I would be remiss if I didn't take time to think that I was in the organization, the listed, both in action, for all of their hard work and for everything they're doing. As I sat back there, I learned kind of a little bit through memory learning. When I was a child, we were among the first residents of the Elves and the Fletchers. And my mom would always talk about the work and the effort it took Father Frank Casey along with the help of Governor Roosevelt to get those built. So we lived on Elves and Fletchers for a long time, as I was growing up, and I actually started a school at Crockett Elementary. So hearing all of you talk about all of the work that you're doing in my old neighborhood really makes me feel very special, but especially so because of the work you're doing that's going to impact all those children that live in those neighborhoods. So please, thank you all so much, and especially you for organizing all of this. Community Networks is an effort that AARP has been involved with since 2012. In April of 2012, we launched the AARPH-friendly Community Network serving as the US affiliate for the World Health Organization. Here in San Antonio on June 19th of this year, Mayor Castro signed the agreement with the leadership of the National AARP that San Antonio would become an age-friendly community. An age-friendly city is an inclusive and accessible urban environment that promotes active aging, and I want to add healthy active aging to that. I interject healthy because I think that is equally as important. The AARP network of age-friendly communities helps participating US communities become a great place for all ages by adopting such features as safe, workable streets, sidewalks, and better housing and transportation options. AARP has policies that help us to promote this effort, and include improving health, engaging residents, creating a similar space, fostering home and community-based service delivery, and achieving other goals.  We're in a time of profound and permanent change to the demographic composition of America. We are getting older, and the young are not producing as an old enough. I mean, I come from a family of eight. My daughter has two kids, my son has one kid. What does that say? You know, about the 18-year-old. Every day, 10,000 million consumers reach the age of 65, and by 2030, America will have twice as many people over the age of 65. And that is going to impact your work and the work that AARP is doing. One in three Americans is now age 50 or older, and by 2030, one in five will be 65 plus. Is our community ready? What do you think? Is San Antonio age-friendly? At this time, one third of the total San Antonio residents are 15 plus. AARP at this time has over 130,000 members who are over the age of, I think it's 100. One of our more active volunteers is Mr. Frank Corbett, who just got the Volunteer of the Year Award, and he is I believe 98, and he lives in Dallas. And he is one of our active volunteers. One third of the citizens of San Antonio, like he said, are age 50 plus. What do you think? Is San Antonio age-friendly right now? I think we have a long, long way to go. Survey after serving houses that us older folks want to stay at home. 86% of adults 40 times plus agree strongly with the statement, what I really like to do is stay in my current residence for as long as possible. For some of us it's a little bit easy, for some of us it's not so easy. My husband and I have lived in our home for 40 years. When we bought the home, that house is not wheelchair accessible. The doors are not wide enough. So that's not really a livable home for us to stay in as long as we want, as long as we're able. One of the things that we've done, and I'm just going to give you some insight, is more recently we had the bathroom modified. We had the old door taken out and we had a larger door cooled in that opened out rather than in. We had a shower put in to walk in with a seat in the shower. That's so that if one of us wakes up in the wheelchair, we can still stay home. Because we now have made the bathroom wheelchair accessible. We've also done that with the front of our house. We can do that, a lot of people cannot. But there are ways. I know that for instance, ACAP has funds that do help put in rents for folks in their homes when they need them. And there are other groups in the city that do that. Who has funds, ma'am? Yes. Who has the funds? ACAP, they all marry from our government. Yes. They get so many dollars every year, and they sometimes run out, but it doesn't hurt to call. The seniors know about that. It should be out there in the community. Perhaps if this one is not out there completely. We don't know where to go to. Unless you have SSI that's going to help you. Yeah. Well, I'm glad I'm here then, because I gave you some new information. And afterwards I can talk to you about that. Okay. Go back. Okay. Like I said, most homes are not designed for that. Survey, okay. I'm sorry about that. Folks have been traditionally designed and built for the 35th anniversary. And especially if your home is kind of like mine. Over 30 years. Next slide. Okay. Survey again after survey reports that today's over and all is one state or community. Transportation then might become an issue. Adults 45 plus agree or strongly agree with the statement. What I'd really like to do is stay in my current community as long as possible. For the last 50 years, our communities have developed around more than vehicles. It's a principal farm in transportation. How many of you are still driving? That is great. I had to stop driving two years ago. My husband is now my volunteer chauffeur assistant for ARP. He has to drive me everywhere without. My eyes cannot permit me to. Although my ophthalmology says that I could drive, I don't want to risk anybody's life. So I refuse to drive. So I have my driver's license and I use it for ID. But I will not get in the car and drive. I'm not safe. So I'll tell you that. I have no problem. I have no problem telling you that. But I know I've seen some folks go down the road. Then have trouble. Two police men here. Watch. I'll take a look. But our communities, let's face it, were not built. Or to be friendly. It would be nice if the communities were built where we could walk everywhere we needed to go. And the grocery store was nearby. The doctors were there. And it's not. And that's one of the issues that we have to take in. And the next speaker is my friend, Maria Dada. That's the one. I'm finished with my interview. Thank you, Julia. So Julia's been talking about, you know, the liberal community.  What components are a part of the liberal community? A liberal community is one that has some of these things in it. Affordable and appropriate housing. Supportive community services. Adequate mobility options, which together facilitate personal and independence and engagement of residents in civic and social life. So some of the related initiatives include combating isolation and providing resources and support to caregivers. Encouraging social inclusion through volunteerism. Demonstrating respect for culture and ethnic diversity. Promoting the use of personal technology. Now, one of the things that ARP is doing, you know, we're working in the community, you know, trying to work in the community every single day.  These classes are free. You do not have to be a member of ARP. And they're being held in two locations right now. The first location is at the Pearl, which is at the San Antonio Area Foundation. We have two classes, you know, every month there. The other area we're serving is doing these classes or at the Guadalupe Theater. We're having two classes there. The next class is going to be on the 23rd this month, which is on a Saturday. And one is in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The reason we're doing on Saturdays this time is because, you know, we want to make sure that we include other people that can't make it during the week because they're working. So, you know, all this demonstrates the connection between. The phone number. The address. The address is at the. Okay. I'll give it to you right after. Okay. What are you here for? I don't have the address. I'm sorry. Yeah. I know. You're supposed to know. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Don't do this. Okay. You know, we can get you information. I'm trying to wet your appetite so that you can ask questions like that. So see me right after class and we'll go and talk about it. So why is ARP creating this network? The ARP network of eight friendly communities encouraged communities like San Antonio, as Julie was mentioning, to prepare for the rapid aging of the U.S. population by paying increased and special attention to the environmental, economic and social factors that influence the health and well-being of older adults. All the things that you're talking about today that we'll be talking about later on today or later on this afternoon. The network serves as a catalyst to educate, encourage, promote and recognize improvements that make communities more supportive, not only to their older residents, to residents of all ages. Later on today we'll be having an exercise where, you know, it's about listening posts and asking questions, how would you make San Antonio an even better place to live? So we'll go through that later on this afternoon. And so we're creating the network to provide cities, towns, counties with the resources they need to become more age-friendly, tapping into national and global research and best practices. So we're creating this network to enhance KRP's existing and extensive networking community outreach and advocacy in the local community. So a city that's built for people that are 80 years old is also different for younger people, people that are eight years old or something. So through the department of this initiative, through the development of this initiative, the World Health Organization has identified eight domains that support active and healthy aging in the community. The first one is outdoor spaces and buildings. This is accessibility to and availability to safe recreational facilities. Transportation, safe and affordable models of private and public transportation. Housing, wide range of housing options for older residents, aging in place, and other modification programs. Social participation. Access to leisure and cultural events. Activities for older residents to participate in social and civic engagement with their peers and younger people. Respect and social inclusion. Programs to support and promote ethnic and cultural diversity along with the programs to encourage multi-generational interaction and dialogue. These are all things that San Antonio is already doing.  