you
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.
It's me again.
Your boy Ray Nitty holding it down on the grapevine, man, on the award winning.
One on one, seven to truth.
Man, I got a story to tell y'all, man.
These next two hours, man.
I want to tell y'all about, you know, something I've been extremely passionate about.
You might have heard the story of...
CWC the community within the corridor You might have heard the story about the evacuation That happened we had to evacuate over 50 families You probably heard about the remediation and so forth, but I'm gonna tell y'all a story I Want y'all to follow me today, right?
I want y'all to follow me
I'm gonna tell y'all a story that I want to get into.
After I tell you the story of a dream, right, that a few black men had in Milwaukee.
Then I want to tell you how this city turns dreams upside down into nightmares.
We've allowed a toxic, toxic environment to grow.
Right under our noses, right here in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
And how we handle it in Milwaukee is very different across the state.
And this is important to me because, you know, I see I see so much conversation about people caring about pollution and and all of these other things.
But we have real environmental injustice issues happening right here in Milwaukee.
I've been loud about it.
I've been not taking serious about it.
I ran for office because they told me to shut up about it.
So I'm like, all right.
I'm going to run just to tell the story.
Now I'm obligated to speak up on it.
But I'm going to tell you all the story.
I'll tell you all the story of...
CWC, then I'm gonna tell y'all about a toxic town, a toxic identity, then I wanna tell y'all about the impact that these toxins, these terrible landfills, these companies that have polluted our neighborhoods made billions upon billions of dollars just allowed to just leave.
Leave these toxic landfills in our communities poisoning our people So we want to get to the behavioral impact That these things are happening that these things are having on our community That's why I want to talk about today So I'm gonna start with the story
About 10 years ago, 11 years ago, riding with my homie, Mike Kale Wesley.
He just graduated the acre program, looking for development sites in the inner city of Milwaukee to do something bigger than ourselves for our people.
833-212-1017, that's the number to dial.
833-212-1017, that's the number to dial.
If you or your family member, anybody, grandparents, parents, great-grandparents, ever worked at Master Lock, Briggs and Stratton.
Briggs and Stratton.
Bostic.
I want y'all pay attention to this.
All right?
But I'm gonna start with the story first, because it all started with a dream.
It all started... I know that ain't bunk.
I know that ain't this ball here.
I know it ain't.
I know it.
I gotta treat him and beat him.
I gotta treat, I gotta treat him and beat him.
I got to.
I got to.
We just see, we gotta treat him and beat him.
We got to.
He didn't do it.
I'm sweating because bump done I said don't come down here looking for me He done popped up I'm sweating in here y'all I summoned him earlier in the election And when I summoned him, I know the other ball here do fell out the race so it had to work We gonna get bump on the show We gonna get bump on the show, but let me tell you all about the story
About 10 years ago.
Riding with the homie Mike Kale, man.
Up and down Center Street, finally like a center.
Y'all probably seen it numerous times.
Abandoned building, sat vacant.
Vacant in the community for over 35 years.
Follow me.
Nobody cared about it.
People breaking into it, stealing out of it, copper land, well, all the things.
Kids getting in trouble in it.
A toxic landfill left unoccupied in our communities after Briggs and Stratton closed down.
We drove past this building and said, you know what, we wanna do something with it.
We won't do something with it for our people.
Later that day, Mikel got a call from his acre classmate, QL and me.
He's like, man, bro, we should do this site.
I've been reaching down to this realtor.
Turns out it was the same site we was talking about.
So we like, yeah, let's do it.
Let's do it.
It took a long time to get from dream to fruition.
Throughout that, we had all types of different hiccups, all types of different people we spoke to.
I personally knocked the neighborhood doors, walked that neighborhood.
I personally talked to every house in that vicinity, sharing what's to come, asking.
What would they like to see?
Because it had to be a representation of the community that is served.
We met people like Miss Marjani, who does Neighborhood Gives Back Out of Her House right on the corner of Locusts.
