Podcasts about Dinkins

St. Michael's by-the-Sea is an Episcopal Church located in the coastal Village of Carlsbad, California. As far as churches go, it's kind of a beachy version of the ancient Christian Faith, and is rooted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Whether you're in town for a week at the beach or a local pilgrim on a spiritual journey, you are welcome here! www.stmichaelsbythesea.org

In this episode of Building Texas Business, I speak with Brian Birdy, the CEO of PMI Birdy Properties and a regional developer for Dill Dinkers. Brian shares insights about managing his family business, which his father started in 1979. He discusses the complexities of succession planning and how involving family members can strengthen the business for future generations. Brian's latest venture, an indoor pickleball facility, highlights his ability to identify emerging trends and foster a unique business culture. We explore effective strategies for business growth as Brian emphasizes the importance of a solid foundation. He talks about the need for a strong team, comprehensive training, and well-documented processes to navigate unexpected challenges. Additionally, we discuss the hiring landscape post-COVID, where Brian advocates for a proactive approach to recruitment and the importance of adapting to new employment trends. As we move into the topic of franchising, Brian shares his experiences with Dill Dinkers and the potential of using repurposed industrial spaces for pickleball courts. He reflects on the benefits and challenges of setting up a franchise in this fast-growing market. His connection to San Antonio adds a personal touch, as he expresses his passion for the local community and its cultural vibrancy. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS I discussed with Brian Birdy, CEO of PMI Birdy Properties, about managing a family business founded by his father in 1979 and his strategies for succession planning and family involvement. Brian shared insights on the importance of building a resilient business foundation through strategic planning, comprehensive training, and process documentation, emphasizing adaptability to technological advancements. We explored the post-COVID hiring landscape, where Brian highlighted the significance of a proactive hiring approach, prioritizing candidates with a positive attitude and aligning with changing employment trends. The conversation delved into the burgeoning pickleball market, with Brian expressing enthusiasm for his new venture in opening an indoor pickleball facility and the potential of franchising with Dill Dinkers. Brian revealed the challenges and opportunities in the residential property management industry, particularly in differentiating oneself in a competitive market and adapting to shifts in housing demand. We examined the process of opening a pickleball franchise, discussing the benefits of franchising for newcomers, the importance of choosing the right franchise, and the potential for repurposing industrial spaces for pickleball courts. Brian emphasized the value of surrounding oneself with capable people, investing in staff, and being open to new ideas and changes to drive business success, while reflecting on his connection to San Antonio and the local community. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About PMI Birdy Properties GUESTS Brian BirdyAbout Brian TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: Brian, welcome to Building Texas Business. Thanks for taking the time to come on the podcast hey thanks for having me. So you know, let's dive right in and talk about some of the things that you're doing as an entrepreneur and business owner and just introduce your companies to the audience. Brian: Sure. So I'm the broker and owner of Birdie Properties, which is a real estate company that specializes in residential property management. It has been in business for over 46 years. My dad actually started that business back in 1979. I've been running it and working at it and eventually running it since about 97 and have grown it to one of the largest residential property managers in South Texas, learned a lot of lessons in growing that business and the newest adventure is Dilldinker's Indoor Pickleball, which I'm sitting in, and I'm very excited that we will be opening our first location here in about a week and a half. Chris: Well, that's great. So two full-time jobs, it sounds like. Brian: Yeah, Well, the other one's a family-owned legacy business. It's three generations deep. Like I said, my dad started it. My brother and I both worked in it. I've owned it and run it for 20, 28 years and currently all of my three adult children and my daughter-in-law all work there and do the heavy lifting. With a little bit of guidance from me, that gave me the ability that could run effectively without my daily requirement, gave me the ability to actually continue that entrepreneurial spirit and try something completely different, which is indoor pickleball. I saw a true need in my city for this. There wasn't anybody delivering it. I saw it as an up and growing and when I actually started on it, less people knew what pickleball was. In the last 18 months it has really come to the forefront and so I got on. I started riding the wave at the right time and I hope it just keeps rolling, yeah well, it's certainly taken the last couple of years. Chris: It's taken on like a life of its own, it seems like. So let's go back to, I guess, Birdy Properties and maybe the unique part of what it's like in a family business to do the succession from your dad, who was the founder, to you and your brother then taking over that business. What were some of the maybe the pain points and lessons learned about doing that and what maybe advice you might give to someone that's in the process or thinking about it, of what to do or not do? Brian: Yeah, running a family business it's wonderful and it's tough, both hand in hand. The wonderful part about it is their name is on that business. Their future is tied into that business. Their commitment generally if they really care about it is they're a lot more committed than just an individual employee. But at the same time it's problematic in that you can't separate yourself from business. Family meals are filled with business. Taking an entire family vacation becomes almost an impossibility. And then succession is an issue. I bought the business from my father and it was clearly me. I own it. So my brother continued to work there but was not in ownership of it. That has its own problems. We found a way for him to actually build a business out of this and he's actually gone out on his own, is specializing in short-term management and is running his own business now, and so that was a way to kind of figure out how that could work. So he is the owner, sole owner, of Birdy Vacation Rentals. But I've got three kids that work for me. Each of them have unique qualities. They own all own a very important part of the business and they really can't survive without them working together, which works great now, but it's going to be. I'm going to wonder, I keep wondering and trying to figure out how, what is the best way to pass this on? And I don't have the right answer for it, but continuing to work at it, you know, giving them all individual pieces that they could own and be the masters of, and then by doing that, everyone needs each other kind of helps with that whole process. You can't no one of them can survive without the others. Chris: Well, it seems, if that's the case, right then you've set it up well for success because that fosters that team environment and team mentality. And you know we love talking about culture. So obviously you have the unique relationship with your children. How have you tried to take that beyond the family relationship with the other employees so that they feel the same engagement with the organization and tied to the organization's success? Brian: So we've gone through lots of that and growing and basically anybody who works for us can see that. I mean their last name isn't Birdy, they're not in the succession plan but we treat everyone within our business as if it was a big family. We believe in family. We believe in quality time. Individuals who work for us recognize we want them to do a great job for us but when they need time, when they need something they know they can ask for it, they can get it and just building that kind of culture has allowed us to have. Number of people who have worked for us for 15, 13, 12, I think is my current people that are out there have been here for a very long time. They're part of the family even though they're not. You know, their last name doesn't say birdie on it, but we work really hard in building a core that can. You know, property management is a tough business. I've said all along one of our core values is that we're going to have fun, and so one of the things we've always built is if we can have fun doing the worst part of that business, then we got it made. So we have a lot of fun when we're doing the fun parts of the business and when we go out of our way to make sure people are going to have fun. But we also find ways just to have fun and to really own that. There are tough parts of that business also. Chris: Sure, well, true for any business, right. There's always, yeah, the piece that you don't enjoy doing. But you know you have to right, it's a necessary piece but it may not be the most fun. I think you're right. If you can bring joy and fun into that, then the rest should be easy. Brian: right, because it's the stuff you like to do and want to do and, as I think about, I've been doing that for 28 years and I love going to work there. I love people that I work with and even though it's in a very tough and stressful because I mean, at times I have to evict people from their homes, I mean that isn't something that's fun, you know. But it has encouraged me that I'm waiting to see how much fun is running a pickleball facility going to be, where we have a core value of bringing joy to everyone through the sport of pickleball. And I'm like, if I can have fun doing property management, I think I should find it a little easier to have fun running a pickleball facility. But I don't know yet. We haven't opened our doors yet, we're going to find out, but it's. I mean, I'm just it feels like it's going to be fun, but you know, I don't know what, I don't know yet. Chris: So going back to Birdy and property management is anything innovative? Or you know how? Has technology or innovation kind of helped you be more efficient in what you do and maybe more profitable? Brian: Yeah, so we've. We have challenged ourselves to chase technology. You know, if you go all the way back to probably, I mean, and we've done this for a long time and we've had a website since 1998 when it didn't do anything and most people didn't have it, I mean we have a five letter URL. I mean we are www.birdy.com, you know, and people have wanted to pay a lot of money to buy that name, but it's just something. Fortunately, my dad said I think this might be something someday, let me just get our name now. He was lucky, he did that. But from that we've continued to chase the changes. Every business has had major changes. I will tell you that, coming out of the 07, 08 mortgage industry collapse and all the problems that happened, property management got brought way up into the forefront and technology, of course, coming on strong at that time saw this as an open lane that nobody was in and they have been chasing after us like crazy. And we have said all along if we want to continue to be relevant, if we want to be a hundred-year-old business, the only way we're ever going to get there is we have to embrace technology, embrace change, figure out the ways to do that, race to it, understand it and apply it. You know however that is, and so we've dramatically changed our business from where we first I mean when we first started, you know everything was on paper. It was all in a folder. The folder was in a cabinet. You know, you met people face to face. I mean, everything has changed and you know, at our last national event, the big thing that was there was all AI driven. Not only have we used technology and we use computers and we've automated some things, but now we're having the computer starting to figure out what can they really do for us in the industry, and I see that being big changes coming forward as to what can it really do for us. Coming out of COVID, we learned we can do a lot and we don't really need an office to do it anymore. We can have remote team members. We can do a lot on Zoom. We can do everything with computers. I think AI is just going to push that, and that even runs into this business. Bill Dinkers has changed a lot and it's only a couple of years old, but it's incorporated on court cameras that film the sessions for the players, and now that company is building AI, so it's going to be able to tell them automatically. You know some statistics from their match, you know counting things for them and I'm like, and so again, very early stages open landscape that technology and AI development is just stepping into, and I'm just curious and excited to see what can that take us to. I mean, because that's the future of our business, all of our businesses. Chris: Oh for sure, I mean, technology is not going anywhere. I think I had someone tell me one time never bet against technology. Technology always wins right Eventually it continues to evolve and you may not be an early adopter, but you better pay attention and learn how to integrate it sooner rather than later, or you're going to get left behind. Brian: Well, right, and it'll show you ways that you can like. We can manage more properties with less people. Because of technology, we can have individuals working for us now all over the world and we have been embraced that for a long time and we're about a 50-50 business. Half of our employees are here in town. The other half are all remote team members and primarily in Mexico, because I'm in South Texas, so I need people that can speak Spanish, and what greater way to have somebody work for me whose primary language is Spanish? So that part has been a significant change in the property management side of it. And that comes with technology. Right, because they have a computer. They can do everything. They have a phone line, so you call my office and you hit the phone. It's calling them Because phone is now what? A computer? Everything is a computer. If you can learn how to adapt the changes in your business to automation, you find ways to grow and to make money when you're doing it right. Chris: So you mentioned the 08 kind of market crash. What were some of the lessons you learned? I think that's a pretty important or severe impact on your business business and we always learn, kind of through some of those crises. So what were some of the things that you learned, maybe about your company or, more importantly, about yourself that kind of helped pull the company through to continue on a path of success? Brian: Well, if you think about it, most people saw that as a crash, as a problem. In my world it was actually a good thing. Besides the fact that people were losing their houses to foreclosure, that was certainly a negative. That didn't help me at all. But what came behind that was investors, and investors were buying those properties and turning them in to single family rentals and they needed management behind it. People who wanted to hold onto their house but had to leave them could not sell them Again. Another thing we were ready for growth. We were prepared for growth and we were not scared to grow as fast as we possibly could In those years. We doubled in size in both 07 and 08. And I think a lot of that was we were preparing for growth and then something happened that we didn't expect. But we were ready and I don't think anybody else was, so we benefited from that. We exploded over about a two or three year visit and really skyrocketed us up that. We've never lost that position since. Chris: That's amazing. So you talked about you were preparing for growth before those events happened. What was it you were doing to be preparing yourself for that growth? Brian: Making sure I have the right staff, all my training, all my processes, systems, policies and procedures. You know, you, when you first start and you're an entrepreneur, you have this great idea. You know how to do it all in your head, you make sure it can work right. What a lot of entrepreneurs aren't great at is writing it all down, systematizing it all and teaching people how to do it. And so, as you're growing, you're just throwing things trying to fill in these holes and you have to learn there's got to be a better process to your business and growing your business, and an individual who is forward thinking and really crazy ideas and just really interested to go do all these wonderful things can come up with some great stuff, but they're not the person that's going to carry it the long-term, step-by-step and so, understanding what you're good at, learning who you need around you to fill in those pieces where you're not and luckily for me, you know I have children who are from me but not really like me and so and they're not really like each other and so, collectively, the four of us and others that we've built into that start to create more of a complete package, and we learned and we're continuing to learn. We are forever changing and we are forever growing. It never stops, and that's, I think, it. I think at that time, what we wanted was I wanted to grow. We were talking about growing and I was trying everything to be visible because, remember, technology hadn't taken over. You know, people weren't finding you online. You had to. You know, I was still paying for ads and newspapers and the yellow pages because I wanted people to find me. But I found technology earlier than anybody else. I found a program called allpropertymanagementcom when it first opened and it was the first marketplace for property managers on the internet and I raced to it. I was the only one there in 2007. And that's when everyone started freaking out what am I going to do with my property? They looked and they found me, and that was a big part of so just the little steps like that was like not, I mean, that was an investment, I was paying money to do that, but I thought there would be a payoff. I didn't expect the tremendous payoff I got, but it really was a lot about just making sure you know what you have around you and a lot of times, what happens is we don't hire for growth, right, we want growth, then growth happens and then we get squished by the work. Everyone gets overworked, everyone gets stressed, nobody's happy, culture starts to get hurt and you can't sometimes, can never hire fast enough to catch up to train them all. So, knowing your business, watching closely, investing in growth by investing in your people, those are some of the lessons I learned because I did all that wrong at first and I suffered because of it and I've learned to do it differently because of that. Chris: Yeah, that's a beautiful point. I mean to your point about if you start to grow you haven't, excuse me, hired for it then you start making hiring decisions out of desperation and that's a recipe for disaster, as opposed to being able to follow that process. As you mentioned, that process is in place, that you stick to that. You follow that. You're always looking to evolve and change and tweak as times change. But if you're behind the curve, if you will, then it's hard to catch up. Brian: You also have to change with times. I mean when you can be hiring, when you don't need to hire someone, you're not in a hurry. During your interview process you don't settle for okay, this person's good enough, right? You're like, if none of them are good enough, well then they're none. Keep looking right. But if you're in a hurry, if you're in a need, then anyone close you're going to take and it may not be a good fit for you. And I would tell you, before COVID you had people in large numbers applying for jobs, but after COVID that changed dramatically and it became a point. I mean I used to say if I could get 10 people to interview, five of them would show up, or maybe six, and one or two or three potentially could be good opportunities there and you'd be able to windle it down to possibly one good quality candidate. After COVID you were lucky if one person showed up, and I don't think that's really changed dramatically even yet today. Chris: That was my question. It feels, like in the last, say, 12 months or so, there's starting to be a little bit of a maybe it's slow, but a swing back towards people realizing. You know you hear the bigger companies saying five days back in the office and you know that you know where we had the quiet quitting going on in 21, 22. It seems to me there's a little less of that and it's coming back. There are maybe more people out there and you hear that you know new college graduates are having, you know, really difficult times finding jobs because it seems like it's tightening a little bit Well. Brian: Luckily I'm in a season in which I've not needed to hire and I've got everything placed out right, and so I hope when I start hiring again in that space I do see that change, because I've noticed a big difference there and even had to change my whole process of what's really important when I interview people I mean I have put you know the number there are two things that are at the top of the list, and that is an overwhelmingly positive attitude and an undeniable desire to work. And if people come in with those two things, I can take them from there with anything else, because I can't give them either one of those. I can't culture that to anyone, I can't teach that to anybody. They have to have those two things If they have those, if they have those two things clearly, and you can find figure that out pretty quick. Chris: So I have a chance to identify with that, because the words I use are we look for effort and attitude Right. And I like your desire to work. You would think that would come natural, but you and I both know it doesn't. You're interviewing people. They just want a job sometimes or a paycheck, and they don't really have a desire to work or work hard. So I agree, you have to have an interview process that can kind of figure that out. Brian: That's true and we've, and that's something you have to learn and experience and get through and continue to tweak because, as you think you have the best experience, your market of applicants change and then you have to change and adapt with them. BTXBAdvert Hello friends, this is Chris Hanslick, your Building Texas business host. Did you know that Boyer Miller, the producer of this podcast, is a business law firm that works with entrepreneurs, corporations and business leaders? Our team of attorneys serve as strategic partners to businesses by providing legal guidance to organizations of all sizes. Get to know the firm at boyermillercom. And thanks for listening to the show. Chris:So we kind of look at the landscape out there. What are some of the headwinds that you either are dealing with now or that you think may be coming around the corner, that you're trying to prepare for to kind of not let them slow you down? Brian: I think that in the residential property management space, when times are good we do well, when times are bad, we do even better. So generally making sure that we're running the best business that we can, that we're providing what people need, figuring out a way to be being