Greetings, and welcome back to ZacCast, your official podcast for local government nerdery. I'm Chad, and that's Patrick. This is the summer edition of ZacCast, uh, wherein we don't have a whole lot to talk about, so we're gonna chat for a little bit, see what we can come across. Uh, but let's just, uh, let's just kick it off here. Over to you, Pat. How's your summer been so far?

Uh, you know, so far so good. Yeah, no, no complaints here. Um, we've done a little bit more, uh, stay local traveling than we normally do.

Staycations?

Stayca- I, I wouldn't say staycations, but we, like, you know, overnighted in the state of Texas, you know, not anything crazy. So we just got off of a trip, um, took three days and went to a couple water parks. That was kind of the thing that we did. Uh, so that was the theme, I guess, water parks. So we went to Schlitterbahn. Anybody who's been there, I've been going since I was a little-

Schlitterbahn.

Yeah.

Is that your first time?

No, I've been going since I was a kid.

Okay.

Yeah, we, we would go-

Y'all had Astro... What was it? What was the, uh, AstroWorld park?

Ah.

The water park-

Ooh

... back in the day.

Ooh, Waterworld?

S- uh, s- no. Was it Waterworld?

I think it was Waterworld.

Yeah, it was Waterworld.

Waterworld.

Yeah. AstroWorld, Waterworld.

Yeah, so yeah, we would go to Waterworld, uh, but yeah, nothing like Schlitterbahn. Schlitterbahn is, you know-

No, there's nothing like Schlitterbahn.

Yeah, I, I have some, some pros and cons about my trip to Schlitterbahn. Uh, I, I will say they sent me a Qualtrics survey afterwards. Uh, I don't know if anybody's familiar with Qualtrics, but it's basically like a survey form that tells you it's only gonna take, like, two minutes, and then if you give any negative feedback, it takes you, like, 20 minutes, um, which I'm not-

So I take it you gave a little bit of negative feedback then?

I gave a lot of negative feedback-

Mm

... and we're gonna kind of get into that a little bit. Um, I, I think some of it is the fact that it's not as-

It's too hot.

It, it was not hot. It was... The weather was great because, uh, you know, sadly, the hurricane hit the Houston area, and so it was, you know, pretty... Like, there weren't showers or anything, but there was a lot of shade, right? There's a lot of shade at the old Schlitterbahn. Um, for those who've been, like, the Galveston location, uh, there's no shade at all, right? And, uh, but the one in, the one in, uh, New Braunfels-

New Braunfels

... is, you know, it's shaded. Even the, even the East park, if you're familiar with, with Schlitterbahn at all, the original Schlitterbahn's the West, and so... And just to kind of give everybody, you know, a tidbit of information here, if you go there, and it's your first time to go, you always want to do the west side of the park and the tube chutes first, right? You want to get this out of the way because the lines are horrific, uh, as they, as they get older. Just a couple, couple things there, too, that are important, like show up 30 minutes early. You can bring an ice chest. Uh, don't forget that you can't bring glass into the park. Uh, I'll tell you, that was a fiasco trying to get into the park. Uh, and yes, I was one of those people who accidentally brought glass, so I was, uh, a problem. I brought pickles, forgot pickles are in a glass container. Didn't work out too well. Um, anyway, so yeah, I mean, went to Schlitterbahn, and then we did Kalahari. So I'm gonna roll through my thoughts on both of these, and I know that your family has done Kalahari. How many times y'all done Kalahari, Chad? Can you count on-

Too many.

How, uh... Can you count on two hands?

Probably, probably three.

Oh, that's not bad. Okay. Yeah. So you did give me some sage advice for Kalahari, which was, which was nice. I appreciate that.

Don't go. What did I tell you? I don't remember.

Um, a couple people asked me what it's like, and, and I explained to them that, um, it's, it's like parent hell, but kid heaven, right? Um, the indoor park is... Look, it's, uh, I will say it's clean. The hotel's-

It's very clean.

The, the hotel's very nice. Um, I thought the crowd and the people that were there were very nice. Uh, I thought the staff was very helpful, um, and it was good, but it is hot, even the indoor park, in my opinion. It's like stuffy chlorination.

It's super stuffy hot.

Yeah, super stuffy hot, and, and I would imagine they keep it what, like... I didn't, like, take a temperature in there, but it's, I don't know, it's a balmy 82 degrees inside the indoor facility, I would guess.

Sounds about right.

And the water's not really cold, you know?

Oh, it was cold when we went a couple weeks ago.

Okay. It was not cold when we were there, mainly 'cause I guess it's heated up outside, and I think maybe they generate the water inside and outside, like, it just runs through the same system maybe. I don't know. Um, there's a private parents area. Have y'all been into that? Um-

The cove?

It's... They don't call it the cove. What, what's it called when it's, like, rocks underground, and you, like, go inside?

Oh, you're right. It's called the grotto.

The grotto, yeah.

Yeah.

Um, we went to the grotto. It's warm water. Like, it's, like, semi... It, it's, like-

And since it's adults only, you know it's not 'cause some kids are peeing in it.

That's correct. It's, like, 95 degrees. I don't know, I just felt like that was awkward. I felt like the grotto should have been cold water. Um, so yeah, I mean, the misery is screaming kids, lots and lots of people. Although it is-

The music is loud.

It is loud. It is very loud, so, like, if-

And you can't understand what the music is saying, so it's just noise.

It's, it's just noise.

Like, even if you know the song, it's hard to, like-

Yeah

... pick it out.

Only around the wave pool area. Like, you have to be, like, right next to the wave pool, where they have the screen, and they've got some speakers on the screen.

And those poor people who work the wave pool-

Oh, man. Yeah.

Especially the, the person that's standing right underneath the, uh, the speakers and the screen.

Yes.

Uh, and they, and they're never wearing earplugs.

Never.

Trust me.

Yeah.

People, wear earplugs.

I, I-

When you get to be my age, you'll wish you had.

I, I will say this, the teenage employees there, I was impressed with, so I'm, I'm impressed with the, the locals that work there, and, uh, I also think they bring quite a few people in from out of town to work there in the summer, is my guess. Um, but the staff was great, and the management of Kalahari was great. Um, it's just a money-making machine. Like, let's-

I'll tell you the worst part about Kalahari.

What's that?

To get to the indoor park, you have to walk through the game area.

Oh, it's, it's like a Vegas hotel.

Mm-hmm.

Like, it's set up just like that. I told Jennifer as soon as we walked in, I'm like, "It's like we walked in the Aria, but for kids," and-... you have to walk through areas that you have to spend money: the build-a-bear shop, the arcade-

The build-a-bear

... the-

The ice cream shop.

The ice cream shop. Like, everything has to be walked through before you get to the, the, the actual main attraction, which is the indoor water park. Um, and then in order to get back to your rooms, you have to obviously walk back through that area as well, just like Vegas. I mean, it's almost-- And, and I would tell you, like, even the breakfast buffet is set up like Vegas, right? It's a very expensive... It's, like, $29 a person, something like that, for the breakfast buffet, but it's, like, a carving station and, you know, like, homemade cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon rolls actually were really good, by the way. Um, you know, omelette stations, that type of stuff. I mean, it was, it was, it was great, but it was, like, priced like a high-end Four Seasons hotel, right? Um, and so-

And you're there, you're not gonna go anywhere else for breakfast.

