Building Strength and Connections in Pensacola, With Quint Studer

Chuck is joined by Quint Studer, the founder of the Center for Civic Engagement in Pensacola, Florida. They discuss Strong Towns’ involvement in Pensacola’s renewal and the Civic Leader Summit that will be held there in September.

• Click here for the transcript. (Lightly edited for readability.)

  Chuck Marohn 0:00

  Hey everybody, this is Chuck Marohn with Strong Towns. I am super excited to tell everybody about the Civic Leaders Summit. We have partnered with the Center for Civic Engagement out of Pensacola, Florida, to put together an outstanding Summit, September, 23 through 25 in Pensacola. I don't even know what you would call yourself in terms of the Center for Civic Engagement, Quint, but I have the founder, the president, the benefactor, the guy who is leading this vision, Quint Studer, with me. Quint, welcome to the Strong Towns Podcast.

  Quint Studer 0:43

  Good, and I think it'd probably be founder and benefactor. It certainly is not president. But thank you so much. Well, the Center for Civic Engagement exists because of you, Chuck. So we want to thank you for the impact you had on Pensacola, which changed our community, changed our lives, changed our direction. I was fortunate enough to read your books. I wrote a book called "Creating Vibrant Communities," and it's really like what you've taught us to do. You know, I was thinking about you Chuck, what you do. Your magic of Chuck Marohn is making things doable. And you know, I was a special ed teacher for 10 years, and the goal was to take hard things and break them into doable chunks. And I think, when I look at cities that struggle, it's not because they don't have enough binders, not because they don't have enough plans, it's because they don't have enough execution. And I think what we learned from you is how to play small ball, and small ball adds up to winning.

  Chuck Marohn 1:39

  I appreciate that. It was quite an opportunity for me to be able to come and kick off your speaker series years ago. You packed an auditorium full of people and gave a rousing introduction. I'm kind of looking forward to recapturing that vibe again, because Pensacola is such an exciting place. Before we talk about the Summit -- which, maybe let me give out the web address, because people should go and get tickets. I know we have a limited amount of space. The web is civicleadersummit.com. I'll give that out again here at the end, if you want to get your pens out and make sure you know how to get it. I feel like doing this in Pensacola is really a huge opportunity. Can you talk a little bit about the good things going on in Pensacola? And I know we've created in the agenda opportunities for people to go out and experience the city as part of this Summit. What are people who have not been there before going to be surprised by and run into that they can take back home with them?

  Quint Studer 2:41

  They're going to walk through and feel the energy and feel the vibrancy, and it's objectively measured now. We just got named the fourth safest city in the United States. 20 years ago, people would tell you, "Leave downtown at five o'clock." And if you don't have safety, you don't have anything. Then, they would see Palafox, which was named one of the 10 best downtown streets in the country. They would also be in a community that's the 17th best entrepreneurship place to start a business in the country, the 24th best place to live for quality of life. And Wall Street Journal, if they look it up about a year ago, if they search "Wall Street Journal," "Pensacola," "Quint Studer," he'll say, "When did Pensacola become the hippest city in the United States of America?" And they would also see lots of housing. They'd see lots of walkability, they'd see lots of biking. They'd see tons of young people, and they would basically see a lot of development, a lot of residential development of all types. And I say, Chuck, you really are the one who lit the fuse on almost all of this.

  Chuck Marohn 3:54

  Well that means a lot. I remember when I first came, things were moving in a great direction, and I feel like maybe I just kind of helped-

  Quint Studer 4:02

  Oh, I don't think so.

  Chuck Marohn 4:04

  They really were! I mean, we went around, and I was really impressed by the neighborhood development, the downtown development. Here's the thing, in the years since I've been there, you not only got named for safest place, but you won the 2019 Strongest Town Contest. For people who are familiar with your work and the things going on in Pensacola as part of that, I've been back a couple of times, things have only gotten better, more interesting. So I'm kind of excited for people to see the city as much as attend our Summit.

  Quint Studer 4:37

  I think too, in 2019 when we won that award, we have a photo of you with what looked like the whole town standing behind you.

  Chuck Marohn 4:45

  We did. It was so beautiful.

  Quint Studer 4:47

  Well, small and mid market cities, particularly, we get beat up. We have an inferiority complex. We export a lot, and the thing we export is talent. So I think you sort of lose your enthusiasm and lose your optimism and think ,"Well, we can't do this." And I think winning that honor with you in 2019 was important. Again, you want to get reinforcement in feeling good. Like when you and I talked in Plano, Texas, years ago. You know, "We're not here to beat you up. We're here to take what's good and and grow it and make it doable." And that's, again, your magic. Again, when we read giant books and all these things, they make it look so complex. We can never do that. But when you say, "Well, could you fix up a corner?" We might be able to fix up a corner. One of my favorite stories, though, Chuck, to give you a fresh pair of eyes. You might not remember this, but we were eating a dinner at a fella's apartment with Mort O'Sullivan, who's a great friend of mine. He had just gotten featured in a book called "Right Idea, Right Time," about the fight to do half the stuff we've done. Some author came in and talked about how hard this stuff is, and you mentioned it's hard to get from one place to another place in downtown Pensacola. And Mort grew up there, and he goes, "No, it's not." And you said, "Well, like, how do you get from the fish house to here?" And Mort said, "It's not hard. You cut through the parking lot, you go on the gully, you go across the railroad tracks." And what I'm saying is, when you live in a place, you might not realize it. And you've been so good about telling people, "Get out of your car and walk it. Look at it." You came in -- and for those people aren't aware of this, we got frustrated with how everything was so hard, every idea was so hard. There was such pushback. And we all want to give people the benefit of the doubt. So we ended up saying, "Well, people maybe do not know." So I said to Christian Watley, "Get the best people in the country here to speak so we can all know it." Guess who he picked to be number one lead off? It was you. And we didn't know what it was going to be like. We didn't know if people were going to be interested. So luckily, the Pensacola News Journal partnered with us. They gave a promoter on who Chuck Marohn is. We have about a 250, 300 seat little theater, and we gave out tickets, and there were no tickets left.

  Chuck Marohn 7:11

  It impacted. Yeah.

  Quint Studer 7:12

  So then we said, "Holy mackerel. Let's stream this thing." And 5000 people saw it on the stream.

  Chuck Marohn 7:20

  It was remarkable.

  Quint Studer 7:21

  It was remarkable for us. And it showed that the average human being that might not be able to go to a city council meeting because they got all sorts going on, is interested in this topic. And you opened up the door to something. I still remember your overheads. Don't expand if you can't afford the taxes, take the empty land that you already have infrastructure on and look at some infill housing. And that's just one thing we learned from you. I think since then, we've had 55 speakers come in, you've come a couple of times, and we've learned that people want to learn. So that's what the Civic Leader Summit's about: bringing people together in communities, giving them doable ideas, and helping them network with each other. Because they're going to see what Beloit is doing, which is featured on the A&E show right now, Betting on Beloit. They're going to see Lafayette, Louisiana. They're going to see a town in West Virginia that has the largest county in West Virginia, and the largest city is 6700 called Elkins. They're not going to see skyscrapers, they're not going to see rapid transit trains, but they're going to see how communities take their resources and maximize them and also get through the turbulence that we all go through when we try to create change in a community.

  Chuck Marohn 8:41

  So let me ask you this. I've looked at the agenda. I'm really excited about the programming for this. Who should think about coming to this? And I know we'll say whoever's interested, but really like, who are the people that we're most trying to reach here? Because I feel like there's an audience for this.

  Quint Studer 9:01

  There is an audience. So for example, I spoke in Mount Carmel, Illinois, not too long ago. The small rural hospital is the biggest employer in Mount Carmel. And they've got a downtown. Now they're a great hospital, small but great. But their issue is "How do we keep talent here?" I asked them to invite the people that they thought would be interested in building a vibrant community. Chuck, 28 people showed up. And let me explain, because I think this is who you bring. If you're a hospital listening, you should come and bring people in your community, because you need talent and this is about talent. So what we find comes is certainly people that are involved in anything like economic development, chamber-type organizations, tourism organizations. You know, because people come now for sense of place more than anything else. Then I think you'll always usually have some bike clubs or informal leaders, somebody that's really interested in this. So I'd say chamber people. I'd say rotary type people that are involved in service clubs. Certainly your elected officials. I mean, I had an elected official one day that raised his hand and said, "I really like page 82 of your book." I don't even know what page 82 of my book is. But he liked the concept of getting through the naysayers. How do you keep moving forward? The other thing I think we talk about is how to get internal investment in your community. Because we're all wanting outside investment, but outside investment isn't going to come if the people that live there aren't investing. So it's like, "How do I get wealth off the sidelines?" So I was in a small community, Chuck, talking about getting wealth off the sidelines, and they have a downtown that's boarded up pretty much. I said, "Do one building at a time." He came up to me and said, "An elderly lady passed away, and I'm the executor of state. I have $8 million. I think this would be a good investment to put it downtown." So I think it's people who want to see the community move forward. You know, don't sit here and say, "Well, this is the biggest naysayer in the world. We'll take them and magic dust will fly over them." I mean, you can bring them. So I think it's chamber, rotary, elected officials type people.

  Chuck Marohn 11:24

  Yeah. I know we have promised people, when you show up for the Summit, you're going to get inspired, you're going to get strategies, you're going to get tactics, you're going to get practical tools that you can take back to your place. But I know in looking at the agenda, and just knowing Pensacola and the places that we're holding this, connecting with other people is a big part of this conversation. I do think that part of sustaining the momentum that you get from a conference, from a summit, from a get together, is a lot about the people that you meet and being able to stay connected to them, bounce ideas off of them. Talk a little bit about that aspect of this, because I feel like that's something you do extremely well and that this agenda is designed to augment.

  Quint Studer 12:14

  It's designed to get a little bio on the attendees. In fact, the other thing I give is money back guaranteed. If you come to this thing and you don't think it's worth it, we'll give your money back. I think it's all about that. I think it's sort of like almost being in a support group. It's almost like you're going to support group and you can tell on yourself.

  Chuck Marohn 12:35

  Yeah.

  Quint Studer 12:35

  And I think telling on yourself is vital. Like "We're struggling with this. I'm struggling with that." Once you're tell on yourself, it's all of a sudden different. So I think they're going to run in and lock arms, and we're trying to create that. That's why we're bringing in different cities, different sizes, different experiences. But we're also hoping that people that come just say "We're like minded." Because when you're in a small community, you can feel isolated. You know, in most states, the big cities drive the political agenda. They've got the money, they've got the power. So this is a way for us to bring citizen-powered change, which is what you've done. I mean, look at Strong Towns, Chuck. When I met you, I don't know how many followers you had. I don't know if you had followers because you were brand new. I didn't know what followers were back then. I've got like 150,000 people. So we're trying to create a community that exists outside of maybe bricks and mortar, but exist in our hearts and in our minds. So you're going to walk out with two or three friends that you're going to keep for a long, long time that don't live in your community.

  Chuck Marohn 13:41

  I'm going to be speaking and involved in a number of the sessions. Other people from the Strong Towns team will be too. You are certainly going to be part of that lineup. But D.C. Reeves is kicking the whole thing off. He is a dynamic mayor of Pensacola. He's someone who, even before he became mayor, has been involved in shaping and changing things. Can you just talk a little bit about D.C. and what he brings and why people might want to show up and hear from him?

  Quint Studer 14:11

  Yeah. Well, I think one of the questions we always get is, "What about the elected officials?" So, he's going to talk about that, how you bring the elected officials on board. And education is a big part. You know, D.C. Reeves was part of CivicCon, preparing and introducing the speakers. You and him and I sat at that table right there in his room. He basically started a craft beer place, he was a sports reporter, and I hired him to be my chief of staff, and he saw all these great speakers. So when you hear him talk, some days Tom Murphy comes out of his mouth, about private-public partnerships. Some days, Chuck Marohn comes out of his mouth, you know. He has such great spirit and expertise. And he's also gotten a pretty good role now of the US mayors, for a young guy. He's in charge of workforce development. He's attractive. You know, the boat American Magic that used to be at the New York Yacht Club is coming to Pensacola. Now, who would have thought that? So I think he'll talk a lot about execution and navigating the elected official politics of change.

  Chuck Marohn 15:21

  One last thing, and maybe this is just a logistic thing for people who are looking to come. We're inviting people from all over, if you are interested in this conversation, if you're interested in being part of what I think is gonna be a really exciting time. Pensacola, to me, is a great place because everybody likes to go to Pensacola. Pensacola in September is wonderful. I'll also say, if you're like, "Well, does my does my airport fly to Pensacola?" I think every airport in the country has cheap tickets to Pensacola. Maybe that's just a northern thing, a Minnesota thing, but it seems like I can always get a ticket to Pensacola, and it's not going to break the bank. And there's lots of places to stay, and it's a pretty fun way to spend a few days.

  Quint Studer 16:07

  It's a perfect time to be here, because it's not our heavy tourist season. So hotels that you would have paid $700 to $1,000, you're paying $168 or something like that. And you go right to the white sandy beaches, of course. So if you to stay on the beach, you can stay on the beach. If you want to stay downtown, you can stay downtown. But it's a perfect time to be in Pensacola. Weather wise, it couldn't be a better date to do this. And I think they'll find it's inexpensive lodgings, inexpensive flights, and certainly we've kept registration very inexpensive.

  Chuck Marohn 16:40

  We're going to do the second day at the stadium.

  Quint Studer 16:43

  Yeah, yeah. Well, one of the challenges of our community, it's gotten too popular. It's hard to find room, and hard to find space too. But you've been there, Chuck, you're in the lab room. Minnesota Twins minor league pitching coach was showing the heat map of the Tampa Bay farm team out of Montgomery.

  Chuck Marohn 17:03

  It was really exciting. Yeah.

  Quint Studer 17:06

  So, so we have a stadium we built downtown, probably one of the more inexpensive stadiums. When we built it, we said it would be an economic engine. But there's also a fellow we met along this journey called James Lima. And James Lima is an independent consultant that tells you, "If you're gonna spend public money, here's how your how much private investment you should get from it." And I always recommend him, because if it doesn't make sense, you shouldn't do it. There's actually a book written called "Right Idea, Right Rime" by Rick out for like $14. It came out two weeks ago. It's about the referendum. Anyway, it's a beautiful stadium. It wins award after award. It's on a peninsula. It's called the best view in minor league baseball, and it's going to be quite incredible and quite fun. We're going to be able to go into locker rooms. And who knows? If Bubba Watson is not golfing out around the country, we might even get Bubba Watson to show up, or Emmett Smith, or some of our other local athletes that might want to stop by and say, Hello.

  Chuck Marohn 18:15

  I'm excited. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to give you that website now again, it's civicleadersummit.com. If you go there, not only can you sign up, but the agenda is there, all the speakers, FAQs, and everything you need to figure things out. If you have a question, there's a way to get a hold of us. Again, this is a partnership that we are doing with the Center for Civic Engagement. This is a long time cooperation we've had with with you, Quint, and with your team, and I'm really excited. A little bit of history for people. We tried to do this before, and we had it scheduled, and we were selling tickets, and everything was great. And the day we had picked to do this was like May 3 through 5, 2020. And in late March, we had to cancel that because of the pandemic. We've been trying to get this rescheduled ever since. I don't want to be too presumptuous, but this is something that we want to keep doing over and over and over, because getting local leaders together in a way where they can learn from each other, exchange ideas, and then stay connected is core to what we do. It's core to what you do, and I think it's something that we want to be doing for a long time together.

  Quint Studer 19:34

  And we like to say that we're not out to be another Strong Towns. We're not out to travel the country. The Center for Civic Engagement is a very local, centered product. What we do is show cities how to raise their civic IQ. So again, that's the beauty about our relationship. You know, we tell people all the time, "Call Strong Towns, go to Strong Towns," but we think we can demonstrate some local things. Not only us, but all the other communities that'll be there. Everybody that comes will have something to give as well as getting something.

  Chuck Marohn 20:05

  I'm excited, and I'm excited to showcase the city and all that has been accomplished there. So go to civicleadersummit.com if you're interested. Get signed up. Get your tickets to head to Pensacola. This is going to be really fun. Quint Studer, thank you so much for taking the time to chat, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in eight weeks. This is gonna be a lot of fun.

  Quint Studer 20:27

  Well thank you. Love you, Chuck Marohn.

  Chuck Marohn 20:30

  Love you too, friend. Thanks, everybody. Keep doing what you can to build strong town.

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• Civic Leader Summit

• Quint Studer (site)

• Chuck Marohn (Substack)

• Want to bring the conversation to your city? Book Chuck Marohn as a speaker.

---

This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Click here to learn more about membership.

---

RELATED STORIES

---