The Founders Show #478

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Bide holes and politicians addressed a digit. Dators and magicians trust to see the
money, then you don't. There'snothing to feel the holes while then fill
in their pockets, bide holes,the politicians bouncing down the road. Every

(00:22):
bodysuition to no more corruption and dysfunction. It's gonna take divide Intovent shows.
The survey recently show Jefferson Parish asthe parish that actually still retains young people.
But the question is our demographic changes, economic changes keeping it that way.
Jefferson Parish is changing, and we'retalking about it today on The Founders

(00:46):
Show with council candidate and councilman,incumbent Dominic and Pistado and God bless all
out there. You are now listeningto the Founders Show, the voice of
the Founding Fathers, your Founding Fatherscoming to you deep within the bowels of
those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps ofthe Big Easy, that old Crescent City,

(01:07):
New Orleans, Louisiana, and Hiup on top of that old liberty
cypress tree draped in Spanish moss wayout on the Eagles Branch is none other
then you've been gary by by theRepublic Chaplain. Hi mckenry, who with
Christopher Sidmore. You're Roving a reporter, resident at Radical Moderate and associate editor
of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper at LouisianaWeekly dot net. And Jefferson Parish is
an interesting place, isn't it?O? Yes, it is not.

(01:30):
Tell me Chris, it is changing. What's gonna happen in Jeffson Parrish?
What are they gonna do there?Well? Hi, to answer your question,
we're joined by councilman Dominic and Pistado. He's seeking promotion from the council
to the Council at Large position,but he's also been one of the more
outspoken features about how Jefferson has toplan for the future because Jefferson, they
are a changing and that sort ofbrings us to our first question, Dominic,

(01:51):
everything in Jefferson seems to be changing. It's not your father's Jefferson Parish.
It's changing. It's getting older asa parish. It's while you still
have young people there, and likeother parts of the state, it is
there has been some loss of population. You're seeing very different changes from the
West Bank to the East Bank.You're seeing a lot of communities undergo demographic
change, you're seeing economic change.And so I let me give you an

(02:15):
easy softball question to start, Howdo you change everything that parish government does
in the next ten years to dealwith us? How do you change everything?
Well, listen, the reality isnumber one. The main way that
I believe we could easily achieve changewhere needed is let's learn from other people.

(02:35):
And that's been the mission that I'vebeen on. We, whether whether
we like it or not, theGreater New Orleans Area, Jeffson Parish or
Leeds, we've been behind the eightball of other cities for decades in many
In many ways includes yeah, well, and unfortunately that includes how government operates.

(02:57):
And so what I've done in thelast several years is I've gone to
other cities. We went to SanAntonio, Louisville, Kentucky, Kansas City,
Washington DC. I know I'm leavingsome out, but we went and
studied other cities and met with theirgovernments to figure out how are they providing
government services. One of the thingswe learned is that many of these other

(03:20):
cities have departments, whole departments calledthe Department of Innovation, whose sole role
is to look at all of thebranches of their county or parish or city
government and determine are they providing thoseservices in the most effective, modern progressive
way. And we've come back withideas so that the short answer is one

(03:45):
of the easy ways we can changegovernment is we don't have to reinvent the
wheel. Let's look at other placesand see how they're doing it. And
we've performed we've performed that study.Here's one thing, and we're doing this
in district form. We intend inOctober to be able to take this take
our show on the road parish wide. Here's one thing. You go to
other cities. Kansas City was thefirst place we saw this, and they

(04:06):
have mobile kiosks all throughout their city. You look at them and it looks
like a readerboard like you often seein the airport, where you touch the
screen and it'll tell you restaurants here, bookstores here, bars here, restaurants
here. You know all that kindof stuff. But and you go,
man, that's that's really great.Here's the other thing it provides. It's

(04:27):
a mobile hotspot. So if you'reshitting in a park nearby, are you
sitting on a park bench or you'resitting at a bus stop, you have
mobile Internet right there, or asoften happens, when you're in an area
where as an office building or whatnot, you're standing outside they've been working on
your laptop, or at a nearbycoffee shop you can get a mobile Wi
Fi connection. And here's the bestpoint, because because what I wanted to

(04:48):
point out was that not only solvesdirectional problems, it actually solves the biggest,
one of the biggest problems we havein New Orleans, which is the
digital divide. Which is the digitaldivide, excess ability, the ability to
communicate and no question, but here'shere's the kicker. This is the icing
on the cake. Ask me howmuch it costs the government to have those

(05:10):
put in? Well, how muchdoes it cost? How do you get
this underwritten? Get nothing? Why? Because what do they do? They
put them in for free, providedyou remove the government restrictions that would prevent
them from being able to do it. And they sell advertising that they do
on a revenue sharing program with thelocal government. They sell the ads that

(05:30):
funds the whole thing. It's calledpublic private partnerships. And that's something we've
done. And the beauty of goingyou called it a promotion, and I
guess that's not a bad way tolook at it. Is what I'm able
to do that I can tell youno one else is going to be able
to do in my race. IsI'm going to be able to say we've
tried and we've tested the methods inthe processes that we're going to take parish

(05:55):
wide. We've gone through the process. We know how it works, we
know how to make it happen onsmall scale, on a one district level,
which I'm saying small, it's ninetythousand people. And we know we've
got the model that we can takeTarish. Why Dominicus joining us on the
Founder's show is councilman district councilman forDistrict four in Jefferson, Paris, Dominican
Pistado. He's seeking promotion to thecouncil at large position in the October primary.

