CARNY TO CONGRESS

CARNY TO CONGRESS EP 10 - Nigel Fullick

• Adam Botana • Season 2 • Episode 10

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Presented by Bay Water Boat Club.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Carney to Congress Podcast, formerly Baywater Boat Club Hour. My name is Adam Otana. Carney to Congress Podcast is brought to you by Baywater Slewic Boat Club. We've got a few uh I've got a buddy here. We got Jake also. Jake Moina, you want to say hi, Jake? Hi, everybody. How you go? Like some shades. Yeah, I was doing all right. And I got a good friend here, Nigel Fullick. Nigel. How are you doing, Anna? Pretty good, buddy. It's hot. It's warm.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it was a lot hotter when I was wearing my suit about an hour ago, so this was a good idea to still have.

SPEAKER_00

I'm glad you uh you changed. You know, Nigel showed me he told me a good good point, you know, when I was talking about just like in politics a while ago. He said, You're gonna do it in front of the mirror. I never did it. But we started doing this podcast. I noticed I I play with my nose a lot. I was noticing that. It's a lot to play with. I know. It's big. Nice. And we're off. Nice. It's starting off good. So I'm gonna try to restrain myself uh from doing that. But um Nigel is a city councilman for Benita Springs. How long? Tell me about the story. How long you been here, where you come from, Benita, and all that good stuff. Oh gosh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Let's see, moved to Bonita in 2003. Okay, and uh was to open Home Bank, which is not in existence anymore. Um fell in love with the town, got promoted, and uh asked to go back to Palm Beach and uh take care of some things there, and really miss this and just this is first time in my life, this is home. So since 2003, Benita's been home. Um Homebank uh went under and fortunately uh got to go with the group and we formed our own company and uh we have survived the recession and the downturn and COVID and everything else. So uh going on uh what now? 24 years here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And uh you work with John R. Wood, right?

SPEAKER_01

Well, John R. Wood's our biggest client. Okay. Um so we're still a mortgage bank. In fact, New Res. I'm not gonna do a commercial for New Res, but we're the fourth largest mortgage bank in the country. Okay, and uh proud of that. But uh, we've been the the inside lender for John R. Wood now for 18 years. Nice, great people, great people, good company, great culture, it fits. Um, certainly fits here in Bonita. And um gosh, what else? Uh found a beautiful home on the water, and uh that'll never change. You're laughing. What?

SPEAKER_00

How many times have you redone it, sir?

SPEAKER_01

Oh no, that's the other story, yes. I did. Uh a lot of people that are Venetians that have been here a long time will remember uh Frank and Jane Lyles. Okay. Frank was just a great guy, became a friend, also an army veteran. And uh when Frank passed, Jane was decided she was to sell the home, so I bought it and uh completely redid it and finished up uh two weeks before Ian hit. So uh that was a joy, and uh so I did it all over again, and Irma hit. So I literally have I'm on my third redo of the house and hoping to move here by the end of the summer. Have you have you slept a night in the house? Adam, I have not slept one night in that house. That is uh I sometimes call the house Frank's Revenge. Oh, that's rough. So you've been flooded three times then. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's tough.

SPEAKER_01

As as have a lot of other people, and you know, I've been fortunate enough that uh was able to recover from it. I think of all the folks that you and I know that with families that just can't do it with me, just had to take care of myself and the house. Um but very resilient community that we're in, as you well know. Um pretty much that's it before uh Fort Benita, Fort Lauderdale. My family moved Fort Lauderdale in 1970. Okay. So pretty much that was my formative years learning how to uh drink, carouse, uh-huh uh, and work for a living.

SPEAKER_00

And then you were came from Detroit before that, right?

SPEAKER_01

And then originally from London, England, born and uh raised for the first seven years of my life in Ireland. My grandparents had a farm farm there. So no accent unless I've been drinking too much with people like you.

SPEAKER_00

Um He likes the martinis. It's very very dry. That's for the English. Well nice. Now, and you're in politics, city council, but each springs.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, a friend of mine uh belabored me uh several times a week. So yeah, 19 uh or 19, listen to me, in 2022.

SPEAKER_00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

Just I think it was just to have you stop calling me mayor. So ran for city council, district five, and uh it's been both challenging and and a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Told you. Big part of that is Bonita, very different place.

SPEAKER_00

Um we got a good council right now, and you see the way Benita's really growing in the last five years since you've been there.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you know what people say that we're growing, and I would like to say that we're growing into being Benita Springs because the bottom line is you know as well as anybody that if you go back ten years, uh downtown, nobody went downtown at night. There was nothing to go to. Nope. And uh there were some taco restaurants.

SPEAKER_00

We got we got a few places to sell tacos.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Maria's was was good. Not exactly what you'd call a downtown. Yeah. Uh we did have the uh uh bamboo village uh mobile home park. That was a great place to go at night and hang around.

SPEAKER_00

Not for you and I, but yeah, yeah, it's different. It's different. Uh no, I mean, just thinking about it, like how long how how I was there last Tuesday with Greg DeWitt. Fire, yeah. Fire Treats Duit, because he was doing the the um judging of battle of the bands. And again, Tuesday night at a season. I mean, they did have you know good bands there. Packed. Packed Sugar Shack. So I mean, it's great. It's good to see. I mean, I love it. I love it. It's doing a great job. You guys are doing a great job with it. See a lot of the new new development coming in. Look at we got two restaurants that got Michelin Star recommendations.

SPEAKER_01

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00

That is, I mean, those girls kudos to them. Those those girls were doing a great job. A couple Hillsdale girls, uh sisters. Uh, I always went down there. I remember when I was door knocking, I go get coffee in there in the morning and uh talk to Zoe, and it was always a fun banter. Um, but then they they opened you know the coffee shop, then they opened Bohemian, and I like to take credit for them having the steak on their menu because like you're gonna be gonna have the meat piece. So they did put a steak on there. I'll take credit for it. And then the canary club. But I mean, just two recommendations, great food, amazing.

SPEAKER_01

But in a town our size to have two Michelin guide-rated restaurants, that the amazing thing for most people, I think, is that neither of those restaurants existed five years ago. Yeah, four even four years ago. Yeah, exactly. So great job by them. But the excitement downtown with the uh the business people, they get it. Initially, you had three or four individuals that made that initial div basically not just an investment, but uh they took a big chance. Yeah, and give Ben Nelson and his wife Lori credit. Yeah, um, and then Susie that uh took over from them. Rex, yeah. Um Rex Sims said, Yeah, I mean heaven sent.

