housing, new jobs, but we want you to hear from us what our community is like, what our neighborhood is like, and what we value as residents. And so that, that's a great example.

Tim Fulton 21:35And so are the area commissions empowered to sort of stop things from happening? 'Cause they are, from my understanding, basically providing advice and consent to council, basically saying, "Yes, you should give this variance," or something like that, right?

Carla Williams Scott 21:50That's it exactly. Um, in terms of actually stopping, probably not.

Tim Fulton 21:55Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 21:55But their decisions can weigh heavy in on council. Council will ultimately vote yay or nay-

Tim Fulton 22:02Okay

Carla Williams Scott 22:02... excuse me, on those kinds of things. But their input can weigh heavy into what council, you know, how they, you know, which way they probably go because they want to make sure that they're being also responsive to the residents. And so-

Tim Fulton 22:18Well, and especially more now, right? Because there is an administration that is so focused on neighborhoods that they want to be sure that they're listening to those voices.

Carla Williams Scott 22:26Exactly. Exactly. And you know, I mean, and this is kind of a, a made-up example, but say if it's a, you know, a totally residential area, and there happens to be a huge plot of land.

Tim Fulton 22:38Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 22:38And a developer says, "You know, hey, I'd real- I'd like to come in and put a gas station and car wash right there because I think these residents really could use a gas station and car wash."

Tim Fulton 22:48Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 22:50They'd have to get probably, probably a zoning variance-

Tim Fulton 22:53Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 22:53... because if that plot of land isn't, isn't zoned for, um, for that particular type of business.

Tim Fulton 22:58Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 22:58Then they'd have to come to the neighborhood. And while the developer can say, "I think that's a great idea, and this is what you guys really need," neighborhood's like, "Yeah, not so much." You know?

Tim Fulton 23:07"Why don't you look around the corner?"

Carla Williams Scott 23:08Right. "We don't really want a, a gas station and car wash here, but this is what we would like to see. So if you're in, you know, in the business of doing X, Y, and Z..." And so those kinds of things, um, I think, uh, provide area commissions the zoning piece-

Tim Fulton 23:26Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 23:26... is very, is key.

Tim Fulton 23:27Now, why wouldn't a commission have a zoning committee? What, what are-

Carla Williams Scott 23:30They do. They have a zoning committee, so-

Tim Fulton 23:32All of them do

Carla Williams Scott 23:32... most all of them do.

Tim Fulton 23:34Oh, okay.

Carla Williams Scott 23:34And there's a zoning chair.

Tim Fulton 23:35Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 23:36And so they're usually, I mean, and again, like I said, they have their own bylaws and structure.

Tim Fulton 23:40Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 23:40There's usually a chair, vice chair, and then they have various committees, zoning. There may be, I don't know, communications, you know, just all kinds of different committees. But, but the zoning is what really kinda... And that, and it might be tied into a development committee.

Tim Fulton 23:56Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 23:57So a development committee would actually work with developers that are coming p- to a particular area, because not all new development requires a zoning variance.

Tim Fulton 24:05Right.

Carla Williams Scott 24:06But you still-

Tim Fulton 24:06Some of it's already a commercial area.

Carla Williams Scott 24:08Exactly. And in most cases, um, developers will still present before the area commission because they wanna make sure that they have community buy-in if they're coming in, just like e- the example you used in Weinland Park.

Tim Fulton 24:21Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 24:21While the developer's coming in and they're putting up this new, new housing and kind of, you know, spurring growth in the, in the neighborhood, that's a great idea, but they don't wanna come in, and if the, all the houses in the neighborhood are made, are shaped like circles, they don't wanna come in and build rectang, you know-

Tim Fulton 24:38Right

Carla Williams Scott 24:38... rectangle houses.

Tim Fulton 24:39Right.

Carla Williams Scott 24:39Just, you know.

Tim Fulton 24:40Absolutely.

