The LoCo Experience

BONUS EPISODE - Hot Nugs Conversation with Scott Van Tatenhove For Mayor of the City of Fort Collins

• Ava Munos • Season 5

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Scott VanTatenhove is a candidate for Fort Collins Mayor, and joined me for the fourth of our Hot Nugs Conversations - a collaboration between LoCo Think Tank, Matador Mexican Grill, Old Town Spice Shop, and The LoCo Experience Podcast.  

Please visit Scott’s Facebook Page to learn more about his platform, and make sure to vote by or before November 4, 2025!

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Speaker 5:

Scott Van Taten Hove is a candidate for Fort Collins Mayor. And join me for the fourth of our hot Nugs conversations, a collaboration between Loco Think Tank, Matador, Mexican Grill, old Town Spice Shop, and the Loco Experience Podcast. Please visit Scott's Facebook page to learn more about his platform and make sure to vote by or before November 4th, 2025.

Speaker:

Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. We're here in a bonus episode, the Hot Nugs conversation series with the Fort Collins Mayor candidates, and today is with Scotty v Scott von Taten Hove and, uh,

Speaker 2:

sounds so, so official when you say it like that. Well,

Speaker:

you know, I put a little flyer into it. I usually get Van Tater tot van Tater tot Yes. I love tater tots. I mean, do you choose tater tots over french fries? Uh, as a normal thing? If it, if the option is there, yeah, if

Speaker 2:

it's like, you know, if it's at. Uh, what's the place on Lynden Street? Poor brothers. Yeah. They've got a great tot Okay. Like, like if it's like a, at a restaurant and they're, they're kind of, but if it's just, you know, a bag of tots.

Speaker:

But if you're just in South Dakota and they're like, do you want fries or tots with that fries? Really? Alright. I'll try not to judge. Yeah. I, I already let you by with the red glasses, but that's cool. So I just got a

Speaker 2:

Well, they look nice. I've never had, I've never had glasses like this before. They fit your personality Nice. But I, we just met.

Speaker:

I know, but that's people like me immediately. Oh, okay. It's a surprise to me when they don't.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful.

Speaker:

Um, but sometimes

Speaker 2:

I'm surprised, I'm, I'm trying to look more mayoral. I don't know if you can see it, but I'm wearing a, like a jacket. Yeah. Yeah. It looks like you got to the, at the thrift

Speaker:

store. Probably.

Speaker 2:

Uh, this one, I don't know, maybe.

Speaker:

I like that. It's nice. I had a pair of pants with that same color in the fat pattern originally. The fat chords. You got the fat chord. Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 2:

yeah. After, um, I was at the, the Clean Energy Forum at the Lyric Cinema, and I was wearing, I've been wearing my short shorts to every event. Okay. I even did a video. It was like, so everyone's talking about my shorts, so he and I did like a 30 minute just montage of mean short shorts. It'll go viral. It got. It got over a, for me, it did a thousand views. That's a little bit a thousand views is, is good for me. And it was just my shorts.

Speaker:

Okay. We're gonna move on to the barbecue sauce. All right. Are you ready? I'd love to. Okay. Gentlemen, first, and we're, oh, and by the way, uh, double dip, but only if you flip. It's kind of the policy if you, yeah. Okay. So we'll have a nice little taste. I had a full round already with Tricia, so I'm probably just gonna do halves these and there's a trash can right here too.

Speaker 2:

I also completely believe you that you just did this and so if you need to like not do a sauce. No, I'm gonna hit'em all. That's got good pepper. Yeah, it's like a black pepper. Soon as it hits the back of your throat and. Uh, yeah, like a black peppery mla,

Speaker:

molasses. Oh, so you like licked it off and then you're going for the bite. It's an interesting strategy.

Speaker 2:

I'll, I'll probably do that with all of them. Okay.'cause I wanna taste the,

Speaker:

yeah, you don't want to get the other flavors in there. Mm-hmm. You don't wanna just kind of hit the. Hit the, uh,

Speaker 2:

essence. Is that Yeah, if you'll, plus like you, you, I mean, you never, you never eat all the chicken on one of these, do you? I've never seen any of these, like the hot wings or hot ones or anything like that. I don't know

Speaker:

if they do or not. Yeah, I assume

Speaker 2:

not.

Speaker:

Probably.

Speaker 3:

Oh, alright.

Speaker:

I mean, it seems like those, I like little. Teenage actresses they have on the show sometimes they could never eat. Eat chicken wigs. 10. That's a lot, you know? Yeah. All right, so our first question is from Jam Merkley with Story Path Creative. What's your fondest story to share about the people or community of Fort Collins? The fondest. There's

Speaker 2:

so many. The fondest, there's so many. When when I read this question, I was like, oh, from when I was, I could tell a story from like my elementary years when you were

Speaker:

Sean's high school teacher.

Speaker 2:

I was also Sean's high school teacher. So there's that whole era of like, me growing up in this town, 83 to 95. Okay. Uh, I spent, you know, every waking moment here and all that kinda stuff. So, uh, my mom had a pri, a small business on Lyndon Street. Okay. Uh, so I grew up kind of just skateboarding in Old Town Square. Uh. Learning, you know, to go to the right life and build a skateboard. Um, in 1988, we ke uh, Tony, Tony Hawk before it was cool. Then yeah, Tony Hawk came along with Kevin Staub and we had a Oh, wow. We had a skateboarder in this town by the name of Joe Johnson.

Speaker:

Okay. He

Speaker 2:

still lives around here. He lives in Loveland.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Um, but he got signed to Vision. Vision, you know the, the skateboard company? Okay. It was like outta Southern California and he was a sponsored skater. And because he went on tour and was in Thrashing Magazine or Thrasher Magazine and everything like that, um, he brought Tony Hawk and Kevin Staub really, who are both. Huge in the skate world. Yeah. And brought them, and we did a skate festival in 1980. I'm thinking it's 87, summer of 87, right in front of the Lynden Hotel and Wright Life, and they shut down the street. This was decade. Wow. A decade before New West Fest or anything like that. Yeah, for sure. I mean.

Speaker:

Just old town score was just turning around at that point. The first renovation was started probably, but that's it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And they finished like com. Like they actually, when they tore the street out and made Linden Street a walking pedestrian mall, that, that, that finished around 83.

Speaker:

Okay. Okay.

Speaker 2:

And then like, this was 87 and anything. Anything north of the walking pedestrian mall was like North College or North Fort Collins. Right. And Lyden Street. That's where my mom's store was. And that's also where the right life was. And then illegal Peets is the right there. That used to be the goodwill. Yep. Yep. I remember that. And that, and that just used to be kind. And the armadillo used to be where Sure. Yeah. So, so I really love that story of the skateboarders that came here. Huh. Ing you know, Joe Johnson. And there was, where did

Speaker:

they skate?

