BIG FACTS feat. MAYOR KASIM REED

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Speaker 1: Big Man and DJ Scream bring you big, fat, hottest podcast in the streets. Visit the new website today www dot Big Facts pod dot Com. Line from the legendary Breakfast at Barney's is time for Big Facts. DJ Scream is here, Big Big Baby JD. We got a special special special guests. The first guest we've pulled up on America scene read what's going on? Are you feeling the first feeling home? Here? You frequent breakfast at barney Oh yeah, I mean, I think anybody that wants good food in the morning and even at eight o'clock, seven days a week, they come to Breakfast and Barneys. I'm so proud of these guys what they built in the middle of a pandemic. This shows you how black people are. I mean, in the middle of a pandemic. They build a business that I think, at the end of the day is gonna be a national brand. Kind It has the same energy. And when I met Pinky car right after she started, Leddy Vegan in the neighborhood was trying to close her down and she was just going through all of this abuse as a young entrepreneur. But she's another person with that kind of spirit and the same. These guys have that kind of energy. I think that this is uh is the next big thing in the city. They look at it spread and I'm telling y'all, I don't know how the camera situation was just working, But this is a twenty four layer of red velvet cake. It will be It's the best red velvet cake I've ever had. And then the pancakes have this special mix in them that gives you a cake field, so it's actually a funnel fake field to it, almost like you out of the park. Yeah, you know what I mean. So I do that. My daughter loves that. She can't believe that she can eat gold, so every time that's a new experience for her. And then the soul rolls down that they don't have, Yeah they do. They got yard Bird, eight of them. Yeah, I got yard and then the potatoes a magic Yeah. And I appreciate big facts. Um, you know, putting breakfast at Barney's on the map. Now. They support us, they support everything that we do. Yeah. Yeah, I actually got one for my birthday. Yeah, I had him at my party. So when I kicked off on June tenth, it's thirty days ago that they shoot ten I had that. I had like we had like twenty of them all through the house. So yeah, yeah, bunch of money. As those people they spent to be there, they eat whatever they want. Made history. Yeah, So we raised um, we had the biggest single fundraiser in the history history of Maryal politics. Raised five hundred and fifty thousand and one night at Teresa's house and then we raised a million dollars faster than any candidate who's ever run from mayor in the history of the city. We raised ten thousand, fifty one million, fifty five thousand and twenty days. So I launched on my birthday, June tenth, and we closed out the first reporting period on June and then if you count the raise, I'm not talking about money that people transferred alone to themselves. We raised more than the other top three people combined. I'm gonna beat everyone on them. So, speaking of fundraising, I was doing a little bit of research and when you were in your senior year at Howard, you did a fifteen dollar fee increase for the students people. Yeah, you did the increase and um which was matched by the federal government covered by grants, and you guys only expected to raise about three hundred thousand, But didn't you end up raising about two point four million. No, we raised twenty million today. So it's the it's the it's the second largest until until Mrs Mackenzie donated her thirty or forty million to the schools. The second largest fundraiser in the history of the school and it still goes to this day and initiatives. Yeah, I wrote it, I created, I thought it up. I learned about it when I was an intern working for Joe Kennedy Joseph Kennedy, the third on Capitol Hills. How I learned about it and I was on the board of trustees at the time. And the really cool thing was when Hurricane Katrina occurred, that fund was used to give young people from Louisiana and transfer students from Louisiana money so that they could keep their Absolutely. Yeah, it's one of the best things I've ever done in my life. I did the commencement speech for how than UH in twenty nineteen. Um it's the last commencement speech before COVID, and they talked about it. So it's past twenty million dollars, yes, Yeah, it just goes to show what we can do collectively. But you are right, I mean you're well sourced. Initially we thought it was gonna be three hundred thousand a year, but really every HBCU in America should be doing that. You know, it's just that money. You know. One of the areas where we've really got to improve on is the strength of our endowments, because the endowment is the money that keeps the institution going rain, sleep or snow. Um. And so I was always into endowments, and now Howard University has the biggest endowment of any HBCU. So basically, like for HBCUs, endowments are two HBCUs what booster clubs are to like public schools. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. But endowments really build olden institutions so that kids have to pay less because the way it operates, you earn interest off of it in perpetuity. And then the way the university works is they get to take a certain percent of their interests and push it out for grants and scholarships. At most most HBCUs um sixty that sevent the kids and all of our schools um have need aid in order to finish college. Yeah, and so it really makes a difference. It's why the Mayor's Ball that I did when I was married Atlanta was so big because over that time we raised eight million bucks for our local HBCU schools and then we gave the people of a manner the best you know ball today had ever since I tell you something, you feel like hit the city, No, I don't. I think it's a tie between Maynard Jackson and so Ambassador Young is my guy because I met him when I was a kid, when I start seeing and then when I was twenty, I was getting ready to go to New York take a job at time Warner and Um, and he said, you are to come home. The city is gonna need a mayor like you. And in twenty years and then twenty years later, we were sitting in the Princiker Suite at the Hyatt Hotel and they came in to tell me that I won. So he was sitting on the on the couch when I found out I had one the first time that I won. So he has a special place in my heart. But I think that that Um Maynard Jackson, whose son I'm friends with, an Ambassador Young to find the Atlanta that that we know right now, and they were good like for their time, like and they did what needed to be done for what was going on at that time in the city. Who who could be? Who the best part? I just told you I'm gonna be everyone else? Come on, yeah, I mean so in this in this selection coming up, we have real challenges in front of us, you know, because you are so entrenched in the community. Right now, our city is just off. I mean, there's never been a time in my life where you landed in another city, whether you're in Chicago, l A, New York, Houston, wherever you moved. We all got off the plane and said we were from Atlanta, like and what like is there anything else? And right now when you say that, you know, people flinch a bit because of the crime situation or gangsters. Us are concerned. So we really have to restore our sense of community and get our city back because I believe during COVID, America was using Atlanta as this playground. Definitely, so everybody was coming to Atlanta because we were still open. And the behavior that's not typical for our community people saw and then it leaks. So when you see people behaving in a certain way in your place one number one. You you get with that kind of energy, right um, And I think it's really harmed us. And I think that all of us. The reason I'm on the show today is if I'm fortunate enough to win, I'm gonna have to come back here because we've got to have a lot of conversations about how to restore our sense of community without you know, running around, you know, like it's a balance. It's a balance. They're not having all that tough talk, but restoring normally to the Atlanta that we know. You gotta leave. You can't bring your machine gun out, man, you know what I mean, Like, you can't do that. That's got to stay at home. I mean, just their conversations in you know, the water boys, I'm gonna raise two million dollars for him. I'm gonna let them provide. I'm going to go to counsel and ask them to provide an opportunity to provide water to the city. So he's got nine thousand employees, it's got various departments. I think that we can find a way for those young men to have an operating business that certainly employs two hundred of them. And I've met with them on multiple occasions. I count about two hundred, two hundred and fifty brothers, and so that's an opportunity for us to get to know some people with some get up and go. So you got to get them on the street, yeah, no question. So like contractors for the city, No, we're going to create a company. It's going to employ them. So for example, in public works, the people that that that cleaned the city and pick up our trash, they all need water, have to be served water, right, So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna raise two million in private capital. I already have a number of the commitments for it if I'm fortunate enough to win. And those people are gonna make more money with us in a way that's going to allow them to establish a compny, established credit, and be exposed to people like us in a cool way. But they're not gonna be on the intersections. And the reason that they're not gonna be on the intersections is we know how to move with that energy. But they're an awful lot of people. My mom didn't know how to move with that. My mom still dry, she's seventy nine. She doesn't know what to do. Somebody wants the car. My mom would ask my mama for a blue one every time on a hundred dollar bills. So she was giving a kid a twenty and they said, no, I want to blue with my mama didn't know what the blue one is. So no person should be put in that situation in traffic. But we're not gonna say but we're just gonna take your opportunity. That's not their line of way, right because anybody who will stand in an intersection has got some get up and go. But how do you? How do you what's the process of that? Though the processes, I'm gonna ask Dan Cathy, who owns Chick for a who funds this junior Achievement of Sine center right at right at North Side Drive when many of them convene, and I'm gonna ask them to go into a partnership with me. So the same way you show up at that intersection, you'll show up either at a junior achievement or I'll use one of the city's at promise centers or one of the recreation centers. The same way you show up at the intersection, come show up there. You're not gonna lose, You're not gonna lose a dollar, and so I really wanted to. Actually, a young young water board young man was shot near Old Nationville the other day. I actually think we ought to have a pause right now, and I would give the young people the money right now, just the pause, because a kid just lost their lives, is alive but got shot several times. So I think that we need a pause. I think we need big community conversations and forms like this are gonna be where we had these talks and then we're gonna break off and we're gonna do them because you gotta you gotta get niggas to talk to them that they understand. You know what I'm saying. I'm not here for nothing. I'm not what I'm saying as what the process of with no I d no nothing. I don't even know about Social Scurity Club. How do I get a job? I'm sing? But see what our thing is. We have to get with people in in that up close a way. We're gonna we're gonna change some people's lives because people know, if you're around us, you'll be able to get legal money. If you're around me, you get legal money. If they're around you, they're gonna get legal money and so me, you shocker, coach k P. Everybody that has respect out here in any way, it's got to put our arms around these people just differently, right. But it's never gonna be a time where I do anything where's just tough. Yeah, it's always gonna be this is better for you, better option. But some of the things we just can't tolerate. So you don't believe that the defunded police ship, No, I don't. I don't. I don't defund no police. No, I don't believe in that. I don't believe in that we need we have to have police. You can't have an international city. Um, that's the center of the center of human rights and civil rights in America. I think on any given day, something in Minneapolis and l A or Dallas can can make So I have ten It didn't have anything to do. Nothing happened to you in the lane, But we have ten thousand people that we have to deal with because they're protesting. Um, what happened in Minnesota. But I don't know what's in the water in Minnesota. But it's an awful lot to be happening that happens up there. Yeah, the point I'm making is is that you need a jail capability because American can, unilaterally, working with the correction chief just say release the people on the signature, Bob. They're getting no record, they had an opportunity to protests. They go in, they process out, they leave on their own signature. And so I think I have some credibility because I was the person that ended Red Dog. I was the person that decriminalized marijuana. I was the person that said all officers to go with video cameras. I was the person that said, if you get shot by the police's gonna be independently investigated by the g B. I Right, So people act like I'm walking around talking tough on crime. Now, I'm real reasonable, but I also know that when something happens to you, right I am if you're mayor. When you're mayor, you are you have the responsibility. You got three jobs. When you're mayored. When you wake up in the morning, you get to go to work safely and get home safety. That's my number one job. Did nothing had up to you while you were in the city that I am legally responsible for. You moved around, you eight you shot, You made it back home and you put that key in the door, your family is there. That's one. Two. If you don't real estate, most of us, if we own a house, it's the biggest investment in our lives for most of us. Not you, but for most of us. So my job to make sure that your property values are going up right. And if the city is not doing well, the biggest investment for ninety seven percent of people if they if they if they're own a house, So my job is to make sure that goes up. And then number three, I want you to have a job after have an environment where you have a job, and if you lose that job, you can get another job. Any mayor that's doing those three things, well, the city is gonna love and they're gonna embrace. Now. Folks can say whatever they want about me, but everybody knows when I was mad. Everybody may more money or no, we get money. We get money nobody. So if I'm fortunate enough to win, everybody's gonna make more money than they've ever made before. So having these calm conversations, I think it's gonna, you know, be possible. But look, I have one question. While we're talking about like the police and you know, like the condition of like the Atlanta City jail and the Fulton County jail. Is that something that's within your jurisdiction to fix and get better or is that like a governor problem. No. Well, first of all, any problem in the city is the mayor's problem. Um, So as it relates to the jail, that's fully the mayor's responsibility because you own it and everybody who works there works for you and really works at your will. Right. The Fulton County jail is more of a core operative problem, meaning that I don't have direct jurisdiction over it. But the chief, the sheriff is Pat Labat, who's yeah, well, Pat worked for me for eight years, so he was my corrections chief. He did a phenomenal job as corrections chief, which helped him become sheriff of Fulton County because he had done the job before. So we aligned. So what we want to do is cooperate. This jail is at maximum capacity, right, and so what I want to do is to use the Atlanta jail to extend his capacity. But I've also got to have capacity for us. In my opinion, you can never tell criminals that your jail is closed because the modern criminal is increasingly intelligent. And if I know that Fulton County is full and has overcrowning problems to the extend, and people get in, if it's not a major of fish, you roll them out. And Atlanta's jail is closed. What if I go and rode steal your car and get caught, It's a high probability that I'm gonna be right back out. And so it's the wrong message in my opinion, to say that we have no jail because I'm not gonna have anybody to car jacking anybody. I mean, my my rules are real simple rules. You can't shoot nobody, can't car jack anybody, don't rob anybody, and if you do, we're gonna have a real situation. Right, So those are basic. I can't shoot. Don't if you're in Atlanta, don't shoot anybody, because you're gonna know that if you shoot somebody. Like I'm on the I'm gonna build a big police force. We're gonna training post five, post George Floyd. You're gonna have best in class training. But people are not gonna be getting We have a hundred fifty si fifty seven murders last year when I was married. There was only more than a hundred murders in the Atlanta one time, one time in eight years, So seven out of eight, less than a hundred people lost their lives. Because what my job one, It's to make sure you get home. Yeah, that's my That's my number one job. And when I was mayor, I had a BlackBerry. Any time a felony was created, it was in my phone, not abstract who all the information was in my phone. You're gonna let all the time, you know, But I don't think it's anything about letting anybody. What I want to do is to try to demonstrate that what is going on in our environment is a moment in time and not a permanent reality. And so what I want to do is, rather than let I want to try to persuade the Buckhead community to remain. And I believe so everybody in Bucketat knows that when I was married, they were safe. It's not a fiction, it's reality. And so what I'm gonna ask for is to give me a shot. You know that schedule to leave in November, right, I'm just gonna ask what's a year? Because if you know, people act like that's a rich person's problem. It's really a black mom, poor people's problem. If Buckhead leaves, that's of the city general fund revenue. So all of the problems we had are tougher problems, because any problem when you have less money, it's a bigger problem. And so aside from the fact that we throw away city too busy to hate, we throw away our reputation is being a place where black people and white people work out. Our difference is different than any other place in the in the country. We throw away the fact that when you go to the Hawks game, it's no arena that looks like it in America. When you go to the Falcons game, no arena it looks like it in America. I was having dinner at Craig's Restaurant in l a. Oh, y'all know. So it's one of the hottest restaurants in l A. I was the only black person in there. There's no where you go in Atlanta where you're the only black person being the male of a city like Atlanta, right in the black male. Who's your biggest hater? Man, it's too many gotta be they gotta be number one. Can't stand me. I mean, the newspaper you know. But they didn't like anybody. I mean, as much as I have gone through with them, they were that way. The only person that they were were, you know, normal too, was Ambassador Young. He's a I mean, he was Dr King's right hand so he had a better relationship. But they've they've never treated any black man will none, period, none. There's nothing you can do, nothing, nothing I can two million in cash reserves double A A plus credit from Stuart Standard and Poys, Moodies and Fitch when the Super Bowl College Football Championship NC double A awarded to the City of Atlanta. While back to back to back to back negotiator did the deal for Mercedes Being Stadium, did the deal for State Farm read did the deal for Pot City Market? Did all of that? New construction brought in CR to Atlanta, seventeen headquarters in regional regional hubs, brought in record number job creation, record number of population growth. Black people made more money than there before, a cross the threshold of a billion dollars spent with black women six billion in new construction. In Hartsville, Jackson Airport negotiated the longest lease with Delta Airlines since Heartsville and the founder of Delta Sea Woman came to the city. We did a twenty year deal with a tenure option, keeping the headquarters in Atlanta. But you know what, that's fine because here's why I'm on this show right now. The j C has never elected the mayor of Atlanta. They've never said this should be the mirror and that person who became there. So you just have to take it sometimes, as you know, you just gotta stick your chin out, take it, keep smiling, hug your kids. They know that you wonderful, keep it pushing, and we'll talk to them on overre But third, now, every everything that you accomplished is not easy work. You know what I'm saying. Being a mayor, being a politician is not easy work. So at the end of the eight years, did you leave like alright, I'm done with this, I'm gonna be with my family and I don't want to be married again. Or at the end of the eight years, as you feel like I got more work to do and that's why you're coming back to run America. Well, we're on big facts, so this is so the first year you leave, it's terrible. So I don't take drugs, but it's got to be with being a junkie. It's like so that that first year you went through a major withdrawal. It's awful. Yeah, you're missing it. It's terrible. But when you wake up, right, I mean you when you're married. Every time you land in a city, you your mind is like a computer because you're comparing your city too. Should I have that? Should have had that? It's just better than mine. So it takes a year or two come down from the fact that that's no lawer irresponsibility. Then second year, I was having a ball. Third year I had gotten over it, so I didn't want to be married anymore. So when Mayor Bottoms made the decision to go spend more time with her family, everybody thought it was a quick decision for me to run. It was not, because I was really enjoying myself. I mean, one of my best friends in the world is a guy named Tommy Duncan. I mean he sold the his company for nine figures so nine yeah, nine, like a hundred million in a lot of money. The best friend in the world. One of my other best friends guy you all know, Ryan Glover shout five. So my dudes was like, man, let's we're going out of pocket and get this ship. Let's get ahead. So, I mean, you know, like when when I walked in here, Tommy is on a yacht in Florence, Italy right now at the original Gucci Gucci store sending me pictures from he bought out the whole Gucci store. I mean, he closed the Gucci store for his wife. And I'm sitting here breakfast and bonnet. You know, question, she's doing real research here. You know, it's cool for the black men, but what about what we don't do? So we're got more opportunity than that than anybody's ever had. The good thing is right, So to finish your question and then problem. So the bottom line is so it was rough. But the assessment that I did when I decided to run on June tenth was I love this city and I'm gonna live here, and this is where my family is gonna be raised, and we're in a we're in a unique moment where of the city. If an election were held today, seventy three percent of them will walk right. The relationship between the state and the city is the worst that it's ever been. Crime uh is six is up sixty points, and I think I am the person to calm those things down and stabilize Atlanta and then probably move on. That's however, and then and then you and then you know, financially, I'm good, so I can do it. You said, the relationship between the state and the city of the worst has ever been So how how would how would you personally deal with Governor Kimp because that's a big part of getting everything back down in the way that I deal with Governor Deal. Governor Deal, and I had the best relationship between the mayor governor in the history of Georgia. Exclutly nobody, exclutly nobody. So we built the modern motion picture and television industry from a four hundred million dollar sector, all of these cameras and lights. When we started as a four hundred million dollar business, when I walked out the doors, nine point five being dollar business, employed thirty seven thousand people. So many people are getting bred and doing well and being able to have a creative career outside of the record business and the record sector. We have reimagined people who who made their career in the record sector now in television, podcast, all these different creative industries, um all three more on movies right Felm were w who was mayor Black Panther filmed were here in Atlanta while who was married? Tyler Perry Studios done with who right Fast seven Fast eight, done Weird while I was married. So you know when that when a person makes a motion, a blockbuster movie, they're making a career decision and you're spending three hundred million, four hundred million on the movie. So people would look at it the line and be like, I'm gonna do it? What that dude is? And so as a result, look at our technology sector. Technology sector is exploded, right, And so my senses is that we have a really strong economy, but our national brand is being damaged by crime. And I think that I'm the right person to reduce crime um without here looking like a crazy looking like a crazy person, right, So I'm the person to negotiate calmness. And people know that I don't play. I don't play, and so all I'm really saying is cut out the foolishness. And nobody has really been saying cut out the foolishness. And I'm gonna have you all walking around saying just bring it down. I'm not crazy, and you're affecting everybody's money, everybody's biggest facts. When you're in the club, right, nobody else. I know all the club owners. I'm gonna meet with every single one of them. I'm gonna meet with all of the gas station owners, and I'm gonna tell him what does it take for black for a black woman to be able to get some gas and not have her head on the smooth? You got black women putting up their cars. They bust there behind to become successful enough. Woman bought a Porsche pan of Mirra. She didn't have to go buy for it. Focus because she's shaking when she's getting gas for the car that she dreamed about getting. Hannah's kind of pulls up with no wind and leaves all the windows down. She did with doing up the car. I mean, just think of psychologically, you have a car, you I'm gonna leave it open. That's how bad. And that's where men toub of women are. Every man that I know in Atlanta right now checks on his woman regarding the gas situation. Men been pumping more gas than I ever seen him pump, which is cool. Impositive, but you don't want to be mandatory. But they still gotta be a well too. Though they do, but I mean, right now, when you're getting together in Atlanta socially, the conversation opens up with what happened to you? Man? Just hating windows? Broke man, God tried to steal the car, got pulled upside me on the freeway, point of the gun at me, told me to pull over. I mean, this stuff is not we do not. This is not Atlanta, and it is because these folks believe that they could get away with it. And everybody who's listening to this podcast knows that if I'm fortunate enough to be mayor that that is not going to be the case. And if something happens to you, the second maddest person is gonna be me, which is what people want, because if you're gonna do something about it, you going to jail. Right, So somebody pulls up and tells you to get out your car and leave the keys running, they go ice cube on you. Right. All you can do is thank God that you didn't get killed and say take it. But the person who you call is who And if I don't feel passionately about the violation when I ran from heyor before, when I ran before, we had a crime spike and I'll never forget. I'll tell you when I won the race. I was in a town hall woman and this told this lady stood up and she said she was a black woman. She said they knew that I was a single female. They kicked in the door to my house. They looked at me while they took the TV off my wall. So think of the cowardice of a dude. This says, I'm not gonna rib a house where I have a real situation. I'm gonna rib a single woman's house. You know what. I looked to him. I said, let me tell you something. If I'm mayor, I'm gonna get your TV back. You understand me. I'm gonna look for your TV people. I want my TV back. Right, if somebody snatched my chain, I don't want about No, I don't want the insurance. I want my chain back. I want my chain. I want you to go get my chain. It's the same thing with a television if if the person is responsible, you know, and I meet with dudes, meet with street dudes and tell them, you know, to keep it, keep it in the lines right, because it only it might appear that with equal but we're not right. The police department is a paramilitary force, right, so you might have shooters, but your shooters shooting, run my shoes is shooting, and go home and go to sleep. So like another that's what that's that's the talk we need, dude, Yeah, to get the city back right. Yeah. And then like another thing that I know this is like a really a really big thing for people. Um is the whole like gentrification things. So what are your plans on I guess preventing the illicit gentrification, especially like well, like my family is like from the Simpson Road one City neighborhood, but like got like the Pittsburgh area, like all of the areas where everything is booming. So what how do you plan on preventing the illicit gentrification and also taking care of like the elderly people, the people that are on fixed income and preventing them from being priced out of those neighborhoods. Well, the first thing I'm gonna do is go on big facts and tell people don't sell, because the mayor to be going everywhere and open up everywhere every comment we don't sell. And if somebody is talking to you about buying your property because of the property tax situation, called me because the last I checked, I left the city with two hundred million in cash. So I left the biggest cash reserve in the history of Atlanta, in the history of cash reserves Atlanta has never had. When I walked out of the door. For all that talk, I'll tell you what money wasn't missing. Then it was all there. Take a couple of so so I mean I was I was bankro friends, So I believe. I believe that we started what's called an anti displacement initiative before I walked out. It means you raise private money. So if I moved next to somebody and I modernized my house, I push up the property values of the person next door. When the taxes go up, you take that money and you pay the increase the difference. And then you need a grant program as well. Because I moved into the neighborhood. Your house shouldn't look junkie. It's just dignity. Grant me, let me pay mind, fix debt, fix my window. So we need a grant and then you too. But the good thing about me and what different differentiates me from other people. Everything they say is a hypothetical. I did it when I was there. I raised private money. I paid people's property taxes through this UH fund called the West Side Future Fund, I named it, and that's what it was for to pay people's property. So when because what was going on was these people were walking up on the were they were looking for tax LANs, knocking on people's doors. People didn't have seven eight ten grand. The family didn't have seven eighteen grand, and they would say, I'll buy you a property for the tax lane, and maybe I'll put five on that, or maybe i'll put that, or I helped you move into an apartment. And so my position is going to be the city has a massive bound of real estate. I want to do deals, use the city dirt to help build affordable house and fast. The way that you dropped the price on real estate deals is give him the dirt. So you give him the dirt, you subtract that out of the overall project costs, and you get to to build affordable housing faster. I'm also going to find out what happened to the thirty million dollar Choice Neighborhood grant that I wont that I can't see. I ain't seen it. I have not seen it, but I know I want it. So who knows, but I'm looking for it. So biggest real estate on see the Atlanta, j invest Atlanta and the belt Line. All of those assets need to be put out so you can build affordable house and fast. One of the focuses that that I think the mayor has rightly focused on, and I think she's done a really a good job in focus in the city on the affordable house. And the other thing we've got to do is the city has an awful lot of affordable units that working people don't live in. So when you see these high rises being built, when they if it involves municipal financing, we'll say there's a ten percent set aside units for working people. Well, if you go back and check, you'll see that they didn't least those ten percent to working people. They gotta they have a person paying regular rent and many of those ten percent units no no, So if you are rich, that one of them tem percent units was for you. They don't advertise when you walk up to the building and then they just start putting regular they should have been. So if it's a market three thousand dollar month units, it should have been sixteen fifty for somebody. Because what you're trying to do is you're trying to change somebody's life. If you've got a mom who's living in the building with an averager in its three thousand, and she's paying for her and her family around what they're around, and they're mixed into the overall building and it changes their life out. So I'm going to go through every unit and every deal, and I am going to audit to see who's living in these units and if then and going on exactly, I'm gonna look around and I'm gonna go, how are we doing where people? So if you look at Pot City Market, pot City Market is a deal that was done where you supposed to have a set amount affordable house. Right, you need to go and say, let me see all of the people in Pot City Market in the flats. They're beautiful, who are affordable, medium and lowane. Come show up to me that knows the people need it exactly. My point is, you have all these buildings, all these transactions, and it's just like you know how we're doing right and what we do to think about having been man like I did these deals, I'm not I'm not a boys stander. I know what was promised. I know what should have been done, and like that's the need and if we moved the needle there, I think Atlanta is just gonna be I mean just just We're just gonna be on fire zone, the zone and the zone and ship they try to make illegal for the airbnb you know what I'm talking about. I don't know. You don't have to briefly on that. You know, how people rent properties, and they're trying to make it too where because they've had I guess several issues with like airbnbs and parties and you know, the parties at the airbnbs, like resulting in violence and stuff like that. So I saw on the news. I'm not quite sure of the exact specifics, but they're trying to basically pretty much outlaw Airbnb's in the city and make it to where if you're advertising that you have a property that you're putting up for rent on Airbnb, then you're gonna be served with a citation because they're gonna be quote unquote illegal like short term rental. Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to get deeper on that. I don't have an answer to that, right. So that's one where I just haven't caught up with that one yet. Okay, what's your tastes on full marijuana legalization in Atlanta or Georgia and what would you do if and winning Like the Marito, I think the marijuana scheme in Atlanta should be like the marijuana scheme in the city of San Francisco. I think we need to start with the medicinal marijuana, and then I think we need to see how we do handle medicinal I don't believe that we should start with wide open marijuana sales all the way across the board, straight out of the gate, so no recreational straight out of the gate, out of the gate, but I think that we need to let everybody know that there's a there so that the community and entrepreneurs can be a prayer prepared to adjust. I also believe in using the city's ability to either ban it or cooperate with it to make sure that black entrepreneurs are at the table in a railway and not left by the wayside. So whatever the state pass is regarding the marijuana licenses that they're reviewing right now, in my mind, the city should have a vote on what is going to happen with how that business sets up and operates in the city, and we have to have a goal consistent with what we do at Hartstel Jackson Airport, with black and women participation, period, full stop. What about those incarcerated though that might have got heart sentences for marijuana art, their sentences should be reduced consistent with the modern state of the law, no question about it. But that issue, along with this entrepreneurship issue, um, is the one that's not getting enough attention. I mean because right now black people on the people who are benefiting off the legalization of marijuana, while black men sit in jail and rock because they sold marijuana. And so Um, there is a lot of writing of the ship that has to be done around marijuana, and I think that I'm the right person to do it. Now, what would you say, like when everybody we know Cassine Read is now running from there. There's a lot of love and I'm sure you felt the love, and when the love comes to hate. So you talked about the a j C And the nay sayers and the people and accusations and everything. What would you say to the people that's on the fence that are not Casine Read supporters to get them to support you? What I would say is that all of us live full lives with mistakes and terrific things that we've done. And what I would ask is that they view the entirety of my life and the entirety of my service. So you can certainly talk about the warts, the people who went to jail during my administration. You can certainly talk to me about whatever words you want to talk about. But as long as it's viewed as a whole picture, it's the best economy the city had had in the generation. Crime was at forty year Old's team. Crime was reduced. Every single recreation center in the city of Atlanta um was open, Every pool was open. Recreation center stayed open until seven o'clock at night, seven days a week. We started providing hot meals to up to two thousand young people per day, double a plus credit from Standard and Forest Moodes in Fitch seventeen, Regional US headquarters move into the city. Largest population influx Atlanta is really half a million twenty year at least with delta, if you view it all I mean, yeah, so it's the same way you have to do it with Jordan's As long as we're talking about all of it, you talk about all of you. So when I come in and do an interview with you all, I'm ready to talk about whatever we talk about, and and and to voters, you're not imagining that you were better off four years ago. You know what's crazy about He didn't send in and ask what questions We're gonna people that ask for no prep or what y'all can't talk whatever when I come to sit down somewhere, whatever you want to do. I tell people all the time, ask me anything, as long as you can hand to handle the answer. Right. So my thing is, I think people care more about being able to pump gas than what the a j C Says about me. I think people care more about the fact that they're walking through metal detectors and having to swap their bags out to walk to the car because you went to Gucci and you can't walk out with a Gucci bad You gotta white You gotta white bag that thing, right, which means when you give it as a president, you got to put it back in the Gucci band. What's what's happening in the line and now it's people are forced to be think about who their Mary is. When I was married, you might have heard the A j C saying some story about me, but it was a passive thing. I man, look at them, look at that, look at that. But it wasn't about a hundred and fifty seven murders. People are being forced to think about who they're mary is because their direct lives being affected to make you think about I have to park my car and leave my car a lot with the windows down. What that's my norm. That's my norm. So the point I'm making is is and and if folks look at all that and don't want me, there's four or five other people that I'm getting ready to beat anyway, So you have options gonna beat every single one. So you say, basically, don't look. You can see look at what I've done for this city. Yeah yeah, so I understand. So I was not playing on a run from there, So I mean, I'm not I'm not. I was not plotting on this job. I was on Frank Ski Show. Franksie and I had real conversations. My daughter was being dropped off of my former wife's house by her grandma. Car was robbed in five minutes that happened. Damn. My mom goes to the Chick fil a at Colony Square. She gets the number one in the morning. She seventy nine years old. She's retired. That that Chick fil A was robbed in broad daylight, and it wasn't a quick robbery. It was a long robbery that happened. One of my closest friends in the world attempted carjacking. She videotapes the carjack is getting away, nobody comes, I mean video tapes the vehicle. But her point is, I'm telling you how I got for anybody, But why are you written that's how I got here? Frank Ski said, are you playing and run from here? I said, absolutely not. But there's no term limit on being a citizen. Had a big platform. What I have almost four Twitter followers, forty some thous on Instagram, fifty on Facebook. I'm a person if my daughter is getting dropped off at my former wife's house, right, I get to be when your daughters in the city, you get to you should be a father. I'm on the radio telling you that there are things that are happened in the city of Atlanta that nobody is talking about. And when I was mayor, they've been talking about it, right, So so I mean, just check this out of the people say I want to leave. Seventy three them say if the election was tomorrow, I would leave immediately. If that happens. Financially, Atlanta, it's like Birmingham never thought about it. Like, actually, if you remove the take Buckhead out of Atlanta and the financial wherewithal that comes from all that property tax in salestox revenue and the money that supports our schools, financially, we're closer to Birmingham. They got. So my point is, bank, nobody would come and take thirty percent of your money without it being a full meeting strain. Nobody said a word. M Nobody, nobody said a word. People start saying, well, that can happen. Anybody who has been alive on earth knows that wealth and influence makes things that could not happen happen. They check it out. November twenty second is the is the is the year that Governor Kent will be running for re election and Stacey Ablems will be the different Democratic nominee in a cage death match to be governor. So at the exact same time, you're gonna have a referendum about the city of Bucket. H Yeah, come on now, So I'm a citizen who served this this city for two terms, and I got to talk. That's what I did on Frank ski Show. So I say all of that to say, folks can measure at all to talk to me about all of it. Talk to me about all of it, and and find I want to say this, you're getting hard surgery next week. You want somebody to perform heart surgery. You wouldn't want people who want to go to medical school. These other people they want to go to medical school. There but a mouse in school that that medical students. I think I could do it. I think I could do it. I think what I never run. I ran seventeen billion dollars in money. The budget of the city is two point two billion a year. I built the police force to the biggest has ever been in history, right, and I did the things that Black Lives Matter talked about before George Floyd was murdered. So you don't get to come at me with that talk. But when Atlanta needs is calm, steady, tested leadership and somebody that people could pull up on and have a real conversation. True, everybody knows me, they know my phone number, they know how to get to me. They know how to have a conversation with me. That's what this city needs right now. It is a beautiful tapestry on the outside, that is, we've together by a whole lot of knitting. On the other side that doesn't look so pretty. That's how Atlanta is made a bunch of meetings that people never see, conversations that people never have because so that something doesn't erupt and blow up the painting or the tapestry. Yeah, and what's been going on is we've all been watching it completely explode. That's what we've been watching it. That's guys pull pulls out, has a shootout in front of Cheetah, multiple up, not I mean not one, multiple duck down, return fire, duck down. What these are behaviors that none of us I've been here the whole time, have seen. And where is the outrage when the three year old girl gets shot? Where's them? Where's the outrage? And more than the outrage, where is the I'm going to stop it. I Am going to stop it, and if somebody doesn't, I'm going to find them. When I was married Atlanta, I used I raised awards so high that my chief told me to stop. He said you. You put so much award money on the street it makes people just co commit a crime and turn themselves in. You can't do that. But I mean, I'm not a police chief, you know, but I know how to put some on on somebody's head. You robbed a woman at a gas station, and you're out of cold, right. We had the car tacking problem, and that's out of cold. Yeah. M And so you know, I know it's probably a little too much passionate for the podcast, but this is what I want. One get a get a voicemail at though it's what you call nine one one, and they'd be like, is it serious? Hold on, I don't I don't know about I don't know. I'm not gonna speak negatively about anything. But let me tell you something. I don't know. They didn't have that when I was married. When you didn't give voicemail, not only did you not have voicemail, you'd have been able to call me. So the point I'm making is is this, let me tell you something. If I'm fortunate enough to win, we're gonna have a hundred days. We're gonna cut the system out. You gotta warrant any negative interaction with the city. We're gonna have a hundred days where we have volunteer lawyers, municipal lawyers, like an amnesty programs, just amnesty, come in and work it out. And when the city's gonna pay for it, I'm gonna use some of that two hundred million dollars in research. So you know, if you got a situation, it is your time to come and clear up parking ticket, moving violation, all that stuff. I've had a one. It's terrible when you have one, you know what I mean. I mean, you know you can't take you later out. I mean, it's all kind of she got a drive, she don't know why she drive like tweaking. You gotta make it be cool and turn it into jay Z and Beyonce situation. Here's what But you need a hundred days gonna clear that up. City is gonna pay full. I don't even want the money because it's gonna show our hearts. Right, you got a situation, it's cleared up, whatever it is. I don't want to do anything to you. We're gonna click, We're gonna clear to that because what we're trying to do is reset the relationship. Yeah, and people like you are gonna have to help me reset. So I'm gonna be out a hundred days telling everybody you got a situation coming coming. But on a hundred and first day, a hundred days, right, and that's three months, three whole, I'm gonna go everywhere. I'm gonna pay for it. Got you don't even don't even worry about their mounts. You're gonna eat that city, will eat that, right, That's what the two hundred million was for. But on that hundred the first day, Atlanta is going back to Atlanta. That's hard. How much how much of a problems do you think? It's so many people coming from other places? And what will you say to all of these people coming from other places because they're continuing to pour in that and stuff it. Um. I think that we're going to impose our our will on them. I mean, I think something happened during COVID, and I think that our community. The my bottom line thing is we just need to restore our sensive community. That's what people want. People want to they want their lives back. And I know that COVID, what COVID was a global crisis, but at some point that has to stop being an excuse and somebody has to say that that's what Atlanta needs right now. And for all of my awards, people always thought that I did a better job than they liked me. I was always the case. So when when we would poll and they would look at my data, my job performance was always ten to fifteen points higher than my lickability always and and that was following me. I ratherly you think that I was doing a good job. I don't. I don't. I'm not trying to hang with you. I don't have no open county colill up every minute of it that got me. I got real friends. I mean, it's stuff that I've been through. I got real friends. They want, they're happy to see me. I'm not looking to and so that's that's where we are right now. So I mean, I think to your point about the criticism, I think I'm the right person for right now. If it were not for this situation, I wouldn't be viable. But I mean, come on, man, like five and fifty thousand and one night, come on, man, I mean, y'all saw people know that our city is broken. You're saying they basically quit quit wasting them all. No, man, leave your dream. Do that do that, but live your dream. But there's been five mayoral elections in the city of Atlanta as I count, and every single I won. Everyone or Shirley frank has managing for campaign her first campaign, Shirley Franklin has managing for a second campaign. I ran the third time, I won the fourth time, and I endorsed Mayor Bottoms and worked hard to make her mad at a fifth time. This is number six. So everybody on the opposite side of me or doing something that I've done six times, they've never done it, never won. No council president in Atlanta has ever been elected mayor never happened, right, And these other people, I don't know their names or what they do. I wish it well. So let me ask you this. I don't know you, I don't know, No, I don't know. I don't know what they do. But let me say this. They've been out here talking a whole lot, and then we dropped that million, fifty five thousand on another day. Shut up, you know what I mean. It got real quiet when we dropped that. They transferring money, you know what I mean, got cousins and all this stuff. One later wrote herself a check for half of me, and I'm like, that's all well and good. You better be prepared to spend it. You better be prepared to spending Yeah. So with the y'all got being all count you don't have a busy week, I'm not doing And if I commnication, she didn't faint it the ground. I just laying on the ground about mental health though, that we need to figure out this mental health. A lot of people, a lot of people fucked up. Yeah, yeah, what we're gonna do about that? I think we gotta have a bigger partnership with Fulon County and we gotta use um. We've got to shift to more of a telehealth model that makes telehealth available for people to need counseling. You need to be able to get on your telephone and talk to a psychologist or a counselor. Because you know, a big impediment to us getting both health care and mental health care is we don't like to walk into that hospital. We don't like to make that appointment and keep that appointment. But my senses and my learning is you can take out your telephone and go into a quiet corner in your house, You're more likely to actually keep and make an appointment with someone to help you stay in tact, and then that professional can determine whether you need help. The other the other part one of the other things that we that we're gonna do if I'm fortunate enough to win, because we're gonna track when we cut people's ward off and send a care team if your water gets cut off and you don't turn it back on something that's going on in your house. Yeah, and it is a good differentiator to know that we need to surge resources because that person is soon gonna be homeless. And once they're homeless, then there grady, it's like it's no. Then they're in the emergency room, then they're a patient. This fifteen thousand dollars. So all of these things occur, and the city has this ability because we know when you're when you stop paying your water them. So there are a number of things that I want to do. I think that I think that every time a baby is born in the City of Atlanta to somebody under who makes sixty thou dollars less, we need to set aside a bond for that baby so when they turn eighteen, they get a real check. Yes, they're doing that in San Francisco right now. And so when that baby is that baby is born in the Atlanta city limits, we put a bond. I haven't determined what amount because I need to know what kind of growth. You're gonna need to write a person a real check. And then when they that young girl a board turns eighteen and they're getting ready to be adults, I'd like them to leave with fifty thousand dollars. Get out. Hey, man, I ain't seen it. I mean we had a big ceremony. Secretaryhood, would you do like a backlog for like those of us that were born like Ian in San Francisco. So there's this incredible leader in San Francisco. Her name is London Breathe. But they've done it in San Francisco. So this is not any pine in the sky. You can't do that. You can totally know. Yeah, five thousand babies, you can totally buy my bond, and you can tell it'll mature on the eighteenth birthday and they'll all be there and they can come get it. I'm gonna call it all that, bob. But look, I got a two part questions. So first part of my two part questions, I took a nap before the first part of the two part question is, UM, once you are elected, since we're going to speak it into existence, yes, yes, how do you plan on improving the relationship between the city of Atlanta and the a U Center. And then the second part of the question is with Atlanta being like the city within the city limits primarily like an urban town. UM, what do you feel is the importance of embracing the hip hop community as far as turning the tide with everything that's going on in the city now, I mean, like like embracing the hip hop community and using them to also help aid you like turn the tide with the urban part of the city of Atlanta. So the first part of your question, I'm gonna with the Atlanta University Center, I'm going to directly engage. When I was married before or UM, we had a terrific relationship. When they needed additional security, cameras, additional funding. UM for security, I was always there. I had one on one relationship with all of the presidents. UM. The Mercedes ben Stadium is there because of my affinity for the a U Center. So Mercedes Benz was supposed to be next to Georgia Czech where the electrical facility is. And so what I knew is is if you put at one point five billion dollar asset, then everything around that asset, including the Atlanta University would be more valuable and would be strengthened. So all of the real estate that they on over there. Um, if you look at the mL King Corridor, I wanted a grant for President Obama to modernize and improve that corridor. So and then plus I mean, I'm a Howard man, so I deeply appreciated so it's never it was never a hard call. So what I imagine is gonna happen is You're gonna have real fluidity between my office and the Atlanta University Center, and it's really going to be driven by what they want rather than what I want. And so I think that it's gonna be consistent with it was before. But here's the difference. The difference is more money is getting ready to be spent than in the history of the United States of America. Right, So the Republican deal on infrastructure is one point to trillion. Yeah, so the low deal, so Bernie Satin is wont six trillion, which means that that money is gonna be pushed down through cities, which is why we're gonna have the best economy that we've ever had. Well, President Obama when the company, when the country was on at risk of great depression, got seven hundred and eighty four billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment at so one deal that they're working on right, Right, because the president is not black, there's one point to train. Yeah, you're gonna get a bank ro Yeah. When President Obama was president, the biggest deal that could be done, and we were getting ready to go into great depression with seven eighty four billion. So I'm just trying to tell you why I think so in terms of resources, and the one thing that I proved that I was able to do was to secure federal funding. Right. So when I was mayored, we won four Tiger grants, right, which is a competitive accomplishment where you have to get in. I want the Choice Neighborhoods Grant thirty million, forty two millions, Atlanta belt Line eighty two millions. I came back from d C with bags compeatedly. Yes. So when I'm making is there so got that chick? I know, I know, I know of the and so my senses is that that's gonna benefit the Atlanta Universities. And and if you drive over there. I made a speech where I said our mL king should be different than every other mL king in the country. Thought I was just But if you drive over there right now and go to busy Bee, it's a huge difference. And everywhere we lay that infrastructure, what happens if you look at Edgewood, everybody talked to all this trash to me about the Atlanta street Car. Edgewood is full of black entrepreneurs. And it only because of that street car. When we when that street car went down the street and all that sidewalk and light beautification went in, people started doing what money and so the federal government paid for that. And when I expanded to the Atlanta outline, it's gonna be the hottest thing out car to take the street car to the Atlanta belt line. Which way way to go though, it's gonna go east. So if you imagine it on Edgewood, just imagine it stopping near Crock Street. That's the piece that it needs to work. Because if me and you're hanging out and you're on a date and you're in the city, you know what I can just hop on the street cars gonna end up in the belt line, and then I can just hop on the belt line. It's gonna take me back into the city. It becomes increasingly viable. So that's how I feel about the Atlanta University Center. And what's your second question? And the second question was with the with the city, with the everything within the city limits being so like urbanized for lack of a better way to put it, um, what do you think is the importance of embracing the hip hop community once you are elected to help you kind of turn in the tide of the urban inner city. Well, I mean, first of all, I think that we're all bigger than hip hop and we're a star machine, right, So I don't I don't think it's I think I think that it's different than embracing it. I live it. I mean, my relationships with the entertainment community is authentic. I started my career as an entertainment lloyd. Folks know that when I represented people they were out of court before the juror said all rise. That's what they used to say when I was with it. So that's just authentic. And so it doesn't even have to be manufactured. I do believe that we need to create some incentive structure for our music business, and we need to support it in the way that we supported our film and TV business. And then I'm going to expand it because I also want to create a regime um for television commercials. And so my my approach is gonna be to embrace it and to have creative meetings. So I think that we're going to have a creative meeting of anybody that has anything that they want to talk about, not once a month, but once every other month. Maybe we'll do it at Breakfast and Barney's. But things get done in Atlanta by people being in the room and being able to say what's on their minds around the unfederal fashion with somebody that could actually do something about what they're saying. And so that's why I think. I mean, if you, I mean, if you look at the million, fifty five thousand that we raised, so much of it was from entertainers. I mean I mean that, I mean we left a hundred and fifty thousand outside. We left a hundred and fifty thousand outside. I mean I mean that that event was supposed to be a hundred and fifty people. That was four hundred and fifty, So, um, what's to come? Yes, My point is it's real. It's not you're not twisting nobody's on. I mean, it's like, then that's my guy, and I'm gonna come out for him. Yeah, So that's that's what I that's what I think. I can't wait, though, I'm excited back, Yeah, because you know, I don't like to lose. So it's um. You know, I'm a competitive person, so I'm in it. Um. And once I'm in it, I'm gonna finish and uh. And then we're gonna have an inauguration and we're gonna have a Mariage ball that people are gonna fly in from all across America, that it's gonna be the best night in the city, and then we're gonna get to work. You think it's gonna be a challenge for voters with the new laws he's got here, Yes, and the laws had to say that Georgia past, We're terrible. But everybody's got time to overcome them. So we know what they are. We know exactly what they're designed to do. They're designed to refer pressed the vote of black people. But we have enough time to adjust, and we always show up. I always I find that when people attack us as savagely as we were attacked by the most recent voting laws that are invariably backfires, and black people show up with you know, hot hot wings in sauce and the chick. We just you know, we're going to vote that day, and so we're gonna bring our own food. So you say I can't I bring my own water, you know. So I think that the effect of that is going to actually backfire. If I never voted before, and I was in the booth, and I've seen and I'm about to get the voting, I've seen reading what you want me to think of safest city in forty years, say, let's verified by the j C that despises me still had that in four decades. We had never been safer. And right now that is the issue. It is the issue. There's nothing within thirty points of people feeling that their security and safety is at risk, and their family safety is at risk, and their kids safety is at risk, and that significant other safety is at risk. And I was elected when there was a surge and violent crime before, and I did everything I said. I was gonna do. I hired nine hundred police officers, I built the force to two thousand and We did it, and we did it in a way that was consistent with who we who we are America scene read. We appreciate you so much having this conversation. Break much love and success to you. You know you're welcome anytime, anytime you want to have a conversation. Don't sell, Wait till I get elected. Man, anybody knocking on your done telling you to sell your house, don't sell, don't sell, gonna sell it what you're running on? You know, people, I'm running on crime. The lords been in forty years. Let's say, if you can see it in one word, low crime safety, I'm safety. Laws has been in for the years. Lawrence has been in forty years. Crime is Lawrence has been in forty years. You when you went to the gas station, you went to the gas station to get gas. You walked in the linux ball. You did not walk through a metal detector. Facts walked in the phips small, You walked in the shop and left. You know that's that's not your imagination. Your girl meet your guy, It's not your imagination, right, I mean, appreciate detective phips man. Come on on, Linux, man, you say anymore. I went. I went to Piccadilly to get about the chicken lips and the bot. You're safe for a green bird, you are, you are safe. It's real crazy. We appreciate you. Man it up, bank Head looking like buckhead enough Yeah, tell me, don't sell, don't sell. That's the final words. Don't do it, don't play yourself, don't sell. I get ready, man, you know what I'm saying. Get big amazing podcast parking tickets to the hundred days and it is. I definitely got some tickets. Say it's all that, It's all that. That's it that much much success to you where Big facts pot dot com. You're listening to Big Facts with Big Bank and DJ scream Big Facts on social media at Big Facts Pod Fine, Big Bang and DJ scream bring you big back. Hey man, it's aild well up lady that merch Yes, yeah, that's right, www dot Big facts pot dot com. What's the real one? One time? Y'all Come get y'all some of this merch mat facts pot dot com. Hit that merch right now, shot with us, sodaway up make fact merch going down at the new website today. Www. Dot Big factspot dot com is now