October 8, 2024 • 26 mins
Today's special guest is the honorable Corey Woods, Democrat and Mayor of Tempe, Arizona since 2020. Mayor Woods shares his thoughts on a wide range of subjects including Housing, Donald Trump, and his hopes for Harris/Walz administration. Part 1 of 2.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast, and I'm
host rams' Ja. And sometimes the amount of stories that
make their way to us means that we simply can't
cover everything that comes our way. But from time to time,
a story just stays with me and I feel compelled
to share it with you and give you my thoughts.
And now one more thing.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You know, one of the things that.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Q and I brush up against being from Arizona is
that we are on a national stage, but we're not
in a city like New York. We're not in a
city like Los Angeles, and that's good and that's bad. Obviously,
there's a lot of things that are happening in places
like Atlanta for the types of conversations that we have
(00:49):
on this show, so we miss out on some of
those things. But every so often we get the reality
of our situation, which is that we live in a
swing state. We live in a state that really matters
in terms of shaping the political future of this country,
(01:12):
and we live in a state where we do have
our own fair share of black excellence. And today we
are going to celebrate some of that black excellence by
having a conversation with someone from our own backyard. He
(01:33):
goes by the name of Corey Woods. Now I'm going
to let him give himself a proper introduction, but I
really want to set up the conversation that I think
that we're about to have For those who are longtime
listeners of the show. You know that Q and I
have had to, along with you, our listener, navigate this,
(01:58):
you knowics in this country, and certainly within the last
six months, so much has changed. We went from being
very concerned about our future to having some hope and
becoming organized and galvanizing our support and leveraging our platforms
(02:25):
to try to create the changes that we want to
see in the world. And I'd say in the same
last six months, we've received lots of support from obviously
you are listeners, but folks that we had never really
anticipated being connected with. And I think that today will
(02:47):
ultimately be a testament to that. So back to today's guest,
Corey Woods. Around here where we live, he's him, he's him,
He's the man, and he's someone that makes us all
very proud. He's the mayor of Timp, Arizona, And for
(03:08):
those who are not familiar with Arizona, Timp is where
Arizona State University is timp is just a magnificent city.
And to know that the mayor of that city is
a black man who is someone that we again we
(03:28):
can all be proud of, is just a feather in
our cap for those of us that live here today,
we want to talk about obviously what it means to
vote locally and to stay engaged in your local politics.
We also want to have a conversation about the goings
(03:48):
on nationally because obviously, in the same last six months,
we now have Kamala Harris, as you know, the person
on top of the Democratic ticket, and that changes things,
and there are still some folks who are trying to
find their place in this elect this election season, and
(04:12):
my hope is that today's conversation will help us kind
of sit through the rest of the weeds and understand
what the what is So welcome.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
To the show. Thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate being here.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
And again I didn't give enough of your background. I
established who you are, but talk to us a bit
about kind of your journey to becoming the mayor of temp.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Sure happy to so. I moved to Arizona back in
June of two thousand and three. So I've been here
for a little over twenty one years and originally came
to be a graduate student at Arizota State University, and
my thought initially was I was going to get a
master's degree and spend a couple of years here in
temp and then go somewhere else and get a doctorate,
because my thought process was I was going to become
(04:52):
a college professor. And after about a year and a
half of being here, I really fell in love with Tempe,
and I fell in love with the state of Aira,
Arizona in general, and so I made the decision that
I wanted to stay. I ended up in two thousand
and five, only two years after arriving, running for the
city council in Tempe, and that was actually not a
successful venture. That first time. I was a person who'd
(05:15):
been in student government my entire life, probably from fifth
grade all the way through my sophomore year of college,
and thought to myself, oh, this is probably very much
of the same. I mean, I've run a lot of races,
much smaller races for student government and been very successful,
but that was the first time I really understood how
politics worked at a much bigger level. At that point,
it was a city about one hundred and seventy five
(05:36):
thousand people, and they had a lot of very deep
familial connections to people. They had a lot of those
folks in Tempe had gone to school together, they had
gone to church together, they babysat one another's kids. And
here I was. I was a twenty six twenty seven
year old guy who didn't really have much history in
the city other than being a grad student at what
is the largest public university in the entire country, and
(05:58):
so didn't win that race, but got more involved in
the community. I had a lot of folks who reached
out after I didn't win, who said, look, we don't
want you to think that we didn't like you. We
just didn't know you. The other people who were running
were people who had They had been around for a
long time, and so we just had much more familiarity
with them. But we would encourage you, if you really
(06:19):
want to stay here, to get involved. And next thing,
you know, from being on I wasn't on any boards
or commissions or anything of that nature. Within about two
or three months, all of a sudden, I was on.
Five people said, hey, I was impressed with what you did,
and if you were interested in helping people out who
were experiencing food insecurity, or who were struggling to pay
their rent or or threatened to have their lights turned
(06:40):
off because of insufficient payment. You know, there's a board
called the Attempte Community Action Agency Board and they help
people with all that, and you could be a really
good young voice to be part of that group. I
talked a lot about youth issues and how we can
set up our young people to be successful moving forward
into the future, and so people came and said, well,
you know the Boys and Girls Club board, it has
a spot for someone like you and if you would
(07:01):
like to join, you should join. And so that kept happening.
So gradually I'm now involved in all of these things.