Speaker 2:

They, we built a halfpipe Oh really? Halfpipe ramp right there in front on Lyden Street. Uh, the kids built it. There's video of it on YouTube. It's the best we, there was a huge skate competition right in front of the Goodwill. That's really cool. Uh, and then there was, that was

Speaker:

Fort Collins really punching above its weight at the time. It very much so. Cool factor.

Speaker 2:

And the cool factor. If you grew up here and you knew skaters and you knew the punk rock scene. The hardcore punk rock scene, uh, knew about this place before any, any hipster or any anybody that had money and was drawn to the support that this town would do for, for traveling, uh, hardcore punk bands,

Speaker:

really.

Speaker 2:

So there's a reason why the descendants moved here and live here. Um, or at least mo several of them. Not the entire band, but the, and then the formation of the blasting room studios, which is one of the most, if not the, you know, top. Recording studio for punk rock in the country. Oh, and it's right down here next to, I could probably say Stodgy Brewing. And you'd know that

Speaker:

I used to go to the punk rock band in Morehead, Minnesota. Oh, uh, Ralph's. It was, well it was punk rock in the back, gay bar up front. Sweet. And you could smoke weed and play pool in the pool room. Oh, that's cool. And so I hung out in the pool room mostly, but went to the punk shows some. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, that was my experience with punk was mostly adjacent to that room. Cool. While it was going on, so. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But, um, like I was saying before, the interesting, yeah. I had no punk, punk rock bands would come here because even if they were playing Denver Yeah. They would come through Fort Cols because they had a place to sleep. They would get food, uh, they would from just other

Speaker:

punk bands in the neighborhood. Other punk. Yeah. Other and venues and whatever. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And that's carried on today. That tradition is still here. You go to Music City Hot Chicken. Sure. And you talk to the owners of Mu Music City Hot Chicken. They'll talk about how they do that. They continue that, that if you're a touring band and you know you don't have anything to eat and you're coming through Fort Collins, you call up Music City Hot Chicken. Oh, is that right? That's cool. Yeah. And cool. That's kind of one of those things that this town has always kind of done. Well, they used to

Speaker:

have a, a food truck. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um,

Speaker:

after leaving banking, and it was always my policy that the band eats free

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

At Bear's Backyard Grill.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker:

If I was at Paddler's Pub or other venues where there was music, like the band eats free.

Speaker 2:

That's great. You gotta do it. Because they're

Speaker:

probably poorer than I am, even though

Speaker 2:

I'm really poor. Yep. And that's one of the big, uh, things in this town is the music. And we'll probably get to that as well, but that, that first experience has gotta be that skateboard ramp with Tony Hawk, Joe Johnson. Dig it. Kevin Staub and every kid was there. Yeah. And we can all remember it. And it's pretty amazing. That's pretty

Speaker:

cool. The, uh, next one is the, um, Buffalo Rub, the dry rub from Old Town Spice Shop. Yeah, I, I don't want to please gentlemen first just want to get

Speaker 2:

it on there. Okay. Oh yeah, that's good. That's a good one. So I'm gonna go tongue first. Like a fruit spice, like a sweet. The smoke didn't come in until the end, until I just got smoke. Yeah. But there's almost like a, and I think the color is throwing me, it's almost like a, A bright sweet carrot or something like that.

Speaker:

Yeah. It looks like turmeric or something almost. Oh,

Speaker 2:

there it is. Yeah. Yeah, turmeric.

Speaker:

But it does, to me at least, have nice, like Frank's flavor profile as well. Once it settles in a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's like a mustard heat. Yeah. It's not so much a like, and it's still kind of black pepper. We really haven't gotten into any, like, schal units or anything like that. No, no. We're

Speaker:

just, uh, we're just introducing Yeah. New flavors to ourselves here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's good.

Speaker:

The, uh, second question is from Paul Meador Mexican Grill. What is your plan to help support small businesses to start and grow? Uh.

Speaker 2:

Shut up and listen, that's probably the best advice I could tell anyone to talk when you're talking to a business owner in this town. Shut up and listen. Let'em tell you their perspective. It's if it's gonna come from, you know, liquor licensing and capacity stuff. Know, being able to know what direction you can help. That business owner get through this, the bureaucratic system of this city, you know, if, if they're So navigation support is part of, yeah. Being able to know'cause

Speaker:

uh, you know, and what do you hear when you shut up and listen to business owners on the campaign trail? What are you hearing from them that they need?

Speaker 2:

Don't try to solve a problem that isn't there.

Speaker:

Hmm. Okay. I like that.

Speaker 2:

Don't try to solve a problem that isn't there.

Speaker:

An exercise? An exercise, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Don't put up parking meters. In a downtown that doesn't need them right now.

Speaker:

Okay?

Speaker 2:

Don't take away parking spots in a plan to build affordable housing and not replace those parking spots for the public to come. Each one of those spots is worth a. Over a million dollars each year. When I was on the transportation board, uh, for the city back in, uh, geez, it must have been like 2010, uh, we did a, we had a study done of how, what is the value of, of a parking spot in downtown because the police were starting to. Take, gobble them up for their little substations and things like that. Okay. There were a lot of complaints and so we, we did, we had an outside firm did it, and I, I, I'm totally paraphrasing'cause it's been, but I remember the number being over a million dollars for the value that that parking spot has for the downtown business over close of a year. And it makes sense. Uh, when my mom had encore consignment on Lynden Street, we lost all parking on Lynden Street for, for a whole summer. And it's happened several times since. Sure. And it killed the business. We could, we had to, we had to shut it down. And my dad still worked at Hewlett Packard, so that he was an HP guy. This was kind of like my mom's, you know, fun project for Fort Collins and loved it and she just absolutely loved it. But yeah, losing parking and losing that access that, that easy, quick access that we still have kind of need in this town. And you can try to force the multimodal transportation ideas, but. You can force it, but I don't think it'll work very well.

Speaker:

Yeah. I do notice, like,'cause I'm basically a downtown person. Yeah. I, I live six blocks west of the old town. I work eight blocks east of Old Town. I go through Old Town and stop in Old Town all the time and there's a big parts of the days when the on street parking isn't very full.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Um, and so it's an interesting, you know, maybe it's a, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I, I, I, I also love downtown. I'm there all the time with Foco MX and the music scene that I've been a part of for so long. Yeah. Uh, I worked at Elliot's for, for 14 years. That's where I met my wife. Uh, and you know, so I've always gone downtown, but I've never lived anywhere near it, ever. And, and since 1983,

Speaker:

would you have been persuaded not to come downtown if it cost you to park while you were there?

Speaker 2:

It would, it would emerge as part of the equation. Yeah. But I don't think it's a deciding factor, but it's definitely a part of the equation.

Speaker:

So I think we should move on. Okay. This one is the honey jalapeno I believe from, um, oh, can I look at the, yeah, please. I dunno if I believe that you should, you can make sure I'm telling you right. Honey.

