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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we continue our series, 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks in which we're welcoming all 51 members of the New York City Council touching every neighborhood of the city in this year, when most of the council is new because of term limits and it's majority female for the first time ever. With us now, one of those new members, Shekar Krishnan at age 37. He has been a Civil Rights Attorney, and community activist in the Elmhurst in Jackson Heights neighborhoods of Queens, that his District 25 encompasses.

Among other things, he chairs the Council's Parks and Recreation Committee, and lists parks and public space as among his top priorities. We'll also talk about some of these generational and progressive/moderate issues that we were into with Congressman Torres, and from this time, Sienna poll. With that we welcome Council Member Shekar Krishnan, from District 25 in Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. Councilman, thanks for joining our series, 51 Council Members in 52 weeks, and welcome to WNYC.

Shekar Krishnan: Good morning, Brian. Thanks so much for having me on today.

Brian Lehrer: Tell us more about yourself first. Where did you grow up, and what made you first want to go into politics and public service?

Shekar Krishnan: Sure. I always say that during our campaign too, that I ran because I understand how important it is for everyone to have a home. I know that as a civil rights lawyer before entering politics, representing low-income tenants in Jackson Heights, Queens and other parts of the city as well. Seeing the ways in which the housing struggle that we face in our city connects to everything else around us. In other words, where you live has an impact on everything else. It impacts the access we have to our healthcare from our public hospitals like Elmhurst Hospital in my district.

It impacts the access or the lack of access to green and open space that we have, that we saw was so vital during the pandemic. It impacts the access that we have to childcare and how affordable it is. Especially coming out of this pandemic, that was really a crucial motivating factor for me to decide to run for office because we need to really rebuild our city in a way that works for everyone. I think COVID really exposed and exacerbated the inequities that we see that my district, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, faces. I'm proud. This is the historical council, Brian, as you mentioned and incredibly diverse.

I'm proud to be the first Indian-American elected to the New York City Council in its history. My parents when they first came from India would come here to 74th Street in Jackson Heights to get their groceries, to get their furniture. It has been really the sight and the start of so many immigrant communities in our city.

Brian Lehrer: First of all, it's amazing that given the size and the amount of time that there's been a significant Indian-American community in New York City, that you would be the first Indian-American member of city council. That's incredible to me.

Shekar Krishnan: It is really surprising. In fact, I would speak to people also who would say, "Wait, you've never had an Indian-American city council members before?" The truth is, not only have we not, but it's not surprising to our Asian-American communities, we've been invisibilized for so long in so many different ways. A big part of that is that we lack representation in government too. That's had an impact. We've seen, in the fall, the way in which our heroic taxi workers, who I was proud to fight alongside of, achieved a historic victory, but that took decades in the making. Precisely because the issues affecting them had not been seen for so long. So many of them are South Asian, come from Jackson Heights and Elmhurst. When you look at that you can see how our invisibilization has led to the lack of representation.

Brian Lehrer: How would you describe the district in terms of diversity today?

Shekar Krishnan: I'm so proud, and I brag when I say this, but it is not an exaggeration. Jackson Heights and Elmhurst are two of the most diverse immigrant communities on the planet, and they're historic because they are where so many immigrant communities got their start. We have an incredibly large Latin-American community, Colombian, Mexican, Ecuadorian, South Asian communities. There was a huge wave of Indian immigration to Jackson Heights. Now, we have a thriving powerful Bangladesh community. A rapidly growing Nepalian, Tibetan community. A rapidly growing Thai community as well.

Of course, Jackson Heights was the birth place of the LGBTQAI+ movement in Queens. It started with a hate crime in Jackson Heights that lead to the Queens Pride Parade. It is so historic in so many different ways. We also just celebrated the birthday, the 100th birthday of a neighbor of mine, Hannah Deutch, who was a Holocaust survivor, a World War II veteran, and a long time Jackson Heights resident as well. It is such a beautifully divers neighborhood that truly reflects the world in one community.

Brian Lehrer: In such an immigrant rich district that does reflect the world incredibly with all those examples that you gave, for example. What has happened, let's say, since the pandemic started, or even maybe to take it back a little further, since the beginning of the Trump Administration with his policies and positions about immigration, has the flow of immigrants to the district, from outside the country, diminished or changed in any way? Are you aware?