No, y- you're not.

There's not much out there.

Now, we did go somewhere else... We, we did go somewhere else for dinner. Um, so-

Go to Salt Lick?

No. That-- Man, that's... No offense to my friends in Round Rock, uh, 'cause I know we do a lot with Round Rock. Um, that Salt Lick-

It's okay

... is not as good as the original, and I don't, I don't really know-

It's okay

... why that is. It's just, it's... Yeah. Um, no, we went to Perry's. As Houston kids, like, we love Perry Steakhouse, which you laugh because I think every time we've been to Austin, I've made us go to Perry's. Um, went to Perry's, had a great dinner. Everything was good. So I- y- but from a money-making standpoint, let's just give a couple of price points. So this was a... We stayed on a Monday evening, right? So you would think, like, lowest point of the week. Um, we paid, all in with taxes, we paid, like, $500 for the room, right? It's- it was, like, 359, but when you add in all the resort fee and everything else, and, um, and that hotel/motel tax, and destination tax, and all that other stuff, stuff they have, it was about $500 a night. Now, that included the waterpark tickets. It does not include, like, the zip lining and all that type of stuff, which I don't know, have y'all done that? Tomfoolery's is what they call it there. No? Um-

We've played games, but we've not done the, like, adventure park thing.

Yeah, I just, I... Looking at the adventure park, like, I just didn't really think much of it. Um, we've got some pretty cool stuff in the DFW area to do that stuff, and it's a lot cheaper. Um, so, you know, but, you know, overall, good. An alcoholic beverage for the souvenir cup, $29, right? For the non-souvenir cup-

And free refills, right?

No, not free refills. Yeah, $24 for the refill of the souvenir cup. Uh, nine- I think it was, like, $19 maybe for, like, the smaller size cup, right? Um, you know, little, little trick there, get the frozen drink, 'cause if you get anything on the rocks, like, legitimately, the cup is, like, 70% ice. So, um, you know, and I don't, I don't drink very much, but when I'm on vacation, like, around the pool, I don't know, I like a, I like a mai tai, you know? I like a cold bev. So, you know, that was good. Um, I, I loved the four-person slides, right? I think every four-person tube slide we went on was amazing, uh, the indoor slides.

Did you do the one where you are in the little, like, capsule and the floor opens up?

I did-

And you just fall.

... and it's like getting, it's getting waterboarded. I, I was, I-

Dude, I s- I almo- I feel like I almost drowned.

I almost died coming out. It's, it's wild. Jennifer did it first, and she told me, she was like: "Oh, you..." She's like: "I don't know if you should do it," you know? And she's always worried about me dying, right? So I was like: "Ah, you know, I wanna do it. I think it's really cool. I've always seen this, like, on TV, and so I wanna drop out of the bottom." And it is cool. It, like, counts down three, two, one, and then, like, the bottom drops out, right? If I could do it again, I would buy, like, one of those little nose pinchers.

Nose things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, uh, and then just hold my breath the whole time, right? Um, I o- accidentally opened my mouth, I didn't know, so, like, I don't know.

Oh, yeah.

If, if you have anything in your mouth, it's like getting a full-on floss service. Like, it's wild how much water goes in your mouth. Um, and not only that, but at least it's, like, one slide, and it's not, like, tied into everything else, so at least, you know, maybe I'm, I'm not getting, uh, you know, kids' urine in my mouth during that process. So that's all I could keep think- keeping about. Every time I went to the restroom, nobody was in the restroom. That's... I, I- ... could not stop thinking about that the whole time.

Where are these kids going to the bathroom?

Yes, exactly. Um-

Are... Hey, so are you a, uh, put your sandals back on to go into the restroom-

Yes

... or do you just-

No, I put my sandals back on.

Okay, me, too.

Yeah, I can't.

Do you do sandals in, like, a, like, a hotel shower?

I don't, yeah.

Okay.

I don't. Um, but I did, it's so nerdy here. When we went to Schlitterbahn, I did buy water shoes, because Schlitterbahn-

That's fine

... it is different. You... It's, like, lake water, and, you know, a little different. But so all that being said, um, I liked Kalahari. You just kinda have to know what you're getting into and, you know, understanding, like, what the expense is gonna be. 'Cause, man, they will... By the time you're done, 'cause they... You know, you get an armband. All your kids have the ability to charge things on the armband, right? So by the time you tab out-

Yes

... it's, it's massive, right? Um, and I did tell Jennifer, by the time we were done, I'm like, "You know, really, we could, for, like, I don't know, an extra grand, we could have done three to four days at an all-inclusive in Cabo with the kids," right? Like, it, it's a stay-and-play vacation, but you are spending money. It is-

Mm-hmm.

And, and the only thing I could think about, it's good for our clients, right? Because it is... There is a massive amount of money that's being generated in that location. Like, it's just... There's a line for everything. People are buying stuff everywhere, and, uh, it's incredible. Uh, and the management of it is incredible. So the family that put that together, 'cause I think it's still family-owned, technically, right? They have one other location. There's, like, two Kalaharis, and, I mean, they, they've done a tremendous job. And they've made it look... For what it is, it's very nice. The hotel room is very nice. The... Everything about it is, is first class, in my opinion, for a g- like, kid-friendly resort, right? Um, so that's my take on Kalahari.... What, what did I miss? Did I miss anything?

Uh, yeah, might- no, what you've missed is that you need now to go to Great Wolf Lodge.

So you've told me never to go there.

I have, but I'm telling you now you should.

Okay.

It's, it's a m- different world.

Is it a different world? Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. Um, just 'cause it's not as clean, it's more-

It's like the Chuck E. Cheese of indoor water park, hotel, resort things.

Okay.

Which I, I should actually... It's- I would actually say, let me rephrase that. It's like the Chuck E. Cheese from when we were growing up.

Oh, man. Okay.

You know, like, with the animatronic mouse that's super creepy in a band, and, like, everything's kind of dingy.

Yeah.

It's a lot more like that. Like, modern Chuck E. Cheese, and I know this 'cause we- my two youngest had their birthday parties there this year, it's not as bad. But if you can think back, like, 25, 30 years-

Yeah

... as to what Chuck E. Cheese was then, it's kinda like that.

Gotcha, gotcha. Well, I mean-

Like, main event versus old-school Chuck E. Cheese.

Yeah, you know, I think I'm past the point of, like, Chuck E. Cheese, right? My kids are a little older. I know you still got some youngins, but I, I don't know. I, I did from a standpoint, like, maybe we go to Kalahari one more time while my kids are in this age group, but, like, Mason was almost too old for it. My, my eldest is 12, right? And I'd say there were some 14- and 15-year-olds there, but you didn't see many teenagers, right? Um, there's kind of, like, an age cap there, so I think I'm almost past this indoor water park stage. I don't know. We'll see. So that being said, let's talk Schlitterbahn. So what do you remember about Schlitterbahn growing up? Like, what are your, like, fondest memories?