(06:20):
Dominic Glowly present my Swan song.I said, you're singing my song
earlier. Thank of this New Orleanssits at the greatest watershed of wealth in
the world. I'm talking about goingup the river and coming down the river.
And we've had that for over youknow, a couple hundred years,
nine hundred fifty years. We haveall kinds of other tremendous economic opportunities in

(06:41):
this area because of where we are, you know, arlan gas, agriculture,
you name it. It's just it'sastounding to see the advantages and the
opportunities this area as and Yet whenI was growing up here in New Orleans,
we were ranked in one of theas one of the top ten cities
in the country. Today we're noteven the top fifty. I see little
towns out in Alabama, missipility todrive through mainly Alabama in Florida. Now
they're bigger than us. I mean, what's going on here now? I'm

(07:04):
not trusting Orleans Parish to do thejob. I have wished and prayed and
hoped and petitioned in this and thatfor years, and it's never gone anywhere.
They don't listen to us. Butmaybe Jefferson Parish would listen. Maybe
Jefferson Parish could become the real winnerfor the you know, the big city
at the mouth of the river,and forget Orleans Parish because obviously there we're

(07:26):
too stupid. I live in OrleansParish, born and raised here to really
do what's the right thing like you'rethinking about it and you think of innovations,
you know, staying on the cuttingedge of societal development, if you
will. And so I'm excited aboutwhat you're doing, and I want to
hear more. You know, wehave six railheads with the only we have
the largest number of railheads in theAmerica. Six And where are we nowhere?

(07:46):
And so that gives it. JeffersonParish is the center, has the
most population, most of the industryand business. It is really the focal
city or the focal parish of thefive parish reasons. But it's something event
doesn't play that economic role even tothis day. Your thoughts on that dominic,
Well, here's something that I saidon November thirty when I announced my

(08:07):
candidacy. I said, forever there'sbeen this perception that we that that Jefferson
Parish is the tail of the dog, and it's time for Jefferson Parish to
be the dog, not the tailgthe tail to weg brother, well,
and here's and and to be honest, Orleans Parish in many ways is serving

(08:31):
up a wonderful opportunity for us todo so. As crime is out of
control in Orleans Parish. As theinfrastructure, streets and whatnot are you know,
as deplorable as ever. Uh.And as taxes continue to increase,
they're really driving a lot of interesttowards Jefferson Parish. And so for me,

(08:54):
the way I look at it,we've the concept of regionalism has been
preached and and advertised for since thedawn of time. I got to be
honest at this point in Jefferson Parishmy attitude, I'm not against regionalism,
but I'll tell you right now,we've got to protect what we have going
on in Jefferson Parish. We've gotto make sure that we've got our house

(09:16):
in order and we've got an environment. And COVID taught us a lot on
that cod COVID taught us a tremendousamount. While while Aliens Parish was still
continuing down this road of draconian restrictionsand economic shutdown, Jefferson Parish was open
for business. And granted we stillsuffered from the same restrictions, but we
had a plan to get out ofit. When when federal stimulus money came

(09:41):
down, okay, to help tohopefully reimburse these municipalities for what was suffered
from the from the pandemic, AwleansParish started giving out that money relatively willy
nilly, with not a whole lotof structure, not a whole lot of
guidance, and with not a wholelot of deliverables. At that same time,
I it together a stakeholders committee ofthe business community, elected officials,

(10:05):
representatives from all different stakeholders in theparish, nonprofits and whatnot to come up
with a framework as to how we'regoing to spend that money. And what
we came back with we're restrictions thatsaid that one time money can only be
spent on move the needle transformational projects. That's the kind of initiatives that we
took on because and as a resultof the pandemic. So here we are

(10:28):
right next door to you know,to our neighbors, Orleans, but yet
doing things the complete opposite way toprevent the same calamities in the same challenges
that we're watching befall Orleans power.But let's talk. Let's let me,
let me, let me throw somethingout to you. Guy. Jefferson,
Parish councilman, Dominican Pistado. Herepresents District four, which is the Greater

(10:48):
Kenner area and he's running for aparish wide position on the council. One
of the things that one of thethings Orleans does have is architecture, and
that has been drawing a lot ofyoung profession to basically move into the city.
So there is an argument that's goingon and let me, I'll take
your home sombing gowns of Kenner.I grew up right near it. You
grew up right there. People usedto move into chat to a states that

(11:11):
people used to move into the variousneighborhoods. Now those neighborhoods are getting older,
and it seems like a lot ofthe younger people that are staying are
moving to uptown New Orleans are movingdowntown. So how does Jefferson Parish keep
its young people? It's vitality intoneighborhoods. They're getting older and older.
Yeah, and I think some ofthe infrastructure, I think you're you're hitting

(11:33):
definitely hitting on something. I thinkit's in part architecture, But there's there's
other amenities that are that are dubbedin today's climate as quality of life assets
that weren't in the past. Walkability, bike ability. Uh, those are
two two concepts that really influence youngfamilies today and did not in generations past.

(11:58):
You know, back in the daywhen my parents and your parents were
looking for a home, they couldhave cared less if there were bike paths,
They could have cared less if theywere good walking trails and exercise areas
in open areas. Well. Today, that's what the modern family's looking for.
They're looking for places where they canwalk to a nearby park so they
get the feel of exercise, thefeel of enjoying being outdoors. But then

(12:24):
there's a communal aspect that's tied toit too, because when you go to
a park and we see this atlaughing in your park, we see it
going on there. There's a differentfeel for playing on your front law and
throwing a frisbee in front of yourhouse versus doing that same activity but at
a park when maybe there's thirty orforty people not too far from you,

(12:46):
and there's a human interaction. Thethings dog parks, you know, things
like that. People who are lookingfor easier and easier raisin you're raising this.
One of the things Jefferson Parish's problemsis it's it is very different cult
to walk places and bike places andI'll give you the I'll use Laufernier Park
as an example, my dad's house. I've stayed a lot there recently.