Speaker 2:

Jalapeno sauce. From Matador. From

Speaker:

Matador. So please enjoy the first, uh, yes. Dip, dip and lick. That's, I wasn't gonna say it.

Speaker 2:

I just don't wanna like lick my lips in the microphone.'cause I hate that sound.

Speaker:

No, you just did it.

Speaker 2:

That is, that is like tasty. I'd put that on eggs.

Speaker:

Really?

Speaker 2:

It's got a sweet, like scrambled eggs. Yeah. It's got a sweetness to it. Yeah. That is pretty, you know, it the, the textile of the syrup, like the tactile feel of syrup. Yeah. Yeah. Um, kind of. Hides heat. Yeah. And so the heat doesn't really come until the, that kind of syrup has kind of left your tongue. Yep. And then it's jalapeno, so I know it's gonna be more of a kind of a brighter, greener spice. Yeah. That's a little bit more palatable. And it's not, you're not fighting it yet. Yeah. You can still enjoy this flavor if you're used to it. My mom thinks ketchup is spicy, so this, this may have put her right in the hospital, like she would've stuck an EpiPen right in her heart, even though she doesn't need it. But I think it's pretty good. I love my mom.

Speaker:

Hi mom. Last night, uh, I made, uh, German sausages with sauerkraut and potatoes and just German sausage. There's like, like a kielbasa. Oh, bratwurst style Bratwurst. Yeah, but like a beaver style whatever. Um, oh yeah. Anyway, my exchange student Sarah, ate one of the potatoes, like. Right off and burned her mouth and she said the potato tried to kill me Anyway, it was funny. Happy there.

Speaker 2:

Do you we, that's something we need is more German food in Fort Collins.

Speaker:

Well, we've got the new, uh, schnitzels, oh, what's it called? Yeah, the, the Schnitzels Snyder Schnitzels Station. Schneider Schnitzels. And that's the, he used to own Moss. Former mos. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And I know that, I know that story behind there. And, you know, before it was mo's, that that one spot was also Lucille's. Before that it was Plank.

Speaker:

Oh,

Speaker 2:

is that

Speaker:

right? Oh, yeah, Mike, I didn't know it was Lucille's before that. Oh,

Speaker 2:

no, not Lucille's. It was Fiona's or something like it was another Southern. Style. I remember playing Lucille's Has, Lucille's has always been by blanket. What was the guy's

Speaker:

name that did Plank?

Speaker 2:

Patrick Ligans. Yes.

Speaker:

Hey Patrick, if you're listening.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Where's my$10,000? Oh.

Speaker:

We'll move on. Um, from former Mayor, mayor Emeritus, Wade Troxel, uh, Fort Collins has been described as the choice city known for beers, bikes, and bands, and more. What's your vision for the evolving brand? What could Fort Collins be in 30 years from now?

Speaker 2:

That's interesting. So, Fort Collins, the choice City of beer. Bands.

Speaker:

Well, we're the tri city of Colorado. Yeah, I know. But the way you, but then we're also known for beers, bike bands. Yeah. But I, I

Speaker 2:

just caught something. You, it's like we're combining it, you know, like

Speaker:

No, those are a couple of our brands. Yeah, I know historically, but,

Speaker 2:

oh yeah. I, when I was in, when I was in, uh, ninth grade, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Colorado and, uh, in against, uh, amendment two, which was the basically legalized discrimination. Housing and in working in hiring against homosexuals in the state of Colorado, and it got put into our state constitution,

Speaker 3:

okay?

Speaker 2:

In 1991, it was eventually found. Uh, unconstitutional by the Interesting, by the Supreme Court. Interesting.

Speaker:

I didn't know anything about that. And

Speaker 2:

so there was a big pro Amendment two anti amendment two in the early nineties here in Fort College. Okay. All right. And the very first le like civic engagement that I've ever, I ever did is, um, I. Uh, I was in a class at Fort Collins High School as my teacher was Rick Nelson, and he offered, you know, what do you do if there's a social issue that you're upset about?

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And he was my history teacher, so it wasn't quite a, you know. Yeah. You know, and so he said, write a letter to the editor of the, of the Colorado and.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

I was like, you can do that as a kid. So I like printed one up off of my, you know, computer at the time. Yeah, your brother typewriter. The dot matrix, you know, you know, printed it up. I put it in an envelope, uh, mailed it to the Colorado and in like two, two weeks go by and it, and it gets published. Okay. And it says, and I ended it with, now I know why you want to call it the choice city. You want to choose whoever you want to let in.

Speaker 4:

Hmm. Interesting.

Speaker 2:

And I was like. That's clever. I was in 10th grade. Uh, I was obviously against the, the amendment. Sure. It did pass. And it was one of those, like also like a big, it was like how could people, oh, think it's okay to discriminate against homosexuals for the purposes of employment and. In housing. I just didn't, I didn't

Speaker:

get it. I had no, I'd never heard of this before.

Speaker 2:

And I think a lot of, and that's because I'm a product of Fort Collins, is like, you don't, you don't even think that that's a possibility in the here and now. You only hear about it in textbooks or in history class, but this idea of like, oh, it's happening and it's happening right now. That was really my first experience with that too. And you feel that now, and particularly with young people. Sure.

Speaker:

Yeah. Well, even when I moved to Colorado. I'm from North Dakota, and when I would go home to visit, I would have people say things like, oh yeah, I've known a lot of people that moved to Colorado. They always come home with their tail between their legs.

Speaker 4:

Oh.

Speaker:

cause it costs so much to live there. And that was late nineties. Yeah. Um, and it was true. You know, I got a$2,000 a year raise and my rent went up$500 a month. Yeah. When I moved here already, back then.

Speaker 2:

It is, it is so difficult. And my, my experience of living here on my own without being at my parents' house has been entirely as a public school educator. Hmm. I be, I, I became a teacher right outta my college years.

Speaker:

So I wanna shift it into that, uh, forward looking so. If it's not Choice City, it's maybe it's, maybe it is. Maybe, oh yeah, maybe it in beers, bike bands. But what, what would think we'll to it? What would you invest in becoming known as in the future? Then? I

Speaker 2:

think that's what we're writing right now is what's the next, what's the next, uh, brand? Yeah. We're really in a brand transition period when we're think, so we're moving away from the old guard that, that. And let me say one thing. We have to acknowledge that we're standing on the shoulders of giants. We are very lucky to be in a community with the problems we have, right? I mean, we are fighting, fighting each other about whether a mountain bike park or keep it natural. That's like our biggest, that there's, and they're as big as, yeah, and they're going after each other. And I know because I'm, I'm right in between them and we're trying to figure out our brand. This is, this is built right into it, and this election alone will help us, guide us on where are we going? Who do we wanna be? How would we brand that?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Are we the dude dads of the future or are we the Kelly Olsons?

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker 2:

You know, that's a great question. Well, and I guess, and there's a lot of people involved. My question to you

Speaker:

is if you become mayor, where will you lead us to?