Carla Williams Scott 24:40Simple example, but

Tim Fulton 24:42Yeah. No, it's fitting. And not all areas of the city are covered by area commissions, but you guys very prominently, up on the Department of Neighborhoods website link to here's how this gets started if you were interested in doing that.

Carla Williams Scott 24:56Exactly. And we have a couple. Um, we have a new area commission that's going through the process now. I believe they're far west.

Tim Fulton 25:04Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 25:04And so you're, you're right, Jim. Not all areas are c- are covered by an area commission, but then, so there's area commissions-

Tim Fulton 25:12Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 25:12... then there are civic associations-

Tim Fulton 25:14Okay

Carla Williams Scott 25:14... and block watches-

Tim Fulton 25:15Okay

Carla Williams Scott 25:15... that go down. So if y- some area may not be covered by a area commission, but they have a very active civic association.

Tim Fulton 25:22Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 25:22And a civic association is a much smaller area. Usually, if there's an area that is covered by an area commission, the civic association has representatives on the area commission.

Tim Fulton 25:34Yes, and-

Carla Williams Scott 25:34So there's that complete tie-in.

Tim Fulton 25:36Yes. For those of, that have listened to the Confluence Cast, when we had our episode on the Hilltop, we were talking to representatives from the Westgate Homeowners Civic Association.

Carla Williams Scott 25:46Exactly.

Tim Fulton 25:47Now, there are a couple of area commissions that are area commissions by name, but they also sort of are empowered differently. I'm s- thinking specifically about the Victorian Village Commission, the Downtown Commission, and then the Italian Village Commission. What's, what's the difference there?

Carla Williams Scott 26:03They are mainly focused around development issues.

Tim Fulton 26:06Okay. Specifically.

Carla Williams Scott 26:08Mainly-

Tim Fulton 26:08Okay

Carla Williams Scott 26:09... development issues. And so when development was spurring in those particular areas, they have their own commission that kind of focuses on development. The difference between an area commission and, um, and, say, like a, a, a Victorian Village Commission or an Italian Village Commission-

Tim Fulton 26:27Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 26:27... is they're, they don't do a whole lot of work with the block watches and civic associations. They're just-

Tim Fulton 26:33They're not talking with their, you know, police liaison. They're not dealing with public safety. They're not dealing with-

Carla Williams Scott 26:39For the most part.

Tim Fulton 26:40Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 26:40For the most part, no. For the most part, they're focused on development.

Tim Fulton 26:43Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 26:44Development and zoning, I guess.

Tim Fulton 26:45Gotcha. Talk to us about the Neighborhood Pride program.

Carla Williams Scott 26:48So Neighborhood Pride is part, was also housed in development with the, um, neighborhood liaison program.

Tim Fulton 26:54Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 26:54And what Neighborhood Pride is, it's a, it is, to me, one of the best tools that we have to get out into the community. So we talk about the Department of Neighborhood kind of being that liaison between city government and the, and the neighborhoods.

Tim Fulton 27:08Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 27:08Neighborhood Pride is what I say was, is when, it's a program where we go out into the communities, um, and for one week, we, and I use the term we in a good way, bum rush the community with-

Tim Fulton 27:20Okay

Carla Williams Scott 27:20... city services. So we'll have friendly reminders of code enforcement. We'll have service in, fixing potholes, painting fire hydrants. We'll have, uh, forestry in, cutting back trees.

Tim Fulton 27:31Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 27:32Uh, we'll have refuse doing bulk pickup. So it's kinda like, um, community beautification on steroids.

Tim Fulton 27:40But every, e- everything all at the same time.

Carla Williams Scott 27:42Right, all in one week. And so that's part of the program. And, um, it's, we're housed, we're out there for an entire week. There's a lot of interaction between the city and the residents. Uh, we have a bicycle safety program for kids. We'll have one night, um, where, uh, police and, um, fire may come in and talk about community safety.

