When Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski stopped by the Dundalk homestead of Drug City for our 25th Anniversary celebration, we discussed how our citizens bond over sports, milkshakes and the important pieces that make our neighborhoods feel like home.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
city, people, milkshakes, baltimore county, ravens, reimagine, kids, drug, orioles, fountain, county, talk, years, school, nice, community, baltimore, johnny, good, day
SPEAKERS
Johnny Olszewski, Chuck Jacobs, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome back, W and st Towson Baltimore. Baltimore positive were positively a drug city. People outside of Dundalk. They took drugs city, drug city, they don’t have it. You don’t need it. So brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. It’s their 50th anniversary. It is our 25th anniversary. I was a little bit inspired by this even more inspired when Alison won five bucks with the Maryland lottery scratch offs, and the throwbacks are friends of winter nation 866 90 nation. I moved to Baltimore County last year and got myself some new windows. my one year anniversary is the August 8 This week it’d be here we got our windows 866 90 They should make sure you take care of them. And of course our friends here we’re truck city. We were Costas on Thursday celebrating 25 Gianni couldn’t make it he’s here today as part of the ending of the 25th anniversary two day celebration, but this is the next six months I’m doing the 25 stories of glory for wn S T and me so before we begin fountain when When did you hear my name it’s so pointless you’re like your school teacher you drove around your fan? I would think at some point you know about my you know my free the birds
Johnny Olszewski 01:05
I just say I think I think you came to prominence and in my sphere when it was free in the birds when you
Nestor Aparicio 01:10
were really pushing 17 years yeah so 13 years ago well
Johnny Olszewski 01:14
I’m not as young as I used to be so 17 years used to seem like a long time ago but when this this birthday is rolling the odometer over again we’re already past 40 now so it’s 41 So 17 years but ya know I think for the birds was sort of the thing where you really sort of like
Nestor Aparicio 01:31
people come up to me and they like and I say reason I’m proud of it now more than ever is the team’s irrelevant yet right so for me to say you like baseball said why you like it good every night so do i You like full if you’d like to city filled up politicians branded you like tax right? You like the mojo of talking to your mother about your grandmother? Yes. We all like that sweater for the birds so I’m pleased that the birds are free. I actually received a bird sign and half yesterday and threw in the air kind of shade O’Connor style just through it and I said out of it we’ve got some video Tic Tac Toe all right so Dundalk you’re here you know your way around. I said to Chuck when I got here. I’m like, you know Johnny was coming over but I’m assuming he’s been a drug city. Oh, of course. First trip to drug city was when my bubble gum was a little little little boy. I don’t remember
Johnny Olszewski 02:23
I’ve been coming to drug city my entire life and you’re right if they don’t have it, you don’t need it. I liked how you did the window. The appropriate done hotkeys and your your intro there but yeah, make fun of my drug city. I mean, my memories as a child were mostly centered around coming here and actually when they had the video rentals see the VHS video games that Nintendo games?
Nestor Aparicio 02:45
Do you remember the Double Door? That was the the what do they call that the the cowboy doors? Oh, yeah, I didn’t enter stores. never opened saloon doors.
Johnny Olszewski 02:53
I did not get into this.
Nestor Aparicio 02:55
At 45 Well, what are you I was
Johnny Olszewski 02:56
a couple of years old.
Nestor Aparicio 02:58
What year were you born? 82. You’re young. Oh, man. He’s
Johnny Olszewski 03:02
41. Or I’m gonna be 41
Nestor Aparicio 03:04
but like, I was in here written smokers and you were three years old? Yeah, I
Johnny Olszewski 03:10
was. I was a couple years after that coming and checking out their their video I had explained.
Nestor Aparicio 03:14
Some of the guests we had when I said you want to come to cosas or drug city. They’re like, Oh, what’s the drug city? So all the added Dundalk people came today because they they were curious. Yes. So I had to explain to them that the place that they got the milkshake, it used to be pictures of Christie Canyon. But that was 30 years ago. 3040 years ago, George has 141
Johnny Olszewski 03:35
Georgia. I’m so Oh, Georgia, this team transformed a transform this place you wouldn’t recognize possibly
Nestor Aparicio 03:40
this tasting room is beautiful.
