Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Ciper. I am your
Speaker 1: host Ramsey's job. Big shout out to q Ward, who
Speaker 1: has taken the week off to do a bit of recovering.
Speaker 1: I won't put his business out there, but everything is
Speaker 1: good in q Land and we look forward to a
Speaker 1: speedy and safe return of him to the show very soon.
Speaker 1: This week, we have a lot for you to stick
Speaker 1: around for, not the least of which is a gentleman
Speaker 1: who is joining us now. He is someone that I
Speaker 1: met at a city council meeting. We're electing a new
Speaker 1: city council person in my district where I live, and
Speaker 1: he just had some really important things that he brought
Speaker 1: up in the debate. I guess it would be called
Speaker 1: and I thought of inviting him up on the show
Speaker 1: to talk to us today about some of his policies
Speaker 1: and some of the things that I think we need
Speaker 1: to discuss in this forum here. He has led a
Speaker 1: billion plus dollar in technology and transformatory transformational initiatives. He's
Speaker 1: also been an advisor to many of this country's the
Speaker 1: most successful corporations, and of course again he's now running
Speaker 1: for city council and District six in Phoenix. We have
Speaker 1: Harry Curtin with us today. Thank if you want, Thank you, yes, sir.
Speaker 1: And then of course we have a lot more to
Speaker 1: stick around for as well. We are going to be
Speaker 1: discussing Benjamin Banneker for our way Black History Fact. We're
Speaker 1: also going to be talking about how you can become
Speaker 1: a better Ally. There is a lot going on with
Speaker 1: Alabama and the way that their district lines are drawn
Speaker 1: for voting. A lot of folks feel like they are
Speaker 1: trying to weaken the black vote and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of eyes on that, and there are a lot of
Speaker 1: national implications for that. So we're going to break that
Speaker 1: down for you as well. So that and of course
Speaker 1: plenty more to stick around for on today's episode of
Speaker 1: Civic Cipher. But first and foremost, like we always do
Speaker 1: right around now, I'd like to artist off with some
Speaker 1: Ebony excellence. So this week's Ebony Excellence is sponsored by
Speaker 1: Let's Keep Growing hair Care Products. They make organic hair
Speaker 1: and hair care and growth products which are available through
Speaker 1: Walmart and of course Let's Keep Growing dot Com. And
Speaker 1: I'd like to take this week's Ebony Excellence. Normally, I
Speaker 1: pull a story from somewhere really cool and I share
Speaker 1: it with you. But this one is a little bit
Speaker 1: more personal. It's a little closer to home. Gentlemen, I
Speaker 1: know by the name of Iron Daniels aka Rockadala. I
Speaker 1: don't want to shout him out because he recently released
Speaker 1: a feature film. It's called The Unhitch King, and he
Speaker 1: is an example of a person who came up through
Speaker 1: adversity and has a we'll call it a street level story.
Speaker 1: But over the past several years he's focused on his
Speaker 1: passion for filmmaking and the most recent result of his
Speaker 1: efforts is called The Unhitch King. So it's really special
Speaker 1: to see someone start from where he started and now
Speaker 1: has a film in movie theater that you and I
Speaker 1: can go and see again. It's the culmination of a
Speaker 1: year's long effort, and it's a comedy. It's hilarious and inspirational,
Speaker 1: and of course he's an example of exactly what a
Speaker 1: person can do with their life despite the many challenges
Speaker 1: of their youth, to rise above and become a master
Speaker 1: of their craft and ultimately make a national splash. I'm
Speaker 1: very proud of Iron Daniels. We all are. We know
Speaker 1: him as Iraq, we know him as Rockadalo. He has
Speaker 1: many names in where I live, but now that he's
Speaker 1: on a national scene, we have to call him Iron Daniels,
Speaker 1: so we will do just that. But again we're very
Speaker 1: proud of him, and we employ to go check out
Speaker 1: as movie. I'm sure you'll love it. And if you
Speaker 1: can't make it to a theater near you that's carrying
Speaker 1: the film, bear in mind that it will be making
Speaker 1: its way to streaming platforms nationwide after its theatrical run.
