48 The last of them, by Isaac Dov Berkovitz. They had been rebonim for generations in the misnuggled community of Murovanka. Poverty stricken Murovanka, crowned with hoary honour hidden away in the thick woods. Generation on generation of them had been renowned far and near whenever a Jewish word was spoken, whenever the voice of the Torah rang out in the warm old houses of study. People talked of them everywhere, as they talk of miracles when miracles are no more, and of consolation when all hope is long since dead. Talked of them as great-grandchildren talk of the riches of their great-grandfather, the like of which are now unknown, and the great seven-branched old-fashioned lamp, which he left them as an inheritance of times gone by. For as the lustre of an old seven-branched lamp shining in the darkness such was the lustre of the rebonim of Murovanka. That was long ago, ever so long ago, when Murovanka lay buried in the dark Lithuanian forests. The old, low, moss-grown houses were still set in wide green gardens wherein grew beetroot and onion, while the hops wind itself and clustered thickly along the wooden fencing. Well-to-do Jews still went about in linen polices and smoked pipes filled with dry herbs. People got a living out of the woods where they burned pitch the whole week through, and Jewish families ate rye bread and groats potage. A new baby brought no anxiety along with it. People praised God, carried the pitcher to the well, filled it, and poured a quart of water into the potage. The newcomer was one of God's creatures, and was assured of his portion along with the others. And if a Jew had a marriageable daughter and could not afford a dowry, he took a stick in his hand, donned a white shirt with a broad mangled collar, repeated the Tefillis Hadarech, the prayer of the highway, and set off on foot to Volhynia, that thrice-blessed wonderland where people talk with a kyrk and ate khala with saffron even in the middle of the week, with saffron if not with honey. There, in Volhynia, on Friday evenings, the rich Jewish householder of the district walks to and fro leisurely in his brightly lit room.  The Lithuanian guest, teacher or preacher, the shrunk and shriveled stranger with the piercing black eyes, sits in a corner, merely moving his lips and gazing at the floor, perhaps because he feels ill at ease in the brightly, nicely furnished room, perhaps because he is thinking of his distant home, of his wife and children, and his marriageable daughter, and perhaps it has suddenly all become oddly dear to him, his poor, forsaken native place with its moiling, poverty-struck Jews, whose week is spent pitch-burning in the forest, with its old, warm houses of study, and its celebrated giants of the Torah, bending with a candle in their hand over the great Hori Gomorrah. And here, at table between the tasty stuffed fish and the soup, with the rich, Volhynian stuffed monkeys, the brusk, tongue-tied guest is suddenly unable to contain himself, and overflows with talk about his corner in Lithuania. Whether we have our rabbis at home, no, no. And thereupon he holds forth grand delinquently, with an ardour and incisiveness born of the love and the longing at his heart. The piercing black eyes shoot sparks, as the guest tells of the great men of Muravanka, with their fiery intellects, the great iron perseverance, who sit over their books by day and by night. But time to time they take an hour and a half's dose, falling with their heads onto their fists, their beards sweeping the Gomorrah, a big candle keeping watch overhead, and waking them once more to the study of the Torah. At dawn, when people begin to come in for the morning prayer, they walk round them on tiptoe, giving them their four L's distance, and avoiding meeting their look, which is apt to be sharp and burning. That is the way we study in Lithuania! The stout, hairy householder, good-natured and credulous, listens attentively to the wonderful tales, loosens the sash over his police in leisurely fashion, unbuttons his waist-coast across his generous waist, blows out his cheeks, and swears his head from side to side, because one may believe anything of the Lithuanians. Then, if once in a long, long while the rich, Volhynian householder stumbled by some miracle or another into Lithuania, sheer curiosity would drive him to take a look at the Lithuanian celebrity. But he would stand before him in trembling and astonishment, as one stands before a high granite rock, the summit of which can barely be discerned. Is he terrified by the dark and bushy brows, the keen penetrating looks, the deep stern wrinkles on the forehead that might have been carved in stone they are so stiffly fixed? Who can say? Or is he put out of countenance by the cold, hard assertiveness of their speeches, which bore into the conscience like a gimlet and nose of no mercy? For, from between those wrinkles, from beneath those dark brows shines out the everlasting glory of the Shekinah. Such were the celebrated Rabbonym of Moravanka. They were an old family, a long chain of great men, generation on generation of tall, well-built, large-boned Jews, all far on in years, with thick curly beards. It was very seldom that one of those beards showed a silver of hair. They were stern, silent men, who heard and saw everything, but who expressed themselves mostly by means of their wrinkles and their eyebrows rather than in words, and that when Moravanka Rav went so far as to say, no, that was enough. The dignity of Rav was hereditary among them, descending from father to son, and, together with the rabbinical position and the eighteen gilden a week salary, the son inherited from his father a tall old reading desk, smoked and scorched by the candles in the old House of Study, in the corner by the Ark, and a thick, heavily knotted stick, and an old holiday police of Lustereen, the which, if worn on a bright Sabbath day in summertime, shines in the sun and fairly shouts to be looked at. They arrived in Moravanka generations ago, when the town was still in the power of wild highwaymen, called their Hyde Makyas, of huge, terrifying whiskers and large, savage dogs. One day, on Hashanah Rabbah, early in the morning, there entered the Beshamedrash, a tall youth, evidently village-born, and from a long way off, barefoot with turned-up trousers, his boots slung on a big knotted stick across his shoulders, and a great bundle of big Hashanah's willow branches. The youth stood in the centre of the House of Study with his mouth open, bewildered, and the boys quickly snatched his willow branches from him. He was surrounded, stared at, questioned as to who he was whence he came and what he wanted, had he parents, was he married? For some time the youth stood silent with downcast eyes, then he bethought himself, and answered in three words, I want to study, and from that moment he remained in the old building, and people began to tell wonderful tales of his power of perseverance, of how a tall, barefoot youth, who came walking from a far distance, had, by dint of determination, come to be reckoned among the great men in Israel, of how, on a winter midnight, he would open the stove-doors and study by the light of the glowing coals, of how he once forgot food and drink for three days and three nights running, while he stood over a difficult legal problem with wrinkled brows, his eyes piercing the page, his fingers stiffening round the handle of his stick, and he motionless. And when suddenly he found the solution he gave a shout, knew, and came down so hard on the desk with his stick that the whole Beshamed Resh shook. It happened just when the people were standing quite quiet, repeating the Shimonah Esrae. Then it was told how this same lad became Rav in Muravanka, how his genius descended to his children and children's children till late in the generations, gathering in might with each generation in turn, they rose, these giants, one after the other, persistent investigators of the law, with high wrinkled foreheads, dark bushy brows, a hard cutting glance, sharp as steel. In those days Muravanka was illuminated as with seven sons. The houses of study were filled with students, voices young and old rang out over the Gomorrahs, sang wept and implored. Wired and tired-looking fathers and uncles would come into the shores with blackened faces after the days pitch-burning between afternoon and evening prayer, range themselves in leisurely mood by the doors and the stove, cock their ears and listen. Jewish drivers who convey people from one town to another, snatched a minute the first thing in the morning and dropped in with their whips under their arms to hear a passage in the Gomorrah expounded, and the women who washed the linen at the pump in summertime beat the wet clothes to the