We have the Institute of Texan Culture. You know, another component of the eight domains is civic participation and employment. Promotion of paid work and volunteer activities for older residents and opportunities to engage in formulations of policies relevant to their lives. Communication and information. The promotion of and access to the use of technology to keep older residents connected to their community and friends and family both near and far. And the last one of course is community support and health services. Access to home care services, clinics and programs to promote wellness and active aging. Now these eight domains are not, I didn't list them in any particular order. This is something that you all determined, you know, at some point in time, which are the most important to you guys. So these domains have much in common with ARP policies and initiatives, particularly those that contribute to our definition of a local community. Because of this, age-rending communities, your programs provide a framework to engage local officials and other stakeholders. So, you know, what are the benefits? The benefits of member communities are, there are opportunities to encourage local residents, businesses and other NGOs to play an active role. A connection to global and national networks of participating communities, as well as aging and civil society experts. So you have access to the latest news, guidance, best practices, models, results and challenges in the age-friendly movement. There are opportunities for partnership with other communities, both domestic and overseas. And you get mentoring, assessments and peer evaluations by experts and members, cities and towns. And there is recognition, of course, by ARP and the World Health Organization of the community's commitment to become a more age-friendly city. So, how does the city become age-friendly? Well, there is an enrollment process, and Julia talked about this earlier. The enrollment through the engagements and support of the ARP officers, either a mayor or a chief executive officer, you know, in our case, Mayor Castro was the one that, you know, was in contact with us. ARP advises the World Health Organization of communities joining ARP's network and receives membership in the World Health Organization's global network. So then there are three phases. The first one is the planning phase. It's a one-to-two year thing. It establishes mechanisms of involving older people in all stages, the age-friendly cities and communities process.  You know, we conduct a comprehensive and inclusive baseline assessment of the age-friendliness of the community. We develop a three-year community-wide action plan based on assessment findings. We identify indicators to monitor progress against this plan. Phase two is the implementation itself. We commit to implementing the approved plan and submit a progress report at the end of five years that outlines progress against the baseline using the indicators developed in the action plan. And the final phase is the continual improvements. We make continual improvements. Membership is automatically renewed following a positive assessment and submission of the revised plan. So those are the network milestones. So there, as of right now, there are 13 plus communities, I think, that are in the network. As you can see on the chart, three of them are located here in Texas, and of course the largest is San Antonio as of right now. We have Austin, San Antonio, and Brownsville. And we have other cities, of course, that are in line to become that. So we are really very proud of having San Antonio as being part of the age-friendliness. All right, great. Thank you, Sarah. The kitchen is going to shut down in a few minutes. So you're more than welcome to serve seconds. They do have some extra servings if anyone would like seconds. Okay. So, and I think that's what we get as I mentioned earlier. Part of our network of age-friendly communities does include a website where people can go and gather additional information from those who are already part of the network and conferences and other experts that have reports that deal with age-friendly communities or communities that are 15 plus. What do we bring to the table when it comes to this particular type of initiative? We think we bring a lot, but part of that would be our transportation resources programs and tactics. For example, Complete Streets legislation. We did, we worked hard to have that as far as just signing off and making sure that our members supported that when the city passed their Complete Streets ordinance back in 2011. We do have what we call a public transportation toolkit, which really is a toolkit that exists as expertise from around the country. We do a lot of investments to make sure we've got the proper research because if everyone goes around the table you could go and find out of the council and tell them, you know, you need a great engine. You could say, because of the other layer, because of the risk danger, but unless you've got statistics, unless you've got research, your argument's not going to go really, really far. It just arms you with that necessary information to make those changes. We also have a public policy constitutive research. We have our HG's at SWDC and do a lot of research on our behalf to ensure we're armed with those reports and information. We also have driver safety classes. These are not classes necessary because you go to the incident because you guys take it and you just take a defensive driving course. This is really about driving at the age of 50 class because things do change somewhat and particularly our visions. So this class has a lot of information reporting with the schools around that. We also do pedestrian safety audits. In fact, with this group, Carlos and others, we did a safety audit of the 24 people we love now. And we wrote it up and found a lot of, there's a lot of danger, particularly for folks who are coming out of that HGV, trying to come back to the neighborhood, crossing 24, so there really isn't, and we have to walk pretty far to get to a life where then the safety don't lead across. And then it doesn't really make sense because it's a bus stop. Well in order to get to the bus stop, you've got to walk half a block or so cross the street, come back now, and if you're 50 plus or if you're 80, that might be a little difficult, particularly in our kids. So that's just kind of giving you some ideas. We also do transit training and what we call active living workshops. We also have housing resources programs active. We have information around use of home design and we actually take these ideas and this research to hopefully impact legislation in all those, your national, state, and local. We do have the national staff at this fatigue, there are a lot of national staff at this fatigue. We do some classes called, or actually we do some reporting called home fix. We've got home fix, it's like what Julia was leading to, perhaps it was her house that we did this check up, this home fix check up. You might find that it doesn't pass because the doors aren't widened up or maybe there's excessive steps for someone who may be someone who may be 50 plus or older, right? It may not be suitable. I like to say I heard my ankle some time ago and it was really really difficult. Life was horrible because you all of a sudden then realize I can't work. I feel no corner, I can't get up the steps that work, I have to get to work like 30 minutes before. But if you realize that we do count them with your body you all of a sudden those little things are the biggest difference. We also have a foreclosure hotline and that's really because particularly around the year 2008 so about 2012-13 maybe even current folks were having issues with mortgages, with the downturn of the economy to really hit hard. So we wanted to make sure people knew what they could do. Because a lot of folks just think I can't pay it, I can't work, I gotta move out so much for the 10 years I'll do. It's really not necessary. There's a lot of information that people need to realize or need to have in order to make the decisions. We also have a social environment. We feel that we bring to the table life, for example. We're very active with companies that go to buy intended forms. We are nonpartisan. We do not support candidates. What we do is work on issues. But we're going to tell you for example if there is a congressional race going on or even in the oil age we may talk to the union or a candidate coming for the next election and we may ask them about what they feel about age from the age zone of the nation and ask them both the same questions and let them answer and then provide the answers to you. We have a pamphlet, we have a internet so people can make decisions. This candidate takes age friendly I don't know which candidate would take age friendly but they don't want this or they think they feel. It's not high on the priority or this candidate can be a favorite that loves it and wants to figure out how to work with the community and with the network. Let's just give you an example. We also do that for social security for example that's a huge issue for us. Making sure on a congressional district level you understand when you're attending S.I. on social security. Are they going to want to prioritize it or do they want to keep it as it is for those kinds of things. We also provide local discounts. Now, we are working on this in San Antonio. We have a lot of discounts here at our P member support. For example, my parents love who are nothing, who are 70 plus is Outback Steakhouse.  