Gifts people furniture, gifts people food.
Met people like Miss Farina Brooks and the dream team doing amazing things in that community.
Met people
Like Metcalf Park.
Doing amazing things in the community.
So how do we build?
How do we build on something?
How do we bring community together?
How do we reinvent our neighborhoods?
How do we rebuild people and not just buildings?
That was my goal.
It wasn't about the buildings.
It was about how do we redevelop families in the inner city of Milwaukee?
The worst place, one of the worst places to raise black families.
It's easy to redevelop a building.
It wasn't easy to redevelop families, so we made partnerships.
I talked to District 7.
I talked to Office of Violence Prevention.
We had a cohort of black therapists.
that was willing to, we was offering free, I offered free space on my side.
So we could have these rapid response and wrap around services for families.
Knocking on doors, people said they wanted to see a grocery store.
People said they needed to see a laundry mat.
We had all these things.
We had all these things lined up.
But one thing I learned in this process is, you know, as as a creative.
When you got ideas and vision, you know.
As a creative, you are looking at the biggest picture.
And some people just looking at the biggest line item.
Unfortunately.
So yeah, we had a we had a struggle with the actual dream and Delivering on everything we said this dream was supposed to be because you had construction workers raising the price of items Overcharging not building things the way it should be
White boxing spaces that were supposed to be designed a certain way So I'm telling you all about this story because I want to know I want y'all to know how we got to this point 70 million dollars We invested in the 32nd and strength Center Street the old Briggs and Stratton site 197 residential units indoor gym basketball courts
playground, a whole campus, three city blocks, essentially from 30th and center to 33rd and center, from Center Street to about Hadley.
Don't go anywhere.
When we come back, we'll continue this story on the award winning one on one, seven to truth.
What up y'all welcome back welcome back welcome back to the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth This is the grapevine with your boy Ray nitty holding it down, man If you just joining us, I'm talking about the story of CWC and how it came to be and now Where we're at today the toxic Injustice environmental injustice that's going on in the city of Milwaukee That I feel that is impacting our people on so many different levels that we're not even exploring the behavioral issues
And not just young people, adults as well.
So I'm going to keep going to this story, right?
Telling you on the story of how the CWC came in to be.
The largest affordable housing in Wisconsin state history that was privately owned, just having to be owned by some black brothers.
Then we had a partner, Roars Development.
But respectfully majority of the work was.
as far as putting the deal together was done by us.
And they came in with the finances and very, very thankful for them having that finance book because we would have been in a whole different situation when the evacuations and all of these things happened because they footed that bill.
And we gonna get into the evacuation as well that happened.
But yeah.
Just giving you all the story of the development.
So it was supposed to be this transformative, catalytic development that was supposed to spur and spark all types of different developments in the area.
A development set to have over 112 million dollar economical impact on the neighborhood.
70 million in costs, which was supposed to be 60, but due to inflation and.
And, you know, the price of materials in the pandemic, because we started before the pandemic.
As far as the process, it was a 10 year process.
To now, you know, contractors raising the prices and change orders.
And we were warned.
Let's be honest here.
Shots out to.
You know what?
For the sake, I ain't going to say their name, but they know who they are.
That gave us some game to black man and electrician and somebody who ran the unions gave us some game like hey man be careful with this Company Y'all thinking about going with They have a history of You know cutting corners raising prices
But anyway, we had a crazy ride in getting the development to where it is.
Put together all these creatives.
We had DJ Willie Shakes from Power Forward Media.
We had art therapy.
We had dance.
We had DJ lessons, podcasts, recording studios, smaller offices for independent.
entrepreneurs and businesses.
We had all of that lined up, ready to go.
Then the evacuation happened.
What actually happened?
Let's talk about it.
Community within the corridor, CWC East Block.
opened in December 2022.
$68 million affordable housing project built on part of the former Briggs and Stratton complex with sustainable public financing behind it.
