Episode 10, Talking South Carolina Podcast Interview with City of Columbia, SC Mayor Daniel Rickenmann

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett “Thank you so much for being here today, mayor. I’m excited about this.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Oh, I am too. Appreciate you having me.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. So my very first, question for you. How does game day.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Hey, it was unbelievable. I tell you, the excitement that was in Williams Rice Stadium and the excitement around it was incredible. But you know what? Really, I thought was amazing was an opportunity to hear a lot of the conversation going on, between the broadcasters. And it was really, uplifting to hear them talk about what a great environment our community had.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And, you know, even one of the announcers said, you know, I never thought I’d be in Columbia, South Carolina. Do you guys? God, I’m glad I’m here. You know, and so when you hear that. Yeah. Far.”

Angela Barrett “And then stands, we got the chicken egg with certain serving, sir. Yeah, that was fun.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But, you know, for us as a community here, that it’s what we know. It’s just we haven’t we haven’t shared it with everybody. So we’re excited to share our story.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. And, meeting Lee Corso. How was that?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, the legendary coach, you know, been watching that show forever. It was pretty special.”

Angela Barrett Yeah.

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “I’m sorry. You know, I loved it. The fact that, ESPN, wanted to do something with the community, and I thought it was a great opportunity for us to to showcase who we are.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, absolutely. Well, enjoyed watching it, and, I was didn’t I had no idea that you were going on. And my husband was like, you know, the mayor. I didn’t get the show. I’m like, what? So that was fun to watch. It was exciting. So, your Columbia streams art. Let’s talk about that. A lot of the project, give everybody sort of the overall, picture of that project.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “The, you know, we wanted to, to get a, a project that was really engaging in the community, you know, and stream art. You know, it was a way for us to to pick all the different media and to promote visibility and conversation. And we’re like, we got to do something to get people excited about. I’ve been in Lexington, Kentucky, and they had the horses.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, I knew as a kid when the cowboy parade started. And places across the globe are doing all types of art like this, and we’re like, well, let’s do something that celebrates our river. You know, we just announced, you know, the collaboration between Lexington County, Richland County, Casey, West Colombia, Colombia, Armada Cape and and Saluda Shoals on where they had 27 miles of riverfront available for walking and biking and hiking.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And so having that opportunity said, alright, let’s do something. So we got we found somebody who can make four foot trout. We said, so let’s do this and let’s use the fish and decorate and auctioned it off. Not to raise a ton of money, but really to create more awareness and get people excited. A way to put art into promoting.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And and so we ended up doing, 36, different tryouts. We were able to auction those off. We raised a little bit money that we’re putting back into other programs. So we’re going to do ten turtle sculptures, only allow these artists to do it, and put those turtles out in the riverfront and around town for public display.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “There are about six trout being, going to be displayed publicly. People bought them and donated them back and, to be placed across, the city. So just creating some, some fun around it, you know, and so that was like project one. And then Steven Chesley, an artist in town, had done what they called, canvas art program during so bid and they partnered with the city of Kaiserslautern, which is our sister city in Germany, to, to to cross-pollinate art during this period of time.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And so what they do is they project this art onto canvases and then you could display it. It’s, a unique and inexpensive way to share art. And so I was like, this is a great idea. Let’s figure out how do we do this and do 5 or 6 of these and spread them around town. So it’s constantly moving.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And what they were able to do was incorporate poetry and art and other things. So as we do these canvases, you got multiple artists, Symbolist, and our goal is to do a lot of these and just keep rotating them across the city. So you got to kind of it’s kind of a game, figure out where it is, but it also ties you to some artists you may not know of or you never heard of this, this, this artist, this poetry, author who, you know, lives in a neighborhood.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And it puts everything together. But we’re also partner with Sister cities and and we’re going to do one with Accra, Ghana, which we’re excited. You know, we had the mayor of Ghana here not too long ago just had the ambassador here. It’s our other sister city. So really excited about what can happen with that and do an exchange.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But it’s opened up our opportunity really to display art in an inexpensive way around town in a bigger way. Just had a conversation with, the folks in the organization they’re organizing, 80th year Holocaust mural. And I’m like, why don’t we do it on a huge canvas that then can be transported to different parts of the community so people can see it, but also it’s something that you can reuse.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You can roll up, pull out again and take it on a traveling, exposition or, you know, bring it to the university for a while or bring it to a couple of high school. So you. Yeah, that part’s been been pretty cool to watch and see it roll rolling in what it could be. It really opens up the door to sharing more of what’s happened in our community in an inexpensive way, but enough to draw people to it.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann Right. And then we had another program as part of that was called the Mini Libraries program.

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah, idea reason. The, newspaper boxes. That was pretty cool.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, try to figure out, you see all these mini libraries, neighborhoods, more like, you know. So we first started off calling local the statewide laugh. We ended up found somebody who recycles and picks some fixes on the map. We got them kind of painted in different colors. Blues, greens, yellows, reds. And then we took them to our part that had the young folks in the summer camps decorate.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So there was the hands on decoration from, the kids that were taking part in our summer programs. And then we went from there to, hey, we want to, but drop suddenly we are overwhelmed with. But yeah, so we could fill all these and get them in to neighborhoods where there may not be an opportunity for somebody to put in a little library or create access on the wall, come from some of our elementary schools really getting a lot of placed in North Columbia.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And some of our more challenged. It is a way to just start building out the community in a little different way. You know, hopefully this is the beginning. We want to do some community art on some empty lots there as well, just really trying to build back block by block, one house, at a time. And we also were able to put some funding behind the Finney Center.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Artist, Benny’s daughter and several other folks created, the fitness center, which is located on Lawrence Street, right over, by Hampton behind railroad barbecue. And it’s really it’s part of a neighborhood revitalized Zation there. Kevin Gray was the founder of Railroad Barbecue Community. This, grew up in Spartanburg, was one of the first kids to integrate in public school, in the 60s.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And just, you know, all of that incredible individual did not always agree with Kevin, but log cabin energy for the community. And here I got to be great friends. And if you haven’t been in this restaurant, it’s worth checking out. It’s like a museum itself. It has artifacts basically from political, from civil rights, political through the years, basketball.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But everything’s localized South Carolina. And so you just spend hours in there walking around city. It all the pictures. But it was a way to help that art program and that gallery really kind of grab your hub. Don’t be a multi-purpose space where they can have theater shows, they can do art shows, community programs, but it’s really in the heart of our African-American district and is really going to play a vital role to the future growth in that community.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So excited. And then we’ve been meeting we did an art artist roundtable and got a lot of feedback from artists about what we could do better. And, you know, pushing. There was a little bit of pushing and pull in there, which is good, but we hope to have a follow up and really engage more. Oh, we get how we can help from a cultural standpoint in our community, really bolster all the arts, you know, and, you know, virtually law for us to have some big festival.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We taught in music and food and performing arts, visual art and really tired all in together. So you can bring all this, this great creativity, across the city. So, you know, we got to keep try different things. We’re, we got some micro grants for our project. We’re looking to do a holiday market and being more of a gallery market where we can invite all these artists to display for free and give them a place to really kind of showcase their arts, much like Christmas Market, but focused on the arts.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann Can the arts and crafts of our community really looking forward to that?

Angela Barrett “Yeah, that’s a great idea. So I’m sorry. Interrupt that. Yeah. Perfect idea because I know, just trying to chase down the chicken man to get some ice. I mean, so is that a yes? You want to buy a local art? Yeah, you just do. Or most of us do. But sometimes you don’t know where to find them.”

Angela Barrett “If they’re not, don’t have a gallery of their own or you don’t, you don’t know of a gallery that holds that particular, let’s say you wanted something very specific, like an artist. Lee, you know, you were looking for something, but sometimes you don’t know where to go to. So having a one place where you can go around and and look at everybody’s is as great.”

Angela Barrett “Maybe not even a $1 a year if they would have been, that would be, maybe.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So I’ll take the long term. That would be our goal. You know, I’ve always said, you know, there are other kids have done this, and I’d like, figure out how we do this, you know, have a made in Colombia, you know, store where you’re rotating these different, artist potters, you know, sculptures, everything in and out so that people could really enjoy local art and do that.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But, you know, it was interesting. Somebody came out with a great idea. And so we’re looking into which is, you know, we get a lot of, hotels and businesses come here and then, you know, they want some type of tax break or incentive and so the trade off should be, well, we’ll do this for you. But you know what?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “When you go to fill your building with art by local and make that part of the stipulation, just another way to get, you know, a few larger economy, but also, you know, really show the best in the brightest, of Colombia. To all the visitors. I mean, you know, we’re very fortunate to get 16 million visitors a year.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So, yeah, one more sale, one more day. You know, hopefully we can keep doing things like that.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah. Great idea. So going back to, I guess, the beginning, where did you come up with this, this idea for, quality streams, art?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Well, I think we were a little bit in a transition at time. We did have a permanent director at one Columbia. At that time, they didn’t have a public art, director. You know, since that’s change. But we want a little flexibility where we could do a couple little splash projects, really to to to to uplift people.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And, you know, my goal really is to create more awareness, but we can raise some money. And while we’re doing it, that means we could get money back out to grants on top of the money that’s already out there and and hopefully pushing harder to get more grant money and opportunities out there, but also another transitional way to to get businesses engaged with our local artists as well, you know, kind of really getting them excited about, you know, maybe our mission stop more, you know, maybe we should buy our arts or there maybe for Christmas.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We’re giving art, you know, is gifts to our our best clients. Just, you know, look, everybody gets a bottle of booze and a bottle of wine, and Lord knows we can’t eat all that food yet during the holidays. But a nice piece of art or pottery or something, you know, something that lasts for a long time. So just just trying something different, you know, we’re we’ve gotten to the point in Colombia that we’re not afraid to try things that we want to try.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And the one one thing we’ve always said, we want to promote our small businesses in our community is a small business.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree. Love the arts. How about any photography in this country anytime soon?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Yeah. As a matter of fact, they’re they’re I think one of the upcoming canvases is going to have some photography art as well. Yeah. So taking advantage, of all arts and visuals, in our community is obviously, important. And we’re trying to get the kids more involved to, you know, getting the high schools. We even had some the couple high schools decorated trout.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So, you know, that was exciting. So we can keep doing things like that. I think, you know, we’re promoting and get people excited. We just want to plant the seed. You know, we this I don’t know that is our role in our job to to try to sustain it and oversee it. But we certainly can help promote it and, and and feed it and get it and excited and let it grow and morph into its own, really destiny.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And I think ways we can do that is, you know, have this gallery space. We’ve been talking to, realtors about putting artists into spaces that have at least, you know, and let it be in there from month to month. But at least there’s excitement in there. People walk by and there’s activity and they see something. So then maybe they start to visualize, well, maybe I should go in that space, you know?”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, just try and.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Different things work, you know, across the different community lines.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Yeah, I like it, I like it. So now tell me where we where can we find these trout right now. What’s up though a lot.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We have six of them over in our parks and racks. And all of that is are going to be out on display. They’re being coated with a special weather resistance coating, but you’ll see some at five points. You’ll see something in, the vista you’ll see down at the Riverfront Park. I’m actually got bought the Benedict one, and we’re donating that back to Benedict.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So that’s going to be prominently, on their campus. So also there’s so there’s a lot.”

Angela Barrett

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Of unique pieces, that were done that you’re going to see start popping everywhere. And then we’re going to weed in those turtles a little bit. And who knows what’s next.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. Now, going back to the, Phinney Center. I know that right now they’re housed in what, a big warehouse they, But they’re working on a redoing a form that is going to be to help help me there because I, I sort of lost it in the translation, reading about it.”

Angela Barrett

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Yeah. They’re, they’re they had bought one of the historic house across the street, and that’s going to be our artist and resident, program, as well as having some, more active space specially to help artists and folks. Yeah, we different funding opportunities and so forth. But I think the artists and residence piece is actually owned by family.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Who? I don’t think any of the descendants still live here, but I could be wrong about that. And they were able to get that, which I think is a, you know, a great additive to what’s happening in that corridor there. It’s going to be exciting. I’m going to tell you, the artists are building a couple of events there, and the enthusiasm that there is around this, the Penny center and, you know, it’s and it’s in another district, you know, so much of our art is always been centered downtown or in the vista, which was, you know, the original Arts Village.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And so things are becoming a little more spread out, which is good because I think that gets more people engaged, you know? Yeah. The Chicken man, Andre Street, you know, up there, you.”

Angela Barrett “Know, we’re in that. But yeah. Well that’s.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann Great.

Angela Barrett That’s great. That’s just sweet. All right.

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But yeah, there’s a, there’s one being, there’s an artist village being built over by, the hangar at OSP. Oh. Do you got, our streams down it, everything happening down it, Yugi Street, you know, you still got a lot of folks. It 701 Whaley said it’s really started going on low Carlyle Street, which is tucked up off.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “No, what has become a little corridor? I think there’s like 6 or 7 different artists that are working out of there as well. So a lot of little pockets everywhere.”

Angela Barrett “Right. And I know that there’s always a big art. Well, it’s kind of like, I guess the Arts and Crafts festival, but it’s mainly some of your, artists down there. And I think that is in Cotton Town, and it’s they usually have that at least once a year.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann Yeah. They had.

Angela Barrett Always been fine.

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “There had their art crawl. They also have a one in Melrose High. So you got into kind of historic neighborhoods. It play a big role and it’s fun because you stroll around the neighborhood and you get to see some really unique art, and there’s there’s jewelry making. There’s a topiary guy there. And, but some really cool, boards.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “The this lady here in town makes that, she gets some unique pieces of wood from around the southeast, makes these beautiful charcuterie boards, which we use for different things. Not just charcuterie, but they’re just all the handcraft stuff just gets you so excited. And then, of course, Soda City can’t forget it. There’s always art down here, especially pottery and other.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So, you know, there’s a lot of opportunity for people to grasp local art. We just got to keep promoting it, lifting it up.”

Angela Barrett “Right? Right. And and speaking of so the city, I love all the stuff. And I know you’ve had a hand in it, even to the lights. You know that. Now on Main Street and you’re so city and, you know, just the, I don’t know, the, bringing or upcoming or how how you would say that, of how Main Street is.”

Angela Barrett It’s pretty cool. Now.

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Oh, I think, I think I was so to say city. You know, Emil started that, on Whaley Street with like, ten vendors, and now it’s, you know, 150 to 200 vendors. And what’s exciting is, is how many people I meet. And so to city that are from the city or don’t really have a connection to the city, and they’ve heard about this and they come here and they’ve been exposed to Colombia and they’re like, well, you know, never would have thought about coming to Colombia or stopping by on my way to the beach or on my way to Florida.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Now it’s become a ritual for us to stop here and spend the night. And we, we love. So to city, you know, we bath all over the place in the music there. Like, there’s so much going on in this town. And it’s it’s things that we did realize. And the hospitality, I think, is what really get people excited about our community is we got a lot of compliments this weekend, not only from, you know, folks who were here visiting for game day, but there also is military graduation this weekend.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So and all these families in and they they could not stop asking about the fact that this community not only was so embracing, everybody was nice. People like, oh, you should go try this or you should go see this. You need to do this. It just made us feel excited about being here and we want to come back on this.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So, you know, I think it’s a testimony to who we are in the Midlands. I think we’ve been the best kept secret South Carolina for so long. That’s now the people are starting to realize the value of the Midlands and what we have to offer.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. As a real estate agent, you know how it pays the bills anyway, it’s not this, but the I tell all of that out-of-state clients as they are not going to believe we really are nice people. I mean, genuinely take the clothes off our back and help you. Whatever you need. You see you in a couple months.”

Angela Barrett “I should have had time to settle in there. You are kidding. And y’all love hugs a lot. Yes, we do, I think we really do.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And you know what I always tell people? Yeah, you steal this line. Just give me credit for it. But I always tell people nobody retires up north, so why even start your career there? Started here. I tell my young people that I’ll time.”

Angela Barrett “That’s right, that’s right, I love it. It’s so, tell me about this forbidden bourbon.”

Angela Barrett “I read somewhere that you had, co-founding or whatever, this forbidden bourbon. And she was the first female. Or it how do they call it the mass lavender distiller? Yeah. I was like, well, I love it, but it’s an art. That’s an art form, by the way.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Oh, it is very much an art form. Very, hands on, very exciting. Now there’s some friends of mine and I got together. We really wanted to do, a spirits company, and obviously, bourbon is the only American spirit. Had this idea of using white corn. And winter white wheat is ingredient. And didn’t know that there it really.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “I’m not sure that there’s another bourbon out there. Uses white corn. But we, you know, we first started, you know, trying to use silver Queen and it didn’t work, you know, as a nod to South Carolina. It was too sweet. So we had to get, just a regular white corn strand. But, I read an article about Marianne in her career, and she was in intern at Brown-Forman.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Ended up becoming their master to blender, like 29. And she left there to be a star castle and key, which is old Arnold Taylor, distiller, reached with two other folks and I reached out to her. I said, I hey, I have this idea. And she goes, well, we’re taking all contracts on our clients. You know how much you want to do something?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And we said, yeah. And after about 14 variations, we came to the agreement of a project we like, and we like what we had so much sip. Marianne was actually leaving, Castle and in to try a couple other ventures in. We said, hey, you know, she goes, I want to stay with the brand. I said, we want to stay the brand.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So she came in and, stayed with us. And as a partner and equity partner, and she’s just doing an incredible job, with the product. And we do the spin out of here. And, you know, it takes a long time in the bourbon industry, you know, working on this nine years. So, got a lot of, juice and barrels, I hope, watching it, mature.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And she, she’s like, artisan Julien. She’ll tell us when it’s ready to be served. So we wait. We wait. But it’s been fun and it’s been a great project. And, you know, having a product where we were able to just come up with, we got a Grammy nominated designer who helped us design, handcrafted bottle custom made for us, and the labeling and the in the time and the effort nearby put in the fact that we use full quality grains over feed quality grains, just these different nuances.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Mary and I had a lot of thought of old distilling tricks, but using new products and, you know, different strains of yeast, it really produced a unique blend. And so, yeah, we’re real happy with this fight.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. The and I brought that up because, yeah, I know your world of art and you are big into the arts, but I thought, well, that is kind of an art form. But I know he’s not physically making it, but it is an art form. And it takes, a lot of patience, I think, on your side and her side.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Well, there was a lot there was a lot of creativity, a lot of people putting ideas together to get to where we were. So, you know, that that that was the important part. And it it really is an art. I mean, for someone to have the talent to be able to, to know when it’s time and how to blend.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, our small batch is about 48 barrels blended together, and, and create striking that balance in the knowing on a single barrel which one it actually do you release as a single barrel because, you know, you have to blend the others. And so having that, that magic tongue and that sense of smell and you really use in your sets is and I’ve learned a lot over the last few years about that.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And it I have so much respect for folks who have that talent. You know, and are able to do it because not everybody can do it. And the fact that she’s the first female master distiller in Kentucky is, you know, says a lot. You know, I mean, until 1974, she couldn’t even have sold that business, which is interesting.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Yeah. You know, so, well, there are there’s a lot of things out of that make you smile.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I loved it. The part about the first female master distiller yet. Distiller? Yes. Now you have a podcast of your own, called Around Town. I enjoy listening to that. And, you do that every other week, right?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann We did. We did.

Angela Barrett “It. Is that in line with, your spotlights as well? The do you highlight, this is or that different or, you know, they’re they’re a little gem.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We we try to use the different avenues to highlight, you know, very different folks in, in the podcast really started is because it is always campaign campaigning and, and it was different than campaigning before. I just met so many incredible people. And, and one of the things that that I learned from talking to a lot of people is, is that Columbia’s just such a hit, hit gem, and now we’d never really market ourselves.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, when people are at Columbia, they just assume we’re a college town and that’s all we have to offer. They really don’t understand what we have. And so my goal was always to highlight people from our community and their unique story, its nonprofit or their business or, you know, the things that they’ve done in the community. They are somebody who, like the Boy Foundation had in this Susan Boyd on there, talking about why her family decided to set up this foundation and donate 6 to $7 million a year to projects and enhance our community.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “People really gravitated towards that. And I’ve had a lot of people set up a newcomer and I’ll listen your podcast. That’s where I learned about where all these restaurants are and, you know, learned about different programs, things I didn’t even know about. So really for us, it was trying to highlight, the folks in our community that we use our spotlight either hire, you know, highlight businesses that we also do on highlighting employees.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We we think it’s a great idea for people to get to know the people behind the seat, and the setting to make things happen.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good idea, good idea. I might steal it. Doing a certainly appreciate, you coming on today? My final question is, what’s next for the city of Columbia? What you got? What? What you got up your sleeve?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Oh, well, yeah, we have a lot of things really focused. Excited about Riverside Tennis Shop. I think that’s for us is a priority. And we’ve got a couple projects that will really help us tie it in. And, you know, I think our goal is to finish a lot of projects that have been, you know, going on for decades.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And and they’re very important because they’re all connected pieces. And today we hear a lot from folks about connectivity and walkability and downtown living. So that’s where our focus is. And, you know, the other one is is really creating more homeownership opportunities, but also housing. We need about 16,000 units over the next decade. So what can we do to help move that faster and make sure that we’ve got, you know, great properties, affordable, attainable properties in every level across our community so that we can keep, a diverse community, especially in our downtown.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “I mean, I think it’s important we’ve seen some other cities that have struggled with that, and it got too late and a lot of their workforce and other folks might come in, and it’s detrimental to the small businesses. We want to make sure we’re thinking ahead and not reacting, but actually being proactive.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah. Well, I certainly enjoy, again, your podcast and, pretty much anything that you have a hand in, it is great to watch, it come to fruition. And, I appreciate you being on today.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Well, I appreciate it. You know, it’s great to work with a great team and have a lot of people, you know, pulling in, I think Columbia, you know, there’s the city itself and the Midlands itself and has gotten out of it’s gotta be your stage. Well, reality we are. You know everybody kept comparing nasty, Charleston and Greenville and they all want to be the one of that is I want to be Columbia, South Carolina.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann I want to be the Midlands. And I think we ought to just keep waving the flag and being proud.

Angela Barrett “Yeah, I think you’re doing a great job of that. That. Well thanks again. Thank you.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Thank you so much for having us. And, this was fun.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, it was.”