Hey everybody. Wow, today we have a great one for a change. And this time, this time I mean it.

Mayor Melvin Carter, mayor of St. Paul, first black mayor of St. Paul, is with me for a great, great conversation,

and this time I mean it. Now, let me say something about that, the this time I mean it thing.

I got an email from a listener, and I won't say her name. Let's call her Enid Gubo. Anyway, she wrote, Al, I'm a big

fan, love the podcast, but I had to write you because I listened to your interview, and I don't want

to embarrass this guest. So let's just call him Steve Schmidt. And I listened all the way through, and I have to say, it never got to be what I

would call great. Okay. First of all, I thought it was great, but look, Enid, a podcast is show

business. And when I say, this is a great one this time I mean it I don't always mean

it okay but this one with Melvin Carter I do you will really love Melvin fabulous guy

and it all comes from his parents Melvin 2 Melvin the mayor is Melvin 3. And Tony. Now,

Tony is a county commissioner. She's chair now of the whole county commission. And Melvin 2 was a cop.

And we discussed that, being the first black mayor of St. Paul and his dad having been a St. Paul

cop, and his dad was a great cop, a community policeman who started a non-profit called Save Our Sons,

which Melvin talks about. And we have a pretty wide-ranging discussion, including talking about

the historical disparities in St. Paul.

Melvin grew up in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, beautiful historically black

neighborhood. And Roy Wilkins, who was a great civil rights leader during the 60s, grew up in

the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul. And here's what he wrote about it.

And this is him growing up in the 1920s, late 1920s. It is a riot of warm colors, feeling, and sounds.

Music is in abundance from Victrola's, saxophones, player pianos, and hurry-up orchestras. It sees with the pulsating beauty of the lives

of its people. Okay, that's Rondo, a great neighborhood. Now, a few decades ago, they put a freeway

through Rondo without telling anybody, basically.

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