And about a year later, there was a seat that
was coming open on the City Council in two thousand
and eight, and I had a number of people who
reached out and said would you consider running again? And
you know, at that point, being a little bit more
sophisticated at the ripe age of twenty eight, I said, well, look,
(07:24):
are you gonna support me if I run? Are you
just asking? Because you know, I mean sometimes people see
traffic accidents on the side of the road, and many
times people slow down to see what's going on, but
they don't stop to help. They just watch and then
they drive away. But when enough people said, no, I
really I want to help, you know, I'll help you
knock on some doors and make some phone calls. I'll
write you a check myself. We'll open up our home
(07:46):
and invite our neighbors and our friends and the folks
that we go to church with. And I said, at
that point, you know, then you got yourself a candidate.
And so I was fortunate that at the age of
twenty nine, I got elected to the city council. I
was probably the second or third youngest count member to
ever win. I was the first African American council member
to ever win. And that surprises people a lot because
Tempe's been around since eighteen seventy four, and so the
(08:10):
notion that that was the first time a black person
got on the city council in two thousand and eight
to a lot of people was very shocking, but indeed
that's what it was. And so it was fortunate to
serve two terms on council. So I was there from
twenty eight to twenty sixteen and spent a lot of
time working on affordable housing and economic development and improving
transportation infrastructure. And we're one of the few cities that
(08:32):
doesn't have term limits, so I could have run for
a third term. But I was thirty seven at that
point and thought, you know, most of my life has
been spent at this point doing public service work. You
also in politics, especially in these jobs for the state
legislature and city council, you don't make any real money.
And because people see you walking around in a suit
and they go, oh, you must be making a good living,
(08:53):
I'm like, nope. And if I'm making a good living,
it's because I'm working another job that really is my
primary job, that allows me to keep a roof over
my head and have a car payment every month. So
I thought to myself at thirty seven, I'd like to
kind of take on some new challenges, and to do that,
I think it's time to probably step away from politics,
at least for the time being. And that's what I did.
(09:15):
In July twenty sixteen, I left, But about a year
or so after I was out, I began to think
that maybe I want to go back, but maybe I
want to go back in the role of mayor because
I'll have a little bit more authority and a little
bit more frankly influence to really drive the agenda for
the city of temp as opposed to just having the
opportunity to vote on a Thursday night. Council members many
(09:38):
times have the ability we all have one vote per person.
I have one vote. Every one of my council members
is one vote. But the mayor is the one who
typically gets interviewed by the press. They're the ones who
people tend to come to the most to say what's
the direction on this project, or what's the overall vision
and the sort of narrative for the city. And I
wanted the opportunity to present that so I so you know,
(10:01):
it was fortunate enough to run in twenty twenty. I
won in March of twenty twenty, assumed office in July
of twenty twenty, and not a very quiet time and
the history of this country, during the middle of the
COVID pandemic. Matter of fact, I won on March tenth
of twenty twenty, and about two days later on the twelfth,
it was when pretty much everything shut down due to
(10:21):
the COVID nineteen pandemic, and I remember my consultant at
the time came to me, Eric Chalmers, and Eric said
to me, you know, well, hey, I mean, you were
the first black mayor of the city of teen b
We're gonna get tons of run out of this. They're
gonna be talking about this for weeks. And two days later,
pretty much everyone told people, you know, take your laptop
and your power cable and go home and don't come
(10:42):
back until we tell you to come back. So I
did about one full day of interviews and then it
was over that I was home with everybody else. But
it's been it's been a wild ride. I mean I
was I was fortunate and I served that you know,
first four years and got reelected this past March. I
was fortunate not to have an opponent in my reelection,
so I got about ninety five percent of the vote
and started my second term this past July second. So
(11:03):
I'm very very new to this second term. But just
like the first term, I have a very big agenda
and a lot of things I'd like to accomplish. But
you know that's a little bit about me. But I'm
just excited to be here both of you today.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So TIMP is a really easy place to fall in
love with. I came to Arizona February of two thousand
and three. I was supposed to be here for three
days twenty one years ago. Ye, so you know I
had a very very similar experience to you. Came and
never left. You have a very interesting role. You have
your constituents here and TIMP who a you're responsible for,
(11:35):
who you answer to, who you legislate on, behalf of.
But the stakes of the political process in this country
right now are very high, and people like yourself and
other leaders from around the country are doing their job
for their city, for their state, for the you know,
the area they represent, but also getting involved on a
national level to shape these very very high stake outcomes
(11:58):
that we have facing us.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
What are some things that Vice President Harris has done
or should do, in your opinion, to engage with those
who may have supported her in the past but are
still trying to figure out how they're going to vote,
or things that she can do to earn the votes,
especially for those that look like us black men.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Right. So, one of the main reasons why I'm supporting
her is the number one issue that I've worked on
during my now thirteen years of being intellected office in
Tempp is housing, and of the two candidates running, she
is the only one, from my perspective, with a very proactive,
forward thinking plan for how to address the housing crisis
in this country. We have a real housing affordability crisis
(12:43):
in this country. We also have a real housing supply
shortage in this country. And the Vice president's plan is
talking about finding a way to build three million new
homes in our country, which are desperately needed. We need
more affordable and attainable housing for people who truly need it.