melody of the Torah that came floating unto the street through the open windows, sweet as a long expected piece of good news. Thus Muravanka came to be a great renown because the wondrous power of the Muravanka Rebonim, the power of concentration of thought, grew from generation to generation, and in those days the old people went about with a secret whispering, that if there should arise a tenth generation of the mighty ones, a new thing, please God, would come to pass among Jews. But there was no tenth generation. The ninth of the Muravanka Rebonim was the last of them. He had two sons, but there was no luck in the house in his day. The sons philosophised too much, asked too many questions, took strange paths that led them far away. Once a rumour spread in Muravanka that the Rav's eldest son had become celebrated in the great world because of a book he had written, and had acquired the title of Professor. When the old Rav was told of it, he at first remained silent with downcast eyes. Then he lifted them and ejaculated, no, not a word more. It was only remarked that he grew paler, that his look was even more piercing, more searching than before. This is all that was ever said in the town about the Rav's children, for no one cared to discuss a thing on which the old Rav himself was silent. Once, however, on Shabbos Haggadol something happened in the spacious old Besamidrash. The Rav was standing by the Arunhakodash, wrapped in his talus, and expounding to a crowded congregation. He had a clear, resonant, deep voice, and when it sent thundering over the heads of the people, the air seemed to catch fire, and they listened dumbfounded and spellbound. Suddenly the old man stocked in the midst of his exposition, and was silent. The congregation thrilled with speechless expectation. For a minute or two the Rav steward with his piercing gaze fixed on the people. Then he deliberately pulled aside the curtain before the Arunhakodash, opened the arc doors, and turned to the congregation. Listen, Jews, I know that many of you are thinking of something that has just occurred to me, too. You wonder how it is that I should set myself up to expound the Torah to a town full of Jews, when my own children have cast the Torah behind them. Therefore I now open the arc and declare to you, Jews, before the holy scrolls of the law, I have no children any more. I am the last Rav of our family. Hereupon a piteous wail came out of the women's shawl, but the Rav's sonorous voice soon reduced them to silence, and once more the Torah was being expounded in thunder over the heads of the open-mouthed assembly. Years, a whole decade of them passed, and still the old Rav walked erect, and not one silver hair showed in his curly beard. And the town was still used to see him before daylight, a tall, solitary figure, carrying a stick and a lantern on his way to the large old Beshamedresh to study there in solitude. Until Moravanka began to ring with the fame of her Charef, her great new scholar. He was the son of a poor tailor, a pale, thin youth with a pointed nose and two sharp black eyes, who had gone away at thirteen or so to study in celebrated distant academies. Hence his name had spread round and round. People said of him that he was growing up to be a light of the exile, that with his galastic achievements he could outwit the acutist intellects of all past ages. They said that he possessed a brain power that ground mountains of Talmud to powder. News came that a quantity of prominent Jewish communities had sent messages to ask him to come and be their Rav. Moravanka was stirred to its depths. The householders went about greatly perturbed, because their Rav was an old man. His days were numbered, and he had no children to take his place. So they came to the old Rav in his house to ask his advice, whether it was possible to invite the Moravanka Charef, the tailor's son, to come to them, so that he might take the place of the Rav on his death, in a hundred and twenty years, seeing that the said young Charef was a scholar distinguished by the acuteness of his intellect, the only man worthy of sitting in the seat of the Moravanka Ravonim. The old Rav listened to the householders with lowering brows, and never raised his eyes, and he answered them one word. No. So Moravanka sent a messenger to the young Charef, offering him the Rabinet. The messenger was swift, and soon the news spread through the town that the Charef was approaching. When it was time for the householders to go forth out of the town to meet the young Charef, the old Rav offered to go with them, and they took a chair for him to sit on, while he waited at the meeting place. This was by the wood outside of the town, where all through the week the Jewish town folks earned their bread by burning pitch. Begrimed and toil-worn Jews were continually dropping their work, and peeping out, shame-facedly, between the tree-stems. It was Friday, a clear day in the autumn. She appeared out of a great cloud of dust, she, the travelling wagon, in which sat the celebrated young Charef. Sholom Alekhem's flew to meet him from every side, and his old father, the tailor, lent back against the tree, and wept aloud for joy. Now the old Rav declared that he would not allow the Charef to enter the town till he had heard him, the Charef, expound a portion of the Torah. The young man accepted the condition.  All eyes were fastened on the tailor's son. All hearts beat rapidly. The Charef expounded the Torah, standing in the wagon.  But then came a bright idea and lit up his face. He began to speak, but his was not the familiar teaching such as everyone learns and understands. His words were like fiery flashes, appearing and disappearing one after the other, lightnings that traverse and illuminate half the sky in one second of time, a play of swords in which there are no words, only the clink and ring of finely tempered steel. The old Rav sat in his chair, leaning on his old knobbly knotted stick, and listened. He heard, but evil thoughts beset him, and deep hard wrinkles cut themselves into his forehead. He saw before him the Charef, the dried-up youth with the sharp eyes, and the sharp, appointed nose, and the evil thought came to him, those are needles, a tailor's needles, while the long, thin forefinger with which the Charef pointed rapidly in the air seemed a third needle wielded by a tailor in a hurry. You prick more sharply even than your father, is what the old Rav wanted to say when the Charef ended his sermon, but he did not say it. The whole assembly was gazing with caught breath at his half-closed eyelids. The lids never moved, and some thought, wonderingly, if he had fallen into a dose from sheer old age. Suddenly a strange, dry snap broke the stillness. The old Rav started in his chair, and when they rushed forward to assist him, they found that his knotted, knobbly stick had broken in two, pale and bent for the first time, but a tall figure still. The old Rav stood up among his startled flock. He made an leisurely motion with his hand in the direction of the town, and remarked quietly to the young Charef, new, now you can go into the town. That Friday night the old Rav came into the best Hamidrash without his satin cloak, like a mourner. The congregation saw him lead the young Rav into a corner near the Arona Kodesh, where he sat him down by the high old Beemer, saying, you will sit here. He himself went and sat down behind the pulpit among the strangers, the Sabbath guests. For the first minute people were lost in astonishment. The next minute the house of study was filled with wailing. Young and old lifted their voices in lamentation. The young Rav looked like a child sitting behind the tall desk, and he shivered and shook as though with fever. Then the old Rav stood up to his full height and commanded, people are not too weep. All this happened about the solemn days. Muravanka remembers that time now, and speaks of it at dusk, when the sky is red, as though streaming with fire, and the men stand about pensive and forlorn, and the women fold their babies closer in their aprons. At the close of the day of atonement there was a report that the old Rav had breathed his last in kittle and talus. But the young Hariff did not survive him long. He died at his father's, the tailor, and his funeral was on a wet Hoshana Raba day. Ageid Folk said he had been summoned to face the old Rav in a lawsuit in the heavenly court. End of The Last of Them by Isaac Dov Berkovitz Section 49 The Last Section of Yiddish Tales translated by Helena Frank and read by Adrian Pretzelis. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Section 49 The Clever Rabbi, A Folk Tale by Anonymous The power of man's imagination, said my grandmother, is very great. Hereby hangs a tale which, to our sorrow, is a true one, and as clear as daylight. Listen attentively, yingola. It will interest you very much. Not far from this town of ours lived an old count who believed that Jews require blood at Passover, Christian blood too, for their Passover matzah. The count in his brandy distillery had a Jewish overseer, a very honest, respectable fellow. The count loved him for his honesty, and was very kind to him, and the Jew, though he was a simple man and no scholar, was very well disposed, and served the count with heart and soul. He would have gone through fire and water at the count's bidding, for it is in the nature of a Jew to be faithful and to love good men. The count often discussed business matters with him, and took pleasure in hearing about the customs and observances of the Jews. One day the count said to him, Tell me the truth. Do you love me with your whole heart? Yes, replied the Jew, I love you as myself.  Hold, cried the Jew, why does my Lord say such terrible things? The count smiled, and answered, Let me tell you. I know quite well that Jews must have Christian blood for their Passover feast. Now, what would you do if I were the only Christian you could find?  Indeed, I can scarcely hold you to blame, since, according to your false notions, the Divine Command is precious, even when it tells us to commit murder. I should be no more to you than was Isaac to Abraham, when, at God's command, Abraham was about to slay his only son. No, however, that the God of Abraham is a God of mercy and loving kindness, while the God the rabbis have created is full of hatred towards Christians. How, then, can you say you love me? The Jew clapped his hands to his head, he tore his hair in distress, and felt no pain, and with a broken heart he answered the count and said, How long will you Christians suffer this stain on your pure hearts? How long will you disgrace yourselves? Does not my Lord know that this is a great lie? I, as a believing Jew, and many beside me, as believing Jews, we ourselves, I say, with our own hands grind the corn. We keep the flour from getting damp or wet with anything, for if only a little dew drop onto it, it is prohibited for us, as though it had yeast. Till the day on which the matzah is baked, we keep the flour as the apple of our eye, and when the flour is baked, and we are eating the matzah, even then we are not sure of swallowing it, because if our gum should begin to bleed, we have to spit the piece out, and in face of all these stringent regulations against eating the blood of even beasts and birds, some people say that Jews require human blood for their Passover matzah, and swear to it as a fact. What does my Lord suppose we are likely to think of such people? We know that they swear falsely, and a false oath is of all things the worst. The count was touched to the heart by these words, and these two men, being both upright and without guile, believed one the other. The count believed the Jew. That is, he believed that the Jew did not know the truth of the matter, because he was poor and untaught, while the rabbis all the time most certainly used blood at Passover. Only they kept it a secret from the people. And he said as much to the Jew, who in his turn believed the count, because he knew him to be an honourable man. And so it was that he began to have his doubts, and when the count on different occasions repeated the same words, the Jew said to himself that, perhaps after all it was partly true, that there must be something in it, the count would never tell him a lie. And he carried the thought about with him for some time.  The count lent him money to trade with, and God prospered the Jew in everything he undertook. Thanks to the count he grew rich. The Jew had a kind heart and was much given to good works, as is the way with Jews. He was very charitable and suckered all the poor in the neighbouring town, and he assisted the rabbis and the pious in all the places round about, and earned for himself a great and beautiful name, for he was known to all as the benefactor. The rabbis gave him the honour due to a pious and influential Jew, who is a wealthy man and charitable into the bargain. But the Jew was thinking, now the rabbis will let me into the secret which is theirs, and which they share only with those who are at once pious and rich. That great and pious Jews must have blood for the Passover. For a long time he lived in hope, but the rabbis told him nothing. The subject was not once mentioned, but the Jew felt sure that the count would never have lied to him, and he gave more liberally than before, thinking, perhaps after all it was too little. He assisted the rabbi of the nearest town for a whole year, so that the rabbi opened his eyes in astonishment. He gave him more than half of what is sufficient for a livelihood. When it was near Passover the Jew drove into the little town to visit the rabbi, who received him with open arms, and gave him honour unto the most powerful and wealthy benefactor, and all the representative men of the community paid him their respects. Thought the Jew, now they will tell me of the commandment which is not given to every Jew to observe. As the rabbi, however, told him nothing, the Jew remained to remind the rabbi, as it were, of his duty. A rabbi, said the Jew, I have something very particular to say to you. Let us go into a room where we two shall be alone. So the rabbi went with him into an empty room, shut the door, and said, Dear friend, what is your wish? Do not be abashed, but speak freely, and tell me what it is I can do for you. Dear rabbi, I am, you must know, already acquainted with the fact that Jews require blood at Passover. I know also that it is a secret belonging only to the rabbis, to very pious Jews, and to the wealthy who give much arms. And I, who am, as you know, a very charitable and good Jew, wish also to comply, if only once in my life, with this great observance. You need not be alarmed, dear rabbi, I will never betray the secret, but will make you happy forever, if you will enable me to fulfill so great a command. If, however, you deny its existence and declare that Jews do not require blood, from that moment I become your bitter enemy. And why should I be treated worse than any other pious Jew? I too want to perform the great mitzvah which God gave in secret. I am not learned in the law, but a great and wealthy Jew, and one given to good works, that I am in very truth. You can fancy, said my grandmother, the rabbis' horror on hearing such words from a Jew, a simple countryman. They pierced him to the quick, like sharp arrows. He saw that the Jew believed in all sincerity that his co-religionists used blood at Passover. How was he to uproot out of such a simple heart the weeds sown there by evil men? The rabbi saw that words would just then be useless. A beautiful thought came to him, and he said, So be it, dear friend. Come into the synagogue tomorrow at this time, and I will grant your request. But till then you must fast, you must not sleep all night, but watch in prayer, for this is a very grave and dreadful thing.  Next day, at the appointed time, he came again, worn with hunger and lack of sleep. The rabbi took the key of the synagogue, and they went in there together. In the synagogue, all was quiet.  The rabbi opened the ark, took out a safer Torah, and said, You know that for us Jews the scroll of the law is the most sacred of all things, and that the list of denunciations occurs in it twice. I swear to you by the scroll of the law, if any Jew, whosoever he be, requires blood at Passover, may all the curses contained in the two lists of denunciations be on my head, and on the head of my whole family. The Jew was greatly startled. He knew the rabbi had never before sworn an oath, and now, for his sake, he had sworn an oath so dreadful. The Jew wept much, and said, Dear rabbi, I have sinned before God and before you. I pray you, pardon me, and give me some hard penance, as hard as you please. I will perform it willingly, and may God forgive me likewise. The rabbi comforted him and told no one what had happened. He only told a few very near relations, just to show them how people can be talked into believing the greatest foolishness and the most wicked lies. May God, said my grandmother, open the eyes of all who accuse us falsely, that they may see how useless it is to trump up against us things that never were seen or heard. Jews will be Jews while the world lasts, and they will become, through suffering, better Jews with more Jewish hearts. End of The Claver rabbi, a folktale by Anonymous. End of Yiddish Mises, Yiddish Tales, translated by Helena Frank and read by Adrian Pretzelis in Santa Rosa, California, 21st of Nissan in the year 5771. That's equal 25th 2011.


