April 14, 2025 • 57 mins
Episode Notes My guests include KeShaun Pearson, Executive Director, Memphis Community Against Pollution. The Elon Musk backed xAI Supercomputer project has caused quite a bit of controversy in our community, the latest issue is the possibility of polluted air and the harm to residents. KeShaun will tell me why he is concerned and others are as well. Next, MATA has been and continues to be a big problem for so many citizens who rely on it to get around daily. Interim CEO John Lewis joins me to talk about the challenges, changes and what moving forward looks like and what it will take. Vincent Perry is a financial analyst and knows the importance of planning. The problem these days is with tariffs and the ever changing effect it is having on the stock market and the uncertainty that surrounds it. He will break down whether the concern will be an economy boom or a bust as time goes by. That and more on air and online Monday, 6 pm on 91.7 WYXR. Also, WYXR.org, Tunein, Facebook Live, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. It’s time to talk!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's real talk. It's it's real talk. It's real. It's real,
it's real.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Talk.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's real tal Jail.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Welcome to Real Tell, your real host, Chills your wife.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's real talk, It's real.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
And here we go, Here we go on this Monday evening.
It is I believe, the fourteenth day of April twenty
twenty five, six o'clock straight up, which means, yes, ladies
and gentlemen, it's time for another all new edition of
Real Talk Memphis. Glad to have you with us along
(01:04):
for the ride for the next sixty minutes or so.
I am your program host. My name is Chip Washington.
It is great to be here today. It's great to
be anywhere, always always a plus. You know, every day
above ground is a good day, and we choose to
celebrate that.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
I hope you had a good weekend.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
I hope you had a good week since the last
time we communicated with one another. I think we have
a pretty good show for you tonight. Oh and first
of all, before I move any farther with this, thank you,
Thank you, Thank you Memphis and Shelby County for pledge week.
To understand that we met our goal and we could
(01:46):
not do any of that without your help, your support,
and your assistance. So from all of us here, thank you,
thank you, and if I didn't say it again, thank
you for all you do for wy x R. We
have a pretty good program for you tonight, ladies and gentlemen.
Last week, of course, was Pledged week. We had some fun,
We had some folks in the studio and we were
laughing and joking and more importantly, we were talking about
(02:08):
what we like about being a part of this WYXR experience.
And of course that was a great week. And now
we're back to business. We're down back to talking about
it and getting a discussion, you know what I mean.
You can find us in a number of ways. Of course,
we are on ninety one point seven, that would be
(02:30):
wyx R on the FM side. On the FM side,
we're also available on the WYXR app. You can find
us on the tune in app. These are all live
right now, and of course when the show is posted
in the next day or two, you can find us
on YouTube. And we are a podcasts so you can
(02:53):
also find us wherever it is you get your podcasts,
so you know any one of those, it's always good.
So so fear not, fret knot, you will always be
able to find this radio show. Let us talk about
the guests, shall we well our first guest in just
(03:13):
a couple of minutes, we'll talk about the XAI situation
with these gas turbines, and this thing has a lot
of folks concerned about air pollution and how it can
affect their health down the road. Keishawn Pearson will be
joining me in just a few minutes. He is the
(03:36):
executive director of Memphis Community Against Pollution And yeah, they've
been talking about this for a while now, now that
XAI is here, is camped out. Now, more people than
ever are concerned about the fact that because we hadn't
heard much about the air quality in terms of these
gas turbines and what makes them go. Well, you know,
(03:59):
we're gonna talk a little bit about that with Keishawn.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
He doesn't think it's a good idea period.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
The Health Department doesn't seem to think it's a good
idea for right now, and they too, are going to
get involved in all of this. The director of the
Cherry County Health Department, Michelle Taylor, wrote a letter to
Mayor Paul Young and talked a little bit about all
of this and said the Health Department should have been
involved from the very outset of all of this. But
(04:27):
this is escalating and people are starting to become more
and more aware of the problem. So we're talk to
him about that a little bit later on. M A
t a transit system. Ladies and gentlemen that we have
been talking about for quite some time. We all know
where things stand right now and how there's sort of
kind of a reclamation project, if you will. Old management
(04:49):
is gone, new management is in. And I am fortunate
to have the interim CEO of MATTA from Transpro. His
name is John Lewis, and he will be joining me
a little bit later on in the broadcast. And for
those of you who are as confused as I am
about the financial status in this country in reference to
(05:12):
the president's a tariff situation, the stock market upheaval, and
the whole nine yards, I felt it was time for
us to get some sound financial advice and maybe some guidance,
if you will, in reference to all of this from
our financial advisor. He is Vincent Perry, and he will
be joining us a little bit later on in the broadcast.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
So there you go.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
A good show on tap for you tonight. Sit back,
relax and enjoy what we have to offer. Before we
get into all of that, let us celebrate you. We
have a few birthdays to get on tap today, and
if that is you, of course we wish you a
happy birthday. If you have one over the weekend or
have one upcoming, Yeah, we hope that it is a
(05:57):
fine time for you.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
So let's celebrate. But can't do that until I say
hit it.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Bring all right, Happy birthday, Happy birthday, Happy birthday, going
out to the following folks. Ramesh Ackbury State Senator Romesh Abery
celebrating her birthday on today. Susan Adler Thorpe is celebrating
(06:23):
her birthday on this date. Happy birthday to Carla Tobert Taylor,
to Christy Truitt, Jennifer.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
Borick, and Ben Allman. And believe it or not, I know.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Three of these people, three of the six people personally,
and and yeah, we can't we can't go without this.
Lode is a little busy right now, but her daughter
Addison is celebrating her birthday today as well.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
How does she.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Is twenty years young today? I know she can't hear,
but happy birthday.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Andison.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
You know, he's coming around here every now and again,
laying on the couch when we've we're doing our show.
So happy birthday for year and for all of them
who are celebrating. Hope it has been a day of
fields with fun and laughter, and we hope to be
with you next year for your next trip around the solf.
Thanks Brian. All right, so let's get into some news
and notes. First things first, it was a very very
(07:24):
violent weekend in the city. As many of you know.
It was sort of, I guess I don't like to
use this word culminated, but of course many of you
are aware of the shooting that happened last night at
tom Lee Park about six forty five or so. They
had the food truck festival going on, and of course
it was wrapping up. There were a lot of young
(07:46):
people at the park last night and apparently there was
a disagreement of some type and a juvenile we.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Still don't know his age or his name was shot
and killed.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
And apparently, according to law enforcement, he was shot and
killed by another juvenile. So of course this is shaking
up the city pretty good in terms of all of this.
And you know, young people, people complain all the time
about where young folks don't gather, Well, they don't have
places to go. Hey, you can't, you know, they don't
have this, and they don't have that in the whole
nine yards. So you have toime Lee Park and a
(08:23):
nice place, a nice operation down there. And they were
hanging out and apparently a disruption happened and a life
was taken. And of course, any time a life is taken,
it's a very tragic set of circumstances. But this was
just one in a series of tragic shooting events that
happened over the weekend. Early Saturday morning, there was a
(08:43):
shooting on I two forty west around a Walnut Grove
where a man and a woman were shot and the
woman is in pretty bad shape. As a matter of fact,
they were driving, they had just gotten on the interstate.
Somebody pulled up beside them, opening and started firing. They
don't know who they were or why they were firing shots.
(09:05):
On Friday, there was a two year old shot that
was killed in Orange Mound. This happened Friday afternoon. This
baby was outside checking with their checking with their not
checking anything. They were playing with their uncle on the
(09:25):
front porch outside in the front yard, car whizzes by,
fire shots and a two year old child was killed.
After all of that, another case of domestic violence where
a man decided, for whatever reason, to be angry enough
at his brother to get into an argument, pull a gun,
(09:47):
shot his brother in the face, killed him on the spot.
The brother, the victim, was the father of seven very
young children, and his brother shot and killed him over
some sort of a dispute. And of course, let me
see here did I get. I mean, there's there's so
many to even talk about here, it's hard to keep up.
(10:10):
But that was sort of the summary of what happened
over the weekend. And there was more deaths, more shooting
as well. Ladies and gentlemen. We have a problem. And
the bigger issue to the fact that we have a
problem is that we don't seem to want to speak
up in reference to things like this when they happen.
It's getting to be now, we're getting close to summer.
(10:31):
School is about to be out in just a very
few weeks, and kids all over the street, these kids
are walking around out here with these weapons at twelve, thirteen,
fourteen years old, committing crimes in broad daylight, with no
care or concern for anybody. So my question is when
are we gonna rise up as a community and say
enough is enough of all of this? Because this is
(10:51):
becoming an epidemic in our city now. Mayor Paul Young
made a statement yesterday saying, well, you know, enough is
enough of all of this, But is it enough? Is
enough enough?
Speaker 5 (11:06):
When?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
When have we gotten to that point? When are we
supposed to get to that point? Yeah, I'm ranny and
raving just a little bit here because this is sad
beyond comprehension. We're losing lives at an all time record
pace around here, and nothing seems to be done about
it because we don't want to engage in the process
of trying to say, look, you know what, we need
(11:27):
to take back our city instead of yielding it over
to feckless thugs who decide that they want to take
it over because they know nothing's going to happen to them.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem and we need
to work as hard as we can to try to
fix that problem before I mean, it becomes nobody will
(11:47):
want to come here at this particular point in time.
So we have to do better. We have to do better.
We have to do better. I'm going to take a break.
I'm sad about all of this. I truly am. I
mean it hurts my heart. Two year olds out in
front of my house playing a catch with their uncle
and somebody drives by and fire shots and kills the
two year old and a five year old that was
(12:09):
accidentally shout over the weekend as well. What are we doing, Memphis,
and why are we doing it? And why are we
doing more to stop it? That's my question. Let us
take a break so I can take a breath. When
we come back, we will get into the broadcast and
we're going to talk about XAI, which is a subject
(12:29):
that is becoming more and more of interest to all
of us as a community.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
This is real Talk, Memphis. I'm chipped. You know you are.
Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
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It's real, it's real, it's real talk, it's real.
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Speaker 1 (14:30):
It's it's.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
And welcome back to Real Talk Memphis on this Monday
evening in the.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
City Chip with you. Glad to have you along for
the ride, and very happy to have my first guest.
Ladies and gentlemen, x A A. This is there. Those
are three you know letters and the number in there
uh or x A three letters in there that are
(15:04):
causing quite a bit of confusion in and around Memphis
and Shelby County.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
This is the supercomputer project.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
By Elon Musk, and a lot of folks were against
this from the start, but these days we're starting to
see a renewed interest in this in terms of the
conversation about it, because now we're getting into an area
with these gas turbines that he has placed out there,
and whether or not this could cause a potential pollution situation.