Speaker 1: So that for this week is a more personalized Ebony Excellence.
Speaker 1: And once again shout out to our sponsor. Let's keep
Speaker 1: growing haircare again. Let's keep growing. Now, Harry Curtin is
Speaker 1: with us today, Yes, sir, so let me tell a
Speaker 1: little bit more about the story. So I was invited
Speaker 1: to the meeting. We have a current city council person
Speaker 1: in my district and he has termed meaning that he
Speaker 1: cannot run again because of term limits, and so I
Speaker 1: believe there were six people on a stage. I was
Speaker 1: invited to this event by one of my neighbors who
Speaker 1: knew I was politically active, and of course that I
Speaker 1: host the shows. And her name is Niki, So shout
Speaker 1: out to Niki. She's a listener of the show as well.
Speaker 1: She invited me here. Had never been to something like this,
Speaker 1: And of course I'm sitting and I'm listening to everyone,
Speaker 1: and I very early on realized that I was one
Speaker 1: of two black people in the room, one of whom
Speaker 1: was on the stage, but the only one from the
Speaker 1: community city there and listening for obviously, there are things
Speaker 1: that affect our community, but there are other things that
Speaker 1: affect black people, specifically that and brown people, and they
Speaker 1: don't affect other folks. And so I was listening with
Speaker 1: that ear because a lot of times, and as I
Speaker 1: could see, those ears weren't present in that room, those
Speaker 1: questions would not could not be asked with any authenticity,
Speaker 1: because there would not be any lived experience underneath systemic
Speaker 1: or oppressive systems or whatever, invisible or otherwise. And so,
Speaker 1: listening to this panel of six people who all are
Speaker 1: very eloquent, very well versed understand sort of what the
Speaker 1: needs of the city are, one person stood out to
Speaker 1: me as being empathetic and really addressing things on a
Speaker 1: human level. There was a person who was really technically like,
Speaker 1: you know, we're going to get business, and business is
Speaker 1: going to do great, and that's all love good, and
Speaker 1: there's another person. We need to be safe, and we
Speaker 1: need to our first responders, and of course that's all
Speaker 1: well and good. Other folks you know about water and
Speaker 1: other folks you know they have every teachers. All of
Speaker 1: these things are necessary. We're human beings. This is the
Speaker 1: way our society works. This is how we grow and
Speaker 1: prosper and thrive as a society. But I think that
Speaker 1: the thing that stood out to me was the individual
Speaker 1: I found myself listening to had more to say about
Speaker 1: how individual human beings are affected by different things and
Speaker 1: how experiences might be different. And when we start there,
Speaker 1: we can develop policy that has a real impact and
Speaker 1: really feels like it resonates with folks. And that person,
Speaker 1: of course, was you appreciate that? Yes?
