Baltimore County Executive candidate Nick Stewart tells Nestor that measurable growth via competent strategic planning is the way forward. From Hunt Valley to Catonsville, from Dundalk to our Maryland Crab Cake Tour stop at Red Brick Station in White Marsh, a frank chat about the future of Baltimore County and Towson.
Nick Stewart, a business attorney and community advocate, discusses his candidacy for Baltimore County Executive. He emphasizes the need for strategic planning and competent governance to address issues like housing, economic growth, and infrastructure. Stewart highlights the potential of areas like Dundalk and Towson for revitalization, advocating for mixed-use development and better public transit. He criticizes the slow progress on projects like Lutherville Station and the light rail in Timonium. Stewart aims to improve government efficiency, address the housing crisis, and foster a more inclusive and vibrant community.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Baltimore County Executive, Nick Stewart, strategic planning, zoning, land growth, community development, housing crisis, economic growth, public transportation, mixed-use development, revitalization, workforce housing, school construction, community engagement, regional competitiveness.
SPEAKERS
8
Nick Stewart, Nestor Aparicio, Speaker 1
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 to house of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively here with a beautiful view of what used to be Sears, White Marsh Mall. We’re here at the avenue in White Marsh. We’re at the Red Brick station having a delicious stout. I had a delicious crab cake. Back to the Future scratch offs from the Maryland lottery being gifted out around the bar. My thanks to Bill blocker and his daughter Katie for giving us the endos experience, as well as the Red Brick station experience, as well as the delicious crab cake I lost an earlier guess I’m gonna get Joe Giordano on later on. I also think Chris Corman from the Baltimore banner is going to try to join us later on in the week as well. Nick Stewart is here. He is a returning champion to the program. We got together a couple years ago over at State Fair. I think I saw you at the Maryland party last year. They see it Mako or to see USA, Mako. I saw you at the beach, and on my timeline, you’re doing a good job. Somehow, I am a Baltimore County resident and voter. It said Stewart for Baltimore County Executive, and I’m like, I’m gonna give Nick a call. We’re gonna talk wonky, zoning, land growth, right in your wheelhouse, right? That’s who you are, yeah, how you been? Man? Good to see you. It’s good to see you too. You’re not an elected what would i What would I say you are? What are you? What’s your real job? So I’m
Nick Stewart 01:14
a business attorney. I am a community Advocate. I lead a good governance advocacy groups called We the People Baltimore County, but I also serve on the Board of Southwest visions Foundation, which is a community development corporation for the southwest portion of our county. So I’ve been at it for a long time. Right? Used to be a board member for the school board for Baltimore County, and then served on the Workforce Development Board for eight years. So
Nestor Aparicio 01:37
has this always been in your mind’s eye to run for public office? I mean, I I’ve asked Johnny oh and other young progressive people like you, you know, Pat over in your side of town, I like the infusion of, you know, people a little younger than me, but, but also, who know what? Who are competent about the issues, whether you agree with it or not, you’re bringing a level of competency from having lived and served in the space. You don’t have to look any further than the White House to know what. Lack of competency and lack of really servicing people you’ve been in a position to put this together, run for office, but I did not sense that you wanted to be a public official. No,
8Nick Stewart 02:14
and that’s so that was true. So serving on the school board and being a public official in that way not elected but and never been a full time elected official, it gave you a sense of what this is all about, and how challenging it really is to make progress. And so, you know, there are ways in which I enjoy what I do. I enjoy seeing my family. I enjoy being able to, you know, work with the clients that I do from a business law perspective. I work with a variety of, you know, great clients, many entrepreneurs and small companies. Install what
Nestor Aparicio 02:40
that mean business law, can everybody like a what’s a typical day in the life in Nick Stewart for business, where you were just having a hell of a conversation with Bill blocker here before we got me on the air about housing and the mall is going to become housing, and what kind of housing and people are fighting, and people are fighting this, I had Mark rembaugh on, I’ll see him at the Maryland party next week, fighting what’s going on in Timonium with light rail, which I Got on that light rail stop to go to BWI last week to see Pearl Jam. Okay? And I’m there, and there’s three people getting on the light rail at 715 in the morning. And it was kind of, you know, I’m like, a
Nick Stewart 03:10
number one biggest missed opportunity in Baltimore County sits right there. It is one.
