total time: 28.61 minutes
total words: 1746
[Danielle Balocca]: Hey Medford Bites listeners, I have some exciting news to announce. Medford Bites stickers are available. Be sure to stop by 4 Good Vibes in Medford to pick up a free sticker and check out all the amazing merchandise and books at the store. Today's episode includes an interview with City Councilor Kit Collins. Information about the work that Kit is doing on City Council and how to get in touch with her can be found in the show notes. Hope you enjoy the interview. All right, well, thank you so much for joining me today. If you don't mind just introducing yourself with your name and pronouns and who you are.
[Kit Collins]: Sure, thank you. My name is Kit Collins. I use she, her, and I'm a Medford City Councilor. Great, awesome.
[Danielle Balocca]: And one of our newest, newly elected, right? Yes. Awesome. Great. So first, the question that I try to ask everybody is a question about your favorite place to eat in Medford and what you like to eat there.
[Kit Collins]: Absolutely. Um, I have my answer ready to go. I am lucky to live just a few blocks away from Colette bakery in South Medford and As anybody who's been there knows, it's the best. And me and my partner love to go there sometimes on the weekends and just get a bunch of croissants. So I highly recommend.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I have waited in line outside of there a few times for their baked goods, it's delicious. Awesome. Well, since we didn't get to talk before the election, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about kind of what led you to run, you know, kind of what led up to that decision.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, absolutely. I'd be happy to. I think of my trajectory that culminated in me running for office started in 2020 when I joined Our Revolution Medford, which if folks don't already know, is just a group of community members organizing for justice schools in Medford, fighting for, you know, uh, reforms and policies that will make this a more livable city for all. I just joined that as a member, I was looking for, um, a local political group to organize with, you know, in the wake of the pandemic and, you know, all of, all of the turmoil that was, you know, not at all new, but in some ways, you know, surfacing for a lot of people during 2020, I was looking for, um, you know, a way to get involved very, very locally, something that I could really kind of put my hands on. was happy to find Our Revolution Medford and for a lot of that year started getting involved in different campaigns. For example, the Know Your Rights Coalition that Our Revolution Medford organized with the Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville group. around all of the increased exacerbated housing instability that was happening because of the pandemic. It was so great and interesting and meaningful to get to focus in on these issues that we can pay attention to on a national scale and focus in on how they are manifesting right here in my community on the streets that I live on, the streets that I drive on. You know, I think there's so many of these. What what culminated in my decision to run was, you know, getting an increased sense of, you know, these issues aren't just urgent on a national scale, they're also urgent on a local scale and I really came to feel very committed to. trying to do what I could to shore up the efforts already occurring that have been occurring in our community for a long time around a lot of these issues. You know, supporting the work of groups like Our Evolution Medford and Medford People Power and the Mutual Aid Society and, you know, existing folks in office pushing for policies that will just help support everybody who lives here. And so, you know, we're getting towards the end of you know, beginning of 2021. And I thought to myself, hmm, you know, I work for myself, I have a flexible schedule, I don't have kids to take care of, you know, running for office is a really big lift. But, you know, I have, you know, a more flexible schedule than a lot of people. And so maybe this is something that I could step up and do. And I like to tell people, you know, I called around existing elected officials to essentially looking for somebody to say, no kid, don't do it. Nobody said that. So here I am.
[Danielle Balocca]: And you mentioned that there were some issues that you were interested in. What specifically were you looking to have an impact on?
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, absolutely. As soon as I learned that there's no renters on city council, and more to the point that traditionally there aren't, that really stuck out to me. I rent my apartment in Medford. I've always been a renter in Medford for as long as I've lived here. tons of renters in Medford. And, you know, I think that I, I would really emphasize that I think the housing crisis affects everybody, whether you rent or you own your home. But people who rent their home have to be a proportional part of that conversation. So elevating, you know, housing stability in our local conversation was really important to me. and also being really dogged about pursuing ways to do what we can to address housing scarcity and extremely expensive housing in our own community using the tools that we have, instead of, you know, treating it as anything less than an urgent crisis. You know, there are a list of, you know, issues that I think we need to take bold action on would go on pretty long but you know another thing that rises to the top of my mind is you know, the climate crisis and again, doing everything that we can at the local level, you know, saying we can't afford to defer any longer. You know, we have to be bullish and we have to, you know, evaluate the goals that we've set and say, that's great. Exactly. How are we going to do this? How are we going to do this in a way that uplifts the people that lives here? That doesn't leave anybody out, but also doesn't leave out the future generations of Medford. Cause that's coming down the pike really fast as everybody is already know, materially experiencing.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, there's a lot of conversations around, I think, around the election and before about sort of some credibility of city officials being based on, like, how long have you been here, sort of what's your permanence in the city, and it's, I can appreciate there's a large population of people in Medford that are renters that aren't, haven't been here, you know, for their whole lives, haven't been here for generations, and so it feels valuable to have you and some other members, like, on the city council that don't own homes here, maybe haven't been here for generations. It feels like a valuable perspective.
