Gen Z’s Reality Check: Leadership and the Affordability in PG County"

(upbeat music) Welcome back to another episode of All Politics is Local. With me, your host, Tamar Davis Brown. I am so excited today because we are recording this podcast live and we have with us our next generation. And so we are passing the mic to the next generation. And so we appreciate you being here with us today. Live in studio or four young adults who are from District 9. And they're gonna be talking about their perspective of life and living in Prince George's County. So how we're gonna start this podcast today, this episode today is we're gonna have them to do an introduction but through a vibe check. So we're gonna ask each of our guests today in studio to give us their name, where they, any status life where they work or go to school. And then ask this question part of the vibe check, which is how are you feeling? What's going on? What are you thinking about? What's important to you? And that can be an award, it can be in a phrase. And you can tell what you may be excited about or want to hear about. So we're gonna start on the end. And let's go with LeBon. - All right, good morning. My name is Juan. I'm a senior at Goin Park High School. Excited, I wanna see the different perspectives of Gen.C. in politics as well. - Good morning. My name is Autumn. I'm from Clinton, Maryland and a recent graduate of the University of Maryland, a current law student at American University. And I'm also excited. You took my word because I love hearing from other people. Excellent. - Excellent. - Good morning. My name is Summer. I'm a freshman business marketing major studying at Howard University. But just excited to see what the next semester brings for me. - Good morning. My name is Ian. I'm the master of student of public policy at the University of Maryland. I look at Brandy Y. I'm also excited to see everyone's perspectives. - Excellent, excellent. So the word today seems to be excited and excited. So I'm also excited. Again, when we established this podcast, we wanted to actually use it to reach the next generation of voters and those people who will be making decision and being in leadership. So this is our first opportunity. Again, this is our first opportunity to have a live podcast, but also our first opportunity to hear from the next generation. And so we're gonna jump right into some statistics and go into our first question that deals with what does this generation really want, the older generation to know? So Gen Z are those who are born between 1997 and 2012. And millennials are born between 1981 and 1996. They have different perspectives of the world and those that are older in older generations such as Gen X, the silent generation, or the baby boomers. Over the years, especially emerging from the pandemic, we've heard from this generation and their perspectives on work, the value of higher education, the climate crisis, foreign policy, mental health, and many other topics. So the question to our live guest today, our in-studio guest today are, what topic do you wish the older generation would understand and why? Who wants to jump in first? - I'm gonna go first. A topic I do wish older generations will understand is the constant change. Like overall, just change in technology, how education works, because overall, of course, the living, obviously, that's changing and wages are changing and they don't match what the cost of living is. But technical and logical developments are also changing. And those affect Gen Z mainly because the pandemic really put Gen Z socially apart and social media has taken a huge role in connecting others and overall, just staying connected to friends and people. And so I feel understanding the concept of constant change is gonna help just millennials understand that, okay, this isn't always gonna stay the same. And that regards to education because getting a degree isn't necessarily getting a job as well. Even though entry level positions also require a degree, it doesn't mean that you're still gonna get the job and constant change is what I believe. - Okay. Who wants to jump in next? On what topic do you wish the older generation would understand and why? - I can jump in. - Okay. - Well, I love the title of the show, All Politics is Local. I've seen a lot of my friends run for office recently who are younger and some of the older generation, I think that they're too ready or that they don't know enough. I wish more older community members understood that lived experience is experienced too. - Okay. - Excellent. - Excellent. - Who else wants to jump in? - I can also jump in. - Okay. - Question. I would definitely like, to piggyback off of everything else that has been said, definitely the understanding of constant change, but also just, I don't know, I mean, like, I think I'm gonna hold off. - You're gonna hold off? Okay, we'll come back to you. And you've got something that you want the older generation to know and understand and why? - What they want the older generation to understand is like, like has changed a lot progress to law since, they're very younger. So it's a whole new, different world of mutual. There's like, AI is a big thing now, which AI was the thing like four years ago. So that's changing every day. Like, this would be a lot harder to get a job because AI is taking over. It was such an entry level position as hard to get and for younger people, it's like finding a good job and to make money for the thing. - Right. Okay, very good. - Yeah. - You're ready. You're ready, summer. - Okay, summer's ready. - So I would definitely say like, more so on the fact of our struggle, like, not like, our struggle got the same as the past struggle that there were. Like, there are different challenges and everything is like, at least in this generation, or at least in my class, it's definitely one of the baby groups who got everything's a lot more competitive than it might have been in the past. And with that constant change, everything is constant change and become more competitive. So just to really give us that grace and understanding, it's just not the same other ones. - Okay. - Very good, very good. All right, so the next question that we're gonna jump into has to deal with affordability. So that's been a very popular buzzword of late. So let's, let me go over some statistics first, but according to Deloitte's 2025 survey of Gen Z and millennials, 39% of Gen Z and 42% of millennials say the cost of living is among the top concerns. That number has grown over time since 2022. In Prince George's County and specifically in District 9, by show of hands, who would you say that affordability is a top concern? - Just by show of hands. - Okay, so it's unanimous. All right, well, for all of you, since you've all raised your hand, can you explain why you are concerned about the cost of living and how it affects your outlook on living in Prince George's County in the future? So let me repeat that. Can you explain why you're concerned about the effects that your outlook, I guess it is, on living in Prince George's County in the future because of affordability. Ian, let's start with you. - So I'm like it's starting, affordability is a lot of apartments cost like $2,000 for one month of rent, which is way too much for most people to afford. Also, like houses are $500,000, just by a brand starter home, which is like a lower level entry home. So that's hard for a lot of families to be able to afford and to even pay for. So it's gonna be a big problem in the future. Like once you get married, have to, it's okay. - I could jump in. I definitely say I agree, because with it also being, like the job market is very competitive, and if you don't have a job that gives you a nice salary, it can definitely be a problem in the future when it comes to paying for in-house. or having to be able to afford just in the department that could be range up to starting at $3,000 a month. That could definitely be a problem in the future. If you don't have like a stable income or you don't have anyone else to depend on, that can definitely be a problem. - Okay. Well, you too. - I think you're jumping. - Okay, yes. - That's a thing about your earlier answer about how difficult it is to get jobs and then that answer about how basically how difficult it is to support yourself in order to live. I think a lot about my law school loans that I'll have and what I'm gonna do, how long I'm gonna have to live at home while I love my mom. I look for it to be a choice instead of, this is what my generation has to do. And it's interesting hearing stories about how my parents and their friends got housed so early with jobs that paid much less. - Right, right, right. - I'm gonna add on to that because when we talk about student loans as well, and the fact that student aid has become, well, it has decreased overall. It's really affecting whenever you decide to go to college and it really affects how Gen Z think of college as is it a way to get a secure job like it used to be or is it something that you need and it's really a different perspective from everyone. But it shows that affordability isn't the same as it used to be. - So I think affordability is, as the unanimously raised their hand about that issue, is still an issue that we're gonna have to deal with as potential local leaders in Prince George's County. So I'm taking copious notes here and speaking of leaders and leadership in Prince George's County, the final topic that we're gonna be dealing with is local leadership and your trust in local leadership. And so another statistic that we want to highlight is 16% of Gen Z and 17% of millennials say that political instability is a top concern. Obviously, the federal government has had its challenges in 2025. But do you have faith in local leadership in Prince George's County to meet your needs and enhance your quality of life and explain why or why not? Who wants to start us off on that question? Again, it's stilling with trust in local leadership. If you have faith in your local leadership, to meet your needs and enhance your quality of life, yes or no, and what do you think that? - I can start us off. I definitely have a lot of faith in, especially our Prince George County, Maryland leaders. I feel like they listen to our needs. They give a lot of opportunities to the youth within the small of the student, within small, they give a lot of opportunities to give us to educate us to learn more about not only just Prince George County and our local leaders give us leadership opportunities, but also just learn more about our government. Now we are aware of what's going on within. Now it's our community that can stay to Maryland and over-roger the USA. So I definitely don't have a lot of faith. - Okay. - Yeah. - I'm coming to mix bad. So like some of the leaders, I think I do have faith in other leaders. I feel like they've been there for a long time. So they're kind of behind the times, all of the certain issues. And they're, I guess they've been there for a long time. So like I feel like we need a little bit, we need younger leaders to show, so like, I guess how to say this. So to be the voice of like the younger generation and of having the same old politicians. - Yeah, too. Excellent, excellent. Anybody else try to jump in? - I'll just piggyback off what Ian said. Is that, I mean, overall, more local leaders will obviously be chosen. And younger leaders will always take position as well. And I'm honestly looking forward to that. And seeing how young leaders are voicing what other people want to say as well. - Okay. - And then the question was about trust. So I trust some, maybe not, I think that I worry a lot about is, there's nothing wrong with having big aspirations. But why are you taking the role that you ran for? Is it because you like name recognition for the next time? Or is it because you really want to help the community? - Okay, that is definitely a fair, fair assessment. Before we actually conclude, are there any other like pressing issues? I know we talked about just four components. We talked about affordability. We talked about what you want the next generation to know. And then we talked about trusted local leadership. But is there anything burning on your heart that you want our listeners to know from your perspective as a gender that we should come away with and that we should really take the heart and maybe help to help your generation, whether it's in the affordability, whether it's any of these things. What is it that you want us to know and how we can help make your future brighter and better? Anyone want to jump in? Think about it a little bit more. Okay, all right. Well, let's think about it a little bit more. I just want to thank our studio for allowing us to have this podcast live today and thank our guests. Studio guests for coming in today on all politics is local. This has been great. I love being around these young people. They give me energy. They give me thoughts about what I need to do as a candidate for District 9 County Council and how I can help enhance and improve their quality of life. So I've mentioned what I plan to do, which is to be a listener to hear exactly what you're saying and be able to appropriate and put into action as a candidate that is someone who is aspiring to be a local leader, to hear your voice, to make sure that you are heard. So we've had a little bit of time. Anybody want to, is there one last pressing thing that we didn't cover or that I may have missed? We had a lot of conversations before we went live, but are there, is there anything else that's pressing on your heart? Maybe when it comes to, like, using the question back to our leaders, 'cause I do have a lot of basic ideas and there's a lot of opportunities out there for the young audience, but you have to look. That's like how life is. I definitely say that we could use the media a little bit more like Instagram, where the younger generation is. Just get the word out there for those opportunities. So our youth is a team. - So when you say that, you mean to help your generation understand what's going on, the issues you use, the social media, use that more often? - Okay, I got you, understand. Anybody else? - Okay, you don't have, I'm not gonna force you. (laughs) - So once again, we want to thank each of our guests and joining me today, it's always great to hear from the next generation and understanding their perspectives and how leaders can lead their expectations and want to thank our studio for allowing us to record live and then thank you, the listening audience for joining us. So please be sure to join us again on another episode of all politics is local with me, your host, Tamara K. Descredits.