Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music 913-408-795-7 is how you join us. We are starting year nine of this show today. Can you believe it? Unbelievable, I can't believe it. I didn't know if I was gonna last nine days. But you know, starting year nine, here we go. We'll see how it all plays out. We're grateful for you on KCMO as well. The mayor, we are trying to line up. I hope he's not trying to drive down the Jeff City to file for office a couple of days later, something. I don't know. Maybe he's- I got up and out in a few places. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Maybe he's closing a deal for Washington Square Park. I don't know, not sure what's going on. The timeline was opening day. He's usually, I give the mayor credit. He's like clockwork, man. He is just on it. He's never late and he doesn't miss a week. We've been doing this now six years with the mayor since COVID. That's when we started doing these interviews every single week. We've obviously had him on years before that, but the weekly hits began March of 2020 and have been going every week since. And he does not miss a week, so I hope he's okay. Is he in Germany? I don't know, John. One time he was in Germany, I think. Yes, you're right. But even when he's been overseas, he's called us from overseas before. Yeah. He's only missed a couple of times and it's been pre-scheduled. So I'm a little nervous here as to what exactly is going on with the mayor of Kansas City. Calling in the insurance company, got a limb through the back window or something. I hope not. I hope not. Oh my goodness. Crap happens to the mayor too. Well, you know what? I'm actually looking back. Every Sunday night, the mayor's team sends out like a schedule for the week as a tinerary. And it says here on Thursday, April 2nd to Friday, April 3rd, Mayor Lucas will travel to Harvard University to speak on sports diplomacy. Mayor Lucas will provide insight into the diplomatic and economic impacts of major sporting events, sharing how Kansas City is leveraging the World Cup to advance international relationships and partnerships. So is he on his way to Boston right now? Is he in Boston? Here he is, the mayor of Kansas City. Good morning, sir. Where are you? Good morning. I am in Kansas City. I just told your guy two days of a non-congressional candidate and now I'm flacking. So apologies. Oh, man. Well, that's totally fine. We understand it. We're glad you're here. Yeah, so what happened this week? Everyone's saying that you took my advice. I know that's definitely how it all went down. But what really happened here? Why did you ultimately decide you're not going to run for higher office in this cycle? I think it's a few different things. One, obviously, that there is a lot going on in Kansas City. We still got stadium discussions. We've got, obviously, the World Cup. I've got a few other things that I think are worthwhile to accomplish. And you know pretty candidly that it is a lot easier to do those things when you're doing it through a prism of, I am the mayor of Kansas City here to get things done, rather than congressional candidate who has to take shots and take hits on any number of steps. So I think that's step one. I think for a lot of the things that I care about as well, you've seen me build a strong platform here locally and nationally as a mayor. So to the extent that there are fights I need to be in, I think it's frankly just a lot easier and more effective to do so as the mayor of a major American city that's getting a lot of attention right now, rather than a candidate. And I'll make this final point. You know, look, this is a challenging race. And I think that this is a sort of race that takes, frankly, probably 100% attention if you're going to knock out a Republican incumbent in a district that at least in most polling suggests that it's an R, plus at least 10 points, meaning, frankly, that it's a Republican district that requires somebody to be out every day, go to places in the district. Nevada, Levin, Harrisonville, and beyond, including the Kansas City Metro itself. And I have to look at it and see what I have time to do now. People like to me to be a mayor, and that's what I'm going to finish out doing. Well, all of those reasons make sense. There are all reasons, though, that aren't new. So what change for you? Was it just you enjoy, and I'm not saying this in a bad way, you just enjoy doing it. I think that you enjoy the day-to-day political grind and running for office. Obviously, you had amazing success at it running for mayor eight years ago, and people didn't think that you were going to be one of the front runners. And obviously, we know what happened. So was it just the drive to want to give it a shot, and then just coming back to reality? And if that's the case, who slapped you back into reality? Was it your better half or somebody else? Pete Mundo, right? That is now. I will look. I think it's this. And I love retail politics. I love talking to people. And as you know, I love getting to random, not random, but just parts of Missouri and Kansas, you know, whoever wants me to come visit, go ahead and call. I'll talk to you. I'll chop it up with anybody of any political persuasion. I think that there is a reality as to what the time would be. So yeah, it was clear before that it will take real time and all of that. I do think that for a Democratic candidate to win in this district, the Missouri Fourth, you need to have a really strong pathway to good fundraising. I think that you need to make sure that you can get out to a lot of places. You have to introduce yourself in very clear ways. And I just think that there is that real assessment of time. Why was I interested ever in the first place? I think that wasn't interesting. And I don't have it in my life, you know, past that need to be in the United States House. In fact, you know, I think being mayor frankly is a lot more impactful with the greatest respect to the United States Congress, although they're polling actually suggests many