YouSaid · the spoken record

Corey Johnson

lines on the record: 101
first: 2020-02-17
most recent: 2020-02-17
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Right, exactly. On top of more. So they're coming here anywhere. And, you know, one of the arguments I had with Dave Faber on CNBC, it was interesting, is people called me a socialist. I'm like, you don't need to give them money to come to New York. You might need to give them money to come to Kansas City, or you might need some city in Ohio that really needs economic development. But why should New York pay anybody to come to a city if they want to be in New York, they want to hang out here, this is New York, they don't have to pay for it. And it was really interesting because I got called a socialist. I'm like, I'm saying don't give rich people subsidies. Don't do corporate giveaways.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“me way out in front of this yeah absolutely so let's get to the idea the area you you represent times square hudson square and house kitchen this is an area that times just wrote a story about which is about tech becoming a big boon there now you all have the media industry of the financial industry and creative broadway and things like that art it's always been said though it's going to be silicon alley it's going to do it and it never has really it sort of reached there and then never has gotten you don't have you know we'll get to amazon in a minute but you have big concentrations for google they have the chelsea area you've got amazon coming here anyway without having to pay the subsidies that they were supposed to get but they didn't need them apparently because they're coming in quite strong”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I met with them. I met with the mayor's office here. I met with Transport for London. And they said to me, you guys are way behind the curve. You need to be way out in front of this. Yeah.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Six weeks before it goes into effect, it will be in paneled. But before the implementation date on January 1st, 2021, and that six-person board will determine what the cost is, where the gantries are and the sensors are, what the exemptions are on income for people with disabilities. And so even though it's going to go into effect, it was set up in such a way.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, this is the crazy thing, Kara. The panel that was set up to determine that what the price is, what the exemptions are if you're a low-income person or someone with a disability, they haven't determined any of that. So the legislation, the state legislature enacted said that a six-member panel will be in paneled in November of 2020 this year”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the MTA, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs the subways and the buses and Long Island Railroad and Metro North and the Tribal Bridge Tunnel Authority, I call it Frankenstein's Monster of Transit Subsidiaries. It was created in the late 1960s when Governor Rockefeller took the subways and buses away from Mayor Lindsay. And we've been living under this dysfunctional model ever since. The MTA a month and a half ago voted on their largest capital plan ever, which is $51 billion. So a $51 billion capital plan to invest into the subways and the buses. And a huge chunk of that money, almost $15 billion out of the $51 billion, is going to come from congestion pricing. And so we are going to implement congestion pricing here in New York City, just like London has. It's going to go into effect on January 1st of next year. January 1st, 2021.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that's exciting and interesting and something that hopefully other cities that are smaller than New York City can test first and see what works. And then that would be a roadmap for the largest city in the United States of America. And hopefully that this master plan bill that we just talked about, once it goes into effect and we start reshaping our city streets and reorienting our city streets, they will be rebuilt in a way that actually makes it safer for potentially automated cars and the number of people that would be using them and would be affected who are walking the streets. The highest number of people in New York City are pedestrians. So how do you make the street safer for pedestrians? Automated cars may be the best way to actually do that because of the sensors and the cameras on them. But I don't think we as a city have planned for anything like that. Just getting this bill over the”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's not good for the environment. So, when you think about what a city is, I'm going to get off transportation and get to other things. But when you think about what a city is, autonomous cars really where it's going, this idea of that. Have you all thought of that into your plans? Because that's, you know, 20 years time. You know, Elon Musk was just talking about talking Teslas the other day that would talk to you. Excuse me, pedestrian, get out of my way. I'm going to move. How do you look at the idea of autonomous cars, which can be more efficient, which don't clog necessarily, although there'll be lots of them. But they move in a very organized way because they're algorithmically based.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Uber just announced two months ago here in Lower Manhattan where we're filming where we're taping this podcast that they now are running Uber helicopters.