(gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(upbeat music) ♪ Winterland, tell me all your secrets ♪ ♪ Fill me in on your wildest ♪ - Coming to you from Rochester, Minnesota.

♪ Colored trees, your yellow leaves move ♪ R Town.

♪ Doncing moves, your painted red shakes through ♪ Get excited, Nerdinout Con, Rochester's own Comic Con is on this year and today to tell us all about it is Brad Vigesaa.

Welcome to R Town, Brad.

- Thank you, thanks for having me.

- So, what can folks expect from Nerdinout Con this year?

- I would say an amazing time.

There's definitely something for everybody, whether you're literally three years old, all the way up to 85.

- That's awesome.

So three to 85, it's a big range there.

So is it a family event?

I mean, what kind of activities and vendors are you expecting to have there?

- Yeah, for sure.

It definitely is a family friendly event.

We have cosplayers that are very tasteful, that put a lot of work into these really elaborate outfits, whether it's the Fibo First that dress up like "Star Wars" and make their own outfits, or it's the charity for a cause that dress up like superheroes.

And then we did fly in and bring in some local cosplayers that do this for a living, basically.

Vendors wise, you can find anything from toys, comics.

We have artists there that have been in comic books, drawings, everything else.

And then we do have a lot of the vendors that make their own items, whether it's pillows or necklaces, whatever it may be, they will be there also.

- So I know you've got a really awesome roster of guests.

I'm super excited about the black power ranger myself.

Can you tell us a little bit about them?

- Actually just got off the phone with him.

- Awesome, totally geeking out here.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the guests that you've got lined up and who you're particularly excited about?

- Absolutely.

So this year it was kind of like a go big or go home situation, especially after Corona, having the year off.

We up the venue.

So we have it at the Mayo Civic Center this year, a little nicer venue.

The roster actually I'm kind of excited cause I have one of my friends come in, which is Marcus Sherels from the Minnesota Vikings or played for the Vikings.

We have Scott Steiner, old school wrestler who used to be the tag team Steiner brothers.

We have Brian O'Halloran hand who played Dante in "Clerks", the Kevin Smith film.

And then we have one of his friends, Jason News, "Mall Rats", Jay in "Silent Bob".

So I'm really happy to get him this year.

We've been waiting over a year for him.

One of my crushes growing up Nicole Eggert.

I mean, she was on "Charles in Charge", "Baywatch".

So when I was a kid, "Charles in Charge" was a big deal.

We also have Sandi Sellner who was the original Alpha Five.

So she was the person that was in the Alpha Five suit for "Mighty Morphing Power Rangers".

And then which leads into your, who you're excited for, which is Walter Jones, the original, the OG black power ranger.

And along with that, yeah, yeah, he seems like a really nice dude.

So I'm really excited too.

We also have Ming Chang coming back for a third year.

Unheard of for any Comic Con, I think.

He's a fan favorite right here and he's so down to earth, it makes it so easy.

And then a late arrival, which is John Morton who played Boba Fett in "Star Wars".

So really cool to be able to have a diverse crew and not only our biggest roster, but biggest in money-wise too.

So we're really bringing everything to the table this year to try to bring something really good for Rochester, because I don't feel like Rochester has that many events like this, where almost anybody can go and have a great time.

- You know, we know that the Coronavirus created a huge challenge just in terms of having events and things like that.

How are you ensuring that people are staying safe and just encouraging them to be safe while they're attending the event?

- Yep, so the Mayo Civic Center does require masks.

So we are going with the standard of what the city of Rochester is holding.

One thing that we introduced ourselves this year was bracelets for people that want to wear them.

And basically what it is, it is red, yellow, or green.

So green would mean you're open to hugs, all of it, yellow would mean caution and then red means basically just don't touch me is what it comes down to.

We felt like that was a necessity this year.

And it'll probably be a moving forward thing, for the years to come to be honest with you, I really liked the idea and I would really want to incorporate it this year though.

- That's awesome, super innovative.

