Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:04 Oh, it's a Joe fish meat. This is Jill fish from Mazda meat. I bought gas. Make a date of the language grip should vile led at the occasion. You know, youth, all the ad word,
Speaker 1 00:00:29 Everything. <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:00:50 Welcome to sticks and stones. My name is Jason ELLs.
Speaker 3 00:00:53 I'm David Jefferies. And today in studio with us, we have Willie Lee who was running for the Minneapolis city council in ward 12. Welcome.
Speaker 4 00:01:06 Thanks. Glad to be here.
Speaker 3 00:01:08 So tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 4 00:01:10 So about myself. Uh, well, let's start with, I'm not really a politician. Um, I sat around and, uh, kept looking for who was going to run in the 12th ward. Um, it's been a hell of a year right yesterday. And, um, there was so much momentum and I thought we were finally going to get this, that some real work done and defunding the police and a veto proof, majority stood up, stood up there and Powderhorn and they're like, yeah, we're going to get this done. And then we saw all that momentum fade, you know, and you know, my opponent, the, uh, the incumbent was up there and Andrew stood up there and he was going to defund the police. And what I've seen since has not really inspired me. And so I was looking for someone who was going to really bring that energy and really keep that momentum. And I kept wanting it to be someone else. And, uh, by the day that, that you needed to file to, to contest the DFL endorsement, nobody else stepped up for that. And so I threw my name in, um, I'm totally new to politics. I work at the U and, uh, you know, technology field and, you know, this is all new to me, but I'm willing to do the work and I got a lot to learn, but here we are,
Speaker 3 00:02:30 Man. Here we are. Right, right. Crazy. Yeah. Trial by fire. Right. So tell me a little bit about the response you've gotten from ward 12 and then maybe, uh, maybe you can tell our listeners where ward 12 is in relation to, um, the rest of Minneapolis.
Speaker 4 00:02:53 Yeah. So, uh, geographically, I would say it's in the Southeast part of Minneapolis by the Cardinal directions, but Southeast, you know, by the street signs means over here by the U. And so we're talking around like centered around lake and Tacomas that whole chunk up of Minneapolis. So you've got, it's kind of in the corner there, um, with Cedar as one boundary up to the mid thirties and then down to the city border.
Speaker 3 00:03:19 Right. And so, okay. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason why I think, uh, maybe the viewers would like to know why Willie is here. Not just because Willie's
Speaker 2 00:03:30 Won hair, blue eyes all the way.
Speaker 4 00:03:33 Yeah. That totally describes me to a T w they don't look like that. It's so true. So true. So
Speaker 3 00:03:43 Willy, I live in the 12th board too, and I wanted to know who was gonna run, um, against the Andrew. Sure. And I wanted to make sure, um, that I knew what they were about. Yeah. What they did, um, their history or, or just, you know, what kind of candidates were out there. Yeah. And so I stumbled across you and I, and I was like, wow, this is interesting. So here we are. Awesome.
Speaker 2 00:04:17 She had to come on, Keith Ellison was on and he's like, well, might as well throw the ball up in there.
Speaker 4 00:04:24 Yeah. That's totally, you know, same story, same exact story.
Speaker 3 00:04:28 He's a big shot lawyer. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 00:04:31 Like shallow ever been up and coming for however long. I dunno when he was on, but you know, up and coming for however long, Bob
Speaker 5 00:04:37 Curls got to go to jail, whatever happened to that dude, he said, he's going to retire. And he left boned out early. We were writing on the wall.
Speaker 3 00:04:49 Yeah. He was next man. And you know what? We were just talking about that too. Where, um, man, we still paying that dudes pension man, that dude gets a pension from us.
Speaker 4 00:05:01 You know, it's really easy to get worked up about those things. But if you said, really, we gotta pay this dude this much money and he'll just go away. I knew it. You wouldn't do it. Yeah. I came to go away. Like, you know, I think a lot of times we
Speaker 5 00:05:15 Did crack you just give a couple of times outta here, man. Right, right. Can we get off my corner?
