Episode 2:
”Beyond Bankruptcy”: The Fight For Stockton Highlights Part 2 - Transcription

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Highlights Part 2 - Transcription

George Koster: [00:00:00] Welcome to Voices of the Community. I'm George Koster. This is part two of highlights from our remastered, from bankruptcy to reinvention, the City of Stockton series. I began recording this documentary in 2016 while visiting my mother Josephine, a first generation Italian immigrant whose family owned motel in South Stockton, and she passed away during production.

George Koster: Former Mayor Michael Tubs grew up in South Stockton, becoming a city council member and mayor. Today's episode features community members who worked with tubs, creating organizations, addressing generational problems. I witnessed firsthand growing up in Stockton join associate producer Eric Estrada, highlighting community members still working to transform Stockton.

Eric: Our first voice is Barbara Alberon, senior Deputy Director for policy and planning at the San Joaquin County Public Health Services.

George Koster: [00:01:00] And so you're on the steering committee. What would you say from your findings and from the information gathered, the residents participation, what is Reinvent South Doctrine doing to try to execute some of the findings and some of the strategies that organizations come up with?

Barbara Alberson: Reinvent is different from anything I've ever been a part of, and I've been in this world doing this kind of work for decades. It's different. I have never seen this kind of community engagement that's authentic. You know, that sounds a little bit like jargon, but it truly is seeking out and using the voice of the community as you can see here today.

Barbara Alberson: Most of the volunteers are kids who live in South Stockton, and it's just delightful to see all these young folks who truly wanna make a difference showing up and finding ways to do that because nothing's worse than giving false expectations, false hopes and promises. So our commitment is to make sure that we carry out what we can do to help them do what they want to do.

Barbara Alberson: So

George Koster: what [00:02:00] would you like to see as the best outcomes of your efforts and reinvent some stuff's efforts?

Barbara Alberson: The fact that we tie political will to social will, and that sounds jargony again, but that's giving voice to the deciders, the decision makers. So they understand and value that they need to invest and they need to pay attention, and they need to give extra attention.

Barbara Alberson: Actually to South Stockton, they've been ignored. In some ways in terms of infrastructure and new buildings, et cetera, and apartment complexes that get permitted as anything you think of across the board. They have had very little investment and that we need to turn that around and in order for the deciders to listen to us.

Barbara Alberson: The US has to include the community demanding that they get their fair in shape.

George Koster: Do you see that happening? I mean, obviously we have Michael T's helped create Reinvent Sus Stockton, but also running Premier. But do you feel like the Athletical [00:03:00] powers that be in Stockton or listening and willing to do the hard work.

Barbara Alberson: In a way they haven't before, and I haven't been here long enough to know the long term history, but some of the players who we work with all the time, it's resonating and they're explaining and are proud of the fact that they're seeing changes that they never would've seen before. Just for example, the closing of the new wave market, the drug infested new wave market is something they were trying to do for 10 years and it happened.

Barbara Alberson: The cleanup of all the playgrounds, it's happening Having Michael.

George Koster: This is Michael Tubbs.

Barbara Alberson: Yes, it's been a catalyst that it's very rare to have a political animal be a part and invested so heavily and deeply and be a part of the movement. Usually you're knocking on the door trying to get the ear of the establishment, and now not only do we have it, but he has a way of asking for things that we could never ask for.

Barbara Alberson: And for pushing the [00:04:00] agenda in a way that we never could. And he does it in such a kind, supportive way that he's making friends where we might make enemies.

Eric: Up next is Michael Tubs, former mayor of the City of Stockton.

George Koster: One of the things I know you've worked on since you've become a city council person and now mayor, and part of your swearing in was the whole idea of economic development in downtown, which has been struggling for decades.

George Koster: How is that going with regards to the partnership with the Centro and the

Michael Tubbs: downtown

George Koster: merchants?