So as we're wrapping up here, where can people get tickets if they're still available and how can people just find out more information?

- Absolutely.

So tickets are available either at the Mayo Civic Box Office you can get them any day while you're there.

They're still gonna be available or you can go to ticketmaster.com.

You're gonna save a little money if you just go right to the box office and get that done.

And if you want to learn more about the comic con itself, you could go to our website is www.nerdinoutcomiccon.com.

- Awesome, thank you so much Brad, good luck, have fun and yeah, hope it goes well.

(upbeat music) Be sure to stick around, we have much more coming your way on R Town.

We head to a pumpkin patch and we hear about the $3.12 million grant awarded to the city and DMC.

But up first we learn about a not so unusual collecting hobby in this week's R culture segment.

(upbeat music) - My name is Thijs Vermont.

- I'm Charley, otherwise my social media names are Winona Kicks.

We're trading shoes right now.

- We just met up in Rochester.

He's from Winona and I'm from Chanhassen.

We made a pathway to make a shoe deal here.

Yeah.

- We're trading Jordans, retro Jordans.

So we have some reds here.

We have, and we're trading all these pairs for this one pair right here, the trail ends.

And so this pair came out in 2007, it's brand new and it retailed for $60 on the resell market.

We're valuing it at about three grand today.

And that's what we're trading all these pairs for so there's a ton of shoes in here.

You can see they're all Jordan ones.

We got some, I'll show you some dunks here.

And so these are all collectible shoes.

And so these will come out in limited quantities.

And there's so many people that want them, that they'll resell on a secondary market.

So this pair goes for three, 400 and it came out and it was going for 150.

So are these, these just came out.

These were popular fashion designer, came out with these.

They're pretty wild looking.

But it all started from Jordan.

You could have seen it in the Jordan documentary is he released the shoe called the Jordan one and it sold out really quickly.

And a lot of people wanted it.

So people started reselling it and that's where this whole market came from, so.

- Conventions where you can go trade shoes, bond with the community, talk to just your friends about the shoes.

You can go bring them, you can sell them, you can buy them pretty much everywhere.

So this, the SB dunk low trail end, back in the day, nothing super special about it.

It was just a standard SB dunk, but it's an old show, released in '07 now, it's brand new, you can even see like the lace bag is attached, - They're never been tried on.

They're always releasing shoes every week.

They're coming out with new collectible ones.

So he's putting to put that pair in his collection and someday it might sell for 10 grand, they eventually go up in value because they come more rare.

- As a 14 year old shoe, it's tough to find one in this good of condition.

All of them have been skateboarded, worn, beat to the ground, this one's brand new.

- We have these pine greens, same thing just a different colorway.

And so what they do is they, this is where it originated and they ended up just, they keep putting out different colors.

And so you could have 40 pairs of this exact shoe just in different colors and they're all different prices.

The parents said, so they kind of understand it now, but about two years ago, I started, I kind of used to flip stuff, golf clubs and Play Stations, and I found shoes and it was a really easy to resell them.

And so I bought a pair for 100 bucks and they thought I was crazy.

I mean, $100 for a pair of shoes.

And I ended up selling it for 140 and just kind of went from there.

And then I ended up buying a pair for $1,000 and they're like, "What are you doing?

1,000 bucks for a pair of shoes."

And ended up selling it.

- I want to add something about this pair here.

It has a lot of sentimental value to me.

I was telling my boy here, my grandpa actually used to have a pair of these.

He passed away a few years back, but he wasn't a big shoe guy, but he loved this shoe.

And so I saw this shoe and I was like, it takes me back.

I gotta have it.

And so I talked to him, right away, I saw that he was selling it, multiple social medias.

And I'm like, "Dude, you gotta work with me so I can get this shoe."

So now we're here.

This was my offer here.

My eight pairs of shoes for these, because the sentimental value of these was just, it was too much, I just had to have the shoes.

- It's growing at a crazy rate, money terms.

