From Celebration to Cleanup: The CWC Story

What

up y'all welcome back welcome back welcome back to the grapevine with your boy Ray Nitty We talking about this toxic town man.

We talking about the lies the corruption that's going on the inconsistencies of what's been going on man Toxic

Toxic chemicals just being allowed to sit in our community.

Sites no longer developable unless you have extensive remediation that makes sites unattractive for developers, makes communities unattractive for developers.

So once again.

When it came to the low income affordable housing residents 150 residents evacuated DNR want to act like they was blindsided they fired somebody because they knew and didn't say none and then reporters and they didn't want to report that people moved in and they didn't know liars They knew that's why they fired the guy

Complete bold-faced liars they are.

I asked on the call, should we make the public more aware of what's going on?

They said no.

That's not how these gases move.

The same person that they said was, like, stop playing with me.

All right?

City officials themselves acknowledged that the pattern was a problem.

This is what pissed me off.

Alderman Perez.

Sponsored at 2024 City Ordinance, specifically sight and finger point.

I'm gonna tell you what's funny about that ordinance he sponsored.

He did the ordinance after I called him and made him aware of what was going on.

I was like, bro, do you know all of this is even happening on his website?

DNR this, DNR that?

Then all of a sudden, because he was running for Common Council President, let's be 100, Jose, you use this as an opportunity to elevate yourself.

and you was trying to hurry up and throw us under the bus in point and not take responsibility as elected officials for allowing companies to contaminate our communities.

It ain't no shot at you.

I'm just telling the truth.

You made that call after I called you and had a conversation with you because I was concerned about how

Toxic chemicals are not being paid attention to Then I told him about Briggs and Stratton and and and master like now all of a sudden they used it against us For his own personal political game because guess what he wanted to be comic house a present.

I Was running against Bob Bowman All right, so let's tell the truth

Let's tell the truth.

Tell the whole truth.

I haven't heard anything about any of these political officials talking about TCE or toxic chemicals since the election.

Since the common council president winning it.

So miss me with all the performative

BS hearings and all of these nonsense y'all be doing to prop y'all whack selves up.

And then they see you out and shake your hand like everything cool.

All right, I'll play a stupid game with y'all too.

Just cause I know how y'all feel about me, I'ma let y'all know how I feel about y'all.

But it's always been love on my side, I just ask y'all to put the people first.

Hmm.

Let's keep going.

Let's keep going.

The same chemical shows up in a low income black and brown neighborhood versus a luxury development near an affluent suburb does not response.

The same.

We gave everybody they rent back.

Gave everybody stipends, paid for the hotels for everybody.

They allowed Glendale residents to stay on site.

Milwaukee residents we had to evacuate.

All right.

Let's just talk about it.

And we're going to get to how all of this connects, right?

We're going to talk about

how they are letting companies leave without real remediation plans.

We let them come in and make all these billions of dollars.

Then we're going to talk about the chemistry of behavior, how toxic exposure impacts crime and bad choices.

Shouts out to the intern here working, man.

I still don't know.

I said shots out to the intern here working, man.

I see.

I still don't know how to do that.

We gonna talk about the chemistry of behavior and how toxic exposure impacts crime and bad choices.

Okay?

Then we gonna talk about how other communities have handled the exact same fight.

Things that I've been asking for.

Things that I've shared with all elected officials and people downtown at City Hall.

I've even shared it with my bro, David Crowley.

We got a mirror on the line.

A mirror.

How you doing, man?

We'd love to hear from you.

I'm doing good, brother.

How you doing?

This is a meal, not a mirror.

No, I'm here.

I know already.

Always get my name wrong.

Yeah.

What's up, boss?

How are you feeling?

Four letter words.

I'm

feeling good.

I'm feeling good.

I've been listening.

I got to tell you, this is very informative.

I've learned a lot just listening to this.

And I think it's a very, very important topic.

And it's the hard, important stuff that no one wants to pay attention to.

that is unseen and goes unseen, right?

So it goes unsolved, right?

And, you know, I just appreciate the fact that you're speaking your truth and I appreciate the knowledge that you're dropping and I do remember this incident when it happened.

I was a little confused and I think you're highlighting what a lot of people don't want to highlight, which is there's so many important things that need to be done out there

that some of the people we have in power are just not working on because it's either not sexy enough or it doesn't have the right tone or right buzz.