Tim Fulton 28:06Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 28:07So there are all kinds of different things. And it's, uh, neighborhoods have to apply to be in the Neighborhood Pride program. It's really, it's community driven.

Tim Fulton 28:15Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 28:15And so that's why it's an application process, because there's a lot of work on the residents to go out and communicate what's going on during Pride Week-

Tim Fulton 28:25Okay

Carla Williams Scott 28:26... uh, to their, you know, re- to their neighbors.

Tim Fulton 28:29Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 28:29We, during Neighborhood Pride, we select a location where we are housed there for the entire week. Usually, a lot of times, it, it'll be in maybe a church.

Tim Fulton 28:38Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 28:38That, a church in the community that will allow us to use their community hall or church basement, and we set up, and we are there for the entire week. It-

Tim Fulton 28:46And so are you depending on residents to, like, come in and grab garbage bags and come in and h- they're not painting, uh-

Carla Williams Scott 28:52No, no, no.

Tim Fulton 28:53Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 28:53They're not doing that. City services are coming out.

Tim Fulton 28:55Oh, okay.

Carla Williams Scott 28:55But during that week in where we're housed, say, for example, in the community hall of a church in that community-

Tim Fulton 29:01Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 29:02Each department, each city department has a table there. So aside, you can go in, aside from, um, you know, having access to the Neighborhood Pride centers, this church could be like two doors down from you.

Tim Fulton 29:14Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 29:15And you come in that entire week and there are city, there are city representatives there all week long. One of the other neat things is every day there is a neighborhood, there's a lunch-

Tim Fulton 29:27Okay

Carla Williams Scott 29:28... for the community. And so our staff work to get that donated through, um, we call them pride partners-

Tim Fulton 29:35Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 29:35... which are businesses in the community. So restaurants in the community, other churches in the community.

Tim Fulton 29:41Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 29:41Some people, sometimes it's a big community potluck and people are bring, bringing things in.

Tim Fulton 29:45Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 29:46And then it culminates on that Friday. Well, let me start back, go, go back a little bit.

Tim Fulton 29:51Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 29:51So on Thursday evening, we call it community pr- community night.

Tim Fulton 29:54Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 29:55And that's when the mayor comes out to that community. Residents come and they can ask all kinds of questions. Um, a lot of times, you know, people are us- taking that as an opportunity to get their voices heard.

Tim Fulton 30:06Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 30:07So sometimes there, there are complaints.

Tim Fulton 30:09Right.

Carla Williams Scott 30:09But a lot of times there are, you know, there are questions, you know, like, "Well, you know, we, we've been trying to get sidewalks in, in our neighborhood. Are we on the list to get sidewalks?" So, and all of the department directors are there that night.

Tim Fulton 30:23To be able to address it as well.

Carla Williams Scott 30:24To be able to address it.

Tim Fulton 30:24'Cause the mayor does... It would be amazing if we had a mayor who was able to say, "Yes, your block is getting-"

Carla Williams Scott 30:29Your block is scheduled for sidewalks on September 3rd, 2021.

Tim Fulton 30:33Right.

Carla Williams Scott 30:34I don't, I don't think he...

Tim Fulton 30:35But-

Carla Williams Scott 30:35Although I think he's really smart and really good, I don't think he has that schedule in his head.

Tim Fulton 30:40I hope it's not that granular and a little bit bigger picture.

Carla Williams Scott 30:44Exactly.

Tim Fulton 30:44Uh-

Carla Williams Scott 30:44Exactly

Tim Fulton 30:44... but that's great that they're able to sort of say, you know, "Thank- first of all, thank you so much for all the work that's been done this week," but also say, "Okay, well, here are the, the new things that-

Carla Williams Scott 30:54Right

Tim Fulton 30:54... that are gonna happen." And I'd be interested to see now that we're a year in to the new administration, sort of how that impacts things going forward and, like, what, you know, he's hearing there.

Carla Williams Scott 31:07Mm-hmm. And that's what we're gonna use to kind of revamp Neighborhood Pride, and we call it Neighborhood Pride 2.0.