better Everyone wants to say they're better, but being better doesn't really necessarily draw anyone's attention anymore because it's like are you really better? You're just saying you're better. But when you're different and you can show someone why you are different, that's what really changes it, and I and so we focus on how are we different, why are we different, how can we be different and what differences are going to be important in the next five years that may not have been important in the last five years. Chris: That's really good. Yeah, I could see where and I would think even the lots have been written about it how difficult it is for people to purchase a home. Now, right, the interest rates, one thing, maybe the lack of accumulated wealth or down payments because of the lending markets. I can see where that would boost your business. Brian: I would tell you that in 2024, nationwide the market said that rental markets should have been skyrocketing and doing well, but for a variety of reasons it was not the best year. 2025 has started out as a much better year. Last year was a rough year on most residential property managers and when we look at that it came back to a tremendous amount of apartment complexes that were built coming out of COVID that opened and it drew a lot of the market space away People not buying, not moving, families coming together in one location, which reduces right. But we've seen a big change this year at probably one of our busiest first quarters in a while, so we're hoping that just continues. Chris: Very good. So, shifting gears a little bit Sounds like a company that you love. You said you love to have fun doing it. I guess we're in it for most of your life, bought it from your dad. All things going well, Kids are in it, Kids are thriving and against that backdrop you decide to step out and take on the pickleball business, which there's certainly some competition there. Maybe San Antonio's market was a little lacking. There's certainly some competition there. Maybe San Antonio's market was a little lacking, but there's all kinds of people doing pickleball courts now. So what was it that inspired you or drove you to make that decision and take on that risk? Brian: Well, so I started playing pickleball for the first time coming out of COVID in 2020, when our mayor said, okay, you can go and gather, but it has to be outside. And so there was a tennis place that had converted on a tennis court. Still, they converted and made these makeshift pickleball and I went out and said, hey, this is a lot of fun. Eventually, chicken and Pickle opened in San Antonio. I went inside to that and I thought, hey, I really like this, and started playing there. Quite regularly. My wife and a non pickleball related injury broke her ankle and we were out for about a year. When I came back one year later, everything had changed. It was almost impossible to book a court. The age of the players had dropped 20 years in a year. It used to be forties and fifties and I walk in and now it's twenties and thirties and I was like, okay, something has really happened here. So I did a lot of research, looked at all the numbers and then I started saying, okay, we don't have enough courts and we don't have any indoor courts, and I was like I think we could do a good job at this. I was first trying to find a place to go play, and what it led me to is there's a need. Maybe I can solve that need. And then, in researching it in the state of Texas, san Antonio was lacking in indoor courts In the country. We're doing awful. Houston was the only city in Texas even on the radar for the number of pickleball courts, and the number of indoor pickleball courts they have more than anyone in Texas. They have more than almost any other city in the country. So that city had figured it out and I'm like we hadn't yet. And I'm like we hadn't yet and I'm like, hey, if you're going to do something and you're going to be different, one of the greatest ways of being different is be first, because if you're first, you're different. There's nobody else, right? And so so I dove in, found a great Dill. Dinkins is a national franchise and I believed in what they put together and and so I'm one of their first franchisees. I'm going to be opening up my first club here in about 10 days here in San Antonio, and I'm a regional developer, so I have the right to develop up to 20 clubs. Whether I open them or help somebody else who wants to run their own pickleball location here, I will be supporting them and getting them open, and I can open all of my clubs. Other entities can open all theirs. There will not be enough pickleball, because if I fill all my clubs up all 20 clubs open and they're all completely full that would only represent a fraction of 1% of the Bexar County population, and so there's room for everybody and there's room for growth. And that's kind of one of the reasons why I got into this is that I'm like hey plus, I love it. I have so much fun, and I'm going to tell you what running a property management business has been a lot of fun, but I really hope that running a pickleball business is going to be even a lot easier to have fun. We'll see. I don't know yet. Chris: Yeah Well, in 10 days you'll start to figure it out. Brian: Well, that's free, that's free week, everyone's coming for free, so they're going to love me for at least a week, for sure. We'll see what happens after that. Chris: Good strategy there. Yeah, I know. Look, we've worked with some entrepreneurs and developers here in the Houston area doing this right, developing pickleball venues with the bars and the food service, and that's where they did the market research. And even in Houston it's interesting to hear your numbers on the covered courts in Houston, kind of leading all cities but there is a lack of courts in light of the demand especially, you're certainly private clubs have taken converted tennis courts or extra space where they put in pickleball courts, but if you're not a member of that club you don't have access. And so for the general public to have access, things like what you're doing and chicken, chicken pickle, et cetera, and some of the maybe non-national brands just worn off local things there's still a ton of demand for that. Brian: Yeah, if you look at it, lifetime Gyms and LA Fitness have both decided they're going away from basketball and they're going all in on pickleball. And I talked to their national developer and I said why are you making this change? And they said well, basketball has led to altercations and fights and problems and pickleball equals new membership and so they're all in and you can see, most of them are converting them. I have a couple of Gold's Gyms in San Antonio that have converted into pickleball in their courts. It's just there's such a need, there's such a desire. A lot of people say they find a way to play, they'll play anywhere. A lot of people haven't played because they say it's too hard to find a place to play. So we're hoping we can be part of the solution to that and start giving lots and lots of options for people to come out and play and see how easy it is, how fun it is. The community that's built around this is unlike other sports is the community that's built around this is unlike other sports? It is. It is a unique game in which it is the most gender equal and age equal. I can go out on any given day and lose to an eight-year-old or an 80-year-old, and both of them could be a male or a female. It doesn't matter, because this is. It is the equal sport amongst all sports. Chris: Yeah, well, I'll say you know, given the timing when you're opening and the fact that you know we're in Texas, being covered courts is going to be a nice added bonus, because I don't think you want to be in the middle of summer outside on a pickleball court for too long. Brian: Well, they've been doing it for years. What I have to do is get them in here so they can see, and that's the thing about being different. So some things that are different with us is we have pro cushion courts. They're all individually fenced. We have special LAD court lighting that's designed specifically for pickleball. Of course, it's not windy in here. There's no rain, there's no heat, there's no humidity and, as you can see behind me, all the walls are black in the playing surface, and that's so. When you're standing on your court and your opponent hits the ball pops, you know it's coming outside. You don't see that. You got wind, you got heat, you got sweat, you got movement, you got craziness, and so that's where we've dove into being different and we're hoping it'll pay off. Chris: No, all true. I mean having played myself. You're right, if you're outside and depending on where the sun is, you may, it's sometimes hard to see the ball. Brian: Yeah, true, not in here. Perfect lighting, perfect temperature, perfect courts. And the one thing I get annoyed I'm a spoiled. I'm a pickleball snob. Now. I cannot stand playing on a court where the court right next door is not separated and their ball keeps coming into mine. I'm like I can't even play that way anymore. I'm, I've become a. I've become a pickleball snob. I expect to be able to get on my court and play my game and not be disrupted by anybody else. Chris: There you go, as every man and woman should have a right to right. That's right. So so you kind of bit this off as a franchisee. Let's talk a little bit about that. What are some of the things that you learned about that process that maybe you weren't expecting that you could share with some listeners, and maybe a lot of people look at franchise opportunities. Brian: So I tell people all the time. So I've been involved in franchising in a couple of other ways. I went for about a four-year period and worked for a nationwide property management franchising company called Property Management Incorporated and I was up at the corporate level seeing. So I learned about franchising itself and people go why are you doing this, why should I do this? And I would give them reasons why. If you're already running your business, you already know what you're doing. You don't need a franchise when you're starting out from brand new and you have no idea what you're doing and you're not really sure how you're going to do it. You have to consider that Anyone can do the business on their own right. Even me, I could have opened this on my own. But do you know how much stuff I didn't know about pickleball that I learned from my franchise organization and the attention that it has drawn me? You have to figure out when that might be right for you. I think that there's been a lot of benefit of doing that. But you got to examine them all. I went and looked at every existing franchise when I started to do this Now. Since then, there are five new Pickleball franchises available and I'm sure there'll be five more in the next six months. So there are a lot of choices. I looked at them all, I checked into their history, I interviewed, expect what they need to do, and then I went and did a discovery day in Columbia, maryland, to find out what was Dill Dinkers all about, and a big part of it is who is the leadership? Who's going to be guiding you? Who are you going to be working with? And I absolutely loved the people that were involved, and that's a big part of this. You're going to be in business with them at the same time, and so this made a lot of sense for me. They were structuring in a very smart way of doing it, and they're the fastest growing Pickleball franchise that's out there, and they've sold 27 regions across the country. They've made great strides at improving everything that we do the play site cameras that we talked about earlier, with the AI involved that's something that's new. The pro cushion courts that's new from when we first started, and now all of our pro shops are powered by Pickleball Central, which, again, is also something new. So when you look at a franchise, it's like, yeah, they exist, but what are they doing to evolve? What are they doing to be different, because you're going to rely on that and work with them to show them how else they can be different. I decided this was the way for me to go and by being a regional developer here in town, I have my first one opening, I have my second one already under construction and I've got 18 more to go, but I'm probably not going to open all 18 of those. So there are opportunities right now and the way Jill Dinkers is, they have your corporate staff, but I'm the local representative. I'm here to help develop anyone locally. So anyone who wants to open one here has me helping them, and I've already gone through all the pain and suffering of what does it take to open a place. I know all. I know what you need to do to have it happen. They taught me what they knew. Now I've experienced here locally in San Antonio. I know what's going to happen here. Those are some of the advantages when you start looking at franchising and say, hey, I want to do a business, I don't want to do it alone, I don't want to start and it's tough. There's things you've got to know to be successful right out of the gun and you may not know everything on your own, it makes sense. Chris: And I said there's the franchisors got to show that value right. The why you're going to be making payments and getting the benefit of some of their things. It occurs to me too, one of the advantages, at least to what you're doing with these indoor courts and just kind of looking behind you is that you could take advantage of some of the big box locations that have been abandoned right that there's every city has those where there was some store that has either now gone to a bigger complex but left that space behind it looks like that's what you can kind of take advantage of from a real estate perspective. Brian: Right and I figured, with my real estate background, that this was going to be a piece of cake. But let me just tell you, san Antonio is a healthy city. We don't have big boxes just sitting around empty. Finding the location was the biggest challenge for me, and that isn't true everywhere else. That's why I'm franchise number one, but I'm not the first franchisee to open, because there are people who found it much quicker. The gentleman up in Pennsylvania went on his very first visit and found two locations and has opened both of them. One of them has 17 courts inside with 75 foot ceilings and no columns. Wow, I think it was like an aircraft hangar at some point. It was an indoor soccer facility for a while and it is like the perfect layout for indoor pickleball. But he found it in one visit, found one landlord, signed two leases and opened them both up. I have been to hundreds of places because I have to have the right hype, I have to have space between columns. I got to have air conditioning, I got to have bathrooms and I got to figure out, you know what's it going to cost to convert the place? And in San Antonio we don't have a lot of space just sitting around empty. Well, that's a good problem, it's good, it's good for the city. I mean, I found this one and I found my second one and I'm continually looking and there will be more opportunities and there will be more opportunities and there will be. Yeah, I think the strange thing in my city is we have probably the most vacant space in our city is industrial space. There's industrial warehousing all over and it's all empty and they don't want to talk to me yet. But they're going to one day they're going to say you know what I'm tired of being empty. Maybe we should talk to these pickleball guys, because it's the perfect layout giant empty buildings just sitting around empty. One day, when I can start turning them into pickleball, then the life's going to be real good. Chris: For sure. So just real quick, though, I want to ask about you kind of just as a leader right, your leadership style and how you think that's evolved over time, and kind of what you've learned maybe about yourself and about leadership in the process, in that journey. Brian: You know I learned leadership pretty young. I mean I go back and think about it and say you know, my dad was in the military. I was a military brat. We were all part of scouting. That was you start learning leadership and scouts right. I joined the Air Force myself, I served time in that and that the leadership is pretty well defined there. I mean, you know you can grow into being a good leader through that process. But in the military leaders comes with rank. Sometimes you don't really you haven't earned it, but you get it because you wear the rank and there's a difference in just knowing and understanding. And in that I learned I'm like if I want to be a leader, I've got to earn the right to be the leader of other people. As I started growing my own business, the challenge was I know how I want everything done. I like it done. A certain way. Most entrepreneurs are type A personalities we got an idea, we're going to run with it, we want to do it and no one could do it as good as we can. Well, you're going to be awful lonely and awful small if you think you can grow business all by yourself. So lesson you have to learn is how do I surround myself with people who make me better, who fill in the gaps of the things I'm not, and how do I let go and let them lead? So I've learned to invest in my staff and invest in them being leaders and letting it go. And remember, if you get from point A to point B and it doesn't cost any more money and it isn't illegal, does it really? And it doesn't use up any more time, does it really matter if they got there different than I would have? And honestly, it doesn't. But that's a lesson I had to learn. I was not very good at it, so my wife and my kids pulled things out of my gripped hands because they were like you got to let this go or we're never going to grow. And then you look back later and go wow, I'm so glad I did that. I mean, they're doing a better job at it than I ever did. And then you just have to make sure you're continually watching over what you're doing right, building good systems, checking on what you're doing, investing in your people, which means spending money on them, spending money to educate them, spending money for them to go out and try things, and also, don't be scared to try something. It's probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned Don't be scared to try something new that no one else has tried, because they're not all going to work, and I can tell you some of mine that were absolute failures. You figure it out, you go eh, switch back, we're done. But the ones that didn't work grew the business, made me money right, made us more efficient, and not being fearful to just change, adapt and be different is a big part, and when your staff sees that you're willing to do that and you're encouraging them and you're investing in them and you're giving them the ability to lead, you'll be surprised what they can do for you. Chris: Right. Well, so first, thank you for your service and second, yes, I think part of that for me is you can't be scared to fail, nervous. And second, yes, I think you know part of that for me is you can't be scared to fail. Uh. So if you don't take any chances, you won't learn, you won't grow. So you've got to be willing to do that and be observant of is it going well, is it not? Do I need to pivot, do I not? For your business and for yourself? Right? Brian: and you have to listen to your staff around you, because at certain point when you grow a business effectively, you start to get out of the day to day, and so you've got to check on it, you've got to hear from them, you've got to build on it and you've got to give them the ability to tell you maybe it is time to pivot, maybe we need to do something different, maybe there is a need out there, even though you didn't recognize it. They need to know. They can bring it to you and you'll listen Doesn't mean everything is going to change, but you give them a chance to speak it up and then it's out there and then you talk about it, and we do that regularly and it really changes the business when people have the freedom to bring up ideas and not be afraid of it. Chris: So let's move from the business side of things to just personal. Tell me what's your favorite part about San Antonio and why you decided to call it home. Brian: I moved here with my dad. He got stationed here when I was 13 years old and this has been my hometown almost ever since I joined the Air Force and I did leave here and I missed it all while I was gone. There's something about the community here in San Antonio the people, the events, the city that I missed. I've lived in other places. I don't think I ever missed not being there as much as I missed being here, and so this is truly my hometown. I love the city, all that we have going on, the fact we continue to grow and get big but we still feel like a small town Never and there's something for everyone. There's everything you possibly can want to do. You can do it here. I mean, we're in the middle of Fiesta. It's been going on forever, but there's still something in Fiesta that I still probably haven't even done. As many times I've gone out and done things and it's exciting just to be involved in that. I've been a Spurs fan since I moved here. I actually saw the Spurs as soon as I came back. We were coming back from Italy, moving to San Antonio, and the Spurs. I was 13 years old. The Spurs were in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Washington Bullets and they were up three games to one and I watched them lose the next three games and then not, and then I followed them and we didn't make it back to a conference championship for 20 years in 99. And then the next 20 years was a good payoff. We had a lot of fun and won a lot of games. Chris: So this is my town. Brian: I love my city. I love all that we do here. Chris: Yeah well, it's definitely spent enough time there to get a feel a very unique and welcoming culture and vibe. You mentioned Fiesta, but I don't see any badges on you. Brian: They're on sale at the front counter. Gotcha yeah, I actually was we made one, we've made one, we've traded some. A few people have bought them and it's a fun part to be part of that when you run a business in San Antonio. Chris: For sure. I've had the benefit of being there for a week on business during Fiesta and learned the whole thing about the badges and the trading and still have them with me. That's a lot of fun. Brian: Yeah, last weekend one of my managers took them all, went down and was down there handing out badges and also handing out flyers about our business Just getting the word out and getting connections to both people and other businesses. It's a unique time when everyone's just willing to talk to you and get face-to-face and everyone wants everyone else's medals. The Fiesta medals are kind of a cool thing, yeah for sure. Chris: Okay, last question Do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue? Brian: Tex-Mex for sure. I'll tell you this in traveling the country. There are other places where you can get barbecue. Maybe not quite the same, but there's some good barbecue out there. There is no good Tex-Mex anywhere except here. Chris: Yeah, yeah, I think it's a pretty accurate statement. Well, brian, I really appreciate you taking the time to kind of share your story, both on the property management side and Pickleball. Good luck with the grand opening coming up and look forward to seeing you guys succeed in that industry as well. Brian: All right, well, hey, great Thanks for having me on Great conversation. All right, take care. All right, bye, and there we have it. Special Guest: Brian Birdy.