Any day, any time. 15, 15. Outback Steakhouse. There's a chain of everything that's on the phone. We are also working on local discounts. For example, currently we're working with the Cortez family. We're working to see whether or not we can get local discounts at their particular restaurants. And then we have a report that Joey and I worked really hard and we actually will have discounts for those individuals when it's in the game. We have a lot of discounts here in San Antonio. This is the first for those individuals when it's in the game, for our members. Designate games, designate discounts. Now, we have to... This is a lot of work. There's a lot of rules at ARP and things we can and cannot do. Joey and I work for the Advocacy Outreach piece, the nonprofit that does that. Not the foundation, but the C4 that we work and advocate on the behalf. So, when we're looking at local discounts you can only take them to short passages. We can't have and spurs discount, for example, for long. We do it on a quarterly basis at the most we time the quarter. But we are trying this that we've got to come in October. We'll be in October and two days in November when the spurs will give us our members will receive any work which is 25% and 40% off. So, we have done that instead of just getting to work in a restaurant or other local stores and restaurants. And just so you know we do have research. So, when you say why do you always go to restaurants? Why do you always go with the rental cars? We have research that indicates consumer research that didn't be what our members are spending their money on. So, just kind of keep that head.  Again, Joey and I are going to go to restaurants like Dany's and how many people are going to go to Dany's and keep going to Dany's and after transportation they need to go down the bus. How about little restaurants so people can walk and go over there. I mean, you can go to Dany's and James and stuff like that and they're going away. Well, that's great. We know we definitely keep that in mind because the closest we are we are going to try to work something out with her and again, you have to understand that business has to be willing to want to work with us to provide business. And not all businesses want to do that. That's important to keep that in mind. Let me share one experience. I've been carrying a cell phone for until about a year and a half ago and it's consumer cellular and the only reason I chose it was because it's a first product and I'm like real satisfied with it the service and price is very affordable. But I think that and so one time I did drop it and you know, I was able to tell me, I'm here because you have a human service. So I believe in what AFP do in terms of endorsing certain products make it easier for for us to trust that it's a good product and it serves. I've been a member of AFP a long time Thank you. I thought we were in general speaking I'm older, I'm 70, 31 but we better have a good position to be all those places and it's this kind. We definitely like that input we definitely will document that we would like you to document this too because we're going to be taking pictures of the best to do that. What we can do as consumers when we go to those little restaurants and ask them to work with AFP so that they know that that's something that we're looking for.  So it is different if I go in there with my share and I'm a staffer and they're like, yeah, I can just one. But something like that is very powerful because she is the member and she is requesting that I'd love for you to have some kind of discount whatever day of the week. Yeah, more view of the membership we can say that absolutely. That would be extremely helpful because then we're meeting in time so like I said, not all businesses are interested. Thank you. That's a great suggestion. And I'm going to we're running out of time but I cut too much into your day. So the participation and employment you know, we do some work around that as well for example, or we do a lot of our work around that volunteerism. The AFP couldn't do what it does in its communities without its volunteers and I was I did hear because he's one of our volunteers as well it doesn't matter if it's a job but we also have a different volunteer community volunteers they just want me to want to do it even with us and hand out bags, hand out information or maybe just want to give out other values. So we've got a school of volunteers and we've got different types of roles for volunteers whether it's a visit, whether it's a conversation or one, and I don't know how you're doing here but I think we're working on that. So you can talk to them about the service so just hear me, Medicare, go look at the software this is what we need to do and so we've got roles like that and then tax aid like VITA tax aid, we are focused on the 50 but we will not turn anyone down if it comes into the different non-compliance that we're working or our own volunteer center but we do work on taxes for people for free and you have to be pretty simple we can't do any type of small business or whatnot but we do do that as a service as well also around community support and health services and I'll talk a little bit about ATA issues we've done a lot of that last year it was the first time we were the enrollment I was on my career, I was on my career and part of it took place and we wanted folks just to have the facts of what the ACA was what does it mean to you and we partnered with the Sanition of Housing Authority last year and we went around and we talked to a lot of folks that did the development people assumed that they don't need insurance nobody works, but that's not the case people do work and there were the children that needed to be cared of and the older community that needed to be cared of on Medicare so you have a lot of parents that don't have insurance so we went out there just to let them know not to sell anything, but to let them know this is what it is you may or may not be followed by but we want you to be aware that it's mandated we want you to be aware of what will happen we want you to be aware of how they're going to find you to make sure that if you don't get insurance you're going to have to say we're not having insurance so we went out there to educate basically the community in partnership with a whole bunch of folks we're just a little team with that we have a lot of caregiving resources caregiving is a big issue I think people don't realize that there may be caregivers and they're like God, because you're my mom but I'm not I don't work and I don't have 10 people but you're a caregiver and I have not been a caregiver to my children that was a hard job but I have not been a caregiver to my mom yet or my former appearance but the story that she hear the stress that is involved and probably more of you in the audience speak to that than I could but we have a lot of resources that is helpful to have a partnership for example with a caregiver at the web here in San Antonio that do a wonderful job of really trying to create what they call risk of care of caregivers it really is about time away from your loved one thank you people who might not believe my loved one with those resources available there is a lot to talk about so take care of your loved one go grocery shopping and what not and just how to relieve some of that stress don't share that with anyone so what are the next steps we put this up here we are going to visit with our new mayor Ivy Taylor Ivy is a city planner I had the opportunity to work with Ivy when I was at the city of San Antonio a few years ago well like a couple years ago and I worked on a revitalization project before so yeah I don't want to say that to say real life affecting type of work is important to Ivy quality of life issues how many dogs, can you go out and walk your sidewalk is broken she cares about those kind of things so we have a discussion we are meeting with her staffer to discuss just the designation what do we need, where are the public to get her support but I am very confident that it fits right within her agenda and again she never comes back to say that she cares about additional resources for community sidewalks and streets and so forth so that's a really good thing we have also been conducting several listening posts throughout the city Joe and I have been part of over 10 community events of all the particular media that we are talking about and many many more we have people coming to our events and we are talking to them and we are asking