(15:37):
You have a lot of elderly folks in Boxtown in
southwest Memphis, in Westwood and Riverside and over that part
of the town who could be directly affected in reference
to this, and maybe even all of us as well.
Having said all of that, I wanted to bring a
man in who has been fighting the fight about all
of this and trying to create awareness of this as well.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
His name is Keishan Pierson.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
He is the executive director of Memphis Community against Pollution,
and he joins me. Now, Keishan is great to see you,
my friend, and thank you for coming on the show tonight.
Speaker 8 (16:10):
Hey, Chip, good to see you. It's great to be
here on to be a part of this show.
Speaker 9 (16:15):
You've brought so much of a wealth of information to
the city of Memphis through your show and through your work,
and so I'm just glad to be here and contribute
what i can.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Well.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Listen, man, you're contributing quite a bit this battle, so
to speak. You know a lot of people are looking
at this now and I'm speaking When I say that,
I mean members of the city Council, members of the
County Commission starting to get in this conversation now about
really the effort for transparency I guess, if you will.
(16:47):
This project sort of came to us and it was
just sort of told to us, Oh, this is a
great project. It's going to do this. It's gonna bring
a lot of money and revenue to the city. It's
going to do this, and we really didn't hear a
whole lot of explanation about it. But now with the
to get into the weeds a little bit on this thing,
as this project moves forward. What has been keishaying your
biggest concern every since getting involved in all of this.
Speaker 9 (17:10):
Yeah, So from the very start June of last year,
when this project was announced, we noticed immediately that there
was no public engagement in this process. We were hearing
it for the first time, just like everybody else was.
And I was actually in the Mayor's office when the
news broke. And what's unfortunate about that is that our
(17:32):
city Council, our count Commission, they all learned about it
at the same time as the general public.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
And it wasn't that this factory was coming.
Speaker 9 (17:42):
They were announcing that they had already been here.
Speaker 8 (17:45):
The deals had been done.
Speaker 9 (17:47):
And that's not how to move with integrity, and that's
not how to move in trust. And so there was
already a lack of trust because of the lack of transparency.
Without transparency, you don't have trust. And so they really
have promoted so much of what they quote unquote called
good for Memphis. What I know is that this factory
(18:10):
is not good for Memphis. This XAI project is a supercomputer.
It is meant to house all the data for the
Grock chat bot, for Tesla data processing, and for all
of Elon's other businesses. Right, this huge property that they
have is supposed to do all of these things, but
(18:30):
they are using fossil fuel to power it. So you're
talking about cutting edge technology that you're going to use ancient,
antiquated technology to power it. Not only is it antiquated,
we know that the turbines that he's using, they burn
on methane gas, and that itself creates carcinogens like formaldehyde.
(18:53):
It creates nitrogen oxide in our air that contributes to
small and so excuse me. So we know, oh, that
the powered source that he's using is going to lead
to more toxins in our air. And we already Shelby
County has the highest rate of children who have asthma
(19:13):
emergencies in our entire state. We don't need any more
pollution from any power factories. Thirty five turbines, the thirty
five that he has out there could generate over four
hundred megawats of power. Now, TVA is a power company, right,
and the power plant nearby has about creates a little
(19:36):
bit over four hundred as well. And so what we're
looking at is a power plant that's dressed up as
a data center, right, And so that is what the
real cause for concern is is that we have four
times to cancer rate. We have been labeled an asthma capital,
and so why would we bring in a project that
(19:57):
then exacerbates those exact same issues.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
With So let me ask a couple questions here. One,
you mentioned that these fifteen turbines that they have functioning.
Now we've found out I guess, I don't know how
long ago we found out, but now that there's instead
of fifteen, there's thirty five and we don't know if
they're functioning. And the explanation that we heard over the
weekend was, well, they do have thirty five turbines, but
(20:21):
they're just there. You know, I don't even know what
that means other than the fact that you know, there
are plans to do something else with this. And the
bigger issue in all of this now, and which is
really starting to raise the attention you've been trying to
raise for quite some time, is from the Shelby County
Health Department. You're talking about something that is going to
affect or could possibly affect a whole lot of folks
(20:44):
in this town. The Health Department, doctor Michelle Taylor, in
specific said that she was not aware, the Health Department
was not aware even at the beginning of this process
that this was.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Going to happen.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
So now we fast forward to where we are now,
and this thing is really starting to get cranked up,
and she's sending a letter to the mayor of the
City of Memphis, Mayor Paul Young, and just excoriated him
basically saying, you know what, we should have been included
and we're involved in.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
This from the very outset, and I think you agree
with that.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
And now they have to set up for a public meeting,
and she said that basically this should stop for right
now and put a halt to it until they can
finish doing what they need to do to make a determination.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
How do you feel about all that?
Speaker 8 (21:26):
So I feel a few ways right.
Speaker 9 (21:28):
I feel like, unfortunately this has happened as a reaction
and it was not proactive. Proactively, we have known the
facts about our cancer rates proactively. We have known how
much particular matter is in our ara in South Memphis.
We have known the terrible pollution that is plaguing southwest Memphis.
(21:49):
A specific part of town, box Town, where folks build
community out of the scraps of box cars, we have
known these pollutions, the pollution that continues to pollute from
these factories was an issue. And so now yes, we
do need to work collaboratively across the city and across
(22:10):
the county in order that we do bolster our support.
But again, in August of last year, we wrote a
letter to the Chelby County Health Department and urged them
to shut these folks down. They are they are using
these gas turbines without apartment. That is not legal, that
is not okay. And so while I do applaud the
(22:33):
renewed energy toward taking a stronger stance on rectifying the
air pollution and rectifying and learning more on the front end,
there has always been work that could have been done.
And now what my hope is in this moment, everyone's
eyes are open to what they can do to protect
(22:54):
our city, and everybody operates in the urgency that we
have already needed and continue to move in that urgency.
April thirtieth of last year is when Sterilization Serves the
Tennessee closed and they left. Sterilization Service of Tennessee have
been emitting ethylene oxide in our air for almost fifty years,
(23:14):
and it's a known Carcentergy. And so the danger in
this moment is ignoring the past while focusing intently on
this exact moment, because there has continued to be this
pattern of advocating responsibility that it is this person's fault,
(23:36):
it is that person's fault, when the truth is our
Director Taylor, who is the most powerful person at the
Chelby County Health Department, our Mayor Lee Harris, who is
the leadership at the Shelby County level.
Speaker 8 (23:50):
They are also culpable in what is happening.
Speaker 9 (23:53):
We have to move to a place where we are
being more proactive about how we protect our city and
protect our citizens. It is not enough to react as
a billionaire continues to scale up his operations.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You know, one of the things that that that steps
out or stands out to me in reference to all
of this, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the
lack of of of transparency, the lack of having these
these meetings.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
I believe you were at a meeting not.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Too long ago where the Riverside Church or something that
something can happen that the mayor had had a bit
of an open you know, had an open conversation and
that didn't go too well.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
For him. I mean, a lot of.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Folks were very engaged in this conversation, and I think
the biggest thing Keishaan is is that people just don't
understand this, didn't know about it, and weren't given, you know,
enough of an advance notice before all of this started
to move along. And I think that is what really
has gotten people very angry because of the fact that
they were just left out of the equation altogether.
Speaker 8 (24:54):
Right and unfortunately right.
Speaker 9 (24:57):
It is unsurprising because it is the status quo in
the city of Memphis where these corporations, they come in,
they tell people what to do, They do exactly what
the corporations tell them to do, they say exactly what
the corporations tell them to say, and our community continues
to be left behind and our community continues to be exploited.
(25:18):
These turbines, we know are not necessary. Clean energy alternatives
can provide the power that they're looking for. The power
that he's looking for can be provided through solar and
battery storage, which is clean energy. The only reason that
he's polluting our air and doing it as such an
excessive amount is because he's been allowed to do so
(25:41):
without any recourse or repercussions, and this continued level of
disregard for the people of Boxtown, for the people of
Southwest Memphis only shows us that the folks in leadership,
also in concert with these corporations, see us as a
sacrifice zone, see our lives as not as valuable as
(26:04):
the folks in Calerville, the folks in Lakeland and other areas.
There is a reason that these companies always come to
Southwest Memphis. The behavior Connection Pipeline Southwest Memphis stalls a
service of Tennessee Southwest Memphis XAI.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Now Southwest Memphis.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Before I let you get out of here, there's going
to be a very big event, public event hosted I
guess by the way Sherby County Health Department. Tell everyone
how they can be involved. If you want to be
involved in this and if you feel like you have
a stake in this, this is an opportunity for you
to use your voice. Please share that information.
Speaker 9 (26:44):
Yes, yes, we need every single person under the sound
of my voice. Doesn't matter where you at, where you live,
where you're from. We need you to show up for
the people here in Memphis. We need you to show
up big. First, you can submit a public comment about
why we don't need any more pollution.
Speaker 8 (27:00):
In southwest Memphis.
Speaker 9 (27:01):
By going to www dot memphiscap dot org. There you
will be able to submit a public comment and tell
the Shelby County Health Department we don't need XAI here.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
Polluting our air.
Speaker 9 (27:18):
We don't need to approve any methane gas turbines that
we know are going to cause respiratory issues for our
community and our families.
Speaker 8 (27:26):
That's the first thing.
Speaker 9 (27:27):
Second, April twenty fifth, at five o'clock, Fairly High School
is at four or five nine zero Fairly Road, four
or five nine zero Fairly Road.
Speaker 8 (27:41):
At five pm.
Speaker 9 (27:43):
On April twenty fifth, the Shelby County Health Department will
host a public hearing where we will have a conversation
and the community's voice will finally be heard and held
on record about their beliefs about XAI and why they
should not be approved any permits for these methane gas
(28:06):
polluting turbines. And so those are two actions you can take.
One is immediate on our website. The other we need
you to show up April twenty fifth. I'll hope to
see you there and come with your comments ready.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Keishan Pearson ladies and gentlemen. He is the executive director
of Memphis Community Against Pollution. He just laid out for
you some of the reasons for the concern that many
people are starting to pick up on now. He talked
about this public meeting and if you want to change
the status quote, if you want to exercise your right,
(28:41):
your God giving right to use your voice, show up.
Show up for this event and use your voice and
open your mouth. This is a too critical a situation
for us to stay quiet. Kishan Man, thank you so
much for your efforts on behalf of so many people
out of here, and we're going to help you bang
the drummers as much as possible in reference to this
(29:01):
and make sure we let everybody know that this is
too important to sit on the sidelines for it. I
appreciate you coming on the show tonight, man, I really do.
Speaker 9 (29:08):
I appreciate you. Thank you so much for the time,
and we're doing it together.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Absolutely that. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
There you go, ladies and gentlemen, that is a serious deal,
this whole issue. In reference to this XAI project with
Elon Musk. You know what, everything is not as it
always as it seems ladies and gentlemen, you need to
look under the covers every now and again. We thank
you Sean for coming on the show. We'll take a break.
When we come back, we will continue. We're going to
turn our attention now to our bus transportation company.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
They're called MATAM.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
We're gonna find out a little bit about what the
plans are for the future.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
There.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
This is Real Talk Memphis. I'm Chip. You know who
you are. Let's take a break. We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
If you like real Talk, here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion, want to be considered a guest or have
a guest idea, Then send Hip a message on his
Real Talk show page and you can be a part
of the Real Talk experience. So, as he always says,
go out and tell somebody.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
We'll be right back. It's real, It's real.
Speaker 10 (30:24):
It's programming on WYXR is brought to you by a
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Speaker 3 (30:55):
Get Real Talk on the tune in mobile app under WYXR,
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the search box and hit subscribe. Now back to more
Real Talk with Jip Washington.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
It's real, it's he.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Welcome back to the show. Real Talk Memphis is its name.
My name is Chip Washington. I am your humble host.
Glad to have you with us this evening, and glad
to have our next guest with us as well, Matta.
Our transportation bus transportation company, as many of us know,
has been a problem for quite some time in our communities,
(31:40):
with so many residents who rely on bus transportation to
get to and fro in our city.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
They have made some changes.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
There's a new board, there's new leadership as well, and
I'm very happy to welcome to the show John Lewis.
He is the interim CEO of Matthaw from Transpro and
he joins me now to Lewis, Can I call you John?
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Is that okay?
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Do you absolutely all right? Absolutely? Thank you for taking
some time to come on the show tonight. I really
appreciate this. Uh so, uh, we are all pretty much
well aware of the the past issues involving matter uh.
And of course there have been some big changes in
reference to what comes next.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
The former deputy h. C uh Ao has.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Been removed, has been replaced in reference to some financial
issues that we are all very aware of in the past.
You earmarked, we're all of that responsibility lied and you
have moved on from that particular person. You are at
the helm now. We are still looking at major problems
with our bus company. Buses breaking down, reduced reduced routes uh,
(32:54):
you know, mechanical issues uh and and and people staying
at bus stops for two three hours at a time
no notice. You have been charged and it's a very
big task for coming in and trying to reclimate matter
and move it forward. Tell us some of the things
that you are looking at. And I know this is
a one step at a time process. Am I correcting that?
Speaker 5 (33:16):
That's correct?
Speaker 11 (33:17):
And once again, thank you Chip for having me on
with you this evening. It's really a pleasure to be
with you and your audience. For us, this really is
we are in the process of literally fixing the bus
while it's driving down the road. This is a chance
(33:42):
for us to really get Mada as an organization really
just back to the basics, the basics of delivering public
transit service to its customers in a reliable manner each
and every day. Because all of the things that you've listed,
the problems with reliability, the problems with transparency, the problems
(34:06):
with believability have absolutely been documented and customers have experienced
that for too long, and the issues have been myriad,
and it's time promoded to get back to the basics
of delivering on the mission of providing public transit service
(34:31):
to Mempians and that's our charge.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
There are you know, a lot of a lot of
holes that need to be filled in reference to all
of this, and your analogy about fixing the bus while
it's actually still rolling is interesting to me in terms
of all of this when you look at the challenge
of all of this and trying to and trying to
get this back to some level of respectability, I think
(34:57):
one of the big issues here, and maybe the main issue,
is getting the trust back in this organization from the
community who have really, you know, taken it on the
chin in reference to the disappointment is that they have
had for so long. How do you go about trying
to rebuild the trust in the community that Matta is
(35:21):
supposed to serve.
Speaker 11 (35:23):
Thank you, and that is really at the foundation of
the issues that we have, and really the solution to
that is just tell people the truth. You know, for
over a year now, MATA has been lying to its customers.
You know, when you post a schedule and to your
(35:45):
customers in the schedule, the transit schedule is our contracts
as an organization with our customers. We tell to our customers,
here's the schedule that we are going to endeavor each
and every day to deliver to you in exchange for
your fare and your patronage. And when we deliver a
(36:06):
schedule that says a bus is going to come at
this time at this location, knowing that we cut that
service and that bus is never going to come out.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
And we do that.
Speaker 11 (36:19):
Over and over and over and over and over again,
and when the bus doesn't show up, we give some
concocted excuse, oh, an operator didn't show up, a bus
broke down. Whatever. We have to tell the truth number one.
And when we found that out, we expose that to
the customers. You saw almost an audible exhale from our
(36:45):
customers who were in the boardroom at that time because
they knew that that was something just wasn't being They
weren't being told the truth. And so once we exposed
that and said what you've been told by the truth,
here is the truth of where we are. And it's
not a great story. We're not able to put out
(37:07):
seventy four buses on a day to day basis, as
you've been told, we will endeavor to put out fifty
four buses, and here is the truth of that schedule,
and we're going to do that on a daily basis.
You saw the almost relief, the palpable relief from customers.
Now we're at the rock bottom, all right, Okay, the
(37:29):
agency hasn't bought buses in almost a decade, except you know,
a couple electric buses here and a couple there. We've
got to start from the bottom and build a strong
foundation and work towards gaining trust, gaining truth, and building
(37:50):
an organization from scratch.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Well that's the word, is that, that's kind of where
where it lies. I mean, you say you're at the bottom.
The only place you can go was up. Generally speaking,
you mentioned seventy four buses, I would have I guess
that's the standard. Would be the standard operation you'd like
to see, we're somewhere in the would you say fifty
fifty four buses?
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Fifty?
Speaker 11 (38:13):
So, yeah, the current the current schedule that we are
running today requires fifty four buses to meet that schedule
on a daily based Monday through Friday, that's our peak period.
And what we're doing is that we're endeavoring to meet
that schedule each and every day.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
So obviously this is a steep climb which is going
to require some monetary help.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
You know.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
I know you're dealing with the city Council in reference
to this, and and I know those those meetings have
been you know, pretty salty ever know, you know from
time to time in reference to that in terms of
reclaimating this project which you are here to do. And
we all know that there is a new board that
that go the operations of MATA. How are you working
(39:03):
with the board? How is the communication level with the board?
Is everyone on the same page as you are as
you try to build this thing from scratch?
Speaker 5 (39:12):
Seems like all over again.
Speaker 11 (39:14):
Absolutely, the board that we have now is actually they
are very dedicated, passionate people and they are serious about
the work that needs to be done. At MATA and
they are serious about holding us accountable to the work
that we are doing, and we welcome that. We welcome
(39:35):
the partnership. There's a lot of discussion, there's a lot
of trust that has been established, and at the same time,
there's accountability to that they have required of us, that
they are going to ask hard questions. They are not
going to accept the rubber stamp, and they're going to
hold our feet to the fire. And as transit professionals,
(39:56):
we welcome that. We welcome that give and t we
welcome the discussion, and we welcome the debate that goes
on at our committee meetings and the discussion because at
the end of the day, we're going to have a
better product to offer our customers. Now, you mentioned the
financial requirements of that. Yes, there isn't a transit agency
(40:22):
in the country that would not say they need additional
financial resources. But before we can ask our funding partners
for additional resources, we've got to prove to them that
we are good stewards of the money that they're currently
given providing to us. You know, you've covered the challenges
(40:43):
that the agency has had in that regard in the past.
We've got to prove that we can deliver on the
financial resources that they provide today, and we can deliver
that in a efficient and affective manner and do that
in a way in which they do not question whether
(41:05):
or not their investment is a good investment to the community. Now,
what does that mean. That means that for the dollars
that they are putting in that we are doing the
absolute best to make sure that the maximum amount of
that dollar goes towards putting bus service on the street
(41:26):
serving the people of Memphis, not towards cushy office space
and high priced executives and you know, administrative offices and
other things or decision making that has happened in the past.
We are in the process of reallocating those funds to
(41:47):
make sure that more of that dollar goes towards putting
buses on the street rather than administrative overhead.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
One final question for you in terms of a timetable, Well,
there's obviously a lot of challenges that you have to face,
and you're saying you're doing this, you know, one step
at a time. But for example, a year from now,
where do you envision Matta as a bus company serving
our community.
Speaker 11 (42:17):
A year from today, I think what you will have
is a MATTA that is putting out consistent, scheduled service
that they're able to meet each and every day, whatever
that level is. You will have your first delivery of
new buses on the street. You will have a new
(42:38):
leadership team, you will no longer have consultants that are
running the organization, and there will be a matter that
is run by Memphians that Memphians can be proud of,
and that is delivering on the promise that the organization
(43:00):
is made to the community on a daily basis.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
Well, listen, man, it sounds like a very challenging project
that so many folks are relying on and depending on.
But listen, I want to thank you and and I
appreciate you taking the time to come on the show
this evening and share your thoughts with our listening audience
out here. We are watching, we are looking, we are anticipating,
(43:26):
eagerly anticipating a new look matter as time moves forward.
John Lewis, ladies and gentlemen, the interim CEO of Mattha
is here, and he is saying, look, we're not playing
around here. We're gonna We're gonna do it. But more importantly,
it sounds to me like you said, we can show
you better than we can tell you. John, thank you
so much for taking the time to come on the show.
(43:47):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 11 (43:49):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
Take care, Thank you so much. So there you go,
ladies and gentlemen. That's the update from Mata. There's a
new direction, there's a new there's a new man at
the Helm. There's a new print to Helmet Transpro, which
is the consulting company, and he's trying to get this
thing back right the way it's supposed to be. And
we will be watching and we will be keeping tabs
on all of this. Thank him so much for coming
on the show. Let's take a break, and when we
(44:13):
come back. Are you an individual who is trying to
save money for one case and a lot of other things,
and you're trying to figure out the topsy turvy world
the finances these days with our new president in the
office world, maybe we can answer some questions with our
next guest. This is Real Talk, Memphis, don't go away,
Still more show to go.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
If you like Real Talk, here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion, want to be considered a guest or have
a guest idea, then send Chip a message on his
Real Talk show page and you that can be a
part of the Real Talk experience. So as he always says,
go out and tell somebody, We'll be right back.
Speaker 11 (45:07):
It's It's talk.
Speaker 12 (45:15):
WYXR and Memphis Listening Labs Stereo Sessions presented by MEMPHO
returns with a special Jazz History Month presentation of Memphis
bred piano player Phineas Newborn Junior and his nineteen fifty
seven album Phineas's Rainbow. Join us at six pm Wednesday,
April sixteenth inside Memphis Listening Lab at Crosstown Concourse. Attendees,
we'll hear the album in full on the lab's High
(45:36):
five sound system, along with a conversation hosted by jazz
guitars and collector Joe Restivo exploring Newborn's musical legacy and
lasting impact. The event is free and open to the public.
RSVP and learn more at Stereo Sessions dot WYXR dot org.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
Get real talk on the tune in mobile app under
w y XR. And he's now streaming live on Facebook
and you can also catch a rebroadcast on YouTube. Just
put w y XR in the search box and hit subscribe.
Now back to more Real Talk with Chip Washington.
Speaker 4 (46:33):
And welcome back to Real Talk on this Monday evening
ship with you along with our next guest. Now, you know, uh,
terms like instability and volatility and just really people are
just very lost and confused in the financial realm of
things because of uh, the tariffs that have been issued
and the volatility of the stock market, and a lot
(46:56):
of four one ks are blowing up all over the
country with all of this volatility. So I wanted to
ask a financial expert to come on this show and
try to make sense of all of this that is happening.
Speaker 5 (47:09):
He's been on our show before. His name is Vincent C. Perry.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
He is a financial advisor and he joins me now
and Vincent's great to see my friend.
Speaker 5 (47:16):
How are you.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
I'm doing well, Chip, good to be with.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
You, Absolutely good to have you.
Speaker 4 (47:22):
Okay, So, mister financial advisor, A lot of folks that
we're all trying to figure this thing out now every
other day, every other week, the volatility of the stock
market is up and it's down, and and a lot
of people financial I guess other financial experts are talking
about if this keeps up this volatility, we could be
looking at a recession and a lot of other things.
(47:43):
As you see things right now from your perch, what
does this look like and and is there is this
a concern for many folks from the financial end of things.
Speaker 5 (47:54):
A real thing.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
It is a real thing. Chip, you know, is you know,
essentially something that is used by countries for important goods,
and you know it can be used to regulate trade
or generate revenue for the government. Now, these tariffs go
by a different names. Sometimes they're referred to as you know,
levees or duties. You know, at the end of the day,
(48:17):
terrafts are essentially a tax right, and it's a tax
right that's paid by the end consumer. Now, terrorfs in
and of themselves may not necessarily be good or bad.
But the problem, as you alluded to, is uncertainty. You know,
the stock market likes certainty, you know, so when we
think about what the stock market is really based upon,
(48:38):
it's based upon businesses, business companies that derive revenue from
goods and services. Now, you know, these businesses project months
or years into the future, and they like they like certainty.
They like to plan for what's next. Right now, we
have a boat load of it.
Speaker 5 (48:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Right now we don't know what the tariff situation is
going to be tomorrow, let alone months in advance. So
we have a pause. We have a nine of the pause.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. But at the end of
the day, chick investors need to take a deep breath,
take a pause, and not get caught up in what
(49:20):
we call panic selling right now, you know, I mean,
this is this is your money. You've worked hard, months, years, decades,
and money is something that we hold near and dear
to our hearts. You don't want to lose it. And
so when we make decisions based on emotion, many times
this can cloud our judgment and we can rush and
(49:40):
make decisions that are not in our best entries. So
we really need to kind of take a step back
and look at the big picture here.
Speaker 5 (49:46):
You know.
Speaker 4 (49:46):
Having said that, and a lot of folks you know,
are panicky, but you laid it out in a very
honest way. First of all, this is this is an
additional tax. We live in an inflated society right now.
The prices are up every which way, whether it's groceries,
whether it's gas, whether it's other merchandise that that one
needs to balance their books, so to speak. I hear
(50:08):
people every day, Vincent, all across this country on the
news talking about the sheer uncertainty and losing money. Here,
farmers talking about the fact that they're being hit hard
with all of this. And at the end of the day, Uh,
these folks are being hit by these tariffs and a
lot of these tariffs are passing there they have to
pass on the additional cost to the consumers. We live
(50:31):
in a society right now where where a lot of
folks are are working and living paycheck to paycheck, And
so I mean, I guess would you say that that
would complicate things even more because again, while we may
need to take a pause and take a step back,
we still got to pay bills.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
We still have to pay bills now. Now to that
to that point, you know, we need to kind of
go back to basics. So we need to for folks
like that, they need to develop a budget. A budget
is simply knowing how much money is coming into your
home versus how much is leaving cash flow. One on one, Now,
if you have a surtplus. Keep doing what you're doing.
You're doing something right now. If you're living check to
(51:09):
paycheck and there's not a surfplus, you need to find
out ways that you can that you can cut back
to free up cash flow. Now I do. I also
want to make a point about, you know, panic selling,
and I want to think about I want your listeners
to think about months and years of uncertainty in the
stock market. Think about February two thousand to February two
(51:32):
thousand and two, this so called tick wreck where you know,
TIK stocks decline ten twenty thirty percent. I want people
to think about the financial crisis from October two thousand
and seven to March two thousand and nine. People vividly
remember what the stock market did at that point, or
maybe doing COVID from twenty twenty to twenty twenty two,
(51:53):
we all know that the stock market declined by huge numbers. However,
the best day, it's the best performance in the history
of a stock market occurred during those times, and so
also just her last week, the stock market was up
by over nine percent in one day. Sometimes the stock
(52:14):
market does not increase by nine percent in a year,
let alone in one day. So if we sell based
upon you know, what we're seeing in the market or
tweet or you know, a post, we can miss some
of the very best days in the market. So our
decisions need to be based on our own economic circumstances,
(52:34):
not what we're seeing and hearing out there and the
twitter verse, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (52:39):
So you're saying, you know, weit watching pay attention. I mean,
it really has become just almost this game every single day.
And you listen to economists and I don't know, besides
the people that are that are on the inside of
the of the White House conversations on a daily basis,
and a lot of other folks are saying, man, this
is just not good for the account. This is just
(53:01):
not good. I mean, it really isn't. I mean, what
we're what he's trying to do is even the playing field,
I guess for these other countries and bringing all this
money back to the United States. But it just seems
too many people and I heard somebody say this the
other night on the news, it's a selfish way to
try to h to create more wealth for this country
when there are folks in food lines and breadlines and
(53:24):
scraping together pennies each and every day to try to
pay the essential bills to keep the lights on it.
Speaker 2 (53:29):
And I'm sure you can understand that, oh absolutely yeah.
I mean when we look at it, it's like, okay,
you know, this is not this is not fair. You know,
I can, I can kind of understand what's happening, but
it all reverts back to again our own economic circumstances.
You know, what's happening in my household, and we really
have to distract you know, uh, you know, and kind
(53:50):
of filter out a lot of the noise that that's
going on that there, get back the basics, you know,
look at that budget cash flow one on one, make
sure you have a you know, adequate raining, a cash reserve,
three to six months of irregular current expenses. And then
you know, I want to also pivot back to you know,
the stock market and you know, people selling out. There
(54:11):
are a couple of sentences that people really want to
keep in mind that sound alike but are very different.
And the first sentence has four words. You want to
think about time in the market as opposed to timing
the market. A lot of people jump in and jump out,
but you really want to kind of think about diversification,
(54:33):
making sure that you have proper acid allocation over stocks, bonds, cash,
and alternatives, which is anything other than stocks, bonds or cash.
Getting back to basics, making sure that your financial house
is in good shape, filtering out all the noise out there.
And then and then another thing I want to leave
with the chip is just a conversation that a fictional
(54:57):
conversation I had about it in Investor and the Great
stock Market, the Great financial crisis here some years ago.
And the conversation was like, you know, Bill says, you know,
he wants to sell his house that he bought, you know,
two years ago, four hundred thousand dollars, you know, because
of the housing market devalue. And he said, well, if
I tried to sell it today, I could only get
ninety thousand. But I still want to sell it. And
(55:19):
this fictional conversation I had was, so are you leaving?
You're relocating? He was like, no, are you empty masters
He was like, no, I just want to sell. I'm like,
so let me get this straight.
Speaker 5 (55:29):
Bill.
Speaker 2 (55:29):
You know the house is fine, You're not relocating, So
tell me again why you want to sell. Well, he's like,
you know, you know the value of the house is
down ten percent. My neighbors are selling, so I need
to sell as well. Well, I'm like, well, now you
do understand that if you hold on to your house
for a couple of months or a couple of years,
it will rebound to where you what you paid for,
probably a lot more. It was like, hmm, I never
(55:50):
really thought about that. And of course we know what
happened after two thousand and nine house prices rebounding, and
that's the same way with prices today. So people need
to put things into perspective and make it real for themselves.
Speaker 4 (56:02):
Vincent c Perry, Ladies and gentlemen, financial advisor giving us
some wives and sage advice and hold on what he's
trying to say, Hold on, ladies, hold on. Vincent, thank
you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker 12 (56:12):
Man.
Speaker 5 (56:12):
I really appreciate your time and your valuable information. I
appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (56:17):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (56:17):
Good to be with you too, my friend. Thank you. Well,
there you go, Ladies and gentlemen. You know, we try
to provide the type of information that you can use.
As Brent plays us out. Uh, this has been a
good show, uh, and I've enjoyed talking with our guests.
I hope you've enjoyed listening to them as well. Program note,
ladies and gentlemen, next coming up next right up to
(56:39):
this show, show called Event horizsn but is guiding you.
We will be guiding you through this next hour or
so with some very interesting music, that is for sure.
So stay tuned, don't try to sit down. I'll keep
it right here to w y XR for Event Horizon.
In the meantime, Man Betweens, thank you for supporting what
(57:02):
we do here on Real Talk Memphis each day every
Monday evening. If you like what we do, go ahead
and tell somebody. So for all of us here, for
rent radio hosts and for Lola, I'm Chip, so happy
to have you with us. Have a great week and safe.
Be careful out there, watch out for other folks because
(57:23):
they may not be watching out for you and for
all of us here it's Real Talk Memphis. I'm Chip
and we all right see you soon.
It's real talk. It's it's real talk. It's real. It's real,
it's real.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Talk.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's real tal Jail.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Welcome to Real Tell, your real host, Chills your wife.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's real talk, It's real.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
And here we go, Here we go on this Monday evening.
It is I believe, the fourteenth day of April twenty
twenty five, six o'clock straight up, which means, yes, ladies
and gentlemen, it's time for another all new edition of
Real Talk Memphis. Glad to have you with us along
(01:04):
for the ride for the next sixty minutes or so.
I am your program host. My name is Chip Washington.
It is great to be here today. It's great to
be anywhere, always always a plus. You know, every day
above ground is a good day, and we choose to
celebrate that.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
I hope you had a good weekend.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
I hope you had a good week since the last
time we communicated with one another. I think we have
a pretty good show for you tonight. Oh and first
of all, before I move any farther with this, thank you,
Thank you, Thank you Memphis and Shelby County for pledge week.
To understand that we met our goal and we could
(01:46):
not do any of that without your help, your support,
and your assistance. So from all of us here, thank you,
thank you, and if I didn't say it again, thank
you for all you do for wy x R. We
have a pretty good program for you tonight, ladies and gentlemen.
Last week, of course, was Pledged week. We had some fun,
We had some folks in the studio and we were
laughing and joking and more importantly, we were talking about
(02:08):
what we like about being a part of this WYXR experience.
And of course that was a great week. And now
we're back to business. We're down back to talking about
it and getting a discussion, you know what I mean.
You can find us in a number of ways. Of course,
we are on ninety one point seven, that would be
(02:30):
wyx R on the FM side. On the FM side,
we're also available on the WYXR app. You can find
us on the tune in app. These are all live
right now, and of course when the show is posted
in the next day or two, you can find us
on YouTube. And we are a podcasts so you can
(02:53):
also find us wherever it is you get your podcasts,
so you know any one of those, it's always good.
So so fear not, fret knot, you will always be
able to find this radio show. Let us talk about
the guests, shall we well our first guest in just
(03:13):
a couple of minutes, we'll talk about the XAI situation
with these gas turbines, and this thing has a lot
of folks concerned about air pollution and how it can
affect their health down the road. Keishawn Pearson will be
joining me in just a few minutes. He is the
(03:36):
executive director of Memphis Community Against Pollution And yeah, they've
been talking about this for a while now, now that
XAI is here, is camped out. Now, more people than
ever are concerned about the fact that because we hadn't
heard much about the air quality in terms of these
gas turbines and what makes them go. Well, you know,
(03:59):
we're gonna talk a little bit about that with Keishawn.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
He doesn't think it's a good idea period.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
The Health Department doesn't seem to think it's a good
idea for right now, and they too, are going to
get involved in all of this. The director of the
Cherry County Health Department, Michelle Taylor, wrote a letter to
Mayor Paul Young and talked a little bit about all
of this and said the Health Department should have been
involved from the very outset of all of this. But
(04:27):
this is escalating and people are starting to become more
and more aware of the problem. So we're talk to
him about that a little bit later on. M A
t a transit system. Ladies and gentlemen that we have
been talking about for quite some time. We all know
where things stand right now and how there's sort of
kind of a reclamation project, if you will. Old management
(04:49):
is gone, new management is in. And I am fortunate
to have the interim CEO of MATTA from Transpro. His
name is John Lewis, and he will be joining me
a little bit later on in the broadcast. And for
those of you who are as confused as I am
about the financial status in this country in reference to
(05:12):
the president's a tariff situation, the stock market upheaval, and
the whole nine yards, I felt it was time for
us to get some sound financial advice and maybe some guidance,
if you will, in reference to all of this from
our financial advisor. He is Vincent Perry, and he will
be joining us a little bit later on in the broadcast.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
So there you go.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
A good show on tap for you tonight. Sit back,
relax and enjoy what we have to offer. Before we
get into all of that, let us celebrate you. We
have a few birthdays to get on tap today, and
if that is you, of course we wish you a
happy birthday. If you have one over the weekend or
have one upcoming, Yeah, we hope that it is a
(05:57):
fine time for you.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
So let's celebrate. But can't do that until I say
hit it.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Bring all right, Happy birthday, Happy birthday, Happy birthday, going
out to the following folks. Ramesh Ackbury State Senator Romesh Abery
celebrating her birthday on today. Susan Adler Thorpe is celebrating
(06:23):
her birthday on this date. Happy birthday to Carla Tobert Taylor,
to Christy Truitt, Jennifer.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
Borick, and Ben Allman. And believe it or not, I know.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Three of these people, three of the six people personally,
and and yeah, we can't we can't go without this.
Lode is a little busy right now, but her daughter
Addison is celebrating her birthday today as well.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
How does she.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Is twenty years young today? I know she can't hear,
but happy birthday.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Andison.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
You know, he's coming around here every now and again,
laying on the couch when we've we're doing our show.
So happy birthday for year and for all of them
who are celebrating. Hope it has been a day of
fields with fun and laughter, and we hope to be
with you next year for your next trip around the solf.
Thanks Brian. All right, so let's get into some news
and notes. First things first, it was a very very
(07:24):
violent weekend in the city. As many of you know.
It was sort of, I guess I don't like to
use this word culminated, but of course many of you
are aware of the shooting that happened last night at
tom Lee Park about six forty five or so. They
had the food truck festival going on, and of course
it was wrapping up. There were a lot of young
(07:46):
people at the park last night and apparently there was
a disagreement of some type and a juvenile we.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Still don't know his age or his name was shot
and killed.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
And apparently, according to law enforcement, he was shot and
killed by another juvenile. So of course this is shaking
up the city pretty good in terms of all of this.
And you know, young people, people complain all the time
about where young folks don't gather, Well, they don't have
places to go. Hey, you can't, you know, they don't
have this, and they don't have that in the whole
nine yards. So you have toime Lee Park and a
(08:23):
nice place, a nice operation down there. And they were
hanging out and apparently a disruption happened and a life
was taken. And of course, any time a life is taken,
it's a very tragic set of circumstances. But this was
just one in a series of tragic shooting events that
happened over the weekend. Early Saturday morning, there was a
(08:43):
shooting on I two forty west around a Walnut Grove
where a man and a woman were shot and the
woman is in pretty bad shape. As a matter of fact,
they were driving, they had just gotten on the interstate.
Somebody pulled up beside them, opening and started firing. They
don't know who they were or why they were firing shots.
(09:05):
On Friday, there was a two year old shot that
was killed in Orange Mound. This happened Friday afternoon. This
baby was outside checking with their checking with their not
checking anything. They were playing with their uncle on the
(09:25):
front porch outside in the front yard, car whizzes by,
fire shots and a two year old child was killed.
After all of that, another case of domestic violence where
a man decided, for whatever reason, to be angry enough
at his brother to get into an argument, pull a gun,
(09:47):
shot his brother in the face, killed him on the spot.
The brother, the victim, was the father of seven very
young children, and his brother shot and killed him over
some sort of a dispute. And of course, let me
see here did I get. I mean, there's there's so
many to even talk about here, it's hard to keep up.
(10:10):
But that was sort of the summary of what happened
over the weekend. And there was more deaths, more shooting
as well. Ladies and gentlemen. We have a problem. And
the bigger issue to the fact that we have a
problem is that we don't seem to want to speak
up in reference to things like this when they happen.
It's getting to be now, we're getting close to summer.
(10:31):
School is about to be out in just a very
few weeks, and kids all over the street, these kids
are walking around out here with these weapons at twelve, thirteen,
fourteen years old, committing crimes in broad daylight, with no
care or concern for anybody. So my question is when
are we gonna rise up as a community and say
enough is enough of all of this? Because this is
(10:51):
becoming an epidemic in our city now. Mayor Paul Young
made a statement yesterday saying, well, you know, enough is
enough of all of this, But is it enough? Is
enough enough?
Speaker 5 (11:06):
When?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
When have we gotten to that point? When are we
supposed to get to that point? Yeah, I'm ranny and
raving just a little bit here because this is sad
beyond comprehension. We're losing lives at an all time record
pace around here, and nothing seems to be done about
it because we don't want to engage in the process
of trying to say, look, you know what, we need
(11:27):
to take back our city instead of yielding it over
to feckless thugs who decide that they want to take
it over because they know nothing's going to happen to them.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem and we need
to work as hard as we can to try to
fix that problem before I mean, it becomes nobody will
(11:47):
want to come here at this particular point in time.
So we have to do better. We have to do better.
We have to do better. I'm going to take a break.
I'm sad about all of this. I truly am. I
mean it hurts my heart. Two year olds out in
front of my house playing a catch with their uncle
and somebody drives by and fire shots and kills the
two year old and a five year old that was
(12:09):
accidentally shout over the weekend as well. What are we doing, Memphis,
and why are we doing it? And why are we
doing more to stop it? That's my question. Let us
take a break so I can take a breath. When
we come back, we will get into the broadcast and
we're going to talk about XAI, which is a subject
(12:29):
that is becoming more and more of interest to all
of us as a community.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
This is real Talk, Memphis. I'm chipped. You know you are.
Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
If you like real Talk, here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion I want to be concerns at a guest
or have a guest idea. Then send Chip a message
on his Real Talk show page and you can be
a part of the Real Talk experience. So as he
always says, go out and tail somebody. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
It's real, it's real, it's real talk, it's real.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
Support for Wixar comes from the Orphum Theater Group presenting
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This two week training program in June will immerse students
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(13:41):
Slash Camps.
Speaker 7 (13:45):
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ticket packages and more are available at Riverbeet dot com.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Get Real Talk on the tune in mobile app under
w y XR, and he's now streaming live on Facebook
and you can also catch a rebroadcast on YouTube. Just
put w y x R in the search box and
hit subscribe. Now back to more Real Talk with Chip Washington.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
It's it's.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
And welcome back to Real Talk Memphis on this Monday
evening in the.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
City Chip with you. Glad to have you along for
the ride, and very happy to have my first guest.
Ladies and gentlemen, x A A. This is there. Those
are three you know letters and the number in there
uh or x A three letters in there that are
(15:04):
causing quite a bit of confusion in and around Memphis
and Shelby County.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
This is the supercomputer project.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
By Elon Musk, and a lot of folks were against
this from the start, but these days we're starting to
see a renewed interest in this in terms of the
conversation about it, because now we're getting into an area
with these gas turbines that he has placed out there,
and whether or not this could cause a potential pollution situation.
(15:37):
You have a lot of elderly folks in Boxtown in
southwest Memphis, in Westwood and Riverside and over that part
of the town who could be directly affected in reference
to this, and maybe even all of us as well.
Having said all of that, I wanted to bring a
man in who has been fighting the fight about all
of this and trying to create awareness of this as well.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
His name is Keishan Pierson.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
He is the executive director of Memphis Community against Pollution,
and he joins me. Now, Keishan is great to see you,
my friend, and thank you for coming on the show tonight.
Speaker 8 (16:10):
Hey, Chip, good to see you. It's great to be
here on to be a part of this show.
Speaker 9 (16:15):
You've brought so much of a wealth of information to
the city of Memphis through your show and through your work,
and so I'm just glad to be here and contribute
what i can.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Well.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Listen, man, you're contributing quite a bit this battle, so
to speak. You know a lot of people are looking
at this now and I'm speaking When I say that,
I mean members of the city Council, members of the
County Commission starting to get in this conversation now about
really the effort for transparency I guess, if you will.
(16:47):
This project sort of came to us and it was
just sort of told to us, Oh, this is a
great project. It's going to do this. It's gonna bring
a lot of money and revenue to the city. It's
going to do this, and we really didn't hear a
whole lot of explanation about it. But now with the
to get into the weeds a little bit on this thing,
as this project moves forward. What has been keishaying your
biggest concern every since getting involved in all of this.
Speaker 9 (17:10):
Yeah, So from the very start June of last year,
when this project was announced, we noticed immediately that there
was no public engagement in this process. We were hearing
it for the first time, just like everybody else was.
And I was actually in the Mayor's office when the
news broke. And what's unfortunate about that is that our
(17:32):
city Council, our count Commission, they all learned about it
at the same time as the general public.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
And it wasn't that this factory was coming.
Speaker 9 (17:42):
They were announcing that they had already been here.
Speaker 8 (17:45):
The deals had been done.
Speaker 9 (17:47):
And that's not how to move with integrity, and that's
not how to move in trust. And so there was
already a lack of trust because of the lack of transparency.
Without transparency, you don't have trust. And so they really
have promoted so much of what they quote unquote called
good for Memphis. What I know is that this factory
(18:10):
is not good for Memphis. This XAI project is a supercomputer.
It is meant to house all the data for the
Grock chat bot, for Tesla data processing, and for all
of Elon's other businesses. Right, this huge property that they
have is supposed to do all of these things, but
(18:30):
they are using fossil fuel to power it. So you're
talking about cutting edge technology that you're going to use ancient,
antiquated technology to power it. Not only is it antiquated,
we know that the turbines that he's using, they burn
on methane gas, and that itself creates carcinogens like formaldehyde.
(18:53):
It creates nitrogen oxide in our air that contributes to
small and so excuse me. So we know, oh, that
the powered source that he's using is going to lead
to more toxins in our air. And we already Shelby
County has the highest rate of children who have asthma
(19:13):
emergencies in our entire state. We don't need any more
pollution from any power factories. Thirty five turbines, the thirty
five that he has out there could generate over four
hundred megawats of power. Now, TVA is a power company, right,
and the power plant nearby has about creates a little
(19:36):
bit over four hundred as well. And so what we're
looking at is a power plant that's dressed up as
a data center, right, And so that is what the
real cause for concern is is that we have four
times to cancer rate. We have been labeled an asthma capital,
and so why would we bring in a project that
(19:57):
then exacerbates those exact same issues.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
With So let me ask a couple questions here. One,
you mentioned that these fifteen turbines that they have functioning.
Now we've found out I guess, I don't know how
long ago we found out, but now that there's instead
of fifteen, there's thirty five and we don't know if
they're functioning. And the explanation that we heard over the
weekend was, well, they do have thirty five turbines, but
(20:21):
they're just there. You know, I don't even know what
that means other than the fact that you know, there
are plans to do something else with this. And the
bigger issue in all of this now, and which is
really starting to raise the attention you've been trying to
raise for quite some time, is from the Shelby County
Health Department. You're talking about something that is going to
affect or could possibly affect a whole lot of folks
(20:44):
in this town. The Health Department, doctor Michelle Taylor, in
specific said that she was not aware, the Health Department
was not aware even at the beginning of this process
that this was.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Going to happen.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
So now we fast forward to where we are now,
and this thing is really starting to get cranked up,
and she's sending a letter to the mayor of the
City of Memphis, Mayor Paul Young, and just excoriated him
basically saying, you know what, we should have been included
and we're involved in.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
This from the very outset, and I think you agree
with that.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
And now they have to set up for a public meeting,
and she said that basically this should stop for right
now and put a halt to it until they can
finish doing what they need to do to make a determination.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
How do you feel about all that?
Speaker 8 (21:26):
So I feel a few ways right.
Speaker 9 (21:28):
I feel like, unfortunately this has happened as a reaction
and it was not proactive. Proactively, we have known the
facts about our cancer rates proactively. We have known how
much particular matter is in our ara in South Memphis.
We have known the terrible pollution that is plaguing southwest Memphis.
(21:49):
A specific part of town, box Town, where folks build
community out of the scraps of box cars, we have
known these pollutions, the pollution that continues to pollute from
these factories was an issue. And so now yes, we
do need to work collaboratively across the city and across
(22:10):
the county in order that we do bolster our support.
But again, in August of last year, we wrote a
letter to the Chelby County Health Department and urged them
to shut these folks down. They are they are using
these gas turbines without apartment. That is not legal, that
is not okay. And so while I do applaud the
(22:33):
renewed energy toward taking a stronger stance on rectifying the
air pollution and rectifying and learning more on the front end,
there has always been work that could have been done.
And now what my hope is in this moment, everyone's
eyes are open to what they can do to protect
(22:54):
our city, and everybody operates in the urgency that we
have already needed and continue to move in that urgency.
April thirtieth of last year is when Sterilization Serves the
Tennessee closed and they left. Sterilization Service of Tennessee have
been emitting ethylene oxide in our air for almost fifty years,
(23:14):
and it's a known Carcentergy. And so the danger in
this moment is ignoring the past while focusing intently on
this exact moment, because there has continued to be this
pattern of advocating responsibility that it is this person's fault,
(23:36):
it is that person's fault, when the truth is our
Director Taylor, who is the most powerful person at the
Chelby County Health Department, our Mayor Lee Harris, who is
the leadership at the Shelby County level.
Speaker 8 (23:50):
They are also culpable in what is happening.
Speaker 9 (23:53):
We have to move to a place where we are
being more proactive about how we protect our city and
protect our citizens. It is not enough to react as
a billionaire continues to scale up his operations.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You know, one of the things that that that steps
out or stands out to me in reference to all
of this, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the
lack of of of transparency, the lack of having these
these meetings.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
I believe you were at a meeting not.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Too long ago where the Riverside Church or something that
something can happen that the mayor had had a bit
of an open you know, had an open conversation and
that didn't go too well.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
For him. I mean, a lot of.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Folks were very engaged in this conversation, and I think
the biggest thing Keishaan is is that people just don't
understand this, didn't know about it, and weren't given, you know,
enough of an advance notice before all of this started
to move along. And I think that is what really
has gotten people very angry because of the fact that
they were just left out of the equation altogether.
Speaker 8 (24:54):
Right and unfortunately right.
Speaker 9 (24:57):
It is unsurprising because it is the status quo in
the city of Memphis where these corporations, they come in,
they tell people what to do, They do exactly what
the corporations tell them to do, they say exactly what
the corporations tell them to say, and our community continues
to be left behind and our community continues to be exploited.
(25:18):
These turbines, we know are not necessary. Clean energy alternatives
can provide the power that they're looking for. The power
that he's looking for can be provided through solar and
battery storage, which is clean energy. The only reason that
he's polluting our air and doing it as such an
excessive amount is because he's been allowed to do so
(25:41):
without any recourse or repercussions, and this continued level of
disregard for the people of Boxtown, for the people of
Southwest Memphis only shows us that the folks in leadership,
also in concert with these corporations, see us as a
sacrifice zone, see our lives as not as valuable as
(26:04):
the folks in Calerville, the folks in Lakeland and other areas.
There is a reason that these companies always come to
Southwest Memphis. The behavior Connection Pipeline Southwest Memphis stalls a
service of Tennessee Southwest Memphis XAI.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Now Southwest Memphis.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Before I let you get out of here, there's going
to be a very big event, public event hosted I
guess by the way Sherby County Health Department. Tell everyone
how they can be involved. If you want to be
involved in this and if you feel like you have
a stake in this, this is an opportunity for you
to use your voice. Please share that information.
Speaker 9 (26:44):
Yes, yes, we need every single person under the sound
of my voice. Doesn't matter where you at, where you live,
where you're from. We need you to show up for
the people here in Memphis. We need you to show
up big. First, you can submit a public comment about
why we don't need any more pollution.
Speaker 8 (27:00):
In southwest Memphis.
Speaker 9 (27:01):
By going to www dot memphiscap dot org. There you
will be able to submit a public comment and tell
the Shelby County Health Department we don't need XAI here.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
Polluting our air.
Speaker 9 (27:18):
We don't need to approve any methane gas turbines that
we know are going to cause respiratory issues for our
community and our families.
Speaker 8 (27:26):
That's the first thing.
Speaker 9 (27:27):
Second, April twenty fifth, at five o'clock, Fairly High School
is at four or five nine zero Fairly Road, four
or five nine zero Fairly Road.
Speaker 8 (27:41):
At five pm.
Speaker 9 (27:43):
On April twenty fifth, the Shelby County Health Department will
host a public hearing where we will have a conversation
and the community's voice will finally be heard and held
on record about their beliefs about XAI and why they
should not be approved any permits for these methane gas
(28:06):
polluting turbines. And so those are two actions you can take.
One is immediate on our website. The other we need
you to show up April twenty fifth. I'll hope to
see you there and come with your comments ready.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Keishan Pearson ladies and gentlemen. He is the executive director
of Memphis Community Against Pollution. He just laid out for
you some of the reasons for the concern that many
people are starting to pick up on now. He talked
about this public meeting and if you want to change
the status quote, if you want to exercise your right,
(28:41):
your God giving right to use your voice, show up.
Show up for this event and use your voice and
open your mouth. This is a too critical a situation
for us to stay quiet. Kishan Man, thank you so
much for your efforts on behalf of so many people
out of here, and we're going to help you bang
the drummers as much as possible in reference to this
(29:01):
and make sure we let everybody know that this is
too important to sit on the sidelines for it. I
appreciate you coming on the show tonight, man, I really do.
Speaker 9 (29:08):
I appreciate you. Thank you so much for the time,
and we're doing it together.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Absolutely that. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
There you go, ladies and gentlemen, that is a serious deal,
this whole issue. In reference to this XAI project with
Elon Musk. You know what, everything is not as it
always as it seems ladies and gentlemen, you need to
look under the covers every now and again. We thank
you Sean for coming on the show. We'll take a break.
When we come back, we will continue. We're going to
turn our attention now to our bus transportation company.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
They're called MATAM.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
We're gonna find out a little bit about what the
plans are for the future.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
There.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
This is Real Talk Memphis. I'm Chip. You know who
you are. Let's take a break. We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
If you like real Talk, here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion, want to be considered a guest or have
a guest idea, Then send Hip a message on his
Real Talk show page and you can be a part
of the Real Talk experience. So, as he always says,
go out and tell somebody.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
We'll be right back. It's real, It's real.
Speaker 10 (30:24):
It's programming on WYXR is brought to you by a
grant from Arts Memphis who has invested ninety four million
dollars into our local arts community to teach, uplift, unite,
and engage Memphians of all ages and of codes.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Get Real Talk on the tune in mobile app under WYXR,
and he's now live on Facebook and you can also
catch a rebroadcast on YouTube. Just put w YXAR in
the search box and hit subscribe. Now back to more
Real Talk with Jip Washington.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
It's real, it's he.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Welcome back to the show. Real Talk Memphis is its name.
My name is Chip Washington. I am your humble host.
Glad to have you with us this evening, and glad
to have our next guest with us as well, Matta.
Our transportation bus transportation company, as many of us know,
has been a problem for quite some time in our communities,
(31:40):
with so many residents who rely on bus transportation to
get to and fro in our city.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
They have made some changes.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
There's a new board, there's new leadership as well, and
I'm very happy to welcome to the show John Lewis.
He is the interim CEO of Matthaw from Transpro and
he joins me now to Lewis, Can I call you John?
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Is that okay?
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Do you absolutely all right? Absolutely? Thank you for taking
some time to come on the show tonight. I really
appreciate this. Uh so, uh, we are all pretty much
well aware of the the past issues involving matter uh.
And of course there have been some big changes in
reference to what comes next.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
The former deputy h. C uh Ao has.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Been removed, has been replaced in reference to some financial
issues that we are all very aware of in the past.
You earmarked, we're all of that responsibility lied and you
have moved on from that particular person. You are at
the helm now. We are still looking at major problems
with our bus company. Buses breaking down, reduced reduced routes uh,
(32:54):
you know, mechanical issues uh and and and people staying
at bus stops for two three hours at a time
no notice. You have been charged and it's a very
big task for coming in and trying to reclimate matter
and move it forward. Tell us some of the things
that you are looking at. And I know this is
a one step at a time process. Am I correcting that?
Speaker 5 (33:16):
That's correct?
Speaker 11 (33:17):
And once again, thank you Chip for having me on
with you this evening. It's really a pleasure to be
with you and your audience. For us, this really is
we are in the process of literally fixing the bus
while it's driving down the road. This is a chance
(33:42):
for us to really get Mada as an organization really
just back to the basics, the basics of delivering public
transit service to its customers in a reliable manner each
and every day. Because all of the things that you've listed,
the problems with reliability, the problems with transparency, the problems
(34:06):
with believability have absolutely been documented and customers have experienced
that for too long, and the issues have been myriad,
and it's time promoded to get back to the basics
of delivering on the mission of providing public transit service
(34:31):
to Mempians and that's our charge.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
There are you know, a lot of a lot of
holes that need to be filled in reference to all
of this, and your analogy about fixing the bus while
it's actually still rolling is interesting to me in terms
of all of this when you look at the challenge
of all of this and trying to and trying to
get this back to some level of respectability, I think
(34:57):
one of the big issues here, and maybe the main issue,
is getting the trust back in this organization from the
community who have really, you know, taken it on the
chin in reference to the disappointment is that they have
had for so long. How do you go about trying
to rebuild the trust in the community that Matta is
(35:21):
supposed to serve.
Speaker 11 (35:23):
Thank you, and that is really at the foundation of
the issues that we have, and really the solution to
that is just tell people the truth. You know, for
over a year now, MATA has been lying to its customers.
You know, when you post a schedule and to your
(35:45):
customers in the schedule, the transit schedule is our contracts
as an organization with our customers. We tell to our customers,
here's the schedule that we are going to endeavor each
and every day to deliver to you in exchange for
your fare and your patronage. And when we deliver a
(36:06):
schedule that says a bus is going to come at
this time at this location, knowing that we cut that
service and that bus is never going to come out.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
And we do that.
Speaker 11 (36:19):
Over and over and over and over and over again,
and when the bus doesn't show up, we give some
concocted excuse, oh, an operator didn't show up, a bus
broke down. Whatever. We have to tell the truth number one.
And when we found that out, we expose that to
the customers. You saw almost an audible exhale from our
(36:45):
customers who were in the boardroom at that time because
they knew that that was something just wasn't being They
weren't being told the truth. And so once we exposed
that and said what you've been told by the truth,
here is the truth of where we are. And it's
not a great story. We're not able to put out
(37:07):
seventy four buses on a day to day basis, as
you've been told, we will endeavor to put out fifty
four buses, and here is the truth of that schedule,
and we're going to do that on a daily basis.
You saw the almost relief, the palpable relief from customers.
Now we're at the rock bottom, all right, Okay, the
(37:29):
agency hasn't bought buses in almost a decade, except you know,
a couple electric buses here and a couple there. We've
got to start from the bottom and build a strong
foundation and work towards gaining trust, gaining truth, and building
(37:50):
an organization from scratch.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Well that's the word, is that, that's kind of where
where it lies. I mean, you say you're at the bottom.
The only place you can go was up. Generally speaking,
you mentioned seventy four buses, I would have I guess
that's the standard. Would be the standard operation you'd like
to see, we're somewhere in the would you say fifty
fifty four buses?
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Fifty?
Speaker 11 (38:13):
So, yeah, the current the current schedule that we are
running today requires fifty four buses to meet that schedule
on a daily based Monday through Friday, that's our peak period.
And what we're doing is that we're endeavoring to meet
that schedule each and every day.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
So obviously this is a steep climb which is going
to require some monetary help.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
You know.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
I know you're dealing with the city Council in reference
to this, and and I know those those meetings have
been you know, pretty salty ever know, you know from
time to time in reference to that in terms of
reclaimating this project which you are here to do. And
we all know that there is a new board that
that go the operations of MATA. How are you working
(39:03):
with the board? How is the communication level with the board?
Is everyone on the same page as you are as
you try to build this thing from scratch?
Speaker 5 (39:12):
Seems like all over again.
Speaker 11 (39:14):
Absolutely, the board that we have now is actually they
are very dedicated, passionate people and they are serious about
the work that needs to be done. At MATA and
they are serious about holding us accountable to the work
that we are doing, and we welcome that. We welcome
(39:35):
the partnership. There's a lot of discussion, there's a lot
of trust that has been established, and at the same time,
there's accountability to that they have required of us, that
they are going to ask hard questions. They are not
going to accept the rubber stamp, and they're going to
hold our feet to the fire. And as transit professionals,
(39:56):
we welcome that. We welcome that give and t we
welcome the discussion, and we welcome the debate that goes
on at our committee meetings and the discussion because at
the end of the day, we're going to have a
better product to offer our customers. Now, you mentioned the
financial requirements of that. Yes, there isn't a transit agency
(40:22):
in the country that would not say they need additional
financial resources. But before we can ask our funding partners
for additional resources, we've got to prove to them that
we are good stewards of the money that they're currently
given providing to us. You know, you've covered the challenges
(40:43):
that the agency has had in that regard in the past.
We've got to prove that we can deliver on the
financial resources that they provide today, and we can deliver
that in a efficient and affective manner and do that
in a way in which they do not question whether
(41:05):
or not their investment is a good investment to the community. Now,
what does that mean. That means that for the dollars
that they are putting in that we are doing the
absolute best to make sure that the maximum amount of
that dollar goes towards putting bus service on the street
(41:26):
serving the people of Memphis, not towards cushy office space
and high priced executives and you know, administrative offices and
other things or decision making that has happened in the past.
We are in the process of reallocating those funds to
(41:47):
make sure that more of that dollar goes towards putting
buses on the street rather than administrative overhead.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
One final question for you in terms of a timetable, Well,
there's obviously a lot of challenges that you have to face,
and you're saying you're doing this, you know, one step
at a time. But for example, a year from now,
where do you envision Matta as a bus company serving
our community.
Speaker 11 (42:17):
A year from today, I think what you will have
is a MATTA that is putting out consistent, scheduled service
that they're able to meet each and every day, whatever
that level is. You will have your first delivery of
new buses on the street. You will have a new
(42:38):
leadership team, you will no longer have consultants that are
running the organization, and there will be a matter that
is run by Memphians that Memphians can be proud of,
and that is delivering on the promise that the organization
(43:00):
is made to the community on a daily basis.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
Well, listen, man, it sounds like a very challenging project
that so many folks are relying on and depending on.
But listen, I want to thank you and and I
appreciate you taking the time to come on the show
this evening and share your thoughts with our listening audience
out here. We are watching, we are looking, we are anticipating,
(43:26):
eagerly anticipating a new look matter as time moves forward.
John Lewis, ladies and gentlemen, the interim CEO of Mattha
is here, and he is saying, look, we're not playing
around here. We're gonna We're gonna do it. But more importantly,
it sounds to me like you said, we can show
you better than we can tell you. John, thank you
so much for taking the time to come on the show.
(43:47):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 11 (43:49):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
Take care, Thank you so much. So there you go,
ladies and gentlemen. That's the update from Mata. There's a
new direction, there's a new there's a new man at
the Helm. There's a new print to Helmet Transpro, which
is the consulting company, and he's trying to get this
thing back right the way it's supposed to be. And
we will be watching and we will be keeping tabs
on all of this. Thank him so much for coming
on the show. Let's take a break, and when we
(44:13):
come back. Are you an individual who is trying to
save money for one case and a lot of other things,
and you're trying to figure out the topsy turvy world
the finances these days with our new president in the
office world, maybe we can answer some questions with our
next guest. This is Real Talk, Memphis, don't go away,
Still more show to go.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
If you like Real Talk, here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion, want to be considered a guest or have
a guest idea, then send Chip a message on his
Real Talk show page and you that can be a
part of the Real Talk experience. So as he always says,
go out and tell somebody, We'll be right back.
Speaker 11 (45:07):
It's It's talk.
Speaker 12 (45:15):
WYXR and Memphis Listening Labs Stereo Sessions presented by MEMPHO
returns with a special Jazz History Month presentation of Memphis
bred piano player Phineas Newborn Junior and his nineteen fifty
seven album Phineas's Rainbow. Join us at six pm Wednesday,
April sixteenth inside Memphis Listening Lab at Crosstown Concourse. Attendees,
we'll hear the album in full on the lab's High
(45:36):
five sound system, along with a conversation hosted by jazz
guitars and collector Joe Restivo exploring Newborn's musical legacy and
lasting impact. The event is free and open to the public.
RSVP and learn more at Stereo Sessions dot WYXR dot org.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
Get real talk on the tune in mobile app under
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put w y XR in the search box and hit subscribe.
Now back to more Real Talk with Chip Washington.
Speaker 4 (46:33):
And welcome back to Real Talk on this Monday evening
ship with you along with our next guest. Now, you know, uh,
terms like instability and volatility and just really people are
just very lost and confused in the financial realm of
things because of uh, the tariffs that have been issued
and the volatility of the stock market, and a lot
(46:56):
of four one ks are blowing up all over the
country with all of this volatility. So I wanted to
ask a financial expert to come on this show and
try to make sense of all of this that is happening.
Speaker 5 (47:09):
He's been on our show before. His name is Vincent C. Perry.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
He is a financial advisor and he joins me now
and Vincent's great to see my friend.
Speaker 5 (47:16):
How are you.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
I'm doing well, Chip, good to be with.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
You, Absolutely good to have you.
Speaker 4 (47:22):
Okay, So, mister financial advisor, A lot of folks that
we're all trying to figure this thing out now every
other day, every other week, the volatility of the stock
market is up and it's down, and and a lot
of people financial I guess other financial experts are talking
about if this keeps up this volatility, we could be
looking at a recession and a lot of other things.
(47:43):
As you see things right now from your perch, what
does this look like and and is there is this
a concern for many folks from the financial end of things.
Speaker 5 (47:54):
A real thing.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
It is a real thing. Chip, you know, is you know,
essentially something that is used by countries for important goods,
and you know it can be used to regulate trade
or generate revenue for the government. Now, these tariffs go
by a different names. Sometimes they're referred to as you know,
levees or duties. You know, at the end of the day,
(48:17):
terrafts are essentially a tax right, and it's a tax
right that's paid by the end consumer. Now, terrorfs in
and of themselves may not necessarily be good or bad.
But the problem, as you alluded to, is uncertainty. You know,
the stock market likes certainty, you know, so when we
think about what the stock market is really based upon,
(48:38):
it's based upon businesses, business companies that derive revenue from
goods and services. Now, you know, these businesses project months
or years into the future, and they like they like certainty.
They like to plan for what's next. Right now, we
have a boat load of it.
Speaker 5 (48:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Right now we don't know what the tariff situation is
going to be tomorrow, let alone months in advance. So
we have a pause. We have a nine of the pause.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. But at the end of
the day, chick investors need to take a deep breath,
take a pause, and not get caught up in what
(49:20):
we call panic selling right now, you know, I mean,
this is this is your money. You've worked hard, months, years, decades,
and money is something that we hold near and dear
to our hearts. You don't want to lose it. And
so when we make decisions based on emotion, many times
this can cloud our judgment and we can rush and
(49:40):
make decisions that are not in our best entries. So
we really need to kind of take a step back
and look at the big picture here.
Speaker 5 (49:46):
You know.
Speaker 4 (49:46):
Having said that, and a lot of folks you know,
are panicky, but you laid it out in a very
honest way. First of all, this is this is an
additional tax. We live in an inflated society right now.
The prices are up every which way, whether it's groceries,
whether it's gas, whether it's other merchandise that that one
needs to balance their books, so to speak. I hear
(50:08):
people every day, Vincent, all across this country on the
news talking about the sheer uncertainty and losing money. Here,
farmers talking about the fact that they're being hit hard
with all of this. And at the end of the day, Uh,
these folks are being hit by these tariffs and a
lot of these tariffs are passing there they have to
pass on the additional cost to the consumers. We live
(50:31):
in a society right now where where a lot of
folks are are working and living paycheck to paycheck, And
so I mean, I guess would you say that that
would complicate things even more because again, while we may
need to take a pause and take a step back,
we still got to pay bills.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
We still have to pay bills now. Now to that
to that point, you know, we need to kind of
go back to basics. So we need to for folks
like that, they need to develop a budget. A budget
is simply knowing how much money is coming into your
home versus how much is leaving cash flow. One on one, Now,
if you have a surtplus. Keep doing what you're doing.
You're doing something right now. If you're living check to
(51:09):
paycheck and there's not a surfplus, you need to find
out ways that you can that you can cut back
to free up cash flow. Now I do. I also
want to make a point about, you know, panic selling,
and I want to think about I want your listeners
to think about months and years of uncertainty in the
stock market. Think about February two thousand to February two
(51:32):
thousand and two, this so called tick wreck where you know,
TIK stocks decline ten twenty thirty percent. I want people
to think about the financial crisis from October two thousand
and seven to March two thousand and nine. People vividly
remember what the stock market did at that point, or
maybe doing COVID from twenty twenty to twenty twenty two,
(51:53):
we all know that the stock market declined by huge numbers. However,
the best day, it's the best performance in the history
of a stock market occurred during those times, and so
also just her last week, the stock market was up
by over nine percent in one day. Sometimes the stock
(52:14):
market does not increase by nine percent in a year,
let alone in one day. So if we sell based
upon you know, what we're seeing in the market or
tweet or you know, a post, we can miss some
of the very best days in the market. So our
decisions need to be based on our own economic circumstances,
(52:34):
not what we're seeing and hearing out there and the
twitter verse, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (52:39):
So you're saying, you know, weit watching pay attention. I mean,
it really has become just almost this game every single day.
And you listen to economists and I don't know, besides
the people that are that are on the inside of
the of the White House conversations on a daily basis,
and a lot of other folks are saying, man, this
is just not good for the account. This is just
(53:01):
not good. I mean, it really isn't. I mean, what
we're what he's trying to do is even the playing field,
I guess for these other countries and bringing all this
money back to the United States. But it just seems
too many people and I heard somebody say this the
other night on the news, it's a selfish way to
try to h to create more wealth for this country
when there are folks in food lines and breadlines and
(53:24):
scraping together pennies each and every day to try to
pay the essential bills to keep the lights on it.
Speaker 2 (53:29):
And I'm sure you can understand that, oh absolutely yeah.
I mean when we look at it, it's like, okay,
you know, this is not this is not fair. You know,
I can, I can kind of understand what's happening, but
it all reverts back to again our own economic circumstances.
You know, what's happening in my household, and we really
have to distract you know, uh, you know, and kind
(53:50):
of filter out a lot of the noise that that's
going on that there, get back the basics, you know,
look at that budget cash flow one on one, make
sure you have a you know, adequate raining, a cash reserve,
three to six months of irregular current expenses. And then
you know, I want to also pivot back to you know,
the stock market and you know, people selling out. There
(54:11):
are a couple of sentences that people really want to
keep in mind that sound alike but are very different.
And the first sentence has four words. You want to
think about time in the market as opposed to timing
the market. A lot of people jump in and jump out,
but you really want to kind of think about diversification,
(54:33):
making sure that you have proper acid allocation over stocks, bonds, cash,
and alternatives, which is anything other than stocks, bonds or cash.
Getting back to basics, making sure that your financial house
is in good shape, filtering out all the noise out there.
And then and then another thing I want to leave
with the chip is just a conversation that a fictional
(54:57):
conversation I had about it in Investor and the Great
stock Market, the Great financial crisis here some years ago.
And the conversation was like, you know, Bill says, you know,
he wants to sell his house that he bought, you know,
two years ago, four hundred thousand dollars, you know, because
of the housing market devalue. And he said, well, if
I tried to sell it today, I could only get
ninety thousand. But I still want to sell it. And
(55:19):
this fictional conversation I had was, so are you leaving?
You're relocating? He was like, no, are you empty masters
He was like, no, I just want to sell. I'm like,
so let me get this straight.
Speaker 5 (55:29):
Bill.
Speaker 2 (55:29):
You know the house is fine, You're not relocating, So
tell me again why you want to sell. Well, he's like,
you know, you know the value of the house is
down ten percent. My neighbors are selling, so I need
to sell as well. Well, I'm like, well, now you
do understand that if you hold on to your house
for a couple of months or a couple of years,
it will rebound to where you what you paid for,
probably a lot more. It was like, hmm, I never
(55:50):
really thought about that. And of course we know what
happened after two thousand and nine house prices rebounding, and
that's the same way with prices today. So people need
to put things into perspective and make it real for themselves.
Speaker 4 (56:02):
Vincent c Perry, Ladies and gentlemen, financial advisor giving us
some wives and sage advice and hold on what he's
trying to say, Hold on, ladies, hold on. Vincent, thank
you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker 12 (56:12):
Man.
Speaker 5 (56:12):
I really appreciate your time and your valuable information. I
appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (56:17):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (56:17):
Good to be with you too, my friend. Thank you. Well,
there you go, Ladies and gentlemen. You know, we try
to provide the type of information that you can use.
As Brent plays us out. Uh, this has been a
good show, uh, and I've enjoyed talking with our guests.
I hope you've enjoyed listening to them as well. Program note,
ladies and gentlemen, next coming up next right up to
(56:39):
this show, show called Event horizsn but is guiding you.
We will be guiding you through this next hour or
so with some very interesting music, that is for sure.
So stay tuned, don't try to sit down. I'll keep
it right here to w y XR for Event Horizon.
In the meantime, Man Betweens, thank you for supporting what
(57:02):
we do here on Real Talk Memphis each day every
Monday evening. If you like what we do, go ahead
and tell somebody. So for all of us here, for
rent radio hosts and for Lola, I'm Chip, so happy
to have you with us. Have a great week and safe.
Be careful out there, watch out for other folks because
(57:23):
they may not be watching out for you and for
all of us here it's Real Talk Memphis. I'm Chip
and we all right see you soon.
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