Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Mayor Ras Baraka Talks NJ Mayoral Race, Trump, ICE; Lawsuit After Arrest + More

Transcript

INTERVIEW: Mayor Ras Baraka Talks NJ Mayoral Race, Trump, ICE; Lawsuit After Arrest + More · The Breakfast Club

0:01
Speaker 1: Every day a week ago, clicks.
0:03
Speaker 2: Up the breakfast club. You don't finish for y'all done morning.
0:08
Speaker 1: Everybody is the j Envy Jess hilarious, charlamage the guy.
0:12
Speaker 1: We are to breakfast club lawn the roases here and
0:14
Speaker 1: we got a special guest in the building. Elections are today,
0:18
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, and we have Mayor ros Baraka back
0:20
Speaker 1: of the building.
0:21
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning. How are you?
0:22
Speaker 1: How are you feeling?
0:23
Speaker 2: I'm good, brother, I'm good, I'm good. Good to be you.
0:25
Speaker 1: Never tied of this. This is what your fourth term.
0:28
Speaker 2: I'm always tired.
0:30
Speaker 1: So let me ask you, as you know, your your
0:33
Speaker 1: three terms and what could be done different in Newark,
0:36
Speaker 1: New Jersey.
0:37
Speaker 3: A lot, man, there's a lot of stuff that we
0:39
Speaker 3: still have to finish. I mean, obviously we still need
0:42
Speaker 3: to create the twenty four hour night life, you know,
0:45
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of things that has to happen with.
0:46
Speaker 3: We're building a walking bridge like the high Line h
0:49
Speaker 3: in north to connect the eastward to the downtown area.
0:52
Speaker 3: That will trigger a bunch of development downtown, thousands of
0:56
Speaker 3: units of housing, retail, commercials. So that's exactly what we need,
1:00
Speaker 3: you know, uh, to make happen.
1:02
Speaker 2: There's more affordable housing that we have to build. We
1:04
Speaker 2: have to build.
1:05
Speaker 3: We're trying to build these two thousand more units affordable houses,
1:08
Speaker 3: some transitional housing as well. And then lastly, we're gonna
1:11
Speaker 3: attack this food desert stuff that that that Newark has
1:14
Speaker 3: uh in various communities. We're building five and we were
1:18
Speaker 3: doing this a long time before these folks for New
1:20
Speaker 3: York did it. But you know, y'all got a lot
1:21
Speaker 3: more money than us.
1:22
Speaker 2: So five.
1:24
Speaker 3: You know, we call a mutual aid grocery stores where
1:26
Speaker 3: you pay based on your income.
1:29
Speaker 2: Uh. But they're run by nonprofits.
1:31
Speaker 3: Uh. And we're doing some public private ones as well,
1:35
Speaker 3: so uh you know that. Uh, you know, continue to
1:37
Speaker 3: reduce violence and crime, continue to raise people's quality of life,
1:40
Speaker 3: invest in black and brown businesses.
1:42
Speaker 2: So we'll continue to do those things.
1:44
Speaker 4: How do you like, you know, measure your success throughout
1:48
Speaker 4: the terms? Like what was success for you? First time?
1:50
Speaker 4: Second time, third time? Like what are you what are
1:52
Speaker 4: you measuring against your goals?
1:54
Speaker 3: What the objectives were in the beginning. I mean, most
1:56
Speaker 3: people who run the one run because they think they should,
1:59
Speaker 3: they could do better. They want to do this or that,
2:01
Speaker 3: but specific goals, like our specific goals when we first
2:04
Speaker 3: came in was to reduce violence. We had one hundred
2:06
Speaker 3: and thirteen hundred and fourteen homicides, right, it was to
2:09
Speaker 3: begin to build affordable housing in the city, balance our budget.
2:14
Speaker 3: I mean, the budget was in bad shape. So it
2:16
Speaker 3: was very specific things that we needed to do and
2:20
Speaker 3: turn the economy towards black and brown folks, and we
2:23
Speaker 3: began to do that.
2:24
Speaker 2: So violence in the.
2:25
Speaker 3: City hasn't been as low as it is since nineteen
2:27
Speaker 3: fifty three. So we started. You know, my first year
2:31
Speaker 3: when we got there, we were down gradually but not significantly.
2:35
Speaker 3: But then you know, we began to get the hang
2:38
Speaker 3: of it and it began to reduce year by year
2:40
Speaker 3: by year.
2:41
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask, you know, a lot of people
2:42
Speaker 1: say it sometimes that long term leadership is not too great,
2:45
Speaker 1: right because it gets people comfortable, right. But I feel
2:48
Speaker 1: like with you, it's a lot different. And why is that?