Speaker 4 00:05:22 That's my one form of harm reduction. I'm like, I'm willing to pay for people to just go away. And I think like actually when we started thinking about defunding the police, like a lot of times, um, a lot of times you get hung up on these ideas, right? Like these ideas of how much is it going to cost and like how much money are we going to waste. Right. But like, I think of that as part of the cost of it. Right, right. Like there are all these obligations we're going to have and with the union, with, with the contracts and all of that. But like, what I care about is reducing the contact of cops with guns, with the people in Minneapolis. Right. That's real talk. And if I got to keep paying them for some number of years because of a contract, I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm not going to be like, Hey, I paid for this. So you better walk around with guns and like pull people over. Cause they didn't signal in their turn and then like search the car and then beat the shit out of him. Like that, ain't it. Right. Right. And so like, yeah, we're paying Bob Crow, but he went away and that's, that's a win. Right. And if that we in cost me some money, it's like, well, Hm.
Speaker 2 00:06:23 Well, so talk a little bit about your platform.
Speaker 4 00:06:25 Yeah. So, um, really the, the, the reason I jumped into this race is I felt like we were going to lose that, that momentum to defund the police. And that is absolutely number one. The thing I'm going to put my time, energy and just pure love right into, we have to get this done. You know, uh, if you, uh, if you talk to anyone else that doesn't live in Minneapolis, they said, oh yeah, the city council, they, they just, de-funded the police. And now like, it's just not safe to be in Minneapolis. I'm like, wait a second. We didn't defund nothing. And I would like to get there before you start telling your lies. And so
Speaker 2 00:07:01 There's a lot of room. I see people think that defund, the police means to abolish the police and it doesn't, it's not the same thing.
Speaker 4 00:07:10 Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And, um, but at the same time, like I love this conversation, you know, people go around and around about it and uh, you know, they're always looking for the right word. And it seemed like people who were saying abolish, scared a bunch of people. And then people were saying defund, whatever. I think about this in two steps, right. We do the work to defund now. Right. We look at ways that we can take part of their budget and do the things that they're, they're wrongfully assigned to do and do it better. So like you asked pretty much anyone they're like, yeah, we should totally have mental health response teams that go help people who are having a mental health crisis. Um, and you know, if you say that people like, yeah, I'm on board. Right. They get a little scared when you say, but I want to take that money from the police and kind of like cut down their numbers so I could pay for these other people, but people can get behind that.
Speaker 4 00:08:03 Right. When we started thinking about abolition, then people get really scared. They're like, what do you do about murderers? What do you do about like, in these big questions? Right. But one of the things that I try and hold on to is that I think it's really important to dream about like, what's the big world I want to see, like at the end of my life, what do I want it to look like? Right. And I love star Trek. I'm not going to get too far into how much I love star Trek. <inaudible> but like, you think about how, like, there's a world, that's not quite post police, but it's pretty dang close. Right. And like, we need to be able to hold those big dreams. Right. Right. Like last city election, Jacob pride could like have this big dream of ending homelessness. And you're like, that's a pretty big dream. Right. But people didn't call him out for that. Not I did it. And so like for me to say, my dream is a world where we don't have this violent policing and that I abolish the police. And maybe there's something else that looks kind of like police, but isn't like that that's my big dream. Right? Yeah. I just dread judge dread that. Yeah. That's a little in the other direction.
Speaker 5 00:09:16 Oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 00:09:18 I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, judge. No, no, no.
Speaker 2 00:09:22 Well, you know, I think that the problem with the whole, to me, the whole idea behind policing in the first place is it's just based on white supremacy. Absolutely. You know? So it's like, if, if you say abolish police, then what do you really mean is get rid of white supremacy in America holds on to that shit, like, like a Dugin tick and they will not let that shit go. No, because they're scared because you know, it goes back to, they think brown people are going to treat them the same way. They've been doing brown people forever. And that's what they fear the most. And that's just not true because if it was true, you know, all these, you know, like all these suburban people who are scared of the city would be getting killed a lot more when they came down here. Yeah. Yeah. And it just doesn't happen. It's not happening.
