been where else see come down post critical, verifiable
you can't look in the absence of any action take care can see when he I mean,
I understand that I understand but I'll answer any absolutes as long as we sit here and people are waiting that we
need to go to court and we got to
Good Morning
Okay, okay, we have a quorum, okay. I want to welcome everybody. Next is where's the inspiration? Just quietly, you know, God
and then move on
okay. You're welcome.
Board Member Hazel. Hazel present. Parker President Gregory Hicks President Yolanda jag present. GLORIA house President Keith Williams presents. Doritos. Okay, we have approved. We have roll call Google agenda. So move. Second. Second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Okay, we have public comments. Okay. We're gonna go to the scope of subcommittee
reports.
Stop comments, because
finish
we can come back to a couple of continents within scope. We can't go back. We have Okay, is anybody the person make a public comment? Okay, come on.
Hi, my name is Valencia rear. I live on Archdale Street in Detroit, Michigan. I've been here as up to date for the past 67 years. Okay. Happy birthday. Thank you. I'm rocking it. I want to live to see my reparations in my bank account. Okay. I don't need you put me in my brain. Before I receive what is fun. And I want to see y'all be more professional than I see today. Okay, I'm telling you this because I care about the city of Detroit. And the rest of it centered in it. I take care of most of my neighbors in my neighborhood, especially the mentally ill. Okay. And I don't want the mentally ill ignored either. Okay. They are do their reparation just like everybody else is. Okay. And I stand as an advocate for them. I stand as an advocate for the elderly. Okay. The elderly have waited long enough. All young, no, we've waited long enough. You need to get your feet to move in, get your hands to signing those checks checked and put it in our Congress so that we can live a more quality life. Due to the things that have happened to us here in the city of Detroit. You got more people struggling that need to be okay. There's a lot of have nots here and they need to have so I advocate for them to okay, but I won't man so deliver it Okay.
Anybody else? Come up please?
I think it is really important at the UN Task Force reiterates the focus that your name, Cecily McClellan. I'm here is representative of the people of Detroit but also as a retiree of the city of Detroit. Yes. And I think it is really important that this taskforce focus and reiterate to the attendees and to the residents of the city of Detroit, the actual focus of reparations, that is to focus on primary Housing and Economic Development. We know economic development covers a large area. So that needs to be clearly defined. And it needs to be providing some type of structure, you know, to the residents, so they will know how to submit recommendations or reparations. I think many of us believe that Detroit is going to be responsible for a 240 years the slavery 100 years of the Jim Crow. And that's not the case. We know this reparations has to be focused on within the purview of the city of Detroit, their resources, what they did, in terms of discrimination to African Americans. And I think one area we need to really focus on are these lease agreements, one specifically with Lee one, and also to revisit the bankruptcy, and how we have seniors that are living in poverty as a result of the bankruptcy being on the back, oh, City of Detroit retiree retirees. And thank you very much.
Anybody else? comment?
Please state your name.
So, Mr. Williams? Yes,
yes, I don't see anything. But one of the reason why I'm here today is to again advocate for cash reparations, just like sister said, when we envision repair, it is in the form of cash. When we when we assess harms, whether it be natural disasters, we assess it in case the harms began, not in recent times. But I know, Mr. Williams, you believe that we should begin somewhere around the 1920s. Well, the harm is good in the cotton fields, and began before Jim Crow. It began before segregation. Americans in Detroit have endured unimaginable suffering. And bootstrapping with land grants, or programs or even going around asking foundations begging for money, or money that is ours. It's a debt that is owed. So I'm here to advocate once again. And as I did on the part, I'm sorry, on behalf of straight grassroots Coalition for direct cash reparations as part of the recommendations they will be made in cash reparations office, a tool to be able to just military schools to be able to close the wealth gap. And when we talk about repairing the dress, people are hurting now, we are looking for repair, not more red tape, not more programs, that money check is pretty much like a stimulus that they were able to stay in those overnight. I know we're talking about local reparations, but Democrats have been talking about universal basic income for decades. All of this uses I've heard against us receiving cash or anti blacks. As a matter of fact, in New York, they just announced that they secured $183 million from victims in their descendants of Holocaust of the Holocaust one atrocity with all due respect that didn't even happen on our soil. So we're paying rap cash reparations to Native Americans to the Japanese to the Jews. But when I implore you that cash reparations is not a pipe dream as to explore all possible avenues including litigation legislation to make cash reparations and we have an invoice.
Thank you. Any other public comments? No after whenever she gives a presentation of questions, question session with the speaker.
Yes, good afternoon. My name is Attorney relativi Hill, and I work on water rights. Water access water affordability here in the city of Detroit, and for the state of Michigan. As we are a year into this process, the first thing was April 13 2023, we still are asking that you grant us an extension, so that we were able to work through this process in a way that is meaningful. Also, we have to figure out the intricacies of the auto audio visual, because those who are online are not able to participate, they are not able to be heard. And that is creating a gap for those who want to leave believe participate in his process, or who are not able for whatever reasons to join us in person today. Additionally, when we look at reparations in the city of Detroit, we don't have to go back that far. We know the atrocities and the harms that have been done to introduce since the bankruptcy that was contrived and placed a quantity shortages in the city of Detroit, one of which was the the depth of our water department, and the selling of our assets to those who are not Detroiters. The school systems and other days without water department, as I've mentioned before, and I'll continue to mention, we are supposed to be getting at least 250,000,200 $15 million a year if we were under an equitable lease agreement, we're getting 5017, of which we're paying back to ourselves, we're only getting 30, about $33 million. So we start our assets agreement, right again. And again, I learned that in Glee, what sells an asset that belong to DWSD. Global will then own the proceeds of that asset from those proceeds, if Gleadless to purchase another asset, and you will within own that you asset. Lastly, I will stop here we're under 40 year lease agreement that automatically renews which means after the end of those 40 years, we will be in another 40 year lease agreement. Thank you.
Any other comments? Mind you, you get to go three minutes, two minutes. Two minutes.