Substantial public financing behind it.
March 25th, 2023, the Milwaukee Health Department ordered roughly 150 residents to evacuate after documentation submitted to the DNR that was submitted by developers.
Did the testing is submitted by developers to the DNR show TCE at more than 190 times the acceptable groundwater vapor level in one part of the building with elevated level in several others So
DNR itself said it did not know residents had already moved in.
This is not true.
It was a lie.
Because somebody got fired behind it.
Y'all met with developers.
We had the conversation about it.
Developers turned into numbers.
But anyway, DNR remediation and redevelopment program director Christine Seger said the department only learned the building was occupied after reportedly requesting the information in the week leading up to the evacuation.
Not true.
DNR had previously warned the developer against allowing occupancy before a vapor mitigation system was fully commissioned.
The warning was not followed and residents moved in anyway.
DNR suggested.
This part is true.
But they made a suggestion after they knew people was already in there.
And the other thing that they didn't mention is there were units units in the building that had zero traces.
But they decided to make over 120 residents evacuated in the middle of a snowstorm At night on buses city buses at that I'm talking about a blizzard not just a regular snowstorm All right Then they had a meeting
Had a mean with so many people on the call.
So I asked on the call um Being that this is uh, you know a vapor situation Do we need to let the outside community know About what what has been going on it and not like we put the vapor there
Let's be clear.
DNR has the ability to offer to issue something called a known party, meaning when a company leaves a site or contaminates a site, they can issue a letter called a known party letter that holds that company or business responsible.
You think they gave that to Briggs and Stratton?
No.
They made black developers the know the people that was coming in to clean it up the people that was reporting it Made us the known party Then on top of that Evacuated is winning Glendale.
Let's go right down the street the Glendale Bay Shore Mall Another development Higher levels
Higher levels.
No evacuation order.
Developers only gave their residents fans and said, oh, this is a Canadian wildfire.
So we're giving you this fan to blow the air.
So they gave folks fans.
They didn't have to move.
They didn't have to move.
We asked, hey, we have so many units on site that isn't contaminated.
Made us move our families.
Glendale, they got to stay right where they are.
When asked, I was told, oh, it's a different municipality.
So Glen City of Glendale could do things how they want City of Milwaukee could do things how they want my issue with that is this was a state thing So that's coming from the state That should be across the board the same But anyway on the call I Asked I asked them should we let the the folks know about what's going on and what has been going on They said
So let me tell you what they said to us before.
I'll tell you what they said about that question.
They're telling us how, you know, vapors move.
It could offshoot off of building materials.
It could move through your pipes.
It could move through the walls.
It could move through your sewers and so forth.
So I asked the question, well, OK, do we need to alert the outside community?
They said, no.
It doesn't it doesn't move like that.
So the vapor know to stay on our side of the street.
But soon as you bring up a bigger picture that you should have been considering, it is no, I don't move like that.
But it moves like that when it's impacting us and our families.
But not when it's.
Time to alert the whole community like a.
Briggs and Stratton been here sitting for 30 plus years 30 plus years Master Lock is right.
I got I'm telling y'all follow me now because Master Lock was open while this was going on I'm just the entertainer.
I had to go do the research a credible source pointed me in the right direction God bless them
said, look across the street at Master Lock.
And lo and behold, I pulled up the DNR website.
You could go on DNR website and see all the open contaminated sites in this city.
Oh, and it's a lot of them.
It's a lot of them.
A lot of them stores that we go in and shop in right now.
All right.
It's a lot of them.
So I go on the website.
I see Master Lock had a historic spill.
My God.
1984.
I wasn't even born yet.
I was still in the islands.
Historic TCE spill.
1984.
CWC and.
2024, whatever year that was, we getting beat up in the media.
They just showing up with cameras, showing up to people's office, trying to get questions answered and all of this.
And whole time attorneys is telling us, just be quiet.
Don't poke the bear.
Don't poke the bear.
And meet an entertainer.
I gotta go do all this extra research now to see what we really dealing with.
When we come back, I'ma give y'all a little bit more of what we was dealing with with this, y'all.
Because what I found was just extremely mind blowing.
And the lies and the corruption that was told and that was going on in this city that our people pay the ultimate cost for.
I couldn't believe.
Don't go anywhere, y'all.
This is The Great Vine with your boy Ray Nitty on your award-winning one-on-one, 7 to True.
What up, y'all?
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back to The Great Vine on your award-winning one-on-one, 7 to True for your boy Ray Nitty.
You're talking about...
What I found y'all when I I went on DNR's website Some of the things that I found Some of the things I found y'all on DNR's website when it comes down to the toxic Chemicals and footprints that these corporations have Briggs and Stratton Bostic Masterlock So yeah 2008
Master Lock is supposed to be doing what was remediation.
And after further digging, I found out Master Lock asked for permits.
Saying, oh, we want to do some beautification to commemorate our 100th year anniversary.
Let's put that in the perspective, 100 years in a neighborhood.
Think about that.
This was 2008.
It was commemorating a hundred years Saying that that's what they was doing.
That's what they needed the permits for a whole time.
They needed the permits to do remediation So they lied About what they needed the permit for What I also found is master lock their water
They're ground water runoff water.
Not only does it runoff into our MMSD water system, our sewage system.
It also dumps off into the Washington Park query.
This is on the web.
This is on DNR's website.
We don't know what's at Washington Park query.
Something over there called Urban Ecology Center.
So I asked folks like, hey, man, we need to test.
We need to test these.
The waters.
We need to test the neighbors across the street.
We need to, you know, do some extensive tests.
So now everything is hitting the fan now.
The articles is out.
News reporters chasing us down.
Get in on our heels You know We getting told to be quiet by attorneys And what the rapper do you know y'all know y'all know I don't know how to just be quiet You know I don't So I start asking questions
Journal Sentinel being us the hell up.
I reach out like to hell with this.
Do you not see these fools across the street with historic spills?
Then the article comes out.
Bringing a broader question into play now.
Now all the articles stop.
We don't get attacked no more.
They talk about Master Lock once.
then Master Lock shuts down.
Master Lock randomly shuts down their operations.
They're closing it, citing, oh man, you know, financial issues.
They're like, let's get out of here while the easing is getting blamed.
That's what I felt.
That's what it felt like to me.
I had to talk to the union rep.
They didn't even know.
About the TCE and stuff that they had spilled and they didn't know They didn't know So yeah the entertainer I got to do all of this research and upon this research I'm trying to figure out.
Okay, who can I talk to because we getting treated now we can treat it and beat it right now
So I look at on DNR website Looking at who all on all these committees and who the hell do I see on DNR's advisory committee Our damn lawyer So the same person I Can't make this up I Can't make it up
The same person telling us to be quiet.
Don't poke the bear.
Just let this go past.
Is that vising the DNR?
On the advice report.
I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box, but that sound like a conflict of interest to me.
So that provoked me to run for office.
I said, I can't be quiet about this.
I got to use my platform, my voice to speak up.
And as a partner of the development, we're being told to be quiet.
Don't say nothing.
But as a member of this community, I can't.
Hell no.
So I run for office, y'all, and start telling these stories and then guess what?
These politicians start showing exactly who they are.
Bob Baum and Joe Costa.
Marina.
I ran for fourth district because it was the most influential district in the city.
And it would cost people to ask questions.
Who does this Negro think he is that he can run for the most prominent district in the city of Milwaukee?
It wasn't about the way it was about the message.
And I saw, I saw how they organized to keep me quiet.
They had special conferences to talk about the development.
I remember this specifically.
People were saying, hey, Nitty, you got to call all of the orders, man, and just ask them for support.
I'm like, I don't want to call them.
So I called them anyway.
Some I left a message because some didn't answer.
Some straight up said, hey, I'm supporting my colleague Bob.
Marina, she said that.
Which is why I won't vote for her and whatever it is she running for in this upcoming election.
Joe Costa, even.
How y'all spoke to me, how y'all treated me as somebody that was asking questions.
Terrible question, y'all leadership, how y'all weaponized.
the political process against us, terrible leadership.
They held hearings about the site, about the development, never invited developers and putting on this show.
Marina, where's developers?
We'd love to hear from developers.
Well, we'd love a damn invite.
When you got over 19 open TCE cases in your district.
These are games that they was playing, sending threatening text messages to people that they were assuming supporting me.
You're really on the wrong side of this one and you're going to pay the price.
This is what they say to people.
Our leaders, our leaders, they want raises, they want other positions.
Get out of here.
For context, the DNR BRTS database is a public searchable at apps.dnr.wi.gov backslash BOTW.
It tracks every reported hazardous substance discharge in Wisconsin, open investigations, closed cleanups and everything in between.
You can put your own address in there and see what's around you.
focused on specifically focused specifically specifically on TCE.
I ain't even going to try say the word, but try chlorothin lean.
That's just one of the toxic chemicals that we try.
Milwaukee County alone.
Had well over 832 sites that are current on former TCE cleanup locations.
I'm going to tell you all this to over 300 of them.
are residential properties, meaning that people are still living on or near documented contamination sites right now.
Right now.
800 sites plus tied to just one chemical in one county One chemical in one county that's just one chemical I'm just saying y'all
When we gonna really get serious about environmental injustice in our neighborhoods We act so upset about everything about we we don't be loud about the things that is impacting us right now I Wish I wish and maybe it's happening call in and correct me if I'm wrong But I don't see this type of environmental
injustice support from the individuals that was loud at the Midtown data center.
We got real life toxic situations right now that the community could use support and a voice for.
Lena been arguing about lead till her face got blue so much so they said
Go and get another job, dammit.
We ain't, we tired of you.
Go be a judge.
Now she can't tell us nothing.
Y'all see how that worked?
You give the loudest person that's screaming on your behalf, give them a job where they gotta watch what they say now.
I ain't no lawyer.
I ain't no doctor.
I ain't none of this.
Well, I'm just saying what it looked like to me.
Don't go anywhere, y'all.
When we come back, we'll be getting deeper into the story and we're going to talk about Master Lock and the abandoned sites nobody talking about.
It's Ray Nitty on The Great Vine 1017, the truth, y'all.
What up, what up, what up, what up, what up, what up, what up?
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.
To the award-winning one-on-one seven, the truth is the boy Ray Nitty holding it down.
Brother Z got me on the production and sound, man.
We talking about this toxic ass town.
Excuse my language.
I think I can say that one.
Jesus wrote in on one of those.
It's in the Bible.
But we talking about the toxic untold story in the city of Milwaukee.
Beyond led y'all Lena was loud for us.
I'm trying to tell y'all They silenced her gave her a job that she can't tell us too much anymore Call it a conspiracy whatever you want, but I know it's true Abandoned sites nobody talks about master lock They left y'all in the middle of us getting blamed
for a spill they caused.
And on DNR's website, they have a map of the impacted areas that Master Lock historic spill contaminated.
So I want you all to think of this cluster.
You got Master Lock on 32nd and center on the south side of the block.
You have Briggs and Stratton on 32nd and center on the north side of the block.
And then you have Bostic.
on like 28th and center east of Master Lock on the south side of the block.
All these places.
All these places, the Master Lock Manufacturing Complex on Center Street has a documented history of TCE contamination.
A documented history.
Complaints about TCE exposure tied to the site were reported publicly.
Guess what?
What I just say.
Just south of the community within the corridor apartments before Master Lock Milwaukee operation wound down.
I'm just saying.
I'm going to read it again.
The master I'm reading a little bit less passionate.
So maybe people here and they take it serious when I read it like this.
The master lock manufacturing complex on Center Street has a documented history of TCE contamination.
Complaints about TCE exposure tied to the site were reported publicly just south of the community within the corridor apartments before master locks Milwaukee operations wound down.
Maybe you all hear a different.
DNR records also show TCE contamination on this corridor dates back to the industrial use in the area beginning in the 1980s.
Meaning some of this contamination has been sitting in the ground.
Migrating through soil and groundwater for over 40 years.
40 years before the nearby development triggered new testing.
40 years.
Milwaukee die casting a textbook abandoned site, 4132 North Holter Street.
The Milwaukee die casting site sits abandoned.
It's only deceased according to the EPA's own site records in a mixed residential, commercial and industrial neighborhood.
The building itself, the soil beneath it, and the groundwater are all contaminated with PCBs.
It chlorinated solvent, including PCE and TCE, despite a fence around the property.
They think if you put a fence in it, it'll just keep it in.
EPA's own record notes.
frequent trespassing at that site, meaning contamination exposure risk isn't hypothetical.
It's actively occurring because the responsible owner is dead and no one legally succeeded them.
This is exactly the kind of site that could sit in bureaucratic limbo indefinitely.
There is no living party for the DNR EPA to compel into action the way they can with an operating company.
I go a little further.
Briggs and Stratton's fingerprint, the community within the corridor site itself, which we're about to go deep in, sits on what was once part of the Briggs and Stratton industrial complex, one of Milwaukee's largest legacy manufacturers before redevelopment turned it into affordable housing.
These aren't isolated bad luck properties.
Masterlock, Milwaukee die casting, and the old Briggs and Stratton footprint are all within the same general center street near Northside Industrial Corridor.
Meaning generations of Milwaukee's black and Latino Northside residents have lived and continue to live.
in the overlap zone of multiple legacy industrial contamination sites, not just one.
Not just one.
Okay?
Not just one.
I'm trying to get y'all to understand what's been going on, what we've been quiet about, the things we choose to use our voice for, our Facebook statuses for.
We got real infected, poisoned people walking around Milwaukee undiagnosed.
We like to, we use the data from all of these different places, the Medical College of Wisconsin.
All of these places, we use this data.
To say oh the exposure to lead impacts behavioral choices and cognitive dissonance So what is all these other chemicals do now when we just got a toxic soup?
What do we do?
What is what is the impact of that?
What's the impact of that
We got our residents displaced.
Glendale got to keep their residents on site.
We had many, many sites with zero levels.
They allowed Glendale residents to stay on site, made us move our families way to the south side.
Residents was displaced for over two years, y'all.
We had people living in hotels, gave people back rent.
Got sue class action Got a law class action lawsuit I'm telling y'all whole time we going through lawsuits
The lawyer is advising DNR.
Marina and Joe Costa is holding fake hearings for political BS.
Where's developers?
We'd like to hear from developers.
I don't see them here.
You didn't invite us.
because you didn't want to hear the truth about how many open TCE sites was in your district.
Because when I brought that up to them, they weren't expecting, you know, the entertainer, the rapper, the dude they made by to do some research and present some like, hey, are you as equally concerned about the people being exposed in your district?
Do you want to hear from the developers that have open sites in your district?
But when I said that it was well, I'm gonna get off this call now because I don't like your tone.
Oh Oh Now is you don't like my tone Which was very similar To the move pulled against mark chambers soon as somebody don't say something you like a black man
Tone is offensive and threatening.
But what's not threatening is y'all ignoring families being poisoned for over 40 years.
But that's not threatening.
I didn't raise my voice.
I wasn't yelling.
I simply asked.
I was like, well, I hope that you have the same concern.
Do you even know how many open sites are in your district?
You have the most.
Oh, I ain't in this conversation here because I don't like your tone.
I don't like your haircut.
Don't go anywhere, y'all.
We'll be right back after these messages on the award-winning 10170 Truth.