Nestor Aparicio 03:13
8But you’re like, the West Side guy, and I bring you over here to the east side. You’re trying to be the Baltimore County guy. That’s right. Well,
Nick Stewart 03:19
look, the east side has some of the greatest potential investment potential and opportunity that exists in Baltimore County, writ large. If we think about, you know, Lafarge square, you think about what’s happening at Greenlee. You think about, you know, Turner Station, Fort Howard, their waterfront, sure, correct. And, you know, in Dundalk and Essex there, there have been design plans that have already been created at the Essex. Reimagined plan is coming online. But these are amazing, incredible opportunities. Just think of the proximity, for example, of Dundalk to Johns Hopkins Bayview. It’s on the same road, right? So what University of Maryland medical system and Glen Burnie did was transform Glen Burnie into workforce housing to support the hospital operations and systems. We should be thinking these thoughts around Dundalk and around trying to truly modernize and create opportunities for investment in this area without changing its historic, culture and tradition. We’re not saying that. But can we build beautiful things that lead to revitalization? Yes, of course, we can. We just have to do the hard work to get there. Well, I
Nestor Aparicio 04:16
want to get you to Timonium in a minute. Nick’s running for Baltimore County Executive. Everybody, the voting people don’t even know when they vote, how Kathy wound up at Baltimore County. I ran into John von trend last week as well. I’m going to try to have Kathy on the show as well. Really give me a baseline, because I had Todd Schuler on, I’ve invited Todd Crandall on. I saw Julian Jones and Izzy Patoka a couple weeks ago, but I haven’t had, like, a conversation right, about how she became Baltimore county executive with Johnny left, and just this sort of interestingly weird period of my former partner, Don Moeller was, you know, part of that, in a small way, after the tragedy to Kevin, but this was people knew Johnny was running. People knew Johnny was probably going to win, right? You know, I don’t think it’s. Better thought that, but I thought that Johnny wins. The county’s in a little bit of an interesting place right now.
Nick Stewart 05:06
So there’s two years that Kathy, our county executive class Meyer has to serve to finish out, quote, unquote, Johnny Olszewski term, at which point she has said that she’s not going to run for re election. It’ll be an open seat. And so there’s an opportunity here. You kind of get back to your first question, like, what prompts you to be in this moment? This moment? We’re looking at a county that is on the cusp of a crossroads, that we really are facing significant issues. For me, it was kind of a put up or shut up. I’ve done all this work. I have this outsider perspective. I I’m not wed to the past, because I’ve never been a full time politician. So there’s a real opportunity for us to take a fresh look and a fresh solution set being applied to government and government delivery of services and products, right? Like new housing units, seeing it in that way that we can arrive there faster than six years, or build a new high school faster than 12 to 15 years, which is our timeline right now. Well, both
8Nestor Aparicio 05:56
my elementary and high school have been rebuilt, you know, I guess it probably started with Jim Smith and Kevin kam and it’s Johnny was the one that opened Colgate elementary I’m Dundalk High School, proud Hall of Famer.
Nick Stewart 06:09
But, but there’s scarcity, right? We think, like I served on school board when Delaney and Lansdowne were sort of at odds with one another. I’m a Delaney graduate. I was representing the southwest area where Lansdowne, of course, is, and it felt like it was a zero sum game, but the truth is, they both need to be done right, exactly right, and for us to not be able to operate in that way showcases just how scarce we feel, and the resources actually are for us to
Nestor Aparicio 06:34
deliver that comes a demographic issue, becomes a race issue, becomes a money issue, becomes a class issue. It’s all
Nick Stewart 06:40
8of that. It’s a systems issue as well. It’s a process issue. And so we’ve created so much procedure, endless procedure, that we’ve lost the progress. We’ve lost the result over the red tape. That is where we are, right? And there’s a real reason why, for example, in Lutherville station, that project has been going on or been proposed for six years, that is un that’s not an unprecedented but that is not something that sustains. Shows how
Nestor Aparicio 07:03
hard it is to do, and at some point, a developer either quits or the neighborhood quits. But either way, it’s not progress, it’s
Nick Stewart 07:12
not part and most people, most people, feel like that probably is not the right way to do it. And it’s not, I think we know that ultimately, look, it is. We’re not talking about developing Greenfield. We’re not talking about turning these beautiful spaces and just making them industrial in nature. We’re talking about taking a place that is unproductive, that is fallow. It’s the calendar I shopped at as a kid, right? It’s not doing anything except it’s a spirit Halloween, you know, every Halloween. So what do we want to do with it? We want to create a mixed use community that brings vibrancy and authenticity and heart. Back to that area and avenue