Speaker 3 00:10:16 It's not happening. So when you, when you talk about, um, abolishing the police and you talk and you pointed out some really specific pieces that we do need help with around mental health and not having a police officer show up to provide mental services for someone who is really just, you know, struggling, it could be a threat to themselves and others, but they don't need a police response. And often, sometimes that then makes it worse. It does. Oh yeah. So you said having, um, people who specifically do that work, um, answer those calls and then re-imagining what the police department actually looks like, like actually making it work better for the citizens of this city.
Speaker 4 00:11:04 Yeah. Except, you know, except we're going to call it a public safety department, you know, because one of the keys is to really kind of remove that. We're not trying to shift the police, you know? Um, what we're trying to do is actually like replace those things with something new. Right. And it's important to think about this. So a lot of people talk about this whole idea of like, I want to, you know, when we, why don't you just pay for the mental health people and then keep the police the way it is. Right. Like trying to like have both pieces of cake. Right, right. And like, it doesn't work like that because the thing I actually want, isn't just the mental health responders or, you know, all these other things, you know, like traffic enforcement without guns. Like it's not that it's that I am trying to reduce that contact.
Speaker 4 00:11:46 Right. And so without getting it down to a smaller number, it doesn't change. But the other thing that's important about that is you build these new things. They have new culture. Right, right. Like right now. So I didn't spend a lot of time with very many cops until I actually moved to the 12th. And one of my neighbors was a retired cop. Okay. Right. And, uh, this is funny. We share an alley and whatever I'm brown and wear hoodies and like, like to come home late at night on my bicycle and whatever. And like, I'm just like, oh, this is going to go great. Um, and so, uh, I introduced myself, we get like, over the course of a couple of years, we talk a lot about this. And one of the things I was very clear is that there is a culture in policing that has this us against them thing.
Speaker 4 00:12:33 You see it in the thin blue line flag, blue lives matter. You see it on all of that. Right. And it's a serious us against them thing. And that culture is what sets like sets that mindset. It's who they are. It's not just who they hire, but it's who can stay in the policing, you know, in the field of policing. Like you can hire all these optimistic change makers, but what happens is they get ground down by the system. Right. And if we just try and shift that and like fiddle with it, we're never going to get there. We have to make these new things and say, these new things are born out of a new population. New people looks like Minneapolis, you know, believes in the work that we, we need them to do. Right. And so none of this reform tweaking has worked anywhere. No. And, uh,
Speaker 3 00:13:19 A good question about that too, is could you, you know, um, sort of talk to people who believe in reform maybe in Minneapolis and they say, oh, you know, we need to reform the police. And, um, maybe not all of them need to go away. We just need to reform, uh, the police department. I don't think you could retrain Derek Chava. No, no. And then other, other cops, like you, I don't think there's a chance to do any kind of a reconciliation or, um, you know, like you learn a new technique or I don't think, I think that's done,
Speaker 4 00:13:59 I a hundred percent agree. A hundred percent agree. Yeah. You can't do that. It doesn't work. You know, you think about, so, you know, for those of you who who've had like long careers, like I have, you know, you think about all the training as you go through and think about how many of them you take seriously. Right. Right. Like I, I recently had to do our sexual assault awareness, you know, right. Training. And like, I got to say, you know, I believe in all those things, but like, how seriously do I take trainings? Like how much do they change my life? Even when I completely agree with the content matter. Right. Like it doesn't change, you know, it doesn't change much. Right. Right. It doesn't, it doesn't, you know, that change comes from, from coming together around a different goal. Right. That change comes from that, that formative moment when we make culture, like when we make these, these things and we set our ground rules and whatever, and being able to shift those is long difficult work. And not just don't think that I don't think that's going to work.