2:51
Speaker 2: Well, I live in NewYork.
2:53
Speaker 3: I mean my family and friends and community people I
2:57
Speaker 3: love the most, and my pride is there.
2:59
Speaker 2: I got see people every single day.
3:01
Speaker 3: So at the end of the day, I feel like,
3:04
Speaker 3: like I said earlier, there's a goal there's an end,
3:07
Speaker 3: uh that that we have to reach, you know. And
3:10
Speaker 3: you know, I feel like in this race that I'm
3:13
Speaker 3: in now. You know, I had the ability to run
3:15
Speaker 3: for governor last year. I mean I came in second
3:17
Speaker 3: in the field the sixth. It was incredible, and I
3:19
Speaker 3: felt like I was defending the city for the most part.
3:22
Speaker 3: Now and I feel like I'm defending myself right uh
3:25
Speaker 3: and and and I.
3:26
Speaker 2: Think that's for a reason.
3:27
Speaker 3: And so I feel like this I'm on the backside
3:30
Speaker 3: of my career, on the decline side, you know, And it's.
3:33
Speaker 2: About legacy at this point.
3:35
Speaker 3: Like what I'm gonna leave when I walk away, What's
3:38
Speaker 3: gonna what will I be able to say that we've
3:40
Speaker 3: actually accomplished.
3:41
Speaker 1: And you talked about the governess race. Why don't you
3:43
Speaker 1: think you won the governess race.
3:45
Speaker 3: Well, I don't think we raised enough money. We'd have
3:47
Speaker 3: enough time by the time we started to catch on,
3:51
Speaker 3: and you know, we broke through. Uh you know, we
3:53
Speaker 3: needed a you know, I would say another month. We
3:56
Speaker 3: came in second. We had more less money than anybody
3:58
Speaker 3: in the race.
3:59
Speaker 2: Uh. You know, six people running, six very.
4:02
Speaker 3: Well known statewide candidates were running, and uh, you know,
4:05
Speaker 3: we did very, very very well.
4:08
Speaker 2: People thought we wasn't gonna do that well, but we did.
4:10
Speaker 4: But you were favored, Like, there was a lot of
4:12
Speaker 4: places that you were favored. So to hear you say that,
4:15
Speaker 4: it's like, I mean you still had a lot of
4:17
Speaker 4: strong support.
4:18
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we and in most of our areas.
4:20
Speaker 3: We want ES's County, we want Pa Sae County, we
4:23
Speaker 3: want Union County.
4:25
Speaker 2: You know.
4:25
Speaker 3: So we won a lot of places where we are
4:28
Speaker 3: in the majority black and brown folks in the majority.
4:31
Speaker 2: We basically ran away with those areas.
4:33
Speaker 3: And we did very well in uh, a lot of
4:37
Speaker 3: progressive suburban white communities as well. I mean, the progressives
4:40
Speaker 3: in New Jersey came out strong for us big time.
4:44
Speaker 1: One thing you've done with Newark is slowly you've been
4:47
Speaker 1: able to change the stereotypes of of Newark. Right, you
4:50
Speaker 1: said that Newark is not broke, it's not failing, it's
4:52
Speaker 1: not criminals, We're beautiful people. Why do people still give
4:56
Speaker 1: Newark that bad stereotypes? Even though like when you go
4:59
Speaker 1: downtown in Newyork's beautiful restaurants. You know, there's amazing concert
5:03
Speaker 1: there's so much to do in Newark. I think it's
5:05
Speaker 1: it's so hard to change the stereotype of Nework.
5:07
Speaker 3: Well, those stigmas stick, you know, unfortunately, they unfortunately long stigmas.
5:12
Speaker 3: You know, we were the car theft capital of the world.
5:14
Speaker 3: You know, the crime was out of control. You know,
5:18
Speaker 3: people were used to that, and a lot of times
5:20
Speaker 3: we wore that as residents of the city. We wore
5:23
Speaker 3: it like we wore it almost as a life vest.
5:26
Speaker 3: Like we walked around and talked about how tough and
5:28
Speaker 3: rigging and rough NewYork was.
5:29
Speaker 2: We were a brick city.
5:31
Speaker 3: And so to change your persona and the culture, the
5:33
Speaker 3: way people view you. But there's a lot of things
5:36
Speaker 3: that that that have to change, and one of it
5:37
Speaker 3: is the way we view ourselves and the way we
5:39
Speaker 3: talk about our city and the way we present it
5:41
Speaker 3: to other people. Uh, you know, we got something out
5:44
Speaker 3: of it. I think now, you know, it's time for
5:46
Speaker 3: us to grow up and move away and do something else.