agree with me. But you know, I think that frankly, people should have to do the work for the office. I have great respect for all of our Congress people. Sam Graves, Mark Alford, Emmanuel Cleaver, obviously. But you should know Kansas City to represent Kansas City. And I think that Congressman Alford has the misfortune of having been elected in a district where he did not represent half of Kansas City. He's got liberal midtown, downtown, Lee's son at Lausat, Kansas City. And I think frankly that these people, in which I am one, need to have their voices heard. And so I see redistricting as an outrage in and of itself. I think that we need to make sure that there are strong democratic, moderate, and I think frankly, moderate Republican voices. And I think that we needed a candidate to do that. I think that I would have been a strong candidate for that. But for any number of reasons, there's some other things that I need to do as mayor of Kansas City. And I hope certainly that one of the, I think six or seven Democrats running in that race is able to pick up that mantle. Mayor Lucas is here on KCMO. So something that's gotten a lot of attention at City Hall is of course, whether or not the city is going to move forward with banning single-serve alcohol containers, shooters, minis, whatever you wanna call them, in certain parts of Kansas City that have been high crime places for a very long time. The full council is gonna vote on this next week, right? Not today, this is a next week thing. So this is, listen, you've seen the blowback this week from some of the convenience store owners. My first question is, if this passes, and it seems like from what I can tell, you're a proponent to this, tell me if that's not the case, are you opening yourself up to a legal problem by only banning this in certain neighborhoods in Kansas City? You know, there's this amazing irony that I'm hearing two different sides on these conversations. There are some, obviously there are some who say don't do it anywhere, but there are others that are saying, we don't like this because you only pick some neighborhoods. And then there are others who are saying, if it's a problem in certain neighborhoods, only address those neighborhoods. I think what the city has tried to do is come up with a really defined way in which you are addressing the problem. Instead of doing a blanket and saying everywhere, someplace that only has like one store, nobody living around it, no issues, right? And we're not throwing them in, but we are saying an intersection like 35th and prospect, and you hear it on your news updates, right? It is dealt with nuisance crime, violent crime, homicides, encampments, a lot of issues where people sit there intoxicated almost the entire day, right? Maybe it's time that we should address it. And to the question, I know there are people who say, well, Lucas, do better enforcement. This is why we're gonna stand up for our cops, right? In fact, they're the ones who have to go time and time again, sometimes doing dozens, if not hundreds of calls to the same intersection or to the same place, and they report back to us, and they do outstanding things like risk to terrain modeling, crime prevention through environmental design, where they say, look, if you have 30 drunk people sitting on a stoop every day, right? And it's some private property owner, often sometimes related to these entities themselves, that doesn't move people along, what are we supposed to do? We can write new citations. There's not anywhere for them to go, that's being addressed, but frankly, we won't have space even when you got a jail open to arrest 200 different intoxicated persons every day, nor should we. And so I think what you start to say is, how do we start to get to some of the foundational issues? How do we actually make sure that we're not seeing the same problem? And frankly, how do we get to common sense? I've talked to a lot of neighborhood associations, and we just said, we're tired of it. We are sick of this all the time, please do something. We're building a jail, we're building a $300 million mental health center, we're invested in the police, $25 million over the state mandate. This is just one other small part of how we can improve neighborhood quality of life. Okay, but then the legal side of this, are you concerned that you're gonna have a legal battle on your hands, and then you're gonna have to spend taxpayer money on fighting that? God help me if I ever become a judge, Pete, I am probably a defendant primarily as a police commissioner, and probably a hundred cases. Sure, I don't love lawsuits. I wish people wouldn't sue us as much, but we're gonna continue to try to do what we think is right for the people of Kansas City. I don't live next to a liquor store, I kinda like not living next to one. You probably don't live right next door to one. Many don't, and many don't move to such a place, and there may be a number of reasons why. You often see any number of incidents that relate to it. I don't mean to be unfair to a business, but they can be regulated like any other business can, and that is all the city largely is looking to do, and here's the craziest thing, right? There are people that are telling me they'll lose $130 million in a given area if they don't sell these many shooter bottles. That means let's say $2 a piece, you're selling 65 million of these things, I don't know, per year in Kansas City, that's wild. And if you think about the issues that arise from it, it's a really stark one. And so I think this is Kansas City neighborhoods. I mean, just think about it. If you live to block from 35th and Prospect, you are a pensioner, a lady who's lived there forever, what should we do? Nothing, they're just other called pedia again, and the cop has to show up and he says, you know, unfortunately, they can walk around, they can do all these things as these people are getting blitzed every day. Yeah, no, no. I think this is a nothing, that's why we try to address it. Listen, I understand that. And I think