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♪ >> look around you.

Housing, housing everywhere but who can really afford it?

hey everybody.

It's reporters roundtable.

I'm David Cruz.

We will hear from them with a discussion of one of the biggest issues facing New Jersey right now, affordable housing.

The New York mayor is a candidate for governor and has just unveiled a plan to address the affordable housing crisis which brings him to roundtable today.

Good to see you.

Welcome.

>> good morning everybody.

David: at the crux of the matter is home role.

Can you explain what has fueled this crisis?

>> it's not the crux of the plan.

Home role -- rule by itself has been problematic because of zoning ordinances that were created in the cities and municipalities across the state of New Jersey.

Usually created to keep people out, to disallow two or three family homes, a DUs, other things that would support affordable housing.

Those zoning laws have now made it difficult for the children who grew up in those communities to actually afford to live in those neighborhoods because the mortgage of the housing is too costly, expensive for them to live there.

They wind up coming to places like Newark and Hoboken to place -- find places to live.

So home rule has become a barrier to that.

It's not us trying to put a bull's-eye on home rule but pointing out a barrier for affordability in the state.

David: it's a barrier to affordability of housing in the state.

How do you change people's minds?

do you force an end to home rule?

>> ultimately, we have to have a discussion about how housing is being built.

The cities go to court.

40 years ago, we had this problem.

Here we are revisiting the same problem again.

There's no real dialogue between local municipalities and state government.

Talking to community advocates around housing, the private sector to figure out how to go forward.

Building housing around transit in the area.

We are talking about fines and penalties.

Pushing back against folks who are being defiant.

I think the same thing around home role is also an issue.

People look at it as self-determination.

The ability to govern themselves.

I understand the intent in their mind of what that means.

The practicality of it in the present sense has become very difficult to us to do anything across the state in a unified and constructive way.

We have to begin to rethink some of the tenants of home rule.

Start talking about how to share services.

How to create unified school districts.

How to create zoning ordinances and policies that go across municipality and not just focus on one city to the next city.

David: your plan would establish a task force which you know, Trenton is where good ideas go to die.

How do you avoid that?

>> they go to die in the legislature sometimes.

It's all about leadership.

If the intent is to have a task force as a way to slow down the process, there's always going to be slowed down.

Normally, that's what actually happens.

People do that to slow down the process.

This task force is designed to pull experts together to begin to execute all deliberate speed a housing strategy in housing plan.

Not debate ideas or talk about ideas but to lay out a real strategy.

Again to create an affordable plan that the building trades, the private sector, the lenders can put together so housing can be built in affordable ways.

To put together or identify places where housing can be built immediately around transit to identify those places.

Put together a fund.

The state first, then the philanthropic community and private sector to invest.

To build 30,000 units of housing in the first couple years that we are here.

We have 230,000 units short and we are building on average three to five thousand units a year.

We will never get out of this problem at the rate we are going.

David: you said that it's about leadership.

How do you engage the towns that are suing to stop the implementation of the states affordable housing plan?

>> I think we need housing navigators to go to these communities and tell people what we are talking about.

Cities who haven't built housing at all in a long time sometimes.

They haven't built affordable housing.

They have no concept of what affordable housing means to them.

The idea of what that means is very myopic.

They don't know how to build it.

They don't know this language because they haven't been engaged in the process.

You can't just drop this on people's heads and expect them to welcome it with open arms and not have anxiety about what this means.

And then give them numbers.

500 units next year.

It's difficult to even wrap your mind around.

Of course you will push back.

Your residents don't understand either.

They are yelling and screaming and you are trying to represent them in an effective way.

I understand as a mayor what that looks like.

People has -- someone has to go there and have a real conversation about what that means.

We are not trying to overwhelm your town or out build you.

We want housing because it will drop the housing cost in the state.

We can do this together.

David: should government get back into the housing construction business?

>> I think the federal government should absolutely.

They are backing away from low income housing and backing away -- watch -- which is why you see housing authorities becoming more diminished.