5:48
Speaker 2: Leave that behind.
5:49
Speaker 1: One thing I would say, you know when I knew
5:51
Speaker 1: you were coming, that's just reached out to a bunch
5:52
Speaker 1: of New York people.
5:53
Speaker 2: They see, you know, what are your thoughts? What do
5:55
Speaker 2: you need?
5:55
Speaker 1: What could have asked the Maya? A lot of these
5:58
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can't help, but you've been
5:59
Speaker 1: able to help people and things that didn't necessarily you know,
6:03
Speaker 1: mean this to them. But people say that food is high, right,
6:06
Speaker 1: They're saying when they're gonna get groceries, groceries are high.
6:09
Speaker 1: They say that a lot of times the rent they're
6:11
Speaker 1: raising rent and people can't afford it. They're saying, the
6:13
Speaker 1: gas prices are high. And I don't know you can
6:16
Speaker 1: help the gas prices, but you know, so what do
6:17
Speaker 1: you tell you know your Newark residents, in your Newark
6:20
Speaker 1: family members, or what they can do, and how well
6:23
Speaker 1: we have.
6:24
Speaker 3: To learn like us our folks in these communities, we
6:26
Speaker 3: have to learn civics, like we have to don't know
6:28
Speaker 3: the relationship between city government, county, state, federal government. All
6:31
Speaker 3: people know is the mayor, the governor, and the president.
6:33
Speaker 1: All the same. Right, my gas is how I'm blaming
6:37
Speaker 1: Mayor ros Baraka, And.
6:38
Speaker 3: So we have to figure that out, right, And it
6:41
Speaker 3: means that we have to vote in every election and
6:43
Speaker 3: participate all the time and push back against a lot
6:45
Speaker 3: of things that are happening. And food prices are high,
6:48
Speaker 3: which is why we're building these grocery stores, which is
6:50
Speaker 3: why we are creating opportunities people have access to food,
6:53
Speaker 3: put more money in people's pockets so they could do
6:55
Speaker 3: more with the with the cash that they have. That's
6:58
Speaker 3: something that we can do right with the help obviously
7:00
Speaker 3: at the nonprofit in the private sector. The community can't
7:03
Speaker 3: do it alone. You have to have a nice, unified
7:05
Speaker 3: group of folks that are willing to collaborate around that.
7:07
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean the gas prices and everything else.
7:10
Speaker 3: We got to talk to the president about this one.
7:12
Speaker 2: I ran.
7:13
Speaker 3: I mean the crazy thing about the gas prices that
7:15
Speaker 3: affects everything. So it's affecting what it costs for us
7:18
Speaker 3: to pave the roads, like because the fuel in the
7:23
Speaker 3: trucks that come out to pave the roads, they're giving
7:25
Speaker 3: you higher costs, so we have to pay more as
7:28
Speaker 3: a city.
7:28
Speaker 2: So it's gonna raise everybody costs.
7:30
Speaker 3: I think something simple as that, like trying to get asphalt,
7:33
Speaker 3: the prices are way up.
7:36
Speaker 1: Can you talk about can you talk about how the
7:39
Speaker 1: things that Donald Trump has affected your city and what
7:43
Speaker 1: he has done to affect your city?
7:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like people said, indirectly, well that directly food, gas,
7:50
Speaker 3: you know, all of those things, but ultimately his attack
7:53
Speaker 3: on social services, the attacked on snap benefits right, the
7:58
Speaker 3: attack on housing right, making it more difficult for us
8:01
Speaker 3: to give people vouchers or deal with invest in public housing,
8:05
Speaker 3: which means you know, it's gonna be the rent is
8:07
Speaker 3: gonna continue to increase, right because it'll be a seller's
8:11
Speaker 3: market because you have more people that need housing than
8:13
Speaker 3: the housing that exists. Right, So all of those costs
8:16
Speaker 3: are gonna increase. And people just think the gas and
8:19
Speaker 3: like I alluded to, the gas go but the gas
8:21
Speaker 3: effects the supply chain altogether. That means all prices are
8:24
Speaker 3: gonna go up, and it's gonna go in your in
8:26
Speaker 3: your hand. You have to pay for it, right as well.
8:29
Speaker 3: I mean cutting those services and giving more money to
8:32
Speaker 3: the to the super wealthy, it's gonna affect working class
8:35
Speaker 3: people all up and down the state and throughout the country.
