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INTERVIEW: Mayor Eddie Melton on Gary’s Power Crisis & Indiana's Infrastructure Crisis · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hold up.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Every day I wake up.
• 0:03
  Speaker 3: Wake your ass up.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club. Y'all finished or y'all done? Morning, everybody.
• 0:09
  Speaker 4: It's DJ Envy, Just Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are
• 0:13
  Speaker 4: The Breakfast Club. Lon La Rosa is here. We got
• 0:16
  Speaker 4: a special guest in the building.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, indeed.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know if I like him already because Indiana
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: has done so much damage to my New York mix.
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  Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, we have the mayor, Eddie Melton. Welcome, brother.
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  Speaker 1: Blessings, man. Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 3: Mayor of where, sir?
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  Speaker 2: I just said Indiana.
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  Speaker 1: No, you didn't.
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  Speaker 3: It's Gary, Indiana.
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  Speaker 1: He can't be the mayor of a whole state. Gary, Indiana.
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  Speaker 4: My bad.
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  Speaker 2: I'll take that.
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  Speaker 1: I'll take it.
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  Speaker 5: Well, morning, brother.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: How you feeling?
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  Speaker 1: I'm blessed, man. Thanks for having me back on the show.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us, brother.
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  Speaker 3: Now, can we get an update on Gary? Like, where
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: is Gary at today? Like, is everybody's power restored? Are
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: there still families dealing with the aftermath of the outages?
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: A lot of the aftermath is still lingering. As a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: lot of folks know, on August 11th, we had a,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: it's called a derecho. It's a straight line win. ripped
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  Speaker 1: through two states, Illinois, Indiana, three counties in Indiana. We
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: lost over 300,000 power outages of customers. That's throughout three counties.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Gary had the largest outage. We had over 30,000 people
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: that was out of power for two and a half weeks.
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  Speaker 3: That's crazy.
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  Speaker 1: If you can imagine being out of power, it's your
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: home for two days.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 6: Right?
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  Speaker 1: Things change. You lose food. You're out of work. Kids
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: are not going to school. So one of the reasons
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  Speaker 1: I want to come on today is to warn folks
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  Speaker 1: utility companies and communities to prepare for these type of storms.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: But what took so long to get back?
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  Speaker 4: Because we had, you know, the amount of listeners that
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  Speaker 4: we had from the area that every day, like, we
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: still don't have power.
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  Speaker 2: We got, you know, generators hooked up.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 4: And, you know, we helping our neighbors plug into our generator,
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: and we both going, you know, getting gas.
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  Speaker 2: Like, it was a lot. It wasn't, you know, one
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  Speaker 2: or two. There was a lot of people calling to say, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: we still don't have any power.
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  Speaker 1: So I joined with our governor. I joined our congressman,
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  Speaker 1: Frank Mervan. We launched an investigation. Right now we're investigating
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: with the Indiana General Assembly, the legislature, to figure out
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: why did it take so long. For full transparency, I
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: worked for that company for over 15 years. The power company? Yeah,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the power company. I knew exactly what it takes to
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: restore power. So when I realized after the first three
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: or four days, I'm like, wait a minute, I'm not
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: seeing the level of boots on the ground that we
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: should see to restore power. Gary is 52 square miles.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: San Francisco is 49 square miles. So we should have
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: had more people on the ground to help restore that power.
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  Speaker 1: But also the infrastructure was not invested, in my belief,
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  Speaker 1: to the durability. That was a 100-mile-an-hour wind, straight line,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: ripped through two to three counties. Trees were uprooted, destroyed homes,
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  Speaker 1: destroyed cars. So they're still taking time for us to
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: clean the city up. It's costing us $ 20 million just
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: to clean the city up.
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  Speaker 3: How do you know it wasn't a tornado or something?
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  Speaker 1: I ain't done went in. A tornado, yeah. A tornado
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  Speaker 1: is going to rip through various neighborhoods. This ripped through
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  Speaker 1: the entire northern third of Indiana.