St. Michael's by-the-Sea is an Episcopal Church located in the coastal Village of Carlsbad, California. As far as churches go, it's kind of a beachy version of the ancient Christian Faith, and is rooted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Whether you're in town for a week at the beach or a local pilgrim on a spiritual journey, you are welcome here! www.stmichaelsbythesea.org

Dr. Eric Dinkins is an experienced Physical Therapist with a demonstrated history of working in leadership and managerial roles in the hospital & health care industry. He is skilled in spine, vestibular rehabilitation, manual therapy, healthcare management, and healthcare. Eric graduated from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and earned post-graduate certifications in Manipulative Therapy from the Rocky Mountain Manual Therapy Institute. He is a board-certified specialist in Orthopedics, with an emphasis in eclectic, patient centered, approach to physical therapy. He is the co-owner of Motion Guidance, which is a development company for rehabilitation tools utilizing visual feedback.He has helped expand this concept of immediate visual feedback, in both research and clinical components, to enhance current and new rehabilitation techniques. For more information, visit https://www.motionguidance.com/

Today's guest is Peter Moskos, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He spent two years as a police officer in Baltimore. I asked him to come on and talk about his new book, Back from the Brink, Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop. It's one of my favorite books I've read this year (and it was one of my three book recommendations on Ezra Klein's show last week).Peter spoke with hundreds of police officers and NYC officials to understand and describe exactly how the city's leaders in the early 1990s managed to drive down crime so successfully.We discussed:* How bad did things get in the 1970s?* Why did processing an arrest take so long?* What did Bill Bratton and other key leaders do differently?* How did police get rid of the squeegee men?I've included my reading list at the bottom of this piece. Thanks to Harry Fletcher-Wood for his judicious transcript edits.Subscribe for one new interview a week.Peter, how would you describe yourself?I would say I'm a criminologist: my background is sociology, but I am not in the sociology department. I'm not so big on theory, and sociology has a lot of theory. I was a grad student at Harvard in sociology and worked as a police officer [in Baltimore] and that became my dissertation and first book, Cop in the Hood. I've somewhat banked my career on those 20 months in the police department.Not a lot of sociologists spend a couple of years working a police beat.It's generally frowned upon, both for methodological reasons and issues of bias. But there is also an ideological opposition in a lot of academia to policing. It's seen as going to the dark side and something to be condemned, not understood.Sociologists said crime can't go down unless we fix society first. It's caused by poverty, racism, unemployment, and social and economic factors — they're called the root causes. But they don't seem to have a great impact on crime, as important as they are. When I'm in grad school, murders dropped 30-40% in New York City. At the same time, Mayor Giuliani is slashing social spending, and poverty is increasing. The whole academic field is just wrong. I thought it an interesting field to get into.We're going to talk about your new book, which is called Back from the Brink, Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop. I had a blast reading it. Tell me about the process of writing it.A lot of this is oral history, basically. But supposedly people don't like buying books that are called oral histories. It is told entirely from the perspective of police officers who were on the job at the time. I would not pretend I talked to everyone, because there were 30,000+ cops around, but I spoke to many cops and to all the major players involved in the 1990s crime drop in New York City.I was born in the ‘90s, and I had no idea about a crazy statistic you cite: 25% of the entire national crime decline was attributable to New York City's crime decline.In one year, yeah. One of the things people say to diminish the role of policing is that the crime drop happened everywhere — and it did end up happening almost everywhere. But I think that is partly because what happened in New York City was a lot of hard work, but it wasn't that complicated. It was very easy to propagate, and people came to New York to find out what was going on. You could see results, literally in a matter of months.It happened first in New York City. Really, it happened first in the subways and that's interesting, because if crime goes down in the subways [which, at the time, fell under the separate New York City Transit Police] and not in the rest of the city, you say, “What is going on in the subways that is unique?” It was the exact same strategies and leadership that later transformed the NYPD [New York Police Department].Set the scene: What was the state of crime and disorder in New York in the ‘70s and into the ‘80s?Long story short, it was bad. Crime in New York was a big problem from the late ‘60s up to the mid ‘90s, and the ‘70s is when the people who became the leaders started their careers. So these were defining moments. The city was almost bankrupt in 1975 and laid off 5,000 cops; 3,000 for a long period of time. That was arguably the nadir. It scarred the police department and the city.Eventually, the city got its finances in order and came to the realization that “we've got a big crime problem too.” That crime problem really came to a head with crack cocaine. Robberies peaked in New York City in 1980. There were above 100,000 robberies in 1981, and those are just reported robberies. A lot of people get robbed and just say, “It's not worth it to report,” or, “I'm going to work,” or, “Cops aren't going to do anything.” The number of robberies and car thefts was amazingly high. The trauma, the impact on the city and on urban space, and people's perception of fear, all comes from that. If you're afraid of crime, it's high up on the hierarchy of needs.To some extent, those lessons have been lost or forgotten. Last year there were 16,600 [robberies], which is a huge increase from a few years ago, but we're still talking an 85% reduction compared to the worst years. It supposedly wasn't possible. What I wanted to get into in Back from the Brink was the actual mechanisms of the crime drop. I did about fifty formal interviews and hundreds of informal interviews building the story. By and large, people were telling the same story.In 1975, the city almost goes bankrupt. It's cutting costs everywhere, and it lays off more than 5,000 cops, about 20% of the force, in one day. There's not a new police academy class until 1979, four years later. Talk to me about where the NYPD was at that time.They were retrenched, and the cops were demoralized because “This is how the city treats us?” The actual process of laying off the cops itself was just brutal: they went to work, and were told once they got to work that they were no longer cops. “Give me your badge, give me your gun."The city also was dealing with crime, disorder, and racial unrest. The police department was worried about corruption, which was a legacy of the Knapp Commission [which investigated NYPD corruption] and [Frank] Serpico [a whistleblowing officer]. It's an old police adage, that if you don't work, you can't get in trouble. That became very much the standard way of doing things. Keep your head low, stay out of trouble, and you'll collect your paycheck and go home.You talk about the blackout in 1977, when much of the city lost power and you have widespread looting and arson. 13,000 off-duty cops get called in during the emergency, and only about 5,000 show up, which is a remarkable sign of the state of morale.The person in my book who's talking about that is Louis Anemone. He showed up because his neighbor and friend and partner was there, and he's got to help him. It was very much an in-the-foxholes experience. I contrast that with the more recent blackout, in which the city went and had a big block party instead. That is reflective of the change that happened in the city.In the mid-80s you get the crack cocaine epidemic. Talk to me about how police respond.From a political perspective, that era coincided with David Dinkins as [New York City's first black] mayor. He was universally disliked, to put it mildly, by white and black police officers alike. He was seen as hands off. He was elected in part to improve racial relations in New York City, to mitigate racial strife, but in Crown Heights and Washington Heights, there were riots, and racial relations got worse. He failed at the level he was supposed to be good at. Crime and quality of life were the major issues in that election.Dinkins's approach to the violence is centered around what they called “community policing.” Will you describe how Dinkins and political leaders in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s thought about policing?This is under Ben Ward, the [NYPD] Commissioner at the time. The mayor appoints the police commissioner — and the buck does stop with the mayor — but the mayor is not actively involved in day-to-day operations. That part does go down to the police department.Community policing was seen as an attempt to improve relations between the police and the community. The real goal was to lessen racial strife and unrest between black (and to a lesser extent Hispanic) communities and the NYPD. Going back to the ‘60s, New York had been rocked by continued unrest in neighborhoods like Central Harlem, East New York, and Bushwick. Community policing was seen as saying that police are partly to blame, and we want to improve relations. Some of it was an attempt to get the community more involved in crime fighting.It's tough. It involves a certain rosy view of the community, but that part of the community isn't causing the problems. It avoids the fact there are people who are actively criming and are willing to hurt people who get in their way. Community policing doesn't really address the active criminal element, that is a small part of any community, including high-crime communities.Arrests increased drastically during this era, more than in the ‘90s with broken windows policing. If the idea is to have fewer arrests, it didn't happen in the ‘80s. Some good came out of it, because it did encourage cops to be a bit more active and cops are incentivized by overtime. Arrests were so incredibly time-consuming, which kind of defeated the purpose of community policing. If you made an arrest in that era, there was a good chance you might spend literally 24 hours processing the arrest.Will you describe what goes into that 24 hours?From my experience policing in Baltimore, I knew arrests were time-consuming and paperwork redundant, but I could process a simple arrest in an hour or two. Even a complicated one that involved juveniles and guns and drugs, we're talking six to eight hours.In the ‘80s, Bob Davin, [in the] Transit Police, would say they'd make an arrest, process at the local precinct, search him in front of a desk officer, print him, and then they would have to get a radio car off patrol to drive you down to central booking at 100 Centre Street [New York City Criminal Court]. Then they would fingerprint him. They didn't have the live scan fingerprints machine, it was all ink. It had to be faxed up to Albany and the FBI to see if it hit on any warrant federally and for positive identification of the person. Sometimes it took 12 hours to have the prints come back and the perp would be remanded until that time. Then you'd have to wait for the prosecutor to get their act together and to review all the paperwork. You couldn't consider bail unless the prints came back either positive or negative and then you would have that initial arraignment and the cop could then go home. There are a lot of moving parts, and they moved at a glacial pace.The system often doesn't work 24/7. A lot of this has changed, but some of it was having to wait until 9 am for people to show up to go to work, because it's not a single system. The courts, the jails, and policing all march to their own drummer, and that created a level of inefficiency.So much of the nitty-gritty of what cops actually do is boring, behind-the-scenes stuff: How do we speed up the paperwork? Can we group prisoners together? Can we do some of this at the police station instead of taking it downtown? Is all of this necessary? Can we cooperate with the various prosecutors? There are five different prosecutors in New York City, one for each borough.There's not a great incentive to streamline this. Cops enjoyed the overtime. That's one of the reasons they would make arrests. So during this time, if a cop makes an arrest for drug dealing, that cop is gone and no cop was there to replace him. If it's a minor arrest, there's a good chance in the long run charges will be dropped anyway. And you're taking cops off the street. In that sense, it's lose-lose. But, you have to think, “What's the alternative?”Bob Davin is a fascinating guy. There's a famous picture from 1981 by Martha Cooper of two cops on a subway train. It's graffitied up and they're in their leather jackets and look like cops from the ‘70s. Martha Cooper graciously gave me permission to use the picture, but she said, "You have to indemnify me because I don't have a release form. I don't know who the cops are." I said, "Martha, I do know who the cop is, because he's in my book and he loves the picture.” Bob Davin is the cop on the right.Davin says that things started to get more efficient. They had hub sites in the late ‘80s or ‘90s, so precincts in the north of Manhattan could bring their prisoners there, and you wouldn't have to take a car out of service to go back to Central Booking and deal with traffic. They started collecting prisoners and bringing them en masse on a small school bus, and that would cut into overtime. Then moving to electronic scan fingerprints drastically saves time waiting for those to come back.These improvements were made, but some of them involve collective bargaining with unions, to limit overtime and arrests that are made for the pure purpose of overtime. You want cops making arrests for the right reason and not simply to make money. But boy, there was a lot of money made in arrests.In 1991, you have the infamous Crown Heights riot in Brooklyn. Racial tensions kick off. It's a nightmare for the mayor, there's this sense that he has lost control. The following year, you have this infamous police protest at City Hall where it becomes clear the relationship between the cops and the mayor has totally evaporated. How does all that play into the mayoral race between Dinkins and Giuliani?It was unintentional, but a lot of the blame for Crown Heights falls on the police department. The part of the story that is better known is that there was a procession for a Hasidic rabbi that was led by a police car. He would go to his wife's grave, and he got a little three-car motorcade. At some point, the police look at this and go "Why are we doing this? We're going to