And this is not gonna be the last time you hear about sneaker trading.

- [Lisa] For more information about this story and other R Town features, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter @ksmq#rtown or ksmq.org/rtown.

(gentle music) - Hello, I'm Danielle Teal, your moderator for R Town spotlight.

This segment covers organizations, events and happenings across Rochester and beyond.

We'd like to thank 125 Live for hosting today.

Our wonderful guest is Molly Podwell, Medicare expert and insurance agent here to chat about Medicare and insurance a little bit more.

Thanks for being here on the show, Molly.

- Thanks for having me.

- So can you share a little bit more about what Medicare is in case someone doesn't know what it is?

- Yeah, Medicare is basically just a government regulated healthcare for seniors for the majority.

It's part A, it's part B, medical and hospital, and then we're there to kind of fill in the rest.

So that's just Medicare in a nutshell.

- And open enrollment is coming up soon, correct?

- So it actually started on the 15th.

It's called, yep.

And it goes through December 7th.

And so what that means is that the people that already have coverage can change if they what to.

There's another thing called the initial enrollment period.

So those are people who are just getting started and those people can sign up like three months before their 65th birthday.

Or if they're still working and have a Medicare or they have a insurance plan, they can retire after they're 65 and then sign up for another plan with us.

- So what are some tips for individuals that are starting out, they're trying to figure all this out for themselves.

What are some tips and information you can share that would be helpful?

- Actually, it's probably easiest just to call us.

People who have senior health insurance don't really need to know a whole lot.

People will get a ton of stuff in the mail.

They'll see a lot of ads on TV and we kind of just say, ignore those because it'll either give you kind of wrong information or just confuse you and you don't really need to know about it.

All we need to do is ask people a couple of questions.

We're just there to make sure people are comfortable with the kind of insurance that they have.

So, an agent is gonna be your best resource out there.

It doesn't cost anything to have an agent.

So just use that resource if you've got it.

- All right, Molly, we talked about really good info related to Medicare and insurance.

How can people find you?

- The easiest way to find us is we do have an office at 125 Live right on that first floor by the front desk.

If we're not there, we've got our number written out.

So people can call us at any time or you can ask the people at the front desk for our contact information.

- Right, absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for being on the show today, Molly.

- Yeah, thanks for having me.

(upbeat music) - Hello again, this is Michael Wojcik with your R Town rundown.

Every 10 years, we need to draw new districts and the city of Rochester and Olmsted county have announced they will be working together on redistricting activities.

This is incredibly important for the city of Rochester as we tend to have a more diverse population, faster growing and actually have a lower median income than surrounding areas.

So it's very important that the city of Rochester gets fair representation out of redistricting processes at different levels.

One of the exciting things about this opportunity is that you will have the opportunity to draw your own maps.

And I encourage citizens to be involved in this process because this is the bedrock of democracy.

The Rochester Civic Theater has announced that they will be having a haunted theater event.

That'll be going on from October 21st through 31st at Rochester Civic Theater.

Details at their website.

The Ear of Corn Water Tower at Grand Park, not surprisingly came in first place for the People's Choice Award for the best tank in America.

And I have to say the people got it correct.

So congratulations to everybody who was involved in the restoration of that local Rochester landmark.

Also going on, the District Center of Olmsted county will be having their creepy doll cocktail party.

And that's going on this weekend at Castle Community.

The Rochester Civic Theater on November 6th announced an event called Stronger Together.

Tickets and information are available on their website.

The Rochester Grizzly is a local amateur hockey team that plays here in Rochester at the Rec Center.

I do have to take this opportunity at the time I'm recording this to say that both the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Wild are undefeated.

I want to say right now, because chances are, I won't be able to say that for too much longer, but if you enjoy amateur athletics, get out there and enjoy the Rochester Grizzly.

They're already off to a great season.

Finally, going on this weekend at Mayo Civic Center is Nerdinout Con.

If you have that part of your personality that loves some of the pop culture nerdiness, get out there and support this local event.

