D2&U

D2&U Ep 8 Hour Car & EV network

Greater Eastside Community Council

Hey everybody, this is Lisa from the Greater East Side District 2 Community Council, and you're listening to the D2NU Podcast. The show that recaps everything happening on the East Side of St. Paul for people who love to be in the know. We have lots to talk about today, so sit back, grab a cup of coffee, or your favorite drink of choice, and let's get to it. Today, we are talking to Shannon Crabtree from Our Car. Shannon will be giving us a crash course on what is Our Car. And about an exciting project that is happening over here on the east side. So thank you for joining us today, Shannon. Thank you for having me. Let's start by telling everyone a little bit more about you. How long have you been with Our Car? I joined Our Car in 2019. In fact, today is my five year anniversary. That's great. Thank you. So yeah, it's been great. I've gotten to see our car grow with the launch of EV Car Share and the EV Spot Network. And of course, as well as expanding our own hub based services as well. And what is your actual role? My role, I'm the director of planning and community development, which I essentially means that I oversee the strategic growth of the organization. I oversee community engagement and that whole team, which there's about eight of us. Right now on that team, I work very closely with, our head of growth and marketing on communications and website things and any kind of flyers you might see out in the community. Yeah, a host of other things as well. Lots of grant, grant funding, that kind of thing. Those other duties as assigned, right? Correct. So what do you think is the most difficult part of your job? Correct. Oh, that's a tricky question. I think balancing the workload with how fast we're growing. So, to give you an idea, when I started in 2019, there were about 10 employees. Okay. About eight or so full time and the other two part time. And now we're almost up to 40. Wow. Yeah. So quadrupling the size of our organization's capacity within five years has been very challenging. we work very closely with a lot of different external stakeholders. So of course, exactly like district two and other, other district councils and community based orgs, cities, utilities, sure. Yeah. you know, whole, whole host of different types of other stakeholders. So it can be difficult to just balance what everyone is asking of us. And then also what we're asking of others, to make sure everyone can show up and do their best. And it's challenging because we have to keep hiring new folks to come in and help with that capacity. I can sympathize with that. Yes. so, and before we move on to the next question, is there plans for even Further growth. Yes. Oh, wow. That's exciting. Yes. So by 2030, we hope to have about 90, employees. Holy smokes. Yeah. That's great. We're significantly expanding our services to hopefully eventually cover, Not only more of the East side, but more of both St. Paul, Minneapolis and even in the surrounding suburban areas. Excellent. Well, it's needed. It's needed for sure. What's your favorite part of your job? Getting to connect with community. Yeah. To be honest, like even though I'm pretty I'm the director of planning and I have to make a lot of high level decisions and, and really think strategically about our growth. what brought me to the organization initially was I was hired as the community engagement coordinator. Okay. to organize engagement, for the launch of the EBSPAT network and EBHarshare. And so being able to connect with community leaders and residents and really, listen to people and hear what their needs are and then take that feedback and then say to my team, okay, here's what we've heard from community. Now let's find a way to implement it and then seeing that actually happen and then seeing people actually use our services because of it. Is very rewarding. Oh, I bet. And it helps ground the work too. Yes. just because even though you're in that kind of director level, you still are touching earth. You're still hearing from folks and that, kind of your perspective when doing the work for sure. Yeah. I, and this is part of the reason I wanted to work for a nonprofit too. Oh yes. Because we are on the ground. We are operators, so we, we see the impact every day. Right, right. Well, yeah. Nonprofits make the world go around. That's for sure. And I'm not biased at all there. so what would be one thing that people would be surprised to find out about you? I have an art background. Oh. So even though I'm a transportation planner now, I have a bachelor's degree in photography and I ran my own pottery studio for almost a decade. Okay. Before going back to school and getting my master of urban regional planning. Yeah. So do you find because of your arts background that you have maybe that unique view of engagement of always thinking about. You know, be creative because, you know, one thing we do find out is that what works for one group of people or one neighborhood seldom works somewhere else, or maybe it needs to be shifted a little bit. So just having that arts background, I think, would be really important. Yeah, I think the, biggest thing that having an arts background has given me in this position. It's not only the creativity, but the flexibility of thought process. Yeah. And like, how can we adapt what we have to make it fit for different community members and in different contexts. Right. Mm hmm. And I think, you know, art has played a really important role in eliminating, we'll say historical context that sometimes like history books, myths, and to me that sociological and like justice lens is how I view the world a lot. And part of that is because of art. And I kind of taken that and brought it with me into my planning profession and, and I thought that, you know, all urban planners would approach the world that way. Now, I realize that's not the case, but, um, yeah, it's. been a better fit than I thought it would have been. Cool. That's excellent. I love that. so for folks who may not be familiar with our car and the concept of car sharing beyond family, what the heck is it? A million dollar question. So CarShare is a community based service. Unlike a traditional rental car company, these vehicles are available in your community through an app or your computer. so you can pick one up, on the street near your house or at a hub, in the community. It's available 24 seven and the biggest difference is it's much more affordable and it's available for a, a shorter amount of time. If you're not like trying to use a car for a whole day, right? Maybe you just want to have a vehicle to go to the grocery store because, right? You know, taking groceries on the bus is kind of difficult, Or a bike. Or a bike. Or even walking. Right. Unless it's real close, it's just hard to do those things. Exactly. So CarShare provides people with that tool when they really need it. And then of course, we include gas or, electricity for our electric cars. Insurance is covered. That's huge. 24 7 member support is covered. We have interpretation services in real time available for folks. So there's a lot of, I would say, assets, bonuses that come with what we offer compared to like a traditional car rental. Sure. That you would go pick up at the airport, right? Right. Oh, that's really interesting. so when again did our car actually come to the Twin Cities? So that's, another good question. There was a little organization called the Neighborhood Energy Connection. They were a small, St. Paul based, energy focused organization that helped homeowners make improvements to their home, energy improvements. So, better insulation or better windows or more efficient appliances. And they would often connect folks with, local or state resources that would help them pay for those things, either at zero or very low interest, or sometimes even completely forgivable loans, depending on your income. So the Neighborhood Energy Connection started Our Car as a program in 2005. Okay. So it's been nearly 20 years. Yeah, that's when I started here. Wow. I know. So for a long time, Our Car was just this very crunchy very bare bones. program that it was all hub based, meaning the cars lived at a hub and then you have to return them to the same hub. Sure. And our car operated on that model up until we launched. EV car share. so the neighborhood energy connection was purchased by the center for energy and environment. Okay. They do similar work, but on a bigger scale. Right. And they collectively decided that they no longer wanted to manage a car share program. Got it. So at that point. Our Car became its own freestanding non profit and that was in 2017. Okay. So as its own organization, yeah, Our Car has been here for, what is that, seven years? Yeah. But has been in existence almost for 20. So, we operated our approximately 50 hub based vehicles and still do, until 2022 when EV car share was launched. So now we have both free float and hub based. So combined between the free float. And the hub based. How many vehicles are available? Right now we have about 250. Oh wow. That is a lot. Yeah. So it's for twin cities wide. Are are you Yeah. Beyond Minneapolis, St. Paul or Slightly. So we've got, we've got a little, pilot program that we call the Multifamily Project. Okay. And that. Locates, low and moderate income, mostly rental buildings, and we work with the site managers or the developers to, get electric vehicle charging infrastructure, so the chargers installed, and then we place two car share vehicles there for resident use. It's available to the public as well, but it's mostly focused on the building residents. So, some of those sites are in suburban areas. Okay. So like Bloomington, Richfield, St. Louis Park, Little Canada, and then we've also got some multi family sites in Minneapolis and St. Paul. So Nova SP is the closest. Okay. That's on the east side right off Payne and Payne and Phelan Boulevard, I believe. Sounds right. We've got another one that just opened in Roseville. There's a couple in Minneapolis. so the, the multifamily sites are more suburban. EV car share is completely contained within Minneapolis and St. Paul. For now, that's the plan. Not saying it won't ever go beyond city boundaries, but, for now, that's what we're, that's how we're operating. Excellent. and are they, I mean, you mentioned EV. Are they normal vehicles or, is there a special training someone would need to access them? So, they're newer because they're electric. Okay. But beyond that, they're really not much different than any other vehicle that you would drive. You know, so like, They have push button starts instead of keys. That's one difference. Yeah. they're quieter because they're electric. Sure. So they're not, you don't hear the rev of the engine like you would in a gas car. Right. But it pretty much drives, the same as any other car, Takes a minute to just kind of acquaint yourself as it does with any guard that you've gotten into that you don't know. Right. But yeah, we have, Nissan Leafs and Shelly Bolts in our EV fleet. As well as our multi family, those are all electric too, Chevy Bolts and Nissan Leafs. We do have tutorials though for folks that need a little help. those are accessible on our website evcarshare. com. And of course our member services team is always there to support folks if they have questions, or if they're having difficulty with anything at any time of the day. Wow, that's, that's really important. 24x7. Yeah. Really important because I could see, you're trying out something and oh my gosh, it's past 5 30. Yeah. And who do I call? What do I do? So having that accessible to you at any time and in alternate languages, right? Yes. Yes. We have a huge we have a partnership with an organization called language line, and they provide it. We have real time interpretation support for over 250 languages. Wow. Also, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That's a lot. So, we do use them if folks have interpretation needs. We ask that they just tell us, I need to speak in whatever language they need. And then we'll say, okay, hold on. We connect with language line. And then we bring the interpreter in and then we can have that conversation. That is so cool. It's very helpful for folks that maybe aren't as comfortable with speaking English as their primary language, maybe they're okay with reading things or, some words, but like in an emergency, they want to have a conversation right. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, it is a membership. Correct. What are, the requirements to get a membership? Can anybody apply? Well, there are limitations of course. We have an insurance carrier that requires us to have a minimum threshold for our members that they have to meet. So you have to be at least 18 years or older. Okay. Now that's of course different than a rental company where you have to be at least a certain age, maybe 21, 21 at least. Yeah. Like it's definitely. lower. Right. That's great. you have to have one year or more of licensed driving experience. So if you get your license as, you're 16 or 17, once you turn 18 and you have that license for a year, you can sign up for membership. Wow. you have to have an email address. Okay. You have to have a digital payment. So that means either a debit card, credit card, or you can use prepaid cards as well. So that's great for folks that may not have, a bank account, can access a prepaid card. And then you have to have no major violations on your driving record within, I want to say it's three years. I'd have to look at the requirements again, but. So basically, if you have the parking tickets are okay, parking tickets, totally fine. You know, pay your parking tickets, obviously, please, everyone. We're not going to hold that against you. But yeah, no, no major things. So things like DUI. Sure. Sorry. We can't accept it. If it's been within loss. seven years. If it's beyond that, you're fine to apply. Okay. Reckless driving, excessive speed, there's things. Yeah. and I also want to mention too, that we accept international driver's licenses. Oh, that's good to know. So maybe you just moved here from another country, but haven't gotten your Minnesota license yet. That's fine. We accept an international license as long as it's valid. Sure. and we go through a process with folks from different countries. to get them to connect with their driver vehicle services so they can get their driving records and send them to us. Sure. If you're a U. S. resident, then we use a system that can pull up your driving record automatically. So, you know, it'll flag anything that's problematic. And then, Even for like international students, for example, they don't get a Minnesota license cause they're not permanent resident, but they can still use their license to sign up. That makes sense. That makes sense. Approximately how many members do you have today? Yeah, we have almost 10, 000 members. Holy cow. Yeah. So when, so when we launched Eevee, just to give you an idea, we were floating around 2, 500, that's two years ago. Oh, we're almost to 10, 000 as of last week. I think we were at like 9, 700 approved accounts. Oh, that's fantastic. so yeah, Evie is a big reason because of it, but our goal is 50, 000. So. Well, next year when we come back, we'll talk about how close you are to that. Yeah, exactly. So, let's go back to the membership a little bit. Are there like different levels? So let's say, I use it maybe once a month, is that a different level than say someone who uses it weekly, daily? Yes, for sure. Okay. So there is a zero cost membership plan, but it offers the highest per minute rate. Okay. We call it the Try It Plan. Sure. so we often encourage folks if they're going to use it at all to go on a paid plan because it's definitely worth it. Sure. and then we've got our standard everyday plan. That's what most people sign up for. It's seven dollars a month. Okay. But then you also get 7 in driving credit to use each model. So it kind of, it evens out if you're going to drive literally at all. Right. And then the per minute rate is much lower. It's about a third less than the Triath plan. Okay. We also offer a student rate per students, faculty, and staff of any university, I guess high schools could, could count to, if you're 18 or staff or staff. Yeah. and then we also have a self certified lower income plan called access plus. Okay. By self certified, I mean, you don't have to prove that you are below a certain income threshold. Sure. All we ask is that you review a little table that looks at your household income and your household size, and we say, hey,, do you fit in this box or, you know, less? Yes. Okay, great. Then you check the box and then you get enrolled in that membership tier. That one is only 1 per month. Okay. And then you get 6 back in drive credit to you. So you actually gain. Yeah. And it offers the lowest per minute or per hour grades. So, just to reconfirm, you pay monthly, unless you try that try it, tier, and then it's per minute. Mm hmm. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. And it's a little complicated. I don't want to get too much in the weeds on this. it's per minute, per hour, or per day, and the system will automatically configure whichever is the cheapest. Oh. Cool. Cool. That's huge. Yes. So like it may be, within one minute to 35 minutes, it'll charge you the per minute price, but then at like 35 minutes, it'll flip into the per hour price because that's the cheaper rate. Great. So, and it does it for you. You don't have to configure it on your own or anything. Oh, that's, that's nice too. our daily rates are pretty affordable as well. So, a lot of folks will use either the hour car service, the hub bay service, or EV, free float service, in place of, renting a car for the weekend. However, there are limitations, you can only have the cars for up to 72 hours, so if you want to take a two week road trip, not quite, yeah, not quite the right fit. Got it. But if you want to just take a quick trip to Duluth for the weekend, a lot of folks take our car services since those are gas and hybrid, some electric, but the electric infrastructure in the rest of Minnesota is a little spotty. So at best. So for now, anyway, we're keeping the gas fleet and we're encouraging folks if they're going to take longer trips, take a gas or a hybrid car, leave the electric trips for just like around town. Right. Makes sense. you mentioned that it is a non profit, Our Car, how is the program funded? Is it donation? Is it grants? How does that work? Yeah, that's also a really complicated question. Like a lot of nonprofits, we have a lot of different funding sources. Okay. So because we are in partnership with the city of St. Paul and the city of Minneapolis and a host of other, external stakeholders, groups, a lot of the primary funding that we've gotten specifically for EV has been federal funds, federal grants. So the department of energy, the environmental protection agency, or other similar, offices, right, have funded us. There are some state level grants that we've received, and there's some foundational grants as well, and some corporate sponsorships that we've received over the years. So it just depends on what time period we're talking about. when I joined, there was a lot more smaller foundational funding. Now it's much larger, much larger, department of energy grants, things like that, where it's millions of dollars. we are, our car is often a sub awardee. We aren't usually the prime recipient of these grants, but we have a budget. Allocated to us for certain things through partnerships another partnership with like, let's say the city of st. Paul, for example Sounds familiar. Yeah, a lot very familiar. A lot of the things we're doing these funds are only available to government. Okay, and that's why we're not the prime on a lot Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. Is it easy to sign up? Yes. So how would one do that? The easiest way is to download the EV car share app. Okay. So under the EV car share app you will find both access to our our car services and our EV car share service. It takes about five to ten minutes. You just have to have your name, your driver's license number, your email, your payment information, you submit all that, you take a selfie, you know, it's very easy. It's very easy. And then that all gets submitted to our member services team. Okay. They do your driving background check. Yeah. And then once you're approved, then we send you out an email saying, Hey, great, you've been approved. Now you can start driving. And then from there on out, you can go ahead and use the vehicles just like the scooters that you see around. It's really, easy, especially for EB to just find the car, click on it, hit reserve. You get 15 minutes to walk to the car to get it. And then you just do your driving and drop it off. And that's a little bit, how that kind of non hub, the free form. How does that work? I mean, you just look it up on the app and you find a car and. Oh, wow. It's that easy. Wow, yep. There's a geofence, what we call the home area. Okay. That of course includes some of the east side right now. Yeah. But we obviously are aware of the fact that like we need more of the east side covered. Yes. Hence why we're doing the Eastside Expansion, which we will talk a little bit more about in just a moment. Okay, sounds good. Yeah. So, do you have to bring it back then to where you found it? No. Or, okay, so you just leave the car, lock her up and Leave the car parked on the street in a legal parking space. Okay. So there's little tiny five by five inch cards in the vehicles that remind you of what the parking rules are. Oh, that's good. So if you're like, can I park it here? Just look in the, you know, it's either in the side door or like in the center console. The little. flip deck of cards that basically say, if you're in Minneapolis, follow this. If you're in St. Paul, then you follow this. There are slightly different rules in each city. Yeah. Yeah. Or worst case scenario, you call member services, you say, Hey, I'm having difficulty understanding if I should park here. Is this allowable? And then they'll, they'll help you figure that out. Oh, that's so easy. But if you're in a residential area, it's usually pretty easy because there's less parking restrictions, right? If you're in a residential area with permit parking, that is included. Oh, okay. And all of the city meters are also included. Oh, that's huge. That is, yeah. Cause I was thinking, you know, I actually have to do a little trip downtown next week. And I'm thinking, where am I going to park this thing? And I don't want to be plugging meters. And yeah. Ooh. I might have to. Yeah. I might have to. Take a look at that. So you did mention the expansion project. Let's shift a little and talk about that. this is a project between Our Car, Senior St. Paul, American Lung Association, as well as the four Eastside District Councils. so why don't you give us an overview of what this expansion project means? Or what it is. Yeah. Well, I think what it means is that more residents on the east side are going to have access, direct access. Yes. To both our hub based services and our free float services. Very cool. we've seen so much growth and usage amongst our members and so many more new members with what we already have. We know it's working for people. Right. We're averaging between four to five trips per day per vehicle, which is a very good. That's huge. Yeah. Most other free float car share services in the U. S. have struggled to get above two. We're awesome. So we're, we're doing something right, you know, or clearly it's something that people are needing and that are using. Right. So I think for the east side, this is our first expansion of Eevee, we launched it two years ago. It's really because we know that folks need more transportation options. Yeah. And especially on the east side, we know that transit. is often very lacking or it's infrequent. There's not a lot of other good transportation options on the east side. And so we know that this is something that's desperately needed for people. there's a lot of households that, have one car and there's maybe three, four, six, eight people even that live in one household and share one vehicle and that can be really taxing. Yeah. So this allows folks to have that, that additional vehicle access without having to pay 300 a month for insurance and another 200 for gas and, all the maintenance and it gives you that benefit of being able to access a car without the burden of the ownership base, right? I think especially for some of our folks that are struggling, that this is a great option to have. Like you said, you don't have to worry about paying for monthly insurance and, all the vehicle maintenance and all of that. It's That's, it's such a small portion of what you would be paying out. Yeah. It just makes sense. And, and it's there when you need it. And when you don't need it, then someone else can use it. Right. Yeah. And I think the great thing about, you know, the, the East Side Expansion too is that we're hosting a bunch of workshops. Both this year and next year to bring community in to give us feedback to tell us where the new charging station should go. Where should we expand the new expanded home area so that people can pick up the vehicle and drop it off where they really want it and need it, right? What other kinds of things that people want to see? Do they want to see different vehicle types at some of our hub based locations, for example, right? Right now we pretty much have smaller four door Vehicles. Sure., there's more variety in the hour car fleet since that's our gas powered fleet. Ah, yes. But, you know, electric cars are a little more expensive, but we want to be able to offer variety for people. And we want to be able to offer things that people really need in their transportation options. So, yeah, I think just continuing on that sort of engagement with the community in a way that, again, brings community feedback. Takes it in, looks at, okay, what can we do with this, and then actually implement a lot of those ideas into how it works so people can use it in ways that make sense for them. That's so exciting. And so, we're starting this expansion this year, at least the planning for that. What is the timeline for the project? Yeah, that's a good question. So the total project is three years. Okay. We're actually about nine months in. The first six months or so was a lot of behind the scenes work. Yeah. Getting contracts in place. Sure. Working with the Department of Energy to make sure, we crossed all our T's and dotted all our I's, right. Connecting with community councils and getting staff hired is a big thing, right? And that's still in process right now, I think, with everyone. I think for the most part. And that's challenging, too, because there's a lot of turnover in smaller organizations. It's hard to retain folks. says they, want to do other things, which is totally understandable. But that's just part of the challenge. right now we're in the first awareness building phase where we have a lot of organizers in the community out just talking to people saying, Hey, have you heard about EV car share? Have you heard about the EV spot network? Let me tell you why it's for you why you should give us your feedback and be engaged in a way that lends us your voice so that we can make improvements and deliver this thing that is for you. Right, so our first set of workshops are scheduled for later this summer, so probably like late August, we haven't set any dates yet, but we will soon, late August into September. And then we'll do another round of awareness building over the winter. We'll be, out in the community talking to folks at places like libraries or community meetings or places of worship and things like that. And then we'll do a second round of workshops again next summer. Okay. after this first round of workshops, that will help us identify the exact location of the chargers along the gold line stops. Sure. So we'll have five charging spots along the gold line stops starting at Mounds Boulevard. Okay. And then going all the way up to Sunbury. Sure. Each of those EV spots will have a dual head charger for The public to use and a dual head charger for the car share to use. So four charging spaces total. Wow. Two for public, two for car share. And those vehicles will be hub based. Okay. Meaning they will be returned to that same location. Got it. hopefully there'll be some overlap though between the EV car share. Expanded home area. Yeah. And those hubs so that people can effectively get to where they need to go with a variety of tools, whether it's transit or getting a ride from someone and getting, to transit that way or getting to a car share vehicle that way or, what have you. I know, we've already started talking about the expansion, but I just thought of a question. How long does a charge last? Oh, yeah, that's a really good question. So it depends on the vehicle. Okay. Because, some vehicles will hold like, depends on the battery size, but 175 miles. Oh, wow. All the way up to about 300. Wow. That's a lot. So like the newer Chevy Bolts that we have in the fleet, top out at about 300 miles of charge, which is like a full tank of gas. Yeah. So especially when people take short trips running, just a few miles here, a few miles there. You can have a lot of trips on a vehicle that has that much charge before it has to be get recharged. Right. That's, that's cool. Yeah. Because, I was thinking, It'd be great to use, but if you have to like charge it every 10 minutes, it's not going to be as user friendly as, what we would think. so I know we're helping with engagement on this. where can people find out more information about our car and, possibly signing up? Yeah, so we have a project website specifically for the EEC expansion. Great. So it's v spot network.org. Okay. And then you put this in the show notes too. So yeah, we should and then of course you can learn more about our car on our own website, our car.org. Okay. Pretty basic. Yeah. The City of St. Paul, of course, has information on their website. They specifically have information about the construction of a lot of these things. So if you're interested in that side from the public works and, actual building of infrastructure, that's a good resource. But yeah, like I said, I would, download the EV Car Share app if you want to sign up because that's going to be the quickest and easiest way to, to get a membership. And is it Apple and Android? Yes, perfect. Excellent. Yeah. so there are a couple of questions that we ask all of our guests. What is your favorite thing about the east side of St. Paul? Oh, I was driving through, I was driving from Maplewood down here earlier today, and I just really love how lush and green the east side is. Especially this year. Yeah, well, yeah, it's very special, but it just, it just seems, I mean, I live in downtown, so it's a very concrete jungle down there. Yes, it is. So I kind of miss Having that, that greenery trees, yeah, plants like there's Mirrors Park, but that's just a little tiny little section, a little oasis. Yeah, I mean, everywhere else is very like concrete and asphalt and it feels very, uninviting in that way. Yeah, and I know that there are sections of the east side that have that characteristic, but it feels like there's a little bit more space. Yes. A little more open space, a little more greenery, the parks over here are great. I love going up to Lake Phelan. Yeah. It's so beautiful. It really is. Probably one of my favorite places on the east side. Cool. So, which leads me to my next question, if you met someone who had never been to the east side before, what would Where would you send them and why? Ugh, this is a really hard question. I love Lake Phalen. So I guess it depends on like what, what are they like, what are they looking to do, right? So if they're looking to be more in nature, I would definitely send them to either, Lake Phalen or, Mounds Park is really beautiful too. It is. And a very special place. Very, yes. I love, the overlooking the river in downtown from metal park. I'm also a big fan of a lot of the smaller restaurants and shops and things over here. I really love St. Paul Brewing. Okay. Because they have a patio in the back. Yes. It's so good. Yes. Like one of my favorite go to spots. There you go. And you can get non alcoholic beverages, they make their own root beer there. They have a really good menu, like vegetarian and carnivore, depending on what you're into. It's family friendly. You know, you can bring your dog there. They've got tons of plants inside if you got to sit inside, it's too rainy out. Which again, this year, you know, so yeah, I love, I love going to St. Paul Brewing, like they're a great spot for me. Very cool. So any final thoughts for the neighbors out there about our car, about the expansion, about you? I mean, I, I would thank you very much for asking me to, to do this interview. It's really, I think it's really great to have you. a little bit more of a conversation around what some of this is because a lot of times you just hear snippets or tidbits and, or you see a flyer, but you don't really understand what you're looking at. Exactly. so yeah, I would just encourage everyone to, check it out, go to the websites, come to our community planning meetings. Yes. These workshops will be posted and we will be distributing lots of information to the community. They're trying to get folks in, we're going to have food. We'll have interpreters. We're going to really try to be as inclusive as possible for as many of the residents in the east side as possible. That's great. To really get a lot of folks into the same room together and, you know, invested in helping us shape the future of what E. V. Parker and the E. V. Fund is. To get you to those 50, 000 members, right? No. We may not have worldwide domination, but. We're hoping to at least really saturate the Twin Cities so folks can have a lot of good options. Very cool. Well, thanks, Janet. I appreciate it. Thank you, Lisa. And I hope you'll come back, too, as this, expansion evolves and as, we start talking about where those charging stations will be again, and we'll go from there. Yeah, I think we should make it a series. Maybe we can do this. You know a couple times. Oh, yeah, absolutely. People updated on what's going on. Perfect. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to today's episode of D two. When you, you are new here. Welcome and be sure to hit, follow or subscribe. So you never miss an episode. Check out our website@greatereastside.org for further information on what is happening in the neighborhood. Thanks again. And we'll chat with you next time.