What's happening guys today we're going to be going over the master's degree tier list and I made one like this last year in 2020 a lot of things have happened since then and so I'm redoing the list I'm adding a few things and I'm also going to be changing up some of the rankings based on what has happened in the world now this is a highly requested video and I'm basically just going to jump right into it obviously you know tap the like button hit the subscribe button ring the notification bell blah blah blah blah and let's get into it okay so first one on the list is going to be acupuncturist okay so there's several different degrees out there that kind of fall under this category it's kind of like eastern medicine acupuncturist you know natural medicine naturopath all of those sorts of things not a lot of jobs out there for acupuncturist and you know natural medicine doctors the jobs that are out there usually don't pay very well in terms of the debt to income ratio which is very important for you to look at especially if you're evaluating degrees where you have to take out what are known as grad plus loans which is most of the graduate level degrees the debt to income ratio is really really bad it's about 4.6 to 1 and that is the worst on the entire list right so this one is just not very good acupuncturist is going to go into f tier and by the way guys f tier is the worst s tier is the best i do get that common sometimes um so you know the ones that are in the bottom are the worst the ones that are on the top are the best next we're going to be talking about art related master's degrees so this is where you would go to a school and get a master's level degree in some type of art maybe you go to julyard study piano or you know you get some kind of degree in painting maybe graphic design etc now there are a very rare subset of people out there where this is going to be worth it for you if you're someone who has just ridiculous talent when it comes to art this can be a good opportunity for you for instance let's say you're you know really good at playing classical guitar and you get an opportunity to go to julyard school of music to you know practice with some of the best classical guitarists in the world then yes okay go ahead and take that opportunity i saw my shot and i took it that's gonna apply to like 0.01 of people out there though for most people when it comes to you know making money from art a lot of the time it's not an employable skill now what do i mean by employable skill i mean that it's a skill that is very easily going to get you a job that does not mean that it isn't a valuable skill art obviously enhances the lives of many people throughout the world and so it is a valuable skill it's just not employable so what you need to do is figure out an alternative way to make money from it and in my opinion the smartest way for you to do that is to just simply go off on your own and start your own business i think it would be much smarter for you to spend the you know about six years or so it would take for you to get your masters just move to a city that has like a good art scene make friends with a bunch of people who are also into whatever art you're into and then just practice with them you might even be able to find someone who's extremely good who you can hire at a low price or maybe make them your mentor i think you'll learn a heck of a lot more doing it this way and it'll cost a lot less than going to art school that's on average though like i said there are exceptions so for this one i'm also going to be putting it into f tier next one on the list is going to be college professor now if you are able to get a gig as a college professor which is a little bit difficult to do with just a master's level degree but sometimes you can get gigs as a college professor you know at like a community college for instance with just a masters this is a pretty sweet job okay a lot of people want to become college professors especially in certain types of degrees and not a lot of them get to actually do it very very competitive especially depending on what degree you're going into usually the ones that are the most competitive are also the ones where it's the hardest to find jobs at and that's just simply because of supply and demand if there's a bunch of people graduating with a degree there's going to be a lot of saturation a lot of people are going to go on they can't find a job so what did they do they go back to school and they try to become a professor but with that being said if you're able to become a professor this is a super sweet gig fantastic i'm going to go ahead and put this one into b tier next on the list is going to be data science and the reason i included this one is generally speaking if you want to become a data scientist you are going to need to get a master's level degree now i know a lot of people out there would disagree with me a lot of the time in the tech industry people are you know very into teaching themselves or learning in ways that are alternative to traditional college and there are some people out there that absolutely can do that without a doubt but for the average person you are going to want to get a master's degree in data science if you want to become a data scientist but data science is one of the hottest skills that you can possibly learn this one without a doubt is going to be one of the best careers you can go into in the next 10 to 20 years everything is moving towards you know information data science you know data itself is more valuable than gold or oil now so this one is definitely going into s tier and for some reason i took two pictures of that one so i'm going to put it in there twice just for a good measure next on the list is going to be a master's of business administration now this one can be really good it is on the list of the degrees that create the most millionaires a lot of people who end up becoming CEOs or executives do get MBAs however i think this is one of those degrees that has been cheapened quite a bit in the last 20 years or so just because of the fact that it's pretty much just oversaturated there's too many different programs too many different universities that offer it so you can pretty much get an MBA in a cracker box these days like it's totally ridiculous how easy it is for you to just tack on an MBA you can do it online you can do it while you're taking other schooling so i think the big thing about getting an MBA is if you are going to do it make sure you do it for a reason right and also make sure you're getting it from a reputable university so yeah this one does kind of depend but if you look at the statistics it is pretty good so for that reason i am going to put it into a tier next on the list is going to be a master's level education degree or teaching degree so this is where you would get like an education degree and then you go back to school and get your master's and of course you would get a salary bump from that not bad a lot of teachers do end up going down this route but it doesn't really pop off the page either so this is one that is you know okay the debt to income ratio on this one was 2.5 to 1 so it is manageable but yeah i'll go ahead and put this one into c tier next on the list is going to be one of my personal favorites which is nurse practitioner this is a degree that is basically the six year nursing degree you can even go one higher than this and become a dnp which is basically the doctorate version of a nurse but yeah this one is absolutely fantastic the debt to income ratio was 1.3 you know they make fantastic money lots of demand pretty good job satisfaction there's just so many different options if you want to be able to change whatever your career is it's not as difficult as it would be for a doctor for instance this is a fantastic one definitely going into s tier next on the list is going to be occupational therapist and generally speaking this is a master's level degree although many people think that it's going to be moving more towards becoming a doctoral level degree in the near future so the debt to income ratio here is about 3.2 to 1 i do think there are some programs out there that kind of scam people just because of the fact that this is such a popular career to go into and the reason it's so popular is because it has such a high job satisfaction rating is actually one of the highest job satisfaction ratings out of all of the different careers out there and i think the reason for that is because you basically get to you know see someone from the time that they get injured and help them live a relatively normal life so you really get to see the fruits of your labors whereas other types of health care you know you might see someone one time and then you kind of just have to wonder after that point how they are so yeah i would say with this one be careful what school you go to there are some occupational therapy mills out there make sure you go to a school that isn't going to scam you and charge you way more than is needed but this one overall is going to go into b tier pretty solid next one on the list is going to be physician assistant now known as physician associate this one has a 2.1 to 1 debt to income ratio not too bad at all pretty similar to nurse practitioner even easier for you to switch your specialty than it is for nurse practitioner a lot of positives to this one you make a six figure salary lots of flexibility pretty high job satisfaction you can actually prescribe and diagnose under the supervision of a physician really good one super solid option this one goes into s tier next on the list is going to be psychologist at the masters level now i've talked a lot about psychology it's one of those degrees that a ton of people are interested over a hundred thousand people graduate with this degree every single year it is the single most popular degree and i can see why a lot of people find it interesting i think it's interesting however when you have all these people going into a degree and there's just not as many jobs to keep up with it that's when something called saturation happens and this one is definitely saturated you have to get a masters at a bare minimum in order to get a job but with that being said if you're really passionate about it you know what you're getting into you can definitely you know impact people's lives in a positive way this one can be somewhat decent as long as you really do your research it can be viable and so