Latest / The People's News / Unions Win in Houston; Safe Walk Home Northside; Saving a Legendary Theater - TPN 8/9/26

Transcript

Unions Win in Houston; Safe Walk Home Northside; Saving a Legendary Theater - TPN 8/9/26 · The People's News

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Speaker 1: It's the week of August the ninth, twenty twenty six,
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Speaker 1: and this is what's on the People's News. Local union
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Speaker 1: wins fight getting kids to school safe. African Americans are
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Speaker 1: looking for more from Democrats as a new study shows
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Speaker 1: USAG confirmation is now on rocky ground. Renewables could reduce
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Speaker 1: data center energy demand in Texas. There's still time to
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Speaker 1: save a legendary Houston theater. All that and more on
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Speaker 1: the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is the People's News,
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Speaker 1: and the People's News starts now. The fight is over.
0:51
Speaker 1: As union leaders settled their forty two day strike against
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Speaker 1: Ashland Specialty Chemicals, a three year contract was ratified between
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Speaker 1: the four unions that are represented at the plant, which
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Speaker 1: involves seventy skilled workers to Ashland Specialty Chemicals. What the
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Speaker 1: main issue was was not pay, but cross utilization, meaning
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Speaker 1: they wanted employees to do another job for which they
1:17
Speaker 1: were not trained or certified to do work. Also an
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Speaker 1: issue with sickly and short term disability. We talked to
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Speaker 1: two union officials, Lewis Crawford, lead negotiator IUOE Local five
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Speaker 1: sixty four and Shane Smith, machinist with Iam.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm Lewis Crawford. I'm the business agent for Operating
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Speaker 2: Engineers Local five six four and the lead negotiator for
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Speaker 2: the Tech City Metal Trade.
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Speaker 3: And I'm Slane Smith, a machinist's been at Ashland for
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Speaker 3: eighteen years NOO and with the IEM and part of
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Speaker 3: the negotiating committee.
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Speaker 4: All right, congratulations on you guys the ratification of a
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Speaker 4: new contract. Tell the listening audience how you guys are
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Speaker 4: doing and how and how's this contract working for you?
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Speaker 2: Well, we just ratified a Tuesday, and uh, we haven't
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Speaker 2: returned to work. The guys wanted to go back Monday
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Speaker 2: to get a little break, you know, post strike. Let's
2:10
Speaker 2: stress things like that. So we hope the contract will
2:14
Speaker 2: work out. We're certainly going to hold the company accountable
2:16
Speaker 2: with all the things we talked about it during negotiations.
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Speaker 2: I think Shane would agree with that absolutely.
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Speaker 4: And what what's what's what's part is, I know you
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Speaker 4: guys wouldn't ask for money. All you guys were dealing
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Speaker 4: with was safety.
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Speaker 2: Yes, sir, we were not asking for money. Uh. Money
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Speaker 2: was discussed early in negotiations and we settled on that.
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Speaker 2: It never was an issue. Our main concern was operators
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Speaker 2: doing crosscraft work, uh, you know, which what they call
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Speaker 2: incidental work, and we finally got some of that limited
2:47
Speaker 2: and specified for individual tasks. So we felt, you know,
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Speaker 2: we're still not happy with doing all that, but we
2:53
Speaker 2: felt it's something we could manage.
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Speaker 5: Uh.
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Speaker 2: They changed the maintenance callouts and on call, which really
3:00
Speaker 2: isn't fair to the maintenance employees, and we got some
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Speaker 2: of that change during the last round of negotiation. So
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Speaker 2: those those are some of our big concerns. We protected
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Speaker 2: the packagers bidding, which was another core concern. We did
3:12
Speaker 2: try to save the storeroom, but it ended up getting outsoores,
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Speaker 2: but the company agreed. As a matter of fact, this
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Speaker 2: next Wednesday, me and the committee along with Shane are
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Speaker 2: going to go back and negotiate the placement of these
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Speaker 2: two storem employees. So you know, that's better than them
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Speaker 2: just playing them off.
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Speaker 4: And what are some of the other things that was
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Speaker 4: that that you guys felt was important? Especially I think
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Speaker 4: the biggest one that I heard was cross utilization is
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Speaker 4: what they were trying to use. Try to use somebody
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Speaker 4: those contracts to work one job and have them be
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Speaker 4: somebody else's work.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I led with. We we mitigated some
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Speaker 2: of that and we had them specify for certain tasks.
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Speaker 2: They kind of just put a blanket like operators will
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Speaker 2: open man ways. Well, it comes to find out when
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Speaker 2: we've asked enough questions. They wanted them to do that
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Speaker 2: for a specific job, not all the man ways in
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Speaker 2: the plant. So we had them list that in the contract.
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Speaker 5: We put a few.
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Speaker 2: Guardrails we could. So many other issues were the sick leave.
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Speaker 2: They really slashed that and we got that almost doubled
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Speaker 2: in our last round of contract negotiations with the mediators.
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Speaker 2: So it's still less than what we had, but it's
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Speaker 2: improved quite a bit.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, because the one thing, one thing you
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Speaker 4: guys were fighting for was not to be docked when
4:34
Speaker 4: you call in six.
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Speaker 5: And they were.
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Speaker 4: They were docking you guys at its limited in amount
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Speaker 4: of days you can take off, right.
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Speaker 2: They had slashed it in their original proposal, the one
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Speaker 2: that was turned down twice to pro twelve hour shipworker
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Speaker 2: to four days a year of sick leave, and we
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Speaker 2: got that improved slightly.
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Speaker 3: And they were also trying to use your vacation for
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Speaker 3: in lieula of the sick leaves.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, they wanted you out of benefits typically is uh,
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Speaker 2: you know the vibe we got so that you were
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Speaker 2: stuck in the plan and you know you've got these
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Speaker 2: guys need time off, twelve hour shifts. Shane does maintenance
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Speaker 2: and they may work fourteen sixteen hour days when things
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Speaker 2: are down, and you know, you got to have that
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Speaker 2: work life balance. You got to be able to rest
5:17
Speaker 2: fatigue the real thing.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's the thing that's another scene to the
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Speaker 4: issue because you know that's when you get tired, and
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Speaker 4: that's when mistakes happened.
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Speaker 2: Which isn't anything to these guys. You know, people that
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Speaker 2: don't the work aides. These guys work twelve our shifts
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Speaker 2: every day and you know they turn their lives upside down.
5:33
Speaker 2: They work shift work. Uh. They missed birthday parties, they
5:36
Speaker 2: missed Christmas. We we we gave all of our strikers
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Speaker 2: off for Fort July and for something. It was the
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Speaker 2: first time they had that holiday off in years. Yeah.
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Speaker 4: Are you getting double time and a half on on
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Speaker 4: on those holidays?
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Speaker 2: I believe it's double time now that they we make
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Speaker 2: concessions everywhere.
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Speaker 4: What things did the company want from you guys?
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Speaker 2: Uh? They well, they wanted to flashistically They wanted the
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Speaker 2: ability to lay people off at will when they needed to,
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Speaker 2: up to ten days at a time. Initially it was
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Speaker 2: thirty days. We got to reduce to ten days. Then
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Speaker 2: we got to remove They wanted to do the cross craft.
