← The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club
INTERVIEW: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Talks Gov. Race, NJ Housing & Homelessness, Drones, Congestion Pricing + MorE
00:36:12
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- [00:00]
Carlos Miller
Taking control of your career is empowering. Just don't tell my boss I said that. Just kidding. I am the boss. This is Carlos Miller from the 85 South Show. And building a career isn't just about a job. It's about creating a path that impacts our community and future generations. Whether you're starting out or even making big moves, State Farm is here to support you with resources to help protect what you're working hard to achieve. They've got your back every step of the way. Because like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Find out more@state farm.com tired of restless nights? At Leesa, they know good sleep is essential for mental, physical, and emotional health. From memory foam mattresses to hybrids that keep you cool all night long, Leesa's mattresses offer exceptional comfort and support with free delivery and 100 nights to try out your mattress in the comfort of your home. Go to leesa.com today and get 20% off all mattresses and two free pillows. That's leesa.com and use code iheart for an extra $50 off your purchase. Remember, no matter who you are, there's a Lisa just for you. Jon Stewart is back at the Daily show, and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into John's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports, and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondence and contributors, and with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tomer Cohen, LinkedIn's chief product officer. If you're just as curious as I am about the way things are built, then tune in to my podcast, Building One. I speak with some of the best product builders out. I've always been inspired by frustration. It came back to my own personal pain point. So we had to go out to.
- [02:02]
DJ Envy
Farmers and convince them.
- [02:04]
Carlos Miller
Following that, curiosity is a superpower. You have to be obsessed with the human condition. Listen to Building One on the iHeartRadio app, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
- [02:18]
DJ Envy
Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy Jess. Hilarious Charlamagne. Thguy we are the breakfast club. Lauren LaRosa filling in for Jesse. We got a special guest in the building, Governor Baraka. Hey, let's call it.
- [02:30]
Carlos Miller
Let's move.
- [02:31]
DJ Envy
He's running for governor. Ladies and gentlemen, Ross Baraka. Welcome, brother.
- [02:34]
Carlos Miller
Thank you, thank you. Glad to be here.
- [02:36]
DJ Envy
How you feeling?
- [02:37]
Carlos Miller
Good, man, good cold, but I'm good cold.
- [02:39]
DJ Envy
So you gonna put your hat in this race? And what makes you want to run for governor?
- [02:43]
Carlos Miller
I already did. I think it's time, man. I mean, we have a very short window. I don't think we get an opportunity to do this anymore. There's a crowded field. It's an opportunity for African American kid from the city of Newark to make New Jersey live up to his Democratic values, to build a broad based coalition to really respond to the issues we deal with in the city every day that I think are statewide issues. The issues of housing, unemployment, safety, the affordability of the state being too expensive for most folks. In New Jersey, we deal with those things. Every problem New Jersey got, we got it twice in Newark. But whatever we grappling with, the state is doing it. And if we're mitigating those problems in Newark, we can certainly do it in the state. And if the state is better, Newark is better. So what are some things you'll be.
- [03:25]
Charlamagne Tha God
Able to do as governor that you aren't right now capable of doing? As meth?
- [03:29]
Carlos Miller
Help build more affordable housing across the state of New Jersey, which makes it easier for folks like folks in Newark who are trying to get in housing. So we started 20% affordability in all development in the city. The state followed suit and did the same thing. So now it's not 100 people on the waiting list, it's 5,000 people on the waiting list because New Jersey is in it. And now we can't discriminate against where you come from across the state, which means we need more affordable housing in a state. We need workforce housing. We can do that. Right. We can help reduce the violence not just in Newark, but also Camden and Trenton. Right. Jersey City and places like that. To begin to create an environment in the city or in a state that is conducive to business, conducive to growth, helping families grow and be safe. We can do that. We can bring more business to the state of New Jersey. We've brought them to Newark so we could bring them to the state. You know, I think we uniquely qualified. Most of these other folks that are running have never done. Have no receipts of doing anything.
- [04:22]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's right.
- [04:22]
Carlos Miller
Except for being in the Democratic Party. To them, I mean, that gives them the privilege, the party picks them and puts them in front of people and say, this is who you're supposed to vote for. I'm tired of that. You know, we gotta mix it up.
- [04:35]
Charlamagne Tha God
Yeah, I love Newark, man. And, you know, you've done some amazing things in Newark, man. Baraka. One thing I want to talk about is Newark. They experienced a 60% decrease in violent crime. And a lot of times, you know, they say that in cities, but you don't see it right in Newark compared to where Newark was, you know, a decade ago. You can see that Newark is, you know, is a lot safer than it was. Not saying it's perfect, but it's a lot safer than it was. How did you do that?
- [05:03]
Carlos Miller
Well, we created an ecosystem. Office of Violence Prevention, Trauma Recovery, Brick City Peace Collective. In essence, we brought in community based organizations to partner with the police. The police started doing really intelligence based policing. But we brought Rutgers on to kind of identify what crime was happening at, what violence was happening at. For example, they told us all the bodegas in the city where violence happened in 100ft of and gave us some data point that said if we turn the lights on in this area, it will reduce violent crime by 34% if we put lights on in this area. So we did those things right? Right. We put community people in those communities to deal with high risk intervention, deal with folks that were trying to retaliate, kids that are getting out of jail, meeting them immediately like, yo, this, we need you to get involved in this and do this. Give them opportunity. And we have a, I want to thank, like, new direction, you know, one hood organizations like that, that work with us in the city that do very, very dangerous work in these communities trying to reduce the temperature, like they say, reduce the temperature.