for that reason it's going to go into c tier next one on the list is going to be a masters in some type of science related degree right so maybe a masters in physics or chemistry or biochemistry now the thing about science degrees in my opinion at least is i think they're extremely valuable but unfortunately the market doesn't really treat them the way that they deserve to be treated especially at the bachelor's level so if you get a science degree at the bachelor's level you're probably gonna have quite a bit of trouble getting a job or at least a lot more than you would think however at the master's level it gets a little bit better and so this one i am going to go ahead and put into b tier next on the list is going to be a social science or humanity degrees that is at the master's level okay so something like you know anthropology sociology etc now unfortunately these are the types of degrees which pretty much the only jobs available out there that are you know at least directly available um that you know a lot of people end up going into are going to require like a doctoral your phd level so this stuff is extremely interesting but unfortunately there just aren't that many jobs that are available out there and the numbers for these are very very bad and a lot of the time i recommend people who have gotten like master's degrees or or something like that try to get government jobs that seems to be kind of like their best option and a lot of the times these jobs have absolutely nothing to do with the degree that they got however government jobs can be pretty decent right so it is a bit of a trade-off but you know if you can work around it if you have to but overall i have to be fair here this one is going into d tier next one on the list is going to be a master's of social work and this is a master's level degree where you would get it in order to become a social worker and this one is very similar to getting a psychology degree at the master's level a lot of the same issues with the psychology degree it's also going to go into c tier next one on the list is going to be liberal arts this is going to go into the same category at the master's level as the social science slash humanity degrees went into i'm going to go ahead and put it into d tier and then the next one on the list is going to be technology engineering and mathematics degree at the master's degree level so these are going to be obviously like technology degrees engineering degrees and mathematics degrees not science degrees because science isn't as good as the other stem degrees now the great thing about these is usually you can very easily get a job in undergrad just with a bachelor level degree and so a lot of these are not saturated it's much easier to become a professor in engineering mathematics science etc because of the fact that you can get a job in undergrad with just a bachelor's degree and so you're not going to be competing against all those people who can't get a job and they decide to go back to school and so there's actually a lot of opportunity out there for people who graduate with these types of degrees and so for that reason this one is also going into s tier check out my other videos right here i made them just for you go ahead hit that like button you know ring the notification bell hit the subscribe button do all the other stuff comment down below any thoughts comments criticisms etc that you have on the video let me know you what you think about these especially if you're someone who's graduated with some of these degrees i would love to hear your perspective on this and i will see you next time


Welcome to the backstory on ballot question 3D, which asks voters to approve changing the city charter to allow the city of Longmont to lease ground or development or 30 rather than just 20 year periods of time. My name is Tim Waters and as a volunteer for Longmont Public Media, I have the good fortune of interviewing elected officials, city officials, community leaders, leaders in our business community and our nonprofit community on topics of interest and relevance to Longmont. And today I have the great good fortune to have a panel of folks who fit all those criteria, elected officials, community leaders of both business and nonprofit organizations in Longmont and in the St. Brain Valley. The names of the people in this in the faces of the people in this program are likely familiar to everybody in town, but I'm going to remind you who they are and then I'm going to ask them to talk a little about themselves. Marsha Martin, a council member representing board two in a member city council. Jessica Erickson is the CEO of the Longmont Economic Development Partnership. Dave Emerson is the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of the St. Brain Valley. Bob Bosman is both president of the Longmont Performing Arts Initiative of Lapai and of the Longmont Corral. And Elliott Moore is the director of music for the Longmont Symphony Orchestra and is the conductor of the Longmont Symphony Orchestra. So welcome to you all to this panel and thank you so much for carving time out of your schedule today to join me in this conversation. You know the big topic we have a ballot we have ballots are out as we are as we're recording this they just came out a big election this November on a host of issues and at least one of the issues on that ballot is one that you all care about as UI as does Marsha Martin. So Marsha I'm going to start with you tell us about you about why the council would care about this about you and the council generally and then we'll give everybody a chance to fill in some gaps of who they are in their organizations. Thank you council member Waters. I'm going this as a volunteer for Longmont Public Media not as a council member. Okay so but I'm doing this as a council member. Yes you are. Okay and even though my views don't represent the council I am a former engineer by profession and since I've gotten onto the council I have come to understand that the city of Longmont is a big technical problem. The city of Longmont owns land and it needs to make sure that that land has is put to the highest and best use in order to get good things for the people of Longmont and sometimes that means enticing people private investors to invest in that land and use it a different way than it has been used and some of the land isn't used at all and to get things have changed since the city charter was written and so one of the things that's important is that 30 year financing needs to be available to people who usually generously for the public good want to invest in improving city land. Every city on the front range has already amended their charter to allow either 30 or 40 year leasing for this exact reason. Longmont is behind the times and it means that sometimes Longmont can't compete for public private partnerships in the way that adjacent cities can so regardless of which of the very fine uses can for public land that is your favorite one this is an important mechanism to get all of them done. Jessica tell us about ledp. Sure sorry about my camera quality I'm not sure what's going on with it but economic development partnership is a public private nonprofit economic development organization so we're by all definitions a public private partnership organization on economic development and the economic sustainability and and long-term viability of our community. As part of that we lead an economic development strategy called advanced Longmont 2.0 it really began implementation late last year early this year right before we were hit with the COVID-19 pandemic and different than how many other places approach economic development we really focus on not just the traditional measures of growth for economic development but also on prosperity and inclusion so how does that growth benefit our entire community equally. Within that we're looking at the success and viability and growth of our industry base as well as our talent at work sorry labor pool here in Longmont and in the region we're focused on creating places in Longmont that are attractive to both industry and to talent as well as transportation connectivity for our community so we believe that in particular in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that adding tools to our toolbox to achieve the visions of all of those focus areas of our economic development strategies create resilience and recovery for our community sorry adding to our toolbox to be able to do that via the charter change to create the opportunity for 30-year leases makes good sense for Longmont and its economic future. Thanks Dave Emerson tell us about you and Habitat. Sure thanks Tim thanks for allowing me to be a part of this so my wife and I moved here in 2006 I started as a volunteer with Habitat down in south home beach was in the corporate sector and just fell in love with the Habitat model so we've been in Longmont for I guess 14 years I thought I'd do this for a few years and then move on but I'm just really really inspired by the things that I see with Habitat many of you know or may know what Habitat does we are a home ownership ministry to really understand Habitat I think you need to go back to the 60s when Habitat was formed a place called Conantia Farms in rural Georgia and at the time they saw very very deep division with people they saw people in need particularly farmers and so the visionaries back then really came up with two concepts that you'll still excuse me still see with Habitat today and that is building a house with volunteers so the community coming together a diverse group of people coming together all different beliefs and opinions and building community by building that house and then that house is not given away it is something that lower income individuals can afford we design the mortgage to be affordable and then that mortgage gets recycled into building more houses so when we look at just your local affiliate here your local chapter of Habitat over half of our cash flow comes from our mortgage payments and mortgage commitments so the home owner not only is helping themselves which is just incredible to watch over decades especially when there's children in the house the things they do their perspective changes and so forth but they know they're helping their neighbors which is really an agent of change for other things thanks for being in this thanks for all that you do housing we're going to come back to housing this is