Izzy running for Baltimore County Executive? Yes, and here’s why…

The return of 2nd District Councilman Izzy Patoka to the Maryland Crab Cake Tour at Honey’s in Halethorpe provided Nestor a clear view of his key campaign issues and goals in a spring run as a Democratic candidate to be the next Baltimore County Executive.

Izzy Patoka, a candidate for Baltimore County Executive, discussed his extensive background in city and county government, including drafting $3 billion capital budgets. He emphasized the need for a strong local government due to federal unpredictability, proposing a new Office of Community Conservation to focus on inner beltway neighborhoods. Patoka highlighted the importance of efficient public services, particularly in the permits department, and advocated for a mixed-use overlay district to revitalize commercial corridors. He also stressed the need for a coordinated approach between city and county, and the importance of community engagement and budget discipline.

Action Items

• [ ] Create a new mixed-use zoning overlay district to allow for more flexible, vertical development in aging commercial areas.
• [ ] Establish two high-level permit process ombudsmen to help shepherd permits through the system more efficiently.
• [ ] Implement a simultaneous, dynamic permit review process instead of a linear one to speed up approvals.
• [ ] Deappropriate funds from dormant capital projects and reallocate them to new priorities to find budget savings.
• [ ] Ensure agency efficiency and individual/departmental productivity through hands-on management.
• [ ] Propose a ballot measure to create an independent board to appoint the Baltimore County Inspector General, rather than the County Executive.

Outline

Introduction and Background of Izzy Patoka

• Speaker 1 introduces the setting at Hale Thorpe, mentioning the Maryland crab cake tour and the presence of Izzy Patoka, who is running for Baltimore County Executive.
• Izzy Patoka shares his background, including his role as city planner for Baltimore and his experience drafting a $3 billion capital budget.
• Discussion about the historical significance of North Avenue as the city line and the evolution of Baltimore County and Baltimore City.
• Izzy Patoka explains his transition from cartography to planning and his extensive experience in budgeting and managing large agencies.

Izzy Patoka’s Experience and Vision for Baltimore County

• Izzy Patoka discusses his work with Martin O’Malley’s administration, focusing on community engagement and neighborhood improvements.
• Speaker 1 and Izzy Patoka talk about the importance of modernizing government and the potential benefits of AI and data analysis.
• Izzy Patoka emphasizes the need for local strength due to federal unpredictability and the importance of managing a tight budget.
• Discussion about the challenges of federal policies, such as tariffs and infrastructure issues, and their impact on Baltimore County.

Challenges and Solutions for Baltimore County

• Izzy Patoka outlines his plans for improving inner beltway neighborhoods and commercial corridors, including the creation of a new Office of Community Conservation.
• Speaker 1 and Izzy Patoka discuss the importance of community engagement and the need for efficient permit processes for businesses.
• Izzy Patoka shares his experience in managing large agencies and his commitment to budget discipline and community-centered policies.
• Discussion about the importance of public safety, education, and infrastructure in Baltimore County.

Izzy Patoka’s Approach to Community Engagement

• Izzy Patoka explains his approach to community engagement, emphasizing the need for high-level ombudsmen to streamline permit processes.
• Discussion about the challenges of balancing a tight budget and prioritizing public needs, such as infrastructure and community improvements.
• Izzy Patoka shares his experience in deappropriating dormant project funds and reallocating them to new priorities.
• Speaker 1 and Izzy Patoka discuss the importance of collaboration between city and county governments and the need for a strong relationship.

Izzy Patoka’s Commitment to Baltimore County

• Izzy Patoka reiterates his commitment to Baltimore County and his vision for a strong, community-centered future.
• Discussion about the importance of public transportation, such as the red line, and its impact on economic development and quality of life.
• Izzy Patoka shares his personal experiences with public transportation and the benefits of having a well-functioning metro system.
• Speaker 1 and Izzy Patoka discuss the importance of supporting the city and the need for a collaborative approach to urban and suburban development.

Izzy Patoka’s Legislative Experience and Future Plans

• Izzy Patoka explains his legislative experience and his role in passing difficult legislation, such as growing the county council and protecting the Inspector General.
• Discussion about the challenges of creating new agencies and the importance of independent oversight.
• Izzy Patoka shares his plans for improving the Office of the Inspector General and ensuring its independence from political influence.
• Speaker 1 and Izzy Patoka discuss the importance of transparency and accountability in government and the need for strong leadership.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

• Izzy Patoka provides a brief stump speech, emphasizing his community-centered approach and his commitment to improving Baltimore County.
• Discussion about the importance of voting and participating in the political process.
• Izzy Patoka shares his thoughts on the Ravens’ season and the potential impact of new players like Pete Alonso.
• Speaker 1 and Izzy Patoka wrap up the conversation, highlighting the importance of making Baltimore County a better place for everyone.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Baltimore County Executive, Izzy Patoka, community engagement, capital budget, city planning, neighborhood improvement, public safety, economic development, zoning codes, transit system, public transportation, community meetings, budget discipline, local government, infrastructure.

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SPEAKERS

Izzy Patoka, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 tacit, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. We are positively in a new place, in a new space. We are in Hale, Thorpe, and yeah, I got to be honest with you, I really made Ted venetola’s Very, very angry at the end of his life when I told him that my dad supported John coulihan, who was the Lion of Hale Thorpe. He was the he’s actually the lawyer that got my parents custody of me when my father was trying to run me off to Venezuela in 1980 so I spent a lot of my formative years here waiting for my dad in a law office in Hale Thorpe. So we’re at honeys in Hale Thorpe, and if you hear like billiard pool cue things happening, or even random Christmas music. We are down here in halethorpe, and it is a it’s a really cool billiards place where they have trophies and they have groups. We’re gonna learn about that later on. I’m gonna eat some delicious Asian food. Apparently they made me crab cakes, because this is the Maryland crab cake tour. Is presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery in conjunction with our friends at GBMC. Izzy Patoka is defending champion. He’s running for Baltimore County Executive, and is, I’m telling you, when I I’m a Dundalk kid, and you know Mueller over in Catonsville. I didn’t know a lot about Catonsville. Jimmy Schwartz would always say it’s Arbutus, it’s not it’s not Hale Thorpe. It’s Arbutus. It’s not Catonsville, it’s not Baltimore Highlands. And when they invited me over, and this place is great, because I got an email they said, We want you to do the crab cake tour. What would it take for me to come over and do the show? And I said, Well, probably take electricity, a table, a smile and a crab cake. So they’ve made some crab cakes. Izzy patoka’s Our defend the champion. But I didn’t know if this was in the city or the county. I guess that’s my point, because you and I could, right now, walk a block and a half, two blocks up, and we would be in the city, but we are just into the county here at honey. So Well, welcome out. You’re you’re trying to get to know the whole county too, and your background was in the city though city government,

Izzy Patoka  01:56

both city and and county. I was city planner for Baltimore right out of school. I got a job at city planning. Actually became chief of capital budgeting for the city, where I drafted the capital budget for Baltimore City. What year would that have been? That was I started. I was doing capital budget in the mid 80s

Nestor Aparicio  02:15

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through, oh, wow, that’s Schaefer era. We’re going way back. Okay, Schaefer smoke.