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Speaker 2: They wanted to shame shange the machine thats. They wanted
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Speaker 2: the machine's and pipe fitters to just be one group
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Speaker 2: of of maintenance workers called a general mechanic. That's a
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Speaker 2: slap in the face to these guys go through five
6:26
Speaker 2: year apprenticeship programs to beat these crafts. They don't just
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Speaker 2: learn it out as the plant. When they go to
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Speaker 2: the plant, they already know it their craftsmen, you know.
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Speaker 2: And so we got that, We got that removed from
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Speaker 2: the topic. There was just there were so many things.
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Speaker 2: Looking back, it's hard to say.
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Speaker 4: How how tough were they were. Was the company being
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Speaker 4: on negotiating.
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Speaker 2: Oh, that was terrible. The first day they gave us
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Speaker 2: thirty one proposals and twenty eight of them were union concessions.
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Speaker 2: When we battled back for two months, then we went
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Speaker 2: on strike and we battled it for another So we
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Speaker 2: had three weeks of negotiations to get where we are,
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Speaker 2: and forty two days on front.
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Speaker 4: How was the support you got from the general public
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Speaker 4: and other unions around around the city.
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Speaker 2: It was amazing, I mean just absolutely amazing. And the
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Speaker 2: brotherhood we built with these members at Ashland, these are
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Speaker 2: they are members of four different locals, the machinists, the electricians,
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Speaker 2: the pipe fitters, and now operating engineers. And right now
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Speaker 2: we're probably stronger than we've been at least thirty forty
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Speaker 2: or maybe ever. And we're going back to work Monday
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Speaker 2: stronger than we left the plan. I promise you that.
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Speaker 4: It was a long time coming too, because you guys,
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Speaker 4: you guys stayed out, you know, and I know, I
7:39
Speaker 4: know there was some self doubt. Did you have a
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Speaker 4: problem with anybody wanting to cross?
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Speaker 5: Uh?
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Speaker 2: No, you know we had to be across day one.
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Speaker 2: But since then, nobody else crossed. Uh. You know, there's
7:50
Speaker 2: always that fear because people have bills to pay, they
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Speaker 2: have kids, they have children. You know, they lost their
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Speaker 2: insurance and their medical insurance while they were out, so
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Speaker 2: those things wait have me and for nobody else to cross.
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Speaker 2: I think it's a testament to the brotherhood, the solidarity
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Speaker 2: we build.
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Speaker 4: Well, you guys, I'm so happy for you, and you
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Speaker 4: know I'm glad that. I'm glad this came through for
8:11
Speaker 4: you guys, and I want to talk to you guys
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Speaker 4: before you guys go back to work. This is this
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Speaker 4: is this is a big victory, especially in Texas. Yeah,
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Speaker 4: that's right, that's right, And I hope you guys the best,
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Speaker 4: and please let me know if anything happens with you guys.
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Speaker 5: I'll support you.
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Speaker 4: I started to try to support you one hundred percent.
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Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much. Yeah, and we certainly will
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Speaker 2: believe that. And we're going to hold this company accountable
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Speaker 2: the next three years and they're going to honor that contract.
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Speaker 4: When you go back to negotiations. There's a three year contract.
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Speaker 4: But you started negotiating within two correct.
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Speaker 2: Now, we usually go in a month ahead of time,
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Speaker 2: a couple of weeks. I asked for a month of
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Speaker 2: negotiations for this one, and the company only won a
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Speaker 2: two weeks. Well, they were wrong. Typically a month ahead
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Speaker 2: of time.
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Speaker 4: Well as far as keeping the young, the young guys
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Speaker 4: involved in trying to get them to trying to get
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Speaker 4: them both reach, you know, preach into the choir, we
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Speaker 4: did it on this one.
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Speaker 2: I'm telling you what we did it. Every single member
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Speaker 2: is engaged and we're going to keep that going, I
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Speaker 2: promise you.
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Speaker 1: That was Lewis Crawford, lead negotiator, IUOE Local five sixty
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Speaker 1: four and Shane Smith, machinist, with I am the workers
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Speaker 1: are going back to work on Monday and have the
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Speaker 1: weekend off. The four union groups represented at the plant
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Speaker 1: were IUOE Local five sixty four, ibe W Local five
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Speaker 1: twenty seven, UA Local two one one and IAM seven
9:41
Speaker 1: seven six. Local leaders join Safe Walk Home North Side
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Speaker 1: to kick off the HID school year. An HID student
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Speaker 1: was tragically stabbed to death on May seventeenth, twenty sixteen,
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Speaker 1: as he walked home from Marshall Middle School. Since then,
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Speaker 1: Safe on Home has been working to make sure kids
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Speaker 1: come and go from school safely on the North Side.
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Speaker 1: Stella Myerless Walters is one of the organizers.
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Speaker 6: Hello everyone, my name is Stella and on Monday it
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Speaker 6: will be our eleventh year that we come and celebrate
10:21
Speaker 6: the system here in the Houston and surrounding area. We
10:25
Speaker 6: welcome all the students back from HI and D. We
10:29
Speaker 6: welcome them back with a gift back that has been
10:34
Speaker 6: from all over the area. People have donated some started
10:38
Speaker 6: school supplies, some little snacks to get them going, plus
10:41
Speaker 6: a word of encouragement from our sponsors and partners. But
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Speaker 6: the main thing this whole event is for safety. Eleven
10:49
Speaker 6: years ago, tragically, we had one of the students from
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Speaker 6: that very school that the event is being held at,
10:57
Speaker 6: walking home from school and she was by a person
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Speaker 6: that was a client of a homeless shelter here in
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Speaker 6: this area. This area eleven years ago was extremely high
11:10
Speaker 6: crime area. There was very little attention being paid to
11:14
Speaker 6: it from the elected officials from the city, and so
11:21
Speaker 6: it was just something that was going to happen. Now
11:25
Speaker 6: moving forward, we have lowered the primary by being you
11:30
Speaker 6: the public to be involved, to be involved in training
11:35
Speaker 6: how to recognize suspicious activity and being the hero that
11:40
Speaker 6: these students and that the community needs in order to
11:43
Speaker 6: report that anonymously. We will train that and for you
11:48
Speaker 6: to continue train, continue calling, and continue bringing attention to
11:53
Speaker 6: the areas here and also an area area because we
11:57
Speaker 6: want our students to be able to walk to school safe,
12:00
Speaker 6: be able to will walk back from school, to be
12:03
Speaker 6: able to have a safe community. Now that's going to
12:06
Speaker 6: take all of us, each and every one of us
12:08
Speaker 6: to get engaged. Do we want to a lot of
12:11
Speaker 6: times we do not, but we do have to learn
12:14
Speaker 6: how to be that vital part of keeping your community safe,
12:19
Speaker 6: not only for the students, not only for the family,
12:23
Speaker 6: but for yourself as well. Because in Houston, it's not well,
12:29
Speaker 6: it's not amazing, you will be involved in some type
12:33
Speaker 6: of incidents. The percentage are very high. So why not
12:38
Speaker 6: get to training with Safe Walk Home. Learn what to do,
12:41
Speaker 6: get the safety training, get the first DAID training, and
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Speaker 6: also get to self defense. Because my hope and those
12:49
Speaker 6: of our volunteers and partners is that you will have
12:53
Speaker 6: a box, a toolkit full of training that will help
12:58
Speaker 6: you and your family when something because it will occur
13:02
Speaker 6: to be a car accident, it might be ready to help,
13:07
Speaker 6: be ready to help.
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Speaker 2: And that's what Safe Walk.
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Speaker 6: Home haven't been doing for the last eleven years. We
13:13
Speaker 6: have been coming into any community and we have been
13:17
Speaker 6: taken our training program for the number one.
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Speaker 3: Reasons for your safety.
13:22
Speaker 6: And even more so now we need to think about
13:25
Speaker 6: safety in the community. So I invite everyone to come
13:32
Speaker 6: in to come over on Monday Marshall Middle Academy of
13:35
Speaker 6: Fine Arts. If you want to get there of your
13:37
Speaker 6: early person please come out at six o'clock in the morning.
13:41
Speaker 6: Help us move the one hundred and fifty the two
13:44
Speaker 6: hundred student bags that we give away, the student gooding
13:48
Speaker 6: bag be there to share the students on it's a
13:52
Speaker 6: feel good event. We have a number of elected officials
13:57
Speaker 6: that have come out regularly. We have your congresswoman, give
14:03
Speaker 6: you Garcia. We have your Commissioner, Adrian Garcia. We have
14:07
Speaker 6: your elective Texas Representative, Cara al Varado. We have Christina Morales.
14:13
Speaker 6: We have Anna Hernandez, we have elected judges. We have
14:18
Speaker 6: your chief of police will be there, your system fire
14:22
Speaker 6: department chief will be there. We have community leaders, families, parents,
14:27
Speaker 6: be part of this. Let this see a spark in you,
14:32
Speaker 6: a sparking your soul to finally say, you know what,
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Speaker 6: this is something that I need to get engaged in and.
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Speaker 2: It does not require a lot of time.
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Speaker 6: So I invite everyone to come over support Safe Walk Home,
14:46
Speaker 6: Bring Safe Walk Home program into your neighborhood. It's free,
14:51
Speaker 6: it's necessary, and it save a life. And oar mato
14:56
Speaker 6: is one life saved is worth it all.
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Speaker 7: I didn't ask you.
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Speaker 5: Let me ask you.
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Speaker 4: A couple of questions we had when you when you
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Speaker 4: talked about the incident that happened what happened to that
15:09
Speaker 4: that that homeless Resource center that was across the street
15:11
Speaker 4: from the school.
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Speaker 6: Well, your voice speaking out to the public, your voice
15:19
Speaker 6: is so powerful that you don't even realize what power
15:24
Speaker 6: you have within you. The Safe Walk Home members, the homeowners,
15:31
Speaker 6: the business owners, we all got together and we petitioned
15:36
Speaker 6: that this institution that was here in this community for
15:42
Speaker 6: over fifty years. It started off as a very good thing.
15:46
Speaker 6: There was a lot of resources, but at the end
15:48
Speaker 6: it was just pretty much just a flop house for
15:52
Speaker 6: men coming in from all areas of town. As a
15:55
Speaker 6: matter of fact, this institution they advertised for the men
16:00
Speaker 6: to come over from all over Texas and from the
16:05
Speaker 6: prison system, and that's what happened. They would be released
16:09
Speaker 6: in this area and they would come in from all
16:14
Speaker 6: areas of Texas and they would stay here. Why because
16:19
Speaker 6: at the end, the only thing this institution was offering
16:23
Speaker 6: was a place to eat at night, with a place
16:26
Speaker 6: to take a bath, and of course, you know, change
16:28
Speaker 6: clothes from the donation from the public, and to sleep there.
16:34
Speaker 6: So it was really just a nonprofit slop house. And
16:40
Speaker 6: so then the men wouldn't leave it was they would
16:46
Speaker 6: line up at four or four o'clock in the afternoon,
16:49
Speaker 6: and once the bed capacity was was filled, the other
16:56
Speaker 6: men just stayed around this neighborhood and they stayed around
16:59
Speaker 6: there in day and the high crime was low crime,
17:04
Speaker 6: but continue low crime. The residents here, the homeowners could
17:11
Speaker 6: not leave anything in the front porch, it would be taken.
17:15
Speaker 6: They could not hang their clothes outside, especially a man clothes,
17:18
Speaker 6: it would be taken. Their cars would be broken into continuously.
17:24
Speaker 6: This was what I found when I came into this area.
17:29
Speaker 6: And all it took was that spark to say, how
17:36
Speaker 6: can we how can we help? And I reached out,
17:41
Speaker 6: to thank God, to the various police departments HPD Precinct
17:47
Speaker 6: six Metro HISD and they responded. I reached out to
17:53
Speaker 6: the elected officials and said, okay, now, how can you
17:58
Speaker 6: get involved with us here? And they were responded. I
18:01
Speaker 6: reached out to local community leaders and they responded. I
18:07
Speaker 6: was raised here in this neighborhood. I went to this
18:09
Speaker 6: very same school and I graduated.
18:12
Speaker 2: Across the street at the high school.
18:15
Speaker 6: And I remember how it was before this nonprofit institution
18:18
Speaker 6: came in, and it was nothing like what it was
18:22
Speaker 6: when I came back. I left, I graduated I went
18:26
Speaker 6: on with life, but then after the incident, there was
18:31
Speaker 6: just a deep wound in my heart. And at sixty
18:35
Speaker 6: two years oh, let me tell you, seniors, there is
18:38
Speaker 6: still life in you and people we need you. At
18:42
Speaker 6: sixty two years old was when I stepped into this role.
18:47
Speaker 6: I was not trained. I did not go to some
18:50
Speaker 6: institution or resources to where I was trained as a
18:53
Speaker 6: community leader. I just stepped into help and with my
18:57
Speaker 6: voice and with my time I was still working part time.
19:00
Speaker 6: I started moving, I started asking, I started responding, I
19:06
Speaker 6: started requesting. And that's the one thing that I'm going
19:10
Speaker 6: to remind all of you. You have a voice, and
19:12
Speaker 6: you have power, and that you have the power of
19:14
Speaker 6: registraint to vote.
19:16
Speaker 2: You have the power of.
19:17
Speaker 6: Letting somebody know I'm a registered voter, and you've got
19:20
Speaker 6: the power of asking. The worst thing that can happen
19:24
Speaker 6: is that people will tell you no, many knows I
19:26
Speaker 6: did receive, but many yeses. And that's why now we
19:32
Speaker 6: can say that in this community, we closed down that
19:36
Speaker 6: institution that was like a huge David and Goliath story.
19:42
Speaker 6: We were nothing. We were just a little small, you know,
19:46
Speaker 6: grassroots organization. But we hit the right time. We demanded
19:52
Speaker 6: the right things. We brought in the elected officials. They
19:56
Speaker 6: were our voice and we stood. They stood in front
19:59
Speaker 6: of us, and that institution closed a year after we
20:03
Speaker 6: were formed. And now we have not had any incidents
20:07
Speaker 6: of children, these students being attacked by men that clearly
20:14
Speaker 6: have huge problems, you know, addiction, mental problems, and they
20:19
Speaker 6: should have never ever been roaming this neighborhood that make
20:23
Speaker 6: this area such a high crime area.
20:27
Speaker 4: How can people find out about safe about your program?