Um, the Bonsai Tubes-

Okay

... the, the Master Blaster was really innovative when it came out.

Yep.

S- the first uphill water park or water coaster, whatever they called it.

Yeah, still one of the greatest rides, by the way.

Um, I do remember the tram between those two parks feeling like it took forever, because what was I, like, 10, 12?

Yeah.

I think w- maybe I was probably 12 last time I went, and, you know, you just wanna, you wanna get over there, and it just felt like it took 30 minutes just sitting out there. Um, but, I mean, I always loved Schlitterbahn growing up.

So, you know, there was a-

So

... a little history in the Schlitterbahn, right? Schlitterbahn was family-owned, right, as we grew up. It was owned by a family that lived in New Braunfels and ran the park, and it was always that way, and then they opened up other parks.

Real quick.

Yep.

Just, just so our friends don't, like, pull their hair out, it's New Braunfels.

New Braunfels. How did I say it?

Only one S, New Braunfels. It's very common.

New Braunfels.

But just out of respect.

Okay, out of respect. Okay.

I, I've, I've made a commitment to myself not to interject and correct you, 'cause I don't wanna be that guy, but-

You've been that guy since grad school

... I'm gonna break that vow. I know.

Yeah.

But-

I enjoy it

... I don't, I don't mind doing it in private, but on the pod, I think it's a little bit different. I just, I don't wanna come across that way.

You didn't do it in private in grad school.

Okay.

The, the facial expression-

I'm older. I'm wiser.

I'm older and wiser now.

I'm more mellow these days.

Exactly. Uh, so a little history on it. There was a tragedy. They opened a couple of different parks, right? They opened Galveston, they opened South Padre, and then they opened one outside of Kansas City, right? And they built-

Oh, yeah, I remember this

... a huge Master Blaster, basically, like, even larger than the one, uh, that is at the original park. They built a huge Master Blaster in Kansas City, and it was not, apparently, it was not well-run, and, uh, a child-

It didn't even have a net on top of it, did it?

Didn't have a net on top of it, or maybe-

Okay

... it did have a net, and that's what got him. But anyways, a, a kid ended up getting, like, decapitated on the ride.

Mm-hmm.

And the kid happened to be a state senator's kid, uh, from that state, and so it was just a, it was a massive tragedy, and basically, what came out is, is that the management of the park and the design and everything was kind of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type stuff, and, and they really did not do a lot of testing, right? Um, and so now there's quite a bit of difference in the park when you come on. Um, you know, my old weight, I would not have been able to ride many of the rides there. My new weight, I could ride everything, which was nice. I didn't realize that beforehand. Um, but they weigh you before you get on any of those, like, high-thrill rides, right?

Mm-hmm.

Uh, which they do at Kalahari, too. I, I don't think they're really stringent on it. They didn't make people do it, but at, like, at Schlitterbahn, like, it doesn't allow them to, like, get into the s- the things without the weight being, you know, done correctly. So, so they've made a lot of changes, and because of that, they went through a bankruptcy process where they were bought out. Like, the water parks themselves were bought out. They shed the South Padre location, so there's a new operator at South Padre. Uh, still have Galveston and New Braunfels, and they, um, you know, operate those parks that are that way, and there are just some things that are different from my childhood. One of the things is how they handle the crowd side, the getting into the park, the customer service side, it's just rough, man. Like, we were there 40 minutes early before opening, and I got in one line with my ice chest, and it was like, oh, well, I get to the front of that line, and they're like, "Oh, you have to go to this ice chest line." So I had to, like, go to a back of a line to an ice chest line. There's no signage. There's no employees over there, and then frankly, we just found, like, the employees themselves, like, they're miserable. Like, you know, I'd ask an employee a question. Twice, I asked an employee a question, and I got, "Uh, I don't know. I've been here for, like, eight straight days, and I don't come to the park, so I don't really... I just work my area, and I don't know anything else." Like, that was the answer that I got, and it was just... It was, like, so anti-Disney, like, from a model standpoint. You know, it was, it, it just took some luster off of it for me, because I remember in my childhood, like, the employees and the local-... you know, it would have been Southwest, uh, Southwest Texas, Texas State now. But there were lots of college-

Mm-hmm

... students that worked there, right, growing up. Um, it's just, it was missing that warmness of just really nice, friendly, kind people, all the way down to, like, the food stand. Like, everything was so corporate and just almost sad. Like, it was- the food itself felt very, like, our mark, I'm-gonna-pay-14-bucks-for-a-hot-dog type feel. Um, I mean, I ordered a churro. I remember growing up as a kid, like, the churro and the funnel cake and all that type of stuff there, like, total fatness, Schlitterbahn was so good 'cause it was, like, made on site, real homemade.

Yeah, funnel cakes were good.

Yeah, funnel cakes were really good, and, and it's just like everything there is, like, pre-made. You know, they're, they're just doing things a lot different than they used to. And so, yes, I got the Qualtrics survey after I was all said and done, and, you know, kind of lit it up and, and really talked about, you know, th- that they're very dependent on the fact that they're a top 10 waterpark, yet their customer service is no longer a top 10 facility. Um, the rides are still there, but, like, even some of their big rides are closed. Uh, for those that have been to Schlitterbahn, um, Cliffhanger was closed. It's one of the biggest tube chutes they have in the park. It's, like, one of the big five, and it was closed. Um, they've closed off the river access, and I asked one of the managers why they no longer drop, um... You know, it's, uh, Hillside, if you recall, Hillside, the tube chute, it always dropped you in the Comal, and then you, like-

Mm-hmm

... came back in the park off of the Comal River, right? Um, and he straight up told me, he's like: "Oh, we just don't have the staffing to be able to, to drop people in the river anymore." And I'm like, "So that's like," if you watch, you know, the Travel Channel, and they're going over all the reviews, like, the top part of the review of that is it drops you in the cold Comal River, right? Um, so and they've just done things to, to simplify, and, and clearly for me, it's just trying to make more money, right, and simplify things. So they've removed river water from some of their attractions. I don't really know why that is. Um, but there's a few of the attractions that are running like normal pool water now. Um, and so it used to be like all the tube chutes were on river water, and now, you know, I'd say probably half of them aren't. Uh, so which is, you know, it's just a different experience, um, from that standpoint. And then, man, I'll tell you what, I do not mind a FastPass. I don't know what your opinion is, and anybody who doesn't go to theme parks, there's an ability to, like, pay more so that you can get ahead in line, right? Uh, it's usually like a demand pricing structure that's there. Um, what are your thoughts on this?

Um, I am very pro FastPass.

