It.

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Folks, this year the big game is not just for football fans. It's time to go all in on food. Tums and DraftKings have teamed up to create a free to play pool so you can get in on the action and keep on snacking. There's a share of $10,000 up for grabs to take home the cheddar. Just make the right picks about America's game day grub. Play free in the Tums prop bites pool on DraftKings to score big without the burn. Learn more@tumspropbytes.com eligibility restrictions apply, Voidware prohibited. See draftkings.com for details. Happy Friday. Welcome to because Miami on Monday. Go to cocainecowboys.com. And we are launching a podcast series called the Real Griselda where I interview Michael Corleone Blanco, the youngest son of Griselda Blanco, the famous cocaine queenpin, La Madrina, the godmother, the Black Widow. She is the subject, of course, the six part Netflix series starring Sophia Vergara as Griselda, called Griselda. We talk about the real Griselda with Michael Corleone, his mother growing up Blanco on the mean streets of Miami in the cocaine Cowboys wars. Netflix has a fun kind of roy. It's like a gonzo cocaine Cowboys fan fiction kind of a thing going on.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. Especially I love cocaine cowboys and this should be an interesting watch.

Contractually, Roy has to say that. Yeah, I've never seen him before, never watched one of the cocaine Cowboys documentaries, single man. But this is a fun show. You'll be able to get it Monday@cocainecowboys.com. Hear Griselda's family reaction to the Netflix show. Meanwhile, state of Florida legislature back on its bullshit. We are well into the legislative session. The lawmakers are up there very busy punching down the thing that they do best up in Tallahassee. Just go ahead and crap on the rest of us. Just trickle that all the way down the state here, all the way to us in South Florida. And joining us as friend of the show, Florida state Rep. Anna Eskimani from District 42, which is there in Central Florida for people who familiar with Disney World right there in the greater Orlando area. Representative Eskimani we'll start out of the gate with the bill making big national news. I know there's a lot of craziness going on, which we'll get to, but everybody is talking about this social media bill and how the state is looking. And the bill has been advancing. I believe the bill will ban, I believe, social media for Floridians under the age of 16.

And it's not even clear which social media. I know you've tried to ask the question, but the people writing the laws are being very coy about it. What is the latest on this bill? What's the good and what's the bad of it? And what happened to parental rights?

Well, first of all, thanks so much for having you back. And, yeah, you're 100% right. This is a huge bill that would take away access social media applications for those under the age of 16 with no exceptions, even for folks who already have accounts, folks who make money off their account. It doesn't matter. They will not have access even if parents were to give permission. So it does totally take away a parent's right to choose on what platforms their kid can access. And the bill actually has already passed the Florida House. We're now waiting to see what the Senate will do. I tried to make my points clear on this bill, and I did try to pool for the bill sponsors what media platforms are going to be impacted, and they would not tell me. And a part of that is because this is a very unconstitutional policy, and they know that. And so their efforts to avoid my questions, I think we're more designed to try to avoid litigation. But with a bill this broad, there's no way it flies through the First Amendment. I mean, there are some clear concerns here, and I want to empathize with the fact that social media does have harmful effects.

Don't get me wrong. I think we absolutely need to have child safety measures, and indeed, we have put such measures in place already. But to completely take it away just goes way too far.

So, Anna, what's the point of wasting everybody's time if they know that it's going to be a first amendment violation?

Performative politics, Roy. What are you talking about? Everybody's running for something.

Know you got it. Yeah, it's all about the headlines. It's all know, looking tough for the cameras. It's going to waste money for the public. As we've seen, Governor DeSantis does not care about the constitution. Time and time again, even on this issue, though, even he expressed concerns about how far it goes. So, yeah, you know, it's bad when DeSantis, it's like rethinking it, right? Evaluating it. So we'll see what happens. But it's definitely a performance. And it's frustrating because I think our constituents want us to focus on things like property insurance and housing affordability. And yet we're spending hours on the floor debating a social media ban.

Oh, you mean problems that affect all of us on an hourly basis? You mean those issues that you should be dealing with. Okay, that's an interesting idea. You're an iconic. And here, Roy, if you don't know how it works, what happens now is most of these lawmakers are lawyers themselves, including the governor. So they know this is unconstitutional. They know it's going to be challenged. And what they do is they turn around and they give contracts for outside counsel to cronies and budies in state, out of state who bill up to seven, eight, $900 an hour that the taxpayers now have to pay for to defend unconstitutional bills that are targeting us. It's the circle of life, and it's.

Not just because it's an election year and just want to say what people want to hear.

