house family by family we're focusing on business creation business development economic development and culture it's a wonderful conversation a robust conversation one of the guys for this conversation is my brother who takes us on a musical journey welcome to conversations with al mcfarland i'm pleased to have my guest today council member blogger yang who represents fifth ward in the city of minneapolis thank you for being here this is a trying time for the fifth ward from north minneapolis so your district your ward might ward were in fifth board right now i live in the neighborhood as well but we have been beset by a series of events that have the community you could s officers and a gentleman by the name of tamara park you know i think in a lot of ways i mean people forget what the what the things that led to that incident you know and maybe that's not relevant at this point but you know in that  was you know pretty much on plymouth avenue all the way to penn avenue just kind of the sort of protest that you know you would just think you know would be something that would happen you know on the evening that people were to go home and then it became this sort of occupation in which folks who stayed at the fourth precinct and they you know created this encampment with tents and fire pits and all lots of walk in plymouth avenue perino about at least a block of not more and you know it's gone and this is what light speed in government talk i mean that just happened almost overnight and you know a couple days later sort of name to release along with their profiles and you know those are the two things that you know could be done you know the other three things that were asked of you know in terms of releasing the videos you know there are laws in place that don't allow that also you know this investigation has gone on to the state and federal levels and so both of those interviews would have to consent to allow those tapes to be released minneapolis as a city does not have any authority over that basically you know you would have civilian review of the way that looks over police misconduct civilian review authority it was about three years ago and you know in some ways it was caused because of a law that you know got chief and the mayor and you know that that's you know by charter i mean something that would be very difficult to get out of those two hands so i mean those sorts of things you know have happened you know i've heard other demands as well in terms of you know putting minneapolis police department under federal receivership what i can tell you i mean to do that would basically mean that we have failed as a city leadership and i don't i don't think i would say even the most liberal of city homes members would probably  that you know so i mean that there is that i mean there's just a number of different things that have been thrown out there you know far in the two officers right now you know we can't do that because of collective bargaining agreements and things like that and so i mean it's is you know in some ways may feel like it's gotten don't care about people of color and care about black people that's kind of the way you are and that's why you're just perpetuating this white supremacy that happens at city hall you know on the other side folks are just saying open up i mean they have no you know we want our lives to become normal again we want access police department or the precinct we want the things that you know other people would want in my would you do it in north minneapolis why we should do it somewhere else you know and i think i mean all those you know views are out there are certainly but i mean you know i'll tell you i didn't go to city hall to be the man and you know i mean perpetuate white supremacy i mean i went there and do some good work and to help people of color and you know that's what i feel like i'm slowly moving towards but you know government does not move as fast as we all wanted to i mean i think most of us wanted racial equity yesterday and you know i look at you know we should you know everything absolutely we should but i mean i think that's the thing is that it's a slow process and it's a process that is going to take you know some massaging it's going to take a bit of time and you know we need to get to may not happen in your lifetime or my lifetime but you know i mean we always want to continue the struggle and move and you know i think there's there's a way to do it where we can move together and there's a way to do it where you know we can just  i'm not allowed the folks in north minneapolis you have access to the police department one of the critical areas was video and so i'm presuming that the demand that's being presented is people looking for copies of of official maybe the ambulance or police cruiser video but wasn't there video from their residence i don't know they're sort of this with me asking you and has that been available or presented on facebook or anything you know you know i would say this you know in terms of video that is let's hear from private citizens i would say if it was there would be out on facebook already you know and so i think i mean you know in terms of you thinking about i mean there probably isn't and you know it or even if  and passionate support for the cause of police accountability people raise the question that they should about use of force and whether or not certain levels of force are justified and that's a fair question should always be raised people are demanding accountability they should in the city and government have to be responsible and accountable i think transparency is a critical factor where do you see us going  how do we put those ideals to test or how does the situation put those principles to test let me