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the privatization. Exactly. Exactly. You know, it's the same thing around public school. It's the idea that everything should be privatized and then they'll recoup. Now, they may be able to do it better by doing bus routes that are popular because there's some of those going on in China. There's all kinds of experiments going around the privatization of transportation. And I was telling you, you didn't know about this, but Uber had announced a drone, a people drone, that would carry people from the tops of skyscrapers. And then you go down in the elevator. I know you're making space. Weird. It's bizarre. It's interesting. It would make a trip from Brooklyn to here so quick, like seconds.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Workers, especially in places where the yellow and green taxis don't go to and where the subway service is really bad. But it is not the solution to actually a long-term solution for transit in New York City, partially because their economic model is not sustainable.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And safety, but there are too many of them. So right now, I believe the latest number is there are 160,400 vehicles in New York City that are licensed. And in 2018, so about a year and a half ago, in my first six months of speaker, we became the only city in the United States of America to pass a bill capping the number of licenses. So now we are not giving out any new 4-hire vehicle licenses to Uber and Dolft because we said there are too many. You flooded the market, you saturated the market, the streets are clogged and jammed, and we need to figure out a better way to grow. And it became a real flashpoint. These companies, of course, were very, very much against it, spent millions of dollars in advertising opposing the work that we did at the council. And I'm proud that we got it done. I kind of feel like we should have done it two or three years earlier before it exploded in the way that it did. They are a good option for New York.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Taxi industry, which actually still is an important thing in New York City. And, you know, there are just too many of them.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Look, I think that part of the reason why Uber was Uber successful in New York City is because for so long the government controlled and regulated yellow taxi cartel basically wasn't able to Grow and expand and meet the needs of New Yorkers in the way that New Yorkers expected. And so when this new product came along, Uber and Lyft and these four hired vehicle companies, it became very, very popular to have it more on demand for many New Yorkers, especially people of color and not be discriminated against because you're hiring it through your app. So you're not being refused service. And it showed that there was a lot of progress that wasn't being made amongst the yellow taxis in New York City. So they were really a market disruptor in many ways. But I think the real mistake that we in government made was that they were able to explode without a smart level of regulation in place to have them expand but not explode in a sense where it would overwhelm the streets of New York City, destabilize more cars, destabilize the”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Entire city. So instead of having this haphazard, non systemic way of planning our streets, we are now going to finally have a master plan-like plan that will get this done. So this mayor won't do it. He'll put the plan together. The next mayor is going to actually have to execute the plan.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So the $1.7 billion plan that we passed the Mester Street's plan, only 3% of that money actually goes towards bike lanes. The other, the 97% of it is actually going towards bus lanes and totally changing street corners and putting in pedestrian islands and pedestrianization. That's what most of the money goes towards. And the plan goes into effect at the end of 2021 and then it becomes a five-year plan. And so in December of 2021, over the next two years, the Department of Transportation's going to have to put that five-year plan together. In December of 2021, it goes into effect. And then they have five years to actually build all the things that I just meant 250 miles of protected bike lanes, 150 miles of protected bus lanes, a million square feet of pedestrianization, safe intersections, all of that. And then they'll have to do basically two five-year plans to cover the...”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“this big street Yeah. Yeah. So bike lanes are the answer, or specific lanes. Then it becomes good bike lanes becomes a very delightful thing. And there's lots of, I'll teach you tricks about scooter riding because I ride them all the time. You and Elon Musk thinks they're undignified. That's his issue with them. I think not. I'm worried about an city as busy as this. Yes, New York, it may be challenging. It may be challenging in the city to have those there. And because your streets are not as good shape as they need to be. So when is this going to be...”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I wiped out and face planted In the middle of this big street. And I was thinking if there was a car behind me and I face plant, I would have go out and run over.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And what do you think about Scoot Yeah, I was in Exactly, so such a mess. I was in I was in Mexico City in April for four days over my birthday and I hopped on one of the e-scooters. I wasn't wearing a helmet. And I hit a bad, like, uneven patch.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That are used. So is the mayor of Paris. And so I wrote a piece about being there and that the fight. And what do you think about security? Well, I think they get them under control after a while. I think there's an initial period of chaos, and then it actually gets under control. It's very much in control in Washington, D.C., I think, although some people don't think so. But I do. I think eventually these companies shake out, and there are very efficient ways of getting around. But the streets are terrible. You know, the streets are so bumpy, so such a mess. When they're bike lanes, I'm thrilled.