[Kit Collins]: No, thank you.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah.
[Kit Collins]: So having- I think you make, oh, sorry, go ahead. I'm sorry, I was just gonna say, I think you make the important point, which is, you know, there's lots of people who live in Bedford who, you know, haven't happened to be here, you know, for, haven't happened to have families who've been here for many generations, but that doesn't make them any less part of this community. And I think that's, you know, I like to see that. hear that and see that emphasized, you know, we all we all care. We're all here, you know, and everybody wants to chip in.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, of course. That's definitely a sense that I've gotten from meeting with city officials and just general residents and the work that they're doing. There is a lot of interest in creating a nice place to live or maintaining this nice place to live for everybody. So that was sort of what led you to run. What was the election like for you? What did you kind of take away from that experience?
[Kit Collins]: Oh, wow. Uh, so much. Um, well, of course it was, I think everybody, I imagine that everybody has a like pretty accurate assumption about what running for office is like in that it's a lot of work. Um, and that assumption is accurate. Um, but it was, you know, it was a really meaningful project. I'm, I'm so glad I did it. Um, it, you know, for so many reasons, you know, I was lucky to be endorsed by Our Revolution Medford and be a part of that group of candidates that chose to apply for endorsement by Our Revolution Medford, get endorsed. And it was just a wonderful way to build community by kind of running alongside candidates and so many volunteers who were all in it for the same reasons. And just, that was incredibly energizing. It's draining as, The campaign was, you know, it's a lot of putting yourself out there, it's a lot of behind the scenes administrative work, fundraising, messaging, and it's just a ton of time, you know, walking the sidewalks, you know, knocking on strangers' doors and trying to talk to them. As draining as all that is, it's also extremely exciting. It's exciting to get to talk to people. about issues in their community and know that like, you know, maybe this isn't a conversation that would have happened otherwise. And, you know, apart from the outcome of the election itself, I just think that is a really healthy thing for, that's a really healthy conversation to have in any context. You know, just like more opportunities for people to come together around local issues and talk about why it matters, what there is to be done, and who knows how people will take that forward into the future, even beyond the time to go to the ballot box. So I guess my theme there is running for office was a ton of work. And as it was coming to a close, one thing I was really reflecting on was a few years ago, I ran a marathon in New York City. And the parallels between running an actual marathon and running for office are like, they're like almost comically, like obvious to me, just like fog about halfway through. You're like, I'm tired. I want to stop now. But it's, it's very rewarding.
[Danielle Balocca]: Did you have to change the way you ate and drank for the election to stay in the way that you might from here? Carbo loading. Not quite as much, but you know, all that walking around. Yeah.