Speaker 2: Speaking from heart?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so. Let so that's how I got to
Speaker 1: meet you. But I don't know your story, and our
Speaker 1: listeners of course don't know. Sorry, let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about your background sort of what led you to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I think just to kind
Speaker 2: of get on top of that, I think for me
Speaker 2: it's a revolution of being human, you know, getting back
Speaker 2: to the truth, and I think we just get farther
Speaker 2: and farther from the truth in politics, and one of
Speaker 2: the reasons why I wanted to run. But you know,
Speaker 2: it's always important. I like to tell my story and
Speaker 2: why am I doing this? You know, it's just such
Speaker 2: an odd thing to run. Everyone's afraid of it right now,
Speaker 2: and they have good reasons to be. You know. For me,
Speaker 2: it's really been a long story. I mean for probably
Speaker 2: ten years, I've been thinking about it. You know, I've
Speaker 2: gone through an evolution of that process and thinking about it. Sure,
Speaker 2: you know, I think ten years ago I thought, well,
Speaker 2: that's what you do, you go run for office. And
Speaker 2: then as I grew up more and more I realized, well,
Speaker 2: I think I just want to help people. And in business,
Speaker 2: I found that the things I love the most. You know,
Speaker 2: you mentioned some of the things I've done, and I've
Speaker 2: really been instrumental in really large scale projects and things
Speaker 2: that have really made a difference, some billions of dollars
Speaker 2: a loans for people that could and they couldn't get
Speaker 2: loans before. There's all sorts of areas I've worked that
Speaker 2: have been really special to me and powerful. But sometimes
Speaker 2: it feels like I'm just making a lot of people money,
Speaker 2: and I haven't really gotten to the root of helping
Speaker 2: people the way I want. But that took me years,
Speaker 2: you know, to kind of go through this process, and
Speaker 2: eventually I got to Okay, Well, this city council position.
Speaker 2: You know, legislature can be really noisy. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of members, but in your city council, there's a small
Speaker 2: group of members making big decisions. In Phoenix, you've got
Speaker 2: you know, a billion one point six billion dollar budget
Speaker 2: plus that are decided by eight people, plus an air
Speaker 2: that's your city, you know, that's police, fire, that's streets.
Speaker 2: This is what you see every day. And so I said,
Speaker 2: well that's something I could maybe get my handle on.
Speaker 2: You know, I've got a grip on that I can
Speaker 2: work with the people, with a small group of people
Speaker 2: and get some things done. I see it, you know,
Speaker 2: I see a connection. I think I also saw that
Speaker 2: Phoenix isn't too far gone. You know, I think some
Speaker 2: cities are so old. I grew up in Buffalo, New York.
Speaker 2: It's so beer, it's so slow. I don't know if
Speaker 2: I can fix anything there, you know, but this is
Speaker 2: still a young city. We have good infrastructure. We did
Speaker 2: things right from the beginning, but we're just starting to slip.
Speaker 2: It's like everything's getting slower and more bureaucratic and more
Speaker 2: about politics and decisions, and every city does that. What
Speaker 2: about if we're not that way? You know. So that's
Speaker 2: part of the reason that it I came here. But
Speaker 2: one of the course for me too was not only
Speaker 2: my kind of business. I think experience and knowing that
Speaker 2: I could solve big problems was growing up as a kid. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I grew up. It was hard for me.
Speaker 2: I grew up. My mom was severely mentally ill. She's
Speaker 2: still institutionalized right now in our institutions. My whole life
Speaker 2: bipolar and manic depressive, very intelligent woman, very capable, but
Speaker 2: this disease has really overtaken her. And my father very
Speaker 2: nice man, but severe alcoholic and always brought us really
Speaker 2: financial burden because of that, you know, power going out,
Speaker 2: a lot of government cheese. You know. I lost my
Speaker 2: sister in the mid eighties, my oldest sister. They're a
Speaker 2: terrible rape and murder that ended up being national news.
Speaker 2: The guy ended up going on the road and we
Speaker 2: had police protecting our home and it was really intense,
Speaker 2: and I really ran out of there as soon as
Speaker 2: I could. I got on a motorcycle when I was eighteen.
Speaker 2: I ran for the West Coast because it was as
Speaker 2: far as I could go from all these memories and
Speaker 2: really started to pick myself up and work and get
Speaker 2: a job, get two jobs, get three jobs, and then
Speaker 2: start to just forget about that past. And I think,
Speaker 2: now I'm at a point in my life I've got
Speaker 2: some skills. Well, I don't want kids to go through
Speaker 2: what I went through, so maybe I can put those
Speaker 2: skills to work, you know, So sure.