change it." The man who made the deal said ‘I"m retiring in a couple weeks, can we just leave it till then? Because I gave him my word." They're like, "Alright, whatever."This motor car procession is then involved in a car crash, and a young child named Gavin Cato is killed, and another girl is severely injured. The volunteer, Jewish-run ambulance shows up and decides they don't have the equipment: they call for a professional city ambulance. Once that ambulance is on the way, they take the mildly-injured Jewish people to the hospital. The rumor starts that the Jewish ambulance abandoned the black children to die.This isn't the first incident. There's long been strife over property and who the landlord is. But this was the spark that set off riots. A young Jewish man was randomly attacked on the street and was killed.As an aside, he also shouldn't have died, but at the hospital they missed internal bleeding.Meanwhile, the police department has no real leadership at the time. One chief is going to retire, another is on vacation, a third doesn't know what he's doing, and basically everyone is afraid to do anything. So police do nothing. They pull back, and you have three days of very anti-Semitic riots. Crowds chanting "Kill the Jews" and marching on the Lubavitch Hasidic Headquarters. Al Sharpton shows up. The riots are blamed on Dinkins, which is partly fair, but a lot of that's on the NYPD. Finally, the mayor and the police commissioner go to see what's going on and they get attacked. It's the only time in New York City history that there's ever been an emergency call from the police commissioner's car. People are throwing rocks at it.It took three days to realise this, but that's when they say “We have to do something here,” and they gather a group of officers who later become many of Bratton's main chiefs at the time [Bill Bratton was Commissioner of the NYPD from 1994-1996, under Giuliani]: Mike Julian, Louis Anemone, Ray Kelly, and [John] Timoney. They end the unrest in a day. They allow people to march, they get the police department to set rules. It still goes on for a bit, but no one gets hurt after that, and that's it.It was a huge, national story at the time, but a lot of the details were not covered. Reporters were taken from their car and beaten and stripped. The significance was downplayed at the time, especially by the New York Times, I would say.That's followed by the Washington Heights riots, which is a different story. A drug dealer was shot and killed by cops. There were rumors, which were proven to be false, that he was executed and unarmed. Then there were three days of rioting there. It wasn't quite as severe, but 53 cops were hurt, 120 stores were set on fire, and Mayor Dinkins paid for the victim's family to go to the Dominican Republic for the funeral. The police perspective again was, “You're picking the wrong side here.”Then there's the so-called Police Riot at City Hall. Nominally, it was about the CCRB, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and setting up an accountability mechanism to control cops. But really it was just an anti-Dinkins protest. It was drunken and unruly. The cops stormed the steps of City Hall. I have the account of one of the cops who was on the top of those steps looking at this mob of cops storming to him, and he's getting worried he's going to be killed in a crush. There were racist chants from off-duty cops in the crowd. It did not reflect well on police officers. But it showed this hatred of David Dinkins, who was seen as siding with criminals and being anti-police. The irony is that Dinkins is the one who ends up hiring all the cops that Giuliani gets credit for.In the “Safe Streets, Safe City” program?Yes. That was because a white tourist, Brian Watkins, was killed in a subway station protecting his parents who were getting robbed. That led to the famous headline [in the New York Post] of “Dave, do something! Crime-ravaged city cries out for help.” He, with City Council President Peter Vallone, Sr., drafted and pushed through this massive hiring of police officers, “Safe Streets, Safe City.”The hiring wasn't fast-tracked. It might be because Dinkins's people didn't really want more cops. But it was a Dinkins push that got a massive hiring of cops. When the first huge class of police officers graduated, Bill Bratton was there and not David Dinkins.Some interviewees in your book talk about how there's physically not enough room in the police academies at this time, so they have to run classes 24/7. You cycle cohorts in and out of the same classroom, because there are too many new cops for the facilities.You have thousands of cops going through it at once. Everyone describes it as quite a chaotic scene. But it would have been hard to do what the NYPD did without those cops. Ray Kelly, who was police commissioner under Dinkins at the end [from 1992 to 1994] before he became police commissioner for 12 years under Bloomberg [from 2002 to 2013] probably could have done something with those cops too, but he never had the chance, because the mayoral leadership at the time was much more limiting in what they wanted cops to do.Crime starts declining slowly in the first few years of the ‘90s under Dinkins, and then in ‘93 Giuliani wins a squeaker of a mayoral election against Dinkins.One of the major issues was the then-notorious “squeegee men” of New York City. These were guys who would go to cars stopped at bridges and tunnel entrances and would rub a squeegee over the windshield asking for money. It was unpleasant, intimidating, and unwanted, and it was seen as one of those things that were just inevitable. Like graffiti on the subway in the ‘80s. Nothing we can do about it because these poor people don't have jobs or housing or whatever.The irony is that Bratton and Giuliani were happy to take credit for that, and it was an issue in the mayoral campaign, but it was solved under David Dinkins and Ray Kelly and Mike Julian with the help of George Kelling [who, with James Wilson, came up with broken windows theory]. But they never got credit for it. One wonders if, had they done that just a few months earlier, it would have shifted the entire campaign and we'd have a different course of history in New York City.It's a great example of a couple of things that several people in your book talk about. One is that disorder is often caused by a very small set of individuals. There's only like 70 squeegee men, yet everybody sees them, because they're posted up at the main tunnel and bridge entrances to Manhattan. And getting them off the streets solves the problem entirely.Another emphasis in the book is how perceptions of crime are central. You quote Jack Maple, the father of Compstat, as saying, “A murder on the subway counts as a multiple murder up on the street, because everybody feels like that's their subway.” The particular locations of crimes really affect public perception.Absolutely. Perception is reality for a lot of these things, because most people aren't victimized by crime. But when people perceive that no one is in control they feel less safe. It's not that this perception is false, it just might not be directly related to an actual criminal act.The other thing I try to show is that it's not just saying, “We've got to get rid of squeegee men. How do you do it?” They had tried before, but this is why you need smart cops and good leadership, because it's a problem-solving technique, and the way to get rid of graffiti is different to the way you get rid of squeegee men.This book is in opposition to those who just say, “We can't police our way out of this problem.” No, we can. We can't police our way out of every problem. But if you define the problem as, we don't want people at intersections with squeegees, of course we can police our way out of the problem, using legal constitutional tools. You need the political will. And then the hard work starts, because you have to figure out how to actually do it.Will you describe how they tackle the squeegee men problem?Mike Julian was behind it. They hired George Kelling, who's known for broken windows. They said, “These people are here to make money. So to just go there and make a few arrests isn't going to solve the problem.” First of all, he had to figure out what legal authority [to use], and he used Traffic Reg 44 [which prohibits pedestrians from soliciting vehicle occupants]. He talked to Norm Siegel of the NYCLU [New York Civil Liberties Union] about this, who did not want this crackdown to happen. But Norman said, “Okay, this is the law, I can't fight that one. You're doing it legally. It's all in the books.” And So that took away that opposition.But the relentless part of it is key. First they filmed people. Then, when it came to enforcement, they warned people. Then they cited people, and anybody that was left they arrested. They did not have to arrest many people, because the key is they did this every four hours. It was that that changed behavior, because even a simple arrest isn't going to necessarily deter someone if it's a productive way to make money. But being out there every four hours for a couple of weeks or months was enough to get people to do something else. What that something else is, we still don't know, but we solved the squeegee problem.So in 93, Giuliani is elected by something like 50,000 votes overall. Just as an aside, in Prince of the City, Fred Siegel describes something I had no idea about. There's a Puerto Rican Democratic Councilman who flips and supports Giuliani. Mayor Eric Adams, who at the time was the head of a nonprofit for black men in law enforcement, calls him a race traitor for doing that and for being married to a white woman. There was a remarkable level of racial vitriol in that race that I totally missed.10 years ago when I started this, I asked if I could interview then-Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams, and he said yes, and the interview kept getting rescheduled, and I said, “Eh, I don't need him.” It's a regret of mine. I should have pursued that, but coulda, woulda, shoulda.Giuliani is elected, and he campaigns very explicitly on a reducing crime and disorder platform. And he hires Bill Bratton. Tell me about Bratton coming on board as NYPD commissioner.Bratton grew up in Boston, was a police officer there, became head of the New York City Transit Police when that was a separate police department. Right before he becomes NYPD Commissioner, he's back in Boston, as the Chief of Police there, and there is a movement among certain people to get Bratton the NYC job. They succeed in that, and Bratton is a very confident man. He very much took a broken windows approach and said, “We are going to focus on crime.” He has a right-hand man by the name of Jack Maple who he knows from the Transit Police. Maple is just a lieutenant in transit, and Bratton makes him the de facto number two man in the police department.Jack Maple passed away in 2001 and I didn't know what I was going to do, because it's hard to interview a man who's no longer alive. Chris Mitchell co-wrote Jack Maple's autobiography called Crime Fighter and he graciously gave me all the micro-cassettes of the original interviews he conducted with Maple around 1998. Everyone has a Jack Maple story. He's probably the most important character in Back from the Brink.Jack Maple comes in, no one really knows who he is, no one respects him because he was just a lieutenant in Transit. He goes around and asks a basic question — this is 1994 — he says, “How many people were shot in New York City in 1993?” And nobody knows. That is the state of crime-fighting in New York City before this era. There might have been 7,000 people shot in New York City in 1990 and we just don't know, even to this day.One citation from your book: in 1993, an average of 16 people were shot every day. Which is just remarkable.And remember, shootings have been declining for two or three years before that! But nobody knew, because they weren't keeping track of shootings, because it's not one of the FBI Uniform Crime Report [which tracks crime data nationally] index crimes. But wouldn't you be curious? It took Jack Maple to be curious, so he made people count, and it was findable, but you had to go through every aggravated assault and see if a gun was involved. You had to go through every murder from the previous year and see if it was a shooting. He did this. So we only have shooting data in New York City going back to 1993. It's just a simple process of caring.The super-short version of Back from the Brink is it was a change in mission statement: “We're going to care about crime.” Because they hadn't before. They cared about corruption, racial unrest, brutality, and scandal. They cared about the clearance rate for robbery a bit. You were supposed to make three arrests for every ten robberies. It didn't matter so much that you were stopping a pattern or arresting the right person, as long as you had three arrests for every ten reported crimes, that was fine.This is a story about people who cared. They're from this city — Bratton wasn't, but most of the rest are. They understood the trauma of violence and the fact that people with families were afraid to go outside, and nobody in the power structure seemed to care. So they made the NYPD care about this. Suddenly, the mid-level police executives, the precinct commanders, had to care. and the meetings weren't about keeping overtime down, instead they were about ”What are you doing to stop this shooting?”Tell listeners a little bit more about Jack Maple, because he's a remarkable character, and folks may not know what a kook he was.I think he was a little less kooky than he liked to present. His public persona was wearing a snazzy cat and spats and dressing like a fictional cartoon detective from his own mind, but he's a working-class guy from Queens who becomes a transit cop.When Bratton takes over, he writes a letter up the chain of command saying this is what we should do. Bratton read it and said, “This guy is smart.” Listening to 80 hours of Jack Maple, everyone correctly says he was a smart guy, but he had a very working-class demeanor and took to the elite lifestyle. He loved hanging out and getting fancy drinks at the Plaza Hotel. He was the idea man of the NYPD. Everyone has a Jack Maple imitation. “You're talking to the Jackster,” he'd say. He had smart people working under him who were supportive of this. But it was very much trying to figure out as they went along, because the city doesn't stop nor does it sleep.He was a bulls***er, but he's the one who came up with the basic outline of the strategy of crime reduction in New York City. He famously wrote it on a napkin at Elaine's, and it said, “First, we need to gather accurate and timely intelligence.” And that was, in essence, CompStat. “Then, we need to deploy our cops to where they need to be.” That was a big thing. He found out that cops weren't working: specialized units weren't working weekends and nights when the actual crime was happening. They had their excuses, but basically they wanted a cushy schedule. He changed that. Then, of course, you have to figure out what you're doing, what the effective tactics are. Then, constant follow up and assessment.You can't give up. You can't say “Problem solved.” A lot of people say it wasn't