Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin joins the show to give us an update on the latest details on the Browns stadium fight, shares his thoughts on why he decided not to run for Cleveland mayor, being a political moderate and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the FCB Podcast Network. Great.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
When the truck jaw foot cheat said, Doc Da, we
don't listen to y'all this d out We don't listen
to y'all this d hotel.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Make them scream out now like a sound cause.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
The rockets in the crowd, like a tune in the
charge for the outdaw, tune in the charge for the Outlaw.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Welcome to the Outlaws.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
This is Darby Old Kingputt Maw alongside Robin O'Malley and
Dante bry don't forget too Like us on Facebook at
facebook dot com slash the Outlaws Radio. Follow us on
x and Instagram at the Outlaws Radio. We have a
very special guest that we'll get to in just a
little bit. But first, miss O'Malley, how are you?
Speaker 6 (00:52):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (00:53):
I'm great, DARBYO. Actually, you know what I gotta tell you, guys,
Both my kids just finished school and now, like I swear,
almost broke down like crying because what the heck my
daughter's going into the sixth grade and my son is
going into the tenth grade. Wow, that is a lot
to take it a lot. I didn't I just tell
(01:14):
you last week that I just he was just starting
to learn how to drive, and I'm like, yeah, this
is too much for me. Like who I listen, who
told them that they could grow up? I just don't understand.
This is not the contract.
Speaker 8 (01:24):
I did not sign this.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
And you just told us last week that he was
learning to drive, and you handled that very poorly, exactly.
Speaker 7 (01:38):
Like I want you guys to grow up, because yes, please.
But at the same point, no, absolutely not. So like
it's it's hard on here not go well there, sir, I.
Speaker 8 (01:50):
Am doing pretty good, pretty good. I just you just
gave us the news. But yeah, so now that's a
big concerning But other than that, I mean, I'm doing
pretty good. It's been a good week.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Yes, we noticed yesterday that, well we noticed today that
yesterday there's a war breaking out in the Middle East.
That's always fun.
Speaker 8 (02:18):
Here we go again, and.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
We'll see what happens from here. Yeah, we'll see what
happens from here.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
That's it.
Speaker 8 (02:27):
Other than that, has been pretty good, though, I can't complain.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
So you're doing better than Robin Well when her son
was driving.
Speaker 8 (02:33):
Yeah, I don't even man, I've never taught anyone how
to drive. But I hope we don't end up in
a grass field or in about to hit some type
of wall like Robin and her son was. But you know,
I don't know. But Robin, I wish you the best
of luck. It's not like you know.
Speaker 7 (02:53):
I think it sounds like you want to teach him.
Speaker 8 (02:56):
It sounds like you need help more than he do.
You want to teach him. You want me to tea
You want me to teach him how to drive. I
teach him how to job.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I'll tell you this. I'll tell you this.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
But if it was God, God rest her soul, if
it wasn't for my grandmother, I would have never learned
how to drive, because my mother was a horrible teacher
and my father was even worse than my mother.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Would they had they had the nerves, man, they couldn't
handle it.
Speaker 8 (03:23):
So you're like, you'll be like stop, go so down,
speed up, trying to teach somebody how to drive.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Oh my goodness, yes, God rest is soul too. My
father and my grandmother was just so calm.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
And cool and just turn here, slow down, here, put
your your blinker on. Like my grandmother was so peaceful
and calm, while my parents were insane.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Most him.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
If it was not for my grandmother. I would not
have learned.
Speaker 8 (04:00):
Oh man, rather leave that baby alone driving pete.
Speaker 7 (04:05):
No, no, no, no, I mean listen. Okay, I grabbed
the steering wheel, told him to put it in park.
But I do I have my mama in the car. Okay,
he ain't about to take her before it's her time.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Okay, okay, oh no, no, no, nope, we got to interview.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
We're gonna interview right now.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
All right.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
We have a very special guest on the show today.
Longtime listeners of this show. I heard him on this
show before, but this is actually the first. He is
the first local guest on the show since we've started
airing on the radio. Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
How you doing sir, Hey, I'm doing great, dar v
old Man. Congratulations man joining up man with a great
radio stage.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
W O vu Man.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
I appreciate it, Man, Thank you so Man. It's been
a it's a lot going on. There's so much to
talk about. A lot since the last time we talked
on the air. Now we've discussed this offline, but I
think this is the first time we've talked about this
particular topic.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
So I'm gonna ask you first off the topic and
get it on out the way. Let's talk about the Browns.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Okay, right, all right?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Uh, you know, still in flux, still in you know,
you know, they've they've gotten a lot of wins. I
won't deny it effect that they've gotten a lot of
wins in court, as well as a couple of wins
at the state legislature. But I want to caution everybody
about what they're doing because, you know, as much as
I've always tried to keep everything cordial, because I truly
(05:50):
believe that this business deal is not a good business
deal for them, out of respect for them, but also
for the region. I think Mitt Snyder of the put
it best about how the population and the population dynamics
of this region does not support another type of venue
at the size and way that they're looking at, even
(06:11):
if we get rid of the i Accenter. I know
that people are asking about that, but I also, you know,
think that what they're doing is that people are starting
to realize that this is going to truly destabilize downtown
and that it's going to take a longer time for
us to reboot our central business district, which can take
years fifteen twenty thirty years, which will kill the momentum
(06:33):
that we have right now. So we're still you know,
we're still fighting and we're still dealing with it. But
I would not deny that the state gave them a
couple of wins. And I want to talk about the
dangers of that, because if we start going into the
preemption state of governing, that means that where do we stop.
Does the federal government start to impede upon the state government,
(06:55):
if the state government is going to impede upon the
county and city government. I mean, every local leader has
said that they don't want this deal except for a
little small suburbs, and even fifty seven percent of the
people in a poll county wide and region whide said
that they believe it should be in the Central Business District.
And the people in Brook Park, to the tune of
sixty something percent say that they don't want it out there.
(07:18):
So if we're going to start going against the wheel
of municipal and state jurisdictions, we're headed down a slippery
slope that gets rid of that small government, that small
g in government that Republicans and others continuously talk about,
but are breaking the mode in this one, so this and.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
This whole thing.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
It feels like it's been going on forever. It's frustrating
because it's like it's hard to get at this stage.
It's hard to get people in the room and try
to work something out.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
And for me, I understand the need, the want rather
four dome personally would prefer a dome.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
I would like it to be in the city of Cleveland, though,
Is there an opportunity to work something out with all
the parties involved? Is there still an option to try
to bring Cleveland and the Browns in the county and
brook Park together.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
To work out something where there could be some sort
of deal.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, doark yil Let me say this.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
If I was in the negotiation, I would have locked
us all in the room a year and a half ago,
and I definitely would not have which I think is
what happened with all of these parties. I definitely would
not have negotiated this in public. People that have more
experience in corporate public private partnerships know that you have
(08:47):
to be very careful and sensitive in how you approach
public private partnerships and start negotiating in public because it
can go so many different ways that will make the
conversation be unwieldy. But what I will say to you
is that, you know, that's one of the reasons why
I don't go overboard, because I think that too many
(09:09):
people allowed thin skinnedness to get involved in this. They've
allowed it to get too personal.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Some people have not looked at what's best for the region,
but looked at what's best for themselves for their own jurisdiction.
And that's it's a lot of missed signals that I
think that all of us in this conversation have didn't
pick up that allowed it to get to this point.
But unfortunately I wasn't in the negotiations. It would have
(09:39):
been nice to have a role in that because I
would have loft us all in the room and did
exactly what you said, Let's not leave until we figure
this out. That's where that's where I come from. You know,
let's get an old cigar smoke room, and and and
let's sit back, and let's not do a backroom deal,
but let's just sit back and everybody get us off
their chests until we come up with something we could
(10:00):
present to the public that we all stand shoulder to
shoulder and support it with the public.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
And I've also I've heard of some other members of council.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
You know, complaining about the fact that they're not getting
information they're they're finding out on television.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
And stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
And eventually, regardless of whatever happens, if there is a
deal to be had, it's going to have to come
to Council for approval or rejection anyway.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
So how much are you all being informed on the process?
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Are you are you involved in the process at all,
or are you finding out like we're finding out.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Let me say this, the county executive and the mayor
have both consistently kept me engaged where they're at with conversations. Unfortunately,
once again, as the legislative body, I don't have the
executive privilege of negotiating the contract. But I have been
updated and I'll be honest with you. Up until probably
(10:59):
about a month ago, I talked regularly with the Browns,
and even though they were resolute about going to Brook Park,
I've always made their chief operating officer, Dave Jenkins, and
Jimmy and de themselves know that, Hey, we're going to
be here ready to talk if this thing doesn't happen
at the State legislature. We're gonna be here to talk,
but I really got to pivot back to the state
(11:21):
legislature and also Roger Goodell. Here are two people who,
for several years, you know, pitched the fact, starting out
with Roger Goodell, who was Paul Tagliabu's right hand guy,
who forced Cleveland to hurry up and build a stadium
with pressure from the NFL in order to keep Cleveland
(11:42):
Browns here in the city of Cleveland. How do you
break that kind of partnership after thirty years. I'm really
disappointed in the NFL. The other thing I'm disappointed in
is that with a little bit of money, you can
go down to the state legislature and you could pass
out checks to everybody and they will pass six hundred
million dollars for you to get your stadium renovated. But
(12:06):
then they'll cut food banks, libraries, and education and early childcare.
It's something sinister wrong with that. I don't care if
you public, Republican or Democrat or independent.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That's something sinister about that.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
And as you said, the handful of polling data that
we do have suggests that this actually isn't a popular
move either to build this new stadium.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Look up the Channel nineteen pole. It'll show you. It
will show you clearly.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Even my colleagues Chris Harsh and Danny Kelly just did
a raw pill pole asking people that visited the stadium
people want to come to Cleveland and get a Cleveland experience.
They didn't come here to stay on the island out
in brook Park. They didn't come to see the brook
Park Browns. They came to see the Cleveland Browns. They
came to feel the wind off the lake. They came
to feel the disappointment of past seasons and and the
(13:00):
experience of the comeback city. They didn't come to just
go to some plush island way out in the suburbs.
That's the reason why the Calves moved from Richfield Coliseum
out in the corn fields back down to the city.
