WEBVTT 00:00:00.019 --> 00:00:03.967 For the unelected officials, right? I mean, these are the, the, the, the 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.286 developers and the, the, the owners, the real estate. If we had those 00:00:08.319 --> 00:00:11.687 kinds of records about their discussions, you know, when they sat with 00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:14.927 their cigars and their cognac, you know, making these, I would love to 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:19.567 know what their reasoning was, right, to, to, to complete this discussion 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:23.646 we do have a small oral history interviews uh collection around the 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:30.535 Phoenix 40 actually in the Arizona that would be of other thoughts. 00:00:30.568 --> 00:00:36.217 Oh, by the way, uh, city keep good records of city council minutes and 00:00:36.250 --> 00:00:40.936 subcommittee, uh, minutes, and that's a good source to at least get a 00:00:40.969 --> 00:00:45.375 sense of what's openly being discussed. Yes, that's what I think you also 00:00:45.408 --> 00:00:49.326 have there guys like you see in these letters going up there and saying 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:53.417 you guys are a bunch of crooks, and yeah, you see all that stuff. Yeah, I 00:00:53.450 --> 00:00:55.777 was thinking about the Phoenix where where was, where did they used to 00:00:55.810 --> 00:00:58.217 meet? What was that restaurant? Was it up in the Westford Hall where they 00:00:58.250 --> 00:01:02.385 used to. Me, I don't know, every Thursday was it Duran's where they would 00:01:02.418 --> 00:01:05.576 meet? Yeah, yeah, yeah, these are the closed door meetings, you know, you 00:01:05.609 --> 00:01:13.609 can imagine them with their other big stokey cigars, you know, 00:01:14.230 --> 00:01:16.906 the letters there are 3 different letters from individuals who are 00:01:16.939 --> 00:01:22.626 affected by these events. Um, are those voices complete? Are there other 00:01:22.659 --> 00:01:27.096 voices we should be hearing from? What what did you think about the, the 00:01:27.129 --> 00:01:31.576 perspective generated from those letters? Well, just from, uh, this 00:01:31.609 --> 00:01:35.316 presentation, it's not an accurate representation of the community. These 00:01:35.349 --> 00:01:40.176 are probably Anglo families that wrote these letters or more educated 00:01:40.209 --> 00:01:45.805 families. So it was probably 90%. South Phoenix was minority back then as 00:01:45.838 --> 00:01:50.766 opposed to the whole city being 50/50, so that that 90% wasn't really 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:54.415 heard. Mhm. Yeah, you know, when I was putting this together last summer, 00:01:54.448 --> 00:02:00.406 I, I was, uh, really disappointed in how little we had. In the way of 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:04.456 annexation, I don't know that there's a lot in the Chicano, 00:02:04.489 --> 00:02:09.267 it's very hard for people to attend meetings. Well, it's not that. Let me 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:13.577 say this, um. If you look at the arch of the records of the state archives 00:02:13.610 --> 00:02:17.745 and you're looking for issues with issued content letters relating to 00:02:17.778 --> 00:02:22.346 school segregation, racism, or whatever, you'll find very few letters 00:02:22.379 --> 00:02:28.346 actually written by people of color for whatever reason you don't know, 00:02:28.379 --> 00:02:32.305 but that means archivists have to do a better job of going out into the 00:02:32.338 --> 00:02:36.467 community and bringing in those records, whether they're records from city 00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:40.870 council meetings or whether they're records from. Group or an organization 00:02:40.903 --> 00:02:44.592 that means that we have to do a better job as archivists or historians to 00:02:44.625 --> 00:02:51.112 go out and thank goodness the judge was good enough to donate his material. 