But part of the problem also is the lack of
(13:03):
housing supply causes the cost or price of the existing
homes to drive way up. Because if people know, like
if you live in an apartment complex, which I do,
we can talk about that a little bit later as well,
live there for four and a half years right in
the heart of downtown temp. If there's not a lot
of apartments or multi family units in your area, well
(13:23):
then your landlord at the company can charge you whatever
they want to charge you, because their perspective is, well,
where are you going to go? You could threaten them
and say I'm going to leave and go somewhere down
the street, then well, good luck trying to go down
the street. So the benefit of having more units and
more competition in the marketplace is it has the ability
to stabilize the rent someone and perhaps bring them down.
Matter back to the City of temb Over the last
(13:44):
six months, we actually saw about a three percent decrease
in apartment rates in our community, and that's largely because
we're greenlighting so many more units in the affordable, workforce
and market rate categories for people who need housing. And
so when I see the Vice President's plan and talking
about how do we build three million more homes across
this country to give people opportunities, whether they're home ownership
(14:07):
or rental, that's really, from my perspective, the kind of
forward thinking leadership I want out of a presidential candidate.
When we're talking about a twenty five thousand dollars first
time home buyer's credit for people who are looking to
purchase on because as we know, a lot of younger
people have frankly given up on the whole dream of
home ownership. That was something I mean, I'm almost forty six,
(14:29):
where that was something we still very much believed was
within reach. And I have owned a home at one
point in my adult life. But there are a lot
of people I know in their twenties who've just said,
I don't think I'll ever own a home when I
look at the cost of housing, when I look at
interest rates, when I look at how much I have
to pay for rent just on a monthly basis, how
am I ever supposed to save enough money to put
(14:50):
aside a ten, fifteen or twenty percent down payment so
I can actually achieve home ownership at some point in
my life. So the housing issue for me is very critical,
and for me, it's probably the most important issue that
this country faces. And she's the only candidate I see
who's actually having a real conversation with not just the
black community, but Americans in general about how do we
(15:12):
not only increase housing affordability, but how do we actually
put more supply into the marketplace so people who want
homes have the opportunity to obtain them.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
You know, there's to your point about, you know, housing supply.
One of the things that I learned recently, and you
can speak to this perhaps more intelligently than I can,
is that incentivizing builders to build housing that's affordable is
it can be challenging because builders have a tendency to
(15:43):
want to build luxury housing units. They can charge a
premium their maintenance and whatever the operating costs are minimal,
or whatever their motivations are. I'm sure they're fiscal capitalism,
of course, But you know, when it comes to which
(16:04):
candidate can actually bring about some real change for real people,
when you look at one of the presidential candidates being
a luxury housing real estate developer and then another one
being from Oakland, California, Yeah, who's lived the black experience?
Who understands that, you know, these sorts of things disproportionately
(16:25):
negatively affect black people. I think that your point as
well made when examining it through that lens as well.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yes, well, and a luxury housing developer who has a
history of not renting to people who look like the
three of us, you know, so that's obviously critically important
to me. Not only was he many times building housing
that wasn't attainable for a lot of people in our
country because of income levels, but even if people like
you and I or the three of us walked in
with the cash or with the credit to actually rent,
(16:54):
we would have likely been turned away for some kind
of phony reason as to why they didn't want us
in his apartment complex. So you know, that kind of
track record, to me, is very critically important when I'm
thinking about the character of the person who should be
sitting in the oval office of the first place. But
when I look at zoning in general, and I understand
why zoning exists, but it also has some very troubling
(17:15):
roots in a lot of ways. I mean, it was
created sort of back in the nineteen twenties as a
way sometimes to do repline to keep certain people out
of certain neighborhoods, people who folks thought were undesirable or
objectionable people. And so, you know, I understand why it
still exists. And I think the system has been set
up in such a way that you're always going to
have some form of zoning in local cities in towns,
(17:37):
so the elected officials and residents have some ability to
sort of dictate the course of where things will go.
But I also don't think that zoning policies should be
so onerous that it makes it hard to build anything
other than single family detached houses. And sometimes that is
still very much the case. Zoning can be a real
impediment to developers building anything, or it's simply slow down
(18:00):
the process so much that a lot of people simply
just throw up their hands and walk away. And so
I've been very, very encouraged by what I've heard from
Vice President Harris, but also you know, watching the Democratic
National Convention and hearing former President Obama have that conversation
and say, look, we have to do We have to
talk have a real conversation in this country about zoning
reform so we can try to find ways to remove
(18:21):
some of the red tape and some of the barriers
that that are preventing additional homes from being built and
of course therefore preventing people from actually obtaining quality housing
that they need to survive and raise their kids and
live a happy, comfortable life. So we have to have
these conversations. And I only hear one political party really
having that conversation at a national level, and I only
(18:43):
hear one candidate, which is Vice President Harris, during this
cycle actually really have a good conversation. And I say
that because, look, I watch both conventions. I was at
the Democratic National Convention this year in Chicago. So I
spent four nights out in Chicago going to all the
different events and listening to this speakers. But I also
watched the Republican National Convention on TV because I do
(19:04):
think it's critically important to understand what both sides are
saying when we're having very important policy decisions that have
the ability to determine the future of this country. And
I didn't hear much conversation about this during the RNC.