Tim Fulton 31:12Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 31:12'Cause the program's been around for a while, and so we wanna kind of put a new spin on it now that we actually have a department that is focused on neighborhoods.

Tim Fulton 31:21Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 31:22What can we do new or different-

Tim Fulton 31:25Or additional

Carla Williams Scott 31:27... with neighborh- or additional.

Tim Fulton 31:27Right.

Carla Williams Scott 31:28Exactly. Exactly. And that's why it, um, there's an application process and, um, neighborhoods, the residents have to be committed, so it has to be sponsored either by an area commission, a block watch, or a civic association.

Tim Fulton 31:41Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 31:41Because there's a lot of community involvement in putting on the Neighborhood Pride.

Tim Fulton 31:44And are they, in that application, are they addressing specific concerns of the neighborhood? Or is it just, "Hey, we want you to come out"?

Carla Williams Scott 31:51Mm-mm. They're ex- they're addressing specific concerns of why they think they would qualify as a good pride program. So one of the other services that w- that comes in during that week is our, um, housing department.

Tim Fulton 32:03Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 32:03They have folks that come in and work with, um, and a lot of times it's, um, older residents that may need their houses painted, may need things fixed up. How do they do that? How do, do, do they know where to go? And so we can provide them with that information that, you know, here's what the city can do to help. If not the city, these agencies or organizations can help, or you can get low or no interest loans to help fix up, you know, things at your home. And so, um-

Tim Fulton 32:32Pointing them to resources.

Carla Williams Scott 32:33Exactly.

Tim Fulton 32:34Right.

Carla Williams Scott 32:34Exactly.

Tim Fulton 32:34Talk about some of the other, in addition to Neighborhood Pride 2.0, some of the other initiatives that you're focused on right now.

Carla Williams Scott 32:42Um, so the Department of Neighborhoods also houses, um, the New Americans program. And so the New Americans program focuses on, um, making sure that we fully integrate our, um, new residents-

Tim Fulton 32:57Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 32:57... to communi- to the Columbus community. Uh, we like to say it's the Columbus way, that we're an inclusive community.

Tim Fulton 33:04Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 33:04Um, and so we also want to make sure that we have, we're able to communicate to, um, new, new folks that are coming to the community. Again, same kinds of things. Here's where city services are. Here's how we can help you. A lot of folks that come to the community, especially in terms of our refugee and immigrant community, they are very entrepreneurial.

Tim Fulton 33:25Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 33:26And so, and that's why in a lot of neighborhoods where you see folks kind of settle in, in kind of pockets-

Tim Fulton 33:33Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 33:33... you'll see a lot of, you know, businesses or stores will come up because they want, they're, they're, number one, they're entrepreneurial.

Tim Fulton 33:41Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 33:41They wanna be part of the fabric of the community that they're moving to, but they still want that taste of home.

Tim Fulton 33:47Right.

Carla Williams Scott 33:47So if I'm, you know, from, I don't know, Mexico-

Tim Fulton 33:50Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 33:51... and I'm used to eating, getting certain kinds of fruits and certain kind of vegetables-

Tim Fulton 33:55Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 33:56... I might not necessarily be able to find that in my local Kroger or Giant Eagle or Meijer-

Tim Fulton 34:00Right

Carla Williams Scott 34:00... or whatever. But if I'm, you know, if there's a local grocer who's also from the same country that I'm from and understands the kinds of foods I like to eat, and this rest- this grocer comes up, um, you know, opens up in the community, then you kind of see then people move to that community-

Tim Fulton 34:19Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 34:19... because they have access to things that kind of give them that little piece of home. But our New Americans program, we really strive to make sure that folks feel welcome and integrated into the community. So that same grocer that opens his business, we want him to, him or her, to join the area commission.