00:02:51.145 --> 00:02:56.100 Why he did that for whatever reason he maybe was aware of the importance 00:02:56.133 --> 00:02:59.680 of of a scholarship ahead for these kinds of materials to be in the on the 00:02:59.713 --> 00:03:05.751 repository, but at the same time, uh, there are people who have memories 00:03:05.784 --> 00:03:10.305 and who can speak. We can talk about these things and so that's why all 00:03:10.338 --> 00:03:15.186 this comes into play again and then you go back to historians maybe who 00:03:15.219 --> 00:03:20.186 say, oh, to graduate students, we need original sources, not newspaper 00:03:20.219 --> 00:03:25.866 clippings, 00:03:25.899 --> 00:03:29.816 not magazine articles. Uh, uh, uh, Nancy Delete has, has conducted oral 00:03:29.849 --> 00:03:34.725 histories with city managers across the valley, uh, from the, uh, Arizona 00:03:34.758 --> 00:03:39.636 City County Management Association, and you're saying that the, the 00:03:39.669 --> 00:03:43.846 annexation came up in those interviews. Oh yeah, oh yeah, but it was much 00:03:43.879 --> 00:03:47.805 like Eduardo saying, you know, phone calls in the middle of the night, 00:03:47.838 --> 00:03:52.975 well, you know. Yeah, we're gonna put Maryvale and South Phoenix together 00:03:53.008 --> 00:03:59.335 in one package and get there before Glendale gets Maryvale and you know 00:03:59.368 --> 00:04:03.936 that kind of thing but but these letters are really precious in in a way 00:04:03.969 --> 00:04:09.406 that. Um, they're communists, those boomers and shakers, aren't they? They 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:13.646 , they're communists. One letter writers accusing the city council members 00:04:13.679 --> 00:04:19.226 of being communists. Well, they're precious, I think, because you could. 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:23.866 You could drive through, you know, South Phoenix now and, and the 00:04:23.899 --> 00:04:27.387 complaints are still the same, you know, it's still the same thing. You 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:33.666 can see the the consequence of, of this action many years later. In terms 00:04:33.699 --> 00:04:37.717 of the lack of facilities and services, yeah, they're saying, you know, 00:04:37.750 --> 00:04:41.221 there's. Streets that need help and we've been here for 25 years in there 00:04:41.254 --> 00:04:49.254 an eye sore and unfit for travel and you know 00:04:49.545 --> 00:04:50.151 I, I wonder if they got their million dollar library one of the things 00:04:50.184 --> 00:04:54.700 that we commented here in the table is that these letters are clearly 00:04:54.733 --> 00:04:58.765 written from a position of privilege. I mean the people that wrote the 00:04:58.798 --> 00:05:04.127 letter was defending something that they believe was uh the right uh to 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:11.645 have and uh I we wonder if uh is there any other source out there that is 00:05:11.678 --> 00:05:18.717 not I mean letters or documents that comes from uh non. Privileged, uh, 00:05:18.750 --> 00:05:23.567 residents of Phoenix because simply when you speak out when you express 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:27.387 your opinion the way they did it is because you feel that you have to the 00:05:27.420 --> 00:05:33.536 right to do so and, and I guess that a lot of, uh, the Mexicans uh and 00:05:33.569 --> 00:05:37.176 other minorities that live in the area didn't feel that. Yeah, their, 00:05:37.209 --> 00:05:42.356 their comments were not welcome. Exactly, yeah, and, and it leads you to 00:05:42.389 --> 00:05:45.877 wonder whether there was any sort of grassroots organization that was 00:05:45.910 --> 00:05:52.026 opposed. Uh, we don't see that in this material. It's individuals writing 00:05:52.059 --> 00:05:56.286 the judge and saying, man, this is really a bad decision. 00:05:56.319 --> 00:06:01.296 Could be because that area of the city was. Basically somewhat divided you 00:06:01.329 --> 00:06:07.026 have the heavy tunnel area you have the heavily black areas on, you know, 00:06:07.059 --> 00:06:12.426 Broadway Road. You have the, the white areas to the especially the better 00:06:12.459 --> 00:06:19.145 off towards the mountain. So I don't think you had a an area wide sense of 00:06:19.178 --> 00:06:25.265 community other than we're South Phoenix. 