I heard the conversations from, as I said, Vice President
Harris and former President Barack Obama. They were the ones
talking about zoning reform. They were the ones talking about
(19:26):
building more units, they were the ones talking about twenty
five thousand dollars worth of down payment assistance to first
time home buyers. And they were the only ones talking
about giving middle class people a tax cut, not just
simply the wealthy who don't need it anyway. So that's
why I'm out here supporting Vice President Harris, and I'm
going to do everything I can to help get her
across the finish line on November fifth.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So there is a spooky term, and spooky is me
being kind an agenda that has become an obvious an
obvious point of contention between both parties, and that is
our former president and Project twenty twenty five. I think
(20:10):
a lot of our country wasn't really paying attention to that,
and then Ramsen I remember Taraji p Henson used her
time live on television in front of a camera to
bring a lot of attention to this. The amount of
times it was Google skyrocketed after that, and then our
former president tried to distance himself from something that we
(20:32):
all know he's very very much aligned with a lot
of our listeners. However, a lot of our colleagues don't
have time to go through a nine hundred page document,
which I'm sure they counted on. Are there some things
that stood out in Project twenty twenty five to you
that could have very obvious negative impacts on black people,
(20:52):
people of color, and poor people in this country.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
The first thing I can think about is Project twenty
twenty five talks about the notion of a national abortion ban,
which former President Trump and you know Senator Vance keep
trying to run away for, even though both of them,
at various points during their political careers and not frankly
even that long ago, are both publicly on record as
(21:16):
saying that they support national abortion bans, and so that
is specifically spelled out in Project twenty twenty five as
one of its main goals and objectives. And my perspective
has always been you need to let women have the
you know, they need to have control over their own
bodies and have the right to make those decisions with
their own health care provider. But they don't need me
(21:36):
in the waiting room with them, and they assuredly don't
need the government, and they are making decisions for what's
best for them and what's best for their families when
it comes to their own health care and reproductive rights.
And so that's one of the things in Project twenty
twenty five. I think that concerns a lot of people.
I think also when you think about too the notion
of repealing the Affordable Care Act, or as many people
will call it, Obamacare, that the Affordable Care Act has
(22:00):
frankly saved lives. It has helped families by the notion
of people being young people being able to stay on
their parents' insurance until they're twenty six years old. The
Affordable Care Act is also what allows a lot of
people to actually take the chance to start small businesses.
Which a lot of people on the conservative side say
is very critically important to them. But many times, if
(22:22):
you have a pre existing condition, or if you have
a family, or just even for yourself, say, I need
to have quality health care. So in case I happen
to get sick for whatever reason, I have some means
to go to the doctor or get a prescription for
an antibiotic. But if I don't have access to that,
I'm going to probably end up just working for a
company and not being an entrepreneur because I'll be concerned
(22:42):
that if God forbid, I get sick, I don't have
any means to take care of myself. And so the
Affordable Care Act, I think has opened up an opportunity
for a lot of small business people and entrepreneurs to
really kind of release that power of innovation and to
really follow their dreams and do the things that they
are really called to do on this earth. But without
the Affordable Care Act, you're going to have a lot
(23:04):
of people that's going to be a real challenge. And
I thought it was interesting the other night when I
heard Senator Vance talking about how, you know, Donald Trump
was trying very hard to save the Affordable Care Act
and actually under him it got better. I don't know
where that came from. That is one of the wildest
things I've heard in quite some time. I Mean, he
came into office back in early twenty seventeen on a
(23:26):
pledge that I'm going to repeal the Affordable Care Act
that he kept, you know, pushing the Republican Congress at
the time to find ways to get rid of it,
and they never had a plan to actually take care
of it. And obviously at some point voters caught on
and realized this was just simply political rhetoric to gin
up your base. But you never really had any plans
to do this, and you and even now, when he's
(23:47):
asked about a plan for healthcare in public, he says,
I have the concepts of a plan. Sir. You've been
in public life since the year twenty fifteen, when you
first wrote down that escalator and spewed some of the
most hateful, bigoted rhetoric that I've ever heard in politics.
It seems like in nine years you and the people
around you would have actually come up with some kind
of a plan. But that goes back to the point.
(24:07):
Project twenty twenty five is an over nine hundred page
document that outlines exactly what his plan is if he
happens to make it back into the White House. And
I tell people all the time, don't be fooled about
the notion. I wasn't aware of this. I never read it.
He probably has never read it. But I don't think
anyone really mistakes him for being much of a policy
(24:29):
person at times. But the fact of the matter is
this was written by his friends and his close allies,
which he will then utilize to rule over this country.
I mean that would be like me having my brother
and my father and all my closest friends write a
nine hundred page policy document that they clearly didn't write overnight,
(24:49):
and they did over a series of months, if not years,
and for me not to know anything about what was
actually going on. I think most people would find that
very hard to believe. And that's why when he continuously
tries to distance himself from Project twenty twenty five, I
think a lot of people throw a flag on the play.
I think they realize that does not add up. There
is no way that all of these people and all
(25:09):
of these minds got together to craft this very cohesive,
comprehensive policy document. Only for you to say I know
nothing about it. So when you hear these things about
repealing the Affordable Care Act, or implementing a national abortion ban,
or trying to raise taxes on middle class people, this
is absolutely what they intend to do, and absolutely what
he intends to do should he make it back to
(25:31):
the White House. And I think it's our job to
ensure that we get the word out, talk to our family,
talk to our friends, and talk to our neighbors to
ensure that Donald Trump is not elected again and that
Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the next president of the
United States this coming January.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
This concludes part one of our two part conversation with
Mayor Corey Woods discussing the black future under Kamala Harris.