Speaker 2:

I will lead us to the table to discuss it critically with the ideas of we are not just thinking about our legacy. Which should be fantastic. But we're also talking about the kids that, you know, my kid is three, my other kid is eight. What is their legacy gonna be in four Collins? How, you know, I want them to stay here too,

Speaker 3:

right?

Speaker 2:

And so that's what I'm bringing to the table is my critical thinking, my ability to have people at the table that both sides believe that they are telling 100% the truth, and that the other side is completely wrong, but yet nobody is actually wrong. I've been in situations like that, I've been trained to understand that kind of situation.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that's what I'm bringing. And so that to, to me, that means that whatever we come up with won't be a gimmicky, uh, political campaign thing. It'll be authentic from the town, from the fabric camp.

Speaker:

Alright, I dig it.

Speaker 2:

All right. This one's going up. We're going up?

Speaker:

Yeah, we're going up a notch with heat on this one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Brew House sauces, old Town Spice Shop. Yep. They've, they've changed location a couple times.

Speaker:

Uh, just one major time, I think.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yep. We used to get, uh, I know there's several bartenders in town, several private owners as well, that they just spice blends and different things. They use their stuff. That's one of the reasons why our drinks taste so good. Yeah. Across from bar to bar to bar. We got some great local ingredients, so he was going in there. That is true. Sean does that a lot.

Speaker:

Yep. So this one is the. Rebel uprising from Old Town Spice Shop.

Speaker 2:

All right. Yeah. Gentleman, first I

Speaker:

sat

Speaker 2:

all the way back down. I was like, Ugh.

Speaker:

I was giving Ava a chance to stop coughing. Perfect. From her sampling. Suck that nugget.

Speaker 2:

Yep. There's all right, so you get the red, the more red peppery. Mm-hmm. Almost like a. Yeah, that's like a Serrano or something. I don't know that. I don't say so probably, yeah. But smokier, but definitely red with a red heat. Not like a jalapeno. Or it could be, it could be Chipotle. I don't know. But that's good. Again, tasty.

Speaker:

I think with the name Rebel Uprising, it's probably kind of at least, uh, somewhat built off of that. Uh. Kind of Cajun blends as well. Yeah. But it doesn't really jump. It's definitely not like a little Louisiana style. No, nothing at all like that. Not vinegar, but it's, it's got some vinegar, but not that

Speaker 2:

much. It's again, it, for me, it's a great everyday sauce that has a different flavor than sriracha. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think that's, it's gonna have, it has, has a kind of very similar spice profile to a sriracha, but there's a totally different flavor. Yeah. And it's still sweet enough that whatever you use it on sriracha, you could use that.

Speaker:

I think that. That's pretty, pretty good.

Speaker 2:

There's some free marketing for you right there. Yep.

Speaker:

There you go. Sean. Use that. Um, oh, from Sean is this next question. Oh, the proposed for. Proposal for paid on Streete parking in Fort Collins aims to address revenue and parking turnover. How do you plan to balance the city's need for revenue and parking management with concerns of business owners?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Uh, it sounds, it sounds, we already drifted there a little bit. Sounds like a plan to pay for the people trying to solve the plan or the problem that the plan says that there is. So we need more people to enforce something that. Can be proven only if we accomplish it with more money. That's, and that's what it feels like to me now. That's, that's, that's just me. And again, I'm not a business owner. My mom was

Speaker:

Well, and what I heard maybe from Shirley in our first podcast was that. Like the fees from parking tickets don't come close to covering the, the staffing costs of patrolling to see if people are going over two hours in those zones and stuff like that. And is that,

Speaker 2:

is that really where our FTEs need to be? I don't, I don't know.

Speaker:

I don't know either. And I saw a big traffic backup the other day because there was a traffic officer like parked covering related traffic. Can

Speaker 2:

this, can't this be done with cameras? Can't this be done without a human being, without an FTE without? That I'm pretty sure we can figure something out. I mean, I can't even get one of those scooters to stop, you know, beeping near my house and things like that. I'm sure we could figure out camera based parking. It'll be more expensive. I mean, it'd be great, but then do something like that. Then it sounds like it's a plant. Would you be

Speaker:

concerned about privacy if everything was camera All the time? It's like London if, if

Speaker 2:

you're still complaining about privacy in the open streets of America. I'm sorry. Okay. Do you see how like we catch people now? I mean, there's like so many major things happening where they're like, yeah, they just followed up for like, right, and they switched from this camera

Speaker:

to that camera, and then there's this, and yet

Speaker 2:

people are emailing me saying, are you gonna stop those cameras taking our picture for the, for the speeding ticket? I was like,

Speaker:

uh, I freaking hate those things. I, yeah, to be honest. Well, welcome to the future.

Speaker 2:

They're gonna print the ticket out of your dashboard here pretty soon. They can do that already.

Speaker:

It's gonna make me want to, like, cover my license plates. Um, they

Speaker 2:

don't, it doesn't matter if you cover the license plate. They'll, they'll, they're gonna know the vin number because of your insurance, because it's prospect. If you wanna get, if you want to get annoyed with like

Speaker:

Big Brother, it's too late. The one at Prospect and Shields like the, the road opens up. It's obviously becomes like a much wider road after Yeah. Prospect. And they have a camera right there after it starts opening up. So when I'm on my motorcycle, I want to get away from these cars because Accel, you want to accelerate, I wanna get away from those cars. Yeah. And, and just be by myself in my motorcycle. And then I see the flash. I've gotten three in the last eight months because at that intersection, they're not, not, it pisses me off every time. Not only are those, I just wanna be safe. You fuckers.

Speaker 2:

Not only, not only are those cameras extremely efficient, um, you can place them. In places like that, knowing they that that's not there, but I'm not being dangerous. That's the No, but that's not there for, for an accident. No, I know, I know. There's, they

Speaker:

can get a lot of revenue that way. Yes, because everybody speeds up right there. Again,

Speaker 2:

welcome to the, we're not gonna increase taxes, but we're gonna increase services. I mean, it's basic Econ 1 0 1. We don't get this cool with not increasing sales tax without getting, they're looking. They gotta increase revenue somewhere and we don't, we don't really ra raise sales tax.

Speaker:

Okay. Sorry. Um, no, we can, we're good. We can keep going. Yep. Um, here we have Matador's buffalo sauce. Uh, it's getting a little bit spicier. Yeah. But not too crazy.

Speaker 2:

Okay. I'm gonna take a quick, I didn't bring my reading glasses. Wow. They really chose a tight font on this one. I mean, you gotta let'em know he is out there like, don't think you're to know. I can't what's, can't see anything.

Speaker:

It's uh, I'm not supposed to. Trisha and I were thinking it doesn't really make remind us a lot of a buffalo sauce, but it is good.

Speaker 4:

Brown sugar, vinegar. Mm-hmm. A lot of vinegar. A lot of vinegar. I like that. Yeah.