- [06:03]
DJ Envy
I wanted to ask, you know, when it came to Newark, how did you get your, I wanna say, governing style? And the reason I ask is we've met a lot of mayors, We've seen a lot of mayors in a lot of different cities, but I've never seen a mayor do with some of the things that you do. Like you go out there and touch the people, right? You use everything that you have to bring people in. Why do you do that so much? I mean, Charlamagne has been part of the stuff that you've done in Newark. I've been down there a million and one times. I've seen you bring celebrities to come down there and not just speak, but to actually help. Why have you done it that way? And why don't you think other mayors follow your way of doing it? Because obviously it's successful.
- [06:38]
Carlos Miller
Well, I think I do it this way because it's how I was raised. I'm from Newark. For real. Like, this is my community. He said for real.
- [06:45]
DJ Envy
He said for real.
- [06:46]
Carlos Miller
And, you know, I know these people. I know these neighborhoods, these streets, the people on them, good and bad, and I know we need them to help solve these problems. The people that are closer to the problem are closer to the solutions in my mind. And, you know, I don't feel like I'm special because I'm the mayor of the city of Newark. I feel like this guy gave me opportunity to do more with the resources that I have, and I owe it to a whole lot of people. When I was a kid, at 15, 16 years old, I could have easily been in trouble. I had good friends who made sure I wasn't in trouble. When beef came, they walked me home. You know what I mean? Kids that made sure I was in the house when things went on, and they talked about it the next morning. So I feel obligated to take care of them now that they took care of me. When I was a kid, I was on my way to college. My best friend was on his way to Annadel, the youth correctional facility. So I feel like it's my job and duty to take care of folks in my neighborhood, and that's just basically how we govern and how I operate in the city.
- [07:38]
Lauren LaRosa
Yep, there's a lot of gentrification happening in Newark. Right. And I've only been in the area for about, like, a year, and I'm like, wow, it's a lot that has changed. You're really from Newark. Like you said, how do you balance working with people that are in the community and then also bringing in these new partners who might not have that same feeling or commitment to the. The city and the people that are like what you said, because you kind of need the outsiders at the same time.
- [08:01]
Carlos Miller
Well, they don't have no choice. I'm the mayor. We in charge. We a city of Ann, you know, so if. If we didn't do that, 25 of the people in the city pay taxes. They homeowners. So if we didn't have business, if we didn't have the buildings going up in the city, we wouldn't be able to hire the people we hired. We wouldn't have the infrastructure we need. We need more people to pay taxes. So you have to create opportunities. That's why we take Section 8 vouchers and turn them into mortgages so people could be homeowners, so they could pay taxes. 20% of every building that goes up in the City has to have 20% affordability in it. You have to put affordable housing in every development. Hell, you got to plant trees. You know, invest in community through community based, you know, community benefits agreements. We, we force developers to do very specific things in the city because we don't want them to leave folks behind. We change the last service lines. We made the, the folks who did that hire community based organizations, people that work in the city and bring on black and brown businesses to, to help them.
- [08:59]
Charlamagne Tha God
Could you break down the, the, the Hire Buy Live initiative?
- [09:03]
Carlos Miller
Yeah. So we, all of the corporations in the city, we call them anchor institutions. We told them that actually Prudential did the study for us, showed us that all of the business only spend 3% of their dollars in the city of Newark. If they lifted it to 10%, they would add 50 to 60 million dollars to the economy. So based on that, we began to bring people together and say, we need you to lift the level of your procurement, your spin in the city. We want you to hire Newarkers deliberately. We had a goal of 20, 20 people to hire. They actually hired 3,000. And we wanted to encourage your employees to actually live in the city of Newark. Went so far that Audible was paying the first month's rent for folks who decided to live in the city of Newark. I mean, it got that, you know, deep with the corporations because they saw the success of it and how the city was changing. So they, they leaned into it. You know, Beth Israel leaned in. Rutgers, Newark University leaned in. They probably hired more people than anybody in mid level to high level staff than, than anybody in the, in the city. So we think that that model works not just in the city, that, that could be a statewide model as well.
- [10:10]
Charlamagne Tha God
The thing I love about Newark too is like the political infrastructure there is so black. And, you know, the city is just a beautiful black city. It makes you want to invest there. How is, how important is it when people like Queen Latifah want to build affordable housing there or Shaq wants to build, you know, affordable housing there? How important is that?
- [10:27]
Carlos Miller
That's very dope. Shaq is on his building number three. Wow. And his buildings are going up very quickly. You know, I'm excited about. It makes other people excited about it. It makes, more importantly, it makes people black and brown folks that are, you know, small to mid sized developers feel like I got a shot. So when you bring them together, we feel like, because a lot of people don't want to take the risk or they don't want to go through all the Bureaucracy or the patience that it takes to get knocked down and get back up because it's not a simple and easy thing. I make people understand this is hard, what we asking you to do. It's not easy, but it makes people feel like it's possible, it's plausible. Let's get, let's do this. So when all you guys, when other folks come in and invest in the city, that's why I bring people around them so they can see folks that look like them, have similar backgrounds than them, that they did it, that you can do it as well.
