Thursday, Sep 10: Will Gardner

Welcome back to the program. Welcome to the third and final hour for today of the program. I had some people who did hold through the news, so I'm going to get, get them and then we're going to be joined by Will Gardner coming up next. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Hey, Chris. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm bad. Um, just a couple of things. I mean, the camera thing, we can, we can go on and on about that. Just not thinking on that. But, um, one thing I'm concerned about is that the city council has not been able to assimilate any information into the general public of late. Um, one thing in particular is that it's small change against the, against the flock, but it's just another way that they're losing, um, kind of like losing a grip on, on involving the public and getting the public to know stuff. The waste collection has been changed. Instead of being every week on the day after your regular trash collection is made now it's every other week. So on my street where everybody's got their yard waste still out, nobody knew. So I kind of, uh, reached out to the counselor, uh, from my ward. And he said that, well, I put it on my Facebook page. Oh, I don't necessarily go to his page. I have no reason to go to his page. And it doesn't assimilate onto mine. And I haven't seen it anywhere in print other than, um, on the Brooklyn park. Um, so that's been changed. Um, and, and I just don't, they're just not letting people know what's going on. And they're making these rash decisions and it's just falling into place. Yard waste might be a small thing, but then the yard waste, it's not to me, right? I mean, it's not to you. No, it's not a small thing to you or, or too many of the people who keep their yards clean and want a place to dump the stuff. Yeah. I mean, it's, it, but it just, it just snowballs. Right. Right. You know, don't, don't tell you about the odd ways. And then when you call them up, like I be honest with you, I texted Pemberton yesterday and I said, it didn't get picked up. He said I'll contact them and I'll let them know. And they'll be on it tomorrow. The guy, then he writes me this morning and says, Oh, it's been changed. And I put it on my Facebook page. Well, you should have known that when you answered me back last night. Yes. Cause all my neighbors have still got this stuff out. This is crazy. This is crazy. Nobody knows what's going on anymore. It's absolutely insane. Right. And, and, you know, you talk about a general house cleaning. Yeah. This whole city needs a general house cleaning. I think you're, I think you're probably right about that. And fortunately it's every two years for the ward councils and the at large counselors. So you can do that. We can do that on this ward and we did it. And I don't know if it were, um, and I understand that we have an opposite position on that, but I don't think that one two was for the better. I mean you get a massive shooting that nobody talks about. You know, at one time you call this one, the murder capital of the city. The DA's office called it the Latin Kings territory. So I highlighted the Princeton shooting a couple of times this morning and we're going to continue to. Well, we got to, because that was three weeks ago or two weeks ago. I mean, that's, that's like, this is crazy. This is crazy. So, you know, um, I haven't seen any movement in the right direction. Um, as far as, as far as that goes, I mean, there's still issues in this ward big time and nobody seems to be addressing them. Okay. We put on there. Um, and, and, you know, uh, you know, my, my self assessment of Kapo, right. And remember Kapo is remember we said about that, uh, the, the triumvirate, the, the, the four, the four, uh, the four councils of Kapo and Charette and Abreu and Pemberton and all of us. Right. Um, the Kapo hasn't really, uh, been, um, been out there with, with all these assessments, you know, and, and things are too quiet for my liking as a citizen. I think that we need to be more informed and be honest with you. If it wasn't for BSM, nobody would be informed. I agree. Well, I agree with you there. There are some good Facebook pages out there. There are some good websites, but certainly, um, we're right there on the radio and on the internet. Um, and I appreciate the compliment. You know what? One thing I would say about Scott Pemberton that really disappointed me is he did vote, uh, for these, uh, law enforcement free zones, these safe injection sites. And that was disappointing to me. I never thought that that was in his repertoire of issues and I was surprised he went along with that. And I don't think Maria Giesta would have done that. So that was a disappointment. Yeah. I, I, um, I agree with you on that. And, and, um, uh, he's been, he's been a major disappointment, but that's how you learn stuff. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's why every two years you can bounce them. If they don't do what you want. Well, I, I, I think that, um, should, should this have a decent candidate next time around? He might be a one and done. Um, and, and there are others. Uh, I mean, uh, it's in shambles. I don't even know how anybody can vote for Virgo. I haven't figured that out yet. There's going to be some kind of free health care that we can get for anybody who votes for that guy. Um, it's going to be able to get something somewhere from the neck up. Right. Yeah. That's true. I listen, I appreciate it. I know you got a lot of people waiting on here and, um, just keep up the good work. Let us know what's going on because God knows our counselors are not. Thank you, my friend. As always. Thank you. 508-996-0500 guys. We're going to, I see you on hope. We're going to switch directions here a little bit. Um, my next guest sitting here with me, I really enjoy always having him in. Will Gardner, Fairhaven guy. Um, but he built Alma Del Mar the charter school and he's with a group called South coast places for people. Um, really catch all brilliant name. Um, Will, how are you this morning? I'm great. Thanks for having me, Chris. This is good. Good morning. Anytime you reach out, I'll have to put you on there cause you're always doing interesting stuff and, um, you have a different perspective on things and you're always thinking about big ideas and how you can implement them on a local level. And I do appreciate that. Tell us about this initiative you're putting forward. Yeah. So, uh, the initiative that, that I wanted to talk to you about today is called neighborhood builders. Uh, and this is a new initiative that we are launching with the purpose of cultivating a group, an ecosystem of small scale and emerging local developers, specifically in new Bedford from all different neighborhoods who are going to be able to invest in their neighborhoods and create the kind of growth. We all know we need more housing, right? Regionally, but create the, the housing, the kind of growth that we need, but in the right way for their neighborhoods, for their communities. Will Gardner is my guest. Um, so Will, I had the mayor in two weeks ago now we were talking about form zoning. I know there's an article, but WBSM that Tim wrote, WBSM.com. Talk about how this works in conjunction with what the mayor's doing with his city. Yeah. Well, you know, I think, I think at the city level, um, a lot of those initiatives started with the building new Bedford plant that they released a few years back. Uh, and they've been, you know, slowly working away, you know, the mayor and the council, um, on that agenda to, to try to create openings and opportunities, uh, for growing a new Bedford, uh, in, in the right ways and investing in communities. And so this is about answering that call, right? Because you can, you can open up doors, but you need people who can walk through. Exactly. Exactly. So what we're hoping to do is bring those folks together, people who are interested people who maybe own property and have wanted to do something with it. Right. But don't know how to take that first step. Yes. People who are aspiring developers, people who are small scale, early stage, bring those folks together, give them the training that they need. Very important. Also connect them with mentors, connect them with each other so that they can support each other in their various projects and get the answers that they need. My guest is Will Gardner. Um, well, as we were talking off here, there are processes, there's permits for all this stuff as they should be. Right. Um, and sometimes people get really frustrated because they don't understand and no one's ever taught them. This isn't stuff that's, um, taught in regular school. Right. Um, talk about how you're going to give people like education, stuff they can practical use. That's right. Uh, so we're working with a group called the Incremental Development Alliance, uh, and they provide really hands on training. And in addition, we're partnering with the office of housing and community development for the city. Uh, so we're going to really, you know, bring together both the expertise of, of ink dev, which is a national organization, but then also folks in local city government who can help people navigate the system. Right. And then, you know, sometimes it's just simple things, you know, uh, I was talking with somebody who was trying to develop, uh, you know, a small apartment building, uh, fixing up an existing building. So people could live in it, families could live in it. Um, and he was running into a lot of trouble, uh, because there was, there were certain things that he needed a special permit for, and it was just taken a ton of time. Right. And it was no, no fault of anyone, either his or at the city level, but it's just complex to navigate sometimes. Right. And sometimes just connecting with the right person who's been there, done that before is enough to unlock that opportunity. Well, how do people get in touch with you about this project? Excellent. Talk about that. Yeah. Thank you. Uh, thanks for, I always forget to actually plug the thing, right. You got to close. You got to close the call to action. Right. Uh, so we have a kickoff event, September 23rd. So Wednesday night at the whaling museum, 6.00 PM. Uh, and that's going to be called an introduction to incremental development. So that's September 