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The Breakfast Club
INTERVIEW: Mayor Of Gary, Indiana Eddie Melton Talks '2300 Jackson Street Block Party,' Trump, Joe Budden +More
00:29:15
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Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. Breakfast Club.
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We are finished or y' all done?
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Yep. It's the world's most dangerous morning show. The Breakfast Club. Charlamagne, Tha God, Jets. Hilarious Envy. Had to step out, but we got a special guest in the building. He is the mayor of Gary, Indiana, Mr. Mayor, Eddie Melton. How you doing, brother?
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B
I'm blessed. I'm blessed. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me today, man.
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C
I gotta get right to it. Is the Trump administration targeting cities with black mayors?
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B
Man, I mean, I think it's clear based off the reports that we're seeing. You see what's happening in Chicago, Baltimore, and there's been a threat in D.C. as a Black mayor in a Republican state, you know, it's definitely a concern to see something like that happen. When I look at the facts, you know, that the military has no arresting powers, and it's a waste of resources to put military on. On the ground, and it's dangerous. So I agree with what's taking place from the pushback, but I think the. The conversation has to shift. What type of resources do we need to invest? Housing, mental health.
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C
That's right.
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B
You know, just to help reduce overall.
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Crimes, like job training programs.
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B
The entire gambit. Cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Birmingham. Reduction of crime is happening. We had a 55 reduction of homicides this year, something that we're extremely proud of. So shout out to the Gary Police Department Chief Derek Cannon for his leadership. So, yeah, I'm, I'm against it, but we have to have the conversation about what do we do as a United States to invest in our people and not just in policing.
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C
Can I ask you a question? What matters more? Right? Data or feelings? And what I mean by that is, you know, we hear these numbers about the crime statistics going down, but there's people who live in those cities will be like, we don't feel it, you know, And I always say, just because somebody was 500 pounds and they lost 200, they still 300. So they still kind of fat, you know, but it's still facts.
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B
No, that's a real thing. Feeling is a real thing. What you see and what you engage and feel in. But the data speaks to. Is there a trend and what are we doing that's helping?
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C
Is it getting better?
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Is it getting better? If we know that we've invested more into summer Programs, after school programs, workforce development programs, then we should be looking for additional funding to fund that more. So I think it's a balance. Right, but you have to be aware of what the people are saying, what the people are feeling. You know, being a mayor is a very difficult and challenging but most rewarding job, especially when you grew up in a city that help raise you. So I have family that have struggled and experienced some, a lot of these heartaches. So I'm just proud of the progress that we're making. But we just getting started. We got a long ways to go.
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C
Why is it so fulfilling to be.
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A man growing up in gary in the 90s and the negative stigma that you all probably already heard of? Gary, we're transforming that. We're changing that narrative. We're changing the way people are thinking and feeling about the city by investing in the people, but also raising the awareness. What people don't know about the city, of course, you know, we're about 35 minutes from downtown Chicago. That's great. But folks don't know we have an international airport that we share in collection with Chicago. Myself and Brandon Johnson, mayor of Chicago, we talk often about how we can grow that international airport. A lot of folks don't know Gary sits right on Lake Michigan. We have five miles of beachfront property that individuals come. We had a quarter of a million people just two weeks ago in Gary, Indiana, at the Gary Chicago Air Show. At the Gary Air Show. So that was something that we brought in. More revenue, more people are coming to see the positive things that's taking place. I can go on and on as a lot of these we'll probably weave into the conversation. But to grow up in a city that made you to the person that you are, I was able and blessed to have great mentors, able to go to college, went to Kentucky State University, shout out to the thoroughbreds and to come home. You know, I was state senator for two terms for eight years in Indiana, representing Gary in northwest Indiana. So it's a blessing, man. It's truly blessed. I give God the glory for that.
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C
I never heard anything bad about Gary, Indiana.
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B
That's good.