They have resources to create low income housing which is not affordable housing by the way.

People need to understand that to get there are opportunities in our buildings to get to that level of low income.

The federal government has to be responsible for low income housing.

The state has to bear burden for that around homelessness and preventing homelessness and those things as well.

I think the private sector and nonprofit organizations and builders are better equipped to build housing than the government is.

Briana: your plan would heavily regulate -- david: your plan would heavily regulate investment firms from buying up homes in mass.

There's a federal bill being proposed that would ban them outright from doing that.

Why not call for an outright ban?

>> we should.

We need to follow what the federal government is doing.

Obviously they are doing the right thing.

We need to raise the question and begin to slow it down and pause it.

Ultimately we should ban it outright.

I know there will be discussion about it but we need to slow it down.

We need to follow the journeys at the federal government is going on.

Ultimately stop them from doing that because it's causing incredible discomfort and chaos in places like Newark.

David: I want to get your opinion real quick before I let you go here.

Something unrelated.

Do you have an opinion on the situation at the state police and these calls by the state NAACP for Colonel Pat Callahan to step down for allowing or allowing to continue harassment for female and minority troopers?

>> this is not surprising that the state police have always been in the situation.

What's painful is that they went through a consent degree.

They did all this.

The state spent all this money and it still hasn't been rectified.

I believe that there should be blame late at the leadership of the state police.

Ultimately I don't think if you remove Callahan, the colonel, that this problem would go away.

Ultimately, there's always going to be a bull's-eye on somebody's back.

There's deep systemic and structural problems at the state police that need to be fixed immediately.

I don't think removing him will fix that for folks.

I know him personally.

As an individual, he is a good guy.

Good person.

Has always been good in my eyes.

Ultimately, he has to have responsibility for what's going on in his organization.

And take some of the blows from this.

NAACP is not wrong.

Ultimately I think removing him is just not the answer.

David: I've got about 45 seconds left.

Can we talk about the campaign, how it's going?

it is still a ways off.

What is your sense of the field as it is currently constituted on the Democratic side?

what do you bring to the table that's different?

>> being in Newark makes me uniquely qualified in the sense that I'm closer to the problem so I'm closer to the solutions area I had to wrestle with more problems than most people had to deal with in an entire year.

I'm an executive.

The buck has always stopped with me.

We take full responsibility for everything that goes on.

I'm in Isle three.

Everybody asks me to do something.

We've been getting things done.

Very difficult things and environments.

I don't think there's anybody else that's running in this field that's more qualified than I am.

I think we have some good candidates.

The Democratic side has incredible candidates.

Great people who are running.

We'd have a good Democrat if anybody one.

We just want good old Democrats.

We need something different.

We need something with imagination.

Creative.

Something transformative.

I think I bring that to the table.

David: good to see you.

Thanks for coming on.

>> appreciate you.

Thank you.

David: all right, panel.

Good to see you all Pigot we could get to some of the news of the week real quickly.

This port strike.

Look like we would be talking more about that.

Looks like we dodged a bullet there, yeah?

>> at least for now.

The international Longshoremen's Association is saying that they've reached an agreement with U.S. maritime alliance which is the owner of the port, until January of 2025.

They came to an agreement on a wage increase.

It was much higher than the employer had previously offered.

61% over the next six years.

There's ever deadly some language about automation.

That was a big sticking point.

These are union workers who are concerned that by automating cranes and gates and other ways that they unload these cargo vessels on the stocks would essentially put them out of a job and put them out of union jobs.

So there is some language evidently about that.

We haven't seen the extent of the agreement.

So they are back to work.

Of course, this would have had a big effect on the presidential election and on the economy.

But they will have to go back to the table in January to solidify what it is they are seeking.

David: I'm glad that all those folks who are panic buying are going to have lots of toilet paper for the holiday season.

>> lots of lines of people trying to return them.

David: yeah.

So we just heard from Ras Baraka or there.

As soon as the presidential race is over, that race will start in earnest.