Izzy Patoka  02:20

And I got to the point where I was the actual author, the primary author of a $3 billion capital budget. So, what schools got constructed in Baltimore City? What roads got reconstructed? What parks, that was all I was the now, were you the

Nestor Aparicio  02:36

cat when Schaefer was running around with his little notepad? Did you ever get one of those when he would have the panel and the thing that would sit like, Patoka, we need more money for that, you know, like, would that have been?

Izzy Patoka  02:47

No, I was a planner one when Schaefer was in so I was young, right out of school, and

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Nestor Aparicio  02:51

that’s all you’ve ever done then, is government. You went to school, literally, to learn about making government better.

Izzy Patoka  02:58

Well, some degree. So my degrees, both my bachelor’s and master’s are both in Geography and Environmental Planning. Initially I wanted to be a cartographer, but what

Nestor Aparicio  03:08

I’m from Dundalk, that was a cart. I don’t

Izzy Patoka  03:12

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know what a person that draws maps? All right, all right. And so I got beyond that, you

Nestor Aparicio  03:17

would at least know this is Baltimore County. That’s Baltimore City because I had a geography education as a Baltimore on literally, to try to figure out which side I was on. That’s all you know.

Izzy Patoka  03:27

But you know what? It’s important that our whole region is strong. So, you know, the line between the city and county is really an unnatural line. It’s kind of square. So I think it’s important that we recognize that we’re not

Nestor Aparicio  03:38

get drawn because it is very, very square. Whoever put it together. I’m probably assuming it was something racist, because everything was 100 years ago. But those the line that went in. There was all farming on the other end of civilization. When it

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Izzy Patoka  03:55

was drawn up, county was very different. And in fact, at one time, North Avenue Nestor was the North City line, exactly, and so

Nestor Aparicio  04:04

that was horse and buggies. Now, though, right, yes, yeah, for the oyster wars before, I’m learning a lot of Baltimore history hanging out with you guys.

Izzy Patoka  04:13

So, so just back to cartography. Cartography. And I’ve

Nestor Aparicio  04:18

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never said that word in my life. I’ll probably never

Izzy Patoka  04:20

say it again, but I really evolved into kind of a planner, budget steward. And so the person that did the capital budgeting for Baltimore County, unfortunately, she died at a very young age. So Baltimore County called and said, Can you step in and can you draft our $3 billion capital budget? Can you manage it? And I did that. I enjoyed it. Stayed with Baltimore County for about five years, and then

Nestor Aparicio  04:44

Baltimore City made no Baltimore County after city. Okay, so I

Izzy Patoka  04:47

did two I’ve done two tours with the city, two tours with the county, one tour with the state of Maryland, and one tour

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Nestor Aparicio  04:53

with as a higher gun, not as an elected official. That’s a whole different thing going out here. And correct, get yourself elected correct. So.

Izzy Patoka  05:00

Martin O’Malley became mayor of Baltimore. He called me and invited me to be part of his senior team. I had Matt Gallagher on the show Wednesday, so Matt and I worked closely. We we were the two. We headed up the two signature agencies of the O’Malley administration. Matt headed up city stat and I headed up the Mayor’s Office of neighborhoods. It goes by monsie Nowadays, but I was the original.

Nestor Aparicio  05:24

What was Martin’s vision for that? You know, as far as that’s something question, because, like in what you were trying to get the look, anybody that’s been associated with the city, for better or worse, has had a little sunburn, including me, who invested in the city and owned a play. I mean, it’s been, it’s been a struggle this century in a lot of ways. And a lot of you would say, I run from my work there not you and Gallagher, you both been on the show this week saying, Hey, man, I went to work every day to try to make the city better, right? I mean, and we

Izzy Patoka  05:51

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both worked every night as well. Oh yeah, yeah. But the vision for O’Malley was to for in in my orbit was to ensure that people that are going to the community meetings and that live in neighborhoods that they are actually helping to define the budget and define improvements in their neighborhood. So myself and I had people that worked for me that were called neighborhood liaisons. They were like little mayors, what

Nestor Aparicio  06:18

do we need in this in this part of this neighborhood, and then they could

Izzy Patoka  06:22

direct an agency head to engage in that improvement. It wasn’t they weren’t messengers. They were coordinators, kind of many mayors, if you will. And it was really an outstanding effort,

Nestor Aparicio  06:33

but an outreach from the mayor, a right arm to the mayor. And we went to 4272

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Izzy Patoka  06:39

community meetings. And each community meeting, we learned what the needs are, and then my team was empowered, and we worked closely with city stat and Matt Gallagher and some of the other components.

Nestor Aparicio  06:48

I feel like I need to get Gallagher back on next week, because I have questions for him that I’ll give to you. Yeah, but like the notion that you would measure those things 2025, years ago, when Gallagher’s being a stat nerd and a computer nerd in the modern era of data and AI and putting things in to know we have so much more information. And I know you’re running for Baltimore County Executive. You’ve been a councilman and two for a long time, so I want to get to county issues as well. But like this background you have would and I’m gonna have Nick on later. I invited Julian. I’ll have everybody. I mean, I’m gonna have everybody on. I’m everybody on. I was out at the Italian Association men’s group, and the Republican candidate came up to me couple weeks ago, and I’m gonna have him on. So I just think philosophically where the county is and trying to modernize, which was something I think Johnny o talked a lot about. It’s something I think Brandon talked about the city. I don’t think you’d be modern enough. I’ve been I discovered AI three weeks ago, and my mind’s blown. As a 57 year old, there things available to me as a human on chat, GPT, that I can only imagine how this could benefit government if it was harnessed and utilized. I don’t want to call it weaponized, but strategically ninja. Place to make the county better, and that’s why you’re running, I guess. Yeah.