Speaker 3 00:15:02 No, no, I don't think so either. And here's the other piece of that too? You talked about changing institutions in this city. The city has a lot of steeped in institutions, man. Yup. And some of it is, um, really most of it is really race-based. I mean, it is dug in deep and it there's a lot of disparities that go on in the city. So one of your,
Speaker 2 00:15:31 You're talking about this liberal city. Yeah. So what have your w yeah. You know,
Speaker 3 00:15:39 You already know one of your platforms, uh, or items on the platform I saw too was around housing. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about that too? So, you know, this
Speaker 4 00:15:51 Is one of the things that we need to do a much better job of, and like, there's all this talk right now, um, about how you change, like the edges of legislation. So like, people are talking a lot about like the 20, 40 plan and zoning and like, and all of these things are important. Right. But they don't actually solve anything, you know? Cause the market's not going to pop up a 200 unit apartment building, like right off of lake Harriet, you know, that's affordable that like you and I could just like, Hey, let's, let's get us some penthouse suites up here.
Speaker 5 00:16:24 Right. Like
Speaker 4 00:16:25 Economics make this land impossible. Right. But what we can do is we can start looking at things like rent control is like, keep the affordable places, you know, as affordable as they are now, it'd be nicer if they were better. But also like changing that bar right now. Like right now, when you build a new building, there's this, this affordable housing, you know, where you can get some financing from the city and people play into this game, but that number is still too high. Right.
Speaker 3 00:16:52 So what's the, you mean the AMI affordable
Speaker 4 00:16:55 Meat being an income? I think so. Yeah. I think that's what it is. Right. And at some percentage of the median income in the twin cities and it's just it's
Speaker 3 00:17:03 Yeah. It's so high that it's not average. Really? No, you'd have to be, I mean, honestly you'd have to be making a hundred thousand dollars to live in Minneapolis if they AMI. Right. You use the current AMI.
Speaker 4 00:17:15 Right, right. Or at least comfortably. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so many people who, you know, no. Right. So right. And so like thinking about how we can be more aggressive about that number, how we can look at the ways that, that the city has this leverage, but then thinking about like, so mayor fry, you know, he was, he was asked about rent control and he was like, oh, I just, I think the market to figure this out and like, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, no, it's not, it doesn't work like that. And you know, one of the things, right, right. And so like, one of the things he's thinking is like, oh, well, you know, when people can't afford it and then they don't buy it, then the price comes down and it's like, this is kind kinda not how it happens. They just kind of sit on this stuff because there's too much money at the top. And people don't actually need to make like reasonable economic
Speaker 2 00:18:05 Decisions. I live over Northeast. They've probably built in the last four years, five or six sky rises all high end apartments. You cannot tell me those fucking places are full and they're building more and more building more. And it's like, okay, where all these people come in that can afford a closet for $1,700.
Speaker 4 00:18:30 Yeah. Yeah. I was reading this thing, uh, on Twitter and, and like, you know, you got to separate with like, what's real and what's conspiracy theory on, on Twitter. But people were talking about how there's a lot of investment in the twin cities. Um, and there was that article in the star Tribune, just this last weekend about it. Um, but some people were saying, you know, Minneapolis being in the middle of the country seems like a good climate refuge. If the, if the world gets hotter, you're like, eh, that's fine in Minnesota. Right. Right. And you're like, seawater rises fine in Minnesota. And so like, there's some speculation, right. That, uh, as a climate refuge, Minneapolis, like people are investing in Minneapolis and maybe sitting on some real estate, just, just in case it all goes, it all goes to heck over there on the coast. And they're just like, yeah, I'm going to move to the land of prince in like eat meat balls or something
Speaker 2 00:19:20 Because they're like, it's liberal and safe.
Speaker 4 00:19:22 Right. Right. I mean, it
Speaker 2 00:19:26 Is. I mean, I mean, it's kind of
Speaker 4 00:19:28 Boring the save, come on, man. Relatively, relatively like north. Yeah. I mean, there's a small number of things happening in the north and you know, we gotta do something about it and the mayor got up there and, and squawked his little squawk about it. But,
Speaker 3 00:19:43 But he doesn't, but it's, to him, it's more police. Right. And I don't know if that's necessarily what we're trying to do now. No. Well, I mean, it's all economics, it's all about jobs. Always been that there's employment. You want
Speaker 2 00:19:57 To get rid of crime. Uh, let people have affordable housing. I mean, put on their fucking table.