a big challenge in just a minute Elliott tell us a bit about you your high-profile in this community everybody has seen you perform in some way tell us who you are we know how talented you are and a bit about LSO well my name is Elliott Moore and I am the music director and conductor of the long months of any orchestra and it's such a privilege to have that position because what I get to do is work to transform our community through music and it's something I'm very passionate about and something that I certainly care deeply about the long month symphony has existed now for 54 years this is the though the first year that we're having a virtual season due to the pandemic and so it's really been you know something to behold how the long month symphony has come together how we've been able to respond to the the current crisis really that we're looking at and how we deal with that and and the wonderful ways in which we've been able to deal with that and bring music to people and uplift people we have several programs that I'm particularly proud of one is our sensory friendly nutcracker performance which is for differently able children and of course their families and and so this is an example of how we can reach every group of people through music in our community and we're very passionate about doing that so like I said it's been here for 54 years and we look to be here for many many many more very good Bob Bausman last but not least in this in this panel tell us about you about both Lapai and the chorale okay sure well I came to the chorale back in 2007 probably following a story of a lot of our members who have music way in their past but then had a long hiatus in my case about 20 years and then came back to randomly find this ad in the Times call calling for singers for the Mozart Requiem which was my first experience with the chorale and I was hooked and I've been there ever since and became the board president back in 2016 the Longmont chorale is Longmont's longest running performing arts organization and indeed one of the longest running community choirs in the entire western united states many people probably don't know that and what people probably don't know either is what a thriving performing arts scene Longmont has we have six member groups in Lapai all of which have been in operation for at least a decade most for multiple decades going all the way back to the 1930s but if you drive around town right now there's very little sign of the performing arts in Longmont that you can just see going down the street you might see the theater companies building and you'll see steward auditorium but as far as anything else you won't and that's because for the most part we are having to work with churches and schools and we're very glad to have them because if we did not we could not do what we do that being said they were not purpose built for what we do and they have other purposes so you know we're trying to fit around their schedule and whatnot and so that's why we're in pursuit of a dedicated performing arts facility in Longmont and 3D would go a long way towards making that easier to happen if you make for a 30 year payment on something versus a 20 year payment you you recognize there's an annual savings there if that savings comes in for the venue that trickles down to rents that we end up paying which then trickles down to lower ticket prices for our audience too so that's why we're really excited that this is on the ballot all right well I'm going to we're going to drill down on some of what you just talked about Bob I'm going to come back to you on on some of what's going to trickle down and and the implications if we don't have something that trickles down right I mean everybody's going to make their decisions about what to do here with this ballot question but I want to go back and start Marsha with you in terms of the follow-up this is the council put this question on a ballot a year ago it failed it's back on the ballot in this election cycle so go back and begin to drill down or unpack maybe on some of what Bob just touched on in terms of the difference between 20 and 30 years and why now why would the council want to put this back on after having so recently been voted down by the public from a council perspective why would it matter now and why 30 versus 20 years so I'm going to do it in the opposite order because why now is a really important question this whole issue of managing finance as a city is something that I like to call economic engineering and people are going to hear that word and say well that sounds shady and it is so not it's just the city using the resources it has to make sure that the city has good things for the public and of all the places I've lived in my life the city of Longmont and its municipal government is the absolute most devoted to providing good things for the people who live here you might know that Longmont is limited in its ability to grow and if you're going to have a city that can't get richer by growing you know as a city like Houston has you know just by growing out and out and out then you have to find other ways to make life better for the people who live here by improving the economy so that more money flows past each individual it's a to use the cliche a rising tide that lifts all the boats and the city of Longmont has is pursuing quietly a number of visions that do that that cause money to flow into the city of Longmont and stop here so that the raise the wages of our wage workers tend to go up so that people have more disposable income so that people have more options available to them and so that people's lives who live here can be richer and that helps everybody it helps our businesses it helps our students it's just good all the way around and it helps our people who are housing insecure and that's one of the most important things to me personally because it allows us to engineer a diverse ladder of housing options starting with things that are affordable to people just getting on the ladder or people who have had problems economically and you know providing options for people at every stage of their lives so that's what can be done with this why now there's really two things first of all last time we had this on the ballot we were just trusting the people that oh this is one of those things that the city asks for every so often and as a city council member I have to take responsibility for not realizing that we needed to explain so this time a lot of engaged residents of Longmont are trying to explain and make sure that everybody knows why this is the case we didn't think it was necessary last time because people of Longmont are very good and usually do trust the city and vote for things like like street taxes or a little bit of an extra sales tax to pay for extra police you know those things always pass and we thought this would pass but nobody understood what it was for so now you know what it's for but the other thing is we're in an unprecedented economic situation because of the pandemic we need to be able to engineer our recovery and that means doing things to leverage the assets we have to make more money for the city not to take it for the city and you know use it just for the municipality but rather to improve the economics of the city make money flow and help people out of the holes that they're in because of the pandemic the reason that public public private partnerships are going to be a big deal is because we hope that recovery grants are going to be flowing in to Longmont they already have to a great extent but most of the ones that are here so far are absolutely relief you know just just fill in the holes pay for things like childcare special measures that businesses and schools have to take in it to keep things safe during the pandemic but we've lost a lot of businesses a lot of businesses have have got recovery work to do they need to feel secure enough to rehire we need to build things that will create jobs and if we can use the money that's going to be flowing in from above to do that we can do this recovery better and just having a better set of financing options one of which is 30 year leases will help us do that so it's a big long wheel of causality to get this done and this is one little piece of it but it's one little piece that'll make a big difference hi i'm i'm going to come back to you you kind of frame this as if you're driving down whether it's main street or anywhere else in town what one might expect to see physically um to reflect how vibrant an arts community we enjoy in long line so what are some of those things you expect to see and and what do you what are your assumptions about why we don't see them in long why we don't see them i think is just a matter of growth and just you know it just hasn't been done yet um to some extent you need to look at the fact that these groups have been making do with what they have right now and so you tend to say well we don't really need to necessarily do anything there the problem is when you look beyond what's happening right now to what could happen not to just benefit groups like ours but other performers in town attracting regional acts attracting nationally touring acts we have this fantastic crossroads location in northern colorado where our groups already bring in people from other communities and so we know that if we have the proper facility that not only would we ourselves continue to build on that and we would become more visible as well the performing arts in general in long want would become more visible but then we'd be able to bring in these other acts that are not local but that people go to other communities to see and that's important because what happens with that on the economic side is then they take their money out to those other communities so we're talking about things like the Budweiser event center or down to broom field or even down to Denver where instead all of that could be coming back to long want well and I'm going to at some point in this I'm going to come back to what's at stake in this election but I want to I want to move to Elliott Elliott you made reference to the the the symphony's been around for what you say 54 years 54 yeah and and you've been able to adapt to various physical settings from the advanced brand auditorium to the steward auditorium and now you've had to adapt to no facilities right you've been doing the work virtually so good on you for all of that adaptation but we're going to