that question which we are going to ask you to write a deal or we are going to ask you a question and ask you to write down your response what would you do to make sound better for the city and we raise that question because we realize there has been a lot of improvement in your work and because of the work in general whether it is the county there is going to be a lot of improvement and we recognize that and we want to respect that work which you can always make things better so that's the question we are asking what would you do to make it even better for the city we are also going to volunteer a team people who aren't interested in the work that we are doing around each family it's a lot there is a lot of components and we don't have a lot of experts in the neighborhood nobody knows the neighborhood better than you we have a lot of organizations who have a lot of expertise we love to become part of this coalition so if you are interested please see me after or anyone who volunteers we are also hosting community conversations around the city like this one this was our first one our next one is going to be a mission branch library on September 18 and we are going to the different sectors of the city we are going to the different sectors of the city we are going to put the majority of the folks but that is not going to be the only type of input we will be seeking and receiving we are also going to conduct a survey when I say we not necessarily Joe and I are going to do that but we will have some experts doing that for us all of this information really goes into our plan that we are trying to formulate so that we can go back to the city and say after all of these conversations after all of this input there are two overarching priorities one overarching priority is for example parks people don't care about open spaces and parks and I only say that because again Joe and I we are listening to posts and we analyze the information and so far this is not to drive how you feel about this meeting this is just to give you that information so far the top three are cultural events cultural events parks and open spaces employment for the city funds those are the three so far that we are in that order and we have been seeing that people feel are most important to them to have a better policy while so there is more information but you have cards as well I am going to hand this now over to Gloria Zavila who is going to start a conversation Gloria you have to do the talk before I am Gloria Zavila I am the one that you have been seeing on TV yeah she is the evidence of what I was she is the evidence of what I was but it was a lot of fun we had people from Washington DC that came down and did the well actually they filled hundreds and hundreds of feet and they narrowed it down to 30 seconds but they were very patient very professional and out of all those hundreds of feet of film they narrowed it down to 30 seconds the best that I did so that is how it came out but it was a lot of fun and I was really glad to do it but as a AARP volunteer I have learned a lot about what AARP does for the community my husband Alex he has been an AARP volunteer for about 20 years so he's got the knowledge he's got a lot of the history and when we married I became an AARP volunteer so we have done a lot of things together and we have done a lot of things together with Lisa and Joe and as we go out into the community we listen to other people we have face to face conversations we have face to face arguments we have face to face discussions because we really do want to hear and Alex and I really appreciate the direction that AARP is taking because now there is a major effort to be more inclusive they are reaching out to our communities for example they selected San Antonio to be one of these age-friendly communities what we see is that they are putting out the effort to come and invite us and to embrace us and as you can see Alex is Hispanic he was Hispanic so we want to be the faces of AARP and that's where we are going the heart of the other thing is this age-friendly community and so when Alex comes up and we all go out to the different events we've done other I don't know if you were there that you came to our booth and we had many, many, many treats and little kids we're always doing that we went to the Ciclovia we did the Palo Alto College Festival we've done the ACA at the Market Square downtown and so when we do that we usually stand like this and hear the person and I talk to them face to face what do you need? what would you like to tell me? and so we ask them it's a community conversation but personally we want to know what the issues are I know this gentleman right here he's the first name that we listen to what they're saying and he's talking about discounts and we understand that so we take everything back and this is what we're going to do right now is to listen to you to your feedback and we take it back to the city we take it back to the state AARP office but basically it's us listening to you what we're doing is turning outward we don't want to tell you oh these are your issues we want to hear you see what it is that you think is important and what it is that you're going to consider as part of these eight domains of livability as you have gone out I have heard I wrote it down because it was very emotional for me I met a lady at the Palo Alto College Festival and she said that she loved what had been done to 24th Street you know the street that is in front of our leader of the Lake University and she said it is beautiful it provides a sense of security to the students crossing it because they are safe she said why can't we have something like that that's one of our strengths I don't have an answer for that but that is part of the major effort of one of the domains that we talk about then I had another gentleman that spoke to me and he talked to me in Spanish and he said see if I can read it without getting emotional he said he said he said he said why don't you help us we understand why don't they help us I mean when they tell you things like this you know we didn't spend however what are we going to do again AARP doesn't have the money in the world to provide the transportation that is generally back to glory you said what he said oh I'm sorry it says when it rains a lot it says the water comes up to our front door it says it doesn't have to be that way why doesn't the city help us I don't have an answer for that and neither does AARP but as a collective effort and finding out what it is that you need I think like this then we together and ladies that I've spoken here this morning that's how we do it we find out what it is that the people need and all the things that I've heard as we went around they talked about some people talked about wanting more street lights more sidewalks that can handle rockers as well as bike riders on swimming pools in their communities they want safe clean parts and very much more substantial jobs, affordable housing health facilities more and better transportation so we've heard all this as we went up in a community and if you notice we address a lot of the issues in the places on the south side of town that's what we've been in that right now I'm proud to be an AARP volunteer because they have shown me effort so anyway if you look on your little camera that we gave you where you have the eight domains of livability these are the the domains that influence the health and quality of older students adults health and quality for you and that's what we want for example the first one is outdoor spaces and buildings how many of you want safe and accessible recreation facilities the elderly and that's part of this big effort that we're doing how about transportation this gentleman again he talked about getting the people out to get how do you get there and I've spoken about this to the state office there many times that if you want our Hispanic population or any population to be able to participate what do they need they're not going to be able to transfer or have two transfers in the bus so how do we get them there again AARP cannot do it alone but as a concerted effort we can if you look at the housing once again ours is older than I am and so but we want to age in place that means that he doesn't want to be in a nursing home he needs to rise and I think in the Hispanic culture we don't allow our parents to be in a nursing home my mom died when she was 292 and we took care of her at home never did we ever think of putting her in a nursing home that's what we mean age in place we want the housing affordable housing and other different kinds of home participation programs that we need social participation this is what he was talking about social and civic engagement with peers and younger people student gave a lot of information about how old we're getting but how many nephews nieces, sons, daughters that are really young that think totally different from us eventually there's going to be a big gap we're going to have all this big population in aging with age people older people and then a large population with younger people I have a daughter and a granddaughter a granddaughter is totally raised totally different than the way he was raised we have this conversation because it's an intergenerational I want to say problem or perhaps issue because they can't talk to each other he can't understand why she gets up at noon so 5 36 he can't talk to each other all the kids know they exist they go out to dinner and some of you I see they're going that's what she is the whole time he can't understand so there's an intergenerational