20:32
Speaker 6: Well, you're finding out about it now. We do have
20:36
Speaker 6: a Facebook page that you can you can respond to,
20:41
Speaker 6: and you're welcome to email me at Espellamirellis at gmail
20:47
Speaker 6: dot com. You can join us your group anything that
20:54
Speaker 6: anyone who wants to join us. We appreciate your help.
20:57
Speaker 6: We need your help. We need we need to young
21:01
Speaker 6: and the willing to step in on these steps because
21:04
Speaker 6: you imagine this has been eleven years, so you can
21:06
Speaker 6: figure out how old I am now and I'm still
21:10
Speaker 6: doing it. I need to pass pass the torch so
21:14
Speaker 6: I encourage someone else to step into the shoes my
21:18
Speaker 6: shoes and to walk further with it. That's my goal,
21:22
Speaker 6: that's my prayer.
21:24
Speaker 5: I'm glad you.
21:24
Speaker 4: I'm glad you're doing what you're doing.
21:26
Speaker 5: And I've been out there. I've been out there one.
21:30
Speaker 4: Year and when you were when you were doing the
21:32
Speaker 4: safe walks for the kids on the North Side, and
21:35
Speaker 4: it's it's tremendous with work you've done. And it was
21:39
Speaker 4: it was sad that they had to have a tragedy
21:40
Speaker 4: for the for the for for the city and everybody
21:45
Speaker 4: to get mobilized, but you mobilize the whole community and
21:49
Speaker 4: the whole city to get to get involved in a
21:52
Speaker 4: lot of the schools and all other and people appreciate that.
21:57
Speaker 8: Thank you, thank you.
21:58
Speaker 6: It was I appreciate it was something in my heart
22:04
Speaker 6: that I was lived to do. And I invite anyone
22:09
Speaker 6: who has that burning in their hearts to want to
22:11
Speaker 6: do something, come join me.
22:14
Speaker 1: That was Stellamireless Walters with Safe Walk Home. You can
22:17
Speaker 1: find her group on their Facebook page, safe Walk Home
22:21
Speaker 1: north Side. Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host
22:27
Speaker 1: of the People's News. If you have a story that
22:30
Speaker 1: needs to be told, come to us. We accept fully
22:33
Speaker 1: produced audio written material, or just give us the idea
22:37
Speaker 1: and we will run with it. Shiny new one hour
22:40
Speaker 1: episodes of the People's News drop each Sunday on the
22:44
Speaker 1: People's News podcast hosted by Speaker dot com and linked
22:49
Speaker 1: to my website Gallington dot com. African Americans in Texas
22:54
Speaker 1: are wanting something more from Democrats. We spoke with doctor
22:58
Speaker 1: Michael Oadams, who is the director and executive Master of
23:02
Speaker 1: Public Administration at Texas Southern University.
23:05
Speaker 5: Clearly that was a discussion.
23:08
Speaker 9: I think it was a Kingdom Building or some venue
23:12
Speaker 9: in Houston. Over the last two weeks wet James sal Rico,
23:17
Speaker 9: who is a Democratic nominee for the US Senate contest,
23:20
Speaker 9: and just to get some background and some perspective, this
23:24
Speaker 9: is a very close election.
23:26
Speaker 5: We've had a primary and a primary run.
23:30
Speaker 9: Off on the Republican side. But to talk about since
23:33
Speaker 9: you mentioned James tall Rico and where black people are,
23:37
Speaker 9: we have to go back to March twenty twenty sixth
23:40
Speaker 9: earlier this year, when that was the Democratic Party primary,
23:43
Speaker 9: and in that race it pitted Jasmine Crockett, an erics
23:48
Speaker 9: Wild member of Congress who has given up She gave
23:52
Speaker 9: up her seat to run for the US Senate, and
23:56
Speaker 9: in that contest, I think Callerico, I don't have those
24:00
Speaker 9: numbers in front of me, but he won by six
24:02
Speaker 9: percent of the margin. And if you look at the
24:05
Speaker 9: breakdown of the vote in Texas, Jasmine Crockett, the black
24:11
Speaker 9: woman from the Metroplex, she did very well in the
24:15
Speaker 9: urban areas including Houston, Texas to Dallas metro Plex and
24:20
Speaker 9: also Eat Texas. So what's to take away from that?
24:23
Speaker 9: That's where we find predominantly black voters. And so black
24:28
Speaker 9: voters are looking at the Democrats the party as a
24:33
Speaker 9: whole as they they're on the precipice perhaps Jane in
24:39
Speaker 9: the seat that they haven't had since the late Lloyd
24:42
Speaker 9: Vincent occupied the seats and you can go back almost.
24:45
Speaker 5: Thirty years, three decades for that.
24:48
Speaker 9: And Calorico, James cal Rico from the Austin area, central Texas,
24:57
Speaker 9: a member of the Texas State House or Representatives, was
25:02
Speaker 9: virtually an unknown. Nobody knew about Talla Rico, and certainly
25:08
Speaker 9: in the primary if you look at in our surveys,
25:13
Speaker 9: most of the voters now they seem to know him
25:15
Speaker 9: because he has done very well in terms of fundraising
25:19
Speaker 9: both nationally and also in the state of Texas.
25:23
Speaker 5: And the Republicans.
25:25
Speaker 9: If you look at even the down ballot race in
25:27
Speaker 9: terms of Governor Abbott, and we saw in the poll
25:30
Speaker 9: we did where he was in front of Henonosa, who
25:35
Speaker 9: is running for governor, and most of what we.
25:38
Speaker 5: Call the poor executive position.
25:41
Speaker 9: You know, Texas is not ruby red anymore, but you
25:44
Speaker 9: can also say that it's a light red state, and
25:47
Speaker 9: so the Republicans probably going to win all those state
25:49
Speaker 9: wide offices. So that brings us back to the top
25:52
Speaker 9: of the conversation in terms of what this Senate race means.
25:56
Speaker 5: The Democrats really feel really.
25:57
Speaker 9: Good, can say in part because of what tallar Rico represents.
26:03
Speaker 5: He's a kind of ecumenical kind of guy.
26:07
Speaker 9: He's a virtual unknown other than some of the things
26:10
Speaker 9: that the Republicans have put out there in the messaging,
26:13
Speaker 9: really no real scar tissues.
26:15
Speaker 7: That's unlike its opponent on the Republican side.
26:18
Speaker 9: Who has just finished what people could say was a
26:23
Speaker 9: very or somewhat brutal run off primary against the sitting
26:29
Speaker 9: Senator John Corning, and that was bitter and on the
26:33
Speaker 9: Republican side, and we see that President Trump is underwater,
26:38
Speaker 9: but they're trying to fix that. And so Trump will
26:42
Speaker 9: be in the Dallas Metroplex either this month or early September,
26:47
Speaker 9: they're having their own state convention.
26:49
Speaker 5: That's only that's kind of unheard of.
26:51
Speaker 9: But all that is is to jet up the vote
26:54
Speaker 9: to make sure that the Republican Republicans get out and
26:57
Speaker 9: they turn out. Now, coming back to Tallarrica, Oh, why
27:00
Speaker 9: that's important. What it pretends for the black community. This
27:03
Speaker 9: is going to be a very false election. And then
27:05
Speaker 9: I poll if you look at our margin and era
27:08
Speaker 9: and the other polls of our when you when you
27:12
Speaker 9: talk about the margin of error for your audience, we
27:15
Speaker 9: were like two point eight percent, So that that means
27:18
Speaker 9: almost ninety seven percent of our people that we polled statewide,
27:22
Speaker 9: we had a sample of about twelve hundred.