come out of the pandemic and we're going to look forward to the opportunities when we can come back together again to enjoy our talent in this community so why would why would you as the as the as the music director and director and conductor of the symphony why are you concerned about this ballot question in the future of the symphony especially in the time when we can you know post pandemic world we can come back together sure well you know Kim let me at least say also thank you for having me on the show and and this is a wonderful opportunity for me to thank the Longmont Symphony for you know agreeing to let me do this the Longmont Symphony you know is very careful they don't want to wait into issues that are going to be on the ballot box but because they understand that I have you know I'm an informed individual who has kind of a mandate to educate the public about these things that I know about like concert halls I'm really thrilled to be with everyone today you know I think that this is a transformational moment for us we are really at a crossroads and the pandemic I think puts kind of a fine point on that by the standards of most people you know an orchestra is kind of only as good as the musicians who are in it but I actually happen to believe something a little bit different I think that the orchestra is really only as good as the concert hall that they perform in and why is that I think for several reasons but when I think about like a violinist who obviously tunes their violin and looks after the care of their violin so that they can draw forth the most expressive sounds the concert hall is our instrument and so in order for us to really touch people's lives for in order for us to really have a transformational experience and to give that kind of experience we have to have the right kind of setting and I think that you know there's some other things about performing art centers one is that in today's modern world it is one of the few spaces where people can come together to celebrate and I think that a good concert hall is can be a place of beauty and it can promote all kinds of well-being and to that end I think that as we sort of come together as people come together in a concert hall it has the ability to unify people and that's something that I think is particularly important in today's climate that ability to to to have unified experiences or experiences which unify people is something that I certainly place very highly at this point and so I think that for many communities across certainly the United States if not the world at some point or other they recognize the need for these kinds of spaces and I think that this issue is something that can help us reach those kinds of goals and it's something that I would like to see for the performing arts because the performing arts make the community a livable place without the arts I don't know why we do what we do you know and so that's something that I want to continue the work that we've created and to really take advantage of it and so I think that this gives us an opportunity to take advantage of it well said and I earlier in this conversation uh both Jessica and and Marcia made reference uh to to what we do here that that attracts talent much of what Jessica does and we're going to come back to Jessica in just a few minutes in terms of the broader economic development sector is um is is try to create pipelines that bring talent to the community to accomplish what we the goals we want to accomplish as a community and um one of the things that we might be mindful of is what do we have to do to keep talent in the community once having attractive uh talent and I would and speaking for myself and I think probably lots of other people in lawnmower seeing you stick around uh as the as the director of music and the conductor of the symphony it would be a high priority for lso and for for the broader community uh so as people think about the kinds of things Bob referenced that we'd like to see um not only does it make a statement about the community it makes a statement to those who we'd like to bring to town and keep in town because of the talent um that they possess and that they share with us so uh just part of that perspective Dave we're talking a lot about the arts but there's a whole nother perspective and Marcia made reference to to housing um and what what's possible we there's so many ways that communities can get creative and collaborative to create housing options in communities which is one of our biggest challenges in this municipality and in every municipality is housing of access and affordability so from your perspective given your your your commitment with your professional life why do you care about this ballot question and what might it represent as opportunities for habitat for humanity for the st brain valley sure um and and so many so many thoughts going through my head uh but i'll share a couple of perspectives if you will so one of the things i didn't mention is that uh i'm spending a lot of time in estus park with habitat we also build an estus park we responded in lions um and it is very eye-opening to see the impact of a lack of affordable housing and an estus park and a shock to the system in lions what that has done to the makeup of a community so in estus park at one point they used to graduate 100 seniors every year it's now fewer than 20 a year um i have friends up there that will tell you they have lost a generation of people uh in lions because of the affordable housing that was lost in the 2013 flood they lost a lot of income diversity and from an arts and music standpoint a lot of the individuals that they lost were musicians were artists as you can imagine um so that's really why it's interesting to me and um you know there there's a lot of different things to consider with any ballot question and as elliot uh kind of alluded to habitat considers itself purple we appeal to a lot of different uh folks but i guess when i look at i'm i'm a finance person what we do beyond building the house is we set up finding financing that people can be successful with so across the nation habitat has a less than two percent foreclosure rate and these are for working-class families um who never would have really been able to afford a home um so when we look at uh that's excess obviously we have to keep the cost down so that's where land becomes available and at a affordable rate but also the difference between a 20-year financing and a 30-year financing as you can imagine is profound it's $300 a month minimum and uh that obviously makes a huge difference for someone making $16-$17 an hour i also think it's kind of ironic that i'm asked to speak today um as i shared i started in 2006 today is the first day that i do not have an active project in longmont we dedicated two houses on saturday um and right now we do not at this moment have a project now the pipeline is very very good thanks to the support of the city and others but uh those projects are in the entitlement phase and it takes time to do to do it right to to account for everything so land is only going to become a harder and harder challenge and if we could stretch out somehow the financing and development we know we can recover the cost within 30 years so the so is it fair you know i'm not in the real estate business and i'm not in the finance business but i everything i know about this has learned since i was on the council i like that again so like 20 of the cost of developing residential properties is is tied up in land is that a fair estimate that that's fair and that's probably understated so if the city owned undeveloped ground which it does then it could lease to habitat or to the land conservancy or to a developer that would partner and the conditions of that lease would be to partner with the conservancy or with habitat or with both to do to do residential development that's financed over the cost of 30 years and at the end of that 30 years all kinds of options in terms of what would do what one would do what the city might do or the development might do with either selling to the homeowners or uh debt uh deeding it to habitat or to a housing authority ways to maintain housing as permanently affordable to achieve all of which could be possible it's possible now but now it's limited to a 20-year horizon or cycle for financing yeah right right and it just is not quite um quite long enough to stretch out the the development jessica um uh from your perspective you've done economic development in not just this community you brought experience to this community doing economic development in different communities and at different levels uh why would the long month economic development partnership care and i and i do know that your organization has endorsed this ballot measure encouraging long modders uh uh to support it why would ledp care about this what's the what's the bigger competitive uh context within which we exist now and will in the post pandemic world sir so i think when most people think about economic development and which is fair they think about um the announcements of large employers and making significant investments and creating a significant number of jobs in the community um we also look at retention of our existing primary industry base and their ability to stay here and grow here in recent years the number one factor in those decisions whether it's to stay and grow in place or to relocate to another place coming from somewhere else into long want the number one decision making factor is availability of talent availability of talent in the local region but also the ability to attract talent from other places where um the talent that they need is currently located and in order for us to be an attractive place for talent here in long want there are a number of factors that we have to have as a community those include things like affordable and attainable housing um affordable and quality child care um as we've talked about so many times quality education um and a quality of place a quality of life that is unmatched by other places in the country and in the region the reality though is that projects that create those things that create education and child care and affordable housing and cultural facilities aren't necessarily the most don't necessarily have the highest direct fiscal return on investment what they bring is the bigger picture economic return on investment for our community so in the form of wages in