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C
You know, other than my guy Michael Jackson coming from there, I never heard anything other than that. And I heard you say that, you know, we probably know about some of the things that's been said. That's the only thing I've heard that's a blessing.
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B
I'm glad you never occurred. Right.
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C
Yes. The Jacksons and Freddie Gibbs. Michael Jackson, Jackson 5. Freddie.
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B
I was with Freddie last night.
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C
Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah.
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He said, what's up, man? Denise Williams. Right. We. It's so many. Big dog. Glenn Robinson.
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C
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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So the list goes on in terms of the history and the culture that Gary has. Gary was founded by US Steel 1906. So we are a steel city, steel town. We've seen the ups and we've seen the downs. Just like a lot of Rust Belt cities across America, like Detroit, Flint. Yeah, Saginaw. All these cities that live and work around industry. And when the industry had a downturn, it was an impact that rippled throughout the country. Right. So I'm glad to hear that it's not the negative stuff that you hear, but, you know, we got so much to celebrate. Yes, Michael Jackson, the Jackson 5, Janet Jackson, all of them are born and raised in Gary. Denise Williams. But this weekend we're going to be celebrating all those folks.
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C
Amazing.
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Celebrating all of them.
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What got going on this weekend?
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August 29th is Michael's birthday. So we've reached out to the family and just worked with them very closely, built a very good relationship over the years with the brothers Marlon and Jackie. Be in town building a relationship with that next generation of the Jackson. So shout out to Siggy Jackson, which is Jackie's oldest son, Prince, Michael's son, who have been supportive to figure out how to. How do we change that narrative about Gary and let people know the positive things that's happened. So for several years, for a little bit over a decade, there was no formal celebration or acknowledgement that the world's most famous entertainment family was from Gary and Michael Jackson from Gary. So I worked with the governor at that time. We got the highway signage set in place to let people know from a tourism perspective. But now we're going to have a formal event to let the world know you can come in. We got Chris Tucker coming in. He's going to celebrate with us. DJ Kid Capri is gonna be there as well to have a good time with us. Denise Williams is gonna host one day. So we got a lot of folks, local DJs, DJ All Out, DJ K Caesar, DJ Cheechb. So we're bringing the community together, but people from around the world are reaching out from Australia, London to say they wanna recognize and celebrate Michael at 2300 Jackson Street. You remember that song? You don't remember that song?
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C
Nah, probably not.
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You gotta Google that song.
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C
So explain the. The Nippon Partnership.
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B
Nippon Nippon mentioned about U.S. steel.
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C
That's right.
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U.S. steel is one of the largest steel producers in the world. At the, at one point they were the number one steel producer in the world. Over time they slipped down in low 20s. Nippon is from Japan, a Japanese company. When I came into office in 2024, there was a threat that US Steel would actually close plants. Now keep in mind when Gary's height, U.S. steel had 30,000 employees. Right now we got 4,000 employees. Right? That's automation, that's technology, that and that's the downturn of the industry. But the steel production happens. So the cans, the canned goods that you have, the washing machines that you use, all of that is from steel production. And most of that had probably come from US Steel. From Gary Works. Shout out to Markel Watkins is here with me. He's still working as right behind me. So Nippon Steel knowing that US I.
- [10:20]
C
Thought that was your security.
- [10:25]
B
Security outside. Shout out to Dennis. No, but Nippon Steel made an offer to purchase U.S. steel which was very controversial in the beginning when I came in, I was skeptical, just like many people to have a foreign entity seek to buy a US company like US Steel of that magnitude. So there was a lot of concerns and issues. So I did the due diligence. I met with US Steel, I met with Nippon Steel to learn what type of investments they want to make. When you work in, when you live in cities like Gary that have pollution, you know, from a legacy perspective in the steel making process, the community is always going to be concerned of the impact to the environment. So that was a concern of mine ensuring that jobs were staying in place. Those 3,000 workers, many of them, well, most of them, some of them live in the city of Gary. And that's something that we're going to address as well. Make sure that the employment abilities is there. So this deal was closed. We worked with Congressman Bennie Thompson, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Jim. Congressman Jim Clyburn was extremely helpful both in Biden and Trump administration. For us to have this conversation to say this deal has to go through $14 billion investment that Nippon has purchased. Well, not a purchase they partner with US Steel. 3 billion is going to go directly in the city of gary Works plant.
- [11:53]
C
70,000 jobs I think I saw well nationwide, nationwide.
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B
But there's going to be at a minimum of 1,000 new jobs in the city of Gary.
- [12:02]
C
That's dope, right?
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So we're working with Nippon right now. As we speak, they get ready to reline the blast furnace, blast furnace number 14, which is the largest steel producing blast furnace in U.S. steel's portfolio. So when you think about relining a blast Furnace and increasing steel production. There's more jobs, is protecting national security and everything like that. So it's a good deal from an environmental standpoint. The Japanese are bringing their technology to make the steel making process a cleaner process for the community. So that's something that's extremely important. So those investments are going to soon trickle down into the specific community so we can invest in our infrastructure. Paving streets, street lights, stops, you know, stop lights, all those type of things that need to be fixed right now that historically Gary has had issues doing because we didn't have the revenue. But now we're working with our corporate partners to make that happen.
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C
How much credit does Trump get for that? Because I saw when he announced back in May that, you know, that US still was going to remain American owned and he talked about the partnership. So how much credit does he give it?
- [13:05]
B
I mean, any president has to say, so got you. So he definitely has the credit in terms of approving the deal. So I'm grateful for that. But now it's time to make sure the deal happens. All of that investment, that 3 billion has to be invested by 2028. So that's a very small window to spend and invest $3 billion. So those tax dollars of that investment is going to be reinvested back into the city. And we're working right now with US Steel in the pond to figure out what's the best method to deploy those dollars into the streets.
- [13:37]
C
I was going to ask that, like, where does that money go? Because, you know, people hear these numbers and they're like $3 billion into our town, into our city.
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B
But where does that right, that 3 billion goes into the infrastructure, into the plant. The way that is assessed, though, that infrastructure enhancement is assessed is going to relate into some tax dollars locally. And that's what we're going to work directly with Nippon and US Steel to figure out what's the best formula that we can divest directly into paving the streets, the street lights, traffic lights, public safety. Right. Making sure that we could pay our police and fire EMS workers the adequate ways. Because right now our police and fires getting siphoned off from other communities. They're the best trained, but because we can't pay them that wage, that's changing right now. So a lot of folks are applying to become firefighters shot 359-local-359 Gary firefighters in GFD, the local police union. But it's a lot of good stuff happening, man. In terms of just what with the potential and the direction are we going into?
- [14:37]
C
What other Plans, you have to revitalize the city. You know, following the success of the deal with.
- [14:42]
B
When we first came in, we had to stabilize finances. That was extremely important. So right now, for the first time, like close to a decade, we have a surplus. So making wise decisions. When I came in, I spent, you know, the eight years that was in Indiana Senate speaking to my staff to say, hey, we have to reserve at least 10% of your budget every year before we make significant purchases or investments. Investing in people is going to be number one. So we've tripled the amount of investments into our infrastructure. Paving streets now, just like you say, a lot of people say, you ain't paved my street. Right, because it hasn't happened. But we're paving major thoroughfares. When I came in the office, significant amount of street lights were out. Right. The city owned a little bit over 2000 streetlights. I would say 900 were almost either malfunctional or broken. By the end of this year, every single street light is going to be energy efficient, led. So that investment is happening right now. It's going to make it safer, it's going to make it more enjoyable. But we have a new deal with Hard Rock Casino. Hard Rock just was built in around 2021. So when I was state senator, I passed Senate Bill 434, which allows us to enter into a public private partnership to build a new convention center. 8094 is probably the nation's busiest highway and that's what take you from Chicago to Detroit. Right. Gary smack dab right in the middle of that. Nearly 300,000 cars a day. So Hard Rock, before Hard Rock, we had another casino that was on our lakefront. I helped pass the law to move gaming from waterfront to land base in 2019. Now that they broke ground and built the Hard Rock, we, we were the lowest revenue generator in the state. Now we're number one.
- [16:29]
C
Wow.
- [16:30]
B
Right? So now that investment, we're going to build a 100, 140 million dollar convention center right there on 8094 in conjunction with Hard Rock. Hard Rock is going to build a new hotel. We have a private developer that's getting ready to build two, no, two new hotels and two new restaurants right at the Gateway of Birth street in Gary, Indiana.
- [16:50]
C
I love that. That is, that's dope. How do you plan to ensure that Gary doesn't see another decline similar to what happened after the first collapse of this?
- [16:59]
B
Yeah, I mean, we got to look at diversifying just our whole economic base.
- [17:03]
C
Right.
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B
Transportation logistics is something that I'm very passionate about right now. And I'm not talking about putting truck stops and things like that. We're talking about international flights. Again with the Gary Chicago Airport we have. If you pull up a map of Gary, Indiana or state of Indiana, they say Indiana is the crossroads to America. I'm not sure if you've ever heard that slogan.
- [17:23]
C
Indian.
- [17:23]
B
Most transit or highways and rail traffic go through Indiana. And when you look at a map, much of that intersects between Chicago and Gary. So three Class 1 rail lines. Most commerce is moving east and west is going to go through the city. So how do we maximize and build off of that? From warehousing, distribution. FedEx. Working with FedEx and a private developer. They're getting ready to break ground now on a 300,000 square foot facility. That facility is going to hire 600 new employees. So within a year and a half of being in office, we have close to 2, 000 jobs. That has been confirmed over the next four to five years or two to five years as we just got started.
- [18:06]
C
Question. Is it because of the Nippon?
- [18:09]
B
No.
- [18:09]
C
Okay.
- [18:10]
B
Okay. No.
- [18:10]
C
I mean I just wonder if other people want to be there now because.
- [18:13]
B
It'S, it's a buzz, it's a vibe and energy right now because of the investments that we're doing from a very grassroot level. From individuals as investing in their own homes to people investing in properties and flipping properties now for the first time in 50 years. And this is based off a study that Indiana University Northwest has done, Gary's population has grown for the first time in 50 years.
- [18:36]
C
Wow.
- [18:36]
B
Right. So although it's just a few hundred people, that's still the significant trend that we're tracking.
- [18:41]
C
Yeah.
- [18:42]
B
So now that we know, okay, somewhere on to something here. Making it cleaner, making it safer, making it more energy efficient, making it more resilient. Because I believe in the next 10 years, more folks are going to be moving to the Midwest.
- [18:54]
C
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A
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- [22:11]
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- [22:37]
B
You know, you look at climate change that's happening. You look at all of the, you know, from tornadoes and hurricanes and wildfires. Gary sitting on Lake Michigan, which is a part of the Great Lakes, that's the world's largest fresh body of water. So you're gonna need water to survive and have life.
- [22:52]
C
You accomplished so much with it only being a year and a half of you being in office. How long did you have this vision of changing Gary before you became the mayor?
- [23:02]
B
Being mayor was never the goal, the goal objective. I just wanted to serve and I just thank God for having that heart and desire. But it's a lot of folks that play a part in kind of mentoring me and helping me. Mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher, one of the nation's. The nation's first black mayor that was elected. I'm not sure if you guys know him. There's some from a history book lesson. We encourage folks to know that Gary, Indiana had the first black mayor in the United States that was elected. Wow. Now we go back and forth with Mayor Bibbs in Cleveland. In terms of Carl Stokes was also elected at this around that same time frame. Who was sworn in first. But Mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher was very instrumental. 1972, Gary hosted the Black Political, National Black Political convention. I knew that a lot of folks don't realize that and I knew that.
- [23:50]
C
Because Angela always talks about it. Oh yeah, she wants to do something like that. Something like that.
- [23:54]
B
We have to do something like that again to make sure what is our agenda, what is our policy collectively, what do we want to go to Congress. We don't go to the White House as a collective body to say here are our priorities. But going back to your point in terms of being mayor was never the golden objective. I was on the state board of Education first, then that's someone on the State Board of Education. Look, if you want to know what's going on, follow the money. When I started following the money, I started realizing, wait a minute, we're not getting our fair share of resources in our educational system because it was going into private interest groups. If you want to make change, at that time, my mindset was, you got to change policy, you got to change laws. So that's when I got more engaged on a political aspect and ran for Indiana State Senate. We won. So thank all of the Senate District 3 folks. And here we are today.
- [24:47]
C
What would you say to the Gary residents who got concerns and they're pushing back against the Environment Protection Agency?
- [24:54]
B
I mean, that's rightfully so. We have a phenomenal advocacy group by the name of Guard that has help me. They sit on an advisory panel that I have. When we talk about the environment, when you take away certain standards and you allow corporations to emit certain toxins into the air, somebody's gonna have to pay that bill from a health perspective. So I stand with them in that regards. So how do we make. And that's what I'm advocating for in this process with Nippon. Will you make the investments to make this a cleaner process? We know we need that industry to stay there, but now that over the last hundred years, things have changed. There's a cleaner way to make steel. Yeah.
- [25:37]
C
Do you fear at all what's happening.
- [25:39]
B
In D.C.
- [25:42]
C
Do you feel at all what's happening in D.C. will happen in Gary with everything that.
- [25:47]
B
That Trump is doing? No. I'm always watching what's happening around the country. Right now, I'm so locked in and focused on where we are and the progress that we're making. I have a great working relationship with our governor. Being in the Senate, that helped me kind of understand how to navigate downstate and work with the Republican Party across party lines. So right now, I think Gary is in a very good position. However, I still know things can change at any given moment. Right. I'm not naive to think that it can't. So I'm trying to make sure that we invest in the right things, we use our resources. In our mission statement, I said we need to be one of the most resilient cities. To your point, Charlamagne, how do we not repeat things that we know that has happened in the past? And that's what I'm trying to protect us from going down the same cycle.
- [26:36]
C
This is my last question. You're not the first person I've Heard say that there's an attack on black mayors. Right. Mayor Adams came up here maybe a year ago and said that or said it was coming. The real focus should be on our national government that's saying, why are you doing this in New York?
- [26:51]
B
Why? You check out what they're doing. They're doing it to New York, they're doing it to Chicago, they're doing it to Los Angeles, they're doing it to Houston.
- [27:00]
C
What is the same in all those cities? All black man. All black man.
- [27:05]
B
And so what we're saying, same thing that I'm going through here.
- [27:10]
C
My brother Johnson is going through. My sister Bass is going through.
- [27:14]
B
My brother Turner is going through.
- [27:15]
C
So our folks, what they wanted to happen, Governor Abbott wanted to happen, we're.
- [27:20]
B
Going to turn these cities against their mayors.
- [27:25]
C
We're going to create this environment where they're all going to go against their mayor.
- [27:29]
B
Why? Well, I don't know if I said it was an actual attack on black mayors. I think it's.
- [27:34]
C
Yeah, you did.
- [27:34]
B
Yeah.
- [27:36]
C
Kind of obvious what's going on.
- [27:37]
B
Yeah. I mean, it's clear what's taking place. I don't know the why. Right. And I don't try to get into the national politics that deep to understand the why because I just want to stay ready. Right. Shout out. Dame Dash told me to tell you what's up too. So one of the good things that Dane would always say, tell me, if you know the fight is coming, brace your face. Right. But you also got to be ready for war as well at the same time. And I'm saying that in a peaceful term. I'm not saying prepare for war specifically, but being prepared, knowing that what type of fight was going to come at hand. Right now we are in a very good, stable position to make the enhancements and investments in the city. And we're going to continue to do that with the investments that we're talking about with Nippon Steel, with the convention center, with so many other things that we're working on.
- [28:26]
C
Absolutely. And my last question, what should be the messaging of the Democratic Party moving forward to combat trap, to combat Trump and maga? I just called that man a tramp. Did not mean you might stick. It might, but I don't want him to be tweeting about me like he tweeted about my brother over here. So to combat Trump and maga, you.
- [28:47]
B
Know, we need to have a sit down conversation within the party because I think cities like Gary need to be heard. Communities that voices have not been heard even within our own party that we got to make sure our issues are at the table and that it rises up to the forefront to make sure it's going to be addressed. We can't assume that people are going to vote for us because we are one political affiliation. So I'm not prepared to answer that question right now because I think there's still a lot of work to do to strengthen the party and organization. But I'm extremely focused as mayor on what do I do for the 70,000 plus people in the city of Gary and how do we improve the quality of life of them every single day. And that's extremely important. Respect.
- [29:29]
C
Mr. Mayor. Eddie Melton. Thank you for coming, brother.
- [29:31]
B
I appreciate it. Thanks for the opportunity, man.
- [29:33]
C
God bless and can't wait to hear about how it goes down this weekend.
- [29:35]
B
You should stop through, man.
- [29:37]
C
Yeah, I can. We can just stop through Gary. Why not?
- [29:40]
B
Tell me why not, man.
- [29:41]
C
We can. I didn't even know it was 30 minutes from Chicago. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that.
- [29:46]
B
We got to. Look, we had a train that would get you from Gary to downtown Chicago in 30 minutes.
- [29:51]
C
Wow.
- [29:51]
B
Flat period.
- [29:52]
C
Okay.
- [29:52]
B
Yeah. So you, next time you in the area, stop through, we'll give you a tour and show you. And let me say this real quick about.
- [30:00]
C
Absolutely.
- [30:01]
B
I want to talk about one of our friends, brother, Joe Buttons. Joe Buttons. I don't know if you've seen the situation, Joe Button. I'm sorry. I want to make sure, because the brother invited me on the show, there was a situation that occurred. He tried to call out Gary. I wasn't even going to go here, but let's go there.
- [30:20]
C
Look that up. Hold on, continue.
- [30:23]
B
And I'm saying it in the sense of have that conversation. You invited me on the show. Let's have a conversation about the city of Gary. Just like you just. You was like, look, I don't know anything about Gary. Never heard anything. He may have had an experience once with the platform that you guys have. You can't just recklessly say something about a city that you don't know anything about, especially a predominantly black city.
- [30:51]
C
Right, Right.
- [30:53]
B
So I called him. Ja Rule gave me his number. Me and Ja chopped it up.
- [30:57]
C
By the way, this is the most random conversation. I did not know we went there, man. I didn't know. I didn't know anything about it. I see it now, though. Yeah.
- [31:05]
B
I could miss the opportunity to address it, though. But I say it in all love, but, you know, let's talk. I'm willing to come on the show.
- [31:12]
C
He said. Joe said, there's, like, three traffic lights in Gary. Gary is six blocks of wind and tumbleweeds. If I had to go to Gary, I'm not going to Gary. Gary was so interesting. I got up and looked out the window on the tour bus, like, are we lost?
- [31:25]
B
Yeah. That probably was, like, 15, 20 years ago. But don't say that in 20, 25. Right. So put some respect on the city if not.
- [31:33]
C
And you. You said, someone just sent me a video from this guy named Joe Button talking about my hometown like a dog. You don't know what you're talking about. You have no idea what is going on in Gary at this moment. Don't you ever run your mouth about myself. City. And then as he reached. And then you call. Oh, you called in.
- [31:48]
B
That's what I don't like about it.
- [31:49]
C
Okay.
- [31:51]
B
So I put us on the text together, said, we need to talk, called him, didn't answer. I'm the type of cat. I'm not calling you two or three times. It is what it is at that point.
- [32:03]
C
Yeah.
- [32:05]
B
So the last time I called him, he picked up the phone and puts me on the show.
- [32:11]
C
Oh, you didn't know that? Okay, got you.
- [32:13]
B
Well, he quickly said, you're on the Joe Button podcast. Don't say anything incriminating. I just called to have a conversation, but it's all love, man. Just invite me on the show. Let's clear it up to do it the right way. Give me an opportunity. Just kind of share the positive things that's taking place, man. There's some beautiful people in the city of Gary. I just want to tell that story in terms of our history, our culture, what we've contributed to this country, to this world. Absolutely. Because we're growing as a community. So I. I'm grateful. I thank God, I thank you guys for giving us this platform to talk about the positive things that's happening, because it's. It's a greater Gary that's moving.
- [32:50]
C
How does that hurt? That's my last question. How does that hurt when somebody says something like that about a city? Like, how does that hurt?
- [32:55]
B
Gary, think about the conversation we were having about troops going into a community. Right. So as a mayor, I got to deal with a crisis, then I got to deal with my own people with platforms, be it if it's big or small, running a city that's on the rise, in the mud.
- [33:16]
C
Got you.
- [33:17]
B
Right. When we're already trying to dig ourselves out of a hole where people think they know somebody that's been helpful, Mike Epps, been extremely helpful for putting Gary back on the map. Mike has been coming. Mike has been investing in the city, buying properties and things of that nature. So we invite folks, two chains. All the folks may have been looking to come in, but as I said before, we open the floodgates. It's. It's a Gary first thing. So we. We're creating a program right now. $30,000 down payment assistance for police, for fire. We're going to open that up to teachers to let them know. We're going to give you the lot, the land. We're going to connect you with our banking partner. We're going to give you the. Directly, the builders. And the design and template is already made so you don't have to invest in designing the home. And with that down payment assistance, now you can be a homeowner.
- [34:06]
C
Yeah.
- [34:06]
B
So that's. Those are the things that I want to talk about. Yeah, we're doing as a city, you.
- [34:10]
C
Know, people gonna swear now that you said that, told that story, they're gonna swear we had you on because you and Joe, buddy, that is crazy. We didn't even have no issue.
- [34:16]
B
I didn't even have no issue with Joe. I'm just saying.
- [34:18]
C
But I want to say the reason I. I wanted you on because I want more black man on. We had Mayor Brandon Scott on before because to me, y' all are the blueprints for what this whole country should be doing. You know, the fact that y' all are getting these resources and making these investments into the community. You're seeing the crime rates reduced. You're seeing people have opportunities to have jobs. You're making the right investments. Like y' all are the blueprint that everybody should be following. Yeah.
- [34:43]
B
So that's Mayor Brandon Scott. Man. I watch mayors around the country, African American Mayors Association. I'm watching as a new mayor, what folks are doing, you know, in Baltimore, IN. In D.C. in other cities, and even in Chicago. Brandon Johnson has a very tough job. I'm right next door to him. So whatever happens in Chicago is going to eventually trickle over into Gary. So I want him to be successful no matter who the mayor is. But he's the mayor right now, so I got to support him. But I'm like a sponge, right? I don't know everything. As a leader, you can't assume you know everything. Right. So I'm looking to folks that. That have great ideas in innovation around violence prevention and things of that nature.
- [35:29]
C
All right. It's Mayor Eddie Melton. Don't be a stranger, man.
- [35:32]
B
No, I appreciate it, man.
- [35:33]
C
Mayor Gary, Indiana it's the Breakfast Club.
- [35:35]
B
Yes sir.
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A
Hold up.
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C
Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. We all finished or y' all done?
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A
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