And I remember because at least you guys, you guys took responsibility and try to do and try to make it right, right?

But there was this whole idea and I felt that there were certain curators who were more important, you're more interested in placing blame.

then saying hey wait a minute how did this happen in the first place because I thought you guys were victims too to a large extent right and also too right and you know by stepping up and trying to do what's right and and all that stuff because I remember there was a whole lot of buzz around that it was good you guys were turning something that had been dilapidated into life and into into a cultural edifice

And sometimes people wonder why a lot of people don't want to do things in this city.

It's because of things like that.

And the moment, the moment one thing goes wrong.

Everybody was so interested in pointing fingers.

They asked to ask, hey, how did this happen in the first place?

Right?

And that collaboration didn't happen.

And it's so crazy because you see this all around.

And I also see, especially in the city of Milwaukee, when the developers look a certain way,

You know what I'm talking about?

The

standards are different, right?

The support isn't there, right?

They're less supportive.

Even the, even the leaders of, and it's so crazy kids in Milwaukee is a minority majority city.

And you know, I felt, I felt some of these folks in town.

If Milwaukee were ran like a company, a lot of these people won't have jobs.

Because because some other stuff that they've done and they keep quiet on and they don't do and don't talk about and the politics and the Jochian They don't give a damn.

They want everyone wants to shut down a gas station.

I've said it's absolutely I'll be the first person to tell you is I think we have too many gas stations in Milwaukee But here's the thing when you shut it down.

What else happens?

I said, hey, no one's gonna go.

No one's gonna pay those funds to clean it up It's a different solution when you go.

Hey

If we shut down your gas station, we're going to work with you to do the cleanup so we could put some actual house in there.

But that's hard work.

That's not set.

It's just easy, but oh yeah, will you shut down?

Look, will you shut down a gas station?

What next?

So then what?

Now it's blight, right?

And it rally us, right?

It rally us to say, okay, hey, why shut the gas station down?

But now it's blight.

Because the next step is, okay, how do we clean that gas station and turn that space into something that is much more beneficial for the community?

It's hard, man.

That's not sexy.

You don't want to do that.

And so I really appreciate you, man, speaking your truth and being bold about it, because you gotta talk about these things.

And I love the fact that you're not but for it, and you say it the way you say it, and you're with the people who are out there.

So, oh, love, man.

And I'm really sorry you had to go through that.

I'm really glad you're talking about it.

And I'm learning a lot.

So thanks.

Keep putting out the knowledge.

I appreciate everything you do.

Man, I appreciate you, brother and me.

I appreciate you, man.

Appreciate you.

Shout out to the

chat, man.

That's a lot of people in the chat.

Jasmine.

We got

Babar Babar said

Money was exchanged behind closed doors.

I don't know which closed doors are you talking about or who exchanged it?

But if you could explain that a little bit more Laurenti Laurent Taylor says there is no toxic waste that justifies the actions that happened at state fair Why because it's happening all over the country not just Milwaukee.

Absolutely Laurenti.

I agree with you on that

But the comparison that I'm talking about is not just stay fair.

Okay.

I want us to really, really look into the data and research on how toxic exposure impacts bad choices and crime.

That's what I'm saying, Laurenti.

Because they have a correlation.

Whether we want to believe it or choose to understand it or not.

It has an impact.

It plays a part.

And we gon' get into that right after these messages.

Don't go anywhere, y'all.

This is the award-winning 1017, The

Truth.

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What up, y'all?

Welcome back.

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This is Grapevine with your boy Ray Nitty.

Yeah, man, we reaching high today.

We grabbing the real sweet ones.

We grabbing the real nice grapes, man.

Squeezing them today, too.

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Corcor, Ascension, and Tappy and M.K.E., y'all.

How y'all doing, man?

Tappy and M.K.E.

will be following me after the grapevine, y'all.

But right now we tapping into this toxic mess that's going on in the city.

And these fake politicians that be having fake hearings and all of these other things just performative as hell.

Ah, Babar said to check so they don't be responsible for their actions.

My opinion when Master Lock suddenly announced that they will be closing doors wasn't due.

to production, it was due to no NTC exposure records, legal matters, they probably.

Of course, bruh, of course, bruh Bart.

They literally closed down after, literally closed down after our article went up.

Then after our article went up, or the second article went up, I reached out to Journal Center like, look across the street fam.

Look across the street.

So, yeah, I believe that.

I believe that.

They saw, OK, let's close down while these blacks are getting hit for something that is on DNR's website that shows Master Lock contaminated this area.

I told y'all on the website, it says Master Lock's Groundwater runs off into our sewer system and dumps off into Washington Park Query.

I ask, should we let the outside community know?

Should we be doing testing?

They say, oh no, that's not how the gases work, but it knows how to stay and move and pipes and offshoot building materials on our side of the street.

Let's continue.

Letting companies leave without real remediation.

All right.

Fact check confirmed via DNR public records requests, e-re-manufacturing slash GPI interim case file and EPA's Milwaukee die casting site record.

All right.

A reoccurring legal mechanism shows up across these sites.

Natural attenuation, where instead of actively removing contamination, a responsible party requests DNR accept that the contamination will simply break down naturally over time and the state grants case closure anyway.

Think about that.

The state.

The state.

The state let these MFs just walk found.

Leave big place.

It's a master lock right now.

It's for auction.

It's for auction.

They trying to get rid of the property so bad, they auctioning it off.

Who gonna buy that toxic gumbo?

another black fool with a dream that the city ain't gonna hold no.

I'm gonna get into it.

First of all, I hope you know they're gonna sell that building and Master Lock is not gonna be responsible for cleaning up any of that contamination.

We have zero protections or laws in place that holds people accountable for cleaning up the mess that they made in our communities.

So it's hard for me to be... I understand people being upset about data centers.

But for 40 years Master Lock been poisoning Negroes, we ain't been mad.

But got mad when black developers decided to do something about it.

Then you got DNR lying and saying they didn't know y'all knew cuz y'all fired the man Anyway DNR accept that the contamination will simply break down naturally over time and the state grants case closure anyway 40 years our site been sending it in break down

So how much hell time is needed?

How much time is needed?

Didn't master like had Obama in that mug Talking about beautification for a hundred years lying bastards

letting companies leave.

In one documented Milwaukee case, the former Erie Manufacturer's site at 4000 South 13th Street, the responsible party's own consultant requested closure specifically, citing that residual groundwater contamination will naturally attenuate over time.

With neighboring property owners formally notified, they still cannot install

any groundwater wells on their own land without DNR consent indefinitely.

We got nothing to protect us.

Nothing to protect people in saying like, hey, all these companies that deal with these toxins, they should be paying into a fund annually.

Annually.

We should be talking about revenue share annually.

That should be going into in case you leave We have something that's going to protect families.

We have something that's going to clean up the mess Babar said a data center probably by it Well, good luck getting it approved because we don't want that in the community Good luck getting that approved

When a response Notice the words remember I said it earlier the DNR can issue a known party They didn't do that to Masterlock or Briggs and Stratton.

They did it to the developers When a responsible party can't be found or is deceased they could have found these mugs But they just looked our way When a responsible party can't be found or is deceased

As with the Milwaukee die casting, there is no enforcement mechanism at all.

The contamination simply sits monitored, if at all, at whose expense taxpayers expense behind a fence that trespassers regularly cross.

OK.

Is this time for the break?

Oh, not yet.

This is a structural version of what happened at CWC.

Companies get the benefit of operating for decades, making billions of dollars.

You can look it up.

You can look it up.

How much money Master Lock made.

They've been in the hood for 100 years, fam.

They celebrated 100 years in 2008.

Companies get the benefit of operating for decades and when it's time to close up the legal and financial tools available.

Constantly favor a slow, cheap exit over a fast, thorough one.

Y'all ain't hear me.

Wisconsin laws give companies a legitimate pathway to leave contamination in the ground and call it closed.

As long as they can argue, it'll fade on its own.

Don't worry about that.

It'll go away.

It'll go away.

Just let it chill.

That's not a loophole being abused.

It's how the system is designed to work and Milwaukee's north side has absorbed the result of that design for generations, fam.

Come on, fam.

Come on, Common Council President.

Come on, Jose.

Create pathways.

All the elected officials, not just the common council president, because each of them got contamination in their areas.

This is good.

It's good.

We want to talk about the chemistry of behavior, toxic exposure and how it impacts crime and bad choices.

This Milwaukee specific study.

It's time for a break.

Don't go anywhere, y'all.

We'll be right back on The Great Vine with your boy Ray Nitty on the award-winning 10170 True.

This is the Bloomberg Black Business Beat.

It's a challenging time to be a black leader in America.

Recently, my colleagues at Bloomberg Business Week brought together a group of prominent black executives to talk about how they're navigating the White House, rollbacks to DEI initiatives, and the current mood in America surrounding race.

Chris Williams is chairman at Seabird Williams Shanking Company.

He said tribalism and political division is playing into how diversity is being perceived.

There are mindsets that are pro and con DEI that are becoming more entrenched one side or the other because aside from race on every aspect of American life

The differences, the gulf between one viewpoint and another viewpoint is more entrenched and clear.

William says the U.S.

is philosophically divided on a number of issues.

I'm Bloomberg's Justin Milliner.

On the Black Business Beat.

What up, y'all?

What up?

What up?

What up?

What up?

What up?

What up?

What up?

What up?

Welcome back.

Welcome back.

It's your boy Ray Nitty on the Nate Vine.

The grapevine.

I said the Nate Vine.

Chopped.

What up, y'all?

Holding it down on the grapevine on the award-winning one-on-one, Seventh of Truth.

We talking about this toxic town, man.

They ain't gonna like this one.

The orders didn't support me on my first run a damn show ain't gonna support me.

No Milwaukee's Milwaukee specific study Researchers at UWM Milwaukee's Zibler School of Public Health tracked 89,129 people born in Milwaukee between 1986 and 2003 who have Excuse me

who had a valid childhood blood lead test before age six, then linked that data to the Milwaukee homicide review commission's firearm violence record in adulthood.

The findings, this is what we going with it, Babar, the findings, right?

Not saying it's a super direct correlation, but it has a place.

as childhood blood levels rose the risk of becoming a perpetrator or a victim of firearm violence rose with it.

A clear dose response relationship, even after controlling for race, sex, and neighborhood socionomic status.

The numbers that are at stake compared to people with blood.

led under 5 UG slash DL, those with led levels of 20 plus UG slash DL as children were 2.8 times more likely to become firearm violence perpetrators and 3.3 times more likely to become victims.

So exposure does play a role.

We want to act like it don't but it does play a role Overall the study attributes 56% of firearm violence perpetration and 51% of victimization is in This Milwaukee cohort to blood lead levels at or above 5 ug slash DL the current CDC reference level

for elevated lead.

56.

Lead Arthur Lindsey Emmer's own framing.

Childhood lead exposure impairs decision making and increases in pulsivity.

Mechanisms directly known to be criminogenic, not just correlated by coincidence.

I want y'all to think about that.

We just talking about lead now, fam.

That was lead.

Okay?

Lead.

Lead.

That's what we talking about.

We ain't talking about TCE.

We ain't talking about petroleum.

We ain't talking about all these other gases and vapors.

We're not even talking about that.

But what happens when you mix all of these chemicals, right?

If you mix lead, if you mix TCE, if you mix petroleum, what do you think it does?

What do you think it does?

TCE and other solvents, the same mechanism adjusts a different chemical, right?

Separate from lead.

peer-reviewed research on TCE specifically documented developmental neurotoxicity, disrupted neurotransmitter function, oxidative stress, and neuroflammation in the developing brain, with observed behavioral outcomes, including hyperactivity.

Lower IQ scores.

And local motor slash attention deficits, fam.

We talk about the reading levels.

We talk about the education levels.

We talk about people not being able to pay attention.

Young people not being able to pay attention to school.

Young people making all these terrible decisions.

Adults making all of these terrible decisions.

Bad choices.

I'm not giving no excuses here.

I'm just kind of giving the diagnosis.

I ain't no doctor though Just a thought but these are the facts I'm sharing I Forgot to tell y'all where my fact check was from the lead violins fan the lead violence findings below are from a peer reviewed published UW Milwaukee study This is not a theory

is measured Milwaukee data.

Okay, measured Milwaukee data.

I want us to think about this now, y'all.

I'm gonna read it one more time.

Because somebody asks, what, you know, how does this have an impact on what's going on at these festivals and kids acting up?

I'm gonna give you one more.

I'm gonna read it again.

It related.

chlorinated solvent.

No, no, no, I'm skipping something, my bad.

Separate from lead, peer-reviewed research on TCE specifically documents developmental neurotoxicity, disrupted neurotransmitter function, oxidative stress, and neureonflammation in the developing brain with observed

behavioral outcomes, including hyperactivity, lower IQ scores and locomotor slash attention deficits.

Okay.

Exposure.

That's what the exposure to these toxins and these chemicals that just go untreated and that our local leaders allow companies to just poison us and walk away.

It's the walking dead around this mall.

Zombies.

I remember I had to... It's ironic that we're watching this, right?

Because when I was sharing my story and frustration with a group of young people, teens actually, that was at UWM, they were doing an interview with Power Ford Media in the building about...

I can't remember exactly what they was doing.

And I just happened to be sharing a story.

And he was like, you know what?

We want to put our students on this for research.

So we was working on a documentary to get all of this together.

But then I found out how wide and deep this rabbit hole was.

So you got to do extensive research to even deliver this in a way that it would be palatable and understandable for our community.

All right.

It related chlorinated solvent PCE also found at several Milwaukee sites, including the Erie manufacturing site was studied directly in children living near contamination sites.

Even low level community exposure was linked to measurably lower working memory, processing speed and executive function.

The same cognitive systems tied to impulse control.

This is not an excuse for anyone's choices, y'all.

Let me be clear.

It does not erase personal accountability.

Let me be clear.

A community that has been sitting on 900 plus TCE sites and generations of lead paint housing has been dealing with a measurable published neurological headwind that other neighborhoods simply haven't had to care.

And that's the data point.

That ain't no narrative.

Lena was, she was losing her mind.

She was going crazy trying to tell us about this stuff.

And people called her crazy.

We let Chris Larson call her crazy.

Nobody checked Chris Larson.

Let's talk about that.

We let that man call that black woman on the Senate floor, might I add.

She hasn't taken her.

Crazy meds today.

We let that but we care about mental health Okay, y'all don't want me to judge y'all shoulda gave somebody else these two hours Yeah, I should again, okay Remember that remember and it was folks in there that saw it and heard it to that didn't hold Chris Larson accountable

Okay.

Anyway, how other communities have handled the same fight?

Hmm?

What word is this?

Marinette.

Peshtigo.

After Tyco slash 3M firefighting foam contaminated local water for years, the community won, guess what, a $10 million sediment with Tyco specifically.

While it brought her 2022 lawsuit against Tyco, ChemGuard, 3M and Dupont for wrongfully knowingly and deceptively contaminating natural resources with PFAS across Wisconsin, it's still ongoing.

So why when it come to Milwaukee, we can't get on as a meal callback what we got to do to get a class action lawsuit for the citizens of Milwaukee?

Because clearly our leaders ain't gonna do it And I know some people like man chef what about chef this is what I will say about Chevy in this situation

Chevy was one of the only elected officials during that time that did not use his platform to throw black developers under the bus.

He was one of the only elected officials that actually said, you know what, we're gonna figure this out.

What you all were attempting to do was important for the city.

And we need

to figure this out.

10 million, y'all, settlement.

Let's go to Warsaw, Marathon County.

During the national class, during the national, we could team up with somebody else.

We ain't even doing that.

Class action lawsuit against 15 chemical manufacturers and 61 insurers in December 2023 and has already received about 2.9 million

in a first phase payout from the national 3M settlement.

They already got a national settlement with more expected from Dupont.

Let's go to Eau Claire.

Eau Claire County took an even more aggressive independent path, filing its own lawsuit.

That's what I want us to do.

Let's hit them back.

Filing its own lawsuit this year against 3M.

Camors, Dupont, 18 other defendants over

airport PFAS contamination specifically because the county was not part of the broader settlement group and didn't want to wait.

A group called SOH2O has publicly criticized the whole settlement structure, arguing

That funneling settlement money into one statewide trust fund forces.

Thank you.

Contaminated communities to compete against one another for limited resources, despite all communities being equally deserving of clean, safe drinking water.

I need to get so hoe.

I mean, so H2O on the show.

Wisconsin communities.

D they organized via filed.

In a several case, have already started collecting real settlement money years before Milwaukee took equivalent action.

Don't go anywhere, y'all.

When we come back, we're gonna be wrapping this thing up, y'all, on the award-winning 10170 True.

What up, y'all?

Welcome back.

Welcome back.

Welcome back.

To the award-winning 10170 Truth, this is your boy Ray Nitty on the grapevine.

DJ Brother Z holding us down on the production of Sound and I got what it takes to rock the mic, right?

We're talking about this toxic town.

We just went through how toxic chemicals and exposure impacts crime and bad choices.

We just went through it.

And I'll share something again, just so, you know, for those that are just joining us.

Separate from lead, peer reviewed research on TCE specifically documented developmental neurotoxicity, disrupted neurotransmitter function, oxidative stress,

and neuro inflammation in the developing brain with observed behavioral outcomes, including hyperactivity, lower IQ scores and locomotor slash attention deficits.

Okay.

A related chlorinated solvent, PCE also found at several Milwaukee sites, including.

The Erie Manufacturing Site was studied directly in children living near contamination sites.

Even low-level community exposure was linked to measurably lower working memory, processing speed, and executive function.

The same cognitive system tied to impulse control.

All right?

That's the connection.

But we gonna get deeper into that too on another show, on another day.

But what I wanna get into before we get out of here is the PFAS lawsuit Milwaukee wasn't a part of, right?

The national PFAS settlement over 12.5 billion combined from 3M in DuPont.

One of the largest environmental settlements in American history covering thousands of public water utilities and municipalities was negotiated and largely finalized.

in 2023.

Milwaukee County was not an active party pursuing its own claim in that window.

It was only in December 2025 that Milwaukee County leadership began the process to seek authorization to sue PFAS producers and oil companies directly.

Roughly two years after Marinette Wausau and other Wisconsin communities were already deep into their own settlement and litigation process.

Get the hell out of office.

Y'all not down there doing nothing.

The county stated model is the same one that won Milwaukee's County 71 million in the opioid litigation.

The largest single government settlement in Wisconsin history, meaning there is a proven local playbook for exactly this kind of fight.

It just wasn't applied.

when it comes down to poisoning Negroes.

Let them go crazy so we can up the budgets

for everything right

here.

It ain't no money in the cure, man.

The money in the treatment.

If we get rid of all these sites and these Negroes start acting right, how are we going to get more money for behavioral?

Studies.

You know they love to study black folk.

Anyway, as I get ready, the primary confirmed PFAS, or specifically for Milwaukee County, is firefighting foam used at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.

through 2012.

Groundwater sampling near the airport has already turned up high PFAS levels.

Milwaukee did receive some general drinking water infrastructure help.

Wisconsin communities broadly got 282 million in state drinking water project funding in November 2025, but that's separate.

from general infrastructure money, not compensation tied to being made whole for PFAS contamination specifically.

So as I get ready to close, y'all, I want us to put this whole thing into perspective, right?

Milwaukee has over 900 known TCE sites and documented a documented pattern of treating contamination differently based on zip code and income.

Companies that get to leave contamination behind with minimal enforcement.

A published local study tying childhood lead exposure directly to gun violence.

I ain't making this up.

And until literally two months ago, no active seat at the table for PFAS compensation.

That other smaller Wisconsin communities have already been paid for they already got the bread found I'm asking y'all to do this go to the DNR website This is my call to action and y'all go to the DNR website Search your own block tonight We do this show

So that information like this, don't stay buried in a database that don't nobody ever knew about.

I'd have never known about this if we didn't go through what we went through.

I'd have never known about it.

I'd have never known about it, y'all.

I watch our politicians use it as a tool to prop themselves up, win elected seats, whatever.

Common council presidency seats.

and they shake our hands in public.

All right?

But I'm telling y'all, go do the research.

Go do the research on how we treat these toxic waste fields in our community.

Go do the research.

How we let corporations walk away with no...

ramifications.

We don't got no fund holding them accountable, nothing that they need to pay into annually that will help remediation in case they leave.

These were some of the things that I was asking for when I ran for office that provoked me to run for office because the attorney that was representing us and telling us to be quiet was on the advisory committee for the DNR.

I'm telling y'all,

They should have never gave me a mic It's your boy Ray nitty And I'm just gonna keep bringing y'all the stories that they trying to hide from us y'all And they not gonna like it, but I don't give a damn brother Z Y'all have a good day.

Don't go nowhere.

Jazzy is up next with the tap in All right on the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth It's your boy Ray nitty holding it down on to get grapevine.

See y'all tomorrow.

I bring us some most smoke

Cheat Ball!

you

What up, what up, what up, what up, what up?

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.

you

What up, what up, what up?

Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.

It's me again.

Your boy Ray Nitty holding it down on the grapevine, man, on the award winning.