the form of quality of life in the form of ability to attract and retain talent to develop our own talent and an induced and indirect spending for those people who are coming to and moving to our community to take advantage of that value here and so in order to make those projects happen understanding that on both on the both on the public and private side don't create the highest ROI from a direct fiscal perspective it creates an environment where public private partnerships become necessary and a stacking of financial tools in order to make those projects fiscally viable is absolutely necessary and one of those things that we can do is as Dave's talked about create a financing mechanism that allows for the city to enter into 30 year leases in order to support on the public side financing of those projects that out of necessity are going to have to be invested in by the private sector and for you I'll ask you I'll ask but I'll extend this to Marsha and to the gentleman in this in this panel as well and I think it's a pretty straightforward answer to the question if this does not pass what are the options available for the pie a concert hall for for housing for development of affordable housing or any a vast number of other things we might want to do as a community if we're not going to be able to create an environment where we can put together public private partnerships that benefit the community what's the option for generating the resources to do the kinds of things we're talking about wanting to do that was a softball question Marsha I mean there there's always putting a tax question on the ballot that's the answer that's the answer I mean and recent history tells us that there's not and whatever your opinion on that is that there's not a lot of appetite for that right we at a state level turned down funding of transportation through increased taxes we had a local level turned down funding public funding of an additional recreation and sports facility with the hockey rink and pool and so if that's not an option let's consider some of these the other options like the 30-year lease to allow for us to be able to provide those amenities to our community yeah a year ago some of the criticism and marsha you may want to weigh in on this some of the criticism of this of this ballot question was that there wasn't a proposal on the table there wasn't a public private partnership on which we could vote well that's not the way these things work right first you have to change the condition to attract you know the interest so there's not a proposal on the table and it's unlikely that we would have one if we're competing with other communities that allow for 30 or 40 year financing and we're limited to 20 is that fair yes i certainly think it's fair and i i think that although there is not a proposal on the table now what is true is that there is a vision um you know the long month long month has a vision constructed by the city council over the last several years and it includes ways to bring in outside money for the city through the the performing arts through having a a convention or convocation center through having a center for higher education the um the city council's uh acronym for that is steam which is science technology engineering arts and mathematics uh took me a second there to come up with the m but uh you know what i have seen as a council member is that that vision and by the way part of that vision is making sure that all of the children and all of the people are properly housed that growing up in long month is the best experience that we can make it so that also means affordable housing it also means uh a clean environment um you know it means a lot of things having that vision and as i sit on the different um boards and commissions that as a council liaison what i hear people talking about that vision is a lot of excitement among people who are stakeholders in the community but not necessarily fiscal stakeholders in a particular project you know um uh jessica you can uh can verify this you know uh erik wallis who who is left-hand breweries right he's not going to go build a concert hall and he's not going to profit from that but he knows that the value of this being a rich community and i sat in a economic development board meeting where he said let's build steam and and so this vision is something that can get everybody in the community excited about enriching our community and um you know it's a it's a no-brainer given that 30-year lease is just lowers the cost of money and this is a great time to be borrowing right because we have a really low cost of money and we have a an environment where where stimulus is going to be something that the higher levels of government are going to try to be giving us so this is a no-brainer it's just an enabling mechanism that doesn't cost anybody a dime so one of the criticisms that that you heard uh relative to this topic last time around and maybe you've heard some of this as well is that that's all pure speculation uh and i guess i would say based on what you just said marsha one person's speculation is another person's vision of what's possible uh so i want to give everybody in this on this panel a chance if there are any final thoughts any last thoughts if i can tim i would say that the the only thing i would add is when you're you're talking about land and and doing something with land um you have to have a bit of certainty to begin investing in time and money before you really know what you have and if um you don't have the option if it's if it's 20 years you have to set your expectation there and it really i can see a lot of potential really never getting off the ground because the conditions are not there to even explore what is possible if that makes sense and the conditions that do exist in other communities with which we are competing right i mean you're you're not dancing we're competing just straight up any other final thoughts and i'll just add you know to the point of it being speculation even if it is speculation and the city never signs a 30-year lease on its property um just having the tool in our toolbox available to us um as as a negotiating chip for uh some of these projects that we have as part of the vision of our community um absolutely harms no one that this charter change does not mandate 30-year leases it allows for the option if it's in the best interest of the vision that our community has for itself and it's fair to say that voters would have to decide whether or not they believe their city employees and their elected council members are smart enough to negotiate terms in a public private partnership that serve a variety of interests but fundamentally first the community and and long month residents fair yeah all right i i want to thank you for your time in this program but more importantly i want to thank you for all that you do everybody on this panel you make such extraordinary contributions to the life of this community uh so as as a resident i want to say thanks as a city council member i want to say thanks and as a representative of the larger community i want to say thanks for all you do every day 365 days a year on behalf of long month thank you thank you so much thank you and and viewers that is the backstory on ballot question 3d coming up showing up on your ballot as it arrives in your mailbox thanks for viewing thank you jim


In the early 70s, Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom was in the grip of unprecedented terrorist strikes. By 1980, this sectarian violence had reduced the city of Belfast to a dreary ghost town. But today, Belfast is a vibrant new town, and much of the credit for its rejuvenation goes to the courage of one man. Strangely, this man who put Belfast back onto the map is not an Irishman, nor even an Englishman, but a former civil servant from Punjab, Daljeet Singh Rana. Daljeet opened the first curry house in Belfast and dared to do what was unheard of at the time, keep his shop open all night. After 10 pm, you couldn't get a meal anywhere. So this was one place, which became very, very popular. So from there, I built on that success, I acquired two other restaurants. On the night of 18th November 1971, Daljeet's quality curry house was bombed by terrorists. Within weeks, his other establishments would also go up in smoke. With only 295 pounds that he received his compensation, Daljeet decided to pick up the pieces and start again. Thanks to the courage that Daljeet had demonstrated in the city, Victoria Street was soon known as the Golden Mile of Belfast. Daljeet's contribution has not gone unnoticed, but the greatest honour came in 1996 when Queen Elizabeth conferred on him the title of member of the British Empire. She spent a bit more time with me than other recipients, asking me what I was doing and how long I'd been living here. And to receive the award and to be part of that ceremony was quite overwhelming. And at that time, you think, I wish my parents were there. Daljeet Rana is just one of the many success stories of the one million strong Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom. Nathpreet today is one of the most powerful Asian businessmen in Britain and has built up an empire in the manufacturing industry. At the age of 27, Nathpreet headed for Britain to study air conditioning with 375 pounds in his pocket. Today, he owns 30 factories spread across Britain, Germany and America. And he has a personal wealth estimated at anything upwards of 90 million pounds. Very few people of Indian origin participated in the political processes of the country. Gradually even that is changing. Today, the Liberal Democratic Party has an Indian as its president. Lord Navneet Dholakia. On the 29th of October 1997, Lord Navneet Dholakia of Walton Brooks was introduced to the House of Lords. Lord Dholakia brought a unique Indian touch to the House of Lords, which was even reflected in his coat of arms. I think the Indian diaspora, especially in England and people that I've seen in Canada is very strong. I think it's a very powerful movement. The genders saying had his first lessons in music at the Guertuara, but very soon learned how to mix the electric guitar with a sitar. In February 1998, a band named Corner Shop released a song called Brimful of Asha. It went straight to the top of the charts in the UK and sold nearly a million copies. The band's name comes from the derogatory stereotype that all Indians in England have a corner shop.