SPEAKER_00

Heaven Sent's good. You got the the French, she's actually a club member, uh Survey Cafe. So, you know, she's Sophie. They do they do a good job over there, good sandwiches and stuff. But yeah, I mean it's great to see. You guys are doing a lot with the the pool down there and the and the park and so much other stuff going on.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I'm I'm hoping for the pool. The splash pad is uh is really coming along. The only good thing about the drought is the downtown is actually on schedule. And um the splash pad will be open for season, which will be great, but I think a lot of people really don't know what a splash pad is, so the families and the kids are just gonna love it.

SPEAKER_00

That's pretty great.

SPEAKER_01

Um and then you'll be between rooftop and um uh sugar shack. So uh that's one of the things, both rooftop and sugar shack, to go in there on a Saturday and see families. It's not people in there drinking and carrying on, it's families just having a good time.

SPEAKER_00

I think we almost need to have like an open container law on, you know, after Fridays, shut it down a couple roads and make it walkable. You know, that might that might be good. Who knows?

SPEAKER_01

Let all my constituents know that it was your idea.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe a parking garage down there would be good. Uh there's a couple of things going on there. So there's a lot of good stuff going on with Bonita. Um, but yeah, so you live on a river, you have a boat, you have you say you're in a pontoon.

SPEAKER_01

I do. Uh uh little Bennington and uh for the evenings, and then I've got a Boston whaler that I don't use often enough that I actually bought off our former city manager, Gary Price. Yeah. And uh both good.

SPEAKER_00

You know, you could you could run a boat club, it makes it a lot easier. You don't have to worry about it. You keep it overnight. It's store. We take care of it. If I could get you to deliver it up to the house, hey, anythingable for a fee, sir. For a fee. For a fee. Uh so yeah, no, I mean, uh Jake, I have to say I bumped into Nigrell. It's been over the years, right? When we started like in a chamber and stuff. I'm like, who's who's this guy?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I knew that you were incredibly abusive.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's you know, who's who's this guy? He's got like an accent, it gets it gets you know a little thicker when he has a couple martinis, you know. Wears a suit and tie all the time. You know, who's this guy? I talked to my our friend Richard. He was like, Oh, you know, Nigel's a good guy. He's a good guy. I was like, okay, all right, all right, gotcha, gotcha. Um, so I I heard before back in the day, you might have been an agent or a narc. Oh, wow. Or something like that back in the day. I mean, is that uh heard about this? What what was uh what was that about?

SPEAKER_01

Well, when I went in the army, uh Thank you for your service, sir. You're very welcome. Proud to do it. Um earned my key.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

But uh when the army I was a combat MP, but Vietnam was winding down, and I was fortunate enough to uh be sent to Germany, and they had a huge drug problem there. So they were looking for young guys that could go undercover. So within a year, I'm working undercover with the User Drug Strike Force. Uh, I was there two and a half years. They wouldn't let me come home.

SPEAKER_00

So was this just you're going after were you working with Germany, or were you just going after military all over Europe on it?

SPEAKER_01

You know, I'm stupid enough back then to not realize the opportunity that I had, but um actually work with the French Surete, which was their CID, uh the German Kriminal Polizei. But uh heroin and hashish were a huge problem back in the 70s. Vietnam and all that. Well, Vietnam the problem just kept coming because guys would come home from Vietnam um and they would have problems, but a lot of guys went from Vietnam to Germany and Korea, same same thing. Heroin was a huge problem. So we had our work cut out for us. Um a massive group of six of us to handle all of uh Germany, Belgium, and uh six of you, that was it? Well, hard to find six guys that were stupid enough to go undercover and wow uh do that. But I came back to the States, wanted to finish college, uh-huh, and um thought, well, he was you know, I had a lifestyle over there, so I couldn't live off the GI Bill, and so uh took a job with the police department and they found out about my background, so the next thing you know, I'm working undercover again. And then this was the uh late 70s, and drugs had just exploded in Florida. Okay. So they formed a uh task force, DEA, asked me if I wanted to do it, and it's like as long as I can go to school three days a week, no problem with that. So ended up working uh narcotics until 1986. Wow. Still have I went to DEA school and still have my uh you come by the office one day and I'll show you my diploma.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I don't have ethics, but I have diplomas. Uh but yeah, it was it was a sad time and it was a very difficult time. I look at the tools that law enforcement has today. Um, if I went to the islands or South America, pretty much on my own. If I wanted to get hold of somebody back in the States, I'd pick up the phone and call. Yeah. There were no cell phones. Yeah, that's different. Satellite phones were barely working, and it was a little brick phones, the suitcases, right? We wished we had those.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I bet you got some stories now. That's crazy. So of South Florida in the 80s, late 70s, that's like all Don Johnson, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that that was that was Miami Vice was born out of that. Yeah. The joke was that we could always tell a uh a cop by the fact that uh he he looked like either Don Johnson or what was the other guy's name. Tubbs. Tubbs, yeah. And the silk uh jackets, and we all look like this or bums. And yeah. So if you went out into a bar, you could tell not a narc, because a narc would never dress like that. Uh but uh the boating community uh was also interesting. Places like Everglades City became uh very, very well known because things got too hot in Miami, and then you had the uh the sod farms, which I don't know if you knew, but back in the day you could land a DC three or a DC six at night, and they did. Um so we had some interesting uh encounters out in the Everglades.

SPEAKER_00

You know, my grandfather bought this in the late 70s, you know, and he was here. You know, I mean this was he built onto it. In the first the first winter they were here, they would see maybe like two boats go by, like a mullet skiff. But at night just boats hauling through here, you know, these are mullets and um water lines that have been repainted. Yeah, you know, I mean, just just crazy because it would fly, you know, you'd see stuff, you know, but it was just different back then.

SPEAKER_01

But yeah, I mean a lot of stuff came in through 10,000 islands, through Marco, through I mean, because they're not gonna But even actually up in Fort Myers with the fishing fleets, there were a lot of folks that supplemented their incomes back in the day.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm. I bet. Yeah, I can never figure that out. You see these boats, like you go down the keys and you see stuff and you hear stuff like all the time. That's just kind of crazy. I remember being the Keys, this was probably let's say 10 years ago, and we were out there fishing, and we were out there, and it was at a Buddha Mary's, you know, and the captain says, Hey, look at that. And it was a square. We didn't touch it. We didn't, we didn't, we didn't, we just like, ah no, amazingly always weighing right around 50 pounds. Yeah. You know, I was like, ah, we didn't touch that. I was like, you know, it was just me on the boat with the captain, the first mate. The first mate actually owned the boat. And uh say he's like, Nope, I don't want that near my boat or anything like that. I was like, I don't want nothing, but just crazy stuff. So I mean, I would imagine one night at one night would pay for that boat several times over, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I'm not gonna say any names, but uh, right off the top of my head, I can name half a dozen millionaires who were smart enough to get out of the profession after they made their money. Um, and of course, back in the day, uh the RICO statutes really were a result of the drug trade. So uh did start using racketeering influence and corruption with RICO until the uh early 80s, and then you started seizing boats and planes and you name it.