Okay. So am I, on most occasions, right? I am usually very pro FastPass. But I don't know what it is about Schlitterbahn, and I don't know what they're doing with it, but the way it's run is so poor. And, and full disclosure, we got there really early on a Sunday, so I didn't- we didn't do FastPasses, and it worked out for us for, like, the first five hours without any issue. Um, as we got to the end of the day, apparently, folks that are season ticket holders, so the, the, the cost difference between a normal ticket and a season ticket, not huge, right? Normal ticket's, like, 65 bucks to get in, and a season ticket's, like, 110. So they have, like, that Six Flags model of, you know, y- for less than two tickets, you can get a season ticket. It seems pretty crazy, though, because they, what they end up doing is, is they end up, like, selling discounted, I think, Fast Lane passes to a lot of their season ticket holders. According to somebody that was in the line, you can, like, go buy this. So normally, you would pay, like, an additional $65 for a Fast Lane pass there. So you'd pay 65 for entry, 65 for Fast Lane, and then for 130 bucks, basically, you're, you know, you get to ride each ride one time. They have another one that's more expensive, where you can ride as many times as you want. But they, it's not normally like a-- They don't manage it well. So from a front-of-the-line standpoint, you know, at, at, at Disney, it's typically, like, a one-to-one ratio, right? And then they manage how many of those Fast Lane passes or FastPasses that they serve. Or you can, like, at Disneyland, which I always loved, and it may change now, but you can, like, book an actual time to go in, which is even better. Here, they don't... There's, like, very little management. Like, they'll let five people in their Fast Lane go, and then they'll let, like, one in the primary lane go. But they limit Fast Lane sales, they say, and towards the end of the day, they, like, discount those Fast Lanes. So you would normally think, at least at Disney, it's like this, if you stay later, like, Disney usually closes, like, 9:00 pm, I can't remember, and from, like, 7:00 to 9:00 pm, it's awesome because, you know, the crowds clear out, right? Everybody goes to dinner, and you can go ride a bunch of stuff with FastPass or not FastPass. Like, you can just get a bunch of stuff in. So we figured, "Hey, we're gonna hang out all the way till closing, and we're gonna do this." What we found is, is that people, and I didn't realize this till, like, the last hour, but people were going up to customer service, and they were buying discounted Fast Lane passes, right? So instead of paying 65, they're paying 10 or 15 or 20 bucks, and at that point, our wait times escalated substantially towards the end of the day. They don't communicate any of that. And there's just a, a, they basically funnel that to people that are season ticket holders, which is interesting 'cause I know a lot of water park owners, and that seems very contrary to how you make money in the water park industry. Um, season tickets are usually a loss leader for them because, you know, if you're basically getting $15 an entry, you sell season tickets so that you can fill in the days where you normally wouldn't be so busy, and typically, season ticket holders don't buy much in merch and food either, right? So you wanna escalate your day passes. You would think that they would go after those day passes to make more money off those days, but they, they don't. They actually-... kind of set aside the folks who are paying full ticket price and allow, you know, like, an inside track to people who are season ticket holders, which really, what that means is, is, like, I'm not gonna go back, right? I mean, ultimately, I may be a once-a-year person, and I'm paying 65 a visit, and their season ticket holder may only be paying 15 or 20 a visit and going three or four times. But the reality is, is that they actually make more money off of the single-day person than they do the season ticket holder. So it's- I don't know. That was my rant on Schlitterbahn. I left that all on the Qualtrics survey, um, and even gave my, my email and phone number to call me back afterwards. Um, 'cause it was just-

Who do you think they are, Chris Del Conte?

Yeah, right. So nice, nice joke there.

He's fa- he's famously known for responding to people. He's the athletic director of the University of Texas.

That's true. How, how's that, uh... how's the baseball program doing, by the way? Just curious, did any of those Aggies transfer with Coach?

I, I don't know.

Not a-

I'm kind of busy

... single one.

Oh, my gosh!

I think that's gonna go real well for y'all.

Oh, my gosh.

It's terrible.

Yeah, yeah.

Real excited about Aggie baseball next year. Got the entire team returning, so should be a very core, good run. Cannot wait to play y'all in regular season SEC play. Cannot wait for you to experience a full SEC schedule in football. Um, question, does Sark have a job next year if he goes 500 in SEC play? That's the question.

I'll tell you what. I'm gonna earmark that question, and we can talk about it as just an absurd hypothetical-

Uh-huh

... a year from now.

A year from now, okay.

Yeah.

Awesome. So, um, yeah, so that was my, that was my overall experience on water parks. Um, and I, I really thought it was gonna be the opposite. I thought I would, like, Schlitterbahn would be awesome, and I would love it, and my kids would still say Schlitterbahn is a better water park, right, um, than Kalahari. It's amazing. There are so many rides you gotta go to. You've gotta do Schlitterbahn at least once, there's no doubt. Uh, but Kalahari was more... I don't know. Customer service just goes such a long way now. Good customer service, quality for what you p- even if you have to pay a lot for it, like, just quality.

Yeah. Well, there's probably a psychological aspect to that. I can remember the one lone really bad customer service interaction that I've ever had at a Disney park.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and it was at Disneyland. We were waiting to go meet a character, and, uh, one of the, like, cast members who was kind of waiting for the queue to open, uh, was making fun of everybody that was waiting, like, very loudly. Um, and I, like, that's the one direct encounter that I can remember-

Okay

... of all of the other ones, right? Like, everything else is pleasant, but, like, I don't really have, like, a vivid memory of it except for that one.

You know-

So I feel like if you can, like, at the very least, it's almost like, um, applying for a job, right? Your first, your first thing that you're trying to do when you apply for a job is not get weeded out immediately, right? If you can pass that bar, then you've done probably better than 80% of the people. If you can at least provide customer service to a level where someone's not going to remember it, then it won't taint your, taint your view of, of that thing, that experience.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, D- Disney typically does it right. And I, I would say Disney and Chick-fil-A, I mean, I'm oversimplifying this, but the kill them with kindness customer service model that they have, right, is huge. And, you know, if, if... It's the little things, like, they're not gonna point you there, they're gonna walk you there, right? Uh, so if you ask a question on, you know, "Hey-"

Yeah, that's true. They did that at Disneyland, and I was like, "I got... I'm okay, thank you."

Yeah, correct.

No, I'll take you there.

Yeah, yeah.

No, please. Like, I- it's okay. I'm good.

Yeah, but it's-

I see it.

Y- you know what I mean, though? Like, it's just, it's taking that just little bit of extra step to kill people with kindness. And, and cities can learn a lot in this, too. Y- you will reduce the level of heartburn you have when you can take that... W- when somebody says, "You know, I really want to see your financial transparency," and instead of, like, sending them to a website, telling them over a phone, like, "Here's the website," say, "Hey, I'll send you an email with a link to it," or, "Let me send you all those PDFs directly," or whatever that may be. Like, just that little bit of extra, right, can really help it out. Or, "Hey, what are you looking for? Are you looking for a specific vendor? And I'll send you all records of that specific vendor." Um, transparency and customer service kind of go hand in hand.

Have you ever read the book, uh, Unreasonable Hospitality?

I have. Yes, actually.

You have? Really?

I'm pretty con-

Did I send it to you?

I'm pretty confident you sent that one to me.

Okay.

Yeah, made me read it.

So yeah, so it's this guy who's a restaurateur in New York City, and, uh, uh, the first restaurant, I believe, that he took over, it was what, 11 Madison?

Okay.

Something like that, super fancy, like, Michelin-starred restaurant. And, um, he brought to it this idea of unreasonable hospitality, and one of the examples that he gives in the book is that whenever you would come into the restaurant, they would ask you if you, if you drove and what your car looked like, and they would have their maitre d's actually go out and feed the meter if you were still eating and you were about to run out of time, right?

