Rideshare Regulation, Companionship A.I. & Prison Reform: A Lawmaker’s Summer Recess

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Well, state rep, Andre Carroll, thank you so much for being here on CityCast, Philly. Now that the state budget is passed, and I always say, thank God, it didn't take too long. It took some time, but it didn't take as long as it did last year. I'm curious. What actually do you do during the day now that the state budget has passed and you are all on your summer recess? Yeah, Trane, that's a really great question. And a lot of people under the impression that like once we pass the state budget and we're no longer traveling 90 miles, well, at least for me who coming from Philadelphia County, traveling 90 miles west to the state capital that, you know, we just don't have. We just have time to just lounge around. It's not true. So, you know, represent 66,000 people in the state house. I have an opportunity when we are away from the state capital over the summer to do community engagement, to knock some doors, to communicate what exactly is in the state budget. Also, to do some community events. We got some coming up in the next few weeks, like Bell Food Day, also a couple back-to-school. That's happening on Saturday. Absolutely. Yep. Two rare is coming. So super excited to have, like, Philadelphia's own, a young up-and-coming artist from Philadelphia coming to the neighborhood. rec center that I grew up in where I learned how to swim. I learned how to, like, you know, use the swing and play basketball and where I spent many nights in that rec center as a kid. So it's exciting to be able to invest and, you know, bring light and then joy, black joy to the same rec center that I grew up in. So I'm excited about Saturday. Representative Carroll, as a freshman lawmaker, you have been able to get your first bill signed into law. Tell me a little bit about HB 1646. It's known as the Barbershop bill, which you're the prime sponsor of. Absolutely. I just want to take a step back and talk a little bit about, you know, how I got here, why this is important to me. And I always tell people that, like, my service is centered in the fact that my father spent the first 20 years of my life in prison. And, you know, I didn't meet my father until I'm a month shy of my 21st birthday. So I ran on a criminal justice performed background. And, you know, I've spent the last eight years of mentoring and working with juveniles who are being tried as adults. Some refer to as Act 96 or you may hear direct foul, but these are juveniles between the ages of 15 and 17 who are being... tried as a doubt. So all of whom is on state road inside of places like RCF Riverside Correction Facility. And then when they turn 18, they were sent over to pick and over to CFCF for those who are familiar. So that's the premise of, you know, my background and what, you know, charged me to run for office. When it comes to HP 1646, it's really reforming a process in which people get licensed to become barbers. You know, for many...

Especially like men, like barbershop is where we go to have safe spaces. And many of whom small business owners are also just as impacted folks. These are people who formerly spend time in custody. And many of whom are coming home to be honest, you know, law-abiding citizens. And they just want to get to work. And what I recognize was that the board, this board of which of one of about 29 boards in the Pennsylvania. in Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth, this was one of the boards where it required a majority of the available seats to be able for them to create a quorum and for them to meet. But 19 of the 29 boards already have a simple majority of the occupied seats. And because of the way that this board was currently constructed, it wasn't allowing. meetings to happen. So if one person was sick or couldn't make it to the meeting, and these also are volunteer positions on these state boards. If, you know, if one person can make it, then it would be a three-month delay because many times we're only seeing them meet quarterly. So if this board could meet, you're seeing delays in applications. You're saying delays in approvals, denials, and also delays in, if there's any corrective action that's need to be taken, you know, as far as opposed to being delayed. And, you know, to me, just personal because my barber's been cut my hair for about 17 years now. Where do you get your hair cut? Hereafter lounge. So it's actually one of the spots that we're having my back-to-school drive on. That is actually August 15th from 10 to 2. Where is the barbershop? It's going to be, is it 18th in Shelton. I don't have the correct address in front of me, but it's right off of O'Gonstantinton, right behind Wagner Middle School in... Yeah, that's what I've been going. He actually just opened up the shop about two years ago in the district before that I was traveling across town to get my haircut. So I'm excited to have him here. That's special to have that relationship with your barber. Again, help me to understand this. So this bill would... expedite barbering licensing or make sure that the board that oversees these licenses meet more frequently? Yep. So basically, so what my bill does makes the quorum, the requirement to create a quorum a simple majority. So right now there's 11 possible seats on this board. There's only six occupants right now occupying these 11 seats. So, you know, the majority of 11 is six. So if one person can't meet. the meeting doesn't happen, but my bill simply takes the majority of the occupancy. So now out of six, you only need four people to be able to meet, and now the meeting can happen. So two people cannot be present, and this would allow the board to be able to function, which then would move forward to process to be able to for people to get licensed. Also, you know, we're experiencing already inside of the Commonwealth, there's already a lack of access to testing sites. So on top of right now, before this vote was passed, people are experiencing about six months to lay. to even take the test, right? And then after they take the test, then if the meeting can't happen, you're talking about another three to six or sometimes a year later, you're actually then getting your application approved. This is, you know, this is not helpful. This is, you know, this is an impact to tax revenue. It's an impact to, you know, household incomes. And it's just, it's a full cycle impact if we don't.