Tim Fulton 34:37Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 34:37To join the civic, to then, you know, branch out and say, "Yep, here's what I can, here's what I can contribute, and here's what I can learn from folks that are already here." So that's one of the things that our New Americans program does, I think, and does really well.

Tim Fulton 34:51What are the ways that it does it? Is it simply outreach?

Carla Williams Scott 34:54There's outreach. We have, um, two individuals on staff. Um, so we have one person that's kind of focusing on policy-

Tim Fulton 35:01Okay

Carla Williams Scott 35:01... around, um, New American programming funding that may come out.

Tim Fulton 35:05Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 35:06And then we have another pro- person that's focused on programs. And so how can we assist people? How can we assist not just our new immigrants and refugees, but how can we assist the mainstream community to, you know, kind of bridge that gap?

Tim Fulton 35:21Right.

Carla Williams Scott 35:21Um, a lot of times there may be- Um, friction when someone new comes into a community

Tim Fulton 35:27Well, and basically finding those opportunities for integration

Carla Williams Scott 35:30Exactly. Exactly. And so we do a lot of that. We do a lot of, um, inf- information and education. Um, one of the things that the group started before I got here, and we did just when I came on board last summer, was, uh, taking a tour, a neighborhood tour out on the Near East Side-

Tim Fulton 35:49Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 35:49... of some of our new, um, businesses, a lot from a lot of the, um, different African countries.

Tim Fulton 35:55Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 35:55There are barber shops and grocery stores and, you know, uh, just all kinds of businesses out there. And so how do we go out and talk to these folks? And then we ha- had folks from the area commission, and we're trying to build that bridge so that we can make that connection because we want folks to be civically engaged.

Tim Fulton 36:15Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 36:15Um, and so th- that, that to me is one of the best things we can do in the community, is, you know, kinda take folks out and learn and learn-

Tim Fulton 36:23Right

Carla Williams Scott 36:23... from each other.

Tim Fulton 36:24Well, and in the end it's all about knowing your neighbors.

Carla Williams Scott 36:26Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 36:26Right?

Carla Williams Scott 36:27Um, e- exactly. Um, also through the, that program we've also done some diversity training-

Tim Fulton 36:33Okay

Carla Williams Scott 36:33... for other, other organizations. Um, some organizations that may now have a large population of folks from a particular country, and they wanna know, you know, "We want to provide diversity training for our staff that's here. You know, how do we make sure that we are welcoming?" And then for the same, this group that's coming there, we'll provide diversity training for them-

Tim Fulton 36:57Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 36:57... so that, again, to build that bridge.

Tim Fulton 37:00What are the... It is a new department. It's not even a year at this point.

Carla Williams Scott 37:04Exactly.

Tim Fulton 37:05What are the, the challenges and the opportunities that you see at this point?

Carla Williams Scott 37:09I would say I think one of the challenges is just taking all these, um, separate areas-

Tim Fulton 37:16Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 37:16... and now combining them into one and trying to help it grow s- flow seamlessly, and not just-

Tim Fulton 37:22Just so, so that you don't have four different silos sitting under you.

Carla Williams Scott 37:25Exactly. And to help the staff to realize that.

Tim Fulton 37:28Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 37:29Because with the same, with the programming, with the departments or areas came the same s- a lot of the same em- staff.

Tim Fulton 37:35Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 37:36And so I want staff to really understand now that we're part of one department. So one of the things I did shortly after I came was to just kind of... I took a few months to, um, my, I did a 30, 60, 90-day plan.

Tim Fulton 37:49Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 37:49And so, like in the first month, I just kinda sat back and looked in to see how things were, were working. And then at that 60-day mark, I started figuring out where can we kinda make changes and do some cross-

Tim Fulton 38:03Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 38:04... cross, um, education. And then by the 90-day mark, within three months in, then I had totally set up, um, a new, um, structure for the department where I kinda moved some people around.

Tim Fulton 38:16Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 38:17Because I want folks to feel like they are now part of this larger department. You know your area really well because that's where you, the area you came from and you were always working there.