Yeah.

Um, for a, uh, a regular that was celebrating their anniversary, they left the wine at home, and so one of the employees, this happened because they were a regular, right? Like, they wouldn't... A random person wouldn't let them do this, but they went to their apartment and got the wine and brought it back to them-

Yeah

... while they were eating, right? So they-... but the idea is that it just creates this sense of sort of loyalty, right, to the, to the company. I think there's probably a lot to be learned from that with cities as well.

I, I think, I think there's a huge amount to that. I mean, you know, our staff jokes with me. I, I go to Chipotle, like, three or four times a week, right? And when I go to my local Chipotle, I know the general manager, the assistant city- or the assistant city manager, the assistant manager. Um, you know, all the staff that's there. Um, you know, my, my general manager just had a baby, and so she was out for a little while, and they had a temporary manager come in, and he's in a band, and he, like, grabbed my cell phone and got on my Spotify and, you know, you know, basically added his band to my Spotify. And so he's in my mix now. I mean, I don't know, just, you know, they make- they take care of me, right? Like, when I come in, and they're... You know, I'm like: "Hey, I want chicken and guacamole. That's all today." They'll be like, "Yeah, maybe you wanna go steak today? 'Cause, like, the chicken's been on the line for a little bit." Like, it's just those little things that just, like, keep me going back to that specific Chipotle, and I, I think that type of stuff matters, right? Um, and it, it doesn't really have to be the fanciest restaurant in the world. It could just be, you know, just general hospitality goes a long way. And, and I tend to be... Especially with servers, because I waited tables, and I bartended through college, I tend to be a very good tipper when you provide excellent service, right? I'm always gonna be a 20%-plus person, period, even when you give me bad service because everybody has a bad day. That's kinda how I look at it. But I will be extremely grateful if you provide good service, right? Um, like the other night when we went out, my youngest got up to go to the bathroom, and the server folded his napkin at the table in kind of, like, a, a really cool way. So when he came back, he saw his napkin, and, like, that excited my kid a ton, right? Didn't have to. This wasn't the, like, the world's fanciest restaurant in the world, right? But it was just... Those little things are, I don't know, just kind, right? Um, and, and I think they go the extra mile, and I, I, I think if we could integrate some of that into our normal day lives, um, of, you know... Even, like, when a friend asks you a question like, you know, "Hey, where'd you, where'd you buy your car?" Instead of just answering back like, "Hey, I bought my car at Southwest Ford," but answering back with, "Let me connect you on a text string and connect you with my sales guy." You know, o- obviously, ask them before you do that, right? 'Cause you don't want the sales guy, like, you know, hunting them down to sell a car. But, I mean, actually going the extra mile and connecting them with somebody, you know, I, I think that is extremely important, uh, to, to do that. And I hope that we do that from a company standpoint, that our clients feel like we go the extra mile to try to solve a problem for them. Uh, to not just, like, lead them to the water, but actually, like, make sure the water's there, and it's cold, and everything with the water is good, right? I just... There's just more to that, and that's the biggest thing I noticed, you know, on these two trips that we took, uh, is just the difference between those, those things, like, from a customer service standpoint, and how much more freeing and relaxed and everything else that you can get out of a vacation, um, when somebody really cares that you're getting what you need at the end of the day. Um, and like Chick-fil-A-

In software, we call this user experience.

User experience, yes. For sure, yeah.

Which funny enough, we have a, uh, semi-dormant blog called the UX City. I'm not sure we've ever posted on it.

I think we, we've bought it, right?

It's one of those ideas that I've had for a long time.

Yeah, so... But anyways, I mean, that, 'cause-

I mean, that expe- extends to a lot of things, too, like, what's your permitting process like versus how do you handle your util- utility customers, right? It's like the actual city as an organization.

Yeah.

How is it handling user experience with what you would call customers? But it also affects, like, how do people experience your city, right? Like, when you're- when they're at a place, what is the experience they're having? One of the most interesting ideas that I've seen in a long time, as far as, like, a, a, a key performance indicator for whether it's, like, economic development or community development or whatever, is smiles per acre. Like, as you're walking through your city, how many people are actually smiling?

Does anybody measure that, or that's just like a-

How do you measure that?

I know, that's what I was gonna say.

Yeah, I, I, I bet. London could probably because they have all the CCTVs.

Oh, that's scary.

But, like, that's... We don't have that here, typically.

Can I make a British joke about British people showing their teeth? Is that terrible?

The British teeth are much better now, but go ahead.

They are much better now.

Yeah.

I'd actually read some crazy article on this, by the way-

Yeah

... that dental care in Britain has gotten better. Um, but yeah, I just thought that was a interesting, smiles on camera in London.

I think it largely has to do with immigration, but yeah, they do. It is better. So but speaking of which, we are talking about planning another London trip in the fall to, uh, to go see another Chelsea game.

Ooh!

And I have now gotten my wife, uh, narrowed down to, like, two or three places where we might move when we re- when we, like, retire, when the kids leave, and London is now on the list.

Wow!

Yeah.

Wow.

Which I never thought would happen 'cause it's cold and wet, but-

Yeah, you think she'd be okay there? I, I, I don't, I don't, I don't see that in her future. I'm sorry, Chad.

Well, the problem is that her, um, her climate requirements are so narrow-

Mm-hmm

... that there's really only, like, one or two cities in America that she would wanna move to, but ideally, she would rather move to New York. It's just too cold for her.

Right.

So-

I, I could see San Diego.

That's the other one.

Okay.

The other, the other main one.

Okay, yeah. I mean, I, I don't know if LA... The traffic in LA and the car-centric side of LA, I think would rule that out.... but San Diego's got some pretty cool spots.

My only requirement is that I want to be able to go down to one car, and I want to be able to do most things that I would do on a normal daily basis walking or biking.

Okay. I think you could get the best of both worlds if you looked at Carmel, California. You could still get a little bit of cooler weather. I mean, San Diego weather, don't get me wrong, is really nice until just, like, the heat of the summer. But, um, Carmel is, is a really cool, walkable city. I'm a big fan of Carmel, California, but, um, I'm a big fan of California in general, except for the taxes. Those are-

Oh, the taxes.

Oh, the taxes. Uh, speaking of political science, can we, can we wrap up with one quick topic that is not planned on or in the green room? It's just my political science nerd side. Are you at all fascinated by the conversation within the Democratic Party right now, whether Joe Biden is gonna run for president or not?

You really wanna go here?

I, I, I just-

Um-

Y- you know-

I do find it fascinating, if only for the historical reason, that-

So this has only happened how many times in our history? Once, right? LBJ was the only time?

Uh, L- well, LBJ backed out-

Yeah

... of the, of the race, yes.

Did he back out in-

Uh

... the primary, or did he back out before the c- it was a brokered convention, right?

It was... Yeah, it was very early in the primary season.

Okay, but they ended up having a brokered convention, right?

But he wasn't in the convention. No, I don't think so.

