Philadelphia Mayoral Candidate Rebecca Rhynhart talks her campaign for Mayor

Yeah, there we go with here we go, all my folks out there. So we talked weeklies after the talk on w p P MLP Philadelphia one on six point five. When we talked weeklies after the talk with your boy Charles Gregory and a beautiful Lawrence is yeah you sound good. There we go give enough yeah, everybody there you go about Lawrence's on the boarding. Um and so we haven't even been copying off me. We got on blue today shout out to shout out the blue. Yeah, yeah, yeah, go blue Blue. My brothers, my brothers. I think you guys are already know. I'm part of a fraternity fraternity, uh foundation or organization called five Baby Signal Fraternity Incorporated, one the biggest black organizations, uh Greek organiza, black Greek letter organizations in the country. Well, the Divine Nine, the Divine Nine. I like to say that they're all our brothers. We got Alpha Pi Alpha right a fire there in my homies right there, We got Kappa, got the Kappas out there, shout out the kid, you know. Then we got the Q shot woo okay. Then we got the ques out there and shout out to my brothers. My uncle is a Q. My cousin is a Kappa, my man is Alpha. Um, what's the other ones out there? I got my Uh, can't you name all the ones that I can remember? I feel bad because I always forget them. They never get recognized like the way they supposed But just know, I know I love y'all right, Um, But we talked weeklies after the talking WPPMO P Philadelphia one or six point five film, we got a dynamic show for you today, ladies and gentlemen. We're gonna we have another mayoral candidate, to which I'm excited to have because, UH, we will be able to talk a little bit about how they will support the community. You know, they are at this point running uh in a leadership position since this will be I can't remember is it the hundredth year or the hundredth mayor mayor? Right? And so we are, UH in a time where we are selecting something that's pivotal, right. You know, we're talking about the hundredth right, hundred that's a lot of folks, that's a lot of mayors that you know came through. And then Philadelphia is known for being so historic as it relates to the political the political spectrum this political scope and so that's a big deal. Yeah, And I think right now, UM, it's just it's it's a huge job for whoever to like, whoever is stepping into the ring right UM in twenty twenty three, uh, to take on Philadelphia. You're they're essentially taking on like the weight of the world. You could kind of compare it to Uh, I'm trying to think like you know, when UM Obama stepped in after h after um Bush's mess, you know what I mean. Yeah, it's just kind of like that. And and it's so much that that they have to take on. You got gun violence and you know, some of the top issues that are affecting UM that people the Philadelphians UM are concerned about. And right now, for me, I just feel like everyone that's running needs to tap into black and brown communities and and what are our issues, UM, and those need to be you know, at the at the forefront of your plans one day one yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so if you have any questions, I mean, feel free to write in the chat. I mean, we're gonna allow this to go live in our chats, and if you have a person question, feel free to ask any question that you had as it relates to what you would like to see in the mayor in our next mayor. What do you think this mayor that we have is lacking? What do you think that the current mayor needs to focus on? You know, we there was a pull and I always get this statistic wrong. Is it? Sixty sixty five percent of the people believe that all of the mayoral candidates don't have it. They don't know what the people actually need, and so we want to make sure that they don't miss the mark. We want to make sure that and so we just want to make sure that you guys message the message that you had for the community that you represent. I think I was telling you I went on a block camp. I went on a block captain. It was like a how can I put it, like a a leadership lecture, kind of like a vent type of thing that the city had. I think I know what you're talking about. Um, it's some type of program that they had for preparing people to be block captains. Right, It's like a training and stuff that you go through. Yeah, I know. And so I had the opportunity to go there and I spoke to it. I've never been there before. And it was eye opening because I did. First of all, I didn't realize how many block captains there were. It looked like they were played out because I never see what I saw block captains doing back in the day when I was younger. It was like I just they would be out, they would be interacting with people, they would be planning stuff for your block. They were they were playing the street cleanings and all that. When you got up, everybody had to move their car and you swept the street. And I don't see that anymore. I see a couple of soldiers still holding it down, like absolutely like getting out sweeping, you know, just their front or whatever. But I saw that like the other day and I was just like, wow, I just really don't see that anymore like I used to. It's a shame. Yeah, it's definitely a shame. And you know, we want to make sure that you know, all of the block captains, all the block captains are heard also, right, we want to make sure that everybody within the context of supporting Philadelphia, the people who One thing that they said was that block captain. It was this lady. She said her mother was ninety four, I think, and she was sixty and she said she's second generation block captain. She said her mother on her block is still the block captter. And it blew my mind. It blew my mind because it said that, Um, it said that that that's the most thankless, the most thankless job that there is. They don't even get recognized for being a block captain in a way that they should. And so I think that we need to make sure that our citizens, everyone is acknowledged for the work that they do. We need to make sure that the city of Philadelphia is, you know, taking care of off. I think a lot of the issues that we have are overlooked by way of the so called talking points that people throughout there. So all of the other issues kind of get looked over, you know, it's like, come on, what are you doing? So it's just one of those things. And so we just want to make sure that the people are heard. But you know, before we get into that, because we have someone with whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for it that's coming on to talk to us today. UM, but let's let's go into how would you think how about your day since? Let me, um, I had I had a pretty decent day. UM, I just want to shout the less the Lymphest out for the Consolation Leadership News Initiative that I am a cohort member UM. Each year they have this and it's too pretty much groom and train UM people in the newsroom to be leaders in the newsroom. So we've been going strong for a couple of months. UM. We're actually going to be finishing up next month and having a graduation or some type of commencement. But yeah, I just want to shout out the Lympst you know, you know, the rt Earl dear to my heart for sure. Yeah, why don't you, Yeah, why don't you tell everyone you know pretty much about every voice, every vote and the initiative that we're in right now, you know, trying to do our due diligence and service for the community. UM. So we did have Sean Mooring from the Lymphest Command weeks ago and he talked about every every voice, every vote, and UM the idea behind it. I think you know, they were aware that Philadelphia was coming up to love and amid the crisis that's going on in Philadelphia with crime, gun violence and all that, so they wanted to UM create this coalition with UM news organizations. Uh, let me see who's all in it? News organizations, Um, it's UM. I think community organizations, community advocacy groups, and just the whole bunch of people. I think the they're up to like seventy three or seventy five people in it because it just became so huge. But what they wanted to do was, UM, I guess, just pretty much make the focus of electing the next mayor on the people and what are what are the people of Philadelphia, the Philadelphians, what are their desires for the city and what they want to see the next mayor chief Because I think a lot of times when you're going through electing an official or you know, whomever, whether it be the presidential election or the other mayoral elections and so on so forth, I think what the people want and need a lot oftentime gets you know, not included so much in the picture and the decision making, and like so they wanted to bring together, create this coalition, to have all of us come together and just to UM create forums, get out information to people about voting, registering to vote, UH, and UM all the you know, they wanted to create all these things so that um, it pretty much increases the voice of the people of Philadelphia and what they want. UM. So that's why they brought everybody together and we just realized, like, this is so much what's happening. I guess, um, after COVID, the pandemic and and you know, the increase in crime and and um inflation and um uh mental health uh, you know, and increases in mental health and all that. It just was so much going on all at that point, and it really caused a lot of um cities. And this is nationwide, it's not just Philadelphia. That's you know, dealing a lot, dealing with a lot of the issues that Philadelphians are concerned about. So, m I just feel like, you know, right now, just this is just going to be a huge shot for this mayor, and I think they want to make sure that the appropriate person is elected that's going to address just all of these issues. Yeah. So I'm curious, right, UM, what is it that you would like to see from the next mayor? That's one of the questions. I don't think we ask each other what would you like to see in our next man? Yeah, that's true. I think we don't ask each other about like what do we want to see and all that, We're just kind of like, well, this is what Philadelphians want, this is what they want to see, because you know, we are the people. We you know, we are for the people. So what our you know that their best interests I'm getting ready to say it backwards our we have their best interests at heart. Yeah, that's I was trying to say. Yeah, but like, oh man, it's I'm kind of and I'm kind of feeling what Philadelphians are feeling when it comes to like what we want to see happen. And um, number one is like crime and gun violence, public safety, that's so important right now. You got people that are wanting to move out of the city period. And then also, um, you know with me being in the criminal justice sector and law enforcement as well, Um, it's it's bleeding into the other counties. It's not that things aren't happening there, but like it's definitely like you're starting to see stuff pop up here and there and all that. And yeah, not that I'm a leader, Jeff Brown, so the counties, that's not our business. I'm not. I'm not gonna say that, but like we do need to be concerned about Philadelphia. That's that's my number one priority. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, No, I feel the same way. I mean, it's not the No. We we love like our neighboring counties. We love like the Ardmores, we love like the dcent Delaware counties, we love the spring Fields, we love I know that's crazy, right, but you know, we love our neighboring counties. But they have their own mayor, you know, and I think that you know what Philadelphians are looking for in the mayor. It's someone who's gonna take true or be a true leader, you know, hold themselves accountable, right, you know, Uh, don't worry about if they're wrong, like I mean literally, you know, it's okay not to have the answers, right, you know, I don't know anyone who's perfect and has all our answers. In fact, if you are a candidate and you act as if you have all our answers, I'm a little skeptical with that because that means you can't be corrected or you can't be given guidance because you believe that you already have what it takes, or you are already believed that you know what the fix is. And so when it comes to that, I would love to know what you guys should think out there, you know, what would what do you believe is you know that that burning question? Or what do you think makes a great leader of Philadelphia? What do you believe will be the best quality for a mayor of Philadelphia. I'm really interested in that. Um. But ahead, you're something ahead? Oh no, I was just gonna say, also, um, what's also important too, and something that I was looking into now because we are officially less than thirty days away. Yeah, we're like less than thirty days away from the election. So I was looking through like, hey, who are the judges that are running for office? Who are our city council um? I guess next city council people? Who are the people that are running for a city council? Um? And there's other little uh things that are on the ballot of course, the questions like and you know, we'll we'll probably discuss this um in full detail a little later um as the election approaches. But just being aware of you know, who's on the ballot, UM, doing your research and you know, getting to know these people and what they're doing and all that, and or and what they what their plan is and what they've done um in the past as well, you know that, and then knowing those questions, um, people will ask about that like those uh, I forget the name of the questions, but the questions that they I cannot the charter rule, the rule charmer, Um, Yeah, I like to know them before I go in there. So just finding out, like what those questions are so you can understand them, because sometimes you're you're trying to get get out of there and you're putting things in or trying to figure out who am I voting for it. Then we get to the end, you have to read this chunk of information, these paragraphs Shall the rule be amended for this and any other? You're like, what what is this? Uh? This be amended? And this started to sound like Shakespeare, like no, do you know look up that stuff? Where you going? All right? No doubt? So, all right, ladies and gentlemen. I don't want you guys to go anywhere when we come back. You already know someone with whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for. We want to talk to her a little bit about, you know, being the next leader of Philadelphia. What does that mean to her, but I don't want you guys to go anywhere. We'll be right back after this, y'all. Halla, what's up, y'alls? Your girl Classic Lady Sparkle. We talk weekly and they're doing sound check in the back. We're here at the Asolute on Control ABC production. They put it on a fantastic, a fantastic event. We got flick Rid, we got a chump Rock, we got fantastic noise, we got Ducky Frash, we got Reached, DJ red Alert and the real rock Stinging Shine Tech. Listen. If you not hear, y'all, you're missing out, so please don't go anywhere. Keithing. We got a whole lot of interviews coming up. Piece what's up, Y'alltist is Doug Russian. You're watching and we talk weekly. You're listening right here as we go little like this. I'm the ABC, I'm Ashley, I'm the cn ABC, I'm Cooler and I'm bas So it's up, y'all heard it? Now? What does ABC stand for? Avenue is Beyond Control. Basically, we got the name from our initials and then we just turned it into the aame wow and tell us tonight who was here we had slick Rick, Tuggy Fresh, Roxane, Seante Rock, fantastic noise, Wow wow, and real quick because I know y'all women are busy in this. It was a lit show. Tell us what what attempted to put this together? A lot of hard work in my back is killing me. I'll second that notion. As you can see, we're not even dressed, so that just shows you we've been running all day. All right, but tell everybody, are you pleased with the outcome of what? All the smiles else, all the people who was like appreciative that y'all brought that nostalgic back tonight. Yes, yes, we definitely appreciate it. We want to do it for our city and to see that smiles on Trend Residence face is all we're doing it for. Suck suck up, suck up, suck suck suck suck up. All weeklies after the talking WPP MLP Philadelphia one on six point five film, We talked weeklies after the talk with your boy Charles Gregory and a beautiful and uh say one more game. Let make sure there go there that voice and so uh as stated, you know it's someone with whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for you know, when we talk about who will be in a leadership position the next mayor of Philadelphia, this is one hundred, one hundred man and this an important number. Not only is an important number, but Philip dust in Philadelphia man. Philadelphia has a rich history of not only your politicians, but when we talk about just culture arts, when we talk about you know, the citizens, who are you know, advocating for those who may have been marginalized. You know, when you talk about people who have you know, who work hard for the city. And there is no This is one thing that I always say about Philadelphia. There is not one city who has more die hard fans than Philadelphia. On So what I'll further do? Come on, who do we have to day? Who do we have to think? So we have Rebecca Ryan Hard. She is running for a mayor because she believes Philadelphias deserve a leader who works as hard as its people. With almost fifteen years working for the city, a decade from two different mayors and five years as the independently elected city controller, Rebecca has a proven record of creating real change for our city and a data driven approach to making city government actually work for people. Welcome to the show, Miss Rebecca ryan Hard. Thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here, really great to be here. Absolutely, thanks for coming, Thanks for coming. Yeah, absolutely, And I think you know, one of the questions I like to start with all of the candidates who comes is why are you running to be in his leadership position? Yeah? Sure, Yeah, Well I'm running for mayor because I truly love our city. I love Philadelphia, and I believe that I'm the right person to lead our city forward in this critical moment. We're facing so many challenges of gun violence, of homelessness, quality of life issues, and that's on top of the long standing challenges of lack of opportunity in our education system. I say all that, but all of these issues are fixable, and I believe that I'm the right person to do that because I know the city inside and out from my work as the city controller. I know the city's budget inside and out from being the city's budget director, and I've shown the courage to stand up to the status quo. I've gotten into quite a few political fights as the city controller, and I believe we need a strong leader right now to fix the issues to make our city work. Yeah, you have. And I remember you when you did an investigation on kind of the numbers and you you held your ground and you reported what the facts were, and I appreciate you doing that. One of the things that I get offended for you is people saying that, UM, do you think you're strong enough? Do you? No? UM? I would rather say that not only do you have it, but I think you're the most likable can you know? So what is it about you know, you being in a position to say that I'm going to be leadership but I am the most I don't want to say qualified, but I am the person to be. Why do you feel that way though? You know? I feel that way because I know how the city government works and doesn't work. I feel for the people of our city, and I've shown as city controller that I stand up for people when they don't have a voice, and I know how to operate. I've been the executive in charge of the city Controller's office. I know how to get things done as mayor. That's what we need. We need a mayor that will tackle these issues, that knows how to get it done, but also wants to change things. I mean I've called out so many issues as city controller with racial inequities in service delivery and trash pickup by neighborhood. And I've done work around gun violence and called on the mayor to do more now. But that's where my power ends it and as mayor, I can make the change happen. And I think the leader we need right now has to be ready to hit the ground running on day one. Okay, I'm ready. The next mayor needs to have the courage to stand up to status quo government and the entrenchment, and I have that, and our next mayor needs to have vision. And my vision for our city is to have a safer Philadelphia, to have a cleaner Philadelphia, you know, so that the beauty of our city truly shines through. And look, my daughters in seventh grade in the public school system. My vision is to improve the schools across all of our neighborhoods so that the youth truly have opportunity. And my vision is to have a really well run city government so that the trash is picked up, the streets are paved, you know, there's street lighting, like we can do this, and we have an amazing, amazing city we do, but we have to fix these issues. And I do feel that I'm the right per delete our city cool. So why don't we go or jump straight into what is your platform? Clearly? You know, because I think a lot of the candidates talk about like the different pool quotes in there, things that they want to jump on, but not clearly explain what their platform actually is. So why don't you tell, for you know, all of our listeners and viewers, what is your platform? Yeah? So my platform number one top priority is to make our city safer. We have to tackle the gun violence and we can. I've laid out a plan to implement in the intervention strategies that have been shown to work in other cities, basically offering a way out for the young men in the life of violence, employment and services. And what's been found is the vast majority of these young men want a way out with consequences if they don't take it, but the vast majority want that way out. And then also on the gun violence issue, all pull together, the DA and the police commissioner and say, look, we need to get on the same page, you know, we need to get on the same page with tackling and cracking down on illegal guns, and everyone right now is sort of doing their own thing, and the mayor's job is to convene and I'll pull them into the room and say, we need to figure this out. Uh. You know, the police have doubled the number of arrests for illegal carry, while the conviction rate for those cases has gone from sixty five percent to forty two percent. Now, I've talk to Da Krasner and he said, well, the police cases aren't good enough. Well, okay, so then let's all get in the same room and figure out what needs to change on that and then all the second part of my platform is fixing the schools and creating opportunity. Yeah, need to need to fix the schools and create job pathways from our poorest neighborhoods to growing industries. We have a really quick, fast growing life sciences industry in West Philly, and we need to create those job training and job pathway programs so that we actually have one economy in our city, not to not an economy that's the center city economy. And then neighborhoods that are don't have the same opportunity. We can create pathways so that people are getting trained from from the neighborhoods, into the into the good paying jobs, and that's what I want to do and that's going to be a top priority. Awesome. So you were just talking about gun violence, and I just wanted to say that when I first learned about Rebecca Reinhart, that was when I was doing a couple projects for my journalism program that I just finished up, and I had to report