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Dari bikes that are illegal but that are used. There was a bill to legalize e-bikes and e-scooters that the state legislature passed and three weeks ago the governor vetoed that bill. And so the bill would have said that scooters could be allowed not in Manhattan but in the other four boroughs. I have concerns about scooters, which is that in so-called.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“David Dinkins was present when I was a kid, and it was bad. And there were certain areas that you just didn't go into which are now high rent areas, which is interesting. So when you think about doing this, it's beyond bike lanes because you have to have a lot of ways. Mass transit. Now, scooters haven't gotten here. Now, Mary Blasio was like, no scooters ever. There was a bill to legalize.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It shows that these things actually. One of the things that's interesting to me, this particular, you know, I wrote two columns about getting rid of my cars. I don't have a car. And I use cars. That's very different. I've been having an ongoing debate with a lot of people in rural areas. I'm like, keep your trucks for now. But by the way, you're also going to get automated cars. I said, but I'm just on the cutting edge of what's happening, what's going to happen. And if I don't own it, then I don't have to think about it. And it wasn't to save money or anything. It's just like for lots of reasons, not just climate change, but that's one of the many pluses of it. It's that the cost, it's just not the way people should be getting around individually in cars. One of the issues is this systemic not being a systemic solution. So that's why it doesn't work very well. That's why it seems so haphazard and patchwork, like a lot of things, by the way. That's how cities, especially in New York, grow up. You can be in one area of the city that used to be a different area of the city that wasn't like the way it is. That's New York is to me all the time, is constant change. When I lived here,”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No one likes change. Right. But once you do something and it proves successful, then people wrap their head around it in a city of tens of thousands of individual blocks, hundreds of distinct and unique neighborhoods. And I say this in a loving way towards my fellow New Yorkers. New Yorkers are very, very, very parochial. They care about their local neighborhood and their local block. And so when you're going to tell them you're going to change it, they don't like that. But once you change it and everything's okay, it shows that these things actually.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The streets are set up in New York City is really from the bygone era of Robert Moses, who was the master builder, who really shaped the New York that we know today. And we need to move away from that and move towards a city that makes sense in this way. Mayor Bloomberg was leaving as mayor. He put in those pedestrian plazas in Times Square. And everyone said, you were going to ruin Times Square. They're wonderful.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly great though We see, we can't even have that conversation up holding another line because the subways are always in a state of emergency here. And the number one thing we need to do to, I think, get people out of cars is you have to improve mass transit. You need to improve the subways so that they actually run on time. And you need to improve the buses to speed them up. If you do those two things, I think there are a certain number of New Yorkers who would abandon their cars because it's not inexpensive or affordable to have a car in New York City. It's not fun to always try to find parking. It's expensive to park in a private lot. You get a lot of parking tickets. So if you improve mass transit, you hopefully incentivize people to give up their cars. But for folks that do need their car, some of the disability, someone who lives in a part of the city where the subways don't reach to and they need their car for a certain reason, you want to make sure that you are building this type of streets that are going to get people around safely and efficiently.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's great, except it's in terrible disrepair. Exactly. Great, though. Exactly. I was just in wonderment about it the other day. Looking at a really decrepit station, because there was leaks and dangerous, like dangerous. And I was like, but this is amazing, like what they've done here. Like, it's an astonishing, you know, we have less good transit in New York, in San Francisco. It's not bad, though, for a city, and we're building another new line that goes down to the water. But it was really, it really is amazing and depressing at the same time.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, people have tried to frame this, not me. I think some folks in the media and also people that don't like what I've been trying to do. As a war on cars, right? And it's not really that because the hope is if you improve mass transit, for folks that are listening that don't live in New York City, you know, if you visited New York City, you know we have a 24-7 subway system. That's great.