SPEAKER_00

Like I watched the movies, right, with Rico and stuff. So where did that do you have any like any background on that, how that how that all kind of came up, or was that down here in the Florida where that started, or was it more and uh see how the podcast goes? We just kind of go from one thing to the other. Yeah, kind of jumping all over the place here. Yeah, yeah, that's fun. But um It's interesting. Jake and I are intrigued.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know why. Um but Rico was the uh law enforcement's answer and the government's answer to uh combating an enormous amount of wealth that we were up against. You know, we used to say if we showed up with a uh a shotgun, the bad guys showed up with MAC 10's automatic weapons. And uh if we showed up with a uh state's attorney that had been a prosecutor for three or four years, they showed up with the finest law firms in the country. So it was a money thing, and that's the old thing about where do you go? Go after the money. So we started going after assets, and uh it's you remember Al Capone.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Don't don't ask me if I went to high school with him. I didn't, I'm not that old.

SPEAKER_00

He is actually he did have some some time in Bonita. There's there's there's some he had a house down in Hollywood. In Hollywood or across the state, yeah. The house in Hollywood is still there. He had he was at the fat farm here in Shengerla, I heard a couple things, so that's that's what the Shenar-La was eventually.

SPEAKER_01

Believe it or not, this was called neutral territory. In fact, South Florida was neutral territory to the mob, to to the mafia back in the day. They wanted somewhere they could bring their families and where they would be safe. So until, oh gosh, early 80s, late 70s, you never saw mob hits here. But then drugs infiltrated the mobile. White Bolger. Well, Whitey Bolger was a bank robber. He was a bad guy.

SPEAKER_00

Highlight back in the day, way back then. So that's that's definitely I've remembered from the movie there, but uh great place to launder money. I could imagine, I can imagine.

SPEAKER_01

Um, so uh yeah, they they found that as a way to combat. But uh bringing up Al Capone, they didn't get him for bootlegging or smuggling or right, they got him for internal revenue service, got him for taxes, tax evasion.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

We know you've got all this money. How'd you get it? We don't care, but you need to pay taxes on it.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

He had an ego too.

SPEAKER_01

You know, he was uh It's usually what gets most criminals in the end is their egos and their arrogance.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah? No, ho. We know that. But we know that for sure. Well, that's interesting. So you were with uh a DE, I guess, then for two years.

SPEAKER_01

Two years, okay. So you were Miami. Miami. And everything would basically was funny, there was always a new task force, and some most of the guys that I work with had families. Terrible job for a guy with a family, a wife. I can imagine because between Express and uh the amount of time they're awake. I could go to South America for a month, and the only people that missed me were my folks and girlfriend. Um, but uh which one? That's unkind. I'm I'm much better now, Adam. And you do realize I've been a legitimate businessman now since what 1988?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yes, that's fine. I was four, but it's okay. Jake wasn't even around. Nope.

SPEAKER_01

Jake's looking at me like a dinosaur. Thanks, Jake.

SPEAKER_00

Not at all. He's dying in that black shirt. That sucks is melting out.

SPEAKER_03

No, it's the pants. The shirt's fine.

SPEAKER_01

So how did this all come to uh be? I was curious about that. We're friends, but I've never asked you.

SPEAKER_00

So it actually happened, like we we started talking and we advertised on 925 Fox News all the time, right? Like, hey, this is Adam from Baywater Exclusive Boat Club, the only family-owned and operated boat club forever. So then I started running for office. So we changed it. Hey, this is Adam Botana from Baywater Exclusive Boat Club, and just kind of went from there and we just advertised. And uh Matt from Wink Ratness said, hey, there's a there's an opening on Saturday mornings for like an hour. Do you want to do a podcast? You know, like just do a show on Fox News on Saturday morning. So I'm like 7 to 8 a.m. And I talked to my dad, I was like, hey, this is good advertising for us, so but why don't we try it out? So I showed up the first time, and Jake was there. And he goes, So what's the name of your show? I go, I don't know. He goes, You don't know. What are you gonna talk about? I go, Boats? What else am I gonna talk about? People? People, you know, life experience? The water. The water? And he's like, okay, give me a minute. So he goes up and gets a guy, Moody, and Moody sat across from me, and we just started talking for an hour, and you know what? It was it was pretty bad. It was pretty bad. It wasn't awful. It wasn't awful, but it was it was pretty bad. And then we just kept doing it. So we had, I think we did that for what, five years? I mean, we did it for a while. Five, six years, I think.

SPEAKER_03

It started in 20, late 2018.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so we was doing it for like six years. We did it. And we were on the road, like doing this, and then you know, I would call in and we would just record the show. Oh, and people listen to it on 92.5 because people that listen to Fox News 95, it's like religious. They just turn it on. Monday through Sunday, they just turn it on. And I had people like, ah, this show's done. Again, people are like, hey, you and Jake, how about your mom's key lime pie? Because I'll talk about my mom's key lime pie or Nugget or Jake. People love Jake.

SPEAKER_01

So are you telling me that more people besides your mom are watching this? I know, yeah, that's frightening.

SPEAKER_00

There's three of us now.

SPEAKER_01

I've probably got constituents right now that are rethinking their vote.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So um then we didn't we we didn't do it for a little while. And I was like, you know what, why don't we actually just kind of morph this into a podcast? Let's do it legit. Let's sit down. This is what our tenth show? This has been our tenth show, tenth podcast that we've done. And it's usually Jake and I. Now we're adding guests just to bring in because it's is I mean, you can only listen to Jake and I.

SPEAKER_03

We've got 210 episodes of Meet Happening.

SPEAKER_00

Just talking about boats and whatever and the boat business and family and carnivals and running for Congress, and that's the whole thing, like Carney to Congress podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I do remember.

SPEAKER_00

You know, so it's just kind of. Fun. I mean, it just kind of we went there and the name came up as we were the chamber, the Florida chamber, gave me a B for like my first year in session because I I I had I don't even know how to get with a B because I voted the right way. They just gave me a B. And I was like, this is bullshit.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it was probably before the amount of uh respect that you shoe showed your elders. Yeah, that's probably the B.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm there and we're uh I was at a at a bar with a buddy of mine. He's like, Can you believe this? And he goes, you know, well, why don't we write, you know, never been an A student, anyways, you know. So that's what I wrote and I shared it and tagged the chamber, and I put hashtag Carney2Congress because my family's originally in a carnival business. So then we were here, and I'm like, Jake, we had to just change it from Baywater Boat Club Air, because this is brought to you by Baywater, family business, paying for the podcast, but let's just change it to the Carney to Congress podcast. So Jake made a whole website and I'll share it with you. And it's like he did a good job. Like it's good, and we got links on there, kind of the story of the family and everything like that. And we're just rolling with it.

SPEAKER_01

So if Jake had a dollar for every time you said, don't worry about it, just roll with it, he'd be a wealthy guy.

SPEAKER_03

Ah, well, I'm not broke.

SPEAKER_00

Not rich, but if not broke, my my famous we'll figure it out. We'll get there. It's there's only so much you can do. Like, you know, like with Julie, we had Julie on last week. So she did a great job. She did it way better than she gave herself credit. She did a great job. She got into FGCU too.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, good for her. Well, she's very bright young lady.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. So she came to me, she goes, you know, I think I'm helping out with a business here, Baywater.

SPEAKER_01

Is this your Julie voice you're doing right now?

SPEAKER_00

I know I can't do it very well, but it's very, you know, very attentive. I think I want to go get an MBA. Like, well, that's fine. Let's do it. She goes, You're gonna have to write a letter of recommendation. I'm gonna get this person to write a letter because I need these letters of recommendations. We've got to get it done right now. Like I go into the office and there the computer's open and there's like seven screens open. Okay, let's let's go for one. So then this past weekend, she just got just got in. Got it. They said, you don't even need another light. She went to Ohio State, like on paper, great, boom, done, already in.

SPEAKER_01

The neat thing is you've watched it too. It's a number of young people that have gone to FGCU, and unlike other places, they leave. We got a lot of homegrown talent that go to FGCU and stay here. They believe that they have a life here and a career here. That is encouraging.

SPEAKER_00

Well, even with her, you know, when she because I mean she we talked about how she came to be part of Baywater, right? We met at a bar at the Bay House. She was there with her parents. I was there with a club member. She's like, What do you do? I go, I wash boats. She goes, I'm gonna wash boats. I'm like, show up with a resume. And she showed up with a resume. I was like, Dad, we're hiring her. Put her to work over there. And then she worked, you know, with me in the legislature. So it was supposed to be one year turned into three, and now she's back here. But you know, it's the same with her, is where like, oh, I can't live here. This is too old. There's nothing to do. Then I talked to her like last year and I was like, hey, how do you feel? She goes, This place is great. You know, because you you could once you kind of get into it, yeah, there's not a bunch of young people and it can get quiet. But now she's 26, it's kind of like you kind of need that, you know, you get your your core people, and that's it. You don't need to have everybody.

SPEAKER_01

Biggest favor that any parent could do for their child is to take them traveling so they can see what they've got here because that's what you I had no idea what it was like somewhere else, and then come scampering back here because we do live in paradise.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and that's the thing. Like what usually happens here, I've heard from kids, and Jacob probably touched to this too, is where you hear all the kids that like I I I I was traveling, so I got a GD. We didn't I didn't go to the high school deal and all that, but you hear like, oh, I'm going to to Tampa. I'm going to college and I'm moving to DC and I'm moving here. And all of a sudden they go there and they're like, Wow, it sucks. You know, you don't want to live in the city of DC. I mean, you got you know, kids just running and just you know, you know, just just breaking and taking everything.

SPEAKER_01

My nephew went to Georgetown and greatest place, that da da da da da I guess where he's practicing law. South Florida. Yeah. No, exactly. Or do you want to raise his kids? South Florida. South Florida. Safer.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Great, great opportunities, and a state where we don't tax you to death.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And hey, we're gonna try to drop that even a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01

Your lips took the Lord's ears.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. You know, and there's there's stuff. We're talking about Detroit. This so we were talking about Detroit, Jake. This is a funny story.

SPEAKER_01

Jake would not know. Detroit, once upon a time, Jake, was a beautiful city, great place to grow up, safe, exciting. I mean, that's all something on a pickle soup.

SPEAKER_03

I grew up in Columbus, and I I would have to say that the same things that happened to well, Detroit is specifically because of the automotive industry leaving. And then after that, the amount of abandoned houses and everybody left. It's it's uh from what I know though, is it it's on the ups. It's a lot better.

SPEAKER_01

But it's think about it this way Detroit, when I was a kid, I think the population was around 1.5, 1.7 million somewhere in there, and now it's six, seven hundred thousand. And it got all the way where it was actually less than half a million.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, unions destroyed Michigan. I I have to say, and I probably get in trouble for some people, you know, but I think a lot of them. I mean, that's why we did carnivals there, right? That's why we did so many fairs in Michigan because they had so much disposable income. You have somebody that lives in Three Rivers, which is on this side of the state. He works Monday through Thursday, he drives over, and his family still lives in three rivers because he's making this is back in the 70s, I don't know, 20, 30 bucks an hour working for you, you know, the big three.

SPEAKER_01

Like making a hundred, hundred, ten bucks an hour an hour.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I mean it was it's so you know, and yeah, unions were great back in when the kids were in the shops, you know, you had seven-year-olds in the cotton gins and stuff like that. It was a different, different animal. But Detroit is really like there's a story, we were talking about this earlier. So originally my grandfather got into the business, the carlo business selling ice cream. You know, that was his deal. They had back in the in the 50s, is when he got into it, was nutty dips. So it was like a Klondike bar. Nutty dip. Yeah, so a Klondike bar that was dipped in chocolate, rolled in nuts, because they didn't have soft surf, right? So he had the X, the exclusive, at the Detroit State Fair. So they had like 12 locations at the Detroit State Fair. He was the only one that sold them. So he had a good racket there. We did about 30 fairs.

SPEAKER_01

Racket is kind of the key word.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. At about 30 fairs he did in Michigan and Indiana and down into Alabama and the South. You know, we did that. Uh, but he was there and we had a couple crazy stories about these trailers, right? And these were like little pop-up trailers or like a like a RV pop-up, and it's not the nice stuff that you see now with all the lights and everything. And they had a uh a yesteryear village in Detroit. And what that is, is where you go back in time. Yeah. They had the blacksmith, then they had the the horse. Did you go to Greenfield Village?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, the oh yeah, the Greek town or oh no, Greenfield Village, which is basically Henry Ford far. So it it was Michigan in the height of the golden age of the automobile area. But if you haven't been there, old steam locomotives, uh Henry Ford's uh one of his production plants, just a small scale of it.