Tim Fulton 38:27Right.

Carla Williams Scott 38:27So maybe now I'm gonna pull you out of neighborhoods and I got you working with 311 to do some of that cross-training. So I think that, that started out as a challenge, but I think now we're, we're actually kinda getting that flow and people are saying, "Okay, we are the Department of Neighborhoods. We're not just Neighborhood Pride, or we're not just 311. We're the Department of Neighborhoods."

Tim Fulton 38:48Are you facilitating that at sort of an upper level of the department as well, where you have, you know, the person that's in charge of the Community Relations Commission and the person that's in charge of Neighborhood Pride, and you guys are all sort of getting together and saying, "Okay, what are you dealing with, and what's, what all is going on right now?"

Carla Williams Scott 39:04Exactly. So the, so e- you're exactly right. And we do that in our management team meetings-

Tim Fulton 39:09Okay

Carla Williams Scott 39:09... which we do every Monday. And so each of my, um, in my leadership team, each one of them is responsible for a particular area.

Tim Fulton 39:17Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 39:17And I made sure that they are not responsible for the area they had before.

Tim Fulton 39:21Smart.

Carla Williams Scott 39:21And so, um, they're really get... I mean, some of them are kind of like, "Ah, I'm not sure I wanna do that."

Tim Fulton 39:27But I was so comfortable before.

Carla Williams Scott 39:29Right.

Tim Fulton 39:29Right.

Carla Williams Scott 39:29But when I came in and I, I talked to each of my leadership team and I said, "You know, what have you been doing? And professionally, what kind of things do you want to do? What do you wanna learn? What, what opportunities do you wanna have?"

Tim Fulton 39:41Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 39:41And so I took all that into consideration when we made the, when I made those, we made those changes.

Tim Fulton 39:45Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 39:45And so far it's working out really well. Um, in terms of one of the other big things that I wanna see, I'm really focused on getting young people involved in civic engagement and the civic engagement process.

Tim Fulton 39:58Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 39:59If you look at our area commissions, the average age of an area commission member is like early 60s.

Tim Fulton 40:04Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 40:05And so nothing against our seasoned citizens. I'm not far from that.

Tim Fulton 40:10That's a good way of putting it.

Carla Williams Scott 40:12But I wanna make sure that we get our young people involved. We have young people that are moving back into areas that they grew up in.

Tim Fulton 40:20Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 40:21How do they get engaged? How do they... And, and there's a, and not only how do they get engaged, but there's a different way of thinking.

Tim Fulton 40:27Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 40:28I mean, and I look at my own kids. When I look at millennials and then I look at my husband and I-

Tim Fulton 40:33Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 40:33... we think differently and we do things differently.

Tim Fulton 40:36Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 40:36And so think about that in terms of civic engagement process or any other type of, you know, volunteer committees. You know, old school was we needed to put out a newsletter, and we needed to print that newsletter, and we need to deliver that newsletter to everybody's door.

Tim Fulton 40:55And there's an assumption that everyone reads it.

Carla Williams Scott 40:58That everyone's gonna read that newsletter.

Tim Fulton 41:00Right.

Carla Williams Scott 41:00Now it's like when you wanna get young people involved, it's like, eh, maybe not a newsletter. Let's tweet it.

Tim Fulton 41:06Right.

Carla Williams Scott 41:06Let's put it on Facebook. Let's, you know. So all kinds of different things, and so I'm really focused around how do we bridge that gap. Because af- pretty soon, those folks that are current area commissioners, they're gonna get tired of doing that.

Tim Fulton 41:20Right.

Carla Williams Scott 41:20And they need to be able-

Tim Fulton 41:21Well, and it's a lot of work.

Carla Williams Scott 41:23It truly is.

Tim Fulton 41:23Yeah.

Carla Williams Scott 41:24It truly is. And they need to be able to have someone to pass the baton to.