Nestor Aparicio 07:43
for there. There you go, right as we sit here within the avenue and White Marsh, that said would never work. And it’s
8Nick Stewart 07:48
worked. You know, human, skilled architecture, greenery that is incorporated as we look outside and sort of this up this opportunity. It’s understanding that we can walk, live, play, learn, all in same place. That’s not something that we have real good access to in our county, but we should, because we have so many opportunities. If you think about Lutherville station, you think about what’s happening at White Marsh, but you think about East Point mall, you think about downtown Towson and the fact that it’s been hollowing out for some years, and there’s opportunities to reorient the way we grow and develop in that area. Liberty Road, you talk about Eastern Boulevard, you talk about security, square, Mall. All these are opportunities for us to not just revitalize for the sake of revitalization or grow for the sake of growth, but to also address our housing crisis that exists, to address our economic slowdown that has existed, a depression of our tax base at the same time that we’re creating and renewing the sense of culture and tradition that we have had in Baltimore County. The reasons why our parents brought us here in the
Nestor Aparicio 08:45
first place, it’s amazing. Nick’s Nick is here. He’s running for Baltimore County Executive, Nick Stewart. We’re going to talk more about the actual like running, but I want to go back to as I’m staring at White Marsh mall. I remember 1981 this being built. I was 12 years old. My parents came out here for the first time, and it was like this, Wonder Man. It’s like fast times Ridgemont High. I’m a mall rat from East Point. So I grew up Bank Street, right by St Peter’s Church, where the Oh yeah, I was a mall rat. I mean, 23 bus line. My parents never drove. So the East Point mall, security square, mall, we seen what golden ring mall is now basically a Home Depot, right? And then White Marsh mall here, and then shopping plazas, and I’m going to be out broadcasting for the Maryland party next week with Howard Perlow and all of the people who own, rent and sell and do all the things that you know so much about with zoning and property. These mall areas, as they’ve dried up, they’ve become controversial in so many ways, and they are and even the Towson mall for crime and for all the other things we’re Owings Mills now kind of, I mean, I’m thinking of these areas. What becomes of them? Man, they are just gigantic, big things in a county like Baltimore County, because. We’ve all been here a million times, and we’re like, that’s the mall. That’s the mall. Doesn’t always have to be the mall in the same way, when I have John Elway on from the Y Memorial Stadium is a Y now, and it’s okay, you know, we have a stadium that’s a bigger, better stadium that we’re doing something else with. I think most
Nick Stewart 10:14
people would say that the look, the reason we have malls, or the way in which we’ve grown in the past has all been dedicated to this really anachronistic, this old style of development, which, which was saying that, let’s put all the retail here, we’ll put all the residential here, we’ll put all the commercial and industrial over here. And so there’s a certain sense that we’re growing apart from one another over the last, you know, 234, decades there have been, there has been a push, though not as much, where we need to be around mixed use development, around bringing those zones together and saying we can create something that’s oriented and where we can leave our cars at home on the weekend, because we have everything that we need to be able to live a vibrant and complete and sustainable life here with one another. We live in community. That’s what we’re looking for. There will always be a place for single family homes with, you know, yards and so forth, and, you know, a fair amount of acreage. But if we’re going to get serious about what to do with the major town center opportunities and the economic assets that exist in our county, then we have got to lean into the redevelopment of these areas as vibrant, bustling town centers
Nestor Aparicio 11:19
8with your work prior to trying to run for public office, finding this push back against growth. I mean, it’s just literally, it’s the oldest, reddest, bluest, Trumpist Biden nest thing, which is we, we don’t want anything to change. We want to go back to Eisenhower or, Hey, look, let’s rethink this, and let’s do something new, unless where we’re standing here feels like the avenues been here. This was, as Bill blocker said, this was a weird kind of project. It was controversial. It was could it work? Would people shop outside? They didn’t know what it was creating, a fake Town Center, and, you know, like a like a movie set in Blazing Saddles, or something like that. We have the mall. The mall will be this is an old man and me 30 years ago, when I was in my 30s 20s, saying, no, no, no, no, change. We’re gonna go to the mall forever. The mall will be there. I’m old enough now to know the change is inevitable. It will either roll you over or you will change. Change will come for you. And what’s the hardest part? Just take one mall, one thing, whether it’s White Marsh, what’s the hardest thing from your organic organization of trying to fight for progress versus people saying Good question, we don’t care about business. We don’t know about business. We think the boogeyman is out to get us and the politicians out to get us. Yeah, I have found that to be counterproductive ideology. There are