[Kit Collins]: Like early and often. Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. I was like, you know, I think there was a lot of events around the city, like leading up, you just like community events that a lot of the candidates were present for. And I was just like amazed at just how much time Like it seemed like some of you were like in two places at once, or I'd be like one events that you'd be there. And then the next one, you'd be at the same one. So I wonder kind of like how you like balance that or how you think about like that balance of, um, kind of self care and, and, uh, yeah.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah. I'm, I'm glad you brought that up. Cause you know, I think when I look back on it, I think that that aspect was the most challenging for me, the, um, the having to make an appearance at a lot of community events. And I don't mean that in that I was like unhappy to be there at all, because we have some great events. You know, the Mystic River Festival Sticks Out especially is a really, really fun one. So many, you know, by the time I got to these events, I was always like happy to be there. But, you know, I think this also kind of ties into, you know, something you brought up before we started recording, which is sort of like, you know, the human experience behind the candidate experience. You know, this is maybe like a myopic point, but when it comes to sort of like, I don't know, like social interactions, I'm really a one-on-one person. I like one-on-one mingling is not my forte. So, having to, you know, say it's like a given Saturday I'm like okay I hope I can canvass for four hours today. But there's also two events that I really feel like I should show up to, because I really want to support the organizers I want to be there I want to see who else is there I want to say hi to people. um that's you know the uh the drive for the walk to those events is typically when I would have my my lowest moments of oh my gosh I just don't know if I can do it um and it frequently got very emotional you know the social exhaustion I think that's um that that was a really a really real part of it um
[Danielle Balocca]: It reminds me of like a really extended job interview where you're sort of marketing yourself over and over again. And I think that's like another thing to think about in terms of like the makeup of the city councilor, right? Is like, maybe it's important to have some folks that aren't super extroverted, right? That there's like, there's definitely a benefit to those types of personalities, those types of like thinking and learning styles that are important.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah. I completely agree. And I think, Another thing that I was left with from going through the experience of campaigning is just, I think, you know, it really throws into very sharp focus all of the things that are very exclusive about, that's baked into the process of campaigning. It isn't exclusive to Medford or any municipality or state at all. but are just kind of par for the course of how political campaigning is done in this country, I think. And to your point, you have to be an extrovert or you have to be able to play one on TV, which I think is a little bit of what I've learned to do over many years, not just during the campaign. You need to be able to summon that kind of social energy. You know, and then beyond the personality aspects, you know, there's, I feel like there's many hours of conversation to be had about, you know, the many systemic reasons why it's hard to be a political candidate if you are not wealth privileged, if you don't have a certain type of job, if you don't have, you know, a certain level of social support within your personal network. You know, I was lucky to have people who said go for it in my personal life who could help pick up slack. You know, when I needed to be out campaigning, I was running a pop-up shop for my art business during the summer. And you know, I'll be honest, my parents came out and helped me staff that. You know, that's something that, that's a privilege that I had. I had family who would help me, you know, do, you know, do my job when I had to be off campaigning, I had a partner who was supportive, I had people in my family and friends network who could donate money. And that, you know, that's not, you know, something that's unique to me. But the fact that those are all kind of accumulate into this kind of like requirement for how to things that you need to be a successful candidate, time and money and time to recharge. You know, I think that plays into why it's really, really hard. for people from marginalized backgrounds to be candidates for political office. And I just think, I'm trying to stay focused on that post-election because that's a huge problem that needs to be fixed systemically.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, and you mentioned to the sort of endorsement of our revolution. And is that something that it's making me think when you're talking kind of about this like social capital and the sort of ways that the privileges that I think help support some of these campaigns, is it something that you apply for or they reach out to you? Or is it like, what does that process look like?
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, I'm so glad you asked about that. Our revolution, Medford reached out to every candidate for office in Medford and invited them to apply. And, you know, and then candidates had the choice to apply or not.
[Danielle Balocca]: And then does it, does it involve like, what, what happens next? Like, is there like an investment or is there like, what's the. Yeah.
[Kit Collins]: So the first step after applying for endorsement is an interview with just like a small group of core our revolution Medford members and You know, by members, I just mean people who are involved in the group. We'll call it ORM for short. It's just people, ORM members are just people who are involved in the group. So I started with just a one-on-one Zoom interview with a few ORM members. There was a, you know, standardized list of questions that these interview committees were giving to every candidate who applied. So even though I was already an OR member, I went through the exact same process as everybody else. After going through the interview, me and all of the other candidates who applied for that round, there were two rounds of endorsement, one that, gosh, I think was like maybe in May, and then the other I think was August or September, but I kind of forget right now. After the interview, all of the round one candidates participated in a candidate's forum. So we all got on the same Zoom call with all of the ORN members who wanted to watch and participate. And we were all asked the same questions. And we answered them in real time for the ORN members. And a week or two after that, a questionnaire went out to all of the ORN members just saying, OK, time to vote. Vote on who you want to endorse. And I think cause, you know, I don't think I'm talking out of school to say that all of the people who applied for endorsement received endorsement. And I think that is because the people who, so like I said, everybody, everybody who ran for office was invited to apply. I think it's self-selecting, you know, the people who had already signed onto the Medford People's platform were like, sure, why wouldn't I, you know, apply for endorsement. So it's a self-selecting group of people, you know, who would apply for endorsement. Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: yeah and we there was a there was some sort of like papers going around right before the election that sort of like I think like uh kind of split the candidates in half almost or like these are the ones that we support these are the ones that we don't and some of that I think was real and some of it wasn't but um yeah it became I think those were oh yeah go ahead oh I'm so sorry to interrupt you I was just gonna say yeah those were those were not affiliated with OR
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, it was like some really kind of bizarre local propaganda.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, no, it was, it got a little, uh, it got interesting there towards the end of it. And I think afterwards, like a reflection on, um, so I think some folks choosing to vote, like sort of down ballot for people that, um, or I'm endorsed and, and then there being other like candidates that, uh, would have brought other different perspectives to the council that, um, that I think people speculated weren't elected because they hadn't joined on with ORM. And I don't know if like, I don't know, it gave me something to think about. And I think there's been some conversations around that. But I don't know if you have any thoughts about that either.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, no, I mean, I think, you know, I think that there's kind of a lot to consider and analyze for the, you know, like the election postmortem. for who got on and who didn't, you know, I'll say I won't like get specific, but I'll say that like the outcome in some ways was like really surprising to me. were like absolutely gonna get on, did not, you know, it didn't necessarily like go the way that I assumed it would because I'm not an elections analyst, I'm just a first time, you know, candidate, no elected official. But I think that there is a lot to digest about the election. And I think the fact that ORM is, the most organized group in the city that also does elections in a highly organized strategic way. I think having a list of people to vote for is really powerful, but I also really want to emphasize that ORM has like a very sophisticated campaign structure for an all volunteer group and like again like a worm is not a nonprofit doesn't get any national funding like this is just really committed group of people who live here and. you know, folks who are interested, you know, next time election season rolls around, you know, you should come out to a canvas for whoever's running for office that time. Because to me, it's really a marvel, you know, we have volunteers going out every single weekend. who were knocking on doors in support of every single Our Revolution Medford candidate. And we did that all summer long. And I think it shouldn't be underestimated the power of just that level of organizing. A really professional level of organizing for a group that is not professional or is not a formal group is what I mean. So that's not, you know, 100% of it, but I think that is really a lot of it is just the strategy and organizing behind it. Yeah, and from a place of saying we want to be able to make progress, you know, we want to win so we can make progress.
[Danielle Balocca]: For sure, and I think there were some like direct criticisms about race and like the racial makeup of ORM, which I don't actually know like what the facts are, but just sort of what I've heard. And also the racial makeup of the candidates being mostly white that signed on to ORM. And I wonder like, and it's like, I think there was these questions about like, what does it mean when the one black candidate that's running for office that seems like aligned politically is not choosing to work with ORM? Like, I guess, like, I don't know if you have any thoughts about that.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, no, I mean, I'm not, I know that that's been talked about a lot since the election. I've given it a lot of thought. I don't wanna... I think what I would wanna say is that I think this is something that ORM is taking very seriously. I know that the group is taking it very seriously, because I know there are a lot of individuals within OR. who have given this a ton of thought and say, it does matter to us. It says something about our organization if it is a diverse representative group of people. And continuing to evaluate, is this a space where all people feel comfortable? I don't wanna speak for anybody else's decision to join or not join. There are a lot of factors involved with that. Some people just wanna be independent candidates, even if they politically align. So I don't wanna, you know, say anything would be construed as common to anybody's decision. But I, I guess I do just want to say that, like, this is, I don't think this is a thing that, you know, either me personally or ORM is brushing under the rug at all. I'm not sure if that's a satisfying answer. I don't know if that's a satisfying answer to me right now, but I, wasn't something I was thinking about this morning preparing. Yeah. So I'm kind of, I'm kind of speaking off the top of my head. But I guess, I guess just to, to bring it back to full circle, the thing I would say is, I think the way that and again, I'm not a spokesperson for OR, I'm just an individual member. But my impression from talking with the group is that this is the overall theme of how do we endorse a diverse slate of candidates? How do we make sure that we are supporting all types of candidates and supporting candidates that are more or less close to the picture of a traditional candidate. How do we get better at that is a conversation that's already started. And that's something that, you know, I really hope to keep talking about and you know just for me personally.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, no, and it feels like an important parallel process for like the work that city council does, right? It's like how, you know, how are we like seeking out diverse candidates, but then also how are we like representing the diversity of Medford in the work that you all are doing as Councilors as well? But I appreciate the response. I know it's not an easy question to answer, but- No, no, I'm glad you asked.