27:24
Speaker 5: And for.
27:26
Speaker 9: Black voters, we poll five hundred black voters and we
27:31
Speaker 9: have to oversample when when we do that to account
27:34
Speaker 9: for the what fourteen percent of the population or less
27:39
Speaker 9: that we represent in.
27:40
Speaker 7: The state of Texas as a population.
27:43
Speaker 9: All right, So some people make questions, what can you
27:46
Speaker 9: say with five hundred Yah? Yeah, but you can do
27:48
Speaker 9: a pole. They've been doing pole gallop And as a
27:50
Speaker 9: political scientist and as a poster, you can do a
27:54
Speaker 9: nationwide pole and have fifteen hundred people and make it representative.
27:58
Speaker 9: But I tell polls people when I have a discussion
28:02
Speaker 9: about post that's like I teach my students in the classroom.
28:05
Speaker 5: It's only a snapshot of a given moment. Uh. You
28:08
Speaker 5: can always have what we.
28:10
Speaker 9: Referred to in the political science literature as a black
28:12
Speaker 9: Swan event or an October surprise. Anything can happen between
28:16
Speaker 9: now and election there. So I'm going to land there
28:20
Speaker 9: now and then we'll come back and allow you to
28:23
Speaker 9: I don't want you to get get lost in my commentary.
28:27
Speaker 5: So you may have a specific.
28:29
Speaker 4: Well, you know, one question is is the governor and
28:33
Speaker 4: you said all the other Republicans have pretty much set
28:36
Speaker 4: but set to win and set to win. Is it
28:40
Speaker 4: no way that Democrats can win either governorship or any
28:44
Speaker 4: or any of the railroad permission? Because a lot of
28:49
Speaker 4: a lot of the rhetoric that's coming out of the
28:50
Speaker 4: out of the Republicans is it doesn't doesn't affect most
28:55
Speaker 4: Texans and it's mostly dealing dealing with kind of that.
29:00
Speaker 9: Yeah, go ahead, we're dealing with things besides besides.
29:07
Speaker 4: Besides with benefits Texas.
29:10
Speaker 5: Yeah.
29:10
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, I'll say this, and this is
29:12
Speaker 7: always my disclaim.
29:13
Speaker 9: I'm an academic. So I'm not in the prediction business.
29:16
Speaker 9: I'm not associated with the Calci or whatever you all
29:19
Speaker 9: do when you'll go out there and place those bets
29:21
Speaker 9: in Las Vegas on who's gonna win the final four
29:24
Speaker 9: basketball games and all that stuff.
29:26
Speaker 5: So I wouldn't try to mislead the audience. Who knows
29:31
Speaker 5: who can win. I'm not saying.
29:32
Speaker 9: I'm saying, but given voting trends and the people we
29:36
Speaker 9: survey are likely voters because we go back and look
29:40
Speaker 9: at previous election cycles, if they voted in those cycles,
29:44
Speaker 9: they're they're more likely to vote. And so we try
29:47
Speaker 9: to use science in this and just looking at the
29:50
Speaker 9: science and the da and the data, and most of
29:54
Speaker 9: those candidates, including Henonosa, nobody's.
29:57
Speaker 5: Never heard of them.
29:57
Speaker 9: If I were to ask you who's running for Attorney
29:59
Speaker 9: General Richard on the Democratic ticketmy who's running for the
30:03
Speaker 9: Air Commission on the Democratic ticket, that's very few people
30:07
Speaker 9: in the audience, and you'll probably be, you know, hard
30:09
Speaker 9: pressed to say the name. And even on the Republican side,
30:12
Speaker 9: those down ballot racists. And so there are some other
30:16
Speaker 9: things we can talk about in terms of they're political
30:19
Speaker 9: beyond James Talerrica. I don't know if you have time
30:21
Speaker 9: this morning, but you know there's a movement on the
30:24
Speaker 9: foot to close the primary because Republicans are making the
30:27
Speaker 9: claim that Democrats are coming over and voting in their
30:30
Speaker 9: primary to favor a particular candidate. So it's a lot
30:33
Speaker 9: of stuff and a lot of vitual that's going there
30:36
Speaker 9: that we're going to see when the legislature convenes in January.
30:40
Speaker 5: They may have what we call closed registration.
30:43
Speaker 9: And for the audience and for people online who do understand,
30:48
Speaker 9: you don't have unlike in New Jersey or New York,
30:50
Speaker 9: you don't have to declare allegiance or you don't have
30:53
Speaker 9: a card whether they say you're a Democrat or say
30:55
Speaker 9: you're a Republican, the way you name your part of identification.
30:59
Speaker 9: You have to voting that party's primary, all right, So
31:02
Speaker 9: you can vote in the primary, but you can't come
31:04
Speaker 9: back and vote in a different parties runoff.
31:07
Speaker 7: Now, we do have that restriction in the state of Texas.
31:09
Speaker 9: So what would happen if they could come up with
31:11
Speaker 9: the closed primary, what they will do and say that's
31:14
Speaker 9: only for Republican voters and only for Democrat voters, And
31:19
Speaker 9: there's some restrictions there. Now, the biggest problem was that
31:23
Speaker 9: even if they were to pass the legislation, I think
31:25
Speaker 9: we had what almost seventeen eighteen million registered voters in the.
31:29
Speaker 5: State of Texas.
31:29
Speaker 9: That means that everybody would probably have to reregister. So
31:32
Speaker 9: the likely impact of that probably wouldn't happen to twenty
31:37
Speaker 9: twenty eight or even after that, or twenty thirty at
31:39
Speaker 9: the earliest.
31:40
Speaker 5: But that's out there.
31:42
Speaker 9: And all of that stems from when the Republicans made
31:45
Speaker 9: You may remember when Dave Felon was running and they
31:48
Speaker 9: were trying to knock him off and they were claimed
31:50
Speaker 9: that some Democrats cassed over and voted in that state
31:54
Speaker 9: legislative primary, and that's how day.
31:56
Speaker 5: Felon was able to win re election. And so, but
32:01
Speaker 5: there are a lot of things. Let's get back to
32:02
Speaker 5: James cel Rico.
32:04
Speaker 4: Well, well, I'm gonna I was going to ask you,
32:08
Speaker 4: you know, and what you sent out. You were talking
32:11
Speaker 4: about how black voters believe one of the reasons why
32:14
Speaker 4: non black Democrat primary voters did not vote for Crockett
32:17
Speaker 4: was because she is black.
32:20
Speaker 5: And no, no, not the black people. Yes.
32:23
Speaker 9: Race was the fact that most of the people we
32:25
Speaker 9: interviewed in our survey on black voters indicated I think
32:29
Speaker 9: it was almost seventy percent said that they believe that
32:31
Speaker 9: the reason why they didn't vote for Crockett because she
32:34
Speaker 9: was a black woman or black and they didn't say that.