Oh, okay. I'm just fascinated. Like, I, I don't care if you're an R or a D, right, or if you're an I, I, I just am fascinated right now, political science mind side, to how this works. Um, and then also the campaign finance side of it, like, if he does back out, apparently he can't necessarily move the war chest of money that they've already collected to another candidate.

That is what I... Well, I- it could stay within, like, the Biden-Harris campaign, so she's the only one, w- what I have read, I'm not an expert on campaign finance at all.

Okay.

I don't really care about campaign finance all that much to become an expert in it, but from what I have read, she's the only one that could, could retain all that money.

So the, the other thing is, is from a polling standpoint, and this is coming from Democrats' mouths, right? This is coming directly from people within the Democratic Party, senators, house members, but their internal polling, a lot of them are saying, is showing that if Biden doesn't get out of the race, that they could lose not only the presidency but the House and the Senate at the same time. Because that's how bad it has gotten since he was seen in the debates, which I, I do wanna mention, you and I had the same reaction from the debate, right? Um-

I think most people had the same reaction from the debate.

I, and I, I think that's a fascinating thing is, like, this is not... I mean, just to put this in perspective, like, Donald Trump literally took a week off last week to allow the news cycle to work around this, right?

Which is heretofore unheard of.

Unheard of. Um, and, and, and I, I mean this not from, like, a taking sides perspective, I just mean this from, like, my undergrad from the Bush schools and political science, and this is just one of those things where I wish I was a student in a classroom talking to professors and other students and really talking through how historic a moment this is right now. Whether he stays in the race or he doesn't, I don't think we've ever really, truly seen something like this occur. Um, and it is, it is fascinating, and not only that, the attacks that are coming from his own party about how they've basically been propping him up at the White House. I mean, the news stories coming out from legit, you know, Washington Post, New York Times, major news organizations about, you know, the things that have been going on and the doctors that have been flowing in and those type of things into the White House, like, it just seems like, um, they've done a little bit of Franklin Roosevelt here, right? That we learned about, like, post history. I- uh, this... I don't know, man, this is a, this is a wild, uh, wild time right now. Um, and, and I don't know, I don't know what it does politically. What, what happens if he does stay in the race? I mean...

Um, well, I think it will partly depend on how he performs between now and November. I can't imagine they'll have another debate. Um, but I mean, if he stays in, at some point there's gonna be a, a coalescing, like, back to the... like, back in the wagon.

You think so?

Right.

Okay.

Well, so you have to look... I mean, at some point you have to kind of take the words that are used seriously, right? Which is the view from the left of Trump is very dire, right?

Mm-hmm.

And so if you actually believe that, you can't abandon Biden if he's not gonna leave, right? He has the delegates.

Yeah.

No one can make him leave. So if he's going to stay, you have to stick with him if that's your view. Um, so I mean, the closer and closer we get, the more a reality it will be for them that Trump could win, and I, I can't see them doing anything to, to make that more likely, right, w- when that decision is made. Now, that's a separate question from whether or not Biden right now is the best choice to beat Trump, right? And we have a month or so to, to make a, a different decision. I say we, the royal we. Um, Democrats have a, a month or so to make a different decision if they can figure out some mechanism to do it or convince Biden to leave, but once he's got the nomination, well, I don't know what choice they have.

Do we not see the irony in this just a little bit, though? Like, the irony between January 6th, which I, I'm not saying-... was a good thing. I, I'm 100% of the belief that-

We podcast on that day, and we were watching it in green room.

We were watching it.

What in the world-

Yes

... is happening right now?

And it was wrong in a thousand different ways, and there's a lot that still has to be sorted out with that, and I pin that 100% on Trump, personally, right? It should not have happened. Um, but the irony of he's basically been criticized now for three to four years on that issue, and that the Democrats themselves are trying to overturn the primary voters at this point within their own party. And I don't know if that's actually gonna happen, and obviously what you did say is different. Like, Biden has to be the one who makes the choice to get out of the race. There's no, there's no way to do anything different. Um, but man, this is, I mean, American political theater at its greatest right now. It is wild.

Well, that's, I mean, depending on how you define great, yes, I agree.

And I don't know who-

All I can tell you is that when I'm 78, if I make it to 78, I will not want to be running for president. When I'm 81, definitely not.

78 is Trump, right?

Just, yeah, just-

Okay. And Biden is 81 right now?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Precious people.

That is- as I- like, if... I hope I have the energy at that point to even get up on a debate stage, but I'm not gonna be the one getting up on the debate stage at that point.

You- you've seen, you've seen the deal on Facebook and Twitter about the signers of the Declaration of Independence and how it's, you know, it, it-

Yeah

... a lot of that information-

Britney Spears.

Yeah. It- well, a lot of it's false.

Are you talking about the memes? Well, the, so there was the-

Yes

... original meme had a bunch of people on it that didn't actually sign the declaration.

Didn't actually sign it. That's correct.

Yeah.

But-

So then people started putting, like, Justin Bieber-

Yeah

... you know, whoever else.

I, I will say, though, I, I understand that, like, the historical context of that post was wrong, but still, the signers of the Declaration of Independence were still very young, right? Like, we're-

Yeah, Jefferson was, like, 33.

Correct. So I, I, I think, like, we're splitting hairs to make people look foolish, and they are foolish for reposting something without checking it, don't get me wrong, especially when people on the post didn't actually sign-

They didn't, Patrick

... the Declaration of Independence. Yes. But at the same time, like, the general, um, like, point of the post was, is, like, our leadership used to be sig- substantially younger, and the people who were the rebels... I got a great T-shirt, by the way, that says, "It's not treason if you win." I, I, I got that for July 4th. It was amazing. Um, I think it's, like, a George Washington picture. I find it to be very interesting that we cannot find a younger generation. Uh, and I think a lot of that goes to the politics of money. I think a lot of it comes into just how much money is in politics now. Uh, it makes it very difficult for anybody to kind of come forward that's of a younger generation. Uh-

Okay, so, um, Clinton and Bush-

Mm-hmm

... are both younger than the two nominees.

Correct.

Right? Clinton was elected 32 years ago.

Mm-hmm. Bush was elected 20-

24 years ago.

Yep.

Okay. So they're both younger.

Mm-hmm.

Um-

Obama's younger, obviously.

I- obviously, yes.

Yeah.

So, like, is it money? Like, in what way is it money that's, that's, that's propping up...?

Well, well, first off, Clinton was before the change in the law. The law was changed during Bush's election, right? That's when the Supreme Court threw out the campaign finance reform.

You're talking about Citizens United?

Citizens United was during Bush, right?

That was, uh, I'm pretty sure that was '04.

Okay, but most of this has occurred-

'Cause it was a Swift Boat thing.

Correct. But most of this oc- has occurred, right, post-

The dark money.

The dark... I mean, it's really is the dark money, though. It's the PAC money. Like, things are very controlled by PACs.

So you wanna know what my solution is?

I mean, look at Texas politics. Texas politics are basically run by two billionaires at this point.

That's true.

Right? I mean, that's... How do you, how do you not? I'll call them out just like I wanna call them out. Like, I- we are not cutting this out from the podcast. Texas politics right now are controlled by two families with billions of dollars. Um, and it's wild. It's just, it's where we are right now, so it is what it is. So, yes, I think money is the, is the controlling factor, and I think it props up candidates that are more willing to get to that level, um, than others.