Speaker 3 00:20:04 Yeah. And in a job that they, like,
Speaker 4 00:20:07 I mean, even like, even beyond that, you know, like we talk about jobs that you like, but just like being able to survive. Right. And like, whether that's about a job or whether it's about something else, you know, we, we have to figure it. Like you can't solve like public safety without that.
Speaker 3 00:20:24 No, you can't. And it's a huge part of public safety actually.
Speaker 4 00:20:27 Oh absolutely. You, you need like, and it's one of the things, you know, to come all the way back around the housing. Right. Right. Like I think one of the things that, that we've seen this year that has been really disheartening is that, you know, people are setting up an encampment in the city is bringing cops. The city is bringing cops to break them down, chase them out. And, and what does that do? It doesn't make anyone safer. It doesn't make the houseless. People that get kicking around any safer. It doesn't make the people who are living right next to that. Any safer? No. All it does is make you feel like you did something so that your, your constituents, you know, quit calling you. Right. But that's not safety. That's not safety at all. You know, we have to figure out, okay. So in Minneapolis, in the twin cities, we have all these, like, we have a whole bunch of like disparate resources.
Speaker 4 00:21:20 So like maybe you could go to Harbor lights and like have a place to sleep. Right. But that's run by the salvation army. So if you're gay like me, then it's like, can I really go there? Are they really gonna accept me? Because salvation army isn't with the gays. And so like, okay, I can't go there. Or other people are like, well, if I go to this other shelter, I have to give up on all the stuff I have where I can't go with my family or I can't go with my, you know, right. And, or I have to be dry and clean before I go there. And like, we are starting backwards. Right. Right. We're saying you have to do all these things and then you can get a house, but like, you can't do those things until you feel safe. Right. And like, you can't, it can't be done now. It's just, it's just foolish to think. Otherwise I agree. All right. Hey,
Speaker 2 00:22:07 This is America. Pull up your bootstraps and get to work. Right. Right. I did it. My uncle did it. Right. I just,
Speaker 5 00:22:16 I just, yeah, you're not real bad. I start real easy.
Speaker 4 00:22:23 Right. Yeah. And then them, same people are like, ah, man, that homeless guy has got a phone.
Speaker 5 00:22:29 I'm like, how do you get a job if they can't call you back?
Speaker 3 00:22:31 Man, listen, everybody has a phone. I made sure that everybody could get a phone. Even then Mo Bama phones, man. Everybody got something. Hey,
Speaker 2 00:22:41 But everybody's worried about the microchip and the vaccination. Right. But they have a smartphone fucking hand that tells everybody everything that they want to know that these guys are incredible. Right,
Speaker 4 00:22:53 Right, right. Oh, it's it's it's yeah. It's great. People are like, oh yeah, the microchip and track you. I'm like, yeah. You just told me that on your smartphone.
Speaker 3 00:23:02 Oh, another thing I was thinking of while we're sitting here was, um, how, um, the police department and how they currently operate in Minneapolis is a public health threat. Um, and could you maybe even think about adding that to your platform, to like public health? Like what, what does that look like? Cause you know, COVID a lot of things changed. Right. And it, um, it really, really laid bare a lot of the disparities that are already happening in this city for, uh, black and brown folks. Um, talk a little bit about from that perspective, what it would look like for you to be in the ward 12. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:23:45 So there were a lot of public health disasters that happened in this year and I'm not just talking about COVID, but I think a lot of the things that we we think about in this, like they're amplified by that. And so like you think about all the people who are in prison for like stupid shit, you know, like a parole violation offer something like, you know, as dumb as having like a little bit of weed on them. Right. And like, it gets them back in the system and like in a public health point of view, then that system they've got, they've got them all locked up and that COVID just goes right through there. Right, right. That ain't safe. Right. But then thinking about like, how do we start thinking about public health from a way that's, that's really centered around like bringing everyone up.