Speaker:

Vinegar do you like? Would, would you put that on your, on your buffalo wings though? And serve it? But it would, oh

Speaker 2:

yeah. This would be great. On wings. This would be great for dipping. Dipping dry. Like my favorite wing used to be pizza Csba. Hmm. Now I think it's switching over to crazy Carl's and I went to high school with, with, um, Nate Haas. Okay. And his, I got his wings extra crispy. Uh, Fri fried, extra crispy dry. And I just usually dip it into my own sauce and they are so good like this. I would buy, I would buy this and then order wings like that. Delivered. Yeah. And then I would just dip'em'cause his, his extra crispy dry wings are the best. I like it. I like it.

Speaker:

Next question is, are. Social hot topic. How would you rate the city of Fort Collins on its homelessness initiatives in recent decades and more especially recent years? Yeah. And what would you change or recommend going forward to the program?

Speaker 2:

I think, I think, uh, and this'll be, this is, there's so many things that, um. Politicians in this town will take, you know, credit for it.'cause when you're, you're that, but this one goes to the city staff. City staff has, has really, in my opinion, they've run that program. They, yeah. And the, and the police of course. And, and everyone who has been so proactive in. Being willing, willing to listen to other communities about what they've done and what has been successful, not necessarily what will solve it, because if we had that answer, we wouldn't be talking about this right now. Right. Same thing with affordable housing. I mean,

Speaker:

California has spent 40 billion on it. Yeah. And they haven't solved it. Right. Our,

Speaker 2:

even closer, our new mayor of Denver and, and everything he has been doing with the, the repurposing of hotels to, you know, clearing with compassion and everything that he is. Dedicated to that, they're hitting a few of those benchmarks that they were hoping for, and it's just not, and that is a, that is a well thought out program that is not just put together happenstance, and it is so difficult. So remember the question is so easily asked and it's asked a lot. Sure. But it's so intrinsically difficult. To answer, but I'll do, you know, what I say is like, look at the staff members of this town that have built the amazing, and I, I printed some stuff up'cause I saw this question. I really wanted to say it. Um, you know, we have, we, we have gone at it from prevention, sheltering intensive case management, permanent support housing and mental Health and behavior services. The new Homelessness Resolution Center project, homeless Connect and Family Housing Network. So these programs. Have been kind of initiated and growing pretty much in like the past 17 years. Yeah. When I last ran for mayor, a lot of this didn't even exist, but we've been proactive because. We as a city and we as a community, we don't just sit on our laurels and wait for tr problems to a, to a to get bigger because we are full of so many educated people in this town that we're forward thinking, that we're thinking environmentally, that we're thinking. And we, we, we were doing recycling before the trends hit when it was different. Um, you know, this town has always kind of had that, that intellectual bend towards critical thinking. Critical analysis of that and that that's woven kind of into the kids that grow up here too. Okay. Like myself.

Speaker:

So on that front, like what would you change? Uh, so far you're given a lot of credit again to what's been done. The city staff is specialty. It's not

Speaker 2:

my specialty. I mean, my training, if you talk, look at my undergrad, you've been around kids and yeah. I'm a history major. Okay. And I went to grad school for the teaching of history. Yeah. So this critical thinking when you think like a historian where you're constantly looking for multiple perspectives of the same Yeah. Item. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, where you understand that two people are coming to this with absolute truths in their mind. Yeah. Yeah. And then how can you not, not necessarily solve it, but how can you make sure that. What other voice is missing? Sure. You know, all these questions that historians have to ask about their sources and papers, and I'm talking academic historians not fly by the night, you know, seat of your pants. Historians, I've read a couple books, I'm there. These are trained in historiography. You know, that ability to, you know, it's a skill that's separate from the content and because of that I can apply it to things. I'm not just a reader of popular history. I'm a, I'm a lover of the process of history. Okay. And so that's what I bring that ability to look at issues with that kite type of thinking. And for me, that is something that I've never seen. So you don't

Speaker:

necessarily bring the ideas to the table. You're help to bring together the conversation that might a more clarify the best ideas.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's exactly right. Okay. And then. Figuring out who do we need to talk to about a solution for something like that, because again. A mayor doesn't have the answer to everything. A mayor should be able to network from one idea to the next. Who in this town has been great at doing this? Maybe they haven't even been targeting it towards this town. They're because they're getting paid to do it for another community on another side of the planet.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

We have a lot of people like that in this town. Yeah. And so how do we, how do we bring that together? And that's the type of critical thinking that I'll bring rather than, well, let me just go see what my party has to say about this issue. Right? Or let me see what my campaign donation people have to say about this.'cause I don't have either of those.

Speaker:

Fair enough. I kinda like your style, Scott, if you vie, I gotta say,

Speaker 2:

people tend to like it if they sit and talk to me for a while, but

Speaker:

that's the hard part. So we, uh, we sent out seven questions, but we've actually got eight flavors. And so this next question. Is our grab bag. Oh, sweet. It comes after the, the red sauce and

Speaker 2:

it's called the red. See, so I knew what I was talking about.

Speaker:

Normally my guests have to answer all three of these, but here you have to answer one, but you may answer all three. So grab three balls and they're each attached to a Can I grab three balls at once? Uh, I can only grab two, but you can, yep. Do you want me to rotate'em too? I can do that. Testes testes. One, two. What? Guess where? I learned that? Three. Um, and that's old Beva. Some butthead right there. I love that one. Um, ate the chicken nugget first. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Didn't I just, I just licked it. Nope, this is the red. Oh, you did? No, this was the, that was the buffalo sauce. This is the next one. Damnit. We gotta, we gotta, I almost

Speaker 2:

got

Speaker:

away with that. Do the sauce before we, this is the red matic. Yeah, I am,

Speaker 2:

I am gonna do a double dip. Hmm. But I did,

Speaker:

I did flip. Ooh, perfectly. Alright.

Speaker 2:

That seems much more balanced than the buffalo sauce, in my opinion. Yeah, it's not, it's not chunky, seedy. Um, that's, yeah, I like that.

Speaker:

Okay. Oh, by the way, did I mention Yeah, you can take one of these home. Okay. So I'll be thinking about which one. Oh yeah, I did mention'cause you wanted to kind of snag Trisha's too'cause I forgot to offer that thing.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for bringing that up on the, the air. We'll get it. See you,

Speaker:

Trisha. Um, so what are the numbers? Wish? Glad Oh, do you want some milk? We've got some milk outside if you.

Speaker 2:

Did any of the other candidates ask for milk? Yeah, we had milk on the, well, then I'll be fine with my soda water and my constitution.

Speaker:

All right. All right. Uh, Ava with the next sauce, will you bring me some milk? Yeah, there's milk and whiskey, right? There's no milk and whiskey, but you don't have to be tougher than everybody else. You just have to be smarter. I

Speaker 2:

got it. Well, I got that, but,

Speaker:

um, alright, let's have, uh, any of the questions. I got lucky number

Speaker 2:

13,

Speaker:

13. What's a book, movie, or podcast that's had a big impact on you?

Speaker 2:

I'm gonna

Speaker 4:

lean back for

Speaker 2:

this one. Yeah, say that one more time.