What are your thoughts on the field right now?

>> it was interesting.

The New Yorker had a great piece called rational radicalism.

I would love to know his thoughts on that.

I think he would agree and how he self describes.

But yeah.

It's increasingly a crowded field.

It's going to get more crowded.

We are expecting that Congressman Josh Gottheimer, Mikey Cheryl are going to jump in after the November election.

They are all qualified candidates in different ways.

They bring a little something different to the table.

Some of them legislative experience.

Others obviously at the local level.

So I think this is going to be a very expensive race.

You've got folks who are just prolific in their fundraising and have war chests like we've never seen before.

I think it's going to be a real down and out battle.

These are folks who are not used to losing.

David: is he the same Ras Baraka as the one who was elected mayor in 2014?

>> I don't think at all.

I think he's learned a lot about how to handle the city.

For him to say, I want to be the next governor of New Jersey, shows how far he has come.

I think he's become a much more -- she's always been an engaging speaker because of his chops, the way he can do spoken word and all that.

He can man -- can command an audience.

What he just said during your interview with key.

He goes, I'm closer to these problems than a lot of people are.

I'm running the city of Newark for many years now.

He's had success here in the city of Newark dealing with major issues.

So I think he has a great chance of winning the governor race.

It does come down to fundraising.

He's got a major uphill battle when it comes to fundraising.

If people of color come out, you have to mention that, if they come out more than ever for the governor's race, he's got a tremendous race.

I think the fact that he's already said, there are many great candidates in this race.

I think he's learned how to appeal to all kinds of voters.

I also think he's a mayor that has new ideas, as he mentioned.

New approaches that I think will be refreshing to voters in these times.

David: welcome.

>> nice to meet you all.

David: from The Kansas City Star.

That's one of the great papers in America.

What are you covering here in Jersey?

>> when I was at The Kansas City Star, I was previously a gun violence reporter.

Now that I'm here at nj.com, I've been a cannabis reporter.

Now I'm also a statehouse politician supporter.

David: welcome.

Your thoughts on Baraka and the rest of the gubernatorial field?

>> the politics reporters are going to be busy.

It doesn't look like any of us are going to get a break.

I'm also a resident of Newark.

What's very interesting to see here is what the voter turnout is going to be for the population of color.

What we also have to acknowledge here is that Ras Baraka is not the only candidate that's going to be vying for the votes.

You also have someone who has claims to be a very progressive opponent over in Jersey City.

So it will be interesting to see, as they both push their progressive platforms forward, to see how they differentiate themselves and go after those votes.

David: sticking with Newark for a minute.

It was the first city in the state to allow 16-year-olds to vote in squibber elections.

The governor was in Hoboken this week to promote statewide bills to that effect.

What a 16-year-old burn Anna -- bring on a been a voter?

what do you think of 16-year-olds loading?

>> that's always the argument.

That they are less engaged.

That maybe they would be coerced or persuaded by how their parents vote.

I actually looked into it a little bit.

Obviously we've been covering it.

They did a bunch of research around Austria because it's the only place where they allow 16-year-olds to vote on all levels.

We are just talking about school boards for now.

There is talk about maybe expanding that.

They found that 18 to 21-year-olds are more problematic.

They are less enticed to vote.

They are less politically engaged.

Will that be the same here?

I don't know.

But yeah.

There's a real push to get this to happen at the state level.

Essentially saying, students should have a say in who represents them on the school board.

Don't forget, this came about after we had all of these contentious fights for school board positions.

Lots of money being poured in from folks like moms for liberty, other groups who have agendas around parental rights, around certain books and curriculums.

So that's really why we saw all of this come to a head.

They have a bit of a battle.

There are lots of factions in the state who feel very strongly about this being too young to allow folks to vote.

My guess is that they are going to get it done.

>> I think it's an interesting way to look at school board elections.

Monica McIver had Ras Baraka as her teacher.

She got engaged in politics because he brought it up during her days in class.