23rd at the whaling museum. You can register for free. Perfect. Uh, and that is at luma.com slash build NB luma.com slash build NB and B is in new Bedford. Uh, and that's going to be a wonderful evening. Uh, we've got a lot of folks coming. In fact, it's about two thirds full already. Okay. So, uh, encourage everybody who, who might be interested, uh, to register now. Who will, as you, as you're building this thing out, right. Getting people involved who might be interested. Right. So that could be everybody from, you know, early stage developers. Maybe they've done one or two projects. They want to kind of go to the next level. It might be somebody who's an aspiring developer, somebody who is working in the real estate field. You know, we have some, you know, folks who are real estate agents, um, and, and, and are in similar businesses who have been interested in being a part of this. You might be a local official, right? And you're looking to, uh, invest in the economic development of your neighborhood, your community, and you want to do it in a way that draws on the resources and talents of the people who are already living there and who, and that builds wealth within the community itself. So, uh, that's somebody else who might be interested. And there's a lot of people who are just interested in, you know, we've got this thorny housing crisis and it's really a bunch of different crises in different communities, right? It looks good in different places. Yes. And, and I think there's a lot of interest in how can we address that. And also how can we move past the kind of, you know, binary, either we're going to do big, big, huge projects, right. Um, or, or everything's going to stay the same given community, this kind of all or nothing mentality that we often see. Right. Um, and, and often that leads to a kind of stalemate in communities, right? Our philosophy at South coast places for people. And I think that's, it's illustrated in this initiative as well is that no neighborhood should be subject to radical change overnight, right? Correct. At the same time, no neighborhood should be immune from any change. Right. Right. Right. And, uh, so this is about getting back to that idea. And it's really an old idea, right? It really is. It's a traditional development, uh, form and, and process that we can take the existing fabric of what's already there and say, what's next, what's the next increment. How can we add to that? Will Gardner is my guest. They're going to have an event at the whaling museum, September 23rd. You can, you can register ahead of time. A lot of people already have at luma.com backslash build NB as in build new Bedford. Um, it's about neighborhood builders and it works in conjunction with the city government in new Bedford. I think it's going to be a fantastic, fantastic opportunity for people to come together. And by the way, you don't have to be mid project or anywhere involved in any development. That's the time to get involved, right? Well, that's right. Yeah. And I think some, sometimes people can be scared off because they think, well, I don't know about this particular thing, right? Uh, I'm not a, I'm not a construction person. I don't know about building or I'm not a legal guy or, uh, you know, I don't have access to tons of capital. Right. Um, so this is about, you know, helping to bridge some of those gaps and saying, Hey, if you don't have access to capital or if you've got gaps in your financing stack, here are some places you can go. Here are lenders, here are things that you can look at. So it's about helping to fill in some of those gaps, helping you to find the people and the resources that you need to make that next project happen. Well, Gardner, you've built, uh, projects in the city of new Bedford, big school. I mean, really incredible, um, what you've done. Um, and it starts with an idea, right? Yeah. And you know, I don't have any, uh, you know, I'm not particularly smart in any particular area. Right. So I just get interested in these things just like you. Right. And I have lots of conversations with folks just like you. Um, but I think what I like to do when we have a really challenging complex community problem is I like to bring people together, uh, who have various areas of expertise. And if you can get those people in a room, get them talking and get out of some of the, you know, the, the back and forth binary arguments and say, okay, what can we do? What's the next step? And so that's, that's what this is about. Um, I also want to mention, we have some great partners on this initiative. Uh, so one South coast chamber, uh, has been a great partner helping us get the word out to chamber members. Um, so that's excellent. And whale, uh, the waterfront, uh, right. They do incredible work and they're a great resource, uh, particularly for new Bedford where you have a lot of older properties, historic properties, you know, how do you maintain those? How do you give them, you know, that next generation of, of life? Um, and you know, they're kind of geniuses at adaptive reuse and some of those things that we need to do within the city. Well, Gardner, um, right now is a really interesting