so much if your plan didn't work, you just needed a Plan B. It was the idea that throwing your hands in the air and saying, “What are you going to do?” that became notoriously unacceptable under Chief Anemone's stern demeanor at CompStat. These were not pleasant meetings. Those are the meetings that both propagated policies that work and held officers accountable. There was some humiliation going on, so CompStat was feared.Lots of folks hear CompStat and think about better tracking of crime locations and incidents. But as you flesh out, the meat on the bones of CompStat was this relentless follow-up. You'd have these weekly meetings early in the morning with all the precinct heads. There were relentless asks from the bosses, “What's going on in your district or in your precinct? Can you explain why this is happening? What are you doing to get these numbers down?” And follow-ups the following week or month. It was constant.CompStat is often thought of as high-tech computer stuff. It wasn't. There was nothing that couldn't have been done with old overhead projectors. It's just that no one had done it before. Billy Gorta says it's a glorified accountability system at a time when nobody knew anything about computers. Everyone now has access to crime maps on a computer. It was about actually gathering accurate, timely data.Bratton was very concerned that these numbers had to be right. It was getting everyone in the same room and saying, “This is what our focus is going to be now.” And getting people to care about crime victims, especially when those crime victims might be unsympathetic because of their demeanor, criminal activity, or a long arrest record. “We're going to care about every shooting, we're going to care about every murder.”Part of it was cracking down on illegal guns. There were hundreds of tactics. The federal prosecutors also played a key role. It was getting this cooperation. Once it started working and Giuliani made it a major part of claiming success as mayor, suddenly everyone wanted to be part of this, and you had other city agencies trying to figure it out. So it was a very positive feedback loop, once it was seen as a success.When Bratton came on the job, he said, “I'm going to bring down crime 15%.” No police commissioner had ever said that before. In the history of policing before 1994, no police commissioner ever promised a double-digit reduction in crime or even talked about it. People said “That's crazy.” It was done, and then year after year. That's the type of confidence that they had. They were surprised it worked as well as it did, but they all had the sense that there's a new captain on this ship, and we're trying new things. It was an age of ideas and experiment.And it was a very short time.That's the other thing that surprised me. Giuliani fired Bratton in the middle of ‘96.It's remarkable. Bratton comes in ‘94, and August 1994 is where you see crime drop off a cliff. You have this massive beginning of the reduction that continues.That inflection point is important for historical knowledge. I don't address alternatives that other people have proposed [to explain the fall in crime] — For example, the reduction in lead [in gasoline, paint, and water pipes] or legalized abortion with Roe v. Wade [proposed by Stephen Dubner].Reasonable people can differ. Back from the Brink focuses on the police part of the equation. Today, almost nobody, except for a few academics, says that police had nothing to do with the crime drop. That August inflection is key, because there is nothing in a lagged time analysis going back 20 years that is going to say that is the magic month where things happened. Yet if you look at what happened in CompStat, that's the month they started getting individual officer data, and noticing that most cops made zero arrests, and said, “Let's get them in the game as well.” And that seemed to be the key; that's when crime fell off the table. The meetings started in April, I believe, but August is really when the massive crime drop began.To your point about the confidence that crime could be driven down double digits year over year, there's a great quote you have from Jack Maple, where he says to a fellow cop, “This is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel. As long as we have absolute control, we can absolutely drive this number into the floor.”One detail I enjoyed was that Jack Maple, when he was a transit cop, would camp out under a big refrigerator box with little holes cut out for eyes and sit on the subway platform waiting for crooks.For people who are interested in Jack Maple, it is worth reading his autobiography, Crime Fighter. Mike Daly wrote New York's Finest, which uses the same tapes that I had access to, and he is much more focused on that. He's actually the godfather of Jack Maple's son, who is currently a New York City police officer. But Maple and co were confident, and it turned out they were right.As well as having changes in tactics and approach and accountability across the NYPD, you also have a series of specific location cleanups. You have a specific initiative focused on the Port Authority, which is a cesspool at the time, an initiative in Times Square, the Bryant Park cleanup, and then Giuliani also focuses on organized crime on the Fulton Fish Market, and this open-air market in Harlem.I was struck that there was both this general accountability push in the NYPD through CompStat, and a relentless focus on cleaning up individual places that were hubs of disorder.I'm not certain the crime drop would have happened without reclamation of public spaces and business improvement districts. Bryant Park's a fascinating story because Dan Biederman, who heads the Corporation, said, “People just thought it was like a lost cause, this park can't be saved. The city is in a spiral of decline.” He uses Jane Jacobs' “eyes on the street” theory and then George Kelling and James Q. Wilson's broken windows theory. The park has money — not city money, but from local property owners — and it reopens in 1991 to great acclaim and is still a fabulous place to be. It showed for the first time that public space was worth saving and could be saved. New York City at the time needed that lesson. It's interesting that today, Bryant Park has no permanent police presence and less crime. Back in the ‘80s, Bryant Park had an active police presence and a lot more crime.The first class I ever taught when I started at John Jay College in 2004, I was talking about broken windows. A student in the class named Jeff Marshall, who is in my book, told me about Operation Alternatives at the Port Authority. He had been a Port Authority police officer at the time, and I had not heard of this. People are just unaware of this part of history. It very much has lessons for today, because in policing often there's nothing new under the sun. It's just repackaged, dusted off, and done again. The issue was, how do we make the Port Authority safe for passengers? How do we both help and get rid of people living in the bus terminal? It's a semi-public space, so it makes it difficult. There was a social services element about it, that was Operational Alternatives. A lot of people took advantage of that and got help. But the flip side was, you don't have to take services, but you can't stay here.I interviewed the manager of the bus terminal. He was so proud of what he did. He's a bureaucrat, a high-ranking one, but a port authority manager. He came from the George Washington Bridge, which he loved. And he wonders, what the hell am I going to do with this bus terminal? But the Port Authority cared, because they're a huge organization and that's the only thing with their name on it — They also control JFK Airport and bridges and tunnels and all the airports, but people call the bus terminal Port Authority.They gave him almost unlimited money and power and said, “Fix it please, do what you've got to do,” and he did. It was environmental design, giving police overtime so they'd be part of this, a big part of it was having a social service element so it wasn't just kicking people out with nowhere to go.Some of it was also setting up rules. This also helped Bratton in the subway, because this happened at the same time. The court ruled that you can enforce certain rules in the semi-public spaces. It was not clear until this moment whether it was constitutional or not. To be specific, you have a constitutional right to beg on the street, but you do not have a constitutional right to beg on the subway. That came down to a court decision. Had that not happened, I don't know if in the long run the crime drop would have happened.That court decision comes down to the specific point that it's not a free-speech right on the subway to panhandle, because people can't leave, because you've got them trapped in that space.You can't cross the street to get away from it. But it also recognized that it wasn't pure begging, that there was a gray area between aggressive begging and extortion and robbery.You note that in the early 1990s, one-third of subway commuters said they consciously avoided certain stations because of safety, and two thirds felt coerced to give money by aggressive panhandling.The folks in your book talk a lot about the 80/20 rule applying all over the place. That something like 20% of the people you catch are committing 80% of the crimes.There's a similar dynamic that you talk about on the subways, both in the book and in your commentary over the past couple years about disorder in New York. You say approximately 2,000 people with serious mental illness are at risk for street homelessness, and these people cycle through the cities, streets, subways, jails, and hospitals.What lessons from the ‘90s can be applied today for both helping those people and stopping them being a threat to others?Before the ‘80s and Reagan budget cuts there had been a psychiatric system that could help people. That largely got defunded. [Deinstitutionalization began in New York State earlier, in the 1960s.] We did not solve the problem of mental health or homelessness in the ‘90s, but we solved the problem of behavior. George Kelling [of broken windows theory] emphasized this repeatedly, and people would ignore it. We are not criminalizing homelessness or poverty. We're focusing on behavior that we are trying to change. People who willfully ignore that distinction almost assume that poor people are naturally disorderly or criminal, or that all homeless people are twitching and threatening other people. Even people with mental illness can behave in a public space.Times have changed a bit. I think there are different drugs now that make things arguably a bit worse. I am not a mental health expert, but we do need more involuntary commitment, not just for our sake, but for theirs, people who need help. I pass people daily, often the same person, basically decomposing on a subway stop in the cold. They are offered help by social services, and they say no. They should not be allowed to make that choice because they're literally dying on the street in front of us. Basic humanity demands that we be a little more aggressive in forcing people who are not making rational decisions, because now you have to be an imminent threat to yourself or others. That standard does need to change. But there also need to be mental health beds available for people in this condition.I don't know what the solution is to homelessness or mental health. But I do know the solution to public disorder on the subway and that's, regardless of your mental state or housing status, enforcing legal, constitutional rules, policing behavior. It does not involve locking everybody up. It involves drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It's amazing how much people will comply with those rules.That presents the idea that someone's in charge, it's not a free-for-all. You get that virtuous loop, which New York had achieved in 2014–2016, when crime was at an all-time low in the city. Then the politicians decided public order wasn't worth preserving anymore. These are political choices.I had a similar version of this conversation with a friend who was shocked that there were zero murders on the subway in 2017 and that that number was stable: you had one or two a year for several years in the mid-2010s.It was five or fewer a year from 1997 to 2019, and often one or two. Then you have zero in 2017. There were [ten in 2022]. It coincides perfectly with an order from [Mayor] de Blasio's office and the homeless czar [Director of Homeless Services Steven] Banks [which] told police to stop enforcing subway rules against loitering. The subways became — once again — a de facto homeless shelter. Getting rule-violating homeless people out of the subway in the late ‘80s was such a difficult and major accomplishment at the time, and to be fair it's not as bad as it was.The alternative was that homeless outreach was supposed to offer people services. When they decline, which 95% of people do, you're to leave them be. I would argue again, I don't think that's a more humane stance to take. But it's not just about them, it's about subway riders.There's one story that I think was relevant for you to tell. You were attacked this fall on a subway platform by a guy threatening to kill you. It turns out he's had a number of run-ins with the criminal justice system. Can you tell us where that guy is now?I believe he's in prison now. The only reason I know who it is is because I said, one day I'm going to see his picture in the New York Post because he's going to hurt somebody. Am I 100 percent certain it's Michael Blount who attacked me? No, but I'm willing to call him out by name because I believe it is. He was out of prison for raping a child, and he slashed his ex-girlfriend and pushed her on the subway tracks. And then was on the lam for a while. I look at him and the shape of his face, his height, age, build, complexion, and I go, that's got to be him.I wasn't hurt, but he gave me a sucker punch trying to knock me out and then chased me a bit threatening to kill me, and I believe he wanted to. It's the only time I ever was confronted by a person who I really believe wanted to kill me, and this includes policing in the Eastern District in Baltimore. It was an attempted misdemeanor assault in the long run. But I knew it wasn't about me. It was him. I assume he's going to stay in prison longer for what he did to his ex-girlfriend. But I never thought it would happen to me. I was lucky the punch didn't connect.Peter Moskos's new book is Back from the Brink, Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop.My reading listEssays:Johnny Hirschauer's reporting, including “A Failed 'Solution' to 'America's Mental Health Crisis',“ “Return to the Roots,” and “The Last Institutions.” “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety,” by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson. ​“It's Time to Talk About America's Disorder Problem,” Charles Lehman.Books:Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, Jill Leovy.​Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life, Fred Siegel.​ Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District, Peter Moskos.​Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, Sam Quinones.​Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