I think that's an example of, if you know that 16 and 17-year-olds are going to vote, then maybe more of these types of classes and discussions will happen in school and get more people engaged then ever before.

Why not?

they are the ones who are impacted by these elections.

I know there are people who feel different treat -- differently.

I would love to see it get played out.

>> the argument is that once you introduce this at an early age, you potentially create lifelong voters by making it a habit.

There's a lot to be said for that.

When you think about that 18 to 21-year-old demographic, up until recently, it was a real pain to vote.

Not so much the case now.

I thing I was less inclined to vote in college because it was more difficult getting in a ballot then when I was in high school.

David: critics and opponents say the Democrats were pushing this bill are just trying to get more Democrats to vote for them.

That's the counterargument.

We ran into one another at a Hoboken presser or get you asked the governor about this change maned at the cannabis regulatory commission.

Charles Barker, one of the CRC's most outspoken critics of big weed, he was replaced by the governor with Amelia map.

She is the wife of Plainfield Mayor Adrian map.

Let's hear from the governor for his response.

>> we change commissioners all the time.

That happens regularly.

I get a sheet once or twice a week with folks who are coming in and going out.

She will do an outstanding job.

She's from Plainfield.

Her husband is done an outstanding job.

She's a member of the NAACP, ACLU to the best of my knowledge.

Charles was outstanding and so will Amelia B. David: he's bumping up her progressive credit.

The governor says nothing to see here.

Are you hearing differently?

>> I've been having a variety of off record conversations.

Basically, there are a couple of frustrations that are bubbling to the point with the sources that I've spoken to within the civil rights space.

One of those primary frustrations seems to be that, from those sources viewpoints, the war on drugs was a racially targeted war.

It was not just a racially targeted war but it was a war that was primarily targeted to male demographics and specifically black -- Black men.

If you recall, there was a most litigation threatened over the fact that the cannabis regulatory commission didn't originally have any Black men.

So you fast-forward a couple of years later.

The commissioner seemed to be, by very many people, as outspoken and representing those communities.

And a lot of off record sources had already indicated that there was concern that he would not be reappointed.

You've had individuals such as Charles Boyer for instance singing, I am very disappointed that this commission will lack the perspective of the number one demographic impacted by cannabis prohibition, Black men.

This is why progresses -- progressives are using Black mail support.

There's a lot of frustration behind this.

There seems to be dovetailing into talking about the political conversation of what may be Black mail voter's frustration with the Democratic Party.

Their viewpoint on whether they are delivering on economic policy.

When you take a look at the market, you can still count on two hands the amount of Black operators that are actually up and running.

Even more -- even less for Black men.

David: Amelia map's candidacy is facing approval from the state Senate.

We will be looking at that as we go forward.

Rihanna has been pretty quiet.

We are told that a bipartisan group of lawmakers is going to present a ballot design of some kind.

Can we trust lawmakers to fix a problem like ballot design?

>> that's a loaded question that I can't answer here anyway.

Yeah.

I mean, it seems like they are moving toward that.

There's a committee that's a bipartisan committee that's getting together.

Senator Bucha was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who signed onto this letter back in March, pledging to take this issue because they don't wanted in the ports.

Everyone that I talked to him covering this story, certainly folks like Andy Kim who spearheaded the lawsuit that made its way through, don't wanted in the legislatures hand either.

But we have to see what's actually in the bill.

That's the thing.

Wary -- there's rumors of a draft floating around.

No one has actually seen this bill and what it contains.

If it's not going to be block ballots, I can't imagine what type of reform they are putting forward.

David: I can imagine the four representatives in this bipartisan committee using Kranz to draw boxes and stuff.

Anyway.

That's Reporters Roundtable for this week.

Good to see you all.

Thanks very much.

Thanks to Ras Baraka for joining us.

You can follow the show on XP or get if you like this content, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel to find more great work from our journalists.

For all the crew here, thanks for watching.

We will see you next week.

>> major funding for reporters roundtable is provided by RWJ Barnabas health.

Let's be healthy together.

♪