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  Speaker 3: That's crazy.
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  Speaker 1: And Gary had the largest wind speed. The meteorologist said
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  Speaker 1: 99 mile an hour. Some say 126 miles an hour.
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  Speaker 1: But the infrastructure can only withstand 65 to 75 mile
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  Speaker 1: an hour winds. So the light poles you see in
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  Speaker 1: your neighborhood growing up, 75 mile an hour winds is...
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  Speaker 1: It's going to snap. And we got over 100 mile
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  Speaker 1: an hour winds. So that's the infrastructure durability that we
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  Speaker 1: got to say, what are you doing to harden the
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  Speaker 1: infrastructure in cities? Are you using steel poles? Are you
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  Speaker 1: going to cement the poles into the ground? So all
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  Speaker 1: of that stuff is important. We got to start asking
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  Speaker 1: these questions, especially in black and brown communities.
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  Speaker 2: What took so long, though?
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  Speaker 4: You know, because usually, you know, it's... The reason they
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  Speaker 4: can't do it is because there's downed trees or.
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  Speaker 2: A circuit breaker broke or a circuit breaker, whatever, and
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  Speaker 2: they had to fix that. So what took so long
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  Speaker 2: to get all that?
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  Speaker 1: It was the amount of devastation, man. When I tell
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  Speaker 1: you my crew, my public works crew couldn't get down streets.
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  Speaker 1: People couldn't get through neighborhoods because of the trees that
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  Speaker 1: were uprooted in the roadways. The storm happened at around
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  Speaker 1: 11 a.m. I was heading into work. We went into
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  Speaker 1: City Hall. Everybody evacuated into the basements. By the time
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  Speaker 1: the storm had passed City Hall, I knew because I
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  Speaker 1: seen trees literally flying through the entire community. Police, fire,
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  Speaker 1: public works, clearing the roads just to make sure folks
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  Speaker 1: can get down the street. But power lines wrapped up
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  Speaker 1: into the trees.
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  Speaker 4: So they had to cut the power to make sure
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  Speaker 4: people weren't getting shocked, electrocuted.
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  Speaker 1: So it's like, get the tree, get the power. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not sending my team in to go get a tree
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  Speaker 1: if it's wrapped up in a live power line. you're
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  Speaker 1: asking for someone to get hurt. So it was that
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  Speaker 1: balance of that piece is the balance of having the
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  Speaker 1: right manpower, and it's the balance of not having a
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  Speaker 1: strong enough infrastructure.
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  Speaker 3: As a mayor, at what point do you recognize that
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  Speaker 3: a power outage is becoming a public health emergency?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you think about, I think about the senior
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: citizens that lost medicine.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: People with medical conditions.
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  Speaker 1: I'm grateful our fire chief, was able to work with
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  Speaker 1: another county to bring in oxygen tanks so we could
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: refill people's oxygen tanks. This was an all hands on
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  Speaker 1: deck situation. When I tell you the beautiful thing about
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: it was I seen the community come together like never before.
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  Speaker 1: Like neighbors helping neighbors, residents coming out, just volunteering, churches, nonprofits,
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  Speaker 1: and folks like yourself that raised it to a national
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  Speaker 1: scale allows us to raise the money to this day.
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  Speaker 1: there are people homes that are still destroyed. So we
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: were able to help people get their roofs repaired, help
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: them get more food in their refrigerators and the cabinets and,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and pay for those necessities. So it's been a journey.
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  Speaker 7: And then how much help did you have, you know,
• 5:55
  Speaker 7: like restoring everything?
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we're still in that restoration piece. The power is restored,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: but it's still taking time to get back to normal.