Izzy Patoka  08:06

Well, we have to be careful with AI. As you might recall, about a month ago, a young man was waiting to be picked up after a football game, and AI suggested that he had a weapon that was a bag of Doritos, and he was converged on by police. So it’s we got to be careful in how we treat AI. I think it’s a great tool, but we have to be extremely careful how we implement that.

Nestor Aparicio  08:28

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But back, everybody’s worried about it’s a global concern, yeah.

Izzy Patoka  08:32

But in terms of what I see in the future, and why I’m running is, if you look at where we are right now, Nestor in 2025 we have a federal government that is totally unpredictable. There are things that are coming out that we have never heard in the past. There are tariffs that change very frequently. So it’s unpredictable, and so we need to be as strong as we can at the local level, because we don’t have as much control at the federal level, with that unpredictability, and especially being a democratic state, in a democratic County, we’re very vulnerable.

Nestor Aparicio  09:07

The Key Bridge is in the middle of all exactly. I mean, the Key Bridge and what’s happened in Western Port doesn’t matter. Black, White City, Western Maryland, Eastern Maryland. This is, this is untenable. It’s untenable. It’s untenable it’s untenable just from a federal level of firing people at will with chainsaws. Eight months ago, and now we’re up to, well, I’m not going to repair your bridge. I’m not going to do things for people that have been damaged in Western Port who all voted for him, you know. So I, I can’t open the mic here without talking about the orange elephant in the room, like, literally, because that is going to affect everything in our state moving forward. And these elections are important, which is why I’m bringing you on. I want all of these.

Izzy Patoka  09:49

When I talk to seniors, they’re really concerned about whether they’re going to get their social security benefits and whether they’ll be staffed to answer questions. If there are questions about. Their benefits. They have family members that used to work for the federal government but no longer do, and with groceries going up, it’s a really tough time in Baltimore County. And so we need to be strong, and we need to have someone that isn’t experienced has a broad breadth of experience, as I believe I do. And also we need someone with the state budget being tight, we need someone that can manage a very difficult budget, that can implement budget discipline and also meet the evolving needs of our communities. And so I’ve done this kind of work my whole life. I believe in it. I’ve been a good fiscal steward, and so I’m and I’ve also been community centered my entire life. I’ve been to 10s of 1000s of community meetings. I think I work with people, and this is really interesting. Nestor, I work with people that want to make their community better. They want they believe that they can make their community better. But what’s even more important is they’re willing to act on that belief.

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Nestor Aparicio  11:00

That’s what a community leader, that’s the definition of a community Yes, right.

Izzy Patoka  11:03

And so if they’re willing to act on that belief, then we, Baltimore County should be working in partnership with these people that are working to make their community better, and acting on that belief that they can. And that’s why I’m going to create a brand new office called the Office of Community Conservation, and that office is going to be a coordinating office. It’s going to be similar to what we did in the mayor’s office of neighborhoods, where these neighborhood coordinators are able to direct agencies to fix that pothole, to reconstruct that street. Right now the the we have the office of community engagement, which are more messengers than implementers, and so the Office of Community Conservation, in concert with an elevated office of community engagement, we’re going to really focus on what the neighborhoods want, and the office of community engage, a Community Conservation Nestor is going to be primarily focused, but not exclusively focused, on our inner beltway neighborhoods, on our inner beltway commercial corridors. Most of the people live in these inner beltway communities, and we’ve neglected them for decades. We the county, and it’s time to double back and make sure that people that live in these neighborhoods have infrastructure

Nestor Aparicio  12:20

that we’re in one of them right now, we’re inside the beltway.

Izzy Patoka  12:23

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So this would be a prime example of where the Office of Community Conservation would be focused. It’s going to, and we’re going to, we’re going to bring in the best and the brightest to do this, and they’re going to coordinate all of the agencies. What do we need here in halethorpe? Do we need? Do we have adequate parks, or streets reconstructed, or our sidewalks done. How is there

Nestor Aparicio  12:45

from White Marsh, which is a long way from right, from Ruxton, which is a long way from correct, Hereford, right? I mean, it’s right, sir, it’s big. That’s the part about this, by the way, Izzy Patoka is our guest here. He is sitting in in number two, but running for Baltimore County Executive, and in Baltimore County and City? Background, county background, you mentioned the state. And look, I pitched the lottery. And when I have John Martin on, and we talked about where the money goes, and, my lord, the gambling that’s going on with sports right now, and month by month, big numbers coming in. The state’s had shortfalls, you know, and whether Wes and Hogan and I’ve had them both on and don’t blame me, blame them and blame Kerwin and you know, all of these, then how are we going to pay for the bridge? And the federal is not very good, and we’ve lost a lot of jobs in Maryland because of this. How does that affect Baltimore County? I mean, when, because I’m a Baltimore County resident, I’m a Baltimore County voter, I’m a Baltimore County Business Owner, what does that mean? When the state’s having problems, you’re managing, let’s say you win. You’re managing a really tight budget. What kinds of things get in and what kinds of things get out?

Izzy Patoka  13:55

Well, when the budget is tougher, you’ve got to really hone in on your priorities. And so for me, when elected official says we’re going to do a B or C, it really is not meaningful unless that elected official puts budget behind it. The budget is what the way you articulate your public policy, and so for me, if I’m lucky enough to be elected as county executive, then I’m going to make sure that our top priorities are funded right now. For me, the top priorities are strengthening our inner, inner belt neighborhoods, strengthening those neighborhoods that are just right outside of the beltway, that are now aging. Also to make sure that our permits department is functioning in a better way.

Nestor Aparicio  14:39

Please do that. Yeah, I’ve had, you know, we’re trying to get the fishmonger’s daughter open over in in Catonsville, and it’s just, I talk to business owners all the time. You know that? And that’s what Bulmer positive is all about. I used to hear that about the city, because I lived in the city and out here doing business with the city from the Canton business owners and the Federal Hill. I’d always hear it was a nightmare here. More of that in Baltimore County, and that disappoints me. It really does

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Izzy Patoka  15:03

well, you know, Nestor, I try to be very specific in the things that I’m going to do as county executive, and I’ve actually done them. Other folks are looking theoretically and at the abstract, but I’m looking at the real world so well, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  15:17

when you’re pro business, when business owners feel like you’re pro business, which I’m one of them. You know that that it’s not hard to feel pro business. Ask the business owners, right?