Michael Tubbs: Yeah, slowly but surely, luckily, our downtown area has been designated as opportunities are. Meaning that for folks who are looking to invest, it makes sense to invest in downtown, get the tax benefit, do some good while doing well.

Michael Tubbs: In addition to that, there's some developments coming on live from 10 Space and others. City Hall is moving. We'll talk about where Old City Hall, the Stock Kings G League team just moved to Stockton. So the Stockton King bring more life and liveliness to our downtown. So a lot of good things. Are absolutely happening in our downtown.

Michael Tubbs: I think over the next [00:05:00] four or five years, you really begin to see or rev survive.

George Koster: I know the waterfront's been a part of the old redevelopment agency. It's been a struggle over the years. Where would you like to see the waterfront go to?

Michael Tubbs: I think wants the waterfront just like either Jacqueline Square in Oakland or the San Antonio River Wall.

Michael Tubbs: So we have a vision. We have to figure out who's our development partner to execute that vision. But again, I think with the opportunities zone designation, there's a chance to do something really special there.

George Koster: I wanna turn to education, 'cause I know that's another one of your favorite topics, the whole Stockton initiatives.

George Koster: Can you talk a little bit about the school district? How is it going? Where would you like to take it? It's going

Michael Tubbs: well. They issue the South Stockton Schools Initiative now. It's a Stockton Schools initiative. They're beginning work with Lodi Lincoln and UN Unified. They reset that state of education and Stockton Summit, where they released a data report that showed the amount of work we have to do with the community and they're working with parents.

Michael Tubbs: As soon as they understand that data and push for policy change. They're instrumental in getting us a new superintendent. They are in, are pushing the ATT for all policy as a graduation policy for the [00:06:00] school district. That work is still continuing. Like I guess we just like to expand it so that every district has a dedicated group of parents and students who's focused to making the districts do even better.

Michael Tubbs: Do you

George Koster: feel like the school district is receptive to it and they're working with you as partner? Well,

Michael Tubbs: I think especially stock unified school leadership, particularly the new superintendent, John Daisy, is adamant supporter of Trustee Ow before his trustee is actually the founder or co-founder, the organization.

Michael Tubbs: So he's a big supporter and people really trust Jasmine, Nancy, the rest of the team and look forward to them for leadership and for them to push. And sometimes we want people's nerves

George Koster: coming from South Stockton, growing up there, it's always been a violent place. I know from your own personal tragedy.

George Koster: And that's been another one of your big areas of focus is crime and violence and public safety. I know police were an issue. How do you feel it's going and where would you like to have a go in the next two years?

Michael Tubbs: We still haven't arrived, but for example, this year, non federal shooting and homicides are down 35 plus percent for [00:07:00] last year, and hopefully next year is even lower, still scale.

Michael Tubbs: So we're still major focused on preserving the lives of our citizens. 90% of them who are murders are victims of homicides. Our young men of color, so it is to our existing cease fraud strategy. We brought in another strategy called Advanced Peace to really focus on the guys we're driving on gun crimes and bringing that number down.

Michael Tubbs: Our police department, our police chiefs are doing amazing work with reconciliation. We have internal reform around procedural justice and implicit bias training. Again, we have more officers than we've ever had. Stop Stockton. Actually, a crime map. It used to be like white, red. And now it's like yellowish.

Michael Tubbs: Great. So it's no longer one of the most 10 most crime rid places in the city, which it had been for decades. So we're really proud of that.

Eric: So yeah, we, several ways to go, but we're trending in the right direction. Coming up next is our co-host, Mike Fitzgerald, retired columnists for the Stockton Record at our Stockton Town Hall meeting event, featuring the voices from our state of our youth panel Tari Lee.

Eric: Tyler, lovely Cotton [00:08:00] and Johnny Barrios.