32:38
Speaker 9: But the dulk whistle is is what they call now
32:42
Speaker 9: is electability. All right, the same thing we saw what
32:46
Speaker 9: happened in Michigan on Tuesday night. And you have this
32:48
Speaker 9: movement in the Democratic Party which gonna they're gonna have
32:51
Speaker 9: to come to reckon with in terms of Democratic socialists,
32:55
Speaker 9: and you just can't say that these people are not elected. Wow,
32:57
Speaker 9: Look what happened in New York City with mon dummy.
33:00
Speaker 9: Look what happened with Siad in Michigan. All right, very
33:04
Speaker 9: close election, but where's the Democratic Party And it's not
33:07
Speaker 9: like where Jim Clyburn and I'm sure you oughtiers like
33:10
Speaker 9: him or dislike him where he can bring somebody. You know,
33:14
Speaker 9: South Carolina will be first in terms of the primariers
33:17
Speaker 9: for the national for the President.
33:18
Speaker 5: In twenty twenty eight.
33:20
Speaker 9: And we know what happened in the previous election in
33:23
Speaker 9: twenty twenty when it looked like they were not decided
33:28
Speaker 9: from Biden. But Jim Clyburn, he came to South Carolina
33:32
Speaker 9: and Biden won that primary election, and Clyburn and some
33:36
Speaker 9: other black people are taking credits say ye, hey, you
33:39
Speaker 9: know we got you elected. We got you elected as
33:41
Speaker 9: president of the United States. So what am I suggesting?
33:45
Speaker 9: In the Democratic Party, even the black members of the party,
33:50
Speaker 9: if you look at the moderate rings or the centrist
33:55
Speaker 9: Democratic voters, they have these people out there, these younger
34:00
Speaker 9: voters who are coming into the fold, and look at
34:02
Speaker 9: the agendas, the affordability agenda they have been pushed from
34:06
Speaker 9: the left. Does that help them in twenty twenty eight?
34:08
Speaker 9: Does that help them? Tall Ico is not saying that.
34:11
Speaker 9: He's saying that he.
34:12
Speaker 5: Has to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters.
34:15
Speaker 9: And he claimed that he can get some of the
34:17
Speaker 9: independents who may be leaning Republican, or some of those
34:21
Speaker 9: Republicans who supported Coining may want to come over and
34:26
Speaker 9: consider him and vote for him in this election.
34:29
Speaker 5: So, yeah, how does that play? What is that messaging?
34:33
Speaker 9: What does it mean to the people who have been
34:36
Speaker 9: in your constituency, that New Deal coalition that has been
34:40
Speaker 9: a part of the Democratic Party since black people switched
34:44
Speaker 9: from the Party of Abraham Lincoln into the nineteen thirties
34:48
Speaker 9: when they got behind Franklin Roosevelt. And we have to
34:51
Speaker 9: understand what black voters. There should be some concerns, the
34:54
Speaker 9: problems that they have had in terms of voting and
34:58
Speaker 9: a lessons and not always been with the Republican Party.
35:02
Speaker 9: It's been a Democratic party. And I can walk you
35:04
Speaker 9: through that. Look about all the challenges to the.
35:06
Speaker 5: White primary and all these things.
35:09
Speaker 9: Smith versus all Right, nineteen forty four, Lenny Smith couldn't
35:13
Speaker 9: vote in the primary election, and certainly.
35:15
Speaker 5: That was settled by a US Supreme Court case. Look
35:20
Speaker 5: at the other cases Herndon and they went to the
35:22
Speaker 5: Jaybird Primary. They said, what, okay, you're gonna let.
35:25
Speaker 7: The Negroes vote in the primary election.
35:27
Speaker 9: We're going to do We're gonna get together as a party,
35:30
Speaker 9: as a private organization, and we're going to have what
35:32
Speaker 9: we call the pre primary, and we'll, you know, get
35:36
Speaker 9: together as a block and get behind our Canada.
35:39
Speaker 5: That was referred to as the Jaybird Primary.
35:41
Speaker 9: Most of those lawsuits came out of Fort ben County
35:45
Speaker 9: in Harris County, So that's going back to the to
35:48
Speaker 9: the forties and just a struggle and then we see
35:51
Speaker 9: in the nineteen sixties and the state of Mississippi they
35:53
Speaker 9: had the Mississippi Freedom Democratic.
35:55
Speaker 7: Party and they were and a lady by the name
35:58
Speaker 7: of Finale lou Hamer.
35:59
Speaker 5: She was raised in questions.
36:00
Speaker 9: So I questioned, America, so black and Mississippi created their.
36:04
Speaker 7: Own own party.
36:05
Speaker 5: They really don't want you to sell the Mississippi Freedom
36:08
Speaker 5: Democratic Party.
36:08
Speaker 9: So well, okay, if you are not going to seat
36:11
Speaker 9: us as members of the Democratic delegation from the state
36:14
Speaker 9: of Mississippi, we're going to go as the Mississippi Freedom
36:18
Speaker 9: Democratic Party. And Lyndon Johnson, you know, he was trying
36:22
Speaker 9: to get elected, and so.
36:23
Speaker 5: He said, well, hey, y'all fix that on the floor.
36:25
Speaker 5: And the compromise Will said, well, okay, we'll allow two.
36:28
Speaker 9: Blacks from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to sit in
36:31
Speaker 9: as a part of the Mississippi delegation.
36:34
Speaker 5: That wasn't really a win.
36:35
Speaker 9: And then you come in they we circle nineteen seventy
36:38
Speaker 9: two when we had the National Black Political Convention, I
36:42
Speaker 9: think they met in Gary, Indiana, and they were saying, well, hey,
36:46
Speaker 9: this party is not really They started to question the
36:48
Speaker 9: Democratic Party and the theme of that was that what.
36:53
Speaker 5: Unity without uniformity.
36:55
Speaker 9: You had some nationalists like Amil Baraka, whose son now
36:59
Speaker 9: who has served in in New Jersey, the mayor and stuff.
37:02
Speaker 9: And you had black nationalists and they were saying, well, hey,
37:04
Speaker 9: we need our own party. The Democratic people are not lawyer.
37:08
Speaker 9: And then you have people like Charlie Rangel and the others,
37:10
Speaker 9: the moderate wings of the Democrats, the black elected officials.
37:14
Speaker 9: They came up with a kind of blueprint for what
37:17
Speaker 9: they wanted to do, laid out of an agenda that
37:20
Speaker 9: was going to support black folks. By the time those
37:22
Speaker 9: negroes landed back in their home territory, they were right back,
37:25
Speaker 9: hook line.
37:26
Speaker 5: And sinker into the Democratic Party. And then in the.
37:29
Speaker 9: Nineteen eighties, we have to look at I think circle
37:31
Speaker 9: in nineteen eighty four nineteen eighty eight when Jesse Jackson
37:34
Speaker 9: ran for President of the United States, which basically laid
37:37
Speaker 9: the groundwork for the election of Barack Obama. They had
37:41
Speaker 9: these super delegate kinds of rules, and basically that a
37:45
Speaker 9: person a minority or a person who did not have
37:49
Speaker 9: the super delegates, the elected officials who were Democrats, the
37:53
Speaker 9: big wigs, the smoke Fort Field Room Democrats.
37:56
Speaker 1: That was doctor Michael O. Adams, who is the director
38:00
Speaker 1: an executive Master of Public Administration at Texas Southern University.
38:05
Speaker 1: Renewable energy could ease the voracious energy consumption of data
38:11
Speaker 1: centers in Texas. We hear more from Free to Ross
38:15
Speaker 1: and the Texas News Service.