Speaker 4 00:24:31 Right. Right. And so, um, when we talk about substance abuse and like decriminalization and harm reduction is really critical. Right. Like the first thing we need to do is make sure that people can be as safe as possible. Right. Right. And so like for me, that means, you know, safe injection sites so that people who are going to use Ivy drugs have a safe way to do that. And that there's, you know, there's Narcan right there and whatever, because like, even if you want to get clean, you're not going to just do it because it's illegal to have drugs or like, you know, you just want to get into that housing or whatever. That's a real big lift. Right. And like, we have to support people where they are. I agree, man. And if they want to like, and if they want to get clean and they're like, yeah, I want to get a job.
Speaker 4 00:25:19 I want to get clean and all this, like, we can give them that support as long as we can engage with them. Right. And a policing based way, doesn't do that. Like there's nothing like everyone keeps trying it. You know, there have been a lot of trials around like, let's figure out how we can do some rehab in the prisons or like we can, we can do some education in the prisons and whatever. But like, we never really think about like, how does the system keep pulling you back in? You know, how does the system keep keeping you down? And that's the part like, that's the real work. Because like, until you lift that threat, right. You can't do that work.
Speaker 3 00:25:58 Hey, that's real talk, man. So your whole premise and your whole platform is the police, the abolishment defunding it restructuring the public health around it, the communities around it. Yep. And then Minneapolis will process.
Speaker 4 00:26:17 I mean, and then we got a whole hundred other things to do. Right. We do. But like we do. Right, right. It's like that video game, you gotta beat the, you gotta beat the boss in front of you right before you go onto that next level.
Speaker 2 00:26:31 And a pretty big boss in front of us that we're trying to beat. You got all those people on the city council that you got to battle it too. I mean,
Speaker 3 00:26:41 Well, some of them aren't running again. Right.
Speaker 4 00:26:43 I mean some of them, but there's some that are running that they're real big fans of more police and what are their names? Let's name them, you know, name them. I'm going to, I'm going to go with like my biggest personal disappointment, Andrea Jenkins, man. Come on. Right. Come on, man. That just broke my heart. That really broke my heart. Did
Speaker 3 00:27:07 That, did that, did that? W you know what, not a lot of people have said that and we need to, we need to, we need to name that because that that's important right there. I mean,
Speaker 4 00:27:20 Yeah, absolutely. Because
Speaker 3 00:27:22 People haven't said anything about
Speaker 4 00:27:24 Her at all, and they have hardly anyone running against her and like, no.
Speaker 3 00:27:30 And you know what, I'm, from what I've been reading that she's behind the removal wanting to remove George Floyd square and open up that intersection again.
Speaker 4 00:27:41 I mean, she's basically said it. I mean, there's none of this. It's not a rumor. No.
Speaker 2 00:27:46 So she's co-opted
Speaker 3 00:27:48 Is that the word we could use? Sounds like it.
Speaker 2 00:27:53 You know what I mean? Cause you know how it always is. It's like they all, all these people, politicians specifically will say this, that and the other thing. But once those money bucks people, the investors start pissing and moaning and they started doing a different song and dance. Right. Look at the mayor prime example of that. Really you shuck and jive, shuck and jive. But,
Speaker 4 00:28:15 But do you ever think he was on the other side? Who the mayor? No. All then never first. Cause like I was like, there was no chair in there. He would, you know, when he was on council, he was the same.
Speaker 2 00:28:27 Like you see him like, well he seems decent, but it's like my personal belief. I don't think anybody should be the mayor of Minneapolis who Dan grew up here. That dude is from the east coast. He came here and he's lived here a certain amount of years and now magically becomes the fucking mayor. Like he doesn't know what Minneapolis is. I'm going
Speaker 4 00:28:50 To challenge that because let's, let's start with the fact that for one, I think the mayor is the worst job in Minneapolis and I never want it. All right. You can put a flag in that. Like, come back to me. If I ever run for mayor, you be like, really? We got it on
Speaker 2 00:29:04 Tape, rewind it. And you just get, you know,
Speaker 4 00:29:08 We'll make the fake, the fake rewinding thing. And the only people older as me can understand what it's like, we're stopping Minneapolis. I don't ever want it. But like, I think a lot of times we think about like where someone grew up and whatever, and I didn't grow up here, but I chose here. Right. And I've been here for a long time. I grew up in south Florida and you know, it's terrible. I am exactly a Florida man, all those headlines. That was me. That was me, you know, salt. Yep. No pants, Gators. That was me. All of it. Anyway. So getting back to this, like I think, I think, and a lot of times we get into these things and I think like the biggest thing that I like that I want to see from someone who wants to be married is like a real understanding and grounding in the whole of the city.