that, you know, to your point, these are not people who can just pick up and move. I mean, you know, there's a reason that they live in these neighborhoods. So I understand that and I'm sympathetic to that. What about though, you know, is it as simple, and I don't wanna oversimplify this stuff, none of it is simple, but is it, could it be as simple as more patrol in these areas and neighborhoods, or is the police department still too short staffed to do that to see if that makes an impact before we go ahead with an ordinance like this? I think they've been, we have regular patrols up and down prospect. I think KCPD is trying its level best. You saw this, you have seen this a number of times up and down, I mean, up and down prospect, Independence Avenue and others. There's a lot of police attention. I think after a while, they start to say, you know, if the people are gonna continue to have the same issue time and time again, is there something else we can do? Can we move, what is the, like the original problem away from that block? Are there ways to address it? Can we make sure that some guy who pan handles for an hour gets 10 bucks, and they can give himself a few shooters to get drunk, sits there all day, does it again a little more, keeps moving, right? I mean, that's the core activity we're trying to get at. I would love if every human being in Kansas City complied with what were noble lawful instructions. And if we said, please move along and don't drink here, they would. But the reality is, and this is even if we had a giant jail and arrests for everybody tomorrow, right? It's why major cities that do have all of these things still deal with these types of folks. Because if you continue to have that easy availability to the cheap liquor that they can get there, and then we see the littering and the violence that comes after that, then all we're playing is just this ongoing game of whack-a-mole where the police will be exhausted, they will be distracted from other important things that they have to do each day, and they'll be playing nannies to some people, driving them back and forth from the jail all the time. Because unfortunately, there's not a judge who's gonna sentence somebody to six months for this type of offense. Even in Olathe today, in Johnson County, where there's a sizable jail, you're not going to get that. So we need to look at, I think, what are some of the root causes. This is at least, if not a root cause, certainly a cause to the criminality that we see. For everybody, I don't know if there are many lefties who listen to your show. I understand mental health treatment and giving people job opportunities and housing. We are doing all of that too. More than you think, actually, more than you think. All right, last thing then, with the stadium opening day, I know that was a soft target for you on having some announcement. John Sherman told me this week, the owner, that, hey, we're still talking up North, we're still talking to Kansas. Where are you at right now? And how confident are you that something's gonna come to fruition sooner rather than later? You know, look, I feel great about it. Mr. Sherman has to keep his options open in the same way that, obviously, the city and every other actor negotiates as well. So it was a great opening day in Kansas City. We continue to have what I think are very active, robust discussions with all the relevant Missouri actors, certainly the state of Missouri, the city of Kansas City. I know our Jackson County executive will now be running for election. I think regardless of who is in what position in Jackson County, although I work very well with Bill LaVota and the legislature, I think that we'll be able to get something strong done. And so, you know, I am, look, I've always been bullish on the Royals, at least I've been very right on the Chiefs. I wasn't the lead negotiator, I wish I was, but, you know, that's the way it is. And so I think that we will be able to get something positive done. And I think not only that, Pete, but I think this will be done relatively soon. All right, there you go. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, we appreciate the time. Hey, you have a great weekend, everybody, we'll talk soon. You as well, that's Quentin Lucas on KCMO. Hey there, I'm Paula Pan. I help people make the smartest money decisions possible. Joe, you know what's been great about being a saver? For money to bank. And that money over the past couple of years has made a pretty good yield. Pre-pandemic, money was making zero. Now it's actually making something, but that's starting to go down, down, down. I love how we can play the fact that inflation's been really high as a positive. But if you're a saver, you know what that means? Cha-ching. Silver lining, Joe, silver lining. Afford anything, follow and listen on your favorite platform. Hi, I'm Joe Salci, I hosted the Stack In Bedlamans podcast. You know what, a lot of us get taxes wrong. Filing your taxes is basically data entry. There's been this trend of people going, oh, it's so cool to file my taxes in August. It's so awesome. Don't worry, I have an extension. It'll be fine, I'll like totally do it later. Stop, do your friggin' taxes now. That was a really good fashion voice. Did you like it? Can you do that more frequently, please? Yes, every show from now on. I'll be like that. Stack In Bedlamans, follow and listen on your favorite platform. This is In Your Average podcast. This pod is about to be crazy, I don't even know what's gonna happen. This is Full Send. It's just like a boy scrap. Join the party. We threw like a spontaneous party, out of nowhere, it was crazy. And we pulled off a crazy prank. Cranks, parties, and viral culture at its wildest. Just seeing the guys that you brought in and seeing their different personalities and stuff, it's been entertaining, dude. This could be the greatest content buildup of all time, bro. The Full Send podcast. Dude, let's get ready to rumble. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Let's do it.
