Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Klyde Warren Park's Final Act & SMU's Dallas Bridge Builder | Kit Sawer Says Goodbye | YDC Ep 225

Transcript

Klyde Warren Park's Final Act & SMU's Dallas Bridge Builder | Kit Sawer Says Goodbye | YDC Ep 225 · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Oh, it's a big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning parked right outside the window. The Texas Rangers win the world series. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano League teams. Don't what? You said tip. Yeah. Tip. Okay. With a p. Keep jamming. The ticket the ticket colon. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off the set. Is this a cool night or what? I know somebody would hear that go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. Hey, y'all. Welcome to another episode of Your Dark Companion. We're going live at five and if you're part of the live at five crew, it's good to have you on board. Salute to you brothers and sisters. This is the May 18 and this is episode number 225. There aren't just a ton of things that I've done more than 225 times in my life. So this is getting up there. No. I haven't yeah. I probably played the drums 225 times. Probably have. But anyway, enough about me. We've got a very, special person over here in the chair across from me. She is somebody that I've had the pleasure of working with on a couple things over the last couple years or so, and somebody that I've gotten to know a little bit and think a lot of her. She's a pros pro at whatever she does, and she knows how to work a room. Let me tell you. She is the great kid SARS. Hello. Hello. Hi there. How you doing? Fine. Thanks for having me. Good to be back. Well, thank you for, coming back with us. This is not her first swim through this, so she knows a little bit about what she's getting into here. Looking forward to it. And I'm looking forward to talking to you and getting into some things that we didn't get a chance to get into that last time. If you're not familiar with her fine work, you will find her these days as the CEO of Clyde Warren Park. But that is, I understand, rather finite. Yeah. The other vistas that you're about to go conquer? Yes. July 20. My last after eight years at Clyde Warren Park. Wow. Eight years at Clyde Warren Park and boy, you've watched that thing turn into something over those eight years, haven't you? Yeah. It's been I mean, it's been one of the great privileges of my career, and we've grown together. The park has gone from having 1,200,000 annual visitors to 2,000,000 annual visitors, and we've created a support system financially for the park to put on all the programs that that we have and lots of big new events. Our Independence Day event, we started just, you know, not that long ago, and it's become the city of Dallas' Independence Day celebration. And this year, it will be on July 4. It's typically the Saturday before the fourth, but it's the July 4 is a Saturday this year. So on July 4, during World Cup, on the 200 birthday of The US. So it's going to be a pretty pretty big year this year. Be a pretty big day. Yeah. You know, you have done so much in your career. You're one of those people that whenever I'm around, I cower a little bit because I think you've accomplished a whole lot more than I have. That is so not true. But thank you. Is true. That that that is true. But, I mean, you just you're one of those people who finds her way into places and then takes whatever situation you find yourself into and makes it better. That's that's a very rare skill to have. You did it at Clyde Warren Park. I really don't remember what kind of situation Clyde Warren Park was in when you took over, but I know this. It's better now. Thank you. What did what did what kind of state was it in when you took over? Well, the park is so young. I mean, the park is really just 14 years old this October, and so I took it over six years into its existence, and no one really knew how to program this brand new park before. And so they were focusing on a lot of operational issues with, you know, figuring out how to run this park over a highway. And so we were able to figure out ways to support that financially and, and spawn other deck parks. There's one now, as you know, in your your former stomping ground of Oak Cliff. Right? Yes. Halpern Park. I went to the grand opening of that just a few weekends ago. That's thriving already right next to the zoo. And to have about 80 of these parks, these deck parks built over highways around the country being created to stitch neighborhoods back together that were, you know, really split apart by the highway system has been has been exciting to see kind of a greening up of of the country. Now you graduated from SMU, and you seem like somebody that's really big on planning and really big on looking down the road. So when you graduated from SMU, what did you see for yourself? Well, it's interesting you say that. I I graduated from SMU law school. I went to UVA undergrad, and I certainly never saw UVA and SMU ever playing each other in my future. Who who knew SMU was gonna be in the ACC at some point? But when I graduated from from law school from SMU, I honestly the only thing I knew was that I did not want to be a lawyer. I did not wanna practice law. So I I took the bar exam. I passed the bar exam. I a friend of mine told me she has her State Bar of Texas license hanging over her washer and dryer so she can look at it when she's doing her laundry and say, look, I did that. Mine is not there, but I ended up going really right back to work at SMU. And, honestly, I feel like I have just stepped from one thing into another. I have just, like you, been in Dallas a long time, and Dallas is on such an incredible trajectory now that it's kind of been fun just to be along for the ride, you know. I mean, I got when I got involved with Super