Johnny Olszewski 03:41
It’s amazing. It’s amazing.
Nestor Aparicio 03:43
Well, and I think that’s for from what you do for a living and trying to stimulate business and create hope and do all that, that a business could be here in 1954. Not every neighborhood certainly a lot of places in America that weren’t around in 1954 to have this kind of a venerable place but man it’s no offense to Walmart. I know you gotta be nice to them but like they put a lot of those kinds of Amazon that malls. The fact that drug cities here is a real testament to the fact that it went from baseball cards and wrestling magazines beginning as a drugstore and as a five and dime. Is that Is that a big one milkshake or is that a regular? Regular Okay, I’ll make sure I gotta try to get a big boy I’ll check what is this? This is a shmore Are you gonna sit down Come on
Johnny Olszewski 04:30
let everybody hear you.
Nestor Aparicio 04:32
chuck it on the mic man. Come on. Chuck. Chuck sit down. You’re with the county executive. You got drinks to make or something What are you doing? Alright, put your headset on Chuck’s excited about the Orioles John.
Johnny Olszewski 04:42
Yes, we’re all excited about the Orioles I said to Chuck earlier is
Nestor Aparicio 04:45
Johnny been using I know Johnny is gonna be fun. So for for the Orioles. And for you and for these milkshakes. We’re talking about your place here and George can’t be here. He’s in Vegas. But this when I tell people about and then the first six guests I had today never been here And then I told them all when you get here walk around and go find chalk. And they all came up here. They’re like this is a great place. And that’s the Chris pike in his wife I brought them over here three weeks ago bought a bottle of whiskey. You get the you get that a lot, or is this still so local that everybody, you get that all the time everyday you get tourist service folks
Chuck Jacobs 05:17
are like, we never knew you were here. Never knew you were over this side. Because a lot of times people don’t come to the side of the store unless you’re coming over there for a reason. But now they know the fountains there, they’ll come in, like when did this get here and three years in September. And it’s great new people coming in every day. Never knew we were there. And then they’ll post something on Facebook or some social media outlet and you know, it’s nice to get people to come in never been able to see the
Nestor Aparicio 05:40
fountain was a fountain before I knew it right that that that was on the other end,
Chuck Jacobs 05:44
the original fountain was where the card department was back in the late 50s. Early 60s. Okay, and then once that went away,
Nestor Aparicio 05:51
he doesn’t remember that. Yeah,
Johnny Olszewski 05:52
I know, that was a little bit before my Son.
Nestor Aparicio 05:55
Being a contemporary of
Chuck Jacobs 05:56
mine things that I heard as well, but your elder, it’s crazy. We’ve had a couple folks come in and said they used to work in the original fountain. And we’ve done our very best to try to reach out to folks with original pictures and nobody has anybody tried like the Dundalk Historical Society. Different people
Nestor Aparicio 06:11
and some for Johnny. I bet. Did you know that East Point shopping center had penguins? I did.
Chuck Jacobs 06:15
I did right where it used to be. I really
Nestor Aparicio 06:19
really vaguely remember I was one of 68. So I vaguely remember and every time I put something online John Allen I had a conversation about this yesterday cost this because He’s a year older than me and him sort of like he he remembers it as a really little boy. There was also where the McDonald’s is where the original poop plant tower was the big tin can. There was a safety this is a golden dome.
Johnny Olszewski 06:41
So let’s make sure we’re referring to them correctly. The golden domes it was a tin can Yeah. Okay, it was a
Nestor Aparicio 06:48
gray and white checkerboard. Okay. Looks like a Purina water towers water tower. Yeah. Right. And he’s there was a Mercantile Bank. That was where the McDonald’s basically is. And there’s the parking lot that sits in front of like, where the atrium mall was, there was and this is really neat. Johnny, I want to tell you about this because I have my safety certificate that I got. It was an area you went as a child on a Saturday or Sunday where you learned on a tricycle or a bike stop signs walk like how to walk the city How to Be it was a safety citizen children’s how to be safe. And it was an area at the mall that I get that it taught us I’m not gonna give him credit cuz I think it was already there when he got but whoever was before it was before that it also got entitled the money in the wall. But either way, the former vice versa, but this is 7273 this was like, thought through, you know, the mall was like this thing. And now we’re losing malls, but we haven’t lost drug city. And I think that’s part of the evolution that he talks about being a video store. If you your younger siblings, were talking about it being a tanning salon, and I really didn’t come in here during the tanning salon era right I would use it as a liquor store. Sure.