And I want to be clear. I agree with the state rep that this is not something that maybe should be totally unregulated. There are dangers on social media for young people, but here's the hypocrisy that I want to talk about, which I alluded to earlier. Okay, the don't say gay bill. Every time I say that, people go, that's not what it's called. I'm like, but that's what it does. And that's what it is. It was called. Like what? The parental rights in education bill. Oh, parents need to have the rights to control what content. They're not politicians or, God forbid, professional educators or librarians who are trained in this sort of thing. Now, we know the parental rights thing is bullshit anyway. But before we get into that, why doesn't parental rights apply to social media? Why can't parents do the job of regulating and not big brother and big government?

Well, I'll tell you, we actually filed amendments to do that. I filed an amendment to change the bill away from a complete ban to curfews. So you can't be online between 1030 at night to 06:30 a.m. My colleague, Representative Ashley Gantt from South Florida, she filed an amendment for parental consent so parents would be able to give permission. And neither one of those amendments passed. And so it's such an ideology of convenience. Time and time again, my colleagues will preach one thing and practice something else. And I do think a part of this is connected to the fact that younger people are becoming politicized at a younger age because of their access to information. So by cutting off that access information. I think they are hoping, too, to prevent what is an inevitable shift in the electorate of more progressive voters.

Better informed voters are a threat to politicians, and so they want to. But you also made another interesting point earlier that I think speaks to hypocrisy about another bill that's going through this dreadful legislative session. And you made the point that people, some young people who are so called online influencers or whatever you want to call them, make a living, some of them a good living, these young people online using social media, and they do so safely and legally, not exploitatively. And I thought our friends in the Florida legislature are looking to increase the ability of children to go to work. They want children to be able to work at McDonald's and in the sugar fields, but they can't sit in the comfort and safety of their own home under parental supervision. Making a living on social media, right. Child labor, isn't that the name of the game these days in Florida?

Oh, yeah. They want you to basically work at 711, the midnight shift, or be a waiter somewhere, but they don't want you to be an entrepreneur and make a living by being an influencer. And not only, again, is this hypocritical, but it potentially against the commerce clause, because if you have someone who's online under the age of 16 who's making profit with customers in California, you're potentially interfering with their ability to practice their business. So a lot of legality concerns with this, and I definitely don't think we've seen the last of it. I don't think the Senate is going to pass this bill in its current form, though I do want folks to know it's a speaker priority. So he is re anchoring himself. And unfortunately, many Democrats also voted for this bill. I was not one of them, but I think only 13 of us voted no. To give you all some perspective, and.

The irony once again, it's a speaker priority to violate freedom of speech in the state of Florida. Last few minutes, I want to talk about some of the other dreadful things happening in the state of Florida. What is the breaking news this week about what the Florida highway safety and motor vehicles has done now unilaterally? I mean, are there people, not just Floridians, but tourists and people coming through the state who are driving, who are basically now felons?

What is happening so late, late, late in the evening? I got a text from a colleague of a screenshot of a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicle and Safety basically saying that driver's licenses for trans people are now fraudulent and will not be issued moving forward. And this did not come from a law, did not come from rulemaking. It came from an administrative letter. And I checked in immediately with my local task collector, who had not received the letter. And also, of course, reaching out to the department myself, was able to eventually verify this letter as being real. And it is absolutely devastating. I will say we're digging for more information around what does it mean for current trans Floridians who already have updated driver's licenses? And we're exploring all legal options to fight back, but it's incredibly discriminatory. It's cruel for the sake of being cruel. And it does create a lot of confusion for visitors of Florida who potentially, because they update the driver's license to reflect who they are, have now committed fraud.

Right. So is that the net effect of this? I'm trying to figure this out. If you are a trans person who's, I guess the gender on your driver's license does not match that which you were born, that you get pulled over, you're committing fraud, and are you subject to arrest? Is it a misdemeanor? Is it a felony? What happens? Are you stuck, God forbid, in Florida in get. You know, trans people have just had too many rights. They've had it too good for too long in this country. And obviously, the big, bad Florida legislature, all these rich white men need to bring them down a rung or two. But we talk about this like it sounds like activism, but there are real human beings and their lives that could be severely disrupted by this. So what do we know is the real life effect of something like this? Someone's getting pulled over right now, probably outside this door. What happens to that person?

Part of it is that we just don't know. This letter was one page that came out to us. No clarity, no process to counter an accusation of fraud. It really is designed to intimidate trans community members and to push folks out of the state of Florida. And what's really frustrating is that there was no public input. In most cases, when a department creates a new rule, there's a public comment period. And right now in the legislature, we have two bills that are attempting similar attacks on trans people, and we're fighting those bills in committee right now. There's not even a Senate sponsor for these bills. So it definitely seems like the legislature really isn't interested. The fact that Senate doesn't have a companion, and yet the department, who is led by a former democratic representative, is now moving forward and putting this policy forward. So we don't have a lot of answers. We're seeking that clarity right now, but it is very scary. And for a community that's already under attack, it's just so unnecessary and again, demonizing people for who they are when we should be focusing on going after corporations that are jacking up insurance rates and actually trying to make life better for people, not make it harder for a community that's already being marginalized.

And not that it would matter if there were bills or laws because this was done unilaterally by bureaucrats, by unelected officials in the state of Florida. So it doesn't even matter. Everybody in this government is weaponizing whatever little or lot of power they have to target already disenfranchised, underserved, if not entirely unserved people because Florida. Roy. Florida Rep. Anna Escomani, thank you so much as always for joining us. Get back to work. Good luck. Do your best, please. Thank you.

I will take all the luck. Thanks, guys. I hope to see you soon.

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Brightline has the highest death rate among us railroads.

It's the 100th death since Brightline started.

Cruising Miami day through all the south Florida fine at calamity speeds, careening stop to stop when they say hit or miss, they never mean it like this. When they say hit or miss, when they say hit or miss. Riders falling asleep or distracted by screens they can't possibly know there's another death scene up ahead on the tracks or they'd surely be sick. Someone severed in half. But it's just a mishap. Now Darwin has a laugh. Now let it go, please. Let's not get too far in the weeds on this growing death toll.

Well, everyone loves a train breaking speed.

Plowing through communities. People meeting their demise can't stop them. They're privatized. They say that pedestrians always have the right away. But how many more need to die from Mr. Bright light train?

Well, everyone loves a train.

Roy. I'm going to google right now, Brightline crash. And click on the news link here. And this is just in the last 3 seconds in the last like, day two escape car before Brightline crash in Florida. That was one day ago. 2 hours ago, woman dead after Brightline train collides with car in Pompano beach. Three days ago, Brightline train vehicle collide in downtown Jensen beach. Three days ago, Brightline train collides with vehicle, leaving one injured in Boca Raton. Here's another one. NTSB investigating two Brightline high speed train crashes that killed three people in Florida this week. That was two weeks ago. Three weeks ago, two dead in Brightline train crash days after deadly collision at same Melbourne crossing. And of course, 4 hours ago, one killed after Brightline train collides with car on tracks in Pompano beach.

Man, that sounds like a lot of human error there.

So the Brightline train is the deadliest train per mile in the entire country. There has been well over a hundred deaths since the train launched, what, like six years ago or so? There's a lot of reasons for that. One of the reasons is the train is a lot faster than any train that Florida drivers have grown accustomed to seeing roll through those crossings. Some of it is suicides, but also people are trying to race the train. So a lot of darwinism at work here because people are miscalculating. It's hard to see when that train's coming straight at you, how fast it's going and if you're going to try to jump the tracks and beat the train. It is not going as fast as those freight trains that we've seen, that we've grown up with. I've been driving here for what, 30 years? And these trains go fast. And also, the state didn't bother to better secure the railroad crossings. It's just those same rinky dink like plastic bars when they could actually reinforce those in a way that would prevent cars from racing the trains. But of course, the state of Florida doesn't give a shit, and that has to do with politics, with safety, with money.

But Jeremy Tachet is on the line. Jeremy is a daily Brightline user. So statistically, you are going to be on board that train when people die.

I have been only once, which I guess when you read all of those news articles, almost makes me feel better about my ods.

So far, though.

Yeah, thus far. Thus far, I've only been on there one time when someone has been hit by the train, not in a car. It was what we were told was a. How were we told it was a pedestrian. But at first, I think they called it a trespassing incident.

I want to talk about this because last week on the show, out of nowhere, Jim defeati jumps on the zoom. And well before we were ready to start the interview, he and I were just talking, and he talks about how he pitched the pr folks at Brightline, a story about interviewing conductors of the train who are on board when someone is killed, and that experience and how surreal or traumatic it is. And I recalled instantly you telling me this story off the air a couple of months ago, whenever it was. And I'm curious about what happens. How does it feel like? What is the tension like on the train? Tell me.

Yeah, I mean, the experience is certainly sort of surreal because you kind of have to disassociate from what it is that you're going through as you've just hit someone and potentially caused death. Right. So you're a part of this vehicle crash that is ending in a fatality, but you have no control over it. So I feel awful for the folks working on the train who are potentially going through this multiple times. I went through it the once, and it was really kind of jarring. So our train came to a really quick stop, which you are not necessarily accustomed to when you're on these trains. They normally slow to a nice stop.

At.

Wherever the drop off is. At the time, Aventura's station was sort of brand new. And so we were pulling up near the Aventura station, and so my assumption was, know they're getting used to it. They miscalculated, and they're having to slow down a little quicker than we thought. And then all of a sudden, we're stopped far before the Aventura station, and it was kind of a screeching halt. We're all sitting there for a second, one businessman in the back as everybody sort of hushed, looking at each other. One businessman who was on a very loud phone call the entire time, this guy was super obnoxious, but he gets up from his seat and goes, oh, we definitely hit somebody, which is a very strange thing to be dealing with. Meanwhile, you've got parents with little kids on the train. About ten minutes later, one of the train attendants came through, was like, hey, everyone, we're just going to go ahead and lower the window shades for the time being, and we'll let you know if and when it's time to lift those back up. With no information as to what was going on. And in my heart of hearts, I'm, like, praying it's something else.