Well, so-

And, and, and frankly, this is a terrible economy at this point for Biden to be running on.

I think part of it, too, Patrick, is given what you have to go through to get to that point, you're already weeding out a ton of people. So like, yeah, there's 350 million people in America, and we have Trump and Biden running again, right? Surely there are better people who could be running at this point. Like, I think I'm sure everyone, for the most part, would agree to that, except for perhaps Trump and Biden.

Yes.

But there's also a, a weeding out factor because you have to wanna go through all that to have that role, to have that power. So, like, the people who are probably best suited to actually wield it are the people who are least suited to go through the process to get it.

Agreed. Agreed. I mean, it, you know, it's, uh, who was the old Speaker of the House? Who was the budget guy? Paul Ryan.

Paul Ryan.

Paul Ryan.

That guy in 2020!

But that's kind of the story of Paul Ryan.

My favorite New Girl-

Yeah

... episode, by the way.

But, I mean, really, honestly, that is, that is basically the, the story of Paul Ryan, right? Just- ... at the end of the day, it's just-

F this, I'm out of here.

Yeah, it wasn't worth it for him. Um, my, my question is, and this is where I'll leave this conversation, and then we can wrap up. My question is, when are we gonna start talking about what matters? If you listen to the, I would say, the bureaucrats who are kind of looking out for the future of our democracy and our republic-... they're talking, all talking about one thing, and that's the deficit. At some point, no matter whether you're an R or you're a D, somebody's gonna have to fix the deficit issue. We cannot continue to, to have a $2 trillion annual deficit. Like, that's gonna have to change, and right now we have so much populism in both parties that we're just trying to appease people to buy votes. Um, and we just- at some point, that's gonna- we're gonna get to a point where that's gonna go away. It's gonna have to go away.

So when do we have, when do we have a realignment where Republicans are accepting of tax increases and Democrats are accepting of budget cuts?

It's a really good question. I, I don't know when we're gonna have somebody who's-

'Cause we're in the middle of quite a big realignment as it is.

It's gonna take somebody who wants to get politically elected for one term and one term only, right? To go through and make those changes. It's gonna take somebody who doesn't care about anything other than keeping-

So how sustainable is that then?

You mean long-term how sustainable is it? I think once you can-

Like, let's say someone comes in, and they c- manage to convince... Like, someone's gonna run on the, on the platform of, "I'm gonna raise taxes and cut spending," and then somehow they're gonna get elected and bring with them majorities in both Houses so that they can actually pass, pass budget laws and tax laws and all that kind of stuff, right, which they will then sign. How sustainable is that model f- four years later?

I think it's sustainable 'cause once you pull the Band-Aid off, I don't know if anybody wants to roll that Band-Aid back. I think they may talk about it-

No, I think that works the opposite way.

You think it, it almost energizes-

I think-

... the Band-Aid rollback?

N- no, no, no. I think once you, once you create Obamacare or Social Security-

Uh-huh

... or Medicare, you're never gonna get rid of it, right? You're never gonna pull that Band-Aid off.

No, but you have to reform Social Security. You don't have a choice, or you have to raise the tax, one or the other.

I, I agree.

Yep.

But that's different from getting rid of it, right? We've added it, now it's staple, it is what it is. We're gonna keep it.

Correct.

Okay.

Let's not forget, they tarred-

But no one-

... they tarred and feathered Bush for his Social Security reforms, which look like genius now, right? You ever seen those analysis, if we actually-

I haven't

... would've adopted it?

I have not.

Yeah.

Um, so all of this, like, this doom and gloom, honestly is the reason why over the past, like, 12 years, I've almost exclusively focused my attention on local issues.

Yeah.

So you s- talk about Paul Ryan. In 2013, I think, after the election, when he went back to the House, he put his budget proposal together, and it, it, quote-unquote, "balanced in 2050."

Right.

And it was roundly dismissed as, like, draconian budget cuts, and so I was like, "Okay, well, we're never gonna balance the budget again, so I'm not gonna spend time getting freaked out about the debt and budget policies and tax policies. Like, I'm just gonna let them do what they're gonna do, and let's just focus on things that I can actually have an influence over."

Yeah, I mean, h- here's, here's my two cents on this.

I, I think to me, that's what is ultimately should happen and hopefully will happen, is that people will be like, "Eh, it's a mess. What, what can I do in my neighborhood?"

You don't think-

The amount of impact that you could have on your life and the peop- uh, the, the number of people you could actually have an impact on their life is exponentially higher by actually going out into your neighborhood and doing something than it is just bitching about all this stuff on Twitter or Facebook or anything else-

I, I agree

... or, like, pulling your hair out over it.

Yeah.

Just, like, go do something in your neighborhood and make someone's life better.

I, I agree, right.

That's why I think cities are gonna be so important a- over the next 20, 30 years.

I also would agree with that, but I will, I will say this: At some point, we're going to have to put the federal government in a box, at some point. Like, maybe that's a constitutional box, right? Maybe we need, like, a constitutional balanced budget amendment.

I know.

You just see it, the, the, the facial expression you just gave me there. How could we possibly do that?

Okay, Newt.

I don't know, but we have to do it.

It was 30 years ago.

Yeah, it was... I mean, it was a good idea 30 years ago. The funny thing is, is before Newt died, right? Or Newt's still alive, sorry.

Newt's not dead.

Yeah, sorry. I was thinking of Rush. So, uh, but before, uh, you know, before that idea, right, back then it would've been a lot easier to do that, and we would-

Yeah, 'cause we actually balanced the budget in, like, '97.

Correct. Um, so but man, I just think there's so much more we've got to do, we've got to fix. Like, the pain is gonna be felt even worse the longer we wait. It just is. Um, and-

I have an idea. We could, we could stop spending money on highways at the federal level.

Well, like a Dallas and just start getting rid of all the elevated highway structures, turning them back into city streets?

That'd be good, too.

Yeah, so as I drive through-

I-35 could handle that

... as I drive through Austin, and they're putting a double-decker on I-35 again.

Which is insane.

Yeah, so-

Here's a, here's a good question, political science nerd.

Uh-huh.

Okay, so TxDOT controls the highways, right?

Mm-hmm.

Cities have very little say in it, and a lot of times when you have that sort of, like, regional groups, right, like, they're expanding 35, and they're working with, like, the, the Central Texas Council of Governments and all those counties that are affected, quote-unquote, right? Because all the people that are commuting into Austin are from outside of Austin, right? So a- like, even though it's happening in Austin, and they have the bulk of the population in that area, and they are the ones that are directly affected by expanding the highways, the, the amount of say that they have in that decision is minuscule compared to everyone else, right?

So I would actually disagree with you on that.... and if you look at-

Okay

... what's happened on the 245, I-45 stuff in Dallas, I think-

I think 345.

345, sorry, you're right.

Okay.

I, I think one of the misnomers in that whole process is, is, is a lot of people assume, and they use that as, like, a deflection, that a city with that highway doesn't really have any authority to do anything about it. The reality is, is that you can make it very expensive and very costly, and you, you, you can lodge complaints in the environmental process because if it has-

Yeah, but Tex- Tech- TxDOT has basically its own approval authority.