00:06:25.298 --> 00:06:27.836 I don't know. I, I need to age myself a little bit. I was 21 when I went 00:06:27.869 --> 00:06:35.869 to go to work for calcium Calvin good and that was the medication. And, 00:06:36.048 --> 00:06:40.575 and of course, yeah, I'm from South Phoenix. He was from South Phoenix and 00:06:40.608 --> 00:06:47.575 he actually gave me a little book. It was the Black History of Arizona and 00:06:47.608 --> 00:06:52.567 written by Richard Harris, yes, and. But my understanding was obviously 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:57.567 that African Americans and Latino Mexicanos were the residents of South 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:01.086 Phoenix, but again, you're talking about a time when people of color could 00:07:01.119 --> 00:07:07.166 not become landowners, and so it was really easy for for white people to 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:12.836 come in and take over those properties that land, and, and that really 00:07:12.869 --> 00:07:17.086 didn't allow perhaps even some of the leadership to emerge like it should 00:07:17.119 --> 00:07:21.955 have because the landowners were white. I don't know if that's accurate. I 00:07:21.988 --> 00:07:27.217 , I wait and owning land, uh, elevated your status and then again if you 00:07:27.250 --> 00:07:31.656 look at some of these items here that we've been reading those petitions, 00:07:31.689 --> 00:07:39.296 uh, had to be the reason that the opponents lost their suit to challenge 00:07:39.329 --> 00:07:44.515 this annexation was. Because they did not have enough signatures from 00:07:44.548 --> 00:07:49.757 those who had property property, right, so that's why they lost these 00:07:49.790 --> 00:07:53.866 attorneys who fought against annexation because they didn't have enough 00:07:53.899 --> 00:07:56.955 signatures that were valid according to the judge who was following the 00:07:56.988 --> 00:08:04.726 law because these signers, uh. Most of many of them did not have property. 00:08:04.759 --> 00:08:12.759 So were they pro bono? Were the were the attorneys who were working 00:08:20.069 --> 00:08:22.250 against annexation doing it on their own. And who are they and did they know? OK. OK. So was it resources is why they did not pursue a superior 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:27.476 court. The lack of resources, they didn't take this to the Supreme Court 00:08:27.509 --> 00:08:29.670 appeal because they mentioned that there was gonna be a possible appeal they were going to the Supreme Court, but they didn't or what 00:08:39.359 --> 00:08:43.446 what he mentioned there wasn't the grassroots 00:08:43.479 --> 00:08:45.755 effort that was dropping out. 00:08:45.788 --> 00:08:50.505 So, um, I, I live in South Phoenix now, um, I was thinking about a number 00:08:50.538 --> 00:08:55.476 of things. One about the light rail going to Maryville, South Phoenix, and 00:08:55.509 --> 00:09:00.596 so there's a lot of similar language being used around the improvements to 00:09:00.629 --> 00:09:05.145 communities and one assuming that our communities don't have the ability 00:09:05.178 --> 00:09:10.116 to and the resources already, um, but also particularly the role of the 00:09:10.149 --> 00:09:13.515 police, um. 00:09:13.548 --> 00:09:17.515 In kind of always sort of being in Maryville, particularly around Grand 00:09:17.548 --> 00:09:21.576 Canyon University, um, we see the role of the police in kind of relation 00:09:21.609 --> 00:09:26.297 to development and it kind of, you know, making things safer for certain 00:09:26.330 --> 00:09:32.135 people, but also in South Phoenix 85,040 and 85042 is the uh zip codes 00:09:32.168 --> 00:09:37.456 where the most folks go in and come out of prison. And so I'm saying these 00:09:37.489 --> 00:09:42.576 things partly because the second, the second to last question, but that. 00:09:42.609 --> 00:09:45.515 You know, here we are having a conversation in this space around the 00:09:45.548 --> 00:09:50.246 consequences of these decisions now, right? How they play out, who made 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:56.417 the decisions, where were they decided at, right? Um. The narratives that 00:09:56.450 --> 00:10:03.167 are