a lot on crime and say and I use your map in Philadelphia's gun violence. So can you talk a little bit about that, because that's one of the number one concerns with Philadelphias is gun violence and public safety. So could you talk about the Mapping Philadelphia gun Violence initiative that was started, and then just talk about what are your plans for you know, gun violence and public safety and Philadelphia. So back in twenty nineteen, I started doing work around gun violence as the city controller. And it's not the typical area of a controller. The controller is the financial watchdog. But I felt as a mom, as a resident of our city, that I needed to lean in on this because kids, kids are dying, and I felt strongly that if this were happening in predominantly white neighborhoods in our city there would be intense urgency around fixing it, and I didn't see that same urgency, and I felt that that is unacceptable and I have to do everything I can possibly do to stop this gun violence crisis. And so the mapping after I did reporting on what works in other cities, the intervention strategies, the group violence intervention, cognitive behavior therapy at street outreach, after I urged the mayor to do that, then I started a mapping tool in my office that what we did was we pulled the data from the police department, from the courts and created a live feed which tracked every homicide, every shooting, and then you can sort it by elementary school catchment, by neighborhood. You can see where the violence is occurring. And my goal with that was to keep attention on this crisis that every that you can look at the hot spot areas you can pinpoint down where the gun violence is the highest. And even where I announced my run for mayor was in the middle of a hot spot that was identified through my office is mapping, So so that is where that came from. And I kept doing more and more work around gun violence, doing everything I could possibly do. So my plans on this day. One, I would open the city's Emergency Operation Center that allows me as mayor to coordinate not just the police department response, but also the streets department. To fix street lighting, library, to put after our library programming in the neighborhood's most impacted by the violens, wreck programming, to have expanded wreck hours in those neighborhoods. We have to give teenagers and kids things to do, um and trauma treatment. The city spends a billion dollars a year on behavioral health services, but it doesn't get to the people most in need. And we need to fix that. And I'm going to fix that. So these are all of my plans around gun violence. I'm competent that we can get this down. I've committed to cutting the homicide rate in half by the end of my first term. Uh and and I believe that that I can do it, that we can do it. Interesting, interesting question. Oh No, I was just gonna say, I love the you know, the collaborative, collaborative efforts and all that that went into like putting this because it was very extensive, Like it was so extensive, I could go in there like kind of not just look at things on the on the surface, but like diving deep into like the hotspots, like I said, Mike, and then I could go over to the police for um, what they were working on in their reports and all that, and the things that they were implementing, and just see that how it was, you know, just kind of showing you know, the data and then how it was kind of just like coming together like you two were you could tell you were working together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, for sure. Thanks for that. So we know that Philadelphia is a very dynamic city. We know that everything isn't black and white, right, and we know that there's challenges, and we know that, you know, people are human, right, And I get that because in a minute, I want you to and you can just put this in your parking lot, because I want to know who is Rebecca Ryan Harten. I want to know that question, So put that in your parking lot for a minute. But I want to talk about our current mayor, right and him feeling overwhelmed, and he was quoted saying that, you know, he announced that he was tired of being in Philadelphia mayor and wanted pretty much couldn't wait to get out of office, right, And that was something that triggered a lot of people. When you heard it, what was what did you think? And two, knowing what you know now and how dynamic Philadelphia is, how do you believe you would have handled that situation? You know? Well, it was a horrible statement. To me, Philadelphia needs a leader more than ever, and when a city is struggling, that's when a city needs its mayor the most. To me, that statement was similar as if you know you're a parent and your kids are struggling, you got teenagers that are difficult, and you're like, you know, I'm done. Yeah, Like you don't do that. That's when you lean in and you say, no, no, no, We're going to get through this together. But you're but like, you know, you're not going to go away. And to me, being the mayor of Philadelphia, I mean being one hundred and fifty percent committed to loving this city, to loving the people in our city, and you know what, we are going to fix it together. Right, Yeah, Yeah, that's right, that's right. Who is Rebecca Ryan Heart? I am a very compassionate, driven, focused person. I came back to Philly in O eight to make Philadelphia government work. I believe strongly that government needs to work for for people, and you know, I think that that's what drives me. And I feel strongly also that I need to use my voice for people that don't have that platform themselves. So and that's what that's what motivates me. And I'm people would describe me as very with a lot of tenacity, a lot of grit and resilience and also with a fighting spirit, which um yeah yeah um. So a lot of the of the commercials that you've been doing have been including former Mayor Street and UH former Mayor Nutter. How did you bring those two together? How did you get those completely different? Love it very different, very different. So I obviously may Or Nutter. I worked for UH for a number of years, So I worked for a Nutter and I actually worked one year for Mayor Kenny. But I've known may Or Nutter for a long time. UH. Mayor Street I met after I won the Controllers race in UH twenty seventeen. I met him, started talking to him, and he invited me to guest lecture his class a Temple and we just started a banter in that class that then we started having lunch every few months and I really really appreciate Mayor Street's commitment to the neighborhoods and what he did for our city. And I developed a really good relationship with them separately. I asked for their support, their endorsement, and then I started to broach the topic of what about getting the two of you together, which which took a few weeks to pull off, but they they talk now. So yeah, you created a whole relationship with these two. Yeah, and uh, I think that that convening power, that that ability to connect is important. Yeah, hopefully you can do that for the city because it's a lot of polarity within the city. And so h yes, the reason our line of questioning, Uh, sometimes we ask the hard questions, but we like to humanize the candidates, right. I think oftentimes when it comes to a lot of the panels, you guys are ridd it with these questions, questions, questions, you know you you you um. But we like to say that there's another side the the thing that that is the I guess the tipping point to who should be the mayor, right, because I think what happens oftentimes and if you look at the honestly from being transparent ninety percent of the candidates running are I believe or qualified, and I think that most of them will do a pretty decent job. It's who will do the best job and who will I like as being in that leadership position that I can trust right in Philadelphia and polls and stats, it's coming out that fills that Philadelphia don't trust the current leadership. They don't trust the leadership in Philadelphia. What do you think you could do as mayor to win that trust back from the citizens. I think the key to winning back trust is to keep your word. And I think that government often does not keep its word. And I'll give an example that when you know, I supported the soda tax because I support pre K and community schools and improvements to our rec centers. But when as controller, when I started to see the data come in from my office that less than fifty percent of that money was being used for those three programs, I said, wait a second, that's not right. Like the mayor and others sold this tax to the people of our city to say this is going to fund pre K, community schools and improvements to parking wreck and now you're using less than fifty percent of it for that so I called that out, and you know, the mayor was like, I don't know what her problem is. I'm like, my problem is that this is the problem. My problem is that you know that there's there needs to be a compact between people and their government, and that's based on trust. It's it's a relationship and it's very broken right now because political leaders just break it and it's it's completely wrong. So what I would all do as a mayor, and what I've done as city controller is call it the way it is. Go out to the neighborhoods and say I'm here for you, I am leading and represent you, and I say it the way it is. I'm gonna I'm gonna carry through for you. And um that's why I do have community and activist support across our city that I invite people into my office and say, look, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this. And you know what, if I get into ten political fights with the you know, the people that are supposedly powerful, will so be it. They didn't elect me, you know, the people elected me. So I think that's the key. And I know that it's hard to rebuild that trust because people feel so um they just feel so taken advantage of by the government and it's gonna take some time. What I hope is that it's a healing process and that over time, if I become mayor, that over time that trust will build, and it'll build every day, just like a relationship. What are your plans for arts and entertaining? Yeah, I was about to get Yeah. So, we have such a great city in terms of arts and entertainment, and as mayor I will be a big advocate of it. So on the arts, I want to create a Deputy Mayor for the arts, which involves both looking at the arts in terms of, of course our large institutions, but also all of the neighborhood arts organizations, arts dance. We have so much going on in Philly and we need a vision coming from the city about how to best support the arts across our city. I've been on the board of Mural Arts since twenty sixteen and I've seen the work what art does not just for the beauty of art, but for the expression, the healing, the community building and the power of it. So I'm a big supporter of it and nightlife. I mean, our city has so much going on and we need to encourage it. So I want to have you know, stakeholders from the entertainment industry, from nightlife industry, you know, have be convening with me and my administration to say, how do we do this better. We have all these great music venues, we have you know, clubs. We have so much going on which is awesome, and we should celebrate that. So I want to be a proponent of it and be a cheerleader for it and celebrate it because we've we've got a lot going on. Yeah, fantastic, because you know, and and I usually ask that question when it comes to the candidates because we are a huge we are huge advocates of the arts, especially when it comes to Philadelphia, right, because we're within the construct of arts right when we talk about um, I believe that the arts makes everything sexy. You know, you don't know anything without the arts, especially when it comes to like even platforms like we talked weekly, right, And so what