SPEAKER_00

Like every president, like my parents seen Reagan there, they seen Bush. So by the time I was older, we we had pulled out because Detroit had got so bad. The fare went really down, the the town went down, a lot of stuff, but there was a lot of good things there. So they had the stagecoach over in this yesteryear village, okay? And they had like six horses on this stagecoach, and it would, you know, they were walking around the yesteryear village. Well, they Detroit was pretty rough, and this was, I think, in the 70s, might have been the so your first riots were in 67. So, yeah, so this is pretty rough. So it would it would get pretty rough at the fair. Sure. And they started riding at the fair. And we had these little pop-up tents. And my parents, they were young, I don't think my brother was even born yet, but they were in the yesteryear village trailer. And what would happen is folks would just start running, kids would start running and they would destroy. Like they killed a couple employees because they rolled a uh a cheap jewelry trailer over, you know, and a girl got pinned underneath and she died. Because they just start breaking, they just start grabbing. So what my parents did like, and they you kind of become friends with everybody around you. There was like a grab joint, so they had like sausage and hamburgers there, and then there was the ice cream, and there was a popper that had like cotton candy and caramel apples. Well, the people that were on a stagecoach were there, and they had to get out of there. Like this was serious. So they took the money out of the trailers and they threw it up into the stagecoach, and everybody jumped onto the stagecoach to get out of there. So those are six horses. Okay, this is a true story.

SPEAKER_01

I'm looking at you right now. Like, no, your nose isn't growing, so I'm gonna trust you.

SPEAKER_00

They had to ride the damn stagecoach out of there, out of that part of the fair, because it would just run it, right? And uh people get scared of horses, you know. They they get, you know, there's there's a reason there's a mounted division, right? Well, and they start getting.

SPEAKER_01

If you've ever looked a scared horse in the eye, you do not want to be in a country.

SPEAKER_00

So they're running this stagecoach, and everybody's on top of this thing. My dad, Cuban, you know, back in this is the 70s, you know, big hair. Always wanted to be a cowboy. You know, mom, fair faucet hair in there, all that. And they're all everybody's up on there, and they had to ride that out of that area of the fairgrounds to get to the other side to get where it was safer, you know. But it was crazy. But that was in the that was the 70s in in uh Detroit, you know, it was nuts and it was crazy. And the money was good, but it was just it was, I mean, it was trouble. It was a lot of a lot of work, a lot of hassle to deal with.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you know, it's funny you you say that. And there's Detroit's a great example. And I don't want to speak ill of the east coast of Florida, but you know, I used to say that when I came over here, and even when I ran for office, I was very passionate about it. When I moved to Fort Lauderdale, it was Benita Springs. You could water ski on the Intercoastal Waterway.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Um it was you could go uh hunting out uh where Weston is now on horseback.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And uh and it was safe. Uh my parents built their first their only new home, very humble little three-bedroom or two-bath in Lauder Hill. And uh there were no locks on the doors. There was a a uh a slide lock on the front door basically for show. You didn't lock your doors.

SPEAKER_00

So when did you move down into Lauderdale? How old?

SPEAKER_01

1970. So you were what? You were just graduated high school. Literally, two weeks after mom and dad said, As soon as you graduate, we're moving to Fort Lauderdale.

SPEAKER_00

And are you the youngest? Are you the Oh, I was the oldest. You're the oldest. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So they wanted you to get through high school. My mother was a failure. She only had five kids. Bad Catholic.

SPEAKER_00

So they wanted to get you through high school, then you're like, all right, we're pulling the kids out. Because I mean that was Detroit was getting rough.

SPEAKER_01

Well, nobody in our family had ever been to college. And uh my mother had great plans for me. I was either gonna be a lawyer or a priest, and that didn't work out real well. My father said he saw before that that's probably not gonna happen. But uh, yeah, so I ended up staying in Detroit because of a girl and went to University of Detroit, but they moved down here, and I was the most popular guy in my fraternity because my folks lived in Fort Lauderdale. So spring break and Christmas, my dad would have six, seven guys he'd set up cots in the garage. Yeah, and everybody slept there.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's surprising that you guys went to that coast because usually everybody from Michigan follows 75 and comes to the West Coast of the Cost.

SPEAKER_01

Dad had a friend and it was a quote business opportunity. Okay. And um that's how we ended up in Fort Lauderdale. And it just uh just a great place.

SPEAKER_00

But uh he would probably lay on the accent thick too. He came down here.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I I did so I got my I got my uh associate's degree in criminal justice at Broward College.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And then went on to FAU and got uh public administration and criminal justice there. Okay. And uh now it's I mean, look at FAU now. When I went to school there, you had to worry about stepping into burring owl holes. Now we've got a 30,000 seat stadium, division one. I mean, it just and medical school. I mean, that's a obviously I love FGCU. It's our great local university, but I am an owl of the city.

SPEAKER_00

You can't get any more medical schools in South Florida. You know, this nope. The bog says no more medical schools. Is that true? Yeah. Wow. So that's why you that's why you can't test it. Yeah, so they you know, I mean, Florida is you think about it, it's competitive as hell with amount of colleges. Oh, yeah, good way. And the amount of colleges that we have in the state of Florida, University of Florida, University of Central Florida, FAU, US of Miami, you know, UF, uh, FSU. I mean, you're talking million FSW. And it just, but that's community versus, I mean, just massive.

SPEAKER_01

There's a good, you just brought it up, FSW. When it was Edison, it was just a little community college. Now you can go to FSW and you can get a bachelor's degree. It's limited. With no debt. Bingo.

SPEAKER_00

With no debt.

SPEAKER_01

Um, well, you and I have a friend, Richard, we won't name his last name, but uh, he was thrilled because one of his uh triplets decided to go to FAU. So he'll have to buy you and I dinner and drinks for the next four years. Oh, yeah, exactly. We've saved him a lot of money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well, then he's got the uh his other girls going to FSU. It's like, well, she's got a job in the legislature. And one to Clemson. Yeah, and the boy to Clemson, so that's great.

SPEAKER_01

As soon as I heard about Clemson, I started feeling sorry for him.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, that's good for him, though. It's good for for him to get up there. And you know, but that's I mean, it's crazy. So remember, so Nigel calls me one day. He's like, hey, we got tickets over at Dunk City at the F uh FGCU. Oh goodness. FAU's gonna come over and roast him. You want to come over? I was like, sure, I'll come over and hang out.

SPEAKER_01

It was the year that we went to the uh final four.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Crazy year. Yeah, it was a year after, right? It was a year after.

SPEAKER_01

Oh no, it was the year that we went to the final four.

SPEAKER_00

And uh I got an F FGCU hat, so I'm sitting with all the FAU guys.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, when you say we're he's sitting in the FAU alumni section with me, excuses himself and comes back wearing an FGCU hat, sits down and says, What do you think? And FGCU won. Like they've beat it. They went that it started, and what's the I I apologize, the new president of uh FGCU, she's great.

SPEAKER_00

Ansel, Ansel.

SPEAKER_01

And uh yeah, Dr. Ansel, and she was up there in her. I walked over in halftime and said, I just want to apologize. What for? And I said, Well, we're gonna do to you in the second half, and she was so grateful, graceful because at the end of the game we were down on the floor, and she walked over and I said, Never mind.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I was just talking the whole time. It was great. You know, remember you say in the podcast? No, he can't. I'm writing it down. It flips it out. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

You but uh I just said, Can you say blank? It's fine.

SPEAKER_00

No, but I remember I was just sitting there, remember in it, Abby, who is my hygienist, was sitting there with us, and she was getting mad the whole time. And I'm like, come on. I mean, there was uh uh just a nice guy next to us. He's like, You remember, we kept looking at it, he's like, Oh, because it was and that was fun.

SPEAKER_01

College basketball is amazing. The good news would protect you was your state representative, otherwise, people would have probably taken you onto the bleachers and done terrible things. Yeah, probably. But uh what a great game. And what a great moment for the university. Is as upset as I was about losing, watching just the absolute joy at the arena there was yeah, pretty special. 3,000 people arena, you know. Sounded like 10,000.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, it's always great. It's always good to go watch the boys and the girls there play. I mean, they do a great job. Um, we've talked about getting football, never's gonna happen. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Well time. You remember uh Wilson Bradshaw? Yeah, oh yeah, he was used to be a member of Baywater Boat Club. Well, here's a little secret. I don't think he might me saying it now. Wilson and I had our season tickets at FAU together. He was an owl. Okay. That's where he got both his uh undergrad and his master's. Nice and great guy, good dude. But uh, we'd go over to football games on the rare occasions that he would go undercover, he'd wear a Hawaiian shirt.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I always seen him when I mean that was back when Dunk City. Remember always him him behind there.

SPEAKER_01

He was so proud.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, so proud they're behind there, and he would he would be right there with the kids in there. I think we might get blown away. Maybe we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_01

I like the breeze.

SPEAKER_00

The the breeze is nice. We're underneath the T.

SPEAKER_01

Great story with Brad, and it tells you people say sports are such a waste of money. I can't remember the exact number, but um before the basketball team had their run, the number of uh hits on the FGCU website a month used to be about something like uh 800 after Dunk City. They were getting several thousand a week.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it's it's really not come because now their girls their uh women's sports programs phenomenal. Uh why the guys can't catch up, there's a little challenge for our FGCU men catch up with the girls. But girls went to the Sweet 16 before the boys did. Wait before Tuck City was even there. But they're getting their volleyball T phenomenal. But yeah, it's a great program, Grace. It was something we should all be proud of. And we're watching it, it's not in its infant CD war, but we're still watching the development. 20 years. Yeah, 20 years from now, it'll be amazing. 20 years at FGC's been there. But Wilson Bradshaw, when he was president, they asked him whether we had a football team, and he said we're not. And he was smart enough to have done a study that said with the population base that we have, good as sport. And he was right. Yeah, no, so they put the money in basketball.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. No, there's maybe one day, you know, a long time from now, but it just rebuilt the stadium, the all the all the stuff. It's just not it's so expensive. You're talking a hundred million dollars just to have a football program. And with all the portal stuff going on now and everything else, it's I mean, it was great to see Indiana. That uh that kid from Miami would uh would have been dozed. Yeah, what a what a great, what a great story, great kid story, yeah. Yep, you know, love you know, hopefully he does something in Vegas. I don't know. Vegas is where well hopefully Vegas doesn't do something to him. Yeah, you know, you hate to see that, but no, it's it's gonna be good from there. So what's your favorite sports team?

SPEAKER_01

I've always been do you even really have a favorite sports team?

SPEAKER_00

You know, it's tough, right? Because I was always traveling when I was a kid, right? We're always on a road. Got into NASCAR because we did all the races and stuff like that. That was back when Earnhardt and Gordon were that's when we were in NASCAR, the peak. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's I'm sorry, sir. There's a guy named Richard Petty that would disagree with you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, oh, it was good. You know, his son was his son was Kyle was there. I seen Richard. Um, and you know, he would he would drive and he would, you know, have the hat and the thing, and he would do all the stuff, and it was it was it was great. But I think for for football, I like the dolphins, you know. I mean, they're horrible. Uh, but we'll see what happens. New regime in town. Things may be different in two years. I think I think Ross gets in a way all the time. You know, he's kind of got that uh that Dallas Cowboy, I can't think of him right now, who's the owner of Oh, Jerry Jones. Jerry Jones issue where he gets involved and doesn't let people do their jobs. I think it's unfortunate. I like the I like the Gators. Uh, you know, go to UF to see I've dated enough girls from UF over the years. I've spent a couple times there. But uh, you know, FSU is spun. So, you know, I mean, hey, any if it's a Florida team, I'm I'm down, you know. But it's nice to go to the college games and actually see people show up.

SPEAKER_01

We'll actually come over to uh an FAU game where a bucket list trip. You're welcome to go with us. Uh because I uh as a seasoned ticket holder, I get little options. But FAU plays Army at West Point on October the 17th. So my old commander who lives here in Benita Springs from the Army and my best friend Jerry Teevan were gonna fly up and spend three days. And I would Roy's last command was West Point.

SPEAKER_00

I would love to go, but unfortunately I'm in Mississippi or the State Fair. State Fair. So I gotta make money. We'll send you pictures. Yeah. No, no, but I'm I'm down. Love to is the podcast getting all this wind? Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I know it's getting the hot air, but is it getting all this wind?

SPEAKER_00

This is kind of we're out in the elements. This is a good uh good experience.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, is that gonna rain, you know?

SPEAKER_00

It does, but it's not getting close. I mean it's the rain looks like it's more over here, yeah. Yeah, it's uh you could see we're yeah, we're okay. We're we're getting there. It might I could deal with it might it might stop before it gets to us. You know, who knows this time of year.

SPEAKER_03

Two years ago I'd have been prying.