Nick Stewart 12:47
just a handful of things that we come back to on a regular basis. The first one is fear of change the and that is natural right. People are worried about what it would look like for their community to accept or, integrate this additional investment opportunity where they live, work, play, learn, and so forth. The reason for that is in large part, we haven’t proven out as a government, as a private sector, working together, that we build beautiful things. Oftentimes we’ve built to the lowest common denominator, the things that are maybe easiest to do, quickest to do, because the system is so hard that even the quickest thing to do is not that quick to do. Well, look
Nestor Aparicio 13:23
at Harbor place, right? Just as an example, right? There’s the center of the city. We’re still talking we’re not digging Right,
Nick Stewart 13:29
right? So it takes forever for these things to progress. And so there’s a fear of change that’s been founded, at least in part, on a reasonable belief that we don’t do good projects or nice things. And at the same time, you have folks who are looking at this environment and saying, if we allow for this change, it will fundamentally alter who we are. Won’t respect local tradition and culture. It will feel overwhelming. It’ll feel like we live and rest in Virginia, even though that’s a nice project. But there’s, you know, height to the projects and so forth. Can we? Can we make sure that neighbors are the developers, that they’re brought into the conversation to ensure that they’re, you know, their community is reflected in the ultimate end result? Well, we all want to feel like we’re a stakeholder, right? That’s right, what we’re doing, right, exactly. And so there are smart ways of doing this that won’t be so emotionally charged, won’t be so parochial in nature. Don’t just depend upon one council person saying yes or no in that moment as they’re receiving, you know, a ton of hate from the community for potentially allowing X or Y. Well, you’re a
8Nestor Aparicio 14:31
politician, you’re going to get hate no matter what at this point, right? I mean, there’s really you’re going to go for or against whatever the grain is. And, I mean, you’re ready to swim in that in Baltimore County, but Oh, right, there
Nick Stewart 14:41
are gonna be plenty of people who don’t like what we stand for. That has to be okay. Because the reality is, we are at this crossroads where for the first time in 100 years, we, per the census data, are losing population. This is happening. So change. You know, the other question of this, or the other reason why this happens is people do believe. Believe that the status quo is an option. It really isn’t. What happens is either progress or stagnation, stagnation and falling back. And so here, our economic growth in the county has reduced to about point 6% we have housing crisis. The average age to buy your first home is around 40 years old. A new town home of Baltimore County is selling between you know, 450, to $500,000 this is a town home in our county. You know, we are reaching a point where, if we don’t take action, which it’s going to be really hard to try to come back from that. And so, you know, Johnny oshevsky has done a lot of good work trying to improve the systems of government to make the bigger things possible, doing the small things to make the big things possible. That’s where we are right now. We have a moment where we can lean into this and say, you know, the reason why, in my opinion, that Democrats lost in 2024 is we didn’t deliver on the things we said we were going to deliver on for working families, to make life just a little bit easier and to make it a little less hard to survive as a working family in our, you know, locality or county or country. Why
Nestor Aparicio 16:05
here? Why now, with this county executive, run for you, and you got to ramp up here, and people get to know you a little bit. You haven’t run for public office. You know, you got a wife, you got four kids. I mean, you know, you got a thing. I mean, you’re going on here. You’re gonna run hard the next 18 months, right? Right?
Nick Stewart 16:21
8Right? Yeah. So it’s not a normal next step. I admit that, but I think that’s sort of the point of this is that we have done the work, we have built the platform. I’ve done years and years of both at well, a lot of things around workforce, around education, around housing, smart growth, revitalization, community, re development, all those issues are the issues that will define us for this next generation. They are coming to a head. And so for me, it was a put up or shut up moment. We believe in these things, and can I show my kids that we will take risks based off of the values that we have? And I’m willing to do that. Look, I’m willing to see them less. I’m willing certainly to make less money, the whole thing that comes with it right, being a true public servant and saying we’re going to do this for eight years, that’s it. We’ll be done, but we’ll make the change that we want to make in Baltimore County, to make sure it’s a different place that’s hospitable and accommodating to young families, that allows for the same story that I had here, that my parents had here for the next generation as well. We don’t have that right now. We have to try to address that.