38:17
Speaker 10: All new proposed data centers in Texas must pass an
38:21
Speaker 10: audit by the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability
38:26
Speaker 10: Council of Texas before the projects can move forward. Governor
38:30
Speaker 10: Greg Abbott gave the order at the beginning of the month,
38:33
Speaker 10: saying it's designed to protect the power grid. Texas has
38:37
Speaker 10: the second highest number of data centers in the country.
38:40
Speaker 10: As the debate over the center's use of energy continues,
38:44
Speaker 10: a recent report from the nonpartisan nonprofit Energy Innovation found
38:49
Speaker 10: that renewable energy can power the facilities cheaper than fossil fuels.
38:54
Speaker 10: The organization's Brendan Pierpont says renewables would reduce cost nationwide
39:00
Speaker 10: about seventeen percent.
39:02
Speaker 11: The fossil fuel pathway would add around thirty billion dollars
39:06
Speaker 11: per year to overall national electricity costs. Doing this with
39:11
Speaker 11: clean energy is about five billion dollars cheaper.
39:14
Speaker 10: Urcott is currently considering requests to add about five hundred
39:18
Speaker 10: gigawatts of power to the Texas grid, approximately ninety percent
39:23
Speaker 10: of the new power request or from data centers. Officials
39:27
Speaker 10: say the load could endanger the reliability and stability of
39:31
Speaker 10: the grid. There are currently two hundred and ninety six
39:34
Speaker 10: data centers operating across the lone Star state, and there
39:38
Speaker 10: are plans to open one hundred seventy more. Peer pont
39:41
Speaker 10: urges policy makers to fast track renewables on the grid.
39:46
Speaker 11: That more effective pathway involves building solar, energy, storage, and
39:51
Speaker 11: wind and deploying those quicker having more efficient local citing
39:55
Speaker 11: and permitting processes.
39:57
Speaker 10: The Trump administration argues that fossil fuel are more reliable
40:01
Speaker 10: and have worked to undermine renewable projects, even paying companies
40:06
Speaker 10: to abandon when energy projects. I'm frieda ross Texas news service.
40:12
Speaker 10: Find our trust indicators at Publicnewsservice dot org.
40:16
Speaker 1: The historic Gardenoaks Movie Theater is approaching a deadline before
40:21
Speaker 1: the owner will tear down the property. Built in nineteen
40:24
Speaker 1: forty seven, the Garden Oaks Theater is one of several
40:27
Speaker 1: postwar Houston theaters designed for the interstate circuit by H. F.
40:33
Speaker 1: Pettigrew and John A. Worley of the Dallas firm Pedigrew
40:36
Speaker 1: and Whirley, alongside its sister cinema, the River Oaks Theater.
40:41
Speaker 1: The new owner of the property has set a price
40:45
Speaker 1: and set a deadline. Maureen McNamara, co founder and director
40:49
Speaker 1: of Arthouse Houston, said, this final extension gives us one
40:53
Speaker 1: last opportunity to secure the commitments needed to save the
40:57
Speaker 1: Garden Oaks Theater.
41:00
Speaker 12: Organization formed as Friends of the River os Theater and
41:04
Speaker 12: pulled together the community to help save the River Oaks
41:09
Speaker 12: Theater and now we're at it again at the garden
41:14
Speaker 12: Oaks Theater. Lots of people might know the garden Oaks
41:18
Speaker 12: Theater as the former Grace Church location on Narth Shepherd,
41:27
Speaker 12: because for the last eighteen years the theater operated as
41:35
Speaker 12: a church and then it was sold in a private
41:40
Speaker 12: sale to a strip center land developer.
41:46
Speaker 8: So he.
41:48
Speaker 12: Purchased the theater from the church and it was never
41:54
Speaker 12: actually listed though we've kind of been watching it.
41:59
Speaker 8: But the church was.
42:02
Speaker 12: Really you know, they were packed every Sunday and so
42:09
Speaker 12: we didn't, you know, think that there was a chance
42:13
Speaker 12: of them leaving there until we got word on a
42:18
Speaker 12: Friday night that the theater.
42:20
Speaker 8: Was looked like the church was moving out, and then.
42:28
Speaker 12: We tried to find out who had purchased the church and.
42:35
Speaker 8: The theater.
42:36
Speaker 12: And when we were trying to discover that, we learned
42:44
Speaker 12: on a Friday evening that the theater was being.
42:47
Speaker 8: Demolished on the following Monday.
42:50
Speaker 12: So and that was earlier this spring. So here we
42:56
Speaker 12: are today, thanks to somehow help from city council who connected.
43:04
Speaker 8: Us to the.
43:08
Speaker 12: Developer, and we are now under contract to purchase the building.
43:14
Speaker 12: He said, if the city of Houston cares, the people
43:20
Speaker 12: in the community care, then they can You guys can
43:27
Speaker 12: pay me what I paid for it. And so we
43:31
Speaker 12: are under contract in trying to scrape together enough to
43:39
Speaker 12: cover a seven point one million dollar purchase at the
43:43
Speaker 12: end of this month.
43:46
Speaker 2: What was the church being so secretive about it?
43:51
Speaker 8: We really don't know.
43:53
Speaker 12: I mean, I think it was one of those things
43:55
Speaker 12: where they the cellar. This area is growing so much,
44:04
Speaker 12: as we all know. I think that the person who
44:12
Speaker 12: are the guys who purchased it, they were, you know,
44:18
Speaker 12: going door to door and making offers, and it was
44:22
Speaker 12: the church has other locations, and they it was I
44:29
Speaker 12: think relatively good offer and relatively easy for them. To
44:36
Speaker 12: redirect their congregation to their other locations. So so that's
44:44
Speaker 12: you know, other than that.
44:48
Speaker 8: We don't know any specifics, you know, did.
44:52
Speaker 13: They Yeah, I was going to say, did they know
44:54
Speaker 13: the history of the of the of the location or
44:58
Speaker 13: the new order know the history of the of the.
45:01
Speaker 12: I I think that, I mean, I would say that
45:08
Speaker 12: they I really you know, I can't speak to that.
45:14
Speaker 8: I just know that, uh that it wasn't.
45:25
Speaker 12: I think that they saw the developer saw the the
45:33
Speaker 12: potential because so much growth is happening in this area.
45:38
Speaker 12: There's so much new housing, there's so much new shopping.
45:46
Speaker 5: You know, the.
45:48
Speaker 2: Totally changed the neighborhood.
45:50
Speaker 12: Yeah, and the the Seers building was recently taken down
45:57
Speaker 12: and there's going to be a target there and that's
46:00
Speaker 12: you know, two blocks away. So I just think that,
46:05
Speaker 12: you know, there's just a lot going on over here.
46:10
Speaker 8: Ben Jealous.
46:11
Speaker 2: The history of the building.
46:15
Speaker 12: Yeah. The theater was built in nineteen forty seven. It
46:21
Speaker 12: was designed by the same architects who designed the Ribrokes Theater,
46:26
Speaker 12: and it was.
46:30
Speaker 5: But it was post.
