From Clinic To City Hall: Dr. Audrey Nath’s running for District C

What if a city council office ran like an ER—fast triage, clear priorities, and measurable outcomes? That’s the vision physician and mom Dr. Audrey Nath brings to Houston’s District C as she shares how hospital lessons translate into street-level fixes: safer roads that actually slow cars, an end to non‑safety traffic stops that drain trust and budgets, and an office that calls you back before the vote, not after.

Audrey also shows how local leverage works on big issues. She highlights council’s role in rejecting bids reliant on unpaid prison labor, outlines seizure safety standards now under consideration for Texas jails, and explains how parents won state rules limiting smoke near playgrounds. Food deserts and resilience get equal attention—partnering with local farms to buffer shocks and get nutritious meals to kids. On civil rights, we revisit Houston’s HERO history with candor, exploring what durable protections require: broad coalitions, precise implementation guidance for businesses, and messaging that resists misinformation.

If you care about traffic safety, construction detours, buses that arrive, parks that thrive, and libraries that lift graduation rates and wages, this conversation centers the everyday choices that make a city livable. 

Early voting for the District C special election starts March 18, with Election Day on April 4. Join us, share this episode with a neighbor, and if it resonates, subscribe, rate, and leave a review so more Houstonians can find their way to the polls.

For more information: Audreyforhouston.com

For voting information: HarrisVotes.com

Transcript

Meet The Hosts And Today’s Guest

Robin Mack 0:02

I like your sound. It sounds good, actually.

Alexis Melvin 0:04

Okay, so so the real question is who's gonna start?

Robin Mack 0:07

You.

Alexis Melvin 0:08

Oh, me.

Robin Mack 0:09

Yeah, Maria put you in the hot seat.

Alexis Melvin 0:11

True.

Robin Mack 0:11

If Maria Gonzalez says, be in the hot seat, Alexis, you're in the hot seat.

Alexis Melvin 0:15

No, that's not the way I work it.

Robin Mack 0:17

Oh, that's not the way you work it. Okay, show us how you work it, girl.

Alexis Melvin 0:20

Oh, it's really simple. Hi. I'm Alexis Melvin. This is 22 Sides. And with me today is Robin Mack.

Robin Mack 0:27

Hey, hey.

Alexis Melvin 0:28

And Audrey Nath. Hello. And so today we're going to talk about whatever we decided to talk about. Yes, we got a lot of stuff going on.

Robin Mack 0:37

We can talk about anything. It's 22 sides. That means like any conversation. We're complex people.

Alexis Melvin 0:42

Exactly.

Robin Mack 0:43

And we might want to talk about the fact that she's like running for something.

Alexis Melvin 0:47

Really?

Robin Mack 0:48

Yeah. I mean, like, not like I mean, basically it's a marathon, right? It's a sprint and a marathon. All everyone starts together.

Alexis Melvin 0:55

Some people run for something and then run for something else.

Robin Mack 0:58

And some people uh have spontaneous seats that pop up because Abby decides to do something else and all of a sudden her seat can be uh filled by somebody else, maybe named Audrey, right?

Seat Opens And Audrey Enters Race

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:09

That's right, you know. It certainly moved up my timeline when I saw that post on social media. I mean, isn't it? It certainly did.

Robin Mack 1:17

Isn't it something that you can't really I mean? Was it on your reader? I don't know. No. I don't think anyone knew she was moving. I think they were like maybe whispering a little bit. There were whispers, but everyone whispers. Exactly. There's whispers about all kinds of things. Nobody's getting a campaign together based upon whispers.

Alexis Melvin 1:32

It wasn't a quick decision on Abby's part. Of course. Of course. Okay.

Robin Mack 1:36

She let everyone know for so long that we were all planning. No, no, no.

Alexis Melvin 1:40

No. I don't think so. Really? I mean, this wasn't it wasn't a quick decision. Now the question was whether uh Kristen would move as as was expected. That's true. That's true. And then when Kristen moved, then it was a a known thing, essentially, except she didn't start announcing things until she was ready to go with it.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:58

And on December 5th, we got the official announcement. Yes. That's fair.

Robin Mack 2:01

On social media. If you knew Civics and you were in the know of what people were doing and you played the long strategy game like Alexis, then you might have guessed this seat's about to be open.

Dr. Audrey Nath 2:11

So Alexis Melvin knew everybody. That's that we know. We talked to Abby a lot.

Robin Mack 2:18

No, we love Abby. We're just messing with her. Absolutely. We hope to have her on here.

From School Board Run To City Focus

Dr. Audrey Nath 2:22

Oh, she would. She's been so supportive. She's busy. Incredible. Yes. Have you talked so much with her? I talked to her again yesterday. Yes. She's been so supportive.

Robin Mack 2:30

That's great. Yes. It's important to know what you're getting into, especially with the person currently in the seat.

Dr. Audrey Nath 2:35

Of course. Yes. She's given me the lay of the land. I've talked to her staff. But yes, it was an interesting thing. When that news dropped on December 5th, I had heard the rumblings, and essentially, I was thinking about running in 2027 because I had ran for school board, HISD school board this past November. Essentially, there was an incumbent who was supported by Paul Betancourt and Ted Cruz, who had uh won initially in 2021 on a platform of being anti-critical race theory, but just not taught as an HISD chorus. Um, you know, we all know what that is. It's a it's a dog whistle. Um and my kids are in HISD schools, and I'd been speaking out against the state takeover. And so I got a call in May that was like, hey, nobody is running against this person. And I looked around, you look to the left, you look to the right. It's me. Oh no, it's me. It's me. I am your own elbow. You're like, oh, it's me, look around. And so it's like, oh I'm gonna do this. Because this person doesn't represent me. So I went ahead and I ran and I knew you know it was gonna be an uphill battle that this is someone who's- How long was that race? That was um that race was in November. Okay. Um, so I went and knocked on over 4,000 doors and talked to a lot of people.

Robin Mack 3:55

You're breaking shoes, you're like getting around.

Food Deserts, Farms, And Resilience

Dr. Audrey Nath 3:57

You know, I'm I'm a very fortunate person that I have very flexible telemedicine work. There you go. So I can. That's helpful. And I talked to a ton of people, and a lot of overlapping issues came up. People would say, hey, there's a bunch of speeding cars on the street near my kid school. You know, we need a crosswalk there, you know, things like that. And I was like, that's a city issue. And during that race, I was speaking out about we do not want ice on our HISD campuses. Right. And that's also a city issue. So you know, I came close, I got 46% of the vote. And after that, even after I lost, I started to think, you know what? I think I could have an impact on these issues that everybody was telling me about in city council. Right. So I thought about it for 2027.

Robin Mack 4:41

It's a natural, it's a natural stuff, it seems like so much of it was overlapping. You live in district C.

Dr. Audrey Nath 4:46

I live in District C. My kids are in HIC schools in District C. I mean, uh basically, even then, you know, of course, there are wealthier parts of District C, Heights, Montrose, and Rice, and but there's also Title I schools that need help, Gregory Lincoln Education Centers in District C. And that's a school that's about 90 percent on uh under the poverty line. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Robin Mack 5:08

And doesn't it basically bump up against all the other districts? I mean, there's a lot of partnership available. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Dr. Audrey Nath 5:13

It does. Exactly. And I've spoken with some of the other district council offices about like, okay, all right, Tarsha Jackson office, what are we doing? You know?

Robin Mack 5:21

Like, where's the bridges?

Dr. Audrey Nath 5:23

Exactly. But you know, there's even from that race, I started talking to a couple of farms in the area about like, okay, how can we get nutritious meals to kids over the summers?

Robin Mack 5:33

Well, people listening, and they're just like, wait, wait, wait, we just went from like Montrose to farms. But like, that's how Houston rolls. Twenty-two sides, you said that's how Houston rolls.

Alexis Melvin 5:42

When I moved to Houston, the farms were just right over there.

Robin Mack 5:45

Well, when Witmeyer went in office, didn't he say, Did you know we have horses in Houston? And you were like, Yeah, nobody knows. I was like, wait, you don't know. You gotta take a tour.

Dr. Audrey Nath 5:56

And we'll have to get to the horses of it all. Uh but yeah, basically just starting to think like, okay, how can we deal with food insecurity with some of these families? That's awesome. We can work with local farms, and that's something that could also be done at city council to get this going.

Robin Mack 6:10

Some of these neighborhoods still have very much like food deserts. That's the thing. Even though like urban harvest and a lot of community-driven uh DIY like gardens try, uh we also get hit by like so much, you know, nature up ups and downs, the portion. You know, I I just recently during the pandemic started noticing plant people, let's say, and I and I love them. I love them, you know. But we do. I mean, I I used to work with uh Central City Co-op, I used to be a juicer, I used to go to the farmer's market, so I so I was around all that. But what it actually takes to have a garden and then to watch it during the freeze die off or during the whatever's like it's a lot. It hits people like really hard. Like it takes a minute to come back from that. It's like you can't just go out and plant again. It's like it's hard. It's an emotional investment. Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 6:55

Well, yeah, but the fact is that's not your choice. That's the way the world is.