Doesn't they-

Like what they did in Houston.

No, they've still been unable to do it in Houston. It hasn't gone under construction.

They... Parts of it have.

Yeah, parts of it that are in approval areas, but in the city of Houston, where they have fought it, it hasn't. And in Dallas, they had to totally change their plan on what was gonna go on. And, and Dallas actually almost had, like, a campaign to then-

They did

... go into COG and make adjustments because of it, right? And that's... You know, and then obviously COG got on board 'cause they didn't want that to happen. So, I mean, there, there is a there's a lot that can be done. I just don't think cities are... I don't think cities normally play hardball-

Yeah

... right? Because it then impacts other funding sources for you. That- I think that's the hardest part is TxDOT funding comes through COG and TxDOT, but if you play hardball, it may al- also affect funding that you get on projects that you care about, right? Um, and so there's a, there's a really hard political push-pull there, but-

Yeah. Well, the option is, "I'm gonna get some free money on a project that I care about, and I'm gonna destroy my downtown in the process."

A- agreed.

Right?

I, I, I do not disagree with you on that. Um, I just don't-

And displace hundreds and hundreds of residents and businesses and eat up super valuable land in the middle of my downtown area and take it off the tax rolls.

Correct, but you've said-

Like, w- where's the balancing act here, really?

You've sat at a table with me before where we've had conversations with, with folks, uh, in the state, where we've said, "If you choose to do that, we will just hold it up for nine years in the environmental process by making comments and continually making comments that need to be addressed." Right? I'll, I'll remind you of the Hudson Oaks project, where they wanted to turn parts of 180 into one-way roadways, right? And they wanted to eliminate an entire area, and we said, "Yeah, that would be detri- super detrimental to us." Um, and we, we played hardball on that. I mean, we did it kindly, but we basically just said, "Hey, we'll have to put an environmental impact statement together and, and send that in." And, and that... Because the federal government is involved in that process, like, it, it, it brings everything to a screeching halt. So they try to avoid that at all, at all cost, right? Um, I mean, I think there's more that can be done, but I do, I do think cities need to become... It's crazy that you've taken me this far, Chad. I think that the changes in downtown Dallas are going to have a tremendous positive impact on Dallas, right? Um, I think if Fort Worth can figure out the Mixmaster stuff in downtown and how to fix some of that stuff, it will have a tremendous impact on the redevelopment of South Rosedale and Lancaster and all of those areas as well, and they're, they're all working towards that. They're all trying to figure that out. Um, I am shocked that Austin gave in to the pressure. Out of all cities in the state of Texas, that one shocks me the most because I just don't see how it's gonna have any positive impact on traffic. I mean-

It won't.

Correct.

Meanwhile, you have I- uh, 130 that's, like, five miles to the east.

Yep.

Now it's almost always empty-

Right

... and it has a 85-mile-an-hour speed limit.

Yes. I, I-

And it's a toll road.

Correct. I, I don't, I don't understand it, but it's-

And there's nothing out there if you needed to add a lane to that, too. It's super easy.

It is. But I think cities should really focus on the redevelopment of their corridors to get away from high-speed freeway design, right?

Mm-hmm.

Um, and it's, it's why, you know, this fiasco in New York, and we're so off-topic from what we talked about in our green room, and we're just continuing down rabbit holes here. But it's, it's why the commuter fee to me in New York, which, you know, has been tabled now-

The congestion fee.

Yeah, the congestion, you know, basically external commuter deal that they had. They, they installed all these cameras, millions and millions of dollars worth of equipment, and then the governor of New York said, "Ah, we're gonna hold off on that," uh, at the last minute. It's why it's crazy to me because if you've ever driven in New York or trying to come into New York, you know what a just a catastrophe it is trying to get in there. But once you're in the city, getting around is pretty simple. It's trying to get into the s- to the community itself, into the city. Um, and it encourages people to sprawl outward, and with the remake of the work environment and everything else that we have, like, you just have better options now. You don't have to commute every day. Um, and so cities should remake themselves into livable destinations rather than commuter-friendly... Which, by the way, doesn't drive dollars for you. I mean, we're seeing that in city after city after city. I mean, I can just name... continue to name those cities off to you. Um, it, it's, it's not hard, but you're seeing vacant office space and office, uh, bankruptcies and all those different things going on right now in major markets that wouldn't occur if we didn't build this commuter system that they weren't making money on to begin with. It was costing them more money than it was to have those employees in downtown areas. So I, I just... The remake should be livability. It's just, it's, it's that simple, and that means walkable, bikeable, and somewhat movable cities that make sense. I'm not saying you can eliminate the car.... uh, but you've, you've got to rethink it. Um, and I- honestly, I think that's one of the things that impressed me the most about Omaha, is a lot of your commute in Omaha is not wrapped around freeways near as much, when I visited Omaha this l- you know, a couple weeks ago. Um, but it's still commuter-centric, don't get me wrong, but it's, it's less... I drove on a lot of city streets to get around town. You know, stroads, not freeways, but just kinda is what it is. So anyways, that was my rabbit hole. Usually we wrap it up after we go down that rabbit hole. What do you got? Are we done?

Um, sales tax came out today. Citywide sales tax down .3%-

Eee

-for the month of July.

Eee.

That's May sales.

Okay.

So the, um, last month, the comptroller commented, uh, that the increase that we saw proved that we were not actually slowing down. And then here we are again.

Yep.

So just, just FYI, um, we'll post a link to the, uh, blog post we had back in January-

Mm

... where we talked about the momentum slowing down. Um, still holds true, so good luck with your budgets as you wrap those up later this month and early next month. Actually, actually, no, you'll be proposing your budgets at the end of this month. Uh, probably not adopting them for another two, but-

And they've already-

Good speed for you.

They've already previewed June, right? Didn't they already preview that statewide June sales tax was down, did-

No, so what they do is, um, at the end of the calendar month, they, they release the statewide numbers, like the state numbers, and they'll say, like, "June sales tax was X." That number corresponds with the following month's local allocations.

Okay.

So.

Okay.

It doesn't necessarily correlate with them, 'cause there's a different tax base.

Yeah.

Um, but it does correspond to the following month.

Gotcha. So yeah, just you're, you're just full of good news, Chad.

I try to be a ray of sunshine in a dark and stormy world.

Nice. Nice.

That's my MO.

As we say to our 2 million friends in Houston, "We hope you get power back soon." So-

Yeah

... all right, well, that's it for us, guys. We hope that you enjoyed that. Uh, don't know how much of that's gonna come or how much it's gonna get cut.

Uh, we'll just- we'll keep it all in.

We'll keep it in.

Except for a couple of off-the-cuff comments.

Yes. Uh, anyways, it's great to see you at the summer edition. It's probably gonna be a few weeks before we get back, maybe a month or so. Uh, but, uh, we should be back. I think we'll probably be back in August. Um, and, uh, you know, getting back in the fold after everybody's summer's over and the kids go back to school. So Chad, until then, see you.

All right. See you, buddy.