make the correction. So I'm excited that the bill has now made it to the governor's desk. Josh Shapiro, the governor, here in Pennsylvania, has signed the bill. So it has become law. And I'm excited. It took us about a year to get it done. But we got to do it. Okay, so it is law now. It is. It got signed earlier this week. I'm into law by Governor Josh Shapiro. Oh, congratulations on that. Thank you. Thank you. Breaking news. Okay. Representative, you also have a bill, which you're the primary sponsor for, and it's HB 2512. Yeah. Basically a surveillance pricing bill, which focuses on rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft. These companies look at user data, like our battery power percentage, our browsing history, even our location to determine the highest price that we're willing to pay. Tell me more about why you're sponsoring this bill and what's the status of it. Yeah, Trinay, absolutely, exactly what you said. So last summer, I read a report that literally... describe exactly what you just mentioned. And it said that, like, if me and you could be standing in the same exact location, and because my battery life may be 10% than yours is at 100, they would charge me more because of my desperation to get a ride, recognizing that because I'm on 10%, I may not cancel the ride. You've been on 100%, you know, you have the capacity to say, look, I'm not going to pay that amount. I can wait a little longer. Or switch between ads. People do that. Absolutely. I'm checking the other after the cheaper. Exactly. That happens. I mean, I've done that, right? Many of us. who use rideshare companies have done that. And also, they can use your purchase history, the fact that you've paid this amount on another website. You know, they have access. Even when you say, like, when you hit that button where it's like you can ask the app not to track you? Well, most people, if you recognize, they just hit a lot. Because a lot of people are under the impression. If I hit, don't, then I won't have access to the app. So it's kind of like a, you know, it's kind of like a human behavior thing because we're just trying to get to access the thing that we're trying to access. So many have allowed us to have allowed companies to be able to develop us in that way. But this bill literally takes that option away here in the Commonwealth, making sure that like Rajshare companies are not allowed to do that even if a user was to hit allow, they wouldn't have access to these information. I just. believe that right now, especially when we're having an affordability crisis across the country, we're seeing people also in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania still work for $7.50. Like, you know, this is just starvation wages. And I just think that corporations need to be operating in a very honest way. Now, look, I'm not taking away the option if they wanted to. Depending on the amount of drivers that's on the road or maybe inclement weather, those kind of things or maybe the amount of users that are using the app at the time, those are contributing factors that may fluctuate the price. But you can't overpriced someone simply because their battery life is lower because they've paid historically more for other products. I guess don't think that that's fair. So actually, Pennsylvania will become the first.