Shekar Krishnan: We continue to be the most diverse community with rapidly growing immigrant communities within Jackson Heights and Elmhurst. What I will say clearly, is that Jackson Heights and Elmhurst while we are the most diverse immigrant communities, we were also some of the most high needs communities in the entire city. Really encapsulating the struggles that we have faced from the Trump Administration, as you pointed out, with our immigrant communities under attack through the pandemic. Elmhurst and Jackson Heights were the epicenter of the epicenter of the pandemic.

Elmhurst Hospital in my district was a story told across the nation. What COVID really showed was it didn't create any of the unique qualities that we see from our housing, to our public health, to our parks and open space for our immigrant communities, but it revealed them for everyone to see and it exacerbated them. We're a community of essential workers, of cab drivers, of delivery workers.

You saw the way in which our neighborhood was on the front lines of this pandemic. Therefore we are in the front lines of the recovery. The way in which there are all these inequities that our city needs to contend with now and address was felt by our experience in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst. One additional example I just want to add is that, we also rank 50 out of 51 when it comes to green space and park space in New York City in terms of council districts. We have some of the least amount of green space, and we saw how vital and restorative our parks and public spaces were during the pandemic.

Brian Lehrer: I want to come back to parks and green space in a minute, but before we get off the pandemic, what's the state of COVID in your district now with BA.5 surge under way? What's your opinion about the city not restoring any mandates, like for masks, and recently rolling back removing the vaccine mandate for people going to work in person in the city at the same time?

Shekar Krishnan: We are nowhere near out of this pandemic. Brian, I bring it up as someone who just recovered from COVID. I know we were supposed to be on last week, and I couldn't do the show because I had COVID. The first time I'd gotten it in the last 27 months. I saw first hand BA.5 is rapidly rising throughout our communities. In my district alone the rate is somewhere around 15% to 20%. It's rapidly rising city-wide. This is a public health emergency, and we have to treat it that way. That's why I was one of the first council members to call for the return of the indoor mask mandate because we need to make sure we treat our public health crisis as the emergency that it is.

We have to take every precaution possible from vaccines, universal availability of testing, to masking to ensure we protect ourselves. That is the only way that we will emerge from this pandemic as a much more sustainable city, even from a public health standpoint, and there's a lot of work to be done.

Brian Lehrer: How do you understand it that the city is officially now encouraging people to wear masks again in indoor public places, but won't require it even presumably in city office buildings where the public goes for services, not requiring indoor mask while it's encouraging it?

Shekar Krishnan: I just stated last week when the Health and Hospitals put out the guidance that that's not nearly enough. We have to go much farther. We know masking, while it will not solve all the problems and solve the pandemic, is one of the most powerful tools that we have to slow the surge, and to protect ourselves. Encouraging, incentivizing, is not nearly enough. When we are seeing such rising rates, and so fast, we have to put mandates in place that will actually protect everyone. That's what I immediately wanted to do.

Brian Lehrer: I see some calls are coming in for you already and listeners, we invite others to call in for councilman. I'm not promoting you yet to be a member of Congress.

Shekar Krishnan: I'm not looking for a promotion.

Brian Lehrer: Maybe in a few years. City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan from the 25th city council district in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, Queens. Yes, district 25. Yes, for those of you who've been following our 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks series. This is a little out of order. We had to go past district 25 to a few more because the council member had to reschedule because he had COVID. I didn't want to say that on the air council member, I figured that's your business, but since you said it, yes, that's why he wasn't here when originally scheduled, go ahead.

Shekar Krishnan: That's okay. I wanted to also use my own experience too as a way to talk about the importance of these requirements, but it was also my wedding anniversary, the day that we were supposed to do the interview too. Unfortunately, I couldn't spend it with you. I couldn't spend it with my wife. I was at home with COVID, but what are you going to do? [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: Yes. If you were out doing radio shows on your anniversary, you would've been in even bigger trouble than having COVID. Listen, there's a phone number 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 or tweet at @BrianLehrer. Luce, in Jackson Heights. You're on WNYC. Hi there.

Luce: Hi Brian. I am one of the constituents that grew up in Jackson Heights without green space. Let me tell you that how much of a blessing it is to have this gold standard right in front of my window, on 34th Avenue. I know my two boys get to grow up in a neighborhood that has an open space which I didn't have. I'm also an organizer for the friends of 34th Avenue in William Park, and we feel that there's more work to be done on the avenue. We really need this green space. Thank you, council member for bringing this wish come true. I really thought it was not something that could happen in my lifetime.

Shekar Krishnan: Thank you so much Luce for your phone call and explaining so well the challenges that we faced as Jackson Heights, when it comes to the lack of green space and the importance of our 34th Avenue open street, or Paseo Park as we're calling it now. I appreciate so much what you said as someone who's grown up in Jackson Heights, as you said but also for your children. I'm a father of two small children myself and I see how much they enjoy 34th Avenue open street.

Just taking a step back for a second, Brian. We saw during the pandemic, as I mentioned before, how we have in Jackson Heights, some of the least amount of open space in all of New York City, but how crucial it was during the pandemic to restore us, to sustain us for our mental health and wellbeing for our children for seniors. 34th Avenue open street has been a lifeline for our community.

I'm so proud to fight alongside so many advocates from the 34th Avenue linear park coalition from the open streets coalition to transform 34th Avenue into a linear park. The project that we're working on with the department of transportation now, and commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez as a partner to take 34th Avenue open street or Paseo Park to the next level where we have pedestrian plazas in front of our schools is the most historic project, an ambitious project ever undertaken by the department of transportation but we are seeing just the life altering impact that having this gold standard open street on our neighborhood is having for so many in our community.

Brian Lehrer: I'll tell you the majority of the calls that have come in so far, the majority out of nine are about this very specific thing. This is obviously a big deal in the neighborhood, the 34th Avenue open street. We'll take one more on that. Donald in Jackson Heights. You're on WNYC. Hi.

Donald: Oh, hey Brian. A long time listener, first time caller. Thank you so much. I just also want to comment about 34th Avenue. I am at 34th Avenue, myself at 82nd Street, and it has been really so beneficial for the community. It's been great. I feel like Shekar has just answered my question. It was basically what is the future plan for keeping that street open during the day for pedestrians and depending on what that is, is there any future plans to open up more green spaces in the neighborhood?

Shekar Krishnan: Thank you Donald for the question. I think as you put it so well this is an ongoing effort to really expand much needed open space on 34th Avenue across our community. The truth is it's not just an issue of public space, as crucial as that is too as we saw during the pandemic, it's also an issue of pedestrian safety and accessibility that we've seen.

Personally over the years, I've been to so many vigils in Jackson Heights of children hit by cars or killed by cars on 34th Avenue, seniors. We just had another hit and run with the red light of a driver that crossed the red light going across 34th Avenue. We need to make our streets safer for pedestrians. We need to make them more accessible. This is the first step and a big step forward along the way of making 34th avenue open street a place for our parents, for our children for our community. We have to keep taking it and we're on the frontier of doing so in all of New York City, at the forefront of it. We'll continue to do that to show how vital our open streets and open space is.

To your other question, I absolutely agree as chair of the parks committee in the council, my biggest focus has been on making sure that every neighborhood has access to green space. In Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, we have one of the highest rates of childhood obesity. This is an issue affecting our children, our public health, and it's across communities of color, especially that don't have access to green space. It's a matter of climate justice and racial justice. My focus as parks chair has been to expand green space across our neighborhoods and across our city, especially in those communities like ours that have historically not had it for reasons of systemic disinvestment.

Brian Lehrer: Our first two callers have been specifically on the open street designation for 34th Avenue around 82nd Street in Jackson Heights. Looks like Jackson in Brooklyn wants to take the same topic, more citywide Jackson, you're on WNYC with Councilmember Shekar Krishnan.

Jackson: Thanks, Brian. Hey councilmember good to hear your voice again. On that topic, I think one of the key issues we're facing with open streets and creation of public space is the lack of a framework for management across the city. I appreciate your highlighting. This is both a public health issue, and one of equity, I'm curious what your approach would be for the management of public space, because as you know deeply for 34th Avenue, it is still largely run and managed and organized by volunteers from your community. Thank you.

Shekar Krishnan: Hi Jackson. Good to talk to you, and great question. I think and I say this as a council member, formerly as a fair housing, civil rights lawyer as well. When it comes to our public spaces, whether it's open streets or parks, these are public goods and they require public support and investment behind them from our city government. Our volunteers on 34th Avenue have been doing an extraordinary job but we can't as a city be relying on volunteers alone to take care of public spaces.

I saw this firsthand in my work over the last decade around Diversity Plaza where many of us in our coalition friends of diversity Plaza had to take care of the Plaza ourselves after it was put in during the Bloomberg Administration. That's not okay. I think what we need to ensure is that our city government devotes the resources, creates the programs that truly invest in and support the maintenance of our public spaces. It is a public good and it needs to be treated that way. We can't be relying on communities that have historically not had open public space to be taking care of them. That's that is fundamentally a responsibility of city government.

Brian Lehrer: We're asking every council member in this series, what's the number one reason that constituents have contacted your office since you took office in January judging from our caller board, it would be 34th Avenue but this is a very self-selecting sample. What is it? What's the number one reason constituents have called your office since you took office?

Shekar Krishnan: Brian as a council member, we have so many responsibilities from policy to legislation, but I personally see serving our community, every individual who walks in our doors with the housing emergency, being denied public benefits that they need, that is my top priority. We get so many different constituent calls and requests that comes in but the ones that are most concerned about are the calls that we don't get.

Calls from our most vulnerable communities that may not be able to call 311 may not be able to come to our office and the urgencies that they face. One of them that I'm reminded of, often that's on my mind, and one of the most pressing issues. I just was reminded of it the other day walking down Broadway and Elmhurst when I spoke to Eric, a Chinese pharmacist and small business owner who told me how many Chinese-Americans come to his store, because they don't know how to go to Elmhurst Hospital. They are afraid of going in because they don't speak the language.

For me, making sure that we have accessible healthcare, especially for our immigrant communities, our Asian-American communities, and beyond is so crucial. Supporting our public hospitals like Elmhurst is vital in our city. By accessible healthcare, I mean language accessible healthcare, language accessible services, I mean healthcare for all regardless of immigration status, regardless of insurance status. If we are to be a city and a country where we treat universal healthcare as the right that it is, it begins at the local level, it begins in our communities supporting our public hospitals like Elmhurst and making sure everyone truly has access to care.

Brian Lehrer: Let's see. As the calls and tweets continue to come in, it looks like not everybody is 100% happy about that open street on 34th Avenue. Tweet says, "Can the Councilman say what's going on on 34th near Traverse Park, lanes changing, new planters, no previous notice nor clear explanation what's happening or timeline," though that caller thanks you for being visible and responsive in the neighborhood in general. Amy in Jackson Heights wants to air to that I think. Amy, you're on WNYC with Councilmember Krishnan. Hello?

Amy: Hi. I understand what he says about how we need green space, but my perception is that this is adding pavement, not green space, the area he's using the roads that cars would be driving on and closing them, taking away hundreds and hundreds of parking spaces and not creating rules for the people who are using it like the motorized vehicles, the bicycles, the motorized bikes, and the motorcycles that go speeding down that street. They don't stay in line, they don't follow the lights, they don't necessarily go in the direction that they're assigned to do. They go on on sidewalks as well.

That's my main complaint. As an old person, I've been aware of the street along, but I was very hesitant to ever walk on it because I feel unsafe. Instead I walk away from the neighborhood if I go out in the neighborhood and now I feel like there's a lot of communication among people who are interested in it, but no communication for those of us who are out of the loop. I've never had an opportunity to go to a meeting or to fill out papers saying my point of view.

Brian Lehrer: Amy, thank you.

Amy: I run into other people similarly. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Councilmember talk to that constituent and the one who tweeted.

Shekar Krishnan: Hi, Amy. I appreciate you raising these concerns as well. I'm glad we can have the discussion about it too. As I mentioned before taking a step back, what we're doing with 34th Avenue, most critically beyond expanding open space is really, as I said before, addressing issues of pedestrian safety and accessibility. Just a few days ago as I mentioned, there was a driver who ran a red light across 34th Avenue and struck a child who thankfully only had minor injuries, but it raises the issue of how serious it is, not just in our community, but across New York City to make sure that we are protecting our pedestrians, our children, our seniors, and making sure that we have streets that are accessible for everyone. Those are the top priorities of the work that we're doing with our 34th Avenue open street.

It is an ongoing project. It started before my time. It started at the height of the pandemic when we needed open space in our community at least two to three years ago. There's been numerous public meetings and conversations, visioning sessions to think about what we want to see on 34th avenue over the years from the community board level to the other ways of public meetings. I've also personally since taking office met with every group on every side of the issue when it comes to 34th Avenue. It's an ongoing project, one phase at a time to get there, one step at a time, it's a big way of reimagining how we've thought about streets and cars in our community. Ultimately the priority has to be protecting our pedestrians and our families.

The truth is Jackson Heights is a neighborhood that is majority non-car owners. What we're really designing is to make sure that we're responding to most of the residents and constituents in the district who desperately need open space as we saw. I'm going to continue also working and putting pressure on the department of transportation to keep communicating clearly every phase of the project, what they're doing, what's happening. I've already done so as concerns have come up to me personally, my staff has, and we'll continue to do so because I do agree that clear communication from the department of transportation as we make these big designs is very important. Ultimately, we are prioritizing and really moving the needle forward on pedestrian safety and accessibility and public space.

Brian Lehrer: This is WNYC FM HD and AM New York, WNJT-FM 88.1 Trenton, WNJP 88.5 Sussex, WNJY 89.3 Netcong, and WNJO 90.3 Toms River. We are in New York and New Jersey public radio and live streaming at wnyc.org. A few minutes left with the latest guest in our 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks series, in which we're interviewing all of the members of the New York City Council in this year, in which a majority of them are new. Because of term limits today, Shekar Krishnan, one of those rookies, one of those freshman members from the 25th District in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst.

In our remaining time, let me go down a few of the major issues in this city right now, and get your fairly quick take. Crime, a growing crisis in your district, or exaggerated by the tabloids and TV for conservative political purposes, where would you put yourself on that spectrum?

Shekar Krishnan: I would say, Brian, and I want to be very clear about this, that every New Yorker in our city must feel safe, safe walking down the street in my district, riding the train across the city, safe from hate crimes as well. I believe that we need to be investing in services that truly keep our communities safe. That's not policing, but it's investing in programs and services that truly make us feel safe, whether that is expanding mental health services and making sure that when there is a mental health crisis, we have first responders who are trained mental health professionals, whether it's as I said before, expanding and investing in our parks and our playgrounds, in our community centers is a way to engage our youth and make them feel safe and create safe spaces for them too. I think that's very important as well.

As is investing in programs like our Summer Youth Employment, investing in our public hospitals, the first line of defense like Elmhurst Hospital to treat individuals who may need different forms of help. We keep our neighborhood safe by investing in the strategies and the solutions that truly keep us safe.

Brian Lehrer: Inflation. How serious in your district, how is it hitting your constituents the most?

Shekar Krishnan: I think like many of the decisions on the national level with the Biden Administration down to the state level. These decisions hit our constituents in a very, very real way. As I mentioned, we are a community of essential workers, of immigrant workers, many who were excluded from all forms of government relief during the pandemic, despite carrying the city forward, taxi workers in dire need of relief from the city that we have not had in 20 years.

All of these, whether it's fiscally conservative measures to respond to inflation, things like that actually have a human impact in a district like mine, where we are frontline communities. I truly believe that in the face of these issues, you have to invest more to create a recovery, to create sustainability, we have to be investing in our communities to really ensure that everyone can prosper. I think that is crucial for a neighborhood mine that is on the front line of the pandemic

Brian Lehrer: Related, I guess, were you one of the 40 members out of the 51 in city council who signed that letter to the mayor this week calling for no cuts to public schools, even when enrollment goes down?

Shekar Krishnan: Yes, I was one of them. Brian, this is one of the most frustrating and complex problems that has consumed me day and night for the last two months. The truth is the city council allocated more money than ever before, put more money into the department of education ever before, an additional $700 million. That's just one of several funding sources. There's also billions of dollars in the department of education in unspent federal stimulus money.

The mayor is choosing not to put the $700 million in city council funds, choosing not to use the unspent federal dollars to put into our schools. He is choosing to cut resources from our schools, to cut funding from them, and that's appalling because we've seen her in the pandemic how much COVID has harmed the mental and emotional health of our children. At this time, as I said before, you don't cut in the time of need, you don't cut your way towards recovery. You invest towards recovery, you invest in our children and unfortunately Albany just empowered the mayor further to make that choice by giving him two more years of full mayoral control. Which means he has exclusive authority of deciding how the department of education spends the funds that we as a city council have put in, or that the federal government has put in.

Brian Lehrer: Do you want to end mayoral control of the public schools?

Shekar Krishnan: I think it is definitely time to revisit that issue and not have mayoral control of our schools. We need to have schools that are accountable to our communities. What we're seeing with mayoral control right now is that a mayor has exclusive decision of how to spend the funds that our schools desperately need. We need to ensure that the mayor uses the money for our schools. I'm committed along with my colleagues and we are fighting with every tool at our disposal to restore these cuts, public action, public pressure, internal negotiations, public hearings. It is my priority that every single dollar the city council put into the department of education must go towards our classrooms, to our teachers, to our children.

Brian Lehrer: This is an issue we'll definitely have to come back to on the show. 20 years ago, when mayoral control came in, it was seen as a move for accountability after a lot of failed local school districts management at least the number of failed local school districts managements. It's interesting to hear you say that. We're going to come back to this and see how many other people think it's time to end mayor control. Alternates side of the street parking returned two times a week.

We're going to do a call in on that later. It had been suspended for the COVID pandemic. Now back as of last week, do you see a difference in your neighborhood in terms of the cleanliness of the streets, which almost every council member in this series has brought up versus any downsides of that inconvenience with the drivers or encouraging people to drive too much, any reaction to alternate side so far returning to two days a week?

Shekar Krishnan: I think when it comes to sanitation and clean, as I stated before, my most important priorities are pedestrian safety. I would also put up there to clean streets and sanitation as well. We have to ensure that we are dedicating services on the citywide level and on the local level in every way that we can to keep our streets clean. I'm proud to work alongside groups like ACE and the department of sanitation to clean our streets, to expand my work with them.

On the larger level, we need to keep investing as we've done this budget too, to expand sanitation services, to keep our streets clean. Ultimately, as I've said before, in being as a council member I think responding and serving my community is the most important. That includes right at the top sanitation, clean streets help to keep our streets safer for pedestrians. clean streets help to keep our air cleaner our climate better and that's a top priority of mine too.

Brian Lehrer: I'll take that as a, yes, for the return to two times a week alternate side. Finally, as you know we're inviting every member in this series to bring a show and tell item something you'd like other people to know about what's in your district. Maybe it should just be the 34th Avenue open street, but what did you bring for show and tell?

Shekar Krishnan: You know it's so funny, Brian, I would've talked about 34th Avenue open street, but I know we spent time. I am going to send you a picture of it too though, because I do think it's something that you should see as well and maybe we'll even host you out there one day too, if you're interested in coming to walk the open street as well. What I would talk about for show and tell too, is a one thing that we've seen during this pandemic in our neighborhood too is the rapid increase in pet ownership, specifically dog ownership in our community.

Dogs, every pet, every dog is connected to a human being, and our pets and our dogs have been not only our best friends, but restorative for our mental health and wellbeing. The dog owners in our community the Canine Social Club, the Jackson's dog lovers have been advocating for years for a dog run in our neighborhood. A space they can have for themselves to socialize and for their dog to socialize. I'm proud that in my first six months in office working closely with the parks department, we were able to create a dog run in the middle of our community.

We just had a big ribbon cutting for before. It's been so beloved and used by so many dog owners and I'd bring that in as a show and tell virtually and hopeful that anyone can come visit it to.

Brian Lehrer: That's great. As someone who grew up a Queens boy, I'm no stranger to the 74th Street, 82nd Street areas of our borough. I live in Manhattan now, but I still consider Queens my borough. My parents are still there. My brother's there. That's right. My brother's there closer to you, but do send us that photo of 34th Avenue and we'll tweet it out.

Shekar Krishnan: Absolutely. I'll make sure to do that.

Brian Lehrer: Council member Shekar Krishnan, thank you very much.

Shekar Krishnan: Thank you so much, Brian.

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