Speaker:

A book, movie or podcast that's had a big impact on you. A book The way you think, perhaps a movie, a. Hopefully it's not a movie

Speaker 2:

or a podcast. Well, it's not a podcast because I I, I You don't do that. I think I've listened to one podcast in my entire life and it was, it was a Conan O'Brien one. Okay. And then I wrote him to ask him if he would, um, endorse me for the mayor of Fort Collins. Okay. And I got a return to sender stamp put on it. Yeah. I have a video of it on my Facebook. You should see. It sounds very exciting. It's, I, it's wonderful.

Speaker:

So a book perhaps. Have you had a book that's influenced you specifically? Or is it just a collection of ideas that have been your influences?

Speaker 2:

I mean, I was, like I said before, I'm a history guy. I mean, there's been so many books that I've read that have changed so much about like things I've thought and you know, from from fiction about one that

Speaker:

really surprised you. Maybe like, was there a time where you were like, I thought this, and then after this book I thought that.

Speaker 2:

That's a really good question. I'm gonna remember that for next time though. What's a book that Okay. Okay. Um, probably, probably Grapes of Wrath.

Speaker:

Mm. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Grapes of Wrath.

Speaker:

That's spelled out poverty in a way that was hard to understand before that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. The structure of Grapes of Wrath, um, chapter by chapter. How it would switch from the, the, the narrative of the job family to the. Nondescript narrative of. Of the plight of everyone. Yeah. Particularly the, the, the, the farmers. And nobody had a name in those chapters and it was always, and, and it wasn't from the perspective of a individual. Mm-hmm. It was more, I remember that symbolic and thematic and things like that. Yeah. And then it was like back and forth and if you had just seen the movie, which a lot of people say they read the book, but they just saw that movie. Especially'cause it's a great movie, terrible ending. Completely screwed when you missed that whole part of it. That's the most important part, is like, if you only see the movie of, of, uh, grapes of Wrath, you do not know that the child dies and that the woman begins to breastfeed the old man in the shed. The most important part of the entire book. And the ca the, the director of the film who was Catholic said, I'm not putting that in.

Speaker 3:

Hmm.

Speaker 2:

And MGM or whoever is like, fine. Yeah. And so they're at the end, they're like, and you know what ma, we just might make it. And they ride off into the sunset and it's like, and it's, and it's so inspirational, right? And it's like, that's America and it's completely wrong.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Because that baby died and that woman. Nursed an old man, and it is intense and it's like, what is the symbolic of that and everything. I'm even getting emotional. Just bring it up. But that, that book changed me on how you think of everything. Good question.

Speaker:

Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Woo. I'm,

Speaker:

I'm crying because of these sauces. There's, I got tissues here somewhere, I think. Okay. Hmm.

Speaker 4:

This looks

Speaker:

spicy. This one is called uh uh, room two 17. Thank you, Ava. Probably room two 17. Probably Scotty's too tough to need. That's not a shining reference in it. I don't know. I don't know what the reference is. The

Speaker 2:

shin.

Speaker:

The shin. You want to get sued? We watch the same, A lot of the same Simpsons episodes. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

You gotta

Speaker:

season

Speaker 2:

one through 10.

Speaker:

Tracy Oman. Show baby. Oh

Speaker 2:

yeah, the, the, you know, father, what is life?

Speaker:

Don't dip it that hard like I did. That was a

Speaker 2:

hard dip.

Speaker:

It was a big old dip. Oof. I'm scared.

Speaker 2:

I am just

Speaker 3:

going

Speaker 2:

to,

Speaker 4:

I'll scoop a I'll scoop a lot too there, so I'm just gonna eat that. Okay. That's a good amount. That's a good amount. Oh.

Speaker 2:

Turmeric, turmeric. It does have some turmeric in there. I feel that. I taste that. It's a lot. That's very They're going for the curry Sp they're going for the, yeah, for the India,

Speaker:

Southeast Asia. Yeah. It's like the, when the, when the Indian restaurant says, do you want the spicy. All right. Yes.

Speaker 2:

This reminds me this. This taste right now is Star of India. Okay, gotcha. Have you been to Star of India? Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. If you push the hot button, it tastes like this. Kinda, yeah. If you get some of the spice now most people do the buffet and then the buffet. You'd never have spice like that. Yeah. Yeah. This would be ordered off of the menu and you let the, you let the family go off on, on what they want. Ah, this is, yeah, this is like back in India. Yeah. This is a, this comes outta nowhere.

Speaker:

Fancy milk out. I, no judgment from here. It comes

Speaker 2:

outta nowhere. That's a,

Speaker:

I mean, you see me like sweating like big time over here, so.

Speaker 2:

That com that went completely around my tongue and just, I just enveloped it in like a heat, a heat sleeping bag that just is pulsating. Yes. From the back almost. Yeah. And you're in a, you're in a sleeping bag. That's, and it

Speaker:

works its way up to the front of the tongue. Uh, anyway, uh, community hot topic. My, my tongue. That's the hot topic. I'm glad you liked it. How could this, oh, we had do tasting notes before. Well, I guess we did. We talked about Spicy Korean and Star of India. Yeah, it's really good. It's hard to think and, and. I endure this kind of heat sometimes. But, um, how could the city of Fort Collins maintain financial strength in light of declining sales tax collection trends? What mix of cost cutting and revenue enhancement do you envision as being the most important? We're gonna bounce those other questions'cause you were very reflective on the groups of wrath and stuff. We'll just All right. I can take those back though. There,

Speaker 2:

um, it's pretty basic, um, you know. If you have unlimited wants and limited resources and you have even more limited resources, but the wants are kind of getting like, how, how many mountain bike parks do you want? Um, and I know who's gonna pay for it. Uh, it's kind of interesting that money for a mountain bike park is in one of the, uh, the ballot initiatives. Yeah. Have you read the ballot initiatives? Not yet. You gotta read the ballot and we'll talk about that in a second. Okay. Um,

Speaker:

what. We can stay on that topic here if you want to. That's part of probably

Speaker 2:

this question. You are going to see a reduction of services. So if you're also asking for enhanced services at the same time that we're seeing, um, and it's a domino effect from the federal down to the state. I mean, there's a reason why PS called emergency. The state governments totally broke. There's an, there's a reason why even after they came back that he still had like another. A hundred million dollars. He had to cut and he cut it from proposition 1, 2, 3.

Speaker 3:

Hmm.

Speaker 2:

The affordable housing. With the dedicated funding. Dedicated funding. And he pulled a hundred million out of it. Wow. I mean, that just goes to show that I could, I could wax poetic for 90 minutes about an idea of affordable housing. But that idea in the reality of the state of Colorado, would require so many, and I've been using this, uh, they're like round coasters doing a, a Venn diagram. Okay. You would need like 12 of them overlapping. And then that's where you can get your affordable housing done properly with the federal grants, the builder, the, the, you know, who's gonna do all the management, who's gonna be doing all the books for everything and every, you know, it's a, there's a lot to be done for this way.

Speaker:

Better than the projects if we do it. No, I just don't think that's what I wonder. But,

Speaker 2:

but we're stuck in that Colorado system that's also, uh, regulated by something like the Faircloth amendment. Right.

Speaker:

Well, and we got this condo. Is that what that is?

Speaker 2:

No. The faircloth amendment goes back to the, it's a Bill Clinton thing actually, where he, he wanted to end ghettos. And so there was a federal law that was put in that basically freezes the amount of land, the, the amount of property that a municipality can own and operate as public housing. Okay. And it freezes it at like a 1999 level. Again, I'm paraphrasing outta my head. Sure. Uh, and so like a municipality, like Fort Collins can't build and own, you know, community housing.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Without, uh. You can't surpass the level that was set in like 97.

Speaker:

Okay. But do you want, and we

Speaker 2:

we're already at that,

Speaker:

would the city, but can they provide housing for cheaper than the market? Uh, government can. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's not a good idea.

Speaker:

I mean, it can, but it, I mean. Yes, the government can do it for, it would

Speaker 2:

come from another place. There's no free lunch. Yeah,

Speaker:

exactly. But can they, can they execute housing at a price that's lower than the free market, or would they just you Yeah. Costing more. You

Speaker 2:

can, but it won't work in a market driven system very well.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

It's, I understand the, you know, the three wheels of a, of a mixed market economy

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And private government and home, and how they interact with each other. And, uh, you can't ask this, the, the gov, the governmental part of the economic system. To take on more than it can without an increase of, okay, then we need more resources to make these ideas happen. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm limited, I can't, I can't borrow, we can't go into debt. We, we have to have a balanced budget and so, yeah. Okay. Then it's the hard conversations. Yeah. And that's the reality of it. I get that. I teach that, that was my job. I wrote the, I wrote the state standards for economics for high school. I mean, I, I taught it for, at Fort Collins High School for years, and when, when people signed up to, to, to do the standards, you know, I was the one that was, it was me and a woman from Douglas County and then she missed one of'em, so I wrote'em.

Speaker:

So, uh, they're good. So this what briefly, what does the city, like the city spends money on? You know, cups and, yeah. Housing and resource budget and regulation. It's such a large thing. Just

Speaker 2:

the electricity, that's their number one purchase is electricity from Platte River Power Authority. Interesting. It's like$107 million purchase. Wow. And then we cover that with all of our electricity bills. But we're, but we're buying it from our own company, you know?'cause we're, we're one of the owners of Platte River Power. Yeah. There's other owners too. Do we make,

Speaker:

does the city make any margin on that?

Speaker 2:

I don't, I don't teach that part. It, I, I, I don't, well, I, I, I'm gonna lay you away with that one. That's the thing I want to ask about is like, how can I be, you know, I'm somebody that could be on that board and talk about'em as well. I'll talk to you. Like my mom would talk toto, like, I'm your best customer,

Speaker 4:

right.

Speaker 2:

What are you gonna do for me? Right. Rather than screw those lump unders, they do a price increase. Well, I guess who buys the most electricity from you? Right, right, right. Who's going more electric than anybody else? And who's gonna allow you to keep those rebate

Speaker:

programs? Who, who's gonna let

Speaker 2:

you keep those propane, uh, or those natural gas turbines on Let you, or, or it's gonna go either way, man. Right, right. That's what people are really interested in. They would shoot themselves even more in the foot.

Speaker:

Right? Oh my gosh. Or what

Speaker 2:

after the clean energy for, I found out a lot about that. Is that right? Oh, yeah.

Speaker:

Okay. This one is the Slades Revenge Jack Slades Revenge.

Speaker 2:

This is the, this is the hot stuff.

Speaker:

Tropical overtone meets extreme heat by apple, habanero and dragon's. Breath. You sparingly?

Speaker 2:

Oh, it actually says you sparingly on it.

Speaker:

Yep. I'm gonna do just like that.

Speaker 4:

Okay. It is, it is on there. You can see that. I see it.

Speaker:

This one doesn't have the, the forward heat as much. No, but neither did that Curry one. Yeah. And that it finally let me out of the sleeping bag. You can double dip if you want, or you can even have a little sip if you're not feeling it enough yet. No,

Speaker 2:

I'm feeling it. It's going. Yeah. See, that's, that's more what I would think of, of like the hot peppers. Like when you get a mash of those peppers. Mm. That's, that's definitely a mash, right? Because once they start getting into these higher SCOs, their flavor just disappears. Mm. And it's like, you gotta, it's hard to pull any individual ones out, but you, you mash'em together and you pit put vinegar in it and you can mass sell it. It's, it's easy. It's like a super spicy blend. So, yeah. Yeah. That kind of I'm used to. I'm, I'm okay with this one. One. You like that one better than the last, the last, the last one. I'm just not used to that kind of heat. I just don't eat that much. Spicy Indian. This one's

Speaker:

actually a little higher koval than the, than the room two 17. But it's not

Speaker 2:

hitting my tongue the way the other one hit my tongue. Agreed. It it, the way that it coated the tongue and then like left little landmines crawled up of heat. It was dis and it all of a sudden they all went off at the same time. That sauce is a lot more exciting. This one. I get it. This one's just like, you know, hot. Yeah. But it's just hot for the sake of hot And vinegar

Speaker:

doesn't have as much character for you?

Speaker 2:

No,

Speaker:

or as much

Speaker 2:

if you like if you took, if I took like a whole bunch of roasted garlic and mixed it in with that, it would change that. I don't know. That's what I would do.

Speaker:

Sounds interesting. So the last question is, are the Loco experience. And this is, uh, the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share with our listeners. And this is the only standard segment of this, uh, normally local experience podcast. Okay. Craziest, let's see. Craziest experience that you're willing to share. And if you do good enough on the first story, I'll give you a second story. We'll see how it goes.

Speaker 2:

Do you want in Fort Collins or out of Fort Collins, anywhere in the world, in life? Uh, okay. That didn't help me at all.

Speaker:

O outside of Fort Collins was fine. Okay. No, I'm Fort Collins. How about, because

Speaker 2:

it's a mayor thing. It's gotta be about Fort Collins. Your craziest

Speaker:

story in Fort Collins.

Speaker 2:

Okay. I was. Crazy story. So any near death experiences? Uh oh, several. Yeah. There's been near death experiences. There's been like the night I met my wife at Elliot's Martini bar the night I met my baby's mama at Surfside. The night I, you know, gotten. Fell in love. There's, I have all these kind of stories of this. A third

Speaker:

woman or is that No, just in general. That was

Speaker 2:

earlier, you know, when I started, you know, the first time, first date, my first date in Fort Collins. You know, all those kinds of things. But let's go with, let's go with more fun. Um, my first detainment by the Fort Collins Police Department.

Speaker:

Now, I don't know if I've been detained by Fort Collins Police. I've been detained a few times by other places I've been detained in China, in Fort

Speaker 2:

Collins.

Speaker:

Okay. Yep. Alright, let's hear the story.

Speaker 2:

So, in Fort Collins, I was working at Elliot's Martini Bar. Okay. Uh, and I was also teaching at Fort Collins High School. Okay. So this

Speaker:

was probably the, so you're moonlighting at the Yep. Martini bar.

Speaker 2:

So this is probably like. Uh, may of 2001. Okay. I just finished my second year of teaching and I was working full-time at, or not full time. I was working every Friday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Elliot's Martini bar.'cause when you're a young teacher in this town and you wanna live here, you can't, uh, right. Even back then. So yeah. PSD 26 years ago, first year teacher and then, so I was bartending, making a lot more money. Um, but working crazy hours on Fridays were the worst as I would go in and teach until about three 30, and then I would have to get to Elliot's by four. They opened at four. Um, and I'd have to be on my bike. It's 20 minute drive roughly. Yeah. Yeah. This usually on my bike. And then so I would go to Elliot's and I would cha and I would wear what I'd be wearing for Elliot's that night. Teaching, which is usually a tie and like a button up, short sleeve shirt. And then I would work Elliot's either as a bartender, as a server until two. No, two o'clock is when we close down. Yep. Then we have to count money. So if you were

Speaker:

lucky, you're outta there at two 30. Sometimes it was 3 0 3.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And then cleaning, putting everything away. And then that's when the guys wanted to play poker and you know, so sometimes you wouldn't sleep hardly.

Speaker:

You'd go to And

Speaker 2:

then I'd, no, I'd, oh, that's Friday night. But I would not, Thursday night wouldn't do that. This is, yeah, not on, this is only a Friday, Saturday and then I ride my bike back to, uh, at this point I was probably at my parents' house'cause I couldn't afford my own place yet. And I would get these massive burritos from, there was a, there was a food cart that was right. Uh, right at Linden and um, and right where the right life was by Walnut. There you go. Yeah. And Walnut. That's it. And then it's like LaPorte or Walnut or Right. Or the Armadillo. Um, but anyway, there was a burrito guy there for a while and he would make these huge burritos and we knew'em pretty well'cause we were always his customers. And I'd take my burrito and I'd want to be all nostalgia. And I, you know, it's like. Three in the morning riding my bike back home down Remington Street and we passed by Fort Collins High School, my alma mater. You know, the beautiful, and it's shut down at this point, right? And it's not as cool as it is right now. It was still in this weird like where we CSU, where we front range and it was just getting worse. It was ugly. Um, and so. Being nostalgic and there wasn't that many lights there. So I, I plopped down, I started chowing down on this burrito and just like being nostalgic, looking up at the pillars, it was great and I was having a great time. And then, um, you know, nature called and, you know, I was drinking a lot of water and so I needed to relieve myself. And I decided like, Hey, there's, it's four in the morning, right? I'm just gonna go right here. And I'm, I'm, I think

Speaker:

that should be a human right.

Speaker 2:

I put my burrito down and I just start, you know. In reminiscing, and then at the N, literally within about midstream. I see. I hear turn around and butcher like the whole, like all of a sudden flashlights a canine. Oh no. Like, and it was like multiple, it was like lights, lights, lights, gun out kind of a thing. Oh shit. And I was like, what? Drop my burrito. And he's like. Pull up your pant. And I was like, do you want my hands up or do you want me to pull up? It was like right out of a co. You were able to cut it off, I guess? Yeah. Yeah. I guess I was, it was hard. Then they, they turned me around. It wasn't, uh, but they put like, they put handcuffs on me. There was probably some dribbles going on or whatever. Yeah. They put me up against the tree. Okay. And they're like holding me there, and I'm like, what's going on? I was like, be quiet. Be quiet. Who are you? Where is he? Where is he? Where is he? And I'm like, where's who? I'm just up sky, like I'm trying eating my burrito. I'm trying to remember like, dude, I'm trying to remember the name of the SRO at the high school, uh, and like name dropping. And I was like, I know this person.'cause I, I'm 22 years old. I was like, I know this cop. And they were like, don't even, don't even name drop with me. I'm like, am I being arrested or being detained? And they're like, if you were arrested, you, you'd know. And, and so all, and I'm there for about 15 minutes and all of a sudden they start realizing like, this isn't the guy, is it? This is the guy. Like you hear that like, I don't think this is the guy is, is this the guy? And so it was like a combination of CSU and Fort Collins cops. It was someone, the story is now, um,'cause one of the cops told me later on,'cause uh, he heard about this, um. I was riding my bike in Remington four. In the mar. There's some old fraternity houses. I think it's the Sigma, whatever, the one with the big pillars. When

Speaker:

I first got here, I remember that

Speaker 2:

there was two guys up on the roof playing Wiffle ball. Okay. Like up high that someone on college called it in as someone with a shotgun on the roof of Fort Collins High School because it's, it's like the one with the pillars. Yeah. Yeah. Right there. They got that call as Fort Collins High School has a shooter guy with active shooter, a gun on the roof. No, this is 2001. But still, right. It wasn no such thing. So since the heavy presence, um, you know, the, the, the immediacy, if you will of i it's, and the urgency by which they addressed you at all. The way up to this point I thought it was for peeing, right. I was like, wow, this is a really take real, seriously good police force. Because I was, I was second guessing, taking a whiz. You were like five seconds into your street. So eventually get, eventually they like take off. They're like, thanks for nothing asshole. Like, and then the dog ate my burrito.

Speaker:

I don't doubt it.

Speaker 2:

And they didn't stop him. And I was like, did not compensate. And I was like, the dog ate my, he was like, maybe you shouldn't have been. He said, you shouldn't have been peeing.

Speaker:

Oh. He's like, if you want a ticket for peeing, I'll go buy you a burrito. Yeah. That's a good for Collin story from Scotty VI. Thanks Scotty. V. Appreciate you being here. Yeah. Godspeed. Good luck in November.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker:

Yeah, Owen. And which

Speaker 2:

I'll take your second place vote, by the way. I mean, remember this is ranked choice voting. Nobody knows what's gonna happen. Everybody. Yeah. Nobody knows. Gimme knows that Second, gimme that second. Give everybody

Speaker:

the second place. Vote for Scotty V. You really can win that way. Yeah, you might. Um, which of these sauces would you like to take home with you?

Speaker 2:

Um, that it, that second to last one? Yeah. One that really Room two 17.

Speaker:

The one that kicked my butt. I like it. Yeah. I like a man of courage. That one's gonna go. Alright. Got speed. Thank you.

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Curt Bear

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