8:38
Speaker 4: Do you think you talk about people understanding civics and
8:40
Speaker 4: do you think that people not understanding what putting you
8:42
Speaker 4: in a governor's seat would have meant? Was that like
8:46
Speaker 4: a big issue that you guys saw when you were
8:48
Speaker 4: out there campaigning for yourself.
8:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I mean people were excited, but you know,
8:52
Speaker 3: people were nervous, like, you know, because automatically they think
8:55
Speaker 3: you can't win. So they feel like, oh, I want
8:57
Speaker 3: to vowe to somebody that these people are not gonna
8:59
Speaker 3: vote for us. They're not going to We can't do this.
9:02
Speaker 3: It's impossible for us to be the governor. It's not
9:04
Speaker 3: gonna happen, you know. And I got that more from
9:07
Speaker 3: us than from other folks, right, and so you know,
9:09
Speaker 3: ultimately just fighting that, us beating through that, beating through that.
9:12
Speaker 3: And it took us a long time to beat through that,
9:14
Speaker 3: like people be like, oh, this man, he actually can win.
9:16
Speaker 3: You know, when polls were coming out and people were talking,
9:19
Speaker 3: oh he man, he might win. Then people get excited
9:21
Speaker 3: and say, let me get involved, let me participate. But
9:23
Speaker 3: it took us a minute to get people to even
9:26
Speaker 3: realize that.
9:27
Speaker 4: And what about the voter apathy, right, like people not
9:28
Speaker 4: even wanting to come out because from the Trump election,
9:32
Speaker 4: a lot of people black and Latino people they're not
9:35
Speaker 4: voting Democrat, like they're.
9:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, a lot of folks are staying home more
9:39
Speaker 3: than anything. I mean, we don't have a whole swath
9:43
Speaker 3: of people like converting into Republicans.
9:45
Speaker 2: Most people just stay home it's.
9:47
Speaker 3: Not participating because they think the elections don't affect them.
9:50
Speaker 3: I bet you some people are changing their mind as
9:52
Speaker 3: we speak. They didn't know how dangerous we were this
9:55
Speaker 3: situation would be, or how far Trump would go. I
9:59
Speaker 3: mean all of the from federal judges to the Supreme Court.
10:02
Speaker 3: So everything that's happening here and now right make it
10:05
Speaker 3: difficult for your kid to go to college, for you
10:07
Speaker 3: to get a scholarship, people that invest in you, all
10:10
Speaker 3: the people that are losing their jobs, Black and brown
10:12
Speaker 3: folks that are losing their jobs because people are afraid of DEI.
10:15
Speaker 3: I mean, all of this is affecting our bottom line,
10:18
Speaker 3: our pocketbooks. Whether you live in the projects or whether
10:22
Speaker 3: you live in the suburbs, is affecting people's pocket.
10:24
Speaker 1: When you first jumped into politics, did you foresee all
10:27
Speaker 1: the stuff that's happening now? And if you did foresee it,
10:30
Speaker 1: would you still jumped in politics? Because it seems like
10:32
Speaker 1: this political game is a nasty game.
10:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's got worse. My father warned me about it
10:37
Speaker 2: that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He never he never wanted
10:39
Speaker 2: me to be involved. He was like, oh, what are
10:42
Speaker 2: you doing? Like especially when I when I ran for mayor.
10:44
Speaker 3: I was a counselman and a school principal, and it
10:47
Speaker 3: was like you just became the councilman, like give it
10:50
Speaker 3: a little time. And then Corey went to the United
10:52
Speaker 3: States Senate and I just jumped in, uh, you know.
10:56
Speaker 3: And he was looking at it from a point of
10:57
Speaker 3: view of his time, like of you know, us fighting
11:01
Speaker 3: against the machine and cointel pro and you know, all
11:04
Speaker 3: of the things that would happen. And he grew up
11:06
Speaker 3: when King was assassinated, both Kennedy's were killed. You know,
11:09
Speaker 3: he looked at his mindset was a little different than
11:13
Speaker 3: everybody else is, and knowing where I was and what
11:15
Speaker 3: I was thinking in the direction I was going in.
11:17
Speaker 3: He was very nervous about that, but didn't anticipate how
11:22
Speaker 3: ugly politics is today because there was no Internet at
11:26
Speaker 3: this level.
11:27
Speaker 4: But even with dealing with Ice, right, like I saw
11:29
Speaker 4: you tweet out about that multi car accident that happened
11:32
Speaker 4: when Ice was chasing the band, and it just seems like,
11:36
Speaker 4: because I know, y'all have police have rules about winning
11:38
Speaker 4: how they can chase people, but Ice, they're able to
11:40
Speaker 4: maneuver a bit differently. But that's causing issues for you
11:43
Speaker 4: on the other end in your own city.
11:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, every state in city has that, especially if you.
11:51
Speaker 3: A city that is telling folks you can't participate with
11:53
Speaker 3: ICE the police. The reality is it's something called deconfliction.
11:57
Speaker 3: That means we have to know you're in you're in
11:59
Speaker 3: our city. One agency goes into a city, we have
12:02
Speaker 3: to know you're there. Even if you don't, you don't
12:04
Speaker 3: have to ask our permission. We have to know what
12:06
Speaker 3: you're doing, what's going on, because anything can happen. We
12:08
Speaker 3: go to the police go to the scenes as a
12:10
Speaker 3: car being chased, they don't who's chasing the car. They're
12:13
Speaker 3: leaving abandoned cars on the block. When they take people out,
12:15
Speaker 3: you know, they find an abandoned cars, you might find
12:17
Speaker 3: a gun, you might find whatever. They don't know if
12:19
Speaker 3: it's a robbery, like if it's a crime and action or.
12:22
Speaker 2: What's going on.
12:23
Speaker 3: They just show up to a scene. Because people are
12:25
Speaker 3: calling the police. They say, oh, we want don't want
12:27
Speaker 3: the police to participate. But when residents call the police,
12:30
Speaker 3: they have to come. So if a car is chasing
12:32
Speaker 3: another car, that might be ICE, the police gonna show up.
12:35
Speaker 3: The city police can be hey, what's going on, and
12:37
Speaker 3: then people getting loud.
12:38
Speaker 2: Now they got to create order, and.
12:40
Speaker 3: It creates the kind of conflict that takes place between
12:44
Speaker 3: both agencies soon you know it's gonna be. And how
12:46
Speaker 3: prayerfully it doesn't get to a point where both agencies
12:49
Speaker 3: are at each other's throat in the middle of the street.
12:52
Speaker 4: I was gonna ask you as mayor right and running
12:54
Speaker 4: for this next term, like, because when that happened, your
12:57
Speaker 4: team at literally said, y'all reached out to Ice for
12:59
Speaker 4: certain comments explanations, and they didn't even return their response, right,
13:02
Speaker 4: So what communication flow have you created or plan to
13:06
Speaker 4: try and create so that we don't see that.
13:08
Speaker 3: Well, the only real interaction we have is, you know, luckily,
13:12
Speaker 3: the North Police Department is the largest one in the state.
13:15
Speaker 3: So most of the federal agencies need our help and
13:17
Speaker 3: support with most of the things that go on, whether
13:20
Speaker 3: it's you know, AFT or DA or any ex people
13:23
Speaker 3: Homeland Security, they need our support, right, And so we
13:27
Speaker 3: have people in different places and we communicate with them
13:29
Speaker 3: to at least get some kind of feedback about what's
13:32
Speaker 3: going on. And we've had a working relationship with these
13:36
Speaker 3: you know, agencies for years, whether it was Republican or
13:40
Speaker 3: Democratic administration. So because of those relationships, were still to
13:43
Speaker 3: have some modicum of you know, civility that happens between
13:47
Speaker 3: the agencies.
13:48
Speaker 1: How do you move on from there? And how do
13:49
Speaker 1: you proceed right because obviously ICE feels like they're gonna
13:52
Speaker 1: do what they want to do. You're arrested by checking
13:54
Speaker 1: out the ICE facility. It did absolutely positively nothing to
13:57
Speaker 1: be seen there on TV. So how do you move
13:58
Speaker 1: on as mayor to say, hey.
14:00
Speaker 2: Do we work with them?
14:01
Speaker 1: Do we have to work with them? What happens from here?
14:03
Speaker 3: Well, we can't work with ICE to violate people's constitutional
14:07
Speaker 3: rights because we'll never come back from that. Once you
14:10
Speaker 3: begin that, it's a slippery slope, and the city agencies
14:13
Speaker 3: just can't. We just can't participate and pulling people over.
14:16
Speaker 3: We just got out of consent decree, pulling people over
14:19
Speaker 3: because they look different, because they got a different accent,
14:21
Speaker 3: and so we can't do that. We can't participate in that.
14:23
Speaker 3: So we'll never be able to do that. So that
14:25
Speaker 3: that has to change. The problem is we work with
14:29
Speaker 3: these agencies in other kind of ways in criminal you know, investigation,
14:36
Speaker 3: So if they're investigating the cartel or something that's going on,
14:39
Speaker 3: that involves homeland atf DA, our folks have to get involved,
14:42
Speaker 3: and we'll get involved in that, and we just have
14:45
Speaker 3: to make a distinction between one or the other. And
14:49
Speaker 3: most of the ICE agents that are coming on now,
14:51
Speaker 3: they're not trained. They're not even involved in those activities
14:54
Speaker 3: because they're not trained to be involved. Most of them
14:56
Speaker 3: got to they go through like a forty five day training.
14:59
Speaker 3: Our police officers the six months of training, they are
15:02
Speaker 3: forty five days of training. They barely know what they're
15:04
Speaker 3: doing out there, right, and so they would never be
15:06
Speaker 3: involved in a high level kind of criminal takedown because
15:10
Speaker 3: they just don't know what to do.
15:11
Speaker 2: But how do.
15:12
Speaker 1: You protect in Newark residents?
15:14
Speaker 2: Right?
15:14
Speaker 1: Because if you ever been in New York, there's so
15:15
Speaker 1: many different nationalities.
15:17
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, how do you protect those people?
15:18
Speaker 1: And I'm sure some of them might be immigrants, so
15:20
Speaker 1: their parents are immigrants, So how do you protect those residents?
15:23
Speaker 3: Well, we have to stay in constant communication with them,
15:26
Speaker 3: which is what we do, especially through our community based organizations,
15:30
Speaker 3: to make sure that we let them know if it's
15:32
Speaker 3: safe or it's unsafe, or you know, they still have
15:35
Speaker 3: access to materials, to resources the city to the city
15:39
Speaker 3: agencies and go through our nonprofits to make sure we
15:43
Speaker 3: are giving them what they need, even through with lawyers
15:46
Speaker 3: and through support that we do that as well, so
15:48
Speaker 3: they know that there's some recourse or a place for
15:51
Speaker 3: them to go to for comfort other than these people
15:55
Speaker 3: who are chasing them around the city.
15:56
Speaker 1: I also read an article that said a lot of
15:58
Speaker 1: people are coming in the next couple of months for
15:59
Speaker 1: feet for Right, and they said a lot of people
16:01
Speaker 1: are staying at airbnbs in Newark. So with the you know,
16:05
Speaker 1: the city's gonna be packed, the city's.
16:07
Speaker 2: Gonna be Airbnb prices crazy.
16:09
Speaker 1: Airbnb prices is gonna do the rule though, So what
16:11
Speaker 1: do you do for those people trying to get to
16:13
Speaker 1: you know, MetLife or whatever they call met life now
16:16
Speaker 1: to make sure they can see the game? Because I'm
16:17
Speaker 1: seeing prices are crazy. I see a bus from New
16:20
Speaker 1: York to the thing, it's like two hundred dollars. So
16:22
Speaker 1: what do you do to make sure that people will
16:23
Speaker 1: have a great time in a safe time.
16:25
Speaker 3: Well, we we've already galvanized all of the you know,
16:29
Speaker 3: uh resources in the city, all of the institutions and
16:32
Speaker 3: j Pad prew Center Museum Library, Newark alliance. So the restaurants,
16:37
Speaker 3: everybody's prepared. We're gonna have one concerned effort to kind
16:41
Speaker 3: of really give people the atmosphere that they need in
16:44
Speaker 3: a safe, uh kind of way, and and so they
16:46
Speaker 3: able to have fun, watch the games, uh, you know,
16:49
Speaker 3: enjoy the culture of the city at the same time.
16:51
Speaker 3: And there's there's the federal and state kind of legislators
16:55
Speaker 3: are trying to push for legislation now, you know, to
16:58
Speaker 3: make sure that ice is not empowered to chase people
17:02
Speaker 3: around while these FEFA games are going on. Right, that's
17:07
Speaker 3: a serious concern because you have you'renna have hundreds of
17:09
Speaker 3: thousands of people coming to the United States and people
17:13
Speaker 3: who already here and they're.
17:15
Speaker 2: Not gonna be able to tell difference.
17:16
Speaker 1: No, No, Now I want to ask too. You know,
17:19
Speaker 1: first of all, congratulations they said Newark had its lowest
17:22
Speaker 1: murder ray since nineteen fifty three. Is amazing because we've
17:24
Speaker 1: all seen the ups and downs and trials and tribulations
17:27
Speaker 1: that Newark has had. Well, what is your biggest accomplishment
17:30
Speaker 1: that you would say personally from the last decade of
17:32
Speaker 1: you being mare Personally?
17:34
Speaker 3: I think just really changing those less service lines in
17:37
Speaker 3: the city that I mean that affected me personally, my family,
17:40
Speaker 3: my community, we all lived there, you know, changing them
17:43
Speaker 3: in less than three years, twenty three thousand less service lines.
17:46
Speaker 2: And just to put it in.
17:47
Speaker 3: Perspective, like in twenty fourteen when I became the mayor,
17:50
Speaker 3: that's when Flint figured out that they had the less
17:52
Speaker 3: service line crisis and they still trying to change their right.
17:56
Speaker 3: They told us it would take us ten years. That
17:58
Speaker 3: means I would be still doing this, right, I would
18:00
Speaker 3: probably be gone and still doing that. It would take
18:02
Speaker 3: us ten years, and we did it in less than three, uh,
18:06
Speaker 3: you know, by God's grace and the galvanizing all the
18:10
Speaker 3: resources in the city, and we made it happen. You know,
18:12
Speaker 3: besides all the you know, affordable housing and you know,
18:15
Speaker 3: reduction in crime and you know, getting people in from
18:18
Speaker 3: the projects into homes. All that is is great, but
18:21
Speaker 3: the less service line thing, to me was a serious
18:24
Speaker 3: battle and we overcame it and I feel great that
18:27
Speaker 3: we were able to do that.
18:29
Speaker 2: That was also reported that.
18:30
Speaker 1: You you sued the federal government for defamation and prosecution
18:34
Speaker 1: following your arrest. Are you still seeing them?
18:37
Speaker 2: Are we still in the process of that? Yeah?
18:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, it takes some time. We still we just had
18:42
Speaker 3: a hearing a couple of days ago.
18:44
Speaker 4: How does that work with you being like a person
18:47
Speaker 4: of like politics, right, but then you're suing the government
18:51
Speaker 4: like I know you have by by law, you have
18:54
Speaker 4: the right to do that. But does it mess up
18:56
Speaker 4: internally the relationships that you have when you're trying to
18:58
Speaker 4: figure out these ecosystems of community all the things we
19:00
Speaker 4: talked about, Like, is.
19:01
Speaker 2: That a thing? No?
19:02
Speaker 3: Not not the institutions itself. I mean people we suing
19:07
Speaker 3: each other all the time, but not the the institutions itself. Individuals, yes,
19:11
Speaker 3: and the way the unfortunately, the way government is run today.
19:14
Speaker 3: It is run very like in a vindictive kind of way.
19:18
Speaker 3: And and ultimately people come after people, right and that's
19:21
Speaker 3: what this Trump administration has has represented, like they'll come
19:24
Speaker 3: and get you right away everybody, which is like there's
19:29
Speaker 3: nobody off off limits. I mean they indicted the former
19:33
Speaker 3: FBI director.
19:34
Speaker 1: I mean these people it's now, let me ask you
19:39
Speaker 1: this to you know, we're young black voters especially, what
19:42
Speaker 1: do you think young black voters are demanded from leadership
19:44
Speaker 1: right now that the previous generation didn't, Well.
19:47
Speaker 3: They want more inclusion, like they want to be involved
19:50
Speaker 3: in all of this stuff. Before we was trying to
19:51
Speaker 3: get young people to be interested. Now they want to
19:54
Speaker 3: be in it like they want.
19:55
Speaker 2: To be involved.
19:55
Speaker 3: They in all aspects of it, whether it's marketing, media.
20:01
Speaker 3: Because of all of this stuff, they want to be
20:02
Speaker 3: heard and listen to. I think all young people want
20:05
Speaker 3: to be heard and listen to. But I think it
20:07
Speaker 3: is becoming more and more. Is getting louder and louder
20:10
Speaker 3: now more than anything, and they want to be able
20:13
Speaker 3: to participate in the city. They want to engage in
20:17
Speaker 3: the economic night, the economic life in the town as well.
20:20
Speaker 3: If they see development of housing going up, they want
20:22
Speaker 3: to be a part of it. They think they're smart
20:24
Speaker 3: and they feel like they should be a part of
20:26
Speaker 3: all of the stuff that's happening in the city.
20:29
Speaker 1: And what's one thing that you feel like your administration
20:31
Speaker 1: might have fell short on that you didn't get a
20:33
Speaker 1: chance to knock out yet.
20:34
Speaker 2: There's a few things, actually, man.
20:36
Speaker 3: I mean one is this food, desert stuff, which is
20:39
Speaker 3: what we're working on down I mean, I think we
20:43
Speaker 3: still moving a little slow on affordable housing because the
20:46
Speaker 3: market is moving faster than we are able to put
20:48
Speaker 3: them up and some of it has to do with
20:50
Speaker 3: the way the tax credits are constructed by the state
20:53
Speaker 3: government that are given to us like one project at
20:55
Speaker 3: a time, which means that you're doing very little out
20:59
Speaker 3: of time. You years and years and years to amount
21:02
Speaker 3: the massive number of housing that you want to build.
21:05
Speaker 3: But you know, we're working with them and trying to
21:07
Speaker 3: figure out how to do more and more in a
21:09
Speaker 3: shorter period of time because it's an emergency at this point.
21:12
Speaker 3: I mean, that's that's clear, and I think you know
21:16
Speaker 3: in terms of our investment in the actual workforce that
21:21
Speaker 3: we have to do, us have to do a better
21:24
Speaker 3: job and invested in the workforce, expanding their resources more people.
21:28
Speaker 3: Newark is growing, and we're still trying to operate the
21:30
Speaker 3: city from the same numbers that it was.
21:34
Speaker 2: We have a three hundred something thousand people.
21:36
Speaker 3: Were still trying to operate like we have two hundred
21:38
Speaker 3: and seventy five hundred and fifty thousand people. We have
21:40
Speaker 3: not expanded the police, the fire, ucc DPW all that
21:45
Speaker 3: has to advance and all the equipment has to advent.
21:48
Speaker 2: We need more, which.
21:49
Speaker 4: Is crazy because Newark is like everybody's coming.
21:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, we and we have to act like that, and
21:54
Speaker 3: I don't know if we have invested in our own
21:56
Speaker 3: selves in a way that we need the infrastructure to
21:59
Speaker 3: be able to support all the things that are happening now.
22:02
Speaker 1: The next governor race, you said this one, you guys
22:03
Speaker 1: were a little late. You didn't raise as much money.
22:05
Speaker 1: Are you thinking about the next governor race yet? Yelp, man,
22:09
Speaker 1: give yourself enough time that now not yet felt it tired.
22:13
Speaker 2: In words bombed. I'm in the middle of this thing,
22:18
Speaker 2: you know.
22:18
Speaker 3: And uh, you know, I think that I owe the
22:22
Speaker 3: residents of New my attention, my full time and full
22:26
Speaker 3: commitment mentally, emotionally, and like I said, this is about
22:29
Speaker 3: legacy for me. So when I walk out of here,
22:31
Speaker 3: I'm going to be able to point to a few
22:33
Speaker 3: things that we were able to do in the city
22:35
Speaker 3: that will last through generation. And I'm more excited about
22:40
Speaker 3: that than anything else.
22:42
Speaker 2: You know.
22:43
Speaker 3: I think God sent me back. It was like, now
22:44
Speaker 3: you got to defend what you've built. You went out
22:47
Speaker 3: here and talked to all this junk. Now and go
22:48
Speaker 3: back to the city and defend the stuff that you
22:51
Speaker 3: said you built.
22:52
Speaker 2: Well, that's right.
22:52
Speaker 1: Well, elections are today. Make sure you get out there
22:54
Speaker 1: and vote and one thing I will say about Mayor
22:57
Speaker 1: ros Baraka. I've been in a lot of different cities.
23:00
Speaker 1: I spoke to a lot of different mayors. Mayor ros
23:02
Speaker 1: Baraka is probably one of the very few mayors that
23:05
Speaker 1: is actually outside with the people. I mean, ros Baraka
23:07
Speaker 1: will pull up at an event, he will pull up
23:09
Speaker 1: at the gym, he will walk down your block. He
23:12
Speaker 1: will ask you what's wrong? What could I do better?
23:14
Speaker 1: And I think we need more of that. And I
23:16
Speaker 1: love the fact that you do that. And sometimes I'm
23:19
Speaker 1: there and I don't even say hello because I just
23:20
Speaker 1: want to see. And the fact that he will walk
23:22
Speaker 1: into an event, major HBC event, speak to people, shake hands,
23:25
Speaker 1: kiss babies. He'll walk down the block, He'll go to
23:27
Speaker 1: the gym, and I think a lot of mayors can
23:29
Speaker 1: learn from that. Just see the people, touch the people,
23:31
Speaker 1: talk to the people, and speak to the people. And
23:33
Speaker 1: I appreciate you.
23:34
Speaker 2: Brother.
23:35
Speaker 1: Get out there and vote ros Baraka. He's running today
23:38
Speaker 1: mayor of Newark. And it's the breakfast Club. Good morning.
23:44
Speaker 4: Every day.
23:45
Speaker 1: Click up the Breakfast Club.
23:47
Speaker 2: You don't finish for y'all done