Speaker 4 00:29:59 You know? Like it's really easy to have one view of Minneapolis from the 12th ward or the 13th ward or whatever, you know? But like when I first moved here, I moved to Whittier and like, that's a very different feeling, especially like right there on third and Franklin, I'm just like, this is not the same as living down here on that 12th ward. And so, um, I think there's a lot of lived experience. That's really important to like have that grounding, but like whether you came from here or what, I don't know any of the most important thing. And I think a lot of Minnesotans are like really like a little too hot on that.
Speaker 2 00:30:34 Well, I understand that we're the largest small town you ever live in.
Speaker 4 00:30:39 Oh my God. Yes. Every time I go somewhere, it's just like seven people I know are just like really? Hey, uh, and then yeah. See,
Speaker 2 00:30:47 My thing is I don't have a problem when it's a city council or whatever. Yeah. I just personally believe heated. If you live here for 20 years, it's a different story. He hasn't lived here that
Speaker 4 00:30:58 Long. Yeah. I mean, I'm no fan of his. So you
Speaker 2 00:31:01 Know, you know what I mean? Like norm Coleman was another dude came from Jersey and all of a sudden he's running for governor and got I'm like, who the fuck is this dude? Yeah. He doesn't know Minnesota. Like shit. Now he's up there. Fucking spouting off his shit. Cause he wants to run for president at some point. Yeah. He
Speaker 3 00:31:16 Got his teeth fixed too. Remember that? No D's or Steve's were, were, were torn up and then he, he started a crocodile D yeah. And then they've put those Chiclets in there. Yeah. But you know
Speaker 4 00:31:31 What? I lose the mass. Maybe I'll call his dentist. Willie. Yes. You got some jacked up teeth, bro. You know, I grew up poor Florida. Exactly. I'm from Florida, but like I grew up poor. And so like, we didn't really go to the dentist and all that. And if you don't go to the dentist, when you get, when you're, when you're young, you don't build these good habits of going to the dentist. And so like I got a little coffee stain and I kind of looked crooked tooth or whatever. I, I still think I have a fetching smile, but like I don't have no norm Coleman stop, you know? And that might look a little funny and like my, my big brown queer face this perfect. Like, you know, American smile might look a little weird. This Photoshop. Yeah, exactly. It's just like fake fake news.
Speaker 2 00:32:16 I mean like seriously though, if someone lives here in and understands, I think to me the whole spiel, then I feel a little bit better about it, but I just, I just, I don't like him. And I think he's just another guy trying to, I see. It seems to me a lot of people come here as a, like a boost to the next level.
Speaker 4 00:32:37 Yeah. I mean, there, there is that like the politicians looking for space and like it's kind of weird and kind of creepy and like that, you know,
Speaker 2 00:32:48 Look at old girl, uh, global shower. Yes. He's a prime example. I mean, she, I think she grew up here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she was definitely climbing that ladder fast.
Speaker 3 00:33:00 Well, she made her money on locking up black kids. So yeah. She locked up a lot of black kids and black kids
Speaker 4 00:33:08 And she ain't said shit about it yet. Nope. Another one near co-opted she wasn't ever cooperative. She didn't, she never felt like she was our girl, the DFL or, you know yeah. But
Speaker 3 00:33:21 In here, what, before we leave, we only got a couple of minutes left, but I wanted to bring it back to a couple of things. Yeah. So housing, yeah. Healthcare. Yeah. Um, abolishing the police.
Speaker 4 00:33:33 Yeah. Right. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 3 00:33:36 What about, and you talked a little bit about public health, right? Yeah. And, and I get that piece. Um, what about, um, healthcare for forever?
Speaker 4 00:33:46 Oh man. So my wife's a doctor at HCMC. So, you know, basically when you can't get healthcare anywhere you end up at HCMC. Right. And so, you know, I hear those stories and they're the worst, you know, the absolute worst because the whole system is just totally after up and at a city level, you know, trying to figure out what we can do. It it's pretty hard, but like as a person, right, as a person with ideas and passions, absolutely. We need to get some way that everyone is covered. Um, and this whole idea that I can go through the market is absurd. And you know, if we were able to get people, um, into a singular plan that would really lower those costs and make that, make that workable, there's a whole bunch of tweaking that has to happen to the system to make that work.
Speaker 4 00:34:34 Because right now Medicare plays really low rates because they can get away from it, away with it because the rest of the system is screwing so many other people. Right. But if everyone paid Medicare rates, maybe we couldn't pay the bills, um, at the hospitals like HCMC right now. So there's some tweaking that has to happen there, but like absolutely we have to figure out some way. And in the city of Minneapolis, I don't know if we have enough leverage for that, but at the state level we absolutely do so there's Minnesota care. And if we can find ways to help people buy into that, if they need to, and really keep that cost down, I think there's some real like fruitful stuff there. I don't know how the city plays into that, but if somebody has gotten some great ideas, please let me know if I win this because like, I'm going to need some help to make that happen. Oh Jay, Dave's your guy. All right.
Speaker 3 00:35:25 I will help you. I will definitely help you. Jay's pretty smart. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:35:29 You know, that's the thing, like, I don't think I'm the smartest person in any room. Um, what I want to do is find out like who who's done the work, right? Like who understands this? And from a real, like a real standpoint of people, first compassionate empathy, first harm reduction, all of that. Like I need people who, who understand that to be able to say, here's my expertise. You know, I got expertise in a handful of things. Um, and w uh, but the thing I'm probably best at is like being able to connect with people and understand what's going on with them so that I can help process that somewhere else. And so, like in my boring university technology career, I spent a lot of time talking to people and say, so I know that we don't do it this way. Why is that right?
Speaker 4 00:36:18 Like, what are people worried about? What, w w w what threatens you in that? Or like, why isn't that a good idea? And just trying to tease all those things out and like, finding a way for people to like, all have these kind of decisions based on the people doing the work, you know, you can talk to managers all day. Right. And they have all these great big ideas or whatever, but I don't think that really gets down to like how it hits the road. Right. Right. And like, finding a way to talk to regular people who are just trying to get it done. That's where you find that, like, that's where you find that wisdom. That's where you find the real, like the real things that the real parts of the struggle. Right. Right. And we got to fix that. Like, we don't fix things. And so I'm like, you know, high level, like academic way. Right. You know, actually pardon me for a second, where I talk about like, the best academics are really talking to people on the ground. And like, that's where, that's where that good work comes. But like, when you get too far removed, right. Like that it it's, you lose sight.
Speaker 3 00:37:17 I agree. I agree. Well, it's been a great conversation and we thank you for coming. Yeah. For sure. Really appreciate you looking forward to interacting with you more and seeing, uh, your, your platform grow your followers grow.
Speaker 4 00:37:32 Yeah. If I say anything stupid out there, call me back and like, let's talk about it. Okay. Well, we'll just bring me back and be like, Willie, Jay's
Speaker 3 00:37:41 Real Minnesota about that though. He'll be waiting for you to slip up
Speaker 2 00:37:45 All. Y'all come over here. You bad shot. He would just
Speaker 4 00:37:49 Keep an eye on that. Okay. There, you got some special,
Speaker 3 00:37:56 Thank you all for listening. This has been sticks and stalls with Jason Nevilles and David Jefferies and our guests. Thanks.
Speaker 1 00:38:05 Thank you for listening to <inaudible> on K F a I Minneapolis and thanks to our producer, Matt hill.