Izzy Patoka  15:26

Literally and for permits, we’re going to do a complete overhaul, but that overhaul will include at least two high level ombudsman that will help shepherd permits through the process, not low level ombudsman, high level that can direct agencies to move on these permits. And the other thing we’re going to do is, instead of doing a linear permit review from agency to agency to agency, we’re going to do a simultaneous dynamic permit review. It’ll speed it up. The Ombudsman will make sure that it happens. And the business you’re working with, I think, will have a much fit, more efficient and a speedier time in terms of getting a permit approved by Baltimore County,

Nestor Aparicio  16:06

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less money. Nobody likes to talk about that. What does that mean when things are tighter in regard to schools, public safety, tax base, people leaving to go other places and creating shortfalls from where, let’s say Johnny o might have thought it was going six or eight years ago, or maybe even you thought, when you know you’ve been involved in these meetings from the beginning, you see the good and the bad and the ugly through all of it. And I know of your concern. That’s why you’re running. I mean, you’re running because you think it’s not good enough, right? Yes.

Izzy Patoka  16:39

And so there’s things, there’s tools that we can apply and techniques that we can move on that haven’t really been done in Baltimore County, for example, during tough budgets. What I did as chief of capital budgeting is I went through every single account, every capital budget item, all the way back since it was first appropriated. And what I would do is any remaining funds on a dormant project were deappropriated and then reallocated to new projects and new priorities. And it’s kind of like finding coins in your sofa, because my experience in the deappropriation process of dormant projects has yielded millions of dollars. And so I think that’s step one. The Step two is to make sure that your agencies are being efficient and making making sure that that people are being efficient individually, as a unit and then as a department. And I think we do that through hands on experience. You know, I’ve worked when I was in the governor’s office. I managed multiple agencies. When I was in Deputy Director of Planning, I did the budget for for the operating budget for four agencies. So I don’t think anybody that’s running currently has the experience in terms of budget, in terms of prioritization, in terms of managing large agencies. And when I was in the governor’s office, I was managing cabinet secretaries, cabinet level secretaries. Because I headed up, I headed up, I think four different, four different parts of government, in addition to the State Archives, Canal Place, historic St Mary’s County, MPT. So I’ve had and also the AmeriCorps program. And in addition to that, I was the Intergovernmental Affairs Director for the governor, while simultaneously being the department’s in government, dude, yeah, and I managed so many of them, and it’s very similar to managing county county agencies. In fact, the state agencies were quite a bit. Were quite bigger than the county agencies. So I don’t know that any of the candidates running for county executive now have that broad level experience of managing large agencies and being a leader. You know, a leader gets things done, and that’s what I’ve done my whole career, and that’s what I anticipate I’ll be doing as the next county executive.

Nestor Aparicio  19:09

We’re down here at halethorpe. We are just smidgen to Baltimore County. Izzy Patoka is a sitting councilman in two which is in the northwest side of town. We are in the southwest side, not far from Cherry Hill, Baltimore Highlands, lands down. We’re in Hale Thorpe. We’re at honeys. It is a fantastic little billiard hall here with great food bar open. Got some packaged goods over here. I got some lottery tickets as well. Maryland lottery put us out on the road. My friends at GBMC, also Baltimore County, helped save me. Two weeks ago, had my colonoscopy. Two weeks ago today, found that had precancerous polyps. I am now safe. I am now good. It is my PSA to everyone out there to do what I used to talk about doing, but didn’t do, but now I’ve done so now I can talk about it even more. Our friends at GBMC keeping me safe, and I’m appreciative of that during holidays. And I’m hungry as hell too. I just can’t stop eating. I don’t know where it’s. All going. Maybe our friends at Planet Fitness are going to cut that out for me on the 22nd we’re going to be at Costas and Dundalk on the 18th, I spent a little time with Gina shock on yesterday, just stopped by our house. We hung out a little bit called Eddie Lauer, who had a heart transplant, and Edson Parkville. He’s in Baltimore County right now too, so we’re gonna give him some love next week. On Thursday, we’re going to be Acosta’s Dundalk, not in Timonium. Another two Baltimore County Business, the three antifalos family. Also on Friday, we’re going to be in the city. We’re going to be back at the BMA at Gertrude with my cousin John shields, with my Portuguese sort of cousin, Dan roderick’s. We’re also going to have some elected to come and Bob. We’re gonna have some fun. Next week, I will have the king will have the candy cane scratch offs as well, which are scented, and they’re gonna smell like peppermint. So my bag is gonna almost smell like Santa Claus next week at Koco’s, which is where it should be. AC patois. So redistricting, Baltimore County, taking over the county, running for county executive, the vision for Baltimore County right now, and I haven’t had Kathy on, and you were a part of the whole Scrum and getting her involved in this, and obviously with Todd Crandall, and I’ll get to Todd later. He’s my Dundalk. I hope he’s doing well. He knows that, because I’ve known him 40 years. But what are the strengths and what are the weaknesses perceived to be? You know, we call our county weak, but what are the problems, the challenges? As you see it top down to say we’re a really big County, like, as I look top 100 in the country, putting against bigger than tons and tons of cities you’ve heard of because of population. You know, I’m Baltimore County, reared, educated. I drove past Colgate elementary yesterday. I last night. I was in Sparrow’s Point is and I everybody in Pikesville knows Calvin stadium because he taught middle school there for a period of time in his 70s. He taught me from 79 to 81 and I drove down to Edgemere last night to sing Christmas carols, and all I could think about seeing him is all Baltimore County students in there. We’re all older in life. Now. We have this beautiful he’s turning 85 on Valentine’s Day. So I think about how Baltimore County has my business for 30 years, my land, my child lives in Baltimore County. I was educated all the way through. You know, I don’t toot my horn for the county so much. People think of the city in Baltimore positive, but Baltimore County is like so important to all of it. And I think it’s the land of pleasant living. I would send my child to a Baltimore County school. I did, you know, my son graduated from Perry Hall, went to Colgate and went to Perry Hall, middle so when I Gosh, I’m more, I talk about it, you know, just I’ve lived so much of my life here. I wouldn’t say I wouldn’t live anywhere else, because I consider I’ve lived in the city for 19 years. But I love the county, and I think I like hearing you guys. You Nick Julian, all you people running. I want to hear your vision for the county, because I think we’re into a new thing now, right? I mean Johnny O and where molar and Jim Smith, and this is a new none of you identify particularly with anything from the past, right? You’re talking about something fresh. Yes.