Chuck Jacobs 08:01
Video and tanning was right where the fountain is now and we have had customers come in do you still have the tanning beds here? I said no. It’s called it’s called an oven in the back now so we’re making food and stuff but a lot of folks come in and remember the original you know set up which was the video and then it was tag and title and then it was beepers a couple of smaller paper and remember that I remember the pagers came out it was really big at one point I’m like
Nestor Aparicio 08:28
the 90s laughing at myself yeah
Chuck Jacobs 08:30
and then just growing up here you know living so close to the store like in my my one thing I always talk about is if it’s Christmas morning and dad forgot those triple A batteries for that toy guess what drugs cities open their 365 so he’d shoot up here and shoot back and it was always here it’s it’s probably the most positive establishment for Dundalk. You know we get shit on quite a bit let’s be I also have in two owners 1954 is you know it’s just like cost us they’ve been here since 71 It’s but
Johnny Olszewski 09:00
you all have reinvented yourself over and over again and
Chuck Jacobs 09:04
find ways right finds ways to to reinvent to keep things current but then you know when we do a lot of our pricing we look around at like squires we look at cost as we look at we want to come in below that but still offer you that quality product and the one thing we do great is we do homemade sodas. Nobody else makes this. That’s pineapple upside down cake. So you’re gonna get Rodney brought
Nestor Aparicio 09:26
me upon up. I’m gonna be pineapple upside down by Sunday. So go to a vendor to see Pat Benatar tomorrow. Oh
Chuck Jacobs 09:32
my god, but uh, honey Graham ice cream vanilla. I have a cupcake syrup I use and then fresh pineapple. Sounds good. Yep. And it is very you can get in a boozy form as honey. I bring
Nestor Aparicio 09:41
it home. You don’t melt. That’s right. Yeah. And I can’t can’t do that. And it’s great.
Chuck Jacobs 09:45
Like kids come in. We’ve fist bump. We’re making milkshakes and ice cream to get excited. I went to Norway Elementary and spoke to the kids about how a soda fountain works. And that was exciting. They liked your beer. It was great. A lot of the kids that came I never realized how big Norwood was it It’s a huge elementary school and coming from the village battle group is such a tiny elementary school. I got there and I took like some stickers. I ran stickers after the first class came through. So I had to put them away because I didn’t have enough for every kid. I spoke to eight classes of 25 or 30 kids that day. And it was great. And they were all very interested in the sodas, and it’s nice. Some of the posts we saw in line said something like my daughter, I picked her up from school and the first thing she said was, we have to go see Mr. Chuck at the film, because he also does. That’s awesome. They come in we High Five Hey, doing guys,
Nestor Aparicio 10:30
this was the perfect entree for him because you want to talk about kids going back to school? Well,
Johnny Olszewski 10:33
yeah, but I’ll just say before we even do that, like I love this place, because now it’s got sort of something for adults. I’ll come up here at the tasting room. And we’ll do there was actually a really nice wine tasting event with some food the other night we came to MIT in this room.
Nestor Aparicio 10:47
Oh, yeah. I said, I would have thought you and my Chef
Chuck Jacobs 10:50
Mike made some really nice ones. Like one bite. The go with
Johnny Olszewski 10:54
various wine tasting. Wine Tasting night is a really nice event up here. So my brother, my wife will date night we were here the couple friends. But then, you know, we’ll bring my daughter. We’ll go we’ll go to the fountain. We’ll get her a milkshake after a soccer.