My name is Portia Edwards and I'm here representing my lineage my ancestors as well as the Detroit grassroots coalition. Allow me to address the public comment as a direct shot to you Keith Williams, because I want to let you know I got your message. Okay. And other members of the of the task force who decided to make it today thank you for coming. Not one time. The grassroots movement has been unwavering force throughout this journey. It has been an entire year. What do you have to show for anything that you have been sitting on this body for? I have been witnessing, and it has been disheartening. In January of this year. Mary Sheffield is on record saying that this taskforce body did not want to meet with the public to hear public comments because you wanted to mourn the loss of Joanne Watson. How lazy are you? Okay, because ironically, that was precisely why she wanted to see us Cut The Check for black Americans here in the state of Detroit. This is not municipal reparations. This is not the form of donations. This is not polygamy reparations. This is direct cash payments for the harms or harms that were imposed on black Americans. And let's talk about the subcommittee's would love to hear reports and Keith Williams, yours is by far the worst. Okay, you want too much control. You don't want to hear from the public. Okay, and so we see the games that you're playing in the face of the black Americans inviting Michael M Hotep. Here to confuse and reduce and diminish lineage based reparations is disgusting, is chaotic and is very anti black American. We are truly an ethnic group whose lineage is directly tied to slavery and all the harms and this is not about harm to the proximity This is not about a nother presentation on black bottom please stop wasting black Americans time here in Detroit. We are busy you buy you want to do another research you went home we hold the receipts okay trying to discredit what's being done and by by being held accountable by the grants rules. How dare you Okay, another black bottom presentation. How many do we need keep you put the order because you have been out of order since day one and I see you keep I sent I got your message. Okay.
Okay, any more public comment? Any more public comment? Any more public comment next Genda items. We've got Mr.
Chair there, there are three additional online you can the first is SandRidge. Shinae.
Good job. Okay, yes.
Sandra Shinae you have two minutes to give public comment if you could come off mute. I show you a microphone is muted
I still show their microphones muted. I'll try the next caller. The next caller is Fire tablet
Fire tablet if you could unmute your microphone
they're back their microphone is muted. We heard the previous callers so we do know that the sound system is working. The next caller is we'll go back to Sandra Shinae. Try one more time.
You're talking Hold on. We got people zoomed in one comment. Okay. Okay.
Let's Sandra Shinae.
I still show them as muted. We do know the audio is working because we heard is more. And so I do believe it is the attendees having their own audio issues. And that completes the online public comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, we're gonna go to number six subcommittee. subcommittee reports, housing
coverage, Mr. Chair, my name is Peter Parker, the chairperson of the housing and land use. So we have been meeting since September, and have done a number of things, including recommending who would do the harm study that we're now in the process of doing. But we have started at our last meeting to ask you to take suggestions in a brainstorming way. What some things could be for reparations for people to see Detroit. And none of these have been decided on and you've made it very clear. These are just some brainstorming what some of the things that we have to do some further research in, in order to make sure that one we could do it legally. And today is something that is a priority to be done. Because we probably would not be able to do all 14 on this list. The first thing is cash payments. Right now, the state has a law that prohibits a municipality to give any citizen pass payments as a state law. So the city law but we're going to research what it would take to change that, or how we can get around that by maybe having a separate foundation that has the funds to pay. But right now, the city of Detroit could not give cash payments to CES of Detroit by state law. Second one is everyone all right. have given vacant lots to anyone that lives adjacent to it. With no restrictions on a vacant lot right now. There's too many restrictions on what they can do and can't do. So we want any African American to be able to get the vacant lot next to them with none of the restrictions that are on there right now. Giving homes from the land bank to African Americans and see Detroit with a 50 to $100,000 grant to repair that home. Providing building renovation for any citizen, any African American citizen of Detroit that owns or are paying for their home. Stop all home foreclosures by Wayne County. reduce property taxes by 20% for each year for five years to equal to over taxation that individually ahead because of the over taxation the city created 50 to 80 community parks and African American communities prioritize sidewalk repairs and African American communities repair infrastructure in African American communities. Grants for down payment for all purchases for African Americans and see Detroit
redevelopment would take place block by block, we would do a whole block rather than sporadic, like it's right now, and a need to develop a Detroit Urban Renewal Plan. So those are suggestions that we're going to be working on each week. We have selected three. For this coming Monday, we meet Monday at 530. Everybody is welcome on Zoom meeting, and we welcome any additional suggestions or, or things that you would like to see happen. This conclusion reports from housing and land use.
Okay, I'm the Chairman of the Finance Committee. And our job is to get over how we finance reparations. So far, we came up with our four ideas, talked about Land Trust, talked about marijuana sales, we talked about some kind of user fee with constitution, when I said gotta find a way to get it done. And then going outside of the purview of the government, going after insurance companies, banks and things like that was a part of the scope. During the those years that black posters was being harmed by all of racist policies, and then we're gonna get started back not next week with our committee the following week, and we're gonna have an economist come to our committee to talk about the macros and macro and micro part reparations. And before I go any further, I want to acknowledge city council person, Angela Callaway, to stand up. And so that's it. That's my report, and then we're gonna go to education and culture. Okay, quality of life.
Good afternoon, so wonderful to see everyone. I'm Janice Hazel, and I became the Chair of the quality of life subcommittee, which was constituted last one and March. Previously, it was the health subcommittee. And so we have been in the process. Let me back up. We are meeting on Zoom Wednesdays Wednesday evenings 5:30pm for an hour, and I invite you to come and participate because this quality of life subcommittee in compasses so much of what we've heard in public comments here today, and others so Miss Valencia Greer, Miss Shannon Slayton, Miss Hemphill, I believe Miss Edwards may have stepped out, but I do hope that we have our contact information, please be sure you get the Zoom link, so you can participate. The quality of life subcommittee has been refocusing the mission, the goals and objectives because they were not aligned with what I've been hearing. Detroiters want to deal with. The vice chair is Camille Collins, and we have some members of the public who have been participating and providing some incredible comments and recommendations. So right now we are looking at the social determinants of health and wellbeing. And there's a lot of overlap with policy and government in terms of safe housing, transportation, and neighborhood, even urban agriculture, obviously, the Detroit being the epicenter of asthma, and other neurotoxins that have been in our water, you know, that our 40 217 neighborhood and communities have been highly polluted the most polluted community in the state of Michigan, if not the country. So we're dealing with that. For those of you who remember stress 1971 to 1974 V's stop the robberies enjoy safe streets and Detroit Police Department were examining that and all of the harm that came out of it, access to nutritious foods and physical activities, access to clean water, Ms. MPhil and all of our other water advocates. I implore you to come and join us addressing air pollution, language literacy and access to education, any social determinants of health and well being we are going to be examining and putting forth recommendations on how to address and what the redress should be. So please come and join us Wednesdays 5:30pm on Zoom and the link is available for you on our website and we can certainly give it to you before you leave here today.
Thank you, government policy.
My name is Jason Lars Sosa and I am the current chair of government and policy, which is a newly created sub committee, we've only met one time, I can give you two strands of things. One is around housekeeping. And then the other is around some of the items of policy areas that we hope to be able to tackle. So first of all, housekeeping. And our first of all, the meeting we talked about cadence of meeting, currently we meet at 10 o'clock on Saturdays, we talked about who else should be at the table, what the voting rights should be of those who attend, what the makeup what the composition of the subcommittee should be, we want to make sure that it's consistent with the subcommittee's across the task force. There's some consideration about who should be chairing the subcommittee. I'm currently chairing the subcommittee, but there's a discussion about whether there was there was interested that we should have been taken into account. So we're discussing that internally. Those are the house taken housekeeping items of the Subcommittee, as the current chair, I can give you an update about some of the areas that are home for us to pursue. And when we think about reparations, one of the young ladies brought up that cash direct payments in Abilene to serve you in order for for reparations, there are some people we can directly trace the harms to and they should receive direct cash payment. But then there's also a Case for Reparations, and I hope that we can make on an aggregate or the community level. And I think that the policy recommendations that we can come into will address some of that, but every individual lives in the community, disproportionately black folks. So we hope to be home to be having conversations about our options around the water department and how that can become a revenue stream. For instance, this is just me talking about a legal person, but I think that we can be bottled water and sell it to people all over the country, we have an incredible infrastructure. Again, I don't know what the options are. But I hope that people come to this subcommittee, or we're going to talk about that. We're gonna be talking about our income tax structure. Currently, people who live in Detroit and work in Detroit are paying about double the rate of income taxes and those who live outside of the city of Detroit. That's an easy reparative policy that we could be taking a look at, who owns and operates bail out, things like that so I can get through the criminal legal system. Again, I'm not a legal expert. These are things that are outside of my purview to make recommendations on directly. But these are the topics that we hope for people to be joining our subcommittee to be joining and talking about. Back to the housekeeping, the regular cadence right now is Saturday, or at 10 o'clock, and everybody's everybody's welcome. Via zoom, but keep your eyes open and your ears open for updates about how that might change. Because we don't know if 10 o'clock on zoom on Saturdays is the best case for the public and we don't know if it's the best cadence for people who are interested to participate on the task force. That's my update.
Next on the knowledge of conscience should have an hour. Okay, yes, the guest speaker for the day as part of archives as sea of blood.
Hello, well, good afternoon. It's been quite a journey to get here. I want to actually
I had a whole beautiful slide presentation prepared with all these really pretty pictures. Yes, I'm gonna introduce myself. But I will share it with the taskforce so that I can still have some access to it. But my name is Marcia black. I use she her pronouns. I'm the Executive Director of black bottom archives. We have my Grandma's here. My cousin's here, my family's here and thank you so much for coming. So yeah, I am a Detroiter, I'm an archivist. I'm an oral historian, and I'm an organizer. I started. Black Bottom archive started in 2013 by two young black traders, Camille Johnson and PG Watkins, who wanted to counteract a lot of the whitewash narratives and erasure that they were seeing of black Detroiters and the telling of the city. A lot of that eraser has been towards the agenda of displacing black traders. We're still seeing that now in this way the gentrification. So this platform that I'm representing was created in response to that. And so since our creation in 2013, we've been serving as a platform for black Detroiters to come and share stories to connect and build community. We started off as a digital publication where black traders could submit pieces of writing or art that represented their experiences. We eventually had a black business directory, a black podcast, a black folk club, and then In the 18th, we started our black bottom digital archive that's still available. If you would like to check it out at Black Phantom archives.com, we are a major part of the digital archive that we have or the oral histories that we collect. So I'm a young person I was even younger than they were even younger than so all of this storytelling that we're doing comes from the conversations that we're having with elders. And so we're trying to play the role of being a bridge between our generations because we understand how important it is for us to understand our history to build a better future. So I want to jump forward a little bit and talk about not so much just the history of black bottom, but why it's so important to the conversations that we're having today into this conversation about reparations. Is everybody familiar with the 375 development project? Has people heard of that? Okay, so 375 was one of the projects that replace the displaced blackout of community. And today, they have plans of tearing it down and turning it into a boulevard, right? Like they're using very vague legal language at this point of what will actually be there. But what I have heard is that there's potentially 20 to 30 acres available of land that could be developed. So when we think about reparations, definitely cash is one way to think about it. But land is also something that's really important to how we build generational wealth is much harder to hand off cash. And land has a has a certain type of longevity that I think shows today, right, a lot of white folks that are stable or stable because they were able to buy homes when we black people were locked out in the market. So we have been doing this digital archiving work since 2018. Like I mentioned, recording oral histories, documenting information about historical sites and historical figures. And we're looking to build on that work by continuing to collect oral histories, but also asking people what they would like to see in the redevelopment of i 375 as a form of reparations. So we very much see ourselves as being a very small sandwich, part of the very big agenda that the reparations taskforce has, the people that we're collecting oral histories from are not just people that live there, but also people that work there people that went to church there. The impacts of Blackbaud Paradise Valley being lost is not just felt by the folks that lived there directly, but the people that benefited from the businesses, and these cultural institutions that were there that were lost and never replace. So we're also looking for stories from those folks, as well as people who are descendants. So maybe you didn't live there, but your mother or your grandmother lived there you have the stories of how that impacted you. Those are the types of stories that we're looking for. The overall end dog, er of this project is for us to be able to summarize the information that we've learned, specifically, what has the collective of black Detroiters that we spoken with said that they would like to see in this 20 to 30 acres, a lot of what people are already saying and has already been spoken up about here is housing. When black bottom was still here, black bottom wasn't necessarily a hub of great housing. That's not what it was known for wasn't known for being a really prosperous place in terms of material wealth, it was known for being a prosperous place in terms of the culture and the community care that existed there. So it's not so much about going back and recreating what was but it's about learning from the lessons of the past and creating something much better black Detroiters do deserve affordable good quality housing. And so how can we imagine and think about how that can be possible in this 23 acres? So we have been doing this project, we announced it last June team. With us I want to say let me I'm gonna jump around a little bit. This one has the slides, but there's nothing wrong with freestyling. So Oh, freestyle, yeah. Okay, great. So, Is everybody familiar where black bottom is? Okay, great. Does anybody want to say describe what you thought it was or where it is in your records? Yes. So we describe black bottom as being on the lower east side of Detroit currently where 375 and Lafayette Park occupy so the marker talks about it as being learned St. Alban Gratiot and Hastings I think and but I've also heard people describe it as far as just going straight down through the river. I'll say, Oh,
no. I want to offer some information. I grew up in black bottom, my life microphone
Because I grew up in 1327 Hancock, which is between Russell every bar, right across the street, from the old juvenile center, I 75 not just 375 went straight up Hastings, because that's where Hastings was, all of that was black bottom. And Hastings is where all of the black businesses work. So they took all of that out. Now I'm gonna tell my age, because when they built i 75, my brother and I used to ride that white slab pavement, now on i 75 Right on bicycles, as they were laying in. Okay, so all of that is black, but
also, most of the black violin and which we'll call Paradise Valley went all the way down into Woodward Avenue, when Renaissance isn't back around to my Elliot, if you want to go to cover, like the entire Black Mountain went all the way up to to burn the highway, back over, past St. Albans, and back overpass up until you get into Mack Avenue. And even further to the sometimes up to Warren Avenue. So you're leaving out a great deal of territory, you know, so you're just focusing on that 375, which are trying to to pick up just a walkway, for the readers. That's what they're doing. On tour all of that I just want to arena. So I think that you are leaving out a great deal of people in this test worse today that I'm here, this my first time here. And I'm like, what kind of foolishness is this, because it doesn't make any sense that you're leaving out a great deal of people who were removed out of it at 1020. It's an elephant, between pays to move the ball off the river, and, and division. So Bishop school and all the rest of all those, that area have in there, all of that all the way across to Prusa projects across Woodward Avenue, you're missing out. So I don't know where you're gonna get your information from. But this has worse it needs to recognize that other people will no longer have home owners because but generational wealth, going to people who don't live here in the city of Detroit, there's still no losing a great deal of people out of this equation talking about money and whatever else. I want land. And I want y'all to take that take all y'all gonna do 375 There shouldn't be no no Boulevard for other people to be able to walk. And that goes with that green greenwave. Crap, this is 26 miles long into most of our neighborhoods and so forth. Y'all got y'all know, just tearing up the neighborhood after neighborhood and trying to move us out.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much for sharing that those will be exactly the types of oral histories that we want to capture. So I mean, I gave you my brochure and stuff like that. So we'll go. Yeah, I definitely want to make sure that I hear from y'all and get that recorded. And I appreciate you mentioning about how the boundaries extend far beyond that.
Or went to work. Because we're on the highway, you should run further, you should run from east to wet so far that they'll wait and all that sort of stuff. We've had to live up to some black people living in this place.
So thank you for mentioning Hastings Street as well. So Hastings and St. Antoine were definitely major business cultural districts. Also what's significant about black vitamin, so we talk oftentimes when we think about like, places and during in the 1930s 1950s that were key sites of black culture, we talked about toasts already talked about Harlem, where we talk about all these other places that aren't necessarily here. And so it's important for us to hold on tight to Blackbaud amid Paradise Valley and places that also serve as mentors for black culture. And so like I mentioned, Hastings, Hastings and St. Antoine, were key sites for that for businesses for entertainment for black bottom had some of the early black on black hospitals that we could have access to. The reason why we were concentrated in these areas were just because we love each other which we do love each other. I love black people, but the reason why I remember in those areas is because of segregation and redlining and racial covenants, right? So the people that the black people that we talk about that made up the foundation of black vitamins Paradise Valley, came here from the great migration. So these are folks that came here as, in some ways, migrant workers looking to have a better life thinking that they were escaping Jim Crow and racism and arriving into Detroit. And it's coming up and confronting those things in different forms. So, redlining being a major one racial covenants, literally communities writing into their deeds that black people can't live there. Those were all the things that made it such that we had limited housing choices, limited mobility, and where we could start a business or where we could socialize. And in spite of that, right, I think some of the magic that people talk about with Blackbaud, my paradise valley, is that in the face of segregation, right, like there's one way to respond, which is to be defeated. But black people have shown over and over again, that there's a resilience there where we're able to thrive and create the systems that we need. Even if even if the powers that be that we're paying taxes to that we're electing aren't investing in us, black bottom and Paradise Valley were were examples of places where we were able to invest in each other and create an environment where we survived and also thrive. A lot of the times when people are looking back at these communities, despite the ways that is described in public record as a slum or as a place that wasn't worth existing, the people who live there, the people that have first hand experience, talk about the community care, the culture, the self sufficiency, the brilliance, the music, the food, like there's much more positive association from the folks that live in that community. But those weren't the folks making decisions about what their community looked like. So for us when we think about this Sankofa community research project, and I at that, I want to I don't think I clarified that part. So I'm black I'm archives is not associated with the 375 project, we are not a decision maker, we are a community organization that in response to hearing about that project, we said that we wanted to use our work, the work that we were already doing, to be in response to what we're currently currently witnessing. So oftentimes, you know, there's stories are important regardless, but sometimes it can feel like we're telling stories for the sake of telling stories. But I think whenever you dive a little bit deeper, there's always a underlying reason why it's important for that story to circulate. And in this situation, there's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be thinking about how our oral histories and the conversations that we're having with elders in this room, those, you know, that we've talked with before shouldn't be influencing what happens to the future. So she just mentioned, she lived in a place she was riding the streets, she saw Hastings being destroyed, she saw the impact, there's no reason why her perspective shouldn't be centered and guiding with the future of that area. So we're not a decision maker, I can't say that definitively. Everything that we do will be put into action. But what I can say is that if we don't do it, nothing will be done for sure. So this is us trying to utilize our community power to utilize our stories and advocate for something better. And other things that I really want to mention because I feel like I'm bouncing around a little bit. So
So I guess I'm thinking about what were some of the harms donor, in terms of the destruction of black bottom in Paradise Valley might be a thing to dig deeper into, right? So black bottom and Paradise Valley were destroyed as a part of a combination of federal and city policy. So black bottom and Paradise Valley are not an exception. It's a part of a national strategy, a federal plan that was ongoing, where multiple communities around the country were experience being destroyed and then maybe replaced with a highway or maybe replaced with a different project. But almost everything that happened, didn't involve them being able to move back into their home so that they developments happen that weren't meant for the people that were there. It was people talk about urban renewal and also describe it as Negro Negro removal, which is also an accurate way to think about it because those were the consequences most often. So thinking about in the context of Detroit 19 I'm fast forward but 1943 is often a marker point of people talking about the demise of Black Diamond Paradise Valley. Do you folks know what happened in 1943? There was a huge race riot like a two day race, race. So from that at the time I'm Edward referee's was mayor. And after that Riot happen, there was a huge loss of there was a loss of black life, there was a loss of wildlife. Of course, there were less white people that were killed. But what came from that was a taskforce, like an interracial committee that he created to study the end. Why did this happen? And the answers that they came up with, of course, one was blaming it on black people, which is 2024, you still blame a lot of stuff on black people that has something to do with the overarching system. But then also, what came out of that was the lack of housing, the lack of adequate housing, and lack of jobs, competition around jobs, black and white people competing around jobs, really, again, an issue of the system, you create a lab, and then the people fight amongst themselves. So from that, what was actually moved on, Jeffries put forth that Detroit plan and 1946. And from that plan, he proposed tearing down slums, and building up housing. And one of those things definitely happened. I mean, there was some housing that was built, but not necessarily as a part of Jeffrey's. So from that, he put forth the Detroit plan. It got passed. And then the president, President Truman Housing Act in 1949, is the urban renewal federal policy that I mentioned to you, in 1949, was also the year that they started demolishing black boxes. So if some people have seen our black bottom Street View exhibit, it's been at the Dequindre Cut. It's been a Detroit Main Library grant branch. But it's basically a reconstruction of about the tip a 10th, of an area, a 10th of the land of black bottom, using pictures that were taken by state officials, so police or other folks that were driving and taking pictures of the different houses as a part of the survey before they were going to destroy it. So this is happening in 1949. By 1954, it's pretty much gone. So that goes important, because I know that there's been some debate around, you know, was black bottom destroyed, or 375 375 hadn't necessarily been put on to the name at once into play as a potential project. until years later, black bottom had already been gone by 1954. So the people that were there at that time as black bottom were being destroyed, it was a majority black community at this point. It was a majority renting community, which is important when you think about eminent domain, because eminent domain is something that serves owners. So if you don't own your home, if you don't own your business, you're locked out of getting support to relocate. And this was the case for a lot of black people, the majority were renters. And even for folks that were business owners, they had land contracts. So you're operating your business, but you're not owning the land. And people who did receive compensation then often still didn't receive equitable compensation, which is something that we have examples of today, there's plenty of eminent domain projects that have happened in the last 20 years where people haven't received equitable compensation. So Black people are being put so in another situation, right, people who weren't homeowners, right people, black people, there were black people that own their homes. So for those people who own their homes, they were in a back and forth process with the city with the city's like, don't make any repairs. Because if you make any repairs, you're not going to receive any money. But then if you don't make any repairs, we're gonna give you a ticket because your house is enough to go. So they're in this back and forth process where bother Jumaane, who's the city of Detroit historian talks about some people got to the point where they just decided to tear down their own home so that they wouldn't be ticketed anymore. And by tearing down your own home also lowered the amount of money that you would get. So you're in this back and forth process, you tear down your home, and now the city's like, we'll pay you. But now we're going to pay you for the vacant land that you have, because now there's nothing on the vacant land. So there's multiple, even in that brief example, there's multiple ways that black Detroiters were disenfranchised, even just outside of the overall aspect that they had no say saw and what the future of their community would look like. They were completely locked, locked out of that process. And then the people who didn't live there, if you were poor, if you were renting, you got nothing if you owned, maybe you got something, but it absolutely wasn't equitable or worth anything of which you actually had there. Besides that, right? There's the communal individual cultural turmoil that happens when you're being displaced from your home. So Mama, Marcia has shared the story about her father, who owned Joe's record shop and what it meant for him to have to move once twice, and how he started to develop health issues because of that, that's that you don't need to have we have those stories within ourselves. Those are the types of stories that you can't find by looking through archival records that you can't find through reading a newspaper article. And that is also a source of harm that should be repaired. And that should be taken into consideration is not just the economic loss, the generational monetary loss, but also the cultural loss. We did this tour like a few weeks ago with the reparations Task Force, all of these black historic sites that we have around the city, a lot of them and what used to be left by them in Paradise Valley are gone. And if they're not gone, then they're under invested in. So that creates a gap for younger generations to be informed and grounded and grounded in the history of black Detroiters and where they come from. And that's a self esteem issue, too. That creates a self esteem crisis for young young people in Detroit, who aren't being informed about the legacy that they come from.
Excuse me. There's a difference between the black bottom and Paradise Valley. Yes,
yes. Yes, it is. So thank you for bringing that up. So Paradise Valley is north of Gratiot. And thinking about present day where that is Comerica Park, is there
just east of Woodward east of what?
Oh, she mentioned paradise.
No, she was talking about Paradise Valley.
There's a difference between the Paradise Valley
all she said was that it's a difference between the two sir.
Okay.
I was poor. House. And subscriptions is giving different locations a bipartisan way on areas that you are not allowing full pass chosen customers where I should show up in 1937?
You should do an interview with him.
I would absolutely love to do it here. Yes, I would. Absolutely. So I actually really do want to trance transition to a close so that I can get to know some of the other people here. And I think more information will also come from the q&a that we'll have. But what I do want to say is, if you would like to learn more, if you would like to stay in connection, you can visit black bottom archives.com to sign up to a newsletter. We also have some fliers here, we're recording oral histories, we will come to your home, you can come to our office, or we can do over zoom. We're offering $100 gift cards to everybody that records an oral history with us. And you can win this card you can also call us or you can email us to schedule an interview. So if you do not like to type on the computer, you can give us a phone call. And we'll get back in contact with you about that. And the other thing that would be helpful. We are a two person, staff team running this organization doing all of the things I named. We also do workshops on oral history collection and archiving. And these are things that you're interested in. Definitely stay in contact with us. And if you will also like to help collect oral histories, you can reach out on our website to sign up as a volunteer. Oh, one other thing. Definitely. Burt's warehouse is a great resource is still a place that exists in what was is right in Eastern Market. Mr. Bert gearing does a really great job of telling that story. He has a museum in the back. And we hope to be there in the summer doing some programming with him. So definitely stay in touch. Thank you so much.
Boardman parkland.
Just want to say that we, from the Housing Committee, look forward to work with that bottom archive, because they have a history already there. And they have plans. So we hope to be able to collaborate with them. As well as we hope to also go out and get testimonies from people throughout the city of Detroit, not just black bottom, what some of their discrimination took place. What realigning MIT to their family, and other things of that nature. And we hope that because they have already developed that whole system, we're doing those Are testimonials going out that we hope that they're going to assist us in training our staff and volunteers, so that we'll be able to go out and do the same thing that they're doing? Right now, we cannot offer the $100 gift card, because the funds we received does not allow us to do that. But we're looking at other ways that we can compensate or give something to people that give up their time. And given their testimony. Thank you.