Izzy Patoka  23:14

So great question. And to me, Baltimore County is just a beautiful place, and it’s a great place to live. And the reason people move to Baltimore County and enjoy Baltimore County is because of our urban, suburban and rural character, all in one place. We also have a great waterfront, our assets, our location being close to everything, close to the Orioles, close to the Ravens. It’s really, really a great County, and we have these great assets now where we can improve there’s to me, like our older commercial corridors, we need to really bring them back to life, add some vitality to that. We need start with Dundalk now, come on, talk to my people. So it’s all of it’s, if you go around the beltway, it’s

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Nestor Aparicio  23:59

gonna help save the heritage. Fair, yes,

Izzy Patoka  24:02

yeah, because the heritage fair is part of the beauty of Dundalk and why people want to live in in our county. Another Dundalk is, let’s talk about the Gert spec at that was in Logan Village. Okay, they moved out. I’m going to try to incentivize that location to break a grocer back where the growth girth, specur, I have a trouble back used to be and Captain

Nestor Aparicio  24:27

Harvey used to be in there. I swallowed a lot of cheesesteaks in that Plaza, that Logan village Plaza, trust me, I did all my life. I, you know, that’s how I was. I had to lose weight back in oh six from eating all those cheesesteaks. Steve over there, but for the county, and I think the future of all the things you talk about, land and all that’s been there, but the leadership part of it for education and public safety, and I think the other part, and I heard Ivan Bates speak, and I’m going to have Ivan on, because Zoe wrote to me, so I’m going to make that happen. But I heard him speak to a business group. About a month ago, and I’ve had him on the show, and I’ve I don’t vote for him because I don’t live in a city more, but I would someone who was clearly a Republican stood up and said, Ivan, I love what you stand for, but I live in a county I can’t vote for you. What? What can I do to help? What can a county person do to help the city? And Ivan said something, and I’m going to give him a hard time, but in a fun way, he said, take a chance on the city again. And I think to myself, like I go to I was in a city yesterday. I was in a city a minute ago. I drove through the city to get here. We’re two blocks in the city, the city and the county and the relationship. And that’s not in Baltimore County. That goes for Anne Arundel. That goes for Hartford Carroll. All of you you you know you are Howard everybody the city as treating it like it’s like a trip in and out of a demarcation zone, is a crazy concept to me, and a crazy concept to anybody that spends time in the city. And I think pitting the city against the county in the way that maybe Harford County feels that way right now, that is not in anybody’s best interest. And that’s what when I started Baltimore positive I was going to run for mayor. That was my whole point is, this isn’t a gang tackle of the city. This is you and me walking two blocks into the city. I know I’m not speaking ill. You’ve worked in the city. You love the city. There is a point for me where I need to hear Baltimore County Executive talk about ways we can support the city, and that’s one of the things. The reasons I supported Johnny o quite frankly, because I thought, and I lived in the city at the time, is I thought we have to think about this as a team effort, not a raiding the tax base, or don’t go there, go here. I’m all for spending money in the county and supporting the county businesses, but being back in the city, it can’t feel like that’s a place we can’t go or shouldn’t go. It’s got to feel a place that we feel like we we must go. We must go.

Izzy Patoka  26:50

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Well, I’ll just say Lester that having the city and county not having a great relationship, or being animus to having animosity towards each other, that’s antithetical to my core beliefs. I believe we should be good neighbors. In fact, not only do I believe it, I act on that because my colleague on the city side, Councilman yitzy Schleifer, we represent a community that is a light community on the city side and county side, we talk on the phone almost every night of the week to discuss core issues that affect the community he represents and the community I represent. Because think about the city county line. I said this earlier. It’s an unnatural line. It’s a straight line, and so communities, typically, if you go around the city and county right at that border, there are like communities on either side. And you know, if you look at Parkville and Hamilton or Woodlawn and the neighborhoods just inside 10 hills,

Nestor Aparicio  27:54

didn’t you have something with him that something really horrible wasn’t like a natural gas explosion or something we had it was right on the line, am I? Am I? So I’m not wrong about that. We I read the news, I read the band.

Izzy Patoka  28:05

And we’ve also had multiple public safety town halls where we get Ivan Bates, Scott Shellenberger, the county police commission, the city police commissioner, the county police chief, and we have a town hall, a joint city, county Town Hall, because some I live

Nestor Aparicio  28:25

here, I shop there, I work here, I drive there, but Right? I mean, I get my groceries here, and I get my gas there, right, literally.

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Izzy Patoka  28:31

And in many cases, the criminal element, they know how to use that line to their benefit, to do their business well. And so if we don’t have our law enforcement, all our state’s attorney, our police department, all of our law enforcement enemies. If they’re not working together, we’re not going to do our best in terms of protecting the public, and we’re going to allow the folks that are committing crimes to have the advantage. And we don’t want that to be in place in in our in the city or in the county.

Nestor Aparicio  29:00

Is he patoka’s My guest. We’re here at honeys in Hale, Thorpe, if you listen out in radio land, Izzy is the city councilman and two running for Baltimore County Executive. Let’s go Schoolhouse Rock here, because I sometimes we can drive people nuts driving around the freeway or whatever, and people that are in and watching us online, they want to hear your message. But a councilman, what does a councilman do, and what does a county executive do? And how is that relationship? Not just that you were part of voting when Johnny o went to Congress, that electing or appointing a county executive, but on a day by day basis, your job now is what versus what you’re looking to do with county.

Izzy Patoka  29:41

So that’s a great question. So a councilman basically has five functions. One is count where legislative body, like other legislative bodies, we approve the budget. We are we prove contracts like the City Board of estimates or the State Board of Public Works. We have broad. Land use authority. We do rezone, we in terms of zoning, and then we’re also advocates for our communities. Those are the five core functions. Now, as an advocate for the community, we have no authority whatsoever, as a council member to to have say in the budget, other than to cut the budget. We can’t add money. We can’t move money. We can’t redirect money for projects that are important to us. So conversely, the county executive has and Baltimore County has a very strong county executive structure, because the county executive dominates in terms of prior a lot of power in terms of and

Nestor Aparicio  30:42

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the city was set up that way too, when I was talking for mayor, that the city has an even more because Shaffer got more power and, well, it was never really.