Thank you for listening.

And that's just a little bit of what's going on in Rochester.

(upbeat music) - Hello, welcome to R Town walkabout.

My name is Fred Kappauf, and we're here at Sekapp Orchard in Rochester, Minnesota.

It's a lovely fall day, little cool, the sun's shining, but people are out having fun, picking apples and picking pumpkins.

And pumpkins, we grow a lot of different varieties.

This is a mystic plus pie pumpkin, the varieties with the huge stems, those are wolf pumpkins.

We grow a lot of magic lanterns and Howdens, we grow some white pumpkins.

Last year, we had our best year ever because everybody was locked up, last half of winter, spring and summer, they couldn't go to church, the mall, the restaurants.

So when things kind of loosened up, 99% of our market's outside and kids weren't in school and people weren't working.

So had a lot of extra time to get outside and do some outside activities.

And the nice thing about our business here is people are here because they want to be here.

There's no high pressure sales.

(children chattering) Everybody's happy, the kids are happy, the parents are happy.

People want to come here and have fun and enjoy the day and have a great time.

And that's really what's so amazing about it.

- I got it.

- I have to sample all the apples and test them for ripeness.

So I guess that would be my favorite part.

- I want that one.

Stop it, stop it, stop it.

- Yeah it fits.

♪ Let me know when I get closer ♪ ♪ Open up the sky for me ♪ ♪ When you say I'll dig much deeper ♪ ♪ I will shout ♪ - The city of Rochester and Destination Medical Center, Economic Development Agency were recently awarded grant funding through the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, MDEED as a part of their recently created mainstream economic revitalization program.

Here to tell us more is Cindy Sanhazard, WDCE administrator of development services, and Patrick Seeb, executive director of DMC EDA.

Welcome back both of you to R Town and congratulations on this grant.

- Good to see you.

- Thank you, welcome.

So of course we were so excited to hear that the city and DMC EDA were awarded this grant.

To kick us off, what will this grant funding allow you to do?

- Well, maybe I'll just kick this off, Cindy, if you don't mind.

And that's definitely weigh in.

First of all, I do want to acknowledge and thank the Minnesota State Legislature and the Governor who through legislative support created this initiative.

And it was really designed to help communities that are suffering from the impact of Covid and civil unrest and other economic calamity that occurred post March of 2020.

And of course, Minnesota DEED, the agency that's administering this program has done a phenomenal job in putting this together.

So we were alerted to this opportunity actually by Cindy, who said, this is a cool opportunity.

We should learn more about it and jump into it.

And so in August of this past year together with the city of Rochester and a dozen community partners, we organized this grant application that we were successful in receiving $3 million.

And when I say we it's really the community of Rochester, so we are the conduit and the recipient, but really it's the resources that will go back into the downtown economy.

- Absolutely.

I echo Patrick's comments in terms of thanking the Governor and the Department of Economic Development.

This is truly going to be one of those grants that's transformational.

And honestly, it's real testament to the partnership that exists here in Rochester by what Patrick said.

But the fact that, one of the partners can see that there's an opportunity there, reach out to other partners and say, how can we get some of these dollars to help stimulate work in Rochester and stimulate opportunities in Rochester and have so many partners come together in really short order to put it together is really not only testament to the partnerships that exist here, but also a testament to the shared vision that we have and what it's going to take for this community to come out of the challenges of not only COVID, but other things that may have impacted our community over the last few years.

So it truly is a testament to the spirit of collaboration that exists among all the partners here.

- So you both mentioned the timely nature of the grant and the context.

Can you talk a little bit about the ways in which the grant will be supporting pandemic recovery and also addressing issues of racial justice and equity in our downtown area?

- Absolutely.

We made a case that on the face of it, it does not look like our downtown has suffered when compared to other downtowns.

But in fact, if you peel it back a little bit and understand that the loss of medical tourism, a huge driver in our economy, the lack of tourism from the convention industry, again, a huge driver of our economy and downtown workers who were not coming back to their downtown offices for an extended period of time.

But it in fact it had a very significant impact in our downtown economy.

So number one, Rochester was disrupted like every other city in its own unique and special ways.

Number two, we know that certain communities, communities of color that were more significantly impacted by COVID and disproportionately so, and that indeed in their wisdom and the Minnesota State Legislature, and the governor said, we want to use this opportunity to ensure that as we are reviving our local economies, that we are intentional about supporting communities that sometimes have been, oftentimes have been left behind.

And so there is a bias in this process to be really intentional about supporting the BiPAP community in this process of recovery.

- I think there's also another layer to that, right?

I mean, first and foremost, it's about how do we activate these spaces in downtown in particular, right?

How, as Patrick mentioned, how do we help businesses, particularly minority businesses pivot as needed based on how they were impacted by COVID.

And yet, as we've been talking as partners, there's also really great alignment between this work and the work that we're doing as a finalist in the Bloomberg's mayors challenge.

We were one of 50 communities selected out of over 630 communities globally.

And our work is really focused on how do we connect BiPAP women in particular to opportunities in the built and construction trades.

And we see that there's a nice knitting of not only that initiative, but to the work that's gonna come out of the opportunities presented as a result of the grants, and loans that we're able to make to restore, bring life back to these buildings.

So there's a lot of impact that this one award from DEED has helping to leverage across our community.

- I love the word that you just used, leveraging, it's what came to mind when you were talking.

And I think it really speaks to the ways in which you're leveraging the assisting gifts and resources and connections in the community, as well as all the synergy of all these efforts coming together this past year.

So as we're wrapping up here, what do you see as the future of our downtown and its importance?

- I'll start, Cindy you'll have your own thoughts and comments.

So downtowns continue to evolve everywhere.

And certainly in Rochester's case.

And I think one of the most significant evolutions that's occurring is the number of downtown residents.

And it's happened slowly, but it's really picking up pace where there's new apartments being constructed and occupied downtown with more and more students, the University of Minnesota, Rochester growing its student population, and even the patients and families that are here for extended stays really behave much like downtown residents.

And finally construction workers who are often here for long periods of time, but we're really growing the number of people who call downtown home.

And these are people who are looking for places to eat and to shop and spend their time.

They're looking for public spaces that make nature more accessible.

And I think really a shift that's going to happen is the impact that downtown residents are gonna have on their expectations about what makes downtown living great.

And I think we've begun responding and we've seen local businesses responding.

And I think that'll continue to power a change in our downtown.

- And to build off of that.

I think it's so on point.

When I think about downtown, I think about the opportunity for third spaces, right?

Where are the places that people want to be outside of work and outside of their home?

And as Patrick mentioned, we are seeing an increase in the number of people that choose to live in downtown and what that means in terms of opportunity for local businesses and niche products that they can offer, but also the opportunity that gives us and honestly the challenge that we need to arise to in terms of those of us who are working to create an outside environment of third spaces where people want to continue to navigate towards and gravitate towards.

Downtowns, physically are interesting, but they also are such a huge contributor to the social capital that exists in the community.

And you see that as we're watching people start to navigate and choose to live downtown and experience it in a different way than they might've experienced otherwise.

- Thank you so much, both of you for joining us, we will certainly stay tuned and follow the progress of the initiatives and programs this grant will facilitate.

And we will definitely check back in with you soon to see how things are going.

- Thank you, thank you very much.

- [Cindy] Thank you Nicole.

- And thank you for joining us for more content produced right here in Southeast Minnesota.

Please join us on Twitter and Facebook at #rtown.

I'm Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara and I will see you next week.

♪ Loud ♪ ♪ When I get there ♪ ♪ When I get there ♪ ♪ When I get there, I'll know the answers ♪ ♪ Let me know, let me know when I get closer ♪ ♪ When I get closer ♪ ♪ Will I get closer ♪ ♪ Will I get closer ♪ (gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.