Nestor Aparicio 17:25
You pro Johnny. Oh, right, yeah. What was he doing? Well, where can you pick that up? What? What is Kathy inherited in Baltimore County, and I haven’t talked to her, but what is your notion of the State of the County? Because you’ve been hard at work at all of this, and for sure, yeah, your team’s been sitting in the office to some degree, right? So I would think you agree with some things. But also, hey, this is mine. I’m gonna do it a little differently than Kevin did it, or Johnny did it, or Kathy did it, yeah, or Don did
Nick Stewart 17:52
it, sure. So all good. These are good questions. What Johnny did so well? Just to get back to it, I think, from my perspective, was this process improvement, where you said, hey, look, government needs to be more connected. I mean, look at the town halls, right? Look at the connectivity from the office of community engagement. You know, a lot of that is because of what he was able to achieve and what he was able to drive forward. And those weren’t easy things to do. He installed, for example, the first electronic HR system that the county has had. You know, we were in what? 2020 odds, right? 2020s, and he’s working on this, you know, even still. And so making doing the blocking and tackling will make the bigger things possible. But, you know, make no mistake, he also did things, particularly around education, that were so essential, including continuing the school construction, you know, projects that were under Kevin cabinets, which was a significant outlay, required some sacrifice, but we’re, in a large respect, able to really knock down the school construction crisis that we had in that moment. So I talked
Nestor Aparicio 18:50
a lot about that, you know, three four years ago for sure, right?
8Nick Stewart 18:52
And so we talk a little less about it. Now. You hear it more because of the adequate public facilities ordinance that was passed last year, that was a housing ban that was put, you know, in place in Baltimore County, which is absolutely wild, and we could talk about, in a second, again, part of the reason that I’m here. But, you know, you look at our library system, it’s still an absolute gem, and there’s been great investment that that has occurred within the library system. I mean, you just, you look at our county, and you see that it is ready to address these issues, and finally, on housing, right that he was able, particularly towards the end of his six years, really, I mean, established the first housing department that we had in the county, and prioritize the issue in such a way that this county is having the conversation now in a way it never has before, housing has become a number one issue, together with crime and taxes for the first time ever. And so if change is about timing, which I truly believe that it is, then we have a tremendous opportunity right now to lean into that change and say we’re going to make the
Nestor Aparicio 19:50
investment, well, the bridge thing, you know, being a Dundalk guy, and you know where we are with that, and Trump running the country, and where funding would be, and Social Security. 30. You know, really being a Baltimore County West Side issue, if not a local, regional issue all around I look at Baltimore and I didn’t realize the slippage of population, because we hear so much about that in the city. Now, the murder rates down, obviously, populations down, but this Towson crime thing that follows it around. I’m wnst Towson, Baltimore. I live in Towson. I don’t feel that way about Towson, especially being a Dundalk guy. Towson was always like, sort of the city on the hill. When you’re from Dundalk, you know what I mean? It’s the lights up over there, hever Plaza, and what’s not the county seat and Towson, you said challenges there, with the business space in a downtown, in the mall, the, you know, the area where the new movie theaters came to East house, and all the things that go in. Give me a little perspective on Towson, because Catonsville feels vibrant. White Marsh feels vibrant. There are places we go. I hear this about Towson, but when I’m in Towson, I live in Towson. I like Towson,
Nick Stewart 20:55
yeah. So there’s a lot there. That’s a big conversation. But here, let’s break it down to its to its most basic, which is that we haven’t actually provided in Towson a real opportunity. For, for example, it to become a thrive, a thriving community of post graduates who are all there, who’ve decided, no, not only did I go to Towson, you or you know, Goucher, what have you, I love this area. I’m going to start my family here and live here, there’s, aren’t, there aren’t great opportunities,
Nestor Aparicio 21:21
8not a cut, not a college place for four years, a place to stay after you graduate.
Nick Stewart 21:26
That’s right, because you are invested in the community, and it feels like your community, which I think is really, really important. But you also think, like, just the basics around, we didn’t build a light rail stop in Towson, you know, I understand there was real fear, and there are certain, you know, elements of concern around the others and and what that would mean for our for our city, but
Nestor Aparicio 21:46
that’s a 1972 decision, right? Like, literally, let’s
Nick Stewart 21:49
be clear, that is our city as as a county. If we had one, we don’t have any towns. What’s the most
8Nestor Aparicio 21:54
important part of Baltimore County is what I was gonna say. I mean, Dundalk guy, your Catonsville guy, but I’d say towson’s The big one,
Nick Stewart 21:59
right? If Towson isn’t thriving, we’re doing it wrong. And so, you know, you you hear about opportunities to, you know, not just address the connectivity to Towson University, but to say we are going to make this the the beating heart of our county, in a way that it hasn’t been before. And instead, we’re, you know, we’re losing really great restaurants like the perennial, where there are opportunities for us to reorient and Los
Nestor Aparicio 22:23
Nacho mamas too. Yeah, they’re my places, right? Yeah, yeah. And
Nick Stewart 22:27
8so, you know, it is about trying to build a vision, which, you know, Jim Smith did. They created a walkability plan for Towson. There’s a certain sense of dusting that off is also bringing together again, the community, to do a reimagining of what downtown Towson should look like in the ways in which to increase connectivity, increase access, including public transit access, and also trying to pull in the Towson University community into those discussions in a way that is fully embracing the life and promise of what it means to have that incredible institution right in the heart of Towson.
Nestor Aparicio 23:00
I’m big fan Nick Stewart here. He’s running for Baltimore County Executive. We’re out here in red brick station. I have the scratch offs from the Maryland lottery, the Back to the Future scratches, I said earlier, the Back to the Future when the avenue was getting built, the light tower at the end is very much from every time I drove down here in 1997 I’m like, it looks like it’s out of the movies. So we have these scratch offs giveaway. We’re going to be at Faith leaves on the 28th which is in the city, and we’re also gonna be up in Carroll County, at the elders. Excuse me not Eldersburg Hampstead, it’s green mount station. I keep green mount green spring. I’m doing it all your Catonsville in the west side and your background in that. Give a little bit about your family and background. You’re running for public office. People need to know who you are. I don’t know that much about you. I know I’ve talked policy, zoning, wonky, progressive, look, I’ve changed things when I’m a
Nick Stewart 23:50
policy nerd at bottom right. And that’s that’s okay that, but it has to. It has to be a movement, a coalition, that’s ultimately built around these ideas, and they’re not just mine. So to be frank with you know, get certainly provide some more details about me, but we have a platform that’s over 30 pages long. It’s single space, it’s 11 font, right? Like we’ve built this out. It’s the product, the way, when
Nestor Aparicio 24:08
I told my wife I was running for mayor, she’s like, you gotta have a platform. You gotta mine was 41 pages, right? It never was released, but it was written. There you go. So, you
8Nick Stewart 24:18
know, but we’ve had over 300 now, 30 conversations in the county. It’s reflecting all of those conversations. Is that enough? Of course, it’s not because, you know, plans and ideas don’t really matter unless they’re actionable and unless you’re successful and you win this thing. And so there’s a real sense that we’ve got to build this make sure that it’s larger than just a handful of people. And what we’re seeing is that people are gravitating towards a message of sort of freshness in the solution set, and also a belief that things don’t have to be this way just because they always have been this way. And so we sort of talk about what the next chapter of Baltimore County can and should look like. It should be a results driven enterprise that is focused. On making people’s lives easier, whether that’s going to be child care access, whether that’s going to be, you know, a community schools model that stabilizes communities, whether it’s creating more housing units so that people can afford to live here, over 50% of the people who rent spend more than 30% of their income on their rent. So if we think about that, that’s an enormous fraction of people who are spending way too much money on just trying to live. That is the single biggest reason why things so feel so challenging, so tough and difficult for people and so, you know, I grew up in the central part of the county. I went to Delaney High School. I am the product, you know. Shout out to both my parents, who both of them were registered nurses. Yesterday was National Nurses day. My mom unfortunately passed from cancer in 2016 and but my dad still lives in in the Hunt Valley area. And so, you know, there’s a certain sense, you know, carrying forward, that as I’ve been able to live, I lived in Arbutus for six years. We now live in Catonsville with our four kids, 976, and four. So
Nestor Aparicio 25:57
you’re a, you’re a North County guy that moved west. I’m an East County guy that moved north Well, you know, we’re all just, yeah, we’re just playing games. We’re one county, and we’re sitting here in White Marsh. I lived here for 10 years, so, yeah, I mean, here go, here you go. And I played shows. We’re all in it together. It
Nick Stewart 26:13
does. I played Metro ball. I played for putty Hill. And so that was out this way as well, and in any event. So, you know, there’s this opportunity for us to kind of leverage that story and that history and say, like we’ve seen a lot of this county, what’s great about it, what’s so beautiful and wonderful. I’ve lived outside of the hurdle and inside of the hurdle, which is the urban rural demarcation line, where we’ve designated things to either be sort of more green or more dense. And taught
Nestor Aparicio 26:39
8me about the urdl last time I did, you’re the first one that ERTL has been brought up, other than Bob. Or tell back I played, played for the for the skip checks. The only time I’ve ever heard that term was when you were on, yeah, I think.
Nick Stewart 26:52
But you know, so what’s great is that my parents, you know, they had us say they raised us in the northern part of the county, but my dad started a small healthcare business, and because of what he did, which was cardiovascular imaging, he ends up starting a business outside of DC, near Chevy Chase, Maryland. And instead of moving us, we were young, we could have been moved. They said we’re going to stay here. Your dad’s going to drive three hours each day to ensure you can stay rooted in Baltimore County. And that meant the world to me. It really means something, because in this place, the folks you grow up with, they still matter in your life. As it turns out, this community we have built generation over generation is built because we know and love one another, and we are stronger together as we do life together. And so that has been proved out in my life, time and again. I’m so thankful that they would keep me here. And in fact, my grandmother spent her entire career at Baltimore County Public Schools. You know, there’s been
Nestor Aparicio 27:48
full Baltimore County school educated too. We turned out all right, did we? Yeah? I mean, it was that, yeah, I’ve had the curly guys in the Calvert Hall guys, oh, you Why did you go to play? Well, I don’t know. I did. Okay. I’m a, you know, I’m a fan of public education. I’m against book burning, you know, I am. I believe that. Yeah, I’m that kind of guy. I write books, I don’t burn them. But I mean, from an education standpoint, I mean, this is we are all in this together and and everywhere I go, I run it, whether I’m white, wherever I am, I run into people that it is really a community. It’s not like other places. That’s
Nick Stewart 28:23
right? And so part of this campaign, a big part of the focus of this campaign, is trying to reconcile our county to one another, saying We are one county. The things that happen in White Marsh are going to matter to the people in Towson. Things that happen in Towson or Lutherville is going to matter to Owens, mills and on and on and on throughout our county. If we are struggling on the east side in some of our post world war two communities that should matter to the rest of us, we should take heed of that and say, how do we create a coordinated plan in order to address it? And that’s what trade point became. That is what trade point. And this is the best example that we have of our county coming together in the wake of a devastating event of losing Bethlehem Steel and saying, that’s it. Wrap it up. And then his whole town was built around this industry. They’re gone. We’re gone. We said, No, we’re going to bring all the stakeholders together. We are going to develop, develop a comprehensive vision for what this strategic area should be and how it will facilitate and foster
8Nestor Aparicio 29:21
and go great. Norfolk’s asset being a port town, right? Like, literally, right? That’s a global
Nick Stewart 29:26
logistics hub. I mean, it is unprecedented, as far as how we transformed that opportunity into what it is today. And Baltimore County has that, and Baltimore County has that. We’ve done the hard things. We know we can do the hard things. It’s just at this moment we have a lot of hard things to do at once. Nick
Nestor Aparicio 29:41
starts here. He’s running for Baltimore County Executive. That’s a hard thing. We’re out here red brick station. Not a hard thing to get after this thing. Man here. Bill blocker brought me on the crab cake tour. This is the shrimp salad and the crab cake fry, just the way I like it. Come on out here to red brick station. Say hello to our friends. Been a long time. We went over to andos. Yeah. I. Rented at Silver Spring station. On the other side were loonies, I guess is now my son went to Perry all high school at the turn of the century, and I moved over by the boomy temple spring house circle behind the duck farm by Essex Community College King Avenue, and I lived 50 feet from the boomy temple, and that was at the turn of the century. And you know, I moved to the city. I lived in the city for 19 years, but I’ve been back in the county for three and a half years now. And just talking about all these issues, the county, city thing, and having gone through COVID, having known all the elected event, every elected, everyone to be elected on if Al redmer runs against you, I’ll have him. I love you. Al, you know that whoever it is, but for me, the city in the county, and that delineation, when you’re driving that 83 you’re driving down Eastern Avenue, go past Gina shocks house, next thing you know, you’re in the city, this notion that city in the county, there’s a line that stops, and the crimes there and the murders are there, and this is there. I ain’t going down for baseball anymore in the city. That’s the part that the old baseball and football fan of me says, it says Baltimore on it. We’re all in this together. We don’t, you know, we go downtown for concerts, we go downtown for crab cakes, we go downtown to do things and and we’re, we’re all in it together, the county, city thing and how all the counties had to really work together during COVID That’s right under a Republican governor with primarily Democratic leadership in the counties other Harford County, some thoughts about the city in the county, because we can talk all about the county strength, but the city needs to be a strength too for all this to work together. And yeah, you’re the fourth potential county executive in a row I’ve talked to about this
Nick Stewart 31:43
8end of day, our future is whether we like it or not. They’re tied together as a region because we are competing at an ever increasing scale with places like North Carolina and Virginia, which is currently eating our lunch. We’re competing with places like Delaware and Pennsylvania, to some extent, and even broader, right, because of the advent of remote work, and the way in which this has sort of perpetuated certain or Accelerated certain, you know, trends. I
Nestor Aparicio 32:09
say that, but I get out of the highway, and there’s tons of cars every I mean, right? I own a radio station rush hour traffic, baby. I when I got that traffic the other day, like, Yay, traffic, you know, but, but, I mean, there is more movement. There
Nick Stewart 32:21
is more movement. That’s right, but there’s also more flexibility that the people have been seeking, and I think has been part of the dynamic here. And so if you think about our competitiveness as a region, we have got to plan and strategically orient ourselves as a region. We’re not this. The idea that there’s this invisible line that separates us and what happens in one jurisdiction doesn’t matter to the other, is wrong, and we know that’s wrong, not just from that point of view, but also from the fact that we share the same water and sewerage system, one of which is 50 years old, the other of which is 75 years old, on average, that’s a problem. But also we share in, you know, we share in the crime fight, and we also share in this economic development that the city and county are trying together to work on in order to fuel growth across the region. GBC talks about a branding effort, about branding Baltimore, not necessarily just Baltimore City, not necessarily just Baltimore County, but Baltimore and that is, look, we’re tied to that, that that’s in our name, that’s who we are, that’s our history as well, and it will be our future to some extent. So we’re we’ve got to have a good working relationship in order to excel.
