April 22, 2024 • 20 mins
This week we're talking about the fight agaisnt a biomass campus in North Memphis and how our city council has been selling out and ignoring community opposition. For more content follow me on Facebook and Instagram @TheLawAccordingtoAmber
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Hey guys, and welcome to theLaw according to Amber. Every other Monday,
we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixtureof opinion and legal facts. Thus
the Law according to Amber. Besure to give me a follow on Facebook
at the Law Cording to Amber,as well as Instagram, same name,
The Law according to Amber. What'sup, y'all. It's Amber back with
(00:33):
another episode of your favorite podcast,and this week we're going to be talking
all things the urban Wood biomass campus. So for some folks who are not
local to Memphis or just haven't heardabout it, there was a proposal by
an organization called urban Wood that's inpartnership with another org to build a biomass
(00:55):
campus and sawmill in an area NorthMemphis. The area is like a vacant
plot of land that they bought that'sright next to a residential neighborhood. And
it's a little background. There isa consistent pattern of developers coming into poor
black neighborhoods in Memphis, like SouthMemphis and North Memphis and putting these hazardous
(01:21):
chemical like type of projects like abiomass campus or a pipeline, which we
saw justin Peerson fighting for a fewyears ago in the community in South Memphis
fighting for and still fighting against.They're still doing a lot with their New
Org Memphis community against pollution, sothey still do a lot of similar work
(01:44):
around those things. But one thingwe've noticed is that, you know,
because we don't care about poor blackpeople, poor people in general, we
tend to put things like this intheir communities because one, we don't want
to put it in the rich people'scommunities. You know, we don't want
to affect their health. That's howthey think of it, right, you
know, poor folks aren't valued thesame way. So this project, the
(02:06):
urber Wood Campus project, is uniquein that it's been going through a process
in city council and there has beena lot of things happening with it.
So our city council is who approveszoning and planning most of the time.
Pretty much, they're pretty much theones to approve it. So they will
(02:30):
come down to the person who's sponsoring, you know, the permit or you
know, from zoning and planning,will come down to the city council meeting,
explain what the project is. They'lltalk about it in committee, decides
they want to give a favorable orunfavorable recommendation for it, and then folks
will usually sms come down to themeeting and make comments about it too.
The one thing that's different about thisBiomans Campus project that to me was very
(02:53):
similar to the pipeline project is thatthe community has been against it since the
beginning. It's in the time Evergreencommunity, which is a historic black community
in North Memphis. Their city councilmember Michael Laeister Thomas has been against it
as well, and they've been comingdown to the city council meetings consistently in
(03:13):
opposition to this project, like consistently, and we've really seen a lot of
folks trying to sell out, Likeat the previous meeting they had where they
had the most people attending, theworks have people from their side who were
there saying they were supportive of theproject, and then Valentine Evergreen had more
(03:37):
people there even in the crowd.Feel the crowd up as well who were
against it, and instead of votingit down, the chairman JB. Smiley
Junior, suggested that they do anothercommunity meeting because it's clear that the community
is not in support of the project. Even though you know, they had
some few people who said they werefrom the community there, but these are
people who like houses, live rightacross the street from it, right down
(03:58):
the street from it. And thenwe're like, we don't want this project.