Izzy Patoka  30:50

It’s the structure of the Board of Public Works. Sure is that there are five members that approve all expenditures over 25,003 of them are either the mayor or appointed by the mayor, so it’d be unlikely for to win every war, every war, yeah, so

Nestor Aparicio  31:06

probably started when he lost the one that Mikulski, which is how the tunnel got built, yeah. So I’ve learned of, you know, I mean, I’ve learned about the inner workings of all of this. So to keep going on the county,

Izzy Patoka  31:16

so the county executive, you know, has defined the budget. And like I said, I’ve had significant experience in drafting budgets. The other thing the county executive is both a manager and a leader. And by manager, I mean county executive. Manager wants to do everything right. A leader has to do the right thing. And so being county executive, you have to be skilled at both of these managing and leading and leading large agencies, leading a correctional facility, leading your public works department, leading your the one that’s dear, nearest and dearest to me is the planning department, because that’s what I came up and by the way, Nestor,

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Nestor Aparicio  31:59

that’s like hardball to special teams, right? Like that’s exactly. And I

Izzy Patoka  32:03

still keep my I’m nationally certified as a planner, and I keep my national credentials up. I go to webinars, and I learn what thing, what planners are doing, and particularly young planners across the country in different jurisdictions, and how I can implement that here, because I’ve got to get certain level of continuing education credits. Very, very helpful, because the issues that are in Cincinnati or San Francisco and those regions are similar here, and the one common theme that I’ve heard across the country from planners is that we all need to overhaul our zoning codes. They’re all obsolete, and the reason for that is the basic foundation of the zoning codes are that retail behaves a certain way. You have to go to the store and shop. But that’s not true anymore. It hasn’t been true for 30 years, right? You shop online, you go to a store mostly for service oriented, your haircut, dry cleaning, dry cleaning. And then the other thing that has changed in terms of one of the pillars of the zoning code is office space and also residential because people post pandemic, the behavior of office space is different because people are working for home from home, my wife used to go, if you’re

Nestor Aparicio  33:15

going to revitalize a city, you better figure that out quick, right? Because there’s nothing but empty space above us as I drove to faith these on Wednesday, and that’s affecting the Orioles games. It’s just affecting every, every how harbor place is going to be revitalized. And from the county perspective, that would speak to East Point mall where my parents took me to grow up, golden ring done away with, and it’s a Home Depot, and it’s a this, and that security don’t know what it’s going to be, right? I mean, I have had Mark renbaum on talking about, like, the project that you’re Lutherville station, the Luther like all of those, especially things that are associated to rail, like Hunt Valley was a mall and a mall no more, right? I mean, now it’s a living space in a wall, like all of them. I’m 57 I’ve seen it all change over two or three times. And from my Dundalk people not always in a good way, right? And I see trade point Atlantic, but, but then that’s business. But to your point, the downtown Essex, downtown Dundalk, the strip in Parkville on Harford road. I mean, even what happened with Towson row, and I know that’s controversy, and what’s going on downtown Towson and the mall itself, but all of these need to be rethought. Everything. It’s obvious security needs to be rethought, right? And White Marsh things you see, and you’re like, Well, that was a big ass mall, and it can’t be that 20 years from now, this isn’t fast times Ridgemont High anymore, you know, but thinking that through that is all about planning, and it’s going to be about whether Dundalk comes back to life in the way we all want it to be, or what White Marsh is going to be after we laid waste to the rabbits and built a mall there 50 years ago, right?

Izzy Patoka  34:58

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Well, Nestor, I’ve created a zoning. Tool to address those I think it was a year and a half ago, I created a new zoning application. It’s called the mixed use Overlay district, and it allows you to zone vertically. Typically, zoning is horizontal, this space is residential, this space is Office, this space is retail. In my new mixed use zoning overlay district. You can zone vertically so you can have retail on the ground floor.

Nestor Aparicio  35:26

That’s what you would have to have in Lutherville to make sense.

Izzy Patoka  35:29

Lutherville station is a great application of the mixed use Overlay district. And the other thing is that typically, these older shopping centers that performed well in the 80s and 90s, and maybe not so much anymore. They’re typically along a transit line, and so that there’s two benefits. One, reduces parking demand. So you can, you can lessen the parking restrict or parking requirements. And in addition to that, the parking that’s needed for residential, the parking that’s needed for office, the parking that’s needed for retail, they all are different times. So it again, you can even further reduce the parking requirements for mixed use Overlay district application.

Nestor Aparicio  36:14

Well, I was in the city yesterday morning at DiPasquale’s, and in the time since the family left Highland town, it came down to Canton in the last 568, years, the amount of construction is when I was in the window at Deep squad all there are cranes lifting humans up, and they’re building this thing. And it’s harder to park down there than it was two years ago, three years ago, five years ago. And you’d like to think that all these sharpies that are building all these apartments down there, and I gave Ed Hale a tip of the cap as well for being a visionary for that area 25 years ago, well, it’s all there now, and it’s happening, and there’s a Chick fil A and there’s a target, and it’s in the city, and it’s on the line and all but like, then there’s the cheese Can I park and the DiPasquale’s people who have invested those people are concerned about that sort of thing because it wasn’t a part of their mindset for any business, not just them, obviously, but anybody to say, Hey, man, I hit it big. I’m in a neighborhood. There’s a lot of people now that brings a whole different set of challenges, right?

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Izzy Patoka  37:14

And if you take the shot tower Metro, if you get off of the shot tower metro station, you’re in a walkable place. Now, when Governor Hogan killed the red line, that was our we east to west transit, when he killed it in in 2015 he didn’t kill it for just four years or eight years, he killed it for a generation. Transit is different than other types of construction, and so right now, I would say if the red line comes back, it’s not you and you and I that are going to be able to benefit it. It might be, if we’re lucky, our grandchildren are going to benefit from

Nestor Aparicio  37:51

every time I get on a subway in any city. Doesn’t matter. It’s America Tokyo, Tokyo specifically because of how amazingly constructed all of it is Hong Kong. These places that are really forward thinking. New York’s pretty forward thinking too, because when I go there, you know what the subway does. It works, and it’s worked for 150 years. And some Izzy put his political NADs out on the line to say, we’re going to take a billion dollars and build this thing under the ground that’s gonna get us around. And I’m sure people are like, Well, I’m starving on the street. What does that mean for me? And I think anytime you build anything like that, there’s a level of political courage every time I get on anything that’s public transportation, to say, somebody put themselves out for this, because there was no instant gratification involved in that at all.