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Prevented because I think it was 75% of the streets are occupied by cars. And I think it was that number. And then someone was complaining when you did, and including DeBlasio is like older people. I was like, you know what? Why do they get 75%? Like, I get it. But they were complaining over the percentage that you were taking, which was a small amount. How do you change people's minds on that? Either you have a lot of arguments or you have climate change. You've got safety. You've got, this is the way it's going to, you can't have this many cars. It can't happen, and that it doesn't meet the needs of most people who live here. And yet...”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There are three million free parking spaces. On city streets. So three million free parking spaces for 1.7 million people who own cars. And what we're trying to do is reorient how we use public space by saying, number one, we're in the middle of a climate catastrophe and we need to improve mass transit. Number two, it's a safety issue. This year, we had 30 cyclists who were killed on the streets of New York City up from the previous year when it was 10 people. So we're 300% increase, over 200 pedestrians were killed across New York City. Oslo last year had zero people killed on their streets. Oslo's not in New York City. We know that. But we also know that, as you said, cities around the world, you look at what the mayor of Paris is doing on reorienting their streets away from cars and more towards bikes and pedestrians and mass transit and buses. I just got back from Buenos Aires. I was there over Christmas and New Year's. The way they do their bus network is amazing. We need to look at what other”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And what this bill says is instead of doing it in this piecemeal way, the city's going to have to come up with every five years a master plan for city streets. And in that master plan, we're going to require the city of New York, the Department of Transportation, to build 250 miles of protected bike lanes, 150 miles of protected bus lanes, one million square feet of additional pedestrianization, pedestrian plazas, a thousand intersections with transit signal priority where buses get to move before cars to speed them up, leading intervals for pedestrians, all the things that we know work to make the city safer. There are 8.6 million people who live in New York City that doesn't count the tourists and the people that commute to work here. And out of the 8.6 million people who live here, only 1.6 million of them own a car. Right. And how much do you take off”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Explain the bill. So the bill calls for a master plan for our city streets and sidewalks. What does that mean? Right now in New York City, everything's done in a piecemeal approach. It is. If you get a bike lane, if you get a bus lane, if you get a pedestrian plaza, it's done in a way. It makes no sense.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we have one. I mean, we don't agree on everything. And, you know, I think there are still some significant things that he has to get done in his final two years. And on this bill that you're talking about, which we passed three months ago, which was my bill.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's interesting that I think of that a lot. I thought about running for mayor of San Francisco, but I just had a baby again. I can't really do that at this moment. But one of the things that's interesting about it when I was thinking about it is the way you have to think about cities is what is the new city? What is the idea of a new city? And who is going to just start to set down some? Like, what's the car? I'm going to have a carless city. We're going to make some choices which are being made in Europe. There's a lot of experimentation and really interesting stuff. For those who don't know, most demographers feel like have predicted that most people will be living in these mega cities in the next 50 years. Like there'll be a small concentration of people living outside the city. So it presents a lot of living challenges, many of which have technological issues, like how to get around transportation and such. And that's one thing you've been leading. Let's talk a little bit about the $1.7 billion for the bike lanes, for example. Let's talk about transportation and how to.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And you would think that in a place like San Francisco or a place like New York City with the immense amount of wealth that is concentrated in both cities and the really high number of entrepreneurs and creative types that on some of these issues would be able to think outside the box, we'd be able to come up with solutions and use the city as a laboratory in some ways to test some ideas to see if they work. And government's not really good at that.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's also not in some way to San Francisco. The numbers are so high in terms of income and everything in the housing that everything's going up there. And then you have the very dire situation on the street. I was just there and it's actually improved slightly, but it certainly has changed from when you were there for sure. I think you'd be shocked to see San Francisco. But at the same time, there's so much promise, the same idea, and yet there's still the income inequality is more severe than ever. The education system, the infrastructure, same issues of all big cities.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Closing Rikers Island, which I think has been a success story. So those are, you know, if you didn't live here, you would think, wow, New York's doing really well if you sat on a piece of paper. If you live here, you would think, wow, they're a very significant and serious challenges for the future of the largest city in the United States of America.