reproduced, justifications that are. Politically accumulate will to 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.956 default to a certain perspective and the power that perhaps this room has 00:10:07.989 --> 00:10:12.287 as a consequence of a couple things. There have been meetings all in South 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:16.645 Phoenix and in Maryville around these very processes what would it mean to 00:10:16.678 --> 00:10:21.086 introduce this as a historical marker to demonstrate that when we say this 00:10:21.119 --> 00:10:26.836 has been going on. For centuries that we have the proof that people need, 00:10:26.869 --> 00:10:30.275 right? But 2, 00:10:30.308 --> 00:10:34.836 the role of this institution in the relationship to development policing, 00:10:34.869 --> 00:10:39.476 these narratives of improvement narratives, etc. that I think we can see 00:10:39.509 --> 00:10:43.586 have historically justified, right? I'm not saying we don't want to be. 00:10:43.619 --> 00:10:46.407 Different than we are, but the notion that improvement for improvement's 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:50.787 sake is someone else's imaginary, right? So I think that those kind of two 00:10:50.820 --> 00:10:56.547 things right around contemporarily what is happening, but two, what could 00:10:56.580 --> 00:11:00.946 this moment mean for a different engagement of how these historical 00:11:00.979 --> 00:11:06.316 questions give us so much information. To what to anticipate in the way in 00:11:06.349 --> 00:11:11.196 which power the developers, the landowners, the lawmen, the lenders, and 00:11:11.229 --> 00:11:14.677 the land speculators that have historically developed the West on the 00:11:14.710 --> 00:11:22.710 backs of violently of other people or even 50 years. 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.316 And you know the work that he's been doing specifically around top one for 00:11:29.349 --> 00:11:31.856 that like 00:11:31.889 --> 00:11:33.696 South being that and just the work that's being done at the at the 00:11:33.729 --> 00:11:38.196 grassroots level and just staying on top of it which perhaps that wasn't 00:11:38.229 --> 00:11:40.255 possible. 00:11:40.288 --> 00:11:42.375 Mhm. 00:11:42.408 --> 00:11:48.366 Yeah, community has more standing now than it did, uh, and more 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:53.047 opportunity to at least voice concerns to city council, to the city 00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:58.086 whether that will result in a different outcome 00:11:58.119 --> 00:12:02.125 is another matter. Well, here's what we're seeing from our engagement that 00:12:02.158 --> 00:12:05.427 we are able to get small wins, you know, we were able to change some of 00:12:05.460 --> 00:12:09.917 the language of the RFPs. Because we knew as a billion dollar projects 00:12:09.950 --> 00:12:12.515 we're saying there's gonna be a windfall here and it can't be these 00:12:12.548 --> 00:12:17.677 multi-billion multinationals coming into South Phoenix that will benefit 00:12:17.710 --> 00:12:21.196 and profit the most. It's gotta come from the people, you know, the people 00:12:21.229 --> 00:12:25.395 should be getting that windfall, so we were able to get the RFP, uh, both 00:12:25.428 --> 00:12:30.677 the construction, um, and the, uh, design document or the design RFPs for 00:12:30.710 --> 00:12:34.326 them to hire local and then of course there's some state statutes that. 00:12:34.359 --> 00:12:38.395 You know, don't allow you to put specifically hire local, but it's a 00:12:38.428 --> 00:12:45.515 recommendation. So both of the, uh, winners, um, put one because they, 00:12:45.548 --> 00:12:48.956 they did include that local piece, but now it's saying on top of them to 00:12:48.989 --> 00:12:52.037 make sure that they actually go through the process so that that again 00:12:52.070 --> 00:12:54.956 that watchdog or that person's gonna be on top of them that we also did 00:12:54.989 --> 00:12:58.797 with the artists, uh, 10 out of 14 artists, they didn't wanna put that 00:12:58.830 --> 00:13:04.037 same language in the RRP as. As they do with the construction and design 00:13:04.070 --> 00:13:09.775 document, but we fought for it and we got it, so 10 out of the 14 artists. 00:13:09.808 --> 00:13:14.125 That are selected are gonna be building the light rail stop are so, you 00:13:14.158 --> 00:13:19.086 know, that's all coming from the community level. And so we were at a big 00:13:19.119 --> 00:13:23.885 meeting yesterday as we related to design. We, we submitted, um, 44 issues 00:13:23.918 --> 00:13:28.167 that exist in our community related to lighting, sidewalk walkability, 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:32.086 shade, you know, trying to improve the quality of life because we've, I've 00:13:32.119 --> 00:13:35.246 been born and raised there and this document that promised the better 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:38.917 lighting, the better part program still doesn't exist, hasn't been 00:13:38.950 --> 00:13:43.986 happening so. So it's what we're trying to find is this, uh, you know, get 00:13:44.019 --> 00:13:47.505 all that embedded into the designing and engineering so that it becomes 00:13:47.538 --> 00:13:52.145 part of uh the process and so of course Val Metro was telling us that it's 00:13:52.178 --> 00:13:56.157 not incur, it's not in your scope of work. And so the city of Phoenix, you 00:13:56.190 --> 00:14:00.037 know, also is like, well, you know, we're just building a light rail, and 00:14:00.070 --> 00:14:03.677 so the community is demanding that this has to be a neighborhood 00:14:03.710 --> 00:14:06.596 improvement project. It's not just about economic development, but it's 00:14:06.629 --> 00:14:10.645 about human development. It's about the bigger picture and how you, how do 00:14:10.678 --> 00:14:16.417 you build over time a healthier community. Opposed to the same thing that 00:14:16.450 --> 00:14:19.576 annexation did, gentrification is the same thing now with these billion 00:14:19.609 --> 00:14:23.816 dollar infrastructure projects. Once they come in with this TOD zoning, 00:14:23.849 --> 00:14:27.417 you know, they're gonna have overlays to build 1020 story buildings all 00:14:27.450 --> 00:14:31.086 over, you know, 5 story buildings down South Central. You start to 00:14:31.119 --> 00:14:34.657 displace displace entire neighborhoods. All these trailer parks were our 00:14:34.690 --> 00:14:40.936 most vulnerable and half of it for 40-15 years as soon as. A developer 00:14:40.969 --> 00:14:45.515 comes and presents to the landowner, you move out entire communities, so 00:14:45.548 --> 00:14:49.696 it's the impacts of the annexation and we're having the same thing with 00:14:49.729 --> 00:14:53.297 these billion dollar infrastructure projects that are coming into our and 00:14:53.330 --> 00:14:58.015 the owner should start quite frankly with with Prop 104 that was the 00:14:58.048 --> 00:15:04.177 infrastructure that provided goods to many 75% of the voters voted for the 00:15:04.210 --> 00:15:09.537 light. So we own it and we've got to be responsible and accountable for it 00:15:09.570 --> 00:15:12.657 because it'll come back to us, the voters, right? Well, you all wanted it 00:15:12.690 --> 00:15:17.255 , so where are you in the process if it if it screws up along the way. So 00:15:17.288 --> 00:15:21.606 yes, we take that responsibility very, very, very heavily. Yeah yeah it's 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:26.807 a big moment for the community and an earlier version of the light rail 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:32.066 that that that's mentioned here, the Beltrans, the, the proposition that 00:15:32.099 --> 00:15:35.667 kept getting defeated by voters every time the city wanted to expand 00:15:35.700 --> 00:15:40.787 further north or develop better transportation and maybe move away from, 00:15:40.820 --> 00:15:46.547 uh, problems that related to emissions and pollution for the city, the 00:15:46.580 --> 00:15:51.677 voters kept saying no. To Beltrans every time, every time, every time 00:15:51.710 --> 00:15:55.616 because it costs money because the city would pay for it, meaning the city 00:15:55.649 --> 00:15:58.736 would then take away the money as soon as the profile, the age of the 00:15:58.769 --> 00:16:03.417 profile changed, yes, yes, very, very interesting. All right, we are out 00:16:03.450 --> 00:16:03.936 of time and