Kendra Dinkins shares her journey and the history of Taylor Electric, highlighting the role of family and the challenges of market diversification. She discusses partnering with larger contractors and navigating MBE/WBE obstacles while emphasizing the importance of building trust in business partnerships. Kendra talks about proving worth as a minority-owned business, evaluating customer fit, and the significance of learning to say no. The episode delves into family business dynamics, decision-making, and managing economic downturns, including the impact of COVID-19. Kendra addresses employee loyalty, overcoming imposter syndrome, and leadership as an introvert, offering advice on self-care and work-life balance.

LUIS MIRANDA BIO Luis Antonio Miranda Concepción is a political strategist, philanthropist, advocacy consultant and author, his latest book: "Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America” with a foreword by his son, Lin-Manuel Miranda.  Luis was born and raised in Puerto Rico and moved to NYC at 19 when he received a scholarship from NYU.  In the 1980s, Miranda was a special advisor for Hispanic Affairs to the Mayor of New York City, Ed Koch, serving as Director of the Mayor's Office for Hispanic Affairs. He also served on the Board of the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation during the Koch, Dinkins (and as Chairman) during the Giuliani administration.  He has served as a political consultant on several high-profile political campaigns, including Hillary Clinton. Miranda is a founding partner of the MirRam Group which focuses on political and advocacy consulting. Miranda was also a founder and first president of the Hispanic Federation in 1990 and served as director of field services and research at the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering. He also held leadership positions at the Community Service Society, the NYC Department of Employment, the NYC Board of Education, and Aspira of New York. He is chairperson of The Broadway League's Latino audience development program, Viva Broadway. and  the vice-chair of the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and a member of the advisory boards to Nielsen, board chair of the Latino Victory Fund and as a board member of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and NYC & Company.  Siempre, Luis, a documentary directed by John James, is centered on Miranda and his years of activism. The film was a 2020 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection and premiered on HBO on October 6, 2020. RELATED LINKS Wikipedia Relentless (book) Reflections on the Arts Latino Majority (pod) About Siempre, Luis (NPR) GENERAL INFO| TOP OF THE GAME: Official website: https://topofthegame-thepod.com/ RSS Feed: https://feed.podbean.com/topofthegame-thepod/feed.xml Hosting service show website: https://topofthegame-thepod.podbean.com/ Javier's LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/javiersaade  SUPPORT & CONNECT: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/96934564 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551086203755 Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOPOFGAMEpod Subscribe on Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/site/podcatcher/index/blog/vLKLE1SKjf6G Email us: info@topofthegame-thepod.com   THANK YOU FOR LISTENING – AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR PLATFORMS

Building God's Kingdom, God's Way!

Today's guest is Marcel Dinkins, a peloton instructor, keynote speaker, former army officer and Div 1 runner. Topics we discuss in this week's episode include: How Marcel became a Peloton instructor / her journey from Memphis to NYC Grief/turning the loss of her brother into motivation The mental toll of being an athlete  A day in the life and what it's like working as a Peloton instructor  Confession regarding LIRR  Feel free to leave a positive review on Apple Podcasts if you enjoyed this episode and be sure to share this with a friend! You can also email any questions or feedback to ⁠thecityconfessions@gmail.com⁠. Marcel DinkinsFormer Division I Athlete and Army Reserves Engineer Officer turned NASM-certified Peloton Tread Instructor and Motivational Speaker. Marcel's journey, though marked by impressive credentials, began in Memphis and took a turn after the devastating loss of her brother. Seeking healing and strength, she found herself in the gym, where her own transformation ignited a mission to empower others through fitness. Even amidst challenges, like the pandemic, Marcel's determination remained unyielding. She converted her bedroom into a filming studio and slept on the floor just so she could continue to train and share her fitness content with others. Marcel joined Peloton as an instructor in 2021, becoming one of 57 instructors in the world. Marcel also launched "We Take The Hill," a video series amplifying voices and imparting invaluable lessons in empowerment, hosts the the annual Yuengling Shamrock Marathon for over 20,000 runners in Virginia Beach, and regularly speaks on panels and at fitness conferences. Marcel can be seen on: Instyle, News 12 Long Island, Women's Health, Today.com and more! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thecityconfessions/support

In this enlightening episode of the Counter Narrative Podcast, we have the privilege of welcoming Dr. Brian Dinkins, a renowned trauma-informed educator hailing from Indianapolis, who brings his invaluable insights and compassionate approach to addressing a critical issue in education today. Dr. Dinkins, with his extensive background in trauma-informed practices, delves into the profound impact trauma has on both individuals and educational environments, shedding light on the often unseen struggles many students face. Throughout the conversation, Dr. Dinkins emphasizes the importance of recognizing and understanding trauma, not just in our students, but within ourselves. He articulates how personal experiences with trauma can significantly affect educators' interactions and relationships with students, potentially influencing classroom dynamics and student outcomes. Join us for this deeply impactful discussion that not only highlights the challenges faced by many in our education system but also illuminates a path forward through awareness, compassion, and informed action. Whether you're an educator, parent, or anyone interested in the well-being of our youth, this episode offers valuable insights into how we can all contribute to a more understanding and supportive world for our students. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thecounternarrative/support

Tim Forbes scored a goal at his college lacrosse game and looked up to see who was cheering loudly--Tim will never forget spotting his friend, Santis, as well as a young, homeless man they had befriended, Thomas. Tim learned "radical empathy" through his encounters with Thomas. Tim was touched by Thomas' humanity and saw Christ residing in him--Thomas also ministered to Tim. Through this experience in his young adulthood, coupled with many years of ministry and a career in Catholic school administration, God has taught Tim to practice empathy with those he serves, as well as those he disagrees or struggles with.  Tim senses God's call to hope and serve in all circumstances--he is now working at the Judge Dinkins Educational Center, which "provides juvenile vocational training in Davidson County for adolescents who might be at risk or engaged with the juvenile or criminal justice system. The Center's programs are supported by social and emotional learning and focused on sustainable, hands-on education for long-term employment." Learn more at jdecnash.org.

As disruptive and divisive as artificial intelligence can seem, is AI also a force that can push people closer together in status and value? An Unscripted interview with AI influencer and transmedia artist Stephanie Dinkins who creates experiences that spark dialog about race, gender, aging, and our future histories. Dinkins holds the Kusama Endowed Chair in Art at Stony Brook University and visited the UGA Lamar Dodd School of Art as a visiting artist and lecturer.

In the first episode of our second season of Tailwinds, we visit with SMSgt/Dr. Brandon Dinkins about his article "Optimizing Security Forces Operations: Employing Risk-Based Strategies," in our fall 2023 issue. Dr. Dinkins discusses an updated Security Forces framework to serve as a comprehensive security posture that will in turn alleviate personnel shortages and mitigate detrimental mental and physical health factors for Defenders.

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemyJourneyman actor Peter Crombie, who appeared in films such as Seven, Born on the Fourth of July, and Natural Born Killers, died earlier this month, on January 10, 2024, at the age of 71. But his most famous, or at least memorable, role probably was his five-episode arc in season four of Seinfeld as "Crazy" Joe Davola, a struggling writer who becomes obsessed with Elaine and believes Jerry is sabotaging his career.The "Crazy" Joe Davola episodes come at a major turning point in Seinfeld's nine seasons. The grittier, nearly vanished working-class New York City that's depicted in its earliest episodes, filled with dingy laundromats, struggling actors, immigrant relatives, and people who are literally poor, begins to drop out of view as Jerry's career takes off and the settings, references, and concerns of the show becomes more absurd and removed from the day to day life of ordinary people in Manhattan and beyond.Using the death of Peter Crombie as the thinnest of excuses to do an episode on the politics of Seinfeld, Matt was joined by KYE producer Jesse Brenneman and historian Gabe Winant to explain its "Jewish humor"; how the class politics of New York City in the 70s and 80s informed the show; the deeper meaning of its many references to dictators, Nazis, communists, and others; the Dinkins vs. Giuliani race for mayor; and more!

Rep. Chris Dinkins, joins the Marc Cox Morning Show to discuss school protection officer bill that she proposed that would allow more authorized personnel to be school protection officer.

This week on The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast, Lori Ann Dinkins of Mood Interior Designs joins Greg and Kevin to discuss the power of good interior design can have in helping home builders connect with home buyers and sell more homes. https://www.buildermarketingpodcast.com/episodes/199-the-power-of-good-interior-design-lori-ann-dinkins

In this episode of Capital for Good we speak with Luis Miranda, one of New York, and the country's, most dynamic cross-sector leaders, with more than four decades of experience in government, business, politics and advocacy, community development, and the arts. Miranda is the founding partner of the MirRam Group, founding president of the Hispanic Federation, and board chair of the Latino Victory Fund, the Public Theater, and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance. In the words of his son Lin-Manuel, Miranda is relentless.   We begin with Miranda's childhood and formative years in Vega Alta, a small town in Puerto Rico where he was born and raised before leaving for New York to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology at NYU. Although he left Puerto Rico as a very young man, the place has remained central to his identity and family — and, as beautifully told in the award-winning HBO documentary Siempre, Luis, a place he returns to regularly, including to lead much of the rebuilding effort after hurricanes Irma and Maria.   Once settled in New York, Miranda discovered that work as a clinical psychologist didn't suit him, but the city “fit like a glove.” Inspired by his parents, who were deeply engaged in public service, Miranda became a community activist, first via nonprofit organizations, then in government when he “came to understand the role that politics can play in changing lives, making communities better.” Miranda would go on to serve in three Mayoral administrations — Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani — and became increasingly involved in local, state, and national politics, helping to elect officials to the New York City Council, the New York State Assembly, and all of New York's recent representatives in the US Senate: Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles Schumer, and Kirsten Gillibrand. Miranda also chairs Latino Victory, focused on building power in the Latino community by electing more Latinos to office.   We end with a discussion of the arts — and the ways in which Miranda's commitment to the arts, politics, community activism, and inclusion all come together. His many recent and large-scale arts projects include bringing Hamilton to Puerto Rico as part of the hurricane recovery effort, leading the restoration of the United Palace theater in Washington Heights, and chairing the board of The Public Theater, where he is leading its Fund for Free Theater campaign. “The arts feed the soul; they bring people together,” Miranda says. “We have to ensure they are accessible.”   Thanks for listening! Subscribe to Capital for Good on Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Drop us a line at socialenterprise@gsb.columbia.edu.  Mentioned in this episode Siempre, Luis Relentless (Luis Miranda) Latino Victory The Public Theater

MO Rep. Chris Dinkins joins the Marc Cox Morning Show to discuss what MO can do to deal with the incoming refugees contrary to what Gov. Parson is saying.

Jim Dinkins, CEO, HoneyBaked Ham Company Jim Dinkins, CEO of Honey Baked Ham Company, joined host Danny Vander Maten on this episode of Executive Perspective. They discussed the brand’s commitment to fostering relationships with customers, their focus on making every day special, and ensuring top-notch customer service, especially around the holiday season. Jim highlighted how […]

In this episode Matt talks with Blair Dinkins an expert agent in Colorado who moved her business from one state to another but didn't lose her momentum. By applying systems and going after big opportunities she was able to make the move and grow to new levels. Her business is best described as tactically fun. She got her start by reaching out to top agents and simply asking what they were doing that is working. We discussed how even though she moved during the pandemic she was still able to meet people, including those who were motivated to move! Something that is very important to be on the lookout for in any market. Blair isn't afraid to door knock and cold call, but she does so with a purpose and makes her door knocks a win-win-win strategy.   Connect with Blair: https://coloradoteam.com/our-team/blair-dinkins/The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon. Learned something new, or have a suggestion? Message Matt Muscat on Instagram! 

In this episode, Court of Appeals Judge Frank Clement Jr., Chancellor Anne Martin of Davidson County Chancery Court, Part II, Chief Deputy Clerk Lisa Marsh and Ian Dinkins remember Judge Richard Dinkins for his integrity, fairness, and humbleness while becoming a luminary in the law community. 

Three fishermen, a flood, and a new story. As the investigation into Breasia Terrell's disappearance continued, all eyes were on Henry Dinkins. Suspicions were raised further after a cellphone ping placed Dinkins roughly 37 miles away from the apartment in Clinton County, Iowa I'm the early morning hours after the 10-year-old girl vanished. And when his longtime girlfriend, Andrea Culberson changed her story, investigators were certain they were on the right track. Today's episode is sponsored by: Beam Get Beam's best-selling Dream Powder, and save up to 40% for a limited time when you go to https://shopbeam.com/least  Use code LEAST at checkout.  Green Chef: The #1 Meal Kit for Eating Well Save 60% when you go to https://www.greenchef.com/60least  Use code 60least to get 60% off plus free shipping. Magic Spoon  Get $5 off your next bowl of high protein cereal by entering code LEAST at checkout at https://magicspoon.com/least Least of These on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/leastofthesepodcast/ Least of These Discussion Group: https://m.facebook.com/groups/288046119723080/?ref=pages_profile_groups_tab&paipv=1 Least of These on Instagram: www.instagram.com/least_ofthese/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Episode 146 of Pelo Buddy TV, an unofficial Peloton podcast & Peloton news show. This week we cover the following topics: Peloton Studios London has live classes again after their 6 week closure. Matt Wilpers will teach a 2 hour cycling class at the end of October. Susie Chan has two different 90 minute runs releasing this week (the first ever this long). Marcel Dinkins is having surgery and will be off the live schedule a few weeks. Hannah Corbin shared she is trying out for some Broadway shows (but isn't leaving Peloton). Matty Maggiacomo got engaged to his partner Evan this week. The Peloton Playlist feature is on Android with the “Music” tab on profiles. Both the iOS & Android apps now have an auto playing video for class thumbnails. The list of instructors and schedule of events for Peloton on Tour in Berlin was released. Jess King will host a special apparel event at PSNY on September 29th. As part of Breast Cancer Awareness month Leanne will host an event at PSL on October 5th. Jess Sims & Denis Morton will be in Texas for an event in Dallas & Plano on 9/24 & 9/25. There was a meet & greet with Jeffrey McEachern in Berlin on September 23rd. Peloton is celebrating Latin & Hispanic Heritage Month with special classes & a new badge. Erik Jager & Tobias Heinze have new Oktoberfest classes (with English subtitles). Matt Wilpers & Hannah Corbin will lead a new Thomas Rhett Number One Hits artist series. Last week saw around 2 months worth of classes purged. This Friday around three weeks of classes were removed. American Express has a 15% credit card statement offer for buying Peloton hardware in UK & AU. Peloton products will be featured during Amazon's upcoming Prime Big Deal Days. The refurbished original Peloton bike is now available for purchase on eBay in the US. There are a few new fall apparel items, and there is also a 40% “surprise” fall sale. Spiritual Gangster has released some new products in collaboration with Kendall Toole. Happy Birthday to Anna Greenberg, Erik Jager, and Robin Arzon. Leanne Hainsby was on the cover of Women's Health. Cody Rigsby is a New York Times bestseller. Robin Arzon is one of Time's Latino Leaders Kendall Toole was on the NAMI podcast. Alex Toussaint's shoes were released this week and sold out in minutes. Mayla Wedekind is pregnant. Adrian Williams got a puppy. John & Chris share their, and the community's, class picks of the week. You can find links to full articles on each of these topics from the episode page here: https://www.pelobuddy.com/pelo-buddy-tv-episode-146/ The show is also available via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PeloBuddy This episode is hosted by John Prewitt (#Kenny_Bania) and Chris Lewis (#PeloBuddy)

Dr. Shawna Dinkins is the Deputy Superintendent of Educational Services in the Lynwood Unified School District. Beyond her experiences, Dr. Dinkins has dedicated her professional career to serving students and families and advocating on their behalf.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I'm here with your update for September 18, 2023.According to the National Weather Service on Monday it will be sunny with a high near 78 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Late Monday night into Tuesday morning there is a high chance of showers and potentially a thunderstorm.According to the Associated Press a judge found an Iowa man guilty Friday in the murder of a 10-year-old girl who was missing for eight months before her remains were found in a pond.51-year-old Henry Earl Dinkins was found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of Breasia Terrell, whose disappearance July 10, 2020, led to massive searches by dozens of volunteers and numerous law enforcement agencies. A fisherman found her body in March 2021 in a rural area north of Davenport.Sentencing was set for Oct. 11, at which Dinkins faces a mandatory term of life in prison.According to the report, after the decision, as deputies were removing Dinkins from the courtroom, spectators erupted in cheers.No one was injured after firefighters responded to a fire raging at a farm southwest of Cedar Rapids on Sunday.According to the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, firefighters from Fairfax and Cedar Rapids were called just after noon on Sunday to a fire at a farm at the 7500 block of 16th Ave SW.Crews arriving at the scene saw that a corn bin and barn there were fully aflame. The fire had progressed to such a degree on those two structures that firefighters decided that they could not be saved, and they worked to contain the fire and protect nearby structures, according to the release.Once a perimeter protecting those other buildings had been established, firefighters attacked the fire consuming the barn and silo from multiple positions, quickly bringing the fire under control.The corn bin and barn were a total loss, according to the release. No firefighter injuries were reported.The cause of the fire is under investigation.Iowa Democrats voted on Saturday to hold their 2024 caucuses on Jan. 15, the same day as Republicans.The date fills in one detail as the party works to plan its calendar and presidential nominating contest after being booted from being the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest by the national party earlier this year.The date also falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday.Under the party's proposal, the caucuses would only be a party organizing meeting, while the presidential preference count that has historically put the caucuses in the national spotlight will be held via a mail-in process at a different time.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I'm here with your update for August 15, 2023.It'll be cool again Tuesday, without the chance for rain. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny during the day in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 80 degrees.Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted in Georgia on Monday, accused of scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. According to reporting from the Associated Press the indictment details acts by Trump and his allies to undo his key defeat in Georgia: lobbying Georgia's Republican secretary of state to find enough votes to keep Trump in power, pushing claims of voter fraud, and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to appoint a new slate of electoral college favorable to Trump.Other defendants included former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced efforts to undo Trump's election loss in Georgia.It's the fourth criminal case to be brought against the former president and the second this month to allege that he tried to subvert the results of the 2020 election.Henry Dinkins' son testified in court Monday that he saw his father shoot Breasia Terrell.That assertion was made for the first time Monday in a Scott County courtroom after the 11-year-old boy returned to the witness stand for a second day and told defense attorney Chad Frese that he saw his father shoot and kill Terrell.Dinkins is charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder of Terrell, who was 10 years old when she disappeared on July 10, 2020. Remains of her body were discovered in a DeWitt pond in March 2021.Identified in court as D.L., the boy is Breasia Terrell's younger half brother and was 8 at the time of her death. Throughout the testimony, D.L. offered some contradictory answers and appeared confused at times.When Frese asked if D.L. was telling the truth about seeing Breasia's murder, the boy answered, "Everything I say is true."The trial continues on Tuesday.The Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is testing the new facial recognition technology at 25 U.S. airports, including those in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.Other airports testing the technology include Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco.Depending on how the testing goes, TSA has plans to use the technology at 400 airports nationwide.At those 25 airport security lanes, you might be asked to look into a camera that takes your photo. You also will scan your driver's license or other photo identification. The software compares the snapshot of your face to your ID photo to verify that the two match.Other checks are happening, too, including making sure your ID is legitimate and whether you belong to a special screening status, such as TSA PreCheck or requirements for extra security measures.

In this Episode, Alicia and Mary talk with Dr. Elizabeth Dinkins, Dean of the School of Education at Bellarmine University. They discuss Kentucky Senate Bill 9, or the Read to Succeed Act, and its implications for post-secondary education.

Robby & Jonathan are joined by Stephen Dinkins who lives with his family in Nairobi, Kenya. He shares about the work they are doing there, playing golf in Kenya with his 3 boys, and why you never hit a second ball off the first tee.  Visit Kilele for great leather products and to support their business in Kenya - https://kilelegear.com https://linktr.ee/BestBallbestball.com@golfBestBall#myBestBall

Kim served on active duty for 14 years and in the reserves for more than 6 years. Her shared passion for delivering, and being of service to transitioning members and veterans, prompted her to pivot from Human Resources to External Affairs. Over the past 8 months, she has attended job fairs across Georgia and at Fort Riley, KS, and partnered with human resources to recruit qualified individuals on-the-spot, facilitated to cohorts at Fort Stewart, Heroes MAKE America program, attended a conference as the representative for SK battery America for the Communication Coordinators in Korea, participated in community service events in the Commerce, GA area, and interviewed some of the most influential individuals in both the military and civilian space.

Bo and Blake talk SEC baseball and the Y'all Lifestyle in the final hour of the show live in the BankPlus Studio. The guys get set for tonight's game between Mississippi State and South Carolina as the Bulldogs look to snap their program-record 17-game losing streak in the SEC. Bo spins the Tito's Prize Wheel giving away incredible prizes from our partners live in the BankPlus Studio. Bo spins for a trio of listeners to take home some great prizes while the guys talk a whole lot of nonsense. In the SEC Insider Hit, Bo and Blake talk about the most shocking new ever broken on the show: Bo has never cooked an egg. Blake and listeners alike are shocked to learn that Bo, nearly 50, has never cooked an egg in his life. Barton Dinkins, chef and owner of Two Brothers in Starkville, joins the show on the Farm Bureau guest line talking about the latest going on at Two Brothers. Barton shares a little about getting ready for an SEC baseball weekend as the chef of the most popular restaurant in town. The guys have fun talking about some of the lesser-known menu items at Two Brothers, and Barton gives his thoughts on a potential wing-eating competition. Finally, Barton offers to give Bo egg cooking lessons to get him caught up to speed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bo and Blake talk about the most shocking new ever broken on the show: Bo has never cooked an egg. Blake and listeners alike are shocked to learn that Bo, nearly 50, has never cooked an egg in his life. Barton Dinkins, chef and owner of Two Brothers in Starkville, joins the show on the Farm Bureau guest line talking about the latest going on at Two Brothers. Barton shares a little about getting ready for an SEC baseball weekend as the chef of the most popular restaurant in town. The guys have fun talking about some of the lesser-known menu items at Two Brothers, and Barton gives his thoughts on a potential wing-eating competition. Finally, Barton offers to give Bo egg cooking lessons to get him caught up to speed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bo and Blake talk NFL and the Y'all Lifestyle in the final hour of the show live in the BankPlus Studio. The guys talk a little NFL broadcasting as the legendary Tom Brady has retired from the NFL and is heading to Fox as an analyst. The guys get into an interesting debate about sharing steak and whether or not Blake is right for not wanting to share his steak with Bo. In the SEC Insider Hit, chef and owner Barton Dinkins with Two Brothers Smoked Meats joins the show on the Patron Tequila guest line talking about his journey to opening the hottest spot in Starkville. Barton talks about working his way through college in the restaurant industry before jumping into restaurant ownership right out of school. Barton shares a behind-the-scenes look at how the now-famous Two Brothers wings and street tacos were created nearly a decade ago. Barton talks about the culinary boom in Starkville and how things have changed since they first opened the door to the old restaurant in 2014. Barton talks about what it was like at the restaurant the night Mississippi State won the College World Series and how that compared to hosting legends like Dak Prescott and John Daly. Finally, Barton shares some of his favorites from the new menu at Two Brothers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chef and owner Barton Dinkins with Two Brothers Smoked Meats joins the show on the Patron Tequila guest line talking about his journey to opening the hottest spot in Starkville. Barton talks about working his way through college in the restaurant industry before jumping into restaurant ownership right out of school. Barton shares a behind-the-scenes look at how the now-famous Two Brothers wings and street tacos were created nearly a decade ago. Barton talks about the culinary boom in Starkville and how things have changed since they first opened the door to the old restaurant in 2014. Barton talks about what it was like at the restaurant the night Mississippi State won the College World Series and how that compared to hosting legends like Dak Prescott and John Daly. Finally, Barton shares some of his favorites from the new menu at Two Brothers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant and Dorsch are visited by two of the most normal little men they ever did meet. And Leo? He's still battling the bulge. Questions, comments, or the desire to chat? You can reach the crew at Crewscontrolpodcast@gmail.comBecome an official Crewton by subscribing to us on Patreon at patreon.com/crewscontrolWe're mostly on Instagram @crewscontrolpodcastFind us on slightly on Twitter @PodCrewsControlCheck out our woefully undermanaged TikTok @crewscontrolpodcastIf you like the show, help us grow! Rate, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Dorsch will bake you an authentic Moosekrainian cake!Cover art by Dave BenderTheme composed by Steve SarroSound design and editing by Mike Crockett of Crackpot Podcast Production.A part of the Asylum Podcast Network.(We can't promise that Dorsch won't eat your authentic Moosekrainian cake)

Today we are diving into the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion conversation that resides at the forefront of every construction leader's mind. In this episode we are afforded the incredible opportunity to have Darnell Dinkins (Super Bowl Champion, 9 Year NFL Veteran, Speaker and Consultant) join us to help tackle this sensitive topic and help our listeners with both a roadmap for success while also detailing pitfalls to watch out for. Darnell joins NEXT Academy Co-Creators Chad Jones and Cody Phillips as they discuss “D. E. & I.” and pull out leadership lessons that they feel can help contractors create a competitive advantage by utilizing Darnell's vision for what a successful Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program looks and feels like. They talk #Diversity, #Equity, #Inclusion and obviously #FOOTBALL

Dan "Da Mayor" Dinkins of The Starting 5 podcast joins Codex Prime to wrap up 2022 in style! Tune in as they chat about their favorites of the year, including films, comics, tv shows, video games, and more. Codex Prime will be returning in the new year on Tuesday, January 10, 2023. Big thanks to our listeners and supporters for another great year. Let's continue to GET IT! Recorded December 22, 2022 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Buy Codex Prime Shirts at: @MFAMUCUSTOMS (Instagram) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catch Codex Prime on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or other podcast platforms. Email: CodexPrimePodcast@gmail.com Buy Codex Prime Shirts at: @MFAMUCUSTOMS (Instagram) SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook: www.facebook.com/codexprime Twitter: twitter.com/codexprimecast Instagram: instagram.com/codexprimepodcast/ YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCbDMNJNgnM6y3WB3fA1a1HA SoundCloud: @codex-prime Victor Omoayo - https://www.instagram.com/victoromoayo/ Carl Byrd - Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat: @mrbyrd1027 - bookmrbyrd1027@gmail.com

*DISCUSSION TOPICS*- Alex Toussaint's Club Bangers Run!- Daniel McKenna Withdraws His Lawsuit! What happened?- Rower Update! How are classes going? Anyone decide to buy?- The #BooCrew Supports Us On Giving Tuesday!- Marcel Dinkins "We Take The Hill" IG Series!- Is Alex Toussaint About To Drop Shoes?- "You Get Too Crew" Holiday Party Update! How was it?- The "You Get Too Crew" Saves a School!- Logan Aldridge Is On The Tread! Anyone take a class? How was it?

For most of us in the highly literate, western world, memorizing the Bible means "learning the text with word-for-word accuracy". But in the much of the world today, text was often passed down orally in a practice known as "orality". Listen as Dr. Larry Dinkins explains this concept, how it relates to Scripture memory and how you can apply this to your own Bible memory journey. Download the 100 key Bible stories here: https://www.biblememorygoal.com/stories  Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqd1_T7LP-E 

Welcome back to another incredible episode of the Area 13 Ebikes Podcast. If you're new to the show, this is THE BEST place to learn all about electric bikes, products related to them, And most importantly, the people behind the scenes.  I'm Jessica, part of the team with Area 13 Ebikes and on today's episode you'll learn more about ebike safety from retired Deputy Sherrif & Bicycle Patrol Officer, Shawn Dinkins. Shawn was a Dirt Bike School Coach (Motorcycle Safety Institute) an ATV Safety Instructor (ATV Safety Institute) as well as a Defensive Driving Instructor for programs like “Alive at 25” (teen driving program) and “The Mature Driver Course (senior driver program).  He has worked with local school districts to teach bicycle safety to elementary school students through “bicycle rodeos.” His YouTube channel is dedicated to promoting the safe use of alternate, clean transportation and to help you be safe, get healthy and protect the environment.  And he watched a recent video on our YouTube Channel and had some things to say about it.  This is the Area 13 Ebikes Podcast. In today's episode you'll learn more about:  Why understanding your local laws around ebikes is so important.  What are some of the things you don't want to do on the trails and streets? What can you really get ticketed for when on an ebike? Some of the things Shawn Dinkins saw on the job and what not to do. What Shawn thought about the video titled, “Ebike Riders vs Cops - But they are increasingly clueless” What are the differences between the ebike classes?  Why playing ignorant is one of the worst things you can do if you get pulled over.  How you can get Oyster Insurance for your ebike, even if you didn't purchase it at Area 13 Ebikes? Some tips for riding safely as an ebiker directly from Shawn Dinkins. And so much more!  We love sharing more about ebikes If you have a guest suggestion, email us at info at Area 13 ebikes dot com. And if you want to share how you're getting involved in your ebike community or what you want to learn about next - let me know!  Don't forget to check the show notes for helpful links to get a bike, join the community, sell an ebike, get Oyster Insurance for your bike, and so much more. Thank you for joining us today. See you the first Tuesday of every month for another awesome episode of The Area 13 Ebikes Podcast.   Links from Area 13 Ebikes & Shawn Dinkins of The Ebike Safety Tips & Reviews Channel Check out our sponsor Oyster to get Insurance for your bike:  https://get.withoyster.com/m/area13/bike Watch Ebike Safety Tips & Reviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJzEfPhbRglsneCcvyOIRJw Check out Ebike Riders vs Cops Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4NDqVUpT28 Buy or sell your used ebike easily: https://www.ebikesearch.com Find your perfect Area 13 Ebike: https://www.area13ebikes.com  Join The Area 13 Ebikes Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/868947773245145/ Sign up for Upcoming Podcast Episodes: www.ebikepodcast.com Subscribe to The Area 13 Ebikes YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/area13ebikes?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram: https://instagram.com/area13ebikes Who do you want me to interview for The Area 13 Ebikes Podcast? Let us know! Submit the contact information and stories about those ebike adventures to the team at info@area13ebikes.com and let us know you want to be on the show!

On Friday, August 12, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Inflation Reduction Act, sending the bill to President Joe Biden for his signature. There is a lot of nuance around the bill, but to be clear, “the largest piece of climate legislation” does not go far enough to protect Black and Indigenous communities. That said, we understand the need for climate legislation, because if you don't shape policy, policy will shape you. The Coolest Show Producer Tamara Toles O'Laughlin discusses the bill with the Roosevelt Institute's Director of Climate Policy Rhiana Gunn Wright, WE ACT Senior Director of Strategy and Federal Policy Dana Johnson, and Black Appalachian Coalition Founder Bishop Marcia Dinkins. This week's special guests go into detail about how we can and must continue fighting for environmental justice. The Coolest Show – brought to you by Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% PODCASTS – drops new episodes every Monday on environmental justice and how we solve the climate crisis. Listen and subscribe here or at TheCoolestShow.com! Follow @Think100Climate and @RevYearwood on Instagram, Twitter, and Instagram.

from Sunday 7.17.22

Jim Dinkins is a true leader who expresses the importance in finding balance, so that you may invest in others. Jim Dinkins discusses how to foster an environment for innovation while still meeting performance targets in. Finally, he gives an excellent connection between Whiskey Jazz and Leadership. I'm drinking Jack&Coke. What you Drinking? For additional content and exclusives, become a VIP on Patreon Subscribe to our newsletter to find out more about our upcoming guests, jazz and whiskey favorites, and updates from the show . Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin @whiskeyjazzandleadership  #whiskey #jazz #Leadership #whiskeyjazzandleadership Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The importance of emotional inclusion in education can never be stressed enough. In this episode, Dr. Brian Dinkins stresses the importance of building relationships with those you minister to and reminds listeners that it's important to be authentic in your interactions with others. Dr. Brian Dinkins is a rising professional development trainer, keynote, and motivational speaker for the Center for Empowering Education where he serves as CEO. Brian teaches future principals in the educational leadership program at Marian & Butler University in Indianapolis, IN.  Dr. Dinkins has served as turnaround principal in four high poverty schools, including traditional, charter, and private schools, and has committed his work to advance educational equity for children and families in need.Tune in to learn how to utilize the power of emotions to build a positive legacy in the lives of our students![00:01 – 08:17] Opening SegmentDr. Brian Dinkins emphasized the importance of establishing a relationship with those you minister to in order to have a meaningful impactHe talks about his experiences of abuse, parental incarceration, and lack of education in the past[08:18 – 19:34] Emotionally Inclusive Practices: How to Bring Them into Your ClassroomBe aware of the implicit biases we all have and use our social awareness to identify cues that may be indicative of harm or disrespectOne strategy for developing emotional intelligence is to catalog your emotions[19:35 - 30:15] Emotional Self Check-Ins Can Help You Manage EmotionsTeaching children emotional vocabulary can help them to identify and manage their emotions effectivelyIntegrating emotions into the classroom is important because it creates conditions that teach students how to respond when they are feeling emotions[30:16 – 31:54] Closing Segment Let's Connect! Want to connect with Dr. Brian Dinkins? Follow him on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Go to his website to see more about how to empower, inspire, and educate.You can connect with our host Erica Terry on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Be sure to check out her website https://www.healthywealthyeducators.com/  to learn more about different strategies to achieve your teaching goals!You can connect with the TeacherGoals community on Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter. If you'd like to engage in Q&A with our guests during the live interview or interact with a rockstar community of educators, then you definitely want to join the TeacherGoals Facebook group.LEAVE A REVIEW! Your ratings and reviews help get the podcast in front of new listeners. Your feedback also lets me know how I can better serve you.

Galen cracks open a Coca-Cola with Jack Daniels to kick off Season 3. We did not fall short on an amazing guest to open Season 3. Galen welcomes Jim Dinkins on Whiskey Jazz and Leadership. James L. “Jim” Dinkins is the CEO of The Honey Baked Ham Company. We discuss how to maintain a work culture that encourages innovation and the voices of those around us. Join us as we start an incredible Season 3. For additional content and exclusives, become a VIP on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/WhiskeyJazzandLeadership Subscribe to our newsletter to find out. https://lnkd.in/gDDzAEdg Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin @whiskeyjazzandleadership  #whiskey #jazz #Leadership #whiskeyjazzandleadership Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Garden State is experiencing a great exodus . Citizens of the state say the high taxes and the cost of living is driving them from the state. As an example of outrageous taxes, people who live in South Carolina pay 90% less in taxes ever year. Monica Crowley Interview: Monica believes that Musk's takeover of Twitter will cause the far left to attack him in every way they can. NY DA Alvin Bragg's incarceration ideas have led to more violent crime in NYC since the Dinkins administration.

Russell joins us to talk about the saving of collegiate track and field programs around the country. As he's been featured on many news articles and podcasts, we take a different spin today and focus on what activities can coaches be working on proactively to help strengthen their programs with the hope of staving off future cuts. We hear from him regarding community as it relates to alumni and current team, as well as talk about roster management and Title IX information. To hear more background from Russell specifically around the Clemson University program drop, check out Dr. Karen Weaver's podcast featuring Russell and Russell Bryant (lawyer). You can find that on your podcast of choice or on APPLE. Want to have an exploratory conversation about YOUR track equipment needs? Connect with us: Host Mike Cunningham on Twitter: @mikecunningham Email: sales@gillathletics.com Phone: 800-637-3090 Twitter: @GillAthletics Instagram: @GillAthletics1918 Facebook: facebook.com/gillathletics LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/gillathletics/

I've been waiting to have this conversation with Russell Dinkins for a while now and it did not disappoint. Over the past couple of years this man has helped saved the men's track and field programs at Brown University, Clemson, the University of Minnesota, and William and Mary. He's now the executive director of the Tracksmith Foundation, where he will continue that work while also helping create more opportunities and inspire broader participation in track and field through various forms of advocacy and assistance. Russell is also an incredible athlete: he competed at Princeton, where he was a 400- and 800-meter runner and a five-time Ivy League individual champion, and he's still getting after it and competing on the track into his 30s.In this conversation we talked about the path he's followed in the sport, track and field as a vehicle for diversity and educational access, how his relationship to running has evolved over the years, what he hopes to achieve through his work moving forward, and a lot more. This episode is brought to you by:— New Balance. The Fresh Foam 1080 v11 is an absolute workhorse and has been been my go-to trainer for some time now. When I want to go fast, the FuelCell Rebel v2 finds its way on my feet. Recovery days? Fresh Foam More v3 all the way. Race day? FuelCell RC Elite v2. Check 'em all out at your local run specialty store or on newbalance.com and consider adding a pair (or two!) to your rotation today.— Precision Fuel & Hydration. I've been a devotee to Precision products for the past 4 years and my last few marathons wouldn't have gone as well without them. Go to precisionfuelandhydration.com and take their free online Sweat Test or use the Carb Calculator to get a personalized hydration and nutrition strategy to test in training. As a listener of the show you can get 15% off your first order by using the code TMS22 when checking out.Click here for complete show notes, sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning, and/or join our growing community on Patreon, where for as little as a buck a week, you'll also gain access to exclusive content like The Weekly Rundown, my Patreon-only podcast with Billy Yang, a live monthly Coaches' Corner discussion, the occasional “emergency pod,” and other perks that pop up from time to time.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford. Photo of Russell Dinkins by Molly Seltzer. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on the show, we talk about our trip to Disney and vegan brunch at Winter Park Biscuit Company!Notes:The breakfast we talked about that the kid likes is oatmeal with maple syrup and frozen berries. The berries cool the oatmeal, and the oatmeal partially thaws the berries! I also sneak some flax meal in there.Yes, we cal our dog, Jenna, Dinkins. She's a good girl.The two vegan theme park bloggers we mentioned are Vegan Disney World and Universal Orlando Vegans. Definitely check them out! The apple-based vegan honey we mentioned is Honee.The other vegan Orlando restaurant we mentioned is Market on South, and the sandwich I love is The Orange Bird.Here's the Disney post on the blog with details from this trip and the previous one.Here's that sushi burrito with the pickled ginger. Thank you so much for listening. We record these episodes for you, and we'd love to hear from you. Got a favorite vegan treat that you think we should cover on the podcast? Send your suggestions to talkintofupod@gmail.com!