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You have the most decent, we have the most segregated school system in the United States of America, New York City. And you have public housing where 450,000 New Yorkers call home that is literally crumbling before our very eyes. So the challenges are just”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People were ready for him to leave, and the 9-11 happened, and he was able to rehabilitate himself. And now we know how crazy. And so, and then I've worked with this mayor for six years, four as a member in the last two years leading the city council.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All across the country. And when I got to New York, I had been doing that for about 14 months. And I said, I don't want to be just the gay football player. I want to go do something else with my life. Right. And so I didn't end up selling my life rights. I didn't write the book. I stopped doing the speak engagements and I said, I'm going to start out on the ground floor, try to get involved in politics in New York City. And that's what I did.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I became like the gay poster child and creative artist agency became my agents and they were selling my life rides. I got a literary agent. I had a speaking agent. And all of a sudden I went from growing up in public housing in this 3,000 person town to traveling the HRC dinner circuit, human rights campaign dinner circuit.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But stress nobody told these stories that. Now everyone's gay. Now everyone's gay. Yes. Right. Yeah. There's so many gay stories and everything else, but there weren't. I remember that story. It was gripping.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, when I had came out and I got a speaking agent, I flew 100,000 miles. That I met you telling my story from St. Louis to Miami.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I have to see it. It's long. I could pick a Sunday to go see That's how I feel when I came here. I immediately felt beckoned and I connected with the energy, the frenetic energy of New York City. And so I wanted to live here. So I moved here at 19, called at my home, got involved in local politics, was appointed to my local community board, which is the most grassroots level of government here in New York City. I was 23 years old, worked my way up the board, became the chair at 28 years old, the youngest community board chair in the city, ran for the city council at 31 years old, and won, ran for speaker at 35 years old and won. Today I'm 37 years old and I'm running from Air if I win.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because when I visited New York City, I love San Francisco, but when I visited New York City, there was something immediate about”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I moved to New York in 2001, May of 2001. I was in San Francisco for about a year, and I came here to get involved in community organizing and politics.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So he got on the phone with me and he flew to Massachusetts, met with my family, helped orchestrate my coming out. And then I came to San Francisco and that's how I met you 20 years later.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My ex wife And it's a crazy story how I met Tom Riley, who's the founder, which was I used to when I was 15, 16 years old and I was closeted and suicidal and depressed, I would log into AOL chat rooms and try to find other teenagers my own age to communicate with. And in those chat rooms, there would be in Planet Out chat rooms, which had that partnership with AOL, as you said, it would say P&O Megan was the screen name or P&O Tom. And I clicked on piano, Tom, and it said founder of PlanetOut.com. So I sent him a message that said, hi, my name's Corey. I'm the captainoy football team in the small town and I want to come out, but I don't know how to. And he wrote me back and said, you're the captain of your football team and you want to come out. This was 20 years ago, 1999. I said, yes.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Who was the founder of PlanetOp.com And some other great folks who were planning out, Megan, was my ex wife. She also became the CTO of America. But they ran planet out, which was a groundbreaking company. It really was in the early days of the internet. It was supported by AOL and some others. And there were a whole spade of companies. And it was kind of heavy. It was crazy then. And, you know, everybody was, like I was saying, we met Jeff Bezos when he was nothing. We met all the Google guys weren't even the Google guys before. They weren't even existing.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I was living in this little tiny town 30 miles north of Boston where I was born and raised. 3,000 people. And I met you because I came out my junior year in high school. I was captain of my high school football team. Right. And when I came out, I was lucky enough that my family and my team were supportive of me. I came out of it six months after Matthew Shepherd had been murdered in Wyoming. And my story was sort of a positive counterpoint to that where this small town rallied around me. My football team rallied around me. And my story was in the front page of the Sunday New York Times on my 18th birthday. And during that time, I met this gentleman who you know and I know named Tom Riley, who was the founder of Planet Out.com. And he brought me to San Francisco was my first time I ever left New England. And in my first two days there, I met you and Megan Smith and some other great folks.”
2020-02-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Corey Johnson · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT