Today on the Comcastro podcast, we talk with Kwanza Hall, the Atlanta City Council representative of district 2. In this hour, Kwanza gives us his perspective on the day-to-day work of a city councilor, the challenges of representing both the affluent and impoverished, encouraging urban development without damaging existing communities, the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal and sentencing, new stadium development, rioting in Baltimore, Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy, the ongoing Year of Boulevard, and the possibility of a campaign for Mayor. District 2 covers Midtown, Downtown, Inman Park, Poncey Highland, Candler Park, and the Old Fourth Ward.
Direct Download
Good evening Internet Good evening. Comcastro Viva La Revolucion this is Maximus Groves Matthew Queen Matthew. Well we are excited to provide Kwanza hall Atlanta’s city councilman of that district to tell you today talking in the way that we all wish that politicians would just like straight. Yeah just to get a chance to listen. Yeah this is not a campaign it’s you know if you actually get to listen to a politician say invest what you do on the first day you know and it’s everything I’ve always wanted an interview with a politician always how we support business how we look after poverty and allow you know everyone is trying to come up instead of just isolating this was big. We were we were we were extremely pleased with this and we are sure it’s going to come through any interview without any further ado Kwanza heart so we’re here today with Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza hall. Yes good to be here thank you for coming. Well it’s good you give an air of legitimate legitimacy to our show. Well OK you know I don’t know because we’ve been saying this for a while now Comcastro not just a tax dodge anymore. Yes that’s right that’s right that’s right. Was good to be here guys is good to see that you’re in a great location also when I was woken up by a look at the building across the street the baker auto parts building and I wanted to buy that it was one hundred seventeen thousand dollars no way and I wanted to cry when I walked past it because I see the new Hyatt House Hotel is coming up so this would have been my home I would be a neighbor. Oh man I’m sure you would have built it so hard to block our view you know I was right I already got about two years and I was only done two stories or three stories but I moved in right after they started construction so I was able to go like rates are going astray. They sat and they said yeah of course. So let’s get right to it. You’re an Atlanta city councilman. Yes what does that mean. Well I’ve been elect let me go back a little bit I’ve been elected thirteen years I guess. I’ve started two thousand and two I guess that makes a thirteen year I had hair when I started. Yes I started on the school board for two years. Quickly figured out I didn’t need to be there. It’s very very hard work but it’s difficult to make change happen. I ran for city council in two thousand and five. What counselors do so you have three branches of government do you know what those are. Executive. Yes that’s one legislative Yes the third judiciary. That’s right so you got three branches we’re in the legislative branch so the mayor is the executive of the city he’s responsible for day to day operations with a huge staff of you know several thousand people and council members legislate like Congress people do. We write laws adjusts laws we are the governing body of the city and we have fifteen council members and a council president there are twelve districts I represent Council District two which is downtown midtown can the park over for four and. You know a few other nuances in there in the park in potty Hylas the the role of us is really we take day to day complaints from people whether it be garbage collection the streets aren’t clean. We need police over here. We need lights. I’m a developer and I want to build a Hyatt House. I’m a homeowner and I need a variance because I want to add a back yard porch in an historic neighborhood like human park we want to see street festivals we don’t want to see street us there too loud music midtown should be here. Resume it should be here why don’t we have more so you know everything the citizens kind of want to talk about it usually ends up on my doorstep as a council member and we try our best to be proactive to have a vision and a plan that’s inclusive of everyone who lives in the district the needs and concerns. It’s a very very diverse district. So we have to be thoughtful about you know there. African-American senior citizens who are living on a fixed income you have to turn are just a few blocks down the street when you have you know college to the Georgia Tech and your state Emory a youth center you have you know people who are living in true poverty on the boulevard corridor or a bear for parents average income is three thousand dollars a year average rate is twelve dollars a month and you have millionaires living in the district so this is a range of people who come and also we have quite a number of tourists like the all the whole to a large portion of the hotels in the district. The King Center the Carter Center the C.N.N. world Coca-Cola the market Mitchell house so we deal with this range of experiences that I don’t think everyone else has to deal with as a council member but I enjoy it because it’s never boring. We also are very proactive about bringing in nightlife and entertainment so I have is what avenue the old Fourth Ward in Little Five Points so I’m really progressive in terms of trying to make our city a very dynamic city like I’ve seen in other places that I travel to the places represent seem to be the at least the most exciting developments recently just in the new infrastructure especially like you saw in the tourist areas. We’re sure recently talking to the joist the guys a joystick who opened up on Edgewood Avenue that they were very excited about. Just everything. Energy. It’s probably the most dynamic place in Atlanta at least is in terms of the social scene. But whenever you talk about dynamism I mean there’s like massive changes that are occurring there as well I mean gentrification has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Have you been managing that in your position. Yes Well you know the market changed just as we set out on some revitalization plans for our community and I think it kind of helped us in that it didn’t run the prices it already begun to run up in the old Fourth Ward in particular and even to other neighborhoods like in the park and partly highlights they’ve seen change but they were already. Can it in a certain position whereas in all four four we’ve seen a lot of new people coming in with new price points and higher higher price points and we try to preserve as much of the indigenous residents who live in the community and one of our strategies is to increase the density so a lot of times neighborhoods are opposed to density. But if you don’t have this city someone’s going to lose. S. taxes go up or as people begin to sell their homes. Unless you can create housing stock that meets a range of options so you have to have low income medium income high income and that affordability spectrum has to meet not just the demands of the poorest people meaning those who have been in poverty for generations but also even college students recent graduates can’t afford to pay a lot of money they don’t have jobs either. Or if you’re an existing student how do you live in this cool neighborhood. So we’re trying to or if you’re a senior citizen on a fixed income used to make a lot but now you’re fixed so we were trying to think about everybody in this spectrum and we’re doing a decent job but I think there’s much more to be added in the affordability meaning below the high E. and we need to add a little bit more lower income for the bartender’s the baristas the hipsters I mean people call it the frustration though because whenever there’s a new development it always seems to be let’s get the luxury market. Yes immediately. So that’s my new push. I’ve been. Send in the masses out to developers that we want to see different things coming on the market for instance on Boulevard We have three new projects come. We’re actually four but three of them are owned by Wingate Management which owns Baffert pines which is the area with a low income so you don’t want senior citizen building eighty two units which will be at a fixed income price point. They’re doing another building which will be similar to what I said and better plans already for low income families and then you’re doing one building for a Millennial. So you kind of got a mix of. Of options and that increases their density so will get about four hundred units out of that but then we also have a a lot more in market rate development that’s happening across the street by private developers. So if we’re trying to pushing in housing stock that meets the demand where people really are and not just price people if it becomes that in town then it’s going to be a boring neighborhood you know I don’t want to hang out. We don’t want to just have it all bucket or Alpharetta we want to make it something that’s too unique in its character and in all kinds of people can live there you see a lot of I guess agitation has become more conscious of the class living alongside each other. I know that the crime statistics in the city are definitely declining or at least on the hard numbers are looking at it. But perhaps the biggest. Top of the news has been Baltimore but the organization there around downtown and to do you have a comment. Yes Well you know I grew up here in Atlanta and my parents were in a civil rights so I probably have a slightly I mean I guess more form take on how we need to address concerns like what happened in Baltimore as a child growing up here in Atlanta as an African-American man I surely had to run up against interactions with police that could have been life threatening you know or more than one occasion. You know a person who grew up in Atlanta went to good high school went to MIT but still in my youth I had guns pulled on me by police officers where I could have been killed. My brother now on one occasion in particular only twelve years old another time in Chicago we were laid on the ground like we were you know some guys who did something bad so that does happen for sure. Primarily in communities of color but just you know to people who are of a darker Hewett you feel that that how we respond to it is another thing you know we didn’t go out and riot or anything like that and I don’t think that’s a solution I think solutions really come around dialogue and conversation a disc. Or send it surely is a believer in Nonviolent Social Change I think you can assemble. But once you become violent you really become counterproductive in any in any situation. One of the things that we did in high school. We had two things going on. We had the police kind of pressure as young people growing up in the city but we also had pressure of you know conflict amongst ourselves between high schools you know rivalries between high schools that could have been gained you know and what we ended up doing was creating a youth group to stop the violence and to inspire us and even to create a mechanism for dialogue around the other issues that we were dealing with related to police. I think there’s a whole lot less of that type of conversation that type of organizational structure in our communities these days I mean the media the Internet music feels so much more powerful in the last A young people than it was when I was growing up I’m forty four years old today so you know when I go back when I was fifteen we didn’t have all of this. We had you know maybe M.T.V. but we didn’t have all of the stuff that influences people and that level of influence I think is much more powerful in the lives of people who may not have a father in the home may not even have a mother in the home and the support and the structure and if you don’t have that structure you look to other people for it. And we look and other people can be you know the neighborhood drug bill or it could be somebody else who is doing something illegal and then that influences your your thinking is not always like that sometimes you know people are needing someone to help them but when they’re walking down the street and they get accosted by an officer after three or four times you feel like the society is against you. You mentioned nonviolent protest several times and now I feel I could dance all around the legacy. How do you view Martin Luther King’s legacy in modern day and I guess what I’m really asking question if he still is he still around. Well. I think I mean as a person no he’s not but his legacy surely is something that some people hold as and I hold true to not everyone agree with Dr King’s perspective for sure in the sixty’s there were different perspectives there were as you know those who believed in Malcolm X. and he had he had somewhat of a you know not a violent approach but he felt like if you hit me I’m going to hit you back which is very different from someone who says if you hit me I’m still going to turn the other cheek. Now if someone hits you are you going to turn up the ticket you don’t hit a bat. Probably yeah. So everyone agrees with that as a solution. And actually wasn’t the case back then and even as you come forward to today. Me personally as a as a leader and as a person who grew up with came to nonviolence as a part of my culture. I believe that I can get more things done in a peaceful manner and I think generally that is what solves problems now. When I’ve had to deal with my friends and we had to deal with things that were around and I want to code it. Some people you have to appeal to they hear some people you have to appeal to their heart and other people need you to appeal to their high I mean when I was a child every now and you know every now and then the only time I doubted some Mark Rey as a class they would do their homework cut the teacher told him to. They would be good in class because the teacher told him to they need a little bit of a spanking. I mean we all know there are brands that can get it all in one in some you can emotionally appeal to them and other people may they need a little spanking. Now how that applies in these other situations is very different for sure but everyone is most people are motivated by different things. I prefer And I think ideally the strategy should be to have dialogue and discourse around points of disagreement and if we can’t agree there’s no reason for you to be extremely disagreeable that it results to violence right. That’s really where. I stand what I believe in do you do you think it’s difficult these days and sort of the media influence that we have to have a nuanced conversation with disagreement. Well I mean I restate that let me make simpler yet. I recall several of the footage from national press especially for Baltimore. There was a city council member there who was walking just to try to bring down the eyelets and he was interviewed by Fox News and it seemed like they were rushing to make sort of like summary judgment all points as opposed to a conversation about it which in the moment makes sense but at the same time like are we owed more from our media in just the ability to have a conversation. Yeah I mean you know OK so they’re in the business to make money which we always have to remember that I think there is a responsibility that the media ols as a community to some degree they’ve got a light not just taking advantage of the moment and instigate but they do to you know they always do if they get a little bit further because that become sexy and hot and it will be more viral and more powerful and attract more audience because that’s what they’re in the business of doing I wasn’t afraid of catching a BOLO but I knew several people who were freaking out when I let it was three of us and I’m like Guys we have the scientists who can treat heroes. We should be proud of this is a person thinking we’re going to have a zombie outbreak and he said but it’s really good to you. I mean so there’s always two sides to every story and you know we have friends who take the contrarian view in anything we do you know my best rants there’s one who’s going to always say you know no qualms astutely was and is no one is going to be like I agree with you and I think that’s the same Those voices are valid in a conversation and they’re valid in the media. However when either group goes too far to the extreme and they know they’re like pushing a little too far and instigating potential violence and things like that that’s when we have a problem and it also could be those who are all in the media who take the opportunity and the Liberty irresponsible. He to drive people to violence or to do things that are unsafe. I think that’s also equally as wrong when you know the sensitivity of the matter people I think those who are in the position should be more responsible and that can be anyone it could be a council member it could be a citizen who gets the mike. What you choose to say in those three minutes or thirty seconds can make a difference in someone’s life. You know especially when you know it’s a very sensitive and volatile volatile situation we go back to Ferguson and even other situations that have been in existence saying the wrong thing it causes all kinds of people to do things and you don’t necessarily see what the results of your harm on television so just because you talk about it doesn’t mean it’s going to be aired. What another person chooses to go do on the streets. So a random act of violence to someone else in another city was cause because you say something stupid to incite it further instead of being mature and responsible in trying to bring people together. So we don’t have very much time to time with you and I hate to switch topics but I got it I got it now. Did you did you just follow the Atlanta public school scandal that recently took over the city. Well so I was a school board member under Dr Hall and I knew many of the the people who were a part of that administration and some of them were were cited or were convicted. I stopped watching it after a while because you know whenever your court cases it becomes like a media storm so I can really keep up with all of the stuff I will say I think number one it’s a travesty that our school system and the school systems around the nation are not educating young people especially those who are coming from the most challenged situations to give them an outlet because education really turns out. Or to be the only way out of the most challenged situations in life are surrounded by poverty. So that’s number one. And that was one of the motivating factors for me because I couldn’t for leaving the school system because I felt like I could make the change happen that I wanted to make happen. I was running up against at the time a superintendent who had a lot of power and she was in control against the business community that was in agreement with their mode of operating and they were like hey do you want to be as if you’re in disagreement with us. What you’re talking about is not what we’re talking about. So we’re not going to really support you. So that was you know that was a tough lesson to learn that the powers that be can override what I feel is right and it can jeopardize your career if you’re not careful. So I think that’s part of it but when I look to what happened with these folks I mean you know. I think it is definitely wrong that the system created this situation for cheating and corruption to occur I think the entire city is complicit in this because all of us know that we’re not living up to the standards but it starts with the parents of the children. It also goes to the teachers and administrators and the superintendent but also the business people who would rather just see the numbers look good because they had to they had to. Even if they didn’t know if it was that good of a snow job not one one person could recognize it was willing to say hey this don’t feel right and there were people saying hey this can’t be true or when it becomes a hard line in. The administration of any type of organization or any type of job or company that it becomes my way or the highway on everything that should be a sign you know and I think that began to occur and you know you know I don’t know if the sentences were totally fair you know because there are other people who might have tested these scenarios when the business community and not one of them were called out but they were pushing just as hard but the system the status quo you understand what I mean and they probably have more power than a minister. They’re probably just thinking like you know want to mess with success right. Yes oh hey hey wait a minute you know I don’t don’t rock the boat you know what I mean. And if I’m a powerful business person and I have given millions to the school system and I’m supporting something I have a voice. I gave five million dollars to Atlanta public schools. I can tell people what to do on a rating of spineless to incompetent. How would you rate a tenth District Attorney Paul Paul Howard’s performance in the A.P.S. case and I guess to be a little less player for you was there any discussion amongst amongst the leaders of our city over the the switch that that Paul Howard had. Because at first you know going after racketeering because technically speaking it’s an organized crime then it qualifies for racketeering because it’s politically useful for him to do so. Then switching at the end when public opinion essentially went against him it was you know speaking as as an attorney it strikes me as one of the most egregious and worse things that I’ve seen come out of the Georgia bar since since I entered the bar. Well I’m not an attorney so you know you guys you all always kind of have these philosophical things you know you all are about I mean attorney can talk ever on different sides. We will spend probably half the you know this will have to be really right. Well yeah but but what I’ll say is I mean I do know district attorney Howard. You know I’ve interacted with him and he’s helped me with things in the district so I surely would say he’s been an ally in terms of dealing with community issues community policing when it gets to this higher order court stuff like this when this is intergalactic for me as a local council member to be honest with you this way I will say is above my pay scale but it’s like way up there in in spate in Star Wars to me because it’s just really straight for it should be straightforward. People did something wrong you know you can choose your level of punishment. Sometimes we use things that are for media fodder you know. You know everything has a has a potential spin to it. He is an elected official so you know you can go left or right and you can kind of play with the ball a little bit. I’m not saying that’s what he did I’m just saying that’s possible in these kind of scenarios the same with me and it could have been conscious you know it could have been you know people learned people growing sometimes on the spot and the same could be true the judge you know after he made his recommendation and he comes back and he resigns and he does something different. Well maybe you can sleep at night. Well and you really want to sleep with them this actually is when I really have given this to myself or what how would I feel if I were in their shoes. Did they really do it all and this goes to the racketeering thing which what about all other people who had a cold time. These are just workers in the grand scheme of things there’s a powerful people in this city who decide how things are supposed to be but they don’t get called out. You know none of them got put on the stand at work. Question about hey why didn’t you help pick the superintendent. Did you say this is how it should be operated. You know didn’t your old like make the rules and guidelines. So I think you know sometimes people have to do things for political motive. I think sometimes people do things and they think they’re right and then they discovered that way to me and that might not have been the best idea and they change. I’m just thankful to see people being willing to evolve you know because if you’re not willing to grow out of a position and change your position that can be an issue in the long term. Now how do you know if your prosecutorial type of attorney or if you’re on the other side. I personally have had weird experiences with prosecutor types. Anyway you know I mean I think sometimes they decide to go for the book and just to throw it at somebody and I don’t know if that’s really fair you know just like a teacher when you’re in school and you know she turns around and he turns around and it’s you your for him playing and you get the point. You did it you did in your life how do you do it they did it and you cannot explain your way out of it and you’re sit you know you get in trouble you tell your parents you know that feeling of I mean I wasn’t in the wrong it was my and he’s always or always she’s she. Was it me under the table but I had him back but I got caught you know so I think that I am the one who was you know labeled the bag just like the flags on the half hour and you know that you know basketball I mean you know it’s not it’s never see it right there right elbow before is a long time ago and nobody saw that apple pie I mean so you can have those kind of situations to occur. So I’m just I just leave room for human error and human nature and usually you find out what’s really going on when you look at it from that perspective was a human when I heard the judge was or throw the book and it looked like that I was like I don’t think that’s ghosting and then they they were a kid and because I was like I mean now from a national media perspective all people really will remember is that a lot of people got the book thrown at him. Right I mean do people know the second story. How many second stories do we have in life around here right. Second story I mean you know something’s going to go in and come back in this town. Yeah people come back also when we bring a big bag and we I mean you know if everybody I mean who doesn’t make a mistake and who don’t deserve a second chance. If you’ve never done anything wrong in life and have again a second chance then you know you lie you know we all deserve a second loans we make it means that we can’t you know. And memoranda deserve a second chance for a playoff run if the team can get them they’re going to need to get in there and we need to weigh in and I mean it’s a stadium we need a way to do what do we need a new stadium. Well you know I voted against the stadium. But you know everybody didn’t agree with me and it’s OK It is what it is and sometimes it happens in local governments they build stadiums and tear down all the time it goes back to Rome so we want to build our society was based on roaming Greek philosophy epic washing about hand over my palm this goes way I don’t normally start about Coliseum doesn’t blame Sherman Nero burning you know Francis goes way back so that’s the history of modern civilization and laser rebuild yes you know what we do in government. For me I was against it but we now know it is built we gotta make the best of it is under way. I just like to ensure that people live in those neighborhoods nearby get jobs and give business opportunities they deserve it. It should just be this big stadium plopped down on a neighborhood and no one there gets that tide to lift them up. That’s the success story I want to see I would love to see that you know some key it got a job there and he earned his way up and in five years or seven years or ten years he holds some kind of business that is a success. Story now I don’t think that’s something that Mr Blaine and his team don’t want to see but the challenges begin to how you create an environment where it happens. And they’ve got to get it built by twenty seventeen. So that really is probably the most difficult thing but you know you don’t let them all and I don’t you know I don’t harp or harp on things wusses over the coals over it now if I can deal with Park Elana Now that’s something I’m not done with but the stadium is something you know it’s over that being is being built so let’s make the best of its moon first yeah they’re moving it so I mean it will still not be vertical right now. We could probably talk about it but they are trying to build it and they’re committed to it so let’s go ahead and make the best of it it is helping our economy and hopefully Vice City and the bluff in the areas right english Avenue will feel some positive left and not just be gentrification just pushes people out but it becomes a healthy catalysts for the neighborhood but I think there are much smaller things that we can do in communities that don’t have to be nearly as big as a stadium to effect positive change. You know very simple you can do community cleanups and you can do and turn them into community festivals and turn them into block by block house by house. Our reinvestment in the community by the immediate neighbors that’s what we did in all four for we started in the King industry with the historic development corporation it was a terrible place in one thousand nine hundred ninety when I bought a house over there. Man it was a cuz a lot and they likewise were building houses on this lot got to be kidding me you want me to buy what. And this is now this is at the Warner tower by the beltline at the end of all right across a service that none of those houses were there so it was just because you and I can show you a picture if you look at it like I would have bought there either in one thousand nine hundred nine. Really. So we had. Maybe a little pioneer in risk taking but I have to say it was the best investment I ever made and to be a part of the positive change and then to buy another piece of property and to see my neighbors buy what you want is not speculators. We don’t even need speculation about if I could tell say anything to the real estate community. Frans out there I appreciate that you like to make money but I rather see you invest in a neighborhood and live in it and continue to invest in it because then you care about it. You protect your investment very differently when you live near it but if you’re just invested in some neighbor you can’t even drive to in ten minutes or twenty minutes. You don’t really care about it the same way and you’ve got to let it be overgrown. You’re probably not going to just want to run the price up. And just running the price up doesn’t make for community or makes for communities when you know your neighbors and you all are working together you’re proving it together and that’s what I’ve seen happen in the old Fourth Ward I’ve seen some of the best people to be a part of the community like Joe Stewart and who owns the property where church is church the restaurant he owned that building it was empty for years I mean like eight years when he bought it just hailed it and he was trying to find the right tenants and we got a coffee shop which was Java ology and we had two other people to come next door but they never really got opened and now I’m so sad that they invested but they never opened in the year we finally gat another coffee shop to come in and take our job ology and their church came and next door corner tavern tank came in Cafe Sarka. So you know not exactly in that order but it was just the fact that we had all of them to kind of make an investment but he held it and he was a part of the community because he bought another building so what most people say always very scary is very scary. That’s when you need to be buy but not buy just to speculate but buying to make positive change happen in our community and which ultimately affects our city. And that’s the one thing I can say for those real estate investors don’t just be a speculator who just messes up a neighborhood because also if you make a great investment and you’re part of the positive change the return on investment is going to be even greater. Think about what his property is worth now in a corner of it would have all of our going I mean you could put in a Starbucks if they would ever come. So that’s my point. So that is that people love it but I mean you know what is unique is that yeah it’s you know one of the kind kind of thing that you could only get in a place like in the Bible. That’s right that’s right. So even as a different texture to an experience that people were expecting to be only one way now goes another direction and I just think that’s the kind of stuff that makes Atlanta rich and we’ve got to do a whole lot more this and it’s really our future. It’s our generation that’s going to have to take on really making these investments in time and energy and hard dollars to make this city the great place it can be that’s inclusive that is forward leaning that you know really isn’t that also you know just be a place of Bucky at our southwest Atlanta you know one is all black and one is all white you know neither really plans together. What about all the other things in between. If you can be you know the perspectives you can have. We don’t have to wear ties especially in the summer not winter tires all summer may I’m just tired. Then I might not have them oh man that’s my everything. So yes I know you hate wearing a tie when it’s like July and August in Atlanta so they may have my virility and masculinity. I’ll be buried in the sky and I don’t know where all the time now got plenty of and where but you know I feel so much better when I get to walk around and people don’t know that I’m council member for about ten minutes and then I get to be the normal guy and we can have a different conversation. I got one question before you go. One chooses to take it on the way back machine and nobody knows what this is like you just won and your first day as a politician what do you do. Go hall and just you know have dinner with your family while they like it’s like past that like when you actually show up. OK Like you said if our the bathroom is I suppose for nicer second thing like what do you what do you do. I think you so. Humpy should have humility first and foremost a lot of folks get elected you can’t tell them a damn thing they think they know everything and can’t get a lot more is the way. So go meet the janitor go meet the coffee shop attendant or the front door security and just say hey introduce yourself. I’m new here. Tell me about this place. You’ll learn so much more because people know when to ask but they know everything they see and they listen and they’re just around in the shadows. So that’s what I do I try to just talk to regular folks and that’s that idea when I got a letter to the school board and the same for city council spent time listening to regular people you learn so much more. It takes humility to do that. Oh absolutely this is a good emotional point that I don’t want to like shift but like I have a good question I want to have and that I’m frugal when we talk to business owners in town they often it’s almost as if they fear and I don’t think you’re responsible for this or where in the city it’s a breakdown but there’s times when they’re like afraid of giving their real opinion because either something demonstratively like slows down and I’ll call ICE and such as next forever. Our friends or should we. Yeah if I only please me the joystick like they have nothing. Great things to say about this when the first business left doing it but they’ve been sitting for months on something across the street that’s just going to strain it was very difficult to move forward it seems like for new investment development. Well I’ll tell you the biggest proponent for removing those row blocks in the permit system and in the licensing system assuming people do everything right. Not everyone has their ducks in a row. They either go and try to fill out an application and they don’t complete it or they hire a consultant and expediter or an architect who does it do it right and it’s not my fault if you hire somebody and you know it’s going to be difficult anyway. But you hire somebody and they make you go another three months longer because they applied with the wrong document or they did not include all of the documents. They did it against the cult and they need to tweak it. That’s not my fault but I still want to help you. Now in the cases where it is not there. I’m available and even if it is that I’m available but often times people sit in this quote quiet try to think of the words like this quiet pain because they don’t tell me so there and I know these guys I just saw them actually at the Zoo Atlanta public safety meeting but they didn’t say hey Kwanza man we got an application in and it seems like it’s moving slow. If I don’t know I mean again a legislator I don’t do the day to day so I don’t have the permit people reporting to me I don’t have anybody in that office that’s my staff they don’t owe me anything. Exactly yeah. So so you go and put in your application and you like it says they’ll respond in a week and they don’t respond for three weeks because you called them five times what you didn’t tell me in those three weeks that you even applied. So just didn’t doesn’t cause a Kwanzaa survey. There’s no consequence and do care and often times when people call me and tell me we are part of the process so the staff also know somebody is watching and it may not be that they are afraid of me but if they know that at least there’s another set of eyes on this homework that they need to do so when you don’t have it. The teachers not calling about your homework should not stand in need to be tardy. Oh Michelle’s an ASS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TODAY I just started. Alright so it’s the same guy that nobody’s I got a lot of work to do. M. It is vacation time coming up. Let me do two of these but the other seven are not the other way but if the council member calls and says Hey what’s happening with this movie I mean so squeaky wheels get the oil but you don’t have to bug me to death but at least let me know that you’re engaging with the system here for you. I’m your council member. That’s why you elected me right to represent your interests but if I don’t know your interests you think they tell me when to get your application goes in I don’t know it’s so different talking to a city councilman there and then some other members of government because some members of government really don’t advertise that they’re available to help there are some who are very content to just you know do you know a lot of us. Give me any money you know your vote Senate and Senate let me rule. Yeah I mean you know I think it makes the job so much more enjoyable when you’re available and accessible. Number one because you never know what new challenge is presented to you but also once you’ve done a couple of the same types you know how to like get them down quickly and you even know who the people are to call and once you have a report because it’s all about relationships when you know the staffer who deals with the warder meter issue that happens only when it’s under the the sewer of the disc then and there. Well you call and say hey we got one of those A.B.C. issues. Oh really. OK let me help you out. And then the second time is like a charm. Flash to close how do you get that. Our joystick at the issue and it took them like six months but it happened for us in six weeks. Whoa thank you. Well we had a relationship. We dealt with it before we developed an institutional knowledge and we were assholes through the process of like jumping because any time you jump in anybody’s back they’re going to feel it right now they deserve it that’s one thing but if you’ve never really had a relationship with them how can you be mad at them because they can say wait a minute I’ve got one hundred of these which one comes first ones and I’ve got another twelve council members jumping on me and the mayor’s team has people that they are driving to ride herd on so how do I pick priority. Well I’m going to give you I’m not going to use a stick I would give you care hey it’s so good to see you like you but how can I help you. This guy did a great job. Who do you want to see coming. Yeah right but also we do try to be accessible on social media Facebook or Twitter Instagram. That’s how we make contact available and my staff also manages Council accounts as well so I mean I don’t think there is I mean it used to be if you went out and gave a number out of your car many people would harass you because I’m not going to give you a car and I don’t have a car because that means you get to do more work. Oh you want to have your number. But you know when you actually start giving it out and you solve problems you get another problem he will get it done before you call him. But that’s all. That’s also a reward because it makes us feel good that we’re actually delivering service so I don’t really consider politics the politics is when you have to like cut deals and all that kind of stuff. Really more on the service side. I believe this is here is a story and I have a responsibility to be a good story to be a leader. And make sure things happen that are under this dominion that I have so this little bitty district that I’m supposed to represent. Let’s make it the greatest area for anybody to live and work and to have a business this is the grand plan. Yeah I think oh yes all of this place and we have a world around it. Yeah. As a you know an intentional effort we have plans for every neighborhood that will all that all weave together to make us a super cool part of town everybody wants to be in you know we got an e-mail from Jess and you want to talk about I think it was the year of Boulevard. Yes Yes So I kind of mentioned that the year Boulevard or something we started about four years ago and you know the four years of all of our way man has turned out to be more right here you know I’ll tell you. So we have these neighborhoods industry too. We had about twelve or thirteen at one point but because we grew in population during the last census we had to shrink down to six. But we had home park we had Castleberry heal we had Atlantic Station all four for him apart poncy Highlands midtown downtown Centennial place you know Marietta Street artery right up here. Well when we shrank. And right before we began to shrink we began to look at what had we done so every year you kind of planned next year like end of the year kind of plans for next year. Well what we’ve done for every partner we got that done what we’ve done for four forgot that what we’ve done for Patiala Scott that time what we do for the aquarium folks what we do for Coca-Cola when everybody’s happy what have we done to two big issues one homelessness so district who has half of all homeless service provider probably seventy five percent of all service providers and half of all homeless live in districts where everywhere around under the bridges Pine Street maybe seven hundred or so but we have there about seven thousand six or seven thousand homeless at least thirty five. Four thousand are in District two and then all of the dishes combined make up all the homes because we have the train station ten train stations we have the MARTA bus stops we have all the tourists we have a lot of bridges and infrastructure that you can sleep under and put tents under and stuff like that. So it’s like the perks and all the service providers so people give away food. People who organizations that provide support of services they’re here as well. The most convenient place so you don’t have to go far if you had to go south with a lantern or a bucket to get food every morning. It wouldn’t work. Yeah right so that’s that’s why we have but it was either homelessness or it was bad for pies which was the area with the highest concentration of poverty in the southeast United States. I didn’t know this at the time so I’ve been elected all these years you know ten years or so and we’d see a list. This deal would bear for PI’s because it has families and children. Homelessness is a bigger issue than we can handle bar sales get involved start to discover what are the real numbers let’s get the data. What are the facts about seven hundred families about three thousand people. Average income is three thousand dollars a year. Imagine a three thousand dollars a month. Now why don’t you do medical suits Mitt. Very little is going to die when the time is not so colors a thousand dollars one hundred dollars. So this is so let me go back oh three thousand dollars a year twelve dollars a month. OK And these are families. I’m saying young women primarily African-American eighteen to twenty five years old make up sixty two percent of this of this population so the greatest concentration of poverty in the whole southeast probably old project. A Section eight is owned by a private company they have a contract with the federal government and they’ve operated here for thirty years and they get a check every month for federal government. So do the math if they lease a thousand dollars per unit time seven hundred units but they add maintenance and a whole bunch of other stuff. So it’s probably more like two thousand dollars per month per unit. OK So one point four million dollars pastoralists So they’re done I mean yeah whatever. Well yeah they’re out of Massachusetts so I went to them four years ago and say hey guys what are the neighbors liking I’ll just tear this down to make a license in your place. Renovate it you notice Bubba but I say Well first of all cause if we have a contract with the federal government this is the place of last resort. We have nowhere else to go. We can give people housing. So OK it was a lot of problems to get A K forty seven blows going to people’s homes next door because you got a hundred thousand houses right next door to these units. OK So this is also the most diverse in terms of economics in anywhere else in the city. Compared anywhere else in the city and they were like look man. Number one was that you know we have a contract. Number two if we put the people out where they don’t go and I was like well OK I guess you got a point there. But our town and I say guys you know you live in Boston you know you have a wealthy family you don’t have big mansions you know your own property like this in the old probably only all high end property and bucket all over the country as I you know can you really say that this is a place that you would have wanted to grow up in it can you say that this is a place that you’re proud of and that you know the numbers of children who graduated from college. P. tell me how many six year old for thirty years how many kids graduate from college. How many graduated from high school do you know as I know we don’t know when. It’s probably not a place is not a place I want to grow up in a sense so how I know is that your responsibility you’re really only in the real estate business you’re not responsible for the people who live here but you have generations of people who live in this place. Family after family had three generations of a family have lived there and none of them are going to college. How is that something or even graduated from high school. How can you live with yourself look yourself in the mirror and be happy we just collect the check off of these folks. Zach Oh I mean I we want to do it I don’t need money that bad you know. So he was they were like well yeah I guess you got a point there cause but we can’t put the people out and we got a contract. I say well why don’t we come up with a strategy to help not just give to people but help people to own their own future and to get themselves into another place a better place mentally you know physically spiritually financially you know educationally let’s help the families get on and move up you know and out and they were like OK well let’s do it. So we called it The Year of Boulevard. OK. So we like to go do this or year it will be done. May I tell you so we began to discover so the headaches Atlanta community asked us because if you had one wish what would it be. I said if we could give every child in this corridor a summer possibility a summer like I you know my parents were rich but or real wealthy or anything but we got to go to summer camp. I got to travel. I got to play sports I got to go in the worse I got to go fishing camping. I mean you know you did different things that enrich your life. These kids don’t get to do they only get to leave the few blocks where they leave even the summers know that their peers are twenty five twenty eight you have to know how do you thirty do you know if they might raise it up now instead of raised our I know I wouldn’t. Well that’s right my point. Oh it was a ploy to stay out of it. So you got folks who are like they’re trying to raise children and they haven’t even maybe graduated from college in some cases or high school. I don’t have a job. Well I think right places where a man would have an advantage would be like I guess just like family networks you know little community stuff they like does this and it sounds like like your mission is to enable communities who maybe don’t have that kind of personal rich to be a part to be a part of each other and just have sort of like dignity. Yeah so we just give people their dignity and to own their own futures so we gave the children every child who’s a pair that the parents would allow them to be in a summer camp. We’ve given them a summer camp opportunity because you know what happens but there are great if the young people are not doing something to them. And learning during the summer and learned in a week is they’re not going to be able to keep up with two years in the school and what happens the whole school which is the majority in the majority concert will be far behind and no one wants to put their kids and their school because the kids are high achieving. So you got a pocket of just low achieving low income families until you can do something to shift it so we say number one we need to give the kids an opportunity then we began to give the parents expose we had a block party where we were we brought out all kinds of social services which people need to do a court situation in the driver’s licenses. You know all kinds of situations that you don’t know how to fix in the system you know how hard it is for joystick. Yeah I think it what it feels like for a young mother who has two kids who has and she’s twenty eight two or three jobs can’t go to cover any began to have a car so how do you deal with that government system and all the idea of government is this the police to arrest you might be where you get some public assistance and you know what does government do for you. So so so we passed out flyers and had you know a community block party a couple years. If we go and put flyers on the doors I text everybody would like to be funny. I said this is Kwanza hall and city councilman why you come out and they were like No I’m not a part of that religion and I know I know they’ll thank you no thank you no thank you I says a free block party come want to know. So we went and knocked on doors it was ten o’clock on Saturday. All kinds of jumpy houses about bouncy houses and fire trucks and basketball goals and three stop in Bengal. Everything out there a lot of supportive services you know gave away things but also services like G.E. D. you can sign up for that or HIV test in mammograms all had stuff like that. Library cards. They were like well you know synastry blocked all was that a site is a block party for you Do you see the fire on the door. We got three flyers hanging on the door no one had even taken them off the door. OK So then we like you can come on out. So people came in it kind of creeped out like you mean this for us it was ever done anything for us over here. Why would they do it something for us. So if you think business people feel like government is not for them. Imagine just being a poor person with no money no real education How is government going to work for you it don’t work for you and that was what I discovered that year. Same here so even I’ve been giving my cars out to these guys and but I see the guys on the block you might see him when you ran down pull over via the Parkway there like Mack was a thank you but man I got two felonies how my go get a job what what do I call you a do I only have a cell phone because I can’t afford to share a lower market share in minutes so I’m just say the disparity is so great and is so different from Western. Normal for everyone. You might know we might know that we had to take a pause and say wait a minute me first how can this be going back to the King legacy this is just a few blocks from where Dr King was born where he worked where he worshiped and where he’s now buried it’s not that far away I mean just like down the street I mean. So why don’t we talk about all these things we want to see change happen in our society. But we still got people living like this. How is that possible. So you know we’ve begun to drill in on each piece of this and just do a little pieces trying to bring you know technology companies to help us do entrepreneurship training for kids and you know taking kids on trips taken him to many of the kids and never been to the Children’s Museum which is around the corner because parents don’t have transportation. They even know exists it existed. It’s I mean it really is. It’s amazing man and I’m just so thankful that we discover this problem but it really is an opportunity for us to do something positive to affect the lives of so many people but also for others to engage to be a part of this. It doesn’t cost you that much to be a part of helping. So we made it work people to support one cow for the summer or be a part of the families are just the key is to do something like you do that and come to spend a day with you would just shatter you to see what another world is like because that might open them I sparked I want to be like that guy in the suit that lawyer guy. What’s it mean to be a lawyer I don’t know. Well now most are Googling he told me what I need to do and I’m going to be a lawyer. You know that’s that’s really what the opportunity is for us in our city and the travesty is we have so many other communities that might not be quite as impoverished but they exist all over our city and the majority of the young people in Atlanta Public Schools fit that demographic out of. Forty five fifty thousand key is I would say surely thirty five thousand are in that kind of space. Somehow in that space you’re speaking of the bulge in the bottom level in terms of economics in terms of background of Paris the challenge that they’re facing at home. I love I love the fact you’re taking an impossible problem which is you know the greater problem of socio economic class issues in America and in just doing something you know something small no matter how small you might think that it is just get delivering something like hope or inspiration. That’s how you make positive change and that’s all it takes is just incremental changes here and there was you know it’s always sounded like the most criticism for programs like this started at the top down and they just say well look at fail. Yeah because I never serve the community. Reminds me of a as an engineer one of my favorite stories at Georgia Tech was essentially they keep saying how they won World War two with engineering and economics one of which was they used to repair holes on planes when they came back after a dogfight they said no don’t patch the holes it was a fine patch the places without holes because nothing comes back with injuries there. You know and so like wow you know success is in the hole but like in perhaps an educational model of rewarding success seems to sort of deprive frailer even further you know it’s. If this is an example of like a top down mechanism that seems to almost I guess reinforce property by accident. It’s not so much rewarding failure so much as allowing room for failure because it’s only through failure that we’re going to learn. I mean anything really I mean like if you just have a life of success. I mean like I don’t know if you saw my movie Moneyball or read the book. The entire concept there was that Billy Bean who went off to manage the days he had a emotional breakdown at age twenty eight or twenty nine because he’d never had to adapt to a level. At baseball that actually challenged him and then he just wasn’t capable of it. I mean he struck out a couple of times went to a slump and it took him like a decade to emotionally recover from that and then come back again. So I mean that’s that’s the curse of success. That’s right that’s right and you know I think we have an opportunity to kind of share these examples and you know you have to do is create a few successes that people see and then they can believe you know it has to come from they are a real success like some kid who does something outstanding and that’s what I’m looking for now. Examples of success of innovation of creativity that are just par excellence. You know things are just like whoa. And then it lets other kids know I can do something special too because I know Johnny was Nespresso is he just can’t seem better to me already you know you got it I find those things and they lift them up and that’s what we’re trying to do now just kind of see this environment with with with the support that once something pops we can lift you know but you’re right failure is something that has to occur for you to get to where where you make a breakthrough and you have that resilience to be able to endure it through you know if you can if you don’t feel you’re never going to succeed. So you got a feel of something so I guess I just want to say thanks for having me I hope you take this because I want to hear and I fear but from my heart. Sixty Minutes later you’ll get more out of me than a plant. I do have another meeting but I enjoyed it and I’ll come back for sure. One real quick question. What’s what’s in your future. Oh well I know this right down to the Ferris wheel but but but I mean you never know you know a lot of folks have said that I should take a very very serious look at running for mayor and I am and I think I’m taking a look around running well. Take a serious look. But there’s a high probability because I think there’s a lot that we can offer. Surely from our learnings as you know maybe I’m a council member and just you two and I say we because I believe to really take our city where it needs to be has to be a team of people you know and by two guys in the audience to be a part of it. If we were to make that leap. It has to be a group of people who want to make the city a great place that is not a solo job. And really the potential is so great right now. Elana is right to just kind of make exponential growth and you know love the mayor I hate him he has made some very difficult decisions that have gotten us to a certain place. How he got there they may not agree but they’ve got us to a certain place and I think we can build on that and there are other mayors who come who’ve come before all of them have done some unique and special things. But to go for the future is so bright. But we’ve got to strike the iron while it’s hot and I think some of the experiences we have had industry too could surely lend themselves to the rest of the city that may not have progressed as far as we have and I think it was a great inspirational book at the closing. Any time thank you so much. Kwanzaa hole and yeah we would love to check him every time his new development for sure. Thank you very much.
The post 35: Urban Development & Bridging Class Division with Atlanta Councilman Kwanza Hall appeared first on Comcastro Podcast - Geek Culture Talk Show.