Check back in with us for part two right on
the Black Information Network.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Mm hmmmmmmmmmmm
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Mmmmmmmmm
This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast, and I'm
host rams' Ja. And sometimes the amount of stories that
make their way to us means that we simply can't
cover everything that comes our way. But from time to time,
a story just stays with me and I feel compelled
to share it with you and give you my thoughts.
And now one more thing.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You know, one of the things that.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Q and I brush up against being from Arizona is
that we are on a national stage, but we're not
in a city like New York. We're not in a
city like Los Angeles, and that's good and that's bad. Obviously,
there's a lot of things that are happening in places
like Atlanta for the types of conversations that we have
(00:49):
on this show, so we miss out on some of
those things. But every so often we get the reality
of our situation, which is that we live in a
swing state. We live in a state that really matters
in terms of shaping the political future of this country,
(01:12):
and we live in a state where we do have
our own fair share of black excellence. And today we
are going to celebrate some of that black excellence by
having a conversation with someone from our own backyard. He
(01:33):
goes by the name of Corey Woods. Now I'm going
to let him give himself a proper introduction, but I
really want to set up the conversation that I think
that we're about to have For those who are longtime
listeners of the show. You know that Q and I
have had to, along with you, our listener, navigate this,
(01:58):
you knowics in this country, and certainly within the last
six months, so much has changed. We went from being
very concerned about our future to having some hope and
becoming organized and galvanizing our support and leveraging our platforms
(02:25):
to try to create the changes that we want to
see in the world. And I'd say in the same
last six months, we've received lots of support from obviously
you are listeners, but folks that we had never really
anticipated being connected with. And I think that today will
(02:47):
ultimately be a testament to that. So back to today's guest,
Corey Woods. Around here where we live, he's him, he's him,
He's the man, and he's someone that makes us all
very proud. He's the mayor of Timp, Arizona, And for
(03:08):
those who are not familiar with Arizona, Timp is where
Arizona State University is timp is just a magnificent city.
And to know that the mayor of that city is
a black man who is someone that we again we
(03:28):
can all be proud of, is just a feather in
our cap for those of us that live here today,
we want to talk about obviously what it means to
vote locally and to stay engaged in your local politics.
We also want to have a conversation about the goings
(03:48):
on nationally because obviously, in the same last six months,
we now have Kamala Harris, as you know, the person
on top of the Democratic ticket, and that changes things,
and there are still some folks who are trying to
find their place in this elect this election season, and
(04:12):
my hope is that today's conversation will help us kind
of sit through the rest of the weeds and understand
what the what is So welcome.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
To the show. Thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate being here.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
And again I didn't give enough of your background. I
established who you are, but talk to us a bit
about kind of your journey to becoming the mayor of temp.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Sure happy to so. I moved to Arizona back in
June of two thousand and three. So I've been here
for a little over twenty one years and originally came
to be a graduate student at Arizota State University, and
my thought initially was I was going to get a
master's degree and spend a couple of years here in
temp and then go somewhere else and get a doctorate,
because my thought process was I was going to become
(04:52):
a college professor. And after about a year and a
half of being here, I really fell in love with Tempe,
and I fell in love with the state of Aira,
Arizona in general, and so I made the decision that
I wanted to stay. I ended up in two thousand
and five, only two years after arriving, running for the
city council in Tempe, and that was actually not a
successful venture. That first time. I was a person who'd
(05:15):
been in student government my entire life, probably from fifth
grade all the way through my sophomore year of college,
and thought to myself, oh, this is probably very much
of the same. I mean, I've run a lot of races,
much smaller races for student government and been very successful,
but that was the first time I really understood how
politics worked at a much bigger level. At that point,
it was a city about one hundred and seventy five
(05:36):
thousand people, and they had a lot of very deep
familial connections to people. They had a lot of those
folks in Tempe had gone to school together, they had
gone to church together, they babysat one another's kids. And
here I was. I was a twenty six twenty seven
year old guy who didn't really have much history in
the city other than being a grad student at what
is the largest public university in the entire country, and
(05:58):
so didn't win that race, but got more involved in
the community. I had a lot of folks who reached
out after I didn't win, who said, look, we don't
want you to think that we didn't like you. We
just didn't know you. The other people who were running
were people who had They had been around for a
long time, and so we just had much more familiarity
with them. But we would encourage you, if you really
(06:19):
want to stay here, to get involved. And next thing,
you know, from being on I wasn't on any boards
or commissions or anything of that nature. Within about two
or three months, all of a sudden, I was on.
Five people said, hey, I was impressed with what you did,
and if you were interested in helping people out who
were experiencing food insecurity, or who were struggling to pay
their rent or or threatened to have their lights turned
(06:40):
off because of insufficient payment. You know, there's a board
called the Attempte Community Action Agency Board and they help
people with all that, and you could be a really
good young voice to be part of that group. I
talked a lot about youth issues and how we can
set up our young people to be successful moving forward
into the future, and so people came and said, well,
you know the Boys and Girls Club board, it has
a spot for someone like you and if you would
(07:01):
like to join, you should join. And so that kept happening.
So gradually I'm now involved in all of these things.