time, in my opinion, uh, to be in this area of Massachusetts. Um, you've been in other parts of the state. It's much more expensive. Um, it's much more difficult to do things. I think the city of new Bedford really wants the government of new Bedford, which is really important, wants to move forward. Is that your sense? Yeah. I, I mean, I think it's a real opportunity that they are creating. And I think it's up to all of us in our various neighborhoods and various communities, uh, to answer that call. Uh, and you know, I think this is not something that's new for new Bedford. If you think back a couple generations ago, I bet, you know, some folks, uh, the city was built by incremental developers. The city was built by individuals, uh, who, many of whom built homes for themselves. Right. Classic triple Decker is a good example of that. Yeah. Right. Uh, lived on one floor of it, rented out a couple of floors of it. Right. Uh, and that's how people got a foothold. Right. Right. And really built wealth within their communities. So this is not something that's new here. No. Uh, this is something that maybe is less frequent now. That's dormant that we can reignite. Well, Gardner, uh, again, tell people how they can get in touch with you about this, um, neighborhood builders program that's going on. Yeah. You can find us online at South coast places for people.org. Uh, we're on Facebook. So if you want to register, you can just, you know, plug it into Facebook as well. Uh, luma.com bash backslash, build new Bedford, uh, to register for this free event. We've got a great keynote speaker, a guy named Marquise King. Uh, he is an urban designer and architect out of Detroit. Okay. And he's done a lot of this type of work, this incremental development work within Detroit, within the neighborhoods where he's lived and worked, um, to great success. And so he's going to be there to share his story, to show us some case studies. Here's how it can be done. Right. And really to show us, you know, what is incremental development about what is, you know, how is it different from other ways of looking at development as well? And so we're using that as the kickoff point, the launch for this cohort that we're calling neighborhood builders. So if you're interested in the cohort, come to the kickoff event, you'll hear what it's all about. Um, it's not about get rich through real estate, right? This is not a seminar on how to flip houses and make a quick buck. Right. Uh, not, not even disparaging that that's fine. If that's what people are into, that's not what this is. Right. This is for people, um, yes, who are, are, are looking to, uh, certainly not, you know, doing it just out of charity, but who, who are looking to earn money, money while they do it, build wealth, but to do it within their community, um, and to do it in a way that really invests in the existing neighborhoods and the existing fabric. My guest is Will Gardner and will, this is being done in conjunction with the office of housing community development, Josh Amaral. That's how important is that office to this effort? Really important. Um, again, you know, I think, uh, they're forward thinking they're, they're very housing forward. Uh, and I think they have a really keen understanding of, of how to cultivate folks who are going to step up and really invest in the city. Uh, but you can't do it from the top down. Right. And that's what this is about is to say, Hey, we need to cultivate it from the bottom up. You're trying to get all the people that want to do something different or the same, really, really historically the same. Um, and help build their community community builders. That's right. Neighborhood neighborhood builders, but community builders would work too. And you know, I think if you think about the city, right, as a whole and how you're investing in the city, you know, if you think about your own personal investments, right, you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket. Right. Right. I hope, I hope you have investments. And if, if they are, if you do, I hope they're diversified. Right. Am I right? You are. Okay, good. Well, just in the same way, if you're looking at the city and how we want the city to grow and evolve, it's smart when we make lots of small bets across the board. Correct. Right. Because that way, you know, even if this one over here doesn't do as well, if this one fails across the board, you're, you're spreading out risk across many hands, right? Uh, lots of different players in a way where the system can get feedback as it goes, you can build and you can learn that way. And that's how our best places were built throughout this country. Right. If you think about the places where you like to go, if you think about places, maybe if you go to, you know, on vacation, you get to go to Europe or something like that. The places where people tend to visit are places that were built by many hands over time incrementally. Right. So again, this is nothing new. Look at Manhattan as an example. Exactly. Right. Right. Um, all those different ethnic neighborhoods and they're changing all the time. That's right. And a lot of these places were built before