So then they go have the communitymeeting, and the community showed up
very deep for the meeting, andso did Counseling Smiley. And something he
said that was really troubling to mewas that he opened up the meetings and
well, you know, this couldhave been a strip club. And I
(04:23):
was like, what, because themain thing that I've been hearing as well,
like I've been texting with city councilmembers and talking with them, the
main thing that I've been hearing isthat, well, that land has said
vacant for so long and no onewants to do anything with it. And
I asked them, what did youask the community what they wanted? Because
(04:44):
also most of these people who areon the city council right now are new
and so they just ran they justhad elections and they ran on you know,
wanted to make sure that folks hadoutaway housing, wanted to be a
voice for the people, all thisstuff, and and I was like,
in no way are you being avoice for the people right now, Like
(05:05):
pushing back against what the community wantsis not being a voice for the people,
and using excuses like this land hasbeen vacant for so long isn't the
answer either. And I think that'swhat was pissing me off the most,
is that we're having excuses versus solutions, and the community has solutions, but
they're not being asked, they're notbeing brought into the process. And so
(05:28):
a lot of the support for theproject was that it'll bring in some jobs
and that the area is set vacantfor so long, and I just don't
think that we should be approven projectsthat are going to be harmful to the
community and using you know, reasoninglike it's set vacant for so long it
was an eyesore. Like I toldCounsel and Smiley and counsel Member Janika White,
(05:54):
you can give the community the land. I mean, if they're denied
the permit to do the work,they could sell the land, they could
give it to the community whatever they'regonna do. But the community said they
don't want this here, and sowhat are you gonna do? That's different
from these other politicians who don't listento them. But we kind of saw
(06:15):
how that went left. So afterthose folks came out for that first big
meeting and they asked for a communitymeeting, they had that community meeting,
and then in between that time thecampaign that they organized, the volunteer Evergreen
Community like Neighborhood Association, has beenorganized a campaign this whole time. They've
(06:38):
written op eds. They even hada press conference with neighbors and community members,
and it was when they had thatpress conference I think that I kind
of saw the trajectory change for howthe works felt about the project. So
they have this press conference with JustinPearson and Latricia Adams, but Teresa Adams
(07:00):
is the founder and need for BlackMillennials for Flint and Young Gifted in Green
which is a him sorry, YoungGifted in Green, which is an environmental
justice org that really works around environmentaljustice issues, especially here in Memphis where
we have a lot of them,and a lot of them saw out like
(07:20):
projects like this, like this biomasscampus. So in between that time they
were having this press conference, andalso Urbanwood was changing what was going to
be at the area. So atfirst it was supposed to be a biomass
campus and saw Mill which will makethe land heavy industrial and it is not
(07:42):
zoned for heavy industrial, zone forlight industrial. So then they removed the
saw mill and said that there wouldjust be a biomass campus and they were
going to be heard again at thecity council meeting, but they withdrew their
application and so at this press conference. I think I think the press conference
is what spooked them a little bitbecause Latricia Adams, who also serves on
(08:07):
a lead prevention and environmental related likeat how committee I think for the White
House, was using a lot oflanguage around the harms they could be caused
by this biomass campus, how theyweren't following certain rules, how this could
go over this amount of percentage they'resupposed to like of toxins they're supposed to
be in the air. I meanit was She is really good at explaining
(08:31):
like how horrible this biomass campus isgonna be. I was like immediately convinced
listening to her. If I hadn'tseen any comments around the community or anything,
I would have been like, oh, hell no, just from listening
to her. And then Justin Peersonalso spoke, and then some community member
spoke. I remember there was ayoung black guy who talked about how his
grandma lives down the street and hedoesn't want her having to breathe in that
(08:52):
air because she likes to walk,take a walk every day, and how
that's damaging, you know, toher loans, especially with long term exposure.
So I thought it was a greatpress conference. After that press conference,
the city Council was supposed to hearthe planning proposal again, but the
(09:13):
application was withdrawn from Urban Wood andso we were like, oh, okay,
they're just gonna, you know,not try to go this route because
you don't have to go through thecity council. You can go through the
land Land Land Control U, sportLand Use Control Board, try to too
many names. Land Use Control Board. You can go through them and it's
(09:35):
a different process. But city councilusually, I guess it's easy for folks
and it's like the process most folksknow, so they usually just go through
that. So you have that process, and they went through their application,
so it was on the agenda andthen it was removed. But then at
(09:58):
this past city council I went tothat the Shenanigans were afoot and I think
this is where a lot of folkshave been saying, like, you know,
they feel like their council members areselling out, and I feel like
this is where you really saw iton full display. So at one point
in the meeting, they said,we're gonna talk about this issue that happened,
(10:20):
and they have Attorney Wade, whois the city council's attorney, talk
about how there was someone who hadapplication was drawn who only wanted their application
held, which are two very differentthings to have it withdrawn and with held.
So then the chairman J. B. Smiley Junr asked the guy from
the Planning and Zoning Department for theCity of Memphis to come up and he
(10:45):
said, yeah, I did receivethat email where they want the application was
drawn. I was confused because Iwas pretty sure they were going to be
going forward with the application. ButI responded back to them and said were
they sure? And they responded inthe affirmative and the way our city council
meetings workers like you put yourself inthe queue to speak or ask questions,
So as this was happening, peoplewere putting themselves in the queue to speak.
(11:07):
And Michael and Easter Thomas, whoactually represents that area in North Memphis,
you know, was asking the questionsof you know, this is not
a process that we do. Ifsomeone withdraws, then they withdrawn. We
don't, you know, go backand say we're gonna have something heard.
And then Chase Carlisle and some otherfolks say, well, do we have
anything in writing to prove this,because Attorney Way was basically saying that they
(11:31):
could sue us, take us tocivil court, and they would let them
be heard anyways, and so weshould just put it back on the agenda
and let it be heard, whichthe crowd didn't agree with. I didn't
agree with either, and neither didMichael Easter Thomas. And as they're going
through like this process of talking aboutit, people started flip flopping like what
they were saying. And so firstthe planning and zone and guy said that
(11:54):
there was an email, and theyresponded in the affirmative. But then they're
asking for something in writing, andthey said they don't have any thing in
writing. And Michael Easter Thomas evencalled out when you just said there was
an email, and we all inthe crowd looking like you really did did
just say there was an email?So I'm really confused how all of a
sudden, there is no written proof, and basically they said that they need
(12:15):
to add it back to the legendato let it be heard because they don't
want to be sued and they don'thave any written proof, even though the
council themselves and the guy I'm planningand zoning admitted that there was proof because
there was an email sent. Andto me, they just showed that they
are doing They're willing to do whateverthey gotta do to have this project heard,
(12:37):
even though the community is completely againstit. They have canvassed their community,
They've had folks coming to the meetings, they made signs, they have
their children in the meetings talking abouthow this can harm their children. They've
done op eds like I mentioned before, and it just feels like they are
determined to push this project forward.And I know I mentioned the aspects that
(12:58):
were good about it were that theyhad jobs and that we're using the land.
Something folks also brought up is thatthese aren't like good paying jobs.
They're like forty thousand dollars a yearjobs for eight people. That's not a
lot. So even that pissed meoff because I was like, y'all make
it seem like you're making such ahuge economic investment in this area and you're
(13:22):
not like those are poverty wages.And I would much rather they not be
approved for the land and someone comeback with a different idea than to approve
this project, of all projects thatthe community is obviously stauchely against. Like
it's very like the the writing isright there. So this meeting will be
(13:46):
tomorrow that they're going to rehear it, and it's the first item on the
agenda. And so if you're inMemphis, I definitely suggest that you pull
up to this meeting. I thinkthat city Council, from what I noticed,
has to be pressured into making theright decision because they like to sell
out in the dark, and whenpeople don't come to the meetings, then
you know, they don't comment ondifferent things, and they just you know,
(14:09):
assume that they can just slide tothem bye. And one thing I
always notice is that it's usually whitedevelopers, but this white developer has a
black face in front of it.So their partner with a white developer,
a white architecture firm, and somebodyelse like another white company, but they
put urban wood at the forefront andRosehaan Austin is a black woman that's over
(14:33):
that, and that was purposeful becausethey knew for a project like this,
it was gonna get opposition, andso it makes it easier if you have
a black woman that's presenting it.And the way that we do optics and
stuff, especially in Memphis, amajority black city, it's really fucked up
because it couldn't be me selling outas a black woman to pollute a community.
(14:58):
That's just something I would do.And we're just seeing people's shoe colors,
really, and I think you're gonnasee the city council member shue colors
because they definitely nigger rigged that atthat meeting. I've never seen them do
something like that. They definite niggerrigged that situation so they could let this
(15:20):
planning and zone and proposal be heard. But people are going to be at
the meeting, and I think thatwhen we packed this meeting out again,
it's gonna be even harder for themto sell out because, like we saw
the first time, they didn't wantto take a vote on it, so
they pushed it and then they gotscooped, they got spooked and removed it
(15:43):
completely and Withdrew then they felt likethey had the upper hands. So now
they want to try again, andwe're not gonna let that happen because that's
not how organizing works, you know. So I'm really interested to see what
happens. If you don't live inMemphis, you want to watch it,
you can watch it on YouTube.Actually they live streaming them. And I
always suggest that folks, especially wework from home or you work in a
(16:03):
place where you can like listen intosomething put up the YouTube, well,
listen to the committee meetings where theypresent these things. Sometimes listen to the
city council meeting because as far asat three thirty in the middle of the
day, which is something that we'retrying to change. Also, we've really
been pushing for them to change thetime. So I'm gonna keep pushing for
that because I think for the communityto be as involved as possible, we
(16:26):
have to have meetings at an accessibletime for working class people, and that's
what the majority of Memphis population is, working class people. So that's something
I definitely want to keep pushing forand hopefully we can accomplish this year of
moving those back. Another thing Iwant to talk about is just what's happening
(16:47):
in Memphis right now. We're goinginto budget season, and so tomorrow the
Mayor's also supposed to be presenting hisbudget proposal, and I'll be tuned in
for that because, boy, I'mreading a lot of articles that talk about
how he thinks that we're gonna haveto do a property tax hike because the
(17:07):
economic downfall from COVID really affected us, and we received way less federal money
then a lot of cities with evensmaller populations is US. And I know
you're like, well, why didy'all receive less money? One of the
main reasons is that Steve Cohen,our congress member, didn't advocate for us,
and he's been doing a lacklesser jobfor a while now. He sucks
(17:30):
and we're seeing the real tangible repercussionsof that with citizens now are gonna be
affected because if they do a propertytax hike, that's gonna affect taxpayers,
right, And I know a lotof times folks who aren't directly affected by
stuff, like CEF Cohen is rich. You know he doesn't care about a
property tax hike, right, Andso when you don't really care about that,
(17:55):
when your surroundings in your community isalso rich white people, you tend
to lose touch with the community,and I've noticed that, especially since Memphis
is the majority of black city,having him as our representation has really led
us down the wrong path. Wecontinue to see constant disinvestment as a city,
(18:17):
and I'm ready to get him upout of here. He got a
few opponents this year, and soI'm excited to see what's gonna happen with
that, because if they beat himin the primary, then that person would
win because it's a democratic area,and so I'm really excited to see him
get his asked beat in a primary. I'm hoping and praying that he gets
(18:41):
beat because it's just not it's justnot the leader that we need. And
this real world example of seeing howhim not advocating for us, even though
he talks about how you know,one of the reason why we should keep
sending him back is because he's ina senior leadership position. He's a chair
of a committee. He's the chairof the transportation committee, and we don't
(19:03):
have any kind of transportation infrastructure,or we haven't had any like development,
even though we've been asking for it. They've been asking for like Amtrak and
other stuff and like really trying tobuild out parts of Tennessee. He hasn't
advocated for that on our behalf.He really hasn't done a good job with
like his responses around Palistin. He'sbeen very anti Palestine, supporting Israel to
(19:30):
the end, I tell you,like, and it's embarrassing, but I'm
excited that there are people are gonnarun there. That are people. There
are people who are running against him. One of people I know, Corey
Strong, is running against him,and Corey is a pretty strong candidate,
no pun intended. That was funny, though, So I'm excited to see
(19:52):
what happens with that race because we'rereally feeling the effects of his lack of
leadership. Not really trying, youknow, just kind of going with the
flow, enjoying the fun of beinga congress member. But I ain't putting
it in no work for us,and I know plenty of people who will
say the same thing. Ain't puttingit no work for us. So yeah,
(20:17):
thank y'all so much for listening toanother episode of The Law Cordon to
Amber. As always followed me onsocial media on Facebook at the Law Cordon
to Amber and Instagram, same name, the law Cordon to Amber. I'm
excited to be doing some more contentand I'll see y'all in probably another week.
I think I might might boost upand do more episodes because there's a
(20:38):
lot of stuff happening in Memphis andnationally, and I think that we should
really be talking about it. Arey'all? Peace,
Hey guys, and welcome to theLaw according to Amber. Every other Monday,
we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixtureof opinion and legal facts. Thus
the Law according to Amber. Besure to give me a follow on Facebook
at the Law Cording to Amber,as well as Instagram, same name,
The Law according to Amber. What'sup, y'all. It's Amber back with
(00:33):
another episode of your favorite podcast,and this week we're going to be talking
all things the urban Wood biomass campus. So for some folks who are not
local to Memphis or just haven't heardabout it, there was a proposal by
an organization called urban Wood that's inpartnership with another org to build a biomass
(00:55):
campus and sawmill in an area NorthMemphis. The area is like a vacant
plot of land that they bought that'sright next to a residential neighborhood. And
it's a little background. There isa consistent pattern of developers coming into poor
black neighborhoods in Memphis, like SouthMemphis and North Memphis and putting these hazardous
(01:21):
chemical like type of projects like abiomass campus or a pipeline, which we
saw justin Peerson fighting for a fewyears ago in the community in South Memphis
fighting for and still fighting against.They're still doing a lot with their New
Org Memphis community against pollution, sothey still do a lot of similar work
(01:44):
around those things. But one thingwe've noticed is that, you know,
because we don't care about poor blackpeople, poor people in general, we
tend to put things like this intheir communities because one, we don't want
to put it in the rich people'scommunities. You know, we don't want
to affect their health. That's howthey think of it, right, you
know, poor folks aren't valued thesame way. So this project, the
(02:06):
urber Wood Campus project, is uniquein that it's been going through a process
in city council and there has beena lot of things happening with it.
So our city council is who approveszoning and planning most of the time.
Pretty much, they're pretty much theones to approve it. So they will
(02:30):
come down to the person who's sponsoring, you know, the permit or you
know, from zoning and planning,will come down to the city council meeting,
explain what the project is. They'lltalk about it in committee, decides
they want to give a favorable orunfavorable recommendation for it, and then folks
will usually sms come down to themeeting and make comments about it too.
The one thing that's different about thisBiomans Campus project that to me was very
(02:53):
similar to the pipeline project is thatthe community has been against it since the
beginning. It's in the time Evergreencommunity, which is a historic black community
in North Memphis. Their city councilmember Michael Laeister Thomas has been against it
as well, and they've been comingdown to the city council meetings consistently in
(03:13):
opposition to this project, like consistently, and we've really seen a lot of
folks trying to sell out, Likeat the previous meeting they had where they
had the most people attending, theworks have people from their side who were
there saying they were supportive of theproject, and then Valentine Evergreen had more
(03:37):
people there even in the crowd.Feel the crowd up as well who were
against it, and instead of votingit down, the chairman JB. Smiley
Junior, suggested that they do anothercommunity meeting because it's clear that the community
is not in support of the project. Even though you know, they had
some few people who said they werefrom the community there, but these are
people who like houses, live rightacross the street from it, right down
(03:58):
the street from it. And thenwe're like, we don't want this project.
So then they go have the communitymeeting, and the community showed up
very deep for the meeting, andso did Counseling Smiley. And something he
said that was really troubling to mewas that he opened up the meetings and
well, you know, this couldhave been a strip club. And I
(04:23):
was like, what, because themain thing that I've been hearing as well,
like I've been texting with city councilmembers and talking with them, the
main thing that I've been hearing isthat, well, that land has said
vacant for so long and no onewants to do anything with it. And
I asked them, what did youask the community what they wanted? Because
(04:44):
also most of these people who areon the city council right now are new
and so they just ran they justhad elections and they ran on you know,
wanted to make sure that folks hadoutaway housing, wanted to be a
voice for the people, all thisstuff, and and I was like,
in no way are you being avoice for the people right now, Like
(05:05):
pushing back against what the community wantsis not being a voice for the people,
and using excuses like this land hasbeen vacant for so long isn't the
answer either. And I think that'swhat was pissing me off the most,
is that we're having excuses versus solutions, and the community has solutions, but
they're not being asked, they're notbeing brought into the process. And so
(05:28):
a lot of the support for theproject was that it'll bring in some jobs
and that the area is set vacantfor so long, and I just don't
think that we should be approven projectsthat are going to be harmful to the
community and using you know, reasoninglike it's set vacant for so long it
was an eyesore. Like I toldCounsel and Smiley and counsel Member Janika White,
(05:54):
you can give the community the land. I mean, if they're denied
the permit to do the work,they could sell the land, they could
give it to the community whatever they'regonna do. But the community said they
don't want this here, and sowhat are you gonna do? That's different
from these other politicians who don't listento them. But we kind of saw
(06:15):
how that went left. So afterthose folks came out for that first big
meeting and they asked for a communitymeeting, they had that community meeting,
and then in between that time thecampaign that they organized, the volunteer Evergreen
Community like Neighborhood Association, has beenorganized a campaign this whole time. They've
(06:38):
written op eds. They even hada press conference with neighbors and community members,
and it was when they had thatpress conference I think that I kind
of saw the trajectory change for howthe works felt about the project. So
they have this press conference with JustinPearson and Latricia Adams, but Teresa Adams
(07:00):
is the founder and need for BlackMillennials for Flint and Young Gifted in Green
which is a him sorry, YoungGifted in Green, which is an environmental
justice org that really works around environmentaljustice issues, especially here in Memphis where
we have a lot of them,and a lot of them saw out like
(07:20):
projects like this, like this biomasscampus. So in between that time they
were having this press conference, andalso Urbanwood was changing what was going to
be at the area. So atfirst it was supposed to be a biomass
campus and saw Mill which will makethe land heavy industrial and it is not
(07:42):
zoned for heavy industrial, zone forlight industrial. So then they removed the
saw mill and said that there wouldjust be a biomass campus and they were
going to be heard again at thecity council meeting, but they withdrew their
application and so at this press conference. I think I think the press conference
is what spooked them a little bitbecause Latricia Adams, who also serves on
(08:07):
a lead prevention and environmental related likeat how committee I think for the White
House, was using a lot oflanguage around the harms they could be caused
by this biomass campus, how theyweren't following certain rules, how this could
go over this amount of percentage they'resupposed to like of toxins they're supposed to
be in the air. I meanit was She is really good at explaining
(08:31):
like how horrible this biomass campus isgonna be. I was like immediately convinced
listening to her. If I hadn'tseen any comments around the community or anything,
I would have been like, oh, hell no, just from listening
to her. And then Justin Peersonalso spoke, and then some community member
spoke. I remember there was ayoung black guy who talked about how his
grandma lives down the street and hedoesn't want her having to breathe in that
(08:52):
air because she likes to walk,take a walk every day, and how
that's damaging, you know, toher loans, especially with long term exposure.
So I thought it was a greatpress conference. After that press conference,
the city Council was supposed to hearthe planning proposal again, but the
(09:13):
application was withdrawn from Urban Wood andso we were like, oh, okay,
they're just gonna, you know,not try to go this route because
you don't have to go through thecity council. You can go through the
land Land Land Control U, sportLand Use Control Board, try to too
many names. Land Use Control Board. You can go through them and it's
(09:35):
a different process. But city councilusually, I guess it's easy for folks
and it's like the process most folksknow, so they usually just go through
that. So you have that process, and they went through their application,
so it was on the agenda andthen it was removed. But then at
(09:58):
this past city council I went tothat the Shenanigans were afoot and I think
this is where a lot of folkshave been saying, like, you know,
they feel like their council members areselling out, and I feel like
this is where you really saw iton full display. So at one point
in the meeting, they said,we're gonna talk about this issue that happened,
(10:20):
and they have Attorney Wade, whois the city council's attorney, talk
about how there was someone who hadapplication was drawn who only wanted their application
held, which are two very differentthings to have it withdrawn and with held.
So then the chairman J. B. Smiley Junr asked the guy from
the Planning and Zoning Department for theCity of Memphis to come up and he
(10:45):
said, yeah, I did receivethat email where they want the application was
drawn. I was confused because Iwas pretty sure they were going to be
going forward with the application. ButI responded back to them and said were
they sure? And they responded inthe affirmative and the way our city council
meetings workers like you put yourself inthe queue to speak or ask questions,
So as this was happening, peoplewere putting themselves in the queue to speak.
(11:07):
And Michael and Easter Thomas, whoactually represents that area in North Memphis,
you know, was asking the questionsof you know, this is not
a process that we do. Ifsomeone withdraws, then they withdrawn. We
don't, you know, go backand say we're gonna have something heard.
And then Chase Carlisle and some otherfolks say, well, do we have
anything in writing to prove this,because Attorney Way was basically saying that they
(11:31):
could sue us, take us tocivil court, and they would let them
be heard anyways, and so weshould just put it back on the agenda
and let it be heard, whichthe crowd didn't agree with. I didn't
agree with either, and neither didMichael Easter Thomas. And as they're going
through like this process of talking aboutit, people started flip flopping like what
they were saying. And so firstthe planning and zone and guy said that
(11:54):
there was an email, and theyresponded in the affirmative. But then they're
asking for something in writing, andthey said they don't have any thing in
writing. And Michael Easter Thomas evencalled out when you just said there was
an email, and we all inthe crowd looking like you really did did
just say there was an email?So I'm really confused how all of a
sudden, there is no written proof, and basically they said that they need
(12:15):
to add it back to the legendato let it be heard because they don't
want to be sued and they don'thave any written proof, even though the
council themselves and the guy I'm planningand zoning admitted that there was proof because
there was an email sent. Andto me, they just showed that they
are doing They're willing to do whateverthey gotta do to have this project heard,
(12:37):
even though the community is completely againstit. They have canvassed their community,
They've had folks coming to the meetings, they made signs, they have
their children in the meetings talking abouthow this can harm their children. They've
done op eds like I mentioned before, and it just feels like they are
determined to push this project forward.And I know I mentioned the aspects that
(12:58):
were good about it were that theyhad jobs and that we're using the land.
Something folks also brought up is thatthese aren't like good paying jobs.
They're like forty thousand dollars a yearjobs for eight people. That's not a
lot. So even that pissed meoff because I was like, y'all make
it seem like you're making such ahuge economic investment in this area and you're
(13:22):
not like those are poverty wages.And I would much rather they not be
approved for the land and someone comeback with a different idea than to approve
this project, of all projects thatthe community is obviously stauchely against. Like
it's very like the the writing isright there. So this meeting will be
(13:46):
tomorrow that they're going to rehear it, and it's the first item on the
agenda. And so if you're inMemphis, I definitely suggest that you pull
up to this meeting. I thinkthat city Council, from what I noticed,
has to be pressured into making theright decision because they like to sell
out in the dark, and whenpeople don't come to the meetings, then
you know, they don't comment ondifferent things, and they just you know,
(14:09):
assume that they can just slide tothem bye. And one thing I
always notice is that it's usually whitedevelopers, but this white developer has a
black face in front of it.So their partner with a white developer,
a white architecture firm, and somebodyelse like another white company, but they
put urban wood at the forefront andRosehaan Austin is a black woman that's over
(14:33):
that, and that was purposeful becausethey knew for a project like this,
it was gonna get opposition, andso it makes it easier if you have
a black woman that's presenting it.And the way that we do optics and
stuff, especially in Memphis, amajority black city, it's really fucked up
because it couldn't be me selling outas a black woman to pollute a community.
(14:58):
That's just something I would do.And we're just seeing people's shoe colors,
really, and I think you're gonnasee the city council member shue colors
because they definitely nigger rigged that atthat meeting. I've never seen them do
something like that. They definite niggerrigged that situation so they could let this
(15:20):
planning and zone and proposal be heard. But people are going to be at
the meeting, and I think thatwhen we packed this meeting out again,
it's gonna be even harder for themto sell out because, like we saw
the first time, they didn't wantto take a vote on it, so
they pushed it and then they gotscooped, they got spooked and removed it
(15:43):
completely and Withdrew then they felt likethey had the upper hands. So now
they want to try again, andwe're not gonna let that happen because that's
not how organizing works, you know. So I'm really interested to see what
happens. If you don't live inMemphis, you want to watch it,
you can watch it on YouTube.Actually they live streaming them. And I
always suggest that folks, especially wework from home or you work in a
(16:03):
place where you can like listen intosomething put up the YouTube, well,
listen to the committee meetings where theypresent these things. Sometimes listen to the
city council meeting because as far asat three thirty in the middle of the
day, which is something that we'retrying to change. Also, we've really
been pushing for them to change thetime. So I'm gonna keep pushing for
that because I think for the communityto be as involved as possible, we
(16:26):
have to have meetings at an accessibletime for working class people, and that's
what the majority of Memphis population is, working class people. So that's something
I definitely want to keep pushing forand hopefully we can accomplish this year of
moving those back. Another thing Iwant to talk about is just what's happening
(16:47):
in Memphis right now. We're goinginto budget season, and so tomorrow the
Mayor's also supposed to be presenting hisbudget proposal, and I'll be tuned in
for that because, boy, I'mreading a lot of articles that talk about
how he thinks that we're gonna haveto do a property tax hike because the
(17:07):
economic downfall from COVID really affected us, and we received way less federal money
then a lot of cities with evensmaller populations is US. And I know
you're like, well, why didy'all receive less money? One of the
main reasons is that Steve Cohen,our congress member, didn't advocate for us,
and he's been doing a lacklesser jobfor a while now. He sucks
(17:30):
and we're seeing the real tangible repercussionsof that with citizens now are gonna be
affected because if they do a propertytax hike, that's gonna affect taxpayers,
right, And I know a lotof times folks who aren't directly affected by
stuff, like CEF Cohen is rich. You know he doesn't care about a
property tax hike, right, Andso when you don't really care about that,
(17:55):
when your surroundings in your community isalso rich white people, you tend
to lose touch with the community,and I've noticed that, especially since Memphis
is the majority of black city,having him as our representation has really led
us down the wrong path. Wecontinue to see constant disinvestment as a city,
(18:17):
and I'm ready to get him upout of here. He got a
few opponents this year, and soI'm excited to see what's gonna happen with
that, because if they beat himin the primary, then that person would
win because it's a democratic area,and so I'm really excited to see him
get his asked beat in a primary. I'm hoping and praying that he gets
(18:41):
beat because it's just not it's justnot the leader that we need. And
this real world example of seeing howhim not advocating for us, even though
he talks about how you know,one of the reason why we should keep
sending him back is because he's ina senior leadership position. He's a chair
of a committee. He's the chairof the transportation committee, and we don't
(19:03):
have any kind of transportation infrastructure,or we haven't had any like development,
even though we've been asking for it. They've been asking for like Amtrak and
other stuff and like really trying tobuild out parts of Tennessee. He hasn't
advocated for that on our behalf.He really hasn't done a good job with
like his responses around Palistin. He'sbeen very anti Palestine, supporting Israel to
(19:30):
the end, I tell you,like, and it's embarrassing, but I'm
excited that there are people are gonnarun there. That are people. There
are people who are running against him. One of people I know, Corey
Strong, is running against him,and Corey is a pretty strong candidate,
no pun intended. That was funny, though, So I'm excited to see
(19:52):
what happens with that race because we'rereally feeling the effects of his lack of
leadership. Not really trying, youknow, just kind of going with the
flow, enjoying the fun of beinga congress member. But I ain't putting
it in no work for us,and I know plenty of people who will
say the same thing. Ain't puttingit no work for us. So yeah,
(20:17):
thank y'all so much for listening toanother episode of The Law Cordon to
Amber. As always followed me onsocial media on Facebook at the Law Cordon
to Amber and Instagram, same name, the law Cordon to Amber. I'm
excited to be doing some more contentand I'll see y'all in probably another week.
I think I might might boost upand do more episodes because there's a
(20:38):
lot of stuff happening in Memphis andnationally, and I think that we should
really be talking about it. Arey'all? Peace,
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