Bowl, for example, that's because the stadium was built, and all of a sudden, AT And T Stadium had a Super Bowl. I would never have done that had this region not been taking off. What was it about practicing law that made you turn away from it? I mean, you go to school, you get the law degree and everything like that, go to law school, and and that's the logical next step for most. But not you. Not me. I honestly don't think I was great at it, and I think you need to follow what your your skill set is. I'm definitely more of a people person. I like connecting people. I like bringing people together, and I was not the only part of law I was actually interested in was mediation. My husband went into litigation, and I was definitely not interested in there being a winner or a loser. I I liked everyone being winners and everyone being happy and getting something out of the deal. Mhmm. But I will tell you that law school education was really important for every job I've had since then. It gave me the confidence to be able to take on an issue that I did not understand and break it apart to the point where I could understand it, and I could get accomplished what we needed to. And I'm actually still involved with the law school on the executive board at SMU, and, I'm thrilled I got that degree, but it was great for me educationally, but didn't serve me, for the practice of law for sure. But I married an attorney, so I learned how to argue, successfully with my litigator husband. That probably could make for some pretty fun times around the house. Absolutely. We have to pick and choose who wins, you know. Yeah. You kinda have an alternating thing Yeah. Set Whatever it you know, we're we're thirty plus years into it now, so we figured it out somewhere along the way. Yeah. You got it down for sure. You know, you are best known for your work as CEO of Clyde Warren Park and I gotta tell you, I can't imagine what it's gonna like without you being involved on a day to day basis because when I think of Clyde Warren Park, first person I think of is you. But that's about where we're gonna be here before long. And let's go back just to the fact that the Clive Warren Park became a reality because I remember when it was not there. I remember when there was no thought whatsoever of putting that there, putting that there, or really putting anything. That area of town was that was just north of downtown was just kinda like everything else around downtown. It was just there. And that was it. Just the idea that it became a reality is kind of surreal, but how far fetched is the is the project from what it it's turned into on your watch? I mean Well, you know, I mean, to your point, I think it's such a great Dallas story because Dallas really does public private partnerships really well, and the stars were aligned to get all the people who were working on it together willing to invest in it. And it took a it took a lot of people and a and a lot of vision. And, you know, we're about to if the bids come back successfully on kind of within our budget on June 2, which is just a couple of weeks away, you're about to see an expansion of Clyde Warren Park, which really was part of the plan all along. Mhmm. It's just that it was it was such an effort to get the park built and understood that, they just thought, let's stop at the current site, and then we'll add the rest later. So there's potentially gonna be two more decks added to the west of Clydeworn Park, doing Akron and St. Paul and that U-turn that goes down toward El Phoenix. Mhmm. One will have a building on it. One will have an artificial turf field, which will, have, like, anchor points for tents to be set up. We could have a beer garden. We could have an ice skating rink during the wintertime. But, honestly, to have had to have 2,000,000 people a year figure out where to park around there or I mean, because Uber wasn't invented Mhmm. You know, when the park was built, but to figure out where to park, how to get there, to enjoy it, it was possible, but it took a lot of training people in Dallas what a programmed park was going to look like. You know, we when we grew up, you park there are parks of plenty in Dallas, but they didn't have free yoga classes. Yeah. And they didn't have free concerts, and they didn't have restaurants associated with them and things. I mean, some parks obviously had rec centers, but they they really didn't have anything for the entire community. And so, I think with a lot of vision and a lot of work, it has exceeded everyone's expectations. You know, particular, just to finish the answer to your question, what I really think I think it was known that it would be possible that the, property values would go up right around the park. Right. But the incremental revenue that has been created for the city of Dallas through the increased property taxes is staggering. And now we're looking I mean, you just read the news this this past week that the Texas Stock Exchange is potentially signing a lease to go in the brand new Bank of America building directly across the street from Clyde Warren Park. So for that area to turn into almost a new central business district for the for the city of Dallas between the Federal Reserve on one end and where that new Goldman Sachs campus is gonna go in next to Pearl Museum on the other side. I mean, that really has become Yall Street, and I don't think any of that was anticipated. Now you mentioned getting it understood, and I would imagine that that is probably that was probably a pretty big deal for you back then. And it was probably pretty hard to do. I mean, I I can imagine you I can imagine them talking to city leaders getting together and say, they're gonna wanna do they wanna build a park? What kind of park? Is is that the way you kind of imagined it in your mind? Know you weren't there then, but Yeah. That the And way I you kind of imagined it in your mind? Yes. And I was I was I put on the grand opening of the park. That was really my first exposure to the park. I had Tony Fay and I had our business at the time, putting on big events and things after the Super Bowl and doing PR and marketing, and one of our clients was the park. So I wasn't around when they were first, Jody Grant and others were really first approaching the city about it, but I feel like I was involved with the opening of it and modeling these types of events that could be had. So, the the way that well, two things. One, exactly what you said about parks. Down parks were not prioritized, right, really, in in the same way. Certainly not a park that was not gonna be part of the, Dallas Dallas Parks Department, just kind of a privately run park. You know, what in the world was that? But it almost needed to be pitched as a town square rather than as a park because, yes, Clyde Warren Park is a park. It's in the name, and it's got grass, but it truly is a venue, right, for the city. A place where activities happen. There are lots of parks. There are lots of trails, and those tend to be a little sleepier and more, you know, enjoyable maybe to take a nap in the middle of the day, but Clydeworn Park is a busy place, and it was really about trying to figure out a way to pull people together. And in the early days of teaching Dallas how to use it, Clydeworn Park leaned a lot on Bryant Park in New York, which had really just created this programmed park under a guy named Dan Biederman. And that's the place where they have the outdoor ice skating rink in New York. It's right by the New York Public Library. They have millions of visitors a year. And without that model, I don't know that Clyde Warren Park would have become what it was because and, again, a typical Dallas way, they looked and tried to get the best practices from around the country and bring them to Dallas. And one of the best practices with how to make sure this place was used was Bryant Park in New York, and they pulled from other venues around the country. How far fetched was the project when when you came into to play down there? I mean, where was it along its its timeline, and how far fetched was it to get it to where you wanted it to go? Well, it was it was doing really well, but it was still operating, you know, as an as a new venue that needed a lot more PR and marketing around it. Mhmm. And so, I think what I really was able to focus on was making sure the public knew about it, knew why it was important, knew how it was funded because no one people thought it was a city park. They didn't understand it was a five zero one c three nonprofit that needed money in order to continue to exist. And so, a lot of what I was also involved with creating were the money, you know, was the funding to keep all this program going. Yeah. Our budget was about, you know, $4.05 to 5,000,000 when I started. It's about 7,000,000 now. And so, it was it was just in its infancy in a lot of ways. And as I'm leaving, and you're very kind to say what you've said about me, but I feel like I'm leaving at a really good time in the park's future. And there's some great candidates for my position, and I know that they're going to lock in on a great one, but we have a terrific board. We have a terrific staff in place. The new person's going to get to focus on the expansion, hopefully, if all that goes well. So that'll be their own project, which will be, you know, exciting for them. We have a very strong board of directors. We're at the point now in our in what we've created that we've got these big events in the park each year, these big annual traditions like the Independence Day event I mentioned and the tree lighting celebration and things like that that are now, having volunteer leadership associated with them. So, you know, there's part in any organization's infancy where a lot of it is attached to the person in charge. And so, a lot of the membership societies, Friends of Clyde Warren Park, our Corporate Council, the things you all have been, you know, involved with were associated with me because I was involved in creating them. But in every organization's existence, those then need to go to volunteer leadership, and that's what's happening now. So I I'm very bullish on everything that's going on with the park. It's a great opportunity for someone to step into and I look forward to being involved as a passionate advocate. Were there people that you had to get on your side and give them the hard sell on what this could be? Everybody. Everybody. Mean, That's too a long one. Yeah. It's it was one zero one daily. Yeah. It was it it was it was a lot. But, you know, I like the challenge of taking something that's new and really bringing it to the attention of many. And, again, that's why we're able to have volunteers now associated with carrying the message because they do understand what it is now. But there's a lot to compete with in a sense in Dallas. Right? It's a big city now. There are a lot of new initiatives, and there's a lot of brain space in people's heads to to, you know, compete with and try to try to capture. And so, yeah, I mean, the city has come completely around on the park. The city council members are very involved with it and attend our events and help us out wherever needed. But in the early days, you know, they weren't totally sure about this investment. Mhmm. And certainly, early on, the businesses and things, and everyone just started to give it a try and then got more and more attached to it, and now I think people understand the importance of it. Yeah. People seem to understand that it is a place where you can go, you can take your kids, you can hang out, and there's a greater than zero chance nothing bad's gonna happen to you down there. And that's, I mean, that's gotta be just overwhelmingly gratifying because that is something that before Clyde Warren Park came along, we really didn't know a place like that here. Right. You know? Right. I mean, there was White Rock Lake and everything like that, and and it's nice and everything, but you don't use that in quite the same way you do Clyde Warren and Clyde Warren's in the city. Right. Exactly. How you know, a ways out. Yeah. And that's where it being privately managed, I believe, helps. And the money we raise, and I I compare it a lot to that kind of a PBS model. And once I was able to figure that out, I think people understood it more, that we raise money from individuals and foundations and corporations, and we push out free programming to the community, but in a physical way Yeah. Rather than a pro you know, rather than a on your TV Right. Or radio way. And so we're able to have rules associated with the park because we're privately managed. So we open at 6PM, and we close at 11PM. And you can cut through the park, but you're not allowed to be there overnight. And we have twenty four hour security that's privately paid for. Mhmm. And we have seven day a week maintenance, and it really has helped, you know, to create a safe space. I mean, we have more women who come to the park than men, not by a lot, but I think that speaks to the safety. You know, women with strollers are comfortable coming through and, taking their kids there, and, we've really been fortunate. What was it like getting people with the city on your side for this? Because I can imagine you go there and talk to someone, and they're gonna say, they're gonna do what? They're putting a park in in in over by McKenna Avenue? You know? What's what was that like? Wait. Hold on. Was that an old white rich guy? Yeah. Yeah, that's what it was. That was like Belvedere Beauregard or somebody talking. Yeah. It was honestly easier to just show them than to tell them because unless they came to it, they never were going to understand it. So a lot of what we did was create events that they could come to, and we invited them, and we encouraged them to come. And, once they started seeing it and seeing how diverse it was and seeing how safe it was and enjoying themselves and then starting to bring their families, well, then it was just a matter of time. So, really, I think that was the thing that I was most involved with early on was creating things to have in the park that drew people to it so they could understand it for themselves and become advocates for it. Things like what? I mean, gosh, we've created everything from, you know, our our big events that our little team puts on are, you know, in addition to this holiday celebrations, we put on a annual, dog adoption event. We put on a big trick or treating event. We put on the cover to cover music series, which Petty Theft or music festival, which Petty Theft performed at last year. You know, we have different things like that that we put on, and now we partner with groups who come and put on free things for the community. And there have been mistakes made along the way, you know, because we're new. We've tried different things, and we've figured out what works the best. For example, it doesn't work as well, like, with cover to cover. Last year, as you know, we experimented by fencing in the park and charging a ticket cover to come into that. It was a private event, and it was a fundraiser for the park. Those don't work as well for the park as, I mean, we have our once a year fundraiser partying the park, which is a big seated dinner, and we raise over a million dollars a year for the park that one night. Honestly, the rest of the time we figured out it's better to have the park wide open because that's what people expect now, and then you can have a fenced off area within that. Yeah. And if people want access to that and access to the free food and drink or whatever, they can pay to get into that, or they can join a membership society to support the park, and that'll give them free access to that. But mostly people like just going and being, and they don't care. They don't have to, like, look at the music if they can hear it, you know, but, so those are some of the things we figured out along the way that we've we've changed, and and that we've added to get people to come more and more to the park. Now while we're on the subject, you've got it coming up again this year, cover to cover. What do you got for us this year? So, I mean, you know, they're all going to compel in comparison to petty theft I doubt that very seriously. Was incredible last year. Just answer the question. And and rocked it. Totally unpaid endorsement. Well, you. You're very nice to say so. Y'all were incredible and we definitely want you back soon. The this event, we've taken it down to, an evening event and instead of a daytime festival. Mhmm. And it's going to be Saturday, March 30 from six to ten, again open to the public, and we've got three bands playing between six and ten. We've got Hard Nights Day Mhmm. You know, the Beatles tribute band, and then we've got a band that has played at the Barley House, which you may know called the Meat Sweats. Heard of them. Which is kind but I've heard of them. Country Rock. Mhmm. And then third, we have Central Standard Band, who are going to be playing, and they are going to play more party music. Yeah. But that'll be the the Choctaw Casino and Resort in Duran is the sponsor of it. So they're gonna have gaming tables set up for for people to enjoy throughout the park. And, one zero one Media, is going to have has procured some vendors for us to sell different things, and then, of course, our food trucks will be there. And, it it should be a and Mikasina's gonna have a bar set up, so you can drink your Mambo taxis and walk around and listen to the music. So it should be a it should be a really fun evening. It was last year. That's for sure. And no doubt it will be again this year. You know, on your watch, the park has been expanded. It's made bigger and even more grand than it already was. And now you've been a huge part of making something such a part of the fabric of the city that you can't imagine that area north of downtown any other way. That's gotta be extremely gratifying. It is. I mean, being like you, a native Dallasite, to be able to have a small impact on my hometown is, you know, is definitely gratifying. The thing that's so fun for all of us involved with with that park is, you know, when I would drive by with my children, they would say, there's mom's park. And when any of our board members drive by with their folks, it's like, that's their park. And my staff, I mean, everybody feels very much like it's it's their park. And so, to be able to be part of something that's so connected, yeah, to the city. And and it was the like I said, one of the great privileges of my life to be, involved in having a physical place to pull people together and who doesn't want to be in charge of a playground? Yeah. And that's so great that people feel like, you know, that that they take ownership of it, Right. You And you know what else has been fun is now I've been there, now I'm old and I've been there so long that these cute young couples are coming through the park, and, I've had two separate conversations, total truth, with, young people just asking them why they were there, what they were doing. And separate times over the course of several years, they both told me that, one young man and one young woman said that they were raised going to Clydeworn Park, and so now they wanted to bring either their girlfriend or their fiance back to show them where they used to play. So, you know, in our minds, it seems like it hasn't been there long, but when you're, you know, 24 or something, it's been there most of your life. And how fun is that to see it generationally, perpetuated like that? I've been down the road that road before. I remember when we started getting a second generation of ticket listener. Yeah. And it's that was that was so wild and so foreign to me because, you know, throughout the years, the fact that that might come about never really occurred to me. Yeah. But all the time there were people out there just passing it on down, you know? Passing that raunchy, raucous mess that we were on down to their own kids. Maybe we can the park can form, now that we're on that second stage, a new version of p one, but p can stand for park. Yeah. And now we're we're on to the to the to the p twos. Oh, let's see. Let's talk about the World Cup a little bit. You got big big doings going on there, and I promise I'm about to get to what you're into. No, that's alright, because I haven't started that yet. I'm still very much tied up in Clyde Warren Park. So I am, as I said, my last day will be literally the day after World Cup because we are very excited that we're going to be showing almost every game during World Cup. We've gotten FIFA approval to have a large screen. So it's, like, 13 and a half by 24 feet LED screen or something like that. And during the park open hours, so, you know, there aren't any games that start as early as 6AM, but really until the evening, we're not gonna show any of the really late games, the ones that start at nine and ten and eleven at night. But, the games that start at 8PM, we're going to show every single game either, in English, on Fox or in, Spanish in Telemundo, for anyone to come and enjoy the, you know, the experience of being together and rooting for their their favorite team. I can't imagine what that's gonna be like with the World Cup here. Have you ever experienced anything close to the World Cup or or gone somewhere where it's been happening or anything? Not World Cup. No. Obviously, Super Bowl. Because before I was involved with Super Bowl, we went to a couple of different ones to kinda see what that was all like. But it is gonna be incredible. It's gonna be hot. I mean, they're coming in July and of July. Really cold. That's true. We know about these extremes. That's that's totally true. But no, I haven't. Have you been to any of the World Cup? No. I haven't. I haven't. I'm I'm very interested in what it's gonna be like too. Yeah. I mean, all I know is what I've heard from people. Right. And those people who I've heard it from are all big soccer guys and I'm not particularly, but still, this is something that transcends the sport, you know. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, we're we're partnering with the the local organizing committee, the the host committee. They've got their big fan fest event, obviously, at Fair Park. We're, again, just honoring our role as being the town square of of Dallas by having the games on for people who wanna come have lunch, eat at a food truck, watch the game. I have a feeling that there may be some gathering after big victories where people wanna come and celebrate together, and the park is centrally located for that. But Mhmm. We've also got some different activations that'll be going on during the the tournament with, FC Dallas and with Athletico and with the Dallas Trinity, you know, the the local soccer teams. They're gonna be putting on some fun activations for us. And we're working with a lot of the FIFA sponsors who are gonna be know, Anheuser Busch is a big sponsor. They're gonna be setting up a fun bar, for people to be able to have a beer and and watch the games. So, you know, we really encourage everyone to just go to our website, and we'll have everything up, which games are gonna be in English, which ones are in Spanish, and, it should be fun and hot. And crowded. And crowded. There'll be a lot of people there. Yeah. Should be fun indeed. Alright. This is Kit Saarz. She is the CEO of Clyde Warren Park or she was the CEO. She still is for a little bit. So the past the present tense is still okay? Yes. Through July 20. Okay. Present tense. Alright. I wanna get into what you're leaving the park to go to next. A little bit of that here in a little bit because your situation is very fascinating. I mean, you're somebody who gets involved and jumps into it with both feet. So we'll get into that with Kit. Right now though, if you need to relax for a little bit, if I'm making you tense or something like that, just sit back because right now it is time for the dreaded and feared mid show read. Tada. So how does it appear to sit around? You have two weeks of this. Alright. YDC is coming to the stockyards over there in crazy Fort Worth. We are going to be hosting a remote show along with Jake White and John Henry of Signal fifty one Chronicles. This will be at Bronx Tack Room, the newest casual restaurant in the Stockyards, and Basement Bar with darts, pool tables, live tunage. We will be talking true crime with Jake and John, the live music scene with country music artist Steve Helms, Tyler Kern of the Sunset Soccer Club, and special guests, former MLB player Daniel Hernandez and Arlington mayor Jim Ross will join us with all things World Cup. This will be May 20. Former MLS player. Oh, is that it says MLB player. Alright. Dan I'm sorry. Daniel Hernandez is a former MLS player. I need to start doing this myself. If you wanna get it right, you gotta do it yourself. So okay. Talk one guy. You won't get anything right. Arley to mayor Jim Ross is gonna join us with all things World Cup. This will be May 20 from five until seven over at 115 West Exchange Avenue in Crazy Fort Worth. You've been asking for it. Bronx Tack Room is giving it to you. YDC in Fort Worth, May 20 from five until seven. So come see us over there at Bronx Tack Room. Is that it? Oh, what? That's a time for CBD CBD. We gotta tell you about this. This is a full spectrum salve stick from the CBD house of healing. If you are roaming through this world in pain, you need this. Because I've been having problems here and there myself. And whenever it starts to get to me and I'm really, really hurting pretty bad and I need something for it, I'd like to make it go away, I put some of this on it and it makes it better. It doesn't make it go away totally, but it makes it better. Now if it will do that for me, I bet it will do it for you. So what you need to do is go inside the CBD House of Healing, take a look around at all the stuff they got for you, and, just see what they can do. Likely or not as not, they will hook you up with one of these things. And if you're anything like me, it will help you feel better. Start your healing at the CBD House of Healing. They are located at the Northeast quadrant of Northwest Highway and Plano Road. Go by there. Tell them you heard about it from us here on YDC and get your head right over there at the CBD House of Healing. Alright. Let's see. Let's talk about what's down the road here for you a little bit. Because you are leaving Clyde Warren to become CEO of the Dallas office at SMU, which oddly enough is your alma mater. Now what appealed to you about this opportunity? Well, it was a way to really continue the work I've loved doing with the park, is pulling people together, but it was a way to do it on a different scale with my alma mater and my hometown. And it just sounded like an incredibly exciting new opportunity. There's, you know, with a new president at SMU, Jay Hartzell, who took Gerald Turner's place. Gerald Turner, obviously, was beloved and Mhmm. Did a lot for SMU, and Jay brings a new energy and incredible vision. And when he first talked to me about this, I thought it just sounded like an incredible opportunity. Jay Hartzell says this is essentially a startup and a novel concept among academic institutions. So the Dallas office at SMU Yeah. What what does that look like in your mind right now? Yeah. Well, when he first got to SMU, he and he really commissioned a survey. He wanted to figure out what everybody was thinking about SMU internally, externally, folks from Dallas, stakeholders, non stakeholders, and they got something like 9,000 responses back. And, really, one of the most, you know, salient discoveries was Dallas and SMU wanted to work more closely together. So, there is already a lot of work being done between Dallas and SMU, but it is very decentralized, and it's a little hard to maybe find. You know, so if you, for example, wanted to bring an intern from SMU, here, you know, onto the show to help you work with it, you'd probably call someone you knew at SMU to figure out who you would go to to then find what would do. Right. So this what this does is it will, at at least initially, you know, create kinda I almost wanna create, like, directory of everything that's going on already at SMU in the way it's interfacing with Dallas and to and to centralize it, create kind of a a front door through which you could go through to find what you're looking for, and then also create visibility around what is already, you know, being done. I mean, I envision, something almost like what we're doing with Clydeworn Park with our weekly e newsletter that we send out where, you know, we list what's going on in the park, what you may wanna come do or see. Imagine something like that going out to the community to show these, you know, the these tennis teams are in town. The best tennis teams in the country are playing, and we've got this ensemble performing, and we've got this special exhibit at the Meadows Museum for you to see. You know, ways to really to to teach the community how to utilize SMU because they're welcome there, and ways that they can come and enjoy the campus. I think people who have even lived down the street from SMU, haven't spent much time on the campus unless they've had somebody there, you know, as a student, but this is a chance to not only pull the community in, but really, I would say the focus of it is going to be around the trajectory SMU's on and the trajectory Dallas is on with businesses and kind of harnessing those two trajectories together. I mean, SMU, in addition to obviously joining, you know, the ACC Mhmm. Has a brand new research designation from Carnegie, their r one research, which is the top tier research institution status in the country. And, obviously, with Dallas, we know, you know, companies companies are moving here, and they're expanding here. And like we talked about Yall Street, there's just and and research, you know, in the natural sciences in particular, there's just a lot going on. And so to figure out something intentional, which is I think Jay's point, to focus specifically on how these two are going to grow together and help each other is what the goal of this office is. You know, SMU, as you say, is, you know, right in the heart of the city, but it does seem like it's on a little island by itself. It doesn't seem fully integrated into the the flow, if you will, around here. Right. And it sounds like what you're talking about is changing that. Right. That's exactly right. Yeah. You know, we've even talked about everything from fun things like maybe we put and I've talked to Tony Faye about this actually, you know, maybe there's a big concert that happens in the spring, you know, a big name performing in Ford Stadium in the spring, and you give all the students tickets on the field, but you give the you know, sell the 30,000 tickets to members of the community so they come on campus. And in between songs, can talk about how the university and the city are working, you know, more closely together and really get get the message out. Yeah. Because the more people hear about that and see what is done, the more they get their own ideas about how they can tap in and how their companies and businesses or whatever it is, might be able to tap in as well. But, so, yeah, that is for sure, you know, getting figuring out, getting our arms around what exactly is happening already there, centralizing it, bringing visibility to it, and then communicating it to the to the community Yeah. Is really kind of the the the first stage, I would say, the office. As you see it, what is already happening there? What what's going on there that you see right now that you think you can tap into? Well, so, for example, as I told you, I'm involved with the law school and I know that the law school has something like 130 students working in, legal departments of corporations around the city of Dallas. You know, that's happening. You know, there are the business school, the Cox School of Business has a lot of partnerships with a lot of companies. You know, there are other places to look at, as well who are doing pieces of this really well. So, as we talked about, Dallas likes to go and see what everybody else is doing and who's doing it well and bring it back here. An example of that is Northeastern University, which I toured when my younger daughter was looking at colleges and was fascinated by what they had for their students taking advantage of being in Boston. And Tom Leppard told me that Northeastern has changed its rankings in The US News and Report almost faster and higher than any other college right now, and they did it partially through these this co op program they created, which are basically externships for students. But they're not just for a few months or, you know, a few weeks. Mhmm. They're like for up to a full year or two years. And so, these kids are working for these Boston based huge companies. They're really learning, what they need to do to work there, in almost a trade school kind of way, right? It's the it's the training before you show up after you graduate from college all bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready for the real world and having to figure out how to send an email and, you know, what people do in an office. So, this actually their Northeastern's program provides that during while they're in college. If SMU had their version of that within Dallas, that would be beneficial to, the the corporations, you know, the companies in Dallas, it would be beneficial to the students who are all, you know, focused on the pipeline to their professional desires. Do you think people will be receptive to that at SMU? Well, I think so. As, you know, Jay Hartzell put it, the, he said, you know, they're like any academic institution, there are silos because people within schools get focused on what they're doing. But what he has said is that the silos at SMU are lower, you know, the silo walls are lower than they, are at, you know, potentially other places. And like I said, the the origin story of this whole thing is that people are wanting to work together. You know, this is not just something he made up. I mean, this is in response to a strong desire to to do this. You know, there's the opportunity for more joint degrees between schools, right, like the engineering school and the business school or whatever. There's the opportunity for executive gap years. So, what if you, Mike Reiner, you know, middle of your career, wanted to kind of come back and take a class, maybe it wasn't or take a year's worth of classes. Maybe it wasn't even in communications or, you know, whatever you might find academically was associated with what you do professionally. Maybe it's art. Maybe it's something you never got to do, but that has become very appealing to people in the middle of their careers to take a year off and do something different. You know, we're not doing things the way our parents did. I was reading something about that very thing yesterday that people were starting to do that. Yeah. And I just sat back and went, wow. That seems very strange. Yeah. And in some, they're calling it micro retirement, when people are taking like full years off to travel or do whatever, because people don't wanna wait till they're 65 or 75 or whatever the age it is that they are when they wanna wanna retire. They wanna do it, A lot of them wanna do it with their kids Mhmm. And a lot of them wanna do it, you know, when they're at their healthiest, and SMU wants to respond to that and make these opportunities available for continuing education for the executive level. SMU is a jewel in the big middle of our Fairberg. I've always thought that. When I was a kid, I was a big fan of SMU basketball. I used to listen to their games on the mighty eleven ninety KLIF and even got my old man to take me to the S M SMU Coliseum as it was known then for a couple of SMU Texas A and M games. And I I just kinda have a thing here for them. I always have. Yeah. You know? I've always liked SMU. I've always thought it was really neat, and and, it's neat to know somebody that's gonna be associated with it like that. Well, thank you. Yeah. I mean, you know, we've had SMU's had Dallas has had things it's had to recover from. Yeah. You know? Terrible tragedy that we've had to recover from and regroup. SMU's had things that it's had to recover from. Mhmm. Right? And, again, I think the city and the school are ripe for all sorts of great things. And and kids from around the country who didn't who had not heard of SMU, and their families had never heard of SMU, who are top of their class, are wanting environments like SMU, and people know where SMU is now, other than people, you know, from Dallas. I mean, and and families are moving to Dallas to be with their kids while they're in college. They're buying houses in Dallas. You know, lot of families who are are are doing that. I believe that. That doesn't sound so far fetched. Right. And so, you know, it's different from when we grew up, but it it is happening, and, you know, I think that can only be good for the university and, and Dallas. You know, I know that SMU wants to get more involved with the Dallas art scene. Obviously, it's had Meadows, but, you know, I'd like to look, a little bit more deeply into the different ways that, that we engage with the arts community in Dallas. Obviously, the football team did a great job with it, right, with the D for Dallas on their, on the helmets and on the merchandise and everything. And that might have been one of the things that really led to this realization that the city and the university wanted to do more together was seeing how successful that was and how fun that was for everybody. Right? Because then to your point, everybody was rooting for SMU sports because everybody felt engaged with it. I've always thought it was a cool thing, and it's it's always kind of mystified me a little bit as to it didn't occupy a little bit higher place on the the sports pecking order around here. But I guess when you look at the sports pecking order around here, it's not that hard to understand. But it's still it's still a cool thing, and I wish you well in this process. Thank I know that they have got the best person that they possibly could get for it. Well, you're very nice. I'm really excited. And like I said, I still plan to be involved with the park. And now that we've come up with this idea of an SMU intern to come work with you guys, I'm gonna make that one of my first We've trained we've trained Tango before. Yeah. My first act. Are you keeping Tony Faye in hand these days? Yes. We're definitely haven't seen him in a while. Yeah. He's well, he's, you know, all happily married and having a grand old time, and, Katie's working with him now at Tony Faye PR, his daughter, and so, he's doing really well, but we're, yeah, we're still working together, whenever we can, so that's exciting. He's a good fellow. Yeah. Well, I know he's nuts about you too, so She is Kitzarx, and, we thank you very much for joining us here on Little YDC today once again. And we'll have you on again sometime. You're you're fun. Thank you. You're fun too and I'm really honored to be back. Well, we are honored to have you back. Now don't forget what you need to do out there amongst the masses, I'm talking to you, is to help us out by putting us up on your social media. I got one more here. Okay. Your social media. We need to be on your social media. We'll get back to that in a second, but apparently I've got another thing here that I need to do. And it is not coming up. That's your fault. That's my fault? You just rolled past it. Found it. What is it? Maybe I can wing it. It's for the Byron Nelson stuff. Oh, no. I can't wing I can't wing that. There you go. That's cool. Alright. So the CJ Cup, Byron Nelson is here again. YDC and the Sunset Lounge giving away tickets and that all important parking. And you have four chances to win. We're gonna give away two tickets and parking for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, May '24. That's two tickets plus parking for each day. Now if you wanna win, here is how you go about that. Go to our post on either Facebook and or Instagram for YDC or Sunset Lounge. Drop your favorite PGA golfer in the comments, and we will draw the winners Tuesday. That's tomorrow beginning at 07:00. That's all you gotta do. Will you be there measuring? Will I be there? It take you measurements? I go wherever you tell me to go. You tell me to go there, I will go there. Mike, I want you to go with a measuring tape in hand. Okay. That's what we'll do. We'll be out there with the measuring tape in hand. Just look for me. I'll be standing I'll be standing on the side of the road out there holding up a measuring tape. You'll know it's me. You'll know what it's for. And you'll know what it's for. So, get in on this. Help us out. Help yourself out. Get in on this and, two tickets and parking for each day at the Byron Dawson. Man, what are you gonna do? You crazy to turn that down? No, get in on this man. So do what we just told you to do and, be with us next time for another episode of YDC. Until then, bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.