you had, you know, planners right before you have these longterm financing schemes. People just were figuring it out. They were saying, okay, what's needed on this street? Where's the gap? What's here already? And how can I add, uh, to, to this existing landscape? And so that's really what this is about. It's about saying, Hey, we can be a part of the growing evolution of our neighborhoods and our neighborhood should be built by many hands. And when we do that, we not only spread out the risk and build resilient communities and build wealth within our communities. Um, but we can make beautiful places, uh, that we're all proud of. Yep. And you know, I think that's a good thing. Well, Gardner, I really appreciate again, one more time. The, the, the meeting will be, or the, the, the event, uh, will be at the whaling museums. That's right. Number 23rd. What time? Uh, so it's going to be at six o'clock doors will open at five 30, no cost, no cost. And, and, and we'll have food. We'll have drink. Oh, wow. And we'll have lots of great people. Yeah. Lots of great people doing positive stuff. That's right. Right. Positive stuff. I think it's great. Yep. Well, I appreciate it. Hey, I appreciate it. Oh. And if I can please plug, plug a few of our great sponsors, uh, Aruta group, uh, Matt Aruta and compass realty, uh, they're sponsoring this series, uh, South coast improvement company, another great company that's sponsoring this event and affirmative investments, real estate. Uh, they're also sponsoring as well. So I want to say thank you to all of them for making this possible. Uh, and if you have company that you'd like to sponsor or you as an individual, uh, believe in this effort, you want to be a part of it. You want to sponsor it. Uh, please reach out South coast places for people.org. Um, you can, you can DM us on, on, uh, Facebook. Well, I really appreciate it. Always doing good stuff. Thank you. Will Gardner. Guys, we're going to take a break. We'll be back to open phones, whatever's on your mind. I want to hear about it. We'll be right back. This portion of programming on WBSM is brought to you by these hot dogs in new Bedford, where you can get two hot dogs, chips, and a soda for just six bucks. Back to Chris McCarthy and South coast. Now on WBSM call 5 0 8 9 9 6 0 500. Welcome back to the program. I'm Chris McCarthy. You're the audience needs some money. You want to clean up a yard, turn that junk car into cash. Today at mid city scrap in Westport, we pay top dollar for complete vehicles. Again, mid city scrap in Westport. We will pay top dollar for complete vehicles. If you call us, that's all you got to do. Give us a call. You have a small car, get four to $500 in cash, mid to large size car, five to $600 in cash SUV, up to $700 in cash, full size trucks, up to $800 in cash. No games, no waiting, just fast cash with a simple phone call called Joe, Johnny Mark, or Doug at 5 0 8 6 7 5 7 8 3 1. Again, that phone number 5 0 8 6 7 5 7 8 3 1 mid city scrap cash for junk cars. State road in Westport. We get some people on hold. Let's go to the phones. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Hi Chris. I just wanted to say thank you for staying on this block camera issue. I think it's a priority issue. It has to be established as a priority issue. And with people like you, putting this first, we will, we will get through this, but going forward to all the local politicians, whether we're in Fay Haven, New Bedford at large ward. If you, if I know as a ward one resident, I'm going to be looking to see where these votes go and in keeping track, who's voting for what within the committee structure out of committee structure. And if any of these ward one at large counselors vote against this, which they probably are, they're not going to be able to put their son in my yard and they're not going to be able to get a vote from me. And I should be, I think that should be going around the Fay Haven community, other communities. We have thought like Hank Turgeon said, we have to hold these local representatives accountable when he was on with Lenny. And it's just, it's imperative that we do not give up the fight on this and hand this over to the left movement who want to flood the gates with their propaganda. We have to take care of our own and our own communities in every separate situation. Chris, again, thank you. Thank you, my friend. Five Oh eight, nine, nine, six zero four. Look, I can only put it in front of you. What you do with it is what you do with it. And most importantly, voting has consequences. Elections have consequences. And again, there is a obvious, it's obvious to me. I think it's pretty obvious to you. There's a movement. It's all working together here to get an agenda forward, to put it into law. They want the ability to keep law enforcement out of certain areas so they can do whatever they want to include smoke crack and use fentanyl and heroin in a law enforcement free zone. And you can't do that if you have license plate reader technology, the contract, the vehicles, the delivery services or the narcotics, all of that stuff. And it's very clear to me. And they're, they're not hiding it. They are honest about it. James Roy gave a big speech about why he supports the law enforcement free zones that he calls. Um, what are they consequence free zones, harm free zones, something like that. Um, harm, harm reduction areas, which is where they can, people can use narcotics, um, and the law enforcement can't come into it. And, um, you know, my fear above all is that given the damage I've seen to people whose parents, mothers in particular used heroin and crack cocaine. Remember we used to talk about crack babies. That was a big deal in the eighties, the nineties, all these children that were born with mental defects, physical defects, and they never be corrected because they're, they, they were the result of being an embryo that's subjected to crack cocaine and heroin. And so they never develop. And when they become older, they have all kinds of personality deflects, effects, mental defects. Some are physically obvious and that's because their mothers consumed vast amounts of narcotics while they were pregnant. And that person eventually grows up. Right? So my concern is that you're going to have even more of the crack babies who become crack, you know, adults, um, throughout the region because you've got these government sanctioned shooting galleries and crack houses. Did some of your elected officials really want to create? It's not, it's not a, a myth. It's not talk radio hyperbole. They were talking about it on the new Bedford city council floor, Shane Burgo and, um, James Roy, a big supporters. So's Scott Pemberton. So they have to get rid of the flock cameras, the license plate readers to make that a reality. And so Leo show cad and James Roy and, um, Shane Burgo, that's the Troika that's trying to get rid of the license plate readers to make it a more hospital climate for the safe injection sites and, and all of that. It's all working hand in hand. All right, let's go back to the phones. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Good morning, Chris. Another excellent show as always. You're doing a fantastic job, but I gotta tell you, Chris, I'm just baffled and disappointed in what's going on with this whole thing. If you pay attention, you did. Hank, your phone's breaking up. Can you give me a call back? All right, thanks. 508-996-0500. He's up in Cambridge today, I think. Let me go back to the phones. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Good morning, Chris. Hey, Carlos, what's happening? New Bedford live. How's it going? Good. Um, yeah, I, I, once again, I need to suggest to these councils that support these things that go down to mass and cash. And I think they might have a little life experience and understand that it's a tremendously bad idea. Uh, it's become like a health hazard, if anything. Um, and it basically takes away, um, the ability of the police to do their job and they just sit there. How demoralizing for an officer to sit there and watch that and, and be forced not to act. Um, it just doesn't make sense to me. And, uh, Pemberton, man, what a disappointment. I'm so extremely disgusted with that guy, especially when he couldn't be bothered with that vote. He couldn't walk his fat butt down to the city council and make a quick book. He was down at the, uh, fifties night. Uh, that was the first mistake. And now does he realize that they're going to stick that, that police free zone in the war too? I don't know if he gets it. I do not know. He's going to be a really, you know, unintelligent individual. I mean, I mean, you know, we all know, you know, I look past a lot of his shortcomings and, you know, we can all tell, you know, we're nice to the guy, but when he responds, it's not exactly the sharpest guy. I'm just going to be honest. And, you know, you look past it because you look for the votes, you see what he supports and what he doesn't. That's what matters. It's where his heart is about how well-spoken he is or how educated he is. It's if he does the right thing for the people, does he really think the right thing for war two is to have a police free zone? This guy is an out of space. I'm sorry. I mean, I don't know what he's smoking, uh, or how they've convinced him. Or if he just doesn't have the ability to be a counselor and he's just going with whatever. I mean, I don't get it. Is he afraid of the, the three or four guys that are extremely loud at the city council? Is that what's guiding the city council is now a couple of loud guys that show up at council meetings. Is that all it takes to sway a few votes? It's ridiculous already. It's very disappointing. It's very disappointing, you know? And then if one of their family members are abducted or whatever, they'll be crying to the police, uh, for footage and information from the plot cameras. They'll be the first to use their power to get the videos and whatever necessary done. It's hypocrisy, you know, to cater to a couple of loud mouths, which is fine. You can take the information and, and, and, and investigate it. I'm not saying not to listen to them, but to bow down and give into them just because they're loud. It doesn't make sense. You're going to do what's best for the entire city. Let me tell you something. If the people who supported, um, Scott Pemberton in ward two against Maria Giesta, had they known he was going to vote for a law enforcement free zone, I can tell you they would not have been involved. He would have been done for. And you got to give Maria that she wouldn't, he wouldn't have voted for it. I totally agree with you. Uh, you know, but yeah. And he needs to be reminded. He, he only won by a few votes. You know, you're not clear just yet to be making these little power moves and make it by the scenes or whatever it is. Or maybe he just has a lack of understanding that, that war two will be targeted for these free zones. 100% will they sick of a war, uh, police, war two. Thank you, Mr. Pemberton. I think I'm going to be looking for an apartment or two. There's a lot of them. Thanks for the call. Carlos Felix five Oh eight nine, nine six zero 500. Good morning. Hank Turgeon's back. Good morning, Chris. Is that any better? Yes, much better. All right. I'm doing a handstand trying to keep my signal intact. So you had the leading law enforcement officer of new beds and chief Doty go in front of the city council and give a very well informative speech to them. Gave them facts, gave him statistics, talked about three shootings that have happened in the time that the cameras were shut off. Those were all potential future victims to those shooters. Those shooters can go on a rampage right now cause they didn't get caught with the help of flock. But what amazes me about all this, Chris, isn't the fact that they already knew their votes were going to be in almost like they violated open meeting laws. And they were that little group already knew what they were going to do cause they didn't want to listen to the person giving them all the facts. But they sit there in the comfort of the council chamber with a police officer to protect them in cameras, to record the people in and out of there. Isn't that amazing? Amazing. So Chris, keep up the fight. I appreciate it. I appreciate what she thought he did for it. And I really appreciate the men and women of the police department that are going to have to go out and work harder now to keep the city safe because the city council refused to do it. Thanks for the call. You have a great day. You too Hank Turgeon longtime police officer in the city of New Bedford, 508-996-0500. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Good morning, Chris. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you, my friend? Good. Chris, I just want to hear about these flood cameras. First of all, I'm very disappointed in our chief in Dartmouth and I'm going to send them a polite email and I hope that people in Dartmouth also send them a polite email because we did not throw the baby out with the bath water. We put safeguards in it and we keep it. Even he admitted that assault crimes in Dartmouth and the crimes aren't even as half as bad as it is in New Bedford. So needless to say, let's listing proactive. Let's think of a solution. I think I might have like a solution. Okay. How about the proponents of the city council and the mayor's office and the chief? A lot of these are neighborhoods. Why don't they reach out to the specific property owners of certain houses that are in the corner of the street in high crime areas? They say, listen, are you willing to support a flood camera on your property? And if they say yes, looks, it's a high crime area. It's private property. City council can't do nothing about it. So to prevent them, the mayor's office, we're the proponents of the city council who want this. Let's put the safeguards in. I am all for the safeguards. Let's triple check it. Let's make sure that it's not abused. But in the meantime, reach out to, especially in war two, it's all congested. There's corner houses everywhere. Can we put the pole here high enough? And, and, and we could put it here because it's protecting you and the neighborhood. There goes the power of the defund the police people. That's a great point. Let's put our private property. Let's reach out. Mayor. Perfect idea. Let's you, if you could pay for the infrastructure, it's just put it up. They cannot say a thing because wherever the camera points, it's on their property, just like a ring camera, but you have their permission to be on their property. No longer on public property. There you go. It's stripes them of their defund the police power because that, because that's what they're trying to do. Yes. And you talked about Mr. Medeiros endowment, um, that lost to Pacheco. I hope Mr. Medeiros, this one, this one mean about the Democrats. Okay. Yeah. Pacheco is with the socialists. Okay. You need to back up Chester Tam. Now, if you really believe in the democratic party, first of all, anyone who says they're a socialist shouldn't be allowed in the democratic party. There should be no funding, no platform for them. So what he should do, Mr. Medeiros, if your staff is here and you're here, you should publicly, publicly support Chester Tam for the good of diamonds. Because what frustrates me is that we're gerrymandered. We're New Bedford. I left New Bedford because I want to get away from social justice warriors and all the