46:31
Speaker 12: War, so it's just a little bit more grand. It's
46:34
Speaker 12: also streamline Art Deco and as the church or the
46:44
Speaker 12: theater before it, nobody ever had it historically designated and
46:51
Speaker 12: so it's not it doesn't have any historic designation or
46:56
Speaker 12: any historic protections right now. In our intention is to
47:02
Speaker 12: make sure that that happens as soon as possible.
47:06
Speaker 13: Yeah, how long does that take and who do you
47:08
Speaker 13: have to go through to make it a historical landmark?
47:13
Speaker 12: Well, it's it's a process. We've actually, even though we
47:21
Speaker 12: don't own the property, we've actually started the process of
47:26
Speaker 12: having the theater qualified for historic designation. So that's the
47:34
Speaker 12: first step, and we're in the process of having that
47:42
Speaker 12: reviewed and finding out, you know, what kinds of things
47:46
Speaker 12: do we need to do or make sure we're done
47:49
Speaker 12: so that the property will qualify.
47:54
Speaker 13: And when when you do appurchase the building versus the theater,
47:59
Speaker 13: so speak, it was the plan to have movies showing
48:04
Speaker 13: or was it going to be like the river Oaks Theater?
48:07
Speaker 12: Now, well the plan actually the theater is not just
48:12
Speaker 12: a movie theater.
48:14
Speaker 8: The river Oaks is just the movie theater.
48:20
Speaker 12: So the property is two point three acres. It's both
48:28
Speaker 12: the theater, which is still a single screen a large auditorium,
48:37
Speaker 12: where the river Oaks is like two hundred and forty
48:40
Speaker 12: five seats in the large auditorium. This theater is over
48:44
Speaker 12: seven hundred.
48:47
Speaker 8: And it.
48:51
Speaker 12: Had retail on the left side of the theater and
48:56
Speaker 12: on the right side of the theater, and that retail space,
49:01
Speaker 12: in our plans, would be part of a larger nonprofit
49:09
Speaker 12: organization property that would be an arts and film center
49:19
Speaker 12: for the city and would do not just premieres of
49:25
Speaker 12: films and festivals, but also do some live performance, some
49:31
Speaker 12: live music. The next door retail space on the left
49:41
Speaker 12: could house a little cafe, a smaller we're hoping a
49:49
Speaker 12: smaller auditorium. There could be a second screen there, some
49:54
Speaker 12: co working space for arts nonprofits. Were on the right
50:01
Speaker 12: side of the theater. That building was formerly a post
50:07
Speaker 12: office and there was a five and dime and some
50:09
Speaker 12: other retail stuff, but the church had converted it into
50:14
Speaker 12: their Sunday school and so it's really perfectly configured for
50:18
Speaker 12: doing arts and film school in maker space. So we're
50:25
Speaker 12: looking at, you know, doing some production studios, some sound studios,
50:35
Speaker 12: some editing studios, some art classrooms, some filmmakers classrooms, the
50:44
Speaker 12: ability for you know, people to do summer camps for teens,
50:52
Speaker 12: doing filmmaking camp or residencies for filmmakers who are trying
51:03
Speaker 12: to put together their first films.
51:09
Speaker 8: So that is.
51:13
Speaker 12: You know, one of the dreams of the for the
51:17
Speaker 12: property is that it not just the kind of single concept,
51:25
Speaker 12: but that it be this kind of larger space for
51:32
Speaker 12: the city of Houston and do that we do something
51:36
Speaker 12: new and exciting, incubating up and coming young filmmakers so
51:44
Speaker 12: that they can.
51:47
Speaker 8: Go out and you know, find.
51:51
Speaker 12: Their way in their creative lives.
51:58
Speaker 8: No, go ahead, I.
52:00
Speaker 14: Was gonna say, where are we at right now as
52:02
Speaker 14: far as fundraising, as far as because I know you
52:07
Speaker 14: can have some big events and some filmmakers come into town.
52:11
Speaker 8: Yeah, well we are.
52:14
Speaker 2: We're still.
52:17
Speaker 8: We still need some.
52:20
Speaker 12: People to step up in a major way. The foundations
52:27
Speaker 12: that often support nonprofit arts organizations are not able to
52:35
Speaker 12: do funding for emergency, short term situations that their grant
52:42
Speaker 12: cycles usually you know, take.
52:45
Speaker 8: A year or more.
52:47
Speaker 5: And so.
52:50
Speaker 12: We are in a situation where we need some angels
52:55
Speaker 12: to step in and be the heroes of the story.
53:00
Speaker 8: So and we have a few of those.
53:04
Speaker 12: We've got to some businesses have stepped up. The North
53:10
Speaker 12: Separate Business District donated the Buchanans Native Plants made a
53:22
Speaker 12: leadership gift for the UH business community for a donation
53:30
Speaker 12: that will help us, you know, along the way, and
53:34
Speaker 12: Phoebe and Bobby Tutor have made philanthropic leadership gifts that
53:41
Speaker 12: they're hoping will inspire other people to step up and
53:47
Speaker 12: join them.
53:49
Speaker 8: That we need.
53:51
Speaker 12: We need to have seven point one million dollars to
53:54
Speaker 12: buy the building, and right now we have one point
53:59
Speaker 12: eight so we uh, we definitely need some you know.
54:05
Speaker 12: That's that's a handful of people stepping up in a
54:11
Speaker 12: in a way like the Tutors did, or you know,
54:19
Speaker 12: or you know, hundreds and hundreds.
54:21
Speaker 8: Of people stepping up, uh.
54:25
Speaker 12: In in the ways maybe you know, in medium even
54:30
Speaker 12: to even smaller ways. So so yeah, we have we
54:37
Speaker 12: have a couple of weeks.
54:38
Speaker 8: So that's where we are right now.
54:40
Speaker 2: Well, a couple of weeks.
54:41
Speaker 12: Wow, Yeah, we have a couple of weeks and then
54:45
Speaker 12: after we close on the property, we can actually go
54:50
Speaker 12: into a normal three year capital campaign where we can
54:55
Speaker 12: apply for grants to do the restoration and renovation.
55:00
Speaker 2: How can people find out more information and get involved?
55:04
Speaker 12: Uh? The website is art Health HTx dot org.
55:10
Speaker 5: Thanks for asking.
55:11
Speaker 12: You can donate there, you can get more information, you
55:15
Speaker 12: can do all kinds of things there.
55:17
Speaker 8: Thank you so much for asking.
55:20
Speaker 15: Yeah, and I'll hope the I hope the best we
55:23
Speaker 15: need to if it's enough, it's enough millionaires around around
55:28
Speaker 15: Houston that can help out with this and and donate
55:31
Speaker 15: the money. Yeah, I hope so.
55:33
Speaker 12: And we've got you know, we do have, uh, you know,
55:37
Speaker 12: in a very short period of time. But we've raised
55:42
Speaker 12: the one point eight million. Mike, We've only been at
55:45
Speaker 12: this for four months that we've known about.
55:47
Speaker 8: This, you know. So it's it's a it's exciting and.
55:54
Speaker 12: I think, you know, it's it's a little bit of
55:57
Speaker 12: a heavy lift, but you can that is straw.
56:02
Speaker 1: That was Maureen McNamara, co founder and director of Art
56:05
Speaker 1: House Houston. You can find out more by going to
56:09
Speaker 1: their website art House HTx all put together dot org.
56:15
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56:20
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56:23
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56:33
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56:38
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