Nestor Aparicio 11:07
You know, my daughter last day replaced her birthday party here. Yeah, yeah. She loves if it’s awesome. Yes. Before they respond. You know, my son and his wife live in Colgate. And yeah, they this is their liquor store has always been they were
Johnny Olszewski 11:19
getting started on like the selection at the liquor store. I mean, you guys just like those. Some of them here. Yeah. Just really like accessible, affordable, high quality stuff.
Nestor Aparicio 11:29
I liked it. I can go under six packs and get different beers and trial. Yeah, that’s
Chuck Jacobs 11:33
great. Yeah, absolutely. What’s
Johnny Olszewski 11:34
cool is coming up.
Nestor Aparicio 11:35
I know school is coming up. And I wanted to bring this up with you because you do a drug study. I have this school teacher who taught for 59 years Baltimore County, Calvin stadium, legend, lives and an engineer he taught at Hollenberg taught at Pikesville. He taught her Hollenberg forever taught me 19 7980 to one week we had him here. About six months ago, we came in and all my old classmates have Pikesville showed up over here to say hello. And my son has his little $89 Crappy Casio keyboard that I bought for him. And my son’s like, you need batteries for that. So six months ago, we brought him here. It was tough to get them up the steps because they didn’t have the thing that they brought you up in here today that when the county executive gets to sit in his chair, I did not come up in the lift. At access, you’re younger than me. So we had he had to actually come up here last year. And I said my son’s like any batteries for that and I’m like, we’re gonna be a drug city. They’ll have batteries. Okay. So yesterday, I had to pick it up. They both have COVID My son, his wife, COVID. They left the thing out on the porch for me, I wiped it all down. And he texts me he’s like, you gotta get batteries. And I’m like going to Costas and stop a truck City get batteries. My wife stopped in here yesterday. Batteries. And we had this teacher come out who’s this beautiful 80 year old man who grew up in Turners, grubs, bears point. He they tore his neighborhood down. He grew up the old Sparrows Point. Five years ago, right, exactly. And he talked about that yesterday. But when I think of my teachers, my mother was my teacher. Right? When I think teachers and I think about going back to school. I don’t know that I’d recognize like whenever I have grandkids, I don’t know that they’re going to come home with textbooks and pencils and pens and cursive or whatever. But when it kids go back to school, it stimulates sort of everything. It’s beginning of my calendar year, our year, the football year, the baseball playoffs, all that stuff. You got schools, what do they do? They opened in August.
Johnny Olszewski 13:24
We are now I think after Labor Day.
Nestor Aparicio 13:26
Okay, we went back to normal. Yep. All right, because that opening up in Ohio was all over the map. It didn’t make any sense. But
Johnny Olszewski 13:32
the consistency was going on. I was I was teaching.
Nestor Aparicio 13:37
The kids got to go back to school. They brought you in a week or two early to Oh,
Johnny Olszewski 13:42
yeah, yeah. Teachers go in early and even earlier, if you’re doing high school sports, so you’re playing or coaching. So surely she reported like now I felt like it was the beginning of August.
Nestor Aparicio 13:52
And now it’s two weeks from now. Well, that’s good. So what’s going on with schools tell me schools are
Johnny Olszewski 13:56
starting up. We’ve got a new superintendent in Baltimore County, someone who’s I appreciate that. Dr. Yarborough is someone who’s willing to not not shy away from the hard conversations. We’ve got a strong foundation here in the county. I’m really proud of what we’ve done. We’ve built not just a new Colgate, but we’re building a new Towson or like new Towson. We’re building a new lands down to Delaney. We’re going to have to figure out solutions for places like Sparrows Point and figuring out the overcrowding situations. They’re over in the Northeast. A lot of good investments over $3 billion. But you know, Dr. Yarborough is not afraid to say look, we have to work on test scores. We’ve had a lot of learning loss through COVID. She’s not afraid to work with me and say, We got to make sure our schools are safe. We can’t have violence in our schools. We won’t tolerate kids who are disruptive or especially violent. We’ve got a superintendent who just is accessible. She calls she texts. So I’m excited. My daughter goes to the public school system. She’s here in the southeast, going into second grade. Excited about
Nestor Aparicio 14:50
what you better have some energy, huh? You know,
Johnny Olszewski 14:53
I try to keep up. Yeah, it’s fun though. She’s seven and a half. She’ll be eight November.
Nestor Aparicio 14:59
How’s your education? Different when she when she goes to a school How’s it different than when you taught or when you went to school? I mean, what school St. John’s my son you’re my son’s my
Johnny Olszewski 15:06
only my only guidepost is sort of my own experience. And you know, I had a wonderful experience going through public school here in Baltimore County. And that’s what I want for her. That’s what I want and expect for every every other family and every other kid. So, you know, we should expect and demand and push for excellence. And that’s that’s it, like the buildings should be nice and new and reflective of what our kids deserve. There should be a qualified teacher who’s responsive and helping to elevate our kids. And, you know, we’re putting in the investments. I mean, this year alone is the largest Maintenance of Effort increase that’s above and beyond what we’re required to do, by state law, in The County’s history by dollar amount by percentage amount. are we involved in that? Blueprint is involved in that, but we are way above school starts August 28. Thank you, Erica, very much. That’s my Press Secretary keeping me on track. But But yeah, look, it’s been a great partnership, the investments are there, we know that we have to keep turning things around. We want this to be a world class jurisdiction, and you can’t have a world class jurisdiction without great schools of public safety. And then both a vibrant business community like places here, drug city, and then things like, you know, we’re doing 10s of millions of dollars of improvements and things like our recreation and parks, and those quality of life. You know, investments that we have what takes up most of your day? What takes up most of my day? Right, so lay in
Nestor Aparicio 16:32
the first six months or year you’re in, it’s probably different. But now you’re you should be a machine, whatever you are, you are at this point, I would say,
Johnny Olszewski 16:39
you know, typical day about half of it is internal meetings. So whether it’s, you know, going over HR issues, or we’ve got our employees bring forward these great ideas. So we have these decision memo meetings where we tackle new ideas, senior staff, cabinet meetings, talking to our departments, our stat meetings, where we’re reviewing through data, but I’m a big believer that like we shouldn’t just be sitting behind a desk so the other half of the day on balance will be you know, returning phone calls and emails, taking me to media inquiries and events, attending community events and festivals and fairs. You know, I have found that this job unless you say no, you literally will have your entire day from dusk till dawn, including the weekends just completely gobbled up. So we try to I’m trying to find some balance in the second term. You know, I’ve got a daughter I want to spend more time with I’m very intentional about being present when I’m with her but also trying to make sure that when there are soccer practices or you know, ballet or ice skating all the things that she’s into that I’m actually there and present for that
Nestor Aparicio 17:42
she ended the Orioles yet or no
Johnny Olszewski 17:44
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, she’s been to probably five or six games already this year. I expected shock.
Nestor Aparicio 17:48
He’s all he looks like book show. Walter
Chuck Jacobs 17:50
used to love oil Friday, every Friday at the fountain Oriole Friday was
Nestor Aparicio 17:54
never decent Oriole day moving forward now. And then we waited a long time.
Johnny Olszewski 17:57
I’m looking forward to this October I think I think September October should be some really good months between the ravens and the Orioles just actually visited training camp last week with the ravens and they are looking sharp. I gotta say expectations are high both both places and it’s great like it’s a great great year to be a Baltimore Orioles and ravens and just uh, you know, the blaster playing well, like all of it. It’s just like to be a sports fan. And Baltimore these days is fun. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 18:24
I mean, it’s 25th anniversary, I’ve been looking through all the old stuff and all my intentions for what I want it to be. I mean, I’m an FCC license. I have, like a real responsibility from the community standpoint to serve people. And I think 25 years later did I serve? What what did i What did I promise and what did I deliver? And 25 years ago, the promise was sports, right? The promise was literally the Ravens in the orals we put us on you gotta talk sport. And now I think 25 years later, there’s no where I go as an Aparicio. And as a guy it’s written books on the people talk sports with me whether they’re good or bad. But the difference with Baltimore positive now is the sports is this month specifically, I think trading deadline All Star game, because the Ravens they had the Lamar thing, and then it got quiet a little bit and the Orioles were like, Hey, look at them, and you start to watch them a couple nights a week, then you’re What time’s the game on today? And what the hell’s Apple TV? And how do I find the game? And can I go down and get a bobblehead or you know, whatever it’s gonna be. That’s not and it’s been a part of conversation here in June or July or August and so long that it made the Ravens sort of go away a little bit. Now the ravens are back and you’re at camp and we’re going to have games this weekend. Fake games and then real game soon. Yes. i The sports part of this is like I can do community, milkshakes, politics, news, charity anniversary, but the sports thing sits at the top and the way that it did 25 years ago, because I was doing I was having Rob was having all that politicians on all the time back in the day, but they thought of me as a sport, and I wish I would have a politician. Well, yeah, we’ll talk about school. We got to talk about sports. I don’t feel that I haven’t felt that need in five years. I feel not the need now the want, you know because you want Talk about it. I, we spent three hours of our day we’re all watching the games. And that’s something that was, I found out that I’m not a sports guy. I’m a Baltimore guy. And I don’t mean to mean that in a sort of Baltimore pot the whole time it was about Baltimore. Yeah, it was. Yeah. It’s we want to beat the Yankees. We want to be Pittsburgh. So
Johnny Olszewski 20:15
but in doing so you’re elevating community, right? And then I think you can sort of say like, sports are certainly an important way that we elevate, we connect. But cultural institutions, business institutions, our schools, you know, our sports teams, but they’re all in
Nestor Aparicio 20:29
that conversation. Normal. Yeah, it was, you’re only allowed to talk about sports. It was like Pee Wee’s Playhouse for sports right? Now, sports is naturally moving its way back into my conversations everywhere I go. And it’s based on on success and effort and hope. And community.
Johnny Olszewski 20:46
Well, we live in a world where everything’s so nice, and I think actually to, you know, give you some credit and a hat tip, don’t do that, you know, you know, you’re going beyond that, right? Like we see actually in this in this day and age, like we’re actually increasingly polarized, you’ve got Fox on one side, MSNBC, on the other, you’ve got, you know, stations that are, you know, talk radio around, sort of like, we’re going to just talk news, or we’re going to just talk sports, I don’t think that there are a lot of people who are trying to sort of just make that part of a larger Congress. So I think that’s sort of your evolution over 25 years. I mean, that that really says a lot to be able to say like, Yeah, this is going to still be part of the ecosystem, but we’re gonna go beyond that. I mean, then that’s really that’s a sign of incredible growth. And I think that, you know, not everybody has that some people get what they what they’re into, and they just like sort of latch on to that right drug
Nestor Aparicio 21:33
city. People expect Same thing here. Pharmacy, yeah, that just the forklift trucks, it’s a pharmacy says pharmacies, then all of a sudden, you say, well, we’re gonna do a little of this, we’re gonna do we’re gonna do cards, we’re gonna take care of it. Yeah, we’re gonna be a little bit average. And that serves. That’s why you’re still here. Somebody five years later, if all you did was
Johnny Olszewski 21:53
just, the city hadn’t changed. I don’t think
Chuck Jacobs 21:56
that that there’s some of the ladies have been here for 40 years that worked for doc Harry, and now for Dr. Words, and it’s the same family feel regime type management, and they love it. And I’ve only been here almost three years, and it’s great.
Nestor Aparicio 22:10
Well, 10 years ago, I stopped taking phone calls, because it was just awful. It wasn’t good, right? And I my partners were angry at me and said, What are you gonna do? Take callers you know, and I’m like, I’m actually going to have like people like you want and people like real people that have a conversation of depth. Not like breeding hides bullpen. We’ve already pulled him out. You know, like you said, that was more like Pee Wee’s Playhouse. I can still do that. And you and I can do that. But I’m not doing that. 10 phone calls in a row and calling that content. Sure you know what I’m doing. And I think it’s way more important to be talking about the good things that are going on here. Crime and the new police chief. I knew Melissa Well, I looked I left the city. I’m in the county people. Oh, you want to go out to the county? Yes, you do. You want to run you wanna run from the city? No, I really wasn’t even about that. I’ve enjoyed being out in the county. I I’m in the city three days a week. I was in Sydney this morning getting cat food for my cat. Yeah, it’s where my bed is. The county city thing and Wes and changes since that we have it’s been almost a year since we talked. Yeah, we got a new governor, we get a new get a new federal, like, how’s that affecting Baltimore County.