Tim Fulton 41:27Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 41:28And so my, one of the, the big focuses for our department is looking at everything we do with a lens of how do we bring in that next generation To be able to pass the baton. And so I think-

Tim Fulton 41:42And is it really sort of like when you're in neighborhoods sort of planting those seeds of like the person, you know, the millennial that actually does show up to the mayor on Thursday night at a neighborhood pride thing, you kind of pull them aside and you're like, "Are you aware of your area commission and what it does?"

Carla Williams Scott 41:58Exactly. That's it exactly.

Tim Fulton 42:00Okay.

Carla Williams Scott 42:00Or that m- young person that starts coming to the area commissions to talk to, I work, and that's where my neighborhood liaisons come in.

Tim Fulton 42:08Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 42:09To work with their area commission chairs and the folks on the commission say, "You know, we really wanna make sure we get this person engaged. So don't just sit them off to the side and discount their ideas."

Tim Fulton 42:19Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 42:20"Let's get them engaged because two, three years from now, you may not wanna be doing this anymore."

Tim Fulton 42:25Right.

Carla Williams Scott 42:25And if you're not grooming anybody to come and take that, you know, take that over, th-

Tim Fulton 42:30You're gonna feel guilty and stay.

Carla Williams Scott 42:32You're gonna feel guilty and then I think-

Tim Fulton 42:33And you're gonna be burned out.

Carla Williams Scott 42:34Exactly.

Tim Fulton 42:35Right.

Carla Williams Scott 42:35And then that's when you see some of that growth or stagnation-

Tim Fulton 42:40Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 42:40... I think in, in neighborhoods. And so I'm very, very focused on, on this getting young people involved, getting young people at the table. And there are a lot of different, there are some communities that are really good about that and have, and I know y- you mentioned Milo Grogan.

Tim Fulton 42:55Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 42:55They have a lot of new housing there-

Tim Fulton 42:58Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 42:59... which draws younger people. And so that's an area where we have a couple, several young people that have, are on the area commission, very vocal, very, I mean, and it's, you really start to see the difference that they make-

Tim Fulton 43:14Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 43:14... and how things, you know, how they can shape things.

Tim Fulton 43:16And they're stepping up. Yeah.

Carla Williams Scott 43:18Exactly. Exactly.

Tim Fulton 43:19Given that you worked in the Coleman administration and now you're working in the Ginther administration, those two gentlemen obviously worked very closely together given that Ginther was the president of council before. What differences do you see in the administrations? Good, bad, or indifferent?

Carla Williams Scott 43:35You know, I-

Tim Fulton 43:36They are obviously very different people.

Carla Williams Scott 43:38Very different people.

Tim Fulton 43:39Mm-hmm.

Carla Williams Scott 43:40But I, I think the focus is still the same-

Tim Fulton 43:43Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 43:44... on making Columbus the best Columbus it can be. And so that's kind, I mean, really, I mean, that's kinda what I see. I, I see, you know, two individuals that come in very different-

Tim Fulton 43:56Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 43:56... very different thinking. But-

Tim Fulton 43:58And different ways of doing things.

Carla Williams Scott 43:59Different ways of doing thing, but still focused on Columbus, focused on assembling a really good team of strong people-

Tim Fulton 44:09Mm-hmm

Carla Williams Scott 44:09... who can deliver and carry out their vision and, yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's kinda scary. They're, they're more alike than they're different.

Tim Fulton 44:19I can certainly see that.

Carla Williams Scott 44:20In terms, you know, in terms of their focus on the city.

Tim Fulton 44:22Great.

Carla Williams Scott 44:22Definitely.

Tim Fulton 44:23Well, again, thank you so much for your time today.

Carla Williams Scott 44:25You're welcome.

Tim Fulton 44:26Looking forward to talking to you again.

Carla Williams Scott 44:27Thank you.

Tim Fulton 44:36Thank you for listening to Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of The Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite department head. If you're interested in sponsoring The Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.