disconnect right there so somewhere along the line when we talk about the civic engagement and social engagement with the years and younger people we're going to have to do that that's part of one of these domains respect and social inclusion promote ethnic and social diversity as well as multi-generation interaction and dialogue I try to intergenerational dialogue I try to talk to my granddaughter I'm going to 90-20 year old what do they do when you tell yourself where you are I see that all the time communication and information access to technology once again some of our senior citizens don't have access to computers but in an effort to bring that to the community that's why we're here intergenerational disconnect again I've got an ipad I've got a laptop I've got a a regular desktop computer and I'm lucky that I'm able to have those things this man right here I do the telephone and the mail can I just interject again because of AARP support we and a grant from Lulac we have a computer lab here in the primary community but because of AARP we're able to get some instruction and actually open it up especially for the seniors since Rahul Garza got here as the director it's now being utilized and is much more effective we've got some trinity in terms of again instead of being scheduled that may want to you're kind of individualized tutoring but again because not everybody wants to but those that do we now have to be able to offer that on a limited basis here at the primary there I'm sorry this you didn't get one I'm sorry I'm wondering where you're reading from these are just my notes from that's from my hand just to make sure that's not part of the AARP region program you mean the technology the whole thing is reading oh yes this is what we're talking about this is an effort to promote these the AARP is going to do that their experiences that's a great cool thing about it and the last one is community support and health services access to home care services we've talked about that so all these ideas that we've heard that you probably have in your mind that I hope you have in your mind right now all are probably good under one of these the transportation the recreational facilities is here and so at this point I'm going to stop talking and ask you to provide some feedback you can tell us what it is that you think will make that a tone about better community on the physical business well like in Danny's the AARP doesn't give any go to different like the YM one share or different retail that have physical work for the seniors to go out there and do it I go to the Y this is my head up and particularly every senior we have an insurance paid for your and it goes back to the Y now they cut out that stuff and some of us and I'm lucky that basically it's only $15 in fact 50 cents per month but to some seniors it's too much I agree with that they quit going and they need more because their health issues are more in their mind I know that YMCA the ones that we have connection to they don't provide this to them they will be able to survive if they provide this to them so it's like Lisa was talking about that if there is a possible business organization that does not want to do that then AARP is not going to do that because they were sneakers also but now they dropped it but those are the insurance companies yes maybe that they are thinking go to some south or south down the line and get this kind of like well I did I wrote it now because you will know that the YMCA we had discussions about that and they are looking because they are already offering a discount so we are trying to get more and so we don't want to offer a discount but it's identical to what they already offer we want more to make it different more appealing we are just working with them and then also so you know that you brought physical activity so everybody is aware we also are working with the academy they've been very slow and once they say they do it here they are going to have to do it in Austin and in Dallas and if they do it there they are probably going to have to do it in New York whatever that is they have to think about their business and whether it makes sense that's kind of the difficulty of working with businesses or profits and particularly even non-profits because like Gloria alluded to they have to look at can they break it in can they cover their costs so we are working on that and I know it's slowly coming but it's better than what they already have because the first thing you saw was YNCA you already have a discount I'm sorry the focus that this meaning is about today is about neighbors helping neighbors is AARP position where you could help us and some of our the things that we are doing in this neighborhood we've got an aging population we've got a lot of housing problems in the neighborhood open spaces sidewalks are both issues here that we are going to be addressing transportation you know we have a term we've kind of stolen it's called Landlock you know a lot of people won't leave their neighborhood here you know to go to another neighborhood even up to the family the neighborhood you know to use some of the resources up there food insecure you know it's a big issue that I don't see in the aid domains I don't understand that where is food insecure it's a real problem one of the other things there's a time dollar program which can address a lot of the gaps the government's not going to be able to do all this we're already seeing continual setbacks especially at the city level in terms of human services and so it's going to have to be neighbors helping neighbors groups like this that are going to be doing the work of getting neighbors out helping their neighbors some other options for transportation the time dollar program would be one way of doing that somebody with a card and they get you know they get time credit for it so you know is there something that AARP can do to help us well can you get over here first of all I want to be aware about the age friendly designation that the city has we want to make you aware that there's a plan being formulated we were looking for example and I know the government is an expert at this we were looking at a need in your community for example sidewalks and streets and you're going to put a counselor woman or man to talk about that knowing that the city is already designated age friendly the city that is part of age 2020 would you like the program or not these are adopted plans that is actually ammunition for you to use when you're talking and discussing and there are in some cases we have taken actual positions on some local policy that we do we would have to guide you I want to be really clear whether or not we can do something like that it's certainly actually the designation once it gives you an additional voice because I know you have a big voice in the community but it gives you an additional voice and an additional plan to say we're in here, we're in there, we're in here come on what else can you go with us we know for sure we visit it with so and so, we visit it with so and so we know there's fines here I mean a lot of things you've done with linear parks and what not so how can we help you to be able to figure out if it's an ordinance you want to craft, that's the big thing you have to give more than just one type of town that wants something to change but as a computer sharing our resources there's no way we have money to do fix the sidewalk for a neighborhood they just have what it might be whether it's getting into an implementer's office which I know a lot of you already have that access or crafting the policy to organize, those are things that we want to be a partner with in 20 years but you're right, we're not going to be able to do it it's the coalition, it's about making this foundation available and letting you know what we are keeping it to ourselves and just advertising it whatever we want it to or working with just significant other breeds it's about making sure people are aware of it and how it can best benefit like you said very friendly, 65% of our population, councilmen, councilmen are 50 plus and this says that we need to have complete streets we don't mind that we have an ordinance that liquidate has in that it helps with those bond needs that you're going to have down the road that part of that civic engagement is being aware of what resources are available and I'll just say when I work for the city of San Antonio I co-chair the parks and rec bond community we had lots of organizations there very little public participation very little residents they were all organizations that were seeking management so really residents are empowering those organizations to make their decisions on their behalf and we've got great tremendous nonprofits in this city when we have any public participation so we really ended up with somebody else to represent your community so I just encourage you this type of stuff can be very empowering and give you that opportunity to have a platform where is it? something on my mind has come along close to this I have a big problem in this area with a lot of seniors who use banks and it's a big problem because they go cash in and check and they account for money right there and we try to get banks out there to report to the public that it's a safe deal to the debit card this money a lot of us don't understand that but with the use of the bus stop I think that funds my sales money do they charge do they charge something something I'm pretty sure they do talk about that they go home with that they don't trust banks they don't want the bank they've never had a bank account they want the bank to be a cash and money check name they account for money right there they walk out to the bus stop and somebody takes their money or unfortunately a lot of people in the area have 40 and 50 year old sons and they go to work still and they go there and they take their money from mom but she has to cash so if y'all can help get the work out of that debit card then they can take their money and we follow that and we do we've got some information around that because the actual social security checks are supposed to be directly deposited to a bank period very little paper checks are actually coming out to people that's not even happening because again it costs so much money for them to produce those checks we have information to educate people around this is how you can use your debit card these are the fees or these are not the fees Generations, Federal Credit does a really really great job of not charging we particularly focus on social security service fees but we do have information that we can continue to pour out into the communities get it through Carlos get it through the churches get information to them but also we have some fraud prevention materials we have a campaign going on right now but we're talking to not just 50 plus we're talking to everybody but it's about there's this one tool that we have called the Conardus Playbook and it's actually a partnership we have nationally with the FBI where we actually talk to Conardus and they tell us what they look for they tell us why they do the things they do that's a really actually great tool and we'll make sure to get you some in fact I believe Julia is going to be here next week right here some people so there's going to be a fraud presentation and some of that entails banking so there are maybe we can bring additional information so that people are more aware and we talked to you about how people might be waiting right outside for you and they're talking to you because maybe you know they figure maybe you might be lonely because you are 80 years old or whatever the case is people target right as you know we talk a little bit about that as well so that's good feedback and we'll make sure to get that information out on the community we support and the Sheriff's Department in fact we have Sheriff General with a lot of support and scanning you know a lot of the stuff so we have access to information about that but what I wanted to say was that we have this partnership and we're going to be doing a conference next year about that very day and one of the things is that it is the relatives of the seniors that sometimes take advantage of them and so we we you know how you tell the senior that it's their son or their daughter or their next year's or grandkids that are doing that it's really tough and I guess you have to have a tough conversation about that happen it's called try and solve we have a police officer and a Sheriff's deputy come in every month and we talk about him so we love to probably come over to our meeting room and that way we can find out what's going on over here I thought he was talking about I think they go catch the chef and they charge him a dollar or whatever some percentage of the chef will catch him and that always has upset me no way because two guys with a small chair he's got to pay so much he has to pay I don't want him to go to have to pay to someone a bigger problem is that they don't trust him that's why they rather do that they're going to charge him and they can do everything I've had banks show up to me show how it works they don't trust the bank so they can show more people on their age group 75-year-old, they're going to be like, you're busy on talking, I'm talking, I'm serious, that's the way it is, right? So we need somebody at their age that has the bank accounts, has the debit card that gets these plaintiffs in. ARP has been for some time now. We have to bring the issue to the legislators about the long... Yeah, but they're only in the money, and... We have to do that. Keep the payment where you're paying, pay the line, let's keep paying it. We're trying to... Yes, sir? I'm going to give you 20 classes. Are you only going to give to any local official? I'm sorry, I said I'm giving to any local official. I'm going to give you 20 classes. Are you only going to give to any local official? With the budget itself, we're not involved at this point in going to the budget meetings and dedicating what we might need for each friendly. That might be, again, we're pretty new to the process, we're just formulating the plan. I think it would be us going, it would actually be maybe our members and volunteers going to council and then again, utilizing this as part of becoming a friendly need as part so that we can exercise and whatnot. But as far as we are very involved and we have fairly good relationships with council in the mirror. But again, we go to them, for example, if they let me work that fee, we're really... With your help, with this organization's help, with any others who were able to get that ordinance passed and we did to a lot of meetings which not go that time. So if there was something particularly issue-wise that we were working on, then we would have that direct communication with them, with our volunteers members and perhaps staff. But I mean, that definitely makes a lot of sense as far as the budget because everything we're talking about here, the city can contribute a lot to infrastructure. How's it? What did you ask? What? What did you ask? About a loan? Yes, they are involved. Why did you ask that? Well, I just thought maybe they might have been involved. Are they working with the city? Well, I've got an idea for you, but you work with the city. Please. One of your lists was the home modifications, the ramps, the wider portion of the bathrooms. And we've discussed that in previous meetings here. And as you know, the city budget's been smaller for housing and social services right there and so. There's only so much that can do. For example, in the last, I thought the last budget was maybe in June for three historic houses in the city budget to fix that. And maybe a dozen homes to monitor that. So a suggestion would be for ARP to join with the city in going to the private buildings and matching with the city. Or a home modification. You can do it like the target area, you know, have a pilot project. In this area, for example, it's another area. And so you've got 200,000 modified homes. Who before those or anybody else in private business. Polaro and kitchen. You can do that. To the city. Help raise that. That's a good suggestion. Write that down. I mean, if you want to help modify homes for seniors. The only source is a city and a continent much smaller. So that was six counting parents. It's impossible. So the only other one in the city. So if you want to help, let's help raise the money. That's a great suggestion. We took that down. And we also have a foundation ARP foundation. I know that nationally. Actually one of the national policy council members that we have are a lot of is coming to visit with Lord this Castro. I mean, as before she leaves, because he's going to be actually looking at some affordable options for the 50 plus. Now, I know that a little different because it is a public housing for the most part. But what's really encouraging is that they just on our phone to look at the type of healthy and that the real life in housing is a huge component of each friendly and a huge issue for our membership. So that's a good suggestion. And we're going to write back now. This lady called her son had signed a legal document. So then he told the mother she needed to leave through or out because the legal document she signed. She signed ownership to the stuff on the mother's side. So what can you do that was a legal document. You can have these seniors know that this has been done and that they might have legal aid or something to help them before they sign any legal documents. That's kind of the same as God. Let's go. Happens more often than we did. Happens more often than we did. Oh, yes. Power of attorney. Yeah, I just wanted to, because of this national conversation, I'm real supportive of ARP's concerted effort to increase participation from minority communities by doing a bunch of stuff that's already been mentioned here. I had the pleasure of being at a book at Palo Alto College. Everybody has yesterday, for instance, in the last two years, there's been one alcohol free family friendly at Palo Alto College. And we do this kind of stuff. We just get people who attend and talk about ARP's initiatives and where we're at and that sort of thing. So I think it's culturally relevant and friendly where people already got it. And then this year, the ARP co-sponsor to the Honolulu professional.  