Johnny Olszewski 23:16
I mean, Baltimore County is thriving. And you know, this isn’t an adversarial thing. I mean, I want the city to be successful. But I’m not going to stop welcoming a business or a resident who wants to move, because they like our school system, or they like our recreational amenities, or they like that they sort of do the math on their tax bill. And they recognize it, you know, like people move for a variety of reasons, in the same way that people move to the city. The city has certain things that like, you know, some of the suburban life can offer to, well, the goal is to make sure that I’m controlling the things that I can control as best I can, so that Baltimore County is a vibrant place. And if on top of that I can be a good partner to the city so that the city is also thriving, that we have people who want to go and feel safe going to the Orioles games, the amazing cultural institutions, we have the art exhibits, the you know, the historical things that the city has to offer. We want we want that right. So you know, but we’re, we’re like bursting at the seams. We’ve got people who want to move here. Housing prices are I mean, like everywhere, but especially here in the county. We’re seeing them rise dramatic.
Nestor Aparicio 24:20
I owe property to county that makes me happy because all
Chuck Jacobs 24:21
the jobs that Tradepoint has opened up down in Sparrows Point I
Nestor Aparicio 24:25
invited Aaron over to we could make it today but Tradepoint probably the
Johnny Olszewski 24:29
largest employment center in the state. Now, in the state. They’re going to have over 20,000 jobs and that thing is finally built and it’s everything from entry level warehouse. All the way up to ILA longshoreman offloading, you know, row row and large equipment containers. I mean, people who are making over $100,000 a year doing that dude
Nestor Aparicio 24:49
down there as a junior politician and was a hole and they were trying to build a atomic energy. Like when you go down there now it’s it’s a revelation, right? I mean, Kevin would freak out
Johnny Olszewski 25:01
the right place is thriving. It’s a complete, talk about like reimagining a site. Not only are they going in and cleaning up the environmental legacy of Bethlehem Steel at that site, cleaning up the land, but now they’re bringing jobs. They’re bringing restaurants, they’re bringing, you know, new homes, new homes, like it’s Yeah. And all of it feeds off of each other. Right? So
Nestor Aparicio 25:22
it really overcrowded schools.
Johnny Olszewski 25:24
Right. But yeah, but then it’s a good problem that’s proper for us to say, we have to then as a government say, Okay, how do we work with the school board? Every district? How do we add an addition? How do we build a new school, and we’ve stepped up in a big way. I mean, $3.3 billion, over 15 years is our commitment we’re now two years into that I think we’ve already put forward on was over 300 million in two years. So we’re rocking and rolling, we’re pushing all in to get get the schools built, improve these classroom conditions for our kids. Were going into these recreational facilities that haven’t been touched in 1020 30 years. I mean, we did over 100 court, replacing rims and back boards. Some of them haven’t been touched in 40 years. I mean, they were like, plywood, was the backboard, right? So just really trying to give our folks the sense of real community in, you know, pickleball, everywhere, right?
Nestor Aparicio 26:18
Everybody had a pickleball segment yesterday. But tell me, I’m old enough now. But we’re
Johnny Olszewski 26:23
making those critical investments. And we’re doing it in a way that’s consistent with what the community wants. We do these town halls, where we have 1000s of people come out every year and say, you know, this is an issue in my community, the striping is off on Bella road or whatever, you know, fill in Joppa chiropractor. I got it. I got it
Nestor Aparicio 26:40
in front of Bob Davidson. You have an SUV, you drive an SUV. Next time, I want you to get off the highway
Johnny Olszewski 26:51
and lock check it out.