So I'm like, all right, maybe the train is overheating and we just don't want any sun coming through. Obviously, that's not what was going on. And so about ten minutes or so after that, someone comes over the intercom and says, hey, we've had a trespassing incident, which, what the hell, right? And so a whole number of people are going like, oh, my God, was there somebody on the train? Was there somebody that wasn't supposed to be here? Which is honestly more alarming in some respects for everybody who was there. Like, are we about to be in a heist movie? But then about 1015 minutes after that, someone comes back on the intercom and says, it's been a pedestrian incident. And so one of the train attendants came back through. And what I did really appreciate was that this particular train attendant, and I don't know if this was within their policy as to how to deal with this or if it was just her having a sense of empathy, kind of came through and was like, does anybody have any questions? Is everyone doing okay? And no one really had any questions because I think by that point, we all knew what was going on.

For those of us who were trying to get down to work, like myself, it was just a question of, well, when can we expect to go? Ultimately, it was about an hour and 15 minutes delay, but the response to that was just simply, well, we're waiting for the paramedics to show up and do their job, and then we'll be on our way, which is just a very morbid thing to have to hear. Like, all right, we'll be on our way as soon as they scrape the body from the tracks, essentially, which is just awful. And then you just go about your day. You just go on from there. We went down to Miami, and you got to know, for me, it was, go on, turn on a smile and do a kid's Marlins television program, which was super bizarre. So the experience in itself is very weird and jarring in that respect. I know for folks where they've hit cars, you end up having to get another train down there, deboard, get onto a new train. It can delay you for a couple of hours, but the delay, that's one thing in itself, right? Ruining your ability to actually get where you need to be when you're paying a lot of money to get there.

But the other part of it is just, all right, well, now we just have to experience the fact that we were part of a crash that ultimately killed somebody.

I want to ask about that in our last minute here. Do you kind of internalize that guilt? Do you wonder about this person? Did you look up to see, was it an accident? Was it intentional? Like you said, you go on with the rest of your day, but how have you gone on to sort of live with this since then, being on board that train that killed somebody?

Yeah, it's a really good question. I think about it sometimes, particularly when we're going by that area. I purposefully didn't look it up. And I choose to try to like, and maybe this is the wrong thing to do, but I've choose to try to. Gosh, it's all so morbid, right? But to hope that it was someone on purpose putting themselves in that position, because it's kind of the only rationalization you can get into your head of any of it being okay. Because then when you start to imagine, like, what if this was just a person who was trying to cross and like you mentioned just before, didn't really understand the speed of the train. There's a new station here, and they're just trying to go to Aventura mall. What if it's someone with a family who now has died accidentally? And either way, I mean, no matter the case, it's so horrible. So, yeah, as OD as it is, you kind of just have to disassociate from it and hope that you can move on and still enjoy the experience. On the bright line, which is hard.

Next time, Roy, we're going to talk about the politics of the bright line. The fact that station that Jeremy was just talking about cost taxpayers $75 million, despite the fact that this is an entirely privatized operation run and owned by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, kind.

Of like a ballpark.

It's somehow even worse than that.

Other than that, it's really great, though, I'll tell you. Other than that, super great, really clean, really nice experience.

Skittles. Expensive. All you can eat Skittles in first class, no less.

Yeah, that's true, as long as you're willing to pay $75 a trip.

This segment was brought to you by Brightline. You will make it to your destination eventually, but not everybody will. Jeremy Teshay, thanks so much for being here. Thanks.

So climate gentrification is happening and Miami is being affected in the worst way.

There's a change coming to this area.

They're going to come take Liberty City because we don't flood.

All the people that are planning this don't live in this community.

Libby Square is the heart, and when you destroy the heart, you destroy the people.

Raising Liberty Square is a stunning and powerful new documentary that almost didn't premiere this week on PBS, thanks to a letter sent by the very powerful and politically connected multi billion dollar multinational company related urban development group, subsidiary of related very powerful company owned by George Perez and his partner was Stephen Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins. And they were not happy about their depiction in this documentary, which I was a little surprised about. I found the piece to be extremely objective and fair, piece of embedded journalism, no less, that took years and years to make and to put together about the redevelopment of the pork and beans. Some of the oldest projects, really in the country, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Miami, and of course, it is on very high lying land. There are parts of Miami beach with multimillion dollar homes that are 0ft above sea level. Liberty City is over 1213 14ft above sea level. So when people talk about climate change and climate change gentrification, this is what they mean. Folks are looking for literal higher ground because this gorgeous, expensive waterfront property, Miami has one of the most vulnerable waterfronts in the entire world, and the most valuable.