(13:09):
It's it is on the other sideof the Interstate overpass at Veterans from Laffernier
Park. First set of streets youcome to. It's walking distance to Laffernier
Park. Yeah, try walk,and I've done it many times. But
tries walking from around you know,a Roberta Street, or come as Transcontinental
to Laughfenier Park and there're no sidewalks. You're going under an interstate. It

(13:31):
there's there's not a collectivity. I'mnot saying Orleans is perfect, but Jefferson
has a long ways to go.And when it comes to being able to
make things walkable, you got admitthat. Friends exactly right. I mean
think about just compare it to constructionof a house. It's markedly more expensive
to renovate a house than to buildit from scratch because you've got a retrofit

(13:52):
the house. Right, Well,same difference here when we've got a retrofit
streets. That's a challenge. Thatbeing said, we're doing it, and
you mentioned Lafanier Park. It's asif I set up the questions. One
of the projects that we're about tobreak around on we awarded the contract a
week or so ago, is abike and walking path that goes from along

(14:13):
West Napoleon behind David Drive, onthe Soniac Canal to Veterans and into Lafranier
Park. Now that only physically touchesa relatively you know, small area.
Im it's a few miles of anarea. But those kinds of initiatives are
the kind of things we have todo. And when we look at public

(14:35):
work projects, for example, whenwe're tearing up the street to replace the
street panels, Hey, would thisbe a good time to put put a
bike path? Would this be agood time to increase sidewalk? You will
admit, you will admit there wassome criticism about when when you did just
that, you rebuild Severn Avenue,and people went crazy, why are they
building bike paths? I thought itwas kind of cool, but everybody else

(14:56):
is going crazy about that. Wellthat was I will tell you that it
was not my project, I cantell you right now, and I do
not believe that the manner in whichthat was executed and implemented, uh was
was necessarily the right way to doit, and I think they're you know,
I would we have a study undergoingbeing undergone right now that's going to

(15:18):
tell us exactly what is needed toget that kind of federal money in the
future. But yeah, sometimes there'ssome skepticism, but we still got to
do it. Dominic. Dominic.I've got friends and they crossed the bridge
like on the weekend just so theycan rails rail trails, and uh,
that's all. That was a brilliantiDeer same time I came up with maybe

(15:41):
maybe Jefferson Parish would have that kindof opportunity. I don't know how your
rails run, what's available, areother possibilities, but to have a long
we're out like that through jeff wouldbe you know, winding through the whole
parish. I would be fa.I distinctly know of a train that goes
across Old Metory that people are sickof, that people have talked about turning
into a rail to trail for years. An interesting to be dominant. I'm

(16:02):
glad how I brought this up.When that was last proposed. I had
people in Old Metory saying, wedon't want a bike trail. It might
bring us people from Shrewsbury. Imean, there was a little racial and
this could be one of the greatestenvironmental quality of life. It goes through
metry of a playground and the wholeworks. Yet there's still that resistance that

(16:22):
this does not. It's funny yousay that, Chris, because literally just
last week and I've got I've gottena lot of a lot of support and
attention and interaction uh in old metoryas of late. I think, particularly
because of the stance that I tookrelated to the Haynes High School property and

(16:45):
a very you know, kind offorward position that I took on that.
But in the course of it thereI've had extensive conversation with people related to
the train issue. And while itpresents an unbelievably inconvenient aspect and really an
intrusion, I will tell you mysense is the only resolution that would seem

(17:11):
to get universal support would be theability to hold the training the railroad companies
to the fire on their frequency andtime period. Because it's funny. You
definitely hear a lot of folks sayingexactly what you said, Chris, that
we're afraid though if you reroute themthen that opens up traffic to come from
another area, and so you dealwith that kind of skepticism and listen,

(17:34):
that's one of the challenges that wehave in government with anything you do,
especially when you do things the wayI do, which is visionary, wide
open look, thinking outside the box. Is the concept of change is not
always embraced. It becomes scary sometimesfor people challenging life as they know it,
and so you have to be willingto deal with that. And frankly,

(17:56):
you have to do your preparation inyour analysis up front to have the
confidence in what you're proposing and thatyeah, I got another one. I
want to keep years. This ispart of how you can build the infrastructure
of a city for we the people, for a good, happy life.
One of the most happy places wego to New Orleans is where the Mississippi

(18:17):
golf coast or Florida, right becausewe love the beaches. Well, the
beaches in Mississippi are man made andthey've been there forever. Why don't we
do that now? I've tried Orleansprobably will never do it. I've talked
to him, talked to him,and I've got hurt a million excuses.
But y'all could do it, andshame us imagine a beach from the parish
line all the way to the spillway, a fantastic beach with palm branches and

(18:41):
seagrass and and little marinas and thingslike that that would so enhance and enlarge
the benefits and the blessings of societyfor our social activities. Oh man,
people from Orleans would all go.Well. But and it's interesting high brought
that up. Is the building thingson the water side of levies of late

(19:03):
has been a major issue in JeffersonParish, the offshore waters. And it's
kind of interesting you bring that that'sactually no more expensive than putting down sand.
So I'm curious. You've got thesand and the and it would be
the lake doesn't really have sand,No, it's it's it's Carl River sand,
and it drives a very light gray. It's still a nice sand,

(19:25):
I believe me. I used toplay in it. It's a great sand
well. And and now that itadds another little buffer for you know,
the rough, you know, forstorm weather and stuff. All right,
But Dominic that that that idea ofenvironmental I mean, trying to protect levies
and yet providing a recreational source hasbeen something the council has been talking about
a lot lately, isn't it.Yeah, it's it, sure is,