[Kit Collins]: You know, this is the stuff that we need to be thinking about, you know, before election season runs around.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, definitely. So thank you for answering that. I'll try to move on to something a little bit lighter, too. Do you have any hopes for your first term or things that you're looking forward to getting started?
[Kit Collins]: Oh, yes. There's quite a list. I think that there's a lot to be excited about. There's a lot of work that I'm I'm excited to start and excited to explore with other with my fellow Councilors with other members of the administration and the mayor. You know, just to start with one with one specific example, you know I'm really excited for us to take up and consider the housing production plan that was, you know, put on the table for the Council last year. I think that coalesces with you know work that I'd really like to explore. with other members of the administration, with the Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability about, you know, ways that the city can position itself to recruit and invite and collaborate with housing developers for our city, including affordable housing developers and green affordable housing developers. Like I said, kind of at the top of our conversation, you know, dealing with the issue of housing scarcity and cost of housing is as throughout the campaign and the start of the season, been right at the top of my mind. And I think that something that cities similar to Medford have modeled really good results with is bridging good relationships with strong, professional, affordable housing developers to create more housing, high quality housing. in their neighborhoods that is suitable for people of all income levels. I think that's something we're lacking in Medford. There's a couple of reports out on the city website that speak exactly to this, including the housing production plan about the gap in the housing that we have affordable and the type of housing that is appropriate for the people who live here. So that's one thing that I'm really excited to dig into and to collaborate with other city staff about. you know, there's a lot else along the lines of, you know, just city services that work better for residents and again, progressing along those climate goals for our city. Like I mentioned earlier, you know, one thing that actually I wanna shout out Councilor Tseng, because this is, you know, an idea that he and I were talking about recently is, you know, there's been some talk of an overhaul of the city website. I think this has been talked about for a little bit now, And doing that in such a way that makes it more useful in really targeted ways, more useful for renters, more useful for new residents. I have dreams of a modernized, updated city website that has easily accessible links like, okay, what's my ward? There's only one map on Reddit that I can find that tells me what ward I live in, trash recycling calendar, bill pay, actually regularly maintained construction update section. um, you know, a version that is actually translated into every major language spoken in different households. Um, that is something that I would, I'm really excited to begin a conversation with the city administration around for, you know, what's figuring out what's the scope here? What can we do? You know, how can we get funding for a project like this? Um, you know, all towards the eye of, you know, let's, let's create some, some better communication with our residents that will really be helpful.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. Yeah, I would say I would hardly ever go on the city website if I didn't have to pay my water bill and it's not an easy process anytime but like if they're like folks that live in the city that don't have to go on the website for that like what else is attracting them there and that language pieces come up a lot right like how how is that it feels like a pretty. like basic way to include more people right to make all like what is there a big meeting happening how do people that maybe like English is their primary language how do they access that right like that's a yeah that's exciting.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, I'm happy to hear that. I think that it's a big project. I think something I try to stay conscious of is most of the great ideas that we have are big projects. These are not things that we can snap our fingers and do overnight. But the first step is figuring out who should be in on the conversation, what's the scope, do we pay for it? Great. Where do we start? What's the best first step? What's the next best step after that? And I think, you know, like, like so many things, this, you know, this goal of modernizing improving the city website totally falls into that category for me. And then kind of similarly along those lines, another thing that's, you know, you know, not necessarily uh not on the same priority level as a lot of other things but very on my mind as we start the term is um you know we have the stated goal of carbon net neutrality for the city by 2050 and I really want to see um you know specific metrics that we develop that we can point to that we can track for how we're progressing towards that goal really break it into discrete you know discrete trackable sections um to say you know what initiatives are we doing to try to get there and how's it going, you know, so that we can be armed with the data. And so, you know, when we're doing great on say, expanding adoption of the mass saves program. So we know what to celebrate, who to congratulate, and for other things that we're making slower progress on to say, okay, this needs more attention. This needs more investment. Let's figure out how to do that. Because I think we need to take a really specific granular lens to hold ourselves accountable to that carbon net zero goal. That's another thing I'm just particularly jazzed about these days.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. How do you like to receive input from residents or like how are you kind of integrating community input into sort of your, your like lens as a city Councilor.
[Kit Collins]: Oh, so glad you asked that. I like to receive input. In general, I like to receive it, I want people to reach out to me. Existing ways to do that are my email address, which is on the city website, and I'm also happy to provide that at the end, or people can also just email kitformedford at gmail.com, just all spelled out. You know, I wanna hear what people are thinking about. I wanna know what problems people are having. I wanna know what ideas they have. You know, Councilors are your representatives. We are here to represent you. It's not in a position, it's our job. But beyond that, you know, something that I was thinking a lot about during the campaign and have been trying to be intentional about maintaining focus on as I've become transitioned from candidate to elected is, you know, we did so much outreach during the campaign. You know, like I said, tons of canvassing, so, so, so much canvassing, you know, knocking on people's doors, going to them. I think it is normative for the going to the constituents to drop off, you know, after the campaign season. It would be, I think, unrealistic for me to keep up that pace as an elected because there's, you know, a lot else to do now that I actually have this platform. But, you know, in addition to starting office hours on Zoom, which is something that I have, you know, in planning mode, Right now I'm trying to schedule my first one and then I'll kind of iterate a regular schedule from that and hoping to do some, you know, in person office hours once the weather gets nicer as well. You know, I'm, I'm hoping to start a habit of, you know, monthly neighborhood canvases just to make people make just to make sure that people know Who I am, how to contact me because I think kind of to your point about you know how, how much or how little you use the city website, people who aren't already, you know, familiar with their local representatives who aren't already kind of in fold of. you know, the city and politics of the city and involved with their local government, which is a ton of people. And on very understandably, it's it takes time. It's hard. Sometimes it's, you know, it feels like real work to, you know, be involved with your local city. People who aren't already in the know, essentially, like don't don't know that they can be or they don't know who to talk to. And I don't think it's really fair to say, well, people would get in touch with me if they wanted to be in touch with me. Before I got involved in local issues, I wasn't involved. I hope to push myself to do a better job of bringing in the perspective and input of people who aren't already regularly showing up to council meetings, people who aren't already plugged in And, you know, so that continuing, you know, a slightly scaled down version of that direct community outreach is something that I'm hoping to continue.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I think people think about reaching out to city councilors in like a more of a reactive way when something's already happened. I know that's like the Councilor Morell and Councilor Bears were like really helpful to me with the sanitation issue we had on our sheet. But like, I feel like they're what you're speaking to is like a way of being proactive, right? Like, what are the things that are on people's minds? Like, how do we kind of get ahead of like, what, you know, what the needs are of the community rather than having to respond after something, something happens, right?
[Kit Collins]: Right. Yeah, exactly. I think, I think, trying to invite the proactive conversations is is a great way of putting it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, there was a group of women I had on a couple weeks ago they were talking about. They were all Jewish residents but they were talking about this. um program that Medford used to have I think was called like Medford conversations where like it was sort of like a hot topics kind of thing and people would like uh you know just have conversations and things would come out of those conversations that would um sort of help them frame like change they wanted to see in the city which sounded really cool yeah that's awesome yeah um awesome was there anything else that you'd like to mention uh before we wrap up today um
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, I just kind of related to what we were talking about earlier regarding the campaign season. Something that I'm trying to take every opportunity to just seed in people's minds is, you know, if you, I know it's just the beginning of the term, but if you, anybody listening is intrigued by the idea of running for local office or knows anybody who is, Um, you know, no matter, you know, what age they are, uh, you know, if it's just a pipe dream or just something you're curious about, um, please reach out to me. I'd love to have a conversation with you. I think that, you know, the process of even seeing yourself as somebody who could run for any office, um, is something that doesn't, is not made to feel real to, for most people. And I want to do what I can to dispel that. So. Even if you're just kind of knocking it around in your mind, please reach out to me to have a conversation. I would love to do what I can to demystify it and encourage you to think about it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Awesome. Thank you for that. And I can put your email in the show notes so people can more easily get to that too. All right. Well, I really appreciate you making the time to talk to me today and hopefully we can connect again in the future.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, I hope so. And thank you so much. I've been enjoying the podcast so much as a listener. So it's really a treat to get to be on. Thank you so much for your work. Thank you.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you so much to Kit Collins. Since the recording of this interview, Kit has posted times for Zoom office hours. More information is in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode, and as always, if you have feedback about this episode or ideas for future episodes, you can email medfordpod at gmail.com. You can also subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites!
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