And about a year later, there was a seat that
was coming open on the City Council in two thousand
and eight, and I had a number of people who
reached out and said would you consider running again? And
you know, at that point, being a little bit more
sophisticated at the ripe age of twenty eight, I said, well, look,
(07:24):
are you gonna support me if I run? Are you
just asking? Because you know, I mean sometimes people see
traffic accidents on the side of the road, and many
times people slow down to see what's going on, but
they don't stop to help. They just watch and then
they drive away. But when enough people said, no, I
really I want to help, you know, I'll help you
knock on some doors and make some phone calls. I'll
write you a check myself. We'll open up our home
(07:46):
and invite our neighbors and our friends and the folks
that we go to church with. And I said, at
that point, you know, then you got yourself a candidate.
And so I was fortunate that at the age of
twenty nine, I got elected to the city council. I
was probably the second or third youngest count member to
ever win. I was the first African American council member
to ever win. And that surprises people a lot because
Tempe's been around since eighteen seventy four, and so the
(08:10):
notion that that was the first time a black person
got on the city council in two thousand and eight
to a lot of people was very shocking, but indeed
that's what it was. And so it was fortunate to
serve two terms on council. So I was there from
twenty eight to twenty sixteen and spent a lot of
time working on affordable housing and economic development and improving
transportation infrastructure. And we're one of the few cities that
(08:32):
doesn't have term limits, so I could have run for
a third term. But I was thirty seven at that
point and thought, you know, most of my life has
been spent at this point doing public service work. You
also in politics, especially in these jobs for the state
legislature and city council, you don't make any real money.
And because people see you walking around in a suit
and they go, oh, you must be making a good living,
(08:53):
I'm like, nope. And if I'm making a good living,
it's because I'm working another job that really is my
primary job, that allows me to keep a roof over
my head and have a car payment every month. So
I thought to myself at thirty seven, I'd like to
kind of take on some new challenges, and to do that,
I think it's time to probably step away from politics,
at least for the time being. And that's what I did.
(09:15):
In July twenty sixteen, I left, But about a year
or so after I was out, I began to think
that maybe I want to go back, but maybe I
want to go back in the role of mayor because
I'll have a little bit more authority and a little
bit more frankly influence to really drive the agenda for
the city of temp as opposed to just having the
opportunity to vote on a Thursday night. Council members many
(09:38):
times have the ability we all have one vote per person.
I have one vote. Every one of my council members
is one vote. But the mayor is the one who
typically gets interviewed by the press. They're the ones who
people tend to come to the most to say what's
the direction on this project, or what's the overall vision
and the sort of narrative for the city. And I
wanted the opportunity to present that so I so you know,
(10:01):
it was fortunate enough to run in twenty twenty. I
won in March of twenty twenty, assumed office in July
of twenty twenty, and not a very quiet time and
the history of this country, during the middle of the
COVID pandemic. Matter of fact, I won on March tenth
of twenty twenty, and about two days later on the twelfth,
it was when pretty much everything shut down due to
(10:21):
the COVID nineteen pandemic, and I remember my consultant at
the time came to me, Eric Chalmers, and Eric said
to me, you know, well, hey, I mean, you were
the first black mayor of the city of teen b
We're gonna get tons of run out of this. They're
gonna be talking about this for weeks. And two days later,
pretty much everyone told people, you know, take your laptop
and your power cable and go home and don't come
(10:42):
back until we tell you to come back. So I
did about one full day of interviews and then it
was over that I was home with everybody else. But
it's been it's been a wild ride. I mean I
was I was fortunate and I served that you know,
first four years and got reelected this past March. I
was fortunate not to have an opponent in my reelection,
so I got about ninety five percent of the vote
and started my second term this past July second. So
(11:03):
I'm very very new to this second term. But just
like the first term, I have a very big agenda
and a lot of things I'd like to accomplish. But
you know that's a little bit about me. But I'm
just excited to be here both of you today.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So TIMP is a really easy place to fall in
love with. I came to Arizona February of two thousand
and three. I was supposed to be here for three
days twenty one years ago. Ye, so you know I
had a very very similar experience to you. Came and
never left. You have a very interesting role. You have
your constituents here and TIMP who a you're responsible for,
(11:35):
who you answer to, who you legislate on, behalf of.
But the stakes of the political process in this country
right now are very high, and people like yourself and
other leaders from around the country are doing their job
for their city, for their state, for the you know,
the area they represent, but also getting involved on a
national level to shape these very very high stake outcomes
(11:58):
that we have facing us.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
What are some things that Vice President Harris has done
or should do, in your opinion, to engage with those
who may have supported her in the past but are
still trying to figure out how they're going to vote,
or things that she can do to earn the votes,
especially for those that look like us black men.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Right. So, one of the main reasons why I'm supporting
her is the number one issue that I've worked on
during my now thirteen years of being intellected office in
Tempp is housing, and of the two candidates running, she
is the only one, from my perspective, with a very proactive,
forward thinking plan for how to address the housing crisis
in this country. We have a real housing affordability crisis
(12:43):
in this country. We also have a real housing supply
shortage in this country. And the Vice president's plan is
talking about finding a way to build three million new
homes in our country, which are desperately needed. We need
more affordable and attainable housing for people who truly need it.
But part of the problem also is the lack of
(13:03):
housing supply causes the cost or price of the existing
homes to drive way up. Because if people know, like
if you live in an apartment complex, which I do,
we can talk about that a little bit later as well,
live there for four and a half years right in
the heart of downtown temp. If there's not a lot
of apartments or multi family units in your area, well
(13:23):
then your landlord at the company can charge you whatever
they want to charge you, because their perspective is, well,
where are you going to go? You could threaten them
and say I'm going to leave and go somewhere down
the street, then well, good luck trying to go down
the street. So the benefit of having more units and
more competition in the marketplace is it has the ability
to stabilize the rent someone and perhaps bring them down.
Matter back to the City of temb Over the last
(13:44):
six months, we actually saw about a three percent decrease
in apartment rates in our community, and that's largely because
we're greenlighting so many more units in the affordable, workforce
and market rate categories for people who need housing. And
so when I see the Vice President's plan and talking
about how do we build three million more homes across
this country to give people opportunities, whether they're home ownership
(14:07):
or rental, that's really, from my perspective, the kind of
forward thinking leadership I want out of a presidential candidate.
When we're talking about a twenty five thousand dollars first
time home buyer's credit for people who are looking to
purchase on because as we know, a lot of younger
people have frankly given up on the whole dream of
home ownership. That was something I mean, I'm almost forty six,
(14:29):
where that was something we still very much believed was
within reach. And I have owned a home at one
point in my adult life. But there are a lot
of people I know in their twenties who've just said,
I don't think I'll ever own a home when I
look at the cost of housing, when I look at
interest rates, when I look at how much I have
to pay for rent just on a monthly basis, how
am I ever supposed to save enough money to put
(14:50):
aside a ten, fifteen or twenty percent down payment so
I can actually achieve home ownership at some point in
my life. So the housing issue for me is very critical,
and for me, it's probably the most important issue that
this country faces. And she's the only candidate I see
who's actually having a real conversation with not just the
black community, but Americans in general about how do we
(15:12):
not only increase housing affordability, but how do we actually
put more supply into the marketplace so people who want
homes have the opportunity to obtain them.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
You know, there's to your point about, you know, housing supply.
One of the things that I learned recently, and you
can speak to this perhaps more intelligently than I can,
is that incentivizing builders to build housing that's affordable is
it can be challenging because builders have a tendency to
(15:43):
want to build luxury housing units. They can charge a
premium their maintenance and whatever the operating costs are minimal,
or whatever their motivations are. I'm sure they're fiscal capitalism,
of course, But you know, when it comes to which
(16:04):
candidate can actually bring about some real change for real people,
when you look at one of the presidential candidates being
a luxury housing real estate developer and then another one
being from Oakland, California, Yeah, who's lived the black experience?
Who understands that, you know, these sorts of things disproportionately
(16:25):
negatively affect black people. I think that your point as
well made when examining it through that lens as well.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yes, well, and a luxury housing developer who has a
history of not renting to people who look like the
three of us, you know, so that's obviously critically important
to me. Not only was he many times building housing
that wasn't attainable for a lot of people in our
country because of income levels, but even if people like
you and I or the three of us walked in
with the cash or with the credit to actually rent,
(16:54):
we would have likely been turned away for some kind
of phony reason as to why they didn't want us
in his apartment complex. So you know, that kind of
track record, to me, is very critically important when I'm
thinking about the character of the person who should be
sitting in the oval office of the first place. But
when I look at zoning in general, and I understand
why zoning exists, but it also has some very troubling
(17:15):
roots in a lot of ways. I mean, it was
created sort of back in the nineteen twenties as a
way sometimes to do repline to keep certain people out
of certain neighborhoods, people who folks thought were undesirable or
objectionable people. And so, you know, I understand why it
still exists. And I think the system has been set
up in such a way that you're always going to
have some form of zoning in local cities in towns,
(17:37):
so the elected officials and residents have some ability to
sort of dictate the course of where things will go.
But I also don't think that zoning policies should be
so onerous that it makes it hard to build anything
other than single family detached houses. And sometimes that is
still very much the case. Zoning can be a real
impediment to developers building anything, or it's simply slow down
(18:00):
the process so much that a lot of people simply
just throw up their hands and walk away. And so
I've been very, very encouraged by what I've heard from
Vice President Harris, but also you know, watching the Democratic
National Convention and hearing former President Obama have that conversation
and say, look, we have to do We have to
talk have a real conversation in this country about zoning
reform so we can try to find ways to remove
(18:21):
some of the red tape and some of the barriers
that that are preventing additional homes from being built and
of course therefore preventing people from actually obtaining quality housing
that they need to survive and raise their kids and
live a happy, comfortable life. So we have to have
these conversations. And I only hear one political party really
having that conversation at a national level, and I only
(18:43):
hear one candidate, which is Vice President Harris, during this
cycle actually really have a good conversation. And I say
that because, look, I watch both conventions. I was at
the Democratic National Convention this year in Chicago. So I
spent four nights out in Chicago going to all the
different events and listening to this speakers. But I also
watched the Republican National Convention on TV because I do
(19:04):
think it's critically important to understand what both sides are
saying when we're having very important policy decisions that have
the ability to determine the future of this country. And
I didn't hear much conversation about this during the RNC.
I heard the conversations from, as I said, Vice President
Harris and former President Barack Obama. They were the ones
talking about zoning reform. They were the ones talking about
(19:26):
building more units, they were the ones talking about twenty
five thousand dollars worth of down payment assistance to first
time home buyers. And they were the only ones talking
about giving middle class people a tax cut, not just
simply the wealthy who don't need it anyway. So that's
why I'm out here supporting Vice President Harris, and I'm
going to do everything I can to help get her
across the finish line on November fifth.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So there is a spooky term, and spooky is me
being kind an agenda that has become an obvious an
obvious point of contention between both parties, and that is
our former president and Project twenty twenty five. I think
(20:10):
a lot of our country wasn't really paying attention to that,
and then Ramsen I remember Taraji p Henson used her
time live on television in front of a camera to
bring a lot of attention to this. The amount of
times it was Google skyrocketed after that, and then our
former president tried to distance himself from something that we
(20:32):
all know he's very very much aligned with a lot
of our listeners. However, a lot of our colleagues don't
have time to go through a nine hundred page document,
which I'm sure they counted on. Are there some things
that stood out in Project twenty twenty five to you
that could have very obvious negative impacts on black people,
(20:52):
people of color, and poor people in this country.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
The first thing I can think about is Project twenty
twenty five talks about the notion of a national abortion ban,
which former President Trump and you know Senator Vance keep
trying to run away for, even though both of them,
at various points during their political careers and not frankly
even that long ago, are both publicly on record as
(21:16):
saying that they support national abortion bans, and so that
is specifically spelled out in Project twenty twenty five as
one of its main goals and objectives. And my perspective
has always been you need to let women have the
you know, they need to have control over their own
bodies and have the right to make those decisions with
their own health care provider. But they don't need me
(21:36):
in the waiting room with them, and they assuredly don't
need the government, and they are making decisions for what's
best for them and what's best for their families when
it comes to their own health care and reproductive rights.
And so that's one of the things in Project twenty
twenty five. I think that concerns a lot of people.
I think also when you think about too the notion
of repealing the Affordable Care Act, or as many people
will call it, Obamacare, that the Affordable Care Act has
(22:00):
frankly saved lives. It has helped families by the notion
of people being young people being able to stay on
their parents' insurance until they're twenty six years old. The
Affordable Care Act is also what allows a lot of
people to actually take the chance to start small businesses.
Which a lot of people on the conservative side say
is very critically important to them. But many times, if
(22:22):
you have a pre existing condition, or if you have
a family, or just even for yourself, say, I need
to have quality health care. So in case I happen
to get sick for whatever reason, I have some means
to go to the doctor or get a prescription for
an antibiotic. But if I don't have access to that,
I'm going to probably end up just working for a
company and not being an entrepreneur because I'll be concerned
(22:42):
that if God forbid, I get sick, I don't have
any means to take care of myself. And so the
Affordable Care Act, I think has opened up an opportunity
for a lot of small business people and entrepreneurs to
really kind of release that power of innovation and to
really follow their dreams and do the things that they
are really called to do on this earth. But without
the Affordable Care Act, you're going to have a lot
(23:04):
of people that's going to be a real challenge. And
I thought it was interesting the other night when I
heard Senator Vance talking about how, you know, Donald Trump
was trying very hard to save the Affordable Care Act
and actually under him it got better. I don't know
where that came from. That is one of the wildest
things I've heard in quite some time. I Mean, he
came into office back in early twenty seventeen on a
(23:26):
pledge that I'm going to repeal the Affordable Care Act
that he kept, you know, pushing the Republican Congress at
the time to find ways to get rid of it,
and they never had a plan to actually take care
of it. And obviously at some point voters caught on
and realized this was just simply political rhetoric to gin
up your base. But you never really had any plans
to do this, and you and even now, when he's
(23:47):
asked about a plan for healthcare in public, he says,
I have the concepts of a plan. Sir. You've been
in public life since the year twenty fifteen, when you
first wrote down that escalator and spewed some of the
most hateful, bigoted rhetoric that I've ever heard in politics.
It seems like in nine years you and the people
around you would have actually come up with some kind
of a plan. But that goes back to the point.
(24:07):
Project twenty twenty five is an over nine hundred page
document that outlines exactly what his plan is if he
happens to make it back into the White House. And
I tell people all the time, don't be fooled about
the notion. I wasn't aware of this. I never read it.
He probably has never read it. But I don't think
anyone really mistakes him for being much of a policy
(24:29):
person at times. But the fact of the matter is
this was written by his friends and his close allies,
which he will then utilize to rule over this country.
I mean that would be like me having my brother
and my father and all my closest friends write a
nine hundred page policy document that they clearly didn't write overnight,
(24:49):
and they did over a series of months, if not years,
and for me not to know anything about what was
actually going on. I think most people would find that
very hard to believe. And that's why when he continuously
tries to distance himself from Project twenty twenty five, I
think a lot of people throw a flag on the play.
I think they realize that does not add up. There
is no way that all of these people and all
(25:09):
of these minds got together to craft this very cohesive,
comprehensive policy document. Only for you to say I know
nothing about it. So when you hear these things about
repealing the Affordable Care Act, or implementing a national abortion ban,
or trying to raise taxes on middle class people, this
is absolutely what they intend to do, and absolutely what
he intends to do should he make it back to
(25:31):
the White House. And I think it's our job to
ensure that we get the word out, talk to our family,
talk to our friends, and talk to our neighbors to
ensure that Donald Trump is not elected again and that
Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the next president of the
United States this coming January.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
This concludes part one of our two part conversation with
Mayor Corey Woods discussing the black future under Kamala Harris.
Check back in with us for part two right on
the Black Information Network.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Mm hmmmmmmmmmmm
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Mmmmmmmmm
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