SPEAKER_00

Uh but no, uh you know, I love uh like you go to the Everblades, like we went to the game to the one of the Kelly Cup final. I was like, that's when you go. Places packed.

SPEAKER_01

Should have brought that up. Good for you for bringing that up. We just won our fourth Kelly Cup in five years. Yeah, that's like winning the Stanley Cup four times. Four peaks. And it's you've been to the games, it's quality hockey. So those kids end up in the NHL.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, I took I took a couple of the staff. We went over there and we got nosebleed seats, but it was great. And it was just fun to go to and just check out. It's like you go to the Panthers, you know, it's great. You go to that's you go to uh Tampa like to the lightning games, that's a whole nother level. Those people are intense. I think we are outside. You think anybody for Tampa listens to your podcast? Probably. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

That's a shame because I was gonna say, why would anybody go to a Tampa Bay Lightning game? Because you can go to a Panther game.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, but you know, it's I gotta say, it's nice. I was talking to the guys that we had there, like we had Julia, Dylan, and Jordan, one of the guys who used to work for us. Like you work outside all day, it's nice to go inside where it's cold. Like, you know, just kind of chill out, you know, I at the at the game and sit there and and uh experience it. But they do a good job. I mean, the the Hoffman family's kind of gumped a punch of money into that arena, it's nice to see. It's good to see it. Well, and to see it full. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. And Floridians, I mean, they're they're all about it. They uh they play, they're you know, they that's something to do. I mean, we get so many Midwesterners down here, like you say. Mosa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, they all roll down here. Uh the East Coast is more New York and New Jersey.

SPEAKER_01

So let's see if I can get you in trouble. It's not easy. Probably is, so I mean, not hard. You're probably following a little bit of World Cup.

SPEAKER_02

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

And so we I can say this as a former soccer player that this is the best men's team that the US has ever had. Okay. You hear that around the world. People are really surprised. They're playing like a team, so, and two wins, convincing wins. But let's say the USA, and I think they're actually going to make it to the quarterfinals. Like they don't have any major injuries, which would be, again, phenomenal. But if it's not the US, who do you want to win the World Cup?

SPEAKER_00

You know, I gotta kind of like this Tardan army.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, the Scots?

SPEAKER_00

The Scots, you know, with the bagpipes, and the like you see them on uh Instagram, like you know, Europeans experiencing America for the first time. They're like, free refills, you mean I can get a Coke and I don't have to, I don't have to pay for another one?

SPEAKER_01

They're saying that the Scots have taken over Boston, then the Irish are all leaving.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So they now they're all down to Miami now.

SPEAKER_01

So they're all they're all going there. It's not just the Scots, it's so many foreign countries. And what I'm hearing back from my friends, we've got offices all over the country. These people like us.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because they're coming to America, they're being treated hospitably.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

You know, that people are expecting Scotland or England that all these hooligans are going to come.

SPEAKER_00

No. No.

SPEAKER_01

They're coming here spending a ton of money. And they're like, Americans are nice. And they're saying what a beautiful country, Americans are fun. That's so crazy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they drink, I think they drank Boston out of beer, which is pretty plausible. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. Well, so you know, we did um the F1 race back Formula One, Formula One when it was in Indy, when it was in Indianapolis. And this was after September 11th. So we're going back ways. And that was the first time they had F1 there. And they had F1 there for probably five, eight years. And it was that's when you really seen the Europeans come over. And it was crazy because they come over and we would have, you know, we'd have concessions there, and we, you know, iced the drink. Nope, I want my coke warm. You know, and they would come with the painted faces and the flags and the banners. And I remember seeing Prince William, the younger, not William, the younger boy. Harry? Harry. Prince Harry. He was in the in the rolls, he was there at the F1, he had the Oakleys on. It was kind of cool to see him drive by in the rolls, and you know, the chauffeur was in the front of the car, and he was in the suit. Um, but yeah, that was we had a lot of foreigners there, and they were great, you know, it was really good. So I like seeing all these foreigners come here. I think the last of the World Cup was here was in '94, and I was 10. You know, so now it's and you just see the people like, oh, this place is amazing. This is great. We love coming to 1994.

SPEAKER_01

Were you born?

SPEAKER_00

I was born in 94, yeah. Oh.

SPEAKER_01

Don't call me sir. I work for a living just like him.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, but you know, so it's nice to see. But yeah, I like to see if U.S. doesn't win, I'm kind of rooting for the Scots. Uh, but I like a couple of these new countries that kind of come in and you know see what's going on. I see what Brazil's won a bunch. Was it Italy's one, France has won, England has one, right? Yep. There's only five countries that won the World Cup, I think. Oh, no, no, no. Germany's won two or three. Yeah, but that they just repeat, they keep repeating. It's like yeah, but you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01

South America, you know, Argentina, Brazil, um, they've won a bunch.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah, it's usually it's it's like there's only been five or I've seen some five or seven.

SPEAKER_01

America does not want won a World Cup since 1966, and it's the game we invented.

SPEAKER_00

That's true. That's true. So that's pretty wild. But you know, it's it's fun to see. I mean, I I love it. You know, um see what happens and where this goes. Well, it's this air conditioning's really nice. It's not gonna be closer. So if you could see this weather behind us, this is uh we could use the rain, that's for sure. Drought buster. Yeah, we could do some of that. Some of that. So what uh what else could you ask me to embarrass me here with you on a beautiful Monday? What do you see Bonita doing in the next five years?