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  Speaker 1: We receive federal assistance. I declared a natural, disaster immediately
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  Speaker 1: like within two days i declared that the governor then
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  Speaker 1: declared a state natural disaster then we waited a week
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  Speaker 1: and president trump declared the national emergency i did speak
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  Speaker 1: with him during that time frame because we had to
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: urge to get that done as soon as possible what
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: that does is release the federal dollars for us to
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  Speaker 1: get reimbursed for the money that we're spending to do
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  Speaker 1: the cleanup but you only get reimbursed like 75 so
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: right now The $ 20 million that we're expected to have
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  Speaker 1: to pay just for picking up the tree debris throughout
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  Speaker 1: the entire city is just $ 20 million. That's not including
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: sidewalks being torn. That's not including traffic lights and signals
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: being ripped out and destroyed. So it's taking time.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: I was going to ask, why did it feel like
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: it wasn't much light on Gary, right?
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  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 4: Honestly, we heard more about it from the listeners calling
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  Speaker 4: than we've actually seen on the.
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  Speaker 2: News and the papers.
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  Speaker 6: And they were so thankful we were talking about it.
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  Speaker 5: It's like, how do you not?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so why do you think that is?
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  Speaker 1: I'm here to say thank you. Because when you don't, typically,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: we don't get the shine of the positive news. Homicide
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: rates are down 56% in the city of Gary. That's
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the lowest it's been in 60 years. Our population has
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: grown for the first time in 50 years. You think
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  Speaker 1: about it, Gary at one point had 180,000 people, and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: we're at 69 to 70,000 people right now, right? So
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: when you lose half of a city, you lose the economy,
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  Speaker 1: you lose a lot of economic opportunity, but that's starting
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  Speaker 1: to turn. Nearly $ 4 billion of economic growth since I've
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  Speaker 1: been in office. U.S. Steel is investing into the city,
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  Speaker 1: 1,000 new jobs, FedEx building a brand new warehouse and distribution,
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  Speaker 1: building a new convention center. So nearly four to Four
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  Speaker 1: and a half billion dollars is getting ready to surge
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  Speaker 1: into the city. Employment opportunities are becoming more fruitful. That
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: story is not being told. It's talking about crime in
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  Speaker 1: the past. It's talking about murder in the past. That's
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: not our story anymore. So if we're not telling our stories,
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  Speaker 1: no one else is going to do it for us.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Somebody needs to do a documentary on black men. Black
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  Speaker 3: men's got the blueprint right now. There's so many cities
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  Speaker 3: led by black men. You see the homicide rates and
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: the crime rates coming down, like Baltimore, Luther Brandon, Scott.
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  Speaker 3: LA is one another one I think I've seen with
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  Speaker 3: Karen Bass Chicago like I know people don't think that
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  Speaker 3: because the history of these cities like you with Gary
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  Speaker 3: Indiana but y'all are really doing a great job.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: It's the community right and it's the it's not about
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: policing it's about investing in people too right so we're
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: investing more in summer programs summer jobs workforce development and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: training and getting folks access to those opportunities are we
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Are we doing it 100% perfect? Absolutely not. We need
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: more resources. We need more federal assistance and more state assistance.
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  Speaker 1: To be a black Democrat in a predominantly red Republican state,
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  Speaker 1: I have to work in a collaborative effort because if
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I isolate myself, we will get no resources at all.
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  Speaker 5: And that's what a lot of the listeners were saying.
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  Speaker 7: They were calling up from Gary and they were saying
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  Speaker 7: it's because we are predominantly a black city.
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  Speaker 5: Like African-Americans make up, what, 63?
• 9:17
  Speaker 7: I'm sorry, 76% to 80% of the population in the city,
• 9:21
  Speaker 7: and that's why they were saying it. A lot of
• 9:24
  Speaker 7: the residents were calling and saying, like, it's because we're black.
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  Speaker 5: They won't talk about this on the news. They're not
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: covering this.