Izzy Patoka  38:44

So to me, in Baltimore, where it’s unusual, I think our metro system would work better if the police had the Metro Police, the Transit Police had a better presence, not in the stations, but on the trains. And typically it’s been during my time in the governor’s office, we had a devil of a time getting the metro. The Transit Police in the trains, for some reason they like to hang up.

Nestor Aparicio  39:09

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You know what? Man, I’ll say this about subways and stuff, because you’re you and I are old enough and been here forever. I remember it was built.

Izzy Patoka  39:16

I do too early. It was right after Harbor on all the roads.

Nestor Aparicio  39:19

My parents and I took the bus downtown, and we got on it to joy ride it. We took it out. I don’t think it even went to all the way to Owings Mills at the time, it kind of went out toward that way. And we took it out. Took a one way ride, turned around, came back down, and I rode it. And I never wrote it again for 25 years, because it didn’t I’m from Dundalk. It didn’t help me. Yeah, my parents, I took the 23 bus everywhere. I took the 23 and the 22 and the 10. My parents didn’t drive. My parents didn’t have much, you know, so, I mean, I was a public transportation to get around first. What’s what reason I never went to the Capitol Center as a kid, and when they took the bullets out of town, my dad hated him because he couldn’t go to the games anymore. So I would just say for that red line thing, and I’ve. Had Hogan sitting next to me and molar, and in molar was pushing his buttons and pissing him off when we were sitting down having a crab cake in Annapolis, and he said, I killed the red line because that’s what I ran on. And I’m like, you ran on laying waste to East Baltimore for the next 50 years. Good for you, pal. Good for you when the federal government was going to do this. I mean, do you know anything about supermarkets and food deserts and and it’s It sickens me to see people beating up the most vulnerable people in our community,

Izzy Patoka  40:32

and more is the economic engine of the state. And so if you say I’m going to cripple the economic engine of the state, I don’t think, yeah, that’s not leadership. I’ll say this, Nestor, I live from door to door, from my front door to the front door. The Milford Mill Metro Station is seven tenths of a mile, and I use it quite a bit when I worked, when I had Baltimore days in the governor’s office, I didn’t have that many Baltimore days. Most was in Annapolis, nine

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Nestor Aparicio  40:57

minute walk, 15 minute commute. No parking Correct. Boom. I get all from three different stops. We need to go to state center wherever. Yeah, I’ve taken. I lived downtown for 19 years, so I started taking I would start like we have one car. My wife got transferred and had to work in on Valley. And I would take the subway up to rice to Owens Mills, and Luke would grab me, and we would go to practice together. Yep. Yeah, yeah. I mean, no problem. But I preferred doing that. Luke sometimes just say, don’t you? I’m like, No, I get on the subway and I just, I’m, veg out. I don’t have to drive. I don’t have to think about anything. My wife’s got the car. She’s happy. I took a man. I took the bus from downtown to Towson all the time, to my radio station number eight. So I’m talking about when I was in my late 40s. I’m in my late 50s. I’ve lived in Towson for four years now, by the way, Izzy patoka’s here. He’s running to run, not just his district in two but all of Baltimore County. He’s running for Baltimore County Executive. We’re here at honeys. We’re in Baltimore County. We’re in halethorpe right now, which is, I don’t get the hail Thorpe much. Why do you get the Dundalk much? Because you’re running for the whole county. I get the Dundalk quite. Are there places in the county, as I think, if he’s a Northwestern guy, are there places in the county where, if I took you to some place in overly or Middle River, or some place you haven’t been? Because I think of myself as a county guy, I’m not in a place I’ve never been, but I’m in a place I rarely come. And I need to if I’m gonna run for office, I need to do better than that. But you too.

Izzy Patoka  42:27

Well, no, I’m getting out a lot. I leave the house at around 839 and I come home at night, 839 and so I’m all around the county, and I’ve got to understand the dynamics of it. I don’t think you can sit in your office, and this has been how I’ve operated my whole professional life is that you don’t sit in an office and look at the four walls of that office and believe that’s the community. You’re going to fail if you do that for me, if you’re going to be in governance, you need to get out of your office. You need to get into your communities. I did that in the second district, so I’m in the communities every night, every day, countywide, because

Nestor Aparicio  43:03

Second District is,

Izzy Patoka  43:05

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because we question. So the second district is the Northwest. It is every neighborhood inside the beltway, from Windsor Mill Road to Charles Street. So from Woodlawn.

Nestor Aparicio  43:18

So you’re going, you’re going mount of everything north of Mount Washington, yep, sort of that

Izzy Patoka  43:23

area, exactly. And then it goes out. It’s a very diverse district, because you’re talking about inside the beltway from Woodlawn to Ruxton, and then in the Stevenson and the green Spring Valley area it pops out. So it has a good portion of rural and that’s why I said earlier,

Nestor Aparicio  43:38

you have Brooks Robinson drive in your I do.

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Izzy Patoka  43:41

Then that tells me all I needed. And for anybody who has been complaining about all the tractor trailer parking on there, we have resolved that on Brooks Robinson drive,

Nestor Aparicio  43:50

how much outside the Beltway Do you have? You go out toward, toward Owings Mills, correct, yeah.

Izzy Patoka  43:55

I mean, I go far outside the beltway. I have a good well,

Nestor Aparicio  43:59

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Julian’s on one side, correct?

Izzy Patoka  44:01

Yeah. So at painters Mill Road, Julian picks up. Councilman Jones picks up a good portion of Owings Mills, okay? And I have it on the east side of Reisterstown Road. He has the west side.

Nestor Aparicio  44:12

You have where my grandfather lived, which was like meadow, Brook meadow, heights Road,

Izzy Patoka  44:17

Randallstown. That is all Councilman Jones is.

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Nestor Aparicio  44:20

Okay, all right. So I’m trying to get left from right. He’s from West here, as I get it together. Is he patois here? He’s running for Baltimore County. So give me the stump speech real quick before I let you go and I’ll, you know, I’ll get you back on. We got elections. But I think the most important thing in any of these elections that happen in the county A is vote. Register if you’re not participate, participate. Listen to what these people have to say. It’s about public safety, it’s about education, about it’s about quality life, I think, more than anything. But why are you running and what’s the promises made you’re going to want to keep?