I mean, there's a precedence that is being broken here
that focused on urban density and started moving away from
(13:22):
urban sprawl and also moving away from poaching with cities
poaching against each other, which is why Columbus is cleaning
our clock because they are one city, one community, while
we have these fifty seven municipalities and there's one little
municipality that wants to eat too much of their proportion
at the table, wants to take away from the big brother,
(13:43):
and it's going to be a disaster for everybody. It's
really unfortunate, and I think in the annals of public administration,
public private partnerships, this is going to go down to
be one of the biggest disasters that anybody's ever seen.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
We're talking on Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin. I got
a couple more questions on this, and then we'll move
on to other topics.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
If there is there a way to get a new
stadium in the city of Cleveland. I've always argued that
if they're determined to build a dome. The Brook Park
site is, however, many feet away from the city of Cleveland,
it's work out a deal where we annex that land
and that becomes part of the city of Cleveland. But
it either that or is there is there somewhere? Is
(14:26):
there a way to do it downtown? Closing Burg is
gonna take ten years and you're probably gonna have to
get an Act to Congress.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
And good luck with that.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Is there a way to get a new stadium, a
dome stadium in the city of Cleveland?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You know, I have to answer that several different ways,
and I know that we're on the radio show and
I need to be brief in my comments.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
But let me say this.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
First of all, the rendering that finally got released to
show the ergonomic structure of their stadium downtown was actually
a very good structure. It's similar to what the Calves
have done, and what the Guardians have done is renovate
and put a skin over a present stadium where they
can have more events and more things.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
In the central business district. That would work.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
It's less expensive, it will extend the lifetime of the
current stadium and everything else. Number two, Originally we made
a huge mistake. And I say weed, public officials or
whoever else, And I don't want to say weed because
I wasn't here. I was not even a public official then.
But when we made the decision to bill Gateway made
a huge mistake. Not the cluster build right there in
(15:31):
that area. I actually learned that from Dan Gilbert and
having a conversation with him one day to talk about
how everything should have been built in one area in
order to emanate the energy that needed to be consolidated downtown.
So it never should have been built there in the
first place. Last, but not least, there are places in
the city of Cleveland. I pitched Wolstein Center, which we
(15:53):
know is woefully underutilized. The post Office. I think they
said it couldn't work, but I think that there was
potential there. Burke was one of the other things that
was pitched. And then I will tell you that there's
other pieces of land that they were going to build
a county jail down there where those railroads are at,
and they could damn sure have hosted eight games or
(16:15):
twelve twelve events a season right there by Transportation Boulevard,
or right down there behind the post office, down that
hill where all those tractors are. So I think that
we didn't get together and the parties did not consolidate
ideas early I think people started going down one direction
and when that street closed, then everything started going haywire
(16:38):
and everybody went their.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Own way, which is unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
But I will tell you that that is a problem,
and that's one of the reasons why council passed fifty
million dollars for a site's fund, because if we don't
start consolidating large parcels of property, we're going to continue
to lose out on some of these big not just
sports teams, but companies and factories that need a tremendus
this amount of acres of land too, like up to
(17:02):
thirty to fifty acres in order to run their companies
and their organizations.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
So where do you think we go from here? I mean,
they got it, looks like they're going to get the
money from the state. There's still going to be a gap,
so I guess there's still.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
A room for negotiation. So where do you think we
go from here?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Well, I'm still hoping that the state is going to
come to its census because it seems like the governor,
the Senate, and the state legislatures still are not aligned
at how they believe it should be funded. I believe
it's going to be put out there in conference committee
because the way that it goes is the state legislature
was just going to flat out get them six hundred
(17:45):
million out of the general fund, which was asinine. Then
the state then the governor came up with, you know,
let's tax the sports betting for you know, forty to
fifty percent or something like that that he believes would
have covered all stateum repairs. Which frankly would help us
in perpetuity because we're still on the hook as government
(18:05):
entities that own stadiums that we have to fix them.
And if we don't get that kind of money then
we could actually lose uh, you know, the bonding, We
lose money in our general fund that has to put
put it into that. And then the state Senate came
up with using some of the unclaimed funds, which I
think that one is ripe with some problems is too,
(18:25):
so I think most of this is going to get
worked out in committee, and I think once people start
doing the math, I just have a hard time believing
that they're going to stand behind their proposals, which means
that at some point in time they're going to come
back to the county.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I will also tell you that we got.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Timing factors in place because we got to think about Okay,
let's say if they do go, then I'm immediately going
to be asking the mayor, the city and as well
as the Browns, who the hell is going to tear
the stadium down? And what kind of investment are we
going to have for the lakefront. I think Scott Skinner's
article even cranes this Week is a must read that
everybody should have. That gave a very sobering account on
(19:05):
the pros and cons of losing the Browns on the
lake front, And even though it didn't focus on the Browns,
it just really gave a very sobering assessment of what
would happen if the Browns stay or if the Browns go.
If they stay, we can accelerate lakefront access and planning
and the things we want to do.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
If they go, it's going to take a lot longer.
Suppose that talking.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
With Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin and the pivot a
little bit to the lakefront. One thing that you hear
a lot in the city and in the region as
well is skepticism about lakefront development because there's been so
many plans and so many ideas that never come to fruition.
(19:50):
Can you educate the folks who are listening right now
on what the current plans are for the lake from
where it stands and how realistic is it to actually
get something done finally on the lakefront.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Well, people have been, you know, ever since Cleveland was
developed and Public Square was developed, and many, hopefully mostly
all your listeners have been a public Square. There was
always called a Burnham Plan. This goes back to the
eighteen hundreds. Don't quote me on eighteen hundred and what,
but early eighteen hundreds, and there was always a vision
to connect Cleveland, to develop from north from.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
The lakefront all the way to the city. Now, think
about that.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Okay, a lot of times people look at Cleveland as
developing from east to west, but developing from the north,
from the lakefront, going into the city and having access
where the public for the first time can have access
to property that for the most part had been blocked
by private owners. Okay, So trying to put some kind
(20:55):
of bridge in place where we can only utilize transportation
dollars and everybody, well, you know, we secured one hundred
and fifty million dollars through the North Coast Development Corporation,
the North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation, which I happen to
put in place, and I serve on the North Coast
Authority with Scott Skinner, and we have secured not the city,
(21:18):
but we, with the city's help, have secured one hundred
and fifty million dollars that will go towards four hundred
million as needed in order to build that kind of
connectivity from public square to make sure that people can
walk all the way to the lakefront, so that the public,
for the first time in over to over one hundred
and fifty years or more, can have direct access to
the lakefront and not just have access by a bunch
(21:41):
of private owners. So these plans are really to try
to open up our waterfronts. Now. You can go to Tampa, Florida,
you can go to Philadelphia, you can go to Washington, DC,
you can go to Newark, New Jersey. Any city that
has a vibrant, growing, active population has great access to
its lakefront and water front and riverfronts. We're one of
(22:01):
the only cities that has a balkanized lakefront and waterfront riverfront,
and that's one of the priorities that have been of
our forefathers of our city is to try to make
sure that we have better access and not cut it
off with the industry and rail lines and the other
things that we have in place now. So there's momentum
that has never been there before.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
We're talking with Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin. Also, something
else that came out recently is, as you know you
have been it was speculated for quite a bit of
time that you would be a potential top tier mayoral candidate,
(22:44):
and you recently decided not to run from Aleric. Can
you talk a little bit about that decision, what went
into that process of coming to that decision, and why
you decided ultimately that it would be best for you
to remain as a council president.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Well, Darkville, it was a toughest decision because a lot
of times you have high expectations of yourself and I'm
one of those type of people that I put a
lot of pressure on myself to you know, be the
best and maximize my potential while I'm here on earth.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
But you know, this job, when you are in.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Public service, you have to ask yourself a question every
once in a while, and is where can you best serve?
Do you need to serve in the present position or
do you want to take a step up and think,
you know that you could do something else. Well, after
a lot of prayer, a lot of conversations with my family,
a lot of conversations with the public, and a lot
(23:36):
of conversations quite frankly with you know, some of my
poor people. Uh, it just didn't feel right, and you know,
this is a business where timing is important. You know,
a lot of the polls showed that people felt good
about the direction that Counsel was going in. It looked like,
you know, Counsel would be the best place for me
(23:58):
to continue to serve effectively after weighing all of the
pros and cons and options. And I might have been
right because I did not get an opponent, So that
may be an indication that I kind of do my job.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
And so on that note, as we get ready to
go into I believe you you all are on break currently, correct,
we aren't.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Break, But to be honest with you, this is the
busiest time of year because now we actually have to
get out of here and walk around these neighborhoods and
make sure that the people see us and that we're
actually delivering the service that we are supposed to.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Right, So talk a little bit about what.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
What the objectives and what the agenda is going to
be for Counsel when you all return.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
What's on your plate moving forward?
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Well, I think we have done some tremendous things around housing.
I think we have started building more diverse housing products
across the city, whether they be market rate or whether
they be affordable housing.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
I think we've done a good job of really planning
seeds around housing all throughout the city. I think that
safety all also remains a priority, making sure that we
continue to buff up our safety ranks and that we
get the police department at the ranks that they really
need to be, and that we restore trust between the
police and the community, not through platitudes and politics, but
(25:29):
through real, genuine, authentic engagement and and and love for
our community. I think that we got to do some
things around infrastructure and public service to make sure that
people feel and touch these cities. I be I tell somebody, uh,
the tail of two cities that just got back from Atlanta.
Atlanta was built for four hundred thousand people, but now
(25:51):
ten million people live in Atlanta and in that region. Cleveland,
on the other hand, was built for about a million
people and only three hundred and seventy two thousand people
live here. And then even if you look at the region,
the region is not necessarily growing, but like very incremental
steps and growing. We got to grow our population. We
(26:11):
got to make Cleveland an attractive place. And in order
to do that, we got to talk about money. And
I tell people all the time. A lot of people
don't like to talk about money. They like to talk
about charity, but we have to talk about genuine growing
the middle class in the city of Cleveland and trying
to make sure that people have an opportunity to work in,
(26:31):
you know, jobs where they're not just making a living wage,
but a thriving wage, jobs where they're actually able to
buy a home, and make sure that their children have
a good education, jobs where they can actually live the
American dream. So it's ambitious, and I will be honest
with you, and one of the things that I would
love to talk to you about one day. You have
to do it in the face of tremendous opposition because
(26:53):
quite frankly, a lot of people, when they remove civics
from government, have no clue what government is supposed to do.
And often times you have these armchair critics that have
no clue of what they're talking about. Yet they feel
like they have a voice because of social media and
other things, but don't take the time to really understand
the mechanics of government.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
So that's an ambitious platform. But I like that.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
I like that, And it's funny that you brought up
Atlanta because that's something that I talk about all the time.
I refer to the Atlanta model all the time, and
they're a perfect example too of when you make sure
everyone has a seat at the table, it benefits everyone.
(27:39):
And to that point, what can we do as a
city to make sure that everyone has a seat at
the table.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
We still have too many areas where there's like.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
These pockets of stubborn poverty that we have to we
gotta break that up. We gotta make sure that the
that the pipeline for people to rise is as strong
as it can be. And particularly we definitely have to
we have to address the East Side because there's so
many issues there. So how can we how can we
(28:14):
do that? How can we fix that and make sure
that this can be a place where all of our
population gets a seat at the table.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Well, the first thing I think that we have to
do and this is going to sound very conservative of me,
and I'll be the first to tell you I'm a
moderate person. I'm not a far left person or for
a right person. I'm a person that's trying to deal
with what is best for our community. And what I
can say is speak to the best of my knowledge
and what I would tell you is the first thing
that we have to do is dispel this myth that
(28:47):
charity is that charity is what we need to achieve
as opposed to opportunity. Opportunity is more important to charity.
It's the old it's the old saying about out teach.
You know, give a man a fish and he'll eat
for a day, but teach a man how to fish,
and he'll eat forever. We have to basically really get
(29:07):
back to the point of really educating people on what
opportunity means and how to take advantage of those opportunities.
