No, its more than that. Comcast is powering with Community Centers so students from low income families cant get the tools they neeto be ready for anything. Comcast, a lot with these Television Companies support cspan two as a Public Service. We have the great pleasure of presenting a conversation with josh saipan. Josh statement is a federal media negative and author and passed ceo of amc network credited with building some of televisions most iconic shows, including mad men, breaking bad, portlandia, killing eight. Okay, listen, my husband binge watched killing a. I dont know, for what you long. It was like crazy. I almost got him i therapist, but it was really good. He also oversaw the spinoff of amc network from cable vision to become a publicly traded company of nasdaq. Most recently, he published the third cups, a book that celebrates aging in all its accomplishments and grace and nights he is selling all these books outside and hes donating the proceeds to the green space. After the program, if you have not purchased a book, please go and get a signed copy. He will be signing copies and giving us this money, which we need to support journalism and media that sparked change. Please join me in welcoming the incredible josh saipan. [applause] thank you for coming out. Thanks to christina. She is you heard whats up here. Its pretty remarkable, i think. The curation at the sort of audacious innovation that she and her group to is really quite remarkable. I think there is nothing done like it in a borough that i know of. Kate slush under, jennifer center, amber wright worked together and they are responsible for the crazy wild iris from stuff. It occurs here that i think chris and where else. Theres a crew from the spin here recording this for book tv. So thank you for coming down and i think ethan elam especially for help and put all this together. And there is a new president at w and y c whose name is lafontaine oliver. He is just a spectacular [inaudible] heat you in front of recently and everyone knows when there is a human in the house that illuminates everybody. It just spreads more interest and motivation and intrigue and it desire to do more and that is lafontaine. So thank you for being the new guy in town its great to have you here. So kristen mentioned what well do tonight. Were havent three new yorkers who have had. I think i should get this away. Having a real positive impact on new york city in their multiple acts. Im going to introduce them individually, ill start with a woman named hope harley. She worked at verizon for decades. She was a career, corporate career citizen. She grew up in brooklyn and lacked the parkland museum. She didnt like that the bronx was the only borough they didnt have a museum. So shes indefatigable and set out to open the bronx Childrens Museum and began just with a sketch on paper and then the war veteran bus and then finally, i dont know if you write about its and the times a few months ago, the bronx Childrens Museum opened and the south bronx. 13,000 square feet. It looks magnificent. She sort of build it into existence. Just amazing. [applause] i just want to say. By the way, hang on, wait a minute. Okay, so, ive been out talking about this book and doing all the stuff. She and i were on a tv show together. We do the whole thing, we go back to the green room, i thought, that womans awfully good on television. And i work on tv and i thought she seemed like a bit of a ringer. And i said, hope, you seem extraordinarily comfortable on television. How did you get that way . And she said, well when i retired from verizon, i took acting classes. She and i are the exact same age, i was counting. That would put her in her says these. So shes doing now summer stop every summer. I went home and told this to my wife. She said, yeah, shes on that commercial on hit rotation. The amtrak spot. So hope harley is a third, fourth, and fifth act. I would like to ask her to come out. Hope harley. [applause] so i dont i dont know if you guys know that name david rothenberger. I think new york legend. This is a wild story. He was a theatrical agent and a probe a producer and was associated with the original production of here. And then Richard Burden and hamlet and some 200 other plays. This is just such a cool story. He then did a play by a man named john herbert, who had been incarcerated and wrote a play off towards. It was cold he fortune in mens eyes. It was about people who were previously imprisoned. That play moved from a play, a piece of fiction, to the founding under davids leadership 55 years ago to the fortune society. If you dont know what the fortunate side is, for some of you, i want to mention two things about it. Fortune provides housing and average of services per men and women who were previously incarcerated. I was introduced to it by gordon adelstein, my friend who is here. We went to the castle, the facility and harlem. I was blown away. And then through the good offices of ashley auto, i began to know the queens facility. Theres a man here named leonard tao, i just have to say it, im so thrilled to see. He is and the book. He is over there. [applause] among other few other things lend does, extraordinary work with people who are in prison and with moms who have who are incarcerated and have kids out of prison, and with theater programming in prison. I wont go on too long. Dave it has a weekly show on wpa i. David has written books. David is running short stories. Id like to welcome david rosenberg. [applause] joseph lhota pave the way for his family to go to college. He worked on corporate finance, thats where we met. I came to admire his skill and particularly his ethics. It is hard to track, his career, in many acts in Public Service. He was deputy mayor of new york. He was head of the amity a, i think, two times. He is currently working as the vice dean and see all all of nyu langone hospital. Not to mention he ran for republican mayor. This is an interesting and amazing facts. He was endorsed by every daily newspaper in new york, including the new york times. So i dont know if youll recognize joe, but this documentary on Rudy Giuliani that ive seen several times. And when 9 11 happened, Rudy Giuliani is on the phone. The first thing he says is 9 11 is occurring, get me lhota, because joe was really the met running this city. And joe wisely closed the new york city subway and then elevated some of the how subway for hurricane sandy. He was affectionately, it goes to show his wonderful sense of humor, he embraced it, because he was the guy to get rid of rats in new york. You cannot beat that man. So welcome joe. [applause] all right so i have i have some questions for this esteemed panel. Also up the question for everyone. This is a little bit about the third act and a little bit about new york. Thank you so much. Its a question about what makes you want to change your life. Each of you worked in private enterprise, verizon, theater, wall street. And then went to work in Public Service. Tightknit bit of a big change. It is generally lower compensated, a bit. But i would like to ask, its been on my mind. What made you what was it liked to make the decision to do what you did in your case . Well, and my case, it is no compensation. Because i do a lot of work for the museum, i do it as a volunteer. I never held a staff position. I serve on the boards and was board president for a number of years. It wasnt a conscious decision. I had gotten involved with the idea of the museum even before i left verizon because it was part i had gotten involved because it was part of my work. I was an external affairs. I manage the philanthropy budgets that included the bronx. Supporting organizations and the bronx. And i was invited to a meeting about creating a Childrens Museum in the bronx. So it was kind of a work activity. Then when i got involved and when i retired, they automatically say it, oh now youre retired. So we have to create a board, we are getting our 501 pay three. Youll be the president. Okay. I didnt know what that meant. Ive actually paid money to do this. I really have. It is coal reversed competition. Its reversed. But ive been paid 1 million times over. Im just overwhelmed with what weve created. And the effect that creation will outlive may, certainly. Thats wonderful. David . I never fortuna society evolved. I had a theater office. The play was after a performance of the plants and said, we have the nucleus of an organization because a lot of formerly incarcerated people or coming after performances. And so my office was my theater office. And guys who had done time were hanging out there. And as it, krutikas the need was so great, i often sit on it like a drama more than i like theater. I object to go with fortune. I head there was a period when i had to courage at once. One was paying me and the other wasnt. And for three years, fortunate society was a volunteer organization. Martin it was so great. Etiquette happens. We were the only game in town. You are a civilian observer one of the observers that went into the year of doing that. Which is not part of the theater preparation. [laughter] finding yourself in the yard at etiquette was all part of it. Fortune grow dramatically because the need for so underwhelming. It was never this is what were going to do. It evolved. Can i ask you because you can ask me whatever you want. I was going to ask you for your Favorite Sports Team fulltime was. The giants, 51, beat the dodgers. Poppy thompson hit a home run. I asked him that question because i didnt follow baseball i remember Bobby Richardson was the second baseman, he said dr. Bob richardson he became a doctor after he was a baseball player. Any kid knows that. Dangerous man. David rothenberg is a dangerous man. Stay away from him. Ive been too fortunate now at the castle with gordon. And with ashley in queens. It is no small little thing. It is huge. It is huge. And i woke through there and im overwhelmed. It is incredible. It is incredible. If i may watch people reclaim their lives before your very eyes. There is nothing more exciting. Okay, so, joe. You are like 15 years in corporate finance. You went to harvard pick school. T private enterpyou work and pre with me. We spoke to hallways, there was a lot of money around. Then suddenly you are in full on Public Service. Josh, because back to when i was really a little kid. I always thought i would be in both the private sector and the public sector. As an eightyearold . Youthful private sector . I always thought of have a job in either one. My father was a cop, my one grandfather was a firefighter, the other one was a new York City Taxi driver. It was all and the concept of Public Service, of some sort or another. And in the process of it, i always thought i would be doing something to help the city of new york. It has been, and my blood and dna. I also believe as time went on, as you mentioned, i want to hover it. I went to Harvard Business school. I actually believe in the revolving door. A lot of people dont. Between the government and the private sector. Either one of them understand each other. And i really believe that, the more the government understands the private sector, and the more the Profit Center understands how the government operates, the better off the country is going to be. Because a whole lot where if they are in conflict with each other, it is unnecessary. Ive enjoyed the ability to be able to go back and forth. Yes, during a period of time, making money, and during a period of time, not making so much money. My wife is here, she explains how that happens. So i think its important. But i do think, it is all part of the american dream. Youve got to give something back. How wonderful. I cant help but ask, between deputy mayor during 9 11 or he really wore on the ground and the essential person are currently, or a central person. And the empty, which seems to be a quasiimpossible task. Where have you found the greatest satisfaction in Public Service . There are both quite unique. I seem to be a magnet for disaster. Whenever things tend to happen, including the pandemic, being in a hospital i think the satisfaction, the greatest satisfaction is seen a job done and be in don rights. I think the storm, sandy, was by far the thing that was the best in that most people tend to forget this, but you mentioned it in the introduction. The subways, we were able to get the subway system outs of the way of the water that came into the Lower Manhattan. You said that back there, the subway system out of the way of the water . A couple of things. We all knew the water was coming. We knew we needed to protect the system as much as possible. We took the switches and Lower Manhattan out, one at a time, put them on the last train. Tech, then put them on the last train. Took the switches the control mechanism, so you know what the trends are. It helped with the speed, is that era. Put him on the last train and then took the trains, put them on higher ground. Put them in the bronx, away from the water, is high up as possible, or in queens. When the water came in, you remember the pictures, flooded Lower Manhattan. Once we got the water out, we put the switches back in and turned it on. Most people remember, it happened on a tuesday. The subway system was backed up and running on thursday. The city of new york is a Miracle Health and support here. But if you plan accordingly, it can work. [applause] amazing, by the way, by the by the way, one of report of a story that is critically important. It says something about healthy aim to a operates. The person who told me how to do that was a union worker. We had a tabletop exercise as to what would happen if it was Something Like sandy. And the war to come up. Because we knew climate change, inevitably this was going to heaven. We did this table top exercise. The very first one we had, there was no union embers at the table. All what shorts, management. I basically said, guys, who is going to do the work . We need to have labor here at the table. Management didnt like that. But we eventually had another tabletop exercise and in the process of it, one of these labor guys, a union member, a member of the local 100 basically it was shaking his head saying if we dont take the switches out, were not going to get the system back up and running for a six or seven months. The reality was, he described to me exactly what in a trap and if we went down to a station. He showed me how to do it. We followed it stepbystep. We did what he said. And because of him, the system came back up again. Youve got to listen to the guys on the straight. That is quite a story. Can i ask, because were talking through text, and new york. Civil orientations, sorry civic orientations. Im just going to ask you, because it feels of interest. What do you think ill say it this way. Do you think the priorities of new york, if you were the mayor, what would be at the top of your todo list . [laughter] after a school, i would reintroduce after School Programs and this goes. That will be my first. Affordable housing, i think after after School Programs, a lot of the young people i mates did not have what i had in school which was things like you getting involved in care. Nobody gets involved about geometry or biology. Not many. It used to iran skull because of some of these singing and the programs that after school. Education then has a fuller impact. Yeah. You can go on with affordable housing. I said, now that i live in new jersey, i was born and raised in brooklyn and she loves and my hometown. He went to t neck high school. Class of 51. I wasnt born yets [laughter] i was. [laughter] so was i. [laughter] josh asked this question in the back. So im answering as an ex patriot, so to speak. But coming here today, we are writing down fourth avenue. I still call it the west side highway. You see all these buildings. We carrigan everything old in this city, we dont respect anything or a historical or things like that. So, theres a vested interest here. Something going on that corner, its his residential, i think whos going to live there . Or who can afford . It it seems to me that what makes a city a citys diversity. Especially manhattan. I know brooklyn, as well, is becoming, everything is becoming unaffordable. Youre going to have just rich people and, you know, nothing against be rich but, you know, they are not always the nicest. [laughter] change a cubs, one of our heroes say keep the neighborhood. More. In any event, i thought those are pretty good. So i thought were at the time a things change. At any rate, mayors of deputy mayors. My answer is gonna be a little longer and more complicated. We all wonder what in the the deputy mayors to. You have five deputy mayors, each one is going to need to have five different projects that they need to be working on. Some of those projects will be done in a day, some were done in a week, over six months to a year, each one of them working on a strategy thats either going to be working on housing or creating jobs after School Programs, all types of things and not being done in secret. People are going to need to know about it. The reporters need to know about. It the public needs to know. We know the direction its going in. Theyre going to be some projects important to me. Things i care about, whether its cleanliness of the city, which i think is important. I think the city since the pandemic, is continuing to get dirty and theres no reason for it. This is a beautiful city. It needs to stay beautiful. And the people, we need to find a way to maintain it. Jobs are important, the creation of jobs. Without the jobs, with the housing, the ability to, as crime reduced and then people started, all of a sudden people started to be able to move into all different other parts of the city, you get to the gentrification and then people who live in those committees were moving out. Problem is, you need to create jobs, and thats the important part of it as well, and the other thing, going back to the emptier, we now have a sub subway system thats very manhattan centric. Guess what, the city is no longer manhattan centric. The city lives in the bronx. He lives in brooklyn. Thats where the activity is. Everyone who moves to new york coming out of college or moving back