state in the country to be able to make these limitations if this bill was the past state senate, I'm in the fall, and it makes it to the governor's dust. And how would that impact of drivers, though, right? Because. they are making a living off these apps as well. Yep. Absolutely. So, you know, they're also speaking to a person who drove a Lyft and Uber to pay my way through college. When I was in college, I didn't have a person who could fund my education. So I literally drove Uber and Lyft to be able to, you know, to be able to make ends meet. And, you know, sometimes ends didn't get met. But so I recognize the importance of, you know, this opportunity for people who are working class, people who are using this app. But just. These limitations and these safeguards wouldn't impact the paychecks of the drivers. That's not what this would do. This would put regulations on the actual corporation. This is not a passenger tax. This is not a driver penalty. This is simply making sure that it's equitable for everyone. And if you talk to a driver anytime soon, you'll hear them say that even the way that the system is currently set up. you can be charged $30 for a ride and the driver may see $12. So there's already a discrepancy. And as far as like how much users are paying and how much the drivers are actually seeing already. This wouldn't change that. And so what are the next steps of HB 2512? Yep. So when we go back in the fall, which we're scheduled to go back to end of September right now, you know, the goal is to get the Consumer Protection Committee over in the Senate to take up this bill. And if they were and they passed the committee, then it will go to a floor vote on the Senate floor. And then if it passed there, then it will get sent to the governor's desk. All right. We've got more with State Rep. Andre Carroll after this break.

This summer spent some time in Delaware County, and you'll understand why they say Delco's a lot. Start a new family tradition with the Visit Delco Ice Cream Trail. Check it out at participating ice cream and water ice shops, earn points, and score some limited edition Delco gear through Labor Day. Enjoy cool treats, cool stuff, and cool off in Delco. Then check out the Delco Chalk Fest. That's happening on August 22nd and 23rd at Subaru Park in Chester. See incredible 3D chalk art. Enjoy live music, local vendors, and family fun. Best of all, it's free. And then on August 29th, experience the Lumination 250 festival at Haverford High School, celebrating America's 250th with live music, food, and a spectacular choreographed drone show. Plan your summer adventure at Visit Delco.com. They say Delco's a lot, and they're right. Okay, Representative Carroll, you and I spoke a while ago before about your focus on criminal justice and... your time that you've spent visiting prisons in the state because this issue is so close to you. So I'm curious to know more about your involvement with another House Bill. This is House Bill 2154, and it essentially would establish the prison industry enhancement authority. Talk to me a little bit more about, you know, your experience with... visiting prisons in the state and what will this bill um help alleviate. Yep. HB. 2154 is actually authored. And the prime sponsor is the chairman of the judiciary, which is Tim Briggs out of Montgomery County. So I sit actually on a judiciary committee. So I have an opportunity to vote this bill out of committee. And this bill essentially would allow private businesses to be able to work in collaborations with prisons here and in Commonwealth and be able to pay livable wages to. people who are currently incarcerated. And, you know, what we've seen, like in Philadelphia prisons, one of the things that folks don't know is that the furniture in City Hall, the water bills that are sent to our homes, these are manufactured by people who are currently incarcerated. And the thing is that the wages are low. Like, you can get paid 50 cent an hour, you know, because legally in prisons, because they're providing housing, they're providing food. They deem that you can be paid less than minimum wage because they're providing, you know, living. Other living expenses for you. Exactly. So this will give an opportunity for inmates to be able to work with private businesses to be able to create jobs and make sure it's livable wages also teach career skills that would give them access to that. And then it also will require state oversight so that we will be able to see the pros and the cons of this program.