- [11:12]
DJ Envy
I was going to ask congestion pricing, what's your take on congestion price and does it help? Does it hurt? How does it affect especially New Jersey.
- [11:20]
Carlos Miller
Bunch of rich bureaucrats fighting with each other about things that working people have no knowledge of. The reality. I think the objective is right, that obviously the environment and congestion is a problem. I think going at it this way is an issue and that's usually what the problem is in the state house and governments because most of these people making these decisions make decisions based on a small frame of reference make on a small circle. And they're not bringing people in, regular working folks in to weigh in and on what they're trying to do. You're not bringing the fire guy in who lives in the outer boroughs, who got to work in Manhattan every single day, that's going to have to pay that. You, you're not, you know, working class people in New Jersey who have to drive here to go to work, who don't make a whole lot of money. That's you at you hitting them over the head again and again and again. You're driving people away from the party, driving away from government. They're becoming more cynical because they think that these guys are making decisions that are hurting them. They don't care about all of the big issues you talking about because you hurt in my pockets. I don't got no money as it is. How you gonna take more of my money? This doesn't make sense. So we have to figure it out now. They say, oh, we need to reverse congestion.
- [12:28]
DJ Envy
I heard about that. I was going to ask you about that.
- [12:29]
Carlos Miller
Yeah, I think it's ridiculous, right? I think these are just political people throwing volleys at each other in the newspaper, trying to get video and, and airtime, you know, trying to get earned media about this stuff. The reality is none of that is going to fix the problem. Like if you want to deal with congestion, you want to deal with the issues people have and you need to get on the ground and talk to folks about how to really solve this problem. You know, and if you raising money for MTA off the backs of working class people, I think that's wrong. And we need to figure out how to do that in a better way. Right. Doesn't hurt working class folks.
- [12:59]
Charlamagne Tha God
I want you to expound on that because that's a problem that I feel like just Democrats have is with their messaging. But you say you got something that you say. You say politicians can't make policy for people they can't see. They can't solve problems they don't know exist. And I say that all the time in regards to politicians because they talk about people they never talk to. So how can politicians do a better job of that?
- [13:19]
Carlos Miller
They got to get out of there, go to the barbershop, the beauty parlor, the, the thrift store, the lounge, the bar. They got to talk to folks where they at. You know, right now people are picking people for people and you know, surrogates are running out convincing people to vote for you. And you're not going in front of people talk, having conversations with them. And that's real, that's the real problem. Like you don't know these people. Like you don't know the, the parent that, that has an 8 year old, 7 year old and a 4 year old got to go to work, leave them home at the house, try to get the neighbors to check on them because she can't afford child care.
- [13:48]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's right.
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Carlos Miller
Right. And then, you know, the child finds a gun and shoots himself and everybody talking bad about her, but not about the economy that's the richest in the world, that does not allow folks to find childcare that they can afford. So now she has to make a decision. Right. Or the fact that I can't pay my rent because I'm buying Christmas gifts and I wait for my income tax to come in so I can level up on my, on my rent, but I want to buy Christmas gifts. I don't know these people. I don't have conversations with these people. So the policies I make are not going to address them. For example, New Jersey fighting over a policy for 500 for seniors that make $500,000, you know, to give them tax breaks. You know, my grandmother is in a nursing home trying to figure out how to pay the nursing home, how to pay medicine. Right. How to do all the very specific things. She don't got a home here and a home in the Hamptons and a home in Florida. But we don't see These people, so you can't make policy for them, so those people get pissed off. And the problem is those are the majority of the people.
- [14:40]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's right.
- [14:41]
Lauren LaRosa
And for you, somebody that is with the people. Right. Even when something like the congestive pricing happens with the tolls and stuff, when people are talking to you, how do you. What are you instantly trying to do to help them? Because a lot of people I know that are in Jersey are like, well, especially us that aren't from there. And we moved there thinking it was better for us to commute. We like, dang, we might as well move into New York now. But then that goes against what you're trying to do with bringing people to Jersey and getting these companies to invest in it. Like, how do you start to solve that problem before us leaving Jersey becomes a problem?
- [15:09]
Carlos Miller
Well, I mean, I think what the governor is trying to do is he's still keeping it in court, trying to raise the issue of it so it can be reversed. I mean, he went as far as wrote a letter to Donald Trump. I don't know how far this is going to go, but ultimately we have to keep it on people's mind, continue to have the discussion about it to see if we can repeal it in some way. We can't just allow it to sit like that, or the order or the MTA or somebody else has to figure out how to compensate people or give them an opportunity to reduce what it's going to cost the burden to go back and forth to the city who were forced to go there. Not just going there because they trying to go shopping.
- [15:48]
Lauren LaRosa
Right.
- [15:48]
DJ Envy
Did you go to the inauguration?
- [15:49]
Carlos Miller
No.
- [15:50]
DJ Envy
You did not go?
- [15:50]
Carlos Miller
No.
- [15:51]
Charlamagne Tha God
You actually put out a statement talking about Trump's first day.
- [15:54]
Carlos Miller
Yeah, I wouldn't have went there. Yeah. I mean, it was crazy. I mean, all the things he did. I mean, he said he was gonna do, so I mean, it's crazy. Attacked birthright citizenship, got rid of diversity, equity and inclusion. Fired everybody, got rid. Survivor prevention. I went to the website. It's gone. Right. You know, he just. Every. All of the things that we need to continue to do what we're doing in the state of New Jersey and Newark, he just attacked and got rid of, pardoned all of those people. Straight out. White supremacists, dangerous folks that. That he let loose. I don't know why anybody in their right mind thought that he wouldn't do any of these things, but. But he did it. Right. And, you know, people tell you who they are, like, they say believe them.
- [16:34]
Charlamagne Tha God
How do you navigate that as a, as a, as a politician like you? Because you know, like they say that you have to be cordial with them, which I, I completely don't understand because it confuses me as a voter. Like if I hear you say somebody's a threat to democracy, you call somebody a fascist, you liking them to Hitler, but then as soon as the election is over, you know, you're at the funeral smiling with them or you welcome them back to the White House having tea with them. How would you navigate that?
- [16:58]
Carlos Miller
Yeah, that's the problem that Democrats have. They, you know, they can't out Republican Republicans. And that's, that's the reality one. I mean it's one thing about being respectful to people, it's another thing about standing on your beliefs and your values. You don't have to celebrate with these people. If somebody come in the room, you could be cordial to them. You don't have to celebrate with them. You don't have to rejoice with them. You don't have to pretend that there's somebody that, that they're not right. You can't uphold something for the sake of the system that you know is wrong. Right. You know, you shouldn't be in the room. You can't go there and play with them and you know, make everybody think that this is okay. Because it's not okay. Right. And I believe that, that we were right. I think Kamala was right. The stuff that she was saying was right, that the things that she was standing on was right and all of those people were wrong. And we have to stand with that. I think people like power, so they want to stand close to power. The proximity to power is what it is. They feel like they're going to be safe if they next to power because he's going to destroy everybody but me. I think it's really a coward move. And what it does is what you say confuses everybody. It makes them believe we really all on the same side. We just pretending so we get elected.
- [18:04]
DJ Envy
I wanted to ask, you know, we talked about congestion prices. They say property tax is one of the highest in the country. As far as New Jersey is concerned, how do we keep people in Jersey and people not wanting to leave Jersey, how do we do that?
- [18:16]
Carlos Miller
Well, we have to lower the costs. Right. People tell you they're going to lower taxes, most of the time they lying.
- [18:21]
DJ Envy
Right?
- [18:21]
Carlos Miller
Right. Because the only people taxes get lowered like the super wealthy. Right. So you know, regular working class and middle class families. Because what's happening, like what Happens in this country. We take from poor people, give to rich folks and the middle class, pay the bill, right? So if the bills, if health care costs are growing and we, we don't get under control, you're paying for that, right? If housing costs keep growing, don't get under control, you're paying for that. You can't. If you go to a restaurant, the bill is the bill, right. Unless you take something off the bill. That's what the bill is. So I'm a. Lower taxes. The government pays for itself through taxes. We ain't selling cars out the back, out of city hall, right? So at the end of the day, taxes is our revenue. So if we can't get health care hospitals in check, insurance companies in check, if we don't get all these insurance companies in check, then the bill is going to continue to grow. Healthcare costs grow 15, 20, 30% arbitrarily every year. You're paying for that because all of the workers that we hire, we got to pay the health care. Right. And as those costs increase, your costs increase. Right. And if you live in, if you don't build housing. So if you're not building housing, you're not adding people to help you pay the bill. Right. So when you get this idea, we don't want to build any housing, we don't want to come to our neighborhood, what you're essentially saying is you want the cost to continue to go up. New Jersey has more cities than California. Right. Was eight times larger than New Jersey. So because we have all of these cities, we're paying individual costs for all the things we need. And our school system costs are higher because we have less kids with the same infrastructure. Right. Because nobody's moving to our neighborhoods. Right. And until we build housing, put people in our community and lower costs, our tax is going to continue to go up.
- [20:00]
Charlamagne Tha God
Why do you think people are leaving New Jersey? Because I saw something you said. For seven consecutive year, more residents moved out of New Jersey than any other state.
- [20:08]
Carlos Miller
Well, we actually had a reversal of that this year. So New Jersey have seen more people move to it than most states in the country. So we one of the fastest growing. So people are now coming back into the state because I would imagine because it's getting expensive everywhere. It's expensive everywhere. And housing is an issue all over the country. And New Jersey is a little bit more liberal than other places. So folks want to come there and not be targeted.
- [20:40]
Charlamagne Tha God
I think Jersey is going to be, I don't want to say the new Hollywood, but when you Got Lionsgate building what they're building in Newark. When you got Netflix building what they're building in Monmouth County. I think there's going to be a lot of people fluctuating to Jersey.
- [20:54]
Lauren LaRosa
Is that why you guys? Because I'm looking here in the Newark Land bank came in 2019.
- [20:59]
Carlos Miller
Yeah.
- [21:00]
Lauren LaRosa
And for as long as I've known in Delaware, we had a land bank. My grandmother has got a lot of property and land and stuff. And I'm like, 2019, that's so recent. Why did it take so long? And is that why it happened? Because there's so much coming you want to make sure people can get land and property.
- [21:12]
Carlos Miller
We're the only city in the entire state that has land bank.
- [21:15]
Lauren LaRosa
Wow.
- [21:15]
Carlos Miller
We. We fought for it on the state side and then we. We passed it. And locally we did it so we could turn property over to people in the city who live there.
- [21:23]
Lauren LaRosa
Yeah. I thought that was like a law, like there had to be a land bank.
- [21:25]
Carlos Miller
No.
- [21:26]
Lauren LaRosa
Wow, that's sad.
- [21:27]
Carlos Miller
No, we want to be able to get it into people's hands. And that's been working. That's how people have been getting property, really? Through the land bank. Because through the city, you gotta go through all this bureaucracy, all the other kind of, you know, you gotta go before the council, the land bank. I could sell you the property for $5. Yeah, right. That's how we're able to do the. The section 8 mortgages. We take people's vouchers and we turn it into a mortgage. With bank of America and the Land bank, they pull a product together. We working with the New York giants. New York giants are fully furnishing people's homes. So you got people moving into houses that used to live in the projects, paying the same amount of money that they were paying in back to terrorist projects.
- [22:04]
DJ Envy
But now they own something.
- [22:04]
Carlos Miller
Now they had their own home.
- [22:06]
Lauren LaRosa
Can you explain what a land bank is? Just for people who might not know what that is.
- [22:09]
Carlos Miller
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- [23:56]
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- [24:40]
Carlos Miller
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- [24:56]
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- [25:16]
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- [25:19]
Carlos Miller
That's L-E-E-S-A.com and use code iheartrade for an extra $50 off your purchase. Remember, no matter who you are, there's a Lisa just for you. Private dude with a whole bunch of money, right? I could buy up all of the property and bank it and sit on it. And you know what usually happens is I wait until prices go up and then I want to sell the property. I sit on it. That's why you go to a lot of cities and you see a lot of vacant property and you try to figure out, oh, why they don't do anything with it. Because the city doesn't own it. Some private person took it and they holding on to it so they can make money. So the city does that. Now the city gets all of the property and we bank it like so we hold onto it, we parcel it together. And so we give the first right of refusal to like community development organizations to local folks so they can develop it, so they can build it, to keep wealth in the community, to create more diversity and ownership in a property and keep prices low at the same time. So we can manage what happens with our property in the city through the land bank.
- [26:19]
Charlamagne Tha God
How important is that? Because you know, you, you want to keep even Lauren brought up gentrification, but you want to keep Newark full of people from New York. So when stuff like the studio gets built, the Lionsgate studio and you see, you know, places like audible coming up, you still want to keep the residents of Newark in there. So how do you make sure that happens?
- [26:35]
Carlos Miller
Well, that's why you gotta, that's why we have those meetings that we have the men's means, we have other meetings because I'm trying to make people go get the property. We set this thing up, now go get it. Like let's figure out how you can get property. So I mean you got people, you know, who own buildings was put they store. There's a grand opening. Old boy had a, a store, a sandwich shop. Now he has a sandwich shop on top of residence that he owns now in the building that he owns, right? Got my man Chino who just came home, you know, a few years ago, who now is not only developed his own property, now he's involved in a part of developing a larger piece of property in the city and then telling developers, big developers, that you have to partner with mid size and small developers from the city, gives them an in.
- [27:18]
Lauren LaRosa
Oh, that's amazing.
- [27:19]
Carlos Miller
So you don't. You don't need me anymore. You. You. You know that these folks need you, right? So you show up with your expertise and your skills and your ability and say, look, this is what I can offer you. Plus, I'm from Newark, so, you know.
- [27:32]
DJ Envy
I do have to ask, too, with the couple of months ago, the drones, what were they? What were they?
- [27:41]
Carlos Miller
I wish I knew, man.
- [27:42]
Charlamagne Tha God
Man, you know something? You know something?
- [27:44]
Carlos Miller
I wish I knew.
- [27:45]
Charlamagne Tha God
They just went away, too.
- [27:46]
DJ Envy
It just going. I haven't seen them since.
- [27:47]
Carlos Miller
They did just go away, but they were saying it was just people putting up their individual drones, like once that it started, the size of vehicles, mass hysteria. Actually. I know a company that. That trains, you know, folks on big drones like that, too. Like, Alpha is called Alpha Drones, you know, but they. They remove graffiti. They do all kind of stuff with those drones. So I've seen big drones like that before. But, you know, I'm glad I didn't get involved in that, that. That discussion that was going on, though, because it's. Now. It sounds really crazy that people are arguing about it. It does.
- [28:18]
DJ Envy
But I say I don't think them drones would have pulled up in Newark. I think if it would have been in Newark, they had to shot them drones down immediately.
- [28:22]
Charlamagne Tha God
Come on. Beautiful place.
- [28:27]
DJ Envy
You know, you got them down, though.
- [28:28]
Charlamagne Tha God
Another thing I love that you. You've done in Newark is the homelessness program, because you've helped to cut Newark's homelessness in half. What have y'all gotten right, that a lot of people around the country haven't?
- [28:40]
Carlos Miller
Well, we have street teams, and our street teams, we just expanded it to 24 hours a day because they do so good, you know, and the state just witnessed the uptick 24% this year. I mean, the end of last year. And we got a little uptick, too, but because we have reduced it 57%, we still down. You know, our street teams go out there through Path home. We talk to folks, we get them off the street, and we're being more creative about, like, we created, you know, housing out of containers, right? We took the containers, shipping containers, and we built housing out of shipping containers, which was successful to us. We just went to the housing authority, took 200 of their units that they weren't using, that was abandoned, and we're investing in fixing those up so we could use them as transitional homes for folks that are off the street. So we have places to put people when we pull them off the corners. And we're just very, very, very deliberate and intentional through our street team about that, about that work.
- [29:36]
Charlamagne Tha God
Talk about the Path Home Initiative. See, you be speeding through stuff, man. Baraka. Because you do actually. You're one of the elected officials. I can actually say, yo, that guy out there, he does the work.
- [29:44]
Carlos Miller
He does the work. Absolutely.
- [29:45]
Charlamagne Tha God
And you can see it reflected in the city. What is the Path Home Initiative?
- [29:49]
Carlos Miller
Path Home is like, you know, we. We say housing first, so we talk to people on the street until they comfortable coming with us to go places. So they know. Our street team know most of the homeless people in Newark by name, where they live at, so forth. And so on what street they. On what corner they in, what tent they under, so they. They continue to talk to them, right? And then we have a cell phone thing. You text path home 85511 path home to that. And the guys that go out there and engage these folks, right? And make sure. And that's just not regular people. You know, you have drug counselors there, you have psychiatrists there. You have social workers there. You have regular street team folks there. So there's a whole team of people that go out and bring mobile units to the folks where they are and begin to try to convince them and pull them into housing, right? And sometimes they don't come right away, but the first, you know, we keep going, keep going, keep going. It was. The lady told a story that it took the folks three or four times to talk to her before she said, I'm going, you know, but. But she finally went and she gave a testimony how it turned her, changed her life around. Because they kept being persistent about, hey, we coming. Here we go again, you know, some food. We just not giving you food. We try to give you help, support, get you off the street. A lot of people come and give out food, and it makes them feel good for that moment. But the person need more than food, right?
- [31:10]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's right.
- [31:11]
Carlos Miller
They need a house. They need treatment. They need counseling. So we try to bring all of that to the folks and bring them into housing when we can. All we have to do is keep building housing so people could come in to have a place to go, because there's no place for us to put them. Then the street teams don't make. They become useless.
- [31:29]
DJ Envy
Now, when you become governor because, you know, we gonna put that in the air, what's the first thing you want to do for the people in New Jersey?
- [31:34]
Carlos Miller
What's the.
- [31:34]
DJ Envy
What's your first attack?
- [31:35]
Carlos Miller
I think we need to get the budget in order First, I think is out of control and we need to one, cut spending, cut costs, make the wealthy pay their fair share. That's number one. We need to invest in the economy by building housing next to transit all over the state. We need to put thousands of people to work, turn it into a public works project, same way we did the last service lines. Put thousands of people to work in the economy, get the building trades to give us a price for affordable housing and tell them they can make up on the volume what they going to miss out on, what we reduce in the price. Build 10,000, 15,000 units up front. Right. We need to take our procurement dollars and invest in black and brown communities immediately to South Asian communities, women, businesses. The state of New Jersey spends less than 1% of its dollars in those communities. Now we got to turn that around because to me, that is why the economy doesn't grow. I mean, you know, you can't have an exclusive economy and expect it to grow. There's a whole bunch of communities that need to be engaged in the economy that we're leaving out. The Latino population or business community represent 20% of the workforce in New Jersey. That's on their own merit. That's without any investment, without any support from the state. We got to put money in those communities and watch those communities grow. Hire people. You hire more people. We have to pay them less unemployment, employment. We give them opportunity to get homes, they can pay taxes. And then you'll be crying less about the taxes you pay because they'll be helping you pay them. Right. Invest in those communities ASAP. And that's what we do in the first 100 days.
- [33:06]
DJ Envy
And I wanted to know, when Newark Jersey lost a professional team, how bad did that affect the industry or the market or the finances during that time? How bad was that? And is there any talks of getting another professional team by any chance?
- [33:20]
Carlos Miller
Well, I think it's impossible because, you know, New York, the teams you gotta get permission from, the Yankees and the Mets to put another team from the Giants and the jets, you gotta get permission from them to bring another team in this market. First of all, if they don't allow you to do it, it ain't gonna happen unless one of them move to New Jersey. The good thing about Prudential arena, the Prudential arena is one of the top three most selling arenas in the nation. So, you know, after the Nets left, they, they really upped their game. So. And I think it's like that because of diversity, because you could go there, go to a K Pop show, right? You could go see Romeo Santos. You know, they. They have everything there. And because of that, it's always crowded. 18,000 people on the street almost every day of the week. I mean, it's crazy over there. They making a lot of money and they bring in a lot of attention to the city of Newark while people keep putting business there because it's always crowded.
- [34:15]
Charlamagne Tha God
Well, how will. How will Lionsgate impact Newark? And how will Netflix impact just Jersey as a whole, like both of them?
- [34:21]
Carlos Miller
Well, Lionsgate will help a community, a neighborhood that's been distressed for a very, very long time. And when they come there, you know, the path, the airport is already building a stop there by there so people could get on the train to get to the airport. So that. That's going to be awesome. And because those studios are there, obviously they're going to be retail that's going to pop up there because people have to eat. They need to do these things. They want to get their hair. They don't do whatever. So they're going. Obviously the retail is going to grow there. And it's going to do something about the housing market as well, because the housing authority is already talking about investing in the housing in that community. So I see a shot in the arm happening for the economy in that area. And obviously the state, that region is going to benefit from it. Once you put the train stop there, people could get on the air tram from there. It's going to create incredible opportunity for that neighborhood and for the Elizabeth and all of the cities that are attached to it in that region.
- [35:14]
Charlamagne Tha God
What about the cannabis industry? Because, you know, we opened up Pastoria in Newark, myself and Raekwon the chef and macari sellers. What about the cannabis industry?
- [35:22]
Carlos Miller
I think it's a. I mean, we got to do better in New Jersey. Let me say that, you know, I just think the bureaucracy is too much and the cost of cannabis, of putting it together in New Jersey is higher than places like Pennsylvania and other places like that, that we have to work out those price, lower that stuff, make it competitive in our state and cut a lot of the red tape so more of these things can happen faster than it's happening now. And lean into to making sure that black and brown and underrepresented communities who were victimized have a bigger portion of what's happening here. That we have to do this deliberately like New Jersey is. They want to do the right thing that is afraid to do it out loud, you know what I mean? So you got a whole bunch of people that if you say, oh, black people are suffering, they'll raise their hand. I agree with that. Then you say, oh, we should do something about it. They hands don't go up.
- [36:07]
Charlamagne Tha God
Absolutely.
- [36:08]
Carlos Miller
You know, so that's, that's really what the difference is. So we, we have to lean into like, look this, we know this is the problem. You agree with it. We need to fix it. Right. We can't charge this amount of money. There has to be carve outs for certain people in certain communities and, and we have to grow it faster than what is happening. I just think it's taking too long.
- [36:24]
Charlamagne Tha God
Well, come see us. Come see us at Hashtoria, 799 Broad street in Newark. I need you to have the chief of police just do a little sweep in front of the store though.
- [36:32]
Carlos Miller
Oh, yeah, a lot of, a lot.
- [36:33]
Charlamagne Tha God
Of entrepreneurs be out there, you know what I'm saying?
- [36:35]
Carlos Miller
We had a discussion about that.
- [36:42]
Charlamagne Tha God
Our customers pull up and they be trying to get their own sales on.
- [36:45]
DJ Envy
Drop a dime on them, smooth down the block.
- [36:46]
Lauren LaRosa
Man, Telfar did with the people that be outside his store. He dropped Telfar bags off so that he can increase their revenue. Maybe you should talk to those brothers and see what they trying to do and how Hashtor can help talk to them.
- [36:56]
Charlamagne Tha God
They trying to give me weed. We own the dispensary.
- [37:00]
Carlos Miller
You ain't got to give me nothing.
- [37:01]
DJ Envy
When is election? When can people make sure they donate to what they need to make sure they support you and your site and everything.
- [37:07]
Carlos Miller
And you see razforgoverner.com that's us. June 10th is the primary in New Jersey. The general election is in November 1st, Tuesday in November, but the primary is June 10th. You can donate, you can get on the website, volunteer, ask questions, do whatever it is that you need to do or feel comfortable doing. Absolutely, yeah.
- [37:28]
Lauren LaRosa
You're not worried about the trickle down from this new administration? Because a lot of stuff you trying to do, they not, they ain't really the biggest proponents of it. You, you know, you're not worried about that at all?
- [37:38]
Carlos Miller
I mean, I think that we got to govern the way we govern. We got to do what we do. Like that's it. Like, we can't like do what we need to do. Thinking about them like we have to do what we need to do. Thinking about the people in New Jersey. If they come up, come over to New Jersey, they got to deal with us, then we minding our own business. But if they come over here with some nonsense, then we got to take care of business other than that. We're going to do what's right for the people of the state.
- [38:00]
Charlamagne Tha God
Is the federal government going to make what you want to do in Jersey easier or harder?
- [38:04]
Carlos Miller
Probably harder. Okay, probably in some instances, probably harder. I mean, but this guy ran saying he wanted to make the economy easier, he wanted to lower prices, costs. He want to do all of these things, put people to work. We. We want to put people to work, we want to lower cost. That's what we want. All the other crazy foolishness that he's talking about is what he really wants. He's not. He hasn't started doing that. Right. And I don't think he's ever going. Just like he said he wanted to invest in infrastructure the last time he was the president. That never happened. Right. All the other stuff happened, but not that. So I think that's a ploy. But we're going to lean in on creating jobs, creating small business, incubating folks, giving people a housing, reducing the cost. We leaning in on that. And we're going to protect the immigrants and migrants in our community. We're going to protect the LGBTQ community in our neighborhood. We're going to protect the people who, from Newark that we know. Those our uncles, our nephews, our cousins and our neighbors. The people we, you know, we hang out with. We gonna protect them. I mean, we ain't gonna run away from them. Because now that Trump is the President of the United States, what kind of people would we be then? Like, we leave our folks behind. Cause the bully done showed up now you scared, right? It is what it is. This. These are our family members and we gotta make sure they good.
- [39:11]
Charlamagne Tha God
How insulting is it to be called a DEI mayor as a black?
- [39:14]
Carlos Miller
Well, I'm not insulted by it. You know what I mean? I mean, I think diversity and equity and inclusion is the right thing. I think what they trying to say is that you're not qualified. And what they. And they say that by everything. So what they're really saying is that we not qualify for anything. You can't be anything because you're not qualified for anything. That's what they're really saying. I don't think that we should run from the idea of being of supporting diversity, equity, inclusion. In fact, the economy needs diversity, equity, inclusion. It's just not enough white men to support the economy of this country. Just doesn't exist. So there are a whole bunch of people that keep saying we have a labor shortage because they talking about the traditional folks who have these jobs that are aging out and because they're not going into the black community, the brown community, the South Asian community, women, then. Yeah. People aging out. There's a whole bunch of folks that are a part of this country. You know, American families are different, man. You know, we eat plantanos and, you know, black beans and rice and collard greens and cornbread and, you know, black rice and conch. American families are different. We not. It's not the same concept of what American family is. It's all kind of people that are Americans these days, and we just got to own up to it and invite these people to participate in our economy.
- [40:24]
Charlamagne Tha God
My last question, because, you know, I just wanted to cover some great things that you've done in Newark that I know you would implement if you were governor. The shaping the educational future of Newark. What did you do to help that?
- [40:36]
Carlos Miller
Well, you know, the state was in control of our schools for 20 years. You know, when I was a vice principal, principal, teacher. You know, most of that time was under. Well, all of it was under state control. We took the state, the schools back from the state when Chris Christie was the governor, by the way, and got the schools back under the city's control. Since then, you know, we have been trying to help with childhood literacy, maternity help with maternity care, and giving women access to opportunity for childcare and literacy because we want kids to start school ready to learn. That's really what we've been focusing on. I mean, the school system is not under our control, but we're doing what we can to support what we think will help kids get a better education by preparing them for school before they start.
- [41:21]
DJ Envy
All right, well, we appreciate you for joining us. Definitely. Make sure you go out, support Mayor Ross Baraka. He will be the next governor of New Jersey. We're gonna put that in the air. And thank you so much, brother.
- [41:29]
Charlamagne Tha God
What's the website again?
- [41:30]
Carlos Miller
Yeah. Ras for governor. The number four razor for governor.
- [41:34]
DJ Envy
All right, it's Raj Baraka. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning.
- [41:37]
Carlos Miller
Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Jon Stewart is back at the Daily show, and he's bringing his signature wit and insight straight to your ears with the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Dive into John's unique take on the biggest topics in politics, entertainment, sports and more. Joined by the sharp voices of the show's correspondence and contributors. And with extended interviews and exclusive weekly headline roundups, this podcast gives you content you won't find anywhere else. Ready to laugh and stay informed, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tomer Cohen, LinkedIn's chief product officer. If you're just as curious as I am about the way things are built, then tune into my podcast, Building One. I speak with some of the best product builders out there. I've always been inspired by frustration. It came back to my own personal pain point. So we had to go out to.
- [42:41]
DJ Envy
Farmers and convince them.
- [42:43]
Carlos Miller
Following that, curiosity is a superpower. You have to be obsessed with the human condition. Listen to Building One on the iHeartRadio app, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [42:53]
Lauren LaRosa
Hey y'all, Nimini here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by QU Westlove, the Story Pirates and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through Hip hop, Smash.
- [43:11]
Carlos Miller
Slam, another one gone. Bash bam, another one gone. The cracker, the bat and another one gone. A tip of the cap cause another one gone.
- [43:19]
Lauren LaRosa
Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15 year old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing.
- [43:33]
Carlos Miller
Check it.
- [43:34]
Lauren LaRosa
And it began with me. Did you know? Did you know I wouldn't give up my seat nine months before Rosa? It was Claudette Goldman. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to historical records. Because in order to make history, you.
- [43:51]
Carlos Miller
Have to make some noise.
- [43:53]
Lauren LaRosa
Listen to historical records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [44:03]
Charlamagne Tha God
Happy holidays from me, Michael Rapaport, and.
- [44:06]
Carlos Miller
My gift to you is a free subscription to the I Am Rapoport Stereo.
- [44:10]
Charlamagne Tha God
Podcast where I discuss entertainment, sports, politics.
- [44:15]
Carlos Miller
And anything and everything that catches my attention. I am here to call it as.
- [44:20]
Charlamagne Tha God
I see it and there's a whole lot of content things catching my eyes these days.
- [44:25]
Carlos Miller
Listen to the I Am Rapaport Stereo podcast on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcast.
- [44:30]
Charlamagne Tha God
And wherever you get your podcast.