• 9:30
  Speaker 7: This is not a priority to them, or it's not
• 9:33
  Speaker 7: even a priority to restore our power to get us
• 9:36
  Speaker 7: food or anything like that.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: When you look at the voice of people that come
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: together and start collectively telling the story, That's an example
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: of what came out. So Beyonce and her foundation donated
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: over $ 200, 000 to the effort. Folks like, brother, Trey the Truth,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Keith Lee.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: Shout out to Trey.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Big Dog Glenn Robinson donated, Denise Williams, Freddie Gibbs, everybody
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: was all hands on deck, either cutting trees, literally, or
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: out raising dollars to help put food in people's refrigerators.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Because if you're out of power for two and a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: half weeks, you know, people result to other means to
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: get what they need to get done. And we were blessed.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: There were literally no violent issues or crimes because of this,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: during this time frame.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: You know, what's the name of the utility company?
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Is it Nipsco? Nipsco, yeah.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: You had the demand that Nipsco provide restoration estimates specifically
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: for Gary because they didn't put y'all on the initial list.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Why do you think Gary was left out? Because it's
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: predominantly black?
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Well, it was a couple of towns and cities that
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: was left out. But even with that, that's a problem
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: when you give an update on estimated restoration times, typically
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: when they give a city or community, it's talking about
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: a region or a portion of that county. The people
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: don't know that. The inside workers know what that means
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: when you see Gary. Gary means Portage. It means Holbert.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Multiple communities. You have to be as detailed as possible
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: when you're dealing with a severe outage like that. So
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: that's something that we've been pushing back to say you
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: have to be more transparent and clear when you deal
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: with a devastation like that. And there's so many issues
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that people are looking at data centers as an impact
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: on utilities, on infrastructure. I just recently did a data
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: center moratorium for one year. So we can study these issues.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: As you're looking around the country, you got data centers
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: popping up around the world. Now, AI is growing at
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: such a rapid rate and pace. I wanted to take
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: a step back and say, like, before we commit to later,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: we have zero data centers right now. Before we commit
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: to bringing in a data center, it has to benefit
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the people. It has to not impact our water, our
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: electrical grid system, our environment, all of that. before we
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: even entertain or engage in having that discussion. So we're
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: in that process now of having that dialogue with the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: community and start assessing that piece of it.
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: I was going to say, I saw that the governor
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: called an investigation into the company and how the money
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: was used and or not and all those things.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: A lot of questions around vegetation management has been raised.
• 12:36
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Most communities, there's a certain cycle you go through when
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: you do vegetation management. If you lived in any neighborhood,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and you see trees eventually is going to grow into
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: power lines, there has to be a timing that you
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: constantly manage that vegetation, the trees, and prune that stuff back.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: So when storms occur, the wind blows, a branch is
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: not going to knock a power line out, and you've
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: got thousands of people out. So that's part of that investigation,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: but also investigating over the decades, has our infrastructure has
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: been managed and maintained? That's what we want to know.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Do you blame the power company, or do you blame.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: you know, just things that happen with, you know, with
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: God and just natural disaster.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: No, that's a good point. That was an unprecedented storm.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: A hundred mile an hour wind.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying, yeah.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: We have never seen that before. Natural disaster, right.
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: There was a resident that told me, he said, I
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: lived here for 80 years. I've never seen this before. Snow, ice, yes,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: we've seen that. We've experienced that. But a storm of
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: that caliber, we've never seen it. But yes, there's still
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: responsibility on the utility companies. And we have to get
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: down to the bottom of how do we prevent this
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: from happening? How do other cities and other communities prepare?
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Even I look at myself as mayor, what could and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: should I have done better in preparation for more storms
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: that's going to come down the line? So right now
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: we're going to release a storm report because I want
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: people to see every single step that we've taken during
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: this process. The moment we activated a shelter, for people
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: to live and stay. So we're very thankful for the
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Red Cross and their support. At one point, Gary had
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the largest overnight shelter in the nation during the storm.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: So we got to thank a lot of people that
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: volunteered and stepped up.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: You said earlier, though, you used to work for NIPSCO.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: So does that give you a better understanding of what
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: went wrong, or does it frustrate the shit out you
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: because you know how the company operates?