I mean, you're talking about billions upon billions of dollars worth of real estate that is at risk over the next few years, let alone decades. Kacha Essen is the director of this amazing new documentary that people can watch now on PBS and on the PBS app. But Kacha, what I want to talk about is this letter that related sent last week saying that the documentary is filled with misinformation, half truths and asking PBS to yank this, quote, inaccurate, incomplete and misleading documentary. They didn't want it distributed, promoted or shown in its current form. How do you respond to those allegations that this is incomplete and inaccurate and misleading?

I mean, our official response is actually zero because we talked to our legal counsel and they didn't find any merit in the letter, so we decided not to respond. But then related actually reached out to PBS the same day of our broadcast premiere also making accusations that the facts were incorrect. And that always makes PBS nervous. So we spent the whole day of our broadcast premiere that was happening at night, drafting a statement for PBS, having PBS lawyers check the letter and check the accusations. And they also found it without merit. At this point, there's no response. We're happy that we actually premiered, that we had our broadcast premiere, and we will find out about the numbers and the viewership very soon. And just judging by the numbers on YouTube and the apps, I think a lot of people are watching it. So we're very happy about that.

Let's talk about some of the facts. Some of the main theme of the doc that comes up time and again is the displacement of the residents who have been there for many generations in this community. And it's the people that make a community. And there is a lot of talk about the fact that many of them who have left because of the existing projects being destroyed have not come back to the newly built buildings. They take exception to that. What are the facts with respect to displacement? Are people leave? I know they're doing this project block by block. They're inexplicably only three blocks into this nine block project. We'll put a pin in that for a moment. But how accurate is this? Or how well founded are these concerns that the locals have about displacement?

Billy so we, as the filmmakers, spent most part of 2022 trying to get some numbers. Before we finished the film, we wanted to get some numbers from related, from hut. And we didn't really get any numbers of, like, how many people took the vouchers, how many people are still there. So the numbers that we do know and did know by the end of the filming process and finishing the film is that there were originally 703 units in the original Liberty Square that related, promised to create 640 housing units. And that currently there are about 200 people living in Liberty Square. And that of the hundreds that have taken the voucher and moved out, by the summer of 2022, two families had come back. So that is the information we had as the film finished. And I think, I believe that's still to be true. The idea and the promise of the project was to keep the community intact and to keep everybody there. And that, I think, was the hope of everybody. And that was also what I really believed in. But right now, there are about 200 people, a little bit more than 200 people living in Liberty Square of the original residence.

Samantha Quaterman is the executive director of the multiethnic Youth group Association, also known as Mega. It's an education center. It's been active about 15 years, I believe, in Liberty City. Samantha, I think you are a resident, correct me if I'm wrong, born and raised in Liberty City.

That's right.

And you are one of the main characters in this documentary and one of the, as former Miami Dade county mayor Carlos Jimenez would say of the promises kept in this story here of redeveloping this community and what was promised a better quality of life for the people of Liberty City, Liberty Square pork and beans, is that they were going to help you build or rebuild a new school for mega which serves this, I won't even say underserved, but almost entirely unserved community of Miami. So what happened? Do you have a new school? Does your school have a home? Are you still serving the kids of Liberty City?

Yes, I am.

And we're still in a building that we were in originally. It's less than 1200 sqft. We only there just by the grace of God because I actually had a letter came out to me and it was telling us that our lease came to an end under Miamidade county. And they told us it was under the private sector, which was related. And then when I reached out to them, they would not give me an answer. So I had to send a letter out to hood housing and also to our new mayor at that time. And so I haven't had any displacement, but they also have not given me a lease agreement or given me anything in writing to build our facility.

So you're kind of day to day there right now?

Pretty much.

And what did they tell you they were going to do and what they do or not do?

Well, we was going to partner and they was going to build us a facility and it never happened. What they did, as you can see in the documentary, it was a lot of ups and downs. It was actually for maybe like a year or two years. They wasn't talking to Mega at all. They came to us for summer and they asked us could we serve the residents in Liberty Square because they didn't have any programs and the crime was going up at that time. And we actually did a contract with them for a summer. We actually took our kids to the Kennedy space station and partnered with related and I thought we was going to get off to a good start. It sadly went downhill after that. We partnered for one more summer. They brought in another provider that was previously there and they actually try to take our whole program and have them try to duplicate our program, which was an epic fail. So it was never nothing to really, truly partner with. So it's been a roller coaster. Mine.

Miami has been growing by leaps and bounds. It was before the situation was exacerbated by the pandemic. So the whole conversation is, we don't have enough schools to know the people who are here, let alone the newcomers. We need more community schools. Big investment in charter schools and private schools. Why had they not delivered here to you and to this community?

I have no idea. They were trying to bring in another school, which was the academy that matters. And we're oversaturated with schools in our area right now. I am partners with the local schools in this area. I actually provide services for the after school service, and I also make sure that if they need one on one mentoring with parents or they need assistance, we help them with that as well. So we are partners. We're not taking anything from the schools here. But instead of them partnering with us and making our program on a larger scale, they try to bring in another school and actually completely close us down.

Samit, I want to ask you about these new buildings. I don't believe you live in the new Liberty Square, but I know, you know, residents. Yeah, I'm certainly right. The parents of the kids that you serve at Mega. My question is that one of the things that related has not responded to pops in at the end of the dock, because the dock ends with these buildings. At least the first of them openings. A couple of families moving in. And it turns out that there are accusations now of shoddy construction. There are leaks. There is allegedly mold. There are residents who are getting sick. There are roaches, rats. Tell me. I mean, these are newly constructed buildings by one of the biggest, most powerful, and successful developers in the whole world. What is going on in the new Liberty Square? What is the quality of life?

To be honest with you, the old buildings actually was a little bit more sustainable. Everybody needs a new. They needed a new building. They really did. That land was historical. It would have been better if they just really rehabbed the land that they already had. They having some of the same problems that they had when it was in the old Liberty Square community. So it's not really better. It's really a little bit worse because we lost our community. I lost over 50% of our parents that was living in Liberty Square, and it's not a community anymore. We don't know who is who. There's no balconies. There's no places for our kids, really, to meet over there. So it's not really family oriented. I just put it to you that way.

And are the folks, the residents, getting the services and the management and the attention they need from related? Is that a no comment or is that a little chuckle? Samantha Quarterman is the executive director of a fabulous organization, mega learning center in Liberty City here in Miami. Kacha Essen is the director of Raising Liberty Square, now playing katcha. Where can people see it?

They can see it on PBS, basically. Right now, we're the spotlight on PBS. So people just really have to type in raising Liberty Square and video, and it will come on YouTube. But you also can download the PBS app anytime people want to see it through the end of April, it's on PBS for free for everybody to see.

And that is raising Liberty Square. R-A-Z-I-N-G-G. It is a powerful piece, and it is about Miami, but it is about everywhere. It is about the world, and it is about how our world is changing. And I recommend everybody listening watch it right now. Samantha Quarterman, Kachen, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Billy.

Thank you, Billy.

Tenants who live and work in this historic Huntington building here in downtown Miami.

They say that they were put out on the street.

Building is being shut down.

Yeah.

They cannot conduct business.

I don't know how we're going to pay our mortgage. I don't know how we're going to survive.

All of the owners in this building that we spoke to, they have the same question, why suddenly here and why now?

Are you sure there's not a big developer trying to smoke you out and buy you at cheap? And are you sure I'm not?

Miami can be difficult to explain and even harder to understand. If you listen to this show, you probably wonder a lot. What the hell is this guy talking about? Can this be real? Can a place be this backwards, this corrupt? Every once in a while, a story comes along that perfectly encapsulates Roy, what it is that we talk about on this show and how, in fact, backwards and corrupt that it is. Right down the street from the studio here is the Huntington Building, built in 1925, a building that has passed every safety, fire code inspection practically for the last 100 years. And then all of a sudden, eleven months ago, they're forcing 70 small business owners. And, Roy, this is an office condo. So these folks own, they got hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in these properties because they own these offices, and they make a living out of these offices. And Francis Suarez, the mayor of know, pretends that Miami is some kind of business friendly place, and you need to bring your companies here and move here because the government is so effective and efficient. And quite the contrary, Roy. The woman you saw in that video is Diliana Alexander.

She is the executive director of the nonprofit organization Filmgate, of which I'm a proud supporter. It's an organization that promotes filmmaking in Miami, offering extensive year round educational programs, film screenings, festivals, and competitions. And they do it all out of their office in the Huntington building, which, Diliana, you have been out of now for almost a year. You have been deprived of your private property rights, which is what this country is all about and why you are actually here in the first place. Tell us about that, what you've been going through. And as I always like to say in Miami, if you're trying to get to the bottom of a mystery, everything is a real estate hustle. And you asked a very interesting, you kind of pose a hypothetical in that interview you did with Glenn Milliburg on Channel Ten almost a year ago. So tell us about this experience and what you've learned since then.

Thank you for having me, Billy, and being a proud supporter of filmgate. So it happened. I was actually at a festival called Southwest. Southwest. And I received a call from my very young staff saying, are you sitting down? We have to evacuate the building in three days. And I said, what? I mean, how is that even possible? When we purchased our floor with all of our savings, my mom and I, we thought we were doing a really smart thing, because when we started our organization, it started in Winwood. Winwood became impossible for artists to survive in. So a lot of artists moved, as, you know, up north. We moved to downtown Miami. We were so excited. And we spent a year, little by little, renovating the different spaces on the floor and creating a small theater and a green screen room and a photography studio. We had filled it up. We just celebrated our ten year anniversary with two or two commissioners there. And then I'd left. And then literally two weeks later, we were being told that the building is condemned.

Deliana, have you ever felt in danger there? Have you ever felt that there was life, safety issues in this building?

Not at all. I mean, we had a hurricane that didn't really hit Miami, but it was really closed, where a lot of buildings lost electricity or floods, where we didn't lose electricity, we didn't lose wifi. Everything has been sturdy. It was built in the 1920s by a Detroit architect. I love that building because I know it's done solid. It's there to stay, and it's history. It's a historical building.

To me, the issues that they threw you out. I mean, everybody knows, of course, the horror story of the Champlain towers years ago. 99 people killed, some of them while they slept and their building collapsed in Surfside here in Miamidade county. Are there cracks in the foundation in support columns? Are those the issues that you're aware of that the fire department, they came in like stormtroopers, like there was like an army of police cars and firefighters marching through the hallways. Was that the issue?

That's what they said.

It was the issue, but apparently it wasn't the issue. They didn't even put a violation when they evacuated the building. They didn't give us any time to cure the violations, which is the usual way to go from all of our research, talking to architects and people in the city after the fact, they just said condemned leave. So we think that what they were trying to do is basically make it seem that it's so dangerous to be there and it should get destroyed as historical buildings.

But in fact, this was a problem with, like a stairwell that you didn't even really know existed or ever used before, right?

Or ever used, because there's two stairways. So I think you already know that at first there was a fake fire violation, code violation that was put on the door. And then we questioned it, so they changed it. And then they told us, oh, you need to have two exits that lead outside, all the way outside according to code. Turns out that's incorrect. We do have one exit that's concrete that we've been using all the time when we don't want to take the elevators because we're on the fourth floor. So it's quite easy to use stairs and it kind of leads. Right. So we've been using that staircase. So in the other staircase, nobody ever used. But it's a metal staircase the way it is kind of in New York because it's an older building. They said that first they said it was impossible to use, and then that tune changed to, oh, if you have five to six people standing on the third floor, then that might collapse, like kind of in the landing. And my favorite one was, since you're a lady, if you're running down the stairs and there are holes in the steps in your high heels, you might get caught, and that will be life endangering.

I'm like, yeah, I'm going to be running with my manolos because I'm in sex in the city, right? If fire is happening and my life is under threat, that's exactly what I'll be doing. It was just shady. Just the story. The tune just kept changing and changing. And when we questioned it, it will change again. But we were already evacuated. We had zero rights at this point. We were just told, unless you fix your exit, it cannot go back.

Might have to start wearing flats because.

All the ladies were wearing high heels.

Royce and Estile running from fire.

Yeah, like DeSantis.

So, Diliana, eight months into this ordeal, I mean, you escaped communism for the freedom of America to have private property rights. Eight months into this ordeal, you are not able to avail yourself of your private property, of your business. You're losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. You get an email. What happened?

We've been questioning the unit owners that are not a part of the hOA. I've been questioning the Hoa and fire department constantly, asking, well, when can we move back in? We don't know. Most of the small violations that you pinpointed were cured immediately. And then they're working on the stairs. But why do we have to be outside of our building? We have a perfectly good exit already. Why can't we just cure it while we are inside so we're not losing all this crazy money. I mean, $10,000 a month for specifically us from loss of income. And we are nonprofit. That's all of our savings. It's been really hard. We can default on our mortgage any second now. In October, I received an email from an agent who says that they're representing ISG World, which I didn't know this organization, and I was really busy with our festival interactive festival. So I didn't get to really explore it until later. And then I went back, we were speaking with my mom, and we were thinking, maybe we do need to sell.

So ISU World, this is a real estate company, and they're interested in potentially, they said they have some other business in the building. Right. And they're interested in buying your floor.

Exactly. Well, they say they're interested in buying in the floor. And I said, yes, I'm interested to hear your offer. And then the second email I receive is, we want you to sign an NDA agreement in order to give you the offer. And I thought that was really unusual, because why would I have to sign an NDA agreement in order to get an offer?

For clarity.

That they want me for clarity.

An NDA is a non disclosure agreement. It's basically like they're not going to make an offer for your property until you basically agree to keep it.

Exactly. So obviously, my conclusion from this is they want to lowball unit owners if they're asking us to send NDAs because they will offer whatever they can offer, the cheapest possible thing, which I guess is great for them, but it's not usual to do that in real estate scenario. So that's when I researched with the unit owners. We researched the company. And the first thing we see right on the first page is that the city of Miami, Mayor Suarez, is sitting on that board. The same time, we're hearing all of the different news items that are coming out about the city being weaponized against its residents for freedom of speech violations. And basically, we're not allowed to vote for everyone, the whole rally to everyone, or now we are not supposed to have property rights?