Nestor Aparicio 26:52
I want you to know about get your little Governor shave a little notepad out he’s got it. So we got it. And once you make the left the bell lock diner, and I want you to drive down past Conrad’s and when you go under where Steve Eliot is, I want you to try to make a left hand turn into le Chiropractic in your SUV, okay, where this tire will be over the asset to this line and this will be here and oncoming traffic is common and they’re not doing 35 Not posted. But all camera there is make some money for the county you know, but it’s you know, that’s my only good. The other complaints for you. But that’s good staffs like what are you gonna pitch to Johnny about today? I don’t know. I’m going to ask about last thing because I gotta get out of here anyway, and you gotta get back and maybe you got a big weekend ahead. I do. Westside security. Yeah. Dennis Colossus is over there. Coons Baltimore forward, my friend sponsor. He was at show yesterday. I am over there. From time to time. Was there last week, the wise market over here? What’s it going to be? What is?
Johnny Olszewski 27:45
We’re not sure yet. We’ve invited the community and we did a giant charrette process, over 1000 people participated. We’ve got $30 million of state and local dollars. We’ve used some of it to help acquire control of that site. Demolition, right? Demolition infrastructure. I mean, part of it, we’re sort of at a fork in the road where we have to figure out whether the mall is going to be part of the anchoring of that site of what’s reimagined, or if it’s going to be basically completely reimagined. But I see, you know, homes and shops and green space. That that is like, that is like a real gem that we can turn into something really special. And the same with a drug city has sort of reimagined itself. It’s 50 years later, it’s time for that security site to reimagine itself and
Nestor Aparicio 28:27
look at all these years later, right. golden rings longer. I miss golden ring. But that happened quick. That home Ella stuff went in there and they were selling things again.
Johnny Olszewski 28:38
Yeah. And I think security can be can follow that sort of general model of being something new and different that is, you know, trafficked and provides employment opportunities, maybe housing. And so it’s it’s an exciting time, because I think we’re gonna see that throughout the county as we are aging, a lot of these older shopping centers, buildings that are just not been, you know, invested in there’s a real opportunity to reimagine sort of parks because we’re sort of largely built out. We’ve got our urban, urban rural demarcation lines, so we don’t have a whole lot of like green space. We’re going to have to be creative and go back in and reimagine sites like security.
Nestor Aparicio 29:13
All right, I’m gonna let you go. I have a picture of me, Johnny. Oh, at the parade for the Ravens. You and I were for the City Hall. Were you at the White House after the parade? I was. I think I have a picture with you White House. So I we have the replica I hope when the Orioles go to the White House and when we have the parade and probably a November 6 Seventh day somewhere in there, that yeah, I’ll get a picture with you and do it again. Right. And then we get a picture together. Ravens go to Vegas, right when Johnny Oh, he’s a Baltimore County Executive. You can’t vote for him in Harford County or Carroll County, but you can’t if you’re in Baltimore County, I am in Baltimore County shuts down you’re telling me slinging, man. Tell them what you’re making down here.
Chuck Jacobs 29:51
We got milkshakes, we got some great bourbons and whiskeys. We have ice cream for the kids. Like I said, we have something for everybody so it’s not gonna
Nestor Aparicio 29:59
upset I down something something something here upside down milkshakes not great for being a host because all pineapples get stuck in my teeth a little bit fresh. That’s good. Only wait again. Cheers, man. Cheers. Thanks for coming by Being a part of our 25th anniversary. All right 25th anniversaries it’s not over with it’s just starting. We’re 24 hours into this we’re gonna do 25 stories of glory all brought to you by our friends at curio that comes in two weeks. Every week we’re gonna be announcing taking pictures and social these are things you were a part of. And the community was a part of just like, keep a drug city here. Oh my thanks, window nation. 866 90 nation, our friends at the Maryland lottery. You’re allowed to take your 21 or older make sure that everybody gets a ticket here. These are free. These are really lucky. We had a fight our winner at $100 Winner Coco’s There you go $1.2 billion in the jackpot. If I’m not on the air on Monday, you know I gone lay here I come baby. I am Nestor. We are wn sta a 5070, Towson Baltimore. Thanks for sticking with us. We’re wn st