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: Both.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: But let me say this. Shout out to the men
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and women that actually climbed the poles together. to fix
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the power. Because those frontline workers, they're putting their lives
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: on the line. But typically in a storm like that,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: you're calling people from around the country to come in
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: and have mutual aid to participate in that restoration process.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: So we have people from around the country that eventually
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: came to Gary to help us with that power restoration.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: But we're restoring power in many ways right now. So
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: what I'm pushing and trying to encourage our community is
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: that we have to reclaim the power of our voice.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: In 1972, the last time I was here, we talked
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: about this briefly. Gary had the National Black Political Convention
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: that took place in 1972. Almost every powerful black voice
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: in the country ascended on Gary at that point to
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: help elevate and create a black agenda, to help figure
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: out politically, socially, economically. And right now we're at that
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: point again where communities are led predominantly by black black
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: mayors around the country, as we approach the 2028 presidential election,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: what are you going to do to ensure that urban
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: communities like Gary, like Memphis, like Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio, that
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: we're all supported and have policies that's going to help
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: us to bounce back from economic decline that occurred 50
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: and 60 years ago. And we want to make sure
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: we give candidates. We're going to have an event that's
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: going to take place March 10th through the 14th in
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: 2027 where we open it up for these presidential candidates,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: both Republican and Democrat, to come to Gary in Chicago.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Hopefully we'll be able to partner with the Obama Library
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: to invite folks out to have a discussion and listen
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: to candidates on both sides of the aisle to say,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: what are you going to do to help support communities
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: like Gary, Indiana?
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: I was going to ask, what do you do in
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: those situations?
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: Like even here, we see the same areas in New
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: Jersey or the same areas in the city flood all
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: the time, right? If it's been flooding for 10 years,
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: shouldn't we have figured out what the problem is and
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: fix it by now? Is that kind of the same
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: problems in Gary? Like it's the same issues, the same
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: flood and the same problems? Are you seeing that as well?
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: And why doesn't that get fixed?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: It's a funding aspect, right? There is certain levels of
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: flooding in the city. Now, we're blessed. We live next
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: to the largest fresh body of water on the planet,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Lake Michigan. There are flooding in certain communities in certain
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: areas because of the sewer lines, because of the rainwater,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the wastewater treatment aspect of things. But that's been happening
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: for 20 or 30 years. So what we put in
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: place now is how do I partner with the state
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: and the federal government to match our dollars to go
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: along the way so we can hire local and repair
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and maintain our sewer systems and water infrastructure. So we're
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: seeing gradual improvements. But that's, again, why I bring up
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: presidential candidates. I'm bringing up folks. We need more investment
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: in infrastructure. What do I mean by infrastructure? I'm talking
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: about roads. I'm talking about bridges. I'm talking about electrical
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: grid systems. I'm talking about our water systems. I'm talking
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: about the sewer systems. So we can prevent natural disasters.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Not prevent natural disasters, but we can mitigate the impact
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: once natural disasters occur, but also make sure you live
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: in a great quality of life. especially if you pay
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: taxes and you invest in it.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: What was the conversation with President Trump like, like speaking
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: to that? Like what did you ask him for? What
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: did he promise? What has he actually delivered?
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: That was an interesting conversation because, you know, President Trump
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: actually did business in Gary in the 90s. He had
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: two casinos there in the early 90s. So he brought
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: that up, his connections with the city. Not to get
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: too political on that aspect of it, But we needed
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: that federal assistance. So I just thanked him. But I
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: had to tell the story of what we were struggling
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: with at that time. He called the office. Thanks to U.S.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Senator Jim Banks, he helped facilitate that conversation. So within
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: 24 hours, he declared the federal disaster. And we started
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: getting those FEMA dollars within a week. So folks started
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: processing what they needed to get their homes repaired, to
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: get a lot of the funding replenished in their households.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm putting on my tinfoil poosh-icey mask right now.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: I feel like Gary, Indiana was a testing ground. You
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying? Because for years, I'm talking about
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: for years, I've always been hearing about a potential national blackout. Like,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: what if America went dark? And there was a great
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: article that came out earlier this year called The Blackout
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: That Could Devastate America.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: What do you think about that? I think there's some
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: reality to that. I don't think it was intentionally done.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: You can't predict the 100-mile-an-hour wind.