To be clear, you go to the website for ISG World, and right there at the top, you click about us, who we are. You see the first row, there's three mug shots. It is the CEO that is the president of this real estate company, and then it is Mayor Francis Suarez, who sits on the board of this company. And so what has happened is. And your concern, as I understand it, we just said, is that not unlike the ball and chain bar owners and what we've been seeing around the city is that you have the fire department coming in, pushing you guys out of your building for kind of mystery reasons. You're not able to get clear answers. And you get this email, someone wants to buy basically your distressed property at this point, right? You haven't been able to use it, so you're maybe more inclined to sell. Maybe they can get it for a bargain, pennies on the dollar, because it's obviously, not only is it, you're not getting the use of it, but it's losing value because there is no use for it right now as far as the city is concerned.

And you realize that the person looking to kind of prey on you and your neighbors and fellow unit owners is a real estate company. That is the mayor Francis Suarez's real estate company. This is what we're talking about right now, correct?

That's what it appears to, yes.

I know. They put out denials. ISG says, oh, we didn't even know about this. Oh, the mayor knows nothing about this. So has the mayor reached out to you, then, to help you remedy whatever these violations are in your building so you guys can pro business, get back in there, get up to code, and get back to work, save these businesses and save these jobs?

That was also something that Mayor Tava reached out to me, but she's not responsible, and her fire department is not responsible for what happened. But no, the mayor put out a denial, but he never reached out to me to say, how can I help?

How can I help?

Diliana Alexander, executive director of Filmgate. Folks, go to Filmgate Miami. Help them out. It's a wonderful organization, and I'm a proud supporter, and it's always good to see you, Diliana. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Roy. Are you sitting down?

Barely.

You're not going to believe it.

What?

Your boy, Francis Suarez.

Not my boy.

Back on his bullshit. Latest in the Miami Herald from our friends. Sarah Blasky, Joey Fletches, Tess risky, Alex Harris. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez again caught exploiting his public position for private profit at the expense of his constituents. He and his top aides. This is according to newly released emails that the Miami Herald obtained. He and his top aides, so city employees, on city time, on the city's dime, were lobbying the city for a no bid contract for a software tech company that was simultaneously negotiating a deal with another tech company that pays the mayor $20,000 a month. They got that deal. So, basically, this deal that benefited Francis Suarez's wallet, this is a man who went from a negative net worth when he first took public office, is now worth $4 million, quintupled his net worth just since he became mayor alone five years ago, and doubled his net worth each year for the last two years in a row. This guy's still hustling and basically working as allegedly an unregistered lobbyist for these private companies.

Ethically, that sounds pretty fishy.

And perhaps legally, not just ethically, how can I help? This week was also the state of the city speech that the mayor gave at Camilla's house. Spoiler alert. State of the city's broken. And so when he gave that speech, he talked about how, like, the government needs more transparency, bro. Okay? If you put garbage in, you're going.

To get garbage out.

He then spent the rest of the morning after the state of the city running away from the press, who was trying to ask him questions, obviously, which is the job of the press about what is he up to here? And so the great Glenna Milliburg of WPLG local ten tried to ask him, I mean, do her job. Tried to ask him some questions about this in a. By the way, a stunning Francis skin jacket it looks like she's wearing there. Either that or she's been doing some python hunting in the everglades. But shout out to Glenna Milberg, who is way too good at her job as far as Mayor Ponzi Postalita is concerned. And this is this week's Miami moment. Cocaines.

You know, there is no doubt that Mayor Suarez wanted his really positive, forward thinking state of the city address to be the big headline today. But that was before more questions about whether he used his city power for private gain. He has continued to say and answered some questions that he has not that he's done nothing wrong, but he has yet to bring those receipts.

Our Miami story is one of sustained achievement.

The mayor's soaring Miami story comes hours after a sobering Miami Herald story. More emails raise more questions about whether Francis Suarez used his position as mayor to benefit private employers. Following the state of the city speech, the mayor's movements were managed, protected, directed. He would take questions from one reporter at a time behind closed doors.

The conclusion is I didn't do anything to benefit anyone, and I've said that many, many times. I'm going to continue to say that.

The questions started after Suarez's ill fated run for U. S. President, for which he had to, for the first time, file sources of income, his jump in personal wealth from a list of companies that hired him or contracted with him. Miami public records reveal some of those same entities were requesting city favors for their businesses. An email suggesting the mayor helped. Do you think those companies would have you on the payroll if you were not in a position of power in.

The city of Miami?

So again, your question already has a flawed premise. That I'm working for twelve companies.

The mayor suggested I and others did not do enough homework, jumped to wrong conclusions to respect that position. I rephrase the question. Tell me I'm done.

Thank you. I'm done.

One company.

I'm done.

One company that's hired you. Do you think they might have if you were not the mayor?

Mayor, can you just answer that one question?

There would be no more questions, and none at all for Miami Herald reporters who had been waiting their turn.

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