Thank you. Okay. So early, we have public comments. Now. If you want to ask you some questions, you get two to three minutes to teach?
Well, because this young man here spoke, to ask our sincere question, or whatever. My question to you is, what are you using the funds for?
What are we using the funds besides getting paid? Or do you all get paid for your?
Almost all of us volunteers are not allowed for giving?
Okay, so what are you using the funds for? Because I don't see none of a trinket like that.
That there is a budget.
I'll make the comment, Mr. Chair. Yes. To date, the funds have been used for the town hall that was experienced and there was a bus tour. The funds have also been used for the zoom. And for any salaries to date that have been paid in order to host the meetings. Moving forward, I believe that there are studies that are going to be conducted that they want to partner with, with black bottom archives, for instance, and other research institutions. And so the funds will be used to pay the researchers to conduct the studies and that is what most of the money will be used for. The money is not allowed to pay stipends to residents, you are not allowed to give direct cash payments to residents. And so that is why Mr. Parker mentioned that they're trying to find other ways to compensate people for their time, because the funds cannot be used to give money for residents. Most of the money will be used for research studies, for equipment purposes, and things of that nature.
Project manager.
And the project manager is well that salaries also paid for out of the budget, last force
FAQ for speaking up and answering. But when is the money going to trickle down to the residents? Okay, now, let me finish the question. From what I mean by that, like, what I mean by that is making us our drinking water better, is making our streets better, making our home safer. I mean, you don't necessarily have to put cash in our pocket to satisfy because we got a whole list of things. I'm sure all of us here can come up with that you can do for us to make our lives easier. Yes,
ma'am. And so the city of Detroit, I'd like for her comments to be recorded. So would you please give her a microphone. Otherwise, it's really not going to be heard on soon or an archive resets?
Yes, ma'am. Yes.
Can I say this to you? We got other people wanting to speak, ma'am.
I'm an advocate. Yes.
We talked about two minutes and two minutes to speak.
Metal Chair. Mr. Chair, if I could just respond, Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. Chair, if I could just respond, and then we can move forward to the next person as you're suggesting. I agree. And so ma'am, yes, I agree that several happenings needs to happen to make people happy. But the federal government is really as you know, for nationwide who will be responsible for the kind of initiatives you were speaking about. But at the local level. That is why the city will be doing research and paying institutions to see what the city can do on the local level to be able to redress the harms that Detroiters experience, but they are supporting the federal movement as well, which will address some of the larger concerns that you address just
only to make recommendations. We are only to make recommendations.
Mr. Chair, if I may add to the gentlewoman that was just speaking, I invite you and everyone else to plug in and As Ms. Blessing's just mentioned, HR 40 is legislation that our former Congressman John Conyers introduced November 20 1989. I was on his staff and helped to write and it's actually hr 3745. back then. And it has morphed over the last 35 years into hr 40 as not to the 40 acres and a mule that were rescinded from general to come C's Civil War recommendations or field orders for the formerly enslaved. There's also H con or house concept concurrent resolution 414 by Congresswoman Cory Bush, of Missouri. So I invite you to look at those, you can just Google them and give me my contact information. Detroit reparations@gmail.com. Please be in touch with me. But what you're addressing is on the federal level actual cash disbursements, which Marcia I believe mentioned, how the Japanese who were interned during World War Two received $20,000 over the course of 10 years 1988 through 1998 administered through the US Department of Justice, as well as our native indigenous Americans. And so black Americans have gotten nothing has been formerly enslaved ancestry. So check on that so that you can be informed and participate in advocacy there as well. Thank you.
Okay. Now, is it any more questions for the speaker? Okay.
If at all possible, could we have everybody come in at the table because we want to be able to get a shot at you a zoom as well once
in
a while man speaking
typically particular time from now they they value a lot of you guys's names, which had names or more than names, they represent this and talents that you guys have accumulated over the years. And knowing this task was one of the days I would like to know is, how can the community help you all with your talents, and completing objectives? That's the biggest thing. How can we community help with feedback, and assisting you guys. And actually completing the objectives that you guys set out? I get more from you at the back. And I just want to reiterate, I respect each and every last one of you all, and everything that you all have done to earn the name today, when there's more than name to date, this is a big task, which means you are accumulated 30 skills and talents over the years. How can we use those skills and talents to get objectives? Thank you very much. How can the community more important? How can the community assistance and the please go?
Put your name on the record, sir?
My name is Mr. Ronald Foster.
Next
through the Chair, if I may, yes, just wanted to respond to Mr. Ronald Foster. I think one of the ways that community members can plug in is to attend the not only these meetings and give your thoughts and ideas but the subcommittee's report, gather a lot of information. Then also send emails and you're right there. There's talent represented up here at the table, but we don't have the answers. But I want to ask our job of the lived experience and the expertise that the people who live in the city of Detroit share with us and we put that into a report that goes to city council. So subcommittees send us emails, and keep attending these meetings, please.
Okay, any more questions? Okay.
Are you directed to Ms. Black or to the test? Okay.
Oh, hello. Hello, my name is Vanessa Mae Mayberry. And I was just concerned about the reparations committee. We're talking about just the home owners that still exist in the city of Detroit. And what about the people who have been displaced? Who didn't? You don't have continuous generational wealth, we buy homes and still are renting. And that is, how can they be a part of what's going to happen as far as reparations is concerned, this asset and this debate, because if we just this no attack forces, this 100 or 200 people that's a part of this only gets this as a trickle down effect of money. I want the whole community, their children and grandchildren also have been affected by goose and generational wealth, from the lead being taken from us, from the black bottom, in Paradise Valley. And like I say, Darrel Ray, because black people were in Delray as well, you know, the car that burned a highway was a thorough way to get to those plants that afford plants and all that sort of stuff. So I want to know, what is this taskforce? How can we get out the word? I mean, you know, more broadly, than just a small community of people, you know, just this, you'd have a smaller group, and we'd have to trickle down and we got a trickle down effects. Even with our communication, you don't just as black people we did we just have a little word of mouth, but I want it to every black person who still live in the city of Detroit, and even if they don't have homes, you know, I understand taxes. I want to not, we should not be paying not one more city tax, right? We should not be paying not one more sales tax, right? We should not be paying any black person in America should not be paying no taxes anymore. That's where you can get me online. Yeah. How to Pay no government tax, state tax, your tax, my tax, his tax, gas tax, I want the text to give me my money.
Next man may have to shut man. Okay, you
wanted to know, as there, and I wasn't hearing the beginning part of the presentation, but have you guys looked at the connection to what has happened, you know, with the housing, we're being displaced in the connection to the schools. When I think about Detroit Public Schools, and I think about I'm in a class right now on public school finance, I've been an educator in Detroit Public Schools for about 15 years and in education for 20 some odd years, and really learning about this public school finance piece. And when I look at the the facilities, for example, in Detroit, which, through Proposal A, there was no funding in there for the to keep up with the facilities and that school districts in Michigan have to rely on the taxes from from property in order to get raise funding for to upkeep the school facilities. So when I think about the fact that the red lining and the displace homes, you know, and just not having the opportunity to invest and buy homes, that connection that is directly to education in schools, you know, what I mean? Because, you know, the state and the federal government has this thing where we have to have equitable schools, and we have to have schools that are, you know, conducive for learning and facilities play a big part in that. And so really, I feel like this work in this advocacy could also link in with advocacy for, you know, public school funding to right because, again, it's based highly on the property taxes, which goes back to the harm that was taken here. So I don't know if that's somewhere in your discussions to look at that. But since I'm, I think school finance is going to be an advocacy piece for me right now. I'm just I'm just making a connection right now that we need to use whatever we can to advocate for, to repair the harm, right. And then also look at our students and children for the future.
Thank you.
My name is Marcel born and raised on Eastside Detroit. I guess you would say to resolve the conflict I'm having Because I have a question at the end of the day, as I was showing the lady in the back, there was a lady in the early 1900s by Kelly house who sued the United States for the cotton reparations, pretty much that wasn't even back for loaning our land to the government during the Civil War and things like that. She actually won the case to where is it that we was already and United States recognized it, but they say because you're a United States citizen, you cannot sue the United States, because then please, like I'm working for for it. I'm trying to move forward. So one of the things we have to actually speak of at some point is are we seeking our own government? Are we seeking a dependent government? Are we seeking to continue citizenship? Because at this point, Johnny pours it on Kobe Bryant or was it John Carter, or OJ Simpson where he had it before he was he mysteriously died along this legal team. He added that $59 trillion, less than five minutes Lori's exist yet the reparations case that we use all that $59 trillion, but we're looking at Detroit. So that's what's confusing me, I'm 30 years old. I'm paying the city tax in the city that's building nothing but low income housing. This is either is for people from the suburbs downtown, or is for Pookie and Ray Ray, wherever you want to East in the west side. So I'm paying for things where I'm not being giving my compensation or my fair taxation, without representation wherever. But I inherited the home because people aren't saying the process of us not doing we're supposed to people, I took care of my grandma 94, cancer, etc. The judge didn't want to recognize the fact that he was six to seven months paid on in her name pretty much saying keep going, because that's pretty much what majority people my age is doing. They didn't recognize it says some fraud happened, etc. But that's one record. The whole thing is what is our trust and our assurance clocks? That's one question. Because say we do it. This one is a lot of people in here that is very elderly. One of the things we're having is keeping that wealth and maintaining that wealth, and we had the freedom and baby counts. But right now I have to frequent bank accounts for tivities or miles that's active. Again, that's another thing nobody's ever attempted to do that. So 100 billion dollars that's been sitting there with interest accruing since the 1800s. So I was looking at things were respectfully. We're in 2024. I respect and I love the stories about Bob Loblaw bolt and, and all these things are good, I love him. But look at Detroit now. We aren't we're not competing, the average income was worth 20,000. Like they don't have the skills to compete, and I'm going to things where y'all just gave $100 million for slave jobs, respectful. CNA cutting grass, things like that. But other cities, they're going information systems, they're doing automation. They're focusing on quantum computers and things like that, planning 10 to 1520 30 years. So my question is, I know you gotta respect your time, is what's the trust insurance? What's the plan for the future? What is the future of leadership? Because respectfully, I don't have congressional representation. respectful. Why, why, why? Respectfully, I'm not trying to say, because you used to be able to black Democratic caucus. And remember, I'm concerned I used to be with, and I live because of this, when I'm sitting here, not respectful, because I keep it at the mic. When I'm sitting there on TV. And I'm seeing every other group, getting education benefits and all these rights were owed everything we fought for. I don't want to share
Can you give me a name?
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Dr. Lila. So I want to first talk about how residents who lived in a city Detroit that they were forced out because of the gentrification are not part of the discussion on reparations. Another thing I want to talk about is the universities doing the research with the $350,000 allocated, what universities and why do they need $350,000 in research when he already got funding to do research, in addition to that, with the $350,000, what vendors have come out of Detroit, that are receiving the word from this, because that's the way we're distributed them. When you say it's only about research. Well, where are the universities going to get their researchers or and are they going to train black residents to be the researchers to get that money? We have to stop addressing reparations from a white systemic approach. If we don't be free and talk about reparations that we have been moving out of for I know some of us have received lots of benefits from white institutions that help get us elected. However, they're saying about you about us as a people, and we have candidates who come in and use our reparations as a platform, and then they give no discretionary spendings to our institutions or black institutions to build up, they need to be held accountable. In addition to that, I've heard no mention about the devastation, the abuse and the violence that the black churches in Detroit have undergone. And what the foundation of reparations stems from, I've heard no mention about the businesses that were wiped out on Lynwood none. And that legacy goes back way fine. A lot of y'all is up here because of the foundation that was laid by BC in the black Christian nationalist organization. There's been no mention of the shrine of the Black Madonna being here. I see we have some new members on the panel, and I'm so happy to see you. However, us using two hours of time to hear a presentation that could be put out on social media in a flyer melee, when he subcommittees could be doing breakout sessions right now, and coming back and addressing what has been found and what the next steps are. All of us up here have high educational levels, to where we've used our skills for white institutions, it's time for you to use your skills for us. Thank you so much, I appreciate you. But I just wanted to bring this to the forefront. Thank you.
Hello, my name is Lupita Davenport, and I am a representative of the Labor Day organization, which is a nonprofit that has the mission to support and bring abundance to members of Detroit. Specifically, I've found out about the Detroit Task Force reparations, or Detroit reparations Task Force online. And I was like, Oh, what is this about? Sounds like it's an alignment. And it's, it's in the direction that I really want to see for the city of Detroit, my citizens. However, I've come to about four meetings. Now. And I'm I'm still not very clear on what the what the goal of the organization is, I understand you're in effect finding season right now. I'm bringing out a lot of information. And I think that is very valuable. But the mission for the task force, I would love to have some clarity, because I think that can even help with the timing that is spent with our public comments. So there's direction and what they can expect and what we can expect. So what's the direction? And then what are the expectations that we should have as members coming to these meetings? Thank you.
Building Good afternoon, my name is to hear amen. I'm with the Coalition for Property Tax Justice, the black legacy coalition, and several other coalition's I would like to know, because right now we're in a season for the President. election for the President. I think that the reparations task force needs to somehow approach the Democratic Party and or the Publican party, although it may be fruitless at the Republican Party, but here we have Joe Biden, running again, for president. He needs to know that in Michigan, we are demanding reparations, we just had the largest election, the largest election, Valley proposal for reparations, and we've turned out in droves for reparations. And if the Democratic Party needs our support, Joe Biden said, We're the reason why he's in office, we need to be approaching him. The task force needs to be approached and him and the American government they're the ones that own owe us money. And the other thing finally, the other thing is we mean somehow if you get the task force can't do it. No need to do it. I had a subcommittee. That's about a probe proactive. Doing something proactive about getting the job done. We can't do it with our hands tied. All we doing is making a recommendation but We can branch off, and we can start doing some proactive and demonstrating that we are demanding and are going to get the money that we say we need to also approach Gretchen Whitmer, all of them all their, their their positions in government because of the black vote. So we need to do more proactively. And I'd like to see it come out of his cabinet. Thank you. Yeah.
We're probably out here by four o'clock. So anybody else? We want to make a comment by did we can bring this to a coalition?
Yes,
I think it was landscaping, three of our members, including myself and a member for attended in a film presentation at at the ripe Museum. It was a film that was essentially made by really, as I understand in a collaboration of eight universities, one of the lead universities, and that was University of Michigan, particularly the partners that we currently have, we're doing some of the recreation research. And they had a film that was called the cost of inheritance, I think much of the work that we need to do, but I am my bow and the sister said earlier, there's 2200 of us here. What about the broader groups of people and so forth, there's a very broad base, educational and exposure issue that we need to do, I would suggest that we approach the individuals who made the film, try and sponsor that film again. But do it a little differently this time. Back in the old days, now just use this as an example, when we were fighting against the strategy, and and and that was one of the original people are fighting against a spreadsheet. And we had a couple of community meetings, and we got largely black radio, the simulcast, if you will, these meetings that we were involved in. And the idea back then, of course, is that black folks were really tuned in to black radio. So generally speaking, wherever you would go in the black community, you would hear something about the stress issue, in terms of police murder, and so forth, that you kind of really homed in on that as an issue, I would suggest that what we try and do is get the cooperation of local television and radio stations to air that particular film at one time, across all of the broadcast network. So we just work hard to do that. Some of us have friends who sit in these different positions, editorial positions, and so on and so forth, for us make a concerted effort to call them and see if we can help that film, which I thought was excellently done. And I think that would take this discussion into the households in households of hundreds of 1000s of people in our area. And so it's that's one of the suggestions. I think it's not a formal policy on the part of a of the task force. But it's something I think that we can, as advocates ourselves, as a organization and individually that we should seek to do.
Okay, what's the name of the movie?
Yes, Mr. Chair, yes, that's available on YouTube in its entirety. So you can view it on YouTube, as well as poverty Solutions website, which is one of the partners we are working with on research, poverty solutions and social solutions through the University of Michigan. But if you just do a Google search, or go to YouTube, you'll be able to see the film, the cost of inheritance, and its entirety on YouTube, at no cost
to the chair and before we address if I may, I just wanted to I didn't want the doctor who spoke earlier to leave with misinformation, she has expressed a very legitimate valid concern about money from the task force being paid to universities, that we are not paying any money to hit a university. Universities are volunteering to support but that's not something we aim we invent universities any day. And any research that they contribute, will be looked at by us and synthesized and we're gonna we're gonna we're working really hard to contract somebody locally to be the thought partner on the final report that we contribute. And other thing is we only know the to the point that IRS made earlier about stipends being paid to residents. Y'all notice because we fought, we argued about it internally and fought really hard to try to get statements that stipend is paid to residents, for your contributions to this our deliberations, but learn that way that that's not something that's permissible for the city of Detroit. So saying that to say that we have.
Okay. Anybody else? Anybody else can get this. Okay. Move for German. To be fair, this is not a political speech.
I'm just, I'm just came here to listen. But you can reach my office and canada.house.gov. If you have any comments, anything. This is this is a federal issue. There's a lot that federal government can do here. So I want to be a partner with all of you. From a federal government point of view. This young lady mentioned two bills in the US Congress. I'm working with Congresswoman Cory Bush, on HR 414. I am, I believe, a originating co lead on that. And my mentor is Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who is a big I have a lot of respect for her for her work in reparations area. And I'm also an originating co lead on HR 40. Some, I'm very active in this, I want to learn as much as I can. I came here to listen, I came here to learn, please reach out to my office.
Thank you. Thank you. Yes, it's still in the interest of fairness. We introduced counsel, woman. Right, I would ask her if she will.
Yes. Good afternoon, everyone.
And I don't have anything to say I'm just here as a resident and a taxpayer. Thank you.
Thank you. So anybody else?
Mr. Chair, there's no more public.
Got two minutes.
Last one,
hello. I just wanted to know, where were you trying to obtain the money from for reparations. I just recently left a meeting regarding Tax Justice. And they have some numbers, we'll share with you regarding things that with our tax capture, they are stealing from our schools and our Public Library system. I mean, the cap tax capture. The other one is the land value tax, which tends to be a, you got to stop that because that's gonna take land away. Property taxes are not being paid by the corporation's downtown. They're being given our tax money through ensuring economic growth corporation. So I think that that is the way that we should target it through images and all these other corporations that are getting taxed, they should pay for that. We shouldn't pay for our own harm. I shouldn't come from out of our pocket. So one, we got to stop the tax capture. And two, they need to pay their property taxes, sales taxes and any other taxes in order to operate in the city of Detroit. So that's where your school money's going. Okay. So those developments downtown. That's why you don't have any money to playgrounds, your library, and those type of things. So that's the we think that we've been targeting so I wanted to know what your plan was.
Okay. Okay. Okay, move forward.
Mr. Chair. I'm not sure why the Treasurer's Report and why the minutes were removed from the agenda that was emailed at 1:42pm today, but that would have answered some of the questions that were out there. And so since we are pretty much at time, we will have a Treasurer's report next month. And I do want to get the agenda well in advance of 15 minutes before the meeting. Okay.
Most important German. Second of all, Okay, folks, have a great Saturday.