first address the protests you know i hope eventually and maybe over the police departments the city council writes the checks basically so the police department wants to spend on the the city council is the one that looks over the spending but you know we don't have direct control over what happens tactics at the police department but you know with regard to how we're moving me i feel like we're moving in the right direction you know with a couple of things you know one is you know we're participating in the off the office of justice programs and we're we're looking at our police department and looking into ways to improve the police department so that we can have a police department that is you know for right now basically so that's one part i mean i think the other part is you know we're engaging in a national initiative to look at our police departments and see what we can do in terms of racial reconciliation  engage in those sorts of things and you know it's again like anything else i'll tell you i mean i'm impatient and i know the processes are won and i know that folks out there are very impatient as well and these process will take some time but i feel like we're moving the right place you know in about margin two thousand and sixteen i mean we will roll out the body cam program and you know initially i think the police departments you know i had you know a schedule as to you know what precincts would go first i'm kind of going to guess that the fourth precinct might be at the top of list now so i mean it's those sorts of things that are happening and it's again it's slow but it's going to happen you know i i would just say you know and folks can go home and you know i think i mean for you know when the  evidence gets or gets is given to the prosecutor you know at the county and then at that point when the case goes the grand jury maybe we should be ready for the results at that point but you know i think i mean that's the thing is that you know we can't just have one way of looking at you know what the results are maybe we should just be very open terry you know whatever's going to happen because you know i mean for myself like i don't know what happened i wasn't there and not casting judgment on any of the odds of i just think that the process will take care of puts the negative light on their police department it highlights the tension between police and community not everybody but the black community in particular to we're in a community that is seeking  redevelopment and development that has had challenges i think a lot of good things are happening here how does this affect the three with a very small level i wonder about the reports i saw over ten year old child who newscasts say witnessed the shooting i'm wondering about the trauma this child is experiencing the trauma that the other bystanders may experiencing for having witnessed the incident and the trauma the officers are experiencing as well what does our city do what is our obligation to look at and respond to the i guess it's the collateral damage or consequences of this problem this issue in terms of the trauma related to the ten year old child and you know for other folks involved that has been done at least from the mayor's perspective with regard to the officers i mean i think there are support employers you know with the police department to provide for them as well you know i think i mean as a community though i mean there is that trauma from the whole community and you know that's a very real  mean you know one we need to figure out what we want to do you know in terms of the solutions as but i also say you know as he'd a city leadership and we have to take a deep long look at what our processes are and how we change it to make it better or so that people will have faith because  it's about public faith in government you know whether it's public faith in the police department or the city council of the mayor it's this and that that is most critical to how we move forward and you know so i think for us i mean at some point we have to gather ourselves and figure out what we do next you know make it better for the city of minneapolis that we're moving to the right place but you know i'll tell you you know when i ran for office i mean you know it was something that was definitely under the surface you know this this sort of strong and deep and historic mistrust of the police department and you know i understand it and i think it's i think it's a real and i think you know in a lot of ways i mean if you like at the city i mean we are working our butts off to get to a better place but you know i think a of times i mean it just seems like you know every step i mean we're taking two steps back and you know i'm telling you we are trying and we're moving forward as much as we can also but the thing is complicated by the fact that the national news reports what happened i claims of discrimination and prejudice have been made consistently over a long period of time they've been consistently ignored marginal people marginalized and even people vilified for daring to challenge the establishment city government and what's being revealed in dale is the truth of the pattern of discriminatory public policy how does that make your job it makes it hard and it makes it very difficult because you know i i mean i think there are so many problems up here on the north side that we can be figuring out and you know this is the big problem and this is the big elephant in the room that we have to tackle and so you know i feel like at some point i mean we need to start slowly peeling away at that and fixing that and you know i mean i'll tell you you know this year i mean we just did a repeal of the spitting lurking ordinance and that is a smaller stop in maine to the big problem that you talk about i mean we need to put all of our energy into trying to figure out where we go we had to make it better and so you know i would say that's a part that is going to be difficult you know move forward i mean you know if people have great ideas of me please my office is available and you know give me a call because i really want you know it's us to move to a better direction than where we that let me take a break now we'll come back and continue you know i don't want to be focused on all the negative all the problems i think that there is a great and bright ray of hope for north minneapolis on the grid a twenty turning point and i want to have this conversation go towards what ethnically diverse community and i think we did talk about the potential the challenges also mean there is potential there are opportunities that the word you know the vocabulary of the day is about disparities north minneapolis the black community in minnesota experienced huge gaps of outcomes health housing in which will education outcomes jobs employment and so we've got a lot of problems and sometimes it seems we spend so much time categorizing and studying and organizing around the problems and not enough time looking at the solution side of the equation i hope that our community will begin to see itself as a problem solving community and present itself as a partner in fixing families and neighborhoods but that implies that the leadership of the city is both supportive and response of what do you think about that is the city response of two ordinary mere poor people to black people who say they want to build a vibrant response of responsible community what do you think we are absolutely in the game on that we need to be and you know i think the the longer we allow these disparities they happen the more costly it will be for us to jump in at a later date and so you know i feel like you know we should be all in at this point to figure out what we need to do you know and you know whether it's housing whether it's  jobs whether it's businesses on west broadway we got to figure that stuff out because you know when you look at let's just say west proper i mean you know i mean there are days where i wish that black folks you know latinos somalis come to my office and say you the general community about you know are the opportunities that are at the city you know it's we have not done a good enough job you know i think on the other hand i mean you know what tends to happen is that when we do a good enough job and people come you know our systems are in place and they make it very difficult for the typical average person you know get through city government get through the bureaucracy and get to doing a business and so i mean all of our processes are in some ways i mean geared toward somebody who is you know highly educated you know who has cash and those sorts of things and so i mean we have to rethink how we do things so that the average person who has a couple bucks but has a great idea gets in the same position and i think that's a part that city government has not tried to figure out very well yet but i mean that's something that we need to do because you know you look at a lot of these minority businesses that are on west broadway laurie and other places and they basically bring their life savings in a prayer and they hope it works you know you look at other businesses that have been successful i mean some businesses they get pretty nice subsidies start to me anywhere from five to ten to twenty to fifty percent to start their businesses and so when they lose you know as generally people say you know small businesses tend to fail you more than half the times well when they fail and they don't lose their whole life savings were as you know if you're a minority and you're starting your own business with your life savings and if you lose you lose everything really was a problem so give me an idea is to simplify the process what would you do you know i don't think that you know we we need to hol people's hands i mean that's one thing that you know i've committed to you know with my office is you know if somebody wants to put something on what's wrong with me we will hold their hands you know get through the processes if needed and you know i think they're you know in turn you know these grants review loan opportunities i mean i think we need to make it simpler so that you know people gets you know how to navigate through the processes to receive a grant or a long i mean those sorts of things are things that we need to make much money easier for the average person and you know in some ways i like to say it like this i mean in terms of our application processes we need to make it so that you know high school senior can do it and if we can do that i mean to make it a lot easier for you know folks up here to be able to access government so you think that people simply are not responsive because they don't want to be because they don't know about it or they're not capable what's been the reason we haven't had the response from the community i think it's all of those things and on top of that it's this idea i mean for a person about was you know i would be a couple years ago in new leaders talked about the opening of the groundbreaking for the return of the former ford to building to productive use a new workforce center for the state and it's a unique a critical part of west broadway the retail there are i think there's a me about six thousand square feet of retail i don't know what's going to go in there you know at this point that you know i mean in a lot of ways it will be a catalyst for other developments that could happen you know right across the street i started insight back in the early to before think in the time of the second cover of the insight magazine included the executive team for the west broadway business association so organization was there it was a vibrant the avenue was getting ready to go into a massive change and the changes happened and so but the memory of a vibrant family oriented community  give faith to people who live up to rebuild on my squad way you know and i know that's going to take millions and millions of dollars but i mean we need to figure out a way of doing that so that you know we're not waiting for the big boxes to come and save west broadway i mean we can save ourselves and i think we have a lot of talent and skills in this community and we need to you know i mean give people a boost or encourage them to get on to west broadway is population density of probably more three episodes seems like we've got a wasteland we don't have the explains why there's a wasteland as you call it here i'm at i think people here have money you know whether they're poor or rich they have money they need they need to buy essential oils and they can buy essential is here the problem is that they i don't buy essential is here i mean they spend a of money outside of here and so we need to create you know community that actually you know absorbs all that money here and keeps it here and so we need to do you know different things and invision a different north minneapolis there allows for people to spend their money here you know you look at the small the population that is here in north minneapolis you know i mean in the couple of thousands guess where they spend their money south minneapolis you look at this mine population that lives here and guess where they spend their money same paul brooklyn center brooklyn park not here in north minneapolis as much as they should and i mean we're losing all the things that are here that people want to stay here and so when i talked with wesley and i partly talked about the reality of lots of board and vacant houses that's a problem what do you do about that  we have over two hundred board in vacant homes on the north side alone you know in terms of vacant lots i mean i think we have almost the same if not more vacant lots up here and you know there was a story right before  part shooting where you know i was talking about you know how the city is trying to move to get to a place where we are addressing these issues up here on the north side especially because you know to me i mean when you look at this deficit of having you know the board in vacant homes  lots i mean to me i see opportunity how do we move people of color into these homes how do we get them to own these homes you know and you know when you look at the model of me basically it's a fairly simple model it's a you know i mean on the city side sometimes we sell houses for about a dollar is not you know a couple thousand dollars depending on the quality and you know we sell it to folks who want to rehab places that's where the problem was miller folks who tend to want to rehab the places they have capital or they have cast the folks who don't i mean they tend to be like us or rather who are here who are writers would make the community maintain its diversity but don't have access to the money or the credit and that's our problem and the city i in my view and we need to figure out how we do it so that we can get money or credit into the hands of people of color to get into these homes and i think that's the thing is that you know we let the market manage to do simple math for you i mean if you bought a house for a dollar you put seventy two hundred thousand dollars in the home you know three bedroom two bath say you know basically you put one hundred thousand hours into that home the equity that you get just right off the bat from that is another maybe fifty thousand dollars or so i'm going to guess thirty to fifty thousand dollars off the bat i may use enrich that family by thirty to fifty thousand dollars you know and i don't know what it is about us that doesn't really you know it doesn't really clicked for us that we should do that build wealth within news of color and to me i mean it's a simple way of doing it but you know you look at i mean the two problems are going to be we're working on presumptions about me i think the reality is you know it will be different than that but i think those are things that we need to work towards solving because if we can do that we create wealth for people of color in this community and those are the folks who are in most need those are the folks there are the most numerous up here on the north side and that's the thing is that i mean i want us to move to finding solutions that can help people of color because really i mean at the end that's going to help all of north minneapolis and you know people can say all these things about like we all refugees into thailand and eventually came to the states from the refugee camps in thailand and you know we came to oklahoma and so i was ok for about three years i was about almost four and you know i was for about three years and then my family decided to do a secondary migration murray said california which is central valley area of california about fifty miles north of fresno and you know a small town of sixty thousand one high was our eleventh no no no no i had no skills but you know we i did that and then i came to law school up here in minnesota you know it wasn't my first choice but it was a great opportunity and they offered me a nice scholarship and you know i came up here and i can't can't say i fell in love with them i mean it was just it was cold i mean i felt like the first january i want to shoot myself and it's on t v now but you know the  thing about minnesota that was amazing that was when it was spring and summer and it was amazing you know it was beautiful i mean all the lakes around minneapolis and st paul all those sorts of things i mean just make you fall in love with it and  you know i i did law school for three years graduated and then i started with the legal aid society of minneapolis on the north side here and that's when i moved up the north side in two thousand and one and i live on twenty twenty six in logan and then eventually i bought a house on twenty seven from logan and you know for me i mean living up on the north side you know what what really got me was you know after several years living here my wife and i had experience crime that happened you know on to us whether it was you know my back or getting kicked and three times or my car windows getting shot i mean those sorts of things and i got to the point where i just realize you know outlook you either fire you flight  our flight probably would have been to go to st paul where everybody else was that looked like i was right and you know i think i may eventually i just got the point where i just felt like it was either one or the other and i decided just to fight and in two thousand and twelve the but you know i just put my name in there and somehow i mean i i worked my butt out to finish second and so i went head to head with linda higgins for that seat and you know i lost and you know i mean i think i lost my margin that was was one i think two is you know when you do it the first year sold was you don't know what you're doing them you're not a good candidate you don't really know how to spend money you know i think the second time around me i knew exactly what to spend my money on i knew exactly how well to run my campaign the area location and you know the size in the population and that's where things are just it just made it that much easier but i mean the most important part was having that experience and knowing how to spend money the second time around and made it so much easier but the mongo out of your don't get you like to mean they get you close but you know when you look at the splits for the second and third ballot what you saw was that you know that american to me put me in office you know and i think i mean that's something that in i'm always mindful of with a coalition of among white to some extent or not i mean i think that sentimental was a my you know i would i would tend to disagree with that and when i look at that i mean you know you could say that let's say with like the first choice votes that you know i mean i think in my view me a lot of when you look at the split between in the myself with regard to those votes again it went you know about half and half i mean i think i got a majority versus and it was pretty close and so i mean when you look at that i mean me it's easter you know after americans putting their votes behind me as well and you know i would say you know we went we went into the election knowing that you know we had to create a new ally and in two thousand and nine the votes were such that you know there were about twenty three hundred votes in two thousand will run again you know i would love to be unopposed i mean that never happened here they're always exciting and looking forward to it you know it's you know i feel like i want to do good or i continue to want to do good work and i you  know i tell folks you know the measure my success is not how long people in the four years that i serve are in my time the measure my success is how africans have done in my time in office and you know i hope people will measure me on that and i feel like we've done some really good things that have benefited a lot of people but i mean specifically african americans entrepreneur if you want your family life you know my kids are young enough that this is exciting you know when they see me on stage they want to join me on stage it's fun and you know that's because you know there are eight and you know most six my wife probably loses hair you know it gets gray hairs more than ideal it's tough you know it's tough because you know i think i mean generally some people are really hard it gets very personal you know sometimes you lose friends over small things over some big things and those sorts of things and you know nobody really measures you on your overall vote they just measure you on one specific things and sometimes that's really difficult and you know i think the spouses get it the worse what do i do for oh god you have your office you know in the summertime i only fishing and we don't do the bicycle enough there are so many trails and so many parts of our community that can be seen best from the protests tree and level or from bicycling how do we promote the beauty of our community differently so that our people number one remember that this is really a marvelous community and have a sense of equity in ownership so that the pride compels the utilization and the support of the continued development of our environment and our community what do you think you know i think a lot of things that relates for many of us are perceptions and they're usually negative perceptions and you know to your point i mean i think we have to start talking about it positively we have to talk about it in terms of amenities that are rich not you know the deficit amenities here and i think that's a part you know is missing in the conversation of everybody up on the north side of me i you know you look at my places that are on facebook where there are groups when people talk about just want to help us like it's a dump and people talk about the crime in their focus and all that stuff but you were absent i mean the greatness of here is our rich history it's our people it's the amazing things that are up here that people have just kind of ignored or forgotten and you know we need to start talking about those things a lot more you know you look at the housing up here is big tackler the housing stock is fantastic most folks you know i mean i'll tell you like when i was on the campaign trail i had friends who didn't live here and they it a very attractive and inviting community i think we don't pay attention to that enough and we don't celebrate and applaud that enough but i think we ought to i love the fact that we have the new development  trust fund do rehabilitation work on them and you know they have not been really rehab in about forty years and so they're going to get a make over at some point and you know i think i mean let me just say that you know to folks who are fearful that the residents are going to be displaced when my understanding is that that's not going to the case it's going to be a slow rehab that is going to go over time but eventually i mean it's going to get these units to become newer units so i think that's one thing i mean in terms of all the things that are happening up here i mean i think you know there is a water energy that's happening you know you look at devon jordan's project on old delhi and you know building blocks you look at dean rose's project on broadway flats you know i think eventually going to move across the street where his and you know do a development there hopefully you know there are a number of different things that are happening you know broadway curb broadway crescent that's happening in terms of housing in town homes you know along west broadway there i mean there are a lot of opportunities and i think that's a part about you know our north minneapolis there is going to look different you know in the next decade or so and i think i mean i want you to be part of it i want everybody in north korea has to be a part of that because if we're not somebody else's and so it's ours we need to you know take ownership it we need to move those things work and you know if we can do that in such a way that it brings opportunities the folks who live up here who have the talent second do that sort of work i mean we need of a slowly move that dial and get folks to be a part of how do we  you know i think i mean we can have plans for how to look and we shouldn't you know we can like try this and hear the plan but i mean in terms of like rebranding north need help us you know i feel like we are at a good place and we will continue to be a good place  you know it's a it's a process that could probably take another five years or ten years you know sometimes you know it's just the issues related to you know the cost i mean you know initially i think by know it was so it would be about a billion dollars now and the up five hundred thousand five hundred million dollars more so to one point five billion dollars south was eventually will get belt of the ball and so we have a lot of things are happening it's just you know to me when i look at light rail though i mean what i see is that it's to cut through a neighborhood and it's going to i mean harrison is going to be kind of like an iowan right were light rail from the top in the bottom and so you know it's it's it's going to see some changes pretty drastic but i mean i think the rest of north minneapolis which is from highway fifty five all the way up to fiftieth her i mean what about that i mean that's a big so it's not to figure out how we connect and use trance to bring economic development to see that happening and doing multiple millions businesses that want to bring their businesses to north minneapolis or black owned companies are we facilitate and ensure that that can happen right well you know i  will mean there's about fifty acres you know there's going to be split between parks in the city and you know with the city i mean it's going to be some sort of development that probably is going to be a residential light industrial commercial of some sort you know at this point i mean you know it's a big idea and we're waiting on folks you know give us ideas about how they're going to develop and you know with regards to bill english and the north side jobs creation team basically you know bill has this idea for a business you know we're in discussions to talk about it and that i mean there's nothing real concrete at this point because you would have to take out so many homes that would be pretty insane and i think that's the part where you know we've got to figure out what makes sense i mean the cost on that we don't even know what the costs are about me my guess is the costs are going to be anywhere from fifty million plus basically and so you know we have to dissuade what's good and what's the cost we're out of time and i got about it you know you have a parting comment to the community your expectation your hope for fifth ward you know it's been my honor to represent words as for the last two years you know hopefully i will get that opportunity again and you know i think that people are the ones that get to speak on that and you know for me i mean i feel like we are moving in really good directions to get to a place where we are creating jobs on our side we're creating businesses on the north side we are you know creating housing opportunities for people on the north side whether it's affordable housing or getting people into homeownership you know a lot of these things are not sexy things are things they haven't maybe a little bit more behind the scenes and i'm like that i mean we're moving in the right places and you know i'm i feel like i am doing everything i can to work really hard for the folks here because you know the folks here deserve it more than anywhere else they deserve a lot of you know strong advocacy to get us to a place where you know we need to be