I guess the question that I'm curious is what would you do to make sure that, you know, smaller arts organizations are amplified because what tends to happen is, you know, all the candidates or everyone talked about that hurts to arts, the arts, right, but they leave out the small arts platforms. They focus on, you know, the legacy organization arts right. Um, however, you get to not necessary platforms like we talked weekly, but other platforms who are moving and shaking and creating the nightlife events and putting on you know, dances and have fine arts. And you go Germantown, you'll see a whole kind of you know, beautiful multi cultural section of artists. You go to West Philadelphia fifty second Street, you see the same thing. You go to sixties Street, you can go to Northladelphia and look on Broad Street. It's a lot of people who are doing dynamic things within the art but not really being supported in that way. And what tends to happen also is you have this gatekeeper mentality, which is a problem, right, And if you are not on that forefront, or if you're not visible like our legacy organizations, then you're not taken seriously. Right. So what would you do as mayor to make sure that you know, those smaller platforms are amplified so they're not forced to fight for the little scraps that they can get, right, But you know, the little fifteen hundred dollars activity grant might get them a day or two, but then guess what tomorrow is still another day. We need sustainability, right, and so what would you do as mayor to support that sustainable culture to continue to make you fruitful? Because we have the what is it the twenty the soccer that come in with the World Cup is coming for years that I think that next to twenty six and and and I'll get and you get answered the question after this, but I just want to put all of this in context, right, and so you'll have something like that come huge event. You only have the big three able to cover that, right, right. You have your Channel three, your Channel six, your Pigtails, you your major platforms. But then it comes to platforms like us and you know what, you're too small, you can't get it, or you're not important enough, right, So what would you do to sustain and amplify those you know, smaller organizations to make sure that they have a seat at the table. So speaking, So on the arts, the first we need to have stable funding, and I have an Arts policy and Arts plan on my website that talks about that that we need stable funding. And then we need to create different buckets of money within that stable funding for small arts organizations so that neighborhood by neighborhood, to get at the problem that you're talking about right now, that the small arts organizations shouldn't be fighting over an activities grant you. They should have a part of the Cultural Fund money and not have to be fighting each other for that, because we should be uplifting each other in terms of arts organizations and not fighting with each other. So that having that stable source of funding and not have the small organizations have to compete with the big ones for pots of money, that it would be segregated. So to me, I think that's part of the answer, and the other part of the answer is looking at each neighborhood and making sure it we are supporting the arts in each neighborhood, because if when we look at it that way, then it's going to naturally happen that the city does not ignore the small arts on fifty second or Germantown, the places that you've just mentioned. And that goes right into the World Cup in twenty twenty six, because my vision for that is to have a celebration neighborhood by neighborhood. I love that because we are a city of neighborhoods and you know, to me, it's uh, it gets back to that that part of my first one hundred day plan is to clean every neighborhood to make sure the trash is picked up and get all of the trash picked up and cleaning and greening and then focusing in on every neighborhood and the arts follows follows that, so that we can truly uplift and then you know, fix the schools and the more longer term create opportunity. But we're not healthy unless all of our neighborhoods are healthy, right. I love that, love that. So we have um we've talked weekly as a part of the wh y y Nice's um NICE program, the Neighborhood Initiatives program. Okay, so we're a part of that. And one of the cohort members had of Art Block had a question that they wanted to ask and they they said, how do you stand on your support for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund? Would you maintain the current PCF budget or increase it? And she said, could you explain your answer? And PCF is an independent fible one C three nonprofit established by the city in nineteen ninety one is the mechanism by which the city directly, consistently and without political influence, supports the city's nonprofit art sector and its community of artists. I want to say I think we got a grant from there in twenty twenty the pandemic, when a lot of artists were out of work and weren't earning any money. My view on the Cultural Fund is that we need to make sure that it has ample funding and that it's not on the chopping block four cuts every single time there's an issue, because that's something that I've seen happen over and over again. For example, when the pandemic first hit, Mayor Kenny put out a budget that had severe cuts to the arts as well as tax increases, and at that time I released an alternative budget which said, you know what, we don't need these severe cuts to the arts, and we don't need to raise taxes. We need to manage the city better. If we actually managed overtime, for example, we could easily save forty million dollars a year. These are things that my office has called out as Controller, but as mayor I can implement them, and to make a cut to the arts doesn't. It does not make sense. The arts are the lifeblood of our city in terms of beauty, in terms of expression, so we need to be funding them. That's that's just I just believe that. So it'll show through in my priorities. We believe that too. Yeah, believe that we make everything sexy here, you know. Um, and so uh real quick, right, and we're about to let you go. Um, we appreciate you for coming. But we asked one question to the candidates. And this is like a curveball, but we want to know the one thing that no one else knows about Rebecca around hard you know they sometimes they call it the Snapple fact, right, But what's the one thing no one else knows about Rebecca around the one thing that no one knows about me? Uh? Wow, I don't know what no one knows about me. Let's see the high school job. I worked at Martin's Aquarium on Old Your Road. Um. I started as a fish catcher, but they put me on cash register after like two weeks because they said he I had a good smile and people waiting in line, you know. So then I but I balanced the books. I could balance the books, and so then that was my you know, entry into finance. So there you go. There you go, balance the books, always about money. There you go. And so I want you to look in a camera and let everyone know why they should vote for Rebecca Rhinehart for mayor. I'm Rebecca Rhinehart, and you should vote for me for mayor because I truly am the right person to lead our city forward. I know the city's issues from my work at the city. I've shown the courage to stand up to the status quo, and I can fix these issues. I can make our city safer and cleaner and create opportunity. And I'll fight for you. I'll fight for you, and I'll lead you and our city will rise up from where we are now. So please vote May sixteenth. Rebecca Reinhart. Fantastic. How can they find more about you when you so? Rebecca for Philadelphia dot Com is my website and that's all spelled out, So Rebecca for Philadelphia dot com. Uh and uh, please sign up on my website. We're knocking two hundred thousand doors across the city of Philadelphia. We would love to have the listeners and the viewers tonight join into that and truly appreciate it. Fantastic, fantastic. Well, we we we reach over two hundred thousand people in the Philadelphia area, so you know, make sure, make sure if you know. One thing that we say too is that we haven't indorsed anyone who We support, our people, who we know, our industries doing things for the community, right. And we see the people who are visible, and it's important for the community to feel that not only they're being supported, but they're not just being talked that, but they're being talked to right. And we understand that a lot of the citizens has lost hope, they has lost they have lost trust, and they feel that even oftentimes their vote doesn't even count, right. And so what would you tell that you know on the I guess fence person about volding and why it's so important to vote. It is so important to vote because your vote is your voice, and voting is the foundation of the democracy we live in. And I can completely understand why people are jaded by it because of things that have happened, But please get out there and vote because we can change things and your vote can be the difference. It truly is that clear that if you come out and you exercise your right to vote, you can support me getting elected and then I can fix the city. But I will say it's just it's important to vote. It really is. It's your voice. Don't lose your voice. Don't lose your voice. Without your voice, you're never going to create the change. So get out there and vote. Use your voice. Last question, you really have been managing those books and been a watchdog for that right, Um, you no longer are doing that If you're not elected as our mayor. In terms of leadership, what then does Rebecca? Well, I plan to win, Okay, but look, I think I want to help the city and that's been my mission, in my goal. I want to help the people of our city and I'll continue doing that. There you go. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Where There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Rebecca Rhinhart. We talk weeklies after the talk on WPPMLP Philadelphia one or six point five am. We talk weeklies after the talk with your boy Charles Gregman, A beautiful and a beautiful than you. Absolutely, so don't go anywhere. We'll be right back, y'all. We had a dynamic interview with someone who is anticipating being the next mayor. The hundredth mayor, ladies and gentlemen, is yes, because this is what we do. We want you to make sure that you go out and vote. Go out to vote, your vote, your vote, every vote, every voice. That's what I'm used to saying now because we're probably an initiative, right, but every voice matters because your vote becomes your voice. If you do not vote, then you can't say anything with whomever wins, which is important, so you can reflect how you really feel, what you really feel in your vote. So make sure you go out and vote. And when is the vote? May sixteenth? May sixteenth, Ladies and gentlemen, don't go on word, We'll be right back after this. Holla. We just want to get a little background as to who the fantastic noise is and the noisemakers if you can let us know, Yes, absolutely so. Once again, I am fantastic Noise. I am the original noisemaker. So no one's gonna make it as much noise as to me. Okay, And right here we have the Noisemaker band. This is only half of it. The other stuffs are upstairs, my Kevin, Kevina, More, Lonnie and Dobs. Who are the actual band Membori. These are the background stingers and we can't make some noise. We can to bring that noise today. So that's that's what we started to do. That's right. Yeah, how did you guys get together? Oh? Man? So it started with I've been doing this on my own for almost three years now, um and man, I got each of these peop we're here have different background stories. Most of us went to the same church together, and we just kept going this when her radus is one of my assistants, say