Izzy Patoka  44:54

So I’ve been community centered my entire life. I have a broad breadth of experience. In terms of budget, in terms of managing agencies. And moving into the future, Nestor, we need to have strength at the local level. The rest you know, federal level is not predictable, so we need to be strong here at the local level. I think I offer a skill set that will meet that need. Had strong budget experience, and I also have very specific plans on what we’re going to do into the future. We’re going to have strong inner beltway communities, we’re going to have strong commercial corridors, we’re going to have agencies that are performing at a high level. These are the things that I’ve done, and I also have passed very difficult legislation. So I have the the ability not just to come up with an idea, anyone can come up with an idea, but being able to implement that idea is a whole nother skill set. But with growing the county council, with protecting the Inspector General, with

Nestor Aparicio  45:59

you want to talk about that for one minute. I haven’t hit you on that. So inspector general, it’s been in the news. I don’t know a lot about it. I don’t know about the position. I just know it hasn’t been a good look as a county executive, county resident and business owner. It’s not a good look.

Izzy Patoka  46:16

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So I’ve always supported the Inspector General, having an Office of the Inspector General. I’ve supported Kelly Madigan as the inspector

Nestor Aparicio  46:23

what does it mean? What was her job? So his job, the basic job,

Izzy Patoka  46:27

is to reduce fraud, waste and abuse. When she first came on, she also had an ethics component to her job, but that’s now shifted to the Office of Law. So really we’re talking about fraud, waste and abuse, and the nuance

Nestor Aparicio  46:42

in county government, yes, overseeing the money. Yeah, that. And you

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Izzy Patoka  46:46

have to understand the nuances of county agencies. And so Kelly did a good job at understanding all that. And one of the big differences, and what makes the job so difficult, is she had she part of her job was to investigate elected officials, and so that could create some conflict in terms of the appointing authority. So I’ve introduced a legislation that will be before the voters to have an independent appointment board that will select

Nestor Aparicio  47:18

the not the councilman, not the correct county executive

Izzy Patoka  47:20

independent board, but that’ll be up to the voters in the November 2026, election. The one thing I will say why there was so much churning on the Inspector General’s Office. So in government, we don’t like change. Typically, there’s a resistance to change. So when you create a new agencies, people get concerned when I was the first when we created the Mayor’s Office of neighborhoods, and I was the first director, people did not want to have change in Baltimore City, but it was good change, positive change, and similarly, with the Office of the Inspector General. So it’s hard to create change in government, and then this office is particularly difficult because of the nature of the work program you’re going to inspect. I mean, think about this part of the work program is you might have to inspect and investigate, I’m sorry, not inspect, investigate an elected official. And so to me, some elected officials say, hey, whoa. You know, investigate

Nestor Aparicio  48:20

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sitting down at Pennsylvania Avenue. Don’t want to be investigated either. Yeah. So, yeah, and that,

Izzy Patoka  48:26

so yeah, exactly creates two tiers of citizenship. Yeah, two tiers of citizenship. And that’s not the way. It’s kind of like Justin Tucker

Nestor Aparicio  48:34

running around, but we’ll get to that. Oh, wow. Izzy Patoka is here. He is in the second he is Ravens. You worried? We’re all worried, right? Well, you know, some games spending money, right? So that’s

Izzy Patoka  48:44

good, yeah, let’s hope they can get a picture. But you know what? I have confidence in the pictures they have. I think Kyle Bradish is going to have a great year. Tyler wells will have a great year.

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Nestor Aparicio  48:55

Don’t tell him that, that they don’t want to spend. Make him spend more money, my money, and spend the

Izzy Patoka  48:59

money. But unlike our young guys,

Nestor Aparicio  49:01

we had 30 years where we didn’t do anything. So, like, I just some activity, even if it’s wrong, yeah, it feels right because it’s in a direction of trying harder. And I feel like, for a long time they didn’t try that hard, right? So trying hard is, you get my vote just for trying hard? Yeah, that’s

Izzy Patoka  49:18

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all I heard one sports pundit say that. And I think it’s true that getting Pete Alonso will take the pressure off some of the young guys, like gunner and

Nestor Aparicio  49:27

but he’s got to be an IS, not a might be, and he’s always been in is, and that’s why, and you’ve always been an IS, too.

Izzy Patoka  49:32

I have the thing that impressed me is I looked at his stats and his plate appearances over the last five years he plays. He had 709 plate appearances last year

Nestor Aparicio  49:43

max Weis, and I got into it yesterday over at DiPasquale’s. And she’s such a fan her, and you she’s a fan, and she’s like, so what does this mean for Messiah? What does this mean for Richmond? What does this mean for male cast? And I’m like, they gave $35 million a year to play first base, and he plays first base, probably 100 35 games. Maybe you Dh 15 or 20 games. Maybe that. That would be different when he’s 3435 but they’re still paying him $35 million a year. Next five years, he’s always playing first base, so he’s gonna play. So I mean, I What does that mean? It means beside is going to be a DH, because he ain’t gonna be a catcher. So that’s what that means. So hey, good luck to you. Thank you. You know I love lending my time space here at honeys were in halethorpe on the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland Lottie with our friends at GBMC. I like lending it to people that want to talk about making Baltimore County, Baltimore City. Anne Arundel, Howard, all ever, just better. It’s a land of pleasant living is you know that I love this place. We got to make it better. That’s it, all right, I’m here at Hale Thorpe. We’re gonna be joined by Nick Stewart, who’s also running for Baltimore County Executive. My dude, Sean stinnett’s running for delegate, my former intern, my former my Kim usabi around here. W NSD is running. And I think we have some other guests stopping by. I’m gonna have some delicious pot stickers here. They made some crab cake stuff. I got to watch my figure, because I’m going on to the mat later on. We’re going to be at Costas next Thursday in Dundalk with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Regina shock Friday. We’re going to be at Gertrude at the BMA with a gingerbread house. I’m going to have candy cane scratch also the Maryland lottery. And then we’re going to wrap things up for the holidays. On the 22nd they’ve told me a Planet Fitness are going to get me to New Year’s Eve hats. So we’re gonna do the we’re gonna confetti it all up. It’s in Timonium, another Baltimore County location, brand new location at Planet Fitness. I’m looking forward to getting out there. They have this rejuvenation bed that’s gonna light my world for Christmas Eve. They also have the the water massage, which I’m definitely gonna need after doing all these crab cakes. Back for more. We are at honeys in Hale Thorpe, just couple blocks from the city line. We’re in Baltimore County. Going to be talking some more Baltimore County issues. Here. Stay with us. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive.