Welcome back to season 3 of My Mayor, the Catalyst series that helps you get to know the person behind the policy. We sat down with each candidate and asked them each the same five questions, with a few follow up questions sprinkled in. For Episode 3, we asked:
- What do you collect?
- What’s something you’ve changed your mind about because of a conversation with someone who disagreed with you?
- How do you express your creativity?
- What’s a small moment in your life that ended up having a much bigger impact than you ever expected?
- What’s something that never fails to make you smile?
JOE HAMILTON
We’re back. “My Mayor,” episode three, and joining me is councilperson and mayoral candidate Brandi Gabbard. Good to see you again.
BRANDI GABBARD
Good to see you, Joe.
JOE HAMILTON
All right, we’ve got five more questions for you to help voters get to know you better. Question one — what do you collect?
BRANDI GABBARD
What do I collect? Well, I’m a little bit of a minimalist, if I’m being quite honest. I don’t collect a lot of stuff. Probably growing up, we didn’t have a lot of stuff, so I think that’s probably part of it. But I will say — my son is 15 now, and I still have every piece of artwork that he brought home when he was growing up, like in elementary and even preschool. We have it all. It’s in a nice bin, and it’s protected. And that, I would say, is probably my collection that is most important to me.
JOE HAMILTON
Nice. That’s a good one. You mentioned growing up without a lot. And you also said that you’re sort of a minimalist. Can you talk about how either one played into the other — or, as you’ve come to a place where you have more means, why you’ve chosen to stay a minimalist?
BRANDI GABBARD
Well, I think to me, it’s just stuff at the end of the day, right? I’ve been pretty fortunate — through business and just working my tail off every single day — to certainly have a lot more than I was born with. But I think it’s important to always remember that life is not about a collection of stuff. It’s about a collection of memories. And so when we get the opportunity to invest or spend money in something, it’s more like travel, or a nice dinner with friends, and things that kind of build your life and your collection of those memories, and end up meaning more to you than stuff. I’m not much for consumerism. Of course, I’m a woman — I do like shoes and things like that. But at the same time, I’ve never been a designer kind of person. I think that’s just not how I grew up. There were times when we had to go buy the back-to-school clothes at the Goodwill in the neighboring town. So I’m so fortunate for everything that I do have, and I’ve never let that get away from me. And it’s not about stuff — it’s about what you do, and whether you’re giving back. We invest in a lot of organizations and things like that, and that’s really where I choose to spend my hard-earned dollars.
JOE HAMILTON
Makes a lot of sense. I like shoes, too.
BRANDI GABBARD
Yeah, I know. Shoes are a tricky thing, I’ve gotta say.
JOE HAMILTON
Universal.
JOE HAMILTON
What’s something you’ve changed your mind about because of a conversation with someone who’s disagreed with you?
BRANDI GABBARD
So, the first thing that jumps to mind for me is really my stance on the historic gas plant site. I think that’s probably been the greatest turn of a policy decision that has happened for me over the last four or five years. And really, it started to take place after the hurricanes of 2024, because everything started to fall apart with the Rays and Hines deal. And as everyone knows — and I don’t shy away from it — I was very supportive of that deal. I was very supportive of what I felt were the economic development opportunities that came from having the Rays and baseball as an economic anchor, and then all of that redevelopment that was going to happen around that site to turn asphalt into economic opportunity. So I was very committed to that deal then. And then it fell apart. We had two hurricanes. Our economy has changed dramatically over the last couple of years. Affordability has continued to be diminished in our community. And then, when you look at opportunity, you have to look at it as a whole picture. So when I look at that land now — knowing better, you do better — I think we have such a unique opportunity to create an economic driver and an economic catalyst from that property, that for me it has no longer made sense for us to just sell it to the highest bidder. But really to have a comprehensive plan around what that site could be — not only for current residents but for future residents — realizing that that anchor of baseball is less likely to be the anchor for the next 20 or 30 years. And so that really came from deep conversation with residents who, quite frankly, did not agree with me whenever we were doing the Rays and Hines deal in 2023, 2024. And so I appreciate that they were willing to continue to have conversation, because it really has reframed the way that I look at that site. And what I believe is the responsibility of leadership is to make sure we’re being the best fiscal stewards for long into the future. So I would say that’s probably the one thing that has changed the most for me, and that was really led by residents who were very firm in how they felt, and were able to move me to the other side.
JOE HAMILTON
So can we parse out the specific elements of this planning process? Obviously the previous developers all came with what we would call comprehensive plans — but they were the developers’ plans, not necessarily the city’s plans, and so we were choosing amongst them. So what do you see coming out the other side of that — as far as whether it’s a single developer, or different developers, or the city managing it? Or is it really just about prioritizing what’s best for the city and letting developers fit that mold instead?
BRANDI GABBARD
Absolutely, I agree. Because I’ve been there for so long, I have seen there have been many different reiterations of plans, of RFPs, of community conversations to inform those. Where we are right now is that we are taking all of that information and kind of consolidating it. But what those next steps will be in this planning exercise — and this is the one that I have been championing with the Urban Land Institute — is that this next phase would bring stakeholders and residents from across the city, but also those directly impacted by the site: the neighboring businesses, the neighborhoods around the area, the gas plant descendants — bringing them to the table to really prioritize. People talk about economic opportunity. Well, what does economic opportunity mean to the stakeholders? What does it mean, and what are those deliverables? What are those metrics that we will judge our work on to see if we’ve really brought that economic prosperity? When we talk about housing on the site, what do residents really want housing to look like? Do they want it to look like low income, mixed income? What is the right mix of types of units? I think those are all questions that we really need to have informed by our residents, who will ultimately be left with the success or the failure of this next opportunity. And so I don’t believe that we have all the answers to those questions, because I don’t think we’ve dug in the way that we’ve wanted to. I think a lot of the studies in the past either — as your point — were driven by developers, or they were driven by the city looking for an outcome. And I think that you can really go into it in a very genuine and organic way, with no preconceived notions of what you as leaders want the outcome to be. And that way, whatever you get back from the community is much more intentional, it is much more community driven. And then from there, we create our rubric of what we want to see in this development. And we will answer the question: should we really be selling the land at all? Because that’s a question that we’ve never even really asked ourselves.
JOE HAMILTON
And the alternative being long-term land leases, where the businesses can—
BRANDI GABBARD
Long-term land leases — that could run both ways: building infrastructure and then parceling it out for individual city development needs. And again, I don’t have all those answers, because we haven’t completed that exercise. So I’m really looking forward to continuing to champion that — continuing to bring it in for a landing and having that be the guiding force that really moves us forward for the next generation.
JOE HAMILTON
Got it. So going into that, you’d consider yourself pretty blank-slate as far as sell it, lease it, one developer, multiple developers. Really, you believe the outcome will inform the best decision of that process.
BRANDI GABBARD
Absolutely. Yeah, I’m pretty agnostic to what that actual outcome ends up being, because I want to hear from the residents first — what they believe. And again, that particular study that we’ve put forward is outside of individual developer influence, and I think that’s really important to a more pure process.
JOE HAMILTON
Got it. Well, changing gears — for question number three: how do you express your creativity?
BRANDI GABBARD
My creativity. Well, I’m a pretty creative person, I think — maybe in some more unique ways. I went to school for musical theater. I grew up a theater kid. So I certainly have that side of my background. I left that world, obviously, went into the professional world, went into real estate. So I probably carry a little bit of that with me. And I think that — especially in policy creation — it’s been a really unique opportunity, living in a city like St. Petersburg that is so special, to be able to do research on initiatives, on solutions that have happened in other places, and then really take them and apply them and make them very St. Pete. And I think that’s a creativity that I bring, because I’m a pretty open-minded person. I think anyone who is in a role of leadership — in business or in the public eye — you think you’ve got good ideas, right? Or else you wouldn’t be putting yourself forward. But I think it’s important to also be humble, and be able to take other ideas and other solutions and kind of create what you think is special for the people that you represent. And I think that’s when my creativity shines — because it’s not just my way or no way, like a lot of people can sometimes get stuck in. It’s really: here’s an idea, here’s a problem or a challenge that I see, we’ve brought all of this information to the table, now how do we create something that’s so uniquely St. Pete that it’s going to stand the test of time? And that’s where I like to bring my creative, open-minded, kind of common-sense mentality to the job.
JOE HAMILTON
What’s a small moment in your life that ended up having a much bigger impact than you ever expected?
BRANDI GABBARD
Well, I would certainly say moving to St. Petersburg, right? I was 27 years old. I was working for a company in Indiana — I had a great job out of Indianapolis. And that job, unfortunately, the company had decided to take a different turn with, and I was given some other opportunity. And moving to St. Petersburg was kind of a leap of faith. You just never know, especially when you’re in your 20s and you’re taking that big jump — how is this going to work out? Am I going to be able to make a life there? I’m going away from my family. My grandparents were here, luckily, in Clearwater. But other than that, my husband and I kind of just took that leap of faith, and I think it worked out pretty well. 23 years later, I’ve built a business. My husband has a fantastic career here that he’s very proud of. I’ve been able to serve our city for almost a decade. We’re raising our son here — he is a native. And I think that sometimes in life, you’re given an opportunity, and it may not, at that point in time, seem like it’s going to really impact every single thing that happens to you throughout the next 20-plus years. And then you look back on it with hindsight and you go, “I’m so glad I made that decision. I’m so glad that opportunity presented itself, and that I was brave enough to jump for it.” Right? And so really, that opportunity to move here to this beautiful city and create a life here — it was a game changer for me. And I often say my prayers and say thank you for that, because had that not happened, I don’t know that I would have the big, beautiful life that I have now. Obviously, my husband and I would have made a great life wherever we ended up, but St. Pete has just been really special to us, and I don’t know that it would look the same as it does here in our beautiful city.
JOE HAMILTON
Nice. Final question — what’s something that never fails to make you smile?
BRANDI GABBARD
Well, I would say being in nature. That’s probably right at the top. We talk about St. Petersburg and our beautiful waterfront, but even when we go on vacations — even if we go to a city — we look to seek out parks, or spend time in coastal cities along their waterfront, do some sort of nature-based activity. Or we like to go to the mountains for vacations, because I love nature. When I’m in nature, I feel at peace. I feel happy. I think that’s something that I share with my husband, and my son certainly has grown up with that kind of respect for nature. And so it really just fills your soul, and you can’t help but be relaxed, be calm, be at one with our environment, with our world, and appreciate what you have. And so I would say when I’m outside of a building, in nature — enjoying beauty, enjoying flowers, enjoying gardens, mountains, whatever it might be — that is always going to bring a smile to my face.
JOE HAMILTON
Awesome. Wonderful. Well, I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to join us again. I think we’ve got one more episode before the primary, so until then, enjoy the campaign trail.
BRANDI GABBARD
Thank you.
JOE HAMILTON
Councilmember Brandi Gabbard.
BRANDI GABBARD
I appreciate it. Have a great day, Joe.