And the lady earlier mentioned her role as cop. But that whole vein in Roaldale Park itself was built as a big project during her time of leadership. And for it to be utilized that way in a role. I mean, it was a real nice crowd. And that's what it was built for, to have a big crowd. But I just want to commend ARP for doing those kind of work. And of course, how that directs co-sponsor and directs us. Our first major public action was supporting that day-to-day ending. I think, Ms. Garrett, you took about 65 seniors that time. I'd like to be in it for two months. Two months. One for the next night and one for the next night. So anyway, just maybe what we're already doing. But just keep doing it because it's creating some change. So ARP was the major sponsor for the general Honolulu festival. And that is just an indication of where ARP is going. Instead of them coming to us, we're going together. And we go to the markets where we go to Honolulu College, we go to the Roaldale Park. We're trying to get out there to where our communities are. Instead of them coming to us. And that's what we're going to do. And we talk about issues that are very important. It can be Hispanic and other minorities. The Affordable Care Act, the Social Security, Medicare. Day-to-day lending, fraudulent activities. We're talking about other things that I think are important. Nursing home care. I think there was a report that just came out. ARP was really involved with the sunset commission to make sure that the nursing homes don't continue to run up these bad reports and nothing is done to them about it. At some point in time, they're going to be losing their licenses. And it's going to be more than just a slap on the wrist and nothing else happening. So as a result of some of that work, we're going to be able to protect our seniors one more in those types of areas. I just want to know, the clarification. Ms. Chairman, I'm asked about food insecurity. And I think I know what you're meaning, but could you explain that a little bit more? What about food drive? No, I'm just, you know, food insecurity is a major issue, both for kids, especially for kids, but also for seniors. You know, just making, making, helping people to get access to healthy meals. And I think that, you know, we talked about earlier, sustainable networks, but neighborhoods, I think is one way of doing it.  Do we need more nutrition sites? Is that, would that be one of the answers? Because what I've seen in the past years is that we're coming back from nutrition. Yes, I think that that's one of the issues that's causing a lot of problems is that there have been cutbacks, for example, by the city and nutrition sites. You know, they're making it farther apart and it's harder to get to them. So there's not a lot of support for it. That's one of the issues, nutrition sites. And I just think that, you know, again, that's only part of the answer. I know that the foundation has given a lot of grants in the area. The ART foundation, which is kind of like the other arms that we don't work directly with. But, and the reason I know that is I get frequent letters from them asking for contributions to this group. After people, they call it that they do grant companies out there. We might want to look into that. Well, actually, this is a great segment because I do want to, one was the earlier. He got a large grant from the ART foundation for previous curing. So it'd be really nice to know because some of that work, it was over a significant grant that went to him to talk about to figure out what insecurity is, particularly the white side. It actually was a significant side so it would be good to get to work or to see what has happened with these parts of tracking. But we could use it back to our foundation to get the latest reports and we could provide that to the leadership of your groups so that you can see what happened with that grant, because oftentimes you've got grants, you've got money coming in. That's not always, we think money is the problem. It's solving everything, but it's not. I mean, if we're funding something and there was some research paper or there was some learning, the community needs to know what that learning is. Maybe it was a list of resources, maybe it was how to eat better, but what would it be? That's what we need to find out. So now, again, what we could do is what's happened, what did we learn, how it was abused, because if you did that better, hold those nonprofits accountable so that you get that research and you get that, think of an investment that was made. But we do a lot of work, like Julia said, on hundreds of people who know the purpose and the less we know it exists. And again, if there is an opportunity, we could always connect you with somebody to the foundation. And again, like I keep saying I suppose a lot. I think another piece of the puzzle is what I'm trying to get at with my comments here is that there has to be some policy that supports this, helping neighbors so we can build community gardens where people can participate in and get programs out. Once you get a grant based on a class from that, it's bad to add to the job. What's kind of extra? I don't know why to do that to somebody. I think if I want to do it again, what they do with it is none of my business. There is business on it. Not me. No idea. Who is that? Last time, when you were here and someone told you I could be, I think young adults know a little bit about so, but one is Lotus, you see, the grant with Buffett. And part of it, one of the samples was also part of that grant. One is about senior parks. And I'm just wondering if maybe that's something that we need here. You know, they're designed specifically for the needs of senior citizens. We tend to lose our balance when we get older, so they have equipment really geared towards the physical needs of seniors and what older persons can handle. And I think that would be an important piece to your local needs. And then just something else, I don't know if we're really good at saying it all, but I'm reading more and more. There's new research that says that in the coming years, the group that is going, the hopeless group that is going to be growing are the boomers. And I'm not quite clear why boomers are going to grow anyway. I'm wondering if that's something that AARP is looking at at a national level, and I know Fort Worth Housing plays into all of that. But I'm just kind of wondering if there's any kind of focus on that piece of it. Nationally, a lot of there is some focus on teaching exactly what we're working on. I've heard that same conversation about boomers and boomers, particularly those who didn't plan for their retirement. They might have lost some of their 401k because of the catastrophe of 2008 in Fort Worth. And then we tie that to demographics to many communities, multicultural communities, like Latinos, like African-Americans. It's possible that our incomes will be so low that we won't be able to have the non-affordability of housing. We won't be able to either stay in it or continue to pay rent. So we'll get you some information around that. And then the other question was about grandparents' part. And that is absolutely something that is taking place at ARP. It has played a role, for example, in Wichita, who played a role in bringing the elected community and maybe it was going to the City Council to look for funding. Maybe it was trying to figure out I'm not sure what or not our foundation could be bunched toward it, but we can definitely find out. We've got examples. And that's definitely something we could do here if I were you. And you've got to remember, we can probably only start with one. So the issue is always like, where did that going to be, right? But at the end of the day, that is absolutely a new trend. And you see a lot of grandparents. I'm living longer. I might be 80 with a three-year-old, right? Or maybe 75 with a three-year-old. I can't live to remember. It could have been that sweet. But that quality of time that I'm spending that day out is doing great stuff for me and doing great things for my child or grandchild, so yes. That's absolutely great grandchild. That's absolutely something that we can bring some experience to and then maybe even mix a reality. Somebody really wants to do that project. Maybe it's a part that's already involved that's already in the pipeline and somebody wants you to figure that. Thank you to be sure that it's a grandchild's part. And what is a grandchild's part? We can be thoughtful with that. Thanks for bringing that up. I'm going to go more. Can we just hear the kids? The nutrition classes? How often do they occur? Oh, nutrition classes here? No. Go ahead. Nutrition sites where they serve seniors on a regular basis. I think that's what they were talking about. If you don't have nutrition classes or say what they teach you how to make things unless candy does that and you don't have money then I don't think she does that. Thank you. I read the buzz every day and I hear a lot of things about the seniors that are found with buses and shelters. The city is spending millions and millions and millions of dollars and they're terrible. They're nice but they don't and it's cold. They don't cover you. You can just sit down and it's metal and it's all wet. And during the summer that went down the whole shelter where you could and the seniors are completing that and you talk to each other and that's what I'm more concerned of here and many more. And the bus stops like in Fredericksburg that's what you had so many in the past being killed in wheelchairs in Fredericksburg because look at the bus stops. You're in here because there's a large military bus stops in the middle of the block and you have to walk back barely they can walk barely they can get to the bus stops and barely they can get on to the foot of the bus. That's what many of us have seen in the past. We're documenting that and this definitely sounds like transportation if you can't wait. We all know we've got to wait for the bus, right? You have to be there to news your arrival but that is totally a transmission for the seniors. Absolutely. What about that now? Thank you for that answer. Anyone else or we can get started with a closing of our... Okay, so I maybe already did it but I handed out this card and at the top it says how much you make sound to live with people of all ages when you write down your suggestion you really want to look at the domains that we mentioned. Housing, transportation and really write down one or two of your priorities for your community. Whether it's here, whether it's CEDA or another part of town, write down what you would consider to be an issue. If it's housing, you want to go into a little more detail where you have homes more, you know, ramps, whatever it would be parks because it's a grandparents' park and if you want to put a little more if I look here in the west please do that. We're going to collect these what we're doing with these and we're going to get with councilmen but now council will ensure we develop a number of records here earlier and there will be a wrap-up into the information that we use to formulate our plan. Again this is not the only opportunity for your input. There will actually be a survey that will be conducted by a professional group that will be going out to several of our members and non-members. So if you can do that I hope you did enjoy your lunch. I really do thank you for your time. I know we took some time here especially to get set up and get served but can I thank you for your patience and wish you all the best of luck and congratulations to all the work you have been doing. Thank you for that. So, can you turn these? We're going to get that done. Thank you.