one of like the the my my biggest support of my biggest shot in the here. She's a Susan. So we just been building in the same thing with up stairs with the band, just meeting through people, kept network and kept seeing them. It was just like Gallar Dame bad. We are awesome. So what could you guys do? We talked weekly a favor? Yeah, can you give us a drop in a melody type? What a melode type? What? Okay? So we talked weekly. Okay, so we're gonna do something like this. We talk weekly. Come in hear us. We talked weekly, Come in hear them. We talked week. We come in here. Now we talk we come in here we talk. We come in here. Now we week me come. You just gave me like, okay, give me the fly because y'all already course yeah, I M. We cannot be complete unless you listen to me. Why we talk to the talk on wpp MLP Philadelphia one or six point five, that film we talked weekly after the talk, I don't want you guys to go anywhere. We just had a dynamic interview with someone with whom I re tremendous ami respect for um, Rebecca Ronheart. We will make sure that we continue to do our due diligence for the community. We will continue to amplify the voices of those who are having challenges and being heard. And that's what our platform is for us to make sure that we can amplify those voices. But coming up next, we have these two young people that I am absolutely excited to have on the show today because they are in with They are truly fighting for or the position to be heard by way of their political political space. They are doing some journalistic work there, and we have young people who truly care and they're gonna talk about their stories and we really appreciate them. So I don't want you guys to go anywhere. We'll be right back, y'all. We talk weekly. What's up y'all? Sh Girl Classic lady spot, but we talk weekly, and they're doing sound check in the back. We're here at the Athnute on Control ABC production. They put in on a fantastic, a fantastic event. We got Flick Rick, we got a Chubb Rock, got fantastic noise, we got Ducky Fresh, we got Reached, DJ Red Alert and the real Rocks Shante. Listen. If you not hear, y'all, you're missing out, So please don't go anywhere. Keeping we got a whole lot of interviews coming up. Piece what's up y'alltist is Doug e fression. You're watching and we talk weekly. You're listening to right here as we go, and little suthing like this, I'm the A ABC, I'm Ashley, I'm the CN ABC, I'm Cooler, and I'm the baby Anka. That's so it's up, y'all. Hain't destroying chintague and we cannot be complete unless you listen to it. You'll watch we talk wee he's believing baby. There was Rocks and Shante shouting out. We talk weekly. Man, We're everywhere. If you want to be there, you want us to be there, and make sure you reach out to us. We talked weekly. We talked weeklies after the talk on wpp LP Philadelphia one or six point five films. If you want to see his live you can always go to our we Talk Weekly page, not only our Facebook page, but you can go to we Talk weekly on ourj you want to find us, you can actually just google we talk weekly. You want to find us one? All right? What our website? Go to we Talk weekly dot com. We talk weekly everywhere And that's why we made it easy for you and easy to get yourself heard, get yourself amplified, find out the news, find out everything that's going on. And so without further to sizel, who do we have to day? Who do we have to date? So we have we have bull Horn News. Their mission statement is and is that bull Horn is an entirely student run newspaper that aims to equitably give a voice to students who might not otherwise be able to express their opinions. They want to cover systemic problems, but also how those problems manifest in our day to day lives. Ultimately, they want to connect public schools students from across Philadelphia, creating a district wide and identity that mobilizes and positions students to leverage the powers controlling the district. So with us today we have Joshua Cohen. He has been a part of oh Joshua has been a part of The bull Horn since the senior year when he started as editor and ever since. He says, ever since joining this amazing organization, I have loved the community and the people and the Bullhorn, and I'm so grateful for the experiences I've gained outside of the Bullhorn. Bull Horn, I I can't talk tonight. I love to play sports soccer, indoor track, and lacrosse of school, as well as skiing, hiking, and skateboarding outside of school. And he's part of the school Debate, Schools Debate and World Affairs team and would consider himself an active member in the school's community. And he hopes to go into political science or sociality sociology in the future. And then we have Rowing author Us Rowing Arthur um Um is a journalist at Girls High School. UM. She decided to join The Bullhorn as a journalist because she loves to write. Um and then she says, sorry if it's a bit of a cliche. Um, which it is a cliche but true. Um. I love writing, and I love and I adore the fact that in some way my words can help convey a message or a movement. Other than writing, I love to cook and read. My favorite dishes to make are definitely South Asian and West African meals. I'm so hull great and asked to read anything, Um, she'll read anything, but her favorite genres are a magical realism, high fantasy, and contemporary romance. Oh it's so cute. Welcome to the show, Joshua and Roland, welcome, Welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. I can't here. Let's see if we get a sound check with you? This what more again? Let me give you all right there you go, y'all sound good? Yeah, all right, So let's let's talk. Let's jump right into it. What got y'all into journalism? Why was you know that particular feel so important for you guys? Was it a burning itch that you have that was like, it's something that I need to do with this? Is it? What was it? Um? I think for me at least it was. Um, my school has a like school wide newspaper. But it's really awesome to see that a lot of people at my school and like other people that I knew from other schools were getting involved in like a newspaper that was like district wide and covered all the opinions of like the whole city, because I think a lot of the times, like if you're just talking in one area or one school, like, UM, it's hard to get a diverse range of opinions and voices. But I think the Bullhorn is able to amplify voices from all over the city, UM and leverage that power to like make actual change. So I think that's definitely what got me interested in the Bullhorn specifically. And I think just like the appeal of journalists and being able to like start movements convey really important information, and especially doing that like making young people the uh the like active people in that movement is really important for me. I think that, UM, like my mom is a really big reason why I decided to become a journalist. UM. When I was younger, UM, I she always brought in like newspapers, like like Enquirer, UM newspapers just brought them home like to use me in the house, and I just like ended up like reading them because I was bored and we didn't have people when I was younger. Um, so I was just reading them and like just seeing the way people wrote just made me have like a really intense urge to write myself. And I spent like a bunch of like my middle school, like like my time in middle school, just like writing for fun. And I think that's one of the reasons why I became a journalist. And like Josh Josh said, um, just conveying messages of like like real world action, I think is another reason why I wanted to become a journalist full time in the future. Yeah, fantastic. I want to talk a little bit about Bullhorn though, you know what, you know, I love the work that you guys are doing, you know, and so I want to continue to support and make sure we push that out in and you're on our platform, so I want to amplify that. So let's talk a little bit about Bullhorn, um, and you know, the young people who are working on it and pushing, you know, fighting a good fight, you know, because I think when it comes to papers like that is important to hear the young people's voice and that's you, guys, and so let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah. So the Bullhorn is a team of I think almost three or four dozen students from a lot of different high schools from around the city, mostly public high schools. And I think the way that we do journalism where we're able to like center it around young people and one of the times journalism is centered around, you know, people who typically write journalism and what their perspective is. But the way that the Bullhorn specifically is able to leverage the people that we have involved in our organization is really special. And it's also interesting because we do a lot of different types of journalism. We do pop culture, we do film reviews, we do tons of politics op eds, and we're really able to cover a wide range of things. But those things are all specific to what students. Right. We have no like quotas about what people have to write about. Everyone's free to write what they want, um, which I think is really important. I would like one hundred percent agree um. Writing for the Bullhorn is so like expressive. Someone like that actually is writing. Um. You can really write about anything. I have like, um, personally, I've done pop culture and I have done like um political articles, city city like specific articles, and like the power to have like this all this, all this freedom to write whatever you want to write is so powerful and that's like kind of giving me um kind of leverage. I guess to um, like do this in the future because I do want to be a generalist in the future. So having this experience on my back, UM is important for me. Yeah, fantastic. I think we want to make sure that we stay connected with you guys. You know, UM, Lauren actually just got our masters. Why don't you talk. I don't want to talk for you. I mean, and we're excited for Lauren. UM, but teller kind of like you, you're voyaging your travels in journalism. UM. So I took a crazy thing, is um. I took a journalism class in UM in high school and we had we had a school newspaper was really small. I think I actually have like one copy. I'm not gonna I'm not given years and stuff like that, because you know, I'm trying not trying to date myself. But I really really enjoyed, like when you said, you know, I got into journalism because I love to write. I really love to write, Like I still love to write now. But I had just completed my master's in journalism program at Temple University Klient College of Media and Communication. Shout out to Temple client. Um, but uh, I think what kind of propelled me to want to go back and to like try to get my masters and you know continue um, you know in journalism was uh twenty twenty the George Floyd. You know, when I saw that, I was just like, Wow, I just want to continue to be the voice for the voice list and put myself in a position to where um because you know, as journalists we have power and it's like we can write and create things that just it shapes the world. I'd like to say, um, but yeah, you know, completing that program, it just it was tough because I had to work a full time job and to be in school full time, so it was tough. But I'm you know, I'm glad that I did it. And you know, UM, I feel like you you two are getting into like journalism during a time when it's we need young verses out here now, and I'm so excited for what you guys are doing and what I know you're gonna continue to do. It's just like the future of journalism. It just looks so much brighter now because now we have the organizations like UM and I hate to name names, but like we have the Fox News is who are now being sued for pretty much what journalists do not take an oath to do. It's like we take an oath to um be unbiased, to report objective objectively, and that's exactly what they did not do. You guys are in a good position right now, absolutely absolutely, and so kudos to you guys. We love the young people because you guys are the future. So and it's important for you guys to learn the right way right and UM continue to continue that path and will definitely support you. What what are since you since you brought up some of the things that's important to young people, what are some of the issues? I mean, you are here to fortunately hear some of the things that were back around heart who was running currently running from mayor and I want to hear you know your take on you know, some of the issues that you guys see for young people. When what would you like to see in a mayor? Yeah, UM, I just want to say kind of congratulations for getting your masters. I can speak for myself and the people I hang around. When I hang around with UM, I think that having someone in local politics that really hyper hyperfixates on UM this, like the importance of young voices and young people in the city is important, Like not demonizing young people, UM for things that are out of our control and instead of that, like focusing on how to like prepare young people to become like great adults is something that's really important to me. UM Finding that a person in higher government like cares for like the environment is another issue that's important to me and my friends. UM finding and one that like cares for social issues and like racial issues that can actually speak head on and how they want to um commit to like fixing like sorry black and brown communities in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania and the United States is like something that's really important to me and not UM like not focusing on that like head on and saying that I want to be a person to care for young voices, care for black and brown voices, care for the environment is something that is just incredibly important to me, and I want to write about that like heavily. Yeah, I definitely agree with everything that Rohan said. UM. I think for me personally, UM to add on, I think, um, something that like defines how young people view the candidates, how they view our education, and what they think should be done about our education. And I think right now, um most candidates can agree that education is like obviously of utmost importance, but it's about how those candidates are able to actually create material change and do actual things for the people in like in these schools, because a lot of the times policymakers are able to like use lofty language, but it's nice to see actual change, like for these schools that need it so badly, and especially I think personally starting at like younger ages, investing into like our elementary schools and our middle schools so that they can better prepare. Like there's a lot of stuff going on with the higher education and like high school, but if we're able to like really fix it from the ground up with these like elementary schools and invest heavily into those, I think that's really important. Yeah. I think providing like equitable resources to all schools in Philadelphia, especially the public schools that the neighborhood schools, is so important because I can personally speak on behalf of my school. The resources that we have are not the same as other schools in the districts. So having someone in the mayor of position that really can speak to us and get things done and fix the problems at our schools is something that's really important. Yeah. Is it anyone that stands out as a mayoral candidate that you guys have been saying that you like, you know what, I think they will be good for the young people Philadelphia. Definitely Helen Kim. Her campaign focusing on young people and young voices, the way she actually speaks to young people and like portrays like policies that speak to young people is something that's like, that's something that makes her stand out because a lot of the candidates really brush past it or will like like mention it in like passing. But she whenever you kind of hear her speak, you hear her speak about young people and how like her actual actions to help young people. Yeah. And I think something that's really like notable about Helen Kim is that she actually like came to my high school to speak to us. And I think that's like a moment that reflects a larger trend within her like campaign, that she like really does care about students. She's been involved in like Phillip politics. For I think over two decades. She's very She's always been involved in public school. She cares about them deeply, and I think that it's just really like, it's very notable to see how like much she is doing for solely young people and also for other marginalized communities, and how she knows how to tackle those issues and create real change. Fantastic, fantastic. I love how you guys are very You're on it, you know you you get it right, and that's something that we want to make sure that everyone does. I mean, so if someone was to ask you why, because a lot of young people sometimes Phil, you know, well, my vote don't count, you know, vote, why should I vote? You know? What would you tell some of your peers as it relates to the importance of voting. I mean, I think it is very easy to say that your vote doesn't count. Like logically it makes sense, but it's just when you look at broader trends, if everyone said that their vote doesn't count, then you know, nothing would happen. We all need to partake in our legal system further to like actually be changed. I think something that Rebecca was talking about was that there has to be like this contract between the people who are governed and the people who are like governing. And if people aren't engaging in the system and able to like actually make their voices heard, the only people who are going to be heard are going to be the people who have been heard for the past decades, centuries. And if people who we are trying to make policies about want those policies to reflect them, we need to engage with the political process and actually make sure we are being heard. Yeah, I agree heavily, Like, yeah, everything you said was our real I think that when young people don't engage with the voting process, it like upholds a place for usually very systemically hire up people to continue to have positions of power. Um So I would just say to anyone that doesn't think that their vote matters, I've tell them that your voice, your vote doesn't matter, Your voice does matter because when you vote and when you speak out again, when you speak out with your vote, real change happens. The things that you want to see happen can't happen if you just sit down and do nothing. You need to be vocal, you need to vote. Voting is important. And even though I can't vote. I will heavily, heavily heavily and enforce people to vote because it's something that's so important to democracy. You are the only student from your school that's they or is that a right? Are you the only one from girls side? Oh yeah, bo yeah, I think so okay on the board okay okay. And and you're from Massive Man, which I think I forgot to mention that. UM, can you tell us about um, some of the schools that are participating, UM, that that are like um all, I guess either you know, on the leadership in the writers and all that, like all the schools that they come from that you all come from. Uh yeah, UM, there's me from Girls High. There is UM a bunch of people from Masterman. I think, um Kappa sla um I Josh Josh, you know more, UM we have someone from Conestoga High School. UM. And I think something that's important to like recognize with the bullhorn like leadership team or even the team broadly, is that we are like representative of the like mostly um like selective high schools, UM and the more, which I think is something that we need to work on and be able to expand to other high schools, and it is something that we are like actively seeking out because Masterman Central Kappa girls are all like Magnet school Magnet schools. So I think that being able to like reach out so we even get like more voices and more perspectives is something we need to do in the future. Yeah, I think that UM being like heavily magnet school base is a little sad. UM. I know that, like there are individual problems at all of our schools, but we are kind of like the faces of UM public schools. Then I think it would be really great if we did have more people from neighborhood schools or less funded or less represented schools working with the bullhorn. UM. So yeah, next UM, when we get more people coming on, we need to get more people from those different schools. I love I love that, I love it. I love that you guys are already on it, like you're on it. You get it, and which is which is I think one of the things that a lot of people don't or a lot of the older people don't believe that you guys got it or understand, which is the reason why you guys do need to be not necessarily handed the baton. But you know, brought within the space to have a seat at the table to say, you know, I have a voice too. These are some of the our concerns. These are some of the things that you need to know. Yeah, I was just gonna say you you mentioned the Magnet schools. Um, what are your thoughts about the students that walked out of Philly schools and protests because of the budget cuts and the under enrollment at Magnet schools. I love that they did that. UM. I am a part of Philly Student Union or Philadelphice Student Union who kind of like sponsored that event. UM. I can say that the people who like were in who it was Bieber Flay Bieber that really was the focus of that UM walk out and UM, A couple of people about I know walked out with them, And I think that that was a great thing. I think that, um, they're exposing the real issue that is going on with how the school system or the school district really messed up with a lottery system having a lot of people will fill up these like higher ed UM special Magnet schools like MASSIMN and Central and leaving other Magnet schools like Girls High. Bieber saw Kappa like out leaving them out for like ruins is kind it really sucked, and being like the voice for us for the schools that have a low emissions rate and are losing a lot of teachers next year is really important. I stand with them. Wow. Yeah. I think that, like walkouts generally from schools are like one of the most effective ways we can make change because it's really like a disruptive process because if no one's in school, you can't teach it. It really you make change doing that. And there have been a lot of like awesome walkouts even this year or like throughout my years at high school. There was one for the environment. Last week, there's a trans rights walk out I think on the twenty fourth. Yeah, And I think that like just encouraging everyone to join in those protests because the power that we students have come from our numbers and like the way that we can leverage that, so everyone being involved is kind of the main priority. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I love you guys, get it. Shout out to the equity. I love it. Equality, I love it. I'd love it. I'd love it you How could someone get you know who may see this a young person and they're saying like, I want to be a part of Bullhorn. How can they you know, be encouraged to, like I guess join or can they join or do they have to be a part of it? Like, tell me a little bit about that process. Yeah, so joining the Bullhorn is incredibly easy. We want to make sure that joining is as easy for people as possible. So I think as of now, you can either a just email the Bullhorn or one of our president Gabby, or you can fill out a Google form. But either way we get in contact really quickly. There's no like UM selective process or anything. We really want to make sure that even people who like UM maybe feel as though they wouldn't be allowed to join, are able to be part of our organization and be heard in that way. So just google the Bullhorn student News, click on our bio and it applications should be there. Yeah. I can speak of the apple myself. I joined Bullhorn this year. I started writing for them end of last year, and I love it so much. Writing is really really great, and having an outlet to write about anything that I want to write about and having the freedom to do so is really great. Um. Yeah, emailing Gabby, um, going through our website is like a great way to like become a part of the process. And I can't wait for people who are listening to maybe join Bullhorn because it's a really great experience. Yeah, and just to add in, we have like a lot of positions that aren't just journalists. We have editors, translators, graphic design, communications, etc. Etc. Because we really do have to like maintain the whole organization. So if anyone doesn't want to necessarily be a writer, there are plenty of other opportunities to join and be involved. Fantastic, fantastic, But um so, I wanted to know what are your thoughts about the increase in in teenage gun violence victims in the city, because now, you know, we have a lot of teens who are being chot from the ages of like twelve, thirteen, you know, all the way up. You know, what are your thoughts on that. I think that the more recent gun violence, like this whole gun violence epidemic, is reflective of the administration's prior I think that not calling action to what's going on in the streets of Philadelphia specifically like Northeast. I know I live in Northeast and I like kind of feel like that happening like more often than not, like like it's so it hurts my soul so bad that gun violence is growing and growing and growing, and not having someone in leadership that really wants to like call to action what's going on. I don't want to lose someone that I care about because of gun violence and have no one say their name. I think that having people in leadership and people in positions of power to enact laws to make sure that Philly is a safer place for me, my friends, my brother, and my mom, my friend, like anyone that I care about, anyone in the city who's young and vulnerable. She just walk And I think that's important. I think that's important for people to realize that Philly is should be safe. Yeah. Yeah, definitely agree with everything Rohan said. Um, I think like if looking at it from like um legal standpoint or from the in terms of the mayoral election, I think that making sure that policymakers are addressing the root cause of these instances is really important because there are like material conditions that put people in these situations and taking a reactive like approach to this violence I don't think is the way to deal with it. So per se like increasing police or other methods that are like necessarily reactive. I think are like is not as good of a way as doing it as like fixing the root cause in like a proactive way that stops it in the future. And I think that like seeing that from a candidate would be really admirable and making sure that whoever does get elected is able to do that is important. Yeah, And also not seeing or reacting to gun violence with numbers like this is not a numbers game. You should respect all of the victims with care and respect future victims with care. I think that a trend I kind of see in like larger politics is that, oh not like not even referring to gun violence victims by name is really really exploitive because how are you going to enact future laws if you're not going to respect them enough to say their name and respect future victims to say their names. So I think that having someone if we're talking in terms of like the mayoral election, having someone that mayoral spot who will say their names and will call to action is some thing that's really important for me m with the next coming years of having a new mayor. I love it. One thing, it looks say her name, Sandra Bland, say her name. You know. When it comes to uh, I think sometimes we just need to shut up and listen to y'all. Listen to you know, what affects y'all and what you know you believe, which which you believe we can do to help you? You know. UM, who reached out to me? Was any you reached out to me? Why do you feel like it was important to reach out to week Talk Weekly? I'm really curious about that. Yeah. So Bullhorn is part of the Lenfest initiatives UM Every Vote, Every Voice UM coalition, which is a group of like a lot of media organizations, M and myself and another journalist who's not here UM our writing it's about to be published an article UM highlighting like the various ways in which media groups around the city are like amplifying youth voices or amplifying voices, and then our article was specifically targetedor like how those organizations were amplifying youth voices. So I think it was just important to see how you guys were amplifying specifically youth voices, which obviously you are quite literally and I think just like putting that out there and being able to see which organizations are like actively taking a role to hear us and hear what we think was really important and like a main reason I reached out, Yeah, fantastic, And this is why y'all hear you know, we want to make sure that you guys are hurt. Our platform and our goals has always been to make sure those groups who are marginal laws or underrepresented or heard. And at this point, I believe the youth voice is margin laws unheard, and and so our mission and goals are always to amplify those voices right and fight for those who UH has have a voice and and can't get her the way that they need to. And so that's what we're here to do. And so, um, how can we become involved with you in order to accomplish these goals, which was another question that was given to us, uh is I'm gonna I'm gonna say for the record that anytime bull Horn feel like they want to contribute to we talk weekly by way of a column or something, it's done. You know you're hearing that from the horse's mouth. It's done. We want to continue working with you guys, and not just because of a vote, but I believe you guys have a voice that sometimes is uh missed because it's not loud enough, or the perception is that, UM, it's it's it's always in conflict, right, and I believe there's there's another narrative there that we need to amplify and make sure that it's heart. So you know, we're saying for the record that you guys are more than welcome to to you know, go back to Bullhorn and let everyone know that, UM that the invitation is there. If y'all want to column on we talk weekly, we'll give it to you on our on our page. Absolutely absolutely want we want you to continue to be heard. We want you to continue to feel respected and have a space to vent and say what you feel like. We need because one thing we say and we talk weekly is we talk and this is our platform. We don't have any sponsors that we're worried about, so we can say what we really mean and truly mean right within reason. UM. Yeah, I wanted to know what what you two want or what do you feel Bullhorn wants. UM the mayoral whoever the UM is elected mayor to do for youth when it comes to arts and entertainment. UM, I think for me, I want the X mayor to incorporate youth voices into their entire mayoral like length um or the length of their maryorship if that's a word. UM, I think just yeah, incorporating youth voices in policies and laws um, just in like everyday circumstances is important for me UM and the next mayor like can speak to youth voices or like an add and contribute or yeah, it can add and contribute like voices to very like campaign. I guess it would be really important for me. Yeah, And I think specifically about the like arts and entertainment UM thing UM just personally like at my school, UM, I think like next year a couple arts classes are being caught UM and that's just like an overall trend UM that like we're prioritizing like um STEM classes instead of you know, the arts and um other disciplines. So I think that just making it a focus to like let students be able to express themselves because it's a little bit easier to express yourself with the arts than like chemistry. So I think giving giving students that platform to be able to like maybe you're not even like amplifying your voice within that space, but giving them the skills to be able to do that in the future, UM is really important because if it's not being done in school, for a lot of people, it's not being done at all. And then on that note, if it isn't if it is being done out of school, investing in extracurricula activities and out of school programs for students so that they can be involved and learn more things is really important. Have you on the internships? Have you on having giving resources to UM students to do stuff out of school to build up there, like resumeing like portfolio UM specifically sorry and how that relates to like the arts and are very like NAW and the STEM related activities UM. I think that like having the resources for people to do stuff instead of having it be like leaps and bounds to like get something to like add here, Like that's something that's important, So like focusing on that would be really good. Yeah, fantastic. Well we're gonna focus on it. We talk, we can gonna focus on that. So I'm gonna tell you go back to Bullhorn and uh come up with a proposal. You know, we'll accept in terms. We'll accept in terms if that's what you feel like you need. UM, UM, we'll accept anything. You know, just sen it's a proposal. Let us know how we can help, and that's what we want to do for you. Guys. All right, thank you? Can you before you go, can you explain to UM our viewers, especially the ones that well all of our viewers. I'm not gonna you know, say by age or whatever, but UM, your introduction guide to the twenty twenty three may or prime primary election, Like you know how they can use that? UM. If you're referring to a card, is that like what it is? I made that? UM. It's basically step by it's kind of like step by step of like, UM, what you need to know about UM the mayoral election coming up. There is a section on what is the primary, section on the different candidates that I vote that are on the ballot and what they stand for. Basically there's like a little synopsisis of UM, like like their main mission. UM. There's a section on polling places, and there's a section on UM different Bullhorn articles that we've written UM focusing on different mayoral candidates. UM. So yeah, that's uh, that's it. That's a card and I hope that people who go onto that, um little like website, thinking that's on our website, the Bullhorn website, Uh, their knowledge on the primaries and the mayoral election coming up, because it's really important. I love it. How can they find that? How can it? Where do they go to actually see it? Um? So if you go to the Bullhorn website, I think the website name is the Bullhorn News dot Com. Um, there's a kind of dropbox. I think that's what it's called. UM that has I think it's called the in Bullhorn Introduction Guide to the twenty twenty three mayoral primary Elections. Yes, that's what it is, ye, yes, um, and you can see um uh like all it's like I try to make it as interactive as possible and like it's easy as possible and accessible. Um. Yeah, it has everything that I listed on there, and I love it. It's really easy. It's really y'all probably can't see this, but yeah, it's real. It's real simple, real easy to get. And that's something else. That's something else that we like. Easy easy, make it easy. It doesn't have to be that complicated, convoluted, it doesn't have to be except bestially academic. Yes, I think that's something that was really important for me when I was making it. I find that a lot of UM guides to voting UM that I've seen in the past have been very adult focused or like that are like easy for adults to like read. So I thought that when I was making it, like making sure that like the average person could like go on it, go on it for like maybe five minutes and just search through everything they need to like really like have their have that knowledge of membrane quickly and accessibly and easily was really UM like there was a mission for me. Yeah, fantastic. The kids are speaking out, the young people are speaking out. Listen to them, they're talking. Listen to them. Fantastic. UM, So where can I get in contact with you guys and anybody who's listening? And when to get in you know, you kind of said it, but say one more time, how can I get in contact with you? Where can I find how can they be active? All that good old stuff. UM. You can find us at the Bullhorn News, UM at the Bullhorn News on Instagram. UM. Our website is bullhorn News dot com or the Bullharnews dot com. UM. Are you talking about us specifically? Or just a bullhorn. That's it. Okay, great, great, fantastic, And if you want to get in contact with them, go to the bullhorn, you know, reach out to him. You know, let everyone know that, you know, these young people are here and they're talking that good talk at we talk weekly and so there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. We talked weekly after the talk on WPPM Peopleladelphia, one on six point five of them. We talked weeklies after the talk with your boy Charles Gregor and beautiful and the young people. Go ahead, when Arthur and I'm Joshua there you going there here on we talked weekly. You only got like ten minutes while don't you'll hang around real quick. We're gonna go ahead straight into the sizz. Were ready for the sizzle? Yeah, there, we gonna but I am she's not, but you so don't don't go. We're gonna go right into the sizzle. Uh you already know how that goes down. Hold up, we'll be right back way wait yeah, wait yeah, wait, give it to me early. All right. So um, make sure you guys go to we talk weekly on all social media and podcast platforms if you want to support us even further, make sure you like coming and share. Um. Quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles agreed to a five year, two hundred and fifty five million contract extension, making him the highest maid player annual. NFL shout out to Hurst, Eagles, Eagle Gangs. Yes, yes, so that's some exciting news from news for Philadelphians. Of course, um, some of the details of I'm sorry, some of the details of the deal consists of one hundred seventy nine million and total guarantees, including one hundred ten million fully guaranteed as signing in addition to one one hundred twenty six million fully guaranteed by March twenty twenty four. In addition to the first this is the first no trade clause in Eagles history. No trade clause. So he can't go. He stopped. Well we need him stay. Yeah. So I'm just trying to man and if um, um, what's his name? See, this is what I get for trying to talk about somebody. But what um the last quarterback? I'm I could see his face, Carson, Yes when once he came. Yeah, yeah, I can I can imagine if he had that deal no trade clause gosh, we would have been begging him to leave right now between the two would have been a bad marriage. Like but um, the twenty four year year old quarterback can earn an additional fifteen million and incentives giving him the potential to earn two hundred and seventy four million through twenty twenty. So this now he doesn't This also includes um his You know, he had the four point three million left over from his original working contract, so this also includes that. So Jalen is set to receive a twenty three point two million signing bonus and make sixty four million through twenty twenty four. Twenty twenty four. The deal was negotiated by Jalen Hurtz's agent, Nicolen, who she took a shot in the dark and slid into his DMS and shot her shot to represent him. So it turned out to be a dream come true for the both of them because they both made history with him being the highest paid annually in the NFL history and her negotiating the largest contract ever by a female agent. So shout out to those two. Now, what do you think because people have been saying like, oh, he's too young. You know, some people are just like twenty four age twenty four years old, and they're giving him all this he's too young and this, you know this that together. You know, he's talented and he deserve it. If they're giving it to anybody else, he deserved it too. Yeah. Yeah, I can agree with that. I don't care how young he is. If he's a film went to the Super Bowl, Like what else can you say? Yeah? Absolutely, are you gonna say something? Um, personally, I am not into all the sports stuff. I'm just observing person Yeah, I know, Um yeah, I think it's it's some some things about sports, especially like big things, like with Philly, it's hard to not know about it know about it. Yeah. Yeah, but it's like that really is so like you were saying earlier, we're just kind of like the Philly fans for our you know, for our Phillies teams. Um. The Hulu they added a documentary to its lineup called Freaknick, though while this party never told so for those of you who don't know what Freaknick is, Freaknick started back in the spring of nineteen eighty three. Some people weren't even thought of at this time, but it started in the spring of nineteen eighty three is a picnic at Piedmont Park near Atlanta University Center. So it was organized by students that attended auc who were stuck on campus during during spring break. Well, what started out as a small picnic with some sandwiches and some snacks for just a small number of the students, which I believe was like sixty maybe that first year, it exploded into an annual Greek picnic widely attended by thousands and thousands of people each year. It got to the point, I say one year they said it was like what one hundred thousand people? Can you imagine that in Atlanta? Wow? Yeah. Well, after some time, Freakneck gained national attention, and then here you have the hundreds of thousands of people who traveled all over the country to be here, to be there for Freaknack. Well, the streets and expressways would literally be good lock, causing people to get out of their cars, and then you know, of course they were all headed somewhere to party. So once they were stuck in this traffic, the party turned into a party. On the expressway. People would get out of their cars and dance, you know, walk around, interact with other people. Those who had cameras, were filming serve different things, and you know, it turned into a good time. I was drinking and walking around on the Expressway, the streets of Atlanta or whatever. I'm turning into a good time for them. So after the years, it got more and more explicit nudity, lootness, traffic issues, public safety issues. They increase of funding needed to simply just police the event and for public safety so well. So women who were not necessarily willing to be roped and grouped were attacked because they weren't really willing to be wild. So it just pretty much got out of hand and it eventually dissolved around nineteen ninety nine. Well, some professional black women who attended freak Nick in the past have filed a lawsuit composed and these women are composed of politicians, comprised of politicians, high level corporate executives, a judge. They have lawyered up and filed a lawsuit against Hulu for the documentary and efforts to stop the release of the documentary. Well, these women who attended freak Nik at some point in time during it to run, they believe it's unlawful to use their likening, their likeness and they haven't signed any media releases. So they got together, um, and they filed a lawsuit, and theybody have a point. Yeah, I might have a point in terms of the likeness. But my my position is y'all went down there and knowing exactly what was going down, I won't get scared now, y'all. I mean, that was wow. The freaknik was I never went. Yeah, I didn't go to that, That's what I was. I stepped off. I was like, nah, I ain't going to any well. We had the Greek here. It was like we had our time. It wasn't you know, we didn't really need to go all the way down there for that. We had we had the Greek picnic. True, But like I think, Um, I've been hearing a lot of talk about you know, people just saying like same thing what you said, like, oh, well you were down there and you know X, Y and Z and then and then what I've been saying a lot of two also is that some people are you know, making these articles and videos and different things and saying like, oh, now the Aunties are are getting scared because what they did in the past, like leave them alone. That was just my thing, like you know, leave them alone. They can you imagine like if it came out and I hate to use her name, but if Michelle Obama was down there and now you want to try to say, you want to pull up some old receipts of her outstancing or whatever. The men aren't. This isn't happening to the men. And if a man is there being doing something provocative or whatever, you're not gonna see. Yeah, it's like he wouldn't get the same backlash as this woman with kids. So leave these women alone. They are judges, they are professionals, they are politicians. Like, yeah, you had your time when you did something that you weren't supposed to do. Um, would you want that to be brought up and your grandchildren are on Hulu and they're looking at something you did. But that's it. That's it. No, I thought you're another story. Yeah, it's I want to I did want to talk about Um. It was a real quick they deserve to be acknowledging. Yeah. I usually do a Celebrity Sizzle Award of the Week because um, as I was saying that, a lot of times we always highlight the negative that celebrities do. But there is positive that some of them are doing. So. Um, I just wanted to highlight Tracy and Sherry. I think it's facts or Sciffics something like that. But there are a married entrepe maneurial couple and they're from New Jersey. They acquired Booker's Restaurant and Bar here in West Philadelphia for a cool three point three million dollars. Yeah. I had to acknowledge them because it was necessary to acknowledge them. Yeah. Yeah, so, um they want to I guess. Um. The bar first opened in twenty seventeen and it was originally owned by H. Saba Tedler. Yeah no U Booker's Restaurant. Yeah so Um. They acquired it through their Facts Entertainment Group LC company and UM what they wanted to basically preserve them. They wanted to basically preserve the restaurant and why it was built. Um. But it pays tribute to Booker Wright, who was a legendary African American waiter back in the nineteen sixties in Mississippi. Um. She worked at a white's only restaurant and um, while she was also running her own restaurant that catered to black customers. So that's why the name Booker's restaurant was created UM and they had gotten them. They got a UM Small US Small Business Administration loan to help them purchase this. So they're wanting to do some awesome things with the restaurant here in West Philadelphia that's located down there by um UM near fiftieth in Baltimore, Baltimore Avenue. You're gonna put the story up? Can you put the story up so they can see it? Yeah? Yeah, for for sure. All right, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. We talked weekly after the talk on wpp M LP Philadelphia one on six point five, that film. We talked weekly after the talk with your boy Charles Gregory and a beautiful and our guest host for this evening, no doubt. And uh yeah, so that's our show, ladies and gentlemen. Next week we got more and more and more content. We're going to continue to amplify the voices we talked weekly. Is always here for the people. That's who were for nobody else. We don't care about nobody else. We only care about the people. Yeah, dig it, the people, right, and so we'll be here in another time. I let your point early piece peace a