Speaker 1: No, I love that, And I think it's important that
Speaker 1: people listen to stories like this. Obviously, you know, we're
Speaker 1: listening to around the country. But you know the fact
Speaker 1: that you said, you know, this is a place where
Speaker 1: I feel like I can make some changes. I can
Speaker 1: you know, make a splash an impact, and they're doing
Speaker 1: just that. I think that's something that a lot of
Speaker 1: people can relate to, especially after the past couple of
Speaker 1: years there's been a growing divide ideologically politically in terms
Speaker 1: of morals and values and things like this. I remember,
Speaker 1: I'm forty years old now, so I remember once upon
Speaker 1: a time that for the most part, everyone kind of
Speaker 1: was pointed at the same outcomes, hoping for the same outcomes.
Speaker 1: I just had different paths.
Speaker 2: Of getting there. I know what connected my speech now
Speaker 2: when you say that point, sure, sure, exactly, we'll get
Speaker 2: to Now it feels as like we can't even agree
Speaker 2: on what a shared reality is. It's like one of
Speaker 2: us is subscribing to a vivid and tactile reality and
Speaker 2: the other group is imagining their world as a separate,
Speaker 2: independent thing that It's just it's a little weird, and
Speaker 2: so no, I think politicians are dividing us, not bringing
Speaker 2: us together. Yeah, this is the reason I'm really doing this.
Speaker 2: I just think it's broken. You know, they don't have
Speaker 2: to when I get down to it, Man, I got
Speaker 2: friends that are Republicans, Democrats on far sides. You just
Speaker 2: talk as people you find really, yeah, you want the
Speaker 2: same things. You want safety in schools, you want all
Speaker 2: these things we want, but we politicians continue to just
Speaker 2: rip us apart. It's just not right, and it's a
Speaker 2: main reason I'm driving at this and trying to make
Speaker 2: it more human, you know, telling my story. I have
Speaker 2: a passion for fixing problems. I have a passion for people.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm here. I want I want. I hope
Speaker 2: that message picks up. You know, whatever happens with this,
Speaker 2: I hope somebody steals it, you know. And we kind
Speaker 2: of because I can't just sit back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. And and
Speaker 1: to your point, you know, there's I had a conversation
Speaker 1: the other day with a gentleman named Rodney Glassman. Rocket
Speaker 1: Glassman was running for I believe it was attorney general,
Speaker 1: and he is a far right leaning individual. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: call him far right, but you know, solidly republican, and
Speaker 1: of course I have a little bit more of a
Speaker 1: liberal philosophy when it comes to how to govern a
Speaker 1: group of people. And you know, we ended up just
Speaker 1: talking just we ended up meeting just randomly on the street,
Speaker 1: and we took a liking to me and I you know,
Speaker 1: he's telling me about his story, I'm telling him about mine,
Speaker 1: and again, we had a lot in common. So it
Speaker 1: was really interesting to see, you know, me this tattooed,
Speaker 1: you know, younger looking sort of individual who clearly doesn't
Speaker 1: come from the means that this man comes from just
Speaker 1: having a real right Yeah, and so you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm five eight, you know, on a good day, you
Speaker 1: know he were just different people. But you know, he
Speaker 1: loves his children. You know I love my sons. We
Speaker 1: talked about that, schools, you know, things like this, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't even a political conversation, was a human conversation.
Speaker 1: You would have never he didn't lead with his politics,
Speaker 1: and or did I. We just were two people that met.
Speaker 1: I was familiar with him, and then as it turned out,
Speaker 1: he had heard of me from being on the radio
Speaker 1: for such a long time, as like, oh, I'm familiar
Speaker 1: and yeah, you know, so I'm glad you made that point.
Speaker 1: So let's do this. I'll be honest, I'm newer to
Speaker 1: the political arena me too. In brief, well, you may
Speaker 1: know the answer to this better than I do. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In brief, let's describe what a city council person does.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So the city council is responsible for your police,
Speaker 2: your fire zoning. Okay, we'll talk about that because it's
Speaker 2: an important topic. It's picking up your trash, it's potholes,
Speaker 2: you know, it's all these little things we usually take
Speaker 2: for granted every day, but they can have an impact
Speaker 2: and and all their larger scale things, but maybe smaller
Speaker 2: like environment, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Maybe water.