What's going on everyone? I've got a brand new movie review for you guys today and today we're discussing Venom. Let's talk about it. Venom of course is the brand new comic book movie from Sony. It's not tying into the MCU and it stars Tom Hardy, Riz Ahmed, and Michelle Williams. It's directed by Ruben Fletcher who did Zombieland. Now, when this film was announced, I was a little bit skeptical. Then Tom Hardy got signed on. I was like, okay, you might have something there. Where do I start with this film? It goes far to say though, I had a blast watching this movie. One, it's all guilty pleasures. If I was critiquing this film as a straight up, just what is wrong with the movie, there's tons wrong with this film. It's a mess. This film is bad at times. But it goes far to say it's not horrendously bad, it's not horrible, and it's definitely not great. It's just kind of okay. But that's okay because Venom is the Venom film that I never knew I wanted or never knew that I needed in my life. It is a blast to watch. And it's a blast to watch with your friends and an audience. Because some of the moments in here are so cheesy and cringe worthy that you just cannot help but laugh. There's a lot of moments where it's trying to be serious but you laugh and you get into it. Again, I enjoyed this film totally entertained because of it was a guilty pleasure to me. You put this film in guilty pleasure. Now, again, I didn't want to be a guilty pleasure. It's not the Venom film I truly wanted or needed in my life and I didn't know I needed it till now, but I definitely wanted more from it. I wanted it to be better and that's a full disclosure. When I heard Tom Hardy was getting signed on, this could be something special and it definitely is something special in its own way, shape and form. Before I get into my content, I want to mention my pros. One of my biggest pros is Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock. As much as the script is horrendously bad and it has a lot of cheesy dialogue that does not match the tone of the film, Tom Hardy does the best that he can and I loved him as Eddie Brock. I think he did such a great job. I mean, coming from someone who really likes all the iterations of Venom from the comics, I mean, you got the 90s, the 2000s, the modern day versions right now, I've liked every interpretation of Venom. And definitely this is the more comedic, cheesy Venom that we got kind of in the early 90s and I didn't hate that they went that route, but it also didn't match the tone. But Tom Hardy does what he has to do with Eddie Brock and I cared for Eddie Brock as a character. He did a really good job making me care about his relationship and his romance, not with Michelle Williams, but with Venom himself. The character arc that these two characters have together and their relationship arc throughout the movie actually really is effective and works really well to the point where you care about Venom and again, you also care about Eddie Brock. Venom definitely is one of the best parts about this film. When he's in the film though. There definitely, I felt like there wasn't enough of him. There is a lot of him, but there wasn't enough of him as I thought there would be and really when he's in the film, when him and Eddie are having their conversation, it makes for funny moments and I don't know if the film wanted me to laugh I should have been laughing, but I was and I enjoyed those moments with them together. Of course this is non-spoilers, I will be doing a spoiler review tomorrow, so I'm not going to get into any of their main interactions that they go with, but there are a couple moments within a woods is one particular and one in a bathroom that I just absolutely died and I just, I couldn't stop laughing. I loved it and the whole audience around me was getting around this film as well. Some of the action scenes in here were actually pretty badass. I enjoyed them. Are they filmed the best? No. Did I feel like Deadpool when he goes big CGI battle about to happen? Absolutely, because that's what it felt like, but it's effective. It's fun and yeah, I guess you can put Venom again. As much as a guilty pleasure to me, you can look at it as yeah, it's just a generic action film at times. My cons start for Venom. I mean, one of my things is that this film should have been better. Absolutely should have been better. You have a talented really good cast on here. I mean, you have Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed who are completely wasted in this movie. I like their characters, but they just had nothing to do. I mean, Michelle Williams is just around here pushing buttons and whatnot. And Riz Ahmed is just your generic villain and such. Let me tell you, he is right and right. It looks pretty, pretty badass. I really liked his aesthetics and what he looked like. I just felt like overall the whole concept was wasted. Venom could have been a very unique and kind of special different type of movie. And yeah, it is unique in its own way, but not in the way that I wanted it to be. And yeah, the script and the dialogue is a mess. The story overall just feels like a very generic aliens come to Earth type of story. And the dialogue within it is a little bit cheesy at times. And when the first act of the film is very slow meandering. It's not totally boring. And I was into it every time Eddie Brock was in it. But there were some other things where it's jumping around. And I felt like I didn't need a lot of it. And I felt like it should have just gotten to the point faster. But it's very overly serious in the beginning first act. And then it just goes cheesy route. Again, I don't know if it wanted it to be that route. But it didn't feel that serious tone anymore. And it just felt generic and cheesy towards the back half where it felt like the tone was very mishap and not seamless. And it kind of bothered me at times. That's not just like the full blown critic coming out of me. That's just me as a general audience goer talking about this movie is that yeah, sometimes it didn't feel like it was seamless through. And that's where the pacing kind of felt like an issue too. There's times where I was enjoying it. There's times where I wasn't. And there's times where I was like, come on, just show me more Eddie Brock and Venom. Here's the thing. If you're watching this review, if you're on the skeptical side of should I see Venom? Don't. If you're one of those people who are really intrigued to see this movie, go see it. You're probably going to like it. You're going to get something out of this movie. Maybe you'll absolutely hate it. I don't know. Maybe you'll feel like me and you're in the guilty pleasure. Maybe you'll absolutely love it for all the reasons that I didn't like it. And Venom should have been a better film. That's hands out. I go into every film thinking it's going to be great. Even if the trailer was bad. Some films do come out looking better than what the trailer was. The trailers for me were way better than this movie was. Definitely not a turn in the wind. And it's definitely not one of the worst films of this year. I enjoyed it. Again, if you're on the fence, I don't know if you should see it. It's hard to recommend. I would recommend upgrade right here because this is the better version of Venom. So if you want to stay at home this weekend and maybe you just aren't in the Starsborne, which I do recommend a lot. Upgrade. It's literally the better version of Venom. I can say if you are interested in this film, you still want to go see it. I think you're going to get something out of this movie, especially out of Eddie Brock and Venom's relationship. So with all that said, I'm going to give Venom a C. Absolutely loved some of the guilty pleasure aspects of this movie. And again, I went into this film wanting more of it. So I come out a little bit disappointed. Actually a lot of disappointed wanting something different but still having a blast with myself in the theater.  Definitely not the best. But tell me guys, what are your thoughts on Venom? Are you guys excited to see it? Are you intrigued to see it? Are you now more intrigued to see it? Because of what I'm saying? Wait for that spoiler review. Because there's going to be some stuff to discuss in that film. 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