Then once we do that, which I think that should
be an educational and family type of trait that people
are teaching, but unfortunately something is being missed. Then we
have to make the opportunities available for you know, as government,
(29:29):
to make the opportunities available. We have a bill multi
billion dollar airport project that's about to take place. There's
no reason that people shouldn't be able to take advantage
of the opportunity. Now you're going to hear at the
federal level and at the state level, well, we you know,
don't be a dei hirer. That's almost like code word
for subpar hiring. No, you know, all anybody wants is
(29:50):
an opportunity to be in on some of these projects
that we put in place. And as I told one
of my very good friends, you know, when I have
a that's fifty five percent female, you know, almost fifty
percent African American, approximately thirteen percent Hispanic, and then we
have a a you know, a large you know, reentry
(30:12):
community and proximy seventy three percent of single parent households,
then I'm going to make sure that the taxpayers and
the people that represent that population in the city of
Cleveland get a return on their investment.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
That's not DEI.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
That's making sure that the people who actually are paying
the bills actually have an opportunity to participate in the
wealth that's being created in their own tax dollars. And
that's what we're trying to get to. And you know,
we got to make sure that that happens. That's not charity.
That is making sure that the people that are paying
the bills have an opportunity to build the wealth. And
(30:47):
then we got to do better man at really really
just being real with people about you know, their responsibility
in this. So a lot of people think government is
supposed to take care of everything. It doesn't work that way.
Government is only one land of the race. We can't
beat the whole entire rads.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
We'll talk about Cleveland Council President Blank Griffin as we
get ready to wind down here. There was a conversation
that we were just having offline here that you brought
up something that was very interesting to me about studies
and our lack of participation in it and interacting with
the Cleveland Clinic and stuff like that. So just kind
(31:26):
of bring up a little bit on the air what
we were just talking about off there before the interview started.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Well, one of the things that you know, I've always
worked with in my capacities counselmen and building a relationship
in Cleveland Clinic to try to have world class healthcare.
And one of the things that you know they have
at Cleveland Clinic that a lot of people are not
aware of, or these research studies and right now they
have a research of brain study that anybody over fifty
years old, or anybody that has a relative that's under
(31:55):
fifty that had a relative that has some kind of
brain dysfunction like Alzheimers, or it's one of those.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Kind of degenerative you know, diseases.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
There's opportunity to sign up at the Cleveland Clinic for
tests like this. So, unbeknownst to me, I sign up
for one of these tests, and you know, fortunately I
go to take one and most of these tests.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Are white males.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And I get to talking with you know, the you know,
the doctors that are doing this, and they start telling
me some of the statistics that almost you know, ninety
percent of these type of tests, whether they're for medicine
or whether they're for other type of research where you
actually can get top notch, you know kind of diagnosis
(32:39):
for free, you know, are done on white males. So
think about that your medication that you take for blood
pressure or diabetes has most likely not looked at your
genetic makeup and your body makeup and the things the
traits that most black people have, like a lot of
black people have sickle cell see trade. So to look
(32:59):
at the those kind of factors and being able to
determine how we could live longer is very, very important.
And that's one of the things that I'm very keen
on is how do we eliminate some of these health disparities.
I got a very good friend named Albert Ratner, and
he wrote a book with doctor Michael Roysen called Longevity.
You know, you got people starting to think about if
(33:19):
you can just really take advantage of you know, very
good diagnostic health care, how healthier our community could be
and how much longer we can all live. So I
really want to do more to educate our community on
some of the health disparities that we can close if
we just try to take advantage of the proper research
(33:40):
and part and get over the stigma of some of
these things because there's a lot more protections and really
try to work together to see what we can do
to try to eliminate some of these disparities.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
All right, let everybody know how to get in contact
with you. Follow you on social media, keep up with
what you got going on, Sir.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Griff facts Griff for col E six, Follow me on Instagram,
or you can follow me on Facebook at Cleveland at
Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin on Facebook. You can always
call my office sixty sixty four, uh, you know, forty
five seventy nine. I'm always available. I try to make
myself available to the public as much as possible. And
(34:22):
Doval I got to say this, man. You know, one
of the things that I am a big fan of
is good quality journalism. And I think that you going
over to WVU, with the audience and the crowd that
they have, I think was a great, great opportunity for
you and a great opportunity for our community. I know
that the prior host was a good friend of mine,
(34:44):
but I was really happy to see you, know, you
step into these reins and you jump right in and
and and took over.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
So congratulations, my friend.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Brother, Thanks man again for coming on the show, spending
time with us, Man and always being gracious with your time.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Man, I appreciate it anytime. Man, I talk to you
in the moment.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
All right, stay tuned. We have tea time with Row
coming up next. Here the Outlaws, Yo, what's up? Bring
the noise right here, Chuck, Republic enemy number one. You
are tuning the Outlaws Radio.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Show, Real talk, real conversations.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
We got the heat.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Hell yeah, this is the Outlaws Radio Show.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Walking back, walking back and listen to the Outlaws. I'm
still laughing about roping grabbing the steering wheel, Like wait
a minute, oh my god, that's so funny. I wish
I could have saw that. All Right, it is time
for the time of the show that we.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
Like called t Time.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
We're Rode turn it up.
Speaker 9 (35:57):
Y'all see Outpatation, the latest celebrity news and gossip. It's
tea time with Row on the Outlaws radio show.
Speaker 7 (36:09):
All right, so this week we're actually talking about somebody
that we have not even heard about in a long time.
So I know that everybody, everybody, everybody, Mama, day, Grandmama.
I don't care who it is. I know y'all know
the song Whip the Whip Ninna song.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
There was a dance watch watch.
Speaker 7 (36:30):
Yeah, I know everybody knows that. Everybody knows it, everybody.
But so Silento, if I'm saying his name correctly, he
is known for that song. That's his song. So he
was actually just sentenced to thirty years after pleading guilty
for murdering his own cousin. Now this happened back in
(36:53):
twenty twenty one. I will read his note real quick
and then we can kind of go forward with that.
So he said, I will continue to make music after
you know his sentencing. He said, I will continue to
make music on becoming the best possible version of myself.
He he does take full responsibility for what he has done.
(37:16):
Will just kind of go over that real quick and
just say that.
Speaker 8 (37:20):
But he.
Speaker 7 (37:22):
He said he entered the industry as a teenager, often
without proper guidance or direction. While that is not an excuse,
it is part of my truth. I pray for growth, evolution,
and the ability to find forgiveness for myself and for
the entire situation. They are stating within these records when
(37:42):
it happened, is that he basically that he is battling
severe mental health challenges. We kind of spoke about this
a little bit, but it's really hard to say with
this as I you know, I've said to you guys,
well to Darvey and Dante, is that there are a
(38:04):
lot of people out here who do deal with mental
health issues and sometimes some people just snap. But at
the same point, you can't. You can't just hurt people.
I don't really know, like the what would even cause
you not to just take somebody's life, but take your
(38:25):
own cousin's life. Like I just I don't I don't
understand how what would even possess you to do something
like that?
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Yeah, me either, And I mean so on the one hand,
obviously there's some sort of mental issue because that's not normal.
But on the other hand, you know, the three of
us were kind of discussing before the show started when
we were kind of going over this story. Even be
that as in May that there's clearly some mental health issues,
that still does not mean that you can't be held
(38:56):
accountable for your actions.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
And sometimes.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
Like the mental health that you're the mental health help
that you're going to get, Unfortunately, sometimes it has to
be in a jail cell because if you do.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Things to harm other people, regardless.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
Of what you're dealing with, you still have to be
held accountable for that, because there's a difference between having
a mental health issue and being and not being mentally competent,
because if you were not mentally competent, that is.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
A specific legal designation.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
That would also put whatever repercussions you were suffer into consideration.
But that ain't the case here. He knew right from wrong.
Now you can have mental health issues and still know
right from wrong. And I also think too, in this
environment where we rightfully rightfully sow to be sensitive about
(40:01):
mental health issues, I think when people use that as
an excuse for folks that do violent acts. It actually
is harmful for people who have mental health issues because
not every person who has mental health struggles is violent.
Not every person who's dealing with mental health issues is
(40:22):
going to kill somebody. So what I think when you
make excuses, when people make excuses and use that as
an excuse, it unfairly, actually unfairly stereotypes people with mental
health issues because not all of them are violent Number
one and number two. Regardless, you still have to be
(40:43):
held accountable for your actions.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
Dante.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Yeah, like.
Speaker 8 (40:49):
My sympathy for a person's mental illness ends when they
harm someone else. So you know, a lot of people
are dealing with things, and there are varying extremes, and
you know, to varying degrees of how bad or how
(41:12):
much someone is going through. So we can sympathize, We
can empathize with people going through things. I mean, we've
all had days and we all go through our own struggle.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
But again, I.
Speaker 8 (41:28):
My compassion for you is over once you have harmed
someone else, especially to the point of killing them. I
was wondering when I had first Robert, you had shared
this in our group chat. I was just wondering, like,
what is the story here because this was I mean
just I don't like the fact that they've left this
(41:49):
kind of vague, just like what in the world would
make you want to kill your cousin? Right? I just
I don't know. I mean you can have it out
with family, for sure. I mean I'm sure we all
have at some point, but like, what did what?
Speaker 2 (42:04):
What happened?
Speaker 4 (42:05):
What would make you do that?
Speaker 8 (42:06):
Wasn't it didn't It clearly wasn't an accident. I mean
he was charged with murder, so like obviously nobody thought
it was an accident.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
He pled to it.
Speaker 8 (42:15):
Like maybe if it was an accident, then maybe you
could have got like a mass slaughter charge or you know,
negligent something. But I mean, murder is pretty self explanatory,
like what did your cousin do? Or what did you
think he did?
Speaker 2 (42:29):
You know what happened?
Speaker 8 (42:30):
So I wish we had more information on it. But
I feel bad for that family though, too, because I'm
sure the family is ripped apart.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Right right?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
All right?
Speaker 7 (42:39):
Next, Oh well that was gonna be what I had.
One thing I can talk about. It's not really a
tea time thing, if you don't mind, darbyl Yes, Well.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
Hold on.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
We'll get to that in a second. I'm glad you
you brought that up. I wanted to make sure you
didn't have another story because I do have another. Uh,
I do have another tea time story that I wanted
to bring up that I wanted to bring up. That's
not as serious as what you're that you what you're
gonna talk about. So I want to do that first
(43:14):
and then we'll we'll close it out with with that
other story. So it's been a little controversy right now
because the BT Awards happened I think three days ago,
if I'm not mistaken, and the person who won Best
Gospel slash Inspirational is Glow Thriller.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Yeah, Glow. So she had a song called uh Rain
Down on Me. I actually haven't heard this song.
Speaker 5 (43:54):
I heard the gospel song she did with Kirk Franklin,
and I wasn't particularly of it. I don't some people
don't like the you know, the mixing with I don't
care about that. I just wanted to be good and
the song that she did with Kurk Franklin was not good.
But I have not heard Rain Down on Me. That's
(44:15):
with uh Maverick City Music here shared and uh, Chandler,
that might be the same song.
Speaker 4 (44:23):
Chandler Moore and Kirk Franklin. Yeah, that might be the
same song. That's the same song.
Speaker 8 (44:26):
I was not a fan of that song.
Speaker 6 (44:28):
So there's there's a controversy over the fact that Glilla
was the one who, uh who won the Gospel Inspirational Award.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
I'm having a.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
A little bit of confusion because I'm trying to see
if this is an award for the song or for
the artist.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Now, I think you can make you can make an argument.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
Again, I'm not a fan of song, but you can
make an argument like our best gospel slash inspirational song.
That could be anybody, because there are secular artists that
make gospel songs all the time. But if it's but
I see some reports calling it best Gospel Inspirational Artist.
If it's best Gospel slash Inspirational Artist and that's the
(45:21):
award she won, that's kind of ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Dante your thoughts.
Speaker 8 (45:28):
Yeah, I haven't even heard the song, so I'm not
too sure what what's happening. But she didn't win it
for uh let her cook.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Huh.
Speaker 8 (45:43):
That's the only Glorilla song I know, unless.
Speaker 7 (45:46):
They say that was gospel right there?
Speaker 8 (45:48):
Yeah, yeah, you like that, Yeah, letter Cook, That's that's
what I And then oh, I know the yeah Glow
but she was talking about drugs and dope and that one.
So I don't think that was the one either. So
I don't know what the song is, but I mean,
it's to be to you. I I guess, I don't know.
(46:09):
I that's that's kind of wild. I wouldn't have thought
that Glow really even made a gospel song.
Speaker 4 (46:15):
So he did make a gospel song. That's like I said.
Speaker 8 (46:17):
I wasn't a fan of it, but I mean, I'm
just saying that's that's that's good, right she made would
make one. Yeah, I like that she made the gospel song.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
And like I said, if the art if the award
was for the best song, I.
Speaker 5 (46:30):
Would disagree, but I would at least think you could
make an argument, yeah, it's the best artists like come
on Now.
Speaker 8 (46:38):
Didn't give it to her because they was also given
Kurt Franklin an award too.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
I don't know, but because you could have gave you
could have gave the award to him on one of
his songs, because he got a whole new album.
Speaker 7 (46:49):
Yeah, so you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (46:51):
So now, Robin, when you think gospel music, do you
think of Glory?
Speaker 8 (46:58):
No.
Speaker 7 (47:00):
I actually have to hear this now because she has
no no, she has like she's she has a deep voice,
and I've never really seen like she's been getting more
into like girly kind of things, but I've never really
(47:21):
seen her sing. I've I've oh, she didn't sing, she rapped,
she rapped the gospel? Yeah she did?
Speaker 8 (47:30):
She? Do you have to go?
Speaker 1 (47:31):
Do you have to go listen to it?
Speaker 7 (47:33):
I don't see a lot of these music, a lot
of the different types of music. They're changing so much,
like country music, gospel. I mean, all this music is
changing so much, and a lot of them are collaborating
from different you know what I mean, Like it's it's.
Speaker 8 (47:53):
Gospel.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
Oh yeah, Well, I mean there's been Christian hip hop forever.
Speaker 5 (47:58):
Yeah, And I mean I've see the most famous artists
that people probably are familiar with is Lucraze.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
So there's there's been Christian hip hop for a long
time is say it again?
Speaker 7 (48:10):
But Gloriala, I don't see it.
Speaker 4 (48:12):
Yeah, right, That's that's that's where I was going.
Speaker 5 (48:15):
I'm like Christian hip hop as a genre has been
around for a long time.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
But Glorilla, I don't see it. Hey, God bless her.
Speaker 7 (48:26):
I like Gloriala. I like Gloriala. I do like her.
I like her music, I like her vibe. Like she
she seemed like a real cool person listen period, but
like not in gospel.
Speaker 5 (48:42):
All right, we got like three minutes left before we
got to get out of this segment, Robin, go ahead
and talk about the story that you wanted to address.
Speaker 7 (48:53):
Okay, so real quick, I have I have this this
girl on my page. I don't know her personally, she
just happens to be somebody on my my Facebook page.
Her name is Janelle. She does have a little girl.
Her name is Zana. Zana was. She was a ten
year ten year old little girl as of just what Wednesday,
(49:17):
and she so she just turned eleven years old. So
Zana she one day she was just playing around. So
she woke up with back pain one day one morning
and she was more or less she was fine. So
later in the evening her body started to give up
completely to full paralysis. They are in Houston, Texas right
(49:39):
now at the hospital. So the little girl, she cannot
move her whole entire body. She cannot move, she has
been on a feeding tube. She was being helped with breathing.
The original diagnosis of her was a stroke in the
spinal cord, and they have yet to find out what
has caused it. But so she is still in the hospital.
(50:03):
But I did just want to bring that up and
speak on that. But and I did just want to
give her a quick little shout out and tell Zanea
a happy birthday. Reading her story earlier, seeing that she
celebrated her birthday in the hospital, and so many people
sent her mom gifts and so many things, and it
was just like so heart touching. And as a mom
(50:25):
of a little girl, eleven year old little girl, that
really that this story touched me because every day I'm
in fear of my children's lives and I never would
think their own bodies would attack them. But I did
want to wish her a happy birthday.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, absolutely happy birthday.
Speaker 5 (50:42):
And for anybody who wants more information about what Robin's
talking about, you can go to Robin's Facebook page because
I know that she's posted about it on there as well,
so y'all can check that out. But all right, in
the meantime, stay tuned. We'll be right back with Dante's
Hot Takes here.
Speaker 4 (50:59):
On the Outlaws. True sir, welcome back, Welcome back.
Speaker 5 (51:13):
You're listening to the Outlaws, make sure that you subscribe
to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever
you get your podcasts. And if you listen to the
show on Apple, please make sure you leave us a
five star review and a comment. It's very important for
the algorithm and for those of you that have already
done so, thank you also very much. And now's the
time to show that we like to call it Dante's
Hot Takes, telling the truth.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
Whether you like it or not, it's Dante's Hot Takes
on the Outlaws radio show.
Speaker 8 (51:44):
So I'm sure at least by now everybody's been made
aware seeing some sort of clip of what's happening in
Los Angeles. Ice tried to conduct a raid. Things went left,
and essentially it's spilled over into a couple of days
worth of protest and maybe there was some disturbance, maybe not.
(52:08):
I think things were escalated, probably on both sides, but
things kind of got out of hand, it seems like,
not to a twenty twenty level, but it seems like
there needed to be some intervention. How much you can
never know because you know, both sides are planned politics, right,
So the Trump administration says one thing, the state of
(52:29):
California is saying, we don't need your help, but we know,
you know, those sides are kind of adversarial. So maybe
the truth lies somewhere in the middle. But the point
is is there was some disturbance around immigration and protest,
and that always spurs the conversation of what is the
right way to protest?
Speaker 4 (52:49):
Right?
Speaker 8 (52:49):
And did you do things the right way? And should
you be violent or should you block traffic? Blah blah blah, right,
That conversation always comes up in light of a situation.
Speaker 4 (53:02):
Like we had there.
Speaker 8 (53:03):
So my topic today though, is about Florida Governor Ronda Santas,
or should I say Florida Man Ronda Santis, who in
an interview talking about what happened in California and about
how the protesters were blocking traffic. DeSantis talked about how
(53:24):
in Florida he was proud that they passed.
Speaker 4 (53:27):
A law that says.
Speaker 8 (53:30):
If you are being stopped or you feel threatened by protesters,
you can just run them over. And that's what we
do here in Florida. And he said it with kind
of this weird smugness, as if he was proud of it.
(53:51):
And I understand if someone is someone's life is in
danger because of an angry mob. But the fact that
you see a protest and the first thing you think
is let's just run them over, that that's a little
odd to me. And I think this is why Governor
(54:15):
DeSantis makes an electable governor in the state of Florida
and is not really viable nationwide because a lot of
people in the country, whether we agree or disagree with
the protesters and what they're protesting, never thought to just
run them over. We had parades here over the weekend
(54:42):
for Pride. I'm sure people got caught in it. I
don't think people in the Midwest just think like, oh man,
these people are pride. I'm caught in a pride pride.
I'm just gonna run them over. People don't think like that,
at least not normal people. So I don't know. Maybe
we were talking about mental illness earlier, maybe that there's
a case down here in Florida. I don't know, maybe
something's in the water, but that's not a normal thought.
(55:05):
In my opinion, even if you vehemently disagree with what
the protesters are are going.
Speaker 4 (55:11):
For, Yeah, that's not normal. I will say this though,
there's an asterisk.
Speaker 5 (55:21):
And only time I would think about an asterisk is
like the tweet that I posted a couple of days
ago that went viral, by the way, it was over
one hundred and twenty three thousand views, And there.
Speaker 9 (55:33):
Was a.
Speaker 5 (55:36):
These two white folks, these two white protesters, who were
being very dismissive and disrespectful and obnoxious to this black
woman who was begging them. They were blocking the street
and she was begging them to get out of the
way so that she.
Speaker 4 (55:51):
Could go to work.
Speaker 5 (55:54):
And one of the protesters very mockingly said, oh, no,
not work.
Speaker 4 (56:01):
That guy might have I'm not gonna say I would
have ran him over, but he might have felt the
heat of my car. I don't know, Dante, that that
one would have been a little difficult.
Speaker 8 (56:14):
That sounds like typical white liberal nonsense to me. So
we have a white liberal male protesting illegal immigration, and
he's doing so by keeping a minority woman of color
from her job.
Speaker 4 (56:35):
Yes, and in his mind.
Speaker 8 (56:38):
That's what's so crazy in his mind that makes sense
I'm going to protest about poor minorities two thousand miles
away while hindering a single minority trying to better her
life two feet away. In his minded he probably went
(56:58):
home and thought, Wow, I really helped the cost today.
Speaker 4 (57:06):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (57:09):
In that case, I probably wouldn't have hit him, but
he would have felt the heat of my car a
little bit.
Speaker 8 (57:14):
He would have definitely heard the horror. He definitely would
have heard the horror. You know, sometimes sometimes you gotta
you know, you don't have to hit them, but you
gotta rap it up a little bit and make them
think that you might like how you like how we
do with them those DUTs when they crossing the street.
Don't hit the geese.
Speaker 4 (57:34):
Don't do that, by the way, don't do it.
Speaker 8 (57:38):
But if you just step on aget just a little bit,
they will start moving faster. You gotta scare them out
of the way a little bit. Follow me on Instagram
and Twitter at take bride t a E b r.
Speaker 4 (57:52):
Y e oh Man Robin let him know how to
follow them.
Speaker 7 (57:56):
You can follow me on Facebook at Robin O'Malley and
you can follow me Instagram at real Robin O'Malley.
Speaker 5 (58:02):
And you can follow me at dd King Grin everywhere
that's d T H E k I n G p I.
And one more time, special shout out to Cleveland count
of President Blaine Griffin for coming on the show.
Speaker 4 (58:13):
We're really appreciate it. We are out of here, see
you next time.
Speaker 8 (58:43):
This was produced by f C
This is the FCB Podcast Network. Great.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
When the truck jaw foot cheat said, Doc Da, we
don't listen to y'all this d out We don't listen
to y'all this d hotel.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Make them scream out now like a sound cause.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
The rockets in the crowd, like a tune in the
charge for the outdaw, tune in the charge for the Outlaw.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Welcome to the Outlaws.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
This is Darby Old Kingputt Maw alongside Robin O'Malley and
Dante bry don't forget too Like us on Facebook at
facebook dot com slash the Outlaws Radio. Follow us on
x and Instagram at the Outlaws Radio. We have a
very special guest that we'll get to in just a
little bit. But first, miss O'Malley, how are you?
Speaker 6 (00:52):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (00:53):
I'm great, DARBYO. Actually, you know what I gotta tell you, guys,
Both my kids just finished school and now, like I swear,
almost broke down like crying because what the heck my
daughter's going into the sixth grade and my son is
going into the tenth grade. Wow, that is a lot
to take it a lot. I didn't I just tell
(01:14):
you last week that I just he was just starting
to learn how to drive, and I'm like, yeah, this
is too much for me. Like who I listen, who
told them that they could grow up? I just don't understand.
This is not the contract.
Speaker 8 (01:24):
I did not sign this.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
And you just told us last week that he was
learning to drive, and you handled that very poorly, exactly.
Speaker 7 (01:38):
Like I want you guys to grow up, because yes, please.
But at the same point, no, absolutely not. So like
it's it's hard on here not go well there, sir, I.
Speaker 8 (01:50):
Am doing pretty good, pretty good. I just you just
gave us the news. But yeah, so now that's a
big concerning But other than that, I mean, I'm doing
pretty good. It's been a good week.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Yes, we noticed yesterday that, well we noticed today that
yesterday there's a war breaking out in the Middle East.
That's always fun.
Speaker 8 (02:18):
Here we go again, and.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
We'll see what happens from here. Yeah, we'll see what
happens from here.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
That's it.
Speaker 8 (02:27):
Other than that, has been pretty good, though, I can't complain.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
So you're doing better than Robin Well when her son
was driving.
Speaker 8 (02:33):
Yeah, I don't even man, I've never taught anyone how
to drive. But I hope we don't end up in
a grass field or in about to hit some type
of wall like Robin and her son was. But you know,
I don't know. But Robin, I wish you the best
of luck. It's not like you know.
Speaker 7 (02:53):
I think it sounds like you want to teach him.
Speaker 8 (02:56):
It sounds like you need help more than he do.
You want to teach him. You want me to tea
You want me to teach him how to drive. I
teach him how to job.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I'll tell you this. I'll tell you this.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
But if it was God, God rest her soul, if
it wasn't for my grandmother, I would have never learned
how to drive, because my mother was a horrible teacher
and my father was even worse than my mother.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Would they had they had the nerves, man, they couldn't
handle it.
Speaker 8 (03:23):
So you're like, you'll be like stop, go so down,
speed up, trying to teach somebody how to drive.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Oh my goodness, yes, God rest is soul too. My
father and my grandmother was just so calm.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
And cool and just turn here, slow down, here, put
your your blinker on. Like my grandmother was so peaceful
and calm, while my parents were insane.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Most him.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
If it was not for my grandmother. I would not
have learned.
Speaker 8 (04:00):
Oh man, rather leave that baby alone driving pete.
Speaker 7 (04:05):
No, no, no, no, I mean listen. Okay, I grabbed
the steering wheel, told him to put it in park.
But I do I have my mama in the car. Okay,
he ain't about to take her before it's her time.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Okay, okay, oh no, no, no, nope, we got to interview.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
We're gonna interview right now.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
All right.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
We have a very special guest on the show today.
Longtime listeners of this show. I heard him on this
show before, but this is actually the first. He is
the first local guest on the show since we've started
airing on the radio. Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
How you doing sir, Hey, I'm doing great, dar v
old Man. Congratulations man joining up man with a great
radio stage.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
W O vu Man.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
I appreciate it, Man, Thank you so Man. It's been
a it's a lot going on. There's so much to
talk about. A lot since the last time we talked
on the air. Now we've discussed this offline, but I
think this is the first time we've talked about this
particular topic.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
So I'm gonna ask you first off the topic and
get it on out the way. Let's talk about the Browns.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Okay, right, all right?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Uh, you know, still in flux, still in you know,
you know, they've they've gotten a lot of wins. I
won't deny it effect that they've gotten a lot of
wins in court, as well as a couple of wins
at the state legislature. But I want to caution everybody
about what they're doing because, you know, as much as
I've always tried to keep everything cordial, because I truly
(05:50):
believe that this business deal is not a good business
deal for them, out of respect for them, but also
for the region. I think Mitt Snyder of the put
it best about how the population and the population dynamics
of this region does not support another type of venue
at the size and way that they're looking at, even
(06:11):
if we get rid of the i Accenter. I know
that people are asking about that, but I also, you know,
think that what they're doing is that people are starting
to realize that this is going to truly destabilize downtown
and that it's going to take a longer time for
us to reboot our central business district, which can take
years fifteen twenty thirty years, which will kill the momentum
(06:33):
that we have right now. So we're still you know,
we're still fighting and we're still dealing with it. But
I would not deny that the state gave them a
couple of wins. And I want to talk about the
dangers of that, because if we start going into the
preemption state of governing, that means that where do we stop.
Does the federal government start to impede upon the state government,
(06:55):
if the state government is going to impede upon the
county and city government. I mean, every local leader has
said that they don't want this deal except for a
little small suburbs, and even fifty seven percent of the
people in a poll county wide and region whide said
that they believe it should be in the Central Business District.
And the people in Brook Park, to the tune of
sixty something percent say that they don't want it out there.
(07:18):
So if we're going to start going against the wheel
of municipal and state jurisdictions, we're headed down a slippery
slope that gets rid of that small government, that small
g in government that Republicans and others continuously talk about,
but are breaking the mode in this one, so this and.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
This whole thing.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
It feels like it's been going on forever. It's frustrating
because it's like it's hard to get at this stage.
It's hard to get people in the room and try
to work something out.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
And for me, I understand the need, the want rather
four dome personally would prefer a dome.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
I would like it to be in the city of Cleveland, though,
Is there an opportunity to work something out with all
the parties involved? Is there still an option to try
to bring Cleveland and the Browns in the county and
brook Park together.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
To work out something where there could be some sort
of deal.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, doark yil Let me say this.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
If I was in the negotiation, I would have locked
us all in the room a year and a half ago,
and I definitely would not have which I think is
what happened with all of these parties. I definitely would
not have negotiated this in public. People that have more
experience in corporate public private partnerships know that you have
(08:47):
to be very careful and sensitive in how you approach
public private partnerships and start negotiating in public because it
can go so many different ways that will make the
conversation be unwieldy. But what I will say to you
is that, you know, that's one of the reasons why
I don't go overboard, because I think that too many
(09:09):
people allowed thin skinnedness to get involved in this. They've
allowed it to get too personal.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Some people have not looked at what's best for the region,
but looked at what's best for themselves for their own jurisdiction.
And that's it's a lot of missed signals that I
think that all of us in this conversation have didn't
pick up that allowed it to get to this point.
But unfortunately I wasn't in the negotiations. It would have
(09:39):
been nice to have a role in that because I
would have loft us all in the room and did
exactly what you said, Let's not leave until we figure
this out. That's where that's where I come from. You know,
let's get an old cigar smoke room, and and and
let's sit back, and let's not do a backroom deal,
but let's just sit back and everybody get us off
their chests until we come up with something we could
(10:00):
present to the public that we all stand shoulder to
shoulder and support it with the public.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
And I've also I've heard of some other members of council.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
You know, complaining about the fact that they're not getting
information they're they're finding out on television.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
And stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
And eventually, regardless of whatever happens, if there is a
deal to be had, it's going to have to come
to Council for approval or rejection anyway.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
So how much are you all being informed on the process?
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Are you are you involved in the process at all,
or are you finding out like we're finding out.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Let me say this, the county executive and the mayor
have both consistently kept me engaged where they're at with conversations. Unfortunately,
once again, as the legislative body, I don't have the
executive privilege of negotiating the contract. But I have been
updated and I'll be honest with you. Up until probably
(10:59):
about a month ago, I talked regularly with the Browns,
and even though they were resolute about going to Brook Park,
I've always made their chief operating officer, Dave Jenkins, and
Jimmy and de themselves know that, Hey, we're going to
be here ready to talk if this thing doesn't happen
at the State legislature. We're gonna be here to talk,
but I really got to pivot back to the state
(11:21):
legislature and also Roger Goodell. Here are two people who,
for several years, you know, pitched the fact, starting out
with Roger Goodell, who was Paul Tagliabu's right hand guy,
who forced Cleveland to hurry up and build a stadium
with pressure from the NFL in order to keep Cleveland
(11:42):
Browns here in the city of Cleveland. How do you
break that kind of partnership after thirty years. I'm really
disappointed in the NFL. The other thing I'm disappointed in
is that with a little bit of money, you can
go down to the state legislature and you could pass
out checks to everybody and they will pass six hundred
million dollars for you to get your stadium renovated. But
(12:06):
then they'll cut food banks, libraries, and education and early childcare.
It's something sinister wrong with that. I don't care if
you public, Republican or Democrat or independent.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That's something sinister about that.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
And as you said, the handful of polling data that
we do have suggests that this actually isn't a popular
move either to build this new stadium.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Look up the Channel nineteen pole. It'll show you. It
will show you clearly.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Even my colleagues Chris Harsh and Danny Kelly just did
a raw pill pole asking people that visited the stadium
people want to come to Cleveland and get a Cleveland experience.
They didn't come here to stay on the island out
in brook Park. They didn't come to see the brook
Park Browns. They came to see the Cleveland Browns. They
came to feel the wind off the lake. They came
to feel the disappointment of past seasons and and the
(13:00):
experience of the comeback city. They didn't come to just
go to some plush island way out in the suburbs.
That's the reason why the Calves moved from Richfield Coliseum
out in the corn fields back down to the city.
I mean, there's a precedence that is being broken here
that focused on urban density and started moving away from
(13:22):
urban sprawl and also moving away from poaching with cities
poaching against each other, which is why Columbus is cleaning
our clock because they are one city, one community, while
we have these fifty seven municipalities and there's one little
municipality that wants to eat too much of their proportion
at the table, wants to take away from the big brother,
(13:43):
and it's going to be a disaster for everybody. It's
really unfortunate, and I think in the annals of public administration,
public private partnerships, this is going to go down to
be one of the biggest disasters that anybody's ever seen.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
We're talking on Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin. I got
a couple more questions on this, and then we'll move
on to other topics.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
If there is there a way to get a new
stadium in the city of Cleveland. I've always argued that
if they're determined to build a dome. The Brook Park
site is, however, many feet away from the city of Cleveland,
it's work out a deal where we annex that land
and that becomes part of the city of Cleveland. But
it either that or is there is there somewhere? Is
(14:26):
there a way to do it downtown? Closing Burg is
gonna take ten years and you're probably gonna have to
get an Act to Congress.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
And good luck with that.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Is there a way to get a new stadium, a
dome stadium in the city of Cleveland?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You know, I have to answer that several different ways,
and I know that we're on the radio show and
I need to be brief in my comments.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
But let me say this.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
First of all, the rendering that finally got released to
show the ergonomic structure of their stadium downtown was actually
a very good structure. It's similar to what the Calves
have done, and what the Guardians have done is renovate
and put a skin over a present stadium where they
can have more events and more things.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
In the central business district. That would work.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
It's less expensive, it will extend the lifetime of the
current stadium and everything else. Number two, Originally we made
a huge mistake. And I say weed, public officials or
whoever else, And I don't want to say weed because
I wasn't here. I was not even a public official then.
But when we made the decision to bill Gateway made
a huge mistake. Not the cluster build right there in
(15:31):
that area. I actually learned that from Dan Gilbert and
having a conversation with him one day to talk about
how everything should have been built in one area in
order to emanate the energy that needed to be consolidated downtown.
So it never should have been built there in the
first place. Last, but not least, there are places in
the city of Cleveland. I pitched Wolstein Center, which we
(15:53):
know is woefully underutilized. The post Office. I think they
said it couldn't work, but I think that there was
potential there. Burke was one of the other things that
was pitched. And then I will tell you that there's
other pieces of land that they were going to build
a county jail down there where those railroads are at,
and they could damn sure have hosted eight games or
(16:15):
twelve twelve events a season right there by Transportation Boulevard,
or right down there behind the post office, down that
hill where all those tractors are. So I think that
we didn't get together and the parties did not consolidate
ideas early I think people started going down one direction
and when that street closed, then everything started going haywire
(16:38):
and everybody went their.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Own way, which is unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
But I will tell you that that is a problem,
and that's one of the reasons why council passed fifty
million dollars for a site's fund, because if we don't
start consolidating large parcels of property, we're going to continue
to lose out on some of these big not just
sports teams, but companies and factories that need a tremendus
this amount of acres of land too, like up to
(17:02):
thirty to fifty acres in order to run their companies
and their organizations.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
So where do you think we go from here? I mean,
they got it, looks like they're going to get the
money from the state. There's still going to be a gap,
so I guess there's still.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
A room for negotiation. So where do you think we
go from here?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Well, I'm still hoping that the state is going to
come to its census because it seems like the governor,
the Senate, and the state legislatures still are not aligned
at how they believe it should be funded. I believe
it's going to be put out there in conference committee
because the way that it goes is the state legislature
was just going to flat out get them six hundred
(17:45):
million out of the general fund, which was asinine. Then
the state then the governor came up with, you know,
let's tax the sports betting for you know, forty to
fifty percent or something like that that he believes would
have covered all stateum repairs. Which frankly would help us
in perpetuity because we're still on the hook as government
(18:05):
entities that own stadiums that we have to fix them.
And if we don't get that kind of money then
we could actually lose uh, you know, the bonding, We
lose money in our general fund that has to put
put it into that. And then the state Senate came
up with using some of the unclaimed funds, which I
think that one is ripe with some problems is too,
(18:25):
so I think most of this is going to get
worked out in committee, and I think once people start
doing the math, I just have a hard time believing
that they're going to stand behind their proposals, which means
that at some point in time they're going to come
back to the county.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I will also tell you that we got.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Timing factors in place because we got to think about Okay,
let's say if they do go, then I'm immediately going
to be asking the mayor, the city and as well
as the Browns, who the hell is going to tear
the stadium down? And what kind of investment are we
going to have for the lakefront. I think Scott Skinner's
article even cranes this Week is a must read that
everybody should have. That gave a very sobering account on
(19:05):
the pros and cons of losing the Browns on the
lake front, And even though it didn't focus on the Browns,
it just really gave a very sobering assessment of what
would happen if the Browns stay or if the Browns go.
If they stay, we can accelerate lakefront access and planning
and the things we want to do.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
If they go, it's going to take a lot longer.
Suppose that talking.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
With Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin and the pivot a
little bit to the lakefront. One thing that you hear
a lot in the city and in the region as
well is skepticism about lakefront development because there's been so
many plans and so many ideas that never come to fruition.
(19:50):
Can you educate the folks who are listening right now
on what the current plans are for the lake from
where it stands and how realistic is it to actually
get something done finally on the lakefront.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Well, people have been, you know, ever since Cleveland was
developed and Public Square was developed, and many, hopefully mostly
all your listeners have been a public Square. There was
always called a Burnham Plan. This goes back to the
eighteen hundreds. Don't quote me on eighteen hundred and what,
but early eighteen hundreds, and there was always a vision
to connect Cleveland, to develop from north from.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
The lakefront all the way to the city. Now, think
about that.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Okay, a lot of times people look at Cleveland as
developing from east to west, but developing from the north,
from the lakefront, going into the city and having access
where the public for the first time can have access
to property that for the most part had been blocked
by private owners. Okay, So trying to put some kind
(20:55):
of bridge in place where we can only utilize transportation
dollars and everybody, well, you know, we secured one hundred
and fifty million dollars through the North Coast Development Corporation,
the North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation, which I happen to
put in place, and I serve on the North Coast
Authority with Scott Skinner, and we have secured not the city,
(21:18):
but we, with the city's help, have secured one hundred
and fifty million dollars that will go towards four hundred
million as needed in order to build that kind of
connectivity from public square to make sure that people can
walk all the way to the lakefront, so that the public,
for the first time in over to over one hundred
and fifty years or more, can have direct access to
the lakefront and not just have access by a bunch
(21:41):
of private owners. So these plans are really to try
to open up our waterfronts. Now. You can go to Tampa, Florida,
you can go to Philadelphia, you can go to Washington, DC,
you can go to Newark, New Jersey. Any city that
has a vibrant, growing, active population has great access to
its lakefront and water front and riverfronts. We're one of
(22:01):
the only cities that has a balkanized lakefront and waterfront riverfront,
and that's one of the priorities that have been of
our forefathers of our city is to try to make
sure that we have better access and not cut it
off with the industry and rail lines and the other
things that we have in place now. So there's momentum
that has never been there before.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
We're talking with Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin. Also, something
else that came out recently is, as you know you
have been it was speculated for quite a bit of
time that you would be a potential top tier mayoral candidate,
(22:44):
and you recently decided not to run from Aleric. Can
you talk a little bit about that decision, what went
into that process of coming to that decision, and why
you decided ultimately that it would be best for you
to remain as a council president.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Well, Darkville, it was a toughest decision because a lot
of times you have high expectations of yourself and I'm
one of those type of people that I put a
lot of pressure on myself to you know, be the
best and maximize my potential while I'm here on earth.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
But you know, this job, when you are in.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Public service, you have to ask yourself a question every
once in a while, and is where can you best serve?
Do you need to serve in the present position or
do you want to take a step up and think,
you know that you could do something else. Well, after
a lot of prayer, a lot of conversations with my family,
a lot of conversations with the public, and a lot
(23:36):
of conversations quite frankly with you know, some of my
poor people. Uh, it just didn't feel right, and you know,
this is a business where timing is important. You know,
a lot of the polls showed that people felt good
about the direction that Counsel was going in. It looked like,
you know, Counsel would be the best place for me
(23:58):
to continue to serve effectively after weighing all of the
pros and cons and options. And I might have been
right because I did not get an opponent, So that
may be an indication that I kind of do my job.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
And so on that note, as we get ready to
go into I believe you you all are on break currently, correct,
we aren't.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Break, But to be honest with you, this is the
busiest time of year because now we actually have to
get out of here and walk around these neighborhoods and
make sure that the people see us and that we're
actually delivering the service that we are supposed to.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Right, So talk a little bit about what.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
What the objectives and what the agenda is going to
be for Counsel when you all return.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
What's on your plate moving forward?
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Well, I think we have done some tremendous things around housing.
I think we have started building more diverse housing products
across the city, whether they be market rate or whether
they be affordable housing.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
I think we've done a good job of really planning
seeds around housing all throughout the city. I think that
safety all also remains a priority, making sure that we
continue to buff up our safety ranks and that we
get the police department at the ranks that they really
need to be, and that we restore trust between the
police and the community, not through platitudes and politics, but
(25:29):
through real, genuine, authentic engagement and and and love for
our community. I think that we got to do some
things around infrastructure and public service to make sure that
people feel and touch these cities. I be I tell somebody, uh,
the tail of two cities that just got back from Atlanta.
Atlanta was built for four hundred thousand people, but now
(25:51):
ten million people live in Atlanta and in that region. Cleveland,
on the other hand, was built for about a million
people and only three hundred and seventy two thousand people
live here. And then even if you look at the region,
the region is not necessarily growing, but like very incremental
steps and growing. We got to grow our population. We
(26:11):
got to make Cleveland an attractive place. And in order
to do that, we got to talk about money. And
I tell people all the time. A lot of people
don't like to talk about money. They like to talk
about charity, but we have to talk about genuine growing
the middle class in the city of Cleveland and trying
to make sure that people have an opportunity to work in,
(26:31):
you know, jobs where they're not just making a living wage,
but a thriving wage, jobs where they're actually able to
buy a home, and make sure that their children have
a good education, jobs where they can actually live the
American dream. So it's ambitious, and I will be honest
with you, and one of the things that I would
love to talk to you about one day. You have
to do it in the face of tremendous opposition because
(26:53):
quite frankly, a lot of people, when they remove civics
from government, have no clue what government is supposed to do.
And often times you have these armchair critics that have
no clue of what they're talking about. Yet they feel
like they have a voice because of social media and
other things, but don't take the time to really understand
the mechanics of government.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
So that's an ambitious platform. But I like that.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
I like that, And it's funny that you brought up
Atlanta because that's something that I talk about all the time.
I refer to the Atlanta model all the time, and
they're a perfect example too of when you make sure
everyone has a seat at the table, it benefits everyone.
(27:39):
And to that point, what can we do as a
city to make sure that everyone has a seat at
the table.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
We still have too many areas where there's like.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
These pockets of stubborn poverty that we have to we
gotta break that up. We gotta make sure that the
that the pipeline for people to rise is as strong
as it can be. And particularly we definitely have to
we have to address the East Side because there's so
many issues there. So how can we how can we
(28:14):
do that? How can we fix that and make sure
that this can be a place where all of our
population gets a seat at the table.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Well, the first thing I think that we have to
do and this is going to sound very conservative of me,
and I'll be the first to tell you I'm a
moderate person. I'm not a far left person or for
a right person. I'm a person that's trying to deal
with what is best for our community. And what I
can say is speak to the best of my knowledge
and what I would tell you is the first thing
that we have to do is dispel this myth that
(28:47):
charity is that charity is what we need to achieve
as opposed to opportunity. Opportunity is more important to charity.
It's the old it's the old saying about out teach.
You know, give a man a fish and he'll eat
for a day, but teach a man how to fish,
and he'll eat forever. We have to basically really get
(29:07):
back to the point of really educating people on what
opportunity means and how to take advantage of those opportunities.
Then once we do that, which I think that should
be an educational and family type of trait that people
are teaching, but unfortunately something is being missed. Then we
have to make the opportunities available for you know, as government,
(29:29):
to make the opportunities available. We have a bill multi
billion dollar airport project that's about to take place. There's
no reason that people shouldn't be able to take advantage
of the opportunity. Now you're going to hear at the
federal level and at the state level, well, we you know,
don't be a dei hirer. That's almost like code word
for subpar hiring. No, you know, all anybody wants is
(29:50):
an opportunity to be in on some of these projects
that we put in place. And as I told one
of my very good friends, you know, when I have
a that's fifty five percent female, you know, almost fifty
percent African American, approximately thirteen percent Hispanic, and then we
have a a you know, a large you know, reentry
(30:12):
community and proximy seventy three percent of single parent households,
then I'm going to make sure that the taxpayers and
the people that represent that population in the city of
Cleveland get a return on their investment.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
That's not DEI.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
That's making sure that the people who actually are paying
the bills actually have an opportunity to participate in the
wealth that's being created in their own tax dollars. And
that's what we're trying to get to. And you know,
we got to make sure that that happens. That's not charity.
That is making sure that the people that are paying
the bills have an opportunity to build the wealth. And
(30:47):
then we got to do better man at really really
just being real with people about you know, their responsibility
in this. So a lot of people think government is
supposed to take care of everything. It doesn't work that way.
Government is only one land of the race. We can't
beat the whole entire rads.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
We'll talk about Cleveland Council President Blank Griffin as we
get ready to wind down here. There was a conversation
that we were just having offline here that you brought
up something that was very interesting to me about studies
and our lack of participation in it and interacting with
the Cleveland Clinic and stuff like that. So just kind
(31:26):
of bring up a little bit on the air what
we were just talking about off there before the interview started.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Well, one of the things that you know, I've always
worked with in my capacities counselmen and building a relationship
in Cleveland Clinic to try to have world class healthcare.
And one of the things that you know they have
at Cleveland Clinic that a lot of people are not
aware of, or these research studies and right now they
have a research of brain study that anybody over fifty
years old, or anybody that has a relative that's under
(31:55):
fifty that had a relative that has some kind of
brain dysfunction like Alzheimers, or it's one of those.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Kind of degenerative you know, diseases.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
There's opportunity to sign up at the Cleveland Clinic for
tests like this. So, unbeknownst to me, I sign up
for one of these tests, and you know, fortunately I
go to take one and most of these tests.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Are white males.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And I get to talking with you know, the you know,
the doctors that are doing this, and they start telling
me some of the statistics that almost you know, ninety
percent of these type of tests, whether they're for medicine
or whether they're for other type of research where you
actually can get top notch, you know kind of diagnosis
(32:39):
for free, you know, are done on white males. So
think about that your medication that you take for blood
pressure or diabetes has most likely not looked at your
genetic makeup and your body makeup and the things the
traits that most black people have, like a lot of
black people have sickle cell see trade. So to look
(32:59):
at the those kind of factors and being able to
determine how we could live longer is very, very important.
And that's one of the things that I'm very keen
on is how do we eliminate some of these health disparities.
I got a very good friend named Albert Ratner, and
he wrote a book with doctor Michael Roysen called Longevity.
You know, you got people starting to think about if
(33:19):
you can just really take advantage of you know, very
good diagnostic health care, how healthier our community could be
and how much longer we can all live. So I
really want to do more to educate our community on
some of the health disparities that we can close if
we just try to take advantage of the proper research
(33:40):
and part and get over the stigma of some of
these things because there's a lot more protections and really
try to work together to see what we can do
to try to eliminate some of these disparities.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
All right, let everybody know how to get in contact
with you. Follow you on social media, keep up with
what you got going on, Sir.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Griff facts Griff for col E six, Follow me on Instagram,
or you can follow me on Facebook at Cleveland at
Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin on Facebook. You can always
call my office sixty sixty four, uh, you know, forty
five seventy nine. I'm always available. I try to make
myself available to the public as much as possible. And
(34:22):
Doval I got to say this, man. You know, one
of the things that I am a big fan of
is good quality journalism. And I think that you going
over to WVU, with the audience and the crowd that
they have, I think was a great, great opportunity for
you and a great opportunity for our community. I know
that the prior host was a good friend of mine,
(34:44):
but I was really happy to see you, know, you
step into these reins and you jump right in and
and and took over.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
So congratulations, my friend.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Brother, Thanks man again for coming on the show, spending
time with us, Man and always being gracious with your time.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Man, I appreciate it anytime. Man, I talk to you
in the moment.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
All right, stay tuned. We have tea time with Row
coming up next. Here the Outlaws, Yo, what's up? Bring
the noise right here, Chuck, Republic enemy number one. You
are tuning the Outlaws Radio.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Show, Real talk, real conversations.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
We got the heat.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Hell yeah, this is the Outlaws Radio Show.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Walking back, walking back and listen to the Outlaws. I'm
still laughing about roping grabbing the steering wheel, Like wait
a minute, oh my god, that's so funny. I wish
I could have saw that. All Right, it is time
for the time of the show that we.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
Like called t Time.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
We're Rode turn it up.
Speaker 9 (35:57):
Y'all see Outpatation, the latest celebrity news and gossip. It's
tea time with Row on the Outlaws radio show.
Speaker 7 (36:09):
All right, so this week we're actually talking about somebody
that we have not even heard about in a long time.
So I know that everybody, everybody, everybody, Mama, day, Grandmama.
I don't care who it is. I know y'all know
the song Whip the Whip Ninna song.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
There was a dance watch watch.
Speaker 7 (36:30):
Yeah, I know everybody knows that. Everybody knows it, everybody.
But so Silento, if I'm saying his name correctly, he
is known for that song. That's his song. So he
was actually just sentenced to thirty years after pleading guilty
for murdering his own cousin. Now this happened back in
(36:53):
twenty twenty one. I will read his note real quick
and then we can kind of go forward with that.
So he said, I will continue to make music after
you know his sentencing. He said, I will continue to
make music on becoming the best possible version of myself.
He he does take full responsibility for what he has done.
(37:16):
Will just kind of go over that real quick and
just say that.
Speaker 8 (37:20):
But he.
Speaker 7 (37:22):
He said he entered the industry as a teenager, often
without proper guidance or direction. While that is not an excuse,
it is part of my truth. I pray for growth, evolution,
and the ability to find forgiveness for myself and for
the entire situation. They are stating within these records when
(37:42):
it happened, is that he basically that he is battling
severe mental health challenges. We kind of spoke about this
a little bit, but it's really hard to say with
this as I you know, I've said to you guys,
well to Darvey and Dante, is that there are a
(38:04):
lot of people out here who do deal with mental
health issues and sometimes some people just snap. But at
the same point, you can't. You can't just hurt people.
I don't really know, like the what would even cause
you not to just take somebody's life, but take your
(38:25):
own cousin's life. Like I just I don't I don't
understand how what would even possess you to do something
like that?
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Yeah, me either, And I mean so on the one hand,
obviously there's some sort of mental issue because that's not normal.
But on the other hand, you know, the three of
us were kind of discussing before the show started when
we were kind of going over this story. Even be
that as in May that there's clearly some mental health issues,
that still does not mean that you can't be held
(38:56):
accountable for your actions.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
And sometimes.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
Like the mental health that you're the mental health help
that you're going to get, Unfortunately, sometimes it has to
be in a jail cell because if you do.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Things to harm other people, regardless.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
Of what you're dealing with, you still have to be
held accountable for that, because there's a difference between having
a mental health issue and being and not being mentally competent,
because if you were not mentally competent, that is.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
A specific legal designation.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
That would also put whatever repercussions you were suffer into consideration.
But that ain't the case here. He knew right from wrong.
Now you can have mental health issues and still know
right from wrong. And I also think too, in this
environment where we rightfully rightfully sow to be sensitive about
(40:01):
mental health issues, I think when people use that as
an excuse for folks that do violent acts. It actually
is harmful for people who have mental health issues because
not every person who has mental health struggles is violent.
Not every person who's dealing with mental health issues is
(40:22):
going to kill somebody. So what I think when you
make excuses, when people make excuses and use that as
an excuse, it unfairly, actually unfairly stereotypes people with mental
health issues because not all of them are violent Number
one and number two. Regardless, you still have to be
(40:43):
held accountable for your actions.
Speaker 4 (40:45):
Dante.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Yeah, like.
Speaker 8 (40:49):
My sympathy for a person's mental illness ends when they
harm someone else. So you know, a lot of people
are dealing with things, and there are varying extremes, and
you know, to varying degrees of how bad or how
(41:12):
much someone is going through. So we can sympathize, We
can empathize with people going through things. I mean, we've
all had days and we all go through our own struggle.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
But again, I.
Speaker 8 (41:28):
My compassion for you is over once you have harmed
someone else, especially to the point of killing them. I
was wondering when I had first Robert, you had shared
this in our group chat. I was just wondering, like,
what is the story here because this was I mean
just I don't like the fact that they've left this
(41:49):
kind of vague, just like what in the world would
make you want to kill your cousin? Right? I just
I don't know. I mean you can have it out
with family, for sure. I mean I'm sure we all
have at some point, but like, what did what?
Speaker 2 (42:04):
What happened?
Speaker 4 (42:05):
What would make you do that?
Speaker 8 (42:06):
Wasn't it didn't It clearly wasn't an accident. I mean
he was charged with murder, so like obviously nobody thought
it was an accident.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
He pled to it.
Speaker 8 (42:15):
Like maybe if it was an accident, then maybe you
could have got like a mass slaughter charge or you know,
negligent something. But I mean, murder is pretty self explanatory,
like what did your cousin do? Or what did you
think he did?
Speaker 2 (42:29):
You know what happened?
Speaker 8 (42:30):
So I wish we had more information on it. But
I feel bad for that family though, too, because I'm
sure the family is ripped apart.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Right right?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
All right?
Speaker 7 (42:39):
Next, Oh well that was gonna be what I had.
One thing I can talk about. It's not really a
tea time thing, if you don't mind, darbyl Yes, Well.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
Hold on.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
We'll get to that in a second. I'm glad you
you brought that up. I wanted to make sure you
didn't have another story because I do have another. Uh,
I do have another tea time story that I wanted
to bring up that I wanted to bring up. That's
not as serious as what you're that you what you're
gonna talk about. So I want to do that first
(43:14):
and then we'll we'll close it out with with that
other story. So it's been a little controversy right now
because the BT Awards happened I think three days ago,
if I'm not mistaken, and the person who won Best
Gospel slash Inspirational is Glow Thriller.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
Yeah, Glow. So she had a song called uh Rain
Down on Me. I actually haven't heard this song.
Speaker 5 (43:54):
I heard the gospel song she did with Kirk Franklin,
and I wasn't particularly of it. I don't some people
don't like the you know, the mixing with I don't
care about that. I just wanted to be good and
the song that she did with Kurk Franklin was not good.
But I have not heard Rain Down on Me. That's
(44:15):
with uh Maverick City Music here shared and uh, Chandler,
that might be the same song.
Speaker 4 (44:23):
Chandler Moore and Kirk Franklin. Yeah, that might be the
same song. That's the same song.
Speaker 8 (44:26):
I was not a fan of that song.
Speaker 6 (44:28):
So there's there's a controversy over the fact that Glilla
was the one who, uh who won the Gospel Inspirational Award.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
I'm having a.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
A little bit of confusion because I'm trying to see
if this is an award for the song or for
the artist.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Now, I think you can make you can make an argument.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
Again, I'm not a fan of song, but you can
make an argument like our best gospel slash inspirational song.
That could be anybody, because there are secular artists that
make gospel songs all the time. But if it's but
I see some reports calling it best Gospel Inspirational Artist.
If it's best Gospel slash Inspirational Artist and that's the
(45:21):
award she won, that's kind of ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Dante your thoughts.
Speaker 8 (45:28):
Yeah, I haven't even heard the song, so I'm not
too sure what what's happening. But she didn't win it
for uh let her cook.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Huh.
Speaker 8 (45:43):
That's the only Glorilla song I know, unless.
Speaker 7 (45:46):
They say that was gospel right there?
Speaker 8 (45:48):
Yeah, yeah, you like that, Yeah, letter Cook, That's that's
what I And then oh, I know the yeah Glow
but she was talking about drugs and dope and that one.
So I don't think that was the one either. So
I don't know what the song is, but I mean,
it's to be to you. I I guess, I don't know.
(46:09):
I that's that's kind of wild. I wouldn't have thought
that Glow really even made a gospel song.
Speaker 4 (46:15):
So he did make a gospel song. That's like I said.
Speaker 8 (46:17):
I wasn't a fan of it, but I mean, I'm
just saying that's that's that's good, right she made would
make one. Yeah, I like that she made the gospel song.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
And like I said, if the art if the award
was for the best song, I.
Speaker 5 (46:30):
Would disagree, but I would at least think you could
make an argument, yeah, it's the best artists like come
on Now.
Speaker 8 (46:38):
Didn't give it to her because they was also given
Kurt Franklin an award too.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
I don't know, but because you could have gave you
could have gave the award to him on one of
his songs, because he got a whole new album.
Speaker 7 (46:49):
Yeah, so you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (46:51):
So now, Robin, when you think gospel music, do you
think of Glory?
Speaker 8 (46:58):
No.
Speaker 7 (47:00):
I actually have to hear this now because she has
no no, she has like she's she has a deep voice,
and I've never really seen like she's been getting more
into like girly kind of things, but I've never really
(47:21):
seen her sing. I've I've oh, she didn't sing, she rapped,
she rapped the gospel? Yeah she did?
Speaker 8 (47:30):
She? Do you have to go?
Speaker 1 (47:31):
Do you have to go listen to it?
Speaker 7 (47:33):
I don't see a lot of these music, a lot
of the different types of music. They're changing so much,
like country music, gospel. I mean, all this music is
changing so much, and a lot of them are collaborating
from different you know what I mean, Like it's it's.
Speaker 8 (47:53):
Gospel.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
Oh yeah, Well, I mean there's been Christian hip hop forever.
Speaker 5 (47:58):
Yeah, And I mean I've see the most famous artists
that people probably are familiar with is Lucraze.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
So there's there's been Christian hip hop for a long
time is say it again?
Speaker 7 (48:10):
But Gloriala, I don't see it.
Speaker 4 (48:12):
Yeah, right, That's that's that's where I was going.
Speaker 5 (48:15):
I'm like Christian hip hop as a genre has been
around for a long time.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
But Glorilla, I don't see it. Hey, God bless her.
Speaker 7 (48:26):
I like Gloriala. I like Gloriala. I do like her.
I like her music, I like her vibe. Like she
she seemed like a real cool person listen period, but
like not in gospel.
Speaker 5 (48:42):
All right, we got like three minutes left before we
got to get out of this segment, Robin, go ahead
and talk about the story that you wanted to address.
Speaker 7 (48:53):
Okay, so real quick, I have I have this this
girl on my page. I don't know her personally, she
just happens to be somebody on my my Facebook page.
Her name is Janelle. She does have a little girl.
Her name is Zana. Zana was. She was a ten
year ten year old little girl as of just what Wednesday,
(49:17):
and she so she just turned eleven years old. So
Zana she one day she was just playing around. So
she woke up with back pain one day one morning
and she was more or less she was fine. So
later in the evening her body started to give up
completely to full paralysis. They are in Houston, Texas right
(49:39):
now at the hospital. So the little girl, she cannot
move her whole entire body. She cannot move, she has
been on a feeding tube. She was being helped with breathing.
The original diagnosis of her was a stroke in the
spinal cord, and they have yet to find out what
has caused it. But so she is still in the hospital.
(50:03):
But I did just want to bring that up and
speak on that. But and I did just want to
give her a quick little shout out and tell Zanea
a happy birthday. Reading her story earlier, seeing that she
celebrated her birthday in the hospital, and so many people
sent her mom gifts and so many things, and it
was just like so heart touching. And as a mom
(50:25):
of a little girl, eleven year old little girl, that
really that this story touched me because every day I'm
in fear of my children's lives and I never would
think their own bodies would attack them. But I did
want to wish her a happy birthday.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, absolutely happy birthday.
Speaker 5 (50:42):
And for anybody who wants more information about what Robin's
talking about, you can go to Robin's Facebook page because
I know that she's posted about it on there as well,
so y'all can check that out. But all right, in
the meantime, stay tuned. We'll be right back with Dante's
Hot Takes here.
Speaker 4 (50:59):
On the Outlaws. True sir, welcome back, Welcome back.
Speaker 5 (51:13):
You're listening to the Outlaws, make sure that you subscribe
to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever
you get your podcasts. And if you listen to the
show on Apple, please make sure you leave us a
five star review and a comment. It's very important for
the algorithm and for those of you that have already
done so, thank you also very much. And now's the
time to show that we like to call it Dante's
Hot Takes, telling the truth.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
Whether you like it or not, it's Dante's Hot Takes
on the Outlaws radio show.
Speaker 8 (51:44):
So I'm sure at least by now everybody's been made
aware seeing some sort of clip of what's happening in
Los Angeles. Ice tried to conduct a raid. Things went left,
and essentially it's spilled over into a couple of days
worth of protest and maybe there was some disturbance, maybe not.
(52:08):
I think things were escalated, probably on both sides, but
things kind of got out of hand, it seems like,
not to a twenty twenty level, but it seems like
there needed to be some intervention. How much you can
never know because you know, both sides are planned politics, right,
So the Trump administration says one thing, the state of
(52:29):
California is saying, we don't need your help, but we know,
you know, those sides are kind of adversarial. So maybe
the truth lies somewhere in the middle. But the point
is is there was some disturbance around immigration and protest,
and that always spurs the conversation of what is the
right way to protest?
Speaker 4 (52:49):
Right?
Speaker 8 (52:49):
And did you do things the right way? And should
you be violent or should you block traffic? Blah blah blah, right,
That conversation always comes up in light of a situation.
Speaker 4 (53:02):
Like we had there.
Speaker 8 (53:03):
So my topic today though, is about Florida Governor Ronda Santas,
or should I say Florida Man Ronda Santis, who in
an interview talking about what happened in California and about
how the protesters were blocking traffic. DeSantis talked about how
(53:24):
in Florida he was proud that they passed.
Speaker 4 (53:27):
A law that says.
Speaker 8 (53:30):
If you are being stopped or you feel threatened by protesters,
you can just run them over. And that's what we
do here in Florida. And he said it with kind
of this weird smugness, as if he was proud of it.
(53:51):
And I understand if someone is someone's life is in
danger because of an angry mob. But the fact that
you see a protest and the first thing you think
is let's just run them over, that that's a little
odd to me. And I think this is why Governor
(54:15):
DeSantis makes an electable governor in the state of Florida
and is not really viable nationwide because a lot of
people in the country, whether we agree or disagree with
the protesters and what they're protesting, never thought to just
run them over. We had parades here over the weekend
(54:42):
for Pride. I'm sure people got caught in it. I
don't think people in the Midwest just think like, oh man,
these people are pride. I'm caught in a pride pride.
I'm just gonna run them over. People don't think like that,
at least not normal people. So I don't know. Maybe
we were talking about mental illness earlier, maybe that there's
a case down here in Florida. I don't know, maybe
something's in the water, but that's not a normal thought.
(55:05):
In my opinion, even if you vehemently disagree with what
the protesters are are going.
Speaker 4 (55:11):
For, Yeah, that's not normal. I will say this though,
there's an asterisk.
Speaker 5 (55:21):
And only time I would think about an asterisk is
like the tweet that I posted a couple of days
ago that went viral, by the way, it was over
one hundred and twenty three thousand views, And there.
Speaker 9 (55:33):
Was a.
Speaker 5 (55:36):
These two white folks, these two white protesters, who were
being very dismissive and disrespectful and obnoxious to this black
woman who was begging them. They were blocking the street
and she was begging them to get out of the
way so that she.
Speaker 4 (55:51):
Could go to work.
Speaker 5 (55:54):
And one of the protesters very mockingly said, oh, no,
not work.
Speaker 4 (56:01):
That guy might have I'm not gonna say I would
have ran him over, but he might have felt the
heat of my car. I don't know, Dante, that that
one would have been a little difficult.
Speaker 8 (56:14):
That sounds like typical white liberal nonsense to me. So
we have a white liberal male protesting illegal immigration, and
he's doing so by keeping a minority woman of color
from her job.
Speaker 4 (56:35):
Yes, and in his mind.
Speaker 8 (56:38):
That's what's so crazy in his mind that makes sense
I'm going to protest about poor minorities two thousand miles
away while hindering a single minority trying to better her
life two feet away. In his minded he probably went
(56:58):
home and thought, Wow, I really helped the cost today.
Speaker 4 (57:06):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (57:09):
In that case, I probably wouldn't have hit him, but
he would have felt the heat of my car a
little bit.
Speaker 8 (57:14):
He would have definitely heard the horror. He definitely would
have heard the horror. You know, sometimes sometimes you gotta
you know, you don't have to hit them, but you
gotta rap it up a little bit and make them
think that you might like how you like how we
do with them those DUTs when they crossing the street.
Don't hit the geese.
Speaker 4 (57:34):
Don't do that, by the way, don't do it.
Speaker 8 (57:38):
But if you just step on aget just a little bit,
they will start moving faster. You gotta scare them out
of the way a little bit. Follow me on Instagram
and Twitter at take bride t a E b r.
Speaker 4 (57:52):
Y e oh Man Robin let him know how to
follow them.
Speaker 7 (57:56):
You can follow me on Facebook at Robin O'Malley and
you can follow me Instagram at real Robin O'Malley.
Speaker 5 (58:02):
And you can follow me at dd King Grin everywhere
that's d T H E k I n G p I.
And one more time, special shout out to Cleveland count
of President Blaine Griffin for coming on the show.
Speaker 4 (58:13):
We're really appreciate it. We are out of here, see
you next time.
Speaker 8 (58:43):
This was produced by f C
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