Speaker 2: You could do some things, but you're really please fire.
Speaker 2: Zoning is, from what I've seen, is really the core
Speaker 2: of this and the potholes in the trash pick, you know,
Speaker 2: but you try to kind of influence as much as
Speaker 2: you can in areas that maybe are more state federal.
Speaker 1: Okay, understood, understood. So you mentioned aes zoning and it
Speaker 1: seemed like you wanted to get into that. Let's do
Speaker 1: it right now while we're here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we you know, so zoning is a really
Speaker 2: interesting topic because it's not talked about a lot. Sometimes
Speaker 2: it is, but there is a I'm just going to
Speaker 2: say it. There's an inherent racism and zoning. I mean,
Speaker 2: there just is. I know. Yeah, yeah, so you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, but it's not talked about. You know, they
Speaker 2: didn't come up. I don't think it would ever come up.
Speaker 2: You know. It's a pretty it's it's a tough thing
Speaker 2: for people to handle. But this is what's been going
Speaker 2: on and part of what I've and I've learned that
Speaker 2: through this process. You know, what's been really interesting is
Speaker 2: that people that are in the development space sometimes you
Speaker 2: know why they you know a lot of times, but
Speaker 2: they know that that's part of the problem, like they
Speaker 2: can't get projects done because of these frameworks that were
Speaker 2: set up a long time ago, and they want to
Speaker 2: they want to sell us, they want to make it affordable.
Speaker 2: You know that's good business, sure, sure, but yeah.
Speaker 1: You know something that I realized is that a lot
Speaker 1: of people that end up benefiting from let's call it racist,
Speaker 1: a racist framework that has its roots in a racist
Speaker 1: past that historically was discriminatory or whatever. Pick your poison
Speaker 1: for this one. A lot of the people that benefit
Speaker 1: from it or further it do so because they are
Speaker 1: unaware of the history of the legacy. They're unaware of
Speaker 1: the profound implications on people that don't look like them.
Speaker 1: They lack the frame of reference to personal experience or
Speaker 1: access to conversations to even.
Speaker 2: Always wealthy be anything about wealthy people.
Speaker 1: Watch this, watch this, So on this show, of course,
Speaker 1: we reckon those folks, our brothers, and there is the
Speaker 1: same as anyone else. We recognize that they just lack
Speaker 1: the perspective, but they often have the power. And what
Speaker 1: we what we've learned in our travels here is that
Speaker 1: white supremacist institutions are visible or invisible push back against change.
Speaker 1: This is how they were designed to, you know, and
Speaker 1: then it's just human nature. I don't want to blame
Speaker 1: any person on an individual level, it's human nature. I
Speaker 1: imagine any group of human beings that were.
Speaker 2: Sometimes how you learned, sometimes what you exactly, Sometimes an
Speaker 2: experience you had has impacted and it hasn't given you
Speaker 2: an opportunity to rethink that exactly.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I you know, it's really easy
Speaker 1: for folks to look at it and say, well, these
Speaker 1: folks lack empathy. I'll be I'll be honest. I've I've
Speaker 1: thought that at different points in my life too, and
Speaker 1: I think in my clearer moments or my moments of clarity,
Speaker 1: I should say I have realized that, you know, these
Speaker 1: folks aren't inherently bad they're doing with human beings would do.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like absolute power corrupts absolutely, and so
Speaker 1: we have to they have to be given the breadth
Speaker 1: to change in the in the latitude, to you know, evolve.
Speaker 2: Otherwise it's just war. It's just a war.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to make sure that I said that
Speaker 1: before we got past it. So you know, I realized that,
Speaker 1: but regardless of what the outcomes are, you know, this
Speaker 1: is what our charge is for anyone who has any
Speaker 1: power and lacks perspective.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think I'm one of those people.
Speaker 2: Angry. I've been there. It never really did me much good,
Speaker 2: cleaning things up more than anything, but love kind of
Speaker 2: makes things a little easier.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is exactly exactly man. So so how about this.
Speaker 1: Obviously I need to ask you this question, but let's
Speaker 1: make sure that our folks outside of Arizona get some
Speaker 1: perspective as well. Specifically, what would you bring to role
Speaker 1: as city councilmen in Phoenix and what do you see
Speaker 1: as perhaps issues that affect the country as a whole
Speaker 1: that could be addressed on let's say that level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so I think so start with me kind
Speaker 2: of where my difference is. I think we're heading into
Speaker 2: a pretty heavy economics storm.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I'm a wartime constickliary. I am someone that solves big
Speaker 2: problems when s hits the fan. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: what I do. I do it through diligence. I just
Speaker 2: don't give up until the problem solved. I love solving problems.
Speaker 2: This is my difference and I'm not I'm not doing
Speaker 2: this because I want to be a career politician. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't know what my future is. I I just
Speaker 2: know I'm good at solving problems. Yeah, and I won't
Speaker 2: give up. I mean part of that is a fear.
Speaker 2: I fear that a little bit because I'm wondering what's
Speaker 2: coming for me. If I get this opportunity, I'm going
Speaker 2: to be changing things. Yeah, maybe drastically. You know what
Speaker 2: does that mean? How are they? You know, it's it's
Speaker 2: not going to be easy to do that in a
Speaker 2: place where it's not used to changing, right. But I
Speaker 2: think for me, that's really my biggest asset is being
Speaker 2: able to get into these problems. And it's funny when
Speaker 2: you see a big problem, what people think is causing
Speaker 2: it is usually wrong when you get into the facts, right,
Speaker 2: if you really spend the time, you can find out
Speaker 2: what's really causing it, and you can come back and
Speaker 2: actually address the problem. And we can talk about some
Speaker 2: problems I don't want to get too far off, maybe
Speaker 2: homeless or police and yeah, talk about yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well listen, well how about this this.
Speaker 2: Place is national that's something we could talk about too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, do you know we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about that? So well, let's let's take a moment, let's
Speaker 1: talk about let's say, homelessness. You know, this is something
Speaker 1: that is it affects us here in Phoenix or you know,
Speaker 1: California has a problem with it. And then just course,
Speaker 1: housing prices around the country have gone way up in homes.
Speaker 1: Home prices having kept up with wages, of course, graduates.
Speaker 1: The cost that it takes to go to school and
Speaker 1: graduate means folks are saddled debt. And there's just kind
Speaker 1: of this whole backwards thing where if you look back,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty forty fifty years ago, it wasn't that
Speaker 1: way folks could really get out there and make something
Speaker 1: on themselves. And so yeah, let's talk about you know,
Speaker 1: let's you said homelessness, let's talk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that one's really close to me again. That's
Speaker 2: why I like to talk about my background because then
Speaker 2: it kind of connects to dota why I am emotionally
Speaker 2: tired of these problems. But so, a homeless problem in Phoenix,
Speaker 2: really four or five years ago wasn't really that noticeable.
Speaker 2: You know, you always had a little bit of it.
Speaker 2: It has changed dramatically, dramatically all right all through the city.
Speaker 2: And you know, I can't speak for other cities, but
Speaker 2: I'm sure they're experiencing some of that same thing as well.
Speaker 2: La has always had it. San Francisco we alway knew there.