knuckleheads. I don't want them associated with me. You have your own voting. I don't know how we got gerrymandered into them. That that's what ticks me off the most. So Mr. Medeiros, if you're listening, you're a conservative Democrat publicly support Chester Tam, but Chico can put Chico social. He's controlled by the social justice people. He's controlled by people who have communist views. That's what he takes the money from them. Just like, and when it comes to those crucial votes, guess what? He's going to vote. He's going to vote the socialist way. So Mr. Medeiros, you have an opportunity to put your country first because you had a lot of people vote for you. If you convince them to vote for Chester Tam, Mr. Pachico is done. We get rid of one socialist. That's an excellent strategy. And you're right. It is about your country, not about your political party. No, you're right. Steve Medeiros has a fantastic opportunity to do the right thing. Look what happened just today on CNN. We have, as I like to call them, the enemy of the Republic. Oh, he's going to be mayor, another defund the police guy. So if you don't think it's coming to our backyard, but what frustrates me the most is like I said, in the beginning, how we're gerrymandering with New Bedford. Okay. We are so, the people who live in Dartmouth and New Bedford have a different point of view. We're all personal property owners. We have stake in the game. It's different. So I don't know how we get gerrymandered. It's to take away the Dartmouth power. That's what it's good. Totally conservative. That's exactly what it is. So, but Mr. Medeiros, you can do it with your coalition, with Chester Tam. He's, he aligns more with your values. I know your values. You align more with Chester Tam. Party second, country first. Thanks for the call, my friend. 508-996-0500. Look, in the area, there's a lot of gerrymandering. If you think about it. For instance, the district that is Fair Haven for state representative is also attached to New Bedford as is Marion, Mattapoisette, Rochester, and Acushnet. They're all lumped in. They've got part of New Bedford as well, but even the district that's Westport, they've got part of Fall River, part of New Bedford, part of Freetown, part of Acushnet. So that gerrymandering is done to preserve a Democrat majority in the legislature. In a state that elects Republicans statewide, they got to use gerrymandering to keep control of the legislature. That's just what's happening. This hour is brought to you by the cold beer and the world's best chicken wings available at Rose Alley Ale House in downtown New Bedford. Great day to sit on the deck or sit inside upstairs or downstairs at Rose Alley Ale House. Full menu, all kinds of great food, all kinds of great drinks. The staff is great. Your fellow patrons are all great. A lot of fun, a lot of opportunity to have a good time and maybe make a couple of mistakes. Get out of the house. Go to Rose Alley Ale House in downtown New Bedford. We'll be right back. South coast now with Chris McCarthy weekdays on 1420 AM and 99.5 FM WBSM. Welcome back to the program. I'm Chris McCarthy. You are the audience. So I think all of us law abiding citizens have to think about the fact that we benefit from technology. That's my opinion. Maybe you don't think you do, uh, by these license plate raiders. And, uh, they make up a tremendous amount of the power of the law enforcement community to solve crimes. And are you better off without license plate readers or with them? Personally, I think we're better off with them. Are you out there committing crimes? No, you're not. But people with cars like yours are, is your community better off if shoplifters are stopped? Let me tell you, they are. We had a gentleman earlier call. Talk about how products are all locked up. When was the last time you bought razor blades in a local store? Maybe a lot of you have gone to subscription models. There's a lot out there now because it's easier to just have a mail deal. They got to have them behind lock and key every pharmacy. You got to like call ahead to get razor blades. I shave every day. And, um, so I have to, I, I buy a lot of razor blades and, uh, it's always a pain, right? To go get them, got to go in. They got to go take the key and unlock the thing. That's because of shoplifters and, you know, in some urban environments, there are no longer retail stores because shoplifting has become so aggressive. The legislature has reduced the penalties for shoplifting and theft. Some stores will just let people fill up a whole shopping cart full of merchandise and leave the store. They don't stop them. They don't prosecute them. And that's how you lose local retailers that pay tremendous property taxes. The bed, the biggest property taxpayer in the city, in the town of fair Haven, last I checked was ocean state job lot. Without ocean state job lot. You'd lose a couple of positions at town hall and at the emergency services. So think about that before you think about following Leo show cat and getting rid of the license plate readers. Think about that. All right. I got to take a break. I got to leave. Stick around for Barry Richard. Stick around.