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: That's true.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: So let me say it like that. I don't think
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: that was a sabotage or a setup. I do think
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: that God has given us an opportunity to prepare, to
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: prepare for the worst. And I say the worst because
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: it could have been worse. We lost one life. There
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: was a lady that got hit by storm debris. A
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: piece of a business rooftop hit her. And I thank
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: God that we didn't have any more lives that were
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: lost because of a storm like that. There's a young man,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: a family, the Walton family. A tree literally cut their
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: house in half. Jesus. The tree is in his kitchen
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: and his bedroom. So right now we've helped remove that tree,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: cut that debris. Cutting one tree can cost you about.
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: $ 3, 000.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Just one tree. And if you wasn't budgeted to spend that,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and if you've got a slumlord, that live in another state,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: you've got to track that person down to help get
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: their tree cut. It's a lot of factors that mayors
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: have to start thinking about. Because if we have these
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: ongoing storms and weather-changing events, it's getting hotter. It's getting colder.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: The wind and rain is getting even more devastating.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Nobody's explaining the impact that the data centers are going
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: to have either on people. our utility.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: That's why we have to study these things to figure
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: out how do we not put them in communities, in
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: neighborhoods that's going to impact even the property taxes, right?
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: So that level of investment is going to raise the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: value of homes. I want to prevent that type of
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: stuff from pricing people out, right? So we can protect
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: legacy homeowners. So you hit it on the head with that.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: So we have to start looking at that. I'll be
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: speaking at an event pretty soon to talk about data
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: centers and the impact that it has and how can
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: we better prepare because we need the technology. It's inevitable.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: We need to research and understand and identify medical advancements
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: to address cancer and other diseases. But my question is this.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: When we were in high school, remember how large computers were?
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: How big the monitor was, in addition to the tower.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: What's going to happen when technology gets so rapid and
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: you're not going to need that large of a facility?
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: We there now.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: Look at our phones. Now they got the glasses. I
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: saw a commercial where Robert Downey Jr. was doing the glasses,
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: the computers and the glasses. I'm like, damn.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: I see somebody get arrested the other day.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: She had a contact lens that they had a computer
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: on a contact lens where she could, it counts the
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: cards at the casino.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: So they would count the cars.
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: This was in China? When he was in China?
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: They'd count the cars in the casino. So they banned it.
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: Wow.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but if those large facilities that they're building around
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the country, the data center piece, is not needed as big,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: then all of that land that was taken up in
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: these communities, what's going to be the use of those
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: facilities if they're no longer needed that size? So you
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: have to plan in preparation for, for the future at
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: that level.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: And you know better than I do because you worked
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: for the electric utility company. Like the U.S. power grid
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: relies on all these aging hand-built transformers, right? And I
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: read that if enough fail, there could be a blackout
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: that last years.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. How do you survive that?
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: How does America survive a blackout that last years?
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I think we have to look at alternative energy sources.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I think we have to, we need the federal government
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: to start demanding that more utility companies Do more underground wiring. Yeah. Right.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: How do we?
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Solar.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Solar, wind, a lot of alternative sources in that regards,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: making sure that certain sites, schools, hospitals have backup power generation.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: That's what we're working on right now. We put a
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: report out, and I put a demand to the utility
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: company to help us get some of these investments right now.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: in terms of backup generation, so when there's another outage,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Lord forbid that it's as long that we had, we
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: can have backup generation at certain facilities where people can
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: go and seek resources.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: If the exact storm hits a wealthier community, is the
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: response different?
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I believe so. I believe that their infrastructure probably would
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: have been able to endure it a little bit longer
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: because it's newer in most wealthy communities, but also the
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: level of investment year over year, I think, will help
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: it sustain and rebound quicker. Yes, sir.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: And like you said, it is an act of nature, right?
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: But the way people were treated after, to me, that's
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: a human choice.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: And that's what we're working on today, every single day.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: The funds that we raise under the Legacy Foundation is
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: allowing us to help people start making those repairs to
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: their homes, get trees cut, and start returning back to normal.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Two and a half weeks has changed the rest of
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: our year. so we're restoring that and I'm just thankful
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: for all the people that's constantly lending their support and
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: being leaders in the community alongside.
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: Government it's just crazy because like people have conversations about
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: like their bills skyrocketing and I was reading about like
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: you know just some of the numbers that people are
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: paying per month for their like bills to this company
• 25:12
  Speaker 6: but it's so hard for them to figure out how
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: to put money in the infrastructure and things that they
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: you can almost predict will happen when these natural disasters
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: come like that's like I don't know.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: My recommendation is if we're going to invest in data centers,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: there needs to be a community benefit agreement on a
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: very local level to say how do we reimburse or
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: invest in the pockets of homeowners and residents that's going
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: to help reduce their utility costs, that's going to incentivize
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: them if that level of investment is going to take
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: place in the community. So, yeah, bills are going higher.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I'm encouraging the state of Indiana to remove the sales
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: tax on gas and electric. That would help reduce it.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Right? So all of these things, I think, are steps
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: that we all can take. That's why we need to
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: have leaders, the next presidents of the United States, talk
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: about this. And we need to hear them say, what's
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: your plan for a city like Gary? So we won't
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: have to endure this, like you said, around the country.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Can you say that community benefit thing again? Because we
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: had a What was my guy's name that was running
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: for governor of Nevada?
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Community Benefits Agreement.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, the brother's name. I think it's Aaron. Aaron.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Aaron Ford. And that's what I was talking about. I said,
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: with the data centers, I'm like, yo, why can't they
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: just take care of people's utilities? If they're coming into
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: these communities, making billions of dollars, and causing people's utility
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: prices to go up, why don't they just cover certain
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: community utilities?
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: I think that's what a lot of, I think Kansas
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: is one community that's working on a community benefits agreement
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: like that. Giving a credit on utility bills, giving a
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: credit on your property taxes, all of that stuff is
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: helpful for families in the community. One of the things
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: that backup, well not backup generation, alternative generations just for
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: those facilities so it's not tapping into the actual grid itself.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I think that's what they're looking at in Indiana. So
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: prove to me, and I was telling When they're telling
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: us what impact is not going to happen when it
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: comes down to water and the overall utility rates, if
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: data shows that, you have to really break that down
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: to the average everyday person on how am I not
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: paying for this versus the corporation itself.
• 27:42
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Brother, we appreciate you for joining us this morning.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: Keep doing the good work.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the opportunity. Shout out to everybody in Gary, Indiana.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Much love and respect to all of the city workers
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: that worked around the clock. Police, fire, public works. I mean,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: our secretaries, everybody was boots on the ground. But again,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I wanted to come personally thank you guys and the
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: residents for lifting the story up. And right now we're
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: going to make sure that Gary, as we progress economically,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: We're seeing the jobs come. We're seeing the businesses and
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: corporations come right now. And I said the last time,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Gary's going to be the greatest comeback story in American history.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I truly believe it. And I want to make sure
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: that I keep in touch and share that with you
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: guys as well.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: I just hope America learns.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: Mayor Eddie Melton, thank you for joining us this morning, brother.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: Thank you for keeping your jacket on, man. We done
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: looked ridiculous in here this morning. I know.
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: Same sweatsuit, same color.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: It's the breakfast club. Good morning.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 28:41
  Speaker 6: Hold up.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: Every day I wake up.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: Wake your ass up.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club. Y'all finished or y'all done?