Mike Fitzgerald: Let me take that over to the next subject area crime. When I ask the panelists, do you feel safe in Stockton? Do you feel safe where you live? Do you feel safe? Say, going downtown, do you feel that the police are on your side and treat you with respect? And if the answer to any of those questions is no, then what course of action can you take to improve the status quo?

Mike Fitzgerald: Let's hear it from someone that hasn't spoken yet.

Tafari Lee: I think I can challenge on that. So, uh, I go to Stockton Collegiate, which is a school downtown, and I think the two questions are, do you feel safe downtown? And do you feel like the police are on your side? It two very different questions. Mm-hmm. Like the answer to the first one is, I do feel safe downtown because I'm always downtown Monday through Friday.

Tafari Lee: 'cause I go to school down there.

Mike Fitzgerald: Now let me interrupt and ask you this. Do you feel safe downtown by day and by night? Or do you ever go downtown at night?

Tafari Lee: Well, at night it's like, oh, that's loud. So like the times I have been downtown at night, it's like I'm not necessarily like fearing of [00:09:00] anything. I'm more like cautious.

Tafari Lee: 'cause it's not that I know something is going to happen. It's like, you know, something could happen because there's

Mike Fitzgerald: fewer people on the street. Okay. But go on with your answer.

Tafari Lee: And then so like, do I feel safe downtown? Yes. Because. Like, especially when you're just walking around downtown, like most of what you see is just regular people going about their day.

Tafari Lee: And then you'll see like homeless people on the streets and stuff. And like, I think that's what people make them feel like unsafe downtown, but like really there's like, if you're ever downtown a lot, you'll, you'll learn that. The homeless people, like, they don't have, like, they're not gonna do you any harm.

Tafari Lee: And that, like, that's what a lot of people get wrong. Like they think that like, oh, this dude is out here sleeping on the street. He must be like trying to rob me. He must be trying to do stuff. But really, like in reality, most of the time they're just trying to like, like survive. And then to the other question of do I feel like the police are on my side?

Tafari Lee: The answer to that a lot of the time is not really, because there'll be times like, so for my school, we get off campus lunch, uh, as [00:10:00] sophomores. So like there's times where like I'll just be outside, like playing music with my friends, eating lunch and then like cops, there was one time there was like cops on a bicycle and they just like pulled up and they sat on the corner and they just waited until we, and like when we like tried to go back to a class, they like crossed the street and they followed us like from the other side of the street as if they were like watching us, even though like we weren't doing anything suspicious.

Tafari Lee: It was just a bunch of kids hanging out.

Mike Fitzgerald: So did you talk with them?

Tafari Lee: Well, no, because I had to go straight back to class within, yeah. When they saw, like, I noticed that like when he started going towards the building, that's when they saw, like turned around and left.

Mike Fitzgerald: Okay. So is there something that an activist can do to make the police more friendly and responsive and respectful?

Tyla Lovely Cotton: I don't think there's, they can't, you can't change somebody and how they feel and what they do. It's all over the news that police do things for no reason and nothing's changed yet, so.

Mike Fitzgerald: Are you aware of any changes undergoing at [00:11:00] the Stockton Police Department these days?

Tyla Lovely Cotton: No.

Mike Fitzgerald: Yeah, well, they've got a reconciliation program.

Mike Fitzgerald: They're part of a national experiment of four cities that are trying to go out and, uh, listen to their communities. And incorporate the suggestions that they hear and change their practices. Mm-hmm. They're also changing the officer involved shooting protocols to oversimplify it to shoot less often.

Mike Fitzgerald: However, there's stuff that's going on in the offices, in the police department and stuff that's going on in the streets and they're often, the new philosophy in the top hasn't reached the street level officers yet. So I think personally you would be surprised at what they're trying to do, but I'm listening to you about how well they're doing it on the street.

Mike Fitzgerald: That's not for me to say. That's for you to say. Mm-hmm. Okay. So, um, what about the homelessness, the homeless people that you say you see on the street and that can make you feel uncomfortable? [00:12:00] What do we do about that?

Tyla Lovely Cotton: It's a lot you could do with the homeless people. You could help them get into shelters.

Tyla Lovely Cotton: There's a lot of abandoned buildings you could bring back to life and make 'em into shelters. Um, you could start a program for the homeless and help them get their lives together, but instead you judge 'em. I see a lot of police pick a few homeless people up instead, you could just help 'em with getting those build buildings together.

Mike Fitzgerald: Okay. Anybody

Johnny Barrios: else? Well, I don't know. I was trying, as you were describing, our downtown Stockton with their, all our old buildings and, and you were saying how, how beautiful it is and everything. All I was just imagining it was all the poverty down there and all the homelessness and they, they do try to clear out the homeless, but all the homeless dudes is move up to the other side of the street.

Johnny Barrios: Right. And that's what we see. I mean, our, our crime levels. Look at our crime levels. We had what, 34 days and 34 death. I mean, my friend just died two days ago at Lewis Park. He just got shot. That's, that's, that's Stockton right there. [00:13:00] I'm sorry. You know, e every month there's, there's at least four or five deaths or, you know, every day somebody's getting incarcerated every day.

Johnny Barrios: Somebody's, um, losing their home or, or getting, getting, you know, you don't know nobody's life or what they do as in the police. They, they, they do their job. I mean, you know, everybody's, they have a job and they do it. It to the, to the best of their, their ability. Right. And, uh, I mean, I've had three friends pass away and all the, all the murder cases have been solved.

Johnny Barrios: So they are doing their job as a justice system. I, I would be ignorant to, uh, come up here and tell them. Did you say that the,

Mike Fitzgerald: uh, the murders worse solved? Yeah. They worth the resulting arrests and prosecutions. Mm-hmm. Um, that's great. And that's probably because not only of good police work, but because the community cooperated.

Mike Fitzgerald: Exactly. Yeah. In, in finding. The suspects. And so kudos to the community as well. And you have to know who to trust and when, I guess. But, um, I love to see [00:14:00] people like that behind bars.

Eric: We've reached the halfway point of our inspiring conversation from our acclaimed 2019 series, from Bankruptcy to Reinvention, the City of Stockton.

Eric: So far, you've heard incredible insights from Barbara Albertson, Michael Tubbs, and our dynamic Stockton Town Hall youth panel with Tafari Lee Tyler. Lovely cotton. And Johnny Barrios, you are listening, sharing and support makes voices of the community possible. Stay with us. We have more powerful highlights coming up.

Eric: Welcome back to part two of our highlight series. From Bankruptcy to Reinvention, the City of Stockton, once labeled America's most miserable city, Stockton is rewriting a new story. Led by its people here, artists, youth and community leaders powering grassroots change and collaboration. Coming up next are more highlights from our Stockton Town Hall meeting featuring the voices of Brandon Leak founder and [00:15:00] CEO of call to move.

Eric: And Rodia Ransom, executive director of the SOA Seed Foundation and Tracy City Council member.

Brandon Leake: I, uh, being an educator, not just in terms of like special programs, but having been an educator full-time in regular day classrooms, uh, like I talked to one of the young ladies who was on the panel and how she explained how like Franklin didn't service.

Brandon Leake: Franklin didn't provide her with the necessary things that she needed to be able to become successful because so much of what was provided at this institution was awarded to those who are already excelling as opposed to being able to benefit those who are in need of the assistance to be able to grow into all who they can be.

Brandon Leake: Right. And. What students recognize at a very young age is as young as kindergarten and first grade is whether or not people are, are truly invested in their experience and their growth. And you get students, you get teachers in high school who complain about students who are not wanting to put an effort, but aren't looking at the root cause of the fact [00:16:00] that they've had teachers.

Brandon Leake: That these students have had teachers from grade school who have not invested, who have not taken the time, they have had administration who has been extremely absent outside of disciplinary action. Um, and who have only, and like our first interaction with discipline turns out to be from these principles, which, you know, inevitably turns out to not enjoy policing because policing is the same thing as what we get with principals anyway.

Brandon Leake: But as we look at what these schools do, they don't end up providing safe spaces for these students to learn, and they oftentimes tell us to leave our issues at the door when nobody ever leaves issues at the door. Right? If I am not eating, that means that I'm not focused in class because my stomach is not full, right?

Brandon Leake: If I don't, if I don't have functional water to be able to shower, I am now thinking about whether or not I smell in my classroom and I'm being made fun of, made fun for it. In my, in my recess time, which does not encourage me to be there. And we have to be able to provide students with an ability to be able to process what [00:17:00] goes on in their everyday lives, to then also be able to function inside of a classroom setting, which teachers are not often asked to do enough, and also are not equipped enough to do from the training that is required here in California to be able to do these things.

Mike Fitzgerald: So all these social problems flow into our schools. How do you equip teachers or administrators to deal with them?

Brandon Leake: I think we should stop focusing on how much technology should not be in classrooms. Um, I think too often teachers are focused on whether or not like, oh, are you on your cell phone during this time, during class?

Brandon Leake: It's like, instead of focusing on getting rid of things, focus on how you can implement them to be functional during these times. And then not only that, but invest in your actual class. Like talk to your students, like instead of focusing so much, like we had a student who came up here and talking about, instead of just focusing on curriculum, I can tell you as an educator, that was all that was rammed down my throat.

Brandon Leake: Like, are you sticking on pace to curriculum? Are you preparing these students for these tests that they will come at the end of [00:18:00] the year and we're provide and we're providing this, this world. With illiterate people to how to actually function in an everyday society that requires them to create not just like constructively think, but creatively think to be able to solve and deal with the world and its problem.

Mike Fitzgerald: Okay. Speaking of that, then I have a couple questions for the panel. Talking about the real world first couple, some years ago, the state of California abolished vocational education. Should everybody be on track to go to college or should some people be learning trades?

Brandon Leake: I believe it's the student's choice.

Mike Fitzgerald: And should there be mentors in the schools to help them sort out, uh, which direction they might like to take to prize them of their, their, uh, options and match their skills? Or is the system inherently unfair enough to do that? Because that's why vocational education was abolished in the first place. [00:19:00]

Rhodesia Randsom: I am gonna, I'm gonna speak to that and I wanna reiterate Brandon's point that it should be the young person's choice.

Rhodesia Randsom: But just like in anything else, you know, when our young people are in school, they don't really care how much people know they until they know that those people care. So when you're asking, should there be mentors in school, there should be people in school, building those relationships with them, people that they can trust and go to who know where the resources are.

Rhodesia Randsom: Who can help them to navigate a system that's really not designed to help them, um, while we try to fix that broken system. So it, it needs to be their choice, but there needs to be someone there that they feel that they have a relationship with. And if they're in that situation that they need to be guided, um, we should not.

Rhodesia Randsom: You know, feel like we need to, to create a caste system and decide you can go to college and you cannot, but we should, at the same time, make sure that those young people have someone that they feel like they can trust, who can make sure that they have all those options available to them.

Mike Fitzgerald: Yeah, we wanna be sensitive to what you [00:20:00] said about the caste system.

Mike Fitzgerald: On the other hand, I know a lot of people my age who are retiring as electricians and other forms of contractors, and they can't sell their business.

Eric: Up next are the voices of Toma Brisbane, founder and director of With Our Words Incorporated, and Nicholas Hadden, founder and executive director of the San Joaquin County Pride Center

Mike Fitzgerald: Educators, um, on the panel.

Mike Fitzgerald: Are the, are the inner city school music programs, are they funded or have they defunded the music programs?

Tama Brisbane: They're woefully funded at best. I would like to pose a question to the young people in the audience. By show of hands, how many of you know somebody that's in the studio working on a project?

Mike Fitzgerald: Number of hands went up.

Tama Brisbane: How many of you know an aspiring rapper or an mc?

Mike Fitzgerald: Again,

Tama Brisbane: even more hands. To be a rapper or an mc means you have to have a facility with language. I always tell the rappers that come into our program and Mama [00:21:00] TI don't know if I can be a poet. Well, basically, if you take the beats away from a rapper, you got a lyricist.

Tama Brisbane: And a lyricist is simply a synonym for a poet. And everybody has equal access to this microphone. This is an art and a trade. In and of itself, and all of this is woefully unacknowledged and unrecognized and not lifted up enough, and not funded enough, and not appreciated enough. In our schools and in our community.

Nicholas Hatten: That's so every dollar spent, that's something. $4 comes back in revenue.

Mike Fitzgerald: That's something that can be addressed to the school board, right? I mean, are, shouldn't we not be going to the school board and telling them, look, we want some of the budget to be directed to inner city music programs.

Tama Brisbane: We not only want to address it at the school board level, but we also have to put the onus back into the community.

Tama Brisbane: Are we providing platform? For when these kids do these things, [00:22:00] when they create these magnificent arts projects, where are we showcasing them? Mm-hmm. Are we putting them in their own little academic gulags and only segregating them to a Franklin or to a Chavez, or to an SCI? But are we actually putting them into the community?

Tama Brisbane: Lifting them up so that we can see the, the fruits of this kind of labor and the return on that potential investment.

Mike Fitzgerald: So perhaps the city could have some kind of festival celebrating the musical arts, the youth musical arts,

Nicholas Hatten: the city and the county kicked down some tax revenue to go towards funding arts.

Tama Brisbane: Thought that's what we did with Measure M.

Eric: Lastly, we featured the voice of Anthony Rodriguez, English and Math Educator at Marshall Elementary.

Mike Fitzgerald: Another question from the audience. How do you break the school to prison pipeline?

Anthony Rodriguez: You gotta tell 'em. You gotta, you gotta inform your kids. Your kids need to know the truth. You [00:23:00] can't beat around the bush no more. You know, my, my thing, my thing with my students is I sit them down and I let them know the truth. Right? When they walk through my classroom, I, I can't, I can't, I don't, I don't bull crap with them.

Anthony Rodriguez: That's right. I, I like the, the first lesson they walk, they hear when they walk through my door is the road that grew from concrete. And they understand what it mean, why, why, why he wrote it. The Why Tupac, why I'm gonna say his name, why Tupac wrote it the way he did. What, what, what, what? What's embedded?

Anthony Rodriguez: Within all those words, and I help my students realize that he was talking about them. But, but we get deeper into that. And I actually use a article of yours, Mr. Fitzgerald, the nihilism article that you wrote with, uh, when Mr. Tubs was, um, when, when, when, what was her name? Anna. Anna. Anna de Dere. Is that how you say it?

Anthony Rodriguez: DeVeer Smith. When you Smith. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, we use her article and we break it down and we talk about. You know, that nihilistic mindset and what that mean, what it means to grow up in a community that has that mindset and how that affects them. What it, what it, what it means to live in that.

Anthony Rodriguez: And [00:24:00] seeing my kids come to reality with that is, is scary. It's a scary thing. 'cause the, the, my, the, you have to bring them back because I, I, it really beats them down. It's, it's a beat down. You have to be honest with them though, that this is real. This is what it is. This is why y'all are dying. This is why you feel that way when you go home.

Anthony Rodriguez: This is why you feel this way. When you show up to my classroom, when you show up to the school, when you walk down the halls, when you sit down in that class, when you do this, when somebody's yelling at you, kicking you outta class, sending into the office multiple times while you see that little second grader walking around the school all day long, look it in the face now.

Anthony Rodriguez: Understand it. Now let's come to reality. 'cause you are somebody in this community. You have an identity, you have somebody that you are destined to be. Let's bring it back. Let's connect you with many different people in the community that want, want the same things for you that look like you, that wants you to grow into something [00:25:00] more than what your community is teaching you.

Anthony Rodriguez: And, and that, that it's. It is, like I said, it's a scary thing to see and it's a scary thing to be around. But at the end of it all, at the end of this past week, uh, that I had in my classroom, you know, I'm able to open up their eyes to the world and open up their eyes to the many different people that I can connect you with, and that this resource is always gonna be here for you.

Anthony Rodriguez: You have a hub, a place you can come to get any help. That you need. I was yelling at one of my students when I first got here 'cause his grades are not where they need to be, but, and I let him know that, dude, you gotta let me know this now you gotta come over. Marshall is your hub. Understand that if you ain't gonna get it at Edison, come over to Marshall.

Anthony Rodriguez: My door is always open. They don't have those resources everywhere. That's not available to them everywhere. Our, our teachers aren't informing our kids of the truth. And it's really scary that, that, that that's happening, you know? But I'd much rather have [00:26:00] my kid be knocked down, me, build them back up, send them off to Edison, send them off to Franklin, and know that those values and those things that I have taught them are instilled into their mind.

Anthony Rodriguez: And that they know that these things are a avail. They know that it's, it's their choice. I can't, I can't hold your hand. Jasmine can't hold your hand. We can't hold your hand as you walk through high school and make these choices. But I can inform you of these choices. I can inform you of what's going on.

Anthony Rodriguez: You have to look it into the eyes, and you have to make the choice of. What you going to do.

Eric: That brings us to the end of part two of our highlights, compilation from the bankruptcy to reinvention the City of Stockton series. Our deepest appreciation goes to today's inspiring guests, Barbara Albertson, Michael Tubs, Tafari Lee Tyler, lovely Cotton, Johnny Barrios, Brandon Lee, Rodia, ransom to Brisbane, Nicholas Hadden and Anthony Rodriguez, whose stories illuminate.

Eric: Stockton's. Remarkable transformation journey. Want to explore this story further? [00:27:00] Head to voices of the community.com and navigate to our complete stockton's Rise from bankruptcy series. There you'll find extended profiles of our guests detailed information about their organizations and concrete ways you can support their community building efforts.

Eric: While you're there, browse our archive, sign up for our newsletter for updates on new episodes and events, and if you can. Click, donate. Every share and every subscription extends these voices across our region and beyond. Your support helps us produce stories like this and helped us earn the 2025 Alliance for Community Media Foundation.

Eric: Hometown Media Award for best informational talk show. Coming up in October and November, join us for our special two-part one hour highlight shows from our comprehensive 105 episode COVID-19 pandemic series. These compilations showcase amazing stories from local nonprofits, small businesses, and [00:28:00] local government workers who navigated extraordinary challenges.

Eric: Together with our community. Don't miss these powerful testimonies of resilience, service, and community spirit. Tune in for inspiration. Today's episode was made possible through our co-production partnership with KWDC 93.5 fm, the home of San Joaquin Delta College's Digital Media. We also want to thank both Ariana Bragger and Leo Marquez of KWDC for their wonderful support of this special series.

Eric: Special thanks to our co-host, Mike Fitzgerald and thanks to Casey Nance from Citron Studios for the graphics magic. Take voices of the community with you on the go. Subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app, enjoying the show. Please rate and review us on your favorite app. It helps more people discover these important stories.

Eric: Go to youtube.com/at Geo Costa to watch or listen to all of our past and future [00:29:00] episodes. And you can always go to voices of the community.com to listen and watch our five series and from our archives. Have feedback or ideas for shows. We'd love to hear from you. emailGeorge@georgekoster.com. I'm Eric Estrada from San Francisco.

Eric: On behalf of our team, thank you for joining us. Until next time, remember, your voice matters.

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