Robin Mack 7:00

Yeah, you're right.

Alexis Melvin 7:01

And and you know, you find that farmers, when something goes wrong like that, the next thing they're doing is planting.

Robin Mack 7:06

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 7:07

Yeah. Home gardeners, when it goes wrong, they're sitting there deciding what they're going to do to control themselves.

Robin Mack 7:12

Yeah, it's you're right. You're right. It's sad.

Alexis Melvin 7:15

And yeah, the farmers are like, well, we've had it wiped out three years in a row sometimes.

Robin Mack 7:20

Yeah, based upon this almanac. Thanks, Ben. Ben Franklin. Thank you. Yeah, it's like it's still valuable. Gosh.

Alexis Melvin 7:29

You know, I've heard a lot of people talk about the fact that the farmer's almanac is as accurate as our 10-day plus weather forecast.

Robin Mack 7:36

Hey.

Alexis Melvin 7:36

And it forecasts years in advance.

Robin Mack 7:39

Yeah, I I know some people that do public art and they plan that because that you know they're doing it outside. So that they're like, we're still gonna look at this reference for long-term planning. Wow, that's fascinating. It is a r it's a good source. Well, so we're talking about this. We're dancing around District C, but like, why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself? So you jump in, you're a runner, and all this other stuff, but like sounds like you're a mom.

Medicine Meets Systems Failure

Dr. Audrey Nath 7:58

Yes. Okay. Yes, I'm Audrey Nath, pronouns she hers. I've been in Houston most of the time.

Robin Mack 8:06

Oh no, sorry. No, go for it. No, go for it.

Alexis Melvin 8:09

No, in case people miss it, I'm like, this sounds like a campaign.

Robin Mack 8:13

We we want people to know. We want people to know, and and the idea of this is like if people are clicking play and giving their time, we want them to have a seat at the table. And a lot of people don't have time or access to talk to actual politicians. You know, they might only see them on the news, they might read about them in a resource, but that's actually through the journalists. That's not that's not from the politician most of the time. So that's right. So, like, why don't you just introduce yourself to people who may never get to meet you but might actually vote for you?

Enforcement Gaps And Wage Theft

Dr. Audrey Nath 8:41

Sure. I'm Audrey. I live in Montrose. I was born in Houston at St. Luke's Hospital. My parents, they uh my mom immigrated from Hong Kong, my dad came from India, and they met at the University of Houston in the 1970s. All the foreign students hung out together and did potlucks and movies, movie nights, my they described it was these big reels that went around and around uh that they would set up and troubleshoot, and that's how they met. And they started a life in Houston because that's where the jobs were. And they could buy a house and raise a small family. And so I went to schools in Spring Branch, ISD, uh, and then let's see, went to Rice for undergrad, and then I went to med school just across the street at UT Houston. Um and you know, it was yeah, so basically med school was an experience. Uh, you know, you walk in in in the very beginning and there's gross anatomy, and there's you walk into this huge room and there's just bodies as far as you can see, and here's yours, and you bond with your tank mates, sing songs and tell stories. It's it's uh it it takes a bunch of work to uh dissect this body. In any case, so that was the beginning of med school, but then you also go to the hospitals. Um, and that was a real learning experience for me. Um, you know, especially in the county hospitals. It's like, wait a minute, why are we cutting off this guy's leg for his uncontrolled diabetes when wait, wait a minute, if he had access to healthcare consistently, we wouldn't have to be doing that this surgery, you know? And just like you know, it's like with my kids, they ask why a few t a bunch of times. You only have to ask why once or twice to start to like reevaluate your whole life and like what am I doing here? This is there's these bigger problems. I'm like, you know, and then system problems. Exactly, that are so much bigger than what one doctor does. Absolutely. And I think that kind of stuck with me at the first part of my residency in pediatrics I did in San Antonio, and it was a lot of that. Yeah. It was like, hey, this kid, seven-year-old in clinic, he's got asthma, and the mom's like, well, there's mold in the apartment. And we keep telling the landlord. Yeah. Yeah. And again, it's like, oh, this is making me reevaluate my whole life. And so we we were able to work with the legal team to expedite and and write a you know, I wrote up the part about the kid's asthma, and the lawyer wrote up the part about the property, and we were able to get it expedited. But it's the kind of thing that you just keep thinking about.

Robin Mack 11:20

You're making a difference, but you want a bigger impact.

Dr. Audrey Nath 11:22

It's like uh wait, there's a bigger problem here. Yeah, the problem is that's one person. Yes, exactly.

Alexis Melvin 11:28

It's we think that if we make laws or rules that people will follow them.

Non‑Safety Traffic Stops Debate

Dr. Audrey Nath 11:32

Well, they don't. The enforcement is not exactly you know, in enforcement for theft, right? The most common form of theft is wage theft. But that's not what normally gets enforced. You're right. Laws can be on the books, but the enforcement is not equal, right?

Alexis Melvin 11:48

Yeah, right. Yeah. And then, you know, it it's one one of my things that I see all the time. You know, we say we don't have enough police officers. Okay, we probably don't. But the other thing about it is how many police officers does it take to be at the scene for a murder? Because it's not like the victim's going anywhere. Not to be tacky, but you you can take your time.

Robin Mack 12:13

It's kind of a done deal.

Alexis Melvin 12:14

Yeah. Yeah. And and and you know, yes, maybe right at the very beginning, but you know, a day and a half of 15 or 20 or 30 or 40 police cars sitting there while they're standing around a lot of the time and all this type of stuff, it's like, why aren't they back out on the street and helping with more and helping with some things?

Dr. Audrey Nath 12:34

I I take that a step further. Why do we have police officers that are pulling people over for tinted windows or broken tail light?

Robin Mack 12:42

I've actually gotten a tinted window ticket, and when I addressed another police officer, he's like, that's just a shit ticket to write. You know, like traffic stopping.

Dr. Audrey Nath 12:50

Exactly. So why do we have that at all when there are calls for active violent situations? I exactly. I take it a step further. Oh, it wasn't even your choice to windows.

Robin Mack 13:07

I bought I bought a car from a valid dealership. Like, you know, they told me it was fine. And then all of a sudden I got pulled over and the cops said this tent is too dark. I'm like, like, based upon what? You didn't, you know, I had no idea. And so that's like a hundred, two hundred dollars plus you have to ask off of work. Like that's right. Meanwhile, I mean, uh yeah, there I mean, uh there's there really wasn't a problem.

Dr. Audrey Nath 13:29

And it didn't make you safer.

Robin Mack 13:31

Like we could sunburn in our car. You know? Anyways. But to your point, meanwhile, like what else was going on in Houston? Oh no, probably plenty. A lot of stuff. Yeah. TV calls. Who hundred dollars can keep people from paying rent?

Alexis Melvin 13:44

It would. And and if it's important, there may be easier ways to do it. For instance, at that time, uh, you know, we still had safety inspections.

Dr. Audrey Nath 13:52

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 13:53

Add the tent to the safety inspections. Exactly.

Dr. Audrey Nath 13:55

That's easy. There are other ways to do things.

Alexis Melvin 13:58

We're already paying whatever we're supposed to pay for that. Oh, yeah, we are. And and it's like, fine. If it's a problem with that, then you get what is it? I I guess 30 days or something to fix it.

Dr. Audrey Nath 14:08

Exactly. Absolutely. And then you're not getting pulled over, which is a stressful thing for a lot of people.

Robin Mack 14:15

Yeah, every time for me.

Constituent Triage And Office Plan

Dr. Audrey Nath 14:16

I mean, I think once I had my kid in the back and he was crying, and the the they made the comment, Oh, you seem stressed. I was like, I uh I am right now. This is stressful. Yeah um, and you know, there's a number of people who are stressed out for a number of reasons. Uh just it even just being pulled over um and finding a safe place to stop is sometimes non-trivial.

Robin Mack 14:39

It's hard. It's hard.

Dr. Audrey Nath 14:41

We don't want another accident to happen, but that happened.

Alexis Melvin 14:43

But if you go too far, they're gonna say you're evading. Right.

Dr. Audrey Nath 14:47

Well, it has happened, and people are afraid of that. And it can happen if if it takes a while to find a sa safe place to stop.

Robin Mack 14:54

Yeah.

Dr. Audrey Nath 14:54

Or you get an accident.

Robin Mack 14:55

Well, even cops don't want they used to pull people over all the time when I first started driving on 45, and now I don't I don't see anything. You know, all I see is like people going very, very large miles per hour. Like that's right. You know, and I don't want anyone to get hurt, but there should be some sort of acknowledgement, like you take the next exit or something, you know, like you know, keep it safe. Like that's right. There's nothing there's nothing hard about putting a safe policy in where everyone can just do what they need to do. You know, pull pull off. Okay. Nothing. You know, yeah.

Dr. Audrey Nath 15:28

So basically there's very valid reasons that it's a stressful situation for people. So but we can end that in Houston. We can end up that's what they've done with accidents.

Alexis Melvin 15:37

It's like, you know, you don't stop on the three-way if you can drive the car. Right. You pull it over to one of the designated accident investigation sites.

Dr. Audrey Nath 15:44

So that we don't cause another accident in that process.

Alexis Melvin 15:48

Because you know, the typical thing was you hear a boom up ahead of you and you're like, oh no. Then you hear boom, boom.

Dr. Audrey Nath 15:53

Yeah, exactly. The chain reaction, the dominoes. Yeah. Yeah.

Work, Family, And Avoiding Burnout

Alexis Melvin 15:58

And then you know, and it's like, oh no.

Robin Mack 16:00

So you're somebody that's a doctor who's a mom and you wanted to make a larger difference, and you are passionate about filling the gaps in systems, making them better, it seems like in policy.

Alexis Melvin 16:11

Yeah.

Robin Mack 16:12

And are there's a few topics that you're running on? Because I mean it it's probably hard to condense them down.

Dr. Audrey Nath 16:17

It is a lot of things, but you know what? That is one of them in uh for the ending non-safety traffic stops. Because for one, like you're saying, your those tinted windows on your car and getting that fixed did not make you or anyone else safer. It was a burden uh that a lot of people wouldn't be able to afford. And Alexis, to your point, that is then officers that are not being available for violent things that are happening.

Alexis Melvin 16:44

And there is an argument that it makes off it makes police officers safer because they can see in the car. If the if the windows are tinted too heavily, they can't see in the car as they're doing the stop. So, you know, I get their argument, but it's like there's other ways to fix it. Th there are. And I I think a lot of times, like with the legislature, and and it's the same thing with the city council, someone comes up with an idea and says this needs to be fixed this way. And no one stops and says, Wait, let's think about this for a minute.

Dr. Audrey Nath 17:12

Think outside the box just for a second.

Alexis Melvin 17:15

Yeah, I know it's difficult, but you know, I I agree. And maybe we do a little bit of critical thinking, even though we don't teach it anymore.

Dr. Audrey Nath 17:22

I think it's important. I mean, yes.

Robin Mack 17:25

Yeah, we have to find ways to bring critical thinking back, that's for sure.

Houston Street Safety And Data

Dr. Audrey Nath 17:28

Because there's more than one way to solve a problem. Especially and and this is one where if we stop the non-safety traffic stops like some other cities have, then that frees up the officers to be able to decrease our response times for violent crimes, which affects all of us.

Robin Mack 17:44

And I know Houston's what the most diverse city in the world, is that correct, at this point? I mean, district C's gotta be like a a potpourri of that. Like it's not just the heights or just East End. Like it's right. You've gotta you're probably gonna you're probably gonna have uh diverse constituent complaints or needs or wants. Like how how and I mean uh district C is known for being very vocal about those needs and wants and stuff like I think that's uh how Abby ran was that she would be there to connect people to the right resource, right?

Dr. Audrey Nath 18:19

Yeah.

Robin Mack 18:19

Um and even for her, it's been hard to keep up with. Like, how do you think you're gonna keep up with that?

When “Safe Streets” Backfires

Dr. Audrey Nath 18:23

Yeah, I see it like being a very busy medical office. And the similarities are there too, in that the calls that come in, you need to be able to triage because some of them do have to be dealt with right away. And so you have this large volume of calls and immediate triage. So that is something that I w want to continue in her work and improve upon. Um, you know, if someone calls in and they have comments for a vote and they don't get called back until after the vote happened, then that wasn't dealt with in a in a timely manner. So for me, I am one of those constituents in District C that, you know, I've put in 311 tickets myself for trush and crosswalks and uh signal lights. I am one of those people, so I get it. And you know, I'm I'm gonna streamline the office to make it so that it's like a busy medical office, triaging calls and and and tackling them all. Yeah.

Robin Mack 19:17

And are you gonna still be working uh while you're a city council member? Or I mean some people do it mixed, right? Like part-time and then they do full-time city council members sometimes. Like what's your plan for that?

Dr. Audrey Nath 19:28

I I essentially my work is very flexible and I can dial it down. I work for myself. That's nice. Yeah, it is. It's reading E E G's from my house from my computer. Okay. I often do it at coffee shops. So I can dial that down to about an hour a day. Okay. Um, still have income from that, and then be able to serve Houston. Nice. Yeah. That's wonderful.

Robin Mack 19:49

So how do you avoid burnout?

Dr. Audrey Nath 19:55

I think part of it is that's part of why I've designed my life in this way. I did have a normal doctor job until 2021. I was a full-time academic pediatric epilepsy attending, and I was rounding in the ICU and doing all those things, which I mean I enjoy. But I left for telemedicine and reading EEGs for my house because my goodness, I mean, the flexibility can't be beat. My husband also works remotely. And so that really helps. And, you know, my dad is awesome, and he pitches into the unsung work of grandpa's. I just want to give a shout out to that. And my kids are over. Yeah, and my kids are now seven and nine, so they're not babies anymore. That's helpful. So that's that's how.

Robin Mack 20:40

Finally, when they walk on their own, you know, just getting expensive. But then you have to put a lowjack on them. Like, where are they going? Little airpod, a bell baby. Yeah, like my dog. Yeah, those little bells on people's shoes. They used to do that, yeah.

Dr. Audrey Nath 20:52

It's the same with my chihuahua. Yeah, exactly.

Robin Mack 20:56

Stick the chihuahua on them, you'll know where they are.

Dr. Audrey Nath 20:58

Pretty much. She follows them. It works.

Robin Mack 21:01

Yeah.

Dr. Audrey Nath 21:01

He thinks he's their bodyguard.

Robin Mack 21:03

Yeah.

Dr. Audrey Nath 21:03

13-pound bodyguard.

Robin Mack 21:05

Yeah.

Dr. Audrey Nath 21:05

Hey, noise is what counts.

Robin Mack 21:09

The little ones are mighty and vicious. It's fine. Yes. Oh my gosh.

Alexis Melvin 21:14

And they hope that if something goes wrong, someone will save them.

Robin Mack 21:17

That's right.

Alexis Melvin 21:18

Help.

Buses, Bike Lanes, And Lived Use

Robin Mack 21:19

The kids got to do something. Lassie, what is it? Yeah, exactly. Oh, that's wonderful. So you have you have support, you have flexibility. And I think it is important because a lot of people get accused of, oh, well, we we don't just need a politician who needs a job. We need somebody who's willing to do the job, right? We need somebody who was prepared for the job. And I do think that in 2026 we don't need space fillers anymore. We actually need a lot of active work because District C has a lot of privilege in like their construction and their plumbing and things like this, as opposed to other spaces. Of course. But they also have a lot of trick. So you it's like a constant update on everything all the time.

Dr. Audrey Nath 22:03

I think so. I mean, and speaking of kind of issues that are just personal for me, street safety, and of course I have my kids that are biking on the sidewalks and we cross mantras every day to get to school. Uh but it's everybody, it's not just my kids, it's everybody using these streets. We're the most dangerous city in the country for pedestrians and our number of traffic fatalities. So that is something that is something where we can use evidence and data to guide, okay, tackling the highest, most impactful streets from the high-entry network and triaging those at the top.

State Dynamics And Local Wins

Alexis Melvin 22:39

But the real question is, and I I I this is what always worries me. Yeah. When someone identifies a problem, you also have to identify a solution that doesn't make things worse. I mean The Tiers did this safe street initiative, which we're victims of here. Uh and notice I say victims. To begin with, they knocked out two lanes of the street of Woodhead. So now we're down to two lanes. Oh, I see. And parking on the sides. It was two lanes plus a lane, and so mostly parking, there wasn't a problem. The speed on Woodhead has gone up almost double on the average car speed.

Robin Mack 23:22

They blow stop signs all day long. Oh no.

Alexis Melvin 23:24

Yeah, the drivers are and and that that's since they did their quote safe street initiative. Now, one concern that I had, and I asked, I said, so who designed this? Well, the person who designs this doesn't drive much. And they really don't. And I'm like, this should have been a red flag, guys. Wow. I think I think that lived experience is important. Yeah. When when designing especially driving experience in Houston.

Dr. Audrey Nath 23:48

Yeah. I guess most of us are drivers and walkers. I mean, at different times of the day, you know?

Robin Mack 23:53

Well, it it's I think no matter what district you're in, we can pretty much agree that the bike lanes have been a cluster. They don't connect, they're differently set up. And they aren't used. So it's confusing for the drivers. It's also it's also not very safe for the bikers. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Dr. Audrey Nath 24:10

Absolutely. We need them to connect for sure from where people are to where they need to go.

Alexis Melvin 24:20

No, you don't. Yes, you do. Here's another one. Oh, it's on the other side of the street. But are you supposed to cross over or how you do anything?

Dr. Audrey Nath 24:27

I'm I'm all for that. Yeah. They need to connect to where people need to go to be usable for sure.

Jail Standards And Seizure Safety

Robin Mack 24:32

Yeah. And I mean I think it I if I had to guess it was a case of people just not working together per district, you know, and and I don't know all the history on that, but I do know that there has been deaths and there needs to be a solution because it is a big city. And I'm glad that you at least ride some bikes and then you drive. And and and it is an issue where some people start voting or getting on things and like you know, the like say the metro for one. You can tell that they have not ridden a bus in their life. If you have been in Houston and had a bus pass you up and there's not another one coming, now that's somebody who's ridden a bus. Like, you know, I mean it's it's hard. It's hard. And you know, I've run after them. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Dr. Audrey Nath 25:15

My parents didn't want me to drive. So when I was 15, I've been I've been riding buses since then. That's almost 30 years ago. And yeah, they're very lived experience. It's so different in different parts of town.

Robin Mack 25:25

And you're going through the elements, you're going through a lot of houseless people, you're going through a lot of different demographics. Like it is a very cultural experience just to ride a bus.

Dr. Audrey Nath 25:34

It is I mean, there's fancy commuter buses from Memorial to the Med Center that have these really plush seats, kind of like the ones we're on now. Uh-huh. And then there's other buses like to LBJ Hospital and other places that are very different. Yep. Uh and once you've been on it, this is very obvious. And if you haven't, then it's more of an intellectual thing. You know. We need everyone to be able to get around.

Alexis Melvin 25:56

Right. Right. And my biggest thing is they've got to go where people need to go, though. That's right. That's right. And a lot of times they go close. But if you're somebody that has some mobility problems, that last mile is not going to be something you can really easily do. That's a barrier. Yeah. Yeah.

Robin Mack 26:12

And we're in a day and time now where city council members are kind of pushed, held accountable to like speaking to the state. Like, how do you feel in your role where you'll be working with the mayor and then you'll also be at the impact of the governor? Like, how are you addressing that?

City Leverage On Prison Labor

Dr. Audrey Nath 26:29

We are certainly fighting on multiple fronts in 2026. I give it that in terms of funding for so much of what matters. I will say there was a group of us parents that were able to come together and get some legislation across the finish line at the state, where, yes, you're right, it is Abbott and his friends at the top. Um, you know, we're near my kids' school, Wharton Duo Language, near Montrose. Um, basically, next to the little kid playground, there's a smoke shop, and you can smell the smoke in the little kid playground. Um, so a number of us parents came together, organized, got into a group, contacted our elected, and really actually it was Molly Cook's team that took that baton and we spoke with her, and she got legislation across the finish line to essentially regulate smoke shops similar to a bar, essentially. Yeah. Just so that we're not smelling that smoke.

Robin Mack 27:25

It doesn't have to be real close. Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Audrey Nath 27:27

It's just similar and it's just to close that loophole. So I think there is room for us to work together on differ all parts of that political spectrum to get legislation passed that works for all of us.

Robin Mack 27:39

So you're building bridges on all levels already.

Dr. Audrey Nath 27:42

Exactly. And that was at the state level. I I've also, you know, I've advocated for pretrial detention standards. I I'm an epileptologist, and a whole bunch of people have died of seizures in jails, and that's a preventable death. So I've spoken out about that, and now I have created seizure guidelines that have now been put forth at the Texas Commission of Jail Standards, and it's under consideration. So thank you for that. You're welcome. It's it's easy for me. You know, for me, writing that out took like 10 minutes, but it can have an impact. Um, and that's at the state level. And so I think there is room for us to be able to work together with a coalition of activists and people on the ground and families and get things through the finish line.

Budget Priorities And Planning

Robin Mack 28:24

Yeah, well, I mean, I know people who are not in jails who have, you know, worker jobs and they're afraid to tell people that they are an epileptic in case they have to get another uh ambulance transfer again and it's too expensive and they don't want their coworkers to know, they don't want their coworkers to call and on their behalf because they don't want the bill, they don't want this the stigma of it. And and I've personally had to talk to them and say, so you want your coworkers to walk in on that and not know what to do? Like that's that's not a good plan, you know. I mean, so exactly and that's just people who I mean those that's people who have insurance, yes, that's you know, let alone people who are don't have a lot of rights in prison and stuff. So thank you, thank you, because there's you know, there's wonderful things that people can do with partnerships and and self-driven nature. Sometimes it's a combination, sometimes it's one or the other. And they really do get things done, but they don't ever get the mic about it. Like people don't hear about some of the great things. Like Alexis is always reminding me that one person can do a lot. Oh my goodness. That's one of the reasons why we have this podcast, is because that that's probably not gonna be on the news, you know. That's probably not gonna get on people's radar, but it's important.

Alexis Melvin 29:39

And a lot of times, if you don't care about who gets the credit, you can do a whole lot more.

Robin Mack 29:43

That's right.

Alexis Melvin 29:44

That's right. You know, yeah. A lot of times the argument isn't whether it's a good idea or not, the argument is who gets credit. And you know, from my end, I generally don't care.

Dr. Audrey Nath 29:54

We just want to get it done. Yeah. Let's just do this, exactly.

Construction Chaos And Coordination

Alexis Melvin 29:58

You know, of course, you know, when you're talking about things with the jails and those sorts of things, sure. City doesn't have much to do with those. I mean, there's a city jail, but it's it's minor compared with the county jail.

Dr. Audrey Nath 30:07

Sure. So the way in within the city though, there are things like the civility ordinance, um, which basically um leads to people uh who are unhoused getting picked up and being detained for sitting on the ground, lying on the ground, or even leaving belongings on the ground. Um I think the idea with that was to get them into services, but I think the lived experience and the reality is that so few have been able to make it off waiting lists into housing that it hasn't really served that purpose and has more just been kind of a pipeline into that in incarceration. So that's something that we do have an effect on within the city. Um so we can talk about civility the ordinance, and does this even make sense for us as a city? What what are our values and what what do we want to be incarcerating people for? Um so I think that is something that we can address at a city level.

Alexis Melvin 31:03

Yeah, and it's almost like we have a problem of not having a middle ground. We have criminals.

Speaker 3 31:08

Sure.

Alexis Melvin 31:08

And sure, once they've you know gone through courts, et cetera, they may end up in jail. Sure. But then we have people that aren't criminals. Oh my goodness. I mean, and most of the people in the jail are not criminals.

Dr. Audrey Nath 31:19

Or not nonviolent, I think but the majority are nonvi are there for nonviolence.

Alexis Melvin 31:24

And actually the majority of the people that are in jail right now, you know, have not actually been to court. So that's right.

Dr. Audrey Nath 31:32

That's right. Oh, there's yes, exactly.

Robin Mack 31:35

And that's load backups and stuff.

Dr. Audrey Nath 31:37

Absolutely, and they're dying.

Robin Mack 31:39

Yeah, I mean, it's not easy to be in jail in Texas. I mean, wasn't there just pushback recently on the fact that Abbott had to give them AC? Like, I mean, it's just too much. It is too much. And it's it's not all in Houston. So um, but some of it is, you know, says if some people say, Oh, I'm so glad the ice isn't in Houston yet, and I that's like, wait, uh, let's back up. They're all over the place again. Um, oh, for sure. But they don't see it like they see it in Minneapolis, is what they're saying. You know, and and I'm like, well, to be clear, we have a detention center. Oh, we sure do. And they're like, We do? And I'm like, yeah, you you haven't been paying attention that much then, you know.

The Case For A “Street Czar”

Dr. Audrey Nath 32:14

Um, uh along those lines, Texas is one of eight states where prisoners don't have to get paid for labor. Um so this has come up at City Council, actually. This council member Kamen actually brought this to light. It was like in tw uh a few years ago. Yeah. Maybe around 2020. She's been in there for a minute. Which she sure has. And there was um a bid that was put out for to retread the tires of like tractor trailers and trucks for the city. And the bid, the lowest bid was like $700,000 less than all the others. And it was from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and it turned so and it was going to get passed. But to their credit, Councilmember Kamen and Councilmember Evans Shabazz took a look and said, wait a minute, hold up, we're council members, we can take a closer look at this, and found it was because it was prison labor that was not going to be paid. And so they joined forces and said, we need to put this bid out again with language saying that workers need to be paid. And so they did, and that bid was no longer there, and the next one got it who were paying their laborers. Okay. So that is something that sure that the Texas prison system is not in the jurisdiction of city council, but approving bids is. It's something. We can look at these things. We can fight back at a city level on a lot of things.

Robin Mack 33:36

I think a lot of pros and cons about Trump is like he's having everyone evaluate like what exactly can we do in our lane? And which lanes can we work with? I think we, you know, exactly. When you go in and you shake a lot of things up, we're learning civics at every level with this guy. I know since 2016, we're relearning at this at this horrible rate. But it it it it it is enlightening to be like, oh, wait a minute. There is more that can be done. Um for sure. Alexis, you've lived in district C for what, 30 years now?

Alexis Melvin 34:14

Since about 1980.

Robin Mack 34:16

Yeah, yeah. There we go. You've seen a lot of changes in the neighborhood, to say the least.

Alexis Melvin 34:20

Actually 35 years, if I really think about it.

Robin Mack 34:23

Yeah. What do you what would what would you want your city council member to do for you at this point?

Alexis Melvin 34:29

Well, to begin with, undo the safe streets because they aren't safe. There's more crashes, there's more problems, etc. And like it or not, Houston is a car city. And everybody says, oh no, we need to change it. You will not change it anytime soon. You know, you have to make sure that there are pe places for people to park their cars for them to safely travel and use you know, cars, because it's not going to go away. And you know, the whole bit of saying, oh, everybody's gonna switch to bicycles, that's ridiculous. I mean, if you don't believe it, go stand in one of the uh bicycle lanes and see how many times you have to dodge.

Election Timeline And Viability

Robin Mack 35:08

And you live on a bicycle street, so you've seen this in real time and things like that.

Alexis Melvin 35:12

And then after they put them in, I've you know watched not not only this one. But the funny part is that two streets over, three streets over, there are bike lanes on both sides, both directions, and no one ever uses them.

Dr. Audrey Nath 35:25

I will say, you know, street safety, like you're saying, for for everyone out there who is also a driver, which I think most of us are, street safety is for driver safety too. Oh, yeah. You know, because like what you're saying, when they're speeding and the speeds have doubled, that's more dangerous for everybody. Right.

Robin Mack 35:40

And I think they really just don't understand what's happening on the street because there's no consistent patterns per area.

Alexis Melvin 35:47

I think it's a big problem if there's a stop sign up there that says stop and you just blow through.

Dr. Audrey Nath 35:51

Oh, that's a problem. I don't care.

Alexis Melvin 35:54

I don't care if you're a car or a bicycle. Sure.

Dr. Audrey Nath 35:57

I think that's fair.

Alexis Melvin 35:58

I have never hit a person on a bicycle. I've been hit twice. By a bicycle that's running a stop sign. Yeah. I think it weaps into the side both both times. They grabbed their bike and ran. Oh my goodness. And we don't require any registration, so there's no way I can figure out who they are. Right.

Robin Mack 36:15

You've been hit and ran by a biker.

Dr. Audrey Nath 36:17

So I think we need streets that are set up so that that doesn't happen so much.

Alexis Melvin 36:23

And you know, and I've had people say, well, but it doesn't cost much. It's over forty five hundred dollars the last time. Oh my goodness. That seems like a big chunk, it's not just like a little dent.

Coalition, Networks, Fundraising

Dr. Audrey Nath 36:32

I'm I think there's street safety projects that can be done in such a way that make everybody safer and prevent collisions like what you're talking about. And we can design streets with all of that in mind.

Alexis Melvin 36:43

It can be with you, but one of the big problems is that, you know, because of a lot of reasons we put a lot of money in the tiers, they've spent it. And so, you know, the problem is if you come up with a solution, spend a bunch of money on a solution and it doesn't work, now what do you do? Because you spent the money. And you aren't going to really get buy-in from people who say, Yeah, you told us that before. So this is where I think it gets to be really difficult.

Robin Mack 37:09

What else would you want from your city council member?

Alexis Melvin 37:12

Oh, we've got to talk about trash pickup.

Dr. Audrey Nath 37:14

Absolutely. Yes. I'm a homeowner too. Sure. She weeks absolutely across the table.

Alexis Melvin 37:18

She's gotten much better recently, but in in general, it's totally confusing. You have to go look it up to see whether it's today or tomorrow. For instance, I don't know whether it's a city holiday today or not.

Robin Mack 37:28

Today we have today it's President's Day when we're recording. Some people celebrate that. And then we weren't sure if the city does or not. Like if the city is picking up trash or not.

Dr. Audrey Nath 37:36

So this is helpful to hear, actually, even then from the council's office, how can we streamline some of these messages too? That's that's helpful to hear. So thank you.

LGBTQ Protections And HERO Lessons

Robin Mack 37:45

Yeah. And the garbage is a big deal in a lot of the neighborhoods. And I would say C has a good fair amount of pickup, but uh but it is it is confusing. Sometimes it seems very on target, and then sometimes it seems like there's there's something wrong, maybe with the you know, what's of all the things, right?

Alexis Melvin 38:05

So uh I mean if if we have you know a big storm that comes through, nobody expects it to be picked up on schedule. I mean, because that's a recovery time. But in general, there should be a schedule you can count on.

Dr. Audrey Nath 38:18

Agree.

Alexis Melvin 38:19

Yeah, but yeah. The other thing, and this is really my biggest complaint. Your biggest complaint is so huge. And that is construction. Okay. You know, you start down the street and it's blocked because of construction. And they don't really have any flaggers out, they don't have anything that they should have to make sure the traffic flow runs. So you get a a good size backup, you follow their detour sign, go two streets over, you turn, you go a block, and it's blocked by construction. And you go the next thing, I mean I've hit as many as uh I would say seven or eight construction zones going ten miles at most.

Speaker 3 39:00

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 39:00

And and it's like there needs to be some coordination that says you can't put a construction site on every single block.

Robin Mack 39:08

Aaron Powell I think every neighborhood would love that because it does seem like after a while, it doesn't like day to day it changes, but also it it's hard to know what streets are available to you, right? And I'm sure there's some text dot map somewhere that's probably not updated that we can all check on a daily basis.

Dr. Audrey Nath 39:34

Oh dear.

Robin Mack 39:35

Well, and we were driving like down Woodhead the other day, and and to her point, you know, it was probably like four o'clock. So maybe they're working, maybe they're not. Didn't seem like they were. And there were left behind construction uh projects that were going into the road, but no workers to direct traffic anymore, no reason that it looked like to be there. And so cars are negotiating around it in traffic time.

Dr. Audrey Nath 40:03

Oh wow.

Robin Mack 40:04

And quite frankly, it just looked like that could be dangerous the barrels were left there, but why? You know, and on Allen Parkway, the barrels have been down to one lane sometimes, not others left there. Why? Like, you know, and and what happens is is some cars will move them, so that's possibly dangerous, and then everybody's backed up for what inconvenience on we're really not sure. Yeah, you know, and so there's there's some gaps there that are very frustrating.

Ordinances, Myths, And Messaging

Alexis Melvin 40:31

The second part of construction complaint is something that just really irks me, if you will. Sure. Um we had uh Fairview and well, several other streets that the city came through, and it was their standard, gosh, it's time to resurface it. They came through, they did very nice resurfacing on on Fairview and up on Vermont. And I mean, the street was great. Less than one week later, the city is digging the street up. Oh because they had scheduled a project to replace the sewer lines under the street. And so they put it in, and then they spent a million eight hundred thousand dollars digging it up, putting the sewer line in, and did a quick patch job, and it's already the street's already breaking down because it was cut immediately.

Dr. Audrey Nath 41:22

Oh yeah, wow. This is pure planning.

Alexis Melvin 41:25

And when I got really pushy about that, found out that we don't really have somebody that's in charge of planning for the city. Oh. Each department apparently has their own planner and they rarely talk.

Robin Mack 41:37

Now this that's kind of what it seems like too. Yeah, it is.

Alexis Melvin 41:40

I mean, it's a it's the way it seems, but I you know, I got the planning here from people I know that work for the city and don't want to be mentioned. But it's like, why do we have different planners? I mean, there are there should be somebody that is what I would call the street czar, if you will. Nobody cuts a street without the street czar's sign-off, you know.

Speaker 1 41:59

I like that the flows of it all.

Alexis Melvin 42:01

Yeah, you know, and and and you know, I don't care who you are, and if you have an emergency, like you know, we know we've got to dig it up to restore power or restore phones, that's fine. The next morning it better be on this person's desk and they should be working on how you get it back and recover from this whole thing. And and you know, and and like center point totally ignores us. You know, I mean they could care less. They go, do the what they want, block streets, right and left, and the whole bit. Okay, those things are just frustrating because, like it or not, that street out front is my street.

Dr. Audrey Nath 42:33

Yeah, it is.

Alexis Melvin 42:34

I mean, I paid taxes, the taxes were, you know, made for doing the street. And I had somebody in the planning commission tell me that, well, the problem is that it it's a city street and it's a city right away, so all these people can do whatever they want. And I'm like, so you're telling me that if it's as if it's city, then we can do whatever we want. So I can like go down to a city building downtown, take a sledgehammer, and knock a hole in it. And that's okay. They said, Well, no, that'd be vandalism. I'm like, and why is it tearing up my street vandalism if you don't have a permit? And you know, they're like, I don't know. You know, but but you know, to me, that chunk of pavement out there is really expensive to put in. It is. And you know, buildings are expensive, but so is pavement. And and so, you know, we those things just frustrate me because I see, you know, everybody's saying, oh guys, we don't have enough money, you know, we're we're capped and we're about to run out of money, we don't know what we're gonna do to spend this. And then they literally blow a million eight.

Dr. Audrey Nath 43:37

Right. Due to planning that didn't take into consideration what had already happened.

Alexis Melvin 43:42

So yeah. Well, and and you know, if you're gonna dig up the street, there should be a window that anybody that wants to do something within, you know, the next two or three years, you know, they've got to be involved. Yeah. And you know, it's it's like if you aren't ready, well, get ready.

Quality Of Life As A Bridge

Robin Mack 43:58

The resources stretch, let the public. No. Yeah. Yeah. Forward thinking.

Alexis Melvin 44:03

Because I mean it it was really hilarious to watch them because you know they've just dug up an intersection. They've had to go to great lengths to make everything right, and they did, and it was you know great and beautiful. Two days later, they're digging up the street again. And I'm like, what now? They're like, oh, we're putting in a new sewer. And so I had to play follow-up, and yeah, it had been planned for about three years.

Dr. Audrey Nath 44:28

So I I think what also adds to this is then delays and then things then overlapping that shouldn't have been overlapping. But you know, yeah.

Alexis Melvin 44:37

But my view is that somebody needs to manage that.

Dr. Audrey Nath 44:39

Absolutely. Streets are. Yes. And I I chatted with um Councilmember Ramirez about this, that he had put forth a transparency ordinance to kind of take some first steps to, well, if there's a delay, we need to communicate that, why it's happening, what the budget's going to be. Uh and yeah, I support that because we need as much transparency as possible.

Alexis Melvin 45:00

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Well, and and you know, I think it's funny when they're talking about, oh, we're we're getting ready to do this, and they start something they said it it's in preparation for. And you're like, um, we don't have the money for that. Uh you know, the city's broke essentially on new projects, except they seem to come up with lots of money for certain things.

Dr. Audrey Nath 45:19

Yeah. I think a budget should reflect our priorities. Just like a household budget, you know, reflects what your values are. And I think the same for the city.

Alexis Melvin 45:26

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: But I mean, to to me, those are the type things where we do things that are very wasteful. Yeah. Just, you know, bug the heck out of me, if you will. For sure.

Robin Mack 45:33

Yeah. Well, thank you for telling us. And then you know, for this race, since it sort of popped up. When do people vote for you?

Dr. Audrey Nath 45:43

Early voting starts March 18th. So that's after the primary. Yeah. And then election day is April 4th. And nothing else will be on the ballot.

How To Engage Nonvoters

Robin Mack 45:53

Okay, because a lot of people are ready for the primary. So to turn around and vote for this, they may not even know District C is up for a vote. Absolutely. Finding that that's the case.

Dr. Audrey Nath 46:03

In a couple of phone calls yesterday, yes, with people that I know pretty well. And they said, Oh, I would have missed that. Yes, it's uh it's uh that's the big thing, is we're getting the word out. So thank you. This is perfect. And how many people are running? There are seven people that have filed.

Robin Mack 46:19

That's a lot. Correct. Especially for a short when did you start running?

Dr. Audrey Nath 46:23

Well, we all heard the news December 5th officially, so I filed my treasurer report. I think about February. That's a short race. It's a very short race. But it's an open seat. Usually open seats do bring out a lot of people. And it's nice to hear a diversity of ideas, you know, and to to help steer the conversation.

Robin Mack 46:40

So what do you think your viability is to make it uh past these other six candidates?

Dr. Audrey Nath 46:45

Sure. Um one is I have name recognition because I ran for um school board previously. Um just this that's just how all these things serendipitously happened. Yeah. Um and in that race of the 8,000 votes I got, 5,000 were in district C. Wow. And they just voted for me just a couple months ago. Yeah. Um so that is something, and then the the parent networks from the HISD fight also go very heavily into the heights. Absolutely. I have physician networks near Rice, husbands of Jewish descent, you know. I don't know, I've met with rabbis and things like that in more of the Meyerland area. And that's important. Also, I'm a fortunate person. I'm a physician, and that has made fundraising easier when my friends are also physicians. I I'm not saying the system's fair, the system is deeply unfair.

Speaker 1 47:32

You have to use the wins you have to win, and everybody else would too.

Alexis Melvin 47:36

And you know, if you were a lawyer, you'd be doing the same thing. Exactly. A different group of people.

Voting Fears And Practical Help

Dr. Audrey Nath 47:42

So that's how I was able to raise $100,000 in December. And so between my networks and the the coalition I've already built with a lot of the advocacy work I've already done, with criminal rights advocates, immigrants rights activists, public education activists, healthcare advocates, you know, and putting all of that together. Yeah. Yeah, it's a broad coalition.

Robin Mack 48:01

Because district C covers all of it.

Dr. Audrey Nath 48:03

Yeah.

Robin Mack 48:03

Yeah. That's beautiful. Wow. Well So go ahead.

Alexis Melvin 48:08

Another topic. Yeah. Okay. LGBTQ community. That's right.

Dr. Audrey Nath 48:13

Okay.

Alexis Melvin 48:13

I mean, you're you'll be represented a big chunk.

Dr. Audrey Nath 48:16

Yes, and that is an honor. Um absolutely. Well, you know what? I'm going to start with you. You tell me what your concerns are. I have some thoughts, but I want to I want to hear from you as well, unless you want me to go first. Go first. Okay, sure. Um I am a proponent for a not a real non-discrimination ordinance in this city. You know, hero didn't pass before. I don't know. I I I'll I'm curious. I would love to pick your brain. I'd love your thoughts. Um, but yeah, because right now, in order to, let's say, sue if you were discriminated against for housing or something like that, you have to take that to like the state or the federal level. Like, we need something it local as well to protect people for housing and employment and existing in public spaces.

Final Details And Where To Learn More

Alexis Melvin 48:58

Aaron Powell A quick comment. Yeah. I don't think a local non-discrimination ordinance is worth anything if we don't have state or federal to back it up. And the reason is that the penalties are so mild, and they have to be, I mean, because the city can't the city can't say we're going to charge you a million dollars, you know, penalty. I mean, they don't have under the law they can't do that. So most groups that heavily discriminate will just write it into an expense. And there's nothing beyond that that the city can really do. Uh, you know, it can make things a little bit difficult for them, but there's there's no real teeth that can be put into it from the city side. Now, if we had a state or federal level, then that would be a way to make it easier for people to complain and not have to go through all of the state or federal laws. But right now we have some federal, but no state at all. I yeah. And so I I think you know that's a real problem. I'd rather see the city do some things that make it uh better, if you will. You know, for instance, the restroom ordinance is one of the things that comes up all the time. We've had a restroom ordinance since 19 since before 1961, and it's a perfectly fine restroom ordinance. And essentially what the what it says is that uh people are supposed to use the restroom that is marked for them, but there's it's not a problem unless they go in to cause a disturbance. Sure. So as long as you don't go into a restroom to cause a disturbance, then it's no problem. Right.

Robin Mack 50:30

And if you do, they have s they already have recourse on the books for that.

Alexis Melvin 50:34

Yeah, it it's been there since the 60s or before. Uh city ordinances were re-couched in the early 60s. So anything before that, no one really knows what date the ordinance came into being, which I think is interesting that we apparently lost those records.

Dr. Audrey Nath 50:48

Oh boy.

Alexis Melvin 50:48

Well, I mean we can't find them, so I guess that means they're lost. So I I think we can do both things. I yeah. You know, what I'm gonna say is to me, that doesn't that that's an ordinance addressing one thing. The problem that I had with Hero was it addressed a very broad spectrum, which is very nice. However, there weren't many communities bought into it. I mean, there were 18 groups that were protected, and maybe three of those groups actually worked to convince people it was a good idea.

Dr. Audrey Nath 51:22

So I think it would need to be a broad coalition to for it to work and for it to be worth it. I I would be thinking of bringing in ethnic minorities, religious minorities, and bringing everyone to the table with buy-in and working on it. I I think.

Sign‑Off And Gratitude

Alexis Melvin 51:37

Yeah, but getting the buy-in is gonna be a lot harder than you think. I'll just tell you.

Robin Mack 51:43

And I I mean, personally, are you are you done? I don't know.

Alexis Melvin 51:46

Yeah, go ahead.

Robin Mack 51:47

Personally, I think when this topic comes up, everyone's heckles come up, and I don't see a lot of people pausing to look at what didn't work the first time. And it was a very layered situation that may or may not happen again. But I always get disturbed, I am deeply disturbed by anyone in the LGBTQ community or out of that community that wants to bring this up because if you're truly paying attention to what the ordinance will support, it's not the saving policy that will help our lives here. In fact, most of the reasons why this ordinance was brought up was to help people have recourse recourse in discrimination, and the number one discrimination calls at the time for Houston at the time was for race, not sexuality, not gender expression. There were not enough gays and lesbians being discriminated against that made calls. There were not enough trans people, there were definitely nowhere near the amount of trans people that had issues that could call and want recourse that warranted that much like rhetoric. And what happened was is around that time we had just passed gay marriage. So a lot of people in our community who had been fighting for gay marriage were really excited about that, but they were paying attention to that, and then they didn't realize that when this ordinance didn't pass, you could be legally gay married and then discriminated against in the city at the same time for putting up your wedding picture at work, right? But all that aside, unfortunately, because it became such a bathroom bill, uh blown up in the news to make sure you kept this ordinance out of Houston because they wanted to keep the ordinance out of North Carolina. There was a huge strategy at play, national, national strategy at play. It became a trans issue.

Speaker 3 54:00

Yeah.

Robin Mack 54:00

It was no longer a race issue. And you didn't see the vets showing up for their protection. You didn't see the pregnant women showing up for their protection. You didn't see the people who have been working towards race advocacy and equality at there because they thought that with all these news reports and all this like money put into it, that it was a trans bill.

Speaker 3 54:24

Yeah.

Robin Mack 54:24

To the point where I've even seen trans people say, Oh my God, we need to protect the kids in the bathroom. And I'm like, fool, what? You know, um, but it happens on social media so quick. So when people bring up the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance and they make it a gay thing, they make it a trans thing, I'm already concerned that they don't know what they're talking about. I'm already concerned that we're gonna be hit by another bus again, been left behind again, hurt again. We should not be, and this is very anti what you're gonna hear, but personally, because I saw the trans community suffer so much, I do not think that the LGBTQ community should be positioned ahead of this bill. I think people who have race discrimination should, and then you're going to by nature get the numbers of LGBT people. I think like what you said, uh and and God, it takes a lot for me to say those are discriminated against religious-wise, because they hurt the community so much. But bottom line is if you take vets or people who are discriminated against, you'll get LGBT numbers. We should not put them at the forefront. And Turner did an extensive amount of research to look at the viability of this in our city. And one of the concerns was was there are other um bigger and smaller cities that have ordinances already. And something about if Abbott was in legislature or did another special session, which he loves to do for trans people and never gets anything really done and takes away abortion and spends all this money that they can't actually do when they're in legislature, I can go on. But he could call something and take away their ordinances. Um that was a concern. You don't want to ruin it for other people.

Alexis Melvin 56:18

Yeah, on that one, San Antonio and Dallas have ordinance in uh Austin. And basically the thought was that if Houston did it because of the fact that Abbott for some reason hates Houston, uh probably because he doesn't get any votes here, and you know, that if Houston did that, then there would be a state law that just outlawed all of them, and that would take away San Antonio to Austin and Dallas.

Robin Mack 56:44

Go ahead.

Alexis Melvin 56:44

And so, you know, we suggested that we don't do it.

Robin Mack 56:48

And you will find people who lead with that and they want that and they need that. And what they're really saying is like, I I just want equality. You know, I just want there to be less pressure. But when you dig deeper into that and you say, well, what do you know about the first one, or what do you think this will make available for you? They don't know. They don't, they don't know. You know, and and they they didn't even know that we already had a bathroom policy that worked. In fact, most cis heteronormative allies out there that did show up for Hero, they all read that ordinance and they said, Is it me or does this not mention bathrooms at all? And it does not. It does not. It mentions public accommodations, which again, in a big city like ours, specifically just Houston, we should have the other groups that would benefit from this ordinance know about it, but a lot of them stood away from it because they authentically thought, with all the rhetoric on the news and things, yeah, that it was a gay issue or a trans issue, so they stood back.

Dr. Audrey Nath 57:55

Right. No, I remember that. But and that's why in my mind, I think it has to be that broad coalition.

Robin Mack 58:00

There has to be some new education. And yes, you know, and maybe even leave the past in the past. I don't know.

Alexis Melvin 58:05

But I was gonna say from my point. I would much rather see us attack issues as opposed to a broad stroke, gosh, we're gonna make make it uh, you know, accommodate everyone for everything. Because that didn't go well, to say the least. And it it really opens it up for the people who don't mind lying to everyone right to their face to do that. And you know, they can make up better lies than the facts, because the facts just aren't horrible. Yeah. And and so I, you know, I see it as a problem. There are a lot of people that see that as their goal on earth is to get that passed, and it's like, well, have fun, but you know, we've already had the fun that we're gonna have with it. And I think that's that's where the trouble comes in because you have to look at the downside as well as the upside. And um, you know, essentially, yeah, the the LGBTQ community has real problems with the state. I mean, we have a governor that basically attacks us and lies about what's a law and what isn't a law, same thing with an attorney general. And you know, at least he's gonna be gone someplace, you know, maybe worse rather than better, but but you know, it it's it's the type thing that it's difficult now, especially with the federal government taking the approach that they take. And so I think you know, part of it is we just have to write it out. And you know, the the whole bit about like the uh gay flag crosswalks and removing those, you know, rather than take the approach that we took, I would have rather seen us uh follow the suggestions that several of us made, and that is why don't we uh talk to the people around there and just paint every parking lot?

Robin Mack 59:49

S something. You know, you know, but I mean and where is that now? Like you get all this hype about some performative concern, and then you realize like, wait a minute, there's tons of small businesses in Montrose that could be painting a whole bunch more than just that crosswalk. And I don't mean to belittle the sick the what it what a crosswalk means to people nationally and whatnot. It's just like if you really cared, what are we doing now, you know, and where are you afterwards? And and with our governor, uh it it is hard for the people to keep up on what really gets implemented. So there was all these uh drag bans. Okay, well, what's really banned now? Not a lot, you know, not really, you know, and what was the real concern? Not not a lot, not really, you know, but there was so much time and exhaustion. And I mean, I'm being very fair, and and and we don't need to keep on these topics or whatnot, but just for the sake of this, like, you know, I hold people accountable, even the drag queens, you have access to a mic, how many nights a week? What are you doing to educate your people that support you and you support them in your livelihood? Period. Dot the end. You know, like where where are you doing that on your platforms? Because the news will take it and spin it to their favor, but that's not really actually what gets implemented. And then people get scared and people don't know. People don't know. Most people that are trans are not in your fucking bathrooms. Like they have managed the bathroom to the point of the sacrificing of their own body long before this ordinance ever came about. And they were not holding their goddamn breath on like getting this ordinance passed. In fact, they were there helping people all the way through to help all the other demographics get their benefits and their rights, knowing that this would not be a get out of everything pass. Alexis was one of them, you know, and and it's it's important to just pause and ask like a little bit of deeper questions again with the critical thinking, because especially with that topic, people have so much misconception on the hype.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:02:00

Sure. Yeah, and how it was presented and how it was twisted and how it's left in their mind.

Alexis Melvin 1:02:06

And and the big thing about it is that the people who are against us on that can raise a lot of money. And like it or not, when it comes to social media and the news media and all of the pub uh publicity related to it, money talks. And they sit there and lie every day, even if it's something that's easy to prove.

Robin Mack 1:02:29

And it affects the business owners. They're like, okay, so if I have a scuffle in the bathroom, what the hell do I do? They don't know. All they're looking at is, you know, channel 13, channel two, or whatever, whatever. Like, but if they had a city council member to be like, this is how you implement this, and this is what we're gonna do, this is what really happened, and this is how you really live, these are your recourses, like that would be very helpful. And you what you see is sometimes is a city council member saying, like, I'm for this, or I'm against this, or we're gonna go for this, or we're not gonna go for this. And that's a wonderful thing. But there has to be that here's where it's settled, and here's what we do now to imprint on people to implement it because they just don't know. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Alexis Melvin 1:03:10

And the other thing about it is that an awful lot of the things that people say they need to protect are already protected. I mean, like they've talked about violence in, you know, women's restrooms.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:03:24

If you say it's violence, I think we have a solution of the Trevor Burrus, we have some laws about that. Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 1:03:30

I think it's a call the police, let them deal with it. And and, you know, sure it ends up in court and the courts decide. That's the way it worked. But saying, well, we've got to have a new law to protect against violence from these people to these people, which by the way never happened. They couldn't find any cases that it really happened, so they just say it happened six times. They pick the six. And, you know, that's that's the whole thing. I mean, I've always felt like that we needed uh, you know, e each time we have people that can pass laws or ordinances, I think we need another house equally to repeal them. Because why do we need more? If we were okay last week, then do we need more? Yeah. Yeah. And and you know, especially like with Congress, you know, I I think we ought to take it and say, okay, so Senate, you get to repeal things, and House you get to pass them, you know. And we'll just go in a loop forever. But at least it doesn't hurt people. But but yeah, and you know, we'd love to talk more about details because there's a lot of stuff that can be done.

Robin Mack 1:04:36

There's a lot of details. And and it's good to talk with people who understand policy. It's good to talk with people who understand the viability of it and the long-term like effects of it. And some of those conversations have been had, but they don't they're not static. They don't they don't just stay in place. I mean, a lot changes with the state all the time. Little counties all the time. I mean, there are some little Texas counties that have more rights than big cities, you know? And then for some reasons, you know, they're just not even that big of a deal. It it depends.

Alexis Melvin 1:05:07

So well, and and there are state laws that only apply to the big cities, and oddly enough, the cutoff line seems to be Houston.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:05:15

But it's just such a coincidence. I'm sure they didn't plan that. No one really looked at it. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Like the voting uh bill. Yeah, exactly. Oh, if your city is over a million people, then this applies for the drive-thru voter county.

Robin Mack 1:05:29

If you happen to be by Harris County, if it rhymes with Harris County, yeah, that's basically what happens. Well, one of the things I ask people before we go today, and I and I I wonder your answer on this, is we have more people who don't vote that could than people who do vote. And I always ask people who are running or who work with people who are running, what are you doing to engage the people who could vote that don't?

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:06:03

Discussions about quality of life I think cut through a little bit. When we talk about parks and libraries, that is something that I think people can connect with who haven't necessarily been engaged in the system. What's like, well, yeah, I know about this playground and I know about this library, and you know, just kind of person to person or even parent to parent. Like, yeah, well, we know the way to get your kid off the iPad is to go to the playground. Right. I think sometimes by talking about the quality of life issues, I think that gets people engaged. And it's like, hey, so now let's talk about this. We can prioritize green space and libraries in our budget instead of with cuts. Um and that's something that we can enjoy every day and has bigger implications too. You know, with improved urban green spaces, there's less crime. And with libraries, especially with you know, the state takeover of HISD and closure of libraries there, it's even more important. And there's a straight line, and there's studies that show that the libraries improve graduation rates and people's wages. So I think by starting with quality of life issues, that's kind of how I engage people. And this includes parents at the playground, because this does happen. That I talk to, you know, my kids playing with another kid. I'm talking to the parents and they're like, Yeah, we don't usually vote. Like almost apologetic. It's like, no, let's let's talk about this. Let's talk about where we are right now.

Speaker 3 1:07:22

Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 1:07:23

Yeah. But what do you say? What do you say to somebody who says, Well, I don't vote because I understand that, you know, if you go to vote and you do something wrong, they can arrest you. Which technically is correct, but it has to be really wrong and really egregious, and you know, I mean, it has to be major. But this is their concern. They're like, I've got to provide for my family. If I get arrested, I'll lose my job.

Robin Mack 1:07:47

Like people who are afraid of getting arrested at the voting polls. Okay.

Alexis Melvin 1:07:51

And and you know, usually they're working on rumors that are like, Sure. You know, guys, you can't bring a cell phone to the you know, to vote. Well, yeah, you can. You can't use it, but you can certainly bring it. That's right. But they're looking at what uh have been published by various groups, including some of the individual groups, that say, okay, here are the rules. Don't violate these rules, or you could be arrested.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:08:15

Oh man.

Alexis Melvin 1:08:16

And and you know, we've talked to several of them, and like my big thing is I'm like, okay, let me tell you how you get arrested at the polls. You know, it's very simple.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:08:25

I will say I just watched a video on TikTok where uh a judicial candidate, former judge, she just went through, hey guys, here's what it's like, your first time voting. Let's just talk this through.

Speaker 1 1:08:35

Because they're afraid. Exactly.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:08:36

I saw some of the comments that were like, thank you, I didn't know this. You know? So I think it goes a long way, that kind of education.

Robin Mack 1:08:43

Around 2016, when um Beto ran against Cruz, Alexis and I found out that there were plenty of registered voters. I mean, that's really not hard, but uh that had just never voted. And we started asking them why.

Alexis Melvin 1:08:56

And the the thing is that if you don't vote, you have to re-register regularly. And they had for a lot of years. It's like that's a lot of trouble.

Robin Mack 1:09:05

They're not voting. They wanted the right, but but some of it was that they were afraid because they had never done it. Some of it was that uh they just didn't want to mess it up because it's a big deal, you know, who you vote for and whatnot. And and um I I think like Tanisha has done a lot of really great work of making videos of what to expect at the voting pools, how to use the machines. And because even elders are still not necessarily wanting to mail in their vote because they don't trust the post office. I've heard that.

Alexis Melvin 1:09:37

But then I would not mail mine in. I've heard that.

Robin Mack 1:09:39

They're not sure how to like, can I really drive up in my car if I can't make the steps in? Or it's a really long ballot, can I get a chair? You absolutely can't. You know. Um so I just I always ask every person, like, what are you doing? And uh and thank you for for walking that out and how you do it. And and I think I think it is important for us to remember that the quality of life that we have in our city and state is because someone showed up to vote. Yeah. Is because someone, you know, made something happen or did or didn't hold the politicians accountable to some degree. Like there are people doing this work, and if you want your quality and your voice and your reflections to be heard and taken care of, it it does take showing up.

Alexis Melvin 1:10:27

It does. Yeah. And I think the biggest thing about it is that if you know somebody who doesn't vote, invite them to meet you at the polls.

Robin Mack 1:10:38

Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Alexis Melvin 1:10:39

And walk them through.

Robin Mack 1:10:40

I love going with friends. Yeah. I love it.

Alexis Melvin 1:10:43

And you know, every year I end up with a couple people who are like, well, you know, I'm just afraid, and I'm afraid of this, I'm afraid of being arrested, etc. And we're like, hey, if you want to drive up to West Gray, we'll buy you a coke or something. Yeah, across the street.

Robin Mack 1:10:57

Walk across the street.

Alexis Melvin 1:10:58

Yeah, talk ahead of time.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:10:59

This has happened because my kids love to play at that playground with parents there. Like, guys, it's right here. Let's just go do it.

Speaker 1 1:11:05

I'll watch your kid play dates and go, yeah, I'll kick here and go. That's really good.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:11:08

Seriously.

Alexis Melvin 1:11:10

And you know, we'll walk them through the line. And and like the I guess the second year we were doing this, uh, yeah, this one person was scared to death that there might be police around that would arrest them for coming to vote. And I'm like, Do you have a voter registration? You have a idea, you have everything you need.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:11:26

That's right.

Alexis Melvin 1:11:26

And Alan Rosen was standing right next to us, and I'm like, hey Alan, they're worried about voting because they're afraid of you know police and that sort of stuff. Alan comes over and introduces himself and then shows his badge and gun and says, I'm the constable, I'm here to protect you, not to arrest you. And you know, and he walked them through, literally. Yeah. And they came back out and wanted to know if it was okay if they call a friend and and invite him over to do this. We're like, please call them all. Yeah.

Robin Mack 1:11:54

Yes. That's another good thing to vote in a library or to vote at a park. It's like kid care, you know, because it is hard to manage a lot of things. Well, you know, so one more time on when we should get ready to vote for you.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:12:06

March 18th is early when early voting starts for this special election, and April 4th is election day.

Robin Mack 1:12:13

And how do people find out more about you? Like, do you have a website? Sure.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:12:16

Audreyforhouston.com.

Robin Mack 1:12:19

Can you spell it?

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:12:20

Sure. A-U-D-R-E-Y F-O-R-H-O-U-S-T-O-N dot com.

Robin Mack 1:12:26

Wonderful. And we'll go ahead and uh mark that in the show notes and everything. So thank you for coming in and being a guest. Like this is such a great moment to just pause and talk.

Alexis Melvin 1:12:37

For sure. Any others?

Robin Mack 1:12:40

Oh, you're just like, okay, goodbye. She's usually like, wait, wait, wait. You're like, bye. We're done? That's it?

Alexis Melvin 1:12:47

I'm done.

Robin Mack 1:12:48

Okay, everyone, stay hydrated. Alexis is done. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

Alexis Melvin 1:12:54

Bye.

Dr. Audrey Nath 1:13:00

Amazing. Y'all thank you. Seriously. Yeah. Seriously. Thank you for sharing your platform that you've built. Yeah.

Robin Mack 1:13:06

Usually when I'm closing it, she's like, but wait.