SPEAKER_01

Seriously? I think we're about halfway there, Adam. I really do. The economy stays just stable. Doesn't have to be great. Uh I think downtown in five years we'll be looking at north of West Terry Street as an opportunity. Uh I think that uh you mentioned it, a parking garage may be in our future. And uh I think our biggest challenge, you and I have talked about this, is transportation. And that's gonna take it's certainly not city government or even county government that can solve that problem. That's gonna be the state, the federal government. Oh, who's our state rep? Anyway. But uh, you know, your idea, another north-south artery would solve a lot of problems for us.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I was doing I was doing a questionnaire with uh like several questionnaires from WGCU. You know, what do you know about affordable housing at Southwest Florida? Naples Daily News, what are you gonna do about affordable? You're not gonna build affordable housing next to the coast. But what you can do is make it better for the folks that live in Lehigh to drive. I had an employee that's no longer with us because he wasn't gonna spend two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening commuting back and forth from Lehigh. And that was staying inside of Lee County. That's not leaving the county. We failed. The local governments have failed, I blame the counties, I blame the city, have failed about doing more infrastructure on roads. It needs to change. Um this past session, I tried this last year, couldn't get it done. This past session, I put this study in law in four places, three bills died. Three bills died. We're all over the politics. Got them in the Senate, got them in the house, one bill died, take it, and I mend it onto another bill, died, amended onto another bill, died. I finally stuck it in a budget. It was an implementing to the budget. It says that Lee, Collier, and Charlotte County had to come up with a study and let me know by the end of January, by the end of December this year, that is it feasible to merge the three MPMs. Now that's a metropolitan planning organization. Right. So what happens now is every county takes some money and goes to do whatever the county does. Okay? And they don't communicate enough. They don't the problem is our counties they over-communicate or they undercommunicate. It's not done right, right. In the case of transportation. So Collier doesn't talk to Lee. Lee doesn't talk to Collier. Oh Charlotte. Dorothy, Kansas. Oh. There goes Toto. Nugget, we're gonna have to tie, we're gonna tie you down. This is a real robot. So you look at the map right now, and the roads from Lee Power doesn't exist. So most likely it's gonna be Byron Donald's and his thing here at his kickoff. Here, you were there. And Sugar Shag, where we're packed people in there. What do we need for South Louis Florida? We need roads. And what I want is limited access. I'm tired of growth. We don't need any more growth. I understand that. You know, but we need limited access. What that means is build a toll road that's in a mile from 75. Where it connects everything where you can you can get on a toll. They're gonna put 75's gonna have a toll that's gonna come. They're gonna put extra in a toll lane. They're gonna put up sound barriers pretty much from from um Pine Ridge north, you know, to they're gonna extend it all the way. What about the intersections?

SPEAKER_01

Or the interchanges, I should say.

SPEAKER_00

The interchanges are gonna work on that. They're gonna have a road where you can get on in Barita and get off in a stair where you never have to get on to the freeway. So they're gonna have some of that. You know, and if we're gonna do a toll road, that means limited access. So that means if it's gonna go through an area of critical fusion, like a you know, wetlands, you build a bridge. And they've they've done that on the East Coast and they work. Yeah. So that, you know, if somebody wants to pay a toll, they can't. You're gonna get a lot of people off 75. That gives the people that are working, changes it from two hours to drive to work to 45 minutes. That's doable. Who wants to spend four hours a day in a con? And that's the only way you're gonna be able to help working class folks here. I mean, we've done everything you could. We did the the live local bill with Kathleen Pasadomo. You know, you've you're you're you're incentivizing developers to build workforce housing mixed in with regular housing, it's not enough.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I'll probably be bending if I do get re-elected, I'll probably be bending your ear. One way or another I will. Everybody talks about affordable housing, but if we create the type of jobs that will allow people to work here, and we don't have to create hourly wage positions all the time. I'm look again, those young people that we talk about, that if we create good middle class jobs, they're gonna stay here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And they'll be able to afford to live here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, I mean like keep the doctors here. I mean, but it it's tough because there is a lot of folks and we deal here. Uh a lot of folks that deal here that we're we're in the service industry, right? We need boat washers. We need uh you know, servers and waiters, and it's tough. I mean, it's tough to make, but I mean, if you're a good server or waiter, you can make some serious money down here.

SPEAKER_01

Talk to the young people at uh Sugar Shack and the Bohemian at uh even the Canary Club. They've all got smiles on their faces.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, I mean, so it's good to see, but it's tough. Like, look at Coconut Jacks. They they have a van just to park their people down the road, and they park at the VFW and they have a deal with them to just to park their employees at.

SPEAKER_01

You know, that's what I love about this time of the year is I can get down to Coconut Jacks within 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and eat, and you don't have that problem. So, you know, there's a lot we needed to work on. Uh, I'm excited about that. You know, the MPOs are obviously not gonna be excited, so they're gonna fight. They're gonna, you know, I was talking to one of a person from DOT, and he's like, Adam, you don't understand what you're doing usually takes 15 years to get this merger study done and all that. You're doing it in, you know, six months. So there's gonna be a lot of people are gonna fight.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I've said this before to you. I'd I'd love to see more qualified business people in government because business people know what balance sheets look like and how to make it work.

SPEAKER_00

Like, you know, the press is that's funny because I just got uh an email from Chad. He works on Naples Daily News, and I was sending this questionnaire. He's like, hey, do you, you know, do you have a picture of your mugshot? I go, which one are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01

Any early mugshot?

SPEAKER_00

He goes, Oh, that'll get him talking, because I've told him, you know, like I spent a night tail. And he goes, and I sent him one, he goes, that's a perfect one. He goes, You gotta be careful, you know, a businessman with a GD can be dangerous in politics. And I was like, I mean, that's like the that was like the greatest nod I've had in a while. Like, that's nice, that's cool. This is coming from a from a guy who's in, you know, in the press, and usually it's skewed a certain way.

SPEAKER_01

Like, hey, I get along with everybody, but you know, it's it's keep in mind what Ronald Reagan at one of the marks of a great leader, he knew what his shortcomings were. He was not a businessman. So what did he do? He hired great people who understood business. Yeah. That's why he was a great president.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, he was great, him and tip, tip and a gipper, man.

SPEAKER_01

Wasn't afraid of making a decision.

SPEAKER_00

But get together after and drank uh some bourbon, and that's Scotch back in the day. So, but we're getting to the end of the show, and we're getting about to get blown away out of here. Thank God it's summertime. Uh, we want to thank our sponsor, Baywater Sousa Boat Club, the exclusive club of South Florida. Make sure you give us a call to come down and see us here at Baywater. Uh family owned and operated. Come down and see my smiling face. Come join the club. It's the easy way to get out in the water and enjoy yourself. Give us a call at 239-495-0455. Again, 239-495-0455. We got Sherry's ship store opening up soon, so we might have mom's Heeline Pie for sale in there. We'll see what happens. We'll have beer and wine. So we'll have beers here before long. Nigel, thank you for coming on the show, sir. I actually enjoyed it, so thank you for inviting me.

SPEAKER_01

A little plug for your business. A little plug for your business. Appreciate this. New res, absolutely. Right here in Bonita Springs and Naples at Fort Myers. If you need a broker, this is Well, no, we're actually the mortgage banks. Mortgage Bank. Mortgage Bank. We're actually the lender.

SPEAKER_00

The lenders, you need a good lender, get a bigger one.

SPEAKER_01

I want to say anything bad about brokers, but if we want to get straight to the source with the get a better rate and great service, great. Res.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. Thanks for coming on. We're going to get you out of here again. Thank you for serving in Bonita. Hey we're getting close there, Don. Baywater Sousa Boat Club, before we get blown away, the exclusive club of Southwest Florida.