Speaker 2: Those have gotten worse. We didn't really have it. Now
Speaker 2: we got problem. The main problem with the homeless and
Speaker 2: how we're not really addressing it appropriately is one we're
Speaker 2: not owning the problem. So owning the problem is knowing
Speaker 2: how many homeless you have in your city, having accurate
Speaker 2: in for data about how many homeless you have. Sure, right,
Speaker 2: the city isn't taking leadership role to say, okay, we're
Speaker 2: going to set up stations around the city, you know,
Speaker 2: the off food, water, whatever it may be. So we
Speaker 2: continually kind of collect this data, know how many people
Speaker 2: we have. If we don't know how many people who have,
Speaker 2: how do we solve the problem right? Right? So then
Speaker 2: once you have the data, you break it down really
Speaker 2: into three buckets that you're dealing with in the homeless situation.
Speaker 2: Dealing with severely mental ill which is actually from all
Speaker 2: the experts I talk to, is a bulk of the problem.
Speaker 2: And the reason why that's the bulk of the problem
Speaker 2: is that ninety percent of our mentalist psychiatric hospitals have
Speaker 2: been closed in the last forty fifty years. We pushed
Speaker 2: them all on the street. Okay, this was a Reagan
Speaker 2: era policy, and that essentially is carried on. The Next
Speaker 2: thing we're dealing with is addiction. People on our stand aways.
Speaker 1: Addiction. Man.
Speaker 2: Sometimes these kids are coming off of good homes, They
Speaker 2: bounce around, couches they stole, and then they ended up
Speaker 2: on the street and now they're near their dealer. Right, it's
Speaker 2: not always lower income. These kids are coming from all
Speaker 2: over the place. But you've got addiction, and then you
Speaker 2: have people that have fallen on hard times. Now those
Speaker 2: are three buckets. Once I have an accurate account of
Speaker 2: what we're dealing with, I can then put a solution
Speaker 2: in place. Right, I can expand sechre after hospitals, addiction facilities.
Speaker 2: I was at a woman's recovery faily a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago or a couple of weeks ago, excuse me,
Speaker 2: And there was a woman there that thirty years she
Speaker 2: was on off the street, I mean drug She came
Speaker 2: before a good home. Just things didn't work, you know,
Speaker 2: just spiral out of control on the streets, Heroin, you
Speaker 2: name it. Two years in this facility, she has a home,
Speaker 2: she has a job. We saved a life, and right
Speaker 2: now we're spending money this city. I mean it's been
Speaker 2: documented forty or fifty thousand per homeless. I'm hearing expert
Speaker 2: saying eighty thousand per homeless. And that's because police, fire response, hospitals,
Speaker 2: all this stuff adds up. Man, that's two grand every
Speaker 2: time somebody shows up. You know, somebody said twenty grand
Speaker 2: I think when we're speaking, and that's just way off, right.
Speaker 2: So we're spending money. Let's put it towards a solution
Speaker 2: that works, right. And then so the third bucket is
Speaker 2: that housing. We've got to get building housing. We're just
Speaker 2: not doing it right. It's too slow, it's too political,
Speaker 2: and those people and those people's problem are a little
Speaker 2: easier solve, you know, but we need those three buckets.
Speaker 2: We then need to provide the right solutions to then
Speaker 2: solve it and we can make a real debt. I'm
Speaker 2: not saying wipe it out completely, but man, we can
Speaker 2: hit them. You know, money is being spent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Well I'll tell you this. You know, low
Speaker 1: cost housing obviously is something that a lot of folks
Speaker 1: don't want to touch. It but I want to talk
Speaker 1: There is an approach to it, and on this show,
Speaker 1: we famously Q and I my co host and I,
Speaker 1: we spent ten years on the streets of Phoenix actually
Speaker 1: feeding the homeless through our nonprofit called The Change Society,
Speaker 1: and we fed folks out of a monarch theater and
Speaker 1: we partnered with casts and the Midwest Food Bank and
Speaker 1: so forth. So this is obviously something that we know
Speaker 1: very well and just glad that you have a plan
Speaker 1: for that. So we will definitely talk about that more
Speaker 1: on the second half of the show.