What sorts of jobs would people who are incarcerated do for these private companies? So the jobs are a private business. So, you know, a private business are businesses that are not controlled by like the public sector. So it could simply be if it was like making baby bottles for, you know, and since that is something that would come from a private business of it was, for instance, manufacturing, I mentioned earlier, desks and chairs, right? That could be made by a private company. So anything that's in the private sector that is a, I'm assuming would be a product. because, you know, it'd be unlikely that, you know, incarcerated folks would do services, but may you manufacture and product, those would be things that would be available for, you know, incarcerated folks to be able to manufacture and get paid, live on wage for. And you also mentioned skills. Are these skills that... folks who are incarcerated can use when they get out, when they reenter back in Philadelphia. Absolutely. So, you know, job training is a part of the bill, right? It's making sure that people are equipped to be able to do these jobs. And the hope is that majority of the folks who enter prison and jail are folks who are going to return to society at some point. So these are transferable skills, transferable, you know, soft skills and hard skills that people are going to return back to their communities with and allow them to be functioning law-abiding citizens. Okay. I will be honest. I want to talk about another bill. This one really sparked my interest because I guess I didn't think about it so much and how, you know, we're all using AI in some way. But this takes it to a more intimate. use of AI. Representative, please break this down. Why is this important for people to know? The first thing first, right, is that AI is here. AI isn't going anywhere. And, you know, on a daily... increase we're increasing the amount of users daily of how many people are using AI. So you're talking about on HB2006, 2006, which is my colleague representative Melissa Schustemon, who has authored this bill. And this is just simply making AI be honest. You know, literally saying that like, you know, for instance, a report came out that said on average about 20 million Americans. daily or engaging with companionship with AI. These are people literally know that they're engaging in intimacy with a person that is AI. Like asking AI like asking AI like dating questions or, you know, help me to fix this relationship with my mother or.

Whatever. Absolutely. And I literally sent a video a few months ago that literally was talking about they were doing speed dating. This was up in New York. They were doing, they have like a speed dating cafe of literally all AI folks. Like you can go in the cafe, engage with AI and like speed date. And people are taking these relationships outside of this cafe and they're okay with dating AI. People have preferences and they have opportunities to do the things that they like. And we're not here to judge that. What I'm here to do is make sure that their safeguards put in place to make sure that our children are protected, right? The AI is being truthful. And if a person is discussing things like the S word, like, you know, unallowing their self, or self-harm or harm to others, is that there's a mandate that that is being reported. to something that allows us to intervene and save lives. Like, I'm curious, like, why you're connected to this bill? So, you know, the things I recognize that this is a reality for folks, I've seen some of the stories nationally. And then also, too, like, I have people have expressed me, like, look. I don't know the morning signs of AI and people are running away from AI. Some people are leaning into AI. And what I recognize as a leader is that this isn't something that's going to, you know, weather anytime soon. This is actually only going to get increasingly more potent in our communities and our everyday life. So, you know, as a leader who is predicting the future and seeing a trend, I want to be a part of solution and, you know, Representative Schusterman is a good friend. And that's someone who I, you know, I truly believe in leadership of and, you know, someone who I've seen bring a mean. for pieces of registration for us. And this is one of the things that I have a 17-year-old little brother. I have a nine-year-old little sister. And, you know, they explore the same internet that you and I use, right? And I see a lot of the... websites that are available to you and I. And there is nothing that stops a 17-year-old from being able to enter and leave the websites that you and I use. And I see some of the dangers in real time. And then also these are not just the dangers of real people. These are the dangers of AI, which is not human beings. And, you know, that also we haven't seen the full effects of what this is actually going to be. So we need to get in front of us. And historically, Pennsylvania, in my opinion, has been one of the states that's been behind the eight ball. And we've been one of the people, one of the states have been very reactive to constituents in their everyday concerns. And I think that this is an opportunity for us to get ahead of the eight ball and really be one of the states leading around this issue. Well, now that you brought that up, how do you stay connected to your constituents? Yeah, so I've actually only been here for 22 months. Oh, 22 months. Okay. It hasn't been to full term yet. So, you know, I'm one of the youngest state lawmakers and the General Assembly here in the Commonwealth. And, you know,

One of the things I really pride myself on is that, like, I try to keep my air to the ground. You know, I spend a lot of time on social media. I spend a lot of time in my community knocking doors, like literally this summer, my team and I have knocked over 5,000 doors already here. And this is just constituent doors from that's what we started in June, not even. considering the doors that we may have knocked earlier this year in our primary, which we knocked over 85% of the district, and not including the doors that we'll knock the rest of the summer. Last summer, we did the same thing. We knocked over 10,000 doors last year, and we wasn't even in an election year. And, you know, one of the things that I heard a lot when I was running for office is people say, like, look. elected officials, politicians, or whatever, like, title you want to use, they only show up when it's an election time, or you can only find them when they're asking for your vote. And, you know, I say... Isn't that real to... Do you feel like... They're saying some sort of truth to that, though? That's 110% the truth. And, you know, I never was groomed and run for office. You know, like I mentioned, I come from a background where my father was incarcerated the first 20 years of my life. My mother's battle with substance abuse I was raised by a single parent grandmother who was an LPN, who I, you know, missed many hours and days with because my grandma was working a job, a full-time job down at Henneman Hospital before the closure. And, you know, I recognize that I have bright semblements of my neighbors. folks who feel like there's a disconnect between government and everyday folks. And what I promised was that, you know, if elected, I would have the opportunity to change the connection and access the government and also change the perception of what government can mean to the community that I came from. How do you think you're doing that? You know, engaging. I want to listen. I want to be very responsive to the needs of the people, the people who pay our pay checks, the people who pay taxes unwillingly. The reality is that, you know, when you go to work, you and I, Taxes are taking out our checks regardless if we want to or not. We have no control over that. That is an automatic thing, right? And the reality for me is that that is what funds government. That is what allows us to fund critical programs across the Commonwealth. That is what allows me to be able to have a paycheck and pay my bills. So I have a responsibility, right, to people, to the people who have elected me and beyond because I'm elected within a district. that is comprised of 66,000 people, but every single vote that I take affects all 13 million Pennsylvanians. And I recognize that. And I take that very seriously. And, you know, for me, I want to make sure that I'm providing services to the best of my ability. You know, there's people who will write me on Facebook and Instagram. And, you know, I take constituent services. One night I remember it was a Friday night. I was at an event. It's like 11 o'clock at night. And a woman who lives down the street from the office, she wrote me on Facebook, telling me that she was experiencing an outage with a peak of her. electricity was off. And, you know, immediately I picked up the phone and I reached out to my contact over at Pico and I said, hey, I have a neighbor. This is the address. You know, her power has been off for about four hours. They said it out, the power would have been back on an hour. It hasn't happened. And within an hour of that conversation, her electricity was back on. That is the kind of level of constituent services that I believe that my neighbors deserve. And that's what I could aim to continue to provide. Hmm. I want to get back to

just engagement a little bit more with constituents, with voters. So the city's commissioner's office, they launched a summer voter registration effort in neighborhoods throughout the city to get people registered to vote and apply for mail and ballots and answer any election-related questions. What have you heard from your constituents? about maybe some of the misconceptions of the election process because we've got midterms coming up. You're going to be up for re-election. What do you think are some of the misconceptions of the election process among voters in your district? And how can you address those? Yeah, I think there's a few things happening right now, right? We literally... A few nights ago, we just watched the president of the United States literally take out 30 minutes of his time and our time and provide an address to add, you know, misconceptions and, like, accusations with no proof about election fraud and people who've been able to vote that should not have been able to vote and all this other foolishness. That's one thing, right? We have a president who's running in this country right now who literally is determining to make folks believe that elections are unsecured, they're not safe, and that's just not true. The thing is, I've ran for office, I've lost an election, I've ran for office, and I won an election. I know that they work because I know how many doors me knocked. I know how much money we've spent to engage with voters, and I've seen the outcomes, right? The thing that I, the other thing that I'll say is that, you know, the other thing that I'll say, right, is that we have seen historically a decline in a voter engagement. And the thing that you know for a fact for people, that people are. exhausted with the with the notion that we must vote because our ancestors or we must vote because that's how we elect our leaders and then there's no results or there's a lack thereof when we do go out and vote I totally get people something and and in their frustration the thing that I truly believe is that while we do have a need to register people to vote. I think the biggest issue that we have is that we have a turnout issue. That we're not turning out. Absolutely. Because we're losing people's trust in their faith in government. And then to some extent, though, I'm going to push back a little bit on that, right? And to some extent, some argue that that has helped the Democratic Party here in the city of Philadelphia because of low voter turnout. You can almost expect that if you're the Democratic candidate and sometimes if you're the incumbent, you're locked in that seat. Yeah, I mean, I went through that, right? I ran against a Democratic incumbent, and it was because I felt that like any Democrat won't do.

That's what I truly believe. I believe in a Democratic Party. I've been a Democrat all my life. But just because someone has a D next to their name doesn't make them the best person for the seat. We need to elect champions for working class people. We need to elect champions for youth and for seniors. We need to elect people who actually want to come into these roads and do the job. But one thing that I know for a fact is that we need as many people to participate in elections because it's not just about my damn ballot election here in Germantown. It's about also what about when the state senator? What about when the congressional member? runs or what about the governor or president? Those sometimes those elections happen on a different cycle. Every time the Andre Carroll is on a ballot, you know, Governor Josh Shapiro may not be on a ballot or, you know, Vice President, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris may not be on about it all at the same time. So what happens when the folks that's in this district doesn't turn off for those elections? And then we see people who are elected to office, which are the people that we do not want. The only way we can consistent... make sure that we're electing leaders and champions for folks like our community is that we have to continue to talk to folks. Another thing to, like one of the things I recognize when you're running a campaign, there's this thing that happens. It's called you create a universe. And inside this universe, you're determining what. voters to reach out to. So say, for instance, if I'm running my campaign in a cycle and a person has only voted one time in the last four elections, and we're talking to Philadelphia where elections happen every six years. So that means in the last two years, this person has only voted one time. A campaign could deem that person as a low propensity voter and as someone who they shouldn't reach out to because they can't count on that person to be able to show up on election day. So what they're going to do is they're going to focus on a person who may have voted three out of the four last elections. A four out of four voter is someone who's voted every election for the last two years. And that's the person that they really won because they believe that that person can get to the polls. But my thing is, what about the people who have decided to disengage with the system for whatever reason that may be? How, if you don't get them back into the fold, then that means campaigns will stop voting out, without reaching out to them in their entirety and will never be able to get them back in the fold. I operate from a different. you know, vantage point. I believe that those voters deserve outreach and we can get them back in full, but you can't do that if you don't talk to them. And the way that which my team in my office operate is that like when we're out knocking doors, we knock every door.

You know, these are constituent service door knocks. We're knocking every door to let people know that, look, one, we exist. These are the services that we offer. We're not here to ask for your vote. Today, we just want to let you know what government can do for you in the hopes that you will engage with us in a way that allows us to be able to then reach out to you at a later date. What is keeping you in politics? I mean... You're, I mean, as a kid, I could tell you, my grandma, I used to welcome my grandmother to the voting booth every election. My grandma was an avid voter. And, you know, I always heard these folks' names. I would see the commercials, and I never thought that I would have an opportunity to run for office. And I think about... I think about that, Trane. I think about the reason why. It was because I didn't see people like myself. I didn't see young elected officials. I didn't hear stories like the one that I come from. I didn't see those success stories exist in this space. You know, I grew up in a world in which folks like myself only went on to play basketball, football. We were athletes. Maybe sometimes like we were musicians. But to actually be in public policy. My story didn't exist. To have a young, poor black boy from Germantown who was raised in a household that made less than $50,000 a year, you know, in a zip code where the average person makes less than $40,000 a year in today's society with this affordability crisis, you know, that wasn't a reality. You know, and oftentimes I thought to myself a person like me could never run for office. But, you know, I recognize that there is a world in which my story is possible. And there's an opportunity for me to take lived experience to the capitals and to the Hall of Power and be able to make real meaningful policy changes that really impact every day on folks right here in the Commonwealth. And that is the reason why I continue to wake up every day and want to do this job. I really do thoroughly enjoy the role. that I have as a Pennsylvania lawmaker, an opportunity to see in real time what the challenges are, what the problems, what government are, the gaps, and finding ways to be able to lead the charge to be able to change that. I've seen in just 22 months some of the energy and impact that, you know, my team and I have been able to curate and create. I've seen that spread in other folks. I've seen it with some of my colleagues up and be like, look, we don't have to do status quo. We don't have to live. Which in a way that, you know, the systems have deemed, you know, deemed by reality, we can actually reimagine a world that we all are proud to live and a world and where we all can thrive and have access to economic mobility and, you know, have an opportunity to raise children right here in our community, send them to public schools and be able to lower the count of folks who are incarcerated in the Commonwealth and really set people on a path of success and make sure that our seniors have access to affordable health prescription. and health care for all. You know, these are things that are possible, and we've seen it. We've seen across the country. We've seen people get elected. Right now, we're watching a mayor in the biggest city in America, New York City, who is a Muslim, who is in his 30s, who is a Democratic socialist, and a person who's an immigrant.

literally serve as mayor and transform the biggest city in America underneath a Donald Trump presidency. You cannot tell me that it's not possible. There's not an opportunity to do better. We've seen it. We can do it. We just have to elect people, elect people who actually want to do better. Would you consider yourself a Democratic socialist? I consider myself a champion of the people. You know, I believe that communities, like when I come from, I think far so often we've been boggled down with titles. We, you know, we've been separated. By the fact that this person is this and this person is that, at the end of the day, I want to be a champion for people. I recognize the struggles that my neighbors are having, and I want to make sure that I'm running towards a gold line with them in mind and making sure that I'm taking all in with me. I promised them that I was going to put my neighborhood on my back and I was going to get them everything that they deserve, and that's what I wake up every day with the intentions of doing. Okay, so what sorts of other things are you going to be doing this summer until the House convenes in September? Yep, so this Saturday, July 25th, we're doing Bellfield Day. We talked about this a little bit earlier from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., which is just a day of joy. I mentioned Philadelphia's own artists too rare is coming out to perform, and I'm excited. to have them in my neighborhood also. I saw you doing the, was it the Camdenbop? The Camden Bob, yeah, I'm still practicing. So if you see the videos on my social media, that's just my attempt to try to, you know, learn a dance before too rare gets to get the bellfield so I could be on the stage and, you know, try to participate a little bit, which is, you know, another thing, right? It's like just making sure that, like, I'm trying to stay current, right? I'm trying to make sure that, like, I'm keeping up with the Joneses and the young folks. Wait, how old are you? I'm 35. I'm 35. Oh, okay. Yeah, but, you know, I can tell you that politics aid you and government is stressful. You got great hairs yet? We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about that. But also, I want to mention that we got some back-to-school drives on August 1st at Lonnie Young Rec Center. We also, August 15th, which is going to be a hair after barbershops, small business. And then also on August 25th, we're going to be at Thorne, Beauty, and Company, and Logan, which is also another small business, and we're going to be doing a back-to-school drive there. So we want to make sure that, you know. full of young people in all three neighborhoods that I represent have access to back to school materials, book bags, you know, rulers, crayons, everything that you can think of. We're going to have it. And then we're also going to have some resources out there for the parents when they come out, you know, if there's anything that we can help with. So excited for all of that. So that's just some of the stuff that we'll be doing before we go back to session in September. All right. PA representative, Andre Carroll. Thank you so much for speaking with me on CityCast, Philly.

Thank you so much, Renee. It's been an honor and a joy. I'm glad that we made it happen, and I'm glad I got a chance to share some of the work that we've been doing. I appreciate you. That's all for today here on CityCast, Philly. If you enjoyed this episode with State Representative Andre Carroll, share this with your neighbor. Also, rate the show. Leave us a review and hit that subscribe button. Be sure to sign up for our morning newsletter to learn more about what else Philly's talking about. And don't forget, you can support the show and get great perks by becoming a citycast-filly neighbor at membership.citycast.fm slash Philly. All right, we'll be back tomorrow morning with more news from around the city. Bye.