(19:47):
And I know we have a fewinitiatives. I know one in in District
four that I can speak of iswe just rebuilt the Williams Boulevard boat launch
and are in the process of buildinga rock jetty that will provide some hurricane
and weather protection out there. Sowe're certainly building and part of what will
happen since we dredged out the boatlaunch area, the material that was dredged

(20:15):
out is basically being used to rebuildwetlands along that lakefront area, So we're
actually going to be building out.I'm I'm apprehensive to call it a beach,
but we will be rebuilding some landor building up some land where it
otherwise was not. So yeah,there's a lot of attention there. No
council in Van Breggen is a numberof projects in the Bucktown area on that

(20:41):
side of it, and it's achallenge, and with hurricanes, it's a
challenge to get people to want toinvest money and build on that side of
the levee. But there there isthere is some interest. I think you're
going to see in the canter area. I think you're going to see an
outdoor antitheater built, and I thinkyou're going to see some other amenity is
built out there on that lake frontto make use of that. And I

(21:02):
would also point out high one ofthe challenges I vary every every so often
go to Lincoln Beach and in orderto get into it, I have to
break the law. I have tojump a fence and do this to see
it. Because it's not because theyit's ready to be open tomorrow. They
actually have a gate. It's becausethe insurance liability of it is so huge
for people driving the lake. Andthat's one of the things that stops a

(21:23):
lot of councilmen from doing this.Well, I tell you what, you
are so innovative about finding how toraise money like the kiosks. I bet
you there's some kind of way wecan raise the money for the insurance from
them. Well, let me bythe way, I said it's river saying
it is, but it's also gotmuch. You just washed them at out
and then you have the beaches thatonce were there before they were there originally.
Why one of the ways, look, one of the ways you raise

(21:47):
the money for it is if youcan. If you can convince someone that
they have an economic opportunity to doit themselves out there, then you can
raise the money. Right We've we'veseen it number of times. We did
it in Lapanier Park when when youhelp Listen, government is not the solution
to all problems in a community.Private industry and private citizens more often than

(22:11):
not, are able to fix theproblems themselves and get the delivererals done on
their own as long as government canstay out of the way and give the
assistance where needed. But let privateindustry do it. So. I mean,
if there was a way for usto figure out some economic opportunities for
people, once such a thing wasbuilt on that side, I think you'd

(22:36):
see it happen. I want totalk some more public and private partnerships,
folks. Joining us is Jefferson ParishCouncil District for Councilman Dominic Empistata. We've
got to take a break. He'srunning for council at large in the October
fourteenth primary, and we'll be back, ladies and gentlemen after these important messages.
One last thing about my beach,Dominic, well, I love think
of this. You got the goldcoast. We know, we've seen it.

(23:00):
It's all the way to apologic goalor whatever. In Florida, we
could have something like that. They'realso those hotels would more than pay for
the beaches. And now I knowyou can't put them everywhere, but y'all
would work it out. You'd findit happy. You know. Rescue,
recovery, re engagement. These arenot just words. These are the action

(23:22):
steps we at the New Orleans Missiontake to make a positive impact on the
homeless problem facing the greater New Orleansarea. Did you know in twenty twenty,
homelessness in our community increased by overforty percent. We are committed to
meet this need through the work beingdone at the New Orleans Mission. We

(23:45):
begin the rescue process by going outto the community every day to bring food,
pray, and share the love ofJesus with the hopeless and hurting in
our community. Through the process ofrecovery, these into viduals have the opportunity
to take time out, assess theirlife, and begin to make new decisions

(24:06):
to live out their God given purpose. After the healing process has begun and
lives are back on track, wewalk each individual as they re engage back
into the community to be healthy,thriving, and living a life of purpose.
No one is meant to live undera bridge. No one should endure

(24:26):
abuse, no one should be stuckin addiction. The New Orleans Mission is
a stepping stone out of that lifeof destruction and into a life of hope
and purpose. Partner with us today. Go to www dot New Orleans Mission
dot org or make a difference bytexting to seven seven nine four eight and

(24:53):
we're back here on the Founders Show, Ladies and Gentlemen. You can always
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(25:15):
Just download iHeart Media app and Ladiesand Gentlemen, you can just type in
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the founders Show dot Com is alwayshere in the program with Christopher Tidmore and
Choplinhei mckenry and as always with Christopher, and we worked so very hard to
bring you the truth, the wholetruth, and nothing but the truth.

(25:36):
So help us, Scott, andwe have a great guest here, mister
Impostato representing Jefferson Parish. Dominic.Impostato, Dominic, you're on and Dominic,
we want to get back into acouple of issues. But you've you're
you're going from a district councilman andyou're running against an incumbent council person.
Connect get you know, some peoplewere kind of surprised by that, and
I'm willing to give you a platformbecause this is very much a race against

(25:59):
an income and a challenger. Whythey should elect you for the accouncil at
large position Jefferson Parish. So thesimple answer is, de Wild, I'm
not running against anybody. I'm runningfor the spot. I'm running to serve
Jefferson Parish. We have a need, we had a need. I have
a need for aggressive leadership and aggressiveservice, and we've got we've got a

(26:22):
good plan for the parish, abetter plan for the parish and initiatives that
we've already done, in part ona district level, that need to be
done parish wide. We've got initiativesthat we did parish wide that honestly were
really outpaced what is now my opponentand the work that he's done in his

(26:44):
last four years. So we thinkwe've got a better we've got a better
product to sell, we've got abetter record of service, and we think
it's what's best for the parish.Because everything we've talked about, the one
thing in Jefferson Parish that becomes achallenge is complacency, and sitting for years,
Jeffs people and Jeffson Barris sat backand said, well, what we've
got is good enough. Let's notmess up the epiquote. Well, then

(27:07):
all of a sudden, ten yearslater, twenty years later, we're looking
back and we're man, what ifwe would If only we would have done
X, Y or Z. Ifonly we would have looked at our playgrounds
a little more creative and seeing thetrends in recreation. If only we would
have put in walking pass and parks, and if only we would have had
zoning and code regulations that better regulatedsignage that better regulated what kind of homes

(27:30):
and restrictions are put in. Ifonly we had done all that, we'd
beat look and feel a lot betterright now. And so my message to
the voters has been and will be, we've got a record of taking action,
not on reporting on the actions ofothers. Well, let me ask
you take the action. Let meask you something. And you've heard me
speak about this, so I'm basicallyasking you the same question I've asked you

(27:52):
four years ago. But it's avery common element. There is, as
you know, coming from your officesin Elmwood, if you would take the
air Heart Expressway, there's a bigoverpass going into Orleans Parish. Under that
overpass, there's a train link thatis never used. But the reason I
bring that up is, as you'recoming from Elmwood into Orleans on the air

(28:17):
Heart Expressway, there's actually a concreteedup They have temporary barricades exit and you
could theoretically go under. There's aroad there that would allow you to get
on Airline Drive and then on theinterstate. Why do I bring all that
up for two reasons. One,it would make a lot of people who
are trying to go to the JesuitBaseball Stadium from River Ridge a lot easier

(28:38):
to get to. But two,it would spare a line of cars that
go into Hollygrove, and it's oneof the major contention points for people who
live along the river in Jefferson.They get all blacked up in traffic and
the people who live in Hollygrove endup having this wall of traffic. I
have literally for twenty five years askedeverybody why the train companies won't let that

(29:00):
exit go and to go over thetrains for a train route that literally that
it's it's it's a spur line thatgoes from the main route to the river
that's never used. And I've neverbeen able to get a solid answer.
And there have been several Jefferson Parishpoliticians who said that's a good idea,
who've never been able to get asolid answer. It's kind of the same.
It's the same problem, but itliterally delays transport into the city by

(29:22):
fifteen minutes and it's an evacuation routeissue. So I'm asking you that you
know you talk about train companies beinghard to work with, they won't even
let you occasionally cross over a trainline that isn't even being used. Yeah,
it's a it's a challenge. Andpart of that you have federal not
not to play lawyer, but butI'll play lawyer for a second. Uh,

(29:44):
you get into federal preemption issues anduh and and rest assured they don't
they don't think twice about using thatstick and saying sorry, you can't tell
us what to do in that respect, and so, uh, it's it's
a real challenge. I will tellyou this. One of the major projects
that we have on the docket thatwas bonded out as part of the largest

(30:07):
roadmond program in Jefferson Parish history iswill involve the expansion of air Heart and
also the connection of air Heart potentiallyinto into Causeway and so which that's that's
so long over two. We havethe land for the exits, for the

(30:29):
exits and the whole works, andit's managed. I mean, this is
look, this is not this isno small task. I mean we're talking
tens of millions of dollars to getit done. So it's a real challenge.
But hey, you know, ifit wasn't hard, everybody would do
it. Right. Domic Impostado isjoining us here on the founder's show with
him Henry Christopher Tidmore. He isrunning for a council at large position in

(30:51):
the October fourteenth primary. And Hi, speaking of air Heart, how about
running all the way to the airportor would that be of dynamic exchange you
know expressway from New Orleans all theway to the airport. The plans have
been on the on the on theboards for years, Domina. That's the
goal. That's the plan, butit's you know, it's going to take
money to execute. It's a challenge, and not just money, I mean

(31:12):
the right of ways, the legalimpediments to expropriating right aways, all along
that. Uh, it's it's prettysignificant you no longer have. That's one
of the other challenges we haven't inJefferson Parish and in any community that's more
or less built out, is itwas a lot easier to build long streets
and interstates and highways when you hada small number of landowners who owned these

(31:37):
you know, large, large,large tracts of land. Uh, we
don't. We don't have as muchof that in these communities that are built
out. So instead of having aexpropriate or come to an agreement with one
landowner for a five mile stretch,you now have to, you know,
meet with hundreds of landowners along thatand and let's say many of those landowners

(31:57):
don't want a raised expressway to comethrough. Let's right, let's let's let's
use the let's use the most activeexample. Let's let's jump the river for
a second and talk about the otherhalf of the parish and on the west
Bank. In order to complete Iforty nine, you have to have the
West Bank Expressway basically go through themiddle of Westwego. And nobody that I
know of in Westwego wants that tohappen. Yeah, I you know,

(32:21):
I've heard I've heard different things onthat over there, because you know,
you definitely have business owners that wouldlove the expansion to happen and love the
increased traffic to happen. And soI think there's there's an element that But
again, like you say, everytime you know you have progress, there
comes change, and that can bethat could be a real challenge for people

(32:42):
dominic if it's not. Let's talkabout that. You represent the Kenner area
in a bit beyond right now aboutninety thousand people. You're running parish wide,
so that means you're gonna represent theEast and West Bank and a lot
of what you talk about positive thingsthat are happening in Jefferson Parish. Let's
face it, there's things that happentend to happen on the East Bank,
the West Bank head good stuff going, but mostly it's been suffering. It's
been the part of Jefferson that's beensuffering outmigration, crime, economic collapse in

(33:07):
many cases, especially around the Avondalearea. And so what does Jefferson do
for this very bivocated story that ithas on either side of the river.
Yeah, I've been very proud tosay that I've been the best the best
friend from the East Bank that theWest Banks had in parish council history.
And I think all of the electedofficials from the West Bank who have all

(33:31):
endorsed my candidacy will attest to it. It's no it's no accident that they've
done that because they know we've gottheir interest in mind. For example,
there was an effort to defund aprogram called the Major Crimes Task Force,
which was basically a super super policejurisdiction that was set up to allow or

(33:52):
Leans Jefferson Parish Gretton at westwego allthese individual agencies to basically come together anytime
crime happened, a major crime happenedover there, and go across jurisdictional lines
to do what is necessary to solvecrimes. Had huge positive effects on solving
solving crimes on the West Bank.When I got on the council, there

(34:13):
was an effort to defund that programby about five hundred thousand dollars a year
that the parish had been funding thatprogram with I cast the deciding vote and
that ultimately went from a four threevote to a seven h vote to maintain
that funding. And so an EastBanker dominant stepped up to save the interests
of the West Bank, and Isaid, but I got one caveat.

(34:36):
It needs to no longer be theWestbank Major Crimes Task Force. It needs
to be the Jefferson Parish Major CrimesTask Force. And they got the message,
Chief Author Laws and will stand upand tell you that was a major
moment for us in terms of ourrelationship and attitude and our look at parish
resources. Since that time, I'mworking right now with Mayor Blenda Constance at

(34:58):
Constant and Gretna Mayor Robert Dillyont inWestwego and in addition, our Canner mayor
and Harahan Mayor on the East Bankwith an international company that's willing to come
in and help us create and funda ferry system that will run between each
of those jurisdictions. And let melet me, let me tell you that's

(35:21):
people who say, well, ferrysystem. And another thing, there were
a series of young families that weremoving into mcdonneville in Gretna and we're moving
into old Gretna because they could geton a ferry and go straight to the
French Quarter essentially, And when thatended, it was like a slam door
for a lot of those families.It basically said, oh, we're no

(35:42):
longer connected to the stuff we want, and it was there's a demographic measurement.
If you could if we could belike Circular Key in Sydney Dominic and
we would have a series of fairiesgoing from downtown one to Gretna one to
Westwego. Potentially it's not that faraway. It would actually encourage young families
to move into those historic nineteenth centuryyou know, shotgun doubles that they're paying

(36:06):
a million dollars for in the IrishChannel. That's right. It's just it
opens up so many opportunities for uh, for community across these different city lines,
for something as simple as taking youknow, taking a ferry across,
going and eating seafood in Westwego,maybe going to some of their farmers markets

(36:27):
that each of these towns have,going a river town, catching a play
and whatnot, and and and havingdinner and going entertainment and all of all
of these towns, all these citieshave festivals and fairs and farmers markets and
all kinds of quality of life eventsthat we've come to love in Jefferson Paris.
So if we can open up opportunitiesto give access to those, that's

(36:49):
the kind of forward thinking that weneed. It's not it's not cheap,
to say the least, though thosefair it's not. And that's why the
venture that we're that we're looking atwould involve an international company that would fund
the entire project and charge a basicallya per passenger a per usage charge over
time to those different jurisdictions for usingit. It's it's really it's a great

(37:15):
opportunity for Jefferson Parish and those citieswithin it. I worked with Belinda Constant
on something that didn't work out severalyears ago, but it was going to
provide for using the ferry system anotherfifty dollars A person, Dominic Impissade,
is running for council at large herein Jefferson Parish. Ladies and gentlemen.
He's a District four councilman, andwe've got so much to talk about.

(37:36):
But actually I wanted to close insomething you referenced earlier a lot of people.
I wrote a lot about the Haynestakeover of Grace King. There was
a lot of emotions about that,but there are just as many emotions about
what to do with the property.It's owned by the school board, not
the parish. But that's an areawhere you've got developers salivating but not as

(37:57):
much green space, and there shouldbe some way we could work together on
that. Yet Dominic, it doesn'tseem like no anybody wants to do that.
You've talked a lot about this,Yeah, absolutely, So what should
we do with the old Van's property, which, frankly, yeah, yeah,
Well here's here's the thing is whatthe neighborhood absolutely does not want is

(38:19):
commercial development there. And they've seenthe traffic problems that were created along Meatory
Road where they allowed too much commercialdevelopment and it's caused really a choke hold
and a nightmare to those to thoseneighbors. So what we did is put
on an initiative that said, look, we wanted to stay residential, but
that doesn't just solve the problem.That doesn't solve the entirety of the problem

(38:45):
because if it's broken up into thesmallest lot size as possible, well,
now you've increased density and created aproblem for the neighborhood as well. So
what are the best lot sizes,what are the best uses there that can
provide the neighborhood some kind of progressivedevelopment that they're comfortable with. You know
that they're comfortable with most And that'swhy we put that study out and are

(39:09):
hiring the consultants to perform that analysisand give the recommendations so that in the
future when someone does go to purchasethe property or re subdivided, what they'll
already have a set of recommendations inhand, and that would include looking at
portions of the property to be relegatedand reserved for parks, to be reserved

(39:30):
for green space. And I thinkwhat they're going to find is even is
it's even going to be a moreprofitable venture to have lots subdivided, but
with the green space in the middle, because that's what families are wanting,
less of their own yard and moreof a community yard. I think they're
going to find that those lots lotprices are going to go up if that
happens. Domic Evenstato running for acouncil at large, I wanted to actually

(39:54):
bring up one other major project.The Port of South Louisiana is getting the
old Avondale complex, and that's beencontroversial based on the price, but also
it's far up river. The questionis can this be a container port?
I want to get your thoughts onit. Yeah, I mean, we're
definitely supporting. I definitely support thePort of South Louisiana's effort there. It

(40:15):
seems like they have great plan inplace, and all of the feasibility studies
and all the analysis so far ascoming back very positive. And you know
that, Look, that's a greatpotential economic driver for the parish as a
whole, but certainly on that sideof the river, no doubt. Yeah,
what about ship building, you know, we should be one of the

(40:36):
major ship building places in America,and we're not Is there any way to
revive that? I really don't know. I mean, I have to assume
that the market has dictated whether thatshould or shouldn't be happening here. I
do. My understanding though, isthat they're not seeing that as the future
of that site any longer. Andthat facility, well, the challenge you

(41:00):
got highest as long as we havethe Jones Act, where you can't even
have major components built overseas. It'sjust not as competitive to build commercial based
ships in America. That's one ofthe major issues Domic and Pistato. We've
got so much more we could talkabout. We've got a couple other things
going to phrase on, but Iwant to give you an opportunity. If
somebody wants to find out more aboutyour campaign, how can they do it?

(41:21):
Sure the easiest and best way mycell phone five O four three four
three seven three two seven. It'son the parish website. It's announced in
every press conference that I do,every interview I do because I want people
to be able to reach me twentyfour hours a day. In addition,
we don't know we have thirty thousandlisteners, so you make it a lot
of goal and I hope they alltake it down. I'll take Facebook page

(41:43):
Dominic Impistado for counsel, website wwwdot vote, impostato dot com. So,
and one last thing is, webuild all of the rockets for the
space program. All of them arebuilt at Midshoe. We're building FANASA.
We build all the rockets, andwe have built all the rockets. We
have the largest rocket building facility,and I guess in the world. And

(42:06):
so if we can build rockets likethat, why can't we still build ships.
I don't know about John exact.And it's gotta be way to deal
with It's gotta be we'll talk aboutit. Donmy kimbistato. When I want
to close out by giving you aquestion that I ask a lot of people,
what is the issue we should allbe talking about that you're working on
that nobody's talking about the issue thatI'm that I'm working on that nobody that

(42:27):
nobody's talking about. Yeah, it'snot getting all the attention it's worth.
I guess it's better way of puttinginto you know, I'm going to go
back to some of the things thatwe already talked about, which is,
you know, how are we changingthe way government's providing services in the most
technologically an innovative way possible. Andare we changing our process are we upgrading
our processes as we go to meetthe demands of the modern family. That

(42:51):
to me, H, it shouldbe a top notch priority for us,
and I don't think it nearly getsthe attention it deserves. I think so,
I think we UH, A lotof people don't look at transportation.
Even though Jeff Jet has worked prettywell with with URTA a lot, it's
still very tough to take buses acrossparish lines. Is that is this an

(43:12):
area that we could we should beworking more closely with r TA, you
know, Jet taking over certain lines, RTA taking over the others. Yeah,
I mean, listen, that's areal challenge. The work I sat
on the RTA border commissioners, theback and forth between r TA has not
been solid over the years, hasbeen quite difficult. It's a very difficult
working relationship and UH and I hopeunder the new leadership at the RTA that

(43:38):
UH that things will that will changeand I'm optimistic that it will, but
it's it's we got a long roadto hold on that I can assure you.
Dominican Pisido is running for Council atlarge in the October fourteenth election.
Early voting starts September thirty. It'sreal quick, Dominic, Could you like
working with the private sector. Whydon't you get Elon Musk to come build
his x uh spaceships here in yourparish. How about that? And then

(44:02):
they can test them in Mississippi rightright up the river, and then they
can up the canal, actually,and then they and then they can launch
them from our risks. Make himlike Jefferson Paris right. Dominic sounds good,
Dominican us out of thank you forjoining us. Good luck in your
campaign. We'll be hearing from you, guys. Thank you. Take care
of God bus folks moving back withthe patriotic movement after these important messages S
eighteen more in the Faundly show rightafter this, well, folks, since

(44:27):
Chapan, Hi mckenry, and I'mhere to tell you about our ministry,
LAMB Ministries. We are an intercityministry with an intercity formula and focus for
inter city folks. Please check usout. Go to our website. That's
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(44:52):
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(45:12):
interested, please check us out again, go to our website lamb nola dot
com. That's LAMB NLA dot comand thank you so very very much.
Well, folks were back, andit's not a time for us to go
into our chaplain. Bye bye patrioticmoment where we just take a brief moment

(45:35):
to remind you of the biblical foundationsof our country. We had a great
guest today. He's very innovative.I thought that was one of the insights
I got on him. So Ithought I'd find a very innovative man of
our past, and I'm talking aboutnone other than Booker T. Washington,
truly one of the great innovators ofAmerican history. He lived back in the
mid nineteenth century. He was bornas a slave on April fifth, eighteen

(45:58):
fifty six. His name, ofcourse, as Booker T. Washington.
He grew up in dire poverty.After the Civil War, he was moved
to West Virginia to work as asalt furnace in coal mine minor. At
age sixteen, he walked five hundredmiles to at Tenhampton Institute in Virginia and
later Whyland Baptist Seminary in Washington,d c. He then taught in West

(46:20):
Virginia and founded the Tuskegee Institute,a college in North Alabama, where he
recruited another farmer enslaveman, the professorand great doctor George Washington Carver, a
very famous scientist. At his death, his school had fifteen hundred students,
which was huge back then, afaculty of over two hundred, which was

(46:44):
huge, teaching not just the basicsof a college education, but also thirty
eight different trades, realizing that wouldprovide the opportunity for a financial advancement.
Rather than just having a lot ofknowledge, you know, college knowledge in
your brain, these guys could goout and work and make a living and
succeed financially. He was so famousthat they've put his name and image on

(47:09):
a US coin and a postage stamp. He wrote the best book. It's
not a long book. It's kindof a fifty page book. Maybe it's
his bio called up from slavery,and it's very powerful. I would encourage
anybody and everybody that has any interestsin American history to read this book.
And I promise you you can't readit without shedding some tears. It's a
very powerful book. In it,he said, if no other consideration had

(47:31):
convinced me of the value of aChristian life, the christ like work which
the Church of all denominations in allof America has done during the last thirty
five years for the elevation of theblack Man, would have made me a
Christian. Of his apprehensions concerning hisspeech in Atlanta in eighteen ninety five,
he was a little you know,he as great as speaker as he was,

(47:52):
he'd still get stage right like manyof us have. This is what
book or T. Washington wrote.He said, the afternoon papers had forecast
of the next days proceedings of myspeech in flaring headlines. I did not
sleep much that night. The nextmorning, I also kneel down and ask
God's blessing. I made a rulenever to go before an audience without asking

(48:12):
the blessings of God. Upon whatI wanted to say, Folks, I
think we're dealing with a man whoreally loved God and really want to make
sure God was in the middle ofour culture and our society. He wanted
to keep God in America. Whatabout you? Do you have God and
yourself? Is God in you?If you will in your America meaning your

(48:34):
body, your person, your ownlittle personal nation, who you are is
God in you? Folks. AsI now go into our chaplain blah blah
gospel moment, I will show youhow you can know that God is in
you, that you can know thatyou know that you know your God's child,
You're guaranteed heaven and you're saved froma burning hell. Listen up,

(48:57):
folks. You know in John threesixteen, the Scriptures says for God so
loved the world. You know,the Bible says God loves you with an
everlasting love. God's got the love, folks. We need his love.
For God's so loved the world,all of us, all of you,
everybody, that he gave his onlybegotten son. That's the Lord, Jesus
Christ, perfect God, perfect man, all the way God and all the
way man. He gave his onlybegotten son without sin. He gave his

(49:22):
only begotten son. That whosoever,that's you, that's me, that's everybody,
whosoever, anybody, and everybody who'sever lived. That's why we'll all
be without excuse. That whosoever believethin him. Okay, we gotta believe.
It's faith alone, in Christ alone. It's the faith of a little
child. But what do you believe? Believe? You can say I believe,

(49:42):
But what do you believe in?This is what we're believe in.
It's called the Gospel. For Ideclare to you the gospel that Jesus died
for all of our sins, accordingto the scripture, was buried and rosema
dead according to the scripture. Thatwhosoever believeth in this shall be saved.
Now I just paraface First Corinthians,chapter fifteen, define and explaining exactly what
the God his folks, death,barrel, resurrection, that who server believe

(50:02):
it in him, that he diedfor all your sins and rose from the
dead, shall not perish, notgo to hell, but have everlasting life.
Now, let me just give youa little background on what believing is.
It's a twofold thing. The firstpart of your belief is to believe
that you cannot save yourself. You'rehopeless and helpless without God, destined to

(50:22):
a burning hell. You're a completeand total loser when it comes to God.
Folks. That's called repentance. Ittakes place in your heart, it
takes place in your mind. Itis not an action, and it's not
doing some kind of religious works orwhatever. It's not putting money in a
offering plate. It is strictly anact of faith. Believing you cannot save

(50:44):
yourself. You just repented, andas soon as you do do you are
ready to put faith alone in Christalone, to believe that He did really
die for all your sins, wasburied in Rosevedt. The new server.
Believe it in him, shall notperish, not go to hell, but
have everlasting life. If you've neverdone this before, folks, don't wait
till it's too late. Like theold country preacher said in like the Word
of God says, now today isa day of salvation. Believe right now

(51:07):
with all your heart that Jesus reallydid die for all your sins and rose
from the dead. Well, folks, it is now time for us to
go into our chaplain. Baba watchmanon the wall. We just take a
brief moment to remind you of thecoming return of our precious Savior. The
Bible said, Jesus is coming back. You know, the battle arm again,
and the Antichrist is all that kindof good stuff you read about the

(51:28):
Book of Revelation, And almost halfthe books of the Bible are prophesying this,
by the way, over half.So here I'm just gonna take a
short verse in Matthew twenty four,verse thirty two. Couple of them,
verse thirty two. Now learn aparable of the victory. The victory by
the way represented Israel. Now learna parable of the victory when his branch
is yet tender and put it forthleaves. You know the summer is nine.

(51:51):
So likewise, ye, when yeshall see all these things, know
that it is near even at thedoors. Fairly, I say, any
of you, this generation shall notpass till all these things be fulfilled.
There's a very powerful and subtle messagehere the fig tree that when we see
the fig tree coming back, meaningIsrael is back in the land, and

(52:12):
they have been back in the landthat generation. Plus seeing all these things.
Like I've said before, all thesesigns are ever present before us.
That we start seeing all these things. Jesus is at the door, even
at the door, the scripture says, folks, we're right at the door.
Jesus is coming back soon. Andwhen he comes back, it's gonna
be bad. Folks, It's gonnabe really bad. Are you ready for
that? You need a safe house, you need a bunker. I'm gonna

(52:35):
give you the best bunker you canever get. I'll give you the name
of it. It's called the LordJesus Christ. Go to him, hide
in him, let him be yourprotector, let him be your safe house.
And I guarantee you you'll make itthrough these hard times coming that the
Bible predicted would be the end,and you'll finally be joined with Him in
the heavenlies for total victory against allthe forces of evil, against the Antichrist,

(52:58):
Satan, and all the devil followersof the planet. You'll be the
victor. Do it right now,folks, if you've never done it before,
believe right now, with all yourheart, that Jeans died for all
your sins and rose from the dead, and right now we want to thank
you for being with It says we'renot close, but am on Saint Martin
singing a Creole goodbye and God blessall out there. We call you Quol

(53:25):
goodbye. Please think we're just wasted, our time needed. All the three
sibyl sit love this time for Creo. Goodbye.