uh I want to thank for their comments today can I just, I just 00:16:03.969 --> 00:16:11.927 have one thing I wanna say, 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:14.616 um, 00:16:14.649 --> 00:16:19.826 I recorded our discussion. And if you don't want to be part of that 00:16:19.859 --> 00:16:24.946 recording, please stop here and tell me, but I wanted to capture some of 00:16:24.979 --> 00:16:28.375 what was said, and I want to urge everyone to exchange contact information 00:16:28.408 --> 00:16:33.667 , names and contact information in case we want to be able to follow up 00:16:33.700 --> 00:16:40.486 with one another because there's so many ideas 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:48.519 brought out today. Yeah, I can, I can delete it, yeah. 00:16:50.090 --> 00:16:55.265 There are evaluation forms on each of your tables. Please take them into 00:16:55.298 --> 00:17:00.427 very quick, uh, please, uh, uh, complete the evaluation forms. Uh, thank 00:17:00.460 --> 00:17:05.436 you, Victoria for hosting us and for us and uh thanks again to the 00:17:05.469 --> 00:17:10.186 committee here here at State University, uh, and I hope you all have a 00:17:10.219 --> 00:17:16.615 great day. Thank you. Thanks. 00:17:16.648 --> 00:17:19.565 Look 00:17:19.598 --> 00:17:27.598 Can I have your contact info? 00:17:36.368 --> 00:17:36.847 Yeah, I'm, I'm making a little sketch here so I can remember where people A L A N and then Gomez. I like your pen. This was on the table. Oh really 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:39.766 ? Are there other ones you behind you. I'll get it when I leave. Um, AEG 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:43.200 at ASU AEG. 00:17:43.233 --> 00:17:44.641 Oh, that's your, OK, yeah, at ASU sorry and what's your, what's your 00:17:44.674 --> 00:17:47.035 affiliation? Oh, I'm in SST in the school of social transformation. OK, SSTer 00:18:04.674 --> 00:18:08.805 yeah, you know. Thank you. Take care. 00:18:08.838 --> 00:18:16.666 OK, thank you, 00:18:16.699 --> 00:18:18.075 you know, it's the past and the future anyway. you click on this? No, 00:18:18.108 --> 00:18:20.358 Francisco Francisco. uh Do you mind if I have the recording? No, no problem. Francisco, L A R A 00:18:38.519 --> 00:18:46.519 L A R A L A R A, yeah, and uh and I'm in. What kind of studies? 00:18:47.973 --> 00:18:51.012 Uh-huh. That's that's the school. OK, good to see you too. 00:18:51.045 --> 00:18:59.045 Thank you. Thank you. 00:19:00.555 --> 00:19:01.617 So are you gonna send that. Yeah, you know, I don't love it, but, uh, OK, 00:19:01.650 --> 00:19:09.650 that's OK, yeah, I don't I have. 00:19:30.449 --> 00:19:38.449 You know, I should have said. Would you give the right are you doing. 00:20:08.824 --> 00:20:16.824 a lot of places. 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:40.828 there's different likes like 1 mile and a half mile. Yeah, it's just so interesting how much I know it's like there's so much we could have gone on. I mean maybe we should think about it as occupying larger. I think so 00:20:45.059 --> 00:20:52.467 . I think it's a limited time 00:20:52.500 --> 00:20:57.795 available, but I mean that might be a deterrent, but there are so much, 00:20:57.828 --> 00:21:00.476 so much to 00:21:00.509 --> 00:21:05.075 explore. Engage with so and that's why I wanted to get you know some 00:21:05.108 --> 00:21:08.075 contact information from people. I know they signed up, but to know well 00:21:08.108 --> 00:21:16.108 that was that person who sat there and talked about such and such. 00:21:23.769 --> 00:21:31.769 Yeah it was it was interesting. I thank you so much. 00:21:44.858 --> 00:21:45.426 Yeah, we really should. We were saying it should have been a little bit longer, it's hard. Oh yeah, good luck to you too. You're holding up very 00:21:45.459 --> 00:21:53.459 well. 00:21:55.250 --> 00:22:03.250 I know I've seen you, or at least reading about you everywhere, so 00:22:06.430 --> 00:22:14.430 I will. 00:22:19.489 --> 00:22:27.489 property there's no downside. 00:22:30.529 --> 00:22:38.529 And then so you're you know really. 00:22:42.769 --> 00:22:50.769 I did some work on it. 00:23:01.015 --> 00:23:09.015 I mean 00:23:21.354 --> 00:23:23.404 it was so yeah I have.