Nestor Aparicio 33:25
How can people support you? What are you doing? You’re raising money, working to submit my 50 bucks. Where’s your where’s your next bull roast? What are you doing? Yeah, you know, I mean, the pilot, what are you gonna start texting me for money? That’s what they all do. So, yes, don’t do that. I won’t vote
8Nick Stewart 33:37
for you. Appreciate you. Oh, man, those texts, right? Yeah, yeah, here we go again. Stop doesn’t seem to mean stop, but in any event, so we have a website. Please check it out. Nick for Baltimore county.com we’re on all the social medias as well. But the real opportunity here is, we are looking for engagement. We’re looking for folks as ideas. We have opportunities for you to engage with the campaign. The apparatus is we had our kickoff last week. We’re really helping to build that grassroots campaign team. Now, as we’re going into all these communities planning district days, we’re going to spend each of the councilman districts, opportunities for the one on one conversations. We’ll be posting up a certain coffee houses and libraries and so forth for those opportunities, just really seeking that level of engagement to reflect the fact that the county and its citizens are interested in this. They want to believe again. There is they want to believe again, that what they do matters, that if they try again, it will pay off in the end result. Nick
Nestor Aparicio 34:38
Stewart, running for a Baltimore County Executive. You know, hey, for anybody trying to make the place better, I have a microphone. I have a seat. We’re all in it together. It’s what Baltimore positive is all about. Our friends at the Maryland lottery have sent me here to White Marsh today, not just to eat these giant sandwiches and already my second crab cake of the day, or go next door and get a delicious roast beef sandwich. Uh, the Maryland lottery sends me with the Back to the Future scratch offs. I’ll be giving these away here today. We’ll be at Faith these on the 28th we will be up in Carroll County on the seventh of June, and I’m gonna be next week, pull side in Las Vegas at the Encore. We open to the Maryland party. I have not it’s things. It’s a thing. I wanna tell you right now. I’m hoping for temperatures under 88 degrees, so that I don’t get you know all who, but it’s a dry heat out there in Vegas. So Luke is out covering all things baseball this weekend, and the angels and the oils getting back in town next week against the Washington Nationals. I’m gonna sign off from here. Our friends at red brick station have been phenomenal. Also always great. Family five out here at the avenue. Always kids running around, always things to do. Over here at the avenue, enjoyed my conversations today. Good luck to you, right? Oh, they got some for us. You got sandwiches to go? Hold on here. I got and those sandwiches to go, Figgy piggy. All right, Figgy Piggy and roast. Hold on Bill. Here, I’ll put you here if you’re gonna plug your business, for crying out loud, plug your business the right way. That’s
Speaker 1 36:00
okay. Katie. Katie made some sandwiches for you guys to take home. One is called the Figgy piggy. It’s the hand cut prosciutto that we use with goat cheese arugula. It
Nestor Aparicio 36:10
8says SP on it, Figgy piggy. I got it says RBS, roasty sandwich. That’s actually
Speaker 1 36:15
it means roast beast, roast beef sandwich, because it’s rare and it’s a beast. I like it. It’s not even Christmas time. Great. Thanks. Make sure your wife knows to come see us at andos. There you go. Yep, all right, and I know you’ll be up to see
Nestor Aparicio 36:29
our friends over your red brick station. Bill blocker, his family doing things the right way. Nick’s running for Baltimore County Executive. Me, I’m just running to Las Vegas to go see Sammy Hagar. I’m back for more. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, we never stopped talking Baltimore sports and eating crab cakes. Stay with us. You.
